点击查看原文：San Antonio Spurs point guard Chris Paul's passing prowess
San Antonio Spurs point guard Chris Paul’s passing prowess
Columnist Mike Finger and Spurs beat reporters Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn discuss Chris Paul jumping Jason Kidd to move into second place on the NBA’s all-time assist list and how he has adapted to playing with Victor Wembanyama.
Suggested reading:
Chris Paul’s assist total a lesson in longevity
Spurs grateful for time off after rash of injuries
Paul enjoys emotional celebration with Spurs after milestone assist
3 Takeaways as Chris Paul gets his flowers
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Here is the transcript of the podcast:
Mike Finger: From a highly secure network of top-secret locations across South Texas, this is the Spurs Insider. It’s our injury epidemic edition. I am Mike Finger, joined as always by our panel of Express-News Spurs beat writers, Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn, with sports editor Nick Talbot. This is the first time all season, I believe, that the local cagers have underperformed our prognostications from the previous week. But it’s been a week that’s come with an asterisk because everyone is hurt. Nick Talbot, the sports editor, is under the weather, healing. You hope that the Spurs are healing. But it’s been a heck of a week. I’m going to start with Tom just to give us the rundown of all the carnage. How are things going with the Spurs, Tom?
Tom Orsborn: Well, I mean, I hope none of these are long-term, but Zach Zach went down hard against Zach Collins. Yeah, Zach Collins hit his back pretty hard on a spill. He left in the first half. Keldon Johnson left calf strained; he went out, hobbled in the first half. Wembanyama came back after missing two games but went out for a brief period to get some treatment on his back, came back and was as Wembanyama-esque as he always is. Steph Curry had a banged-up shoulder; he came out, got some treatment, and came back in with a pad on his left shoulder.
Mike Finger: And all of this happened within about a 10-minute stretch of the only Spurs victory of the week, which came at Frost Bank Center on Sunday evening against the New Orleans Pelicans. Saw old friend of the podcast, Andrew Lopez in the house, bringing all of his injuries with him. The Pelicans have been ravaged by injuries all year; the Spurs were overwhelmed by them in that game. But this is a four-game break. We’re doing this podcast in a light part of the schedule, due in part to the NBA Cup break that we all have, and so the upside here, Jeff, is there is time to heal.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, I think you guys are being way too negative about this. I mean, they only lost two guys from that game; they could have lost four. It looked for a while like just everybody was going to be hurt, and they I think they were going to have to play Mike Finger at power forward. So, they could have done worse. There was one moment where Steph, let’s see, Steph was in the locker room, and that’s when Keldon got hurt. And I swear they had to pass each other, like Steph coming onto the floor, back onto the floor from the tunnel, and Keldon limping through the tunnel towards the locker room. I thought that was I mean, I don’t want to say it’s funny because people are getting hurt, but I thought that was kind of telling of the night. There was just this revolving door of guys in and out and kind of not knowing what’s going on. And so I guess you give them credit for figuring out a way to win that game, even though it was weird and ugly at times.
Mike Finger: Well, you know what the bright side there is, Jeff McDonald, is if they did pass each other in that hallway, the traffic control, the security in that hallway from the Spurs locker room to the floor is excellent. Don’t you agree, Tom?
Tom Orsborn: Yes, absolutely. There’s a really, really good traffic cop usher. She does a great job. A fantastic job. In my experience, Keldon is lucky he didn’t get tackled.
Mike Finger: This is way too inside of a reference here for the listeners, but Jeff McDonald, just an absolute scofflaw when it comes to obeying the laws of the tunnel. And he’s been held accountable by, I would say, admirable, diligent security employees there. And, you know, I think Jeff could learn from the rest of us in terms of following rules. That’s all I’m going to say.
Mike Finger: But the Spurs for the week, won the one game. We have to sort of go backwards to the games that Victor Wembanyama did miss, and when we last convened for the Spurs Insider, we did not have the inside intel that Victor would miss as much time as he did. And that back-to-back with the Chicago Bulls and Sacramento Kings did not go as well as the Spurs might have hoped. But I think that was sort of a long time coming. The Spurs have been playing with some house money in a way, had been sort of digging themselves into early holes over and over again and finding ways to climb out of them whether Wembanyama was in the lineup or not. And those two games, all the warning signs, the alarm bells that have been going off in previous games, kind of came to fruition there in that back-to-back. Is that worth rehashing at all?
Tom Orsborn: Well, it didn’t help that the aforementioned Zach Collins got tossed against Sacramento, and you know, left with a one-finger salute. They cost them 35 grand from the NBA.
Mike Finger: Which finger was it?
Jeff McDonald: Was it Mike’s? That would have cost him 50 grand.
Tom Orsborn: He gave the referee the old local columnist, that’s what they call it in San Antonio. And I mean, not to come down too hard on Zach Collins, who is good with the media and I think has been a solid performer for the Spurs for the last few years, but man, when Victor Wembanyama is sitting out of a game due to a lower back problem, and you’re kind of up against it, and you’re not very deep in the front court anyway, the one thing you don’t want to do as the guy starting for Victor Wembanyama is get ejected in the first half. And I think Tom, Tom, you might have mentioned to him that or talked to him since then, maybe not?
Mike Finger: No, did the back the injury that he suffered Oh, that’s right. That’s right.
Tom Orsborn: But I think Zach realizes that that probably was not the best move on his part. He really put the Spurs behind the eight ball there. The upside of all this is that Charles Bassey had another really nice performance against the Pelicans on Sunday, though.
Mike Finger: We’re going to get to Charles Bassey before we get to Chris Paul, huh?
Jeff McDonald: Well, okay. We went there, so let’s start with Charlie B.
Mike Finger: Okay.
Jeff McDonald: Um, yeah, he had a great game, and they needed it because at one point it looked like he was going to be the only big man freaking available for them the rest of the night against the Pelicans because we talked about how those injuries all happened at once. It was Wembanyama left the game like three minutes in. And it was like two minutes later that Zach, you know, Zach comes in, it’s like two minutes later that Zach falls on his backside and leaves the game, and you’re thinking the only guy taller than 6’8" on this roster now really is Charlie B., Charles Bassey. And if you notice, Mitch didn’t want to go to him immediately. The first sub there was to make Jeremy Sochan the small-ball center, but they quickly realized that wasn’t going to work. And you kind of don’t know I was going to say you don’t know what you’re going to get with Charles Bassey. I mean, you know he’s going to play hard. You do know that, but the rest of it can be a mixed bag. Whether he plays hard and helps you or plays hard and does not help you, but this was an instance where he played hard and helped you. He had a matched a career high with 16, had a bunch of rebounds, four blocks. And really came through for them on a night where the rest of the front court was banged up or unavailable. So hats off to our guy Charlie.
Tom Orsborn: His shot blocking is always consistent. I mean, he protects the rim pretty well, I think.
Jeff McDonald: I mean, he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He doesn’t know It’s instinct. It’s all instinct, yeah. But I mean, that that can help you in short bursts in a lot of games. You don’t want to get to a situation where you’re playing him 20 minutes a night, which I don’t think the Spurs aim to do.
Mike Finger: I would venture to say that if the if the Spurs played him 20 minutes a night for the next 12 games, he might not have another line like 16 points, eight rebounds, four blocks. I think that’s just that’s the best-case scenario. Take it where you can get it. In terms of statistics though, Jeff McDonald, there was a milestone reached. And I know this is a surprise to you that we talk about this. But Chris Paul, man, we haven’t mentioned Chris Paul yet. I can’t believe that. And he passed Jason Kidd for number two on the all-time assist chart in the NBA. The game wasn’t stopped, but during a timeout, the PA guy at Frost Bank Center called it to everyone’s attention. His long-time admirers from the San Antonio from Spurs Nation rose in unison to give him a rousing ovation. It was a nice little moment. And like we say it every week, but man, it’s fun watching Chris Paul. He’s perfect for this team. And Jeff, you wrote about him in the San Antonio Express-News this week on expressnews.com. What was your general impression of the Chris Paul milestone?
Jeff McDonald: My favorite little nugget that I keep bringing up is that his first assist went to PJ Brown, who is 55 years old now. And we discovered after the game that is older than Victor Wembanyama’s dad. So the guy Victor is 20; he caught the not the record-breaker but the Jason Kidd passer, passing assists. He’s 20. His dad is 51, and the guy that caught Chris Paul’s first assist is 55 now. That was just fun to me. I mean, it’s it and you don’t get it’s a testament to his longevity, and you don’t get those kinds of milestones without playing in the league a long, long, long, long long time. And Chris has been doing it for 20 years, putting up about 10 assists a night for 20 years, and that’s how you apparently that’s how you get within like 3,000 of John Stockton.
Mike Finger: Chris Paul, in addition to being a perfect on-and-off-court match for this young Spurs team, just one of my favorite he’s quickly becoming one of my favorite interview subjects ever. Not just because of what we made up of what we made fun of before about how many No, no, you’ve been doing this a long time.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, I’ve been doing this a long time. It’s not like I’ve ever talked to the number two man in assists before. I mean, come on. That’s part of what I enjoy talking to Chris Paul about. Another thing is just how he has this way of of just being a being what some might consider a wordsmith. Our friend of the podcast, Mike Monroe, asked him about John Stockton and about how John Stockton played forever and ever and ever and only missed 19 games in his career. And what did Chris Paul say? He said, “That ain’t my ministry.” Playing every night. He’s had five dang hand surgeries. He’s missed a lot of action. And that Chris Paul is self-deprecating in a lot of ways. That’s very endearing. But on that same note, even if playing every night for 20 years ain’t Chris Paul’s ministry, if you look around at this team, at this Spurs team in which Victor Wembanyama and Keldon Johnson and Devin Vassell and Zach Collins and name your young guy are all missing games, who’s the guy that’s played every night so far? Thirty-nine-year-old Chris Paul.
Mike Finger: Are are the only two starters who have started every game Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes?
Jeff McDonald: I believe you’re correct. The old guys. So that might be their ministry.
Tom Orsborn: I guess Steph Curry has not missed a game, correct? He just
Mike Finger: Right. He has not but he hasn’t started every game.
Jeff McDonald: But you’re right, you’re right, Mike. He’s so he’s so genuine. It’s a very endearing quality. I mean, he’s not he’s not trying to be anyone but himself when he’s It’s a really great quality and something that’s been neat too is to see hear Spurs fans who who probably, I mean, hated him, now come around and say, “Gosh, you know what? I hate to say it, but you know, this guy’s making me like him a lot.”
Mike Finger: My my new favorite little verbal thing that he does is he’s always talking to somebody. Like, I was just talking to LeBron about this the other day, or I’m friends with Russell Westbrook, and we were talking about this the other day.
Tom Orsborn: That’s a good one, yeah.
Jeff McDonald: I like that that’s another good one. He’s friends with
Tom Orsborn: Well, he is always talking, as we said before in the podcast. And he has a lot of friends in the league.
Jeff McDonald: He has a lot of friends. And I liked that he points out when he wasn’t friends with someone. Like he was like, “Yeah, I didn’t know Vince Carter very well, but”
Mike Finger: Yeah. It’s not the thing is, it’s all endearing, and it’s like um his his little Chris Paul-isms, they’re hilarious, but Tom is Tom is correct. He is who he is. He’s not playing a part. And he’s not exaggerating for exaggeration’s sake, like we do on this podcast. He keeps it real. I think he might listen to the podcast because he takes care of his teammates, and he always keeps it real. So, I mean, he should be our mascot. He embodies everything that we that we preach on this podcast. Listen to Chris Paul.
Tom Orsborn: One of our previous mascots was Thad Young, I believe.
Mike Finger: That’s true. I wonder how Thad is. I miss him a little bit. I mentioned this in the press room the other night, but my favorite Chris Paul assist from his milestone night, I mean the one he got to pass Jason Kidd was like, “I could have done it.” He just inbounds to Victor, and he shoots a three immediately. But I like the one where they’re on on the he was kind of leading a fast break and then stopped at about the free-throw line, with his guy like on his hip. Like, “Why didn’t you just you could have gotten to the rim maybe if you kept going?” And Victor was kind of sprinting left of him. And I was like, “Oh, then you just dish to Victor.” Like, Victor was kind of in the corner almost. But he just stopped for some reason. And I’m like, “What he was doing? What is he doing?” And like a beat there’s like a beat and a second beat, and here comes Sochan just trailing right down the middle of the lane, and Chris just drops it for him, and there’s a dunk. And to me, that was my favorite assist of the night because it was one it’s just one of those where like he’s the only one that saw that coming.
Mike Finger: Yeah.
Jeff McDonald: And those are my favorite Chris Paul assists, the ones where like, you know, “I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve watched a lot of basketball,” and so I can normally see where the pass is supposed to go. And so when the pass goes somewhere you’re not expecting, and it turns out to be exactly the right spot, um that just makes me happy. And so that was that was my favorite favorite moment of that that Chris Paul assist fest the other night.
Mike Finger: Well, there there are different types of Chris Paul assists. There’s there’s those types which are absolutely enjoyable to watch. There’s also the one that Spurs fans were begging for someone to throw all of last year, Victor Wembanyama’s rookie year, and we’ve seen a couple, at least I think two or three from Chris Paul this year, where it’s the inbound from under the basket, and you just throw it above the rim, and Victor drops it in. Like, it seems like it’s one that Jeff McDonald could almost pull off that we could almost pull off. But there’s there’s sort of a skill to to not making it so obvious what’s coming, even though everyone should see that coming. I think in the one against New Orleans on Sunday, Victor was kind of battling Meece for position under the basket. He started that inbound inside the restricted area, inside that circle. And all Victor had to do from from the baseline there was just lob the ball above the rim, and Victor, you know, drops it into the basket. It should not be that easy. But I think the Spurs should get one or two of those every game.
Jeff McDonald: The key to that one is Victor getting position that close to the basket, which is which is hard to do. I mean, teams aren’t going to just let you do that if they’re paying attention. And I think the Chris Paul end of it is actually noticing what Victor has done and rewarding it, whereas I think last year those guys were just too young to realize sometimes, like Victor the it doesn’t happen all the time. It’s like one or two opportunities, and you have to make the most of them. And last year, I don’t think they were so great at recognizing those one or two opportunities for that again. Whereas Chris Paul is going to be more adept at recognizing those kinds of mismatches immediately and exploiting them.
Mike Finger: Did you mention that friend of the podcast Dan Weiss pointed out that
Jeff McDonald: We have a lot of friends.
Mike Finger: We’re going to do this again soon. CP is 37 steals behind, way from passing Kidd in the second place on the all-time theft chart.
Tom Orsborn: The all-time theft chart. We’ll be doing it again soon.
Mike Finger: I think the assist means a little more.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, sure. That’s that’s interesting.
Mike Finger: Sure, but you know, we’ll get to this when that happens. It probably will make something that I’ve been wanting to talk about on the podcast that makes sure our Actually, when that happens, he’s going to say, “You think I never passed Jason Kidd before?”
Jeff McDonald: Yeah. That’s right.
Mike Finger: When it happens, it will be mentioned in something that Tom and Jeff do after every game. Oftentimes it’s Jeff, sometimes it’s Tom, it’s something called the Triple Take. After every game, there’s three takeaways on expressnews.com that listeners of this podcast, I shoot everybody out there can log on and find out, you know, the three takeaways from each night’s game. It’s always a fun read. And Tom and I have been wanting to talk about this on the podcast because what the what the readers don’t know, what the listeners don’t know, is when Jeff McDonald does a Triple Take, there’s there’s there’s some fuel to that time. And I’m going to let you explain what it is.
Jeff McDonald: I have a drinking problem.
Tom Orsborn: Three he and it occurs during pregame. He lines up three
Jeff McDonald: I think it’s during halftime. Halftime. If you do it pregame, you lose the ice.
Tom Orsborn: Three filled to the rim. Filled to the rim, Diet Cokes, right, Jeff?
Jeff McDonald: Coke, yeah, Coke Zero. If you if you walk into the media workroom, the media lounge at the Frost Bank Center at halftime of any Spurs game that Jeff McDonald is covering, you will notice the most peculiar thing. You will notice Jeff McDonald take two plastic cups over to the fountain drink area, fill those two plastic cups with ice, fill each of those plastic cups with Diet Coke, walk all the way over to his desk, down the hallway over to his desk, then come back and grab another plastic cup, fill it with ice, fill it with Diet Coke, and take that to his desk because the fountain drink area is closed postgame. It’s inaccessible. And for each one of the brilliant takeaways that comprise each game’s Triple Take, Jeff McDonald has to consume one Diet Coke. I just find it fascinating. Can I can I can you ruin your theory for a second?
Jeff McDonald: Yeah. I almost never drink all three. That’s only when I’ve got severe writer’s block that I actually get to the third one.
Mike Finger: Is it generally but does it generally average out to one Diet Coke per take?
Jeff McDonald: No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t.
Mike Finger: You’re ruining a sponsorship opportunity.
Jeff McDonald: Well, I mean, per take. If they just leave the thing on, then I wouldn’t have to hoard them like a squirrel before the game is over, but they don’t leave the fountain on. It’s a fun thing to And if I if I don’t have anything to drink while I’m writing, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I mean, I might spontaneously combust.
Mike Finger: Yeah. We’ve got It’s a weird tick. It’s a weird you’re like we’re getting into therapy right now.
Jeff McDonald: Like it’s a weird tick. There’s something wrong with me.
Mike Finger: Well, this was a lull in the podcast, I suppose, because it’s a lull in the season. The Spurs don’t play again until Friday. We’re four full days off. It allowed the injured guys to heal up a little bit. Mitch Johnson even pointed out the other day that this was a perfect time in the schedule to have some time off. Tom will be on the trip to Portland on Friday. It will be followed by a home game against the Timberwolves on Sunday. Those are the only two games that we’re going to cover before the next edition of the podcast. So this should make prognostications a little simpler. But what do we think about those two that were added to the schedule during the NBA Cup? What are we looking forward to this week, Tom?
Tom Orsborn: I’m going to go one and one, a win in Portland and a loss at home to Minnesota.
Mike Finger: I think the Timberwolves are are getting better. They were going through it there for a while.
Tom Orsborn: I do. I do. That’s how I see it, Mike.
Mike Finger: Yeah. No elaboration on on anything you’re looking forward to this week?
Tom Orsborn: Looking forward to I haven’t been to Portland in a while, so great great Chinese food there. I’m looking forward to that.
Jeff McDonald: I think Portland is bring your own tent now, though.
Tom Orsborn: It’s been a while. I like I like Portland.
Jeff McDonald: I did too, but it’s not what it used to be.
Tom Orsborn: I love their Chinatown section. Wonderful place.
Mike Finger: Like Chris Paul, it’s very genuine. Jeff, your your prognostication for the week?
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, I think one and one’s a pretty good one. I mean, maybe it may be that I’m just I give them the Portland game, like I almost don’t even think about that. But it is a road game, so you never know. And Minnesota, like like you said, they’re they’re not absolute trash fire they were a couple of weeks ago. So they’re they’re going to be harder to beat, but the Spurs could win that game at home. So I think just the safe thing to do is just say one and one. And I probably would say they’d beat Portland and lose to Minnesota, but if it’s flipped-flopped, I wouldn’t be super shocked either.
Mike Finger: Yeah, I think it could be flipped-flopped too. Spurs have been a lot better home than they’ve been on the road. Portland’s not atrocious.
Jeff McDonald: Well, they’re pretty atrocious.
Mike Finger: Much like the city they call home, they’ve seen better days. This is just outrageous, the slander that you have of one of the great cities in America. I love the Pacific Northwest. It is it is very the countryside there is very beautiful. The hills and the greenery.
Jeff McDonald: City’s city’s great, too.
Mike Finger: Yeah. Yeah. I pray for them. This is just an outrageous display from Jeff McDonald. I love Portland.
Mike Finger: We have we have not we have not gone deep into Victor Wembanyama, who had a light week, missed some games with a lower back problem. When that was when it was mentioned after the New Orleans game that many of the old people in the media corps know about how tricky lower back injuries can be. Victor Wembanyama laughed and said he understood that and knows that it’s tricky, but he’s not worried about a lower back injury moving forward, even though he’s a really tall guy, and really tall guys tend to get injuries and that don’t go away. He said he finds it really of all the injuries, it’s not the most serious, but he said it’s the most annoying. And kind of what I think about you.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah.
Mike Finger: Boy, I’m I’m really working hard to save this podcast this week, people out there. I hope you appreciate what I go through. But the I think it is interesting to to look at at Victor Wembanyama a year and a couple months into his career. He has missed some time with injury. You know, the one thing that people worried about before he was drafted was is he going to be one of those tall guys that misses a lot of time? He he was he played a lot last year, played a lot of minutes, there were some minute restrictions. He’s missed a few games out so far this year. I guess I just want to get the panel’s feel for is is he going to be an Ironman? Are you going to have to live with what, five, 10 games that he misses every year? What do we feel about how
Jeff McDonald: I think the bulk of those games he’s missing are the team treating with kid gloves, though.
Mike Finger: Right. Exactly. That’s my question. That’s my so but it’s not like he can’t play in those games. And and to be honest, like the game against New Orleans when he did not look right to start the game, way like asked out of the game three minutes in, I’m shocked he came back. At that point at that point, all my Spurs history is telling me they’re not putting that guy back in the game, not with four days off after this. And sure enough, he comes back the next quarter and I don’t know if they got Mr. Miyagi back there or what, but um he looked great after that. Like, no problem at all. So
Mike Finger: Well, this is my this is why I bring it up because on the every time he misses a game, you assume because you’ve been covering the Spurs a long time, and this ain’t your first time watching a guy a star player sit out, you I think you assume that it’s the Spurs just being extra careful, and he probably could play, but they’re not letting him play. But I think what was different about this past week is he sits out a couple of games, and you think, oh, they’re just being extra careful with him, and then it turns out in the third game after he comes back that he asks out of the game himself because he’s really hurt. And so it’s not just I think there is a lot to be clear, there is a lot of Spurs being extra careful and understandably so. But there are still some legitimate injuries in there. And I think the point I wanted to make is he’s he’s I don’t think he is Bill Walton. I don’t think he is Yao Ming. I think he’s a different body type. I think he’s he’s built to last. He’s he’s flexible, he’s in good shape, all that type of stuff. And I think most of the injuries he’s had have been, you know, these little one-game here and there type of deals. But it’s just every time this happens, it’s a reminder that things can go the other way, and that they have sort of been lucky so far. I mean, he’s not Joel Embiid either. Chet Chet Holmgren.
Jeff McDonald: Well, doesn’t doesn’t doesn’t everybody miss 10 games a year these days?
Mike Finger: Yeah.
Jeff McDonald: Like when I’m saying some people miss more.
Mike Finger: Well, if he starts to miss more, then I think it might be a problem.
Jeff McDonald: He easily could have stayed in the locker room against New Orleans and called it a night.
Tom Orsborn: I try not to get pulled offside by these Twitter social media comments by fans, but man, when they call him soft, that just you know, that that’s just ridiculous. It’s it’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous, and I can’t imagine anyone who would say that.
Mike Finger: Yeah. Anyone anyone who would say that Victor Wembanyama is soft from the platform above Frost Bank Center never will get invited onto this podcast. I’ll tell you that.
Tom Orsborn: Is that right?
Mike Finger: I don’t know. I think we invited that person, and that person has declined. Maybe he’s soft. We’ll see. We’ll see. No, I just threw that out there just because I think it’s an interesting discussion to have about, you know, Victor Wembanyama a year and a few months into his career. I was not leading in any way. I was not suggesting that he’s soft or that he’s injury-prone or whatever.
Tom Orsborn: I think a lot of it is just thinking back to when he was drafted, and the worry was can a seven-foot-four guy stay healthy. I think that my point is he’s done pretty well. All the injuries he’s had so far have been kind of one-game, two-game type of deals. And you haven’t lost him for as long as you’ve lost like a Jeremy Sochan or a Devin Vassell or even like a Zach Collins. Like they they’ve been lucky with him so far. And I think that that can continue.
Mike Finger: The worry coming in was that he was a stress fracture waiting to happen because he’s just got so much bone. And that hasn’t born out yet. Knock on wood. It’s the injuries have been just a little like roll an ankle type thing or you know, sore back after taking a charge type thing. So I’d say he’s been more more like people were thinking he was going to be what he could possibly be what Chet has kind of been so far, you know, broken foot before even steps on an NBA floor or takes a hard but relatively normal fall and breaks a hip, you know, like my grandma.
Mike Finger: Yeah. No, that’s the point I was making. And and to be clear, I was not trying to lead the podcast into calling Victor Wembanyama soft or thinking he’s going to miss a bunch of games. I think it’s just worth looking big-picture-wise. The the bird’s-eye view of how I think he’s he’s so far proven to be more durable than most people thought he’d be. And that could change on a dime. You know, that could change by the time people listen to this podcast. Who knows? That’s why I knocked on wood, because I don’t want it to be my fault.
Jeff McDonald: Someone someone could like I’d say what’s not going to happen to Victor Wembanyama. Nobody’s going no reporter is going to collide with him coming out of the locker room tunnel because there’s security there, a very very, you know, strict security. Aggressive security that is going to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Mike Finger: Yeah. I agree. Yeah. I think we should honor people who protect our security and respect them and never question their authority. I think that’s that’s that’s a good thing. Well, I don’t want to be Look at you. Look at you. I don’t want to go that far. We see where you are sometimes. We see what we see where you how you really are sometimes. I think I think I went too far there in trying to make fun of Jeff McDonald for questioning the authority of hallway security. I probably went too far. I will try to do better next week when we talk to you again on the Spurs Insider podcast. Until then, take care of each other, and like Chris Paul always does, keep it real.