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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
NBA playoffs - the East as predicted; the West, not so much. Game 7 tonight - and a truly great coach retires. Howard Bryant of Meadowlark Media joins us. Howard, thanks for being with us.
HOWARD BRYANT: Good morning, Scott. How are you?
SIMON: I'm fine, thanks. First round of the NBA playoffs. Rockets beat the Golden State Warriors last night, 115 to 107. Forced a Game 7 tomorrow. Tonight, another Game 7. This one between the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Clippers. Both teams finished with exactly the same regular season record. But come on now, only one team has Jokic, right?
BRYANT: True, true, but another team has Kawhi Leonard, who has two championships, one with the San Antonio Spurs and the other one with Toronto back in 2019. This has been a great series, and this is the one that everybody thought was going to be terrific because they are really evenly matched. And the Clippers certainly have been a really, really good team after surviving all...
SIMON: Yeah.
BRYANT: ...The injuries. And, boy, what a joy it is to see Kawhi Leonard out on the court again, healthy. So much of what his career could have been. Well, it already has been, and it would have been even bigger without the injuries. But of course, there is Jokic. They are at home. Early in the series, home court didn't really matter. The last couple of games have been more lopsided. So I think you have to go with Denver as a favorite, but I am not a betting man, Scott Simon.
SIMON: Yeah. All right. No particular surprise in the Eastern Conference 'cause the top four seeds advanced in the first round. (Yelling) Cleveland rocks.
BRYANT: Cleveland awaits.
SIMON: A classic rivalry in the second round - Boston Celtics and the New York...
BRYANT: Yes, I know, but I would be...
SIMON: And the Knicks.
BRYANT: You're right, Scott. Yeah, Knicks, Celtics - longtime rivals. I would be remiss before we got into that to not forget the fact that we do have Game 7 on tomorrow with Houston and Golden State. Will Golden State blow a 3-1 lead? Remember, they were up 3-1 in that series, and now we've got a winner-take-all in Houston.
SIMON: Yeah.
BRYANT: But as for the Celtics, they are the defending champions. They are the team that's kind of rounded into it. They're one of those teams that you're asking, along with Cleveland and along with Oklahoma City, do you see anybody beating them four times? The Knicks played them four times this season and lost all four. So on the one hand, we haven't seen the Knicks beat the Celtics this year at all, never mind four times. And - but on the other hand, it's also very, very difficult to beat a team eight times in a season. So we'll see what kind of adjustments the Knicks can make. And it was a great series. The Knicks and the Pistons put on a great show, and Jalen Brunson is just a superstar. This has been a really, really good playoff.
SIMON: I want to ask you about Gregg Popovich, finally. The longtime coach of the San Antonio Spurs announced his retirement. He'll stay with the Spurs as an executive. He's 76. He's been on indefinite leave while recovering from a stroke in November. He's coached the Spurs for 29 years. He won five NBA championships. He will be remembered for his life, not just on the court, won't he?
BRYANT: No, he'll be remembered for plenty, Pop. And he's still with us. And so we love Pop, and he's such a phenomenal influence on the game. When you watch the international game, you think about Pop. When you look at USA basketball, you think about Pop. When you look at the way the game is played in terms of the combination of defense and passing, and yes, 3-pointers. Gregg Popovich was an incredible innovator in his ability to sort of navigate all of those things. But the thing that I love most about Pop is his willingness to still be a citizen. Most of these players and most of these coaches they're in this super billion-dollar bubble, and Gregg Popovich still talked about the world. He still was engaged with the world. He still talked about, you know, the issues that he thought were important to him, even though those topics could usually get you in trouble. But I was so happy to see that he was always willing to engage. He's going to be missed on the sidelines for being so curmudgeonly, as well.
SIMON: Yeah.
BRYANT: But hopefully, his recovery will be quick enough. So we still get to see him. What a figure.
SIMON: Yeah. Howard Bryant of Meadowlark Media, thanks so much.
BRYANT: My pleasure, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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