Overreaction Tuesday: Rich Talks Spurs, Knicks, World Cup and More

Overreaction Monday landed on a Tuesday this week, and Chris came out swinging at the one topic guaranteed to get a rise out of Rich: the Knicks' championship.

Rich was in a good mood. "I usually ride high in April and get shot down in May," he said. "And now I'm riding high in June." A whole new lyric for "That's Life."

Chris wasted no time. "The Knicks didn't win the NBA championship. The Spurs lost it." His evidence was that San Antonio led for 72% of the minutes played in the series.

"Basketball games last for 100% of the time," Rich shot back. "Don't be ridiculous." The Knicks still had to make shots, and Rich said he wasn't going to dignify the take with a conversation, since Chris obviously knew what the answer would be and was only trying to rile him up. Rich then offered his own version of the analytics argument. That night, he noted, would have been the analytics game six between the Cavs and the Spurs. "We dominated most of the time. The other time we sucked and we lost. That's what happens." When was the Cavs analytics parade? Probably a Zoom.

Chris's follow-up was more interesting. "The Spurs would have been better off losing game seven to the Thunder."

His logic: a game seven loss would have left them as the "great plucky Spurs team," fun to watch and a year away. Wemby wouldn't be the villain or hated across the world for his alleged cheap shots. Now, Chris said, everybody hates the Spurs.

Rich disagreed. He said a lot of the villain talk comes from topic bars built on what people are saying, and noted that everyone loved Wemby two weeks ago. He pointed to a video of Wemby and Champagnie visiting a children's hospital in San Antonio. In Rich's view, Wemby is young and was immature in that moment, and losing in game five of the Finals is a lesson in how to be professional when you're not playing your best. Wemby himself said he learned how mistakes get magnified in those situations.

"I believe the five games in which they played against the Knicks will be highly valuable for them moving forward," Rich said, and a better use of the experience than getting knocked out in game seven. As for the noise? "Let him go hang with the monks and get over it if it bothers him."

Chris then turned to Jalen Brunson's path from Dallas to New York. Letting Brunson go, combined with "the crazy ass Luka trade," is in his view "the biggest roster blunder in NBA history." He ranked it worse than Bowie over Jordan, Darko over Melo, the Dirk trade on draft night, Kobe to the Lakers and the Sonics trading Pippen. "It's worse than all of those combined."

"It's tough to argue that," came the first response. Rich tried to push back, then admitted he was doing it "inartfully and inaccurately," and conceded. "I don't think this is an overreaction, Chris. Sorry, Mavericks fans."

Next was a warning for Spurs coach Mitch Johnson after a rough Finals. Chris invoked Doug Collins, the young promising coach of a young superstar. Rich thinks the Spurs like Johnson and that it's a learning curve for a young coach who will grow with young players. When Chris raised the possibility of Steve Kerr wanting to go back home to San Antonio, Rich allowed that would be a different story.

The World Cup take was pure optimism, still riding high from the U.S. win Friday night. Chris said the U.S. wins the group and reaches the semifinals. Rich was fully on board, partly out of self-preservation. "I'm not going to be sitting here on tape saying this is an overreaction, this is absurd, and then it gets played back when they do it." Nobody wants to be in the black and white video afterward with the sad sax music.

Chris closed with a take Rich actually loved. The World Cup in all these NFL stadiums has proven they should all have grass fields. "It looks amazing," Chris said, and it's what the players want. Rich agreed and wondered if it was a Sarah Tiana idea. "No, I came up with that. This is all me this week," Chris said.

Rich wasn't fully convinced. "You've got a professional writer to punch up your material in your house, buddy."