Stephen A. calls CJ McCollum’s foul on Jalen Brunson a CRIME AGAINST MEN 🤣 | First Take

Hawks on Saturday won 13-102. Jalen Brunson led the way with a game-high 28 points, including 22 in the first half alone. He then handed the reins to Carly Anthony Towns, who scored 19 of his 25 points in the second half to help close it out.

Another storyline, though, from this one came when CJ McCollum's leg kind of kicked out on a jump shot and it's striked Jalen Brunson in the groin area after a view was upgraded to a technical fall and McCollum and plenty to say about it postgame listen to this.

I shot a jumper in in Jaylen thought we're at a Broadway

show.

He acted it out into the review didn't. So normal jump shot nothing there. Unnecessary and I look forward to getting my $2,500 back.

Okay, CJ.

Was the McCollum play a dirty play, Wendy? What do you think?

I had a hard time figuring this one out. I don't think it was a dirty play per se, because that's not what CJ, that's not who he is. That's not his character at all. And you know, occasionally Jalen has been known to, you know, make sure he gets free throws.

That said, when I watched the replay of this, Stephen A, something happened that put me onto Jalen's side, which is the look that Jalen gave CJ when he came back on the court after the review. That was not a look from somebody who got one over on someone.

That was a look of someone who just got hit in the groin. And so I don't think it was on purpose, but I do think it was legit. That's my final ruling.

Wendy, I'm very, very disappointed. I don't need to see a reaction on Jalen Brunson's face when McCullum came back on the floor to know what transpired if you saw the play. You ever see Shea, Wendy, Eddie Murphy in standup? Many, many years ago, he's joking.

He said, you even woof in that area, it's enough to make a man collapse. You even woof in that area. Every man knows that. When we talk about crimes against men, that's one of the top crimes. You can woof in direction. And it is an incredible level of discomfort. I'm play fighting. Shay, I'll never get this as long as I live. I'm play fighting with my little nieces. This is many years ago.

Little nieces at the time they were no, they were no older than three years old. You understand? And I'm playing around with one of them and I'm beating up her little brother, my little, my niece's little brother. And my little niece, three years old comes up from behind me and kicks me. She's three. And I collapsed face first right onto my mama's living room rug. You're woof in that direction.

It's, you're woof in that direction. It is a crime. CJ is a man. He knows that. You don't even have to have direct contact. It could be in the vicinity.

And there is a heightened level of sensitivity that kicks in, that makes you look at the dude because you know, man to man, you're supposed to know better. It's certain things you just don't do. Come on CJ, you can't point the finger at Jalen Brunson like that. That was a very, very, very bad thing.

I'm not saying it was intentional because CJ ain't that kind of dude. He's a great guy. I love CJ. But, come on now, he ain't faking it. We saw the play. You were in the vicinity. And I think CJ wears at least a size 11 or 12 shoe.

Damn it, wolf would have been enough. And that wasn't a wolf.

OK, well, between the- Wolf would have been enough and that wasn't a wolf. Okay. Well, all parties are acquitted. Not dirty. Not fake.

That's right between the wolf and then the words afterwards. Now, this creates a little bit of tension here for game two tonight. So Stephen a let's go back to game one. Did that Nick's performance prove? They're destined to get back to the Eastern Conference finals or do you need to see more?

Not need to see more. I definitely need to see more but I love the fact that they amped up the pressure that they rattled Atlanta and that at times Atlanta couldn't seem to get going. I like that. I like the fact that Jalen Brunson came out and let them know who the hell he is and that these are the playoffs and

he ain't messing around and Carl Anthony Towns did the same. That's what needed to happen to open this series. That's what did happen. OG and Anobi obviously is somebody that you know, he twisted it, you know, twisted his ankle. So he's questionable for the game. We expect them to play tonight, but you just never know the Knicks are the better team.

The Atlanta Hawks are young up and coming. They're going to play you tough. It's not going to be an abundance of blowouts or anything like that. But the Knicks are supposed to win this series. They handled the Atlanta Hawks the way that they were supposed to handle it. Now, they got to make sure they do that and go up to going back to Atlanta this

week.

That was a very solid game one victory over the Hawks. And I would just say to Nick fans, my advice, which you probably won't be interested in, but my advice is don't evaluate Knicks wins with style points. This is one of the things that I've seen throughout the season. The Knicks had a quality year. They had one stretch where they went 2-9, where they were pretty disappointing in that stretch. You can take that apart at a later time. But if they don't go 2-9 in that stretch, if they'd even played 500 basketball, they would have been the number two seed. But throughout the entire season, there was just this constant evaluation about how this

team wasn't performing maybe to the level of their expectations, even when they played well, came with asterisks. And that even happened in game one here. They had a quality win, but people were like, well, Brunson didn't play well for the first quarter. Towns only played well in the second half. You just got to take a Knicks win and accept the win and don't worry about the style points. This is a team that is not going to impress you, but they do win games and they got a lot going for

them. They're going to have to play awesome if they're going to beat Boston. We'll get to that when we get to it. Atlanta has been a very good team for 2-3 months now. Anything that you do, do. Whoever steps up to get you to four wins, that's all that needs to happen. The Knicks are not an impressive team visually, but they are an impressive team when it comes to putting together victories. They did that in Game 1. I would expect them to do it three more times in this series and then we see a showdown with the Celtics.

Obviously, the Knicks fans have very high expectations after the way they played last year and the way that this team, including their owner, came out before the season with the intention of getting to the finals.

You should also have very high expectations based on what you're seeing from Boston because Boston is next, assuming you get past Atlanta and they ain't messing around and they're coming for vengeance because you knocked them out last year. We understand that, you know, and that's where Jason Tatum got hurt too. So all of those elements are in play and we can't ignore that reality. If you're the New York

Knicks, you want to win this series. You want to do so as quickly and efficiently as possible because you're going to need all your horses going up against Boston in the next round. There is no way around it. You've got to be ready. You don't want this series extended. You don't want to get drained. You don't want to get injured. You don't want any of those problems creeping up. You need

to be ready to go for the next series because that's what it's all about.

I think what was encouraging to watch from the Knicks is I don't think and I would assume you agree with me. They played their best basketball in that game one against the Hawks and yet they still kind of dominated like Jalen Brunson not play the best, especially in the second half. Carl Anthony Towns said he felt here in game two tonight. Playoffs, the Suns eliminated the Warriors on Friday,

a 111-96 win, securing the final playoff spot in the West. With 38-year-old Steph Curry in the twilight of his career, Golden State now heads into the off season with several key questions that they need to answer, including at head coach. Steve Kerr's contract has officially expired,

and so here is Kerr on what comes next.

I don't know what's going to happen. I still love coaching, but I get it. These jobs all have an expiration date. There's a run that happens. And when the run ends, sometimes it's time for new blood

and new ideas and all that. And if that's the case, then I will be just nothing but grateful for the most amazing opportunity any person could have to coach this franchise in front of our fans in the bay and to coach Steph Curry, to coach Dre, the whole group. So it may still go on, it may not,

I don't know at this point, but we all need to step away a little bit and then reconvene.

Kind of hard to wrap your head around this once dominant dynasty looking different, but nonetheless, here we are. Do you think Steve Kerr has coached his last game at Golden State, Wendy?

Maybe. And I think that's a pretty big step. I don't think I've ever really would have said that to this point. I think there's a couple of things to realize. Number one, it's not like the Warriors have a contract offer on the table and it's just waiting for Steve Kerr's signature.

Steve Kerr made the decision to not have negotiations and not discuss it at all until after the season. So even if he was like 100% committed to coming back, they would have to come to an agreement. I just want to point out, he is the highest paid coach in the NBA, reportedly $17 million a year.

And so, you know, right now they're not a championship team. And so I don't know if you pay your coach $17 million a year. So you wouldn't think this would come down to straight economics, but I just think I should point that out, that, you know, the cost of this could be a factor on the Warriors side. And we would see if you got into a negotiation.

The second thing is, I think the Warriors crossed a Rubicon of sorts in the middle of the season when they had trade discussions with the Bucs about Janssen Tenencumpo and it became relatively clear that Draymond Green would have been in that trade if it happened. Now I don't ever think that it got fully advanced, but Draymond was aware because in his last game before the trade deadline, Draymond went out and had one of the most remarkable press conferences of a year of interesting press conferences from him where he talked about

the reality that he might get traded. And so if the Warriors were willing to think about trading Draymond Green, they're willing to think about a future that doesn't have Steve Kerr. Now it is poetic to want to have Steve Kerr, Steph Curry, and Draymond Green perhaps finish their tenure with the Warriors at the same time. That completes an arc. It makes sense. But it may not be like Steve Ruff alluded to there.

It may not be the best way to finish out Steph's career. A new voice might be needed. It might, it might benefit the warriors and Steph to have a little bit of a curve ball when it comes to this last time. It also could be wonderful to not, but I think the fact that there's uncertainty is enough to understand that this is a big moment for the warriors at this juncture of their history.

Steve Kerr is not going anywhere unless Steph Curry retires, which by his play and whatever else he has said or done provides no indication that he's interested in retiring from the game of basketball. If Steph Curry is there, I believe Steve Kerr is going to stay because Steve Kerr doesn't want to leave him because Steph Curry doesn't want another

a new coach at this point and juncture in his career. I just don't believe it. Um, I could be wrong, but I don't believe it. Having said that, let's take a moment to pay homage to Steve Curry from the standpoint that he's one of the great, great coaches

we have ever seen in NBA history. Um, and I, even when he had three championships on his resume as head coach of the Golden State Warriors Wendy I wasn't convinced that that was the right thing to say about him until he won that title in 2022 The adjustments that were made, you know in that series against the Boston Celtics I just can't say enough about him and this willingness to roll the dice and take chances

And and have faith in the people that he had faith, because it wasn't just about Steph Curry. It was about Draymond. It was about Klay Thompson. It was about various others. And so there's a four-time champion

who's been to an NBA finals in six years. Now they haven't been back to the playoffs since that championship in 2022. That's four years away from the playoffs. And again, you can pay guys a lot less than 17 million a year to miss the playoffs. We understand that. But there's no question that he knows what he's doing. There's no question that he's an exceptional coach. And there's no question that

champions who have produced for him emphatically believe in him. You know, almost to the degree that Michael Jordan believed in Phil Jackson. And so I look at it from that standpoint and I say, yeah, he's saying what he's saying, but essentially what it really means in my mind is that he will leave when Steph Curry is walking away from the game. That's the impression I've gotten from watching him, listening to him, etc.,

etc. He knows that the end is drawing near, that the best days in all likelihood are behind them. But Jimmy Butler did go down with the torn ACL. And you've got to ask yourself, if Jimmy Butler was available and Steph didn't miss 28 games

and poor Zingas was available, what would they have been? What would they have been able to do? Those are legitimate questions. But in the end, it's just, Steph Curry is somebody to be, to love immensely,

and to have immense amount of faith in. And I think that even though Steph Curry would never want him to do what's not best for him, he's been there for 12 years, et cetera, and you want him to do what's best for him and his family, if there is a way for Steve Kerr to stay,

Steph Curry would be the first in line to say,

please stay. for Steve Kerr to stay on the job and not walk away.

in the last three seasons. I do think it would be a lot to wrap your mind around to have someone from that nucleus, be it Steve Kerr, Steph Curry, Draymond Grie, stay and they have a different head coach. Go ahead, Stephen A.

I wanna say this real quick to a Wendy right here on the air with me. We can't imagine Steph Curry wearing another uniform. We just can't imagine it, you know? Because obviously, Joe L Laker would never, I mean, the only way he would ever move Steve, Steph Curry is if Steph Curry came to him and said,

yo, I want out, which we can't imagine Steph Curry doing, but, but any won't do that. Of course not. But the point that I'm making is, is that, could you imagine if, if Steph Curry was available? Could you imagine that?

and what have you.

What if what if Steph Curry was of the mindset that while I'm here, I still want to compete for championships and we're not necessarily the franchising position to do that any longer.

the greatest shooter God ever created?

Could you imagine if he were available, what the Golden State Warriors could get for Steph Curry's services, even at this point in his career? Could you imagine it? I'm just throwing that out there from the standpoint, like, that's fascinating to me

in terms of what would be his availability, because you got to remember, with most other people, Shea and Wendy, so much is predicated on your athleticism. So everybody knows that's going to dissipate and there's going to be incredible slippage ultimately as far the time kicks in.

But when you are a shooter, particularly a shooter, the likes of which we have never seen before, then guess what? That buys you time as talent is around you. Wait a minute, all I got to do is get this dude a sliver of space to launch from 20, 30, 40 feet and this brother could do his thing? Could you imagine the amount of

teams that would be looking to get the services of Steph Curry? That would be fascinating material for television for weeks on Curry, that would be fascinating material for television for weeks on end.

It would be, but there's a reason that's never the rumor mill. It's always, who can Steph Curry attract to Golden State? Never where is Steph Curry is gonna go, right? Never where is Steph Curry is gonna go, right?

Coming up.