Rachel Nichols on Caitlin Clark, Desmond Bane trade, & the NBA Finals | FULL INTERVIEW | THE HERD

Rachel Nichols on Caitlin Clark, Desmond Bane trade, & the NBA Finals | FULL INTERVIEW | THE HERD

And with that, Rachel
Nichols is now joining us live on an unbelievable performance. And I said this
earlier, it’s not anti-Beyonce to say, Taylor
Swift tour change the economy in LA, which it did. That’s not anti-Beyonce. Do you think the WNBA is
actually coming to terms with, OK, this is really– this is Tiger, this is MJ? And listen, I understand,
when she came in, nobody could predict this. Nobody could predict this. Do you think the league,
though, has kind of come to terms with let’s
ride the wave here, this is all-time stuff? Yeah, I think this
absence, and then how she came back really sort
of solidified all of that, because when she came
into the league, obviously interest went way up. And some of the
finances went way up. But there was some argument that
it was a little bit of a rising tide lifts all boats. And the popularity of the league
had been increasing anyway. And Angel Reese was also a big
star coming into the league. But here we go with Caitlin
Clark, singularly, being missing for the time she
was gone and ratings tanking, 50% in some cases. And then, also, she comes
back and reminds everyone how spectacular she is. And everybody’s
talking about the WNBA. So if you needed to have it
affirmed to you that it is just her, that the singularity of
her is what we are talking about and her star power, you
got it with this absence and then the way she came back. I thought it was
fascinating, the way other people who have
been around the league for a long time reacted to it. Rebecca Lobo, for example,
she’s been around the WNBA for almost three decades. She said, I have never, ever
seen anything like this. COLIN COWHERD: No, I said
earlier, I was a kid. I remember, in ’77, Reggie
Jackson getting 3 home runs off 3 pitchers on 3 pitches. And I can remember
as a kid being like– I mean, the announcers
were going crazy. And there are these
moments, like when Michael Jordan changes hands. And you’re like, oh, I
just saw something live. I’ve never seen that. When she hit two 33-footers,
I’m sitting there going– I’m laughing. I’m like, OK, this
is the greatest 38-second stretch in the history
of this 25-year plus league, OK. So I defended Scott Foster. I think he– I think you
could have called the foul. But I brought back
the Brian MJ no-call. And I said, folks, because
Russell leaned into it and Michael touched him, it
looked like he shoved him. Yep. I looked at this,
and I thought, we’re not acknowledging that
Nesmith tripped over SGA’s feet, so it looks egregious. It’s really not. I mean, SGA is 6′
6″, 195 pounds. He’s not Charles
Barkley powerful. Do you think the
league got defensive? How do you think this is
landing for the league? Look, this is a typical
playoff no-call at the end of an NBA Finals game. As you point out, we’ve seen it
as far back as Michael Jordan. There have been other examples. I think what roiled
a lot of people was there were a bunch
of calls before that. And so it felt like, well,
if you’re calling everything, you should be calling this too. And that’s what I thought
was missing from this game officiating-wise. It just didn’t have
that consistency. It didn’t have any
officiating flow. They never felt like the crew
quite had control over the game. However, Scott Foster is
one of the most respected referees in the league. I understand that fans have
their own opinions on him. But you can tell how the NBA
feels about him by the fact that they put him on these
very, very key games. And in fact, you would expect
him– and it’s not certain yet. They haven’t announced it. If there is a game 7, it is
most likely Scott Foster will be on that game, which
makes it even more kind of intriguing to hear Rick
Carlisle defending Scott Foster to all of the Pacers fans
in his press conference, basically being like, it was a
great– he called a great game. Scott Foster’s is terrific. He went on and on. And I think part of it is
because he feels that way. Rick’s been around the
league a long time. And also, he knows
that, maybe by game 7, Scott Foster will be back. COLIN COWHERD: Yeah. I said this earlier, if you
end up officiating Super Bowls and World Cups over and over,
they’re not doing it because of some league-wide conspiracy. They view you as able
to handle the situation. I love what Orlando
did in the trade. And the reason I love
it, because I think– I honestly think they– we still have a ways to
go for the trade deadline. Yeah. I mean, right? So why did they do it now? Because I think they watched
the Indiana Pacers, and they go, we can do that. And they’ve got three guys they
love, but they need another. They didn’t shoot the ball
worth a darn all year. This is their hole. But I think there’s a little
Pacers influence here, Rachel, that they’re young. And they’re like,
why can’t we do that. Your thoughts? Absolutely, absolutely,
I agree with you. And I think also, look, the
Jayson Tatum injury means that the big, bad Celtics,
who seemed like such a mature, complete, veteran team
aren’t going to be around. It feels like the conference is
going to be wide open next year, because if you look at
the other team that did so well during this season, the
Cleveland Cavaliers, well, they were knocked out much
earlier than expected. So it definitely feels like the
East could be anyone’s game. And there is an Orlando
component of, why not us. To me, this trade is going
to be very interesting. Is it going to end up being a
Pascal Siakam-like trade, where people at the time will
say, oh man, they overpaid, but then obviously,
this guy turned out to be the Eastern
Conference Finals MVP and has been key
to this Finals run? Or is it going to be more like
Mikal Bridges, who, at least so far, hasn’t quite
justified the amount of haul that the Knicks had to give up? And we’ll just see. Desmond Bane is a terrific
fit for this team. As you pointed out, they’re a
terrible 3-point-shooting team. He does that very well. He complements a lot
of the other things that their players do. He’s going to bring a
maturity to the team. It’s a great, great trade
in terms of a great fit. We’ll just have to see. Did they overpay a little
bit, Mikal Bridges-style, or was this absolutely
the thing that solidifies them and
puts them over the edge, Pascal Siakam-style? We’ll have to find out. COLIN COWHERD: For the
record, some people said they gave up too much in the trade. But I mean, wasn’t it five first
rounders for Mikhail Bridges? Rudy Gobert gave up 9 picks. I have no problem with the haul. I mean, obviously,
Memphis is now rebuilding. They should, they can’t
compete at the highest levels in the West. But it did make
me think about KD. And I thought, well, Desmond
Bane is in his prime, 20 a night, excellent
3-point shooter. What do you think the
market for KD is now? You know this
league, it’s comps. So if you’re getting
four first-rounders, what is the market for KD? It really depends on
who wants to pay him, because he’s due
for an extension. So he’s given them a list of
preferred teams, reportedly. I think that Phoenix will
take that into consideration. But if they can get a
better deal somewhere else, I think they’ll take it because
they are so in need of assets. That being said,
could someone offer them a better deal if KD isn’t
going to re-sign with them? If he’s not going to
sign that extension, how much do you want to give up? So that’s really the fulcrum
that this is depending on is, is it a place that KD
will sign an extension and therefore justify
a higher offer? If it’s not, then it’s
going to be hard for them to gin up a market,
because now that it’s out there, which teams
he’s interested in, those teams feel like, great. We’ve got an advantage here. We don’t have to
give up as much. So there’s just a
lot of politics that go on with a trade like this. COLIN COWHERD: Finally, the
Knicks, as predicted, firing– cautionary tale that
better have a backup plan. I mean, I’m hearing top college
basketball coaches have retired, Jay Wright, or not
interested, Calipari. The top teams in the
NBA, according to a story I read this morning,
used profanity and hung up on the Knicks. Who’s the leading candidate? I mean, they don’t
have to hurry. They’re not in a rush. Who’s the leading candidate
for the Knicks job? Well, officially, the
leading candidates right now are Taylor Jenkins,
who I think will be the first person
interviewed, and Mike Brown, who will also get an interview. There’s a lingering
question about Jason Kidd, because even though Dallas was
one of those teams that said, absolutely not,
we do not give you permission to talk about him. There’s a question,
especially post-Luka trade– and also, how much money New
York can offer Jason to see if there is a point he will
go to the Mavericks and say, I’m out, I don’t want
to be here anymore? And if that happens, it’s going
to make it hard to work with him in Dallas going forward. And they would maybe
consider granting permission. They would maybe consider
making some sort of trade, the way Jason Kidd was traded,
frankly, from Milwaukee to Brooklyn a long time ago. So that’s the nebulous cloud
that’s hanging over all of this. No one’s really heard from Jason
about what he might want to do. But as of now, Dallas
has said, no way. And there’s no movement
on that as of now. So that leaves Taylor
Jenkins, Mike Brown as the two leading candidates. COLIN COWHERD: Rachel Nichols,
as always on a Monday, it’s great seeing you, Rachel. Thank you. Great to see you.

Rachel Nichols joins Colin Cowherd to discuss if Caitlin Clark is already one of the biggest stars in sports after her stellar return to the court. They also dive into the NBA Finals officiating, break down who really won the Desmond Bane trade between the Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies, and whether we should expect to see Kevin Durant traded from the Phoenix Suns this week.

#FOXSports #NBA #NBAFinals

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Rachel Nichols on Caitlin Clark, Desmond Bane trade, & the NBA Finals | FULL INTERVIEW | THE HERD
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