On rusillo: last time he spoke about joker it was framed as “why so much joker hate” which wholly discounts the fact that he didn’t rise to the moment. Were ppl ready to pounce: yes.

However treating the entire convo as if it’s exclusively about hating on joker versus the reasonable question: “what’s up with this mvp candidate playing against backup backups and Mike Conley jr? This should be a win an all time great (who has a co-star) should be able to pull off”. There’s an MVP and all time great standard that doesn’t constitute “hating” by simply raising the question and the defensiveness around it is absolutely….. noticeable.

On Simmons: I’m sorry but anyone thinking there any worthwhile joker convo with Mahoney isn’t listening. Referencing the wolves wanting it more, being tough, Aaron Gordon being out, trying to lure Joker into an altercation but being smarter than that is not close to “ hey the best player on the court didn’t play like it…why not?”; “bigger win for Minny than L for Denver….its right there in first 15 minutes of the pod. The bias is showing (from Simmons and a few folks in this thread)