Is the Thunder’s Rep Just Bait? Plus, Who Earned Their Knick-for-Life Stripes? | Group Chat

The Ringer NBA Show

The Ringer

Sports

4.2 • 9.4K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2026

⏱️ 84 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Justin, Rob, and Kyle return to take a closer look at the ongoing Thunder-Spurs series through the lens of OKC’s reputation of getting favorable calls. The guys discuss whether the reputation is warranted, what the perception means for the team, and if it’s being driven by actual people. They also dive into the Spurs’ struggles in Game 5 and wonder aloud whether Alex Caruso is the secret MVP of this series for Oklahoma City. The trio close out the show by talking through the Finals-bound New York Knicks. They figure out who on the current roster has made themselves a Knicks fan favorite for life before sorting through their feelings on if they now see Karl-Anthony Towns differently as a player. (00:00) Intro (3:52) OKC’s reputation (34:10) Spurs-OKC (57:58) Knicks Hosts: Justin Verrier, Rob Mahoney, and J.Kyle Mann Producers: Victoria Valencia and Ben Cruz Production Supervision: Ben Cruz and Conor Nevins Additional Production Support: Chris Wohlers Show Art and Graphics: John Richter Social: Keith Fujimoto The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines. Order and it will come. Like today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to group chat.
0:18.1	I am Justin Varyer and joining me on this lovely Wednesday afternoon.
0:22.6	It's Rob Mahoney, Jay Kyle, man.
0:25.7	How's it going, fellas?
0:27.3	Sincere just looks terrible on you and enthusiasm.
0:31.3	I don't know.
0:32.1	There's something just not right about it.
0:33.9	We were trying to talk about what we're going to talk about at the top and we settled on
0:37.9	weather talk, but Rob was not a fan. We did not settle on weather talk. If you're out there listening
0:44.1	to this, I tried to protect you. I tried to say, you know what, we need something to actually
0:48.2	discuss, but Justin, you thought we could fly by the seat of our pants, our collective pants.
0:53.3	It's like the old, like, whenever you do a weather lead to your story, you know, it's gotten
0:57.9	really bad.
0:59.0	So it's like, it's cold and damp in San Antonio, but it's nice and hot and the discourse
1:04.8	is piping over here on the group chat.
1:07.2	For what it's worth, I do prefer the, it's cold and damp in San Antonio to the like
1:11.7	Timothy Chalameh pushed around the lettuce and his salad over this brokered interview at this
1:17.4	stylish restaurant.
1:18.7	Like at least it's a scene of a different kind.
1:22.1	Yeah.
1:22.3	Miles Teller, what a dick because he only orders a sandwich.
1:25.8	Yeah.
	...

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