5-at-10: LeBron James greatness and an incredible Game 1, Hall of Famers, This week's Rushmores and best sports video games of all time

Cleveland Cavaliers' J.R. Smith, left, shoots as his teammate LeBron James watches during an NBA basketball practice, Wednesday, May 30, 2018, in Oakland, Calif. The Cavaliers face the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday in Oakland. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Cleveland Cavaliers' J.R. Smith, left, shoots as his teammate LeBron James watches during an NBA basketball practice, Wednesday, May 30, 2018, in Oakland, Calif. The Cavaliers face the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday in Oakland. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

We had only a couple of questions before when we sat down Thursday.

Then Game 1 happened, and the flurry of texts and Twitter responses and all the like could have filled two mailings. So we will move quickly on the reactions from a truly fascinating Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

Question (at halftime): Jay, your boy Queen James is going to gag in the second half.

Answer: Man that Tweet (which was later deleted) had the shelf life of stale bread. The days of James and "gag" seem to be in the distant rearview mirror. Maybe he comes out looking listless at times - and still posts a triple-double - but the "gag" suggestion can be filed away.

Question: Jay, do you think you could coach these Cavs better than Tyran Lue? Thanks and love the show.

Answer: No, but we're pretty sure you would not be able to tell that big of a difference if Ty Lue, Skip to My Lue, Looie the Lookout or Louie DePalma from Taxi were on the sideline for the Cavs. Strike that. We think DePalma could get a little more out of the Cavs role players.

Question: Jay!!!!!! Oh My (expletive) God!!! How do you overturn that charge!?!?!?! That is horse (bleep)!!!!

Answer: Wow. Simply unbelievable and a real-time dagger that seems like a bad dream for those of us a) cheering for James and b) cheering for a competitive series. That call was a monster, and overturning a judgement call in any situation is a terrible precedent. Yes I know they went to the review to see if his feet were inside or outside the circle, and that's fine. But they went to the review and decided against an in-the-moment foul ruling. If they start overturning PI or balls and strikes, man, we are in a terrible place. (Side note: It looked like it should have been a no-call to me, but the correct call likely was a block. James was leaning. But getting right that way is wrong about everything that should be sports. And if we are going to arbitrarily overturn judgement calls like that to "get them right" then let's overhaul all of it and have machines and robots and lasers determine all of the calls.) What a travesty for a game that gripping and compelling to be completely swayed by something like that.

Question (from like 15 people): Was that the dumbest final game decision since Chris Webber?

Answer: Wow. Again. Right when you think the ref could not be more in a crosshair, J.R. Smith goes and does that. Dribbles out the clock after an offensive rebound in a tie game. Holy buckets of stupidity. If/when LeBron leaves Cleveland in the offseason, unlike last time, everyone everywhere will remember the J.R. Smith play and simply say, "Yeah, we get it."

Question: Are you ready to say LeBron is the GOAT after that performance? Jordan never did that.

Answer: We're not sure why it always goes to that. That said, James was amazing last night. Amazing.

And the final takeaway is not of outrage at the official, awe of James going 51-8-8 and shooting right at 60 percent, not the incredulousness of Smith's boneheaded play at the end or his eye-popping minus-22, or even the inevitability that the overtime was going to be after that finish.

It was the sadness brought on by the compilation of those factors. A sadness that is magnified by the realization that if the Cavs had won Game 1 - like they really should have and probably deserved to - the questions and pressure and talking points of this series become so much more interesting.

And Game 2 would have been a monster with monster ramifications for each team for different reasons.

There seems to be little way that James is going to be any better than what we saw Thursday, and they still lost.

And, regardless of the terrible calls, J.R. Smith's negative basketball IQ or anything else, knowing that LeBron can not be much better and they still lost by 10 is disheartening.

And sad. (Stupid overturned call. Stupid J.R. Smith.)

photo FILE - In this Dec. 15, 2015, file photo, former baseball player and manager Pete Rose speaks during a news conference in Las Vegas. A woman said she had a sexual relationship with Rose in the 1970s, starting when she was 14 or 15 years old, according to her sworn testimony submitted to a court Monday, July 31, 2017, in a federal defamation lawsuit Rose filed in 2016 against John Dowd, the lawyer whose investigation got Rose kicked out of Major League Baseball for gambling. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)


From Andrew

Are we counting Pete Rose for the Rushmore? I think he should be there.

Add in Manny Ramirez, Andruw Jones ( it made me so mad when I was younger how he spelled his name, how dare he change my name) and Fred Mcgriff.

Only about two weeks out from the World Cup. Who ya pulling for? I'll get a jersey, face paint, and hummus for you.

Andrew -

For clarity's sake, we are not counting Pete Rose. we think he will get in the Hall at some point after he dies and his lifetime ban ends. We also think Bonds and Clemens will get in as well.

As for the World Cup, whether soccer fans know it or not, the lack of the U.S. men being in the draw could be a way to forever silence - or forever galvanize one of my go-to answers when soccer lovers start clamoring that the soccer surge is evident in the big World Cup numbers.

We have forever said that is event and patriotism as much as soccer surge. But if the numbers are better in the U.S. this summer without the U.S. in it, well, that will quash the patriotism angle of that debate. (And we're still pulling for it to end relatively quickly. And there may not be three more forever anti-5-at-10 Rushmore items than grown men in jerseys, face paint and hummus.)

This week's Rushmores:

Rushmore of toughest names of sports legends to spell - Krzyzewski, Antetokounmpo, Ndamukong, Novak Djokovic (OK, that last one may be a little easier but we need to stay with legends; the non-legend version of Tshimanga Biakabutuka, Wojciechowski, Szczerbiak and Saltalamacchia could tongue-tie a lot of those spelling Bees - and sports writers.)

Rushmore of modern era baseball players with Hall of Fame numbers who will never get in - Manny Ramirez, Andruw Jones, Raffy Palmiero and Sammy Sosa.

Rushmore of people known by their initials - JFK, MLK, Triple H, MJ

Rushmore of sports movies based on true stories - Hoosiers, Miracle, Raging Bull, We Are Marshall. Days of Thunder just missed.

photo This image provided by EA Sports shows New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady on the the cover of the Madden 18 video game. Brady truly has reached the pinnacle. The five-time Super Bowl champion will be the cover athlete for Madden 18, following his Patriots teammate and buddy Rob Gronkowski. (Jamie O'Connell/EA Sports via AP)


From Michael C.

Hey Jay -

I love you guys on the radio and started reading your morning column.

I hope I am not too late for the mailbag. Did you see that today is the 30th anniversary of the release of the very first Madden Football video game? There is no better Rushmore I can possibly think of for you than the Rushmore of sports video games?

Thanks for all the laughs on the ride home.

Michael C. -

Thanks my man, and welcome aboard the S.S. 5-at-10.

And before we get to this, it's important to not that the Overwatch League Finals - an eSports league - has sold more than 20,000 tickets to its championship at the Barclays Center. Know that last night's Game 1 was not a sell-out at Golden State. Just a thought.

As for your question, well, it's a great question. And an impossible one.

But we're here to try.

Madden has to be on there because of it's longevity and its amazing transformation of video games and sports in general. Have you noticed that we as sports fans are as fascinated with the offseason as we are with the season. The action off the field has become to many as intriguing as the action on the field. There are a lot of reasons for that - fantasy leagues, the 24/7 news cycle and the need for more information about our favorite teams, gambling, et al. Also on the list is the complex development of video games, especially one like Madden, in which the offseason stuff in franchise mode is more fun than the in-game action.

Pong has to be on there. Dude it's the father of the category. It simply has to be on here.

Mike Tyson Punch-Out makes it. It's the Jordan of the boxing genre and was one of the few sports games that made the transition from arcade to living room.

EA Sports NCAA football is our final choice, and it was amazingly difficult. And maybe this was a heart choice, but we are not apologizing one iota.

Yes, it was unbelievably painful to leave NBA Jams and Tiger Woods golf off the list. RBI Baseball was a classic. So too was Baseball Stars on the old NES system. And the new MLB games are unreal. The early days of Blades of Steel on Sega that became the 1994 NHL Classic. There are tons of people who swear by the FIFA franchise in the last decade or so and we get that.

But you asked and we answered. Have quibbles all you want, but you better bring some details. We did so much research on this this morning, we learned that Beavis and Butthead had a video game called "Bunghole in One." Seriously.

Enjoy the weekend friends.

Upcoming Events