The Burner NBA

Erik talks about the Knicks clinching the 2025-26 NBA Championship, how the Knicks team-building strategies defied conventional wisdom and why they showed the power of having strong basketball convictions. Also, he briefly talks about how the Knicks win could impact other teams looking at the Giannis market.

Erik talks about Game 7 of the WCF, the potential Knicks vs. Thunder-Spurs matchups, NBA Draft Lottery Reform, coach and front office hirings, the Blazers coaching search and more.

Erik talks about the Pistons forcing a Game 7 and is bummed that a Game 7 is on Amazon Prime. He also discusses the Knicks looking like a championship team before previewing the Thunder-Spurs mega matchup in the West Finals. After a break, he also talks about LeBron and the Lakers, more Giannis rumors and the draft lottery. RIP Brandon Clarke. RIP Jason Collins.

Erik is back with a new episode of The Burner NBA podcast to discuss the three game 7s that happened over the weekend and look ahead to the 2nd round of the NBA Playoffs, where he predicts there will be a couple of upsets.

Intro/outro music produced by Trox.

Erik recaps a historic night for Scoot Henderson and the Blazers, LeBron James still doing it in Year 23 and VJ Edgecombe’s huge performance in Philly’s upset over Boston. Later in the pod, Erik talks about how he saw CJ McCollum’s big Madison Square Garden performance coming and why Rudy Gobert deserves his flowers. Intro/outro music produced by Trox.

Erik briefly talks about the results of the NBA Play-In Tournament before diving into his thoughts on all 8 first round series. Teams are covered based on when their games on. So he starts with Cavs-Raptors (6:22), then moves on to Wolves-Nuggets (12:04), Hawks-Knicks (17:56) and Lakers-Rockets (22:24). Then, after a break he comes back to talk Sixers-Celtics (29:20), Suns-Thunder (35:00), Magic-Pistons (39:55) and caps the pod by talking Blazers-Spurs (42:44), as well as some of the reports about Portland’s new ownership group cutting costs at a micro level.

Erik shares his experience covering March Madness, AJ Dybantsa, Darius Acuff Jr., and the Cinderella High Point before getting into what’s been happening in the NBA and how the playoff races are shaping up in the West and East.

Read Erik’s AP recap of the thrilling Arkansas vs. High Point game on Saturday night.

Erik talks about Bam Adebayo's 83, the cranky responses to it and digs into a rare NBA March where 2/3 of the league has something to play for. Also: Scoot Henderson's bounce-back week, the Blazers feeling change on the horizon with the sale to Tom Dundon close to finished and a little March Madness talk heading into the NCAA Tournament next week.

Erik shares why he thinks Portland needs to put Scoot Henderson in the starting lineup after the Nuggets demolished them on their homecourt. In the second half of the pod, Erik talks about the intrigue of the Eastern Conference and how the Western Conference playoff picture looks basically set.

Erik discusses Monday night's electric Hornets-Pistons showdown, the return of Scoot Henderson, Jalen Green and Franz Wagner, as well as James Harden's first games in Cleveland and the shameless tanking tactics we are seeing from the Utah Jazz.