Mad Dog’s Top 5 NBA Contenders List For 2024 Physically Pained Stephen A. Smith

With the Denver Nuggets winning their first NBA championship on Monday night, Tuesday morning on sports television was all about reaction to Denver’s title and the always popular “way too early” look ahead to the 2023-24 season, despite the draft and free agency still weeks away.

On First Take, this meant unleashing Chris “Mad Dog” Russo to list out his top 5 contenders for the 2024 title, which I’m not sure you could find a single soul that would have the same list.

Stephen A.’s facial expressions throughout this segment are really incredible, but none more than when Mad Dog starts out with the Oklahoma City Thunder as his No. 5 contender, citing Chet Holmgren and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, aka “what’s his name there, the guard, I always forget.” He then goes to the Kings, saying they’ll only get better while explaining he can’t put the Suns on his list because Kevin Durant is “bad karma,” which is an incredible reason to be out on the Suns. After that he puts his only East team on the board with the Bucks before getting to the current champs in Denver, who he compares to Warriors and Blazers teams from the 1970s which is the most Mad Dog thing in history.

His No. 1 team is the Warriors, who he says “has got one more championship in their bones before they all fade away and discard,” which is an incredible thing to say about a sports team. It’s a true masterclass in takesmithing, and leaving Stephen A. in the side box the entire time is inspired production work because his mute reaction to every Mad Dog tangent is wonderful.