Nick Wright reacts to LeBron James signing with the Philadelphia 76ers in free agency, including what the expectations are for the team, ring chasing allegations, and what it means for the GOAT's legacy. Then, Nick discusses how the 76ers will share the ball with a stacked roster of LeBron, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Jaylen Brown, and VJ Edgecombe. Later, Nick breaks down what is next for the teams like the Miami Heat and Golden State Warriors now that they missed out on LeBron. #Volume
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome inn. We'll drive in the Great episode four eighty six.
I am back, rejuvenated, excited to be here and listen,
I'm very, very lucky. I have a great life. I've
been very blessed in a million different ways. Occasionally even
those of us in those circumstances get a little unlucky.
(00:23):
Lebron James choosing to go to the Philadelphia seventy six Ers,
while in its totality, is absolutely phenomenal for me personally,
and I think for the NBA, and we'll get into
all of that. Him deciding make it, you're announcing it
literally maybe four or five minutes after my flight to
(00:48):
see my have my whole extended family and our extended
family meet Demand's baby down in Aruba. Just left the
Wi Fi zone. If you fly in nationally, you know
sometimes on certain flights, once you kind of leave the
continental US, you're and you're over the seed no Wi Fi.
So I literally was one of the last people to
(01:11):
find out Lebron was going to the Sixers, And I
had made a promise to my family that I was
going to do no content, no Twitter, no little videos
while we were on this family vacation. So that part
was not ideal. But because of that I have You know,
I am the last person. I'm eleven days late to this,
but I also have eleven days worth of takes for
(01:33):
this demands still on the final week of his paternity
leave that he wanted to be here. I told him, man,
you get this time, take this time. He'll be back
next week. But we are back, and again, scheduling wise,
we're back for a couple of weeks, then one more
little vacation before football, and then we are all football. However,
(01:56):
Lebron James the Philadelphia seventy six ers. This is episode
forty six, What Tray and the Great, presented to you
by boost Mobile. Let's just go straight to voicemail, brought
to you by our friends at boost Mobile. Just moments ago,
be Jean Robinson signed a record breaking extension three years
worth up to seventy five million, fifty one million guaranteed
the Dodger's trade for Tarik's schoobl We actually might talk
(02:18):
more about that on Thursday. The US men's national team
extends Poachattino. We will do a moment or two on that.
On Thursday. Also, Aaron Rodgers went back on Pat McAfee
and we'll do something on that on Thursday. A lot
of people like, oh who who owes apologies to who
(02:40):
will We'll get into that, But none of that is
what I want to do here. What I want to
do here is every single angle of a move that
in many ways has been for me eight years in
the making, not as some of you were with me
(03:03):
in the early, early first things, first days, when it
was me and Chris Carter and Genna Wolf, when Lebron
fresh off arguably the greatest individual playoff run of any
player in league history, eight forty point games, two game winners,
(03:23):
the greatest single game ever played by a player in
the history of the league, the fifty one to eight
to eight in Game one of the Finals, playing all
forty eight minutes in a Game seven road victory over Boston.
Fresh off that, when Lebron was making his decision and
everyone thought he was probably going to Los Angeles, I
(03:45):
advocated go to Philly. This was before the shine had
worn off. Been Simmons Been Simmons was the young Philly
clutch client with all NBA upside. In fact, I think
he maybe already had made an All NBA team or
was about to Embiid was obviously, you know, at that
point in time, less of the injury concern, but still
(04:06):
a superstar, and he could have stayed in the Eastern Conference.
The Eastern Conference seemed at the time far more winnable
than the Western Conference, and there were a lot of
reasons I thought Philly made a lot of sense. He
then went to Los Angeles, and again the narrative when
that happened was he is going there for movies and
(04:30):
business and lifestyle. The championship portion of Lebron James's career
is over. He's going to LA It's the Lakers were
supposed to be Lebron's Jordan Wizard's years. And then he
did what he has done every time he has changed teams,
(04:51):
which is, by the second year with the team, delivered
them a championship. Helped deliver them Anthony Davis became the
NBA's all time leading score, had another Conference finals run,
single handedly led them to a massive first round upset
in his final year there with the team, while becoming
(05:11):
the first player in league history to play twenty three seasons.
And I'm gonna have to fact check this, but I'm
pretty sure the first player in league history to in
a playoff game throw an alley oop to his son.
And now he is still one of the most influential
and still one of the best players in the entire league.
(05:33):
And now he ends up in Philadelphia. So how did
we get here? Well, if you guys have listened to
me along the last couple months, I have been all
over the place on this. There was a period of
(05:53):
time that I said I thought Philly was where he
was going to end up, shortly after they traded for
j Brown. I then moved off that to right before
I left town, I thought the tea leaves were pointing
towards Miami, not Philly. But I still think even in
(06:16):
that Miami episode, I power ranked it as Miami won,
Philly two, Cleveland three, and Golden State a distant four.
And it seemed like Denver and Minnesota were never as
viable option. I never thought Minnesota was a viable option.
Some other folks never thought Denver was a viable option.
It seems like both of those parties were correct. But
(06:40):
there was one thing Rich Paul said that should have
made anyone that was outright dismissing the Sixers as a
possibility have a moment of pause, and that was when
Rich said, flatly, if if the Knicks didn't win the championship,
(07:01):
Lebron was going to go to New York. He didn't
say maybe was going to he didn't say it was
a possibility. He said, if the Knicks didn't win the title,
Lebron was going to go to New York. And so
what that meant was we knew Lebron was okay moving
all the way to the East Coast. We also knew
(07:23):
Lebron was okay going to a team he had never
played for. And it also gave us a little bit
of an idea of what Lebron was trying to accomplish.
From a happiness standpoint, which is what they said at
the beginning, happiness was the most important thing. And from
a legacy standpoint, there are three teams in the league
(07:49):
that at prior to the Knicks winning this championship have
a history, meaning they have won a championship in the town.
They are current and have a championship drought that predates
Lebron being born, a forty plus year championship drought. Those
(08:12):
teams are the New York Knicks. They got taken off
the ward by ending their drought. The Portland Trailblazers, if
they were ever going to be on the board, they
got taken off the board by this lunatic owner, but
they were never really on the board. And the Philadelphia
seventy six Ers, whose championship drought now sits at forty
(08:33):
three years, who has a rich history of Wilt Chamberlain
and Doctor Jay and Moses Malone and Alan iverson a
Sixers team where if Lebron was thinking he might want
to live in New York City and play for the Knicks,
he can still at least some of the time, live
(08:54):
in New York City and play for the Sixers. I
think Lebron's former coach Reddick once upon a time lived
in Brooklyn and played for the Sixers. It's not unprecedented.
So the Sixers should have maybe been more on folks
(09:17):
radar than they were. And then you look at the
actual basketball fit basketball reasons and Rich Paul from the
Game Over podcast with Max Kellerman that all important whiteboard.
No team was given more attention on the whiteboard than
(09:43):
the Sixers. You had the full lineup written out, you
had a star next to Maxie. You also think about
those other teams that were or were not on the whiteboard,
and you think about the different things they could have done.
The Cavs on the whiteboard it said no Garland with
(10:08):
a negative. Garland a clutch client who they had, but
they traded him because they thought to get over the
playoff hump. They that adding James Harden would help them.
Is there a universe that exists where if they simply
don't trade Darius Garland for James Harden, Lebron James is
(10:30):
playing on the minimum for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Yeah, I
think there is. Jalen Brown was listed obviously on the
Sixers list of guys. Is there a world that exists
where if the Boston Celtics had simply not looked at
(10:53):
Hugo Gonzales as the next Bob Pettitt that maybe not
only do they have Giannis, but Lebron James is not
in their same conference, let alone their same division. Absolutely,
(11:17):
is there a world that exists where if the Golden
State Warriors had found a way where they are the
team that makes the Jaalen Brown trade when we know
what you had to beat was Paul George In a
(11:38):
couple of first A lot of teams could have made
that trade. Would that have entices Lebron to the Bay Maybe,
But all these different dominoes fell, and all of a sudden,
Lebron James finds himself in Philadelphia for a team that
(12:01):
I think a lot of you like, Let's say Lebron
ended up choosing the Warriors and was staying out West. Okay,
I think a lot of you were gonna pick the
Sixers to win the East with a starting five of
(12:22):
Maxi Edgecombe, Jalen Brown, Dean Wade Joel Embiid. Now it's
that same starting five, but in place of Dean Wade
is Lebron James. And so we'll talk about the fit
(12:45):
in Philly. You know how much this does or does
not come down to Embiid in a bit. But the
snap take is is this a viable championship contender? Obviously? Yes?
Does Lebron have an opportunity to do in Philadelphia what
(13:12):
he has done as I just mentioned every other place
he's gone when he changed teams, which is deliver a
championship in or in this case maybe by his second season. Absolutely,
And that's the second biggest takeaway. Was a part of
(13:36):
Lebron's decision? Pie and I think a big part of
it was can I thread the needle of going somewhere
where I can win, but also where no one with
any credibility at all be able to call this a
(14:01):
ring chase? Can I go somewhere where I can win?
And while it would not be guaranteed, is at least
possible that in any given series, maybe including the final series,
(14:22):
I'm the best player on my team. So there are
plenty of teams where he could have walked into and
been the best player. And there are plenty of teams
he could have walked into, or at least a handful
of teams he could have walked into and snap Ben,
(14:44):
they would be the overwhelming favorites. But what were the
teams that he could go to where on any given
night he can be the best player and they have
viable championship opportunity. That list was probably just Philly in Cleveland, Like,
(15:17):
let's go through the other ones. And I never took
Minnesota seriously. I'm not gonna take Minnesota very seriously. Here.
Lebron James was not finishing his career in Minnesota alongside
LaMelo and and I like aunt a lot, he wasn't.
He wasn't going there, goes to Golden State. I believe
(15:39):
he'd be the best player on Golden State. I don't
think that team's got enough to win the title, so
that that's they've got. He can be the best guy,
But there's a ceiling on that team, So take them
off the list, Denver. That team would still be a
weird third one because he is. They still feel like
(16:07):
they are a few defenders or athleticism short. But you
would have two of the five best basketball IQs of
the last fifty years and Bron and Joker, two of
the five best passers of the last thirty years, and
Bron and Joker. It certainly could work. But his chance
of being the best player on that team, even for
(16:28):
one single series close to zero with Joker at his
apex right now. So again, I'm not saying that eliminated
them for him, but if that was a part of
the mat they're off the list. San Antonio. Could san
Antonio have won the title if stepping into the starting
five for Julian Champagne is Lebron on a minimum, of course,
(16:52):
and would it be ring chasing They've never won a ring.
It would be considered that because that's Wimby's why would
the thunder have been the overwhelming favorites if stepping in
for the departed lou Dort was Lebron James on a minimum. Absolutely,
but that team just eliminated them in the playoffs. That
(17:14):
team won the title two years ago, was in Game
seven of the Western Conference Finals last year. Shay is
a multi time MVP. That would have been and we'll
talk more about Durant's comments later. A poor man's, very
poor man's maybe homeless man's version of Durant joining the Warriors.
(17:39):
Take that one off the list. Miami, I think they
could have won, not this year, but next year, won
a couple more transaction cycles. I trust Riley and Spulstra.
But for that to happen, Giannis has to be back MVP.
(18:00):
He of the league level guy. And again not a
ring chase really because Miami has been off in the wilderness.
But Lebron is a clear robin. There's Cleveland and Philly. Cleveland,
which if you have if you say Donovan's better than Lebron,
(18:24):
that's totally fine. It's a legitimate opinion. In any given series,
Lebron can be better. But that it's similar to what's
going on in Philly, the roster would make sense. However,
I don't think Lebron loved the Swiss the ultimate Swiss
(18:45):
army knife role in LA of guys super high usage
dribbling the ball, they are out of the ball. Guys
in Luke in Ar and Donovan and James Harden, you're
in that same world. So then you have Philadelphia where
everyone has a defined role. Now is are there enough
basketballs to go around? We'll discuss that as well in
(19:07):
a bit. But Philadelphia has not been to a conference
finals in twenty five years. Philadelphia has not won a
championship in forty three years. Vj Edgecomb's never been I
mean he's in year two. He's never been out of
round two, Tyrese Maxie's never been out of round two.
Joel Embiid's never been out of round two. Jalen Brown
(19:28):
is new like Lebron is. Jalen Brown was sixth in
MVP voting this year, Lebron six in MVP voting the
previous year, and in any given series on any given night, Maxie, Bron,
(19:49):
Jalen Brown, Embiid, if healthy, any of those guys can
be the best guy. So the ability to win the
championship and if they do, get deserved legitimate big piece
of the pie credit. Philly checks that box. And the
(20:17):
last reason that Lebron chose Philly is not really about
choosing Philly, but it's about choosing the NBA over golf
and boats and potential ownership and other endeavors and movies
(20:38):
and Hollywood and friends and family. And it is because
no one in the history of the world has loved
the game of basketball more than Lebron. Now, I butchered
this a bit on TV yesterday. I thought it was
(20:59):
why old quote. It's actually my buddy Laslow's old quote,
which was Laslow used to say. Maybe he still does.
I'm not saying I love my kids more than you
love your kids. What I'm saying is it is impossible
for anyone to love their kids more than I love mine.
(21:21):
Maybe we're in a million person tied for first, but
I'm tied for first. That's what I'm saying about Lebron
and basketball. I'm not saying he loves it more than
anyone else ever has. I'm saying no one has ever
loved it more than him. Maybe it's a long tie.
I saw an amazing quote from Jamal Crawford this week
(21:43):
talking about how much he loves the game. I think
there's a lot of guys who have just this peak
maximum love for the game, which brings me to one
of the only things during this entire Lebron James decision
part whatever, that I think I got wrong because I
(22:06):
know I was right that he was truly battling with
this decision. I know I was right that anyone that
was reporting it was down to two teams was wrong.
I know I was right that there was real back
(22:33):
and forth in the final weeks, maybe even the final days.
I may have gotten this wrong. I have been saying
for more than this process, but for the better part
of a couple years, that Lebron James's plan is to
(22:59):
play twenty five five years, that wherever he was signing
with it was not going to just be about this season,
that his plan is to play two more years and
put in a cool quarter century in the NBA. I
(23:23):
think I was a little too strident on that, but
not in the direction everyone else was. I would like
to amend my take to Lebron James's plan is to
play twenty five years minimum. His plan is to play
(23:50):
these two years in Philly at least. And what I
have said about Lebron being almost a hostage of his
own ability, we are going to see how long that
hostage negotiation takes. Because and listen, catastrophic injury happens, you
(24:17):
knock on wood, You hope it doesn't. You see, that
can change things. But barring that, he'll not only never
be bad, he'll always be some level of good. His
(24:43):
size and strength are never gonna go away, and the
IQ is only going to get sharper. That by itself
makes him a valuable NBA player. The fact that it
a age forty one, twenty three years completed in the league,
(25:03):
he still has the athleticism to lead the NBA in
fast breakpoints means it will be a long time till
he's at an athletic disadvantage. And so this is where
(25:23):
we are, with the greatest pure athlete in recorded history,
and with the man who is shifting the parameters of
(25:49):
anyone who wants to have a goat debate to a
very narrow, never previously agreed upon terms of Oh, I'm
not talking about best career, and I'm not talking about
who could play in any era, and I'm not talking
about who did the most, and I'm not no, no, no,
(26:09):
I only want to have the debate on these very
specific terms, under these very specific rules, because that's the
only way that I can possibly have a leg to
stand on. So a lot more to get to, and
(26:30):
including how this fits what I think is the biggest
misnomer right now about what will or won't happen with
these sixers, Durant's unreal stuff this week. All of that
(26:54):
we will get to in a moment, But first, today's
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Bet app today and roll with us. So we've talked
some here about already about why he chose Philly, and
(28:21):
the question is with the way Philly fans are, you know,
will they accept Lebron or will they turn on him
if it doesn't work out. I can almost guarantee you
Philly fans are going to have a better overall relationship
(28:42):
with Lebron than Laker fans did because the Laker fan
relationship was always complicated because of the fan rivalry amongst
(29:06):
Kobe fans and Lebron fans. And I listen, I'm not
judging Kobe fans in this regard. They're fortunate in that
Kobe played his whole career with one team, so they
never had to come to the realization, so to speak.
(29:26):
You know, that's so many hand up Lebron folks did,
which was and for me, it was never even a realization.
I'm a kid from Kansas City who is the same
high school class as Lebron. I've talked about this a
lot in the past. Me and my high school teammates
would watch Saint Menstin Saint Mary's games. I was kind
of an NBA team orphan growing up. I was briefly,
(29:50):
as a little kid, a Knicks fan because my mom
grew up in New York City. In the first game
I ever went to was a Knicks Bulls game in
nineteen ninety three. But by the time I was a teenager,
I really didn't have a team, and I was just like,
all right, I'll be a fan of whatever team this
guy goes to. I was eighteen years old. I'm forty one.
I just went on a trip with my granddaughter. He's
still changing teams, I'm still changing who I root for.
(30:12):
I think a lot of Lebron folks has been like, yeah,
I was a Cavs fan, and I was a Heath fan,
and I was a Cavs fan again, and it was
a Laker fan briefly, and I'm a Heath fan or
then a Sixer fan. Pardon me. There are a lot
of folks who call themselves Laker fans, but are Laker
fans here. If you're listening on the podcast, put my
(30:33):
hand low, and remember subscribe, rate and review the podcast Spotify, iTunes, YouTube,
all of it. And Kobe fans here, put my hand higher.
For those folks, they were just never going to full
on embrace Lebron. That does not exist with Philly fans.
(30:56):
And unlike Celtic fans. Sorry, AirPod was making my ear
atch a bit. Apologies. Unlike Celtic fans, Lebron does not
have like playoff series wars with the Sixers. I'm struggling.
(31:21):
I think he's played the Sixers in one series ever,
I which seems impossible given how much he played in
the in the Eastern Conference. But I'm checking right now
on Basketball Reference to see if I'm right. So let
(31:45):
me just the I'm fairly certain. Let's see, Yeah, I'm right.
One series ever against the Sixers his first year with
the heat round one against a Sixers team that who
was the starting five of that Sixers team? Elton Brand,
(32:07):
Drew Holliday, Andre Iguodala, Thad Young, Lou Williams where their
best five guys. I don't know if that was their
starting five. So they don't have wars against each other.
I listen, there's there are some Sixers media that has
always hated Lebron, because there's some media in every city
(32:31):
that's always hated Lebron. But what anybody that has rooted
for a team that Lebron James is on has come
to realize is, my god, this is fucking fun. Can
some of it be at times a little exhausting? As
(32:53):
far as they're always discussed, they're always dissected Lebron historically,
maybe he can get a little passive aggressive shore all
of them. But the guy is such a tireless worker
(33:15):
and plays the game in such a pure way that
it's impossible not to enjoy watching. So it is. I
think Philly fans are gonna be absolutely thrilled. And here's
the other thing. If you are thirty or under Sixer fan,
(33:43):
thirty or under, you have no real memory of this
team making a conference finals, let alone an NBA finals,
And if you're fifty or younger, you have no memory,
real memory of them winning the championship. And I'm not
(34:08):
where I'm not guaranteeing obviously they're gonna win the championship,
and you can't even guarantee they'll make the conference finals.
But I'd be pretty damn surprised if they don't at
least make the conference finals. And there will be a
(34:29):
level of excitement, buzz, and relevance around the team that
has not existed in a quarter century. And I think
Philly fans will like that, which brings the produisers are
asking how many games am I going to go to?
So I I have inquired a about season tickets, so
(35:05):
I've never if you just go through it. Bron entered
the league in three I went to college in O
three in Syracuse, so he's in Cleveland. I'm in Syracuse
four years. I then get out of college, go to
Kansas City. I'm there from seven to twelve. Bron is
in Cleveland from seven to ten, Yeah, and then in Miami.
(35:30):
While I'm still in Kansas City, I then go in
twenty twelve to Houston. Bron's in Miami and then Cleveland.
I'm there from twelve to sixteen. I then go to
Los Angeles in twenty sixteen, I leave and the summer
(35:50):
of seventeen. Bron goes to la in the summer of eighteen,
Which is to say, I there's only been brief peer
periods of time where I've lived in the same time zone,
let alone anywhere close to driving distance from where Lebron's
playing his home games. And so will I take advantage
(36:19):
of the fact that from my where I am doing
this show right now? You know what, Let's just see,
I know from where I work, from the door of
my job to the front door of the Sixers Arena
with no traffic is an hour and forty two minutes
(36:43):
from my house. It's an hour and fifty three minutes drive. Again,
no traffic. They're gonna be traffic. My show ends. TV
show ends at five o'clock. Overtime goes from five to six.
We do the first segment of a over time. We
get out around five twenty two, which would mean seven
(37:05):
o'clock tips very tough, seven thirty tips doable barring a
catastrophe in the Holland Tunnel. Eight o'clock tips easy as
can be so I will believe it or not. Since
(37:32):
Lebron made the decision, Season tickets hard to come by,
as you guys know, somehow, for some reason, I'm may
be the only guy in sports media I get no
tickets for Freeever, I might actually, though, hit up my
agents about that for this specific instance. To be fair
(37:53):
to the agents, I never ask him for any so
maybe they'd give me some. But I might hit them
up about this. But I don't know. I'll probably go
to I might buy season tickets, and if I buy
season tickets, I'll probably you know, maybe split some with
you know, a few friends for the games I can't
go to. But I you know, I plan to go
(38:13):
to twenty twenty five games. I probably can have great seats,
great seats at more sixer games than you're gonna have
great seats if he had signed with the Knicks at
Nick games, just from a pure financial perspective, which does
bring me to the other tricky part, which is, I
don't know if you guys know this, I'm not the
(38:35):
most beloved guy in Philadelphia. So you know how some
people say separate the art from the artist. I'm going
to do my own twist on that which is separate
the sports tape guys, football takes from basketball takes. Philly fans,
this is my metaphorical olive branch. I understand, you know
(39:00):
you haven't loved some of my Jalen Hurts Nick Sirianni commentary.
With that said, my dear friend Daryl Morey, who I do.
He's the only person in this that I really feel
sick for. If they like, he absolutely would have done
the Jalen Brown trade. And Lebron I think it's fair
to say, is his favorite player of all time. He's
(39:22):
from I think Cleveland. I I hate that Daryl's not
there for this. I understand that. I you know, I
understand they felt it to run its course and the
series against the Knicks was bad. I get all that,
But man, I wish Daryl was there for this. With
that said, Philly fans, if you think about it, I've
(39:44):
always been very kind about your basketball team. I believed
in your basketball team more than the average person. So
that is my very long way of saying. If you
guys see me at the games with my wife, don't
like throw shit at me. That would be unfortunate. We
(40:04):
can all be in this together, all right, so we
have not yet talked about fit and we have not
yet talked about injury. So let's talk about all that.
But first let me remind you guys about one of
our newest sponsors and a product that my family uses
(40:26):
all the time as a consumer, but also as a
front end user, a back end user. I don't know
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So I want to talk about fit here, But first
I want to I am getting really frustrated hearing when
(42:55):
this team is discussed embiid in Lebron being lumped into
the same injury concern. I understand that Lebron is forty
one years old. I understand that Lebron just played year
(43:20):
twenty three. No other player in the history of the
league has done that, and he's entering year twenty four.
I also understand that Lebron. Let me put it like this,
I feel like I am one of the only people
that understands at this point, Lebron's track record as far
(43:43):
as how injured is he really, how available is he
really should speak for itself. So forget the fact that
in Lebron James's career, including all the old guy years,
his teams have played in three hundred and two playoff games,
and of those three hundred and two playoff games, he
(44:05):
has played in three hundred and two of them. Okay,
so if we're talking about will they be healthy for
the playoffs, I don't know. We've got twenty he's made
the playoffs twenty years. We've got twenty years or he
just made it in nineteen years, twenty some years of
(44:27):
data saying if Lebron team is in the playoffs, he's
going to be in all those games. All right, Yeah,
but Nick, what about his old guy years? In the
regular season? Okay, let's talk about him. Age thirty nine season,
Lebron played seventy one of seven of eighty two games.
(44:47):
Age forty season, Lebron played seventy of eighty two games.
Last year, Lebron played sixty of eighty two games. But
keep in mind he missed the first fourteen so of
the of the Lakers final sixty eight games, Lebron played
(45:10):
sixty of them. In the last three years, I wrote
this down. In the last three years, Lebron James has
played the same number of minutes in the regular season
as Jalen Brown, who's considered an iron man, the same
(45:32):
number of minutes. He has played more minutes in the
last three years than the following people Scottie Barnes, Paolo
bon Caro, Karl Anthony Towns, Cade Cunningham, Jamal Murray, Steph Curry,
Joannie Wimby Chat Playoff in regular season minutes combined. He
(45:59):
is the last three years, he's barely behind Donovan Mitchell
and Tyrese Maxi. Of all the players in the league
over the last three years, Lebron is twenty second in minutes,
twenty second in minutes. So this idea that like, okay,
(46:24):
pencil Lebron in for forty games. Sure it's possible, but
that would be the outliner. Now, Embiid's the biggest injury
risk in the league. And when we know that Lebron
and Embiid can work together because we saw it in
the Olympics, I think that the Lebron Embiid pick and
(46:49):
roll is going to be devastating when it's there. But
I do think they almost have to treat Embiid like
a bonus. So here is how And this is the
biggest rub. Okay, the biggest rub is aside from the
big sort of dominocles, which is Embiide's health. What does
(47:16):
Jalen Brown want now? Jalen Brown, to his credit, is
saying all of the right things, and it does seem
with you know, more and more reporting up to and
including that the Celtics were considering trading Jalen Brown during
(47:39):
last season, that the Jalen Brown leaving Boston that I
and many folks framed as well, Listen, he wants his
own team. That while that may have been true, it
(48:02):
was also true that the Celtics were fine getting out
of the Jaalen Brown business altogether. And so the question is,
and I don't know the answer to this. After an
off season of Jalen Brown hearing a lot of the
discourse being yeah, he was sixth in MVP voting. Yeah,
(48:27):
his numbers were unbelievable, but actually he's not that good.
Actually he doesn't impact winning. Actually he you know, he's
a net negative when he's on the course court like
that was a big part of the discussion. Does Jalen
take that and say I'm going to show these guys
how great I am and feel like he needs to
(48:47):
go out and average thirty or does he take it
and say, yeah, you guys can say I do on
impact winning, But since I came into the league, no
players won, literally no players won more games than me.
Now I'm gonna take that with me to Philadelphia because
Jalen Brown's got the toughest ask in Philly. Jalen, this
(49:12):
is a league full of super dynamic athletic wings. We
need you to guard one of them every single night,
and Jalen, of everyone on the team, you're I mean,
on the starting five, I should say you're pretty clearly
(49:36):
the worst passer. It's the biggest weakness of your game,
the playmaking portion, and you're a high turnover guy. That
is the big like, that's part of the reason the
analytics community doesn't love you. So you're not gonna have
(49:56):
the ball in your hands. It's done. You're gonna score,
You're gonna you know you're gonna get twenty. But I
only think you're getting twenty six, and I don't think
you're getting twenty eight. And I know you're not getting thirty,
and you're We're really gonna ask a lot of you
on defense because Lebron's the best passer on the team
(50:18):
and the guy that where the age has shown up
with Lebron is the ability to give it. You're all
on both ends of the court consistently. Now, maybe because
of the other offense they have, Lebron can rest more
on offense and help more on defense like he was
(50:40):
with the Lakers late in the year, But still Lebron's
the best point person on that team. What Lebron gives
them in addition to being one of the fifteen best
players in the league and he's playing for the minimum,
and in addition to stepping into the starting lineup for
Dean Wade, who is actually useful and important for the
(51:01):
Sixers team because he's a true role player. What Lebron
gives them the versatility of I could see situations where
in games Embiid misses, Lebron is the sinner. And I
(51:23):
could also see a lot of time when it beds
out there when Lebron is the point guard. And so
I I think Maxi's gonna be fine. MAXI loves Lebron
(51:45):
that you know. Maxi's throw about this. I actually think
Embid's gonna be fine. Embiid's made all the money, he's
won an MVP. The only he just has this big,
you know, Scarlett letter on his of MVPs to never
be in the finals. Nash Rose, Embiid Rose's career got
(52:11):
derailed by injury. Nash was on a bunch of teams
that were so close enough. What ifs MVPs to never
be in a conference finals, it's just Embiid. Embiid just
needs a great playoff run. And I do think he
and Bron have a relationship from the Olympics. I think
it's very good for the Lakers that Edgecombe is going
(52:34):
into year I'm sorry for the Sixers is going into
year two instead of year three because you can't get
paid after year two. Even you get average forty a game,
they can't pay you after year two. So he's not
really it's not like, you know, he's a year away
from really being a year away from the contract year.
So I think it will work. And I think the
(53:03):
upgrade from Paul George to Jalen Brown, and the upgrade
from Dean Wade with respect to Lebron James, and the
natural upgrade of Edgecombe from year one to year two
and Maxie, who's already a superstar or superstar adjacent and
(53:26):
you know, slightly improves every year, combined with the seeming
impossibility to defend a championship in the modern NBA and
the loss of Mitchell Robinson, tilts the East to where
the Sixers are the favorite. I know right now, you
(53:50):
know they are on hard rock, tied with the Knicks
both at plus three point fifty. I think they will
end up being a slightly better than the better odds
than the Knicks or worse Utsminnario. Looking at it, I
think they will be the favorite. I think this is
(54:14):
going to work, and I think that this is a
team that can win a playoff series without Embeid playing. Now,
the East versus West part of it will get to
(54:35):
in a moment, because it's very the East is better
than the West, but the two most two of the
three most dominant teams play in the West, so it's
it's kind of tricky and how you look at it.
We'll get to that in a moment. But hard Rock
Bet has a bunch of you know, Lebron specials up
(55:00):
will Lebron score. Let's just talk about the Sixers ones first.
Their win total is set at fifty and a half.
I like the over. I think this will be more
a fifty I don't know, fifty four win team fifty
five wins is plus two to twenty five. So if
(55:23):
I think they're gonna win fifty four, if I'm getting
plus two to twenty five, I guess that's a bet
for me. If I'm setting it at fifty four and
you get two point twenty five to one at fifty five, yeah,
I like that. Sixty wins plus seven hundred. No, Will
Lebron score thirty five in any game is minus seven hundred. No,
that's not a bet. Will Lebron score forty in any game?
(55:51):
That's plus one fifty, Now that's a more fun one.
Lebron last year score or thirty six once and other
than that never scored above thirty one. However, the year
before last, if you remember, like Ad went down, they
(56:13):
traded for Luca. Luca was still hurt. Lebron had one, two, three,
six thirty five plus point games, five games of thirty
eight plus and two forty point games. I think plus
one fifty is probably about the right odds. So I
wouldn't do that. Lebron to average eighteen points per game
(56:40):
minus one fifty, yeah, I would take that bet. I
Lebron to averaged twenty points is plus two hundred. That's
an interesting one. He's averaged at least twenty six six
(57:02):
every year of his career. Did he do it as
a rookie? No, so he averaged twenty one as a rookie,
but not the six and six. He's averaged twenty six
and six minimum for twenty two straight years. And you
know he had averaged at least he averaged twenty five
(57:23):
plus for twenty straight years. Uh, maybe nineteen points per
game at plus one ten. I kicked those around, But
I do want to talk about East West, and then
I want to talk about We've done it somewhat, but
(57:44):
we haven't touched on the single biggest loser in this
entire thing. And it's not the Warriors, and it's not
the Calves, and it's not the heat. It's probably not
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plan as of January twenty twenty six. For full offer details,
visit boost mobile dot com. So look. Seven of the
top eleven teams goring to the finals, odds are in
the East, and so the question is if you want
to win a ring, was moving to the East a
good or a bad idea? So the argument in favor
(58:53):
of going east would be dating back to two thoy ten,
Lebron has played twenty five series against Eastern Conference teams
and he is carry the one twenty five and up,
(59:16):
so that's good. The other argument for going east is
unless you think you can be the number one seed
in the West, and whether he'd gone to the Warriors
(59:36):
or the Nuggets, and again, I never thought of Minnesota's
real possibility. Those teams were not built and would not
even be trying to be the number one seed. You
have to be OKC and San Antonio just to get
to the finals. And so while the East has I
(01:00:00):
think a higher number of legit quality teams, I think
the chance of getting to the finals is higher for
Lebron at this point in his career. So listen, the
Knicks are going to be awesome, awesome again. The Celtics
are going to be better than people expect, even though
(01:00:22):
they lost Jelen Brown. Detroit won't be as good as
they were last year, but they're gonna be good. The Calves.
I'll never believe in the Calves in the playoffs, but
they're gonna be solid. Atlanta's really going for it, and
you know they are better with the moves. Shout out
Sam Presty. The Spurs have future Hawks picks, and so Presty,
(01:00:44):
when he had to unload quality players for salary reasons,
shuffled them to the Hawks to make the Hawks better.
Hurt the Spurs pick. I love it, but the Hawks
are gonna be good. The Raptors pending Kawhi Leonard could
be good. The Heat now have Yans. We have not
(01:01:05):
even mentioned the Pacers or the Magic. So like, yes,
there's nine quality teams in the Eastern Conference. I still
think going to the East gives Lebron a better chance
of making the finals. And then you make the finals,
(01:01:27):
see what the hell happens because even though I don't listen,
but aside from the Spurs and the Thunder, you might
list I mean, well, the odds are of the teams
with the eleven best final odds, seven of them are
(01:01:49):
or championship outs, seven of them are in the East. Some
of that is polluted by how good the Thunder and
the Spurs are so that depresses the rest of the
conference's finals odds. But I think thunder Spurs, Nuggets are
the only teams I would have in the top eight,
(01:02:09):
So I would have five of the top eight teams
in the East. So I want to talk about the
biggest loser on this. Some people think it's the Warriors.
It is not the Warriors. I did a long piece
(01:02:33):
a couple of weeks ago about how I think the
Warriors did step a disservice by not doing more post
that last championship to just keep going for it, and
how frustrating it is if you're a fan of a
team and you have legitimately one of I'll Bee, you know,
(01:02:54):
one of the fifteen greatest players ever and he's still
awesome and you're not always going for So we've spent
time talking about that. They are not the biggest loser
of this for two reasons. One is they didn't do
anything to like try to get Lebron other than they
just hoped you would pick them. And the other one
is even with Bron, I don't think that team's winning
(01:03:15):
the championship. The Cavs just made a conference finals. They
were fine running it back the moment they traded for
James Harden, they and you know, made some type of
agreement about what type of deal he would get in
the offseason. They were fine running it back the Heat.
People are calling the Heat huge losers. The Heat got
(01:03:36):
Giannis this offseason. They're not huge losers. They're huge winners.
They're just a couple transaction cycles away from being able
to win a championship. I do think the Celtics the
sliding doors moment of we could have turned Jalen Brown
(01:03:57):
into Giannis in instead, we turned him into Paul Georgian
picks and that was a big domino in Lebron being
in the back in the conference is a bummer for them,
but they're not the biggest loser either. The biggest loser
of this entire process, beyond a shadow of a doubt,
(01:04:21):
is the Los Angeles Lakers, and that is because their
inability to, whether you think this is right or wrong,
(01:04:46):
properly publicly and privately, respect that Lebron James saved the
damn franchise led to a scenario where Lebron James was
(01:05:08):
willing to play for the league minimum, but not for them.
Every single move that the Lakers made this offseason, re
signing Austin, trading for Walker Kessler, adding some athleticism, bringing
in Quinton Grimes. So you guys know how much I
(01:05:29):
like you. None of those would have been any harder
or impossible or not tenable. You could have done all
of that and still brought Lebron back for what the
(01:05:51):
Sixers just got him for, and instead the Lakers And
it all started with that article in February that Lebron
was asked about in front of his locker, where sources
close to Janie Buss and the Lakers are excited for
(01:06:12):
the lebroni or to be over, you know, not even
subtweeting him, just you know, anonymous sourcing about basically how
they thought he should have been more grateful and about
how exhausting it had been and how they need to
turn the team over to Luca. And by the way,
(01:06:33):
turning the team over to Luca is totally understandable. So
the way to do that and keep an all NBA
caliber guy on the minimum, and instead they couldn't wait
for the lebroni or to be over. Couldn't wait. Okay,
(01:06:56):
you're seventeen to one to win the conference. You're thirty
five to one to win the title. And my money
is on with respect to Walker Kessler and with respect
Austin Reeves. So you guys know how much I like that.
In three years, three years from today, if we were
to say, hey, stack the best individual seasons by teammates
(01:07:21):
of Luca on the Lakers, the single best individual season
any teammate Luca has had or will have had over
the next three years will have been his first one
with Lebron. The Lebron's first season with Luca will be
the best teammate season. And his son is still on
(01:07:44):
the team and they're gonna need him. This year. He
did a podcast with the coach. They just won a
playoff series on his back and for some reason or another,
and I have my own personal thoughts as to why,
and it is not about a jealousy of Luca. Luca
(01:08:04):
a guy that go Check Lebron's appearance years ago on
Ali Clifton and Richard Jefferson and Channing Fry's road Trip
and Pod when Lebron revealed that the only player he
ever tried to sign to as a Lebron shoe athlete
was Luca. How much he loves like Luca's favorite player
(01:08:27):
ever was Lebron, model of his game after Lebron, So
it's not about a jealousy about Luca, but a team
that in the five years before Lebron got there, of
the thirty teams in the league, was thirtieth in wins,
thirtieth in winning percentage, was in the Stone Wilderness that
(01:08:51):
Lebron chose, then helped get Anthony Davis delivered him a championship.
Then Anthony Davis helped get them. Luka Ancic that that
team was telling everyone who would listen what a pain
in the ass Lebron is. They now saw him that
he's willing to move across the country to a team
he's never played with to play for the league minimum,
(01:09:15):
and he wouldn't do that for you. So far and away,
the biggest loser of this whole thing is the Lakers,
and I hate it because you guys know how much
I love Luca. Also, sidebar, little bonus thing that nobody
(01:09:42):
has been thinking about or discussing or whatever, so that
just abomination should have never happened. The sign of everything
that's that's wrong with the NBA. The Lakers spending the
(01:10:02):
fifty fifth overall pick on a former top fifteen prospect
who had a cardiac arrest in college, kind of throw
off his freshman year, who's twenty one years old, Bronnie James.
Now his dad's not there. They're just cutting him since
it was such a joke. Or is Bronnie James on
(01:10:26):
a second round contract league minimum for a team that
needs defense and athleticism actually useful. I don't know. Lebron's
not there making you do something anymore. Do whatever you want,
because go ahead and put me down as someone that
(01:10:49):
believes this year on the Lakers when you have and
I'm pulling it up because I don't want to leavenybody.
They made a bunch of moves Luca Austin Kessler, Grimes,
mam ou as you know your five biggest salaries, but
(01:11:13):
those won't be your five starters. Mom, who's your backup center?
And then you're too you know, Oh, Grimes is gonna
be really good for them. Tible will play. They hope
La Ravia was a disaster last year. We'll see they
brought Sexton will definitely play a lot. Bronnie James will
(01:11:39):
play for them this year, making a couple million bucks
and all the folks who were arguing, no, no, no,
that's only happening and maybe he was drafted because of Lebron,
but oh, the only reason he's stilling the rosters because Lebron, Well,
Bron's on the roster anymore. So I guess we'll see
(01:12:01):
Lebron's on the sixers. I am in about nine hours
going to a card game that hopefully will pay for,
you know, the first deposit on the season tickets I'm
gonna end up getting. It's really unbelievable, and I think
(01:12:30):
before it's all said and done, he's gonna win a championship. There.
Talk to you guys on Thursday. Seeon with Colin in
about an hour. What's right, man,
Welcome inn. We'll drive in the Great episode four eighty six.
I am back, rejuvenated, excited to be here and listen,
I'm very, very lucky. I have a great life. I've
been very blessed in a million different ways. Occasionally even
those of us in those circumstances get a little unlucky.
(00:23):
Lebron James choosing to go to the Philadelphia seventy six Ers,
while in its totality, is absolutely phenomenal for me personally,
and I think for the NBA, and we'll get into
all of that. Him deciding make it, you're announcing it
literally maybe four or five minutes after my flight to
(00:48):
see my have my whole extended family and our extended
family meet Demand's baby down in Aruba. Just left the
Wi Fi zone. If you fly in nationally, you know
sometimes on certain flights, once you kind of leave the
continental US, you're and you're over the seed no Wi Fi.
So I literally was one of the last people to
(01:11):
find out Lebron was going to the Sixers, And I
had made a promise to my family that I was
going to do no content, no Twitter, no little videos
while we were on this family vacation. So that part
was not ideal. But because of that I have You know,
I am the last person. I'm eleven days late to this,
but I also have eleven days worth of takes for
(01:33):
this demands still on the final week of his paternity
leave that he wanted to be here. I told him, man,
you get this time, take this time. He'll be back
next week. But we are back, and again, scheduling wise,
we're back for a couple of weeks, then one more
little vacation before football, and then we are all football. However,
(01:56):
Lebron James the Philadelphia seventy six ers. This is episode
forty six, What Tray and the Great, presented to you
by boost Mobile. Let's just go straight to voicemail, brought
to you by our friends at boost Mobile. Just moments ago,
be Jean Robinson signed a record breaking extension three years
worth up to seventy five million, fifty one million guaranteed
the Dodger's trade for Tarik's schoobl We actually might talk
(02:18):
more about that on Thursday. The US men's national team
extends Poachattino. We will do a moment or two on that.
On Thursday. Also, Aaron Rodgers went back on Pat McAfee
and we'll do something on that on Thursday. A lot
of people like, oh who who owes apologies to who
(02:40):
will We'll get into that, But none of that is
what I want to do here. What I want to
do here is every single angle of a move that
in many ways has been for me eight years in
the making, not as some of you were with me
(03:03):
in the early, early first things, first days, when it
was me and Chris Carter and Genna Wolf, when Lebron
fresh off arguably the greatest individual playoff run of any
player in league history, eight forty point games, two game winners,
(03:23):
the greatest single game ever played by a player in
the history of the league, the fifty one to eight
to eight in Game one of the Finals, playing all
forty eight minutes in a Game seven road victory over Boston.
Fresh off that, when Lebron was making his decision and
everyone thought he was probably going to Los Angeles, I
(03:45):
advocated go to Philly. This was before the shine had
worn off. Been Simmons Been Simmons was the young Philly
clutch client with all NBA upside. In fact, I think
he maybe already had made an All NBA team or
was about to Embiid was obviously, you know, at that
point in time, less of the injury concern, but still
(04:06):
a superstar, and he could have stayed in the Eastern Conference.
The Eastern Conference seemed at the time far more winnable
than the Western Conference, and there were a lot of
reasons I thought Philly made a lot of sense. He
then went to Los Angeles, and again the narrative when
that happened was he is going there for movies and
(04:30):
business and lifestyle. The championship portion of Lebron James's career
is over. He's going to LA It's the Lakers were
supposed to be Lebron's Jordan Wizard's years. And then he
did what he has done every time he has changed teams,
(04:51):
which is, by the second year with the team, delivered
them a championship. Helped deliver them Anthony Davis became the
NBA's all time leading score, had another Conference finals run,
single handedly led them to a massive first round upset
in his final year there with the team, while becoming
(05:11):
the first player in league history to play twenty three seasons.
And I'm gonna have to fact check this, but I'm
pretty sure the first player in league history to in
a playoff game throw an alley oop to his son.
And now he is still one of the most influential
and still one of the best players in the entire league.
(05:33):
And now he ends up in Philadelphia. So how did
we get here? Well, if you guys have listened to
me along the last couple months, I have been all
over the place on this. There was a period of
(05:53):
time that I said I thought Philly was where he
was going to end up, shortly after they traded for
j Brown. I then moved off that to right before
I left town, I thought the tea leaves were pointing
towards Miami, not Philly. But I still think even in
(06:16):
that Miami episode, I power ranked it as Miami won,
Philly two, Cleveland three, and Golden State a distant four.
And it seemed like Denver and Minnesota were never as
viable option. I never thought Minnesota was a viable option.
Some other folks never thought Denver was a viable option.
It seems like both of those parties were correct. But
(06:40):
there was one thing Rich Paul said that should have
made anyone that was outright dismissing the Sixers as a
possibility have a moment of pause, and that was when
Rich said, flatly, if if the Knicks didn't win the championship,
(07:01):
Lebron was going to go to New York. He didn't
say maybe was going to he didn't say it was
a possibility. He said, if the Knicks didn't win the title,
Lebron was going to go to New York. And so
what that meant was we knew Lebron was okay moving
all the way to the East Coast. We also knew
(07:23):
Lebron was okay going to a team he had never
played for. And it also gave us a little bit
of an idea of what Lebron was trying to accomplish.
From a happiness standpoint, which is what they said at
the beginning, happiness was the most important thing. And from
a legacy standpoint, there are three teams in the league
(07:49):
that at prior to the Knicks winning this championship have
a history, meaning they have won a championship in the town.
They are current and have a championship drought that predates
Lebron being born, a forty plus year championship drought. Those
(08:12):
teams are the New York Knicks. They got taken off
the ward by ending their drought. The Portland Trailblazers, if
they were ever going to be on the board, they
got taken off the board by this lunatic owner, but
they were never really on the board. And the Philadelphia
seventy six Ers, whose championship drought now sits at forty
(08:33):
three years, who has a rich history of Wilt Chamberlain
and Doctor Jay and Moses Malone and Alan iverson a
Sixers team where if Lebron was thinking he might want
to live in New York City and play for the Knicks,
he can still at least some of the time, live
(08:54):
in New York City and play for the Sixers. I
think Lebron's former coach Reddick once upon a time lived
in Brooklyn and played for the Sixers. It's not unprecedented.
So the Sixers should have maybe been more on folks
(09:17):
radar than they were. And then you look at the
actual basketball fit basketball reasons and Rich Paul from the
Game Over podcast with Max Kellerman that all important whiteboard.
No team was given more attention on the whiteboard than
(09:43):
the Sixers. You had the full lineup written out, you
had a star next to Maxie. You also think about
those other teams that were or were not on the whiteboard,
and you think about the different things they could have done.
The Cavs on the whiteboard it said no Garland with
(10:08):
a negative. Garland a clutch client who they had, but
they traded him because they thought to get over the
playoff hump. They that adding James Harden would help them.
Is there a universe that exists where if they simply
don't trade Darius Garland for James Harden, Lebron James is
(10:30):
playing on the minimum for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Yeah, I
think there is. Jalen Brown was listed obviously on the
Sixers list of guys. Is there a world that exists
where if the Boston Celtics had simply not looked at
(10:53):
Hugo Gonzales as the next Bob Pettitt that maybe not
only do they have Giannis, but Lebron James is not
in their same conference, let alone their same division. Absolutely,
(11:17):
is there a world that exists where if the Golden
State Warriors had found a way where they are the
team that makes the Jaalen Brown trade when we know
what you had to beat was Paul George In a
(11:38):
couple of first A lot of teams could have made
that trade. Would that have entices Lebron to the Bay Maybe,
But all these different dominoes fell, and all of a sudden,
Lebron James finds himself in Philadelphia for a team that
(12:01):
I think a lot of you like, Let's say Lebron
ended up choosing the Warriors and was staying out West. Okay,
I think a lot of you were gonna pick the
Sixers to win the East with a starting five of
(12:22):
Maxi Edgecombe, Jalen Brown, Dean Wade Joel Embiid. Now it's
that same starting five, but in place of Dean Wade
is Lebron James. And so we'll talk about the fit
(12:45):
in Philly. You know how much this does or does
not come down to Embiid in a bit. But the
snap take is is this a viable championship contender? Obviously? Yes?
Does Lebron have an opportunity to do in Philadelphia what
(13:12):
he has done as I just mentioned every other place
he's gone when he changed teams, which is deliver a
championship in or in this case maybe by his second season. Absolutely,
And that's the second biggest takeaway. Was a part of
(13:36):
Lebron's decision? Pie and I think a big part of
it was can I thread the needle of going somewhere
where I can win, but also where no one with
any credibility at all be able to call this a
(14:01):
ring chase? Can I go somewhere where I can win?
And while it would not be guaranteed, is at least
possible that in any given series, maybe including the final series,
(14:22):
I'm the best player on my team. So there are
plenty of teams where he could have walked into and
been the best player. And there are plenty of teams
he could have walked into, or at least a handful
of teams he could have walked into and snap Ben,
(14:44):
they would be the overwhelming favorites. But what were the
teams that he could go to where on any given
night he can be the best player and they have
viable championship opportunity. That list was probably just Philly in Cleveland, Like,
(15:17):
let's go through the other ones. And I never took
Minnesota seriously. I'm not gonna take Minnesota very seriously. Here.
Lebron James was not finishing his career in Minnesota alongside
LaMelo and and I like aunt a lot, he wasn't.
He wasn't going there, goes to Golden State. I believe
(15:39):
he'd be the best player on Golden State. I don't
think that team's got enough to win the title, so
that that's they've got. He can be the best guy,
But there's a ceiling on that team, So take them
off the list, Denver. That team would still be a
weird third one because he is. They still feel like
(16:07):
they are a few defenders or athleticism short. But you
would have two of the five best basketball IQs of
the last fifty years and Bron and Joker, two of
the five best passers of the last thirty years, and
Bron and Joker. It certainly could work. But his chance
of being the best player on that team, even for
(16:28):
one single series close to zero with Joker at his
apex right now. So again, I'm not saying that eliminated
them for him, but if that was a part of
the mat they're off the list. San Antonio. Could san
Antonio have won the title if stepping into the starting
five for Julian Champagne is Lebron on a minimum, of course,
(16:52):
and would it be ring chasing They've never won a ring.
It would be considered that because that's Wimby's why would
the thunder have been the overwhelming favorites if stepping in
for the departed lou Dort was Lebron James on a minimum. Absolutely,
but that team just eliminated them in the playoffs. That
(17:14):
team won the title two years ago, was in Game
seven of the Western Conference Finals last year. Shay is
a multi time MVP. That would have been and we'll
talk more about Durant's comments later. A poor man's, very
poor man's maybe homeless man's version of Durant joining the Warriors.
(17:39):
Take that one off the list. Miami, I think they
could have won, not this year, but next year, won
a couple more transaction cycles. I trust Riley and Spulstra.
But for that to happen, Giannis has to be back MVP.
(18:00):
He of the league level guy. And again not a
ring chase really because Miami has been off in the wilderness.
But Lebron is a clear robin. There's Cleveland and Philly. Cleveland,
which if you have if you say Donovan's better than Lebron,
(18:24):
that's totally fine. It's a legitimate opinion. In any given series,
Lebron can be better. But that it's similar to what's
going on in Philly, the roster would make sense. However,
I don't think Lebron loved the Swiss the ultimate Swiss
(18:45):
army knife role in LA of guys super high usage
dribbling the ball, they are out of the ball. Guys
in Luke in Ar and Donovan and James Harden, you're
in that same world. So then you have Philadelphia where
everyone has a defined role. Now is are there enough
basketballs to go around? We'll discuss that as well in
(19:07):
a bit. But Philadelphia has not been to a conference
finals in twenty five years. Philadelphia has not won a
championship in forty three years. Vj Edgecomb's never been I
mean he's in year two. He's never been out of
round two, Tyrese Maxie's never been out of round two.
Joel Embiid's never been out of round two. Jalen Brown
(19:28):
is new like Lebron is. Jalen Brown was sixth in
MVP voting this year, Lebron six in MVP voting the
previous year, and in any given series on any given night, Maxie, Bron,
(19:49):
Jalen Brown, Embiid, if healthy, any of those guys can
be the best guy. So the ability to win the
championship and if they do, get deserved legitimate big piece
of the pie credit. Philly checks that box. And the
(20:17):
last reason that Lebron chose Philly is not really about
choosing Philly, but it's about choosing the NBA over golf
and boats and potential ownership and other endeavors and movies
(20:38):
and Hollywood and friends and family. And it is because
no one in the history of the world has loved
the game of basketball more than Lebron. Now, I butchered
this a bit on TV yesterday. I thought it was
(20:59):
why old quote. It's actually my buddy Laslow's old quote,
which was Laslow used to say. Maybe he still does.
I'm not saying I love my kids more than you
love your kids. What I'm saying is it is impossible
for anyone to love their kids more than I love mine.
(21:21):
Maybe we're in a million person tied for first, but
I'm tied for first. That's what I'm saying about Lebron
and basketball. I'm not saying he loves it more than
anyone else ever has. I'm saying no one has ever
loved it more than him. Maybe it's a long tie.
I saw an amazing quote from Jamal Crawford this week
(21:43):
talking about how much he loves the game. I think
there's a lot of guys who have just this peak
maximum love for the game, which brings me to one
of the only things during this entire Lebron James decision
part whatever, that I think I got wrong because I
(22:06):
know I was right that he was truly battling with
this decision. I know I was right that anyone that
was reporting it was down to two teams was wrong.
I know I was right that there was real back
(22:33):
and forth in the final weeks, maybe even the final days.
I may have gotten this wrong. I have been saying
for more than this process, but for the better part
of a couple years, that Lebron James's plan is to
(22:59):
play twenty five five years, that wherever he was signing
with it was not going to just be about this season,
that his plan is to play two more years and
put in a cool quarter century in the NBA. I
(23:23):
think I was a little too strident on that, but
not in the direction everyone else was. I would like
to amend my take to Lebron James's plan is to
play twenty five years minimum. His plan is to play
(23:50):
these two years in Philly at least. And what I
have said about Lebron being almost a hostage of his
own ability, we are going to see how long that
hostage negotiation takes. Because and listen, catastrophic injury happens, you
(24:17):
knock on wood, You hope it doesn't. You see, that
can change things. But barring that, he'll not only never
be bad, he'll always be some level of good. His
(24:43):
size and strength are never gonna go away, and the
IQ is only going to get sharper. That by itself
makes him a valuable NBA player. The fact that it
a age forty one, twenty three years completed in the league,
(25:03):
he still has the athleticism to lead the NBA in
fast breakpoints means it will be a long time till
he's at an athletic disadvantage. And so this is where
(25:23):
we are, with the greatest pure athlete in recorded history,
and with the man who is shifting the parameters of
(25:49):
anyone who wants to have a goat debate to a
very narrow, never previously agreed upon terms of Oh, I'm
not talking about best career, and I'm not talking about
who could play in any era, and I'm not talking
about who did the most, and I'm not no, no, no,
(26:09):
I only want to have the debate on these very
specific terms, under these very specific rules, because that's the
only way that I can possibly have a leg to
stand on. So a lot more to get to, and
(26:30):
including how this fits what I think is the biggest
misnomer right now about what will or won't happen with
these sixers, Durant's unreal stuff this week. All of that
(26:54):
we will get to in a moment, But first, today's
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Bet app today and roll with us. So we've talked
some here about already about why he chose Philly, and
(28:21):
the question is with the way Philly fans are, you know,
will they accept Lebron or will they turn on him
if it doesn't work out. I can almost guarantee you
Philly fans are going to have a better overall relationship
(28:42):
with Lebron than Laker fans did because the Laker fan
relationship was always complicated because of the fan rivalry amongst
(29:06):
Kobe fans and Lebron fans. And I listen, I'm not
judging Kobe fans in this regard. They're fortunate in that
Kobe played his whole career with one team, so they
never had to come to the realization, so to speak.
(29:26):
You know, that's so many hand up Lebron folks did,
which was and for me, it was never even a realization.
I'm a kid from Kansas City who is the same
high school class as Lebron. I've talked about this a
lot in the past. Me and my high school teammates
would watch Saint Menstin Saint Mary's games. I was kind
of an NBA team orphan growing up. I was briefly,
(29:50):
as a little kid, a Knicks fan because my mom
grew up in New York City. In the first game
I ever went to was a Knicks Bulls game in
nineteen ninety three. But by the time I was a teenager,
I really didn't have a team, and I was just like,
all right, I'll be a fan of whatever team this
guy goes to. I was eighteen years old. I'm forty one.
I just went on a trip with my granddaughter. He's
still changing teams, I'm still changing who I root for.
(30:12):
I think a lot of Lebron folks has been like, yeah,
I was a Cavs fan, and I was a Heath fan,
and I was a Cavs fan again, and it was
a Laker fan briefly, and I'm a Heath fan or
then a Sixer fan. Pardon me. There are a lot
of folks who call themselves Laker fans, but are Laker
fans here. If you're listening on the podcast, put my
(30:33):
hand low, and remember subscribe, rate and review the podcast Spotify, iTunes, YouTube,
all of it. And Kobe fans here, put my hand higher.
For those folks, they were just never going to full
on embrace Lebron. That does not exist with Philly fans.
(30:56):
And unlike Celtic fans. Sorry, AirPod was making my ear
atch a bit. Apologies. Unlike Celtic fans, Lebron does not
have like playoff series wars with the Sixers. I'm struggling.
(31:21):
I think he's played the Sixers in one series ever,
I which seems impossible given how much he played in
the in the Eastern Conference. But I'm checking right now
on Basketball Reference to see if I'm right. So let
(31:45):
me just the I'm fairly certain. Let's see, Yeah, I'm right.
One series ever against the Sixers his first year with
the heat round one against a Sixers team that who
was the starting five of that Sixers team? Elton Brand,
(32:07):
Drew Holliday, Andre Iguodala, Thad Young, Lou Williams where their
best five guys. I don't know if that was their
starting five. So they don't have wars against each other.
I listen, there's there are some Sixers media that has
always hated Lebron, because there's some media in every city
(32:31):
that's always hated Lebron. But what anybody that has rooted
for a team that Lebron James is on has come
to realize is, my god, this is fucking fun. Can
some of it be at times a little exhausting? As
(32:53):
far as they're always discussed, they're always dissected Lebron historically,
maybe he can get a little passive aggressive shore all
of them. But the guy is such a tireless worker
(33:15):
and plays the game in such a pure way that
it's impossible not to enjoy watching. So it is. I
think Philly fans are gonna be absolutely thrilled. And here's
the other thing. If you are thirty or under Sixer fan,
(33:43):
thirty or under, you have no real memory of this
team making a conference finals, let alone an NBA finals,
And if you're fifty or younger, you have no memory,
real memory of them winning the championship. And I'm not
(34:08):
where I'm not guaranteeing obviously they're gonna win the championship,
and you can't even guarantee they'll make the conference finals.
But I'd be pretty damn surprised if they don't at
least make the conference finals. And there will be a
(34:29):
level of excitement, buzz, and relevance around the team that
has not existed in a quarter century. And I think
Philly fans will like that, which brings the produisers are
asking how many games am I going to go to?
So I I have inquired a about season tickets, so
(35:05):
I've never if you just go through it. Bron entered
the league in three I went to college in O
three in Syracuse, so he's in Cleveland. I'm in Syracuse
four years. I then get out of college, go to
Kansas City. I'm there from seven to twelve. Bron is
in Cleveland from seven to ten, Yeah, and then in Miami.
(35:30):
While I'm still in Kansas City, I then go in
twenty twelve to Houston. Bron's in Miami and then Cleveland.
I'm there from twelve to sixteen. I then go to
Los Angeles in twenty sixteen, I leave and the summer
(35:50):
of seventeen. Bron goes to la in the summer of eighteen,
Which is to say, I there's only been brief peer
periods of time where I've lived in the same time zone,
let alone anywhere close to driving distance from where Lebron's
playing his home games. And so will I take advantage
(36:19):
of the fact that from my where I am doing
this show right now? You know what, Let's just see,
I know from where I work, from the door of
my job to the front door of the Sixers Arena
with no traffic is an hour and forty two minutes
(36:43):
from my house. It's an hour and fifty three minutes drive. Again,
no traffic. They're gonna be traffic. My show ends. TV
show ends at five o'clock. Overtime goes from five to six.
We do the first segment of a over time. We
get out around five twenty two, which would mean seven
(37:05):
o'clock tips very tough, seven thirty tips doable barring a
catastrophe in the Holland Tunnel. Eight o'clock tips easy as
can be so I will believe it or not. Since
(37:32):
Lebron made the decision, Season tickets hard to come by,
as you guys know, somehow, for some reason, I'm may
be the only guy in sports media I get no
tickets for Freeever, I might actually, though, hit up my
agents about that for this specific instance. To be fair
(37:53):
to the agents, I never ask him for any so
maybe they'd give me some. But I might hit them
up about this. But I don't know. I'll probably go
to I might buy season tickets, and if I buy
season tickets, I'll probably you know, maybe split some with
you know, a few friends for the games I can't
go to. But I you know, I plan to go
(38:13):
to twenty twenty five games. I probably can have great seats,
great seats at more sixer games than you're gonna have
great seats if he had signed with the Knicks at
Nick games, just from a pure financial perspective, which does
bring me to the other tricky part, which is, I
don't know if you guys know this, I'm not the
(38:35):
most beloved guy in Philadelphia. So you know how some
people say separate the art from the artist. I'm going
to do my own twist on that which is separate
the sports tape guys, football takes from basketball takes. Philly fans,
this is my metaphorical olive branch. I understand, you know
(39:00):
you haven't loved some of my Jalen Hurts Nick Sirianni commentary.
With that said, my dear friend Daryl Morey, who I do.
He's the only person in this that I really feel
sick for. If they like, he absolutely would have done
the Jalen Brown trade. And Lebron I think it's fair
to say, is his favorite player of all time. He's
(39:22):
from I think Cleveland. I I hate that Daryl's not
there for this. I understand that. I you know, I
understand they felt it to run its course and the
series against the Knicks was bad. I get all that,
But man, I wish Daryl was there for this. With
that said, Philly fans, if you think about it, I've
(39:44):
always been very kind about your basketball team. I believed
in your basketball team more than the average person. So
that is my very long way of saying. If you
guys see me at the games with my wife, don't
like throw shit at me. That would be unfortunate. We
(40:04):
can all be in this together, all right, so we
have not yet talked about fit and we have not
yet talked about injury. So let's talk about all that.
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So I want to talk about fit here, But first
I want to I am getting really frustrated hearing when
(42:55):
this team is discussed embiid in Lebron being lumped into
the same injury concern. I understand that Lebron is forty
one years old. I understand that Lebron just played year
(43:20):
twenty three. No other player in the history of the
league has done that, and he's entering year twenty four.
I also understand that Lebron. Let me put it like this,
I feel like I am one of the only people
that understands at this point, Lebron's track record as far
(43:43):
as how injured is he really, how available is he
really should speak for itself. So forget the fact that
in Lebron James's career, including all the old guy years,
his teams have played in three hundred and two playoff games,
and of those three hundred and two playoff games, he
(44:05):
has played in three hundred and two of them. Okay,
so if we're talking about will they be healthy for
the playoffs, I don't know. We've got twenty he's made
the playoffs twenty years. We've got twenty years or he
just made it in nineteen years, twenty some years of
(44:27):
data saying if Lebron team is in the playoffs, he's
going to be in all those games. All right, Yeah,
but Nick, what about his old guy years? In the
regular season? Okay, let's talk about him. Age thirty nine season,
Lebron played seventy one of seven of eighty two games.
(44:47):
Age forty season, Lebron played seventy of eighty two games.
Last year, Lebron played sixty of eighty two games. But
keep in mind he missed the first fourteen so of
the of the Lakers final sixty eight games, Lebron played
(45:10):
sixty of them. In the last three years, I wrote
this down. In the last three years, Lebron James has
played the same number of minutes in the regular season
as Jalen Brown, who's considered an iron man, the same
(45:32):
number of minutes. He has played more minutes in the
last three years than the following people Scottie Barnes, Paolo
bon Caro, Karl Anthony Towns, Cade Cunningham, Jamal Murray, Steph Curry,
Joannie Wimby Chat Playoff in regular season minutes combined. He
(45:59):
is the last three years, he's barely behind Donovan Mitchell
and Tyrese Maxi. Of all the players in the league
over the last three years, Lebron is twenty second in minutes,
twenty second in minutes. So this idea that like, okay,
(46:24):
pencil Lebron in for forty games. Sure it's possible, but
that would be the outliner. Now, Embiid's the biggest injury
risk in the league. And when we know that Lebron
and Embiid can work together because we saw it in
the Olympics, I think that the Lebron Embiid pick and
(46:49):
roll is going to be devastating when it's there. But
I do think they almost have to treat Embiid like
a bonus. So here is how And this is the
biggest rub. Okay, the biggest rub is aside from the
big sort of dominocles, which is Embiide's health. What does
(47:16):
Jalen Brown want now? Jalen Brown, to his credit, is
saying all of the right things, and it does seem
with you know, more and more reporting up to and
including that the Celtics were considering trading Jalen Brown during
(47:39):
last season, that the Jalen Brown leaving Boston that I
and many folks framed as well, Listen, he wants his
own team. That while that may have been true, it
(48:02):
was also true that the Celtics were fine getting out
of the Jaalen Brown business altogether. And so the question is,
and I don't know the answer to this. After an
off season of Jalen Brown hearing a lot of the
discourse being yeah, he was sixth in MVP voting. Yeah,
(48:27):
his numbers were unbelievable, but actually he's not that good.
Actually he doesn't impact winning. Actually he you know, he's
a net negative when he's on the course court like
that was a big part of the discussion. Does Jalen
take that and say I'm going to show these guys
how great I am and feel like he needs to
(48:47):
go out and average thirty or does he take it
and say, yeah, you guys can say I do on
impact winning, But since I came into the league, no
players won, literally no players won more games than me.
Now I'm gonna take that with me to Philadelphia because
Jalen Brown's got the toughest ask in Philly. Jalen, this
(49:12):
is a league full of super dynamic athletic wings. We
need you to guard one of them every single night,
and Jalen, of everyone on the team, you're I mean,
on the starting five, I should say you're pretty clearly
(49:36):
the worst passer. It's the biggest weakness of your game,
the playmaking portion, and you're a high turnover guy. That
is the big like, that's part of the reason the
analytics community doesn't love you. So you're not gonna have
(49:56):
the ball in your hands. It's done. You're gonna score,
You're gonna you know you're gonna get twenty. But I
only think you're getting twenty six, and I don't think
you're getting twenty eight. And I know you're not getting thirty,
and you're We're really gonna ask a lot of you
on defense because Lebron's the best passer on the team
(50:18):
and the guy that where the age has shown up
with Lebron is the ability to give it. You're all
on both ends of the court consistently. Now, maybe because
of the other offense they have, Lebron can rest more
on offense and help more on defense like he was
(50:40):
with the Lakers late in the year, But still Lebron's
the best point person on that team. What Lebron gives
them in addition to being one of the fifteen best
players in the league and he's playing for the minimum,
and in addition to stepping into the starting lineup for
Dean Wade, who is actually useful and important for the
(51:01):
Sixers team because he's a true role player. What Lebron
gives them the versatility of I could see situations where
in games Embiid misses, Lebron is the sinner. And I
(51:23):
could also see a lot of time when it beds
out there when Lebron is the point guard. And so
I I think Maxi's gonna be fine. MAXI loves Lebron
(51:45):
that you know. Maxi's throw about this. I actually think
Embid's gonna be fine. Embiid's made all the money, he's
won an MVP. The only he just has this big,
you know, Scarlett letter on his of MVPs to never
be in the finals. Nash Rose, Embiid Rose's career got
(52:11):
derailed by injury. Nash was on a bunch of teams
that were so close enough. What ifs MVPs to never
be in a conference finals, it's just Embiid. Embiid just
needs a great playoff run. And I do think he
and Bron have a relationship from the Olympics. I think
it's very good for the Lakers that Edgecombe is going
(52:34):
into year I'm sorry for the Sixers is going into
year two instead of year three because you can't get
paid after year two. Even you get average forty a game,
they can't pay you after year two. So he's not
really it's not like, you know, he's a year away
from really being a year away from the contract year.
So I think it will work. And I think the
(53:03):
upgrade from Paul George to Jalen Brown, and the upgrade
from Dean Wade with respect to Lebron James, and the
natural upgrade of Edgecombe from year one to year two
and Maxie, who's already a superstar or superstar adjacent and
(53:26):
you know, slightly improves every year, combined with the seeming
impossibility to defend a championship in the modern NBA and
the loss of Mitchell Robinson, tilts the East to where
the Sixers are the favorite. I know right now, you
(53:50):
know they are on hard rock, tied with the Knicks
both at plus three point fifty. I think they will
end up being a slightly better than the better odds
than the Knicks or worse Utsminnario. Looking at it, I
think they will be the favorite. I think this is
(54:14):
going to work, and I think that this is a
team that can win a playoff series without Embeid playing. Now,
the East versus West part of it will get to
(54:35):
in a moment, because it's very the East is better
than the West, but the two most two of the
three most dominant teams play in the West, so it's
it's kind of tricky and how you look at it.
We'll get to that in a moment. But hard Rock
Bet has a bunch of you know, Lebron specials up
(55:00):
will Lebron score. Let's just talk about the Sixers ones first.
Their win total is set at fifty and a half.
I like the over. I think this will be more
a fifty I don't know, fifty four win team fifty
five wins is plus two to twenty five. So if
(55:23):
I think they're gonna win fifty four, if I'm getting
plus two to twenty five, I guess that's a bet
for me. If I'm setting it at fifty four and
you get two point twenty five to one at fifty five, yeah,
I like that. Sixty wins plus seven hundred. No, Will
Lebron score thirty five in any game is minus seven hundred. No,
that's not a bet. Will Lebron score forty in any game?
(55:51):
That's plus one fifty, Now that's a more fun one.
Lebron last year score or thirty six once and other
than that never scored above thirty one. However, the year
before last, if you remember, like Ad went down, they
(56:13):
traded for Luca. Luca was still hurt. Lebron had one, two, three,
six thirty five plus point games, five games of thirty
eight plus and two forty point games. I think plus
one fifty is probably about the right odds. So I
wouldn't do that. Lebron to average eighteen points per game
(56:40):
minus one fifty, yeah, I would take that bet. I
Lebron to averaged twenty points is plus two hundred. That's
an interesting one. He's averaged at least twenty six six
(57:02):
every year of his career. Did he do it as
a rookie? No, so he averaged twenty one as a rookie,
but not the six and six. He's averaged twenty six
and six minimum for twenty two straight years. And you
know he had averaged at least he averaged twenty five
(57:23):
plus for twenty straight years. Uh, maybe nineteen points per
game at plus one ten. I kicked those around, But
I do want to talk about East West, and then
I want to talk about We've done it somewhat, but
(57:44):
we haven't touched on the single biggest loser in this
entire thing. And it's not the Warriors, and it's not
the Calves, and it's not the heat. It's probably not
who you think. But first, Boost Mobiles proving you don't
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plan as of January twenty twenty six. For full offer details,
visit boost mobile dot com. So look. Seven of the
top eleven teams goring to the finals, odds are in
the East, and so the question is if you want
to win a ring, was moving to the East a
good or a bad idea? So the argument in favor
(58:53):
of going east would be dating back to two thoy ten,
Lebron has played twenty five series against Eastern Conference teams
and he is carry the one twenty five and up,
(59:16):
so that's good. The other argument for going east is
unless you think you can be the number one seed
in the West, and whether he'd gone to the Warriors
(59:36):
or the Nuggets, and again, I never thought of Minnesota's
real possibility. Those teams were not built and would not
even be trying to be the number one seed. You
have to be OKC and San Antonio just to get
to the finals. And so while the East has I
(01:00:00):
think a higher number of legit quality teams, I think
the chance of getting to the finals is higher for
Lebron at this point in his career. So listen, the
Knicks are going to be awesome, awesome again. The Celtics
are going to be better than people expect, even though
(01:00:22):
they lost Jelen Brown. Detroit won't be as good as
they were last year, but they're gonna be good. The Calves.
I'll never believe in the Calves in the playoffs, but
they're gonna be solid. Atlanta's really going for it, and
you know they are better with the moves. Shout out
Sam Presty. The Spurs have future Hawks picks, and so Presty,
(01:00:44):
when he had to unload quality players for salary reasons,
shuffled them to the Hawks to make the Hawks better.
Hurt the Spurs pick. I love it, but the Hawks
are gonna be good. The Raptors pending Kawhi Leonard could
be good. The Heat now have Yans. We have not
(01:01:05):
even mentioned the Pacers or the Magic. So like, yes,
there's nine quality teams in the Eastern Conference. I still
think going to the East gives Lebron a better chance
of making the finals. And then you make the finals,
(01:01:27):
see what the hell happens because even though I don't listen,
but aside from the Spurs and the Thunder, you might
list I mean, well, the odds are of the teams
with the eleven best final odds, seven of them are
(01:01:49):
or championship outs, seven of them are in the East. Some
of that is polluted by how good the Thunder and
the Spurs are so that depresses the rest of the
conference's finals odds. But I think thunder Spurs, Nuggets are
the only teams I would have in the top eight,
(01:02:09):
So I would have five of the top eight teams
in the East. So I want to talk about the
biggest loser on this. Some people think it's the Warriors.
It is not the Warriors. I did a long piece
(01:02:33):
a couple of weeks ago about how I think the
Warriors did step a disservice by not doing more post
that last championship to just keep going for it, and
how frustrating it is if you're a fan of a
team and you have legitimately one of I'll Bee, you know,
(01:02:54):
one of the fifteen greatest players ever and he's still
awesome and you're not always going for So we've spent
time talking about that. They are not the biggest loser
of this for two reasons. One is they didn't do
anything to like try to get Lebron other than they
just hoped you would pick them. And the other one
is even with Bron, I don't think that team's winning
(01:03:15):
the championship. The Cavs just made a conference finals. They
were fine running it back the moment they traded for
James Harden, they and you know, made some type of
agreement about what type of deal he would get in
the offseason. They were fine running it back the Heat.
People are calling the Heat huge losers. The Heat got
(01:03:36):
Giannis this offseason. They're not huge losers. They're huge winners.
They're just a couple transaction cycles away from being able
to win a championship. I do think the Celtics the
sliding doors moment of we could have turned Jalen Brown
(01:03:57):
into Giannis in instead, we turned him into Paul Georgian
picks and that was a big domino in Lebron being
in the back in the conference is a bummer for them,
but they're not the biggest loser either. The biggest loser
of this entire process, beyond a shadow of a doubt,
(01:04:21):
is the Los Angeles Lakers, and that is because their
inability to, whether you think this is right or wrong,
(01:04:46):
properly publicly and privately, respect that Lebron James saved the
damn franchise led to a scenario where Lebron James was
(01:05:08):
willing to play for the league minimum, but not for them.
Every single move that the Lakers made this offseason, re
signing Austin, trading for Walker Kessler, adding some athleticism, bringing
in Quinton Grimes. So you guys know how much I
(01:05:29):
like you. None of those would have been any harder
or impossible or not tenable. You could have done all
of that and still brought Lebron back for what the
(01:05:51):
Sixers just got him for, and instead the Lakers And
it all started with that article in February that Lebron
was asked about in front of his locker, where sources
close to Janie Buss and the Lakers are excited for
(01:06:12):
the lebroni or to be over, you know, not even
subtweeting him, just you know, anonymous sourcing about basically how
they thought he should have been more grateful and about
how exhausting it had been and how they need to
turn the team over to Luca. And by the way,
(01:06:33):
turning the team over to Luca is totally understandable. So
the way to do that and keep an all NBA
caliber guy on the minimum, and instead they couldn't wait
for the lebroni or to be over. Couldn't wait. Okay,
(01:06:56):
you're seventeen to one to win the conference. You're thirty
five to one to win the title. And my money
is on with respect to Walker Kessler and with respect
Austin Reeves. So you guys know how much I like that.
In three years, three years from today, if we were
to say, hey, stack the best individual seasons by teammates
(01:07:21):
of Luca on the Lakers, the single best individual season
any teammate Luca has had or will have had over
the next three years will have been his first one
with Lebron. The Lebron's first season with Luca will be
the best teammate season. And his son is still on
(01:07:44):
the team and they're gonna need him. This year. He
did a podcast with the coach. They just won a
playoff series on his back and for some reason or another,
and I have my own personal thoughts as to why,
and it is not about a jealousy of Luca. Luca
(01:08:04):
a guy that go Check Lebron's appearance years ago on
Ali Clifton and Richard Jefferson and Channing Fry's road Trip
and Pod when Lebron revealed that the only player he
ever tried to sign to as a Lebron shoe athlete
was Luca. How much he loves like Luca's favorite player
(01:08:27):
ever was Lebron, model of his game after Lebron, So
it's not about a jealousy about Luca, but a team
that in the five years before Lebron got there, of
the thirty teams in the league, was thirtieth in wins,
thirtieth in winning percentage, was in the Stone Wilderness that
(01:08:51):
Lebron chose, then helped get Anthony Davis delivered him a championship.
Then Anthony Davis helped get them. Luka Ancic that that
team was telling everyone who would listen what a pain
in the ass Lebron is. They now saw him that
he's willing to move across the country to a team
he's never played with to play for the league minimum,
(01:09:15):
and he wouldn't do that for you. So far and away,
the biggest loser of this whole thing is the Lakers,
and I hate it because you guys know how much
I love Luca. Also, sidebar, little bonus thing that nobody
(01:09:42):
has been thinking about or discussing or whatever, so that
just abomination should have never happened. The sign of everything
that's that's wrong with the NBA. The Lakers spending the
(01:10:02):
fifty fifth overall pick on a former top fifteen prospect
who had a cardiac arrest in college, kind of throw
off his freshman year, who's twenty one years old, Bronnie James.
Now his dad's not there. They're just cutting him since
it was such a joke. Or is Bronnie James on
(01:10:26):
a second round contract league minimum for a team that
needs defense and athleticism actually useful. I don't know. Lebron's
not there making you do something anymore. Do whatever you want,
because go ahead and put me down as someone that
(01:10:49):
believes this year on the Lakers when you have and
I'm pulling it up because I don't want to leavenybody.
They made a bunch of moves Luca Austin Kessler, Grimes,
mam ou as you know your five biggest salaries, but
(01:11:13):
those won't be your five starters. Mom, who's your backup center?
And then you're too you know, Oh, Grimes is gonna
be really good for them. Tible will play. They hope
La Ravia was a disaster last year. We'll see they
brought Sexton will definitely play a lot. Bronnie James will
(01:11:39):
play for them this year, making a couple million bucks
and all the folks who were arguing, no, no, no,
that's only happening and maybe he was drafted because of Lebron,
but oh, the only reason he's stilling the rosters because Lebron, Well,
Bron's on the roster anymore. So I guess we'll see
(01:12:01):
Lebron's on the sixers. I am in about nine hours
going to a card game that hopefully will pay for,
you know, the first deposit on the season tickets I'm
gonna end up getting. It's really unbelievable, and I think
(01:12:30):
before it's all said and done, he's gonna win a championship. There.
Talk to you guys on Thursday. Seeon with Colin in
about an hour. What's right, man,
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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