April 1, 2026 • 40 mins
March Madness is delivering, and Breanna Stewart and Myles Turner are breaking it all down. From the biggest moments on both the men’s and women’s sides to unforgettable college workout stories, the duo dives into what makes this time of year so special. Myles also shares his early pick for the No. 1 selection in the NBA Draft.
They spotlight players who are proving they have real “Game” this tournament, including Hannah Hidalgo and Darius Acuff Jr. before Stewie delivers a deep dive into the new WNBA CBA. From retired player compensation to the new EPIC exception for young stars, she explains why this deal is so meaningful for the future of the league.
Plus, Myles gives his pick for NBA MVP, they react to potential NBA expansion in Seattle and Las Vegas, and wrap things up with Stewie’s major free agency news, and Myles’ latest LEGO build.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm gonna just set the record straight here. I will
be staying in New York. I'm not I'm not planning
on taking any free agency meetings even though I am
undrestricted free agent. My family is set up here. We're
solid here, exactly. Bring that statue of liberty right out here.
I'm gonna be back in New York and and that's
all there is to it.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Welcome to Game Recognized Game. I'm Miles Turner. I love
your Nbavit Center for the Milwaukee Bucks. Joined by my
co host, three time WBA champion Brehanna Stewart. So he's
back from the CBA meetings and ready to give us
all the details. I just got done with the game,
so and we on and popping. That's up.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Honestly, we haven't recorded together in a while. You've been
You've been holding it down.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
So shout out to you, man, you too, mano them
CBA negotiations are really important, you know. So I actually
just saw you were on the View and that's a
big deal. Man. You know, boys, we grew up Washington View.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Man.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I got sisters, my mother, my grandmother, they all love
the show. So you didn't any sleep. I mean, that
was the whole experience.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I'm not finally getting sleep. I think that you know,
that whole week of CBA negotiations was absolutely nuts. And
we'll dissect into it a little bit more, but it
was like twelve fourteen hour days. You know, I'm like
in an office for twelve fourteen hours talking about like
things that lawyers talk about, and I'm just like, what
is happening, but really happy that we're on the other
(01:27):
side of it. Obviously, to be able to celebrate that
with my teammates players at the w and go on
the view, you know, that was cool.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
That's all real. Man. You can add a lawyer to
the resume for sure, for sure of all the other accomplishments,
because it's just from afar. Man, I think it's amazing
that you guys got a structure in place, you know,
for these for these women coming up in the league
over the next few years. And I'm glad that you know,
there is some real structure. But you know, we'll get
to that. Man. We got a great show today. Man,
we're gonna talk a little March madness. You know, Texas Yukon,
they're both rolling right now. On the women's side. Man,
(01:58):
I'm happy for him.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
My Huskies, My Huskies, they keep going. We're also going
to talk more about the CBA. But also Connecticut Sun
has just been sold for three hundred million dollars, so
we have to figure that out. Talk about that and
see see how you're feeling, Miles, because you know another
team's coming to Texas.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
And yeah, out of Texas man. You know, I'm a
Dallas boy by Trey, but you know, our rocks to Houston, man,
So I'm happy for them. You know, that's that was
a dynasty, you know before it even went to you know,
got rid of the team down in the comments, so
that it's gonna be pretty cool. I'm happy for the
for the city. And then of course, as y'all know,
we're gonna go off the court, we're gonna talk about
our our parents in cornering from Stuie's side of things,
(02:37):
and you know, give you all a little insight into
my life. Things I got going on too. As we
alluded to, you know, we're in the middle of March madness.
You won four titles in four years at Yukon, something
that I don't think will ever be done again in
my opinion. Uh, do you get you know flashbacks. You
know this time of the year, you know when you
see U complain.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Honestly, I think not as many Geno flashbacks as when
it was like the preseason or the beginning of the year.
That's when he was the toughest. I feel like when
we got to March, that's when you get to just
like play and be yourself and really you know you're
building for this moment. So I'm really excited for Yukon.
There's the men play Duke and the women played Notre
Dame in the Led eight.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
But that's kind of what we were talking about with Geno. Man, Like,
I personally have seen him from Afar. You know, I've
respected his ascension, I've respected you know, the way he's
able to get the best you know, from his from
his teams. But you can speak to it personally, man,
like how does he keep winning? Like, like, what's up?
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Honestly, he's just recruiting the best, you know, He's recruiting
the best people to come in there and really make
an impact. But like even the other day I saw
stat it was thirty two straight sweet sixteens. That's nuts,
Like thirty two in a row is crazy, But it
just shows like he's doing something right with the program
and obviously all the other coaches there and making it
(03:52):
consistent between the players coming in and how they're how
they're getting better, and how they're you know, going out.
Obviously we had to collab with a Z and she's
probably gonna be the number one pick.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, might win it all too at this point. That's so,
that's so far bro. Like I said, there's not a
lot of coaches with that same stability across any sport,
you know, at that you know, his dominance has been
something that's been cool to study. Okay, so you've played
at the highest level at every single championship game if
there is to play. So let's kind of compare them.
(04:22):
You know, what's the difference between the NCAA Tournament, WBA
Playoffs and the Olympics.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Oh, it's tough. I think that the NCAA tournament is
it's winner go home. You know, it's one game to
to advance. I think that that's where w playoffs is
different because you're in a series. You know, if you
drop one, as you know with the NBA, you drop one,
it's all right, You're going to get it back the
next one and like get the series back on your side.
(04:48):
With the NCAAA, with the Olympics, you only got one
shot and if you don't get it right, you're gonna
be out. So so that's the biggest pressure thing, is
like there's no opportun for a second chance or like
an opportunity to fix it right.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
And that makes sense. I think that the argument is
always that, like it's really hard to beat a team
four times in a row or four times or three
times or whatever your series may be. Or is it
a pressure of just winning one game? So I don't
I mean, I think it kind of is a it's
a very subjective question to me because again, like I've
obviously been through it, and like you know, of course,
(05:23):
if you lose one game, you know it's over with.
That's one way of putting it. But it's like, damn,
I gotta do this three more times, you know, Like
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
I know, I think one game, anything can happen. And
like I'm sure you guys say the same thing as
what we say. It's like, well, they're not going to
beat us three times in a row. You know, if
you're in a series, they can't beat us three times
in a row and sometimes they do. Uh, but but
still you just keep telling your mental side like all right,
it's not going to happen.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Of course, man, we'll speaking of just you know, losing
on just crazy feasts and just one and done. Man,
the tournament's been dope this year. I don't know what
the magic is in March every single year, you know,
guys are just and the women are just hitting buzzer beaters.
But we obviously saw Duke last night against LSU and
Ashton Jackson shot, man, that was well a well drawn
up play. I'll get that ex's and owis ut a ato,
(06:08):
but that shot is like as poetic as it gets.
The ball was on the rim at zero point zero seconds.
It's spun around the rim for a little bit and
went down in dramatic fashion to send you know, a
powerhouse home. And what were your thoughts there?
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Oh, honestly super exciting. Obviously shout out to Kara Lawson,
she's our next Olympic head coach, so really rooting for her.
But Ashton Jackson like this is this is where you
want to be your best and for her, like it
wasn't an easy look like she had to shot fake
dribble to get its law like off her, and she
still was able to knock it in. So, like you said,
(06:43):
March is where you know people shine their brightest, and
Duke Duke Women's is one of one of many teams.
I feel like all I've been seeing is buzzer beaters.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Honestly, No, that sound real, man, I said, I love
this time of the year.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Man, What did you think about Texas? I feel like
they gave Texas Men's. They gave a strong put. You know,
they play, they had to play in the plane. You
know what I'm saying. They were far. They won like
three in a row, like from the playing.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
That's tough, I know, man, I know, it's just fresh emotions.
I was really happy for Sean miller Man because he
he recruited me when he was at Arizona, and I
think he's someone who is really good at his job.
He's someone who's unfortunately, you know, he got caught up
in that FBI probe a few years ago, so he
kind of got sanctioned, you know, wasn't able to you know,
really play or a play out the way that he
(07:27):
wanted to. But he's got another chance at a very
big University at Texas, and I'm so happy to be
proud for those boys, man, because they they had a
very up and down season. I think they they struggled
a lot, you know, defensively and shooting the ball from
the outside. But they were going to do both of
those things when it mattered most. You know, they had
that playing the game against you know, inca state, you know,
got that taking care of it whatnot. Then they are
able to come in and they wanted the first around
(07:50):
of sixty four. Who they beat, I know they beacon Zaggons.
In the round thirty two? Who they beat sixty four?
Speaker 1 (07:55):
B Yu they beat b Yu.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
B Yu. You're right, b Yu, And that, of course,
how can I forget that? You know, they got the
potential number one pick on their side at devin Asta,
So that was a very impressive win. But no shout
to their players, man, because you know, Pope played really well,
you know, off that broken foot. I liked his game
through throughout the year. He's a great shooter, he's really
good coming off action. And obviously, you know them as
a team, it was just kind of they were just
(08:19):
kind of like a band of brothers, man. They really
stuck together. It all and you know, made a great run.
So I'm having them to run it back next year.
I don't know what the hell's gonna happened. I was
in il Stuf. Who's gonna be there? Who's not? Right?
Still rock with them?
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Nonetheless, you know what's crazy? It is like why are
so many people playing with broken like having broken feet.
Caleb Foster for Duke, he broke his foot and then
three weeks later he came back and played last night.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Yeah, that's right, you're right, that's a good call, good show.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
You don't know what break, what kind of break they had,
but like, still you're using your foot every single time
you're on the court.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
I just think that college is such a different grind, bro, Like,
you know, they try to kill you in college. They
really try to stick it to your creven with all
the conditioning, the weight the weight rooms and you got
some people going through Navy Seal trainings and whatnot like it.
It's different. So I think the intensity and the load
that these college players have nowadays is so much different.
Then we'll be kind of a do here in the
NBA because their games are damn near their practices whennot
(09:17):
every single day. Yeah, not straight up, you know, I
know them women go through it as well.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
What was your like, what was your worst uh like
college workout experience. I feel like offseason we had like
the six ams. We had like some crazy stuff, and I.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Was, yeah, so I loved our strength coach. His name
is coach Todd Wright Man a shout out man. He's
he's one of the real He's one of the real
ones in my life. At least, you know, he with
the think it's with the clippers now or whatever he's doing.
But uh, yeah, No, we had our six ams, and
I was used to working hard, you know what I'm saying.
I came in through high school, you know, putting myself
to the ringer, getting ready for the next level. But
(09:54):
this is a different level of hardware. So we would
get up and we'd be right outside the doors, and
we had to run two miles right and you have
to make you know, a certain amount of time. I
think it was like fourteen minutes or something like that.
So then after that, you know, you go to class,
but then you still have the weight room right after
the classes and whatnot. And the weight room was where
the boys really became men, you know, I couldn't give
you the specific workouts that we did, but then you
(10:15):
do the weight room and then during practice, coach Brick
Barnes had what he would call the circus. The circus
is basically like a punishment, like a punishment like little segment.
It was like Jacob's ladder. We had to get down
in the versa climber. You know, there was a whole
bunch of different stuff over there. And it's always thinking
was if you're acting a clown, I'm gonna send your
ass to the circus. So if he was bucking up
around practice and all the type of stuff, he would
(10:36):
put us through these crazy like workouts whatn't on the side,
But this would all be during the same day, so
I didn't have one crazy just one workout. It was
just accumulation of work in a day that was like
crazy for me personally.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Yeah, we used to have these like off season six ams.
We had like our strength person at the time was Kimball,
Amanda Kimball, and same thing, like she really set us
up to succeed and like get condition and better than
any other team. But we had these like off season workouts. Uh,
it was like with Marines or something. Like that, and
like I just remember, like we we would be like
(11:12):
army carrying like people like over our shoulders like down
and back, and it's just like.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Oh my god, this is just like a.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Test of strength, no, like mental toughness at this point,
because you're never caring anything like that on the basketball court,
Like no, you.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Know, It's the crazy thing, is I fuck with the mentality,
you know what I mean, because of course you're never
gonna do on the court. But it's like having your
sister's back, having your brother's back literally and figurally, you
know what I mean. It's just the different experience colleges man,
to say the least, because you're not asking, you know,
these professionals to do anything like that.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
The amount of times I did like a Olympic lifting
in college and like I have not done it since,
I have not done it since being a pro, Like,
we just do not do that.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
That's real, man, for all college athletes listening, man, this
is your forever, man, keep going, keep going. It's ain't
your fore.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Okay, Miles, this is something that I've been wondering. Obviously,
there's gonna be someone and done's there's some hype around
the kid from Byu and the kid from Kansas. They
both got knocked out early. So like, what's the comparison
to who's going to be number one? Is it gonna
be Boozer from Duke? Like how how is this gonna go?
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Well, the experience of being a one and done is
actually really cool. You know. I myself, I got knocked
out the ternament early as well. I got knocked out
in the first round against Butler, and they got drafted
Indiana of all places, and had to you know, just
live to see all that. But anyways, it really all
depends on the draft lottery coming up, the NBA Draft lottery,
because different teams had different needs. You know, I think
(12:41):
that Utah they really could use a big wing that
they if they have someone like Asian Demnosta, you know,
I mean, that would be a big pick up for them.
I can't see if you saw a number one pick,
I can't see them like picking Camera Boozer because he's
like a different type of player than Dimyonstas. I personally
like Camera Boozer a lot Washington played this year. I
think that he's got a very he's got a grown
(13:02):
man's game, a grown man's body, and he can come
to a situation where he can kind of take over
right away. So say, like I don't know, the Washington
Wizards end up with like the number one pick, or
even like the Indiana Pacers, they they need another wing
and whatnot as well, you know, with the departure in
my opinion of been bathrooms. So different teams have different needs,
and you know, the process will be very interesting see
(13:22):
how shakes out, because what happens is these number one picks,
these teams, they only bring in a certain amount of
guys during the draft process. Right during your draft workouts.
I personally worked out for eleven teams or ten to
eleven teams, and that's a lot for a lottery pick.
You know, I got drafted number eleven to the Indiana Pacers,
and typically you only do like three or four workouts.
(13:42):
But what I can see these guys doing, like the
you know, the kid, the kid from Kansas Peterson and whatnot.
Like I can see him just doing two workouts and
he'll do it for the top two teams, you know,
and then the teams have to make a decision from there.
You know, I think it's a it's gonna be very
insightful you know what they do. What people don't realize
and talk about an en is the talent is one thing. Nowadays,
(14:03):
these guys want to draft quality kids, quality kids that
have quality families, kids that are going to come to
the organizations and you know, take the quality of you know,
what they're bringing. You know, they want to guys that
are come in and be philanthropists in the city. They
want guys that are gonna connect with the fans. They
want guys that are going to come in and to
be leaders in the locker room. So your talent can
(14:24):
only take you so far this day and age in
the NBA. You know, you have to be a quality
human at that as well. And I know that's you
know where a lot of scouts you know tell me
is that you know what they're looking for. You know,
it's never just about the talent anymore. So it'll be
very interesting in the way it all shakes out. You know,
someone like Camera boos Or, in my opinion, has an advantage.
You know, his father played in the NBA. He knows
the process, he knows what it's like to you know,
be a top pick. So we'll see how it all
shakes up.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
It'll be spicy.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Facts facts so interesting enough. You know, I'm not sure
if you still do this, but every now and then
I'll mess around. Do you still fill out of brackets?
You know for fadness?
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah? I filled out too much. It's men's of women's.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Okay, that's up. How's it going?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
So it's like not perfect. I actually did this thing
with Reesis, so shout out to Rees's and they were
like a perfect bracket. There's never been a perfect bracket.
So I was like, I'm gonna be perfect for the
men's side. The first game, like, mess me up. I
had TCU. TCU beat Ohio State or something or vice
(15:27):
versa whatever, whoever won that game. I had the other one.
But both my brackets are doing good because I got
Ukon winning in both. So we're in eight. We're gonna
do some work. Did you do one?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Of course I always fell out of bracket. I always
just do one just to do it. I never really
do it much. But I saw Calshi this year. They
came out and was like we'll give a billion dollars,
like would it be to anybody that can fill out
a perfect bracket? And I had that same mindset. I
was like, well, if anybody knows ball, this is me.
I'm gonna do it. You know, by the first two
days you just hits busted up. So yeah, North Carolina, Man,
(15:58):
they fucked me over the look, but it's okay, you know,
you know, should we live on?
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (16:04):
You got to just in the spirit of you know,
the competition. I had, well, I had Arizona winning in
one of the brackets, and then then I always do
upset bracket too, and an upset bracket I think I
had like I don't even remember at this point. Yeah,
well I had Texas going to the final four and
you know they got close.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah, but Arizona's still and so you're good.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah, no, no, undoubtedly Arizona, like they just I'm not
gonna lie. I haven't watched them play this year. That's
all their number one seed and you know they barely lost.
I was like, you know what, this looks good. I
like the Colors.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Don't let Richard Jefferson hear that. I had to hear
too much about Arizona.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Mmm, sound about right. You know he's talking to shit.
It's all good. We'll just kind of speaking of like
March and we'll wrap it up with this one. Like,
who are some breakout players? You know, I mean on
the women's side, you know that you've seen or a
breakout player that's just kind of you know, I guess
that you like that, you've like watched so far.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Some breakout players. I mean, obviously from Yukon, Sarah Strong
is doing what she does. She's National Player of the
Year for a reason. I think that other players that
that really, I mean Hannah Hidalgo, especially after the last game,
like she almost had a quadruple double, like you said
earlier in the show, so you can't not pick her.
(17:16):
I'm trying to. I feel like, in my mind, I'm
only on this side of the bracket, so I'm trying
to think about what's over here. We got U C.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
L A.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Lauren Betts, She's doing she's doing her.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah, I like watching her play.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
M Who's down here? Michigan, Oh, Texas Madison Booker Like
I'm a fan?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Oh yeah, we know that. And who you got from
the men's uh well, obviously one of the men's side
so far has been the little guard from Arkansas, Darius
Darius Acuff. Like he's a he's an explosive. He's been
really fun to watch and it's something about John Calipari
guards man, he just finds a way just to find
your raw and hitting talent. And you know, I think
he did a great job, you know, this year, this
(18:01):
year at all, you know, he was SET Player of
the Year, SEC Freshman of the Year. He took on
a lot of honors. And I'm curious, you know, what's
going to shake off for him in the draft process,
because you know, we need you always hear about small
guards and how that shakes out. But I think that
he has an NBA level of scoring talent, So we'll
see how that goes there. And then honestly, I got
to give a big shout out to the kid from Texas,
man Tremont Tremont Mark. You know, he started the University
(18:22):
of Houston. I was familiar with his game, but he
really stepped up this year. Man. He hit some big shots. Uh, Lefty,
you know, he's playing really well. Uh. He was a
kind of an isolation scorer as well. You know for Texas.
He hit the I think he hit the big shot
against inc State, you know, that synth them there. And
then he was very consistent overall. I think he had
like twenty nine points or twenty five points whatever it
was against the Purdue who they just played. So I
(18:45):
hope I wish the best for him in his future.
I think he's a senior. I'm not sure what's like,
you know, what's up for him, but you know, it
was really fun Washington play as well.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Also earlier on one of our earlier shows, I think
you shouted out the kid from Tennessee. They're still going,
uh Nate Amont.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah, Nate, Nate of mine.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yeah, yeah, they're still doing their thing too.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I've seen somewhere randomly, just off the court that he's dating,
like the jazzy Davidson girl from usc Like that's fire. Yeah,
she could play too.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Yeah, Yeah, Jazz's good. Jazz is tough her and you
gonna be back next year making making it tough on everybody.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Facts. All right, y'all, Well, it's a time for a
quick break. When we come back, we'll get into the
new w n B A c B A. Please rate,
review and subscribe to Game Recognized Game with Stuary Miles
wherever you get your podcast. Welcome back to Game Recognized Game.
(19:49):
And man, I've been waiting to talk about this. You know,
we haven't linked up at about a month now, you've been
so busy, and congratulations by the way, WNBA CBA, you
know again, you played a very integral role in getting
that done, you and the rest of the w NBA
Players Association and their counselors. For the fans who don't
fully understand it, why does a new CBA matter so much,
you know, for the future of the WNBA and just
women's sports in general.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Yeah, so a new CBA matters so much because now
we're a part of a rep share and as you
know in the NBA, like that's a big deal. And
for us, where we net it out, exactly where we
net it out is we have the SBR, which is
the Shared Basketball Revenue, and we're now getting twenty percent
of all revenue that comes in and that's going to
(20:31):
stay throughout the entire term of the CBA. And as
the revenue goes up, the players get more money and
vice versa. So I think it's what's really cool now
is we're in a partnership. We're literally you know, as
the league grows, the players grow and vice versa. And
it's like real money, you know, it's not like a
(20:53):
hard cap. It's not something that's just you know, lower salary.
The super max is not two fifty like it was
in the previous one. That's like that's lower than the
men at this point, like men's are higher than that
when and I'm really excited about what's to come.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Nice, I'm glad to hear it, man. I just it
makes you think of players like you know, Page Beckers
or like you know, Cap mc clark's, the younger players
coming in the league. They're really going to see the
full benefit, you know, something like that, you know, just
because if their their franchise changing players. So that's amazing
that you were able to get it done for them,
you know, for real.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Absolutely, I mean, I think one thing I can say
about them is you know, their salaries are going to
get bumped up, so they're going to make like way
more than they were in the previous CBA. But also
those players specifically will fall under this epic rule basically
like the Derrick Rose rule that if you get MVP
(21:47):
or All first, All first w NBA, All first team
and whatever, you can get bumped up to that supermax
right away after after your third rookie season, you know
what I mean, So you sign an extension and that
extension is already bumping you up to the supermax. So
that's really exciting for them.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
That's big time. That's big time. Man. Do you think
that like this will keep players like here more domestically
or do you think more and more women are going
to go overseas and continue to keep pursuing, you know,
their basketball careers over there as well.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I mean, I think more players are going to be here.
I think that the money is going to be exactly
what you want. Like, like I was saying, the vetmin
is like a little bit under three hundred thousand, you know,
so that's the lowest that anybody can make here. Also,
there's two new teams coming into place, so there's twenty
(22:39):
four more spots now. Aside from that, big Toronto and
Portland have the expansion draft like coming up this week.
Aside from that, each team gets two spots for player
development players. So like how you guys have two way,
we get like spots where we can actually develop them
and make them adjust because the hardest part is one
(23:00):
players get drafted and then there's training camp. There's not
enough time for them to develop to the W game
and we can kind of you know, hold on to
them a little bit longer and help them.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Wow, I didn't know that. That's that's a huge shout
out right there. That's big time because now, you're right,
people don't realize that at all. It's such a big
difference between amateur level basketball jumping to the professional level
and you have to have an adjustment period many so
in an NBA they call it the rookie wall that
everybody goes through, and I guess the women's side you
can't afford to go through the rookie wall, like you
literally just have to like push on. So that's huge
(23:30):
that you guys get those those two spots.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Yeah, I'm excited about that.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah. So one thing that I you know, personally, I
guess resonate with and I'm proud of is the fact
that there's back pay, you know, form retire players as well.
You know, I think that's something in our NBA CBA
that was very important, you know, for the older generation
of players. And you know, you know, you hear so
many countless stories of athletes going broke when they're done
(23:56):
being professional athletes. And you know, even if it's just
a little right now, you know, setting up in the future,
like explain how important that was in your negotiations.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah, I mean, we wanted to make sure that we
had a way to really show former players how much
they meant to this league because the w is only
thirty years young, and while they didn't get all the
money that they should have when they were playing, we
want to make sure they get something now. So there
is a one time payment to former players, like based
(24:26):
on your years of service. So anybody twelve plus years
of service you get a one time payment of one
hundred thousand. And then from there it's like, wow, eight
to eleven is fifty k, and then five to seven
is thirty K, and it's it's not it's it's not
going to be huge, but it's going to be something,
(24:47):
and in a way where we can make it make
good to our former players. That kind of paved the
foundation to where we are. Another thing that's really cool
is that we have insurance like stipend a refund to
former players where they can get a certain amount paid
back to them for hospital visits or whatever they need
(25:09):
to make sure that they continue to stay healthy.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
That's awesome, man. And again that's stuff that that's little
stuff in the CBA. I just don't think that people
you know, would think about And again, it just made
me proud just to you know, see that part of it.
So that's that's big time. But you know that's what
made me proud. What made you most proud? Like, you know,
during this entire process? You know, I just think that
looking back, y'all really stuck together. All the women were
really united in this. Y'all all had like the same
(25:32):
general message. So what was your most proud moment you
know during this process?
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Yeah, I think my most proud moment was just the
fact that, like you said, you know, we stayed together
while there was some bumps and hurdles along the way,
really understanding what we were fighting for and knowing that
we were fighting for an opportunity to have larger salaries,
have larger cap space, have larger paychecks, meaning the max
(26:00):
the super max will be one point four this year,
the regular max will be one point one. Nice, but
the longevity of that, you know, making sure it's not
just this year, making sure that that is growing incrementally
year after year to the point where this this CBA
is actually the start, and then from there we will
continue to grow to where we need to be, but
(26:23):
we we really had to just kind of fix everything
to get to this point, and that's why it took
so long. That's why we were in there forever, because
we were talking about everything, like literally everything, and trying
to make sure nothing went unnoticed or unchecked, like checking
all the boxes.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Man. That's so real, man. And again you said, this
is a good starting point, which is a good launch pad.
You know, it's what the future league is going to
look like in the landscape of that is like even
when you know we're way done with this, so again,
you've left the league in a really good place. And
you know, I know there's a lot of people out
there saluting you. So it's great. Man. I'm glad to
Steven just be even get like the first insights on
it on the pod Man, it was kind of cool,
(27:00):
just me even kind of getting behind the seas peak
at it. So, you know, I just who knows what
will happened in twenty twenty nine with our CVA, but
you know, at least I got some good hit points.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
I know, I know twenty twenty nine that we're gonna
have to come back on the pod and see what's happening.
If you're a CVA when that comes.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
That's a fact. Man, I'm gonna try and get on
this executive committee, you know, the Players Association and kind
of you know, see what's up. You know again, I
got some great motivation now, so that's good. But yeah, man,
more big news on the w side. You know, I'm
a I'm a very proud and boring to raise Texan
and you know, I kind of came up, you know,
watching you know that dynasty, you know that happened down
to Houston with the comments. You know, they won the
(27:37):
was it three championships like back to back to back,
just they built out something amazing, you know, and then
obviously you got to spand it. But Nika's son have
officially been sold with three hundred million dollars and they're
gonna move back to Houston. And man, I'm honestly get
just excited to see what I'm folds there, you know,
the more opportunity for these ladies. But does that prove
your point, like you know, on the money side of
(27:58):
the game.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
Absolutely. I mean for me, it's a little bit of
a bittersweet thing. Obviously having gone to Yukon knowing that
Connecticut sun is this is going to be their last
season in Connecticut. The fans really appreciate teams going there
and people being there. But to go to Houston, hopefully
they're going to get the same jerseys, Like are they
(28:20):
going to go back to Houston? Comments that will be
fire and really just kind of have that launching padded.
Know that you know, these owners are really going to
take care of this team and bring it to the
level that it needs to be. I think that that's
another thing from the CBA, is we put in minimum
standards in writing, like things cannot be worse than this,
Like this is the lowest, this is the bar. This
(28:42):
is where everything needs to be and it can only
get better from here. So as you know, change and
expansion happened. Sad that it's leaving the East the Northeast,
but excited to see what's going to happen in Texas.
All Right, Myles Bucks officially missed the playoffs today. How
are you feeling? How has the season been for you?
Break it down?
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Man, Well, where do we start? You know, it's been
a very long season. You know, I think that you know,
with ten games left, I've had time to reflect. You know.
I came into the offseason. You know what I mean
with high hopes. You know, I had came off the
NBA Finals last year, and the way this team was orchestrated,
you know, we had a real good chance, you know,
to make some noise this year. But unfortunately we got
caught by the injury bug very early. You know, I
(29:23):
personally have only played like eighteen to twenty games with Giannis,
just me and him both. You know, obviously he was
a big one of the big reasons that I came
to Milwaukee just for that partnership. But he's been dealing
with lingering CAF issues pretty much all year, and that's
they basically had to kind of shut down, you know
what he had going, just because he's just not as
healthy as he could be. Kevin Porter Junior was like
one of our better playmakers in our guards. He went
(29:45):
down the very first game of the season. You know,
we've had Kyle Kuzma went down for like twelve games,
and it's been tough. Man. We haven't had our full
roster the entire year. But one thing about me, man,
I've never been about excuses ever. You know, you we're
all NBA players and we roll the ball out there
You've got to go out there and play. You know,
you know me personally, you know, I'm a guy that
(30:06):
plays and I thrive you know within systems, you know
what I mean. I'm not the guy you're gonna throw
the ball to at the top of the key and
say Mile's gonna get thirty. You know, That's never really
been my game. But I'm a great I'm a great
system player, and I'm really good with my basketball. I
Q what I do and you know, unfortunately share I
just haven't had the right playmaking kind of around me
to unlock, you know, that best part of my game
(30:27):
or make me becoming the best person of myself. So
I honestly really take this year and with the grain
of salt, because it was humbling at that. You know,
I just believe and I believe in higher calling. You know,
I believe that guy you know has me on the path,
and you know, you have to be able to really
experience the lowest of lows to appreciate you know, the
(30:47):
highest and the highst you know that are in my future. So, uh,
this is the first off season, this is the first
off season I'm going to have to myself. You know,
in the past three off seasons to really work on
my body and work on, you know, my game. You know,
obviously going to the finals last year Eastern Conference, Findalens
year before that. You know, your off season is so short,
you only get like a month, But now I get
a real good three to four months just too, you know,
just to focus on me. And I'm excited just for
(31:09):
that opportunity because you know, i just turned thirty years old.
You know, I'm in the prime of my career. I've
signed here for three more years. Yeah thirty club Dady,
thirty thirty. You know, I'm signed here for three more years,
and I know my best basketball you know, he's yet
to come. So organization, we're all going to come trying
to figure out what direction that we're gonna go into.
There's obviously a lot of questions circling Giannis and our
(31:29):
coaching staff and you know, in et cetera. But you know,
I'm very hopeful, you know, for the future. You know,
I know that everything happens for a reason, and you know,
I'm not dejected whatsoever. You know, I'm I'm disappointed, you know,
for the fans, because i know they're expecting a much
different product this year. You know, we obviously get paid
a lot of money to go out there and excute
our jobs at a high level. But there's a lot
of shit that happens in the NBA season. And again,
(31:51):
I've been a soldier through it all. You know, I've
only missed a handful of games myself. I'm playing about
seventy games to share on the eighty two, and I
pride myself on availability, So I'm gonna go out there everything,
just do my job.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Well. I mean, we appreciate you, and I think that,
like you said, the best is yet to come. You're
still in your prime. We're gonna we're gonna keep keep
it pushing. And I like the no excuses, you know.
I think that sometimes throughout the season, like things are
always happening and you just have to you just have
to keep going. You have to keep showing up because
that's how you you create consistently great habits and and
(32:25):
that's what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Yeah, No, it's gonna say, I like what you said
right there. It's about it's about keep showing up. You know,
it's very easy to kind of throw the talents. It's
kind of very easy to kind of roll over, but
that's never really been the way I've been built, you know. Ever,
like I don't I hate the guys that come out
and say, well, coach did this wrong or well, uh,
you know this, this system doesn't work for me. This
is that like you can't make up the excuses. The
fans don't pay to you know, come and watch us
(32:47):
play to see excuses. They come to see results, and
you know, unfortunately the results is weren't you know, as
good as it would have been what I would have
liked it to have been this year. But it's not
discouraged me for the future.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
No, love that can't wait to see it. You got
a lot of time this offseason to work on your
your game and your body. And also we're gonna be
working on podcasts. Okay, that's what we're doing. We're locking
in on pod That's a fact.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I'm in the building, man, I'm in the building. Man.
I just need I just need two weeks of vacation
and that's it. Then I'm back and I'm back at it.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
We can handle that. We can handle that for you,
all right. So question for for you, who's gonna be
n B NBA MVP? Like if you had to decide
today who is it? Because I know, like with the
Miss games and stuff, it's getting tight for everybody, Like
who do you think?
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Man? Well, first, I really thought the ABP this year
was gonna was gonna be K Cunningham. I think it's amazing.
You know what he's been able to do in Detroit.
You know, he's he's gone through the dark days, He's
gone through the hard days in Detroit. You know, of losing.
You know, just two years ago they were to laughing
stock of the league and he's able to really turn that,
turn it around. You know, he's another Dallas kid, you know,
Arlington to be Zach and I root for him for Afar,
(33:51):
but unfortunately know he has he's dealing with that the
lung issue, so he's probably gonna gets the threshold for
those games. At this point, man, I have two guys.
I mean, Shay Gilgas Alexander's always gonna be in a
conversation just because of how consistent he's been and what
he's been able to do with Okac. But Wemby is
my sleeper bro. And the reason why I say Wimby
(34:11):
is the Spurs Again, we're in a very tough position
the past couple of years they've been in they've been
in the lottery, they haven't really been you know, competing
and whatnot. But they're one of the best teams in
the league. Is show. I just played against the Spurs tonight,
you know what I mean? I can say for a
person hand experience, like their system is man like. Offensively,
they execute at such a high level. You know, they
got very good pieces on that side. But Winby is
(34:33):
like spearheading all that, you know what I mean. He's
very tough to guard one on one and we haven't
seen anything like him in our league ever before. And
you know, this could be the year that he gets
his first MVP, So don't be surprised if that happens.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
You heard it here first, next topic that I have
to ask questions about the expansion Seattle Vegas. Like we
think that's coming, what we think, it's inevitable. We've been
waiting for the Sonics since I was in Seattle for
the Sonics to back, and they never came back. So
now of course I'm in New York and Sonics will
come back.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Well, you know, it's crazy. I've actually never been to Seattle,
and I love everything that Seattle's about. I'm a very
outdoorsy kind of guy. I got the little hippie vibe
to me. I enjoy the mountains and like, I've never
actually been, so, you know, I'm hoping that there's an
expansion team that goes on out there. Obviously, Vegas is
great for the business of the league because there's always
so there's so much that goes on in Vegas no
year round, and you put an NBA team out there.
(35:27):
You've seen the success at the you know, within the
Raiders have have with their tickets and whatnot. You' seen
the success that the Oakland's having now or I guess
the Athletics, but you know what i mean, they're in
Vegas as well. So all the other teams around us,
the Aces and the Golden Knights, like all every league
around us has done it, but us, you know, so,
I think the framework is there. I think that you
have to neverly move some teams to the East, like
(35:49):
whether it's Minnesota or Memphis or whatever they do there.
But it's twenty four, honest, no, it's thirty. It's like
thirty more roster spots, you know what I mean. Yeah,
And I'm actually very curious to see what we do
with our expansion draft, because there's gonna be a lot
of like big names that will randomly get moved. I
think the rule is we can protect eight people per roster.
So curiously, that's gonna shake out because that's gonna be
(36:11):
ego play man. That's gonna be an ego play bro.
Imagine being like, you know, three or four time All
Star and like your team does protect you. Now you
get you know, expansion drafted a way, like you know what,
what's that gonna do to you?
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Literally, that's what we're doing this that April third that
happens for us, the expansion draft happens between Toronto and Portland,
and you can only protect five.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Five Wow, that's it. Thirty that's a thirdy Wow, that's crazy. Man,
I can't imagine. But that's gonna be like again, that's
It's cool for the opportunity, but damn man, like you know,
it's like you've what I've done so much in this
league and you're just gonna ship me off like I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
I don't know. I mean for us, it'll be a
little bit more interesting because we have like over one
hundred unrestricted free agents, so basically like unless a team
unless Portland or Toronto grab an unrestricted free agent and
core them, which is like franchise tag them, Like you
could go there, but then you could still leave, like
if you don't want to be there because you're unrestricted,
(37:10):
I don't know, it'll be a whole mess of a nightmares.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
All right, y'all, well we got one more break. Next
up we go off the court and talk about life. Family.
Thank you so much for listening to Game Recognized Game.
Remember please rate, review and subscribe to ever get your podcast.
(37:38):
Welcome back to Game Recognized Game with Studie and Miles
and uh, y'all know what time it is, man, it is.
We're gonna kick it off with our parents in corner
and do the stewie. So speaking of a stewie, you know,
let's talk about just you know, your family and whatnot.
You got free agency coming up, and h you're a
big time for agent, so so can you tell me
a little about the parenting advice for free agency? Like,
you know, when I guess when something like this comes up,
(37:59):
you know, do you gonna have to move? Where are
you gonna stay in your ad Like? How do those
conversations go?
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna just set the record straight here.
I will be staying in New York. I'm not I'm
not planning on taking any free agency meetings, even though
I am unrestricted free agent. My family is set up here.
We're solid here, exactly. Bring that statue of Liberty right
out here. Yeah, I'm gonna be back in New York
(38:24):
and and that's all there is to it. So good
luck to everybody else in free agency. But I'm not.
I'm not a part of that.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Y'all heard it here first man, one of the best
in the league. She stayed to her mark. Shoutut to
New York Man, shout out to New York. That's fire.
You got your free agent.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Exactly, all right, Switching gears a little bit. You just
showed us our statue, statue of Liberty lego. What's your
latest lego? Like people need to know what's the latest drop?
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Yeah, no, I've been working all year long. Man, I'm
gonna do a recap video here pretty soon. But I'll
give you all a little sneak pig. This is the
my latest build I've done. Y'all know I'm a huge
Star Wars fan. This is the Breaker builds Darth Vader
right here. Put these together brick by brick, literally piece
by piece. And this isn't like your normal like Lego
(39:08):
bill because typically, you know, you get the Lego pack,
you get an instruction, man, you put together. These are literally,
like i'll show you break it off, individual pieces that
I had to put together one by one by one.
I forget how many pieces this one is. I think
it's like four thousand or something like that. Someone can
fact check me on that. But this took me about Hey,
(39:28):
I probably took me about like two weeks or so,
but you know it was in the midst of an
NBA season, so yeah, you know, I'm a big Dark
Bata guy, big Star Wars guy, So this was fun
put together. Man, y'all check out a brick or builds.
It's a different than actual Lego lore.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
So yeah, that seems intense. Also for those to have kids,
don't do Lego around your kids or you will lose pieces.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Or your cat. Because my cat just decided to jump
up on the desk the other day and I had
this little globe that I put together. It was a
special globe to me because on the globe there's little
hearts from everywhere Me and my girl ever traveled across
the world. But he decided to say fuck that globe
jumped up on the park and it all fell to
(40:10):
the ground and smashing a bunch of pieces. So I
now build that somehow, some way. Dang yeah, man, it
is what it is. Man. You learn like the hard
way sometimes. All right, you guys, thanks for checking us out.
You know you can be a part of the show.
Send your question to our social channels, leave Thomas on
the YouTube videos, and please subscribe the game recognized game.
(40:33):
We'll see y'all next time.
I'm gonna just set the record straight here. I will
be staying in New York. I'm not I'm not planning
on taking any free agency meetings even though I am
undrestricted free agent. My family is set up here. We're
solid here, exactly. Bring that statue of liberty right out here.
I'm gonna be back in New York and and that's
all there is to it.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Welcome to Game Recognized Game. I'm Miles Turner. I love
your Nbavit Center for the Milwaukee Bucks. Joined by my
co host, three time WBA champion Brehanna Stewart. So he's
back from the CBA meetings and ready to give us
all the details. I just got done with the game,
so and we on and popping. That's up.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Honestly, we haven't recorded together in a while. You've been
You've been holding it down.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
So shout out to you, man, you too, mano them
CBA negotiations are really important, you know. So I actually
just saw you were on the View and that's a
big deal. Man. You know, boys, we grew up Washington View.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Man.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I got sisters, my mother, my grandmother, they all love
the show. So you didn't any sleep. I mean, that
was the whole experience.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I'm not finally getting sleep. I think that you know,
that whole week of CBA negotiations was absolutely nuts. And
we'll dissect into it a little bit more, but it
was like twelve fourteen hour days. You know, I'm like
in an office for twelve fourteen hours talking about like
things that lawyers talk about, and I'm just like, what
is happening, but really happy that we're on the other
(01:27):
side of it. Obviously, to be able to celebrate that
with my teammates players at the w and go on
the view, you know, that was cool.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
That's all real. Man. You can add a lawyer to
the resume for sure, for sure of all the other accomplishments,
because it's just from afar. Man, I think it's amazing
that you guys got a structure in place, you know,
for these for these women coming up in the league
over the next few years. And I'm glad that you know,
there is some real structure. But you know, we'll get
to that. Man. We got a great show today. Man,
we're gonna talk a little March madness. You know, Texas Yukon,
they're both rolling right now. On the women's side. Man,
(01:58):
I'm happy for him.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
My Huskies, My Huskies, they keep going. We're also going
to talk more about the CBA. But also Connecticut Sun
has just been sold for three hundred million dollars, so
we have to figure that out. Talk about that and
see see how you're feeling, Miles, because you know another
team's coming to Texas.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
And yeah, out of Texas man. You know, I'm a
Dallas boy by Trey, but you know, our rocks to Houston, man,
So I'm happy for them. You know, that's that was
a dynasty, you know before it even went to you know,
got rid of the team down in the comments, so
that it's gonna be pretty cool. I'm happy for the
for the city. And then of course, as y'all know,
we're gonna go off the court, we're gonna talk about
our our parents in cornering from Stuie's side of things,
(02:37):
and you know, give you all a little insight into
my life. Things I got going on too. As we
alluded to, you know, we're in the middle of March madness.
You won four titles in four years at Yukon, something
that I don't think will ever be done again in
my opinion. Uh, do you get you know flashbacks. You
know this time of the year, you know when you
see U complain.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Honestly, I think not as many Geno flashbacks as when
it was like the preseason or the beginning of the year.
That's when he was the toughest. I feel like when
we got to March, that's when you get to just
like play and be yourself and really you know you're
building for this moment. So I'm really excited for Yukon.
There's the men play Duke and the women played Notre
Dame in the Led eight.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
But that's kind of what we were talking about with Geno. Man, Like,
I personally have seen him from Afar. You know, I've
respected his ascension, I've respected you know, the way he's
able to get the best you know, from his from
his teams. But you can speak to it personally, man,
like how does he keep winning? Like, like, what's up?
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Honestly, he's just recruiting the best, you know, He's recruiting
the best people to come in there and really make
an impact. But like even the other day I saw
stat it was thirty two straight sweet sixteens. That's nuts,
Like thirty two in a row is crazy, But it
just shows like he's doing something right with the program
and obviously all the other coaches there and making it
(03:52):
consistent between the players coming in and how they're how
they're getting better, and how they're you know, going out.
Obviously we had to collab with a Z and she's
probably gonna be the number one pick.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, might win it all too at this point. That's so,
that's so far bro. Like I said, there's not a
lot of coaches with that same stability across any sport,
you know, at that you know, his dominance has been
something that's been cool to study. Okay, so you've played
at the highest level at every single championship game if
there is to play. So let's kind of compare them.
(04:22):
You know, what's the difference between the NCAA Tournament, WBA
Playoffs and the Olympics.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Oh, it's tough. I think that the NCAA tournament is
it's winner go home. You know, it's one game to
to advance. I think that that's where w playoffs is
different because you're in a series. You know, if you
drop one, as you know with the NBA, you drop one,
it's all right, You're going to get it back the
next one and like get the series back on your side.
(04:48):
With the NCAAA, with the Olympics, you only got one
shot and if you don't get it right, you're gonna
be out. So so that's the biggest pressure thing, is
like there's no opportun for a second chance or like
an opportunity to fix it right.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
And that makes sense. I think that the argument is
always that, like it's really hard to beat a team
four times in a row or four times or three
times or whatever your series may be. Or is it
a pressure of just winning one game? So I don't
I mean, I think it kind of is a it's
a very subjective question to me because again, like I've
obviously been through it, and like you know, of course,
(05:23):
if you lose one game, you know it's over with.
That's one way of putting it. But it's like, damn,
I gotta do this three more times, you know, Like
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
I know, I think one game, anything can happen. And
like I'm sure you guys say the same thing as
what we say. It's like, well, they're not going to
beat us three times in a row. You know, if
you're in a series, they can't beat us three times
in a row and sometimes they do. Uh, but but
still you just keep telling your mental side like all right,
it's not going to happen.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Of course, man, we'll speaking of just you know, losing
on just crazy feasts and just one and done. Man,
the tournament's been dope this year. I don't know what
the magic is in March every single year, you know,
guys are just and the women are just hitting buzzer beaters.
But we obviously saw Duke last night against LSU and
Ashton Jackson shot, man, that was well a well drawn
up play. I'll get that ex's and owis ut a ato,
(06:08):
but that shot is like as poetic as it gets.
The ball was on the rim at zero point zero seconds.
It's spun around the rim for a little bit and
went down in dramatic fashion to send you know, a
powerhouse home. And what were your thoughts there?
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Oh, honestly super exciting. Obviously shout out to Kara Lawson,
she's our next Olympic head coach, so really rooting for her.
But Ashton Jackson like this is this is where you
want to be your best and for her, like it
wasn't an easy look like she had to shot fake
dribble to get its law like off her, and she
still was able to knock it in. So, like you said,
(06:43):
March is where you know people shine their brightest, and
Duke Duke Women's is one of one of many teams.
I feel like all I've been seeing is buzzer beaters.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Honestly, No, that sound real, man, I said, I love
this time of the year.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Man, What did you think about Texas? I feel like
they gave Texas Men's. They gave a strong put. You know,
they play, they had to play in the plane. You
know what I'm saying. They were far. They won like
three in a row, like from the playing.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
That's tough, I know, man, I know, it's just fresh emotions.
I was really happy for Sean miller Man because he
he recruited me when he was at Arizona, and I
think he's someone who is really good at his job.
He's someone who's unfortunately, you know, he got caught up
in that FBI probe a few years ago, so he
kind of got sanctioned, you know, wasn't able to you know,
really play or a play out the way that he
(07:27):
wanted to. But he's got another chance at a very
big University at Texas, and I'm so happy to be
proud for those boys, man, because they they had a
very up and down season. I think they they struggled
a lot, you know, defensively and shooting the ball from
the outside. But they were going to do both of
those things when it mattered most. You know, they had
that playing the game against you know, inca state, you know,
got that taking care of it whatnot. Then they are
able to come in and they wanted the first around
(07:50):
of sixty four. Who they beat, I know they beacon Zaggons.
In the round thirty two? Who they beat sixty four?
Speaker 1 (07:55):
B Yu they beat b Yu.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
B Yu. You're right, b Yu, And that, of course,
how can I forget that? You know, they got the
potential number one pick on their side at devin Asta,
So that was a very impressive win. But no shout
to their players, man, because you know, Pope played really well,
you know, off that broken foot. I liked his game
through throughout the year. He's a great shooter, he's really
good coming off action. And obviously, you know them as
a team, it was just kind of they were just
(08:19):
kind of like a band of brothers, man. They really
stuck together. It all and you know, made a great run.
So I'm having them to run it back next year.
I don't know what the hell's gonna happened. I was
in il Stuf. Who's gonna be there? Who's not? Right?
Still rock with them?
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Nonetheless, you know what's crazy? It is like why are
so many people playing with broken like having broken feet.
Caleb Foster for Duke, he broke his foot and then
three weeks later he came back and played last night.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Yeah, that's right, you're right, that's a good call, good show.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
You don't know what break, what kind of break they had,
but like, still you're using your foot every single time
you're on the court.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
I just think that college is such a different grind, bro, Like,
you know, they try to kill you in college. They
really try to stick it to your creven with all
the conditioning, the weight the weight rooms and you got
some people going through Navy Seal trainings and whatnot like it.
It's different. So I think the intensity and the load
that these college players have nowadays is so much different.
Then we'll be kind of a do here in the
NBA because their games are damn near their practices whennot
(09:17):
every single day. Yeah, not straight up, you know, I
know them women go through it as well.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
What was your like, what was your worst uh like
college workout experience. I feel like offseason we had like
the six ams. We had like some crazy stuff, and I.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Was, yeah, so I loved our strength coach. His name
is coach Todd Wright Man a shout out man. He's
he's one of the real He's one of the real
ones in my life. At least, you know, he with
the think it's with the clippers now or whatever he's doing.
But uh, yeah, No, we had our six ams, and
I was used to working hard, you know what I'm saying.
I came in through high school, you know, putting myself
to the ringer, getting ready for the next level. But
(09:54):
this is a different level of hardware. So we would
get up and we'd be right outside the doors, and
we had to run two miles right and you have
to make you know, a certain amount of time. I
think it was like fourteen minutes or something like that.
So then after that, you know, you go to class,
but then you still have the weight room right after
the classes and whatnot. And the weight room was where
the boys really became men, you know, I couldn't give
you the specific workouts that we did, but then you
(10:15):
do the weight room and then during practice, coach Brick
Barnes had what he would call the circus. The circus
is basically like a punishment, like a punishment like little segment.
It was like Jacob's ladder. We had to get down
in the versa climber. You know, there was a whole
bunch of different stuff over there. And it's always thinking
was if you're acting a clown, I'm gonna send your
ass to the circus. So if he was bucking up
around practice and all the type of stuff, he would
(10:36):
put us through these crazy like workouts whatn't on the side,
But this would all be during the same day, so
I didn't have one crazy just one workout. It was
just accumulation of work in a day that was like
crazy for me personally.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Yeah, we used to have these like off season six ams.
We had like our strength person at the time was Kimball,
Amanda Kimball, and same thing, like she really set us
up to succeed and like get condition and better than
any other team. But we had these like off season workouts. Uh,
it was like with Marines or something. Like that, and
like I just remember, like we we would be like
(11:12):
army carrying like people like over our shoulders like down
and back, and it's just like.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Oh my god, this is just like a.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Test of strength, no, like mental toughness at this point,
because you're never caring anything like that on the basketball court,
Like no, you.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Know, It's the crazy thing, is I fuck with the mentality,
you know what I mean, because of course you're never
gonna do on the court. But it's like having your
sister's back, having your brother's back literally and figurally, you
know what I mean. It's just the different experience colleges man,
to say the least, because you're not asking, you know,
these professionals to do anything like that.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
The amount of times I did like a Olympic lifting
in college and like I have not done it since,
I have not done it since being a pro, Like,
we just do not do that.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
That's real, man, for all college athletes listening, man, this
is your forever, man, keep going, keep going. It's ain't
your fore.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Okay, Miles, this is something that I've been wondering. Obviously,
there's gonna be someone and done's there's some hype around
the kid from Byu and the kid from Kansas. They
both got knocked out early. So like, what's the comparison
to who's going to be number one? Is it gonna
be Boozer from Duke? Like how how is this gonna go?
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Well, the experience of being a one and done is
actually really cool. You know. I myself, I got knocked
out the ternament early as well. I got knocked out
in the first round against Butler, and they got drafted
Indiana of all places, and had to you know, just
live to see all that. But anyways, it really all
depends on the draft lottery coming up, the NBA Draft lottery,
because different teams had different needs. You know, I think
(12:41):
that Utah they really could use a big wing that
they if they have someone like Asian Demnosta, you know,
I mean, that would be a big pick up for them.
I can't see if you saw a number one pick,
I can't see them like picking Camera Boozer because he's
like a different type of player than Dimyonstas. I personally
like Camera Boozer a lot Washington played this year. I
think that he's got a very he's got a grown
(13:02):
man's game, a grown man's body, and he can come
to a situation where he can kind of take over
right away. So say, like I don't know, the Washington
Wizards end up with like the number one pick, or
even like the Indiana Pacers, they they need another wing
and whatnot as well, you know, with the departure in
my opinion of been bathrooms. So different teams have different needs,
and you know, the process will be very interesting see
(13:22):
how shakes out, because what happens is these number one picks,
these teams, they only bring in a certain amount of
guys during the draft process. Right during your draft workouts.
I personally worked out for eleven teams or ten to
eleven teams, and that's a lot for a lottery pick.
You know, I got drafted number eleven to the Indiana Pacers,
and typically you only do like three or four workouts.
(13:42):
But what I can see these guys doing, like the
you know, the kid, the kid from Kansas Peterson and whatnot.
Like I can see him just doing two workouts and
he'll do it for the top two teams, you know,
and then the teams have to make a decision from there.
You know, I think it's a it's gonna be very
insightful you know what they do. What people don't realize
and talk about an en is the talent is one thing. Nowadays,
(14:03):
these guys want to draft quality kids, quality kids that
have quality families, kids that are going to come to
the organizations and you know, take the quality of you know,
what they're bringing. You know, they want to guys that
are come in and be philanthropists in the city. They
want guys that are gonna connect with the fans. They
want guys that are going to come in and to
be leaders in the locker room. So your talent can
(14:24):
only take you so far this day and age in
the NBA. You know, you have to be a quality
human at that as well. And I know that's you
know where a lot of scouts you know tell me
is that you know what they're looking for. You know,
it's never just about the talent anymore. So it'll be
very interesting in the way it all shakes out. You know,
someone like Camera boos Or, in my opinion, has an advantage.
You know, his father played in the NBA. He knows
the process, he knows what it's like to you know,
be a top pick. So we'll see how it all
shakes up.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
It'll be spicy.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Facts facts so interesting enough. You know, I'm not sure
if you still do this, but every now and then
I'll mess around. Do you still fill out of brackets?
You know for fadness?
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah? I filled out too much. It's men's of women's.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Okay, that's up. How's it going?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
So it's like not perfect. I actually did this thing
with Reesis, so shout out to Rees's and they were
like a perfect bracket. There's never been a perfect bracket.
So I was like, I'm gonna be perfect for the
men's side. The first game, like, mess me up. I
had TCU. TCU beat Ohio State or something or vice
(15:27):
versa whatever, whoever won that game. I had the other one.
But both my brackets are doing good because I got
Ukon winning in both. So we're in eight. We're gonna
do some work. Did you do one?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Of course I always fell out of bracket. I always
just do one just to do it. I never really
do it much. But I saw Calshi this year. They
came out and was like we'll give a billion dollars,
like would it be to anybody that can fill out
a perfect bracket? And I had that same mindset. I
was like, well, if anybody knows ball, this is me.
I'm gonna do it. You know, by the first two
days you just hits busted up. So yeah, North Carolina, Man,
(15:58):
they fucked me over the look, but it's okay, you know,
you know, should we live on?
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (16:04):
You got to just in the spirit of you know,
the competition. I had, well, I had Arizona winning in
one of the brackets, and then then I always do
upset bracket too, and an upset bracket I think I
had like I don't even remember at this point. Yeah,
well I had Texas going to the final four and
you know they got close.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah, but Arizona's still and so you're good.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah, no, no, undoubtedly Arizona, like they just I'm not
gonna lie. I haven't watched them play this year. That's
all their number one seed and you know they barely lost.
I was like, you know what, this looks good. I
like the Colors.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Don't let Richard Jefferson hear that. I had to hear
too much about Arizona.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Mmm, sound about right. You know he's talking to shit.
It's all good. We'll just kind of speaking of like
March and we'll wrap it up with this one. Like,
who are some breakout players? You know, I mean on
the women's side, you know that you've seen or a
breakout player that's just kind of you know, I guess
that you like that, you've like watched so far.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Some breakout players. I mean, obviously from Yukon, Sarah Strong
is doing what she does. She's National Player of the
Year for a reason. I think that other players that
that really, I mean Hannah Hidalgo, especially after the last game,
like she almost had a quadruple double, like you said
earlier in the show, so you can't not pick her.
(17:16):
I'm trying to. I feel like, in my mind, I'm
only on this side of the bracket, so I'm trying
to think about what's over here. We got U C.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
L A.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Lauren Betts, She's doing she's doing her.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah, I like watching her play.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
M Who's down here? Michigan, Oh, Texas Madison Booker Like
I'm a fan?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Oh yeah, we know that. And who you got from
the men's uh well, obviously one of the men's side
so far has been the little guard from Arkansas, Darius
Darius Acuff. Like he's a he's an explosive. He's been
really fun to watch and it's something about John Calipari
guards man, he just finds a way just to find
your raw and hitting talent. And you know, I think
he did a great job, you know, this year, this
(18:01):
year at all, you know, he was SET Player of
the Year, SEC Freshman of the Year. He took on
a lot of honors. And I'm curious, you know, what's
going to shake off for him in the draft process,
because you know, we need you always hear about small
guards and how that shakes out. But I think that
he has an NBA level of scoring talent, So we'll
see how that goes there. And then honestly, I got
to give a big shout out to the kid from Texas,
man Tremont Tremont Mark. You know, he started the University
(18:22):
of Houston. I was familiar with his game, but he
really stepped up this year. Man. He hit some big shots. Uh, Lefty,
you know, he's playing really well. Uh. He was a
kind of an isolation scorer as well. You know for Texas.
He hit the I think he hit the big shot
against inc State, you know, that synth them there. And
then he was very consistent overall. I think he had
like twenty nine points or twenty five points whatever it
was against the Purdue who they just played. So I
(18:45):
hope I wish the best for him in his future.
I think he's a senior. I'm not sure what's like,
you know, what's up for him, but you know, it
was really fun Washington play as well.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Also earlier on one of our earlier shows, I think
you shouted out the kid from Tennessee. They're still going,
uh Nate Amont.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah, Nate, Nate of mine.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yeah, yeah, they're still doing their thing too.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I've seen somewhere randomly, just off the court that he's dating,
like the jazzy Davidson girl from usc Like that's fire. Yeah,
she could play too.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Yeah, Yeah, Jazz's good. Jazz is tough her and you
gonna be back next year making making it tough on everybody.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Facts. All right, y'all, Well, it's a time for a
quick break. When we come back, we'll get into the
new w n B A c B A. Please rate,
review and subscribe to Game Recognized Game with Stuary Miles
wherever you get your podcast. Welcome back to Game Recognized Game.
(19:49):
And man, I've been waiting to talk about this. You know,
we haven't linked up at about a month now, you've been
so busy, and congratulations by the way, WNBA CBA, you
know again, you played a very integral role in getting
that done, you and the rest of the w NBA
Players Association and their counselors. For the fans who don't
fully understand it, why does a new CBA matter so much,
you know, for the future of the WNBA and just
women's sports in general.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Yeah, so a new CBA matters so much because now
we're a part of a rep share and as you
know in the NBA, like that's a big deal. And
for us, where we net it out, exactly where we
net it out is we have the SBR, which is
the Shared Basketball Revenue, and we're now getting twenty percent
of all revenue that comes in and that's going to
(20:31):
stay throughout the entire term of the CBA. And as
the revenue goes up, the players get more money and
vice versa. So I think it's what's really cool now
is we're in a partnership. We're literally you know, as
the league grows, the players grow and vice versa. And
it's like real money, you know, it's not like a
(20:53):
hard cap. It's not something that's just you know, lower salary.
The super max is not two fifty like it was
in the previous one. That's like that's lower than the
men at this point, like men's are higher than that
when and I'm really excited about what's to come.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Nice, I'm glad to hear it, man. I just it
makes you think of players like you know, Page Beckers
or like you know, Cap mc clark's, the younger players
coming in the league. They're really going to see the
full benefit, you know, something like that, you know, just
because if their their franchise changing players. So that's amazing
that you were able to get it done for them,
you know, for real.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Absolutely, I mean, I think one thing I can say
about them is you know, their salaries are going to
get bumped up, so they're going to make like way
more than they were in the previous CBA. But also
those players specifically will fall under this epic rule basically
like the Derrick Rose rule that if you get MVP
(21:47):
or All first, All first w NBA, All first team
and whatever, you can get bumped up to that supermax
right away after after your third rookie season, you know
what I mean, So you sign an extension and that
extension is already bumping you up to the supermax. So
that's really exciting for them.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
That's big time. That's big time. Man. Do you think
that like this will keep players like here more domestically
or do you think more and more women are going
to go overseas and continue to keep pursuing, you know,
their basketball careers over there as well.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I mean, I think more players are going to be here.
I think that the money is going to be exactly
what you want. Like, like I was saying, the vetmin
is like a little bit under three hundred thousand, you know,
so that's the lowest that anybody can make here. Also,
there's two new teams coming into place, so there's twenty
(22:39):
four more spots now. Aside from that, big Toronto and
Portland have the expansion draft like coming up this week.
Aside from that, each team gets two spots for player
development players. So like how you guys have two way,
we get like spots where we can actually develop them
and make them adjust because the hardest part is one
(23:00):
players get drafted and then there's training camp. There's not
enough time for them to develop to the W game
and we can kind of you know, hold on to
them a little bit longer and help them.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Wow, I didn't know that. That's that's a huge shout
out right there. That's big time because now, you're right,
people don't realize that at all. It's such a big
difference between amateur level basketball jumping to the professional level
and you have to have an adjustment period many so
in an NBA they call it the rookie wall that
everybody goes through, and I guess the women's side you
can't afford to go through the rookie wall, like you
literally just have to like push on. So that's huge
(23:30):
that you guys get those those two spots.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Yeah, I'm excited about that.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah. So one thing that I you know, personally, I
guess resonate with and I'm proud of is the fact
that there's back pay, you know, form retire players as well.
You know, I think that's something in our NBA CBA
that was very important, you know, for the older generation
of players. And you know, you know, you hear so
many countless stories of athletes going broke when they're done
(23:56):
being professional athletes. And you know, even if it's just
a little right now, you know, setting up in the future,
like explain how important that was in your negotiations.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah, I mean, we wanted to make sure that we
had a way to really show former players how much
they meant to this league because the w is only
thirty years young, and while they didn't get all the
money that they should have when they were playing, we
want to make sure they get something now. So there
is a one time payment to former players, like based
(24:26):
on your years of service. So anybody twelve plus years
of service you get a one time payment of one
hundred thousand. And then from there it's like, wow, eight
to eleven is fifty k, and then five to seven
is thirty K, and it's it's not it's it's not
going to be huge, but it's going to be something,
(24:47):
and in a way where we can make it make
good to our former players. That kind of paved the
foundation to where we are. Another thing that's really cool
is that we have insurance like stipend a refund to
former players where they can get a certain amount paid
back to them for hospital visits or whatever they need
(25:09):
to make sure that they continue to stay healthy.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
That's awesome, man. And again that's stuff that that's little
stuff in the CBA. I just don't think that people
you know, would think about And again, it just made
me proud just to you know, see that part of it.
So that's that's big time. But you know that's what
made me proud. What made you most proud? Like, you know,
during this entire process? You know, I just think that
looking back, y'all really stuck together. All the women were
really united in this. Y'all all had like the same
(25:32):
general message. So what was your most proud moment you
know during this process?
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Yeah, I think my most proud moment was just the
fact that, like you said, you know, we stayed together
while there was some bumps and hurdles along the way,
really understanding what we were fighting for and knowing that
we were fighting for an opportunity to have larger salaries,
have larger cap space, have larger paychecks, meaning the max
(26:00):
the super max will be one point four this year,
the regular max will be one point one. Nice, but
the longevity of that, you know, making sure it's not
just this year, making sure that that is growing incrementally
year after year to the point where this this CBA
is actually the start, and then from there we will
continue to grow to where we need to be, but
(26:23):
we we really had to just kind of fix everything
to get to this point, and that's why it took
so long. That's why we were in there forever, because
we were talking about everything, like literally everything, and trying
to make sure nothing went unnoticed or unchecked, like checking
all the boxes.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Man. That's so real, man. And again you said, this
is a good starting point, which is a good launch pad.
You know, it's what the future league is going to
look like in the landscape of that is like even
when you know we're way done with this, so again,
you've left the league in a really good place. And
you know, I know there's a lot of people out
there saluting you. So it's great. Man. I'm glad to
Steven just be even get like the first insights on
it on the pod Man, it was kind of cool,
(27:00):
just me even kind of getting behind the seas peak
at it. So, you know, I just who knows what
will happened in twenty twenty nine with our CVA, but
you know, at least I got some good hit points.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
I know, I know twenty twenty nine that we're gonna
have to come back on the pod and see what's happening.
If you're a CVA when that comes.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
That's a fact. Man, I'm gonna try and get on
this executive committee, you know, the Players Association and kind
of you know, see what's up. You know again, I
got some great motivation now, so that's good. But yeah, man,
more big news on the w side. You know, I'm
a I'm a very proud and boring to raise Texan
and you know, I kind of came up, you know,
watching you know that dynasty, you know that happened down
to Houston with the comments. You know, they won the
(27:37):
was it three championships like back to back to back,
just they built out something amazing, you know, and then
obviously you got to spand it. But Nika's son have
officially been sold with three hundred million dollars and they're
gonna move back to Houston. And man, I'm honestly get
just excited to see what I'm folds there, you know,
the more opportunity for these ladies. But does that prove
your point, like you know, on the money side of
(27:58):
the game.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
Absolutely. I mean for me, it's a little bit of
a bittersweet thing. Obviously having gone to Yukon knowing that
Connecticut sun is this is going to be their last
season in Connecticut. The fans really appreciate teams going there
and people being there. But to go to Houston, hopefully
they're going to get the same jerseys, Like are they
(28:20):
going to go back to Houston? Comments that will be
fire and really just kind of have that launching padded.
Know that you know, these owners are really going to
take care of this team and bring it to the
level that it needs to be. I think that that's
another thing from the CBA, is we put in minimum
standards in writing, like things cannot be worse than this,
Like this is the lowest, this is the bar. This
(28:42):
is where everything needs to be and it can only
get better from here. So as you know, change and
expansion happened. Sad that it's leaving the East the Northeast,
but excited to see what's going to happen in Texas.
All Right, Myles Bucks officially missed the playoffs today. How
are you feeling? How has the season been for you?
Break it down?
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Man, Well, where do we start? You know, it's been
a very long season. You know, I think that you know,
with ten games left, I've had time to reflect. You know.
I came into the offseason. You know what I mean
with high hopes. You know, I had came off the
NBA Finals last year, and the way this team was orchestrated,
you know, we had a real good chance, you know,
to make some noise this year. But unfortunately we got
caught by the injury bug very early. You know, I
(29:23):
personally have only played like eighteen to twenty games with Giannis,
just me and him both. You know, obviously he was
a big one of the big reasons that I came
to Milwaukee just for that partnership. But he's been dealing
with lingering CAF issues pretty much all year, and that's
they basically had to kind of shut down, you know
what he had going, just because he's just not as
healthy as he could be. Kevin Porter Junior was like
one of our better playmakers in our guards. He went
(29:45):
down the very first game of the season. You know,
we've had Kyle Kuzma went down for like twelve games,
and it's been tough. Man. We haven't had our full
roster the entire year. But one thing about me, man,
I've never been about excuses ever. You know, you we're
all NBA players and we roll the ball out there
You've got to go out there and play. You know,
you know me personally, you know, I'm a guy that
(30:06):
plays and I thrive you know within systems, you know
what I mean. I'm not the guy you're gonna throw
the ball to at the top of the key and
say Mile's gonna get thirty. You know, That's never really
been my game. But I'm a great I'm a great
system player, and I'm really good with my basketball. I
Q what I do and you know, unfortunately share I
just haven't had the right playmaking kind of around me
to unlock, you know, that best part of my game
(30:27):
or make me becoming the best person of myself. So
I honestly really take this year and with the grain
of salt, because it was humbling at that. You know,
I just believe and I believe in higher calling. You know,
I believe that guy you know has me on the path,
and you know, you have to be able to really
experience the lowest of lows to appreciate you know, the
(30:47):
highest and the highst you know that are in my future. So, uh,
this is the first off season, this is the first
off season I'm going to have to myself. You know,
in the past three off seasons to really work on
my body and work on, you know, my game. You know,
obviously going to the finals last year Eastern Conference, Findalens
year before that. You know, your off season is so short,
you only get like a month, But now I get
a real good three to four months just too, you know,
just to focus on me. And I'm excited just for
(31:09):
that opportunity because you know, i just turned thirty years old.
You know, I'm in the prime of my career. I've
signed here for three more years. Yeah thirty club Dady,
thirty thirty. You know, I'm signed here for three more years,
and I know my best basketball you know, he's yet
to come. So organization, we're all going to come trying
to figure out what direction that we're gonna go into.
There's obviously a lot of questions circling Giannis and our
(31:29):
coaching staff and you know, in et cetera. But you know,
I'm very hopeful, you know, for the future. You know,
I know that everything happens for a reason, and you know,
I'm not dejected whatsoever. You know, I'm I'm disappointed, you know,
for the fans, because i know they're expecting a much
different product this year. You know, we obviously get paid
a lot of money to go out there and excute
our jobs at a high level. But there's a lot
of shit that happens in the NBA season. And again,
(31:51):
I've been a soldier through it all. You know, I've
only missed a handful of games myself. I'm playing about
seventy games to share on the eighty two, and I
pride myself on availability, So I'm gonna go out there everything,
just do my job.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Well. I mean, we appreciate you, and I think that,
like you said, the best is yet to come. You're
still in your prime. We're gonna we're gonna keep keep
it pushing. And I like the no excuses, you know.
I think that sometimes throughout the season, like things are
always happening and you just have to you just have
to keep going. You have to keep showing up because
that's how you you create consistently great habits and and
(32:25):
that's what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Yeah, No, it's gonna say, I like what you said
right there. It's about it's about keep showing up. You know,
it's very easy to kind of throw the talents. It's
kind of very easy to kind of roll over, but
that's never really been the way I've been built, you know. Ever,
like I don't I hate the guys that come out
and say, well, coach did this wrong or well, uh,
you know this, this system doesn't work for me. This
is that like you can't make up the excuses. The
fans don't pay to you know, come and watch us
(32:47):
play to see excuses. They come to see results, and
you know, unfortunately the results is weren't you know, as
good as it would have been what I would have
liked it to have been this year. But it's not
discouraged me for the future.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
No, love that can't wait to see it. You got
a lot of time this offseason to work on your
your game and your body. And also we're gonna be
working on podcasts. Okay, that's what we're doing. We're locking
in on pod That's a fact.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I'm in the building, man, I'm in the building. Man.
I just need I just need two weeks of vacation
and that's it. Then I'm back and I'm back at it.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
We can handle that. We can handle that for you,
all right. So question for for you, who's gonna be
n B NBA MVP? Like if you had to decide
today who is it? Because I know, like with the
Miss games and stuff, it's getting tight for everybody, Like
who do you think?
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Man? Well, first, I really thought the ABP this year
was gonna was gonna be K Cunningham. I think it's amazing.
You know what he's been able to do in Detroit.
You know, he's he's gone through the dark days, He's
gone through the hard days in Detroit. You know, of losing.
You know, just two years ago they were to laughing
stock of the league and he's able to really turn that,
turn it around. You know, he's another Dallas kid, you know,
Arlington to be Zach and I root for him for Afar,
(33:51):
but unfortunately know he has he's dealing with that the
lung issue, so he's probably gonna gets the threshold for
those games. At this point, man, I have two guys.
I mean, Shay Gilgas Alexander's always gonna be in a
conversation just because of how consistent he's been and what
he's been able to do with Okac. But Wemby is
my sleeper bro. And the reason why I say Wimby
(34:11):
is the Spurs Again, we're in a very tough position
the past couple of years they've been in they've been
in the lottery, they haven't really been you know, competing
and whatnot. But they're one of the best teams in
the league. Is show. I just played against the Spurs tonight,
you know what I mean? I can say for a
person hand experience, like their system is man like. Offensively,
they execute at such a high level. You know, they
got very good pieces on that side. But Winby is
(34:33):
like spearheading all that, you know what I mean. He's
very tough to guard one on one and we haven't
seen anything like him in our league ever before. And
you know, this could be the year that he gets
his first MVP, So don't be surprised if that happens.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
You heard it here first, next topic that I have
to ask questions about the expansion Seattle Vegas. Like we
think that's coming, what we think, it's inevitable. We've been
waiting for the Sonics since I was in Seattle for
the Sonics to back, and they never came back. So
now of course I'm in New York and Sonics will
come back.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Well, you know, it's crazy. I've actually never been to Seattle,
and I love everything that Seattle's about. I'm a very
outdoorsy kind of guy. I got the little hippie vibe
to me. I enjoy the mountains and like, I've never
actually been, so, you know, I'm hoping that there's an
expansion team that goes on out there. Obviously, Vegas is
great for the business of the league because there's always
so there's so much that goes on in Vegas no
year round, and you put an NBA team out there.
(35:27):
You've seen the success at the you know, within the
Raiders have have with their tickets and whatnot. You' seen
the success that the Oakland's having now or I guess
the Athletics, but you know what i mean, they're in
Vegas as well. So all the other teams around us,
the Aces and the Golden Knights, like all every league
around us has done it, but us, you know, so,
I think the framework is there. I think that you
have to neverly move some teams to the East, like
(35:49):
whether it's Minnesota or Memphis or whatever they do there.
But it's twenty four, honest, no, it's thirty. It's like
thirty more roster spots, you know what I mean. Yeah,
And I'm actually very curious to see what we do
with our expansion draft, because there's gonna be a lot
of like big names that will randomly get moved. I
think the rule is we can protect eight people per roster.
So curiously, that's gonna shake out because that's gonna be
(36:11):
ego play man. That's gonna be an ego play bro.
Imagine being like, you know, three or four time All
Star and like your team does protect you. Now you
get you know, expansion drafted a way, like you know what,
what's that gonna do to you?
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Literally, that's what we're doing this that April third that
happens for us, the expansion draft happens between Toronto and Portland,
and you can only protect five.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Five Wow, that's it. Thirty that's a thirdy Wow, that's crazy. Man,
I can't imagine. But that's gonna be like again, that's
It's cool for the opportunity, but damn man, like you know,
it's like you've what I've done so much in this
league and you're just gonna ship me off like I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
I don't know. I mean for us, it'll be a
little bit more interesting because we have like over one
hundred unrestricted free agents, so basically like unless a team
unless Portland or Toronto grab an unrestricted free agent and
core them, which is like franchise tag them, Like you
could go there, but then you could still leave, like
if you don't want to be there because you're unrestricted,
(37:10):
I don't know, it'll be a whole mess of a nightmares.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
All right, y'all, well we got one more break. Next
up we go off the court and talk about life. Family.
Thank you so much for listening to Game Recognized Game.
Remember please rate, review and subscribe to ever get your podcast.
(37:38):
Welcome back to Game Recognized Game with Studie and Miles
and uh, y'all know what time it is, man, it is.
We're gonna kick it off with our parents in corner
and do the stewie. So speaking of a stewie, you know,
let's talk about just you know, your family and whatnot.
You got free agency coming up, and h you're a
big time for agent, so so can you tell me
a little about the parenting advice for free agency? Like,
you know, when I guess when something like this comes up,
(37:59):
you know, do you gonna have to move? Where are
you gonna stay in your ad Like? How do those
conversations go?
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna just set the record straight here.
I will be staying in New York. I'm not I'm
not planning on taking any free agency meetings, even though
I am unrestricted free agent. My family is set up here.
We're solid here, exactly. Bring that statue of Liberty right
out here. Yeah, I'm gonna be back in New York
(38:24):
and and that's all there is to it. So good
luck to everybody else in free agency. But I'm not.
I'm not a part of that.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Y'all heard it here first man, one of the best
in the league. She stayed to her mark. Shoutut to
New York Man, shout out to New York. That's fire.
You got your free agent.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Exactly, all right, Switching gears a little bit. You just
showed us our statue, statue of Liberty lego. What's your
latest lego? Like people need to know what's the latest drop?
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Yeah, no, I've been working all year long. Man, I'm
gonna do a recap video here pretty soon. But I'll
give you all a little sneak pig. This is the
my latest build I've done. Y'all know I'm a huge
Star Wars fan. This is the Breaker builds Darth Vader
right here. Put these together brick by brick, literally piece
by piece. And this isn't like your normal like Lego
(39:08):
bill because typically, you know, you get the Lego pack,
you get an instruction, man, you put together. These are literally,
like i'll show you break it off, individual pieces that
I had to put together one by one by one.
I forget how many pieces this one is. I think
it's like four thousand or something like that. Someone can
fact check me on that. But this took me about Hey,
(39:28):
I probably took me about like two weeks or so,
but you know it was in the midst of an
NBA season, so yeah, you know, I'm a big Dark
Bata guy, big Star Wars guy, So this was fun
put together. Man, y'all check out a brick or builds.
It's a different than actual Lego lore.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
So yeah, that seems intense. Also for those to have kids,
don't do Lego around your kids or you will lose pieces.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Or your cat. Because my cat just decided to jump
up on the desk the other day and I had
this little globe that I put together. It was a
special globe to me because on the globe there's little
hearts from everywhere Me and my girl ever traveled across
the world. But he decided to say fuck that globe
jumped up on the park and it all fell to
(40:10):
the ground and smashing a bunch of pieces. So I
now build that somehow, some way. Dang yeah, man, it
is what it is. Man. You learn like the hard
way sometimes. All right, you guys, thanks for checking us out.
You know you can be a part of the show.
Send your question to our social channels, leave Thomas on
the YouTube videos, and please subscribe the game recognized game.
(40:33):
We'll see y'all next time.
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