Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Well, you mentioned a little bit earlier in the show.
Today is Bobby Bania Day. The July first day comes
every year where Bobby Banilla, formerly of the New York Nets,
gets one point one nine million dollars is part of
his deferred compensation through twenty thirty five. One of the
best sports deals that anybody's ever created.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
All right.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
On Draft night last week, the draft stock of Ace
Bailey plummeted. He was expected to be the third pick
in the draft by Philadelphia. A few days before the draft,
he canceled his workout with Philadelphia and decided not to
work out for anyone else.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
He is is camp.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
His agents and his representation, which I don't even think
are legitimate agents. They decided to tell everybody, please don't
draft this unless you're Philadelphia. I mean, he even wanted
to go to Washington. He was okay going there. I'm
not sure why you would ever want to go play
for a team that doesn't care about winning. At least
Utah's got a good management team.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Maybe.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I'm sure he's from the area. I mean he went
to Rutgert Rutgers, so I'm guessing he's from that area.
And so he uh, he kind of basically pulled a
Shadoor Sanders and Chadur learned his lesson that you're not
in charge of who drafts you, and if you're going
to have this entitlement attitude, we're going to make sure
that you don't have this entitlement attitude by drafting you
(01:19):
in the fifth round.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
From Chattanooga Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Well, Tennessee and Washington aren't that far apart a couple,
you know, three hours, maybe four, I don't know, it's
not not too far.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
But I think he wanted to go to Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
He would have been finding New York. He would have.
He just didn't want to go west, and he did
want to go south.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I think those were the two things that he was
because I think there was another team he was asking
for them not to draft him, but there was no
way Utah was going to pass up on the talent. Now,
I may have considered doing a sign in trade or
some kind of a try to get another pick for him,
if I could have, if I were Utah, because he
does have unbelievable talent and a lot of people think
(01:59):
he's got more talent than Dylan Harper does raw talent,
but he is obviously incredibly immature, and when you watch
him do press conferences and you watch him answer questions,
you can see that he's not exactly sure what to say. Now,
when you're eighteen years old, nineteen years old and the
new to this and your dream has always been to
(02:19):
be in the NBA, and you're going to get that opportunity,
I think there comes a time where you have to
have people that are really truly in your corner to
advise you on things. And it seems like there's people
in his corner that really don't have his best interest
at heart. Listen, if I had a child that was
(02:40):
about to become a professional athlete, the last thing in
the world I would do is tell them to let
me be their agent. I know nothing about negotiating contracts.
I know nothing about the legalities of it. I'd say,
you know, this guy's pretty good. If he's a baseball player,
let's go get Scot Boris. He's probably going to take
good care of you. And if it's a basketball player,
I might call, you know, uh, call Clutch Sports. Let's
(03:04):
go uh and and say get me what you get
my kid, what you can get.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
I'm not going to gravy train off of the success
of my child and or a even if it was
a relative. And they said, well, Andy, you know a
lot about sports, why don't you represent him when he
goes No, go hire an agent. Go hire a legitimate,
real agent that's not going to fleece you, that's only
going to charge three percent because that's what they charge,
who could potentially get you a down the road endorsement
(03:32):
contracts and opportunities there and and uh. And then explain
to him when you sit down with him, Listen, this
is the NBA. This is a business. If you're going
to the NBA with the idea that it's just going
to be one big party, you're going to the.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
NBA for the wrong reasons.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
And to me, the reason why you would uh, if
if I'm looking at making myself a better basketball player,
is there a better place for Ace Bailey to go
than Utah?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
You got any age?
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah, you've got You've got a good You've got a
place where there's not gonna be a lot of distraction.
You're not gonna there's not a lot of clubs and
places of distraction. You're gonna get to go to an
organization that's gonna develop you into a great player, and
four years from now, if you hate Utah so much,
you have the right to leave. You may make a
little bit less money, but you have the right to
(04:23):
go wherever you want in free agency. But you're gonna
get four years of playing in the NBA with people
that actually care about what your basketball future is gonna
look like. And you're gonna grow up a lot between
eighteen and twenty two years old, and you're not gonna
have the distraction of going to a Philadelphia or a
New York or New Jersey or Brooklyn or place like
(04:45):
that where everybody can. You know, your friends and family
probably aren't even gonna want to come to Salt Lake City.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
It's not the most.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
You're not gonna have the nightlife there that you're gonna
have other places. So you're gonna be if you're truly
about making your basketball life better, then I think he's
in one of the best places he could be. So Saturday,
he goes to the press conference and somebody asked him,
was there ever an opportunity that you thought you were
not going.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
To report to Utah? Okay? And he lied because there
was a chance he was not going to go to Utah.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Well, but at least he said, you know, I don't
mind you lying as long as you say the right
thing for you know, press release and things like that.
The optics of him doing the press conference there would
look really, really bad if he's like, you know, decided
to tell the truth.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
You know, I'm sure the pr in the back. Yeah.
I really don't like Utah.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
I really don't understand the rules here, and it's a
million miles from home. I really didn't want to come,
but I'm here. He's never gonna say that he did
say the right things. Whether he believes the right things
is another story.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Now. I am of the.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Belief that you know, you got Will Hardy, they're coaching him,
you got Danny Ames there to general manage him, Austin
and and well, yeah you got You've got a great nucleus,
and you're not gonna win a lot of games. They're
not a playoff team next year. I don't think no.
But you can you can slowly develop and learn the
game at the next level and mature a little bit,
(06:12):
get some knowledge, get around guys like Laurie Market and
other guys that have been in the league for a
long time and say, teach me what I should do
and not do when we go to another city.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
What do I do?
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Get the Kobe Bryant Mamba metality train six days, six
hours a day. Do the things that are gonna make
you a better basketball player, not make you an Instagram celebrity.
And if you want to be an Instagram celebrity, then
you're in the wrong profession. Just go be an Instagram celebrity.
But you from a basketball standpoint, I don't think there's
any place better for him. And I also don't think
(06:45):
I think we've got to go back to what I
said about the Malik Beasley thing and the education process.
We've got to teach players, whether it's a coach in
high school, whether it's a true family member that may
not tell you what you want to hear, but somebody
that says you've got a gift to be able to
do something really special, and you're gonna screw it up
if you go down this path of well, I can't
(07:06):
party in that city, I can't have my entourage in
this city. I can't be an Instagram influencer in this city.
You can be anything you want in any city along
the right surroundings. And if you stay out of trouble
and don't put yourself in a position to do anything
but play basketball, you can actually be good at what
you're good at.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Yeah, you know, if we're just looking at the particular
teams that you're tossing out here, obviously let's take out
San Antonio. But Philadelphia, you know, I don't think if
he had gone there, I don't think it would work
out of this still. Yeah, Yeah, there's just still so
much uncertainty with Philadelphia.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
I think it certainty is one player Philadelphia, it's up
to mb If MBID is a healthy and play seventy
five games at the level he's capable of, they're going
to be a contender in these Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
But if he doesn't, they're not that.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
But that's such a big if.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
And along lines of if he's already having these early
red flags, why do you want to put him around
somebody that could instill or teach him.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Yeah, you can only show up when when you feel
like it.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
If if you have a bad you know, you wake
up on the wrong side of the bed, you don't
feel like I.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Don't feel I don't feel like Embiid takes days off
just to take days off.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
I do.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
I think.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
I think Embiid legitimately doesn't feel good and then when
he and when he when his knee hurts, he doesn't
want to play.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Well, I'm sorry. Tiger Woods played on.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
A broken legs.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yeah, that's a different mentality, but it's also he didn't
have to run and jump either.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
He just had to hit golf ball.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Drew Brees had a broken broken.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Rig, had punctured lung, punctured lung.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Tony Romo had had a what was it a slice
spleen or I forget what the tech.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
But I think I think, I don't think Embiid is
Kawhi Leonard. I think he has now he may have
a similar threshold of pain.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
But Mike, Mike, Mike.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Issue with Embiid he is that he played in the
Olympics last year at the expense of playing for the
seventy six ers.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Joel Embiid only cares about Joe Well, Embiid, that's the bad.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
That's I would agree with you on that long But
mba model a baby. But Mbid could have been could
have fixed his knee and skipped the Olympics and given
the seventy six ers the team that's paying him fifty
plus million or sixty plus million dollars a legitimate chance
to have a playoff run. He chose, I want to
be on the Olympic team with my guys. I really
(09:23):
don't care about the upcoming season, and he'd hardly ever played,
so I think that he is legitimately hurt, but he
legitimately chose the wrong decision and when he was going
to get what was hurt fixed. So but Philadelphia has
got Maxi and they got George and they're gonna have
EMBIID and that's a good nucleus, and Ace Bailey could
have helped them out. But there's no reason for dyl
(09:45):
Moury to bring in him and say, Okay, if MB
gets hurt at your team, go do whatever you want.
He's going to be able to progress at a different
pace in Utah and that's perfect for him.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
And not that he's not already.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Better than any player on the Utah team in term
of talent, but it's still very raw and this gives
him an opportunity to hone those skills and to kind
of ease him with himself into the NBA. He doesn't
know that now, but four years from now, he may
realize this was the best opportunity for him.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Yeah, Philadelphia dumpster fire. Charlotte at four still a dumpster fire. Five,
Utah perfect spot because there were players there. They traded
to get use of Nurkic, established player, they have like
you mentioned Laurie Markinen, all star player. They have players there.
Trey Johnson goes to Washington. We all know how you
(10:36):
feel about the Purgatories. That's a dumpster fire for Ace Bailey.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
You don't want to go.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
There and just have bad influence and bad days and
bad practices in the direction.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
New Orleans at seven, that's a bad place for him
as well.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
To the right spot, even though he doesn't know.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
And then at eight the Brooklyn Nets, Yeah, they're still
trying to put together a team.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
So he wound up in the perfect spot.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Yes, the Utah Jazz have not been the Utah Jazz
that they were in the nineties and two thousands. But
he's in the right spot organizational wise, because that team
and that organization knows how to get their player.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
There's going to be a lottery team next year and
they're going to get another player to add to that.
And four years from now, when he's in the end
of his rookie contract. He will be a much more
mature player, and he'll be able to teach some of
the young guys what he doesn't know now.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
I mean, who's to say that maybe in two years
the Utah Jazz could be the up and coming Oklahoma
cities that last year or the year before.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
All Right, we had a great story today, kind of
a heartbreaking story that turned out in triumph at the
open qualifier in England and Scotland. We'll talk about that
coming up next and more in the last half hour
of the show.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
It's the ticket