July 4, 2024 • 78 mins
Ever wondered why it's perfectly acceptable for sports team owners to favor their relatives, yet it sparks outrage when players do the same? I kick off this episode with a light-hearted recount of a minor technical mishap during a live broadcast before diving into the pervasive nature of nepotism in American sports. From youth leagues to professional arenas, nepotism is everywhere, and it's time we dissect this controversial practice. Through personal reflections and real-world examples, I explore the fairness— or lack thereof— surrounding favoritism, questioning why players advocating for their kin is frowned upon compared to team owners doing the same.
I then tackle the broader impact of favoritism in sports, from biases and star player preferences to the emerging role of AI in professional settings. We transition into a deep dive on the NBA's second apron, unpacking its implications for team-building and financial restrictions. Balancing fairness and business interests is no easy task, and we discuss how these dynamics shape player power and team dynamics in professional basketball. With real-life examples and hypothetical scenarios, I highlight the complexities and inherent tensions that define modern sports management.
Finally, I take a closer look at NBA team ownership and management, focusing on iconic rivalries, dynasties, and the second apron's effects on the league. From the chaotic state of the Los Angeles Lakers to the end of the Golden State Warriors dynasty, I scrutinize key decisions and their long-term impacts. The conversation extends to the cursed legacy of the Los Angeles Clippers and the strategic directions of recent NBA team trades. I wrap up by celebrating the rising popularity of the WNBA, with a special preview of the upcoming All-Star game, and highlight the significant contributions of standout athletes to the sport. Don't miss out on this compelling discussion that brings both laughter and insight to the multifaceted world of sports nepotism.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Man, I just had a technological difficulty.
That wasn't even atechnological difficulty, rather
interesting.
So I started going live and Idid not.
I did not have my, I didn'thave my microphone in front of
(00:23):
me.
And because I didn't have themicrophone in front of me, I
like go grab it real quick.
And then I hit one of thebuttons on my soundboard.
So I'm sitting here thinking, oh, I'm not talking, I'm not
talking because I couldn't hearmyself in the headphones, and I
love to hear myself in theheadphones.
It's crazy, probablynarcissistic, sue me,
(00:50):
narcissistic, uh, sue me.
But because of that I'm like Idon't know if I can, if I can do
this, because you know it's not, it's not working.
And lo and behold, I wastalking just fine and um, yeah.
So apologies to anybody whoclicks on the YouTube page and
sees that Luckily I got off inlike 37 seconds, but it's not
(01:11):
really the way we want to startan episode.
But I just had to get that outthere because it's a nice easy
way to warm up.
I should have some niceAmerican music for you all to
talk about.
Proud to be an American, whereat least I know I'm free.
But you know, I gave y'all thatfor after the Boston Celtics
won the NBA finals, and so we'renot going to repeat that again.
(01:35):
So we're just going to sit here, we're going to have a nice
conversation and happy Fourth ofJuly, happy Independence Day to
those of you who celebrate it.
I'm going to hop on the grilltomorrow, probably drink some
nice domestic American beer,maybe smoke a cigar if I don't
smoke one tonight, we'll see.
So I want to start this podcastby talking about a very strong
(01:57):
American value nepotism.
We might be the land of thefree and the home of the brave.
We might be the land of thefree and the home of the brave,
but, like in section andparagraph B, part 2.4, we're
definitely a country of nepotism.
So let's define nepotism beforewe even get into this
(02:20):
discussion.
Nepotism is defined as thepractice the practice amongst
those with power or influence offavoring relatives, friends or
associates, especially by givingthem jobs.
Nepotism I don't have a problemwith it.
Think about this Our parentscrawl that we can walk and we
(02:51):
walk so that our kids can run,and that's what LeBron did.
We act like we don't like it insports because we think that
sports is a meritocracy, but ifyou've been on a sports team.
You know it's not truly ameritocracy.
Think about baseball Coach'sson pitcher, shortstop usually
(03:19):
has a prime spot in the battingorder, makes the all-star team,
gets all the opportunities.
Football coach's son, sonquarterback, middle linebacker,
glamour position and gets thechance.
It's not like we do opentryouts, especially when you're
talking about younger kids.
And that's where it starts,because you play these positions
(03:41):
over years because of theopportunities that's given to
you.
But it's not like they go outthere, hey, let's test out our
skills and put the best playerat this spot.
No, they put the person theywant there.
Coach's son, friend of thecoach, and that's how it.
That's just how it works andyou can even think about maybe
(04:01):
you're in high school, maybecollege Hell, maybe in
professional.
You have a personality conflictwith a coach.
So because of your personalityconflict, your talents don't get
the opportunity to be put onfront street, or you bond well
with the coach or your parent isclose with the coach.
(04:23):
So you get more opportunitiesto play.
You get more opportunities tomake mistakes.
You have a longer leash.
That is very prevalent insports culture from the very
beginning.
What we want to act like it'snot a thing.
It doesn't exist at theprofessional levels.
(04:44):
It's not a thing.
It doesn't exist at theprofessional levels.
It's not true.
And I understand we want tolive in a world where we think
everything, where things arefair, but it's not.
We don't have a problem with anowner passing his team down to
his or her kids.
We don't have a problem with aCEO giving the company over to a
(05:09):
family member, but we have aproblem with a player getting
his son a job.
Now let's think about this NBAplayers are labor.
They're not ownership, they arelabor.
(05:30):
They're not ownership, they arelabor.
So when you think about thehierarchy of the league and I
understand the money isdifferent because the labor gets
paid more than the coach andthe executives and all that
stuff, but they are on thebottom floor of the hierarchy.
They are the labor, the product.
They're not management.
(05:50):
Who builds the team?
They're not the coach who, who,who advises?
Who advises the player, setsthe strategy and they're not the
owner who cuts the checks.
They are labor, just like manyof us are at our jobs.
How many of us have put in agood word To get a friend hired
at a job we know we had a littlebit of clout.
(06:12):
Where we're working at, ourword is respected.
So we say, hey, man, get thatperson a shot.
They may not have the bestresume, they may not be the most
qualified, but Because we putin our word and we said that
they could fill the role andthey could do it, they got hired
.
Same thing, same thing.
(06:41):
And if we're going to keep it onsports, think about coaching,
think about front offices Hell,I can look at the Hawks right
now.
Tony Ressler, the owner of theHawks, allows his son to run the
franchise.
What qualifications does hisson have to run the franchise?
I'll wait.
Oh yeah, he's the owner's son.
(07:03):
So if we don't have a problemwith owners letting their kids
run a team, why do we have aproblem with players putting in
a good word so their kids can beon the team?
It doesn't make sense and heck.
A report came out today sayingthat Bronny is going to spend a
(07:24):
lot of time in the G League, buthe has a fully guaranteed
contract, so he's good.
So if everybody's doing it, whycan't athletes do it?
Is it because it's getting inthe way of the integrity of the
game?
(07:44):
No, is there a racial componentbehind it that may make some
people feel uncomfortable.
Maybe or is it that you have aproblem with nepotism because
it's not benefiting you, it'sbenefiting someone else, because
(08:04):
while you're sitting here, howmany of you would turn down the
opportunity to achieve alifelong goal, to make millions
of dollars, because you feltlike you weren't qualified.
But somebody put in a good wordfor you and they got you that
opportunity?
I bet you nobody who hears thiswould turn that opportunity
(08:29):
down.
And if it were you giving thatopportunity, you wouldn't shame
the person or criticize theperson who gave you that
opportunity.
But because it's not you, youhave a problem with nepotism.
Nobody has a problem withnepotism when they're receiving
(08:52):
it.
They just have a problem withit because somebody else is
receiving it.
I think some people felt likethey were good enough to make it
to the NBA and they didn't.
So they're upset.
Oh, if my coach would have justbelieved in me and gave me
chances.
Oh, man, this and that.
Oh, if I just would have knownsomebody.
(09:19):
Let's just think about our worldas a whole.
Do you think the most talentedmusic artists are the artists
who get the most shine, or thatthe ones with talent that get
discovered?
Do you think the most talentedmechanic makes the most money,
or that the mechanic who got theopportunity to work at the best
shop.
Do you think the most talentedcoders are coding at Google or
(09:42):
coding for Apple?
Some of them, yeah, but thereare also capable coders who
aren't there because they justweren't discovered and there are
other maybe capable, less thancapable or more than capable
coders there because their dadworked for the company.
(10:02):
They had a good friend whoworks for the company.
They had a good friend whoworks for the company.
They know someone in management.
So it happens all over our life.
It happens all over the world,in everyone's lives.
But why do we have a problemwith it?
When it's sports and thinkingabout sports, there's a human
(10:29):
aspect to it.
It's humans playing a game.
You know, referees are human.
Referees don't make every callcorrectly, because it's called
human error.
Some players get more leewaythan others because of their
rapport with the officials.
Every call correctly, becauseit's called human error.
Some players get more leewaythan others because of their
rapport with the officials.
Some players get more leewaythan others because of their
(10:53):
style of play.
I wouldn't necessarily callthat nepotism, but it's a form
of favoritism which then takesthe fairness out of it, right,
but we're looking for fair.
And if Chris Paul is abasketball player who's
uber-aggressive on defense, veryhandy, very physical, likes to
(11:14):
foul, but they don't want tofoul him out the game because
he's a star player, that's notfair either.
So where do you draw the line?
Allen Iverson Maybe not themost favorite player by the
referees Draymond Green, rasheedWallace Do they always get
called fairly?
(11:34):
Do they get the benefit of thedoubt?
No, no, you know why.
Because their rapport wasdifferent with the referees.
That's not fair.
Lebron James doesn't foul outof basketball games.
Why?
He's a superstar, he gets thebenefit of the doubt.
Is that fair?
Mj would get the makeup call,kobe get the makeup call.
(11:58):
If a superstar tells thereferee hey man, he's fouling me
, he's riding my hip super hard,pause, they get the benefit of
the doubt.
Is that fair?
The referee didn't necessarilysee it, but somebody who had
some clout told him.
Now what happens if the ninthman off the bench says hey, man,
(12:20):
he's holding me.
I ain't see it.
We keep it pushing.
What happens in a football gamewhen the referee spot the ball
wrong?
Go do the challenge.
They get it wrong.
It's not fair.
So why do we have a problemwith something that's not fair
when the Lakers use a 55th pickon LeBron James' son.
(12:41):
You tell me how many superstars, how many impact players have
been the 55th pick and I'll tellyou most of them are either
overseas or selling insurance.
Now you got AI.
Imagine you getting replaced atyour job by AI.
(13:06):
Or imagine you getting a paycut because artificial
intelligence is doing your job.
Because the company's job is tomake money and provide the best
product or service that theycan, but you want to keep your
job and you want to keep yoursalary right.
(13:27):
Product or service that theycan, but you want to keep your
job and you want to keep yoursalary right.
And because your supervisor orthe CEO likes you, you get to
keep your job and they don'tallow the computer to do your
job.
That's not fair, is it?
That may not even be in thebest interest of the company to
keep you, just like draftingBrani may not be in the best
(13:49):
interest of the Lakers, becausemaybe they could have found
another player who could helpthem immediately.
I doubt it, but it's possible.
What's the difference?
It's only different becauseit's sports and the people who
(14:15):
have a problem with nepotism insports are the same people who
want to say shut up and dribblehey, lebron, don't put your son
on.
No, just go out there and playbasketball.
And I've talked about shut upand dribble here, and at times I
do think it's applicable.
But what I've learned throughthat is it's not about shut up
and dribble, it's about stickingto the rivers and lakes that
(14:36):
you're used to, and I like thatone so much better, because it's
if you know, you know.
But if you don't Shut up, if Ijust tell you to shut up and
dribble, that means I only, youonly know basketball, or I'm
(14:57):
saying you only know basketball,so that's all you should do.
Or you only know football, oryou only know sink, or you only
know, or you only know football,or you only know sinking, or
you only know uh, um, automechanic and not aviation
mechanic.
You only know, um, how to cutgrass, but you don't know how to
weeding, because that's whatyou primarily do.
(15:19):
I'm going to say stick to therivers and lakes that you used
to.
That you're used to because youcan have experience in other
places.
Because you can have experiencein other places and because
you're used to those rivers andlakes, we should go swimming.
(15:42):
The second apron.
Parley Pete and I came on hereand talked about the issues with
the nba.
We talked about the issues withthe players association.
We talked about the issues withthe owners.
We talked about how the NBAcould never become the NFL
(16:03):
because the players have toomuch power, guaranteed contracts
, all of this and that right.
And this is not talking aboutplayers not getting paid.
It's more focused on thetelevision product, the teams
and those important things thatwe really care about in sports.
(16:26):
You know falling in love with ateam, but now we have the
second apron that's going totake effect and we're already
seeing how it's affecting teams.
The Nuggets lose KCP why theydon't want to be in the second
(16:46):
apron.
They don't want to berestricted.
So now they're being punishedfor being able to build a great
team.
We see the Warriors move off ofKlay Thompson.
They've been paying a big taxbill, but now with the second
apron, they've been paying a bigtax bill, but now with the
(17:11):
second apron, there's morerestrictions that come with
paying that big tax bill.
No-transcript, you got theCeltics.
They're acting like the secondapron doesn't exist with the
(17:32):
amount of money that they'regiving out, but the owner wants
to sell the team.
So what does that tell you?
Let me get out while thegetting is good.
So the NBA wanted to make itharder to build a super team,
but what I think the PlayersAssociation and the owners and
(17:54):
the commissioner and everybodyinvolved with coming up with
this first apron and the secondapron failed to realize is
you're now punishing teams forbuilding great teams.
And I'm not just talking aboutthe teams who build through free
agency, like the Lakers.
I'm talking about a homegrownteam like the Celtics.
They draft two cornerstoneplayers, they make smart trades,
(18:19):
smart signings to build achampion.
I'm talking about a team likethe Nuggets, who built their
franchise around two homegrownplayers, made some smart trades,
made some great free agencypickups and now they're
champions.
I'm talking about teams likethe Warriors Three homegrown
(18:40):
players, good trades, good freeagency signing, great
development, and now they haveto make business decisions
Because they want to be able tocompete In the future.
(19:02):
And to me it sounds like a bunchof nerds who didn't really
understand sports coming up withthese ideas.
It sounds like the owners whocan't ever win because they
don't want to spend the money,or they don't generate the money
or they are in a terriblemarket, trying to level the
playing field.
Again, it goes back to thefairness, and while we don't
(19:25):
like nepotism, we wanteverything to be fair.
Well, guess what?
Life's not fair, and I'm not ona quest to make life fair for
everybody, or even for me.
My goal is to learn the rulesand play the game and be one of
the best at it.
So, whatever that takes, that'swhat I want to do.
(19:50):
So yeah, now we're going to getsome parity in the NBA.
But guess what?
Players are going to bechanging teams, just like they
were in the player empowermentera.
But it's not going to be theplayers empowering themselves to
leave, it's going to be theteams empowering themselves to
get rid of them.
So now I don't know what JimmyButler jersey to buy.
I don't know what Chris Stott'sPorzingis jersey to buy,
(20:13):
because the second I bought ajersey.
Oh man traded, oh man released.
Oh man, I can't rally behindthis dynasty because it's going
to be broken up before we evenget a dynasty.
Guess what NBA fans like?
The Clash of the Titans?
We like LeBron versus Steph.
(20:35):
We like Magic versus Larry.
We like Larry versus MJ.
We like Larry versus IsaiahThomas.
We like Michael Jordan versusIsaiah Thomas.
We like Michael Jordan versusIsaiah Thomas.
We like Michael Jordan versusthe Showtime Lakers.
That's what we like.
We like dynasties.
(20:56):
We like oh my God, are theOrlando Rockets about to not
Orlando Rockets, the OrlandoMagic about to build a dynasty
and take down the Bulls?
We like Kobe and Shaq versusTim Duncan.
We like the old Spurs dynastycircling back one time to attack
(21:18):
the Heatles.
That's what we like.
But under the second apron we'renot going to get it and maybe
it does level out the playingfield for the bottom tier teams
and the bad owners.
That just creates a bad productand I've talked about this
(21:39):
before on this platform.
It's so crazy that capitalisticowners who want to be
capitalists in every part ofrunning their team.
They want to pay their labor aslittle as they can to get as
(21:59):
much as they can out of them,but they want socialist
principles when it comes tooverall winning.
They want socialist principleswhen it comes to revenue sharing
.
It's like, oh no, we got tosplit this pot evenly.
(22:22):
Not you make what you earn, butthey want the players to make
what they earn.
You see how crazy that is.
You see the crazy that is.
You see the hypocrisy there.
Oh, I'll bring my son on, orI'll bring one of my friends on.
I'll put him on the bench as anassistant coach.
Oh, I'll bring him in to be ascout.
Oh, I'll bring him in to workin the front office, be an
(22:44):
executive.
Oh, I'll let my son run theteam, but I don't want my
players to do the same.
I want to be a cutthroatcapitalist when it comes to
paying labor, but I don't wantto be a cutthroat capitalist
(23:04):
when it comes to me getting paid.
When it comes to me attractingtalent, oh, I need to be good at
my job to maximize my funds.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
We're going to end up in theblack every year.
Ref share the Lakers, theWarriors, the Knicks, the
Celtics.
(23:24):
They're going to make enoughmoney for us all.
I get it.
That's how they becamebillionaires Most of them, but a
lot of them.
They became billionairesbecause they came out of their
mama, because their daddyalready had it.
Oh, man.
But hey, man, the Celts are forsale.
Shout out to the Celts forstriking while the iron's hot.
(23:46):
I think that the second apronhas a lot to do with this,
because of the amount of moneythat they'd be paying in order
to be a winner.
And they bought a team for likewell I know less than 400,000
somewhere in the or excuse me400 million, somewhere at 300
million, uh, uh range, and nowthey're going to sell it for
(24:07):
somewhere between five and sevenbillion dollars.
Can't tell them they're wrong.
You've made money annually offof the investment and now you
can flip that investmentinvestment for I don't know how
many times that is, but many,many, many, many, many, many,
many, many, many, many, manytimes.
Good for them.
(24:27):
Many, many, many, many, many,many, many, many, many times.
Good for them.
No one wants to be a Laker, andI've been sitting here trying to
think about why no one wouldwant to be a Laker.
(24:47):
Is it LeBron, is it JJ, is itRob or is it Jeannie?
So here's what I decided to doI decided to make a blame pie
and I used fairly easypercentage numbers to break this
(25:11):
down, but I got a four-wayblame pie for it.
Why no one wants to be a Laker?
Let's start with LeBron.
I give LeBron 12.5%.
Why he's older?
He just resigned for two yearsfor the Max.
He has a unique style of playthat doesn't always bring out
(25:36):
the best and really good playersbecause they have to adjust
their game to him and he's notshown that he's going to adjust
his game to a large degree toanybody else.
I give another 12.5 to JJ.
Why Rookie coach, never coachedbefore.
He's brand new.
(25:56):
Shout out to him for bringingin Nate McMillan and Scotty
Brooks to sit on his bench.
I think they'll definitely helphim out with the in-game
adjustments and substitutionpatterns and the important
in-game stuff, because I don'tthink anybody worth their salt
questions jj as a big picturecoach with a vision and a style
(26:23):
of play that that they thinkwill be successful in the nba.
I don't think that's an issuethere.
It's just will he manage thein-game stuff?
How will he manage the egos?
How will he manage balldistribution?
How will he manage substitutionpatterns?
You know stuff like that.
You know real shit.
So I only give him 12.5.
(26:44):
Now Rob Palenka gets 25%.
And Rob Palenka gets 25%because apparently he couldn't
get Clay Thompson on the phone.
He couldn't get a meeting withhim.
The only deal that he's madeworth a damn that we care about
is the Anthony Davis deal thatMagic Johnson had set up.
(27:04):
But the difference betweenRob's deal and Magic's deal
Magic was going to keep BI andmove Kuzma.
And Rob moves Kuzma, excuse me,moves BI and kept Kuzma.
But guess what?
Bi made an all-star game andplays at an all-star level when
healthy.
So again, he made a good move.
He got him a championship, butthe move could have been better
(27:29):
Maybe.
And then we blame Rob Palenkafor the LeBron James move, I
mean for the Russell Westbrookmove, or we put that blame on
LeBron instead of on Rob Palenka.
But ultimately Rob Palenka'sthe one who pulls the strings
and he's shown the propensity totell LeBron no, so, yeah,
that's what LeBron.
(27:50):
No, so yeah, that's what LeBronwanted.
But this isn't me caping forLeBron, this is me shitting on
Rob Blanco.
So I give Rob Blanco 25% GDBus,you get 50.
You are the problem with theLakers Because, as the owner,
you set the culture, the Lakers,because, as the owner, you set
(28:11):
the culture, you make the hires,you make the fires.
I mean, since LeBron's beenthere, luke Walton, frank Vogel,
darvin Ham, now JJ Redick.
But have you looked at Rob?
Have you said, rob, I can't, Imean, I can't fire myself?
(28:32):
I can say it, but I can't firemyself.
Rob, you're not doing what weneed from you.
And because she allows Rob afirst-time GM, first-time
president of basketballoperations, somebody who's in
the family Kobe's agent, formeragent lets him run the team and
appears to be running him in thedirt and escaping any type of
(28:54):
criticism.
Yeah, I'm sure he's in youroffice often.
I'm sure y'all have cocktailstogether.
I'm sure y'all go to thecountry club together.
Y'all have that great rapportand y'all built rapport over the
years.
But because you allow this manto run your franchise into the
dirt, I give you 50% of theblame.
(29:15):
Now let's talk about it.
So free agency is active rightnow.
Lebron said that he would bewilling to take a pay cut if
they made moves on some players,valanchunas being one of them,
(29:37):
klay Thompson being another.
Valanchunas signed for threeyears 30 with the Washington
Wizards.
What are we doing here?
Klay goes to Dallas and Robcan't even get a meeting with
him.
Can't get him on the phone.
What are we doing here?
Clay goes to Dallas and Robcan't even get a meeting with
him.
Can't get him on the phone.
What are we doing here?
Nobody wants to be a Laker.
Because you're running a momand pop shop.
(30:00):
You want people to be proudthat the Lakers want them
instead of being happy that theycome to you.
This ain't the 80s or the early2000s.
You're not who you once were.
You are who you are and youappear to be a dysfunctional
franchise ran by an incompetentowner who's being advised by the
(30:21):
incompetent Rambis family, whohas an incompetent president of
basketball operations, and theonly reason that you're relevant
and competent is because youhave LeBron James, who also
hand-delivered Anthony Davis toyou.
Y'all should thank Rich Paul.
Hell, y'all should put RichPaul on payroll.
You might save some money,because Rich Paul is the reason
(30:47):
for y'all's season.
It's not y'all, but becauseit's the brand, it's the Lakers,
it's LA, it's Sunset, it'sBeverly Hills, it's Malibu, it's
the beach, it's the taco truck,it's the baddies.
It's the best city in the worldto be famous in, because so
(31:12):
many people here are famous.
Oh, you should be proud to be aLaker.
No, y'all ain't running a proudorganization.
You run through coaches, like Irun through trolls, which I
(31:33):
want to keep it tight, tight ina circle.
Guess what?
Yeah, the circle ain't good.
Staying loyal to someone onlymatters if that person is
providing you what you what youneed.
I've made friends and I've lostfriends, and you know why I
lost some friends, it wasn'tbecause of lack of loyalty, it's
(31:58):
because they were no longergiving.
Is that what y'all say, nolonger giving?
They did not provide for mewhat I needed in a friendship
for uh, at that time in my life.
So you know what I did?
I said yeah, no, well, I had noconversation with him, I just
stopped talking to him.
(32:18):
You know, go smoke.
It's just like yeah, no, bro,love you can't rock with you and
guess what?
There's nothing wrong with that.
And guess what?
There's nothing wrong with that.
Jeannie Buzz?
Hey, kurt, whatever your wife'sname is, I know we got all
these years in grew up in thisthing together, but you know
(32:40):
what?
That ain't rocking.
Hey, rob, I know we worked allthese years together, with Kobe
being here, you being his agentand you coming back.
You know we got 20 years inthis thing now, but you're not
performing well enough andyou're passing the buck on
everybody else here.
It can't just be the coaches Atsome point.
It has to be the constructionof the roster.
(33:01):
And guess what?
You construct the roster.
And guess what?
You hire the staff.
You oversee that staff thatconstructs this roster.
You hire the coaches.
Yeah, I took your advice,because that's your job To run
my operation.
You've got to go.
(33:24):
But nobody wants to be theLakers, because the Lakers are a
dumpster fire.
And who the hell wants to gojump in a dumpster fire?
One you're gonna burn up, twois trash, I guess.
Think about it.
Trash, the stuff we get rid ofis on fire, the thing we get
away from.
So if we get rid of trash andwe run away from fire and the
(33:47):
Lakers are a dumpster fire, whyin the world would anybody want
to go there?
Why, that's stupid.
So until the Lakers put thefire out, then call waste
management to come dump thisdump style, people are going to
(34:13):
keep running.
Now maybe they make a move toget DeMar DeRozan on a signing
trade, but if the plan is to runit back with LeBron AD D-Lo,
austin Reeves, austin Reeves,roy Hachimura Vando, that's a
(34:37):
dog that don't bark.
That's a horse that don't trot.
That's a gun that don't shoot.
It's a condom with a hole in it, the bots BBL gotta pull up to
(35:13):
that one.
Y'all, I've got to pull up tothat one.
Woo, feeling like Ric Flair inthis thing.
(35:42):
Well, it's official, theWarriors dynasty is over and
like all dynasties, they don'tend pretty.
There's no, just walking offinto the sunset.
Klay Thompson signed athree-year $50 million contract
(36:06):
with the Dallas Mavericks but,if we think about it, the
Warriors dynasty has been onshaky ground for a little while.
The Warriors dynasty has beenon shaky ground for a little
while, whether it's injuries,whether it's the departure of
(36:33):
Kevin Durant not making theplayoffs, this is not really
woes.
Demar has not been what Hold onHold on, hold on, hold on, hold
on, hold on, hold on, hold on.
Let me see if this really exists, because this is somebody
saying that they're Woj, and Idon't really believe it.
(36:53):
Let me hop on X real quick,let's see.
Okay, that's what I thought.
I knew this was nonsense.
I knew this was total nonsense,but let's, let me just.
(37:19):
Let me just humor this righthere.
It would be nice if the morethe roads and was traded there.
I knew this was total nonsense,but let's, let me just.
Let me just humor this righthere.
It would be nice if the martharhodes and was traded there.
Yep, this is all fraud.
This is all fraud.
You know, I don't know who youare posing as woj up here in the
comments, but you didn't get me, buddy.
(37:42):
You didn't get me.
You almost had me here thinkingI got some breaking news from
Woj and I'm like why is Woj onmy timeline?
All right, anyways, end of anera.
We know these things happen.
All good things come to an end,but but yeah, let's just look
(38:05):
at the Warriors dynasty.
When you talk about themwinning the championship in 2018
, they said it was tough, it wasa rough season.
Then you go through 2019 andthey end up losing to uh the,
the, the Raptors.
After uh injury to Klay Thompson, who tore his ACL during the
finals, and Kevin Durant, whohad an injured calf muscle but
(38:26):
then ended up tearing hisAchilles while there, while
trying to come back, you had theDraymond and KD incident that
both of them admitted it washandled wrong by the franchise.
They tried to force them toreconcile when it's like, hey,
man, we grown men, we'll do thison our own time, which I
totally agree with, but I dounderstand the franchise trying
(38:50):
to mend that fence as soon aspossible.
Many people think that theWarriors did Clay wrong by not
bringing him back.
Well, you know what?
This is a business first, andto them, them, the money didn't
make sense.
Some people go Clay should begrateful because they paid him
for those two years he was out.
Hey, yeah, they didn't plan forthe second injury and it's like
(39:15):
, well, if you come back fromthis ACL you'll be good.
But again, things happen.
But men have pride.
Men have pride.
And the thing about men havingpride it's one of the best and
worst things that we can have,because our pride can make us
the best of the best at what wedo, but it can have us
(39:38):
disillusioned in a way that wedon't realize that we're not who
we once were.
I'm telling you I'm theprideful man.
Sometimes I have to remindmyself you're not who you once
were.
You ain't the same Adam youused to be.
You're a different guy.
You can't just get up and goplay seven games of pickup and
(40:02):
be fine the next day.
You can't go out on a night onthe town with the boys and think
you're going to wake up and doit again the next day.
No, big dog, you need to drinkwater, and that comes with age.
Clay Thompson, you don't moveleft to right in that defensive
stance like you used to.
That's what got you there, butthat's what also got you to
(40:30):
Dallas.
And read articles about Clay'spride feeling disrespected,
getting moved to the bench andit's like, hey, man, we're
trying something new Becauseyou're not who you once were.
But when you talk about thepeople aspect of it, it's all
(40:50):
man's pride hurt.
Man, he's out of here, notcoming off the bench, are you
crazy?
But Bob, I look at Bob Myersright now.
Bob, my the smooth criminal,because Bob said you know what,
(41:17):
damn an extension, I'm out ofhere.
I go talk to Steve and A Smith.
Let me tell you what ifsomebody turns down millions of
dollars to do what they're greatat, to probably more than
likely make less millions.
To talk to Stephen A Smith, yougot to know that hell is on the
(41:38):
way.
So he didn't have to negotiatethe Draymond contract.
He didn't have to make thetough decision on Clay.
He got out scot-free.
But what we should have takenaway from Bob leaving is oh yeah
, this shit's over.
(41:59):
And I know there are some ofyou out here who say Draymond
shouldn't get paid.
But guess what?
Draymond really hasn't fallenoff.
Yeah, he couldn't shoot thethree.
He doesn't shoot the three nowthe way that he used to, but he
lost that a while ago.
But he's still a top defensiveplayer.
He's still a top post passeroffensive facilitator.
(42:22):
What made Klay Thompson sogreat was that he was an amazing
two-way player.
He played great defense and heknocked down shots.
Now, don't get me wrong, hispoints per game went down.
He averaged 18 on 39% fromthree.
So it's not.
He's still shooting at a highclip, but his defense isn't the
(42:42):
same, whereas Draymond, hisantics, the stuff that we see
may be worse, it may be a bitoutlandish, but he's still a
hell of a basketball player.
But see, winning cures all andthe Warriors weren't winning.
(43:03):
The Warriors aren't winning.
So you're damn right, clay isgoing to be feeling some type of
way about having to come offthe bench, not closing out games
, especially if you lose a gameyou didn't close out.
Oh, you didn't want me to playbecause of this, but no, come on
(43:25):
now.
That's how this shit works.
Remember when Kevin Durant came, clay said I ain't giving up no
shots.
I ain't giving up no shots.
Damn who Katie is.
I'm not giving up no shots.
I don't knock him for itbecause he's a hematite Part of
(43:45):
the greatest shooting backcourtof all time Arguably the
greatest backcourt of all time.
But we're going to see how thislooks, because the grass isn't
always greener.
The Mavs didn't draft Klay.
The Mavs didn't spend 13 yearswith clay.
They don't know clay.
They're getting to know clayand hopefully they can mold that
(44:08):
clay into a nice pot.
Actually, they can mold thatclay into a nice ring.
That's what they want to do.
They want to take clay.
They want to take clay and moldit with luca and kairi and
gaffer and pj washington andderrick lively and make a ring,
(44:29):
rings and things you know.
But the grass isn't alwaysgreener and I what?
I really?
What's so eye-opening aboutthis?
You talk about clay being lowmaintenance, whereas other
players are high maintenance andthey talk bad about him.
He was low maintenance while hewas winning championships.
How many players come off ashigh maintenance when they're
(44:54):
winning versus players who maynot, whose teams may not be
reaching the players' goals?
So yeah, they become highmaintenance.
It's funny how we drivenarratives about people without
giving context to the situationthat they're in.
Some could say Klay's beingselfish.
(45:16):
He should just take thecontract they offer him, or take
where he's at in the pickingorder.
He should go to the bench.
Y'all wanted Alan Iverson to goto the bench, right?
Y'all said, oh yeah, alanIverson ain't who he used to be.
He should come off the bench.
Alan Iverson couldn't lick thedirt off of Clay's cleats.
Excuse me, whoa Pause, I'mtripping.
(45:38):
Clay Thompson can't lick thedirt off of Allen Iverson's
cleats.
What are we talking about?
We want an AI to go to thebench.
Klay Thompson couldn't lick thedirt off of Russell Westbrook's
cleats.
You'll give a damn if Klay gotfour rings, but we said Russell
(46:00):
need to go to the bench.
Why is Klay to go to the bench?
Why is Clay above going to thebench?
Hmm, see, that's the problem.
He'd already been in the kiln.
Clay had already been put inthe kiln, been polished up.
So now he's hardened Not James,but he's hardened and the
(46:27):
warriors couldn't shape and moldhim anymore to be who they
needed him to be, because he iswho he is.
He was who he was and they gotrid of him just because he
couldn't be molded anymore.
So I'll tell you all in life,never get to the point to where
(46:52):
you've been putting that kiln.
Don't let them put you in thekiln.
Don't let them permanently moldyou into what you are.
You always got to be adaptable.
You know, just because you'renot who you once were doesn't
mean you can't maximize who youare today, and sometimes
(47:13):
maximizing who you are today istaking a step back.
Sometimes a step back helps youtake a step forward.
Remember the infamous ReggieBush juke against Fresno State?
That was a back juke.
He didn't go forward in thatmoment to advance on that play
(47:36):
and score that touchdown.
He stepped back, let thedefense go by so he could go
forward.
Now I do think the Warriorsmisread the room, the fact that
they did not prioritize Clay'sresigning.
(48:01):
They say, hey, we're going todo this, this and this first.
Clay's resigning.
They say, hey, we're going todo this, this and this first.
Before we, even before we getto your extension, which tells
him not a priority.
And I'll tell this to you allman, when it comes to dating,
they're playing the same gamesthat people be playing and
(48:22):
dating.
Oh, I ain't going to text backright now.
I don't want to look thirsty.
Oh, I'm going to make this.
I'm going to make you waitthree days after I got a number.
Oh, now I'm going to play hardto get with this dude because I
don't want him thinking I'm easy.
No, just be up front, be who youare.
Tell somebody what you wantfrom them.
You know what, every time youmake a deal, every time you
(48:44):
interact with somebody, it's notabout coming out on top, it's
about finding the mutualinterest and running with that.
Hey, if you're interested inShawty, tell her.
Hey, young lady, if you'reinterested in an old boy, tell
him.
If you feel, like you, youcatching feelings too early, let
(49:06):
somebody know, because nowwe're playing on an even playing
field.
Now we guess what we got.
We got fairness.
Let's circle back to that.
Yeah, we got fairness and we'reoperating in a place where
we're all on the same page.
We're all on the same page andhopefully we're working towards
(49:29):
a mutual goal.
We're not working on a falsepretense.
And if we're not workingtowards a mutual goal, we now
know that so we can make adecision, an informed decision
on what to do next.
That so we can make a decisionand informed decision on what to
do next, because I don't wannaplay no games, play no games.
(49:51):
I ain't giving up my last name.
It's already given out, cuz shegot it, she got it, she got it
because she got it, she got it,she got it.
But I don't know if I couldcome off the bench for Pajinsky
either.
Clay, I don't know, I don'tknow.
(50:12):
Let's see what else we got inWNBA.
Clippers are cursed.
The clip show is cursed of theclippers.
Clippers might be the mostcursed franchise in uh nba
history.
Uh, donald sterling strippedthem from the great city of san
(50:33):
diego and um was a slumlord,didn't want to pay players, and
uh, they ain't been right eversince.
Yes, they've had exciting teams, yes, they've had playoff teams
, but you know what Was?
A slumlord, didn't want to payplayers, and they ain't been
right ever since.
Yes, they've had exciting teams, yes, they've had playoff teams
, but you know what?
They just never gotten over thehump.
Because God don't like ugly,let me take that back.
(50:56):
I ain't going to speak for God,but, based on my observation,
god ain't rocking.
Anyways, paul George walkedaway from the Clippers.
They got nothing for him andnow he is a Philadelphia 76er
and we'll talk about thatshortly.
(51:16):
But let's just think about thesummer of 2019, when the earth
moved Literally.
There was an earthquake in LA.
I was there when Kawhi Leonardand Paul George became Clippers.
We run the city, the new LA,the Clips show Same old, same
(51:38):
old Flip show.
Y'all getting clipped, cursed,cursed and clipped.
The curse of the clips, seasonone, we go to the bubble.
We had a lemon pepper loosesituation.
The Clippers players weren'tfocused.
Apparently, doc was playing abunch of golf and not focused on
(52:01):
winning.
And what happens?
And not focused on winning, andwhat happens?
Denver comes back from 3-1 towin the series.
In typical Doc fashion.
You deal with Paul Georgeinjuries, you deal with Kawhi
injuries all throughout andthey've not had a complete
playoff run.
Even when they made the EasternConference Finals, kawhi
(52:22):
Leonard wasn't there to finishout that series.
Typical Clippers stuff.
You give up Shea, gildress,alexander, a boatload of draft
picks, danilo Gallinati to pickup Paul George.
Now, mind you, I don't knockthe Clippers for making this
deal, because guess what Kawhisaid?
(52:43):
He ain't coming if he ain't gotPG with him.
It makes perfect sense.
We didn't think Shea was goingto turn into like 36-5.
We didn't think Shea was goingto be a first-team All-NBA, but
(53:04):
he did.
And we also don't know thatShea gets the opportunity,
opportunity to play next toChris Paul, one of the greatest
point guards of all time, agreat mentor, to help him become
a better pro.
We don't know that these thingsare going to happen, but they
did.
And guess what?
We have the Clippers gettingfleeced on a deal, not winning a
ring.
Things are going to happen, butthey did.
(53:24):
And guess what?
We have the Clippers gettingfleeced on a deal, not winning a
ring, and Paul George walkingout of the door.
Never meant to cause you nopain.
Well, things are the samebecause it's the Clippers not
winning and, uh, you know, hecouldn't make things right
before he walked out of theirlife.
It is what it is.
But what does this say aboutthe Clippers?
(53:48):
No matter what they do, it justwon't work.
Then stories come out that PaulGeorge found out about the Kawhi
extension like everybody elsedid through the media.
I've heard some people in themedia talk about how the players
(54:08):
are sensitive and that's not abig deal.
It may not be a big deal, butif the players are sensitive,
it's now a big deal.
You can say, oh, he should getover it, but he didn't.
He's not.
So now you made a mistake.
There wasn't a sign and tradeout there that you liked,
(54:31):
because you weren't going totrade him to the Warriors, so
they could possibly kick yourback in.
So you give up a lot.
You don't get a ring and youlose them for nothing, so you
give up a lot, you don't get aring and you're losing for
nothing.
And now it seems like theClippers are over there running
a rehab clinic signing KevinPorter Jr signing oh man, I
(54:52):
can't even think of that weirdboy's name from the Spurs who
was cutting up.
Let me see Spurs player Sexualyeah, josh, primo, yeah, y'all
(55:13):
sign him.
And then you got my man, milesBridges, and he likes that.
The Clippers are giving playersa second chance.
Now, I'm all about secondchances because I serve a God of
a second chance.
You gave me a second chance,you forgave me, so I'm not mad
at them for giving these guyssecond chances.
(55:35):
But I will tell you, opticallyit doesn't look great.
Got a man pulling his cock outand then two men who've been
accused of violently beating upwomen not a great look.
Now it's a good basketballplayers and they and they put
(55:57):
that stuff behind them.
More power to you.
I'm not mad at you, steve.
I ain't going to tell you howto spend your money and I ain't
going to sit here and tell youI'm above giving money to those
people Because I think thatpicking up Kevin Porter Jr great
pickup, great guy off the benchHe'll get you 17 tonight.
He's a bucket.
So we'll see how this works out.
(56:22):
But yeah, the Clippers man,they're a rehab clinic, they're
the clip show.
They're a shit show.
And as much as I talked aboutnobody wanting to be a Laker,
people want to be a Clipper andthey don't even go as far.
(56:45):
Now, how crazy is that?
The Lakers wanted Paul George,didn't get him.
He came to you.
The best Laker wanted Ty Lue.
Y'all didn't offer him acontract, so he went there.
You all wanted Kawhi, but Kawhididn't really want to be tied
to LeBron, so he went to theClippers.
(57:05):
And then the Clippers stillaren't as successful in the same
time span as the Lakers.
What does that say about yourorganization?
The only thing I can think ofthis as cursed, or maybe you
(57:27):
just hitching your wagon to thewrong people.
I could have gave Kawhi thatI'm not Kawhi.
I could have gave PG thatfourth year, but you didn't.
So now he is a sixer West coastguy who moved home, is now
going to Philly.
Let's see how this works out.
I will tell you that the 76ershave the best big three in the
(57:50):
league as we sit here right now.
Then they added Andre Drummondoff the bench, eric Gordon off
the bench.
They re-signed Kelly Oubre.
They have a chance to competeif healthy, but unfortunately
let me find the number PaulGeorge and Joel Embiid have not
(58:15):
played.
I want to say it's 65 games.
Let's see, joel Embiid and PaulGeorge have not played 60-plus
games in the same season sincethe 2018-2019 season.
So you're betting on habituallyinjured players to produce Now
(58:44):
again, if they're healthy in May, that's all that matters.
I mean, they could be a 10 seedand go on a run and get to the
finals if they're healthy in May.
But how do you manage that?
Daryl Morey believes in gettingstars.
Daryl Morey has put starstogether and Daryl Morey always
trots the contender out on thecourt, but Daryl Morey hasn't
won a ring.
(59:04):
Do you have enough depth tomake it happen?
Is Nick Nurse going to run theright system?
Is Nick Nurse going to maximizehis best players?
Is he going to work therotations in a way that you
always have a combination ofEmbiid, maxie and Paul George on
the court At least two of them?
(59:27):
Is Maxie going to becomfortable becoming the number
three option instead of thenumber two option, because Paul
George is better than TyreseMaxie?
Yeah, he is.
I don't care what he did.
No, yeah, come on now, becausethat's what's going to happen.
I don't know, but I'm excitedto see what comes of it.
(59:50):
So let's get to some more freeagency stuff.
Parley Pete and I we talked alittle bit about Mikael Bridges
going to the Knicks, the Knicksremaking the Villanova team.
I think they're going to be ascrappy, interesting team.
Again, I don't think they beata healthy Philly.
(01:00:11):
They match up well against theCeltics.
But you're going to be askingyour third, fourth and fifth
options to get you over the hump.
How does Julius Randle fit intointo that?
I don't really know.
We shall see.
Um, but it's going to beinteresting.
(01:00:31):
Man.
The east is going to beinteresting because you're going
to have a janice healthy janice, uh hopefully coming back, uh,
a dame that's in shape, comingback.
And what else they got?
And they just signed what's myman's name?
Torian Prince.
I mean, he'll be a good benchplayer or maybe starting three.
(01:00:57):
Who knows?
Chris Paul to the Spurs.
I think that's great.
I think Chris Paul could getthem to the Spurs.
I think that's great.
I think Chris Paul could getthem to the play-in because he's
actually going to pass Wimbythe ball.
He's going to run the offenseso you don't have to worry about
like Keldon Johnson and Sohanand Basile playing outside of
themselves.
And Wimby's reduction is justgoing to increase.
(01:01:22):
He's going to be like 25, 13, 4assists, 3 blocks, 4 blocks.
He's going to catch a lot ofoops, get a lot of easy buckets.
He's going to become more of anoffensive force so those other
guys can become more efficient.
I'm actually looking forward towatching it.
(01:01:44):
I think it's going to be a muchbetter basketball product than
they put on the court this pastyear and I'll watch more Wimby.
But for those people who areconfused about the direction
that the Spurs are going inthey're trying to incrementally
build, just trying toincrementally build.
Let's just get better this year.
(01:02:05):
Let's get better and better.
So then players are going towant to come here and play.
We just can't keep beingterrible, missing the playoffs,
missing the play-in, draftingyoung players and thinking that
veteran players are going towant to come once Wimby hits his
prime.
That's not going to happen andbecause they have a sale signed
(01:02:28):
to this contract, they have aKeldon Johnson signed to big con
, to another big contract.
These are tradable contractsfor actual star players who may
want to come down there and play.
So that's the thing, man, whenwe see these big contracts and
we get confused as to why theseplayers are signing them,
sometimes it's because you needthe money to trade for a guy
(01:02:55):
that you truly want and you needto be ready, once that guy
becomes available, to make thatmove.
Now, saying that I don'tunderstand why Toronto signed
Emmanuel quickly and ScottyBarnes to the contracts they
(01:03:19):
signed them to, because theydon't make sense to me.
But again, it's not my money,because Quickly just signed a
backup but he just signed afive-year $175 million contract.
(01:03:41):
He just signed a five-year $175million contract.
So I mean $35 a year forquickly.
That's not what I would want todo.
But hey, man, I think OKC'shaving a great offseason.
They bring in what's my man'sname?
(01:04:04):
I'm looking at him right now.
Oh my God, alex Caruso.
They traded Josh Giddey, whowas just not fitting in with
them.
They bring in a champion in AlexCaruso, an all-NBA defensive
player, a guy who can knock downan open three, a guy who can
slam a five jammer on your head.
I think that's a great move tobring in a veteran who's been
(01:04:24):
there before, a guy who's won it, a guy who's learned from the
likes of LeBron James.
He's been around a DeMarDeRozan, he's been around some
great players in this league, sohe's going to bring some great
veteran leadership to thatlocker room.
But also he's going to be ahard-nosed defender.
He's going to do what they needand then to bring in
Hartenstein again, you take himaway from the Knicks, but also
(01:04:46):
you solidify your lineup with alegitimate five, somebody who
can get in there and bang.
So now Chet can be an off-ballshot blocker on defense.
It's going to be beautiful andI'm excited to see what OKC
looks like.
Maybe that group they havethere can finally deliver a
championship to OKC and validatewhat their GM is doing, who's
(01:05:07):
been talked about as one of thebest GMs in the NBA, but he
doesn't have that championship.
Isn't it a shame that you havegreat GMs like a Daryl Morey?
You have great GMs like a DarylMorey.
You have great GMs like a SamPresti who have not won a ring,
(01:05:30):
but then you have a shitty GMlike Rob Blinker with one and
that speaks to so much of whatthe NBA is.
Or you got to have greatplayers and more times than not
you have to be in a great city.
Now one great city who can'tmake it work is Atlanta.
(01:05:52):
Landry Fields should be fired.
Kyle Korver should be fired.
Kyle Korver should be fired andTony Ressler should sell the
team.
(01:06:17):
Now the Pelicans got what theyneeded.
They need a point guard andthey got a point guard, and
DeJounte signed an extensionwith Atlanta last year.
We kind of figured he was goingto be out of the door, but he
was going to be out of the door.
(01:06:42):
But they traded DeJounte Murrayto the Pelicans.
The Hawks traded DeJounteMurray for the Pelicans for two
first-round picks one in 2025,one of the Lakers' picks, which
isn't going to be great, and a2027 pick, which is from their
(01:07:03):
own pick or the Bucks whicheverpick is worse For Larry Nance,
ej Liddell and Dyson Daniels.
The hell are we doing Atlanta?
The hell are we doing Atlanta?
(01:07:24):
The hell are we doing?
I'm not saying that you don'ttrade them because you see it's
not working, but could you get alittle bit more?
Could you tell your fan basethat you're trying to make
positive moves in the rightdirection, or is it just a fire
(01:07:46):
sale?
Are we just going to rid theteam of the stench of the past
few years?
I mean the Lakers would atleast give you D'Lo.
I'm not saying Trey and D'Lowork, but D'Lo's played off ball
(01:08:10):
because he plays with LeBron.
D'lo is an expiring contract, soguess what?
You can move him.
What the hell is Larry Nancegoing to do for the Hawks?
The hell is Dyson Diggins goingto do for the Hawks?
What the hell is EJ Liddellgoing to do for the Hawks?
What the hell is the Lakers2025 draft pick going to do for
(01:08:32):
the Hawks?
What the hell is a bump or NewOrleans 2027 pick going to do
for the Hawks?
Both teams are going to be inthe playoffs and not in the
lottery.
What are we doing?
Travis Slink builds a team thatgets to the Eastern Conference
Finals, goes six games.
(01:08:53):
No, trey Young you move him out.
You overpay for DeJounte Murray.
You move him out.
You over paper to John TateMurray and you trade him for a
bag of peanuts, an empty Celsiuscan and a box of used condoms.
The hell are we doing?
(01:09:16):
Do you want to maintain a famedfan base?
Do you want to maintain a fanbase?
Do you want to build a fan basewho cares?
And to come to State Farm Arena, aka the Highlight Factory, and
listen to Big Tigger act likehe's an Atlanta sports fan?
Because I don't think you do.
I don't think you care, and whythe hell should I spend my
(01:09:37):
hard-earned money to go watchyou all put this bullshit out on
the court.
It's a rudderless ship.
It's a team with no direction.
Let's go ahead and trade TraeYoung to the Lakers.
Let's go ahead and build aroundRishon's way.
(01:09:57):
Let's just be terrible.
Let's just be terrible.
Let's just be a poorly ranfranchise and let our record
reflect.
I don't even want to make theplan.
I don't want hope.
I don't want to see Trey Younggiving us 25 and 10 every night.
(01:10:20):
I don't want to see Trey Younggiving us 25 and 10 every night.
I don't want hope.
I want to see DeAndre Hunterplaying.
Go ahead, trey Capella, treyOkonwu, just strip the team down
to the studs and hope you canget Cooper Flagg or the kid
(01:10:42):
who's going to Rutgers.
I don't want to be 40 and 42.
I don't want to win 35 games.
Nah, let's just become theWashington Wizards.
Let's become the SacramentoKings of most of my life.
(01:11:08):
Let's be the Blazers.
Let's just be God awful.
Let's be the team that nobodywith league pads picks to watch.
You know what?
Let's just put the cheerleaderson the court.
It's Atlanta, they'll watch.
Let's go to Magic City andoverpay for every stripper in
(01:11:33):
the strip club and sign them onas free agents.
Hell, we might as well justturn the Hawks into a booty club
, because I ain't going to bedoing it.
I mean because I'll, becauseI'll.
Wrestle is doing it.
It's working the team away.
That's all that's happening.
He's just working away.
(01:11:54):
The damn about winning, the damnabout building a culture.
What are we watching?
What are we paying for?
You ain't being true to thecity.
You are less than five yearsremoved from an Eastern
Conference showing Hell.
You're three years removed frombeing in the Eastern Conference
(01:12:16):
Finals.
Look what the Knicks did.
You put the Knicks out in thefirst round.
Look what they've done.
You put Philly out in thesecond round.
Look what they've done, hell.
Look what the ClevelandCavaliers are doing.
Look what the Orlando Magic aredoing.
These guys are building teams.
(01:12:40):
These guys are winning games.
What the hell are the Hawksdoing?
Y'all took a, y'all took alittle.
Y'all took a canoe into theocean.
Man ship ain't big enough tocatch a marlin can't catch no
(01:13:08):
one of that little bitty boat.
You gonna drown.
That's what the hawks are doing.
Drown, oh, drown.
Alright.
Last thing I'm going to talkabout in basketball probably,
(01:13:33):
well, lonzo Ball is back, butthat's not what I want to talk
about.
I'm actually going to Trying topull up, pull up what's it
called.
I'm trying to pull up a WNBAAll-Star game.
So let's just look at someAll-Star voting results for the
(01:13:59):
WNBA, because you know I do talkabout the WNBA on this podcast.
Last year, asia Wilson led allvoters with 95,000 votes.
Kaylin Clark got 700.
Bree Stewart was number twowith 87,000.
Aaliyah Boston was number twothis year with 618,000.
Brittany Griner was numberthree, even though she was in
penitentiary, with 72,000.
(01:14:19):
Asia Wilson with 618,000.
Brittany Griner was numberthree, even though she was in
penitentiary, with 72,000.
Asia Wilson has 607,000.
Aaliyah Boston was four with72,000.
Ambree Stewart has 424,000.
And Jackie Young was five with63,000.
And now Angel Reese is fivewith 381,000.
Y'all better thank CaitlinClark, boy.
(01:14:43):
Y'all better thank Angel Reese,because, good God, almighty,
they're bringing viewership,they're bringing eyes.
Look at how much the voting hasincreased.
This is a beautiful thing and itshould be taken seriously.
(01:15:03):
It should be taken seriously.
I get it.
You don't put them on theOlympic team because they
weren't quote-unquote goodenough.
Y'all bully them becausethey're Rooks and they need to.
They need to, they need to earntheir stripes.
Well, they earning, theyearning their stripes, all right
, hell, the indiana, the indianashot, whatever their name is.
(01:15:27):
Um, I don't want to do that.
I don't want to do that, let me.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I got this right.
Indiana Fever my apologies,indiana Fever.
They having home games atStaples.
First time in years that theSparks play in Staples, they
(01:15:47):
sell it out.
Guess who they're rooting for?
Kalen Clark.
A night or two ago we had theAces versus the Fever.
They sell out T-Mobile 20,000watching the game, more people
at that game than went to one ofthe finals games.
I better thank them.
(01:16:10):
They got rookies playing nowwhy?
Because they're good, butthey're also popular and that
matters.
That drives revenue andhopefully the WNBA can become a
major, major, major league thatcan compete.
(01:16:30):
So now we have.
Let me pull up.
So we got the WNBA Olympic teamplaying against the WNBA
All-Stars.
So let's see WNBA All-Stars.
What a suck.
So July 20th we got theAll-Star game.
So Team WNBA is going to beDeJuanna Bonner, aaliyah
(01:16:53):
Ballston, kaitlyn Clark, topvote getter.
Alicia Gray, derrick Ahamby,brianna Jones, john Quayle Jones
it's nice Kayla McBride, kelseyMitchell, arike I ain't gonna
try to say her name Neke I ain'tgonna try to say her last name
and Angel Reese.
They're gonna face off againstNafisa Collar, kalia Cooper,
(01:17:15):
chelsea Gray, britton Grinus,sabrina Nescu, jewel Lloyd,
kelsey Plum, brianna Stewart,diana Taurasi, alyssa Thomas,
asia Wilson and Jackie Young.
I ain't saying that this isgoing to be.
I ain't saying Team USA isgoing to lose, because they're
not.
They're going to win.
But it might be a competitivegame, because I'm just looking
(01:17:42):
at it, can't nobody get a bucketlike a re-game?
Kayla and Clark at the pointgoing to finally have some
basketball players with them.
She can Hee-hee Two.
Aaliyah Boston's going to doher thing, jonquil Jones,
monster Killing it.
And Angel Reese is going tograb damn near every rebound,
(01:18:03):
because that's what she do.
So I'm looking forward to it.
I'm totally looking forward toit.
I mean it's going to be a greatgame.
I'm not going to gamble on it,but I'm definitely going to
watch it.
What else do I have to do onJuly 20th?
I need to put in my calendarRemember to watch this all-star
game.
But now, this is a greatshowing for the WNBA putting
(01:18:29):
their best talent on the court.
And here we have the Olympicteam, you know, getting tuned up
because there's nointernational competition they
can really play against, to getthem ready To play against the
best of the rest of the WNBA,and I am totally, totally
looking forward to it.
Hey, but that's our.
That's basketball hour.
(01:18:50):
I'm going to call it hour one.
Man, I just had a technological difficulty.
That wasn't even atechnological difficulty, rather
interesting.
So I started going live and Idid not.
I did not have my, I didn'thave my microphone in front of
(00:23):
me.
And because I didn't have themicrophone in front of me, I
like go grab it real quick.
And then I hit one of thebuttons on my soundboard.
So I'm sitting here thinking, oh, I'm not talking, I'm not
talking because I couldn't hearmyself in the headphones, and I
love to hear myself in theheadphones.
It's crazy, probablynarcissistic, sue me,
(00:50):
narcissistic, uh, sue me.
But because of that I'm like Idon't know if I can, if I can do
this, because you know it's not, it's not working.
And lo and behold, I wastalking just fine and um, yeah.
So apologies to anybody whoclicks on the YouTube page and
sees that Luckily I got off inlike 37 seconds, but it's not
(01:11):
really the way we want to startan episode.
But I just had to get that outthere because it's a nice easy
way to warm up.
I should have some niceAmerican music for you all to
talk about.
Proud to be an American, whereat least I know I'm free.
But you know, I gave y'all thatfor after the Boston Celtics
won the NBA finals, and so we'renot going to repeat that again.
(01:35):
So we're just going to sit here, we're going to have a nice
conversation and happy Fourth ofJuly, happy Independence Day to
those of you who celebrate it.
I'm going to hop on the grilltomorrow, probably drink some
nice domestic American beer,maybe smoke a cigar if I don't
smoke one tonight, we'll see.
So I want to start this podcastby talking about a very strong
(01:57):
American value nepotism.
We might be the land of thefree and the home of the brave.
We might be the land of thefree and the home of the brave,
but, like in section andparagraph B, part 2.4, we're
definitely a country of nepotism.
So let's define nepotism beforewe even get into this
(02:20):
discussion.
Nepotism is defined as thepractice the practice amongst
those with power or influence offavoring relatives, friends or
associates, especially by givingthem jobs.
Nepotism I don't have a problemwith it.
Think about this Our parentscrawl that we can walk and we
(02:51):
walk so that our kids can run,and that's what LeBron did.
We act like we don't like it insports because we think that
sports is a meritocracy, but ifyou've been on a sports team.
You know it's not truly ameritocracy.
Think about baseball Coach'sson pitcher, shortstop usually
(03:19):
has a prime spot in the battingorder, makes the all-star team,
gets all the opportunities.
Football coach's son, sonquarterback, middle linebacker,
glamour position and gets thechance.
It's not like we do opentryouts, especially when you're
talking about younger kids.
And that's where it starts,because you play these positions
(03:41):
over years because of theopportunities that's given to
you.
But it's not like they go outthere, hey, let's test out our
skills and put the best playerat this spot.
No, they put the person theywant there.
Coach's son, friend of thecoach, and that's how it.
That's just how it works andyou can even think about maybe
(04:01):
you're in high school, maybecollege Hell, maybe in
professional.
You have a personality conflictwith a coach.
So because of your personalityconflict, your talents don't get
the opportunity to be put onfront street, or you bond well
with the coach or your parent isclose with the coach.
(04:23):
So you get more opportunitiesto play.
You get more opportunities tomake mistakes.
You have a longer leash.
That is very prevalent insports culture from the very
beginning.
What we want to act like it'snot a thing.
It doesn't exist at theprofessional levels.
(04:44):
It's not a thing.
It doesn't exist at theprofessional levels.
It's not true.
And I understand we want tolive in a world where we think
everything, where things arefair, but it's not.
We don't have a problem with anowner passing his team down to
his or her kids.
We don't have a problem with aCEO giving the company over to a
(05:09):
family member, but we have aproblem with a player getting
his son a job.
Now let's think about this NBAplayers are labor.
They're not ownership, they arelabor.
(05:30):
They're not ownership, they arelabor.
So when you think about thehierarchy of the league and I
understand the money isdifferent because the labor gets
paid more than the coach andthe executives and all that
stuff, but they are on thebottom floor of the hierarchy.
They are the labor, the product.
They're not management.
(05:50):
Who builds the team?
They're not the coach who, who,who advises?
Who advises the player, setsthe strategy and they're not the
owner who cuts the checks.
They are labor, just like manyof us are at our jobs.
How many of us have put in agood word To get a friend hired
at a job we know we had a littlebit of clout.
(06:12):
Where we're working at, ourword is respected.
So we say, hey, man, get thatperson a shot.
They may not have the bestresume, they may not be the most
qualified, but Because we putin our word and we said that
they could fill the role andthey could do it, they got hired
.
Same thing, same thing.
(06:41):
And if we're going to keep it onsports, think about coaching,
think about front offices Hell,I can look at the Hawks right
now.
Tony Ressler, the owner of theHawks, allows his son to run the
franchise.
What qualifications does hisson have to run the franchise?
I'll wait.
Oh yeah, he's the owner's son.
(07:03):
So if we don't have a problemwith owners letting their kids
run a team, why do we have aproblem with players putting in
a good word so their kids can beon the team?
It doesn't make sense and heck.
A report came out today sayingthat Bronny is going to spend a
(07:24):
lot of time in the G League, buthe has a fully guaranteed
contract, so he's good.
So if everybody's doing it, whycan't athletes do it?
Is it because it's getting inthe way of the integrity of the
game?
(07:44):
No, is there a racial componentbehind it that may make some
people feel uncomfortable.
Maybe or is it that you have aproblem with nepotism because
it's not benefiting you, it'sbenefiting someone else, because
(08:04):
while you're sitting here, howmany of you would turn down the
opportunity to achieve alifelong goal, to make millions
of dollars, because you feltlike you weren't qualified.
But somebody put in a good wordfor you and they got you that
opportunity?
I bet you nobody who hears thiswould turn that opportunity
(08:29):
down.
And if it were you giving thatopportunity, you wouldn't shame
the person or criticize theperson who gave you that
opportunity.
But because it's not you, youhave a problem with nepotism.
Nobody has a problem withnepotism when they're receiving
(08:52):
it.
They just have a problem withit because somebody else is
receiving it.
I think some people felt likethey were good enough to make it
to the NBA and they didn't.
So they're upset.
Oh, if my coach would have justbelieved in me and gave me
chances.
Oh, man, this and that.
Oh, if I just would have knownsomebody.
(09:19):
Let's just think about our worldas a whole.
Do you think the most talentedmusic artists are the artists
who get the most shine, or thatthe ones with talent that get
discovered?
Do you think the most talentedmechanic makes the most money,
or that the mechanic who got theopportunity to work at the best
shop.
Do you think the most talentedcoders are coding at Google or
(09:42):
coding for Apple?
Some of them, yeah, but thereare also capable coders who
aren't there because they justweren't discovered and there are
other maybe capable, less thancapable or more than capable
coders there because their dadworked for the company.
(10:02):
They had a good friend whoworks for the company.
They had a good friend whoworks for the company.
They know someone in management.
So it happens all over our life.
It happens all over the world,in everyone's lives.
But why do we have a problemwith it?
When it's sports and thinkingabout sports, there's a human
(10:29):
aspect to it.
It's humans playing a game.
You know, referees are human.
Referees don't make every callcorrectly, because it's called
human error.
Some players get more leewaythan others because of their
rapport with the officials.
Every call correctly, becauseit's called human error.
Some players get more leewaythan others because of their
rapport with the officials.
Some players get more leewaythan others because of their
(10:53):
style of play.
I wouldn't necessarily callthat nepotism, but it's a form
of favoritism which then takesthe fairness out of it, right,
but we're looking for fair.
And if Chris Paul is abasketball player who's
uber-aggressive on defense, veryhandy, very physical, likes to
(11:14):
foul, but they don't want tofoul him out the game because
he's a star player, that's notfair either.
So where do you draw the line?
Allen Iverson Maybe not themost favorite player by the
referees Draymond Green, rasheedWallace Do they always get
called fairly?
(11:34):
Do they get the benefit of thedoubt?
No, no, you know why.
Because their rapport wasdifferent with the referees.
That's not fair.
Lebron James doesn't foul outof basketball games.
Why?
He's a superstar, he gets thebenefit of the doubt.
Is that fair?
Mj would get the makeup call,kobe get the makeup call.
(11:58):
If a superstar tells thereferee hey man, he's fouling me
, he's riding my hip super hard,pause, they get the benefit of
the doubt.
Is that fair?
The referee didn't necessarilysee it, but somebody who had
some clout told him.
Now what happens if the ninthman off the bench says hey, man,
(12:20):
he's holding me.
I ain't see it.
We keep it pushing.
What happens in a football gamewhen the referee spot the ball
wrong?
Go do the challenge.
They get it wrong.
It's not fair.
So why do we have a problemwith something that's not fair
when the Lakers use a 55th pickon LeBron James' son.
(12:41):
You tell me how many superstars, how many impact players have
been the 55th pick and I'll tellyou most of them are either
overseas or selling insurance.
Now you got AI.
Imagine you getting replaced atyour job by AI.
(13:06):
Or imagine you getting a paycut because artificial
intelligence is doing your job.
Because the company's job is tomake money and provide the best
product or service that theycan, but you want to keep your
job and you want to keep yoursalary right.
(13:27):
Product or service that theycan, but you want to keep your
job and you want to keep yoursalary right.
And because your supervisor orthe CEO likes you, you get to
keep your job and they don'tallow the computer to do your
job.
That's not fair, is it?
That may not even be in thebest interest of the company to
keep you, just like draftingBrani may not be in the best
(13:49):
interest of the Lakers, becausemaybe they could have found
another player who could helpthem immediately.
I doubt it, but it's possible.
What's the difference?
It's only different becauseit's sports and the people who
(14:15):
have a problem with nepotism insports are the same people who
want to say shut up and dribblehey, lebron, don't put your son
on.
No, just go out there and playbasketball.
And I've talked about shut upand dribble here, and at times I
do think it's applicable.
But what I've learned throughthat is it's not about shut up
and dribble, it's about stickingto the rivers and lakes that
(14:36):
you're used to, and I like thatone so much better, because it's
if you know, you know.
But if you don't Shut up, if Ijust tell you to shut up and
dribble, that means I only, youonly know basketball, or I'm
(14:57):
saying you only know basketball,so that's all you should do.
Or you only know football, oryou only know sink, or you only
know, or you only know football,or you only know sinking, or
you only know uh, um, automechanic and not aviation
mechanic.
You only know, um, how to cutgrass, but you don't know how to
weeding, because that's whatyou primarily do.
(15:19):
I'm going to say stick to therivers and lakes that you used
to.
That you're used to because youcan have experience in other
places.
Because you can have experiencein other places and because
you're used to those rivers andlakes, we should go swimming.
(15:42):
The second apron.
Parley Pete and I came on hereand talked about the issues with
the nba.
We talked about the issues withthe players association.
We talked about the issues withthe owners.
We talked about how the NBAcould never become the NFL
(16:03):
because the players have toomuch power, guaranteed contracts
, all of this and that right.
And this is not talking aboutplayers not getting paid.
It's more focused on thetelevision product, the teams
and those important things thatwe really care about in sports.
(16:26):
You know falling in love with ateam, but now we have the
second apron that's going totake effect and we're already
seeing how it's affecting teams.
The Nuggets lose KCP why theydon't want to be in the second
(16:46):
apron.
They don't want to berestricted.
So now they're being punishedfor being able to build a great
team.
We see the Warriors move off ofKlay Thompson.
They've been paying a big taxbill, but now with the second
apron, they've been paying a bigtax bill, but now with the
(17:11):
second apron, there's morerestrictions that come with
paying that big tax bill.
No-transcript, you got theCeltics.
They're acting like the secondapron doesn't exist with the
(17:32):
amount of money that they'regiving out, but the owner wants
to sell the team.
So what does that tell you?
Let me get out while thegetting is good.
So the NBA wanted to make itharder to build a super team,
but what I think the PlayersAssociation and the owners and
(17:54):
the commissioner and everybodyinvolved with coming up with
this first apron and the secondapron failed to realize is
you're now punishing teams forbuilding great teams.
And I'm not just talking aboutthe teams who build through free
agency, like the Lakers.
I'm talking about a homegrownteam like the Celtics.
They draft two cornerstoneplayers, they make smart trades,
(18:19):
smart signings to build achampion.
I'm talking about a team likethe Nuggets, who built their
franchise around two homegrownplayers, made some smart trades,
made some great free agencypickups and now they're
champions.
I'm talking about teams likethe Warriors Three homegrown
(18:40):
players, good trades, good freeagency signing, great
development, and now they haveto make business decisions
Because they want to be able tocompete In the future.
(19:02):
And to me it sounds like a bunchof nerds who didn't really
understand sports coming up withthese ideas.
It sounds like the owners whocan't ever win because they
don't want to spend the money,or they don't generate the money
or they are in a terriblemarket, trying to level the
playing field.
Again, it goes back to thefairness, and while we don't
(19:25):
like nepotism, we wanteverything to be fair.
Well, guess what?
Life's not fair, and I'm not ona quest to make life fair for
everybody, or even for me.
My goal is to learn the rulesand play the game and be one of
the best at it.
So, whatever that takes, that'swhat I want to do.
(19:50):
So yeah, now we're going to getsome parity in the NBA.
But guess what?
Players are going to bechanging teams, just like they
were in the player empowermentera.
But it's not going to be theplayers empowering themselves to
leave, it's going to be theteams empowering themselves to
get rid of them.
So now I don't know what JimmyButler jersey to buy.
I don't know what Chris Stott'sPorzingis jersey to buy,
(20:13):
because the second I bought ajersey.
Oh man traded, oh man released.
Oh man, I can't rally behindthis dynasty because it's going
to be broken up before we evenget a dynasty.
Guess what NBA fans like?
The Clash of the Titans?
We like LeBron versus Steph.
(20:35):
We like Magic versus Larry.
We like Larry versus MJ.
We like Larry versus IsaiahThomas.
We like Michael Jordan versusIsaiah Thomas.
We like Michael Jordan versusIsaiah Thomas.
We like Michael Jordan versusthe Showtime Lakers.
That's what we like.
We like dynasties.
(20:56):
We like oh my God, are theOrlando Rockets about to not
Orlando Rockets, the OrlandoMagic about to build a dynasty
and take down the Bulls?
We like Kobe and Shaq versusTim Duncan.
We like the old Spurs dynastycircling back one time to attack
(21:18):
the Heatles.
That's what we like.
But under the second apron we'renot going to get it and maybe
it does level out the playingfield for the bottom tier teams
and the bad owners.
That just creates a bad productand I've talked about this
(21:39):
before on this platform.
It's so crazy that capitalisticowners who want to be
capitalists in every part ofrunning their team.
They want to pay their labor aslittle as they can to get as
(21:59):
much as they can out of them,but they want socialist
principles when it comes tooverall winning.
They want socialist principleswhen it comes to revenue sharing
.
It's like, oh no, we got tosplit this pot evenly.
(22:22):
Not you make what you earn, butthey want the players to make
what they earn.
You see how crazy that is.
You see the crazy that is.
You see the hypocrisy there.
Oh, I'll bring my son on, orI'll bring one of my friends on.
I'll put him on the bench as anassistant coach.
Oh, I'll bring him in to be ascout.
Oh, I'll bring him in to workin the front office, be an
(22:44):
executive.
Oh, I'll let my son run theteam, but I don't want my
players to do the same.
I want to be a cutthroatcapitalist when it comes to
paying labor, but I don't wantto be a cutthroat capitalist
(23:04):
when it comes to me getting paid.
When it comes to me attractingtalent, oh, I need to be good at
my job to maximize my funds.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
We're going to end up in theblack every year.
Ref share the Lakers, theWarriors, the Knicks, the
Celtics.
(23:24):
They're going to make enoughmoney for us all.
I get it.
That's how they becamebillionaires Most of them, but a
lot of them.
They became billionairesbecause they came out of their
mama, because their daddyalready had it.
Oh, man.
But hey, man, the Celts are forsale.
Shout out to the Celts forstriking while the iron's hot.
(23:46):
I think that the second apronhas a lot to do with this,
because of the amount of moneythat they'd be paying in order
to be a winner.
And they bought a team for likewell I know less than 400,000
somewhere in the or excuse me400 million, somewhere at 300
million, uh, uh range, and nowthey're going to sell it for
(24:07):
somewhere between five and sevenbillion dollars.
Can't tell them they're wrong.
You've made money annually offof the investment and now you
can flip that investmentinvestment for I don't know how
many times that is, but many,many, many, many, many, many,
many, many, many, many, manytimes.
Good for them.
(24:27):
Many, many, many, many, many,many, many, many, many times.
Good for them.
No one wants to be a Laker, andI've been sitting here trying to
think about why no one wouldwant to be a Laker.
(24:47):
Is it LeBron, is it JJ, is itRob or is it Jeannie?
So here's what I decided to doI decided to make a blame pie
and I used fairly easypercentage numbers to break this
(25:11):
down, but I got a four-wayblame pie for it.
Why no one wants to be a Laker?
Let's start with LeBron.
I give LeBron 12.5%.
Why he's older?
He just resigned for two yearsfor the Max.
He has a unique style of playthat doesn't always bring out
(25:36):
the best and really good playersbecause they have to adjust
their game to him and he's notshown that he's going to adjust
his game to a large degree toanybody else.
I give another 12.5 to JJ.
Why Rookie coach, never coachedbefore.
He's brand new.
(25:56):
Shout out to him for bringingin Nate McMillan and Scotty
Brooks to sit on his bench.
I think they'll definitely helphim out with the in-game
adjustments and substitutionpatterns and the important
in-game stuff, because I don'tthink anybody worth their salt
questions jj as a big picturecoach with a vision and a style
(26:23):
of play that that they thinkwill be successful in the nba.
I don't think that's an issuethere.
It's just will he manage thein-game stuff?
How will he manage the egos?
How will he manage balldistribution?
How will he manage substitutionpatterns?
You know stuff like that.
You know real shit.
So I only give him 12.5.
(26:44):
Now Rob Palenka gets 25%.
And Rob Palenka gets 25%because apparently he couldn't
get Clay Thompson on the phone.
He couldn't get a meeting withhim.
The only deal that he's madeworth a damn that we care about
is the Anthony Davis deal thatMagic Johnson had set up.
(27:04):
But the difference betweenRob's deal and Magic's deal
Magic was going to keep BI andmove Kuzma.
And Rob moves Kuzma, excuse me,moves BI and kept Kuzma.
But guess what?
Bi made an all-star game andplays at an all-star level when
healthy.
So again, he made a good move.
He got him a championship, butthe move could have been better
(27:29):
Maybe.
And then we blame Rob Palenkafor the LeBron James move, I
mean for the Russell Westbrookmove, or we put that blame on
LeBron instead of on Rob Palenka.
But ultimately Rob Palenka'sthe one who pulls the strings
and he's shown the propensity totell LeBron no, so, yeah,
that's what LeBron.
(27:50):
No, so yeah, that's what LeBronwanted.
But this isn't me caping forLeBron, this is me shitting on
Rob Blanco.
So I give Rob Blanco 25% GDBus,you get 50.
You are the problem with theLakers Because, as the owner,
you set the culture, the Lakers,because, as the owner, you set
(28:11):
the culture, you make the hires,you make the fires.
I mean, since LeBron's beenthere, luke Walton, frank Vogel,
darvin Ham, now JJ Redick.
But have you looked at Rob?
Have you said, rob, I can't, Imean, I can't fire myself?
(28:32):
I can say it, but I can't firemyself.
Rob, you're not doing what weneed from you.
And because she allows Rob afirst-time GM, first-time
president of basketballoperations, somebody who's in
the family Kobe's agent, formeragent lets him run the team and
appears to be running him in thedirt and escaping any type of
(28:54):
criticism.
Yeah, I'm sure he's in youroffice often.
I'm sure y'all have cocktailstogether.
I'm sure y'all go to thecountry club together.
Y'all have that great rapportand y'all built rapport over the
years.
But because you allow this manto run your franchise into the
dirt, I give you 50% of theblame.
(29:15):
Now let's talk about it.
So free agency is active rightnow.
Lebron said that he would bewilling to take a pay cut if
they made moves on some players,valanchunas being one of them,
(29:37):
klay Thompson being another.
Valanchunas signed for threeyears 30 with the Washington
Wizards.
What are we doing here?
Klay goes to Dallas and Robcan't even get a meeting with
him.
Can't get him on the phone.
What are we doing here?
Clay goes to Dallas and Robcan't even get a meeting with
him.
Can't get him on the phone.
What are we doing here?
Nobody wants to be a Laker.
Because you're running a momand pop shop.
(30:00):
You want people to be proudthat the Lakers want them
instead of being happy that theycome to you.
This ain't the 80s or the early2000s.
You're not who you once were.
You are who you are and youappear to be a dysfunctional
franchise ran by an incompetentowner who's being advised by the
(30:21):
incompetent Rambis family, whohas an incompetent president of
basketball operations, and theonly reason that you're relevant
and competent is because youhave LeBron James, who also
hand-delivered Anthony Davis toyou.
Y'all should thank Rich Paul.
Hell, y'all should put RichPaul on payroll.
You might save some money,because Rich Paul is the reason
(30:47):
for y'all's season.
It's not y'all, but becauseit's the brand, it's the Lakers,
it's LA, it's Sunset, it'sBeverly Hills, it's Malibu, it's
the beach, it's the taco truck,it's the baddies.
It's the best city in the worldto be famous in, because so
(31:12):
many people here are famous.
Oh, you should be proud to be aLaker.
No, y'all ain't running a proudorganization.
You run through coaches, like Irun through trolls, which I
(31:33):
want to keep it tight, tight ina circle.
Guess what?
Yeah, the circle ain't good.
Staying loyal to someone onlymatters if that person is
providing you what you what youneed.
I've made friends and I've lostfriends, and you know why I
lost some friends, it wasn'tbecause of lack of loyalty, it's
(31:58):
because they were no longergiving.
Is that what y'all say, nolonger giving?
They did not provide for mewhat I needed in a friendship
for uh, at that time in my life.
So you know what I did?
I said yeah, no, well, I had noconversation with him, I just
stopped talking to him.
(32:18):
You know, go smoke.
It's just like yeah, no, bro,love you can't rock with you and
guess what?
There's nothing wrong with that.
And guess what?
There's nothing wrong with that.
Jeannie Buzz?
Hey, kurt, whatever your wife'sname is, I know we got all
these years in grew up in thisthing together, but you know
(32:40):
what?
That ain't rocking.
Hey, rob, I know we worked allthese years together, with Kobe
being here, you being his agentand you coming back.
You know we got 20 years inthis thing now, but you're not
performing well enough andyou're passing the buck on
everybody else here.
It can't just be the coaches Atsome point.
It has to be the constructionof the roster.
(33:01):
And guess what?
You construct the roster.
And guess what?
You hire the staff.
You oversee that staff thatconstructs this roster.
You hire the coaches.
Yeah, I took your advice,because that's your job To run
my operation.
You've got to go.
(33:24):
But nobody wants to be theLakers, because the Lakers are a
dumpster fire.
And who the hell wants to gojump in a dumpster fire?
One you're gonna burn up, twois trash, I guess.
Think about it.
Trash, the stuff we get rid ofis on fire, the thing we get
away from.
So if we get rid of trash andwe run away from fire and the
(33:47):
Lakers are a dumpster fire, whyin the world would anybody want
to go there?
Why, that's stupid.
So until the Lakers put thefire out, then call waste
management to come dump thisdump style, people are going to
(34:13):
keep running.
Now maybe they make a move toget DeMar DeRozan on a signing
trade, but if the plan is to runit back with LeBron AD D-Lo,
austin Reeves, austin Reeves,roy Hachimura Vando, that's a
(34:37):
dog that don't bark.
That's a horse that don't trot.
That's a gun that don't shoot.
It's a condom with a hole in it, the bots BBL gotta pull up to
(35:13):
that one.
Y'all, I've got to pull up tothat one.
Woo, feeling like Ric Flair inthis thing.
(35:42):
Well, it's official, theWarriors dynasty is over and
like all dynasties, they don'tend pretty.
There's no, just walking offinto the sunset.
Klay Thompson signed athree-year $50 million contract
(36:06):
with the Dallas Mavericks but,if we think about it, the
Warriors dynasty has been onshaky ground for a little while.
The Warriors dynasty has beenon shaky ground for a little
while, whether it's injuries,whether it's the departure of
(36:33):
Kevin Durant not making theplayoffs, this is not really
woes.
Demar has not been what Hold onHold on, hold on, hold on, hold
on, hold on, hold on, hold on.
Let me see if this really exists, because this is somebody
saying that they're Woj, and Idon't really believe it.
(36:53):
Let me hop on X real quick,let's see.
Okay, that's what I thought.
I knew this was nonsense.
I knew this was total nonsense,but let's, let me just.
(37:19):
Let me just humor this righthere.
It would be nice if the morethe roads and was traded there.
I knew this was total nonsense,but let's, let me just.
Let me just humor this righthere.
It would be nice if the martharhodes and was traded there.
Yep, this is all fraud.
This is all fraud.
You know, I don't know who youare posing as woj up here in the
comments, but you didn't get me, buddy.
(37:42):
You didn't get me.
You almost had me here thinkingI got some breaking news from
Woj and I'm like why is Woj onmy timeline?
All right, anyways, end of anera.
We know these things happen.
All good things come to an end,but but yeah, let's just look
(38:05):
at the Warriors dynasty.
When you talk about themwinning the championship in 2018
, they said it was tough, it wasa rough season.
Then you go through 2019 andthey end up losing to uh the,
the, the Raptors.
After uh injury to Klay Thompson, who tore his ACL during the
finals, and Kevin Durant, whohad an injured calf muscle but
(38:26):
then ended up tearing hisAchilles while there, while
trying to come back, you had theDraymond and KD incident that
both of them admitted it washandled wrong by the franchise.
They tried to force them toreconcile when it's like, hey,
man, we grown men, we'll do thison our own time, which I
totally agree with, but I dounderstand the franchise trying
(38:50):
to mend that fence as soon aspossible.
Many people think that theWarriors did Clay wrong by not
bringing him back.
Well, you know what?
This is a business first, andto them, them, the money didn't
make sense.
Some people go Clay should begrateful because they paid him
for those two years he was out.
Hey, yeah, they didn't plan forthe second injury and it's like
(39:15):
, well, if you come back fromthis ACL you'll be good.
But again, things happen.
But men have pride.
Men have pride.
And the thing about men havingpride it's one of the best and
worst things that we can have,because our pride can make us
the best of the best at what wedo, but it can have us
(39:38):
disillusioned in a way that wedon't realize that we're not who
we once were.
I'm telling you I'm theprideful man.
Sometimes I have to remindmyself you're not who you once
were.
You ain't the same Adam youused to be.
You're a different guy.
You can't just get up and goplay seven games of pickup and
(40:02):
be fine the next day.
You can't go out on a night onthe town with the boys and think
you're going to wake up and doit again the next day.
No, big dog, you need to drinkwater, and that comes with age.
Clay Thompson, you don't moveleft to right in that defensive
stance like you used to.
That's what got you there, butthat's what also got you to
(40:30):
Dallas.
And read articles about Clay'spride feeling disrespected,
getting moved to the bench andit's like, hey, man, we're
trying something new Becauseyou're not who you once were.
But when you talk about thepeople aspect of it, it's all
(40:50):
man's pride hurt.
Man, he's out of here, notcoming off the bench, are you
crazy?
But Bob, I look at Bob Myersright now.
Bob, my the smooth criminal,because Bob said you know what,
(41:17):
damn an extension, I'm out ofhere.
I go talk to Steve and A Smith.
Let me tell you what ifsomebody turns down millions of
dollars to do what they're greatat, to probably more than
likely make less millions.
To talk to Stephen A Smith, yougot to know that hell is on the
(41:38):
way.
So he didn't have to negotiatethe Draymond contract.
He didn't have to make thetough decision on Clay.
He got out scot-free.
But what we should have takenaway from Bob leaving is oh yeah
, this shit's over.
(41:59):
And I know there are some ofyou out here who say Draymond
shouldn't get paid.
But guess what?
Draymond really hasn't fallenoff.
Yeah, he couldn't shoot thethree.
He doesn't shoot the three nowthe way that he used to, but he
lost that a while ago.
But he's still a top defensiveplayer.
He's still a top post passeroffensive facilitator.
(42:22):
What made Klay Thompson sogreat was that he was an amazing
two-way player.
He played great defense and heknocked down shots.
Now, don't get me wrong, hispoints per game went down.
He averaged 18 on 39% fromthree.
So it's not.
He's still shooting at a highclip, but his defense isn't the
(42:42):
same, whereas Draymond, hisantics, the stuff that we see
may be worse, it may be a bitoutlandish, but he's still a
hell of a basketball player.
But see, winning cures all andthe Warriors weren't winning.
(43:03):
The Warriors aren't winning.
So you're damn right, clay isgoing to be feeling some type of
way about having to come offthe bench, not closing out games
, especially if you lose a gameyou didn't close out.
Oh, you didn't want me to playbecause of this, but no, come on
(43:25):
now.
That's how this shit works.
Remember when Kevin Durant came, clay said I ain't giving up no
shots.
I ain't giving up no shots.
Damn who Katie is.
I'm not giving up no shots.
I don't knock him for itbecause he's a hematite Part of
(43:45):
the greatest shooting backcourtof all time Arguably the
greatest backcourt of all time.
But we're going to see how thislooks, because the grass isn't
always greener.
The Mavs didn't draft Klay.
The Mavs didn't spend 13 yearswith clay.
They don't know clay.
They're getting to know clayand hopefully they can mold that
(44:08):
clay into a nice pot.
Actually, they can mold thatclay into a nice ring.
That's what they want to do.
They want to take clay.
They want to take clay and moldit with luca and kairi and
gaffer and pj washington andderrick lively and make a ring,
(44:29):
rings and things you know.
But the grass isn't alwaysgreener and I what?
I really?
What's so eye-opening aboutthis?
You talk about clay being lowmaintenance, whereas other
players are high maintenance andthey talk bad about him.
He was low maintenance while hewas winning championships.
How many players come off ashigh maintenance when they're
(44:54):
winning versus players who maynot, whose teams may not be
reaching the players' goals?
So yeah, they become highmaintenance.
It's funny how we drivenarratives about people without
giving context to the situationthat they're in.
Some could say Klay's beingselfish.
(45:16):
He should just take thecontract they offer him, or take
where he's at in the pickingorder.
He should go to the bench.
Y'all wanted Alan Iverson to goto the bench, right?
Y'all said, oh yeah, alanIverson ain't who he used to be.
He should come off the bench.
Alan Iverson couldn't lick thedirt off of Clay's cleats.
Excuse me, whoa Pause, I'mtripping.
(45:38):
Clay Thompson can't lick thedirt off of Allen Iverson's
cleats.
What are we talking about?
We want an AI to go to thebench.
Klay Thompson couldn't lick thedirt off of Russell Westbrook's
cleats.
You'll give a damn if Klay gotfour rings, but we said Russell
(46:00):
need to go to the bench.
Why is Klay to go to the bench?
Why is Clay above going to thebench?
Hmm, see, that's the problem.
He'd already been in the kiln.
Clay had already been put inthe kiln, been polished up.
So now he's hardened Not James,but he's hardened and the
(46:27):
warriors couldn't shape and moldhim anymore to be who they
needed him to be, because he iswho he is.
He was who he was and they gotrid of him just because he
couldn't be molded anymore.
So I'll tell you all in life,never get to the point to where
(46:52):
you've been putting that kiln.
Don't let them put you in thekiln.
Don't let them permanently moldyou into what you are.
You always got to be adaptable.
You know, just because you'renot who you once were doesn't
mean you can't maximize who youare today, and sometimes
(47:13):
maximizing who you are today istaking a step back.
Sometimes a step back helps youtake a step forward.
Remember the infamous ReggieBush juke against Fresno State?
That was a back juke.
He didn't go forward in thatmoment to advance on that play
(47:36):
and score that touchdown.
He stepped back, let thedefense go by so he could go
forward.
Now I do think the Warriorsmisread the room, the fact that
they did not prioritize Clay'sresigning.
(48:01):
They say, hey, we're going todo this, this and this first.
Clay's resigning.
They say, hey, we're going todo this, this and this first.
Before we, even before we getto your extension, which tells
him not a priority.
And I'll tell this to you allman, when it comes to dating,
they're playing the same gamesthat people be playing and
(48:22):
dating.
Oh, I ain't going to text backright now.
I don't want to look thirsty.
Oh, I'm going to make this.
I'm going to make you waitthree days after I got a number.
Oh, now I'm going to play hardto get with this dude because I
don't want him thinking I'm easy.
No, just be up front, be who youare.
Tell somebody what you wantfrom them.
You know what, every time youmake a deal, every time you
(48:44):
interact with somebody, it's notabout coming out on top, it's
about finding the mutualinterest and running with that.
Hey, if you're interested inShawty, tell her.
Hey, young lady, if you'reinterested in an old boy, tell
him.
If you feel, like you, youcatching feelings too early, let
(49:06):
somebody know, because nowwe're playing on an even playing
field.
Now we guess what we got.
We got fairness.
Let's circle back to that.
Yeah, we got fairness and we'reoperating in a place where
we're all on the same page.
We're all on the same page andhopefully we're working towards
(49:29):
a mutual goal.
We're not working on a falsepretense.
And if we're not workingtowards a mutual goal, we now
know that so we can make adecision, an informed decision
on what to do next.
That so we can make a decisionand informed decision on what to
do next, because I don't wannaplay no games, play no games.
(49:51):
I ain't giving up my last name.
It's already given out, cuz shegot it, she got it, she got it
because she got it, she got it,she got it.
But I don't know if I couldcome off the bench for Pajinsky
either.
Clay, I don't know, I don'tknow.
(50:12):
Let's see what else we got inWNBA.
Clippers are cursed.
The clip show is cursed of theclippers.
Clippers might be the mostcursed franchise in uh nba
history.
Uh, donald sterling strippedthem from the great city of san
(50:33):
diego and um was a slumlord,didn't want to pay players, and
uh, they ain't been right eversince.
Yes, they've had exciting teams, yes, they've had playoff teams
, but you know what Was?
A slumlord, didn't want to payplayers, and they ain't been
right ever since.
Yes, they've had exciting teams, yes, they've had playoff teams
, but you know what?
They just never gotten over thehump.
Because God don't like ugly,let me take that back.
(50:56):
I ain't going to speak for God,but, based on my observation,
god ain't rocking.
Anyways, paul George walkedaway from the Clippers.
They got nothing for him andnow he is a Philadelphia 76er
and we'll talk about thatshortly.
(51:16):
But let's just think about thesummer of 2019, when the earth
moved Literally.
There was an earthquake in LA.
I was there when Kawhi Leonardand Paul George became Clippers.
We run the city, the new LA,the Clips show Same old, same
(51:38):
old Flip show.
Y'all getting clipped, cursed,cursed and clipped.
The curse of the clips, seasonone, we go to the bubble.
We had a lemon pepper loosesituation.
The Clippers players weren'tfocused.
Apparently, doc was playing abunch of golf and not focused on
(52:01):
winning.
And what happens?
And not focused on winning, andwhat happens?
Denver comes back from 3-1 towin the series.
In typical Doc fashion.
You deal with Paul Georgeinjuries, you deal with Kawhi
injuries all throughout andthey've not had a complete
playoff run.
Even when they made the EasternConference Finals, kawhi
(52:22):
Leonard wasn't there to finishout that series.
Typical Clippers stuff.
You give up Shea, gildress,alexander, a boatload of draft
picks, danilo Gallinati to pickup Paul George.
Now, mind you, I don't knockthe Clippers for making this
deal, because guess what Kawhisaid?
(52:43):
He ain't coming if he ain't gotPG with him.
It makes perfect sense.
We didn't think Shea was goingto turn into like 36-5.
We didn't think Shea was goingto be a first-team All-NBA, but
(53:04):
he did.
And we also don't know thatShea gets the opportunity,
opportunity to play next toChris Paul, one of the greatest
point guards of all time, agreat mentor, to help him become
a better pro.
We don't know that these thingsare going to happen, but they
did.
And guess what?
We have the Clippers gettingfleeced on a deal, not winning a
ring.
Things are going to happen, butthey did.
(53:24):
And guess what?
We have the Clippers gettingfleeced on a deal, not winning a
ring, and Paul George walkingout of the door.
Never meant to cause you nopain.
Well, things are the samebecause it's the Clippers not
winning and, uh, you know, hecouldn't make things right
before he walked out of theirlife.
It is what it is.
But what does this say aboutthe Clippers?
(53:48):
No matter what they do, it justwon't work.
Then stories come out that PaulGeorge found out about the Kawhi
extension like everybody elsedid through the media.
I've heard some people in themedia talk about how the players
(54:08):
are sensitive and that's not abig deal.
It may not be a big deal, butif the players are sensitive,
it's now a big deal.
You can say, oh, he should getover it, but he didn't.
He's not.
So now you made a mistake.
There wasn't a sign and tradeout there that you liked,
(54:31):
because you weren't going totrade him to the Warriors, so
they could possibly kick yourback in.
So you give up a lot.
You don't get a ring and youlose them for nothing, so you
give up a lot, you don't get aring and you're losing for
nothing.
And now it seems like theClippers are over there running
a rehab clinic signing KevinPorter Jr signing oh man, I
(54:52):
can't even think of that weirdboy's name from the Spurs who
was cutting up.
Let me see Spurs player Sexualyeah, josh, primo, yeah, y'all
(55:13):
sign him.
And then you got my man, milesBridges, and he likes that.
The Clippers are giving playersa second chance.
Now, I'm all about secondchances because I serve a God of
a second chance.
You gave me a second chance,you forgave me, so I'm not mad
at them for giving these guyssecond chances.
(55:35):
But I will tell you, opticallyit doesn't look great.
Got a man pulling his cock outand then two men who've been
accused of violently beating upwomen not a great look.
Now it's a good basketballplayers and they and they put
(55:57):
that stuff behind them.
More power to you.
I'm not mad at you, steve.
I ain't going to tell you howto spend your money and I ain't
going to sit here and tell youI'm above giving money to those
people Because I think thatpicking up Kevin Porter Jr great
pickup, great guy off the benchHe'll get you 17 tonight.
He's a bucket.
So we'll see how this works out.
(56:22):
But yeah, the Clippers man,they're a rehab clinic, they're
the clip show.
They're a shit show.
And as much as I talked aboutnobody wanting to be a Laker,
people want to be a Clipper andthey don't even go as far.
(56:45):
Now, how crazy is that?
The Lakers wanted Paul George,didn't get him.
He came to you.
The best Laker wanted Ty Lue.
Y'all didn't offer him acontract, so he went there.
You all wanted Kawhi, but Kawhididn't really want to be tied
to LeBron, so he went to theClippers.
(57:05):
And then the Clippers stillaren't as successful in the same
time span as the Lakers.
What does that say about yourorganization?
The only thing I can think ofthis as cursed, or maybe you
(57:27):
just hitching your wagon to thewrong people.
I could have gave Kawhi thatI'm not Kawhi.
I could have gave PG thatfourth year, but you didn't.
So now he is a sixer West coastguy who moved home, is now
going to Philly.
Let's see how this works out.
I will tell you that the 76ershave the best big three in the
(57:50):
league as we sit here right now.
Then they added Andre Drummondoff the bench, eric Gordon off
the bench.
They re-signed Kelly Oubre.
They have a chance to competeif healthy, but unfortunately
let me find the number PaulGeorge and Joel Embiid have not
(58:15):
played.
I want to say it's 65 games.
Let's see, joel Embiid and PaulGeorge have not played 60-plus
games in the same season sincethe 2018-2019 season.
So you're betting on habituallyinjured players to produce Now
(58:44):
again, if they're healthy in May, that's all that matters.
I mean, they could be a 10 seedand go on a run and get to the
finals if they're healthy in May.
But how do you manage that?
Daryl Morey believes in gettingstars.
Daryl Morey has put starstogether and Daryl Morey always
trots the contender out on thecourt, but Daryl Morey hasn't
won a ring.
(59:04):
Do you have enough depth tomake it happen?
Is Nick Nurse going to run theright system?
Is Nick Nurse going to maximizehis best players?
Is he going to work therotations in a way that you
always have a combination ofEmbiid, maxie and Paul George on
the court At least two of them?
(59:27):
Is Maxie going to becomfortable becoming the number
three option instead of thenumber two option, because Paul
George is better than TyreseMaxie?
Yeah, he is.
I don't care what he did.
No, yeah, come on now, becausethat's what's going to happen.
I don't know, but I'm excitedto see what comes of it.
(59:50):
So let's get to some more freeagency stuff.
Parley Pete and I we talked alittle bit about Mikael Bridges
going to the Knicks, the Knicksremaking the Villanova team.
I think they're going to be ascrappy, interesting team.
Again, I don't think they beata healthy Philly.
(01:00:11):
They match up well against theCeltics.
But you're going to be askingyour third, fourth and fifth
options to get you over the hump.
How does Julius Randle fit intointo that?
I don't really know.
We shall see.
Um, but it's going to beinteresting.
(01:00:31):
Man.
The east is going to beinteresting because you're going
to have a janice healthy janice, uh hopefully coming back, uh,
a dame that's in shape, comingback.
And what else they got?
And they just signed what's myman's name?
Torian Prince.
I mean, he'll be a good benchplayer or maybe starting three.
(01:00:57):
Who knows?
Chris Paul to the Spurs.
I think that's great.
I think Chris Paul could getthem to the Spurs.
I think that's great.
I think Chris Paul could getthem to the play-in because he's
actually going to pass Wimbythe ball.
He's going to run the offenseso you don't have to worry about
like Keldon Johnson and Sohanand Basile playing outside of
themselves.
And Wimby's reduction is justgoing to increase.
(01:01:22):
He's going to be like 25, 13, 4assists, 3 blocks, 4 blocks.
He's going to catch a lot ofoops, get a lot of easy buckets.
He's going to become more of anoffensive force so those other
guys can become more efficient.
I'm actually looking forward towatching it.
(01:01:44):
I think it's going to be a muchbetter basketball product than
they put on the court this pastyear and I'll watch more Wimby.
But for those people who areconfused about the direction
that the Spurs are going inthey're trying to incrementally
build, just trying toincrementally build.
Let's just get better this year.
(01:02:05):
Let's get better and better.
So then players are going towant to come here and play.
We just can't keep beingterrible, missing the playoffs,
missing the play-in, draftingyoung players and thinking that
veteran players are going towant to come once Wimby hits his
prime.
That's not going to happen andbecause they have a sale signed
(01:02:28):
to this contract, they have aKeldon Johnson signed to big con
, to another big contract.
These are tradable contractsfor actual star players who may
want to come down there and play.
So that's the thing, man, whenwe see these big contracts and
we get confused as to why theseplayers are signing them,
sometimes it's because you needthe money to trade for a guy
(01:02:55):
that you truly want and you needto be ready, once that guy
becomes available, to make thatmove.
Now, saying that I don'tunderstand why Toronto signed
Emmanuel quickly and ScottyBarnes to the contracts they
(01:03:19):
signed them to, because theydon't make sense to me.
But again, it's not my money,because Quickly just signed a
backup but he just signed afive-year $175 million contract.
(01:03:41):
He just signed a five-year $175million contract.
So I mean $35 a year forquickly.
That's not what I would want todo.
But hey, man, I think OKC'shaving a great offseason.
They bring in what's my man'sname?
(01:04:04):
I'm looking at him right now.
Oh my God, alex Caruso.
They traded Josh Giddey, whowas just not fitting in with
them.
They bring in a champion in AlexCaruso, an all-NBA defensive
player, a guy who can knock downan open three, a guy who can
slam a five jammer on your head.
I think that's a great move tobring in a veteran who's been
(01:04:24):
there before, a guy who's won it, a guy who's learned from the
likes of LeBron James.
He's been around a DeMarDeRozan, he's been around some
great players in this league, sohe's going to bring some great
veteran leadership to thatlocker room.
But also he's going to be ahard-nosed defender.
He's going to do what they needand then to bring in
Hartenstein again, you take himaway from the Knicks, but also
(01:04:46):
you solidify your lineup with alegitimate five, somebody who
can get in there and bang.
So now Chet can be an off-ballshot blocker on defense.
It's going to be beautiful andI'm excited to see what OKC
looks like.
Maybe that group they havethere can finally deliver a
championship to OKC and validatewhat their GM is doing, who's
(01:05:07):
been talked about as one of thebest GMs in the NBA, but he
doesn't have that championship.
Isn't it a shame that you havegreat GMs like a Daryl Morey?
You have great GMs like a DarylMorey.
You have great GMs like a SamPresti who have not won a ring,
(01:05:30):
but then you have a shitty GMlike Rob Blinker with one and
that speaks to so much of whatthe NBA is.
Or you got to have greatplayers and more times than not
you have to be in a great city.
Now one great city who can'tmake it work is Atlanta.
(01:05:52):
Landry Fields should be fired.
Kyle Korver should be fired.
Kyle Korver should be fired andTony Ressler should sell the
team.
(01:06:17):
Now the Pelicans got what theyneeded.
They need a point guard andthey got a point guard, and
DeJounte signed an extensionwith Atlanta last year.
We kind of figured he was goingto be out of the door, but he
was going to be out of the door.
(01:06:42):
But they traded DeJounte Murrayto the Pelicans.
The Hawks traded DeJounteMurray for the Pelicans for two
first-round picks one in 2025,one of the Lakers' picks, which
isn't going to be great, and a2027 pick, which is from their
(01:07:03):
own pick or the Bucks whicheverpick is worse For Larry Nance,
ej Liddell and Dyson Daniels.
The hell are we doing Atlanta?
The hell are we doing Atlanta?
(01:07:24):
The hell are we doing?
I'm not saying that you don'ttrade them because you see it's
not working, but could you get alittle bit more?
Could you tell your fan basethat you're trying to make
positive moves in the rightdirection, or is it just a fire
(01:07:46):
sale?
Are we just going to rid theteam of the stench of the past
few years?
I mean the Lakers would atleast give you D'Lo.
I'm not saying Trey and D'Lowork, but D'Lo's played off ball
(01:08:10):
because he plays with LeBron.
D'lo is an expiring contract, soguess what?
You can move him.
What the hell is Larry Nancegoing to do for the Hawks?
The hell is Dyson Diggins goingto do for the Hawks?
What the hell is EJ Liddellgoing to do for the Hawks?
What the hell is the Lakers2025 draft pick going to do for
(01:08:32):
the Hawks?
What the hell is a bump or NewOrleans 2027 pick going to do
for the Hawks?
Both teams are going to be inthe playoffs and not in the
lottery.
What are we doing?
Travis Slink builds a team thatgets to the Eastern Conference
Finals, goes six games.
(01:08:53):
No, trey Young you move him out.
You overpay for DeJounte Murray.
You move him out.
You over paper to John TateMurray and you trade him for a
bag of peanuts, an empty Celsiuscan and a box of used condoms.
The hell are we doing?
(01:09:16):
Do you want to maintain a famedfan base?
Do you want to maintain a fanbase?
Do you want to build a fan basewho cares?
And to come to State Farm Arena, aka the Highlight Factory, and
listen to Big Tigger act likehe's an Atlanta sports fan?
Because I don't think you do.
I don't think you care, and whythe hell should I spend my
(01:09:37):
hard-earned money to go watchyou all put this bullshit out on
the court.
It's a rudderless ship.
It's a team with no direction.
Let's go ahead and trade TraeYoung to the Lakers.
Let's go ahead and build aroundRishon's way.
(01:09:57):
Let's just be terrible.
Let's just be terrible.
Let's just be a poorly ranfranchise and let our record
reflect.
I don't even want to make theplan.
I don't want hope.
I don't want to see Trey Younggiving us 25 and 10 every night.
(01:10:20):
I don't want to see Trey Younggiving us 25 and 10 every night.
I don't want hope.
I want to see DeAndre Hunterplaying.
Go ahead, trey Capella, treyOkonwu, just strip the team down
to the studs and hope you canget Cooper Flagg or the kid
(01:10:42):
who's going to Rutgers.
I don't want to be 40 and 42.
I don't want to win 35 games.
Nah, let's just become theWashington Wizards.
Let's become the SacramentoKings of most of my life.
(01:11:08):
Let's be the Blazers.
Let's just be God awful.
Let's be the team that nobodywith league pads picks to watch.
You know what?
Let's just put the cheerleaderson the court.
It's Atlanta, they'll watch.
Let's go to Magic City andoverpay for every stripper in
(01:11:33):
the strip club and sign them onas free agents.
Hell, we might as well justturn the Hawks into a booty club
, because I ain't going to bedoing it.
I mean because I'll, becauseI'll.
Wrestle is doing it.
It's working the team away.
That's all that's happening.
He's just working away.
(01:11:54):
The damn about winning, the damnabout building a culture.
What are we watching?
What are we paying for?
You ain't being true to thecity.
You are less than five yearsremoved from an Eastern
Conference showing Hell.
You're three years removed frombeing in the Eastern Conference
(01:12:16):
Finals.
Look what the Knicks did.
You put the Knicks out in thefirst round.
Look what they've done.
You put Philly out in thesecond round.
Look what they've done, hell.
Look what the ClevelandCavaliers are doing.
Look what the Orlando Magic aredoing.
These guys are building teams.
(01:12:40):
These guys are winning games.
What the hell are the Hawksdoing?
Y'all took a, y'all took alittle.
Y'all took a canoe into theocean.
Man ship ain't big enough tocatch a marlin can't catch no
(01:13:08):
one of that little bitty boat.
You gonna drown.
That's what the hawks are doing.
Drown, oh, drown.
Alright.
Last thing I'm going to talkabout in basketball probably,
(01:13:33):
well, lonzo Ball is back, butthat's not what I want to talk
about.
I'm actually going to Trying topull up, pull up what's it
called.
I'm trying to pull up a WNBAAll-Star game.
So let's just look at someAll-Star voting results for the
(01:13:59):
WNBA, because you know I do talkabout the WNBA on this podcast.
Last year, asia Wilson led allvoters with 95,000 votes.
Kaylin Clark got 700.
Bree Stewart was number twowith 87,000.
Aaliyah Boston was number twothis year with 618,000.
Brittany Griner was numberthree, even though she was in
penitentiary, with 72,000.
(01:14:19):
Asia Wilson with 618,000.
Brittany Griner was numberthree, even though she was in
penitentiary, with 72,000.
Asia Wilson has 607,000.
Aaliyah Boston was four with72,000.
Ambree Stewart has 424,000.
And Jackie Young was five with63,000.
And now Angel Reese is fivewith 381,000.
Y'all better thank CaitlinClark, boy.
(01:14:43):
Y'all better thank Angel Reese,because, good God, almighty,
they're bringing viewership,they're bringing eyes.
Look at how much the voting hasincreased.
This is a beautiful thing and itshould be taken seriously.
(01:15:03):
It should be taken seriously.
I get it.
You don't put them on theOlympic team because they
weren't quote-unquote goodenough.
Y'all bully them becausethey're Rooks and they need to.
They need to, they need to earntheir stripes.
Well, they earning, theyearning their stripes, all right
, hell, the indiana, the indianashot, whatever their name is.
(01:15:27):
Um, I don't want to do that.
I don't want to do that, let me.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I got this right.
Indiana Fever my apologies,indiana Fever.
They having home games atStaples.
First time in years that theSparks play in Staples, they
(01:15:47):
sell it out.
Guess who they're rooting for?
Kalen Clark.
A night or two ago we had theAces versus the Fever.
They sell out T-Mobile 20,000watching the game, more people
at that game than went to one ofthe finals games.
I better thank them.
(01:16:10):
They got rookies playing nowwhy?
Because they're good, butthey're also popular and that
matters.
That drives revenue andhopefully the WNBA can become a
major, major, major league thatcan compete.
(01:16:30):
So now we have.
Let me pull up.
So we got the WNBA Olympic teamplaying against the WNBA
All-Stars.
So let's see WNBA All-Stars.
What a suck.
So July 20th we got theAll-Star game.
So Team WNBA is going to beDeJuanna Bonner, aaliyah
(01:16:53):
Ballston, kaitlyn Clark, topvote getter.
Alicia Gray, derrick Ahamby,brianna Jones, john Quayle Jones
it's nice Kayla McBride, kelseyMitchell, arike I ain't gonna
try to say her name Neke I ain'tgonna try to say her last name
and Angel Reese.
They're gonna face off againstNafisa Collar, kalia Cooper,
(01:17:15):
chelsea Gray, britton Grinus,sabrina Nescu, jewel Lloyd,
kelsey Plum, brianna Stewart,diana Taurasi, alyssa Thomas,
asia Wilson and Jackie Young.
I ain't saying that this isgoing to be.
I ain't saying Team USA isgoing to lose, because they're
not.
They're going to win.
But it might be a competitivegame, because I'm just looking
(01:17:42):
at it, can't nobody get a bucketlike a re-game?
Kayla and Clark at the pointgoing to finally have some
basketball players with them.
She can Hee-hee Two.
Aaliyah Boston's going to doher thing, jonquil Jones,
monster Killing it.
And Angel Reese is going tograb damn near every rebound,
(01:18:03):
because that's what she do.
So I'm looking forward to it.
I'm totally looking forward toit.
I mean it's going to be a greatgame.
I'm not going to gamble on it,but I'm definitely going to
watch it.
What else do I have to do onJuly 20th?
I need to put in my calendarRemember to watch this all-star
game.
But now, this is a greatshowing for the WNBA putting
(01:18:29):
their best talent on the court.
And here we have the Olympicteam, you know, getting tuned up
because there's nointernational competition they
can really play against, to getthem ready To play against the
best of the rest of the WNBA,and I am totally, totally
looking forward to it.
Hey, but that's our.
That's basketball hour.
(01:18:50):
I'm going to call it hour one.
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