Brendan Abban sits down to talk about the recent Thanksgiving holiday and Black Friday/Cyber Monday escapades. As well as drama in the Bay Area concerning Klay Thompson and his season for the Golden State Warriors. He then discusses the NBA in-season tournament and how it has been a boon for quality basketball and engaging narratives. Then he discusses Mark Cuban's decision to sell a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks and what this means for the franchise and city going forward. Finally, he touches on the impeccable progress being made by Aaron Rodgers in his return to practice after tearing his achilles. Hope you enjoy!
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
My people, My people, Welcomeback to another episode of the KBR Sports
Podcast. I think I'm gonna startI enjoy saying the best sports podcast in
your twenty four hour day, becauseobviously it's a subjective reference. In my
opinion, I think this probably isthe best twenty four hours or the best
podcast sports podcast you listen to inyour twenty four hour day, of course,
(00:23):
but at some point I'm like,man, do you guys believe that
too? Because if I'm the onlyone that believes it, then look,
I mean, I guess I'm theonly person that needs to believe it.
Right. That's kind of confidence yougotta have, Right. It's like one
of those things where people say,you got to have that confidence in yourself
to the point where other people startbelieving in you in the same regard,
(00:43):
because if you don't believe in ifyou're looking for validation from other people,
then you're never gonna get the typeof confidence that you need because people are
never gonna be able to give youthat validation that you seek. Right,
you just got to have that beliefin yourself. I believe that, honestly.
I think that's a trait for morethose entrepreneurs or for most self starters
to some degree, right, becauseif you're kind of just always waiting for
(01:06):
somebody to tell you you're good atsomething or whatever the case might be,
Yes, it helps. It's niceto hear, but to some point you
kind of got to get the feelof it yourself to understand how to do
something well enough to be able toget to that point where you just know,
I think I'm pretty damn good atthis, right, especially when you
compare yourself to your peers, becausesometimes that's like the measuring bar to see
what can you improve on or inwhat ways can you actually work on little
(01:27):
refinements here and there. So that'sjust a little, you know, early
motivational quote for you guys. Right, But y'all, thank you for tuning
in to this podcast. If you'renot subscribed or following the podcast on any
podcast platform, go ahead and dothat because it is available on whatever podcast
platform you may choose to listen to. And also make sure you guys follow
(01:48):
KBR Sports on social media at KBRSports on Instagram and at KBR Underscore Sports
on Twitter, as well as followingmyself, Brendan Abbin on all platforms.
That is my name so I wouldappreciate it if you guys following me on
everywhere. Oh also KBR Sports onFacebook, but of course, guys,
make sure you guys also follow theKBR Sports YouTube channel. Most recent video
is up. We talked about it. The newest video is about how ESPN
(02:12):
did my boy Kyrie Irving dirty.All right, and if you want to
know how they did them dirty,go and watch that video. I think
it's a pretty good video. Spenta lot of time writing that up,
doing a lot of research and allthat stuff had to you know, wrap
my thoughts around how to who Iwas gonna name specifically in that video and
stuff like that. But make sureyou guys go and check that out.
Okay. So now that we gotthat house keeping out of the way,
(02:35):
Okay, hopefully everybody had a greatholiday right Thanksgiving, and hopefully you had
a successful Black Friday or Cyber Monday, depending on whichever day you try to
used to capitalize on those discounts andsales. But I'm starting to see things
going around now when you see theseviral videos on social media going around where
you're seeing stories just slip out thesame for sale sign and they're sipping in
(03:00):
another one and it just has BlackFriday on it. We're being jobbed here,
We're being had because if there's reallyno ulterior difference, if there's no
ulterior difference, but it's just thecolor of the sign, which is nuts.
Right. And now with the adventof online buying, digital buying,
(03:23):
we have the ability, depending onwhat website you're shopping on, to view
price history for a lot of theseitems, and then you realize the price
history indicates that these items are thesame price that they were month two months
ago. Right, it's just thatnow you got the Black Friday attack.
So sometimes, man, at thispoint, I don't know, maybe people
(03:44):
should just get comfortable buying things whenyou see them like fifty percent off or
thirty percent. I don't know,because it's starting to seem like it's harder
to realize that it's gonna get anybetter than that in terms of an actual
discount that they're gonna applied to theproduct. So I'm just I'm starting to
become more and more skeptical, tobe honest, the main things that I
(04:09):
will buy during these Black Friday orCyber Monday type deals, because throughout most
of the year, really the mainthing I spend money on is when you
have a significant other, the mainthing you end up spending your money on
is food or different experiences with them. Right. So the biggest thing I
(04:29):
look for a lot of times forBlack Friday or Cyber Monday is honestly not
like goods. It's normally I willlook for tickets or different type of activities
and stuff like that, right,And it just unfortunately for me this year,
what lined up for an event interms of what we wanted to do
was go to a Drake and jCole concert, right, And it was
(04:51):
one of those things that you know, we talked about it. We have
tried to go to a multitude ofevents over the last few years. Twenty
twenty two we got active. Imean we went to concerts, comedy shows.
I think last year in twenty twentytwo we saw We saw Kevin Hart
during his tour. We saw ChrisBrown, Little Baby, we saw I
(05:15):
forget who else. I don't Ithink it was another. I might have
think Cardi B I'm not sure.In twenty twenty two, there was a
lot of different artists that we sawthat year. She even went to a
concert on her own. Honestly,without me. She went with her friend,
so she didn't and that concert forher. She went to go see
the Jonas Brothers. So there isa multitude of different things that we did
(05:40):
throughout twenty twenty two, just differentevents. We went to Disney multiple times,
I think in twenty twenty two.Yeah, we went like two or
three times in twenty twenty two,if I'm not mistaken, we went to
Disney. So we just had alot of events that we did and this
year it slowed down a lot,but we still did some fun stuff this
year, but just not to thedegree of twenty twenty two. So when
(06:00):
it came to Drake and j Cole, tickets came up. You know,
everybody's doing their tours, right,Taylor Stift's on tour, Drake's on tour,
Beyonce's on tour, and we're like, oh, snap, Drake and
J Cole, why not let metell y'all. We were in line on
online or in the queue rather toget these tickets, and this thing is
like moving me up. When Igo into log into the queue at the
(06:24):
time it said like eleven pm oreleven am Eastern time. I logged into
that q man I was like numberfour thousand or something like that. I
was like, oh, hell,I'm cooked. I knew. I was
like, I am the NETO.I already knew what it was. So
at that point I'm like, okay, right, I'm just waiting in the
queue, waiting the line. I'mlike, maybe people will tail off when
(06:46):
they see the ticket prices and allthat, right, And sure enough people
start tailing off, phone off.But no, man, they them picket
them. Tickets got scooped. Andthe thing that was worse is that we
were on we were making a roadtrip, you know, for our trip
up to go for Thanksgiving, togo see family, and while doing so
(07:09):
it sucks. But while doing so, you know, your your connection is
spotty in the car, and sowe're sitting here trying to freaking buy these
tickets and the queues just going downand down and down, and I'm like,
oh my gosh, oh my god. And then it starts just spinning
right the numbers starts. I'm like, yo, yo, yo yo,
what's going on? What do youThis thing is just like a buffering,
it's stuck on the number. AndI'm like, we were just going at
(07:32):
like a like a person dropping fromthe queue, or at least like it
would be like a thirty person dropevery like thirty seconds to a minute,
and so it was. It wassteadily declined. Then it will start picking
up again, going faster and faster, so then you have like one hundred
people drop at a time and soon, and then it just starts buffering.
For me, I'm like, ohno, I am chalked. So
(07:55):
then finally I have to I finallyjust came to realize that I got to
hit the refresh. I hit therefresh y'all. And then when I hit
the refresh, I came back in. I had gotten down to like maybe
four hundred or something like that.Man I hit that refresh, I was
back at one thousand. I waslike, oh no, I was devastated.
(08:18):
Devastated. Man, So then getin there and then go look at
the tickets. All resell, allresell prices. I'm talking like we're like
in those bleeds for like two sixtyand so on. I'm like, fam,
huh, nose bleeds are two sixty. Oh nah. I literally just
went when I was when I wasat home, I went to go see
(08:41):
an NBA game with pretty pretty goodseats for like around one sixty or so,
so you're telling me too, sixtyis where I gotta be the be
all the way? No sure readno shot. So yeah, if I
maybe, if we see the resalestuff, I doubt it's gonna waiver.
You know, concerts are actually likethey're in a boom right now with all
these different artists touring or whatnot.People are releasing new music. So with
(09:05):
that being said, Drake and jCo ain't looking good. It ain't looking
good, y'all, let me tellyou. But but if I do,
I did say that I want totake a vacation to go somewhere in twenty
twenty four, so that's looking likeit might be the move. Let me
know what destination you guys have inmind. I was like, it may
(09:26):
be Hawaii. I've never been toHawaii. Or do I go fully out
of the country right I'm obviously Ihope you guys will know. I am
ganyi In so I haven't been toGhana since I was a kid, and
London also since I was a kidas well, early teenager. So those
(09:48):
are some destinations that at least toucha bit more personal to me that I
haven't been to in a while.But then you you have also, I
will say other places like you gotlike I want it. I'm I'm interested
in places like Spain and whatnot.But then at the same time, like
you know, I gotta be careful. Why I dabble around because some people
don't take kind to the chocolate brothersand you depending on where you go.
(10:09):
So I have to be kind.I have to be you know, mindful
of where I'm going. I can'tjust go at free liberty going anywhere,
so I have to do, youknow, more extensive research. But what
research don't you do when you're travelingabroad? Right? But some places,
you know, you know, ifyou're going you step in the wrong place,
you might not come back. SoI gotta be careful. But guys,
(10:30):
that's enough about my plans. Man. Hopefully you guys had a great
holiday. That's all. That's theoverall gist of that, right, All
that just to say that, youknow, but yeah, I'm hoping everybody
enjoyed their holiday. And so on. We have Christmas coming up, we
have Hanukkah, we have Please,I apologize if I'm mistake any of these
(10:52):
things, but I know that Ithink Kwanza and the dates of each of
these events gets mixed up in mymind. So for everybody just celebrating all
the different holidays, you know,happy holidays to everybody as we get as
we embark on the journey closer toDecember. Right, but yo, let's
talk some Let's talk some sports.Why don't we write, let's talk some
sports at least at this point intime. Let's see how let's see at
(11:13):
the time for me of this preamble, and it's so funny. I can
go on like this and I'm bymyself ten minutes. We are clocked in
at ten minutes right now. Mightbe less after edits, but ten minutes
with just me solo rambling. Ienjoyed doing this, man, I enjoyed
talking to y'all. It's fun.But hopefully you guys enjoyed too. Like
(11:35):
what half the people just log outlike I don't this is even sports.
But let's jump into talking about somesports, because guys, you know I
have an issue, right, Ihave Klay Thompson, right, I look,
I enjoy I enjoy Clay Thompson.I think Klay Thompson is a phenomenal
player, phenomenal dude, one ofthe most chill people that you can see
(11:58):
and like almost any circumstance, right, I think everybody can agree on that.
Clay is just normally the most chillguy in the room. But you
know, he had a run inwith a reporter and reporters talking to him
about Steve Kerr possibly benching him andstuff like that, and then Clay's just
like, what, dude, areyou trying to get me to bench myself
(12:18):
type of deal. But you know, just to avoid any confusion, I'm
going to play here for you guysto listen to. So that way,
obviously, I don't put any wordsin Clay or the reporter's mouth. Kirk
talks a lot about believing in hisguys, especially the starting lineup one championship
not too long ago, having patients, letting guys kind of, you know,
(12:41):
find their game. How where areyou of that kind of patience and
how much you know do you valueit? What do you want me to
me? It's like, that's Idon't think I said that. I mean
you can suggest it's fine, butI mean, thanks Steve. I guess,
(13:05):
like I don't know. Sometimes youearn these things like patience and time
to find yourself. And I thinkhistory will h is on our side when
it comes to that stuff. Yousay that, DoD, have you heard
people say that or not? Idon't care what people say, Like they
don't do what we do. Theycan't do what they do. That's why
they talk. Why would I like, come on, I don't care what
(13:28):
people say at this point in mylife. Next question, So, anytime
somebody says I don't care what peoplesay, more often than not they do.
Right. I'm not with that,right because if people didn't care what
other people say, you would haveno idea what people are saying. Right,
(13:50):
Because the reporter says nothing about benchingWiggins or benching Clay. And it's
particularly maybe Clay can take away fromwhat the reporter saying about, you know,
Siege, being patient, sticking withpeople. He could take that as
meaning being benching. Right. Butwhat Clay, when Clay gives it away
that he does hear the noise isbecause you know, he obviously could feel
(14:11):
like the reporters referring to Clay himselfbecause he's asking Clay the question. But
when Clay throws Wiggins in there,it's obvious that Clay is seeing what people
are saying. Right. There wasa report just a couple of days ago
about possibly that people around the wordsweren't happy with the fact that Andrew Wiggins
appears to not be in shape,especially after missing so much of last season
(14:33):
with a personal matter that was neverreally disclosed publicly. Right, So that's
an issue that people have been talkingabout in the media. So how would
Clay know if he doesn't pay attentionto what people say, right, You
know, there's a little bit ofcontradiction, you know. So it's one
of those things that you know,we notice, but we just don't.
But I understand Clay's Clay's bit ofsnippiness here because obviously Clay's not having the
(14:58):
ideal season. It's not a badseason by any stretch, right, But
I think when you see this reportcome out from Kendra Kendra Andrews Milik and
Andrews sister and what she says thatcontract negotiations are weighing on Klay Thompson.
She said he appears to be noticeablymore frustrated during games. He sometimes sits
on the end of the bench byhimself during timeouts or slaps his head after
(15:22):
taking a bad shot. Now,when you dive deeper into the numbers,
you can kind of see where thatis. You see the correlation between the
two, right, because Clay isshooting a career low and three point percentage
right now at thirty six point fortyfive percent, and he's averaging the second
lowest points per game outside of hisrookie year with fifteen point three points.
(15:45):
So he and he currently has anet rating of minus seven point six with
the Warriors being a minus three pointone with him on the court and then
being plus four and a half withhim off of it. So you see
those numbers and you realize there's aClay is being detrimental to the team right
now when he's on the court.Obviously his shooting, the team is better
offensively and stuff when he's on thecourt, But really the core of it
(16:07):
all is the defense. His defensehas been lacking in ways that you can
say, right, he hasn't hadthat explosiveness. I even posted on the
KBR Sports Instagram story the other nighttalking about how if Clay can bring that
level of explosiveness because I think theplay that I posted is a block he
gets on Daveyon Mitchell, and heis essentially almost like a Chase Down block
(16:32):
in some respect, he's guarding Daveyon Davian gets by him to get to
the rim, and Clay just kindof elevates and blocks it. But I
was saying, Clay needs to findthat energy, find that explosive this.
Obviously, Clay's body has been througha lot, especially with his injuries that
he's had that you lose some ofthat athleticism, right, so he's not
the defender that he was four yearsago. And with some of that lost
(16:52):
athleticism, you're starting to see itstart to appreciate now, even as we
get longer into the teeth with theWarrior's tenure, and when you look at
the defensive numbers for Clay on average, the opponents field goal percentages against Klay
Thompson is are not impacted when they'rebeing defended by Klay. So let's say
somebody comes against the Warriors, theyshoot forty eight point eight percent from the
(17:15):
field. Essentially when they're being guardedby Klay Thompson, they are going to
continue shooting forty eight point eight percentfrom the field, as opposed to a
dip to them shooting now forty fivepercent or even shooting like forty percent.
Because Clay is causing them to strugglethat much with their shots, right,
because he's that good of a defender, but he hasn't caused any change and
shift, and people's shot percentage isshowing that people are scoring on Clay without
(17:41):
really any issues. And then whenyou look at opponents, when you look
at the offensive rating of opponents,it's at one hundred and twenty point three
with Clay on the court, andit's a steep decline once Clay's off the
court, down to one oh sixpoint five. So you see that's a
hu major disparity, right, Andthat's one of those things you do look
at. It's a glaring number andit's a glaring impact or deficiency and impact
(18:06):
where Clay is becoming now the ultimatethree point type of guy that you can't
really you can't. Also, youcan't leave Clay open on three point percentage
even though you know that's that's hisoff of resume and career. As Clay
said, right, he's built upa history that you hope with a coach
would be patient with him over thistime period, but right now he's not.
(18:26):
He is still he's still got thesplash, but he's not one of
the splash brothers right at this pointin time, like he's still trying to
find that level of splash where he'sshooting close to forty percent or even forty
percent during the season, Because whenyou're shooting over forty percent from three,
I mean you're pretty much if somebody'sleaving you open, dude, that's that's
(18:47):
negligent on defense. Right right now, Clay's just above league average, right
with Lee average trending to be aroundthirty five percent thirty six percent, and
that with him being at thirty sixpoint forty four percent. Yeah, that's
tough. That's tough. So it'sone of those things that you kind of
hope Clay either Clay finds the strikeagain, gets that percentage up, starts
(19:08):
getting better looks. Right, theWarriors had to play five games without Draymond
Green. That does have an impacton their offense. Draymond helps get Clay
and Steph very quality looks. SoI think that's one of those scenarios that
we're gonna sit there and look atand see if Clay can possibly improve that
percentage. But I do think itis something interesting to the greater point about
(19:30):
the Warriors team, and every singletime it feels like people are always saying
that the Warriors need to break thisthing up, or people are always trying
to pick at the Warriors and pullthem apart, and I never really get
it right. I understand maybe needingto improve the roster here and there,
and they've tried right through the draft. They try to improve with guys like
Jonathan Kaminga, Moses Moody, theyhad Jordan Poole. He's gone now,
(19:53):
but they've tried in a multitude ofways to try and improve this team.
But it seems as though, andit's fun. It's very interesting to me
that people are just ready to justkind of see this next era of the
Warriors really take effect in. ButI'm like, what, what are people
wanting to see from this team tosee this major change, Because unless you're
talking about like I don't, Iwouldn't shake up the core of these guys
(20:17):
unless they're no longer able to performat that level, because then you can't
be paying people. And that's oneof the biggest things for Klay Thompson is
I don't know if I said thisearlier, but oh I did. Yeah.
With him having his contract negotiations goingon right now, one of the
big deals is that, obviously,if you're not playing up to snuff,
it's really hard for a team tosay, hey, we're willing, we
(20:38):
want to pay you star player typemoney, you know, carrying a franchise
or being one of the key cogsand carrying a franchise type money if you're
not matching with that production, especiallywhen you're in a contract year and the
team can really gauge where your impactis that currently. And for Clay right
now, if a Warriors team ateight and ten being knocked out of the
(21:02):
n season tournament, not qualifying forthat next round, especially, you start
asking questions like, okay, well, what's going on right, what is
it that what is it that theWarriors need to do, or what can
happen that can really make that canchange the tide of for all the fortunes
(21:22):
of this team. And I think, simply put, I think that honestly,
they just need to get back toplaying star warts defense. But it
ain't easy when your all your pieceshave essentially aged to some degree. Right,
Steph Curry is still the guy performingat optimum mobility. Draymond Green is
still great on that end of theball too, defensively and playmaking, but
everybody's kind of tailed down a bit. Honestly. The main guy has still
(21:45):
been impressive at a high level ofSteph Curry, which is amazing, but
the Warriors are just aging man andobviously the run can't sustain forever. But
I guess that is where maybe youstart utilizing draft picks or young talent to
go and get another person that canhelp your team, that can be a
guy you bring in. But Ialso think this is where you might start
(22:07):
seeing the Bob Myers departure affecting thisteam, right, And why Bob Myers
stepped down from that general manager roleor president of Basketball operations role because of
the fact that this Clay Tossing contractcoming up, and he knew there were
a lot of tough negotiations coming upfor this team and he just didn't want
to deal with it. I mean, I can imagine it's so stressful trying
to deal with these things, andespecially when you build relationship with these guys.
(22:32):
All these guys have won champions together. At this point, this corps
has four championships running, and youdo start to sit there and be like,
well, how do we how doyou essentially if a guy's not willing
to take a pay cut, Like, there's a part of this where you
have to be realistic, right,and Clay wants his money. Everybody wants
(22:55):
their money, right all. Weall want to get paid what we think
we're worth. And I think isone of those situations now where at this
current pace, Clay probably is gonnaget undershot what he thinks he's were and
it could lead to the breaking upof the of this cord because now you're
starting to see rumors pop around byClay to the Lakers. Granted, those
rumors have been around for nearly closeto a decade honestly, so we'll have
(23:18):
to wait and see. But itis an interesting thought and just seeing how
this all will play out. ButI did bring up the n Season tournament,
and I wanted to talk about itreally briefly, just wanted to bring
it up because, funny enough,I've seen a lot of people now talking
about different players like Donovan Mitchell,the Martin Rosen had an issue with.
(23:40):
I think it was I don't rememberspecifically who they were playing, but I
know they had a problem. Ithink it was the Bulls. It was
the Bulls and they or no,he's on the bulls. But the Martin
Rosen had a problem with I believeit was maybe the Sixers or the Wizards,
one of the two teams. Idon't know. I'm just spitballing here
because or was it the Knicks.It don't matter. But essentially, the
(24:03):
Marta Rosen had a problem with theopposing team having to run up the score.
And you know, normally when teamsare when the team's winning handily and
they have the game one, ateam will dribble out of the ball just
out of a show of respect,they won't try and then go run at
the score to try and embarrass theother team by a worst margin or something
like that. But the Marta rollsin, it happens, and he takes
(24:23):
exception to it, feeling like itwas disrespectful for the game, towards the
game, right to the ethics ofthe game, the morality of it.
But then you go on the otherside, you're like, well, no,
this is an end season tournament game. This isn't just a regular basketball
game. There's five hundred thousand dollarsfor each of us on the line here,
and their point differential in terms ofwins and so on plays a part
(24:45):
along with your record and you beingable to get higher placement in the tournament.
So and honestly, in earnest,I got to agree with everybody that's
trying to run up the score.Screw your ethics. Five hundred thousand dollars
respect for the game. The gamecan respect me after I get paid,
(25:10):
Like, what are we doing here? It's not like this is some some
travesty and moral thing, like youbetter stop us then play defense. I
don't care if the game is outof grass. You better work hard too,
because we're gonna keep working hard.That's five hundred thousand dollars. Like
(25:32):
Damian Lillard said, not everybody isan all Star player, superstar player assigned
to a Supermax. There are guyson two way contracts, ten day contracts
that that money can change their family'slives, Their family can get out of
debt, their family can put adown payment on whatever. And we're trying
to trivialize it and make it seemas if it's just inappropriate thing for respect
(25:55):
of the game. Where in therules is that even a thing, right,
It's just a player thing. Theyjust decide not to do it.
Out of respect, right, justbut if it literally, the mode of
the contest you were competing in incentivisesyou to do it. There's nothing disrespectful
about it. Literally, that's partof the competition we're playing. We're playing
(26:15):
the metagame word per se, right, the bigger picture. So I I
think the nd Season Tournament is greatin my opinion. At first, I
didn't really get what the NBA wasgoing for. I didn't see the vision.
But now I'm seeing it and I'mreally enjoying it. I think these
(26:36):
games have been really competitive for themost part. And then when you have
teams that are getting blown out,look, you better fight back to try
and get yourself back in some ofthese teams that already knocked out, look,
So it sucks to suck, right, But now we got the teams
in the quarterfinals and acting and lastnight it was even an interesting game because
the Warriors and Kings are playing,and the Kings in that situation, if
(27:00):
they win the game, or ifthey lost by under twelve points, they
qualify for the quarterfinals. In then Season Tournament, the Warriors were up
by as much as twenty four points. Warriors blew the lead, blew it
entirely. The Warriors had to winby twelve points to qualify for the next
round. In the end season tournament, Warriors got cooked. Kings made an
(27:25):
astounding comeback to be able to comeback from down twenty four points. Granted,
yes, I say that the addedincentive is there for the n season
tournament, but the Warriors also yousee them trying to kind of start tight,
getting a little tight because they're tryingto score fast. They're trying to
make up that twelve point you know, reach that twelve point ratio or differential,
(27:48):
and in the midst of doing that, they're starting to play a bit
out of character, out of offenseand so on, because they can't just
run their normal flow of offense justto try and win the game. They
have to try and win by twelvepoints. But by doing so, they
started taking a bit of rash shotsthat might have honestly given the Kings the
window to then come back and putbecause the Kings are just playing a normal
basketball game, right, They're justtrying to win the game, whereas the
(28:11):
Warriors had the Warriors, the Warriorshave to try and win the metagame along
with the game, So it addsthese different storylines and levels to the game
that you know, regular basketball gamesdon't have to them. So I think
it's been great. Personally, Ithink it's been awesome. I think it's
a great addition right now in thequarterfinals when you look at who we're gonna
have. It returns on December fourthwith the Kings and Pelicans playing, right
(28:34):
then you're gonna have the Pacers andthe Celtics as well playing on December fourth.
Then on December fifth you have theBucks and Knicks playing, and then
you also have the Lakers and theSuns. The Lakers have shown up for
every one of these ncason Tournament games. Right They're undefeated, I believe in
the n season Tournament, at leastlast time I checked that they've lost one
game since then, because last timemy check was about like a week ago,
(28:56):
and that was what I saw onthe telecast. They said the Lakers
are undefeated in the nd season tournament. But it's gonna be interesting, man.
I'm really curious who's gonna win thistournament. Lebron apparently is dupally motivated,
because it's not any secret. Peoplesay Lebron is so cheap, he
(29:17):
doesn't want to spend his own moneyon anything, and that even includes like
subscriptions and so on. I'm like, damn, And if Lebron's like cutting
being tight with subscriptions, what amI doing? Granted I'm not really,
I'm not subscribed to anything outside ofI'm not subscribed to any streaming services.
I believe if I have one,it might be Hulu, but I believe
(29:37):
I have that from my girlfriend's mom. And then outside of that, I
just have PlayStation plus an Xbox GamePass and that's it. Those are all
the subscriptions I have. And so, you know, when you look at
it that way, I look maybeI vibe with Lebron more than I thought.
(29:59):
So I think it's an interesting it'sa great ad man, it's a
great It's a net negative or netpositive for the NBA. I'm curious about
viewership numbers. I haven't seen thosereleased because I'm very curious to see if
this caused any spike in you know, NBA or interested in NBA games and
so on. And I like thatthe you know, at first, the
court idea, the idea with thecourt was a bit jarring sometimes when you
(30:22):
see these wacky colors. But Ilike it because the minute I see that,
I'm more engaged because I know it'san n Season tournament game, So
then I'm watching that game with morelike locked in attention. The minute I
see the wacky court colors and soon in the n Season Tournament branding on
the court, you know it's it'sit's very interesting, and they've definitely thought
through this very well, and I'veobviously they're just gonna keep improving on it
(30:42):
going forward and stuff like that.And the tournament isn't anything separate or aside
from the regular games these teams willbe playing outside of the fact that they're
gonna be going the teams that qualify, I think to go to the championship
are gonna go to Vegas to play, So that's gonna be very exciting.
But guys, staying with the NBA, this is a more smaller news item,
(31:03):
but I did think I wanted tocover anyway. But essentially this write
up comes from Tim McMahon of ESPN, where the Dallas Mavericks are being sold
by Mark Cuban to the Addleson andDomont families of the Las Baga Las Vegas
Sans Casino, and they've entered intoa binding agreement to purchase a majority ownership
in the right to serve as thegovernor of the Dallas Mavericks, and the
(31:26):
families are targeting a closing of thetransaction by the end of twenty twenty three,
subject to the satisfaction of customary andclosing conditions and approval by the NBA
Board of Governors. The agreement wouldbe in the valuation range of three point
five billion dollars and take weeks forthe league to process. According to the
Associated Press, Cuban will maintain astake in the franchise and continue to have
(31:48):
control of basketball operations, sources toldESPN Tuesday night. According to the SEC
filing, the Addison family is sellingalmost two billion in stock in the Las
Vegas Sans Corp. To fund thepurchase of a majority interest in a professional
sports franchise pursuant to a binding purchaseagreement. If the entirety of the two
billion dollar sale goes toward the purchase, it would mean that Addamson family could
(32:12):
be acquiring at least fifty seven percentof the NBA team based on the three
point five billion dollar valuation mark.Cuban, who is sixty five years old,
has owned the Mavericks since two thousand, when he purchased a majority share
in the franchise for two hundred andeighty five million dollars. The SANS Group,
led by Miriam Addison and her sonin law and company president Patrick Dumont,
(32:34):
has previously had discussions with Cuban aboutbuilding a casino entertainment district in Dallas
that would include a new arena forthe Mavericks. Those plans would require gambling
to become legal in Texas, forwhich Cuban has lobbied state politicians. So,
you know, this sale is funny. People are making jokes that you
know, they're expecting some scandal tocome out from Mark Cuban now, especially
(32:58):
after this sale and then him decidingto step away from Shark Tank, a
show I believe he's been a partof for nearly a decade. Right.
I think Mark Eban has been apart of Shark Tank since two thousand and
I'm not gonna try and guess meit's either twenty sixteen or he's been a
part of sixteen seasons of the show, right, So him stepping down from
Shark Tank is a big deal aswell. Right, So these two things
(33:22):
He's still going to be obviously presidentof operations for the team, but it
is weird to see him kind ofstepping away from these two ventures at the
same time to some capacity, right. And but my also my read on
this is that this is also apush for them to try and show more
commitment in trying to get gambling legalizedin Texas, right and really be able
(33:45):
to be a part of that localcommunity and the culture and bring that all
that to Texas. And I thinkthat when you have a it's different when
you have an outsider trying to thencome in and become a part of the
businesses that they have there. Andwhen they say that they're trying to build
an entertainment district in Dallas and soon, that whole aspiration or in a
(34:10):
casino entertainment district in Dallas, thatwhole aspiration takes on new life when you
have direct ownership and investment in thearea, right, So that Las Vegas
Casino Court or Sans Court, theyhave now directed interests in that Dallas area,
right. And so from a stateor from a city perspective, that
(34:31):
changes the whole perspective. And nowwhen you're trying to create and create more
better economics in Dallas and for allof Texas and so on, and that
is going to increase lobbying power whenit comes to trying to bring or get
gambling legalized there in Texas. Sothat was my main read on this,
But it is interesting because I'm curiouswhat a new ownership group will do,
(34:54):
especially a majority ownership group now withthis with the doom with the Addamson and
Dumont families. Because one thing Iwill say, Mark Cuban has always been
a very front facing owner. Andgranted he's still going to be a part
of the franchise, he probably willstill be the face of the franchise to
a large extent. But over theyears, the Mavericks have always been this
(35:15):
team where they get like they're ableto always draft really good talent, right,
you get guys like Dirk Novitsky.At one point the Mavericks had Steve
Nash and then you know, followingthat, you had Jason Terry, you
had all these other guys, right, and you're out of all that run
you make about you make two finalstrips with one with or you get there
in two thousand and six with Dirkwhere he's the MVP. They end up
(35:37):
losing to Dwayne Wade in the MiamiHeat. But then you know, come
back get some retribution in twenty elevenwhere they're able to win the championship.
Then with Dirk Navisky getting his loanchampionship probably one of the greatest rings in
the NBA history, honestly, whenyou're talking about one superstar in the path
that he had to go through toget there, and then now with them
drafting Luka Dantic right, and nowyou're able to pay m Kyrie Irving.
(36:00):
But the Mavericks have always been thisteam where despite them having a very player
first owner, a front facing owner, a progressive owner in ways in terms
of social issues along to around theNBA and so on, they always struggled
to land the big free agents.Right. They always have been a team
that struggled to get the guy whenthey were available, whether it's Kawhi Leonard,
(36:21):
whether it's Paul George, whether itwas DeAndre Jordan. Right, everybody
remember the DeAndre Jordan episode where therewere reports apparently the Clippers had locked him
in a house or something like thatto get him to stay with the Clippers
as opposed to go into Dallas,all these type of things, and the
Mavericks are always on the short endof the stick. And that's always been
the story about the Mavericks, despitewhatever talent they already had there, and
(36:44):
naturally they always had to go acquirethe talent by trading for it, right,
trading to go get porzingis that didn'twork out for them now having to
trade to go get Kyrie Irving.And the thing that sucks when you can't
just naturally sign out these guys whenthey come and free agency is that you're
always giving away draft compensation, right, or you're always giving a draft compensation
(37:05):
some of your young budding talent orsome of the key pieces that help round
out your team to do that.So it feels like the Mavericks always are
in a position where they don't havea complete team. And it just happened
to work out in twenty eleven wherethey were able to glant have a team
with guys like Jason Kidd, TysonChandler, Jason Terry, and Sean Mary,
the whole nine. Right, itworked out for them. And I'm
(37:29):
very curious to see what this newownership group is gonna do to see how
this Mavericks team. I mean,when you're being led by Kyrie Irving and
Luca Doncis, you have a lotof potential, especially on the offensive side
of the ball. But this teamis always going to have an Achilles hill
of how they can perform defensively.They're very, very ceiling wise for what
Luca and Kyrie give you defensively.So naturally you would love to get an
(37:50):
Anthony Davis type guy in the sendin the middle of the defense or even
the reason why I say Anthony Davistype guy because he's not just limited to
the paint in terms of offense.But then even if you were to say
maybe a guy like Rudy Gobert whojust shuts down the paint right, but
then you also would want another niceYou want to get those nice three and
D wings that help maybe compensate forLuca and Kyrie can't provide and you know,
(38:13):
filling out those slots. But it'sgonna be interesting to see what goes
on with the Mavericks going forward.But we do have one more news story,
ladies and gentlemen, and for thatwe're gonna shift gears to the NFL
because Aaron rodgers Man let me tellyou, if you asked me how many
times I was gonna be talking aboutthe Jets this year, I probably would
(38:36):
have taken the under if you wouldhave even said like ten times, right,
I don't know how many times interms of episodes, if you were
to log them all, how manytimes I've talked about the Jets. But
I've talked about the Jets a fairamount in the last few podcasts, and
here they are again because Aaron Rodgers. In a write up from Rich Comedie
at ESPN, he's set to havean early comeback from his achilles injury,
(38:57):
as he returned to practice on Wednesdayon a limited base, exactly eleven weeks
after surgery to repair that toron achilles. Rogers was cleared for functional football activity
in quotes, but not contact,according to coach Robert Sala, who called
this a progression in his rehab.It's too soon to say whether Rogers will
play again this season, though byrule, the Jets have twenty one days
(39:20):
to decide whether to activate Rogers frominjury reserve. The period expires December twenty
if, four, days before theyface the Washington Commanders, the game he's
targeting for a return Rogers, whoturns forty on Saturday, is recovering at
an extraordinary pace. But this doesn'tmean he's a lock to play, Salas
said, the team is so faraway from having to make that decision.
(39:42):
No NFL player has returned from anachille surgery before the five months mark,
and Rogers will be in three anda half months removed from the surgery December
twenty fourth, when the Jets playthe Commanders. Look man just saying,
I don't know what air Rogers isinto. I don't know what drugs he'd
be using, I don't know whathe'd be sniffing. But one thing I
(40:07):
do know, bro, this man'scoming back from achilles injury faster than anybody
I've ever seen that goes from NFL, NBA, you name it. Kevin
Durant was out for months, KobeBryant out for months, Chauncey Billups out
for months. Many of these peopleoutside of Kevin Durant didn't come back the
same players right after they tore theirachilles. So now you're looking at this
(40:28):
Dominique Wilkins. Even right, Dominique, I think he tore his achilles,
if I'm not mistaken. So thesetype of injuries, man, they are
they are detrimental to especially top flightathletes and in many ways because then you
lose that explosion that you think abouthow much your achilles does for you,
man, Like you just setting yourfoot down when you're sitting down right now,
like just push your foot up againstthe floor. Your achilles is handling
(40:49):
all that force that you're put yourperson against the floor right now. And
so when that's gone, that dropback, that five step, four step
drop back that these quarterbacks have,man none of that, and he's already
right on pace to try and makethat comeback. But as Aaron Rodgers has
maintained, he would only want tocome back obviously if he's fully healthy,
he's cleared by the doctors. Hewas clear to be able to participate in
(41:10):
the quarterback drills and stuff like that. Obviously like quarterback drills. He's not
doing it as deep and as aggressiveas guys like Zach Wilson and so on
currently that are practicing for the Jets. But it's kind of crazy right right
now, Jets manned by four quarterbacks. But it is one of those things
that if Rogers is apparently they saythat his surgeon that you got him through,
(41:32):
has been rigorously watching his rehab fromAFAR and so on, manage ours,
managing and surveying him to make surethat they're not bringing them back to
early and making sure he's right.But he's maintained that, look, if
he's healthy and they're in playoff contention, he'll come He will come back.
He will try his best to comeback. Right now, that's looking like
a far shot, far cry,because the Jets are not in playoff contention
(41:58):
right now. Well, they havean out side chance. Let me say
that they have an outside chance tomake the playoffs right now, because right
now you got the Jets at fourand seven. They're in the hunt.
They're not in the playoffs right now, but they are in the hunt.
And in terms of the AFC picture, I mean, their pictures look completely
bleak, but there's still a slimchance that could make it. Let's say
(42:19):
they went out, then they havea chance to try and make the playoffs.
But when you look at the recordso far in the last few weeks,
they lost to the Dolphins, theylost to the Bills, they lost
to the Raiders, the lost ofthe Chargers. I mean they've lost four
straight games, maybe this upcoming weekyou get a little bit of a more
of a light game against the Falcons. Hopefully you can try and win that
game. Falcons at five and six, Jets four and seven. Then after
(42:42):
that you do face CJ. Stroudand the Texans. After that you play
the Dolphins again, and then thatwould be the Commander's game, in which
that's the game they're hoping to haveRogers back. So, honestly, I
think it's a long shot for himto come back, especially if he's hinging
that come back and being on himthe team being in playoff contention, But
you know, it could be somethingthat he wants to come back and just
(43:02):
show that it could be done.But I don't know if you risk that
if you come back just to showit could be done, and you risk
possibly re injurying yourself and having tohave a longer hiatus out from this team,
especially if you're already out of playoffcontention and you're looking like you're not
gonna make it, then really you'rejust playing for next season at that point,
right. So I think that's goingto be interesting the thing to watch
(43:25):
because I think the Jets at thispoint they're pretty desperate. Right, The
Jets don't want any but Aaron Rodgersturning forty this upcoming Saturday. Right,
you don't have seasons to just giveup. And I think one of Aaron
Rodgers teammates said it perfectly. Hesaid, the NFL is a league where
you're one hundred percent guaranteed to gethurt, and the chance of reinjury is
(43:45):
realistic in this scenario. Right,no matter how hard to rehab has been,
how rigorous has been to try andstrengthen that achilles tendon, you come
back too early, or you comeback and you put too much force on
it and whatnot. You don't knowwhat could happen. We'll see what the
Jets end up doing. But itis a positive story hearing Aaron Rodgers is
coming back so soon. So creditto a rod the Jets training staff and
(44:07):
all those doctors that he's been workingwith in Los Angeles and so on,
and whatever substances he's been taking,you know what I'm saying. But y'all,
that's gonna wrap it up for thisepisode of the KBR Sports Podcast.
Of course, like I said atthe beginning, make sure you guys go
ahead and follow and subscribe, towhatever podcast platforms you listen on. Also
follow KBR Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at KBR Sports, Twitter
(44:30):
at KBR Underscore Sports, and followmyself brendan Abin on all social media platforms,
whether it's TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and yeah, I think that's
that's all this coming to mind rightnow, that's aw that's come into mind.
But guys, make sure you guysgo ahead and do that, and
also follow and subscribe to the KBRSports YouTube channel where you get videos.
(44:53):
You're getting videos on almost practically shortson right now. It's not out every
other day cadence speak, because ittakes so much to edit mainline or long
form written written script videos that sometimesI have to prioritize that over the shorts.
But at this point it's like ashort every other day, right just
(45:13):
to keep pace. But you guyscheck that stuff out as well, and
hopefully you guys do enjoy the podcastand I forget. Please leave a review
and leave a rating. That alwaysdoes help. I appreciate the support everybody.
Every single time you guys leave areview and leave a rating, it
does help. I'm trying to getthis podcast up higher in the iTunes charts.
I'm gonna be I'm gonna start doingthe rebrand. Like I told you
guys, We're gonna start getting aggressivewith new topics or sorry, new segments
(45:36):
coming to the podcast, new featurescoming too the YouTube channel, and so
on. So that's all part ofthe rebrand. But it's a lot of
work. So a lot of thatwork, especially for me since I do
still work full time, gets doneon the weekend as well, while I
work on content after work in theweek So it's a lot. But guys,
I appreciate every single one of you, and until next time, I'm out.
My people, My people, Welcomeback to another episode of the KBR Sports
Podcast. I think I'm gonna startI enjoy saying the best sports podcast in
your twenty four hour day, becauseobviously it's a subjective reference. In my
opinion, I think this probably isthe best twenty four hours or the best
podcast sports podcast you listen to inyour twenty four hour day, of course,
(00:23):
but at some point I'm like,man, do you guys believe that
too? Because if I'm the onlyone that believes it, then look,
I mean, I guess I'm theonly person that needs to believe it.
Right. That's kind of confidence yougotta have, Right. It's like one
of those things where people say,you got to have that confidence in yourself
to the point where other people startbelieving in you in the same regard,
(00:43):
because if you don't believe in ifyou're looking for validation from other people,
then you're never gonna get the typeof confidence that you need because people are
never gonna be able to give youthat validation that you seek. Right,
you just got to have that beliefin yourself. I believe that, honestly.
I think that's a trait for morethose entrepreneurs or for most self starters
to some degree, right, becauseif you're kind of just always waiting for
(01:06):
somebody to tell you you're good atsomething or whatever the case might be,
Yes, it helps. It's niceto hear, but to some point you
kind of got to get the feelof it yourself to understand how to do
something well enough to be able toget to that point where you just know,
I think I'm pretty damn good atthis, right, especially when you
compare yourself to your peers, becausesometimes that's like the measuring bar to see
what can you improve on or inwhat ways can you actually work on little
(01:27):
refinements here and there. So that'sjust a little, you know, early
motivational quote for you guys. Right, But y'all, thank you for tuning
in to this podcast. If you'renot subscribed or following the podcast on any
podcast platform, go ahead and dothat because it is available on whatever podcast
platform you may choose to listen to. And also make sure you guys follow
(01:48):
KBR Sports on social media at KBRSports on Instagram and at KBR Underscore Sports
on Twitter, as well as followingmyself, Brendan Abbin on all platforms.
That is my name so I wouldappreciate it if you guys following me on
everywhere. Oh also KBR Sports onFacebook, but of course, guys,
make sure you guys also follow theKBR Sports YouTube channel. Most recent video
is up. We talked about it. The newest video is about how ESPN
(02:12):
did my boy Kyrie Irving dirty.All right, and if you want to
know how they did them dirty,go and watch that video. I think
it's a pretty good video. Spenta lot of time writing that up,
doing a lot of research and allthat stuff had to you know, wrap
my thoughts around how to who Iwas gonna name specifically in that video and
stuff like that. But make sureyou guys go and check that out.
Okay. So now that we gotthat house keeping out of the way,
(02:35):
Okay, hopefully everybody had a greatholiday right Thanksgiving, and hopefully you had
a successful Black Friday or Cyber Monday, depending on whichever day you try to
used to capitalize on those discounts andsales. But I'm starting to see things
going around now when you see theseviral videos on social media going around where
you're seeing stories just slip out thesame for sale sign and they're sipping in
(03:00):
another one and it just has BlackFriday on it. We're being jobbed here,
We're being had because if there's reallyno ulterior difference, if there's no
ulterior difference, but it's just thecolor of the sign, which is nuts.
Right. And now with the adventof online buying, digital buying,
(03:23):
we have the ability, depending onwhat website you're shopping on, to view
price history for a lot of theseitems, and then you realize the price
history indicates that these items are thesame price that they were month two months
ago. Right, it's just thatnow you got the Black Friday attack.
So sometimes, man, at thispoint, I don't know, maybe people
(03:44):
should just get comfortable buying things whenyou see them like fifty percent off or
thirty percent. I don't know,because it's starting to seem like it's harder
to realize that it's gonna get anybetter than that in terms of an actual
discount that they're gonna applied to theproduct. So I'm just I'm starting to
become more and more skeptical, tobe honest, the main things that I
(04:09):
will buy during these Black Friday orCyber Monday type deals, because throughout most
of the year, really the mainthing I spend money on is when you
have a significant other, the mainthing you end up spending your money on
is food or different experiences with them. Right. So the biggest thing I
(04:29):
look for a lot of times forBlack Friday or Cyber Monday is honestly not
like goods. It's normally I willlook for tickets or different type of activities
and stuff like that, right,And it just unfortunately for me this year,
what lined up for an event interms of what we wanted to do
was go to a Drake and jCole concert, right, And it was
(04:51):
one of those things that you know, we talked about it. We have
tried to go to a multitude ofevents over the last few years. Twenty
twenty two we got active. Imean we went to concerts, comedy shows.
I think last year in twenty twentytwo we saw We saw Kevin Hart
during his tour. We saw ChrisBrown, Little Baby, we saw I
(05:15):
forget who else. I don't Ithink it was another. I might have
think Cardi B I'm not sure.In twenty twenty two, there was a
lot of different artists that we sawthat year. She even went to a
concert on her own. Honestly,without me. She went with her friend,
so she didn't and that concert forher. She went to go see
the Jonas Brothers. So there isa multitude of different things that we did
(05:40):
throughout twenty twenty two, just differentevents. We went to Disney multiple times,
I think in twenty twenty two.Yeah, we went like two or
three times in twenty twenty two,if I'm not mistaken, we went to
Disney. So we just had alot of events that we did and this
year it slowed down a lot,but we still did some fun stuff this
year, but just not to thedegree of twenty twenty two. So when
(06:00):
it came to Drake and j Cole, tickets came up. You know,
everybody's doing their tours, right,Taylor Stift's on tour, Drake's on tour,
Beyonce's on tour, and we're like, oh, snap, Drake and
J Cole, why not let metell y'all. We were in line on
online or in the queue rather toget these tickets, and this thing is
like moving me up. When Igo into log into the queue at the
(06:24):
time it said like eleven pm oreleven am Eastern time. I logged into
that q man I was like numberfour thousand or something like that. I
was like, oh, hell,I'm cooked. I knew. I was
like, I am the NETO.I already knew what it was. So
at that point I'm like, okay, right, I'm just waiting in the
queue, waiting the line. I'mlike, maybe people will tail off when
(06:46):
they see the ticket prices and allthat, right, And sure enough people
start tailing off, phone off.But no, man, they them picket
them. Tickets got scooped. Andthe thing that was worse is that we
were on we were making a roadtrip, you know, for our trip
up to go for Thanksgiving, togo see family, and while doing so
(07:09):
it sucks. But while doing so, you know, your your connection is
spotty in the car, and sowe're sitting here trying to freaking buy these
tickets and the queues just going downand down and down, and I'm like,
oh my gosh, oh my god. And then it starts just spinning
right the numbers starts. I'm like, yo, yo, yo yo,
what's going on? What do youThis thing is just like a buffering,
it's stuck on the number. AndI'm like, we were just going at
(07:32):
like a like a person dropping fromthe queue, or at least like it
would be like a thirty person dropevery like thirty seconds to a minute,
and so it was. It wassteadily declined. Then it will start picking
up again, going faster and faster, so then you have like one hundred
people drop at a time and soon, and then it just starts buffering.
For me, I'm like, ohno, I am chalked. So
(07:55):
then finally I have to I finallyjust came to realize that I got to
hit the refresh. I hit therefresh y'all. And then when I hit
the refresh, I came back in. I had gotten down to like maybe
four hundred or something like that.Man I hit that refresh, I was
back at one thousand. I waslike, oh no, I was devastated.
(08:18):
Devastated. Man, So then getin there and then go look at
the tickets. All resell, allresell prices. I'm talking like we're like
in those bleeds for like two sixtyand so on. I'm like, fam,
huh, nose bleeds are two sixty. Oh nah. I literally just
went when I was when I wasat home, I went to go see
(08:41):
an NBA game with pretty pretty goodseats for like around one sixty or so,
so you're telling me too, sixtyis where I gotta be the be
all the way? No sure readno shot. So yeah, if I
maybe, if we see the resalestuff, I doubt it's gonna waiver.
You know, concerts are actually likethey're in a boom right now with all
these different artists touring or whatnot.People are releasing new music. So with
(09:05):
that being said, Drake and jCo ain't looking good. It ain't looking
good, y'all, let me tellyou. But but if I do,
I did say that I want totake a vacation to go somewhere in twenty
twenty four, so that's looking likeit might be the move. Let me
know what destination you guys have inmind. I was like, it may
(09:26):
be Hawaii. I've never been toHawaii. Or do I go fully out
of the country right I'm obviously Ihope you guys will know. I am
ganyi In so I haven't been toGhana since I was a kid, and
London also since I was a kidas well, early teenager. So those
(09:48):
are some destinations that at least toucha bit more personal to me that I
haven't been to in a while.But then you you have also, I
will say other places like you gotlike I want it. I'm I'm interested
in places like Spain and whatnot.But then at the same time, like
you know, I gotta be careful. Why I dabble around because some people
don't take kind to the chocolate brothersand you depending on where you go.
(10:09):
So I have to be kind.I have to be you know, mindful
of where I'm going. I can'tjust go at free liberty going anywhere,
so I have to do, youknow, more extensive research. But what
research don't you do when you're travelingabroad? Right? But some places,
you know, you know, ifyou're going you step in the wrong place,
you might not come back. SoI gotta be careful. But guys,
(10:30):
that's enough about my plans. Man. Hopefully you guys had a great
holiday. That's all. That's theoverall gist of that, right, All
that just to say that, youknow, but yeah, I'm hoping everybody
enjoyed their holiday. And so on. We have Christmas coming up, we
have Hanukkah, we have Please,I apologize if I'm mistake any of these
(10:52):
things, but I know that Ithink Kwanza and the dates of each of
these events gets mixed up in mymind. So for everybody just celebrating all
the different holidays, you know,happy holidays to everybody as we get as
we embark on the journey closer toDecember. Right, but yo, let's
talk some Let's talk some sports.Why don't we write, let's talk some
sports at least at this point intime. Let's see how let's see at
(11:13):
the time for me of this preamble, and it's so funny. I can
go on like this and I'm bymyself ten minutes. We are clocked in
at ten minutes right now. Mightbe less after edits, but ten minutes
with just me solo rambling. Ienjoyed doing this, man, I enjoyed
talking to y'all. It's fun.But hopefully you guys enjoyed too. Like
(11:35):
what half the people just log outlike I don't this is even sports.
But let's jump into talking about somesports, because guys, you know I
have an issue, right, Ihave Klay Thompson, right, I look,
I enjoy I enjoy Clay Thompson.I think Klay Thompson is a phenomenal
player, phenomenal dude, one ofthe most chill people that you can see
(11:58):
and like almost any circumstance, right, I think everybody can agree on that.
Clay is just normally the most chillguy in the room. But you
know, he had a run inwith a reporter and reporters talking to him
about Steve Kerr possibly benching him andstuff like that, and then Clay's just
like, what, dude, areyou trying to get me to bench myself
(12:18):
type of deal. But you know, just to avoid any confusion, I'm
going to play here for you guysto listen to. So that way,
obviously, I don't put any wordsin Clay or the reporter's mouth. Kirk
talks a lot about believing in hisguys, especially the starting lineup one championship
not too long ago, having patients, letting guys kind of, you know,
(12:41):
find their game. How where areyou of that kind of patience and
how much you know do you valueit? What do you want me to
me? It's like, that's Idon't think I said that. I mean
you can suggest it's fine, butI mean, thanks Steve. I guess,
(13:05):
like I don't know. Sometimes youearn these things like patience and time
to find yourself. And I thinkhistory will h is on our side when
it comes to that stuff. Yousay that, DoD, have you heard
people say that or not? Idon't care what people say, Like they
don't do what we do. Theycan't do what they do. That's why
they talk. Why would I like, come on, I don't care what
(13:28):
people say at this point in mylife. Next question, So, anytime
somebody says I don't care what peoplesay, more often than not they do.
Right. I'm not with that,right because if people didn't care what
other people say, you would haveno idea what people are saying. Right,
(13:50):
Because the reporter says nothing about benchingWiggins or benching Clay. And it's
particularly maybe Clay can take away fromwhat the reporter saying about, you know,
Siege, being patient, sticking withpeople. He could take that as
meaning being benching. Right. Butwhat Clay, when Clay gives it away
that he does hear the noise isbecause you know, he obviously could feel
(14:11):
like the reporters referring to Clay himselfbecause he's asking Clay the question. But
when Clay throws Wiggins in there,it's obvious that Clay is seeing what people
are saying. Right. There wasa report just a couple of days ago
about possibly that people around the wordsweren't happy with the fact that Andrew Wiggins
appears to not be in shape,especially after missing so much of last season
(14:33):
with a personal matter that was neverreally disclosed publicly. Right, So that's
an issue that people have been talkingabout in the media. So how would
Clay know if he doesn't pay attentionto what people say, right, You
know, there's a little bit ofcontradiction, you know. So it's one
of those things that you know,we notice, but we just don't.
But I understand Clay's Clay's bit ofsnippiness here because obviously Clay's not having the
(14:58):
ideal season. It's not a badseason by any stretch, right, But
I think when you see this reportcome out from Kendra Kendra Andrews Milik and
Andrews sister and what she says thatcontract negotiations are weighing on Klay Thompson.
She said he appears to be noticeablymore frustrated during games. He sometimes sits
on the end of the bench byhimself during timeouts or slaps his head after
(15:22):
taking a bad shot. Now,when you dive deeper into the numbers,
you can kind of see where thatis. You see the correlation between the
two, right, because Clay isshooting a career low and three point percentage
right now at thirty six point fortyfive percent, and he's averaging the second
lowest points per game outside of hisrookie year with fifteen point three points.
(15:45):
So he and he currently has anet rating of minus seven point six with
the Warriors being a minus three pointone with him on the court and then
being plus four and a half withhim off of it. So you see
those numbers and you realize there's aClay is being detrimental to the team right
now when he's on the court.Obviously his shooting, the team is better
offensively and stuff when he's on thecourt, But really the core of it
(16:07):
all is the defense. His defensehas been lacking in ways that you can
say, right, he hasn't hadthat explosiveness. I even posted on the
KBR Sports Instagram story the other nighttalking about how if Clay can bring that
level of explosiveness because I think theplay that I posted is a block he
gets on Daveyon Mitchell, and heis essentially almost like a Chase Down block
(16:32):
in some respect, he's guarding Daveyon Davian gets by him to get to
the rim, and Clay just kindof elevates and blocks it. But I
was saying, Clay needs to findthat energy, find that explosive this.
Obviously, Clay's body has been througha lot, especially with his injuries that
he's had that you lose some ofthat athleticism, right, so he's not
the defender that he was four yearsago. And with some of that lost
(16:52):
athleticism, you're starting to see itstart to appreciate now, even as we
get longer into the teeth with theWarrior's tenure, and when you look at
the defensive numbers for Clay on average, the opponents field goal percentages against Klay
Thompson is are not impacted when they'rebeing defended by Klay. So let's say
somebody comes against the Warriors, theyshoot forty eight point eight percent from the
(17:15):
field. Essentially when they're being guardedby Klay Thompson, they are going to
continue shooting forty eight point eight percentfrom the field, as opposed to a
dip to them shooting now forty fivepercent or even shooting like forty percent.
Because Clay is causing them to strugglethat much with their shots, right,
because he's that good of a defender, but he hasn't caused any change and
shift, and people's shot percentage isshowing that people are scoring on Clay without
(17:41):
really any issues. And then whenyou look at opponents, when you look
at the offensive rating of opponents,it's at one hundred and twenty point three
with Clay on the court, andit's a steep decline once Clay's off the
court, down to one oh sixpoint five. So you see that's a
hu major disparity, right, Andthat's one of those things you do look
at. It's a glaring number andit's a glaring impact or deficiency and impact
(18:06):
where Clay is becoming now the ultimatethree point type of guy that you can't
really you can't. Also, youcan't leave Clay open on three point percentage
even though you know that's that's hisoff of resume and career. As Clay
said, right, he's built upa history that you hope with a coach
would be patient with him over thistime period, but right now he's not.
(18:26):
He is still he's still got thesplash, but he's not one of
the splash brothers right at this pointin time, like he's still trying to
find that level of splash where he'sshooting close to forty percent or even forty
percent during the season, Because whenyou're shooting over forty percent from three,
I mean you're pretty much if somebody'sleaving you open, dude, that's that's
(18:47):
negligent on defense. Right right now, Clay's just above league average, right
with Lee average trending to be aroundthirty five percent thirty six percent, and
that with him being at thirty sixpoint forty four percent. Yeah, that's
tough. That's tough. So it'sone of those things that you kind of
hope Clay either Clay finds the strikeagain, gets that percentage up, starts
(19:08):
getting better looks. Right, theWarriors had to play five games without Draymond
Green. That does have an impacton their offense. Draymond helps get Clay
and Steph very quality looks. SoI think that's one of those scenarios that
we're gonna sit there and look atand see if Clay can possibly improve that
percentage. But I do think itis something interesting to the greater point about
(19:30):
the Warriors team, and every singletime it feels like people are always saying
that the Warriors need to break thisthing up, or people are always trying
to pick at the Warriors and pullthem apart, and I never really get
it right. I understand maybe needingto improve the roster here and there,
and they've tried right through the draft. They try to improve with guys like
Jonathan Kaminga, Moses Moody, theyhad Jordan Poole. He's gone now,
(19:53):
but they've tried in a multitude ofways to try and improve this team.
But it seems as though, andit's fun. It's very interesting to me
that people are just ready to justkind of see this next era of the
Warriors really take effect in. ButI'm like, what, what are people
wanting to see from this team tosee this major change, Because unless you're
talking about like I don't, Iwouldn't shake up the core of these guys
(20:17):
unless they're no longer able to performat that level, because then you can't
be paying people. And that's oneof the biggest things for Klay Thompson is
I don't know if I said thisearlier, but oh I did. Yeah.
With him having his contract negotiations goingon right now, one of the
big deals is that, obviously,if you're not playing up to snuff,
it's really hard for a team tosay, hey, we're willing, we
(20:38):
want to pay you star player typemoney, you know, carrying a franchise
or being one of the key cogsand carrying a franchise type money if you're
not matching with that production, especiallywhen you're in a contract year and the
team can really gauge where your impactis that currently. And for Clay right
now, if a Warriors team ateight and ten being knocked out of the
(21:02):
n season tournament, not qualifying forthat next round, especially, you start
asking questions like, okay, well, what's going on right, what is
it that what is it that theWarriors need to do, or what can
happen that can really make that canchange the tide of for all the fortunes
(21:22):
of this team. And I think, simply put, I think that honestly,
they just need to get back toplaying star warts defense. But it
ain't easy when your all your pieceshave essentially aged to some degree. Right,
Steph Curry is still the guy performingat optimum mobility. Draymond Green is
still great on that end of theball too, defensively and playmaking, but
everybody's kind of tailed down a bit. Honestly. The main guy has still
(21:45):
been impressive at a high level ofSteph Curry, which is amazing, but
the Warriors are just aging man andobviously the run can't sustain forever. But
I guess that is where maybe youstart utilizing draft picks or young talent to
go and get another person that canhelp your team, that can be a
guy you bring in. But Ialso think this is where you might start
(22:07):
seeing the Bob Myers departure affecting thisteam, right, And why Bob Myers
stepped down from that general manager roleor president of Basketball operations role because of
the fact that this Clay Tossing contractcoming up, and he knew there were
a lot of tough negotiations coming upfor this team and he just didn't want
to deal with it. I mean, I can imagine it's so stressful trying
to deal with these things, andespecially when you build relationship with these guys.
(22:32):
All these guys have won champions together. At this point, this corps
has four championships running, and youdo start to sit there and be like,
well, how do we how doyou essentially if a guy's not willing
to take a pay cut, Like, there's a part of this where you
have to be realistic, right,and Clay wants his money. Everybody wants
(22:55):
their money, right all. Weall want to get paid what we think
we're worth. And I think isone of those situations now where at this
current pace, Clay probably is gonnaget undershot what he thinks he's were and
it could lead to the breaking upof the of this cord because now you're
starting to see rumors pop around byClay to the Lakers. Granted, those
rumors have been around for nearly closeto a decade honestly, so we'll have
(23:18):
to wait and see. But itis an interesting thought and just seeing how
this all will play out. ButI did bring up the n Season tournament,
and I wanted to talk about itreally briefly, just wanted to bring
it up because, funny enough,I've seen a lot of people now talking
about different players like Donovan Mitchell,the Martin Rosen had an issue with.
(23:40):
I think it was I don't rememberspecifically who they were playing, but I
know they had a problem. Ithink it was the Bulls. It was
the Bulls and they or no,he's on the bulls. But the Martin
Rosen had a problem with I believeit was maybe the Sixers or the Wizards,
one of the two teams. Idon't know. I'm just spitballing here
because or was it the Knicks.It don't matter. But essentially, the
(24:03):
Marta Rosen had a problem with theopposing team having to run up the score.
And you know, normally when teamsare when the team's winning handily and
they have the game one, ateam will dribble out of the ball just
out of a show of respect,they won't try and then go run at
the score to try and embarrass theother team by a worst margin or something
like that. But the Marta rollsin, it happens, and he takes
(24:23):
exception to it, feeling like itwas disrespectful for the game, towards the
game, right to the ethics ofthe game, the morality of it.
But then you go on the otherside, you're like, well, no,
this is an end season tournament game. This isn't just a regular basketball
game. There's five hundred thousand dollarsfor each of us on the line here,
and their point differential in terms ofwins and so on plays a part
(24:45):
along with your record and you beingable to get higher placement in the tournament.
So and honestly, in earnest,I got to agree with everybody that's
trying to run up the score.Screw your ethics. Five hundred thousand dollars
respect for the game. The gamecan respect me after I get paid,
(25:10):
Like, what are we doing here? It's not like this is some some
travesty and moral thing, like youbetter stop us then play defense. I
don't care if the game is outof grass. You better work hard too,
because we're gonna keep working hard.That's five hundred thousand dollars. Like
(25:32):
Damian Lillard said, not everybody isan all Star player, superstar player assigned
to a Supermax. There are guyson two way contracts, ten day contracts
that that money can change their family'slives, Their family can get out of
debt, their family can put adown payment on whatever. And we're trying
to trivialize it and make it seemas if it's just inappropriate thing for respect
(25:55):
of the game. Where in therules is that even a thing, right,
It's just a player thing. Theyjust decide not to do it.
Out of respect, right, justbut if it literally, the mode of
the contest you were competing in incentivisesyou to do it. There's nothing disrespectful
about it. Literally, that's partof the competition we're playing. We're playing
(26:15):
the metagame word per se, right, the bigger picture. So I I
think the nd Season Tournament is greatin my opinion. At first, I
didn't really get what the NBA wasgoing for. I didn't see the vision.
But now I'm seeing it and I'mreally enjoying it. I think these
(26:36):
games have been really competitive for themost part. And then when you have
teams that are getting blown out,look, you better fight back to try
and get yourself back in some ofthese teams that already knocked out, look,
So it sucks to suck, right, But now we got the teams
in the quarterfinals and acting and lastnight it was even an interesting game because
the Warriors and Kings are playing,and the Kings in that situation, if
(27:00):
they win the game, or ifthey lost by under twelve points, they
qualify for the quarterfinals. In then Season Tournament, the Warriors were up
by as much as twenty four points. Warriors blew the lead, blew it
entirely. The Warriors had to winby twelve points to qualify for the next
round. In the end season tournament, Warriors got cooked. Kings made an
(27:25):
astounding comeback to be able to comeback from down twenty four points. Granted,
yes, I say that the addedincentive is there for the n season
tournament, but the Warriors also yousee them trying to kind of start tight,
getting a little tight because they're tryingto score fast. They're trying to
make up that twelve point you know, reach that twelve point ratio or differential,
(27:48):
and in the midst of doing that, they're starting to play a bit
out of character, out of offenseand so on, because they can't just
run their normal flow of offense justto try and win the game. They
have to try and win by twelvepoints. But by doing so, they
started taking a bit of rash shotsthat might have honestly given the Kings the
window to then come back and putbecause the Kings are just playing a normal
basketball game, right, They're justtrying to win the game, whereas the
(28:11):
Warriors had the Warriors, the Warriorshave to try and win the metagame along
with the game, So it addsthese different storylines and levels to the game
that you know, regular basketball gamesdon't have to them. So I think
it's been great. Personally, Ithink it's been awesome. I think it's
a great addition right now in thequarterfinals when you look at who we're gonna
have. It returns on December fourthwith the Kings and Pelicans playing, right
(28:34):
then you're gonna have the Pacers andthe Celtics as well playing on December fourth.
Then on December fifth you have theBucks and Knicks playing, and then
you also have the Lakers and theSuns. The Lakers have shown up for
every one of these ncason Tournament games. Right They're undefeated, I believe in
the n season Tournament, at leastlast time I checked that they've lost one
game since then, because last timemy check was about like a week ago,
(28:56):
and that was what I saw onthe telecast. They said the Lakers
are undefeated in the nd season tournament. But it's gonna be interesting, man.
I'm really curious who's gonna win thistournament. Lebron apparently is dupally motivated,
because it's not any secret. Peoplesay Lebron is so cheap, he
(29:17):
doesn't want to spend his own moneyon anything, and that even includes like
subscriptions and so on. I'm like, damn, And if Lebron's like cutting
being tight with subscriptions, what amI doing? Granted I'm not really,
I'm not subscribed to anything outside ofI'm not subscribed to any streaming services.
I believe if I have one,it might be Hulu, but I believe
(29:37):
I have that from my girlfriend's mom. And then outside of that, I
just have PlayStation plus an Xbox GamePass and that's it. Those are all
the subscriptions I have. And so, you know, when you look at
it that way, I look maybeI vibe with Lebron more than I thought.
(29:59):
So I think it's an interesting it'sa great ad man, it's a
great It's a net negative or netpositive for the NBA. I'm curious about
viewership numbers. I haven't seen thosereleased because I'm very curious to see if
this caused any spike in you know, NBA or interested in NBA games and
so on. And I like thatthe you know, at first, the
court idea, the idea with thecourt was a bit jarring sometimes when you
(30:22):
see these wacky colors. But Ilike it because the minute I see that,
I'm more engaged because I know it'san n Season tournament game, So
then I'm watching that game with morelike locked in attention. The minute I
see the wacky court colors and soon in the n Season Tournament branding on
the court, you know it's it'sit's very interesting, and they've definitely thought
through this very well, and I'veobviously they're just gonna keep improving on it
(30:42):
going forward and stuff like that.And the tournament isn't anything separate or aside
from the regular games these teams willbe playing outside of the fact that they're
gonna be going the teams that qualify, I think to go to the championship
are gonna go to Vegas to play, So that's gonna be very exciting.
But guys, staying with the NBA, this is a more smaller news item,
(31:03):
but I did think I wanted tocover anyway. But essentially this write
up comes from Tim McMahon of ESPN, where the Dallas Mavericks are being sold
by Mark Cuban to the Addleson andDomont families of the Las Baga Las Vegas
Sans Casino, and they've entered intoa binding agreement to purchase a majority ownership
in the right to serve as thegovernor of the Dallas Mavericks, and the
(31:26):
families are targeting a closing of thetransaction by the end of twenty twenty three,
subject to the satisfaction of customary andclosing conditions and approval by the NBA
Board of Governors. The agreement wouldbe in the valuation range of three point
five billion dollars and take weeks forthe league to process. According to the
Associated Press, Cuban will maintain astake in the franchise and continue to have
(31:48):
control of basketball operations, sources toldESPN Tuesday night. According to the SEC
filing, the Addison family is sellingalmost two billion in stock in the Las
Vegas Sans Corp. To fund thepurchase of a majority interest in a professional
sports franchise pursuant to a binding purchaseagreement. If the entirety of the two
billion dollar sale goes toward the purchase, it would mean that Addamson family could
(32:12):
be acquiring at least fifty seven percentof the NBA team based on the three
point five billion dollar valuation mark.Cuban, who is sixty five years old,
has owned the Mavericks since two thousand, when he purchased a majority share
in the franchise for two hundred andeighty five million dollars. The SANS Group,
led by Miriam Addison and her sonin law and company president Patrick Dumont,
(32:34):
has previously had discussions with Cuban aboutbuilding a casino entertainment district in Dallas
that would include a new arena forthe Mavericks. Those plans would require gambling
to become legal in Texas, forwhich Cuban has lobbied state politicians. So,
you know, this sale is funny. People are making jokes that you
know, they're expecting some scandal tocome out from Mark Cuban now, especially
(32:58):
after this sale and then him decidingto step away from Shark Tank, a
show I believe he's been a partof for nearly a decade. Right.
I think Mark Eban has been apart of Shark Tank since two thousand and
I'm not gonna try and guess meit's either twenty sixteen or he's been a
part of sixteen seasons of the show, right, So him stepping down from
Shark Tank is a big deal aswell. Right, So these two things
(33:22):
He's still going to be obviously presidentof operations for the team, but it
is weird to see him kind ofstepping away from these two ventures at the
same time to some capacity, right. And but my also my read on
this is that this is also apush for them to try and show more
commitment in trying to get gambling legalizedin Texas, right and really be able
(33:45):
to be a part of that localcommunity and the culture and bring that all
that to Texas. And I thinkthat when you have a it's different when
you have an outsider trying to thencome in and become a part of the
businesses that they have there. Andwhen they say that they're trying to build
an entertainment district in Dallas and soon, that whole aspiration or in a
(34:10):
casino entertainment district in Dallas, thatwhole aspiration takes on new life when you
have direct ownership and investment in thearea, right, So that Las Vegas
Casino Court or Sans Court, theyhave now directed interests in that Dallas area,
right. And so from a stateor from a city perspective, that
(34:31):
changes the whole perspective. And nowwhen you're trying to create and create more
better economics in Dallas and for allof Texas and so on, and that
is going to increase lobbying power whenit comes to trying to bring or get
gambling legalized there in Texas. Sothat was my main read on this,
But it is interesting because I'm curiouswhat a new ownership group will do,
(34:54):
especially a majority ownership group now withthis with the doom with the Addamson and
Dumont families. Because one thing Iwill say, Mark Cuban has always been
a very front facing owner. Andgranted he's still going to be a part
of the franchise, he probably willstill be the face of the franchise to
a large extent. But over theyears, the Mavericks have always been this
(35:15):
team where they get like they're ableto always draft really good talent, right,
you get guys like Dirk Novitsky.At one point the Mavericks had Steve
Nash and then you know, followingthat, you had Jason Terry, you
had all these other guys, right, and you're out of all that run
you make about you make two finalstrips with one with or you get there
in two thousand and six with Dirkwhere he's the MVP. They end up
(35:37):
losing to Dwayne Wade in the MiamiHeat. But then you know, come
back get some retribution in twenty elevenwhere they're able to win the championship.
Then with Dirk Navisky getting his loanchampionship probably one of the greatest rings in
the NBA history, honestly, whenyou're talking about one superstar in the path
that he had to go through toget there, and then now with them
drafting Luka Dantic right, and nowyou're able to pay m Kyrie Irving.
(36:00):
But the Mavericks have always been thisteam where despite them having a very player
first owner, a front facing owner, a progressive owner in ways in terms
of social issues along to around theNBA and so on, they always struggled
to land the big free agents.Right. They always have been a team
that struggled to get the guy whenthey were available, whether it's Kawhi Leonard,
(36:21):
whether it's Paul George, whether itwas DeAndre Jordan. Right, everybody
remember the DeAndre Jordan episode where therewere reports apparently the Clippers had locked him
in a house or something like thatto get him to stay with the Clippers
as opposed to go into Dallas,all these type of things, and the
Mavericks are always on the short endof the stick. And that's always been
the story about the Mavericks, despitewhatever talent they already had there, and
(36:44):
naturally they always had to go acquirethe talent by trading for it, right,
trading to go get porzingis that didn'twork out for them now having to
trade to go get Kyrie Irving.And the thing that sucks when you can't
just naturally sign out these guys whenthey come and free agency is that you're
always giving away draft compensation, right, or you're always giving a draft compensation
(37:05):
some of your young budding talent orsome of the key pieces that help round
out your team to do that.So it feels like the Mavericks always are
in a position where they don't havea complete team. And it just happened
to work out in twenty eleven wherethey were able to glant have a team
with guys like Jason Kidd, TysonChandler, Jason Terry, and Sean Mary,
the whole nine. Right, itworked out for them. And I'm
(37:29):
very curious to see what this newownership group is gonna do to see how
this Mavericks team. I mean,when you're being led by Kyrie Irving and
Luca Doncis, you have a lotof potential, especially on the offensive side
of the ball. But this teamis always going to have an Achilles hill
of how they can perform defensively.They're very, very ceiling wise for what
Luca and Kyrie give you defensively.So naturally you would love to get an
(37:50):
Anthony Davis type guy in the sendin the middle of the defense or even
the reason why I say Anthony Davistype guy because he's not just limited to
the paint in terms of offense.But then even if you were to say
maybe a guy like Rudy Gobert whojust shuts down the paint right, but
then you also would want another niceYou want to get those nice three and
D wings that help maybe compensate forLuca and Kyrie can't provide and you know,
(38:13):
filling out those slots. But it'sgonna be interesting to see what goes
on with the Mavericks going forward.But we do have one more news story,
ladies and gentlemen, and for thatwe're gonna shift gears to the NFL
because Aaron rodgers Man let me tellyou, if you asked me how many
times I was gonna be talking aboutthe Jets this year, I probably would
(38:36):
have taken the under if you wouldhave even said like ten times, right,
I don't know how many times interms of episodes, if you were
to log them all, how manytimes I've talked about the Jets. But
I've talked about the Jets a fairamount in the last few podcasts, and
here they are again because Aaron Rodgers. In a write up from Rich Comedie
at ESPN, he's set to havean early comeback from his achilles injury,
(38:57):
as he returned to practice on Wednesdayon a limited base, exactly eleven weeks
after surgery to repair that toron achilles. Rogers was cleared for functional football activity
in quotes, but not contact,according to coach Robert Sala, who called
this a progression in his rehab.It's too soon to say whether Rogers will
play again this season, though byrule, the Jets have twenty one days
(39:20):
to decide whether to activate Rogers frominjury reserve. The period expires December twenty
if, four, days before theyface the Washington Commanders, the game he's
targeting for a return Rogers, whoturns forty on Saturday, is recovering at
an extraordinary pace. But this doesn'tmean he's a lock to play, Salas
said, the team is so faraway from having to make that decision.
(39:42):
No NFL player has returned from anachille surgery before the five months mark,
and Rogers will be in three anda half months removed from the surgery December
twenty fourth, when the Jets playthe Commanders. Look man just saying,
I don't know what air Rogers isinto. I don't know what drugs he'd
be using, I don't know whathe'd be sniffing. But one thing I
(40:07):
do know, bro, this man'scoming back from achilles injury faster than anybody
I've ever seen that goes from NFL, NBA, you name it. Kevin
Durant was out for months, KobeBryant out for months, Chauncey Billups out
for months. Many of these peopleoutside of Kevin Durant didn't come back the
same players right after they tore theirachilles. So now you're looking at this
(40:28):
Dominique Wilkins. Even right, Dominique, I think he tore his achilles,
if I'm not mistaken. So thesetype of injuries, man, they are
they are detrimental to especially top flightathletes and in many ways because then you
lose that explosion that you think abouthow much your achilles does for you,
man, Like you just setting yourfoot down when you're sitting down right now,
like just push your foot up againstthe floor. Your achilles is handling
(40:49):
all that force that you're put yourperson against the floor right now. And
so when that's gone, that dropback, that five step, four step
drop back that these quarterbacks have,man none of that, and he's already
right on pace to try and makethat comeback. But as Aaron Rodgers has
maintained, he would only want tocome back obviously if he's fully healthy,
he's cleared by the doctors. Hewas clear to be able to participate in
(41:10):
the quarterback drills and stuff like that. Obviously like quarterback drills. He's not
doing it as deep and as aggressiveas guys like Zach Wilson and so on
currently that are practicing for the Jets. But it's kind of crazy right right
now, Jets manned by four quarterbacks. But it is one of those things
that if Rogers is apparently they saythat his surgeon that you got him through,
(41:32):
has been rigorously watching his rehab fromAFAR and so on, manage ours,
managing and surveying him to make surethat they're not bringing them back to
early and making sure he's right.But he's maintained that, look, if
he's healthy and they're in playoff contention, he'll come He will come back.
He will try his best to comeback. Right now, that's looking like
a far shot, far cry,because the Jets are not in playoff contention
(41:58):
right now. Well, they havean out side chance. Let me say
that they have an outside chance tomake the playoffs right now, because right
now you got the Jets at fourand seven. They're in the hunt.
They're not in the playoffs right now, but they are in the hunt.
And in terms of the AFC picture, I mean, their pictures look completely
bleak, but there's still a slimchance that could make it. Let's say
(42:19):
they went out, then they havea chance to try and make the playoffs.
But when you look at the recordso far in the last few weeks,
they lost to the Dolphins, theylost to the Bills, they lost
to the Raiders, the lost ofthe Chargers. I mean they've lost four
straight games, maybe this upcoming weekyou get a little bit of a more
of a light game against the Falcons. Hopefully you can try and win that
game. Falcons at five and six, Jets four and seven. Then after
(42:42):
that you do face CJ. Stroudand the Texans. After that you play
the Dolphins again, and then thatwould be the Commander's game, in which
that's the game they're hoping to haveRogers back. So, honestly, I
think it's a long shot for himto come back, especially if he's hinging
that come back and being on himthe team being in playoff contention, But
you know, it could be somethingthat he wants to come back and just
(43:02):
show that it could be done.But I don't know if you risk that
if you come back just to showit could be done, and you risk
possibly re injurying yourself and having tohave a longer hiatus out from this team,
especially if you're already out of playoffcontention and you're looking like you're not
gonna make it, then really you'rejust playing for next season at that point,
right. So I think that's goingto be interesting the thing to watch
(43:25):
because I think the Jets at thispoint they're pretty desperate. Right, The
Jets don't want any but Aaron Rodgersturning forty this upcoming Saturday. Right,
you don't have seasons to just giveup. And I think one of Aaron
Rodgers teammates said it perfectly. Hesaid, the NFL is a league where
you're one hundred percent guaranteed to gethurt, and the chance of reinjury is
(43:45):
realistic in this scenario. Right,no matter how hard to rehab has been,
how rigorous has been to try andstrengthen that achilles tendon, you come
back too early, or you comeback and you put too much force on
it and whatnot. You don't knowwhat could happen. We'll see what the
Jets end up doing. But itis a positive story hearing Aaron Rodgers is
coming back so soon. So creditto a rod the Jets training staff and
(44:07):
all those doctors that he's been workingwith in Los Angeles and so on,
and whatever substances he's been taking,you know what I'm saying. But y'all,
that's gonna wrap it up for thisepisode of the KBR Sports Podcast.
Of course, like I said atthe beginning, make sure you guys go
ahead and follow and subscribe, towhatever podcast platforms you listen on. Also
follow KBR Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at KBR Sports, Twitter
(44:30):
at KBR Underscore Sports, and followmyself brendan Abin on all social media platforms,
whether it's TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and yeah, I think that's
that's all this coming to mind rightnow, that's aw that's come into mind.
But guys, make sure you guysgo ahead and do that, and
also follow and subscribe to the KBRSports YouTube channel where you get videos.
(44:53):
You're getting videos on almost practically shortson right now. It's not out every
other day cadence speak, because ittakes so much to edit mainline or long
form written written script videos that sometimesI have to prioritize that over the shorts.
But at this point it's like ashort every other day, right just
(45:13):
to keep pace. But you guyscheck that stuff out as well, and
hopefully you guys do enjoy the podcastand I forget. Please leave a review
and leave a rating. That alwaysdoes help. I appreciate the support everybody.
Every single time you guys leave areview and leave a rating, it
does help. I'm trying to getthis podcast up higher in the iTunes charts.
I'm gonna be I'm gonna start doingthe rebrand. Like I told you
guys, We're gonna start getting aggressivewith new topics or sorry, new segments
(45:36):
coming to the podcast, new featurescoming too the YouTube channel, and so
on. So that's all part ofthe rebrand. But it's a lot of
work. So a lot of thatwork, especially for me since I do
still work full time, gets doneon the weekend as well, while I
work on content after work in theweek So it's a lot. But guys,
I appreciate every single one of you, and until next time, I'm out.
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