Speaker 1: An exclusive glimpse into what happened in the celebration room
Speaker 1: at the in season tournament in Las Vegas, an unexpected
Speaker 1: recounting as well of what it's like to shake hands
Speaker 1: with Pacers coach Rick Carlisle Lebron ad the Lakers winning
Speaker 1: the ist, the future of the n Season Tournament. We
Speaker 1: get to all of that next here on this League Uncut.
Speaker 1: Welcome to this League uncut.
Speaker 2: In the rule of twenty four hour NBA News, this's blue,
Speaker 2: Chris Hans, it's so time, works time, it's so time.
Speaker 1: This League uncut is underway and on fire.
Speaker 2: This should be a good one.
Speaker 1: Everyone, Welcome in to another of this uncut. Chris Haynes
Speaker 1: and I recording on a Sunday night, a very quiet
Speaker 1: Sunday night in the NBA after the n Season Tournament
Speaker 1: championship game in Las Vegas. Of course Chris was there.
Speaker 1: We're going to get to all that in a sec
Speaker 1: but first things first, I have to Chris, we have
Speaker 1: to amend. If you remember, I recently asked you the
Speaker 1: trivia question, how many days once the season starts, and
Speaker 1: this season started on October twenty fourth, how many days
Speaker 1: during the season are there no games, and you guessed four,
Speaker 1: and at the time it was actually five. You were
Speaker 1: very close. It was only five nights during you again,
Speaker 1: five nights between October twenty fourth and mid April when
Speaker 1: the regular season ends, only five nights where there are
Speaker 1: no NBA games. But that number actually has now climbed
Speaker 1: to seven because this week in the NBA was so
Speaker 1: funky schedule wise the way the league set it up.
Speaker 1: Monday Tuesday, two quarterfinals each in the n Season Tournament,
Speaker 1: no other games. Wednesday and Friday. Everybody who didn't make
Speaker 1: it to Vegas or didn't even make the quarterfinals of
Speaker 1: the IST, all those teams played Thursday again, only the
Speaker 1: semifinals in the IST. Saturday night, the only game on
Speaker 1: the calendar was the championship game. But this Sunday and
Speaker 1: the previous Sunday there were no games at all, So
Speaker 1: it took that number to seven. So we have to
Speaker 1: change and update that answer. But obviously we'll be back
Speaker 1: to full speed by the time this podcast drops Monday,
Speaker 1: all thirty teams will be back to full speed and
Speaker 1: easing their way back to some semblance of normalcy. But
Speaker 1: I'm glad we're connecting tonight because my sources say that
Speaker 1: you were the only reporter initially granted access to the
Speaker 1: vaunted Did they call it the celebration room in Vegas?
Speaker 1: Is that is that true? Have I been? Have I been?
Speaker 1: Have I received accurate information?
Speaker 3: You got good sources, Sten, you got good sources. You've
Speaker 3: been working your magic. Yeah, that's yeah, that's what they
Speaker 3: called it. They called the celebration room. So it's the
Speaker 3: room that you know, the NBA designates to have all
Speaker 3: the champagne, beer goggles, you know, all that. It's the
Speaker 3: room that the winning team they will go in there
Speaker 3: first celebrate, you know, do do what they do. Then
Speaker 3: they'll go to the locker room. And so yeah, no,
Speaker 3: it was cool. I was, you know, due to my
Speaker 3: my affiliation with Turner, they allowed they allowed for me
Speaker 3: to be in there amongst among the let me see
Speaker 3: the Laker, you know, the team, the team's media camera crew,
Speaker 3: ESPN's camera crew, and then Turner's camera crew. But again myself,
Speaker 3: I was the only media member in there. So it
Speaker 3: was cool.
Speaker 1: So I was, And let's be honest, I didn't need
Speaker 1: super I didn't need super top secret sources on that one,
Speaker 1: since you're the only one I saw who tweeted pictures
Speaker 1: of the champagne, pictures of the goggles, and pictures your source.
Speaker 3: Okay, I gave it away, Okay, bad? Yeah, no, I mean,
Speaker 3: but it was cool. I was in there, so I
Speaker 3: didn't I was. I was in there probably ten minutes
Speaker 3: before the Lakers came in there, and you know, I
Speaker 3: watched them set set up everything, put the champagne out,
Speaker 3: the beer, the goggles, the new championship T shirts. What
Speaker 3: one thing that I found curious, Stein is that, you know,
Speaker 3: the league was a little bit they were a little worried,
Speaker 3: and they didn't know how the Lakers were going to
Speaker 3: celebrate or if they were going to celebrate. And I
Speaker 3: had to think about that. I'm like, well, I guess
Speaker 3: it would be a bad look if the Lakers came
Speaker 3: in here. Lebron just saw everything and it was like, oh, nah,
Speaker 3: We're not doing this. I'm chasing championships. No, the Lakers
Speaker 3: were We're bigger than this. This is not what it's about,
Speaker 3: you know, I think, you know, the League were a
Speaker 3: little they were a little bit concerned and worried that
Speaker 3: they wouldn't go all out and celebrate. And so I
Speaker 3: was like kind of looking and trying to you know,
Speaker 3: see for myself. And so the first person to come in,
Speaker 3: they gave us word that here come the Lakers, and
Speaker 3: Lakers are coming, and so the door opens. Lebron James
Speaker 3: the first one to come in. So he comes in
Speaker 3: and then he looks at all the champagne and everything
Speaker 3: and he was like like, oh ship, they got it
Speaker 3: all out here. And so once he said that, he
Speaker 3: went straight for the champagne you knew was on and
Speaker 3: popper from there. So he he kind of greeted everybody
Speaker 3: with like Dowson, him with Dowson, with champagnes and uh
Speaker 3: so it you know, they they they I think, you know,
Speaker 3: the videos and clips are out right now, and you
Speaker 3: know they really you know, this was something that they
Speaker 3: really took the heart. This was something that they understood
Speaker 3: was a huge accomplishment and and it's it's you know,
Speaker 3: noted that they're the inaugural champions, which is a big honor.
Speaker 3: But yeah, they they took it seriously and so I
Speaker 3: think it was you know, one thing start you have
Speaker 3: to think about this, like to have Lebron James embrace that,
Speaker 3: you know, to brace this n Season Tournament championship That's
Speaker 3: exactly what the league needed. You know, they just that image,
Speaker 3: you know, those those video clips of seeing them celebrate
Speaker 3: such a such an honor that I think that they
Speaker 3: needed that to move forward. I think the league didn't
Speaker 3: know what they were going to get. Yeah, if the
Speaker 3: Lakers won, now the Pacers, for sure, the Pacers are
Speaker 3: going to go all out, for sure, but you know,
Speaker 3: they didn't know what they expect with the Lebron and
Speaker 3: the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, to be honest, that was one of my personal
Speaker 1: biggest sources of curiosity how the teams would react in
Speaker 1: the moment. And I totally agree with you. I think
Speaker 1: with the Pacers, there would have been no hesitation for
Speaker 1: the Pacers to win that thing and beat the Lakers
Speaker 1: in the finals. You know, that would have been a
Speaker 1: huge deal. But yeah, the Lakers. You know, look, we
Speaker 1: still don't have official word. Will the Lakers hoist a banner?
Speaker 1: Adam Silver had a press conference Saturday evening before the game.
Speaker 1: I was really hoping at that press conference that Adam
Speaker 1: was going to be asked what he's expecting and would
Speaker 1: he be disappointed if the Lakers didn't hoist a banner,
Speaker 1: Because as we've already been talking about on this pot cast.
Speaker 1: The Lakers have seventeen NBA championship banners. They've won more
Speaker 1: than thirty Pacific Division titles. They've won I think eighteen
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty conference championships total. But they don't hang banners
Speaker 1: when they win the West. They don't hang banners when
Speaker 1: they win the Pacific Division. And we're gonna have to
Speaker 1: wait to see if they hang a banner for winning
Speaker 1: the first n season tournament. But yeah, I think the
Speaker 1: fact that the Lakers did celebrate this and did really
Speaker 1: show a pretty high care factor to try to win
Speaker 1: this thing, that's one of the huge Year one successes.
Speaker 1: We don't know the ratings yet for Saturday's championship game.
Speaker 1: I assume we will get those on Monday. They'll circulate
Speaker 1: after this podcast drops. Monday Night and Thursday night the
Speaker 1: TV ratings not surprisingly paled and compared garrison to what
Speaker 1: Monday Night football did. And obviously there's Thursday football to
Speaker 1: contend with as well on Amazon. So you know, this
Speaker 1: wasn't a The quarterfinals and semifinals were not a you know,
Speaker 1: by no means a ratings bonanza for the NBA. But
Speaker 1: I really do think and as someone who has been
Speaker 1: quite critical about various aspects of the Year one format
Speaker 1: that the NBA adopted. Here, I do think a big
Speaker 1: measure of whether this succeeded or not in Year one
Speaker 1: was how people within the league treated it. Did the
Speaker 1: players accept it, did the teams embrace it? Do they
Speaker 1: want to keep this thing going forward? Did they take
Speaker 1: it seriously? And I think throughout the league we saw
Speaker 1: that teams did care about this. And you'd have to
Speaker 1: put the Lakers and the Pacers, frankly, right at the
Speaker 1: top of the list. Those those two teams, they both
Speaker 1: went after it hard and deservedly earned their spots in
Speaker 1: the title game. And it's good to hear that after
Speaker 1: the game the Lakers were whooping it up and celebrating
Speaker 1: because you know, on the court we saw Lebron he
Speaker 1: got the championship hat, but he tossed it. Actually quite
Speaker 1: an impressive toss to a d right on the number,
Speaker 1: right on the numbers. But yeah, like I'm, I'm. The
Speaker 1: Lakers will be in Dallas Tuesday, Chris Haynes will be
Speaker 1: in Dallas Tuesday. Big week for yours, Truly, I get
Speaker 1: to see the Lakers, I get to see the seventeen
Speaker 1: and four timber Wolves, and I get to see Chris
Speaker 1: Haynes all between Tuesday and Thursday. So it's a big
Speaker 1: week for yours, truly, But I'm really eager to just
Speaker 1: spend some time around the Lakers because now my curiosity
Speaker 1: is are we going to talk about this at all
Speaker 1: between now and the playoffs? Like how much will it
Speaker 1: come up going forward that the Lakers won this thing?
Speaker 1: Because you know, as we mentioned the last time you
Speaker 1: and I got together for one of these pods, you know,
Speaker 1: Lebron played fantastic throughout the seven games. I mean, his
Speaker 1: numbers in this tournament were ridiculous. He basically averaged I
Speaker 1: think twenty eight, nine and eight, shot better than fifty
Speaker 1: percent from the field, shot better than sixty percent on
Speaker 1: threes in the seven tournament games. He was super dialed in.
Speaker 1: But I also remember him telling Ali Laforest, it's December
Speaker 1: and we're not going to make too big a deal
Speaker 1: about it. So I really I'm really looking forward to
Speaker 1: seeing seeing a bunch of Laker people here on Tuesday
Speaker 1: night and kind of like start to get a picture
Speaker 1: of like does this you know, do we just put
Speaker 1: this thing away? Now? Do we?
Speaker 3: You?
Speaker 1: Know how much how much N Season Tournament chatter will
Speaker 1: there really be between now and the playoffs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know how much shadow they will be.
Speaker 3: But you know, I spoke with D'Angelo Russells about it,
Speaker 3: and he called it the n ceason tournament like a
Speaker 3: cheat code where guys and get in an intense, you know,
Speaker 3: an intense ballgame in early December, a type of intense
Speaker 3: game that you wouldn't see until later on, you know,
Speaker 3: in the season, during playoff time. So he feels like,
Speaker 3: you know, being able to go into that mode, being
Speaker 3: able to dig deep, you know. And one thing about
Speaker 3: it too, like Stein, you know that coaches don't implement everything,
Speaker 3: like they don't pull out like say, like I'll give
Speaker 3: for an example a couple of years when Chris Paul
Speaker 3: was playing for the Phoenix Suns. He didn't receive a
Speaker 3: lot and this happens to him a lot, but he
Speaker 3: doesn't receive a lot of pressure full court. You know,
Speaker 3: teams aren't going to do that in the course of
Speaker 3: the regular season until the playoffs come. Playoffs come, you
Speaker 3: throw out everything, and you know, you all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: you got multiple guys being thrown at you that's going
Speaker 3: to pressure you the full ninety four feet. And even
Speaker 3: look at Dame the Milwaukee Indiana Pacers game as soon
Speaker 3: as Giannis went to the bench, because there's a substitution
Speaker 3: pattern for Milwaukee when Jannis goes to the bench first
Speaker 3: and then Dame leads the rest of the way, and
Speaker 3: he just usually he goes off because now they're trying
Speaker 3: to get him settled. And usually it's the horn offense,
Speaker 3: two guys that come up for the screen, or maybe
Speaker 3: one guy. But the Pacers trapped him in the first quarter.
Speaker 3: They came and trapped him, got the ball out of
Speaker 3: his hands in the first quarter. You don't see that
Speaker 3: in the regular season. But since this is a high
Speaker 3: intense game, this game matters. It's a severe significance. You're
Speaker 3: seeing teams throw out everything. It's not another thing. I
Speaker 3: want to say, you're going off with basketball, but it's
Speaker 3: still basketball. By the way, you have Rick carl On
Speaker 3: on your radio show not too long ago. Believe it
Speaker 3: was last week Saturday Saturday. Okay, Star, what was the
Speaker 3: last time you shook real Rick Carla's hand.
Speaker 1: Well, it's funny. We ended up on a flight this summer.
Speaker 1: We both yeah, because because he still spends quite a
Speaker 1: bit of time in Dallas. We ended up unexpectedly at
Speaker 1: the airport together in Dallas in August flying to Vegas.
Speaker 1: We had we were on the same flight to see
Speaker 1: the start of Team USA camp because I couldn't stay
Speaker 1: away from Team USA camp, and of course Tyrese Haliburton
Speaker 1: was there. But I honestly don't remember. I don't remember
Speaker 1: if we shook hands.
Speaker 3: Or just well, you didn't. You wouldn't, You wouldn't you
Speaker 3: would remember it if you did. Let me tell you this.
Speaker 3: You know, the bro hug has become common, you know,
Speaker 3: that's what we're used to bro hug, you know, yeah,
Speaker 3: embrace with the pound type hug then and it's the
Speaker 3: one arm you know, on on on the individual's back,
Speaker 3: and it's you know, really not any there's not really
Speaker 3: any struggle, there's not really any power that summoned in that.
Speaker 3: It's a really light hug, a light embrace. So but
Speaker 3: then every now and then there's certain people that you know, hey,
Speaker 3: you know, you stend that hand and you go back
Speaker 3: to the traditional handshake. I wasn't prepared for a Rick
Speaker 3: Carlile handshakee My hand was hurting it was hurting. I
Speaker 3: had to interview him pregame before the championship game, and
Speaker 3: he gave me you know when you when you give
Speaker 3: somebody that the regular traditional handshake, and you feel the
Speaker 3: pressure and then you just think, oh, the pressure is
Speaker 3: about to go away. No, the pressure intensified. He kept going.
Speaker 3: It got he kept going to a point where I
Speaker 3: thought it was personal, like like like like he was
Speaker 3: really trying to I never did that the Rick.
Speaker 1: Maybe he thinks you're too close to Tim McMahon and
Speaker 1: he didn't.
Speaker 3: Like watching Tim. Tim has some words for you. Vegas
Speaker 3: started watching.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was like, man, I'm I got the same.
Speaker 1: I'm sure we got the same. I mean.
Speaker 3: Tim, he'll he'll get over it.
Speaker 1: I don't remember, like like I said, I you know,
Speaker 1: I just saw Rick in person in August. He was
Speaker 1: on my radio show on Saturday. But I can't say
Speaker 1: that I remember uncomfortable handshakes.
Speaker 3: So my dad, my dad used to always talk about
Speaker 3: how important it is for a man to have a
Speaker 3: firm handshake. I used to remember as a key I
Speaker 3: used to practice my handshakes, practice like trying to squeeze, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, just show him he's a manly handshake. But
Speaker 3: the bro hug, you know, the bro hug is pretty
Speaker 3: common now. It's pretty common now, and it doesn't take
Speaker 3: much squeezing effort. Matter of fact, it's kind of hard
Speaker 3: to really put a good squeeze on the bro hood.
Speaker 3: But Rick Carlout, he extended his hand traditional handshake. I
Speaker 3: extended mine too, as you know. I had to give
Speaker 3: him a handshake right before I do the interview and
Speaker 3: stein that handshake. It was I haven't felt pain like
Speaker 3: that in a wild man.
Speaker 1: How is the interview?
Speaker 3: Oh, interview is good. He was gold. He was gold.
Speaker 3: No problem there, no problem there. So I don't know,
Speaker 3: you know, I don't know if that was personal or
Speaker 3: if that that's just a Rick carl out.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna check with some indie sources and see what
Speaker 1: I can find.
Speaker 3: Check on that, check on that. I think I've been
Speaker 3: good to call out over the years. But no, but
Speaker 3: it just it just reminded me that I gotta firm
Speaker 3: up my handshake. I gotta get that back.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this, did you did it pop
Speaker 1: into your head at any point Saturday night? We were
Speaker 1: obviously neighbors and co residents in the Walt Disney World
Speaker 1: Bubble in twenty twenty. Man, that was more than three
Speaker 1: years ago now, But I was only there for fifty
Speaker 1: odd days, if you remember, I was working at the
Speaker 1: New York Times then, and the New York Times set
Speaker 1: it up to where I did the first fifty or
Speaker 1: so days in the bubble, and my former colleague and
Speaker 1: teammate Scott Cassiola took over for the next thirty to
Speaker 1: forty days. I don't remember exactly what the breakdown was,
Speaker 1: but we split it up. We thought that was the
Speaker 1: best way to tackle it. You, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: were there for like one hundred plus days, and Spears
Speaker 1: was there the whole time. Washburn was there the whole time.
Speaker 1: You guys were really I mean you guys were there
Speaker 1: almost twice as long as I was, so you really
Speaker 1: really really spent a lot of time there. But you,
Speaker 1: when you brought up that celebration stuff, it made me think,
Speaker 1: I remember seeing footage of you in the hallway when
Speaker 1: the Lakers won their Bubble championship in twenty twenty. I
Speaker 1: was not there. You were, And now three years later, Yeah,
Speaker 1: again it's a neutral site.
Speaker 3: PTSD PTSD, So you did you did it?
Speaker 1: Did cross your mind?
Speaker 3: Yes? Because so one of the individuals that were that
Speaker 3: was in that celebration room with me, Jessica Showbar and
Speaker 3: you know Jessica longtime ESPN what what is her role
Speaker 3: exactly sports and producer. She was in the bubble with us,
Speaker 3: and I'm in this celebration room waiting and she's next
Speaker 3: to me. I said, yes, I got I'm feeling something
Speaker 3: right now. It's like PTSD man, don't you feel She's like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm feeling it. Like yeah, so now you're right staring
Speaker 3: like it. It had the it had similar vibes as
Speaker 3: the bubble. I was nervous a little bit for a
Speaker 3: little bit, you know, even though they were fans in
Speaker 3: the arena this time it just had that feel because
Speaker 3: even though like even though the you know, the Lakers,
Speaker 3: like people try to take that or try to minimize
Speaker 3: that championship. The Lakers won, which I I think is
Speaker 3: dumb because everybody was there and trying to, you know,
Speaker 3: do the same thing, and the Lakers came forth and
Speaker 3: got it. But this the feel was like it was
Speaker 3: like I guess because it was something new. This was different, right,
Speaker 3: this was different. We're we're everybody's telling us how important
Speaker 3: this championship is, but it just felt different. And I
Speaker 3: think that's probably why I had that feel as well,
Speaker 3: because it was all new. But yeah, definitely stein Man,
Speaker 3: I found myself like wow, wondering, like, man, dude, I
Speaker 3: have to stand six feet apart, you know, somebody like
Speaker 3: it was really really.
Speaker 1: It is it is, but it is crazy that. I mean,
Speaker 1: the Lakers now with these, you know, two neutral site championships,
Speaker 1: and look, it has made me think because I'm you know,
Speaker 1: you've heard you know, our poor listeners have heard me
Speaker 1: why about this for weeks now, and you know, my
Speaker 1: my take on the Ndcason tournament was that, you know,
Speaker 1: it needs to all be single elimination. Let's take everybody
Speaker 1: to Vegas. Let's do this thing in a week and
Speaker 1: a half or two weeks. Let's just play the tournament straight.
Speaker 1: But one of the things that I think people are
Speaker 1: coming away with is maybe the neutral site is not
Speaker 1: the best idea because the crowd for that quarter final
Speaker 1: game when Indiana beat Boston at home, that crowd was
Speaker 1: so good. And I think one of the things that
Speaker 1: the league will be looking at going forward is do
Speaker 1: we want to play these games at a neutral site
Speaker 1: and Vegas is typically a place that everybody gets excited
Speaker 1: about going. So, I mean, I think for the Semis
Speaker 1: and finals, there definitely is a strong case we made
Speaker 1: that this was a good idea and a good experiment
Speaker 1: to do this way and that guys would want to
Speaker 1: earn that. But beyond the carit of winning five hundred
Speaker 1: k each if you're on the winning team and two
Speaker 1: hundred k each if you're on the losing team in
Speaker 1: the championship championship game, that there is some level of
Speaker 1: appeal to you know, to getting a trip to Vegas.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I have to, I have to, you know,
Speaker 1: for my own I'm starting to again, I'm starting to
Speaker 1: rethink things that I you know, I don't know if
Speaker 1: doing this whole thing in a neutral site, I don't
Speaker 1: know if it holds the same appeal for me as
Speaker 1: it once did.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, and again, like the Lakers are just
Speaker 3: the ideal draw for the you know, for this event
Speaker 3: being in Vegas. If this is any other two teams,
Speaker 3: is it a big draw in Las Vegas. All I
Speaker 3: can speak on from my experience of watching was that
Speaker 3: Bucks Pacers game. But you have to keep in mind
Speaker 3: it was a Thursday game at two o'clock local time,
Speaker 3: and so you're really not going to get much fan
Speaker 3: traction anyways. But the fans that were there, it was
Speaker 3: you know, the environment was was bad. You know, it
Speaker 3: was bad. You know, it wasn't you know on May
Speaker 3: bast it wasn't really a lot of loud sheering. I think,
Speaker 3: you know, obviously you don't have a lot of Bucks fans,
Speaker 3: you don't have a lot of Pacer fans there, So
Speaker 3: you know, is it good? But does that even matter?
Speaker 3: Maybe the TV product is the appeal for the league,
Speaker 3: you know, because the players are playing hard, you're getting
Speaker 3: a good product, right, You're getting a good product because
Speaker 3: that money is important.
Speaker 1: But yeah, there were three games in Vegas. Obviously Lakers
Speaker 1: Pelicans was awful, but the other two games were.
Speaker 3: Good, competitive games, Yeah they were. And so I don't know, like,
Speaker 3: so when you're saying you're kind of rethinking the neutral
Speaker 3: you're you're taking Vegas out of the equation and saying that.
Speaker 1: Well, it's more like it's more like this. I remain
Speaker 1: convinced that the single elimination part is the sexy part
Speaker 1: of this. That is the not that it's yeah, and
Speaker 1: that's what's for this to have any kind of lasting value,
Speaker 1: it's got to be different than what we already do.
Speaker 1: The playoffs is four rounds of best of seven. So
Speaker 1: I just think this tournament should be completely different, and
Speaker 1: to me more single elimination is better. And if like,
Speaker 1: I'm convinced that the most fun format would be you
Speaker 1: take the thirty teams. Maybe you give byes to only
Speaker 1: two teams, the two teams that made the finals last year,
Speaker 1: so Denver and Miami. They made the finals last year,
Speaker 1: they get buys and the other twenty eight teams going
Speaker 1: a hat. Let's mix up east. I want East and
Speaker 1: West mixed up. We already keep East and West separate
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. I don't want I would like to
Speaker 1: see in the tournament. I would like to see it
Speaker 1: mixed up. It would be It would be crazy if
Speaker 1: they had a draw show and Okay, Denver and Miami
Speaker 1: get buys, the other twenty eight teams go into a hat.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, the Lakers and the Celtics have to
Speaker 1: play each other early, because that's what comes out of
Speaker 1: a hat. Like to me, these are the kinds of
Speaker 1: things that would make it wild.
Speaker 3: But would that be an neutral site or.
Speaker 1: So that's what I'm saying. Initially, I thought this should
Speaker 1: be at a neutral site, like maybe you cut the
Speaker 1: schedule down from eighty two games to seventy six games.
Speaker 1: Seventy six games is still close enough to eighty two.
Speaker 1: Let's carve it out and then we don't. Let's just
Speaker 1: cut the schedule down to seventy six games. Then we
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about because what the league is
Speaker 1: worried about is it's making up the get when teams
Speaker 1: go out of the tournament, how to put games back
Speaker 1: on their schedule. And that's why they went with this
Speaker 1: ultra safe thing of the first four games everybody plays
Speaker 1: in this tournament are gonna be group games, but they're
Speaker 1: just gonna be regular season games that count twice because
Speaker 1: the league the scale and I'm not minimizing it. The schedule.
Speaker 1: Doing the schedule for this past week was difficult. It
Speaker 1: was a challenge for the league. And if there's more
Speaker 1: single elimination, as I'm advocating for, it's gonna get even
Speaker 1: more complicated. So that's what I'm saying, Maybe we need
Speaker 1: to to make this tournament truly separate from the regular season,
Speaker 1: because that's I believe it should be separate from the
Speaker 1: regular season, completely separate. We're gonna you know, they're trying
Speaker 1: to make this out to be the NBA's version of
Speaker 1: soccer's FA Cup in England. The FA Cup is separate
Speaker 1: from the league. Let's make this thing separate from the league.
Speaker 1: So the only way to make it separate is to
Speaker 1: shorten the eighty two game season a little bit, because
Speaker 1: you don't want to make this longer. You don't want
Speaker 1: to have them playing eighty two games and adding potentially
Speaker 1: six or seven tournament games too, because these guys already
Speaker 1: play too many games. So I know I'm making it
Speaker 1: sound easier than it is, but that's I really believe
Speaker 1: that those are that's where this thing eventually needs to
Speaker 1: get to.
Speaker 3: And I'm gonna ask something else too, So that championship game,
Speaker 3: as you know, that championship game is the only game
Speaker 3: where the stats do not go into the regular season stats,
Speaker 3: which I think it should because it's it would be.
Speaker 3: So the Lakers going to play with one more official
Speaker 3: They're gonna play one more game. They're gonna have an
Speaker 3: a three game season, and I think if you make
Speaker 3: it to the championship as a reward, you get an
Speaker 3: extra game to pile up your stats. Now it can
Speaker 3: go either it can go both ways. You could pile
Speaker 3: up your stats or you could have hurt it, you know,
Speaker 3: depending on what type of game. Yeah, but the game
Speaker 3: that Anthony Davis just had. You know, I saw Lakers
Speaker 3: and other people tweeting out a season high. Well it's
Speaker 3: not really a season high. It doesn't count, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean I retweeted out, I retweeted stat mus because
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis forty one points, twenty rebounds, five assists, and
Speaker 1: status stat Muse tweets out the only forty twenty five
Speaker 1: games in Laker history. It's Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, and
Speaker 1: now Anthony Davis. But no, it's not because, no, the
Speaker 1: that's from that game last night. They do not get
Speaker 1: added to either the regular season or playoff resume. For
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. He that's as dominant a performance as Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis has probably ever had, and it is now goes
Speaker 1: it goes into this nebulous category. And it's the same
Speaker 1: thing with the playing games. Those games don't get added
Speaker 1: to your regular season or your playoff resume. So Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum had that fifty point game against Washington two years ago,
Speaker 1: and that's the same thing. It floats in this nebulous
Speaker 1: zone that we don't know what to do with it,
Speaker 1: and officially we don't know what to do with this
Speaker 1: game that ad played, this game of his life.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just think for this because players I was
Speaker 3: telling you that, like players during the regular season, like
Speaker 3: that is their time, Like that's their sanctuary in which
Speaker 3: they can pad their stats and produce. They don't want
Speaker 3: to play game and November and December and not have
Speaker 3: those games accounted for. And so you know, the play
Speaker 3: in is one thing, but you know, like I just think,
Speaker 3: I think as a reward, if you make it to
Speaker 3: the championship game, that's a reward where you get an
Speaker 3: extra game to produce, pad your stats and help out.
Speaker 3: And I know fans may say, it's not all about
Speaker 3: the stats, please please, these players care about the stats.
Speaker 3: It's very important. It's very important to reach certain incentives
Speaker 3: for triggers in their contract where they can get a boost.
Speaker 3: So it is that important, and I don't think that's
Speaker 3: too much to ask, Like, if you make it as
Speaker 3: a reward, you get an extra game to try to
Speaker 3: pile up more stats.
Speaker 1: Did you get a chance last night to chat with
Speaker 1: Ad at all.
Speaker 3: No, I did, but not about that. We were asking,
Speaker 3: you know, he had to grow that he suffered that
Speaker 3: growing injury again, that was the same injury he had
Speaker 3: earlier in the season. What else did we talk about?
Speaker 3: Family stuff? Just family stuff. But you know I talked
Speaker 3: to Lebron. He told me, like the n season tournament
Speaker 3: that was, he felt like this was the perfect platform
Speaker 3: for somebody like Cam Reddish And he said he happy
Speaker 3: that Cam Reddish got this experience and not only got
Speaker 3: this experience, but how he performed so the league can
Speaker 3: see what type of dual player he is, he said,
Speaker 3: because everybody was trying to write him off. He said,
Speaker 3: now look what he's doing for us. And so you know,
Speaker 3: he wanted me to talk to Cam, and I went
Speaker 3: and spoke with Cam about you know, his resurgence and
Speaker 3: you know, finally making his mark in the league. And
Speaker 3: you know, he said, Lebron empowers him. He said, if
Speaker 3: you got somebody like that in your corner, he said,
Speaker 3: that gives you all the confidence in the world. So,
Speaker 3: you know, some of the brief conversations I had with
Speaker 3: Ad and Lebron after the game, but it was cool experience,
Speaker 3: cool experience.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I'm actually wondering. You know, it's hard to
Speaker 1: talk about downsides when a guy just rumbled for forty
Speaker 1: one twenty five assists and four steals. I think it was.
Speaker 1: But yeah, the problem now is, of course AD's many critics,
Speaker 1: a few of whom, most notably work at your network.
Speaker 1: They're gonna expect this all the time now. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's going to be measured against his own success for
Speaker 1: the rest of the season, for the rest of eternity. Yes,
Speaker 1: because it's been this was the Ad that everyone has
Speaker 1: been clamoring for.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been that way for a while. Everybody was
Speaker 3: waiting for Ad to take over the reins of the
Speaker 3: Lakers from Lebron last few years. It hasn't quite gotten
Speaker 3: to that point. He's had spurts all throughout his career,
Speaker 3: but consistent consistency is what everybody is looking for. But hey,
Speaker 3: you know what, even if Ad were to get a
Speaker 3: bunch of criticism, it pales in comparison to what Zion
Speaker 3: is receiving right now. I know we touched on Zion
Speaker 3: last episode, but people are still going in on him,
Speaker 3: and you know, he's another guy that you know is
Speaker 3: going to until until he's playing at a consistent level,
Speaker 3: He's going to get that criticism to the similar to
Speaker 3: the similar standpoint of ad for different reasons, but very
Speaker 3: much the same.
Speaker 1: No, no question to me, how Zion responds to this
Speaker 1: level of noise, the harshest criticism he's ever received. To me,
Speaker 1: that's one of the stories of the season going forward.
Speaker 1: Because the Pelicans do have a lot of potential. This
Speaker 1: is a Western Conference that is very deep, very crowded,
Speaker 1: and the Pelicans have a lot of upward mobility potential.
Speaker 1: But I mean, Zion has to lead the way, and
Speaker 1: you know he fell so are short of expectations and
Speaker 1: acceptable performance in both the ist games this week. I'm
Speaker 1: really curious to see what kind of answer he has
Speaker 1: for his critics.
Speaker 3: For sure.
Speaker 1: By the way, since I brought up Orlando, the G
Speaker 1: League Showcase is coming very soon December nineteenth through the
Speaker 1: twenty second. I am booked to be there. It will
Speaker 1: be my first trip back to Orlando since the Bubble
Speaker 1: Summer of twenty twenty. I know I'm going to see
Speaker 1: you this week. I'm excited to host you in my city.
Speaker 1: I hope postgame maybe you'll be after your sideline interview
Speaker 1: with the star from the winning team on Tuesday. I
Speaker 1: hope you'll be cool with being seen in public with
Speaker 1: me somewhere. But my other question is am I going
Speaker 1: to see you at the g Leak Showcase? Because if
Speaker 1: it was in Vegas, I know I would see you.
Speaker 1: We always meet up there. But are you making a
Speaker 1: return trip to Orlando?
Speaker 3: No, not ready, I haven't. I haven't returned to Orlando
Speaker 3: since I exited the bubble.
Speaker 1: So no Nook, no g Leak Showcase.
Speaker 3: Nah, I'm cool, I'm cool, I'm fine, I'm sad. I'm fine. Well, listen,
Speaker 3: you had your opportunity to see me in Vegas for
Speaker 3: the n Season tournament. I just you know, I would
Speaker 3: say this time I would have went to kill two
Speaker 3: birds with one stone. You know, I was thinking about
Speaker 3: a walk there.
Speaker 1: You go with the birds again.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry everybody thinks that. Everybody think I'm just a bird,
Speaker 3: a bird killed.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't, I don't, I don't know. Not anti bird participate. No,
Speaker 3: I'm not anti bird and I don't participate. I just
Speaker 3: I just happened to watch, you know. That was that
Speaker 3: was it? But listen, you know, I Stan. You know,
Speaker 3: I was thinking about, like, okay, g LEA showcases in
Speaker 3: Orlando this year, I can take the family, we can
Speaker 3: go to walk Disney World and then we can you know,
Speaker 3: I can do that, so you know, everybody be happy
Speaker 3: because I've been traveling a lot, right, and it was
Speaker 3: you know, it's the worst part to travel a lot
Speaker 3: during the holiday season. So I'm like, okay, well, that
Speaker 3: way they can be satisfied. You know, nobody be mad
Speaker 3: at me at the house. But then I realized, Stein,
Speaker 3: I don't work at ESPN anymore. I don't have those
Speaker 3: family discounts. And I said that that that is going
Speaker 3: to you know, walk Disney World, that'll be a pretty
Speaker 3: penny for my family of six. So you know what, Stein,
Speaker 3: I'll pass. I'll skip this year's G League showcase. It
Speaker 3: wasn't meant to be.
Speaker 1: All right, well, I will try to hold it down
Speaker 1: for you. There's even there's even a heat magic game
Speaker 1: in the middle of all that that I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: to go to. And I haven't been to a magic game.
Speaker 1: I can't even remember the last time I was in
Speaker 1: a magic game in Orlando. So and you know, all
Speaker 1: I'll say is again. I don't want to jinx it,
Speaker 1: but we are efforting a special guest from the Orlando
Speaker 1: Magic on this podcast very very soon. That's all I'll say.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty I'm pretty confident that's gonna happen. But I
Speaker 1: think where we're gonna leave it tonight Slash Today the
Speaker 1: coolest thing I saw to see Bronnie James make his
Speaker 1: college debut was very moving. I've made this comment before.
Speaker 1: I can't help it. I'm such a sentimental sap that,
Speaker 1: you know, even though Lebron is having this absolute turn
Speaker 1: back the clock season, you know, Saturday, the night he
Speaker 1: wins MVP in the nd season tournament, was exactly three
Speaker 1: weeks away from his thirty ninth birthday, So, I mean,
Speaker 1: what he's doing on the court is ridiculous. But Lebron
Speaker 1: James the dad is pretty much my favorite Lebron at
Speaker 1: this point. I love watching how into his kids' lives
Speaker 1: and careers he is. And obviously with the just terrible
Speaker 1: health situation that Bronni endured just a few months ago,
Speaker 1: and to be able to come back so quickly and
Speaker 1: make his college debut tonight was well, I mean, look, Lebron,
Speaker 1: Lebron put Lebron posted this, and you know you can
Speaker 1: totally get why he felt this way. Quote. Can't even
Speaker 1: tell y'all how emotional today was for me. I'm literally drained,
Speaker 1: and all I can say is, Bronni, You're simply incredible.
Speaker 1: Damn the wins and losses that will occur. You've already
Speaker 1: won the Ultimate Goal Championship and that's life. Proud of you, kid,
Speaker 1: and today you've given me more life. Thank you, and
Speaker 1: I love you. And yeah, it was, it was, it was.
Speaker 1: It was a pretty cool scene to.
Speaker 3: Watch now, most definitely when you're thinking about just what
Speaker 3: Bronni has been through, what Lebron and his families have
Speaker 3: been through. You know, we didn't know if he would
Speaker 3: get to this point. That's a scary That was a
Speaker 3: scary health concern. You know a lot of people don't
Speaker 3: get to come back and and play at a level
Speaker 3: like that, so and especially that soon. So you know,
Speaker 3: I was definitely a cool sighting seeing him out there.
Speaker 3: I saw his first you know, college you know, bucket
Speaker 3: transition three. That's cool. And you know, bron Man, he's uh,
Speaker 3: you know, he's a proud dad. He was you know,
Speaker 3: he's not shy of he's not shy and showing that
Speaker 3: as well. So that's that's pretty cool to see. So
Speaker 3: I wish Bronnie nothing but the best man. I've seen
Speaker 3: those kids since they were man under ten, so I
Speaker 3: think I started covering Lebron twenty fourteen, so yeah, about
Speaker 3: ten years ago. So yeah, they were both under they're
Speaker 3: both under ten when I first met him.
Speaker 1: I remember when Bronnie was born. I was at Cavs camp,
Speaker 1: and I remember Lebron was being pressed for questions because
Speaker 1: everyone knew he was about to become a father, but
Speaker 1: he at that point he really didn't want to say
Speaker 1: too much publicly. And I remember in a media scrum
Speaker 1: he was asked about Bronnie and what are you going
Speaker 1: to name him? And he said Brian Winnhurst James. And
Speaker 1: so for years I used to call I used to
Speaker 1: call Windy Brian Winhurst James. That I remember, and I
Speaker 1: remember sports Dad. Best job in the world, no doubt
Speaker 1: about it. All right, everyone that is going to do
Speaker 1: it for this edition of this League Uncut. As always,
Speaker 1: if you can indulge us, please remember to rate, review,
Speaker 1: and subscribe to the show if you already haven't. As stated,
Speaker 1: we are working on a special guest from New Orlando
Speaker 1: Magic that will hopefully happen very soon. Chris and I
Speaker 1: will indeed be together at the same game, Lakers at
Speaker 1: Dallas on TNT on Tuesday night. Where that leads this
Speaker 1: podcast next, I cannot tell you. I'm not sure yet.
Speaker 1: We'll have to see, We'll have to see what the
Speaker 1: recording schedule is after our special interview. But we're off
Speaker 1: to a good start this week and we'll have more
Speaker 1: soon and we'll be back with me again soon. Everyone,
Speaker 1: take it easy, thanks for listening.
Speaker 2: And that'll do it for us. See you next time.
Speaker 2: This League uncutage an iHeartRadio production.
Speaker 1: Lock up
Speaker 2: Chris Haynes and Mark Stein