Speaker 1: The volume.
Speaker 2: Nick Right is about to stop by, but before we
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Speaker 2: Last minute tickets, lowest price is guarante. All right, bring
Speaker 2: in Nick Wright, probably every other week and we just
Speaker 2: ramble for about fifty five minutes to an hour. We're
Speaker 2: talking about a variety of subjects today, no particular order.
Speaker 3: Here we go.
Speaker 2: Lebron James Son is an NBA athlete. I don't think
Speaker 2: right now currently he's quite an NBA player. I think
Speaker 2: they would draft him, send him to the G league,
Speaker 2: give him a year and he Mick Cronin said the
Speaker 2: other day, the UCLA coach, he's not as quick or
Speaker 2: as fast as he was pre cardiac arrest. He's not
Speaker 2: quite the player. But I watched him. But I've watched
Speaker 2: him enough, seen his hops, seen his handles. Hes got
Speaker 2: a beautiful jumper. He's got a beautiful looking jumper. I
Speaker 2: like he's jumper, but better right.
Speaker 3: It looks good he is.
Speaker 1: For his shooting percentages not good, but it doesn't look
Speaker 1: like there's a problem with no.
Speaker 2: In fact, I like it better than his dad's. I
Speaker 2: think his shooting is very natural. Bigger players don't yet generally,
Speaker 2: you know Larry Bird, Katie the exception. A lot of
Speaker 2: times the six or four guys got the perfect jumper,
Speaker 2: the perfect look, the perfect hand size. But here here's
Speaker 2: the thing, and I don't know how necessarily to explain
Speaker 2: this is that this is the worst draft, maybe as
Speaker 2: bad as the Anthony Bennett draft. So as more mothers
Speaker 2: are telling their kids do not play football, more mothers,
Speaker 2: this is in Los Angeles. I have a buddy that
Speaker 2: lives in Brentwood. He's like, I'm like an outcast for
Speaker 2: letting my kids play tackle football.
Speaker 3: I was at the sidebar to it. I was at.
Speaker 1: A card game with some Hollywood and finance folks, low
Speaker 1: stakes for they by their standards for sure, or else
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have been able to play in it. And
Speaker 1: there was a very very smart guy there who had
Speaker 1: enough money that he when I was like, how do
Speaker 1: I know this name? I didn't know who he was
Speaker 1: at the time, but I was like, I know this
Speaker 1: name's Drafter. I left the card game, I googled his
Speaker 1: name and I was like, oh, you almost bet you
Speaker 1: almost bet you almost.
Speaker 3: Bought this baseball team like six years ago.
Speaker 1: I won't see the but he said that like he
Speaker 1: and he was a very sharp guy, and he was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think football should be legal.
Speaker 3: Under eighteen years old. And I didn't agree with him.
Speaker 1: But Mike, I'm just echoing your point that there are
Speaker 1: a lot of people that are not letting their kids
Speaker 1: even consider playing tackle football, particularly I bet it Skew's
Speaker 1: higher income and things like that. But go ahead, as
Speaker 1: you were saying about.
Speaker 2: Brownie, Yet you can get brought pretty in the final pick.
Speaker 2: Half the league is undrafted, Kurt Warner, Tony Romo and drafted.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the NBA is.
Speaker 2: A global game, and people are suggesting they're not three
Speaker 2: surefire NBA starters in this draft. There's two rounds. There's
Speaker 2: almost no players after the twelfth pick. It's a cheaper
Speaker 2: sport to play. Hockey and football are expensive. It's a
Speaker 2: global sport. Is that saying that the NBA is so
Speaker 2: good it's impossible to make it? Is it saying our
Speaker 2: domestic culture is broken and our players are distracted and
Speaker 2: not skilled enough. How in the world could you have
Speaker 2: a global sport. We don't have a shortage of great
Speaker 2: baseball players, great hockey players. We're having drafts like every
Speaker 2: third draft is talentless.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I so I think it's actually more the
Speaker 1: first than the second, because the league is more talented
Speaker 1: now than at any point in my lifetime.
Speaker 3: True.
Speaker 1: There, And so I think it is less that, oh
Speaker 1: my god, there's not good players. It's that the bar
Speaker 1: for being considered a good player these days is so
Speaker 1: much higher than it once was. And your pou Bill
Speaker 1: Simmons talks about this a lot. But like the guys
Speaker 1: who are now ninth men, you know, not that long.
Speaker 3: Ago, would be good starters, good like good.
Speaker 1: And if you look at some teams that we thought
Speaker 1: of as very good teams twenty years ago and look
Speaker 1: at who they had after their top four guys, it's
Speaker 1: a bunch of huh. And so that it's an argument
Speaker 1: for expansion. It's an argument for adding teams to the
Speaker 1: league because the talent level right now is so high.
Speaker 1: Like you look at the Western Conference in the NBA
Speaker 1: right now, we have as we record this, the Lakers
Speaker 1: and the Warriors are the nine and the tende. It's
Speaker 1: insane despite and keep in mind, so next year, so
Speaker 1: think about the Western Conference in the NBA next year.
Speaker 1: And then I want to circle back to Brownie for
Speaker 1: a moment. So Minnesota is not going to be worse.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they're gonna be the one seed,
Speaker 1: but it's not like all of a sudden Minnesota is
Speaker 1: gonna go away.
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna go down the standings.
Speaker 1: Denver is here to stay, Oklahoma City's only getting better.
Speaker 1: The Clippers maybe take a step back, but if they
Speaker 1: bring everyone back, why with they not maintain about where
Speaker 1: they are. Dallas seems to have figured out the Luca
Speaker 1: Kyrie thing.
Speaker 3: They're even playing defense in Dallas. They're playing defense. Luca's
Speaker 3: top three player in the league, hands down. They're fine. Phoenix.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so Phoenix could go backwards because of the
Speaker 1: age of their guys, but it's not like they're going
Speaker 1: to be a disaster. New Orleans is a young team,
Speaker 1: Sacramento is a young team, the Lakers, the Warriors, and
Speaker 1: then you have Memphis with John coming back, the Wimby
Speaker 1: is coming for everybody, and Houston was an exciting team.
Speaker 3: That's thirteen teams. It's fifteen teams in the conference.
Speaker 1: So there's just the teams are so talented and so loaded.
Speaker 3: I think that's about the draft.
Speaker 1: I want to defend the brownni thing for a minute
Speaker 1: if I could.
Speaker 3: So what if this is?
Speaker 1: Can everyone, even the biggest Lebron James critics, acknowledge the
Speaker 1: guys all time bassketball IQ wise, Can we at least
Speaker 1: acknowledge that that the guy understands how the game is
Speaker 1: played and understands the NBA as well as anybody ever has.
Speaker 3: Okay, for folks arguing, oh my gosh, Lebron's putting his
Speaker 3: finger on the scale. He shouldn't.
Speaker 1: Why would he do it. He's hurting his son long run,
Speaker 1: he's undercutting it. I don't know that this is the
Speaker 1: math Lebron is doing, but it's just an idea. What
Speaker 1: if Lebron's thought process is on this current trajectory in
Speaker 1: today's college basketball climate, my kid is not going to
Speaker 1: get the development and improvement that he needs over the
Speaker 1: next three years to one day be an NBA player. However,
Speaker 1: if I do put my finger on the scale and
Speaker 1: get a team to be at least somewhat invested in
Speaker 1: his development, then by the time I'm gone, he will
Speaker 1: be good enough to be a legitimate, stand on his
Speaker 1: own two feet NBA player. And so not that dissimilar
Speaker 1: from how Seth Curry went undrafted and then bounced around
Speaker 1: the G League for two years getting multiple chances. I
Speaker 1: happen to believe in part because of who his brother is,
Speaker 1: and then through that development, now he's a legitimate, really
Speaker 1: good NBA player. Would that have happened if he didn't
Speaker 1: get those opportunities that I think he probably got because
Speaker 1: of who his brother was.
Speaker 3: No, do I think that is fair? I don't know.
Speaker 3: Define fair.
Speaker 1: Is it absolutely what I think I would do if
Speaker 1: I were in Lebron's place, am I like? Of course,
Speaker 1: if I can help my kid achieve his and he
Speaker 1: might not be able to without my help, of course
Speaker 1: I'm going to and uh and and folks whining about it,
Speaker 1: like people in the NBA sell second round picks for
Speaker 1: two million bucks.
Speaker 3: These are not like the hottest.
Speaker 1: Come out of thees, like, oh my god, you're gonna
Speaker 1: waste a second round pick. Teams throw them in, willy nilly,
Speaker 1: teams sell them and so yeah, I mean, I listen, Bron.
Speaker 1: What's gonna hurt Brownie is he's six to two, and
Speaker 1: I I know Mannis and Shams and other people have
Speaker 1: said he's an NBA level defender. It's just hard to
Speaker 1: be a great defender in this league at that size.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying he can't be, but I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think Lebron is doing is being unfair to
Speaker 1: anybody in this circumstance whatsoever.
Speaker 2: I think my my example that makes me laugh the
Speaker 2: most is every time you're driving and you see a
Speaker 2: plumbing truck at oh, says Johnson and Son.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, I mean this is we can talk
Speaker 1: about it being problematic, but we've only had forty six,
Speaker 1: forty seven presidents in this country. One were father and son,
Speaker 1: but the other one we're uncle and nephew. Like even
Speaker 1: up to presidential the level of this country, there's nepotism.
Speaker 1: The NFL and NBA front offices and coaching staffs are
Speaker 1: rife with it. Those those last names all being the
Speaker 1: same are not a goddamn coincidence, right, It is because
Speaker 1: people you know, the Kyle Shanahan, you know, being Mike
Speaker 1: Shanahan's son, and his part of history is Mike Laflour
Speaker 1: with Matt Lafleur. And then I mean the the Brian Callahan.
Speaker 1: Bill Callahan's has two sons that are NFL coaches. Like,
Speaker 1: We're used to it everywhere, and for some reason people
Speaker 1: are not as comfortable with it in pro sports. But
Speaker 1: I we haven't because we haven't seen this, I guess
Speaker 1: because nobody's ever in the NBA played long enough for
Speaker 1: this to be a real possibility.
Speaker 2: So I thought there was sort of an ugly moment
Speaker 2: with Caitlin Clark when some former Yukon players you know,
Speaker 2: on a telecast were kind of taking shots at her
Speaker 2: and I'm like, ladies, what this comes across so petty,
Speaker 2: Like she's dominant at college. And I've always had this
Speaker 2: basketball vibe is that as long as you're a reasonable height.
Speaker 2: Now there are high school guys that are five to
Speaker 2: nine average thirty a game. They get to college they're
Speaker 2: not big enough. Or college guys, you know, the off
Speaker 2: guard that's six one and a half playing a two
Speaker 2: guard in college. You can't make it in the NBA.
Speaker 2: But if you're a regular normal height in the league
Speaker 2: and you're going into no defense has ever stopped any
Speaker 2: great score score. There was no Kobe Stopper, MJ. Topper,
Speaker 2: Tony Allen was a great defender, and guys got there.
Speaker 2: They got what they wanted to get. Is that and
Speaker 2: I think that's transferable. I think there are certain things
Speaker 2: men's and women's game that are transferable. One of the
Speaker 2: first things I noticed when I watched her she never
Speaker 2: looks at the ball. I mean she it is totally
Speaker 2: connected to her.
Speaker 3: He's looking up the court.
Speaker 2: She reminds me of the mahomes where she's scrambling, never
Speaker 2: really to run. It's a last option. He is always
Speaker 2: looking for people. A lot of guys just the smaller
Speaker 2: guys run to not get hit. Kyler Murray's looking to
Speaker 2: not get hit. Patrick's looking to hit somebody downfield.
Speaker 3: Big difference.
Speaker 2: So the first couple of times I watched her last year,
Speaker 2: I'm like, boy, she is. That's like NBA, Like that
Speaker 2: ball is even college guys. Sometimes you can see they're
Speaker 2: protecting the ball. She's magic that that ball is connected
Speaker 2: to her. Her court vision because of that is substantial.
Speaker 2: Like and again this sounds like, well everybody can dribble
Speaker 2: without watching. There are players that are connected to the ball.
Speaker 2: It's by the way, the go way.
Speaker 1: If you think everybody can dribble without looking at it,
Speaker 1: go watch. Celtics might win the title this year. The
Speaker 1: second best player can dribble his left hand, Like, I mean,
Speaker 1: the idea that everybody can do it, No, they can't.
Speaker 2: Isaiah Ryder I covered had no left hand. He could
Speaker 2: not dribble with his left hand.
Speaker 1: I stay a writer, and so listen. Prior to Caitlin Clark,
Speaker 1: I thought Diana Tarrazzi was the best women's player I've
Speaker 1: ever seen. Cheryl Miller for me, right, and I just
Speaker 1: didn't see Cheryl. Yeah, like the and so I trust
Speaker 1: everyone on Cheryl. But I just didn't see.
Speaker 2: Last year of high school eighty two for me eighty three,
Speaker 2: she was the twhen you're in college she was. There
Speaker 2: were arguments could she make the NBA?
Speaker 3: We would argue in college, right.
Speaker 1: The and Griner was the most like Awspiring, But I
Speaker 1: thought Tarazi was the best, and so I have mass
Speaker 1: respect for Tarazzi. But and this is I don't think
Speaker 1: anything Tarazi and Sue Bird said was out of bounds.
Speaker 1: I didn't think it was unfair. I don't think they
Speaker 1: need to apologize any of that, I think. But I
Speaker 1: think real equality comes with me being able to say
Speaker 1: that's a bad take. You know what, you had a
Speaker 1: bad take, and the idea and listen, a lot of
Speaker 1: it is just as simple as those are Yukon folks.
Speaker 1: She was playing Page. They rooted for Page, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. There's real that's my school, got it,
Speaker 1: no problem. But the idea that Caitlin Clark is going
Speaker 1: to go to the WNBA and not immediately be excellent,
Speaker 1: I think it's ridiculous, right, I think it is. Now.
Speaker 1: Is she gonna walk in and be the best player
Speaker 1: in the league. No, I don't think that is. She
Speaker 1: gonna walk in and be an All Star level player.
Speaker 1: I would be shocked if she's not. I would be shocked.
Speaker 1: The look at the the best men's players their rookie year,
Speaker 1: they're good, they're not, you know.
Speaker 3: Durant and that's one year in college.
Speaker 1: And that correct, that's the That's the other point I
Speaker 1: was gonna make. And for Lebron none, for Durant one.
Speaker 1: Duncan got four and was awesome year one and arguably
Speaker 1: the best player in the league. Year two was finals
Speaker 1: MVP year two, like four years, you know. And so
Speaker 1: Caitlin Clark is not gonna struggle. It's just it's just
Speaker 1: a bad take to think that she is gonna come
Speaker 1: to the WNB and struggle.
Speaker 3: Will she dominate that way she did college basketball?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: But I I do think the South Carol let me
Speaker 1: like this women's that that South Carolina women's team is
Speaker 1: I think probably on par with low with some of
Speaker 1: you know, the bottom five w NBA teams. I don't
Speaker 1: think the w NBA has evolved to the level of
Speaker 1: the NBA were the worst in the team would roll
Speaker 1: the back and she didn't. You know, she didn't beat
Speaker 1: that team. But it's not like she looked in over death.
Speaker 1: I just I don't think she's gonna struggle at all.
Speaker 1: I think she's going to be really.
Speaker 2: Good also and in short order be asome. Also, her
Speaker 2: WNBA teammates are gonna all be better than her Iowa teammates,
Speaker 2: meaning her classes the finishing, her teammates will finish at
Speaker 2: the rim. Her teammates will hit the shots, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, Indiana got the number one pick last year
Speaker 1: and got a Leah Boston, who was the best player
Speaker 1: on South Carolina a year ago that lost Caitlin Clark. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that is the other thing that is going
Speaker 1: to be Maybe her scoring is going to and field
Speaker 1: goal percentage is going to suffer in the short term,
Speaker 1: her assist percentage will not because she is going to
Speaker 1: be playing with the most talent she's ever played with.
Speaker 3: By a by a mile.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, I think I think this is a
Speaker 1: super exciting moment for women's sports. And I'm really and
Speaker 1: I I always here is where I think the American
Speaker 1: viewing public deserves credit. If it's awesome, we'll watch it blackly.
Speaker 1: If it's awesome, we'll watch it. Doesn't really matter the
Speaker 1: sport or the gender. If it's awesome and the stakes
Speaker 1: are high. We can tell that's dope. Let's get invested, yep.
Speaker 1: And so that is where the television ratings are pretty
Speaker 1: honest when it comes to big events and how much
Speaker 1: people care. And so I like the I don't know
Speaker 1: what the ratings and something will be for the WNBA,
Speaker 1: but I know that now.
Speaker 3: People like the and.
Speaker 1: Is the word this word is. I think I've said
Speaker 1: this before. The only time this word is ever used
Speaker 1: is in reference to college sports. But it's the right word. Pageantry.
Speaker 1: People do like the pageantry of college sports.
Speaker 3: They like it.
Speaker 1: They like the school spirit, they like the band. They
Speaker 1: like the fact that they're young people but old enough
Speaker 1: to not be, you know, making terrible mistakes, but young
Speaker 1: enough like yo, they might air ball this open shot,
Speaker 1: like he might miss this extra point. It adds a
Speaker 1: lot of drama.
Speaker 3: Things to it.
Speaker 1: And people like getting to know teams and players and
Speaker 1: going on rides with them. Yes, And the men's game
Speaker 1: it's gone, and so that void is now being filled
Speaker 1: by the women's game.
Speaker 3: Like people like you.
Speaker 1: One of the reasons this women's title did such crazy
Speaker 1: numbers is because we've been invested in Caitlyn Clark's IOWA team.
Speaker 3: For two years. Now, yes, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: There was a story, Oh they beat South Carolina and
Speaker 1: Dawn Staley last year when they were undefeated. Now is
Speaker 1: they're going to get their get back. You get to
Speaker 1: go on the ride with them and so and the
Speaker 1: men's game doesn't have that coming back anytime soon, and
Speaker 1: people want it now.
Speaker 3: I will say I want it.
Speaker 2: I was talking to somebody yesterday who played college basketball.
Speaker 2: He said, the NIL. You know that the G League,
Speaker 2: Ignite got booted. The NIL is going to keep kids
Speaker 2: that would normally have not given college basketball a chance.
Speaker 2: I do think that will incrementally, perhaps granually help college
Speaker 2: basketball a little. Zach, by the way, Zach edy great
Speaker 2: for two years. Look at the ratings, Yukon great for
Speaker 2: two years. Look at the ratings. Ninety percent of money
Speaker 2: in Hollywood is on remakes. So I do think college
Speaker 2: bat women's college basketball has a continuity edge. I mean,
Speaker 2: this is what all he had. He fights Norton, he
Speaker 2: fights Fraser, he gets this. You know, he wins there,
Speaker 2: he loses there. Boxing had this forever. UFC's had this,
Speaker 2: The rematches get this is why the minute somebody loses
Speaker 2: they talk rematch. College basketball has a rematch problem. But
Speaker 2: I do think as much as people, you know, it
Speaker 2: fosters insecurity and angst, the NIL eventually will land with Oh,
Speaker 2: it actually helps college basketball a little bit.
Speaker 1: Oh, I think, yeah, because if you can get people
Speaker 1: to stick around for an extra year and have more
Speaker 1: of continuity, that's what people want.
Speaker 3: People want to, you know, go on these rides with you.
Speaker 1: And it's something that I think the NBA suffers from
Speaker 1: a bit right now, which is people, you know, listen,
Speaker 1: I am the I obviously wasn't you know. I was
Speaker 1: a little little kid in the eighties, but I'm enough
Speaker 1: of an NBA historian that I know, like people want,
Speaker 1: Like they watched the Pistons come close and come close,
Speaker 1: and I understand they made tweaks of Guire and Dantley,
Speaker 1: you know, the train got it, and then they finally
Speaker 1: break through and it's the you know, it's it's Isaiah
Speaker 1: and dou Marson, leam Beer and Rodman's you you were
Speaker 1: invested in it. And then the Bulls went through that say,
Speaker 1: they keep losing to the Pistons, they keep losing and
Speaker 1: finally break through. It has been you know, Kobe with
Speaker 1: the Lakers. He at the top, shak leaves, he has
Speaker 1: three years out in the wilderness, then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you know, back on top because of the just the.
Speaker 3: Quickness of player movement in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Didn't win leave you don't you're not taking going on
Speaker 1: that same journey that we saw Dirt go on, that
Speaker 1: we saw these other guys go on.
Speaker 3: And I think that has.
Speaker 1: Probably hurt some of the popularity of the league a bit.
Speaker 1: And I, you know Clay he said on Draymond's podcast
Speaker 1: the other day. I thought it was really interesting. He's like,
Speaker 1: I want to stay with the Warriors, but I might
Speaker 1: have to prioritize my mental health. And I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: that's a weird that's a weird answer, because you would
Speaker 1: like what that's saying is, yes, ideally I'd stay here,
Speaker 1: but I might be happy or elsewhere. And so you know,
Speaker 1: we could be we we could have ten days left
Speaker 1: of Steph.
Speaker 3: Clay and Draymond.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm going to you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, yeah, I'm one of the last right,
Speaker 1: this could be one of the last games they ever
Speaker 1: played together.
Speaker 2: The volume. Thanks for listening to Part one of the
Speaker 2: conversations with Nick. Don't forget the check back for part two.