Speaker 1: If you're tuned into Heat Check with Trystal Quick.
Speaker 2: On this episode of the Heat Check, it's time for
Speaker 2: me to play Commissioner Crick.
Speaker 1: Yes, sir, no more, Adam Silver in comes me.
Speaker 2: I've decided, after careful thought, we are going to fix
Speaker 2: the NBA.
Speaker 1: It's an episode.
Speaker 2: We have just some time on our hands, and I've
Speaker 2: got some thoughts on how we make the NBA better.
Speaker 2: That means we've got everything from expansion to reorganization to
Speaker 2: even fixing the All Star Game.
Speaker 1: I got you covered.
Speaker 2: Also, we got to get into a little bit of
Speaker 2: news from around the league. Must conversation about Jahn Morant
Speaker 2: and some of the things that have recently been reported.
Speaker 2: Update on Lonzo ball lot happening, Nick, So drop that
Speaker 2: generic ass beat. All right, we begin this Episodisde with
Speaker 2: some sad news. I don't actually know really what is
Speaker 2: true and what's not true, but let me tell you this.
Speaker 2: The Washington Post is a pretty reputable news source, so
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go ahead and say that the reporting is detailed.
Speaker 2: Washington Post dropped a full article on how jaw this
Speaker 2: summer this last summer got himself into some trouble. Trouble trouble,
Speaker 2: and let's just say the conversation is a slightly sensitive subject.
Speaker 2: Turns out, Jaw and his very good friend Devonte Pack
Speaker 2: aka in this article they call him Pack, have been
Speaker 2: named now in a lawsuit stemming this is wild from
Speaker 2: an incident in a pickup game of basketball that happened
Speaker 2: at Jaw's house this summer that apparently led to him
Speaker 2: Jaw and his friend Pack essentially, I don't know if
Speaker 2: it's the right word, but essentially curb stomping some seventeen
Speaker 2: year old so hard that the police says they knocked
Speaker 2: him to the ground and left him with multiple large
Speaker 2: knots on the side.
Speaker 1: Of the head. Crazy. Story.
Speaker 2: Was reluctant to even discuss it, but I feel like,
Speaker 2: if you're just a casual NBA fan, you probably don't
Speaker 2: even know that this is going on. According to the
Speaker 2: Washington Post, Job became friends with a highly rated basketball
Speaker 2: prospect who no one knows who he is because he's
Speaker 2: a minor. He's seventeen, and part of the friendship involved
Speaker 2: Jaw inviting this kid over to play in pickup games
Speaker 2: during the summer at his house. During one of those games,
Speaker 2: things got very heated.
Speaker 1: A Job threw the.
Speaker 2: Ball hard when checking up, and then the kid got
Speaker 2: so steamed that he checked it back just as hard.
Speaker 2: John missed the ball and it hit him in the
Speaker 2: head and that's where things went sideways. I don't mean
Speaker 2: to make light of it, but that's kind of what
Speaker 2: we do. Ja told the police that this kid throwing
Speaker 2: the ball at his head he considered the first punch,
Speaker 2: so Jaw actually believes that this was in self defense,
Speaker 2: even though he told the police, yeah, I also was
Speaker 2: the one who threw the first punch, even though it's
Speaker 2: self defense.
Speaker 1: The ball was actually the first punch, not me.
Speaker 2: Jaw then looked at his friend, according to this article,
Speaker 2: and said, should we do it, boy?
Speaker 1: And then they did. Apparently they beat the kid senseless.
Speaker 2: The kid says he was punched dozens of times by
Speaker 2: both men, and then this is where it gets really
Speaker 2: kind of worse. Jah goes inside, the kid goes somewhere.
Speaker 2: Jah goes inside, apparently grabs a gun, puts it in
Speaker 2: his waistband, puts his hand on the gun in a
Speaker 2: threatening manner towards the kid, and Tea. Morant all the
Speaker 2: while is as usual, somewhere close and is screaming at
Speaker 2: Jaw to get.
Speaker 1: Back inside the house.
Speaker 2: Hey, you need to stop this right now, Like we gotta,
Speaker 2: we gotta figure.
Speaker 1: Out a way to get your little last home.
Speaker 2: So, according to the Post, in an interview with the police,
Speaker 2: John Morant said, like I mentioned a little bit before
Speaker 2: that he acted in self defense, but I swung first,
Speaker 2: he told detectives. Almost never have I heard of a
Speaker 2: self defense case that claims that you were the one
Speaker 2: that threw the first punch. I don't know if I've
Speaker 2: ever That's a very wildly honest and yet flawed self
Speaker 2: defense claim. The police report continues, Jaw believed that the
Speaker 2: boy had been an aggressor because he threw the ball
Speaker 2: at Jaw's head, then stepped towards him, pulling up his pants. Apparently, folks,
Speaker 2: when you pull your pants up, it's not just it's
Speaker 2: because your pants are falling down.
Speaker 1: It's because you're ready to square up. It's time to
Speaker 1: go now.
Speaker 2: And so that was essentially fighting words, that was essentially
Speaker 2: fighting mannerisms. During the interview, detectives mentioned the boy's allegation
Speaker 2: that Morant flashed a gun, and ja Morant and his
Speaker 2: people never denied that claim. Probably could not have come
Speaker 2: at a worse time for Jamorant. Let's be honest, probably
Speaker 2: don't want to have any bad pr on the heels
Speaker 2: of you releasing something that people are supposed to buy
Speaker 2: with your name on it.
Speaker 1: That's very obvious.
Speaker 2: But Jahn Morant dropped his very first signature shoe with
Speaker 2: Nike on Tuesday, that was two days ago, and then Wednesday,
Speaker 2: WAPO drops this piece. I don't know if WAPO is
Speaker 2: trying to sink the stock of Ja Morant's signature shoes,
Speaker 2: but I'm just gonna say that timing's not great. As
Speaker 2: an aside, Ja Morant being the first signature shoe for
Speaker 2: Nike that is four hundred dollars is absolutely bonkers it
Speaker 2: That thing is not worth four hundred dollars. If the
Speaker 2: Kyries are not worth four hundred, the Lebrons are not
Speaker 2: worth four hundred, the Kobe's are not worth four hundred,
Speaker 2: then by golly, jaw, your shitty ass jaw one is
Speaker 2: not worth four hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: Also, by the way, this came like a month ago.
Speaker 2: Remember when the Super Bowl week was and then there
Speaker 2: was an incident with the Pacers and there was like
Speaker 2: that whole Hey, I think we got a laser scope
Speaker 2: pulled on us by Jaw's friends and family. After Andrew Nemhard, poor,
Speaker 2: a little cute Andrew Nemhard from Gonzaga, who's like probably
Speaker 2: one hundred and seventy five pounds soaking wet. They leave,
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden, Jaw's friends come by and
Speaker 2: they're making all kinds of threatening gestures and there's a
Speaker 2: laser beam on them.
Speaker 1: Now Jaw.
Speaker 2: Or his claimed that it was just a laser pointer.
Speaker 2: They were headed to a PowerPoint presentation.
Speaker 1: Apparently they were.
Speaker 2: They had their cats in the car. They're just making
Speaker 2: sure the cats were entertained.
Speaker 1: I get it. I've got a dog. She sometimes rolls
Speaker 1: with me. I pull out my little laser beam.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it so happens to randomly go into my enemy's
Speaker 2: forehead just as I was playing with.
Speaker 1: It with my cat. It is really weird. What do
Speaker 1: we make of all this? In all seriousness, it's not good.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say that.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say this is not supposed to happen to
Speaker 2: a superstar player.
Speaker 1: And these are all self inflicted wounds.
Speaker 2: I think Jaw is very close to fucking his life up,
Speaker 2: and I don't think he quite gets that part right,
Speaker 2: somebody has to sit him down, in my opinion, and say, jaw,
Speaker 2: you're about to lose everything. All this endorsements your career.
Speaker 1: You take two.
Speaker 2: Hundred and thirty one million dollars. You cannot operate on
Speaker 2: hood rules anymore. No more, cannot do it. You are
Speaker 2: the face of your franchise. You're probably gonna be the
Speaker 2: face of the NBA.
Speaker 1: You can't just be curb stopping someone because they do
Speaker 1: it ball too hard at you. You can't do that.
Speaker 2: You can't go inside and grab a gun put it
Speaker 2: in your waistband.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, well look what I got. No, you
Speaker 1: cannot do that, and neither can your friend pack or
Speaker 1: stack whatever, none of them. And and you are the
Speaker 1: greatest show on on planet Earth. That's the thing. You're
Speaker 1: not Malik Beasley. You're not insert random role player here.
Speaker 1: You are the best player to watch on planet Earth
Speaker 1: on a basketball court, not even close.
Speaker 2: And you might lose all of that because you felt
Speaker 2: disrespected by a kid because he pulled his pants up
Speaker 2: at your house when you invited him over to the barbecue.
Speaker 2: That's some corny ash shit. That's a Oh I'm a gangster.
Speaker 2: I want to show him my muscle, because I'm one
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty five pounds.
Speaker 1: Soaken, wet, what are we doing here?
Speaker 2: You can't have your friends encouraging you. You can't have
Speaker 2: any friends that encourage you to do this nonsense.
Speaker 1: Because why because they're not worth two.
Speaker 2: Hundred and thirty one million dollars if they go to jail.
Speaker 2: No one's gonna give a fuck. No one, not the world,
Speaker 2: not the criminal justice, and nobody.
Speaker 1: You are the one that will be.
Speaker 2: Significantly altered by these decisions. So the op ed got
Speaker 2: posted in the Washington Post as well, and they said, uh,
Speaker 2: Jaw is on a bad path, which I agree with.
Speaker 2: Defiance is part of his basketball charm. Accountability had better
Speaker 2: be a.
Speaker 1: Part of his evolution.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, And without accountability, you're gonna have more incidents
Speaker 2: like this, without a recognition that this is out of pocket.
Speaker 2: I can't be operating in this way. You are going
Speaker 2: to risk it all and probably lose it all for nothing,
Speaker 2: for absolutely nothing, because the truth is, if you're looking
Speaker 2: for disrespect, you're going to find it everywhere, even from
Speaker 2: a child who threw a basketball at you and pulled
Speaker 2: its fucking pants up. So I've been on record saying
Speaker 2: Adam Silver, let's be honest, has lost his way. I
Speaker 2: think he's doing too much and doing too little, all
Speaker 2: at the same time. As it relates to evolving the NBA.
Speaker 2: He's obsession. We've talked about this before. He has this
Speaker 2: obsession with the EPL. I don't know why he wants
Speaker 2: to turn the NBA into the EPL.
Speaker 1: Be does.
Speaker 2: He's got these tone deaf responses to many crises, including
Speaker 2: load management or poor refereeing at the end of games,
Speaker 2: all the things that have happened with human rights abuses,
Speaker 2: and as Canter coming out and now feeling like he's blackball.
Speaker 1: There's just a lot going on right now.
Speaker 2: And we've talked about this over the past three seasons
Speaker 2: of the show. But somebody said, well, what would you do,
Speaker 2: Commissioner Crick. You're so you got such good ideas, you
Speaker 2: got your so fast to criticize.
Speaker 1: You can't complain without offering a solution. You're just screaming
Speaker 1: into the void.
Speaker 2: So you know what, in an attempt to fix that,
Speaker 2: Welcome to Commissioner Crick's NBA, where I will be fixing
Speaker 2: the league, this league for the foreseeable future. My comprehensive
Speaker 2: basketball plan. We didn't get into media relations, but we could.
Speaker 2: My comprehensive basketball plan will not only position the league
Speaker 2: at the forefront of the growth and professional sports, It's
Speaker 2: also going to make the league way more fun. You're
Speaker 2: gonna watch great basketball while leveling the playing field for
Speaker 2: the haves and have nots.
Speaker 1: It begins.
Speaker 2: It begins with expansion Executive Order. Two Western Conference teams
Speaker 2: are going to be added to the mix, the Seattle
Speaker 2: SuperSonics tomorrow and the Las Vegas Jacks. Those are the
Speaker 2: teams right now. So now we've got thirty two. It's
Speaker 2: from thirty to thirty two. That is going to be
Speaker 2: a very important mass school to have. Because I am
Speaker 2: blowing up the current structure of the league. We are
Speaker 2: going to reorganize the league based on geographic lines.
Speaker 1: No more. Hey, what's the furthest east Western Conference team?
Speaker 1: Why is Minnesota in the West? Why is OKAC in
Speaker 1: the West? Fuck? If I know who knows? No idea?
Speaker 1: So we're gonna figure that out.
Speaker 2: The NBA, I think, has been dicking around with expansion
Speaker 2: for way too long.
Speaker 1: The time is now two cities.
Speaker 2: We know those two cities deserve the teams, so why
Speaker 2: make them wait, there's zero sense.
Speaker 1: So now that we have thirty.
Speaker 2: Two teams, we expand the season, not contract the season
Speaker 2: like a lot of people want. We're expanding the season
Speaker 2: to eighty four games. You'll find out why eighty four
Speaker 2: in a minute.
Speaker 1: The reason why these radical changes are so important.
Speaker 2: I think for geographic relocation or in terms of geographic restructuring,
Speaker 2: it will keep travel.
Speaker 1: Down to a bare minimum.
Speaker 2: You're not gonna get teams going on these road trips
Speaker 2: where they're flying from Toronto to Seattle, Toronto to San Francisco.
Speaker 2: That doesn't exist anymore. You'll be playing teams in your
Speaker 2: own division more than you do.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: We'll keep the conferences, the two of them, Eastern and Western.
Speaker 2: Right under the two conferences, we'll have four divisions. Let's
Speaker 2: divide the Western Conference into eight teams. So you've got
Speaker 2: the West, You've got the Midwest, You've got the South,
Speaker 2: and you've got the East.
Speaker 1: So the Midwest and the West are.
Speaker 2: In the Western Conference, the South and the East are
Speaker 2: in the East.
Speaker 1: Little confusing, I know.
Speaker 2: So for the Western Division or the Coastal Division, we'll
Speaker 2: call it Portland, Golden State, Sacramento, LA Lakers, LA Clippers,
Speaker 2: Phoenix Suns, Las Vegas Jacks, and the Seattle SuperSonics. For
Speaker 2: the Midwest Division, you're gonna have the Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz,
Speaker 2: Minnesota Timberwolves, Milwaukee Bucks, Yes, Chicago, Indiana, Detroit, and Cleveland.
Speaker 2: I don't know teams are actually in the Midwest. In
Speaker 2: the East, divided into two divisions, We've got the South.
Speaker 2: We've got the OKC thunder, the Dallas Mavericks, the San
Speaker 2: Antonio Spurs, the Memphis Grizzlies, the New Orleans Pelicans, the
Speaker 2: Atlanta Hawks, the Orlando Magic, and the Houston Rockets. This
Speaker 2: one is a little muddle because we've got some teams
Speaker 2: in Florida, and we've got multiple teams in Florida.
Speaker 1: There won't be in the same division. In the East,
Speaker 1: I think it's much more clear.
Speaker 2: Miami, Toronto, Charlotte, which could have gone either way, Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: Nets, New York Knicks, Washington Wizards, Philly, and Boston. Every
Speaker 1: team now plays everyone in.
Speaker 2: Its division four times, so you play a home and
Speaker 2: home two games with every other team in your division. That, Folks,
Speaker 2: is eighty four games, twenty eight division games, fifty six
Speaker 2: out of division games. Now there are no more random things.
Speaker 2: Only four divisions, So how do the playoffs work?
Speaker 1: Simple?
Speaker 2: It's kind of like the Sweet sixteen. Top four teams
Speaker 2: in each division make the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Period.
Speaker 2: That means sixteen total teams are in, sixteen total teams
Speaker 2: are out, no.
Speaker 1: More play in tournament.
Speaker 2: I know you love it, but I've got a solution
Speaker 2: for that as well moving forward, which I'll talk about.
Speaker 1: In a second. Think about this.
Speaker 2: It's like the Sweet Sixteen of March Madness, with the
Speaker 2: West and the Midwest on one side of the bracket
Speaker 2: and the East and the South on another.
Speaker 1: Side of the bracket. Do not overthink this.
Speaker 2: Except for a single elimination game, it will be the
Speaker 2: regular series that we get in the playoffs. So the
Speaker 2: winners of the West and the Midwest divisions play in
Speaker 2: the Western Conference Finals. The winner of the Southern and
Speaker 2: Eastern play the Eastern Conference Finals. Winner of those finals
Speaker 2: play for the title. Not reinventing the wh But here's
Speaker 2: the twist.
Speaker 1: What about the teams that don't make the playoffs? What
Speaker 1: happens with them?
Speaker 2: So this is where Adam Silver or Commissioner Cricks Coveted
Speaker 2: tournament takes place. This is a single elimination tourney where
Speaker 2: the winner of this tournament gets the number one pick.
Speaker 1: In the draft. The draft then after the number one
Speaker 1: pick goes specifically on record.
Speaker 2: So to get the number one you've got to win
Speaker 2: the single elimination tournament like we get in March Madness,
Speaker 2: and then you're not gonna be able to say, Okay, well,
Speaker 2: the second worst team gets nothing because they've flamed out,
Speaker 2: So the second second worst team in the draft, after
Speaker 2: the winner gets the number two pick, the next gets
Speaker 2: the number three pick, et cetera.
Speaker 1: The tournament will take place directly.
Speaker 2: After the season, the regular season, the single elimination tournament,
Speaker 2: and then that gives the actual playoff teams a one
Speaker 2: week break in order to get healthy.
Speaker 1: Watch the games get excited.
Speaker 2: So now they get rested, we get some postseason basketball,
Speaker 2: and I actually think there might be more intrigue and
Speaker 2: excitement around who gets the number one overall pick, just
Speaker 2: like on the heels of March Madness, because it will
Speaker 2: be probably two weeks after Final four to figure out
Speaker 2: who's going to get Victor Wambiniama. I honestly think this
Speaker 2: is better than March Madness. You're gonna get crazy basketball.
Speaker 2: It would dominate ratings. We would get such good rating
Speaker 2: spikes from this everyone. I think tunes in to watch.
Speaker 2: Teams wouldn't have an incentive to tank. They would pull
Speaker 2: out all the stops to win.
Speaker 1: You want that.
Speaker 2: EPL style tournament, Adam Silver, Here it is there, you go.
Speaker 2: Other changes for Commissioner crick All Star Game will be
Speaker 2: Team USA versus the World. I think that's already in
Speaker 2: motion anyway. I think actually I put that in emotion.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine Nikola, Jokic and Luka deciding that they're
Speaker 2: gonna mail it in because they're playing against Team USA
Speaker 2: and they don't want.
Speaker 1: To look like idiots. I don't think that happens. I
Speaker 1: think Team USA has to.
Speaker 2: Play hard because they don't want to get punked by
Speaker 2: the international team. We'll also move the All Star break backwards.
Speaker 2: We're moving it to halfway through the season, no more
Speaker 2: twenty games left. When they say the back half the
Speaker 2: season after the All Star break, it actually will be
Speaker 2: the back half of the All Star breaks. Having an
Speaker 2: All Star Game with twenty four games left in the
Speaker 2: season makes no sense to me. Here's another change. My
Speaker 2: League office does not investigate tampering claims. You want to snitch.
Speaker 2: Maybe I investigate you. How about that? Because there's no
Speaker 2: way to stop it, there's no way to prove it.
Speaker 2: Players are talking, coaches are talking at all times, Executives
Speaker 2: are talking. I'm going to create a situation. They can
Speaker 2: talk as much as they want. If you are a
Speaker 2: buyout candidate, here's another one, another rule change. If you're
Speaker 2: a buyout candidate like Russell Westbrook, you can't go to
Speaker 2: a team currently in a playoff spot. You only sign
Speaker 2: with teams that are fifth in their division, are lower,
Speaker 2: so that avoids a Kevin Love or a Blake Griffin situation.
Speaker 2: And maybe the most small but important change, no city
Speaker 2: edition jerseys where the name, where the color of your
Speaker 2: jersey is different. If you're the MAVs, no green for you.
Speaker 2: Doesn't happen if you're the Milwaukee Bucks. No brown for you,
Speaker 2: no cream sickle for you, no light blue for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: There's nothing more than I hate and turning on League
Speaker 2: Pass to watch the Timberwolves play in MAVs colors or
Speaker 2: the MAVs play in the Celtics colors. Sometimes they play
Speaker 2: against each other. I can't even figure out who's playing who,
Speaker 2: what's going on? Even when they show you in the
Speaker 2: graphics packages, who's in what color? Still can't figure it out?
Speaker 2: There it is I have fixed the NBA to a
Speaker 2: very large degree, all in one segment. I think this
Speaker 2: is bulletproof change. Send it up to Mike Bass, send
Speaker 2: it up to Adam Silver, and thank me when you
Speaker 2: get there. So when we get the number one pick
Speaker 2: the draft tournament, remember where you heard it first.
Speaker 1: I know that we normally.
Speaker 2: Try to make jokes here, but sometimes you got to
Speaker 2: cover a subject that, no matter how much I try,
Speaker 2: I find humor in it. And like I can't find
Speaker 2: zero humor in this, we got to talk about Lonzo Ball.
Speaker 1: This thing is out of control. It is so sad.
Speaker 1: First of all, Lonzo is not only a great.
Speaker 2: Player, but the Bulls haven't really recovered since he went
Speaker 2: down last season. I think they were number one in
Speaker 2: the East at one point. But he's also a good dude.
Speaker 2: He's a really good dude, beloved by his teammates. The
Speaker 2: Ball brothers are, by every account that I've heard of,
Speaker 2: totally good guys.
Speaker 1: How good was he with the Bulls when the Bulls?
Speaker 2: When when the Bulls were playing with Lonzo Ball, they
Speaker 2: were the number one seed in the East. He was
Speaker 2: shooting forty two percent from three, and even more important,
Speaker 2: the Bulls allowed eight point six year points per game
Speaker 2: when compared to when he was off the court. That
Speaker 2: was top four percent in the entire NBA. Defense never
Speaker 2: recovered since he left, So I don't know if that
Speaker 2: makes the Lonzo Ball injury update more painful to hear,
Speaker 2: but it's certainly if you're the Bulls, doesn't make it
Speaker 2: any less painful. So they officially the Bulls shut down
Speaker 2: Lonzo Ball for the season last week.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think you're shocked. I'm not shocked, but.
Speaker 2: It's it's kind of scary considering that we didn't see
Speaker 2: him play most of last year. Now we haven't seen
Speaker 2: him play this year, and it's pretty jarring to hear.
Speaker 2: When the reason came out behind it, it's probably.
Speaker 1: Even more difficult to process.
Speaker 2: So just to recap the timeline, because it's weird, complicated
Speaker 2: and it took a while. January fourteenth, Lonzo Ball tore
Speaker 2: as meniscus. Pretty simple, pretty normal injury that we've seen
Speaker 2: in the NBA. Goes under the knife, goes and gets
Speaker 2: arthroscopic surgery right after misses the rest of the season,
Speaker 2: which you could say, some people do come back from
Speaker 2: meniscus tears with surgery, some people don't.
Speaker 1: Not cause for concern.
Speaker 2: Yet the timeline from being able to play following surgery
Speaker 2: sometimes can range from four to six months, so okay.
Speaker 1: The dark clouds then begin to form.
Speaker 2: Eight months later, in September, Lonzo then has a second
Speaker 2: surgery on the same knee, on the same tear.
Speaker 1: The Ball said it would.
Speaker 2: Just be a few months just to clean up, which
Speaker 2: is obviously a lie, and they were looking at it
Speaker 2: January twenty twenty three return date, But then January twenty
Speaker 2: eighth came and Billy Donovan let it slip that Lonzo
Speaker 2: Ball was nowhere near returning to the court, and in fact,
Speaker 2: it actually became known that Lonzo Ball was still in
Speaker 2: pain and wasn't even able to run yet.
Speaker 1: Wow. The Bulls released this statement.
Speaker 2: Despite making significant increases in strength and function over the
Speaker 2: past several months, Bulls guard Lonzo Ball continues to experience
Speaker 2: performance limiting discomfort during participation and high level basketball activities.
Speaker 2: Considering the time required to achieve the necessary level of
Speaker 2: fitness to return to play and the current stage of
Speaker 2: the NBA season, Ball will not return this season. The
Speaker 2: focus for him will be to continue to be on
Speaker 2: the resolution of his discomfort and a full return for
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty three twenty twenty four season.
Speaker 1: So what's wrong?
Speaker 2: According to his dad, LaVar Ball, Alonzo has quote debris
Speaker 2: and a nerve.
Speaker 1: What does that mean? I don't actually know what that means.
Speaker 2: Is that like when you get dust in your eye,
Speaker 2: because that stuff's really painful? Is that like the the
Speaker 2: expanded dust in the eye scenario. The issue apparently is
Speaker 2: even more complicated because Tristan Thompson went on ESPN and
Speaker 2: reported that doctors have told Lonzo Ball that this is
Speaker 2: a unique injury that they have never seen before. So
Speaker 2: it was not just a meniscus tear. So when you
Speaker 2: apply unique to anything bad, it's always worse. It's never
Speaker 2: good to be like.
Speaker 1: This is such an interesting case.
Speaker 2: I've never seen this before, you have such a unique injury. No,
Speaker 2: those are things you do not want to hear. That
Speaker 2: means things are bad because they don't know how to
Speaker 2: fix you. If they've never seen something before, they don't
Speaker 2: know how to fix it.
Speaker 1: To be honest, doctors are just like us. They're just people.
Speaker 2: They've never encountered this, they're probably not going to be
Speaker 2: able to help out. The latest is that Lonzo plans
Speaker 2: on receiving a this is normal platelet rich plasma injection
Speaker 2: into the leftne Kobe used to get that done in
Speaker 2: Germany all the time.
Speaker 1: They do it here now in the United States. Very painful,
Speaker 1: but also very helpful.
Speaker 2: He's gonna put that in his left knee to minimize
Speaker 2: the pain that he's experiencing from a pair of operations
Speaker 2: that he had in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: Good news, he's already had those.
Speaker 2: Bad news, he's already had those Like that's he knows
Speaker 2: the pain, but he's already had PRP in that same
Speaker 2: need in twenty eighteen. I want to see Lonzo ball back.
Speaker 2: He is so good. He was hitting his stride, he
Speaker 2: was finding his way. He was in real NBA player.
Speaker 2: After all the noise and smoke around the UCLA to
Speaker 2: Lakers sort of transition and LeVar ball Drama medicine has
Speaker 2: made such incredible strides. Right, Greg Godin, the former number
Speaker 2: one pick in the draft, his career was ended by
Speaker 2: microfractures right which now in today's game, he would probably
Speaker 2: still be playing if those microfractures happened today because as
Speaker 2: opposed to fifteen years ago, because the microfracture surgery Odin
Speaker 2: had was basically discarded because it was trash for better
Speaker 2: techniques after he had those. So the fact that this
Speaker 2: resolute revolution of medicine can't seem to figure out how
Speaker 2: to help Lonzo Ball is pretty heartbreaking. And all we
Speaker 2: can do is hope that the recovery goes well and
Speaker 2: when the season starts he's there. But it's an update
Speaker 2: that I've been trying to give to the people. We
Speaker 2: just haven't had time to get to it. But now
Speaker 2: you know, hopefully Lonzo Ball gets out there and is
Speaker 2: running the show in Chicago, because man, they do they
Speaker 2: need them all Right, here's a question from someone in
Speaker 2: my DMS, and I wanted to address it because I
Speaker 2: think it's fun what players have coasted the longest on
Speaker 2: their potential. So I'm talking about players that everyone thought
Speaker 2: would break through and never did, right, Not guys that
Speaker 2: you thought would be pretty good and then they never were.
Speaker 2: Guys who had the talent to be stars but never
Speaker 2: ended up fulfilling them promise. I have three players on
Speaker 2: my list, Frank Nelikina Frank Nelikina Man.
Speaker 1: Remember when New York yet Knicks drafted him.
Speaker 2: Everybody thought he was going to just be this breakthrough talent,
Speaker 2: that his shot would start to fall, he would figure
Speaker 2: it out.
Speaker 1: No, never happened. Never happened.
Speaker 2: Despite four years as a New York Knick. Remember they
Speaker 2: put him on Tree Young. That's probably the most famous
Speaker 2: he'll ever be. He shot thirty nine percent for his career.
Speaker 2: He currently gets like ten minutes a game in Dallas.
Speaker 2: His shot has not been fixed. He is currently still
Speaker 2: shooting thirty eight percent in Dallas.
Speaker 1: Number two Mobiamamba.
Speaker 2: Everybody thought Mobamba was gonna be electric Magic. Spent four
Speaker 2: and a half years waiting on Mobamba. They were like, well,
Speaker 2: he'll figure it out, guys, he'll figure it out. He's
Speaker 2: he's a stretched big man, he can shoot the three long,
Speaker 2: he's athletic, he.
Speaker 1: Has good personality.
Speaker 2: And you know what, he never did a guy everybody
Speaker 2: thought had the skills necessary to be a star, and
Speaker 2: no he did not. We only got a song from it.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 2: That's all we have. And I don't even think he
Speaker 2: was drafted when the song came out. So song could
Speaker 2: have just came and went the Magic shipped him out
Speaker 2: for a bag of chips to the Lakers at this
Speaker 2: year's trade deadline. As we know, Number two is Mobamba
Speaker 2: number three. Oh, this one's close to home. This one's
Speaker 2: so close to home. Zach Collins from Gonzaga tenth in
Speaker 2: the overall draft from the Portland Trailblazers. You know, the Blazers.
Speaker 2: We've talked about this a million times, but I'll say
Speaker 2: it again. You know that Blazers moved up to get
Speaker 2: him at ten. You know, they actually had two first
Speaker 2: round draft picks and they packaged them to get Zack Collins.
Speaker 2: The worst part about that, though, Zach Collins is like, okay,
Speaker 2: he's an okay player.
Speaker 1: He's never going to be a star. Obviously he was
Speaker 1: reached for in the draft. That's fine.
Speaker 2: But the worst part about Zach Collins existing on the
Speaker 2: Portland Trailblazers is that the Blazers passed on stars, elite
Speaker 2: players for Zach Collins. Let's talk about him, Donovan Mitchell.
Speaker 2: I mean, the list could just end there and that
Speaker 2: would be that.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't. Bam At a bio could end there.
Speaker 1: It does not.
Speaker 2: John Collins, Jared Allen, Kyle Kuzma, og An Andobi all
Speaker 2: went after Zach Collins. You could have just kept your
Speaker 2: first round picks and got two of those guys that hurts.
Speaker 2: Also receiving votes from me is James Wiseman, of course,
Speaker 2: James Wiseman's been coasting for the Warriors on potential pretty
Speaker 2: much alone. Dante Exem. Dante Exem and the Adida's Nations.
Speaker 2: They thought when he was sixteen years old he was
Speaker 2: going to be the next superstar. He was seen as
Speaker 2: the best sixteen or under kid in the world from
Speaker 2: Australia and he's just nobody Bizmack Biambo who's seen as
Speaker 2: like a real talent, Taylor Horton, Tucker, Romeo Langford, Nikaile,
Speaker 2: Alexander Walker, and that's it.
Speaker 1: That you can only live for so long on potential.
Speaker 2: But some of these guys are probably going to get
Speaker 2: an NBA pension and will magically figure things out when
Speaker 2: they never will. That's all the time that we after
Speaker 2: the Heat Check, check back Tuesday for an all new
Speaker 2: full episode. Do not forget to watch the feed, and
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