Speaker 1: The volume. All right, Nick Rite's about to stop on by.
Speaker 1: We're going to go probably blow through an hour to
Speaker 1: an hour and a half today. We've got a lot
Speaker 1: of things to talk about. Hey, before we do that
Speaker 1: with Nick Wright, I want you to download the game
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Speaker 1: off discount. All right, Nick, Right, we haven't talked in
Speaker 1: a while, so I thought this was here's an interesting topic.
Speaker 1: And I bring this up because you're one of the
Speaker 1: bigger NBA fans. Is that some things don't sound don't
Speaker 1: sound comforting, and they may sound almost appalling, but they're true,
Speaker 1: and that treating your employees and paying them more than
Speaker 1: they deserve is really bad business. And that the reason
Speaker 1: the NFL is king. It's virtually impossible to find a
Speaker 1: bad contract in the league. I can remember Albert Hainsworth
Speaker 1: for about a year got paid a ton with the Patriots.
Speaker 1: You remember it because it's so infrequent. It may be
Speaker 1: the only bad contract for the Patriots. Every NBA team
Speaker 1: has a tear contract. Some have three. You know, before
Speaker 1: James Dolan got distracted by the Sphere, it was like
Speaker 1: half the half the contracts for the Knicks were bad contracts.
Speaker 1: Is that One of the reasons that the NFL is
Speaker 1: king is because they have a weak union. And that
Speaker 1: sounds terrible to say. Players have like Brandon Ayuk, They're like, no,
Speaker 1: we're not going to cave. There's a bunch of good
Speaker 1: receivers in next year's draft, We'll just go draft them.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I think they want him. They're furious, they know the
Speaker 1: windows shrinking, their players are getting older. But I think
Speaker 1: I've talked to a lot of guys in the NBA.
Speaker 1: I saw Frank Vogel viether night at dinner. You know, La,
Speaker 1: you see a lot of pro coaches, like especially where
Speaker 1: I live. There all are in the best communities, and
Speaker 1: football coaches are happier. Basketball coaches are all miserable, even
Speaker 1: the successful ones. And the reason being is they have
Speaker 1: cost certainty, they have control. In the NFL, you can
Speaker 1: be productive, but you're a pain in the ass. I'm
Speaker 1: moving off you. I mean seven rounds of players if
Speaker 1: the leagu's undrafted. In the NBA, after the fourteenth pick,
Speaker 1: you run out of players. And this Brandon Ayuk situation
Speaker 1: is interesting because in the NBA he would get paid
Speaker 1: and he may go to coach fired. And in the
Speaker 1: NFL they're like, now we got a bunch of good players.
Speaker 1: Draft will give us nine receivers. We'll give you a number.
Speaker 1: I mean, you didn't make like twenty three million, you're
Speaker 1: not making thirty. And I think it really so. My
Speaker 1: point being is it. Not giving the employee everything they
Speaker 1: want is why the NFL succeeds. It forces players to
Speaker 1: get their shit together. Like you don't get that nine
Speaker 1: year baseball contract, We're like year four, five and six.
Speaker 2: You're like, I'm getting my money.
Speaker 1: The union so strong and Brandon Ayuke the Niners are
Speaker 1: saying take it or leave it, Well, take it or
Speaker 1: leave it.
Speaker 2: I actually I so I think, I look at I
Speaker 2: might I agree with some of what you're saying. I
Speaker 2: wanted the well, yes, I'm definitely a union guy, but
Speaker 2: I look at this, I look at the NBA and
Speaker 2: the Ayuk thing separately. Let me deal with the NBA
Speaker 2: thing first. I actually think a huge part of the
Speaker 2: issues that you're describing with the NBA are caused by
Speaker 2: the individual player, Max. I think so many of the
Speaker 2: if the NBA salary cap was one hundred and fifty million,
Speaker 2: and if you wanted to give Joker one hundred and
Speaker 2: forty of it, you could so many of these. So
Speaker 2: many of the complaints of the NBA go away for
Speaker 2: two reasons. One is one of the reasons NBA guys
Speaker 2: get what I would call non contract benefits, which is
Speaker 2: I don't want to practice today. Let's not practice today
Speaker 2: those types of things. Is because if you're artificially capping
Speaker 2: what you can pay them and everyone can pay them
Speaker 2: the same, you have to pay them elsewhere. You have
Speaker 2: to be like, okay, actually worth one hundred million a year.
Speaker 2: I can only pay you fifty so, and everyone can
Speaker 2: pay you fifty so. Therefore we have to give you
Speaker 2: these fringe benefits like you know what they give college
Speaker 2: football coaches, country club memberships, whatever, in order to make
Speaker 2: up that delta. The other thing the individual player cap
Speaker 2: does is it makes it to where the middle class
Speaker 2: NBA is wildly overpaid. And that's what fans. People think
Speaker 2: fans are gonna get pissed when NBA guys are making
Speaker 2: a million a game. They're not. They're not going to
Speaker 2: be mad when Jason Tatum, who's the best player on
Speaker 2: a champion, makes a million a game. Not more mad
Speaker 2: than there are right now when he makes half a
Speaker 2: million a game. Where people will get mad is when
Speaker 2: they got mad at Tobias Harris. They're like, wait, you're
Speaker 2: the sixty third best player in the league and you're
Speaker 2: making thirty million a year. But that exists because of
Speaker 2: the individual player Max So's the that's the first, that's
Speaker 2: the NBA part. In my opinion, the ayuk thing. What
Speaker 2: I think is fascinating about Ayu is people are wondering,
Speaker 2: why are the Niners gonna cave? Why are the Niners
Speaker 2: who are gonna get nothing back of substance for this
Speaker 2: season when they've got to win, when it's the last
Speaker 2: year theoretically, when perty's cheap, when Trent's thirty six million,
Speaker 2: why are they going to cave and trade him at
Speaker 2: an inopportune time? And I said it on the show today,
Speaker 2: and I think it's I think people, I think this
Speaker 2: will resonate with people if they think not of NFL teams,
Speaker 2: but of their own workplace, which is it is the
Speaker 2: leverage Ayukaz is I can make it miserable here and
Speaker 2: people don't think about that. Think about any workplace you've
Speaker 2: been in where someone who's important and unfireable or ish
Speaker 2: comes in, has a bad attitude. Is shit talking other people?
Speaker 2: Is bringing the morale? Like bringing every room they walk
Speaker 2: into you like, oh, that kills the vibe, that kills
Speaker 2: working anywhere. And I think that is oddly the leverage
Speaker 2: au Caz, The leverage auk Haz is this can be
Speaker 2: miserable guys and if people doubt how much of an
Speaker 2: impact that can have. Read the ESPN article today on
Speaker 2: what happened to the Eagles. Eagles were ten and one,
Speaker 2: they had won like twenty three of twenty five games. Yeah,
Speaker 2: went to Super Bowl, did all that, and then what
Speaker 2: happened to them? Well, it seems like the coach and
Speaker 2: the quarterback couldn't be in a room one on one
Speaker 2: together and the whole thing collapsed. So I think, oddly
Speaker 2: the leverage I Ukaz or any of these guys have
Speaker 2: is I can be a dick and I can make
Speaker 2: team meetings and the locker room suck. And you if
Speaker 2: I'm too good to cut, what are you gonna do? So?
Speaker 1: But I think in the NFL people just move on.
Speaker 1: I think in the NBA you don't. But in the NFL, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I've said I said this today. I would
Speaker 1: take that University of Washington offensive lineman first round.
Speaker 2: Guy.
Speaker 1: I'll say, you can have Ayuk. You have to pay him, though.
Speaker 1: We'll take that offensive lineman and the fans will think
Speaker 1: what a terrible deal. But the Niners' biggest weakness is
Speaker 1: their offensive line. Outside of Trent Williams, give us your
Speaker 1: first pick because Ayuk's were the first rounder. We just
Speaker 1: want a guy that can play now and the steel
Speaker 1: And by the way, he's not scheduled to start for
Speaker 1: the Steelers this year anyway. And by the way, the
Speaker 1: utter part is that offensive coaches, I will say this
Speaker 1: till I die, are better with offensive line than defensive coaches.
Speaker 1: Andy Reid and Sean McVay reboot that thing every two
Speaker 1: years brilliantly. Mike Tomlin can't get He cannot figure the
Speaker 1: offensive line out. Pete Carroll in the Seahawks great draft picks,
Speaker 1: couldn't figure it out. He hired terrible O line coaches
Speaker 1: Sean McDermott outside a left tackle revolving door. Can't figure
Speaker 1: the offensive line out mcvaghon Reid. Sean Payton goes to
Speaker 1: the Broncos.
Speaker 2: It's terrible.
Speaker 1: Last year his first on line seventh by PFF Dotson
Speaker 1: was a guard the Steelers. Was not going to start
Speaker 1: for the Steelers. Sean Payton gets them for like a
Speaker 1: fifth round pick. Sean McVeigh gets them for a fifth
Speaker 1: round pick for the Rams. He's the highest rated guard
Speaker 1: in the league last year, was not going to start
Speaker 1: for the Steelers. So yeah, so my takeaways, give him
Speaker 1: a Yuke, we'll take that. We'll take that interior offensive lineman.
Speaker 1: The fans will think we got just used, but we
Speaker 1: don't have to pay that kid.
Speaker 2: That would be a great deal. Listen if you if
Speaker 2: that's the guy the the Steelers spent their first round
Speaker 2: pick on this past year. It was the first round
Speaker 2: and right, and the problem with the problem with trading
Speaker 2: Ayuk is not trading Ayuk. It's trading Ayuk in August
Speaker 2: if the compensation is next year's draft when you're trying
Speaker 2: to win this year's super Bowl. Like the I was.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you remember it, but I was.
Speaker 2: You broke the news to me live on TV that
Speaker 2: Tyreek Kill had been trading. I was on with you
Speaker 2: and it happened, and in the moment I was beside myself,
Speaker 2: and then the details came out and then I had
Speaker 2: more time and a little I will admit this is
Speaker 2: a little bit playing the result because the Chiefs haven't
Speaker 2: you know, they've won every Super Bowl has been played
Speaker 2: since the trade. But the key was they're going to
Speaker 2: get four players for this year's team, like it was
Speaker 2: happening before so they're gonna lose Tyreek and they got
Speaker 2: a first round pick, a you know, a third to
Speaker 2: fifth or whatever it was. But the draft hadn't happened yet,
Speaker 2: and so it's like, oh, they're gonna be able to
Speaker 2: improve these different things and use it right now as
Speaker 2: opposed to trading post draft for future picks, which is
Speaker 2: just always such a bomber. It's like, man, he's gonna
Speaker 2: help us today, and you're trading him for help down
Speaker 2: the road. That's fine to do if you're or a
Speaker 2: rebuilding team that doesn't care about winning. But the Niners'
Speaker 2: best chance of winning a Super Bowl that hasn't already
Speaker 2: happened is right now, because Rockberdy is gonna go from
Speaker 2: wildly underpaid no matter what you think of him, to
Speaker 2: comically overpaid, no matter what you think of him. So
Speaker 2: the window is this moment, and that I mean, I listen,
Speaker 2: I believe that he's going to the Steelers. Andrew Philipponi
Speaker 2: out of Pittsburgh said, the Niners and Steelers have agreed.
Speaker 2: They're waiting on Ayuk and the Steelers to come to
Speaker 2: terms on the money. I also, can I ask you
Speaker 2: another question for you move on to this stuff. Is
Speaker 2: it a little odd to you that Ayuk is this
Speaker 2: much more interested in Pittsburgh than New England because I
Speaker 2: Pittsburgh does not have a settled quarterback situation. We don't
Speaker 2: know who it is New England. I get it's a rookie.
Speaker 2: This is the third pick of the draft. He wanted
Speaker 2: to go to Washington, who second pick of the draft.
Speaker 2: Now I understand he played with Jayden before. But it
Speaker 2: was the reporting out of New England is they offered
Speaker 2: upwards of thirty two million a year. The Niners accepted
Speaker 2: the terms, and Iuk was like, I won't play there.
Speaker 2: That would make sense if it's like, no, I want
Speaker 2: to go to Baltimore and play with Lamar. I want
Speaker 2: to go to Buffalo and play with Josh Allen. But
Speaker 2: it's like, no, I won't play with the Patriots and
Speaker 2: their defensive minded head coach with Drake Mayo quarterback because
Speaker 2: I want to go to the Steelers, who are having
Speaker 2: a quarterback competition between a first round pick that might
Speaker 2: wash out and Russell Wilson's thirteen. That's weird to me
Speaker 2: that I can't quite figure.
Speaker 1: So players are all and this is not a criticism
Speaker 1: but a reality selfish, and they probably should be. A
Speaker 1: GM can GM forever, an owner owns forever. A coach
Speaker 1: can coach until the seventies. A player's got like seven
Speaker 1: peak years in football and then it's over. So they're selfish.
Speaker 1: So if you were twenty two to twenty three years
Speaker 1: old and you looked around the NFL, if I said
Speaker 1: you could go to this place, it is player friendly.
Speaker 1: You can be dramatic, you can talk.
Speaker 2: That makes sense.
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh is a player heaven. Tomlin's not a big disciplinarian Tomlin.
Speaker 1: I mean Tomlin almost ran onto the field to make
Speaker 1: a tackle himself once he is the.
Speaker 2: Jones.
Speaker 1: He is very motivational. It's like Pete Carroll was viewed
Speaker 1: player friendly. That's why when he didn't pay Earl Thomas,
Speaker 1: Earl Thomas flipped him off because it was like players
Speaker 1: just thought Pete gets guys paid. And so so when
Speaker 1: you think of New England, their brand is rigid, the
Speaker 1: crafts not player friendly. Take a pay cut, even though
Speaker 1: it may not be the reality now that Brady and
Speaker 1: Belichick are gone, the brand of New England is cold.
Speaker 1: Boston is sort of fences make good neighbors. It's get
Speaker 1: is a good time.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's gotta be it, because it can't be.
Speaker 2: I understand wide receiver being like quarterback quarterback quarterback, but
Speaker 2: and I don't love Drake May but he's the third
Speaker 2: pick of the draft. Like it's the Patriots would not
Speaker 2: have traded the third pick of the draft for Russell
Speaker 2: Wilson and justin fields like that, that would not have happened.
Speaker 2: So it's just that part is weird to me. I
Speaker 2: want to ask you one other thing for it. I
Speaker 2: know this is your show.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: I read that ESPN article about Sirianni and Hurtz, yeah
Speaker 2: and man o man. It reminded me a lot of
Speaker 2: what we learned about Carol and Russell Wilson, which is
Speaker 2: make a super Bowl with a quarterback that some believed
Speaker 2: in some didn't. The coach still views the quarterback a
Speaker 2: certain way. The quarterback then's like, no, I view myself
Speaker 2: a different I got paid and I want to play
Speaker 2: a different way. And it obviously for Carol and Wilson
Speaker 2: it lasted for years and then it broke up at
Speaker 2: the end. But when I when I'm reading that, Sirianni
Speaker 2: still wanted run the ball, do certain things in Jalen
Speaker 2: Hurtz like, you paid me two hundred and fifty million dollars,
Speaker 2: I'm want to show you what I can do. It
Speaker 2: reminded me so much of Pete and Russ at the
Speaker 2: end that for Philly, I think there's all that Philly
Speaker 2: has a really good roster. There are a lot of
Speaker 2: big warning signs about the GM picked the coordinators that
Speaker 2: if the head coach and quarterback are not on the
Speaker 2: same page. That was not a great article.
Speaker 1: No, but the difference is I'll give you an example. So
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson has had three different coaches. Three his college coach.
Speaker 1: He was a wildly successful, productive college quarterback. His coach
Speaker 1: basically said I'm gonna I'm gonna go with Mike glennt Yes,
Speaker 1: Pete Carroll him, I'm over you. Sean Payton actually resurrected
Speaker 1: him a little bit, and he doesn't. So three coaches,
Speaker 1: different levels of success, bailed on him. That tells me
Speaker 1: that is a Russell Wilson issue. I've had multiple teammates
Speaker 1: rip him like notable guys. So there's a Russell component
Speaker 1: here and I think nothing. I'm not being you know,
Speaker 1: anti Russ. But when three things happen if you rob
Speaker 1: three banks.
Speaker 2: No, that's right, and where it's the the It's funny
Speaker 2: you brought up the NC state thing. I think that's relevant.
Speaker 2: I think it's like, wait, so that was that? That
Speaker 2: was it? And then he goes to Wisconsin and it
Speaker 2: is awesome. It's like he keeps aside from in Denver,
Speaker 2: he produces everywhere and the coaches seem really hesitant to
Speaker 2: give him the full keys to the car, which is
Speaker 2: a weird thing. With that said, Colin Jalen Hurts did
Speaker 2: have to transfer from Alabama, right, yeap.
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Speaker 1: This is a paid advertisement. The difference is Pete Carroll
Speaker 1: College and Pro is a championship level coach. So when
Speaker 1: Sirianni got the job, I called I have six GMS
Speaker 1: on my phone, a couple scouting directors and we talk
Speaker 1: all the time. And I called various people, and I
Speaker 1: didn't really actually want to call Chris Ballard because I
Speaker 1: didn't want to put Chris in a bad spot. So
Speaker 1: he wasn't one of the ones I called because Ballard
Speaker 1: he came from Indianapolis. So it's it's like, for instance,
Speaker 1: I can I can text Brett Veach and ask him
Speaker 1: a quarterback question because I know he's not drafting one
Speaker 1: right right, right, But I didn't want to ask Tom
Speaker 1: te LESCo a friend about Tua and Justin Herbert, because
Speaker 1: I knew he needed one and I didn't think it
Speaker 1: was fair for me to poke in PROD in that space.
Speaker 2: So I tend to use US.
Speaker 1: I tend to source my people non sensitive areas.
Speaker 2: Right, not neutral parties on whatever you're talking about. So
Speaker 2: he asked Ballad about Sirianni when.
Speaker 1: He is there, Yes, I can ask him now about Sirianni.
Speaker 1: I felt comfortable asking Chris post success be into Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: but I called two people, two people that I went
Speaker 1: and looked up Sirianni's resume where he'd been. Two people
Speaker 1: both said the same thing. I don't know if he's ready.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's great on his side of
Speaker 1: the ball yet. And there's a distinction here. You can
Speaker 1: bang on Jim Harbaugh, but he gets the offense right
Speaker 1: everywhere fast you can. You can bang on Nick Saban.
Speaker 1: He didn't win big at Michigan State or LSU year four.
Speaker 1: He was losing games. The defense gets better immediately wherever
Speaker 1: Nick Saban was, including the Miami Dolphins Lincoln Riley offense
Speaker 1: brilliant the minute he arrives Nick Siriani. That article at
Speaker 1: ESPN said people didn't respect his ex's and no offense.
Speaker 1: I know, and so that that literally was exactly what
Speaker 1: I heard from my sources, which was he's not good
Speaker 1: enough on his side of the ball. He's not viewed
Speaker 1: as an expert. Like like, I'll give you another one,
Speaker 1: Matt Eberflus. You can say what you want. That was
Speaker 1: the best defense in the league the last seven weeks
Speaker 1: of the year, and they didn't have the best person out.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, so you can say what you want,
Speaker 1: like Steve Spurrier may not have been the best this this, this.
Speaker 1: His offenses were good at Duke, they were great at Florida,
Speaker 1: Like he knew offense. So the difference with the Jalen
Speaker 1: Hurts thing is is, yes, he did transfer, and there
Speaker 1: may be some of that, but there's a competent coach
Speaker 1: in Pete Carroll and one in Nick Sirianni. I mean
Speaker 1: that opening press conference was a glimpse into he was
Speaker 1: over his skis when he got that.
Speaker 2: Job, So listen. And I also think you can't have
Speaker 2: your coach be a shit talker unless you're a team
Speaker 2: of shit talkers. If you're sorry, my dog's running around.
Speaker 2: But it's fine if you're a if everyone on your
Speaker 2: team is, you know, taunting and whatever, and that's the
Speaker 2: motif you want to have. Especially if your coach is
Speaker 2: maybe a former player, then maybe you can get away
Speaker 2: with it. But what you can't have is a totally
Speaker 2: buttoned up team led by a quarterback who is like
Speaker 2: the best press conference in the league, and then a
Speaker 2: coach he's screaming at fans and taunting. You can't have that.
Speaker 2: That part I totally agree with. My concern is on
Speaker 2: the flip side, which is, man, we've seen Jalen Hurts
Speaker 2: play big time football for seven years. There's only been
Speaker 2: one he looked like an NFL franchise quarterback? Is it?
Speaker 2: Never in college, at no point with Philly except for
Speaker 2: the Super Bowl year and he was brilliant that year,
Speaker 2: and he was amazing in the Super Bowl. I just
Speaker 2: don't know. I think that what happened to Peterson and
Speaker 2: Wins absolutely could happen to Sirianni and Hurts, which is
Speaker 2: that they're both gone within three years of the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2: I think that's on the board.
Speaker 1: No, I think it is. And what also concerned you,
Speaker 1: you know, it used to be this rule, don't draft
Speaker 1: the Jeff Tedford quarterback in the NFL because all of
Speaker 1: his college quarterbacks look amazing, right, yes, right, and then
Speaker 1: and so the Alabama. So the other thing with her
Speaker 1: is Shane Steiken. So the pre Stichen calling the play
Speaker 1: is not good. Post Stikeen leaves the building, not good.
Speaker 2: You know, got Gardner Minshew to the damn playoffs last year.
Speaker 1: No, I mean that's why when the Raiders go and
Speaker 1: get Gardner Minshew. I said this here day on the air,
Speaker 1: You're not getting the Indianapolis Gardner Minshew. That's not what
Speaker 1: you're getting. And by the way, Shane Stikeen, the best
Speaker 1: Justin Herbert ever was was the first year where Shane Stikeen.
Speaker 2: Oh I didn't even remember that he was there. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean that is that only sounded rookie records.
Speaker 1: Anthony Richardson, is he good?
Speaker 2: He's got Shane Stikeen, He'll be good. I mean that's why, man,
Speaker 2: I think the Colts could be Listen, Anthony Richardson has
Speaker 2: barely played more pro football than Jayden Daniels. You know
Speaker 2: what I mean. I mean it's like sixty snaps. I
Speaker 2: understand that, but man, what I saw was impressive, and
Speaker 2: coming out of Florida, I thought the book on him
Speaker 2: from the people that watched more Florida than me, was
Speaker 2: all right, amazing physical gifts. But you know, two years
Speaker 2: away from being an NFL ready quarterback. Then I saw
Speaker 2: him playing, I'm like, seemed pretty fucking ready to me, Like,
Speaker 2: I got hurt a lot, but I mean, it didn't
Speaker 2: seem like the game was too fast for him, any
Speaker 2: of it. Now, maybe he's the fact that he suffered
Speaker 2: two significant injuries in four games makes you think, maybe
Speaker 2: you know, that's gonna be a problem. I don't know.
Speaker 2: But Indies, that whole division, to me is interesting because
Speaker 2: you have Jacksonville, which I you know, I can't quit
Speaker 2: my guy Trevor. I still believe in him. The Texans, who,
Speaker 2: you know, some people are gonna, you know, that will
Speaker 2: be the trendy team. They're like, this is the team
Speaker 2: that will beat the Chiefs this year, that people like,
Speaker 2: and then no one's gonna be on Indie or Tennessee.
Speaker 2: Now I don't like the direction of the Titans. I
Speaker 2: don't trust Levis, but the Titans. You know who thinks
Speaker 2: the Titans are competing the Titans who are spending money
Speaker 2: and doing things like a team that can win. And
Speaker 2: then there's the Colts just sitting there like, hey, guys,
Speaker 2: we were a completion away from being in the playoffs
Speaker 2: last year. They were playing in Week eighteen on Sunday
Speaker 2: Night Football for the playoffs. And if Richardson's good man,
Speaker 2: they could be a dangerous team.
Speaker 1: So I had an I had a couple of Olympic
Speaker 1: team rants today and I said one of the things
Speaker 1: I said with KD, I said, actually being the all
Speaker 1: time leading scorer cements his legacy. So KD is salt
Speaker 1: to a chef. He makes everything better, eggs carmel. It
Speaker 1: doesn't matter you put him on any team. He got
Speaker 1: to the finals with Westbrook. Lebron couldn't decode Westbrook right.
Speaker 1: He made the Warriors the best team arguably ever, even
Speaker 1: in Brooklyn. He was outstanding the fact that his teammate
Speaker 1: wouldn't get the vaccine. There's only so much you can do.
Speaker 1: So and then you put him on this team. And
Speaker 1: I said, if you look at even great players, you
Speaker 1: put Tatum around great players. He kind of shrinks. Steph
Speaker 1: has to adjust embiid clogs it. Lebron takes a leadership role,
Speaker 1: but won't score as much. KD works everywhere. Now, as
Speaker 1: long as you don't ask him to lead, don't ask
Speaker 1: him to do that, just ask him to fit. He
Speaker 1: is the salt to the chef. Oh, we've got it.
Speaker 1: Everything will taste great tonight. So that is that's go ahead.
Speaker 2: Finished. Sorry.
Speaker 1: So, so it's perfect that he on a collection of
Speaker 1: the world's best players that thirty years from now in
Speaker 1: a bar, you'll be like, who's the leading scorer?
Speaker 2: Jordan?
Speaker 1: No, well was Curry not even close? Lebron No not close? Okay,
Speaker 1: what time out? Let me let me think was it.
Speaker 1: Let's go back to the Olympics, was it Bill Bradley
Speaker 1: will no, no, no, it's Kevin Durant. And you'll be like,
Speaker 1: the fuck. Yeah, it is, like because when you ask
Speaker 1: players Mark Fuse, a buddy of mine, he coaches the
Speaker 1: Olympics assistant years ago. I said, I just asked him, like, like,
Speaker 1: tell me one thing that's just crazy about coaching the Olympics,
Speaker 1: and he just went, Kevin Durant, Man.
Speaker 2: That's all he said. Right, So the so the he
Speaker 2: is probably if you take the this is something Brew
Speaker 2: hasn't said, this exact thing but he's basically said a
Speaker 2: different version of it. I think he's right. Take the
Speaker 2: twenty greatest players ever. Okay, he's somewhere on them, close
Speaker 2: to twenty, but on there, yeah, there is not a
Speaker 2: single one of them that you can simply drop on
Speaker 2: every great team in NBA history and it definitely works
Speaker 2: other than Durant, Like I totally, it does not matter
Speaker 2: the era, the rules, the what what redundancy, they already
Speaker 2: have anything. Drop him on any great team and it works,
Speaker 2: no great And so that is and your point is,
Speaker 2: I think if if Kevin heard this, he would say,
Speaker 2: that's what I've been saying, which is I don't want
Speaker 2: to be the leader. When I'm asked about leadership, I'm like,
Speaker 2: that's the coach's job. You know what I want to
Speaker 2: do is play basketball. And you know what everyone seems
Speaker 2: to say, I'm awesome at playing basketball, and you guys
Speaker 2: tar me, I think, again, this is what I think
Speaker 2: Kevin would say with I'm a bad leader, but luckily
Speaker 2: my job is basketball player, not leader, So fuck off. Like,
Speaker 2: I think that's what he's say And it's like, it's
Speaker 2: not a terrible argument, except for the fact that it
Speaker 2: seems like the other guys in that room of greatness
Speaker 2: are kind of able to multitask it or have somebody
Speaker 2: alongside him who's also great who can do it for him.
Speaker 2: And so it is. It is such a unique thing
Speaker 2: because I do think I do think Durant is. I
Speaker 2: told you this on the podcast before, but I'll say
Speaker 2: it again. I had somebody who is super close with
Speaker 2: one of the greatest players ever and it's not Durant.
Speaker 2: Say if you if we were to line the twenty
Speaker 2: greatest players up and they're all at their peak on
Speaker 2: a blacktop and ask someone who didn't know about resumes
Speaker 2: or anything whatever, who they wanted who they think the
Speaker 2: best guy is, and you described it, It's like, Okay,
Speaker 2: the points at Michael Jordan and it's like, all right,
Speaker 2: tell me about that guy. It's like, well, he's average size,
Speaker 2: amazing athlete, good not great shooter, crazy, crazy competitor. They'd
Speaker 2: be like, okay, next point it. Shit. I mean, the
Speaker 2: most dominant physical force is you know, gonna come and
Speaker 2: go with effort, is gonna be a liability at the
Speaker 2: free throw line, but is gonna give you a guaranteed
Speaker 2: thirty Okay, Nora. They point at Lebron all right, not
Speaker 2: the best shooter in the room, not the best dribbler,
Speaker 2: probably the best passer, and is probably the best athlete. Okay,
Speaker 2: what about that guy, oh Durant, Well, he's the second
Speaker 2: tallest person here. He's also the second best shooter. He's
Speaker 2: also the fourth best dribbler. He also can pass, he
Speaker 2: can defend. And they'd be like, well, I'm fucking taking him.
Speaker 2: They're like, wait, he's the second tallest and the second
Speaker 2: best shooter. They're like, oh, yeah, he can do that.
Speaker 2: Is he durable? Well he's gonna play twenty years, Like,
Speaker 2: uh can't? Is he a terrible defind or no, he can.
Speaker 2: He can you know, credibly guard a bunch of response.
Speaker 2: But despite that, he's probably kind of underachieved. And I like, so,
Speaker 2: I like all of those things are true. And it's
Speaker 2: because of that leadership component that he has been honest about, like,
Speaker 2: I don't think that's my job, so I'm not going
Speaker 2: to do it. And I think it's fascinating because when
Speaker 2: he looks his best around the best, and then other guys,
Speaker 2: when they're around the best, you're like, oh, you're a
Speaker 2: grade lower, like Tatum. Tatum's around the best, and it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: you're just a grade lower. Duran's around the best, and
Speaker 2: you're like, are you the best player alive? Like it's
Speaker 2: such a fascinating thing. Yeah. No.
Speaker 1: And I think somebody said this once that the greatest
Speaker 1: athletes you wouldn't really want them to be your boss
Speaker 1: because they have such bad personal tendencies. They're very selfish,
Speaker 1: they're relentless, they're harsh. I mean, Jordan could be just
Speaker 1: not just not a giver, a taker. Same with the
Speaker 1: Lake Kobe Bryant. But Kevin Durant actually would be a
Speaker 1: fun hang like he would be you could do eighty
Speaker 1: two games and it'd be like he'd get a drink
Speaker 1: with you, you know there, you would just he would
Speaker 1: make you laugh when you were having a bad day.
Speaker 1: He'd put his arm around you and goes, okay, bro,
Speaker 1: let's just go ahead.
Speaker 2: I totally agree with this, I and I it's one
Speaker 2: of the and I've tried kind of I don't want
Speaker 2: to say behind the scenes, but I know some people
Speaker 2: that are tight with Kevin, and listen, at one point,
Speaker 2: I you know, I know, I know definitively that Kevin,
Speaker 2: you know, thought I was one of the people's kind
Speaker 2: of a problem with the media, and that's like, that's
Speaker 2: just right, that's fine. But I have tried to kind
Speaker 2: of threw back channels like political stuff, like try to
Speaker 2: set up a situation where he and I could sit
Speaker 2: and talk basketball or sit and talk because over the
Speaker 2: last four years, I have grown to have such affection,
Speaker 2: if you will, for kind of just how comfortable he
Speaker 2: is in his own skin, like the he's gone a
Speaker 2: long way from the burners and all that stuff. It's like, nah,
Speaker 2: if I think you're full of shit on the internet,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell you, Like I thought it was hilarious that,
Speaker 2: like a couple of days into the Olympics, on an
Speaker 2: off day, he was arguing with strangers on the internet
Speaker 2: on Twitter. It's like, dude, you're you got half a
Speaker 2: billion dollars, you're single, you're wildly famous in the Olympic
Speaker 2: village in Paris, and you're like, I got to get
Speaker 2: these tweets off, man, I don't care. I'm gonna sit
Speaker 2: here and argue with you guys about basketball. And I
Speaker 2: was like, I just I found it charming. And I
Speaker 2: also think he has such an immense respect for the
Speaker 2: game itself that I really like so I like Durant.
Speaker 2: I really like Durant, and I do I agree with
Speaker 2: you like he would. I do think he'd be a
Speaker 2: great guy to be uh, you know, to be on
Speaker 2: a team with. And I do think he'd be of
Speaker 2: all the superstars, one of the best hangs. And that's
Speaker 2: also it's also probably helpful. He's one of the only
Speaker 2: superstars of that level that's still like a single guy,
Speaker 2: like hanging out with the fellas like Steph and Lebron.
Speaker 2: Everybody's married with kids. Durant's like, Nah, I'm gonna play
Speaker 2: video games, smoke a little weed and play basketball. Like
Speaker 2: I don't know about you guys. Smell of a life man.
Speaker 1: The volume. Thanks for listening to part one of the
Speaker 1: conversations with Nick. Don't forget the check back for part two.