Speaker 1: Welcome to this weegue uncut in the world of twenty
Speaker 1: four NBA news. Chris Haynes works te it's time this
Speaker 1: ligue uncut is underway. Then fire it should be a
Speaker 1: good one. Hello friends, thanks for joining us for a
Speaker 1: sure to be good one. A new episode of this
Speaker 1: League Uncut. Mark Stein and Chris Haynes back with you.
Speaker 1: Before we get into the newsy stuff, I need to
Speaker 1: hear your NCAA tournament regimen. Uh. My Cal State Fullerton
Speaker 1: Titans fell one game, Shy of the tournament made it
Speaker 1: last year, fell one game. Shy lost the Big West
Speaker 1: title game to Santa Barbara, which would have been our
Speaker 1: third trip in the last five Big West tournaments, which
Speaker 1: which we're not used to going that often. So even
Speaker 1: having gone twice in the last twice since twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: UH is huge for us. So, but my season ends
Speaker 1: when the Titan season ends. Are you watching the NCAA
Speaker 1: tournament closely or like? What is uh? How do you
Speaker 1: how do you approach March madness? No, to ask your question,
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not watching right now. When it gets
Speaker 1: to the sweet sixteen, That's when I'll start paying attention.
Speaker 1: But I don't you know, I don't have a routine
Speaker 1: of feeling out a bracket. I probably I've probably done
Speaker 1: that twice, and I that might be a stress. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about my whole life. Probably done it twice, feeling
Speaker 1: out a bracket. I'm not big into it until it
Speaker 1: gets to the final stages of the tournament. So um,
Speaker 1: I just never been you know, it takes for me,
Speaker 1: you know, just a fan of basketball. I've always been
Speaker 1: that way, even before covering the league. It takes for
Speaker 1: me to to know some household names. You know, there's, there's.
Speaker 1: The college is not like it was anymore. I think
Speaker 1: a household name now was just a you know, a
Speaker 1: top three pick potentially playing one year. And you you know,
Speaker 1: Zion Williamson. He was probably the last guy that I
Speaker 1: pretty much paid attention to because there was so much
Speaker 1: buzz of him in high school. But it's not like,
Speaker 1: you know, like it was back you know when I
Speaker 1: was in high school. You know, I graduated two thousand,
Speaker 1: so you know, I grew up Grant Hill. You know,
Speaker 1: that's early junior high for me, Grant Hill. But you know,
Speaker 1: these guys that you got to see for two, three,
Speaker 1: four years and they built, they built a resume and
Speaker 1: built the following, and it's just it just has hasn't
Speaker 1: been like that for a while, and I don't think
Speaker 1: it ever get back to that point. Not to say
Speaker 1: that that's bad, but just for me, I just haven't
Speaker 1: followed college closely since the landscape kind of changed. You know,
Speaker 1: I wasn't planning to go further in this direction, but
Speaker 1: as usual, your answer kind of steers me somewhere that
Speaker 1: I didn't think we would end up, but now that
Speaker 1: I think about it, Like I wear my fandom on
Speaker 1: my sleeve so much, cal State, Fullerton, Manchester City, the
Speaker 1: Buffalo Sabers, Tennis, Like I'm I mean, you you know
Speaker 1: pretty well like all the things that I'm a fan of,
Speaker 1: But I just like I don't know any of your
Speaker 1: fan Like are you a Fresno State fan because you
Speaker 1: grew up there? Or like, I don't really know, I've
Speaker 1: never seen you in fan mode now that I think
Speaker 1: about it, Oh fam oh, I'm not. Look, I don't
Speaker 1: have a When I was growing up, I like the
Speaker 1: forty nine ers from Fresno, California. If anybody doesn't know
Speaker 1: by now, but I grew up watching the forty nine Ers.
Speaker 1: Jerry Rice was my favorite player. Then at certain point
Speaker 1: Terrell Owens became my favorite player. And I followed Terrell
Speaker 1: Owens when he went to the Niners, then went to
Speaker 1: the Eagles, then went to the Cowboys, and then unfortunately
Speaker 1: when he went to the Bengals, and so I've never
Speaker 1: been at then my NBA team. Look, I was a
Speaker 1: big Jordan fan. I wasn't a big Jordan fan. I
Speaker 1: can't say I was a big Chicago Bulls fan, but
Speaker 1: a big Jordan fan. But Stein that window when he
Speaker 1: retired for the first time and went on his high
Speaker 1: as to play baseball again. Being from Fresno, we didn't
Speaker 1: get Laker games on TV. We got Warriors games. And
Speaker 1: that was the time when Latrelle Spreewell emerged with the
Speaker 1: Warriors and started balling out. And I remember I became
Speaker 1: a Spreewell fan because he had the ball head looked
Speaker 1: similar to Jordan. He and we got all their games.
Speaker 1: We got all the Warriors games, and this one the
Speaker 1: Warriors that were bad. We got all the Warriors games
Speaker 1: and I fell in love the trust free Well, so
Speaker 1: similar to La trust Spruo when he got into his
Speaker 1: trouble at Golden State, I followed him to New York,
Speaker 1: then I followed him to Minnesota. And so I've never
Speaker 1: been a real fan of a team per se. And
Speaker 1: just like with college, like I graduated from Fredlin State,
Speaker 1: you know I'll root for them, but you know, I
Speaker 1: can't say my college fandom to my alma materate is
Speaker 1: anywhere on par to how you feel about your cow
Speaker 1: State Fullest. Now I'm glad. Actually I didn't know that
Speaker 1: spree well stuff, And now I'm glad I resisted tweeting
Speaker 1: over the weekend when because we had Fulirton had a
Speaker 1: tough road in the Big West Tournament. We had to
Speaker 1: beat Hawaii for the third time this season. It's never
Speaker 1: easy to beat a team three times in a row.
Speaker 1: Then we beat top seeded UC Irvine, our hated rivals,
Speaker 1: and after that game, I was gonna tweet Fullerton star
Speaker 1: player is Latrelle right Cell. I was gonna do Latrelle
Speaker 1: right Cell greater than Trell Sprewell. I was going to
Speaker 1: treat that tweet. I was going to tweet that. But
Speaker 1: now I'm glad I didn't because you would have been
Speaker 1: mad at me. If I good calls, good call, then
Speaker 1: I showed a little bit of restraint. All right, let's
Speaker 1: get to the real deal. Let's get to the serious stuff.
Speaker 1: The NBA announces this week that John Morant eight games
Speaker 1: suspension for the incident at the nightclub in Colorado. He's
Speaker 1: already missed six games. The NBA decides that those six
Speaker 1: games factor in, so he's eligible to return Monday. The league.
Speaker 1: I'll readdirect from the league statement here. The league office
Speaker 1: conducted an investigation of the March fourth incident. Based on
Speaker 1: the information obtained during the investigation, the league did not
Speaker 1: conclude that the gun at issue belonged to Morant, was
Speaker 1: brought by him into the nightclub or was displayed by
Speaker 1: him beyond a brief period. The investigation also did not
Speaker 1: find that Morant possessed the gun while traveling with the
Speaker 1: team or in any NBA facility, and the Colorado authorities
Speaker 1: did not find sufficient cause to charge Morant with the crime.
Speaker 1: All of that is in the NBA's release for pretty
Speaker 1: obvious reasons. They you know, had any of that happened,
Speaker 1: what the league laid out there, had this been considered
Speaker 1: a gun that job possessed or that he brought while
Speaker 1: traveling with the team, or brought in the facility. The implication,
Speaker 1: of course, is that the penalty would have been much
Speaker 1: more severe at eight game penalty, kind of in line
Speaker 1: with other situations in the past where those violations were
Speaker 1: not committed. Again, if the gun goes into an NBA facility,
Speaker 1: you know, I was incorrect when I recently stated there
Speaker 1: is a hard and fast rule in the league rules.
Speaker 1: There is no hard and fast rule. But you know, obviously,
Speaker 1: I think everyone remembers what happened in the Gilbert Arena
Speaker 1: situation when guns were in the Wizard's facility. So eight
Speaker 1: game suspension in the end, I don't think we'll see
Speaker 1: job Bunday against Dallas. Taylor Jenkins, the Grizzlies coach, has
Speaker 1: basically said that. So we will see John Morant back
Speaker 1: at some point, probably next week. The Grizzlies are going
Speaker 1: to get him back for the stretch run and really
Speaker 1: then all eyes are going to be on John Morant
Speaker 1: and like what he does from here. But you know,
Speaker 1: I think given the gravity of this situation, you know,
Speaker 1: for the Grizzlies, this probably ended up. You know, I
Speaker 1: don't think best case scenario is the right verbiage here,
Speaker 1: but for this to only be eight games, and to
Speaker 1: get him back before the regular season, and to get
Speaker 1: a chance to try to bring him back into their team.
Speaker 1: I'm sure the Grizzlies are relieved on a lot of levels.
Speaker 1: I well, I guess I would take it a step
Speaker 1: further style. I do believe this is the basic best
Speaker 1: case scenario. I do. I understand that they've been struggling
Speaker 1: without them, which that was expected, and you don't want
Speaker 1: to miss any time down the stretch with your best
Speaker 1: player being out. But considering the alternative, what could have
Speaker 1: happened if the NBA or law enforcement were to find
Speaker 1: that he did bring that gun into the club, or
Speaker 1: that gun was well brought on to NBA premises, such
Speaker 1: as a chartered flight. You know that we don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know if we would see John Morant again
Speaker 1: this season. So, with all that being said, was I surprised?
Speaker 1: I wasn't surprised by I wasn't surprised by the last
Speaker 1: I thought it would be a little large. I thought
Speaker 1: it would be at least in even ten games. What
Speaker 1: I was surprised is that they counted the games already.
Speaker 1: I was surprised by that because they never nobody's ever
Speaker 1: came out Grizzlies or the league and said that those
Speaker 1: games were considered a suspension. It was a you know,
Speaker 1: he had to get away and handle some business. So
Speaker 1: I was surprised with that. But with all that being said,
Speaker 1: Jazz as a right now he's in the clear. There's
Speaker 1: been a lot going. You know, there's been two players
Speaker 1: that we've talked about this season when when we're talking
Speaker 1: about off the court matters, it's been Kyrie Irving and
Speaker 1: has been John Morant. And so now, JA, are you
Speaker 1: gonna be able to stop that? You know, these things
Speaker 1: have kept incidents a large incidents have been problematic, and
Speaker 1: they've been serious. They've been really serious. And so I'm
Speaker 1: hoping that he really took the time to just focus
Speaker 1: on himself and look inside himself and try to get
Speaker 1: a gist of what's going on, what's happening, Why is
Speaker 1: he acting out this way? Why why are you conducting
Speaker 1: yourself in this manner? And because I want to see
Speaker 1: him thrive, you know, as brother, I want to see
Speaker 1: him thrive on the court. I want to see him
Speaker 1: thrive off the court again, man, I got nothing but
Speaker 1: love for his pop tea, uncle Phil over There many
Speaker 1: they're they're really good people, really good people, and so
Speaker 1: they gotta they gotta conduct themselves in a better fashion
Speaker 1: moving forward. So again I've seen some people say, well,
Speaker 1: it wasn't long enough. You know. Now jis saying he's
Speaker 1: he's all right now and he's seemed the light. I
Speaker 1: hope so. I don't know, I hope so, But only time,
Speaker 1: only his actions can prove it. I think he knows that,
Speaker 1: you know, he gave the interview with Jalen Rose. But
Speaker 1: I you know, I think it's fair to say people
Speaker 1: are not gonna spend too much time dwelling on what
Speaker 1: he says and really what he does from here. I mean,
Speaker 1: and look, you know, I don't want to be ultra
Speaker 1: ultra cynical about this, but you know, coming back before
Speaker 1: the end of the season is a huge thing for
Speaker 1: Job personally, because the reality is there's money on the line.
Speaker 1: I mean, he if he's not an All NBA player
Speaker 1: this season, it's it's approaches forty million dollars, the difference
Speaker 1: between the max cott, the value of his max contract
Speaker 1: that will start next season, whether he's selected All NBA
Speaker 1: this season or not. And there is already there is
Speaker 1: so much competition at guard I had, I had a
Speaker 1: lot of names scribbled. I know I'm missing some now
Speaker 1: because of course I can't find that page where I
Speaker 1: scribbled it. But Luca Fox, Sga Donovan, Mitchell, Steph Um,
Speaker 1: you know, Devin Booker with games missed, probably not going
Speaker 1: to be contending for a guard spot in terms of
Speaker 1: All NBA. But like I said, I know I'm missing
Speaker 1: some names. I mean, there definitely definitely missing one name.
Speaker 1: Fix it for me because I'm I'm old and dumb. Yeah, dame.
Speaker 1: So I mean, there's a it is very crowded in
Speaker 1: the backcourt and very conceivable that even if John Morant
Speaker 1: comes back now and plays really well, that he won't
Speaker 1: get one of those six guard slots on the All
Speaker 1: NBA team, And it will be hugely, hugely costly for
Speaker 1: him if that doesn't happen. So you know, he now
Speaker 1: at least gets that opportunity. I don't know if there's
Speaker 1: enough time because again, you know, all those names. The
Speaker 1: guard competition, it's a complicated calculation in the West because
Speaker 1: it's not just your stats and the talent, but a
Speaker 1: lot of guys miss games. You know, Steph's missed a
Speaker 1: lot of games as well. But you know, Steph is
Speaker 1: playing ridiculous basketball this season, so should he be an
Speaker 1: All NBA guy? You know, the Boston between Tatum and Brown,
Speaker 1: I think Tatum will end up a front court player,
Speaker 1: but Brown could be considered a backcourt player. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: positions are a little bit more flexible in the All
Speaker 1: NBA talk. So I mean that, you know, we can
Speaker 1: go on and on and on listing names. I just
Speaker 1: don't know if he's going to get there. And you know,
Speaker 1: beyond beyond just the mere finances of it. You know,
Speaker 1: Memphis is trying to lock up a number two seed
Speaker 1: and so we'll see if his return now is there
Speaker 1: are enough time to do that? And you know, will
Speaker 1: the Grizzlies start playing well? The Grizzlies look more like
Speaker 1: they did in the first half of the season. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to see how many your games Grizzlies have left.
Speaker 1: They have. Let me see, they got twelve games left
Speaker 1: in the season. John Morant has played in fifty three.
Speaker 1: He's going to miss let me see the next three
Speaker 1: for sure. Yeah, because basically Taylor Jenkins has said that
Speaker 1: he will not be playing Monday against Dallas. He'll barely
Speaker 1: approach sixty games. But look, so many guys are in
Speaker 1: that position. I mean Lucas now missing a lot of games.
Speaker 1: S GA steph uh, you know where? What do we
Speaker 1: do with deer and fix Deer? And Fox has to
Speaker 1: be an all NBA player with the way Sacramento is
Speaker 1: the season they've had in the clutch play, he's delivered.
Speaker 1: So I mean it all right, hold on, hold on,
Speaker 1: let's let's let's not let's not run from it. Then
Speaker 1: let's go take your head on. You said he has
Speaker 1: to be this, this, this is a tough let's go.
Speaker 1: Let's go. Let's do it. Let's do it right now.
Speaker 1: Hold on, you want to start, want to you want
Speaker 1: to nail down six guards on March sixteenth, I'm gonna.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna. I can. I think I can nail down
Speaker 1: some guys that are gonna be in it for sure.
Speaker 1: We don't forget anybody. Hold on, hold on, let me
Speaker 1: let me go, let me go. Hold on, We're gonna
Speaker 1: do this. Let's not run from it. Let's go. Hold
Speaker 1: over here. So I think I think Luca is a
Speaker 1: lock for first team. I think Dame is a lock
Speaker 1: for first team. Man, I can't even use the word locks.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm willing to say they're among the six. But okay,
Speaker 1: all right, let's stop this, let's stop. Let let me,
Speaker 1: let me, let me stop that. There. They're among the
Speaker 1: They're guaranteed among the six. Luca and Dame. Can we
Speaker 1: agree on that, Mitchell? Okay, I think Donovan Mitchell, Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: I put him in that boat. That's three. I think
Speaker 1: Sga gets gets in there as well. So so so
Speaker 1: far me and you are on agreement that these four
Speaker 1: are locks to get in the top six. All right.
Speaker 1: From there, you got John Morant dearon Fox. You may
Speaker 1: you may be right right, I mean, Jay the Brown
Speaker 1: is right now to be in the conversation. I think
Speaker 1: Book has probably missed too many games. But I mean
Speaker 1: when he plays, he's yeah, he's an All NBA player,
Speaker 1: But I mean, I mean Books missed how many games?
Speaker 1: Is he? I mean he's missed half the season. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think for those final two guard spots, you've got
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown deeron Fox and John Moran Anthony Anthony Edwards.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying, Like, when you don't have the
Speaker 1: listener in front of you, it is easy to miss.
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards. I mean, he's been Minnesota's best player. Like
Speaker 1: that's the thing that it is super crowded. So that's
Speaker 1: why when you're sitting there going, let's lock this in,
Speaker 1: let's do it right now. Okay, hold on, hold on,
Speaker 1: hold on, and then then one more name we gotta mention.
Speaker 1: So we mentioned four right there for those two spots.
Speaker 1: Um Jaylen Brown, Deeron Fox, John Moran, Anthony Edwards. Don't
Speaker 1: forget Stephen Curry. I mean Steph has you know, Steph
Speaker 1: smissed twenty six games, but when he's been on the floor,
Speaker 1: he's been ridiculous. Then there's guys like you know, Haliburton
Speaker 1: and Brunson. You know, Brunson didn't get an All Star spot,
Speaker 1: but I think they at least have to be in
Speaker 1: the discussion. So like James Harden, James Harden who snubbed
Speaker 1: from the All Star Game, and you know, he's had
Speaker 1: a tremendous year, and Philly just keeps winning and winning.
Speaker 1: And when it's that's that's what I'm saying. It's like,
Speaker 1: if we really slow down, we can come up with
Speaker 1: twelve names for six spots. The only reason I want
Speaker 1: to go down that list is because you say you
Speaker 1: think Darren Fox has to get one of those six,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, it's tough. I'm not saying he doesn't
Speaker 1: deserve it, but that's where that's where, like you know
Speaker 1: again and and it just everyone does it different. But
Speaker 1: to me, Fox, you know, because they're winning so many
Speaker 1: they're winning so much more than expected. I mean, we're
Speaker 1: taping this on Thursday night. Entering Thursday Nights play Sacramento
Speaker 1: Kings tied for the number two seed in the West,
Speaker 1: but nobody expected. And yes, injuries throughout the West have
Speaker 1: certainly factored in, but like his great play has has
Speaker 1: has directly led to winning. So you know that is
Speaker 1: that is a factor to me, And that's why I
Speaker 1: think like it would be you know, it will be
Speaker 1: disappointing if if Fox isn't on there you know it
Speaker 1: is there room for Fox and Sabonis. Do the Kings
Speaker 1: deserve two? All NBA guys, if they finished second in
Speaker 1: the West, I would say yes. If they finished second
Speaker 1: in the West, you will say yes. So all NBA
Speaker 1: give me I keep forgetting the criteria. Do they require
Speaker 1: that you have a center or is just three front cors?
Speaker 1: They do require that you have a center, but they're
Speaker 1: very very lenient on how you do the positions. So like, yeah,
Speaker 1: la if I remember right, you know, basically, you can
Speaker 1: put Yo Kitchen and Bead, or you could put Yo
Speaker 1: Kichen and Bead on the first team together when they're
Speaker 1: both you know, when they're really both centers, you can
Speaker 1: put one in forward. Yeah, and I'm I know a
Speaker 1: lot of people wouldn't like that, but I'm for that
Speaker 1: because in the case of Joel and Bad, didn't he
Speaker 1: experience that last year where Joker got right? And that's
Speaker 1: where so team look at the top of the MVP
Speaker 1: race and Embid it appears that embiid is inching past
Speaker 1: Yokich after Yokich was in the lead for quite a
Speaker 1: quite a while. My kind of MVP discussion has really
Speaker 1: been let's just make sure we note that this is
Speaker 1: a three man race, Yokich and Bead, Yannis, the three
Speaker 1: of them have separated themselves in the field. So let's
Speaker 1: like to have a word. Would you say if you
Speaker 1: put you could put Yannis, Yoki and b on the
Speaker 1: first team all NBA, and that probably knocks Tay him
Speaker 1: off the first team. So yeah, I mean, he could
Speaker 1: get bumped out of two different conversations, which you know
Speaker 1: will enrage people in Boston and Bill Simmons. So it's
Speaker 1: not it's not a it's not a perfect system. But
Speaker 1: I don't have a problem with being able to j A.
Speaker 1: If you're All NBA team is all centers and those
Speaker 1: are the top those centers are the top five in
Speaker 1: the in the MVP race, go ahead, go ahead. I
Speaker 1: don't have a problem with it because I think him,
Speaker 1: I think he looks dumb personally to have a second
Speaker 1: person that finished the second MVP ends up on second
Speaker 1: or third All NBA and then Mike Mike counter to
Speaker 1: that has been this has been happening since the days
Speaker 1: of Wilt and Russell. That one of Bill Russell won
Speaker 1: all the rings. But you should go back and see
Speaker 1: how many times he was bumped a second team because
Speaker 1: Wilt would get first team All NBA. So like All
Speaker 1: NBA to me has you know, as long as you're
Speaker 1: on the fifteen, I mean, to me, that's generally, you know,
Speaker 1: that's the that's the important thing to you know. From
Speaker 1: my vantage point, of course, I'm not one of those
Speaker 1: players who would affect. But all NBA discussion has just
Speaker 1: gotten so crazy because contract bonuses are tied to it.
Speaker 1: Like we said, you know, whether John Morant is one
Speaker 1: of the fifteen guys on the All NBA team at
Speaker 1: season's end, it's going to impact him in a massive,
Speaker 1: massive way financially to the tune of nearly forty million dollars.
Speaker 1: So All NBA has just the discussion has gotten so
Speaker 1: much more heated because of what's on the line financially.
Speaker 1: Stut I would like to jump in right here, and
Speaker 1: we've we've received a few complaints Stin. I think it's
Speaker 1: time for me to say this and address it. We've
Speaker 1: received a few complaints since we launched our podcasts, and
Speaker 1: these complaints are valid. They are very valid, and the
Speaker 1: blame is with me. I've been the problem. I've been
Speaker 1: the problem all season long. So I will say this
Speaker 1: for the people who have been complaining about this issue.
Speaker 1: I hope you are enjoying this podcast because you have
Speaker 1: not experienced that issue in this episode, and I hope
Speaker 1: to continue this throughout the rest of this regular season.
Speaker 1: What they what people for Stime to tell people what
Speaker 1: they've been complaining about. Stime, We've been get complaints about
Speaker 1: my fire alarm buzzer going off. What is it? It's
Speaker 1: the fire what is it called the fire alarm? Fire alarm? Yeah,
Speaker 1: the fire alarm. But you know what's crez? The war
Speaker 1: is crazy? Yeah, to change your battery. But here's what's great.
Speaker 1: I didn't hear. I didn't hear it at all. It
Speaker 1: was the last episode that people said, Hey guys, great pod,
Speaker 1: but be sure to change your fire alarm battery. I
Speaker 1: didn't know what the I didn't know what they're talking about. Listen,
Speaker 1: change it out, you know, you know, you know, I
Speaker 1: can't think of any other example. But I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: you can relate, and everybody else listening can relate. You know,
Speaker 1: you never know there's a problem until somebody points it
Speaker 1: out to you. And then when they pointed out, then
Speaker 1: it's really a problem, like because now you notice it.
Speaker 1: Like so this fire alarm that I've been getting this
Speaker 1: beat for months months, I've lived with it. I've never
Speaker 1: it's never been a problem, like I don't even think
Speaker 1: I really noticed it. And so then when you sent
Speaker 1: me that tweet about somebody a couple of people could
Speaker 1: play it about it, Then all of a sudden, I
Speaker 1: couldn't sleep, star I couldn't sleep. The buzzer, who's like
Speaker 1: hit my ear? I couldn't sleep, But for the all
Speaker 1: the other months, I was sleeping peacefully, no problem at all.
Speaker 1: Didn't even recognize it. So you know what, I said,
Speaker 1: We're gonna be a podcast show that listens to its fans.
Speaker 1: We're gonna listen to it. So I got up there,
Speaker 1: got the ladder, changed the battery, and you're not hearing anything.
Speaker 1: You're not hearing anything. So I hope the fans appreciate
Speaker 1: where we're going with this and appreciate the effort we
Speaker 1: put into minimizing and limited and limiting noise. We should
Speaker 1: have got some video of you on that ladder. Like
Speaker 1: I said, I'm more worried that I never heard an ounce.
Speaker 1: I never heard a peep. And then the next morning
Speaker 1: there's all these tweets. Take guys, somebody changed the battery
Speaker 1: on your fire. I'm like talking about that. If we're
Speaker 1: being totally honest, I've eliminated the noise, but I haven't
Speaker 1: completely solved the problem. I just took it apart right now.
Speaker 1: I couldn't. I couldn't figure out how to change a battery.
Speaker 1: So I said, listen, let me just take it apart
Speaker 1: so my listeners can hear hear, well, I just hope
Speaker 1: I don't have a real fire emergency right now where
Speaker 1: my alarms won't go off. Didn't get that, Ryan producer,
Speaker 1: Ryan smoke a law, it's a smoke alarm. Well, if
Speaker 1: we're being totally, totally, totally honest now in my house, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't even know how to fix the missus Missus
Speaker 1: Stein is the expert on fixing those, not me. So
Speaker 1: you know your role, you know your roles out She's
Speaker 1: the one who fixes it because I still haven't learned
Speaker 1: how to do it. So so there you go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's smoke alarm. Hold, I got another another complaint, stign
Speaker 1: You didn't see this one coming. Again. We're so that
Speaker 1: listens to listen to our fans. So this is a
Speaker 1: woman who I respect at my She's followed me since
Speaker 1: my days covering the Warriors. She listens to every podcast,
Speaker 1: every podcast. Uh, because every after every podcast she sends
Speaker 1: me a message, just you know, tell me what she
Speaker 1: thought about what I said. And so she did that
Speaker 1: when I had my own podcast. Now she continues to
Speaker 1: do this. Uh with this podcast. Steyne, she had a
Speaker 1: problem with you her name, and I hope I'm pronouncing
Speaker 1: her last name, but her first name is Jenny, and
Speaker 1: I hope I'm pronouncing her last name right, Maliki. But
Speaker 1: before I get into her complaints, Stein, she is an
Speaker 1: extraordinary baker. She baked. She's a professional baker in the
Speaker 1: San Francisco area. She sent me a couple of apple pies.
Speaker 1: Please go follow her on Instagram Buttercup Baking. Follow her
Speaker 1: on Instagram Buttercup Baking. All your baking kneeds. She does it,
Speaker 1: all cookies, pies, whatever. She's awesome. But anyway, Stein, after
Speaker 1: last episode, when we were talking about parody and you
Speaker 1: were putting down the Western Conference saying that this field
Speaker 1: is the players is lesser than what it used to be,
Speaker 1: and I said, I think it's parody. So here's Jenny
Speaker 1: with her response to me, excuse me when she hit
Speaker 1: me up. I have to listen to our pod Stein's
Speaker 1: ill conceived notion that parody in the Western Conference means
Speaker 1: all the top West teams are mediocre. Is he watching
Speaker 1: the games or watching tennis? You know how long I've
Speaker 1: been an NBA fan since nineteen seventy three, and I've
Speaker 1: been saying this has been the most entertaining season so far.
Speaker 1: Guys are playing hard, Records are being broken every week.
Speaker 1: Tells Stein he needs to invest in league past. I
Speaker 1: think it's on sale by now, so I told her
Speaker 1: I would relay the message. I don't think she knew
Speaker 1: I was gonna relay it during the pod, but I said,
Speaker 1: why not since we're given giving our listeners a platform. Stein,
Speaker 1: what do you say to that? Stein? Everybody is entitled
Speaker 1: to their view and opinion, and you know, if she's
Speaker 1: been watching the NBA sin seventy three, she's been watching
Speaker 1: four or five years longer than me. I would just say, though,
Speaker 1: like I said, this is not a knock. I look
Speaker 1: the talent in the web, especially after the trade deadline.
Speaker 1: You know, we saw Durant and Kyrie Irving get traded
Speaker 1: to the West. Individual player wise, the West is overflowing
Speaker 1: with talent. But again, every West team you can name,
Speaker 1: including now Denver, which their defense has gone south and
Speaker 1: they're in the midst of their longest losing streak of
Speaker 1: the season as we're recording this. I mean, the reality
Speaker 1: is the three title favorites in the NBA right now
Speaker 1: are all in the East, and we we are only
Speaker 1: on pace to see one or two fifty win teams
Speaker 1: in the West. And so I don't see how you
Speaker 1: can argue with the math. I mean, the we are
Speaker 1: just seeing. You know, since Michael Jordan's second retirement in Chicago,
Speaker 1: the West has been filled with great, great teams. So
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's not entertaining. I'm not saying it's
Speaker 1: not interesting, certainly every single night. And I mean I saw,
Speaker 1: I saw our old buddy John Hollander, you know, heat
Speaker 1: the same day that I came out and said this
Speaker 1: is the most mediocre West. And I came on here
Speaker 1: and said, am I too old to say mid This
Speaker 1: is the most Midwest I've ever seen? You know, John
Speaker 1: Road a piece that said it's the most it's the
Speaker 1: most intriguing and interesting West he's ever seen. But to me,
Speaker 1: the fact that all these teams are bunched at five hundred.
Speaker 1: You know, the Warriors can't win a road game. The
Speaker 1: MAVs haven't been able to get Luca and Kyrie on
Speaker 1: the court together. You know, Minnesota, we haven't seen Karl
Speaker 1: Anthony Towns since November and they continue to be a
Speaker 1: five hundred team. The Clippers very up and down just
Speaker 1: on and on and on that after you know, and
Speaker 1: again Denver has been sucked into it. So I guess
Speaker 1: that's my long winding way of saying, I'm not ready
Speaker 1: to agree with Jenny even though she's got me beat
Speaker 1: on a seniority in observance by five years. And I'm
Speaker 1: glad you you answered it like that, Stein, because she's
Speaker 1: been a professional baker in the San Francisco area to
Speaker 1: Bay area for thirty thirty years approaching thirty years. Her
Speaker 1: stuff is good. So even if you did disagree, Stein,
Speaker 1: you would not want to disagree that vehement lee publicly
Speaker 1: because you need to taste what she gots going on.
Speaker 1: You got you, you gotta taste these pies, these cookies. Stein,
Speaker 1: she knows what she knows what she's doing. Again, you
Speaker 1: got the hook, you got, you got your own personal
Speaker 1: baker hook up. Why am I not? Why am I
Speaker 1: not surprised? Star? Listen you you know the way to
Speaker 1: a man's heart. I don't know if it's that way
Speaker 1: is still true today because I think you know, I
Speaker 1: ain't gonna go there, but it's still that's still the
Speaker 1: way to my heart. Food. Food, That is definitely the
Speaker 1: way to my heart. Jenny, I appreciate you again. Follow
Speaker 1: her on IG Buttercup, Underscore Baking, Go go check her out.
Speaker 1: There is one more subject that I did want to
Speaker 1: hit with you before we go, because I was really
Speaker 1: interested by this. Because the truth is and again I
Speaker 1: do not want it. Damian Lillard, your guy had some
Speaker 1: really interesting comments on JJ reddicks podcast recently. But I
Speaker 1: do want to point out that he did kind of
Speaker 1: say something similar with us when he appeared during All
Speaker 1: Star weekend. So I just I, you know, look you are.
Speaker 1: You are the NBA's foremost damologists. So I wanted to
Speaker 1: kind of get your take on all this. So first
Speaker 1: I'm gonna read what he said on JJ's pod, and
Speaker 1: so let me let me read that first quote. The
Speaker 1: NBA I play in now is not the NBA that
Speaker 1: I came into. I feel like I play for the
Speaker 1: love of the game. I want the competition. I want
Speaker 1: to know what it feels like to win. I want
Speaker 1: to see my teammates do well. I want to see
Speaker 1: my teammates get paid. I enjoy the bonding part of it,
Speaker 1: but now it's like that don't count. Regular season, don't count.
Speaker 1: Get a ring. Now I want to rewind to this
Speaker 1: pod that we dropped right after the All Star Game
Speaker 1: game tape this with us the morning of the three
Speaker 1: Point Contest and went out and won the three point
Speaker 1: Contest hours after this discussion. Here's what he said along
Speaker 1: the same lines with us. The way the game has changed,
Speaker 1: I think it's become much more common, like, oh, you
Speaker 1: need a ring, you know. I think it's about a
Speaker 1: outside pressure of you need a ring. You got to
Speaker 1: win a championship. You know, it's tough out here. You know,
Speaker 1: it's tough right now, especially with the access we will
Speaker 1: have to us through social media. How often you know,
Speaker 1: to discussed every little thing on TV. So it just
Speaker 1: comes with a lot of a lot of heat. You know,
Speaker 1: we under a microscope as far as you are what
Speaker 1: other people think of it. That leads guys to feeling life.
Speaker 1: I gotta do what I gotta be win. Honestly, I
Speaker 1: think a lot of people just love to to see
Speaker 1: things just get mixed up. You know, they love a drama,
Speaker 1: and you know, then once it happened and they die
Speaker 1: off of it and then it's like on to the
Speaker 1: next thing. But I just understand that nobody's gonna have
Speaker 1: to walk in my shoes and live with any of
Speaker 1: the consequences or anything. I never let that way into
Speaker 1: any decision or feel aboudy know, it does get irritated
Speaker 1: sometimes it's like everybody's telling me what I need to
Speaker 1: do and what I should do, as if they actually care,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, they say it from a placement,
Speaker 1: if they actually care, when I know they don't. So
Speaker 1: kudos to Jenny the Baker's favorite NBA scribe, Chris Hayes,
Speaker 1: because he's the one who arranged for Dane to talk
Speaker 1: to us from All Star weekend on his way to
Speaker 1: a morning practice hours before he won the three point contest.
Speaker 1: But you know he said he said what he said
Speaker 1: to JJ as well on the Reddick Pod, and that
Speaker 1: line got a lot of traction. The NBA I play
Speaker 1: in now is not the NBA I came into c H.
Speaker 1: What did you you know, what did you kind of
Speaker 1: think when you heard that quote? Make the rounds this week?
Speaker 1: I think what Dame is talking about is the fact
Speaker 1: that how we're where, it seems like we're wiping away
Speaker 1: the regular season, we're wiping away the journey. And you know,
Speaker 1: in his in his situation, it's been like this for
Speaker 1: the last it's like that, I don't know, half a
Speaker 1: decade with him where people want him to hurry up
Speaker 1: and jump ship, and it's it's almost as if they're saying,
Speaker 1: we're not paying attention to you, we're not acknowledging you
Speaker 1: until you get on a championship team. Therefore, everything you
Speaker 1: do right now in Portland will be as if you're
Speaker 1: doing it under a rock where nobody can see. And
Speaker 1: it's it's, you know, it's not validating them that I
Speaker 1: think that, and I think that's I think social media
Speaker 1: has something to do with that, where I know a
Speaker 1: lot of people feel social media has ruined the NBA.
Speaker 1: You know, we're talking about social media, and then you know,
Speaker 1: people may say that we have a role Steins being
Speaker 1: insider us, we have a role in that where we're
Speaker 1: talking a lot about what a player is going to do,
Speaker 1: you know, what's going to happen in the offseason, what's
Speaker 1: going to happen at the trade deadline, who needs to
Speaker 1: be moved, who needs to be cut. Rarely we're talking
Speaker 1: about what players are doing or what teams are doing
Speaker 1: on the court. And I know that's me and Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant have multiple conversations about that. He feels the same way,
Speaker 1: and he was somebody who who did a hat tip
Speaker 1: to Dame's comment to JJ, So I think that's what
Speaker 1: he's talking about. It's like nobody's really paying attention to
Speaker 1: the pformances out here. You know, somebody can have fifty points, right,
Speaker 1: so take Dame. He can have fifty points or that
Speaker 1: seventy one point game he has. Then the next day
Speaker 1: they're not necessarily just talking about Dame going off at
Speaker 1: seventy one. They're talking about does Dame need to move
Speaker 1: on to somewhere else to be acknowledged, to be recognized,
Speaker 1: And it takes away from what that individual did in
Speaker 1: the game, It takes away from the teammates that help
Speaker 1: set you up to have that monster performance, and it's
Speaker 1: all about talking about where he should go, what he
Speaker 1: should do. Same same with KD, same situation. So I
Speaker 1: think that's that's what he means by that. It's like
Speaker 1: we it's almost and I don't say I don't think
Speaker 1: everybody feels that way, obviously, but there are a lot
Speaker 1: of casual NBA fans who just go off the storylines
Speaker 1: and don't look at hoops. And then if you're judging
Speaker 1: strictly by social media, then you may find on social
Speaker 1: media that most of them probably just look at the
Speaker 1: storylines themselves. And so that's why social media is not
Speaker 1: always a judge of what is truly happening. But I
Speaker 1: think that's what Dame meant probably in this totality when
Speaker 1: he when he had those remarks, and I guess I
Speaker 1: would my kind of my reaction to it is the
Speaker 1: reality is to me. You know, this is my thirtieth season.
Speaker 1: I think this conversation has always been there, Like it's
Speaker 1: when I started in the nineties, there was tons of
Speaker 1: discussion about Patrick Ewing hasn't wont to ring, Charles Barkley
Speaker 1: hasn't won a ring, John Stockton and Karl Malone hasn't
Speaker 1: won a ring, and then you know my formative years
Speaker 1: in this job, you know, you you know, I always
Speaker 1: say Dame is your Dirk. I mean, I watched Dirk
Speaker 1: Nvitski for the first ten years of his career be
Speaker 1: called soft, not tough enough, European, can't lead a team
Speaker 1: to a championship, can't do it on the big stage,
Speaker 1: and then Dallas wins it in twenty eleven and it
Speaker 1: totally changes the way Dirk is perceived, and Dirk instantly
Speaker 1: became a beloved figure when the truth is he was
Speaker 1: a great, great player for years before that championship two
Speaker 1: thousand and six. There is no question the Dallas Mavericks
Speaker 1: unraveled in spectacular fashion in those finals when they blew
Speaker 1: a two o lead to Miami, but two rounds before,
Speaker 1: for me, still the best playoff series I have personally
Speaker 1: personally covered start to finish, Game one to Game seven,
Speaker 1: the way Dirk Davitsky played in San Antonio on Tim
Speaker 1: Duncan's floor and Dallas wins a Game seven in overtime
Speaker 1: against San Antonio another one two thousand and nine. Nobody
Speaker 1: even talks about this when they go back in Dirk's legacy.
Speaker 1: Dirk was on probably the worst MAVs team he'd been
Speaker 1: on for years. They're playing a super rugged, physical Denver
Speaker 1: team that just had all kinds of really tough, defensive
Speaker 1: minded bigs to help out Carmelo Anthony and Dirk Navitsky
Speaker 1: in that series against Denver, a first round loss and
Speaker 1: amidst some real personal turmoil, the numbers that Dirk put
Speaker 1: up in that series were just jaw dropping. So I mean,
Speaker 1: this guy was a great, great player before the champion,
Speaker 1: before Dallas won that championship. And I see a lot
Speaker 1: of similarities between what his first ten years like and
Speaker 1: a lot of the noise around Dame. But I think
Speaker 1: the difference Dame is talking about what it really is
Speaker 1: is the noise level. It's just Dame came. Dame's first
Speaker 1: year was eleven twelve, is that right, twelve thirteen, So
Speaker 1: in this last decade, it's the it's the rise of
Speaker 1: social media, it's the way TV has changed that you know,
Speaker 1: even my last few years at ESPN fifteen fourteen, fifteen, fifteen, sixteen,
Speaker 1: sixteen seventeen, there were so many sports centers in a day,
Speaker 1: and those three years I was embedded with the Warriors
Speaker 1: and I was on so much. So many of those
Speaker 1: sports centers have been shoved aside by your first takes
Speaker 1: and you're you know, those discussion shows that you know,
Speaker 1: you know, just the noise about legacy and about guy's
Speaker 1: careers and you know, do they need a ring? All
Speaker 1: that discussion. It's really that's what's really exploded in you know,
Speaker 1: over the course of Dame's career, and I think that's
Speaker 1: why he's felt it so acutely just because the noise levels,
Speaker 1: the ring conversation has been there, Like I said, since
Speaker 1: I can remember Clyde Drexler in Portland, another guy who
Speaker 1: who had to hear it for years and years and
Speaker 1: years until he got traded to Houston and got to
Speaker 1: win one along Simon alongside a chem Elijah one. But
Speaker 1: that ring noise, the ring discussion has been there. It's
Speaker 1: just this last decade the volume of it has just
Speaker 1: gone to insane levels and only seem to rise. So
Speaker 1: it's actually really good to hear when when Dame we're
Speaker 1: speaking with with JJ Reddick that he you know, he
Speaker 1: said real life, he's so into his real life that
Speaker 1: it enables him to tune out the noise because the
Speaker 1: noise has got to be really, really annoying. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I will say the noise level we have, you know,
Speaker 1: you have the talk shows and national talk shows who
Speaker 1: have these discussions, these topics that don't necessarily pertain to
Speaker 1: what he or any other players is doing in that
Speaker 1: particular game. It's always about what that player needs to
Speaker 1: do to solidify his legacy. But I think social media
Speaker 1: the noise and social media is so because players live
Speaker 1: in social media, and so that is a noise that
Speaker 1: you know, when you came into the least I players
Speaker 1: have to deal with that. Like, think about this, if
Speaker 1: you were a player, say you're Michael Jordan, right, You're
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan, and I'm a fan. Say I'm a fan
Speaker 1: of Michael Jordan. If I wanted to try to reach
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan, first of all, we were we were you know,
Speaker 1: we were poor, We weren't get any tickets. But if
Speaker 1: I want to try to reach with him, I was
Speaker 1: write him a letter and send it via mail. And
Speaker 1: what's the chance of Michael Jordan reading my letter? Of
Speaker 1: the millions that Jordan ain't reading that, so you couldn't
Speaker 1: get to him. So players backing up those days, not
Speaker 1: just players, stars, movie stars or whatever, you had people
Speaker 1: around you that would kind of feel you in on
Speaker 1: just how people feel about you. You know, just just
Speaker 1: just check the vibe around the world about what they're
Speaker 1: saying about you, your brand and whatever your people told you.
Speaker 1: You believed it and be like it was okay. But
Speaker 1: you didn't have to deal with hearing Joe's Moe and Minnesota,
Speaker 1: Ben Bruce in Miami, or you didn't hear that type
Speaker 1: of stuff. You know, you didn't, you weren't bothered by it.
Speaker 1: And those are the people. Those are the same people,
Speaker 1: the same people that would try to get at you
Speaker 1: back in the day, but they couldn't if they saw
Speaker 1: you in person, they wouldn't do anything but ask for
Speaker 1: an autograph, for a picture. But the noise of today
Speaker 1: where they can actually get to you. They can actually
Speaker 1: hop in your mentions, they can hop in your dms,
Speaker 1: they can talk all that shit, they can talk all
Speaker 1: of it to you. And these players, they see it
Speaker 1: that they live in it, and it gets into them.
Speaker 1: And that's why I think, you know, there's a you know,
Speaker 1: we're having a lot of you have a lot of
Speaker 1: players with issues with depression and anxiety. You know all
Speaker 1: this social media plays a big part, plays a big
Speaker 1: part in that. And it's tough. It's just a different error.
Speaker 1: It's a different area with these players are playing amongst
Speaker 1: and um it's it's in a lot of ways, it's
Speaker 1: very it's very much tougher. And I know a lot
Speaker 1: of older guys I don't like to hear that, oh
Speaker 1: we had, it's a different animals. Charles Barkley will not
Speaker 1: get on social media because he know is going to
Speaker 1: trick or something, He's going to go off on you
Speaker 1: and say something, tweet something at you. So he was
Speaker 1: advised not to get on social media and he is
Speaker 1: fine with that. So I think that's why that's another
Speaker 1: big reason why the noise is louder today. Yeah, look
Speaker 1: I gotta and you know I'm by no means innocent here,
Speaker 1: I'm guilty too. I look at the standings, I see
Speaker 1: where Portland is, and my instinct automatically is Dame has
Speaker 1: got to be miserable. The guy is playing, he's maybe
Speaker 1: having his best statistical season individually, and they are, you know,
Speaker 1: entering Thursday night's play, they were two and a half
Speaker 1: games out of a playing spot and having lost four
Speaker 1: in a row and heading in the wrong direction, and
Speaker 1: it just seems like it's it's just sad that Dame
Speaker 1: has come out of the surgery as well as he
Speaker 1: has playing just absolutely fantastic, just an offensive marvel. And
Speaker 1: you know, they, you know, they thought they had upgraded
Speaker 1: the team around him, and they're they're they're more than
Speaker 1: a move or two away the way this looks right now.
Speaker 1: So I mean, I do it too, And you know
Speaker 1: I don't know him like you do. So it sounds
Speaker 1: like when you listen, you listen to him with us,
Speaker 1: you listen to him with JJ Reddick and I you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's a great skill for him if he can
Speaker 1: tune out the noise because a lot of people are wondering, Okay,
Speaker 1: thirteen games left for the Portland Trail Blazers. They are
Speaker 1: see two and a half games back of the final
Speaker 1: play in spot. It's not looking good for him right now.
Speaker 1: Dame is doing his thing. It's team wise. They still
Speaker 1: i mean new GM, but still facing some of the
Speaker 1: same obstacles of not having h not having the pieces
Speaker 1: needed to to be a real threat. So I'll say
Speaker 1: this Dame has about I'm gonna say he gotta probably
Speaker 1: about five or six more games left before Portland probably
Speaker 1: shut them down for the season. There there's no use
Speaker 1: of playing the duration of these games, so look out
Speaker 1: for that. Things keep these next five six games, they
Speaker 1: they keep struggling. I was saying he's gonna be okay
Speaker 1: with that, because I mean, he's really been fighting that
Speaker 1: notion of playing for draft. I mean, he's gonna have
Speaker 1: to He's gonna have to be okay if they're not.
Speaker 1: If they're not in contention to jump in that player,
Speaker 1: you know, at that point it's not it's probably not
Speaker 1: worth it. So that's what I'm saying. These next five
Speaker 1: six games, you know, we'll see if they can make
Speaker 1: some ground. If they don't make any ground, then I
Speaker 1: think you got to pull the plug. I think that's
Speaker 1: what's going to happen if the results are not that good.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, we covered a lot of ground today.
Speaker 1: Is usually went in some surprising directions that I did
Speaker 1: not anticipate. But that's ah. That is Chris Haynes's particular talent.
Speaker 1: He gets me. I like to map it out, and
Speaker 1: he likes to get me off the map. So there
Speaker 1: you go, everybody. We will be back very very soon,
Speaker 1: back with our usual Monday morning episode. We do plan
Speaker 1: to tape Sunday night, get back on our usual schedule.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, please please please rate, review, subscribe, so
Speaker 1: this League Uncut comes right to your phone directly and promptly.
Speaker 1: Chris and I back with you in just a couple
Speaker 1: of days. Hopefully this is plenty of good weekend who
Speaker 1: listening for you? Be good? Everybody talks soon and that'll
Speaker 1: do it for us, see you next time. This League
Speaker 1: Uncut is and I Heart Radio Production Chris Hanes, de
Speaker 1: Mark Steyne