Speaker 1: On this episode of The Heat Check, it's a special
Speaker 1: interview with Mavericks Beat reporter Grant Assets of Sports Illustrated
Speaker 1: here to talk about his World Tour basketball that took
Speaker 1: him from the Fever World Cup in the Philippines to
Speaker 1: the Middle East, as well as to answer any and
Speaker 1: all questions about what the fuck are the mass up
Speaker 1: to this season. We'll also cover some of the most
Speaker 1: interesting debuts in the preseason, as well as cover any
Speaker 1: of the news that you might have missed.
Speaker 2: You gotta get moving.
Speaker 1: William fighting off a migraine drop that generic aas beat
Speaker 1: right now that should be Rihanna breaks breaking down all
Speaker 1: the biggest NBA storylines. So the Heat Check. The Heat
Speaker 1: Check was just a crack the best podcast covering all
Speaker 1: the drama around the association. All right, let's start out
Speaker 1: with some news from around the league. We'll start in
Speaker 1: the NBA front office, where the league has announced something
Speaker 1: very cool in Tay Hwang, a dude who packed up
Speaker 1: and moved his family seven thousand miles from South Korea
Speaker 1: to North Jersey just to pursue his lifelong dream of
Speaker 1: being an NBA referee. Could you imagine like Scott Foster
Speaker 1: would never write like Scott Foster would never move to
Speaker 1: South Korea. If South Korea was the is the hub
Speaker 1: of basketball, Everyone's got to pursue their dream. I just
Speaker 1: don't know why you want to move seven thousand miles
Speaker 1: to be hated by like four hundred and fifty dudes
Speaker 1: and then like, I don't know, millions of Americans. This
Speaker 1: is a guy who's going to be squarely on the
Speaker 1: reperport this year. He was just named though a full
Speaker 1: time staff referee for the twenty twenty three twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four season, which is very dope. This is a very
Speaker 1: funny story in general, very heartwarming, but very funny. He
Speaker 1: has an incredible story that was just covered in the
Speaker 1: Washing Him post by Ben Oliver, friend of show. But
Speaker 1: the short of it is he picked up the basketball
Speaker 1: bug as a kid, got into reffing in college, and
Speaker 1: then worked games in five continents me really likes reffing
Speaker 1: before being asked to be attend the NBA's reffing school
Speaker 1: in Fort Lee, New Jersey, where he scored high enough
Speaker 1: marks to get invited into the G League, than the
Speaker 1: Summer League, and finally the NBA.
Speaker 2: What these five continents?
Speaker 1: That's a travel one thing the league has done a
Speaker 1: good job of is diversifying it's reft. Over the past decades,
Speaker 1: they've expanded internationally as well, and that is now the.
Speaker 2: Next logical step.
Speaker 1: The percentage right now of foreign born players in the
Speaker 1: NBA is twenty two percent, so that makes a lot
Speaker 1: of sense to try to get closer to that in
Speaker 1: the in the world, in the realm of NBA referees,
Speaker 1: I'm going to be looking into inta for.
Speaker 2: Sure, more because anyone who loves.
Speaker 1: Is kind of like masochistic, is it? Not like it's
Speaker 1: just I don't understand it. It's tremendous. Hopefully we're not
Speaker 1: going to have to cook him for being the South
Speaker 1: Korean Scott Foster.
Speaker 2: No skits in tay uh no taking money for shaven
Speaker 2: points either. I'm sure on five continents you've learned that.
Speaker 2: Let's move on.
Speaker 1: Let's take a look at some of these preseason debuts,
Speaker 1: shall we? Starting in Houston? Who are my League past
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three League past Team of the Year? Okasee
Speaker 1: is so pass a so last year it's the Pacers
Speaker 1: Folks and the Houston Rockets playing in the preseason. Dylan
Speaker 1: Brooks saw his first action in h town and guess
Speaker 1: what he did? Uh, Dylan Brooks things. Can I ask
Speaker 1: you if things went well?
Speaker 2: Well, what do you think? Baby? It's Dylan Brooks. How
Speaker 2: you know they did not go well? You know they
Speaker 2: did it.
Speaker 1: Dylan Brooks is calling himself Dylan the Villain, and so
Speaker 1: you must be doing villain things.
Speaker 2: To keep up with that nickname. He got ejected, Tristan,
Speaker 2: what do you get ejected for?
Speaker 1: He hit Daniel Tyson the nuts, Yeah, Tinton. Daniel Tys
Speaker 1: wasn't even supposed to be playing in the game. All
Speaker 1: of a sudden, He's got an ice pack on his
Speaker 1: crown jewels. He wishes he hadn't been playing in that game.
Speaker 1: I bet so this is what happened. Tys set a
Speaker 1: screen at the top of a key. Dylan Brooks went
Speaker 1: Chopa and hi yelled them in the hiaida hyah. Him
Speaker 1: and the Dick refs took a look at it and
Speaker 1: they were like, all right, you got to go, baby,
Speaker 1: you gotta go hit the showers. It hasn't even been
Speaker 1: one game in the NBA season yet, and Dylan Brooks
Speaker 1: is back to doing Dylan Brooks things.
Speaker 2: The game Dylan said this, I try to navigate a screen.
Speaker 1: I might have tapped them below the waist, but he
Speaker 1: got right back up, So I don't know. It's just
Speaker 1: weird that every time that happens to me, I think
Speaker 1: I get picked on. So I guess this is a
Speaker 1: part of my reputation. This is gonna be a very
Speaker 1: fun season for emy Udoka in the Houston Rockets to
Speaker 1: start start figuring out how how Dylan Brooks is gonna
Speaker 1: play emy Udoka's defense, stifling defense.
Speaker 2: Without getting kicked out every game.
Speaker 1: I promise you he is going to engage in one
Speaker 1: more nut shot.
Speaker 2: I promise. He also said this in his postgame What's
Speaker 2: my Name? What's my Name? Dylan the Villain? Are we
Speaker 2: serious with this? Are serious? We're gonna be watching Dylan
Speaker 2: penicillin of the Villain all year.
Speaker 1: We're not done talking about Houston, though not by a
Speaker 1: long shot. Maybe it was a good thing that Dylan
Speaker 1: Brooks got tossed because Houston had two other players that
Speaker 1: I wanted to watch very carefully.
Speaker 2: Cam Whitmore was one.
Speaker 1: Cam Whitmore was a player that I was loving Evilenova.
Speaker 1: He was considered to be a top five pick, and
Speaker 1: then he slides all the way to twenty and people think, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe it's because his knees are not right.
Speaker 2: Some people say it's because his attitude is not right.
Speaker 1: But all I know is that Cam Whitmore has been ballin'
Speaker 1: ever fucking since, trying to put the league on notice
Speaker 1: that hey, you guys passed on me. So the Rockets
Speaker 1: end up getting two top five picks in the span
Speaker 1: of twenty picks. That twentieth pick, by the way, was
Speaker 1: the Clippers that they gave away for I want to
Speaker 1: say maybe Eric Gordon.
Speaker 2: Anyway, Cam Wentmore made his debut and he was electric.
Speaker 1: Fifteen points, six for ten, shooting three for four from three,
Speaker 1: four rebounds, a steal in sixteen minutes. He was a
Speaker 1: plus twenty one when no one on the Rockets was
Speaker 1: better than a plus fourteen.
Speaker 2: Is this the Cam Whitmore team? Is this the Cam
Speaker 2: Wimore Show.
Speaker 1: We talked about why he slipped in the draft, and
Speaker 1: it's very still an under speculation. But uh, I don't
Speaker 1: think he has character issues. He's a big boy too.
Speaker 1: You see him in person and he's he's very strong looking,
Speaker 1: very he kind of has like a body like Grant Williams,
Speaker 1: but he's he plays more like a guard. He played
Speaker 1: under control the whole game, worked hard on defense. That's
Speaker 1: the hardest thing for a young player to do. He's
Speaker 1: gonna be, I think, a real asset for emy Udoka,
Speaker 1: and I think Udoka is gonna reward him with a
Speaker 1: ton of playing time.
Speaker 2: Amen. Amen. Thompson had his debut and he had a box.
Speaker 1: Score that might might make you think he was just
Speaker 1: terrible one for nine from the field, but listen, man,
Speaker 1: his game's not about scoring.
Speaker 2: He had nine rebounds, that was leading the team. He
Speaker 2: had three assists, a steal. He was a plus nine
Speaker 2: for the game.
Speaker 1: When you shoot one for nine and you're still a
Speaker 1: positive plus minus in the game, like that just tells
Speaker 1: you how good you actually are. The mark against him
Speaker 1: coming into the draft was, of course a shot, and
Speaker 1: that that's not slash lines not dispelling any rumors.
Speaker 2: Fail folks. He's not a good shooter.
Speaker 1: He's not. I don't know. I don't know if he's
Speaker 1: ever gonna be a good shooter. But what's encouraging Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons take notice. Nine shots he was one for nine.
Speaker 1: It wasn't one for four, and he was like, fuck it,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stop shooting so everyone can stop making fun
Speaker 1: of me for being.
Speaker 2: A bad shooter. He was like, I'm gonna chuck this
Speaker 2: baby nine times for a rookie. That's pretty impression. It's impressive.
Speaker 2: Like I like that.
Speaker 1: Rockets aren't counting on him and Thompson to score twenty
Speaker 1: a game unless they're all from the free throw line
Speaker 1: or inside the paint. He's gonna be very valuable contributing
Speaker 1: in a bunch.
Speaker 2: Of other ways.
Speaker 1: And if he's patient, he works on fighting those shots
Speaker 1: that suit him.
Speaker 2: I think he's gonna be fine. I like him.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be a good player as well Cam Witmore.
Speaker 1: They are gonna be a very fun team. Adding Dylan
Speaker 1: Brooks and Fred Van Fleet to the squad is going
Speaker 1: to be very fun to connective tissue type pieces that
Speaker 1: I think
Speaker 2: Are going to make them shoot up the standings this season.