Speaker 1: It's time to get into Lebron James, who made headlines
Speaker 1: after the Lakers game on Thursday night their victory over
Speaker 1: the Timberwods one eleven to one oh two at home.
Speaker 1: Lebron led the way with thirty three points seventeen rebounds. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards was ejected for getting his sixteenth technical foul
Speaker 1: and missed most of the second half, by the way,
Speaker 1: But that's not why I want to talk about Lebron.
Speaker 1: I wanted to get into what Lebron had to say
Speaker 1: about Anthony Edwards post game and a conversation surrounding Edwards
Speaker 1: becoming the face of the NBA. Take a listen to
Speaker 1: this place.
Speaker 2: Why do you want to be the face of the
Speaker 2: league when all all to all the people that you
Speaker 2: know that cover our game and talk about our game
Speaker 2: on a day to day basis, Shit on, everybody had
Speaker 2: that responsibility. That's that's just weird. It's weird.
Speaker 1: Energy, ladies and gentlemen, excuse my language. That's some straight
Speaker 1: bullshit by Lebron James. Straight bullshit. I'm getting sick and
Speaker 1: tired of folks talking about everybody who covers the league
Speaker 1: shitting on the league. How do sit on the league
Speaker 1: because some of us don't call Lebron James the goat,
Speaker 1: because we bring up load management because people come to
Speaker 1: games sometimes and cats are sitting out and fans don't
Speaker 1: even know until they arrive at the arena that the
Speaker 1: Cats are sitting out. Is it because All Star weekends
Speaker 1: arrives and folks don't learn that Lebron James is playing
Speaker 1: is not playing rather until the last minute. Is it
Speaker 1: because he's never participated in the Slam Dunk contest, thereby
Speaker 1: ruining it, because he's the first marquee name with slam
Speaker 1: dunking ability like that to refuse to participate in an
Speaker 1: All Star Slam Dunk contest ever in his career. The
Speaker 1: way Jordan did Dominique did, Doctor j did, David Thompson did,
Speaker 1: Harold Minor did, Jason Richardson did, Tracy McGrady did, Vince
Speaker 1: Carter did, Kobe did? Zach Lavine did? Aaron Gordon? Did?
Speaker 1: Nate Robinson did? Spud Web did the way all of
Speaker 1: these people did. He elected. That's how we're shitting on
Speaker 1: the league. See, this is the con of stuff that
Speaker 1: pisses people like myself off. I've covered the NBA for
Speaker 1: thirty years. I'm successful in life because of the NBA
Speaker 1: and what it's done for my life. So is Lebron.
Speaker 1: So are thousands upon thousands of players that have come
Speaker 1: through the league. Just recently, the league signed an eleven year,
Speaker 1: seventy seven billion dollar deal. Well, how that come about
Speaker 1: sponsors and advertisers? That's how Yet, somehow, some way, we're
Speaker 1: gonna sit up there and say you shouldn't want to
Speaker 1: be the face of the league because folks are shitting
Speaker 1: on the league. Well, who are these folks? Let me
Speaker 1: tell you who it is. It's everybody in social media.
Speaker 1: But you see where the problem is and why I
Speaker 1: think Lebron's comments was bullshit was because he doesn't specify
Speaker 1: who he's talking about. So folks on social media who
Speaker 1: do all of this salacious nonsense get lumped in with
Speaker 1: the rest of the media, and nobody differentiates from the other.
Speaker 1: Social media and in the locker room. Social media doesn't
Speaker 1: ignore your personal life. Social media doesn't ignore your personal business.
Speaker 1: Social media doesn't have the class and the decorum to
Speaker 1: avoid touching on those different things because it has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with the game of basketball. That's the media.
Speaker 1: People like myself and various others. Now, to be clear
Speaker 1: and to put myself on front street, y'all do understand
Speaker 1: I'm under no obligation to talk about the NBA as
Speaker 1: much as I do, but I do. The league is
Speaker 1: happy with it, the network is happy with it, the
Speaker 1: fans are happy with it. Most of the don't. When
Speaker 1: you talk about folks who are covering your sport, did
Speaker 1: you know that that would happen to be some former
Speaker 1: players because they were part of the show, and they
Speaker 1: were part of the ESPN network and various other networks.
Speaker 1: Former players preside over there, current players come there, coaches
Speaker 1: as well, league officials as well. How can we don't
Speaker 1: bring that up? How can we don't talk about those things?
Speaker 1: You see what has happened, and what has transpired and
Speaker 1: what's sickening. Let me tell you the most egregious shit
Speaker 1: of it all that nobody brings up. Barkley, Charles Barkley,
Speaker 1: All Time seventy fifth anniversary play, a Hall of Famer,
Speaker 1: one of the greatest players in the NBA history. You
Speaker 1: had cats clapping at him. You've had some cats try
Speaker 1: to clap back at shock. Four time champion, arguably the
Speaker 1: most dominant force ever clearly the most dominant force of
Speaker 1: our lifetime. To Wilt Chamberlain. I try to talk about him.
Speaker 1: They talk about we don't celebrate the game enough. Really,
Speaker 1: what's your definition of celebration? Last time I checked this?
Speaker 1: Talking about the game, we gotta pedal you with roses
Speaker 1: when you shoot two for twenty, or when somebody drops
Speaker 1: fifty on you, or when you lose games in playoff
Speaker 1: series that you're supposed to win. And here's the crime,
Speaker 1: here's the crime. You know what else happens? Lebron James
Speaker 1: can have a bad game against KD, or KD can
Speaker 1: have a bad game against Steph Curry, or Steph Curry
Speaker 1: can have a bad game against Jalen Brunton or somebody. Oh,
Speaker 1: these dudes they always down in the brothers. Well, who
Speaker 1: the hell were you playing against? Wasn't that a brother?
Speaker 1: You're covering the game, you're talking about competition, and if
Speaker 1: you're talking about the sport, how is that downing another
Speaker 1: black person? If Lamart Roach steps into the boxing ring
Speaker 1: and gets knocked the hell out by Javonte Davis and
Speaker 1: I said he got knocked the hell out by Javonte Davis,
Speaker 1: is that me down in a brother. How come it
Speaker 1: can't be me acknowledging what Tank Davis did. What are
Speaker 1: we talking about here? The greatest of all time is
Speaker 1: Muhammad Ali. He's my idol. I know and adore and
Speaker 1: love his daughter Layla. She's been friends with me for years.
Speaker 1: He also called Joe Frasier gorilla, said he was too
Speaker 1: ugly to be champion during the immediate aftermath of the
Speaker 1: Civil rights movement. If we want to get real, after
Speaker 1: Joe Frazier had intended a helping hand to help him
Speaker 1: when he was banned from boxing and denied the license
Speaker 1: to fight, America revered him as well you should. But
Speaker 1: I'm just talking about how backwards we can be sometimes
Speaker 1: we ignore certain things we love others. I remember when
Speaker 1: cats were getting at me because I said, O J.
Speaker 1: Simpson did it deserve to be acknowledged the way that
Speaker 1: he was during some awards event, and you had cats
Speaker 1: coming after me as if I was the one that
Speaker 1: was on trial for my life for commit in double
Speaker 1: murder time and time and time again. The most salacious,
Speaker 1: the most ridiculous, the most egregious acts associated with human beings,
Speaker 1: And I'm certainly not comparing Muhammad alaid O j Simpson
Speaker 1: or anything like that. Please don't get me wrong. I'm
Speaker 1: simply making the point that it's amazing in what we
Speaker 1: support and what we denigrate. Lebron James, to me is
Speaker 1: the second greatest player in the history of basketball. You
Speaker 1: have people out there acting like I've hated on him
Speaker 1: because I have him as number two all time, and
Speaker 1: he co signs with it. Anthony Davis doesn't want to
Speaker 1: be the face of the league and other players don't
Speaker 1: want to be responsible, and he co signs with that.
Speaker 1: Notice he did all of this after he got his money.
Speaker 1: Bron's worth the billion dollars he got his money. So
Speaker 1: now we want to take those positions. Now we want
Speaker 1: to encourage people to have a kind of mentality that
Speaker 1: sifts through the industry like a virus. So you can
Speaker 1: look down upon and be dismissive of, and dare I
Speaker 1: say hey on pundits and others because you may not
Speaker 1: like what they're saying, and you're encouraging them to do
Speaker 1: it now, knowing it ain't gonna work for them down
Speaker 1: the line, But you don't care because you got yours
Speaker 1: and one player after another falsefood hook line of sinker.
Speaker 1: Remember when Lebron was in the bubble. He said, I
Speaker 1: got mine. Y'all don't have to sihour with me if
Speaker 1: y'all don't want to. I don't need this shit. I
Speaker 1: don't need it. I'm cool. Remember that. Remember when I
Speaker 1: told y'all when he took his talents to South Beach
Speaker 1: and he didn't let the owner know and he had
Speaker 1: to find out, Dan, you might have to find out
Speaker 1: a national television like everybody else, that players were gonna
Speaker 1: come back and pay a price for that because there
Speaker 1: was a collective barketing agreement coming down the pike. At
Speaker 1: least seven percent of basketball related income equating to about
Speaker 1: two billion dollars was going to be snatched away from them.
Speaker 1: Remember when I said that. Remember when I talked about
Speaker 1: player movement, I lot Chris Paul going to the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Lakers and Dan Gilbert, who had nothing to do
Speaker 1: with it, writing an open letter to the owners and
Speaker 1: making it public to speak out against a trade such
Speaker 1: as this. It wasn't just that Dan Gilbert was against
Speaker 1: player movement. It's that Chris Paul and Lebron James is
Speaker 1: pretty tight godfathers to one another's children. If I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: and that was a shot that Dan Gilbert took. Remember that.
Speaker 1: Remember when the whole George Floyd thing was going on
Speaker 1: after he had been murdered by Derek Schauvin at police
Speaker 1: officer in Minnesota, and everybody was talking about locking arms.
Speaker 1: And I was ignored when I said, bump, just locking arms.
Speaker 1: You got the monetary cachet to have your own lobbyists
Speaker 1: to go up on Capitol Hill persuade lawmakers to sign
Speaker 1: things into law, to make things easier and to provoke
Speaker 1: real change. And I was ignored. I said all of
Speaker 1: these things, one thing after another. Ignored. But we want
Speaker 1: to sit here and because people might have questions or
Speaker 1: point out things that they don't like, when ninety nine
Speaker 1: percent of the time all we're doing is revering the
Speaker 1: greatness of Lebron James and how we're going to miss
Speaker 1: him when he's gone, And all he can remember is
Speaker 1: folks shitting on the NBA. Who shits on the NBA
Speaker 1: more than some of these players. It ain't the media
Speaker 1: doing that. It's the players not protecting their own brand
Speaker 1: that has made them wealthy beyond their wildness imaginations. That's
Speaker 1: what's going on. And back to Lebron In this regard
Speaker 1: Bronnie James, it's somebody that I hope will make the
Speaker 1: NBA and I believe will make the NBA someday. He's
Speaker 1: a good kid, and by all accounts, everybody loves them,
Speaker 1: and everybody's rooting for him and hopes that he makes it,
Speaker 1: and I personally believe he will. I think he will
Speaker 1: because it's a fast learning needs a talent, and we
Speaker 1: saw what he's been doing in the G League ladies
Speaker 1: and gentlemen. The opening game of the season. Brownie James
Speaker 1: wasn't an NBA caliber player. We all knew that, and
Speaker 1: we all knew the only reason he was on a
Speaker 1: roster was because his father is Lebron James. Everyone stood
Speaker 1: back and paid homage and said, it's the least we
Speaker 1: could do for Lebron James. He deserves that, and we
Speaker 1: celebrated it. Although we knew it wasn't based on merit.
Speaker 1: Everyone went along with it. The league went along with it,
Speaker 1: the Lakers went along with it, the media went along
Speaker 1: with it. Everybody did Lebron James mention that.
Speaker 2: Did he.
Speaker 1: We're the bad guys And by the way, you're listening
Speaker 1: to somebody that covered the league at a time when
Speaker 1: all their personal shit was out there. We didn't touch it,
Speaker 1: and neither. This is today's media. Social media might but
Speaker 1: not us. As long as you ain't in the police blotters,
Speaker 1: that's your business. Now. The players got podcast and they
Speaker 1: talked shit about people, But the folks covering the league
Speaker 1: is the one shitting on the league. And sadly some
Speaker 1: of y'all going for off of that bullshit that Lebron
Speaker 1: threw out there, pointing the finger in every other direction
Speaker 1: but that of himself and his brethren. I'm so surprised.
Speaker 1: I'm so surprised.