Speaker 1: Really quick before we talk about some of these series,
Speaker 1: I want to just kind of like make sure everybody's
Speaker 1: up to date on some of the things happening in
Speaker 1: the background where real basketball is also being played. So
Speaker 1: you've got a few things happen, You've got a little
Speaker 1: bit of news trickling out, not a ton, You've got
Speaker 1: rumors around movement of players, You've got lottery NBA draft news,
Speaker 1: and then obviously you have the games excelf and we're
Speaker 1: getting down to only a couple of different teams left right,
Speaker 1: and pretty much Dallas we already know, is dead. So
Speaker 1: let's talk about some news just to kind of keep
Speaker 1: us current while these games are going underway. So the
Speaker 1: first moment I knew the Timberwolves were for real, that
Speaker 1: they were serious about being a real NBA franchise was
Speaker 1: not when they sold the team to a Rod and
Speaker 1: Mark Lori. It was when, not when Tim Connolly came.
Speaker 1: And we'll get to that news in just a second.
Speaker 1: This happened in January. The Wolves hired a man named
Speaker 1: Marquise Watts, an executive from Clutch Sports, to be their
Speaker 1: new chief experience officer. Let's be honest, Glenn Taylor doesn't
Speaker 1: give a fuck about the athlete experience, like they don't care.
Speaker 1: But this guy and a Rah and Mark Lori do
Speaker 1: with the task of redefining the player experience in Minnesota.
Speaker 1: That was a big shot, huge deal at Clutch, who
Speaker 1: came from under Armour, who came from Adidas. So let
Speaker 1: me just recap really quickly what Watt said in January
Speaker 1: when he was hired, just to get us to this
Speaker 1: place where like they weren't playing around when they said
Speaker 1: changes were coming. He said, this leadership here in Minnesota
Speaker 1: is serious about building a world class organization. There is
Speaker 1: much to untap, much to explore culturally, experientially for our
Speaker 1: players and the community. This is just the beginning and
Speaker 1: there is a lot to look forward to. So we're
Speaker 1: not going to get into how important it is to
Speaker 1: have somebody in the front office or in charge that's
Speaker 1: connected to Clutch, considering that Clutch represents pretty much all
Speaker 1: of the major players in the NBA or at least
Speaker 1: has their fingers in every deal. They're like the mob
Speaker 1: of the NBA. Right Like Aunt Edwards is a Clutch client.
Speaker 1: Lebron James's best friend started Clutch. But I will remind
Speaker 1: you what I said at the time. I said, this
Speaker 1: is a symbol and a sign that a Rod and
Speaker 1: Mark Lorie are dead serious about changing the culture of
Speaker 1: this team. His job is not only to cater to
Speaker 1: existing players, but to make Minnesota a place that people
Speaker 1: actually want to go in free agency. That's a hard
Speaker 1: thing to do, a very hard thing to do, given
Speaker 1: that it's cold, it's white, I mean, and there's not
Speaker 1: a lot of culture around except for like fish and
Speaker 1: like ice and all kinds of shit. Anyway, ice fishing exactly.
Speaker 1: They have like a I think they have like this
Speaker 1: bungee jumping thing into the ice. I know that they
Speaker 1: I got offered this uh near Mall of America. They
Speaker 1: have the Mall of America. Like how how like whitebread?
Speaker 1: Can you get right? Like Minnesota. We're gonna fix this, though,
Speaker 1: he says, how do you do that? You roll out
Speaker 1: the red carpet for guys, You make sure the team
Speaker 1: environment's tight, you make sure you got the right people
Speaker 1: making decisions, and then you have a dump truck of
Speaker 1: cash ready to give it to as many people as
Speaker 1: you can to build that team. And then you've got
Speaker 1: big connections to sponsorship deals. At the end of it.
Speaker 1: I love that. I love being right, because that's exactly
Speaker 1: what ended up happening, because the new look Wolves signed
Speaker 1: the Nuggets top executive Tim Connolly just stole them right
Speaker 1: out from under the Nuggets. He didn't even want to leave.
Speaker 1: It's like, made me a deal I couldn't resist. Kind
Speaker 1: of a thing. Wold reported it. This is the bomb.
Speaker 1: This is the sound the Wojes bomb. Denver Nuggets president
Speaker 1: Tim Connolly has agreed to a deal with the Minnesota
Speaker 1: Timberwolves that will make him one of the NBA's highest
Speaker 1: compensated executives. Significant coup for the Minnesota franchise. Nice editorial Woje.
Speaker 1: Significant coup that was his own little sit and see.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna add something to this anyway. Five years, forty million,
Speaker 1: but more importantly because eight million's a lot, but it's
Speaker 1: not as much as Daryl Moore's getting. But the most
Speaker 1: important thing is he's getting equity in the team. It's
Speaker 1: the first time ever that's happened. Connelly, beloved in Denver,
Speaker 1: did not want to leave Denver, but you do not change.
Speaker 1: I don't even know how much money that's gonna be worth,
Speaker 1: but I'm sure it's life changing. Legacy altering money and
Speaker 1: for those who don't know who Tim Connolly is and
Speaker 1: what he did, like to quote if you're a Marvel fan,
Speaker 1: to quote and paraphrase Obadiah Stain from Iron Man. Connelly
Speaker 1: was able to build a conference finals team in a
Speaker 1: cave with a box of scraps.
Speaker 2: Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave
Speaker 2: with a bunch of scraps.
Speaker 1: Do it? How come we can't be a conference finals team?
Speaker 1: So what did he do? Here's a short list of
Speaker 1: some of the scraps he was able to turn into gold.
Speaker 1: Jokichap forty one second rounder Bones Highland twenty six, All
Speaker 1: Rookie Team, Michael Porter junior at fourteen, max player, Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray number seven, All Pro Mark, Keith Morris at fifty one.
Speaker 1: Also Yusuf Nurkich, who's our big man in Portland, Gary Harris,
Speaker 1: Malik Beasley, all outside of the lottery. Denver desperately wanted
Speaker 1: to keep them, but they knew we can't give this
Speaker 1: man equity. You can't find a person that says a
Speaker 1: bad word about him. He's as close to being as
Speaker 1: universe beloved in the NBA as you can get everybody.
Speaker 1: When you're in the league long enough, people got bad
Speaker 1: things to say about you. And he's built a really
Speaker 1: good team out of nothing in a market even smaller
Speaker 1: and wider than Minnesota. Perfect fit. Honestly, He's like, I
Speaker 1: know I had this blueprint, I can do this, and
Speaker 1: if you're if you're a Wolves fan, you cannot wait
Speaker 1: until Glenn Taylor is all the way out of this place,
Speaker 1: releases his cold, bony little hands from this franchise that
Speaker 1: he's trying to like choke it out. Every little bit
Speaker 1: of power he still has left. He's trying to just finagle.
Speaker 1: And it also shows that even though a Rod and
Speaker 1: Mark Laurie don't truly have control of the franchise yet,
Speaker 1: they're still pulling the strings and they're still setting the
Speaker 1: pieces in place for this team to be good for
Speaker 1: a really, really long time. And now when they really
Speaker 1: take over, Sky is the limit. You know that we
Speaker 1: can't on I wish I had that music, but we
Speaker 1: don't anyway, insert music. We're just gonna play music, just
Speaker 1: but finally now understanding something that we haven't understood in
Speaker 1: a long time. We never really got the full story
Speaker 1: of Kyrie speaks for the very first time in six years.
Speaker 1: He's ready to explain, and did explain. Why the did
Speaker 1: you ask out of Cleveland? Why did you demand a trade?
Speaker 1: We know you demanded it, We know you wanted to
Speaker 1: go to a contender. You said it was to be
Speaker 1: your own man. But at the time that didn't really
Speaker 1: make no sense because you were with Tatum and Brown, Like,
Speaker 1: so you're not really And now that we know truthfully,
Speaker 1: he'd never wanted to leave Lebron, he just wanted to
Speaker 1: leave Cleveland, like he just He's like, I don't even
Speaker 1: care about Braun, like me and Bron were good, Like
Speaker 1: I just didn't want to be in Cleveland anymore. This
Speaker 1: franchise sucks. They sat me down, he said on this
Speaker 1: I Am Athlete podcast. They sat me down. They told
Speaker 1: me what their plans were, how I fit into those plans,
Speaker 1: And me and Braun truthfully didn't really fit into their
Speaker 1: plans long term unless we were all willing to stay together.
Speaker 1: We didn't fit in to their long term outlook, basically
Speaker 1: shedding cash and starting afresh, basically armageddoning the team. He's like, so, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm working out of here, but he didn't tell Braun,
Speaker 1: and Braun thought it was about him, of course, because
Speaker 1: Braun is Bron sensitive. Let's be honest, like he's sensitive.
Speaker 1: He's like Yrie, like, come on, man, Like I thought
Speaker 1: you're my little bro dude. Like I think Braun said
Speaker 1: that too publicly. I didn't make just make that up.
Speaker 1: He's like, man, I was like, I'm a little brother.
Speaker 1: He didn't tell me he wanted to go. I wish
Speaker 1: I would have known, like I could have maybe helped him.
Speaker 1: And this is now fascinating because Kyrie's in an interesting spot.
Speaker 1: This was a very interesting time for an inner, given
Speaker 1: that you're at the end of your contract and you
Speaker 1: have a player option and you maybe could go somewhere else.
Speaker 1: Opens up a whole new range of imaginary imagination possibilities here.
Speaker 1: He even said on the I Am Athlete podcast, I
Speaker 1: would probably be in LA right now if me and
Speaker 1: Lebron would have actually hashed this out and talked, oh boy,
Speaker 1: oh boy. So I want to play a clip something
Speaker 1: even more of what he said that just made me go, h,
Speaker 1: what is it? Let me just back that up and
Speaker 1: play that again. Is he saying what I think he's saying.
Speaker 2: I'll probably be in LA right now, probably be traveling
Speaker 2: with his backpack and I'm joking, man, that was like,
Speaker 2: that was a time in my career I look back
Speaker 2: on and we've had conversations, me and Bron plenty of conversations.
Speaker 2: So cool shout out because I was in the same
Speaker 2: maturity lovel I am now and understanding who I am,
Speaker 2: and I look back on that time, then we definitely
Speaker 2: definitely would have won more championship the other because there
Speaker 2: would have been a better man to man understanding about
Speaker 2: what I'm going through I could. I didn't know how
Speaker 2: to share my emotions. Yeah, I didn't know how to
Speaker 2: do that. So instead of sharing, I isolated myself and
Speaker 2: I just started pouring myself more into the game of basketball.
Speaker 2: And I had one of my better seasons, but I
Speaker 2: wasn't connecting with everybody as much during our championship year.
Speaker 2: So in twenty seventeen, it was a different year for us.
Speaker 2: So we went against Golden State, We went against a
Speaker 2: great team. When you're not a great team and you're
Speaker 2: not clicking on all selling the others and together, you're
Speaker 2: easily defeatable, you're defeated before you can get to the arena.
Speaker 2: We were in those games against Golden State. But we
Speaker 2: definitely could have get a run for that money.
Speaker 1: Wow, we definitely would have won more championships together. Instead
Speaker 1: of sharing, I isolated myself and threw myself into my work,
Speaker 1: into the game, right. Yeah, And Kyrie had one of
Speaker 1: his best statistical seasons. He granted it out, but he
Speaker 1: just wasn't you know how when you are so focused
Speaker 1: on work, you make no time for anyone else, You
Speaker 1: make no time to connect, you make no time to enjoy.
Speaker 1: That was basically Kyrie. Kyrie was in a spiral of
Speaker 1: his self. He was just reconnecting with his native American
Speaker 1: anterest sucesstory. Like, I think that's pretty true. He says
Speaker 1: that earlier on the podcast. It's not even any shade,
Speaker 1: and he didn't really know his place in the world
Speaker 1: and how the game was a part of a larger
Speaker 1: picture that was unrelated to the game. This is all
Speaker 1: quotes from the podcast. You have to go back. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna play the whole thing for you. It all
Speaker 1: get sued. But so that's why they said Kyrie wasn't
Speaker 1: talking to anyone in that last year. It's like because
Speaker 1: the man was like apparently isolating himself away from the
Speaker 1: rest of the squad, they won it, and then the
Speaker 1: next year he was like done. Notice though he didn't
Speaker 1: say him and Broun would have won more championships together
Speaker 1: in Cleveland, he probably would have just initiated some way
Speaker 1: of going to whatever place the lebron would have gone,
Speaker 1: which is why he said I'd probably be in LA
Speaker 1: right now. A lot of rumbling right now going on
Speaker 1: whether the Nets are gonna sign him to a max contract.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was fascinating. The whole interview is fascinating.
Speaker 1: Go watch it. Also pac Man Jones, he sucks. Like,
Speaker 1: if you're not an NFL fan, like you don't even
Speaker 1: know what I'm talking about. But this guy is awful
Speaker 1: on the field, off the field, just a terrible, terrible person.
Speaker 1: Also just annoying anyway, interesting stuff. He's on that pod.
Speaker 1: Can't cannot wait. He's on that pod. That's not like Ane.
Speaker 1: He's on the pod. It's Brandon. What's Brandon's last name again?
Speaker 1: Brent Marshall, Ye, Brandon Marshall, Shady McCoy and pac Man Jones.
Speaker 1: What a ragtag crew for a podcast. Love it. Pac
Speaker 1: Man Jones always talking over everyone else, The King of crosstalk,
Speaker 1: can sucks like Also, like it's Kyrie Irving's interview, you
Speaker 1: should got pac Man about what Kyrie Irving was looking
Speaker 1: to do. Okay, anyway, that's a total total side road.
Speaker 1: Listen to the pod. The nets are in a quandary
Speaker 1: and Kyrie is talking about how he wishes he would
Speaker 1: have won more championships Lebron James by being more vulnerable.
Speaker 1: This feels pretty vulnerable to me. Laker's looking to trade pieces,
Speaker 1: Lebron saying he has more could be an interesting thing.
Speaker 1: Or Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant makes me wonder if
Speaker 1: there is a possibility that we could see Kyrie and
Speaker 1: Braun reunite. I would love to see it, and I
Speaker 1: think they would love to see it. The question is
Speaker 1: whether the franchises that are moving the pieces, whether LEGM
Speaker 1: and La Kyrie, can make that shit happen. I'm sure
Speaker 1: le Broun remembers how good he was with Kyrie. I
Speaker 1: am sure Kyrie remembers how easy it was besides Lebron
Speaker 1: telling him he needs to play all the games. Like
Speaker 1: with Lebron, I strongly believe the Lakers would die to
Speaker 1: have Kyrie Irving on this team, and I suspect Sean
Speaker 1: Marks would also be happy to let him go. All
Speaker 1: things being said, a lot of baggage they're not sure
Speaker 1: they can come back from, and I don't even think
Speaker 1: they've spoken yet about his extension. But I am very
Speaker 1: very excited to see whether these recent comments turn in
Speaker 1: to something bigger than just an interview.