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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Jason timp Podcast. Thank you guys so

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Speaker 1: much for taking time out of your day to come

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Speaker 1: hang out and talk some hoops with Tommy and I.

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Speaker 1: All hell is breaking loose in the n b A.

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Speaker 1: Tommy and I had all of these notes drawn up

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Speaker 1: and all these big plans for all these things we

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Speaker 1: were going to talk about, and uh, now I think

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Speaker 1: there's an outside chance we might not touch on any

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Speaker 1: of that stuff and we might be stuck on on

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Speaker 1: this trade the whole time. Tommy, how you doing, man?

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Speaker 1: Good man? Thanks for having me on as always. Uh,

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Speaker 1: this league right, hashtag this league. This is what the

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Speaker 1: NBA is at this point. Um what I mean, what

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Speaker 1: just happened? What we were about to literally about to

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Speaker 1: go on, and then all this stuff happened. So let's

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Speaker 1: scrap all of it. Let's just talk trade. Let's talk

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Speaker 1: with the NBA. Light landscape looks like Now. I'm excited, man,

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Speaker 1: Holy cow. Yeah. So we I was headed into a

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Speaker 1: dentists appointment and I was messaging with Tommy and I

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Speaker 1: said that, uh, that we were hoping that the trade

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Speaker 1: news would come down before before we went live, but

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Speaker 1: that we would operate under the assumption that Philly would

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Speaker 1: get him. Um, that wasn't just reported because it was

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Speaker 1: reported was reported by mark Stein that they were in

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Speaker 1: first place, but we were all also operating under that

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Speaker 1: assumption as a result of just common sense. When you

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Speaker 1: would sit there and think about what the situations that

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Speaker 1: each team presented as trade options, it made so much

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Speaker 1: more sense to go after Ben Simmons if you were Houston,

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Speaker 1: because Ben's because Ben Simmons has been playing so well.

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Speaker 1: And there was some loose reporting from mark Stein that

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Speaker 1: Ben Simmons was on the table, uh namely him and

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Speaker 1: Tyrese Maxie, and that they would attempt to get a

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Speaker 1: third team involved to ditch Tyrese Maxie in that trade

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Speaker 1: so that they could keep some death. But Ben Simmons

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Speaker 1: was on the table, and I mean, my first impression

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Speaker 1: from this, from the from the start is that clearly

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Speaker 1: Philly took him off the table. That's my only take away.

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Speaker 1: I don't know what you thought when you saw that. Um,

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Speaker 1: I don't know if Philly took him off the table.

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Speaker 1: I heard that. I saw that Houston was asking for

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Speaker 1: Thyble as well, which obviously wouldn't have stopped me from

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Speaker 1: doing the deal. If if I'm philly, Um, it would

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Speaker 1: have made reworking the roster harder around and being harder,

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Speaker 1: but you do it either way. I mean with with

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Speaker 1: the actual with what the actual trade was. Maybe they

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Speaker 1: did take him off the table because the Nets only

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Speaker 1: gave up LeVert and Jared Allen basically from what I'm reading,

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Speaker 1: So let me quickly read the four The Rockets get

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Speaker 1: Victor Oladipo, Dante Exim Rodeons Courus, three Brooklyn first rounders,

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Speaker 1: one Milwaukee first in two that's unprotected for Brooklyn first

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Speaker 1: round pick swaps, and twenty seven. The Nets get James Harden,

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Speaker 1: the Pacers get Harris LeVert and his second rounder, and

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Speaker 1: the Calves get Jared Allen and Torrian Prince. And there's

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Speaker 1: a lot of things that I find there to be

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Speaker 1: interesting because, first of all, um, I'm surprised Houston didn't

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Speaker 1: want Jared Allen. Um just just as a matter of depth,

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Speaker 1: I think they got absolutely bullied at the center position yesterday.

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Speaker 1: And I think he's just honestly a better player than

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Speaker 1: DeMarcus Cousins right now, and that would have been an

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Speaker 1: interesting player to try to get out of that the

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Speaker 1: olo depot thing and he's just not as good as

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Speaker 1: a player as as Ben Simmons is. So I just

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Speaker 1: my my basic common sense points me in the direction

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Speaker 1: that Ben Simmons was taken off the table, probably at

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Speaker 1: the last minute as Houston was being a little bit

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Speaker 1: unreasonable with their demands, and then Philly probably just pulled

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Speaker 1: back from the table altogether, and then Brooklyn just hopped

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Speaker 1: in and got this thing done easily possible. But we

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Speaker 1: might be overlooking the fact that Pertida probably wanted to

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Speaker 1: duct the tax because they're getting I mean, they have

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Speaker 1: fans in the arena right now, but it's like capacity

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Speaker 1: or whatever it is. He probably wanted to duct the

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Speaker 1: tax and Oladipo is on an expiring UM. They don't

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Speaker 1: have to resign him if they don't want to. This

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Speaker 1: way they can get under the tax there. He's not

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Speaker 1: worried about his money. UM. They don't still have the

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Speaker 1: hard money on the books and they're not taking on

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Speaker 1: however many years Simmons has left, which is like four

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Speaker 1: or five, but like thirty male plus a year UM,

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Speaker 1: so this might be purely a financial move UM while

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Speaker 1: also getting some few a ton of future first round

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Speaker 1: picks to build for the future. Right off the COVID

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Speaker 1: years and you know, keep your revenue stream going and

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Speaker 1: then see what happens in the future. So I mean

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Speaker 1: it could have been that too. They just didn't want

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Speaker 1: all the extra years of Simmons and they wanted Oladipo's

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Speaker 1: expiring contract. That's insane though, right like well like in

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Speaker 1: the world like I because if there's any report at it,

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Speaker 1: Pertia is looking at it as a money may organization.

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Speaker 1: He doesn't care about winning games. He might all the

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Speaker 1: whip services that he does, but I don't think he

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Speaker 1: actually does. He's just trying to survive COVID. Half his

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Speaker 1: restaurants have gone under, like the guys in Finding hurting financially.

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Speaker 1: He had to go to Trump for a loan to

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Speaker 1: stay up flow like, so I think it's more financial

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Speaker 1: than anything else. But that's why, I mean, that's why

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Speaker 1: I shouldn't have gotten the team in the first place.

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Speaker 1: The team never should have been sold to him in

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Speaker 1: the first place. So it's I mean, it's a mistake

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Speaker 1: by the NBA dating back two years and now we're

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Speaker 1: saying the river cousins of it. Does this guy even

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Speaker 1: like basketball like that? That that's my question. Honestly because

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Speaker 1: like because like he's thinking it too for like too

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Speaker 1: much of a cutthroat perspective here, because like I'm I

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Speaker 1: would be sitting here, like, dude, I got Ben Simmons

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Speaker 1: and John Wall and I got Christian Wood and like

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Speaker 1: and and p J. Tucker and I've got like that's something.

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Speaker 1: That's that's something. It's a fun team. At least it's

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Speaker 1: a very fun team. Yeah, and Simmons is a really

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Speaker 1: good player who if he ever decides to dedicate himself

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Speaker 1: to actually learning how to shoot a basketball, he'll be

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Speaker 1: a great player. So yeah, I think the more that

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Speaker 1: I think about it, and I saw a couple of

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Speaker 1: people say this on what are I really think it

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Speaker 1: was purely a financial move, you know, financial move, get

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Speaker 1: under the tax now they're not paying the taxes here

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Speaker 1: much less worried about the financial future of the team,

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Speaker 1: and they got a bunch of first round picks. So

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Speaker 1: I think that was probably the thought process from Houston standpoint,

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Speaker 1: But from a purely basketball standpoint, it doesn't make any sense.

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Speaker 1: Let's so I want to get to I want to

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Speaker 1: spend a bunch of time talking about what Brooklyn looks like,

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Speaker 1: but I want to quickly touch on this Philly situation

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Speaker 1: because I joked about this with you before in our

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Speaker 1: last part. I think it was one week ago or

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Speaker 1: two weeks ago. I I was worried that Philly was

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Speaker 1: playing so well that they were going to play themselves

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Speaker 1: out of a James Harden trade, talking them into a

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Speaker 1: situation where they would think that they were fine without him,

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Speaker 1: And I do believe that that's what happened. And now

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Speaker 1: the one silver lining they're the one thing that that

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Speaker 1: Darryl Morey might be clinging to is that Joe l

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Speaker 1: Emp has been awesome, and he was awesome again last night.

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Speaker 1: He was hitting one legged fadeaways, he was hitting a

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Speaker 1: variety of dribble pull ups against multiple contesting in congested defense.

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Speaker 1: He looked like the kind of guy that might be

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Speaker 1: able to solve Ben Simmons's problems. So it maybe literally

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Speaker 1: that simple, but I still think that they that they

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Speaker 1: kind of, through the success that they had in these

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Speaker 1: opening weeks, played themselves into talking themselves into thinking that

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Speaker 1: they didn't need James Harden, and I think that could

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Speaker 1: end up being a mistake in the long run. It

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Speaker 1: easily could be. But indeed, right now he's he just

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Speaker 1: turned twenty six, so he's entering his prime. Twelve and

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Speaker 1: three assist, two blocks of game one and a half steels,

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Speaker 1: shooting thirty eight from the from three eight six from

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Speaker 1: the line, had forty five What did he have the

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Speaker 1: other night? This is great podcasting, just reading off numbers.

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Speaker 1: Had forty five sixteen five and five steals and a

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Speaker 1: block the other night last night, So he is playing

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Speaker 1: absolutely incredible right now. I'd say he's probably the front

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Speaker 1: runner for m VP, maybe more. He is banking. Our

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Speaker 1: best player is finally hitting his prime, and we think

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Speaker 1: he is good enough to be the best player on

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Speaker 1: a championship team. And we don't need James Harden. We

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Speaker 1: don't want to mortgage our future for James Harden, um

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Speaker 1: because hard at the end of the day, Harden is incredible,

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Speaker 1: right I've said that many times. Um. I think my

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Speaker 1: thoughts on Harden are well known. But he is in

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Speaker 1: his thirties and Simmons is in his early twenties, and

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Speaker 1: if he can just kind of figure out how to

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Speaker 1: be a better player in the half court and that

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Speaker 1: better utilize his skill set moving forward in the half court,

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Speaker 1: he can easily do the second best player on a

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Speaker 1: championship team. So more he's betting on the future. He's

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Speaker 1: betting on a team that has looked really good through

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Speaker 1: the first eleven or so games of this even even

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Speaker 1: with all the COVID protocol stuff they're going through right now.

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Speaker 1: Um and and a potential matchup with the Lakers, EMBIID

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Speaker 1: typically gives a d a lot of problems. Right There's

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Speaker 1: obviously still the Lebron James factor on the other side

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Speaker 1: for the Lakers, marcusol At that too, that too, but

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Speaker 1: EMBIAD has typically given a deal a lot of problems.

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Speaker 1: So maybe they're just banking on and be being the

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Speaker 1: best big man in that series by a wide margin,

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Speaker 1: um if possible, and then him carrying them to a title.

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Speaker 1: So and Ben Simmons may very well be the best

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Speaker 1: possible guy to guard Kevin Durant Earl Lebron James, which

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Speaker 1: is what you're gonna nectably have to do to win

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Speaker 1: a title anyway, and it could literally be that simple.

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Speaker 1: I do trust that Darryl Morriy has thought about all

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Speaker 1: this stuff. I think that, you know, I think my

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Speaker 1: thing has always been that I trust James Harden for

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Speaker 1: as long as you can focus him into the things

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Speaker 1: that he's good at. And one of the biggest reasons

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Speaker 1: why I think they nearly won the title in two

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Speaker 1: thousand eighteen is because of the fact that that Rockets

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Speaker 1: defense and Chris Paul, Chris Paul and his alpha dog

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Speaker 1: mentality and his his versatility offensively allowed allowed James Harden's

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Speaker 1: weaknesses to kind of be put on the back burner

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Speaker 1: and they nearly won the title. And that's kind of

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Speaker 1: been my philosophy with the with the the idea of

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Speaker 1: putting him in Philadelphia was you put him with even

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Speaker 1: if you lose Ben Simmons. You're putting in with with Eyeball,

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Speaker 1: You're putting in with Tobias Harris, You're putting in with

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Speaker 1: Joel Embiad. You're putting in with a lot of really

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Speaker 1: good defensive players that that that would allow him to

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Speaker 1: kind of mimic the two eighteen Rockets kind of situation,

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Speaker 1: and you have Joe l and b that A's this

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Speaker 1: whole other layer of offensive versatility. It's a much cleaner um,

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Speaker 1: it's a much cleaner basketball fit, uh side by side

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Speaker 1: with alongside James Harden. There's a lot of different things

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Speaker 1: there that just made sense to me. But for whatever reason,

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Speaker 1: they talked themselves out of it. And I'm sure it'll

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Speaker 1: be fine. It could even be a culture thing. It

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Speaker 1: could literally just be that they don't like Darryl Moray

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Speaker 1: knows all that is to know about James Harden, and

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Speaker 1: he just didn't want to deal with it anymore. It

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Speaker 1: could literally do that simple. It could be. It absolutely

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Speaker 1: could be. And and the one thing I had point

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Speaker 1: to relative to Rockets is that the biggest thing I

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Speaker 1: think that Chris Paul did for James Harden was he

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Speaker 1: could just control the flow of the game, right He

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Speaker 1: he basically knew when the time was to get hard

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Speaker 1: in the ball and when it wasn't his time. Paul

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Speaker 1: could literally he still does it with Phoenix. He he's

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Speaker 1: kind of changed Phoenix's outlook just in terms of how

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Speaker 1: they play that the style that they play, because he

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Speaker 1: is so good at controlling tempo and dictating possessions um

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Speaker 1: and I don't know, as great as Embat is, that's

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Speaker 1: not really his strength, right, So if you're counting on

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Speaker 1: Harden to dictate the majority possessions, we know how that

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Speaker 1: story ends every single time and playoff flame outs. So

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Speaker 1: maybe morey with the like you're saying, the breadth of

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Speaker 1: information he has about hard and he just in terms

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Speaker 1: of culture fit and then terms of how that guy

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Speaker 1: plays down the stretch and playoff games. Maybe he just

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Speaker 1: didn't trust and he said, let's just go all in

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Speaker 1: on the future. We build something really nice here. And

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Speaker 1: they still do have some flexibility moving forward, and they

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Speaker 1: have some good young guys on the roster, including Maxie

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Speaker 1: and Tibo, who definitely would have went out the door

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Speaker 1: in that deal. Maybe they're just betting on that because

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Speaker 1: those guys actually fit the time line even maybe a

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Speaker 1: little bit better than Harden does. Like I said, and

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Speaker 1: he just turned twenty six. He's been around for so

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Speaker 1: long that you think he's a little bit older. He

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Speaker 1: literally turned twenty six a couple of weeks ago. I think.

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Speaker 1: So the guy's got if he stays healthy. That's always

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Speaker 1: a big caveat with him. If he stays healthy, he's

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Speaker 1: probably got five, six, seven more years. Is one of

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Speaker 1: the best players in the league. UM, and I'd rather

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Speaker 1: beat on that than maybe shortening the window and um

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Speaker 1: going all in on Hardened, because Harden has proven to

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Speaker 1: me that he can be the best player on a

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Speaker 1: championship team, and I wouldn't even necessarily think he'd be

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Speaker 1: the best player. It's it's it's more just like think

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Speaker 1: of it this way. When James Harden was with the

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Speaker 1: best teammate he ever had, which I mean after leaving

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Speaker 1: Oklahoma City, it was in two thousand and eight team

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Speaker 1: with Chris Paul, who was probably right around the tenth

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Speaker 1: best player in the league at that point, and he

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Speaker 1: was around in elite defense, and he nearly won a

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Speaker 1: title and beat nearly beat a really talented team in

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Speaker 1: that Warrior team. And now you'd be talking about pairing

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Speaker 1: him with more of like a top five player. I

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Speaker 1: had him beat outside the top ten before the season,

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Speaker 1: but they had a lot to do with his poor

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Speaker 1: showing last year. He's just a better guy now than

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Speaker 1: he was then. He's in better shape. You can tell

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Speaker 1: he's moving quicker, he's got a bet, he's got his

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Speaker 1: touch is peeking, and there's a lot of there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of stuff there that kind of puts him in

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Speaker 1: that conversation so that they've got to him in the

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Speaker 1: room too. He needed a different voice in the room

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Speaker 1: to going from Brett Brown and Dock I think helped

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Speaker 1: a lot of huge difference, huge difference and like, and

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Speaker 1: so I think that there's no question that staying on

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Speaker 1: the Ben Simmons path is better for them, you know,

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Speaker 1: five years from now. I'm just a big believer in

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Speaker 1: pushing your chips in the middle if you want to win.

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Speaker 1: And that's just kind of that was my ideology with

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Speaker 1: it all along. But I do think that we should

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Speaker 1: talk about Brooklyn primarily because they are the one the

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Speaker 1: team that infinitely becomes more interesting as a result of this.

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Speaker 1: So the last part that I want to hit on

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Speaker 1: with Philly, I think maybe what we're seeing here is

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Speaker 1: Mariy learning his lessons in a way, right, because Morey

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Speaker 1: was the biggest proponent, especially kind of early. Of doesn't matter.

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Speaker 1: Acquire as many stars as possible and then just figure

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Speaker 1: it out. Figure the rest of the roster out. Chemistry

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Speaker 1: doesn't matter, it does, None of that stuff matters as

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Speaker 1: long as you have superstars. I think five six years ago,

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Speaker 1: Maury Apps gets this deal done and he doesn't even

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Speaker 1: worry about it. He said, we'll figure the rest out later. Now,

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Speaker 1: after losing to the Warriors four or five times, after

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Speaker 1: losing to the Lakers last year, a team with great chemistry,

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Speaker 1: even though they came together quickly. Maybe he's kind of

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Speaker 1: learned his lesson and said, you know what, maybe there

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Speaker 1: is something to this continuity thing to guys liking each

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Speaker 1: other in the locker room, which Billy seems to have

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Speaker 1: at least improved on, you know, compared to years past

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Speaker 1: this year. So like I'm saying, maybe more he has

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Speaker 1: learned a lesson and he's um he's better for it,

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Speaker 1: because the guy absolutely is one of the best talent

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Speaker 1: acquires in the entire league. The missing piece has always

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Speaker 1: been does he actually believe in real team chemistry stuff,

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Speaker 1: which maybe he does now so and it could literally

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Speaker 1: be that he likes what he's seeing with him being

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Speaker 1: and and and so uh so. Looking at the Brooklyn

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Speaker 1: Nets roster at this point, so you've you've now ditched

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Speaker 1: two of your primary ball handlers, uh one in an

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Speaker 1: unfortunate fashion. Spencer didn't what he partially tearing his A

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Speaker 1: C L. But now you you've given away caress Vert.

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Speaker 1: So you're you're basically built on three ball handlers and

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Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving, who may or may not show up and

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Speaker 1: we'll talk about that later. Kevin Durant and and James Harden.

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Speaker 1: Outside of that, there really aren't a whole lot of

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Speaker 1: guys who know how to put the ball on the

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Speaker 1: floor and make plays. Joe Harris is okay. I actually

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Speaker 1: like him a little bit better off the ball in

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Speaker 1: terms of cutting and slashing and attacking closeouts than I

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Speaker 1: do as a guy who can really like make complicated

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Speaker 1: decisions off the dribble, So that automatically becomes a little

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Speaker 1: bit of a shortcoming there and then the This is

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Speaker 1: the most interesting part of this trade to me, by

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Speaker 1: losing Jared Allen, and it's very clear that that it

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Speaker 1: kind of seems like he was a throw in because

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Speaker 1: I don't really understand why Cleveland would want him because

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Speaker 1: they already have two centers. So I just it may

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Speaker 1: literally be, and this is another insane element to this,

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Speaker 1: It may literally be that somehow DeAndre Jordan, in conversations

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Speaker 1: with Kevin Durant, went to management and asked Jared Allen

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Speaker 1: to be shipped out of town because I refused to

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Speaker 1: believe that Jared Allen in the Cleveland Cavaliers wanting him

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Speaker 1: as a third center with JaVale McGee and Andre Drummond

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Speaker 1: was the breaking point for this trade. I just refused

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Speaker 1: to believe it because as clear Houston didn't want him,

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Speaker 1: it's clear Indiana didn't want him, and so in in

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Speaker 1: Cleveland's role in this trade was so minimal. I really

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Speaker 1: really don't understand why he was given up except for

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Speaker 1: ego purposes having to do with with DeAndre Jordan's. I

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Speaker 1: hadn't even thought of that angle, like, at least not

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Speaker 1: in depth, the DeAndre Jordan angle. But Alan has been

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Speaker 1: playing well recently, like when when George wasn't playing, there

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Speaker 1: was a noticeable difference and how much better their defense

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Speaker 1: was with Alan on the floor. So I guess it's

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Speaker 1: entirely possible that that happened. But the Brooklyn is essentially

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Speaker 1: hunting defense in every meaningful way now and just saying

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Speaker 1: we are going to be, I guess, the greatest offensive

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Speaker 1: team of all time. We have three of the greatest

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Speaker 1: isolation scores ever, and we're just gonna bank on them

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Speaker 1: being to outscore being able to outscore you every single night.

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Speaker 1: And I think you know, you, being a Lebron fan,

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Speaker 1: you kind of know how this goes in a way

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Speaker 1: when you have three ball dominant guys on the same team.

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Speaker 1: One of those guys always get short changed. With Miami,

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Speaker 1: it was Chris Bosh. With Cleveland, it was Kevin Love.

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Speaker 1: And those are two guys who were easily twenty point

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Speaker 1: per game scores before they joined forces with Lebron, and

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Speaker 1: then after just because of how basketball works and how

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Speaker 1: many possessions there are in a game and how many

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Speaker 1: touches you can afford to how many players, they both

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Speaker 1: got worked into more ancillery roles in the offense. So

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Speaker 1: the basketball fit is just kind of bizarre to me.

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Speaker 1: You have three guys who were really two guys who

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Speaker 1: meet the ball. With Harden and Kyrie, Katie can definitely

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Speaker 1: play more off the ball, but it seems like part

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Speaker 1: of the reason why he went to Brooklyn as he

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Speaker 1: was tired of playing in Steve's curve system where he

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Speaker 1: didn't have the ball all the time. So I don't see. Well,

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Speaker 1: the talent is obvious there. You have three of the

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Speaker 1: fifteen best players in the league. You have three of

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Speaker 1: the best isolation scores. Ever, I don't see the basketball thing.

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Speaker 1: We talked about this a little bit in our preseason,

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Speaker 1: but I just don't see how this works on the floor.

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Speaker 1: And maybe they all, you know, put aside their differences

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Speaker 1: and decide they're all going to buy in and play

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Speaker 1: really hard and it's all gonna be flowers and rainbows.

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Speaker 1: But I just don't see it happening on the floor.

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Speaker 1: And I would think that you're with me on this um,

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Speaker 1: but maybe you have a totally different view. So well,

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Speaker 1: you and I have talked to in the previous podcasts

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Speaker 1: about how we thought that there was somewhat of an

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Speaker 1: offensive ceiling where you where you start to see diminishing returns. Basically,

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Speaker 1: just like the whole point of an offensive possession in

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Speaker 1: the NBA is to generate a quality shot, and you're

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Speaker 1: gonna be able to generate a quality shot in two

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Speaker 1: different ways. One by running some sort of offensive set

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Speaker 1: that gets a player in a catch and shoot situation

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Speaker 1: or a cutting situation, and two to have a really

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Speaker 1: really talented offensive player break down the defense leading to

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Speaker 1: an open shot for someone else in a in a

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Speaker 1: less a less structured what if that makes sense? Those

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Speaker 1: are basically the two ways to generate offense, and I

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Speaker 1: mean there are there obviously other ways, but those are

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Speaker 1: the two core ways. And so as long as you

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Speaker 1: have guys who can make plays off a catch and

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Speaker 1: shoot situations, which the Nets already had. And as long

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Speaker 1: as you have guys who who can create offense off

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Speaker 1: the dribble when things break down, which the Nets also

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Speaker 1: already had, there's there becomes a point where there's diminishing returns. Now,

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Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant are both really good spot

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Speaker 1: up shooters. James Harden should be, but for whatever reason,

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Speaker 1: he's more content to rest when he doesn't have the

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Speaker 1: ball as opposed to kind of putting himself in a

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Speaker 1: position or you can be a threat. So the idea

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Speaker 1: is is when James Harden has the ball and Kyrie

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Speaker 1: Irving and Kevin Durant are on the floor, they become

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Speaker 1: really really good spot up threats. And and so there

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Speaker 1: is some basketball sense there. But my question has always

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Speaker 1: been when you're when you're framing that out, like what

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Speaker 1: what rate do you think Kevin Durant is gonna hit

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Speaker 1: a wide open jump shot? He might hit it at

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Speaker 1: like fort right, like wide open butt naked shot on

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Speaker 1: the wing. What is Torry and Prince gonna hit a

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Speaker 1: wide open, butt naked shot on the wing at maybe

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Speaker 1: thirty five, you know, maybe thirty eight? Like the difference

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Speaker 1: in a completely wide open shot for those players is

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Speaker 1: a diminishing return compared to asking them to create something

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Speaker 1: off the dribble, you know what I mean. It would

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Speaker 1: be because there's just no player in the league other

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Speaker 1: than like in other than guys like Steph or Ray

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Speaker 1: Allen or Kyle Korver that are just hitting seventy of

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Speaker 1: their wide open catching shoot jump shots. So the bottom

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Speaker 1: line is there's a diminishing return offensively. The way that

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Speaker 1: their team was structured and the reason why it looked

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Speaker 1: kind of interesting at times was, uh, they had this

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Speaker 1: really good shot blocking center and Jared Allen. They had

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Speaker 1: a lot of really really good offensive players. Their offense

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Speaker 1: was really fluid, and they had they were they were

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Speaker 1: able to generate offenses against elite defenses. But there were

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Speaker 1: moments and Kevin Durant would engage himself defensively and they

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Speaker 1: would look like this awesome to a team. That was

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Speaker 1: their winning formula, and they let that slip a lot

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Speaker 1: in the last few weeks, which is why their record

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Speaker 1: isn't supid impressive, And it has a lot to do

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Speaker 1: with what they did on the defensive end, but their

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Speaker 1: offense is still great. I just don't really I I

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Speaker 1: don't understand the the the risk to reward factor with

432
00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:25,240
Speaker 1: James Harden as it pertains to improving what they were

433
00:21:25,280 --> 00:21:28,280
Speaker 1: already doing on the offensive end of the floor and

434
00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:32,639
Speaker 1: somehow improving their defense, which at this point, like I

435
00:21:32,960 --> 00:21:35,160
Speaker 1: don't see any situation where they don't become a worst

436
00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:36,720
Speaker 1: defensive team. At this point, you've got to lean on

437
00:21:36,760 --> 00:21:39,720
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan's now for a lot, for a long time.

438
00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:42,119
Speaker 1: You've got to lean on him a lot. They do

439
00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:44,439
Speaker 1: not have a lot of depth at that position without

440
00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:47,359
Speaker 1: him and and Torre and Prince is basically their only

441
00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:50,320
Speaker 1: off ball wing, you know, not counting Kevin Durant, so

442
00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:53,960
Speaker 1: I the roster all of a sudden is like extremely

443
00:21:54,040 --> 00:21:57,480
Speaker 1: top heavy, like extremely top heavy. The offense was never

444
00:21:57,480 --> 00:21:59,320
Speaker 1: going to be the issue in a playoff series. We've

445
00:21:59,320 --> 00:22:01,080
Speaker 1: talked about this was never going to be the issue.

446
00:22:01,080 --> 00:22:02,680
Speaker 1: The issue is gonna be can they get enough stops?

447
00:22:02,680 --> 00:22:05,199
Speaker 1: Because they were going to score enough, you know, especially

448
00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:07,240
Speaker 1: if they're getting stops. They're getting stops, they're gonna score

449
00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:09,199
Speaker 1: a ton because they're coming at you in transition and

450
00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:12,920
Speaker 1: now you're you're mismatched and they're they're playing however they want.

451
00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:19,480
Speaker 1: But in theory if if all three of those guys decided,

452
00:22:19,560 --> 00:22:22,439
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm actually gonna play a brand of

453
00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:25,199
Speaker 1: team basketball, it would be beautiful and I think it

454
00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:28,920
Speaker 1: could work really well. But the reality is, none of

455
00:22:28,920 --> 00:22:30,719
Speaker 1: those guys have ever really bought into that for an

456
00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:34,240
Speaker 1: extended period of time, Durant being probably doing it for

457
00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:35,639
Speaker 1: the longest time when he did it for probably a

458
00:22:35,720 --> 00:22:38,120
Speaker 1: year and a half with Golden State. But besides that,

459
00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:40,639
Speaker 1: none of these guys, at least in recent memory, have

460
00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:43,919
Speaker 1: really bought into playing like a team heavy concept of basketball.

461
00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:48,440
Speaker 1: So I don't know, man, I just don't. I don't

462
00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:51,080
Speaker 1: see how it makes them that much better, because, like

463
00:22:51,160 --> 00:22:54,960
Speaker 1: you're alluding to, the the offense was already really, really,

464
00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:57,679
Speaker 1: really good. The issue was always going to be can

465
00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:00,440
Speaker 1: they get enough stops to beat I mean, eventually in

466
00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:03,679
Speaker 1: the finals, I guess the Lakers, And that just I mean,

467
00:23:03,720 --> 00:23:06,119
Speaker 1: that looks a lot worse than it did an hour ago,

468
00:23:06,880 --> 00:23:10,840
Speaker 1: and quietly quietly, the Lakers are tied for first place

469
00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:13,560
Speaker 1: in the NBA overall defense that I think like one

470
00:23:13,600 --> 00:23:16,880
Speaker 1: oh four point seven points per Hunter prossessions per Hunter

471
00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:20,720
Speaker 1: possessions or something like that. But literally, literally the team

472
00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:23,960
Speaker 1: they have to and inevitably get through to win the title.

473
00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:30,040
Speaker 1: Is currently the top six defense and is defending at

474
00:23:30,160 --> 00:23:32,480
Speaker 1: the top of the league level despite kind of showing

475
00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:35,440
Speaker 1: inconsistent effort night in and night out. You know, it's

476
00:23:35,480 --> 00:23:37,680
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where like you're you're looking

477
00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:39,919
Speaker 1: at this titan on the other side of the the

478
00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:42,600
Speaker 1: n b A that's doing things the right way in

479
00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:46,520
Speaker 1: a proven winning fashion, and you just built your team around.

480
00:23:46,760 --> 00:23:49,480
Speaker 1: And there's an interesting personality thing going on with the

481
00:23:49,520 --> 00:23:51,520
Speaker 1: Nets too that is kind of being glossed over. So

482
00:23:51,840 --> 00:23:54,880
Speaker 1: these are these are the three stars for the Brooklyn Nets. Now,

483
00:23:55,359 --> 00:23:58,919
Speaker 1: I've got one who's literally on a sabbatical, who believes

484
00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:01,600
Speaker 1: the earth is flat and may or may not want

485
00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:04,119
Speaker 1: to retire because he doesn't seem to really enjoy playing

486
00:24:04,119 --> 00:24:07,800
Speaker 1: basketball that much anymore. I've got two who is legitimately

487
00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:12,119
Speaker 1: like fat and and has been blatantly giving up on

488
00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:15,320
Speaker 1: his Papa Smurf. He looked like popa Smurf last night

489
00:24:15,359 --> 00:24:17,960
Speaker 1: during warmups when he's wearing that blue jumpsuit. He literally

490
00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:21,120
Speaker 1: looked like Papa Smurf. Somebody called him. He called him

491
00:24:21,119 --> 00:24:23,560
Speaker 1: Santa Claus on Twitter. The other day. I was dying laughing.

492
00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:27,920
Speaker 1: The the it's you've got a fat man who quit

493
00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:30,920
Speaker 1: on his team to force a trade in our third

494
00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:35,360
Speaker 1: to get in shape at least at least he's got

495
00:24:35,359 --> 00:24:38,880
Speaker 1: to lose ten pounds like easily minimum, and and so

496
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:42,720
Speaker 1: and then and then our third guy, the the the

497
00:24:42,800 --> 00:24:45,480
Speaker 1: leader of the group, the one who has his ship

498
00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:49,399
Speaker 1: most together, is literally a guy who just left a

499
00:24:49,440 --> 00:24:54,200
Speaker 1: winning situation because the dynamic mess with his ego. Like

500
00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:56,480
Speaker 1: that's the that's the reality. Like he would still be

501
00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:59,360
Speaker 1: in Golden State if he was wired in a way

502
00:24:59,359 --> 00:25:02,399
Speaker 1: that didn't after in how much he cared about his

503
00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:06,240
Speaker 1: imprint on the winning situation. So you can imagine how

504
00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:08,240
Speaker 1: it might affect him if all of a sudden, James

505
00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:10,360
Speaker 1: Harden comes in and is averaging thirty five points a game.

506
00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:13,200
Speaker 1: You can you know, it's like it's one of those

507
00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:16,919
Speaker 1: things where like you've got a really you basically have

508
00:25:16,960 --> 00:25:20,679
Speaker 1: a Molotov cocktail of personalities on this team, and and

509
00:25:20,680 --> 00:25:22,480
Speaker 1: there are so many different ways it could go south,

510
00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:25,399
Speaker 1: Like I was thinking about this. My one of my

511
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:28,320
Speaker 1: main talking points with you today was supposed to be

512
00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:31,560
Speaker 1: based on the premise that he'd go to Philly. Was

513
00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:34,119
Speaker 1: supposed to be that. I that I thought this was

514
00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:37,160
Speaker 1: a legitimate championship contender on the same level as the Lakers.

515
00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:39,240
Speaker 1: That was the way I felt about James Harden and

516
00:25:39,320 --> 00:25:42,040
Speaker 1: Philly with that defense, with the give and take that

517
00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:45,159
Speaker 1: Harden MB could have, with the leap that Embiat is taking,

518
00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:48,320
Speaker 1: and with the proven method of James Harden in two

519
00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:50,280
Speaker 1: thousand eighteen, with an elite defense and a really good

520
00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:53,280
Speaker 1: co star, and literally even that locker room, the Philly

521
00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:55,159
Speaker 1: has great veteran leadership in that locker room. Now they

522
00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:57,160
Speaker 1: have kind of put their foot down on Harden when

523
00:25:57,160 --> 00:25:59,679
Speaker 1: he's being an idiot right like, and he would be

524
00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:03,080
Speaker 1: the only one basically because then and Beads, I mean,

525
00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:05,040
Speaker 1: I think and Bead for all of his flaws, he's

526
00:26:05,040 --> 00:26:06,640
Speaker 1: definitely an alph and he's definitely a guy who wants

527
00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:08,439
Speaker 1: to win. I don't think anybody ever really questions that,

528
00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:13,720
Speaker 1: and so and I just I literally thought that that

529
00:26:13,800 --> 00:26:16,520
Speaker 1: team was a bigger threat. And and I'm so much

530
00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:19,000
Speaker 1: less worried as someone who's not rooting for them. I'm

531
00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:22,520
Speaker 1: so much less worried about Brooklyn now even than I

532
00:26:22,560 --> 00:26:25,640
Speaker 1: was before, because there was always a scenario where even

533
00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:28,639
Speaker 1: if they b s through the season, that Kevin Durant

534
00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:32,080
Speaker 1: would engage himself defensively in the postseason, and so would

535
00:26:32,119 --> 00:26:35,160
Speaker 1: Jared Allen, and so would Joe Harris, and maybe Kyrie

536
00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:37,240
Speaker 1: gets to his two thousand and sixteen levels and suddenly

537
00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:39,960
Speaker 1: they become a threat that is off the table. Now,

538
00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:43,159
Speaker 1: that's not going to happen. They just don't have the

539
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:46,320
Speaker 1: physicality that they would need to really bring that option

540
00:26:46,359 --> 00:26:49,480
Speaker 1: to the table, and and like and and so you're

541
00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:52,639
Speaker 1: you're you're in this awkward situation where like they have

542
00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:54,880
Speaker 1: to they have a mid level exception that they haven't

543
00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:57,600
Speaker 1: used yet five point seven million. They have a disabled

544
00:26:57,600 --> 00:27:00,159
Speaker 1: player exception that they haven't used yet, which is I

545
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:02,359
Speaker 1: think right around the same amount, like five point seven million,

546
00:27:02,600 --> 00:27:05,320
Speaker 1: But there's really no players left to use on use

547
00:27:05,359 --> 00:27:08,080
Speaker 1: it for. You can't trade a player into that exception

548
00:27:08,119 --> 00:27:10,400
Speaker 1: because you just blew every single draft pick you've got

549
00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:13,000
Speaker 1: for the next seven years on this trade. So you

550
00:27:13,119 --> 00:27:16,040
Speaker 1: you're in a situation where you really can't do anything

551
00:27:16,119 --> 00:27:18,720
Speaker 1: until next summer. And even then, all you can do

552
00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:20,840
Speaker 1: is sign a player with the mid level exception and

553
00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:23,879
Speaker 1: hopefully find some veteran minimum guys. All the good veteran

554
00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:26,320
Speaker 1: minimum guys are gone right now, they will be the

555
00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:30,120
Speaker 1: premier buyout destination. That's one thing, but there is there

556
00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:33,159
Speaker 1: is kind of and and I. And the reason why

557
00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:35,719
Speaker 1: they'll be the premier buyout destination is, as you and

558
00:27:35,760 --> 00:27:38,800
Speaker 1: I have discussed, these guys want to play, they want minutes.

559
00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:40,920
Speaker 1: So even though they may rather go to l A

560
00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:45,400
Speaker 1: for various reasons, they'll probably go to Brooklyn because Brooklyn

561
00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:49,120
Speaker 1: is gonna be like, we need basketball players. We gave

562
00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:51,960
Speaker 1: up all our basketball players. We need basketball players, you know.

563
00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:54,120
Speaker 1: So it's it's one of those things where they will

564
00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:57,679
Speaker 1: be having to build the rest of this roster with

565
00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:00,840
Speaker 1: fringe level NBA talent, and that could end up being

566
00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:05,280
Speaker 1: something that limits them moving forward, like permanently. Yeah, who

567
00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:07,359
Speaker 1: is guarding Joel and beating the playoff series for them?

568
00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:11,600
Speaker 1: Guest DeAndre Jordan's But DeAndre Jordan is the tendency to foul,

569
00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:13,280
Speaker 1: and Joel Embiad is one of the best centers in

570
00:28:13,320 --> 00:28:16,320
Speaker 1: the world at drawing fouls. Maybe they're gonna put Jeff

571
00:28:16,359 --> 00:28:22,080
Speaker 1: Green on him, Yeah, good luck, And Kevin Durant would

572
00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:25,160
Speaker 1: just he put him under the basket like everything. Beat

573
00:28:25,240 --> 00:28:28,840
Speaker 1: is a big dude, like Anthony Davis has turned to

574
00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:30,600
Speaker 1: do a big guy and and be kind of towers

575
00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:32,280
Speaker 1: over him, like beating one of the biggest dudes I've

576
00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:36,000
Speaker 1: ever seen any moves really well. But I think what

577
00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:39,320
Speaker 1: all this shows, um this hardened trade, at least from

578
00:28:39,320 --> 00:28:42,440
Speaker 1: a Brooklyn perspective, It's shows how hard it is to

579
00:28:42,520 --> 00:28:47,120
Speaker 1: build a team correctly in the NBA now, because superstars

580
00:28:47,120 --> 00:28:50,240
Speaker 1: have become so powerful, right and you're almost kind of

581
00:28:50,280 --> 00:28:53,880
Speaker 1: always bending at their will. That building a team quote

582
00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:57,240
Speaker 1: unquote the correct way, you know, basically getting two superstars

583
00:28:57,240 --> 00:28:59,520
Speaker 1: and putting hard working role players around them. That's not

584
00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:01,080
Speaker 1: what a lot of stars want at this point. They

585
00:29:01,080 --> 00:29:04,360
Speaker 1: actually want to build the super team when that hasn't

586
00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:07,960
Speaker 1: actually shown to be the most proven method of winning championships.

587
00:29:08,280 --> 00:29:11,120
Speaker 1: It's the it's the quick fix. It's the easiest way

588
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:13,200
Speaker 1: to say on paper, Oh, we got the best team,

589
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:15,520
Speaker 1: let's just roll the balls out and go play basketball

590
00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:18,240
Speaker 1: and hope the talent wins it. But I mean, how

591
00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:21,080
Speaker 1: many teams like that have actually won championships. The teams

592
00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:24,240
Speaker 1: that did the third star, they've always had to play

593
00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:25,960
Speaker 1: the bullet and become more of a role guy. We

594
00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:28,240
Speaker 1: saw it with Chris Bosh Chris Boss has talked about

595
00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:31,280
Speaker 1: openly so many times how tough it was for him

596
00:29:31,320 --> 00:29:33,520
Speaker 1: to say, Oh, I was this twenty four and twelve

597
00:29:33,520 --> 00:29:35,360
Speaker 1: guy who's one of the best players in the NBA.

598
00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:36,800
Speaker 1: I'm one of the top ten guys in the league.

599
00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:38,720
Speaker 1: He goes to Miami with Lebron and Wade and all

600
00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:42,040
Speaker 1: of a sudden, he's basically a glorified role player's shooting

601
00:29:42,040 --> 00:29:46,200
Speaker 1: spot up jump shots and he's dirty work guy on defense.

602
00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:48,080
Speaker 1: So I mean, who is that guy going to be

603
00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:50,920
Speaker 1: for the Brooklyn Nets? You know? And Sean Marks has

604
00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:53,320
Speaker 1: really done a tremendous job turning that franchise around from

605
00:29:53,320 --> 00:29:55,840
Speaker 1: the Bailey King era where they had basically forfeited all

606
00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:58,920
Speaker 1: their picks for old Kevin Garnett and Paul Peers and

607
00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:02,240
Speaker 1: they had no assets left. They brought in a bunch

608
00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:04,520
Speaker 1: of guys that made them an enticing option for free agents,

609
00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:07,680
Speaker 1: and then Kyrie and Kevin Durant got there and they

610
00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:11,720
Speaker 1: scrapped everything that made that team a super enticing place

611
00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:18,360
Speaker 1: for free agents. Point being, I think there's there's a

612
00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:20,240
Speaker 1: long topic of player of empowerment here that I don't

613
00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:22,760
Speaker 1: really want to get into, but I think it's really

614
00:30:22,800 --> 00:30:25,440
Speaker 1: just it is so difficult to build a team correctly

615
00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:28,520
Speaker 1: if you're superstars aren't actually bought into the way to

616
00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:30,239
Speaker 1: build it. Because they have so much power, they can

617
00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:32,960
Speaker 1: just demand a trade. That's basically what Harden just did.

618
00:30:33,120 --> 00:30:35,320
Speaker 1: He said I want out because I'm not happy with

619
00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:37,800
Speaker 1: the situation, and then Houston traded him, you know, six

620
00:30:37,880 --> 00:30:39,719
Speaker 1: weeks after saying, oh, we're gonna stick it out, We're

621
00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:41,400
Speaker 1: gonna keep him here as long as possible, things are

622
00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:43,920
Speaker 1: gonna get uncomfortable, and then six weeks later he's out

623
00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:46,720
Speaker 1: the door. So yeah, it's just it's a really weird

624
00:30:46,760 --> 00:30:48,800
Speaker 1: situation and one that I would not want to be

625
00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:51,720
Speaker 1: a part of as a coach or a management or

626
00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:56,040
Speaker 1: anything like that. It's just a mess. Strictly speaking about

627
00:30:56,120 --> 00:30:59,440
Speaker 1: James Harden in his attitude, Like, we do kind of

628
00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:04,160
Speaker 1: have a a positive track record of players being disgruntled

629
00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:07,600
Speaker 1: in one situation and then suddenly appearing engaged in being

630
00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:10,160
Speaker 1: a totally different player once they get moved. So a

631
00:31:10,160 --> 00:31:12,680
Speaker 1: couple of really quick examples. Lebron in two thousand eight

632
00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:16,040
Speaker 1: team everybody remembers that being one of the best seasons

633
00:31:16,040 --> 00:31:19,240
Speaker 1: of Lebron's career, but right before the trade deadline. There

634
00:31:19,320 --> 00:31:21,360
Speaker 1: was like a ten game stretch there where he was

635
00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:24,480
Speaker 1: bad and and it wasn't quite James Harden quit on

636
00:31:24,480 --> 00:31:26,480
Speaker 1: the team bad, but it was kind of like openly

637
00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:29,200
Speaker 1: pouting on the court bad. Did you make a trade

638
00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:32,800
Speaker 1: or I'm just gonna tank the season exactly. He basically

639
00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:35,680
Speaker 1: was pressuring the front office into making trades of Isaiah

640
00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:37,360
Speaker 1: Thomas and Jake Carter and some of some of these

641
00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:41,920
Speaker 1: other guys. Jimmy Butler in Minnesota famously pitched a massive

642
00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:44,280
Speaker 1: hissy fit and then went to Philly and was one

643
00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:46,120
Speaker 1: of the best players on the floor in the UH

644
00:31:46,520 --> 00:31:48,840
Speaker 1: in that series with the Raptors. There there are all

645
00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:53,680
Speaker 1: these examples of players in NBA history disgruntled, acting out,

646
00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:56,840
Speaker 1: and then suddenly just getting reinvigorated by a new situation.

647
00:31:56,920 --> 00:31:59,720
Speaker 1: So I am not worried at all about James Harden's play.

648
00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:03,000
Speaker 1: It's we're just basketball fit. And then also when they

649
00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:06,240
Speaker 1: start losing, which I think they will a lot as

650
00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:08,680
Speaker 1: a result of some of the flaws in their roster construction,

651
00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:10,800
Speaker 1: how are they going to handle it as a group

652
00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:13,920
Speaker 1: When you've got Kyrie the sabbatical guy, and you've got

653
00:32:13,960 --> 00:32:15,920
Speaker 1: James Hard and the fat man who likes to quit

654
00:32:15,960 --> 00:32:18,400
Speaker 1: on his team. And Kevin Durant, the guy who made

655
00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:20,600
Speaker 1: his most recent free agent decision based on his ego.

656
00:32:20,720 --> 00:32:22,600
Speaker 1: So those are all things that I think will be

657
00:32:22,600 --> 00:32:25,840
Speaker 1: interesting to see how they how they break down. Now, Um,

658
00:32:27,520 --> 00:32:31,560
Speaker 1: about the the championship contender thing that you were discussing,

659
00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:33,360
Speaker 1: which I think you brought up a really interesting point.

660
00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:39,760
Speaker 1: You know, the Miami Heat uh one a title, won

661
00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:43,440
Speaker 1: two titles, and everyone thinks it has to do with

662
00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:47,680
Speaker 1: this idea of the Big three. And don't get me wrong,

663
00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:50,480
Speaker 1: it was very It was a very talented team, but

664
00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:56,960
Speaker 1: they won pretty much because of unbelievable defense and they're

665
00:32:57,040 --> 00:33:00,400
Speaker 1: being a really clear hierarchy that resulted in Lebron kind

666
00:33:00,440 --> 00:33:03,480
Speaker 1: of being a solo star and Dwayne Wade and Chris

667
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:07,360
Speaker 1: Bosh being like subsidiary stars. That's why it worked. And

668
00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:09,640
Speaker 1: then you get to the Golden State Warriors, which were

669
00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:13,040
Speaker 1: they They won in in two thousand fifteen in a

670
00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:16,280
Speaker 1: model where they basically had two stars, Clay Thompson and

671
00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:19,160
Speaker 1: Steph Draymond Green was a dirty work guy, but they

672
00:33:19,200 --> 00:33:22,840
Speaker 1: defended extremely well. Two thousand sixteen, Kevin Love went off

673
00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:26,760
Speaker 1: the reservation mentally, he was gone, like Draymond Green completely

674
00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:29,520
Speaker 1: erased that man's confidence and he was a shell of himself.

675
00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:33,480
Speaker 1: And it was basically Kyrie and Lebron and a team

676
00:33:33,520 --> 00:33:35,840
Speaker 1: that was really defending. Then you go to the two

677
00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:38,880
Speaker 1: thousand seventeen two thousand eighteen Warrior teams, which were historical

678
00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:41,360
Speaker 1: outliers in terms of overall talent, so there's no point

679
00:33:41,400 --> 00:33:46,760
Speaker 1: in even really looking at him defense though, point I agree,

680
00:33:46,880 --> 00:33:49,720
Speaker 1: But then you get to two thousand nineteen and it's like, Okay,

681
00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:54,080
Speaker 1: I've got Kawhi Leonard in Pascal Siaka with this awesome

682
00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:57,200
Speaker 1: give and take and then a really good defense, and

683
00:33:57,240 --> 00:34:01,160
Speaker 1: then it's like Kyle Lowry, well short change Kyle Roll

684
00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:06,080
Speaker 1: Lowry never that's my guy, and you're that's a good point.

685
00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:09,400
Speaker 1: But again there was there was this really clear hierarchy

686
00:34:09,440 --> 00:34:11,279
Speaker 1: where there was one guy that ended up with the

687
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:13,400
Speaker 1: ball every time, and then you end up with this

688
00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:16,960
Speaker 1: two thousand twenty Lakers team exact same thing to bona

689
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:20,960
Speaker 1: fide Superstars, unbelievable elite defense. And even in the Superstars,

690
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:23,239
Speaker 1: there's a clear hierarchy in the way that they differ

691
00:34:23,360 --> 00:34:26,440
Speaker 1: to each other, like they have mutual respect, but it's

692
00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:28,720
Speaker 1: like Lebron's running the show down the stretch of these games.

693
00:34:28,920 --> 00:34:30,800
Speaker 1: And that's where it gets a little That's where it

694
00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:33,239
Speaker 1: gets a little bit more complicated for this Brooklyn Nets

695
00:34:33,280 --> 00:34:36,160
Speaker 1: team because they're missing a lot of things in that regard.

696
00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:39,719
Speaker 1: They do not have the defensive presidents that they need.

697
00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:42,240
Speaker 1: They do not that they don't have the defensive will

698
00:34:42,400 --> 00:34:44,840
Speaker 1: and just the willingness to put in that work. And

699
00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:48,040
Speaker 1: then also they've got three stars, none of which have

700
00:34:48,239 --> 00:34:51,799
Speaker 1: ever shown a willingness to take a subsidiary role, and

701
00:34:51,880 --> 00:34:54,319
Speaker 1: none of it which really look like guys who would

702
00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:56,000
Speaker 1: be willing to be like, here, you do it. At

703
00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:58,160
Speaker 1: the end of games, they're gonna be there's gonna be

704
00:34:58,200 --> 00:35:00,319
Speaker 1: a little tug a war there. So every thing that

705
00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:04,839
Speaker 1: we've learned about NBA history, you know, has pointed to

706
00:35:04,960 --> 00:35:07,759
Speaker 1: us that there's a specific way to win, and it's

707
00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:10,040
Speaker 1: what there's a when there's a really clear hierarchy and

708
00:35:10,080 --> 00:35:12,600
Speaker 1: a really elite defense. And our our friend Bobby on

709
00:35:12,640 --> 00:35:15,839
Speaker 1: Twitter always talks about how the two fifteen Warriors taught

710
00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:18,200
Speaker 1: us the wrong lesson. Well, I could go a step

711
00:35:18,239 --> 00:35:20,880
Speaker 1: further there and say that the two thousand twelve, two

712
00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:23,799
Speaker 1: thirteen heat taught us the wrong lesson because they taught

713
00:35:23,880 --> 00:35:26,040
Speaker 1: us that this idea that you want to get together

714
00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:27,960
Speaker 1: with your buddies that are stars and you want to win.

715
00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:30,799
Speaker 1: But the reality is you need a really clear cut

716
00:35:30,880 --> 00:35:33,359
Speaker 1: hierarchy and you need guys who do the dirty work.

717
00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:35,480
Speaker 1: You have to be able to defend an extremely high

718
00:35:35,560 --> 00:35:38,640
Speaker 1: level and that guy who's your number one, everybody needs

719
00:35:38,640 --> 00:35:40,279
Speaker 1: to defer to him and he needs to be the

720
00:35:40,280 --> 00:35:41,640
Speaker 1: best player on the floor and a lot of in

721
00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:43,359
Speaker 1: every one of these playoff series or you're just not

722
00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:45,520
Speaker 1: gonna win. And that's kind of like the the only

723
00:35:45,560 --> 00:35:48,239
Speaker 1: real pathway to win. And we I think we learned

724
00:35:48,239 --> 00:35:51,120
Speaker 1: the wrong lesson, like I said earlier, absolutely and and

725
00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:53,520
Speaker 1: even to point to the seventeen and eighteen Warriors, who

726
00:35:53,520 --> 00:35:57,640
Speaker 1: were historical outliers talent wise. Part of the reason why

727
00:35:57,640 --> 00:36:00,960
Speaker 1: it worked offensively is because Stephan Clake and morph into

728
00:36:01,440 --> 00:36:04,440
Speaker 1: two of the best off ball players of all time. Right,

729
00:36:04,520 --> 00:36:06,279
Speaker 1: so you can give the ball to Kevin Durant and

730
00:36:06,280 --> 00:36:08,480
Speaker 1: Stephan Quay are number one, are gonna be mad and

731
00:36:08,560 --> 00:36:10,839
Speaker 1: number two they are so good at playing off ball

732
00:36:10,920 --> 00:36:12,400
Speaker 1: that you can make it work at the end of

733
00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:15,160
Speaker 1: the day. And as great as Kyrie and Kadi could

734
00:36:15,200 --> 00:36:17,279
Speaker 1: be off ball, they aren't those guys. They just don't

735
00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:19,720
Speaker 1: move like that like that, It's not in their wiring

736
00:36:19,920 --> 00:36:22,360
Speaker 1: to constantly be moving off ball and kind of just

737
00:36:22,400 --> 00:36:23,919
Speaker 1: give hard in the space that he needs to work.

738
00:36:23,960 --> 00:36:26,279
Speaker 1: So yeah, from a basketball standpoint, I just really don't

739
00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:29,600
Speaker 1: see how it works. They have so their next two

740
00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:31,120
Speaker 1: games where they play the nixt tonight so hard and

741
00:36:31,120 --> 00:36:34,280
Speaker 1: won't be available for that, then they play Orlando on Saturday.

742
00:36:34,360 --> 00:36:36,399
Speaker 1: The way I'm looking at this Brooklyn team moving forward,

743
00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:38,799
Speaker 1: especially if Kyrie comes back, They're gonna beat the crap

744
00:36:38,840 --> 00:36:40,680
Speaker 1: out of bad teams just from a talent standpoint, but

745
00:36:40,719 --> 00:36:42,480
Speaker 1: I think they're really going to struggle against the good teams,

746
00:36:42,520 --> 00:36:45,719
Speaker 1: especially ones that defend. Um. They play the Books right

747
00:36:45,719 --> 00:36:48,719
Speaker 1: after the Magic on Monday. Um So, I mean, I

748
00:36:48,719 --> 00:36:50,359
Speaker 1: guess we'll see how that looks. We'll see if Kyrie

749
00:36:50,440 --> 00:36:52,560
Speaker 1: is even playing basketball at that point. I don't think

750
00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:54,040
Speaker 1: he will be yet. I thank you, still out for

751
00:36:54,040 --> 00:36:57,040
Speaker 1: like at least another seven days. Um. So, maybe it'll

752
00:36:57,040 --> 00:36:59,680
Speaker 1: actually look okay with just Harden and k D because

753
00:36:59,719 --> 00:37:02,240
Speaker 1: they there will be some type of pecking order in hierarchy.

754
00:37:02,239 --> 00:37:03,719
Speaker 1: There's just two guys that need the ball, so it

755
00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:06,000
Speaker 1: might actually look kind of queen. But once Kyrie comes

756
00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:08,839
Speaker 1: back into the mix, I mean, if that even happens, um,

757
00:37:08,880 --> 00:37:11,640
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna get pretty ugly pretty quickly. Yeah,

758
00:37:11,719 --> 00:37:15,040
Speaker 1: And there's so you look at their closing lineup, which

759
00:37:15,080 --> 00:37:18,640
Speaker 1: is gonna be basically Kyrie, James Harden, Kevin Durant, Joe

760
00:37:18,680 --> 00:37:22,799
Speaker 1: Harris and DeAndre Jordan's and maybe there's a version of

761
00:37:22,840 --> 00:37:25,760
Speaker 1: that where they can go small and uh and and

762
00:37:25,760 --> 00:37:31,120
Speaker 1: and bringing uh Torrian Prince or somebody like that. Jeff

763
00:37:31,600 --> 00:37:33,279
Speaker 1: Jeff Green, clear he seems to be the one that

764
00:37:33,360 --> 00:37:37,439
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant trust the most as well. I think it'll

765
00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:39,280
Speaker 1: be there. It'll be their big three. It'll be Harrison

766
00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:42,360
Speaker 1: Green because they can tell themselves that Durant's enough to

767
00:37:42,360 --> 00:37:43,799
Speaker 1: protect the rim and they should be able to get

768
00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:46,640
Speaker 1: enough rebounds because I guess Harden's physical too, and so

769
00:37:46,719 --> 00:37:50,240
Speaker 1: it is Green. But either way, it's it's a weird lineup,

770
00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:53,360
Speaker 1: and so there's a lot of shooting in that lineup.

771
00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:56,960
Speaker 1: James Jeff Green is a very inconsistent shooter, but he

772
00:37:57,000 --> 00:37:59,120
Speaker 1: also kind of has this weird history of making big

773
00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:03,160
Speaker 1: shots and playoff games, So there's that. Part two. The

774
00:38:03,680 --> 00:38:07,960
Speaker 1: question is like, if you can theoretically get Kevin Durant

775
00:38:07,960 --> 00:38:12,040
Speaker 1: to defend at his peak, and you can theoretically get

776
00:38:12,120 --> 00:38:14,200
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving to defend the way he did in two

777
00:38:14,200 --> 00:38:17,080
Speaker 1: thousand sixteen, and you can theoretically get James Harden to

778
00:38:17,120 --> 00:38:18,759
Speaker 1: defend the way he did in two thousand eighteen, which

779
00:38:18,800 --> 00:38:22,040
Speaker 1: is literally just not completely be in that negative. If

780
00:38:22,040 --> 00:38:23,839
Speaker 1: you can get those things, there's a version of this

781
00:38:23,880 --> 00:38:26,759
Speaker 1: story where it goes, well, my question would just be,

782
00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:29,719
Speaker 1: you know, given the fact that the best indicator of

783
00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:33,960
Speaker 1: future performances past performance, what evidence have we seen that

784
00:38:34,080 --> 00:38:36,839
Speaker 1: shows us that these guys are gonna be willing to

785
00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:40,040
Speaker 1: reach those levels again? Especially when you consider the fact that,

786
00:38:40,080 --> 00:38:42,680
Speaker 1: like you know, Kevin Durant has always in his head

787
00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:46,000
Speaker 1: fought this internal battle about whether or not he wants

788
00:38:46,040 --> 00:38:48,880
Speaker 1: to to devote his energy on the defensive end. What

789
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:51,640
Speaker 1: about adding a player as talented as James Harden is

790
00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:53,839
Speaker 1: gonna wake that up even more. If anything, it's gonna

791
00:38:53,840 --> 00:38:56,839
Speaker 1: get worse because he's going to trick himself into thinking, well,

792
00:38:56,880 --> 00:38:58,799
Speaker 1: now I really don't have to do this because we

793
00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:01,600
Speaker 1: just have all this talent I don't know. I just

794
00:39:02,400 --> 00:39:04,480
Speaker 1: there are versions of this story where it goes well,

795
00:39:04,760 --> 00:39:06,520
Speaker 1: but I feel like there are many more versions of

796
00:39:06,520 --> 00:39:09,640
Speaker 1: this story where it doesn't go well. Sure, I mean,

797
00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:12,960
Speaker 1: but you basically be banking on is the outlier seasons

798
00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:15,919
Speaker 1: in their career, not the norm, right, So you would

799
00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:18,120
Speaker 1: bank on that all of them tapping into something that

800
00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:20,840
Speaker 1: they had in seasons where um, they actually committed to

801
00:39:20,880 --> 00:39:23,920
Speaker 1: the defensive end, and they all work really hard and

802
00:39:23,920 --> 00:39:26,000
Speaker 1: they all kind of I guess respect one another for

803
00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:29,640
Speaker 1: lack of a better term, and they really they truly

804
00:39:29,680 --> 00:39:32,280
Speaker 1: commit to winning a championship, which would mean they're playing

805
00:39:33,440 --> 00:39:37,080
Speaker 1: hard defensively and giving maximum effort most nights. Um, it

806
00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:39,719
Speaker 1: can be done. I think the talent is there defensively,

807
00:39:39,800 --> 00:39:42,120
Speaker 1: Like Kyrie is a fairly good defender when he wants

808
00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:44,320
Speaker 1: to be. Durant is one of the better defenders in

809
00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:46,480
Speaker 1: the NBA when he wants to be, and hardened for

810
00:39:46,520 --> 00:39:48,759
Speaker 1: all of his warts. Is actually a pretty sturdy guy

811
00:39:49,200 --> 00:39:52,080
Speaker 1: in the post, like he could speak. Yeah, he can

812
00:39:52,120 --> 00:39:53,920
Speaker 1: easily guard fours and five if they need him to,

813
00:39:54,640 --> 00:39:56,920
Speaker 1: especially if if he is doing less on offense. That

814
00:39:56,920 --> 00:39:59,560
Speaker 1: would be the real key that they all realize Okay,

815
00:39:59,600 --> 00:40:01,800
Speaker 1: I actually don't have to do as much now. Um,

816
00:40:01,840 --> 00:40:04,200
Speaker 1: I can relax a little bit more on offense, and

817
00:40:04,200 --> 00:40:06,080
Speaker 1: I can work a little bit harder on defense because

818
00:40:06,200 --> 00:40:07,839
Speaker 1: I have these other two guys who I know can

819
00:40:07,880 --> 00:40:10,920
Speaker 1: create a shot at any moment in time. Right, So

820
00:40:11,040 --> 00:40:13,200
Speaker 1: it would be all of them trusting each other and

821
00:40:13,239 --> 00:40:14,959
Speaker 1: all of them being willing to take a step back

822
00:40:15,320 --> 00:40:21,160
Speaker 1: and and commit to winning basketball. But almost everything in

823
00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:23,320
Speaker 1: their careers, I told us that is not really the

824
00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:26,480
Speaker 1: route they go. Um, and it just, I mean, it

825
00:40:26,480 --> 00:40:28,040
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like ky reason I had space to do

826
00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:29,920
Speaker 1: that at all. I could be wrong. I could be

827
00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:33,440
Speaker 1: totally all this teammates seem to love him, right all

828
00:40:33,440 --> 00:40:36,239
Speaker 1: in occasions from Kyrie's teammates for the most part, are

829
00:40:36,280 --> 00:40:38,600
Speaker 1: that they actually really like the guys, at least in Brooklyn.

830
00:40:38,880 --> 00:40:41,879
Speaker 1: So I could be totally off base here. Um, but

831
00:40:42,040 --> 00:40:44,520
Speaker 1: the last week has not looked great. So this is

832
00:40:44,520 --> 00:40:46,160
Speaker 1: a perfect time to segue into the Kyrie thing. And

833
00:40:46,160 --> 00:40:47,839
Speaker 1: you bring up an interesting point because I think there's

834
00:40:47,840 --> 00:40:50,920
Speaker 1: a huge difference between likability as it pertains to you know,

835
00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:53,279
Speaker 1: what they think of him as a man and what

836
00:40:53,320 --> 00:40:55,560
Speaker 1: they think of him as as a teammate, and you know,

837
00:40:55,680 --> 00:40:59,080
Speaker 1: this has been the hardest part that I've had. You know, like,

838
00:41:01,480 --> 00:41:04,400
Speaker 1: there's no doubting the fact that that Kyrie Irving is

839
00:41:04,680 --> 00:41:07,239
Speaker 1: an artist, and that's the way you've used himself. He've

840
00:41:07,280 --> 00:41:10,319
Speaker 1: used himself as an artist on the basketball floor, on

841
00:41:10,360 --> 00:41:12,759
Speaker 1: the basketball court. Who's performing for us? That's the way

842
00:41:12,760 --> 00:41:16,400
Speaker 1: you've used it, um. But there is a harsh reality

843
00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:20,480
Speaker 1: to it that, uh, that it's also a job, you know,

844
00:41:21,040 --> 00:41:24,600
Speaker 1: and when you are trying to run an operation like

845
00:41:24,640 --> 00:41:28,839
Speaker 1: a basketball team, especially when you have championship aspirations. This

846
00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:31,600
Speaker 1: is not you know, the Oklahoma City Thunder where it's like, hey,

847
00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:34,040
Speaker 1: we're coming to work here and we're kind of building culture,

848
00:41:34,080 --> 00:41:36,000
Speaker 1: but really we're building for ten years from now. With

849
00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:37,799
Speaker 1: all these draft picks that we have. It's like no, no, no,

850
00:41:38,200 --> 00:41:40,920
Speaker 1: Like Kevin Durant left to come win a title, Like

851
00:41:40,960 --> 00:41:43,640
Speaker 1: Steve Nash took this job because he wanted to try

852
00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:45,799
Speaker 1: to win a title, like a lot of these guys,

853
00:41:45,800 --> 00:41:48,560
Speaker 1: like you know, uh, a lot of these guys are

854
00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:50,840
Speaker 1: going to be looking at the situation and coming to

855
00:41:50,880 --> 00:41:53,600
Speaker 1: work every day with the goal of winning a title.

856
00:41:54,000 --> 00:41:56,280
Speaker 1: And there's as you and I both know, as teams

857
00:41:56,280 --> 00:41:59,120
Speaker 1: as guys who have rooted for recent champions, like, there's

858
00:41:59,160 --> 00:42:02,640
Speaker 1: a process as to that every day, there's an effort

859
00:42:02,719 --> 00:42:04,919
Speaker 1: level and a consistent focus that you have to bring.

860
00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:08,560
Speaker 1: There's continuity, There's all of these There's chemistry is a

861
00:42:08,640 --> 00:42:10,840
Speaker 1: huge part of it. There are all these different things

862
00:42:10,840 --> 00:42:13,399
Speaker 1: that you have to bring to the table consistently over

863
00:42:13,440 --> 00:42:16,200
Speaker 1: the course of the season to build yourself into a

864
00:42:16,239 --> 00:42:18,520
Speaker 1: team that can contend for a title. There are just

865
00:42:18,600 --> 00:42:20,520
Speaker 1: not a lot of examples in NBA history of teams

866
00:42:20,520 --> 00:42:22,399
Speaker 1: wil bs their way through the season and suddenly when

867
00:42:22,440 --> 00:42:24,960
Speaker 1: the title just doesn't happen. So my question would be,

868
00:42:25,239 --> 00:42:30,640
Speaker 1: you know, like I understand the the the the I

869
00:42:30,719 --> 00:42:35,160
Speaker 1: understand the ideology behind like giving Kyrie his space and

870
00:42:35,239 --> 00:42:39,040
Speaker 1: respecting his opinions and understanding that he's, you know, dealing

871
00:42:39,040 --> 00:42:41,520
Speaker 1: with some mental health stuff, and understanding that you know,

872
00:42:41,600 --> 00:42:44,400
Speaker 1: he's he's off like kind of discovering himself or whatever

873
00:42:44,400 --> 00:42:47,080
Speaker 1: it is that he's doing. I understand that, But there

874
00:42:47,160 --> 00:42:49,799
Speaker 1: is a harsh reality of what the team is trying

875
00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:53,560
Speaker 1: to do and and at what point, at what point

876
00:42:53,719 --> 00:42:56,960
Speaker 1: is it time to hold him accountable for that? Because

877
00:42:56,960 --> 00:43:01,279
Speaker 1: again I have no problem with with hire deciding that

878
00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:03,640
Speaker 1: now is not the time to play basketball. But if

879
00:43:03,640 --> 00:43:05,719
Speaker 1: that's the case, he can't be wishy washy about it.

880
00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:08,399
Speaker 1: He needs to get out. And if he's gonna get out,

881
00:43:08,480 --> 00:43:12,120
Speaker 1: like send everybody a text and be like, listen, you know, guys,

882
00:43:12,280 --> 00:43:15,080
Speaker 1: I can't play this year. The virus scares me. I'm

883
00:43:15,080 --> 00:43:17,360
Speaker 1: piste off about stuff going on in the country. I

884
00:43:17,400 --> 00:43:19,439
Speaker 1: don't know what the deal is. I can't be here.

885
00:43:19,560 --> 00:43:22,359
Speaker 1: I'll come back next year, but next year I'm here

886
00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:25,200
Speaker 1: to win a title. Like next year, I'm taking this seriously.

887
00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:28,600
Speaker 1: That's fine, But like, how how do you walk back

888
00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:30,920
Speaker 1: into the locker room next week and be like, Okay, guys,

889
00:43:30,920 --> 00:43:33,359
Speaker 1: I'm here now, I'm ready, Like like when they've been

890
00:43:33,360 --> 00:43:36,320
Speaker 1: working their butts off and trying to build championship habits

891
00:43:36,320 --> 00:43:38,480
Speaker 1: like it just it just strikes to me is deeply

892
00:43:38,560 --> 00:43:41,680
Speaker 1: disrespectful to what they're trying to do. It strikes me

893
00:43:41,719 --> 00:43:45,320
Speaker 1: as flaky. It strikes me as as as a person

894
00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:49,520
Speaker 1: who's so wrapped up in themselves that they're completely unaware

895
00:43:49,560 --> 00:43:52,120
Speaker 1: of the way their actions impact the people around them,

896
00:43:52,280 --> 00:43:55,360
Speaker 1: including one of your best friends that you just swayed

897
00:43:55,400 --> 00:43:57,360
Speaker 1: at an All Star break and to come into joining

898
00:43:57,360 --> 00:44:00,120
Speaker 1: you in Brooklyn, and I have a huge problem with

899
00:44:00,160 --> 00:44:02,920
Speaker 1: his behavior, even though I can acknowledge the fact that

900
00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:05,120
Speaker 1: he may have his reasons for why he's doing what

901
00:44:05,120 --> 00:44:08,600
Speaker 1: he's doing. Yeah, I'm not gonna sit here in question

902
00:44:08,640 --> 00:44:10,960
Speaker 1: the guy's reasoning for doing what he's doing at all.

903
00:44:11,239 --> 00:44:14,280
Speaker 1: I mean, that is not my place. Look, I understand

904
00:44:14,360 --> 00:44:17,759
Speaker 1: him being frustrated about the what the direction of our

905
00:44:17,800 --> 00:44:20,920
Speaker 1: country and the way that COVID has impacted all of

906
00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:24,200
Speaker 1: us because of the response at a federal level that

907
00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:26,839
Speaker 1: was so bumbled. It's absolutely the fact that we're still

908
00:44:26,840 --> 00:44:31,600
Speaker 1: in this situation is patently absurd. And that's I mean,

909
00:44:31,640 --> 00:44:33,000
Speaker 1: that's really all I'm gonna say about it. And I

910
00:44:33,040 --> 00:44:34,799
Speaker 1: understand being frustrated by the ship that went on at

911
00:44:34,840 --> 00:44:37,319
Speaker 1: the Capitol last week. Like I get all of it,

912
00:44:37,360 --> 00:44:41,200
Speaker 1: I really do. But at the end of the day,

913
00:44:41,239 --> 00:44:43,960
Speaker 1: you have to be accountable with the people in that building, right,

914
00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:47,600
Speaker 1: those are people that you're going to work with every day. Look, man,

915
00:44:47,680 --> 00:44:51,319
Speaker 1: I I stopped playing basketball in my mid twenties. I understand,

916
00:44:52,120 --> 00:44:53,920
Speaker 1: and it was kind of a personal choice that I made.

917
00:44:53,960 --> 00:44:56,520
Speaker 1: I could have went and played some small time pro basketball,

918
00:44:56,560 --> 00:44:58,920
Speaker 1: but I was like I'm kind of done with this, honestly,

919
00:44:58,960 --> 00:45:00,439
Speaker 1: Like I'm ready to move on to the next chapter

920
00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:03,480
Speaker 1: of my life. Like it is not abnormal to go

921
00:45:03,560 --> 00:45:05,600
Speaker 1: through like an identity crisis in your twenties, and it

922
00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:07,759
Speaker 1: seems like that might be what he's going through, right,

923
00:45:08,560 --> 00:45:10,680
Speaker 1: kind of going through this path, this path of self discovery,

924
00:45:10,800 --> 00:45:14,120
Speaker 1: which is great, like more power to him, but kind

925
00:45:14,120 --> 00:45:16,719
Speaker 1: of like you're pointing to, you have to at least

926
00:45:16,719 --> 00:45:18,480
Speaker 1: tell the people in that building, and maybe he has

927
00:45:18,520 --> 00:45:20,759
Speaker 1: at this point, but all indications are from like Steve

928
00:45:20,840 --> 00:45:23,200
Speaker 1: Nash and Shawn Marks that he isn't really even communicating

929
00:45:23,200 --> 00:45:27,200
Speaker 1: with them, And like, I don't number one know how

930
00:45:27,360 --> 00:45:29,200
Speaker 1: like you're saying you walk back into that locker room

931
00:45:29,239 --> 00:45:31,560
Speaker 1: and your teammates respect you, and even if they're saying

932
00:45:31,560 --> 00:45:34,760
Speaker 1: they do publicly, there's definitely a little bit of like, alright,

933
00:45:35,200 --> 00:45:37,560
Speaker 1: screw this guy, Like he just comes and goes as

934
00:45:37,600 --> 00:45:39,680
Speaker 1: he pleases and he's not really putting in the work

935
00:45:39,800 --> 00:45:43,799
Speaker 1: every single day to buy into this process. And number two,

936
00:45:45,760 --> 00:45:48,719
Speaker 1: I don't know, from a league wide perspective, how you

937
00:45:48,760 --> 00:45:51,000
Speaker 1: sell people on this product and stuff like this is

938
00:45:51,080 --> 00:45:54,400
Speaker 1: always happening, like like guys just kind of coming like

939
00:45:54,480 --> 00:45:58,000
Speaker 1: it is. It is so detached from reality to expect

940
00:45:58,040 --> 00:46:00,880
Speaker 1: people to buy into your product when people have been

941
00:46:00,880 --> 00:46:02,640
Speaker 1: going to work with COVID issues. And I'm not saying

942
00:46:02,680 --> 00:46:04,800
Speaker 1: it's right with with COVID being president and all this

943
00:46:04,840 --> 00:46:06,640
Speaker 1: stuff going on in the country. People have been going

944
00:46:06,680 --> 00:46:10,239
Speaker 1: to work with this for months and and have not

945
00:46:10,320 --> 00:46:12,560
Speaker 1: been really compensated in any way by the government when

946
00:46:12,560 --> 00:46:15,319
Speaker 1: they weren't going to work right, Like there are people

947
00:46:15,360 --> 00:46:17,440
Speaker 1: with like true, true struggles going on in the country,

948
00:46:17,480 --> 00:46:20,000
Speaker 1: and the fact that that you're complaining about having to

949
00:46:20,040 --> 00:46:23,000
Speaker 1: go work in the NBA, Like come on, man, Like

950
00:46:23,560 --> 00:46:26,279
Speaker 1: the casual fan, like the person that's going to work

951
00:46:26,280 --> 00:46:28,560
Speaker 1: at a construction plan every day, or the social worker

952
00:46:28,800 --> 00:46:32,400
Speaker 1: who is helping the person who just had five people

953
00:46:32,719 --> 00:46:35,000
Speaker 1: in their family die from COVID because they don't have

954
00:46:35,040 --> 00:46:38,080
Speaker 1: the proper healthcare, Like, but you're complaining about going to

955
00:46:38,120 --> 00:46:40,799
Speaker 1: play NBA games, Like, dude, come on you, I don't

956
00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:43,560
Speaker 1: understand how you expect sympathy at that point, Like I'm

957
00:46:43,600 --> 00:46:45,440
Speaker 1: not going to be sympathetic towards that, and neither are

958
00:46:45,520 --> 00:46:50,000
Speaker 1: most like regular people, Like it is just and Kyrie

959
00:46:50,040 --> 00:46:51,239
Speaker 1: has put his money where his mouth is with a

960
00:46:51,280 --> 00:46:53,239
Speaker 1: lot of this stuff, right, he's sitting in on on

961
00:46:53,920 --> 00:46:56,960
Speaker 1: Congress sessions with with senators, he's he's donating it a

962
00:46:57,000 --> 00:46:58,640
Speaker 1: lot of money, so like he is doing stuff behind

963
00:46:58,640 --> 00:47:01,279
Speaker 1: the scenes that that has happened thing, but publicly, I

964
00:47:01,320 --> 00:47:04,520
Speaker 1: don't understand how we expect sympathy from anybody when there's

965
00:47:04,520 --> 00:47:06,319
Speaker 1: people who have been hit so hard by this thing

966
00:47:06,680 --> 00:47:09,960
Speaker 1: and he's just kind of brushing it off nonchalantly. From

967
00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:12,399
Speaker 1: a pr standpoint, it just like you're saying, it comes

968
00:47:12,400 --> 00:47:16,680
Speaker 1: off as incredibly disrespectful. Um and and to wrap it

969
00:47:16,719 --> 00:47:20,319
Speaker 1: all up, I'm not mad at Kyrie the person. I

970
00:47:20,360 --> 00:47:22,520
Speaker 1: totally understand what he's going through. I really do. Like

971
00:47:22,520 --> 00:47:24,480
Speaker 1: I've gone through it, Like I've gone through the point

972
00:47:24,520 --> 00:47:26,799
Speaker 1: where I was like my whole identity was wrapped up

973
00:47:26,800 --> 00:47:29,759
Speaker 1: in basketball and now I'm in this weird spot where

974
00:47:29,760 --> 00:47:32,080
Speaker 1: I'm not doing anything basketball and ball thing where I

975
00:47:32,120 --> 00:47:34,160
Speaker 1: get it. I get that part, But as a teammate,

976
00:47:34,200 --> 00:47:36,840
Speaker 1: I would be absolutely furious with the guy, like I

977
00:47:36,880 --> 00:47:38,640
Speaker 1: would want to take his head off, like, dude, you

978
00:47:38,640 --> 00:47:41,160
Speaker 1: can help us win a championship. Be here, like help

979
00:47:41,239 --> 00:47:43,920
Speaker 1: us do it so well. That's the most frustrating part

980
00:47:43,920 --> 00:47:47,319
Speaker 1: about Twitter. Twitter conversations around this too, because it's like

981
00:47:47,680 --> 00:47:52,880
Speaker 1: it's like, Okay, Kyrie does something that is completely deserving

982
00:47:52,880 --> 00:47:55,440
Speaker 1: of criticism in the sense that he basically goes a

983
00:47:55,520 --> 00:47:57,200
Speaker 1: wall on his team for a certain amount of time,

984
00:47:57,200 --> 00:47:59,359
Speaker 1: didn't communicate. Even when he did communicate, he won't tell

985
00:47:59,440 --> 00:48:02,320
Speaker 1: them when he's in back and and in there in

986
00:48:02,360 --> 00:48:04,440
Speaker 1: the middle of the season, and he's basically violating his

987
00:48:04,480 --> 00:48:07,040
Speaker 1: player contracts. So that's that's that's thing number one. And

988
00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:09,240
Speaker 1: he's being fined for it. He's not he's not getting paid.

989
00:48:09,239 --> 00:48:11,680
Speaker 1: So from a financial standpoint, they are, I guess handling

990
00:48:11,719 --> 00:48:15,200
Speaker 1: it correctly, yes, but so that income people like you

991
00:48:15,280 --> 00:48:18,759
Speaker 1: and I who go, hey, like this thing Kyrie is

992
00:48:18,800 --> 00:48:22,640
Speaker 1: doing isn't great, And then all these people come jumping

993
00:48:22,640 --> 00:48:24,600
Speaker 1: down your throat and they're like, he's actually a good guy.

994
00:48:24,719 --> 00:48:26,600
Speaker 1: He's given all this money, he's done all this and

995
00:48:26,600 --> 00:48:28,640
Speaker 1: it's like, dude, I didn't say anything about who he

996
00:48:28,719 --> 00:48:31,080
Speaker 1: is as a person. I'm not saying he's not a

997
00:48:31,080 --> 00:48:34,640
Speaker 1: good person. I'm not saying he hasn't been extremely generous.

998
00:48:34,719 --> 00:48:36,720
Speaker 1: And like I saw a thing that he like covered

999
00:48:36,760 --> 00:48:39,160
Speaker 1: all the w NBA players salaries during the last year.

1000
00:48:39,200 --> 00:48:43,240
Speaker 1: That's awesome, that's great. However, that does not make him

1001
00:48:43,280 --> 00:48:47,799
Speaker 1: immune to criticism. That's ridiculous. Like it's like he should

1002
00:48:47,800 --> 00:48:50,640
Speaker 1: get our sympathy in this situation, especially when it looks

1003
00:48:50,680 --> 00:48:54,839
Speaker 1: like he's just compared to the plight of like the

1004
00:48:54,880 --> 00:48:58,439
Speaker 1: normal American person. Right now, he's doing fairly well, he's

1005
00:48:58,440 --> 00:49:00,560
Speaker 1: doing extremely well. And so this is a good time

1006
00:49:00,560 --> 00:49:02,120
Speaker 1: to segue into the COVID stuff because I think you

1007
00:49:02,120 --> 00:49:03,920
Speaker 1: brought up an interesting point and it's something that has

1008
00:49:03,920 --> 00:49:07,799
Speaker 1: been driving me nuts because you know, there, I think

1009
00:49:07,840 --> 00:49:12,280
Speaker 1: there is a disconnect between the way NBA Twitter feels

1010
00:49:12,280 --> 00:49:16,399
Speaker 1: about COVID in the way that basketball players feel about

1011
00:49:16,440 --> 00:49:18,719
Speaker 1: COVID in the for the most part, I think it's

1012
00:49:19,560 --> 00:49:22,040
Speaker 1: like media types here, the way media types feel about

1013
00:49:22,080 --> 00:49:25,000
Speaker 1: COVID versus how the players feel about it. Yeah, So,

1014
00:49:25,080 --> 00:49:29,080
Speaker 1: for instance, like the reality is is that, yeah, there

1015
00:49:29,120 --> 00:49:31,560
Speaker 1: are some of you out there that can lock yourself

1016
00:49:31,600 --> 00:49:34,319
Speaker 1: in your house and never ever go outside and never

1017
00:49:34,360 --> 00:49:37,439
Speaker 1: ever risk the virus. But the vast majority of people

1018
00:49:37,480 --> 00:49:39,680
Speaker 1: out there, and I'm not even talking about the crazy

1019
00:49:39,760 --> 00:49:42,560
Speaker 1: dude who's going through Walmart not wearing a mask and

1020
00:49:42,719 --> 00:49:44,719
Speaker 1: in a costing a security guard. That's not what I'm

1021
00:49:44,719 --> 00:49:47,680
Speaker 1: talking about. I'm talking about like normal people, the vast

1022
00:49:47,719 --> 00:49:50,560
Speaker 1: majority of people. You know, we wear a mask in public.

1023
00:49:51,040 --> 00:49:53,799
Speaker 1: You know, we avoid large gatherings. You know, we we

1024
00:49:53,800 --> 00:49:56,040
Speaker 1: we do our best, but we kind of live in

1025
00:49:56,040 --> 00:49:58,440
Speaker 1: a gray area. We do take some risk, you know,

1026
00:49:58,480 --> 00:50:00,920
Speaker 1: maybe it's you occasionally go to the him, or you

1027
00:50:00,960 --> 00:50:03,319
Speaker 1: occasionally go to a restaurant, or for me, like I

1028
00:50:03,360 --> 00:50:05,120
Speaker 1: was playing pick up basketball. Like we all have our

1029
00:50:05,400 --> 00:50:07,839
Speaker 1: things that we did because we're humans. And and it's

1030
00:50:07,920 --> 00:50:10,799
Speaker 1: in a note. It's a lot easier to say on

1031
00:50:10,840 --> 00:50:13,480
Speaker 1: Twitter that you think that you should never take a

1032
00:50:13,560 --> 00:50:15,799
Speaker 1: risk than it is to actually never take a risk

1033
00:50:15,840 --> 00:50:18,240
Speaker 1: in real life. And that's the way these NBA players

1034
00:50:18,239 --> 00:50:19,960
Speaker 1: are and it's the biggest way. And maybe you can

1035
00:50:20,040 --> 00:50:22,239
Speaker 1: kind of maybe you'll agree with me, maybe you won't.

1036
00:50:22,239 --> 00:50:24,239
Speaker 1: I'm interested to hear your thoughts. But the truth is is,

1037
00:50:24,280 --> 00:50:29,880
Speaker 1: like I have had absolutely no understanding of how anybody

1038
00:50:29,880 --> 00:50:32,200
Speaker 1: on Twitter could sit there and say, oh, they need

1039
00:50:32,239 --> 00:50:34,680
Speaker 1: to stop the season, like what that ideology is or

1040
00:50:34,680 --> 00:50:37,200
Speaker 1: where they or what their reasoning is, because what I

1041
00:50:37,320 --> 00:50:40,680
Speaker 1: what is so flabbergasting to me and is that they're

1042
00:50:40,760 --> 00:50:43,480
Speaker 1: so naive that they think that if they stopped the season,

1043
00:50:43,480 --> 00:50:46,000
Speaker 1: it would stop COVID from spreading through the player pool.

1044
00:50:46,360 --> 00:50:49,640
Speaker 1: Like these guys literally, if they were left to their

1045
00:50:49,640 --> 00:50:52,319
Speaker 1: own devices, the vast majority of them would be out

1046
00:50:52,360 --> 00:50:55,520
Speaker 1: there doing reckless stuff, just like all of us are.

1047
00:50:56,160 --> 00:50:58,200
Speaker 1: And so the reality is is like and they'll go like, oh,

1048
00:50:58,239 --> 00:51:01,040
Speaker 1: you're playing basketball, You're ending on each other, You're breathing

1049
00:51:01,040 --> 00:51:02,719
Speaker 1: on each other. It's like, that is true. But you

1050
00:51:02,719 --> 00:51:06,120
Speaker 1: know what else is true. They're playing basketball against people.

1051
00:51:06,400 --> 00:51:09,120
Speaker 1: They're breathing on people who have been tested for COVID

1052
00:51:09,160 --> 00:51:13,120
Speaker 1: twice that day, okay, And there I used to get

1053
00:51:13,120 --> 00:51:16,200
Speaker 1: into these arguments with people before the bubble that would

1054
00:51:16,200 --> 00:51:19,000
Speaker 1: say something along the lines of like, you know, like, oh,

1055
00:51:19,120 --> 00:51:21,279
Speaker 1: how dare you say that the bubble is safer than

1056
00:51:21,280 --> 00:51:24,160
Speaker 1: the real world. That's ridiculous, And I would be like, uh, yeah,

1057
00:51:24,200 --> 00:51:26,000
Speaker 1: it is because no one in the real world is

1058
00:51:26,040 --> 00:51:28,239
Speaker 1: actually doing the things that the people on Twitter are

1059
00:51:28,239 --> 00:51:30,640
Speaker 1: asking them to do. They're not doing them. And guess what.

1060
00:51:30,760 --> 00:51:33,239
Speaker 1: I was fortunate to be right in the sense that

1061
00:51:33,480 --> 00:51:35,759
Speaker 1: there were zero cases of COVID inside the bubble, but

1062
00:51:35,800 --> 00:51:38,040
Speaker 1: there's a similar thing here on a lesser scale. On

1063
00:51:38,440 --> 00:51:41,319
Speaker 1: a grander scale, I should say, like, the reality is

1064
00:51:41,320 --> 00:51:45,160
Speaker 1: is that like playing basketball under these circumstances, if they

1065
00:51:45,200 --> 00:51:48,080
Speaker 1: obey the protocols, is actually a lot safer than what

1066
00:51:48,120 --> 00:51:49,799
Speaker 1: these guys would be doing in the real world, where

1067
00:51:49,840 --> 00:51:51,600
Speaker 1: half of them would be playing pick up basketball and

1068
00:51:51,719 --> 00:51:53,879
Speaker 1: strangers and the other half of them will be going

1069
00:51:53,920 --> 00:51:58,520
Speaker 1: to They were playing basketball, but they were strangers exactly.

1070
00:51:59,239 --> 00:52:01,480
Speaker 1: And so is the thing. If you want to stop

1071
00:52:01,520 --> 00:52:03,640
Speaker 1: playing because you don't want to risk it at all,

1072
00:52:04,239 --> 00:52:06,600
Speaker 1: that's fine, But don't tell me it's because of COVID,

1073
00:52:06,600 --> 00:52:08,840
Speaker 1: because that's not why if you want to if you

1074
00:52:08,840 --> 00:52:10,840
Speaker 1: want to stop playing, it's because you don't want to

1075
00:52:10,840 --> 00:52:13,799
Speaker 1: deal with the protocols, which is fine. That's also fair.

1076
00:52:13,840 --> 00:52:16,600
Speaker 1: You're more than welcome, George Hill, You're more than welcome,

1077
00:52:16,680 --> 00:52:19,120
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving, You're more than welcome to not have to

1078
00:52:19,120 --> 00:52:21,200
Speaker 1: deal with the protocol It's mentally taxed. I not sure

1079
00:52:21,719 --> 00:52:23,200
Speaker 1: you're not getting paid if you do that. You're not

1080
00:52:23,200 --> 00:52:25,120
Speaker 1: getting paid to do that. I don't want to tell you. Yeah,

1081
00:52:25,200 --> 00:52:27,120
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure it is very mentally taxing. Like

1082
00:52:27,160 --> 00:52:29,000
Speaker 1: I haven't had to go through that, right, I haven't

1083
00:52:29,000 --> 00:52:30,880
Speaker 1: had to go through getting tested twice a day and

1084
00:52:31,040 --> 00:52:33,160
Speaker 1: kind of always being unders of veilance, and I could

1085
00:52:33,160 --> 00:52:35,320
Speaker 1: see how that would not only be very stressful to

1086
00:52:35,360 --> 00:52:38,279
Speaker 1: a normal person, but especially to a Black American in

1087
00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:41,000
Speaker 1: this country right now with the past history of this country.

1088
00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:43,200
Speaker 1: Like I get all of that, like that, it's not

1089
00:52:43,840 --> 00:52:46,359
Speaker 1: it's not great, man, it isn't. But if this, if

1090
00:52:46,400 --> 00:52:48,520
Speaker 1: they want to continue getting paid and they want to

1091
00:52:48,560 --> 00:52:50,719
Speaker 1: continue playing basketball, this is kind of the way it

1092
00:52:50,760 --> 00:52:52,520
Speaker 1: has to be for the time being. And it's not

1093
00:52:52,560 --> 00:52:55,400
Speaker 1: their fault. It's not the NBA's fault. It's our federal

1094
00:52:55,440 --> 00:52:59,719
Speaker 1: government's fault for not handling this correctly. But yeah, yeah,

1095
00:52:59,840 --> 00:53:02,040
Speaker 1: I really hadn't thought about it from the angle of

1096
00:53:02,080 --> 00:53:03,719
Speaker 1: if they stopped the season, these guys will just kind

1097
00:53:03,719 --> 00:53:05,680
Speaker 1: of do whatever they want, but they will, like COVID

1098
00:53:05,719 --> 00:53:10,399
Speaker 1: cases won't stop the only way. Yeah, were recently through

1099
00:53:10,440 --> 00:53:13,759
Speaker 1: a big party, someone was telling me, like, the only

1100
00:53:13,760 --> 00:53:15,879
Speaker 1: way to do it is you stop the season and

1101
00:53:16,040 --> 00:53:18,880
Speaker 1: everybody kind of gets vaccinated, right that that would be

1102
00:53:18,920 --> 00:53:20,560
Speaker 1: the way you do it. And I don't want to

1103
00:53:20,600 --> 00:53:23,160
Speaker 1: delve into all of that because there is a lot

1104
00:53:23,200 --> 00:53:26,360
Speaker 1: of dark history with vaccinating African Americans in this country,

1105
00:53:26,400 --> 00:53:29,000
Speaker 1: and that's not something that I feel comfortable touching on.

1106
00:53:29,000 --> 00:53:30,480
Speaker 1: So I'm not going to get into that, but that

1107
00:53:30,520 --> 00:53:32,640
Speaker 1: would be the only way that you stopped the season

1108
00:53:32,640 --> 00:53:34,480
Speaker 1: for a certain period of time. You're like, Okay, everybody's

1109
00:53:34,480 --> 00:53:36,960
Speaker 1: gonna get vaccinated, or at least anybody that wants to

1110
00:53:37,040 --> 00:53:39,440
Speaker 1: can't get vaccinated. So at the very least, we are

1111
00:53:39,480 --> 00:53:42,399
Speaker 1: curving the spread to a huge degree, because I believe

1112
00:53:42,440 --> 00:53:45,920
Speaker 1: it's like it's of a certain population, you know, of

1113
00:53:45,920 --> 00:53:49,160
Speaker 1: the population gets vaccinated, then we're like super on our

1114
00:53:49,160 --> 00:53:52,200
Speaker 1: way to hurt immunity. Um and and it's much easier

1115
00:53:52,239 --> 00:53:57,680
Speaker 1: to stop the spread essentially. Um But yeah, and they

1116
00:53:57,960 --> 00:54:00,480
Speaker 1: literally prepared for this too. They literally see it. If

1117
00:54:00,520 --> 00:54:02,279
Speaker 1: they didn't sit down at the table and go like, hey, guys,

1118
00:54:02,320 --> 00:54:04,319
Speaker 1: we're gonna play basketball. Hope it goes well, it's like no,

1119
00:54:04,400 --> 00:54:06,439
Speaker 1: they sat down at the table and they said, Hey,

1120
00:54:06,440 --> 00:54:08,520
Speaker 1: guess what a bunch of you are gonna get COVID.

1121
00:54:08,719 --> 00:54:10,880
Speaker 1: We're gonna end up having to postpone games. So we're

1122
00:54:10,920 --> 00:54:12,879
Speaker 1: gonna do half the schedule right now, and then we're

1123
00:54:12,880 --> 00:54:14,640
Speaker 1: gonna do the other half after so that we can

1124
00:54:14,640 --> 00:54:18,080
Speaker 1: make up for lost time, Like like we're gonna expand rosters,

1125
00:54:18,080 --> 00:54:20,399
Speaker 1: We're gonna do all these different things. Oh, we're gonna

1126
00:54:20,400 --> 00:54:22,680
Speaker 1: expand the playoff pool so you can get in as

1127
00:54:22,719 --> 00:54:24,360
Speaker 1: a ten seed. So yeah, if you happen to have

1128
00:54:24,400 --> 00:54:26,680
Speaker 1: really bad COVID luck and you end up down on

1129
00:54:26,719 --> 00:54:28,600
Speaker 1: your luck in the standings, there's plenty of time for

1130
00:54:28,640 --> 00:54:30,200
Speaker 1: you to come back and get into that ten seat

1131
00:54:30,239 --> 00:54:31,960
Speaker 1: so you can fight for a spot. Like this was

1132
00:54:32,040 --> 00:54:34,759
Speaker 1: all planned for, and like it just is like it's

1133
00:54:34,800 --> 00:54:38,080
Speaker 1: it's textbook Twitter because someone comes out and tweets something

1134
00:54:38,320 --> 00:54:39,839
Speaker 1: and then all of his buddies and his friends are

1135
00:54:39,840 --> 00:54:41,840
Speaker 1: patting him on his back and cheering him on on Twitter,

1136
00:54:41,920 --> 00:54:43,600
Speaker 1: and I just want to be like, look like, I

1137
00:54:44,120 --> 00:54:47,720
Speaker 1: am not anti COVID guy, I had COVID. COVID knocked

1138
00:54:47,719 --> 00:54:50,799
Speaker 1: me on my ass. I am a believer in what

1139
00:54:50,840 --> 00:54:53,000
Speaker 1: it is. That has nothing to do with the fact

1140
00:54:53,239 --> 00:54:55,879
Speaker 1: that I'm willing to acknowledge the realities of the way

1141
00:54:56,000 --> 00:55:01,120
Speaker 1: society views COVID, which the society views like the society

1142
00:55:01,160 --> 00:55:03,560
Speaker 1: of used COVID, different than the way Twitter views COVID.

1143
00:55:03,600 --> 00:55:05,440
Speaker 1: That's just the reality of the situation. And if you

1144
00:55:05,520 --> 00:55:08,840
Speaker 1: give those players the freedoms of being outside of the season,

1145
00:55:09,280 --> 00:55:13,399
Speaker 1: outside of the protocols, they're gonna run crazy, and it's like, like,

1146
00:55:13,520 --> 00:55:16,280
Speaker 1: but Brian Winhorse said the other day on his podcast

1147
00:55:16,320 --> 00:55:19,920
Speaker 1: that that already over thirty percent of the league is

1148
00:55:19,960 --> 00:55:23,080
Speaker 1: expected to have had COVID judging from positive tests. That's

1149
00:55:23,080 --> 00:55:25,960
Speaker 1: not even counting people who are asymptomatic. So what that

1150
00:55:26,040 --> 00:55:29,080
Speaker 1: means that's more than the general public from what I understand.

1151
00:55:29,400 --> 00:55:33,520
Speaker 1: So it's very clear and statistics that these guys are

1152
00:55:33,560 --> 00:55:36,600
Speaker 1: picking up COVID faster than the average person in America.

1153
00:55:37,000 --> 00:55:39,080
Speaker 1: So like, I don't know what else to tell your

1154
00:55:39,200 --> 00:55:42,080
Speaker 1: average twenty something, especially at twenty something who's in shape.

1155
00:55:42,760 --> 00:55:46,239
Speaker 1: I'm twenty nine years old. Like a lot of my

1156
00:55:46,320 --> 00:55:50,560
Speaker 1: friends are not adhering to anything, Like they don't care

1157
00:55:50,960 --> 00:55:53,080
Speaker 1: because a lot of their friends have gotten COVID, and

1158
00:55:53,200 --> 00:55:54,960
Speaker 1: every single one of their friends who have gotten COVID

1159
00:55:55,000 --> 00:55:57,799
Speaker 1: has been just fine. Right, We're put in this situation

1160
00:55:58,040 --> 00:56:00,440
Speaker 1: by a government that missman, is a situation everybody. After

1161
00:56:00,520 --> 00:56:02,279
Speaker 1: a while, it was like, you know what, man, I

1162
00:56:02,320 --> 00:56:04,400
Speaker 1: can't stay locked in my house for another six months.

1163
00:56:04,440 --> 00:56:07,239
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Like I can't. Mentally, I can't do this.

1164
00:56:07,239 --> 00:56:09,879
Speaker 1: This is more taxing on me mentally than anything else.

1165
00:56:10,080 --> 00:56:12,040
Speaker 1: So I'm going to take the risk, and if I

1166
00:56:12,040 --> 00:56:13,720
Speaker 1: get it, then I get it. It won't be great,

1167
00:56:14,080 --> 00:56:16,319
Speaker 1: it probably won't be fun, but I'm gonna take that risk.

1168
00:56:16,680 --> 00:56:20,560
Speaker 1: And NBA players, if anything, they feel more invincible. These

1169
00:56:20,560 --> 00:56:22,480
Speaker 1: guys have millions of dollars. I can do whatever they

1170
00:56:22,520 --> 00:56:25,000
Speaker 1: want at any point. Everybody has always told them they're great.

1171
00:56:25,480 --> 00:56:28,319
Speaker 1: What would stop them from doing whatever they want right now?

1172
00:56:29,440 --> 00:56:31,359
Speaker 1: And they have giant egos about their bodies. They think

1173
00:56:31,360 --> 00:56:35,600
Speaker 1: their bodies are like machines. Yes, exactly, Like, yeah, it's

1174
00:56:35,600 --> 00:56:38,680
Speaker 1: just the moral preening on Twitter can just get very

1175
00:56:38,800 --> 00:56:42,480
Speaker 1: very annoying, Like it's ridiculous. It's literally so you're not

1176
00:56:42,960 --> 00:56:45,120
Speaker 1: you're not floating up of everybody else. Man, Like you

1177
00:56:45,120 --> 00:56:46,840
Speaker 1: can sit here and act like you're not doing anything.

1178
00:56:46,880 --> 00:56:49,719
Speaker 1: I'm sure you're you're attending small gatherings with your friends

1179
00:56:49,719 --> 00:56:52,040
Speaker 1: and doing stuff that isn't by COVID protocols, like I

1180
00:56:52,080 --> 00:56:56,239
Speaker 1: know most of you are. Don't lie to yourselves, like, yeah,

1181
00:56:56,360 --> 00:56:59,600
Speaker 1: I stopping this season really wouldn't do anything to help,

1182
00:56:59,680 --> 00:57:01,239
Speaker 1: Like I said, unless the unless the plan is to

1183
00:57:01,239 --> 00:57:03,640
Speaker 1: get a lot of people vaccinated, then it probably would help.

1184
00:57:03,840 --> 00:57:06,040
Speaker 1: Right then, then you can say we're gonna stop it

1185
00:57:06,080 --> 00:57:07,799
Speaker 1: and that's why we've we've built in this back into

1186
00:57:07,840 --> 00:57:10,239
Speaker 1: the schedule where we can reschedule stuff and every a

1187
00:57:10,280 --> 00:57:12,399
Speaker 1: lot of people are gonna get vacinated and we will

1188
00:57:12,440 --> 00:57:16,160
Speaker 1: be better for it. M So, I'm just a big

1189
00:57:16,160 --> 00:57:19,000
Speaker 1: believer in like and like. I think you need to

1190
00:57:19,040 --> 00:57:22,880
Speaker 1: acknowledge emotions in the way they can impact people. But

1191
00:57:22,960 --> 00:57:26,760
Speaker 1: I think strictly with decision making, it's very important for

1192
00:57:26,800 --> 00:57:29,800
Speaker 1: somebody in the room to be practical. And and it's

1193
00:57:29,800 --> 00:57:31,880
Speaker 1: always been my it's you know, it works great in

1194
00:57:31,920 --> 00:57:33,680
Speaker 1: my marriage because my wife tends to react to things

1195
00:57:33,680 --> 00:57:35,200
Speaker 1: a little more emotionally and I tend to react to

1196
00:57:35,240 --> 00:57:36,960
Speaker 1: things a little more practically. And then we try to

1197
00:57:36,960 --> 00:57:38,600
Speaker 1: hear each other out and meet in the middle, and

1198
00:57:38,640 --> 00:57:40,960
Speaker 1: it's like it's like someone in the room has to

1199
00:57:41,000 --> 00:57:44,720
Speaker 1: raise their hand and be like, uh, they're these guys

1200
00:57:44,760 --> 00:57:47,200
Speaker 1: are literally going to go straight to the club if

1201
00:57:47,200 --> 00:57:50,640
Speaker 1: we release them from the protocols, you know, and it's

1202
00:57:50,640 --> 00:57:52,720
Speaker 1: someone in the room has to to to talk that way.

1203
00:57:52,760 --> 00:57:55,840
Speaker 1: And then, for the record, this whole season is taking

1204
00:57:55,880 --> 00:58:00,480
Speaker 1: place as a result of practicality. There's there's no reason

1205
00:58:00,520 --> 00:58:02,320
Speaker 1: in the world they should be playing basketball right now.

1206
00:58:02,680 --> 00:58:06,040
Speaker 1: They Uh, there's no fans, so they're they're not having

1207
00:58:06,040 --> 00:58:08,840
Speaker 1: fun in that regard. The protocols suck for these guys

1208
00:58:08,880 --> 00:58:11,400
Speaker 1: because there are a lot more you know, constrained than

1209
00:58:11,440 --> 00:58:14,080
Speaker 1: they would be in their normal lives, and they're playing

1210
00:58:14,160 --> 00:58:17,320
Speaker 1: under like a condensed schedule, and there's just there are

1211
00:58:17,320 --> 00:58:19,760
Speaker 1: a million reasons for them not to be playing except

1212
00:58:19,800 --> 00:58:23,200
Speaker 1: for one gigantic reason why they are, and that's money.

1213
00:58:23,400 --> 00:58:25,200
Speaker 1: They all came to the table and they sat down

1214
00:58:25,200 --> 00:58:26,919
Speaker 1: and they said, Hey, do you guys want to skip

1215
00:58:26,960 --> 00:58:29,320
Speaker 1: the season or you or do you are in risk

1216
00:58:29,400 --> 00:58:31,200
Speaker 1: losing all that money? Or do you want to try

1217
00:58:31,240 --> 00:58:33,320
Speaker 1: to make this work? And literally all of them were like,

1218
00:58:33,640 --> 00:58:36,640
Speaker 1: let's make this work. I want to You can't have

1219
00:58:36,680 --> 00:58:39,480
Speaker 1: it both ways, you can't. We want our money, but

1220
00:58:39,560 --> 00:58:41,760
Speaker 1: at the same time, we don't want to take the

1221
00:58:41,840 --> 00:58:43,800
Speaker 1: risk because we're all taking risk right now to make money.

1222
00:58:43,920 --> 00:58:46,600
Speaker 1: Like every single person almost in the entire country is

1223
00:58:46,640 --> 00:58:48,800
Speaker 1: taking some type of risk every day to make money.

1224
00:58:48,920 --> 00:58:51,520
Speaker 1: So it's just the reality of the situation of a

1225
00:58:51,520 --> 00:58:55,240
Speaker 1: bad federal government. The last thing that I'll say about

1226
00:58:55,640 --> 00:58:59,320
Speaker 1: COVID is that a lot of the stuff that the

1227
00:58:59,360 --> 00:59:01,480
Speaker 1: league is doing right now is and I've said this

1228
00:59:01,520 --> 00:59:04,920
Speaker 1: on Twitter. It feels more optics than anything else. Like,

1229
00:59:05,440 --> 00:59:07,480
Speaker 1: if you're allowed to have two guests on the road,

1230
00:59:07,720 --> 00:59:11,240
Speaker 1: why aren't those guests tested? Somebody tell me why we're

1231
00:59:11,240 --> 00:59:14,280
Speaker 1: not testing those guests, Like that is the easiest way,

1232
00:59:14,720 --> 00:59:19,440
Speaker 1: because they know, yeah, yeah, like like it. It is

1233
00:59:19,480 --> 00:59:23,280
Speaker 1: the easiest way to spread COVID throughout the league, and

1234
00:59:23,280 --> 00:59:25,800
Speaker 1: they know. I think they know how pissed the players

1235
00:59:25,800 --> 00:59:28,040
Speaker 1: would be if you know, you invite a girl over,

1236
00:59:28,200 --> 00:59:29,600
Speaker 1: or you just want to have your on the road,

1237
00:59:29,880 --> 00:59:32,240
Speaker 1: you're in the city that you're from, and you want

1238
00:59:32,240 --> 00:59:33,959
Speaker 1: to have a friend of the hotel and they test

1239
00:59:34,000 --> 00:59:36,200
Speaker 1: positive for COVID. They already can't go to the clubs,

1240
00:59:36,240 --> 00:59:38,880
Speaker 1: they already can't go anywhere. So now you're telling me

1241
00:59:38,920 --> 00:59:40,640
Speaker 1: I can't even have a friend in my room because

1242
00:59:40,640 --> 00:59:43,320
Speaker 1: they have COVID. I think they're they're trying to avoid

1243
00:59:43,320 --> 00:59:45,800
Speaker 1: just ultimate back lad from the players. But it's like,

1244
00:59:45,880 --> 00:59:48,600
Speaker 1: if you actually want to stop COVID, then you're gonna

1245
00:59:48,640 --> 00:59:51,000
Speaker 1: have to test those people too. But I think ultimately

1246
00:59:51,480 --> 00:59:53,680
Speaker 1: most of these guys don't really care if they get COVID.

1247
00:59:53,760 --> 00:59:55,600
Speaker 1: They don't really care. They think they're going to be

1248
00:59:55,640 --> 00:59:57,640
Speaker 1: fine because most of the people that they know that

1249
00:59:57,680 --> 00:59:59,400
Speaker 1: are in their age. Rains that have got it are

1250
00:59:59,560 --> 01:00:02,400
Speaker 1: entirely line after a couple of weeks, mm and so,

1251
01:00:02,600 --> 01:00:07,040
Speaker 1: and like I really think that um people sometimes are

1252
01:00:07,120 --> 01:00:10,600
Speaker 1: over dramatic with especially like a George Hill type with

1253
01:00:10,640 --> 01:00:13,560
Speaker 1: his quotes from last night. People are over dramatic about

1254
01:00:13,600 --> 01:00:17,080
Speaker 1: the reality of the situation because like this is not

1255
01:00:17,480 --> 01:00:21,360
Speaker 1: the bubble, you know, because in the bubble, and when

1256
01:00:21,360 --> 01:00:24,040
Speaker 1: the bubble was being planned, there was no hope on

1257
01:00:24,080 --> 01:00:27,640
Speaker 1: the horizon. There was vaccines were at least six months

1258
01:00:27,640 --> 01:00:30,440
Speaker 1: off at that point, if not more like everything was.

1259
01:00:30,560 --> 01:00:33,600
Speaker 1: It was so everything was so like vague and distant

1260
01:00:33,640 --> 01:00:35,680
Speaker 1: and and there was no real It was like, I

1261
01:00:35,680 --> 01:00:37,320
Speaker 1: guess we're going to try to do this, but like

1262
01:00:37,360 --> 01:00:40,760
Speaker 1: things are really shipping possible, like they didn't they were

1263
01:00:40,800 --> 01:00:42,600
Speaker 1: able gonna they were gonna be able to pull this off.

1264
01:00:42,720 --> 01:00:44,360
Speaker 1: And there were all sorts of people on Twitter, Matt

1265
01:00:44,400 --> 01:00:46,080
Speaker 1: about the bubble. Why are you even doing this? This

1266
01:00:46,120 --> 01:00:47,800
Speaker 1: is putting people at risk. You're not gonna be able

1267
01:00:47,800 --> 01:00:49,280
Speaker 1: to get this to work. This is silly, and it's

1268
01:00:49,320 --> 01:00:51,240
Speaker 1: like and all those people were just your text with

1269
01:00:51,360 --> 01:00:53,560
Speaker 1: people on Twitter who were mad and wrong, you know.

1270
01:00:53,840 --> 01:00:56,640
Speaker 1: But anyway, like the bubble was that I didn't think

1271
01:00:56,640 --> 01:00:58,480
Speaker 1: they were being strict enough with the guidelines. I thought

1272
01:00:58,480 --> 01:00:59,640
Speaker 1: they were being a little bit too loose. But I

1273
01:01:00,240 --> 01:01:02,160
Speaker 1: and I and I did I agreed with that because

1274
01:01:02,200 --> 01:01:03,680
Speaker 1: I thought that was it was bad that they were

1275
01:01:03,760 --> 01:01:06,320
Speaker 1: letting like hotel workers come in that were not that

1276
01:01:06,400 --> 01:01:09,960
Speaker 1: were not tested. There. There's definitely some stuff. It wasn't perfect,

1277
01:01:09,960 --> 01:01:12,320
Speaker 1: but they have good job. They probably knew more than

1278
01:01:12,400 --> 01:01:13,960
Speaker 1: we did two in terms of spread because the more

1279
01:01:13,960 --> 01:01:15,600
Speaker 1: that we learned, it's like you have to be exposed

1280
01:01:15,600 --> 01:01:17,720
Speaker 1: for like a good amount of time to actually so

1281
01:01:17,760 --> 01:01:19,919
Speaker 1: they probably weren't super worried about like a player coming

1282
01:01:19,920 --> 01:01:22,760
Speaker 1: in quick contact with a with a hotel worker and

1283
01:01:22,760 --> 01:01:25,400
Speaker 1: and contracting because it doesn't really happen like that. Yeah,

1284
01:01:25,680 --> 01:01:28,640
Speaker 1: and so the but the reality is is like, hey,

1285
01:01:28,640 --> 01:01:31,440
Speaker 1: George Hill, I'm not asking you to lock yourself in

1286
01:01:31,440 --> 01:01:33,200
Speaker 1: your house for the next six months. That's not what

1287
01:01:33,240 --> 01:01:36,520
Speaker 1: I'm asking you. I'm asking you for at least two

1288
01:01:36,520 --> 01:01:39,400
Speaker 1: weeks while things are really bad, to be especially careful.

1289
01:01:40,320 --> 01:01:43,000
Speaker 1: And uh, now that we realized that the season is

1290
01:01:43,040 --> 01:01:45,160
Speaker 1: on the brink, we're gonna start really digging into this

1291
01:01:45,440 --> 01:01:47,240
Speaker 1: vaccine thing to see if we can acquire it in

1292
01:01:47,240 --> 01:01:49,760
Speaker 1: the private manner, or if we can speak to government

1293
01:01:49,760 --> 01:01:52,960
Speaker 1: officials about that, you know, uh, demonstrating the vaccine for

1294
01:01:52,960 --> 01:01:54,840
Speaker 1: the public or whatever it is. You know, we're gonna

1295
01:01:54,840 --> 01:01:58,200
Speaker 1: work on this. But but here's the thing. It's January

1296
01:01:58,240 --> 01:02:02,800
Speaker 1: twelve or whatever it is, January and uh probably around

1297
01:02:03,280 --> 01:02:05,560
Speaker 1: like Fauci is on the record that the general public

1298
01:02:05,600 --> 01:02:07,640
Speaker 1: will start getting the vaccine in March end of March.

1299
01:02:08,240 --> 01:02:11,240
Speaker 1: And now it may take six months to vaccinate the

1300
01:02:11,280 --> 01:02:15,400
Speaker 1: whole public, but at that point, optically, the league can

1301
01:02:15,480 --> 01:02:17,640
Speaker 1: jump in and get because at that point they are

1302
01:02:17,680 --> 01:02:20,560
Speaker 1: the general public, and they can do things like, Okay,

1303
01:02:20,600 --> 01:02:23,040
Speaker 1: we're vaccinating, we're vaccinating all our players, and we're setting

1304
01:02:23,120 --> 01:02:25,760
Speaker 1: up to vaccination centers in each market or whatever it

1305
01:02:25,800 --> 01:02:28,520
Speaker 1: is they can do. I think part of it, right,

1306
01:02:28,520 --> 01:02:30,200
Speaker 1: if they're gonna maybe if they're gonna jump the line

1307
01:02:30,360 --> 01:02:32,280
Speaker 1: they say, we're gonna send a vaccination centers at our

1308
01:02:32,280 --> 01:02:34,680
Speaker 1: arenas are somewhere in the city to where we can

1309
01:02:34,720 --> 01:02:38,800
Speaker 1: help disenfranchised communities get access to this thing exactly. And

1310
01:02:38,840 --> 01:02:42,840
Speaker 1: so so the realities is like I'm I'm asking George Hill, like, hey, dude,

1311
01:02:43,360 --> 01:02:46,520
Speaker 1: I need I need two months Okay, I need you

1312
01:02:46,560 --> 01:02:50,120
Speaker 1: for two months to do something that is still way

1313
01:02:50,160 --> 01:02:52,400
Speaker 1: better than the vast majority of Americans are dealing with,

1314
01:02:53,120 --> 01:02:55,800
Speaker 1: and just suck it up. And then everything's gonna go

1315
01:02:56,000 --> 01:02:58,080
Speaker 1: more or less back to normal, not completely back to normal,

1316
01:02:58,240 --> 01:03:00,280
Speaker 1: but then we're gonna start having fans in Arena does

1317
01:03:00,520 --> 01:03:02,440
Speaker 1: and you can actually go to a restaurant because you're

1318
01:03:02,440 --> 01:03:04,480
Speaker 1: gonna be immune and they're gonna be all of these

1319
01:03:04,520 --> 01:03:07,360
Speaker 1: different things that are going to that are going to

1320
01:03:07,400 --> 01:03:10,160
Speaker 1: get better and and so and and to me, that's

1321
01:03:10,160 --> 01:03:13,440
Speaker 1: where it gets so frustrating with their attitudes about this,

1322
01:03:13,600 --> 01:03:17,320
Speaker 1: because it's like, this is for the players who actually

1323
01:03:17,320 --> 01:03:19,160
Speaker 1: went through the bubble where it was like ninety two

1324
01:03:19,240 --> 01:03:20,920
Speaker 1: days or something like that, where they were in the

1325
01:03:21,080 --> 01:03:24,280
Speaker 1: in the bubble, Like this is a way, way, way

1326
01:03:24,520 --> 01:03:27,360
Speaker 1: easier version of that, and you've got guys, and you've

1327
01:03:27,400 --> 01:03:31,080
Speaker 1: got guys complaining. It's it's just I'm and I'm pretty

1328
01:03:31,080 --> 01:03:34,200
Speaker 1: sure George Hills on the four year, seventy million dollar contracts,

1329
01:03:34,240 --> 01:03:37,480
Speaker 1: so it's like he's not underpaid by any stretch of

1330
01:03:37,520 --> 01:03:41,040
Speaker 1: the imagination. So I just it strikes me as a

1331
01:03:41,160 --> 01:03:45,080
Speaker 1: really tone death. It strikes me as like like someone

1332
01:03:45,120 --> 01:03:49,320
Speaker 1: who just is really like lacks self awareness and and honestly, like,

1333
01:03:49,360 --> 01:03:52,760
Speaker 1: because here's the thing, dude, Like, hey George, it does suck,

1334
01:03:53,320 --> 01:03:55,360
Speaker 1: and it does suck that you can't go see your family,

1335
01:03:56,000 --> 01:03:58,440
Speaker 1: but like the reality is is that something that literally

1336
01:03:58,600 --> 01:04:01,880
Speaker 1: everyone is dealing with. I'm a single person who's looking

1337
01:04:01,920 --> 01:04:05,080
Speaker 1: at their current life circumstances and doesn't think, oh, this

1338
01:04:05,200 --> 01:04:07,080
Speaker 1: kind of sucks. I wish you would go back to normal.

1339
01:04:07,400 --> 01:04:10,720
Speaker 1: You know, I haven't really seen my parents are hung

1340
01:04:10,720 --> 01:04:12,400
Speaker 1: out with my parents in six months and my parents

1341
01:04:12,400 --> 01:04:14,880
Speaker 1: are like incredibly poor important people in my life. Well

1342
01:04:14,880 --> 01:04:16,520
Speaker 1: I've been able to is like go to their front

1343
01:04:16,600 --> 01:04:18,400
Speaker 1: yard and sit outside and talk to them with a

1344
01:04:18,400 --> 01:04:23,880
Speaker 1: mask on for like yeah, it's it's it is not ideal,

1345
01:04:24,000 --> 01:04:26,360
Speaker 1: Like it isn't. And Georgio, by all accounts is like

1346
01:04:26,360 --> 01:04:29,200
Speaker 1: a really good dude, like was huge part of the

1347
01:04:29,200 --> 01:04:32,280
Speaker 1: protests in the bubble and like it could be like

1348
01:04:32,320 --> 01:04:34,440
Speaker 1: a community organizer of some type and somebody who like

1349
01:04:34,480 --> 01:04:39,000
Speaker 1: really puts meaningful action behind like his words. Right, Um, So,

1350
01:04:39,120 --> 01:04:40,800
Speaker 1: like I don't want to come down on like Georgio

1351
01:04:40,920 --> 01:04:43,240
Speaker 1: like he's a bad person, but I think it's I

1352
01:04:43,240 --> 01:04:44,800
Speaker 1: think really what it is, it's really hard to see

1353
01:04:44,800 --> 01:04:47,440
Speaker 1: the forest through the trees right now, right like the

1354
01:04:47,560 --> 01:04:50,240
Speaker 1: end is somewhat near at least, like we should be

1355
01:04:50,240 --> 01:04:54,120
Speaker 1: able to return to normal life, hopefully by like late spring,

1356
01:04:54,680 --> 01:04:57,960
Speaker 1: early summer, something relatively normal. You know. I don't know

1357
01:04:58,000 --> 01:05:00,600
Speaker 1: how long it will type for things that be actually

1358
01:05:00,640 --> 01:05:05,120
Speaker 1: normal again. Maybe never again. Um but like the end

1359
01:05:05,160 --> 01:05:06,800
Speaker 1: is near, like you'r hand, it's gonna be a couple

1360
01:05:06,840 --> 01:05:11,280
Speaker 1: of months where it's still gonna really suck, and they're

1361
01:05:11,320 --> 01:05:13,240
Speaker 1: not in a situation that anybody else isn't right now,

1362
01:05:14,040 --> 01:05:18,480
Speaker 1: and their situation is mostly better. Um So I think,

1363
01:05:18,520 --> 01:05:20,320
Speaker 1: like I touched on earlier with Kyrie, it is just

1364
01:05:20,520 --> 01:05:23,640
Speaker 1: it is like I understand where they're coming from. I

1365
01:05:23,680 --> 01:05:27,080
Speaker 1: really do, because it does suck. But you're not gonna

1366
01:05:27,120 --> 01:05:30,400
Speaker 1: get sympathy from most people. And that's the reality of

1367
01:05:30,440 --> 01:05:33,240
Speaker 1: the situation. You Like, you're asking people who are making

1368
01:05:33,280 --> 01:05:35,160
Speaker 1: like way less money than you and have access to

1369
01:05:36,120 --> 01:05:38,920
Speaker 1: way shitty you're health care than you do, to like

1370
01:05:39,160 --> 01:05:41,920
Speaker 1: to feel sympathetic for you. Like it's like, dude, I'm

1371
01:05:41,960 --> 01:05:44,080
Speaker 1: just I got my own stuff going on right now, man,

1372
01:05:44,360 --> 01:05:46,480
Speaker 1: Like I just all I want for the next couple

1373
01:05:46,520 --> 01:05:48,160
Speaker 1: of months is to make sure my mom doesn't get

1374
01:05:48,160 --> 01:05:50,520
Speaker 1: COVID because if she does, it's not gonna end well.

1375
01:05:50,920 --> 01:05:53,720
Speaker 1: Like and that's really that. I think about that every

1376
01:05:53,720 --> 01:05:57,080
Speaker 1: single day, every single day. And you know, we have

1377
01:05:57,600 --> 01:05:59,400
Speaker 1: my parents have good health care. But who knows if

1378
01:05:59,680 --> 01:06:01,960
Speaker 1: if she's in a position to where the hospitals are

1379
01:06:01,960 --> 01:06:04,840
Speaker 1: impacted right now in southern California, Like if she has

1380
01:06:04,880 --> 01:06:06,280
Speaker 1: to go to the hospital, maybe she doesn't even get

1381
01:06:06,280 --> 01:06:09,000
Speaker 1: a bed. And if you're an NBA athlete, you can

1382
01:06:09,000 --> 01:06:12,680
Speaker 1: probably get your your your mom, your dad, whoever a

1383
01:06:12,720 --> 01:06:14,320
Speaker 1: bet is, sometimes you can get him the correct care.

1384
01:06:14,480 --> 01:06:19,400
Speaker 1: Like It's just I don't know, it's a situation for anybody.

1385
01:06:19,640 --> 01:06:22,880
Speaker 1: But the complaining is not going to guard any sympathy

1386
01:06:22,960 --> 01:06:27,439
Speaker 1: from almost anybody in the country unless around Twitter apparently. Sure, yeah,

1387
01:06:27,480 --> 01:06:30,200
Speaker 1: exactly for sure. And and and for the record, I don't

1388
01:06:30,240 --> 01:06:32,120
Speaker 1: want to I'm not coming down on George Hill as

1389
01:06:32,120 --> 01:06:34,080
Speaker 1: a person. I think that's something that gets glossed over

1390
01:06:34,120 --> 01:06:38,320
Speaker 1: really often with these uh um, with all of this

1391
01:06:38,920 --> 01:06:42,240
Speaker 1: discourse that takes place on Twitter. Like here's the thing, dude, Like,

1392
01:06:42,240 --> 01:06:48,640
Speaker 1: like sports media and talking about sports is all about

1393
01:06:48,680 --> 01:06:51,560
Speaker 1: a combination of criticism in praise, and it's pretty much

1394
01:06:51,560 --> 01:06:54,520
Speaker 1: down the middle, because in a world where we only

1395
01:06:54,520 --> 01:06:57,200
Speaker 1: said nice things about people, there'll be nothing to talk about.

1396
01:06:57,360 --> 01:07:00,640
Speaker 1: And and it's kind of a harsh reality of the business.

1397
01:07:00,640 --> 01:07:05,040
Speaker 1: Like and it's like if I, you know, randomly, by

1398
01:07:05,080 --> 01:07:07,800
Speaker 1: some fluke chance, got offered a contract tomorrow to play

1399
01:07:07,800 --> 01:07:10,240
Speaker 1: for the Phoenix Suns, I would understand when I signed

1400
01:07:10,240 --> 01:07:12,520
Speaker 1: on the dotted line, Like, hey, this comes with criticism

1401
01:07:12,600 --> 01:07:15,280
Speaker 1: from media and fans, but like that's just that's just

1402
01:07:15,320 --> 01:07:17,760
Speaker 1: the reality of what the job, why you're making all

1403
01:07:17,760 --> 01:07:19,320
Speaker 1: the money. It's part of what you're making all that

1404
01:07:19,360 --> 01:07:22,720
Speaker 1: money percent sure, Like it's it's it's the reality of

1405
01:07:22,760 --> 01:07:26,360
Speaker 1: the business. And like, and uh, where where I draw

1406
01:07:26,400 --> 01:07:29,160
Speaker 1: the line is when people do really get into character

1407
01:07:29,320 --> 01:07:31,920
Speaker 1: stuff and and I really have I avoid that, Like

1408
01:07:32,400 --> 01:07:35,560
Speaker 1: it is very rare for me to bring up someone's character,

1409
01:07:36,200 --> 01:07:38,600
Speaker 1: you know, as as part of a larger discussion about

1410
01:07:38,600 --> 01:07:40,240
Speaker 1: who they are as a person. A lot of times

1411
01:07:40,280 --> 01:07:43,840
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm I'm criticizing a specific thing that they did.

1412
01:07:44,120 --> 01:07:46,880
Speaker 1: George Hill, by all accounts, is an amazing guy, and

1413
01:07:46,960 --> 01:07:48,840
Speaker 1: I particularly like him because he's the kind of guy

1414
01:07:48,880 --> 01:07:51,520
Speaker 1: who shows up two games and his team sweats, and

1415
01:07:51,520 --> 01:07:53,520
Speaker 1: it just reminds me of the guy from college who

1416
01:07:53,680 --> 01:07:56,000
Speaker 1: like just always wore his college gear everywhere he went,

1417
01:07:56,120 --> 01:07:57,760
Speaker 1: never really dressed up like that. That to me is

1418
01:07:57,800 --> 01:08:01,280
Speaker 1: like the old fashioned hooper. Just that was me too,

1419
01:08:01,360 --> 01:08:03,800
Speaker 1: Like the old fashioned hooper, the guy that's like, I'm

1420
01:08:03,840 --> 01:08:05,600
Speaker 1: here to play basketball, man, That's what I love to do.

1421
01:08:05,600 --> 01:08:08,880
Speaker 1: It's what I want to do, you know at all

1422
01:08:08,960 --> 01:08:13,200
Speaker 1: exactly that I I love George lais a player. I'm

1423
01:08:13,240 --> 01:08:15,760
Speaker 1: criticizing him for this one thing that he said, and

1424
01:08:15,840 --> 01:08:18,280
Speaker 1: it bothers me that on Twitter. It's like it's like

1425
01:08:18,360 --> 01:08:20,439
Speaker 1: it's like I said, there's a cycle. It's a vicious

1426
01:08:20,439 --> 01:08:24,160
Speaker 1: cycle of like someone does something, whether it's misses a

1427
01:08:24,240 --> 01:08:26,439
Speaker 1: key shot in the game or says something off the

1428
01:08:26,439 --> 01:08:30,599
Speaker 1: court that's not super smart. You know, some people criticize him,

1429
01:08:30,840 --> 01:08:32,600
Speaker 1: and then this army and people jump on you the

1430
01:08:32,600 --> 01:08:34,280
Speaker 1: other way around, and then it becomes this thing where

1431
01:08:34,320 --> 01:08:36,160
Speaker 1: we're like criticizing them as people. It's like, no, that's

1432
01:08:36,200 --> 01:08:38,559
Speaker 1: not what we're saying here, Like we're we exist. Let's

1433
01:08:38,600 --> 01:08:41,439
Speaker 1: acknowledge the reality of what are are are not our job,

1434
01:08:41,479 --> 01:08:44,720
Speaker 1: but our hobby is here, We're we're talking about sports. Like, dude,

1435
01:08:44,760 --> 01:08:46,080
Speaker 1: if you and I got out here and just said

1436
01:08:46,160 --> 01:08:48,639
Speaker 1: nice things about everybody would be the most boring podcast

1437
01:08:48,680 --> 01:08:51,960
Speaker 1: in history, really easily. The thing about Twitter is everything

1438
01:08:52,000 --> 01:08:55,840
Speaker 1: gets taken to the nth degree. Right, you say one

1439
01:08:55,840 --> 01:08:58,360
Speaker 1: bad thing about a guy and maybe the way he's acting,

1440
01:08:58,360 --> 01:08:59,880
Speaker 1: and it's like, oh, you think he's a terrible person,

1441
01:09:00,320 --> 01:09:02,000
Speaker 1: and that makes you a terrible person. It's like no,

1442
01:09:02,479 --> 01:09:05,639
Speaker 1: and it's look, bring it back to my stepf career conversation.

1443
01:09:05,680 --> 01:09:07,719
Speaker 1: This is a microcosm of it all. I said, look,

1444
01:09:07,760 --> 01:09:11,120
Speaker 1: he might be declining. Maybe I'm seeing some things that

1445
01:09:11,240 --> 01:09:14,400
Speaker 1: might be indicating that, and people took that as, oh,

1446
01:09:14,400 --> 01:09:16,720
Speaker 1: you think he's washed? Do you think he sucks? Now? Like, no,

1447
01:09:17,200 --> 01:09:19,360
Speaker 1: maybe he's not a top three player in the league.

1448
01:09:19,400 --> 01:09:23,200
Speaker 1: Maybe he's only top ten. Right, It's just, for whatever reason,

1449
01:09:23,560 --> 01:09:26,360
Speaker 1: the way that the conversation happens kind of organically on Twitter,

1450
01:09:26,520 --> 01:09:29,320
Speaker 1: it makes people just make the most ridiculous conclusions of

1451
01:09:29,320 --> 01:09:32,280
Speaker 1: all time. They just draw the most absurd things. And

1452
01:09:33,080 --> 01:09:36,520
Speaker 1: I think maybe because it's fun to point fingers and

1453
01:09:36,520 --> 01:09:39,840
Speaker 1: and call people names and whatever. But yeah, it's just

1454
01:09:39,880 --> 01:09:41,840
Speaker 1: it's the nature of Twitter, and it's always gonna be

1455
01:09:41,840 --> 01:09:43,439
Speaker 1: like that as long as I'm on that platform. So

1456
01:09:43,840 --> 01:09:45,680
Speaker 1: for sure, Well before I let you out of here,

1457
01:09:45,680 --> 01:09:48,680
Speaker 1: I'm gonna nail you down on a prediction for U

1458
01:09:48,920 --> 01:09:51,040
Speaker 1: Phil for Brooklyn. What do you think is gonna happen?

1459
01:09:52,520 --> 01:09:54,320
Speaker 1: I kind of touched on it earlier. I think they're

1460
01:09:54,320 --> 01:09:56,160
Speaker 1: gonna beat the crap out of bad teams, Like they're

1461
01:09:56,160 --> 01:09:58,000
Speaker 1: just gonna they're gonna score a hundred and thirty points

1462
01:09:58,080 --> 01:09:59,519
Speaker 1: and they're gonna run up the score and it's gonna

1463
01:09:59,560 --> 01:10:01,479
Speaker 1: look amazing and people are gonna be like, oh my god,

1464
01:10:01,720 --> 01:10:04,240
Speaker 1: can anybody beat this team. They're gonna run through the

1465
01:10:04,240 --> 01:10:06,960
Speaker 1: East and win the championship. I think they probably end

1466
01:10:07,040 --> 01:10:08,479
Speaker 1: up losing in like the second round of the Eastern

1467
01:10:08,520 --> 01:10:12,840
Speaker 1: Conference finals, depending on the matchup, just because they're not

1468
01:10:12,840 --> 01:10:15,839
Speaker 1: gonna get enough stops. They're just not going to it unless,

1469
01:10:15,880 --> 01:10:19,120
Speaker 1: like we said, there's always possibility we get that outlier

1470
01:10:19,160 --> 01:10:22,000
Speaker 1: season defensively from all three of their superstars, right, if

1471
01:10:22,040 --> 01:10:24,599
Speaker 1: they all commit to it, then yeah, I could see

1472
01:10:24,640 --> 01:10:27,280
Speaker 1: them easily going to the to the finals and winning

1473
01:10:27,280 --> 01:10:29,479
Speaker 1: the title, even because there is so much offensive talent there.

1474
01:10:29,680 --> 01:10:32,360
Speaker 1: But it would take something that isn't the norm from

1475
01:10:32,360 --> 01:10:34,800
Speaker 1: all three of them and putting three guys who have

1476
01:10:34,840 --> 01:10:37,280
Speaker 1: never really committed on that end truly, and putting them

1477
01:10:37,280 --> 01:10:38,640
Speaker 1: on the same team, I don't see how that's a

1478
01:10:38,680 --> 01:10:43,040
Speaker 1: recipe for success at all. So my my prediction is similar.

1479
01:10:43,040 --> 01:10:46,400
Speaker 1: I believe that they would lose, probably in Eastern Conference finals,

1480
01:10:46,400 --> 01:10:49,439
Speaker 1: but possibly in the second round. And the reason is

1481
01:10:49,479 --> 01:10:52,160
Speaker 1: really simple. In addition to them not really being able

1482
01:10:52,200 --> 01:10:54,519
Speaker 1: to defend, I think they're going to be an offense

1483
01:10:54,600 --> 01:10:57,160
Speaker 1: that is easy to stagnate when you're a good defense.

1484
01:10:57,479 --> 01:11:00,479
Speaker 1: So if I'm Brooklyn, if I'm silly, if I'm Boston,

1485
01:11:00,640 --> 01:11:03,200
Speaker 1: any sort of like good switchy defense that's got a

1486
01:11:03,200 --> 01:11:04,760
Speaker 1: lot of wings that can throw it, that they can

1487
01:11:04,760 --> 01:11:07,720
Speaker 1: throw at people, they're going to be able to stagnate

1488
01:11:07,760 --> 01:11:10,360
Speaker 1: that offense and turn it into an isolation fest so

1489
01:11:10,439 --> 01:11:17,120
Speaker 1: fast and while those it'll require unbelievable performances from those

1490
01:11:17,160 --> 01:11:20,519
Speaker 1: guys to win some of these games, and uh, and

1491
01:11:20,680 --> 01:11:22,120
Speaker 1: I just don't think it'll be enough. I think, like

1492
01:11:22,400 --> 01:11:26,160
Speaker 1: I think that in those scenarios, when you stagnate Brooklyn

1493
01:11:26,160 --> 01:11:29,479
Speaker 1: and they start missing shots then and then and then

1494
01:11:29,520 --> 01:11:31,400
Speaker 1: then on the other end, they're not defending at a

1495
01:11:31,439 --> 01:11:33,439
Speaker 1: super high level, I think they're gonna be a team

1496
01:11:33,439 --> 01:11:37,880
Speaker 1: that's really susceptible the big runs, and they really are

1497
01:11:37,960 --> 01:11:41,720
Speaker 1: at this point like even a crazier concoction version of

1498
01:11:41,760 --> 01:11:44,599
Speaker 1: the of the Clippers in the sense that like they

1499
01:11:45,200 --> 01:11:48,320
Speaker 1: kind of lack of basketball like you. Overall, they're gonna

1500
01:11:48,320 --> 01:11:50,720
Speaker 1: be easy to stagnate and force them into taking a

1501
01:11:50,720 --> 01:11:53,920
Speaker 1: lot of difficult shots over contests, and then they're gonna

1502
01:11:53,920 --> 01:11:57,200
Speaker 1: have a weird kind of like mentality mix that could

1503
01:11:57,280 --> 01:11:59,439
Speaker 1: end up leading to some problems later on. So I'm

1504
01:11:59,520 --> 01:12:00,680
Speaker 1: with you. I think I think you and I are

1505
01:12:00,680 --> 01:12:03,360
Speaker 1: on the same page. I think they're less dangerous now

1506
01:12:03,360 --> 01:12:07,160
Speaker 1: than they were before the trade. Yeah, I agree. So

1507
01:12:07,400 --> 01:12:10,320
Speaker 1: before I let you out of here, so um uh

1508
01:12:10,439 --> 01:12:13,639
Speaker 1: to all of you guys have been listening. Uh, Tommy's

1509
01:12:13,640 --> 01:12:16,920
Speaker 1: gonna be joining us once a week moving forward, I

1510
01:12:17,000 --> 01:12:19,760
Speaker 1: want to kind of like find a unique balance, Like

1511
01:12:19,800 --> 01:12:22,839
Speaker 1: I don't want to go all in on hot taking

1512
01:12:23,240 --> 01:12:25,200
Speaker 1: league wide stuff, but I also don't want to go

1513
01:12:25,280 --> 01:12:28,639
Speaker 1: all in on just really nerdy basketball analysis. I wanted

1514
01:12:28,640 --> 01:12:30,400
Speaker 1: to be kind of like a combination of the two,

1515
01:12:30,400 --> 01:12:32,240
Speaker 1: and it's one of the things that we're gonna be

1516
01:12:32,240 --> 01:12:35,720
Speaker 1: working on today. We were supposed to dive into the Pacers,

1517
01:12:35,760 --> 01:12:37,800
Speaker 1: the Bucks, and the suns. I would imagine we'll do

1518
01:12:38,200 --> 01:12:40,680
Speaker 1: them as well as some other teams next week. But

1519
01:12:40,800 --> 01:12:42,600
Speaker 1: that's the idea, and we're gonna kind of you know,

1520
01:12:43,040 --> 01:12:45,040
Speaker 1: I really appreciate the feedback from those of you who

1521
01:12:45,040 --> 01:12:47,160
Speaker 1: have messaged me privately and for those of you have

1522
01:12:47,200 --> 01:12:50,639
Speaker 1: messaged us on Twitter. Like we're trying to build something here.

1523
01:12:50,960 --> 01:12:53,040
Speaker 1: We wanted to be something that you guys like and

1524
01:12:53,040 --> 01:12:55,760
Speaker 1: that you come back to to listen. I have been

1525
01:12:55,800 --> 01:12:58,599
Speaker 1: so amazed. I think we've had over a thousand listeners

1526
01:12:58,640 --> 01:13:01,040
Speaker 1: on every single one of these that we done, and

1527
01:13:01,479 --> 01:13:04,559
Speaker 1: uh podcast downloads in the several hundreds, and and I've

1528
01:13:04,560 --> 01:13:06,920
Speaker 1: I've been really amazed at how this has gone. But

1529
01:13:07,000 --> 01:13:08,880
Speaker 1: we wanted to grow. So we wanted to be something

1530
01:13:08,920 --> 01:13:10,600
Speaker 1: that you guys like. Like I said, it would be

1531
01:13:10,640 --> 01:13:13,040
Speaker 1: a combination of of of different types of things and

1532
01:13:13,080 --> 01:13:15,200
Speaker 1: never too much of one thing. I'd love for you

1533
01:13:15,240 --> 01:13:17,360
Speaker 1: and I to start digging a little bit into some

1534
01:13:17,400 --> 01:13:19,760
Speaker 1: stuff that's not basketball related at some point, not too

1535
01:13:19,800 --> 01:13:21,400
Speaker 1: much you want to stick to your to your to

1536
01:13:21,479 --> 01:13:24,439
Speaker 1: your you know, your your passion, but something that will

1537
01:13:24,600 --> 01:13:26,679
Speaker 1: will dive into. But I'm really excited to see where

1538
01:13:26,720 --> 01:13:30,040
Speaker 1: this goes. Definitely, man, no same same here. Give us feedback.

1539
01:13:30,040 --> 01:13:32,040
Speaker 1: Anybody who's listening right now, give us feedback. I'm more

1540
01:13:32,080 --> 01:13:34,040
Speaker 1: than open to criticism. I'm more than willing to me

1541
01:13:34,160 --> 01:13:37,400
Speaker 1: I'm wrong or I'm dumb. Whatever. Tell me that I'm dumb, honestly, Like,

1542
01:13:37,680 --> 01:13:39,280
Speaker 1: tell me and then tell me what I can do better.

1543
01:13:39,439 --> 01:13:42,240
Speaker 1: This is really fun. This is I love basketball, it's

1544
01:13:42,280 --> 01:13:44,120
Speaker 1: my hobby. It's been my passion for a long time.

1545
01:13:44,360 --> 01:13:47,360
Speaker 1: I'm really excited to like dive into it in a

1546
01:13:47,439 --> 01:13:49,600
Speaker 1: fashion that isn't Twitter and you know, something that's a

1547
01:13:49,600 --> 01:13:51,280
Speaker 1: little bit more long form and where we can sit

1548
01:13:51,320 --> 01:13:53,240
Speaker 1: here and talk about stuff for an hour an hour

1549
01:13:53,280 --> 01:13:56,679
Speaker 1: and a half. So yeah, it's been fun. I'm excited

1550
01:13:56,720 --> 01:13:58,599
Speaker 1: to keep doing these. Just give us as much feedback

1551
01:13:58,640 --> 01:14:00,320
Speaker 1: as possible, because I think we're gonna be at the

1552
01:14:00,320 --> 01:14:03,519
Speaker 1: doll But alright, man, have a good weekend. I am

1553
01:14:03,640 --> 01:14:07,000
Speaker 1: going skiing tomorrow, so we'll not be back until Monday.

1554
01:14:07,000 --> 01:14:08,960
Speaker 1: But I would imagine you and I will be recording

1555
01:14:09,000 --> 01:14:11,080
Speaker 1: something on Tuesday as usual. But I hope you all

1556
01:14:11,080 --> 01:14:12,840
Speaker 1: have a great weekend and we'll see you next week.

1557
01:14:13,280 --> 01:14:14,920
Speaker 1: Al Right, guys, Thanks Jason,