Latest / The Right Time with Bomani Jones / LeBron's Bizarre relationship with the Lakers, how will his time in Los Angeles end? | 11.19

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LeBron's Bizarre relationship with the Lakers, how will his time in Los Angeles end? | 11.19 · The Right Time with Bomani Jones

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time, A Wave Original.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: My name is Beaumont Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: a hater. It is that time of week where we
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: have a guest join us. He is the author of
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: a Hollywood ending, The Dreams and Drama of the LeBron Lakers.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: His name is Jeroen Weitzman.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: My man, how are you?
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: I'm good, Beaumont. Thanks for having me.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: No, man, I appreciate you joining us. So for people
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: to check the book out, I'm sorry we got to
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: it so late. I was like, we're going to get
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: you all when the book comes out. Then I looked
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: up and the book had come out a month ago.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: I read the book a couple of months ago. I
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: read it before it came out. It is a really,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: really good book. I recommend to people go check this out. Now,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: I understand the answer to this may seem obvious, but
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: what drew you to wanting to write this book?
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: So there are a few answers. I'll give, you have
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: a smart audience. I'll give you guys, you know, I'll
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: give an honest answer here, which I don't always give.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: Writing a book is a commercial enterprise, right? So you
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: have to pick something that you think is going to sell. Obviously,
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: LeBron and the Lakers are that. So I always want
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: to lead off with that because I don't want to
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: make it seem like I'm just, you know, here for
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: the art of it. That being said, you have to
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: be willing to dive in. I spent three years on this, right?
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: So you got to be willing to work on this.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: And it just felt like I love covering the behind
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: the scenes stuff and sort of unpacking the way I
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: describe it is like, the things that happen behind the
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: scenes that we don't see that impact what happens on
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: the court that we do see. And it just felt
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: like this was so ripe for this, this LeBron-Lakers merger.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: And it felt like it hadn't been fully unpacked in
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: a proper way either. And I just wanted to dive
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: in on it.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Now, you talk to a zillion people in the course
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: of doing this, but how hard was it for you
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: to get in?
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Because you're not a Lakers beat writer. You're not native
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: to the ecosystem.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: So how hard was it for you to be able
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: to get the necessary– I don't think access is the
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: right word. There is some access obviously, but this is,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: this is not, Hey guys, be nice to me as
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: much as it seems like you got this done.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, we can talk about the Lakers. Uh, I
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: got the opposite of access. Like LeBron doesn't do the,
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: he doesn't do long form interviews really anymore at all,
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: which I have no problem with. That's fine. I assume
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: there'll be 19 Netflix documentaries that come out after he, uh.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: All produced by LeBron.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: Correct. Exactly. Exactly. And honestly, like power to him, whatever,
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: you know, God bless. Um, he already has cameras following
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: him around. I think some people may be notes. Um,
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: the Lakers also were not a fan of this. I'm
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: sure we can talk about that. For me, you know,
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: the good thing is we start looking into it. It's like,
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: what's helpful is that the Lakers, I knew I've had
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: a lot of people go in that, that building. And
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: as a journalist, former employees are really helpful. It doesn't
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: mean you're gonna take everything they say too hard. Like
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: you have to verify whatever, but I kind of like
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: to envision almost like a circle and you start on
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: the outside and you get information that you leverage that
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: and get closer and closer and closer and closer. And like,
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: I don't know, Bomani. My thing is I just call everybody.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: I reach out to everybody. It's a numbers game. So
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: if you figure you're going to get 8% success rate,
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: so you reach out to 1,000 people, right? And you
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: get some success, and then you get information. The more
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: you get, the more you can bring up to other people.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: You go back to people two years later. They maybe
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: forgot that they said no originally. They don't remember that.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: Then they say yes later on. And just– so like
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: the difficulty is it's a grind, but people– People– it's interesting.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: People in the NBA like sharing their thoughts on the
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: Lakers and LeBron too. I think a lot of them
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: are just like us, right? They have thoughts and they
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: want to share it.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: And just so we're clear, you sent a copy of
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: the manuscript to the Lakers so they could offer factual
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: corrections at any point. And they responded by hiring a
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: defamation lawyer.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So I sent– not a copy of the manuscript, a
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: fact-checking document. I'll go back. But even before that, they–
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: They hired a defamation lawyer before I even sent them anything.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: And to this day, I don't know why, right? So
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: I'll go the story. So when you start with a book,
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: you reach out to the principals. So LeBron was separate.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: Let's talk about him. We can talk about him later.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: Jeannie Buss. I reached out to Jeannie Buss. I actually
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: met with her twice off the record. We met once
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: in a Las Vegas during Summer League in a lobby
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: bar and once in an LA diner. It's off the record.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: I usually wouldn't share that, but I was transcribing an
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: interview like two years later, and I heard her talking
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: about these meetings that she was talking to this writer about.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: who had told her this. So I was like, okay,
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: I guess we're cool. I guess we can share these.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: And we were fine. I'll give a silly example. I
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: live in New Rochelle. She was very excited to hear
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: that because the Dick Van Dyke show is from New Rochelle.
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: That meant a lot to Jeannie Buss, which is great too.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: Once I'm jogging, I'm going for a jog. There was
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: a point where I was going to pretend I was
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: going to be a jogger. It didn't last. And I
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: passed the Dick Van Dyke street, send her a picture,
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: and she's all excited. So things were fine. And then
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: Two years later, like the day it was a day
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: of the 2024 finals, the Celtics finals. I was there
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: covering it. It's coincidentally and it's funny. It's the day
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: that Woj broke the news of the Dan Hurley pursuit
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: that the Lakers are going after Dan Hurley. And I
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: get an email saying from the desk of Marty Singer,
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: I represent the Lakers. And I Google this guy and
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: he's a famous defamation lawyer. And that, you know, it
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: was sort of I describe it as like not quite
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: a cease and desist, but a, you know, we're watching
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: you type thing. So from there, I cut off communication.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: Then I send them fact-checking. For people who don't know
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: the way fact-checking works, you send the negatives, I call it.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: I don't need to send. If I have an owner
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: saying that Jeannie Buss is a great owner, I don't
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: need her to respond to that. That's great. So you
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: send the negatives. I'm always sympathetic to the idea that
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: when you receive that document, it's probably overwhelming. You probably
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: think it's a hippie. My answer is always, let's get
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: on the phone and talk. Do that with other people.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: If there's anything, context missing, facts wrong, we're not published yet.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: I want to hear it. And instead, I get this
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: letter from this lawyer, Marty Singer, saying, I think this
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: is almost verbatim, make no mistake, many people threaten to
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: sue and don't have the means to do so. We
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: will and have the means and we'll sue you.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Now, it is worth noting, maybe they have the means,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: but they're notoriously cheap.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: Um, yes. And they're very sensitive about that accusation as well.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: They are, but everybody knows it, right?
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Like it was, this is, this is, it's a, it's
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: a family business. Uh, the fair question I think to
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: ask is actually in line with what you're talking about.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Are they cheaper?
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Do they just not really have that much money because
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: all their money really is Lakers money, which is different
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: than we'll call it Stan Kroenke who married into Walmart
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: money and has money of his own, for example, right?
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: For sure. Um, I know people say that. They get paid–
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: the way it works, like they get paid– I don't know,
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: the dividend, like off the trust. The team was owned
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: by a trust basically. The bus children make good money
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: off of that, like yearly. We're millions here. Lakers also have–
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: and I know the RSN market is failing, but they
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: have the largest regional local TV deal in the NBA.
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: So like I believe that this cost spending– you know,
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: act cheap, whatever, I'll say cheap. I believe that being
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: cheap at certain points is a choice they make and
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: not necessarily something because like we can't afford it.
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  Speaker 2: All right.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: So you get in, you know, clearly I think, I
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: think the part that was funny to me though, about
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: them sending that letter is that when winning time was
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: on HBO, for example, Jerry West, for example, did not
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: like the way that he was portrayed.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: The Lakers didn't really mind that. That much.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: That felt like that was a bit more of an
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: all publicity is good publicity. I guess this is a
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: little different because the story was contemporaneous. And I'll be honest,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: nobody in.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: This book looks good.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Not one person came out of that like, wow, I
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: like that person a little bit more than I did
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: before I started reading it.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: Is that job well done by me? I guess I
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: should put that in the book jacket, right?
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Well, it's certainly not job bad done, right?
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: But it is kind of interesting. Now, for example, I've
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: read the Jeff Perlman books about the Lakers. So I've
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: already got kind of the full gamut of the Magic
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Johnson experience. And what is interesting in this, obviously, is
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: this is probably the most thorough reporting we've seen on
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: the magic and Rob Palenka era. And I came out
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: of that and like, wow, nobody here is actually a
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: good guy, but that's.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: The start of the LeBron era is magic Johnson.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Who's definitely the president of the operation. It seemed very
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: clearly the, to be in charge, just not always there
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: that much with an underling who is Rob Palenka, who
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: quite honestly does not seem to respect Magic Johnson in
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: the way that most of us would expect Magic Johnson
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: to be respected.
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: I think that's fair. The way I describe the Magic,
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: the way I describe Magic, and I think what you're
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: right is like, he wanted it both ways. That's kind
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: of how I bring it up. So he wanted to
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: be president and I'm running everything, but he's also disappearing
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: for large chunks of time or he also doesn't have
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: a desk in his office. In the book we have,
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: people would hear Family Feud music coming from his office
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: as they're walking by. But then he's doing that while
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: he's chewing out Luke Walton after preseason losses, right? And
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: cursing out Zubach and leading to that trade. You can't
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: have it both ways, right? You can't be the hands-on
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: guy and also disappearing. If he wanted to just be
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: a Magic Johnson ceremonial guy, I think that would have worked,
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: but he wanted the other part. And then they bring
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: in Rob Palenka, who's basically miscast in that role, right?
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: The idea he's brought in there as, okay, Magic's not hands-on.
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: Rob Palenka is the agent who knows the cap and
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: is involved in everything and can be the hands-on guy.
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: And he made salary cap mistakes early on. These aren't even,
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: I'd love to give myself all the credit on this.
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: A lot of this, that is not even original reporting.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: That's stuff we knew in real time, right? So that's
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: the guy who comes in and is told, that's the
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: guy who comes in and is supposed to advise Magic
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: on how to kind of work the minutia of being
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: an NBA executive. And he's not there either. And it
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: goes to the point where, Jeannie Buss is hiring people
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: she trusted, right? That's what it was. We're hiring people
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: we trusted.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: I got a friend who's been telling me this for
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: almost 20 years. He's listening to this show right now,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: and he's just like, there's magic, and there's Irvin. And
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Irvin is a killer, right? And this is, this has
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: a lot, you know, in this of the Irvin element
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: of it and it is a little weird not weird
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: but magic in public is not just big smile magic
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: magic pulled up.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: To the seaport when I worked at ESPN once.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: And magic knew my whole bio magic knew Pablo's whole
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: bio I don't know if magic knew we even worked
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: in that building I think it's after he had just
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: left the Lakers and he was going and doing his
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: kind of PR tour about it magic made I couldn't
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: believe how much magic knew about me.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: He was like, all right, now you here, now you
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: in Miami, you in North Carolina before that, right? What?
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Like, did somebody give you a card with all of
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: this about everybody that might be in the building, but
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: he's so good in that way, I can't imagine Magic
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Johnson cussing me out the way that Magic Johnson was
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: cussing people out in this book.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: It's like a presidential candidate the way you're describing it, right?
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: Like somebody whispering in his ears. It is, I think
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: I even have, I think I have them, that's funny
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: someone texted you that. I think I have, there's Magic
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: and there's Irvin Lyne in the book too from someone there.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: This is- Yeah, this is the thing. It's wild. And
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: then what happens is if you're working there, you become
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: even more angry about the fact that, wait, everyone else
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: is saying this guy is this guy when I know
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: he's not. It's not just Luke Walton. There's a line.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: It's supposed to be an all-hands meeting early on. It's
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: supposed to be rah-rah and inspirational. And he goes with,
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: we have a thousand resumes on my desk. I can
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: fire any one of you at any point. And this
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: isn't like, we're not talking about Luke Walton or guys
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: making a million dollars a year high level. These are
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: mid-level staffers who are making, I don't know, 50, whatever
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: it is, right? These are guys who are terrified.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: And this is, like I say, a Magic Johnson that
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: I think for even, I would imagine even to a
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: degree for Jeannie Buss, that when he gets there, it's like, hey,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: this isn't what we thought we were getting. There's Rob Palenka, who,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, it sounds like he'd be lying. Like, and
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: what I mean by that is not that he is
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: like a pathological liar where you can't believe anything, but
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: he says things that are kind of like, huh, is
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: that right?
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: He, uh, I, that's, I'm listening to the best, the best,
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: this like way I can characterize it. I have this
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: in the book, a GM, a former GM. We used
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: to work with Rob when Rob was an agent said
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: there are some agents who you could agree with a
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: deal to a deal with an April at the combine
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: and know you were good till July free agency. Rob
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: was not one of those. Like to me, That summarizes it.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: And it's wild. The part that's fascinating, and it probably
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: shows just knowing how to manage up and where the
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: power sources are, it's fascinating that somebody could survive so
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: long in such a closed ecosystem, small world like the NBA,
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: with that reputation. Yeah.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Rob was representing Carlos Boozer when he got over on
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: that blind man.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: For those of you who don't know this story.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: And look, I might have done the same thing, just
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: to be clear. It was a real situation, a little
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: trickier than it gets credit for being. But the Cavs
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: did not have to let Carlos Boozer out of his
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: contract when they did.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: He was a second round pick and he was wildly underpaid.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: And so they offered him maybe a little bit of
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: a below market value contract, but they were getting some
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: money in his pocket immediately. And they were like, cool,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: we'll do it. And then they let Boozer out of
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: the contract. And then the Utah Jazz jumped really high.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: And Palenka and Boozer went and took that contract. I
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: believe Palenka's boss, who I think was arm teller at
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: the time, was like, hey, man, we can't take these commissions.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: We can't have this on our name. But it had
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: to be told to Rob, apparently, that we can't do this.
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: 100 percent. 100 percent. And the part that like I
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: remember talking to people about this and saying, what's the
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: difference between this and all the stuff we see agents
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: do anyway? And the way it was explained to me
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: is that. it's very clear order of operations. The only
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: way Boozer could get that deal from Utah was by
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: lying to Cleveland, right? That was it. Cleveland did not
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: have to let him out of the contract. It wasn't
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: like you see a free agency. We see this happen
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: all the time, right? You have the moratorium where on
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: July 1st you agree and then 10 days later something happens.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: This was we are agreeing. We have a deal. Not written,
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: but we have a deal. We are taking this deal.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: Now you'll let us out. Oh, wait, never mind. Now
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: that we're free, we'll take that money. And again, talking
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: about how Rob Palenka sees himself, his whole thing he's
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: told people is like, he's told when he retells that story,
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: he tells it as almost not that he's the hero,
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: but that he made a tough decision and he was
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: willing to give up the commission, which was a million dot,
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: whatever it was to terminate the contract with Carlos Boozer.
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: But the way, I mean, what actually happened is Arn
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: Tellem told Rob, no, this is what has to happen.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: And it just shows you how people tell the stories
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: they tell about themselves, you know, to make themselves feel
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: better and look like the heroes in these things. Yeah.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: And add to this entire situation, LeBron James, right?
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Like I set that up to say that this is,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: So 2018, when LeBron comes, Magic has been there for
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: a year and change. And this is the world that
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: he's got. Palenka has been the guy under him. And
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of backbiting going on with them. And
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: now we add LeBron, who one of the big reasons
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: why he comes to play for the Lakers is he
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: wanted to play for a glamour franchise. And truly, the
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: NBA only really has two of them, right? He wanted
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: to play for a big brand franchise, and he got
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: there to play for the big brand franchise. But at
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: least in my reading of things, part of what makes
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: it interesting is he wanted to play for the big
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: brand franchise while also kind of believing that he was
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: at least as big, if not bigger, than said brand,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: which for that brand is different.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: They're not used to a guy who approaches it like that.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: I think that's exactly right. Honestly, I've thought about this
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: talking about the book recently, and I probably should have
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: hammered this more in the book. We all think of
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: the Lakers as being this team. You know, they always
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: get the superstars. They all come out there. None of
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: them were fully formed icons the way LeBron was when
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: he joined. Like Shaq and Kobe and even years, like
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: they were different. LeBron was a fully formed icon when
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: he joined the Lakers. And that's different for them, right?
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: That's different than from the idea of we just get
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: the superstar. And yeah, I think that's kind of that
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: what you just described is like that was the foundational thing.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: tension right of what let what we saw like who
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: who's in charge who's running things like who matters more
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: how does this all play out and how do we
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: move forward from here and and and from that you
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: sort of get you lead to the lack of a
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: lack of trust between the parties right over this this
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: infighting leads to a lack of trust and then from
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: there you see poor decisions.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah you know and so the lakers you know the
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: infamous i ain't gonna be there magic johnson press conference
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: where you know he so he's basically out of here
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: one year into the lebron tim year tenure Palenka is promoted.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: What we then see is something interesting.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: And we've seen agencies kind of have their run of
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: a franchise. Obvious example being the Knicks with CAA, but
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: CAA is a big giant agency sort of situation. Clutch
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: is Rich Paul slash LeBron, their shop.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: And again, In that way, it felt like LeBron, once.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: They get to the place of making the Anthony Davis trade,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: they have control of a franchise in a way that
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: no player really had had control of a franchise. And again,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: a franchise that sees itself as something bigger than this.
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but can I tell you the most interesting... I'm
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: curious your read on it. What I find most interesting
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: is that all happened, but then at the same point,
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: you've seen the pushback. The Lakers wouldn't hire Ty Lue,
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: which maybe now it's better. But they wouldn't hire... And
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: Ty Lue... To me, it's such a great example because
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: Ty Lue, that's not like, I use a bad name.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: That's not like LeBron wants Damon Jones to be the
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: head coach of the team, right? Like some guy who's
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: not qualified, just my buddy. Ty Lue was completely qualified.
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: Former Laker, he was perfect for the job. I probably
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: would have succeeded there. And they wouldn't hire him in
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: part because they're a little wary of making it seem
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: like we're giving over everything to LeBron. And to me,
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: I think that's like a perfect example of how These
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: tensions popped up, and really early. That's going into year two.
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: That's after LeBron's first year there. That's not post-Russell Westbrook,
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: none of this stuff. That's year two, and they want
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: to do it. I think what Clutch was really good
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: at is they were really good at leveraging the power
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: they had by having LeBron there and forcing the Lakers'
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: hand at a certain point. I have a thing in
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: the book, again. sort of infamous time about the Kawhi
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: Leonard negotiations when he wants to come to LA. And basically,
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: because Rob Pelinka messes up the salary cap and screws
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: up the Anthony Davis trade, the Lakers, he needs Anthony
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: Davis to wave a trade kicker. Clutch says, fine, we'll
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: agree to this, but you have to promise that you're
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: going to sign KCP if you don't get Kawhi. Like
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: that's what they were really good at, right? Leveraging the power,
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: the points there. But again, I go back to the
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: Ty Luthing. That to me is so interesting that the
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: Lakers and Jeannie and them were so wary of making
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: it seem like this is LeBron's operation.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Do you really think, though, that there was any chance
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: Kawhi was actually going to go to the Lakers? Because
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: it's hard for me to believe that 2019 Kawhi Leonard,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: quite possibly the best player in the NBA, was going
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: to go play for.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: There would be no other way to see it. It
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: would be LeBron's seat.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: No, I don't. I can tell you in Clutch, they
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: didn't think so either. That's why they were cool agreeing
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: to that. Yeah, we'll waive the trade kicker, and if
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: you have max salary, okay, yeah, sign Kawhi, whatever, cool.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: But we know that's not going to happen, so then...
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: you always KCP, right? Like, so I agree with you
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: and clutch also agreed.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: But this did turn out that for this tenure that
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: LeBron's had there, which is now seven going on eight years.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: This is as long as he has been with any
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: team for one run. This will be as long as
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: the first run that he had in Cleveland. They won
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: this championship in year two. It just also happens to
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: be the strangest year of years for, That has.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Ever been right. It is the bubble year.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: Nobody gets to really enjoy the championship other than the
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: players and the organization. But if the organization even really
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: enjoy it, like under the circumstances.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: No, I think there was some. If you want a
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: funny video. go watch and you'll see. Go watch the
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: Lakers celebrating the title on the court. And you could see,
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: as LeBron's being announced MVP, you could see Rob Pelinka
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: behind him, like, smiling, a giddy smile and chanting, King James,
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: King James. It's a really weird video, but you can
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: kind of see the elation of, you know, We're all
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: proving everyone wrong, right? Genie, this validated her. She needed
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: that title. It's underrated. You know, if LeBron doesn't win
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: that title, her era, her reign, which is now closing, right?
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: It's looked at completely differently. And honestly, it hasn't been great, right?
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: But the title kind of gives her some cover. Rob Plankett, too. So,
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: did they enjoy it? No. I think there was a
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: real level of vindication. And I hate this, but, you know,
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: proving the haters wrong and that we're doing this. Especially
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: from the front office and specifically Rob and Genie. Now.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: This is the last thing I want to get to
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: before we get to our break. And this has been
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: gotten around, which is the tension between LeBron and Russell Westbrook.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: And it is interesting because LeBron is.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: The one who wanted Westbrook, even though there was evidence
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: that Westbrook might've been finished.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: And the tricky thing.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Of course, with Russell Westbrook is that he is exceedingly
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: responsible and he's going to play really, really hard and
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: do all the little things that you want somebody to do.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: And then he gets on the court, and then anything
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: is possible. But Russell Westbrook identified fairly quickly that LeBron
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: James was not his kind of guy.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: And did the Will Smith moment really did it?
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: For example, Westbrook was the guy who found it weird
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: that LeBron pretended to read these books, right? He's one
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: of the guys that was on that list. But the
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: story being, Will Smith comes to talk to the team.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: And for whatever reason, Anthony Davis and LeBron did not
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: want to hear Will Smith speak. And so Westbrook is
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: there like, hey, this is what the team does. We're
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: going to do the thing. And then finally has somebody like, yo,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: y'all got to go get them.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: They go get LeBron and Anthony Davis. They finally come in.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: Will Smith gives the message.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: LeBron's in there asking questions and then afterward talks to
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: the media just glowingly about the time they spent with
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: Will Smith. Meanwhile, Russell Westbrook is seething because it all
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: just feels so funny.
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: Yep. By the way, it's also the added point is
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: it's six months after the slap, right, from Will Smith, which, again,
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: doesn't matter. But I just find it even makes the
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: whole anecdote funnier. Yeah, I think, yeah, Westbrook. Was that the–
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: I don't know what moment put him over LeBron, right?
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: But that was certainly– I mean, listen, I have– he
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: told a teammate, I hate that fake bleep, right? And
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: you can see the picture. You could see a picture
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: of him. I mean, I love it. The Lakers posted
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: a picture on social media of the team with Will Smith,
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: and you could see Westbrook not smiling. At the time,
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: it's got a little pickup, but people just assumed it
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: was Russ being Russ. But Westbrook knew this was off
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: the offseason that summer, a few months earlier. Kyrie, that's
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: when the Nets were getting off of Kyrie. LeBron's telling everyone,
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: I want Kyrie. What does that mean? The only way
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: the Lakers can get Kyrie is by trading Russell Westbrook,
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: salary cap-wise. Westbrook knows what that means. So LeBron's saying,
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: let Russ be Russ while saying that. Now- To be fair,
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: I found it really interesting. I'm curious your thought on this.
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: I need to get to a break. Like I find
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: it interesting that people– the idea that LeBron being phony
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: is the reason that the Westbrook experience went poorly in
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: LA I don't think is necessarily correct. And it's been
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: interesting to see people latch on since the story came
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: out being like, yeah, Team Russ, get LeBron, get LeBron,
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: get him. LeBron's a phony. Russ is right, which is
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: all true. Russ was responsible for– Russ was awful. Awful
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: those two years. He's been pretty bad since. So yeah.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: The reason it didn't go well is that Russell Westbrook
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: did not play well. What I did think was interesting
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: and what I took from the book about this is
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: the impression of LeBron that I had always had myself
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: was someone who was a little more conscientious when it
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: came to leadership and the recognition.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: That sometimes you just got to do stuff like this.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: The idea that There's a part in the book or
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: an anecdote, for example, about how every year the Lakers
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: go to Nevada and Vegas and they play this game.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: They do this charity event for veterans, not NBA veterans, veterans, veterans.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Thank you for your service, veterans.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: And LeBron never actually got there to the event because
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Ohio State was playing a September football game. These are
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: not things that I would have expected to have been
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: the case.
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: The phrase I've sort of landed on, he's a frontrunner.
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: I think there's a bit of a frontrunner to him.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: That when he thinks the team is good and has
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: a legit shot at winning a championship, he can do
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: that leadership. And he's really in. Like 2019, in the bubble,
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: there are all these examples. Even before the bubble, right?
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: When he thought the team could win. When he doesn't,
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: that's when you see the passive-aggressive stuff. Not showing up.
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: The sulking. I mean, I have all the exact notes.
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: Coach is saying, you know, teammates see that when he's
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: upset or the dropped shoulders. All that stuff. So... Again,
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: it's probably not a great scale, but the kind of
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: front runner is what I've landed on in terms of
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: how to describe him a little bit.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: All right, so we got some more LeBron stuff and
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: obviously the Luka Doncic trade to talk to Yaron Weitzman
• 24:53
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• 26:01
  Speaker 2: Let's be honest.
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• 27:04
  Speaker 1: back with Yaron Weitzman, the author of a Hollywood ending.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Check out his book about the LeBron era of the
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Los Angeles Lakers and In sum total with LeBron, I
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: think what has been interesting to me about this, and
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: I'm curious your read, and I've said this for a while,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: is that LeBron was in a little bit of a
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: trickier situation going there than I think he realized, is
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: that much of his career in the eyes of basketball fans,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: he has been positioned opposite.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: Kobe Bryant.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: And so for Kobe's entire career, he was opposite of
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: everybody in a way that he didn't really get to
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: be on the positive side of one of those things
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: until he was an elder statesman. But are you a
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: LeBron guy or a Kobe guy? Extended for a long time,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: and he showed up to play for a franchise with
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: a fan base and a front office full of Kobe stans.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: If you love the Lakers, you love Kobe. He was
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: their guy, and they have been kind of hating on
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: you for all of this time. And now he jumps
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: into this team, and you don't get the feeling that
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: he has the same affection for being a Laker. that
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Kobe had, for example. This felt more transactional for him.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: And that seems to be kind of a consistent theme
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: through the book about his time there.
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: I think you nailed it. I completely agree. I've heard
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: you talk about this, right? That to your point, it's
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: Kobe versus LeBron. And anytime you argue about two guys,
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: what do you end up doing? You end up arguing
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: against the guy, right? As opposed to for your guy.
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: And to your point, that just meant that Lakers fans
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: who are Kobe obsessed, Kobe Stan is a perfect word,
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: are spending all this time, before LeBron gets there, arguing
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: against LeBron. And it's not even just in terms of
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: on court. Their mentalities are completely different. And Kobe was confused.
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: I have this in the book. Kobe was confused by LeBron.
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: On the court, Kobe's going to shoot over four guys, right?
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: Last shot, LeBron's going to pass the open man. Kobe
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: would never be friends with guys on other teams. LeBron
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: obviously is. Kobe wasn't into the off-court businesses until after
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: he retired.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: LeBron.
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: That's something he's setting up since he was 24. Like,
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: they were just very different. Kobe was aware they were
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: pitted against each other. That bothered him. So then LeBron
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: is then the enemy. Kobe fans pick that up. And
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: all of a sudden, you're dropping this guy who's the
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: enemy into the city and just saying, oh, now love him.
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: And it was all, I mean, remember there were murals defaced? Like,
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: it was really weird. I don't think LeBron certainly was
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: not ready for that. Did not expect it. The Lakers
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: might be the only franchise in the NBA where LeBron
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: is where LeBron would join and he's not immediately embraced
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: as the savior. There's no other franchise where that'd be
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: the case.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And this is, this gets us through like the
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: post championship part. Like to me, it almost feels a
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: bit like a blur in real life. Like it's now been,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: it'll be six years. I guess, I guess in November,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: I guess that's where, whatever the hell they actually.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: Wrapped that up in the bubble.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: But it'll be six seasons at the end of this
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: year since that since that took place. One thing that
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: did happen in between, I think, is the biggest thing
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: that jumps out for people is LeBron broke the scoring record, which, again,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: weird vibes on that one. In part, as you talk about,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: he's at cameras following him around for years now. That
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: was a made for television event.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: I'm going to break the scoring record tonight. And I'm
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: going to go so hard on it.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: I'm going to injure myself and I'm not going to
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: play again for weeks, which honestly does not get discussed
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: that much. But that that's kind of the high point
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: of this partnership that they've had. They made the conference
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: finals that year. We move on and then go a
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: couple of years and you wake up one morning and
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Luka Doncic is now being traded to the Lakers. Without
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: this being run by LeBron James, at least as far
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: as we could tell. In your reporting, did it seem
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: at all as though Clutch was in on this or
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: did they find out when we did?
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: No, I could tell you. I mean, we'll get to
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: the group chat. So I live in New York. The
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: Luka trade happens. The Lakers are in New York that night.
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: So I'm going to the game at the Garden. After
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: the game, what happens, people don't know, the Lakers usually
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: play the Knicks on a Saturday night. All family, friends, agents,
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: everyone comes. The hallways are filled with everyone. After the game,
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: Rich Paul is hanging out in the hallway. So Savannah James,
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: other clutch people, you know, laughing, talking to reporters. Very
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: much not an agent who's aware that this seismic deal
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: is going to happen. Oh, he's the greatest actor ever, right?
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: But it would be– or malpractice because he's not on
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: his phone. Trade happens. And actually, look, we have the
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: group chat, right? So the Shams tweet goes through. I
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: don't know. Let's say it's midnight Eastern or whatever. And
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: the way it goes down is Bronny takes the Shams tweet.
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: puts it in the Lakers players group chat, asks, is
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: this real? Anthony Davis goes, did these blank words just
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: train me? LeBron writes WTF in an emoji. And Anthony
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: Davis says, good luck, fellas, and leave the chat. Now,
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: to be clear, like, I don't know. It's a little
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: unclear where Rob Palenka called Anthony Davis. Like, he might
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: have found out, been on a speakerphone while this chat's
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: going on.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: So I don't know if he literally found out from
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: LeBron-y tweet, but we're talking about a five-minute window here, right?
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: So yeah, they very much did not were not involved.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: And the pivot started with the JJ Redick hiring. It's
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: one of the most interesting and funny press conferences to
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: look back on in hindsight is when JJ Redick is
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: hired and Rob Polink is talking about it's a new
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: salary cap. We need to do player development. We need
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: to lean into this new approach. They're talking about a
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: player development app that they're going to build, which I
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: guess never happened.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: But like they're basically, they're no longer the Lakers. They
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: sound like the Oklahoma City Thunder, right? They're just a
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: whole different team. Very much pivoting away. You can tell
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: they're pivoting away from LeBron. Luka falls into their lap. Suddenly,
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: they're all about superstars again, right? But Clutch, like they've been–
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: they started pivoting away from LeBron and Clutch around whatever
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: that was, 2024, whatever the year that was.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: So the idea that JJ is a pivot is interesting
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: because to the layperson, JJ was a LeBron move.
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I know. Everyone thinks that and it's just not–
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: I don't think it's true. I mean– I talk to people.
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: Jason Gallagher told me this. He was a producer from–
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: produces the show Mind the Game. The way he described
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: it is like he never heard them talk about it
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: and he even said to me, we have mics on
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: them even when– I guess he could be lying. I
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: don't think he is. He's like, we have mics on
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: them even when they're not on air. And that whole whatever,
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: those four months when we all kind of– the Lakers
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: looking for a coach and doing the podcast. He's like,
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: I asked my guys in the room, like, do you
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: ever hear anything like this? And they said, no, never
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: heard them discussing it. So– I mean, LeBron was in
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: the loop. He was not in a loop and clutch
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: was annoyed about not being the loop on the coaching search.
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: Like they were not part of it. It was the, I,
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: The most interesting part to me, and it kind of
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: speaks to the lack of trust between the two sides
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: of where they ended up, is there were clutch people
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: who thought that like Palenka and the Lakers were 4D
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: chessing the Redick hire that, oh, we're going to hire him.
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: If it doesn't go well, people will assume that's LeBron
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: wanted that guy and it's on him. And like whether
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: it's true or not is irrelevant. It's the idea that
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: this is how they're thinking. This is like how one
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: side thinks the other side is approaching this big decision.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: So this consistent lack of trust, which is a theme
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: throughout this relationship, I'm curious what the people with whom
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: you spoke felt about this because, I mean, this is
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: a league, generally speaking, where, especially a superstar like LeBron,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: you're going to embrace that person, right?
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: That's the guy that runs this.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: But these are the three franchises that LeBron has played for,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: and that trust has not existed with any of those franchises.
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: Interesting.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know exactly what I'm going for here, but
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: I don't blame him for not trusting the Cavs and
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: Dan Gilbert, especially the second time, but that one made sense.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: And maybe it's almost like a PTSD for him because
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: he had no trust in what was going on with Miami.
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: And Miami was like, he's going to love us. We're
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: not them. And then he chucked the deuce on them,
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: and they couldn't believe that.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: And then with the Lakers, I think, is LeBron, that
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: his I'm a businessman outlook, does it kind of make
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: it impossible for there to be that kind of relationship
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: between the sides?
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: It's interesting. I haven't thought about it like that. He's
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: probably right. It's just, I think in the NBA, and
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: it's all businesses, but the NBA, it's a lot of...
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: A lot of fighting over who gets the credit and
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: who gets the narrative, right? A lot of fighting over narratives,
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: as I'm thinking. I think that might be the answer, right?
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: A lot of fighting over the narrative. And LeBron, the
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: narrative follows him. And I think. you see sort of
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: this idea that like, we don't want him getting the credit.
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: And I don't think it's necessarily an active decision, right? Like,
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: I don't think Jeannie Buss and Rob Palenka, especially at
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: the beginning, are necessarily being like, yeah, we want LeBron here. And,
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: but we're going to say, you know, we don't want
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: him to get any credit. If we win, we want
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: to make sure we get the credit.
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: It's not like that.
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: It's sort of a small little by little. I imagine
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: some of it of how stories get covered, where LeBron
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: is really good. Him and his media team are really
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: good at getting their side of things out, out there
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: and how getting the perspective of things. And, and, making
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: sure media here, they talk to the right media and
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: they know people, they're in touch with the people they
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: need to be in touch with about helping put a
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: narrative out there. And I would imagine that if you're
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: on the other side of that, that can be frustrating.
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: Now the Luka trade is made.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: And I think LeBron did a very good job of
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: conveying that he was on board with this and that
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: he looked forward to the idea of having somebody like
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: Luka on the team.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: But from the, from.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: Your reporting and the people with whom you spoke, How
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: did he really feel about the fact that they made
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: this trade?
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: Forget about whether he knew about it, just the trade itself.
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: I think my read on it is I think the
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: trade itself, like from a basketball standpoint and Luka, he
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: respects him. and appreciates, right? I think that's not an issue.
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: We see it when you talk where he's at now
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: in the off season, where he's at now. But remember,
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: he's the one, he recruited, he wanted Luka when he
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: was going to do a team, LeBron brand shoe thing.
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: Luka was one, he said Luka was one of the
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: guys he wanted to build around. So there's sort of,
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: Luka is sort of a basketball player's basketball player. Kind
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: of similar to LeBron, at least on offense in terms
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: of the chess master and how he sees the court.
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: I think any frustration would be just not being in
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: the loop and understanding that the Lakers are pivoting. And
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: where we saw that, no matter what they say, we
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: still have frustration boil over in the offseason. He did
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: not get a contract extension. He did not. They could
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: argue all they want about they didn't care and being
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: on expiring means he has power. It has yet to
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: be explained to me. LeBron's on an expiring deal for
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: the first time in his career, right? You cannot tell me,
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: you will not convince me anyway that how that's beneficial
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: and how he'd rather that than getting a one plus one,
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: than getting a player option. Like there's no way You
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: have yet to be explained to me how being on
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: an expiring deal is better than having a player option.
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: I'd love to hear the rationale for that. And I
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: don't think LeBron appreciates the fact that he's LeBron James
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: and he is now out in the wind and he's
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: not in control of his own destiny, right? And I
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: think that is where the tension lies. So not with
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: the players themselves. I genuinely think he likes Luka, loves
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: Austin Reeves, all these guys. It's with the front office
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: and the idea the Lakers seem to be pushing him
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: out the door.
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: How long do you think he wants to play?
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: I have no idea. But I genuinely– where I've kind
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: of landed on this is I genuinely don't think he
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: knows what he wants. I think we're seeing him sort
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: of figure out like, wait, what do I want to
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: do and how do I want this to end? Like
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: I don't think he knows yet either. I think part of–
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: I think being on the expiring deal for the first
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: time is something that's thrown him. I think he has
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: a lot of boxes. He wants to check with how
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: he wants his career to end, whether it's being on
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: a winning team, he's been big since Miami and not
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: taking pay cuts, which I understand. But at some point
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: you're gonna have to decide, okay, I cannot take a
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: pay cut, but I can't play on a championship team. Uh,
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: we think, I think he's going to want a farewell tour.
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: We all assume that, right. There's going to be announcement
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: before season of farewell tour. I think he's image conscious.
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: I don't think we're going to see him just join
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: a random team. We have no connection with for a
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: farewell tour. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe everyone else who, you know,
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: knows him a little bit is wrong. Uh, It's not
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: like Rich Paul is telling me that, right? We're talking
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: about people a level removed or whatever, just assuming. My
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: guess would be next year is the last year, but
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: that's a complete guess. I don't know.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: Is it important at all to the Lakers that his
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: last year be with them?
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: All indications are not, right? That's what it seems like.
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: I mean, like– Rob Polenko was asked on media day.
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: We talk about, you know, always trust what he says.
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: But Rob Polenko was asked on media day. I forget.
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: LeBron has a contract. And his answer was, we'd love
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: LeBron's story to end here. But he kind of left
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: out a part about the contract. And I joke that it's,
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: you know, we'd love his story to end here. We're
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: hoping it happens now. If it was important to the Lakers,
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: they would have given him a deal. They were in control.
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: They could have offered him a contract. There were no negotiations. Zero.
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: So then LeBron's side will say, yeah, because we didn't
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: come to them.
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: Fine.
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: I guess it's semantics. If that was important to the Lakers,
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: they would have approached LeBron with some kind of discussion.
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: And there just wasn't. So all actions over words, all
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: indications are it does not matter.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: Now, I ask you this part as man who wrote
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: this book. And man who spent four years writing this book. Now,
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: I'll break the wall down just a little bit. You
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: and I have a mutual businessman in common, Anthony Matero,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: your literary agent, right?
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: Good man.
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've never written a book, so I don't feel
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: comfortable saying that he is my literary agent because I
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: haven't had him literarily agent anything for me, right?
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: But he sends me the book. I check it out.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: And then I immediately say to him, okay, so you
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: can't put this book out right now. How does this
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: book end with Luka Doncic showing up? Now we are
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: at the point where we're really talking about the potential
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: of it ending. You have left us hanging in this
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: incredibly suspenseful moment.
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, oh, okay. We must have another chapter
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: coming for the paperback. Okay, this is what it is.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: But for you, knowing that you were trying to wind
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: this book down, Luka Doncic shows up.
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: What are your thoughts as writers?
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: So two parts. One, I was done, right? I ended
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: the book on Brawny. I went like LeBron and Brawny
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: on the court together the first game. I thought like, okay,
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: that works. We are now... LeBron– like we've shifted. LeBron
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: is now– we're not winning titles anymore. He's done his
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: final achievement.
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: We're good.
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: Luka trade happens that night, right, as I'm going home.
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: I saw the tweet. I thought it was– I was
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: driving home. The Shams tweet comes through. I'm so convinced
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: it's a hack that I don't even do the pullover.
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: Not that I would ever look at my phone while driving, right?
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: But I don't do the pullover or anything. I'm like, oh,
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: it's a hack. And then I see more and I'm like, oh, shit.
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: This is just a disaster.
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: So narratively, I'm.
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: Going to sell a little bit, but I do think
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: it works. There was a bookend because it is like
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: the end of the LeBron Lakers. So I guess, yeah,
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: how this year will play out will be really interesting
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: and the offseason will be really interesting and you're 100%
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: right because it could get ugly. Maybe not. I don't know,
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: but it could get ugly. The other part we have
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: to mention, I don't know how this plays in, is
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: the Lakers are under new ownership now. We're still finding
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: out what that means. So I don't know how that
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: would impact any of this, right? For all I know,
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: this Mark Walter is like, no, I want LeBron. It's
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: important for my first thing not to be to kick
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: LeBron to the curb, give him a max deal. I'd
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: be stunned, but I have no idea.
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: Um, so, but narratively I was like, okay, no, this is,
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: this is, this is truly the end of LeBron. They
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: are now the Luka Lakers. This is truly the end. Um,
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: so I was able to pull that.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: And you know what?
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: I felt like I, when I got some good reporting
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: and I got the group chat on the, as the
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: reaction to the trade, I was like, okay, this, you know,
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: that was worth it.
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: It's okay.
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: I'm good.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: Now you mentioned Bronnie and I forgotten to ask about
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: that move. Um, How did everybody around feel about this?
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: Because this is, no matter what LeBron says, this is
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: as amazing a concession as any team has ever made
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: to anybody.
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: And I think, and by the way, I think it's
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: interesting you say that because I agree and it's, it's
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: very clear where the Lakers were willing to make the
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: concessions to LeBron and Clutch were sort of those on
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: the margin moves, right? That's where we'll have a 10th
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: man that we don't even talk, I don't know, Lonnie Walker,
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: no offense to Lonnie Walker, but random guys, right? We're just, yeah,
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: we can do those. It's the Ty Lue, it's Kyrie Irving,
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: it's things like that where like we're going to hold
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: the line here. The best, it's actually interesting. Most people
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: that I spoke to, whether players or people around them,
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: they were okay with the Bronnie thing and kind of
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: understood it. And I think big part of that is
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: By all accounts, Bronny really is, I'm going to sound
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: like an old guy now, but a great kid. And
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: I think that really helps him. He works hard. He's quiet,
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: but he's likable. Honestly, it's one of LeBron's greatest accomplishments
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: that he was able to raise a kid who, by
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: all accounts, is incredible in this fishbowl, right? As a
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: child star. It's funny because as a parent myself, I
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: sometimes would.
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: I see LeBron do the things where he says, Bronny
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: can play in the NBA now. He's better than all
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: these guys. He's putting the spotlight on him, which I
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: think is unfair. And I say, this looks like awful
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: parenting to me. But then I guess, what do I know?
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: Because the kid, he raised Bronny in this incredibly difficult situation.
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: It seems to be going well. So I think the
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: read I got is people are all cool with it.
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: But I think that's mostly because of who Bronny is.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you something funny. In 2023, I was
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: something that will probably never happen again.
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: I was a guest on The Daily Show. and Marlon Wayans,
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: I almost called him Marlon Brando.
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: Marlon Brando, that's going to be a good show.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and Marlon Brando had been hosting The Daily Show,
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: and I was a guest.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: Woo, boy. So Marlon Wayans is hosting, and this is
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: when I was doing.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: A show for HBO, and so they got to come
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: up with sports questions, and so Marlon asked me what
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: I think about what LeBron said about Bronny, because it
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: had been that week, and the point that I made was.
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: At that time, the Lakers were something like 9th or
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: 10th in the West.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: And where if Bronny is saying that Bronny is better
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: than half the people he's seeing on the league pass,
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: then that means that he's saying that he better than
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: half the people that's on the Lakers. So why don't
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: you bring his little ass to work and we'll see
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: just how good he is. Fast forward a year. And
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: that is exactly what he did.
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: Yep. It turned out that he was not better than
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: half of the league. He found that.
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: Out pretty quickly, but I realized years later, it's like, Oh,
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: this was a ridiculous joke.
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: At the time. And then it happened. Yeah, it's wild.
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: And again, as a parent, it was awful. Bronny was unassuming,
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: and he would say all the right things, and LeBron
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: just parachutes out of there. And he's tweeting at, I think,
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: Jonathan Govoni. Maybe they dropped LeBron. They dropped... And Bronny
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: from a mock draft, he like got annoyed about that.
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: He was just bringing the spotlight, doing all the sports
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: dad things that we all make fun of. But he
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: was doing the sports dad things, which is, you know,
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: I make fun of him. It's a random guy in
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: my kid's little league game, let alone LeBron.
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: I'm Bronny.
• 45:28
  Speaker 3: He was trying to bring into the NBA. And so, again,
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: it's a testament to Bronny that he was just able
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: to ignore it. I remember I went to Bronny's press
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: conference at the Combine and he was sort of, I
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: wish I had the exact quote, but it was his
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: first time really talking to NBA reporters and addressing this stuff.
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: And he didn't like say my dad's wrong, but it
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: was something like, yeah, that's him. And I kind of
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: ignore it. It was, it was really mature. Maybe that's
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: the best word is mature. There's a level of maturity
• 45:50
  Speaker 3: to him. That's impressive.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: Is there anything in your reporting on this book that
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: really jumped out and surprised you when you came across it?
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: Um, yeah, I mean, some of the, again, not to
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: pick on the Rob Palenka, some of the reputational stuff
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: I found really interesting, uh, and surprising. Um, the stuff
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: again lebron team some of the stuff at lebron especially
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: that first year which we kind of knew the first
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: year in la he was just a bad teammate he
• 46:18
  Speaker 3: he said he was joining a team that was full
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: young guys and he said he knew it was ingram
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: and kuzma and lonzo ball he knew what he was
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: joining i said he was cool with that and very
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: early on he made clear he would not you know
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: there's the anti-davis trade rumors and all the other stuff
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: um The bubble stuff was interesting too. Like it just– LeBron,
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: the social justice stuff. I will say this quote hasn't
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: got picked up. I think my favorite quote in the
• 46:42
  Speaker 3: book is during one of LeBron's talk. They're having one
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: of these union meetings. LeBron is talking to the owners
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: during the social justice stuff. And he wants to get
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: promises from the owners that they're going to do what
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: he wants. And Tillman Fertitta says at some point, I
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: lobby Congress all the time, so I know how to
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: get this stuff done. And I love that quote. That
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: was fantastic. So yeah, but big picture, I would say
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: two things. Palenka being Palenka, and I overestimated how much
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: control LeBron and Clutch had. I thought they were really
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: running things more than maybe it was necessarily the case.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: I forgot that LeBron had put a for sale sign.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: on the entire 2018-2019 Lakers roster. I completely forgot he
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: said they could all go.
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they comes in like that. He comes in one day.
• 47:30
  Speaker 3: Someone explained to me a scene like the AD rumor,
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: trade rumors happen. And LeBron like told David Bannerman on
• 47:36
  Speaker 3: the record. When LeBron tells a reporter something on the record,
• 47:38
  Speaker 3: that's not like an accident. He knows what he's doing.
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: You know, I would love to see AD here. And
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: a few days later, he comes in and like the
• 47:44
  Speaker 3: rumors are on the TV. And someone described it. He
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: comes in with like this mug of tea and saying, hey, guys,
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: what's going on? Just trolling everything. So, yeah, he did that.
• 47:52
  Speaker 3: And that was right after AD. It wasn't like the
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: team was put together poorly around him after. I mean,
• 47:57
  Speaker 3: there was some mistakes, but he joined a team that
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: wasn't ready for a title.
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: He knew that. All right. That's your own Weitzman.
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: Check out his book, A Hollywood Ending, talking about the
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: LeBron era of the Los Angeles Lakers, available wherever you
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: get your books.
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: My man, I greatly appreciate you. Thanks for joining us.
• 48:11
  Speaker 3: Thank you, Bomani. This was great.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: All right, ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: us here on The Right Time. We do this three,
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: four times a week, actually. Brian Brumley handling everything behind
• 48:20
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• 48:21
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• 48:21
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• 48:35
  Speaker 2: Take it easy.