Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / Who's Going To Win, James Harden or Daryl Morey?

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Who's Going To Win, James Harden or Daryl Morey? · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Check it out, check it out, check it out.
0:01
SPEAKER_00: The Kenny Beechum Podcast is back.
0:03
SPEAKER_00: Episode yada yada.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: I'm here, baby.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: I'm here.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: Last episode I informed y'all that if you did not hear from me for over a week, there is a good reason for it.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: It's not because I didn't got lazy or there was nothing to talk about.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: It was because I was getting married.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: And it happened.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: So, ladies, if you had a plan to send a brother a DM on the gram, I'm sorry you missed your chance.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: You missed that boat.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: You missed that boat because your boy got a ring on his finger.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: And I, you know, it's been almost a week now.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: And I gotta admit, it's kind of clean.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of clean.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of clean.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: So immediately right after the wedding, we went on our honeymoon.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: And I have to say, I've been in this uh content creation game for a decade now.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: No exaggeration.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: Go look at the first video I ever uploaded on YouTube.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: It was a decade ago.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: I had never taken a vacation.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, I travel, but that's those are all work trips.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: When you see me any other city, that's because I'm there for work.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: But as far as like no work involved, no video planning, no meetings, no nothing.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: This is the first time in a decade.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: And it was different, man.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: I'm be honest with you, it was real different.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm on a flight over there and I got a little notebook writing down ideas or things to talk about, whether it be on this podcast or my channel.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: It's like, you know what?
1:17
SPEAKER_00: As soon as these wheels touch down in this city that we go into, no more.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: No more work.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: No meetings, no texting about work.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, no content creation because I ain't had nothing.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: I didn't bring nothing.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: And it was different.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: I enjoyed every single second of it with my lady.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: We had a great time.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: And maybe one day you'll hear stories from the wedding of the honeymoon, but not today, because basketball is gone, man.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: This this is one of those leagues that 24-7, 365, there's something going on, and we gotta start off with James Harden versus Daryl Maury.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: James Harden, Daryl Maury, potentially the best boxing match of the century.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: See, people forget that Daryl Daryl Maury is like 6'5.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: They be looking each other eye to eye.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: So if they want to squash this beef or figure out who's who's the bigger and better man, just get into the ring.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: It's 2023.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: That's how every beef now on the internet is dealt with.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you two content creators that are mad at each other, go get in the ring.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: You a TikToker, you want to fight?
2:16
SPEAKER_00: Oh, go get in the ring.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: That's what we need to do.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: So I'm on my honeymoon, you know what I'm saying?
2:21
SPEAKER_00: Early morning.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: I'm sitting on the back patio, looking at the mountains.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: The sun rising over the mountains is scenic.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: I should have taken videos, but I was in the moment.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: I was at the resort we were at was a no-cell phone device resort.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
2:33
SPEAKER_00: I live by that, alright?
2:35
SPEAKER_00: So I'm sitting on the back porch.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't have my cell phone, but I did have my watch.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: This Apple Watch came in handy to stay contacted with the world.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: And it is blowing up.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: Notification at the notification.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, you know what?
2:47
SPEAKER_00: Let's go see what's going on.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: And it is Shams tweeting the video of James Harden in China on a press run or whatever exactly he's doing.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: He was selling some liquor, I think.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: And he says to the audience, I will never hold on, hold on.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: Let me quote this man directly correctly because it's important I get the words correctly.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: And I quote from James Harden himself, Daryl Maury is a liar.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: And I will never be a part of an organization that he's a part of.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again, bro.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: Bro went in and he double-dipped.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: Daryl Maury is a liar, and I will never be a part of an organization that he's a part of.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: In scene.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: And then it kind of came out of Left Ear.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: Like we had known that there is some disgruntledness, if that's the word, with James in the 76ers.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: Like that's that's something we knew already, right?
3:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, but for him to be on this tour in in China and say this, and then he went on about his business.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: This video of him on a scooter, he's enjoying his run right now.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: But he just said, hold on, wait, wait a minute.
3:46
SPEAKER_00: I know we all enjoying ourselves here, but let me say something for the world, just so people know that I will not be a part of an organization that Darrell Mori is a part of.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: And this this kind of struck struck me to the core.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: That was extremely dramatic.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: This did not strike me.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: I didn't even know why I said that.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: This did not strike me to the core.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: But it was one of the the longest lasting bromances in current NBA.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: It just was.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: You don't you don't see the type of relationship in this league that you saw with James Hart and Adale Moore.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: Like we get player-and-player bromances and relationships, the Kyle Laurie, DeMar DeRozan thing is amazing or was amazing before they shipped DeMario for a championship.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: But you rare you very rarely see NBA player and front office executive or general manager or whatever, whatever.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: This was a one-of-a-kind relationship.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: And this relationship is it runs deep.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: Of course, Daryl Morey being there from the beginning of James Harden's run and to start him after leaving OKC.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, James Harden had his best time as an NBA player under Darrell Morey.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: Daryl Morey has had a lot of chances.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: He's he's done a lot of things to try to help James Harden win that elusive championship.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you look at the history of the Houston Rockets when Daryl Morey was in charge, he traded Jeremy Lamb, Kevin Martin, and a first-round pick that turned into Steven Adams to OKC for James Harden and stuff.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: And then he went out to sign Patrick Beverly the next offseason.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: And then he signed Dwight Howard and Robert Covington a couple months after that.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: He found Clink Capella.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh T Rears was good for them a few years before.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: He said, Let's run that back.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: He has always tried to put the best team around James and eventually getting to the point where Chris Paul was on the roster.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: And then after that, Russell Westbrook, like he has been a guy that was all about his movement with the idea of making his team better.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: And I'm I'm gonna say candidly, I respect that from a fans' perspective because there are a lot of our favorite teams out there that don't have the same mindset of let's get better, better, better.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: And Daryl Morey always did that.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: Of course, he's he's one of the guys to get credit the most when it comes to the analytic part of the game of basketball.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: Like he obviously is not he probably wasn't the first, uh, but he was the guy that took it the most serious.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: There's a time where the Houston Rockets were threes and layups and nothing in between because the numbers said that was the way you play basketball, right?
6:03
SPEAKER_00: Um, so he's always been an experimental guy and kind of like a mad scientist.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: And then when he ended up in with the Philadelphia 76ers, a lot of people was like, it's just a matter of time before James Harden ends up on that team.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: And then he does.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: Um and Darren Morey has been a guy that has thrived in chaos, right?
6:19
SPEAKER_00: The Ben Simmons fiasco was a prime example of that.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: That I think that 29 other general managers across the league deal with the Ben Simmons saga a lot differently.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: You're trying to tell me we have a player of Joel Embiid's caliber in his prime, and this dude that was an all-star the year before doesn't want to play.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: We just gonna let him sit on ice for half of a season.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: Almost every other GM across the league is trading Ben Simmons before training camp or trading Ben Simmons the first week of the season because Joel and B is that damn good that we cannot afford to let a talent just sit on the roster for nothing.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: Daryl Moore's like, we good.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: We believe in Joel and beat.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: We believe in Tyrese Maxie.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: This team, even without Ben Simmons, is like a 40-plus win team.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: And we just need to wait for the right offer because I refuse to trade a player away for nothing.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: And if you look back on that trade, I mean, they walked out of there feeling amazing about things.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's 2023, and still, even with all of this James Harden stuff going on right now, that trade looks amazing from the 76ers standpoint.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: This dude, Ben Simmons, didn't want to play ball.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: He's got back surgeries, and then he got back to the league and he didn't look a third of the player.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: He didn't look a fourth of the player, like he looked awful last season.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: And we flipped that into an all-star caliber player in James.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: Now I know he didn't make the team this year, but he averaged 21 and 11.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: We turned Ben Simmons, who don't want to play to that, like that trade looks amazing, right?
7:40
SPEAKER_00: So Daryl is a different kind of guy in that aspect.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: But even with all of that said, and if all of these rumors are true, he's in the wrong here.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: And I want, again, I want to be candid.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: I've never like been face to face with Daryl Morey, but over the years, we've had a few conversations through Twitter where um, I mean, the last time we talked was four years ago, I want to say, because he was still in charge over there with uh the Houston Rockets, and he invited me to a game.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: You know, he wanted to chill.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: Him and his son, or maybe more of his son, more of his son, more than likely, um, were viewers of the channel, and they just kind of wanted to chill.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: And they didn't want me to come to Houston, but they were playing here in Chicago, and something came up from my end, so I couldn't go there.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: So um, from the few conversations I've had with Daryl, he seems like a cool dude.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: But again, if all of these rumors that we are aware of are true, then I believe that he's probably in the wrong here.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, Kenny, what do you mean by that?
8:32
SPEAKER_00: Rumor has it that Darryl promised James a bag and he didn't fulfill his promises.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: And that's why you get James Harden saying he's a liar.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: Now, it goes a lot deeper than that because over the last couple seasons, James Harden has missed the boat on a lot and a lot of money.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: James Harden, until a couple months ago, was represented by himself.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: And I remember being on a podcast and we were talking about that, and I was like, if you're a player of James Harden's caliber, you can kind of represent yourself because all the contracts you're gonna get is a max here and a max there.
8:59
SPEAKER_00: How much negotiation goes into it?
9:00
SPEAKER_00: I that was a jackass comment.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: Because over the last couple years, James Harden has turned down a substantial amount of money, and I'm sure he is fed up at this point, so fed up that he's like, you know what, I'm gonna go out there and hire an agent.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: And that same agent told him, don't go into China and say these words about Daryl.
9:16
SPEAKER_00: It just doesn't, it's not a good look.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: But James being James said, I don't really give a damn what any of y'all saying.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: So let's go back to the Houston Rockets.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: His last year in Houston, he turned down a two-year,$103 million extension with the Houston Rockets.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: Understandable.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: He thought that his time in Houston was over with.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: He felt like the team and run his cores and he was ready for a new start.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: I'm okay with that.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: Then he gets to Brooklyn and he turns down a three-year,$161 million extension in Brooklyn.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: Uh again, he's never really spoken about what caused him to request a trade.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people have speculations.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to speculate about other people's speculations, but he decided that the Brooklyn Nets was not his place.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: And then he ends up with Philly.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: And in Philly, he is eligible for a four-year,$227 million contract.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: But he didn't take it.
10:03
SPEAKER_00: The way it would have worked is he could have opted out of his current deal because he had a$47 million player option, opt out, renegotiate, and get that four years,$227 million deal.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: Boom.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: All of the money you missed out on the last couple seasons, don't feel too bad because you ended up with 227 amps anyway.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: But no, no, no.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: His good friend, his good, his good buddy for over a decade said, hey, James, sit down for a second.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: You you do want to win a championship, don't you?
10:30
SPEAKER_00: James, like, of course.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: It's the it's the one part of my game that I'm missing.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: I have an MVP.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: I have a hundred um all-star appearances, all NBA appearances.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: I've done the top of the game type stuff.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: But I still ain't got that ring.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: And Daryl says, hey, what if we could get you that?
10:47
SPEAKER_00: James, like, I'm all ears.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: Instead of you taking this money right now, why don't you opt out of your deal?
10:53
SPEAKER_00: Take a take a minor pay cut.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: Now, again, it's a it's a$47 million player option.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: Take a minor pay cut.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: We can get that down to like 34 amps.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: Is that a good number?
11:01
SPEAKER_00: 34 amps.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: You we save about a little over 10 10 amps, and we use that money to make this team a real contender.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: James is like, I'm all leaders.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: Who do you have in mind?
11:14
SPEAKER_00: You remember your old buddy PJ Tucker.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he said he's willing to come here for a small amount of money.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: James's like, yeah, that's cool.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: But what about my other homie?
11:22
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Daniel House?
11:24
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
11:24
SPEAKER_00: Why don't we just go out there and sign every single player that used to play with you at Houston?
11:28
SPEAKER_00: And we just gonna make it work.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: And this is going to be that championship team.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: And James says, this is cool, but you know, the NBA is finicky.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: You know, you think you have a championship team, boom, sprain ankle.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: Season over.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: Season over, playoff, sprain ankle.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: It's all over with.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: So can you I just don't feel comfortable with that right now.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: And Daryl says, hey, how about this?
11:49
SPEAKER_00: You take the pay cut now, and I promise you, the bag next offseason.
11:55
SPEAKER_00: And now, I just made that.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: I didn't make that up, but that's how I'm assuming it.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: I'm assuming it happened.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: And with James Harden being in this relationship with Daryl for over a decade, where they have been as close as possible, as close as you can be between an employer and an employee.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know if that's how the relationship goes.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: Either way, as close as they can be, why would James even question the legitimacy of this, right?
12:17
SPEAKER_00: This is Daryl, it's my homeboy.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: He would never do me wrong.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: And you know what I do, Miss PJ Tuck and I do, Miss Daniel House Jr.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
12:24
SPEAKER_00: I think this roster's good enough to win a championship.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: Deal, I take the pay cut.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Go get the guys.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Go call them right now.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: Go get the guys.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna come into Philly.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get that championship.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna ring the bell.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna do all of the great stuff.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: And not only is my legacy semantic, even if that's something I really care about, Jojo gets his ring.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: And you know, he's been wanting some type of accolade MVP ring all this time.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: And that happened.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: And again, James averages 20 and 11 in the regular season.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: Playoff come around.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: He has those two 40-point games, but surrounding those two 40-point games, he was very, very bad for his own standard.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, hey, it's that time, right?
12:58
SPEAKER_00: It's that time.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: You promised me last offseason you was gonna give me that bag.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: And I let you bring in PJ.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: I let you bring in Daniel House.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: We fell short, of course, but you know what?
13:05
SPEAKER_00: I tried to do my part.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: You remember I had those two 40-point games, if you remember, and that helped us win a couple games in that series, right?
13:11
SPEAKER_00: So where's my money?
13:12
SPEAKER_00: And Daryl looked at him in his eyes and say, What money?
13:15
SPEAKER_00: On some DVO stuff.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: What bike?
13:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm having too much fun.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: This this is what happens when I go a long time without work, man.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: I just come back and I'm just I'm on the edge.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, either way, so he says, We don't have that money.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: So James, like, okay, what's the options then?
13:31
SPEAKER_00: Because right now, if I just hit free agency, it's not a lot of money to go around.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, I was rumored to maybe go back to Houston, but they just spent some money, a lot of money on Fred Van Vliet and company, so they don't even have no money.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: So, like, I'm I'm you you kind of screw me over.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: The money that you promised me, I can't go get anywhere else.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: So, you know what?
13:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna opt in and request a trade.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: And Daryl might may have looked him in the face and said, all right, we'll trade you, bro.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about it.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: And then that was weeks ago, months ago, and now, you know, a couple days before James Hardy made his comments.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: The 76ers came out and said, like, we're okay with James reporting to training camp and just coming a hoop for us.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: And James is kind of fed up.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: Now things get really iffy from here though, because James cannot afford, he cannot afford to not come to training camp.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a new little thing in the CBA that basically says that, hey, if a player does not report to training camp or whatever his obligations are for 30 days, then you basically withhold his money, but not only just that, you keep him under contract.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: So I've been seeing a lot of people on, maybe not a lot of people, but a few tweets on Twitter is like, okay, if James Harden just sit out this season, the next year he's a free agent, he's just gonna sign wherever he wants.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: No, he cannot do that.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: He cannot do that unless he gets these 76 blessings from themselves.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: And why would they do that at this point?
14:45
SPEAKER_00: This is not like, okay, sit down the next year, I'm available to go anywhere else.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: That's not how it goes.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: So who has the leverage?
14:53
SPEAKER_00: The answer is nobody.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: Because this man, James, just told the world that there's no circumstances he's coming back.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: So if I'm the LA Clippers or any other team that's interested, why would I give them my A plus trade package when I know that they're looking to trade him anyway?
15:08
SPEAKER_00: And I know Daryl Moore said he wants to start playing draft capital back, but listen, listen to the market.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: Put your ear to the ground.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: That trade package is not coming.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: It's not.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I even on the honeymoon, gang, on the honeymoon, I'm even looking at my phone, like, okay, if they're really looking for a start playing draft capital, is there any team that can convince themselves that it's worth it?
15:29
SPEAKER_00: Is there any team that can convince themselves that it's worth it?
15:32
SPEAKER_00: And there's not one.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there are teams that can convince themselves to have James, because James, again, is still a really good NBA player, even if he does have his woes come playoff time.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: But in exchange for a star player, you out of, you added, you out of your mind.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: And again, Daryl has been a guy that has worked on that mindset that like y'all might not believe it, but I believe it.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: Nobody believed that they could flip Ben Simmons to James Harden.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: And guess what they did?
15:57
SPEAKER_00: They flipped Ben Simmons to James Harden.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
16:00
SPEAKER_00: And he might be thinking that that might be able to happen again, but I think it's you're not gonna hit the lottery twice, Daryl.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: You're just not gonna hit the lottery twice, in my opinion.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: So what happens now?
16:11
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's also some loopholes within the CBA that James can report and then take 10 days off and then report again, and they tend to take 10 days off.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: He could do it up to 30 days, and he could just make the 76ers experience a living hell.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: And he has some experience with doing that in his career.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: James is the type of player that he's in the mindset, I am going to get what I want.
16:36
SPEAKER_00: It's it's a good old-fashioned player empowerment versus the business side of basketball, and that's what we're going through right now.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: Because Daryl, thinking about it from the business side, is like, I actually don't want to give you that money.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: Because if I don't give you that money now, then in 2024, we could potentially have two max spots.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: We can have max contract money if I don't give you that super extension right now.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: So, what would I do?
16:57
SPEAKER_00: I know you're my boy and all, but I also got to look into what's right for the 76er fans.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: And speaking of the 76er fans, oh my god, guys.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: Hey man.
17:07
SPEAKER_00: Talk about a rough, not even no, no, no, no, not even just a rough three years.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: Talk about a rough decade if you're a 76er fan.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, of course, you got you got the MvP of um Joel and B.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: But then you go through years of excruciating basketball, 19 wins, 18 wins, 10 and 72, and then 28 wins, and then you had the Calangelo thing happen, and now you're in some hot water for other stuff.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: And then you get to the playoffs.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: Again, I I think I mentioned this on one of the other episodes, how unlucky 76ers fans have had it over the last couple years, but it just does not get better.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: You put together maybe the best-looking 76ers team since the finals run, and I'm talking about uh the team that has Joel B, Tobias Harris, even though he didn't play a ton this season, Jimmy Butler, JJ Reddick, and Ben Simmons.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: That team was nice.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: They also had James Ennis, who at one point was looking really good for them in one of those playoff series, and then Kawhi hit one of the clutchest shots in the history of basketball.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, that in my opinion was the best looking 76er team.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: But again, since Darrow has taken over, he's tried this and that, he's tried this and that, and here they are going into the 2023-2024 season with no idea what their roster is gonna look like in a couple weeks.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: And 76er fans are fed up from what I've seen.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: Because now we're going into this domino effect thing when it comes to them, uh, with James potentially being traded for nothing, or just the turmoil continuing to spiral out of control, out of control, out of control, where Joel and B might be the next guy, the next superstar player to say, hey, I've had enough.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: I know personally I have not been the best come playoff time.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: I know, I know.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: Say what you want, but I'm just I'm just a little bit bored of it.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, I can't just have some consistency.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: Again, part of that is him, but he hasn't really had consistency in his career so much so that, you know, after the James Harden thing, 12 hours after James Harden said that in China, Joel and B removed processing and Philadelphia PA out of his bio.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: Is he trolling?
19:20
SPEAKER_00: Possibly, but either way, it's not a good look right now.
19:25
SPEAKER_00: It's not a good look right now.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: So uh this whole thing is just so crazy.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: And I do want to give the Darryl James my thanks for just content to hold us over for a couple days while we wait for things to happen.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: Now, things have happened, right?
19:40
SPEAKER_00: The the um Hall of Fame and Duck D's went in.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Wade, um who else?
19:45
SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, it was Wade, it was Pal.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: Who who whoa, uh Greg, uh Becky, did I say Dirk?
19:53
SPEAKER_00: Dirk and TP.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: Like, that's a really good class.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: So we had those things happen, and then like the schedules are released and everything.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, we just needed something to hold us over, and that's that's what they did.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: That's what they did.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, I also, and listen, this is now where things get real crazy.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: These are not realistic or whatever.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: But again, like I said, I was trying to figure out is there somebody else outside of the Clippers, outside of the Clippers, that might be interested in trading for James?
20:17
SPEAKER_00: And again, I do want to say this.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: I think the conversation around James right now has been kind of crazy.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think it started, it didn't start off here, but I'm gonna read it anyway.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: Kendrick Perkins, shout out to Kendrick Perkins again.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: He might say some crazy stuff, but by all accounts, it seems like he's a good dude.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: He said on national TV James Harden has everything to lose, and if he's not careful, he could possibly out of the league after season.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: Because here's the thing you can't trust him.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: The NBA don't need him, they move on from old superstars.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: And I understand the sentiment.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: I understand what he what he's saying.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
20:47
SPEAKER_00: James Harden over the last couple years is true.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: You can't trust him right now.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: You don't know if he's gonna be super happy with your organization.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: Um, and and it's kind of like the old Damian Lillard thing.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: We don't know if the grass is gonna be greener.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: I remember Dame said that a couple years ago when asked if he'll ever request a trade.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: And you you might be seeing James Harden is a prime example.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: He left Houston and so far has been on two other teams and he's not even he ain't like he ain't liking it.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
21:10
SPEAKER_00: Houston might have been perfect for him for the entirety of the rest of his career.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, either way, I I understand where he's coming from, but I just think it's not really it's not really true.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: It's not really correct.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're saying that, hey James, um, you you have to be able to accept the fact that you're no longer a super duper star, then maybe, I mean, we've seen some players throughout history to who struggle with accepting that that they've in their older age aren't on the same level as some of the younger players across the league, but I don't really get that from I don't really get that from James.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: People are are putting it on the same level of when Alan Irison or Carmelo Anthony kind of fell out of the league.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: And my response to that, as far as the basketball goes, James Harden is leagues ahead of where Alan Irison was when he eventually fell out of the league, or even Carmelo Anthony.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about a dude that just Averaged 20 points, 21 points, and I'm sorry, 20 points and 11 assists.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: That AI was not doing that.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: And again, I know his times are a little bit different towards the end of AI's career.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're talking early 2010s.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: But again, we're talking about a dude that was on an all-star battle.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: Now he didn't make it, but he was playing at all-star level.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: He helped the team win 50 plus games as the second best player.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: Like, we're not talking about a dude that's spiraling into a low-level role player that can't accept the fact that he's a seventh man on the roster.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: This man, James, is still better than I don't know.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: A lot of the point guards across the league right now.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, you cannot convince me that there won't be teams still lining up to sign James if he becomes a free agent, a la uh Alan Igerson or Carmelo Anthony.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: You know, Carmelo Anthony took a long time to sign his last contract.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: And he and after that, we were waiting for like a year and a half.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: Is somebody ever gonna pick up Melo?
22:56
SPEAKER_00: James will have offers.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: Are they gonna be max contracts?
23:01
SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's the part of James we don't know about.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: Would he be able to no, we actually we can't say he is able to accept a pay cut as long as you promise him max contract money, down the line.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's just it I understand again what Perk is trying to say here, but I just completely uh disagree because of the caliber of player that James is, even if it is just the regular season.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of teams that would take this regular season play with the understanding that it might not translate full-time come postseason.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: Some teams out there are extremely, extremely desperate to just be relevant.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: If James is on the free agency block, you know the pools is calling that man's phone.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: Again, it would have to be for a lot less money than what he's worth, but he won't be just out of the league.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
23:51
SPEAKER_00: Because he can always find a home here in Chicago who just want to be relevant.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, a couple days after he said that in China, there there was a report from Pompeii that says James Harden has expressed interest in playing in China.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know if we have anything to say about that.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: Are there any jokes to be said?
24:08
SPEAKER_00: I think we I think that is the joke.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: I I don't even know if there's anything else to be added to that.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: He he wouldn't be able to do that though, just because um because of the collecting bargaining agreement, the same clause that I mentioned earlier that he has 30 days to rapport, yada yada yada.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: Um that prevents him from signing to any uh professional sports team, not just an NBA team.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: He could not go play in the Chinese Basketball Association, he could not go play with Boogie Cousins in Puerto Rico, he he could not go play with Jabari Parker, who just signed with I Forgot Who overseas.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: Like he couldn't do it.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: Um so if he wanted to actually play in China, he would have to wait for his current contract to be void or his current contract to be over.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: But again, the joke the jokes do right themselves with that.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: I I don't really know what else to really say.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh Nick Nurse is over there swittling his thumbs, thinking to himself, goddamn, there was nine jobs available slash openness offseason, and I picked the one with the the the most flammability.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: And I said that when he signed it.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: I said that when he signed it, like, bro, that's the job you take.
25:15
SPEAKER_00: I mean, in a perfect world, it's a good job, right?
25:17
SPEAKER_00: You have the reigning MVP of the league, you have good players around him, Tyrese Max, he's a stud at the age of like 22, 23.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: The team is good, but you but you but you know that this James thing is is maybe gonna happen.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: So it was it's just weird that that's the job he opted into, and now next season we don't know if James's gonna be there.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: By James's account, he won't be there, but by Darrell Morris' account, he might be there.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: And then when all of that falls out, who knows what happens to Jordan Bede over the next couple of seasons.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: So it is just a uh a particular situation if you Nick nurse.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
25:50
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and we'll see how he deals with it.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: Like I mentioned earlier, we had a new class of Hall of Famers into the basketball hall, and I think it was a total of 12 to 13 different people.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: I I'm only aware of the NBA P because that's where my expertise lies, if you want to call the expertise.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: So I just I just wanted to go back and talk about my favorite moments from the players that were inducted: Pal Gasall, Dirk, uh Dwayne Wade, Tony Parker.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna start off with Dirk, and I think this is the easy one.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: It might be the consensus, unless you're like a diehard Dallas Maveries fan.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: In 2011, when they took out the Heatles, bro, I cannot explain to you how excited I was.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: This was when I was in my prime hater era, um, early high school, where I hated all things Miami Heat.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: I hated all things LeBron James again at the age of 26.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: I am well past those stages.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: I love LeBron.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: Like I cherish the moments we have of LeBron playing ball on some very real stuff.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, but the 2011 version of me could not wait to see them boys lose in an NBA championship, and they did it.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: And if you look back on that roster, of course, that team was obviously pretty good.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: But when you stack them up against the talent that was Dwayne Wade, that was uh LeBron James or Chris Bosch, I honestly looking back on it, didn't believe that they had a real chance, and and there they were.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: Um, you also have the moment of um Dwayne Wade and LeBron mocking the fact that Dirk had a cold, and that just made me dislike them even more because Dirk was like this sole ranger over there, over there in Dallas, doing what he could.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: And of course, he hit the game winner in what game was that game winner in game two, I want to say, with a couple seconds left on the clock.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: Another series that I need to go back and rewatch.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, the Dirk moment is pretty easy, pretty simple.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: We'll get past that.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: The way what is is so so weird.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: Because again, I just mentioned that that when the Miami Heat decided to team up together, I I hated it.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: You know, the Heatles was something I I disliked.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: But Dwayne Wade himself was one of my favorite players before this.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: So the entire time while I'm watching hate watching the Heat, I'm like having this existential crisis trying to figure out can I is there any way I could still root for Dwayne Wade by simultaneo but simultaneously saying I hate this team?
28:00
SPEAKER_00: That that's that was the conversations I'm having with myself the entire time because Dwayne Wade, of course, being an Illinois boy and just just being just damn good at the game of basketball, it was hard for me not to like him as a player.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: 2006 comes around, he gets every single foul call they win it, they win that championship.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'm like, yeah, shout out to the young Wade, young Flash, you know, his career's about to go crazy, and then he teams up with the the guys.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
28:28
SPEAKER_00: There was a report that came out earlier today or earlier this week, and and now that we here.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: I know we all over the place, but welcome to the Candy Beach and Pod.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: This is what the hell we do.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: It had to do with this thing.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: A failed Lual Dang trade reportedly prevented Chicago from signing Wade, LeBron, and Chris Bosch back in 2010.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: If the Bulls were able to trade Lual Dang to the Clippers, which had been talked about, what they've talked about doing, the big three would have come to Chicago.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: Trust me on that one, and that is from uh KC, KC uh uh Johnson, who is a very credible source here in Chicago as a reporter and everything.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, sometimes things get aggregated, and you're like, man, that shit ain't true.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: I believe KC wholeheartedly.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, that drop.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm on my honeymoon and stuff, you know what I'm saying?
29:10
SPEAKER_00: The phone is blowing up.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, bro, what is people up to now?
29:14
SPEAKER_00: And it was this.
29:15
SPEAKER_00: And people already have this notion about us Bulls fans, how we live in the world of hypotheticals because we always talk about, you know, the the moment where Dwayne, I'm sorry, the moment where uh Derek Rose tore his ACL, what could have been, what could have been, what could have been, whatever, whatever.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: And this just added more fuel to the fire in this hypothetical, hypothetical world that us Bulls fans live in.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: Again, it's been a very long time since the Bulls have been championship teams, uh championship team.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: And I've said years ago that if it wasn't for Michael Jordan, the city of Chicago, as far as the basketball city would not exist, we would have been a laughing stuff.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: They were already not good previously to Jordan.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have really any good seasons before Jordan got there.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: And since Jordan has left, we've had a handful of good seasons, and that was with the torn ACL Derrick Rose or right before that.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I'm just adding to my delusion about what that team could have been because I know that the Heatles got two out of four.
30:11
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna go out on the limb and say two out of four for that type of talent's not that crazy.
30:16
SPEAKER_00: But if they would have came to Chicago, and again, does uh Joe Kim Noah continue to develop into a DPOY candidate?
30:24
SPEAKER_00: Or do they ship him to another team just to please LeBron so he can run his five out stuff?
30:30
SPEAKER_00: Does Derrick Rose um take his next jump?
30:33
SPEAKER_00: All of those things are real question marks, but hell, on surface level, that team is at least winning three out of those four.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: Let me be delusional for a second.
30:41
SPEAKER_00: That team is winning at least three out of four championships, and nobody will be able to convince me otherwise because that's too much goddamn talent.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: Getting back to Dwayne Wade, one of my favorite things about Dwayne Wade's career, it's not it's not even a specific moment, but I remember when Paul Pierce when Paul Pierce was at the free throw line, um, and they they were yapping with Draymond Green.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: And Draymond Green said, Hey, P, you're not getting no farewell tour like Kobe did.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: Dwayne Wade got his farewell tour, and he hit a couple game winners on his farewell tour, y'all.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: Like, I cannot express how older Dwayne Wade, how good he still looked in that last year, and that's coming off a couple seasons where it was like raps.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: Now again, this is like a not a fake good year, but like for somebody in the last year of his NBA career, he just performed better than I think a lot of people might have anticipated.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: If I go back and look at these numbers, played 72 games, averaged 15 points per game, 43% from the field, 33% from three.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: And again, the years before that, um, when he was in Chicago, he he was still good, but the the one year after that between Cleveland and getting back to Miami, he wasn't very good.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: And that was probably the reason he was like, you know what?
31:51
SPEAKER_00: This probably ain't that.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: And the good thing about this season is that this was the one year they had the legacy pick when it came to the all-star game.
31:59
SPEAKER_00: So him and Dirk got that extra all-star nod, and I was in attendance with that, and I was just thinking to myself, like, I'm extremely blessed to even be in the arena right now, considering those two players were two of my top five players growing up, favorite players growing up, and I'm in here to see both of them in their last all-star game.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: Like, it was surreal.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: So that whole farewell tour was pretty pretty damn elite.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: It was pretty damn elite.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: And then he even in that last game tried to go out like Cole.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: Cole went out uh with a lot of points, a lot of buckets, a lot of shot attempts.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: Wade ended up with like 30 side attempts in that very last game.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: Like he was going for it.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: He did get his triple-double.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think Duncan Robinson threw him a lob, or vice versa.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: One of the two things.
32:42
SPEAKER_00: He got a triple-double to end his career.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: It was magical.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: It was magical.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: Now I will say with Tony Parker, I was never a huge Tony Parker fan.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: I respected him and the Spurs and everything they did.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: But it was one of those things that I, one of those organizations in general with the Spurs that younger me kind of took for granted, oh yeah, they're the Spurs, they're gonna be good every single season, whatever, whatever.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: Tim Duncan, uh Yon Fest.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: But now, again, at the older age, I'm disappointed in my younger self that I wasn't there to cherish those uh great Tim Duncan seasons, and I that goes hand in hand with Tony Parker.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: I recently was re-watching the 20th, was it the 2013th, 2012, or 2013 finals, whichever one, Tony Parker hit the game winner in game one.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: And the shot is just so goddamn ridiculous.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: That if they would have won that series and they were a couple seconds, one rebound and one three-point shot away from winning that series, you know what I'm saying?
33:32
SPEAKER_00: If they would have won that series, that moment would be played over and over and over again.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: But because they lost the series and there was an even more important shot that was hit by Ray Allen, that moment kind of gets lost throughout history.
33:43
SPEAKER_00: But that is one of the tougher game winners I've seen.
33:46
SPEAKER_00: And it's extremely close to the one that Chris Paul hit on them a couple years later, where Chris Paul had no hammy left, and he still went down court and got the game winning shot in game seven.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: Oh, and it was game seven for Chris Paul.
33:57
SPEAKER_00: Remember that.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: Game seven, no hammy, he's damn near crying because he's got no hammy and he gets the shot right over Tim Duncan's outstretched hands.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I gotta go re-watch that because yeah, that's my boy Chris Paul.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: He was in his bag.
34:09
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I wasn't big into Tony Parker growing up, so that was like the moment because I recently re-watched it.
34:16
SPEAKER_00: Now I have always, and I mean always been a fan of Pal Gasol for as long as I can remember.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: He has been a guy that I really enjoyed watching, really good footwork, and then eventually he ended up on my favorite team, ladies and gentlemen.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: And he kind of, I'm gonna say the word rejuvenated because it's not like he had fallen off or anything, but he had gone a few years um with the Lakers where he did not make an all-star appearance.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: You know, he had a season where he averaged 13 points per game, and then that was an injury-riddle season, then he came back with 17 points, and he ended up on the Bulls, and on the Bulls, he made two all-star games, 2014, 2015, 2015, uh, 2016.
34:56
SPEAKER_00: And I remember him, and I think he talked about this in his speech actually, um, him and Mark being the starting centers of an all-star game, and the first time brothers have ever been starting against each other in the all-star game.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: And I thought those were just cool moments, you know what I'm saying?
35:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of I'm kind of a sucker when it comes to like sweet family moments or relationship moments, and that that's definitely the one.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: Like, we talk about on court stuff.
35:20
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we can go on and on.
35:21
SPEAKER_00: 2009, um, him and him and Kobe in 2009, the connection was was so ridiculous.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: I have vivid memories of both of them going crazy, um, and of course going out there and raising that Larry O'Brien trophy and everything.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: But like, I I'm gonna stick to I'm gonna stick to when he was on my favorite team, doing my favorite team stuff.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: Because in this NBA finals, and again, this is versus um who's this versus this is versus Dwight Howard at the peak of his powers.
35:47
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we have this this man, pal, going out there and averaging 18 and 9 on very great efficiency in the series.
35:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, and they won it, you know, and he got he got his jewelry, man.
35:59
SPEAKER_00: He got his jewelry, jewelry code, and they had a nice, nice little connection.
36:04
SPEAKER_00: Before we head out of here, I I want to quickly talk about the FIBA basketball stuff that's going on.
36:09
SPEAKER_00: I've been trying my hardest to not just keep up with the with the US of A, but also keep up with like Team Canada, Team Germany, uh, Team Spain, and all these other teams that I think have a good chance or, you know, are represented by a good amount of NBA players.
36:21
SPEAKER_00: Because that's basically what it is, right?
36:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, there are a lot of countries that have a ton of talent, but I'm not familiar with the talent because these are players that are playing outside of the NBA, right?
36:30
SPEAKER_00: So I'm trying my hardest to keep up with everything.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: And I do want to say there are a few players on Team USA that I'm like, man, if they can just translate this over to the to the actual league, a lot of people will be in trouble.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: And the number one name, the number one name in my mind is that man, Anthony Atwards.
36:50
SPEAKER_00: This man, Ant-Man, be doing his thing on offense and defense.
36:52
SPEAKER_00: And and the reason I really like FIBU slash the Olympics is because it'll it makes players have to step outside of their range of comfort comfortability.
37:01
SPEAKER_00: Because on the normal rosters, hey, you're the guy.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: In most cases, now, this is a super young team USA team where like there's a lot of players on this roster that are not the guy on their team.
37:10
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
37:11
SPEAKER_00: Bobby Portis is not the guy.
37:12
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
37:13
SPEAKER_00: Walker Kessler is not the guy.
37:14
SPEAKER_00: He's a guy, he's not the guy.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it it makes people have to step out of what they would normally do.
37:21
SPEAKER_00: And now, I mean, we see this with mellow.
37:23
SPEAKER_00: Melo is the prime example, prime example of this.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: He was always the number one option on every single team that he's ever played for in the NBA.
37:30
SPEAKER_00: Then we get to FIBA, and he still got hella buckets.
37:33
SPEAKER_00: But we got to see defensive mellow.
37:35
SPEAKER_00: We got to see a lot more of Carmelo Anthony, right?
37:39
SPEAKER_00: Or this is Olympic mellow.
37:40
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't really remember FIBA version of him, but you get what I'm saying.
37:43
SPEAKER_00: And now you're seeing that with a guy like Anthony Edwards.
37:46
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, Anthony Edwards was a it was a first overall pick.
37:50
SPEAKER_00: So it is it's not necessarily a surprise when you see him perform very well.
37:56
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he was drafted first overall with the idea that this guy is going to be a super uh future star.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, it doesn't work out that way um all the time.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: Honestly, getting the first overall pick has been kind of a curse in a lot of cases.
38:08
SPEAKER_00: Either way, the Memphis, Minnesota Timberwolves, the Minnesota Timberwolves are not a team on paper that excite me whatsoever.
38:17
SPEAKER_00: You know, again, I've always been a Rudigo Bear fan, and I think last season a lot of people are turned off by Rudigo Bear, and I can't even be mad at him.
38:23
SPEAKER_00: It was it was a very weird situation.
38:25
SPEAKER_00: So I don't really love their team on paper.
38:28
SPEAKER_00: But Ant and his ability to hit a superstar jump changes pretty much everything.
38:36
SPEAKER_00: Because even if the team on the roster on paper don't look too crazy, a star is a star.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: And a star can turn turn a team that might be projected to win 40, and I'm just using that number as and I don't know what they're projected to do.
38:53
SPEAKER_00: And a star himself, with him just playing at a star-level player and winning games, can get that 40 up to 46, 47.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: And the Western Conference already been being as crazy as it really is to have another team in the Minnesota Timberwolves that will be in the mix.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: I can't say that they burned the mix last year.
39:12
SPEAKER_00: They made the goddamn playoffs last year and they play Jokic really well.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: But like they're a team that should legitimately be in the mix to make some noise, not as a championship level.
39:21
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going that far, but Anthony Edwards blossoming into a superstar this season can make them look back on that trade and not feel as bad.
39:30
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm saying I ain't nothing gonna fix it, but as bad.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: And I'm looking at him playing this feedback again, it ain't like he the best player on the court, you know what I'm saying?
39:39
SPEAKER_00: But the fact that he is willing to buy in to get the stops, to get the steals, and get the blocks on jump shots and help team USA close out good uh games against really good teams and home court advantage to the opposing team, you know what I'm saying?
39:53
SPEAKER_00: It's guys like him, it's guys like Austin Reeves, who I just the Lakers just found another one.
39:58
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
39:59
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately for him and for a guy like Alice Caruso a couple years ago, there 100% there is something that is like, hey, once you go to the Lakers, you're under a microscope a little bit more.
40:11
SPEAKER_00: So even if you're a let's say C player, because you play for the Lakers, the hype around you is bringing you up to a B.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: That's not the case for Austin Reeves.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: Austin Reeves is that nice.
40:25
SPEAKER_00: And I implore you to watch him play basketball a little bit a little bit deeper than just him playing in the gold.
40:32
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
40:33
SPEAKER_00: Because again, there are a lot of people that believe just because he's a Lakers, that's why he's on this pedestal.
40:37
SPEAKER_00: And I don't even want to say pedestal, but that's why he's talked about a lot.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: And primarily true, right?
40:41
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the Lakers are the largest market.
40:43
SPEAKER_00: They have LeBron James, so yeah, things that happen with the Lakers are going to get talked about more.
40:47
SPEAKER_00: But if he's played for any of the 29 other teams, he would still be this damn good.
40:51
SPEAKER_00: We're not just saying he's good because he plays for the Lakers.
40:54
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of players on the Lakers that are ass.
40:56
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
40:57
SPEAKER_00: Austin Reeves is not one of them.
40:59
SPEAKER_00: So they found another diamond in the rough, man.
41:02
SPEAKER_00: That's one thing you can say about them Lakers.
41:03
SPEAKER_00: They find a way with the undrafted players.
41:05
SPEAKER_00: Now, Austin Reeves is kind of undrafted by choice.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: They basically told other teams, don't draft me.
41:10
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
41:11
SPEAKER_00: But still, undrafted is undrafted.
41:14
SPEAKER_00: And when you look at some of the money that was given out this offseason, you look at Austin Reeves's production, you're like, damn, the Lakers really lucked out.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: They really got a steal on that brother because um he is really that nice.
41:25
SPEAKER_00: He's really that nice.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, man, that's that's pretty much all I want to say again.
41:30
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate all the support over this time, man.
41:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, as weird as it is, I truly miss filming over my honeymoon, and maybe that's more indicative of my uh not so great relationship with work, how I'm on this real life vacation, and the only thing I can not the only thing I can think about, but the thing I'm thinking about the most is content creation.
41:50
SPEAKER_00: It is uh made my my brain uh real smooth.
41:55
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
41:56
SPEAKER_00: But I love it.
41:57
SPEAKER_00: I love it, and I appreciate y'all, and I'll be I'll be back.
41:59
SPEAKER_00: I mean, maybe James gets traded.
42:01
SPEAKER_00: Maybe Dame gets traded.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: I did just see Bamma de Bayo put something in his Instagram story, and people are talking about it.
42:06
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's happening soon.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: Appreciate you.