1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - WNBA Playoffs around the Corner / Is NY the Mecca of Basketball?- August 28th, 2024

Episode Date: August 29, 2024

1-ON-1: WNBA Playoffs around the Corner / Is NY the Mecca of Basketball?Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

All right, welcome in to Ticka Weeknight. Harrison Arns on the ones and twos, as always, comes 6 o'clock here. If you guys want to join in, we got, as always, on Wednesday, Dave Turcott, former national Canadian basketball player here with us. 402, 4664, 5, 685, but a face to the voice using the streams. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Allo, Panel 961. Dave Turcott, how's going on a Wednesday night? It is a great week.

Lots going on in the world of sports, basketball, all love the fact that the NFL's going down. That's great. Big shout out. Congratulations to my boy, Dallan Holker of Colorado State University. Signing as a tight-in making the official roster for the New Orleans Saints. Very proud of him. Great achievement on his part. So it's been sort of a celebratory week in our families. We celebrate our CSU RAM breaking into the NFL. Yeah, absolutely. It's that sweet spot of a sports world. Everything is ramping up right now. We're going to talk some WMBA. I want to mix in some NBA as well, in particular tanking. Is it worth it or not?

Do we actually see a success when teams decide to tank? Because we're going to have the Cooper flag sweepstakes this year. So I want to talk about that. But then also we got time for it, college football, because we just got through week zero, a crazy week zero. And then week one right around the corner, Huskers got UTEP. So I want to start out with WMBA, though. In particular, Caitlin Clark looks pissed.

I'll just say that much. After the Olympic break, I believe there are three of their last they've won all behind really big performances from her. She also got her division player of the week. What do you see in the WNBA right now, in particular with the fever? Because as it sits, they got a good playoff chance.

First of all, love to see her last play in the top 10 on the ESPN top 10, that great moves. And I think the whole thing of all she does is shoot threes, I think that's over, right? Number one. I mean, she's been consistently one of the best probably top five players in the league, you know, she's, I mean, leading the league and assists and doing all the

other stuff. If she was doing comparable stuff in the NBA, you'd be saying, well, she's a lot like Luca or somebody like that in terms of the numbers, the way their games are played. So I think she's sending a message. I think she did exactly what every competitor should do. You know what? She got this. She should have been on the team. And by the way, you know, the team was great, but you can never have too many three-point shooters in the international game. Like we talked about, about the men, it supplies the same for women. International game needs more three. Three-point shooting. is a lot more important there than in the NBA or the WNBA.

And so I think she's, I think she's pissed. She's using it as fuel. She's just, which is what she's supposed to do. And I love the fact that she's doing it. And you know what? I think you can see also other players in the league are starting to say,

yeah, okay. You know, play, like they're all, all this, the catiness is kind of going away while players are giving her the respect that she deserves and realize that,

yeah, she's a generational player. And, and, you know, so I think it's great. love the fact that she's doing it and it's again it's just better for everyone that's the tide that rises all boats and i love what she's doing and everyone's benefiting from it and i hope everyone stays positive and just loves the ride love the banter back and forth as long as it stays positive about her you know yeah and that's that's the part that always kind of drives me insane

um it is sometimes it feels like there's two competitors especially with angel rees katele carc we saw it at the college level uh and then even at the mba love wmba level you still kind of see it there but you listen to Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark in their post game press conferences. They really just want to talk about ball and their opponent. One thing I can't help with the WMBA, I can't help but feel like they try to politicize it almost too much. You catch some offhanded reporter questions after games

that just feel like they're away from the game of basketball. What is it about WMBA in particular? It feels like they're not doing what they can to really elevate those players and what they have. Yeah, you know what? It's just a reality of the media. And I wouldn't even say media. It's more the impact of social media, right?

What's the number one thing that you care about? Engagement. What's the number one thing that drives engagement the most? Hate, anger, and resentment, right? So if you can create a fight between these two great players, and I would love to make a comparison, well, this was before your time, but if you go back, sorry, I'm talking about something 10 years before you were born. But in the late 70s, when Magic and Larry came on board, it was competitive.

exactly the same thing. There were racial overtones. They were like, who's the best player? And everyone had their guy in their camp. But between Larry and Magic, they became great friends and are to this day, you know. And I hope there's a lesson there for sure. But really what makes me upset is I hate the way they try to make it. And it's not fair to Angel Reese what they do.

Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark are two entirely different players. They could both have monumental, historic games. And they would never guard each other much. didn't impact each other much. You know what I mean? There are different positions. They do different things. They play differently.

And so it's an unfair comparison. And everybody that plays knows that. And why they try to make it like this good girl, bad girl thing or this white girl versus black girl thing is a terrible thing that's unfair to both of them. It doesn't respect the way they play. So I think that's a function of trying to generate engagement, which again, that fancy word for just emotions erupting on social media and websites and through, you know, making people say and do stupid things.

And I think there's somebody pulling the string somewhere that's kind of looking away, saying, well, all engagement is good engagement. So let's keep those fires burning because we're going to grow the league and we're going to make more money. I don't think players are into that. There are other people into that. And I think it's, in the long run, I think it's really hurting the league. And I wish I almost want to see there was a great commercial that came out for Converse back in the day that Magic and Larry were in the same one together.

I'd like to see Angel and Caitlin start throwing the mix in there and saying like, hey, because I know they don't hate it. I know they respect each other. Yeah. Watch the W.A. 100% right? So, you know, I think, and I think, I'm worth their teammates together on the All-Star game or whatever. There were teammates and they played group together.

They beat the USA team that was headed out there. Like, those guys clicked. You didn't see any sort of hate or resentment from either of them when they're on that roster. Exactly. So we hope that turns around. that's a function the way social media works and you know and that takes every every individual person that's connected that way to do something different and i don't know if we can control that so hopefully fingers crossed the dynamic changes right yeah and that's you know that's kind of

with the wmba that's my biggest fear for it is like don't let the storyline it's kind of fog what you're trying to do here it's like you really got for once like all lies kind of on the wmba you got a real opportunity like do not take the story to politics or even just extra noise that's going to get away from the game. Because you got a beautiful product in front of you. If you want to sell the narratives around it, then you're going to have to continue to make a new narrative

every single season that comes around. And that's a lot harder than just presenting two great basketball players. I shouldn't say too because that rookie class was lower. Yeah. And just if you're curious, I'll give the Kate and Clark stats for everybody who's out there listing in the car. So when after that Olympic break, she arrives, they win three out of the last four. She drops 29 on Phoenix,

23 on Seattle. They lose to Minnesota, but she gets 23 points there as well. In their last game, they beat Atlanta. She drops 19. All of those on a fringe of a double-double, shooting high efficiency, all about 40% to 35 at our lowest three-point range. I mean, she looks like she's finally just kind of jelled and ready to kind of take over the league.

Who do you got for rookie of the year in the WMBA? It's got to be heard. I think so, too, right? And that's the one thing. I don't think it's close. Like, because they, like, you know, and that's, and I won't compare her to Angel Reese, but can't care, just because too many people do that. But with the other players, like Angel Reese is a very, very good player.

But she doesn't dominate the game. You don't win or lose. I don't think. I think no one dominates the game more than Caitlin does. And no one's more valuable than their team than Caitlin is. I mean, you know, the fever were the absolute worst team in the league, right? So they're in the hunt now all of a sudden they're in there. And so she's doing great.

And I think she's running away. She's the rookie of the year, you know. Yeah, I think so too. And, you know, with the Angel Reese, I think 15 double doubles in a row consecutively. She's got a hell of a case. But like, again, with Caitlin Clark, she's just had pretty historic rookie season already. The one game breaking the record with 19 assists, just some dominant three-point shooting as well. So I think she'll probably run away with it.

It's going to be interesting. Do you think the intense following for the WMBA last, As long as the Indiana fever aren't it? Do you think it's enough to garner, say the fever get eliminated? Because as great as Clark is, what we're saying, I don't think they're going to be the team to win that thing. If the fever drop out, are people still going to be interested and the viewership go up?

Well, we'll find out. But, you know, if I had to give a yes or a, or an I actually think that's why she's been so great. I think a lot of the problem that people had with WNBA was they just weren't watching the games and seeing how good these women are. And so I think there are, I guarantee you there's three. to five million. I don't know what Angel Reese's Twitter following is, but you know, you can see there are fans of these women individually. There are fans of these teams. I think there's a fan base for them.

There are other teams where Caitlin's not playing where they've got 15, 20,000 people at a game now. So, you know, and I, you know, when I think of there are some pretty good teams, Asia Wilson, of course, is just absolutely fantastic. And so I think fans have, there's been such a huge swath of the country that has got the opportunity now because of Caitlin for the country to go, huh, maybe there's something over here to look at. Maybe these girls can play, and then they go look and go, yeah, they can play. So are they going to keep everybody? Of course not.

There are some diehards that are Caitlin only. But I think now the fan base is growing to the point where you're still going to have a viable playoffs, a viable everything. You're going to get fans. Fans are going to participate. You'll get TV viewership because I think a lot of these other players, people are beginning to see how great they really are. And I think, you know, so it's great for Kailant.

that's the one thing I think people are coming around to is like, you know, she elevated everyone's else perception and openness to saying these women can play and do stuff on a high level just like the men can. And I think it's fantastic. Yeah. There's certainly going to be a following with a fever, but I think you're right in saying that it's going to be an uptick across the board regardless. Now, you know, if they get eliminated, you're probably going to have some lesser viewership. But I still think compared to years in the past, you're going to be doing a lot better. But that being said, though, that's kind of what I got on the WMBA, where we want to go with next, in particular, with the NBA, is tanking.

Because we do got the Cooper Flagg situation, highly touted. He's going to be going to Duke, but he's probably going to be that one and done guy. At least that's what seems the aspirations are. In your mind, in the NBA in particular, does tanking work? Do you see that as a real viable option for GMs and ownership to pull off to try to set themselves up in the future? You know, I am, I mean, let's, Let's go back. Here's what I would say. Let's go back in the last 35 years. What years do you remember tanking intentionally, actually ever working, right? The first instance of that I can think of was Popovich and the Spurs, getting David Robertson, who gets injured, they go back, they're back in the lottery again. They get Tim Duncan, right? That's probably the best outcome that's ever happened in the history of tanking. Agreed? And that wasn't someone actually trying to lose. You know, they were just losing badly because, you know, the mechanisms to make tanking valuable

weren't, I think, as prevalent back then. So that's the thing. Then I think of, again, San Antonio Spurs, Wembe, I don't know that Popovich intentionally has ever lost a game in his life. I think they were just that bad, right? There are teams that are going to suck that absolutely should be in the lottery. So then that's the other great pick. So then, okay, Wembe, Tim Duncan, David Robertson.

Okay, now you tell me when in the last, take LeBron James out of the mix, I would say, other than LeBron in there as a draft pick, what other year would tanking have worked to change your franchise? What other player was, oh, if only we'd gone here, not there? You know, because the team missed up, by the way, like Michael Jordan. The teams, you know, he was picked. third he wasn't picked number one right if you look at the top 50 greatest players of all time how many of them are number one draft picks like not a lot i'm trying to think like you know magic johnson was and i think larry bird might have been i think larry bird came out first magic came

out second right i mean but even then that's in the 70s right when the league's just being bored and born and nobody really cares like they care today so i'm trying to look back and i actually I didn't have the stats on this, and I was thinking about this for today, is like, how many times can you actually say, we tanked, it worked, we got our guy, he's a lottery pick. And, oh, by the way, as a rookie like LeBron, he's leading the league and scoring. I don't think that's ever happened, right? Right.

So even Wembe, Wemby's had a great first year, but, dude, I'll tell you, everybody in the league, you know, as great as he is, boy, I worry about him getting hurt and being the next Sam Bowley or the next, you know, old, I forget, Greg Oden from, went to Portland and got her, all these big guys that, you know, they're great for a couple years, but they're not as durable, right?

So I'm telling you, I, if I had to look at it, if I look back 30 years of the NBA, maybe, so once in a decade, if you do the math, tanking might have worked if it was done intentionally, but it wasn't, right? So I don't think tanking's worth it. I think when you tank now, you absolutely give up on your future because now you're not developing young players.

You're teaching players how to lose. And when you've got the normal wife style of an NBA player, not every player is in the league for nine years. So you may have two or three years to develop a player. So let's say I'm on your roster and you're tanking and you're telling me to lose. You're not just losing the game. I might be someone that would be good enough to be part of. a trade to help you get a better player and free agency. So you're automatically devaluing their current players. Their stats are going in the toilet. They're clearly, you know, you're hurting guys'

minutes, you're hurting guys' stats, you're hurting morale. That's a tough thing to come back from. And the short-term losses you suffer over at least one or two years of tanking that you would try to get in the lottery, maybe three, I mean, you do so much damage to the long-term strategic value of your organization, your long-term opportunity to win. the development of your younger players. You know, I would rather, you know, that's where I would go. I think if I was a GM, I would say, hell, I'm not going to tank, but I'm just going to draft great talent or try to develop.

And that's kind of what up until Wembe, that's kind of what Pop has always done, right? When you think of Tony Parker, Manu Genoble, all these guys other than Tim Duncan, these are all guys that they drafted foreign players and free agency to big risks, develop them, taught them, and then they got championships. I think a long-term strategic play for developing talent with the long view and trying to win every day and always being best. I think tanking is a cultural cancer in any organization that metastasizes and turns into something that takes a lot longer than the value of that lottery pick to be gone. Right. And that's why I've never, I literally, I'm sitting here going, I cannot think of a team that intentionally tanked.

And then cheers, we got it. We won. We got our guy. And next thing you know, we're in the regional final or the conference finals for the east or the west or whatever. I just haven't seen it. It's rare. And just for, because we asked us before, how many number one picks have ever just won the MVP? So if you're tanking because you think this is going to be a future MVP,

through the entire history of the NBA, it's only happened 11 times. And a lot of them were Magic Johnson. He was a three-time winner. Abdul-Jabbar, six-time winner, Bill Walton, Magic Johnson. and then you got Akeem O'Juan, David Robinson, Shaq, Iverson, Tim Duncan, LeBron James, Derek Rose.

It's very rare. Now, you could make the argument where sometimes there's nuances where the Lakers, they tanked for Lanzo Ball. you can say that the players didn't, but certainly the GMs up top weren't giving them the best players,

kind of controlling it without directly controlling it, not giving them paying a lot of money for a better roster. So they would end up tanking to get Lanzo Ball. Now, Lanzo Ball wasn't the guy, that was going to go win them the championship,

but the package with Lanzibal to get Anthony Davis along with Josh Hart and Kyle Kuzma, that's in a weird way how they brought in youth of quote-unquote future MVP to get what is a superstar. And then that way you can make some sort of sense with it. If you think there's a superstar you can get. But I do think the value of having a culture that understands winning on a consistent level is constantly undervalued.

So even with that, you know, the one anecdote I can find where it kind of worked. I don't think it is a good way. I just think it's underreaching. Kind of work. Harrison, what are they, fifth in the West? They get one ring out of it, that goes my point.

If the goal is the championship, you get one. Yeah, I mean, it's funny. I'll accept the point, but again, it's funny because you look back in all those years and then you have to say, cross-reference those 11 guys with intentional tanking, right?

And then you go, because, you know, if you're just bad, like it's one thing to try to win, Like I love the Lakers. In fact, the Lakers is a great example. They had phenomenal pieces already there. Really great. Josh Hart, band in the group, lots of all. So he, like, so they were trying to tank.

They were trying to win. So, so Lakers with Magic not tanking at all. In fact, you know, Lakers get magic. It puts them over the top. Boom. I think Magic's probably the only one where you'd say, number one pick, very first year, win the NBA title, MVP of the final. I mean, that's rare, but that's not tanking, right?

And so, and even then with, so again, like you're right, though, I mean, I appreciate whoever's looking up the stats for you. If it's only happened 11 times and four of the 11 are one guy, Magic Johnson, right? And the other guys are guys in the 70s, Kareem and Walton, well, there's no tanking back then either. So it kind of makes the point. So I know for a fact, if people were probably thinking of tanking for LeBron, that'd be a great year to look at, like, if there were teams tanking for LeBron. because the lottery is still the lottery. You can tank all you want.

It means you have a greater probability, but you're not even really a coin flip at that point. You're not even 50-50. Well, especially in today, the way the draft order goes this year, which really surprises me that I feel still like we're seeing teams that, you know, I think on the next segment,

I'll talk about five teams that I think are going to give it a shot just for Cooper flag, because obviously people are excited. You got to see and play with the team USA and you looked really good. But even now where, if you're the worst team, there's no guarantee that you're going to have the best odds. They change those rules, but I feel like we're still going to see teams try it.

Yeah. And you know, and I think that's the short-term thing, right? They are playing, hey, you know, we're two out of ten. But if we don't tank, we think we're zero out of ten. So two out of ten is better than zero out of ten to be in the conference finals. Right. I don't know. But again, for me, I think, so, you know, at the end of the day, I mean, I can see the statistical.

analysis of it, but the one thing that'll never show up in the stance is the permanent cancer, the damage you do to every other. If you're going to tank and get the guy, you better tank, get the guy and then trade most of your roster because you basically sacrifice them for this one player. And the cultural cancer of that is going to have long-term effects. So, you know, absolutely. That being said, we'll go ahead and throw it to our first break here. We got Dave Turcott on here, as always on Wednesday nights, one-on-one with Harrison Arns and

Turcott, with DPB and out. but don't go anywhere. A couple more segments. We'll talk to you on the other side. All right, welcome back in to Ticket Weeknights one-on-one with Harrison Arns and Dave Turcon. If you guys want to join in, Sartre Haman Tech's line, always available to you as well as the stream. On the last segment, talk some WNBA as well as a little bit of NBA is tanking worth it.

And to keep this NBA conversation going, over the break, we talked a little bit about some quotes from Rod Strickland, about New York no longer. being the mecca of basketball. I want to get your opinion on this before we even dive any deeper. I'd argue I'm biased, maybe just a Bulls fan. I'd say Chicago was the mecca of basketball. But what are your thoughts on that when you hear that New York is no longer the mecca of basketball in the world? You know, I kind of agree with that in this context.

When it comes to international ball, it used to be that to be a great player, and I remember as a young player myself, I actually used to get in a car and drive all night to go play play. pickup ball on the weekends in New York, okay? I would literally cross the country, like leave northern Ontario and drive, you know, four hours to Toronto, two hours, you know, down and get into New York and at least try to get to Buffalo. And then from there, go to New York if I was really crazy. But, you know, at the end of the day, New York used to be the center of the basketball universe, Madison Square Garden, the center of the basketball universe venues. And it really was. And in fact, you hear everyone talk, you had to go play at the Rucker, you had to go play at West Forth and New York at the subway line, you know, all of which I, you know, I've enjoyed doing in my life.

But I don't think it's that way anymore because now, you know, you look at the European influence on the NBA draft. And Rod Strickland made some comments about this last week about saying, look, the international players and American players are not coming up the same way. American players are trying to get out there and get popular and get known, running up and down playing 12 AAU games a week, right? And they're just travel, travel, travel, instead of playing one game a week, six days in the gym doing work, getting better skills, USA players are getting out. Yeah, they're talented, but they're not getting the skill work done. And they're going to, over time, they're going to fall behind. So I think that, you know, the NBA draft pretty much proves that it's not about being, like if you remember back in the day, when I was coming up, It was like, who's the best point guard coming out of New York or in America?

Pearl Washington, David Rivers, you know, Rod Strickland was one of those great guards and all these great New York point guards, right? Kenny, the Jet Smith, right? And then, you know, and my day was also Daryl Dawkins or all these guys that were great, great players coming out of New York led the world in basketball. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, all these guys came out of New York, right? That's not true anymore. You know, I don't, I can't even name for you.

the last great New York high school phenom talent that came into the league and just decimated everybody. Right. So, you know, so if you look at the, and so I think that the way the money and the industry of basketball, AAU and youth basketball in the USA has come in and permeated sports, social media, all these. It's now about the marketing and the dollars. But in the long run, the players are going to be great and exciting now, but it's kind of like you don't want to be peaking at the McDonald's All-American High School game. and have your ability as a player decline steadily from there. And I'm worried you're going to see a lot of that.

And if you watch that last, I'd tell you what, with some of the, you know, you probably had on that team with KD, LeBron, and Steph and Team USA, those are very likely going to be three of the top of, let's say three of the top 15 players of all time in the NBA, right? LeBron one or two, Steph, greatest shooter of all time. You got to put them up there in top 10, right? And then KD. So three of the top 15 of all time.

And they barely got it done. Barely. Could have lost to Serbia. Could have lost to France. And that's something that you would never have heard of before. And I think you're seeing the way that, like I said, all the things happening in the way that Europe. And by the way, this context here for me as a Canadian is we're looking at it saying,

wait a minute, we can't have our focus be build a structure that allows people to funnel into the NBA. and that's what serves Canada basketball. And for Canada win Olympic games internationally to compete internationally. We're saying, wait a minute, we've got to take a more European approach. Yeah, we want players to play in the NBA, but what are we doing with these young players coming up? How are we training them? What are we preparing for?

And having different kinds of players with different skill sets develop in a different way. So the Europeans have a long-term play. Next Olympics is going to be in L.A., but, man, it's going to be even more competitive. and the next a lot of pressure yeah and we talked about that last time I think this LA might be the last one I give the nod for the gold medal before I call the upset

because I think that home crowd matters I think it certainly affected France and helped them out quite a bit to try to help them push them give them an extra bit of room to try to make that push but yeah when we get to 32 when it's no longer in the U.S., it does feel like it doesn't feel like I mean it's

out there there's evidence the rest of the world is catching up. Does the USA fix this problem before they take that big loss? Or do you think this is something where, unfortunately, USA basketball might have to fall flat on their face, lose in a shocker game before they really start to retool how we bring up the youth? You know what? I actually, okay, so there's two sides of this, right? If I'm Adam Silver running the NBA, okay, secretly, I want the Euros to come in here. and win in LA and have Canada, you know, Canada, I want Canada to win, but Canada, Serbia, Brazil, like name France, name a great team, right? Spain, they come in and win, shock the world. It'll be great to energize, you know, American young players will be mad and they'll all be practicing three hours a day more in the gym to avenge the terrible loss. But it also means that the global game for the NBA has expanded. The NBA, there is no economy in the world that can support the NBA like the United States. All great players.

So Adam Silver is looking at it like, for me and the NBA, it's awesome. The talent pool that I can pull from now is not just three major cities in the USA, right? Now it's global. It's literally every kid in the world watches my league. You know, by the way, how good were those kids from South Sudan? Do you don't think there's a couple kids there that could, I mean, and I'm not just talking athletic ability. Forget those guys were shooting it.

Yeah. There is multiple at 65, 6, 6, 6, 6, 7, getting 3-pointers at a 40% clip. So think about how Adam Silver is quietly loving the fact that international rivalries and this Canada being able to come in and say, we're kind of knocking on your door. And guess what? This is no longer a laydown. You got to play to win and you better play great. You know, and so like I said, if Steph Curry doesn't have historically the greatest gold medal

game in the history of the world, they lose to France. They lose. if Steph Curry has just a good game from three. So I love the fact. So A, I don't think the NBA, I think there's going to be a team USA loss because I don't think the economic incentives until how young players are coming up is ever going to change. There's no 19 year old kid that's going to say, you know what, I'm not going to go to this tournament where they're going to pay me 50 grand and maybe I can get a shoe contract to stay home and work. They're going to continue to get out there and do the business side, as they should. They got to take care of their families. But what that

means is they're going to play the game with a short-term perspective. Adam Silver is going to love it because the talent pool, the more the game goes global, the more opportunities for players from France, South Sudan, Italy, Serbia, Canada, Australia to play in the NBA. For the NBA and all the money pouring into NBA and NBA sponsors to elevate that, that's the best thing that could happen to the NBA. So all the economic drivers are going in the wrong direction for the, for the, for the, for the USA to change tack.

And I'm predicting, if not this one, certainly the next one. The USA is not going to win gold in one of the next two. Yeah, I'd agree with that. And to wrap up this segment, I'll last this because the NBA game, I shouldn't say NBA because there's plenty of other pro leagues out there. But basketball is growing as a whole everywhere else in the world. But viewership in the U.S. has consistently been up and down, more off and down than,

especially after the whole COVID ordeal, the numbers really never got back to what they were, and you constantly see them just slowly slip a little bit on average. Well, this is about USA NBA basketball where our viewerships declining, but then across the world, you look at all the other pro leagues, their viewership is continuing to go up. Compared to soccer, right? Like, look at it this way.

Soccer, viewership, and attendance, I don't think ever goes down around the world, right? because like if you're you know in fact it's funny watching soccer games with my kids or my friends it's like if you're like man you know if you're like manchester you know that's it that's it for you know you're and i watch the whole ted lasso thing i love it like if that's my team that's my team forever it's my town it's my team it's my community right so in a way that's what that's what the nflbals is cultivated right like if you're a dallas cowboy's fan and you live in texas that's your team Philadelphia Eagles, that's your team forever, right?

And that's where I think the NBA has more of an individual star-driven approach, as opposed to an organizational-driven marketing strategy. And because of that, people follow players more than they follow teams. So they're going to go wherever LeBron goes, or they're going to go wherever, you know, KD goes or, you know, and the younger cats, you know, I just think that the difference with the European side of it, think the game is going to have to go global. I think it will. I think it's inevitable. And I think it would be fantastic if there was a not a, you know, a world basketballist, not a WBA, you know, like, because if the NBA goes global, I'd love to see that. But yeah, man, I'm telling you,

it's like, after a while, and I'll tell you, like, look at that France USA game. That was a damn exciting game. Yeah, and you had a question. Here's a straight up question for you. What would you have rather watched quality of a basketball game USA versus France gold medal game this year's Celtics win NBA championship game which bet game was more entertainment USA France every time that's the problem the product is different in the end what's on the floor is the product right and the product is I just think that there's more passion more excitement so we'll see it's going to be a fun thing to transition and believe me Adam look at Adam silver and the guys that are running the league think you know those are smart guys they're going to do what they got to do they're trying to

figure this out as well but uh it's going to be the next 10 years of basketball is going to be a lot of fun yeah and to wrap this thing up i'll tease what i want to talk about on the last segment speaking about how the game is growing globally right now there's just so many great players coming out of every pocket in the world feels like the perfect time to maybe really push ahead that expansion especially with that second tax apron existing as well so we'll talk about that is now the time if you're the NBA to go ahead and add expansion team. So don't go anywhere one-on-one with Dave Turcott, Harrison Arons, on the board, back at the 1040 Ticket Studios.

We'll talk to you on the other side. All right, welcome back in final segment one-on-one with Harrison Arndt, Dave Turcott. We've been talking to some WMBA and some NBA and to wrap things up. Don't worry. We'll talk Husker football. We got the former Husker at the morning, Pearson, L for the second hour. But for this one to wrap it up, you hear Adam Silver talking about it pretty often, especially as of these past two seasons.

adding some expansion teams. And we've been talking a lot about just how much better talent-wise the world's gotten in terms of great players is now the time to go ahead and start putting this thing together and just to play devil's advocate for people listening. Why you wouldn't do this is you don't want to dilute the product or a team-by-team basis the average is worse than it was before.

So Turkot is now the time to go ahead and try this. Oh, yeah. And I would do, I'll tell you. I think the top choices are Seattle, Vancouver, Montreal, Canada, and Mexico City. And I'll tell you right now, Mexico City would make money hand over fist. First of all, I mean, Mexico City is as big as by, I mean, it's what, 18 million people? Yeah, and they get behind their sport. City by itself is half the size of Canada, the entire country.

Okay. So if you put a franchise there, it would be over. And the thing is Mexico City is not that far. You know, if you're thinking about flights, if you put them in the Western Conference, right? I mean, L.A., I mean, that's two, three-hour flight. It's no different than flying to the East Coast. Yeah, it's really travel time.

It makes sense. It's not that bad. It's the same as playing teams up in Canada. If they, you know, it's already like playing Toronto. It's really, depending on where you are, not that bad of a flight. Yeah. And so I think, I think it would be great. But anyway, so Mexico, but I'll tell you right now,

a hotbed, a city that would absolutely, because Seattle had a franchise and lost it. Vancouver had a franchise and lost it. Toronto's doing great. Montreal would be an absolutely basketball craig. I mean, why do you think we got Lou Dord, Montreal, Ben Mathuron, Montreal. Montreal has an amazing basketball community and an amazing basketball culture. And I think if I was to say two cities that the NBA needs to go to right now,

if you go to Montreal, every French-speaking country kid in the world is going to go for them. And that includes much of Africa, Europe. I mean, think of all the places around the world that are speaking French that would identify with a team that had a French identity or at least part of the identity being French. And then you bring in Mexico City what that would basically be the gateway to all of Latin America. I mean, it would be incredible. And I, and at that point, literally, I think the world's head would explode. because as soon as you bring in language and culture and you expand the NBA that way, that's why soccer is so amazingly huge and bigger than NFL or basketball as a global sport

that everyone lives and breathes every day is because of the cross-cultural things, right? It's more about country. It's about language and culture and identity and all these great things in sport. And if you had those two franchises, I think the NBA would explode. I think then you'd get back into a national global. more than national, a global consciousness, and there's how your ratings start to go, right? And then maybe Noah Lyles will let you take the claim of world champions

if you bring those guys in there. That's right. Mexico City, I'm glad you brought them up. I don't know if you caught when NFL played a game in Mexico City. I can't remember the two teams, Sarno Ham and Texas Line, if you want to guess it, I'll give you some salt dogs vouchers. But Mexico City, the way they got behind the NFL, which surprised me. I didn't think there was going to be something they were super interested in,

but they were out and it was one of the most exciting fun games that a lot of the players, even talking to the NFL players after, they were pumped. I mean, they would love to go do it again. So Mexico City, you talked about the population, just playing the cultures together. You certainly get one step closer to what soccer is. You're bringing the culture with it. Now you're really playing with some fireworks and passion in terms of sports. Oh, 100%.

And there is a whole other, there is a whole other fan base that, you know, what would be amazing is to watch. In Mexico City is so big. Think about it. If you were the Mexico City, you know, NBA team, well, then you'd have fans, you'd have literally tens of thousands of fans in Mexico City that were fans of the Celtics, the Raptors, the Lakers, the Sons, whoever they're playing. So I think the dynamic of what it would create and all of the engagement that it would create

is in the most positive way would be phenomenal. I would love to see it. I'd love to see the global expansion. I think Mexico City and Montreal, the two best choices of all the other choices. Yeah, and lucky enough, at least for me and you, I think we'll be able to actually get to see it. I don't know if it's going to be Mexico City, but they're definitely for, and he's mentioned Mexico City before. So it's definitely a thought. They're not taking it lightly.

Since this is the last time we'll talk to you before Husker football has officially kicked off, they got U-TEP. Their favorite, the spread is 27 and a half. Dave Turcott. I know you're not the biggest Husker football fan, but what's your score? If they beat for the U-TEP minors this Saturday, 230 kickoff, what's your score prediction? section. 41 to 17. I can live with that.

41 to 17. All the way. That's perfect. Yeah, you're speaking to the right crowd here. That's going to wrap it up for one-on-one with Dave Turcott. Shout on him every Wednesday on time. As always, Harrison Arons on the ones and twos. We'll keep a roll.

No, don't punt hour with the former Husker himself. The Mornay, Pearsenel, we'll go from 7 to 8 o'clock. Turcotte, appreciate the time as always. We'll do it again next week.