Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh - NBA Insider on Betting Scandal, Chauncey Billups Poker Games, & Next Star Traded

Episode Date: October 30, 2025

YERRR – the boys sat down with Shams Charania and got way deeper than just trade deadlines and Woj bombs. From gambling scandals to mafia whispers, Shams breaks down the wild reality of being the NBA’s top insider. All that and more on this week’s episode of FLAGRANT. INDULGE. 0:00 Intro 00:30 Starts in 2024 + “Personal reasons” 3:28 Damon Jones connection 4:14 2 different scandals 5:31 Shams is top insider + His approach 7:33 Pulling their salaries + Klutch hoodie 8:50 Gambling in sports + Terry Rozier allegations 14:43 This isn’t abnormal + Damon Jones allegations 18:53 It’s murkier now + Prop bets are problematic 24:36 How did Mafia get to these players? 26:21 Pro poker players knew it was rigged 30:07 Protecting sources + “Burning Bridges” 33:48 Little scoop mid podcast 34:44 Shams asked for tips? Rudy Gobert scoop 39:09 Craziest thing people have said 40:23 Shams keeps it basketball 42:50 NBA Bubble + REPORT THE FACTS 46:30 People giving tips 50:28 Andrew could hoop + Beating Jay Williams 52:39 Where does Shams get his scoops? 53:43 Shams’ jumper + Dunking ON 55:38 Shams journey to becoming an insider 59:02 Kay Adams + I’m so work focused 1:02:56 The Rizz God + Matchmaking 1:05:31 Info from side chick? 1:08:23 Luka Doncic Scoop confirmed in 7 mins 1:13:01 Nico genuinely believe AD was better 1:18:32 Next superstar to move? Giannis? 1:20:34 Player has the most info? Having to post at anytime 1:23:34 Which referee was most corrupt? 1:25:31 Screentime + Kawhi Leonard allegations 1:34:04 Can this hurt the NBA? Sending a message 1:37:54 Non-NBA insider information 1:39:41 Someone else breaking your scoop 1:41:58 Why can’t Ja do the guns? 1:44:14 Michael Jordan gambling? Barkley mouth kiss 1:46:00 Which era does Shams want to cover? 1:46:53 Moves to lock out for - Giannis, Trae + LeBron 1:49:35 Dwight is straight? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, everybody, and welcome to Flagra. Today, we're joined by the Leak Legends. Okay, more scoops than a basket robins. Let's go. Jobs is in the building, everybody. Let's get it. Let's get it, let's get it, let's get it. My brother, thank you so much for being here.

We're excited. Now, tell us how the mob is infiltrated the NBA. I don't want to go there yet. No, right. Too soon, too soon, too soon. No, no, but like. Let's get that. We'll get there. Slowly but surely.

I more just want to understand. It's an insane story. Yeah, like, can you at least break down, like, what people are saying, what the idea is? Obviously, I've done some research to, whatever, but, like, I'm curious, what is the allegation? So let's go back of 2024, Jonte Porter. Yes. Two-way contract on the Toronto Raptors. Yes.

He essentially gets charged. First, he gets, he was on investigation. Yes. Then he gets banned. Yeah. And then he gets formally charged. Yeah. With essentially gambling.

But, you know, it's different names. in the FBI world. It's like wire fraud, laundering. It's like, shaving points. It's, yeah, exactly. It's that. But basically, it was a group of like a handful of people, essentially. It's a network of people with him.

They were basically getting information whether he was going to sell himself out. So then they just go all in on the unders and they're putting like hundreds of thousands of dollars. Like you look back on it and you're like if the sports books or people saw like three, four people are going like hundreds of thousands of dollars in Doesn't it make it so obvious But these people did it Yeah obviously once it happened The sports books they pick it up like this

They flag it immediately They flag it immediately so yeah And the league flags it So the moment that happens The league basically at the time I'll never forget it They listed them out as personal reasons And at the time everyone started to hear

It was because he's being investigated For gambling essentially on his games Or giving insider information And that was the first of its kind That had never happened before. Those same people there, they get charged everything with the FBI, with the feds. Those are the mob guys you're saying. No, these are the bookies.

These are the betters. Oh. These are the betters. And are they his buddies? Because I thought at that time he was kind of like. He was texting with them. There were threads on it. I think it was like Discord channels.

Like they did it in a way that like it ended up getting out there and people would see the messages. And it's like, you could have done that smarter if you're going to do it. but basically it's a group of these four or five people and once they get charged what happens when these people get charged by the feds someone snitches eastern district of new york so those four or five people lead to after a year and a half later last week 34 new arrests wow but it's all from that origin oh because they start snitching on other people involved i'm not saying i'm not saying the s word i'm saying they're cooperating see the last week i'm doing tv i'm just like you know the feds are waiting to see who these 34 people are going to cooperate on what are they going to cooperate with so off of those

handful of people that you multiply it by six you end up with what we got last week which is 30 plus but that also includes what we saw with the poker the illegal poker scandal so it's two different scandals right now and those people are not connected the poker people and the gambling people there's three or four people that are connected with both they're involved on both and that's why the FBI is going is there like a whole week including Damon Jones we'll get there so basically there's

two separate cases assistant coached the Lakers for anybody yeah Damon Jones former NBA player teammate of LeBron famously I mean they played several years together

in Cleveland that was the most time he'd spent on one team other than that he was a journeyman player but he spent a lot of time in Cleveland he was really close to LeBron with Shaquille O'Neill like the list goes on and on

on and then he was a coach in Cleveland unofficially on the Lakers 22, 20, 23 filed bankruptcy a few times a few times yeah he's sent a couple of tax messages essentially he's been living in Vegas for the last several years as someone who doesn't gamble would do doesn't gamble it all good food the aria you know the win go back and forth so basically there's two different scandals right now so one is this illegal poker rigging scandal that includes damon jones that includes Chauncey Billups, but it also

is being led and fronted by mafia, mafia members and mob members. And that is the Italian mob. I think what Cash Patel said in his press conference was essentially like four of the five big mob families, mafia families.

I assume Italian. Are involved in. So racist. It's so racist. And so that is the backdrop. So those individuals are basically Damon Jones, Sean Seville are the face cards, is what they called it.

So they're the celebrities that are being essentially thrown and flaunted to the fish is what they call. The people are supposed to go there and then lose their money because they're being played because there's these X-rays. There's these different sunglasses you can see the cards. That's sick by the way. That's insane. That's insane. So now that we've like...

That's one part of the scam. Yeah, we're just waiting everybody's Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're not even at the terror zero, though, by going. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're just wet in beaks. We're just wet in beaks right now. Because I want people to understand who you are and why you have perspective on all this stuff. Okay. So you are the top insider in the NBA right now, which means that you have access to probably the most information that nobody else has access to. You get paid the big bucks. Okay, the box. What are you about a retired woge. Yeah, you had to put a lot.

And he had a little salty-ass message when he retired. Did you see that? No, I didn't see that. I didn't see that. I have a love for him. I hope he can have the career I had or something like that. We worked together for two plus years, nothing but respect for him. He gave you the Trump.

I wish him well. I hope I can have the career he had. This guy's a politician. He's nice. Two plus years we worked together. You were together at Yahoo Sports. We went from talking every five minutes to competitors. So every, you know, that's competition, baby.

That's how I view it. That's what happens in the competition. Okay, okay, but you are, and I think a lot, I don't know if people know this, but like you guys are the, the insiders are the highest paid people in entertainment, maybe outside of like a Stephen A. Smith or something like that. But what you have is incredibly valuable. And then networks understand that. So these relationships you have are incredibly valuable.

So even talking about something like this, probably terrifying for a guy like you. For sure. But it's like, I just stick to the facts. as long as I stick to the facts and I stick to like every side every side of the of the equation is being accounted for I mean that's my job

that's how I go to sleep at night and not feel like I handle the worst is when you feel like you handle things the wrong way or didn't show someone's side or you treated someone you know unfairly because that's not the job the job is there's a lot of hard conversations I have every day I mean half the job is just deciding when is it time to report something

am I have I you know reached out to the as many people as I can on this. Do I have enough sources on this? Right. That's like literally all the job is. Like right now I'm sitting on four or five different things. I'm just deciding when is the right time. Drop that. This is the right time.

Like this episode up right time. Like this episode up right now. Give us one. I can drop something today earlier before I got here. The NBA pulling Chauncey Belves and Terry Rozier salaries. Terror Rozier is making $26.6 million. Choncy Bowles is making $7 million a season. $33 million being pulled, frozen. They're not going to see the money.

The only way Terry Rozier sees the money is if he's innocent after a year of this or two years or three, however long this goes. Chauncey Billups, if this goes the full year, he's not going to see any of his money. And the investigation is going to go a while. It's going to go a while. And he knows this is serious.

That's why he showed up in the clutch hoodie. I think, I'm going to be surprised if that's, because you think about it. You're getting picked up at six in the morning, right? Yeah, you've got to have on your clutch hoodie. Six in the morning. That's why the first thing you'd grab. He's walking.

That's what I would grab. That's what I would grab on the Chelsea. I ain't going down alone, bro. Rich, I ain't going down alone. I know where the bodies are buried. Or he knows who to call. Or he knows who to call. Or he knows a nice hoodie when he sees one.

It's a great hoodie. It's a great fabric. High quality. Keep you want you have your stuff. Not yet. I'm not in enough trouble. I'm not involved in the gambling ring. Hope not.

I hope not. I think there's an interesting thing, though, about what has happened with gambling that has made this more possible for players. Like, David Stern, I think, never wanted gambling involved in the NBA, as far as that was my understanding. Initially, that was his take, and once Adam Silver started, you know, I think speaking about how can we regulate it, legalized gambling is good for the game, and then now the NBA, I think they've been at the forefront of this.

Right. As far as partnering with legalized gambling. But listen, it makes a lot of them as partnerships. No, no, I'm not critical. I'm not being critical. I think that the reason why, and there is like, you know, some wisdom that would say, like, not being associated with the gambling, creates a little bit of separation from things like this happening. Well, J.B. Bickerstaff, the Pistons coach, he said not all money is good money.

So there is that school. So there, so some of these people are, now, the other argument is people are going to do it anyway. So, like, they're going to do it some guy that's wearing a leather jacket in the back of an alley or they're going to do it, you know, online, some professional thing, whatever. the point that I'm trying to make is the game has changed in a way the game of gambling in that you can do all these like prop bets those are the killers

because before you had to actively throw a game you had to make sure your team lost now you just got to make sure you get less than eight rebounds and it's easy to get less than eight rebounds or less than six assists when you just sub yourself out because your toe hurts so you get your little four assists

your team might be up by 10 you go okay my team's not going to lose I'm not going to have negatively impact my teammates and i know that i haven't gotten the i'm not going to cover the spread and then my boys or the mafia whoever it is can make a bunch of money and nobody gets hurt at least imagine that under on points i just pass it's like the most charitable way to do it well i'm getting you the open but what i would what i would say is that certain people are like paid to score so you really need to remove yourself from the game in order to not hit those problems but would that be a fair description 100 but that's why you think about the terry rosier situation

in 2020 how it goes so we already talked about Chauncey Billups his the FBI alleges that he knowingly participated in rigging illegal mafia-led poker games that's one situation the other situation is Terry Rozier

that started in 2020 same characters as the Jante Porter situation in 2024. That allegation is that he told his friend a guy named De Niro which means money right yeah he does

I failed out of Spanish I think senior year So De Niro White people De Niro over here He I guess as the allegation goes He gets the information from Terry Rozier That hey like

You know the Charlotte Hornets At this point in the season I think it was March 23 2023 We all know where the Charlotte Hornets are at At that point of the year They're probably ending up shutting it down they're playing for a lottery lottery. How the story goes, he tells his boy.

Tanking is what. Tanking, tanking is the two words. Actually, tanking is the word they use in the indictment. So actually, I'm about to use it. Tanking. Yes. He tells his boy De Niro, I'm shutting it down the night. I'm just going to play a couple minutes and I'm out.

Yeah. The story goes, then his boy tells, like, other members of this same network of a handful of people, they all bet hundreds of thousands of dollars on the unders. They all win. But again, when this happens, it gets flagged immediately. And when it happens, the NBA launches its own investigation. The NBA can do a few things.

They can take his phone, which they did. They can interview him, which they did. Then they can ask to talk to other relevant people on the team, get medical records. See, was he really hurt, whatever. They find out he was. There's nothing on his phone that implicates him. All right, cool. They let him play.

The FBI, meanwhile, is investigating the hell out of this. They're talking to his boy De Niro probably. They're talking to all those other friends. Yeah. And they come up with the assertion that Terro Zero was in on it, that these guys, De Niro, these other guys, allegedly went to his house with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from the winnings and gave it to him. That's in the allegations. Woof. Damn.

But you're making $26 million. He's making $26 million. He had just signed a $4-year $97 million. I think what a lot of people don't realize is how many NBA players are degenerate games. gamblers. Degenerate gamblers. Like, constantly gambling. You hear this about golf, too, a lot.

Phil Nicholson, there's rumors. They're on the flights. It's gambling nonsense. Like, games on flights. That happens. Right. You're not gambling for the money. You're gambling for the thrill of gambling. You need the competition. You need the other word of competition.

I mean, I heard with Terry, they didn't actually catch him because they waited for him to do it a second time. So with Jontay, they flagged the first one because these crazy bets that came in on something that's kind of obscure. And they're like, ooh, we think it's something up here. And then he did it again. Jante. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the second time, they're like, it's

confirmed. So I heard with Terry, they did it the first time and they were essentially waiting for him to do it again, but it never came. There's only one example. Exactly. There's only one example. Now, how did they get to the point of like two and a half years of like investigating him and then we're putting him in cuffs? It's because

of all, they clearly feel like they have enough evidence from his friend from those other people in the network so there's a group of guys if you go back and read the if you read the indiaman it's dozens of pages it's a guy named eric there's a guy named shane there's all these guys that allegedly are the network so this guy de nero tells eric eric tells uh shane then Shane tells marvis or whoever like they're just going around and they're sharing this information inside information and they're gambling it away now terro's perspective is i'm just and this is the other issue that the NBA has yeah and i know

I think you might know where I'm going with this. Players in the league, this is, like, not abnormal. They tell their boys and these people around them all the time. So the idea that they're outposting tomorrow. Like, LeBron, so the other part is LeBron James. So Damon Jones is another guy, but he was involved in both. He was doing the poker and he was doing, and his was more flagrant. They have text messages.

Just broke. And he's hanging around rich people, and that shit got to be painful. You said it. I didn't say anything. I'm not going to deny that What if you knew the big man wasn't playing Because he told you in the shoot around So there were texts where Damon Jones is telling

These same network of people Like yo put the house on Milwaukee Make sure your guy Dee Jones eats too Essentially is what he said But he again how is he giving that information Or a big player isn't playing for the Lakers Put the House on Milwaukee So he doesn't explicitly say

But then later that day LeBron James gets declared out With an ankle injury and that's who the player he was referring, and that's the guy who he was with in L.A. So the question, the question is, and I'm not trying to like... It is a problem for the league, but again, how do you...

How do you jurisdict that? No, no, no, no. It's going to seem like I'm running defense for LeBron here, and I'm really not, but, like, the point I'm trying to say is, like, is LeBron going to risk a billion-dollar empire so Damon Jones can be $15, right? Like, it's cheaper for him to just give Damon Jones money. We gave him an assistant.

and coaching jobs. See, that's what I've asked about this Terry Rozier thing. Like, if your boy wants money, just give him if he wants to make $100 grand. But it's like, then what I get responsive with is he didn't know he was taking that information to sell it to a network of gamblers. So how many players in the league today do that? I think a lot. A lot of guys give information to people around them.

So real quick, before question, so it's like, it's not, the idea is, are they giving the information so their boys can make money, or are they simply having a conversation about what happens in their life and then innocently and then that guy takes that information which isn't sad information. Think about this. Think about like this, Al. You just...

Okay, go, go. So I can see that point of view, but how do you know ahead of time that you're going to get injured? Because they're going out with injuries. No, there is no... No, no, it's different than the LeBron's there. So LeBron James situation,

he's right, though. LeBron James essentially, like, in this example, as it's alleged, before the public knew that he was going to be out with an ankle injury. Damon Jones tells a group of betters. Yo, LeBron's out.

Bet on Milwaukee for this game. He's out. And then six hours later it comes out. But Rozier, it has happened where players are going into the game. And they're going to play this game and they're out. You know, like, this is the game. I know of at least a few examples of the top of my head where I'm like, this guy's going to play this game and he's going to have to have surgery.

You know, I'm not, you know, there's nothing I'm doing with that. I'm a reporter. So if they tell their camp that, it's like you're, now, Like, are players going to program themselves differently? Like, do I not tell my best friend? Do I just leave it to just telling my trainer and my agent? And are you going to impose punitive damages on players for sharing information? Like, with your, even your trainer, can you tell your trainer at ankle hurts?

Because your trainer could tell his boy, yo, put everything on. I mean, you have to tell your trainer. It is different, though. It is different, and it does look a little different. And again, the FBI is alleging that Terry Rozier was in on it. Like, let's be clear here. The FBI is fully alleging that he was in on it, that he was getting the proceeds of the winnings.

Terror Rozier is like, yo, I just said it to him just as a friend. What he did with the information, that's on him. Which, again, that does happen all the time. If all these players had people around them that were just betting with the information, we'd be seeing this all over the league. But I think we've had a couple bad apples. I think the NBA's had a couple bad apples. And now from here, what more can be on earth?

I think the fact that it had gone from like a handful of these guys in 2024, tower out over 30, it's already multiplied by six. Also, check it. We're talking about like mob guys who put crazy money on these profits. How many of like your friends just put 5K down? 50 bucks. You're 50 bucks and you just made some quick money. How many of your friends, like you knew LeBron is going to be out because he was,

hobbling around so it's the janitor who's cleaning up the floor all of a sudden goes hey i bet you a hundred that uh the lakers lose today like this information has always swirled around there's just a way to make crazy amounts of money on it so now you're doing illegal things within legal parameters also before it's all illegal yeah now gambling is legal we're just doing illegal things with it and it's just a little bit murkier and it's like who's doing the illegal thing like it's not illegal for a player to say how they feel to their friends or do you make that illegal but if the friends takes that information and then puts the house down in the words of I guess that the text of that and then and then you also tell a network of gamblers oh that's fucked up betters yeah

i'm saying that's fucked up but i'm like how much can we blame the players like if terry's getting if terry's getting a scrape like do we literally tell the players you're not allowed to talk to anybody during the season you're not allowed to have conversations with people that's not realistic exactly yeah so it's like if lebron's kids know if his fucking ankles fucked up all it takes as one of them being like, man, did you see dad hobbling around? Then his friend tells somebody. Yeah. His friend comes over and sees LeBron hobbling around.

Says, you know what? So do you just get rid of prop bets? Again, I will say this. I didn't really start gaining the nitty-gritty of betting until last week when I knew I had to talk on TV about this. I don't know what the under, I don't know what any of this meant. But it seems to me like par bets. Sure, you didn't. Where did you get that nice-ass jacket?

It seems to get the big bucks. It's the big bucks. It's the big bucks my guy was so about early. That's right. woes paying for could you explain the prop bets though i don't i don't gamble at all what is a prop we just we were explaining before

it was uh basically betting like it's the unders right you're getting it under over over six assists so they're like specified minors yeah it's not like winner losing the game got it like if you and that's where like a lot of guys will go you know that that's where like if a guy's purposely missing shots or in baseball

they're like purposely i don't know like creating errors or something like that you've This is weird. Striking out is almost understandable because it's so hard to hit a fucking baseball. But with basketball, these prop bets, like anybody can go, okay, what am I at? Seven rebounds?

Watch me get six rebounds, and nobody will even notice. And the second I get six, I can pull myself out of the game. That's the thing. We can't force players to play. So at any point in time, they can just say, I'm hurt. And then they're a $100 million investment

from a franchise. They go, well, don't play them because we don't want to hurt them more. Well, the fact that it's regular to the sports books, if someone places a crazy bet on a suitor and niche, weird thing, it's going to get flag. They're going to pick it up. What is that amount that gets flat? Yeah, exactly.

What if it's a thousand bucks? Well, they just have to have a threshold. They probably, but this is the other thing. That's how I would pay my side, bitches. Just know the number that gets flag and just that one dollar on that. Just a little. Yeah. I mean, the NBA, that's the thing that the NBA and these sports books are, are, I know

they're having conversations right now. They have to figure out how do you better regulate and deal with these, I think specifically the prop bets is the big issue. Like, I've heard some people say, just eliminate them. Like, take it off the board. Yeah. You know, but they need to figure out how do you do that and how do you do it in a way that it's really regulating this process? Because the sportswarks are picking it up.

Like if a group of like six people are going like, you know, I don't know the number, but if they're going all in on one specific thing and it's like very niche and it's weird. And I think the one thing that they have done, I think they've removed like two ways. I think they're either in the process, they're going to remove the two-way players. So it's not like standard contracts, but two-way players. That might be a first step because you're thinking about it. Who's really betting on two-way players? That's what Jonte Porter was.

You're a two-way player. That's a great piece. Also, the idea is you're making so much money as an NBA player that you wouldn't risk it, Terry Rozier, on making a couple bucks gambling. But a two-way players making $300,500K, that might be a thing. But they need to figure that part out. And the other thing that I know the league is trying to figure out is injuring reporting. So injury reporting essentially

guys will be listed doubtful, then questionable, then they'll play or some guys might be listed doubtful or out and then they'll suddenly play or the reverse. They'll be out and then they'll play and that'll mess other than you. What's tricky for the gambling companies, you make so much on profits. So I'm

cutting a huge revenue stream because some people fix it. I got to lose all this money because some bad actors. And then the NBA, you know what I mean? How do you, what is the dollar amount? If we let that leak, then you're going to see a bunch of bets right under that threat. threshold. Now do we flag that? You have to keep that number internal as well. You can't tell anybody what the threshold is. You got to keep that quiet. And then we just watch.

And the prepets are fun. Like it makes you want to watch throughout the game. Because before when you just bet on the outcome, then it's like, whatever, I'll just wait and see who like wins. Dude, in the Super Bowl, what color is the gatorade? What's the fucking color? How long is the national anthem going to go? These are bets that everybody gets in on. Yeah. So again, I don't know the solution, but I know for sure the NBA's got somewhat of a, I mean, they're, they're, in their own words this is a dire problem there's a dire risk that comes with the gambling and so they're really trying to get on the same page

with the sports books and trying to figure out how do they come up with the right measures because that's what this is is like because people were able to bet on these two-way players with the Jonte Porter thing that's why that popped off and so is there like a threshold of player you just eliminate from those prop bets

do you just leave it to the upper class of players I don't know what the solution is but that's on you know the league's got to figure that out. Sorry, and you might not know this. I would love if you'd even just speculate. How does the mafia get involved? Like, how does the mafia get to Chauncey Billups? How does that whole thing happen?

So that's the illegal poker games. So, and those games are like, I think it was like, I think what Cash Patel said was 11 states. It was, the stuff was moving around. So you talk about there were games in New York, games in Vegas, games in L.A., games, I mean, all these different states. And, yeah, I mean, I think what they, did is they made a connection with Chauncey Billups.

Damon Jones and Chauncey Billups, they have a relationship, like going back to their playing days, coaching days. Tai Liu, too, like all those guys. There's a network of... All peers, Ty. Tileu, too, religious to get caught up in this. Essentially, there's

a face card. They call it a face card, right? Yeah. Where, see, but there's a difference between showing up and playing and knowing. But if you show up... What the FBI is saying, You could be the mark. The FBI is alleged...

Think about it from this perspective. The Toronto Blue shows up and plays, but has no idea that this game is being run by the mafia and that he's being used as a face card. What if he just got presented a deal? Appearance fee of $50,000, show up, play this poker with these bunch of random people. Bring your friends, I eat $10,000 for your friend you bring.

They don't know what's big. And you leave. And he has no idea. Was he winning every... Go, go. But what the FBI is alleging is that he was in on it, that he knew everything was going on and that he was purposefully going about cheating

the game and cheating the fish, as they called it. That's the allegations. Now the FBI's going to have to prove that in color. Chanty Billis's camp and Rozier's camp for that matter. They made it clear they're innocent. You saw that professional poker player that came out? He came out two years prior.

So was it one of those things? So let's say in the world Chonty Billups is innocent. Yeah. So do you say what the professional poker player said real quick? He said that he was essentially, I'm paraphrasing here, he was told about these poker games

for multiple times but he knew that it was a rigged game, that it was a cheat game. And he bypassed participating multiple times. Oh yeah, this is the guy right here. Watch it. And then he went on McAfee's show too and basically gave the whole breakdown. Oh, no way. Recently? But like two years prior?

So everyone in the poker world knew that these games were fixed. I mean Who wants to play poker would Chauncey Billups that bad. I love Chauncey Billups, dude. I love Chonson. He's a Hall of Famer.

Hall of Famer. They about to strip that shit. That's gone. It was all built around Chonsie Billups, but I had some friends who went and played it both in L.A. and in Vegas, and it obviously, like, was for sure confirmed to be

cheated. Like, people who clearly didn't even understand the rules of Nellem and Holdham are just like jamming hundreds of big blinds in with like what are big blinds do you know drilling it only the pros are losing what's tough too whenever you're dealing with somebody like high profile like that because there's a little blind they carry a lot of weight and hold a lot of power so all you can do is like kind of unite together and threaten to publicly out him or store him in some sort of capacity so there's a big blind

and little blind in no limit poker and hold in poker so basically it's uh two players have to put money out on the table. Before cards even come. Before cards drive. Blind. And then what you can do is other people can match the big blind if they want to see the cards that come out later. Remember on the river you ever watch poker where you see them fold the three cards out and everybody shares those cards in the middle. So if you see your cards and you see everybody else's cards because that's how the glasses work, basically you know the hand that everybody has. Not the full hand, but you know at that point. So what you would do is like bet tons of money on the blind. Like you would match the blind and then you would maybe raise it because you know that you have pocket

aces and everybody else has shit yeah so you have a lot of confidence and what he's going all in but he not even all in but he what he's saying is like they were betting in ways that you don't really understand the game because like if you did have a great hand you would probably slow play it to make you think you were going to win yeah you know what I mean but like the guys were so bad that it actually convinced the good poker players to be like not I was pure luck there's no way yeah yeah crazy so again there's two

different you know the FBI's got to prove it but they're alleging that Charlesville's was in on it that he knew that this game was being cheat and I mean how he gets connected to the mafia and how the mafia is involved in all this I mean obviously they're fronting this they're they're the leaders in this

they're I assume profiting gaining some profit from all of this taking money from all these people and then paying up front to Damon Jones and Chauncey Billups to now again why are these people coming to I can't answer that why are these people coming to play with Damian Jones and Chauncey Billups I don't know yeah well I guess there's some people that are like they love playing poker and I guess you can you know play with an NBA player like but then there are a group of people that did show up and would just be there

stand there like Kevin Garnett was to my understanding he showed up to a game thinking it was a party that he was invited to but it was poker and I guess he doesn't play poker So we just left. So how many of those guys did that? Are you involved in that? You get a lot of insider information. Do you ever have to protect certain people because they tend to give you a lot of insider information?

Yeah, be honest, bro. Players that maybe know how to play poker. Clutch, bro. Clutch, bro. Where's your hoodie? I know you got a hoodie, bro. So for me, my job is information, period. So whether it's about this person or that person,

I think at this point, I think I've built the reputation that I'm going to have to do my job. Now, the one thing I try to always do with any type of information that I have, whether it's league-related, player-related, team-related. Like, I'm going to reach out. I'm going to do all the reach-outs necessary. Like, I'm not just going to put it out without you knowing that it's coming out, unless, I mean, I really have to. Like, if it's bang, bang, the guy's getting arrested and I know it, and I don't have the time to reach out to whoever it is from whatever team or player representative. Like, I'm going to do my job. I got to do it.

but no i mean i think i think i have a job to do i'm always going to do it to the best of my ability i don't look at it as protecting or not protecting i think about it how do i do it responsibly how do i do it fairly and at the end of the accurately that's like the biggest thing give you information with the like over and over again with the idea implied or say to explicitly that like you or if some shit comes bad about my guy maybe keep that quiet because we keep feeding you information well i think the relationship allows for context and for me to like listen to that side, that other side. But I think at this point, I've reported on so much positive, negative, and in between that I think everyone has just realized that, like, I'm going

to do my job. And I'm going to do it. Have there been situations where you burned a bridge or somebody got pissed off of you or whatever? I mean, there's hard conversations every day that I have to have. You know, if there's something I'm reporting that someone doesn't want report, I mean, that's a hard conversation. If there's something that, you know, if I have the the truth of a story and the other side is like no no no that's not what it is but i know that's what it is i'm going to stand on it i mean it happened last year with jimmy butler i don't know how much you guys followed the jimmy butler situation but which um yeah the one when he was trying to get out of miami when he did eventually get out of miami yeah so there was a period of

weeks where i reported he was open in trade talks yeah he was open to leaving these are teams he wants to go to pat riley came out with a statement and said we're not trading jimmy butler yeah But again, that's his perspective. So if I called the heat and they said, we're not trading it, but I know where this is at. I know the truth on this. Either I'm going to trust my sourcing, which I did, I take their position into context. I'm sure in our ESPN news story, we put this is what Pat Riley said. Yeah.

But I'm standing on the truth. So to answer your question, long story short, like there's always going to be those conversations to make sure I get the perspective in the context. But I don't look at it as protecting is not protecting. I think I'm protecting someone if I'm writing, like if I'm writing a bad story, Let's say I'm writing a story that I know is bad toward you, right? Let's say, like, I'm going to call you before that story comes out. I'll get your perspective, but like, and then it's on me to figure out how do I want to handle it?

You know, do I want to add your perspective, etc? Do you ever have people like, what I would do if I was in the league is I would call you and I would feed you information to shape a narrative before another one could take hold? You know, I'd be like, oh, this is what happened. I'm going to give this to you right now. And now we're getting ahead of the narrative. So how do you defend against that? I mean, I feel like that does, that has to happen eventually,

whether it's at any level of this, whether you're reporting on a player or a team, whatever. What I try to do to combat with years like that or deal with situations like that is like, I have to get every perspective. So if I'm getting a perspective about a certain team or a player or a situation, you know, like league issues are different though, right? Like if you're, if, can we pause? Yeah, go. Yeah, I'm in a podcast tasting, taping something urgent. Yeah, they just texting me too. All right, so I'll just tag you.

What is it? It's just the appeal? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's fine. Okay. All right, bye, bye, bye. Wow, so I heard. Right, so LeBron is retiring after this year.

I just heard that. So what was that? He's locked in. Give me a second. All right. tweeted. And we're back? Yeah, we're back. What was the question? I don't even remember the question.

I forget what the question is, but I want to ask you. So basically the NBA, the Players Union, is going to appeal and challenge the NBA's decision to take Terry Rozier's pay while he's on this. They're kind of obligated to do that. Yeah, they got to fight for the players, naturally. Yeah. Okay. All right, so here's the thing. We've learned so far that people with access to information, close to players

are targets of corrupt individuals trying to make money. Have you ever been targeted by the mafia? Never. Never. They never tried to like cozy up or not even the mafia like degenerate gamblers. They're never like,

yo, give me something. Never? I mean, you'll have the occasional person and they're like, you know, man, it's this guy playing. You know, where's this guy going? I feel like you must get that every day jokingly at least.

I always get it. Where's this? The one I really get a lot. is where's this guy going? Is this guy going to ask for a trade? Oh, because we're going to ask you that. Yeah, we'll get there. Where's this guy going?

Or like, I usually, the thing that I get most is like trades, signings. Like if, like, LeBron next year is a free agent, the question I'll get in the lead up, where's the bond going? Where's the Bronco? That's what I get. People don't necessarily ask me, is this guy sitting or is this guy not playing? Advantages information. Yeah, like maybe that, you know, that's a good thing.

Hopefully this podcast doesn't start that. Yeah. I feel like I am pretty good, though, at, like, just smiling and, like, laughing and, like, moving on about my day. I don't, like, because I, my job, like, you'll read it on my Twitter. If I have something, you'll read it on my Twitter. Like, I'm not going to give you my information out. Like, that's not going to happen. Well, that's a good question.

Has there ever been something that was, like, so potentially destructive to a player or the league where you couldn't release it? That I haven't, that I never did? No, because everything that I've got that, like, if I felt like it rose to the level of like, you know, this is a big deal. I have to do the job. I mean, I'm doing the job. So it's 10 times out of 10 I'm doing the job. Have you ever had people pressure you though?

Like agents and shit comes to you. Don't do this. Hey, please don't do it. We'll give you another piece of information or we'll give you another leak over here if you don't release this. I mean, those types of tradeoffs, I feel like the tit for tat, that happens all the time. But at the end of the day, if I feel like I need to report it, like whether I'm reporting it in an hour or I'm reporting it. a day, like, I'm reporting it. So you might give them 24 hours.

You might give them time. Like, I'll give you a great example. Yes. Rudy Gobert testing positive for COVID. Now, think about that. Think about the impact that had on the league. Think about the impact that had in real time. What occurred after that?

And, like, I sat on that for, like, an hour and a half, you know, like, because not only internally. Who told you? I can't say that. At the athletic, we had, I was working at the athletic at the time. We had a group of lawyers, and, like, this is the first time COVID had been reported on in sports like an hour or two later like i think tom hanks tested positive with his wife yeah yeah um and and like it had just started trickling the and then rudy gobert hit and it was like

boom shut down yeah like i was on cnn that next night that that night the next day i was on cnn like a dozen times that year just because the intersection of like social justice health um but like i had to sit on that not only internally for lawyers but like it was such a sensitive thing with player team league like all of that combined dude the u.s economy crashed the next day those two tom hanks and then rudybo gobert it went from i dropped like 8,000 points yeah because everything shut down yeah everything shut down but at the end of the day

this is how i look at it they're not always going to like it but they're going to respect it right and that's how i move and i feel like at the end of the day like relationships are the biggest form of currency for me like that's the biggest thing you ever been threatened with a relationship are they ever like if you release this then don't ever come to us for a leak we're going to somebody else we're going to some young new kid you get that but at the end of you got to stand on business but then those same people you still interact with have you ever gotten a negative response where like you call son up you're like hey I need to get your side and they just cuss you out but that's happened

plenty of time really that's happened plenty but again it's I view it as part of it right if you're not willing to have hard conversations like the one thing about me I feel like I'm very accessible like you can always reach me I'm always going to answer like I'm here for the hard conversations now the people that I reach out to that don't want to have those hard conversations I'm going to report I'm going to do the job

they don't want those hard conversations I do so I mean I feel like if you're doing this job at a high high level and you're not having those hard conversations I think you're not either you're not doing the job at a high level or you're not doing the job the right way without specific names what's the craziest thing someone said to you on the phone

that's great that's fun oh my god yeah say that one that's fun what everyone just came to your head right they say that one right there i'll just say you know threats of physical violence are always up there but i haven't been assaulted yet who are you someone was like if you release this i'm gonna beat the shit out of you yeah but like again people in the state of where they're at anything can come out of their mouth got it got it so they're just acting emotionally yeah but like again I'm someone that I feel like people who know me who are going to end up watching this.

I think of myself as a pretty easygoing. I'm not an emotional state of mind person that everything you say I'm going to take to heart and then I'm going to come on the defensive and I'm going to tell. I know how it is, especially with news that's negative. If you're a team person, I'm reporting about a coach or something happened

or if I'm talking to an agent and something happens with the player, and if it's negative and you don't want it out there, I understand. Like, I'm putting myself in their shoes, and I'm here for the conversations. I understand any sense of emotion people are feeling. Are there any topics you stay away from? Because we had Stephen A. here, and he was like, he'll get scoops about personal stuff,

but he never takes any personal information to the air. He keeps it basketball. Yeah, I feel like I keep it basketball. Like, if it impacts basketball, like of a player having a birth of a child or if a player, like, you know, having a, you know, A scandal, like having a scandal, like, that I know I'm going to have to report on that's going to, like, if a guy misses a game or misses on court stuff because of that, that's when I have to touch on it. But for me, I stay away from... Like a cheating scandal is not something you're interested in.

Yeah, no. The most TMZ I've gone is the EMA Yudoka situation when that was going on. That was wild. Unbelievable. Kneelong. And, you know, I got the proper confirmation is the report about the relationship he had. internally with the staffer

the improper relationship that he had and that ended up leading to his ouster and Boston now he's in Houston by the way amazing doing amazing he's a great coach

dude he's one of the top coach not the best husband just got a massive new extension this off season keep your wife away he's beloved keep your wife away though

was he cracking someone's wife right it was some of his wife he was cracked a player's wife allegedly I don't know but I don't think it was a player's wife it wasn't a player's wife

No, no. Staff member. But that had a staff member's wife. Yeah, he was using his staff member. Also, guys, show dates again. Chicago Theater. I'm coming April 24th. Also, we have a possibly huge announcement coming soon for the East Coast. But coming up soon, I got Orlando Funny Bow, November 7th and 8th.

Those tickets are almost sold out. Also, tickets are already almost sold out for Cobbs in San Francisco, November 21st through 23rd. December 4th through 6th, Irvine, California. Tickets are also almost sold out. Get your tickets, those shows, and every other show day from the generational trauma tour, Akash Singh.com. Do not buy your tickets from a third-party site. Go to Akash Singh.com.

People keep telling me they're getting scanned. I'm so sorry. Please buy your tickets from Akash Singh. com and the links on that page. I love you guys. Thank you, y'all. Good afternoon, people. My name is Mark Gagnon.

I'm going to be coming to your city. Yes, I'm going to be in New York City, actually, November 11th. We've got two shows part of the New York Comedy Fest. You can check that out on my website. Also, we got Denver, Colorado, Hoboken, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Fort Wayne, Detroit, Chicago. I can't wait to meet you and shake your hand. All right. Come on.

Hang out with your boy. Take his hand, suck his dick. Peace out. What was a bubble like, man? The bubble was wild. There were shorties in there? How did they sneak the shorties in there? Like, that's what we need to know.

Were they making them work? Did they have to clean of rooms or something? I didn't see any. You didn't see any girls? There was no shorties in a bubble? No, I saw none. You saw none? None.

Zero. Oh, wow. The only thing I saw were meals being delivered outside my room when I was in quarantine. Female or men? male. I couldn't even tell that you can't leave the room until the food is already there. You hear the you hear it fall. I mean, these

are alpha alpha, alpha males full of testosterone. You can't have balls that inflated. Inflated, you know, in the end of business, for real. They need to let it out. They need to let loose. They didn't just have some come in

for like a week or two stint, just to drain them. They needed deflate game. They need a deflate game. They didn't get. They must I just said a few in there just to deflate them. They must have. I don't know about that one. Nothing. I didn't see any.

Now, they might not have wanted to wander where I was at, the hotel area I was at. Yeah, yeah. It's probably the stayaway zone. Fair enough. The only thing I saw with the players was there was a restaurant a lot of guys would go to. The center of like a lake. And then you would see guys like Anthony Davis and LeBron like riding bikes. Okay.

Across. To the restaurant by the lake. Yeah, to the restaurant by the lake. So maybe the restaurant. that lake was the big dates. Yeah. The media couldn't go in. Was it even a lake or just women dripping on a crown?

No, that was a lake. Oh, boy. Alligators. Alligators. Oh, there was alligators in there, too. Wow. Sharp. Yeah.

Wide jaws. High jaws. You never seen an alligator chomp down or something? They never let go. Yeah. They never let go. That's true. That's true.

That's true. It's crazy in the bubble. You see, I'm just streaming cold over here. Yeah, that's it. We're just guys hanging. He didn't see anything. You won't tell us what he heard. You don't tell us what he knows.

I heard a lot of stuff in the bubble. I heard a lot of stuff in the bubble. What did you hear? I mean, my first week there was a player's boycotted. There's a boycott. Remember when the players boycotted the games? We're talking about. No, no, no, no.

But why you think that was boycott? Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. They sent in the only fans and all of a sudden they wanted to play basketball again. No, no, no. At that point, you got to leave. You got to leave. You got to leave. You got to leave.

What I'm saying? If they actually did bring them in, you give them a little excursion. Wait, you could take them out of the bubble? I thought you can't get out of the bubble. You can't get out of the bubble. No one got out of the bubble. But there had to be people that got into the bubble. You sneak them in as like a cafeteria employee. I didn't see that happen. No, I know you didn't. Did you notice that the staff was like inordinately hot? Yeah.

Like the cleaning lady? Barely. There's barely any people there. There's some dogs in there. So if they did it, if they did it, it was. They went back. That was vintage. I didn't see anything. When they used to have to work for it.

What happened to reporting the facts, Shams? If I don't see it, I don't see it. If I don't see it, I don't see it. You don't see most of the stories you report on. You hear from sources. I didn't get any sources on that. But maybe they know I'm not seeking that. Listen, that's popular.

Now, listen, it's like jail in there. Were the gay players popular? It's a great question. That's a great question. I mean, you've got to think about it. I mean, were they throwing that thing in a circle? You got to drink of water. These are some hot topics, right?

I mean, are your DMs just constantly, I saw this person here. Like, are there people trying to... People trying to give me tips on stories? Is that common? I mean I would say sometimes Fun fact My brother actually runs

My public Instagram No Keeping in the family Brown shit I love that Yeah Yeah Keeping the family

That's the only guy I trust Yeah Who we met just out there No no No no My little brother No

That was just another That's a Indian That's an Indian That's an Indian dude Oh my lord No I'm just telling you They're not related at all But I know

I didn't know That he was Indian You know But okay So you're not related to that guy at all. No, I'm not related to him, but my brother admonishes my Instagram. I was about to say, man, handles that. I don't see any DMs.

Because you absorbed the fuck out of the good-looking jeans if that was the case. Come on, bro. I got his handsome, him. I was joking, my boy. The guy's like six-four, big six-four, beautiful beard. He's very handsome. Come on in here. Curly hair. Get your ass in here. We're in the bubble, baby.

You got to sneak him in, dude. Sneak him in here. No, that's your PR guy. That's the ESPN PR guy. Oh, that's ESPN PR. Yes. What's his name? Ronce. Rons.

Yeah, he's getting a shout-out. Yo, Ron, shout out you, Rons. Rons is a legend. I heard you was cleaning up in the bubble, my boy. Oh, my God. Was he down in the bubble? I didn't see him down there. You didn't see much.

You didn't see much of nothing down there. I saw what I needed to see. I like that. I saw the games. Yeah, yeah. Guys, we got to take a break real quick because we need to talk about a natural way to relieve aches and discomfort,

and that's where these beautiful little CBD gummies and Seltzer from cornbread hemp can come in very handy. This right here, this is a sleeping one. I'm going to take this at night. It's got CBD. It's got Valerian root, camomile flour, all natural things to help you sleep. Beautiful product, beautiful people, cornbread hemp. I look, I'm 41.

You know, I have trouble sleeping. You know, I get fatter every single day. There's nothing I can do about it. But I'm down to try some herbal shit that would help me. This right here, perfect. Gives you everything you need. It gives you peace of mind. You're not worried about side effects.

You're not worried about any of that stuff. It's just CBD and natural ingredients. Cornbread, CBD, Gummies, and Celsius are. made to help you feel better, whether it's stress and anxiety, discomfort, or just helping yourself sleep better. That's why you've got to use it. And they use the best part of the hemp plant, the flour. So it's the purest, most potent CBD.

All products are also third-party tested and USDA organic to ensure safety and purity. And right now, flagrant listeners can save 30% on their first order to send to cornbread hemp.com slash flagrant. You use the code flagrant at check out. That is cornbread hemp, C-O-N-B-R-E-A-D-H-E-M-P-H-M-P-Lagrant and use the code flagrant. can't help but notice there is not a teleprompter up there, like Miles says there is every week. Let's get back to the show.

All right, guys, let's think break for a second. Listen, when it comes to supplements, there's a lot of misinformation, fake claims, and that's why you need grooms. Honestly, the reason why you need grooms is because they're just the most delicious. It's literally gummy bears. We didn't think gummy bears could be good for you and, like, give you the things that you actually need. It turns out they can.

This is not just like a multivitam, okay? This is multivitamin, greens, powder, and a prebiotic. all them together in a delicious little snack. It's fantastic. They should give them out on airplanes. I'm telling you, they send us a box of these. They probably send us two at a time. They're done in the day because everybody at the office just devours them. And look, being healthy has never been more convenient and tasted better. So if you actually want to be healthy and feed your body the nutrients it needs, then why wouldn't you do it in the most delicious way possible? Also, who doesn't want to have a little snack? Okay? It's literally what it feels like.

a snack. It's low sugar, gut healthy, has immunity and cognitive benefits. You wanted a supplement that you could enjoy. This right here isn't a chore. Something that you look forward to. So go to www.grooms.co. That's g-r-uns.com. You get up to 52% off. Use the code flagrant. Let's get back to the show. I heard you hooped. I did hoop back in the day. I did. Back in the day. Yeah, yeah. You got some NBA ties. You know, I do have some NBA ties. And you know that I beat Jay Williams in a one-on-one game.

Wow. Did you not know this? I saw some footage. This is a thing of legend. This is OG stuff. I let him think that the game was going to be close. And then when it came down to it. It was 101 7 or something. You got spotted 6. I didn't ask for 6. But they spotted

you 6. He said, I gave you 6 points. I was like, that's the dumbest thing you ever done outside of getting on a motorcycle. Oh, shit. I think I remember this. I remember this. I do remember this. Oh, here. So, but. You just got to go to the end.

Oh, that's a young Schultz. Yeah. Look at him. Look at me. Let's go. Okay, look, he bounced a ball off of my head. Tries to pull up on me. Not going to happen.

Got the rebound. Okay, so I pull up, obviously missed on purpose. Rebounds! Rebounds! I'm amazed you got that rebound out of him. Come on, bro. He's not going to box me out. Okay, look at me.

Go right at the ankle. I'm going right at the ankle. I said, See yo! Oh my God. No, you put the move on him for real. And then... He recovered, to be honest.

He did recover fast as shit. He's amazing athlete. Did you make us? Of course I made it. Oh, it was... But that was your only point. You only need it. I only scored the amount that I need.

It was six. He got six in a row. He tried to beat you on that... Yeah. Oh, that's disrespectful. Yeah, he tried to embarrass me. That's what he gets. But I don't lose.

I've never lost the game one-on-one. We got to play next time. Oh, do you hoop? I can hoop. Can you really hoop? There's some footage of me shooting. He looks like you want to find it. Did you ever play with the NBA team in the city?

No. Not like the actual NBA team. Like the league plays in like the what's it called? Suburb. I played, I played middle school, high school. No, no, no. I'm saying like the NBA Association plays in a league in the city. But you live in Chicago.

I'm in suburbs of Chicago. But I never, no, I didn't play in that. Okay. Yeah, no. All right. All right. There's, there's, there's, let's get some footage up at this jumper. Hold on, hold on.

Let's get some footage up there's jump. I want you to. rate this jumper there's got to be some footage while you're playing it up what's the hierarchy of like where you get most of your scoops is it coming from players execs friends of players like who's really giving the majority of everyone

like anyone you can think of that's associated with the league like sometimes my favor is when people guess like when I break something people are going to guess where did you get this from because they have no idea I mean it could be anywhere you think about the areas right league team players

anyone else around any of those areas, basically. You ever cause problems? You ever cause problems on a team? Yeah. Because, like, you leaked information and people are like, who the fuck is the leak? And do they come to you?

Like, yo, you need to tell us who the leak is because you shouldn't know this. I haven't asked that. But it's always hypothetically because they know I'll never say. So what is the way that they ask? How do they express it? I know you won't say.

But. But. And it's like, you answered that. I won't say. Yeah. What do they think? Yeah. You ever get Wined and Dine? Does anyone ever take you out?

Maybe give you a little gift for Christmas or something? Yeah, you got the clutch hoodie. That's your jumper right there? That's my jumper, but there's more footage, man. Joey's truly the worst in Google. Oh, here's one. Here's one. Okay.

No, it's a night. Look at that. Hey, that's not bad. With wide shoulders, too. Yeah. No, no. Come on. Yeah, you little transformer.

There's more. There's got to be more. Oh, no, this ain't it. What's this one? Oh, actually, there is. Yeah, yeah. That was with a man in Assar Thompson. Oh, wow.

What WNBA player do you think you'd beat one-on-one? I think it was all... I think I would get cooked by any professional athlete. After seeing me beat a professional athlete. I think I could beat you, though. But I beat an NBA player. Can I tell you something? But he wanted to do that.

He was the number one pick. He was the number one pick. And he was maybe one of the best. He's 41. It's over. He's almost one. 42 his ankles are fucked it's over I feel like you still got it though

no we were not late 20s down but I played him he was nice he was nice if I needed what I didn't do on Jay because I felt like it would be too disrespectful as I didn't want to dunk on him but if it was no I didn't want to dunk back in the day I saw him dunk on a kid 5-3 game on him left hand though

on him oh on is different than just having a clear lane I don't know it's different so I'm saying so Jay if I what am I going to do humiliate him I kept the game close out of respect for him. This is a person that I like and respect a good guy. Yeah, yeah.

So I keep... And then you never talk. You never shut up. Oh, there's footage of you dunking. This is me old, guys. This is me old. Oh, with the left. Oh, that's light.

It's just easy. Oh, and you got post video? Look at the camera. You see this? Got the towel around his neck. Oh, man. This is me dunking on a Saturday. Oh, look at this.

Come on, man. Did you think? You had a different flow back then. in a day was crazy. ProPesha did wonders for me. Okay, so did you always think that you were going to be the insider? You thought you were going to be like a, just like a, what is it called, like an op-ed journalist talking about the game? When does this happen where you go, I'm the information. Do people like talking to me? And yeah, I mean, I think it came kind of on accident, but it also came like, I love like news. So I love like the trade, signings, free agency,

like all that stuff. I grew up like being obsessed with, you know, at the time, you know, growing up in Chicago, you're like, who are the bulls going to trade for? Who are they going to sign? What's going to happen here? What's going to happen there? What's going on in this locker room? When is this coach getting fired? When is this coach getting hired? Dude, the decision, when LeBron almost went to Chicago, I'm doing the math, you were like 18 at the time. That was a big time for me, though, because I think that's when I think I started at Twitter then. Like, I started to, like, really get involved with, like, trying to pay attention to what's going on with these teams and where's this player going. And I think player movement, team decisions, things like that, I started getting obsessed with.

And so I played, then once I got cut in high school, it's like, all right, I have to, if I'm going to stay around the NBA, I have to do something, whether it's being an agent, whether it's being on the team side, whether it's writing, whether it was, you know, anything I wanted to do. Because as Akash knows, Akash knows, you know, for me, it's like lawyer, doctor, accountant. Like, that's what I think my mom really wanted me to, my mom really wanted me to get into health care. You know, I can be into it. No, I don't have to this. I've heard this one since I got out of school. This is actually from a video. This is not a 9-11 joke.

This is a, he's a pilot, great. You haven't seen this? No, oh my God, you've got to bring this up because it's... I'm like, damn, I've heard this is a high school. It's so much less racist once you see the video. This is a... It's a Pakistani school. It's a Pakistani school, and it's the kids are coming up and saying what they want to be

when they're older. So each kid has their own thing. So I always want to be an end. NBA player. So for me, that was like my number one thing. Then once I realized I couldn't do it, it's figuring out how can I stay close to the game? How can you be around the game? So my sophomore year of high school, my

English teacher goes, you should just write. You're really good at writing and you love basketball, combined both passions. That's what I did. Oh, wow. Then you write for the school of newspaper, then you write for a Bulls blog, then you write for another website. RealGM.com. I don't know. I know realGM. You have to be like nitty-gritty NBA basketball thing. We know what RealGM.com is.

It's a rumor site. I used to be of with it and I would just like refresh all day that and hoops hype and just like follow everything and I got I was obsessed with that and so these are the years before Twitter when we actually had to go to like websites yeah this is like 20 this is between 2008 to like 2014 all right here we go go back to the beginning I haven't seen this I cannot believe as a Pakistani man I haven't seen you haven't seen this my pleasure that I'll be pilot oh yeah he's a pilot yeah he's a pilot When I will grow up

I will be a army and safe Pakistan and destroy India Gosh, how many times have you seen this? Dude, brown people love this one. My wife and I quote this all the time. I haven't seen this. So that's what I want to be pilot is.

You've never heard that? No. See, I'm like NBA. We're beyond racism, okay? I'm NBA. I'm like NBA focused. Yeah, he's all NBA memes. All right, let me ask you another brown question.

I love brown love, I do. But I have to ask, what's up with you and Kay Adams? Great friend. Oh, this was... I think we're great on TV. I worked with her at great chemistry. She'd be giving you rhythm on TV. She does throw you some rhythm, bro.

I don't blame her. You know, I've really enjoyed working with, like, you know, her on TV. It's been fun. I mean, you powered through that, unbelievable. I mean, that was phenomenal. That was amazing political answers right now. right there. That's professional because you both work you know at the company. But like we work together.

Exactly. We had to do. No, there's no such thing as workplace romance ever in the history of the world. But she's actually like genuinely a good friend. Good friend. So nothing, nothing else going on. No, no. No. But if there was a time in the future where you guys weren't both working at the same organization, you know? Yeah, I mean, for me, I'm so work focused. Yeah, yeah. My whole days.

I'm sorry, Kay. I'm sorry, Kay. My whole days are just absorbed by this what I'm doing on a daily basis and so she's a very beautiful woman I don't mean that in a disrespectful way super talented and her ability to like charismatic see for me I'm a very

the stuff that I talk about is really serious I feel like I could be very serious at different points like her Pat McAvey they do a great job of bringing personality you got like doing this podcast brings a different personality out right maybe people don't see all the time so she brings out the joy in you brings the person out of you yeah she's her Pat Maccby do a great job of that yeah but also

just her as well. Yeah, you don't need to feel Pat really got nothing to do with it. Yeah, you did that. You did that. Pat's actually a whole different sport, really. So, like, but similar. No, not. No, no.

I'm not. I can't see a similarity between K. Adams and Pat Macon. Not at all. I never even thought of them in the same way. It's different zones. It's different zones. Different chromosomes, you mean. It's different zones, but

different sides of my personality are able to be unlocked on both. Okay. That makes sense. Which side is unlocked with Kaye? What are you trying to say? You got to flip it on. You got to go on the offense.

You got to flip it up. You got to help. You guys need to help. You guys need to like this girl a lot. Do you guys have like a crush on her or something? Yeah, you got a crush on this white woman? Yeah. You got a ring on.

I'm very, you got a ring on. I'm very cheap. I've never had milk in my life. But some of these girls is ice cream. he is the scoop man I'm not involved in this I'm not involved in ice cream There's nothing wrong with a scoop bro

I'm happily married You're not Start to the scoop As far as I know I don't see the ring Start so what's your favorite So you stick You stick with ice cream I'm a brown man

But I just objectively notice You can't call some of the milk They transcend that They transcend it Vanilla scoops The vanilla scoops Yeah but you could turn that shit into a sundae You could be the caramel

Topping You know what I mean I got nothing there, but she's a great friend, great person. I think we made, we have, when we were working together, made great TV. Yeah, it's fun. Well, that's good, man. I look forward to more that in the future. Yeah, it would be fun.

Yeah, it would definitely be. Jokes aside, was that weird seeing the internet take that whole thing. It was like a thing for like a couple of months. Yeah, I mean, people love good TV, you know? I think people love good TV. I would say people love great TV That wasn't even told you I know I'm saying people love great TV

I think that's why They're a couple of you guys They created a romantic connection It obviously was never there What was it? It was not sham god It was something about his The Riz master some shit like that What was it? You know what he's talking about

Yeah what was the nickname What was the moniker they gave you What the people said? Yeah what did the people say Our guy's going to find it. He's just horrible at Google. You're just going to have to say it. Riz God. The Riz God.

People would call you that? That's crazy. The Riz God. For no Riz God. People that know me, like, I don't really have, you know, I don't have game like that. That's what every Riz God said. Every Riz God said. I don't have that part of the game.

That's my move too. Like, damn, I'm going to go game. I'm honestly like, I'm a shy person. It's just shy. Big dick. Big dick. I'm like I'm like a kosh over here

No you're not I ain't big dick I'm married We're all trying to be where you're at man Married I'm trying to get you I'm trying to do your vista right now Set it up

With this little scoop of ice cream You're stuck on the vanilla Man We're talking about Sundays over here I'm not I would love if you got with a brown girl I'll be so happy Wait what you mean

Why Sundays? Because it got a banana in it. Hey, if you're doing with a brown woman, I'll be very thrilled. I'll try to set you up with one. What's you looking for? Do you want to ask, smiley girl? Is that important to you? Man, listen, right now work is important to me.

I like that. I got to focus on work. Let me call your mom. We'll set this shit up real quick because I'm tired of your politicking. Don't you want to focus? Doesn't your mom want you to get, you know, meet a nice lady? I mean, my mom wants me to focus on work. No, she doesn't.

You're 31. Don't lie to me. No, no, because this is the thing, when you're around your family, they see what this is like more than anyone. And so they know, like, how much I care for it, my passion for it, the time. And I think, you know, growing up, it was like, all right, if, you know, doctor, lawyer, accountant, anything in medical field, that would be amazing. But once I found this and, you know, my mom knows how passion I am about it,

she's like, spend all the time you want on this and, like, make it your number one thing. Let me tell you why I know you're lying. This is a personal story. It's facts. My mom went to the hospital. She had to get like a neuroscan or something. I'm freaking out. I'm in New York.

I'm doing something, filming something. I can't get back to see her. I start crying on the phone with her. I'm like, I need you in my life. I can't lose you. I'm 31 years old, exactly as old as you are right now. And she goes, oh, God, get a girlfriend. That's what she said to me.

She was like, I'm not, shut up. She was like, I stopped wasting everybody's time. So I know Brown moms. Your mom is not like, hey, you're 31. Stay focused on your. career. She's like, give me a grand baby. Sometimes, but most of the time, it's

focused on the job. I like that. Have you ever gotten information from a wife or a girlfriend or an ex-girlfriend? Oh, man, you handsome, they're probably giving it up. Ooh, a side chick. Upset. No, a side chick that's upset.

I mean, listen, I'll just say, every area, every domain you could think of. That's a yes. You've been honeypotted? Any domain you can think of, I have probably gotten information from any domain you can think of. Did you stuff dick? Jesus. No, you can't ask that.

Hold on. No, because he can't say that. That's not illegal. That's not illegal. That's not illegal. That's not illegal about that. That's so unprofessional. This guy's a real job.

No, I know, but that's not illegal. That's not a real job. It's not illegal to do it. that. To do what? To do what? To do what? Stuff Copian mouths like that's not illegal. If they were going to do that, if they were trying to bribe you with that. I apologize, but it hit you. No, no, no. No. Like, any domain you can't do that. No, you can't have that. For real. For real. Did a girl tell a hot pocket?

What does that mean? What? The hot pocket. For what? Come on, you know, the hot pocket. The hot pocket, man. In this context, I'm trying to understand. Oh, you're about to. A girl wants you to put a story out about, like, a player that she, like, really just doesn't like, you know, because maybe they had, like, an amazing few sexual intercourses. But why is that a story for me? But she's like, I want you to say that he's a bad guy.

And you're like, I'm a story. Yeah, you say that. Why is that a story for me? And then she's like, well, how do I make it a story for you? maybe maybe she told him or he told her she's disgrunt he's disgruntled with his team he wants out he's beef with his teammate and she wants to give that information to happen now that's a that's a that's a that's what we call a tip to a story potentially now did you give her a tip no no no I just said him off for that yeah can I mean honest I'm on the opposite end of this there's nothing you'd say that

he can't flip yeah I know that's like a jiu jihitsu master of sexual any other but all right, what about all the Achilles injuries? It's a lot. There's a lot of Achilles injuries. What do we think that's about? I think the NBA is doing a report about that. Oh, really?

They're looking into so we have Jason Tatum, Damian Liller, Tyreys Halliburton, and the car ring is ACL, but he's going to be out your Mavericks. He doesn't miss some time. It's brutal. How does Nico Harrison still have a fucking job? Please explain this to me. And how upset, you know, the city of Dallas is...

I mean, he broke the news. I'm well away. You broke the team. Yeah, you broke the team. I truly believe Have your producer, here's a fun exercise for you guys. Have the producer pull up that tweet. Pull up that sweet. He's not going to. That's just the exercise. See if you can pull it.

I want you to see it's still jarring to me how much. Like I knew it was a big deal when it happened, but how big it became like global. People outside of Dallas don't understand how much we loved Luca. We didn't need him to win yet. We were like, we'll take time because we worked out with Dirk. And we felt like we got it again. and it was awesome. So trading him, truly, they would have lost a team if they didn't get Cooper flag.

I truly believe the lottery was raped for that reason, because the Mavs would have left. $110.10.7 million. Holy shit. Damn. How long did you have this information before you? Seven minutes. You got seven minutes to confirm that it was truthful? Five different sources.

So I got a heads up. Yep. First heads up. Maxi Clebe. First of the, Markiev Morris is being traded to the Lakers. Second heads up. Markief Morris being traded Lakers. Second heads up.

Maxie Kleber being traded Lakers. I'm like, what is going on? Then I get another source. Three-team deal. Lakers, Mavs, Jazz. Jail Huchafino is going to Utah. I'm like, what is this three-team deal? These are a bunch of, you know, guys that are on contracts that are, like,

are they just trading small salaries for small salaries? And then the fourth person tells me, Luca Donchich for Anthony Davis. These are all the parts. Fifth person? The whole deal. I got the whole deal. And I'm like, am I being catfish right now?

That's what I'm trying to tell. Is this person's phone hack? I got to call this person. Call them. Hear their voice. It's real. I'm like, holy. And like, my hands are literally shaking.

I'm like sweating. Mind you, the context of this, it's like 11 central time. I'm in Chicago. The Lakers had just beaten the Knicks by a lot in New York at the garden on a Saturday night my hair was all down

and my glasses on I was getting ready to shut it down for the night and I'm just like my hands are trembling like I'm just like this is unbelievable I called the fifth person actually I called someone else the phone didn't even ring it wouldn't even go so I'm like

this person is definitely dealing with this right now I call another person the person picks up I'm like there's no way this shit is fucking real and the person goes yeah it's fucking real next thing you know that's that the seven minutes whoa the the fourth person that you get on the phone and actually hear it from are you convinced by them

in that moment yeah okay yeah so i know they're not they're not there's no and there's no and again i'm not asking sources but like they're they've never led you astray in the past no this is something that you can trust yeah because if you go out with this and then it ends up not happening i'm sure you're considering how that makes you look. Is that why your hand is trembling? Yeah, about everything. It's that.

It's, is this all accurate? Making sure it's all accurate. And then this is something like very minor on the, like getting, like, I have no typo in this. I just, like, it's like the, I think it's probably my most perfect tweet. Because I made sure, this is the one tweet you can't have a typo in. Like you can't get a detail wrong. You can have first, you know, 2029 first round pick, but it's really 2026 first round pick. Like every detail has to be right

Because you know it's gonna be a big deal I don't think it would be this big goal I'm getting PTSD looking at this I'm sorry for doing that too Look at the first reply Nico fucking loser Bro I had to check 10 times to see if this was a real Account yeah my phone blew up

Because everyone thought out that I got hacked Or it was fake or that my safety Was under concern So my phone was blowing up My phone I'd never had that many calls And it's one of those things where it's like continuous calls right so are you answering any or do you just shut it down i answer like five five people one was like the late night sports center guy because i'm like i know i know why he you know

he wants to make sure he wants to make sure it's real so we can cover it a couple other people i think i picked up stephen a's call pat maccvie's call two other people and then yeah that night was wild and do you sleep sorry sorry do you sleep at all that night i step like one and a half hours okay so you stay up throughout the night i stayed up to like i sports center head at like six in the morning. I think I slept to like four, got up at like 5.15, did my sports center hit, and the day was on and popping. It was funny that I had a 7 a.m. flight to Bristol

for the trade deadline. I'm like, all right, I'm going to be covering Jimmy Butler, Deeran Fox getting traded this week. I need to know how this happened as a fan. What's going on? What's with Nico? Why does he do this? It can't possibly be he thought they made this, this made them a better team. It cannot possibly be. He genuinely believed that

Anthony Davis, who we call street clothes as a nickname, was a, is a better championship fit. better for their culture and defense. Again, this is in real time back then. This is what he believed. Now, he might still believe this. I don't think anyone's gone up and asked,

do you still believe this? But as of, you know, even training camp, this is what they believed. Anthony Davis being a better fit to a change of quality team than Luca Donchich and whatever concerns they had about Luca. So you go out and make this trade.

Now, again, on face, you know, Anthony Davis, above 30. You have Luca Donchich, who at the time of the trade, 25, all NBA for four, five. It's the worst trade in sports history. Anthony Davis is, you know, Anthony Davis is top 75 player. He's an all-NBA, all-star.

He's a Hall of Fame player in his own right. Luca Dodges is obviously Luca Dachish. I can barely watch sports anymore. I hear that a lot from people in Dallas. I hear that a lot from people in Dallas. But how does Nico Harrison? I think your question was, how did Nico Harrison have a job? I mean, the reality is the roster he's built when healthy,

the Mavs, Nico Harrison, that ownership, Patrick Dumont, the new owner there, a championship quality roster if they stay healthy. And if I grow seven inches. Do you think it was a good trade? See, it's not my place to say whether it was right or wrong trade. Even when it happened, I saw why

Dallas did it. Again, does that justify it? Now, if you're asking me, do the vast majority of people I speak to? No, I'm saying, do you think it's a good trade? I mean, it's not on me to decide. That's not my place. Your opinion. Your opinion. What do you

you can't give a thing? I think on face, Of course, when you trade a guy like Luca Donchich, I just look at it from a position of, he's 25 years old. I mean, you can build for the next 10 years. You can build around him. But again, time will tell on this. Is that because you're a journalist? You're not really, you don't like to give you an opinion.

It's not my place, but it's also like my job is to take perspectives and information, insight, and present it in the most responsible and fair way. Like, Nico Harrison and the Mavericks had their reasons. Even at an ownership level, they had their reasons to make this trade. They felt it was going to lead them to a championship. But again, the Lakers, since this trade, they lost in the first round. The Mavericks, they lost in the first round, right? No, they didn't make it.

They lost in a play in tournament. Yeah. So they lost in playing in tournament. So I'm not saying neither side has, we don't know what's happened, but the goal is to win a championship, right? So I'm just saying like this. Let's say the Mavericks this year and next year win a championship and the Lakers don't. So are we going to say this trade with success? Yeah, sure.

We can speak in impossibilities all we want to. All right, let's take a break for a second. Listen, have you ever had that craving for that favorite pinini? You love so much, okay? All you can think about is that perfectly toasted breast sandwich. So you think about running out to get it, but it's too cold or you're too lazy. So you order delivery instead. And the entire time, you're waiting for envisioning yourself,

enjoying that melted cheese, that warm. meat in the comfort of your home, but it never comes. Tragedy. A client of Morgan and Morgan has recently been awarded nearly $1 million after jurors affirmed that her injuries from slipping on ice outside of a Panera bread for the company's fault. Their client was working as a door-dash driver when she slipped and fell on an icy walkway outside of the Panera bread in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She broke her left elbow, which led to surgery and hardware being inserted into her arm. The original settlement offer of $125,000 was there, but Morgan and Morgan fought to get her the million-dollar verdict she deserved

so she could be back out there on the road, delivering those pininis to all of you that desire them so much. Morgan and Morgan is America's largest injury firm for a reason. They've been fighting for the people for over 35 years. Hiring the wrong firm can be disastrous. Hiring the right firm can substantially increase your settlement. with Morgan and Morgan. It's easy to get started, and their fee is free unless they win. So visit for the people.com slash flingrant or dial pound L-A-W, pound law.

That's pound 529 from your cell phone. That is F-O-R, the people.com slash flagrant. This is a paid advertisement. Let's get back to the show. All right, guys, listen, hiring is an incredibly difficult task, especially if you're trying to hire people to build your business. You want competence, and you're going to have to weed through resume and resume and resume. It's tough to hire the right people for any team, and that's why if you're building a team and want to hire the best people for it, you need to use ZipRecruiter, okay?

Right now, you can actually try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash flagrant telling you right now, ZipRecruiter's powerful matching technology works fast to find top talent so you don't waste time or money. You can invite top candidates for your job to apply, to encourage them, to apply sooner. Building a solid team is easy if you know where to go, and you're going to go. to ZipRecruiter. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter, get a quality candidate within the first day. Go see for yourself. Go to ZipRecruiter.com slash flagrant. Again, that's ZipRecruiter. com slash flagrant ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. Now let's get back to the show.

Who do you think is the next NBA Superstar to get traded? Because Yonis, I thought would be the one, but he's at like 99% on college. She's staying in Milwaukee. So I just check that a little bit just to see, because I just want somebody to share my misery. Yeah, I think the next guy to keep, I mean, next couple guys to keep it on, probably are Janus still. I think you have to monitor that situation. Big

win for them against the Knicks, your Knicks. There was like a two-week period. What was that about? I know, yeah. What was that about? Your Knicks. I mean, you're Knicks. But why did you say it like that? Because they got, do you see the score last night? Well, why are we even talking about old shit? It happened 24 hours ago.

I'm just saying. It was in a way game. It was a Yeah, yeah, yeah. We went a guard and we take care of business. Yeah, there was other things going on. We have to give a false sense of security. Who won? There was a two-week period where the Knicks knew that Yonast and Coupa wanted to play there. How did the Knicks fuck that up?

Wow. How did we fuck that up? There's a two-week period where they knew, they had conversations, offers are made. What did we have to offer? What did they want? Did they want J-B? No. You probably want the...

I don't even think it got to a point. I think it's like make the best office. offers you have. And what did they offer? Offers were made. Can you tell us what they... It's not out there in the world? Bridges. Can you give me an allegedly?

Bridges was not eligible to be trade at the time. Because it's not the extension. Bridges would be... If they want to run that back, Bridges would be... That'd be a piece. Ocotch, can you angle your mic up towards you? Sir. Cat... Cat was offered.

I think you have to keep it on Janus still. I think the first 20-25 games... I mean, they're off to a great start. I think of three-and-one Milwaukee is. we'll see how they do this year how they do in the playoffs next year he's going to be entering the last year of his deal of his deal and in the NBA everyone knows that's the point you have the most leverage

so how far they go how far they don't go that could impact where he's at and potentially 20, 25 games in we'll see right now they're off to a great start as we see right there who's got you know they beat the shit out of the Knicks last night fuck you who's got the best scoops which player

active player has the most information, meaning like other players confide in them and they're just a source for everything. They really know what's going on in the league. Who is that? Who's the you in the league? I don't know. Man, get out of here. I don't know. You won't say. I don't talk to whoever that is. I need to. I need to find out. That's a good question. I got to get on that hunt. What's the craziest place you've ever had to step out of in order to post something or get some Man, I've been everywhere. You've been like a funeral, been at like your mom's birthday, something crazy. You're like, hey, this is a bad look, but I need to take this.

Yeah, I mean, that's, yeah, funeral will be tough. Funeral will be tough. But, no, he would step out. He ain't going to be more dead. I would step out for just about anything. But have you? Have you had to step out of a situation? I think religious gatherings, I would say definitely birthdays, family birthdays.

What about a date? all the time you're like let's say you're hanging out with family or you're hanging out with a girl you might be seeing or whatever

like there are always going to be moments where you might have to step out for a call or you know whatever and it's is that person understanding like all those different factors have you had a girl that's not understanding about it?

I think people in life you've run into friends that aren't understanding but that's why like maybe dating somebody that's also involved in sports might be good because they would understand your priorities and what you do for a living better than people outside of the game. It's something you guys can talk about later at work.

It's possible, never know. Have you ever had to stop mid-session? Oh, my God. You ever have to pull your bang out? Post-a-tweet? Because that's dedication to the game. That is dedication of the game. I'll just say this.

I've had to step out of the shower plenty times. With whom? I've had to pause workouts, all kinds of workouts. I've had to pause. His biceps. Triceps. Dips. Like, class was the toughest for me, though.

When I went to, that was the hardest part. You know, the example you gave, and the other examples I gave, like, those are, they're tough to do, like, if you're at a, your mom's birthday or sister's birthday, like, you don't want to leave, you know, during the celebration. They're blowing out the candles of the cake and you're having to step out because you have to take a call, like about a buyout of a player. You think about that in grand scheme That's tough

But class was the worst Like when I was when I had to When I was in college I would literally leave classes Like 40 minute classes And I'm leaving for like 30 minutes 35 minutes And I'm coming back at the end of class

And the teacher's looking at me Because at the time she didn't know what I was doing They don't know no Everyone probably looked at me like I was insane What is this guy doing? This guy which is weird He must have issues Or must have issues

Or he's on his way to greatness. Which referee is the most corrupt? If you had to guess, which one would you point to? Whatever ref was doing the one, the game that you were playing against Jay, that's the ref. That's the ref. That's the ref.

Has he let Jay get away with the taunting? He let Jay get away with... No, no, no, he let Jay file you too much. I agree. I think the fact that it got to 6-6 was an issue. It's embarrassing for me. I wasn't giving any calls.

You should have got out of the line. I should have gone on the line, dude. I 100% believe that. I think that you're right. Do you want to play over and under on his screen time? Yes. Oh, we got to do that. Did I answer your Nico question?

I'm not saying it's right or wrong. Because listen, I get that from Dallas people. There's a video that people were upset about where some guys saw Nico out to dinner with his family. He goes, Nico shakes his hand. He goes, everybody still fucking hates you. And then walks off and people were like, how could you do that to a guy who's at dinner with his? And everybody from Dallas was like, to do that shit again

again and again you can't go anywhere apparently fuck that guy yeah and what about them getting the lotto pick well I think that was rigged he'll never admit it

but I truly think they were gonna lose Dallas was that rigged yeah was that rigged can we do that it's so hard to rig I've seen it

I know what I know how it's it doesn't mean it's impossible yeah that wasn't a full sentence all right what about Kauai what about Kauai what's up of Kauai

and his uncle this last week damn god damn how many hours no no no no oh you know I'm guessing

12 and I saw that was that's crazy 12 is my guess that's crazy 16 and a half and 10 of them are just on Snapchat that's crazy yeah who do you snap

no way no you're laughing I was like wait is that accurate her name might be hold on let's let's go to Kawhi give us the real about Kawhi

hold on I'll give you this I'll give you this What do you got? Let's go Let's go the two-day span of the arrest. Can you guess what the screen time was for those days? This is over two days. Wednesday and Thursday.

I mean, I saw, like, I think it has to be... If he's pushing 16 on a regular day. That's what I'm saying. It has to be 40 hours. Yeah, it's 40 hours of my guess. It has to be 40 hours. Per day. Per day, 20 hours.

Oh, oh, 20 hours now. It's actually less. Wednesday? 17 hours and 50 minutes. Oh, that's a light day. How do you live a life, dude? Thursday was a wild day. So this is a wild day.

this Thursday. Yeah, he really might be focusing on work. 18 and a half. Yeah. No, but how do you focus on life? Like, yeah. See, now you guys understand. You guys are asking all these No, we get it. Dating questions. It's not about that. It's not about that. It's not about this. It's about this. It's about the work.

It's about the grind. We're talking about dating? Talk about dating. Dating. He's talking about mid-session. Come on, man. Yeah, you don't even worry about that. That was a good question. You're not thinking about. Okay. That was about Kyle. Leonard. What do you guys want to know? I want to know if he's asking for a little extra on top.

I want to know if the unc is saying, listen, we know what the salary cap says that we can be paid, but we need a little more than that. So there are allegations that that's what his camp has asked for. And that's been like, you know, there's always these things that circulate in the NBA community. Yeah.

And it's on my job. Can I confirm it? Is there something like that is so nebulous because someone could mention to someone. Yeah. But, you know, I can, you know, someone can mention, you know, like a player can mention to a team like, hey, like, we need this to sign with you.

But if the team says, no, we're not doing that. And if the player signs there anyway, like, what's the story that this guy made the request? Sometimes it leaks, sometimes it doesn't. Didn't he? Go on, go on. So my point is, there's, it's been in the nebulous for a while that, like, you know, if Kawhi Leonard is a free agent in 2019 is going to sign with you, there's going to be these requests.

The NBA did its own investigation. They found nothing. It's never been... No way. It's never been on the record. There's nothing been something for them. But it's been in the space for a while. Yeah.

So there's, there are, you know, there's a reporting that came out that he had a deal with aspiration. This company called Aspiration, that was also a sponsor of the Clippers at the time. The owner had invested in that company as well. and there was a side deal with Kauai Leonard. To be sponsored by the company. To be sponsored by the company. But there's nothing. Like, legally, that's within your, like, that's fine.

So there are deals that happen between companies and teams and their players. So the owner of a team can also own, let's say, Adidas and then choose to have one of their athletes or one of their players be sponsored by Adidas. Well, they're not choosing. That company is choosing it, technically, right? What if the owner is invested in that company? Well, that's the thing. That's the line. at the NBA. So now the NBA is investigating

all this. And is it even a real company? Didn't it file for bankruptcy? That's what I'm saying. So there's a lot of shit. I mean, I don't have to hide it. There's a lot of shady things. A lot of corrupt things that happened with this company. So now the league, so there's a lot of circumstantial stuff, right?

Like, you know, there's going to be money that's put into the company. Then the money might go, you know, at the same period. But again, if companies are paying and doing things biweek and it just so happened they got money you know but overall steve balmer put in 131 million dollars into this company this company put in x amount of money into the clippers kawai leonard i think saw between

10 and 20 million dollars out of a 28 million dollar deal so if one plus one is supposed to equal to why is he putting so much money into this company steve balmer put in 131 million $1.Kawai Leonard saw $10 to $20 million of that. So are those both correlated? Are they both tied together? That's what the NBA has to figure out. Is there hard evidence? Or circumstantial evidence?

Or is all of this combined? Is there a lack of transparency issues? There's a lack of moral issue? I think that's all what the league is determining right now. And that investigation started about a month ago. So they're going to be going through all these guys' emails, text messages, all their files. That's the people that got in trouble already that are bankrupt. Steve Ballmer, Kauai Leonard, his uncle, his entire camp. Is there precedent for this of what would happen

possibly like Balmer or Kauai? So if the allegation is caps or a convention, I mean, it's suspension for ownership. You can void contracts. Whoa. You know, you can void. So this happened with Joe Smith. Yeah. Timberwolves. Yes. Glenn Taylor was suspended. Kevin McKill, the GM was suspended. They lost five first-round graphics, right? They lost a ton of first-round picks. Joe Smith's contract got voided. And so yeah, that's all potentially on

the table, right? But with that situation, there was a paper trail. There was a signed sheet of I think it was like on a paper towel or something. It was like a napkin that they wrote the contract like, you know, after this we're going to give you this max contract

or whatever. Here, so far there has not been proof of a paper trail. It's not like Steve Balmer. There's proof of Steve Balmer, someone with the Clippers saying, hey, sign Kawhi Leonard to this deal, this is what they have to do. The Clippers are alleging that this was all in the up and up. We also got defrauded.

Like, Steve believed in them. He invested in them. They invested in the Clippers. They were on our jersey patch. They asked to be connected to Kawhi Leonard, and we connected them to Kwai Leonard. That happens throughout the league. Sponsors of teams ask for players all the time. Yeah. That makes sense.

All the time. And so we'll see if there's going to be off of a paper trail. I mean, putting in a buck 30 and then just getting rinsed for it, just seems peculiar. Like, this is a good business, man. You know? Also, that's a lot of money. That's a big investment. A lot of money to give to Kauai off 130 million. Yeah. I mean, that's a lot of money. Do you, is that, is that how, is that washing money? Like, I don't know, like, what is that? Yes, the thing that just seems so odd about it. Like, to give Kauai 20, you got to spend 110. But does that sound right? too i don't know like i don't it doesn't it doesn't at all but it also i don't feel like somebody like

that would make that silly a business decision yeah and again he's come out and he said like i got defrauded like i got scammed like i was i was a part of getting uh you know defrauded out of my money yeah yeah okay and you said these types of deals are common is this just a common way of getting around the salary cap no i mean i said in this situation it is it It's common hearing that, like, you know, people around Kauai Leonard might have asked for this. It's been in the nebulous for a while. You know, obviously the NBA investigated, they didn't find anything. It's not like they're going to come out and say, yeah, we asked for this from all these teams from Toronto, Lakers, the Clippers.

Like, this type of stuff, like getting stuff on the books, like, we're going to pay this guy on a side deal. I think there's so much to lose. I don't hear about that as much. now the stuff that does happen a lot is like a player will get a sponsorship deal with the same sponsor of a team yeah right and like mark Cuban I talked to Mark Cuban you know yeah he was defending a bomber yeah and Mark Cuban told me there's been a lot of moments where like when he was at his peak as an owner of popularity like these companies would come to him and be like hey can we talk to this player can we talk to that player and he will basically help set up

that up. And so is that like, but that's legal. So in this case, if this company aspiration went to the Clipper said, we want to meet with Kawhi Leonard and all they did was give the contact information. Now, again, is there a paper trail where there was something more nefarious

going on. That's what the NBA investigations trying to find out. But that's, I mean, there's so much at risk for these teams if they were to venture at that realm. That's the cardinal sin of the NBA. back to the gambling scandal do you think because I don't think you can like undo what has been done unless you just take away prop betting which I don't think the casino companies are going

to take away do you think people lose faith in the game and stop watching like do you think it can actually hurt the league I mean I think the integrity of the league is very important and if this becomes like more wide ranging like if there's all these dots across the U.S. map where this is all popping up with this play, of course, it's become a major issue. But right now, we've seen two examples of it. You know, one, the jury's still

out, you know, he has, Terry Rozier has not gone through his trial yet. We don't know his, you know, what he's going to be charged with. But I think, I think the integrity concern is real, like, right now. And I think the league knows it. I think they even said in their release, like, this is a, this is a dire state, you know,

like trying to get to the bottom of how can they regulate legalize gambling. Yeah, they got to figure something out. They've got to figure something out with that. Because it just feels so easy. I just feel like you can't fix that. There's no way to fix that.

I mean, again, unless you're getting rid of deposit, unless you're finding a way to tier system it, unless you're trying to get more, unless you're able to get more information accessible to the fans and the betting public. Do you think there's a publicity to this so that other players stop doing this?

Or just do it smarter? I mean, I think the FBI doing it when they did it on opening week, I think that alone raised enough alarms to not only the league, but fans in just the sports world in general that like raising the awareness of what this is, I think the timing of when that happened, I think that alone raises the awareness. I mean, this is in the hands of the feds at this point. This is not like this situation that's going out right now. This is not even in the NBA's hands per se. I mean, and this must be happening in other leagues, too.

Like, I'm sure this is a shockwave to everyone. The NFL, there's been multiple players that have gotten suspended. So what the NFL does is they suspend players for, I believe it's a dozen. Maybe you can pull it up. I think it's like a dozen, it's like half a dozen games. Players are getting suspended. Now, in the NBA, if you're caught in these activities, you're just banned. Jonte Porter was banned.

Now, if Rozier is found guilty in this, he's going to be banned. Obviously, there's a lot of other things. you know, with him, and John T. Porter. But the NFL's had a few of these scandals, and it's been a suspension. It's so weird that you would just suspend. Yeah. Like maybe one player in the NFL just has a six game. Yeah, a minimum of six games, indefinite bands.

Oh, yeah, Jameson Williams. I forgot about that. So do you think the number of people that are implicated in this at the present moment will stay that number, or do you think it'll increase in the coming weeks? I think that the fact that we already went from five people initially to now 30 plus in the span of a year and a half, we have one more current player. We have now again, these two situations, they're two different cases, right? One's an illegal gambling inside information case. The other is an illegal poker rigging case. Now, I think we're going to get potentially more names than both.

but the fact that it's already gone up six I mean multiply by six times in the span of a year and a half now you have 30 more people how many more of these people are going to cooperate and our boy are we going to go got to really distract from the fact that he's not doing anything on Epstein so he's going to drive this

investigation oh yeah yeah yeah cash we're saying yeah yeah I mean yeah that's an interesting situation I got a lot of tweets at me that day saying why don't you release the list the other list do you know who's on that one like I don't know I think they think you're

you can't figure it out though you probably get that list you could never get insider shit about non-MBA stuff I've gotten oh here we go we got something what do we got oh wow oh did you leak that

you were the first one I mean I don't know is that what the people say I just know where I was when this happened. I was in the bubble. So you dropped that? I mean, it says that. Hold on your Twitter account.

You don't reveal your sources with the NBA and that kind of stuff. But other rumors. Yeah, like, I would just say that year was an interesting year because sports and politics and social justice and health, it all intertwined. And, like, there were, there were all these boards. sports board and this commission and that was the most I think I've like delved into like the political world

and like yeah I was trying to reach out and email people and reach out to people and so the way that you see sports media and like you're rolling it does it affect how you see other media like looking at just like political news and stuff like that? No I mean I watch from afar like I'll watch everything from afar see how like

you know see how this person is reporting that like what's their methodology when they're trying to report this story and again you can't Not everything is Apple's apples, right? It's, like, different in that world. But I definitely pay attention to how they're sourcing it, how they're going about reporting it. You know, are they breaking it? Are people breaking it?

Or are they just like, you know, just doing it when these people say it publicly? Right. You know, like, when there's an announcement publicly. Yeah, then you're not breaking anything. You're just kind of retweeting. So I'm, like, definitely like, just a competitor in me is like, oh, does this person break this? And I'm like, you know, as if I'm going to like get into this. The break is where you get all.

Yeah. Has there ever been a story that you got that you sat on because you weren't sure and then someone else broke it? And you were like, oh, man, I should have pulled trigger on it. Yeah, I mean, that happens all the time. Can you share a specific one? Honestly, it's probably happened so much in the past. I don't even remember it. Is there a big one, like a big one where you were trying to confirm it and all of a sudden you saw it got posted?

I'd have to think. think about some of the biggest deals the last like 10 years and i'll tell you lebron going to cleveland after leaving miami that was that that was announced he announced that on s i but people were saying that day he's going to go to cleveland yeah um i feel like i've been on a lot of it i feel like i've been on a lot of it i'll give you an example of one that like you know things that eat at me is like if i'm on a family trip and the like 20 minutes I'm spending not on my phone or if I'm, you know, let's say I'm at a dinner and I'm not on my phone

or I'm in the water and I'm not on my phone and I miss news and that has happened before. What did you miss? I don't know if I want to say it. It's already out there. It's already out there. That's the limitation? Yeah, it's been enough time.

Yeah. So Taylor Jenkins, Coach of the Grizzlies. Got fired. Okay. I was on a family trip, was away from my phone, for lunch and I think we were gone

for like five, six days and the 20 minutes I wasn't on my phone you can miss that one dude it was a big deal there was three weeks left in the season a coach getting fired that late in the year to me it's all a big deal

if it's big news small you got to treat everything with the same amount of you know if you're performing in Times Square or you're performing at the comedy club Shout out. Tommy Invincible, bro. Same thing. Every show is the most important. Even the way he's describing it really shows his commitment to it.

Because that's not the way I thought you were going to go. I had no clue. Sometimes you're on a family trip, man, and it heats me up that I missed a scoop. I was like, that's not what I thought you were saying. You're going to talk about the family part. What's up? Why can't Jod do the gun stuff, man? What's up with that?

In a celebration? Yeah, like we used to be a country. Yeah. The grenade one's fire. I think the grenade is fire. I mean, he's not getting in trouble for that. Okay, good. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because I like that. I think they have it in the video game, too. I think they have that in 2K. Just, yeah, they have that in 2K. That's fire. Yeah. We like guns in America. Why is it such a big deal? Yeah.

I mean, I think with him, it seems like it's the history, but it seems like he's in a great place. What is the history? Yeah, didn't he beat up like a 14-year-old play pick-up with him? Allegedly. There were a couple moments he got, this is a couple years ago now, flashing a gun. Allegedly. Yeah, flashing a gun. the opposing team bus is that illegal to flash a gun is it illegal to do that yeah to brandish it

yeah you knew the legal person you know it's like everything is on the up and up and that's called garnishing no but like you can't oh yeah look i i knew it's instant can't garnish a weapon right off the out of the dome right yeah there's fire that's great that's what he stole it from exactly yeah i know yeah still hold on so wait wait he can't even just post that he has guns on Instagram? I don't think that would be something that he would do right now. I don't think so. What if he got a deal with Smith and Westman?

And he was like a sponsored athlete by Smith and Wesson. Would you advise him to do that? I mean, it depends the bag. No. No? 250 million he's got with the grease. So he's good. Yeah.

So he's good. He's real good. So then, yeah, get out there. start bucking. I'm in defense of an American, a free American that has the right to, you know, show the shit that he bought. There's the right to flex. You know what I mean?

Why can't you garnish? Why can't you brandish? Why can't you do all that? I don't understand why that that's bad. It makes the league look bad. They're a bunch of gambling degenerates getting paid off by an Italian mob. And this guy can't point a pistol in the air

when a stripper's not dancing fast enough. She was dancing slow. I mean, that goes, that. I don't know. Did they have it in the bubble? I don't know. Bring it all the way back. Okay.

Wait, Michael Jordan. Did he get suspended for gambling? Oh, great. This story, I was one years old when he retired. Yeah, but you're Chicago, boy. You got that. No, he retired 94, right? 94, 95.

No, I think, yeah, 94. Yeah, 93, 94, yeah. You get the scoops, man. We want to know. I just know the, whatever. If there is a alternative version of the story, I don't have that. So David Stern wasn't trying to, you know, impose some punitive measures. Now, listen, if I worked back then, if I was, let's say we flipped the years, I would have given you guys.

You would have known. Yeah. And you would have dropped it. But you think you would have got frozen out like Sports Illustrated did? If I had it confirmed, I would have dropped it. But then what if MJ never gave you anything again after that? I would have to do my job Let me ask you a question

When Charles Barclay Kissed that referee on the mouth Why didn't you leak that? What was that? That was like 2007? Yeah I wasn't I was in the game 20-07

But if you were in the game Would you have leaked like today There would be a sexual act on it? Would you have leaked that? I think that was an endearing moment That was a hard one. It was a don't even normal. It was a don't.

Charles is the go. Charles is the go. You got a new Charles on the show. Oh, dream guest. Dream guest. I thought Jimmy was a dream guest. Jimmy's also a dream guest. Charles might be dream guest.

Probably Barack and Charles Barkley for me. I'm not even lying. To me is Charles. Yeah. To me is Charles number one. And Shat. Shad can be cool, but Charles talks that shit, though. That's the thing.

He got opinions on everything. Funny. Funny. Got that southern droll, so everything just comes out smooth. What era would you want to cover in if it couldn't be right now? Oh, that's a good question. Ooh. I mean, you always think about the 90s.

But I'm bored in this right now. What about right when they let black people in? Jesus, that would have been fried as scoop. Let me tell you something. I feel like right now is the best time. You think they'd have let him cover shit?

Right now is the best time. No, they probably wouldn't like giving you any information back in the day. But that would have been scoops for days. I think right now is the best time. Yeah, because of access to media and like you have so much more power as an individual. Whereas before, as a reporter, they could probably leverage your job. They're not social media back then. Exactly.

I'm sure I got notice because... You would have had a newspaper or something. That game's about to get so much better. Yeah, it's like two-day wait for news. You're like waiting to 24 hours. Can't do it. Anyway, my boy, can you give us one thing before you leave? Give us, drop just one thing.

What do you need? I need one school. Give us the look at Janice. Okay. Trey Young. I think keeping eye on him. Trey? Is Trey coming in the New York?

York? No. Trey didn't extend his contract in the off season. He's got one year left. He's a free agent next summer. Okay. And he can hit free agency potentially if he opts out. Where do you think Trey's going?

I mean, he could stay in Atlanta, but he's going to have a market. Oh, yeah. We're talking about Trey Young here. Yeah. So Janus, Trey Young, and then as the season goes on, there's always guys that'll pop up. And we still don't know where LeBron James is going to be. Is he going to finish his career with the Lakers or is he going to be somewhere else? I think it's very much up in the end.

You think he would change teams? I mean, I think that he, I'm not sure that he knows exactly how the end is going to play out. Could it be with the Lakers? Sure. But he's a free agent at the end of the season. So if he's going to continue to play, there's clearly a chance. He's somewhere else, potentially. Move your whole family.

I mean. But again, he could stay with the Lakers. I'm just saying. Yeah, but your wife and her friends and all the activities that they do. For the local ragged club. Yeah, it's just a lot of activities. You move your whole family to your wife's activities. It's pretty easy, bro.

You can't move pretty easy. I'm not a lot. I'm trying to think of any other player situations to monitor. Is there anything that you're going to drop this week anyway so you could just tell us? Nothing right now. Nothing? You would have dropped it already. Yeah.

I would hint to you something. What's the story you're working on? Yeah! Give us something you're working on. I mean, I'm definitely tracking this case. Yeah. Really heavy. But I don't know when we're going to have updates on it necessarily.

Because it's all on arraignments, charges, things like that. I mean, this will play out over the next year. Will you be at the trial? No plans to do that right now, because we also know the dates. We know the arraignment dates, though. Then late November. in early December. Oh, wow.

For Billups and Rozier. So we're going to see this soon. Yeah. This is going to play out during the seamen the season. But still. So after you do the arraignment, how long until you start? I don't even really know what that shit. Do we know?

I don't know what I was. I was acting like I knew what it was. I didn't know what it was. I thought arraignment is just the trial. I think they tell you what... Oh, when they figure out what the charges are. Yeah. Several weeks to a year it could take between armen and trials.

I have a crazy kind of, like Lee conspiracy. Okay. Tell me if I'm crazy for this. But I've heard that Dwight Howard is actually straight. I have never even thought. You've never heard that? You've never heard that? I don't venture into that lane.

No. That's never even come across you right now. Hold on. Yeah. What? People said he's actually a straight guy. No way. He loves one.

What's his source on that? Dude, is this local, dude, very, very well. I mean, you are from Orlando, so you would know. Extremely local. Is there any evidence to back this up, any data? What was the question really? I don't mention into that. Into what?

Personal side. Oh, the personal side. But it affects the game. It does affect the game. Back will be sores. All these different things that's going to affect. He did have back surgeries when he was in Los Angeles, no? He was suffering from back injuries.

Chemistry in the locker room. Chemistry in the locker room. Yeah, that's a, that's a. I mean, if he's got the sore. he's the source he's the source i'll tweet it i'll tweet yeah you got to send that out there and see what's going out he'll get like five retweets on that might go viral am i might yeah might go viral that shit would slap on twitter you know post that right now watch that that that would be your

number one tweet ever if you posted that right now i don't i don't i think people would unfollow dwight howard breaking news white howard breaking news I'm going to let the local source Fair enough But if you did Dwight Howard Breaking news

Dwight Howard confirmed straight I don't know how that was You would get more calls about Your phone will be blown up It would be blown up More than the Luca trade More way more than Way more dude

The lucre trade is believable This guy No I'm losing No I'm losing news Yeah, we love you, Dwight. I love you, Dwight. For real, you're Superman. You're Superman to me.

Damn right. Hey, let's see. You don't, don't do that. That's literally Superman. If we have fun as mature adults. Can we just have fun? His sexuality is not of your business. Yeah, let him do whatever he does.

You got mad kids. He got to be a little. It's true. Got to be a little, straight. Yeah. Okay. Shit. Shout out Dwight, dude.

We love you, Dwight. We love you, Dwight. We love you, guys. First of all, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you. I appreciate you. This is awesome. Thank you for all the schools, man.

Congratulations and everything you've achieved is a very difficult position. There's really like one of you at a time. It's kind of a crazy... The Pope. It is like it's a lot of response. I feel like I'm a servant to the audience. I feel like it's a responsibility to deliver. And so that's every day.

You are a public servant in a lot of ways, well. I feel like I'm... Because the audience are the ones that drive us. And they need the information. And they need to know what's... going on facts it's my job every day to deliver accurate honest first information that's this guy is media training real news masterful right here that right there was yeah i mean yes sir