Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - Extensions That Deserve More Attention + A Huge Advantage For Lakers & Knicks

Episode Date: September 22, 2026

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim MacMahon to break down expectations for our Hoop Collective World Tour. Then, we tackle some substantial extensions that flew under the radar before talking about some you need to keep an eye on. Finally, we discuss some financial bonuses that separate the Lakers and Knicks from the rest of the field.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mating! Made it! Part of the Beast is the must-see adventure of the year. It's just you and me, boy. One of the most extraordinary on-screen brunch you'll ever see. I'll get you home. Brad Pitt, Part of the Beast. September 25th.

Get tickets now. Hello, welcome to the Hoop Collective Podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing on Sunday evening, a little curveball from our normal recording schedule, just because McMahon and I have some travel. Band McMahon from Dallas, I think you and I are spending some time this week, together in L.A. Howdy, partners. You got a little warm-up for our world tour. I am pretty certain

by mid-October when we are returning from overseas, you will be extremely sick and tired of me. It'll be long before then. Jackson, I heard we have some voicemail. Uh-oh. We do. Our king, Mike Walschewski, is back in business, and he delivered once again. And now, time for predictions on what is like for. to happen on the upcoming Hope Collective World Tour. First, Brian Windhorst decides never to come back, relocates to Bondi Beach, and becomes commissioner of the National Basketball League of Australia. His only demand?

A toto toilet. Band McMahon shockingly builds on his basketball career and signs a contract to play for the Macau Black Bears of the East Asian League. His one year, $851 contract. will keep the black bears comfortably under their league's second apron. And Jackson's career as a producer takes an unexpected turn as he trains a troop of kangaroos how to play basketball and tours the continent with a show called the Jumping Jackson Five. I like it.

Oh, man. Hey, I like the idea of my one-year deal until I heard the salary. Yeah, I don't think $851 goes that far in Macau. some places in China where it does, but it ain't Macau is not one of them, especially not when the NBA, when the NBA is in town. Yeah, we're looking forward to our World Tour, World Tour 26th, Melbourne, Manila, and Macau, which is coming up. Our Melbourne date is on October 2nd, Courtside, Melbourne. Jackson, there's some ticket information available for that, right? There's ticket information for that show. It will be seven local time at Courtside Melbourne. You can find the information down

in our YouTube comments slash description. and at Hoop Collective Show on Instagram. And just also, for the record, I mean, I feel like Kangaroo Jacks would have been an easier name for my team if I'm really fielding it up. Kangaroo Jacks, J-A-X. Okay, you're... Mike Walschewski, the public relations,

public address announcer at Madison Square Garden. I know I can listen to the show. You know that already, but just in case you are, don't. By the way, hey, speak in those YouTube comments, Wendy. I mean, I ask folks to let us know where they're listening from. I think like 50-something different countries made an appearance in there. I mean, honestly, there was a few that I had not heard of before. So a little educational experience for me.

There were several Australia's, a whole bunch of Philippines, a bunch in Germany in particular. I noticed as well as they were just for future reference. Maybe Jackson, maybe we need to investigate for World Tour 27, Germany. We had a lot of German listeners. Who knew? Yeah, so. The Wagner brothers had got nothing on us. Yeah, so, you know, Wendy, I would like to say take that for data.

Oh, all right. And in that case, if people do have suggestions, we can take them at our voicemail line, 862-314-0-119. If you leave us your best suggestion, you know, I can't promise we'll get there because obviously we have some very pressing international tours that are on our table currently. after our big announcement, but, you know, we'll take it under advisement. Yeah, and we'll also give out Wendy's personal cell phone number. That's 310. 330. I'm a 330, man. Oh, I got my, I got my, my bad. I got my northeast Ohio.

Anyway, so we'll have more information. We'll have more information. I will tell you that the live show, the live pod in Macau is not going to be a ticketed event. If you go, go to the NBA house at the Vegas Sands Complex there in Macau. We'll get more on timing information, but if you're going to be in Macau, the NBA house is basically the festival, the fan festival, extraordinary, because we've heard some of the details of what's going on there, McMahon. It sounds awesome. And you told me about it and I looked it up and, you know, saw some TikToks and some Instagram stuff from last year. year and it was quite a scene last year and I suppose it can be bigger and better this year. Yeah, double the size. They literally physically double the space and double everything,

including us, apparently. So we look forward. Thank you very much for Vegas Sands for inviting us to come and be a part of what's going to be a great weekend in Macau in a couple of weeks, and you can come check our podcast out. I don't want to jinx any of our guests, but I think we're going to have some terrific guests. So I'll just leave it at that. And then we'll have some more information on Manila where we've got such a big audience. And the reason I wanted to go to Manila, these guys know. But I mean, we've been talking about this for months. But I got such a tremendous reaction personally when I was in Manila for the World Cup,

the basketball World Cup, the FIBA World Cup in 2023. So many people that I ran into said they listened to the podcast. And obviously our numbers back that up. But they're basketball crazy. even though, McMahon, number one, I can't wait for you to see Manila traffic. I'm waiting for that, that experience that you're going to have. There's a lot of things with Manila traffic that are memorable. I'll just leave it at that without giving it away.

The other thing is, I remember, I mean, I already knew about the Philippines being a basketball country, but I knew when I was in Manila traffic my first day and I was looking over at somebody on a motorcycle watching a live game, a live world country. on their phone, you know, you know, illegally, I'm sure, you know, up on their motorcycle. It was bumper to bumper traffic. We weren't moving anywhere. He was watching the game. So that's when you know you've got a fan.

So anyway, more on that as we get closer. October 2nd at Courtside, Melbourne, in Melbourne, Australia. October 5th in Manila, Philippines. And then October 10th, Saturday in Macau. China. So around the world we go. All right. You know who should be going on vacation? Not that we're going to be going on vacation, McMahon. No, no, no. Put you to work, buddy. That's what I hear. How about Kiante George, who gets you and Shams broke the news on Friday about his contract extension.

And I'll let you go over it again. It's been a couple of days, but we haven't had a podcast since. Yeah. And so it's a five-year deal worth up to 100. $157.5 million. There are $2.5 million in incentives. So 500 grand a year, 155 guaranteed. And, you know, there's been, it started off. And I was told by folks in Utah, I don't think an extension is going to get done with Keonté

because, you know, they were talking about the 25% max number. And that's just not a number of the jazz were going to be willing to even discuss this early in the process. And then, you know, I was like, hey, During Summer League, when I was out there, actually, I was told, you know what, there's going to be real discussions. And those obviously have gone well. They love Keonté George. They love the jump that he took last year.

They love his character and his commitment and excitement about being in Utah. You know, it's not a coincidence that, you know, he was out in Utah all summer long, with the exception of a trip to Finland with Jaron Jackson Jr., with Will Hardy and Brian Smith, to go visit Lowry Markan who's playing with the national team. I'm sure he did the altruistically, you know, because he wanted to, you know, be there for Lowry and he wanted to, you know, experience, you know, FIBA basketball and experience, I am not going to embarrass myself by trying to pronounce the Finnish national team's nickname. The lines? The what?

The lines. The lines. Yes. Oh my God. Get out. God, I wish with somebody else in this podcast, I would throw you right out. I was like going to give you like, you know, like I was going to tell you how they're known as like the finish word for Wolfpack. And you are, I'm like trying to give you the world basketball.

I'm trying to educate. Of course, I can't say the name. It's in Finnish. And you do your McMahon, you know. You already kick Bontems out. You can have a solo pot if you want, but I'm, you're stuck with me for now. Yeah, you're right there in the logo. I can't, I can't inject you.

You're right there in the logo for the world tour. Anyway, my point is that was all altruistic and terrific of Kiante to go. But the fact that he was in the middle of negotiating a contract extension, it's not a bad idea to say, hey, I'm part of the big three. I'm going to go hang out with Lowry and Jerry Jackson up in Finland. I will say in his defense, it's not his first trip to Finland. He's been, I want to say last summer or the summer before, at least, he's been. there, but yeah, no question about it. And look, he's got, you know,

there's a relationship with the owner, obviously with the front office, with Will Hardy. By the way, the Jazz had some really good social media footage from that trip, including Ryan Smith and Will Hardy doing a little bit of conditioning with the crew. And I tell you what,

man, Will is one of the youngest coaches in the league, but he got smoked in a sprint by Ryan Smith, which I'd be pretty embarrassed Fow's will about that. Well, listen, if you're racing with your boss, you know, letting the boss, well, the boss, let me just, let me take the word letting out of it. The boss winning, it's not the worst outcome in the world. I'm just going to give you some advice on that when we, you and I race. Oh, you're the boss now. Wow. No. I didn't realize. Susie yungi, Susi ying. That's my attempt at pronouncing. That's the Finnish Wolfpack.

Yes, Wolfgang is the pronunciation. Wolfgang. But, you know, for Frikeante, you know, it's hard to really judge the jump that he made last year and just be completely sold on it because of the circumstances. But he jumped up almost seven points per game to 23.6. And average 6.1 assists. And his efficiency all took a leap. Now he's got to do with that all in a competitive situation. But the combination of talent of, you know, characters.

and commitment and all that. And this is a 16% contract. You know, we talk about money. Front offices look at percentage of salary cap. It's 16%. That's a really good number for a guy that you believe is going to be a high quality starter. Yeah. Okay. So here's the thing. You can look at it in a vacuum if you want, but it's not a vacuum. Okay. Number one, he is represented by the same agent as Darren Peterson. Mm-hmm. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. Mating! Made it!

Part of the Beast is the must-see adventure of the year. It's just you and me, boy. One of the most extraordinary on-screen brunch you'll ever see. I'll get you home. Brad Pitt. Part of the Beast. September 25th. Get tickets now.

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Conditions apply. Visit scotiabank.com slash h-I-S-A to learn more. Scotia Bank. You're richer than you think. This is important because if you are a young guard who was, was he a lottery pick? Was he outside of the way? No, he was 16th overall, I believe. So just right outside the lottery.

Okay. So he's coming off of his third year. He's in his fourth year. He's just had a breakout year. I think you said, maybe you said somewhere, maybe it was Shams that if he had played the 65 games last year, which you would have if they weren't tanking, let's just be honest.

He probably would have had a great chance of winning most improved player. If you're, you know, trying to establish yourself as a franchise guard and you're up for a contract, it's time to get paid. And then the team drafts with the number two pick, you know, a guard. One of the things that you're worried about in any situation in that team is, were those guys going to, going to mesh? Yeah. I remember this situation.

It's happened a lot of times in NBA history, but I remember when the Cavs had Kyrie Irving and they drafted Dion Waiters. It's just the teams that I covered. Yeah. This was a thing, you know, how were they going to work together? Because they both want to have a role and they won't, they both want to get paid. Yeah. And so it didn't work out.

You know, it didn't work out. In fact, that was, you know, it's sort of a cautionary tale. I remember Calvin Booth, the former general manager of the Nuggets, he had that incredible line in that interview with The Ringer, where he said that redundancy is a silent killer in the NBA, especially when you're talking about young guys who aren't experienced, haven't gotten paid. Like, that's a thing.

So the fact that they were in the same agency, I think helped because there was a willingness to work together. I think right from the start, if he had been from a different agency, I'm not so sure you would have had necessarily that willingness. Now, everything I've heard, I don't know, Kianti, which you've described about him, other people described about him. That's not how he's wired.

But if you're trying to justify paying a guy, and look, it would have been totally rational for the jazz to say, let's wait a year. Let's wait a year and see when we play a real season, you know, what we're trying to win, let's see how he plays with Peterson, etc. But if you're looking for a reason of why you're going to pay him, knowing that he is going to work with your incoming.

Let's just be honest. They want him to be the lead guard. They want Peterson to be the lead guard. He's not going to be the lead guard in day one. But if the Jazz are going to go where they hope they can go, they need Peterson to become a superstar, and they need him to be the lead guard. They need Peterson to be the superstar.

You know, I would say that the Jazz are looking at this, believing that they've got one of the most dynamic and talented young offensive backcords in the league. You know, obviously you look at Philly to top that list with Tyrese and VGA Edgecom. They believe they've got a back court that, you know, has a potential to be the best offensive back court in the league. And, you know, you say lead guard.

The Lakers fans would like to have a comment. Lakers fans, and we could discuss young in that equation, but yeah. Yeah, the Sixers fans would like to dispute the word. But go ahead. I don't mean to pick a five. But this is, but both of those are very good examples of, sure, you want to talk about lead guard and get caught up in that, fine. But you better have multiple playmakers. And so they see this as who's the point, who's the two?

They're both going to be handling it. They're both going to be playing off ball some. Right. But it has to do with one of the guys getting paid because that's what it was pay time for one of them right now. Well, they sure hope that Darren Peterson puts them in a position where, you know, at least the fun max is an easy decision because they, that's what this whole last few years of tanking has been about, is about having a legitimate superstar on the roster.

They've got a couple of former all-stars, recent former all-stars. They've got Keonti George on the rise. They don't have a superstar on that roster unless Peterson emerges as that. Or, you know, Ace Bailey's got a chance to. He's still awfully young and there's some real upside there. But in terms of them coexisting, they do think their offensive games can be very complimentary. And there is a relationship there. You mentioned the agency.

They actually first met each other. I'm like, bosh it. Is it Phil, it's Phil Becker or Bechner? The trainer, I don't want to botch his name. He's a really high-profile trainer. He's best known for being a dame's guy. Anyways, they first met, they first met through him, working with him. It's Phil Beckner.

So, you know, obviously he's been working with Dame since Dane was in college. And they both worked with him. They first met working, you know, with him. So there was a relationship before Peterson got drafted. Then Peterson gets drafted. And when he shows up to Salt Lake City and they've got summer league practices, Darren, I'm sorry, Dante George was at every single summer league practice.

And he wasn't just like, you know, there, like, chilling or getting shots up on another quarter or whatever. He was essentially part of the coaching staff. They actually wanted to have him on the bench during a summer league game as an assistant coach. They tried. They tried to do it. And the league said no. The league said, no. But he was, and the reason that he was such a big part of that was because he wanted to be that involved with Darren

Peterson's, you know, introduction to the NBA. And he wanted to make it clear to Pearson like, hey, dude, I'm here for you. Like, I'm here to help you, whatever you need. Let me know. Let me just point something out without implying anything. Keep in mind that Peterson declined to come to Utah before the draft. Well, and you mentioned the agency. Yeah.

I would say, I don't want to, I will guess. I will speculate. I will speculate that if Keanu Dante's extension discussions were off to a roaring start. Perhaps Darren Peterson and the agent in particular would have been more eager about visiting Utah. I would just say to point it out, I'm not implying anything again. I'm just pointing that out. They are both represented by the team.

Used to be called Wasserman, and now it is called the team. Jason Rainey in particular is the age. What were the rejected names? The agency, I don't know. The team. But and also, you know, Peterson, like, from the second he was drafted, there was no, like, oh, it's Utah. Like, he's been excited and obviously. Well, one more thing I'll point out, and then we'll move on because it's a lot of, you know, jazz contract analysis.

Remember last summer, Walker Kessler and the jazz didn't come to an extension. And if you remember, like, they failed and both, like, I think Walker's side. basically said, yeah, we're not extending. Like months before the deadline, we're like, yeah, we're not getting an extent. Like, the talks went so badly that... There weren't really talks. They were basically like, hey, we want to have cap space as an option. So if it's above mid-level, we can't offer it, you know, and that was that.

The point is, it's not apples to apples. Their world is very different now. But not getting Walker Kessler into a contract a year ago had a negative impact on the relationship significantly. Yeah. And I know Walker went to lengths to say. say that he wasn't they didn't want to be in Utah. But I mean, actions over words.

Okay. So there is, I, I had a long conversation with an agent probably 20 years ago. And he gave me chapter and verse as to why extending your, extending your players makes so much sense. And of course, that's what the agent's going to say. Of course the agent is going to say, yes, pay me today. Don't pay me tomorrow. Pay me today. But I will say that I've gone back to.

to that conversation many times. And, you know, he, you know, just the idea that you're going to sign a guy who's 22 or 23, sometimes even younger. Yeah. That, you know, you're buying the players, you know, prime years. You know, you're almost always contracts go for more year over year, but a cost goes of more. I mean, he went chapter and verse on it, but one of the things he pointed out was there's

an unquestioned value to having your team be in a good place to start the season. And we talked about this with Detroit. And that's the next contract we're going to talk about. So Keante, George and Asar Thompson got, even though they are quite different players, they both got essentially the same contract. $1.55. And Keontes got some incentives on top of that. Within, give or take, a million or two, it's essentially the same contract. And look, Asar is a limited player.

We talked when his brother, Amen, got five. and 208 a couple of weeks ago. We talked about, you know, investing that type of money into a player that's, you know, limited. Asar is more limited offensively than Amen is. Yeah. Because he doesn't, he can't handle the ball and pass as well as Ahmed. But the Pistons are going through a big time, a stressful moment right now because they couldn't get Jalen Dernan do an extension last year.

Now, both sides could present their cases as to why that didn't happen. But the pistons are dealing with the fallout of a hard negotiation with a young player. And getting Keante George into that means that there will not be that fallout. And getting a SAR into that means there will not be that fallout. And each negotiation is unique. But these are big important things that control franchises and control momentum in franchises. And look, I have seen it go both ways. I have seen a player not get the contract.

he wants, come in, accept less, or come in and be terrific. And I've seen the player not get the contract he wants, you know, have to settle for less and, you know, viscerally dislike the team and it caused problems. Or not get the contract he wants, you know, have this situation unresolved going in the last year of his rookie deal. And you've seen that go both ways. And the funny thing about that is that's the situation that happened with Jalen Durenne last year. And his response was to have by far the best season in his career in a third team all NBA year, not a great playoffs, but a third team all NBA year. And his asking price went up. In hindsight, the Pistons wished they would have given what he wanted last year because it'd be a lot easier and it'd be a lot cheaper

than it's going to either end up being or, you know, the worst case scenario of the qualifying offer. We've discussed what that would mean. Right. You know, I have said that if Jalen Duren takes the qualifying offer, that it is a failure for the Pistons. Mm-hmm. And so I actually went up and looked and I'm not even 100% saying for sure this is the exhaustive list. But I found a list times, because you have to put an asterisk on it because over the years there's been a lot of second round picks who've taken the qualifying offer just because they don't have great other options. and then they come back or guys who are coming off, they're undrafted rookies and stuff like that.

So you can't just use the sentence, took the qualifying offer, and then remained with the team. But then you also can't say just first round picks because there's been some second round picks where that's happened to and whatnot. But I looked at, you know, there's something like 28 or 30 guys who have done it. in like the last 25 years.

And very few of them stayed. Bobby sent me a list of 21. 21, okay. Yeah. And how many of them stayed with their team long term? Miles Bridges, and that was a, there was a lot of unfortunate and unique circumstances around that. Right.

And then, uh, I don't know, it ain't a whole long list. So you're like looking back, like the ones I found were like Rodney Stucky with the Pistons back in the might have been like 2012 or something like that. Spencer Hawes did it. I remember that. I remember Spencer Hawes. Like I found Norris Cole.

But Norris Cole, there was an asterisk because he had gotten traded. It's just really not that much. Denzel Valentine. Denzel Valentine. Yeah, wow. You know, I mean, there's some, yeah. It's, and it's, the other thing about it is, there has never, ever been a player with anything close to the credentials that Duren has.

An All-Star, third team all-N-B-A, you know, a damn near 20 and 10 guy for the number one seed in Eastern Conference. There's never been a guy in that kind of a situation who's signed for the qualifying offer. For the closest, the closest comp you can get to that is actually another Pistons big man. It was Greg Monroe, but it was completely different circumstances. Yeah, but Monroe left. Right. And but that was because the Pistons weren't willing to commit to him. Remember, that was Stan Van Gundy.

He's looking, you know, like, because they had Andre Drummond, like the Monroe drumming kind of dual big, front line. He didn't want to do it. And he ended up getting the max from a wall. So it worked out fine for Monroe, but it wasn't, it's definitely not apples to apples here. Because this is a deal where the Pistons absolutely see Duren as part of their long-term foundation. They just have a firm price point for that. And they've come up significantly on that. You know, I think they're about five years of 190 now.

And, you know, again, if you take... turns that down, he's taking a massive risk, and it's a disaster for the Pistons. Well, so last year we saw this happen twice. Cam Thomas and Quentin Grimes. Thomas is a bit of a, not a bit, he's a polarizing player, and he obviously didn't end up staying in Brooklyn. They end up waving him. Or in the league. For the moment. Quentin Grimes had a very good year in Philly, but. You know, Philly had other stuff going on.

And as a classic example, like, it, you know, it just didn't work out. Yeah. I remember Ben, a classic example was Ben Gordon. You remember Ben Gordon? You know, he was, you know, he was the top five. Was he number three pick, I think, of the Bulls? And, you know, he was, he was a good player. But he was sort of like more, he was actually kind of strangely comparable to, like,

well, I'm not going to say that. But he did his best coming off the bench, but he was really good late in games. And he ended up signing a qualifying offer, couldn't come to terms with the Bulls. And he ended up walking to the Pistons. You know, the Pistons had that big summer

where they were going to retrofit their team. They ushered out there, you know, Chauncee Billups and Rick Hamilton and Ben Wallace and Rashid Wallace Corps. And then they, you know, they were going to return over their team. and they signed Ben Gordon and Charlieville-Novea, and they spent all this money on that and it didn't work out.

But anyway, like, there's just, you know, there's just a really long history of this not working out. Another name where it did work out was Vladimir Radmanovich. Do you remember Vladimir Radmanovich? I remember I saw Vladimir Radmanovich, and I don't remember what it was called then, but it was like the Hoop Summit before it was the Hoop Summit. when it was in Denton, Texas.

And he was playing for Yugoslavia. That's how long ago it was. It was still Yugoslavia. If Yugoslavia was still together, we would be in big trouble in the Olympics, we as in the United States. Story about Vladimir Radmanovich. I don't know if we could maybe make this so-fi, Jackson.

Get your money right. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. Mating! Part of the Beast is the must-see adventure of the year. It's just you and me, boy. One of the most extraordinary on-screen brunch you'll ever see. I'll get you home. Brad Pitt, Part of the Beast.

September 25th. Get tickets now. New from Nespresso. Blend wellness into your coffee routine with a coffee plus range, infused with functional benefits. Choose the coffee you love with added B vitamins, like coffee plus B12 to help support immune function, and coffee plus B6 to keep your day moving. Or go with the flow and choose ginseng delight.

Our new double espresso with ginseng extract. Whatever lies ahead, don't change your morning. Let your morning change you. Discover Coffee Plus on espresso.com. Okay. When I sell my business, I want the best tax and investment advice. I want to help my kids, and I want to give back to the community. Ooh, then it's the vacation of a lifetime.

I wonder if my out of office has a forever setting. An IG Private Wealth Advisor creates the clarity you need with plans that harmonize your business, your family, and your dreams. Get financial advice that puts you at the center. Find your advisor at IDPrivatewealth.com. Do you remember the Vladimir Radmanovich getting busted lying story, McMahon? I don't recall this. I can't believe we're this far afield, but Radmondich took the qualifying offer. Listen, it's September 1.

I mean, we're allowed to get a field. Yeah. So he was playing for the Lakers. And he was making five million bucks. That's important for this story. Making five million bucks. And he went away on the All-Star for the All-Star break. And he came back and he was like, oh, Radmanovich is going to be out.

He, I think it was a shoulder injury that he had. I vaguely remember this now. but go on. And he said that he slipped on some ice in Park City, Utah, and got hurt. And it was a separated shoulder. That's what the injury was. And I don't, there's this, let's see what year was this, 2007. So before social media, but I don't know who, how it got ratted on or whatever, but

he did not fall on ice. He was snowboarding. Oh, well, these things happen. Which violated his contract. And the Lakers fined him $500,000. Hmm. 10% of his contract. That's a lot.

For lying. So anyway, his quality, him do with the qualifying offer doesn't, do you know what the other time? I can't believe we're so far afield here, but I guess we're mid-September. Do you remember the other well-known lying about an injury thing? Yeah, Bonte-Ellis in the scooter. That's right. That's the classic one.

So Monta Ellis was playing with the Warriors. He was pretty much their franchise player at that time. I mean, if you ask him, if they wouldn't have traded him, he'd have won just so many championships of Steph. Right. So he came out that he had a really bad ankle injury over the summer, like in August or September of the off season. And he needed, I don't know if you, I don't remember if he needed surgery,

but he was out months. Like it was one of those injuries right away. They knew he was going to be out months, like three, four months. Yeah. And I remember that when the warriors looked at it, they were like, this is not a basketball-looking ankle. I mean, I guess it's possible. But his, it was an invert.

Like, you know, normally in basketball, you roll your foot. You know, you roll your ankle outside. This one, he like inverted. I mean, it's not that it never happens. It just was very unusual that it would be this bad. And it was a moped, not a scooter, my bad. Moped. And it turned out he was on a moped and had it happen.

And I feel like I can't remember what they find him. I should look at it. He was, he did have to have surgery, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know what they, but, you know, that was, anyway, I don't mean. They suspended him for 30 games? Wow.

Find him $3 million. Well, he was probably going to miss 30 games. Yeah. That's right. So he had just signed a six-year, $66 million contract earlier that summer. avoiding the qualifying offer. I just think he was actually past that. He missed 57 games.

So, you know, boy, that was, that's brutal, bro. That was so Warriors before Steph. Just to think about the value of Steph, I think they missed the playoff 17 straight years. If I don't have the full story. This was pretty fresh after the We Believe Warriors. Monte was actually on that.

we believe Warriors team. I believe that was his rookie year. He just didn't play a whole lot. Right. So, yeah, this is a... So that would have been him avoiding... He was a second round pick, so it wasn't quite the same. But he was avoiding...

He was probably restricted free age, and he was avoiding that. So, yeah, I mean, just think about that. Because they lost Baron Davis. Baron Davis had gone to the Clippers, right? That same summer. So Baron Davis goes to the Clippers. They lose this, you know, franchise point guard. And Montellis, they sign him.

him and this is going to be their guy. And then he misses 57 games. Oh, my God. But maybe, but wasn't Steph drafted in 2009? So maybe their poor play, which got them the seventh pick, maybe you could tie it back to Monta getting in that moped crash. And if Monta hadn't had the moped crash, they wouldn't have been able to draft as high and they wouldn't have gotten stuff.

How's that? What a great moment, Warrior's history. Anyway, how old was the Sarr Thompson in 2007? Probably two, three. Was he even born? Who knows? I think he was born. But anyway, by the way, I'm mad at myself because when we were discussing after a men agreed to his extension, and we were discussing, we didn't even mention, they made a pretty important coaching staff edition.

this summer that is Frank Vogel. No, no, no, not the Warriors, the Rockets. The Rockets brought in Chip England. Right. That's right. Maybe the most renowned shooting guru in the history of the league, the guy who, you know,

worked with Kauai Leonard to take him from a non-shooter to a hell of a shooter. Worked with Lou Door to take him from a bricklayer to, you know, one of the best three-and-d guys, emphasis on the three. in the league and okayc didn't keep them um i could tell you that it came down to a couple of former san antonio former pop assistant coaches who are now head coaches um obviously he made adoka in houston and then the jazz made a run out of him too will hard it was a long time pop

assistant as well um but he's he's with the rockets and you know the rockets recently put out on social media, you know, Chip England at work, and you can guess who he was working with. Somebody named Amen. Yes, sir. And so, again, I'm not sitting here telling you that we're going to look up in three years, and I'm in Thompson, it'll be a

40% three-point shooter, but they're turning over every possible rock to help him fix the one flaw in his game. Little known fact about Chip England. He's a Filipino citizen. Hmm.

He starred in the PBA in the Philippines in the 80s. Okay. And he has some, like, amazing, he played for the Philippine national team. I know that. Oh, wow. So he's got a passport then, yeah. Oh, yeah, no, definitely. No, I was with him in the Philippines.

I mean, you know, I was in the Philippines with Team USA. He was a shooting coach for the team USA, you know, under Steve Kerr. and I was with him in Manila and he's worshipped there because they won a like some sort of championship, the Jones Cup. Okay. And the Filipino fans called him the machine gun. Ha ha ha ha ha. Because of that release, huh? I guess.

I don't know. But he's a legend. We should have him on the pod. He's, you know, he can, can we talk? McMahon, get on that. Say, hey, Chip, don't fly all the way to Macau. Stop in the Philippines and we'll have him on the podcast and they'll love it. Well, you know, Chip is, he's had this interesting deal where he's one of the higher paid assistant coaches in the league, but he doesn't.

But he doesn't work full time. It doesn't. No, I mean, he's not, like he doesn't travel with team. the team full time. He never lived in Oklahoma City. That I did not know. Yeah. So I don't know if he'll be in Macau or now.

We'll have to wait and see. I would predict he would be a Macau, but I'm not going to get too far afield. Anyway, I know Chip, nice guy. Chip did not like it in the conference finals two years ago when the Timberwolves were playing against the, Thunder. Julius Randall was, you know, Julius actually, maybe he told other people this too, but I asked him about he told me that LeBron inspired him to this, which was that before big playoff

games, you know, LeBron would famously get to get to arenas three, four hours early and do shooting by himself. So Julius Randall started doing that and he would come into the Thunder arena like two and a half, three hours before tip off. Well, Chip was in there working with the Thunder like young guys on their shot. Even though it was in a conference finals, we're still doing development here. You know, we're working on Aaron Wiggins, right? And what and whatnot. And Julius brought out this Thunderbox, you know, speaker.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Because the arena was quiet. It was before anybody was in there is nothing. And Julius would play the songs that he wanted to play. And Chip didn't like his arena getting taken over by another guy's shooting. And so Chip, like, said, let's get some music. Like, I remember Chip, like, saying, we're not letting this happen. And Chip getting the music turned on to fight Randall's music back.

That's the, that's how the machine gun rolls. I watch that play, you know, because we got to be there early. You know, this is the kind of hard hitting reporting you get by being at arenas four hours early. This is what we get, because. Wendy's got to do TV in the afternoon. But anyway, your point is well taken that, you know, they're going to make a $200 million investment in, and I'm in Thompson.

They want to make, they want to further the investment. And I'm sure it's a significant, I don't want to, I haven't heard anything, but I would want to speculate. But Chip Ingle doesn't come cheap. Yeah, he doesn't,

you're going to pay a pretty penny for him. On, speaking of the Warriors and on the, by the way, did you see, I'm low to bring up Jonathan Cumminga. Oh, Oh, you love Kamenga.

You love bringing up Kamenga. Did you see what he said about championship culture? No. He was asked when he, when he was asked about choosing the timbrelals. Oh, I think I did. Yeah. He said winning culture. Yeah.

He chose the timbrelals over the Lakers who offered more money over more years, because he wanted to be part of a winning culture, like woof. He also said they have the championship culture, which, you know. They have created a winning culture in Minnesota. They have not created a championship culture. They haven't won a championship. Right, right. It's just, you know, look, I don't want to pick it apart.

I just, you know. I promise you this. Luca will take offense to that. I can assure you of that. Luca is well known for looking for things to take offense to. That will offend him. I've seen Luca when he's offended. I've offended him.

So have you. I have. That's right. Yes. Yes. I've seen that face. I have the target of someone who's offended. Yeah.

I know that stare. It's penetrating. Anyway, I'm going to Laker Media Day to... I'm sure he's looking forward to seeing you. It's going to be great. We're going to discuss, Luca and I hopefully are going to discuss the winning culture. You know what?

That's what I should do. I should ask them. I should. How do you think about your winning culture? Anyway, in other young Warriors player news, Brandon Pajemski is one of the players who's, I think, got a good chance of getting an extension. And the reason I think it's got a good chance of happening.

is, you know, we have talked at length about how if Steph Curry doesn't extend, and he's now weeks off his extension window, and he could still extend. Like Anthony Slater was talking about this on NBA today on Friday. Just because he has and doesn't mean he won't. He can extend anywhere time during the season. Typically, this is something you'd want to get settled before the year starts, though. And so he's like, listen, Steph will probably make up his mind one way or another by the start of training camp.

But if Steph does not extend, they have potentially $100 million in cap space. And I've even said that that may be a reason why they would not extend Pajemski right now, is just to maximize that cap space, like with the Jazz a year ago and Walker Kessler. Well, Pajemski's cap hold, which is what he sits on their books as, even if he hasn't signed. As long as he remains, as long as you retain his rights and you want to make him a rest, restricted free agent, his cap hold is $17 million. So if the Warriors can sign him to a contract that's not too far away from that $17 million in the first year.

And I think he's going to get maybe more than that. But, you know, if they sign him to a contract that's worth $19 or $20 million in the first year, for example, it doesn't impact their books that much. It doesn't impact When you talk about the caps When you talk about the cap space They could have That's not factoring in his cap hold

Is it? It's not I think it is capped I think well I don't know Look at Bobby's notes I think it is It is figured in But the point is

Whether it's figured in or not Yeah They want them They want to keep them Right Right And they're not just gonna Even if they didn't keep them

Somehow They're not just going to say Goodbye Brandon We have to open up This cap space I'm curious about what Brandon Pajimski thinks he should be paid. But, I mean, this is a guy, like, he said some crazy things about, like, you know, he thinks he can be better than Steph and, like, some ridiculous things that are just completely separated from reality. He does have a strong opinion of his.

Correct, which is fine. Like, listen, to succeed in the NBA, a lot of guys, like, a delusion. sense of confidence is a requirement. I'm not holding it against him, but I'm just saying in terms of negotiations, like I don't think you can pay Pajemski a deal like Soror Thompson just got or like Kianti George's got.

I don't think he's anywhere close to their value. I'm saying I think if they can get him into a deal that's within a close proximity to that 17 million. I think that's where it makes that's where it makes sense for the Warriors it doesn't really impact because they're not they're not going to let they're not going to just weigh them

right so he's going to sit on their books at at least 17 million and he's not going to sign for less than that so there may be and you know what I would say about signing Pajemski is he averaged 14 points last year shot 46% from the field shot 37% from three

can play multiple positions can play alongside Steph, but signed him to a contract that you can, that you can trade if you need to in a year. Yeah. But I'm just saying it wouldn't surprise me if he extends. And his cap hold being relatively close to what he may take in that first year salary

is a reason why he would extend. Also, I think another contract that you may see is Brandon Miller from the Charlotte Hornets. We talked about this a little bit last week, but with Charlotte clearing out Miles Bridges, clearing out lamello ball, even though they took on some money, fact for him. Nas Reid's contract. They have put themselves in a position where they have a lot of flexibility.

And I think that getting Brandon Miller into a deal is a priority, and I think that they've had some substantial talks on that. Yeah, and that's one where I think I'm in Thompson's deal is the comp, and not the ones that were signed on Friday. I mean, if I was Brandon Miller, I would think that I'm maybe a step up from that. Oh, I meant Thompson, not a sorry. A man. A man.

Yeah, not a saw in Keante's deals. Correct. So not 155, but 208. Agree. I think if it's a five-year deal, I think you're looking for that. If it's a five-year deal, I think you're looking if you're him, you want that first number to be a two. Maybe right around two, but I'm sure that's probably what he's looking for or whatever. So yeah, so just keep an eye on that.

Before we go, McMahon, I was very interested in a story that the Wall Street Journal put out on Friday. They got their hands on the packet that Josh Kushner and Bob Eiger are giving to investors about the Lakers finances. And so they're going to be buying at least 73% of the Lakers. We'll see what happens with the buses share and the other shares. Patrick Shunshong, one of the bigger shareholders has said he's not going to sell. So, you know, they need to raise, you know, somewhere in the neighborhood of $9 billion. I mean, shouldn't be a problem, right? I don't think it'll be a problem because I think a lot of people want a piece of the Lakers.

but they are now going to go to investors and say, invest in, you know, join our group. And so they're giving out financials. Now, the headline of this story is that in this, in this packet, it gives a projection that they think that the Lakers can be worth 30 billion in a decade. 3.0. 3.0.

And they have suggested that if things go amazingly, that they could be worth as much as $62 billion in a decade. Now, look, they're trying to get their money. Okay. I'm not, that's what got the headlines. I'm interested in what they have for, they have the numbers of what they're actually, earning the actual numbers.

I recently had passed to me a sales packet that was going out to people to invest in another team. And this is a fund. The fund is buying a piece of this team and they are trying to sell pieces of this fund. They're looking for investments between $250,000 and a million to buy into this team. And for that level of investment, you're not getting the raw numbers. that you got like the sketch numbers. That's why I wanted to see.

250 grand, like what percentage of a team do you get for 250 grand? Very small, you know, a fraction of a percent. Right. But basically, in that particular case, and there's a whole bunch of teams that has happened to a fund is buying a piece of the team, and that it's raising money into its fund to, you know, populate that purchase.

So let me know. I think they're buying this team at around or buying a piece of this team at around a three or four billion dollar evaluation and because if you're buying a minority share you don't get the full premium price and so they're looking to sell shares of that my point is this the numbers that were in this proposal or ballpark numbers and some of it was like numbers from forms and stuff it wasn't the actual numbers in this case i believe that this is the actual numbers that the Kushner iager group is saying here here's our books.

Here's what the Lakers have. And so this is the Lakers' expected revenues in 2025, 26, 27. They're expecting to get $144 million from the national rights deal. So Amazon, ESPN, NBC. And, you know, there's a little bit more for like overseas, rights and radio rights and whatever. But that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, every team gets 144. Right.

Okay. So think of that, um, as, you know, and then the other league revenue, which is other stuff that the teams all get the same share of, sponsorships, um, licensing, etc. Is 32 million. So what they're saying is, is that the check that's coming from the league that every team gets is roughly $176 million, which is, by the way, go take a look at what's the salary gap for this year? It's about that.

Yeah. Okay. So, okay. Now, this is what I'm fascinated by, the number that I'm about to give you. The local meteorites. Okay, this is Spectrum Sportsnet. Yeah. This is the deal that differentiates the Lakers from everybody else.

Yeah. Okay. In the next year, they're expecting. And you know what I just said. I said they get $176 million, right? $180 million. Holy crap. And honestly, dude, there's teams that are getting squat now because the way these regional sports networks have blown up.

and, you know, there's teams that are having to kind of do this on their own. The Mavericks went that route. The sons have gone that route. The Jazz. You know, there's others. That is an extraordinary number, especially now when it's like there are teams that are getting nothing. I wouldn't say nothing, but there's been a huge reduction for a lot of teams. A lot of teams are now having their, some of their games on local over-the-air television for free.

I mean, they're going to, in theory, capture sponsorship revenue there. Okay, that's close to nothing. Right. So, I mean, that is, if you want to have a reason why the Lakers are a rich organization. By the way, I would just say, like, I am not, I am not a And by the way, that agreement with Spectrum goes through 2032 and it only goes up.

Well, and it's, that's really fascinating to me because I've said before, I do think the crumbling of the regional sports networks is a massive problem for the league just because it's so hard for a lot of fans to watch their favorite team. Like it's, you got to jump through this hoop

and that hoop, and I got to get what package and all this kind of stuff. And I do think it's something that the league needs to take a look at like solving at a league level. Again, my suggestion has always been if I'm willing to pay for league pass, I shouldn't be

blacked out from the local team, but they don't have teams like the lake are saying, oh, hold on. We want our $180 million a year. So you guys figure out your thing, but don't mess with ours. Right. So they are, So here's something else.

So just so you know, the Lakers have to share that revenue. Okay. So according to this information that was in the Wall Street Journal that again, that they got from this proposal. And again, if you want to, this is not somebody investing 250,000.

They're looking for somebody to invest like three, four, five hundred million, you know. Yeah. This is why you get this information and the Wall Street Journal got their hands on it. It, based on the way this is set up, what it looks to me like is that they're,

revenue sharing check is 96 million. Now, some of that revenue sharing will be, that will be luxury tax as well. So I don't have it broken. I'll have to look and see how much the Lakers paid in tax last year. So, and so,

but that's, they are sharing a big chunk of that. So they paid $23 million. dollars in tax. So I don't know if this is based on fiscal year or whatever, but you can you can loosely guesstimate that their revenue sharing check is somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 to 73-ish million that they have to give to share that. And they make $245 million on tickets and game day operations. So that's like tickets, parking.

concessions, all that. Sweets. Premium. Yeah. Well, and even like they are one of, if not the highest, you know, ticket prices in the league. I mean, the Knicks were right up there, too. I heard about the Nix tick.

Well, let me get to the NICs. So, meanwhile, the NICs, um, the NICs financials are also made public. Um, because they are a public company. They break out the company. And a couple of years ago, MSG Network,

which is part of the same parent company as the NICS. They put their games on. The NICs were second in local TV revenue. And last year, they were supposed to get $148 million. So the Lakers were up at about 180 and the NICs were about 150. So a hell of a lot, not in the Lakers round, but a lot. And that was huge for the NICs. But they had to, you know, you're talking about taking a reduction.

The NICS had to make a deal with their parent company because their parent company was, you know, dealing with financial pressures. And they had to take a reduction to $106 million. They took a $42 million reduction to deal with Loke to, you know, issues, 41.4 million. They took a reduction. And overall, they agreed to reduce the amount of money from their TV deal. The NICS contract runs through 29, the Lakers through 32. From 25 through 29, they agreed to take $202 million less, a 28% haircut. as MSG network restructured its deal.

And a lot of these local markets, the local television, the RSN, went out of business. Yeah. In the case of the Knicks, they gave some money back. The Lakers are still getting it. And the whole,

you may say to yourself, well, what about the Lakers? What about Spectrum? Good point. But Spectrum's parent company, the deal that they've made is that they will indemnify Spectrum Sportsnet. So unless Spectrum Sportsnet's parent company, which is charter communications, goes out of business.

As long as that's in business, the Lakers will be around. You might not be able to watch them if you live in L.A. Well, that's true. And right now, charter communications enterprise value is $15 billion. So, you know, as long as that company is still in existence, the Lakers will still get paid. So the Lakers are in a real command position,

which is why they're trying to raise. I would just say this. If, again, I'm not a banker, but if I were the bus family, as much as I want to stick it to Jeannie, I would not sell. You'd hold on for a little bit, huh? Hold on to your 3%.

Each of them has like 3.5% whatever percent. Don't sell. Hold on to your money. Hold on to your percentage. Because they all made hundreds of millions of dollars last year when they sold. Right. If I had percentages of the Lakers seeing this data,

which I'm sure they already know. You think it's a pretty good investment? I would hold on to it. So just point something out. The Lakers last year, even though they had a short playoff run, how many home games do they get? They got two in the second round and I guess two or three in the first round. I think they had, yeah, I'd have to go back and look.

Anyway, the Lakers made $680 million. I don't know if I'd call that a short playoff run, though. They went to the second round. Buddy, if that's a short one, it's going to be hard on the long. Oh, man. Now I've offended Luca again. No, no, I'm not saying you've offended Luke. I'm saying the offended reality of the Spurs and Thunder will probably meet a lot of conference.

You're correct. They had a handful of playoff games. Okay. And that, you know, they generated $670 million. The Knicks, again, the Nix are a public company. so they have to announce their stuff. The Knicks and Rangers, they report their stuff together.

So again, the Lakers revenue was $680 million. The Knicks and Rangers revenue was $1.1 billion. Yeah, I would be fascinated to know what did Nicks make from a playoff gate. Their playoff revenue was 67 million. I don't even, that feels low to me. I was going to say that honestly feels extremely low. Yeah, that seems like it's... The thing about playoff revenue is you don't have to pay the players any extra money.

The players' salaries don't change based on the playoffs. No, they get bonuses, but those bonuses are established based on how far they go. But it comes out of the national television. vision contract. It's not from the team. So every playoff game that you get, yeah. So the Knicks and Rangers profit last year was $30 million, $29 million. I feel like there's probably a lot of things baked into that, but not sure I saw if it

says what the Lakers actual profit was. Let me see if I can find it. But anyway, I just wanted to point that out to you that, you know, as you said, there are a lot of NBA teams that my guests are earning. Okay, so the Wall Street Journal said that the Lakers profit was $129 million. So now you know why Jim Dolan doesn't want to go in the second apron, his profit is only 30 million. They went to the finals.

Yeah, poor Jim Dolan. Yeah. Yeah. So, and you know what, you know what happened with the Knicks last week, right? With their tickets? Yeah, they put them up and they were so outrageous that they were like,

ooh, whoops, that was a mistake. We didn't mean to charge people four figures for nosebleeds on opening night. What's your BS detector say on that? Oh, come on now. My BS detector is it was the PR backlash forced to reconsideration, but I would never accuse the next franchise of being phony or disingenuous. Yeah, they might ban you. Yeah. Their ticket prices are going up 12%.

That was their previously established thing. but when they put single game tickets on sale for the opener which there's dynamic pricing against Philly where they're going to get their rings well so it's it's ring night

it's LeBron's debut for the Sixers you know I mean it's a bunch of different and yeah 1200 was what this is not secondary market this is not you know what you're getting that that was the get in price that was the that was the face value.

Yeah. And then they said, no, no, it was a glitch. We're going to fix it. So then they pulled it back to the 12%. You know, listen, you know, I mean, their profit margin was 2.5% last year. You know, they had $1.1 billion in revenue and they made like a few dozen million.

Like they're trying to recapture it. Anyway, I just think it's, interesting to point out the, you know, we talk about Laker exceptionalism. There's your example of it. Yeah. All right. Well, look forward to seeing you in L.A. this week, buddy. Can't wait. All right. Thank you so much to Jackson. The rest of our producers, we've made them work on Sunday. I really appreciate that. We'll give you more info coming up about our world tour. And we're a week away from training camp. Holy Moses. I'm not ready for that. All right. We'll talk to you later this week. Adios megos. Heart of the Beast is the must-see adventure of the year.

It's just you and me, boy. One of the most extraordinary on-screen brunch you'll ever see. I'll get you home. Brad Pitt. Art of the Beast. September 25th. Get tickets now.