Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - LeBron Turns Back Clock Again + Watch Out For Boston?

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to discuss LeBron’s major bounce back in a clutch win for the Lakers over the 76ers, why the Celtics improving play could open the door for a Tatum return, Pat Spencer’s new mantra for the Warriors, the Bulls’ struggles returning, Memphis stepping up and the latest on the Terry Rozier situation including what it means for the Heat. Plus, a new installment of 'Where in the World is Windy?’ begins.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hello and welcome to the Hoot Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing on Sunday evening, joining us from Xfinity's Arena. I don't know what it's called. We're always doing podcasts from there, and I don't know what it's called. Xfinity Mobile Arena, it's now called. And everybody calls it that. And everybody calls it that, believe it or not.

Okay, good. That's Tim Bontemps, who was there at the Lakers 112-108 victory over the 76ers on Sunday night, Mr. Bontemps, and LeBron James, turning back the clock to when he was 39. Yes, hello, everybody. To what is from Dallas, Texas, fresh off the road from West Coast, Oklahoma City, and looking forward to a wonderful week of NBA Cup coverage. It's Ban McMahon. Howdy, partners, can't wait to get back to OKC, and you know how much I love Vegas. Oh, six nights in Vegas. excited about that. Well, you'll be there with

Bon Temps. Oh, even more exciting. Big, big assumptions for McMahon. He's already locked in a son's loss to the Thunder this week. He's already locked in a second Thunder win in the Cup semi-final. He's got it all locked in. McBan,

all the way through. I just assume the Thunder are going to win every game. It's a safe bet. I've been wrong once this year. It's a safe bet. Well, I will not be joining you fellows in Vegas this week. Lazy. Pending

No travel snafus. I am doing something this upcoming weekend that has been on my basketball bucket list for many years, as long as I can remember. I'm not doing. I'm very jealous. I'm not going to say what it is. We will, I want to make sure that it goes off. It is overseas. So, and I'm, all I'm going to say is I'm scheduled to spend some time with Joe Kim Noah there.

That's my only hint. It's not in France. Yeah. It's not a very revealing hint. It is not a revealing hit, but it will be a very cool thing. There will be a lot of NBA people there. Yes. So with that said, Lakers went to 8 in 0.

7 or 8 in O now, Bontemps in clutch games within 5 points, within 5 minutes. This was right there again. The Sixers had been playing really well. They had been 5 and 2, I believe, in the games where Paul George played. Paul George did play. They've been playing relatively well with regardless of NB being in out of the lineup. And they were in good position here. But LeBron, I think he made five out of six shots down the stretch of the game.

At one point, he hit a fadeaway jumper that was really big in the last, like, a minute and a half. And he was so excited about hitting that shot because, frankly, he's not been playing that well so far this season, that he went to a double trademark move. As he was running down the court, he went with the crown. He gave himself a double crown. Yeah. And then went into the silencer, which has been around for decades now. And he was mid silencer, given the, you know, the silencer.

He hadn't even got to the part where he pounds his chest yet. And I think it was Jackson Hayes came over and like pushed him in excitement. And I was like, Jackson, I think it was Jackson Hayes. You are messing around with LeBron not being able to finish that celebration, buddy. Like that is, he will get a talking to later. But anyway, Bon Tempts, you were there. a vintage LeBron performance tonight. Yeah, I mean, it was really interesting to see how this game went.

Because if you watch the game on Thursday in Toronto, the Raptors, although they lost the game, are a big physical team across the board. And they have a lot, you know, it's got Scotty Barnes and all these other long, rangy athletes, Brandon Ingram even, right? And LeBron struggled with that length on Thursday. And I thought it was noteworthy that right off the jump.

He struggled at the point where he had his lowest scoring game in like 1,200 games. First game, he'd been under 10 points in like 17 years. In the regular season. In a regular season. Good context. Because he's had two single-digit games in the playoffs in those. McMahon, I know you were at one of them because I was right. Definitely one.

And I've forgotten about the other one. I looked it up, but forgotten about the other one against Indiana. But, yeah, I was the one of the final still. I'm sorry, quick aside. Game 5 of the 2011 finals, where it was 2-2 and the Brought had eight points, probably in my opinion, the worst performance of his career. And the Mavericks won that game. Could have gone either way.

Mavericks won that game and then won game six. And then there was a game in Indiana during one of the Heat Indiana series where everything just went wrong and he fouled out. That's all you need to know is he fouled out of a playoff game. He also had, I think, seven points in that game. That was in like 2013 or something. All right, sorry, Bon Tap. But there is one streak that remains intact.

LeBron, I don't know the exact number, but it is a ton of games in a row that he scored in double figures with our buddy Mac 10 in the building. That's true. And in the United States. Oh, that's true. In the lower 48, it is still intact. And also, I'll tell you what, two streaks that are, you know, that's, I think his two most incredible streaks were, the 1,200 whatever games of double-digit scoring. He was 1297.

What's that? I believe he was 1297. Okay. And 21 consecutive seasons on the all-NBA team that is going to go away, not because of his performance, but he's not going to get to 65 games. Sorry, Bontemps, I'm stomping all over there. Oh, no, it's all good. It might also go away because of the performance, too.

We'll see. He's not going to be eligible either way. Yeah, even if he averages his triple-double the rest of the way. I don't think he's getting 65 games. I thought it was noteworthy, an astic nurse about it off after the game. The Lakers very deliberately, I thought, got LeBron going by posting up on the smaller Sixers defenders and got him some shots in the paint and some easy turnaround jumpers, like practice shots for him. And you could see him get some confidence and get going. And like, look, he hit a bunch of big time jumpers down the stretch of this game.

He still wasn't getting in the lane. He still wasn't doing a lot of moving. The Sixers didn't do a great job. of forcing him off the line. Like they let LeBron get in a rhythm. And LeBron hit, I think, four shots in a row, essentially from the exact same spot on the court on the left wing when he was just catching and firing.

But I did think it was interesting to see how the Lakers went out of their way to try to get him in a rhythm after how rough that game was on Thursday offensively. And he still only shot a couple free throws. Like some of the burst stuff, I'll be curious to see. Now, he did have a big dunk in the second quarter. He had a couple drives and drives. transition where he showed a lot more burst than he had last week. So, you know, we'll see if he gets his legs under him and how things look going forward.

But he's still an incredibly smart player. Nick Nurse talked after the game about how they have probably two of the three best passers in the league and Luca and LeBron and they're both gigantic. And so that physicality they can play with really can make it hard on teams to try to guard them. But it'll be interesting to see what happens when LeBron plays against more teams with size. Like, for example, let's say Victor Wimbenyama's back and they're playing the

spurs in the cup. I don't know where Victor's status is right now. He practiced on Sunday. I don't know how extensive the practice was. So they've got to a Wednesday to get him right. But if they've got Luke Cornett and Victor Wenbinoa and Harrison Barnes and Kelton Johnson and Carter Bryant, all these. Stefan Castle, I believe, is also close coming back. They might have both of them by Wednesday. Yeah. So I'll just be interested. I think that'll be something worth watching. If there is opponents where he can take advantage of his size and sort of get in the post and

May K, I think he's going to look good. But I think it remains to be seen about some of the burst stuff. Like I was looking at his shot chart. And like today he hit a lot of jumpers. And through these first several games, he's shooting way less at the rim than he ever has. It's a lot of mid-range shots, a lot of floater shots, a lot more threes.

You know, because he just doesn't have the, at least right now, it doesn't have the same ability to get in the paint. But on this night, where the Sixers couldn't hit the broadside of a barn, Joel Abed missed a million shots, Tyreys Maxi missed a million shots. You know, LeBron hit all the shots down the stretch, and that was enough to win these guys the game. Right, and they need LeBron to be a really good third option, which tonight Reid stunk. LeBron picked up his slack, but it's silly to judge LeBron based on the standard that he's said over the previous two decades. he's not going to be that player.

Honestly, the Lakers don't really need him to be that player. I would say, you know, they need defensive upgrades more than anything else at this point. But if LeBron is a good third option, then the Lakers are one of the league's more potent offensive teams, as long as Luke and Reeves stay healthy. Yeah, so LeBron is shooting career low percentage of his shots at the rim on. attempts. It's been a sort of a downhill dive. I mean, there were years where LeBron took as much as 46% of his shots in the restricted area. Okay. I mean, that's been a decade ago, but that was his high watermark. He almost half of his shots in the restricted area, number of years where he took over 40% of his shots in the restricted area. Two years ago, 35% of his shots in the restricted area. Last year, 24%. So far this year, and this was, going into tonight. It might even be lower because you're saying he shot almost all jumpers. I think he had four of his 17 shots in there, so it's probably slightly higher, but he was just under 19% before tonight. He's probably still under 20. Right. So 35, 24, under 20%. Small sample size. I only played seven games.

You know what, though? You know who else is shooting? I'm looking at the basketball reference numbers here. Zero to three feet, I assume that's where you're looking. Yes, basketball reference. Luke is also shooting a career low from that range. And it's 0.0.085, which is almost half of his career norm. And I think one thing we have to consider is what's the spacing like for the Lakers. Now, Ron being 40 has a lot to do with his as well. But like Luca is as felt as he's been since at least early in his career, if not ever, I think part of this is the Lakers aren't a team that has great spacing in terms of shooting.

Well, they are, you know, look, they are 17 and 6. We've talked on the pod this fall about how the Lakers are outperforming what their stats say maybe they should be. They are 10 and 3 on the road, and they are 8 in these clutch games. These are streaks that, you know, are tough to maintain. But part of the reason why they're able to do that, is because, and I know LeBron's only been there for seven games, but in this case, in this game, it's because they have multiple options to go to at the end of these close games.

So, you know, Reeves has won them some games this year with his shot making down the stretch. He was terrible tonight. His worst game of the season, 3 of 16. I was actually listening to the game for a while on the Lakers radio broadcast. And they were talking about how they felt that Reeves' legs were a little, dead his third game in four nights, which Luca missed a couple of games on this trip because congratulations to him

his second child was born, his second daughter. And LeBron sat out the game in Boston, so Reeves was the guy who was sort of carrying the load a lot, and they felt his legs were a little dead tonight. Luca, 9 of 24, he did get to the free throw line

14 times. They were double teaming him late in this game. I think a couple of times the ball went to LeBron coming off of the blitz of Luca. No, Nurse said that was the game plan. They decided they were going to try to get it out of his hands. And they had a, you know, they got to made a couple plays out of it. And the Lakers made a couple more.

And that was the difference. Right. So they did a great job on Reeves and Reeves is tired. They did a pretty good job on Luca, 31 points, but 24 shots. And LeBron cooks them. Like, this is the thing that the Lakers. Lakers, you know, when LeBron is healthy, having LeBron is your third option. And like, let's be honest.

Like, okay, he wasn't tonight. But LeBron has been their third option. for the most part this year. When you've got the all-time winning scores, your third option, you're going to be potent, and you're going to have some options and close games.

And it's also worth saying, the Sixers shot 35% and shot 15 or 16 more shots than the Lakers and lost, right? Like, they also just couldn't hit the broadside of a barn. Joel Labede, in particular, he was, I believe,

four for 18, four for 21, I should say, in the game, just all six threes. He was two of 17 outside the rest of, directed area, the worst of his NBA career. Yeah. So, I mean, he just couldn't hit a shot, you know, but, but hey, look, like I said,

Luca wasn't great, Reeves wasn't great, Tyre Smacksey wasn't great, Joel and B. couldn't hit his shot, but at the end of the day, LeBron hit all these shots and they won. And yeah, like you said, man, their underlying metrics aren't great. They're still tied for 19th in defense. They're still in the middle of the back in net rating. They've won all these clutch games. It's not really sustainable. You know, the defense, I think, is going to be something that's going to be a problem when they have to

play high-level teams. Like, if they played the Thunder, like we saw in the game, they played the Thunder. It didn't go great. But when you have Luca and Austin Reeves and LeBron and you've got three guys you can throw the ball to in the closing minutes of the game,

like, they're not going to win every single clutch game, but like those guys are going to make a lot of plays, and they're going to win more games than they're not. So that's going to allow you to make up for having some deficiencies defensively and not having so much shooting, et cetera,

and it's probably going to cause them to win a lot of games in the regular season. But, you know, that's where we'll see if they can make some moves during the season to add some depth. And we'll, you know, we'll see if LeBron can start to play better. Because while I agree with you, McMahon, if he's a good third option, that's fine, especially with the way Austin Reeves has developed and taken yet another step this year and been awesome. They're going to need more, they're going to need the athletic LeBron if they want to have a chance in the playoffs. If it's this version of LeBron, you know, they're not beating any of the high level. teams, I don't think, if he's not able to move much at all. But it's also still training camp for him, arguably.

So, to see where in Lance. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. All right. The team that beat the Lakers, the Lakers had lost, the team that had beat them on Friday was the Boston Celtics. And ladies and gentlemen, the Celtics won on Sunday in the afternoon game in Toronto, which is historically a trap game. The Celtics won this game,

and they are now on a five-game win streak. They have won eight out of ten games. In those ten games, they are number one in the league in offense. And number 24 in defense. I don't want to say it's not sustainable, but look, they've got to do what they've got to do to win games. They are now in third place in the Eastern Conference.

Here they are, 24 games into the season. They are holding on to the three seed. Jalen Brown is putting together a all-NBA campaign. He had 30 more points today. He is absolutely leaning on mid-range jumpers. He is taking 16 two-point shots a game, which leads the league in two-point shots. he's tripled his percentage of shots from his career from 16 feet to the three point line, basically long twos. And it's working on temps.

Now, they've got some other stuff going for them, primarily. Derek White has come alive. He was struggling mightily early in the season. Peyton Pritchard has come alive. He was struggling mightily earlier in the season. Those guys went from shooting under 30% from three on a lot of. three is a game, total last 15 games, White's shooting 38% and Pritcher's shooting 40% on a combined 16 attempts a game. That's, that's mainly what's changed. Like, those guys went from missing everything

to making their normal amount of shots. And look, the Celtics are Joe Mazula. I went and wrote a story, Bianja Ball wrote a story about the Pacers and Celtics in, you know, kind of the concept of a gap year. Now the Pacers had a billion injuries at the start of the year. Their team fell off a cliff. Now they're starting to win games now that they have somebody besides Pascal Seaccom healthy. It was basically him and nobody first month of the season. But when I went,

when I started talking to Joe Missoula about the idea of the story, I barely got it out of my mouth and he wanted to go, he went and grabbed one of his assistant coach were like, hey, is Bonteps the one of whose quote we have on the wall? So he wanted to go show me this quote about

it being a gap here for the... I thought he wanted to play you in one-on-one. Well, no, I'm smart enough to know not to play Joan one-on-one. And he probably wants to go M&A with bond tempts, and I'm like, I will pay to see that. I ain't doing that either. You'd lock the cage. You'd make sure it went down. I know a lot better than to be trying to do any of that stuff.

But the point is he, I was not the one who said it, but he was clearly, Joe Mazzula doesn't need a lot to get, to have a chip on his shoulder and to be motivated. And he came into this season, and the Celtics came into this season, motivated to show, that this was not going to be a throwaway season. And look, because of the fact that the Eastern Conference has come back to them, because it has, because Cavs Corner is in a not great place, we'll see what happened, Franz Wagner. That was a very unfortunate-looking injury today.

Hopefully he's all right. Franz Wagner, the first game of the day was in New York. The Knicks, by the way, of 1-7 of 8. We're not going to talk about them right now, but they had a nice one over the magic today. But Franz Wagner, would you say it was non-contact bond temps? I couldn't really... It was a really awkward fall

as leg got bent in an awkward direction. It just, it didn't look good. The quotes didn't sound good after the game. We're worried about it. Everybody's worried about it. He's having an MRI. Hopefully, hopefully he's okay, but it certainly was concerning.

But the point is, the East has come back to Boston. They're finding a way to win these games. They're playing sometimes, like, we talked about the Celtics playing, or the Sixers playing small and not really having any bigs. The Celtics are sometimes playing with essentially Jaylon Brown or Jordan Walsh,

who's like a 6-8 string bean at center. And they're flying around, creating turnovers, making plays. And they've now put themselves in a position where if Jason Tatum comes back, sometime late in the season and can get anywhere near Jason Tatum level, like if they have Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown and Derek White and Peyton Pritchard going into the playoffs, like nobody's going to want to play them in a playoff series. I think that's a big if with Tatum. I agree, but it's at least something to think about now where that is not anything I would have remotely entertained two months ago.

It's within the realm of possibility. You know, I think anything they get from Tatum this year has to be considered a massive bonus. The fact that there's not a clear cut. I know I'm not saying that. The Pistons have established themselves as the favorite in the East, but they're not a proven. They're not a proven team in terms of deep playoff runs. so the East is wide open in that sense. So all that's nice.

But to me, what's really encouraging about what the Celtics are doing now is how it can benefit them next year, the year after that. You talk about some of the guys that are kind of emerging as, you know, potentially solid rotation players for a long time to come. You know,

Namaysheda is a, you know, he's a solid big man. And he, even though their defense, Bonteps is smiling because of how you pronounced it. It's not your fault. Neme, they call him Nimi. They call him Nimi. All right. Keda.

Jordan Walt. DFW guy, by the way. Hey, I'm just here to tell you, I think Kate Cunningham called Dallas Fort Worth, Mecca Hoops. If you put together teams of NBA players based on the location, the Mavericks should be like the thunder right now.

You know, the DFW team. The FW's got a chance to be number one on the list. There's a lot of. There's a lot of hoopers. Tyris Maxie, Kate. You're starting a point, Maxie or Kate. But starting together.

I know. Jordan Walsh in the starting lineup because the Celtics are 10 and 2 with Jordan Walsh in the starting lineup. Jordan Walsh has been really good for them. Obviously, it's coincided with the other guys getting hot. By the way, he's shooting 60% this year. Yeah. He went like 15 to 15 over like three games. He's a second round pick out of Xavier from a couple years ago.

I thought his first round pick. No, second round pick. And he didn't play much the first couple years in the league. He was in the G league a lot. But he plays insanely hard all the time. I thought he went to Xavier. Sorry. He was a second round pick or like 37, 38th pick.

But he's, he's right. Yeah. But he plays really hard. And again, when you've got Pritchard and White and Brown shooting most of the shots, you need guys around them to fill in the gaps. and he's been a perfect fit that way. And like I said, Joe Missoula has found different ways to make this work. And look, over the past two weeks, two weeks from today forward, they've won games

against Orlando, Detroit, Cleveland, New York, the Lakers, and now the Raptors. Like, that's, and they lost the second night of a back-to-back by four to Minnesota and almost came back and won that game. That's the one loss they've had. So, like, they've been playing. Since inserting Jordan Walsh in the starting lineup, the best record behind, KC in that span, says the group Jets. It's all because of Jordan Walsh.

But they have been playing well and look, like, again, I'm not sitting here saying they're definitely going to win the East, but you're not? I'm not. But the Jason Tatum question becomes more interesting by the day if they continue to win games and look like they could be a team that could be a factor in the playoffs without them. And I think that, like I said, I think that's more a symptom of the weakness of the top of the East. but these guys have proven playoff experience. Basically none of these other teams do.

And some of the guy. Well, I mean, Derek White and Peyton Pritchard and Jalen Brown were all core members of a championship winning team. I agree with that. And then they've got guys like Kada and Jordan Walsh. I understand. But I'm talking about the, sure, but I'm talking about the star players. Like, they're leading guys have all won a title. None of the other guys in the East have won anything.

So, you know, like, it's, there's, they're going to walk into any series thinking, hey, if we're ready to go, we can go head to head with anybody and feel good about it. And, you know, like I said, I thought they were going to be fighting to be out of the play in. So if they're sitting up in the middle of the east or higher and we get towards the end of the year and Tatum gets closer to playing, like, it's just going to be very interesting to see if he can come back and what he can look like. Because if he can come back and be even 75% of Jason Tatum, which is probably asking a lot, but still, that suddenly becomes awfully interesting. By the way, they won in Toronto today. The Raptors have, you know, they had that nine-game win streak.

They have cooled off big time. They've now lost five out of six. They had this five-game home stand. Like, it was kind of like, man, they had one nine in a row and they were going to play like this stretch at home. I was like, man, they could like really take off here. They've lost, I think they're one in four, one and three on the homestand. And then Tuesday is the Cup quarterfinal game. You know, they were undefeated in the group.

They won home court and they play the Knicks. So test and see how those guys are doing. They did just play five games in seven nights. Having said that, they lost at home to the Hornets by 25. That's hard to do. I was going to say, I don't know what conversations you guys have had with people around the league. there's a lot of people pretty frustrated with the schedule, and the league is going to get mad at me saying this.

The schedule is jammed up because of the NBA Cup. Right. And every half the league, or three quarters of the league now gets four days off. And like, it's all of these teams have been playing five and seven, like the Atlanta Hawks, for example,

the Atlanta Hawks just got done playing six games in nine days. Friday night, they're up 25 on the nuggets. They completely ran out of gas, lost. Saturday night, they're on a back-to-back they play the Wizards they're up again by like 20 they ran out of gas almost lost they had to come back and win in the fourth quarter and like all these teams across the league are all playing five and six you know six and nine five and seven yes the calves are in a

seven and ten in a minor tailspin right now and they had a absolutely ridiculously dud home loss to like the remains of the warriors on saturday night pat spencer show baby Who's that? It was their fifth game in seven nights too. And while, you know, it's still a wretched loss, like it's hard to like really get on. Like on Friday, they beat the Spurs who'd been seven and two without Victor. And on Saturday they're playing their fifth and seven and they just don't have it. And it's not surprising they ran out of gas in the second half when they've been playing every other night or sometimes back to backs piled up.

And like, this is happening to teams all over the place. And it's all because of the cup. And I do think the league has to look at the schedule of the cup and potentially move the metal round or the knockout round back farther in the season to lessen some of this jamming up of the schedule. Because for all this talk they've made about reducing back to backs and putting more rest in the schedule, like you said, it defies logic how it makes sense for the league to have 23 quarters of the teams now get like multiple giant shows. junks of like four and five days off after having to play all these games piled up on each other before. The last two days is I'm reading the quotes of all these coaches. It was like straight down the line. Every coach saying, boy, we could really use this four days off.

Boy, we can't wait to get this five days off. Boy, this four days off is going to be really big for us. Like every team is exhausted. Well, and half the league has a calf strain. Well, which also goes back to the same thing, which again, the league's going to get mad to say, hey, how can you say this is causing injuries? But like, look, I'm sorry. If you're having all these extra games,

like your guys are going to miss more games. It's just the way it is. Like, I just think they have to, I think they have to try to figure out a way to create a longer schedule for this thing. So it's not so congested because it, I just don't see how the current setup makes a lot of sense, where you have these giant gaps for all these teams over the next two weeks. And it's like a mini break in the middle of the season.

And it just doesn't seem proof. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. By the way, you mentioned Pat Spencer, not to be confused with Cam Spencer, his brother who's on the Grizzlies. Pat, who wears, I learned he wears number 61 as an ode to the fact that he was undrafted, as in their 60 picks and he was Mr. 61. Kind of like Clay. Number clay, when did he, he wore the number 70s? What did they do? He had 77.

When they made the NBA's 75th anniversary team, he was an honor. put jersey number 76 in his No, there was actually 76 guys on the team, so he was like number 77. There was a tie. It was one pass, whatever the number one. So anyway, Pat Spencer wears number 61. Well, by the way, the reason he wasn't undrafted is because he only played one year of college basketball. Well, you guys, here's a trivia question for you guys.

You may not know this. You guys know how old Pat Spencer is? Well, he played four years of. Do you know how old he is? Well, hold on. Hold on. He played four years of college. College lacrosse?

He's one of the best lacrosse players. He's one of the best lacrosse players ever. And then he played a year at Northwestern. And then he went in the NBA. Do you know how old? No, no. Hold on. He didn't go in the NBA. He went and played in Europe.

So I would say he's like 27 or 28. He's 29 years old. In his second season. Okay. So he's had this little bit of a run here for the Warriors, including he had a great game in Cleveland. He had a good game today. The Warriors won in Chicago without Steph,

without Draymond. Jimmy Butler did play today. But so what did he do? He said, he made a big basket and he said, I'm that MFer, except he didn't say MF? So on Thursday, on Thursday here in Philadelphia, before the Cavs Corner set back against Pat Spencer and half the Warriors, the Warriors, the Warriors had no staff, no Jimmy, and Draymond Green left in the second quarter with a foot injury. They're down like 25 points of the Sixers. Basically everybody here just turned off and thought the game was over, including the Sixers.

and then at the start of the fourth quarter Steve Kerr jumps up the game he starts running full court presses and flying guys around and all of a sudden the scores down to like seven and with about five or four or five minutes to go Pat Spencer hit a three on the wing and turned around and shouted very loudly

I'm at bleepidoo bleep and everybody on the team thought it was quite funny and it's now become a thing and Steve Kerr said it in a press conference and you know it's now taking out of life its own and he's replaced John of the Comigga in the rotation essentially so you know that's where things are at Yeah. It reminded me of when Kerr during the 2019 playoffs, when Durant tweaked his calf and they were in trouble against the rockets and they made the comeback. And he comes up to the postgame podium. You know, in 2019, you know, they still, you know, didn't exactly allow cussing.

Yeah. I mean, now, I guess they're trying to, I guess they find aunt every now and then. But and I remember Kerr was like, our guys are effing giants. Yeah. But she was quoting Yergan Klopp. But anyway. Can we touch on the Bulls, by the way, really quick? Well, I will say this. We'll quick. The Warriors, I actually was texting with Slater. The last two nights, they've held the calves to 94 points, and then tonight held the Bulls to 91.

And I'm like, how did this happen? And Slater was kind of like, I don't know. But the Bulls lost tonight. Go ahead. I would just like to read through the Bulls' recent schedule. So the high point of the Bulls season was on November 19th, when they're in, Portland and Nick Vucevic hit game one and three. They beat the Blazers to go to eight and six, one by a point.

Two days later, they play the Miami Heat. They lost 143 to 107. Bit of a wake-up call. The next game, they play the Wizards, as McMahon likes to call them, the lizards, and won by a point. Since then, at New Orleans, lost by 13. That's hard. At Charlotte. The Orleans is 3 and 21.

Yes, that's one of the three wins for the worst team in the league. At Charlotte, lost by 7. At Indiana, Pascal Seacom, it's a game winner. Another team that I believe has six or seven wins. They just got their first road win. Six-seven, by the way, six-seven. Yeah, six-seven, there it is. They just got their first road win, the Pacers.

Yeah, by the way, we'll get to that in a second. The next game at Orlando, solid game, lost by five. Home for Brooklyn, 10-point loss. Not good. Home for Indiana. By the way, Michael Porter Jr. is on a heater. He's scored 33 in a row. Yeah, he's been playing great.

home for Indiana, 15 point loss. I believe that was the first road win for the pastures this season. And then today, playing against the Warriors who have been very up and down, they lost at home by 32. No staff, no Draymond. No staff, no Draymond, 32 point loss. So it's not going great for the Bulls. And by the way, just because I happen to have their schedule up here,

so they have Charlotte in New Orleans, their next two games. After that, they got a home and home with Cavs Corner, a baseball series in Atlanta, Philly, Milwaukee, Minnesota. Then they end the season at home against New Orleans. And the year. And the year. Maybe in the season.

The season might be over, too. But the end of the calendar year against New Orleans. That could be a rough month in Chicago. I keep telling Bontemps, I'll say this to the Bulls fans who may be worried. All roads lead to 39 wins. Don't worry about it. I don't know that 39's going to happen. I don't know what 39's happening.

This is, uh, they've, they've, already slipped out of the plane as we speak. What were they six and one at one point? They were six and one, yes. So they are three and thirteen since then. That's not great. And bond temperatures, I mean, three and thirteen with some losses to some bad teams. I mean, this was the stretch of the schedule in all seriousness where the 39 and 43 was supposed to take shape. Like you're supposed to win a couple of games against Indiana and beat New Orleans and beat Charlotte and beat Brooklyn and beat all these teams and they didn't win any of those games. Yeah.

Well, they are missing some guys, but that's hardly a, during this three and 13 stretch, they are 27th in offense and 26th in defense. Yeah, that's not great. Yeah, that's a tough combination. That's a good way to go three and 13. So 39 seems pretty. Matter of fact, would you like to over under a little over under bet? No, another bet. Another bet?

He's not going to bet. He's not going to do it. I don't believe in Ways your... Yeah, exactly. Put some chicken palm on the line. He made this one stand of the year, McBand, back in October when he declared the Clippers, we're going to be great. Oh, boy. Do not check on the Clippers.

It is not... The one-time window decides to make a prediction. What happens? What happens? When it comes to Clippers' predictions, we'll give them some leeway. Yeah, well, it's been a... It's been a... a long road trip for the clip. I think they came home. They lost in Minnesota on Saturday.

I think they came home. It was not great. Okay. So one more thing. I want to talk. One more team that I think deserves some attention that won on Sunday. The Memphis Grizzlies don't look now. The Grizzlies won by 25 or so at home against the Blazers. They've won seven out of nine, McMahon, somewhat tied to the return of Zach Edy, although he's not playing that many minutes, but he's been really good for them. Tuamus Salo is doing his thing. He is playing 10 players per quarter.

He's doing his line change substitutions. Their defense in this stretch, in this nine-game stretch, they've been a top six. I think they're sixth in defense in this stretch. They've been sort of, you know, it's very small sample size, but they've been outplaying some teams in these fourth quarters. And when you listen to the players talk about it, they say that they believe that they're wearing these teams down, the Salo strategy.

Obviously, John Moran has not been out there. Have no fear. John's, he's close to returning from that cast train. Well, that's true. And I was looking at some of their players. they were talking about how they've had some really good team. The chemistry is very, very good. They've got good camaraderie.

I think Jock Landale credited Cantavius Caldwell Pope for doing some stuff off the court. And he feels like they've got, they're in a good place chemistry-wise. Cedric Howard, their rookie, has had some impressive games. He had a funny line. They beat the Clippers. I think it was on Friday or Saturday. It was Friday. and he went up to Kauai and to meet him,

introduce himself to him, and he said that he had to go ask him during the game to, like, if he could get his phone number or something because he wants to work out with him in the offseason, and Kauai doesn't have social media and he doesn't know anybody who knows how to get a hold of him. So he's like, I just had to go ask him. But he played a good game.

Coward played a good game on Friday. So listen, McMahon, I don't know. I mean, they're still under 500. They're still 11 and 13. But it should be noted that they've pivoted here. And I think a lot of it's been around both their defense and, frankly, the Asalo system. Yeah. And, you know, I'm curious to see once Jod gets, I assume there'll be some sort of

restriction, which will make the transition easier for him. But once he kind of gets back, where there wouldn't be a miniser restriction, I'm curious to see how this all works. He clearly was not a fan of the substitution pattern. Frankly, I don't believe Jaron Jackson Jr. was either. Jerry Jackson had six points today, but they won. And that's what's interesting. So Jai hasn't been part of this turnaround at all. Jaron has been, you know, he's been all right.

He's been okay. Yeah, he's had some big games. But like when you're talking about how are they winning, it's the depth, it's that system, and it's their young guys. In these last nine games, Jalen Wells, leading him in scoring. Right. Cam Spencer, Pat's brother has been pretty damn awesome.

He's 36, I think. No, I'm just kidding. He's... But, you know, you look at these last nine games. In 25 minutes, he's averaging over 14 points, shooting 54 from the floor, 49 from three-point range. E.D. in 26 minutes, is averaging 14 and 12, and he's a plus 12. Coward shooting his...

He's in a little shooting funk here, but like awesome energy guy. I'm curious if the Grizzies are kind of in a pivot completely away from, you know, the we find in the West core, you know, and we'll see how things play out. But Edie looks like a player. Shedder Coward looks like a player. They've loaded up on future picks. You know, they've obviously committed to Insolo and given him. him a lot of freedom to run the system. I'm curious to see how things play out here.

Well, here's the stat sums up Memphis's entire season. So Zach Eady obviously missed the first chunk of the year. In the 847 minutes, he's been off the court. They've got 109.5 offensive rating. In the 262 minutes he's played, 26 minutes a game, like you said, it's five points higher, 114. In those 847 minutes he hasn't played this year, the Memphis Grizzlies defense has 119.1 defensive rating.

In the 262 minutes Zach Edy's played, it's 95.3. It's 24 points lower. They are plus 19 per 100 possessions when Zach Edy plays. They're minus 9.6 when he doesn't. That's a 28 point swing. Now, I don't think Zach Eadis become better than Nicole Yolkich, but it's not a coincidence to me. that their season has turned around when he started playing games.

And he has been good. And we talked about this a couple weeks ago. With as bad as the bottom of the West is, like as long as those young guys are healthy, I think sort of regardless of whatever is going on with Jha or Jaron, I think Memphis is going to be in the play-in mix. And they're going to be, like, again, like to make a joke on the fine in the West thing,

like they're going to be fine in terms of being competitive. on an early basis because they've got an identity. And Edie's quickly, I think, establishing himself as a guy who's one of the better interior defenders in the league, and those numbers back that up. Like when he's on the court, they're awesome on defense. And like 26 minutes a game is a real amount. It's not like he's playing 10, 11 minutes out there. And that's really interesting because one of the big questions for him going into the draft,

when he was a pretty polarizing prospect, obviously he had an awesome college career, but a lot of people, scouts, exactly didn't quite know what to make of him in terms of being an NBA prospect. Yeah, there was a lot of people

who didn't think he was a first round pick. Yeah. It was an extraordinarily bold pick of Zach Lyman to take him at nine. And they had tanked that season. They tanked to make sure they kept that pick, right? Yeah, but one of the big questions was,

how is he going to hold up on the defensive end? You know, was he going to be a bullseye that, you know, people just put him to pick and roll up for pick and roll up for pick and roll. And, you know, clearly the Grizzlies have managed to put him in a position to play to his strengths. Now, I will say, as much as I've said, hey, Jaron's been okay, it definitely helps to have Jaron Jackson Jr. out there with him on the defensive end. And honestly, I also heard a lot of questions early this season, you know, before he got out there, like, how is he going to fit into this coach?

system that's really based on pace, playing fast, you know, an uptempo style for a, I don't know what he's weighing now, but he's 7-4-290-ish, 300, whatever it is, being clearly so far so good, it has not been an issue. Yeah, so we'll keep an eye on the Grizzlies with Jha set to return pretty soon. Before we go, Monday in Brooklyn, Terry Rozier is scheduled to make a, court appearance, and I assume enter a plea and get a bail situation set up, uh, Bontemps. And, um, you have a story that is publishing Monday morning with Bobby Marks.

Um, it's an FAQ on the Terry Rozier situation. Can you explain why it's a Terry Roseier situation? It's not just so much that he's charged with the federal crime, but that there's something else that is going on. Yeah. So obviously, the most important thing for Terry Rozier on Monday is that he's going to be arraigned in this this illegal sports betting case and which he's been alleged to be involved in. We'll see what happens with the legal case over time. But from an NBA perspective, which is what Bobby and I wrote this story about, there's two facets of his situation that are interesting. One is to go back to when he was traded from the Charlotte Hornets to the Miami Heat, now almost

almost two years ago in January of of 2024 in a deal for Kyle Lowry, who was here in Philadelphia tonight, where the heat gave up a first round pick when this lottery protected in 2027 and becomes unprotected in 2028. The heat, when they made that trade, it was never disclosed to them

that Terry Rozier was, had been under any sort of NBA investigation for the suspicious bets that were placed on the game in March of the prior year in the game in New Orleans. Yeah, to be really clear, just to give the timeline of this, the sports books flagged unusual betting activities with Terry Rozier near the end of the 2022-23 season.

He didn't play the last nine games of the year as the Hornets shut him down. The NBA did their investigation behind the scenes. It was not public. He started the 2003-23-204. And to be clear, just to cut in for one thing, they did not find any violations of NBA rules, so therefore he continued to play. Right. I'm not sure exactly when that investigation ran. It was before the trade. Right. But Rozier was playing.

We reported that in this story. Right. Rozier was playing. And then we get near the trade deadline in January of 24, the Hornets, which, by the way, it was a trade that I didn't like. It was sort of an unheat trade. from the day it happened. Well, yeah. I mean, so the trade did a couple of things, right? The heat were clearly ready to move on from Kyle Lowry for a variety of reasons. So they did.

It also saved the heat money. And Terry Rozier is in the middle of a very good season. He was scoring like 23 a game. And so they were hoping to get some scoring punch. And they gave up a future first round pick to do it because it saves them some future money. Now, it cost the money in the out years because Terry had more years left on his deal, but he was a younger player and they hoped he'd be part of their team for a while. So the heat, we're not told about this investigation.

Then a year later, the Wall Street Journal reports that Tara's years under investigation as part of this thing. That's when the heat found out that this had happened in the first place. So the one part of this is as part of trades, you're supposed to, like there's a disclosure process in trades. So essentially, should the heat have been told about this investigation in the disclosure process for the trade? And because they were not, what can the heat do about? That's one part of the story. And then the other part of the story is Tehrigarro's year is a $26.6 million expiring contract,

which with the heat in the top four in the Eastern Conference is a piece that they could potentially use to go improve their current roster. and as we just talked about, the East is wide open. Perhaps they can make a move to go be a contending team and even better than where they are now. And are they able to trade Terry Rozier in light of everything that's going on?

Those are the two main topics in the story. And the answers are? Well, the answers are the heat have not yet decided what they're going to do in terms of whether they will file a grievance about this trade and try to, you know, whether they get their pick back

or get something else. People we talk to in the league, I don't think that he would win such a grievance. However, they could file one and try to try to get some compensation back because you can read the story. There's a lot of language in the CBA, in the league's operation manual

about what you're supposed to do in terms of disclosing things in trades. And as far as the Terry Rozier piece in the trade part goes, There is not a clear decision on whether Rozier will be able to be traded or not. However, I would say the fact that Terry Rozier is on the roster is a sign that the heat believed that if it came down to it, they'd be able to put him in a trade. And last year, or I think it was last year or two years ago, Kevin Porter Jr. was arrested

in a different case, totally separate thing. And a month later, he was able to be traded to the Thunder who waived him, which is what would happen here. So while there hasn't been a definitive answer, I think it's safe to say that the likely answer is, Terry is here to be able to be traded. And again, given where the heat are sitting and given that there could be big name players available between now and the trade deadline, having a $26 million expiring contract to put into trades is a relevant thing to pay attention. A key sentence in this story, the Hornets, when asked by ESPN, whether the

They were aware of the league's investigation into Ruggier before the trade declined to comment. So I would say the heat were the heat did not know. And the Hornets declined to say whether they knew. Well, I would say that just says a lot. I was serious. The league office, which conducted the trade call and verified the trade, we can say new. Well, the league office conducted the investigation. So safe to say that that's right.

Also, when Terry Rizier sat out the rest of that season, he was listed with a foot injury that I'm pretty sure we know now, really a foot injury. Well, no, I hold on, McMahon. Yeah, don't do that. I thought the same thing, and I was corrected. Oh. So. They were in Dallas the next night and it was a foot injury then. Yes, it was a foot injury. And according to the NBA, it was a foot injury. Having said that, the league was aware the day that the bets happened of the unusual situation. But in the, and the argument from the heat perspective, is the heat, if there's three parties on this call, in the heat's opinion, there was only one party that was not aware of this, and they should have been made aware of it, and then they could have decided what they were going to do, I think is the simplest way to set up the situation. Now, and look, we don't know. Maybe the heat would have gone through with the trade, because again, the NBA did not find, they could not substantiate wrongdoing. Right. Not using the word cleared, and the league has not used the word cleared. But the league couldn't, the league said they didn't find. a violation and he was able to keep play.

Right. And he was able to keep playing for the better part of two years before this happened. The heater agreed about four different ways. I think Barry Jackson from Miami Herald actually counted like nine different ways they're aggrieved. But, you know, one of which is they didn't know it was going on. And there was a good chance that both the Hornets and obviously the NBA knew, but whatever. Well, and to be clear, it's not on the NBA.

The NBA is not on that call to disclose things. The NBA is essentially there to just hold. hold the call and the two teams go back and forth and talk about stuff. That's true. However, the NBA in the past has stepped in in situations like this. Sure. Maybe not exactly like this. Sure. So they're unaware of this, number one.

Number two, they don't have Rozier to play for them. Now, he was playing horribly. His career has essentially gone into the gutter on the court. Forget about the fact that he's now under federal indictment. But he's not available to play for them. They don't necessarily know what to do with his. contract, right? And then they're out this first round pick, which is affecting what they can do in trades. Because- And just, that is an important thing to spell out for people. The reason that

matters, let's say the heat want to make a trade for a big star player who becomes available. You can name the star. Who could say he's a Greek player? Do you have an example? Any player, any player. Yeah. Any player. Let's say they want to make a big trade for a star player. The guy comes available, wants to play for the Heat. The Heat right now can trade two picks, the 2030 first round pick and their 231st round pick, and that's it because their pick is owed in 27-laddered protected, and if it doesn't, if they don't make the playoffs, it's then unprotected in 28. So that means they can't trade this year's pick, the 27 pick, the 28 pick, or the 29 pick. By NBA standards, it's known as their pick being encumbered. That's right. So if that pick, let's say the Heat went to the

NBA and said, this was not fair, we should have known about this. And the NBA says, you know what, you're right. We're going to give you back this pick or give you another pick. Then all of a sudden, the heat could trade four picks and they could trade three swaps and they could do their whole draft, and they could go do whatever they wanted with their draft picks. This is why Barry Jackson has been very exercised about this and why the heat, why the heat are annoyed. And we will see if the he actually do file a grievance. There have been many other times where teams have been upset about trades and conduct of teams in trades.

Two recent examples are the Golden State Warriors were not happy, both of the similar situations. The Golden State Warriors were not happy when the Portland Trailblazers backed out of a trade for Gary Payton after the trade deadline because they didn't like the physical. I think they were to get a few second round picks in the trade. And so that trade didn't happen. And obviously the most famous example in recent times, which is relevant. because the team was here tonight is after the Luca trade, the Lakers tried to trade a bunch of stuff for Mark Williams to Charlotte, ironically,

and Charlotte was very upset that the Lakers did that trade and then didn't like the physical and backed out later. And in both instances, there was a lot of discussion about are these teams going to file a grievance about it? And they ultimately did not because partially, at the end of the day, although the 30 teams are all competing against each other, it is all part of one bigger entity, and typically you're not necessarily trying to get into legal spats with other teams.

Now, the Knicks have gotten into a bunch of legal spats with other teams, but outside of that, teams have generally tried to avoid doing this kind of stuff. And while McMahon is familiar with a certain guy in Mark Cuban, who has had a very long history of stirring up Hornets Nest with the league and causing issues, the Heat and Mickey Erison, their owner, have very rarely ever said anything publicly about anything. One of the very rare times they did, Brian happened to be on hand for it, which I'll let you tell the story, because it's better if you tell it. So let me just say that I really, really like Mickey Erison. I like, if I was a billionaire, I would live like Mickey Erison lives.

Well, I'm not in a way. There's quite a few billionaires that I know that... Quite a few billionaires he knows. I know quite a few billionaires who are somewhat unhappy. I know a few billionaires who are happy, by the way. But... A couple in particular. Well, there's one billionaire in particular that Bon Tempts and I know that I would live his life.

But Mickey, you know, Mickey pretty much lives most of the year on a yacht. He's the CEO of Cruise Lines. Not anymore. He hasn't been the CEO for years. He's the chairman. He owns kind of a cruise lines, just for people that don't know. And Mickey will correct you on the difference between a boat and a ship. Oh, well, these are important things.

Anyway. He's Windows kind of guy. I really respect the way Mickey Erison does business. But anyway, in 2012 at the end of the NBA lockout, Mickey called a small press conference. I'm not sure Mickey has given many interviews since. He certainly hasn't given anything like this. press conference that I'm aware of. He just went to the Hall of Fame a few months ago.

Congratulations to him. But he basically called the press conference to announce that the heat were one of, I think, five teams that voted against the CBA because of the luxury tax penalties that were put in there basically to prevent the heat from being able to add to their team. The combination of that and also he was very aggrieved that Donald Sterling. the owner of the LA Clippers would be getting revenue sharing money while being in Los Angeles. And he, Mickey Harrison, would be paying revenue sharing money while being in a much, much, much smaller market in Miami, although not a small market. The one crazy thing about that meeting, which I, or that, you know, it was only four or five of us there that I remember is that in the middle of the little session that he had with us, it was only 15 minutes long.

Mickey got a call from LeBron. And did he take it? He took it. And he's like, I'm meeting with it. the beat writers right now. And I always wondered, like, was that like planned? Was there some sort of like, like, were they trying to like show us that like LeBron was like, I just, it was such a strange thing that like while we're sitting there that LeBron calls him and happened in front of us. And I was like, what are you? Were they trying like some misdirection to like, you know,

the heat don't play games like this. The heat are pretty straightforward. So it was out of their character. But I, but he takes this call. And then I asked later on. I think I asked Mickey. And he goes, No, no, no, he just, he said he actually called me. He was supposed to call. He was trying to call somebody else with a mistyel. I was like, all right, whatever. I will say, Bon Tem said back in like 2010 or 11, and it's not super duper comparable, but the Blazers and the Timberwolves got into a dispute about a trade and information involving Martel Webster.

Oh, yeah, right. So the, the wolves traded for Martel Webster. Webster from the Blazers. And I almost feel like there was another trade that had happened and maybe some of the Minnesota media or remember this with Jason Quick or some of the media, remember this. But there had been another interaction with them that had sort of caused some friction I think they might have signed Batum to an offer sheet, the walls, I think. Okay, maybe that's true. Yeah, I don't remember. That makes sense. Well, but no, I think But Toom's offer sheet was when he was in Charlotte.

All right, I don't know. Fun matter. Anyway, so Marta Webster shows up in Minnesota, and he's got a back issue, a back issue that pretty much derailed his career, in fact. And the wolves made an issue of it, and it never was public. And then, like, two years later, it came out. I think actually our former colleague, Henry Abbott, broke the story, that the behind closed doors, I think the NBA recognized it. there had been a violation, and there was a secret monetary settlement of a million, 1.5 million that the Blazers paid to the wolves for it. Yeah.

They did sign Batoon to an offer sheet then, too, in the middle of that. Okay. Maybe that was it, too. But I don't think the heat want 1.5 million. No. No. No. The key thing about the thing I think that's relevant about the Mickey Erison press conference and that vote and all of that was he said.

said at the time it was a symbolic vote. He knew he made clear he was trying to get the CBA pass, the CBA pass, and he objected to some of these things and did it in a way so he could make his point while not tanking the agreement. I would say that's both a sign of the way that the Heat and Mickey Erison in general have gone about being a partner in the league outside of when he took over the team and gotten a big embroilio with the Knicks over getting Pat Riley there, but that was a very a long time ago. By the way, he got, he got, he, he admitted fault there and he paid the Knicks

a first round draft pick. The heat of won three championships and gone to what, six or seven finals since. Yeah, I'd say it's worked out okay. I think it was a good deal. But I, I would say that from the people I have spoken to, I think if the Heat do decide to try to file a grievance to get their pick back, for example, I would say for Heat fans listening and for other fans who curious how it's going to go, people in the league are not exactly expecting the NBA to say, oh, yeah, sure, we'll give you a pick. So I don't, I would not anticipate this leading to anything one way or the other, but it is a very interesting subplot to a lot of different things that are going on.

But, and like, okay, even if they don't do the pick, giving them the, like, green light saying, hey, you can trade Terry Rozier. That's a pretty interesting trade chip, especially if a team's trying. trade for him. And obviously, the guy's not stepping foot in their locker room. And you're not going to be, that's why the Kevin Porter thing is relevant. It would be just like what happened with Kevin Porter. He would get waived by somebody who acquired him, almost certainly. But I believe, correct me if I'm wrong. Didn't the Thunder have to pay Kevin Porter Jr. Salon? Well, yes, they acquired him and waived him. Yes. Right. But Terry Rose's is not being paid right now. Well, the money. he's being, the money is going into an escrow account. Okay. So if he winds up, like, to make a long story short, the money is being put aside while the legal process plays out.

And then we'll see where the legal process lands and where the money winds up. Okay. Think the same thing's happening with Johnsonville. That's my question, though. If a team hypothetically trades for Rozier, obviously you're talking about to make salaries match, could it potentially be a situation where, You're basically able to have, you know, whatever the remaining salaries, if, you know, 13 million or whatever, just disappear off your books? Well, I think, I think the reason why this is getting a little wonky.

I think the reason why it's not just definitively, yes, the heat will definitely be able to trade, Terry Rozier, is to make sure there isn't some sort of salary cap circumvention that goes on with the trade. However, I think it's going to be a long time before the legal process plays out. So I don't think that like, for example. Certainly not by February 5th. Yeah, I don't think on February 6th there's going to be an announcement that like that something happened one way or the other with Terry Rozier. So my guess is this is going to go well past this season and the money will stay in the escrow account and it'll either eventually get paid out or it won't.

And it's not going to really impact anything. But it is a good question, and I think that's why it's not just an automatic rubber stamp. Yes, we're absolutely going to approve it. But again, the heat are not a – the front officer, the heat's been around a long time. I think if they believe that Terry Rozier would not able to be traded, they would just use the roster spot on somebody else. I think the fact he's on the roster, I think leaves open a pretty decent possibility that – Now, maybe they won't find a trade they like. Maybe they cut them the next day, and then they go after the trade deadline,

they go do something else at the roster spot. But my hunch is that if they find a deal they like, it'll probably work out. Before we go, can I tell you one little factory about Pat Riley and Mickey Harrison and the Heat? Sure. I have one thing after that, a special thing at the end of the bottom. When Riley was hired in 1995 as president and coach, as like, you know, Mickey Harrison was running Carnival Cruise Lines. His father started it and also founded the heat, his late father.

They did the press conference on a brand new ship. You know, they wanted to take advantage of, look at a little carnival attention. So they had this brand new ship in the port in Miami, and they made all the media go, and Riley was on the ship. And, you know, it was like, oh, we're so happy to be on the carnival ship. That ship has did its whole thing and has been scrapped. And Riley is still coaching. It was scrapped like five years ago.

And Riley is still running the heat, which in the NBA, which nobody gives, you know, gets any, gets any time to do anything. You were not covering the heat at that time. I assume you were not part of that press conference. I was not. But I love that fact. Well, I'm just saying, you have a little bit of trouble on those, on those vessels, whether boat, I don't know, maybe you're fine on a ship. I know on a boat, you've had some issues. Yes.

Injuries were, it was a small craft. That's true. All right, Bontems. I don't know about this. I don't like this. Well, it's not anything all that bad. We'll judge it. It's funny. It's funny that you brought up your soon-to-be happening travels, which I do have come off because I'm pretty jealous of what you're going to be doing. So hopefully it works out. This is a pretty cool deal. But we have some audio that goes along with your trip that I think Jackson has ready to play.

I don't like this at all. It's now time for another instance. installment of where in the world is windy? Is he in an LA hotel room counting and recounting the words in his latest feature story? No. So he doesn't get disqualified this time for excessive verbiage. Is he wandering through Asia trying to find acceptable chicken parm? Or can't find it home. Graciously making leftover turkey A sandwiches for those less fortunate before it gets foul. Vote now. And vote. So our guy, Mike Walschuski, the legend, it still is one of my, the great highlights of my career that Mike Walschuski listens to our podcast and just voluntarily sends these things.

He sent this to me last week. I forgot to send this to Jackson for the last part. The legendary PA announcer for the Knicks, who everybody who has ever watched the game at the garden knows exactly who he is. I just just sends these it's the best so after after your exploits the other day recounting about the award he just unprompted said that and I was going to use it on the pod and then I forgot to do it and then when you started off today talking about your trip I said

to Jackson I said hey we have this thing we can add right now so jackson got to set up and as a reminder, if you want to give your guesses on where Brian is going, because we don't know where Brian is going, you can call 646-598-4056. That's 646-5-9-8-40-56, and give guesses on where you think Brian is going and what he's going to be doing. It works perfectly. If everything goes according to plan and the itinerary is tight, it'll be in three different countries and at five different sporting events. But there's one of the it is going to be awesome. And it is going to be a tight itinerary.

So listen, you gave it. Can we see how it goes. The joking, though, that's not really a hint. That's a humble brag. Can you at least tell us what sports? No, don't. No, no, no, no. We're going to let the listeners.

Multiple. I said it was on my basketball bucket list. We're going to let the, we're going to let the listeners have their guesses. And Brian will tell us later where he went. Yeah. And then ask you. All worked out. I wish I was all coaching the team from the end of the bench.

Nobody I didn't have. I'm glad I forgot to send this thing along the other day, though, because it worked out perfectly when you launched into this at the start of the plot. By the way, I've had some really good Italian food in Asia, but no chicken par. All right. Thank you very much to Mike Walschewski. Thank you so much to Jackson from putting it all together. Thank you to Bontemps.

Thank you, McMahon. Thank you for listening and watching of the Hoop Collective. Talk to you in a couple days. Adios, me. ALEEN SULLIV.