Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - Luka Magic Taking Hold For Lakers + SGA’s Historic Streak & Wemby’s Confidence

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to talk about a major win for the Lakers and how Luka is stepping forward as the leader in LA. Next, we discuss OKC getting a big win over the Wolves and SGA fighting to keep his 20-point game streak alive. Then, the guys break down some very confident quotes from Victor Wembanyama and how he continues to back them up. Finally, an interesting schedule situation for the Hawks and reaction to the Big 12 Tournament.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.espn.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Hello, welcome to the Who Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing on Sunday afternoon. And I have expelled him from Los Angeles.

He's back in New York City where some say he belongs, Tim Bontaps. Hello, everybody. Join us from Dallas, Texas. I've expelled him from Los Angeles. And some say he's back where he belongs, Van McMahon. Howdy, partners, never fear. Not going to be here long. I'm going to see some Los Angeles residents, though, heading down to Houston.

the red hot, look out for those Los Angeles Lakers got a baseball series against the Rockets. Oh, you want to talk about Lakers Rockets? I thought you were going to have your backup and ready to go here about Shea chasing the 20-point streak at the end of this Thunder. Oh, no, we can get to that.

Listen, I didn't see any intentional fouling, didn't see any purposely miss free throw. I saw one from Austin Reeves, but that was to help win a game. He said he learned it from watching the, the heat. He said he left out on this week show. Luke had a pretty famous one too during a 60 point triple double. Sure did. Exactly. The dance. But no, Shea's not immune to the occasional stat chase. And it's just a little bit more within the flow, I would say. Yeah. Well, A.J. Mitchell, I mean,

first off, the Thunder, we were behind by like double digits to the Timberwolves on Sunday afternoon, which we'll talk about in a minute. They came back in one easily. But Shea started the fourth quarter, when he was sitting, he sat out. He was, he had 10 points when he came back in with about seven minutes left. And the game was, you know, it was a double-digit lead. But I actually don't think there was anything unethical to use what the kids say, unethical about him getting to 20. It was actually kind of cool that he got it on a play,

where he got fouled and he fell down in front of the Thunder bench. And the whole Thunder bench came over to, like, celebrate with him that he was going to get his 20. I thought it was endearing. But, you know, I know we're not allowed to have fun during games. No, we're not. It's okay. It's okay. And there was also the fast break where it was three on one,

just four in case when Wallace was pushing it and Chet was out front. And Shea was kind of filling the lane. And Shea pointed it to Chet saying, you know, get it to him. So that was ethical, although I think by the time he pointed, the ball was already on its way to Chet. No, it was before. I'll get him for that. She was going to get his 20, though.

And he did after the win was secured. I mean, listen, it took him hitting a three at the top of the key. and then making this crazy shot over aunt. And he was getting off the ball while the wolves were double on him. Like the walls were determined to not let him get that record if nothing, or could extend that record if nothing else. And it took him getting six points and two possessions at the very end of the game to do it. Well, AJ Mitchell, he took several shots while Shea was over there waiting for the ball to get his points.

AJ Mitchell, ethical basketball. He was not interested. He was like, when's my 20-point streak start? It's good to see AJ Mitchell back on the court after so many injuries. year. He and he's immediately come back and playing well again. We'll talk about the wolves and the thunder a little bit. We are compelled that game on Saturday night, Nuggets at Lakers, one of the best games we've seen all season, overtime win for the Lakers. The Nuggets snatching defeat from the Jaws of Victory, thanks to some terrific plays

by the Lakers under pressure. Say what you want about the Lakers. Also, thanks to a bad whistle by the rest, last two-minute report. I haven't seen this yet. Yeah, says the foul with 9.2 seconds left that sent Austin Reeves to the free throw lines. Spencer Jones had a clean strip. So, you know. My nuggets have beef, eh? Get your conspiracy theories ready.

But still, the Austin Reese play at the end was a little luck and, you know, also awesome. Luca's first game winner for the Lakers, which honestly, that's like, sounds weird. You know, they've got a clear pecking order now.

Luca, Reeves, and the LeBron, two games in since he's come back. But LeBron, being that number three option, dive on the floor, dirty work guy, you know, it's interesting. Well, I think he's trying to play more of a role. He's trying to be comfortable with the ball less. J.J. Reddick talked about meeting with him and discussing this. I think it's way too early to form any opinions, but LeBron is trying to fit into a role. I will say that over the last couple of weeks, the, the, the,

plus minus, which, you know, has been used as sort of a whip against them against those three guys. It has turned positive and is continuing to progress in the right way. And say what you want about the Lakers defense. It has been better over the last month, month to six weeks. And in the end of this game, the nuggets had just multiple possessions where they could not get into their offense. And I think some of it was due to fatigue, Yogic, I think. I would say a lot of it was due to fatigue on both sides. That's fine.

I mean, both teams were, at the overtime, both teams were gassed. Well, and some of it was due to Jamal Murray fouling out after a horrific game. Rough, rough day or rough weekend for the Canadian national team back court. Yes, I'm just going to say that there was multiple possessions where the nuggets couldn't even get the ball to Yokic because the Lakers were defending it. And DeAndre Aiton, however you want to malign him. Backs. A lot of it fair. DeAndre Aten had several key defensive plays.

I do not know what's going to happen to the Lakers, but I will tell you this. They've won either last 10 and five in a row, and that is put them in the three seed as they embark on this five game road trip, or six game road trip with five brutal games to start. I'm not sure the first two are that brutal, to be honest, even though they were the team right behind them in the West standings. Okay, well, first off, I just want to talk about the Reeves missed free throw. How many times could he do that out of 10 and have it fall that way again? Well, obviously, he could miss it on purpose, but it's a one out of 25, one out of 50 type of play.

I'd say maybe one out of 100. I mean, to have it ricochet off to the left, to the perfect spot on the court where he could catch it and have a clear lane to get an easy, like little eight-foot floater practice shot. Like, you can't script the play better than that. Well, but he did, but it was scripted. The way that the boxouts worked,

where he missed it, how he missed it. You know, a lot of guys, they put kind of normal arc on it to miss it, right? He, like, his shot never got above the wrist. rim. So he missed it to where it bounced down. And it was clearly to the one side of the basket where they could, they could seal the box out, the Symmacher Jones had to come over to the other side. Like, they did it perfectly, but to do that perfectly is a ridiculous series of coincidences in a row. DeAndre, I don't know if it was Gordon or Yolkich. Yeah.

It was Yon. Yeah. But they brought Aiton into the game. And when Jones was on the other side, because they're like, you know, he was like, I'll box out Reeves from this side. It was only Aiden and Yokich on that side, and they brought Aitin in, and he knew the play. He knew the orders, was to seal Yokic to sort of a reverse box out, box him out, top box him out, and came off perfect. I mean, if I was in Nuggets, I would have been spitting mad about that game getting to overtime, much less. Yeah. And they miss some free throws.

They didn't execute well down the stretch. Well, when you've seen a couple games recently, the Cavs fouled up three against the pistons. Danis Jenkins got a half-court shot off, came back to bite him. Half court. It was 70 feet. Or whatever. The point is, like, they got a fluky three shots out of it. Like, again, like the Lakers, not a great three-point shooting team.

Like, you know, it's far from a garret. While we've talked a lot about foul up three, don't foul up three. Like, what's pretty clear is there's not a foolproof way to do this. And we've seen a couple recent pretty high profile examples of fouling not working. But let's

zoom out some with the Lakers, right? Wendy, like you said, this is five straight wins. I think it's actually eight of nine. And when they started off, you know, when they had three straight before a tough loss in Denver, it was three bad teams. And I basically said, look, their schedule is about to get a lot tougher. They've got a chance to prove something. The little three-game win streak didn't prove anything. They've got a chance to prove something.

Well, they played Denver tough. They beat the Knicks. They beat the wolves. They beat the nuggets. I mean, again, five games, two weeks, whatever it is, does not make a C-Bronfer tough. season, but there's no question that the Lakers have some serious momentum. They do with LeBron coming back, LeBron missed the next game and the Wolves game, but with him coming back, he's been vocal and you've seen it on the floor about, hey, I'm the number

three guy. I've got to get in where I fit in, as he said, sacrifice, except the role. I think the bigger concern, I think the bigger concerns now are how does that group hold up defensively? Because offensively, they've seemed to have found something. Luca is cooking. Reeves is cooking. And, you know, I told you guys, I think we've gotten to a point where Luca might actually be underrated, as weird as that sounds. And what got me really thinking about this is Bontas, when you mentioned Kauai Leonard as a first team all NBA selection, you know, I was like, hold on, hold on, I threw out a few names. I didn't even throw out Luca's name and it was inadvertent. But there is this idea that Luca might not be a first team all NBA selection. And I think that's pretty insane. It's easy to focus on his flaws. And I, talk about the, you know, the petulance as much as anybody.

It's, and, you know, which the petulance leads to, you know, big time defensive problems. And that's a fair subject. However, the guy is leading the league in scoring on very good efficiency while averaging eight and a half assists and eight rebounds per game for a team that's a third seed in the Western Conference. If that's not a first-team all-N-B-A player, I don't know what is. The thing about Luca, the reason, you know, the criticism of, of him is that he doesn't get as much out of his gifts as he should because of these flaws.

But that does not take away from the gifts that he has. He's one of the most talented offensive players I've ever seen in my life. And that game winner, he was in a double team without anybody to screen. He was sort of, you know, he avoided the trap. He got out of the trap, totally got the corner turned, and then went into his footwork where he creates space with his stepback, going left. The only thing I'll say about that is I think the Nuggets completely I don't think you're giving Denver way too much credit Like they they let him get to a practice shot like that

I mean it was a great play by Luca but like he had a wide open 15 footer for him Like yeah but he had to earn that by getting out of a double team and doing a step back I mean it was a pretty bad double team Bruce Brown comes over from the middle and he just had the whole left side of the court to get to it was great play He was incredible at WB he's no he's back baby he's back You be. Hey, I mean, for one thing, this guy's been crapping all over people all week. He should stop saying anything about me.

And again, it's a credit to Luca, but the Nuggets, I thought they just botched it. Like, that was as easy a shot as Luca's ever going to get in that spot. Okay. And he's averaging 32 and a half points for game on like 62% true shooting. I mean, his last two games are his first game winner in a 50 point triple double. I'd say he's playing out of his mind, which is great. He is arguably... It is common that Lakers are underrated, so I can see why Leakey

Luca is being underrated. Dude, I had, in one of my recent stops, I'm talking to an All-Star, and this guy was making the case to me that Lucas shouldn't be first team. And I'm like, dude, I don't know, man. If the Lakers are going to have home court advantage in the first round, this guy will lead in the league and scoring efficiently. I don't see how he could not be. Well, some of this is also, there's a lot of competition for five spots.

Like, people are going to get really mad if you say Jalen Brown isn't a first team all be a guy. I don't think he is this year. But like, I think you can make an argument. Cade Cunningham might not be a first team NBA guy this year. He's been unbelievable. And Detroit's been unbelievable. Like, Luca is deserving. Bonnevin Mitchell has been amazing. Like, we're talking like nine or ten guys for five spots. Like, that's, you know, somebody has to get left off. Anthony Edwards, we haven't talked about him. He's having a great year too. I can't say this for sure, but I suspect if Bontemst had a straw poll of the all-MBA race, that Luca would be a strong participant of first team. That's, I,

I'm not sure that that. I understand what you're saying, McMahon, if you're saying that the criticism of Luca has potentially clouded a little bit what has been a spectacular season, that's a fair statement. I do not think he, I think he would be voted first team all NBA, and I don't think it would be close. Well, I mean, to McMahon's point, though, in the last straw poll, he was a distant fifth and barely had a Jalen Brown for sixth. I would say that sums up where he is, which is a borderline all at first. Yes, but I don't know how many of those guys are going to have 65 games. I think they're, maybe.

All the guys ahead of them are certainly efforting to. Jokers, efforting to, Wembe will get two ladders very clearly efforting to. But like, Kate Cunningham's having a great year. He's not having a better year than Luca and he's not a better player than Luca. More Hoop Collective Podcast after this. So here's the Lakers Road Trip. Actually, I want to get it in correct order. The first two are going to be, the Lakers are going to be in Houston.

Is it Monday Wednesday? It's Monday Wednesday. I got it here if you want me to read it. I got it. Okay, so the Lakers' upcoming games, six-game road trip, at Houston Monday, at Houston Wednesday, Thursday back-to-back in Miami. Yikes. Oh, I mean, west to east back-to-back in Miami. The heat did have their winning streak snapped by the magic.

Speaking of the magic, they've won what, seven in a row, eight in a row? That's where the Lakers then go play Saturday. So, Rockets, Rockets. Well, in that heat game, definitional schedule loss, 22 and a half hours later, it's a It's a 9.30 central, actually 21 and a half hour. So, 9.30 central time game. So it's a 21 and a half hour turnaround going east to west. So it's not a short flight.

I think there's, I would guess, zero chance LeBron plays in the Miami game. A second night of a back-to-back. It might be his last trip to Miami. I don't think it will be. Speaking of that, can I just, can I just preview something? Coming Thursday, my retrospective on the heats 27 game win streak from 2013. Retrospective.

Well, I hope we see LeBron in that game because I always like to see him play. But, I mean, that's a, that's the definition of a schedule loss. If they win that one, that's a hell of a win. He just said retrospective. We've got to celebrate that. Wendy's got patches on that sport coat, on the elbows. I had so much fun.

You know, I lived through it. I probably, out of the 27 games, I probably was at 18 of them or so. I was on at the, I was in, I was at the garden the night they actually lost it. But there was some great stuff that happened. And during that 27 game win streak that I did research on and brought them all back to the surface. So it was a lot of fun to report that story. And I, you know, unless you are like a Pacers fan or a Celtics fan, you probably will have good memories of that. You know what's funny?

When we were in Vegas, Bond Timps, you probably remember this. I was fearful that I think that I think it was like 16 at that point. for OKC, and I was very fearful that they were going to get that thing into the 20s and threatened 27 and maybe even 33 and that I was not going to be home for large, large, large stretch there. And the Spurs took care of it, but that was also when there was a whole lot of talk. 74? Can it be 75, 76? How many will they win? Winning that many games is hard to do. Maybe we should wait until like January or February to get that excited about such a milestone again. All right. So tough back to back, Rockets Heat, and then day off and at Orlando, who's one of the hottest teams in the league, then day off and then they finish it a week from Monday.

At the trip. Actually, they don't finish it there. That's the tard part. They finish it there. They play the Pacers. The last game. Then they play the Pacers. That's a soft landing.

So they've got a half game lead on Houston for the three seed. Now, that victory over Denver was huge, obviously, for many reasons. but also in tiebreak because that won them the tie break. And I will say there's something interesting. We'll be talking about tie breaks more coming up. Minnesota is in really bad shape on tiebreakers. They basically have lost the tiebreakers pretty much to everybody or are behind in the tiebreakers, everybody. Minnesota is in bad tiebreak position.

The Lakers' tie break position is pretty good. We'll see what happens with the Rockets games coming up. The tiebreaker is still up in the air there. But one thing to point out, and the sun, this is something for the Suns fans to keep an eye on. If you win your division, and there are still divisions out there, ladies and gentlemen, the sons and the Lakers are fighting, quote unquote, for the Pacific Division title, that is a tiebreaker in the case of multi-team ties. In other words, if it's a three-team tie, which they're very easily could be.

And so the Lakers getting that victory over Denver wins that tie break and puts them in, you know, keeps them in position to lead the Pacific Division. I think you're being very charitable with that being a battle. Oh, really? You don't think there's a chance of a three-way tie, and you don't think there's a chance? No, no, no, no. I think you're being charitable saying the Lakers aren't going to win their division. That's what I'm saying. The Sons have a billion injuries. I don't think they're going to be able to keep up with the Lakers. That's what I was referring to. Okay. So I would say it's a, I would say it's a big factor the other way, that the Lakers, like the Spurs are not being caught by Houston. The Thunder are not being caught by Minnesota and Denver. That is another huge feather in the Lakers cap that they're They're all but certainly, I think, going to win the Pacific Division,

and that will trump any of these tiebreakers, which all could very easily happen with all four of those teams. And this baseball series in Houston is big for a couple reasons. Number one, obviously, the Lakers have gotten themselves into the 3C now and want to stay there. The difference between 3 and 4, we can all figure out. It's pretty significant, assume an OKC hangs on, which looks like they very likely will up 3 and a half games.

You'd much rather wait until potentially the West Finals to see OKC and deal with an inexperienced San Antonio team in the second round. Also, if they can get the rockets a couple times, you might be bumping the rockets down to six. And I'm pretty sure of the possibilities here, the rockets are the team that these other teams in this three to six mix would most like to see. Yeah, I talked to an executive, a Western Conference executive this week who's on one of these top teams. This can be used against people in the future. You're vague enough. They said the target is, the target is Houston.

Like, that's the team. Well, listen, one team has made the conference finals two years in a row. The other team has Nicole Yolkich. Well, no, but one, look, Denver has Nicole Yolkitschin has won a title. The other team, as Anthony Edwards has made the conference finals two years in a row, say what you want about how they did against the Thunder. They still got there. Last year, they smoked the Lakers in the first round.

And Houston hasn't won a playoff series since James Hardin was there. Like, of course they're the, of course they're the target. They just lost by 25 to San Antonio, by more than I can do the math off top of my head, 36 to Denver. They had to squeak out a win over the Pelicans at home. They lost at home to a Warriors team that can't beat anybody without Steph and Jimmy. I mean, the Rockets are really playing uninspired basketball right now. There has to be a pecking order to these things. And obviously, Houston, if the Lakers right now could have the three,

seed and then get Houston a team that hasn't won a playoff series as a group and San Antonio a team that hasn't won a playoff series as a group for his path to the conference finals, they would take that. Doesn't mean any criticism of anybody else, but that, like, if they're the four seed and they have to play Denver and Minnesota and then the Thunder, that, like, it's just a much different path. You know, there's just no question about that. And look, again, the lake was, that was an incredible win last night, set aside, whatever

you want to say about Denver, you know, not Jamal Marie having a terrible game, having a game one at the end anyway, any of that. It's a great win. They've been playing really well. I think this goes back to what you said at the beginning, McMahon. I'm still unconvinced about their ability to guard in a really high level spot in the playoffs with the roster they have. They're going to have to prove they can do that. They also are a team that's going to struggle to shoot the ball, especially outside of Austin and Luca. Last night, for as well as they played, they hit 14 for 42 from 3. Like, those are the two questions. Can the other guys hit shots and can they guard enough? If they can do that in the play,

They'll have a chance with their star power to win a series or two. But it's going to need an inside straight of things to come together. Coming into today, this will be different by the time the pod comes out slightly, but coming into today, let me go over the toughest remaining schedules or the remaining schedule strength and the tiebreakers, just real quick. Of the teams fighting for three to seven, because the sons are still sitting there, the sons have the hardest of those schedules. The Timberwolves have the second hardest, although maybe it's a little easier after the Oklahoma

City game is already off the books. The Lakers have the third hardest. The Nuggets have the fourth hardest, and the Rockets have the easiest schedule. So the Nuggets and Rockets have more friendly schedules coming in. When you look at the tiebreakers, this is the Timberwolves tiebreaker situation. O'N3 versus Lakers.

Actually, it might be O in four now, because I think that was before yesterday. One and three versus Nuggets. O'N1 versus Rockets, O'N two versus Sons. Wow. And the Lakers, it's O'N3 versus Lakers. Sorry, take that back.

Lakers, 2-1 versus Nuggets, 0-1 versus the rocket, so the tiebreaker will be determined in these two games, and 3-0 versus Timberwool. So the Lakers and Timberwolds, Ta, have that. So Lakers in pretty good, if the Lakers could, really, if the Lakers could sweep these two games, they would be in great position. But even if they split, it's not so bad,

but if they do split, Houston gets the tie break. So that's something. Well, and Houston still has two games left against Memphis. they have a game left against Chicago, they have a game left against New Orleans, they have a game left against Milwaukee, they have a game left against Utah, they have a game left against Golden State,

which is in April, but Golden State is a shell of itself from an injury standpoint. We'll see where Steph is at. They have a game left in April with Phoenix. Phoenix is also a shell of itself from an injury standpoint. We'll see where Phoenix is at.

And they have a game, the third, last game of the season, is a home game against Philly, which maybe they'll have some guys back by then, or maybe they won't. So, like, that's a lot of games. When you talk about the easiest, scheduled down the stretch where there's several games in there.

They should just, and again, they barely beat the Wizards. It took a bit of a save at the end or the Pelicans the other day, but they should win a bunch of these games. They're the quote unquote mark, which I hate even saying because now that just like sort of guarantees they'll whip the Lakers in those two games. That's what happens in the NBA. But say whatever you want about how they're playing. They have the easiest schedule.

They could easily get a higher season. So, I mean, I was talking to another example. executive yesterday and I was like, boy, how do you see like these teams coming down? I was like looking for a nuanced conversation about, you know, between Houston, Lakers, nuggets, like how was it going to, he's like, who's playing the most tankers? Has ever playing the most tankers is going to get the highest seat? And that's not the Lakers. Hey, there could be some jockeying down the stretch. Like, you, it might be, teams might try to get to six instead of five. I'll put it like that. Well, it's just, I think it's going to be hard with how bunched up these teams are. And look, these teams have also been all over

the place. I mean, we've talked about Minnesota all season. They, they've obviously had a bad week, but they've had some really high highs and like, yeah, I mean, man's doing the, the up and down roller coaster motion for people listening. Like, they, they've had some horrendous losses. We've talked about them all season. You know, Denver obviously is getting healthy. Thought Aaron Gordon playing well in this Laker game was a huge thing. I mean, his three-point shooting turnaround, by the way, is a totally separate aside, is one of the creative. easier things that we've seen in recent years, like him becoming this knockdown

three-point shooter. It's a huge thing for them. But they've had some weird performances lately too. Obviously, getting smoked by the Knicks. They barely beat the Jazz in one game. They've had some weird games. Houston's had a lot of weird, like you said, McMahon, they've had a lot of weird games. These teams, everybody after the Spurs

and Thunder has been very up and down at different points. And right now it's an up for the Lakers. And, you know, if they could get these two wins against Houston, that would be pretty huge for their chances of really trying to lock in a top four spot and especially getting to that third spot. If you're a Rockets fan, you're saying, how come you're not talking about how the fact that the Timberwolves are only a game ahead of the sons for the play it? You know, you're like, they've just, you know, drop some, you know, they lost three or four on this road trip. I think all these teams are, it was a really bad road trip.

And I think all these teams are really lucky Phoenix is so banged up. Like, if they had Dylan Brooks and Mark Williams and these guys available. Like, yeah, I would say they'd be live in it to get into the top six, but I think it's just going to be hard for them to keep up. Well, and they have the toughest schedule. Yes, well, that's the other part. But the fact that they have the toughest schedule and injuries, it's, you know, they've had a great year.

But I think it's a lot more likely they're sitting in the seven spot, probably playing the Clippers. We'll see how bad this Kauai ankle sprain is. Booker at a 40-point game. Yeah, the Clippers right as we were thinking like, oh, what could they do? then they get steamrolled by the kings of all teams. And Kauai Springs his ankle late.

We'll see what that. It didn't look that bad. However, with Kauai, I don't know. Just got to say you don't know. Exactly. Okay. So earlier on Sunday today, when we're recording this, we talked about the thunder with that victory over Minnesota.

Minnesota was red hot in the second and third quarters of this game. Shea started the game off shooting two of ten. You know, Minnesota has played, we had a stat before the game over the last five years. Now, we're pushing it a little bit, but still, it's kind of the Shea era. The Timberwolves were 13 and 6 in the regular season against the Thunder. No one has had as many wins over them in that stretch is Minnesota. They were two and one this year. You remember the last time they played, they played up in Minneapolis,

and Ant hit that stepback three to clinch the game over. AJ. It was over AJ Mitchell, I think. Or maybe it was Wallace, Kisan Wallace. That wasn't the same game that Finch got tossed from, was it? I don't think so. That I don't remember. I don't remember. It might have been, but I don't remember for sure. Because, you know, Finch has absolutely

been at the forefront of this critique, I'll call it politely, critiquing. Artful, artful. Yeah, the whining, griping, critiquing. The way that OKC is officiated on both He had the big thing last year where I'm paraphrasing, but he basically said, you know, they're hacking away on defense.

And if you blow on Shay, he goes to the line on the other end. And you've heard a lot of that. That's kind of been a theme. Early on in this game, it's just frustrated as I've seen Shea with the officiating in that first quarter. There's at least twice where he's like, seriously? And including the shot at the end of the quarter, where like usually, Shea's not a guy who usually says much at all to the rest. That's correct. Yeah.

He's talked about this. He doesn't think it's productive. Yeah, he was pretty miffed. I wonder if Finch, and, you know, Finch, you know, we talked about when Finch got tossed in the first quarter, this was in December. There was the second, the third loss of the year for the Thunder, not the last game they played in January. Right, that's right. So Finch was, that felt very calculated and, you know, plotted out. And I thought that they were, you know, getting away with some pretty things.

physical defense on Shea today, which you can say, hey, you know, maybe Finch's little lobbying efforts paying dividends. Kendrick Perkins mentioned this during the halftime, is that when you're a star player like Ant, sometimes you can get away with. Now, the one play in particular where he literally slapped him on the arm. Yeah, the play at the end of the first quarter, Shea was pretty heated and deservedly so. He got hit twice on the jumper, so.

One thing I will say about this game for Minnesota, Julius Randall has been terrible by his standards since the All-Star break. There are people who believe that it's his reaction to being floated in trade discussions or rumors for Janus. I don't know for sure, but I can tell you that before the All-Star break, this is before today's game. Before the All-Star break, he was averaging 22 points and shooting almost 50% from the field. in the 11 games since the All-Star break, he was averaging 13 points and shooting 39% from the field before today's game. And he comes out with intent and has a 32-point game today. So maybe this is him breaking out of his shell a little bit.

We'll see that could be a factor. That would help. But that's, you know, considering how tight this all is, that's important. The Thunder are getting healthier. Isaiah Hartenstein is back. and A.J. Mitchell, as we mentioned earlier, he's back. Caruso, who had a hit. I meant to ask while watching the game, Tim.

Is there any update at all on Jane Williams? I don't, I still don't have a feel. I made a point on, I think it was Monday, to watch his pregame. I did not see him doing anything explosive in his pregame workout. I didn't see a whole lot of like, you know, accelerating off the dribble or the kind of things. I was basically, you know, I was watching his pregame trying to get a feel like, is he on the verge and he didn't look like he was on the verge, you know. So there's not been like any kind of official update.

You know, his reevaluation came and went and they've just kind of kept it at radio silence. He'll be back at some point. I could not tell you when that's going to be. Yeah. I mean, if there's any team that has the ability to be patient, it's them. Now that AJ Mitchell's back, you know, they've got Jared McCain playing. They've got Caruso. They've got Casey Wallace.

They have all these guys that can play. But every game I watch the Thunder, I just see him sitting over there in some very expensive outfit. I keep wondering when he's going to play. I think maybe unnecessary glasses on. How about the gold grill? He hit 40 in a finals game. He could do whatever he wants.

I'm just curious to see when he's back on the corner. No. And so, it's obviously, look, clearly they brought him back too early the last time, right? And his hammy was aggravated in his second game back, which the shame was. He said that his wrist was feeling much better. And he was in the midst of an unbelievable game when he got hurt again. He was 11 of 12 from the floor of 20 minutes in Phoenix. But at this point, like they're 34 and 8 without him.

And that's not to say they don't need him, but they can clearly manage without him during the regular season. They have a three and a half game cushion over the spurs. So, you know, it's not too tight there. I think really what you're hoping if you're OKC with Janelle Williams is that, he has enough time to feel like he's in some kind of rhythm going into playoffs. That to me is the bigger, obviously his health, first foremost is the biggest concern.

But other than that, like, you just want to make sure that he's got a chance to kind of get a little bit of a groove going, you know, before April 19th or 20th or whenever they open the playoffs. Well, let's be honest, even if they're playing the Clippers in the first round,

who's probably on a better streak lately than Phoenix, it's still really about for them, getting to the second round anyway. So he's even got a couple more weeks to get going from there. But yeah, like, it could end up being a positive for them if the guy ends up getting, obviously, right, like that I'm out there. But if he comes in having had 35 or 40 games this season total played, you'd think he'll be pretty fresh and ready to go for a long playoff run, which, you know, I had somebody

early in the year, I don't remember who it was, say, look, you look at Indiana last year. They had all these injuries throughout the year. They got healthy late in the regular season, and it set them up to take off for this playoff run. Obviously, the thunder are at the top of the conference, but with all the injuries they've had, maybe they'll end up having some fresher legs down the stretch than he would have otherwise.

I will say that Shay, I don't know how big of a feather it is for him, for his MVP case, but the fact that he has still put up incredibly efficient numbers, yet again, without having, you know, the balancing aspect of J. Dub, you know, I think that's, it's, it furthers his MVP case, so I would say. Jaylon Williams has missed so far this season, 42 games, A.J. Mitchell's missed 23 games. Hartenstein's missed 22 games. Caruso's missed 24 games. Like, I mean, those are all real players missing a lot of games. and they're still chugging along.

Yeah, they're not on pace to win 75 games, but they've continued to be awesome with all these guys out. And like you said, Che's a guard shooting 55% from the field. Like, you know, he's having an incredible season. Forget 55%. His true shooting percentage,

and obviously it dipped with this 722 day against the wolves. Going into today, his true shooting percentage was 66.9. That matches Steph Curry from his unanimous. Manmus MVP season as the best ever for a guy scoring 30 plus per game. And that guy had 4003s that season. Just to be clear, Shaggilders-Alexander is about to become the fourth guy.

I'm sorry, the first guy since Michael Jordan have four straight 30-point per game seasons. Yeah, by the way, 30 points per game, he's going to shoot over 50 in all four of those. Yes. He is a historically efficient scoring machine. Like he, you know, obviously when you break one of Wilts records, you're getting an all-time great category. When you do, you know, he joined an exclusive club last year, scoring champ, MVP, finals MVP. I mean, this guy is early in his prime and has already established himself as an all-time great.

And by the way, just real quick, because I just looked this up to double check it. So Michael Jordan led the league in scoring seven consecutive seasons from 87 to 93. the middle five of those seasons, he shot over 50% every time. Like, yes, it's a different era. There were less three shot then. Obviously, Jordan was not a great three-point shooter. But, like, that's the kind of people we're talking about.

Like, scoring over 30 that many years as a guard, shooting it efficiently, that many years as a guard. Like, again, just like any time you could say, Wilton, you is pretty good. Anytime you could say Michael Jordan and you is pretty good. And Jay has a couple of those things. Well, and honestly, that's why the free throw merchant stuff, it's stupid. And like, I get it.

You know, fans are going to fan and taunt and whatever. Like, it's not the worst thing in the world. But the idea that, like, Shea is a great score because he gets some kind of friendly whistle. Dude, that's very silly. She is shooting better than 60% on twos. And a ton of those are created off the dribble mid-range shots. I mean, like, it's like this shot he hit today to get to the 20 points. I mean, the wolves would everything they could to keep him from getting to 20.

They were bracketing them. They're double teaming them. They're trying to get them off the ball. He hits that three to get to 17. And then the next time, a couple times later, he comes down, Ann Edwards, who's a terrific on-ball defender who desperately clearly didn't want him to get to the 20, knew what was going on, was all over him. And he hit an impossible stepback fadeaway jumper on the baseline.

It was 19 feet in the air of that shot. Yeah. It was crazy. I will say two things. Number one, if you think you're going to bother Shea by calling a free throw merchant, I give you credit. So chant to your little heart's content. The second thing is, if you're going to complain about something with Shea,

it's not the fouls that he gets and going to the line. It's the arm bar. If you're going to petition for a change, stop letting him use the arm bar. And by the way, that's something. We've talked about this a bunch. I went to the referees thing in September. I asked about it then. all the great players are doing that. Yadis, Tatum, Shea, they've all perfected this.

Luca's great at it. Luca's great at it. These guys are all big and strong and super smart and they've all figured out, hey, if I do this, get a little space, get room to go up and shoot. Like, I agree. I think that's the next thing that they need to change. And that's, again, not just a Shea thing. It's just to give the defender some level of chance to guard these guys because otherwise it's impossible to guard any of them. Well, they don't have to change.

I mean, you know, Luca used it on Spencer Jones last night. You know, on the last shot. I mean, not, like, dramatically, like, shut them off. For Spencer Jones. He got a game winner splashing his face by Shea on Monday. Then Luca got him last night. Poor guy. I did go back and look since you mentioned that.

That was the play that Spencer, they said he didn't foul on, was the play where it was controversial that it wasn't a three-point shot. The nuggets are up by three. He inbound and he fouls Reeves real quick. And they were, the Lakers and their fans thought that it should have been. a three point for three shots. And in fact, what the league said was not only should it not have been for three shots, should have been for no shots.

Sure. I thought it was pretty clearly not a shot. But I, you know, but yeah, either way. I could have gone either way. I understand. Anyway. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. Speaking of the MVP, the Shea, how about this quote from Victor Wembeyanama?

Now, Bontemps identified this while Wembe Gama was still. playing in France, finding these quotes that are low-key arrogant or confident. Not low-key. Not low-key. Just said in a polite way, but not low-key arrogant. Extraordinarily arrogant. Right now, my mind is taking, my mind is on taking care of my body because I also want to win MVP and defensive player at the year. So I'm trying to press the gas from now until the end of the season. Really take care of my treatment, take care of my sleep, take care of my routine, and show up for my team. Look, Victor Wemam-Miamma, from the beginning, has since he was 12 years old, has wanted to be the best player of all time,

and has said that repeatedly, and to this point, has largely followed through on the things that he's said. And as we've talked about, as you said, many times, my favorite thing about him, beyond watching and play, which is always awesome, is this guy says outlandishly arrogant things, but says it in a very, like, polite kind of, you know, friendly demeanor, it just doesn't come off that way.

They're not outlandishly arrogant, though, because they're factual. Well, yes, and they're also factual. But yes. He just says... I'm bragging if it's true. Well, yes. I mean, but again, it's... He says things that people don't typically say,

and to your point, McMahon, it's because he can do things that not only can't people typically do, people can't dream of doing, for the most part. And it's what may... It's one of the many things that makes them so awesome,

and it's one of the many things that potentially has a set up for a pretty incredible era of basketball ahead, because this guy desperately wants to be the best and is not afraid to say it and is going out there and doing it. And it's awesome. And, you know, this is a week where we still got almost a month left for the regular season,

but Shane is going to be tough to catch for MVP. And this week where he breaks Willits Record, where he hits the game, the dagger against the Warriors, the game winner against the Nuggets out of 35.15 assists, no turnover, crazy efficient performance, crazy efficient breaking the record against the Celtics, hit some big shots there. It's going to be tough to catch him. Again, I do think the only threat is the Spurs storming. to the finish line and taking the top seed and Wimby doing what he's been doing. Let me just read to you his numbers from this home game or homestan.

It's a six game homestan. He's only played in five. Yeah, sorry. Right. He's at the one game against the Nuggets because there is, as he pointed out in his press governments after the game against the Hornets. There is one body part of his that has swelling right now. That's not what he said.

He said, I have one body, he says one body part that's inflamed. It's his ankle. Just be clear. Well, he had to clarify that. There was a good follow-up question from you know, we, we, we, it's his ankle. Anyways, the guy's averaging during this homestand, 33 points per game, shooting 55 from the floor, 47 from three-point range, hitting 4.6-3s per game. And then doing his normal, you know, 11.4 rebounds, 3.8 blocks, 1.5.1.1.1.1.1.5 blocks. 1.2 steals, 3.2 assists. The guys against the Hornets, he's throwing multiple lobs to Luke

Cornett. I mean, he's all over the place. But dude, Wimby, I know Bon Temps, you get mad every time you see him shoot those three. That's not true. It's not true. USWB? Don't say things about me that aren't true, buddy. You cannot put Victor Wimbab in a box. You can't put him in a box. He's been telling us all long. And he is, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I, I think what we're watching is this guy just starting to grow into his offensive powers. He's already the most dominant defensive player maybe I've ever seen. And I'm not saying it's going to have 33 moving forward, but I'm saying that we are watching the revolution right now.

Well, listen, if Victor's going to shoot 47% from three and make four and a half threes a game, then they're going to be able to do whatever they want. Like, honestly, that, like, if he's shooting at that level, like, then it's not some, like, give back to the defense then, right? Like, if he becomes a consistent 40% 3-point shooter, like, yeah, then it's just over. Like, then to just give up at that point. I think, you know,

and if he is going to shoot 47% over a 5-game stretch, his numbers are going to be cartoonish like that, like even more than normal, because that does make him utterly unstoppable. I do think, as we've talked about a lot, the Kevin Durant quote of giving up a jumper as a win,

it's because if he does the go-go-gadget dunk-arm thing, like, That's 100% shot. And like, you know, if he gets in a stretch where he is, you know, if he's shooting 27% instead of 47%, and he's making two threes a game, then you at least have a chance. That's all.

But like if he's going to shoot like this, good luck. Did you see the dunk he had over Grant Williams and Grant Williams for some strange reason, jumped with him? And Wimby looks over his shoulders. He's jogged down the short, the court and chuckled at him. It's like watching a guy in a video game.

a lot of the time. It's just like you create this player in the video game and he just can do whatever he wants. I mean, that's what it looks like. I truly believe that he and the spurs have figured out something in terms of like getting him good looks at threes and getting him volumes because they're like the threes he's

throwing up now. He's chucking up 10 per game on this home stand. I think they're 10 and 2 now when he takes nine threes. They're like, they're still undefeated when he hits at least four anyways. But they're like a bunch of, a bunch of trailer threes. They're a bunch of picking pops and he mixes in just enough rolls to where, you know, you got to be careful with that. I will say he's averaging seven free throws on these five games too. So he's not just only hoisting. He is. But that's the other thing,

especially when he's got a big on him and we saw this with Jan and Duran, we saw it with Musa Diabate, and he and the three is that much of a threat. And then he's pump faking and attacking closeouts because they're so scared of him getting a decent look at a three. Those guys are in hell, and they're getting an early foul trouble. Like, how many guys do you think Jalen Durenz had to guard in his life that could pump faking and go off the three-point line? Diabate, like, these guys are bigs. And then it, now the, we'll see come playoff time.

You know, there's definitely going to be teams that just try to put a wing on him and get under them and all that. We'll see how the spurs deal with that. But, you know, people in San Antonio, he will tell you this guy is the best player in the league and they don't want to hear any argument. I'll argue SGA right now, but Wimby is, if he's going to be doing what he's doing offensively, I don't, there's not going to be an argument too much longer. Well, and over these last, over these last handful of games, he's the last five games,

he is, he's 19 for 39 from 3 and so 39 total shots and 29 of them have been catching shoot shots, which again, that is, what we have been talking about. The more times he is a play finisher, not trying to be a play creator, that is the ultimate end game, I think, at least right now. Maybe in the future he'll become somebody else.

Do you include attacking close outs as play finishing? Yeah, that's fine. Yes, like to some extent, yeah, like obviously, you know, he's not like he's not allowed to dribble, but it's when he's like trying to become a point guard is I think when the defense is really winning. But if it's like, hey, I'm, Like I've said before, to me at least today, he is Rudy on defense, but like obviously multiplied,

like best defensive player in the sport. And like to me, the goal right now should be Dirk on offense. Who's one of the best offensive players of all time? And as he's in his third year in the league, he's going to get better handling the ball. He's going to do more than Dirk could at any point handle on the ball. I do thoroughly enjoy when he basically catches a block shot. So it's a block and rebound all at one swoop in motion. and then decides he's going to get out and start the break himself.

Well, yes, that is unbelievable. And that's different, too. I'm talking about in the half court when he could get loaded up on and he can have little guys come in and steal the ball from him. Like him in transition like Yadis is insane. It's like two steps and he's at the other three point line. But yeah, like, look, if he's making catch and shoot threes at that kind of rate and three quarters of his shots, at least according to synergy,

are catching shoot threes. like that's a good shot diet. And, you know, it's why the Spurs have a chance to buck the trend of all NBA history this year. Because, like, history would tell you they're not going to win and they're probably going to lose earlier than later. But this guy is already an anomaly from all of NBA history and he may be able to have him break past it. The Dirk offensive comp is interesting. I think Wemby might be a little bit more of a lob threat than Dirk was. Well, slightly.

But I'm just talking about as a shab. shooter. But yes, I mean, look, he's, again, the comparison there is two Hall of favors, one of the best defensive players ever and one of the best offense players ever. And that's what we're talking about the guy's third season. It's completely insane all the way around. Monday night, March 16th has been on the books as a very high attention game in Atlanta for weeks now. Everybody's been very, very focused on this night. You know, it's been, it's been in promotions. It's been commented on the, by the league office.

It's one of the most impactful. Yes, it's been one of the most impactful games on the schedule for the Hawks. Sure has been. Because it's the nine-win Hawks, the Hawks winners of nine in a row versus the magic, winners of seven in a row. It's one of the games of the month in the league. And they're going to have wings. I mean, what an incredible foresight to have so much attention on this game. So the Hawks have won nine straight games.

I will say. Can we just pause right there? So the Hawks have won nine straight games. But hold on. USWB alert. I'll let you say what you're going to say. I just want to point something out. Sure.

I don't think I've ever seen a bit of schedule like the Hawks have had here. And I'm not even talking about who they're playing. I'll let you have that. Just hang on. Yep. This is their 11th out of 12 home games. So, okay, teams have stretches and schedules where they're home heavy. That happens.

Not only have there been no back to backs in this stretch. In this stretch of home games, they've had 13 days off. Yep. 13. Like not only have they had all of these friendly home games, but they've had a chance to rest. It's been amazing. So it's not surprising that they're playing quite well. Okay. Now you can say who they've been playing. So since the All Star break, they're 10 and 1, all right? This is their schedule of games. Start out the All Star break. They're in Philly. No Joella Bede, Paul George. They win by 10. They then go home to play at Lent and play Miami. They lose by 31. That's their only loss since the Allster break.

Here's who they played since then. That was a back to back. Then back to back the next night. Yes. But they win that game in the Philly. They lose the second night of a back-to-back by a million at home to Miami. All right, that's fine. Then they have the Nets at home. They win that one by 11. They have consecutive games at home against the Wizards. They win them by a combined.

With a day off in between. We have to relax. Right. But then they won by a billion points. They then play Portland at home. Portland with no Deniaavia. They win that game by 34. They then play the Bucks, have a couple days off in between.

Janice does come back as that's They played one game in six days And it was their one road game But they got six days for one game They go to Milwaukee Yonis is back They win that game going away by 18 They then come home and play Philadelphia

A pretty competitive game That's the game Tirees Maxi got hurt At the end of the game They're one relatively competitive game However in the one relatively competitive game No Viji Edgum No Joe Joel Embed

Suspended Paul George They're all missing for that game Maxi's hurt by the end of it Then they play Dallas at home, the Nets at home, and the Bucks at home again. Like, talk about the definition of the current NBA. This team has played for a month is 10 and 1, and they've played basically no game against the competitive team the entire time.

Well, they're about to. They're about to. Right. And it's what makes this Orlando game so fascinating. Orlando is playing well. They've ripped off a bunch of wins. I think they're now into, I was going to double check. I think they're up to fifth now because Toronto's

falling off the map. And if Atlanta wins this game, they're now a game and a half out of fifth place in the Easter conference standings. Like fifth to ninth, because Charlotte's falling off, is within two and a half games. And Philadelphia with all their injuries is probably going to be at best ninth.

So you're talking about Orlando, Toronto, Miami, and Atlanta, all fighting for five to eight in the east. And for an Atlanta team that was floundering for a while, obviously dealt with all the trade drama, everything else, this stretch is scheduled by taking advantage of it and not losing any of these games has put them in a position to get up into the top six in the east, which we weren't talking about for months.

Which they don't control their draft picks, so why would they even think about doing nothing? Right. Neither was Orlando, by the way. Orlando, though, won seven straight. And, you know, there's some tankers in there, but there's also, like, they just beat Miami. in Miami, I believe.

And ever since Paulo and Jamal Mosley had that little back and forth via their individual press conference thing we basically confirmed everything we talked about of the word is

there'd been the head button between them. Paulo's been playing great. In the seven game win streak average 26, nine rebounds, over five assists, you know, a massively positive

plus my And I think he's playing as well as this is as good as stretch as he's had. And, you know, he had a, Mark Spears did a story on him where Paulo Bacy said, hey, I looked at the mirror that, you know, when the All-Stars came out. And he was upset about it, but he was like, I didn't, I hadn't done enough to be an All-Star. So, you know. Since from Joel Glass, PR guy for the, for the Magic, two guys have averaged 25, 9 and 5 since the All-Star break, Paolo and Nicole Yolkitch.

It's pretty good. And Palo is also taken the third most shots within five feet of the basket, and he's made 73% of them. There you go. Not settling for jumpers to your point, McBan, right? The thing we've always criticized about him, you've led to way on that, is being a really inefficient scorer. Well, he's an absolute load.

Always a tank. And if he's getting to the basket and scoring in the paint, that's a path to him getting to the kind of efficiency he needs to have to take a real step forward. Whose stats are these for the season? 23 points a game, 10.4 rebounds a game, eight assists a game. Jalen Johnson, you always do this

and think you can fool us. 1.3 steals the game, 50% shooting. Yeah, Jalen Johnson. The assists are what, give it away. I mean, Jalen Johnson is, what, fourth in the league, I think, an assist per game? I don't know that, but it sounds...

Fifth, the guys he's behind are Yokic, Kade, Luca, and James Hardin. By the way, speaking of Atlanta, Atlanta should be as annoyed with the tank of Paloos as anybody because the Pelicans keep on thinking in the tankathon because they're the only ones out of that group that are trying to win games. The Mavericks zoomed by them, you know, the jazz, everybody zoomed by them. First of all, they're like, I think, a half game right now ahead of Dallas and sixth.

They've got Memphis doing an unbelievable tank job, the Grizzlies. They're flying into the race. I think they're going to wind up in sixth, the head of Dallas, ahead of New Orleans, the way they're going. and Milwaukee has that like 8 and 1 stretch where they win all those games without Janus. Janus comes back. They're playing right now against Indiana, obviously firmly in the tank race. I don't know if Milwaukee has won since Janus came back. And they've now come back down to like ninth.

They could end up with the eighth and ninth picks in the lottery. Just imagine if they had lost all those games on Yanis without. That's what I mean. They would be like they'd be behind New Orleans right now. But they had this one stretch. I got some cheesehead sizzling when I declared the day, Johnster's coming back that the Bucks would not win a single playoff game. I'll tell you a little secret.

That's because I knew they weren't going to make the damn playoff. They stink. Well, actually I'm going to check that while we're sitting here. They're down three right now at halftime to the Pacers. I suspect the Pacers will probably steal the loss from the jaws of victory. We have no idea where the Pacers are going to play in the second half. The Pacers played Zubot 60 minutes in the first half. We'll see if he plays any more today.

He will not play 16 minutes in the second half. That's my assumption. So since, let me just look at our quick game log here. So Yadam's Next press conference I think the finals will come three days before it

So Yadis has played in five games since he's come back 27 point lost to to Boston an 18 point loss to Atlanta a win against

Utah Shock of all shocks a 15 point loss to Miami on Thursday so one and four in the five games since he's been back

and maybe two and four with two wins against tankers so it's where we're at in the NBA right now just who's playing a tanker on the day And then how hard are they taking?

Just checking Cam Thomas's stats. That's why I honestly, like when you get two teams, like the Nuggets, Lakers game, it's like, oh, yes, two good teams trying to win. There's just pure. It's manna from heaven basketball. Honestly, I had to, like, I got to go see OKC play both the Nuggets and the Celtics. Jatham Brown's foul bait and commentary post game was pretty funny. And a game, he shot 14 Fritos and Chase shot none in the fourth quarter.

Yeah. So are you ready for the anti? I don't know what's going to happen in this game. Okay? The folks who listen and watch are going to know they can check this. It's halftime right now as we're doing this. We're about to wrap up here. Aaron Neese, this is going to be called the anti-BAM.

Ready? Aaron Neesmith has 24 points and 20 minutes in the first half of this game. How many points and how many minutes where Neesmith end up with? What's his career? He's coming off an injury. He got to rest him. Got to make sure he's feeling good. I got to look up his career eye.

I want him to do his career eye. Let's just make a little, have like a live prediction. He's scored some in the past. Oh, he's at 31's his career eye. At least let him get his career eye. Will he score more than 32 points in this game? No, no. I'm going hard no on that one.

Will he play in the fourth quarter of this game? I'm saying he does not play in the fourth quarter of this game. And Zubotch played 16 minutes. I say he plays, he might not play in the second half. We don't know. But it's all okay. And again, people who are tanking are not bad people. They're good people.

They're following the incentives. Yes. They're good people making, you know, strategic decision. They're not bad. We need to change the incentives. That's the problem. It's not the people doing it. All right.

That was fun. Look forward to help you're going back to your Houston roots there. Absolutely. It's going to be great. All right. We look forward to another fantastic week of basketball. There's nothing going on in other basketball this week. We're going to stay focused on the NBA.

All Bond Tips covers colleges now. He was hanging out in Kansas City. I know. Bontemps, Bontems, you were at, I can't believe, thank you for mentioning this. Yeah. We haven't, Bontem's went to the big 12 tournament for three days. I did. It was great time. Where everybody else in the NBA was there.

I saw, I think I saw 20 lead executives in person at the games. Might have been more. It was, everybody was there. What about the, the L.D. Court that was abandoned midway through? I mean, it was a disaster. I mean, I've known Brett Yormark for a long time. Brett Yorne-Wark was the CEO of the Nets for, I think, over a decade. He's now the commissioner of the Big 12.

He's the guy who 20 years ago and like the, like, I think it might have been the year they won 12 games at IZOT Center at the Meadowlands when he did the reversible jersey promotion where it was all these jerseys of the star players on the other teams coming to play the Nets that they were handing out for all these games. Like he has never been shy about promotional things and they did this promotional thing. The crazy thing about it is the Big 12 tournament had, as much NBA talent as there's been in a tournament, a conference tournament in probably since there were like eight teams playing in the league.

Because, I mean, in the semifinals on Friday, there might have been 20 guys who will play in the league playing across the four teams. And it's by far the best conference of basketball this year. And then they do this LED screen court where guys are slipping and sliding all over the place. This poor kid, Christian Anderson, who's going to probably be a top 20 pick in the draft this year. Hurt just growing in the game. Hopefully he's not out for the tournament.

So then they changed back for the semifinals and the finals. The craziest part about it was I didn't even realize it because we were sitting court side, but the court was like a foot higher when it was the LED court because they had all this cushioning and stuff in. So it became way easier to see because the court literally was down to foot. So like the people in front were just way lower. But yeah, it made for a wild couple of days viewing-wise. But the games were great and it was good to see a lot of people from the league, many of whom commented on the podcast. We've got many listeners in the league.

So shout out to them. Shout out to Doris Burke, by the way, who gave the podcast a shout-out. And specifically mention me and only me by name. Shout out, Doris. Any other shout-out, Jackson? Do you have any shout-outs you want? Mark, any shout-outs? Anybody praise you?

Anybody say anything nice to you at the grocery store? All right. Thank you very much to Mark and Jackson and for putting this sucker together. Thank you so much to McMahon and Bantams. Another great week of tremendous content coming your way. And thank you for listening and watching. Adios amigos.