Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - Most Interesting NBA Trades That Never Happened

Episode Date: July 31, 2026

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim MacMahon and Bobby Marks to break down some of the most interesting trades in NBA history that never came to fruition. The guys tackle everything from Chris Paul to the Lakers, Melo to the Nets, Kobe leaving LA and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome to the Hoot Collective Podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we are doing at a time that will not be disclosed. Actually, it's just a couple days before you're hearing this. It's not really that far in the past. Joining us from Naples, Florida is a guy who's been around the NBA for longer than he wants to admit, Bobby Marks. Gentlemen, how we doing? I'll tell you what. As you get up during age, I got a shingle.

Has anyone gotten a shingle shot? No, but I heard that they let the layover or the after a thing. Gosh, that kicked my butt. I'd tell you what, I'd rather get the shingles shot than have shingles. Yeah. Yeah, well, you heard Tyrese Halliburton. Yeah. Describe how miserable it was.

Yeah. And he got it this year. Yeah. Joining us from Points Unknown. He's somewhere out west. I don't even know where he is. Somewhere in the mountains, lakes, rivers, I don't know, is Band McMahon. Howdy, partners, all the above. Very good.

So this season, the bulk of this offseason, the bulk of it's wrapped up. And I kind of think that when we look back, back at this summer, one of the big sliding doors moments in addition to LeBron picking Philly. And only LeBron knows how close he was to picking elsewhere. That's a big sliding doors moment. But another big sliding doors moment, I think, is going to be the Bucks making the decision to go with the package that Miami was offering, the younger players, as opposed to going with Jalen Brown coming out of Boston, you know, basically sending Yannis to Miami instead of

Boston, thereby launching a thousand discussions about Jalen Brown and basically guaranteeing he was going to get traded, which he did. And which got me thinking about trades that never happened. You know, one of the all-time, all-time ones in terms of off-season, in terms of sliding doors, was in 2011 with Chris Paul, which I was later told by, you know, the story was protected or whatever for a while. But at the time, the difficult thing about that was that the New Orleans Hornets at that time, the Hornets were under league ownership. And the functioning governor of the team was David Stern. And I was talking to somebody who was a longtime employee of the league office. And he was with Stern when he heard the trade that the Hornets agreed to to send Chris

Paul to the Lakers. And when he heard, the details, which I don't even fully remember, Bobby, it was Lamar Odom, Pao Gassal, right? Mm-hmm. I think, wasn't Trevor a reason in it, too, I thought? Maybe. I'll look it up. Anyway, um, uh,

that Stern in the moment, like, there was some, and I'm sure he did later, um, you know, talk to the owners because in theory he was, he was the acting governor, but, you know, in theory, he, you know, it was the other owners, the other 29 owners, that

I think we were making the decisions, but I was talking to someone who was standing right next to him. He's like, well, we're not letting that do go through. He did. He said it that fast. He didn't. I mean, maybe the other owners agreed with him. Maybe he already know it. I don't know what he knew, but I just heard that he said no in the moment.

The first time he heard it. I pulled it up. Lakers were receiving Chris Paul. Hornets were receiving Lamar Odom, Kevin Martin, Louis Scola, and Gorenzeg, plus a 2012 first round pick. And the Rockets would receive Paugasol. Vito. Let me see who the Lakers ended up.

Dan Gilbert, and Dan Gilbert was not the only owner who was basically on the war path to make sure this trade didn't happen. But Dan Gilbert sent an email to Stern where he referred to the trade as, quote, a travesty. And urged Stern to put the deal to a vote of the 29 owners of the Hornets. That's another quote. Well, from what I understand, it ended up. trying to see who the Lakers, what the pick would have been. It probably would have been somebody like Tony Rotin or something like that when that draft, Fab Mello.

Yeah, so it didn't go through in an all-time moment. That was like the Lakers moved to make Kobe's, you know, what had been Kobe's last act and it didn't work out. But Bobby, you were involved in an all-time great, near-Miss trade. Carmelo, 2010. Well, that thing carried over. That thing started in September of 2010, and it went to February of 11th. And the funniest part of, there was a lot of funny parts.

This was in Prokroff and the Russians bought team. This was like their first soire into this world was that I was at Disney World. My kids were younger, and I was like on one of these rides. And Billy King, who was our GM called me. And he goes, hey, I can't find this number. but there's this new guy in Denver, this Ujuri guy, you know, like, and I was like, yeah, he's a scout, you know, he goes, can we, can we see when you find his number? I want to talk to him about Carmelo. And literally, that thing started in, and around training camp, and it lingered throughout the year.

And it got to, it got so contentious that basically like Billy and Messiah, like, excuse themselves from negotiations. And Pete Al Sanjo, who became Sacramento's GM and now is in Orlando. The two of us were like the lead negotiators in the Carmel. I negotiated that deal. Tim, I negotiated that deal at AT&T Stadium going tailgating, getting ready to go to the Cotton Bowl, right, in the park a lot, maybe a couple beers in me. I negotiated that deal in Austin going to see University of Texas the next day. Like I negotiated that deal like all over a great part.

Sounds like a great week. I got questions. How many beers did you have in you when he negotiated the, Oh, my goodness. Don't do that, McMahon. Oh, that's vicious. Oh, boy. Don't even finish that.

I thought we were close. That was late December, early January. I thought we were close. I actually came home from that trip because I thought we were ready to get a deal done. And then, you know, it didn't get done. New York winds up getting the, does the trade and everything like that. And it was funny when I was in Vegas, a couple of days. weeks ago. We had Mike Dantone who did a lot for our, with the program with the kids,

and he was a next coach at the time. And we talked about it like, you know, like their, like their philosophy. And Mike was just like, man, why did you get that deal done? I know. Mike and Mike and Donne kept on ad and an ad and that and then basically they want got to a point and New York wind up doing deal with Denver. But the funniest part of the whole thing though, Brian, and you remember that was when ProGrode did the press conference and basically said we're out, right? Like, he does this, yeah. I would love to do the,

what I remember him saying in his accent, but I have been advised not to do impressions and accents. So I won't do it, but. Who advised you on that? I don't like that advice. Well, I'm not going to do it. But, well, he does the press conference. Basically what happened was,

and back then Twitter, I don't even know if Twitter existed, But there was so much stuff out. And we just got to. And the nuggets basically gave us a like 48-hour window to go down and meet with Carmel. Like that doesn't happen nowadays. So we went down or we were going to go down and I think he was in Baltimore. And they might have been playing the Wizards.

And something happened. And Procroft does the press conference. He said, I'm not going to do his accent, but he said the meeting with Carmelo is hereby canceled. And so the football So the media ends And I'm walking down the Hall of Billy King And I said,

We're out? He goes, heck, no, we're not out. So we wanted to do Darren Williams trade And next get him. So when we were doing, when we were pitching Carmelo And we did that with the Bronn in 2000

In that prior summer, I think we've said this before We were pitching them They could be like the first million dollar Billing dollar athlete. Like, And like, you could be the next Federer

or like these race cards, like all these things. I like it. I like it. So what happened was when we signed Carolenko in 2013, we got investigated. Like they came in, like took our phones,

took our computer. Like they took everything, right? We had to give them everything. And in there was that pamphlet, like how we're going to make you the next billion dollar athlete. And the league was like, whoa,

wait a minute there. How's that going to happen? Like billion dollars from, can you imagine if, If Bitcoin was around when Prokeroff was the... Hey, that's like when Rich Paul was laying out all the opposites for the bra on the Mavericks, he put... What was it? Golf oil, like, how...

Yeah. I forgot what the other one was, but it was like, nothing was basketball. It was all about, like, you can play golf and get really, really rich because you'll have all these connections. I think maybe it said, like, I don't remember what the other one was. None of them were basketball. They were all golf and business. The kicker was that so we don't do the deal. We get, they next do the deal and we get Darren Williams.

And then so, you know, like that took like five years off my life, just like Carmelo stuff. And then so I know I'm in a big time everyone when I say this. So six months later, I got invited. We got invited to the Chris Humphrey's Kim Kardashian wedding. Oh, ho. Right. In Santa Barbara. The house was like next soap.

I don't know. Who might have been the head of Google? I don't know whose house was. It was somebody's house. So we go to the wedding and I decided to wear a white tuxedo with jacket, white jacket, all right, white jacket, black paints. I wanted, you know, stand out. And we walk in there and, God, damn it, Carmel had a white jacket on.

And I said it to him, God, I said, you made my life miserable for the last five months and you got to wear the same damn thing I have on right now. He wore it better, Bobby. I'm sure he wore it. He wore it better. You mugged him, Bobby, as the kids. But the wedding was one of the great events I've been to in my lifetime. I'll bet.

How was the marriage? Sure. Well, the funny thing is that I basically lived by like the unwritten rules where like I didn't decide. I didn't get him a wedding gift because I knew they'd probably get divorced in like three months. You know, it's not like the kind of like if you don't give them that you don't have to give them anything. I think it's a year. Oh, Chris Humphys. More Hoop Collective Podcast after this.

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sex, and mystery is a must see. FX's The Shards, streaming August 5th on Hulu on Disney Plus. Sign up now at Disneyplus.com. So, I don't know if it was quite that era, But certainly one of the other big ones was Kobe Bryant. You know, he asked for the trade in 2007. I think he came on the Stephen A. Smith radio show at the time

and said, I played my last game as a Laker or something like that. And, you know, Woge told parts of this story. But if I'm not mistaken, there was actually the framework of a deal worked out, which would have, you know, remember the Pistons at the time, They won the title over the Lakers in 2004. Then they went to game seven and lost to the Spurs in 2005. And then they had been, you know, kind of eliminated by, and not kind of,

legitimately eliminated by the calves in 2007 when they'd had a really good season. So they were looking at, you know, what else they could do. And so they made an offer and the story goes. The offer was Rip Hamilton, Tashon, Prince, and Picks. Yeah, two firsts, I believe. There might have been like Jason Maxiel might have been in the offer or whatever. But yeah, it was basically Hamilton, Prince and two firsts for Bryant. And it was in the preseason, I think.

Like it was like in October or September October. And the story goes. And, you know, I don't know if Joe Dumas. would want to talk about it, but Kobe's not around to tell us, unfortunately. I mean, Kobe did talk about this. But did he? This is back in the Grantland days on the Grantland basketball hour. Okay.

He said that he vetoed a deal that would have sent me. Yeah, but the question, yeah, I know he said he vetoed it, but the question was, did he initially approve it? Because there's a whole bunch of people involved, like Mitch Covecheck and they were like, the deal was done, where he said we're good to go, whatever. And then the story was that after Kobe approved it, then when it came time to actually do it, Jerry Buss came over to talk to Kobe and he's like, I just can't do it. Well, Kobe's quote was, I gave you a list of teams I'd be comfortable being traded to, not Detroit. Sad. I think he had a no trade clause, right?

Yes, he did. And by the way, you know, you have to take Mark Cuban claims, especially when they're nine or ten years later, which is what this one was. You have to take them with a grain of salt or a boulder of salt. But Cuban did say, I could have sworn that we had a deal done for Josh Howard and Jet,

talking about Jason Terry. In other words, Josh Howard and Jason Terry going to the Lakers, Kobe coming to Dallas and the classic Cuban. I was telling all the stage hands to dancing with the stars.

It was done. Get your Jerry Busser or whoever talked about it. That's amazing. That's amazing. You know, again, Cuban said it. He said it. I'm pretty sure I was holding my little tape recorder up

while he was sweating on a stair master when he said it. Yeah, I'll use a favorite, one of my favorite often used quotes from Jerry Jones, just because I say it doesn't make it so. I'll do the accidents. You know, Josh Howard was a hot name back then, you know, like in that, you know, that 2007, 2010 range and stuff. I mean, that was when the Mavericks were, they were coming off of, the finals in 06, and then their 67 win season when they got beat by the We Believe Warriors, upset by the We Believe Warriors in the first round.

But yeah, Josh Howard was a hell of a two-way player at the time. But, I mean, no just like Jason Jerry had a hell of a career. Josh Howard is a quality player to get Cohen is prime for that. Come on now. You know, like speaking of like, you know, with Trays that happened that didn't happen, like well, Trey that happened. like we'll trade that happened when we traded kid to Dallas, you know, because Josh Howard was one of the guys we were trying to get. But what didn't happen was Jerry Stackhouse and Devin George coming our way because Stack,

Stack goes on TV and says, well, I'm getting to the Associated Press writer, a guy named Jamie Aaron. And he says, I'll be back. He goes, I'll be back. And then Devin George wouldn't wave his one year, one is the, you know, the one year. We had a guy sit out with paperwork outside of his house and have him sign it. And he wouldn't sign it. Barlstein tried to talk him into it.

And he wouldn't go. So hold on. Wait, stop. So the trade was agreed to essentially. Yeah. Stackhouse and Devin George were part of the deal. And so you sent somebody to Los Angeles? But Stack was going to boom right back to Dallas.

We sent it to that. I think it was during season. It was All-Star break. We sent him the Dallas. I was sent him to Dallas. Sorry. Yeah. You sent him to Dallas.

And like, and like, with the paperwork. Yeah, the sign. The way of it. He wouldn't do it. Yeah. And then the thing got reworked, and Keith Van Horn. Oh, she ended up in the deal, even though Van Horn hadn't played in, I don't forget. Well, that, they ended up stuck.

Well, that was, we're going right down the rabbit hole. But Keith Van Horn was like fishing in Utah, and they still had his bird rights. You know, if a player never officially retires, which why would they? Like just the other, you know, just a few weeks ago, the Lakers had to renounce the right, you know, the Lakers were going to have salary cap space for the first time. Try to think, let me see who was on that list. But your player, like they still had like Dwight Howard's rights. They renounce the rights to George Miken. Exactly.

So they still had Keith Van Horn's rights and they called them and said it was like $2 million, Bobby? it was like $5 million He didn't even want to do it The crazy thing was that He didn't like we David Fogg was his agent And we Dave was like I don't know if we want I'm like David

All he does do is just come here And he came He got he was part of the DIY Didn't the league say he had to show up And like sit on the end of the bench He sat in our media room and read a book He never even put on his tube socks though The league fatly got mad

And then they sent a lawyer over And he got on the treadmill for an hour And that was the last And they changed the rule The rule wanted to get changed because of him, but it was, it was, we wanted to,

it was supposed to be Stackhouse and, and Devin George, we want to get a Disa Gana job, Trenton Hassel, Moeager, Van Horn, Devin Harris, some picks and,

not even now. Yeah, a couple picks. By the way, and then you guys paid Ghana, big money. Yeah. You guys gave,

and I, Hey, got a job, by the way, NBA champion. He is the headcoat of the Westchester Nix and was with the Knicks and was with the Knicks throughout the playoffs.

Oh, he gave me a big hug when I saw him in Summerlee. I know why. Him, Van Horn, Keith Bogan, another guy, part of that Boston trade. You know, he paid him $5 million. If you want to feel old, Keith Van Horn just turned 50. It was $4.3 million, Bobby. Can you imagine you're just sitting at your house in Utah and the phone rings?

And it was the second year that he'd been unofficially retired. His last season was 0506. So, oh, summer away to gone by. Do you ever see that movie Major League? And they call up the guy who's working at the tire store and offer him the Indians manager job? And he's like, I don't know. I got a guy in the other line trying to buy some white walls. Keith Ann Horn, hello.

Would you like $4.3 million? What do I got to do? You got to fly to New Jersey. I don't know. Oh, man. So back in 2007, to bring it back to that, when Kobe asked for the trade, naturally the Lakers freaked out. And we're trying to make their own trade to... It would have a big.

Yeah. And so there was another what if in there, which was Garnett, which I don't know how they possibly would have done a deal with the Lakers and Celtics. I question whether this actually could have possibly ever happened. But that was the story. It was Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum, and some draft picks with Garnett coming to the Lakers. Oh, no, Garnett hadn't been traded. That's right, 2007. He hasn't been traded yet. So before Kevin McHale sends him to Boston, that was the deal.

And he took the, he took the, Bobby, let me think about this now. So they got Al Jefferson. Who was in that garnet deal? I think Gerald Green was in that one? I think Jeff Green. Was Jeff Green in that? Mark Stein story from July 30th, 20. We had to wait the whole summer for that too. Al Jefferson, Theo Ratliff, Gerald Green, Sebastian, Sebastian, Sebastian, Sebastian, Sebastian,

Sebastian Telfare, Ryan Gomes, and a single first-round pick. Jeez. So you're saying that Al Jefferson and a bunch of prospects was a better offer than Andrew Bynum Lamar Odom. I don't know. But allegedly there was a handshake deal on that, and then it fell apart. But Garnett wanted to go to Boston. Remember, like, Garnett, he was like, like, wishy-washy on it. He didn't really want to go. And then they traded for Ray Allen and then they're like, oh, wait a minute. Now I do want to go to Boston. It's kind of like what happened with Jalen Brown and LeBron.

Like first Ray Allen trade and then, you know, Karinette was like, wait a minute. So that was also in 2007. One of the all-time what-ifs. I don't know how much of this is legend, you know, 30 years on. But do you remember that when Jordan retired the first time in 1994 or 95 that there was discussion to trade Scotty Pippen for Sean Kemp. And there's, you know, everybody's have their different version.

I don't know. And Jordan later gave an interview where he was asked, would he have come back to the Bulls if Pippin had been traded for Kemp? And he said probably not because I had such a great, you know, chemistry and relationship with Scottie. Who knows? Well, and I don't know if that relationship was aged that great. I don't think the last dance help matters.

No, this was a pre-last dance. By the way, another great what-if is the team that just won the NBA championship, the Knicks. You remember the Donovan Mitchell trade saga? It was like, okay, what are the Knicks going to end up giving up to get this done? the cavaliers came in seemingly out of nowhere. But the Knicks weren't willing to go all in. And it's just one of those sliding-door moments. They had Jaylen Brunson.

Donovan Mitchell would have been the bigger name. I don't know if Brunson becomes the player that he is if he's paired with Donovan Mitchell from day one of his tenure with the Knicks. Certainly I don't think the roster is. built out and we're close to the same way. So, you know, it's one of those sometimes the best deals you make are the ones that you don't, despite the fact that Donald Mitchell's an all-N-Ba caliber player. You know, Donovan Mitchell, what Donovan Mitchell wanted, what his dream was is what Jalen Brunson has now.

Absolutely. He saw an opportunity to go there, hometown, become a superstar, build a team around him, win a championship, become an all-time hero. The pathway was there. You know, it's just Brunson got there first. Mike Brunson, you know, local kid. Yeah. That's what he won, and it's not the way they worked out.

You know, things have worked out okay for Donovan. What's his salary in the last year of the extension that he just signed, Bobby? Like $75.5 million. Four for $272. He signed two maxes and two years apart. When he talked to Mark Spears at the end of the season, he said something like, I may not have won this series, but I'm a winner in life.

By the way, congratulations. Yeah, he just got married. We're talking about celebrity marriages, just married Coco Jones. It looked like, you know, from the little bit that I saw, just a wonderful wedding. Was anybody wearing a white tuxedo jacket? I don't know if my invitation got lost in the mail. I would tell you what, I did sit next Steve Garvey on that bus, though. That was a highlight for me.

Is that right? Steve Garvey got invited to that wedding? He sure did. Wendy, how many times have you worn a tux period? A number of times. Last time I wore one, I was with you, though. I know, that's the only time I've ever worn one. That was the only time in your life?

Only time in my life. So last time I wore dress shoes, hopefully, maybe the last time ever. Yeah, you've got your Jordans that you always, or your, whatever Air Force ones that you always match with your suits. Bobby, Malika, Andrews, and Dave McMinneman's wedding was black tie. Of course it was. Did you rent it out there or did you bring it with you? No, I bought it. I bought one.

I bought one. And if I ever wear it again, then it will pay it for itself. But we'll see if that happened. Also, I've got to stay at the same measurements, which will be. Our next live show, we should wear those tuxedos. What do you think? Sounds good. I've got a pair of jays that'll go great with it.

And it was very clearly said, I think, in the invitation, that it was black tuxedo. Like, Belika doesn't mess around. Oh, no, she's specific. She was like, when I say black tie, it's not one of these things where we mean just dress up. It's like black tuxedo. However,

our current teammate at that time, he was with Yahoo. Vinnie Vince Goodwell showed up Bobby in a blue jacket. Oh, no. Do you remember that, McMahon? I don't recall this.

Did they let him in? It was at a very nice little resort in San Francisco area. Yeah. And he said he had gotten pre-wedding approval by the bride. Oh, wow. Yeah. He did not have his Hennessy colored specs on that day. That's a more recent one.

By the way, the best part of the, I should say that, because I don't want the queen to get mad of me, one of the great parts of the wedding. Classic Mac 10 style. We had a pickup run the morning of the wedding, and we got the Warriors old practice facility, you know, the one that's attached to the... In Oakland, yeah.

Yeah. And so we had games running on two courts. Mac 10 gave us T-shirts. It was MacMachman Matrimony Madness. That's right. T-shirts. I've still got it somewhere. He'll never turn out a free T-shirts.

shirt, Bobby. I won. No, absolutely not. I won MVP of that pickup run. The one man's... Who was the vote? What was the vote? There was a one man selection committee. Okay. And it wasn't the groom. Me myself and I. Mac 10 did hit the dagger at the end. He'll tell you he didn't have... Mac 10 can shoot it now. I'm not going to lie. He's a pretty good shooter. He didn't have a great shooting day, but... What if you would clear... What if he ended up on you on a switch and you had cleared him out with an elbow in his eye, like on his wedding day. It was made very clear, like, listen, we're, we're having fun here, but like, we had the red jersey on. He had the red jersey on.

This in general, like, priority no injuries, you know, like that was all made clear that. But, uh, Jared Yang are one of our ace producers on NBA today who actually was a D3 point guard. So, Mac 10 ended up getting on our team at the AM because he wanted to go out of winter. and we were kind of just mopping the floor with everybody. And it gets to be where we get to game point. So a game point, like, you got to get the groom, the rock. He's got to have the walk-off shot. Brickin' jaren jacks up some off-dribble, mid-range fadeaway.

And I'm like, you, so every time I see Jaron, I give him hell. Every time you sure you would. He is a shoot first point guard if there's ever been one, regardless of the circumstances. Fortunately, missed. and then we get back to trades that almost happened. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. Speaking of the Warriors, they had one back in 2012. Now famously, if I'm not mistaken, Bobby, I don't know if you remember this,

but Jerry West, who was an advisor, the late great Jerry West, he threatened to resign as advisor of the Warriors. If the Warriors had traded Clay Thompson for Kevin Durr. Love. That's right. In 2000 for now. This was before the Warriors won their first championship. You know, they were, you know, it wasn't, you know, the Splash Brothers were, it was, it was a nickname, but it wasn't really an iconic duo yet. And supposedly, you know, Flip Saunders, the late Flip Saunders wanted, that was the player he wanted was Clay Thompson. And Jerry West threatened to resign to, God, it keeps wrong Kevin's.

love ends up going to the calves for a package around Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett to number one overall picks. That's not a bad return. I was all ready for LeBron to go to Miami and to like, you know, give his like statement. Because you remember in his letter, his Sports Illustrated letter, he wrote about all the players in Cleveland he was excited to play with and didn't put Wiggins on the list. and sure enough, he didn't play with them. When that came out, I think LeBron kind of already decided how it was going to go. But anyway, in 2012, when James Hardin was traded famously slash infamously, depending on which side you want, from the thunder to the rockets,

Kevin Martin was in that trade. That was the key part of that trade, by the way, that the thunder talked to. of the Warriors about getting Clay Thompson in 2012. And there may have been some draft picks involved, obviously. It would have been Clay and the Warriors would have had the picks in because I think that's the way it was gone. You know, these were two future Hall of Famers that hadn't quite done it yet.

But you can talk about a sliding doors moment, Bobby, if Clay Thompson gets traded for James Hardin in 12. I mean, that's a big one. And there were some scuttlebutt back then also for Clay for Lamarcus. Aldridge. Like, that was one, too, that was talked about back then. So you're talking there. Gets it big to Golden State.

And it's before these guys took, you know, took off. And I think it's, it's amazing like, you know, the trades that don't happen. And then what the domino effect on these teams winning championships. Man, Clay on the Thunder. Well, there would have been no game six clay because, remember. It would have been every day, Clay. Well, but that game. game 6th Clay that really took off in OKC when the Warriors were coming back from.

Trust me. I remember three one. Yeah, three one down. Yeah. So, I mean, that's, I mean, that's, I mean, that's- It ended up being Kevin Durant's last home game in Oklahoma City. Oh, wow. By the way, a great story on that night. And so the old Renaissance in Oklahoma City is where everybody would stay. And, you know, the TV crews are staying there. And, and, and, and, And Barclay was down, this will shock you guys. She was down to the hotel bar holding court. So, you know, I kind of went down there and benefited from Barclay's presence.

And a wedding party came in and really pretty bride. Yeah, the groom had pretty significantly out kicked his coverage. Barkley being the gentleman that he is in the life of the party, got the two most expensive bottles of champagne. in the house and to do a toast to, you know, to celebrate the wedding. What was the most expensive bottle of champagne at the Renaissance Oklahoma City downtown? I couldn't tell you. I couldn't tell you what the champagne was, but I couldn't tell you word for word what Barclay's toast was. And everybody raised a glasses and Barclay looked right at the bride. And he said, now, just to let you know, I'm not going to do this for your next wedding.

And then I can't remember the rest of it, but it was pretty funny. Oh, man, that is amazing. Jackson, by the way, lets us know that he owns a tux. Oh, I'm impressed. If he, the next, I mean, that's, I've got one. You've got when Jackson's got one. I don't see why. Hey, by the way, Jackson, let me just get out in front of this.

Please don't make us wear a tux to your wedding. But if you do, I do have one. Yeah, absolutely. We have any other near trades? I'm trying to think. We thought one year, and this is a funny story, nobody ever told, I don't think I've ever told this, we thought we were trading for the number two pick in the draft.

Chicago had two and 14, I think, that year. I'm not sure who it was draft that was. It might have been to Lamarcus Aldrich draft. And so we thought we had a deal with them for we're going to get the second pick. we're going to give him, I think we were at seven and we're going to give him a future first. What year do you think this was? No.

I think it was Aldridge's year that he, what year did he get drafted? Because I think we might, we were thinking of taking him. I've got to pull this up. Golly, geez. So what happened was we had a deal in place and Aldridge goes, 06. Okay, 06. And, yeah, he went two to Chicago. And then he got traded to Portland and it was part of the deal.

So we thought we had a deal in place. And night of the draft and we like, I think Rod Thorne was like in working out. And I go, Rob, we were good. We got a deal place. We're going to trade whatever, eighth pick and draft and a future first. We're going to get the second pick and draft. I'm like, oh, yeah, all right. So we're going ready for the draft.

We walk in there and we call, I don't know, Pax is the GM. So wherever we call Chicago. They go, we're ready to do a deal. They said, yes, our second pick. It was their second pick. Their second, it was the 14th. You're kidding me. They had two ones.

It was their second first. It was the 14th pick in the draft. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. This is like, this could be right out of like, this is, that's an amazing, this is like, this is like, this is like, who's on first? You said you're traded for the second pick.

Yeah, our second pick. Yeah, the pick that comes, The come second, yeah, pick number two. Bobby, how many hours between when you guys thought you agreed to the second pick until it was their second pick? We got it done in like early around lunchtime and then around 7 o'clock, we realized it wasn't that pick. So all day long, and you're like, okay, we're taking Lamarcus Aldridge or maybe we're taking Adam Morrison from all I know. Yeah, maybe. Oh, my God.

Yeah. And meanwhile, the Bulls are like, we just got the eighth pick for the 14th pick. How did we pull this off? What a deal. Well, I think about draft night. I'm sorry, McMahon. What year did Curry get traded or did you get drafted? Same year, Ricky Rubio and Johnny Quinn.

Good one. Was that 09? That was. Stephen Curry was 09. Pick seven. The story goes, so Steve Kerr was obsessed with Steph Curry. Amino Haas and our former colleague at ESPN talked about how when he was working in the Sixers or the Sun's front office that like they were so obsessed, Kerr was so obsessed, he wanted to see like video clips of all these Davidson games because he, you know, and he, I mean, would put it together and like he like knew he like, he like, he like, he like, he like, he like, he like, he like, he, like, he like, he like, he. He like knew everybody in the Davidson roster.

Like there was some guy who would, I can't remember the guy's name, who would like botch layups from Curry. And, you know, he'd, you know, Kerr would come into the office. Hey, how did Curry do last night? Well, he had 32 points, six assists and two Johnsons, which was like the guy's last name who would always botch layups when Curry delivered him. But I don't remember who he was.

So they were obsessed with trading up to get him. And they had the, the sons, I don't know what pick they had. I think they had maybe, oh, they ended up taking Earl Clark. So they had the 14th pick, and they were trying like crazy to get up to seven. And they were willing to trade Amari Stademeyer for him. And I don't know the whole story on the Warriors end. But the press room in Golden, in Phoenix at the time, was right below the Sun's War Room.

It was like one floor below. And so the media is all in the press room, you know, watching the draft. sitting there, eating their free food, whatever. And they hear this explosion of applause upstairs. Or maybe it was down the hall. Whatever was they heard like this explosion of applause because they thought they had agreed to acquire the number seven pick and they were willing to trade Amari Stademeyer.

They thought that they had traded Amaristademeyer and the 14th pick to get Steph Curry to be a son. And I'm sure there's a billion of these stories on draft night, as you know, Bobby, which I'm still not over this story, Bobby, about who would you have taken at number two? remember? Marcus Aldrich. Okay.

Yeah. Man, that is an amazing story. Anyway, but the reason it's so interesting is because it was Kerr. Kerr was obsessed with getting Curry and then, you know, he ends up, it ends up working out. That's a pretty good draft. I mean, the top Blake, Hardin, Curry, the Rosen, and top 10. Pretty good. Yeah.

Ashim to beat, too. Rudy Gay had a great career. So the Bulls must have traded, ended up trading that second round pick because I don't think they ended up with us. Oh, it's the 16th pick, it looks like. But I think they traded back. Wasn't Tyos Thomas involved there?

Probably. Yeah, Tyos Thomas and Lamarcus Lodge's got traded for each other. That's right, yeah. So the Bulls ended up trading the number two pick anyway. They did. By the way, we mentioned Mitchell is a guy who, you know, local kid who wanted to play for the Knicks and basically requested, I mean, he didn't officially requested a trade to New York, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar absolutely requested a trade to the Knicks

when he was in war. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar made a trade request and it stayed silent for a year. I could you imagine. And it leaked, it leaked when Marm Albert reported it on New York City radio. Amazing. Yeah, he wanted to go to New York and ended up having to settle for the Lakers. And that worked out okay for him, too. There's a legendary story that was, I know it was in the New York Times.

I must have been the L.A. Times that told the blow-by-blow story of the night that Kareem asked for the trade. It's an all-time great story. I'll find it real quick here because I remember it had an incredible detail in it that he, let's see here. Yeah, Thomas Bonk wrote this story in 1987, Christmas Day, 1987. and he had incredible detail. You think Ramona Shelburne gets good details on her TikTok stories? Now, granted, this was a decade or like 15 years later, so maybe, you know, let's point that out.

Romona does it in 15 hours. But he writes about the night where the Bucks and met with Abdul-Jabbar, and they had Beef Wellington. And they ate Beef Well, there was like a Beef Wellington, and then there was a wine course and then a cheese course and then it was all over. Isn't this kind of sweet like a Sheridan or something? Incredible memory. I can't believe you remember that.

Yeah, the downtown Sheridan. And so he wrote this story 13 years after it happened. But anyway, and then he asked to be traded. And so that was in October of 74. He didn't get traded until the fall of 75. And by the way, that's one thing that does crack me up when people talk about, oh, you know, player empowerment. like it's some kind of newfangled thing. Kareem requested a trade more than 50 years ago after he'd won a championship in Milwaukee.

Right. And Kareem's quote in the late 80s was, I only had one year left in my contract and I told him I wasn't really interested in signing up again. If they would trade me, that would be the best thing for everybody. So a genuine trade request was one year left on his contract, you know? Why was Yonest afraid to just say it? I mean, come on, Kareem said. I know it. That's a whole different deal.

Janice was so. What do you think the meal that Yonis would have had before? Would have been Chick-fil-A? Before. If you're nuggets. All right. Well, if we forgot any all-time near trade, just put them in the comments. And Jackson can tell me about him.

Hey, I enjoyed our little walk-down memory lane here in the NBA off-sseason. Yeah. Brought to you by So-Fi. Get your money right. This whole podcast was brought to you by SoFi. This whole thing was one giant. SoFi, get your money right, walked down memory lane.

All right. Thanks to our producers. Thanks to Jackson. Who, how Jackson Beef Wellington would be great at the reception. I need a sweet dish. Oh, that's right. McMahon doesn't eat red meat.

All right. Thank you, Bobby. Thank you, McMahon. Thank you for listening and watching The Hoop Collective. We'll talk to you in a couple of days. Adios megos.