Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - NBA Summer League Live Show in Las Vegas With Special Guests

Episode Date: July 13, 2025

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon live in Las Vegas at NBA Summer League to talk some of the standouts so far and share some wild stories with a few surprise guests. Guests for the show include the new owners of the Timberwolves Marc Lore & Alex Rodriguez, 76ers’ Head Coach Nick Nurse and ESPN’s Kevin Pelton. 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, Las Vegas. Thanks so much for coming out. Boy, what a bunch of sickos.

You come to Las Vegas in the middle of summer to watch Summer League basketball and then come to a live podcast. Man. Thank you so much for coming out. We've got some great guests tonight. Hopefully they'll surprise you. Hopefully they'll be entertaining.

If not, you can just all make fun of Bontas. All right. Here's where we started by saying, welcome to the Hoop Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing from Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. All right.

On Monday, this crazy bastard flew to Portugal with his two-month-old baby. And we said, okay, I guess we're doing this podcast without you. But he said, oh, no, no. So yesterday, he flew from Portugal back to the United States to Las Vegas and he's going back to Portugal tomorrow. It's Tim Bontas.

And straight to hear at the MGM Grand from watching Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper ballot out of the Thomas and MacCenter is Van McMahon. So how over room? Yeah. Pretty awesome. Nice to you to eat on your way out the door. I had to get a minute. A minute ago he's like, can I bring this beer out here?

Listen, I'm just trying to make it through. I got 38 hours in Vegas, so I'm making the most of it start to finish. Can I get a howdy partners in? No. You just want to talk the whole night. Howdy partners. Hey, Von Tips is always such a joy. The USWB, the jet lagged version. This is going to be a real treat. We're going to have a great time. Did you enjoy Cooper Flagg's scoring 31 points today? He scored 31. I think the rest of the Maverick scored about 12. Okay. I was so out of sorts at the game, no joke that Josh Broghammer, the assistant for the Mavs, who's coaching the game. I saw him after. I said, hey man I'm glad you're 2-0

and he was like yeah we didn't win today more expert analysis coming yes exactly that's out of it I was watching the game was like oh good all right well without further ado we're going to get to our first guests here I hope they're ready in the back they maybe have tried to dip into the beer that you left back there there are plenty we have a gentleman

who struck out 2,300 times in the major leagues he almost once in the NBA that's great That's right. He also had 700 homers. And a guy who made a lot of his money by selling stuff to Walmart, it's the brand new owners of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Links, Alex Rodriguez and Mark Lorry. Maybe.

Alex Rodriguez and Mark Lory. Wouldn't it be amazing if they weren't there? Oh, there we go. We needed a map. We got lost. It's a little confusing. Where's Mark? Where's the billionaire?

He might have found the bar. He's the tech guy. He should know how to get here. I have a bone to pick with you, Alex, because I was living in New York City, and I went to a Yankee game. It was the last month that Mariana Rivera was playing, okay? It was the eighth inning. The Yankees were up by three. Rivera starts warming up in the bullpen.

The whole crowd is like so excited. They're going to get to see Rivera throw. And then you get up and you hit a freaking grand slam and ruin the safe situation. You deserve a refund. Rivera came out and got him out one, two, three. But no, you know what happened then? A bunch of people left their seats down low and jump. And you jump all the way down there.

By the way, I'm getting concerned about Mark. Is he really supposed to come out? I don't know what happened to him. They've got a new tech thing, though. It's not at Minnesota games, just jump out. You're going to sell this seat, Alex. They are. If people leave, you can go down from nosebleeds.

You do a little, what is a reverse option. In seriousness, you guys, first off, congratulations on your 4th, your journey of becoming the owners and the governors. It's a done deal. You guys have done it. Yay, made it. All right. Hey.

Chuck, you, you had to me, had it wrong. It was like the sale of Tim Wolves. It took a lot longer than we thought, but he finally got there. And a happy ending. So it's all good.

You guys did announce yesterday this innovation that we're fascinated by where, well, tell us about it. First off. You guys are going to do a lot of those. The jump app. I'll tell you how the conversation started, and then I let my engineer talk and explain the business. So has anyone can relate with this?

When I was 10 years old, I had no money. So my mom said, here's two bucks, get to Yankee Stadium. So I pay the two bucks. You go all the way to the upper deck. And then your goal is to work your way by the seventh inning, somewhere behind home plate. But this takes time, strategy, timing, because the usher's at Yankee Stadium, their average age is about 87. So, you know, at 10 years old, I can move pretty quick. And the point of the story is that now, if you're that same 10-year-old kid with $2 and somebody leaves, just like we have Uber, you say, oh, the four seats right behind on plate are free, they paid a couple thousand bucks, but I can get there for $150.

I can watch the last three innings right behind home plate and watch Aaron Judge hit. And that's the point of jump. You can jump on any time dynamic. And if someone hits a home run, it might get a little. a little bit more expensive. And if the game gets a little close, opens up a little bit, it'll get cheaper. I mean, just like Uber and New Year's.

Okay, I've got an important, serious question. What if I just go pee? And I, you know, there's a line in the restroom. You're not gonna come back in some little twerk. No, you gotta activate your car. Okay. Your seat. Okay.

Yeah, by the way, you can make some money while you're peeing. Exactly. Like Airbnb. Yeah. If you're late to the game, you could sell the first quarter. No, but Brian, in the year 2010 and 5, if we wanted to go somewhere, we would take a cab. There was an Uber.

If you're traveling a vacation, you've got to go to a hotel. Now you have Airbnb. But if you go into the arenas today, we're still operating like it was still in 1975, with Ticketmaster and other things. So this gives an opportunity to disrupt a business that is ready to be disrupted. But, Mark, you can explain the technology. I think you just did. Very low.

Perfect. And these people are going to fall asleep with that. Brian, help us. All I'm going to say is March or early April of last year of 24. It was announced that the team was not going to be sold to you. And I had a phone call with the two of you guys. And you said, we're going to get the team. And I said, well, okay, but I'm just seeing here that the team is off the market.

If a guy has the team, he doesn't want to sell it. And you're like, both of you, we had this call, and you're like, we're going to get the team. And then, you know, these stages went by, I won't bore everybody, and I was like, well, what happens if you win here, but the other owners don't want to give it to you? And you're like, I talked to you guys, and you were like, we're going to get the team. We worked on it, we're going to get the team.

And you never wavered. I can say this because I talked to you throughout the whole process. We're going to get the team. We're going to get the team. I want to say that I always believed in you guys. But here you are. You've got the team. And so after a four-year journey, like,

He's got to be really thrilling that you guys were able to make it happen. Now you're talking. Now you're talking, Mark. Yeah, I mean, I think it's been a four-year journey in the last 18 months. You know, it was tough. But here we are, you know. We're excited about the future, so no looking back. So I sat in your press conference yesterday.

We had the round table afterwards. You guys are obviously aligned, your partners, but I'm sitting there thinking like, What happens when you disagree? Who's the head honcho here? Who's Jordan, who's Pippin? He's Jordan for sure. We don't disagree. Yeah, I know.

We're a great team because we have like one and a half brains, and usually as a full brain gets the tiebreaker. Okay. But honestly, we're so aligned with the way we look at things. And I would say that 99% of the things we agree on, and on the 1% where we're off, I think we're 100% on if somebody has real conviction, we usually go with them.

But we haven't had that issue, Mark, what do you think? Yeah, no, we have a shared set of values. I think we just know that it doesn't matter who's got the idea. It's we want to get to the right answer. We'll just keep debating it until we figure out what the right answer is. And if you're both not stubborn and don't have an ego and just want the right answer, usually get to it, right? So yeah, it's been great.

We haven't had any situations. I would say if you studied the great even American companies going back 100, 200 years, there's usually two co-founders. a man and a female or a man and man, two females, whatever. But it also, there's a check on balance. Like, if I'm going off the rockers, Mark will pull me back in. And if he has a crazy thought, and maybe I pull him back in. So you get, you know, one plus one equals three.

But more than anything, I think two thoughts are better than one. And we get to usually the same destination, but I come at it from 30 years being in the locker room. And Mark comes at it from, you know, being one of the top e-commerce guys in the world for the last 30 years. There's no question we get to a better answer every time than one of us would get to alone. One, on the court, you guys just came off two conference finals trips in a row. You've gotten out of the first round of the playoffs once the whole time, the history of the franchise for that, so it's pretty good. But what is the thing that's going to be required for you guys to obviously take the next step? Obviously, you got Oklahoma City just won the title.

The West is loaded. You know, you got a couple guys signed back this summer, but what do you guys think you need to do to sort of push on from where you've been? I mean, I think it's patience and making, you know, the right decisions, like the focused on the inputs rather than the output. not looking for a big bang but every decision whether it be you know in the draft trades you know it's just every move you make is incremental and moving the ball forward and I think that's what we've been doing I think we feel really good about about this year and I think we want to be very we want to be very very disciplined and patient but with a sense of urgency and when we're close we paid

the second highest tax last year and this year we're gonna be in the tax again we think that I remember when I played when we played against Oklahoma City, we had a playing game. I think it was three or four years ago. And Shay, all those guys were still young, and we beat them at home. It was a very good game.

But if Sam Presley turned around and said, you know what, let's break it up, let's change directions. There wouldn't have been world champs this year. And then they got close, they brought in Caruso and a few others, and boom. So we look at that as a good model for us.

And probably the other teams are looking at that and saying, hey, it's pace to be patient. I was kind of expecting lunch to be provided at that roundtable, but then you started talking about He said 91 million in luxury tax. I'm like, yeah.

You guys just spent $225 million on Julius Randall and Nas Reed. And so that was a big decision you had to make. Obviously, those decisions went all the way back to when you made the Carl Anthony Towns trade, which I know you guys were involved with. Also, when you did redid Rudy Gober's contract last year. So I know you guys were planning for that, but obviously those were big decisions to make out of the gate to spend $200 million on those guys. Yeah, no, it was, but

you know, we like where we stand right now. We've got a lot of financial flexibility with the contracts, a lot of good contracts, got a lot of young players, depth, like we're in a really good position. And like Alex said, if we see an opportunity to strike, we will, but we're going to be very, very smart about the decisions we make.

You know, Brian, you're talking about baseball. In 2004, I hate to remind everyone of this. It was the worst year of my life. for those of the you know I used to play for the Yankees I played against his team called the Red Sox I got you I got you I love it

and he's wearing red and he's wearing red and we were up 3 O in the ALCS I think people remember the story I don't think you have to do this It's a comedy show so people can laugh from me I'm okay with that

so anyways we lost those four games long story short cut to five years later when we beat the Philadelphia affiliates in the World Series oh thank you a couple New Yorkers thank you

it's hard to find Yankee fans It's really hard. Any Lakers fans? But Brian, the thing is about that is that it was the same seven or eight core guys that came back five years later. So in sports, it's so easy to like go for the head fake and go for it now. But we thought there was a lot of value in keeping the same seven, eight core guys. And we have 10 guys that are deep with our young guys. We have a really good young team here in Vegas.

And then you go continuity with ownership, Tim Connolly, Coach Finch, and Edwards. I think that's a good foundation and a good core. So on Monday is a, most people don't know, but the summer owners meetings, the Board of Governors meetings, it'll be your first Board of Governors meeting. Is there like a hazing, you expected to take place? Do you have to bring Danish? Do you have to bring Rolexes? I guess we'll find out.

It'll be a lot of easy with Cuban out in the mix. I can promise you. Yeah, so obviously the Western Conference is so packed. But let me ask you this. in the event that there is expansion, there's going to be a little bit of competition amongst the teams on the Mississippi River, Minnesota, Memphis, and New Orleans,

about who may get to move to the Eastern Conference. It's never too early to begin campaigning. Would you guys love to be an Eastern Conference team? Well, one of the advantages of not going to college is I didn't take geography, so, Mark. Why don't you take this one? I don't know where the Mississippi River is. You could have been a point card with that pass.

I think you got to be careful what you wish for. That's what I'll say. But we're both East Coast guys, so there's some benefit on road games. Yeah. For sure. But yeah, we're not going to. It'll be what it'll be. You're not rocking the boat right out of the gate.

I mean, you have the geographic argument in your favor, too. They've got an easy one to lean into. Yes. I wrote when we, Ryan and I did an expansion story last year and we wrote about the fact that you guys have the worst balance in terms of Western Conference, the Eastern Conference, and how much benefit you guys would have if you did shift to the East. And there were teams that called me and said, did the lead tell you that, or was that? Paranoi. Because they're trying to, everybody's trying to figure out what's going to happen with that. I mean, it is a real thing, especially if, you know, or in Vegas, there's a good chance. If there is expansion, Vegas and Seattle will be the teams. then, you know, that is, like Brian said, that is going to be a real thing people are talking about. So we'll see what happens.

You can never start. I mean, maybe just a little upgraded, you know, breakfast on Monday. You never can start too early with campaigning. Bring donuts. Yeah, for that. Although you guys just get a big vote. It was pretty big. So tonight you guys play the Nuggets.

If anybody here is watching your Summer League team, what should we be? Is Terrence Shannon Jr. I don't even know. The only is here. Yes. Yep. He looked great. in the playoffs. You got some big minutes. Are you guys excited about him?

I mean, we're thrilled. I mean, the one thing I would tell you about T.J. Shannon, who came out of Illinois, and he's going to be almost 25. So he's one of these seniors that was around for a while. But he's one of the hardest working guys. I mean, he gets to the every day, seven days a week. He's there at 6.30 in the morning, and they have to kick him out of the building in Minnesota. So far, this summer, he's made 18,000 threes. You guys are counting. I mean, I mean, I mean,

You're looking at the daily report. Yeah, no, we have it all, you know, on the sensors. We know what the guys are doing. We track them. We get our emails at the end of the week. I mean, he's by first every time. We've had to tell him, you've got to go home. So we're very bullish on him and talk maybe about our drafts.

No, I mean, Johann Berenget, I think we're excited to see him. He had seven blocks last game. First possession gets two swats. I know. No, he's so athletic. You know, he's 6-11, incredible reach. Very athletic. He used to play soccer, so he's very sort of...

He's only played for a couple years, right? What's that? I think he's only played for like four years, right? Yeah, he's 18 years old. Yeah, no, we're really excited about him. Hopefully see another seven blocks tonight. That'd be good. Yeah.

So you guys, you know, new owner syndrome is a thing for a real, like, we've seen it. This guy's wearing a son's hat. He's seen it. Microwave. It is the longest running case of new owner syndrome ever. Actually, that's not true. Cuban had it for like 20 years. But you guys are new owners, but you've also been doing this for a while.

And Ahrod, you know, you were talking yesterday about how you learned from the owners that you played for in baseball. I'm from Texas. You came through Texas. We didn't know. Tom Hicks was a new owner, and his new owner syndrome resulted in an All-Star shortstop getting a $252 million contract. What did you learn from that? I thought it was a great deal. Very smart, right?

How about the opt-out that you got? That was good time, but that opt-out was good. That's a great question. When Tom, who was in private equity, and he had some volatility in his funds, and at one point, he was looking to look for some liquidity. And to your point, he had just signed Chanho Park, I think, for 18. But he said, look, I'm paying you 24, but I can trade you tomorrow to 20 teams. Because your money, as he said, is in the money. Your contract's in the money.

someone can be making $5 million and it could be a negative deal, right? It could be really worth two. So whether there's Anthony Edwards or SGA, all the great ones, usually when you're paying a lot of money, they're worth that and then something. Anthony Edwards is in the money. And you guys won't, the negotiations with him will be player option or not. The money won't be negotiated. Yeah.

Hey, these guys got to get over to the DNLV. Thank you guys for stopping by. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations, guys. Truly an amazing journey to get the team, which they bought for $1.5 billion, and it's now worth $3.5. Just in case you're worried about the $90 million in luxury tax?

By the way, this is what Brian's head is. When we were talk, every time he goes, have you ever thought about flipping it? Brian, we don't have the team, we don't know if we have the votes. What are you talking about? Long-term investment. It's the greatest instant equity. Like, I'll bet you guys were really sad to see these teams sell for $6 and $10 billion. Very.

All right, Mark, Lori and Alex Rodriguez. Thanks for coming by. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Good luck this season. More Hoop Collective Podcast after this. All right. Well, we're so glad those guys stopped by. Glad Lori made it out to the stage. Yeah, I know. That was a little concerning.

Yeah. I don't know. Maybe somebody made him an offer for like four and a half. And he was like, yeah, could be. I had to take this phone call. You had to think about it. You know. Actually, maybe Ishbya called and they had to see what the offer was. also possible. All right.

Well, we have another special guest here, and this is a guy who became very established coaching the Birmingham Bullets and the London Towers and the Iowa Energy and the Rio Grande Valley Vipers and the 2019 NBA champion Toronto Raptors. There's the no dogs guys. There's the no dogs guys in the back yard. And the 2023, or 24, 25. We would have thought that no dunks guys were the number one Canadians in the building. But the honorary Canadian outstripping.

Definitely an honorary Canadian. Yes. He's probably paid a ton of taxes in Canada. I would imagine so. Anyway, coming right over from the 76ers game, friend of the pod, Nick Nurse. I got a hat. Look at this guy. Do we get the initials hat now?

Yeah, for sure. Got my Brian Windor's hat on. The hoop collective. The hoop collective. Geez, tough shoes to follow here. Arod. I think we're supposed to come on first, but his game ran long, so it gets to come in after these guys. Did you grab the clipboard and want to draw up some plays at the end?

Is that what happened? I did not. I am not. I am far away from that mode right now, and was happy to see T.J. DeLeo sweating over his own plays. Oh, good. Good. Good game, though. Good game. Did you guys win? We didn't even get a chance to see.

We did not. Sure, you're really broken up. Shop blocked at the buzzers. Did he raced up the floor? If that's going to play, you would have. Yeah, maybe. That was March and April. Nick, did you win?

We did not. No, March and April was, hey, Nick, did you win? No. You're really funny today. It must be the setting. It must be the setting. Just look at your ring when you get back home. So let's start right there.

You guys, first off, I want to talk to you about lottery night. So you go to Chicago, you're sitting in the room. You know that if nobody would you need two, only one person, only one team could move ahead from you, right? Then you would have kept your pick. So you're sitting there, and who moves in front of them first? Spurs? Spurs?

The Mavs jump first. The Mavs jump first? And the spurs. Okay. And you're thinking. what when two teams jump to you guys well um i was just a little confused from um given the gondis oh i forgot about that out and i was like what i'm like trying to add and look who it's going on i'm like he's a philly guy i think he was manifesting his strange fears and i was

like how are we out he said we were out and then darrell's like we're out and then darrell's like we're not out. So we weren't out. Always chose down. That's what I was thinking. Go to Darrell. Yeah, it was good. So, I mean, fortunately, we weren't out.

And he, it wasn't that big quickly. He said, don't wait. The Sixers are back in. So, yeah, we were happy. I mean, you mentioned some of the losing this, this. Yes. That was some unfortunate losing. Tough, tough season.

And at least we got a good, got our pick, mainly that we got it. Yeah. Well, you got your pick and it was a pretty good. Moved up to number three. Moved up a couple. Yeah, so it's good. Well, and we've only got a chance to see him a little bit, but in his first game, Vijay Edgecombe, third pick out of Baylor,

had a really big game for the Sixers. What are you guys excited about with him going into next season? Yeah, just a lot of everything, right? First of all, incredible athlete does things defensively. Like, you know, he's good defensively, but he, like, makes plays. Like, he's a shot blocker. You know, you don't see that a lot.

I'm like, he was a shot blocker from a kind of a wing position. tries really hard on D, explosive, looked like he's got some shimmy to get his own shot off. He's a full court player. He was kind of getting up and down in transition. So that's some of that. And then he's an incredible person, and he's really all about working really hard and super respectful. And he's just like a great to be around. You know, like really quickly you can tell like, geez, you're going to like this guy when you see him

and have him around your team. You're going to have a potentially really good back court this year. I saw a maxi said, I think he gave an interview yesterday where he said he's fully cleared from his finger injury, so I hope he's, you know, he'll be back. And you should have like a pretty dynamic set of options back there. Should be good, right? Maxie, McCain.

McCain is back, yeah. McCain, Edgham, Grimes, maybe. We're still working on that. Kelly, Justin. Yeah, I'm sure I forgot. somebody in there Lowry, Gordon. Lowry, Kyle Lowry for his 20th season. Coming back.

Can't get rid of him. That's quite an accomplishment, man. Seriously, 20 years. Oh, it is. You know, I mean, you guys know this, but when I first got to Toronto, like, I first got to Toronto, like, how many years ago was that now, 13 or whatever it was? Yeah. 12 years ago, and he was kind of like teetering.

Like he wasn't really the full-time starter yet, and he'd been gone from Houston to Memphis, to Houston to Toronto, and now to see us six all-star games, two gold medals, NBA title. Probably a Hall of Fame. And then now a 20 year. It's really amazing when you go back and think about it. When you guys play golf, number one, who wins? And number two, what's the game, you and Kyle? First of all, I played with him a couple weeks ago.

And he beat me soundly for the first time ever. Oh, really? His game is really good right now. He's really like... His game is really good. Let's sign him. Hey, hey, hey, hey. No, no, no.

Usually he's busy during the playoffs, but he had a lot of time to play golf this here. He's... Yeah, for sure. Lots of practice. On the range. Lots of extra practice on the range. You guys are really funny in this setting.

Really funny. You're just seeing... I'm going to stop talking and turn it on. This is my... Get out here to laugh with you guys. This is my life every day. Yeah. Just every single day.

I like this, though. You guys are in a much, you know, there's no arguing amongst each other. He's just going to be in stage. Anyway, his game's in great shape, his golf game. You know, he's playing in that celebrity thing right now. Oh, that's right. He is. He's out in Tahoe right now.

Yeah, yeah. Is he going to be back at Carroll National in August? I hope so. So here's the thing about Nick. He grew up in Carroll, Iowa. The Paris of Carroll County. Am I correct to say that? I've been there, I can confirm it is the Paris of Carroll County.

Was it two years ago? Two years ago? You bought the... Yeah, a year ago, a year and a half. Okay, year and a half year. Last spring. He bought the Augusta National of Carol Iowa, Carol Country Club, and renamed it Carol National. Which I love.

That's not even a joke, he really did. And the logo is the outline of the state of Iowa with the flag, right, where Carol Carol is, just like Augusta. I thought he was going to say the initials. No, no, not the initials, but yeah. Have you ever been there? I have. Okay, okay, here we go. And that's really, you're returning the favor coming over here,

because Bont-Temps and I came to Carol last year to the inauguration of the course. Yeah, yeah. Which was great. And you know what? It really annoys me that Bontemps, who plays golf once a year, it's like pretty much can beat me. It's very upsetting. It's very upsetting.

I have my moments. I played so bad that day. I was back from Paris for like a day. I played so bad. I didn't want you to see me. You even hit a shot. But you freaking did. But you own a golf course in Iowa.

I mean, that's remarkable. Why did you do that? Because it could. Again, I'm just going to sit out. What am I doing up here? You guys are answering all. Anyway, why did I do it? It was a course I grew up on.

My parents were members there for like 30. I mean, country clubs. a pretty like, I don't know I wouldn't call it a country club that. I mean it is a little bit, but they could live 35 years. It's got a pool and a restaurant. Yeah. Yeah. But it was, it was great music. It was great music at it. It was kind of at its end. They were just about ready to turn it into, to good old Iowa farmland. And some guys asked me if I'd be interested in taking a look at trying to help them keep it going. So we did it. And then we've, you know, done a lot of cool stuff. you know like stuff that just needed to be done cut the grass put water back in the

ponds put sand back in the sand traps and and it's been there since 1924 we you know we did we we we repainted the clubhouse we did everything and it's it's going pretty good we actually repainted the pool this spring and I don't know if you guys know this or not but I have five older brothers and my dad ran a painting company they called Nurse and Sons painting. And those guys paint it. Really let them down. The labor.

Yep, that labor. And my five older brothers, I, you know, text them, hey, man, we're out of the playoffs. You want to go to, you know, Augusta, let's go to the Masters. Crickets, nothing. Want to go to Kentucky Derby? Nothing. I said, hey, our pool needs painting at the club. Boom, we're there.

They're booking flights. And they did. They all came in and helped paint it. So, yeah, anyway, it's long talk about us. It's fun. It's good for the community. It's coming back. And there's some there's we have a nice event again in August coming up here in a couple weeks. So you have coached in Europe quite a bit. You won a championship in Belgium. You want championships in England. G league NBA. One story you told me and I wish you would retell it now was was it in Belgium or wherever were you were in first place

in the league. And so therefore when you played in the championship game, you had to start the game down like 30 to nothing. Right. No. So yeah, this is the the Belgian Cup. the Belgian Cup they let all the divisions in first, second, third, fourth and they just have a draw you know like the FAA Cup in soccer in England right?

And if you draw a team below you, you've got to spot them 10 points for every division they're below you. And we drew a fourth division team and we got to their place. We were like one of the top two teams in Belgium. We got to their place and it was 30 zip on

the scoreboard before the before the ball went up and throw the ball up and of course you know they like hit two threes right away it's like 36 to 2 and we I mean I can you we did not take the lead till about a minute to go in the game and we we got out of there with a win over fourth division cement floor like I mean it is it was something if we had anybody from the league office they would make they would hear this and say the jazz are up 22 nothing to start every game next year. The Jazz would argue for it to maybe be a little lower. Can we negotiate 18? So the Eastern Conference this year is in total flux. Hopefully you guys are going to come back healthy. How do you see what you guys can accomplish this year with your team back?

Well, I mean, we're a team with a lot of good players, right? So we expect to make a run of things. I mean, I don't like being out of the playoffs very well. So that's where we're going to We got to start with getting these new guys integrated, getting our older guys back playing, and get in the playoffs and take it from there. Well, the good news is you won't have bond tips all summer long saying, Philly's got the best victory in the league. There's no conversation. That's what you did.

You overhyped them and curse them. What are you doing? You curse them. What are you doing? It's the truth. They all listen. They all heard you all summer long. I mean, you were playing in the championship.

up the rocky steps the whole summer. Be quiet. I don't have any idea what you're talking about. A couple weeks ago, we're like, hey, you know, we should have some guests on the pot. I said, hey, I'll ask nurse. Nurse will come on. It'll be great. And I tell him, hey, we're going to have this nice, fun pod. You're going to come on. It's going to be a good time. It's a good time. This guy's setting missiles at him every 30 seconds. I'm sending him a you.

Throwing them at bond temps. Throwing them at Montemps. Throw their missiles. That's the more that you're used to. He's just, he's so jet-like, I didn't even realize. I was getting smacked. Yeah, so I'm sure you're always thrilled when you come out for the pregame and you see Bontem's day. Like, oh, God, not again. Hey, pal. Not again.

Some people enjoy seeing them. It's not you. I am. Nobody in this room. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I know. No bontempts.

Well, I really appreciate you stopping by. I know you've got a lot of engagements here. You got your team that you're going to go see. And we wish you next year to be very busy and unable to attend any major events and your golf game to go to hell in the spring. Hopefully. Wait a minute.

Before I get off, can you make the hour and a half drive over to the event again? You live so close to Carroll National. I have another event that day. But the good news is it's two days this year. So pick one. What?

What day are you playing the guitar? What day are you performing? I don't know. I don't know. You won't stay that late anyway. Oh, yeah. I was so embarrassed last year, I left on the 16th hole. That's a true story.

I just got in my car and drove away. I was like, I can't even post this score. It's so bad. But I hope you have a successful event coming up. And I hope you have a successful season. And we have some really good things to talk about the 76 years last year. Nick Nurse. More Hoop Collective podcast after this.

One of our guys, he, you know, he's been around the world. He's a guy who really appreciates his success, so we can have some fun with them. But obviously, incredibly successful, coach. And we're, we can't really root for anybody, but we can pull for people, so we always pull for Nick. And Wendy asked for the Belgian, you know, points giving the story, because you're asking for strokes. It's your long window way of asking for strokes. Oh, man, I wouldn't even enter into a bet right now. He isn't kidding, too.

He did leave. He literally left after the. 16th hole last year. He's like, I have to go home. This is really bad. I was literally like you, just back from Europe. I was like, I've had enough. As much I can do. That's right.

Yeah, what time is your flight tomorrow? 11.15, I think. Good. We'll keep that in mind. All right. So we were supposed to have Dave McMinnam in here, but he blew us off to do sidelines for the Laker game. Yeah, booing. There's some good booing. Yes, Bill McMenamint. That's right.

Again, there's a Mac Tennessee chance this year. But we're very happy to have one of our favorite colleagues at ESPN. He drives so much of what we do, and he, behind the scenes, is even more valuable than he is publicly. But he's a friend of our pod. He's one of the best in the business. We call him the machine. The one the only. just back from the ER

where he has some sort of a strange thumb injury that was a result of doing analytics Kevin Peltin K.P. Yeah, but you should see the calculator. No, seriously, what happened to your thumb? I slammed it in a car door a week ago, so it's one of those things where you tell people

the story and everyone wincees immediately as soon as they hear it. I kind of giggled, to be honest with you. So Pelton, you're here at Summer League. What are the storylines that you're watching? What players are you excited to see this next week and a half? Well, this Cooper Flagg guy, you know, a lot of people were ready to jump off the bandwagon after he shot 5 of 21 on Thursday.

Not me. Oh, wait to stick with him. I took the brave stance that it is too early to write off Cooper Flagg, and he responded with 31 points today. The most points, do you know this? Here's a trivia. The most, Stats Williams, here in spirit, the most points for a number one overall pick in the summer league since.

That's a... It happened here in Vegas. John Wall? John, God. The machine, 2010. John Wall. John Wall was in attendance today. He was there.

Yeah, he was signing autographs. Wouldn't look like you could get 31 anymore. You can always count on you. Hey, no, listen, this is a true story. This is a true story. The last shot that John Wall hit of his career was when he slammed into my back when I was about to do a sports center.

That's true. That's a true story. He was about to get cut, and he was raging against the dying of the light, and he slammed into McMahon on the sideline while he was about to do a sports center hit. What everybody was like, what are you doing there? They told us they were going to start the stay ready game, like the guys who aren't getting minutes

coming back from injury. They told us they were going to start at like, I don't know what time, whatever, say like 12.30. My hit was at nude. And then they started at 1145, and we didn't have time to adjust, so he drives down the middle. I don't even know if he got hit, but he backped him slammed right into my back. I'm like, all right, dude. And it was a block. It was an end one. I'm sorry to say for you. I kept my feet. But not your dignity. Yeah, Cooper Flagg had 31 points today on 10 of 20. 10 of 20. 10 of 20.

So much better shooting. Dylan Harper with 16 points in that game, I think. Yeah, in like 18 or 19 minutes. Dylan Harper looked good. It's the first game that he played. He sat out, I don't even know what the one in California is called. California Classic. He sat that out and then he sat out at the open with a little groin injury.

But yeah, he looked good. He's going to be awfully good. Highlight Block for Dylan Harper in transition. That was very impressive. Yeah, so other than Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper, what are you watching for? If any of these folks are going out to Thomas Amec or the, you know, the Cox Pavilion, the little side arena to. You know what a Cox Pavilion? You got a big Cox Pavilion fans.

There you go. All right. I came to the first. All right. I came to the first Vegas Summer League. I came in 2004. and they didn't used to have a foul-out rule. Now if you foul ten times you foul out.

They put that rule in because Dwight Howard as a rookie was fouling like 14 times a game. Nobody was coming to the games. They were bringing in campers from like 11 and 12-year-old campers to sit in the stands to just fill the stands because nobody else. There was no games at night. All the games were during the day.

And at one point the Clippers had a game and there's no courtside seats. I mean there were seats, but nobody had bought them. And like midway through the second quarter of, quarter, Donald Sterling walks in with six blondes. And he sits right in the middle court side, three on the right and three on the left. And that probably costs more

than his clippers rostered out. I can't confirm or deny. The man is auditioning for a spot on the stage here later, I think. He's trying. They had the Thomas in Macs Center was sealed off. We can't even think about using that building. So the C-20 years later

to see this is going on, this is pretty cool. But anyway, if any of these folks go over there, Pelton, who are you watching? Well, he doesn't have to be rookies. Were you about to shout out another spur? I actually wasn't, although we can talk about Carter Bryant because he was very impressive today. That's what the people came for. Let's go. Before we shot out, we have a bunch of NBA people here, but I wanted to shout out one guy in particular.

Sean Sweeney, new associate head coach of the San Antonio Spurs in attendance today. Hey, not tall enough to ref a game, but he's a hell of a coach. He just doesn't stop, ever. We also have a whole bunch of Oklahoma City Thunder executives in here, and they're still smiling. No, no, because they're not drunk because they don't drink. No, no. Hey, and they saw Nurse here. They didn't like the lottery stuff.

The top six stories, they don't like. They were the other side of that. Nothing ever goes the Thunder's way. I don't know if they're ever going to, I think it's going to work out. But Sean has just showed up at San Antonio from Dallas, got away from McMahon. One big win for him. Oh, yeah, he goes right from me to Mike Wright. What a prize that is.

In addition to Victor Wimbunyama, he's got another guy who's pretty good on defense, who was quite good today. Yeah, Bryant was someone who really popped in my statistical projections early on. Carter Bryant for people who don't know who that. Who's kind of a 3-and-D wing, high steel and block rates. But one thing I didn't realize watching him a little bit at Arizona, like defensively today, it was just kind of he was the aggressor out there, the way that he was using his size and strength defending the ball, forced a Cooper turnover early on. Not only Cooper Turner, I mean, he locked him up, and it was one of those things where, like, Cooper Flags got the ball out on the wing.

Obviously, the whole arena is excited. There's a buzz. He's trying to make something happen. And it was like several seconds who's locked up until he just dribble the ball off his foot because there was so much pressure. But the guy I was going to say, because we maybe need someone on this podcast to not pronounce his name like a 90s boy band, is Yong Han Sed of the Portland Trail Blazers. And our next guest is Yang Han Senn. John Hansen, okay.

You're just excited as a Pacific... We were trying to figure out if it was Yang Hansen or Hansen Yang. It's neither one. We're pushing way beyond that. You're just excited about it because you're a Pacific Northwesterner and you're looking for a reason to go down to Portland. I would love a good reason to go down to Portland. Donovan Klingin is a reason in his own right, and their young guards,

Tumani Kamara, Denny Avdia. That's not true. I mean, admittedly I didn't. make that many games last season, but not because I wasn't excited about the Blazers. I think we may not have the young gang in attendance here tonight because they're playing at 7.30, but assuming he continues playing after this, he had a very exciting opening performance on Friday with his passing, you know, his size. He grew up, he's like one of the first generation of big men who grew up idolizing Nikola Yokic. And so he's, why is he 7-3? I don't know.

that. Okay, but he, if you watch him play, like you can tell, he just studied how Yokic plays, wants to play out of the high post, made some crazy passes two nights ago. Was that last night? Last night. Last night. I don't want to say Blazers' hands are goody over their skis here, but I did hear today that instead of him

being the Chinese Yokic, Yokic is going to be the Serbian Yon. I see. He was considered the biggest reach of the first round. Like when he was picked, you know, people thought he was, hold on, that guy's supposed to be like a mid-second rounder. Where did you have them on your nerd board? Well, I didn't have them at all.

Oh, my God. What happened? Get off. Get out of here. One summer league game, and he's got him as the Chinese joker. I said someone to watch. Joe Chi, who you may remember from Houston, rated really well in my model. So I have some qualms about the Chinese Basketball Association translation.

What is the correct pronunciation again? Just so I can now say it, because Jackson even said. Yang Hun Sen. Yang Hansen. So Yang Hansen is 7-1, according to Jackson. Jackson producing even during the live show. Jackson Jello, by the way, everybody. He didn't get a proper applause earlier. Jackson tried to get on the pod with the announcements beforehand. That was interesting. Bottas, McMahon and Jackson have been following me around the country for the last two and a half months, and I am tired of it. Listen, I am ready to move on. Jackson's biggest contribution during the playoffs, all the work you did in the pocket, is his biggest contribution was boosting my confidence.

when he's guarding me and pick up basketball. His post defense is atrocious. Nobody likes to talk about anything more than Tim McMahon likes to talk about his mediocre pickup basketball game. It is, it is nuts. I'll say it again. I've used this line, but it says this is an accurate scatter report. Bomb Timps hoops like he podcasts. He talks a lot and contributes none.

McMahon played five or six times during the playoffs, and I got the play-by-play of every single game. Because he only showed up once, and he wouldn't coming back after that point. No, I, I just, it's nonstop. It's unbelievable. By the way, let's get it every single day. I'm really not exaggerating.

You came to Summer League. Hey, hey, hold on. I got, I got my boys back here. Yeah, Luca and Liam. Coincidentally. Yeah, Luca and Liam. Shout to the twins. Hey, I smoked their little butts last week, too.

No injuries? No, full court too. These guys were huffing and puffing. I'm old. I was, let me just tell you. I've seen you, Ron. You were huffing and puffing. The court's only about 40 feet, to be honest with you.

But the dagger, the walkoff was from half court, baby. Again, this is every day. How many shoes did you bring to Summer League? How many pairs of shoes? So it's a trick question because I have to go to, I do. I have to go to L.A. after this. So I got four shows in L.A., so that's four right there. these will be

my father's day present by the way how much you can see the shoes on TV I think I packed I think I packed like nine

but there's skip right by your question it's all good my bad one pair of basketball shoes don't know if I'm gonna use them

although Christian from Christian and Scooby's here if we can get a pickup on LA he wants to who another big celebrity

if you don't know Christian and Scooby the star is really Scooby I don't listen I'd never seen Scooby do a one hand in handstand while dribbling a ball of the other hand? The premier halftime act in the NBA. He's our favorite. That's right. That's right.

So he also does a... He's kicking Red Panda while she's down. That's not nice. He also does a show here in Vegas in the off season. And the show is pretty much the same with Scooby, except for in Vegas, he doesn't wear a shirt and he oils himself up. That's essentially the only difference. He just glistens naturally. Yeah. All right. But Peltin, anybody else you think we should keep an eye on here? Well, I'm curious to see if Reed Shepard plays tomorrow.

28 points last year? 26. 28? 28 sounds right. 6.3s? It was like 10 to 25, though. But yeah, 6. 6 for 15 from 3.

That's pretty good. A bunch of blocks and steals. Reed Shepard is going to have an awful good year for the rock. He's going to be awfully, awfully good. And any other first round picks that you've seen so far that you've been interested in? I'm curious to see more of Ace Bailey. You know, I saw he didn't play last night. He's got a little hip thing.

We'll see what he has been forward. Jazz are already getting going on that, aren't there? I'm pretty sure they can play 18 old Ace Bailey and still lose next year. That's the plan. Yeah, that's the plan. I'm serious though. I'm not just saying like A-Rod and Mark Lorry are gone now, but The French kid.

Juan Barangetet? Wee, we. In the back, before we came out, Arod and Mark were all excited about the fact that he had seven blocks. Was it last night? Yeah, no, he really, like he was swat. Tied the Summer League record, right? Which kind of shocked me, it was that low.

He's got a pretty good mentor, and Rudy Gobert, obviously. The greatest French center until the young fellow in San Antonio surpasses him at some point in the future. But pretty good guy to M. formulate over the next couple years, you know, learn how to play. So it's pretty interesting. So Pelton, before we go, you are about to star, I think, is the proper term. You're about to star in an upcoming 30 for 30 podcast.

Really? This is news. I don't know how much I'm in the podcast, but the promotion makes it seem like a lot. You're going to star in it. This is news to me. What are we got, KP? I'm not the subject, to be clear. What's the story?

The story is about a pioneer of basketball analytics named Martin Manley. So he was writing in the 80s well before there were, you know, PR existed, well before basketball reference, any of these things that we sort of take for granted now, was inspired by fellow Kansas and Bill James and did a couple of books called Basketball Heaven was the name of his series in the 80s. And I happened to read one of them. They had it at the UW Library. You were probably reading it.

Not at the time. Not at the time. But when I was in college, they had it at the UW Library. So I read it. And he invented a very early player rating system that basically was, let's take the good things players do, you know, points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, subtract, missed shots, turnovers, fouls, things like that. And, you know, that's going to be their player rating,

which eventually showed up on NBA.com many years later. So he was someone who was really ahead of his time in this sort of analysis, but one of those kind of pioneers that has been lost to history to a degree, and this podcast will be telling his story as well as what happened after his time writing these books. Yeah, there's more to the story, but he can't give it away. That's all I can say. That's quite a turn of events, actually. Yeah, that's right.

The best part, though, is if you go check out the promo video for this, there's a list of the people who are most responsible for there being potentially too many threes, in the NBA now. It's Steph Curry number one. Daryl Morey number two. Okay. Dean Oliver, who basically invented what we now know is basketball statistics number three, and

then somehow I made it on the list at number four. So, you better be careful out there, so people don't like the number of three. Yeah, I mean, they are being crossed off. It reminded me a little bit of Happy Gilmore. Oh, wait, no, there's Billy Madison. I put I ruined the joke.

All right. I've been told I'm told by producer Jackson that the podcast comes out on July 22nd so make sure you check it out. Yeah, 30 for 30 podcasts. All right, wonderful. All right, Mr. Peltin, thank you for everything.

Take care of those other nine fingers. The machine, Kevin Peltin. Thanks, KP. Two thumbs up for the machine. You do thumbs up, one and a half thumbs up? All right, well, before we take some questions, because we've got some of those, I think Jackson's got some.

We have a special presentation that we have to give. to go back to Portugal we ought to be thought that why why because you just had a baby I know but I have one carryout bag because I'm here for 38 hours

you got two now this is on behalf are we doing this is on behalf of your friends at the hoop collective wow that's a lot of stuff holy cow Jesus Christ that's a really nice way to say thank you

welcome I'm just trying to We'll ship it to you. We'll ship it to you. Now you see why I give him such a hard time. This was very unexpected. It's very nice. Shout out.

Shout out to K. Bonn. The reason we're doing the pod because she allowed me to come back from vacation for 30 hours. Yeah, go ahead and raid that, McMahon, because he doesn't want it anyway. What do we got? Holy cow. That is amazing. Yeah.

You're going to start changing your tone when you go through that. Well, I mean, yes. I'm just sort of overwhelmed by. Got his kicks game right? I was not expecting it. That's the idea of the surprise. I know. I'm just also now figuring out.

We're saying thank you for flying all the way back from Portugal. This guy is a lot of fun at parties. Listen, in the state I'm in, I just looked at this and said, how am I going to get this home to Portugal and then home from Portugal? All right, we'll ship it. Just relax, Mr. Logistics. I know, I know, I know. I did not anticipate getting gifts.

It's very nice. You can always count on Bontemp's being. I did say thank you. I did say thank you. All right. So for the television purposes, I'm going to say a little something here to wrap the show so they can put a little bow on it. And then we're going to have Q&A. So that's what we're going to explain here. So here's where I say, thank you to Jackson and Rafa. Yes, thank you. And Julius and Megan and all of our producers who made this happen.

Thank you for everybody here in Las Vegas, who I heard some people came from all over the country. Shout out to one of my special guests, Cedric Johnson, this is his birthday. He decided to come to spend his birthday with us. Shout out to everybody who traveled in here and spent your evening here and us with Las Vegas. You could have gone to the Nuggets Wolves game, but you came here with us instead.

So we're very appreciative. Thank you. Tim McMahon. Thank you to Bontemps. Thank you for watching. You're listening to the Hoop Collective. And for the intents of the podcast, Adios Amigos.