Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - Our 5th Annual Friendsgiving

Episode Date: November 26, 2025

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon for our special Friendsgiving episode as our crew welcomes some of our favorite guests to talk about everything from major NBA storylines to the best type of ice to put in your beverages. In this edition we welcome ESPN’s Anthony Slater to talk if it is time to be concerned about the Warriors, ESPN’s Vince Goodwill to discuss if the Pistons are ready to make a major move to be a contender, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne to talk new info on the sale of the Lakers & detail the arraignment for the NBA gambling investigation, ESPN’s Jamal Collier to break down the state of the Bucks & the future of Giannis, ESPN’s Bobby Marks on teams with the most flexibility in the NBA for the trade deadline, ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk to highlight some key travel components & sacred beverage insight, ESPN’s Mike C. Wright to tell us about his Thanksgiving spread & the latest on the Spurs & Rockets and ESPN’s Malika Andrews joins as she prepares for her first ever Syracuse basketball game. 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 and welcome to the HOOP collective podcast. We talk about the NBA, and this is our special fifth annual Friendsgiving episode. So for however long, this podcast goes on for, God knows how much Jackson is going to have wrestled with it over the last 12 hours to cut it down to try to get us under control.

There's like all kinds of voices from all over the country. Part of this podcast, I did in Omaha, part of it I did here in L.A. part of the podcast, Bon Temps did in Miami. Part of the podcast he did in New York, McMahon is getting on a flight soon to go somewhere, probably someplace he could drive. It's going to be a terrific opportunity for you to enjoy a lot of NBA talk.

And I'm just going to say at some point in this podcast, we talk about ice. That's where we're going, you know, in various things over Thanksgiving. So. Ice is in pines and water, nothing too controversial. That's right. So now we're going to flip the switch here and head to the normal podcast. But thank you so much for joining us for Friendsgiving and enjoy your travels.

And if you're not going anywhere, enjoy your Thanksgiving. Joining us from New York City, but just off the plane from Miami where he saw the heat beat the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night is Tim Bunn-Temps. Hello, everybody. Join us from Dallas, Texas. We just got back from the tire store is Ban McMahon. Howdy, partners, and on-plan-V-V-E. visit. A little bit light in the wallet. I'm certainly willing to accept any sponsorship deals that might come my way because I'm broke again.

Nothing like unexpected expense of the holidays to brighten your spirit. Bond, you saw the Heat win their fifth consecutive game. And Tyler Hero's season debut, he had 28 points, I believe, playing within the new offense. And I got to say, the fact that the Heat are 12 and 6, despite Hero missing the first, six weeks of the season, whatever, five, six weeks. Despite Bam, at a bio being out with a toe injury, even Norm Powell missed this game. But just general in and out that they've had,

like considering that this team was, you know, not exactly sure what their identity was going to be after trading Jimmy Butler last February, I don't know where they're going to end the season. I don't know where they're going to be at Christmas. But I know right now the Miami Heat are high achieving. I won't say overachieving because that undersells them. But this is what the heat do.

They typically make the best of what they have, and the heat are one of the early season success stories. Probably not getting the attention they deserve because Detroit and even Toronto have done it in the east, but the heat are an Eastern Conference success story right now. Your nickname for Espos has long been the mechanic, right? Am I remembering that correctly? That's right.

Nobody else calls them that, but I do. It's a, well, and it's, I like it, though, and I think it does fit because he does like, like to tinker and try different things. And, you know, they, you know, he's talked about it a couple times that he said it pretty explicitly after the, before the game yesterday that, when they got embarrassed in that first round series by the Cavs, by Cavs Corner. And I, I might be misquoting slightly, but I believe he said it was as embarrassing a moment

as he's ever had in his career the way game four of that series ended, where I think they lost by more than 50. I was there for that. It was an elimination game, and I've never seen a team lay down like I saw. Yeah, I mean, and they clearly went to the drawing board, back to the drawing board, and, you know, he brought in Noel Oroche.

We've talked a lot about, you know, the stuff that he did in Memphis. And, you know, that offense, you know, the spread the floor, don't really want pick and roll, a lot of straight line drive attacking space offense. It's a really interesting. system to use when you don't have a guy to dominate the ball.

And this Miami team doesn't really have a guy like that. They've got very good offensive players. You know, Tyler Hero is now back. Norman Powell is a very good offensive player. They've got other guys that can score, but they don't have a Blukadajic or a Janice or a Yonich or a Yolkich or a Shea, like some guy that you're just going to give the ball for massive usage. So they've leveraged that to having a bunch of pretty good players that can all

do different things. And Spow, like he does oftentimes, is finding ways to maximize a lot of those guys. And the result has been, we've talked about how fast the league is playing overall. They're playing faster than everybody. And even with some of the injuries they've had, they've been able to withstand that by having 10 or 12 solid players. And that means they have nine or 10 available on a nightly basis. And they're just running and running and really pushing the tempo and taking, you know, like every guy in the team's pretty much got, it seems, a green light to take the first good look they've got, whether it's to drive to the hoop or to shoot the ball. And having spent a lot of time around Miami last year

in the whole Jimmy Butler fiasco, it's remarkable how much happier and like how good the vibes are across the board. And I think the heat would be the first. Yeah, they were a year ago, night now they were in hell. Yeah, it was a miserable situation. They were trying to get out of the Jimmy Butler situation. Jimmy was trying to get out of the Jimmy Butler situation. And they were just stuck in this very awkward dance until they could find a trade that worked. And this year, like the heater, the heat are a championship or bus team. So I think they would be the first to tell you that they're not sitting there saying, yeah, we're going to win the title playing like this. but they're enjoying playing like this.

They have a very fun team. They're going to win a lot of regular season games, especially in a very wide open East, and they're going to see what they have and see how far it could take them and then go from there. But from where they were last year to where they are now, it's night and day. And, you know, it's been, I think, a really,

it's a really fun brand of basketball to watch, and it's been a really fun opening month for the year. Well, we said going into the season that they, and over the summer, the heat were kind of in this in-between phase. We all understand the heat are, you know, big fishermen. Like they get big fish, whether it's the free agency or via trade. They get superstar players down there to South Beach, and they don't have that right now. So they're, you know, and they can take their time and find the right one. They don't have to act in desperation.

But they are in this in-between phase. but like you said, Bon Temps, they're putting a very fun product out on the floor during this in-between phase. And, you know, with Norm Powell, Hero,

and Jaime Hawkes, they've got three guys who can really do some pretty significant damage as offensive creators. Like Hawkes is an early sixth man of the year candidate. Hero stepped right in, put up 24 last night, including the game winner.

And then Powell's, we talked about him, recently his numbers are through the roof. And then they've got like, you know, Colette Ware is a really high upside young guy. I mean, a springy seven-footer who shoot. He just had 20 and 18 last night. Yeah, and he's shooting three in the high 30s.

He's a great lob finisher, very intriguing player. And, you know, then they've also done well on, like the reclamation market. Davian Mitchell is having a hell of year. And he's always been a guy who's been a pit bull defensively. He was just, frankly, such a bad offensive player that it was hard to get him on the floor. It was a slick trade they made on dead. I think it was on deadline day last year.

Basically, he was sort of an odd man out in Toronto. And I don't even remember what they sent for him, Bontemson. Well, if you remember, if you remember what happened with that trade was they had a deal to get out of the tax. and the deal fell apart and they wound up having to maneuver things around and they wound up with Davy on Mitchell and I remember talking to the heat and they essentially were a Davy on Mitchell

into the tax and at the time everyone assumed they were going to get out of the tax and they didn't and it basically said yeah look we have been intrigued by Davy on Mitchell for a long time and it's worth us to take the swing and see how he fits and you know he's been around a long time, but he's still only 27. Like, he's not, he's not that old, and he's just getting into his prime years in the league.

And, you know, like, as we've seen, Sacramento is not always the best place to foster a career. And he's, he's now landed in a great. That was eloquently said. Well, but he's now landed in a great spot where he's able to play a role. And again, it's another example of Eric's Bolstra, really maximizing all of these different guys. Like, Hami Hamehawk is at a great rookie year. Last year was a disaster. You know, he had injuries, didn't play well.

But like now, his confidence is back. He's a really good straight line driver. This offense is set up for him to just attack. And even last night, like, didn't matter who was guarding him. Like, he was trying to go at anybody who was in front of him. And he gets down to hell and bounces off of people. And, by the way, sure it does. Daveon Mitchell's built like a, you know, like a short-yardage running back.

But he's showing more playmaking than I think anybody would have anticipated. He's eighth in the league and assists at seven and a half per game and his assist turnover ratios five to one. Wow. I mean, like, that's pretty impressive.

Well, and it was interesting too. Like, you know, obviously it was a big topic yesterday that Tyler Hero was back. And you could see in the game, like Tyler hadn't played basketball in two months, right? And you could see in the game, like the ball's popping around and moving around and Tyler would catch it and have to kind of like,

think a bit because he even said after the game he's used to like calling collo a while up for a screen and he like he was kind of on the fly having to rewire his brain and how soon before he just calls him up anyway well i mean the kind of the misnomer with this with this offense is that like people act like you're not allowed to do pick and rolls in it like they're going to run some pick and rolls and they do every game they run yes of course run less than everybody else yes but he also like i think his game is very well suited to succeed in this offense where it's you know he's got like you saw in that game last night he was able to get to his spaces in the lane and get to that floater

range where he feels really comfortable getting shots and i thought the most telling thing about it was hearing bam out of bio talk about it and you know we spent a lot of time talking about how miserable things are in memphis and how unhappy guys are and in the way the whole situation sits, right? And they're asking, Bam, like, well, how is Tyler going to, how's Tyler going to handle this? How's he going to handle, you know, adjusting to this, blah, blah, blah. And Bam was like, how could anybody not have fun playing in this offense? Everybody gets to be aggressive. Everybody gets to have the ball. Well, that's what I'm saying. It's, it's just, it's interesting. Now, look, I don't think it's a perfect offense. I don't think every team should run it. But

Bam is a big time player. It's all, multiple time, all. star pretty sure he's made all NBA, he's won gold medals. Like, he's had a lot of success in the league. And he's sitting there saying, yeah, look, like Tyler's going to come in and he's going to get the ball and he's going to have success because everybody does with the way this offense is. And it's really fun to play and it's fun to be part of. And it, I think it was just emblematic of how different the two situations are in a lot

of ways, but also like I thought it was emblematic of just how different, like you said, Brian, it is in Miami now compared to what it was a year ago when it was just like funeral every day waiting for the Jimmy thing to add. And we haven't even mentioned that I don't know if it's the, certainly wasn't the biggest move of the summer because that's Durant, but maybe not even the most impactful, but the Norm Powell trade, you know, to this point has been extremely important. And, you know, in Norm Powell,

he really, really, really wanted to be an all-star last year. In fact, he came on to the Hoop Collective in an effort to, you know, He knows that people. They know people in the league, you know, listen to the podcast, I have to say. And he didn't make it. He thought you had more power than you really do. I guess so. I guess so.

Evan Mowgli wanted a defensive player of the year. That got achieved. But Zubach wanted it to, and he didn't. Anyway. Well, Zubach wanted an all-N-B-A and you were campaigning. But anyways, let's get back to Zipa. Anyway, I will say that, you know, just to point out that on Wednesday night, in Group C in the Eastern Conference NBA Cup.

You should be aware that the heat and bucks are playing, and the winner of that is probably going to win the group. And not only that, but Janus might be back for that game. So we got to read it. questionable this evening, Tuesday evening. So that would seem to be a pretty good sign that he will be on the court on Wednesday. I mean, I'm not saying that you shouldn't watch Pistons Celtics on ESPN on Wednesday. but, you know.

I would tune into Heat Bucks. Oh, my gosh. What an insult. What an insult. I mean, I've just happened to turn on a lot of Heat games this year. Like, they're just, they're really fun to watch. And obviously, you know, with Yonah's coming back, I mean, it's been a rough, I mean, it's been a rough three games with him out. Their offense has looked about as bad as you would think it was going to look.

And, you know, if he is able to get back, they have the heat on Wednesday in the cup and they have the Knicks on Friday. in the cup. And I think if they win one of them, what? I just realized we've got a delightful little pre- Thanksgiving triple header. That's correct. Yeah, so you can actually watch Pist and Celtics. I will be at the ESP. That's a four o'clock tip.

What is that, five on? Five Eastern, yeah. Five Eastern, I think in Central. We haven't had a lot of five Eastern tip. The Pimble Old Thunder game, which is our middle game. Yeah. The late night, who do we got a late night here? Oh, Rockets. Warrior's Thunder.

Warriors Rockets. Not where you're saying. Yeah, that's a delightful little triple header. But you want to take it away. Should you want to tune in at 430, you can watch NBA countdown on ESPN. A bunch of Rickon on my back wall. I mean, there's a couple of NBA champions on there. I mean, I'm not one of them, but there's a couple of champions on there. Yeah, well, that's not going to be happening.

But that, yes, there's some good games tomorrow. The Thunder will be on, the wolves, we're going to talk about in a minute. And then who doesn't want to see the Rockets Warriors bringing up the nightcap? Should be fun. Look, there's no such thing as a devastating loss in November. Let's just be clear. There are bad losses, though. It has not been a good couple of days for the Timberwolves.

They gave up a nine point lead in the final minute or eight point lead in the final, was it six, whatever. It was a down. A point lead in the final 45 seconds in Phoenix. Absolutely unacceptable loss. Then they go up to Sacramento. And if there's ever been a bounce back situation, I think they had a couple of days off after the Phoenix game, got to stay in Phoenix. They stayed in Phoenix, enjoyed the weather, I'm sure. Then they, you know, had a practice.

and they get to come up to Sacramento, this is an ideal bounceback situation, and they were ahead by 10 points, late in the fourth quarter. I think with three minutes ago, they were ahead by 10, and they allow the Kings, the lowly kings,

to make a 10-0 run to end that game. And I got to say, as I'm discussing, you know, the beginning of the idea of what the trade market may look like, you know, in the NBA,

A team that is emerged, you know, there's some sellers you can identify, okay? But a team that is emerging as a buyer is the wolves. Coming off of two conference finals, high expectations, weak at the guard position, just for various reasons. And a team that despite having a decent record has underachieved because they've gone through a soft portion of schedule, including quite frankly the sons and kings. I mean, at worst, you should split that even on the road.

And a team that should win for the West, especially when you're in position to win both, should win both games. And so, Bontemps, the wolves, I'm not, I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but the wolves are not performing in a manner that they need to be performing at this point. No, they are not.

And the tricky part for Minnesota is, like you say, okay, let's just say they decide they want to make, a move, right? With the moves they've made prior, especially, you know, not only the Rudy Goat-Barr-Trad, but also then trading also then trading Rob Dillingham, before Rob Dillingham in the draft, a couple years ago. I mean, they have, they literally don't have

a tradable first, and a 20-32 pick is frozen because they were in the second apron. So they, like, okay, like, you want to say, This is a prime example. You want to say, hey, Minnesota needs to make a move, needs to get guard help, needs to do this, needs to do that. Like, okay, are you trading Julius Randall for a guard? Are you trading Jaden McDaniels for a guard? Are you trading Rudy O'Bare for a guard?

Well, if you trade any of those guys for- Well, just if you trade any of those guys for a guard, it creates all sorts of other problems. Like people want to say Rudy is, you know, not as good as he was before. Their defense goes off a cliff whenever he's on the bench. Jaden McDaniels is their best, you know, wing defender. He's really the only guy besides Ant you can look at as a true, I think, sort of building block player going forward. Julius Randall's probably their best creator or maybe him and Ant and he's their other big time scorer. So like you move on from any of those guys who are their three big salary players besides Aunt who they're obviously not trading.

Those trades all create other problems. and they're also right up against a second apron and have to deal with the financial part while sending out money. It's just really hard to make a big trade. They wouldn't be able to take on any money. That's absolutely true. Or they'd have to take on, right, they can't add salary. They'd have to move around salary. And it's a very, very, very complicated equation for Tim Connolly, the head of their front office to solve.

Not to jump in front of you, McMahon. I'm sorry. But part of the reason why people in the league are talking about them is because Tim Connolly does do stuff like that. He wants to make big moves. Last year, they were in the second apron, and they were negotiating with the sons who were in the second apron, and they were trying all kinds of different things to get Kevin Durant.

Now, ultimately, they weren't able to do that. But this is a team that eventually made the conference finals. Like, Tim Connolly is a guy who swings big, doesn't mind paying, and we'll figure out the rest later. And he's had a fair amount of success in his career doing that. So part of the arithmetic, as I talk to guys, is that if Tim Connolly thinks he needs to make a move, he'll figure out a way to make it. And I know that that's irresponsible to say, figure out to make a move, but that's what people say.

Well, and it's been known, and Connolly has understood for a while that point guard was going to be an issue. You know, Mike Conley is a backup at this point of his career. It's been an amazing career. That's no knock on him. But that was the whole point of doing the Rob Dillingham deal, that they paid a steep price, a pick and a swap to be able to get that. picked from San Antonio and take Rob Dillingham because they recognize, hey, they needed a point guard of the near future. And so far, that bet looks like a really bad bet. And listen, I'm not going to sit here and give up on a guy who's 20 years old.

But his numbers this year are not better than his numbers last year. He is still a fringe rotation player who is, his shooting numbers have gone down. He's shooting in the 30s from the floor. You know, talking to people around the league, there is a lot of doubt whether you will ever be a real point guard. I hear a lot more of, you know, maybe he can be a bench bucket getter than a true point guard. But point being, that was a big swing that they took a couple drafts ago that is not paying dividends. And as a direct result, there is a glaring wholeness roster. And you see that glaring hole, as they, much like they did for a lot of last season,

continue to have massive problems closing games. I mean, this is an extreme example, but their clutch offensive numbers are bad, and they get worse the later you go and the tighter it gets. Well, in the odd-off numbers, just to highlight that. Now, these are not always obviously perfect. There's context of these things, but Rob Dillingham's played 15 games,

played 163 minutes, so a little over 10 minutes a game. The Wolves offense is 100 flat when he's on the court, which is the worst in the league. And they have a net rating of negative 9.4. And when he's on the bench, the offense goes up to 120 in 658 minutes, and they have a net rating of 7.9. So they're 17 points better when he is on the bench. And he's on the bench a lot more than he's on the court.

But he is on the bench in those clutch situations. And this is not entirely a Rob Dillingham problem. But it's pretty important context when you look at the state that Minnesota is in, that they didn't have a lot of assets left in the chamber to go get stuff. And they used most of them to make that trade. And it was a big swing trade at the time. Like if Rob Dillingham was a starter, like, looked like a really good, like if you look like Stefan Castle right now, right?

You'd be saying, hey, it's a great move. They've got the young guard to go, they ain't going forward. you'd feel really good about where Minnesota's at. Instead, you make that move. Doesn't mean Dillingham can't get better. He's still very young. It's obviously a talented player, but it puts into pretty stark relief that it's an issue they've got to solve.

And there's just, like I said, like Tim Connolly, like you said, Brian, he gets things done. If he wants to make a move, he'll figure out a way to do it. But it is a really tricky puzzle to try to figure that out when almost, Most any move you make has to involve trading away probably a key piece. Well, and that's it. There are, there's certainly the possibility that there could be one or more recent All-Star Point Guards on the market for the deadline who are considered distressed assets, I would say.

But even in that case, just to make the salary work, you'd have to give up a very important player if you're the Timberwolves. So it's a tough spot to be in. Well, good news. I have good news. They play at Oklahoma City on ESPN on Wednesday. Well, probably won't have to worry about protection of late lead. That's good.

17 and 1 in case you haven't heard. Listen, can they make Shea play the fourth quarter? Tune in to find out. Hey, that's the first order of business. When you team with Oklahoma City is make them play the fourth quarter. I'm not kidding. Can I ask a resident thunder expert a question before we change topics? Go ahead, Wendy.

We have been waiting for Jalen Williams to play. He now is not all-N-B-A eligible. Yeah. Do we have any sense of when he's going to be ready to go? I actually thought it was going to be last week, and that obviously didn't happen. I am boarding a flight and heading up there tomorrow. If I have any further information after that trip, I'll let you know. Obviously, he was hoping to be much earlier.

Then he had to go get that screw removed. Are you going to Riches for Thanksgiving dinner? No, no. I'm heading back home for Thanksgiving dinner and then heading on out to L.A. I think I'll see you in L.A. That's a shame. Oh, no, I won't be here when you're here. I refuse it.

I absolutely. That's absolutely not going to be on the menu. We'll see. Be there for a while. Okay. Now we welcome in from Sacramento, California. His first Friends Giving appearance, it's Anthony Slater. What's up Slater?

I thought you just brought me on to talk about the scorching hot Sacramento Kings. They gave it to the Timberwolves the other night. The Timberwolves were, what was it, a nine-point game with, or maybe a 10-point game? They had a 10-0 run in the last like 125 or something like that. It's the latest absolutely absurd loss. of the season for the Timberwolves. I mean, they just blew a eight-point lead in 49 seconds to Phoenix the other night. They had the game there.

They lost the Lakers at home earlier this year when Austin Reeves went insane and hit the buzzer-beater with no Luca and Noel LeBron. Just not very impressive from a team that wants to be making a deep playoff run again. You know, what's funny about that, though, so I had a choice last night, go to Warriors' Jazz or King's Timberwolves. the Warriors game, obviously, you know, the company would probably prefer. I mostly do that. But, you know, the King's Super Bowl's game was more interesting. And when I get out of the arena quick enough on nights that the Kings win, which is a very big qualifier here, because

hasn't been too many, on my way back home, I drive past the arena. Beam was lit last night, first time in the season. How far out from Sacramento, can you see the beam? Pretty, pretty good, maybe, like, I don't know, 10, 15 miles maybe. Like they, so the, so the, so the, The second year they had the beam, which was, you know, the first year was actually the, you know, good year of the beam. But the second year, they really, like, you know, improve the bulbidge, wattage, whatever you want to say. And it became way more. The bulbage. Bulbage.

New word. That's Oklahoma State right there. Yes, sure is. At Oklahoma State Education, baby. Well, I will say, before we talk about the Warriors, you saw Ace Bailey, you know, a lot of these guys in this class, these 25 class are having really great starts. Ace Bailey started a little slower, but Ace Bailey had the best game of his young career, 21 points. I know the Jazz lost.

That's actually, don't tell anybody, but it's not the end of the world if Ace Bailey plays well and the Jazz lose. They don't want to say that out loud. I'll say it for him. But what do you think of Ace Bailey? I don't know if it was the first time you saw him. I got to see him last week in L.A., but what did you think? It was the first time.

You know, he's playing a more controlled brand of basketball than I think we all probably predicted. if you thought it was going to be like extremely low efficiency, like just get to the mid-range 19-footer. That's where a lot of rookies play low efficiency. But yeah. Yeah. But it's, you know, it's not, you know, it's not like super like losing basketball, you know,

the type of stuff he's doing, which is, you know, is encouraging, I think, long term. I think you can still tell even on plays last night, particularly on the defensive end, he's still, you know, a teenager. You know, he's kind of getting thrown around a little bit by, you know, adults out there. So he's got a while to go.

to be like, you know, a really sturdy, you know, wing in the league. But you can kind of see, you know, what it's molding into. And I would say, you guys would probably agree. It's been a more encouraging start than maybe we all predicted from just like a style of play standpoint. Yeah. When you talk to the folks in Utah, they say he's just really getting started working on his body. Even, you know, they haven't even really introduced a lot of that strength building stuff. yet because they wanted to get him acclimated and everything like that.

So they believe he will add a lot of strength, which is, again, not exactly a hot take when you're dealing with a teenager. But they are very excited about him. And I know that, you know, obviously Cooper Flagg is a budding potential star. The spurs are raving about Dylan Harper. Obviously, the 76ers are over the moon about Vijay Edgecom. who got taken right in front of him, Bontentz, who am I forgetting?

Con Caneple from Charlie. Con canipal right now. Con Canipal, I think, took over from Cooper Flagg in some of the books, is odds on favor for him for a rookie year. That will not be a good bet if Cooper stays healthy, but especially now that he's not playing point card anymore, but con has been awesome and is very good.

It's been a very good class all the way through. And I would say the jazz, even though Ace Bailey has not been explosive yet, they are pleased. At least that's what they're telling me. Maybe they're not telling me the truth, but I found them believable. Anyway, Slater,

did you have a better road trip than the Warriors did? They started out okay. They finished three and three. They lost three in a row coming in and needed that one over the Jazz to break their losing street. Yeah, you know, I actually thought going out on that six-game trip,

if you scripted it out, three-and-three was like reasonable. So they ended it, you know, it just didn't go exactly how I thought it would, right? The sweep in San Antonio was on the high end. I would say the loss in Orlando was surprised. Maybe you want to say, I mean, that's a tough place to win, but they went for the Orlando one. They punted the Miami game and then they got blown out in Oklahoma City, which caused this like, you know, mini crisis. The bad loss they've had recently is actually when they got back home.

They lost to Portland, you know, gave it 127. So, you know, me and Tim have talked about it plenty on, you know, the Warrior Stock Report we do. but it's, they're wobblier. Which you can see on YouTube. Yeah. That was, that was not as loud a plug as McBan typically gives for his things,

but smooth. It is a thing that happens. They're probably more surprisingly shaky than I think a lot of people predicted, but you can see a lot of these flaws entering the season, and I think you start on the interior,

and we can get to some of that if you want. We talked about this on the pot on Monday, where the difference between, where the Lakers are and where the Warriors are is the Lakers have taken care of business and they have won the games that they were supposed to win, even though they've had a relatively easy schedule. Although I did say the Lakers beat the Bucks without Yannis.

Yonis played in that game and they won by a thousand. That was a mistake I made on Monday. I'm sure no Laker fans mentioned that team. Laker fans were very angry. It was just an oversight of a late hour on the East Coast. But they've won, you know, like we've talked about, the Warriors are 9 and 9 because they lost to Milwaukee without Janus in Milwaukee. They lost to the Pacers.

One of the two wins the Pacers have this season was to a rested Warriors team. You know, they've dropped a couple other games that they should have won. And in the Western Conference, if you're trying to be in the top six or top four, you know, like we just talked about in Minnesota, you can't be kicking away these games. you should have in the back. Like that could be the difference between finishing fourth or sixth or seventh. And for an old team like the Warriors, they can't afford to be finished in six or seventh.

They're 22nd in offense. That's what I'm going to ask you. Yeah. So, you know, 19 games, it's been a ton of games. They've had all these back-to-backs. The Rockets still haven't had a back-to-back. That's great. The Warriors, I think, have had four or five.

but the offense is that how concerned should they be about that Slater pretty concerned i mean they've recently kind of had a bad defensive patch that you know was the talk from jimmy butler and draymond green is stomped around a little bit upset about some of their defensive effort and some of their bad losses but you know zoom back ninth ranked defense 20 second ranked offense that's the thing they need to correct more if you look at just as step Curryman is they're still, you know, a good, productive, like top 10 type offense. And obviously, craters when he's off the floor. You know, a lot of that was he's had a sickness.

Some of the losses, Tim mentioned he was either, you know, not available for or just not productive in those losses. I think, you know, what did they all summer or even early in the season? We were talking about Al Horford being the signing that was going to open so much up for them. He shot it fairly poorly from three. Because they've had this condensed schedule, he's missed five games because he's not playing. both sides of back-to-backs. And now, Red Alarm, I mean, you guys dealt with the LeBron stuff. He's got sciatica right now.

They just announced him out at least a week with a sciatic nerve irritation. Yes. I didn't see that update. That's not good for one of the oldest players in the league. It's not good. Players are playing longer, Bonn-Temps, but I cannot remember there being two sciatica diagnosis. Well, I mean, these are two of the three oldest guys in the league.

I believe that's the case. I think Al's third behind Chris Paul and LeBron. And so, you know, if you got guys playing heavy minutes at 40 and 41, well, this is what's going to happen. Which was anybody that was trying to say, hey, I'm not sure about this team this season over 82. This is why I was among the people saying this, where Al Horford now is out. You know, I'd say indefinitely, they announced they said reevaluated in a week with a sciatic nerve issue. Draymond Green is playing center a ton, you know, and he's facing clinging the other night. seven foot three comes down on his foot,

has a very painful foot sprain. I talked to him in the locker room yesterday. He misses yesterday's game. He wants to play Wednesday. You know, I compared it to that. Remember when Marcus Smart fell on Steph's foot? This would have been in the title season.

He missed a month. I kind of tried to compare that with Draymond. Draymond was saying, you know, Steph tore something. Draymond didn't do that, but it was painful. I mean, he was putting on his shoe in the locker as I was talking to him.

You could tell he's grimacing a little bit. He's trying to play Wednesday, but here's the problem for the war. no Horford. Draymond coming back to face the rockets on ESPN tomorrow night. Sangoon, Stephen Adams, the 40% offensive rebound rate team. The thunder's coming in next Tuesday with Chet and Hartnstein. And Draymond's at this point, you know, starting to get the accumulated bumps and bruises.

So then you look at the who's behind them, Quentin Poe's, Trace Jackson Davis. They've been nice fines in the second round, but that's not, you know. Yeah, I had an executive tell me today, just today. day, he said, you know, I know this isn't always right, because, you know, sometimes they surprise you, but he goes, I typically bet against. He shouldn't, he didn't say bet against. Let me take that back. He typically, um, expects the older teams, the, the, the team, the oldest teams in the league to, to, to, to always underachieve. And, you know, he's easy, it's easy for him to say that now with the clippers, you know, wheezing and, you know, this. teams. Well, we're in a league where teams are playing faster than they have in decades. And the pace of play is way high. Teams are, the teams with depth are the teams that are winning

right now, right? The Thunder, the, you know, the Pistons have obviously defied that a little bit because they've had some injuries. But they're a young team. They don't, maybe not super deep, but they are very young and athletic and playing fast. Toronto is winning with depth. Miami is winning with depth. Houston is winning with a decent amount of depth. You know, you go through and a lot of these teams are younger and deeper. And whether it's the Sixers last year, the Warriors this year, the Clippers this year, you know, it seems like the Knicks and Cavs. Cavs obviously have some injury prone players with depth. But like, if you have injury prone players and you're having to play a faster, more demanding style,

there's a better chance for guys to get banged up. And, you know, we've seen that start to accumulate already in this opening month of the season. And, you know, it's where if you're the Warriors, like, yeah, this has been their hardest part of their schedule. They've had all these back to backs. All these things are true. But now you're dealing with, you know, pushing 40 out,

Horford with a back issue, mid-30s, Draymond, who you don't already want to be playing a ton of center minutes, now having to play extra center minutes, now having to deal with the wear and tear of that. Like it's a big league. The league's getting bigger too. And the Warriors are not big. Yeah.

No, they're not. They, if you were to take the glass half full approach to them right now, it would be Steph Curry still looks like Steph Curry at his best, right? The San Antonio game's a great example. He's got over 30 in five his last six games. They haven't done 35 in his last six.

So he hit, you know, if you were to get him healthy in a playoff series, right now you still would feel good about you have like full throttle step curry and i would say full throttle jimmy butler he's looked really good i think this season you know when he's needed to turn it up playing his controlled style of play so your top two still look like you know a legitimate top two um and that's the other part with this team you know they were hoping below them this this younger layer of the roster mid-tier layer of the roster would take a leap enough to

you know float them along in the 82 game regular season and that just hasn't happened for various reasons. I think, you know, specifically each player has their own reasons. But that's, that's been probably the bigger problem because I still think you can look at the main guys. Even Draymond, their defensive rating with him on the floor and off shows he's still a monster impact defensive player. But the problem is, you know, again, they're going to be great. I think if healthy in the playoffs, how do they get there? All right, Mr. Slater, thank you so much for joining us on Friendsgiving. And we look forward to you joining us many years into the future.

I appreciate y'all. Okay, now joining us from Detroit. It's Vince Goodwill. Welcome to your first annual Friendsgiving, Vince. It's good to be here with you. Brian, you're a good friend. In the Thames. I'm having, I'm having, like, warm feelings of nostalgia.

Because the Pistons, who, you know, in my youth, were good. And in my young years, when I, my 20s, when I was just, just a young kid trying to make deadline at the Palace of Auburn Hills. With a buzz cut. With the buzz cut. Number two. Didn't have to worry. He could get it in any city.

Then he'd just go in and say number two. Didn't have to worry. You can do it yourself. Trust me on that one. I wouldn't recommend it. So Pistons Wednesday night are going for a team record. Their 14th win on ESPN against the Celtics, going for their longest winning streak ever.

And the other two times they won 13 games. One was in 03-04. My first year covered the NBA when they won the title. The other one was, I think, in 89-90. I believe, have they not won 14 in a row already? I thought they were one and two, right? I think they're 13. Was it 13?

It's 13. That 90 team went 25 and 1. They won 12 straight, lost the game, and then won 13 straight. Pretty good. Yeah. Pretty good. Yeah. These guys ain't that.

These guys aren't that. It's a little different. Check yourself. They're 15 and 2. So you've had some interesting report. So, okay, as we do in the media, you know, people sort of had the piston sort of in the middle of the pack. Oh, but they were a nice story last year. And now, like, nobody had them 15 and 2.

I mean, you know, maybe they did. I mean, if Cade wants to say, he had himself 15 and 2, who am I to say? But now if they're 15 and 2, folks like us in the media are like, All right, well, maybe they're going to win the East this year. And maybe they could use expiring contracts and stuff to upgrade their roster. So you've had some reporting about this, Vince. You have lived in Detroit and covered the Pistons for a long time. What do you think the Pistons plan is as they approach?

What is a new reality of them being the number one team in the East? This is a whole new different type of reality for Tom Gore. It's like two years ago this time, he had us jumping on a Zoom. like on Christmas Eve to apologize for a soon-to-be 28-game losing streak. So to say that this is new territory is very understating. I think this, though, I do believe that ownership at least has an appetite if they are willing, if the front office is willing to go for it, the ownership has been like, oh, yeah, we can go, let's go get Blake Griffin.

Remember that deal was a blockbuster deal in 2017 because they thought they had finally gotten a star and Stan Van Gundy and everything else and Blake was signed to a long term deal with the clippers and everything. So they haven't been afraid of making big moves. I think they have learned. Now you have to be a little more prudent. But when you look at the treasure trove of young players, not just Kay Cunningham, Jay Nivey is back. Asar Thompson is playing well. Ron Holland. Don't forget, Jalen Duren is going to be up for a big time extension that you have to budget for. So the question you have to ask yourself is, do we have the appetite to be able to handle all of our young player, similar to Oklahoma City, but not quite like Oklahoma City? Or do we want to, let's say,

see what it costs for Lowry Marketing, which I think, I think, A, the starting point for that would be a S.R. Thompson, and they answer for that from Detroit standpoint is no. Well, but they don't, but no, no, no, no, no, no, not that. But I'm saying, you mentioned Larry Marketing or other potential targets. I honestly, I think it would actually probably cost less in terms of what you've got to give up to get Anthony Davis because, as Bonn-Temp's wants to chime in, it will cost more in terms of his salary. That's true. I'm sure Bon-Temp's is probably not a huge fan of Anthony Davis coming to a contender and helping a contender. Like, I think, I mean, I actually think Dancy Davis fit with Detroit is okay.

I mean, I think, you know, I think it depends on what the pisses are trying to do, right? But I think like you were saying, Vinny, Tom Gors has never been afraid to spend money. And I think you talk to people either in past regimes or the current one, like resources are never really a question. And like, he's always back. I mean, look, he just spent $80 million to go get Monty Williams, right? I mentioned the Blake Griffin deal. Like he's proven he's well, but I mean it like in all sincerity. It's not like, it's not like this is a market where you go in there go,

well, are they going to be willing to pay the tax? Like he's going to pay the tax. I think like you said, the question is, how do you allocate your resources? And I do think the AD thing I think is interesting to me if they do end up looking at trying to upgrade because like we've talked about, if you're trading for Lowry Marketing or say Jaron Jackson Jr. becomes available or one of these other long-term. mid-20 to late-20s guys in the range we're talking about, right? Memphis, Utah, they're going to be asking for a ton.

As we've laid out, if Dallas ends up trading Anthony Davis, the market's not going to be great. So you might be able to get a guy like Anthony Davis for a relatively small, current price. And yes, you have the next two years at a big number, but you're still just gradually working into paying a Sart Thompson, and paying Ron Holland, paying Jalen Duren, paying Jaden Ivy. And you might be able to massage that and make that work.

And also, by the way, get a really good player and have a chance in a, like, I would argue as wide open a conference as we've ever seen to really make a run if you're Detroit with the group they have. I don't want to offend people in Memphis. I've got a lot of friends there. I'm always well-received and very popular with their fan base. I'll tell you, you said, Jaron Jackson Jr., and my heart. skip to be. Who, Michigan State,

Jaron Jackson, Jr. On that Pistons team? Oh, man. That's something you could talk me into the Pistons, maybe throwing a bunch of stuff in the pot there now. But listen, just signed a contract with the Grizzlies. I don't want to get ahead of ourselves on that one. I just got a little excited.

I'm a little weary on that one just because when you look at the hole, the one hole that this team does have, I don't think it's defensively, right? You're talking about a top three, top four team in defensive efficiency. When you got Jalen Duren defending the realm, Isaiah Stewart defending the realm, I feel like you're assured up there. They're not one of the top 10 teams at three-point shooting. Like when they've gotten in trouble this year,

now I haven't gotten a lot of trouble. When they've gotten in trouble this year in short stretches, it's because they don't have enough space to make shots or they don't have enough space for Kay Cunningham to move. Now, granted, some of that could be the injuries, Tobias Harris was mistime, just got back on the floor. So I think it's very, you have to be very careful about not seeing it through before

adding and making the big splash. Like part of, part of people there want to see all of this marinate before going all in. Because once you go all in, the clock starts ticking on J.B. Bakersstab, the clock starts ticking on Trayson Langdon. You can afford to let your young players. And Tim talks about this all the time about, you know, it sounds like pocketwreck. watching, but the Pistons are in a very advantageous position financially right now.

Even if you have to play your young players, you're still paying them on rookie scale extension prices, not Big Boy Maxes. Yeah, so let's just be, I think if the Pistons do anything, I think unless you're getting one of the MVP candidates, okay, you know, I don't think you're going to be able to pull Jaylen Duren or a S.R. Thompson out of there. Okay. And so you got to plan on paying them. So Jayland Duren will be a restricted free agent next summer. He and the Pistons had discussions this last fall. The word going around the NBA is that Duren wanted something per year that started with a three. The Pistons weren't willing to go that high. And in fact, none of the guys who got

extensions this fall. Bontzance, who got the most money? It was Kiga Murray was like 27, 28. And I would say universally around the league, that was seen as an ass that didn't really make a lot of sense. Well, if I'm advising Jay and Dural, I would say, stick with that price, buddy. He's the price thing coming down based on what he's done. Well, he's come out and played great, which is a great problem for the Pits and staff. Okay, so we'll see. Well, he has to finish it off and all this stuff, but

you know, that's not going to be cheap. Kate Cunningham hit Supermax or hit the Rose provision, whatever you want to call it. His contract is starting next year is over $50 million going forward a year. Congratulations to him. He has earned it. And then you got a Sart Thompson who has one year left after this year and then you're going to have to pay him. Now, I don't know what that price will be, but it's not going to be $11 million a year, which is what he's at? So when you're like, now look, look, if you're the Pistons and you think you can win the championship this year or you're going to have a shot at this year, Bontemps, what's the Darry-Mory?

sort of corollary. If they think they're 5%, how would he know? Well, we like, I like the concept, even if it's, you know, five percent. It was just out there. I'm sorry. Anyway, I'm just saying this.

The 95 bit them a lot. Yeah, no, the 95 is 95. While everyone's trying to put a player on the Pistons roster, keep in mind, you know, whether that guy makes 50 million or in the case of Anthony Davis makes 60 million, in a year or two, just keep in mind the Pistons got to make sure they take care of the guys that they put them together to do this. Now, I don't think he's never claimed this, but the Messiah Ujiri rule that I know that I've talked to Messiah about, you know, the lesson that he learns, he tried to build contenders is if you're going to win it, you've got to absolutely do everything you can to maximize the talent. So, you know, the Messiah Jiri rule is you go get that player. Then you got the Sam Presti rule, which is I don't need to necessarily get that player.

Just because you say that I need another player, I think my team might be good enough. And Sam Presti didn't go out and do that, although they went on got Isaiah Hardenstein. I was going to say, they went and got Alas Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein, and then they won. They didn't get a superstar, but they got guys that fit the exact holes that they had on the roster. Well, and this is what I'm saying, you're talking, you know, not you specifically, but you're, you talk about Anthony Davis-Lowery market, and those are all-star level players. Well, Vinnie, I, you're as, and listen, you're our resident Detroit guy. I am looking at the Pistons, the thing that I, Vinnie's, trust me, Vinnie's always going to be a resident Detroit guy.

It will say that. The thing that I think Detroit needs more than even necessarily one of these bigs is, like you hinted at it before, but it's just a flat out second scoring option next decade. Like, and I would almost say, like ironically, I know he's hurt right now, but I think the guy on the Mavs that if he became available, I think would be a way better fit for the Pistons would be to get Kyrie Irving

and put him next to Kate Cunningham. I'm not saying Kyrie's getting traded. But like, to me, I think that if they, like, it's sort of the discussion we had all last year with Oklahoma City where the question was, was Jalen Williams, who had a rough playoff series against Dallas two years ago, going to be able to step up when it was required in the playoffs. Now he obviously was awesome in the playoffs,

had the 40 piece in the finals, helped them win the title. But like if you typically look at these teams, you need to have two perimeter scores. They've obviously got Cade. Jalen Dern has been a 20-pointed game guy in the paint, but he's doing that on sort of, you know, workman-like stuff. You're not going to have him as a real second option, I'll think in the playoffs. So like whatever they end up doing, if they do make a swing in the trade market, I think that's the weakness that I think they have to address, is to get a guy to go with Cade so it's not all on Cade to try to do it in the playoffs against big-time opponents.

Well, and Vinnie, where are they on Ivy? Like, you know, are they holding out hope that Jay Nivey can prove himself in that role now that he's back? That's the thing, Tim, is that Jay Nive is still their guy. Like, they didn't, Trayson Lane that did the smartest thing that I think any GM could have come in and done after a team won just 14 games. He didn't look at these guys and say, hey, you're a bunch of losers. I'm going to trade you off because the juju is bad. He just surrounded them with the veterans and said, hey, let's just see. Remember, these aren't like great star level veterans.

It's stable. Tobias Harris, Tim Hardaway Jr., Malik Beasley, and then the young guys got to grow on their own. So there's nothing. Billy Beasley, yes. Yes, and Beasley. But there's nothing that leads me to think that they're not going to give Jay who shot 43% last year on catch and shoot

3s on small volume to see if he's the guy that can create his own shot. Like to me, it's less about, it's less about what you can do with K. It's more about what you can do without K. To be less Kade dependent. I mean, to have a guy who doesn't have to eat off of K. Cunningham, like a name that intrigues me.

And I haven't talked about this with the Pissons, but I know that this guy is starting to get out there a little bit. Like we're looking at these big names, Kyrie or Anthony Davis or Laurie Marketing. What a guy like Kobe White in Chicago on an affordable contract? And Chicago is starting to sniff around just a little bit. And it's hard to make a trade into the division. It's hard to make a trade up I-94.

It's hard to make a trade with two hated rivals like that. At least they used to be. But I think it's those sort of moves around the fringes that. That would be awesome for the Pistons. Exactly. He would be great. And here's the other thing for me. and I'm a big history guy, modern NBA history.

So I mean, 40 years, there has never, or there's been one team in the history that I can think of that went from not winning a single playoff series to winning the championship, or at least getting to the finals the very next year. And that was the 0708 Celtics, who went from being historically bad to getting Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett on draft night. Even Oklahoma City last year,

they had the experience of winning a playoff series and then getting to a high-level second round series against Dallas the next year. So I don't think there's any rush on these guys saying, we got to get to the finals now. I don't think they're afraid of Boston with Jason Tatum down the line. I think they're trying to build a sustainable model of something that, if we can contend right now, cool. But let's just see how this thing simmers in the meantime.

Well, and when you mention the thunder, and I think there's a comparison here in the sense of went through a rebuild, bunch of homegrown talent that is blossoming. Do you speed things up with a superstar? How much do you factor in the future payroll? And part of Presti's calculus there was like, hey, let's see what we've got. Let's see if we've got the star core already in place. Let's give these guys a chance.

And obviously they proved that they did. I think you can also look at the Rockets. And the one thing the Rockets did not want to do was take a, big swing at a star that would shorten their runway. You know, they weren't going to give up what they considered to be their star, potential star foundation. Look, as much lip services they gave is clearly Jalen Green wasn't part of that. They managed to kind of make a halve your cake and eat it to move with KD,

where they got that proven star, proven veteran star, and they got them to take a little bit less on an extension. and they got to do it without giving up anything that they felt was going to shorten their runway as a contender. So, you know, the Herschel Walker deal is up. Like, I mean, I hope people understand what I'm trying to say when I say, like, nope, or Rudy Gobert. How about that? The Herschel Walker deal is a football reference. People around here understand the Herschel Walker trade.

I got it. I got you. People under 40, people under 40 do not, though. so I do think you should explain it. That's what I said, Rudy Gobert. Like the days of giving, or McHale Bridges, right, the days of giving all your players and all your picks for one guy in today's salary cap climate,

second apron climate, you got to be able to maintain your picks and you've got to be able to hit on your picks, especially if you're not like the Lakers or not even the NICs. The Lakers are the only team that can afford to not hit on their picks and wind up having Luca Donchis fall into their lap or have LeBron James fall into their left. Everybody else has to be smart and strategic about this. So you're not, even if you trade for Lowry marketing, you ain't getting, Danny Ains ain't getting no five picks and four players and all that.

Challenge accepting. That ain't happening. No, I would agree with you. No, especially we're at the era where the pace is faster and the injuries are up, everybody needs depth right now. The teams that are doing really well are teams that have. Depth. All right, Vince, thank you so much for coming and joining us on Friendsgiving. Wendy, I wish you respectful luck on Saturday afternoon.

You beat me to it. I don't wish you guys any luck at all. I just hope that our friendship can stand the test of whatever's going to happen on Saturday. So Vince is a Michigan guy. I'm an Ohio State fan, and it's been a rough decade. But we persevere. My whole childhood was John Cooper, Vince. I mean, I can take it. I can take it. Hello, Heisman. Ryan's always happy when he's grumpy anyway. So a Wausu loss is always something he can revel in,

even though he is mad about it. So it'll be all right either way. More Hoop Collective Podcast after this. Okay, now joining us. And I'm not sure I've ever thought I would say this, but just off the courthouse steps in Brooklyn, New York, our California girl, Ramona Shelberg. You know, I've been to courthouses before, Brian.

I am not a lawyer, but I can play one on TV sometimes. And I do know how to read a court document if I take my time with it and don't get distracted. But this was the first time I went to a real criminal proceeding. I've been to a lot of civil cases in my day. But look, I got a real credential. Look at this. US District. Yeah.

Well, you, I will say this. I feel like I'm on, you know, that's pretty good. I will say this. in the past, you and I have reviewed bus family court documents. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we got a copy of the trust. Yeah, that was. Which is now dissolved, right?

No, I think there's still a trust. Actually, I have a little, you know what, before we get into today's proceedings, let me go back to the bus family sale. Yeah. How was Thanksgiving dinner at the bus house this week? Well, there was a time. This is a little story time with Momo. sorry. I have been in a position in my career where I think I know all six bus kids pretty well. I don't know the one who came out of nowhere. There was a Sean. Sean Bus. Yeah, I don't know. That was the one who, I don't, is that his last name even? Well, Sean Bus was one of the people who was fired this week. No, no, Joey and Jesse. Well, Joey and, no, Sean Bus was fired too. Their half brother who was in the scouting department.

which I did not know. I didn't know that either. They shared the same mutter. I could be wrong about this way Dave McInnaman told it to me. Because he reported that someone named Sean Bus was fired. I did not know who Sean was. But anyway, go ahead. I know a Riley bus.

I know a Janie bus. I know Joey and Jesse. I know Jim and Johnny and Jeannie and all of them. And anyway, so I think the family trust still exists. And the family trust is the one that actually owns the. it's somewhere between 15 and 18%. I've always heard 18%, but I haven't seen the documents saying it's 18%.

So let's just say it's between 15 and 18. They still own those shares. So all six kids still have their portion of those shares because in the sale that went to Mark Walter, they only sold, I think, 48% so that he got to, you know, they sold 14% of their 66%. So we can do some math.

I can't do it in my head. Didn't sleep so much last night. I heard that regardless of the $10 billion figure, I heard each bus child got over 900. When everything was factored in, the check that they got a few weeks ago was 900 something million. That's what I heard. It's not bad.

But I will say this. There's something I think we could correct the record on a little bit. They, you know, initially a lot of the thought was maybe Joey and Jesse were fired because they voted against the sale. You know, there was a vote. and I think several of us reported that it wasn't unanimous. From what I understand, Brian, I think when all the votes were tallied,

it was unanimous, that the younger brothers did vote for the sale eventually. Interesting. But when the story came out, so the votes were due on a Friday, and I believe the story came on a Wednesday. Okay, so Shams broke this before the, this is how good Shams is.

He breaks it before they even had all the votes counted, okay? That's how good he is, okay? But once you got to four, it was four. Right. The pledged votes, you know, maybe that's why Joey and Jesse voted. They knew how it was going to go. I think that's what happened. So the story breaks.

And I think they, in the interest of family harmony and to send the right message of collaboration, I think eventually they voted for it or abstained. So I don't want to say it was unanimous, but I believe that it was that no one voted against it. I'll say it like that. Can I say something about Janie? Yeah. Yeah. She's very, very well liked in the NBA, right? And she's liked in Los Angeles.

Maybe not everybody and maybe people will have, you know, they can look at certain decisions. Sure. She's her curating her, you know, her respect level, people in the league really like her. She has a very pleasant way about her. Yeah. If you talk to other owners or people around the league that have nothing to do with Los Angeles, they like dealing with her. Let me say this about Jeannie Bus.

Her last name is Bus. And correct me if I'm wrong. But she has five brothers and sisters. And she's now fired three of them. That's right. Yeah. Jim got fired and then Joey and Jesse, yeah. Right.

And she sued two of them. Yeah. Well, they deserve, I mean, I should. Oh, no, hey, listen, I'm not taking a side. They were trying to say. It was a palace coup, so yeah, okay. No, hey, I'm just to be clear, I'm not taking a side. I am just saying that this woman is not afraid, you know, is not afraid to handle what she thinks is business, even if it means firing her brothers and, you know, he has never fired her sister, to my knowledge, firing her brothers and suing her brothers.

Jeannie and Janie aren't very good terms. Janie still does work with the Laker Foundation. Yeah. Okay. So, Ramona, I'm just like, and I mean, like, I mean, like, I learned a. lot of this through your reporting. Yeah. You know, over the years, you know, don't mess with Jeannie Bus.

You know, it's what I'm saying. It's kind of like I feel the same way about Gail Benson. I don't know Gail Benson, the owner of the, of the, of the pelicans. But she went to court and won a blood feud with her late husband's children for control of the saints and the pelicans. And I would just say, do not be very careful messing with Gail. I have seen her go into a battle and emerge with the carcasses behind her. So I would just say, you may, you know, she, you know, Gail Benson dresses in,

I don't want to speculate what kind of clothes she has, but she is like the, you know, dresses to the nine, you know. Yeah. She carries around a $10,000 purse and emerges from a $100,000 Mercedes and her hair is always perfect and you think that she's this prim and proper lady, she will brawl. And Jeannie is not that way. Jeannie is a lot more casual. But she will brawl too. And that's what I'm saying is she's fired three of her brothers. Okay. So let's back up a little bit. That's the Joey and Jesse situation. I think a lot of this is if you're close to the situation, it was not

surprising at all that this happened, okay? I think there has been a distance between the younger brothers and Jeannie for quite some time. I think in one of his interviews, Jesse even said, I haven't been, I haven't spoken to my sister in five months. It was crazy. That was jaw dropping. Yeah, like this is, this is, from what I, you know, that, that, that, that relationship, those, those two relationships. And I would say it's maybe more so Jesse than Joey. Joey, I think is still, you know, around the offices more and a little more involved. But because they were both fired, we grouped them together. But, you know, I don't think that's been a good relationship for at least the last two years.

And I don't know if there was any specific thing that degraded that relationship. Because if you remember, when she fired Jim, and that was part of the larger case where Johnny and Jim had sort of teamed up to try to force Jeannie out as the head of the, the head of the, there was three of them and they, they started, it was, you know, two boys and one girl, even though she was the head of the board of directors. They had sort of, yeah, they were the trustees, right? They were the trustees, right? They were the trustees and they tried to say, hey, we're the trustees and we're going to outvote you two to one. And she's like, the hell you are. Yeah. Well, and then they, you know, there was, there was a, there was a legal maneuver, okay? And so, it didn't work. She had a better lawyer than they did. And, and, and his name was Adam Streisand,

he was, he's, he's, you know, if you find anybody who's had some estate. The quotes that he gave you, There's a story that you wrote all about this like eight years ago. He gave you some amazing on the record quotes. He's a well-known. If you Google Adams-Stryson, I think he's worked with Britney Spears. He's done, you know, every major trust case in L.A., like Adams, you want him on your team. Okay, so Jeannie had a better lawyer. And she won that one.

But the younger brother stood with her on that. At that time, it was 4 to 2 the other way. It was Jeannie, Janie, Joey, and Jesse. And then Jim and Johnny were on one side. And now we've kind of gone to the other side. And then she swung around and joined with the older. I know. So I'm saying.

I'm not saying, I'm saying this. I don't know about admiration. I'm just saying like this went down. Like she may have a pleasant way about her and, you know, sort of a pleasant voice. But, you know, there was a reason why, you know, and in that trust document. That's right. He looked at all six of his kids and he said, you, Jeannie, you're. And multiple times in that document it said, Jeannie is going to run the business.

And whatever you want to say about, you know, Dr. Bus, he was a businessman too. Yeah, he was a playboy. He messed around. But when it mattered, he kicked Shaq to the curb. He did. You're right. He did. And his daughter.

He traded Shaq not Kobe. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I'll say this. And this is the last we'll say about this part. But there is a famous Kobe Bryant quote about this. Kobe and Jeannie had talked before she made the decision to fire Mitch Cupcheck and Jim Bus. and then install Kobe's former agent, Rob Polenka, okay,

and they had a conversation. And Kobe, this is the height of Game of Thrones popularity, right? And Kobe said, you know, you need to be like DeNaris Targaryen, the mother of dragons. Like, you're the mother of dragons right now. And if you watch that show, you know what DeNaris Targaryen does. Like, she gets on that dragon and the dragon breathes fire and just wipes everybody out. Like, you cannot be afraid to go do that. Like, at the beginning of that show, you know, you have to be a little bit of that show, you know,

to be able to swing your sword. Like if you're going to off somebody, you swing your sword. By the end of it, you got the woman on the dragon taking everyone out. So your point is well taken. All right. You know what? I'm sorry, one post-tripped. It also does answer the question of Mark Walter has put Jeannie Bust in, like has left her in her position, right? Right. And I got asked seven different ways whose decision was it to fire the brothers? And I will tell you the answer. is it was Jeannie's decision in consultation with everyone else around. Like she's not going to do that without talking to Mark Walter. Okay, he's going to know.

Only a bus can fire a bus. They still are owners of the team. And if they just wanted to leave them on, you know, he obviously had to use his words to the athletic, he'd been siloed. And they could have just left him siloed for another decade. They could have. Yeah.

But only a, like people were saying to me, is this Rob Polinka? I go, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. Only a bus can fire a bus. And also, it's also the beginning of what we're going to see is a pretty, pretty big makeover with the Lakers that's already starting. You know, I had a story last week saying, you know, Farhan Zaidi, who was the GM of the Giants a little while ago. He's a special advisor. That's one of those titles that, you know, if you're special advisor to the owner, that just means he likes you and thinks you're really smart and gives you a bunch of projects, right?

So Farhan's Iidi's new project is with the Lakers and the Spark. and all the other sports teams that Mark Walter owns. And Andrew Friedman consults as well. So if you're a Dodger fan, you know Andrew Friedman's name pretty well. It's a pretty acute. I think maybe he might have the highest rate. He's had mild success with the Dodgers. I don't follow baseball very closely.

Yes. And by the way, I've seen this said a thousand times. Let me be a thousand to one. We know that baseball and the NBA are different. We know you can't just buy players. They don't have a second apron, et cetera, except. defer contracts for 17 years. And also, let's see that.

I'd say this. Neither Andrew Friedman or Farhan's AED is trying to run the Lakers. They're not trying to take Rob Blinka's job. They're happy with the Dodgers. This is more like a big corporate entity, which is called TWG Sports. It's kind of the same way you would see Dave Schaller, our friend in Philadelphia, who with the Sixers, he helps out with the commanders because Josh Harris owns both of them. Look, let me just say this. The Lakers are in need of modernization. And modernization is happening. They're about to get along. I do want to talk to you while you're in Brooklyn there because you went to federal court today because we're filming, we're taping this, filming this on Monday.

And you were there for Chauncey and the other 31 defendants in the gambling case. And you know where this hit home from me about how serious the trouble that Chauncee is in? I mean, obviously you get brought in a federal case. I understand you're in serious trouble. But his bond was said, or his bail was set at $5 million.

Yeah. I was going through all of them and all the 31 defendants. And I did find most, the highest ones I found were $3 million for a couple of the real guys who were tied to the crime families. There was another guy I found, his last name was Schnaederman. He's, he paid $5 million also. Those are the Chauncey and this other guy had a $5 million bill. But I think that's more a question of means rather than.

then how much the evidence is on you or whatever it is. I think they look at, you know, how much you make. I mean, there's a lot of bonds in here that I'm looking at these documents right in front of me. 100,000, 50,000. I mean, I don't think it's 50, 100,000s. And, you know, there's 200,000, whatever. But it seems like I think it's more a question of means. Because one of the things the judge said today was about two-thirds of the 31 defendants

have public defenders in this case. Yeah, that would not make me feel good if I was one of the, higher up charged people in this because, you know, I don't, that sounds like to me, when I hear there's, you know, if you say there's two thirds of the 30, let's say there's 20 or 20, yeah, that sounds like 20 people who have nothing really to lose and only have one thing to bargain with and that's information. So that would feel, that would make me not feel good. I would, I would not feel good about this. Did you think that you would ever be in federal court with the Q's mobsters?

No. I was, it was quite a scene, Brian. I will say this. There were some, there were some dudes there. I would not want to mess with.

They were, there were some guys there. I was like, oh, I could see that. Yeah. You know, and you kind of read the profiles

of what they do for a living or whatever, how they describe themselves. But, but yeah, that was, that was an interesting, there was two,

there was two defendants who had actually been in prison. They had not been released on bail. And so they got brought in by the federal marshal. And the marshal looks like exactly what you think of federal marshal is going to look like. You know, you don't mess with that guy either. But it was an interesting scene for me because, you know, I knew Johnson pretty well. I worked with him when he was at ESPN.

Yeah, me too. We sat in green rooms together in Bristol, Connecticut. And he came in and he, you know, he didn't say anything to anybody when he walked in, he just kept his head down. But when he got into the courtroom, we were all, the media is kind of off on one side. and he scanned around the first look through, he kind of had that look where you're not making eye contact. But then he looked around again,

and we did make eye contact, and I kind of gave him a nod, like, hello. And he nodded back. Like, he was not afraid to be seen. I don't know if I'm the only person he knew in the gallery or even in the courtroom. And then Damon Jones came in at one point. Those two, obviously, as you know,

you short a story on him. Those two were pretty close in their day. They've lived together during COVID. I think they all lived at Chauncey's house in Colorado. And Damon came in and he walked right by Chauncee. I did not see them make any eye contact or say anything to each other. And Damon has a court-appointed attorney. And so it's a very interesting, it's a very interesting scene.

I also, you know, outside, you walk outside of the courthouse. And just in the hallway there, I saw Chauncey. I saw his wife and his three daughters were there. We were two feet away from each other. I could have shook his hand, but I thought that was inappropriate. So I just kind of nodded at him and I said hello. And he said, hi, Ramona. And it was like all kind of normal.

And we're in a very abnormal situation. And I thought the hardest part for me to watch was really when his wife and daughter had to come out of the audience to co-sign the bond that he was posting. And so, you know, they had to get up and walk. go over there and be sworn in by the judge and asked if they knew the conditions of he, if he violates any of the bail conditions and what happens to them. They both said they did, and then they had to sign it. I don't know.

That was a, that was a pretty human moment there. Yeah, that, I mean, look, I don't, guilt or innocence, that'll be determined later. It's tough on a personal level when you know them. I wrote a story on Damon Jones that published on Monday. Damon is not my friend, but I have known him for 20 years. years. And, you know, when I was reporting on this story, basically about how broke he is, and I were talking to people about how he was always asking for money and everything like that. I mean, it made me sad. I was sad to do that story because, you know, I had been, you know,

look, I've been there when Damon's had some of the highest moments of his career. Yeah. And so, you know, this is what happens in this business that we're in. We see people at their highest and lowest, but this is obviously a different level. you lose an athletic competition. It can be very, very painful and it can infect your life and all that stuff. But also, you know, I was there the day Damon signed his $16 million contract. I was there the day that he hit the shot that defined his career, a game winner that won a playoff series.

I was there in the locker room when they won the championship in 2016 when he was on the Cavs staff and he was smoking a cigar in the locker room in Golden State. You were there that night too. Oh, yeah. You know. So anyway, you know, and it's a tough situation. But you've already done some good reporting on this. You've written about the situation in Portland.

And I assume I look forward to more of your Ramona-style reporting because this is unfortunately going to be a long case. Yeah, the judge in the case said, I know this, the amount of data, they said there's a terabyte of data they have to turn over in discovery. One of the lawyers said this could take years. And the judge said, Well, my intention is not for it to take years.

My intention is for us to be in court by September of next year. September of next year, what do you think, Brian? Chances of that. Well, I do not think it will take. I would bet more on years than September of next year. Yeah. But, all right, Ramona. We'll travel safe back to your family for the holiday.

Next, on next Thanksgiving, we'll have more fun things to talk about. We did good last year. We talked about my show last year. That was a good one. Yes, your show, which was amazing. Thank you. On the Clippers. Maybe you'll do a show on this one too.

It'll be a very different tone. I don't know. I mean, when I went to court for the Clipper case, it was Donald Sterling showed up in his sandals, you know, and it was civil court in L.A., and we were all live tweeting it. This was, they confiscated our phones at the entrance, and you were just in there.

It's a very different, very different vibe being in a federal court with felony charges hanging on people's heads. All right, Ramona. Thank you so much. Thank you soon. after this. Okay, joining us now from Chicago, Illinois. It's our man, Jamal Collier, who actually has been married since the last time I think we had you on.

You got married earlier this year. Yeah, thank you. And if we didn't, if we didn't, if we did have you on, I apologize for forgetting. But belated congratulations on the nuptials. Thank you. Honestly, the biggest, it's been a huge year, but I think the biggest highlight for sure for me. Not even, I think. It definitely was. Very good. It was more of a highlight than the Blazers' Bucks game that you were going to go to tonight, but then canceled. I can't believe it. It was an easy decision there. The Bucks have had a complicated season, to say the least. And I know that Yannis has entered your life in many ways in the last five years. And I know that, you know, Yonis is on the record as saying certain things.

But I also know that I've been in organizations, I've been with organizations that are scared to their core. You know, I can remember, for example, in the preseason, Anthony Davis is last year in New Orleans. I went down there for a preseason game to interview Anthony Davis. And I listened to everything that the Pelicans said. I listened to what Del Demp's, the GM said. I listened to what Anthony said and everything.

And I remember going, yeah, they're scared and he's gone, he's gone. And, you know, that was the year that ended in, that's all folks, if you remember, and he was. And, you know, I got that from being around the calves, quite frankly, in 2009-10. You know, they lived every day in fear. Now, the difference between those situations and the Milwaukee situation is that, you know, Honest was won a championship there and his ties are very, very deep. But so let me just ask you, how does it feel around the bucks? You know, I don't think it's at that level.

And I think the championship really alleviated some of that for Milwaukee. I mean, you know, you guys are always liked to talk about actions over words. The actions show you what the bucks really feel about. They'll do anything to keep Janus here and have a panic. You know, panic is, they don't like to sort of. classified somebody's move as panic moves, but they're pushing their chips in and doubling down and tripling down

to make sure that things stay status quo. I think the thing for them that they most fall back to is the fact that, you know, once that ball is thrown in the air and once the season starts, Janus will run through a wall every day. And when he's on the floor

and his sort of commitment level to Milwaukee, to winning, to being the best and sort of lifting everybody around him, I don't think Janice is a guy who spends a lot of time thinking and looking around at everything else at this point, just simply because he is so singularly focused on what he can do to be better and go forward. So the bucks feel comfort in that and they feel comfort and know they've got a player that's going to be 100% bought in to this team and to this organization while he's wearing the jersey. But the stretch that they're currently in the middle of, you know, depending on when people listen to this podcast without him. I think is another one that is really eye-opening to just how kind of fragile this season even is.

I mean, they started this season, as you kind of mentioned it. It felt like they were a lot better than their, you know, that 8 and 6 record they had when he went out. And now all of a sudden he's been out for just a couple of games and they're under 500. And, you know, outside looking in and what has kind of become a crowded Eastern Conference playoff picture. So that's all to say They felt pretty good Once they got to the season with Yanis That all that stuff was going to sort of disappear

Because of the team that they had And because of his commitment But they also kind of recognized And I think everybody recognizes the fact that You know This thing is all really being propped up by him On this roster And they kind of can't afford any really extended stretches without it

Yeah I will say that's something You could absolutely not question Janice's effort level. That is one thing that you absolutely could not question. He is absolutely bringing it. Unfortunately, right now he's got that injury. I will say this about LeBron. Whatever anybody wants to say about LeBron,

and as you know, as you may have heard, he switched teams three times. He never, in my view, ever gave less than. And it's not a controversy anymore, but that was controversial in Cleveland because people thought he quit on the last playoff series he had in 2010. I agree he did not play well in those in that, at the end of that playoff series against Boston.

He was having this elbow issue, which still is mysterious to this day. But they were getting MRIs on it. It wasn't like he was faking. But I honestly think it was anxiety induced. I think with the big, I think the big thing, things that he had happening in his in his life and his career. I just think he, I think he kind of, I think the anxiety affected him. Like, if you look at LeBron's career in the playoffs, I'm sorry, I'm going off on a tangent here, Jamal, he pretty much had dominating playoff games. Maybe he had

games where he got shut down by like the Spurs or, you know, but I never thought he choked in a playoff game until 2010. I thought there was a couple of suspect performances, and then 2011, even after he went to the heat, I think there was a couple of suspect performances. Game five in the series, you know, people talk about in Cleveland,

you know, game five of the 2011 finals, I submit as the worst game of his career. Anyway, Giannis said, you can certainly not say that about Janus. He think he is absolutely fulfilling his contract. I don't think that's in doubt at all. The thing with them right now, I think in this stretch without him, though,

it's really exposed just, you know, I think how much was he was shouldering as well during that opening stretch. And just, you know, it's not just the points, right? The 30-some points is, you know, 15, 16 rebounds. But, I mean, he was really their primary, you know, playmaker, creator, you know, averaging a career high and assist. Like, their offense and, you know, Doc Rivers is kind of sort of tried to spin a, you a positive light on this and say, look, we're going to have to find something to run anyway when he's not in the game.

And this is going to sort of force us to find some stuff. And Ryan Rollins has been really a revelation for this team and what he's been able to do. But it is, you know, offensively, it's just really a struggle if everything is not run through him. And for a guy who's been just the mileage that he's kind of had on his career, you know, we've always been through it before. You know, he's a guy who normally, anyway, is a 60 to 70 game guy. He's not a guy who's been able, staying healthy had been the big thing within the last couple of playoffs anyway before this past year. And I think the formula that they're trying to get through this season with, that is so, so, so Janus Dependez, so Janus-centric, really in everything that they do. I think that they've got to find other buttons to be able to push in other ways to keep him.

If they're going to keep him upright and healthy and playing at this level for an entire season and have a chance to even go anywhere in the playoffs, you know, they've really got to kind of discover something here in this stretch. All right. Well, we have a special thing about to happen here. Yo. Sorry, finishing up some chilly. Oh, man, coming in hot.

All right, sorry about that. Due to scheduling weirdness, we didn't have McMahon until now, but McMahon's here. Howdy, partners? What a warm, welcoming introduction. Well, bro, you know, it's going to be in the middle of a long podcast. I don't want to make this big introduction. I don't, you know. I only operate well with grand introductions, so I'll give myself one. Jamal, how you doing, man?

It's good to see you, Tim. It's been a long time since the finals. Yes, it has been. I've just asked the Indiana Pacers. which a team that took up a lot of your time last year. I don't anticipate that being the case. I do believe, though, those Detroit Pistons are more than willing and more than deserving of filling that void. Is Detroit a drive for you?

Is that a flight? No, that's a flight. We had a whole transportation segment where I am lobbying for trains to connect the Midwest. I know you would fly a Detroit, McMan. Absolutely. McMahon would fly from the south side to the north side of Chicago. Listen. All right.

Enough about me being a deacon. How for real do we think the pissings are, Jamal? Look, I was there the other night in Milwaukee when they won their 14th game. And 14 and 2, two years ago, they had 14 wins. That was the worst record in the NBA. So just like that. Oh, yeah. In of itself, it's just a crazy.

And the fact that they have so many of the same guys in the locker, you don't normally see, like normally to have that sort of start turnaround, you have to sort of turn the roster over. And I think I'm talking to Jalen Duren, Kay Cunningham, some of those guys after the game, that being a part of that losing and still having that sting of it, I think, is really carrying them and motivating them to kind of come out and show just how good they are. and Jalen Duren especially is the reason, you know, you ask how why for real, he's for real.

And the improvement, the leak that he has made makes them a really dangerous team because we're not talking about just a bona fide All-Star, but, you know, a guy who really can be a force in the middle of the paint playing with K at the rim, him and Isaiah Stewart are just kind of untouchable in there. They got something for real here that you start this good 14 and 2. all of a sudden you put yourself in a position to be top two, top three seed in the east at minimum, get yourself a chance. Maybe top one. Maybe top one, right?

That's where they're sitting right now. And, you know, Duren's obviously made a huge leap this year. I mean, early most improved player candidate, certainly a guy who I would seek financial advice from because his willingness to bet on himself this summer, I believe, will pay off quite. handsomely. I am very curious, and this is early, we're, we're, you know, a couple months early on this, but I'm very curious to see the Pistons appetite for making a all-in type of move before the trade deadline. And not an all-in, even on this season, but an all-in on, hey, we're ready to be a contender. You know, let's get a guy who can kind of push us over the top. and, you know, be around for at least a few years.

Yeah, I'm not sure. I think the pistons are going to have to decide just how hard they want to hit the gas this year. You know, because they've been in a situation where they're building and they're building. And, you know, the one thing that you don't want to do in a vacuum, you know, when you've got your whiteboard or you've got your PowerPoint, you're having a meeting about your future. The one that you don't want to do is make a trade that limits your upside. and yeah, it may make you, you know, a little bit better for the season, but limits your upside. And I'm sure that's one of the things that Trajan Langdon, Dennis Lindsay, the brain trust of the, of the pistons and Tom Gors, who's, you know, wanted a winning team for so long as the owner are going to have to, you know, they're moving towards making a decision. And I'm sure, you know, it's one of the things that they have to, they have to weigh a lot.

And Jamal will be covering it. Yeah, and it's one thing if you're trading for a 32-year-old. It's another thing for trading for a 26-year-old and we'll see how things play out. I think there could be scenarios where both of those possibilities are potentially in play.

All right, Jamal, well, thank you so much. Congratulations on your nuptials again. And I hope you have a great Thanksgiving. We'll talk to you later in the season. I was going to talk to you guys. All right. Now joining us from Naples, Florida. We talked about high school football

before this. is our man Bobby Marks. Hey, Bobby. Gentlemen, how are we doing? So sorry. Your son had a great run in this high school football season, and you're still getting over a tough 50 to 46, 50 to 47 lost last week. My God, what a game. I'll tell you what. I've been around this business of sports for a long time. And if I can rank the top five most disappointing, heartbreaking losses. One was Friday night in a high school football game.

and one when I was coaching seventh and eighth grade basketball, and we were like the UNLV team of the 90s and enrolled in the playoffs and we got upset, and it still sticks with me to this day. Man, was there, was there foul play in the high school one? Oh, no, no, no, I don't, no, no, I'm not asking for that. They brought in outside kids from out of the district for that one. Oh, yeah. Let's just say those kids, we never saw those kids again at that school that we lost, too.

Okay. Stop asking Bobby leading questions. We're not going to get Bobby in trouble here. He's talking about seventh and eighth grade basketball. I can appreciate it, you know, that this is high time of year. High school football is going on championship level football and a lot of high drama happening in the various places I keep an eye on. But it was a great season for your son, Bobby.

So hopefully you'll take that. You'll accept that after the sting phase. I'm sure he was very upset. Back to the portal. Now we've got to hit the portal harder, you know? That's right. Back to back to, are there in-home visits? How's all that work for you?

Hey, listen, I am the Ohio High School Athletic Association, which exploited LeBron James to the tune of hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars and maybe even millions. who knows 25 years ago. Shamefully just had to accept a lawsuit they were going to lose to finally allow NIL in Ohio high school sports. They were completely backward, one of six states that wasn't allowing NIL having. I think Texas is another one of those.

They should be a shame too. They should be a shame too. I can't speak for Texas. I'm not involved with Texas high schools, but I would speak to how shameful it was. elite high school athletes had to leave Ohio because they were behind the times. And so finally, someone sued them,

just like LeBron had to sue them for their ridiculous hypocrisy back in the 2000s. And just like when LeBron sued them, they were on the wrong side of it. So, sorry, Bobby, I got myself fired up there about it. The way they treated LeBron back in those days where they were selling out arenas and putting them on pay-per-view

and then said you can't play because you took a $500 jersey, which wasn't worth $500, but whatever. And it was the jealousy of the other schools because they were so, you know, thick-headed to understand that there was a phenomena happening. Every single one of LeBron's high school games

was like a gift, you know, to everybody involved. And there were jealous, you know, short-sighted, you know, idiot old guys, old men who were trying to figure out ways to throw it in the trash can. Well, Doug Christie might call them haters and critics. Well, sounds like the seven officials from Friday night when I was walking off the field. My wife said to me, don't say anything to me, them. And I said, I used a patented Jason Kidd line from when he was coaching the Nets. And I said, hey, three blind mice.

Nice game. Bobby, you're a public figure. There's seven of them. It doesn't work as well. It was dark at. Oh, my gosh. Bobby, I don't even know what we're talking about here. We're just messing around.

We're just messing around on on Friendsgiving. I just don't want to talk about the second apron. I just don't want to talk about the second apron. I feel like Bobby. Thanksgiving dinner. You know, in the upcoming trades, season. I feel like we're going to have to get one of those when whenever we have Bobby on

because I see so many people being like, because you know, people are starting to propose trades to me and like, oh no, no, no, no. What if Bob, blah, blah, I'm like, nope, nope, nope, nope. Like, you know, like you know, we're only at the beginning of Bobby throwing cold water on possible things

because he has to be the bearer of the news on the rules. Well, you've had to reassess or maybe even retire. You're saying, what's your old saying? A three-team trade is a no-team trade? Yeah, because they all have to. A two-team trade is no-team trade. You need three-team trade. It's impossible almost.

You're right. Yeah, I mean, look at last year, like, you know, Jimmy Butler gets traded. You got to get Toronto involved, right? Like, you've got to get a third team involved. Unless you're, unless you're two teams who are in really good shape financially, like, let's say, like Detroit and somebody else, like Detroit's in really good shape. But any of these, you know, we'll be talking to probably about, you know, some of these bigger name guys, whether it be Jha or Trey, you know, we're making, you know, over $35, $40 million here.

When you're dealing one-on-one, it's Anthony Davis just becomes really, really challenging. Even if you're not a first or second, a first apron team, like teams are pressed against it, whether you're the Clippers or the Lakers or Houston, where you're like a million bucks below it, you know, it presents a challenge. Yeah, that's true. So Bobby,

who are the teams this year? I mean, so the, the pistons are, I mean, the nets, right, the nets have flexibility.

Who's going to be the, the dance partner this year? I think it's, you know, Brooklyn, of course, just because they're still sitting on about $15 million in cap space. They're really the only team,

but there's a lot of teams out there. Detroit's in really good position. We wrote about them last week, in that little mini trade guide we did with some of these contending teams. They kind of, you know, the rarity of a team that's sitting in first place and is on this long winning streak that has, you know, four first to trade, pick swaps every year, 15 seconds. Man, they are well below the apron, first apron that, you know, they're sitting on that big Tobias Harris expiring contract and stuff.

So they're in a, they're in a really good position. And then there's some other teams, you know, as far as third teams, you just kind of look at the standings, whether it be the Wizards. of the fornets because even if you don't have room, you could still use your non-tax mid-level exception, which is 14 million to take on a player, which we've seen in the past. So those are your- Yeah, I want to just explain that real quick because you just went by the technical terms of it. We talked about Brooklyn having cap space, but if you didn't use your mid-level exception,

which is the hobby said is 14 million and change, and you have enough room under the apron because you can't exceed the first apron with it. And there's a few teams like this. You can use that mid-level exception to take on a contract. So, you know, with all these, the challenge with all these trades also, Bobby, is not so much just doing the matching. Because you mentioned how many teams are so close to the line. It's not just getting a trade that works under league rules,

which you have to get within a certain percentage of a trade. 25% or 20%? it's it some of these teams can't take on money in the deal they can't they can't they can't do a trade and the trade even if they even if it's legal even if they take a player making 20 million and they trade them for a player making 22 million that trade works under the rules 20 million versus 20 million and one dollar exactly and that's like yeah that even you hit it right on the head and it's like you know like we could talk about like Cleveland for example who are the only team that's sitting over the second apron just based on where their payroll.

But if Cleveland wanted to trade a guy making 20 and a guy making 22 and take back less salary, let's say 35, they're not allowed to do it because you're not allowed to aggregate contracts. So we saw that with Phoenix. That was the big thing with Phoenix when we were talking about Beale a lot last year, besides him having such a big number, they weren't able to add anything with him even if they were going to take back less money. And they didn't have any picks.

Well, they didn't, and I'll tell you what, that this is, and I know their schedule is going to get tougher here. But this is one of the more interesting stories that it's going on in Phoenix right now as far as them basically just stringing along. They're basically been stacking up games and they began great, you know, it's funny. It's like this is the guard play they needed, you know, like two years ago with Colin Gillespie and Jordan Goodwin and some of these in Grace and Allen before we got hurt. When Orlando made that trade with Memphis, the Desmond Bain train, and everybody was like, oh my God,

that Phoenix pick's going to be looking juicy, man. You know, that's going to Memphis and stuff. The Grizzlies thought that was the best asset thing out in the deal. And you know what? That Orlando pick might be better. You know, when you look at it because you get to either one of them.

It's the thing. And listen, I know that we've talked a lot about that New Orleans pick that goes Atlanta and stuff. Like that could be really juicy. But sometimes what you think you're going to get in a draft pick doesn't really turn out to be what it's all made out to be. Yeah, the funny thing is all the trades that the Thunder have made, they really have not gotten lucky. Getting a lottery pick that ended up being Janlon Williams.

Nobody thought they're getting a lottery pick from the Clippers that early. Well, that's true, but it was a 12th pick. It wasn't like they got the same. But when you make that trade, you're thinking the picks were going to be in the 20s, not the lottery. Well, okay. But they could have gotten a Rockets pick that was as high as five. And then the Rockets get jump into the lottery. They could have gotten Utah's.

Yeah, then the last year with the Sixers. So, you know. The Jazz won't be interesting this year. The Jazz are in dangerous territory giving up the 9th to 10th pick instead of, keeping it top A protected. And then after this, it just goes into dust, right? Yeah. I'll tell you what, Oklahoma City, you know,

they used to be like this lovable, everybody was rooting for them. But if they come out of this with like, with this clipper pick and they got a Philly pick that who to hell knows where the Sixers team goes. And they got, you know, you know, another, like that clipper pick. And then they had,

and then you got swap rights next year with them. also. So just to be clear, the funder get the jazz's pick if it's ninth or higher. Correct. If it's inside the top eight, not only do they not get it this year, they don't ever get it. It goes away. Right. And they get the clipper pick no matter where it is. No, it is. Right. Clips is, the clips is

click. It's two of the more favorable of clippers, their own, and Houston if it's five to 30 and then the other one goes to the Wizards so like you could walk like and then I got the Philly pick too that's protected I think top

four I want to say but man that clipper pick if and they'll probably turn it around but geez protected the clipper pick right yeah yeah so it wouldn't if the jazz do a little bit more winning than we were expecting

it's and the clippers aren't able to to recover. The Thunder could have two picks in the top. It's not unreasonable to think the thunder could have two picks in the top 10 this year. No, that's been so it's certainly possible. Fellas, I was talking to somebody with another front office other day, and you know how there's the Steppingen rule because the Cleveland owner just kept on mortgage in their future and trading first round pick after first round picks. So that's obviously why teams can't trade first round picks and back-to-back years. This guy was, it was, he was, serious. He was wondering if the league was going to put in, or should put in some kind of

presti rule. You can only have so many, you can only own so many first round picks at one time. They're basically saying, hey, we got a presti proof this league. The Thunder is doing too damn much. They're too good with too many assets moving forward. I don't, I disagree with the premise, but it's interesting that it's even a thought. Well, that's how you beat the apron. If you want to know how you beat the aprons, it's the draft pick. It's AJ Mitchell on that contract. It's all those little small deals that you can have, guys that come off your bench. Cason Wallace on a rookie contract.

You have three big guys. It also helps that Jalen Williams is not going to, you know, we would have thought there was a reasonable chance. Jaylon Williams would get all NBA at Super Max. But you know what? The other thing is, if there's ever a time to just blow past the second apron, it's when you are early in a potential dynasty and you're getting an arena essentially gifted to you that's opening up

here in a few years. They'll be paying Sheailders Alexander more per year than they are for the arena total. The city's taking care of that and, you know, like the deep playoff runs, potential expansion. We'll see what happens with NBA Europe. I'm just saying that there's no...

Yeah, when you say your Thanksgiving prayers don't include the thunder. Yeah, there's no rule. Unless you're a Thunder fan, you're thanking, you're thanking Sam Presti. Yeah. There's no rule that you have to, if you're sitting in Sam Presti's seat, make decisions to get rid of guys. Now, you might have to make decisions to get rid of picks because you only got 15 roster spots. But Sam Presti has some very enviable problems.

All right, Bobby. Thank you so much for your time. And always your information. You're a very valued member of our team at ESPN. McMahon is just a member, but you're a valued. Oh, no, he's valuable. He's valuable. But not very valuable.

You're a member, too, Wendy. I'm just disappointed. Bontemps wasn't on this one, you know? I know. He couldn't be bothered. He had to be in South Florida. All right. I was giving Bontemps update during that football game Friday night.

You know, he's my normal Friday night. He wants score updates during these games, you know. As if you weren't miserable mouth watching the team lose a heartbreak, you got to communicate with Pontips. That's not. That's not. Well, the funny thing is,

the funny thing I was cheering so much, my phone fell on my pocket underneath the stands. So I was under there during the fourth quarter, like looking for this thing. But the thing about Bonhams, he's involved in like 65 different, like various fantasy leagues, like all kinds of different stuff.

But I'm surprised, you know, and he's always like, he always knows everything. And so, you know, oh, yeah, I'm surprised you weren't like,

oh, yeah, man, they just scored to take the lead, you know, 43 to 42. Oh, you know, I know. I got so-and-so running back from, you know, something prep. I got him and, you know, he scored all these points for me.

All right, gentlemen. Great Thanksgiving. Appreciate it. Thanks. All right. Now joining us from Los Angeles, California, where he isn't as much as he used to be, is our man, Oll Mung Musuk. What's up, Ome?

What's up? I apologize. If I'm like a zombie, I just did six games, six games and eight nights in three different cities. This is my fourth city and I don't even know, nine nights. Yeah, you've been flying major, a couple of things I need to talk to you that are very important. Number one, you've lived in L.A. for many years, and you are a United Loyalist. Just made one K for next year. That's the top level, United. And it was, it was a grind. Okay, now let me ask you this. And some people who are listening will care about this, and some people won't, but it's my podcast.

You are now spending a lot of time in Atlanta. I thought it was our podcast. It is our podcast, McMahon. Don't worry about it. Don't ask questions. You are now spending a lot of time in Atlanta because you're covering the southeast for us. Yeah. As people may know who are out there traveling, some of whom are probably on Delta flights

right now, like 99%, well, maybe not 99, because Southwest has a big presence, but a huge percentage of Atlanta flights are Delta and a very small percentage is United. What's going on here? What are we going to do? There's been a lot of connecting through Denver and Houston. Okay, so you're sticking with it. Well, that was to get to 1K. So now I'm at 1K. And I thought in the past, you could just have Delta, United, or American match your status for the whole year.

So you would say January 1st, say I'm 1K on United Delta, will you please match? And then I can fly Delta at that level. But Delta will only match for 90 days. And within those 90 days, you have to fly at the level of what is their highest one, premier medallion or whatever it is, platinum medallion, whatever, diamond medallions, though it is? So you would have to fly at the level that those diamond medallions normally do in those 90 days. And then I think they might extend it for like another 90 days or give it for you.

to you for the whole year. But that's a lot of flying within one month. So we're going to have to figure out what we're going to do. I might have to consult with you, Wendy. Oh, sounds like some middle seats. Because the only way I can get direct flights is Delta. On top of which, now that I've spent a lot of time in Atlanta, I've come to learn that flying out of Atlanta is expensive. Oh, listen.

I am finding flights to just Atlanta to Orlando be way more expensive than a direct flight from Orlando to Los Angeles. Did you know that Atlanta to Orlando is one of the five highest volume flight markets in the country? Oh, I did not know that. Yeah. So, like, you know, like number one is like L.A. New York. That's more people fly L.A. to New York, you know, than any other per day.

And I, in Orlando, Atlanta is in the top five. Oh, I love it. Wait, wait, wait, wait. But especially with the TSA situation lately, but at all times, that I have. Atlanta airport ain't like, you, Windhorst will tell you Morius home. Winhorse will tell you, McMahon, I texted Windhorst.

This is about maybe, this is during the government shutdown, so you can imagine how bad it was. This is about maybe two and a half weeks ago. And I said to Winhorse, I said, the more I travel out of this airport, the more I realize this is the worst airport in the country, major metropolitan airport in the country.

You do the show of 30 minutes before flight thing, which is absolute insanity under any circumstances. Have you gotten out of it? I have, because of the government shut down, Winn Horse will be happy to know that I've been showing up to airports earlier than I normally do.

But that still only gives me like maybe I show up maybe 10 minutes before boarding. Would you like to hear the top 10 highest volume airline routes in the U.S.? Yes. Anything to thrill the audience.

Well, it's the Friendsgiving, this is a travel pod. Many of them are going to be on this. Okay, JFK, LAX, but when you include Newark, JFK LAX is technically farther down the list, but when you include all New York to L.A., is number one. All right, number two, L.A. San Francisco.

I did that a lot last year. You did. 161 nights on the road last year. 161 nights on the road. Number three. Also involves L.A. Do you want to take a guess? L.A., so we did New York. We did San Francisco, L.A., Chicago?

Vegas. No, Vegas. You got it, McMahon. L.A. Vegas. Okay. Wow. Number four, Atlanta, Orlando, as I said. Number five, LaGuardia O'Hare. LaGuardia O'Hare.

Liguardia O'Hare. That's interesting. And back and forth, you know, not just from LaGuardia to O'Hare, but these are all included in both ways. number six I do not think that you guys would get Omaha to LAX no that's my volume that's my high volume

DFW to O KC No DFW is actually not on any of these top That surprises me actually Yeah Denver the ones after I was about to say Denver Denver to Phoenix Atlanta to LaGuardia

Denver to Vegas which is that kind of surprises me and Denver to Chicago are all of the top 10. But this one, this is a surprising. This one is not on the mainland. Hawaii? Honolulu to Maui. Honolulu to Maui?

Honolulu to Kalaulu. I have done that flight. Of course you have. And it's always on time. Yes. All right. Now that we've done that. So, Om, have you found any,

what is your, you know, Have you found any like go-to food? Are you lemon pepper winging it in Atlanta? I have been wanting to do that. I have been wanting to do that. I have not gotten around to lemon pepper winging it from the place that I need to go to. Magic City. No, you know what?

I've been living out of hotels so far. Eventually I'll get to corporate housing probably next March, I think. But until then, I'm not in at least. as much because we are expecting. So I will probably be in Los Angeles from second week of Los Angeles on. And then I'm paternity leave. And then that's when I'll probably be getting into the driver. Did you hear what he just dropped?

McIntyreys coming up. That's very, very exciting. Allm, best to you and your wife. Thank you. McMahon, did you know, did you know McMahon? that I am, I have elite status on all three major U.S. Airlines. Wow. Actually, I'm impressed.

All four. I've never been more impressed with these than just right now. Oh, four? I have it on all four. At the height of my travel, I've only had elite, the top elite status on United and Delta. And I thought it was king of the world. As of right now, I have, I have, I have, big time. He's big time.

He's big time. Not only that. No coach tickets for. old windy. Oh, yeah. First class windy. No, not silver status. I'm above silver on all of them. Oh, hell. Yeah. Yeah. And Southwest A-list, I don't know. There's only one as far as I know. So. How many flights in a one year can you give to the normal human being to have them understand? How many flights would you have to take to maintain that status on all four?

Well, it's because status is not. It's because status is not. based on a number of flights anymore. It's based on other things. But I am sensitive to the struggle that you have, as somebody who is a united man living in a Delta City. I am sensitive to it. So I respect what you're going through. Wendy can still relate to the common man. What I could use is some advice of how I can muscle my wife into allowing me to name the baby Izzo. I've even approached Draymond on this and Draymond said, Draymond's about to have a baby and he said I'm in the exact same corner as you are. This is his fifth kid.

Yes, with his wife. So for four. I don't think any of his name is. I don't know if he would allow me to say what he wants to name the baby. Maybe I shouldn't say it. But I love the name that he has that he wants to name his baby, but his wife has different ideas. Why don't you name this baby Ishpia? You know what?

So my wife's response was if you can get Tom to be the godfather, then yes, I'll sign off on that. I have not sent that text yet to coach. Also, I will say that you know my thing about Michigan State, folks, is that no one loves people from Michigan State more than people from Michigan State. We're family. You know my thing about Michigan State, folks. It's a shame they couldn't have gotten into Michigan. So here's the thing about Ulm.

McMahon, you know this well. Freaking McMahon. Ome is famous for two things. United Airlines and beverages. Ome is a connoisseur of beverages. Well, three things. I will say this. Ome is the best at collecting and utilizing Marriott points.

that I've ever seen. Ever. Yeah, we need to, you need to, maybe one day I'll get on one of those little Marriott videos when you walk in and you turn on the TV and they got somebody who's like, I've traveling, I'm in Vietnam and I'm doing this. Been there, Marriott. I've been at your best properties in Vietnam. No, oh, the best.

Well, you say beverages, to be clear, Ome is not a man who, you know, sips on these spirits. Yes, he's, he's, you know, that's right. He's not like you, McMahon. I don't skip on spirits. I'm Solomente Cerva. So, good job. So,

Ulm is, like, if Ome is known for pretty much having three different types of beverages at any one time, when Ome, Ome got this custom refrigerator that could maximize beverage storage. Is this true? And then when he had to move from New York,

from New Jersey to Los Angeles a few years ago, he moved, McMahon, he moved the fridge. I wanted I wanted to cross-country it was a Samsung refrigerator that had all the bells and whistles mine now as Windhurst will talk about it has it has a beverage center

with two types of ice makers which by the way this is the big right here maybe you might know what to do Wendy because your wife is into I believe beverages and ice as I am I have two ice makers one is the big cubes one is the little small cubes which my wife likes that one like

There's something that snapped. Yeah, the crushed ice. Oh, yeah. A little small nugget one. It's not crushed ice. Crushed ice any average refrigerator can do. It's the ice nuggets. Yes, the ice nuggets.

Yes. The little tray that it falls into, then it falls into the big tray. The little tray that it makes the little ice snapped off for whatever reason. So one little part cracked. And I've been thinking, okay, maybe I can put it back in. But just I was like, you know what, Samson should be able to come out and do this. No, no, no, no. Just to call Samsung to have someone come out to look at it, immediately they charge like $150.

And it's through some other like third party. And then on top of that, we looked it up just apparently this has happened in a lot of Samsung's just to fix that little part. There's like one little part that cracked off. It's going to be hundreds of dollars just for the little nugget thing. So I am, so I've been going to Chick-fil-A to buy the nugget ice for $3 a bag or $4 a bag. Oh, my God. Because my wife who's pregnant loves that nugget ice. So this is how they got together, McMahon.

And I'm not, you know, like this is their connection is, is this, the love of these beverages. Like when I see Ome, so here's the thing. When Ome arrives at a game, you arrive at a game, just an average game on, you know, you just had six games in eight days or whatever. What beverages do you have with you and what do you take to your seat? Hold on. There's one large ice coffee. I know that. Yes, one large ice coffee. And he will nurse that sucker for the entire game.

Yes, I will have one large ice coffee. Usually like a 32 ounce or is the biggest I can get. If it's coffee bean is 32 ounce. If it's Dunkin' Donuts is large. In fact, the Clippers, who I just saw for the first time in a while, started laughing at me because they saw that I had Dunkin' Donuts in my hand. And they know that I am a diehard coffee bean guy. So when I would go to Clippers' home games,

I always have coffee bean in my hands. So they started laughing because they knew now he's in Orlando. He has to go get Dunkin' Donuts because I don't really do Starbucks. And then I will have probably totally offending so many potential sponsors. Starbucks. You got money and I break your stuff. And I will do bottles of root beer or a large root beer. But I usually carry bottles of root beer because I'm watching.

Right, because you can't get a bottle of root beer in your average. average NBA arena, right? Some arenas do have barks, beer, not a lot. You know what I've been having a real difficult time finding in arenas? Mostly from the media,

this is something where fans are going to be like boohoo. But it's hard to get ice. You have to like buy like a large cup or something, buy a soda in the arena just to get a cup of ice. It's very difficult

in a lot of arenas to just get ice. Well, you know, typically we, would have beverage centers in media rooms, but those are going away, kind of. Those are going away. Yes. Okay. You get your iced coffee. You get your rude beer. What else? No, that's pretty much about. Now, what what? I recommend some H2O. I'm worried about your hydration. Yeah, yeah. I do. No, no. You also have sports drinks. You also have, you also have a

sports drink. I think you happen to see me one day, Wendy, in the playoffs where we were in Phoenix. and I probably was running like. Yeah, I had three. I had a gatorade going two, I think, as well. How many restroom breaks per game? Because I always get. There's a lot of flying. Oh, are you a window man or an aisle man?

You got to be an aisle man. Window man. Window man. Man, this is not a good combination. A beverage man who sits on the window. Oh, I tell you what. That is tough. Because I need to sleep.

But I'm usually window exit aisle. All right, Ulm. Thank you very much. Have a great week. See you guys. Happy Thanksgiving to everybody. Happy holidays. See a little ome.

Okay, now joining us from Phoenix, Arizona, which is where he's at while we're recording this. It's our man, Michael C. Wright. What's up, Mike? Not much. How are you fellas doing? It's good to see you all again, except for the Tim McMahon guy, I'm tired of seeing him. Yeah, you Texans spend a lot of time together. The scene is for Chump.

The C is for Corleone, which is one of the. The greatest thing of a great. It's for Conchree. Hey, you didn't introduce him properly. It is the co-star of the hit YouTube show, Howdy Partners. I left it for you to do a lone star lens. Is it a hit? Michael C. Wright.

Oh, yeah, baby. It's a hit because it's got McMan's face on it, Corley. That's all that really matters to him. He loves the YouTube's. The good folks and trying to try his way to connect with the children. That was creepy. Listen, man, you want the, Mike, you're the resident pitmaster on our, on our staff. What do you, I have to ask, I think I've

asked you this on previous Friendsgivings. What is on the menu? What do you cook in on Thursday? I have a reservation at STK in Denver, my man. Oh, you're on the road. You're on the road. What a cool bunch of people that would send you on the road. I'm also going to be on the road. All right. Well, what is, if you, if you, if you were home, what would you be making? Just the traditional stuff. I mean, I've got the wife doing it, and she knows her way around a barbecue pit too. So right now we have a turkey about to be putting a brine today, I think. Let that thing brine about 48 hours. Okay, you brine for 48 hours. Pull it out Wednesday night and let it just sit in the fridge, you know, dry out a little bit,

and then she'll season it up, throw that thing on the smoke room. But, yeah, we're just doing the regular stuff. I think I have some people coming in. Yeah, it's the regular stuff to cook a turkey for three days, boss. That's not how most people are doing it. Brian is just soaking in water. It's just soaking in water. I understand.

I'm saying the average person isn't starting their turkey process on Monday. That's top 1% work, I would say. What other side? Have a piece, man. It's really good stuff. Again, I'm not privy to it all, but I believe she's, you know, the green bean casserole, the dressing. My parents were supposed to come and bring collard green.

But she said dressing as a Texan. No, it's stuffing. No, no, no. Those are two different things. Those are different things. Dressing. I will just say that I have an unpopular opinion for which if I say, I probably will Go ahead.

Backlash. Um, I don't think Thanksgiving food is that special. And I advocate. Thank you. And I advocate. Now, I understand the tradition of it. And if you've had the same casserole at your Thanksgiving that your aunt has made for

your whole life, then absolutely. Then it is special. And if you, if your dad, you know, puts the turkey. out in the smoker for three days every year, then that's fine. And you taste it and that's like, that's my dad, that's my grandfather or that's my grandmother's turkey. That's fine. The tradition of it, I don't have anything to say about the tradition of it.

But the actual food itself, I don't understand why people celebrate it so much. My favorite food from it is the sandwiches after. So I wouldn't probably agree with your position. But that's what I'm saying, like a turkey sandwich. Like a turkey sandwich is what we give to people when we've got nothing else to give them. When they do, you know, these giant, you know, lunches for like hundreds of people at like conventions and things like prisons, they give them turkey sandwiches. Really? Why is this?

So I advocate for something that's, you know, different. Am I, am I, should I go to jail for that? Then you can get a turkey sandwich. You just said people in prison or have a turkey sandwiches. So I don't know. Maybe you should go to jail and give them some different food. I don't know what we're talking about. Like turkey sandwich is the definition of a nondescript lunch is a turkey sandwich.

And I understand it's different. A cold cut sandwich is different from what's, I understand that. Don't put in the comments. And I am taking my family to a restaurant this year. Oh. And I specifically wanted a restaurant where I could order off the menu. And yes, they can also order turkey, traditional Thanksgiving. So we're going to an Italian restaurant to have chicken parm?

That's correct. having. Yeah. I don't know if I'm people that don't know. Window has chicken farm at about 98% of meals. That's actually not true.

That's not true. It's hard to find good chicken parm. It's hard. You can find average. Yeah, that's why you try to find it wherever you go. And when I find it, I, I appreciate it.

You have chicken palm power rankings throughout the NBA. There is definitely, I could probably tell you, maybe not every city, but many cities I could tell you where I have a chicken parm. spot. Yeah. And one of my favorite places, Mike Wright, is a place in Milwaukee where you can get a

chicken parm pizza. Chicken parm pizza. I would try that. And you may say, well, it's just, it's just pizza with chicken on it, but no, it's not. There's a, there's an art to it. So anyway, enough about that. So you're out there with the rockets, Mike, right? Are you on this whole road trip? On Thanksgiving, you're going to be with what's behead of a Nuggets Rockets game? Nope, I will be there ahead of Spurs Nuggets. I was going to say that's a huge NBA Cup game on Friday. That's the only reason I did. I know that.

Well, it might not mean anything, though. Definitely mean something to Denver because Denver can still advance. But yeah, San Antonio will be out unless they win both Wednesdays game against Portland and then Friday's game against November. Well, the Spurs have a tough situation here, Mike, because they actually, for the first time all season, basically have to go on the road. I think out of their first 14 games,

they only played five road games. I think they had the most... Something like that. And look, at the end of the day, everybody plays the same number of home and road games and the same number of days. It's all, it's the nature of the schedule. Not necessarily true with the NBA Cup anymore.

Go on. Fair point, Mr. McMahon. I'd like to take, I'd like to retract that statement. And once again, congratulate you on your thoughtful intelligence. for the most part that is true. And later on the rodeo trip will come back and even out for the Spurs. But they've had a favorable home road balance, which I think has helped them get off to this good start.

Would you agree or disagree? I would agree with you. And they had the French guy that 7-5, what however tall he is. They had that guy too for a lot of those games. Now let me ask you this. I think that the nuggets or the spurs have done very well better than we thought. And of course, some games will have been played by the time this comes out. But they've managed without Victor and Dylan Harper and now Castle very well.

Do you think they can keep that up? I am beginning to question it. I really am because to me there's just some inconsistency there. and, you know, like, I'm noticed, like, for instance, the other night, last night against the Suns, I think Phoenix, I think their physicality really got to the Spurs. And so, you know, you're thinking, okay, well, the Spurs played a physical game like two weeks ago against the Houston Rockets and they came out on top. And so you're thinking they can handle that just fine, but it's been twice now that Phoenix has done this to them. They did it the first time with Victor Wimbuniamam, you know, in the fray. and they double teamed him, got up under them, gave them all sorts of trouble.

So I just think that people are starting to figure out how to play the Spurs, and they are really struggling, you know, when they sort of encounter these types of defenses. And what is how to play the Spurs, make them shoot threes? Yeah, pretty much. But also turn them over. I mean, they committed 19 turnovers last night. That's 14 points. I mean, that was the game.

And, you know, there's just too much inconsistency. And I think it's, you know, you have so many young guys on that roster that have, for better or worse, they've lost most of their career. Like, they don't know how to win yet. And that's what this is. This is all them trying to figure it out. And, you know, luckily they've got a veteran like Harrison Barnes that can kind of, okay, let's calm down here.

We have this lead. It's this much time left in the game. This is how we got to handle it moving forward. But I just think that, you know, there's inconsistency also with the lineups because, you know, all these guys have been heard. Dylan Harper, I mean, he's just now starting to ramp back up. Vic has been out, Stefan Castle. So they really haven't had enough time on the floor together to sort of gain that chemistry, that cohesion that is going to help them down the stretch of some of these tight games. Now, I want to say something else, unless Fontems from McMahon have something to say because I'm just chatting away here.

The Rockets have not played. the back-to-back yet and don't for like another 10 days. Pretty wild. That means Stephen Adams. You think I'm going to coming up. I thought it was not until December, but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it is. No, it is.

We aren't far from December, so we only got to see more. It's at home and then in Dallas. Week. Something like. Yeah. I guess. When he's taking shots, taking shots, like, yeah.

Pesco, little Mavis. I wanted to ask you, Mike, you mentioned Stefan Castle. He's had a great year. He's made some real strides. The one place he hasn't made strides, though, is in his shooting. Under 25% from three, it's under 70% from the line. I've been a big fan of him going back to college, but that's been the one question that's really been followed him since he was at Yukon, right?

He's going to become a good enough shooter. Sure. That's only been amplified by drafted Dylan Harper and then trading for Deer and Fox. So obviously there's been a lot to be excited about with the way he's played early on, distributing the ball. And he's shooting like 60 plus percent on twos. Like he's made some really big strides. But where where do you feel like they are with him in terms of trying to get that outside

shot to a place where it can unlock his game and can allow him to, you know, successfully be able to play alongside these other guys? I will tell you what they tell me. And that is that the mechanics are there. They like the mechanics. They like the way the shot looks. They just have to get it more consistent. And so, you know, like you said, Stefan has made a ton of strides.

Just, you know, like last year, I always said, like, if he can finish better at the rim. Well, he's finishing better at the rim now. He is figuring out ways to find space for Victor to set him up. Love that. But it's that outside shot. Now, the only thing that I will say that is encouraging, is that Stefan is not afraid to take it. You know, if he's missing shots,

it's not like all of a sudden he's going to stop shooting. I mean, and there have been times, like, late in games. I can remember in New Orleans about a month ago, into that game, it was really tight, catches the ball out on the wing, fires that thing up. It's good. And that basically won the game for the Spurs. So he's taking those tough shots,

even though he's not making it. And to me, that's encouraging because he's going to get better. He just needs, you know, repetition. That's all he needs is more repetition. It's going to be a better shooter. I think a lot of those guys need the, you know, reps to be shooting the ball better. Because I'm looking at, like, Dylan Harper, he hasn't even really gotten a chance to play yet. You know, and they're just now starting the ramp up process with him.

And I was watching him warm up the other day. The three-pointer looked good. But does it look good when the lights are on, you know, when you, You've got the opponent, real opponent. It's not, you know, Spurs staffers running at you. So I'm interested to see how that goes with him. But, you know, overall, the Spurs sorely needs shooting. It's an issue that's going to be there the rest of the season, I think.

I'm sorry you have to be on the road all week. Mike? Hey, this is what we do, right? That's true. It is. This is what we do. It's okay. safe travels to you.

Thank you for your insight. And to, when we talk later in the season, hey, man, I'll tell you something, the way things are going, we may have some playoff action down Texas way. We might be able to stop over and you can cook for us. Do you like how I just invited myself? I don't know about it.

Oh, yeah. MacMet made me do that one time. Corleo, just shut the door in your face. Get out. Go out your chicken bar. Especially the man made me put on one time when you showed up. Ain't no made you cook. He likes to put on a little show and all the prep and everything.

It's a whole production. He likes to do it. We're going to eat. All right. Thank you, Mr. Wright. Have a great week. Thanks, guys. Okay.

Now joining us from Las Vegas where she's about to attend her first ever Syracuse game is Malika Andrews. This is a big, big moment that has been years coming in. my household. This is basically a national holiday. So I have like, I have five minutes before we got to go get the go orange. S. Y, R. A. C. I don't know the change. You have to look down to spell it. I don't even, I don't even know who they're playing. They're playing Houston. Houston. Best team in the country. That's a tough opponent. Go Coos. Also they're going to do a little scouting for the draft here. Oh, good. Definitely. Definitely. Yeah, they've only got two lottery picks on their team and they're loaded.

I don't know Houston. Yes, Houston. I know Q's don't have a whole lot of talent. Malika, what are you expecting from a Syracuse game with potentially mildly insane Syracuse fans that you'll be sitting next to? Well, when we were driving here from the airport, when we were driving to MGM where the game is taking place, I looked over at Dave, my husband. And I said, I don't know that I've seen you look as happy in a long time. And he looked at me and Brian, he smiled and he said, it's the Cuse Juice. So I am expecting.

Oh, my God. The juice is loose. Oh, my God. Juice is going to get squeezed in about an hour by using. Do you have to help him apply the paint to his back or the English chest or just like the back? Well, that's the thing. Like, now Dave has, Dave has done some crazy stuff. like taking red eyes across the country and like change planes two times and all the stuff

to get to Syracuse games. How is he when Syracuse like, does he just enjoy the game? Because I like to, I watch the Cleveland Browns for the spectacle. I've, I don't worry about where they win or lose. No, no. He worries. Okay. There's a worry.

There's a care factor. And honestly, it's kind of cool because I think in what, what all of us do, you kind of lose the fandom piece of it. And this is his one slice of the fandom that's, well, I won't say one slice. Syracuse basketball, Eagles football. And when we get to Red October and the Phillies are good, then there's a little bit of Philly pride there too.

But that's kind of the trifecta. Hopefully this goes better than the Monday night football game or Sunday night football game went. You guys are, I don't think Dave's going to be joining this, Friendsgiving. So, yeah, so, you know, what is it like to watch a Syracuse game? You know, Jackson, our man here, he lives and dies with Q's. He just went to South Bend to see them play football a couple days ago.

What is the experience like when he's just watching on television? Like, is he living and dying with every basket? I wouldn't say living in close. Yeah, close. And I, you know, you all know, he's very even keeled. The only time I genuinely see him get upset is when Syracuse loses. Oh, boy. So you're being a little charitable.

The only time he gets upset. at 645. This could be a joyous dinner or it could be a very silent one. We'll see how it goes. So, Malika, I have to point out that coming up on December 14th, Ken State, who I would like to point out

is off to a six and one start. Is playing at Portland. Aha. You and I need to have a little friendly discussion about this. I mean, I'm just hoping that you don't ask for points because Ken State is, you know, a juggernaut, apparently this year. Malika better be getting points.

This is not Cap quarter. This is Kent State corner now. I didn't realize I was coming on here to be the college sports officiado. Here I am. Yes. Yes. I think that there should be some sort of wage.

I think that I should maybe get points because the game is in Oregon. Oh, relax. Relax. Relax. Relax. Relax. You know, come on here saying Kent State's a juggernaut and then start winding for points.

I will say, Brian, Brian is, Brian. You know, big money windy over here is when he signed his new deal, I walked into my little closet at ESPN. And there was a lovely little note from Brian. And somehow he knew where I like to shop for horse stuff. And he had called and like put money on my account as a thank you, which I don't know what for because Brian is the most, you know, this is all him on a. his own. So I feel like I am already in debt to Brian in the gift giving department here. Do you guys hear that? Yeah. Did you get a thank you note in a little gift? Obviously not. We don't, we apparently don't

do anything for. No, nothing. We're dragging behind him like, like, like, I guess you just have to have your own reserve closet at the ESP. That's right. To get a thank you. That's right. That's right. Your own horse. I grew up on a farm. I never got a horse. same, each other's same suit every single time. So, you know, once we shake that out. It is unfair. We got to get in one MBA topic before I jump off. What do you want to talk about?

As an avid listener, all right, I want to talk about, let's, let's, we have a triple header on ESPN on Wednesday. That's right. There we go. We're ready to host mode. I have touched on that. I'm ready to host through that day. I'm really excited about the Detroit Pistons, which is not something I feel like I, I've

said a whole lot of this. this far into the year very many times. And we had a stat on the show the other day that blew my mind. And then I'm getting the, you know, the TV route. It's irrelevant. You were in diapers, Malika. So, yeah, you never said that. The exact date, the exact date that the Pistons were on an 11-game winning streak this year,

the exact same date that that came to fruition. They were on an 11-game losing streak two years ago. And I think that that's like a wild illustrative turnaround about this. So I am all in on motorcade and what's happening in Detroit. And now I'm all in on Syracuse basketball. All right. Enjoy it, Malika. Yeah.

Thank you for talking. Bye. Bye. All right. That was Friendsgiving. I hope you enjoyed it. If you made it to the end, bonus points for you on your hoop collective rewards system, which I just made up. Thank you to Jamal Collier, Bobby Marks.

Not thank you, Dave McMinniman. He was scheduled to be on it, but then he didn't show up. so he could go to the Syracuse game. Thank you to Malika Andrews. Thank you to Oam Youngmussook. Thank you to Michael Corleone Wright. Thank you to Anthony Slater. Thank you to Vince Goodwill.

Thank you to Tim Bontems and Tim McMahon. And a special thank you to Jackson for putting it all together and skipping a Syracuse game. Because I think there's one going on right now as we're recording this, and I think he's just missing it. And thank you for spending your time with us, and we will talk to you next week. I hope McMinneman really enjoyed that Syracuse loss.

Adios amigos.