Gil's Arena - Gil's Arena Breaks Down Dame & Steph's Hot Starts 🔥

Episode Date: October 30, 2023

Gil's Arena Breaks Down The Polarizing Starts of Damian Lillard & Steph Curry as the superstar point guards have gotten off to sizzling starts this season for the Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors. Gilbert Arenas also gives his take on Tyrese Maxey taking the reigns for the Philadelphia 76ers in James Harden's absense, but wonders if the young point guard will be enough to keep Joel Embiid happy in Philly. Finally The Gil's Arena Crew has to touch on their Los Angeles Lakers as they react to the disappearance of Lebron James' minutes restrictions and discuss Darvin Ham's questionable rotations. Remember to Like and Subscribe!! Sign up for Underdog Fantasy HERE with promo code GIL and get a $500 first deposit match: https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-gil's-arena Gil’s Arena premieres every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 11:30am PT / 2:30pm ET. SUBSCRIBE:  / @gilsarena   APPAREL PARTNERS TUFF CROWD: https://www.tuffcrowd.com/ ADIDAS: https://www.adidas.com/us/agent-gil-restomod-basketball-shoes/ Gr8ness: https://www.gr8nss.store/ Shoes by Plein Sports Pre-Order Rashad's Book Here - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CD9ZQ3HD?ref_=pe_3052080_276849420 Chapters Intro 0:00:00 Show Start 0:03:28 NBA Partners With Kim K 0:06:46 Jokic Tells Chet To Get Fatter 0:13:59 It's Gonna Be Tough To Beat The Bucks and Dame 0:24:46 How To Get Your Mind Right After a Bad Game 0:31:19 The Bucks Are Dame's Team 0:40:37 Reacting To Flava Flav's National Anthem 0:48:22 Will Tyrese Maxey Keep Embiid Happy? 0:57:05 Harden Watching From The Bench Is INSANE 1:04:28 You Can't Catch De'Aaron Fox 1:17:13 Thoughts on Fox Wearing Curry's Shoes 1:24:01 The Lakers Are Asking Lebron To Do Too Much 1:30:04 Questioning Darvin Ham's Rotations 1:40:49 Steph Curry on DEMON TIME 1:57:14 Is Dillon Brooks Good For The League? 1:59:41 Which Lineup Is Best For The Warriors? 2:05:00 Mostly Fans 2:12:23 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's better than a well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue? A well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well-marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart. Grocer $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instac been saying shit about me. They didn't even fucking know me. This is my school. This is what I was doing when wasn't nobody looking. Y'all don't know what goes on in practice or the locker room. Age of Zebra Chains again Welcome back to Gills Arena presented by Underdog Fantasy Book.

Woo! It's Monday. Y'all already starting. I've never seen them over there. We mixing and matching. Yeah. You guys are the best time I'm here. Lexi, I'm going to give Lexi my seat for sure. Thank you.

We got the Halloween decorations. Look at us. Yeah, the Halloween decorations off the chain, by the way. We love Halloween. Shout out to the staff. I'm taking this bird. I'm taking this black bird. Look at us.

It's spooky season. Spooky season. This is Gil's Arena presented by Underdog Fantasy. As always, we got the legend Gilbert Arenas with us. What it do? We got Lexi Brown on this side of the couch today. And we got Brandon Janney back with us. I can hear Jimmy.

I can hear Jimmy. That's tough crowd? No. No, no. It's just Jimmy. I'm just on some Jimmy thing. Jimmy Hendrix, because people have been at me lately outside of just going through some stuff.

But it's all right. Good we played your son this weekend. Held him to 42. Lock up. We was locking him up. He had to earn every one of those 42. He had to earn every one of those 42. No, but we got a lot to get into, so here's what's cooking in the arena today.

The Freak Time Era got off to a great start, but should Bucs fans be concerned with Dame's performance in their 17-point loss to the Hawks? Steph's been on demon time this season, but will CP3 coming off the bench be what the Warriors need to make noise in the West? And Tyrese Maxey has been cooking with the Sixers in Harden's absence.

But will the burgeoning star be enough to keep Embiid happy in Philly? But before we get into all that, as always, this show is brought to you by Underdog Fantasy. Download the app. Use promo code GILL. They will match your first deposit up to $500. You heard that right. $500 deposit match.

You're not getting that anywhere else except for Underdog Fantasy. So go ahead and download it. We need to get them deposit match. You're not getting that anywhere else except for Underdog Fantasy. So go ahead and download it. We need to get them depositors. I was on fire. I was on fire this weekend. $30 at a time. High or lower? Huh?

High or low? No, I was doing everything. Pick'ems, what else you do? The head-to-heads? No, I don't do head-to-heads. Yeah, that's confusing. $5, $10. That's all you need.

Pulling in $30. I was killing them on them $30s. Are you doing the three? Three. I'm only doing, I'm sticking to what I do. Three, two, that's it. Then I start going four, five, be like, ah, you just started like forcing stuff. You gotta get insurance. Yeah. Yeah, it's tough. I'm just, I'm just gonna. Gotta get insurance. Yeah. Yeah, it's tough.

I'm gonna just go back to insurance. As always, we do mostly fans at the end of the show, so go ahead, drop a good question, include your underdog username. We will give you a $50 bonus. If you send us a video, we got some good ones today, one in particular that we will address

at the end of the show, but we'll give you $100 if you send us a video. Y'all think y'all funny out here. So I'm going to be funny too. You got a video like locked and loaded already? Yeah. Oh, okay. Somebody thought they were trying to be funny.

You're going to be hilarious. It's all good. Get them. And as always, if you can't watch the show on YouTube with us, go ahead and download Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts from. We got the audio versions for y'all on deck. Having said all that, let's get this show started.

So the NBA saw the motion the NFL was getting with Taylor Swift and decided they needed a big name to help them move their game. What do we got for us? Boom! Kim K. The NBA and WNBA announced a new deal with Kim Kardashian's Skims line that makes them the official underwear partner of both leagues. Lexi, I know you were excited about this.

You rocking Skims? I love Skims. She's taking a lot of my money already, so I'm not paying for no more Skims, Kim. Send it over, please. But I think it's great. I think she has an opportunity to do something that hasn't been done with women's sports yet

and put us in this high-end, luxury, sexy types of campaigns. So we'll see. WNBA's had opportunities to do that, and they've kind of fumbled. Okay. So I hope they don't. You've talked about that a lot too, right? Yeah, I mean. Fumbling bags and opportunities.

Yeah, this is exactly. I don't even know why the NBA is part of this. This should just be WNBA. Oh, my God. This should be WNBA, I just said that, yo. Same thing with Kylie Jenner's or whatever, which one of them.

That should be part of... Lululemon, that should be part of, like, Victoria's Secret, that should be part of the... Like, I don't know what players they target in the NBA. That's about the worst. What the fuck is Skims?

They got SGA already. Skims is a... It is a women's line. It's for, like, women's line. Like, it's all women. Well, she just dropped men's stuff. Oh. Just now. Oh, okay.

So what's the next? Fashion Nova for the men's? I don't know. That also exists. Why even Fashion Nova for... For WNBA? I just feel like Skims should be just WNBA. WNBA.

I just hope her role... As a man, I'm not wearing no women's drawers. She has no men's drawers. It's a women's line, though. It's a women's line. It's for women. Did y'all see her men's rollout? You're out here wearing a women's... No, no, no.

SGA, I don't know who else was involved. It was her most liked, talked about drop that I, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like,

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it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like,

it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, It's just like Victoria's Secret made boxers, and you try to walk in the locker room with one of those. Yeah. Victor's Secret. Yeah. It's just like... You just don't... You can't... You ain't getting the ball, is all I'm saying.

Yeah, it's like the guys who rock the purses. Yeah. Like, what are we doing? Like, what are we doing? What are we doing? You're not rocking with the man purse? No. Sketcher shoes.

There's just certain things you can't as the dude. You can't wear Skechers now? In the locker room? I'm not wearing Skechers. And B, you got the Skechers deal. Not even for all that money? Hey, I'm not wearing no Skechers. It just don't fit me.

They actually don't look as bad as I thought they were going to look. But what I'm saying, you have to be in the locker room every day. So you think they clowning him every day? Every day. Who? Embiid, right? Every day. If you got a guard, you can wear a sketchers.

They clowning Embiid about his sketchers? Yes. But what happens when Embiid cooks you in sketchers? And you just... I got cooked by him. I wore sketchers all the time. Ain't nobody wearing them. We ain't gonna see nobody else with them on.

I forgot my... I was visiting somewhere and I forgot workout shoes, so I went to Target and bought some Skechers. They were very comfortable. Did you hoop in them? No, I just ran and stuff. But I got, like, made fun of the entire day. But you was hooping, though.

But I was comfortable. So, I mean, maybe wearing Skechers from the mental side, it makes you have to hoop because you can't be trash in Skechers. Oh, yeah, you can't be trash and have on Skechers. I'm just saying. I got to hoop. Wait, who is it? Julia Randolph? Isn't he with Skechers, too? Julia Rand trash and Wait, um, who is Julia Randolph isn't he? Right they're all with like Skechers. It makes sense

Yeah, I mean, yeah, look at the people that are wearing Skechers. It makes sense for the players who play we look at you We can see it You got to sketch his game. Sketch his game. You got to sketch his game. Sketch his game. Yeah. So is the NBA trying to compete with the Taylor Swift buzz with this Kim Kardashian move? There's no competing with that buzz. You think Taylor's on a higher level than Kim? Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Yeah. Taylor Swift? Taylor Swift. Oh. I mean, Taylor Swift, she going to the games for free. So the NFL just getting that off her. That's just off her. That's just off her just wanting to go.

Man, that's one team. Like, Kim got to pay for this, though, right? Like, she has to pay to put Skim. I don't know. Taylor Swift just showing up. Yeah, but I think Skim is valued at like $4 billion. No, for sure. Kanye got paid.

Ye got paid. Because he owned 50%. But that's what I'm saying. It's like, it should be. I'm just interested to see, okay, they've made the announcement now. Like, what is the plan moving forward with this? Like, okay, you're the official underwear whatever of the leagues. But, like, how are we going to promote that but, like, not do too much? Because we're still professional athletes.

We still want to be taken seriously but we're also beautiful and in shape and like the perfect people to model these i can tell you this they they it's gonna be more on the male side than it is the female side and that's the bad part about it we'll see the nba is gonna roll it out as like it's their players versus the one the ones who's wearing it. Yeah, that's why I said, I mean at least now that makes sense Since our season is not even happening. Yeah, which is also annoying Can what you're gonna wait till we're done cool. There won't be no women doing this And then when our season starts those just have everything ready to go No, we would hope no listen the skills for WNBA is going to be off the chain next year.

Trust me. Trust me. They're going to go. We have to do something. All the women are going to be in it. No, no. That's what I said. You will hope.

You will hope that that is the push. More of it. Well, they did it with the USA teams. They had some of the USA women athletes in the campaign in the Olympics. But we'll see. Hoping for the best. They're going to do something like, it's going to be like a couple NBA players with the women.

Uh-huh, yeah. And we just going to be laughing like, goofball. So Lexi, I thought- Definitely all-star weekend, watch. Outside of yourself, who are some WNBA players that you believe should get that skims back? Ooh, there's a lot, actually.

I'll have to say Kalani Brown, who plays for Dallas. Isabel Harrison, who plays for Chicago. I think Courtney Williams would be dope. I think it would be cool if they, like, get a variety of players, like not, like, all the super girly. Maybe some, like, not so girly, more of the tomboy ones, and just show the versatility of the brand. Okay. Yeah, outside of myself, I was just like,

me, me, me, me, me. Kim, if you're watching this episode, we know you are. Go ahead, give Lexi a Skims bag, please. Please. I've been begging. It's the official sponsor, so not individual for players. No, it's for the whole. Like Hennessy, too, Spirit of the the whole. Like Hennessy too, spirit of the game.

Hennessy and Skims. Just put it on a jersey or something. I think it's going to be on the court. I think I read that. Oh, wow. Skims. So you know what else is on the court? Chet Holmgren and Joker.

They played each other this weekend. I'm segue king. I got to stop acknowledging. I just got to roll. That was like a six. That was, yeah. That was not your best. That was your best.

You can get through college with D pluses. Just remember that. Yes. So Chet Holmgren looks solid in his red shirt rookie season. But at 208 pounds, he was no match for the 284-pound Joker. Let's look at a little bit of this big body going on. But in Chet's defense, I mean, who really does want those problems? Yeah, he does this to everybody.

AD got this same work. So after giving Chet his first welcome to the league moment, Joker was candid with his praise for the Thunder rookie. This is what he had to say. He said, he's a really talented guy, but this is his first year. He's still learning everything. I think he needs to be a little fatter, to be honest. But, yes, he's a talent that is unique.

And that's via Bennett Durando of the Denver Post. So will Chet getting fatter do anything to help him stop Joker down the road? No. No. Chet needs to be Chet and stay his comfortable size. Why did he say fatter and not stronger? Or is that just because he's from? Because he's fatter. Because he's a little fatter and not stronger? Or is that just because he's from... Because he's fatter.

Because he's a little fatter now. That's just Serbian. Yeah, I was like, is it because he's... I just feel like they need to put him in the right position. He shouldn't be playing the five. He should be playing the four. He should be... Come on.

Like, he should be playing the four. Like, go get a five so he can guard Jokic and all these bigs. But he needs to be at the forward position. Man, but I guess does that even really matter with Jokic? You get a bigger dude. Like, we talked about Shaq and how. No, it matters. KG was who? Was he more Jokic or was he more Shaq?

What position did he play? Yeah. Right? So, you know, all those guys who were really thin but had that height, they went to the four, right? You know, dirt, four. All these guys were fours, right? It's, you know, get someone that can bang with Jokic,

and then Chet is the help side. What I'm saying is there's a guy even that big matter in stopping a dude like Jokic because he's going to take you. No, but I'm saying. Take you like Jokic? Because he's going to take you inside if you're skinny, he's going to take you outside if you're big. I think it's not all stopping Jokic. Containing. Yeah. Just a bigger body, just a center.

You need a real center for that. I think that team just needs a real center. Yeah, just like with the Lakers that year. You have Dwight guarding them, and then you have AD back there just in case he got to the hoop. All that extra stuff he's doing, there's another seven-footer back there challenging that shot. Like, that's what you need. You have Chet.

That's the AD style. So you need someone who can, you know, rough up with him. For sure. We talked about this. But in a league that shifted away from big bruising centers to power forwards playing the five spot, how important is it for guys like Ch Chen and Wimmy to put on weight and how much is too much?

Did KG put on weight? Like did KD? No, did Dirt put on weight? Did somebody frame Kent? How long has Kevin been out of the league? Five years now? Garnett? Yeah.

Let's double check. He still look like he's... He still look like how he was when he first came in. When he first came in, yeah. You know, that body style just can't gain weight. So, you know, there's really... He can sit in the weight room all day. Seven.

Seven years. And I'm pretty sure he gained, what, four or five pounds. Yeah. And I mean, so there's really nothing you can do. He's just going to have to use his body type to his advantage. And if you get them to focus on gaining weight, then it's going to take away from their game, which is the way it is because of their weight and their size

and the way they can move. But I don't think it's fair to, fair to look at Chet in this one game, watching Joker do these things to him that he literally does to every other larger player in the entire league. He's a redshirt rookie. But when you look at a guy like Giannis, came in the league super slender, is beefing up, is that a route that these guys should be looking at going? Well, Giannis don't have the skills that those two have.

So I don't think Giannis had a choice but to get stronger. True. But even with that muscle mass, you can see it was already in him. Right? He had a chance to gain weight like that. You know, there's just some players who just can't gain weight like that no matter what you do. They can sit him on a weight program,

eat, and his metabolism is just going to burn through that shit. Yeah, but I don't mean they're not getting stronger. I mean,

that's what I'm saying. They're still getting stronger. It's that wirey strong. Yeah, yeah. He's skinny, but he can, that wirey strong

ain't going to help him right now. No, no, no. Like I said, right now, that shit ain't going to help him. Yeah,

against guys like that and a B, like, yeah. Yeah, he's done, you know. So, question for you two on the NBA side and for you, Lexi, that shit ain't going home. Yeah, against guys like that and a B. Yeah, he's done, you know. So a question for you two on the NBA side and for you, Lexi, on the WNBA side. How long did it take you to get your grown man and grown woman body?

Usually, okay, so it takes you about your third year before you can understand how the game is played. You know your strengths and weaknesses versus the people you're guarding. So players who are really turning on your all-stars and superstars, by year three, they already have figured out what they're good at. Right? You know, some guys, the older guys, can usually turn it on in their second year. And if you have a Hall of Famer, you will see it in his first year.

You'll see the dominance, you know, of them in their first year. Brandon? For me, I would have to say the lockout year, the second year in 2011. Your second year. Yeah, my second year. That was the time I had a chance to actually work on my body. So I got kind of after it early just because of the lockout, Your second year. Yeah, my second year. That was the time I had a chance to actually work on my body. So I got kind of after it early.

Just because of the lockout, working at Under Armour, and just being able to really work on my body and focus. Because we didn't start that season until December. So Christmas, we had all summer. So I think that's the first time I really got after it. You lifted? Yeah, I was lifting. I was doing training. I mean, I had time. I mean, we didn got after it. You lifted? Mm-hmm. Yeah, I was lifting. I was doing training.

Like, I mean, I had time. I mean, you know, we didn't know when we was gonna play, honestly. So I was just trying all type of different, like, workouts. You were also going from city to city cooking, too. Yeah, cooking, too. Yeah. You know, here and there. Yeah, it's, like, opposite with us since we stay in college for the four years.

Our strength and conditioning coaches are insane. So, you know, we have crazy preseason conditioning and lifts every other day off days on the road like we're lifting constantly so I was pretty strong when I got into the league and we don't really lift that much during our season like we lift a little bit during training camp but because of like between our traveling and not having the private planes we don't really have that much time to really lift unless you make the time for yourself. So I've leaned out actually a lot since I've been in the league

and that's actually been better for me. I feel like I play at a higher level smaller. So I was like looking back at like my college videos and pictures and I was like pretty, I was big as hell. And I was like, why did like, we're doing like Olympic lifting in college. Everyone is doing on the same lift program. Like post players and guards should not be on the same lift program.

But that's like, that's what we were doing. So when I got to the league, I like leaned out a ton. And now, you know, I understand my body more. But that took maybe like a year or two for me to really understand. Yeah, they had us doing like football weight lifts. I don't know if y'all were the same Arizona, but like the hand cleans. Yeah, cleans.

I didn't touch any of it. I'm so glad I missed college. Oh my God. I'm so glad I missed the college training. We had like a, we had a competition for like a belt. With all like. Seriously?

Yeah, well I won that shit. I won every year, but run, mile run. We had a beep test. We had a beep test. We had push-up test, squats, bench press. Yeah. It was crazy. So you did no lifting in college,

so what was that transition like to the NBA? Easy. Easy. Like, all that shit is overrated, man. Like, being strong to do what exactly? To do, like, I don't care how strong you are. If I'm at full speed, what is your strength going to do? For the fourth quarter?

No, but what is it going to do to me? Like, I can say if I'm backing you down, trying to, you know, run my offense, and now you can guide me and do all this. Like, hand check was in when I was in. But if I'm coming 95 miles an hour, how strong can you be? I'm going to run right through that. Right? It doesn't, you know what I mean? And then if I'm going to the lane,

how strong can you actually be before it's a foul? Right? So you're knocking me out of the air. Foul. It shows that you're strong. If you notice, the stronger players in the NBA get penalized for being strong because no one's calling foul for them. No one's calling foul for LeBron. LeBron.

Shaq. Cousins. All this strength y'all doing. No one's giving you every foul. Well, the little guys like a sneaky strong like Steph or somebody like that. Hawks.

Trey? Trey Young. Ten, nine, ten free throws a game. Small. Foul. Giannis. How many times does Giannis get 30 fouls a game? But they ain't going to give it to him.

Right. Right. So being strong is really overrated. AI wasn't strong, but he's sitting at the free throw line all day because as soon as you touch him, he's falling. So now you've got to play defense like that. Just be in shape. The biggest thing for you is just be in shape.

KD couldn't lift his pound. I think he's the only person in history who couldn't lift. He couldn't do 185 one time. He couldn't do 185 one time. Who? KD. Oh, yeah, yeah. But that didn't mean nothing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know everybody made it a big deal, but it was like. Everybody made it a deal until the NBA season started. He was torturing everybody. Then he was like, well, I guess this doesn't mean anything. Yep. Just. Yep.

I remember that. They made it a big deal. They made it. I'm like, when they fight, it don't mean nothing. It, like, the only people that need to be strong is post-up players. Yeah. Bigs. That's it. Just bigs. Bigs. That's it.

Just bigs. The guards, that didn't. Especially once the guards started coming downhill. Once that guard started coming downhill, it was basically all about speed at that point. Yeah. So you mentioned Giannis. Let's talk a little bit about Freak Time.

Freak Time's debut in Milwaukee this past Thursday gave Bucs fans some optimism for the season, even though they only beat the Harden-less Sixers by one point. Dame dropped 39, franchise record for a debut, including 14 points in the final four minutes of the game. Brandon, we'll start with you, our resident Bucs in six expert. What did Dame show you in his Bucs debut? It's going to be a lot of that this year.

He's going to have a chance to take over games a lot in the fourth, which I like that Giannis is going to trust him, and which they need. And, yeah, I'm just excited to see what happens. I mean, it's only two games. But, I mean, you know, I think for players, you always want your debut to be like, you know, especially going to a new team, a new opportunity.

So, I mean, he definitely showed it. Yeah. You rocking with it? Yes. I mean, he did everything he was supposed to do. It was great. You know, coming out scoring 31 and how, I mean, 39 and how he did it, it gives you like, this is what you should expect, you know, moving forward.

Okay. Lexi, what you think about Dane's debut? Lexi Larson I thought it was great. I've been a Dane fan since he first got into the league and I've always enjoyed watching him in Portland take over games and have Dane time. So for him to be able to do it on a team that has the potential to win a championship, playing next to someone like Giannis, I think it's great for him and it's going to be up and down. I don't think that you should expect him

to score 39 every night, even though people are still gonna expect that out of him. But the defenses are gonna get hip at some point to how he's playing on that team. And until Chris Middleton comes back all the way healthy, he's gonna have a lot to carry offensively from the guard position. And it's also a learning year for him too.

It's going to be a successful year, but also learning. Playing with, you know, you're playing with a franchise that demands to win a championship. So it's pressure, it's, you know, expectations. So, I mean, you couldn't ask for a better position for him in his career right now. So we talked about the first game. Now we got to talk about game two.

Second game with the Bucs, complete opposite. Six points, six turnovers in 29 minutes. He was minus 29 for the game. Hawks came into Milwaukee, smacked the Bucs by 17. So what did Dame show you in game two? It was play-replace ball.

We're going to talk about that in a second. You know, that's just what it was. Like, you can't have a debut like that and then, like, can we, like, get the first 15 games in before we want to start clowning? Like, that's just not it. That was not it. So I think that's what happened. Like, that's what it was.

Nobody asked his ass to go out there and sing. Actually, the Bucks did. Well, I want to know who booked that. Whose idea was that? That wasn't it. Flavor Flav. Yeah, boy! Oh, my God.

So, Gil, what did you see from Dame in Game 2? I've seen pre-season, right? Just like I'm seeing from every veteran right now. Like people don't realize the regular season started November, right? So all this, what we're seeing now was pre-season. So, you know, I don't expect anyone to hit their real stride especially the veteran players to really hit their strides

until, you know, mid-November, end of November. Right now, you know, some of these bodies are still in, you know, training camp. You know, I'm gonna keep saying it. It's still training. This is still training camp in 2000, you know, from 90 to 2000, what, 13, 12, right? You know, before they started in, you know, the...

Like, our first home opener was Halloween. Halloween. Yeah, I'm about to say, Halloween, yeah. I mean, my first rookie game, my home opener was Halloween. Yeah, so, like, real season would be starting today. So, you know, that's, you know, still a warm-up game. So, you know, I'm not really judging, you know, players now. It's, you know, just let's see once, you know, everyone has all their, you know,

their footing under them to see what they really got going on. For sure. First 10 games. First 10 games. First 10 games. Lexi, you share those sentiments? Yeah. I mean, I think, I mean, I've obviously watched Twitter during all these games

and the way people are like. I see you out there. They're just overreacting to everything that goes on. But I think Dame is going to see like a lot of trapping, a lot of double teams. So the rest of the team is going to have to step up, hit outside shots, make plays. Again, with Chris Middleton still gearing up from his injury. Like everyone else is going to have to step up.

Like that's all it is, but again. What is he injured for now? They have him limited minutes. Oh, Chris Middleton? Yeah. He's hurt again? No, he's not hurt. Oh, just, oh. They're just easing him in.

No. Still pre-season. No. Yeah, right? Still pre-season. He's like, you said it. So, easing him in for what? From last year's injury?

Yeah. All right, okay. All right. Yes. I mean, that's what we're gonna talk about. They All right. Okay. All right. Yes. They need him out there. On another show, but it seems like these guys had all this time to ramp up. We've seen a lot of guys. It's ridiculous.

You know what's crazy? More guys are hurt now. It'd take them longer to recover than when we did. Yeah. Why is that? Because I said it earlier. Remember when I was saying that when you think about the study, more rest means more injury, not the other way around. Like if I'm taking days off, right, I'm not as strong.

I'm not, you know, if I lift today and do all that and then I take two days off, when I come back to lift again, I'm not as strong as I was if I'm just doing it every day. Same thing with jumping ability, right? If we're doing leg workouts and I'm jumping on Monday and I'm resting Tuesday, Wednesday, when I jump on Thursday, my body wants to do it, but my body might not be ready for that, right? So that's what's going on.

The more these guys are resting their body, it's showing that they're injured, right? When Jordan and them were playing, playing 82 games, Karl Malone playing 82 games, John Stockton, their bodies lasted in the era where they practiced all the time, lifted all the time. So I don't know what studies they're using now,

but history has already shown that the more you train, your body lasts longer. Yeah. So Middleton didn't play last night. He expected to play tonight at home against the Heat. Right knee injury management, I think, was the official terminology. But let's go back to Dame a little bit.

Now, you guys have all had bad games. So what did you do to get your mind right after a bad game? Play the next game. That's it? No extra shots, no extra work, just same routine? Depends. It depends on how the game... You know, I'm...

It's called consistency, right? You do the same thing all the time, right? You know, if you feel your shot is off, you know, you probably might add a little bit. But at the end of the day, it's still your consistency. Just do your work. What makes you great? It all, you know, one good game, one bad game.

Two good games, normal. Three good games, one bad game, right? That's the theory. If I play ten games, two of those games might be horrible. Five games might be great. Five games might be great. Three games might be average. You know, like the more consistent you are in just your approach, you know, that's how it evens out.

Like my first game I had eight. Next game, 40-something. Third game, 12, 40-something. And then eventually, you know, the consistency of, you know, my work ethic, you know, pushes me up. Yeah. I agree. For sure. Yeah, work ethic trumps

everything. But if I do have a bad home game, I'm going to probably get some shots up. Okay. Upstairs or in the gym. I mean, and it's 82. It was like, you know, that's why I said the first 10 games, you're still trying to figure it out on the court. Everybody running so fast. Everybody just trying to, you know,

some guys are trying to make their names early. So it's like everybody's just all over the place right now. Once the first 10 games, everybody's going to slow down, and then you'll see. It's just starting to open it up. So how many bad games would you have to have in a row before you would start to get worried a little bit? Top tier player don't usually have,

it's hard to have a back to back bad game for a top tier player, right? You know, like, you know, he'll have 20 something next game. Right, but you don't, like when you're talking about that type of level, like having three bad games in a row you know, he'll have 20-something next game. Right? But you don't, like, when you're talking about that type of level, like having three bad games in a row is kind of like. Yeah. So after that third game, is it a little bit like, yo, what's going down?

Yeah, I mean, it's rare. One, it's rare because there's no defense, like, gearing up for you individually. Right? You know, like, whatever they did, like, whatever they did. no defense gearing up for you individually. Whatever they did, whatever Hawks did, whatever next team is gonna look at them and say, oh, this is how they did it. You're not geared up with the same defense as this team, so you're gonna get your ass busted.

That is the Miami Heat. You know what I mean? It's just one of those things where it's just you just keep playing and keep playing, understanding that, you know, day in and day out, you know, the defense change, the players change, and you just got to find your rhythm. It really depends on, like, what type of bad game you have.

Like, if you're, like, missing shots that you normally make or, you know, the ball kind of feels weird in your hands, you're turning it over, like, that's one thing. But, like, if you're running offenses, you're not getting the ball when you should be getting it, you're not getting as many shots as you think that you should be getting. Like, I think that's when you start getting a little concerned. But, like, individually, like, I don't think bad games

should bother you as much if you have the work ethic because you know that you're going to bounce back. I see that's more an issue, like, college, you're playing different, you know, different balls, because you know that you're going to bounce back. It seems that's more issue like college, you're playing different, you know, different balls, different games, the tournament. I remember they had like the nasty basketball. Yeah, we had a- Versus the league, you got a consistent ball,

you're playing with it every spot. It seems like it would make it easier. Trick yourself, I mean, you know, as a, as a hooper, just trick yourself, you know, into that bad game. Like if I had a bad game, right? Like six for 20, right? I'd go back through the game. Like, if I had a bad game, right, like 6 for 20, right, I'd go back through the game and say, all right, that shot right there,

that was actually a goaltender. Now I'm 7 for 20, right? Ah, you know, the ball slipped. I could have made that free throw. You know what I mean? So, you know, by the time I'm done with this film, I'm 12 for 20. Great game.

Great-ass game because, you know, that's how it is. You know, oh, damn, I'm 12 for 20. Great game. Great ass game because that's how it is. Oh damn, I missed this fast break. I missed the fast break layup going too fast. In my mind, I counted that. I counted that. This play, I counted that. Ooh, it rimmed in, rimmed out. I counted that because if that goes down, so my

game would have been changed if just something normal would have happened. And then it kind of takes away that whole thing of oh you had a bad day you just count points that is realistic yeah yeah you know i'm wide open i thought too much but usually i make that so that counts give me three should i had 12 but shit what am i talking about 38 yeah i have 40 that's what this says right here but sometimes you have to do that you know you can't just you know sometimes where i took 12 great shots only made three but those were actually 12 great shots right that's a good game versus you know i'm sitting here doing this step back step back and i made it nah that wasn't a good shot you know we did that i made some shit that i

didn't supposed to make you know and i and I might've had 40, you know, and it was, you know, I can't say I had a good game if, you know, half that shit was some bullshit. Yeah. Right? You know, so I'd be like, all right, that was decent. Right? You know, you have to be realistic with yourself and understand how the power of the mind is really the power of the mind.

So you basically lie to yourself. I mean, I think that applies beyond basketball. I mean, it seems like a lot of these players do that because I'm looking at some of their shooting percentages in games and I'm just like, they're taking a lot of shots and they're missing a lot of shots, but they're scoring a lot of points. I think they're getting fouled a lot, but for them to come in day in and day out and still put all those shots up, you have to have that type of mindset. That one should have went in. He might have fouled me a little bit on that one. I was overthinking this shot. And you have to have that type of mindset. Like that one should have went in. He might've fouled me a little bit on that one.

I was overthinking this shot. And you have to, you have to think that way. Did you guys keep track of your stats while you were playing? Like, did you know how many points you had at any moment? Field goal percentage? Yeah, the stat sheet came at halftime. But did you know, but did you,

would you ever see some discrepancies in it? Like, wait a minute. Sometimes for steals, Maybe missing steals sometimes. OK. And then points, nah, like you had to tell me. You didn't, wow, so you didn't know? Nah. In college, I tried to go five points every quarter

in college. I made like an effort to do that. But since I've been in front, no really. Man, I scored too much to just be- Calvin Sampson used to, I used to sit next to Calvin Sampson. He used to always just, you know, have the stat sheet like that.

So, you know, you'll see it. Yeah, I scored too much to really be trying to keep up. So you forgot? Yeah. So many buckets. I did not. Come on. Whatever, get off.

Gil, you ain't looking up like this? You ain't looking up? Nah, it's good. Like, think about it. When you scored, like, when you was doing 55, did you actually keep track? No. But did you have a... No, no, no.

I didn't know until, like, four quarters. No, y'all have no idea if y'all are, like, close to having, like, a 40. Nah, there'll be some times where I look up, right, like, damn, 38. But I bet there'll be some times where I look up and right, I'm like, damn, 38? But I bet, and every sometimes when I look up, you're 16. What? You said, I'm 38.

Like, dude, you know you're cooking. Come on, think about it. Sometimes you got a foul and one here. Boom, you shot like three penalty free throws. Like, it just, it became, because it wasn't so drastic where it looked like, you know, sometimes when you bop, bop, bop, bop, ooh, ooh, ooh. And then you did eight of those, and you look up, you got 16, and that's all you got, 16 from no eight highlights.

It's like, man, that was a tough-ass 16 right there. That's tough, though. To not know you have 38, though, is tough, though. That's kind of what it is. Yo, the way you didn't know. He's saying 38. It's like you didn't know you had 55. Gil, when I hit 60, and she's like, yeah, you had 60 tonight.

Wait, what? Ew. Oh, shit. Gil, you had to feel. Gil, you can't feel that you. That's a lot of buckets, Gil. That you. You had no idea.

It's going in every time. You had no idea. Think about when you at the free throw line the whole time, right? And you take 20. I took 27 free throws. Yeah, you don't remember the free throws. You don't remember. You're not counting free throws. You're just counting buckets and you're not really.

How many, so when you saw that 60 ball, how many shots did you take? Do you know? Do you remember? I think I was like 14 for 29. It was something, I was, it was a good game, but I mean, it was... That's what I said. It was 27. I think I shot 27 free throws up. Yeah. Damn. Mm. That's ugly. Even on the 54, I didn't realize that. No. In Phoenix, no.

I watched that game. I didn't remember that. All right, if I ever score a six, I'll let y'all know if I felt it. You just gonna know you on fire, but you ain't gonna know... You gonna be like... Whole mood change. See, and the going to know you're on fire, but you ain't going to know. You're going to be like, whole mood change. See, and the thing is, when you're on fire,

you're not even looking at how many shots you take. You're not even thinking you're taking them. Like, I was 21 for 34. Yeah. God damn. And I shot like eight free throws. I love that you still remember that. Yeah.

I would never forget that. 21, yeah. I would never forget that. I mean, because I wasn't supposed to be taking that many shots. Well, after our 55 in the NBA game, you'll hear about that shit every day for the rest of my life. I would never forget that. Yeah. I would never forget that. I mean, because I wasn't supposed to be taking that many shots. After our 55 in the NBA game, you hear about that shit every day for the rest of my life. Y'all know I had 55, right? You know I had 55, right?

Yeah, 39 is cool from day, but, you know, 55. 60. So in a recent interview with ESPN, Giannis said the Bucs is Dame's team. I think, Gil, you said something similar. First 43 minutes is Giannis' team. Last five minutes is Dame's team. But let's talk about Giannis said the Bucs is Dame's team. I think, Gil, you said something similar. First 43 minutes is Giannis' team. Last five minutes is Dame's team. But let's talk about Giannis.

Giannis' franchise player just signed that $186 million contract extension. Does Giannis really believe the Bucs are Dame's team, or is he just trying to gas them up? No, I mean, I just think that he understands that, you know, for them to win another chip, that he has to delegate power. And that's usually the problem with superstars on the same team, that the superstar that was there before don't want to

delegate his power, and not understanding that the strengths he has is for this moment in time that he needs the ball. And Shaq and Kobe, they couldn't delegate the power when it should be the same way. That the first 43, Shaq, you are that person. The guy who can make the free throws and hit big shots from the outside, it's his go at it last four or five minutes. So the team that really won was when the two stars understood

who was important at the right time of the game. LeBron, same thing with LeBron and Kyrie. LeBron, first three quarters, Kyrie, last four minutes. I mean, and, you know, he wants to win a championship. So, you know, that's the, I mean, you know, Dame is a top point guard in the league. Really? Yeah, I mean, he said it this summer. He said he was the best point guard in the NBA. Do you know, that's the, I mean, you know, Dame is a top point guard in the league. Really? Yeah, I mean, he said it this summer.

He said he was the best point guard in the NBA. Do you agree with that? If he said it, let's roll. Let's see. I mean, let's see. Do you consider 30 to be a point guard? The next question. I mean, see, now we got to.

He plays the position, so we're going to call the position what it is. See, I'm ready to just say they're scoring guards, both of them. I'm ready to just say, yo, they're scoring guards. The last point guard we actually have in the NBA is probably like CP3, Mike Conley, you know, guys who set the table. But these are like scoring guards. Their first mindset is to score. Okay.

But, man, Dame got a chance, man. I think he got a chance to win MVP. I think he got a chance to win MVP. I think he got a chance to really show like that he can win. And Giannis, seeing what he said, I mean, he wants to win championships. I got paid. I won one already. It's like when LeBron came to Miami with Dwyane Wade. Like, you know, we just go ahead, your time, do your thing.

Yeah, I think that statement had more to do with everybody else, not them two. I think they have the mutual understanding and respect that we wanted you here to help us win more championships, do your thing. You haven't won one yet. Obviously, that's been your stigma for the last few years is that you have never won a championship. But Giannis is one of those players, at least from the outside, that doesn't really have an ego problem.

He just goes out there, plays hard, wants to win. He got paid. So for him to say that is huge. But I think that was more like to the team. Like, okay, y'all, this is Dame shit now. I'm still Giannis, but y'all, this is... Fall in line. Yeah, exactly.

That's a sign of a good vet, too. A vet that understands. So not to look too far ahead. That's why it's hard to be... It's hard to of a good vet, too. A vet that understands. So not to look too far ahead. That's why it's hard to go against Giannis, man. You know, just his approach and how he approaches just the game itself and just life. Yeah. It's really... You got to.

Just grateful. It's more like, yeah, it's... I'm grateful. That's why no matter what I say, when someone says, where would you rank him? I'm like, I'm going to put him at one or two, period. Like, it's it's i'm grateful that's why no matter what i say when someone says where would you rank them i'm like i'm gonna put them at one or two period like it's just the overall of it like i know if i have him no matter who comes on the team i know like there would be no ego issue right right there's some players you pick you got to be careful of who you're gonna pick after right with him you can pick anybody because he knows, all right, well, he has the ego. It's your team.

Okay, all right. Yeah. It's your team. You go first. Give me the ball. He's the type of guy that, you know, like I remember the story about Will Smith and Martin Lawrence about the bad boys. Yeah.

Right, when Martin Lawrence wanted his name first because he felt he was the biggest star at the time, and Will Smith was like, I don't care whose name is first. I get paid $20 million. I get paid $20 million. You can go first. I can go third. I don't care. Just give me $20 million.

We're going to do this movie and that's what it's going to be. But to your point, a lot of guys will be hung up on that. A lot of people are hung up. I need to feel like I'm the man when I roll in here. A lot of people are hung up. A lot of top billing. I need to feel like I'm the man when I roll in here. A lot of people. Insecurity. Yeah.

A lot of people really do. I just need the bigger bag. Call me whatever. Call me production assistant. Will Smith back then too, after he just did Independence Day, you think I care? Yeah. That's what I care.

Put your little name first. Independence Day. I just saved y'all from the aliens. Yeah. But that's the same thing in sports. Sometimes, like, what is the bigger picture? Yeah. Like, is winning the bigger picture

or me stroking your ego the bigger picture? Right? If you don't know how to relinquish your star power for the betterment of the team, then you're not a leader anyway. Mm. Well, a lot of people don't know about you, Gil. You didn't even want the show to be called Gil's Arena. for the betterment of the team, then you're not a leader anyway. Well, a lot of people don't know about you, Gil. You didn't even want the show to be called Gil's Arena. You wanted it to be called Josiah's Arena, but I said no.

This is your shit, Gil. No, I mean, no, no, seriously. You get top billing. You get top billing. I'll play my position. Like, even on the opening, even on the opening, right? Like, I was irritated all the time about me just shooting all the time. Like, yo, where's everybody else, bro? Right? Like, and then with the opening, if you Like, I was irritated all the time about me just shooting all the time. Like, yo, where's everybody else, bro?

Right? Like, and then with the opening, if you notice, you don't see me. You see the back of my head. You don't see my face. Like, this is everyone. This is not just me, dog. Oh, thanks, Gil. No problem.

Because I ain't going to lie. Smart, Gil. Listen. Smart, Gil. They cut everybody out because it was too long. And then I cut it. And as soon as I said, oh, hell no, nope. We're not doing this this year.

I still feel like Rashad has the best little... Nah, flash the lights, baby. Flash the lights. They didn't even know me. Everybody has their shit. Give everybody their shit, man. So last question here on this one. Let's say the Bucks can fulfill the prophecy,

win a championship with this squad. Who do you think is more likely to win the finals MVP? Giannis or Dame? Do you think Giannis would be the type to be like, look, I already got one. Dame, this is your shit. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and it just depends on who's playing well.

Like who's just playing well at that time. So that shit might be Middleton. Yeah, it might be Bobby Porter. Who the fuck knows? You never know. Bobby Porter's good. Bobby Porter's good. I mean, that might be Bobby Porter. It might be. Who the fuck knows? You never know. Yeah. Bobby Porter's good. Bobby Porter's good.

That'd be legendary. I mean, that'd be legendary. The talent. I mean, listen, if you come off the bench averaging 18.5 rebounds and stop some shit and you hit some, yes. Definitely possible. Definitely possible. Because in the finals, you know, everybody knows each other playbook.

So it's what guy that, what guy is going to step up out of their role, right? And if you're averaging 12 to 13 all the playoffs and then you average 20, that's you right there, big boy. Because, you know, everybody else, they expect that. So it's the person that they least expect unless you just have an out-of-body experience. I think Giannis just wants to go back-to-back. That's what you were saying before. He seems like a guy dunking Oreos in milk,

the excitement on his face, tasting a bratwurst for the first time, eating some Chick-fil-A. Dipping the Oreos in the milk was funny. That was hilarious. We were sharing one pair of shoes when I was coming up, getting evicted from our spots in Greece. I'm just happy to be here getting them back.

But, Brandon, let's go back to the national anthem, which you said before. Yeah, boy! It could be argued the basketball guys punished the Bucs for letting Flavor Flav sing the national anthem, and we got a little clip of him his rendition of it What so proud We have

We're so gallantly Please bring me All the land of the free Please bring me And the home of the brave Keep going. Oh, y'all ain't gonna believe this. It keeps going. Yeah, boy! They cut that mic.

I don't even know he sang. That was crazy. So, the thing, you know. What'd you just say? I don't even know he sang. He didn't sing. He just sang. I mean, what I'm saying, but, like, what made them do, like, what?

So, Flav, extremely self-aware, after his lesson, stellar rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, he posted this tweet. He said, the anthem was a long-time bucket list item. That was fun. I can't live my life worried about

what people might say about me. I won't let that stop me from trying new things and doing things I want to do. Some people might not like that, but a sure failure is if you stop trying. Aw. That's real. I like that. That's definitely what I would sure failure is if you stop trying. That's real. I like that. That's real, but

we didn't need that shit that much. I'm not here for all that. We got too cocky over one game, home opener, and now we bring... Bring in Flava Flake. Bring in Flava Flake. Stop. You should have had Miss New York, New York with them.

So when you talk about NBA and, you know, mediocre national anthems, you got to think about, you know, Fergie. Oh, Fergie takes the cake. So who had the mustier national anthem? Fergie for sure. Oh, my God. No, Fergie. She sang that one.

Well, Fergie's was funnier because they were showing all the players. Yeah. I was like, who is in charge of this? When Draymond brought character, I was like, no. Like, Fergie's a singer. Exactly. So that, yeah. So you think the basketball guys punished the Bucs for that?

You weren't going to get a dub for that. Nah. Nah. So we expect. Or Joe Biden. guys punish the Bucs for that? You weren't going to get a dub for that. Nah. We expected that. I mean, so now I'm just thinking like game six, my rookie year. Like

game six, my rookie year, we had Jerry Stackhouse sing the national anthem against Atlanta, and we lost. Okay. Was the basketball guys mad at that? No, Jerry can sing, though. I didn't say he couldn't sing, but I'm just like, was the basketball guys mad at that? No, Jerry can sing though. I didn't say he couldn't sing, but I'm just saying, was that the proper time for a game six against Atlanta

with Joe Johnson, Jamal Crawford, and everybody coming in? I'm just asking. So no Jerry Stackhouse just in the Atlanta? No, no, oh yeah, no, Jerry Stackhouse can't sing. No, no, he can't sing. I'm just saying. For sure, he can't sing. He did it for the Wizards a couple times. But how did you feel as a teammate,

this biggest playoff game, obviously, in your very young career? Well, that was gonna be the Wizards a couple times. But how did you feel as a teammate, this biggest playoff game, obviously, in your very young career? Well, that was going to be the first Bucks in six. I don't know if you think about it. We had beat Atlanta in game five, and we came back, and I was just more like, all right, there's a lot going on. We singing, and we just doing a lot. But what was his role on the team?

Oh, he played. Oh, he sang and then played. Yeah, he sung and then played. Oh. That ain't that. Stop. Oh, he played. Oh, he sang and then played. Yeah, he sung and then played. Oh. That ain't... Stop. I'm just asking. Because...

Y'all acting like the singing just took out so much damn energy from... That's like a very nerve-wracking thing. It did for the Bucks game. That's a very nerve-wracking thing to do before you go play in a game six. No.

A game six? Our first playoffs? Like, we needed the church choir. Nah. If you needed church choir to come out and play, that's the problem. I mean, maybe it didn't have anything to do with y'all. Maybe the other team was like, why are they singing the national anthem? To be honest.

I think Atlanta took that as, oh, they think this is a joke. Oh, like, y'all think it's a game. Like, you know, game six, and y'all think, oh, okay, so y'all gonna have your teammates sing the song and then come... No. So that means they was more... I mean, I'm just saying, I just felt like we set fire on them. But Joe Johnson, he picked us apart. So he put fire... Y'all had no extinguisher.

That's y'all problem. Obviously, I mean... It's game six. What was you listening to in the locker room before you listened to that? Because, to be honest, I mean, yeah. It's game six. What was you listening to in the locker room before you listened to that? Because to be honest, I don't know how anyone sounds during the national anthem

because whatever beat I got in my head, that's the beat. Nah, you can definitely hear who's singing the national anthem. If you watch me, you can see. All eyes on me. I be singing to my own goddamn song. Oh. Dun, dun, dun. Here I go. What if it was Carl Lewis?

I don't care about none of them. And the Rockets. See? You're hearing that, Gil. See, but that's the stuff I be saying. You're hearing that. What? That's going to ruin your video. How are you going to play a game?

What's going on? But I'm saying for the most part, most people, remember, they had to make a rule where dudes had to be out there doing the national anthem, right? Don't jump up and down because players is jumping, stretching, doing that. Are we not paying attention to them artists? Yo, did you hear that? They didn't hear to see us. Can I play that again?

Can I play that? Yo, did I have that video? And the Rockets, they play. What the again? Can I play that? Yo, didn't I have that video? And the Rockets win. What the heck? He tried, okay? What the heck? Check the item off his bucket list, too. I think we had Chris Brown during the fire.

I think we had Chris Brown during the fire. I can't even tell you which game it was. I don't know. You weren't listening to even Chris Brown? I can't know. Like, I'm trying to get focused on the game. I'm trying to see which one of them look like they about to come out and play, which one is laughing.

Game by the starlight, all right. Oh, he's shaking. Look at him. He's shaking. He's shaking. I don't know, what are y'all looking, what the hell are y'all looking at? He's shaking.

Look at David, was it David the Amaral, or like goofball, like this is, like I'm judging during the national anthem, man. He's sitting there, yep, I'm going red at him. Yep, he taking this shit too. Yes, he got Kobe chewing the gum. Oh shit, here you go. Like that's-

The first time I saw Kobe, bro, we played against each other, he looked me up and down. I was like, damn, this is crazy looked me up and down. I was like crazy I was like, you know, you know young what's up cold? Was that before after the Under Armour stuff No, this was after the 55 my rookie year first Kobe's first who's afraid of a snake shirt. Oh, no, that was the lockout Okay. Yeah He was just like he was on one lady he was just like, he was on one.

Like that was championship Kobe. He was on one. I'm like, I can't get up. Nah. Nah, watch out. Yeah. All right. I'm telling you, man.

Like. It's different. No, it's different. Nah, shit on it. You blame it on Flavor Flay. Yeah, I'm blaming that. The basketball guys, it's not messing with. I believe in the basketball guys.

I believe in that. Like the basketball guys, bro. They don't, like if you don't play basketball, you don't play basketball. They don't play blaming that. The basketball guys, it's not messing with me. I believe in the basketball guys. I believe in that. Like, the basketball guys, bro. They don't, like, if you ain't, if you trying to do way too much and getting too cocky too early, you don't.

Okay, but that tweet was adorable, so no. No, the tweet was awesome. And I was like, okay, Flavor Flav. But the Bucs, you know, don't do that again. Too early. Let's wait 10 games in. 10 games in and still bring Flavor Flav Like, they're not going to punish you. No, no, that's fine.

I mean, by that time, we might be 8-2. We can, you know, all right. We can drop one. All right, that's fine. We can drop one. I don't want to be one and one. All right, let's keep this thing moving. Time for some hibachi time.

Give me the graphics. That's hard, bro. We got to make that a shirt. Shout out to the graphics. Hey, yeah, we do need a hibachi. We need to get a hibachi grill in here. That's from that fried rice. Fuck, that's a...

Hey. Roll the tape. Bring Benihana to the crib. So after reports surfaced that Embiid was going to miss the Sixers' home opener against the Blazers to rest in the third game of the season, the reigning MVP decided to give it a go

to stuff the stat sheet against one of the league's bottom feeders. We got some highlights here. He dropped 35 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists. He also had six blocks in the win. Damn. Is he wearing Skechers now? Tell the truth.

I don't know what those are. Oh, so he left unarmored. Yeah, he was a gay. Yeah, he's a Skechers now? Tell the truth. I don't know what those are. Oh, so he left unarmored. Yeah, he's a Skechers dude. What if it be against the whole world rocking Skechers? Never. Never gonna happen. Never, that's not happening. I mean, those are the only shoes big man can get anywhere.

He's bringing Etonics back. So Tyrese Maxey has embraced replacing Harden's production. He's dropped 30-plus points in two of the first three games this season. Let's talk a little bit about the Maxey side of it. Will Tyrese Maxey be enough to keep Embiid happy in Philly? To keep him happy? No, this ain't Embiid like five years ago. I mean, I'm pretty sure that he knows all his competition in the big man, you know,

space. They've won championships. Right. So I'm pretty, you know, I mean, I think that's what he wants. He wants, you know, jewelry at this point. So you're going to have to bring in a few more players for him to be happy. Yeah, I think for Tyrese Maxey, it's all about just keeping your value high.

It doesn't matter if he's here or not. You know, his first two games, 30, it's time for him to get paid. So as long as he keeps his value high, regardless of whatever happens, I mean, you know, because he might not end up being there anyway too. So he might be in a trade or something like that too. So I wouldn't really worry about Embiid too much. Just myself right now. And we talked about this on a previous show,

but would you start looking to build around Maxie now, knowing that Embiid may want to pull the plug on this whole process thing? Like on some AI? Yeah, it's like a bigger chance that Maxie gets moved or Embiid gets moved. I mean, at the end of the day, I mean, you know, Maxie is happy that James Harden's not here

because he gets to be the dude that gets his value up. So, he's going to max out. So, you know, he's going to max out. So the question is, are you ready to max Maxie?

Because as long as it's just him and Embiid, his numbers is going to require max contract. Yeah, he's averaging 37 and 6 right now. I mean, it's only two games into the season. Three games. But it's the opportunity. It's the opportunity that he gets to just basically

feel devoid of James Harden and himself. Yeah. Right? So at that point, it's like, I'm going to and himself. Yeah. Right? So at that point, it's like, I'm going to be a max player. Right? Max for short. You know, huh? It's max for short.

Max for short. Like, you know, no matter if Embiid goes out or whatever, I'm going to at least average 27 to whatever, 30. So I'm going to be a max player. It's, you know, if Philly ready to add that on or you're going to have to do something. I think they're waiting to see what they're going to do with Embiid. And then you move, like, towards that.

Like, if I'm going to trade Embiid, then yes, then I'm going to Max Maxey and then, you know, dismantle the whole team. So I'm going to get rid of Tobias Harris and Embiid together and just try to rebuild around Maxie. Yeah. So should Maxie be on All-Star Watch this season? Oh, yeah.

Did we mention him in our Most Improved when we were talking about Most Improved? Mm-hmm. I think we said him and Jordan Poole. Okay. Then also if Ben Simmons just doubles his production. Yeah, doubles his production. God.

Was that Kenyon? It might have been. No, it was his production. God. That was, was that Kenyon? It might have been. It was, no, it was Kenyon. Was it? Was it Kenyon? Because he was like, Ben Simmons.

Yeah, that's a good one. That's a good one. We had a lot of faith. Going from 20 last year to 30, just, you know, obviously three games, that's not enough.

That's not enough what? Most approved? I'm saying to get excited about. I mean, you know, small sample size. But you talked about the potential of maybe moving Embiid. Let's say you keep Embiid, you still got the Harden situation.

Who's a player the 76ers should look to trade for to complement Maxine Embiid? Like, who could that big three be? I mean, it don't even matter. Ain't nobody going there. I mean, like... It even matter. Ain't nobody going there like that. I mean, like... It's just... It's a shit show right now. Yeah, yeah, because they had their chance.

I feel like they had their chance to be good, and then it's just kind of like, whatever, no. They had it when you had... Butler. Butler over there and Tobias. Like, think about Tobias Harris as your fourth option. Mm-hmm. That's a great fourth option. That's a great fourth option.

That's 13, 14? That's your fourth option. Y'all are nice as hell. That's the difference. They didn't realize the coach, it was the coach at the time and Jimmy Butler who didn't get along, right? At that point, you have to really step back and see who's more important to the team,

the coach or Jimmy, right? That's when you really have to sit back and just evaluate who's really important, like the coach at the time or Jimmy Butler at the time. And obviously we can see it was Jimmy Butler because you actually got rid of the coach in a goddamn way yeah i mean so far in a few exceptions you're talking about popping guys on those levels isn't shouldn't the star player always take priority over the coach not really because it all depends on who the coach is is he a is he a builder coach can he build likero, right? I don't know what type of player is bigger than him in his development. Yeah, for sure.

Right? If Jimmy says Spro out, I'm going to have to weigh both of them. What do they both bring? Would you lean more towards Spro in that situation? Hypothetically, obviously Jimmy Butler is not saying get rid of Eric Spro. Same thing with Kerr and his group, right? It's the group itself what is bringing it in. Like the coaching, Kerr or Curry.

Kerr and Curry? I'm confused. That's not a very good hypothetical. Let's say Curry decided to say, I want a new coach. And I got to look at his age, trying to figure out, like, how many more years do I have versus, because at the end of the day, the offense was built, like, you guys were built in-house, which means that have to do with the staff itself, too, right,

to get you guys to the point where you guys are, you know, playing the way you're playing. So I'll have to flip a coin for them, too. Oh, really? Damn, for Curry and Curry. guys are playing the way you're playing. I'll have to flip a coin for them too. For Kerr and... Because Steph is what, 35? Yeah. So how many more years do I have?

Maybe like a good two more. Because if I lose Kerr, I'm losing the whole culture of what they built to keep everybody the way they were. Unless you can bring somebody up, that's already an assistant. Bring Mark Jackson back. That's what I said.

I'm going to flip it now. That's tough. That's why it's so important about the culture that you build as a coach. And that's why they always talk about the heat culture and the culture they've built in Golden State. It kind of makes, I don't want to say it makes coaches untouchable, but we've seen the turnover of coaches even from teams that have won championships recently. They don't build a culture. They just have really talented players and know how to manage them well. Until they don't.

And now you're fired. You just want it to- Rob Markman, So what coaches in the league that are untouchable? Rob Markman, So what if you do Wimby or Pop? Like what if Wimby was like, I want a new coach? Pop might have to go. No, no, I'm just asking. Pop might have to go. Pop going to fire himself.

You know why? Because he goes upstairs. You're right. That's him. He'll take my ass right upstairs. Right upstairs. Right. So, you know, we talk a lot of James Harden on this show,

but he is one of the biggest stories in the league right now. James Harden pulled up to the Sixers' home opener after getting bumped from the team playing last week. He didn't have enough frequent flyer miles. He's in there laughing it up with P.J. Tucker in the hoodie. Man, we got to start ranking fits this year, man. We got to start ranking outfits. Oh, I would love to do that.

It's just a lot of nasty. It's just a lot of nasty outfits. Get on it. Bro, I was at the Deion game this weekend. I seen tough crowd, heavy, heavy in the Rose Bowl. Real? Yeah. That's what's up.

It was some tough crowd. Hey, time out. Fucking time out. All right. Time out. Time out. No, go back to that picture, please. So the NBA is telling us the dress code... Y'all don't have one.

No, no. That dress code they made everybody because of sweats on the bench. Mm-hmm. We never wore hoodies. You got three hoodie sweats on the bench. And the baggy jeans are coming back. I just want to point that out. So, when

y'all were on the bench, y'all had to be in suits, correct? Yeah, we had to be in suits. Or, um, or, or, like, or casual attire. Yeah, casual attire. Which didn't, yeah, business casual. Which eventually they just said, whatever you gonna wear at the club,

wear that here. So everyone actually knew what he meant, like, because we dressed up to the club. Because on the benches, like, you had these baggy, baggy, it was mostly the chains. It didn't have nothing to do with the clothes themselves because the players who barked against it, the players who did not want the dress code,

like, who really stood tall, like like I'm not wearing that shit. Steve Nash, Duncan, Dirt. Like Dirt's like, how am I supposed to wear a suit? I look horrible in a suit. Right?

And that was their stance. Like I'm not wearing a suit. I don't know how to wear a suit. But it didn't look this bad. Yeah. I don't, I don't, I don't,

I don't think so. I mean, besides the whole baggy look, I mean, because it was baggy, but that didn't look this bad. Yeah. I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't think so. I mean, besides the whole baggy look. I mean, because it was baggy, but that was in then. Baggy's kind of bad, yo. But I'm just saying, like. Some players be looking crazy on the bench. But the stuff they're wearing now, you're wearing hoodies with the hoodie on. Like, come on, y'all.

Wearing the hoodie. With the hoodie on, like. Like, yeah. With the hoodie tucked in. The walking fit. Or whatever you want. Even the walking. You can sit on the bench. You need to,. With the hoodie tucked in. With the hoodie tucked in. Even to walk. You can sit on the bench.

You need to, like, look a little bit. But that's what it was. It was the, what you wore on the bench. And I'm like, man, shit ain't change. So did you see guys

wearing their club fit on the bench and they'd be at the club later in the same fit? Facts. Facts. Hell yeah. Facts.

They might even, the game is my pit stop. They might even change the shirt to a better shirt. I'm going to say, yeah, we got the extra shirt in there. We got the extra shirt in there. We're going to keep the pants on. No, this is fine.

It's dark in here anyway. That's hilarious. So, Lexi, in response to this video, Harden, you had some thoughts. You know we monitor your Twitter. I just thought it was weird. I have no inside knowledge of this situation, but from the outside it's me. But from the outside, it looks insane. So why does Harden on the sixes bench look insane? Y'all like my picture?

Yeah. A little Bratz doll. Yeah, no, I just, you have the players, like, kiki-keeing on the bench. Like, I don't think, at this point, I think James is outsmarting the 76ers because now he looks great, and the 76ers look ridiculous and confused and lost.

And now everyone's like, is he going to play? Is he not going to play? Are the players mad that he's not playing? But that's what the 76ers do. They did it to Ben Simmons. And that's where he learned. They're doing the same thing. They're just repeating history. It's so weird. The where he learned. They doing the same thing. They just repeating history.

It's so weird. The basketball guy's going to get the sixer. Repeating history. They're repeating history thinking there's going to be a different outcome. Yeah. Right? It lets us know right here who the team, the players, who they're backing. Yeah.

Okay. That's really what it shows. Who are the players backing? Like, I understand. You know what I mean? As players, we understand if you're not there. Like, we get that because it can happen to us. Right?

It can happen to us that we made a promise, and I did what I did for us to be here, and now for me to get my return, you're like, no, right? And you change the outcome. All the players can identify with that, right? So, you know, for the most part, it's like, yo, handle what you got to handle, right? And that's usually how it works.

So, you know, him coming on the bench and everyone's laughing and Kiki and his friends is there, like it lets us know where the players stand. And they're not standing with the organization in a sense. Like, if he was at the end of the bench and he's sitting there and everybody's shutting them off, then, you know, then we know how they feel. But at this point, it's his smart tactic is I'm going to keep showing up and you're going to have to reject me. Because if I don't show up and you're going to have to reject me. Because if I don't show up, you're going to fine me.

And I'm not going to let you take more money out of my pocket. Like the fact that I gave you money. See, this is what people don't realize. He gave them money. He turned down money for them. So I lost that and now you think you're going to fine me?

No, that's not going to happen. So he's going to keep showing up and they're going to me? No, that's not gonna happen. So he's gonna keep showing up and they're gonna have to say, we don't want you. So now it's on them versus him. Like in the idea they thought he was gonna not show up and they can find him and now, oh, James Harden didn't show up, they find him, and boom, boom, now the 76ers don't know, they don't know what to do.

They didn't expect none of this. The insane I was talking about was the 76ers look insane. Okay. Not James Harden. That's why we pulled the tweet up. You said that players generally will be in support of another player when it's a situation like this. Do you ever see the opposite where it's more like an MJ and Scottie Pippen

where like, look, you signed that bullshit deal. You gave money back. That's your fault. I mean, no, no, deal. You gave money back. That's your fault. I mean, no, no, no. You'll get that. But, you know, it's easy when, you know, that shoe was on the other foot because there was a point where MJ was mad that Tony Kukoc was making more than him. Right?

So, you know, there was a reason that they didn't like Tony Kukoc for a while. We're not going to remember that. Like, they didn't like Tony Kukoc. Yeah. Right? You know, we went in championships and y'all paying him more. That was a thing. We're not gonna remember that like they didn't like Tony Coo coach. Yeah, right. It's it's he's you know We went in championships and y'all paying him more. It was that was a thing I know you know, you know me you never gonna talk about that, but that was the thing then yeah for sure

Um, so, you know, so when MJ got his money everybody was happy because now you deserved what you got You you this is what you're so when Scotty was trying to get paid, you know, you know, they're like hey Well, I'm gonna go get it from somewhere else and he got that but 117 What was that? It was like it was one one or one what from Portland? Yeah Shout out Scottie. I mean so it's When you when you're getting screwed that's that's when the players feel Feel bad because like I gotta sign a contract, you got to sign.

You know, everyone has to. This is a, we're all in the same boat at the end of the day. So if they're going to screw you, what do you think Maxie and Em are thinking? Hey, I was going to do the same shit to me. At the star level, right? Yeah, so if this is what you're doing to the star player. Role player. And he's averaging 22 and 11 Do my 18 and 5

You know and and that's how players look at it if you can do it to him you're gonna do it to me That's why I'm actually said just keep his value high. I don't know about it or whatever I guess I mean they might look out for him though I mean cuz he's young but at the end the day, when he's getting to that point, everyone watches everything. Players are watching how you treat other players. Yeah. You know, so if you're telling me, if I'm 76 and you're Maury

and you're having a conversation with me and talking about, yeah, you know, if you don't sign this year and get that extension right now and give us some room to make some other improvements next year, we're going to look out for you. You know, deep down inside, he's lying to you because he did it before. And my stats is not what his stats were, so I know you're going to try to fuck him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right? You know, history repeats itself, so you're going to have to look out like if Mickey, you know, Miami said this to a player, they can look at Haslam and say, nah, he's truthful. He's going to look out for the long run. So I trust him. If Mark Cuban did it, I'm going to trust him.

I can see his history and what he's done to his players and really look out for them moving forward. So we've talked a lot about Harden sacrificing his game for the Sixers and kind of where that's coming from. But do you think Harden's looking at Maxie at all and saying, well, shit, I could have been doing the same thing, cooking at this level? No, because I think what he decided to do is say, all right, if you guys want me to be the third option, this is who you're going to put at the second option.

I'm still good enough to average 22 and 10 and 22 and 11. That's what makes players great, that they can sacrifice that much and still be dominant. The problem is, is from the fan standpoint and the media standpoint, if a guy's averaging 30 and 10 and then he goes down to 22 and 10 for the betterment of the team, you guys kill that player and say they're washed.

And then you devalue someone for sacrificing. When you're asking him to sacrifice, that's the fucked up part. You're telling me if I take eight to seven less points And then I do it and you're saying oh, he's not the same player anymore Your fuck is the point of this that's like yeah, it's like who do you want me to be? Yeah? if you're gonna If you're gonna now right me you're gonna rank me what I was ranked in now you're going to now rank me, you're going to rank me one. I was ranked 10. Now you're going to rank me 100.

Right. Off of the shit you told me to do. Right. Because it didn't look the way you thought it was going to look. Fuck off. But I'm still averaging. I'm still averaging double-double. I'm still averaging.

No, exactly. Like I said, it's like it's one of those things when you tell someone to do it, but it don't look like the way you envisioned it in your brain. Do it this way. They do it exactly that way. Then you say, well, that's not the way I wanted to do it. I wanted you to put your own little spin on it. That's not what you told me to do.

What the fuck are you talking about? Have you ever had that argument with somebody? I did it exactly the way you do it. This is what came out. Well, that's not the way. Then you do it. That's not how it looked. Well, you know, that's not the way it is. Then you do it. That's not how it looked in my mind. Well, you know, that's how the Indians aren't looking. Here we go. Oh, my God.

Yeah. Well, we got... Well, that's the fucking... Delusional. It's delusional. It's like they just set you up a failure. Like, yo, I want you to fail. Yep.

Like, damn. You can't listen, but we got plenty of hardening to get. I'm just saying, somebody tell you some wild shit, like... Okay, cool. What I was going to got plenty of hardening to get. I'm just saying, somebody tell you some wild shit, like, eh, nah. But that's what I'm saying. Okay, cool. But that's what I'm saying is we're listening to it. Like, we're trying to adapt to, like, we want to win.

So if I'm averaging 30 and you say, hey, listen, you know, if you average 22, you know, we can delegate some of these points over here and then we're going to be a much better team. Well, all right. And then I'm averaging 22 and then I'm looking at you like, yeah, we're 10 games below a much better team. All right, and then I'm averaging 22, and then I'm looking at you like, yeah, we're 10 games below 500. What's that?

You want me to go back to doing what I was doing before because the reason I was doing it is because of this group, right? It was this same group, goddammit. And I don't think it's... That's why media should just write. Shut up. Just write what happens after the game. Don't have no input on what you think players should do because you have no idea.

Yeah, we don't care. There's a locker room, just like the jungle, right? You have a pack. There's a reason there's an order. They then went through whatever they had to go through to put the fucking pecking order the jungle, right? You have a pack. There's a reason there's an order. They then went through whatever they had to go through to put the fucking pecking order in order, right? The locker room is a jungle.

It's a pecking order. There's a reason there's a pecking order. So don't try to push somebody in a spot that you think because, oh, he looks buff. He should be the number one option. Mentally, he's not even capable enough to know the plays.

We call a play at the end of the timeout, and by the time we get back there, he forgot. He forgot. He don't know what the hell he's doing. That's the reason he's option 17 out of 15. There's two G League players we'll put in front of him.

He's a show horse. He's there for just come in and foul a couple things there's a reason for that stop trying to put him somewhere else let's keep this thing moving head back out Wes Darren Fox has been on one followed up a 39 point outburst against Chef Curran the Warriors with a

37 piece in a win against the Lakers. Oh. Also got to give some love to former Laker Malik Monk. Came up big in OT, 11 points, sealed the game. Speed kills, boy. Oh, my God, that was a nice. Yeah. Rewind that back?

Yeah. Oh, that's a hell of a play. Oh, that was a give, yeah. He's so damn fast. I'm not gonna lie. Technology. Because you would've thought he would've ran for the handoff, but if he inside cut that.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Oh, we're going way too far. No, hey, they're doing their best. All right, yo, we trying to get, we need underdog to send us some nicer equipment. Look at Gabe, Gabe Vincent, Gabe Vincent left Miami. Like instead of him going out, he just cut right inside, boom.

That's fire, yeah. That's a, he just cut right inside. Boom. That's fire. Yeah. That's a nice play. We'll see it again. We need to take Gay Vincent to Crenshaw so he can get tough. Damn. You need to go to Sloss the Swap Meet or something. Shit.

That's not a problem. You got to stay out of LeBert Park, though. Shit, coming over here with that South Beach stuff. He's so in the front. Like, number 12 is Prince? Yeah, yeah. You're too slow. That's what we're

talking about. He looks strong. De'Aaron Fox doesn't look super strong, but he's fast. Fast. Coming downhill, good luck.

All this right here, as I said, you can't do it against players who's moving forward. That's when people talk about the hand check. It's like,

I get what you're saying because, you know, you watch TV back then. It's easy to hand check if the guard is not moving anywhere. He's trying to do a pick and roll. He's waiting for his big, and you're sitting there guiding him. It makes sense. But when the player is actually attacking, the hand check is irrelevant. What are you doing?

He's attacking you. I've never seen someone this strong where they can just hold a guy who's moving, you know. What was the hand check with Iverson? There was none. You couldn't catch him. Good luck.

Tim Hardaway, what was the hand check? We was, ha ha. What was the hand check? What was the hand check on Isaiah Thomas? The hand check was Where was the hand check on Isaiah Thomas? There was a hand check we're still in, but guys who went, there was nothing. So De'Aaron Fox is averaging 38, 6, and 4 in the last two games.

Third team All-NBA selection last season, first time making that list. And he's playing like he'll make another All-NBA team this year. But is De'Aaron Fox underrated amongst his peers? He's 25 right now. When you look at the other 25-year-olds around the league, Tatum, Trey, SGA, Luka. I mean, you know, being in that market kind of hurts, but I think he's finally turning it over.

You know, he's came into his game, and now he's realizing how to be dominant. You know, before it was just I'm going to use my speed every chance I get. Now I think he actually knows how to play the game. You know, so, you know, I think that this is going to be that. Last year was the breakout year. And, you know, he got some like, oh, y'all noticed me over here. I think this is the year where he really is going to take up another step.

I think just that year they had successful. Like you said, last year was his breakout year. This year, coming back more, you know, stronger mentally, physically, in your mind. And also, you know, he signed with Curry Brand. So, you know, like, you know, he ain't, you know, he ain't, he ain't. Way to the worst. He got to bring it. I mean, you say last year was his breakout year,

but he's had a stretch since like 2020, like 25 a game, 23 a game, 25 last season. Yeah, that's cute. But, Gil, to your point, if you talk about guys like Dane playing with teams that maybe aren't at the top of the league but still putting in work. But when I say breakout, the team was good, right? Good enough to win, and he was still dominating.

For sure. And then all the game winners and big shots he made last year. I'm pretty sure he was top, like, one, two, or three on. Won the Clutch Award. Yeah, so that right there, Clutch one, two, or three on. Won the Clutch Award. Yeah, well, yeah. So that right there, Clutch Award, made an NBA All-Star, made an NBA All-NBA team, right? That right there, that's, like, puts him into mentally, like, I made it.

I'm here. Right? I don't want to go backwards. I'm, you know, I'm top three point guards. You know, once you're making All-NBA, you're top three point guards in the league. Right? I don't give a fuck what nobody says. Mentally, I'm top three point guards. You know, once you're making it all NBA, you're top three point guards in the league, right? I don't give a fuck what nobody says. Mentally, I am top three. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right? And I'm trying to go to two, right? I'm trying to make second team or first team. So that's where his mind's at. So he's going to be harder to guard now, knowing that I was the third best. There's only two in front of me. I bet.

Let's go. And then Coach Brown, he just got there, right? So that's a whole other plus, too. His coach, Coach Brown, coming over there. I'm sure his first couple years he was doing good, but teams are sorry. So now Coach Brown over there with his

resume, he's going to keep it. Kind of like a swabby version of the Warriors right now, and I don't say that disrespectfully, but they're just not the Warriors. Like you remember, it's Sacramento. You think it was day? It's kind of like a swabby version of the Warriors right now. And I don't say that disrespectfully, but they're just not the Warriors. No, no. I mean, remember, it's Sacramento. You think it was day? Sacramento?

Like you ever been to Sacramento? Light the beam. You ever been to Sacramento? It's just up and coming. It smells like cow shit when you get off the plane. That was great. That light the beam? That was such a good idea.

Our lovely state's capital. So if you were playing in Sacramento, would you live in Sac or would you just commute? I'm gonna commute. It smell like cow shit. I'm staying in the middle. Commute for where? Where you gonna live? Oakland, wherever. You gonna live all the way in Oakland to commute? Cowbells.

How far is that? It's like an hour, 90-minute drive. I'm taking all that. Hey, Sacramento land. Land, one acre. It's probably lit now, though. Hey, Sacramento land. Land, one acre, $4. It's probably lit now, though. Hey, $4 acres.

I've never been to Sacramento. Tim Benjamin, Tim Bavs, rent, $400. So, Brandon, like you mentioned, Fox is the first Hooper to join Curry Brand. Despite being on a rival team, both players have mutual respect for each other. Fox rocked Steph's shoes last season, including the Kings playoff series against the Warriors, but offers some interesting perspective. In a recent interview, he said, throughout the playoffs, this is what happened a lot. Our team would show the shoes, and they're like, oh, you're wearing Steph.

I'm like, well, I'm going to bust his ass in his shoes. That's how I'm thinking about it. You see someone with your shoes on, and you're like, I got him. Well about it. You see someone with your shoes on, you're like, I got him. Well, what if you see someone with your shoes on and they're coming at you? It's kind of a mind game on both sides, I feel like. So, Brandon, you know, we got a disclaimer that you are a part of the Under Armour family as well. And you have a bag that's connected to Steph as well. But thoughts on De'Aaron Fox rocking with Curry Brown? I mean, it's a good

look. I mean, Steph, what, two more good years? Like, you know, probably two or three more. I mean, you know, at a high level, high level, it would be 38. I mean, that's, I mean, it's perfect timing. I mean, you got a young guard who, like, had a breakout year, who's probably going to keep, keep building, keep going. So, I mean, the signing situation was great to me. I mean, it's a steal. Yeah. Quiet, you know, quiet, you know, just does his thing kind of like Steph, too. So, kind of like they fit each other, like, in aspects.

So, you know, to me, that's a bar, you know, taking one of Clutch's clients and signing him. That can be a great replacement, too. Oh, for sure. As soon as Curry retires, boom, DeAndre Fox comes to Oakland. With Sam Fring. With Sam Fring. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You say there's some deeper motivations going on.

He'd be 27, 28. I mean, you know, the leverage these players have today, man, it's called, you know, you have relationships. I mean, how many players were Jordans when they played against Jordan? I mean, it wasn't a big deal. I wasn't, you know, it was just... But Jordans were more like cool. Cool.

It was just cooler. So was it because he signed him to the brand? Because people wear other guys' shoes. I mean, you know... He signed him and he's getting his own... Yeah, but like other players play... Wear other players' shoes. Like he saw I mean, you know, he signed up he signed him and he's getting his own Where other no no no MJ is kind of like the gold standard but he's got to be some if I'm playing against that He's cooking me and I'm wearing his show. No MJ play no player. No, you couldn't wear MJ's you had to be signed You had to wear a Nikes

Yeah, what did they like like Ray Allen was signed to MJ. Rip Hamilton was signed. Eddie Jones and him? Eddie Jones. I'm saying before that, guys wore like KG, Roxham Jays, like in their first meeting when he was a rookie. I think he had the Nike deal at that point. Yeah, it was, I mean, it was. And then eventually he had to get out of those

because he only wants his players that he signed. So people don't realize that there's only a few Jordan brand athletes. There's Nike athletes that Jordan checked off, right? Versus Michael Jordan athletes.

So Maya Moore, Michael Jordan athlete. Zion is a Nike Jordan. Luka, Nike Jordan. Taylor, Nike Jordan. Luca, Nike, Jordan. Taylor, Nike, Jordan. Right? Okay, okay. But they have signature shoes, though, with Mike. So it's like Nike

signed him and he says, I'm going to take that player. Okay. So are there any just Jordan NBA players? I don't know how many just Jordan players there are in the NBA right now. Westbrook. Westbrook. Westbrook. Chris Paul.

Westbrook. Mello was like the one, though. People don't understand that. Yeah, I think he'll get his own signature shoe. They're very strict about that. They signed four guys. Jaime Jaquez and a couple other guys this year, too. Jordan Brown. Jordan Brown themselves? They signed R strict about that. They signed four guys, Jaime Jaquez and a couple other guys this year too. Jordan Brown.

Jordan Brown themselves? Yeah, Jordan Brown. They signed Rui too. Rui. Rui. To Jordan Brown? Yeah. We've got a new Japanese audience.

Okay, okay. So is Travis Scott signed to Jordan or Nike Jordan? Jordan. Jordan. Okay. Like Drake is signed to Nike. Nike. Okay. Check some of to Nike. Nike.

Okay. Checks over strikes. Yeah. No, no, no. It's like, you know, just like little loopholes. I mean, just like little loopholes. Checks over strikes. Oh, I remember funny, I had wore, you know,

cause Kobe was Adidas right before they went to Nike. So when we played them, I had, it was the boat ones. Oh, the twos? Yeah. So I had them make the wizards color in those, right? Uh-huh. Because someone told me like he's really, like he really focused on who wears shoes. So boom. Like so we're standing on a voicemail line.

He's just looking at the shoes the whole time. I was like, they look good, don't they? They look good, don't they? Right? Probably pissed him off. You can see he was irritated. Yeah. Oh, he was irritated. Oh, he was irritated.

You can see the anger in his face. And you know me, I'm like twiddling my doing all this with him and shit. Me and extra. He was it. I've never seen like, that's the one time he was like real hot. You like playing in those?

No. It was just fine games. Yeah. Them shirts were heavy. Heavy individual. Yo, so Steph and Michael Jordan are the only two players that have their own brand that they can sign players. So... Right? I think Steph Curry and Michael Jordan are the only two players in NBA that can sign other players under them.

I don't know what Braun has. I don't think Braun has a brand. I don't think Braun has his own. You said, you hope. I don't think he'd create his own brand yet. Embiid with the Skechers family? Get all off kilter. Give me all.

And that's crazy that Braun doesn't have his own brand, too. Could you imagine if it was like the Bad News Bears type? They could do that second coming Nike commercial with all Skechers. Yeah, I don't think Braun has something else going on. I don't think a shoe brain is something he was after. I think he got his own shit. Yeah, yeah. Because he has his own quarter.

He has his own building. So there's something else. I mean, but Mike has... I mean, a lot of people have their own... Kobe has his own... Kobe could sign people if Inessa wanted them. Yeah, Kobe could have signed people. Right? They just signed at school and now turned on, like, Contessa.

Wait, I know. I don't know. I don't know if Kobe had his own brand, did he? The Mamba brand, right? Ain't that a brand? I think it is now, right? I don't know if it's a brand

like Steph and Jordan's brand, but they can... Like, they're outfitting you know, outfits. I think that happened within, like, the last... Year. Yeah, three or four years where he has his own brand because I think that was the the last year, three or four years,

where he has his own brand. Because I think that was the reason she didn't sign back because Mamba was going to do their own shoes. Yeah, and they were trying to sign DeMar, too. Remember, they were trying to make DeMar, and then she was like... Yeah, because they were still kind of under... Yeah. Talked about the Kings.

We got to talk about the team that they were fortunate to beat last night. LeBron only played 29 minutes in the Lakers season opener, but his minutes have increased in each game this season. He played 35 minutes in the win against the Suns and 39 minutes against the Kings on the first night of a back-to-back in overtime. Good, you said that Bron's minute restriction wouldn't last. But, Brandon, you said the same thing.

I believe you predicted 35 minutes. Why would the coach even say that? You said 35 minutes. But are the Lakers asking LeBron to carry too much of the load in year 21? Listen, there's no asking. You're not asking anything. This is how he's doing. That's what I said.

It's like it's easy to tell someone to do something, but the game is going to be played how it's going to be played. I can't tell you to average 25 and you're not capable of doing it. We can say, hey, I need you to average 25. It's easy for a player to, hey, 40, I need you to go down to 20. All he does is just turn his motor off, which people don't really understand that. If I'm averaging 35 and you're telling me to average 28,

that means if there's no player that came up there that's really great for me to delegate to, now I'm just less aggressive, which means the game is going to be harder for everyone else because how they were getting points... Ain't going to be the same. You know what I mean? If you told Jordan, hey, Jordan, with your,

with, you know, Steve Kerr and B.J. Armstrong and all, Luke Longley, hey, Bill Weddington, don't average 30, average 21. He's going to look at you like, who the fuck else is going to score? You know what I mean? And that's the same thing as LeBron. You're telling LeBron to, hey, we're going to give you

25 to 28 minutes. And then eventually he's going to look around and say, were y'all in the same training camp I was in? You know I play point guard, right? You know I play point guard. Were y'all in the same training? Were we in the same training camp? Like, we don't have Kevin Durant over here.

We didn't get Bradley Beal over here. Like, who? Yeah. Who? The Lakers is going to have to find, like, a stretch, like, where he can, like, take some games off. Like, they're gonna have to go on, like, a winning streak. Because he's gonna have to keep playing over 35.

So he's gonna have to, like, find a way to get wins. Like, get these wins early, plan these, and then just cool off a little bit. Or get leads faster. Yeah, get leads, yeah. It's D-Lo, man. It's D-Lo. D-Lo is the, I don't want to say the problem. D'Lo is the X factor.

Maxie. Be Maxie! Be Maxie! Because that's what you are capable of. We know what you are capable of. So the person you're playing like now, how is that helping us? People say it's hard to play LeBron. I don't care. Is it? I mean, I don't know. I think it's easy. I mean, People say it's hard to play LeBron. I don't care. Is it? I mean, I don't know.

I think it's easy. I mean, I think it's easy. All he does is get y'all wide open shots, so how hard is it really? But what I'm saying is I don't care. You put me in for 35 minutes, I'm going to do me. Playing 35 minutes today in this area, you can average. That's what I'm saying. You can average, like.

What are you going to do with your 35 minutes out there? You're, you can average. That's what I'm saying. You should be able to average like... What are you going to do with your 35 minutes out there? You're just going to be out there what? Doing what? Because as long as I'm out there for 25, 26 minutes, I'm going to do me. So you have 35 minutes to do what? You can't play basketball? I think it's easier to play. I'm not sitting in a corner.

Like, give me the ball and I'm going. Boom. You're going right. I'm going to run right into your space. That's what I would do I'm not sitting in a corner. Like, give me the ball, I'm going. Boom. You're going right. I'm going to run right into your space. That's what I would do. That's what I was doing. You can't go left, so I'm not going to stay on this side because I know you can't pass it this way.

You got to understand basketball. What did Kobe say? I know my players better than I know the opponent. So I know, like, all right, you're going to go down the right side because you dribble right. That means when I'm running the lane, which side am I on? Every time.

If we're playing together, I'm on your left side every time. I'm not going to go that way. Because even if you're on that side, you're going to come back this side. I need to go. John Wall, I'm over here. Because I know he's going to come back, so when he passes it, boom. I'm his first option every single time. You have to really understand what your players do to be effective.

Right? And that's what D-Lo and them have to understand. Like, yo, just do you. He will figure it out. Kyrie. Kyrie didn't stop doing Kyrie. Kyrie is a. You can't be Kyrie?

Different. But what I'm saying is you're telling me you can't beat... You're an all-star who averaged this. This is what I need. If you give me this, I don't have to play him 38 minutes. Right. Benefits.

Then he's going to be on the bench. Or is that fake? Derek White, I think maybe defensively, I don't think it was a whole... I don't want no... No. I don't want no... No. I don't want no... No.

Don't tell me... Do not tell me as a player, this is the type of player you want to be. Yeah. You're telling me you want to be what? Derek White. Ranked 28 in point guard, shooting guard, whatever he is. He's ranked at the back of the bus. Defense, green, ranked at the back of the bus. Defense great and ranked at the back of the bus.

I do not want to be that player. Tell me somebody who play offense and defense that's great at them both. Jimmy Butler. Say Jimmy Butler. Say tell me Jimmy Butler. I don't care. Don't name the dude that's ranked 29 out of 30. Play like James Harden.

You lefty. Get the buckets just like that. ranked 29 out of 30. Play like James Harden. You lefty. Get the buckets just like that. That's what I'm saying. Like, D-Lo, I don't care about your defense. I don't care. Offensively, if you give me this, it saves him. Right? Rui, you give me this, it saves him.

Like, we're trying to figure out how to last to the end of the season. And that's the only way. Austin Reeves, too. Reeves, too. Reeves, too. Yeah, I gave you how much I gave him? He's been playing like. How much I gave him? Didn't he get made?

54. 54. Play like 54. Play like you're trying to get 100. That's the type of coach I am. Hey, who all want Maxis? Play like it. That's it.

Play like it. You all right? So another interesting element of that LeBron game, LeBron's NBA career started with the Kings 20 years ago. It was an anniversary last night during that game. But Spectrum Sportsnet put up a graphic of LeBron in his first NBA game, October 29, 2003, in his 21st season, October 29, 2003. His billboard percentage is the same.

Minutes. That's crazy. Very close. 27, 16, and 8 in year 21. See, but Bron's so good, he know that. Like, he know his first number. So coming in, it's like, all right, I'm going to get this. I wonder how old, like, the majority of Kings players were.

Is it hairline similar? Look at the hairline. You know. For sure. That's 21 years later. A little pushback, but no. That game was probably. And then, look, his first game was when? Like you said, Gilbert, October 29th.

October 29th. Back then. There was probably, what, a few players in the starting lineup who were, like, in elementary school. This is insane. That's crazy. It's insane. No, I'm just saying, this is a...

Some of the players, shit, they weren't even born yet. No. No. Yeah, like... But what's crazy is... So, Lakers, that was the first't even born yet. No. True. But what's crazy is, so Lakers, that was the first night of a back-to-back. You played LeBron those 39 minutes. OT, you lose that game.

Now you got to come back home against the Magic, which should have been, in traditional years, an easy W pencil in there. But you got Paolo, Franz Wagner, that crew. Now you might potentially trick off two games and put yourself back even further. Man, fuck all that tricking off shit. Play basketball, right? And the only player I'm not worried about is LeBron James. Okay.

Right? I mean, like, that's the only person I'm not worried about on the Lakers is LeBron James. Like, he's going to come to the gym at 1.30, 2 o'clock, preparing his body to play this game. Right? He understands at year 21 how to take rest during the game. Right? He understands how to rev his engine and not rev it. So that's the last person I'm worried about.

I'm not talking about a worried about, but you look at the Lakers season last year. They were playing catch-up. They had to spend a ton of energy just to even make the playoffs. They get to the Western Conference Finals. LeBron looks gassed, bad foot injury. You got LeBron in year 21 now trying to keep... And he was the best player in the playoffs. He was the best player in the playoffs on...

You know what I mean? So all that wrestling stuff, it really don't matter. Like, prepare yourself to play basketball. Like, it's like they're going into the season trying to figure out what days, prepare yourself to play basketball. Like, it's like they're going into the season trying to figure out what days they're going to take off. Yeah. Yeah. Like, what days?

Like, what? What day am I going to take off? Listen, I need y'all in the game. I need you in the game. I don't need, like, my, as a coach, your job is not secure for how many times the motherfuckers practice, okay? It's the game. Your record is the game.

So that's all I care about, the game, right? Whatever y'all got to do in practice, get shots, get 300 shots, do these little fake post-up moves and all that, I need you for the game. The practice. What are we doing in practice anyway? How many plays are we running in practice?

Nothing. It's nothing. And I don't know why people put this thing on. Practice is nothing. So you're telling me that the game, 38 minutes in the game, 25 minutes, 48 minutes in the game is harder than a two-hour practice? What's wrong with y'all? Like, don't practice. Go play.

Come to this goddamn game. Shit, ready to go. That's what I need you for. Yeah. Like, so I'll give up practice. I got three games a week. Those practice days, come and work out and lift. Come get your shots.

Get your free throws. You suck at free throws, those days off, take 500 free throws. You didn't sweat, not once, but you got this. So when they foul you in a game, boom, you good. And it's like you're playing with LeBron James. Take advantage of the opportunity. Not a lot of people, if you play with LeBron, you get paid. If you just do your job.

Like, there's guys that got paid playing with Bron. So it's like, he's on his way out. Like, I would be taking full advantage of this opportunity.

Wave him off a couple times. Just let him, just let him know, like, you come in, hey, hey, hey, hey, and hit a shot, he's going to be like, all right, all right.

I mean, he might be mad at the moment. He's just going to wave me off. But in theory, he's like, okay, all right. He's finally trying to tap in, trying to be a big boy. Because Ky did it, for sure. I'm sure Ky did it. Kyrie Irving, like, I got it. So Bron is listed as probable tonight on the second night of back-to-back.

We'll see if he ends up playing in the game. But we've got to talk about Darvin Hamm a little bit. Made some questionable decisions with the Lakers rotation. Most notably, not playing Christian Wood in the second half, not playing Rui Hachimura late in the fourth quarter, or OT after he was cooking early in the fourth quarter, hit some big shots. So Darvin talked a little bit about that.

Or Coach Hamm, excuse me, I don't want to get checked by Debo. Talked about that a little bit about that, or Coach Hamm, excuse me, I don't want to get checked by Debo, talked about that a little bit after the game. My rotation, we got to really dig into that and really figure out and really take a close look. And so guys are in rhythm. We have a great collection of players, and I play in this league. And when you know where you're going in and who you're playing with, all that, that matters.

And so buckling down on our rotation, I'll start there. That definitely is the main thing that's on my mind. And obviously I don't want to run Brown into the ground. I don't want to run A into the ground too early. Obviously it was an overtime game tonight, and they're playing at a high level, so you want to leave them out there but just you know just having that balance and and again it's all predicated on player performance as well you know guys got to perform but for me just just again really taking a and we've been doing it my staff has been doing a hell of a job with me trying to figure this thing out but you know

just doing an even deeper, deeper dive in terms of our rotation. So does Coach Ham need more time to see what the Lakers have before judging the rotations? Yes. I mean, you know, out of training camp, man, you're going into the season with an ideal of what you're going to play and how you're going to play it.

And, you know, he said it. He said, the coaching staff is going to help me with trying to figure out, you know, the rotation because, you know, for the most part, the coaching staff is the one who knows players putting in extra work, what players serious, how they're approaching the game. So while he's coaching the game, their job is to figure out who's ready for the game, right? So if you look at any season, the season always start off with like a 10-man, 11-man rotation, right? And then, you know, by the time you get to, you know, December, January,

that joint might be at 7-8, possibly 9. So that's why, you know-8, possibly 9. So that's why, you know, players, you always got to be ready because you don't know when you could be, you could have never played at the beginning of the season and then, you know, hey, let me try you. Boom, go in there, let me see what you got. And then, boom, he gives you something, let me use him. Right, so, you know, as a, you've got to always keep getting better,

understanding that how you're playing today doesn't dictate how you're playing next month and the month after that and the month after that. You just want to keep getting better as a player, and then the coaching staff will try to figure out what is the best group that plays well together. What's your thing, Brandon? For Darmanham?

Yeah, just some patience, some time. I mean, it's going to be a rough year, man. What's up, dude? It's going to be a rough year. He couldn't wait to say that. It's going to be a rough year, man. If Bron got to keep playing 35, 38 minutes, it's going to be a rough year. I mean, how do you figure out rotations when collectively the team,

like they're not, no one's really, I don't think anybody's really playing well outside of Bron and AD in his moments. So how do you build a rotation? I mean, I know everything goes to the coach, but sometimes you've got to look at the players and just be like, are y'all trying to keep a spot? Y'all trying to be in the rotation? Because I feel like some of them go out there and they're just kind of on la-la land and they're not really playing their games.

And it's not conducive to the overall success of the team. Everyone's kind of just out there doing whatever. It's survival. It's the, if I don't do nothing, right, I don't make no turnovers, I don't take any shots, I'm going to play longer, right? And that's how everyone's playing. They're playing not to make mistakes because they think mistakes is going to get me subbed

and put me on the end of the bench if I take too many shots and then one of the players do one of these, I'm done. Now you're trying to play basketball not to be subbed out. That's what the rest of the team is doing. I think that's what a lot of players do when they first get into the NBA. You're trying to not make mistakes, which ends up not playing your game.

You got to go out there and I paid you. Like, all I'm saying is, they paid you 50-something for a reason. Go. You have green light. Rui, you have green light. Go. Your contract is set. Yeah, what are they going to do? They going to put in Christian Woods for you? They going to start them?

Like, no, the money, big money plays. So go out there and just play with the freedom. Like, go play with the freedom. You have freedom. Go out there and just, like, be an asset. Yeah, they want that. How do you feel about, like, how do you feel about, like, do you think it's because guys aren't playing basketball?

Like, playing? Like, playing, like, a lot of five on five? Is that why you think it's because guys aren't playing basketball? Like, playing? Like, playing a lot of 5-on-5? Is that why you think it's like no... Like, you know, they don't practice like they used to no more, right? So, like, do you think that's the cause of it? Like, playing with each other 5-on-5 a lot? Especially with so many new players. Like, with so many new players and things like that.

Like, what are you doing in the summertime? Training camps. Like, what are they doing? Are they playing? Some teams, some players are. But it's still like, you know, when stats, when stats involved, minutes involved, like practice. Come on.

Practice versus game. Yeah, practice. There's no stats here. Everybody taking shots. Everybody doing stuff that they wouldn't do in the game. Hey, to start playing practice, don't get the ball like that. Yeah, no, for sure. For sure.

That's a fact. Right? That's a fact. Start playing practice. don't get the ball like that. Yeah, no, for sure. For sure. That's a fact. Right? That's a fact. Start playing practice. You sub yourself. Oh, they're passing the ball. You get the ball in the game. But I think that's the issue, too.

Like, the start is not realistic in practice. You got everybody just doing stuff that they wouldn't do in the game. And then they get in the game, and it's like. You don't do it. Yeah. You don't do it in practice, at least. Yeah, but you don't. Try it.

Give it in the game. You try, like, don't, yeah. You do it in the game. That's what I'm saying. You try, like, yo, where's the game do that? Oh, you just, where's the game do that? See, when them lights come on, you don't want to. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You start getting that.

But, you know, at the end of the day, like, you be an NBA player. Be an asset to your team. Right? And that's just, like, you have to put your will on the game, whatever that is just, like you have to put your will on the game, whatever that is. Like you have to put your will on the game. And I don't think a lot of players understand that. Like every team I went on from, you know, college

to when I came to the NBA, I did me, right? You know, from Arizona, I'm the only player on the starting five that wasn't All-American. Well, I'm shooting the most shots. I don't give a fuck what y'all talking about. I don't care what y'all talking about. This is what I do. I do this, so I'm going to do this.

You know, Golden State, 15th player. They put me in a game. This is what I do. He put me in a game for a game. This is what I do. He put me in a game for a reason. This is what I do. I shoot. I'm trying to beat everybody up the court. I'm going one-four flat.

I'm looking you off. That's what I do. If you're going to put me in a game, this is what I'm bringing to the game. So when the coach says, hey, Gil, in, you don't even have to say, hey, I need you to, because you put me in a game. So when the coach says, hey, Gil, in, you don't even have to say, hey, I need you to, because you put me in the game. You know what I'm doing when I get in there. I'm going, Antoine coming in, I'm going to do one of those.

I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. So when you put me in the game, that's what I'm going to do. And people want to be like, well, how did you do it? Because I understood if you're going to sub me in, I know what you want. Like when you're sitting there like, arenas, get in. I knew.

As soon as you said arenas, I know. I got you, coach. Ignore the rest of these joints. I got you, coach. But how much of that confidence comes from the actual work that you're putting in? If you know you're out working, guys, you're looking at that Arizona roster and saying I'm working harder than all of you. I deserve this opportunity.

The work and the confidence is one thing. I mean, the confidence comes with the work ethic, right? But, I mean, let's just be honest. I think players just overthink everything. If Coach subs in bones, what do we expect if you expect bones to we expect bones to be bones down here right yeah and that's how like if you're a great defensive player and you're a guy who puts people on their asses when they get in when i sub you in that's what i'm expecting right if you're a guard that picks up full court and I sub you in, that's what I'm

expecting. Same thing with a guy who just shoots and shits. When Ginobili got in, he was there for a reason. When Doc Rivers, they usually put in Trez and Lou at the six-minute mark, right? That was the part of the rotation. When they came in, this is the offense we're running. It's you two. So, you know, they down 0-10, and at the 10-minute mark, Lou, Trez, get in. They know what they're about to do.

Pick and roll them two, no matter who else is out there. You have to know what you do, so when coach calls your name, you're going to apply it. And I think just players think that it's survival mode i just need to survive i'm gonna get more time by surviving and i know i've been when i went to orlando that's how i played i realized i shoot three four five shots and score coming in if i don't shoot i stay longer all right like i'd rather have 30 minutes with four shots versus 10 minutes and 12 shots. Right?

You know what I mean? I want to be out there playing. I want to be out there hooping. So I'd rather not shoot so I can just run up and down. And that's how I played in Orlando. So I understand the concept of if I don't do nothing wrong and I'm out there just... Mm-hmm. But without practice. Defense. If I don't do nothing wrong and I'm out there just...

But without practice, how do you get them out of that mindset? Because I feel like it's... Usually on a team, it might be like one, two, or three guys. I feel like there's like five or six of them that go out there and they're kind of like... They're playing real tight, I feel, but with the lack of practice, like we've said, how do they work themselves out of that? Practice is so overrated. I know. They're playing real tight, I feel, but with the lack of practice, like we've said, how do they work themselves out of that?

Practice is so overrated. I know. Like, I mean, you know, I don't know how it is in the dub, but in the NBA, right, I guarantee you, if you go on the bench, right, and ask some of those players who'll be killing in practice, they're going to be like, shit, I'll be killing in practice.

They just don't play me the game. Because that's how it is. They're not telling the truth, though. No, but they're going to be like, I'd be killing him. They just don't play me the game. Because that's how it is. They're telling the truth, though. No, but they're telling the truth. They're probably getting buckets in practice because what is the best player doing? He ain't going hard. The starting five ain't going hard like that. So the bench squad coming in there, really taxing. You ain't getting in the game like that.

You're going to have to have an amazing week. Like, if you don't play, if you're like the ninth man and you get in one minute, right, for you to actually get in a game, you're going to have to have an amazing week. Like, I mean, on fire for the coach, but like, all right, all right, let me see if it's going to translate

to the actual game. Other than that, it's just, you are a practice player. You're the person that is, you know, all the scout reports are going to go through him. You're the best scout report guy. You're going to be

all the star players in scouting reporting. Right? That's the hardest person to guard. He got freedom. But we're not going to play him like that, right? So if he gets to be Joe Johnson,

he gets to be Kyrie in practice, and that means he gets every shot, he gets to do whatever he wants, he gonna kill us. But when we put him in the game, that's not who he is. And he knows that's not who he is, so that means he ain't coming with the same... Like, if he came into the game saying, yo, I get to be Kyrie

today? I bet. Bet. 30 shots. But that doesn't happen like that. And that's the bad part. So do you think NBA players getting tricked into becoming something that they're not at times? Like even when you talk about playing in the summer or playing in practice, summertime, the star

level guys, they know where their place is, right? So they might not be going as hard as other guys. You might ball out in the summer, but that's not realistic to what you're going to be doing in the league. Take an order, man. Right? It's like basketball is like... Be real with yourself. You have to be real with yourself.

Even when they're hooping with Book, KD, all them, and you're playing well, you still got to understand there's still Book and KD when the season starts. But it's good for your confidence. I cooked D-Book in the summer. Yeah, but your confidence. I cooked D-Book in the summer. Yeah, but that wasn't...

Cooking D-Book in the summer is different. Yeah, that wasn't D-Book. Yeah, I'm about to say, that was Devin. Yeah, that was Devin. Don't double-team me, Devin. But just, in your mind, oh, well, shit, I was cooking. I see there's a lot of college guys that play against pros at UCLA.

I was giving such and such work. Like LeBron team lost to some UCLA guys and that was a big deal. Like LeBron is going 18%. Do you think LeBron is going hard against you children? 18%. He's just trying to sweat. I'm just like, I'm not trying to break a sweat. Because he didn't want to go on the track. When you're going to, like,

okay, so let's say Denver, right? Denver has their own pecking order, right? Now, if you're a guy that's like Peyton Watson, right? Every year, you should be going into it trying to level up, right? Which means you're going to have to challenge someone in front of you at some point, right? That's whoever's in front of you, you're going to have to challenge for their spot or to move up. That's how it is.

Other than that, everybody's going to stay in the same order, right? And that's the part that I don't think a lot of players understand. When you're in training camp and you're in the summer and y'all coming back together, when you, like if you're the starting shooting guard and I'm the backup and I come in, hey, man, nice summer, boom, boom, boom, pecking order is the same. I'm coming into training camp on demon time to move in front of you or to steal some minutes.

That's the time where we are actually battling for minutes. Once the minutes are established, then we're teammates. That's how, like every time we went into the summer, I mean went into training camp, Steve Blake is trying to take minutes from me. Antonio Daniels is trying to take minutes from me. No bueno.

So those two was getting all that smoke. You know what I mean? Because I know they're trying to level up. Everyone's trying to level up. And I don't think people going to training camp are understanding that. That's right. People don't understand.

I went from 15 to the third option, and then the third option went to the second option next year, to the first option at the end of the fourth minute. Because I'm trying to establish dominance by challenging everything. You've got to challenge the order. If you don't challenge the order, then you're going to stay in order. Right? Yeah. You know what I mean?

When you hit the 55, what them veterans do? Hold on, young fella, because they're trying to figure out, oh, if he thinks he's the man, I'm done. Yeah, that definitely came from somebody as a vet. Because they was mad I was changing my hair. I know. Like, everything. It was like, you're bringing too much attention to yourself.

I'm like, well, that's what I did in high school. Like, I had the gum beat. So it was like trying to, like, dumb me down. Like, hey, don't, don't. It's like, well, I mean, I'm cracking. That's what I'm saying. Like, I'm cracking. I got an arm right behind me.

But it was a vet. Yeah, a vet, right? It for sure was a vet. It was for sure. Telling them my stories. For sure. People are happy with where they are. Never be satisfied.

If you're number two option, you're training to be the number one option. If you're number three option, you're training to be the number two option, which makes us better. If I'm Michael Porter Jr. and I'm the third option, I'm trying to be the second option. Now, think about all the work you done put in that in heighten your status.

Right? And I don't think... If you're going into the summer, I'm the third option. I'm going to keep being the third option. You're already losing anyway, mentally.

I mean, I think the jealousy probably started with me because I came in and just was like, I'm the number one option. Like, I just demanded it. I was like, I think the jealousy probably started with me because I came in just was like, I'm the number one option. Like I just demanded it. I was like, I'm the number one option. So probably that's where I, where it came from. Well, speaking of demanding to be the number one option,

Steph Curry has been on demon time this season. That's a 7.5. I'm being real. I'm very self-aware. We got some stuff to show. He followed up his 27-point opening night performance by giving the Kings a 41 piece, including this dagger three that he capped off with a night-night celebration.

You go to sleep. He's feeling himself early. I'm liking where he at with it right now. Real spicy. He coming. He coming spicy. He real spicy. He coming real hot.

I mean, everyone was talking about the game winner in preseason, and I was like, oh, it's about to be scary for all of you. And then last night against the Rockets, obviously the Rockets, but he had Dylan Brooks skating like Chaz Michael Michaels. Nice reference. Thank you. Some won't get it, but that's what Google's for. Oop, oaz Michael Michaels. Nice reference. Thank you. Some won't get it, but that's what Google's for.

Oop, oop! Wait. Whoop! Bye-bye. That was his fourth three in a row. The heel kick. Yeah, you see the heel kick that he did when he jumped. The Bruce Boyne.

He tried to hit with the Bruce Boyne. Hit him with the scream. He did a little trolling as well. We got this photo. Shout out to World Wide Wild. He clicked his feet in the scream. He did a little trolling as well. We got this photo. Shout out to World Wide Wild. He clicked his feet in the air. Grab this. Oh.

Put it on a T-shirt. Oh, my. No, but one thing I do love about Dylan Brooks, he's going to come back next game and be the same person. Ain't nothing for the change. Well, I hope he's learned from the last playoffs that you come back, man. You don't need to hide and run. It's part of the game.

And it's okay. We enjoy it. We enjoy who he is on the court. So you think Steph put some extra sauce on that celebration because Brooks was guarding him? Hell yeah. Oh, for sure. Hell yeah.

He was getting that from everybody for the whole year. It was the crossover. I lost the dribble. You came back. Puff fake. You clicked your feet in the crossover. I lost the dribble. You came back, pump fake, you clicked your feet in the air. Like, you're making wishes,

and it's like, come on. Make a wish. Dorothy, there's no place like home. Get your ass back. Get your ass back to Kansas. But,

so yeah. And then we talked about Dylan Brooks a little bit. Controversial figures in the league. He's not going to stop poking beers anytime soon. They asked him about Wimby. He said he's tall. That's about it.

But he's also been playing solid this season. He got the big contract from the Rockets. I think after last year, everybody was kind of curious how the rest of his career would pan out. When you look at Dylan Brooks, Dylan the villain, this whole thing, is he good for the league? Yeah, I mean, you know, he's good for the league because as an offensive player, you're coming to bust his ass, right?

So that means you're coming ready. And I don't know if anybody respects what Dylan brings, but for an offensive player, he's bringing my A game. Because I know if I don't bring the A game and he shuts me down, I got to hear his mouth. Which means that I'm coming to play all the time against him. So for the most part, he's going to get his ass busted majority of the time, but that's because everyone's bringing their A game.

So there's only a few players in the league that's bringing out everyone's A game, and he's one of them now. Yeah, that's a fact. That's a fact. I mean, he got paid. I don't know why anybody expected him to, like, shut up. Like, he's making money. I'm richer now.

Shit. I'm richer. I'm in Houston. There's no expectation for that team, so I really can just hoop and just get on everybody's nerves. So I love it. I think it's great that he's embracing this role, but like Gil said, everyone's going to come after him, but that's perfect for the league.

I still feel like Memphis gave up on him too early, though. How old is he? They were like bullied by the internet. Yeah, I don't know. As I said, they were internet watching. I don't know what. I feel like they gave up on him too early. 27, it'll be 28 in January.

And then they got the other big dude. Isn't he like a defensive player too over there with Memphis? The big guy. Who? Who's Memphis big? Steven Adams got hurt. They just signed him down, bro. They got Tillman and Jerry Jack.

Jerry Jack. Yeah, Jerry Jack. Yeah. And then they brought in Marcus Mark, correct? Yes. So basically like a- You got a smaller- Yeah, they got a smaller.

I'm keeping- You got like an older, smaller version of- I just think- I don't think that they wanted to pay him that kind of money. Right. Okay. That's probably all they wanted. Used it as an excuse basically.

Okay. Save some bread. Yeah, but I mean, when you're talking about just demanding, you're demanding. Like when Dennis Rodman was playing, he demanded four men to bring the A game, right? And as an offensive player, that's what you want. That's why I hate when people say, like, you know, these errors was tougher and, you know, these guys would do it.

Like offensive players, I want the best defensive player. As the defensive players, I want the best defensive player. As the defensive player, you want the best offensive player. We sharpen each other's iron. That is the point of it. So I don't want to be guarded by the third. That's an insult. I train too much to be guarded by this person. You better guard.

Bruce Bowen, you better guard me. Rajah Bale, you better guard me. Kobe, you better guard me because Rajah Bell, you better guard me. Kobe, you better guard me. Because that's how much, you know, like, my offense should be respected. Don't put some half-ass dude on me. That's offensive. Right? And same thing with defense.

Like, if you're sitting there and you claim you're the best defensive player and you're guarding these mediocre players, nah. Come on, bring it over here let me see what you got yeah and then if you shut me down i'm the type of dude say hey what were you looking at what were you looking at like because i won't i won't i won't i want the input so i know how to change that behavior whatever it is i'll see you next time and that's one teaches one. So Dylan Brooks, Canadian light-skinned. It's a different genre of light-skinned dudes compared

to American light-skinned dudes, but still a lot of the same stigmas. When you look back at your career, who's the toughest light-skinned dude you ever played against? Defensively? Just in general, Gil. Defensive, offensive. Ain't nobody guarding me, man.

Stop all that, man. I'm not. I'm sorry, man. I thought you was going to say Steve Blake. No, guarded. Steve Blake is white. Negro Tennessee. I mean Negro.

No, no, definitely. They're Negro Tennessee. Definitely. No, definitely. Definitely. No, definitely, definitely, definitely. Like, like, like, like, Pistons, like, okay, so, like, with the Pistons, Tayshaun guarded me, right, was a different thought pattern versus, like, Billups. Right?

Like, Billups, I can just pull up, you know, because, you know, I was more athletic than him by the same height. But, you know, with Tayshaun, that reach, so that means I had to really back him up. If he guarded me, pushed me to the basket, and I got three long arms that I had to try to score on. So, you know, like Tayshaun guarded me with that. Was he quick too, or was it? No.

So just the length. Just the length and, you know, how he phoned me into other defenders. I'll say even though Rajah was probably a better defender than the Matrix, the Matrix was harder because he was quick and bouncy. He was quick and bouncy, which kind of had me thinking too. So it's all the matchup versus what teammate had in the back line. For sure. Well, let's talk a little bit about Draymond.

Made his debut Sunday night after missing the Dubs' first two games with an ankle injury. But more importantly, Chris Paul came off the bench for the first time in his career, ending a streak of nearly 1,400 starts. CP3 was plus 22 in the game, including a stretch at the end of the first quarter, into the second quarter where the Warriors were plus 16

with Curry on the bench. You know, Curry said before that he feels like this Warriors squad has six starters. Obviously, only five can actually start. But which lineup gives the Warriors the best opportunity for success? That one. So you like CB coming off the bench? You think that's where he's going?

That's the only thing that made sense. Like, you know, Jordan Poole was an individual coming off the bench. He was a legit six-man, which, you know, usually your six-man is just a guy who's basically, you know, it's him on the bench, right? It's just him on the bench that's coming in and scoring, and the rest of the bench, y'all figure out how to fit in.

With CP, he is the guy who's creating the offense for the bench, and that's what that group needed. They needed a guy who can come in and heighten everybody else's play, which makes the second unit a lot better than they were before. Yeah, and I think it's all about who has it rolling, too, at the time. I mean, if it's some games he's starting and it's rolling, it's rolling. But, I mean, like you said, they have six starters.

So, I mean, coming off the bench, yeah. But sometimes he's going to have to start, too, though, for them two still. For who? What you mean? Put Looney at the five? He's at the five. Okay. Trayvon at the four.

Wiggins at the three. Who's the odd man out there? Slay at the two. Slay at the one. I mean, sometimes Wiggins can come off. You think. Yeah. Who's the odd man out there? Slay at the two. Slay at the one. I mean, sometimes Wiggins can come off. You think Wiggins would be the odd man out in that situation? Yeah. Pull up his stats.

18? I don't know. He's going to be 18 because that's what he do. Guaranteed. He's guaranteed 18. No, he's not. He's not guaranteed. Yeah.

He's averaged 18 his whole career. We'll see. I don't know. He's like Rick Ross. He's guaranteed 18. No, he's not. He's not guaranteed. Yeah. He's averaged 18 his whole career. We'll see. I don't know. He's like Rick Ross. He's solid. Don't ever put Wiggins in the same conversation as Rick Ross. Don't do that. Because Rick Ross is a top five rapper ever.

Because he's so consistent. Right? Because he's consistent. Yeah. Right? He ain't going to drop no dud. There ain't going to be no hit. It's going to be boom.

Right? That's Wiggins. Wiggins is a little slow to start this season, but 19 points per game. Career, three games this season, 27 minutes a game. He is averaging 11 points. This season? Last year, what?

17.1. The year before that? 17.2. The year before that? 18.6. 19.4. See what I'm saying? So it's like it's really, it's, yeah.

Like, history is showing, history has been showing that small teams ain't winning. And I think when, I think people got confused, well, everyone got confused about Golden State winning championships thinking they were small ball. They started big. They ended small because it forced everyone else to go small. So they were playing chess while everybody was playing

checkers. So their starting unit was big. What is that? What was the name of that unit? What did they call that second unit? The Warriors? Yeah, what was that? The Death Squad. The Death Unit.

The Death Lineup wasn't a starting lineup. Well, Iberdada was the sixth man. Yeah, that's what I said. But they had a center, powerful. Yeah, so's what I said. Oh, yeah. They had a center, powerful. Yeah. So when you're talking about small ball, you got KD, 6'11 1⁄2", Draymond, and then the big.

Like, come on, that's not. You got Looney, Draymond, and KD in your back line. That's not small. Right, right, right. Right? It's when they went to death squad, but they still got Draymond at the five, KD at the four. They're still big. And I think people got really confused.

They don't really understand the concept. So when you got power fours now sitting at six, six, six, five, six, three, six, two, who the fuck y'all think y'all went with that YMCA lineup? There's high school teams bigger than you. You know what I mean? There's high school teams that got a bigger lineup than that. And I just think they get confused

with a real basketball team versus the gimmick. Everybody else is the gimmick versus... Like, Bulls was a... Bulls was a big, small lineup.

And it was 6-6, 6-6, 6-7, 6-7. And then, you know, Weddington or Bill or whoever the fuck is back there. And then even when they take him out to put Tony Kukoc, you got Robin and Tony Kukoc, that's big. Ron Harper was like 6'5". Yeah, that's what I said.

Ron Harper was 6'5". Yeah. Okay. So you think Wiggins? I mean, I don't know. They'll figure it out. But he's definitely going to start some more games, though. Who?

Chris Paul? He's great because you can fill in any of those guys. Somebody. But I don't want him to. The reason I want him to is if he's starting, he's doing the same thing as a starter or as a bench player, right? Managing a team. What is Wiggins going to do when he comes off the bench?

Manage? Well, he's going to be coming off with CP. Because CP will come out early. Make CP a little bit out early and then bring him back in with the second unit. Yeah, see, I just need him in second unit. Just do you. Do this. Get these boys.

Get Kaminga and all them guys. Get them rolling. Because if we can get these guys rolling, then we have a better second unit. What about in the games, closing games out? Depends on how they're playing. So you see a world. So that's where it comes down to. It depends on who's balling. I can see a world where you bring him off the bench early,

but come fourth quarter, next time, try to roll out some potential lineups that include him. Yeah, because it would be most likely it would be Draymond at the five and then boom, Chris Poole. Do you think that's sustainable, though? Because Draymond plays big. And then in today's NBA, every team goes small anyway, so it benefits them.

Yeah. I think most teams, obviously, you talk about a squad like the Nuggets or somebody like that. Yeah, that's where they get killed, right? They're going to get killed when they play against, you know, Bucs because Bucs don't play small, right? You know, you're talking about teams like Miami. Did y'all see when Boston actually put the big lineup in

when they had Tatum at the two? And he's sitting there posting up, who is he posting? Like, little dude. Like, if you're at the two, that's who has to guard you. Yeah, yeah. Right? So when they put their big, when they had Al Horford

and Porzingis, right, that means Tatum is at the two. So that means think about all the shooting guards. They got Hero. Hero has to guard Tatum at 6'10 now. Mm-hmm. Easy. He ain't sitting there playing out there.

He got a little man on him. And it looked easy. Jalen Brown at the three. Yeah, that's what I said. It looks easy versus Drew at the three. That's what I said. It looks easy versus Drew at the two. You know what I mean? And that's the lineup that they put

that lineup in one time. That's your starting lineup. That's the lineup you're going to need against the Bucs. And Denver Warriors. Yeah. All that. Well, let's keep this thing moving. Time for Mostly Fans. Had a productive Monday, as usual. Shout, let's keep this thing moving. Time for Mostly Fans. Had a productive Monday, as usual.

Shout out to everybody in the chat. Starting off the week right. Shout out to Underdog Fantasy. If you have not done so already, go ahead, download that. Use promo code GILD. They will match your first deposit up to $500. We got a lot of games this week, so we're going to get into higher, lower, and pick'ems throughout the week.

But now let's talk about Mostly Fans. First question comes from Underdog, Bjax2199. He said, how would you feel if the winner of the in-season tournament got a guaranteed bid into the playoffs? Ooh. But, like, at what seed? Or just, like, how would that work? So, like, whoever wins it, you just automatically get it.

You get an automatic lock. It all depends on automatic. Like, top six? Like, you get a top, like, you're six? Like, you're for sure a seed? Oh, you're talking about tops? I would just say. You'd have to give them a seeding.

You'd have to automatically give them a seed. What was it back then when we played, like, if you won your division, it was already one, two, or three, right? Automatically? Yeah. So, I mean, so I guess top three. You think a top three? A top three seed?

A top three seed? If you win an end season tournament? How do they split up the... How does it split up? Because sometimes, I feel like maybe a team could get like a good draw with their groupings. Yeah. The only fucked up thing is if the one seed wins it,

then what do they get? They stay right there. Yeah, but you should get thing is if the one seed wins it, then what do they get? They stay right there. Yeah, but you should get, give me another draft pick or something like, if you don't. Right, like what if legitimate playoff teams

keep winning and then like getting into the playoffs isn't really, isn't really a thing. I mean, just up the money. It all depends. As I said, it's like,

what is the, what is the upside besides saying we want everybody to play hard? We want the beginning of the season to be exciting. Is the shit exciting right now? Huh?

I mean, you know, the player, it's the beginning of the season. Does the shit look exciting right now, right? You know, the end season's coming. Does more excitement do you want? Remember what I'm saying? Does the shit look exciting right now? Right? You know, the end season's coming. Does the team that you want to look good, do they look good right now? No. No. No. It's going to be like a random.

It's going to be something random. I think it's going to be Denver. Yeah, it's going to beat the shit out of everybody. It's going to be Denver because they're the only team right now that's in dominant mode, right? It's whoever has the most youngest players that's dominant, right? You're going to have them. You're going to have Boston. You're going to have, you know, you're going to have the Clippers.

You think OKC will go far in the end season? And it just depends on who's playing hard. It's just Golden State. I feel like some teams are going to be like, I don't care about this. Pelicans. Pelicans? But you'll have teams like that because those guys are still young enough

to be in shape faster, right? So the teams that's playing good right now, it's who's in better shape. That's all it is. It it's who's in better shape. That's all it is. It has nothing to do with the talent. The NBA will even out around December, January. That's when everyone's actually in shape. Then we can see who's who.

Right now, some teams are in shape faster than other teams, and they're just using their speed and sitting there just outrunning everybody. So you don't really know who's good yet. I think if the winner could bump up a spot, like say they won and they were the fifth seed, they could flip and get home court advantage over the fourth, or if you were the fourth, you could have the option of moving up a spot and having somebody swap out, or you're the 11th seed now, you could say. Hey, if you really want to put some smoke into the air,

you want teams to play hard? This should be lottery picks. This should be lottery picks. Because what happens is now the bad teams, the bad teams will try this. They will try to go as hard as they can to get a lottery pick, and then if they tank it, they get another lottery pick, right? Now a good team, it makes it, let's say Lakers or something,

it forces them to actually want to play hard. Oh, shit, we can get a lottery pick with this team now. Now we can get a top five pick or a top ten lottery pick to add to this roster. Now it forces the good teams that actually want to play hard too. So now everybody has a reason to go hard if there's a lottery pick on

the... Just a question for you, because that's great from a team standpoint, but from a player standpoint, I don't want y'all to have another opportunity to draft another one of our replacements. Now, we're going to double that up? Sounds like, for a good team or a bad team? I'm saying for you.

That's what I'm saying. A good team, you're only going to get one lottery pick, so if you're a top five teams, now this gives you a chance to actually sneak a lottery pick. Yeah, I think for good teams, I actually want to play hard. For the bad team, all y'all motherfuckers are replaceable anyway, so it really don't even matter what you're thinking. You know what I mean?

Like, you know, either you secure what you do, like, it's your work ethic. If you're not securing your work ethic, God damn it, it don't matter anyway, because we both looking at the same thing. You are replaceable. Next question from Underdog User,

Gil's Defense Attorney. Dumbest thing that ever cost you a game? He said, Gil, you can't use Michael Ruffin. Oh, my bad. Let's run it. I'm fucking up. Hey, guys, how the fuck are you? I just want to know.

What's the dumbest thing one of your teammates has done that cost you the game? And Gil, you can't use Michael Ruffin. Michael McGregor? How the fuck are you is crazy. Yeah, how the fuck are you? He got the way shit at the crib. We're doing good. We're doing good.

Dumbest shit? I don't even have an answer for that. What's the dumbest thing? That ever cost you a game? He look like he fucking break phone books with his bare hands. The dumbest thing that cost us a game was, shit, me not concentrating on the free throws, you know, in the playoffs, right? I don't know what I was thinking about.

I don't know what I was looking at. But, yeah. thinking about don't know what I was looking at but uh yeah and I'll just you know instead of securing a win choked off the two free throws blanked out and just missed them both and then did something I didn't supposed to do LeBron coming left help lead a shooter in the corner so Ah. Ah. So it was me twice. It happens. That's worse. What's the dumbest thing a teammate ever did? I was a teammate. To my team, obviously.

Besides call for the ball? I don't know. I don't know. I think something dumb that we do as players is when you get a big lead early, and you struggle to keep the lead for some reason. Being scared. Struggle to keep engaged. Yeah.

I remember one game, we were up 20-plus in Seattle. We ended up losing the game. So what happened? They subbed the starters out, and then they put the big team. I don't know what happened. I can't even explain it. It was so weird. It'd just be the mood. I think it's the mood.. I don't know what happened. I can't even explain it. It was so weird. It'd just be like the mood. I think it's like the mood.

Like we was getting a little too, like, goofy. Like, people start taking shots that they're not supposed to be taking. You start turning the ball over. 20 points really isn't as much as you think. It's the college thing. It's called sportsmanlike conduct. They threw this thing in that's called sportsmanlike conduct where when you're up by a certain amount, bring it down a little.

So you're up by 20, bring out, take the starters out, put them in. While the starters on the other team gets to keep playing. People don't realize that. When we're talking about sportsmanlike conduct, we're up by 20, let's say five minutes left. You take your starters out because you don't want to run a clock up because people frown upon that. But then the other side

actually still has the starters in. Still getting points. So now the starters are playing against the bench squad. Now they cut the lead down. Now we got to get back.

We got to go back in. Take the tape off and do all this. Now get back serious. Right? And then when they win, everyone's, oh, miracle in this.

No. No. You wrote last week when we just beat the team by you said that that was unsportsmanlike conduct. So our stupid-ass coach now decided he was going to take us out. He was going to take us out. Our stupid-ass coach. He was going to take us out to try to make you feel better, and this is what happened. Nobody ever talks about it.

They always talk about the comeback, not realizing how did they come back. The starters were out. The starters were out. We put these sorry sorry ass players in that we don't play and then they came back on them now we got to come back in and try to be heroes again no you should have let us in and i'm the coach we're up 20 you want me to take my starters out take yours out right as long as your starting shooting guard is in, mine is staying in. I'm not dumb. No. Greek is in.

Embiid is in. Period. I need you to be like, ah. Like you ain't. Turn down. No. Tell them to quit. They got to quit first.

I do that to you. You don't quit. Right. Quit. It's basketball. Quit. Just play, man. We can't hang. Quit. It's basketball. Quit. Just play, man. We can't hang.

We can't do nothing. It's not my job to make y'all feel better about y'all practice schedule. Get better players. Spend some money. I don't know. But that's usually why that happens. Yeah, because I hate that. Sometimes when we get up early, I'm just kind of like, focus, guys, focus.

Sometimes it just evaporates. You start doing bottle flip on the side and shit. Start arrow shooting and shit. like, focus, guys, focus. And sometimes it just evaporates. They be in there kiki-ing, start doing bottle flip on the side, and shit, start arrow shooting and shit. Where did the arrows... College. Was it Creighton? Creighton did that?

That Creighton started that. Yeah, that was fun. Did they get it from Usain Bolt? I'm trying to get my ears all fucked up. Lightning. Oh, it's the Lightning Bolt? That's what it said? ears all fucked up. Lightning. Oh, it's a lightning bolt? Yeah. That's what it said.

I'm fucking up. No, you got to go crazy. They had... They used to do choo-choo trains. They used to do all that on the bench. Oh, you know. No, no. It was...

No, no. You'd be sitting there like, what the fuck? This is funny. Choo-choo trains. Yeah, they used to do choo-choo. They used to do all that stuff. It was the whole bench squad.

I was going to go somewhere, but I'm going to save the integrity of the show. Appreciate that. Third question comes from underdog username Josiah Second Chin. God bless you. Hey, what's up, y'all? First of all, bear down, bear down. Does Devin Booker have a chance to be a top five shooting guard of all time? Top five shooting guard.

Does Devin Booker have a chance? Enjoy watching the show. Y'all keep doing your thing. We appreciate you for the username. I see you got the camera real tight because you want to show that third neck. I was about to say, we want to see the chin. Right. We want to see the chin.

No, no. He's already said it. No, no, he's already said it. No, he said he's Josiah's second chin. Where is he at? He was... Oh, geez. He looked like my cousin, so... Can Devin Booker be a top five shooting guard ever?

It's going to have to come with winning, because all the shooting guards that would be in front of him, you know, mostly, they're all 2000s, you know, because I know everyone talks about the 90s, just Jordan from the 90s, and then from there it goes Kobe. Dwayne. Dwayne, Wade, AI, Vince.

It goes all of them. So, yeah, you can get in there because the only two people that's, or the only three that would be in front of them are all champions, multi-champions. Dwayne has three. So, Iverson will be the next

one to catch at four. Right. You know, so he's going to need some, a chip or two and still keep the same,

you know, scoring average. Yeah. It's possible. Yeah. It's possible. Just one. Just one championship.

Does it matter that if they do win this year With the addition of Beal And KD Does that Lessen the importance Of that championship On his resume

Not really because I mean he's only 25 26 So you know I mean He still has With With medicine today

And how they play He's still got Shit 10 more years I mean the stats He still got shit, 10 more years. I mean, the stats he's gonna have in 10 more years will be better than Allen Iverson's when it comes to totality. And then with the ring there, yeah, he'll go down as top.

Yeah, I think a finals MVP would help. Everybody in the top in the shooting guard has got a finals MVP. Yeah, just win it. Just win it and have like three, three, four crazy years. Yeah. I think people respect Book, but there's still, like,

one, like, I think there's, like, one more level. Like, them leaving him off the All-Star. Did they leave him off because he didn't have enough games? They left him off just because that's what they do over there.

Because I'm like, that's, like, that level of respect that I feel like he has that one. I don't think his gameplay, like, I don't think he can do anything more but win. It's called collusion. Yeah, it's weird.

Collusion. What about James Harden? Collusion. It's called collusion. James Harden. James Harden what? Top five. Top five.

Shooting guard? I mean, to be honest, I'm probably there now. I'm not even going to lie. I mean, if someone had to vote, A.I.'s at four. He is at four. Take all the nonsense. And then at five, who's really legit at five?

Probably James. That's not like another segment. No, you know what I mean? So he might already be there. I know we're really focused on the outside shit, but when we're talking about just the game itself, I mean, he already might be at four or five when you really think about it.

Well, that sounds like another segment for us to have another day. But this has been another episode of Gil's Arena. We appreciate all y'all pulling up. Lexi, we appreciate you pulling up. Brandon, we appreciate you. Gil, we appreciate you as always. Lexi, you'll be on tomorrow with Rashad McCants.

Woo! For our Halloween episode. That's my thing. I'm sorry, do it again? Woo! And our costumes. We're going to be touched up. We're wearing costumes? Of course. Okay, we're wearing costumes. I love Halloween. Brandon, you'll be here later in the week. We appreciate you as always. You ain't coming tomorrow? It's costume

day. We got to see your joint, always. You ain't coming tomorrow? It's costume day. We got to see your joint, man. I don't know. I got issues outside right now. I got to handle. Oh, shit. Oh. Let us know if you need any help.

Take care of Ben. Got to go to court. Oh, shit. And on that note, we will see you guys Tuesday. Give us a readout. Woo, bro! That's why you don't get raises. That's why you... Yeah, boy! We'll see you next time.