IT IS WHAT IT IS - JACK HARLOW'S ALBUM NAME IS ... WILD & WHY THE SPURS ARE THE FAVORITES IN OUR EYES TO WIN THE TITLE!

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

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Welcome back to It Is What It is. I'm Treger Wilson, aka Stat Baby, along with your host, Mace, and Cam. And today we are joining with our analyst Trista. Killer was good. Trista, how you're doing today? What's good, everybody? What's up? Good, good, good, good, good.

There's a lot of things going on, y'all. We're all here. A lot of things going on. Yes, we are. Last time I was on, it was so intriguing. It made the next episode, which I really, appreciated. What exactly are you

referring to? There's a lot of things been going, you know, crazy these weeks and these days. So feel free to let us know what it is that you're sharing. What? Feel free to let me know because obviously I wasn't there, right?

Oh, no, I heard no, but see this is what, no, I heard you sound off. Either way, she's out the door. Remember? That was you. We were talking about the Casita versus the palace. Oh, the recap. Remember?

The recap. Oh, you started that conversation. No, I said, wow. The last time I was on, you were here, and we had to get your take, or they had to get your take the next day. So I was happy to see you. We can get your take in real time for everything now. Yeah, I got to watch my takes these days, you know. Every time we have a.

take or anything. I did not. It's a weird thing going on, right? It's like when you're speaking, people try to say your words are not that powerful. When you do talk, then they say you got a powerful platform. So I want to know, am I powerful or not?

You let me know. Am I powerful or not? Because then that determines how I should be talking. I think you're powerful. All right. Well, let's have a powerful conversation. Go ahead. What question are you asking me?

I was just saying good morning. That was it. Good morning to you too. Good morning, Trista. How are you doing? Did you have a bagel? Did you, what is a breakfast like with Trista? Oh, no.

I'm fasting right now. We're just, we're just water. We haven't had breakfast yet. That's how my mind gets going. Just nothing in the system. Oh, okay. Yeah. You on Ramadan?

Ramadan over. It's just a time-a-day thing. She's trying to... Protein shake will come later. Yeah. I think... Well, I actually have a question to the list of questions, since you said your voice has power.

We already knew that. Me and Trista were actually talking about a little bit earlier. So I want to get you guys' opinion. There is a white artist by the name of Jack Harlow, which we know. You came on the show. Shout out Jack. Shout out the Jack.

It's a conversation right now. He was saying that he felt like his music got blacker as far as his sound. And so there's a couple of debates here and there, but I want you guys' opinion on what you think of that. Do you see a problem with that? Do you not see a problem with that?

Do you see it's just where music is going? Just got to ask. Trista brought it up, and I was like, this is a good conversation. You know what? These days, I'm on a sports show. If you guys talk to the sports, I don't answer it. But these days, I'm just sticking with the script these days.

I'm here for sports. I want to talk about sports. And anything sports-related I could talk about. Now, Jack Harlow has had a movie where he's playing a basketball player, so we integrated them into sports. And that's how he came about being on the show. I thought it was a great idea, you know. But when you say...

How did Shine get on the show? Yeah, that's what I'm trying to say. These days I'm sticking with sports, you know. I'm washing my hands, you know. I'm just washing my hands, pause. I got to, you know. I got to wash my hands, you know. Yeah, I'm here for sports.

I'm an expert at sports when it comes to, what do they call it, title town? I got to get back to Title Town, you know. They miss me there. I don't miss you. I don't miss this at all. The show, the show was, we got cocaine prices last week, we got weight, we got eye tests, we got the globe, baby. We're asking you as a musician, what do you think about Jack Harlow going on New York Times telling two other journalists, two journalists, white journalists, I got blacker.

That's what he said. Well, I'm wearing white these days. These days, he's not addressing it. That's not. That is clear. I'm going to let Killer address that. That's fine. Killer, what do you think?

I think Jack Harlow's funny. Like, I don't think he meant it at any harm. Like, even when he was on this show, he was combative, like, not bad. He had good banter. Like, I called him Larry David. He called me Martin Luther King. You know what I'm saying?

He told, May says something. He said, I think makes you look good with Sukia. Something he said. He's a very funny dude. So I don't think that he meant any harm by it. I think that he meant, I mean, he was being funny. But maybe he meant by his rhymes got better. I think Jack Harlow is a great artist,

but it's a lot of white artists over the years, not just rap to where you'll be like, oh, that niggas white. You'll hear a song and then you'll see the person. Like, what's name? Robin. Robin Thic, Pauls. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

Justin Timelake. Yeah. Justin Timelake. Just and Timelake. Yeah, so. Like, Dale. Yeah. Yeah, like, you know,

and it goes earlier than that, you know what I'm saying? So, I think it was made as a joke from him. And I wouldn't know that if he wasn't on the show because I wouldn't know his personality. I wouldn't know like, fuck he talking about. But I met him, and he was up here, and he was funny, and he's quick on his feet. So I don't take it a certain way,

but I can see why other people might take it a certain way, because they may not know his personality. They just may know his music. But I didn't think he meant it as any harm or maliciousness. If anything, he's trying to say, look, I got better because the black people are better than us in rapping. That's how I kind of took it. Yeah.

So he took it kind of like as a compliment because it's like you know that that's dangerous. Yeah, but I understand. He knows that too. He knows how to work with me. He noticed this would create a conversation. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

Like, all right, cool. if I say this, then I'm going to have some people in the uproar. And we're talking about it now, the first thing on the show. Yeah. So. Good point. Marketing worked. Okay.

What did you think, Tris? I thought it was, it is, like a content generating conversation because I didn't even know that he was putting out a Neo Soul album. I had no idea. He put out a new album, I think, called Monica. And I think he's getting flame for the, that title. I think it's a reach, but some people think that's him, like, playing some word games. But I had no idea. He had even put out an album, and then I saw his music video where he had

like the tube sock on his head. He was looking like white Taye Diggs from like the best man. And so I like Jetcarlo's music. I thought that was maybe not the best place to have that conversation. if you're going to get flamed because you're doing that with two white journalists, so it makes it seem like, I don't know, I think it's different than if he did that with, like, sway. I feel like maybe it would have a better conversation that way. I don't know. I thought it was just an interesting interview that now is creating a wild-a-conversation

that's probably a great marketing tool for pushing people to his album. Trish, you rat, right? The better your arms get, the blacker do you? you feel? Hmm. Uh, no. Good answer. No.

No, good answer. Flame on. Yeah. I, uh, no, definitely not. I've never, no. Yeah. You know, you may be feeling black enough to be like, I think I could say nigger now.

Oh, hell. That's what people are saying about the, his album cover is that's what Monica is like a little word game. What is it? I don't know. Tell me. I don't know. Like, if you say it in a way, it kind of sounds like something else. Monica, moniker. Monica.

My nigger. Okay, I get it, man. My nigger. Oh, shit. Yeah, you're going too far. Yeah, I didn't even feel Yeah, now I ain't going too far, man. Not only that, situations do matter because to have a conversation about blackness with, I would say, a white panel is interesting.

It's an interesting choice. Yeah, I'm not a fan of that. That's how I took it as well, Stan. Well, Maceka, Mike, and I know he doesn't want to be part of it on camera. I mean, the people he signed to is Mace Peebles. I want to get to the bottom of it with drama and Lakin everybody

and see what's going on. They are proving of Jack. Jack Harlow saying, my nigga. Yo, Lake. Yeah, Lake. What's going on? Lake. Yeah, Lake.

Go on, Lake. John, what's going on? Hit me up. Y'all niggins tag me. Hit me up any other time. Hit me up. Let me know if y'all have proved that. We'll see.

But we'll see what happens with Jack Harlow. Yo, Killip, I'm gonna call Lake right now. Okay. Thought you wasn't getting in these issues. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha. I'll pass you the phone. Lake Killer want to ask you something.

Lake was good, man. We started the show this morning with something. I was like, you know, we can just ask Lake and we can ask John because y'all hit me any other time about it. Are you cool with Jack Harrow? naming his album Monica? Yeah, because they're saying they really stand for my nigger. Oh, you think I'm going to let that digger put up.

You think I'll let my house on my dicking? So what does Monica stand for? So basically it's like a chick that he's messing with, but he don't want to put her public name. You know, he can't be like, y'all, you would put her name on the cover. He can't do that. So he's got to, yeah, so it's really about a chick that he's dealing with.

But at the same time, but at the same time he's saying he feels blacker. I don't know what made him feel blacker. So he feels blacker and the album is called Monika. He said, so he feels black. Yeah, Trista was reaching on that. What she say? What did you say, ma'am?

Oh. What the young lady say? You can't say you don't know, Lake. All right? We're going to call Cap on you don't know. We're just going to say you, what I'm going to say is that you make a lot of money and you're turning a blind eye. If you're saying that I got into two white people, if he would have said it to two makers, it would have been a lot better. What I'm saying is, what I'm saying is, yeah, what the fuck?

Yeah, who's in the background? Who's in the background? He'd be like, you know what? Maybe I'm going to give you a chance. Sam said who in the background? All right, well, I just wanted to get to the bottom. of it. Thanks, Lake. She said, Cam says all the water.

We can hear you. Words. They can hear you nobody. It's you asking. You said what? And then you still hear it, but no. Clarification. Okay, we'll just leave it at that.

Lake said the same thing else said if it was two white journalists. You know, that makes it a little crazy. I hope Lake still got his job after this. Those things matter. And Mace is silent because like he said, we're going to bring it back to the sport. Yes. Bring it back to the sport. Everybody's here.

We're really here. Okay. So the Spurs have their first 51 season since 2016 to 2017. So Trista, who do you think deserves the most credit for the Spurs turn around? And then where do you see them heading? Ooh, I mean, it's got to be whimmy, right? I saw a stat that in the last 15 games, Wemby's net rating,

so the difference between his offensive rating and his defensive rating, obviously higher offense, the better, lower defensive rating, the better. His net rating is 25. I've never seen, I had to check it on multiple different websites to make sure that that shit was true.

I don't even, can't even comprehend 25, as a net rating. And for me, you look at what his on-off splits are. Like, I think the Spurs are one of the worst defensive teams in the league when he's off the floor and one of the best when he's on the floor. I think right now there's seventh in the league in defense overall for the year and seven and a half points better than the average team. So a lot of nerd shit going into this.

But, like, Wemby's phenomenal and makes everybody better. And before he got there, they were in the dumps. And actually, if you look at the difference between that 2016-2017 year and this year, both second in the West, you know, both top 10 defensive teams, both teams that I think, you know, obviously that 16-17 team lost the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals. But, like, this is a title team. Like, this is a team that the only thing that's stopping us from believing that they should win the title is, is one, obviously, what OKC is and what they've done and how good Shay is. But they haven't done it yet. They haven't showed us even that they're a playoff team last year. This is the first time that they've been in that conversation.

But outside of the lack of historical success, everything that we see on the floor, like, this is a team that you think they really should be contenders for the next decade. Yeah, I think when you're talking about who's responsible for this turnaround, I think all signs point directly to Wembe, right? I remember if you're playing on a basketball team and you have a center or anybody on your team that's that's tall, the reach and run pause becomes crazy. Like, because you know I could go for any still,

I could go for any play because I know I got somebody behind me that's athletic pause in 7-4s. So if I just change the shot, he's going to get the swat or you let him change the shot and then you get the block. So I think the real. real turnaround for this team. I mean, as obvious as Wimby. Like everything you just said,

everything points in that direction. And I'm going to go as far as saying, I think as long as somebody else beat the Spurs, I think O KC will be in a good place. But I don't see OKC beating the Spurs. And I just want to say that early in the season. So we have that on record. Because I don't think you will. Yeah. I mean, early before the playoffs, before the playoffs. Yeah, early in the season, he's with Houston. Yeah. No, it's not about me not being with Houston.

I'm just saying if OKC runs into the Spurs, that could be a bad matchup for them. So you're with Houston still? Yeah, still with Houston. Okay. Obviously, it's Wembe. When you think about Wembe, right, you think about somebody you see that wants to play,

that wants to win. And this is an era of where we see a lot of superstars sit-out games and take low management, or say, Mark Pinky ToeHurt or this, that, and the third. And Wembe wants to play. You obviously wants to win. I was watching something recently, maybe three, four days ago, and I didn't even realize that him and Chet Hongrums competition dated back to nationals or international, I should say.

And when I see him play against OKC, like Mace said, it isn't just about OKC. It's about Chet and America beat Paris, and Wimby was still holding on to that. So when you play against, you can see the, I know I was looking at a bunch of highlights and how emotionally he's involved when he plays against OKC, you know what I'm saying?

So obviously, Wembe, but we got to give Mitch to head coach some love. We got to make sure. And so the answer is Wemby, agreeing with Mace. and you, Tris. But we got to think about, it always takes a supporting cash.

We got to think about the coach Mitch stepping in when Pop is not there, when we know Pop is such a legendary iconic figure. We got to think about Dehran Fox, Stefan Castle, Devin Fissel, all this matters.

He has a great supporting cast around, not mentioned Johnson off the bench, the bench is good. So like Triss said, this is a championship team, and the only reason I wouldn't put him in a championship,

and I could be 100% wrong. It's the lack of experience in the playoffs. But maybe they gain their experience this year as they go along. And that was my only fear about why they want to go to the championship. But the way their plan has just been phenomenal and them being so young and being able to gel together is amazing. And Wembe said he wants to have his first dispersed

after their first 61 season since. However, I don't know if it's been a 61 season or for the first time in a while. But Wimby says he wants to have a 60-1 season. when season this season. Right now, I think it's 13 games left, so they will have to go 9 and 4.

And that's pretty possible right now. So we'll see what happens. But I like his tenacity, his energy, and his emotion, and not only his emotion, him not cheating the fans and showing up to play every night, if possible. Yeah. Okay.

So on the topic of championship teams, OKC became the first team to clinch a playoff spot the other night. So, Trist, So does this make them the best team or you think they're just the most consistent right now when you're comparing them to the other teams that we're seeing? I think they just started off hot, right? Like we saw the spurs really gain ground,

you know, and that really things got hot, hot prior to the NBA Cup. And then Wembe ended up getting hurt. And so that sort of, they ended up taking a little bit of a step back when he went out, even though they won a lot of games. Like I think their record when he was out was still really good. They just started a little bit. I mean, I think the Spurs won, I mean, or the OKC Thunder, excuse me,

won like 23 out of 25 games to start the season. I remember their only loss was to the Blazers and they were like 23 and 1. So that's just really hard to catch up when a team starts out that incredibly hot. If the Spurs would have started out, you know, if the Thunder wouldn't have started out that hot, I think they'd be right there together.

I think they'd be both 63, 64 wins. No, I think that they have Shea. I think that they've had injuries. I think what OKC has actually done based on how many guys have been out, super impressive. Like Chet's been out, Hardinstein's been out, Caruso's been out. Jalen Williams started the year out because he ended up getting surgery on his hand in the offseason, and he hasn't even been right. They started playing AJ Mitchell, who nobody really even knew, and he was starting games.

So, like, you look at what OKC has continued to be able to do, and you think to yourself, well, just like May said, actually, if they don't run into the Spurs, they're probably winning the title. If they run into the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals, they're probably going home. But, yeah, what they've been able to do is resilient, their top level of experience. We see what they did to teams outside of maybe the Pacers last year. They're just a monster. And now with all of that depth getting experience with the injuries that O'KC has had, you wonder if maybe they could even be better in the playoffs. Wow, that's amazing to see you say what I said.

But I like this for you, Trish. You sound very intelligent, very forthcoming. It doesn't seem like you're going around anything that needed to be stated. And I like the fact that you said that the Spurs is the only team that could beat them. And I think the only team that could really beat the Spurs is the Knicks. And I know Sin City would love to hear that. So there you go, Sin. I'm helping you out.

I'm keeping your name alive. The Knicks alive. And you're going to have to let us down like you normally do. So what was the question against that? Yeah, basically, do you think that this makes OKC the best team or just the most consistent since they clinched that playoff spot? I would say this make them both. I would say this make them the best team and it makes them

the most consistent team. I think only two times during the whole season, it goes back to something that Phil Jackson used to always say, great teams don't lose back-to-back a lot. You want to make sure that you're not losing back-to-back games. I know they had this when they went to Houston or when they went to Texas, they had those two back-to-back losses.

And then as of recently, they had another back-to-back loss with the Raptors and the – the Pacers. So other than that, it looks like they're pretty consistent. They don't, they don't seem to take too many days off, even with the hurts and all of the injuries that happen to the team. It seemed like they find a way to get it done, whether it's through Caruso, Paul's, whether it's through Shea. It just seemed like this team is that most consistent. So when I say that it's most consistent, that's where I'm bringing it from. Because even with their stars out, the role players get it done. And that's a good. great sign for a championship team to repeat. Yeah, I agree. I think it's both, but you got to give credit to Mark McDonald. If I'm saying his last name, because I always fuck his last name by my butcher's last name. But that's great coaching.

You got to realize J. Dub hasn't played probably 70% of the season. Shea was out for a plethora games. Dork was out for a few games. But, you know, we always seem to give a lot of credit to the players, as you should. They get out there and they produce, especially Shea. But that's just the coach is putting the right players in the right position at the right time. And also what Mace just said to add on or not to add on to agree is getting your bench ready and giving them more experience as these players are hurt.

I don't even know the last time J-Dub play. I don't even know how many games J-Dub played the season. It might have been four and a half, maybe. I don't know. I'm just being facetious. But I don't remember even seeing him on the floor but one time the season. And if I'm not mistaken, it could have been more. But that's more credit to the coach

and we'll see what happens moving forward. But don't matter if you start off hot. Like Trisha said, they start off hot. They fell off. But Shea got hurt. Same way that Wembea got hurt, Shea was out too. I think Shea came back early even though he looked sensational

to get the MVP because, you know, if you missed a certain amount of games, you can't get MVP. And the shit that he's doing right now, he's going to get the MVP, my personal opinion, long as he's a defense. It's just the season up. Yeah.

So 26 games for J-Dubb and Dagnolp, by the way. Dagnolk, pardon. Dagnold. Yeah. Dagnol. Yeah, it's these names be, they'd be a lot. Okay, so the Milwaukee Bucks. So they want Yonis to shut down for the remainder of the season after his latest injury.

But Janus has actually been pushing back and refusing the team's request and saying he wants to play again. So we're kind of getting back into this. Turn war. Yeah, type of thing. So, Trista, what do you think should be the outcome here? And then how do you feel about Janus pushing back to you? See, that is a good thing or you think, like, maybe it's time to just sit. What are your thoughts?

Yeah, to me, when you see Shams coming out, and it feels like Shams has been the main insider talking about Yonis is out of there, everybody else, Chris Haynes and all these other insiders have been a lot more lukewarm about it. Shams has been saying since the beginning since really last offseason Janice is about this bitch. Like he is basically asked for a trade and he's 10 toes down on it even

though Janus won't say that publicly. But when you have a team that says we want to shut you down and then you have a star player who you're trying to keep happy because the Bucks haven't really let him go yet. I think they're still trying to find a way to finesse him

to want to stay. But if the Bucks don't give Janus what they want, I think that signals to me that things are coming to an end. Like, the bucks have decided, we don't really want to keep you happy above everything else. We have to do what's in the best interest of our franchise, which is, if you are a trade chip, we can't have you tearing your MCL. Like, you've already hyper-extended your knee in the finals in 2021, and you came back early there. You've had a litany of soft tissue issue. issues throughout your career.

If we're going to move you to the Knicks, like we can't have you on ice for 12 months. On top of that, you look at what the bucks are trying to do in this draft class, which they don't have their own first round pick. They get the worst of their pick and the New Orleans Pelicans pick. But really, I think they're trying to figure out a way to get somebody to help them for the future when you've got AJ DeBanza and Darius Acuff and a bunch of really, really,

Camboos are a bunch of really, really good players in this draft. you really need to try to figure out a way to lose as many games as you can. So to me, it just signals that there's more friction between the bucks and Janus than we've probably ever seen before. And when you have this stuff leaking out to meet pause, that to me that's something that's like a really bad sign or a good sign if you're a Knicks fan or a heat fan or whatever, that Janus's time has come to a close in Milwaukee.

Yeah, I agree with you. but I think they're taking a different approach slightly. I think they're trying to lower his value so they don't get much for him, which is another way to keep him around, right? If you got a bone bruise and a hyper extension in the left knee, now he's a right-handed player, so he's getting most of his athletic force off his left leg.

So if you now got this hurt and you put him out and you say the next 14 games, he's not playing this. some people could say he recovers well. But then there's other people that could say, well, maybe this is not something I want to go all in about and ship out my best players for a player that may

not be 100% or may not be a shell of the person of before. And you know with the NBA, it's all about the narratives that you can paint. If you paint this narrative early, I don't think everybody is as, you know,

as excited about getting and Janus is like you're getting an old Janus or we see that a lot of times with players. It's like you're getting the name, but are you getting the player that won those championships? And that may be a way to keep them around and get some other draft picks and hopefully get somebody out of this draft class, but like you said, they don't have the picks. So I don't know what they're thinking. But I was just thinking that that may be something they're trying to pull off. So real quick, because we're talking about the draft trip,

it up. John Collaparry, man, that nigga, his recruiting team, recruitment team is fucking A-1. I'm talking about for years. Because Darius A-Cuff, yo, that nigga right. I don't know why they're not talking about him as like a top three,

four draft pick. And you got to think about all the players that John Calapari got over the years, whether it's John Wall or Derek Rose or, you know, fucking And, you know, it's a million of them motherfuckers.

And for him to still be recruiting at this high level in Arkansas, you know, now he's in Arkansas. So I just want to give him a shout at Dari's A-Cuff as well because he's sensational to watch. And I know we've been talking about A-J at BYU and we're talking about Camboosa. We're talking about a few other players. But I don't think that Dary's A-Cuff is getting the light that he deserves to get. So shout to him and John Calapari for just being able to recruit all. over the last two decades or more. So I wanted to get that out the way.

As far as Yon's concerned, I think Yonis wants to play to show the city of Milwaukee. Like, I'm not giving up on y'all. I didn't want to leave. Yes, you did. You want to leave. And to me, he diagnosed himself

for the four to six week injury. Like before the trade, he's like, yo, I'm hurt for four to six weeks. And he didn't even see a doctor. He said that shit post-game at the podium. So whatever it is. is I don't really have an opinion on it because this whole shit in Milwaukee between Janice and the Bucks has been a mess.

I think the Bucks don't want to let him go. I think Yonis really wants to go, but he doesn't want to say it publicly, so he's going to do as much as he can to represent Milwaukee and the Bucs and everything else. You know, the day after he didn't get trade when the trade deadline was up, he puts the Wolf of Wall Street. I'm not leaving. Come on. Come on, five, me.

My nigger, you're wilding. You could have put that before. Like, do not trade me. You could have said that loud and proud, but you didn't. And now everything looks shady from here on out until we figure out what's going on when his contract is up or if he's traded. So that's my thoughts. I don't really have too much.

I'm not really too opinionated. We'll just have to wait and see what happens with this situation. Yeah, good takes. Okay. Is it good to realize you're not that guy? We will discuss DeAndre Aten's conference. comments after the break. Welcome back. So D'Andre Aiton had a quote. He says he noticed how locked in Luca and LeBron are and said he's tired of being the odd man out and he started looking in the mirror

and said, yo, bro, you're not that guy, basically alluding that he wanted to lock in more and learn how to make an impact without being the focus on offense. So Trista, what's your opinion on his transparency? Do you see it as like good self-awareness? This is good for the Lakers or is that concerning hearing those comments from him? Well, I think we have to look back at what DeAndre Aiton's journey has been to evaluate this self-admission, which is for a very long time through college, really high school, he was that guy. He was, I saw him in L.A. for the Adidas Nations, and he was the best of the best. It was very clear even then when he was 16 years old and almost seven feet tall that he was going to be not only a top recruit for college and he was, but also going to be a top player in the draft. And so that expectation was emanating from DA throughout the time I met him for the first time until I guess now, maybe.

I'm not sure if this admission is like real or authentic or is here to stay. But for that whole time period, he thought he could be better than Joelle and Bede. Like he thought he could be one of the greatest centers to ever play, but like offensively play out on the perimeter, be kind of like a point forward. And you saw how that created friction with him and Chris Paul in Phoenix. And I don't know why he thought he was going to be the guy over Devin Booker, but I think he did. And he coined his nickname Dominaten, which I think was wild.

So he always thought he was like the number one option or should be the number one option on a team. And he's just not. And then he goes to L.A., and this is kind of what I think happened. And then you see, like, what the guy really is, which is LeBron and Luca. Like how talented and how skilled Luca is as a pure player in all offensive ways.

I just saw like a highlight of him, throwing a ball off of like a big monitor screen in the arena, and it bounced off the side of the board, and it went in across the court inside the hoop. And I don't know how he did it or if it was AI, but like that's the shit that Luca does all the time. Steph does that all the time. So I think he got on a team with LeBron and Luca,

and they were clearly locked in. They're playing hard. You got LeBron at 41 years old, you know, like chasing loose balls and flying across the court and playing really hard, trying to get a top seat. and Aiton is just kind of sitting there entitled. And he's getting crushed. He's not playing at the end of games.

J.J. Reddick doesn't want him out there. And I think he looked in the mirror and said, man, I'm really not as good as I thought I was. Like I see what greatness looks like and a hard work ethic with LeBron plus the skill and the talent. And I think he's like, all I need to do is just get rebounds, run the floor, rim protect and like play hard. And if that's true, I think that's going to be a transformational. element for the Lakers where they could really fuck some teams up. Yeah, that was a great take.

You shared a lot of things that I wanted to say when it comes to him. Even from an early age, right, I think he just was taller than everybody else. And sometimes you don't know that you're not that special until you get around other special people like you just reiterate it when you get with Luca and you get with LeBron. And I don't think it just was a talent thing. I really think the thing that he got from LeBron is work ethic, right? So his LeBron work ethic is probably bar none. It's probably nobody that works harder than him

or puts as much detail to the game of basketball. Some people are naturally gifted, and then you got some people that are naturally gifted and they work supremely hard. And I think LeBron is one of those people that are like the latter. So him seeing that every day, as well as seeing a person like Luca, probably play on one side of the ball is even great in that aspect. And he's just recognized whether if I wanted to be just a defensive player,

I'm not that talented on either side of the ball. And I think that's a rude awakening for him because he have two options. He could play great on both sides or you could play great on one side. And he have both examples right there in front of him. of his face and shout out the JJ Reddick for being the type of coach that will sit him down at the end of the game so he can come to itself right of some people need that come to Jesus moment where they're sitting there and they're just like you know what I got to fix this this got to be better this has to be better and one thing I would say another thing to this whole take is that

it's not just him not being as good as he thought he was but when you're growing up you hear scouts often talk about a player's motor. He just doesn't have a motor. I don't think even if he was a hard worker, he doesn't have the motor. And I'm not sure if you could build that. Maybe some of you guys in the chat, you can let us know this,

or former NBA players or present NBA players. Let us know, can you build a motor if you don't have one? Because right now, he doesn't have that motor. And that motor is it gets you going. It makes you want to work. It makes you want to run. He just doesn't seem like he had that. Read the quote step.

Yeah, basically he said he's tired of being the odd man out. He started looking in the mirror and said, yo, bro, you're not that guy. Duh. I'm going to take. Welcome to the party, nigga. We knew. Ha!

I know he fell out of his way after the whole ice thing and he couldn't get out to go to his game. Because Cam has been very consistent. Yeah. Very consistent with his take on. And he never showed up the game in, what was that? In Denver, he would just never show up. Talk about it.

And B. Mace. Not even. It was that time he didn't show up, too. But A.N.'s trying. We don't like the will to try. No, we don't like that. It was Portland.

It was the hills of West Hills of Portland, D&P Ice. I remember seeing that on the NBA. Injury report. DMP, ICE. Ladi, yon, I'm crazy. Okay, so let me ask you all this before we move on. I'm just curious because we see a lot of players. We see some who are really good.

We see some who are maybe trying to get their fit. Does it seem as if a lot of players don't have self-awareness, or do you feel like majority of them do kind of know? Trist, I'm going to let you go first on what your thoughts are on that. Oh, I think, like, kind of the superpower of a player is delusion. and it's really, really hard to struggle and go through these slumps that inevitably happen in basketball or any sport where you are not producing at the level that you think that you should and continue to produce or continue to show up with high levels of confidence. That's just an inherently delusional thing to be able to be unmoved no matter what the current state of affairs looks. like. So I think it's good to know, hey, I've been in the league since 2018, I think he got

drafted. And I am just seriously not as talented as all my peers. And I think that that level of self-awareness at some point is good. But I don't think you can have your confidence be shakeable and be a professional athlete that operates at the highest levels. I'd love to hear what Mason came at to say about that. Again, I think it has a lot to do with his motor. Like if you, it's just like trying to race or keep up with a car and it got a different V-engin, right? One could have V-16, another one could have V-8. And no matter how it feels, no matter how hard it works, it's never going to be as fast as a V-16 or a V-12.

Because it just doesn't have the motor, and that's what I'm talking about. So when they come to Scouts, they will normally put a lot of emphasis on a motor because that even tells us if you could reach this level, right? Some people don't even have the capacity to reach that level. And I think he's one of those people. So when he's not playing in what's that Portland, it's just to get out of, maybe it's just to get out of the city of Portland. And now he's in L.A. And he wants to stay in L.A. because he's like the sun.

He liked the scenery. So he's trying to make everybody believe like, hey, I'm going to do better. I'm going to do better. It's like somebody putting you out. And now you're saying you want to do better. But I'm saying I don't know if he even has that ability to keep up with the way of LeBron is going to work. I don't know if that's making sense to you guys. No, no.

Right. Your talent level could be a certain thing. but if the person you got to work with is practicing every night and every morning and in the afternoon they're watching tape and you're really not a person that get up to 3 o'clock that's not going to work.

I don't think that anybody in the NBA has delusions because the question is do you think players are players delusional? Well, like self-aware basically. I don't think that it's necessarily self-aware, not self-aware, is that they were the man where they were at coming up.

And I've seen Austin Rivers say this that, you know, sometimes I don't always agree with Austin River says, but he comes from a basketball family. His father played basketball. He was the man in high school. Did decent as an NBA player as well. But you have to realize that it's only 480 jobs and most likely for you to be in the NBA coming up,

you were that nigger wherever you were at. So it's like swallowing humble pie pause when you get around other people who are really good and not just really good. What Austin Rivers said is that it's about keeping a job. So if you're on the team and you used to average 30 points in high school and 27 points in college, but you're on the team with Shay and your job is to take five, six shots a game, make sure you defend and get your minutes so you can keep a job. that's what it's about keeping a job in the NBA. Think about this. We know Patrick Beverly as one of the best defenders ever in the NBA, ever.

His senior year in high school, he averaged 38 points, 37 and a half points. Led to state, how many great players come out of Illinois, the Chicago area, led Illinois in scoring as a high school basketball player. But we know him from defense. So he has to swallow humble pie to get him. the job because you're not going to be able to score. We don't need you to score 25 points. We don't need you to score 40 points. I'm pardon me, 20 points. We need you to play defense, be tenacious, get whoever's the all-star on the team, the ball, and get us an open shot

from time to time. So when you're thinking, I'm just using him as an example because the lead to state is scoring at 37 and a half points and then be a role player, not just a role player, turn into a defensive specialist after being a scoring champion. And, you know, in a whole state where it's a lot of NBA players from, it's like, okay, I need to keep a job. So I don't necessarily think it's delusioned. I think niggins would be like, man, you know what I used to do? I used to kill these niggas.

But right now I need to keep a job so I can make me $11 million a year. That's what my goal is. So that's how I feel about it. I don't necessarily think it's delusion from players. I think that some of them are trying to keep a job, and that's what it's going to take. Okay. All around good take.

So there's another quote here now this time by Kendrick Perkins. He says, Luca, since we're on the topic of the Lakers, Luca doesn't make his first team all NBA over Cade, Jalen Brown, SGA, Yokic, and Wembe. He said the Spurs are second in the West, so Luca doesn't make my first team all NBA. I would have him on my second team. So Trista, what do you think of this lineup? Do you agree?

Man, the word deserve. I know Cam will like latch on words, so I'm latching. on some words. Deserve, I think he does deserve, but it's just a matter of, does somebody deserve it more? And I think the three that we cannot dispute are Yokic, Shea, and Wembe. I think everybody's ballot will have those three. And so then Cade, Luca, and Jalen Brown are fighting, and even to a certain degree Kauai are fighting for those last two spots. To me, Kauai is out because the clippers are in eighth place. But for Kendrick Perkins to say that Luca does not deserve to be first team all NBA, when Luca is averaging 33 points per game, he is leading the league

in scoring, he's averaging eight rebounds and eight and a half assists. I think he's top five an assist per game. And the Lakers are third in the West. To me, I, I'm a lot of the last. To me, I'm I feel like he could just say he's just not on my first team all NBA. Deserve is kind of crazy to me. And then you look at the difference, and I know that there's a lot of people that watch this show that think that I hate Cade Cunningham. Every time we talk about the Pistons,

every time I bring up Cade, there's people who think, oh, you just hate Detroit. I like Cade. I love the Pistons. I think they're an amazing story. But Cade is averaging 24 and a half, five and a half, and 10 assists. And yes, the pittons are the one seed.

But the volatility of Cade is crazy. And yes, the volatility of Luca is crazy. And Cade's defense is much better than Lucas. But Luca's ceiling this year and pretty much every year is way, way higher statistically than Cade. So when you're looking at like, okay, these are two high volatile players. These are two players who are having amazing seasons. And yes, Lucas missed a bunch of games. But to me, I have to give the slight nod to Luca,

but I wouldn't mind if Cade was on first team all NBA at all. Yeah, this is a hard conversation because when you talk about what we're talking about, like what you just said, do I think he deserve? Of course he deserves to be on that list. I would have Luke on the first team list, but then they would say, who are you taking off? I wouldn't want to say it, but you know I would take off of it, you know?

Luca deserved to be on that list. I think he's playing better than Kate. I think he's playing better than Jalen Brunson. But I think because, I meant Jailen Brown. It's K, Jalen Brown, SGA, Yolkits, and 1B. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I got to leave him off. I thought you said Jalen Brunson.

I heard it wrong. But yeah, but he deserves to be on there. I think it's about your preference. What do you prefer? And if you prefer the person who score more, then you're going to go with Luca. But I think when you start having these guys who's scoring just as much as Luca and they're playing some defense, it's going to be hard to talk to basketball fatefuls and not get them to see it that way.

So that's what I would say. Luca, you guys start playing some. some kind of defense, at least reach every now and then. You know, don't just let people blow past you without doing anything. Really quick before you go, Cam, Mace, I thought you were vouching for Cade. I thought you were vouching for Cade. I am. Okay.

I'm just clarifying. It sounded like you thought Lucas should make it over Cade. No, I think that's the argument that some people would make. But when you think of where Detroit was and him being a front runner for that and how they beat up on the Knicks time after time, and they're standing at the top of where they are, I mean, what else, if I was arguing for Kate, I would say, what else do I have to do? We're at the top of everything in the east, and I'm scoring, and I'm playing defense,

and the team has turned around. What else you need to see in order to put a person on first team? my sentiments exactly. I agree with that. And I agree with Kendra Perkins. What happens is we get used to names. And we get used to saying, no, he deserves to be on there. And like you said, I'm not being facetious with the words.

I'm just saying that, yo, come on, he's averaging 33. Lucas always, he's a ball hawk, which I'm not mad at it. I love Lucas game. I think it's sensational. But he probably, if the Lakers have the ball, he has the ball in his hands probably 75 to 80% of the time. So, yeah, he's the leading score in the NBA. He's been leading the league and scoring the NBA.

He's a prolific scorer. His defense has always been poor. And just where Detroit is, like Mace last on his tape, the last thing he said, if you're Kay Cuttingham, for real, what else I got to do? Dead ass, though. They were selling tickets for 32 cents last year. You know what I'm saying?

We was in the dumps. I am the leader scorer, the number one option, the number one player on the number one team in the Eastern Conference. What else do you want me to do? Oh, by the way, I don't play with LeBron James. I don't have that experience on my team at all. So I'm playing with Tobias Harris. That's what I'm playing with. But Luca has LeBron James.

Luca has Kyrie Irving over the years. So I'm just saying, Kay, the last thing made said, I totally agree it. What the fuck else do you want me to do? I don't know what else I can do. Not go five for 26 against the spurs?

Yeah, but Trista, you're pointing to, you could go one game, all right? You're nitpicking. That's what you're doing. You're nitpicking. Yeah, 25, 10, and 6.

Yeah, you can nitpick if you want to nitpick. I understand that. But at the end of the day, nobody plays perfect all the time. If that's the case, they wouldn't be in first. Look, nobody, I wouldn't expect Detroit to be in first place right now, and I wouldn't expect Boston to be in second place right now. We thought, or at least I thought at the beginning of the season, the Knicks should run the east all the way from beginning to the end.

Now we talk about Cleveland. Now we're talking about Boston. Now we talk about Tatum coming back. And at the top of this list is the Pistons. He had a bad game, but at the end of, you know, I don't know my bad games he got, but I bet you he had more good games than bad games. You know, when he did kill at the garden, when they counted. When they just come to the Mecca and do shit that Kobe does,

and Michael Jordan does, and LeBron James does. When he's on, when I'm light shine the brightest, he shows up. And I'm not saying he shouldn't have a good game against the Spurs because that's a potential NBA finals, not saying it would be or not be. But that's somebody you have to play good against. But when them lights is on, he shows up. And not just shows up, he destroys the team that everybody was talking about is supposed to win the Eastern Conference Championship this year.

So I'm leaving Kay Cunningham on that list. Okay. So now moving on to WMBA, so the WMBA and WMBPA have reached a verbal agreement for a new CBA deal, so the collective bargaining agreement that's been going on for some time. So it'll include a new salary cap starting at $7 million up from $1.5 million. A WMBA Supermax is now $1.4 million. The average revenue share of nearly 20% across deal, and then an average salary in range of 600K minimum above 300K.

So Trista, what do you think of this new agreement? And then who do you think should be the first to get that Supermax? Well, I'm glad there's going to be a season. that's number one. I was like kind of concerned. They've had deadlines and then the deadlines would pass. They would make new deadlines and then those would pass. And it was getting pretty spicy.

It felt like the players were throwing the commissioner under the bus talking about, oh, unrivaled has a real commissioner. So I was concerned. And they got a deal done. And I think, you know, obviously there's a lot of progress. Is it as much progress as I hope the players would make? No. I mean, you're talking about like the early 80s, the NBA players got 53% of gross revenue

when I want to say over a third of NBA teams were in the red. And so I wanted to see them at least get in the 25% range of gross revenue. But that's like, again, what I do, I guess, pick knits or like split hairs. In terms of like who I think will be the first to get it, it's obvious. It's happening right now. it's Asia Wilson. I think she's going to get it. I think they've already announced it. But you've got 90% of the WMBA right now that are free agents. You've got Jackie Young, you've got Jewel Lloyd and Asia Wilson all playing on the same team, all being max players. Are they going to pay them all

$1.4 million? I'm very curious to see how this is going to shape the WMBA as a whole, because when you've got 90% of your players or your league all up for free agency, you're going to have a bidding war. And I think players are going to, some players are going to end up changing teams. Some players are going to end up getting mad that their team doesn't see them as a super max player. And the difference between, oh, like, she makes $250,000, and that was the max amount before. And I make $180. Like, it's not a huge deal.

The difference between now, she makes $1.4 and I make $7. Now there's a potential for a little bit more looking over somebody. shoulder and pocket watching. And I think Brianna Stewart and Nefisa will get it next. I'm really curious who else in the league. I'm not sure if I would give anybody else the supermax at 1.4 over that, maybe Sabrina. But it's really interesting. I'm glad they got a deal down. I'm glad we got a season though. What's the question against that? Yeah, basically, how do you feel about the new agreement that they reached? And then what player do you think should be the first to get that supermax? It's going to be 1.4 million.

I think the first person to get that money is the young lady out of Vegas. Asia Wilson. Asia Wilson. If there's anybody deserve this money, she has put on for the city time after time. I love the effort that she gives to the game. She doesn't cheat the game. She's always performing. She's always winning.

I mean, if somebody was able to win at that level and that consistent, that will be the first person that I think should get that deal. Yeah. And then I just wanted to sign light on this because I know we don't talk about WMBA too too much, but like this is a big win for a lot of the girls because they had remained consistent and have been time after time talking about just like the inequalities and like money and then like revenue sharing, just all these different things. So it's definitely a good step in the right direction.

And I also just love seeing a team who's on one, not a team, but like all the players being on one a court. It wasn't like some people are like, do we do this? Like they all had their mindset, made the decision. And by them doing that and staying firm, they were able to get an outcome that they wanted. So this is just a great start, in my opinion. And I think that they've been needed to be paid. So it's exciting. So if you don't watch the WMBA, this is a great season to tap back in because it's going to be a lot of fun stuff, a lot of things shifting, a lot of fun.

So definitely shout to the girls and shout out to whoever's going to get the Supermax, which I also think it'll be Asia Wilson. So shout out to them. Okay. Well, that is all the time that we have for today. Trista, you know, it's always a pleasure to have you on the show. Trista! What's up?

Thank you so much for having me. Of course. Also, Cam, we have the tape of you saying that Jalen Brown didn't deserve credit for swimming as a fish. What was it, Nick? Nick pulled it up, so $100. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying about now. The option to win that VP anymore,

and I know he's been heard, but I think what he's doing, everything that Trista said for, what he's doing for Boston, is great. You get paid $324 million. I've said it on this so before. I'm not paying a, I'm not going to celebrate a fish for swimming.

This is what you're paid to do. But dancers, no, he's not a frontrunner. Absolutely not. What he's doing is great. Frontrunner MVP? No. And she brought the receipts. The receipts have been brought.

He'll be back. Can't walk down on you. He'll be back. Can't walk down on you. He'll be back. He's not done to go. He said he would give you the buddy. He said he got you.

So he's not duck in. He said he's not talking the video. Yeah. Here's the thing. He cannot be mad. He said get the video. And I got the video. I thought that's what he wanted me to do.

Was that not what you wanted me to do? You did your part. He's not ducking. He had to handle some business, but we will make sure he sees that. And if he does it, which he will, the comments will make sure too. He told you that has to be set,

point blank period. And she brought the receipt. So you did your job, and that's that. That is that. But timing is crazy. Get to your destination camp, save things, but come up off that 100. No, he didn't walk.

He definitely tried to catch you. of like, but listen, what, what, this is just amazing the timing of how everything where it just looked like you said it. Yeah, he disappeared. Timing is crazy, but no, he's, they've both been of their words. So it'll be handled. But yeah, let the record show. Okay, Trista, thanks again.

Thank you all for watching. And as always, it is what it is.