Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Dončić Is Showing the Lakers a Good Time in Slovenia (and Why That Matters)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Who wants to take a vacation with Luca Donchich? It looks like a lot of fun. That's next. You are Locked-on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for stopping by,

Starting point is 00:00:23 Locked on Locked on Lakers, Brian Komeneski, Andy Kaminoski. I want to let everybody know that today's episode is brought to you by FanDil, where you can join all the action at fanduel.com and play Daily Dingers and make your free pick on who's hitting a homer this MLN. LB season.

Starting point is 00:00:36 All right. So we'll get into some continuing conversation around the sale of the Lakers and Mark Walter and all the issues that really the league is going to have to kind of start sorting out as they go along. A little bit of player movement over the weekend. That is relevant to the Lakers for sure. But we'll start here, Andy. I want to go to Slovenia with Luca Donchich.

Starting point is 00:01:05 Hell yeah. I mean, my God, we're seeing, I'm sure I'm being just sort of naive in the age of social media and all that kind of stuff. Like somehow I didn't think we'd see this much of the trip. Like, I thought there'd be like a couple pictures or people would throw, like they are, like, the whole thing. This is like going to be a documentary by the time it's done. We see pictures and videos sometimes from like a random two game.

Starting point is 00:01:35 in Minnesota and Detroit. You really didn't think we'd see anything from. I thought we'd see some stuff, but like a lot more of it would be sort of behind closed doors or something. But I don't know. Like for the minute we saw what appeared to be like, like they move Luca around the country. Like it's like secret service. Like 17 Suburbanes and all that kind. Like each legger must have gotten their own.

Starting point is 00:01:58 But like you're this and then they're going golfing and then they're at a lake and then they're buying ice cream. and, you know, doing basketball clinics, they did slip a workout or two in there. But it does look like the whole gang is having an awful lot of fun. Yeah, there's been photos shared of them. Photos and videos, by the way. At Cam Brothers, we have retweeted a bunch of these

Starting point is 00:02:19 if you want to see them, but there's some rights and also not sure how to do it issues with uploading some of these things from Instagram. I'm not sure we're allowed. I'm positive we don't know how. Like the thing where you download it, but you put the credit there.

Starting point is 00:02:41 I don't care enough to learn either. I do care enough. I need to figure out how to do it. Nick Angstad is out of town, the NBA channel manager. It's just easier to retweet it. The one thing I don't want to do is somehow present something

Starting point is 00:02:58 and not give the credit to the person who, like, who's posted is. And so I'll just retweet it. Like we're not, we're not getting rich off that. Sure. But we've seen video and photos of them golfing. There's a very funny one that we retweeted of Vando and Luca golfing together. They went rowing as a team like, like, you know, college crew style rowing.

Starting point is 00:03:24 There's been multiple team dinners. They visited the childhood court of Luca Dachich in Slovenia. Like, they are. really having, it appears to be an awesome time. There's been video shared of like a two-hour workout scrimmage that was going on that, you know, you saw pick and rolls being run with Austin Reeves setting up a lob for Walker Kessler, outside shots from Brony and Dalton and Zaire Williams and Adieu Thero hitting a three and Colin Sexton getting to the hoop.

Starting point is 00:03:56 Like, it looks like they are really having a great productive time together. it helps to all be on the court at the same time. But the real goal, and we've talked about this before, was getting to know each other more, building a rapport and a chemistry off the court and a desire to play together that can hopefully improve what you do on the court. And thus far, it appears like that is mission accomplished big time.

Starting point is 00:04:25 Also took a big boat trip where Vando tossed a T-shirt to the crowd alongside, I guess it's like a riverbed. bank, people watching, the shirt didn't get all the way there, but somebody ended up going into the river to hurt. I agree that shirt. People do just about anything for a free t-shirt. This is something that knows no national boundaries or borders. There is not a country in the world where people won't do obscene and sometimes wildly

Starting point is 00:04:57 unnecessary things to get a free t-shirt. So good for them for doing it. baseball at a game. Oh my God. We see grown-ass adults. I mean, I'm barely exaggerating. Stop children in order to get a foul ball. It's ridiculous.

Starting point is 00:05:13 And so, you know, I think there's two parts of this from a team chemistry standpoint. The first one is just, you know, from a mechanical standpoint, like this is a not entirely brand new group, but a lot of, a lot of Ross. Stor Tone over here. And, you know, when you have your two of your most vocal and veteran leaders as a locker room presence and as just, you know, franchise presence are gone. And LeBron and Marcus Smart. And so like there's a whole, not only you have new people, you have new people in new roles as leaders and voices and things like that. And so getting everybody together, this is like a really good way to get to jumpstart the. how well do I know Zaire Williams thing or like, you know, how quickly can I, you know, get comfortable with Colin Sexton or something for everybody but Walker Kessler, I suppose.

Starting point is 00:06:12 Like there are, there's just a lot of that. Like you know, this, this will supercharge that process because you got guys. It's like that, well, they say about the first long road trip of the year can galvanize a team and bring them together and all that. Well, this is that. Like this is kind of the first long road trip of the year. It is side note, slightly strange because in the back of their minds, everybody in the room knows that at least one of them won't actually be on the team when the season starts.

Starting point is 00:06:40 But I suspect they're not talking about that right now. Way to bring down the room, dude. I'm just saying it is a little bit of a strange thing going on that I guarantee you at the very least, the guys who might be the people who aren't on the team are very aware. Here's where... Dalton is aware. He's aware. Here's where the fine line between spirited trash talk and you went too far,

Starting point is 00:07:08 this is where the line resides. Like if all of a sudden, say, Dalton hits a shot over somebody, you know, starts feeling himself a little bit, talking a little too much, and the guy, the defender responds, at least I know I'm going to be on the team, bro. Like, that's where all of a sudden the room gets quite. And it would be, I mean, it would be really cold. Like I could pick like what if we we joke last week and said obviously they're not going to do any movement while They're on this trip even if they had something to do they would wait

Starting point is 00:07:38 No, but like you don't want to like this trip by doing that Dalton gets traded and they're like Lucas like sorry man this is the flights for for guys on the team It's just just how it is But the other there's the other half of this that's really important. I think is You know beyond guys getting together and having a good time building chemistry good memories you know, rapport, there is the element of really learning Luca and learning to under, because like, Luca is, we've talked about this a few different times and sometimes get some pushback from people. You know, it's a worthy conversation to have.

Starting point is 00:08:14 It's not that Luca isn't a leader. But in Los Angeles, he has not been, it has not been expected of him to lead in a more comprehensive way because there were places that LeBron was happy to do it and like felt his job like very comfortable wants to do it because he wants to be a guy steering the culture of a team and Luca was new I mean like Lucas knew it's you know there are he is not Luca doesn't love being out in front of the media and and and doing that stuff LeBron not only is quite comfortable with it he I think quite enjoys it at this point And so Lucas, he's not alone in this.

Starting point is 00:09:01 You know, Austin is going to play a much bigger role this year, already had a leadership role last year and last couple seasons, but it's definitely it's going to step up. It's why they signed Kavana Looney. There will be other voices that emerge. But, you know, Luca needs to be a bigger force and a bigger voice inside and outside of the locker room. And when that happens, we can talk about this after the next. segment.

Starting point is 00:09:28 It's not just about Luca understanding his teammates. That's critical. It's also critical that his teammates understand him and get a feeling for, okay, when this guy is leading the team, what's shaping the way he does things? Why does he operate the way he does? And all they say, nothing does that better than taking your teammates home, taking them to where you grew up. And so we can talk a little bit about sort of that aspect of it.

Starting point is 00:09:59 And then we'll get into some of the player movement over the weekend, how it impacts the Lakers, and some just interesting things that are coming around the league because of this Mark Walter debacle. So all of that coming up next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Fandul baseball fans, if you think you know who's hitting a homer today. Bandwil is giving you a free chance to call your shot with Daily Dinger's.

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Starting point is 00:10:58 bet for this sort of thing. Just unprofessional opinion, but I've watched the man play. Daily Dinger's gives you another reason to pay attention before that first pitch. So are you ready to play your game today? Join all the action at fanduel.com. That's fandle.com to play daily dingers and make your free pick on who's hitting a homer, play ball, swing for the fences on Fandle, an official partner of MLB. Yes, so I just, I think, Andy, there's something like, You can feel like you know a person. I don't think Lucas closed off to his teammates. I don't think he's, you know, he's not, you know, he's a quieter kind of,

Starting point is 00:11:44 but it's not like, you know, inside of prey. Just don't like talking to us. It's not like talking to his teammates. He's not die. Right. He's not Cam Thomas, who like famously just doesn't speak. Like, you know, guys like that are, you know, Kareem, you know, in the locker room wasn't, you know, a toy, you know, Kauai on, you know, there are examples of guys.

Starting point is 00:12:04 who are even, you know, elite, elite players who just aren't vocal in that way. They lead by example. They leave where they leave other people do that, that type of leading. Lucas engaged with his teammates, but it just, there is, knowing who your leader is makes a really big difference. And it opens, it sort of opens up Luca's world to these guys and it allows, and it allows allows Luca to kind of play host and take some pride and take some ownership of like these five days or six days or whatever it is like I got you like don't worry like we're going to go here

Starting point is 00:12:47 and we're going to be taken care of we're going to go there and we're going to be taken care of we're going to play some golf we're going to have some good times but it's like you're going to be taken care of and I think that kind of becomes a theme for like it's okay like we're going to go to camp, you're going to be taken care. If we're going to the season, I got you. I'm the leader of this team. It's all part of that. I think it's just, it's an important step. Yeah, we watched a lot of of this in the 10 years of Kobe's career that we covered the final 10. But before that, we were around the team a little bit doing some stringer work for ESP in the magazine. So if nothing else, even if we weren't around the team on a daily basis, you notice some dynamics before it truly

Starting point is 00:13:29 became Kobe's team and then certainly we were there for all 10 of the years when it was his. And there was an evolution in the way Kobe not just treated his teammates, but wanted to understand them. And like he came to realize, you know, everybody get in line or get the F out of my way. Like that doesn't work for leadership. And like he came to understand, I need to understand my teammates as people and as men better if I'm going to get what I want out of them. And sure, he was still going to be a taskmaster like by Kobe's own admission. He was not easy to play with, not for everybody. But he did start to bother to learn who his teammates were.

Starting point is 00:14:14 And as a result, not coincidentally, he began getting the best out of them in ways that led to 2009 and 2010 winning champion. And I think with, you know, Luca, obviously Luca doesn't have that same type of dynamic in terms of, you know, the way he has interacted with teammates, certainly with what we've seen or what we heard with Dallas or anything like that. But it always helps if you are going to be truly transforming into the face of a franchise, the voice of a franchise, like the person who matters most unquestionably, you have to have the ability to let people in, and you have to have the ability to be let in. And I think this trip helps on both counts. Also really quick, just wanted to mention this with the trip.

Starting point is 00:15:07 You may notice there are some photos that or videos where Mamu is there and somewhere he's not. He's actually been back and forth because he's played with his home country of Georgia in some basketball with the national team. And in a friendly against Israel, he just put up 20 points. And there you go. Apparently played very well. It was I tried to track down more stats than just the points and it was tough.

Starting point is 00:15:32 But the general consensus was Mamu played extremely well in that game. So yeah, and like there are kind of thing there are a couple coaches there too. Like there's just it's it's it's interesting to watch. We've learned to. Shooting coach by the way is there. Like his famed shooting coach was there for some of the scrimmage and Luca got I think it was also like for like the clinic and stuff they were running like they does a lot of work with Luca's

Starting point is 00:15:56 sort of basketball foundation. I don't know if it's a foundation, but basketball academy. I think that's a better word. I think that that coach is very deeply involved with that. So that explains that. It's

Starting point is 00:16:11 what was I going to say? I was talking about Luca leadership, team dynamics, or just pivot to something different. I know. I'm trying to. Clay Thompson is, I'll, that's fine. I had something else.

Starting point is 00:16:27 We can go talk about that. That's okay. Yeah, Clay Thompson had been linked to the Lakers in some rumors. You know, would they trade for him? You know, would it make any sense for the Lakers to trade for Clay Thompson on his most recent contract? The answer was obviously, no, it would not. But were Clay available via a buyout, the Lakers might have some interest? He was ultimately bought out by the Mavericks,

Starting point is 00:16:54 but he is going to the Miami Heat two-year $11 million deal with a player option, which if the Lakers had been able to get Clay on a veteran's minimum, I'm been fine with it. I'm not particularly losing sleep over them, not getting him either. The reality is though Miami makes way more sense for Clay between the heat having an immediately open roster spot. they have more app space to offer more money and a more immediate route to a larger role

Starting point is 00:17:26 because let me tell you something that heat bench is garbage like it is terrible so it clay still has a very one very marketable skill he's still a very good volume shooter he's not you know splash brothers good you know when he's up you know in mid 40s good like that kind of thing but he's still a pretty reliable, you know, high 30s on pretty big volume. He's coming off the bench last year and was still a top 20 guy in terms of three-pointers made per game, not even like on at like adjusted for 36 minutes, but like just raw numbers. And so they badly need that shooting, you know, around Janus and and and bam. And so, like, that makes a lot of sense.

Starting point is 00:18:19 I think, you know, the player option for the second year shows that Miami really just looking around, like, we need, we need some bodies here. And the Lakers certainly shouldn't be offering Clay a player option for next year. And I just, you know, destined not to really work out the other. So, yeah, I mean, I think it's fair to say at this point. Clay's just not going to be a Laker. Certain things just aren't going to happen. And one of those things is Clay is not going to be a Laker. Lakers dodged a bullet by apparently when that was the four and 80 they offered him at that one point.

Starting point is 00:18:54 Something like that. Yeah. I reportedly. Thank God. He decided Anthony Davis was too much of an injury risk and went to Dallas instead. Reportedly. Reportedly. But that is that was a bullet dodged.

Starting point is 00:19:11 You can't give him that, you know, that kind of. contract now especially when the lakers as we've seen with the jonathan commingering thing are being so careful about the money that they have on their books because they are trying to both leave themselves flexibility for a full mid-level next year but also in credit to uh deris riano our friends from lakers film room for pointing this out the lakers are one of the teams that have while they are going to be over the first day but they're going to have room before that second apron um to be able to add salary even if it you know in in one show way, shape, or form.

Starting point is 00:19:46 And you don't want to eat into that flexibility either. So some considerations there. The other thing that happened over the weekend, this will help Denver some recover from the Peyton Watson thing. As expected, DeMarter Rosen is going to head to Denver one-year deal, veterans minimum, over there. Of course, money, a less of an issue for DeRosen because he was bought out, you know, by the king. So he's got, you know, little, you know, clay, I guess, wasn't really working for the money either.

Starting point is 00:20:20 De Rosen will help them. I actually, he's such a mid-range master and a really good passer. He's going to be able to fill in a lot of work. Maybe take some work away from Jamal Murray as a distributor. But he can't defend, Andy. He can't give them anything close to what Watson could there. No, and he doesn't provide any space. either. I mean, he is elite in the

Starting point is 00:20:45 mid-range. I mean, he is as good as anybody in the league in that space. And I mean, honestly, he is like among the, certainly among modern NBA players, among the best mid-range shooters, period. Period.

Starting point is 00:21:00 And he's still a very effective, offensive player. Yeah. And for Denver, a team that also like Miami is lacking some depth and lacking a lot of scoring off the bench. DeMar de Rosen can be helpful. DeMarre for years had been kind of not so much linked to the Lakers as wishcasted.

Starting point is 00:21:22 A lot of people, I think, just assuming between him having a name, him having L.A. roots, that it was going to happen, even though the paths to making him a Laker were always very complicated. But I think he really would have, there's no immediate pressing need for him on the Lakers. the meantime, there is more of a need for him on Denver, but I don't think he does not answer the issues that Denver is going to be facing post-Paeton Watson. He alleviates them to some degree. And apparently a lot of guys on Miami, Aaron Gordon, I believe, Nicola Yokic, he was being recruited pretty hard, and I understand why, because they could use some scoring pop, but they are still pretty thin. Oh no yeah no this this this will help them recover a little um but it just

Starting point is 00:22:20 their their spacing is going to be potentially a problem unless guys like brown really recover um you know there's just just a lot going on there and they're they're not going to be a bad team if murray and uh if you know murray yokic Gordon you know very need a little more from cam johnson this year but if got you know if brown bounces back they're not going to be a bad team but What they aren't is elite anymore. And it's just really hard to look and see like where the upside comes unless guys like Strother and I don't know, who else is deeper into that bench step up and kind of perform in ways we're not expecting. So everybody's going to be on Nikola Yokic watch for the entire season. So we'll see how that goes.

Starting point is 00:23:06 Team sales, Andy. The sale of the Lakers has created a really interesting vibe and dynamic going on. Meanwhile, Adam Silver reportedly is going to potentially help kind of smooth out the rough patches here with the bus part of this. So plenty of talk about the third segment next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Odo. Running a business should not feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that were never designed to work together. One app for accounting, another for inventory, another for sale, and somehow none of them talk to each other.

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Starting point is 00:24:25 Who knows? Plus regular communication with franchise-based Luca Dachich, it was pretty good synergy that hopefully is not out the window moving forward. But either way, like this was the type of communication and everyone being on the same page, at least for a month and a half, that franchises need in order to succeed in business. So great organizations win because operations matter. And that's why you should get Odu. Try for free today at Odu.com slash locked on. That's ODO.O.com slash locked on.

Starting point is 00:24:59 Vando is one of these guys that, you know, theoretically the Lakers would move in a heartbeat if they could. They just kind of can't. Like, this is the situation they've been in for a couple seasons now, But it is worth pointing out that when you watch these videos, Vando is a very good sport. You know, terrible golfer, good sport. You know, he's kind of all over these things. He's, you know, he's scooping ice cream when they go out, you know, and kind of like he's fully engaged in this trip and with his teammates.

Starting point is 00:25:29 And it seems to be a very well-enjoyed guy, you know, as part of this roster. And so it's like it's, you know, the business is what it is. But one of the things that does stick out is just like he is a guy who is, you know, who is, I think certainly pretty well liked on the team. Well, he's, he is actually one of the longest tenured guys on this team. I mean, it's awesome. It's true. It's Austin. And then I actually think it may be Vando.

Starting point is 00:26:03 I probably is. I'd have to go back and do the roster math off the top of my head. but he arrived in 2003 in that midseason deal, you know, the one that moved Russ with Delo coming in, also Malik Beasley. Like there can't be that many guys. No, I mean, longer. Right.

Starting point is 00:26:22 Again, he's got tenure for different reasons, but yes, you're right. He's been there. Whatever. Well, the reason I bring that up is there's a comfort level, even if you don't know your place within the organization or within JJ's pecking order or whatever, there's a comfort level among teammates and a comfort level and just you've been there a while. Vando has always seemed popular with teammates. He has also been the guy that always gets up to prevent Luca from maybe saying too much and getting a T. Um, like

Starting point is 00:26:58 that's he's also been at times Luca's enforcer. Like he has, he's always seemed to be somebody like, you know, there have been a few, you know, dust-ups yelling back and forth between him and JJ. But by and large, it seemed like he took the DNP CDs with professionalism. And the idea of, I think JJ would tell you that. Yeah. And the idea of I got to find a role on this team. And if my role on this team is going to be super loud cheerleader slash Lucas conscience slash Lucas bodyguard, Fine. That's what I'm going to do because I'm going to do something constructive with this.

Starting point is 00:27:42 And again, he seems like somebody that fits well into team culture, even if he doesn't fit well into JJ's basketball worldview. Yeah. And I just, you know, as somebody who is not, again, I am open minded to different, different roster, different roles. This year does not have to be last year, does not have to be the year before. I'm not anti the idea of finding out if there's a role for Vando to play. The team benefits, the guy makes $12-something million,

Starting point is 00:28:12 you need to be able to find somewhere for him to play or you are burning a roster spot and a lot of money at the same time. So I am hopeful that with this contextual change in how the Lakers play, Vando has a role that he can get into. I just don't know if it will happen. But it is worth noting, even with that, like, culturally where he might fit on the team. I just wanted to, you know, make that point. It is interesting to watch the stuff with Mark Walter.

Starting point is 00:28:41 We mentioned the reporting that Adam Silver might get involved, the sort of smooth things over with the bus family. I think just in some circles, at least, that it's been slightly misinterpreted as, like, going to help the bus family get along. I don't think that's what that means at all. I think, Andy, and I suspect you would agree, it much more means we're going to figure out a, I'm going to be instructive in behind the scenes figuring out a way

Starting point is 00:29:09 to resolve this issue so all of you go away. Yeah, there was a blurb from the Sports Business Journal about this situation and also, too, what's going on with the Minnesota Timberwolves as they've essentially traded out one co-controlling owner with another. Yeah, they swapped roles. They had a minority owner and a majority or just basically just swapped. Yeah, and both of them are named Mark, which is weird and of itself.

Starting point is 00:29:35 I believe both are MARCs like on top of it. It's just gets to a larger discussion about the stability of team ownership these days and, you know, the type of VC and ethereal money to say nothing of the, you know, foreign money that may also be entering the NBA. And, you know, just there's, the NBA is at a bit of, I think, a flashpoint in terms of ownership and the money coming in and all of that stuff. But I think it's something Adam Silver, if nothing else is going to have to be,

Starting point is 00:30:12 I think more involved with when it comes to betting potential. Yeah, I think that that's a big thing. The Minnesota thing is interesting just because it appears, at least based on whatever I've not done deep dives into this, But it does appear that the basic thrust of this is that the mark who sold his shares and swapped with the mark who bought the shares. That guy, it's not so much like a distress kind of thing. You just wants extra money because he's launching a startup or something like that. And then, you know, they wants the capital behind that.

Starting point is 00:30:47 And, you know, they keep continuity in the ownership group by doing it this way. But I think the larger point, what Mark Walter thing is revealed is just as these valuations keep going up and up and up and up and up, you know, the league has rules about things like how much money can be owned by a fund. And that, you know, that's cap at 20%. I don't think there's a rule against foreign ownership, but I also don't think the league is necessarily looking for like a Saudi print. or something like that with his own money, not like one of those sovereign funds, whatever, but like to just kind of buy teams. I don't think they're looking for that either. I think they just feel like the optics for something like that might not be great.

Starting point is 00:31:34 And the problem becomes, as these valuations keep going up, there are only so many people who have the interest and the billions to be able to do this sort of thing. And more and more and more often, they're going to. to be people from the VC world, from the private capital world, from, you know, things like that, where the financing is complex. It can be opaque. It can be very difficult and time-consuming to do like a full forensic audit of what these, what's going on here. And if you have a, you know, an owner who wants to sell and an owner who wants to buy, there isn't, there is a motivation from the league and all the parties involved to get these.

Starting point is 00:32:21 things done as quickly as possible. And I just feel like we're going, there was a dust up with Matt Ishbia last week where I think people worried that it might have been. It may not be that big of a deal. But just the point is, general consensus that the sons are in no danger of, or danger, however you want to put it. But there's no. Isbias finances are fine.

Starting point is 00:32:45 Yes. Bees to be the sons. Yeah, exactly. Insofar as how they affect the sons. I just see what I'm saying like I just I think it's getting it harder and harder to do there are going to be more Walter like surprises because the financing for these guys is so complicated that you know it may not be this year next year or whatever but over time we're going to see this because we just don't have individuals and stuff like that who have the kind of money to pay for these teams. Yeah, getting back to the bus piece of this, mentioned before there's this piece in sports business journal, one line from a quote,

Starting point is 00:33:27 The Lakers situation isn't clear cut with sources believing. Commissioner Adam Silver, who has always been closed with Jeannie Bus, will help try to smooth over the bus family chaos. I completely agree with you. Another way of putting that would be a come-to-jesus conversation of sorts with Jeannie Bus. everything that I, whether you're talking about reading or talking with people, the general

Starting point is 00:33:53 consensus seems to be that the league and in all likelihood, the current and future pieces of Lakers ownership would prefer it be bus free moving forward. There's also the great Mirren Fader had a piece at the athletic about what's going on with the bus family and this drama and there's a lot of weird legal experts in this field and it's still confusing to us sentiment. But I found this paragraph near the end to be interesting. Quote, that sale still needs to be approved by the NBA Board of Governors, the one talking about Iger and Kushner. If it is, and if Jeannie is able to ensure the family retains at least 15% of the Lakers, it would be the new ownership group, Walter's commitment that Jeannie could retain governorship for the near future. I would

Starting point is 00:34:43 imagine without knowing for sure that other NBA governors would probably be happy to see the majority owners having the requisite control, said Matt Mitten, a law professor at Marquette University Law School. They're the ones that are basically going to have that voice and vote when they have league meetings. That's an important thing to have that vote. It seems to me that if someone, a group with a minority interest that's holding and a small minority interest, 17.8%, that it just seems to be like at some point, there's going to be a conflict between majority ownership and the bus family ownership. I wonder if the league moving forward is going to formalize a rule that the team governor has to be either the controlling owner or part of the controlling ownership group to

Starting point is 00:35:26 prevent future situations like this because the bus family situation is the messiest because everything with the bus family is always the messiest and most dramatic. But we saw a previous conflict along these lines with Mark Cuban and the Mavericks when he sold with Rick with excuse me, Wick Gruzbeck and the Celtics when he sold where these these guys were under the impression. Yeah, I'm selling, you know, my majority ownership stake, but I'm still going to be governor of the team and quite logically and predictably, the new controlling owner said, no, you're not. Because why would you be? Well, they don't have the, they weren't. I don't think either one of them was over the threshold.

Starting point is 00:36:05 and that's part of it. But like there's no, there's no, that's that, I don't know what they'll do because there are situations where, you know, the Mark Walter Jeannie thing, for example, would make perfect sense in the sense that you have, because, I mean, but it didn't though. It never made sense. It did. It makes sense if your governor is essentially, you know, the person who is, you know, the team representative and things like that. It's just, I think, I think what the, what the league ought to do is spell out exactly what the governor is doing, what the governor's job is. And if you have a governor who is not the majority owner of the, they don't have the majority stake in the team, they can be the governor and essentially handle, if you have an owner who wants to, you know, doesn't want to be responsible sort of the everyday day to day of it. and somebody else can be their representative at the thing they don't like with those fine but those meetings aren't the everyday

Starting point is 00:37:08 overseeing anyway but they don't but if mark walter doesn't want to be part of that if he's not comfortable with it the lakers are better served by genie doing the official business of those meetings then i don't think the league is going to step in and say for example the you know i think the wife of the of the guy who the Mark who just bumped up his shares. His wife, I believe already was the governor. So they were operating under the thing. He had a smaller ownership stake than the other one and a different person who served as the governor.

Starting point is 00:37:49 And so I don't think the league is now still going to step into these. The other thing with Mark Cuban was because he didn't, you know, he didn't, clearly the other people didn't agree to what he thought was being agreed to. You've got to write these things down. And so I don't think the league is necessarily going to step in because I don't think it's problematic, assuming that the majority owner has the ability to remove the governor as they see fit. I think you're going to cut off people who have the financing to be able to own a team. I just this is a bad, this is a bad situation because it's becoming, look, we're not going to, it's just becoming more common these days. And I just feel like you can do the governor.

Starting point is 00:38:32 It doesn't mean you're running the every day. It doesn't mean that you're the president of basketball ops. No, I understand. I think you're underestimating what you're overestimating it. Maybe. But, you know, the Cuban thing resolved itself pretty easily. Well, yeah, you're not the governor. Go away.

Starting point is 00:38:49 Well, I mean, put it this way. This is out why I really do think you're overestimating what it is. We both agreed that Jeannie's governor title was BS in terms of the way Jeannie seemed to define it. It's BS in the sense. if you believe that she is the ultimate shot caller for what the franchise is or is not going to spend its money on. But that's not the governor job. I don't think anybody believed that Jeannie gets to decide capital allocation for the team beyond what Mark Walter gives her the responsibility to do. But ultimately, he's going to check on, well, maybe he'd be busy now.

Starting point is 00:39:27 But at least in theory, he would have been checking on that stuff and saying, no, that, do. I want us to be doing this, this and this. I want us to be, this is what I want our stance as a team to be at the league meetings for the next collective bargaining agreement. This is how I want us to behave. This is how I want us to approach the next TV deal and all these other things that you have to sign off on. If you believe Jeannie would be ultimately making those decisions, then yeah, it's BS.

Starting point is 00:39:55 But I don't think anybody believe that. They believe that she would be doing those functions that Mark Walter didn't want to do himself. I mean, the definition of the team. Respectfully, I think you're over-complicating it. I don't think it's that big a deal. Well, I mean, the team, according to the definition, it's either the representative at these meetings, which don't happen very often, or chief decision-maker, which everyone agrees she's not. So that, I think the chief decision-maker part is the wrong answer. That's my point. I don't think the governor is by definition. I don't think that's how the league defines it. Yes, it is. Is it? Yes. What do you think I got this? Well, that's not,

Starting point is 00:40:38 that's my, that's not my understanding. But that's why it was so fuzzy to begin with what the hell Jeannie was actually doing as team governor under Mark Walter. Because continuing to do what she was doing before, except not ultimately signing the chat. But it was, it is a position that is ascribed some degree of power. Otherwise, it wouldn't matter. Some degree. I understand though. I understand what you're saying, I just don't think, I don't, I think this, particularly with the bus family is such a singular problem that is almost going to be impossible to, impossible to encounter anymore, just because that structure doesn't exist beyond these six people. I mean, it's, it's just doesn't happen. And so, anyway, we'll see. I mean, you could be right. Like, they may kind of quietly or

Starting point is 00:41:30 raise the threshold to its 25% or maybe it's 30% or whatever. But I don't think you'll end up in a situation where it has to be the guy with 50.1. Okay. Or whatever 30.5 if everybody else has less, whatever the majority owner is. Anyway, I think 15% is too small, but also, again, you just, I realize this is in some ways very much reacted to something specific going on with the Lakers. I just think it's also kind of silly and ridiculous, but whatever. I'm a big believer.

Starting point is 00:42:05 If something doesn't have to be that way, just cut it off. But anyway, it doesn't matter. Locked on a way. Yeah. I mean, I think that's ultimately what's going to happen here is the league is going to figure out how to make this thing go away. It could take a minute. And they might have to wait for at least some initial resolution to see, you know,

Starting point is 00:42:22 if the siblings end up able to sell, the thing goes away. So it's a, you know, they'll probably wait. at least for an initial ruling about that. And then if they don't get what they're looking for, they can then step in and see what happens. Lockdown Liquors on YouTube is where you can hang out with their 39,000 subscribers to the channel. We will see everyone tomorrow.

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