Nightcap - Nightcap - Hour 1: KD responds to Barkley, who is the next face of the NBA, All-Star Game fixes

Episode Date: February 22, 2024

Shannon Sharpe and Gilbert Arenas react to Kevin Durant reply to Charles Barkley's comments, debate who could be the next face of the NBA, and discuss if the NBA-All Star game can be fixed. 0:00 Introduction07:45 KD responds to Barkley saying he’s not a leader10:30 Gil calls Barkley a follower based on teams he went to during career14:30 Unc talks about different leadership styles of Bird & Magic27:20 Unc responds to critics - NBA wants face of NBA to be buttoned up/married32:20 Gil talks about having to go thru image consulting during time with Wizards36:00 Gil makes analogy of players needing to wear an off white suit instead of white one40:45 Jayson Tatum wants to be face of NBA46:00 Gil breaks down Ja Morant’s impact48:00 Unc talks about importance of stars “protecting the brand”49:20 NBA All-Star game interest52:45 Mamba mentality and why players don’t apply it at all-star game like Kobe did #Club #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Volume. Shannon. New customers can bet just five bucks and get 200 instantly in bonus bets. Only on DraftKings Sportsbook with the code Shannon. The crown is yours. You're listening to an iHeart podcast. The Made for This Mountain podcast exists to empower listeners to rise above their inner struggles and face the mountain in front of them. So during Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast, focus on your emotional well-being, and then climb that mountain. You will never be able to change or grow through the thing that you refuse to identify, the thing that you refuse to say, hey, this is my mountain, this is the struggle. Listen to Made for This Mountain on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Michael Kassin, founder and CEO of 3C Ventures and your guide on good company, the podcast where I sit down with the boldest innovators shaping what's next. In this episode, I'm joined by Anjali Sood, CEO of Tubi. We dive into the competitive world of streaming. What others dismiss as niche, we embrace as core. There are so many stories out there. And if you can find a way to curate and help the right person discover the right content, the term that we always hear from our audience is that they feel seen. Listen to Good Company

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In the fall of 1986, Ronald Reagan found himself at the center of a massive scandal that looked like it might bring down his presidency. It became known as the Iran-Contra affair. The things that happened were so bizarre and insane, I can't begin to tell you. Please do. To hear the whole story, listen to Fiasco, Iran Contra on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome to another episode of Nightcap Basketball Style. I'm your favorite, Unc Shannon Sharp. He's your favorite number zero. Wildcat legend. Wizard legend. Warriors. I don't know if we're going to say a legend in the Warriors, but you know who he is.

Gilbert Habachi Arenas. Bro, how you been? Thanks for joining us. Hey, boy, I thought y'all dropped me off. Nah, nah, nah, nah. I think I was traveling. When did we come? I was in the All-Star game, and then you had something pop up,

but we'll get to that in a minute. Please make sure y'all like, make sure you hit that subscribe button. We are now currently at 1,084,000. We're so, so very close to 1.1 million. And that's all a credit to you. Ocho, we miss you. I'll catch you tomorrow night. Gil, also thanks to Gil because with Gil and I,

we have the number one or the number two basketball podcast on Apple Podcasts. So thank Gil. Make sure y'all hit that like button, subscribe, not only to Nightcap, but to Gil's Arena. That's his channel. And please make sure you subscribe to the Nightcap podcast feed. You can get Nightcap through the Club Shea Shea podcast feed,

but go ahead and hit that button. Might as well join them both, but please make sure you guys subscribe to the Nightcap podcast feed. I want to thank you personally and the team for selling out Chez Balaportier. We hope to have it back in stock soon, but we are taking pre-orders. So we pinned the link at the top of the chat. Please make sure. And I'm thinking it's going to be like a two week or a month. I can't lie to you. I can't say, oh, if you order it, you're going to get it in the next three, five business days

because that would be an absolute lie. But it's going to be somewhere around two weeks to a month before you get it. But I want to thank you guys for selling us out and making it such a hot cognac. I greatly appreciate that.

Also, make sure you hit that like and subscribe button to Gil's Arena's channel. He's on YouTube. His shows airs Monday through Thursday, live 1130 a Gil's Arena's channel. He's on YouTube. His show airs Monday through Thursday, live, 11.30 a.m. Pacific time. That's 2.30 Eastern.

Please, please, also go subscribe to Gil's personal YouTube page, No Chill Gil. This episode tonight that's on Club Shea Shea, it's on Club Shay Shay channel, but Nightcap is going to be

airing personally on YouTube, on Gil's YouTube page, his personal page. So please make sure y'all go subscribe to the man's personal page. Gil's doing an amazing job. I really want to thank him from the bottom of my heart because I reached out to a lot of people. They didn't seem to be as interested, and Gil said,

hey, let me see if I can work some things out. He came back and said, oh, let's do this. And so I want to thank this man from the bottom of my heart for letting me be able to have a basketball because, you know, I love talking basketball. And so Gil gives me that opportunity, even if it's only once a week. Hopefully next year, this time,

we can come up with something where we do a couple of days a week. But I want to thank Gil. Please make sure y'all subscribe to his personal page. That's No Chill Gil and Gil's Arena, his YouTube channel. Go ahead and subscribe to both of them. Like both of them. Let's help get his subs up because Gil, we're trying to get Gil to a meal too.

He's been great. He's a great guy, guys. And so y'all do the right thing by Gil. Let's get his personal page and his YouTube channel all up to a meal too. He's been great. He's a great guy, guys. And so do the right thing by Gil. Let's get his personal page and his YouTube channel all up to a million subs so he can get one of those gold plaques. We've also been nominated for an NAACP Image Awards for the Arts, Sports, and

Entertainment Outstanding Podcast. We pinned the link at the top. Please, please make sure you go vote for us, guys. All right, Gil. What happened this morning? This morning was supposed to be your one anniversary, the one year anniversary of Gil's Arena. And unfortunately, you weren't able to air the show like you normally do. Tell the people that didn't know, that didn't watch what happened.

So around 930, the power got the power went out so you know i mean i jumped on my little scooter trying to figure out what's going on you know where i live is none but white right right so i gotta be careful when i go outside yeah yeah that time of morning yeah yep yep so they wasn't complaining so i'm figuring everything is cool, right? When white folks ain't complaining, you think everything's all right. So they said something happened last night somewhere else, so they had to cut the power on the street, which affected our live. So they pushed it back to 11 and 1 and 3. So I was trying to scrap it the whole time, but I didn't know they had a special guest, which was Richard Jefferson.

So we ended up doing a prerecorded that is actually premiering as we speak. So he lost power this morning. He wasn't able to air the show in his normal time, but he was able to tape it. And now it's airing on his YouTube channel, Gil's Arena. So the one-year anniversary of Gil.

Congratulations, bro. You're doing an unbelievable job. He goes four times a week, Monday through Thursday, 11.30 a.m. Pacific, 2.30 Eastern. That's what he's doing now. Come on. Help Gil get them numbers up there. Okay, time for our first segment of the day.

Gil, since you last, we got graphics, we got everything. This is called News Cap. Three, two. Two. Barkley spoke about this. If I'm not mistaken gil this was over the weekend all-star everybody knows we had the all-star break all-star game was played in indy where i'm at right currently charles barkley spoke about kd saying no disrespect to kevin kevin's a follower he's not a leader he's not a leader he's proven that on all his stops. KD responded. Let's take a listen to what he said. I'm not as charismatic as my peers. I don't have a personality that's fit for

TV like my peers. And a lot of those stories of what we talk about don't get spoken about in the media. And that's just really what it is. It's like, you got to sell what you're doing as well. And I haven't sold it enough, you know? And I feel like, I don't, I mean, I don't, I don't feel like I need to. I don't feel like I want people to call me a leader, but I also don't want people to say I'm not one either. Okay, Gil, I know you've been a very,

very ardent supporter of Kevin Durant and his moves going from OKC to the Golden State, Golden State to Brooklyn, then requesting a trade from Brooklyn, ended up with the Phoenix Suns. So what were your thoughts on what Charles Barkley said and then Kevin Durant's retort to what Barkley said? I was confused, you know, with Barkley said. I was confused with Barkley's comments because Barkley calling

someone a follower with his background and it kind of, it's like sometimes the older generation forgets who they were when they played. So they're calling players something that they were themselves. Right?

Charles Barkley's resume didn't scream out leadership either. Right? You had Moses Malone over there when you went to the Western Conference Finals. It was Dr. J and Mo. Yeah, so you wasn't leading that team. Right? You wasn't leading the team.

When you did lead the team, y'all lost the first round, first round, didn't show up for two years. Then you wanted out of there, right? You went to the Phoenix Suns, who won 50-something games every year before you got there, right? So they already had leadership. Your first year there, you go to the finals, you win your MVP because of their record, because they were a good team.

After that, what did you do when you was there? You went to the finals, win your NDP because of their record because they were a good team after that what did you do when you was there you went to the finals then what first round second round first round then you hop jazz over to Houston following Drexler trying for the second time because that's where he wanted to go when he wanted to leave Philly he wanted to go to Portland who went to the finals that year right so? So you didn't scream leadership either for you to be calling someone this. You followed. You were a follower. You never stood your ground to lead something. So to call somebody a non-leader when you're not in a locker room. See, I can say that from your resume, and you might look at me and say, that's unfair. Yeah, the same thing everybody

else has said when we're in that locker room you don't know what's who's leading what all we see is from the court right on your football field right they can say what elway led but there's probably vocal leaders leaders inside the locker room and that's how that's how a team is made, right? We don't know who's leading, you know, just because your name is on the ticket. You got to be your name doesn't necessarily make you a leader. Yeah, you know, yes. So, you know, I was like,

sometimes I get disappointed in, you know, some of the star players when they call people prima donnas and stuff like that. It's like, you were too. You were too, right? You were too. So too right you were too so i i get i get a little frustrated when you know some of the older guys do that but here's here's here's

look let's take what barkley said aside so will help me understand this so what am i supposed to do when kevin durant went to golden states and golden state and said i'm not a leader. Let Clay, Steph, and Draymond lead. I'm here to hoop. He just said in that very sound bite, I'm not a leader, but I don't want people to say that I'm not a leader. Okay, so it's like Jokic, right? I remember they asked him a question,

what did you tell the team when y'all got back in the locker room? He said nothing, right? They asked him again, what'd you say? I didn't say anything to him, right? When you're coming from one team to another, you're giving them the respect of, hey, you know, Kirby's the leader. Whoever the leaders are, they're the leaders.

I'm just here as a player. I'm not coming here stepping on nobody's toes. Same thing that happened in Miami when LeBron and Bosh came. Dwayne Wade is the leader. You're trying to delegate the responsibilities so there's no fringing. No matter what Kevin Durant,

what he was doing on the floor, you can see that he was demanding things. That's why him and Draymond was beefing, because he is standing tall doing what he does. But he is a quiet dude. He is a quiet dude, but I don't want to be the leader. But I don't want you to say I'm not a leader because you don't know what I'm doing. You don't know that I show up early. I leave late, right?

I prep talk. I do this. I leave late. I prep talk. I do this. I train players. I work out with players. I wake. We don't know everything he does. So he's like, well, I am a leader, but I might not be a leader. It's the confliction of just the player's personality itself.

I look at it like if Gilbert Reardon says, man, you know what? I'm a liar. I mean, I lie, but don't call me a liar. So what am I supposed to do with that? I mean, if Gilbert Arenas tell me out of his own mouth, he's a liar, but then when I say, well, Gil lies, man, I just don't.

Yeah, I lie, Shannon. Yeah, of course, I lie, but I don't want you to say that I lie. And I think that's the confusing part of what people are saying or having with Kevin Durant, because we've heard him say on numerous occasions that I'm not a leader. And then when people say, well, Kevin Durant is not a leader, he's a follower. He gives he's like, yeah, I'm not a leader, but I don't want people to say that I'm not a leader. I don't believe leadership has Larry Bird wasn't charismatic.

Larry Bird was basically the total opposite of Magic Johnson. Larry Bird, I mean, first of all, he had a little thin lip, so you couldn't tell if he was smiling or not. But Magic, you saw all 32 of Magic teeth. And Magic was so charming.

He was so charismatic. And to this day, he's still the same way. He makes everybody feel that he's known him his entire life or he's known you your entire life. That's just the way he is. But I don't believe. Does it help? Yes.

Yes. Yes. And because I think the thing is, had Shaq not had the personality, man, people would have been scared of Shaq. Can you imagine somebody that damn big and he got a frown on his face or he's scowling? People look at Shaq because he was so outgoing, because he was so charismatic

as a giant teddy bear. Kobe could be charming, but you know he was deadly deadly serious because he had mamba and we know what a black mamba is. It's one of the few snakes that will bite unprovoked jordan jordan had a a a a way about it but i just like if kevin iran had never said i'm not a leader

that would have been for us that would be for a conjecture or speculation innuendo whether or not he's a leader because like you said gil i not in there. You've been in basketball locker room. The outside fan base doesn't know a whole lot about what goes on unless a player from inside the locker room says so. But once you reveal that you're not a leader, and the problem that you have is when people say that you're not a leader, after you said that, I don't really see what the qualms about. I can't say, hey, bro, you know

they call you boy Shea. Don't call me Shea now. But they help you. You just said that when they call you. And I think that's what so confusing. But I don't want Kevin Durant to two things can be true. You can be a tremendous teammate.

You can be a great, great teammate and still not be a leader. So I don't want you to think just because you're a tremendous teammate. You can be a great, great teammate and still not be a leader. So I don't want you to think just because you're a great teammate, that automatically classifies you as being a leader. Because I believe two things can be true, Gil. You can be a leader and be a terrible-ass teammate, and you can also be a great teammate and still not be a leader. But I think, look, it's just hard to say.

I just think that you can't have it both ways, Kev. You can't say one thing and then when people say what you told them, that you're not, get upset when people say that. Now, I don't know why Barkley was saying that. But also, I don't think, Gil, that your resume necessarily says, because, okay, I'm the leader of a team, but if we don't win a championship, that means I wasn't a good leader or I wasn't a leader of the team. So I don't I don't I don't necessarily think just because you didn't win a championship, that doesn't make you a great leader, because I believe two things can be true.

You can be a horrible leader, you could be a terrible person, maybe a terrible leader and still win. But you can also be a great leader and not win. See, we have to define what leadership is because everybody has their own definition of it. That's correct. That's one thing, too. Barkley said, I'm not a role model

while being a role model. There's a contradiction to what he's saying because in Washington, I was given a franchise. I was the leader until Antoine Jamerson came. And then I said, I'm not a leader because my age, he's the vet.

That was my vet. He is the leader of this team. I'm the face of this team, right? No one was going to outwork me. No one was going to outstudy me. No one was going to do any. If I said something, that's how it went. But I'm not the leader. I'm telling you what I am and what I'm not, right? So it is a contradiction, but you still got to ask that player. When you say you're not a leader in what aspect, so we can get some clarity on it,

you know, so we can get a little bit of clarity on when you're saying you're, you're not a leader. What part of leadership are you not delegating to yourself? I don't think the thing, I think if you said when, if you said that you weren't a leader and then people, analysts like Barclay, and I don't remember, I don't can't recall like when you played who are think the thing, I think if you said when, if you said that you weren't a leader and then people, analysts like Barclay and I don't remember,

I don't can't recall like when you played who are all the analysts and they said, Gil's not a leader. I don't think in turn you didn't get then get mad because you said the very thing that they're saying, they're just regurgitating what you said. Gil said, he's not a leader. So I got to take him at his word that he's not the leader that Antoine, you said Antoine was the leader because he was the veteran on the team. And you said, well, James Jameson is the leader. And so maybe like he was the leader, but you were the senior official. It's like it's like having an adjunct professor, you know, I'm saying? Okay, there are other professors that might do,

but you have, your word carries a little bit more weight because you had been there long. Even though he was the older player, you were the tenured player at Washington. Frustrated with ticket buying experience? GameTime is the only ticket app that gives you peace of mind with your purchase. They let you see the view from your seat before you buy so you know exactly what to expect when you arrive.

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Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Made for This Mountain is a podcast that exists to empower listeners to rise above their struggles, break free from the chains of trauma, and silence the negative voices that have kept them small. Through raw conversations, real stories, and actionable guidance, you can learn to face the mountain that is in front of you. You will never be able to change or grow through the thing that you refuse to identify. The thing that you refuse to say, hey, this is my mountain. This is the struggle. This is the thing that's in front of me. You can't make that mountain move without actually diving into that. May is Mental Health Awareness Month,

a time to conquer the things that once felt impossible and step boldly into the best version of yourself to awaken the unstoppable strength that's inside of us all. So tune into the podcast, focus on your emotional well-being, and climb your personal mountain. Because it's impossible for you to be the most authentic you. It's impossible for you to love you fully if all you're doing is living to please people. Your mountain is that. Listen to Made for This Mountain on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Michael Kassin, founder and CEO of 3C Ventures and your guide on Good Company,

the podcast where I sit down with the boldest innovators shaping what's next. In this episode, I'm joined by Anjali Sood, CEO of Tubi, for a conversation that's anything but ordinary. We dive into the competitive world of streaming, how she's turning so-called niche into mainstream gold, connecting audiences with stories that truly make them feel seen.

What others dismiss as niche, we embrace as core. It's this idea that there are so many stories out there, and if you can find a way to curate and help the right person discover the right content, the term that we always hear from our audience is that they feel seen. Get a front row seat to where media, marketing, technology, entertainment, and sports collide and hear how leaders like Anjali are carving out space and shaking things up a bit in the most crowded of markets. Listen to Good Company on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In the fall of 1986, Ronald Reagan found himself at the center of a massive scandal that looked like it might bring down his presidency. Did you make a mistake in sending arms to Tehran, sir? No. It became known as the Iran-Contra affair. And I'm not taking any more questions in just a second. I'm going to ask Attorney General... I'm Leon Nafok, co-creator of Slow Burn. In my podcast, Fiasco, Iran-Contra,

you'll hear all the unbelievable details of a scandal that captivated the nation nearly 40 years ago, but which few of us still remember today. The things that happened were so bizarre and insane, I can't begin to tell you. Please do. To hear the whole story, listen to Fiasco, Iran Contra on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I think, too, when he came into Golden State, because I think those are the only words we're holding. We're holding his Golden State words, right? Where he's coming into someone's city and he's saying, hey, hey, hey, this is, don't look at me.

I'm just here to play the game. That's when he gave away leadership. In OKC, he was the leader, right? But see, so Brooklyn, right? So I think it was just that moment in time where he's like, this ain't my team. Because, you know, when he came there, everybody questioned, whose team is this? And I think he just, as a player, we all do it. This is his team. You know, when Mike Vick went to Eagles, right, and we know who Mike Vick is,

he's delegating his response like, hey, I'm just here trying to fit in, y'all. I'm not trying to step on nobody's toes. I did in Orlando. Hey, this is Jermaine Nelson's team. This is his team. I'm here to help him out, even though I have the bigger name, because I don't want him to feel some type of way like, yo, dude's coming in here thinking he about to take my spot.

Like, no, no, no, no. I'm coming off the bench. I'm going to be the bench player. And I'm going to work the second unit. So you cool. So we don't need to have these conversations and have these team talks. So I think that's what he did at Golden State. So, you know, it's one of those things is it's one of those conversations you got to have with him. One of them, you know, you just got to ask the right question of, you know, do you consider yourself a leader today?

When did you consider yourself a leader? When did you delegate it? So he can give us the answers instead of, you know, do you consider yourself a leader today? When did you consider yourself a leader? When did you delegate it? So he can give us the answers instead of us just poking. Speculating, yeah. And I think that's what Charles is going. I think the thing is like Charles is looking at like Brooklyn, like things that deteriorated. But like you said, I can't make

a grown man. The man don't want to take the jab. Kyrie didn't want to take the shot. What the hell y'all want me to do? Y'all want me and Harden and the team to hold him down and let the doc come give him a shot? The man said he's not taking it. We talked to him. He said, James and I, I think he said that, they had a conversation. Kyrie,

mine was made up. I'm not taking that shot. So I don't really know if there's only so much I can lead. This ain't the military. I can't give him a cold read. They say, I don't have't the military. I can't give him a cold read. I don't have Loudon Downing over there to give him a cold read. Give Willie Santiago a cold read.

They can't do that. And so for me, I get what Kevin Durant said. I don't really know what else y'all want me to do. So in that situation, I totally get you can only lead, but the people that you're leading got to want to be led. And then Kyrie in that situation had made his mind up.

He had done his research. And from what he had to do, the shot wasn't for me. Ever since the Golden State, we have questioned his resume. And it's unfair because we've never done it in the past. No other player no other players resumes been challenged when they move somewhere when they ask to be traded none of their resumes been challenged besides the last 15 20 years so it's easy for people to throw jabs at their career you know so you know some of these players right now just walking on eggshells and they don't know

what to do so it's easy for them to just be like, I just want to play basketball. I just want to hoop. It's easier to say that. I just want to hoop. I don't want to go back and forth and all hoopla hoopla. I agree. I have a problem with that because I think the thing is that sometimes the older players forget that they ask for trades also.

They don't think like I understand that social media there was no social media then but some of us are old enough to remember of you requesting a trade some of us remember things that you did that you criticized the very players today for doing yep and so that's why look and that's why i don't i've never had a problem given the younger generation is the game different yes rules change in football uh has made the game. The guys are skilled.

The guys are bigger, stronger, faster. But the rules have been put in place to allow the offensive players to produce better numbers. Yes. And the defensive players can produce better numbers because there are more opportunities to sack the quarterback and to intercept the pass. And that's not to say that, oh, these guys ain't any good they are but we do have to take them you know if if they made the basket if they made the basket two inches bigger and guys all of a sudden started averaging 40 points we can't sit here and say like well that had no impact on the guy averaging 42 or three guys averaging 40 in a season. Of course it does. And so to act like that certain rules and parameters

hadn't been put in place to make the game, I'm not saying that it's easier, but it probably is easier because I believe the guys in the NBA are more skilled. When you get guys that are more skilled and you put them in more space, what the hell do you think is going to happen? Yeah.

Is it, okay, just like in football, right? Is it, which one is coming first? Because I don't think we think about it, right? Even from when football started. The harder you hit, the bigger you get. The rules got to change. Like, oh, wait, these guys are getting too big, too strong. We got gotta change this

this up a little bit right so it's the players that's changing up the rules right so it's not like oh football these guys are softer no no no today we can't have these guys hitting this quarterback because quarterback everybody's not built like Cam. No, no. These guys are bigger, stronger, faster. We have to protect the quarterback a little bit more now because there's too much power coming at them. So now we got to put rules. So the rules is really coming because of the talent is getting better.

So it looks like it's softening up, but there has to be rules for it. If not, you're going to have some... You got Mack Trucks coming. There were too many concussions, Gil, and the league was getting sued, and they saw guys leaving the game, and we saw what was

happening. Guys were taking their lives at a very young age, and so the NFLfl stepped in and said we got to have some rule changes well you can't attack the quarterback they've tried they're trying to take the kickoff out of the game but they don't know how to because it's still an exciting part of the game it's too impactful for you not to have it in the game but if they can find a way to remove it because you think about it, they don't let the guys get a running start. The guys can't leave until the ball is kicked.

Also, you can't put the two man or the three man wedge together. So they've done a lot of things to try to make the game safer. But also Gil is that because guys don't hit during the course of the week, you ask a guy to drive 20 miles an hour, 40 miles an hour during the course of the week, and then come Sunday go 100 miles an hour. Something's going to happen. When you

go to NASCAR, when they go warm-ups, they're going 180. They don't go 25, 40, 50 miles an hour around the track, and then all of a sudden come Sunday when they get on the track and go Daytona, or they go Lowe's Motor Speedway or something, and all of a sudden say, we're going to air it out.

No, you got to put the car to the test. Well, you got to put your body to the test during the course of the week. But I understand what KD is saying. I understand what Charles was saying. But I think KD could have dodged a lot of this blowback, Gil, had he not said anything about leadership and just leave everybody to speculate. Because once you say what you say, what you say, you kind of take the speculation out of it. Check this out, Gail.

I know you want to talk about what I said on first take about being in a steady relationship, helping your image as face of the NBA. And people like, man, man, this, this N word mentioned magic. Magic might've been doing what he was doing, but the fans didn't know. Sponsors didn't know sponsors didn't know there might have been other players that have been the face of the league but nobody knew what they were doing if it didn't matter why was the scrutiny so great on Tiger Woods

because he sold an image he was this wholesome guy married with two kids now there's another reason we talk about that a little later we might have to do that on another show because we know all of a sudden that cobbling Asian didn't help him because they didn't see

no cobbling Asian. They saw a black man did that to a white woman and all holy hell when there had been black men cheating on their black wives for the longest and they never said a word and it never caused this kind of outcry. So, but I'm just saying, what I was trying to say,

like the image, because you're like, you didn't know that until, if magic had never been diagnosed with AIDS, nobody would have knew magic history. You wouldn't have. So stop just like, oh, we knew. No, you didn't. Just like, oh, if this story hadn't have broke,

you would have never knew about Tiger Woods, what he was doing. And some of the other guys that's been facing the NBA. So stop telling that lie like you knew because you're not day to day and you didn't see what they were doing. So I'm saying, Gil, that as a situation like the face of the league, they want you buttoned up. They want you to accept responsibility. And they see normally, a married guy, what? He has responsibility. He has

a wife. A lot of times he has kids. So he's more willing and accepting of responsibility. I remember, Gil, when they said the league was getting too young because they were bringing guys straight out of high school. And so they didn't have the responsibility of a guy that's already been in the league

and some of these guys that are married. So that's what I was trying to say. I wasn't trying to say, oh, no, I'm just saying, as a league, as a face, we look at some of the guys, all of them was in steady relationships. So you could say, well, Magic did this. Yeah, but you didn't know he did that. You didn't know the sponsors, the brands didn't know he was doing that.

And some of the other guys. So that's all I was saying. I mean, they took it for whatever, you know, say Shannon said you had to be. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying, but there's a lot of things. I think now to be the face of the league, you're going to have to be like LeBron James. You're going to have to be willing to take a stand on political issues, on social issues. Are you willing to do that?

Because before, they never talked about it, Gil. Nobody took a stand back in the 90s. Nobody took a stand in the 2000s. Religion, politics, you didn't talk about that. Now, when LeBron James did, he did. I think it was Tamir Rice, the guy,

George, in Florida. When he took that stand and he's been taking stands ever since, I think that's the standard in which guys are going to have to do if you're going to be the face of the NBA. Because we see there at the forefront when it comes to these social issues more so than any other sports league. So that's what I was trying to explain to you with trying to explain, saying, OK, would it would it be better if the guy was married or does that you can say no which i don't think that carries any weight huh oh uh uh magic has uh excuse me i didn't say hey i meant to say magic was hiv hiv positive not age but they made it seem like they knew what magic was doing prior to him making

that announcement, and they didn't. They tried to make it seem like they know what all these players are doing, but they don't. And so you look at Magic and Bird and Jordan and Kobe, and we know Kobe had his issues, but you didn't know until it came out. You make it

seem like, oh man, I know Kobe, man. I could have told you that. You couldn it seem like, oh, man, I know it, man. I know Kobe, man. Man, I could have told you that. You couldn't have told us, Jack. Yep. Okay, it's like this. I understood what you were saying. If we had the right descriptive, we're

image consultees, right? The perfect image is married man. Before you go, it was Trayvon Martin. That was the guy, Trayvon Martin. Tremere Rice, I think. In fact, he was in Cleveland when he was playing with the toy gun in the park.

The guy rolled up in the two-second shot. So it was Trayvon Martin. Excuse me, Chad. So you have a married man, wife, kids, dog. They go to church, right? It's the family. It's the family. You want to sell families, right?

And that's, that is, that is the number one. If you have to write the script, that's what you want. Well, I had to do image consulting when I was in Washington and I had to sit down with a panel and group about imaging, right? And they said this, they said, to rule this world, you need to be appealing to women first. Everything you do is for women first, how you dress, how you talk. For women first, gays second,

males third, right? So if you're an athlete, the males gravitate to what you're doing. But everything else, your appearance is for women. Gays are going to follow women, right? Now, when you think that, and then they said,

all right, look, Michael Jackson, their name Prince and all these people, you start thinking, what is the biggest group in America? Single women, right? Yes. So in reality, the script we will write will be for a married man. Well, who is them single women gonna root for? See, when you put a married man. Well, who is them single women going to root for?

See, when you put a single man that's vulnerable and clean cut, he becomes a darling to America. But it's only a few people that can do that. You have to really be a humble dude that can be single, that can do that right right you have to really be a humble dude that can be single that can be put magic as ac green right exactly yeah right you want because you want

the ladies to want this man they're not going to want a married man right they're going to want the single man it can flood in there we love you we so that is actually a face too right right if tatum wanted to be a face and he was a single dude right and he wasn't married he will still be the face and be a rock star but the problem with a single dude is they do single things exactly a family man you know is home for the most time. So he's safer. And what do leagues try to sell? Family. You can bring your kids.

You can inspire. Bro, you out here with James, Sue, Sally. No, Nate, Nate, Nate, Nate, Timmy. No, no, no, no, Mark Juan. No, we don't want you to aspire to be that. We want you to be. Look at quarterbacks. Mahone, married.

Brady got married. Peyton Manning got married. Elmay, Marino, Jim Kelly, Young, Montana. The list goes on and on and on and on and on. Now, Broadway Jones was a different story, but that was way back then. Was Eli Manning married? Yes, Eli was married.

But see, for the most part, and I think that's where, you know, when you're thinking about a publicist, most of these guys, you don't know they're married. Right? You don't know they're married because we don't see their wives like that. Right. I think just the ideal of a married man,

he's safer. Perception is everything. Gil, a person's perception is their reality. Now, that might not be the truth. This man might be married and doing everything under the sun. But the perception is they see that band, they see that wife at the game, they see them kids. Ah.

Ah, yep. you get the ah. That's what, and so, you could say I was crazy, but I don't think I was crazy as people tried to make me out. Because when you look at it, look at who became the face of the league. Yeah, yeah. I understand you because

I went through those conversations, so I know what's safe. Like, Allen Iverson, right? He was a hard-torn he he had all the ladies right but who he was how he acted that's not safe for the nba that's that's something that they can't push you know for the for the most part the way in ways you kill o'neill it also your personality too and i i tell i tell people i say listen, clean cut? Whoa, that's hard. That white suit, them white gloves is hard to keep clean.

Right? You might want to just make it a little beige. Just a little beige. It's even harder than I get with social media. Yeah, yeah. Just a little beige so you can so you have a little wiggle room. You know, especially in today's world.

You're coming in with that all white. Everybody loves all white. They get dirty. A little dust can mess you up a little bit. Yeah, but see, that's the thing. With white, when I grew up, Gil, you could only wear white. You couldn't wear white before Easter. You wore it after Easter.

And then once Labor Day hit there was no more white then they started coming out with they started coming out with winter whites and fall white I'm like hold on wait a minute now you wore white Easter the first time you had somebody where when I grew up the first time you saw white was Easter Sunday before that you didn't see you didn't see no whites in January and February and March. You didn't see no whites in October, November, December. You saw white Easter Sunday

and then you wore it up to Labor Day. Normally, they put the white. Man, I got to go and see if I get one more use out of this white before I put it up. So, was it white shoes, white clothes? Yeah, when you was a kid, I mean, me and my brother,

me and my mom sent us to one Easter and I told a story in my Hall of Fame speech. We had white slacks and I think the jackets were burgundy. I think we had white shoes too. We might have had white shoes. We were clean. We were clean. Man, Gil, if a fly lied on me, I'd have cut his throat.

Now I say, no, I'm too clean for you to land on me. But that's the way it was but like i said a person's perception is their reality now perception is not always the truth but that's just something to say about that man especially if you don't see him and most athletes you don't see them so it's not like the guy that he works at in the office and you might know what he's doing. These guys, you might not ever see them. And so you're like, he's been married five years.

He's been married ten years. He married his high school sweetheart. He married his college sweetheart. That's heartwarming. The league sells that. They sold Peyton. They sold Brady. They sold, they sell Mahomes. It's hard to sell it. It's hard because you're trying to, families.

It's, tickets, four tickets cost more than one. So that single lady, she might want to go see the single, whoever the single, unless Dak is in a relationship now. I'm trying to think who's, I don't know who's, let's just say Justin Fields. Okay, they might be, let's just, uh, Dak is in a relationship now. I'm trying to think who's, I don't know who, let's just say Justin Fields. Okay, they might be, but what about that family of four that's going to see the quarterback that's

married? So that was my only part, so, only point. So if someone took it, thought I was going somewhere else other than that, I'm sorry, but hopefully Gil and I cleared that up for you. Speaking of future, go ahead, Gil. I'm no chill Gil, right? I'm no chill Gil.

Don't go outside. You ain't catching me. No clubs, no bars, no nothing. Perception is a reality, but my reality is what I sell you. See, they have this perception

whether what you do or not. I mean, you know, people knew in Denver I didn't, most of my career, a lot of my career, I was single, but I wasn't out. I had a girlfriend and people thought, you know, I'm not a public outed guy. You don't need to know what I'm doing.

Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. Everybody want to put everything on social media and take a picture of your food and take a picture of this. Nah, I'm going to show you what I want you to know about my life because the more I show you, the more you're going to think you know, and then you can start forming opinions and assumptions about my life.

Welcome to another episode of Nightcap Basketball Style. I'm your favorite. He's your number zero. No, that's not you. That's us. Wildcat legend. Wizard legend. You hear that? Backdrop. The intro is coming back through the feed.

But you know who he is. Gilbert Hibachi Arenas. Bro, how you been? Thanks for joining us. Ash, what's going on? It's Gil. It's Gil's computer. It's your computer, Gil.

Okay, is that better yet? I don't even know where that came from. Your computer. We good? Yeah, I heard it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, let's go do your computer. I got so many screens on, I am.

My bad. I just wanted to hear you twice. Made for This Mountain is a podcast that exists to empower listeners to rise above their struggles, break free from the chains of trauma, and silence the negative voices that have kept them small. Through raw conversations, real stories, and actionable guidance, you can learn to face the mountain that is in front of you. You will never be able to change or grow through the thing that you refuse to identify. The thing that you refuse to say, hey, this is my mountain. This is the struggle. This is the thing that's in front of me. You can't make that mountain move without actually diving into that. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a time to conquer the things

that once felt impossible and step boldly into the best version of yourself to awaken the unstoppable strength that's inside of us all. So tune into the podcast, focus on your emotional well-being and climb your personal mountain. Because it's impossible for you to be the most authentic you. It's impossible for you to love you fully if all you're doing is living to please people. Your mountain is that. Listen to Made for This Mountain on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Michael Kassin, founder and CEO of 3C Ventures and your guide on good company. The podcast where I sit down with the boldest innovators shaping what's next. In this episode, I'm joined by Anjali Sood, CEO of Tubi, for a conversation that's anything but ordinary. We dive into the competitive world of streaming, how she's turning

so-called niche into mainstream gold, connecting audiences with stories that truly make them feel seen. What others dismiss as niche, we embrace as core. It's this idea that there's so many stories out there, and if you can find a way to curate and help the right person discover the right content, the term that we always hear from our audience is that they feel seen. Get a front row seat to where media, marketing, technology, entertainment, and sports collide. And hear how leaders like Anjali are carving out space and shaking things up a bit in the most crowded of markets. Listen to Good Company on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcasts. In the fall of 1986, Ronald Reagan found himself at the center of a massive scandal that looked like it might bring down his presidency. Did you make a mistake in sending arms to Tehran, sir? No. It became known as the Iran-Contra affair. And I'm not taking any more questions in just a second. I'm going to ask... I'm Leon Nafok, co-creator of Slow Burn. In my podcast, Fiasco, Iran-Contra, you'll hear all the unbelievable details of a scandal

that captivated the nation nearly 40 years ago, but which few of us still remember today. The things that happened were so bizarre and insane, I can't begin to tell you. Please do. To hear the whole story, listen to Fiasco, Iran Contra on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, check this out. Speaking of future faces of the league, Jason Tatum said, give me that. He said, I feel like it's mine to take. I do feel like if we win a championship, it will be more distinguished and clear.

But I understand I'm on the short, I'm in that short list for sure. And I love to hear him say that. I love to hear him say that. I want that responsibility. I want to be the face of the league in everything that comes along with it. Good, bad, or indifferent. I love

when guys say, give me that. Give me all that. Whatever it is that comes along with it, I'm willing to take it see and and he is the from from the studies that i got he will be the perfect guy for it right he has the charisma he has the style he has the play he has the look right we don't know if he's single or not we know he don't get in trouble. He doesn't go outside. But we see him with his son all the time. So that makes him a great dad, which appeals to a demographic of people.

It's like, okay, I can get behind him. Yeah, it's the guy, like you got him, right? We know Jokic doesn't have, he doesn't check off a lot of boxes. Nope, but he's just married. Yeah, yeah, that's it, right? We know Jokic doesn't have, he doesn't check off a lot of boxes. Nope, but he's just married. Yeah, yeah. That's it. Right? Even with someone like Luka, right?

That's hard. I'm going to just be honest and I'm going to say it. I've never seen American push European. Right. It's just not a thing. As much as we want to, Giannis and all, as much as you want it, this is the best player

in the world, they're still going to put that American brand to the American brand and it's going to be that. So, you know, Tatum, Ant-Man has the personality. You know, he's still, you know, he have a little trouble and he has to get a great

team around him to keep all that outside noise and you know to be in the face of the league it comes with preparation come with a huge responsibility too like you you're talking about you don't have a life oh no you don't have a life because when you're the face of the league you have to be able to understand that when you walk outside your door, you are the face. Yes. You're in your car. Somebody pulls over to you. Somebody honks at you.

You have the NBA now. Yes. So everything you do now is magnified. So you really have to have a strong supporting task to really understand how to keep that image intact for the league itself. Yeah. And plus, it doesn't help Giannis' case when he says, well, I don't know.

I don't even watch no film of the basketball player. I don't know. It makes it tough. Why would you ever say that? Bro, I just want you to know. Ain't nobody say, oh my God, you see that? Yeah. I mean, most guys, you hear Jordan, and you hear Jordan

talk about how he studied. You hear Magic say how he studied. You hear Kobe, LeBron, all the greats. But somehow Giannis thinks that, you know what, you know, I'm going to endear myself. I'm going to say I love to make it hard. I don't study. That might explain why you have four coaches in a year. Little does he know.

That's got to play some role in it. And I said the same thing. It makes sense why he hasn't gotten better. The same reason he hasn't gotten to post up mid-range is because he don't watch his flaws enough to clean them up. So sometimes you have to be careful on what you say right we don't know if it's true but we can say we believe it because we can look at the totality of it you can you can use we won rings and i got an mvp okay but do you have a post-up that you never came

in here with did you do you uh mid-range no right so we can can say, well, maybe you don't really watch film yourself to understand how to get better. You gave us the window to throw rocks at it now. Yes. And he can't get mad.

Because what he does is that when he has a bad game, they say, everybody's going to say, had you studied film, you'd have known what was coming. You'd know what the hell to do. That's all you do is that you open yourself up. You subject yourself to criticism that you probably wouldn't have gotten. Now, you're going to get some criticism

because you're a great player. You're a top three player in the league. And so you're going to get some criticism. But now you're going to get more criticism because the first time you lose a game and they're going to say, well, say, hey, hell, if you had studied, you'd know what the hell was coming. You'd know that double team was coming, or you'd know

where to kick the ball to. But since you didn't study, this is what happens to you. Hey, hey, hey, Miami been whooping their tail for a long time, and we can see why you've struggled against them every single year. It makes sense.

Yeah. Hopefully, John comes back from that injury. I think he's done for the year. But I think this is a great opportunity for John to have some time to himself, to take to himself. Hey, you know what? They keep talking about they need a face for the NBA.

Hell, why can't it be me? Let me clean it. Because we love an underdog story. We love a guy that was here, that went down to the bottom and sprung back up to the top. Yeah, listen, both times he came back, we shut the hell up, right?

Both times he came back, we was mesmerized by his game. What he did, it took a backseat because what he does on that floor is just dynamic basketball. Those games he came back, it was so impactful. The game, winner,

this and that. We're not hearing the outside noise anymore. That's the type of game he has. The problem with Jao is everybody around him. They are, they're nice kids.

I met them this summer. Like when you hear like, Oh, these are nice. These are very good kids. They just haven't been programmed to understand what they have. Right. Right.

They don't know. Hey, they don't know these Jordans. They got, they got on is actually worth 20 grand. Take them off. Right. Right. They don't know. Hey, they don't know these Jordans they got on is actually worth 20 grand. Take them off, right? They don't know that.

They just, hey, I just got me some new Jordans. I'm going to go out there and wear them, right? They got a Ja Morant. They don't know that's a Ja Morant. They don't know what this Ja Morant is. So they have to really sit there and say, okay, wait, hold on. I need to smarten up so I know how to teach him

and teach him how to move. So, you know, that's something I told them,, wait, hold on. I need to smarten up so I know how to teach him and teach him how to move. So, you know, that's something I told them, you know, this summer, y'all have to be better. Y'all have to understand LeBron is LeBron, but there's a Maverick, there's a Rich Paul. Randy. You know what I mean? Randy and his wife.

They had to do their part too for the King to step into that role. He's going to play the game. They have to do their role too for the king to step into that role. He's going to play the game. They have to do their role too. That's what you need. That's what all stars need. When you're a star, you don't have friends.

You have employees. You have employees and business partners to your image. Well, LeBron, is that any woman that I've dealt with in the last umpteenth years, the number one thing I tell them, your number one rule is not to love me,

is to protect the brand. Protect the brand. Because you can't love me enough if you're willing to damage the brand because it means nothing. Yep. Your love, if you protect the brand, you're telling me that you love me. And that's what your homeboys need to understand.

Protect the brand because without the brand, all this goes away. The bottle service, the private jets, the whole VIP area, going wherever you want to go, anytime you want to go, the private chefs, the whole VIP area, going wherever you want to go, anytime you want to go,

the private chefs and all that, if you don't protect the brand. That's the number one. Oh, you need to make a shirt. You need to do something with that. Oh, don't love me. Protect the... Oh, I can't wait.

I can't wait to tell them girls that. Y'all need to love me. Just protect my brand. Because if you protect the brand, you love me. Because I've seen people go, I love you, I love you, and do some things

and get people involved. And now people never look at them the same. Yeah. So that's how you show me, that's how you show me you love me. Protect the brand. Yes. I love that.

I'm not even going to talk about that. That's a good one. The NBA All-Star Game viewership was up this year but it's steadily declining since 2003 Gil what do the ratings say about the interest in the All-Star Game listen

I think we're confused on what the numbers are because if you thought about the numbers the first day everybody wrote it, everybody wrote 5.5, 4.6, we've seen the numbers, right? People don't understand the reason that is since 2002, 2003, that's when it turned to TNT. Before TNT, it was CBS, right? Right. It had NBC once and then it was CBS for a while. And if you look at CBS numbers, you're going to be like, Jesus Christ, 2003 was a downfall. Like, what happened?

Because it was 22 million, 18 million, 17 million, right? NBC, TNT. Well, the reason our numbers are blurred, you can't say we having these big TV deals and our numbers are down. The problem is this. Back then, we had to watch it. We didn't have Tebow and we didn't have too many things going on now. We didn't have that. We had to watch the game live.

If you didn't watch it live, you missed it. So therefore, we had to schedule our day around all-star events. Today, we can do whatever we want. See, them views, that 11 point, that don't have the cell phone in there. That have the house. That don't have the cell phone. That don't have the cell phone that don't have the computer that don't have those new devices that we all have today back then there was no international see right we don't do we have the numbers from paris from wimby's country watching wimby no that comes in the next day so it's global now even though last last year to America says 4.6, the real numbers overall, the totality that's seen last year's

all-star weekend numbers was 1.3 billion people. You're not counting China. You're not. So the game is way bigger. It's just diluted because we got better shit to do. We got better shit to do in real time. Yeah, and look, I think the thing is, Gil, also,

is that people are interested because they're like, y'all not playing. If you don't care, why should we? So why should we take two and a half hours out of our day if y'all going to go out there and just jack up threes and horse ass around? So you telling me you don't care

so you want me to take time out of my day to care about this? The same thing they did with the Pro Bowl. They got tired of fans, got tired of saying, man, y'all playing two-way in touch. This is not football. And I know, look, they shoot a lot of threes in regular season NBA games, and it seems like a dunk

a layup because guys are so skilled. And guys, you know, you guys are getting beat, and so now the help defender comes and now the guy kick, and he's wide open. I get all of that. I get it. But and you play in a game like this, and they I read where they had Larry Bird,

they had Andre Iguodala, and they had Dr. J to go talk to the player. But I find it ironic. Everybody, everybody for the most part would talk old Kobe. Woo, Mamba mentality. Oh, we love Mamba. And get out there, what they do in all-star games, Gil. Now, all I know is that I saw Kobe for 18, 19 years in all-star games

and played like it was a playoff game. But all these players, they talk about old Kobe, Kobe, Kobe, Kobe, Kobe, Mamba, Mamba, Kobe, Kobe, Kobe. Mamba, mamba. Kobe, mamba mentality. Y'all get out there and bull job around. You know why Kobe took it serious? Because he was,

it was the only time that he was vulnerable to his fears. Yes. See, you know, and I talked to some of the guys back in the 80s and back in the 90s and

said why was like i don't i look at something and ask the question why right so i don't have i don't have a narrative i want to know why first right so they said okay this was this is why it was more competitive then michael jordan you have Michael Jordan, you have Drexler. Drexler played against Michael only two times. Now, if he didn't play him twice before All-Star break, when he got into that

game in front of this national television, everybody didn't have national TV games then. Everybody wasn't on TV. So the guys that wasn't on TV. So the guys that wasn't on TV, this is my opportunity to bust somebody's ass and be seen

nationally for the first time. I'm representing our team. So I got to go out there and do my job. Some of those guys, they didn't even want to be in a dunk contest, but they had to represent the team because the team itself, this is our first chance. This was more competitive because people

had... I got a point to prove now. Well, today's game... I'm on TV 20 times before our weekend, so I already bust your ass a few times, brother.

I gave you 50. I gave you 48. When I see you, it's a few times, brother. I already see that. I gave you 50. I gave you 48. Right? So when I see you, it's ha-ha-ha. Well, Cole was different. Cole was saying, well, I don't have my team. I don't have my structure. I don't know what you want.

So I don't know what you want. I know what I'm going to be on. I'm going to hit you first because I don't know what kind of time you want. Because I did give you 81. I did give you this. I don't know when you coming into this building and you thinking everything is saucy. You're going to try. I guarantee you, y'all heard. There's a

sound bite. I'm in layup line and I said, hey, first opportunity I get, I'm about to yank cold. I'm about to give them, get over here. I airballed. I hit all backboard. But you can see what kind of time I'm about to give him, get over here. I airballed. I hit all backboard. But you can see what kind of time I'm on. And that's the time he knew.

So when he went into that, he was protecting his brand from looking bad because he knew he was vulnerable because I don't have my team defense. I don't have that help because I know everybody's going to be joning. Yeah, I don't want to give you no confidence. I remember I was talking to Time and Time said, look here, in practice, we've had a pro bowl, I ain't letting you catch nothing because I don't want you to think you can do something over here and

take your butt back to the main lane and think you can do it over there. So I ain't going to let you catch nothing over here. Guys wouldn't let you catch the ball. I mean, you really had to work in practice to get open and catch the ball. I mean, it really had to work and practice to get open and catch the ball. I mean, it was like, I'm like, bro. They're like, uh-huh. Nah, Sharp, you in because I already know.

Yep, you right. I would talk cash into practice. Yep, sure is. But that's the mindset guys had back then is that I'm not, you're going to work. And I want to see my skills because there's a chance that I didn't get a chance to play against the guy that's in the Pro Bowl. So I wanted to see where I racked stacked up against

it because you know a lot of times we didn't play a lot of those guys. We didn't play. I mean like you're in the division, but we didn't sometimes we didn't play a lot of those. There were years we didn't play the Cowboys. So I wanted to see where I stacked up against some of the defensive players. I want to see what I against Woody some some of those guys so that's that was the mentality we have i don't know where it went sideways i honestly don't deal i don't know in the pro bowl

where it went sideways i don't really know um in the nba where guys just thought it was cool to just let a guy just move out of the way i mean mean, I've been watching old Cliffs. Hey, them guys ain't giving Charles nothing. They're like, uh-uh. They really guard down there. Gil, they had 289 shot attempts on Sunday. They had three blocks, and one of them was by Steph Curry.

Like, I was a part of three, right? When people like I was a part of I was a part of three right um when when people look back and say these games were still good right now before the game we all had that conversation hey we're gonna go out

there let's go let's play hard give these people a show right oh it's five on five plus all you need is one person to do something dumb. Once somebody shoots it from half court, everybody want to do it. Everybody, you know, I mean, if everybody, everybody is shooting for that MVP. You miss three shots. You and you uninterested. Right. Kobe have 14 in the first quarter. He won and I'm done, right?

There's things that go on in the game where you can see people be like, alright, alright Kobe, MVP, let me just go and enjoy the environment. And now it really seems like I've seen a few bad ones

from some stars. You remember the year where Giannis is coming down the lane and steph curry laid flat on the floor let him go like it was little things like that i said all right man yeah it's about to go south right i i jumped off the trampoline i treated it like like what it was man i'm here to enjoy myself right i know, this is my first three-day weekend, four-day weekend. You know, I'm enjoying myself, enjoying the festivity,

be around some superstars, get these conversations. Hey, man, how do you work out? You know, I was a fan and a student, right, at the same time. I told, you know, trying to watch the mannerisms and how people carry themselves.

Because for the most part, to be honest, all-star weekend is a measuring stick and a learning experience. Yeah. Right? We hear the stories. Now I get to see them. Right? I get to see, you know, Allen Iverson. And I got three reporters sitting to me.

And then Allen Iverson got the whole damn gym. Hey man, let's go over there, let's go there and see what he talking about. I'm watching, seeing how he answers questions, go to Colby, see how he answers and does this, watch Tim Duncan, right? It was studying what superstars did, how did they move? How did they sign when they're going in autograph? Are y'all signing y'all real autographs right but i didn't know there was fake ones right yeah right you know now you know cole and this is this is one thing you gotta love kobe for this man he never he never cheated the game

and i mean that from every aspect of it the autograph signing balls right you got players on there that wrote they just initials right yeah i don't want to say no names but i got three balls and just that ain't your goddamn autograph yeah right just show initials because you don't want to be there you just there's so many balls and you already mentally checked out. Let me just sign CB, CB or whatever. Kobe wrote his signature. You don't have a whole bunch of all so there's a bunch of all-star balls out there with just letters on it.

He didn't cheat nobody and that's what I got from it. The game itself was the game. I was there to learn how to be a star from the stars itself. Because I'm never going to get that anywhere else.

Right? So, you know what I mean? So, mentally I wasn't there. The game itself, I wanted the experience to understand how to be at this level because these are the guys that we look for. I'd never been in a locker room with Kobe to understand how to be at this level. Cause these are the guys that we look for, right? Being in, I'd never been in a locker room with Kobe.

Besides ours on weekend. Cause I walked my ass in there. Hey, how y'all doing up in here? Hey, how y'all doing up in here? You know what I mean? I started sitting down in the chairs.

Shit. I'm never going to get this opportunity. Right. So let me go ahead and sit down here with dirt. No whiskey. Cold. You know what I mean? She, you know, she killed let me go ahead and sit down here with dirt, no whiskey, cold. You know what I mean? She killed O'Neal. And that was my stance on it.

You don't want to get embarrassed, Gil. I mean, those guys start coming hard. I said, okay. You keep coming like that. Now, if you want to treat it like a real game, I'm going to treat it like a real game. And I'm going to cut your ass. So I know it's an all-star game. So how are we going to do this now?

And so, look, I just approached it everything, okay, we're going to go hard. I'm going to do everything except cut. The last thing I want to do is cut somebody in an all-star game and possibly put them out because I can easily do it. But I said, no, I just wanted you to know, I just wanted them to know that I could cut your ass, but I'm not. I'm going to stay up. But the guys took it serious enough.

Now, did we play the first three quarters like we did the fourth quarter? No. No. But they just stopped playing altogether. They just stopped playing altogether. And you're right. When Steph laid down, it's just like, man, I don't know. But I just knew this year when they got the 200

point i said adam silver is seeding this is not a good look four quarters of at least 50 points gill it's not a good look because of how it looks too too, right? We can't say this is a great game, this is a great product because people are hitting shots. Yes. You guys are just, this doesn't even look like a practice. This doesn't even look like an all-star practice. Right. Shooting from the half, it's just cute.

Yes. But it's not good for the game itself. This ain't a run at UCLA. That didn't run at UCLA. And they smell competitive in this. Oh, no, no, no. No games at UCLA is damn near, uh, um, like, one, because we getting in shape, right?

And two, there's guys out there who don't get no time on their team. And they feel, this is my time right here. So they're going to go ham at you. Right. So UCLA runs them. They're like playoffs. How do you fix it? Easy. Don't have it. Because as long as you allow them to go out there and play, they're going to go out there and protect their interests now here's the here's here's something that you're never gonna hear the owners complain about the all-star game looking the way it's looking because one thing they can count for sure my guy ain't gonna go out there and get hurt yeah

so you won't it's a double-edged sword here too. Because I jumped off the trampoline and my coach, Eddie Jordan, was the coach. And I went out there trying to entertain. And the look on his face, sit your ass down. Like, I'm not playing you no more. Right? It was one of those, hey, hey, hey, no, no, no, no. Right? Hey, this is all fun and games god damn it but we

trying to make the playoffs my i had to go back to washington have a conversation about what i did right you know so you know for so for the most part as as as much as we wanted entertaining there is still an entity that does not care and that entity is the owners. We can say whatever we want. You can say whatever you want, but if you're on the other side as an owner, Oh yeah, for sure. You do not care about

no all-star game. You care about me having that guy for 82 games, 65 games, 55 games. That's all you care about. You don't care about Embiid going out there throwing a bunch of half-quarters

up there. What you do care about is him going out there averaging goddamn 35 on my time, on my dollar. The Made for This Mountain podcast exists to empower listeners to rise above their inner struggles and face the mountain in front of them. So during Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast, focus on your emotional well-being, and then climb that mountain. You will never be able to change or grow through the thing that you refuse to identify. The thing that you refuse to say, hey, this is my mountain. This is the struggle. Listen to Made for This Mountain on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Michael Kassin, founder and CEO of 3C Ventures and your guide on good company, the podcast where I sit down with the boldest innovators shaping what's next. In this episode, I'm joined by Anjali Sood, CEO of Tubi. We dive into the competitive world of streaming. What others dismiss as niche, we embrace as core. There are so many stories out there. And if you can find a way to curate and help the right person discover the right content, the term that we always hear from our audience is that they feel seen. Listen to Good Company on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In the fall of 1986, Ronald Reagan found himself at the center of a massive scandal that looked like it might bring down his presidency. It became known as the Iran-Contra Affair. The things that happened were so bizarre and insane, I can't begin to tell you. Please do. To hear the whole story, listen to Fiasco, Iran Contra on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.