Nightcap - Nightcap - Ja Morant balling out, Zion's tattoo, Durant's frustrations with Suns

Episode Date: December 28, 2023

Shannon Sharpe and Gilbert Arenas react to Ja Morant leading the Grizzlies to a 4-0 record since returning from suspension, Zion's strange new chest tattoo, Lakers players clashing with Darvin Ham during their recent skid. Kevin Durant reportedly frustrated with Suns' "underwhelming supporting cast" and the entire Wednesday night slate in the NBA. 0:00 - Introduction03:30 - Cavs beat Mavericks09:45 - Thunder beat Knicks21:00 - 76ers beat Magic38:00 - Suns Beat Rockets47:00 - Unc Goes OFF on Kevin Durant58:00 - Will KD ever be happy?1:08:00 - Why Draymond acts out1:18:00 - Lakers lineup issues1:41:00 - Ja Morant balls out1:56:00 - Zion's wack tattoo2:02:00 - Sex lives of NBA players #Club #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Volume. 50 bucks instantly in bonus bets. Download DraftKings Sportsbook now with code Shannon. New customers can bet $5 on any NFL action to score 150 instantly in bonus bets. Only on DraftKings Sportsbook with code Shannon. The crown is yours. You're listening to an iHeart podcast. I'm Michael Kasson, 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. Thank you for joining us. Welcome to another episode of Nightcap Basketball Edition. I'm your favorite sports ump, Shannon Sharp. He's your favorite number zero. He's also the greatest Arizona Wildcat hoop player in the history of the program. The man once dropped, he did drop 60 in a game against the Lakers. Gil, agent zero, arenas. Gil, what's going on, bro?

Hey, man, who you been talking to? Hey! There's only a small few people who think I'm the best Arizona player ever. Oh, well, I've been doing your research. Please make sure y'all subscribe to the Nightcap podcast feed. You can subscribe to the

Nightcap podcast feed. We have our own feed, Nightcap, but you can also grab it through the Club Shay Shay Mix. Just as long as you grab it, but grab it through the Nightcap podcast feed, but it's also available through the Club Shay Shay. We're still looking at the numbers. A bunch of y'all still listening through the Club Shay Shay

feed. That's okay, but we really prefer you guys subscribe to the Nightcap Edition. You can also like and subscribe to Gil Arena's channel on YouTube. The show airs Monday through Thursday live at 11.30 a.m.

Pacific Time. That's 2.30 p.m. Eastern Time. 11.30 a.m. Pacific, 2.30 p.m. Eastern. So make sure you check out gill he has some very interesting takes he and his uh cast we've also pinned shade by laporte link at the top of the chat new year's right around the corner then valentine's day then president day so make sure you go out support your favorite aunt Grab yourself a bottle for you or someone you love. So thank you, guys.

Gil, let's get right into it. Luke and the Mavs collapse in the fourth quarter, lose against the Cavs 113 to 110. The Cavs overcame a 20-point deficit, outscored the Mavericks 31-20 in the fourth quarter. No Donovan Mitchell, no Darius Garland, no Evan Moe. Karras LaVert, 29 points and a gutsy late three for the lead.

Jared Allen had 24 points, 23 rebounds. I guess he was responding to Andre Drummond's 24 and 25 against the Hawks yesterday. Luka, 39, 7 and 6 was not enough. What did you take away from this ball game? It's usually your bench. Dallas is

they have one superstar. This reminds me of Jordan when he came into the league, right? You know, Luca's so good where we think that, you know, Dallas Maverick is a contender. They're good. No, he's good. They're not good. You know, your third best player,

which is your second best player now, comes off the bench, right? It lets you know where the team is. He was just outmatched. It's basically him versus Cleveland 5, which is embarrassing because

no Donovan Minchell, no Darius Garland, no Evan Mobley. The Cavs are down three starters. You can't lose that game on your home court, especially being up by 20, Gil. Yeah. But you know, when you have players like LaVert coming off the bench, where he was a big factor in this game, where he came off with

29 off the bench, right? You know, he was a big, big key when Brooklyn was, when he was with Brooklyn, right? When he was KDing them. So, you know, he can play, and that's what's coming off the bench. So you got guys that steps up that you normally don't count on, but that's what having deep rosters is like.

So when you do need players like that, they can really, you know, count for one game. So, you know, it's just one of those games where, you know, Dallas got a little overzealous, as you can say. Yeah, and when you look at it, I'm looking at this ballgame, and I'm saying, okay, Hardaway Jr. is a nice player. You got Dante Exum, who's been playing well. Grant Williams, who you signed in free agency.

I just don't know how you get up by that minute and just blow the game. I mean, they basically blew that ballgame. They had a 20-point lead. And maybe, and I don't know, maybe you can tell me if I'm wrong, but I know sometimes we have a propensity to relax. If a team, I know in football, oh, they ain't got their starting quarterback. They're down their starting running back. They're down their starting receiver or their best this or their best that.

And sometimes you find yourself, you take that for granted. But normally you don't see that happen in football. A team get a 14, 17 point lead without a team's best players. And the other team that doesn't have those best players come back and win. Now we see this, a 20 point lead in today's game is not the same as a 20 point lead 20 years ago, Gil, 30 years ago. Facts, facts, facts. Because the guys can shoot the three balls so much better. Because I don't remember,

I mean, when I was growing up, I don't remember teams coming back from 26 and 28 points in a ball game because normally, okay, it's time to watch something else. It's time to do something else. We're going to go outside and play ball on our own. Y'all down by 26, 28, but the way they shoot the three ball, a couple

of threes, a couple of turnovers, and the next thing you know, a 28-point lead is 18. And then they go on another spurt, another 10-0 run. So now, an 18-0 run, and now you're down 10 when you're just down 28. But Seth Curry played a good game. He had 19 points.

Luka, as I mentioned, had 39. Dante Exum had 13. Derrick Jones had 12. And Tim Hardaway Jr. had 14. But you look at Cleveland, Isaac Okoru had 22. Jared Allen, 24 and 23, as we mentioned. Karis LeVert had 29. George Nye, 16.

You got to win that one, though, Gil. You got to win that one, though, Gil. You got to. Those are the ones that you kick yourself in the ass later because you let this get away from you. With that being said, what gets you in the leads is also what takes you out, right? Because this

is a three-point shooting league now, you can go up by 20 and you can go down by 20. You shoot four or five straight threes, bricks them, and then they make three or four or five, right? You just cut that lead down. And that's what's happening in today's game where there's no lead that's safe because when you're up,

you're not going to get twos and get to the free throw line. No, no, no, no, no, no. You're trying to add the same method that got you back. This one thing that I have a problem with is this. Everyone shouldn't shoot the goddamn ball.

But I know we need to put up, you know, a certain amount of threes, but not you. Not you. Not you. Because when we're up 20, everybody else feels like

they can shoot. This is my time to shoot. Like, oh, no, it's not your time to shoot. But, Gil, have you ever seen a situation where all of a sudden the team is hot and everybody – and you see this a lot in mop-up duty. A team is, like, up by 20 with, like, two minutes to go in the ballgame, and all of a sudden they call timeout and they sub everybody out. And even the backups come in, and they launch them, and they're going in.

Now, you put them guys in a regular meaningful game and they can't buy a basket. But seemingly when they're up by 20, no one can miss a shot. And I think the thing is what you're alluding to is that all of a sudden everybody, if they're feeling good, they make it three. Hey, let me try one.

No, bro. Bro, you need nothing but two. Actually, you need dunks and putbacks. You don't need anything outside the paint. When you're a bench player, the game's down. You're down by 20. You're up by 20. That is the perfect scenario for it because you have no

pressure on you. You just get to go out there and just shoot how you want to shoot. That's like practice for you. You just get to throw up shots and sometimes that costs you when a team still has their starters in. Yeah, yes. So,

the Mavericks lose. They collapse to the Cavs, lose 113-110 after being up by 20 points. The Cavs outscore them by 11 in the fourth quarter to take a 113-110 victory. The Thunder beat the Knicks 129-120. The explicit duo of Shea Gilgis, Alexander, and Jalen Williams combined for 72 points. Shea Gilgis had 36,

8, and 7. Jalen Williams. I think everybody names Williams in the state of Oklahoma played for the Thunder. He had 36 on 5 of 5 threes, 76% field goal. He was 13-17. Chet Holmgren had 22. And the Thunder now moved to 20-9. I like the Thunder, Gil. I like them. I do too, but they're young, right? Yes. They're going to give you those days where, you know,

they're going to be clicking because, you know, your best player, Shea, he has it, right? He understands the game. He's dominating the game right now. He, for the last three, four, five years, he's been showing that he is a superstar. So with him leading the charge, it's easier for everybody else to just chip in here and there. So they have great players around Shea that can just do what they do and don't have to worry about the heavy lifting. Yeah.

I mean, man, I love Shea. I mean, he has a tremendous pull step back. He can get to the rack. He can finish with either hand. He's a little bit more explosive because you think he's going to lay it up and he will flush it on you. He got a nice little three game. That's not in his arsenal, but he can get hot and hit the three.

As you mentioned, Williams, I saw him against the Lakers a couple of days ago. Even though the Lakers won, he can stroke it from three. He can really shoot the ball from outside. Chet Holmgren, he's up and coming. He needs to add about 10 pounds to that frame. But what I like about him, he ain't just jacking up threes. He'll try to put the ball on the floor and try to get to the rim. He'll try to poke it on you.

And he's challenging everything. You might flush on him, but he's get to the rim he'll try to poke it on you and he's challenging everything you might flush on him but he's gonna block two or three shots he's gonna alter two or three shots so he's gonna impact the game from a on a defensive from a defensive perspective for about 10 points because he's gonna block two or three of your shots he's gonna alter two or three of your shots and maybe he'll make the time of possession run out on a few of your shots so he's gonna account account for 10 points. That's why they're so good defensively, even though they are young. But I like this team.

They can get up and down. They can play a lot of different styles. They got young guys. And when you know young guys, you don't know any better. You don't know anything about being tired. But I love Shea Gilgis-Alexander. And maybe, maybe Kawhi went a little bit too fast. Because how do you think the Clippers, and we're going to continue on with this,

but how do you think the Clippers would look with Shea Gilgis and Kawhi? I mean, see? That's, you see why, like, you know, you question that upper management. Like, what did you see? When did you see? I guess they were trying to win right now. And it was more of a package deal for Kawhi. Kawhi wanted PG.

Yeah, he wanted it. I heard Doc was talking. And he tried to explain it. He's like, you need to give this guy a year. He's like, Kawhi, he's really good. And he said, well, if you don't get me PG, I'm going to go to the team across the hallway. And they could ill afford to have that

because that would have been a death sentence for the Clippers. You cannot have LeBron, AD, and Kawhi across the hall, and then all you have is what you've got. So I understand they had to make the move, and they gave up a king's ransom to get PG. But when you look at it and you look at it player for player right now shake you just as a better player than pg and he has been for the last couple of years shame i mean to be honest he might be a better player than both

of them right now you might be right he might be you know you know he might be right like he is i won't fight you i won't debate you about it. I want to know, too. You know what I mean? It can go either way at this point, but he's steady. He's humble. He trains. He's worked. I mean, every summer he comes back, he's added something to his game. Yes. And Clippers is going to always

kick themselves in the butt when they look back at some of the trades they made versus what they have now. But, you know, just like anything, you're always trying to move pieces and get better pieces when you don't know that what's fool's gold and what's real gold. What's that gym? You know, what's that gym hiding in the hay? You know, one of those. And those type of players.

Right. You look at the Knicks. R.J. Baird gave him 14. Julius Randle gave them 25. Devin Chinzo gave them 17. Jalen Brunson was 24. Quickly was 22. But they let the Thunder shoot a very high percentage.

And Thibodeau's team is normally known for defense. But seemingly, the Thunder were able to get whatever they wanted. Now, look, it's very difficult, I mean, to try to say, okay, I understand you got Josh Hart, and I understand R.J. Barrett and Devin Chinzo, but ain't nobody stopping Shea from getting where he wants to go. He's going to get his shot because you try to beat him to the punch, and now he's going to pull back and shoot that little 12-foot, 14-foot shot,

and he's going to swish it. And then all of a sudden, you think he's going to pull back and shoot that look shoot that little 12 foot 14 foot shot and he's going to swish it and then all of a sudden you think he's going to pull back he pulled heavy and now he's landing up off the glass or he's landing up either way left hand or right handed uh in the cup so and if they're going to shoot it like this if they're going to shoot the ball like this they got look tress chet as i said chet's going to challenge everything you got lou dore who's a quality defender uh who can get hot and shoot the ball from three. And they got guys that can shoot the ball from three. I mean, when you look at this team, Jalen Williams can shoot it from three. Kendrick, he's more of a down low player, but he can get hot.

Jalen Williams, well, J-A-L-E-N and J-Y-L-I-N. Like I said, everybody named Williams in Oklahoma plays for the Thunder. But they got a nice young basketball team. Isaiah Joe, he can shoot the three ball because I remember him last year when I was at the game in which LeBron passed Kareem. And every time the Lakers make a run, one of these Williams or Isaiah Joe would make a three to quell that run. So I was really impressed with the Thunder, and I think

they're only going to get better. Josh Giddey, he's not having the season, because he normally by now probably have what? Two or three triple doubles? Yeah. I think with him, besides the off-the-court

situation that's looming around him. I think with Chet there, it takes the ball out of his hand more. Yes. And with Shea being more dominant, you don't need Giddy. Right.

He's a movable piece at this point. You don't need him. His upside has dropped very, very drastically. Yes. The Knicks squad, I'm never going to be impressed with them. It reminds me... Like, Thibodeau,

you have two guys that's playing 30-plus minutes scoring 4-2. 4-4. What is the point of them being on the court when someone's averaging 20-30 points? Josh Hart played 34 minutes and he gave you 4 points. That's wasted minutes. point of them being on the court when someone's averaging 20 30 points yeah josh hart had 30 played 34 minutes and he gave you four points yeah that's wasted miss wait wasted minutes you you have uh isaiah was it isaiah hardenstein yeah but he's your center because you know the big guy went out

i mean because they're all real undersized team if you look at them hardenstein now is their largest player so i mean you got to play a big because you got julius randall you know obviously randall's size team. If you look at them, Hardenstein now is their largest player. So, I mean, you got to play a big because you got Julius Randle. You know, obviously, Randle's got to play RJ Barrett. They're decent size. But when you look at it, I mean, they're not a big team. That's why I don't think they can do anything in the East because

everybody else is ginormous. You look at Boston has great size with Przinga's JT and JB. They have great size with Przinga's, JT, and JB. They have great sides with them. We know Milwaukee has trees with Giannis and Bobby Portis and Brooke Lopez and Joel Embiid. Yeah.

And they come with – I think it's Reed. Who's the backup center? I ain't talking about Mo Bamba. I ain't talking about him. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, I'm not talking about him. But they got big guys that can back you down, and I don't know who can deal with,

who can actually in a seven-game series for the Knicks, I know they can win one game because Jalen Brunson can get hot and give you 50. We've seen Julius Randle. He can get hot and he can give you 30, 40, and 15. But in a four-game, to win four games against Milwaukee or Boston or Philly, I don't believe they can do it. Do you think they can win a series against one of those three teams?

No, not those teams. The only team they can beat, and I said it last year, the only team y'all can beat here is playing against Cavs, and that's who they got. Cavs or Toronto. You can beat one of those teams with a, with a player like Brunson. You know, once you start getting to that,

that second round and you start going against them giants, it's really hard to win with that lineup. I mean, your best, most dominant player is Becky Hammond said it right. They don't have a, a one, a player.

They don't. Um, Brunson is a great, great second player or third or coming off the bench as that it guy, right? It's hard for small guys to win a title, Gil. I mean, you look at the history of the game as lead dogs. It's been Steph Curry and it's been Isaiah Thomas. Yeah.

And now, don't take anything away from AI. Chuck was outstanding. And he put up big numbers, led the league in scoring. Obviously, we know what he is. He was a historic player. But to win a championship, man, like I said, you got to be Steph Curry, who we know is transcendent, and Isaiah. Those are only,

when I say small, and I guess Steph Curry, what'd you say, Steph, is 6'2"? 6'2 1⁄2"? 6'3 1⁄2". Isaiah is 6'1". But when you start talking about, is Brunson 6'0"? With. Isaiah is 6'1. But when you start talking about if Brunson is 6'0, with shoes on, he's 6'2. He made it.

So when we talk about small, now we know the big guards. We know Magic and we know Jordan, guys of that. But man, for them little guards, man, you're asking an awful lot. It's an awful lot because if that's your best player, and it's not like he's athletic or like he's long, right?

You know, where he can make up some of the height. Black and white, yeah. But he's small, stubby, compact, right? You know, it's like he's not a Chauncey Billups, but if you put him with like LeBron, great. If you put him with Boston, great. When he's the best

player on the team, you really don't have a chance because he has to do so much being limited. And he's very limited at his size. I mean, I compared him to IT and to be honest, I'm pretty sure IT is offended because IT was a two-time All-Star averaging 29.

Don't compare me to dude. He ain't even on that level. But that's just the case. When you're small like Iverson, you gotta average 32, 33, 24. I can get that from any guard. But what he does bring is he brings leadership and

knowing how to get a great bucket in the last five minutes of the game. Yeah, he's sensational with that. So OKC wins that ballgame 129-120. The Sixers beat the Magic minus Joel Embiid 112-92.

Sixers' first win without Embiid this season in five tries. Philly takes 17 more shots than Orlando. Tyrese Maxey had 23 points to lead them. DeAnthony Melton stepped up tonight. He had 22 8-13 field goals. He was plus 24. Tyrese Maxey credits James Harden for helping him develop into an all- all NBA caliber talent.

First, let's get to the Sixers beat the magic without Joel Embiid. And then we can address Tyrese Maxie comments, credit flowers for James Harden. What are you like? Minus Joe. Obviously we know what Joel Embiid, he's averaging 35 points a game.

He's giving you 10, 11 rebounds a game. Now he's giving you four or five, five or six assists a game. So now giving you 10, 11 rebounds a game. Now he's giving you five or six assists a game. So now he's the complete package. And he's a dominant force on the defensive end. So he's giving you 35. He's assisting

on six. So we assume that at least two of those are going to be three. So now he's basically giving you about 45 to 50 points a night with his points and assists. So you know you got that. You see Tyrese Maxey blossoming, growing

right in front of our eyes. He's giving you 25 to 30 on a nightly basis. And some nights he can give you 35, 40. What do you like most about the Sixers? Without them being there, they're way better than Orlando. Orlando's young, right?

They're a young team, so you expected Sixers to win this, right? You still got Harris over there. You still got Oubre. You got solid veteran guys who know how to play this game, right? You would expect Maxie to come out and try to score 40 tonight,

right? Because Embiid's not here like, oh, I get to get off. But the way the game is being played, he realized that he still manages the game. You know, Embiid is not going to get this ball, but Oubre can get some shots. You have Harrison get some shots. Milton can get some shots. So he still did his job as a point guard,

you know, getting the team involved. When usually a young guard would try to make up the point difference for his star center. Yeah, he was really good. He's going to get the max contract. And I think the max contract this year, especially he's going to be, I think he's

going to make the all-star team. And so now he has another bargaining chip in it. So whatever the max was last year, I'm assuming it's gone up a little bit. At 5%, there's a 5% inflation tax. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Max contract number.

But I like Tyrese Maxey. He said he credited James Harden with helping him develop into an all-NBA player. What's he saying for our lay people at home? What is he saying? Yes. See, people don't realize how great James Harden was at putting that ball in that basket. Right?

Yeah. I think we, the last two years, we judged him on outside things and not realized what he was very skilled at. Right? You know, you got to go back to that 2018, 2019 season where he averaged, what, 36? Out of the last 61 games, he scored 30 plus. 46 of those games.

Out of 61 games, he scored 30 or more 46 times. All 61 times. That's a different breed of a score. So if I'm Maxie, I'm soaking up everything. I don't care

where he's at right now. I know what's here. And I want to train with you. I want to pick your brain. I want to know what you know. Because this type of level of scoring, there's only really two other guards that really, this Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant who went

on runs like this. Were you talking about out of the last 61 games of the season, 20 or more? All 61. That's impressive. Yes. I think the thing is we remember James Harden

at his absolute apex in Houston. And he turned himself in more of a facilitator at Brooklyn. So we didn't see that 50-point triple-double. We didn't see the 60-point triple-doubles. We saw a guy somewhere in the mid-20s give you a triple-double. And if KD was out,

he took the onus, he could score more. If Kyrie was out, he could take the onus and score even more. But normally, when one of those other guys were out, it was great because he understood, yes, I can get my shot, but I need to get these other guys involved. When he went to Philly, he even

became more of a facilitator, leading the NBA in assists last year because of Joel Embiid. It's hard. I don't see a situation where you shouldn't lead the NBA in assists last year because of Joel Embiid. It's hard. I don't see a situation where you shouldn't lead the NBA in assists if you got Joel Embiid to dump it down to. You know he's going to give you 30 a night anyway. A lot of those are going to come from the foul line. But when you look at guys, and that's what I said, as a veteran player, give that knowledge.

Because a lot of times, Gil, man, he ain't taking my job. I ain't helping him. Facts. Facts. And we see this chat a lot of times in the NFL with the quarterbacks. It's not my job to get him ready. It's not my job to help him. It's almost like, bro, if you securing yourself,

he can't beat you out for the job. If you are what you believe he is, pass the information on. It'll serve you well. What good is all that information to hoard it? Spread it. But I love Tyrese Maxson and I love the fact that he gave James Harden. Since James Harden is the reason, I'm watching him. And you should. You should

be able to get better by being on the same court, by practicing with, picking his brain watching what he does see how he breaks down a defense how he orchestrates and lead excuse me how he breaks down a defense how he leads an offense you should get better you should but everybody don't right because everybody want to get better no everyone ain't built for the same altitude right right you know what i mean and and that's usually the most frustrating part where you have someone like a james harden who he's he's an eagle right right and playing with some pigeons and he's trying to get them to his altitude knowing

that if they get up there they're gonna die. So now he has to come down and play pigeon basketball while getting killed by the media for playing pigeon basketball. Right. And then that's where you have this fine line between being selfish and being a team player where. I can average 36 on this team, they trash. But. If I make the right plays and pass these guys at a ball, they're not capable of it. So should I average 22, 11 assists and we lose so I

can prove that this team sucks? Or do I just average 36 points and you just keep calling me selfish? That is a big thing in the NBA. That is a big fight in the NBA with the star player. When the pressure from the outside is like, why he ain't pat? Why he ain't do?

Because my team ain't good. They can't step up to this level. They don't want to work. Like, I worked out three times a day every day when I got to Washington. I seen in my years, Karan was the most consistent. Larry Hughes a few times, Antoine Jamison a few times.

That's it. In my extra work. So when I come in at nine o'clock at night, 11 o'clock at night, one in the morning, I only seen a few players out of my whole career. Everybody don't want it. But you can't make them.

And see, that's what people don't understand. There's a price to be paid for greatness. And if you're not willing to pay that price, you don't deserve to be great. I don't care how much you talk about it. Because, see, professional sport is the one thing that you can't talk your way in or out. Because you're going to have to prove it. The proof is in the pudding. So you telling me all this, what you're doing, I don't see it manifesting itself. Because I'm a firm believer, Gil, that if you work, I don't care what it is,

if you work at something, you will get incrementally better. I'm not going to say you're going to be, if you finger paint, I'm not going to say you're going to be Picasso. I'm not going to say you're going to be, you know, Da Vinci or Michelangelo. I'm not saying that, but you will get better. Yes. Even if it's marginally. This is what I said about Ben Simmons.

I didn't see any improvement from Ben Simmons from his rookie year to his fifth year. And people are like, oh man, you don't know. I'm telling you, there's no possible way that this man can be putting in the time that he says he's putting in.

And I don't see any improvement. You know what's so funny? He is one of those rare cases. I've watched him three summers. I've watched him three summers. I've watched him three summers. And what I'm watching is a superstar basketball player, right? Like I'm sitting here. He can shoot the ball.

He's coming downhill, right? He's dominating these other superstars. They were scared of this man every summer because he's going to pick up full court. In the summer, you're trying to be... He's picking up full court and he's coming at you. Debt perception is a real thing. A lot of shooters, a lot of guys that can't shoot is because

they've been practicing in these small gyms and then when they get to that arena, they can't eye gouge that damn rim. Wow. When he plays in the game, he don't shoot the ball because I don't think

he knows that distance. I've watched this man and it's like, why don't you shoot the ball in the game? Your foot, the mechanics is great and I think... I've watched this man is like, why don't you shoot the ball in the game? Right? Like your foot, the mechanics is great. And I think that, that,

that rim, that, that, that, you know, you know, in practice, there's,

there's that wall right there. Exactly. Yeah. Open. It's open space in that arena. So I always made it a stance myself to the night before I'm going to get in that rim. I'm going to get in that, that, uh, if there was no hockey game, I'm going to get on the main court and get some shots up. You got you got to practice in that arena.

You can't practice in these small gyms and then get to the arena. I think your shot is that. And I think that, you know, there's there's a couple of things with that. And I think he just when he gets to that game, I think he just freezes up. He's scared to make mistakes. Yeah. That's a lot of it because we saw that in the game seven against Atlanta when they had that lead.

You see, the thing is, Gale, I can teach you to swim if you're not afraid of the water. See, I can't teach you to shoot if you're afraid to miss it. See, it's not that he can't shoot. He's afraid to shoot.

That's two different things. Not being able to swim and being afraid of the water are two different things because you're afraid. Well, he was afraid. That's why he didn't shoot. That's why. And I remember saying it. I said, and Doc, I remember Doc said,

anybody that doesn't think that we're going to play that we're going to take Ben Simmons out and we're not going to play him in the fourth Quarter they don't know basketball I said Doc it's going to come a time you're going to have no Choice I said because he's a liability I said because if the team is Down by 10 and it's Outside of two minutes

I'm filing him every day every trip down the Court I'm going to file him y'all are not going to get that ball to Joel Embiid. And that's what Atlanta did and got back into the game every single time. And then when it came time, he had a dunk and he passed it.

When you're mentally not comfortable, it shows at the worst time in games. Yes. Right? I remember when I came back off an injury and my free throws wasn't on. Right? Now, because my free throws is not where they're supposed to be, I'm scared to drive.

Because you might get fouled. I don't want want to get hit so I don't have to shoot that free throw. That's a thing. Now I'm driving not to get fouled so I don't have to go to the free throw line. When you start looking at the game, once that player gets into his own mind,

there's nothing the coach can do. There's nothing the opponent can do. He's already beating himself up. Right. Right? Like there was times where when I was on my free throws, I talked to myself,

cash money, baby. None but net. Cash money, baby. Like I had to talk myself into everything I'm doing. Cash money, buckets. Like it's a thing that when you're on that court, you miss

10 straight shots. If you're not self-confident, you're going to miss another 10. That's when you start wide open layup. You miss it or you got to layup and you finally get your point. Your teammate goaltended. Everything starts going wrong. You free throw and go in

somebody, free throw violation. Everything just starts going wrong and If you free throw and go in, somebody, free throw violation, right? Everything just starts going wrong and it just keeps you down that spiral. You just got to be self-aware to get yourself out of it. And I don't think I think that was at that moment. I agree.

I think the number one thing, Gil, is this is what I tell a lot of people, whether it's sports or life, don't you become an opponent. Because a lot of times we can become our own opponent. And that's even more lethal than the opponent for the opposing team. It's us.

We create an opponent that we cannot beat. And that's self. And so what Ben has done, he's created an opponent that he cannot beat. And until he defeats that opponent, here we are. And the sad part is, I've always said it, like, if I was the coach,

and I know this player is struggling, I know this player will sacrifice his scoring for the betterment of the team. Right. And as a coach, I'm like, I'm sorry, but F these teams. F them. Do you.

Right? I need you to go out there and please try to give me 50. I want to see it. We got to meet me and the rest of the crew got to bet. Go out there and score 50. We're not trying to give me 50. I want to see it. We got to meet me and the rest of the crew. Got to bet. Go out there. We're not trying to win this game. I'll wait till we got them play.

We're going to play. Goddamn Detroit. Everyone. Everyone benched. Ben, you got to win this game by your goddamn self. I because I got to see. I got to let him tap into it so he can see it for himself. Sometimes you gotta just see what you can do to really believe.

Cause there's no way that you're going to the game. Think about this shit. You're playing 38 minutes and you took six shots. Yeah. That means you are purposely not even looking to score. You just out there asking. You like the motherfucking playing in the club, huh? You just in the club.

You're just there. You no different than that thing back there. You just out there, man. Yeah. No, especially he the point guard, and I'm playing that many minutes. Oh, I'm getting me 12 to 14 a night. Facts. Shots.

I hate it. Shots. Guaranteed shots. Hey, like you said, the club, it's the club. Shot, shot, shot, shot, shot, shot. Because I'm getting the ball. I'm getting the ball, G. And who's going to tell you no when you when you're so gifted like I'm pretty sure

Embiid James Harden no not James Harden but Kyrie Katie I know those guys were so pissed off at him yeah of course

because I get to watch you everyday in practice homeboy yes I get to see your ability in real practice, homeboy. Yes. I get to see your ability in real time. And then you come out here and give me this bull. That's the most frustrating thing. When you know what your teammates is capable of and then they come into the lights

and... And you've seen it. You've seen it. You've seen it. I mean, I've had teammates catch a ball, I i mean high point the ball in practice catch the ball in a crowd i'm talking about one hand they can do it all and as soon as you put them in the game ball hit them in the face mask i mean ball hit them right between the like i mean the ball that hit them and on the ground by the time they bring their hands together we've all seen guys like that like bro what happened to that guy that was in practice

on Wednesdays and Thursdays and Friday? How do you go from that? You don't drop anything to you can't catch anything because he's comfortable with us, not the opponent. Oh, they're comfortable with us, not the opponent. The

opponent is the person that they know and not knowing scares the shit out of some people. We see that a lot in camp, guys making plays against people that you know, and that's what you, a lot of times you hear football players say, man, I just want to go out there against somebody that I don't know, that doesn't

have on my uniform. I just want to hit somebody, because you want to see what the young kids can do against somebody that they don't know yes somebody that that's not going to put that thump on them and that's not going to put them on the ground that guy's trying to make the roster just like you are yep so i want to see i want to see the suns beat the rockets 129 113 kd has a monster night. He had 27 points, 16 assists, 10 rebounds. KD denied a report that he's frustrated with the Suns.

Walsh says somebody else feels that I'm frustrated, and it turned to me being mentally checked out. This is crazy. These people can flat out lie on my name, make it up, and you people will believe it. But when my teammates and coaches speak on how I am as a teammate, you ignore it. LOL. We'll get to that.

We'll get the KD comments in a second. Let's talk about the game. What did you like about what you saw tonight from the Suns? What happened tonight that's been different than the other nights? See, with the Suns, they have a great starting five.

Right? I mean, listen, we can't give you no praise. You're playing Houston, right? I mean, Houston ain't proven. But, you know, we know who's coming to play. Kevin Durant, Booker. Right? Right. On a nightly basis. Like, you know, that is the core

of that team. It's trying to find that 6th, 7th, 8th guy who can give you consistent play. And that's the key with a lot of these teams. They haven't really dialed in their roster. They don't know what they're looking for or what they want. And it's bringing a lot of confusion with team chemistry in the first place. But the starting five themselves,

oh, they balling. The starting five for Suns, they got their stuff intact. They're averaging about 95 points as a starting unit. That is impressive. But when you're talking about, what, 116 points,

that means you only need about 20 off the bench? Yeah, but the thing is, I'm looking at tonight, KD had to play 41 minutes. Eric Gordon played 39 minutes. Book played 36 minutes against Houston. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Who else they got on that goddamn team?

They done traded them all for people. Who else they got? You going to put Bobo in? You going to put Wakasambi, whatever? You going to put him? You don't want Tanabe? Come on. Bobo did get two minutes.

Watanabe got two minutes. That's all he should get, goddammit. Two minutes. But they don got two minutes. That's all he should get, God damn it, two minutes. But they don't have 51 on their bench, so you have to play 41 minutes. Yeah, their starters played a boatload of minutes tonight. The only starter that didn't play

major minutes is Nurkic, and he played 14 minutes. But everybody else, Goran was at 39, KD was at 41, Grayson Allen was at 33, and Book was at 36. Let's

the Rockets, a young, young team. I think they're still the youngest team. I mean, they're really, really young. I like Udoka. I think that's the way to say it. I would say Udoka is Udoka. I made Udoka. I think that's the way I would say Udoka is Udoka. I made Udoka.

What I love Sunghoon. Sunghoon is good. What do the Rockets need? How do the Rockets They're so They have a whole bunch of pieces. It's like having a whole bunch of pieces.

It's like having a whole bunch of clothes but no outfit. Figure out how to put it together. With signing Dylan Brooks and signing Van Vliet, you kind of got some experience with them. But your focal point

where your future is going to be Jalen Green, Sun Goon, and Jabari Smith. He ain't giving me enough right now. No, no, no. I agree. I agree. I don't know if Sun Goon is

taking away from him, but the way Sun Goon passes, he should be eaten. He should be eaten in that position. It should open up the court. But, you know, right now, I think they're trying to figure out what guys to keep, what guys they can pageant who to play. Like, some of these teams, you know, playing 11-man, 10-man deep. Y'all don't got teams like that.

Right. Y'all don't got them type of rosters to be subbing in the 10th man. Right. Y'all should get your ass whoop putting in number 10. Yeah. I mean, you look at this. I mean, they got guys that play Jake Lawndale for

the Rockets played 12 minutes. Amen Thompson played 17 Whitmore played played 18 holiday played 24 Easton played 25. Whitmore played 18. Holiday played 24. Eason played 25. I mean, they got to... And plus, that's not even the starters. Those are the guys that came off the bench.

Yeah. I mean, nobody played more than 29 minutes. That was Van Fleet and Sangoon. And this is the problem with teams like this. When you got a young team... Where's the days where, like Allen Iverson, right?

He averaged 41 minutes for his career. You guys have all the technology now. You got all the medicine. And you're telling me you're playing less? They are. Where's my guys where I can,

like Jalen Green, all my young guys, y'all need to play 42, 43 minutes. You need to get these games. Gil, that's the problem. They got too much technology. They got too much minutes

in medicine. Because if you look at it, baseball used to have four-man rotations and three-man rotations. Now you got have four man rotations and three man rotations. Now you got five man rotations and you got set up men and you got closers. You see,

we know too much. And that's the problem. Well, hell, it didn't tax the other guys. It didn't tax Steve Carton's elbow. Gibson, Danny McClain. Guys used to throw. I mean, the likelihood of us ever seeing, I mean,

what's the likelihood of us consistently seeing 300 strikeouts? A guy pitching 300 innings or 250 innings. I mean, it's not, guys go five, six innings. That's it. Turn it over to the middle of the bullpen. You got middle relief. You got set up up you got somebody to close it out and so i think that's what basketball i mean hell we'll play we'll play 48 and a half minutes for an entire season now mind you there's only 48 minutes in the game so so he played i mean think about what, look at Wilton numbers.

Look, and guys played, like you said, major, major minutes, 40 minutes. I mean, Jordan, I mean, there were a couple of years. I mean, early in LeBron's career, LeBron played four, had a season he played 41, 42 minutes. I know. That was common. I don't think the guy's not playing like that anymore. You know what I think it is?

And it would make sense from a financial standpoint as an owner, right? Where I have someone like a Jalen Green, right? Instead of him playing 43, 44 minutes, I play him 32, 33,

right? Instead of having him for 10 years, I got him for 16 years of greatness now. So I think with the time years, I got them for 16 years of greatness now. So I think with the time restriction, I think it's making their careers a little bit longer. So I have the asset longer. I think that's what it seems like is going on, that they're taking away the minutes to stretch the career out. Okay. But that's something that we have to sit there and ask,

why isn't he playing 40 minutes? And saving 10 minutes a game adds to your years. Right. Right. You know, but I'm a coach. I need to play. I need to win.

I'm trying to win. Yeah. 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...

I'm Leon Nafak, 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. Woj says somebody else feels that I'm frustrated and it turned into me being mentally checked out. That is crazy. These people can flat out lie on my name and make it up and you people will believe it. But when my teammates and coaches speak on how I am as a teammate, you ignore it. LOL.

Gil, KD, look at your history. People were reporting that you were unhappy in OKC. You denied that. You book it out of town. People say there was some grumblings about you were feeling some type of way that you weren't being looked at and thought of like Clay, Steph, and Draymond. You booked it and later came out. You was never going to be accepted. There was reports that KD might ask for a trade and he was unhappy in Brooklyn in the direction.

And here you are in Phoenix. So God forbid us from believing what they say when everything that has ever been said about you, for the most part part has turned out to be true. I think the only issue he probably has an issue with is saying he checked out. If I'm him and I'm reading that, what do you mean checked out? I'm averaging 30 a night. I'm giving it my all. I'm coming to work day in and day out.

KD is a student of the game. Okay. Meaning he don't have life outside of basketball. All he does, as y'all can see, you tweet something, he's on it. Right? So you tweet right. If I DM Matt right now, within three minutes, he's going to look at it.

Right? So he's in tune with everything that's going on. He's watching games. He's probably watching his show. Is that a good or bad thing? Good thing. The best players, they're in tune with everything that's going on. Sometimes that in-tuneness is

what frustrates you because the rest of your teammates is not in tune with you. Expressing frustration versus being frustrated. It's two different things. not in tune with you. So expressing frustration versus being frustrated is two different things. I can be mad at the moment in time, but these are my guys.

I'm upset that they're not getting it done. They're not working hard. They're not getting back on D, all of that. Like when Book said, oh, you're going to turn the ball over and not get back on D? I'm frustrated now, but I'm not going to turn the ball over and not get back on D? Right? I'm frustrated

now, but I'm not frustrated with who the person is. Right? And sometimes, you know, this guy might play hard, but I'm frustrated at his work ethic, but he performs well. You got two different type of elements that goes on on a team. So I don't think he's frustrated

to the point where he wants to trade. He's probably frustrated to the point where he wants to trade. He's probably frustrated with the circumstances where him and Booker, that he requested. Yeah, you requested. But the thing about it is you're worse than you were last year. And that's the frustrating part. But let me ask you a question. What are they going to trade?

They traded all the assets to get him. So what are they going to, what are they going to, what are they going to the old saying is, what you want me to get stuff with? Ass and mouth? So what, what, what are we going to do to get him, Gil? We gave up everything. We gave up our entire future to get Kevin Durant. So what are we going to trade?

Books or don't chevys? What are we going to give up? I think the more of the frustration like if i'm if i'm him what i'm gonna be frustrated is just where we are as a team right right we we were this close last year this close right um and we made a trade for bill the. The pieces we made for Beal were pieces that helped. Well, if Beal's not in, those pieces that help are not here. So technically we're worse than we were last year.

So I think at this point in time, he's like, man, it's December, it's about to be January. Beal, we need Beal to come back so we can just prove how good we are. And sometimes when you're under manned

and you're going out there and everyone's judging you, like, yeah, the Suns, they look there and everyone's judging you, like, yeah, the Suns, they look weak this year. And you're like, man, we don't have all our pieces to be great right now. And that's a frustrating part where that big key is Beal, who's going to be averaging 20 when

he gets healthy. Right. But sometimes the mistake that people can make is that okay, he wants average 30. KD, no, can give us 30. He's led but just you know sometimes the mistake that people can make is that okay he average how he wants average 30 uh kd no can give us 30 um he's led the league in scoring four times and we know what book is where we just put all this together just because you put a whole bunch of nice stuff look i like ice cream i like gravy and chicken i just don't like it all together and just because you got three guys that can average 30 that doesn't mean it's gonna work

somebody has to be willing to sacrifice now look i understand that that that book you're playing is unnatural position he's not a point he's a two but he has to play because they had to give up chris paul and i understand that bradley bill has been hurt uh kevin durant is is whatever you need he doesn't really need the ball. He can get his own. He can play with his back to the basket. He got the hands he pull up. He got the three-point shot.

You file him, and he's going to the free throw line. He's going to knock 90% of those down. But at some point in time, Gil, you got to play some defense. And the question is, when they get to the playoffs, and they get down by, let's say, five points, can they get stopped when they absolutely have to have one? And that's going to be the question when we get there, right? We don't need to play defense the whole game. Just if we're in that time and we need to make that guaranteed stop, can we do it?

Are we capable of doing it? And that's going to be something that when the playoffs come, they gonna have to prove um those three guys are perfect for each other because they can all do the same thing which means if i'm a catch and shoot guy and you're a dreamer penetration guy you can post up you can we don't affect each other's realm because we all play in different realms um all three can play iso all three can flare, backdoor, post-up. So you got three guys that can move around

versus if you had someone like Shaq and Tim Duncan on the same court. That's conflict. They both want the right block. They're going to both fight for the right block and none of them are dominant on the left side,

right? Now you got a confliction and that's what happens with teams. So with this, with these three, it's a, it's a great puzzle, right? They just got up.

You just got to put them all on the court together and be healthy for 20, 20 something games. But did they factor in over the last several years of Bill's health? Did anybody factor that in? He's been hurt. Gil, he's been hurt. Listen, most medical staffs are cocky. They think, well, y'all are.

Y'all not us. You know, we can get him healthy. And it's that weird thing. I don't know if you went through it, but I did. When you get injured, you do all this training to get back, two games later, back injured. You start getting these random knickknacks

for no reason. And that's where Bill is. And I say, that's where he got to cheat. He got to cleanse his house. I don't know why he got to cleanse his house because he just got there. But you got to cleanse something, God damn it. There's something in your life

that's a negative hold onto your chi and you got to cleanse it. You got to sit there and start removing people. I don't give a fuck if it's the dog. Get rid of the dog if you think the dog is. You got to really reset, right? Because these knickknacks,

it just keeps lingering, lingering, lingering. He comes back. Oh, he hurt his shoulder. Come back, hurt his toe. There's a reason this happens. You're off a line. Yeah, but you know, when you start limping into the season,

you get nicked during the season, it's hard to get healthy because you come, and that's what I tell guys, normally when an average person is injured, they say take time off. Yeah.

When you're a professional athlete, you don't get no time off. They're trying to rehab to get you back on the field. As a normal civilian, you're trying to rehab to go you back on the field. As a normal civilian, you're trying to rehab to go back to your normal life. But when you're a professional athlete, you're playing against the top in the world.

It ain't no average. It ain't no normal life. No, the worst thing an athlete has against him is his ego. When we're injured, we don't come back to prove we're healthy. We come back to prove we're injured, right? I hope they see me limping and giving it my all. I can go out there and play 50%. I can go out there and play 80% while I'm sitting there getting booed, right? Oh, he's washed, he's this, and I'm trying to, I'm coming back to prove to you that this was serious versus just getting healthy.

And that is our issue, right? We're watching the game. I don't care if it's a month, two weeks. We watch the game pass us by. We watch, you know, if I'm a point guard, I watch this guy score 30. This guy, he's ranked in front of me. Now I'm speeding up my process because I want to get my spot back. So I'm limping out here, knees swollen.

I don't supposed to be playing. They said 10 to 12 weeks. I'm back six to eight weeks. Yeah, I'm fine. Knowing damn well I can't be out here playing. Fine ain't good enough. No. Because you got to be at the level you were before you got injured.

That's what makes you great. Yep. I mean, I don't care. Look, a race car with a flat tire ain't good. I don't care how many horsepower it got because it's not going to perform like it did if it had four perfectly fine inflated tires. So if you come back and you're nicked in the slightest,

you become very average. And average gets eaten in professional sports. That's just the way it is. That's just the way it is. That's just the way it is. Unculture J asks, one simple question, Uncengill. When or if will KD ever be content? I think it's Happy asking for too much at this.

I think Happy is asking too much at this point. I look up and I'm expecting this man every seven to eight months to ask for a trade. I don't know. I mean, look, I understand. I don't know. I mean, look, I understand, you know, I don't think I can win a championship in OKC. He went to the perfect situation,

caught a lot of criticism. And I don't think people were upset. I think people were more upset that you joined that team, the team that knocked you out when you had them down 3-1. And you say, well, OK, you go there. You win two championships,

your final MVP. You probably would have won, you go there. You win two championships. You're final MVP. You probably would have won a third had your Achilles not gone out. And then you move on. You want to go to Brooklyn. You recruit Kyrie or Kyrie recruited you and you end up in Brooklyn. And you're not happy there and for whatever reason

you wanted to move on. And I'm like, bro, I mean what is if I were to ask you, because you played this sport and you kind of know him somewhat, you kind of maybe you've been around him, what's he looking for? He's looking to play basketball. It seems simple, right? Where when you're talking about a guy who, I mean, let me see, how many scoring titles?

KD got four. Yeah, right? And when people ask why he left, right? When you're talking about four scoring titles, you had probably about 10 all-NBAs. You had an MVP. You had all-star MVPs, right? Eight-time all-star, two golds. When you're a free agent,

the only thing that you don't have on your resume was a chip and a finals MVP, right? You get those two out of the way. In his mind, or just in my mind, what am I i proving here the only thing i'm proving now is get more right do i need four rings like like am i the greatest small forward ever am i the second greatest small forward ever like am i one of the top five ever? Like, right? I train, I work out, I train, I go to sleep basketball, right? I'm out there, you know, putting my heart into it.

I think as players, we can sleep great at night knowing that we give it our all. And whatever comes with it comes with it. But I don't really think he's looking for something. I just think he wants to play high-level basketball. Most, most, most players do. The great ones, right? If they're in position to win chips, they're going to go for it. Other than that, they just want to go out there and play hard

and everybody with them going out there and playing hard. Gil, you know going to Golden State hurt him more than it helped him. I understand he got the chips, but unless he gets one without Steph Curry, you already know how this story is going to be written. You know that, and unfortunately, I think KD knows that. Fair or unfair, right or wrong, it is what it is. Okay, but when we think of it like that, right or wrong, it is what it is. Okay, but when we think of it like that, it's not like he can go

to a team and he is by himself and try to win a championship. Right, but he recruited Kyrie. He had James Harden. So no matter where he goes in this league today, there has to be a team up. So when he do win,

they're going to say, well, you got bill over there. You got bill. Nah, I think the thing is with Steph, I mean, you join a two time,

you're now, you join a unanimous MVP and Steph Curry was already at that point in time, the greatest shooter we had ever seen. And so that system and I, I get it. Okay. I just want to get y'all off my back. Let me go ahead and get these titles.

I get these titles, I'll calm it down. No people looking at you like, bro, there were 29 other teams that you could have joined. 28, because you had left OKC. There's 28 other teams. And you mean to tell me

you go join the team that had just won 73 games and just lost in a game seven in the NBA finals that was the only team you can find okay he's like look I'm a free agent I'm a free agent and as a free agent I can go wherever I want to go fine for whatever reason be it he had grown bored of winning I mean you say you just want to play high-level basketball. Can you play any high level than the Golden State Warriors and be in three NBA finals? You win two, probably wouldn't win a third had he not gotten injured. So where are you going to go and play high level than that?

So who are you going to go play with other than LeBron? Or at that time, LeBron and LeBron and KD and Steph were thought of as the best players in the NBA with Harden falling up under that. So now who are you going to play with? Joel Embiid? Nikola Jokic? Giannis? Where can he go now? I don't know

where he can go. I don't know how he outruns because he had four years. The first year, we're going to disregard that. He was rehabbing. But he had three years, and he didn't come close. But it's not because of him, right? You know, the stuff that went down in Brooklyn,

he was there. He did his thing, right? But we give him credit, but we give him credit for what Bill Golden stayed. But that's what I'm saying. We can't say if he loses, it's not because of him. But when Golden State won the title, it was because of him. But that's what I'm saying. We can't say if he loses, it's not because of him. But when Golden State won the title, it was because of him. But it was because of him.

Why can't he win on his own? Why can't he win other than Golden State? I think that's the question, Gil. People want to know. If it was him and Golden State, why can't he do replicate? Why can't he take what he learned

and take it somewhere else because he was he was a single player coming to a team atmosphere he was plug and play now he has to build a team around him where he can just adjust to one person adjust

now when he tried to create a team everyone has to adjust to everything we can talk about how Kevin Durant going to Golden State was a bad thing. It was the best thing that the league has ever seen, and they do not

want to acknowledge it. Since Magic and Bird, what was the best duo going against each other in the championship? LeBron versus KD? Yeah, but LeBron versus KD championship? LeBron versus KD? Yeah. LeBron versus KD. Not LeBron versus KD, Steph, Draymond, and Klay.

The best small forwards in the game. And I don't know why this wasn't looked at like two titans. The best player in the world versus the second best player in the world. One called himself, I'm the best scorer in the world versus the best player. You had two titans playing against each other, and we spent our time talking about,

we spent our time talking about KD leaving, not realizing what we was witnessing. Oh, I ain't got no problem with him leaving. No, but what I'm saying, we was witnessing that Kevin Durant and, like, when we all talk about Kobe, the one thing that we didn't get to see is Kobe and LeBron

in the championship again. Correct. We got to see Kevin Durant and LeBron go face-to-face. Right? We got the magic and bird. But we're never going to acknowledge this

because we was upset that he took the easy, the easy way out. Right. But I think the thing is, when we look at Magic and Bird, Magic had Kareem. Bird had McHale. He had Worthy.

He had Parrish. They had Byron Scott. They had DJ. So it was like, okay, you got four Hall of Famers? We got four Hall of Famers. Okay, you got a coach that's going to the Hall? We got four Hall of Famers. Okay? You got a coach that's going to the Hall? We got one that's going to the Hall.

So I think everybody looked at it as an even matchup. I don't think anybody thought that the way that Cleveland, even though it was Kyrie and LeBron, was going to be able to beat Golden State with Steph, Klay, KD, and Draymond. That wasn't going to happen.

And I think that's what the, you know, when KD and LeBron locked horns in Miami and OKC, you're like, OK. You know, OK. Serge Ibaka and Chris Bosh. We got Russ,

D-Wade, and now KD and LeBron. And they had to guard each other. They had to guard each other. Well, that was a great matchup, but it was young. It was young versus a veteran. But when that Golden State-Cleveland Cavaliers series got, because it was going to be between those two.

I wish after they won it, after Cleveland won it and Golden State got Kevin Durant I thought Cleveland should have made a move it don't matter you should have known you was going to be outgunned who are you going to give up first of all, who want to come to Cleveland that was the problem while LeBron got up

out of there, that's facts at this point, look J.R. Smith was my what? He was my Klay Thompson. Klay is averaging 21. Yes. J.R. Smith averaging 13.

Yeah, for sure. It was really outmatched. From there, they should have been in tune with the game and said, okay, we might need to upgrade a little bit more. We're not good enough to try to go back-to-back. First name, last name,

said Gil was a great addition. Sheldon, do you remember when you said KD and Kyrie would potentially play together when they were seen at the All-Star game talking? KD latched out saying it was some BS. They joined. They joined. I didn't say it. I remember I said, look,

and I played them a compliment. I said, KD joining Golden State was like Johnny Gill joining New Edition. Johnny Gill could out-sing them all. We know the outstanding career Bobby Brown had. We know what Ralph Transvant

did. We knew what Bell, Bill, DeVoe ended up doing once they broke up. But none of them singularly could out-sing Johnny Gill. And the reason why Johnny Gill wasn't accepted, he didn't grow up in Boston and Roxbury. Facts. KD was never going to be, and I'm not saying they didn't like him, but Steph, Clay, Draymond came there.

They was birthed. They grew up there. Although KD was KD, it wasn't going to be accepted. He called me, oh, this, you don't know what you're talking about. Wow, that's an ignorant thing to say. Later, he get on the podcast like, I was never going to be

accepted like KD and stuff because I said that. You know, we delusional sometimes. Come on. Just like in our relationship. Our boys are the first one to tell us, hey, your girl cheating on you. Oh, no, she never died. She ain't like that.

She ain't like that. Right. She't like that. She ain't like that. Right. Got to find out she just like that. Yes. And that's the same thing. Like, we don't want to believe, right, that it is this. And we have to find out the hard way. He had to find out on that court when he's asking for the ball.

He had to sit there and go back and forth with Draymond Green. And Draymond Green had to let him know, we was here before you. We don't need you. That hurt. It did. Oh, we wouldn't finish that season, huh? Oh, I don't know how I can come to work knowing that you really believe that deep down inside.

Why am I here? Three people will tell you the truth, Gil. Drunks, kids, and angry people. Yeah. They're going to tell you the truth. Now, see, they'll blame it on, I just said a thing out of anger. So I was drunk. I didn't know what I was talking about.

And kids, you know what they say? Kids say the darndest thing. So I got a way to brush off either one of those. But here's the thing. And I'm going to say something and tell me what you think. If you notice, Draymond Green's behavior is always when he thinks someone is about to replace him as a member of the Big Three. When KD came, it's about to be KD, Steph, and Klay. He says what he says.

Jordan Poole. All of a sudden, it's about to be Jordan Poole, Steph, and Klay. He does what he does. Now, it's going to be very, very interesting to see how they handle Kaminga. Because does that ruffle Dray? Because Draymond, like, I'm

a member of the big three. And nothing's going to upset that. Because that's just, look, I could be totally wrong. But there's something to be said for Draymond and the way Draymond has behaved with KD, with Jordan Poole. Now, I don't know of anything, I have not heard anything about Kaminga,

but I did hear what Kaminga said because it's hard to kind of play my game because I got to make sure the OGs get the ball. So how do I do what I need to do to show what I can do and still, you and still show deference to the OGs? So that's going to be very interesting moving forward. So tell me what you think.

There might be a little territorial thing going on with Draymond. Right? And the one thing you don't want to do is you don't want to be forgotten. Right? And sometimes I think it seems like the more his game is dwindling down, the more he's acting out. He knows his time is coming and he's going to be put on that bench.

And that's when all the people who don't like him are going to be able to laugh. I think he's ready for that laughter. The four rings don't help that ego at that moment in time. They don't win. I don't believe they win any of those titles without Draymond. No. But being benched,

them four rings, they don't mean nothing anymore. I can't see them on your finger when you're on the bench. You tell me about them, but you can put them on at the conference when you're at the bench. You tell me about him, but you can put him on there at the conference when you're at the podium. But right at that point in time, and now you give everybody because everybody, oh, Draymond is the king of the triple single. And they're saying all these things.

I think he's a phenomenal player. I do. I mean, I think his physicality. Do I think he goes over the line? Absolutely. Do I think he's done some things that he didn't need to do? Absolutely. But the problem is, is that they didn't check it before. I can't wait till my dog is two years old before I correct

him about potting in the house. And then all of a sudden he potters in the house again. I'm like, what are you doing? You didn't correct him when he was a puppy. You let Draymond get out of control. And so now when you don't win, you accepted it when you were winning. You accepted Draymond's behavior when you was winning. And I'm a firm believer, as Mike Shanahan told me in 1995, you never accept anything in a win, you win in a loss. So if Draymond's behavior is unacceptable when you're losing, it should have been unacceptable when you're winning.

Because when they say winning masks a lot, it should have been unacceptable when you're winning. Because when they say winning masks a lot, it does. It masks the undercurrent of what was going on in Golden State that was just, in the moment, things don't go the way that they think it should. Draymond pops

his head up out the water. Oh yeah, that's a thing. It's going to be real interesting because he was the vocal point, he was the heartbeat, and when they decide to say, alright Kaminga, this is your spot,

is the heartbeat going to stop beating? I think this is one of those things where for the betterment of the team, he's going to have to pull a Russ and he's going to have to look around and say, all right, I did all I can do. It's time for me to take a backseat and give all my energy to Kaminga. And then I can come in back. He's going to have to pull a UD, right?

As long as he wants his name called at the beginning of the game, Draymond Green, the team dies. Because he don't have it like he used to. He's not as fast, strong. He's still got the smart. The IQ level is very, very, very high.

But he's going to have to sacrifice and realize the big three is falling off. You're going to have... I mean, he really no big two because Klay is not the same. Klay can get in spurts, but Klay ended up going to the bench in the fourth

quarter. They'd have never been... I mean, and look, as we start to age and Klay had up going to the bench in the fourth quarter. They'd have never been. I mean, and look, as we start to age, and Klay had two devastating injuries for professional athlete. He had an Achilles and an ACL. And he had them in his 30s. And commend him for coming back and playing at the level. But he's not the same Steph. I mean, excuse me, the same Klay.

Draymond is starting to get older. He's not the same. He doesn't me the same clay Draymond is starting to get older he's not the same he doesn't move the same but the behavior see Draymond needs to understand they'll tolerate you until they can replace you yeah and they tolerated this behavior and because they couldn't replace you now at some point in time even though you were the heartbeat and you mean so much to this team, 7.5 rebounds and three or four assists ain't going to cut it. Yeah, I don't know how you just... I feel bad for Steve Kerr because you don't want to bench him

because Kaminga hasn't taken this spot. Correct. But with Kaminga on the floor, he's just a different breed of a guy. He gives you something that you guys didn't have. Right. A guy who has bounced at the little

at the yank. He got his own one-on-one move. He can create his own shot. He's very aggressive. Still, which is surprising. I mean, you've been there for a couple years. You would think he would have lost his aggression, but he still has his aggression. He has the confidence that he can't be stopped, right? You need that to play

out. That is going to be a tough decision for Steve Kerr to say, Draymond, you're starting. I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I'm going to be like, yo, Dray, you you're starting. I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I'm going to be like, yo, Dray, you're going to have to come off the bench. He's been playing very well

since you've been on the bench. Give me a couple more games. You know what, Gil? The problem with Golden State is that a lot of these problems that Andrew Wiggins isn't playing well at the same time Klay Thompson isn't playing well, at the same time Klay Thompson isn't playing well, at the same

time Draymond Green is suspended. So you kind of got like a little mini hurricane, a little mini earthquake, and a little mini tornado all together in one spot. And the problem is, and this is why being the third option feels

amazing. Because nobody's paying attention to you. No one is talking about Wiggins playing horrible. He'd be good and terrible. Yeah, and it's weird. When you're that third option, when you don't have no pressure on you, you get to go out there and be trash without any pushback.

No one's going to write about you. No one cares. So the fact that Draymond is being blamed for what's going on in Golden State, it kind of let us know how important he was then to the winning. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. And people that don't believe that it was important

to winning, it's the fact that you don't really like Draymond or you don't believe that it was important to women winning, it's the fact that you don't really like Draymond or you don't really understand the importance of what he brought to that ball club. Sometimes you just can't measure everything by points, rebounds, and assists because he does a lot of the dirty work. Everybody can't be the bank president. Somebody got to be the security guard. Somebody got to be the cashier. Somebody got to be the custodian.

Somebody got to clean that place up at night. Yeah, he's top flight security all right. Arbenham calls out Cam Reddish and Jared Vanderbilt. Can't be confused with, can't be confused with the ball. Ham said, I was just, I'm just not, I'm not, I just think not allowing

it to be stacked to stagnate us. If they're trying to play off, Cam got to step up, shooting with confidence, or eat up space on the drive. Collapse the defense. Once he touches the paint, drive find the open man. Same thing for Vandal. Ball hits him, and he just can't hold it. Be confused.

He called them out, not himself? You put them sorry motherfuckers in the game nobody told you to sub a dude who averages 1.5 and put him as a starter right that's that joke like when you gonna take responsibility for the lineups you putting out like you have the

the Lakers starting five the way it was they were only averaging 82 points as a starting five, which is low. Right? Well, considering LeBron and AD averaging 50. Yeah.

So the rest of your team, the rest of your starters is only putting up, that is a low starting five. 82 points is low. Now, you sub in Van and take out Russ, which pushes you down to 68 points a game.

Just to show you how bad that is, the worst team in the NBA, the Detroit Pistons, they're averaging 69 points. They're averaging 73 points as a starting five. So the Detroit Pistons starting five is better than the Lakers starting five right now in point production. What defense are you looking for? Who?

Ain't nobody. You need to be in order for them to justify the defensive, like, oh, they're supposed to be defensive guys. They need to be Dennis Johnson. They need to be in order for for them to justify the defensive like oh they're supposed to be defensive guys they need to be dennis johnson they need to be alvin robertson they need to be they need to be dennis rodman of somebody somebody on the ball like that but you can't you cannot give me one point let's just say vandal gives us two three and and cam reddish gives us eight come on That's not enough. 11 points and we got guys and you're playing 25 to 30 minutes. 3 and 8 points is

not enough. It's just not. You got 3. AD is a defensive player. LeBron is a defensive player, but he's 39. I got enough defense to put all offense. I have guys who can block shots to put enough offense

out there, right? This is crazy because their losses, they scored 94 points, 101, 94, 109, 108, 110, 111, 115. You're not, you can't

score, right? You're not moving fast enough with the units you have. You know what this reminds me of? What he did right here reminds me of the 2000... Is it the 2020? The 2000... The 2020

Clippers team. Where they used... This is the deepest team. They got the deepest bench. You got the deepest bench because your starting five was sorry as shit. Starting five, you had what?

You bring in Sweet, Lou, and Trez, and they play in more minutes and reserves than your starter. You got 40 points coming off the bench with two players. Of course your bench is deep. So your bench was number one in the NBA in scoring. Your starting five

was 25th. You're averaging 69 points because you got Zubac, Pat Bev, and Mo who's averaging 7, 8, and 5. You're not deep. You got four players, five. You got four players. That's it. You're just trying to trick the line,

come off the bench. Yeah. You're trying to take two starters, put them off the bench. Oh yeah. We got this, this deep team. Cause you know,

in the NBA, it's hard to blow a team out in the first five, six minutes. Right. So, you know, at the six minute mark,

you can sub in your two guys and then get the rolling and let these guys get a little bit of minutes. You did good, boys. Now go sit down and let the real players get in. I hate lineups like that. You're just trying to

trick like your team is good, but knowing damn well if a team got 0-9-0 in the first one minute of the game, get your asses out. Get your asses in. That happened a couple times. You have to have a balanced team

and the fact that you have Rui Austin and Russell coming off the bench. We got 40-something points coming off the bench. Yeah, you got 40-something coming off the bench, but you're starting five. It's only scoring 60 points. You got LeBron James in 80 scoring 50. You got theBron James in 80 scoring 50,

and you got the other three guys there putting in 10. Stop. Stop these dumbass lineups. Yeah. And here's the thing. And you tell me these guys, but they still can't stop dribble penetration. Guys are still getting past Vando. They're still getting past Cam,

and they're kicking the ball to the corner for wide open threes. So if you're supposed to be a defensive guy, if you're not going to get, if I'm not an offensive guy, and this is where I approached it again when I played football, I've got to be more of an asset in the passing game than I

am a liability in the run game. Yes. So in other words, if you are a liar, you've got to be a tremendous asset in the defensive end if you're a liability on the offensive end if you're a basketball player. And right now, you're a liability on both. So it's basically you becoming unplayable because I don't know how you play. Guy's going to give me two points and then he's letting guys get past him. And I got to slide AD and the guy's passing the ball and the guy's laying it up.

Or a help got to come and he's kicking it to the corner. Bro, what are you doing? I never understood that. And it's weird because I would love to ask a defensive coach why they put these lineups in. I'm an offensive player. I bred offense, right? The worst player that I wanted to see was someone

like me that I had to guard. Right. I did not want to face me. Patrick Beverly's? Whoa! Oh, it's trouble for you, homeboy, because you're only you're here to play defense, not

offense, so I'm resting half the time. I'm giving you my all. That means it's like boxing, right? I get to punch you, but you got your hands tied. I get to punch on you while your hands tied. The fact that you're going to take three, four shots a game, why am I paying attention to you? That is the easiest night for me because there's no way you're going to stop me from taking 20, four shots a game, why am I paying attention to you? That is the easiest night for me because there's no way you're going to stop me from taking

20, 30 shots. But I don't have to give you no effort on the defense. I get to say, and the worst player I wanted to play was someone scoring like me because he's embarrassing me now. Right.

If I'm playing against the Lakers and I'm Trey Young, hell yeah, I want to play against Cam all day. You ain't embarrassing me. You ain't doing nothing. You just get to play defense all day. I don't understand why they put these lineups out there because you're

helping the offensive team because you're handicapping yourself. You're playing three on five on offense or two on five on offense. Right. And you're not good enough. The rules aren't made.

My offense of book is a hundred times better than any rules you can put in. And that's the difference in today's game. Back then, it was 60-40 defense to offense right you know you dribbled a certain way you only had a certain amount of moves now the moves today i can i can hold it a little bit i can do either my career so now it's basically 90 to 10

wow there's no rule they can put in that hand checking all that when people talk there ain't no hand checking that can stop these moves today and progress that is trash it was trash when it was in and you got so I mean guys can shoot the ball better and guys can handle the

ball better you got two or three guys on every team that can make you look stupid handling the ball. Everybody got that pull. Everybody got the hands. Okay, I'm going to A and one. How many guys we see that? Everybody doing that. I mean, guys like, who

the hell for you? Where you come with that move from? So, the likelihood of you bringing somebody, oh, he's a defensive stopper. Oh, he go, man, them guys are too good. They're too skilled. If I want to hunt a lion, I need a lion.

A gazelle ain't going. He ain't going. He's lunching me. He goes, yeah, exactly. He's lunching me. It's weird, right? D-Lo said he wanted to be derrick white we all laughed please be derrick white god damn it i beg you to be derrick white now because derrick white didn't want to just be a liability i'm just a defensive player right there you go boston now

right you got you know you got the unicorn over there which added extra offense, right? You would have thought that Derek White would be more of a defensive player because he don't need to score. He upped his scoring up. Yes, yes. And that's what the Lakers need. D-Lo,

I need you to up your production. Not that press. Right. Because if you put pressure on the opposing team, I need you to up your production not that press right up and up because if you put pressure on the opposing team I mean maybe it takes some of that zap out of them and they're not able to give you that work

listen when you're trying to my one thing that I always went into games with when I had to play against AI when I had to play against Steve Francis when I had to play against Steve Francis, when I had to play against Mulberry, I'm coming at you first. I'm going to come at you so hard

that it makes you not want to play offense thinking that if you don't shoot, I don't shoot. NBA players really think that's the thing. But if I don't shoot against him, he won't shoot against me. Okay, that's your fault. And what I did when we started off the games, I was playing against the high-level guards, the Steve Nash's. I'm trying to give them buckets early to set the tone.

I can't let Steve Nash come and pick me to death. If you look at my games with Steve Nash, I made him a scorer. Like, when you look at our matchups against Steve Nash, he wasn't having 15 and 17 assists, 30, 40. Like, you're going to have to match me point for point

if you want to keep up. You're not going to be able to try to sit there and get your guys, I'm scoring too fast, makes you want to score too. Yeah. 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 iHeart Radio 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. Yeah, it's kind of like, you know, I got to take some of that zap. like my grandma used to say okay y'all stay out all night you're going to church in the morning oh yeah you're not you're not fit to lag

back there if they hey oh uh-uh i'm gonna give you bucket you go get this you gotta make them work and uh that's not happening so it's gonna be very interesting to see what his starting line out look like tomorrow the laker players are reportedly frustrated with Darvin Ham's decision about starting lineup and their role. Frustration with players' roles and fluctuating minutes. Uncertainty regarding their roles and inconsistency in playing time. The communication gap between coaching staff and players appears to be widening with players expressing confusion over the mixed messages they receive. Reports say criticism has been directed at Ham's lineup choices and rotation, particularly perceived inconsistency in handling struggling players. Some players, like Austin Reeves, D'Angelo Russell, Rui Hachimura,

reportedly face shorter leashes than when encountered difficulties, while other players, Torian Prince, Cam Reddish, enjoy longer leashes despite struggles on the court. We saw that. They have no problem putting Austin Reeves on the bench. Remember, he's struggling to start the season? Yeah. Well, we talked to Austin, and, you know,

we felt it would be best for him to come off the bench. Okay. What about them other guys? Yeah. Ham was a defensive player, I think, right? I don't know. He was on the bench when I was playing. He didn't get in the game.

But most likely he was a defensive player, one of those guys that hustled. And that's his mindset. Yeah. Right? You got a little bit in you and you're looking for it on the court. Like, these guys play the right way. Well, it's not the right way if they're not winning. Right?

Of course, Austin Reeves, Rue, and D'Angelo will be mad. They're your offense. So if they miss two or three shots, you put them on a bench. These guys don't even take three shots and they're playing. Now what ends up happening is you start looking at the guys as enemies instead of teammates.

You start putting division inside the locker room because they're getting minutes that they haven't earned. He took three shots. He did this and he plays 30 minutes. Now what does that do to someone like D'Angelo? Oh, if I don't do nothing, if I don't shoot,

if I don't make no mistakes, I play longer. Because that's what he's doing with this guy. The fact that at this point in the season, you're still having fluctuation problems. Let you know you don't know what's going on right now. You're still trying to find stuff. And instead of building on

that championship mid-season, in-season, mid-season, whatever the season, beginning of the season, you're supposed to be building confidence. That was supposed to boom, boom, boom, boom, and take off. You have Rui

and D'Angelo should be starting or Reeves and Cam and Prince both shouldn't be starting. No. Norvando. No. Hell no. Two of those three shouldn't be starting. No. Nor Vando. No. Hell no. Two of those three should not be starting.

I didn't even look at him as a starter. That looks like a friend hookup. You lost a bet. He looked like you lost a bet. Like, all right. I'll put him in. He shouldn't even be playing minutes right now. They weren't worn. They weren't worn. They weren't earned, right?

You can't just say, all right, we're going to go from averaging one and put him in. And I'm sitting there. I'm also like, wait a minute, man. I'm averaging 15 points a game. 15. And you ain't even thinking about me. Yeah, you ain't thinking about me as a starter. What's wrong with you?

That happens. Like, you're getting minutes. Think about it. You're getting minutes that you didn't deserve and you think I'm cool with it? No. Because I'm watching. There's not one time that Jared Vanderbilt has shot a shot outside and it's done too many

that I actually thought it was going in. Be I'm watching on television or I'm actually sitting at the game. Not one time does he shoot a shot and I'm like, oh man, that's good. Even when he laid the ball, even when he's like driving the ball, he's going to flip it up left-handed. I'm like, man that's good so what is it even when he laid a ball even when he like driving the ball he gonna flip it up left handed I'm like that ain't going in so what is this man doing on defense

looking at LeBron looking at Anthony Davis I got the night off nah no your job your job isn't the funnel your job is to D up because you give us nothing offensively.

Like I said, you've got whatever it is. You've got to be a bigger asset than a liability. So he has to be a bigger asset on the defensive end because we know he's a liability on the offensive end. But if he gives us nothing on either, now all of a sudden he's no good. If you wasn't playing him at the beginning of the season, there was a reason. Don't play his ass now because you feel you need to change shit up. No, you need to get everybody thinking the right way. You need to get everybody in tune with what their game is.

You think D'Angelo is coming off the bench to this guy and you think he's happy? Yeah, that's the thing, yeah. Like, Cam, you putting Cam on the bench, what's that going to do? He going to give you five. What, he going to give you five coming off the bench? Cool. Like, I'm not losing nothing there, right?

But that is something that bleeds a locker room, where you're looking at somebody in front of you that ain't him, right? So you ain't cheering for him. You put a guy in that can't shoot the ball. I'm sitting here. We sit here like, we're going to play team ball.

You start Rui or Austin. You start Russell or Austin. Trust me, their production is going to get better because they should have a six-year- show confidence in them. The fact that you don't. You shouldn't be at this place right now.

You shouldn't be right here right now. This is horrible. Unless they're putting Vandy in because they need to trade him. Show him he's healthy. That's the thing. 15 coming up. He healthy. That's the thing. That's the thing, right? 15 coming up.

Went in and showed him. He healthy. All right. He heard that. Hey, look at him. Look at him out there. Look at him going down, y'all. He like that car we got.

You know we want to sell it. So I'm going to drive it and let everybody see it's operational. Then I'm going to go put it right back on the show. Hey, speak to for sale sign in it, Jamal. And that's what this play looks like. It looks like they want to show that

because there's no way as a coach you're going to take a guy who's averaging 1.5 and insert him in the starting lineup and he don't even get no minutes. The play is, I want to show him off so I can package him. Yeah. Because you know, Vando was hurt at the start of the season.

I think he had a foot injury or he had some kind of injury to start the season. But for whatever had a foot injury or he had some kind of injury at the start of the season. But for whatever reason, man, hey, they got to get more production. They need more than five points, three points, two points from him. Torian Prince is like, he'll miss, but okay. He does, I mean, look, more times than not, I feel comfortable with him shooting the three ball. But like I said, we don't need all three of them.

Man, I'm sorry. I come from a time where I did shoot half our threes. Right? We shot 14 threes a game. I shot seven of those. There's no way in the game where I'm playing on the court where he gets to take 13 threes who tore your friends hell no you'd have been so now i'm not getting this motherfucker out of here coach ain't no way out of game hey hey what's dude doing if this is not your job if you're not

sitting in there like what do you think about ray ray allen didn't shoot these many threes. No. Right? You're not Steph or Klay. KD don't even shoot these type of threes. So for you to shoot these type of threes, you better be sitting in the practice facility or the gym shooting thousands of shots. And if they get mad that I said they shouldn't be shooting, I will bet any type of money, if we shoot a hundred threes right now, I will blow them out. You are a shoot guy

that currently, you're talking about those three guys that are shooting on the Lakers right now, you get them. I wouldn't even come on them. I'll shoot one hand against them. The Lakers, one hand. You're going to have to be a real shooter for me to put both my hands on the ball. I take 300 shots a day still. I take 300 shots and I'll wake up 435 and I go out there and take my shots.

It's just in me. So I can't look, I can't see a player and I'm sitting here like what do you do when you in practice what do you do are you working on your shot how are you not marksman you got one job one job

that means if practice starts at 11 hey you Cam you Prince get in the gym at 8 o'clock. You shoot nothing but threes from these spots from 8 to 11. Then we have 10 practice. Then after, take one more hour of shooting more threes. And then I need you to come back later on tonight and shoot more threes.

That should be your job. You should be a marksman. When I pass it to you, That should be your job. You should be a marksman. When I pass it to you, everybody should be turning around. We all turn around, put our hands in because we know that's in. But what are you doing?

You just come in here practicing, get 50-something shots up and think you good? Think you golden? Nah, man. Like there was a year where I took 100,000 shots in the summer.

Because the calculation was, shit, I'm only shooting about 37%. For me to go up another percent, I got to shoot about 100,000 shots. To move up 1%, I had to shoot 100,000 shots. That's how the calculation went. So when you look at the Steph Currys and stuff like that, man, they shooting. I watched Steph take 400 shots in 22 minutes.

Moving. And that was the warmup. Wow. That was just to show the crowd. This is what I do. Ended that and then worked out for two hours so he took about 1500 shots that day wow the mere fact that you know steph has to be because steph has to like it's different for him because he's perpetual motion so there's's very few chances, there are very few times that he's getting a wide open three. He's coming

off a pick, he's back cutting, he's flaring, but he's still constantly moving. Look here. It's something when you get tired now, fatigue will make cowards of us all. So for him to be able to shoot that shot after playing 25,

30 minutes, okay, to start the game, we get it, Gil. But he moving like that throughout the entirety of the game and in the fourth quarter. He's in impeccable shape. That shape separates him. When we talk about

the greatest shooter, if we told everyone to shoot 100 shots, 100 threes, it could be close from yes i believe that ray allen a reggie miller reggie miller yeah right he's we can say he's the best shooter he's the best shooter because he was the best conditioned so his first quarter looked like his fourth quarter while the rest of those shooters

were tiring out he's at a 99% stamina level so he was consistent throughout so he looked like he was the better shooter because he's in shape the whole thing versus I'm 30 minutes and I'm sitting here

like can we get some water and he's... That's the key to all of it. Being in shape. You be in the best shape of your life. When I say life, I mean you running the three, four

miles when you done played a game just to get the extra cardio in. You have to do a lot of stuff to be great. Right. Grizzlies are four and oh with jaw. The Grizzlies went six and 19 without job because he started the season serving that 25 game suspension. They're not four and oh with the Western conference player of the week on

the court. After pulling off a come from behind win over the new Orleans on Tuesday, the Memphis Grizzlies trailed by 14 in the fourth quarter and chipped away at the lead until the final seconds of the game. Jha did this celebration. I guess it's a New Orleans dance called Pistols

and Bazooka. They're separate? Yeah. Okay. What I'm being told now they're saying it's two separate things they say it's the New Orleans dance

and it's not the celebration Pistols and Bazooka I didn't say that when I was told I was saying you know it's the New Orleans dance it is not Pistols and Bazooka it's the New Orleans dance that just happened to have Pistols and Bazooka. Nah, yeah, it's the New Orleans Dens that just happen to have

Pistols and Bazooka. It makes you, I know he's going to irritate the older group, but it kind of got to, as someone who thrives on being petty,

he can't help himself. Right? Right. I'll be honest. Right now, without the celebration, I call him Ja Witt because that's what he reminds me of. Like he killed his dog.

Right. He going through teens like they killed this man's dog. Right? And it's phenomenal. It's phenomenal what he's doing. It shows you how great he is. And

he's so in he's young, right? And I know we're going to nobody want to hear excuses of he's young, but he is a kid. He's in a culture where it's the dance culture, right? Like if you look at Westbrook and the dances he was doing during those OKC, he's no different. Just the music he listens to got those type of reactions to it.

And when he's doing his dunks and he's feeling great, that's when he's showing it. This is not coming from an angry place. We're looking at what he's doing. It's not coming from an angry place. We're looking at what he's doing. It's not coming from an angry place. Everything he's done is coming when he's actually happy. It's a weird one because it's the culture. When they're dancing and they're doing this, it's coming from a happy spot, not an angry spot. And I don't think no one's separating the two.

They just see, oh, Pistols and he threw the bazooka at us. Right. And that's going to be the problem, right? And I don't think we should focus. Huh? You know, it's optics. You know, in this situation with him, he got suspended for gun. He was, you know,

he got, you know, had it one time and he went in with the commissioner and he saw the commissioner and he never put himself in that position again and then a couple of months later he was in that again I think it's just the optics of it but like you said I mean I guess the only dance that he know how to do have guns have them fangs on him so

it is what it is I'm laughing because as soon as you said it I was like oh shit there you go again he just can't. You dunk on him, but I'm just glad that I'd rather

see him still having his mental intact versus seeing some watered-down version. As the organization of the Grizzlies, I know deep down inside, they're happy as hell. One, you got one of the Grizzlies, I know deep down inside, they happy as hell. One,

you got one of the future stars of the NBA. You have an impact player. You have a player that you can sell to your audience. You got them at a discounted rate. Those 25 games was perfect for you to get

him for $40 million cheaper. Right? You save $40 million with those antics. So in your mind, you don't care. Because you got, it's like getting Iverson. You know what I mean? It's like getting Iverson. It's like getting a Bentley for 20% off.

You're not going to complain. You're not going to complain. And that's what it is with Ja. He's at this point, though. He's at this point where it's a

God-mode thinking. My team was so trashed without me. You're trashed without me. Y? You're trash without me. Y'all some losers without me. I come back, we 4-0. I done hit two game winners. I'm that man.

If he don't settle, if he don't really look at himself, his ego can be bigger than it was before. Of course. And the issue is going to be now that he's entering that God zone thought process where he needs to protect himself more

because now you're 4-0, you go 5-0, what's the name of the month? You make the all-star game. Oh, we got to come get you. Oh, hey, send some girls this way. We need him to do something. Send, like, you know,

and this is where now he needs, because he has this chance where they open the door for you to come back in without any penalty penalty, right? We penalize you, but we got you a clean slate where you can come back

and get your crown back. And I think he needs to really think about where he's at and what he can accomplish. He can get more than he lost. If he plays this right, because the team is horrible without him. And if he can get this team to the playoffs, he can make that all-star team. He's the playoffs. He can make that all-star team. He's the dude. The Gifted Gab asks, what do you think about Memphis going after Andre Drummond or Busevich from Chicago or one of these bigs from the Pistons, Bones Highland from the Clippers?

What do you think? I mean, because obviously they were a different team with Big Adams. And him going down, you know, he missed the last half of the season. They thought he was going to be able to come back, but he ended up having to have surgery again know, he missed the last half of the season. They thought he was going to be able to come back, but he ended up having to have surgery again and he's going to miss

the entire season. What do you think about going out and getting a Busevich, getting an Andre Drummond? I mean, that means you got to trade, right? If you're just trying

to replace one guy and you're trying to replace an enforcer, a hard body down there, then you might want to go after Dwight Howard. That is the only player that is

cheap, willing to come in for pennies on a dollar and because he's been out of the NBA and it looks like he's being left behind, he's going to accept whatever role you give him. Right.

You know he's going to be in shape. Right. You know he's going to play defense. Right. He's going to come to practice. He's going to be a professional. And if you need him to come in there and check some players, he can do that.

Right. And you don't have to break up your team to go out there and get those guys. Right. You can just sign him as a free agent. When Adams comes back, you can cut him if you want. Well, Adams ain't coming back this year, so you'll probably have him on. And he'll be just what Adams was.

I believe if you played him, say, 25, 27 minutes, I believe he can give you the kind of rebounds that Adams give you. Same kind of defense. He'll give you a double-double. Yeah. Because, you know, he'll give you a double-double. He's going to get physical down there, and that's going to open up a lot

of stuff for John Morant, because now you have a real enforcer down there where no one is going to be trying to hit you, right? That's the one guy I see without breaking up what I have. Because what I have right now is 4-0.

Right. Because when I look at it, I think Dwight Howard, even at his age, is still more athletic than Stephen Adams. Oh, yeah, facts, facts, facts. So I think that would be a good move. Jalen Brown likes a tweet pushing back at UD. Your daughter has some comments on Bill Russell.

Haslam apparently said F. Russell after the NBA announced a league-wide jersey retirement for the legendary Celtics star. Haslam said, tell me when you're going to see Miami Heat jersey hanging in Boston, said Haslam. I have to repent. I had to repent that. I love Bill.

No disrespect to Bill. I love him. Will you ever see a jersey hanging in the Boston Rafter? Why? You know what? He got it hanging there. UD, you know, I like UD. But I

think the thing is what UD is failing to miss or miss, what he's missing is sometimes a player is so good and so great, they transcend the sport. Because he's more than just a basketball player. It's kind of like jackie

robinson jackie robinson they were they retired 42 league wide because he transcended the sport was he the best player in baseball no but what he did should never be forgotten yeah bill russell was the same way what he went through even in boston as he was winning all those titles at that summit i think it was 67 in which the summit in cleveland happened he was there bill russell is a civil rights icon muhammad ali is muhammad ali the greatest boxer no but he transcends the sport. And sometimes when a person is transcendental,

I mean, whatever is bestowed upon him is worthy. Bill Russell having his number retired across the league is worthy. Jackie Robinson having his number

retired across baseball is worthy. So I don't, and I get, I think he was just looking at it like, man he's from Boston, but you have to look at the other stuff. The basketball is a thing. Obviously, he had

to be great at basketball. But it's the other things is the reason why he's hanging across everywhere. When it's playoff times and we beating the enemy, we don't care

about what you transcend. We're trying to get out of this series and I got to tell my team whatever I have to tell them to get over this hump. These two teams have been battling for the last three, four years. And

no matter what they trying to do, when I see that number at this point in time up there while we're playing this team, I don't care what his history is. We trying to get out of this series. We trying to get to the championship.

And that Boston jersey, that legacy is in our way. How about this here? You do realize the Miami Heat retired Michael Jordan's number. So why he ain't say F-M-J? Because they ain't playing Chicago Bulls. They ain't playing Chicago Bulls. I mean, Pat Riley retired that thing before number six. No, but what I'm saying is he said ain't nobody should wear 23.

Well, I want 23. But they're not playing Chicago Bulls in the playoffs. They playing you in the playoffs. If you looking up at the rafters worried about what's hanging in Boston or what's hanging across your arena, you already beat. But who won? So it worked. Whatever the speech was.

Whatever the speech was. Who won? They gagged. But you got to remember that. You got to remember. The Miami Heat, they lost that game in their arena. They had to go back to the, I guess they still call it the guard,

the TD Banks, the TD Banks. I think it's TD Banks. So they had to end up having to win there. But like, like I said, I just think the thing is, is that if you understood, it's kind of like, you know, Cleveland, you understand what Jim Brown, because he was, we know he was a historical figure as far as running the football, but it was what he did

in the civil rights movement that gave him the added credence and the cachet. I don't think when UD was, when he did that speech, none of that really mattered to him, right? He's just trying to

figure out as a guy to get these guys over the hump, to really try to put some type of fire into them, right? In times like that, there was times where we being, you know, we

got like Larry Hughes, right? We playing Larry and we got speeches that, that's him. He left us, know, we, we got like Larry Hughes, right? We playing Larry and we got speeches that have him. He left us. Boom, boom. We got to go in and say, like, yeah,

that's not how we felt, but we, we got to show each other that we're willing to do whatever it takes to get through this hump. Right. And if Larry's in our way, Larry's in our way. And that's,

that's really, you know, what that, that speech was. We're just hearing about it now. Right. We're like, oh, wait a minute. You can't say that.

Well, to get them to do what he needed to do, I mean, Jalen, if y'all should have got over game seven, y'all should have said, F them. Right. I think it's the same thing. I don't know if you heard about this, Gil, but there's a situation where Sean McDermott, the head coach of the Buffalo Bills,

he used a reference about 9, Gil, but there's a situation where Sean McDermott, the head coach of the Buffalo Bills, he used a reference about 9-11 and it ended up getting out and he had to apologize. He had to walk it back. And I think this was a situation because like you said, doing a pregame speech or you trying to get somebody motivated, you say a lot of stuff.

Yeah. Say a lot of stuff. But sometimes like as fans or whatever, like, you can't take everything for what it is. Like, this is a different time now, Gil. I know. Gil, it's a different time. Gil, the stuff that we would say in the locker room

and y'all say in the locker room, that ain't going to fly now. Yeah, no facts. Hey, you're going to get canceled. You're going to get canceled. You're going to get canceled. You understand that and you have to be able to maneuver. But the thing is, but now

everybody's offended about everything. And I think that's the problem with sports is the fact that every group is willing to cancel is the reason why everyone's reluctant to have certain type of groups inside the organization. Because if something happens, right, that's natural. How we talk and how we prep each other.

And you're canceling me, then it's easier for me not to accept that person here. We won't say we're discriminating, but we are. But that is easier versus you canceling me for saying something inappropriate. Zion got a chest tattoo. I want to know. I thought that was you busting out there. Just gorilla, man.

Man, you know good well. I ain't got no stomach like that. I don't know where you got that from. I just want to know one thing, Gil. Who going to tell him it's not centered? Listen, maybe it's supposed to be a little over the heart.

Maybe that was the way it was designed. A little over the heart. But I want a Zion man come on man right I get the concept right you want to put what was that gorilla name Harambe

yeah Harambe you got Harambe on your chest man but the belly is what stopped me man it reminded me of what Stephen A said You got Harambee on your chest, man. But the belly is what stopped me, man. It reminded me of what Stephen A said, man. He was at the free throw line, and his belly getting to bouncing. Soon as I seen him with his shirt off, that's all I looked at. Like, oh, Stephen A was right. He did the Supreme.

That was so good, man. Man, look. You got the tattoos, Gil? Whole body. I got corporate tats. I coined it. I called it corporate tats. Tats where I like tattoos,

but to get my corporate sponsors, not on my neck, not on my sleeves, nothing. Yeah, yeah. So I have tats all in where the jersey covers everything.

So I call it corporate tats where I like the tattoos. I'm not going to score scare corporations off from having me a part of their brand. Flip St. Felix asked, no question, guys, guy just wanted to say shannon and

gill you guys are killing the game and watching y'all dominate this media is beyond inspiring thank you thank you we appreciate the support dr shark monk said do nba nfl players avoid getting intimate having sex before big game like boxers do for weeks or have fresh legs. Hell no. I don't know about gilding. Hell no. I ain't aboard nothing. I mean, we're in the hotel night before a game, so it makes it a little bit more difficult because we have security at the elevator.

We have security at the end of the hall. So ain't nobody... I mean, once we have... And we have bed check. So once we have bed check, I mean, they lock it down. But hell no. Weeks? Man, I mean, they lock it down. But hell no. Weeks? Man, you ain't no boxer.

I mean, I understand they go up to Big Bear or they go to, you know, these places and they in training camp for six, eight weeks. Hell no. Hell to the no. I'm going to try to shake the covers Friday night because I know I'm about to be locked down on Saturday. No, but look, I can only speak to me. Got a shark monk that when you ask, I don't know whatever NBA players,

I don't know what any NFL players do. Maybe some do, maybe some don't. But no, I'm not going no six weeks or once the season starts going without sex. That ain't going to happen. I mean, Friday, I mean, 24 hours, 48 hours. That's all I got for you. Did we lose communication with Gil? I think we lost Gil.

Lost Gil, lost the signal. Headquarters, you got us. Man, y'all stop. That man ain't about to get no tattoo or no cheeseburger. He ain't getting no neck bone on his neck. Come got us. Man, y'all stop. That man ain't about to get no tattoo or no cheeseburger. He ain't getting no neck bone on his neck. Come on now. Y'all do it too much, chat. Y'all wrong for this.

The man got a tattoo. Okay. He wanted a tattoo on his body. It's a heart. I think he got it like a silverback in the center of the cross. If Gil joins us back. I'm going to read it. If Gil joins us back, we're going to go back and revisit that question. Dub D asks, Unc and Gil, what y'all think about Rasheed Wallace

isn't in NBA 2K because they only wanted to pay Vance $10,000 to be in the game. He won $125,000, but they refused to pay it. 2K makes hundreds of million a year i get it because we're in the same situation and um but i think it's nice that uh i'm a part of the game and i i think you look i think uh she i ain't counting that man's pocket but he feels that the the the adequate and the proper compensation would be $125K. I'm not here to tell him he's right or wrong. Me, I wanted to be a part of it. And so, you know, hey, it's not much, but I'm not hurt for money.

I'm doing my own thing. I don't think he's hurt for money either, but he wants to stand on that. Hey, guys, you're making hundreds of million dollars. What's $125K? he wants to stand on that hey guys you making hundreds of million dollars what's 125k but then when you start paying everybody 125k I don't think the game is going to last too long so for me

I understand him standing on it I also understand 2k said nah we good bro we'll just we'll have the pistons or the trailblazers and you won't be a part of it. Gil, you back yet? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ah, man.

She done hacked the system. Dr. Shark Monk, he asked, do NBA, NFL players avoid getting intimate, having sex before a big game like boxers do for weeks to have fresh legs. And does that work? I was saying, Gil, nah, bro. I ain't no boxer. I'm going to shake the covers Friday

because I'm going to be locked down Saturday. So, no. And my legs should be recovered by the time I hit the field on Sunday. So, no, I'm not going a week. I'm not going a month. I'm not doing any of that. O'Shea going to shake the covers for a dog on Friday. Like, it's ritual.

So I had a teammate who got some fellatio before the game, hit five threes. So you got to call up back the next game. So you know every game, that's what he had to do. Okay. Every game, he'd go to the every game, that's what he had to do. Okay. Every game, he'd go to the parking lot, right before the tip-off, go to the parking lot, get a little thing done, come on to the game.

Yeah. Right. Hey, superstition is a powerful thing, man. Most powerful thing. I didn't listen. I didn't because I heard the story. Magic Johnson, back in the day, said he didn't listen I didn't because I heard the story Magic Johnson back in the day said he didn't have sex the night

before the game and that's all I grew up knowing the night before the game don't have sex Magic Johnson said don't have sex the night before the game so that's what I always did so there was a certain time 9, 10 o'clock that I stopped so I didn't do it on game day just because that's what I always did. So there was a certain time, 9, 10 o'clock, that I stopped. So I didn't do it on game day.

Just because that's what I thought. But I know it wouldn't affect me. It was just, that's what, you know. So you didn't do another night before either? Like, you know, 10, 11, 12? Yeah. Not on game day, no. Oh, but see, we had security on the floor.

So we couldn't, I mean, I'm sure some guys were able to sneak in. Wait, what? What do you mean security? What was security for? No women on the floor. I mean, we couldn't have anybody on the floor. We had room check. We had bed check. Wait, as a grown man? As a grown man, yeah. Wait, wait,

y'all had curfew? Yes. Oh, no. Oh, no, no. Yeah, for sure. Nah, nah, we knew you, wait. Y'all had curfew? Yes. Oh, no. Oh, no, no. Yeah, for sure. No, no. We knew. Damn. You need to be an NBA player for about one good year.

That's why I said I had to shake the cup before dark on Friday. Because I knew I was going to be locked down. Either on the road or in the hotel. Because even at home, we stayed in the hotel night before the game. What? Yes. You stayed in the hotel night before the game. What? Yes. You stayed in the hotel night before a game. Oh, we partied.

Oh, no. We partied. Oh, no. Most of us are coming in at 6, 7 in the morning from the club. Yeah, but see, y'all games that night, so you could do that. See, we played at 1, 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Yeah, because we just going to sleep all day. We just going to sleep all day. We're just going to sleep all day.

Right. Uh-uh. Because Mike is telling us Friday, and Brian was always telling us after the practice, we're done practice around 1 o'clock on Friday. All right, go home, get off your feet. If you got, you know. Hey, and when, you know, I did.

I got off my feet. You know what I mean? Yeah, I was off my feet. Yeah, that's great. I ain't saying he was off us, but I got off my feet. You know what I mean? I was off my feet. Yeah, that's great. I ain't saying he was off us, but I was off my feet. Y'all didn't even get to have fun. We haven't. Listen, listen.

If I. Oh, you can't hang with no basketball player. We ought to be good. I'd be good. You know, we run them through the hotel. You got I'd be good. I'd be good. You know what I'm saying? We run them through the hotel. You got the same girl going through four, five rooms. What?

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I got to be done. Oh, yeah. She coming on down. Yo, hey, and she got a friend. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, you know that you know with the traveling pats. Oh, yeah, I can't handle all these girls.

Come on down here. Yeah, I got three, four coming through. That ain't happening in the NFL. Security can be come. But see now, Gil, Gil, I wouldn't want no parts of that now. With the way it's set up now, are you going to get, oh. It's a simple, let me tell you a simple rule, Gil. No means no.

Maybe means no. And sometimes yes means no tomorrow. All that, no, no, no, leave means no, and sometimes yes means no tomorrow. All that, no, no, no, leave it alone, Gil. Leave it alone. Cash means yes, right? Cash means yes. As soon as they take that cash,

they mean yeah, right? So we paying. What'd you say? Oh, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, we got receipts. Oh, let me cash app you this. Cash app sin. I ain't got no app.

So I ain't got no cash. You have to know my phone. But I ain't got no Uber. I ain't got no. I ain't got nothing. I mean, have you noticed, though, the NBA players ain't getting called out for that? Yeah. Yeah, man.

Y'all. But see, y'all got a different life. See, y'all see basketball like basketball and baseball player. Y'all don't draw the price up. Y'all. But see, y'all got a different life. See, basketball, like basketball and baseball player, y'all done drove the price up. Y'all inflation. Y'all done drove the price up the hill. I mean, it used to be, you know, finger knee with your hair done.

You know, you get your nails done. And you know, you play a little bill here or there. Oh, yeah, we messed up. Oh, yeah. Yeah, y'all done drove the price sky high. Oh, yeah, yeah yeah Y'all got high, man Yeah, we flying Private jet We gonna give you 100,000 just to get you

See, that's what I'm saying I needed them pre-pandemic prices See, y'all See, the pandemic And everything was scarce I needed to go back to pre-pandemic. Yes. I can't get your y'all, man.

Like, hey, the basketball players, I told y'all, the basketball players, the baseball players, they're never level. Ain't got no problem. Like, we buying the Birkin bag. We going to put the $30,000, $40,000 in there just to talk to you. We going to try to spoil you just to get it. Just for the night. Oh, it's over.

Oh, Lord. Y'all see that? Hey. NFL players. See, that's why we ain't got no chance. That's why we can't compete with them. He'll already tell y'all. Don't bring your track shoes. Y'all want to keep up with the NBA player. Bring your checkbook.

And when people hear me talk and I say, y'all don't understand. I got a different playbook. My playbook, I get to say whatever I want because what they're going to do, I can just get a new one. Right? How I, like, girls are like, yeah, don't talk to me like that. I get you.

And then the people above me get you too. You know what I mean? If they say, hey, what time you going to be over here? You say nine. I'm horny right now. I'm going to call say, hey, what time you going to be over here? You say nine. I'm horny right now. I'm going to call somebody else. I'll see you later.

Huh? I get to do that? Oh, no, I'll be over right now. Well, whoever get here first, that's who I'm letting in. Yeah. So what if they show at the same time? Hey, y'all like each other? Hey, look.

The NBA player, look. The NBA player, listen. The NBA player going to try. We say whatever because we can. I'm scared. And that's the problem. We really, like, we rude. We compromise because we can go in the DM

and then get to talking. We should talk regularly. All right, well, then I'll just holler at your friend or I'll holler at this person. Hey, I want all four of y'all to come back. We just sitting there just playing mismatch. And that's the problem. And guess what?

You ain't gonna catch us in public with them. So that means, listen, we treating girls who are high to ditty and we have to turn them into 304s that's hoes backwards. You know, your superstar women, them stars?

Yeah. Yeah, they come sneak in the hotel two in the morning and go and leave out. So, you know, I was wondering. I say, man, why everybody got a G-Wagon? Why they got a Birkin bag and they got no APs on? Y'all ain't got no job like, oh! Now it makes sense, Gil. I was wondering every time I go on IG and I'm looking,

she got a G-Wagon. She got a Birkin bag. She got an AP. Mm-hmm. Look, they date the NBA player for the luxury. They date the NFL player for the luxury. They date the NFL player for the love. Y'all going to show them the attention that they need. Oh, Lord.

Listen, I can fly you out from Miami. We go to a Miami club. You are in town with me, and I took somebody else home. Yeah, I'm just going to get you a new hotel room. She better. Wow. I ain't got that guy. I ain't never had that to get you a new hotel room. She better. Wow. I ain't got that guy. I ain't never had that guy.

I ain't never been that ballsy. Well, I ain't never, first of all, I ain't never flew out to, I ain't never went to a party like that, like y'all be doing it. I guess I'm about to go out there and let my hair down. See what y'all here being played on put down. Go on there, try it on. Go to the next celebrity you see. Go to the next celebrity you see. Hey, listen, I want you for the night.

I got about 45 minutes. And what you got for me? Nothing. You'll be surprised. Here's the thing. I get it, Gil. Look, at my age, I'm 55. I'm a little bit of a celebrity. Dead playing in the NFL.

And I get that at my age, because of who I am, the dating pool is a lot more open than say somebody 55 that's not in my position. I get it. But I ain't no fool now, Gil. It ain't all the way open. Now, if I was

25 or 35, I got to play book. You're right. So, you know, I had to stay in. You know, you're right. You're right. So, you know, I'm,

I had to stay in my lane, Gil. Like, you know, Hey, Hey, you know, that new Florida law,

they just about to pass a law. You got to be at least driving at least 65 in the far left lane. I ain't all the way to the right. I'm in the lane next to the far right lane. And I'm doing like 58. Hey, quick question though. So since you're 55, is the problem that 55-year-old women don't look good?

Is it that the 55-year-old women don't look like, kept up like you do? Is that a problem? The God's honest truth. Women my age looking for guys is that a problem? The God, the God's honest truth. Women, my age, looking for guys

younger. Mm-hmm. And me, I ain't no said day. Me too. Mm-hmm. So we both looking for different.

We looking over each other looking for something else. Mm-hmm. It is what it is. It is what it is. It is what it is. Bam. Bam. I'm at 40,

so I'm good. Man, you in the sweet spot. You in the sweet spot. They say like when you date, when you looking for a girlfriend or wife, half your age plus seven. That's supposed to be your cutoff.

Okay. Half your age plus seven. So you're theoretically, so from 27, I guess all the way to 40, is in your wheelhouse. Okay. I ain't telling nobody my age. I ain't really 55. Actually, I'm 37. He said I'm 37. I just really 55. I feel like I'm 37. He said, I feel like I'm 37. Nah,

Gil, like, but I, I, I just, I just look, I just, hey,

I mean, I just, I just say, I ain't never had that kind of gumption to be able to, you know, I mean, I will,

hey, you're not, I could, I could, I could sense early on if somebody wasn't feeling me and that's cool. I ain't never called nobody out

their name because they didn't want to holler at me or they found my boy more attractive or somebody had more money. I'm cool. I'm good with it. It ain't the end of the world. I think my no chill personality lets me get away with a lot more. Because they already

expect it. They expect it. If, they expect it. Like, if I go out there right now and say, yeah, anybody charging for, you know, vagina, I'll have a whole DM full of models and celebrities. Or were you playing when you said that? Hey, big head. Like, sometimes I just say this shit just to say it right

I don't even leave my goddamn house just to say it just for kicks and giggles everybody wants to be a good dude so I just want to be a bad dude just to see someone has to talk for the slime balls

Antonio Robinson said you gotta stop Someone has to talk for the slime balls. Bro, Antonio Robinson said, oh, you got to stop left-stevening. They get away with that. Jordan, dad, pass the excuse. Many people lose loved ones but just didn't quit their job. Brian, better. Look, I mean, Gil, I know you've heard everything that was said, that there were other extenuating circumstances was the reason that Jordan left the NBA.

I don't know. He said it was a lot of pressure. I know the man had a very, very close relationship with his dad. And that's a lot. That's a lot. Given the the the the tragedy, the tragic manner in which it happened and the gravity of what happened. So I don't know. They said it was other things where they led. He was suspended. I don't know. All I know is that the man stepped away for a year and a half and came back and he wasn't quite the same wearing the 45, but when he showed back up

in 96 with that 2-3. That 2-3? That 2-3. Yeah. I mean, it was like, we've heard the stories, right? We've heard the whispers. I've talked to refs,

you know, and there's some things that went on, but, you know, it was a mutual step away, let, it was a mutual step away, right? It was a mutual step away. You know, right now, you know, as the face of the league,

you know, we don't know if we can control all this drama, so you step away, going on, let the world miss you, and then you come back, and then we can just talk about basketball. Right? You know, sometimes, you know, and then we can just talk about basketball. Sometimes things like that have to happen, especially when who he was at the time.

Yeah. The things we heard, you don't want that type of cloud over the NBA, especially for who he was. Anybody else, yes, but not him. Not him.

Nikki Wynn, underscore 804, said, Hey there, Gil.. Anybody else, yes, but not him. Not him. NickyWin underscore 804 said, Hey there, Gil. Being from Richmond, Virginia, I'm a Wizards fan because of you. And they're the only team in D.C. I support. So NickyWin underscore 804. She's a big fan of yours, Gil.

Girl, there's only two teams in D.C. You got the Wizards and you got Georgetown. And the Wizards is about to be going to Virginia, so I hope you got your bus fare or your gas money because that's where you're going. Well, she in Richmond, so... Oh, she good. Oh, we loved Richmond. Like, we used to have training camp in Richmond.

Yeah. Yeah, that was a good... That was a good... Like, it was perfect for a training camp. Like we went down there, George Mason all the time to train. Raiders mom, 2489. Please shout out our son, Raider. He's 17 months old, was born with five holes in his heart.

14 months in the hospital, but he's finally home. God is good. Raiders mom, 2489. Congratulations. All the best to you, Raider. Hopefully, after 14 months in the hospital, he's 17 months old. Finally, home.

Congratulations. Hopefully, he has a long, healthy, prosperous life. God is good. Thank you, Raiders mom 2489 for sharing that. His name is Raider? His name is Raider. We know a team.

What football fan he's going to be a fan of? Nothing. Can't be. JJ asks, do you think Pistons losing streak should be a reminder of to other rebuilding teams the risk of getting it wrong?

No. The losing streak is is more of they found they found out how to be bad yeah you gotta practice this deal ain't no way you can practice being good and be this bad so you gotta practice being bad you gotta the habits of what you do every day. When you're talking about what makes a great team great is the little things they do when their shot's not falling,

when they're making those extra little plays. I took a charge here, dove out of bounds, hustled back on defense. You make those little extra plays. That's what the winning teams do. Now the opposite, bad teams, they make all

the wrong plays at the right time for their opponent. Taking the bad shot, turning the ball over, right? You know, you had five turnovers for the game, four of them was in the last minute, right? You just find ways to lose. And when you're a bad team,

it's more mental than it is the game itself. As soon as they go on a run and hit two threes, you look at each other. Oh, we lost again. Oh, we lost again. It's the first quarter. Everybody hid down. And that's what it is. There has to be a moment in time where if you think positive, it will happen.

You go in and say, hey, we're going to win this game. No matter how many shots they make, we're going to cheer. We're going to stand. We're going to root. I need the bench. I need you guys. Stand up the rest of the game. We're going to cheer.

We're going to do. We need to be our own battery pack. And the day they do that is the day they get out of this slump. But right now, they are lunch meat. Wow. That's really tough. Please make sure you hit that like button. Make sure you hit that

subscribe button. Thank you for joining us for another episode of Nightcap. You can find us at the Nightcap feed, the Club Shea Shea feed. We greatly appreciate that. You can also find Gilbert Arenas at his YouTube channel, Gil's Arena on YouTube. The show airs Monday through Thursday,

live at 1130 a.m. Pacific time, 230 a.m. Eastern time. That's Gil's Arena. Show airs Monday through Thursday, 1130 a.m. Pacific, 230 a.m. Eastern time. That's his show every Monday through Friday. We've also pinned Shea by LaPortier. The link is at the top of the chat. Make sure you go out and buy yourself a special bottle for you or that loved one with

New Year's, Valentine's, St. Patrick's Day, President's Day. There's always a reason for you to drink something, you know, do something for two something. And a great way to do that is with Shea by LaPortier. Gil, I want to thank you for joining us tonight thank you for joining us for another episode i'm your favorite sports on shannon sharp he's your favorite number zero the greatest arizona wildcat player in wildcat history mr habachi himself gilbert arenas gill thanks for joining

me tonight bro thank you for having me like always all right All right, bro. Have a good one. All right. Happy New Year. Happy New Year to you. 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.