The Bill Simmons Podcast - Richard Jefferson on Being Traded, Changing Roles, and the New-Look Cavs (Ep. 327)

Episode Date: February 16, 2018

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Nuggets forward Richard Jefferson to discuss his new life in Denver (6:00), Jamal Murray's potential (12:00), Luke Walton vs. LaVar Ball (22:00), the most impressive rookie in the NBA (30:00), the LeBron GM narrative (38:00), Kyrie Irving's ability to lead (46:00), the IT situation in Cleveland (56:00), and the best NBA teammates (1:04:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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You can test drive the all- new BMW X3 at your local BMW center today. BMW only makes one thing, the ultimate driving machine. Don't forget about the ringer.com. We have a bunch of NBA stuff. Danny Chow wrote a really interesting piece about what the all-star game would look like in 2023 and tried to pick the roster based on an algorithm that Zach Mack, who also, I'm sorry, Zach Cram, who also works for, we have a Zach Mack and a Zach Cram. What are the ads of that? Zach Cram, who is kind of our analytics guru, even though he's about 12 years old,

he crunched all the numbers and tried to figure out the exact age range of the all-star game over the figure out the exact age range of the all-star game uh over the over the century basically and then danny tried to pick the roster i was super jealous of this and if i had known about this sooner i just would have taken danny off the project and rated myself because that's how jealous i was of this idea check that out check out the ringer half season awards are on there today, as well as Mark Titus' college basketball power rankings. Tate and Titus, one shining podcast heating up. You're moving up the charts, Tate.

Trying to. Are you gaming the system? Do you have Russian bots putting subs on? We're dropping bags everywhere, left and right. Dropping bags? Yes, all we can do. Some bag dropping? We had a whole bunch of great Ringer podcasts this week, too.

Will Moore had one, J.J JJ Redick, Binge Mode, Ringer NBA show every day this week. All kinds of stuff are happening. We have a podcast, a new one, that I'm going to tell you about next week that we're launching. I'm excited about this franchise. There's no rewatchables this week. Coming back the next two weeks, here's what we're doing creed in honor of

of black panther and mbj and coogler i love those guys and then for oscar week the earliest we've ever done a rewatchables for i mean the earliest the movie has come close to us doing a rewatchables we're doing get out i. I've watched it 50 times on HBO over the last two months. I have a lot of thoughts. So those are the next two, Creed and Get Out. And if you want to watch those before we do those, check those out. One last thing. There's a chance.

There's a chance. I don't want to get too excited. There's a chance. He's a busy dude. There's a chance. I don't want to get too excited. There's a chance. He's a busy dude. There's a chance. We're going to do a podcast with Kevin Durant this weekend. This would be the fifth one. What's that, Tate?

The quadrilogy? Quinn. Quinn trilogy? The last one I thought was the best one. We did a mailbag. It went in a whole bunch of awesome directions. And the biggest reason was because the readers sent great questions and the listeners. So I'm throwing that challenge out again.

Hey, if you want to send a question that might be read and asked of one of the best basketball players in the world, send it to themailbag at theringer.com and put KD in the subject heading. And I'm just going to throw a whole bunch of these at him. Try to be respectful. He is a resource, but you know, you can be challenging. Don't be mean. No Russian bots.

But it's either going to happen this week or it's going to happen this weekend, or it's going to happen in a couple weeks. But let's get the questions going. So it's at the mailbag at theringer.com. KD, part five. It's in the works. Right now, Pearl Jam. Richard Jefferson, the last time he was here, I'm going to say it was August. Yeah.

You remember the Cavs? I was. Since then, they made 38 trades. You were one of the trades. You live in Denver now. You're one of the only people in Denver that probably doesn't smoke marijuana every day. Every time I go there, everybody's just lit. The Celtics played there recently, and it was just the happiest, most mellow crowd I've

ever seen at a Celtic game. Yeah. But what's it been like? Did you get used to the altitude? The altitude's been a little bit trying. I, my role is, is completely different than it's been the last probably like four or five years where I am a full on just veteran leader. I'm not really, I'm not in the rotation. It doesn't matter if someone goes down, if someone gets hurt or whatever, I'm just out of the rotation. So my job is more of just to inspire the young guys.

Yeah, big brother, grumpy old brother. Is that what you want though? It's one of those things that like I look at it from this standpoint is that I have a job. Yeah. And there's a lot of guys that don't have a job. And for longevity in any field, you have to be able to reinvent yourself. You can't just be like, this is who I am. I'm not changing. If it's not, if I'm not in this role, then I'm not doing it. And so I still enjoy

the game. I still enjoy the camaraderie. Every player, I will say, I will say 90% of players wish they were playing more. So I, you know, I don't, I don't put myself in that boat, but no, I enjoy it because we have great young guys, really talented, really humble, really hardworking and fun to be around. Unlike the Cavs? Oh, well, now the Cavs have a lot of young guys that are really good. Now they do. They changed it. So what's it been like to try to be ready mentally every game, but you're probably not going to play?

I would always imagine that would drive me crazy. It does. It drives people crazy. You go there and it's like, am I playing? Am I not playing? Then all of a sudden, hey, we need you. Yeah, it's tough because it's just part of the gig you know and you can't i i feel like i've been so fortunate because i have an appreciation for the game for

the nba game from so many different facets where i was a leading scorer i was a you know young guy off the bench then i was one a part of a big group and then finals teams and non-playoffs. So, and now all of a sudden here I am in a role that is new to me. I've never been in this role before where you're not playing, you're not in rotation. Even if someone else goes, if a starting three man goes down, someone else is going to bump up. It's not, you're not like the next man up. So in that, in that mold, it's more of, you know, Hey, what do you guys need me to do? You need me to make sure guys are showing up on time, doing extra work you guys need me to do you need me to make sure guys are showing up on time doing extra work you need me to lead by example those are the things that

um you know i had people do that for me you know when i was the young guy on the bench and who was your old guy when you were the young guy yeah lucius harris was one of those guys lucius was amazing and he would sit me on the bench and make fun of me I'd go in the game you know I'd be the sixth man I'd get two fouls as a rookie in 28 seconds I'd come back crack jokes or I'd come back pissed off he'd make fun of me and calm me down a little bit then get me back out into the game so you know I had people do that for me uh so you know now that I'm in that role you know you just try and pay it forward denver i think is the most unique team in the league yeah it's it's just like yokage there's nobody like him yeah yeah he's also in this day and age it's easy to put him in in high screens and stuff like that but then on the other end he

kills you so murders you on the other end and the whole the whole nuggets team is basically like we're gonna score you might score on us but we're scoring on you too well we changed it a little bit once we lost paul paul milsap uh right and we were one we're one of the few teams like so paul milsap's been out with a wrist injury he should be back in about a week or two um and then come on paul milsap that's what i'm saying that lazy ass time to make the playoffs and then uh and then we lost um we lost mason plumley for a few weeks but we had so many power forwards on our roster. Trey Lyles, who's a great young player, who I believe has a chance to be really, really good. I like his game.

He has a chance. He's a prototypical stretch forward. Yeah. And he has a very good fluid post game. Yeah. So he's one of those guys kind of in the mold of the old Al Harrington. If you put a small on him, he'll post them up and go get a bucket, put a big on him, and he can step away and shoot the ball.

But he's one of those guys that this is really his first year of playing a ton of basketball, but he has a ton of potential. But, you know, once we lost Paul, our defensive things kind of changed a little bit because he would cover up a lot of mistakes. Yeah, and so we're in the outscore you mode right now. The funny thing is, I remember when Jamal Murray was coming into the draft, Celtics had the third pick,

so I was very focused on this draft. And I think they were choosing between him and Jalen Brown. I don't know what the right choice was. I guess we'll find out 10 years from now. But the thing was, they were saying, great shooter, maybe doesn't have the best first step. Maybe his handle's not great. Might not be somebody who can beat people off the dribble.

And then you watch him now, and he's just blowing by people. Well, I think you're more afraid of his jump shot. You'd be amazing how much of a good jumper makes you very fast. Because guys have to be really close to you. Because they're leaning in. They're leaning in. You have a quick trigger. And so I think that's where his advantage lies.

He has a really good handle. A very underrated handle. He kind of torched Westbrook in that Oklahoma State game. And he's such a young player. Again, I think he's 20. I don't even know if he – either he just turned 21 or he's about to. But that's the thing is that he has so much ability. Excuse me.

And so I think a lot of guys are going to see him take ups know ups and downs a little way right now the young dudes man they're great for two weeks and then they go like two for 20 from three for four games then all of a sudden they're making threes again well i'm not i'm not in a position yet to talk about other teams yeah we've played boston twice so uh good games yeah really good games uh kairi's always cracking jokes looking at the bench messing with me and my teammates are like dude leave that man alone oh that was your guy yeah yeah that was kai's my guy and so it's one of those things where you look at it and people ask about boston i'm like it's going to be tough for boston and this is respectfully not because of the coach not because of kairi not because of the guy it's just it's so

tough to do that all season long yeah right and then you're talking about teams that are really you know they talk about the Warriors being bored they're going to go play till June right they're gonna go play till June so for young guys 82 games alone can mentally fry you now you're gonna add in another you know 25 98 yeah you're gonna add in another 20 games for them to get to the conference finals and then to go to the championship you know and i did it i did it as a rookie right i did it as a rookie and i did in my second year but i was a part of a ton of other veterans and i was just kind of a role player in that mode and i'm not saying they can't do it i'm just saying you're

gonna see these ups and downs like they're kind of going through right now like you said well and especially i was talking to somebody last night who i won't say who it was we were talking about the warriors and i think it's easier to fight that stuff off when you have that like maniac alpha dog on your team like you had kid yeah who was all he wanted to do is play basketball and beat people and just go go go every game and you have those games when you don't show up, but kid shows up. And by the third quarter, everybody's like, oh, fuck. All right. Yeah.

And you have to kind of join in. I'm not positive. Draymond used to be that guy for Golden State, but I haven't seen that night to night from him anymore. He'll have it some nights, but it seems like that's the thing they're missing. If you compare them to the other great teams, It's just the guy on the team is like... Just force the energy. Guys, all right, I'm showing up tonight.

I don't know what you assholes are doing, but I'm doing it tonight. And I don't know, that might be the... I don't know if it's going to matter in May and June. And again, it's tough. Like KD is new, but KD, he lost in the conference finals to them, then went to the finals.

So he's you know approaching you know a possible third june those guys are all approaching a possible fourth june in a row yeah um and so it does get tough and unless you've been through the grind and it doesn't change your focus but for them to you know you win 72 games or you win 68 games and people want you to continue that pace and you're like that's mentally exhausting and i'm not saying a playoff game every game every game like you and it's not saying that you know it's about the process and i know people hate that term at times but you know san antonio you look at what they do it's never about how it's about how can we get

better throughout the season what are the things that we're working on right now it's like golf yeah it's just like working on their swing you're just gonna work on things because you you might need it yeah you know if steve wants to have his players coached and let his players coach you know who you don't have to answer to criticism you know if anything i'm there was players that were mad about it um oh it was disrespectful no it's you know you lose by 40 you lose by 50 those are things that like you could be mad at at team management you can be mad that that's the team that's going against one of the great teams in the history of basketball be glad it was only 40 points that you lost by yeah phoenix got off the hook in that game yeah

the uh do you think lebron was wired like uh over the course of an 82-game season, how many games out of the 82 where the team was flat did he just win anyway? Over an 82, I would say he's similar to J. Kidd, though, because his pace is so intense that a lot of times, even if you're dragging ass— You have no choice. You have no choice, but you're trying to keep up. You're trying to keep up. So he's one of those guys that, hey, guys, it doesn't mean that he's always going to have it yeah it doesn't mean that he's always going to have it just means that he plays at such a pace and such an intensity even if his jumper is not falling you're going to look up similar to like a guy like jokic or j kid if

j kid wasn't scoring you'd still look up he'd have 13 rebounds 11 assists he just had six points and it was kind of a slow night bronze the same way where even if his jumper's not hitting or if he's not getting a couple of foul calls you put him in the fourth quarter with a chance to win like his intensity level goes up he hits that switch yeah he has that ability who could be that guy on the nuggets someday uh do you have one i i really like what we do collectively i think gary harris is the most underrated player in the nba he's probably he's probably been our most consistent player i liked him in that i did that draft yeah and he fell to like 18 or 19 because he was like one inch too small yeah like oh he's undersized it's like so he's six three what is it he what does that mean he's like but he's built davido

yeah he's like he's like physically built for this league when you look at his body type and how strong he is. So you got him and I think Jamal Murray. Those guys as a backcourt, they really could be the backcourt for the next eight to 10 years for the team and they're both only in their early 20s. So do we have guys that are just turn it on? It has to be a collective group.

Even Joker, Jokic isn't a guy that you're just going to throw the ball to 32 times and just say here go carry us tonight he's a guy that passes up shots and moves the ball and he was unbelievable last night no he was he was outstanding last night what's he like quiet yeah funny uh it's funny that his nickname is joker because he's kind of quiet but you know very very quiet because there's no english that well no no no just that's just his demeanor our locker room is boring as hell really and i mean i mean that in a funny the secondhand weed smoke in the city probably it's probably everybody's just and i mean that in a respectful way in the

sense that like when i was with the calves or when i was with uh dallas we had so many personalities in that locker room. Dirk is hilarious. Tyson Chandler is an emotion. We just had a lot of energy in these lockers. So then you go to a super young team where even Paul is a very country boy, chill, laid back, doesn't let a lot bother him.

And we have one of the best locker rooms that I've ever been in, but also one of the more relaxed, quiet locker rooms. I remember a coach walked out. Coach was like, hey guys, we gotta do this, we gotta do this, blah, blah, blah, we gotta blah, blah, and we're gonna have a chance to win. And everybody was like, yeah, all right.

And coach was like, he's walking off, you can hear him, real bunch of energetic guys we got here tonight. And it's just like, that's just not the personality. But then we go out on the court, we end up winning the second half, because we're a better second half team. We don't we either hit first in the first quarter.

Right. Like with the altitude and stuff, if we don't hit first in the we don't hit first there, then we typically wear teams down in the second half just because we play it with such a consistent pace and that elevation. The Denver, Utah, that is like the biggest advantage in the league right now. Yeah, by far. Although they've said they have spread the schedule out since your younger days where that basically four and five is gone yeah yeah three and four still happen the celtics had a four and five people don't understand how much of a monster the four and five understood vegas the lines would always shift by like five points yeah the four and five last week they played thursday night on tnt in washington friday night at home and then sund Friday night at home,

and then Sunday afternoon at home against Cleveland. So it was basically like three and three and a half days. Yeah. And I think they would have lost anyway, but they were just dead. You could see it in the Sunday game. And people don't understand. So like when I played with Jersey,

so you would fly cross country, right? Now Seattle was still a team. You'd fly cross country. Oh my God. You would play Portland on Monday, play Seattle on Tuesdayuesday then right after the game vancouver no no no you at the rise of the game you would fly down and say you would play la on you'd have wednesday i'll play la on thursday then you would go to like utah maybe work your

way back utah on on friday and then you would fly literally right after the game you would fly back to the east coast get back at three in the morning and then have a game like 36 hours later and i was like dog you literally you didn't know where you were you didn't know where you were and you know because i think flying there's no way it doesn't screw with you inside of your brain at least a tiny bit i don't have 35 000 feet coming down there's no way you're totally fine after no and that's i'm not even playing and after trips where it's like back to backs and just traveling getting into you're and again i'm an old man but you're you still get tired you're mentally tired physically tired even when you're not like playing like high level minutes so you're so how long do you see doing this before the media thing kicks in uh media thing it feels like they

have a spot for you on the jump on the jump yeah no they have the rich jefferson you know what that's the thing is i love rachel i love the jump i love her show um she is she's very very good suck up to it i'm not trying to suck i've been on the right here i'm not i'm not trying to suck up to rachel i'm more saying i thought i think she's done a very good job of bringing in players and bringing in experienced players letting them have a voice giving them that platform to talk. And then she does a great job, her monologues or whatever. But I don't know if the jump is for me. What's for you?

I don't know. I need something where I can voice my opinion a little bit more. What about a beach volleyball yoga podcast? I have that that I'm in the works on doing. I'm in the works on doing that right now, where it's just all it is is we talk about beach volleyball, beach, beach, volleyball, and yoga, the two things. Let's take a quick break. All right, let's talk about Casper, the sleep brand that continues to revolutionize its

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Back to Richard Jefferson. All right. I'm going to save the caps toward the end so people can keep listening. That's smart. Luke Walton. Yeah. Your best friend or one of your best friends ah geez he's way up there just one of my friends one of my many many friends

he was in the news he's battling lavar ball or not battling lavar ball seems to be battling him and he's got to deal with that whole situation and there was a point when i actually thought he might get fired. Like there were rumors and all this stuff. Now they're playing really well. It seems like Luke Walton, we don't have to worry about Luke Walton anymore. Well, you always, he understands because he lived in this market and played for this team.

He understands. He had Phil Jack. He understands that once you take this job, it's every day. One day you're fired, one day you're not. One day you're fired, one day you're not. That's part of it. I think for him and what is a more interesting note is what's been said recently where LaVar's talked about Lonzo won't resign if his two boys don't play.

So at first it was an attack on the coach, right? And everyone was like, what does Jeannie Buss say? What does Palenka say? What's Magic Johnson say? And it was kind of like this weird. Well, if they're not backing him this and then all of a sudden, a couple of weeks later, he's now attacking management. Right. And that's where I think the tides go really. No, it's like now it's like it's different when you attack the coach and they have not played well. And you were like, oh he doesn't have a voice okay you'll take that but now when you're saying like oh my son won't re-sign if you don't sign his two brothers now that you're attacking management I think if anything that to me should make the group bond a little bit stronger it's like hey this wasn't just against Luke this is actually Lonzo or this is LeVar versus the Lakers. And I think that's the way it needs to be seen. And hopefully that brings them together. It would help if nobody just ran any of the LeVar quotes.

That's impossible. If we embargoed him, it would be much better. I think we've reached that point. I'll tell you what. I personally will not click on those stories anymore. The sports world, as I would include you and I, we as sports individuals, no problem um we will get rid of all the balls if the entertainment world gets rid of all the kardashians how's that that feels

like a fair trade interesting i i guess the difference is lavar seems like he's kind of unhinged like it's just not good for his son like at some point i have two kids at some point it's your job as a parent to put your kid in a position to succeed right that's our goal as parents and if he's just causing drama with this kid with this structure that we have in basketball where everybody's done everybody's selfless everybody's looking out for each other the team matters more than the player. And then you have this crazy dude saying stuff all the time and kind of undermining that.

That's bad for his kid. I'm going to say this. He's super intelligent, right? He is very intelligent. I had one run-in with him, and it was hilarious. So you think he's a mastermind? I think he's Chris Jenner with basketball jogging pants on. I think he's a mastermind? I think he's a- You think he's Chris Jenner with basketball jogging pants on? I think he's really intelligent.

And what he's done and what he's created is something that's very unique and is very special. And so it's kind of like, okay, well, where is this going to go? And we don't know. You know where it's going to go? They're going to trade his son's ass to some small market team. And then maybe he'll have more control and more power maybe he'll be the gm yeah so i don't know but it is the guy is the guy like crazy no is he suit is he intelligent to the point where it's like okay we know you have power what define crazy to me crazy means that you have no plan

behind your behind your shenanigans. I think he has a plan. You know, think about this. I think he thinks he has a plan. Well, the plan has been working so far from the sense of he did all of this conversation that ultimately led to the Lakers drafting him with the number two pick, right? Like when they had. That part. Yeah.

The talent of his son, I guess, worked as part of the plan. Yeah. And again, you look at, you look, go back and look at the draft right now. Was he the second best player in the draft? Or was it the best pick for the Lakers? He's one of the best four. Yeah, he's one of the best four. And so you look at Mitchell.

Mitchell's. Mitchell's really, really good. That's the thing with this NBA draft is, and you went a little later than you should have. 13, yeah. But like Mitchell, I think he went 13. Yeah. uh that's the thing with this nba draft is and you you went a little later than you 13 yeah but like mitchell what do you he went i think he went 13 yeah yeah it's like kobe what are these guys watching all year they all they're doing is sending scouts to these games and they just miss on mitchell by six seven eight picks they just you you know you you just don't know how things are going to translate they talk themselves out yeah they talk themselves out and you'd rather

go with a name than to take a risk on a guy that might be a little bit unknown but then has more talent it's like even like dennis smith jr like the next the next went with nicolina i think that's frankie we call him frankie nicotine at the rear so so you go with him good defender though yeah it's really good defender but again you don't typically take defenders in top tens who is the best rookie you saw this year bet donovan mitchell but like hands down like hands down it's impressive who do you remind you of i don't see many because he's he's physically built yeah right like if you look at him he's like you know broad shoulders long arms he's got the body type that can go a long way right he's not very frail doesn't again i'm not

putting anything on him but he just has a physicality that that it would take and you look at his athleticism here at six game 60 he's windmill dunking he's doing all this tired he doesn't seem tired now he had a stretch there and again it's going to be tough to jazz to do you know to to go through a whole season with a rookie leading you because there's going to be ups and downs and that's expected especially after you get on team scattering reports but he did he he's he's the best rookie that i've seen my celtics have tatum who if you catch him on the right night you're like holy shit who's this guy he's incredible and then he's 19 years old and then the next night he he looks like paul george to me he like that if with a little dr jay because he's got these really

long arms he does these swoop shots and he'll go, he'll beat people to the left, but do the righty scoop on them. Yeah, I don't have that in my game. I really haven't seen it. The only one who could do it is Giannis, because Giannis is an alien. Giannis is an alien. But no, that's what I'm saying. Tatum, to me, if you look at him, he's 6'9", has a

smooth handle, shoots the ball easy on pull-ups, on threes. He's one of those guys that he looks like a reincarnation of Paul George, right? Like, you know, just the game is so easy for him. So the rookie class is really good. And I know, yeah, Simmons, you know, even though he was really a rookie last year. I don't count him as a rookie.

You don't, this is just- He gets to hang out with that team for a whole year. Yeah, it's the same with Joel Embiid. And it's just like, oh, he's a rookie. He's like, you know, he's been in the NBA environment for a long time. You're a rookie when you're in college, living in a dorm, playing 28 games. And now all of a sudden, you're a professional athlete on an NBA team with 38-year-old guys.

Agreed. That's when you're really a rookie. I agree. I think it's an advantage. That's why I say Donovan Mitchell, to me, is Rookie of the Year. Who does Jamal Murray remind you of? Anybody you saw this century? This century?

Anybody's game? Like a smidge of carrie kittles he's you know someone else said that he he is he's too young he's too young right now and he's got too much fully formed he's not fully formed he he's one of those guys that he played 40 minutes and then another 40 minutes and he's 20 years old playing 80 minutes in a back-to-back game the next night or the next three games he might he might be tired or fatigued so it's tough to really see who he's going to be i believe he's an all-star i i believe that i think you're right i think him i think he has a chance to be an all-star just because he's got an aggressive mental mental uh like mental focus um when he gets stronger and his body develops a little bit more it'll allow him to play eight to 10 games at high

levels versus like three to four, then a couple of game drop off three to four. If you start to put together eight to 10 stretches of 20 games, 20 points in a row, team goes eight and two over a 10 game stretch in your domain. He has that in him. Did you bring him into the beach volleyball yoga scene yet or no? No, no. But he's a's that he's maybe this summer he's got some hippie stuff in him too he's a meditation guy a really really big meditation guy he came on our podcast and talked about that how he tries to meditate even if it's like 10 or you know between 10 and 30 minutes before each game where he just shuts everything off turns off all of his phones and just meditates he learned that from his dad who uh they have a great relationship uh his dad's a really really good guy too what was

the best pod you did this season best pod wow i don't know what i don't even i don't know i well i'll tell you we had two we had one with will barton uh and gary harris came on the pod and we were talking about how the phoenix sun should send all of their entire team to the g league after they lost by 50 and it ended up leading to a fight between him and Troy Daniels. Oh, that's what the reason was. That was the reason that was a couple. And so at like, so I'm sitting on the bench and they get into it. And then Troy's sitting by, they're taking the ball out of bounds. He's like, Richard, I heard what you said. And I'm like, I don't shut up on the bench. I'm like, what'd I say? I had no idea. And then Gary Harris came to the bench. He's like, he heard us on the podcast. Right. I heard about it on the podcast.

And I was just like, well, I was like at that point in time, I was like, oh, OK. And so I told him, I was like, dude, look, it's no disrespect. Any team that loses by 40 or 50, you're going to get you're going to get some trash talk, you know, to you. And I was like, dude, it's never a personal like Tyson Chandler's on that team. That's my guy. Yeah. Jared Dudley, you know, known him for years. It's not a personal attack it's more of like look if you lose by 50 in anything you'd be better be prepared for

people to talk some trash about you in a respectful way we're not calling out individuals saying this person sucks or that we're just like man you lose by 50 on national television your whole team needs to be sent to the g league for a game right that's that's funny that's not that's not being disrespectful so how did that lead to the will bart barton well they've gotten to the G League for a game, right? That's funny. That's not being disrespectful. So how did that lead to the Will Barton thing? Well, they got into the game and all of a sudden he was like, oh, I'm in this all night. So they were kind of going after him.

Will had no idea why this dude was so. So they kept getting more and more physical. And then finally they got into a little scuffle. And he's like, dude, I had no idea why he was so intense. And none of us did until he told Gary, like that was messed up with what you what you guys were saying on the pie and so that's when we found out that it was like the podcast had just come out like two nights that's awesome yes so what what other guys have gotten mad about podcast comments uh do you have a teammate get mad no we we try and protect our guys like really and truly we we we're not in it for like the

clickbait we're not in it for that we're in it sometimes you get comfortable and you share some we do a lot of edits we do a lot of edits i'll tell people that because we want you know if we're going to be drinking wine hanging out talking you want guys to be able to uh feel relaxed but then you can go back and it's like okay let's take this out or let's add let's make sure that this is at this point more to protect guys if we're going to give you this unfiltered content, then we have to be able to make sure that guys don't feel like we're going to expose them if they make a mistake because their guard is down.

I'm the opposite. If you say anything you regret, we're putting it up. 100%, it's gonna be a headline on the ringer. No, we do the same thing. That's why I love podcasts because some part might get boring or somebody might say something and then they'll afterwards go,

eh, you know that one thing I said about how Kerry Kittles was actually a terrible teammate. We should take that out. Yeah, yeah. And then it's like, all right, cool. Yeah, no, and it is. I love this form. It's given so many people a voice.

Road trip and podcast, subscribe. It's given so many people a voice. Road trip and podcast, subscribe. It's given so many people a voice that typically are guarded. I'm surprised you stayed affiliated with LeBron. You're not teammates anymore. You should have been way more spiteful, I think. You know what? I don't blame him. I would blame him.

He's the GM. Who do you think's the GM? It's not Kobe Altman. Kobe Altman is an actor they hired to pretend to be the GM as LeBron makes all the moves. That's my theory. Well, I don't think. Prove me wrong. I can't prove you wrong.

Yeah, nobody can prove me wrong. I can't prove you wrong. But I will say this. There was a little bit of a narrative going around that LeBron is the GM and this and that. And I'll tell you this i've seen tim duncan go to the back of the plane and talk to pop about who they should possibly bring in or things that are being offered i've seen really yeah i've seen it and was there wine involved i don't know if there was wine involved maybe that night yeah but i say it from a standpoint of of this is that when you are a great player and you are bringing

so much to the table, your input should, you know, he's more than just a guy that scores points in this. Like he has a high basketball IQ. So you should, you should ask him that he shouldn't be the deciding factor. You shouldn't do things just for him or this, but you should definitely get his opinion. You'd be silly to not get someone who's got that much intelligence, that much weight and be like, Hey, what do you think about this? Because at the end of the day, know like bill parcel said you know right if you want me to cook the meal i should be able to pick a little bit of the groceries well he's going to be he's going to be you know cooking the meal so you should be able to get a little bit of his input

it's like the chris rock the joke about the when the chicken how the dad gets the biggest piece of chicken oh yeah when the chicken comes in it's like i'm gonna take that piece yeah bron gets a big piece of chicken the biggest piece of chicken and so he traded you it's basically yeah it's really you know it was between me and d-way i didn't understand is that what happened well it was like you know it's like he brought his friend d-way in you know it was like they had like a big boy sleepover they had a big boy sleepover for a couple of months and it was just good for them to catch up yeah look how that worked out well it worked out great i'm in denver way to miami d-way is back i wouldn-Wade in Miami. And D-Wade is back.

I wouldn't say dumped in Miami. D-Wade is happy to be- They rerouted him? Yeah. Rerouted him? He is happy to be where he is right now. And that's the thing. It's like, we're all professionals here.

It's even Channing Frye. Channing Frye is now with the Lakers. And there's no animosity. Look, we won a championship. We went to two finals. We did our job. We did something that- We won the championship, that, that Cleveland had been hungry for that. A lot of players, LeBron and his legacy after winning that championship had never been

stronger, right? Like his, what he accomplished had never been done in sports. He took his hometown team to a championship, came or, or, you know, had them on his back left came back and said we're going to win a championship and did it yeah right and so the guys that helped him accomplish that and a punch them in the nuts a hundred percent and it was so easy to the smartest things i've ever seen easy to rope draymond into it considering he had a history here are my nuts yeah please please just give it a little swat don't forget Draymond played in the last two games so I know so you know I just say it from a standpoint of like there's no animosity I was I owe so much to him for leading us there right and so we're not going to see your ring on eBay no no no that ring I look at the ring like probably like once or twice a week just look at

it and you know put it back away it's? It is gigantic. And there'll never be a place where I can actually wear it, but I cannot wait for it. Let's take a break. Hey, I remember working with SimpliSafe when they had 10 employees. I didn't know they had 10 employees. It seemed like they had more, but man, they were making it happen.

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in 2016, would it have been impossible for him to ever leave Cleveland? No. He's a grown man. He can do whatever he wants that. I don't think he could leave after all the stuff he said and did in 2014. I don't know how he leaves without the title. No, I think for him, like he is such a, a,

a hyper-focused person that it would, it would be like nails on a chalkboard for him to not get, there's never been anything that he's wanted to accomplish that he hasn't. Right. And so for him to say that he wants to win a championship for the city of Cleveland, where he like, he grew up in Akron, but it's just like, that was the team, you know, he was a number one pick. He would like the whole city hadn't won a championship in 50 plus years he grew up watching you know you know the fumble he grew up watching you know michael jordan shot so for him it was like he felt all of this on him and he still went out and accomplished it so yeah now dude can do whatever he wants well

except for space jam 2 which they've had the rights for for five years every time somebody writes a story about his company it's like and they're developing 2. It's like, they've had that for five years. How hard is it to write a Space Jam 2 script? I could do it this weekend. You gotta get Bill Murray in it. That's step one. The cartoons, it's whatever. I've heard that

Jordan is the guy they have to talk to be in it. Yeah, you gotta get MJ to do some sort of cameo. You're not in the Uncle Drew movie, are you? No, no. I don't know how you didn't get asked. You know what? It's probably because it's too lifelike. I look like one of the old guys out there playing basketball, so they wouldn't have to do too much makeup.

Just put a little gray thing on you? Yeah. I actually just let my hair grow out, and it would grow out like I was looking like Uncle Drew. I thought Kyrie was your guy, though. Kyrie is my guy. Couldn't have snuck you into a scene? No, no, no. That's not me.

I'm not Hollywood like that. You're not Hollywood. You come here every every summer and you play beach volleyball yoga what's more hollywood than that that's not hollywood hollywood is like the scene that's not my style you're socal beach scene i'm socal beach scene yeah i'm more flip-flops and like bro tanks all day so you're gonna here's my prediction knowing nothing i you're gonna end it i think whenever it ends you'll have the one last year in la uh okay have you talked to magic or them not i'll make a call to lavar right now i'll see if i can get you in please even if even if it gets me my i need my two sons and richard jefferson i'm just gonna say i was born in los angeles so so so maybe five years from now. So maybe we can, you know, he can claim me as one of his sons,

you know, and I can be the fourth ball son. You can hyphenate your name. Hyphenate my name. Yeah, I think that would go well. I got to say the Clippers would be a fun team to join at some point because I actually like some of the moves they've made. They kicked the Celtics ass this week. And they're kind of tough.

Like, Harold's tough. Jordan's tough. There's a feistiness now. And they don't even have Beverly yet. I like how they reinvented their team. They needed to get rid of the old era. Yeah. Sometimes you just got to move on.

Sometimes you got to move on. And so, Lawrence Frank, who is their president, I believe, over there. Yeah. And so, he was my coach uh my first you know six or seven years in the nba uh he's done a good job over there and again everything looks great that first couple of months true right and then it's like okay you know how is the next two years pan out well that's funny with the calves thing they made that trade they play the celtics who are really not playing well yeah and they look great

then they play well against okc who can look like dog shit against anybody now everybody's like the calves they're back they won the trades it's like it's been two games this is the nba and that was the thing that's the same team that won 15 15 out of 16 i think or 18 out of 19 you know the calves did and so you don't know you just have to wait and see how it's going to go. You know, I look at it now, if you were to look back at it when the trade really happened, you basically now traded Kyrie, myself, and Channing Frye for the Brooklyn pick, for George Hill, for Clarkson, Hood, and Larry Nance.

Right? So now if you looked at it now and say, like, yes, there was multiple transactions, but you're saying, like, this is what we got for what we gave up, you know, at the trade deadline. Took on a crazy amount of money, though. Yeah. I mean, if LeBron re-signs next year with the tax, that's like $300 million. Do you know how much money LeBron makes for the organization? Oh, I know.

But $300 million is a lot for one season. That's unprecedented. Yeah, they got to get out of that. But see, that's why, again, the owners and you look at even the Players Association, we were trying to get away from this repeater tax penalty because it just kills your flexibility. Were you involved in that? No, I'm not, but I'm going to the meeting. No, no, I'm not.

I'm not involved with that. I thought the biggest mistake they made was when they made the new CBA and they just made the cap jump that one year. Yeah, we... Because the league was like, why don't we do it in increments over the course of three years?

We should have done that. That was stupid. And again, in hindsight... Because now these guys, the free agents this year are going to get screwed. Well, the market was killed because the deals were for four years. And now all of a sudden,

there's no cap space because you signed these deals. But again, it was like, when they said it, we looked at it from a standpoint of like, you guys are just trying to hold onto the money. And every year you guys are going to make money just holding onto it. And we were like, no,

you guys need to disperse this money. And, and, and so, you know, we don't ever really trust the owners. Yeah. I think in that case, Adam, Adam Silver, even in the moment seemed pretty genuine about it. He's like, look, this is, we should do it this way. This is going to be bad. And it was, and it really was, you had a crazy amount of spending for two years and good for the guys that cashed in.

Good for the guys that were able to get that money when they did. As players, we should never compare ourselves, right? You know, like, well, if he's getting this, it's like, look. Yeah, but it's human nature, though. Yes, but you have to fight human nature. Especially when you're on a team, right? Well, it was more of when you started to see guys be like, oh, well, this person's worth this, and I'm only worth that. And it's like, no, well, you signed a contract three years ago this person signed a contract today

like you when you come up you're gonna be worth x and it's just like a never-ending cycle so we made them i in my opinion i think we made a mistake and i think other people in hindsight now like on our side would say we made a mistake because it really did kill the market for years we when you were on my podcast the last time, see, I think I'd rather have Kyrie than all the stuff Cleveland got because he's Kyrie. And there's nine guys that really matter above all the other guys and guys you'd want in the big games. And we talked about this in August,

like why Kyrie was underrated. And then Kyrie goes to Boston and he's awesome. And people are like, oh shit, Kyrie. Oh, he can carry his own team. It's like, where the fuck was everybody the last five years? Do you have league pass? Kyrie's special.

Kyrie, he is, you know, he's one of the top, you know, 10 players in this league, but people don't understand, he's one of the top five talents in this league. Like what he can do. And again, I think it was such a great situation. I think for Kyrie to have the amount of young guys that he does on his team that definitely look up to him um and it's not i'm speaking it from an outsider i don't know but i think brad stevens is another

guy that just is so so good he implements this perfect yeah he implements a system and the guys and this is why you look at pop you look at him um you look at what's what i think in miami with spolstra has consistently those are and even utah think about what utah lost and not having gobert for so much time and they have a rookie leading them in scoring they've won 11 in a row yeah the beginning 30 40 games of their season was a struggle but if you stay focused and you keep discipline and you keep an approach of professionalism, eventually it'll turn a corner. And they've turned a corner and maybe they don't make the playoffs, but ultimately they

have so much more to build on going into next season and into their future. There's so many franchises that player development is awful. It's poor. You know, their execution of contracts and just trying to shuffle players, hoping that something clicks. There's about four franchises, franchises san antonio i look at golden state being one of them um you know denver because they've had to go so young and have built up denver is another one um but miami and and and boston are definitely you know those are the the franchises that you look at that like, look, if we need to do this, this is, you know, Utah's stability. This is stability. When I saw you, when did we do that,

Tommy? August? Come on, Tommy, get on it. Come on, Tommy. Wake up, Tommy. Tommy looks like he was at a party last night. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Tommy's looking rougher. When I saw you saw you we neither of us really 100 knew why kairi wanted to get traded yes and what i had heard was that and now it's been reported so my info was right that he found out he had been shopped at the end of june and this big three it was a three team i heard it was a four team and that made him mad but the more people I've talked to, it seems like there were multiple pieces to it. And one was that, you know, Durant said this when we did a podcast, I can't remember when, and he was just like, you know,

he just wants stability, he just wants to hoop. And that's all he wants to do. And he didn't want the circus that goes around, is LeBron staying, is he going, what's gonna happen this year? And he's just like, I just wanna go over there and play basketball so that was one piece the people that i know in boston um who are affiliated with the team have been shocked by what like what an alpha dog kairi's been behind the scenes they said he they remind him he reminds

him a lot of kg and and they all think he wanted his own team because that's just how he's wired. And he was tired of being like the little brother to LeBron. So that's another thing. And then obviously hearing he get traded. What do you think now that we've had some time pass? Why do you think he wanted out? I don't know. You still don't know?

I'm saying it's like everything that you've said makes sense, right? He has a lot of alpha dog in him um you you can tell his greatness is no different than you know the shack and kobe you know right kobe just wanted to prove that what he wasn't just shack's little brother like and i'm not trying to compare the two it's just more of looking in looking at something that could be somewhat relatable in the two situations well can we can we say it was a really good career move by Kyrie because he got his title already now he has his own team yeah but it's funny you say that he's the face of an organization it's like he's got his title already it's like Kobe you can make it's easier to make these decisions when you've got

three three championships easy to make this decision once you've won a championship and hit a game-winning shot now you're like okay well I got that out of the way let me go do this i want to be the guy but part of it is like well how did you get that done yeah right how did you get that championship done and it was like you know that's something that you know you need to continue to look at and but look kairi is again he is a special talent he's not even in the prime of his career yet uh you know and he's and he's such a forward thinker on and off the court that if that's what he want and it again he is this is the thing that i think is most fortunate for kairi is that he went to boston and into that like stable system and a high level coach you know even going to a san antonio or even going to you know some place where there is a uh

you know a consistency around him, I think is something that definitely helped him. That's helping him. He was going to be one of the best players on the planet, regardless of wherever the hell he went. But I think allowing him to go to a place like that, put him in a position to be successful. Well, I don't need to tell you this, but I would say I watched him on the Cavs these last few years in TNT games, playoff games, league pass, like bouncing around, but not really watching him. Now he's on my team. And just night after night watching

that dude. It's absurd. He's fucking incredible. It's absurd. First quarter, he'll dust somebody once just to show the guy just remember I can do this. And then he'll kind of pick his spots.

And he just has this innate instinct on at any time he can get his shot. And his handle, I've never seen anything like it. No, he's got probably. The Boston fans are going nuts. They're in the stands going crazy. He's probably got top two handle of all time. And I remember my teammates were sitting on the bench and he blew by somebody and made a layup and one of our young guys on the bench goes is he really that quick and i'm like wait you think that all that handle stuff like yes he's fast too like that's the thing it's not

just a handle it's not just the threat that he'll shoot and make from anywhere and can make any shot over anyone it's he's also quick yeah like it's like no there there's a combination of things that make him so over the top special that it's just like you pick your poison like if you try and get into his body he's gonna blow right by you if you try and play off him a little bit so he can't get his jumper he's gonna make you dance until he finds an angle and if you back up he'll shoot the ball from anywhere that leads to a real problem for defenses and and Kyrie has done a much uh a much better job in Boston because that wasn't his role his role was just to go score we're gonna

toss you that ball when you get that ball in your hands because LeBron was the point guard a lot is like when you get the ball in your hands go go score go be aggressive and so I think in Boston he he takes on more of that role as like a playmaker and as a game manager. What's been, what I didn't expect, because Bird was like this in the 80s, where he does these little challenges. He makes things more difficult for himself during the game. Like if he's going in for a layup and there's a big guy coming, he used to get the layup, but he'll be like,

no, I'm going to actually do this and do this double pump underneath, lefty thing, just to see if he can make it. And we haven't had a guy like that in 30 years where he be like, no, I'm going to actually do this and do this double pump underneath lefty thing just to see if he can make it. Yeah. And we haven't had a guy like that in 30 years where he's like, just for my own entertainment, I'm going to try this move. But it's like the third quarter of a basketball game that's been told of us. Yeah. He kept doing these things. That's crazy.

He kept doing that and then looking on our bench and laughing at me. Right. And I just like, if my teammates are looking at me, I'm like, what do you want me to do? Like, you guys are the ones out there trying to guard him. Yeah, yeah he was really good like uh you know we came back we had we had uh we had a chance to get him uh but you know look kairi you know i'm excited for the future uh for him and to see what he can accomplish him in boston and you know i so when there's a divorce, somebody has to pick sides. Like if I had a, if my wife and I are going out with a couple all the time and then they get divorced at some point, you gravitate toward one of the two sides. So what side did you have you

gravitated to eight months later, eight months later, you text more eight months later, I've left them both. Okay. You know what I'm saying? It's like, if you can't pick one, if you can't pick one, then I'm out. Right. Like I'm not, there's no, it's like LeBron. I love you. You got me booted. Kyrie, he's gone. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, it's like, look, like the, the, the, like you said, in that comparison of the couples, it was just like, Hey, your, your strength was as a couple for me. Right. Now that you guys are, you know, separate, it's like, I've got to go find another couple. You weren't semi-excited when Dwayne Wade got sent to Miami.

You were like, see what you get, LeBron! Who, I was excited? Yeah, you were a little excited. No, no, the day that I saw that, I called my agent. And I was like, this seems off right now. Because we were at a roster spot, and I looked at the point guard situation. And I was like, something seems something seems a bit off. And it was, you know, the I knew the day he got there that I was one of the people on the chopping block. And, yes, it went through all the way to like the last day of training camp because I think they were still trying to make some moves.

But I knew. So even though it was kind of a surprise to people here, people there, the media a little bit and the fans, I knew right away. So there was that communication. And so I still put me in a tough spot because I felt like I held up my end of the bargain for my two years there. But it's a sport. Let's take a break. I want to talk about Norma Tech. So my daughter, who grew like six inches in the last eight to nine months, and her legs were bugging her and I was worried about her knees. And she plays a lot of soccer. And she was playing basketball this winter for her school. And her legs were just sore and tired. So my buddy Sully, the MVP of my wedding in 2003, told me about Normatec, which it's basically you put your legs in these giant pads and they do this dynamic compression thing designed for recovery and rehab where it basically compresses on your legs, relaxes, compression relaxes. It's the patented pulse inflation technology.

Imagine rolling up a toothpaste as you get to the end of the tube and then it releases. So it's basically an at-home massage. Inflation pulsing. Works similar to the kneading done by a physical therapist. What's cool is it's easy to use at home or on the road. Easy to keep clean. You can carry it around in a suitcase. You can take it on the road.

If you have like a soccer tournament, wherever, you can use it. Used by all the professional teams in the U.S. Pretty much all Division I, II, and III colleges, universities, U.S. military, national governing bodies. Check it out at Normatech Recovery. So that is Normatech, N-O-R-M-A, tech, T-E-C, recovery.com. Check it out. All right. Your partner, Allie, is with us. Hello. Are you hungover from last night? I am not. I'm hungover from the travel.

Tommy, are you hungover from the fumes coming off Tommy? Tommy, how late were you out last night? 4.30. Oh, wow, in L.A.? That's hard to do. Jesus. Uber's been great for Tommy. Good for you.

So how long have you guys done the podcast together? We just passed the year mark in January. Yeah. Yeah. And what's it like with, I mean, Channing comes on, right? Well, Channing was doing it with Allie. Yeah. Since we're in LA, I actually talked to Channing last night.

And he said that the young guys in the Lakers have been asking about the podcast. And he was like, if I can get someone to help me with the levels, the audio. Have we talked to Channing tommy get on that okay have have like a a detox juice are you are you gonna are you gonna steal more of the uninterrupted are you gonna steal more than it was a free agent there was no stealing but jj had you know chronicles of riddick which i thought was a great name or uh reddick was it was a great name. Or Riddick was a great name. And then he stopped doing it. And he stopped doing it.

He did one. And then you stole them. There was no stealing. I promise you. I don't know. I'm going to be diplomatic on this one. But I promise you there's no stealing. I prefer you to be honest.

If somebody has a good podcast and is not doing it anymore. Yeah. You're going to go approach them. Yeah. Or somebody we know anyway. Yeah. Like, hey, are you going to do a podcast? Can not doing it anymore you're going to go approach them. Yeah, or somebody we know anyway. Hey, are you going to do a podcast? Can I do it with you? Great, let's do it. That's just smart.

But don't take Channing from us. I will not let you take Channing from us. Tommy's really good friends with Channing. Channing might be an official courting. That might be a official courting we might that one that might be a theft yeah channing if you're listening um so how many years you've been

on the sidelines for the calves six this is sixth year is this the weirdest of the six um yeah i think that's fair to say yeah now it is how many players did they have this year 20 um yeah i think at the beginning of the season i was learning seven new guys seven new faces Yeah, now it is. How many players did they add this year? 20? Yeah. I think at the beginning of the season, I was learning seven new guys, seven new faces. And then mid-season, we get rid of six and add four. So yeah, that is pretty crazy. How depressing was it on the court

during when it really started to slip away those last three weeks? Yeah, that seemed like about, were you watching that from afar? I watched, I think it was in, maybe it was them in San Antonio. And it was just the lack of enthusiasm. Yes. They just seemed broken.

Yeah. They had to do something. And for that, you got to give Kobe a lot of credit because they did do something. Yeah. Right. Because the term that he used, marching towards a slow death, was very, very accurate because that's what it looked like. And you believe that they could turn it on, but still they were look like it was a slow death. The most shocking thing to me was LeBron had kind of checked out and I'd never seen him check out.

I don't think in 15 years where he just looked like he was so unhappy, he didn't want to be in the court. I think he was being challenged because when it comes to LeBron, it's about the joy of the game first and foremost. Yeah. And so I think that mentality had to shift. And so it appeared as if, you know, in years past, Richard, when you were there

and things were going south, there was still that feeling that you guys were going to figure it out. And that really wasn't the case. The narrative became so much more, I think in this situation, but it really was fit and it wasn't going right on the court. And so he had to kind of find a different way to find that joy. And so it just kind of felt like he was, he wasn't,

but it felt like he was going through the motions until something changed. Yeah. You know, that was the best thing about that trade is like, they basically got LeBron back as part of the all those trades it's like and we have lebron he's engaged again there's nothing fun to losing no no nothing no i i wish i wish i could go through the motions and go for 28 9 and 12 i wish i wish that but his number slipped no i i know but he slipped on d yeah but but number slipped too when you're getting blown out by 40 and not playing in the fourth quarter true right like that you know when you're

not playing those games but i i think you you have a very very valid point if you don't have that joy and for braun you know there is no such thing as a perfect player a perfect leader but one thing that you can say is that every day for him it's just about winning and enjoying the game what was the locker room like after like during that three week when it got really weird um what was it like in there when when it seems like obviously that unhappy and then people have to go in and talk to them about it i imagine that'd be super awkward yeah well for my for my position you want to remain the same person that you've always been yeah right um but you you didn't really ever know what kind of atmosphere environment you're going to walk into i felt like you know what kind of mood he first and foremost was going to be how he was going to handle the media you know what narrative he was going to chose to

choose to kind of put out there yeah um but what you saw on the court is i think without a doubt what you felt in the locker room and then guys are just and they're like oh there's isaiah maybe he'll say something and then he does he says something it's like whoa now i'm gonna run over to this guy hey isaiah just said this and that's big in the locker room him though we've talked about this a lot he was out for what seven nine ten that's a lot yeah that's not and then to be thrust into the you're going to lebron and championships and finals and it wasn't i don't there was no grace no yeah yeah you there was none there was none listen i watched that dude the last two and a half years before this year he was not even not even close and

that's the thing i have no idea why he came back well he came back he had no lift at all no lift the explosion and all these things he's five seven you can't be five seven and not have lift and be somebody that's part of the basket part of it is trying to prove that you deserve this big contract showing people that you're actually healthy i know but the calf's gotta shut that down until he's healthy i think they made a real mistake or what you do is you just manage someone for like hey i don't care you're gonna play 20 minutes until your strength builds up that's it 20 minutes it was sad to watch you know and you watch it and you could see the frustration on him because he

was trying to be that person um and you know it's it was unfair to him to put him in that position from i think a team standpoint but on the flip side of it it was like did he handle that adversity as well as he could no he handled it you know he handled it terribly yeah but you know i think part of it he's this five seven guy who his whole life he's been the underdog big rational confidence chest out at all times so he hit some adversity he's not going to be like, oh, he's going to do this and stick his chest out. But also the situation he came into was not an underdog situation. When has LeBron ever been an underdog?

Until the finals when he lost both his two guns that first year back in Cleveland. Right. You know, so the situation for Isaiah, despite being an underdog his entire life, he didn't come into that mold of kind of being able to continue to play that guy. Well, he was the underdog in the sense of he just wasn't playing well. And people were doubting him. And he's been doubting this whole life. And he's like, no, no, no.

And it's really tough, man. When you're 5'7 and you lose your legs, I don't know what's left. Well, I think his legs will come back. I think so, too. man when you're five seven and you lose your legs i don't know what's left yeah well i think i think his legs will come back i think so too just it takes you can't miss that much have that type of energy basically not playing basketball whatsoever not doing anything and then building it up over a couple of months and then hey you're gonna play 10 national televised games like you're gonna be there's no place for you to kind of with social media every day and you know and media mass media you know uh you know focus on everything that goes on so you know he's up against time yeah it was call it what it is too yeah well the other thing

is when he was in boston the way he played was was really i don't know, almost reckless. Like he was just barreling through the basket and bouncing off these seven footers and going on the basket support. And I was always terrified. I always thought he was going to break his wrist or, you know, and now he's coming back from an injury and he can't really play that way either. He's not careening off people, which was part of his game. Part of his game was like, I'm going flying into you.

I'm going to hold you off with my right arm. Do some crazy. And he just wasn't doing that at all. So I don't know. I think he's going to be an interesting free agent guy this year if he can get his legs back. What did you see from Wade? Because I had always heard Wade and LeBron together

that was kind of like these guys are over here and everyone else is over here. Did you see that? I heard that narrative initially as well. And then you kind of like these guys are over here and everyone else is over here. Did you see that? I heard that narrative initially as well. And then you kind of saw it develop. And I think what I saw a lot of is the two kind of playing off one another there. One another, their leadership styles,

I find it to be very intriguing how they're able to coexist. And Dwayne- What's intriguing about it? He picked his time given he knew the situation that he came into. Yeah. He wasn't going to come in and be that vocal guy and run all over everyone.

He chose to use his voice in a way that he was teaching you. He was motivating you. But he kind of bounced off LeBron. He had that pulse of LeBron. And so he would come into huddles and know when to speak, what to say. And I felt that was valuable to this team. So you think he was a positive? Oh yeah.

I think he was definitely positive. Thanks Allie. Thanks. Yeah. No, interesting. You know my take on you. Thanks Allie. Yeah.

So once he got Richard out of there, I think it was a really positive. He's a future Hall of Famer. You can't say that that guy's going to come in and not have a purpose. He's not going to try to maximize his time. But at the same time though,, the aging superstar is always dangerous. The what? I'm sorry. The aging superstar.

He was never a distraction to the team. No. Good. He was not. Good to hear that. Actually, he may have been a distraction from a standpoint that him and Channing became very close. And so, Braun.

Is that true? Braun was so funny. He gave him shit on Instagram or something yesterday. Channing had this weightlifting thing. Oh, their relationship is so much fun i'll tell you no no thanks i appreciate it really i've known channing since i was 14 but thanks i will say this anybody that plays with channing you can't play like he is not a normal human being yeah in the sense that like he is so off the wall funny and goofy so uh i i actually talked to channing today and i i i was like hey man what's up i was like where you at he's like oh i'm in cleveland i'm in cleveland and i was like yo i've been having this really bad ad problem right and i was like so what's going on he's like so i go see the doctor

and the doctor's sitting outside the room and he's like talking looking super serious and he's like you know hey doc what's going on why the gloomy face are you breaking news right now no he's got to have surgery so he's got like appendicitis he's got appendicitis has to have his appendix taken out and i'm like i say this and i'm like dude what are you nine years old but he's dying laughing he's like oh this oh, this is really, really great, too. It's going to suck because it's like I got to sit here for like a week, and I'm going to just stuck in Cleveland because he's waiting on his baby to be born. So it's due any day.

And so he's like, I got to have this, and I got to sit here for like a week. Then it's like another two weeks, and then blah, blah, blah. And I was like, so you're pretty much saying your season's over. He's like, yeah, my season's over. Yeah, this is awful. I thought he could be a buyout guy potentially. Well, yeah i i think he can it just depends on what he wants i think for him it's just it's that okay do i want to stay here like he's got luke he's got tons of guys in on that laker organization that he's familiar with and he's a great he's he's got to be top two or three

locker room guys i would say of all time uh just because everyone that comes in it's just like who is this guy and he he never let you down who are the hall of fame locker room guys that you've heard of hall of maybe even guys you didn't play with just you've heard rumors that they were like the best locker room dudes uh t lou was one of them yeah t lou was one of the guys i had him i had was one of the guys. That was a KT though. I had him. I had him in Milwaukee. He was really, really funny. And it's funny because him and D. Jones, Damon Jones, were both kind of like. Heard that about D. Jones.

Yeah. Just what they bring, the everyday consistency. Everyone said P.J. Brown was always a great one. See, I never had P.J. Brown. David West gets a lot of credit for being a great one. Yeah. James Jones is definitely. James Jones. Yeah, he's like 52 and still in the league.

So it's like I would say the guys that I've been around, James Jones is amazing. Bron raves about him. But T. Lou from a humor standpoint and D. Jones from a humor standpoint and a hype standpoint, those guys were. Eddie Hass was another one the celtics had him and he was i play with eddie and because he just you you want those guys that are just so energetic that bounce off the walls but are still professional and so it's like even when

you're kind of you talked about those moments where you're kind of dragging ass a little bit yeah but then you have this guy bouncing off the wall it's like come on what are we doing and you're just like okay but channing is just somebody you just don't understand what he's going to say or what goes through his brain at any point in time sign off yeah oh yeah when he got traded he's like yeah so Cleveland thank you it's been a pleasure I love everything for the organization oh and don't go 0 for 6 so they're gonna trade your ass that's that's that was his sign offoff after he got traded. That's phenomenal. Right? And it's like all the things that he's been through,

and for him to still have a sense of humor in that moment, I think it just lets you know everything that you needed to know about a guy like that that you need in your locker room. You need people like that. It's so, so. Veterans, yes. Like myself, you want to have veteran professionals, like Derek Fisher. You want to have those guys that you know veteran professionals a derrick fisher you want to

have those guys that you know are professionals from that standpoint but you also need a comic relief if you can have a professional comic relief in your locker room that keeps guys loose man lets guys know it's not that bad i think that's something that's so so valuable well why wouldn't nba teams just hire a comedian as the 15th man? You guys brought one of the Wayans brothers. We brought in Bill Burr. Bill Burr was amazing. He came and talked to one of the funniest dudes of all time.

I just watched his standup a couple of nights ago, but we brought in Bill Burr during nuggets or the calves. Oh, the calves during the finals last year, there was a comic thing going on in San francisco and some of our training staff went there uh steve spiro and cobra they went and they asked him if he would come talk to the team so he did like a little 10 minute bit and was just going off he killed shump because shump was like not paying attention like he was like on his phone and he kept like are you gonna put your phone away

and like you know see what shump doesn't understand is very similar how we can destroy a heckler in a crowd yeah it's like shump like this is what he does for a living yeah he's going to mess with What Shump doesn't understand is very similar how we can destroy a heckler in a crowd. It's like Shump, this is what he does for a living. Don't mess with him. Yeah, he's going to murder your shoestrings, your haircut, and there's going to be nothing that you can say because you don't have a mic. And he lit into Shump something. To the point where Shump was trying to act serious, but ended up, because we were all laughing at him. And to the point where finally Shump cracked a smile because it was some pretty good material.

So do you think that helped the Cavs that day? Because that makes me mad because Bill Burr is a Boston guy. Yeah, he's great. Hey, Bill Burr, don't help the Cavs. No, no, no. What the hell happened here, Bill Burr? It wasn't during the finals. It was during the finals. Yeah, that's terrible.

We were in San Fran. Maybe he liked you guys slightly more than the Warriors would be the only thing that makes me feel good. Maybe he was just going for the East Coast vibe. Who is the best locker room guy you've seen in the last six years? Just watching as a fly on the wall.

I think inside the locker room throughout the course of the game, given the situation, James Jones. It sounds like we should just elect James Jones as president. That man does not need to be on the floor. He does not need to log minutes, but his voice will carry in a huddle. Game five, the year they won it. Yeah.

Third quarter, I think there was a moment that, I mean, it was just an intense situation. And you had to win that game, obviously, to continue the series. Since the Draymond was not playing because he punched somebody in the Nets game? Correct. Okay. And the person you have standing there in the middle of the huddle is James Jones. Interesting. I mean, he hadn't played the entire...

What he had the ability to do, which you don't see a lot of players have, is that he could calm down a superstar like LeBron. He could calm down a rookie, a guy like JR, and even a professional like myself, which I try to prime myself on. he could calm down a rookie a guy like JR and even a professional like myself which I try to prime myself on down JR yeah he could calm down JR our challenge our challenge JR challenge JR in the right moment in the right way and even like myself like going into the playoffs right I was like man I'm just you know haven't been playing Richard don't worry you're part of our top seven rotation and I'm like but I haven't you know coaches did don't worry Richard you're a part of our top seven rotation because look this is what's going to happen this is how it's going to be and blah blah blah so make sure you're staying you're standing shade you're staying

ready i say me and you go get some cardio after this and and he's one of those guys and all of a sudden when it comes true you're like oh wow i was like how did you know and he was like well it's just because look this is who they have this is what the way we're going to play this is what i know braun this is what braun needs on the floor and trust on the floor so this is what you're gonna and it's like for him to be able to calm down a 16 year vet yeah for him to be able to to you know motivate a guy like jr for him to be able to rationalize with braun like the fact that he had all of this ability to navigate a team from within the locker room is something that i haven't seen from many guys that were in his position i've seen it from like stars and guys that are trying to navigate stuff, but from

a guy that was the 14th, 15th man do it. It was, I was impressed. You know who he probably had the biggest hand on Kevin. Oh, by far, Kevin left by far. Like that was his impact. It was on Kevin was huge. Right. And Kevin, you know, you go look at some of the posts that Kevin even did for him after they won a championship. Kevin dedicated one post just to into a guy like that that can mentally help guys navigate you know whatever it is that you have to i was worried about kevin love this year i hope he rallies back but it seemed like he was his spirit was a little broken even before he heard his hand he played he had i know he was playing well but yeah near the end there before he got hurt i was like oh yeah yeah i think just the entire energy the vibe it had to change yeah but i'm anxious to see how he will now get back to what happened to jr um because it looked like jr's career was headed to being over

the first four months he was playing so bad and then that boston game it was like oh jr's back that's just i don't understand jr can get in the way of himself that's just jr yeah that's just that's just jr they talked about that like back when he first got there like he was the throw-in and the shump trade yeah okay we'll give you guys jumper but you have to take jr smith also and the next thing you know jake's crazy yeah then all of a sudden the next thing you know jr smith is like the starting to guard having huge impacts throughout the season. Have two of the best years of his career. One of the best guys.

Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. Great teammate. Great teammate. Really, really,

you know, special individual. He's so funny. He might be able to, I mean, he won't live up to what you've been chatting brought from a comedy standpoint. No,

no, that's impossible. We're comedy. Just being himself. He could be constantly looking from a comedy standpoint. No, no, that's impossible. We're comedy icons. Just being himself, you could be. She's constantly looking for new talent for the podcast. She is. Literally, I'm over here trying. I asked Tristan the other day and he was like, no, I got to leave that alone because both

your co-hosts have been traded, booted. RJ didn't even make it to day one and Channing didn't make it past the deadline. That's a valid point. It's like a curse almost. No, I don't believe in curses. We just dropped an episode though. Yeah, we did just drop. Have you had players ask to come on the podcast?

That must have happened, right? I've had guys get offended when they heard me ask somebody else. Like on their team? Yeah. No, it's just like I had Devinris on and i was talking to dirt because i tried to get dirk on and uh and then harrison barnes was like cool bro you're not gonna have me on podcast thanks i appreciate that but dude you can come on i was like when do you want to come on i was like i was gonna because i think they came in on a back-to-back and i was like

dude you couldn't do it because it was a back-to-back i had devin like a week ago i was like when we're in dallas you'll come on and he was like yeah yeah i'll come on in dallas so i've had guys get, get funny when it comes to like stuff like that. How are you feeling about university of Arizona? I think Deandre Aiden should be the number one pick in the draft. I think you're going to get your wish. Yeah.

I think he should be, he should be the number one pick in the gap. The kid, you should take them under your wing. He's going to be like a nine figure millionaire. He looks like David Robinson. Like I know he's only 19 but i'm talking about the guy is just a specimen he's what he's what people wanted out of greg odin

right probably not as athletic and as aggressive down there yeah but super physical super skilled can do so much like for me he is and i've watched marvin bagley who's a phoenix kid i actually met him when he was like 15 or 16 in Arizona. I had no idea that he was going to be this stuff. I had friends growing up in Phoenix that were like, Richard, this kid Marvin Bagley is way better than you as a sophomore. And I was like, I don't doubt it. And then here he is just playing amazing at Duke.

I think he's like a Chris Bosh, skilled, can do a lot of different things. Aiden seems like a safer bet. Tate hosts our college shoot podcast. What do you think? Is Aiden number one now? Yeah, I think so. He's number one. Yeah, he's pretty sure fired.

What has to happen for that not to happen? Injury, right? Yeah. Or what if they get bounced in round one and then everybody over here? No one cares. He's seven foot in the model. And it's like when you look at him physically and you're like, this is him at 19, so him at 25 is just going to just get bigger and stronger and more athletic. The only thing that concerns me about it is that the way the NBA goes, you got to start developing talent. Right. I hope he goes to a place that's like, no, we're not going to try and turn you into Dwight Howard or to a stretch for we want you to shoot no put him back to the basket let him work

on his post game have him become a high level post player like a David Robinson like a like a Patrick Ewing have him be that guy that's who he needs to be to be dominant I don't care if the rest of the NBA is shooting threes eventually you're going to have to play another big guy alongside that to guard him and if he's dominating the post it'll slow the game down and so i think that's what everyone wants all these scoring point guards and want guys that can do this and they want three d every team's gonna have two point guards yeah in the in their crunch time yeah like three years yeah because we're just producing too many of them yeah well because everybody now there's no like pure point guards no like pass first guards all the devin

booker yeah everybody wants to be a3", he's a two guard. It's like, yeah, 6'3", he can handle, he's a point guard. And it's just, I don't, but everybody wants that. But isn't it funny how only certain teams are successful still? Unless you have a Steph or a Klay, unless you have a James Harden or a Chris Paul, you can't do that with every single team and every single player. So I think a guy like Aiden can really change the game from that standpoint. It's like, no, this is how we're going to play.

I think centers are coming back. I think there's still room for a traditional postman. I hope so. There's good centers now. They're kind of on the down low. The key, though, is, like you said, the development. What's dying are power forwards. The traditional 6'9", rebounder clog the lane guy is is on his way

out of the league that sucked with boogie what happened with him because you saw that traditional front like you know yeah but even that like dave because davis could play far from the basket it was like a nice little i really enjoyed watching them it was like david it's like david and tim duncan yeah you know it was like watching that was like watching like a charles oakley and patrick ewing yeah i was watching like two big men navigate around each other and you would always keep one on the court at the same time but to see both of them be able to play together right and see them both put up great numbers it shows like yo like two big men can play together right you just have to be a force on the glass you have to be a force defensively you don't have

to shoot a hundred threes you're not going to be able to do what the warriors do no one can like the Cavs had see I think Houston's the bigger effect I can't stand watching Houston I really can't I can't stand it I like watching people move on a basketball court the four people standing still well Harder and Chris Paul does like their whole thing at the top and i don't know i'm just bored they're they're they're really good they're really good and part of the reason why they're able to play one on one part of the reason why they're able to play one on one is because they have shooting all around them you have the ryan anderson you have the i totally get it i just i don't personally enjoy it that much well as members member steve kerr uh i don't see if

charles barkley said that no shooting team had won a championship until um until the the 15 so the warriors did it right it's going to be i'm really curious to see how that works out that style of play you know and i say this knowing that we very well could play them in the first round but that style of play um and i don't doubt you know cp and james hardens basketball iq but that style of play of just ISO, ISO, ISO, ISO. Do you see their numbers though? With their top three, they're like 28 and one. Or their top four or something.

Yeah. When they've been out there, that's like a real number. If you're into those numbers. If you're into those numbers. When we have our guys, we're 28 and one. I take that seriously. You know, yes, you should. When they're shooting 45 threes,

even if the Warriors are slightly better than you, but you make 18 of the 45, the math kind of swings it your way a little bit. Yeah, yeah. If you make 18 of 45, make no mistake. If you make 12 of 45, you're going home. Well, not even that, but are you really, you really want to out-shoot the Warriors?

Yeah. They have Clay. I get that it's shiny and new, but Clay, Steph, and KD. You have to outshoot that system. That's important because their movement, their threes are based on a lot of movement. Yeah. Right?

It's not iso, iso, iso, pass, or iso, iso, iso, shoot. It's move, move, move, move, move, move, open shot, you made a mistake. Move, move, move, open shot, you made a mistake. Move, move, move, open shot. You made a mistake. And the most annoying thing, because playing against them in the finals the last two years is that you can do it right. And they still get the 25 footer. And they still make it.

You can do it right more times than not. And they're going to make you pay. And if you do it wrong, then you're really annoying. I actually prefer doing it right and having them make me pay because then I can go up there and just play, hey keep it going but when you make a mistake and then they get a layup or a dunk or an open three you're just like damn it you know so i remind you i'm gonna say 1994 eight seed nuggets one seed sonics oh yeah the cam bay biggest holding the ball biggest round

one upset of all time uh i was a part of the san antonio memphis one that sucked uh we won oh i bet on memphis that series oh they're too big for you that year yeah they were they were they were i couldn't believe it they were like six to one underdogs or something i was like whoa yeah are you allowed to bet on sports considering that you have insider information what inside information do i have uh you're in locker rooms you talk i'm not in locker rooms i'm right here with tate at times you were in locker room i i do not have inside information but plus like what inside information can you have uh i don't know isn't what your job is based off of the insider yeah it's like a ton of inside information but it's not like ally does would you ever be like oh i'm i'm betting the

pistons tonight because i know lebron is sick you would never do that how awesome how awesome who was it that used to give the line football guy that used to give the line jimmy the greek it was no maybe i know i'm i'm too young for jimmy i know that sounds great which football guy i forgot who it was it used to give the line it's like so and so are three point underdogs are seven point dogs and it was just like why don't they do that like they and i don't know they don't do it in the nba games where it's just like you start getting ready for it yeah it's gonna be legal in like a year no but it's not about legal but it's like you're gonna be hearing fans yelling from the thing come on nuggets i got you plus seven yeah i think that would be hilarious like

if you're watching the game it's just to let people know it's like hey you're watching this game the people that are betting are saying that the nuggets are seven point dog tonight and you're just like because then it adds a conversation why are they seven point dogs because it's their third game in fortnite yeah that means yeah i'm more saying from a tv versus saying it as like a coaching standpoint like hey guys we're three point dogs tonight I come out. Yeah. We haven't, we haven't covered their spread in a week. No, that's not, not like that, but just more.

It does make it more exciting with like 20 seconds left when somebody's up eight. Oh, the bad bets, the bad thing or exciting. If you had like the nuggets plus seven and you know, they're down eight with 20 seconds left and he gets, he's in, he gets his one chance to shoot a three. And knock it down. Is it the bad beats? He's swinging the line.

I think it's the bad beats. Is it the bad beats? Bad beats. That's Van Pelt does that. Van Pelt, that is by far the newest, most random thing that I've ever seen and it makes me laugh every time because they find them everywhere in college basketball.

College basketball is great. If you had this bet, blah, blah, blah, and look at all the things that had to go wrong for this bet to be screwed up. The funniest one was the Minnesota Green Bay. I'm sorry, Minnesota. Who'd they beat with the Hail Mary? Now I'm blanking.

Oh, New Orleans. And Minnesota scores on the Hail Mary to end the game. Yeah. But by NFL rule, they have to kick the extra point. Oh, yes. Game was over. Game was over. They took a knee.

The extra point would have covered, and they took a knee. So in Vegas, everybody's like, yeah, extra point. And then they took the knee. And they were sick. Yes. That, to me, that's a really, really cool segment that he does. I forgot to mention, you're wearing a Soho Yoga hoodie. Thanks for staying on brand, Richard Jefferson.

Yeah, Soho Yoga, Hermosa Beach, downtown LA. Go check it out. Natasha Needles is our yoga director. Pete Niva, one of my really, really good friends. Jamal Murray will be there all summer training. Jamal Murray. That's the thing. Luke took the whole Laker team there.

I've had the Malik. Lonzo wouldn't go. Yeah, Lonzo wouldn't go. My dad said I can't go. His dad was there too. Unless we take Jello. No, we've had, we've had like the,

the Mavericks, like Dirk has been in there. I try and get all the guys in there and most of them, you'd be surprised how many teams now just bringing a yoga instructor. Or Pilates.

Pilates or just doing something because the, you know just what you do for that hour in there helps your body so you know hot yoga yeah that's what that's what we have we have heated and that's my worst big thing is hot yoga they have one of the best comes back and she's like like some weird color yeah you know she's like but you feel great yeah there's a euphoric feeling that you get afterwards. Plug your podcast. Road Trippin' podcast, Richard versus Channing. However, I'm not really sure how that works now. We might need a new name.

We're still going against Channing. It was Road Trippin' podcast, Richard and Channing. Tommy, did we sign Channing yet? He's got the text out. I already texted him and told him not to answer. We dropped Bron today. We have another one. Bron? Yeah, we dropped Bron. The Bron? Yeah, LeBronbron james yes lebron james yeah he came on the third best player

of all time of all time he came on the pot he talked about his all-star team whether or not his team was jinxed and all that stuff talked about the draft he played nba 2k while he's playing he also said he was like mel kuiper uh with his board uh which i thought was great uh i think some of the highlights i think people really like we got tim duncan on we have bill walton did a really really good one lindsey vaughn olympic skier tim duncan is like getting howard hughes oh and it was the most comical thing i've tried to get him for five years to write about when i was at espn i was even when i was on the tv show all everybody in the organization wanted him to do it and he's just like no he showed up to that podcast on a

motorcycle BMW motorcycle yeah he might be the world's most interesting man he really is I think it's the Dos Equis guy no he really is

and he's such a great teammate and after it came out he was just like he had no idea that we had kind of a cult following yeah and it was like everywhere

and he was like well wow because he talked about how you just had a daughter born and no one had known. He told the name of his daughter was Quill from Peter Quill and Guardians of the Galaxy because he's a huge comic book nerd. So it just went viral in like five,

like all the comic book nerds were excited. All the San Antonio Spurs fans were like, what's going on? All the basketball junkies were like, oh, wow, Tim Duncan actually talks. He talks about playing in the World of Warcraft, him and Channing. His tongue piercings. Yeah, his tongue piercings.

He just talked about everything. That's one of those where anything is possible in a Tim Duncan podcast. What are you up to now? I'm a commercial airline pilot. I've been flying planes for Delta Airlines these last five months. He fly fishes. Yeah, he started his own car company, Blackjack Motoring.

So he started his own car. It's all on the table at Tenducan. Yeah, and he's just, if you talk to him about anything other than basketball, like he'll just crack jokes for all day. And it's like, he's not one of those people that's like into like who's the greatest or who's the, like if you wanna, what's your take on this?

It's like, yeah, but you ask him about like, you know, who, who would he take in mortal combat? Like Liu Kang or, or a scorpion. And he'll talk to you for like 15 minutes about his video game name. Or that was Channing,

Channing, Channing and water Warcraft. He had like a little, uh, like dog and it was called like dick puncher. Right. So Channing would be like, go get him.

Dick puncher. And the dog would like run off and like attack, like attack, like some of the stuff that those two idiots, and i had no idea that they were in the same like war to warcraft guild yeah that became a big story it was huge i i had no idea and i think people are surprised tim duncan was a normal guy who played video games oh he's such a nerd he's such a nerd and we you know he always used to crack jokes about how pop used to hate me and then i would just mess with him just about how big of a nerd he actually was.

And it was just like people only knew. But I really do, just from a teammate to teammate standpoint, him coming on, I think, was really, really good for me and the podcast. From a standpoint, I think that was one of the first times that people really got to see what the podcast was about. It's like, hey, player to player player sitting down and having a conversation is something that is hard to find and hard to get and just hearing us not break down x's and o's and give stuff but just talk about our life and crack jokes and see how much fun we have that was one of the first times

like the Kyrie and Bron were a big one uh Kevin coming on but I think that one was the one that people were like oh okay road tripping is really doing something that that's unique and hard to find it's a toss-up between that one and the earth is flat the earth of flat one was a little special too that was dropped a year ago good luck with it yeah thank you i appreciate you so you're coming out here when when whenever the season's over you'll be in la right i'll be in la the entire i'm gonna make you come in and do some playoff. We'll come in.

We'll break down all. Unless you guys make the finals. Listen, man, I don't know. I'll believe anything in the West. I think all those West teams are good. I really do. Look, we're in the sixth spot. We're in the sixth spot right now, and we just added Devin Harris,

so we have a veteran point guard. Yeah. And we have done most of this with missing Paul Millsap for 40 games. He could be the best player in a series. Yeah. i could and i could just light it up i think we can upset somebody keeps him from being consistent he's 22 years old the cigarettes yeah the cigarettes yeah i know he's 20 through two years old that's what it is he's 20 maybe 23 so he's like 23 years old that's you're just going to be inconsistent. There's some teams that just seem like not great matchups for him some nights.

And then other nights, it just seems like nobody in the league could stop him. No. And it's just the way he does it is so impressive. That's the same thing I said with Jamal Murray. I believe Jamal Murray is going to be an all-star. But instead of having three-game spurts and then three games off, soon it'll turn into six to eight games where he's dominating and then one or two games off and then he's back and i think it's the same thing with jokic the cool thing about him is is he's fun to

play with and if you have that that's a good foundation yeah because whatever team he's on everybody else would be like this is cool i like being on this guy's team i get i cut and i get an open you enjoy playing with him he He sees where I am. Yeah. There's not a lot of guys in the league like that. No, there's not. All right, we gotta go. Well, I appreciate you having us on. Good luck on All-Star weekend. I'll see you playoffs.

We'll talk. We'll come and break down some stuff. You might see me at one of the things tonight. I'm not going to anything. I'm not going to anything. I'm going to Vegas. Smart. I'm jealous.

Thanks for having me. Yeah. Thank you guys. All right, thanks, Tally and Richard. Thanks to ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. My listeners can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash BS. Thanks to Casper, the sleep brand that continues to create an exceptionally comfortable sleep experience. Remember, they offer a 100-night risk-free sleep on a trial.

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You'll get 24-7 protection for only $15 a month. No contract. Supplies are limited. Visit SimpliSafeBS.com right now. Don't forget, if you have a question for KD, in case we do a podcast this weekend, send it to themailbagattheringer.com. Put KD in the subject heading. Be respectful, please.

Enjoy the weekend. Talk to you soon. I don't have.