The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Tim MacMahon Discusses The Future Of The NBA

Episode Date: April 9, 2020

This is your home for Houston Rockets Basketball. Sports Talk 790. Ross with you on the Matt Thomas Show 131 is our time. Let's spend 10 quality minutes with one of the better NBA basketball riders you will find in America. Tim McMahon, ESPN with us. Tim lives in Dallas, but I feel like he covers more Rocket Games, anything else. The folks at Southwest and the United Airlines are missing your miles, aren't they? Man, I know. I'm an American airline. Oh, I had two choice, three guesses, and I had to miss on that one. Yeah, yeah, because I live closer to PFW than the Love Field. Okay, I got you.

They're missing me. I'm missing the NBA, but unfortunately, I think it's going to be a while before we get any of that. We spent a lot of time, because obviously people know my love for the game and work with the Rockets, going through different scenarios. There was a story in the last 24 hours, I think Bleacher Reporter, somebody put it out about. We'll be in the best interest of the league to just forget about the, the 14 teams that aren't going to make the playoffs. And if you're going to go to this bubble or whatever you're going to do, go it down to 16 and just start the playoffs right away.

How have you personally, in your mind, thought about this season from the time the suspension began to where it is right now? Where are you right now, as we speaking, as compared to where you were, say, three or four weeks ago? You know, really since this shut down, you know, I wasn't in denial about just how serious this was going to be. I really don't think, at least in the NBA league office, there's a whole lot of denial there. There was a time where I thought the best case scenario could be, you know, play a handful of regular season games, at least enough to let the team satisfy their local TV agreements, which is an important thing from a financial perspective, and then play the playoffs, maybe even a shortened playoffs.

I don't know if that's going to be a possibility. The longer we go, it's not just the less time you have to actually play games, but it's the more time that guys would need to get ready to play those games. You can't just, you know, let's say that things go really well with a flattening of the curve, and then these instant tests become widely available, which I think is an absolute requirement. You know, they can't just be available to the NBA. They have to be available to the public at large for that to be something I think they'll be able to do. But let me say everything goes well and, you know, the possibility of, you know, being at one site, Vegas or whatever, you know, playoffs or whatever.

Let's say that's the plan. These guys are going to need time to get back into basketball shape or you're risking. You put them at major risk of injury. And I know David Griffin, the Pelicans, I believe President, is his title, was on NBA TV. He said he thought they would need a month. So you have to fact, you know, I don't know if they'll get a month, but it's at least going to be a multi-week training camp before we can even get to game action if, you know, put together that kind of plan becomes a reasonable possibility. It seems like, Tim, anytime we come up with these solutions of where the game should be had or what's going to have, happen. There just are more problems that arise than the problems that we're solving.

And I mean, is there anything that has come up or that has arisen to you that makes complete sense and that you could think could actually get employed by the NBA? You know, again, I think, obviously, what you're looking for is the best, you know, less than ideal scenario. And so, you know, forget about fans. That's not happening. You know, a home arena. knows, all that, you know, it would have to be one site. You know, Vegas is the one that you hear about the most. I think that makes sense from a, you know, just the perspective of there's a relationship there. Obviously, the NBA has their summer league there.

They're used to holding, you know, massive, basically, tournaments or, you know, a massive league-wide event there every year with multiple gyms and all that sort of thing. So I still think, you know, if there's going to be, you know, a completion of the season, if the NBA is going to be able to crown a champion. I think the vagus scenario is the one that sounds the best. I also think it would be extremely complicated and delicate to be able to pull that off. And, I mean, an NBA championship, I mean, that's obviously the ultimate goal for any team. And it builds legacies, and it means a lot to the franchise, to the players, to the coaches, to the fans. Do you think, I mean, is this going to be like an asterisk championship?

How are we going to look at the NBA champion? Is it going to depend on who it's crown? Like if it's the Bucks, it's more legitimate than if somehow it's the Miami Heat or something like that. I mean, how do you think this championship is going to be viewed? I mean, obviously there'd be an asterisk with it. You know, but a champion with an asterisk is better than not being able to have the playoffs at all if, you know, if you're not jeopardizing public health. And honestly, I think that it would be better,

and I was going to say it would be better for a, I'll say this, the Spurs, you know, they won that lockout, the lockout shortened season, the 50-game season, they won the championship, and then they went on to obviously win several other championships. So who cares if there's an asterisk, because obviously they were able to prove that they were a legitimate championship franchise,

several times after that. So I think that for this to be a title that's not kind of given the yeah-butt treatment, it would have to be a team that would have either won it before, which, you know, it ain't going to be the Warriors and, you know, maybe the Raptors could pull it off. That would be a pretty big upset. Or it would have to be a team that, you know, this is something that they would repeat. not necessarily next year, but at some time with this same core.

We are visiting with the great Tim McMahon from ESPN. You can follow them on Twitter at ESPN underscore McMahon. You mentioned the month of getting the guys ready. Could be games, could be not games. If they're going to crown this champion by, say, at the very late is September the 15th, I know that Adam Silver has not said anything about making. any sort of further comments publicly until May 1st. In your mind, what is the drop-dead date for a decision

whether to cut this season or somehow, some way, try to finish it off before, say, the middle of September? That's a good question. I don't know the answer. I think you are. I think you are putting it right when they're talking about, you know, wanting or needing to have the playoffs done by September 15th, the champion crown by September 16th.

just because, you know, obviously you're still need an offseason. You know, you still need, you know, you don't want to do anything that would really dramatically shift next season and have this impact next season as well. Although, you know, maybe they do bump next season back to start on Christmas. You know, that's not out of play either. I'll say I don't think that you're going to get Adam Silver to be very concrete or, you know, know, to really put a whole lot of, you know, to put anything out there that could, you know, put him in a position where people would say, hey, you said, you know, this and that, you know,

why didn't you, why weren't you able to follow through on that? I think he's going to be very, very careful until they reach a point where, you know, they have a firm plan in place and then feel like they can execute it. and, you know, I don't think he's going to publicly announce or even want it out there that, hey, if we don't have a decision by whether it's June 1st or whatever, then forget about it. Because I don't think he wants anything. I think wisely, he wants to maintain as much flexibility as possible because, you know, the circumstances can change, you know, day to day in week to week. All right. I'm going to do a worst-case scenario here.

We don't want to do this. we've got to deal in realities. If on May 1st, Adam Sover says, look, we tried. The CDC doesn't want us doing this. It's going to be too hard to figure out putting people in a bubble or doing it in smaller venues around the league and other cities. Plus, we can't put teams in California, New York to play because those states are just very much in the hot spot. If he cancels the season, and obviously Tillman here in town, we all know about Tillman and the properties, the casinos, the restaurants, he's taking his own public or, say, the business angle of his being destroyed.

there right now as we speak. How is the health of the league going to be, if it indeed does get canceled, from television contracts being paid off to empty arenas, to a non-complition of a season, and how does that affect not only the individual owners? And I know you're, I don't mean to you just speak on 30 of them, but as a whole. And then the players itself, well, how much money will they stand to lose on this as well? Yeah. And, you know, those are all things at the NBA and the Players Association need to figure out. And I think the good thing is, they recognize that it's something that they need to figure out together, that they need to figure out as partners and not as adversaries. I think that the players association, it's a totally

different issue, but I do think that they learn from being, you know, just so hardline against the smoothing of the NBA cap when there was a huge cap spike, and they kind of saw the consequences of that. I think that it's a deal where, you know, if the cap is going to be inflated significantly. I think that, you know, there would be a smoothing of that and it would necessarily be a massive immediate drop. And, you know, the other thing is there are different issues for different owners. And, you know, some of that's based on, is it a small market, you know, is it big market, you know, some of it's based on just how much the economy in their market and, you know, the community and their markets have been impacted by this pandemic and by this crisis.

And then some of it, you know, I think could be influenced by just how much, you know, the other business interests of particular owners have been impacted. And obviously, you know, you mentioned it, Tilling Fetita right now. I mean, every business that he has, you know, whether it's the casinos, the restaurants, obviously, you know, the NBA team, I mean, he is taking a massive. asset hit basically across every company that he owns. It's, this is devastating. I hate to even bringing it up.

Last question, we'll try to spin into another direction and another angle of this. If they play games and we finish out this season, there's no doubt in our minds that the NBA season would be pushed back to a December start, whether they play 82 or they cut it down to 70 or whatever the case may be. If we don't play a season, is there still going to be talk of the NBA pushing its calendar back to a start of December around Christmas time? not only because it will give us more time to get this virus and get these arenas back going, but ultimately, and something I've talked about for many years on the show, Tim, the NBA misses out on two months of coverage because it's still, when their season starts, college and pro football dominate the sports world. Well, I think that obviously, you know, if the virus dictates that the season will be pushed back,

then absolutely they would. I will say, you know, that was an idea that was floating before this pandemic happened. You know, I mean, there was discussion in NBA circles. You know, I know, for example, the Atlanta high, the Dallas out of the ownership groups that have been, you know, have been strongly in expressing their opinions that they would be in favor of the league starting on Christmas and playing deeper into the summer. And it's, you know, for the exact reason, that you stated. I mean, would you rather compete

against Major League Baseball or the NFL and college football? Yeah, I mean, me selfishly, Tim, me selfishly, if we play, the Rockets can play Milwaukee in March as compared in middle of December, I'm whole for that because the weather sucks during 80% of the NBA season.

This is a purely selfish reason, but you're right. I thought you were going to say that you want to watch, you know, you want to watch as much football as possible. No, no, I'm worried about it. travel. I'm selfish. I'm worried about those terrible East Coast

trips. I can see that as well. I will say I am one who I've had a lot of football games on the little press road TV while I've covered NBA games. I would be opposed to getting all my fall weekends on the cloud if you're talking completely selfishly

the only thing I wouldn't like about that plan is I don't know how I would be able to take my kids on summer vacation. But that's true. From an NBA business perspective, I think that is a schedule that could make a lot of sense. I think that one thing, though, that could be complicated, and you could have to consider, again, is those local TV deals,

the majority of these teams are with TV, local TV partners that also televised. Baseball. Baseball. I'm not sure. Are they both on the same station down there in Houston? They are up there in the Metro West. AT&T, Fox Sports Southwest. Yep, same thing.

Right. So I think it's something like 22 NBA teams have local TV partners that also televised. They're also flagship stations for Major League Baseball teams. So I don't know exactly how that works because obviously baseball is pretty much at every night thing. That's right. Hey, thank you for coming on the show today. Your insights are always appreciated. Stay safe with you and your family. And hopefully next time we visit will be about starting up this season again. Tim again, thanks very much for the time. Sounds good. Thanks for having me. You got it, Tim McMahon, ESPN, ESPN underscore McMahon.

If you want to get some of the best insight in the NBA, you get it from a guy, despite the fact he lives in Dallas, covers the Rockets as good as anybody.