The Mismatch - 10 Observations About the 2025-26 NBA Schedule

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

After dissecting the entire 2025-26 NBA schedule, Verno and Jacoby share 10 observations they have about the national TV breakdown, Michael Jordan's role on NBC, Rivals Week, late games on the East Coast, and more. (00:00) Welcome to The Mismatch!(01:05) Observation no. 1: National TV partners and broadcast teams(10:38) Observation no. 2: How will NBC use Michael Jordan?(14:58) Observation no. 3: Teams and players the NBA is getting behind (and the ones they aren’t)(24:57) Observation no. 4: Last-day-of-the-season matchups(26:22) Observation no. 5: NBA Rivals Week(34:04) Observation no. 6: Late-season MVP matchups(37:41) Observation no. 7: Players returning to face their old teams(47:01) Observation no. 8: 11 p.m. East Coast games(48:40) Observation no. 9: Rookie watching(52:41) Observation no. 10: The dissemination of the Eastern Conference and strengthening of the Western Conference Leave us a message on our Mismatch Voicemail line! [phone] Hosts: Chris Vernon and David JacobyProducers: Jessie Lopez and Tucker TashjianSocial: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon and joining me as he does every Thursday night from the ringer.com is Dave Jacoby. Jacoby. We have actual mid-August NBA news. Like real tangible things to discuss on August 15th. We would typically record at the beginning of the week, but we knew that the NBA schedule was going to drop in total at the end of the week. So we saved this so we could give our reactions. It is fun to think about an up- coming season. And once you see the schedule all laid out and you see when these teams are going to be playing against each other, obviously a lot of things to come to mind. So we are going to give 10 observations from the 2025-26 NBA schedule dropping. I will start. Jacoby. This is going to be

a much different viewing experience than we have ever had in our entire lives. You and I grew up at a time where I would VHS record on tape the All-Star weekend and then like watch it throughout the year, right? Like I watched the replay on a VHS. And then there would be a game here, a game there. Obviously, you'd get the NBA finals. Michael Jordan was the biggest athlete in the world, you know, in those mid-90s. A lot of Mar Valbert.

A lot of Mar Valbert. And I think about a lot of this through the prison. of me now having a son that cares greatly about the NBA. And it really does give you the old man vibes when you're like, back in my day, there's like one game. Like you are lucky to see an NBA game because he is now going to live in this generation where starting this season, there is going to be an NBA basketball game, assuming you pay for a myriad of products,

there is going to be an NBA basketball game nationally televised every single day of the week. There is going to be an opportunity for a communal experience amongst NBA fans as we are all watching a game. And so ESPN has... Well, I think it's fair to say that NBA TV was always there, but just not the same when it's on a different network.

Yeah. Come on. I just had to say it. Yeah, I mean, it was there, but. I don't remember the NBA TV communal experience, but. No one does. In fairness, it did exist. All right.

So Mondays we're going to have Peacock. They're going to have a double header, which, who am I to question anything? But like, they're launching the first double header. And, of course, I went and checked it against Monday night football. And I'm like, oh, is there like a rat game or something? It's like, hey, we're launching doubleheader Monday night on Peacock. And then I went and looked and it's like Chiefs Commanders. It's Mahomes versus Jaden Daniels.

And I was like, all right, that's going to be a tough one on that. It's tough for me because, you know, I want to watch the NBA. But it's like the draw of a huge football game is strong. So we got Mondays is going to be on Peacock. Tuesdays is going to be on NBC and Peacock. You're going to have Wednesdays. ESPN has that to themselves. As it has been.

Thursday night's going to be Prime, and they're going to start doing NBA games after their NFL schedule is over, right? So they have Thursday night football on Amazon Prime. After that schedule ends, they're going to start with NBA games on Thursday nights, which it's a very good spot because Thursday night has been a ritual. for all of us for so long because of TNT.

Like you're used to a big NBA game being on Thursday nights. And so this now we'll have to watch it on Prime. Friday night is Prime and ESPN are both going to have a share of games. And then Saturday, Prime and ABC are going to have games. Saturday and Sunday get really interesting. Yes, football. But let's be honest. They do hold off.

This is a, they are, they know that football is getting the big piece of chicken at the table. And they're not trying to go head to head. But post football, they're trying to take the weekend. Yep. And then Saturday's got Prime and ABC, and then Sunday, ABC, NBC and Peacock. But it's worth saying that it's Saturday is afternoon prime and then prime time ESPN. Right. And Sunday is afternoon ABC and Sunday night is NBC.

Right. Which is going to be super fascinating because that, That will be in the place of Sunday night football. Exactly. Right. And I mean, look, having two new massive broadcast partners is going to be interesting to say the least. We have the broadcast crews that also stands out to me. So NBC has announced they've got Noah Eagle, who everybody loved during the Olympics,

I and Eagle's son. You got Mike Torrico, who's, I mean, he's his, he's been omnipresent for the last 20. 30 years for all of us that are sports fans. Michael Grady and Terry Gannon are the other two that are going to be on the NBC ones. Analysts are going to be Reggie Miller, Austin Rivers of the Ringer. Shots of Austin Rivers. Brian Scalabrini? Brad Doherty?

I haven't heard of Brad Doherty. Yeah. Jamal Crawford, who I like a great deal. Derek Fisher they announced I was like really Grant Hill who has been obviously on a lot of broadcasts already

and Robbie Hummel former college star Robbie Hummel then they're going to have like they announced their sideline reporters they got a front office What is their studio show? Studio host is going to be Maria Taylor

Ahmed Farid is also a host and then they've got Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, and Carmelo Anthony. Okay. And special contributor, I will leave that to you because I know that is your number one on the NBA schedule

coming out. Well, do I take it now or do we do we go to Amazon? I thought Amazon has put together a much more... I don't like to... How do I say this? I don't like to cover the coverage. I don't like to do media critiques, right? As someone who's been in the media

for so long, but I think that Amazon roster is a lot more interesting than the NBC roster. I agree. Aside from one person, which I will discuss is my first thing, my first takeaway from schedule. On Amazon, as you mentioned,

these are people were going to, look, a lot of these people were already used to. They got two of the best play-by-play people in the entire world, and I, and Eagle and Kevin Harlan. Yeah. They also added Michael Grady and my man who refuses to talk to me.

Our guy. Eric Collins. It's like Eric Collins is like snuffalovicus and Big Bird for the mismatch. Yep. Just can't be in the same place at the same time. We're going to get him on the mismatch. Game analysts are going to be Stan Van Gundy, who we're already used to. Brent Barry and Del Curry.

Del Curry. So that broadcast team from Charlotte has just gotten taken by Amazon Prime because Eric Collins and Del Murray. What a Hornet's game is going to sound like now? I don't know. Well, I mean, I'm supposed they're going to do both. I'm sure that. Cassidy Hubbard, who's been around for a long time. Shot to pass.

Love cast. Ali Clifton, Christina Pink, or sideline reporters. Then studio is where this really gets great. I have incredibly high hopes for this. Taylor Rooks, who is dynamite. Fantastic. With Dirt Novitsky, Blake Griffin, Steve Nash, Dwayne Wade, and Candace Parker.

I mean, that is home run. I'm so excited about that, but I do want to say to every. listening as someone who's been in this business for a quarter century, it takes a little bit of time to gel and to form. You know what I mean? Like it takes a little bit of time. It's not rushed to chemistry conclusions early on in the existence of this group because I think this group over time, like Shaq on inside, people forget, Shaq's first year on inside was like weird, it was awkward, it just didn't work. But over time, the chemistry built. So let's let the season

play out. Because I think this group has very, very high. potentialist studio show. I think Griffin and Novitsky are going to be fantastic, especially as a tandem. And I think Griffin's got the chance to be the next like, Griffin has a chance to be like a media star because he is authentically funny. And Nash and Novitsky have so much chemistry. Yes. Like, they have so much chemistry. No, no. High hopes for the prime

broadcast for sure. Yeah, yeah. I would definitely say that. Okay. And then we've got this controversial, not controversy, but you got some grousing this week about inside the NBA. And I guess the limited amount people think they are going to see it. I will just say, like last year, like they, they didn't do a lot of Thursday stuff during the NFL season. Right? That really got crack. And that really got cracking after the calendar turns with Charles and Shaq and Kenny. And so as long as I get them after, you know, as long as I got crack in.

I get them a lot after the calendar turns, I'm fine. You're going to get them. They're the prime time show. Yes. And you're going to see a lot of the B team on ESPN during the football season. But when you really want them, they will be there. And I don't know how they will change. I don't expect much, but it'll be a little different, but you're going to get them.

You're going to get them. You're going to get them. Now, I think for me, the number one takeaway from the schedule and the new broadcast partners is It's this one thing I'm so focused on, and hyper-focused, and I Google it all the time. I just want to know how NBC is going to use

Michael Jeffrey Jordan in their broadcasts because we have never seen him as an analyst, as a play-by-play guy, as a head coach. Like, he has not, he has basically been like, I'm the greatest to ever play the game, and I'm going to go own the Bobcats. And my childhood was,

was, and if I get interviewed, I'm going to get interviewed by my best buddy. I'm a under shot. Yes. Like, that's it. So you don't hear from him often, but I do think that as an adult who's aware of what's happening in the world in media, he is seeing the player podcast and the player voices and the ex-player is getting in these positions and saying this, this and that. And I feel like sometimes he sits at homes, watch NBA basketball and says,

F this, I've got some things to say. And one thing that bothered me, though, recently they said that he's going to be doing taped segments, and I am not interested in that. I do not want to see a Michael Jordan breaking down game tape that's been heavily edited, and I want him at the desk with NBC during that post football Sunday night prime time spot. I want him at the desk. I want him pregame, halftime, and post game. I don't. I need it. I don't think that he would have said yes to this unless he wanted to be involved, right?

I do think he wants to be on TV and wants to have a voice in this deal. And some of the speculation that I have heard that is very fascinating was that one of the reasons he wants to get back involved and wants to have his voice heard is the complete opposite of, I think, what most people would believe. and that is to be incredibly positive about how great these players are now and what he watches. And you know what I mean? I think people think Michael Jordan is going to come in and do the back at my day or, you know,

because there's a bit of that on inside. Let's be honest. There's a bit of that on inside that like this new generation, blah, blah, and I think a lot of it comes from the salaries. Right. I remember like Michael Jordan was making like $7 million a year. He does not have the same level of, but he also. just Jalen Brown make 55.

It's got to be like, it's got about it. Maybe, but he doesn't have the same level of resent. Like, David, David Falk, very famously once upon a time, negotiated literally the greatest shoe deal in the history of the world. And Michael Jordan owns a golf course that was built for him and his friends. Like, he's with ash trade money, no less. So Michael Jordan is not one of these that is resentful that these guys have a bunch of money right now. But when you love to hear him give his thoughts postgame a big matchup.

Absolutely. These Sunday night NBC games are fantastic. I'm not going to list them all, but they're like they're a marquee. We're talking like Celtics, Lakers, Thunder Nuggets. These are the big games. And I would love a game to go to overtime and someone hitting a winning shot. And guess what? We go to Michael Jordan in the studio.

I've just never heard it. I don't even know what it sounds like or what it looks like. And not everyone is built for this. There's been some Hall of Fame, big personality players that I won't name Urban Johnson that aren't the best at this. Right. But I have a feeling that Michael Jordan will be good at this and I just want to see it. I want to see it. And think about how much we all loved the last dance.

You know what I mean? Like a beat. So, I mean, he has. been on the radar because there's a whole new generation that got introduced to him over the course of really when COVID was going on and everything. I mean, that was like a communal experience. Everybody watched the last thing. But the latest about his role is like this tape segments thing.

And I just don't, I don't want to see like detail with Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan. Like I just don't, I want him just sitting at the desk. Put a suit on the guy. Put a mic on the guy. And have him sit there and watch the games with his colleagues. And there's go to his thoughts after. All right. Just do it.

Number two, the teams and the players that the NBA is obviously really getting behind. Okay. So one of the things that I did was I found last year's national television games. And then, and those do include NBA TV. And we've got to include them because in fairness, these also, when we're talking national TV schedule for this year, we're also including streaming. So. Yeah.

And if you had cable, if you're listening to this podcast, You bought the quote unquote sports package. Yeah. So you had NBA team. So you probably have not seen this yet. But I went and charted how many games a team had last year versus what they have this year, right? To see who they are. Are you prepping for the pod for now?

You know who's a little research? Who do you think got the biggest jump in national television appearances? Orlando Magic. Not even close. Orlando Magic. Not even close. The biggest jump? I will tell you, they were on national TV last year, 11 times.

This year, they are scheduled to be featured on national television 28 times. Mavs. The Rockets. Oh, no, because the match had Luca. Oh, yeah. The Rockets. Yeah. A 17-game jump.

The second biggest jump in terms of not on a national radar a lot versus they are now. The Pistons. Of course. Makes sense. I mean, they had been a Mar-Bun franchise for, you know, a decade, and they had this huge leap last year, and then the Cade Cunningham thing and everything else. They are on national television 12 more times than they were last year.

And then third is interestingly enough, our NBA champion, the Thunder, who were not amongst... I mean, it was ridiculous. I mean, they were not amongst the teams that were on TV the most last year, and this year, they are tied at the very top with 34. What's the Pacers leave?

Because I found a lot of Pacers games. And I was like, do they know that Tyrese Halberton's not going to play? No, Tyrese Halliburton went, they're down. They were on national TV 14 times last year, which is a very low number for a team that was good. They're nine this year. Nine. So they had, so the biggest three jumps are the rockets, the pistons, and the thunder. The thunder goes without saying.

And then I think, look, we spend a lot of the pod last year talking about these great seasons that were being had by, I'm sorry, the Pistons and the Rockets. There were two of the great stories. They were probably the two great stories in the NBA. The Rocks were a two seed. Yes. Without like a real star in those respective conferences. Mavs got more, obviously. And then I'm trying to see if anybody else got that.

That's really it. the math, or I'm sorry, I'm sorry, not the maps, the calves, the calves got more. Then, in terms of teams that lost the most national television games. This is what I'm curious about. Yeah, so this is like, what we wanted to find out was who are they getting behind, like who are they putting on in front of you a lot more? Obviously, look, not only were the Roggins of Tusi, they added Kevin Durant. Okay.

So maybe that will inform. That might help. Yeah. that one. And the Pistons obviously came out of nowhere and had this great season last year. And then played the Knicks in a premiere series that was a great series.

People forgot how tight that series was. Yeah, it was a great series. It was terrible. The team that lost the most national television games. They were featured a lot by the NBA last year. Oh, I know what it is. And this year, it has... Got to be the Suns.

Got to be the Suns. Jacoby, last year, the Phoenix Suns had 30. National television appearances. They have nine. 21 less. 21. And that is 21 less.

I mean, that's too many. That's wild. I don't think that's happened before. I mean, we don't have the research in front of us. 21. 21.

Wild. Okay. I was kind of surprised at who the next two were on the list. Huh. Easter Conference and Western Commerce for the next one.

One of them is Easter Conference. Is that the next one? And you know what I'm starting to learn? You know what? 21 less nationally. Yeah, 21. They were on 30. They were listed at 9 this year.

Oh, and Easter Conference, no. I'm trying to think like who got worse. And there's obviously the injuries to Dame and to Halliburton. But Halliburton, you already said there's nine less. So I'm going to say the Milwaukee Bucks. They are on TV nine less. times, which is shocking to me, because even when they announced all those like Christmas games or whatever, it's like, Janus is still one of the biggest stars in the entire league, but they

are on the last times, but it's not close. The second and third most lost games on national television, and this informs, I think this tells a story of the NBA getting burned. And so they said, you know what? We're just out of the business. We're not doing this again. We're not doing it again. We're not scheduling you to be on TV a bunch of times when we don't know. No? Because they were good enough. They were good enough.

And they've got the cool arena. And they're late at night, right? So, like, they catch the nighttime games. There's only so many of those, right? Because you're not putting the kings on. Yeah, yeah. And you're not putting the jazz. So, I mean, they need those nine-thirty slot.

Yeah, yeah. That's really Lakers, Clippers, and Warriors, right, to get those slots. It is the Philadelphia 76ers. Oh, oh. 13 less national television appearances. And then the next one, in terms of you were on national TV and now you are...

No, no, it's not West Coast. The next one is you are down double digits in terms of national television games from last year. Memphis Christians. No, that's a... They're on, they're on seven less, but I think that is a trend here, right? Which is, does your team stay healthy? Do you have, you might have a star that everybody wants to watch, but we can't count on it.

And so we're not scheduling you for national TV and we'll flex you in in the second half of the season if we have to. But it is the Pelicans. Oh, yeah. The Zion business is not, is not cracking. anymore. That's a Joel Embedd and Zion Williamson thing. They're like, listen, two years ago, you guys are top

10 bases of the league. Now we cannot schedule you and rely on you to play basketball. And there's a lot of reasons why that's the case. Those young, perpetually injured stars are not being featured right now. It feels like a prove it thing

and where it's going to be like, look, three, there is a difference between the television audiences and the viral moments, you would say viral moment-wise, Morant, Zion, and LaMello are right there at the very top. At the very top. But none of those three are going to be featured on national TV a ton.

And they had got... No, they're not contending teams. They also have not been available. Yeah. I mean. Unreliable and uncontending. Okay, I will say the team that I thought would have the biggest drop by a wide margin that did not, and I just do not understand it.

And I don't even think they're fans understand it from what I gathered. What are we doing? Why are they on TV 25 times? I can't. I've tried to convince myself that this is going to be a winning team this year, and I can't get that. What? I cannot get there. Why are they going to be on national TV

25 times because of the brand? It might just be the brand and the market. It might just be the market and the brand and the fan base and the uniform and the colors and the loyalty. Jason Tatum is out for the year and they trade the rest of their good players.

They have no center. What are we doing? They don't even have Al Horford anymore. It's, them getting 25 national television because you've had time to like fix this. Oh yeah. You know?

It released it today. Yeah. I mean, look, the Pacers would have been on national TV. Way more. Way more. A ton, but we know.

They adjusted that for the Pacers. They did not. Of course they did. The Pacers are on, the Pacers are on national television nine times next year. The Celtics are generally competitive. I think this have a long history of data set of people watching Celtics games and they can't deny that.

I think they have a long data set of when we put the Celtics on national TV, people watch. Yeah. So anyway. I think the Celtics might be a mess this year. If we're trying to figure out who the NBA has really put their chips behind, it is the rockets, the pistons, and the thunder in terms of from last year to this year, on the positive side. On the negative side, they've gotten way out of the Sun's business,

light on the Sixers business. and then the Pelicans. Yeah. I think it's really what it sounds like is is Sons without Durant, Beal, and Zion and Embed, you got to, you got to show me.

Why would I put you on? My second one is this. This is always something you look at is last year, the last day of the season, right? It's obviously more exciting in the NFL when there's 16 games, 17 games,

or college football or whatever. But like, there was a significant game last year and that was the Warriors. and the Clippers. It was a playoff game on the last day of the season. The last day of the season this year

is April 12th, also my birthday. And we all know, the Eastern Conference is like pretty predictable. Could the Pistons be the two seed or the magic or whatever? Sure. Intergeries change things.

I'm not going to sit here and act like I know what the seating is going to be be in the playoffs. But the Western Conference is extremely unpredictable. And they've got Clippers Warriors, as they had last year, Nuggets Spurs, which could be interesting on both sides for seeding.

And Grizzlies Rockets. Because Nugget Spurs and Grizzlies Rockets are interesting to me because this could be, are we the two seed or the three seed? Or it could be are we the six or the seven or are we the eight or the nine? And I think that those will be big games. I think they did a really good job with the Western Conference on the last day of the season.

Very good. All right. My next one, number three. All right. We've been pretty positive about all of this so far. Oh, it's going to be. I think we've been. We have been positive. I love this.

What the hell was the NBA doing with that Rivals Week graphic to promote the season? What are we doing? What are we doing? I mean, I'm trying, let's top of my head, let's try to name NBA rivals right now. Tremont and Rudy Gobert is the only one I can't. I can think like Tray Young in the Garden. I can see that. Because last year, remember, he rolled the dice,

picked him up, going to Vegas, and, you know, obviously the playoff series, Trey Young in the Garden is like a, it's sort of a rivalry. It's more like a fan-based thing. And you could obviously say Celtics Lakers, but like, you know. Okay.

I mean, that's from the 80s. Yeah. I know. I'm trying to think. Bulls, pistons, like, no one cares about that. Okay, so here's my idea. don't lean in to something that we all lament is gone, right? Don't lean in to, hey guys, look, it's rivalry week.

And then, God forbid, on the graphic, on rivalry week, it says, classic and budding rivalries between teams and players will focus, will be the focus of these 11 national television games over five days. I'm going to read the games and you tell me a one to five, five being actual rivals, what these teams are. Are you ready? No, none of them are

rivals. Jacoby, that's the point. No, you could say, look, I can make a case. What Nick Sixers is on here? Bro, Cavs, Hortit is on there. You've made a complete mockery.

of your entire Lakers is something with Pistons Rockets Wait, name a classic Pistons Rockets game Every Every NBA fan Locked in

Go click on this tweet and read the comments Every NBA fan that saw this You lost all An immediate credibility When you said Join us for rivalry week between these classic and funny rivalries and Cats Hornets is the ESPN Wednesday night game.

Thunder bucks? Mabbs Warriors. No, I'm not kidding. Promoting Cavs Hornets for rivalry week is the funniest thing ever. I mean, I like Lakers. That is like, no, because you imagine the NFL saying rivalry week.

And then they're like, no, join, yeah, join us for Jacksonville versus the Raiders. You're like, what? What is that to do with anything? They've never played before? Oh, oh. Calf's Hornets.

They've never met in the playoffs. What hatred. The Cornets haven't been in the playoffs in 20 years. Spurs, Rockets. That's a rivalry. win. I look, just don't do it. Just don't do it.

I'm fine if you want to lean into, you know, Draymond choking Rudy Gobert. Fine, right? That's one of them, the Warriors of Minnesota, right? I like it, right? At least I remember some of me. I'm fine if you want to lean into Wembe versus Chet.

If you want to lean into that and say like, these guys have a thing. But that's not even one of them. We've got Kebs versus Hornets. How about Oklahoma City and the Bucks? What? What? What are we talking about?

Why? I mean, I get Lakers Mabs to finish it. Fine. You're going to get that. But like, Nick Sixers, that was a good playoff series two years ago with completely different rosters. Completely different rosters. Yeah, this is done.

Here's what they should do. Is instead of Rivals Week, they should have like a Teams that you played in the playoffs last year I don't know how, is that the branding isn't there, but it's like Yeah, I don't know, I just like, I don't know how I don't have the branding of the title off the tip of my tongue But it's just basically like the team that you lost in the playoffs last year like rockets warriors Are the rockets better now? Can they beat the warriors now? And then you have Nuggets

Thunder Pistons, Nix. They should just do that. Budding rivalries. Budding and classic rivalries. The Rockets and the Pistons. Let's find the classic rivalry because I don't see it. Where's the classic?

Nick's Sixers, I guess. Pacers Thunder. No, and here's the problem, Jacoby. I think L.A. L.A. Clippers and L.A. Lakers, you can't even call that a budding or a classic rivalry. They just never been one. And they're doing this right when football gets out of the way. Whose idea was this?

Whose idea was rivalry week? 11 games over five days of a bunch of teams that you have absolutely no reason for them to hate each other. I mean, can you imagine, are they really going to promote, tune in for rivalry week, Cavs versus Hornet? I mean, that is insane. How could you, let's, I'm putting myself in the shoes of someone who had to like work that show. Like, I'm like working the studio desk before that game. And we're like, welcome to, welcome to the NBA. We're like, NBC or whatever.

Riflery Week is here. We've got the calves and the hornets. Funny story. Michael Jordan used to own the bobcats that turned into the hornets and he used to play the calves. Oh, God. postseason. Let's run some video of that. That's the only thing I can think of. That's the only thing I can think of.

I mean, other than that, like, you could say, like, who, I mean, Jacob, who doesn't remember Miles Bridges' 16-point game last year against the cat? Like, what are we talking about? That's bad. It's bad. Look, you've done a lot of good. things, but this is, this is a you have made a mockery

of rivalries when you, every NBA fan fixated that you posted a graphic of rivalry week with Cavs versus Ornitz. It's insane. How did nobody stand up

at the meeting? It was like, let's have some, let's develop the rivals first and then do rivalry week second. Do they have Nuggets Wolves? Huh? Yes.

No. No. No. They do not. They have Nuggets versus Lakers, which, by the way, the Nuggets beat them like to death for like the last like three playoffs.

Yeah, right. I think one was a gentleman sweep. Right. So I'm going to skip one of mine and go to this one based on rivalry week because I think you're on to something when you have those Chet and Wembee games. Yeah. Right? Where it's like individual matchups.

we're going to cover each other. There's a little bit of history. We both kind of circle this one on the calendar. And one of the things that stood out to me is a couple things that I'm averse to. I do not like discussion of the MVP until later in the season. Okay. I don't like this like, you know, it's Thanksgiving. And we're like, well, such and such is the MVP.

I'm like, dude, there's a lot of games to play. But we all know who the sort of like MVP favorites are. Yes. And I went through March and April. I did this pretty quickly, so I'm sure I missed a couple games. And I thought, perhaps we're going to have some MVP-type matchups.

Because when Yolkich and Embed, we're neck-in-neck-for-M-BP, you remember what happened, right? Yep. It wouldn't play. Yep. They didn't go ahead and ahead. And there's nothing better to me

than sort of the two MVP favorites that are barbershop and barroom arguments all season long, at the end of the season about who should be the MVP. When they go head to head, it's a marquee game. And I've got some potentials for March and April, I'll go quickly. Timberwolves Nuggets, March 1st, March 4th, Thunder, Nix. All right, let's be honest.

Jalenbrothers is not going to be in the Lakers Nuggets, March 5th. You always have a chance if you're the number one seed, though. You do. Yeah. But I think Lakers Nuggets is legit. Nuggets Thunder on the 9th. Timberwolves, Lakers on the 10th. Nuggets Lakers on the 14th of March.

Those Nuggets Lakers games outside of rivalry week. Like, that's a good one. You know what else I looked at? To help your point, if I'm not mistaken, Nuggets and Oklahoma City don't even play their first game against each other until the calendar turns. Yeah. I love it.

I love it. So that means the whole thing is backloaded, like all of those Yon HsGA. Because you'd imagine. Four games in two months. Yeah. So that whole thing is backloaded with Yokic and SGA. And I mean, who knows what the Western Conference is going to look like?

But they could easily be neck and neck one or two. For sure. In the standings and in the MVP. And we get Thunderwolves. So we get Thunder Lakers on April 2nd and April 7th. And we get Thunder Nuggets on April 10th. That could be like Yokic SGA. Who knows?

I mean, I'm not going to sit here on August 15th to predict who the MVP. is going to be. Like, that's silly. But but you know SGA, Yokic and SGA, Luca and Yokic. Yon. I think we have to include Yonis. Uninjured, they're in the mix. Yes. You know they're going to be in the mix.

And maybe, look, if Edwards takes some kind of huge leap or something, they're putting Edwards on TV a lot. Yeah. As they should. Yes. For sure. As they should. As they should. But there's, I love those games. And I, and I hate being robbed of them

when Embed wouldn't play in Denver. I just hated it. I was, I was, I was, I was disproportionately upset about that. I'm,

I'm not proud of how upset I was about that. Hey, so has your national broadcast partners because they, as we mentioned earlier, they are not in the 76ers business like they were before. Mm-hmm.

They said, all right, no. Well, also, if you're on national TV, you don't play the game before this year. They just ended that.

Right. You don't play the day before if you're in national TV. Right. All right. Next one. Number four of the things that we noticed when the schedule came out. So one of the things I always mark down is the player returns.

That's one of the things I always like. It's like, oh, the players going back to blank, right? This is a dud of a season. I was about to say it outside of like. No, you've got Chris Middleton going back to Milwaukee. I mean, it's an ovation. Durant going back to Houston? Like, what do you, do you think anybody?

Or I'm sorry. Going back to Phoenix or Houston or Brooklyn? I'm saying Phoenix. I mean, just, nobody cares about Durant going back to Phoenix. Durant doesn't care. Okay, here's one that could, that I think could go either way. It could go either way, right? Turner?

Are they booing him? No. All the reporting is that. Uh-huh. They tried to trade. him for 10 straight years. I know they did. I know. For 10 straight years, he was in trade rumors. You're going to

blew the guy? I know. And and like, they did not come up with the money. They didn't, they never, that was one of those. What about, what about Bill going back to Phoenix? Beal going back to the, what? Oh my God. Look, they didn't take care of Turner. They didn't take care of him.

Because they never suspected, right? Life is leverage. They never suspected that somebody was going to be as insane as to wave Damien Lillard and stretched the contract. They're like, nobody has money, so we'll give you what you fucking get. What else you're going to do? Right?

And it came back to bite him. So I don't think Turner should get food. Anyways, you've got the weird holiday and Porzingis both going back to Boston in the same week on different teams. I mean, they'll get their ovation. But like, what is the attachment to either of those guys? Seriously. I mean, they helped them win a title.

Memphis. Marcus Martin Memphis. No, stop. They got to move the needle. Oh, what about Jay Hoff in Memphis? Oh, that's happening after the calendar turns. Michael Porter Jr. in Denver? Does that do something for you? We have to discuss what Michael Porter Jr. said.

First of all, if your brother, your blood brother is in a gambling scandal, maybe you just don't mention it in the microphones. Just throwing that out there. maybe you don't mention it in the microphones. Maybe. Also, it's unfair for him to say he gets no chicks either. I mean, that was good.

Yeah. And then he's like, my advice is women. I don't sleep with women that have slept with dudes in the NBA. Okay. That's what he says. Never happened. Yeah. Shirts never happened.

He's an odd bird, man. He is an odd bird. He's one of those that, yeah. He's, for sure. Like, his agent called him. And it's like, bro, what are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing?

This is, this. See, now people are more cognizant of what's happening. But like, during the Grantland days, like the early 2000 teens, people would go on podcasts and just get very comfortable. And it's sort of like forget that they're speaking into a microphone and the words that they speak to the microphone are going to get disseminated throughout the internet and live there forever. And I feel like Michael Porter Jr. is learning that right now. I mean, I cannot tell you, when that clip went viral of.

of him talking about gambling and talking about how you could kind of like make all your buddies 10 grand by scoring less. If you're his brother, you're like, what are you doing? Bro, the second that clip dropped, his phone rang from Adam Silver, which by the way, he is, this is hilarious. Do you remember when he tweeted out the Adam Silver cell phone? No. Google it. Michael Porter, Jr. I'm almost positive it was him.

Google it and check me on this while we're on the show. Don't you remember this? They were at like the rookie symposium and he took a picture of Adam Silver up on the stage. But on the thing behind him was it said It was Adam Silver and Adam Silver cell phone number. Oh my God. Whoopsie.

Yeah, that was the same guy. I guarantee you, Adam Silver called him immediately right after that podcast clip became public and it was like, are you insane? In the early days of Twitter, you would get like notifications that you got a direct message on your phone.

And I got one. It was from a colleague of mine. And I was like, oh, and I responded. I was like, call me anytime. So you click on the notification and then I thought I was like DMing, but I was actually, tweeting. And I was like, call me anytime and I put my number, right? And I just put it out there.

It ended up being a tweet on the internet of just like my number being public. And people would think like, oh, did you change your number or like, you know, that must have been awful? It was the best thing in the world. I got call after call of just love and just like text after text of just people being nice. It was awesome. I might do that and pretend it was an accident like tomorrow. It was awesome. I cannot believe you're telling this story. Because I can't believe I have forgotten to tell you this. Two times while I was in New York staying at your house, I FaceTimed you.

And the number I had for Jacoby, it was a black dude and he was like a doctor. He was a doctor. He picked up the FaceTime? Yes. Twice. Twice. Why? Do you know this? Do you have my phone number?

No. I guess it was your old one. I have two, yeah. Because ESPN paid for my cell phone forever. It was your old one. Whoever has that number now is a black guy and he's a doctor. Bro, I'm not. He was like an operating.

I guess. He probably thought it was like an important call from a patient. He answered in. He was wearing like the surgical mask. And he was like, he was like, Mid-open heart surgery. And I was like at my local bar. Yes.

No. He's looking at me. And he's here. And I was like, I was like, my bad, man. My bad. Yes. Whoever has your old number is like a mid-40s black guy that is like is a doctor. And he answered.

He answers when you call it. He will answer the face time. Oh, God bless him. Because doctors do have to answer random stuff. because you don't know if it's a patient or a family number. I mean, I don't have the number. I deleted it from my phone. But after I did it twice, I deleted.

I was like, this guy, he has had enough of me. Because here's the thing. The first time that I did it, he was not like in surgery or whatever. He was just like at his house. And I was for sure that you were playing a joke on me because you're out of town. I figured you were with a buddy and handed him to your phone. And I was like, is Jacob, I was like, Jacoby? And he's like, I think you have the wrong number.

They unearthed Adam Silver's like burner account. Do you remember that? No. Oh, look it up. Okay, I will. It's not worth it because he doesn't like do anything interesting. But like someone sort of like someone like correlated the data and figured out that Adam Silver has this burner account. Gotcha.

All right, so we got Michael Porter Jr. going back to Denver. Brooke Lopez will get a big ovation in Milwaukee. But there's no like, none of this is like circle the calendar. I need to see it. Like Russell Westbrook playing Kevin Durant type stuff. You know who will get that or Kyrie going back to Brooklyn or something like that. We got to say this is Luca in Dallas will forever be a circle of the calendar.

Forever. For sure. The biggest ovation, I think that. any player gets this season is going to be Damien Lillard hobbling out there on opening night because he'll do the he'll do the like grab the mic welcome back you know what I mean they love him there like that and then Chris Paul's going back to L.A. I bet he gets a great reception too in his first home game. Yeah.

You know what I mean? But I mean, but those are like one time deals and they're playing for those teams. But they will get huge ovations on opening night for sure. Both those. But yeah, this is, typically this is something I really look forward to. Like, oh, so-and-so's going back to so-and-so, there's nothing this year. There's no-luka and Dallas. Luke and Dallas are the big games.

Those are going to be big games forever. Absolutely. Because I think there's real, like, scar tissue there. Absolutely. What's your next one? All right. Again, can't all be positive. Okay.

Why are we starting games at 11 o'clock in the East Coast? Like, what are we doing? Huge games. Terrible. I got four kids, dog. It's horrible. I got the two jobs. Horrible.

Like, the game tips, it says 11. It probably tips at like 11.10. Yes. And if that thing goes to overtime, we're talking like 1.30 in the morning. That's right. And I'm not going to play about basketball. And some of them are big game.

Big games. Yeah, yeah. Like Clippers. You want to see. Yeah. And I'm going to be watching these 11 o'clock starts. No. Like, I don't even know how I handle that.

You're not going to. During the race. It's like the same way that like the NFL and the NBA, It has like unspoken truce is like, the NBA is like, fine, you're the big dog. I'm not going to mess with you on Sundays and Saturdays. When you guys are out of the house, then I'll sit in the couch.

But like, there was an unspoken truce that 1030 was the latest we're going to start games. Oh, yeah. And dude, I love the NBA. But I get Thai Thai. You know what I mean? I get tight.

We've got to do carpool in the morning. I can't be staying up until 1.30, bro. Yeah. Yeah. It's just ridiculous. But you're watching regular season basketball game. You get one hour. You're in central.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Come on East Coast time. Like, it's, even 10 o'clock games are late. Like, if this thing goes to overtime, do you know how many times I've watched a West Coast game

and fall asleep in the second quarter and woken up for the fourth quarter? I'm like, oh, okay, good, perfect. Miserable. It's miserable. I agree with you. Why are we doing that? No.

Why are we doing that? Absolutely no justification for that. None. None. None. None. None. I agree.

All right, my last one. A rookie watching, something I always pay attention to whenever the schedule comes out. So interestingly enough, I know last year was like a dud of a draft, but you had to really go out of your way if you wanted to watch Zachary Rees-Deshay, Alex Saar, or, well, Reed Shepard never even played. That was the third pin, right? You had to go away, to go to the G League to watch that. But even going down, like Stefan Castle, and then you had Ron Holland. we just talked about how the Pistons weren't really on TV. I didn't think about it like that.

Tijon Salon, Donovan Klingin. Like, I mean, I'm just going through the list. None of these guys were on TV. They weren't on TV. This year, like, and then you had to like, the ones that like started to get buzzed the second half of the season, if you wanted to see Bezellis, you had to seek it out. Kaleel Ware was played for Miami. Obviously, Brony was probably the, I mean, at least he was on TV.

Whatever. But he played once every blue moon. that's a big difference though this year. Because the wonky lottery has changed there. Because good teams got high picks. And also the league was, yeah, Cooper Flag is going to be on TV a ton. Oh, yeah. And so is Dylan Harper.

And so is BJ Edgecombe. Look, I said that they lost a ton of national television games, the 76ers, which they did. They're still on TV 14 times. So, I mean, you're going to be able to say, which is 14 more than you have. ever watched Zachary Rees-as Shea last year. I really feel like Alex Saar. I think they're like Flag and Harper are going to have the ball a lot.

Flag Harper. He'll have the ball. Flag Harper and Edgecombe, we are going to see rookies and they're just going to be in our face. We're going to be able to watch them on national TV in a way that we have not really since.

I mean, we got to see Wembe, certainly. There's usually a player here, a player there. Zion and Jod, they did put up TV at the very beginning. but for the top three, Flag, Harper, and Edgecombe, you're going to get to see them a lot on national stages

where you're not going to have to seek them out on league pass. Once you get past them, you're league passing, brother. Like, you're going to have to seek out Khan Cinnipple, Ace Bailey, trade job. Rivalry week, you'll get Cinnipple.

Rivalry week. Get Cinepple, look at the cats. Forgive me. Oh, I forgot that that was going to be a feature of the game. Rivals. Yeah, Rival Sweet. Yeah. Ace Bailey, Trey Johnson, Jeremiah Fears, like all those guys.

So really, it's like the top three guys. But the top three guys this year, when you just juxtapose it to last year, last year, the top three guys, you just, you did not see them. You might see a hawks. But you didn't see Saar and obviously Shepard. No, you're not watching the Wizards. But I'll say this is, obviously, Kyrie Irving, getting injured is terrible, terrible awful thing for all basketball fans.

But for the development of Cooper flag, I think it actually is helpful. Because with a healthy Kyrie, you're looking at like, listen, we're in the West. We got to contend. We got to win games. But they're going to give him a little bit of rope to have the ball, to be a lead ball handler. Like, I think that Kyrie being injured is obviously awful,

but the silver lining on that dark cloud is that it gives flag a little bit of opportunity to sort of just find his way in the NBA offensive. 23 national television games is immense for a rookie. He meant. Yeah, well, he happens to be a white American.

I understand. I understand. I understand. But I mean, like, we're not going to have to be seeking them out to try to find the Mavs because of the Kari entry, right? Like, they are still, they're in the flag business.

There's no doubt about that. I'll be seeking out, Tray Johnson, though. I got a high hopes. You in house. What's my last one here? Okay. One development just from the offseason and the player movement, both large and small,

and the injuries, both large and small, has been the complete decimation of the Eastern Conference and the strengthening of the Western Conference. It's just, it's preposterous. It's almost like there are two different leagues. It feels like European soccer or something, like D1 and D2. Right. I looked at the NICS schedule, obviously, right?

As a Nix fan. P.S. two of those top three draft picks also went to the west. Yeah. And they look like, guys. So there's two types of West Coast trips. I was like, man, these West Coast trips, because all East Coast teams go on West Coast trips. And they're usually a little bit of a gauntlet.

The Knicks on between January 9th and January 15th. Sons, Blazers, kings, warriors. Huh. Doesn't sound like a gauntlet. No. That's a West Coast trip. It sounds delicious. Yeah, right.

Sounds like three and one. It sounds like you're going to be staying up until 1 a.m. every night. I'll be going to sleep at halftimes. They'll be up by 20. However, March 6th, March 8th, March 9. Nuggets, Clippers, Lakers. Oh, wow. Those L.A. stays.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Are tricky. Sure. And if you're going through day, Denver to get there, you're fucked. Yeah, that's, that's, we've racked up a bunch of wins beforehand. Yeah. Because we know, it's March at that point.

Yeah. But like, man, those, those double L.A. games are going to be really hard for East Coast teams. Yeah. And a lot of times you go double L.A. games and then you go north from there. So then you're looking at the Warriors after that. And then you get a little reprieve by going to the Kings and the Blazers. But if you're stopping in Denver going back or to the West Coast and you're an East Coast team, like you're you're screwed.

Did you seek out the Brooklyn schedule so that you can go see opposing players? No. No. I'm not paying for the Brooklyn Nets games. No, no, no. I'll say go in person. We got to figure out when Wemby's there. That's the one you got to go see in person.

No. Yeah, Wemby. I'll go see Wemby. Yeah. Whatever. But like, even if they're so expensive. Not the Nets games, right? They are, dude.

the next games are expensive too I will say everything is so expensive there dude it is I drove to the beach today right I lived there for four days and I was like I leave it everything you leave the house $100 to leave out I was talking to my wife you get this thing called Easy Pass

Who was it Jackson Dart the QB for the Giants he doesn't have EasyPass So he's like racked up like $7,000 It's driving around like New Jersey New York but it's easy pass basically like a lot of cities have this. It's a mechanical thing inside your car that charges me

you go over like bridges and tunnels. Right. So I drove to the beach today hung out with my family and my rec league basketball players on the beach, right? And their families. A lot of kids.

We have a lot of kids. What beach? This was the Rockaways. There's a lot of nice beaches in New York. I was driving through, I was driving home from the Rockways and I was like, people had this idea of what New York is in their head

they think it's like Times Square and like Manhattan. Like there's beaches, there's crab shacks. There's a part of Brooklyn that's like Beverly Hills. It's just full of mansions. Like people like New York is every, every nationality, everything, everything. Like there's like there's fishermen and fisher boats and crab shacks and docks, houses with docks with boats pulled up. Like New York is also like a coastal city.

So how long did it take you to get to said beach? An hour and 10 minutes. Can you swim? Can I swim? What are you talking about? In the water. There are certain beaches that are certainly nicer than others in terms of like the way the water looks and feels and tastes. It's just a dead body.

Yeah. Yeah. There's certainly some. You don't swim in the rivers. But if you drive an hour from the city, you can swim. Okay. But point being, I was driving and I was like, you go over these bridges and you go in these tunnels. And it just charges you on your easy pass without, you don't like click something or scan something.

Like the old days, remember you had to like pull up to the. toll booth and give somebody $4 or whatever. Like, I was saying, I think we just spent like $50 just driving to the beach and back. And he's so passive because you don't like pay someone money. I was like, I literally think it's $25 out and $25 back. Everything costs so much money in the city. Bless you.

I have one question for you before we go. All right, let me hear it. What do you think about the beard? I like it. Are you self-conscious about it? No, I just never have a beard. It's like the summer. So I was like, hey, well, try something new.

It just came in a lot grayer than I expected. I was like, yeah. Last time I grew one of these is a lot, a lot of let more pepper, a lot of salt. Do you know I went and got a haircut like about a week ago simply because I started to see as my hair got longer, it started to get grayer. And I can see it on like the side of my head. But if I cut it short, then the grays go away. I know. We're at the crossroads.

I got a colonoscopy on Monday. Oh, no. Let me just tell you. Did not, look, did you do that voluntarily or did they tell you, did they tell you, you needed to do this? Because we're around the same age. They tell you need to do it. And then you talk to your friends.

I thought I had until I was 50 or whatever. I don't have to do it. But like, I went out with all my buddies. I mean, I would rather put off sticking something in my ass as long as I can. Well, that's not the hard part, buddy. Because you're out for that. Oh, you are. Oh, you're out for that part.

Oh, but let me tell you. I thought that was the terrible part. Let me tell you. They send you a prescription. Oh, no. For the prep. Oh, diarrhea. Dude.

Oh, yeah. This is like. I don't like that either. So you have to drink this stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's not. It is very effective. It's not my.

effective. You lost a lot of bunch of... The next morning, you have to do it again. Oh, I bet you were walking around the house shirtless. You're like, look how lean I am. I was not walking around the house. You weren't. I was walking.

You were tied to the pot. Yeah, I had a nice book. So I got my page 100. Got me a new book. What would you... All right. All right. Where would you write a scale of one to 10, 10 being the most torturous?

what would you write colonoscopy? I mean, torture can get pretty gnarly. No, no, but things you have gone through. Yeah, like voluntary. Yeah, like, things that you're like actively do like you're like I'm going to do this thing. I'm going to voluntarily drink this thing. Because we've all been a torture situation that were involuntary.

Yes. But I would say this is like a voluntary. It's like a yeah, it's probably like a seven, five. Oh, oh, you hated it. it's because you there's two phases you do it the night before and then you wake up the next day and you're like oh I got to do this again not looking for it.

No, but it was a nice excuse to not be a dad or a husband. I was just like, I'll be back there. They were playing cranium in the living room. I'm like, I'm not even involved. I'll be back there. And you know my house too. I closed the door to the bedroom and I was back there.

I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't even get a colonized I think you just did it so you could have some alone time and some sleep. The only way you could get alone time was to trick everybody and say, I'm getting a cold out. I don't know. I want to see the medical. I'm getting one tomorrow. I'll get another one tomorrow. Who knows?

I do it twice. They told me. They told me I had to come back. They didn't get the right readings. All right. That's good for tonight's episode. Thank you, our executive producer, Jesse. Lopez is always in Jacoby. I'll talk to you next week.