The Mismatch - A Disappointing Rematch, Kevin Love’s IG, Jalen Green’s Emergence, and the Bucks' Inconsistent Season

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

Verno and Jacoby go over a pair of last night’s games, beginning with the Thunder’s blowout win against the Cavs (01:01) and the exciting matchup between the Rockets and Kings (06:51). They then debate whether Kevin Love’s Instagram is a reliable source to determine if Jimmy Butler will start tonight for the Heat (15:16). Next, the guys dive into their loves and loathes from the week that was (27:36).The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Producer: Jessie Lopez Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's popping, everybody? Logan Murdoch here from Real On the Ringer NBA show. And I wanted to invite you to pull up and kick it with Roger Bell, Howard Beck, and myself during All-Star weekend for our live podcast. We're going to be at the Stoer Punchline Comedy Club in San Francisco on Saturday, February 15th at 2 p.m. pre-gaming all the all-star festivities and you never know who might stop by. Get your tickets now by heading over to ringer.com backslash events. That's ringer.com backslash events. to see you there. Welcome to The Mismatch.

I'm Chris Vernon, and joining me see us every week from The Ringer.com. It's Dave Jacoby. Jacobi. What's up, Burnow? We were all fired up

for the sequel, the rematch, Thunder, Cavs, primetime, national TV, and like most sequels, kind of sucked.

In the interest of full disclosure, I texted you in the first quarter of that game, and I said, oh, well, on having a good game, and your response was, Cadds will make a run.

They got it to within 20. They were down 42 at one point. That's a run. That's a run. Bro, they got mangled. You know, and we talked about how much that had a playoff feel in the first one that took place between those two teams. And this, interestingly enough, as it was, you know, there's distance between those two games.

It wasn't like they were playing the same team back to back. But in the same way that many times within the context of a playoff series, you will see a close game one and then a blowout in game two. It makes me want to see, you know, it's a shame. Now, it very well could end up being the NBA finals when we get there. But I would love to see it play out between those two teams because it seems like, and I know that they were short-handed even without, Hartinstein in this game. But it felt like Oklahoma City got to see the Cavs once, see, you know, where they could fix things both offensively and defensively, and then came out with a level of fire that was just never matched by the cavaliers and an activity that was never

match, had the crowd behind them. And so it made me year. And I was like, okay, the first one was amazing. Second one's an absolute dud. I would love to see game three to see how this would play out, right? Because that kind of tells a story in many series, but unfortunately

like many playoff matchups, when there was a close game one, game two ended up being rather not competitive. Well, I didn't know you're going to go there, but I'm glad you did because I feel the same way about two of the Thunder games during

the Emirates NBA Cup. Remember, they absolutely dogwalk the Mavs. They were doubling Luca. Luca just looked like he wanted to go home in the second quarter. And I said to myself, if this was a playoff series, I would pick the Maves in game two. Right. And the opposite happened in the championship of the NBA Cup.

The Bucks just looked like the older brother, just pushing their way to the hoop. And it's like, they weren't even challenged by this young, small Thunder team. And I said to myself, I would love to see game two of that series. because I felt kind of the same way after Thunder Cavs, but I don't think there is anyone, anyone who saw Shett Holmgren and Isaiah Hartinstein in street close and said to themselves, oh, Thunder and a blowout.

I mean, no chance. I thought, because what the Cavs present is two great guards and two great bigs, and the Thunder present a bunch of six, six, well, according to Shea six set four guys who play defense and whip around it can hit threes and pass and do everything right and it was a really good performance from the Thunder.

I love it. I want to see this as the finals. When it's in the first quarter and you know, right, they've got Alida Bobley, they don't have Chet and Hartenstein and unanimously every NBA viewer

is watching this, you know, because they're excited about this, the rematch, the matchup. They were like pushing it as the rematch. The rematch. And then we all in unison went, who the hell is Brandon Carlson? And why is he banging threes? Who? Like, the thunder just have these guys.

Who are you? Who are you, bro? And he just comes in, bang, bang, two, three. It's like, what? There was like a 15-minute stretch when he was the most Google person on the planet. It was like, who? Brandon Carlson? That's crazy.

I know. And so, hey, look, we always say, make the most of your opportunity. Stay ready so you don't have to get ready. So shout out to Brandon Carlson. Doesn't get a lot of run, but stayed ready to wit. I mean, it's like, you got to be a. You got to be a deep cut thunder guy to be aware of Carlson. And they're deep.

They throw some guys out there. But I mean, he's like, if he gets eight minutes, it's the Washington game, right? Otherwise, he's like, you know, you've already turned those games off by the time you see Brandon Carlson. If Brandon Carlson has come in the game generally for the Oklahoma City Thunder, you've turned the game off. But now you better get used to him because in the absence of Hartton, this guy's got to get some run. Well, a couple things. Number one, it has to be mentioned that in both the win in Cleveland and the loss last night,

Donovan Mitchell was just trash. I mean, he was in the Georgia Chamber the entire time. Like, he had three, I think it was 315 and the first one in 3 for 16, and this one, something like that, something close to that. It was, it's just like, come on, Donovan. And it's not as simple as Lou Dort is a good defender. Like, that's part of it, obviously. But like, if you're Donovan Mitchell, you have to do better than that.

He had eight points last night, 10 points, whatever it was. Like, come on, man. You're losing by 20 in the second quarter. Do something. Game of the night last night, which we expected to be us coming on the air today, talking about the thunder and the calves. The game of the night was, in fact, not thunder calves. Nope.

It was Rockets Kings. And my snap reaction to that was, this is great. that the Kings are now mega competitive and proving themselves to be able to be mega competitive even against the best teams in the Western Conference. Because it gives us another team that we're going to look at whenever the playoff seedings happen and we're going to go, well, that will be a fun series because they will be involved in a fun series. They play a fun style of basketball and they've got fun players that could score the

ball. And that game last night was a high-level game, some incredible shot making, some incredible athleticism. And honestly, as you watch it play out, I was like, you know, there's a world where that ends up being 2-7 or 3-6 or whatever. I mean, that could, it could totally be a first-round matchup that we end up catching. And now, 8 and 2 under Doug Christie, great win for sure. for Sacramento and all in all, mega entertaining game. It was, and I have to say that,

you know, I like the Rockets, and I was moving for the Rockets to succeed in this game, and they came out flat. It was a back-to-back. I think they played in Denver the night before. It was just kind of like, you tell they got in late, it's just kind of like a travel day.

They look kind of flat for a young team that flies around. I was like, oh, this is just a schedule loss. This is just a back-to-back, schedule lost against a hot team. this is going to be tough. They didn't really look like themselves in the first half. But credit to them, credit to their coaching, credits to their character, credit to their youth.

They came back with their defense, man. But you've got a top five defense. You're never out of the game. And that second half, they deed up, they came back. They made a really close game down the stretch. I actually, I walked away from this feeling like better about the rockets than worse about the rockets. They lost.

You're going to laugh at this. There was a moment when that game was on and I could see, Like I had it on, I didn't have the volume on. And so I saw this guy streaking down the middle of the lane and cracking one. And I was like, was that Easton? Who was I was like, was that? I was like, I know he's back. I was like, is that Thompson?

Who was that? And I rewound it because I had missed it. Like, I could just see the guy dunk in the middle of the lane. It's Jeff Green. Oh, I saw that. I was like, what? Jeff Green. I had the sound on, and then now it's just like, whoa!

They shoot it like, there's a game-winning game seven clinching dunk. It was awesome. It was awesome. And look, there were a couple, you know, I'm getting really lucky where I'm shouting out guys and then there. Whoa, whoa, stop right there. Stop right there. Stop right there. Bro, bro, bro, bro. Listen, you're allowed to pat yourself on the back. It's okay. I'm doing it. Don't call it luck.

Don't call it a little lucky. You are a brilliant, prophetic basketball wizard. You study the game. You're a professor of the game, you're a student of the game, and you know ball. And that is why when you shout someone out, they perform really well because you're prophetic, because you see it stronger, you've got better court vision than anyone else in the media. So we had the Cooper flag thing, obviously, that he ends up breaking the ACC, fresh and scoring record.

But earlier this week, I was a few to be my praise about several rockets, one of which was Amen Thompson. And there's a moment last night, anybody, if you go back and watch the game highlights of this, you will see it. Bro, he grabs the rebound and goes end to end and to the other. It's like one guy is going a totally, he's playing a different game than everybody else. He is so much faster than everybody else on the court. It is crazy.

And so when I said, this guy's like a track star, there was a moment in that game where I was like, anybody that's watching this has got to know what exactly what I was talking about now. Even if you didn't watch them when they've been on League Pass or whatever, if you flip this one on and you just see the highlights of this, he snatches the rebound above the rim. and then just takes off, there's six guys between him and the basket.

Not for long. And I know what you're talking about. Here's what I found so interesting about that play. And I've mentioned this before is you just log so many minutes watching NBA basketball. You kind of like see the future. You know when guys are going to miss shots when they're off rhythm or they're sort of like their feet aren't set or whatever. And he was dribbling down with a defender on his hip. I forget exactly who it was, maybe Malik Monk or somebody like that.

And he had a defender right on his hip. And we've all seen this. It's either a Euro step or you put your shoulder in to create space and then you finish off the backboard. And I was just assuming that was how this is going to play out. But he dunked. It was such an awkward way of dunking with someone with you stride for stride from like the three point line to the basket.

Very rarely do you just two-hand dunk like they're not even there. And he did it. End to end too. And look, when they have green, Ethan and Thompson all out on the floor at the same time their athleticism is just I mean

all three of them you can't match athletes with them when they have those three out on the court it's crazy just the things that big them you can out big them yes that's very vulnerable but the things they are able to do

just because they're just athletically superior to you bro like you're not going to move as fast as them and you're not going to jump as high as them and they're not going to jump as fast as them. And, man, to have three young ones like that, they've got, they've got, they've got, they've got something special.

They really do in there. And we've said this before and it's worth saying again, Mr. Stone, don't make a trade. Just don't. Just don't. You know what? You're losing the first round, second round this year? That's perfect.

It's perfect. Yeah, perfect. A couple other things worth mentioning earlier in the week. We highlighted that outside of the Kings, the Pacers have been the hottest team in the NBA, them on the eastern side of things. They were able to get a win against the Pistons last night to keep their unbelievable 2025 going. And so there are, those are both, as we highlighted them earlier in the week, they're both of those that I think have radically changed our opinion of where they fall within the context of their conferences based upon the last 17, once the calendar turned now,

we look at them as much more competitive and able teams and another team that when you get into the playoffs is going to provide us not only fun games, because they're both fun styles of play, both fun teams that I think can both be in competitive series. I don't know what their ceiling is as teams, but I think that we were kind of out on the Pacers, out on the Kings,

and they have totally roped us back in with what's taken place in 2025. I would not consider them a first-round threat to a one-through-four-seeded team two weeks ago. Right. And now I have to reconsider that opinion. And especially if you lose a guy, right? Yeah.

I mean, all these teams are one injury away, and by virtue of being in the mix last year, the Pacers ended up in the Easter Conference finals, right? Yeah, and I also don't want to make everything about the Knicks, but like, they've been extremely healthy. Just, just note that. Right. Well, and now.

Five guys to play the most minutes in the league and injuries took them down last year in the playoffs. And Towns has got the thumb then. They'll be fine. So they say. He'll be fine. Does Jimmy Butler play tonight, Jacoby? What's your prediction?

Well. Why is all the news coming from Kevin Love's amazing Instagram? Kevin Love on Instagram is just like, I don't know what he's doing, but I'm glad he's doing it. I don't know. He's great at it. It sort of reminds me of the DeAndre Jordan Hustin

situation where all of a sudden we just got our news from like Chandler Parsons like emojis. You know what I mean? Like do you remember that? It's so weird that like something happens within Heatland and then I have to go look at Kevin Love's Instagram

to find out how I should view it. And so yesterday for those that don't know, he posted the Wolf of Wall Street. I'm not going anywhere. You know, that one, that whole scene. And then put after Jimmy met with Mickey Loomis. It's like, wait, what?

What? Yeah. Are they fine? So here's the thing, Berneau, is I actually did some preparation for this podcast. Oh, wow. And a former colleague of mine, a friend of mine, Ramona Shelburne, and others did a piece about the Jimmy Butler and Miami Heat Dynamics. And both of us are sort of sports media veterans.

you know, a combined sort of almost, what we call it, half a century of experience doing this. And shout to Ramona. And when you get in situations like this, there are agendas. And Ramona is there to accept phone calls and to prod people into giving them quotes. And she clearly had some sources on each side of this sort of, what do we call it, a conflict. And a source close to Jimmy Butler said that he hasn't even gotten.

started making this awkward. Not word for word quote. But I was like, damn, like we all remember Minnesota. Like, he can go there. And he's available to play tonight. And what this looks like, I have no idea. But back to this Ramona thing, there's also some heat sources. Another former colleague of mine and great friend of mine, Jalen Rose, he's been traded a few times.

And he says, one of the ways you know you're going to be traded is the team starts planting negative things about you in the need. Because they want to tell the fan base, like, guess what? He's not working that hard. Guess what? He's not good in the locker room. So then when you get traded, the fan base doesn't get mad at the team for it. So here we are.

Some interesting things that came out about Jimmy's tenure with the heat in this article. By the way, I understand that does happen sometimes. Usually, and this has been a long time Brian Curtis thing, which is now you tell us, which is they're gone. And so now I'm going to open up the notebook. And I'm going to tell you all of this stuff that I never told you in the moment, right, while that guy was currently the player or the coach. Just real quick, I noticed one this week because I was watching, it came across my timeline.

This guy was doing a podcast. And he was like, and another thing is the team was still mad at Mike McCarthy and blamed him for getting rid of Omari Cooper and I was like, wait, what? Amari Cooper's, now he's making personnel decisions. But Amari Cooper's played for the Browns and the bills now. Like he's been going. But it's like, boy, you really sad on that one. So here's a quote from our friend Michelle Burns article.

Quote is about Jimmy from a source close to the heat. He was allowed to fry privately or stayed a different location than the team. on road trips. During the 2023 finals, Sources said, he stayed some 30 miles away at a mansion in Boulder, Colorado while the team stayed in downtown Denver.

Huh. And the team source said this, and I quote, by the way, that is ridiculous. That he would stay 30 miles away in a mansion? Yes. Okay. Let's draw down on this a little bit. Why aren't you with your team? If you're Jimmy Butler, why are you 30 miles away in a mansion?

I mean, I can think of some reasons. But it feels to me like you don't want to be around the team and you don't want team officials or team members knowing about your whereabouts, your ins and outs and what you're up to. Or you just want to be away and have your own space. That's not good. But why are we learning about that now? To your point. Why are we? That, you've known that.

Since 2023. Right. This is, this is when the mud. starts to sling. And this is when you get quotes like he hasn't even started yet. Here's another one, quote. We let Jimmy do more

than we ever let LeBron, D. Wade, or Zoe do. Interest. Then that's your fault. So here's my question. He's available to play tonight. Right? He wants to get his money. He just lost $2.3 million for being suspended.

I don't think that case will hold up. I bet he gets his money back. Well, he also said they changed it. from detrimental to the team, then now they want to be failure to provide services. Which is interesting. They also mentioned,

remember the illness? He was out for like seven or nine games or something? Right. Yeah. There's a couple times when he was like, you know, on Instagram, doing this and on Instagram doing that, which made it seem like he maybe wasn't as ill as we thought.

There's a lot of mud being slung, and I'm here for it. But my question for you is, what happens tonight? Does he play? Does he play hard? Does he score 40? Does he score 40?

I mean, if we would have done this podcast yesterday, I would have told you this is, this is about to be a disaster and I almost wish we were doing a podcast after it. I am persuaded by Kevin Love's Instagram. No. No. No.

No. For no. Yeah, I think, I think that right now, the tension is so extreme between the two alphas in the situation, that the old rich guy probably had a way of talking to Jimmy Butler that was, and that's why he got involved, that the owner of the team got involved because he knows it's an FU Fest between Jimmy,

his representation to Pat Riley. Everybody there's too hot to deal with this. Well, apparently there's a meeting between Pat and Jimmy. and that same day was when Jimmy put up the the big face coffee I compliment my employees instead of tearing them down

do you remember that? Yeah. So apparently there's a meeting between the two of them and later that day he said that so I don't think the meeting between Pat and Jimmy went well which might have led to a meeting

between Jimmy and Mickey Per Kevin loves Instagram and then because the owner sits there and says look man I will do this and this and this and we're going to make this right but here's what i need you to do right i need you like and can we can we come to an agreement on

this right that this is the way it's got to play out because all of this stuff in the media and you guys screaming the f word at each other every day and you shutting down and him being pissed and standing his ground like that's not going to work and no one no one is going to be better off for that so here's where I am the owner and I am the one that makes the calls. I have the power in this situation. And so here's what I will do for you. Here's what I need you to do for me.

And then we'll figure it out from there. And that's why I think you, that would be my inclination, that that's why you get the Kevin Love Instagram yesterday because there was a meeting of the minds. Two guys that don't hate each other Had a conversation Because there are no conversations That could take place, right?

The last thing that leaked out was Jimmy Butler had a meeting with Pat Riley And reiterated to him To get rid of you know To trade me. Yeah. Yeah. So they're at the point where now,

now the egos and the anger Is overtaking any level of reason. whereas Mickey can step in and possibly reason with the guy and say this is where you and I differ because you're more of a glass

half full positive human being where I'm more of I've got a dark heart like I smile a lot but like I believe that human beings have dark dark energy and I think there's a lot of conflict and trauma and ego

and pride in this situation, and there's way too much that a quick meeting between Mickey and Jimmy, who are all smiles, is going to solve. I think Jimmy walked out of that meeting and maybe even talked to Kevin Love. And maybe they even came to a common ground in some sort of agreement.

But meetings can be persuasive. We've all walked out of meetings thinking we have new jobs, we have new careers, we have a new business partner, or a date where you have a new potential spouse. and then over time, that just dissolves. And maybe Jimmy walked out of that meeting feeling good about it. But tonight, when he puts on the uniform and he's not starting and he plays for four minutes,

and those four minutes, he's not inspired, or coach Spode doesn't even look him in the eye, or drop a play for him, or he's standing in the corner on offense. That was another thing in Ramona's articles. He was a little upset at the offense, and the team seemed to be built around Tyler Hero and Bam, Medabio. And the team expressed to him,

hey, man, you're not here, so we got to build it around them. and Bamadabio became the captain of the team instead of Jimmy, who should have been the captainate team in his mind. I think that a good meeting doesn't mean it's a good relationship. I didn't say it was a good relationship, Jacoby. But I don't think they have a good relationship between Jimmy and the team, and I don't think it's going to be Kumbaya moving forward. This is going to be a mess.

I did not say it was going to be Kumbaya. I think he's going to be a good soldier and go out there and play. That's what I think. All right, near the opposite. Opposite. And we'll see how it plays out. a sabotage. He's a saboteur.

He's done it before. And whether it's as overt as Minnesota or sort of as quiet as Philadelphia, it's going to be a mess when he leaves and he's going to leave soon. I think the owner said, I think the owner probably told him, look, man, if you want to be able to get out of here,

here's what needs to be done. I will make sure that we make a deal to get you out of here. That's what I bet, and therefore, I think Jimmy's going to be a good soldier, and then they will be able to trade him. That's what I would guess. This is one of my big life lessons.

I've got like four or five sort of mantras, and one of mine is your actions should support your goals. That's what I'd say to Jimmy. I'm like, Jimmy, you want to leave? That's right. I want you to leave too, okay? But the actions for you to reach that goal are you scoring 30 points?

smiling and showing good body language and being a player that other teams want to acquire because right now you're not a player that other teams want to add to their environment. This is what I've been saying. This isn't doing you any good. It's not. But I'll be watching tonight. I'll be watching tonight. Oh, yeah.

I'll be watching every possession just to see if he dees up, see if he takes shots, see if he defers, see if he gives guys high fives at the foul line. I'll be watching everything. I think he's going to be a good soldier. I do. I don't. I do. All right.

It won't last. He might be a good soldier for a couple games. It will not last. He's going to sabotage. I didn't say it was going to last. We're talking about tonight. It's not going to last. All right.

Kevin loves Instagram, bro. Love and load. Team I love. All right. I'm going with the bucks on this for this week. Okay. And the reason I'm going with the butt is because. I had them too.

You say yours in first. I had them too. No team has screwed around with our emotions more than the Milwaukee Bucks this year. They stink and then they've gotten it together. And then they stink again. And then they start 2025 by losing to the Nets and Portland. Those are the two most disgusting losses you can take outside of maybe the Wizards. Okay.

No, no, no. And they, our last pod was, we taped Tuesday morning, they were fresh off getting dominated by the Knicks. Right. It was like last night's Cavs Thunder game. Like it was not competitive at all. Okay. So then they start the season and they lose to the Nets in Portland.

Then they win three in a row. Then as you mentioned, they get dogwalked by 34 by the Knicks. And it's like, oh God. Like right when, like, you know, they lost these two. Then they won these three. hey, maybe they're getting together. Oh, no, they got smashed by the Knicks. Then they turned around and broke Sacramento's, you know, broke their unbelievable start-up and beat

them by 15 and get 57 from Damon Janus. Then they turn around and play Orlando, who's been a bitch for everybody to play and a team that you have to look at as a possible second-round matchup. And they have Paulo. and they had Paulo and he bombed them out. Beat him 122 to 93 again, 56 between Janus and Dame. And then they get some contributions all around. I've gotten some bench contribution, including from Chris Middleton.

And so look, we got to give the Bucks credit when they deserve it. And there are certainly these weeks that, I mean, they always say, never get too high, too low. But my God, I cannot imagine the Bucks fan experience this year because it's like, oh my God, we suck when you lose to the Nets of Portland. Then you win those three and be like,

okay, okay. And you get killed by the Knicks. You're like, I knew it. And then you turn around and get these two great wins. And so, I don't know, you're schizophrenic, but I kind of am starting to love it. I love the fact that I have no idea. if you are going to suck or be awesome.

I don't know. But you are not consistently anything. If I didn't pay attention to the NBA as closely as I do, if I was sort of like one of my college fans who's like a casual fan, loves the league, but like, you know, not day to day being caught up on it. And I said to them, I was like, what seed are the bucks in the east, right? I swear to God, one of my friends would be like nine, one of my friends would be like two. You know, honestly, it's like, I don't know where they are.

Right now they're four seed They'd be hosting a round one Playoff game Right And they were like they're like a 10 seed like four weeks ago It's a mess I think it's I love it too because I love drama

And this is an absolute roller coaster Absolutely Look look if I told you That in another month They're going to be the two seed You might be able to be convinced if I told you in a month they're going to be the eighth seed

you might be able to be convinced I don't know where the hell they're going to be I don't know I have no idea just because the way it is I mean I hate to be like a nerd about it but like they're much closer to the eight seed sort of like in the games behind but like are you believing in the Celtics right now

I mean they look terrible they'll bring them up later we'll bring up the Celtics later and on that I'm trying to keep moving here also I just want to apologize, I got a cough. I was sick this week. I was sick on Tuesday's show. That was the achy part of my sickness. The achy goes away and then it goes into the cough and whee's part of my

sickness. And I just want to say, I blame my illness on dry January. This is ridiculous. My body is like, what are we doing? My body is just like, what are we doing? Like, there's an element to the chemistry that you've given me for about 30 years that you're now taking away. It's just throwing my body out of wax. So I want to apologize to my body. The situation, Since you're being open and honest, would you say you have a drink every day or every day? No, no, no, no. Okay. So it's, no.

It's not for a day. There's a lot of people that have a drink every day. No, no, no, six days a week. I mean, every day, every day is ridiculous. Six days a week. I'm not an alcoholic. All right. Yeah, yeah, no, no.

What do you think? Yeah, but it's, it's, uh, I don't, I don't drink everything. You think you're blaming your sickness. Forget the fact that it's, uh, Negative 10 degrees and horrible in the Northeast. You think it's the lack of alcohol. Yeah. I think my body's just not used to this.

It's sending me a message. Like, come on, bro. Let's have a beer after work. Let's get back to normal. But that being said, I just want to apologize for coughing. But I'll say this about the team that I love this week. I believe my recall is not the best. This was the team I loathed last week on Friday.

Toronto Raptors. Now, we're going to get to the Celtics, all right, because they're the team that I load this week. So we're just, I'm just going to save that for a second. But I just, you, I knew you were going to find a way to talk about Dick. No, no, no, I didn't even put them in my notes. I'm watching the game, and they're beating the Celtics in the first half. and myself and every Celtics fan

and every Celtics player every Raptors fan every NBA fan watching on League pass is just waiting for the Celtics to go on a run and flip the game they're just waiting for it I'm live betting this thing on Fandul I'm like there's no chance

the Raptors win this game it makes no sense for them to win this game and the run never happened they never forced the Raptors to call time out they never pressured the game. It was never really in question the outcome. It was a truly great performance from the Raptors through and through. And I think that people dumbed down the Celtics too much, and we'll get to that later.

But it's all, oh, if they're not hitting threes, they're not going to win. They hit 34% of their threes. Like, they didn't shoot terribly from three in that game, but the Raptors held them to about 40% from two. And I just loved them. And the reason I really love them this week, here's why I really love them this week. Before you chime it, after the game.

Remember, this team has 10 wins on the season. Right. Social media managers get together that run the Raptors account. They're like, what should we do? This is their moment. They're like, we're not going to have too many opportunities like this, this season. That's right. So what do they do?

They put up a box score of the game quarter by quarter with a picture. This is why I love them this week of Brandon, Jennings. Now, if you haven't been paying close attention, Brandon Jennings said that Jason Tatum was the softest Celtic superstar in history. So they didn't mention Tatum by name. They didn't put the quote up on the post, just the box score and Brandon Jennings.

That is why they're the team I love this week. I mean, look, they've been to hell and back this year with all the other teams goofing on them. I've seen teams like a couple weeks ago when Orlando beat them. They put up that, you know, the chubby fake Drake, you know, all that stuff. Except he's singing Orlando Magic, Orlando Magic, right? Like, I mean, they've been to hell and back. I will say this about Toronto very quickly.

They've gotten their guys back healthy, not that we are in love with their roster by any means, whatever. But I do think that by virtue of getting the guys back and like they have like a real lineup now. that they can play. They are one of those teams that everybody's going to go. I can go out to the club the night before. I can go hang out and do whatever I want to do.

I don't have to do some kind of like stringent routine. I don't have to be locked in for us to get a win. Over the course of 82 games, there's always nights where you're not locked in in the same way. And it's usually when you're playing against the rat teams. And what I will say is they are teaching us that when they have their guys, guys back in their lineup, they are worthy of your attention

because if you do dick around, they will catch you. Toronto is known. It's known for being a fun NBA team. A fun NBA city for visiting teams. The New York Times, like, this is like a respected. Look, I think they've won one game in North,

or in America. It's like maybe one or two. Oh, yeah. Like, of their 10 wins, They're all like in Toronto. The New York Times once wrote like a 6,000 word. This is like 2010, 2013 or something. They wrote like a 6,000 word article about like the economy of sort of hosting

visiting NBA players at night. And it was well researched and it was the New York Times. And it seemed like it was a very fun city for visiting teams. And I think the poor quality of the roster at this point may sort of in touch. some visiting players to enjoy themselves a little bit more than they normally would on the night before. And God bless me, because it's working. And they'll never ever, they'll never be a team that I love again.

So this is your week, Toronto Raptors fans, enjoy it. The team that I loathed, your beloved, Gotham City, Brooklyn Nets. I can't see them.

I haven't seen them. Well, you missed history. Because they took the worst loss. and the Clippers biggest win. People may not have noticed this because it wasn't exactly the biggest thing on the radar.

Oh yeah, I went to sleep. I went to sleep before this one was over. I was, I'm out. The final score was 126 to 67. 67 points. Yeah, and by the way, the nets were down with 10 minutes left in the second quarter.

They were down 25, 24. So that means they got outscored 101 to 40. 43 the rest of the way. Whoa. At one point, they were down by 64 points. And the reason I am mentioning this is because you may not know this, Jacoby, but I haven't seen tons of, though I've been going to games for now over 20 years on a regular basis.

I haven't seen a ton of downright NBA history, like something. that has never happened before and will probably never happen again. But I was in attendance in 2021 when the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 152 to 79 by a margin of 73 points. It is the biggest margin in NBA history. And it is a record I hold near and dear to my heart. The 2021 Thunder? Correct.

That's the post bubble years. That's like, this is a tanking year. Yeah, yeah, this is tanking. 152 to 79. It's one of the first times when I'm looking at that score and they're up by 64.

I'm like, oh my God, they're going to break the record. This, to me, this is, I thought, did you and your Memphis boys pop champagne like the 72 dollars?

Like Mercury Morris? Yeah. Mercury Morris. I'm like, There's no way anyone is ever going to beat somebody by 74. There's no way. There's no way that record can be broken. And now, after watching what the Clippers did to Brooklyn, I now question it.

This Brooklyn team might lose by 100 to somebody on a random night. That's, I mean. Don't break that record, Brooklyn. Don't break that record. When you look at every single team, the Wizards, the Wizards, the Pelicans, the Nets, like all the bad teams, the Blazers. When you look at their starting lineup, you're like, those are five good NBA players.

And the Nets are the same way. Like the idea they lost by 64 is kind of shocking because they've got guys. Oh, they know their friends. Look, they mean, most of the guys, they did, I did see what I did see. It might have been during this game. It was like they showed the street clothes and it was Cam Johnson. Ben Simmons. Yeah, Ben Simmons.

Okay. Did you not see? It was like, oh, wait a second. And so maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this starting five didn't have guys. Well, that's the other thing that is worth mentioning for a reason that I load them this week. They had guys that were playing in that game last night. Or I'm sorry, against the clippers, players that were in the game, playing in the game.

And they had to walk over or walk around. They put them on the second row. Ben Simmons and that group was all sitting on the front row I'm like this is bananas Boyanovich and Simmons and that guy that group they're in street clothes on the actual

bench guys that are participating in the game no wonder they got beat by 64 the guys that are playing in the game don't even get to sit on the real bench next to the court it reminds me of like a if you don't live in New York like we ride the subway all the time and there's this unspoken rule

that like if an old lady gets on the train or like someone with the cane or a pregnant lady gets on the train. There's an unwritten rule that you're supposed to stand up and give them your seat. And that's what it reminds me of. It reminds me like, if you're not playing in the game and you're in street clothes, give up your seat to someone who might have to check into the game. Ben Simmons, Cam Johnson, and Bogdanovich were on the front row. I think it was Cam Thomas too, right?

Maybe. But behind them was Reese Beakman, who was playing in. in the game. Legend. And Derek Whitehead. So those two guys are sitting behind

guys that are in street clothes on the second row of the bench. Give up your seat. How big is your ego? Get up your seat. That's crazy. Destroyes team morale. Reese Beekman's going to tell

that story forever. He can't even see the game. Ben Simmons is 6-11. There are people, there are paying customers with better seats than Reese Beekman. Much better. Poor Reese Beesman. Free Rees Beekman.

I don't think he's going to make all NBA this year, but next year, Locke. Team he loved. The Celtics. Like, we've spoken about it before because the team I loved was the Raptors, but how do you lose that game? And they were down. I didn't pay attention to the game until like the second quarter. I saw they were down by like 18 or whatever. I was like, let me see who's out.

Do you know what the starting fire for the Celtics was? Oh, yeah. Everybody. Everybody. K.P. played. Drew played. Brown. Tatum.

Everyone's available. Do you want to know what's crazy? I was reading an article about them this morning, and it was like, it was quoting Brian Scalabrini, who is a broadcaster for the Celtics. He was saying, he's saying Missoula may have to make some tough decisions. And it was in reference to when they have had their. preferred lineup. So you're talking about Holiday and White, along with Tatum and Brown and Porzingas, right?

Yeah. When they have had that preferred lineup, they're five and five. Huh. Is that crazy or what? I mean, I'm not going to read too much into that because those are their five best players. They play together really well and won a championship, like a few months ago. It's crazy that when they have all their guys, in the 10 games that they have had that preferred starting lineup, they're 500.

So, odd. Here's why I don't like the self-ings. I loat them this week. You need to win that game. And they're seven and seven in the last 14. Losses, and these are decent teams they've lost to. Bulls, Magic, Sixers,

that Sixers game was Christmas. That was a big one. Sixers played great. Pacers, Thunder, Kings, Raptors. Outside of the Raptors, those are all like legitimate teams that are like winning games. The Bulls are boring. but here's the thing that sort of like gets me a little bit. Why are they still the betting favorites to win the championship?

Like, why are they still favorite to win the championship? And I've listened to our colleague, the great podfather Bill Simmons, and he sort of writes it off as like, ah, they're just not up for these regular season games. They're pacing themselves for the playoffs. Like, it's hard to get up for the regular season after you just won a championship. And I was thinking about that. And I believe that for, like, the first few losses. But now I'm like, I don't know.

Like maybe this team does have more flaws and maybe their record is who they are. And maybe they're not the best team in the Eastern Conference. Maybe they remind me kind of like the Chiefs. It's like the Chiefs, while having the best record in the NFL, did not play that well this year. A bunch of referee help, a bunch of one score wins. But we all sort of like assume they're going to win the Super Bowl because they've done it before. But in regard to their sort of effort in the regular season, I was thinking about it.

I was like, is this a normal occurrence? And I thought about the Warriors. After they won the championship, they won 73 regular season games in that season. They ended up losing in the finals. But there was no, oh, we won the championship last year, so we're going to coast through the regular season. It was very much the opposite.

And the idea that this is a switch flipping team that's just going to get to the playoffs and blow out the competition like they did last year and they look great last year, I don't believe in that. Right now, I would take the field over the Celtics to represent the Eastern Conference in the finals. And I say that acknowledging wholeheartedly

that I hate field versus team or field versus golfer bets because you're taking basically any other team, but right now I would not personally have them as the favorites to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA finals. Totally fair. Player that I loved, a guy that I mentioned earlier in the week

after I'd watched him play against Memphis in back-to-back games for Houston, and he was the best player on the floor in a game that was played earlier this week. Jalen Green, he had 27 in the first game against Memphis. He had 42 in the second game. Then he backed it up by playing against Denver and had 34 in that. And then last night, 28 against Sacramento, 50% are higher in all of them so far. And, you know, one of the things that has been,

and you mentioned this earlier when you were saying Raphael Stone, don't make a deal. You know, we know that they need a go-to guy. We know they need a star, right? Like, I need a bucket, whatever. Like, bro, let this kid take his lumps. It was him last night. I'm saying, let the kid take the lumps.

Let him go and be that guy, right? I need a bucket. We're going back and forth. DeRosen's making plays on one end. Because, as I've told you, I'm very high on his ability. I have many times recoil that the idea of what he is or what he is going to be going forward. He is still a young player. But you are seeing an elite level scorer with an ability.

If you give him space, if you give him space, and I wonder, you know, we saw last year, I've thought about this a lot. We saw last year when Shengoon was out of the lineup. He exploded, right? And I've always been one. I've said this is one of the reasons I think that Minnesota has massively mismanaged the ant thing. Because when you have a talent like this, maximize the amount. amount of space that they have to operate because in many cases they are absolutely unguardable in a one-on-one situation.

Well, Bruno, the rockets don't exactly have a ton of shooters surrounding Shailon Green. I'm aware. I'm aware. But even now, as you see them, when they are able to create the requisite space, he's an unguarable guy. And now you have to dedicate two. Now I can pitch out. Now the offense gets in motion.

because on a one-on-one situation, you're at the disadvantage against that kid. The same way that you're at the disadvantage against a John Morant, the same way you're at a disadvantage against an Anthony Edwards, that you are forcing that defense make him see two. And the more they can make him see two. And so now Jabari's been out for a good amount of time, right? And so it's like the more space that you can give this kid,

I think you are going to see and this is as I've said it's very like the Edwards thing if you just watch him in the one on one situation bro good luck good luck trying to deal with that kid on an island because he is

he is more athletic than you he is great ball handling skills and then you're not jumping with him he jumps higher than you he runs faster than you and he dribbles faster and it's like You keep letting him get these reps as the guy, and now you're going to see a situation where teams have to make him see a second guy.

That opens up stuff for Shengoon, and obviously the next step is getting a guy that he can kick out to that can reliably knock down shots. Because that's the dicey proposition right now. But if you give him a shooter that is a dead eye, that he could just chuck it, out to once your man pinches on him and then he gets that two-man game going with shengoon i i just think as i've said i think he's a special talent i really do so the rock is clearly need shooting for all the reasons in regards to jalen green that you explained and they just every team needs shooting they don't shoot threes well and if you want to win the NBA championship you're going to have to hit some threes right and um the aforementioned podfather brought

this up on a chat read shepherd You're like, they need a knock down shooter. Right. And he doesn't get on the floor. He gets in the G league, scored 49 points. We discussed that. And here's my theory on why Reed Shepard is not getting time on the floor with the rockets. And this is based on no inside information, no firsthand information, no science, no evidence, no data.

This is completely just me making stuff up. So buckle up. Here's my theory. He gets dominated in practice by the great defenders that the Rockets have. I think every time EME sees in play, it's in practice. He's got like Thompson in front of him and he can't get a shot off. So they think he sucks. That's my theory.

No, no. I've been around a bunch of coaches and especially the former NBA guys that are coaches. The only way you are getting that guy on the court is if you trade what is in his way. if you make him be central. The coaches are always going to play the vets. They're always going to play it. They don't have any bets. They have Jeff Green.

No, they have Van Vlead and they have Holiday. That's what's in the way. So if you move off Aaron Holiday, now you have to have another guy that can come in there. And I'm telling you, wouldn't you play Reed Shepherd over Aaron Holiday? Of course. But like I would.

I went through this years ago. There was a guy who's still actually in the NBA in Javon Carter, plays for the Bulls, right? And so Memphis drafted Javon Carter, but J.B. Bickersett, who was the coach at the time, bro, he was going to play Shelvin Mack. End of story. And Shelvin Mack was horrendous,

but Shelvin Mack was a veteran. So he's going to play it. And they, the only way they were ever even going to get to see what they had in Javon Carter is if you traded Shelvin Mack. So they traded him for basically nothing. Like they just threw him in a deal, right? And so the only way with a lot of these, and especially the old school type coaches,

they're going to play the vets until they don't have a choice. So you just have to take the option away from them. But given the option, they are going to play the vets because they're trying to win tonight. And in their mind, a Shelvin Mack and Aaron Holliday, whoever, that's going to help me win tonight. That's going to help us win this game tonight.

Because that's what they're thinking. I can't see it. If you're trying to win a championship and you're the Houston Rockins, you're not going to do it this year. So get read out there. Like you said about Jalen Green, take your lobes.

I agree with you. I agree with you, by the way. And by the way, also on the Jalen Green, let me mention real quickly. Also shout out to him for running straight to John Morant and barking at him and running straight to Russell Westbrook.

Oh, I love the Russell Westbrook. Barking at him too. Bro, if you're willing to bark it, if you're willing to get in both Morant and Westbrook's face in one week, you're starting to move to a different level. He also does it with a smile and not a scowl. Like, it's just competitive, but it's not like evil.

He's kind of fun with his trash talk. I love Russell Westbrook's quote, if you didn't see it, he said, quote, this guy was on my AAU team. He's talking to me like a little boy or a little child or something. Amazing. Because a lot of NBA players sort of fund AAU teams, and I'm sure Westbrook was in his late 30s or whatever,

and Jailie Green was 14, 15. And now he's talking trash to him on NBA. Emey Odoca loved that. I know. Yeah. I know. I know that too. He thought it was so funny.

It was like he was watching a stand-up routine. Yeah. I did notice that as well. I'm going to pace here. Player I love. And we talked about him before, but Malik Munk, like, he was out for a while for the Kings. And we all talk about like Doug Christie coming in and changing the culture. A lot of it had to do with Malik Munk coming back and making them good.

Well, and putting Key on Ellis in. Oh, yeah, Keanu Ellis, of course. His last six games, he's got 31, 26, 23, 22, 18, last night he had 26. And here's one thing I love about Malik Mung. So, Steph Curry, right, 6 foot two. If Steph Curry dunks, it's in a fast break, and all the conditions have to be perfect. He's coming from the left side, he jumps off his right foot, and he barely dunks. Right?

And Steph is one of the best basketball players to ever touch a basketball. Malik Munk is one inch taller than Steph Curry and he will dunk all over the place all over you if you're in front of him. Like he is a shooter, he's a score, but he's also an explosive athlete that will dunk on you. He has 12 dunks this season. I love Malik Munk.

I love the spark that he brings to the Kings. I love the fact that he will dunk on you in the way that Jalen Green and John Morant will and he's only 6'3. He also had to show up too because as we talked about a couple a week ago when they fired Mike Brown and I highlighted

on the show, I said, look, these Malik Monk quotes are something when he said, hey, we really, you know, he really relates to us being a guy that played the game. Yeah, yeah. Being a guy that played the game. So it made you feel like, okay, Malik Monk hated him.

Yeah, somewhere Mike Brown is like, bro, like, that wasn't the gap between us, the fact that I didn't wear an NBA jersey. Player I loathe. You mentioned that you load the Boston Celtics this week. I mean, those are that saying that you got to highlight at least one of them. And one of the reasons that Brian Scalabrini, who I mentioned before, is talking about some tough

decisions that might need to be made is because Derek White, who every time I watch the Boston Celtics on national TV, there is a unanimous massive erection the entire time from broadcasters telling you how amazing Derek White is. and now Derek White should be an all-star. And then Al Horford goes out earlier this week and stumps for him. And Al Horford tells everybody that he needs to be an all-star because he's a winner. Derek White? Yes.

He's a winner. On the all-star team? He does all the things that need to be done for the team to succeed. He scores the ball. He plays defense. He leads our team. That's our point guard. A lot of intangibles.

A lot of things you can't put a number on. What? I feel like a lot of things. a lot of times we try to measure an All-Star in numbers. He can put them up if he needs to, but more importantly, he plays to win. Ultimately, I think that that's going to be rewarded for him. And Derek White responded by having three points on one of eight shooting, after he had six points on one of six shooting and six points of two of nine shooting.

And in that Toronto game, he's pulled quickly, Missoula's like, I can't take this. I didn't know that quote happened. I mean, Derek White being an All-Stars is ridiculous. It's ridiculous. They say, you don't know ball if you don't think Derek White. Derek White is in the most unbelievable situation in basketball life, which is he can have like three six-point games.

And honestly, if I wouldn't have mentioned it on the mismatch, no one would even know and or anything. But he's Brock Purdy. He's Brock Purdy. That's who he is. He's basketball. basketball Brock Purdy. But if he had 28,

everyone, three 28 point games in a row, it would be like, the world doesn't understand how amazing Derek White is. So nobody's talking about, it doesn't matter. Like, if Jason Tatum had three,

six point games in a row, oh my God. Brandon Jennings would do a seven-hour podcast. Oh, yeah, yeah, oh, yeah. The BS report would be four hours long, about potential trades for

from Jason Tatum to Real Madrid or whatever. They're wondering if they should put Peyton Pritchard in his place. I mean, okay. I'm glad you started with the announcers. Because sometimes perception is reality

and there's an inertia, there's a momentum to sort of like basketball opinions. And everyone decided that Derek White was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Don't let Derek White block a shot. Because what are you going to hear from the announcers if he blocks a shot? One of the best shot blockers in the league. They treat him like Victor Wimbuniyama when he blocks

a shot. It's like, oh, Derek White, for his size, he's one of the best shot blocker this game has ever seen. It's like, it's okay. He does block some shots, but like, let's not start treating him like he's did a Kempbe with Tumbo, okay? You could score on Derek White. I had an ongoing thing last year where I started saying he's basketball, Keenan Allen, because all anybody talks about with Keenan Allen is how nobody talks about Keenan Allen. Right? The underrated Keenan Allen. His whole career, no one talks about him unless they're talking about him how no one talks about him.

That's what he is. The entire conversation is always about how no one talks about him. And the irony. No, no, no. He wasn't recruited out of high school and then he went to this college. Colorado and they got on juco or whatever and they went to this college and that college we can get that story too those are the two things you hear about him all the time

yeah no one taught no one talks about him I love this I love that you hate Derek white and I want all Derek White fans just this just to add at the Chris Vernon show I don't hate him you hate him you hate him am I glad he had three games that suck back to back I mean it's hard it's hard for me not to this is more like just recognition of this is I don't loathe this

person. But it's kind of like yours. It's like quietly, people aren't really discussing the facts. Don't connect kind of sucks now. It was all good. When he was eight for eight from three, it's scored 20 here.

It's going 26 there. Him and Austin Reeves was a little one, two punch of country white boys on the Showtime Lakers alongside AD and LeBron. Well, guess what? He's made 12. last 63-3s. His last four games.

Zero points O for three. 13 points, five for eight. Five points, one for five. Two points, O for four. I don't know if he's going to win rookie of the year. And LeBron James, remember after that game? He's like, well, I've been a fan of Donald Connect's

rally. I watched every Tennessee Volunteers game last year. He would have a Dalton Connect guy. I don't hear him saying anything about Donald Connect now. LeBron's always been a big ball. So this is this may be You know A rookie wall This may be a shooting slump

I'm not you know I'm not writing this guy off He's not gonna you know Playing in Greece next year But I'm just saying If we're gonna celebrate this guy We have to recognize the fact He's not shooting well right now

All right let's mark him down For a huge game this weekend Oh yeah As soon as you said that A thing that I loved You know we talked about the controversy That is going on And obviously it has not been

Good times in Miami news-wise. There is one great thing that is happening, which is, I would argue, the king of alternate jerseys and courts. The Miami Vice jerseys are coming back. Love those.

I mean, they're amazing, truly. You still see those, like, I mean, it's, you know what, and you know what they are, they are ones that will be, I always call them like music fest jerseys. Like there's always people wearing wild jerseys at Music Fest. And those will, you're going to be for the next 30 years,

you're going to be seeing people wear those Miami Vice. And so they need to come back because a lot of people still have the hero one because he was like still, you know, he was up-and-coming and when they first came out. But the Miami Vice jerseys, it is to me the abs. the abs sometimes we bitch about the alternate jerseys and Lord knows as NBA fans we turn on league pass and we're like

my God those are awful those are just pathetic you know people were I even saw our buddy Zach Lowe bitching about the Celtics jerseys against the raptors the other night like never wear those these are just putrid right and so it's very rare

that the team absolutely nails the alternate jersey but Miami nailed it so much that that could be their regular jersey and I would think it's amazing. You know what? I think the altered jerseys do get a lot of flack, as you mentioned. But like, if the league goes one for 20 and keeps trying and trying, it's fine. The successes will stay and the failures are go.

But I do want to mention this now you brought up alternate jerseys for a second. What the hell is going on with the Red Grizzlies jerseys? What is that? So that's a throwback to the Memphis sounds. That's what that is. Okay. The Memphis sounds were, they were an ABA 18 back in the day. Okay.

And so it's a throwback to the history of having a franchise once upon a time. Much more appropriate name than Christmas, but, uh, sure. Memphis sounds? Yeah. Yeah. It is a cool name. All right. Thing that I love this week and I love this.

I love this. There's a sneaky little press release, a little, little news drop from my friend Shams. And I'll quote an article for him. Quote, Maverick Carter, LeBron James Business Manager, has been enlisted as an advisor by a group of investors

seeking to raise $5 billion to form an international basketball league that would serve as a rival to the NBA, sources told ESPN, confirming a story first reported by Thursday by Bloomberg. The group, which includes multiple private equity funds, is looking to form,

a league consisting of six men's teams and six women's teams playing games around the world. Later on in the article, quote, this is my favorite part. Although Carter, who has served as a producer on more than one of James's

TV and movie projects, is closely tied to the Los Angeles Lakers star, sources told ESPN that James is not involved in the efforts with this new league. I love this so much. First of all, I love the fact that they say, Maverick Carter. And anyone listening to this knows who Maverick Carter is.

They call him someone who has served as a producer on more than one of James's TV and movie projects. Bro, he is so much more than a producer on more than one of James's TV and movie projects. And then they go on to say that James has nothing to do with this. Lifelong friend. Oh, yeah. Was sat at the table for the first shoe deals. Yeah. I mean, best man at the wedding.

Like, this is best. This is this right-hand man stuff. This is consulari. This is everything. This is a business partner. But James has nothing to do with this new league that's going to, quote, rival the NBA. Another quote, is it called live basketball? Oh, yeah.

This is where I'm getting to, quote, Bloomberg reported that the investment group might try to tap private equity and sovereign wealth funds. Yeah. Sovereign wealth funds is code for we called the Saudis. Yep. we called the Saudis and there's nothing the Saudis would love more than the live golf version

of the NBA with LeBron James is the face of this. Now, before we get your take on this, I have some theories about this because when information like this gets to us, there's an agenda.

There is someone who wants us to have this information. And regardless of this article says, something tells me a hunchy hunch that LeBron James might be aware that this is happening. just a hunch. He might be aware of this.

Okay. So what would this do? Here's some theories I have about why we have this information about LeBron James' right-hand man forming a rival league to the NBA with Saudi money. I have a couple theories.

One is they already had the Saudi money on deck. The Saudis would love nothing more than to live golf the NBA, right? Because they've been, they've long time, sort of sovereign funds, not just the Saudis and Qatar and other places in the region. They're rich with oil money. Want to buy NBA teams and whatnot.

But it's sort of been blocked for quite some time. Another theory. Now, this is interesting. Magic Johnson owned a team in Sweden. And he played on that team in 1999 to 2000, very quietly. I don't know how many games he played, but there's video of him on the, you know, the internet playing on this like Swedish basketball team in the year 2000, which is just odd.

And this might be a LeBron James career 2.0 move. Retire from the NBA, play in a league that he is forming, that he has ownership of, or a piece of, at least, to sort of like extend his career in this sort of like non-NBA, more big three-ish exhibition international thing. So we can play to 47 just without the 82 game NBA system. And another theory, there's always been an unspoken awkwardness between young, super athletic, mainly black players in a league

that was owned or now governed by old, dorky, mainly white, billionaire men. It's always been this sort of like unspoken tension. And I feel like if anyone were to truly flip that, if anyone were to truly say, let's make a for us, by us league, LeBron James would have the power to do that. And it wouldn't happen overnight, but it could happen over time.

Karee tried to tell everybody to do this a long time ago. It's a little different. It's a little different in the middle of a pandemic when Kari is like, follow me guys. Then LeBron James with $5 billion of backing

and a true plan says, follow me guys. And my final one is this. My final theory is this before you chime. This is all bullshit. It's just an, negotiation for him to get his own team in Vegas from the NBA. All right.

Let me go with the last one. And the last one is your most probable theory. And the lesson was learned in sports. By the way, this is played out with LiveGolf. There's not a date that goes on that Jay Monaghan, who's the commissioner of the PGA, the horrendous commissioner of the PGA, doesn't probably wake up and go, I should have just met with them and took their money a long time ago. I never thought we'd have competition.

Adam Silver, if nothing else, say whatever criticisms you want of him, is an absolutely brilliant businessman that is great about getting and funding money. In the face of everyone saying ratings are down and their next TV deal is not going to be what everybody thinks it's going to be, he pulled an absolute rabbit out of his hat and got them secured for years to come. 11 years. With an amazing television deal. If it comes to the point where the Saudi's, want to get involved. The lesson of the PGA is that do not try to compete with these guys.

Do not try to compete with them. Have them involved. And if Jay Monaghan would have just brought them into the fold, gotten their money involved in the first place, he would have had him even more unbelievable and robust PGA tour. Instead, now he's got himself into a position where in a couple of weeks, Live is going to be on Fox with all manner of the best stars in golf and the PGA is going to be hosting some tournament where you don't even know who's on the leaderboard. And so this cannot be. You look, you cannot compete with them.

They've got unlimited money. Unlimited. Unlimited. Like it's just growing still. And so silver would get them involved. And so I think the most likely scenario is the last one, which is this is some way to say, hey, we've got these guys on deck. They want to be involved.

And so you don't want us doing this, right? You don't want us doing that. So you better do right by us on this, right? Because if you don't do right, if you don't do right by us, if you don't do right by us, this is exactly what happened with Greg Norman and Phil Mickelson. And then the PGA said, F you. Yeah.

And they said, fine. F us? Who won that standoff? Who won that standoff? Right. F us? So this is, do this or here's a real possibility. It's leverage.

It's just interesting to me that this information got to us because this can all happen behind closed doors. But I think it gets to us because I think LeBron is saying my career is going to end in the next four years. It's a long, I mean, it's probably less than that. But I was going to say it's possible for those four more years. And at that point, I need to be a partner. in the NBA, or I could take option number two. And when there is an option number two, you're much stronger at the negotiation table.

And it's not a secret that, you know, there will be a team in Vegas, LeBron will be involved, and he'll be a governor of an NBA team. Or, who knows, live basketball. Last one, and I'll keep a quick thing that I loathe. What Carl Anthony Towns did earlier this week is absolutely indefensible. I texted you as I was watching it play out.

Disgusting. We're wearing a Philadelphia Eagles jersey or a Philadelphia Eagle shirt in Philadelphia while the Knicks are playing against Philly. And as soon as I saw it, I was like, this is, I don't care that Jaila Brunson is supporting it. He listened to the wrong people. He listened to the wrong people because Jalen Brunson led him astray. And Jaila Brunson liked that he was wearing that. What he should have done is poll real people that know Knicks.

fans and Towns has been amazing for the Knicks this year. It has been an amazing trade that has reaped incredible rewards. Bro, you cannot be rocking a freaking fillet. I don't care who you're a fan of. Not on the bench of the New York team wearing the Eagle shirt. And then if you are, if you are as they say, Jacoby, stand on business. If you're going to do it, stand on business.

this, but instead did the cat thing and changed out of it. That's the part. I don't care if you support the Eagles. You grew up an Eagles fan. You love Randall Cunningham. Go for it, dude. Be an Eagles fan. You plan the Knicks and be an Eagles fan.

That doesn't bother me as a Knicks fan at all. What bothers me is changing the shirt at halftime. So you went into lock and a half time, picked up your phone. That's right. And saw everyone in your mentions making fun of your shirt and calling you this, this, and that. And you changed your shirt. I'm so upset about that.

You know what? There's no chance Nick's been the championship this year. No chance. Thing that you loath. I'm still upset about this shirt changing thing. Again, it's not that he wore the eagle shirt. It's that he changed at halftime. He got bullied by the Twitter fingers.

Yeah, whatever the opposite of standing on businesses. Yeah, what was that? Sitting on recreation. I'll be quick on this. The end of the King's Rockets game. The Rockets were down, like I said, The second quarter, they looked tired. They were down by 15.

I said, you know what? Let me open up my Fandle app and put $20 American dollars on the money line on the Rockets coming back and winning this game. So I'm invested. They're coming back. Everything's going great. The King's inbound the ball. Two Dylan Brooks.

Like, they throw him the ball. And at this point, it's a one-point game. The Rockets just scored. And it was not a foul. They literally threw the ball to Dylan Brooks. They're trying to get it to Deer & Fox. they call a foul. The Rockets bench goes crazy.

Dylan Brooks is like, he's losing his mind. I swear to God, he had the wherewithal to walk away from the environment and separate himself because he would have like literally started like gnawing at the man like a, like a cannibal if he had any,

any, if he was anywhere in the vicinity of this referee. The rocket's bench is going crazy. So what does the ref do? The ref doubles down. He goes, we're now reviewing this play to see if it was an off-the-ball foul, to see if the foul occurred before the ball was impounded.

So now the ref not only made a bad call because the other team inbounded it to Dylan Brooks. They review it, and in the review, to the rest credit, Dylan Brooks technically by the letter of the law, foul, Deerrin Fox. But however, there's hand-fighting on an inbound every single time. it's like holding in football. If you look for it, you can find it on every single play. It was not a foul in a traditional sense of like just history of watching NBA games.

When a player tries to cut, there's always a little bit of pushing and grabbing and tussling. It was not an agreed to foul whatsoever. But then they review it and they'd say that a few frames before the ball was thrown in, the foul occurred. So now not only did they take five minutes to turn a foul that wasn't a foul into a bigger foul that gets them a foul. foul shot and more foul shots and basically gave the Rockets no chance to win the game. It was sort of everything that is wrong about the review system. It slowed everything down, made the last 20 seconds take 10 minutes. It was a bad call that turned into a worse call from review.

And it made a competitive game going down to the wire into an anticlimactic Jalen Green taking a side step sort of heave from 2017. He did almost make it. But there's no chance that was going. basically all of his momentum was going to the side. But I just hated it. And it wasn't just losing $20 that I hated. It's just the whole system. And we've talked about it before.

Let's not have these reviews take as long as they take. Let's not have the option for that review. If you didn't review that foul call, who's complaining? I'm going to tell you something, Jacoby. At some point, I hope the message gets through. I'm going to stay on this. There has to be a review clock. Yeah.

We're putting a minute up and the decision is made within a minute. That's it. And if you can't come to a decision within a minute, that's it. Call Stance. That's it. It should be so obvious that it takes you two reviews, two replays, and then find out how much time is left. That's it. You have a minute. It shouldn't take more than a minute. Put the clock up. That's a great clock. That's the thing I love this week. Review clock idea for reviews. Review clock. All right. Thank you to our executive producer Jesse Lopez as always. I'll talk to you next week. Must be 21 and over in present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 over and present in D.C. Got a gambling problem? Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com.

Call 1-88-88-789-7777- or visit CCPPG.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit MDGamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. visit gambling helpline.m.m.org or call 800-327-50-50 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts, or call 877-8-8-Hope-N-Y or text Hope NY in New York.