The Mismatch - All-Star Nostalgia, Detroit’s Dream Season, Kawhi’s Revival, and the League’s Tanking Problem

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

Verno and Jacoby return ahead of All-Star weekend as they discuss their fond memories of the All-Star Game and how the game is viewed in a completely different way now. They also debate whether or not Adam Silver will address the ongoing tanking issues across the league. Next, the guys dive into their loves and loathes from the season so far. (00:00) Welcome to The Mismatch!(35:00) All-Star Game memories(08:55) Will Adam Silver address the ongoing tanking in the league?(14:31) Verno and Jacoby’s no. 1 loves of the week(23:50) Verno and Jacoby’s no. 1 loathes of the week(31:32) No. 2 loves of the week(40:14) No. 2 loathes of the week(47:00) No. 3 loves of the week(51:26) No. 3 loathes of the week(1:01:05) No. 4 loves of the week(1:06:02) No. 4 loathes of the week Leave us a message on our Mismatch Voicemail line! [phone] Hosts: Chris Vernon and David JacobyProducers: Jessie Lopez and Jeff ShearinSocial: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Varnan and joining me to see us every week from The Ringer.com. It's Dave Jacoby. Jacobi. All-Star weekend, Verno. All-Star weekend is upon us. We are recording this on Thursday morning leading into All-Star Weekend. And I got to be honest with you, I think we're around the same age.

And when I was a little kid, this was like the biggest deal. There weren't that many games that were on television that you would get to keep up with. but All-Star Weekend was like the time where you would tune it in, and I looked so forward to the dunk contest, so forward to the three-point, like so forward to all of these different events, and now I don't. Well, I understand it's not the same,

but I feel about the All-Star Weekend, the same way I feel about Westeros and the same way I feel about sex. Sometimes it's better than others, but it's always good. It's like, I'm an easy mark. Yeah, the All-Star game isn't what it used to be fine. But like, I like basketball.

I like watching star players play basketball. Do I wish they played harder? Do I wish it was more competitive? Sure. But is it still fun for me? Yes, absolutely. Again, this is my biased subjective opinion. Yeah, we are.

But I love the NBA and I love the, I watch the All-Star game every year, and I enjoy it every year. I'm going to enjoy it. No, you won't. No, you won't. Even last year I liked. I like it every year.

I like it. I like it. You're going to come back next week and you're going to be like, yeah, that was that, that was not good. Right. You did not like it last year. Nobody liked it last year. The participants didn't like it last year. No human being on earth like last year.

It's not what it used to be, but I still enjoy it. I'm not like trying to zag here or like have a take. Yes, you are. I'm just telling you. I'm just telling you how I feel. It's how I feel. I just enjoy it. Like, people hated the last season of Game of Thrones.

I'm like, it's still Game of Thrones. It was awesome. It's just, it's still good. I like watching star players play basketball. I do. I enjoy it. The problem is it's supposed to be a celebration. And I am one of those that I'll be the old man.

I lament what it used to be. That's the thing, right? It used to be much better. I saw it. Yeah. So like, I don't want to. continue your analogy, but it used to be amazing. And now it's not.

And so I pine for when it was amazing. Thank God our wives don't listen to this. No, that's my fault. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely. Thus our Instagram ads. And bevy of supplements. The low team mismatched.

I mean, I guess it's just one of those where it's like, I am, it's like the old man on the rocking chair and you're sitting there like when I was, but I vividly remember, like some of my greatest childhood memories are, we would get together like, I lived in a neighborhood with a bunch of kids and everybody would watch like the dunk contest.

And there were these two guys that lived in my neighborhood that were St. Louis blues players, and they were like rookies. And so they, like, rented a house together. One of them ended up becoming, like, an all-time great. Rod Brindamore was one of them. And the other one was a defenseman named Jeff Brown. And they were young, but they liked all the neighborhood kids. They rented this house, and it had a basketball goal in the back that had like a crank on it

that you could lower. So I vividly remember us all watching the dunk contest. and then after school the next day, we would go knock on their door. And this is when you know hockey players are the absolute best, when you've got 12-year-old kids knocking on your door saying, hey, can we use your basketball goal? And they're like, yeah, sure.

Sure. And so we would go out there and try to do all the dunks that had happened like the night before, right? So like if Kenny Smith threw it, you know, between his legs and bouncing off the backboard and finished it or whatever. and it's like, I guess I just have such great memories of this being such a big deal. And now I have kids, they don't care. I don't care.

And so that's the thing to me. The thing to me is this is something that used to be so important to me and that I cared so much about. And I don't sense that anyone adult or child feels that way anymore. I think that's fair. For the people that poo-poo the dunk contest, I do want to remind everyone that the Zach Levine, Aaron Gordon Showdown was, it was like,

I watched all the old ones in the 90s. That was probably top three dunk contests my entire life. I was there for, that long ago. That was so good. I was there for that one, and the energy in that arena was just absolutely crazy. It was absolutely crazy.

That was, you're right. You go back and watch that. Yeah. And it was right on the heels of everybody saying, oh, the good players don't do it anymore. Every dunk has been done. You've seen it all. That dunk contest,

the creativity, the athleticism, the energy, the competition, like that could have gone forever. It was one of those like seven games series. We're like, can we just do like a 15 game series?

Like, I want more of this. I love that dunk contest, so I won't give up on the product being good in perpetuity. I think you can come back. But you know when they book who they booked this year. I don't, what are we talking about? What is this?

Come on. Like, who is in the dunk contest? Well, Jackson Hayes, Carter, Bryant. I mean, it's... Kashad Johnson, Chase Richardson. So I sent you a clip, which I found really interesting. And it was the Cousins podcast with Vince Carter and T-Mack. And they said on the podcast that the league was offering a million dollars to individuals,

Legerly, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, and Tracy McGrady to participate in the dunk contest. Now, if this was probably a under the table unpublicized million dollar payment to incentivize them to do so, why aren't we doing that? Why? I brought it up. I brought it up a couple of weeks ago and I said, if you put a million dollars on the line, I promise you. Just tell appearance fee. You get a million dollars.

Be in the dunk contest. That's it. Yes. It would be, you would have the greatest ever, honestly. Everybody would do it. Everybody would want to do it. You would be turning guys away from doing it. And it would be like, then you'd end up with Anthony Edwards versus Zion Williamson versus, I mean, you name it.

You'd have the best of the best. Whoever is the best. You know, three point contest is still like that one stands a test of time. It's always great three point shooters and it's fun to watch. the rising stars got killed last night with flag being out. Yeah, that's tough. Because that one's tough, right? So, I mean, the rising star, not being in the rising stars game is a tough one.

But we'll see, look, we'll judge it afterwards. I just, I am, I am mentally preparing myself to hate watch. Oh, you're going to watch. I'm going to watch too. And then just watch, like, flip on the celebrity game to see if Shams can hoop and if, you know, Glorilla can get a bucket. Gloorilla's going to get a bucket. I hope so.

She will. I hope so. And then she's going to point over to, and Brandon Ingram's going to be on the front row cheering her on like he does her. He's going to be like running out of him. All-Star Brandon Ingram, by the way. All-Star Brandon Ingram. All-Star Brandon Ingram.

Which was a cool moment. I don't know if you saw them dogpile him at the Toronto facility. That was a good moment for sure. Anyways, we'll see. We'll see what it looks like. And then we will judge All-Star weekend after it takes place. But my hopes are not all too high. As an NBA fan, I'll have it on. And it stinks that leading into this, maybe the most important thing that is going to come out of it is the commissioner speaking to the collective media. because we have so many things that are going on. Not only do we have the expansion talk, we have the NBA Europe talk,

but now what has torpedoed to the top of all conversation, NBA, you could look, if you just typed in on Google, NBA and tanking or even on your podcast search bar, NBA and tanking, you will find more content in the last five days than you could have ever imagined. And earlier this week, when we recorded a podcast, I told you that this is like,

this is going to be the turning point, right? That there's just too much. When we recorded that on Tuesday, I had woken up to articles that were about this on the USA Today, Yahoo, ESPN, everywhere else. And obviously, they are using shows to talk about this. and it's become a discussion point everywhere and then every night,

people are pointing out, look who they sat, look who they sat, look at this unbelievable tank job, look at this team that just scored 12 points in the fourth quarter, on and on and on. And Adam Silver is going to address this because he's not going to have any choice in the matter.

And I bet what you're going to find out is he's going to take this much more seriously than he ever, has before and is going to say that there will be a fix for this. And now it is, it's going to become a priority that they do not incentivize whatever it means, this is the end all be all to Kobe. They will find a system that does not incentivize losing. Imagine that.

That's, that's it. But here's what he's going to say. He's a very measured person. he's going to say, we're going to get the competition committee together, work with the players union, work with other people, we'll discuss it in the off season. He's just going to kick it down the road, which he should, which is what I would do too. But I bet he'll show a disappointment this time around that he has not in the past because it's a third of the league. Well, this is an NBA podcast, so I do have to propose my fix for tanking. I think it's part of the bylaws for having an NBA podcast.

Here's one thing that's very simple to me that I'm just going to put out there. What if the lottery was just a lottery where all 30 teams have flat odds and every year the draft was just a lottery? Well, I think it's Mike Zarin, right? He had like the wheel-eye-the-wheel thing. No, that's more structured and simple.

Mine is just like, yeah, there's 30 ping pong balls and there's a new order every year. Right. Maybe the champion gets the first pick. It's happened sometimes. Maybe you're the first pick two years in row. It happens sometimes.

But that way it just completely disassociates where you draft to what your record was. So there's no reason to lose games. It just feels like with anything in the world, there is a cause and effect. And I think the effect of this will be that this will change. This is finally the breaking point. It's finally the breaking point that this is going to get changed. Because it's a perfect storm of these teams that you had a group of teams that were going to be bad. then you have another group of teams that are worse than they thought they were going to be.

And so now they are all trying to get high picks and an unbelievable draft. Like, as you know, my attention has turned to watching a lot of college basketball and a lot of prospects. So I'm on prospect watch every night. This draft is crazy. Crazy. There's so many good players that every night I am watching somebody and I'm like, Yeah, I kind of get it. And so the incentive to lose has to be taken away.

And I think that that's what will happen this time around. I think because it's just you've got this perfect storm, you have 10 teams now that are not incentivized. Like the best thing to do for their organization going forward is not to win. Exactly. That is, that cannot be. Just like everybody else. I look at the slate of games.

Last night there was 14 games. And you look at the slate and you're like, well, six of these don't matter. Like six of these are just foregone conclusions on competitive basketball. Right. And so I... That's disgusting. Yeah. And he'll address it and I'm sure...

I actually think this is... This is the last time I think this will be a major problem. That's what I believe. I think this is the turning point. I really do. Well, the whole like, we're going to flatten the... the odds thing did not work. That did not work.

There should just, again, it should just be a lottery where maybe the champion gets the first pick. It's just a straight up lottery. Everyone has even odds. There's nothing to do with your record in the regular season. So, well, we have made it to the All-Star break. And throughout the season,

we have been doing loves and lows for the week that was. We are going to do loves and loads all the way up to the All-Star break. And so these are things that have happened within the course of this NBA season that we've loved or loat. I will start. The first love for me is this rookie class

surpassing all height. We were so excited going into this season and as we get now to the All-Star break, you know, even just this week, you have this Nolan Treore from Brooklyn who has like 21 and 7 and then he has 13 and 13. You have Neat Clifford from Sacramento

who has a 30-point. game and he joins Flag and Derek Queen who have had 30 point games and then you just go back Oh, you just breeze over Maxime Rayneau too from who and he was the 42nd pick in the draft Maxine Renaud for the Kings had a 21 and 19 rebound game so you have flag canipal edgecombe queen coward yagordemann uh dylan harper ace bailey LeBlove, who was undrafted and was on a two-way for Portland doing things. And then that's not even to mention like Trey Johnson, Carter Bryant, Yohan Beringer, Hugo Gonzalez, whose Celtics fans have already turned into like a cold hero.

Like, it's one thing for us to get excited about a rookie class. And here's the other deal is it stands in such massive contrast to last year. To the previous year, yeah. Right. Like, so one of the most fun things. about an NBA season is watching rookies do things and it's like the first time through and hope springs eternal and you think about,

oh my God, what could this guy be if he hits his ceiling? And last year was such a massive dud when it came to that. And you weren't like regularly tuning in. Like not one time did you go, you know, I want to watch Risa Shea. Never. It never happened.

Or Saar. I want to check out. Alex saw. No, you didn't. No, you did. And you were also watching Wemby and you noticed Castle. You know what I mean? You were like tuning in for Castle.

Yes. You know, pre-blade clot. But this has been just absolutely crazy. And it's about to be two years in a row because the next year's class is absolutely loaded too. There's two things about the, you know, as much as we get down about basketball topics, there's two things I'll say. Number one, these guys are so much better coming in. Oh, yeah.

They are so much better of basketball than they have been in the past, and able to immediately contribute and play on that level. And the other thing is, watch them get interviewed. And this is part of, you know, I've seen this with like even my own kids, and you'll see it with yours too. That is the effect of being raised on, like, phones and with kids. cameras and on FaceTime and recording videos and YouTube and all that. The effect of that is all these guys are comfortable talking to a camera.

Like they are so good at talking and they are so like not bashful or shy and they are so good. They've had cameras in their face. Their whole life has been spent on camera. And so it used to be when I used to, you would get. the rookie and the rookie would be like he would like start to like clam up when the cameras would come around and the lights would turn on to the locker or whatever these guys like they're ready for they are ready to talk they are so good talking they are so good in interviews and then obviously they're so outstanding on the basketball court like this younger generation is

truly impressive to me impressive the so I happen to be home during the the the vomit weekend with my family during the Kansas BYU game, the Peterson DeBanza game. And it was such a weird watch because DeBanza was not impressive at all. He just didn't get shots up, didn't do anything. And then Peterson looked great in the first half and didn't play in the second half. And there wasn't an explanation. So like I do have questions about this like next.

rookie class. I haven't been watching college basketball or studying the draft. It's where I'm just kind of like, are these really like, I was expecting a little bit more out of these two. Oh, no. You know? Look, if that's the only one you watch, because you got to go lower at this thing, because when you get to, I watch Duke

Carolina. And if you would have tuned in to see Caleb Wilson and Camboosur. And then there's a kid at Arkansas, A-Cuff. I saw a stat the other day. Think about this. This kid is having the best season of any freshman calipari guard at Arkansas. And that is like the most unbelievable thing you could be because that includes Devin Booker and Malik Monk and Darren Fox and Shea Gilders Alexander and Derek Rose and

Tyrese Maxie. And it's like, what? How are you having? And you're having the best year. So I mean, like you even get down to kids like that or I was watching earlier this week, this kid at Louisville, Mikkel Brown, he had 45.

He set the ACC freshman scoring record. Damn. It's crazy. I mean, like, I'm telling you, this thing is deep

and they are unbelievable. Well, it also, it does feel like every team in the league has a good rookie right now. Like, every single team of the league

has a good rookie. Yep. Every single one. So my first love is, I was skeptical at first about this, but now it's full blown and it's here. And my loves and lows are a little more attached to, like, the recent news than sort of, like,

the overall year is the Kauai Leonard Renaissance. Like, it's, at first I was like, all right, he'll play for a few weeks, and then he'll, you know, be out for some mysterious soft tissue strain thing. But like, it is night after night. And last night against the Rockets, game winner, another huge game. He is, he's averaging 27.9 points a game. which is more than he's ever averaged. Yes.

Think about Toronto, Kauai. Spurs, the end of the Spurs run, Kauai. Like, he's now scoring more than he's ever averaged. The fourth most assists he's ever had, more than he ever had when he was with the Spurs or the Raptors. More assists. Career year. He's having a career year.

And it's at the point now where I'm like, all right, like, this is something that we really need to consider. And the moves that the Clippers made at the deadline felt like forward-thinking moves, right? They felt like, what is the state of a Clippers going to be in 2028, 2029, and how can we prepare for that? But right now they've got one of the best performing players in the entire league right now. Well, any given night, he can get your win. I mean, we talk about obviously, there are moves from going forward, but also how do we make our locker room, not a torturous hellhole the rest of this year, which it will be if Hardin is here

post-trade deadline. Yes. You know what I mean? And we may look up in our point card is 300 pounds and he's like, you know, literally on his hands and knees on defense because he doesn't care, right? If we don't move him or give him a contract extension. They were kind of at a cross-year-old. It was telling to hear the timeline from our colleague, Rich Paul, about.

the Garland trade. Garland is a clutch athlete. And it said that they were discussing the trade like a couple months ago, which is when the clippers were at their lowest. So I can understand why those discussions were happening at that time. But right now, like you've got like a legit top what? What are we calling him now? Top.

I mean, there's no way you, there's no way you would get past 10 if we're selecting players. Oh, no. For Kauai? No way. If you take health in consideration, you're starting a franchise or whatever, expansion team draft or something, I can understand why you'd be hesitant to pick Kauai. If you're trying to win one game right now.

Going into the playoff. Oh, yeah. Well, and he hit the game winner last night in their game. Yeah, he's been unbelievable. A scale of one to 10, what amount of credit does Pablo Torre get? Zero. For the Kauai Leonard career year.

I think Kauai Leonard knows who Pablo Tori is. He 100% knows. I don't know, man. Kauai is a weird bird. I don't know. And I do want to say, as part of this, I was going to, like, group in Joel Embed, but I just can't.

He didn't play last night against the Knicks. I was just like, I can't put Embed in this. But the Kauai Asante is something that I absolutely love. I did not see this coming. And there's nothing better than pleasant surprises. And I'm pleasantly surprised by Kauai Lender. First load, I'll keep this quick. The endless channel changing.

Like, it's impossible. I mean, there's a, there's a, I just mean, I feel like I'm hooding for so much effort to find where games are being played. Like the only, the easiest thing for me, honestly, if I'm just being totally on, is when I pull up Amazon Prime and then I just scroll through games there, right?

And those are all League Pass games. So I have to get my League Pass linked by Prime to do that. I haven't done that yet. But either figuring out if the games are, like, I can't tell you how many times I've been like, what is that? Is it on Peacock?

Is it on ESPN? Is it on NBC? I look, I like the new broadcast on Amazon. I like the new NBC broadcast. I like it all. It's just, it's not easy to change. And again, this is old man at the clouds thing. Like, I just wish I could, like, I wish they were all in a group on my TV where I could just,

the same way that, like, I was like, oh, there's ESPN. there's ESPN 2, and then there's Fox Sports. And then, like, they're all kind of, like, grouped in a sports tier. Do you remember cable television when you had, like, the guide function? Yeah. And you could go to the League Pass section. That's just 12 games stacked up and down.

Because what I used to do is the last button on my remote is it's, it's going to be one of the things that hinders my life more than anything else is the last button. I used to have two games that I was watching. And if someone went to commercial, I would just click the last button. and watch the other game. Now, if I'm watching the game on, say, because my cable goes through Hulu, so let's say I have to go from a peacock game

to a game that is on the NBA app. What I have to do, if I'm watching Peacock, is exit out of peacock, change the input on my television to get the Roku going, open up Roku, and then scroll to the NBA app, and then wait for the app to load,

and then find the game I want, click that. And then it's like, do you want to watch live or do you want to recap of what happened so far? No motherfucker. I want to watch the basketball game, thank you very much. And then click on that. And by the time I've done all that, it's like 90 seconds have gone by.

So what I end up doing is just watching the stupid in-a-camera camera feed of like the old lady dancers or whatever they're showing during the commercial breaks because it's too hard to switch between games. It's too hard. The other thing, and look, I'm not, I'm not blaming you. I'm not blaming your internet provider, whatever. Oh, no, there's easier ways I can set this up, I'm sure. No, no, no, no, no.

The other thing, though, is back in those days, like with the cable days, there was never an issue with me and you texting back and forth about a game. Oh, you're always ahead of me. You're always ahead of me. Way ahead, and mine is behind. So I don't understand how we're all experiencing this, maybe a minute or two different. Like, I don't get it.

I am always way ahead of you. It's so annoying. It's gotten to the point where you have told me don't text me about the game. You texted me last night, Kauai, and I was like, motherfucker watching the game. He hadn't even done it yet. I know.

And then I know what's going to happen. I know. I'm not trying to ruin things. You are ruining things. I think that this friendship has honestly been a detriment to my life. We should probably break up. Sorry. I think we're breaking up.

Oh, great. It's the All-Star break. It's the All-Star weekend. Bro, haven't I been... Call KOC. Get KOC on. No, I already... He already left me.

Now you're going to leave me, too. God. You're ruining my basketball experience. Is it me? Is it me? So, hey, look, I... One more quick aside on this,

on the loaf. You and I are both in a stage of our life where if... And the only people that are going to relate to this are the people with kids. Because of the way everything is now and on the different channels and having to go from this, this to this to this to watch everything, what is the most essential thing for that? It is remote control.

And if you have kids, the amount of time you spend searching for, I can't tell you how many times I have threatened that I am going to super glue it to a brick so that you people cannot lose this again. But there is nothing worse than then trying to go and the remote is gone. And if you have kids, you have spent an in anordinate amount of time of your life

searching for a remote. Why is it in the bathroom? Who took it to the bathroom? Who brought it in the bathroom? And why did they leave it in the bathroom if they brought it there? Why is the remote control in the bathroom? something's playing that to me. And I go to my wife and I ask her where the remote is.

And she couldn't care less about my problems. No. And I'm just like, Joey, where's the remote? Nobody cares. And she's like, shut your mouth. Yeah. I don't care about your remote control issues. Then I got all crazy.

I'm like, this is for work. And she's like, honestly, I'm going to stab you with a kitchen knife if you bring up the remote again. I don't care about your problem. Oh, no. You got to start yelling at the kids. Like, you can't take it out of the wife. It's a mess. An absolute mess.

Oh, God. I hate it. So that makes it, that's what I'm saying. It's just not conducive to anybody with kids. Because the remote is so essential for now. It didn't used to be that way. It's easier to watch games on my phone, frankly. So sometimes I'll just be sitting there.

I'm like, you know what? I was going to watch it my phone. And you don't live in New York, but the Gotham sports app is it's just hell. It's absolute hell. Hell. All right. What's your first load? All right.

We got to speed up. I'm already, now I'm angry. Sorry. this is, I'm, listen, like, anyone who, like, is pro owner and, like, anti-player is a terrible person. And these guys are billionaires or whatever. But one thing that this always bothered me is the slander campaign after a player gets traded or right before they get traded. And my first load is this Jonathan Kaminga, someone in his life was taking too much food away from the family room with the warriors. Wherever this information came from, true or untrue.

the idea that this is what we're doing in 2026 and be like, and guess what? Someone that knows Jonathan Kaminga was taking food from the family room back to their home. Like, how dare you? Shame on you. Shame on you, the source.

Whoever at the Warriors was like, oh yeah, I know he didn't play defense and he didn't get along with the coach and everybody hated him and it didn't work out. But one more thing. He was taking food. He had a cousin that used to take turkey. sandwiches out of the family room.

What? That's terrible. Tell me you saw Buddy Heald's comment. Blaming Jimano? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He blamed Jimmy Butler. He said, that was not Jonathan. That was Jimmy.

Taking the sandwiches out of the family room. Because you know what happened. Like, this definitely did happen. But the idea that it gets printed and gets to me, and shout to Anthony Slater. No shots at him. But like, it's like, I just, I just hate that. I hate the slander smear campaign. during afterwards and after trades yeah yeah this is the old brian curtis we tell you now now we tell

you yeah yeah exactly all right my next love the pistons taking a massive leap forward their suspensions were not nearly i thought beef stew was going to get hit way harder than seven games by the way but well because of the players union they can always fight back so it's you know that's fine they've given us so much entertainment this year though but the pistons are 40 and 13 they're five and a half up on the Celtics for first in the east. Last year they were 44 and 38 and sixth in the east. Like this is exactly what you want trajectory-wise, except for the fact that, of course,

the story usually does not start with two years ago. They ended the season 14 and 68, and that was the year that the Celtics won the Eastern Conference. at 64 and 18. So, quick math, two years ago, they were 50 games out of first play. Didn't they have a 29 game losing streak or something that year? And so now they are 10th in offense. They are second in defense behind Oklahoma City.

And like, this is the dream. If you are a fan of a team or if you are running a team that it's like you won 14. games, then you take this massive leap and you turn good and you're above 500, six games above 500. And now you take it another step. Like a lot of time, progress is not linear, right? When it comes to a lot of these situations. But in their case, this is like, this is one of the craziest that you, I don't think

it's gotten enough credit that they were, they won 14 games. And now by the time this thing is all done, they're going to, they're going to have a chance at winning high 50, 60 games. Oh, they get 60. And the craziest part is like, teams have taken leaps like this. So you think about like Boston's big three, right? Right. But those are roster overhauls.

Like this is not a roster overhaul team. They've added players in the margins. They've brought some people in, you know, Tobias Harris and Duncan Robinson or whatever. But it is kind of like K, Jern, beef, stew. Like they've been there for three years. Right. You know, like, like it's not a new team from two. two years ago, it's those, it's obviously that I'm, you know, using generalizations,

but it's the development of their core players. Yeah, right. And I think all of these teams fancy that they go, one of the things you don't take you into account that we didn't make moves, because I've heard this one before, is the internal improvement that our own guys are going to make. And it's like, you look at that, and it went, Kate Cunningham has become one of the best players in the entire NBA and a superstar. and Jaylen Durn is an All-Star.

Like their internal improvement has all happened as well. And they do it in a unique way too. Right? Lunch pale. They are different. So not only are they this unbelievable story of a team that won 14 games two years ago

and now has made this progression, they are also different than their peers. In a day and age where a lot of things where we watched the NBA and it became monotonous. Oh God. Here's another pace and space. Here's another two on one where they space out to the three. Or the Celtic shot 50, 63s. You're just like, okay.

Yeah, they don't even want to take the layup. You know, they're flaring out to the three point line. Like, they are unique in the way they, the way they conduct themselves and also the way they play. And so I love the fact that they went from, that's the dream to be like a middle of the pack team, and then you actually take that big next step, and it all works out the way it did. Because there were other teams that made bigger moves than them that didn't take that step, which I'll get to in a little bit. It's so fun to watch a team truly have an identity and have that identity be woven to the city

and the history of the franchise. Like that's what is so endearing about this team is the lunch pale workman defense, rebounding, physicality, toughness, which is built into like the two previous franchise apexes from the Rodman years and the Billups years and like in the city itself, Motown and, you know, factory working on an assembly line. Yeah, it's just like, it's just to have the history of the city and the history of the franchise all in lockstep with the identity of the team is rare and special. And it's impossible not to root for them. And as someone who is a Knicks fan, a Die Easy Knicks fan, I'm fucking terrified of the Pistons.

Terrified. Because they totally terrified. Because every time they play the Knicks. Curb stomped. They also play like it's game seven. Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, it honestly, like, it feels like in the third quarter of the game, the Knicks like, can we just go home?

Like, can you guys get the win? Like, can we just not play the fourth quarter? Because this is embarrassing and I hate it. Why are you trying so hard? And anyone who's listening to the mismatch knows is like everyone forgets how close that series was last year because the Knicks just happened to win. But like that was a series and it was terrifying. And I'm terrified of the pistons.

Where are we loves? Yeah, this is easy. I'll make this quick. I mean, when we talk about the way we just discussed the way the history of the franchise and the city are all aligned with the Pistons, Jose Alvarado being a Nick is just, I mean, do you see what happened last night? Dude, Philadelphia sounded like New York. I mean, that's always Philadelphia, Miami, and Atlanta are three cities where Nick's fans. DC is like that too, yeah. It was so loud, though.

Well, it was a 30-point game at the half. It was 72 to 42 at the half. So if you're a six-ers fan, you're either going home or you're pissed off. So it's a vocal minority, but the minority isn't that minor there. But Alvarado, like, it's just everything you could possibly want out of a new acquisition like that. It's not just his performance. It's the way the team embraces him. There's pictures of him wearing Tim's and the construction hat after the game.

Eighth threes, steals, deflection, energy. It's just sort of like, it's like, let's say you have a house party and that one friend shows up at like 1130 p.m. Because they had something else to do, but they just turn the party up to another level and they become the MVP. I feel like that's Jose Alvarado. He's the super fun friend that comes late to your house party. That's what he is.

And there were moments last night where he was like chasing guys down at half court, whatever, and the announcers were like, he did it again! It's crazy. The steals were crazy. Like, he's really just like being sneaky, like the whole time. He's like, he'll like duck and act like, I mean,

it's like you're watching like other guys. Other guys that they get their steals, it's not like a performance. It's like it's like it's like it's like it's like a nerve gun around the house. You know what I mean? It's like he's in a nerve gun fight with his son around the house.

Yeah. hiding behind the counter to pop up and shoot you. He's like ducking low so they don't see him and then takes off running. He gets so much credit for like the hiding in the corner when the inbound thing after it made basket. Right. But those are just like that's literally like 4% of his steals. Like the rest of the time it's just hiding behind a big guy and popping out or like getting in a passing lane. He's hiding. He is.

They do this thing where he'll get a mismatch where some big, he'll be covering some big. and the other team's eyes get super wide. They're like, I'm going to give it to him. I'm going to give it to him mismatch. And Jose is like, I know what you're doing. I'm just going to steal the ball. It's awesome. There was one where he caught a guy at half court.

And the guy had been dribbling for like, like all the way from the free throw line, all the way to half court. And I'm like, is nobody yelling wolf at this guy? Like, I mean, you watch him like sprinting all the way down to catch him and he taps the ball away. And I'm like. Awesome. Oh.

It's all. He's perfect. One track model. Yeah. He's absolutely perfect. Yeah. He is. All right.

Next load. Okay. So I'm going to do this one because I just did Detroit. Orlando, this has been a huge disappointment to me. Oh, hell yeah. You know, they make, like I said, the Pistons didn't make some, like, big change to let them take the next step. Orlando did with the Bain trade. And the vibes have been all.

I don't know. Like, you know, it might be roster changeover with, you know, they had some, they KCP, obviously, Cole Anthony's, you know, got some juice to him on whatever. Is that what you're, I mean, no, no, no, no. I'm just saying you change the dynamics of the team. You did. And they were the team that brought, they were the honest defensive effort every 19th.

Their offense stunk last year. But they were second in the NBA in deep. defense. That's what they did. That was their mode of operation. You know what they are this year? 15th. They're 15th and defensive efficiency. And look, they're seventh. They're half a game back of Philly. But last year, they were 41 and 41. So, I mean, we viewed them kind of through the same prism that we did the Pistons. And then they went the, they did the win now move. Like, we need to improve this offense, whatever. And so we went and made. a big swing and went and got Desmond Bain. And instead, they're just still decidedly average.

And they're not good at all. They didn't become some great offense. And they're way worse defensively. Way worse defensively. And like, I'm going to say the quiet thing out loud. Palo Bencaro has been extremely disappointing this season. It's like no one's really talking about it. But just like his shots election and efficiency, offensive efficiency, it's just not there.

And he's so promising as a playmaker. The fact that everybody's looking at it already and going, man, if they're a first round bounce, they're going to make big changes this offseason. It's like, damn, that went fast. Like they were the up. They were the one that if you're doing like future rankings,

you're going, geez, they got Pollo, they got Franz, they got Sugs, they got black, they got like, it's, they were. It's like,

well, they haven't been healthy. Like Franz and Pollo and Pallow and, and Sugs. never play together. It's like, all right, fine, but when they do play together, it doesn't look good either. You know what I mean? Right. And it is, look, I've been through this with a young team that had all the promise that did not live up to the promise. And it, you, you get fearful now. Because they are the anti-pistons. They are. If you were to say to me,

that next step. And Orlando is still just like, they made the big swing. And maybe, maybe the next, maybe the last, you know, 28, 30 games will show us a different deal. That can happen, right? That can happen. We've seen it, but... But the vibes are off. The vibes are off. That was one of my most fun teams to watch last season.

It's the defense because... Yes. Your floor is so high when you have a reliable defense. Look at the pistons and look at the thunder. Like, your floor is just so high. And that's one thing about the magic that was fun. I remember they, you know, they beat the next to them. a cup game.

Like, there was like, they were tough out last year. Even when Franz was hurt and Palo was hurt. Yes. I love Suggs. I,

I love all of their pieces. I just don't love them together. It's disappointing. Well, and you also worry, is this what happens when you have a ton of made men? Everybody's got their contracts now.

I mean, everybody got their contract. They're all made men now. All of them. I don't think this, I think there'll be some very dramatic changes to the, this team if everything progresses the same way.

And if you were to tell me that I'd be more scared of the Raptors and the Sixers than the Magic in the playoffs, if you told me that in the fall, I'd be like, what are you talking about? But I would much rather play the Magic than the Raptors in a playoff series. Think about that. I know. Next one.

So, a lot of the time, common sayings are true. And they've stood the test of time because they are true. But there are two there are, in completely at odds with each other, which is distance makes the heart grow fonder and out of sight, out of mind, right? Because those are like two sayings that have been accepted as human realities,

but they're completely at odds with each other. And this is an out of sight, out of mind thing that I just want to bring back to the surface as my loathe. I absolutely hate what has happened with Chris Paul's end of his career. No one's discussing it. It's a legacy thing that's just never going to be talked about. But the idea that Chris Paul is not on a team, he's on the Clippers roster, I think. But like he's not going to be traded.

Is this going to be the end of his career where it's like he got in an argument with the coaching staff and got kicked off the team in the middle of the night? That's how Chris Paul's NBA career is going to end. Like, even Dwayne Wade, who had a pretty kind of like stuttered out of the league career, got to finish on the heat. Like, this is sad. It just, I just, I just don't like this. Well, because, because this would be the big, like, weekend where it's like,

and the greatest clipper, Chris Paul. And it's like, it's such a weird dynamic with, like, I mean, he is, like, you know, when you think of the clippers, you think of Lobsey. and you think of Chris and Blake and DeAndre for that matter, right? Like, and it's like, and those are the guys he facetined after it happened. And it's like, this is All-Star Weekend, New Arena, Center Stage, whatever. And it's just he's not going to be a part of that at all. Not at all.

And it's weird. The same way that, you know, Reggie Miller is addressing the crowd, you know, for All-Star Weekend in Indiana or the same way that they do it, no matter what city you're in. It's like, That's not going to be Chris Paul. He's not going to be involved at all. There's not a long list of Clipper legends either. You know what I mean?

No. No. Corey McGettys going to be there. I know. I saw that. He's participating in that shooting contest or whatever. What is that thing? It's not the skills competition.

It's the shooting stars. It's a thing they used to do. Oh, my God. All right. Next love. All right. I'll actually piggyback on the Clippers thing. Oh.

That Clippers pick. not being nearly as bad as we thought it was going to be. So the way this played out, look, we were having some rough conversations when they were six and 21. Oh, yeah. Because their pick goes to Oklahoma City,

and there was that real moment of panic when they're six and 21, like, oh, my God. Well, not only were they six and 21, the Thunder 12, 24 and 2. Right. And it's like, hold on here. All right, this team,

like has a chance. Yeah, right. The conversation is a draft. We're like, this is an amazing draft. The Thunder are like going to challenge the, the Warriors wins record and then get the number one pick of the draft. This is ridiculous.

The Clippers now, they're 26 and 28, half a game up on Portland for night. They're two and a half back from the Warriors. So you could see them getting that. Oh, hell yeah. And then they're five and a half back from Phoenix. I mean, there's 28 games. left. But look, they have, there's no chance of them dropping lower than Portland. Like that

would be the floor because the teams after that are Memphis, Dallas, Utah, New Orleans, and Sack. Not trying to win. So it's at 14th right now. That pick is at 14th right now. And the other thing is, if they get in that play in thing and you were talking about where we would take Kauai, if it's like a win-win-a-game deal. Oh, God. I mean, if they're playing, let's say they play Phoenix. Let's say they jump Golden State, which is totally plausible, and they're playing Phoenix in the 7-8 game.

I mean... Just for fun right now, health, taking health into account, what players would you pick over Kauai? In a one-gamer? In a one game. Yokic, I'd probably take... Janice, maybe. I'm not taking

Steph, I'm not taking LeBron, I'm not taking Luca. Yes, you would. You would take Luca. I would probably take Luca. You would take Luka. You could give you 45 in the first half. Yeah. Curry. I said, I said current health taking into account. Curry, you still have to take

into consideration. I mean, you know what I mean? Like, we're not judging with who else is on your team. We're just talking about you've got Wemby. I mean, again, it's one night. It's one game. Yeah, yeah. That I'm trying to win. But he's in the conversation.

Top five. Yeah. Jalen Brown maybe? Maybe. Put some respect on it. Yeah. Yeah. Where it loves?

Yep. Um, there was a lot of discussion about the Western Conference superiority over the Eastern Conference and the quote unquote, wide open Eastern Conference. But I find the quote unquote, quote, unquote, wide open Eastern Conference. to quote, wide open Eastern Conference, which is like a nice way of sort of disrespecting the Eastern Conference. I think Eastern Conference is a lot of intrigue. And it's a lot of fun.

The, you put, I said there are four teams sort of like in the contention to win. And you put the Sixers in there, which is totally fair. But like, it's a lot of fun to think about the Piston Celtics, Knicks, Caves, Sixers, Rafters. Oh. So, all right. So here's the deal. It's fun.

This is good because I'm a Western conference guy and you're an Eastern conference guy, right? Yeah. So, yeah, it's just a worst version of the West. It's got a lot of parity with just worse teams. That's fine, but I'm enjoying it. Yeah, I'm enjoying it. You're allowed. It's a lot of, there will be parity.

It's just not as good of teams. Yeah, that's fair. With as good of players. That's fair. But that doesn't mean they can't win the finals. Like, you know, look at the Pacers last year. Yeah, they had a chance. Yes, there are better teams in the Western Conference.

Yes. If you took the nuggets and put them in the Eastern Conference, if you took the Rockets and put them in the Eastern Conference, they're up there. The Timberwolves. The list goes on. There are worst teams, but it's a super fun watch. Yes.

It's been a really intriguing season. I think that's fair. Okay, then that'll lead to my last, my last loat. Oh, no, my third loat. You're not the last? No, no, this will be my third load. This will lead to it. How wrong I was.

And you know what? I'm not even going to name Vegas or anybody else that does predictions. So I'm just going to take it me, me personally. It's very big of you. I can't believe how wrong I was about the Boston Celtics. Everybody can take their own medicine. But for me, I, so here's the deal. Here's why, Jacoby, I look at it right.

right now, right now. And I go, it's Jalen Brown, and it's Derek White, and it's Peyton Pritchard, and it was Simons, and now it's, you know, Busevich, Namais Queda, Samhouser, Luca Garza, Jordan Walsh, Hugo Gonzalez. Like, if you gave me that roster, now I'd go that team is not going to compete. Oh, yeah. on a high level. They are second in the Eastern Conference.

They are half up on the Knicks. They're one and a half up on the calves. And I don't know where they're going to end up at the end of all of this. But just the fact that we're at the All-Star break and they're in second place, I still look at the roster and can't believe it. I can't believe it. Obviously, look, Jalen Brown having a 29, 7 and 5 season. and being all NBA, like, best player on the team by a wide margin is pretty crazy.

But, like, I still look at their roster and can't believe their record. The thing about this record and this team, which is so surprising, and I was wrong about them, too, is I wasn't just wrong about them preseason. Like, a month into the season, they still sucked. You know, like, they started out slow. It didn't look good. This was the gap year we thought they would have. Like, Tatum's out.

And now they're second in the East. It's insane. Honestly, it's insane. I still look at their roster and can't believe it. Every single player is playing better than you expect. Derek White has ups and downs and a slow start. But like, I'm looking at Jordan Walsh being like. Joe Missoula, best coach ever?

That's a good one. I was wrong about them too. I mean, you do have to give Missoula credit. I have to give the coach credit because I am of the opinion that you could give 20 guys that roster and they would, the team would stink. I still don't think that that's a good enough roster to be doing what they're doing. Shireman Walsh and Kada were just like guys that didn't play. They just didn't play. And now they're key rotation guys on the number two team in the Eastern Conference.

It's unbelievable, just unbelievable. It's wild. I was wrong about them, too. We're in Loves, right? Okay, this is big for me. Oh, wait, we're in Loaths. Yes, Loath. All right.

You do such a good job of keeping up with what we're on. Shut up. So, I'm going to be an old guy for a second. Perfect. Why, I understand that, like, social media influence is important, and it's part of our lives that we all have. have to deal with. But who is Cortus and why are they performing at halftime of the NBA celebrity game?

It is a manufactured K-pop group called Cordes. Wait. They just came out in August of 2025. And it's now February. So that was six months ago. They were formed. And now they're performing during All-Star Weekend in the NBA. And I was doing some research on them.

Hold on. Hold on. Did you say they're performing at halftime of the celebrity game? Yes. The celebrity game half time. It's a little, but like, but why are we just, it's like, oh, the Asian influence. We want to get this international market and social media influence and they're going to do a TikTok dance that your daughter is going to do in the mirror or whatever. And it's just like, I get that that stuff is important.

And maybe me and Verno should be doing fucking a big guy dance together and like put it on TikTok. but like why are they perform? Why is everybody mad at Bad Buddy, but no one even bats in the eye that Cordis is performing during NBA All-Star weekend? Because who is the Cordes? Because if it was the NBA All-Star game, maybe, but you're comparing something that 16 people are going to watch.

Like, the Celebrity Games. There was a, the All-Star game was in L.A. And anyone who knows L.A. knows this. The celebrity game one time wasn't at the Staples Center. It was like, there's a convention center like around the corner. That's what it always did. It was at a convention center.

No, it's never at the same site. No, it was in New Orleans. Jalen was the coach one year. And it was Bill against Jalen as the coach. They didn't have another arena to. But if there is another arena, it's usually where the teams like do the practices and stuff. Like two years ago in Utah,

they did it at the, it was at Utah's stadium. Yeah, it's always at like the, like a sort of, The adjacent gym, yeah. Yeah. Well, because Rising Stars is at the big gym. Yeah.

So they always do it at a different gym. So you're talking about a smaller gym, a thing that people don't watch. But I mean, I'm mad at Cordes, too. I mean, you don't know who Cortes is. You've never heard of Cortis before I brought them up. Sounds like somebody's going to be watching the turning point celebrity All-Star game. That's all that.

I wonder who's performing in that one. Shibuzi. No, he's actually performing Shibuzzi's got something to do with this All-Star. No, he doesn't. Yes, he does. I swear to God, it's like Ludacris and Shibusi are performing on Sunday. I told you. My dad, that's what he thought for the All-Star Day or for the Super Bowl.

He was like, they should have gotten Shambuzi. He calls him Shambuzi. Shambuzzi. Let me give you a 30-second personal story about the celebrity game. Bill is the coach and Jalen's the coach. And Bill picks Zach Lowe to be his assistant coach, right? And Jaylen's assistant coach is someone who, like, is a fan that, like, won a raffle or something. But Jaylin's like, F that, dude, you're my assistant coach.

I'm like, all right, Jay. He's like, meet me at the hotel lobby before the game. You're coming with me. You're going to be my assistant coach. I was like, Jalen, I don't like this idea. And Jalen is Jalen. So he's just like, you're coming with me. It's going to be fine.

So I dress up. I'm like wearing a blazer. And I'm sitting there. I'm in the huddle. And it's like, you know, it's just like some swimsuit model. and oh, what's her name, the female Larry Bird that played for the Washington team in the WMBA, Camp, L, whatever.

Elena Deladon? Yeah, Deladon. And she doesn't want to play because she doesn't want to get injured. She's like, these people don't know how to play basketball. Like, it was just wild. And then at one point, I went over to talk to Jalen, and the security guard comes over and taps me on the shoulder. And he's like, sir, you have to vacate the premises.

In the middle of the game. No. At the scorer's table. He's like, sir, you have to, you're not allowed to be here. You have to vacate the premises. And I look at Jalen and Jailen looks away. And I just had to do this walk of shame. I was like walked out of the Celebrity All-Star game by security.

No. It was so embarrassing. Who? You didn't even try to stand up for yourself? You didn't try to be like, I'm. Finish that sentence. I've worked for ESPN. I'm David Jacoby.

I work for ESP. I'm the guy that you see next to Jalen Rose from time to time. No, I did not do that. Yeah, I mean, well, you didn't try to defend. No. You were a, well, no. It's not a big deal if I'm here. I'm allowed to be here.

No, I was not allowed to be there. I had no potential. I had no authority and I was walked out. And I had to go, like, meet my friends in the stands. Who do you think ratted you? No, I know exactly. I know exactly who it. Who was it?

Say it. I can't. Was it one of your bosses? No. No. Oh. Who was the hater? There's haters out there.

If you ain't got a haters, you're any popping. So somebody was hating so bad that they make sure that you were removed. They're like, get Jacobi out of there. I can't believe Zach Loe would do that. And I had a blazer on too. I had a blazer on. A blazer for now. Zach Lowe got you kicked out of the celebrity gang.

That's crazy. I was in a blazer. Zach, I never thought you would do it. And also that night was awesome because I think Bill lost. Because he played, he played Kevin Hart. Hart in the fourth quarter. He's like, I got to give the people what they want. I got to play Kevin Hart. I was like, you cannot play Kevin Hart in French time. He's like, I had to. Hold on. Why if I blamed Zach Lowe four times and you haven't stood up and said it wasn't him?

Because everybody knows he's not Zach Lowe. Zach Lowe's never done anything nefarious in his entire life. He is the sweetest, nicest, kind of human being on the planet. Then I knew it was Kurt Gold's. Yeah, yes, yes, yes. Zach has no dark side. He has no dark side. None. All right. Last love. I'll make it quick. The Luca trade not building a monster. We're a year removed. And when it happened, we were like, are you serious?

The frigging Lakers, really? They're going to have LeBron and they're going to have Luca. And they're just like decidedly average. LeBron, like the other night's like, yeah, we have no chance at winning. Basically, we're not a title team. That's a title team that we just played. And it's like, and you watch it and you go, all right, they'll probably have after this year. have Luca and Reeves going forward,

which has got its own defensive issues, right, on the wing. And it's like, it's going to take a minute to build that out. And it's like, now you've got to build this out. But it wasn't like an instant, you just acquired one of the top five players in the league. Then we saw men's health and everything

that happened over the off season. We're like, oh, my God, it's going to be the Luca revenge tour. And like, right now, most people think they have absolutely no shot of doing serious damage. in the playoffs. And so you acquired one of the top five players in the entire league, and it certainly didn't swing the league at all.

At all. And you always say if you've got the best player in the series, you've got a chance. Yeah. And you always say something like you've got a puncher's chance. If you've got LeBron and Luca, this team doesn't feel like they have a puncher's chance. No, no.

This team doesn't, I wouldn't pick them to win a series against any potential first round matchup, because they're going to be between four and eight. I mean, it's just kind of crazy the way we viewed it a year ago versus the way we view it after it's played out. Yes, it seemed unfair. It seemed like the commissioner should have stepped in or something. And now you're like, yeah, I can't guard anybody. Right.

And you'll never believe this, but D'Andre Aiton isn't the center that put it all together. Crazy, right? Last love. Do you know who is performing? Shibuzi? Ludicrous. Cortus John Tesh

will be performing round ball rock on Sunday live at the All-Star game No John fucking Tess is that real? On the ones and twos

performing live round ball rock in Los Angeles at the All-Star game if that doesn't give you a boner then you need to to look at my Instagram ads because, man,

John Tesh, and then I started doing some research on John Tesh. You started doing research on John Tesh? Do you know that John Tesh was doing local Nashville news head to head? Because, you know, like, you know, anyone who lives in a small city or a city knows there's like the NBC and like the ABC,

like news stations are always going head to head. And it was John. Tesh and Oprah Wimpy were like competing on the beat in the street news reporters in Nashville. So it was like Oprah and Tesh head to head in the 70s. Unbelievable. Imagine just sitting down with a TV dinner in like 1979 wearing bell bottoms with like lamb chop sideburns and just clicking on the television and adjusting the antennas and watching. and John Tesh and Oprah Winfey both report on like a parking lot fire or something.

Like, oh my God. And Tesh, he went on tour with Yanni. Did you know that? You didn't. Do you know that he played a Klingon Warrior in a Star Trek episode? You didn't know that either. John Tesh is the most interesting man. And he's performing live round ball rock this Sunday at the All-Star game.

So guess what? The players aren't going to play hard. The production's going to be overdone. The format's going to be confusing, but you're going to get John Tesh live doing round ball rock. Sorry for being awesome. That's the thing I look forward to the most. I mean, it's a slam dunk.

They should put John Tesh in the dunk contest. I would rather see John Tesh than Jackson Hayes in the dunk contest. And he's like mega tall too. Give him a trampoline. No, he is. I bet he can't dunk. he's probably 6-6. I think he's like 78, 79.

So he might not be dunking right now. Yeah. Give him a trampoline. Wait, John Tash is 78? I think so. Oh, wow. I mean, when I said I did research, like I just went to his Wikipedia page, dude.

But come on. Don't start asking fall of questions. I didn't know there's going to be a... He's 73. John Tash is 73 years old, according to the internet. He can still dunk. Oh, yeah. Oh, windmill dunk.

God, he's awesome. Yeah. All right. Last load. I mean, the entire Janus saga that we went through. Like, I mean, you know what? It was a reminder this morning because I saw him. There's all kinds of highlights.

The Cam Thomas thing was hilarious last night. Like, this last 30 games of Cam Thomas of him trying to get his new contract is going to be awesome. Because, I mean, because he's on that crap deal, then got waived. And so he's like, he's got. He took the qualifying offer. Right. So he's got to make his money and he's got 30 games to go do it. Because the Nets were not motivated to feature Cam Thomas to allow him.

Right. And the Bucan Thomas were just like, go for it. And this dude was getting buckets. Buckets. But anyway, it was reminded because Janus is like, high five at him. He's the cheerleader. He's going crazy on the sidelines. And I'm like, damn, bro, we spent all.

the way, like as we're doing these love and lows at the All Star break, like, we just went through the trade deadline a week ago, or two weeks ago. And like, we spent, like, this started in July, like, Janus to the Knicks. And then we got all the way. And it's February of 2026 now. And like, I know that people are saying, like, he's going to, you know, okay, well, they'll just take it into the off season. It's like, I watch him last night. He's high-five with Camp Thomas, whatever, and I'm sitting there going, like, what if Cam Thomas turns out awesome? No, but he does that.

Legends don't leave. Legends attract. And it's like, is this really going to all have been for nothing? No. Is that real? Is it really going to be all for nothing? Are we going to look up a year from right now and Janus is still a buck? And it's like, what did we just do for a year?

I don't think it's the thing is so goofy. I'm not, I really don't know. I'm trying to think of another player his caliber that has been involved in this. I'm trying to think of like Cream. Remember Kobe was going to be traded to the Bulls?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like a done deal. But this is just weird. And it's, it's oddly made one of the most likable stars in the league kind of unlikable. It's so bizarre. Because it feels disingenuous.

Everything he says. I just feel like, you know, the same way we bitched about the comminga thing. And finally we got a resolution to that. And it's because he, I guess the, you know, final straw was his family stealing sandwiches. But allegedly, allegedly. Allegedly stealing sandwiches. We don't know what's his family. Someone close to him.

I just, I just had this moment last night where I'm watching him celebrating on the sidelines. And I'm like, what if he's like just stays at the fucks? Like, the amount of conversations that we have had about Yonis for a year. And then he's still on the box and cheering, whatever. It's like every day there's a new like, Janus News, he's ready for a new home. Or he is now his representation is doing this or he's saying this or he doesn't remember talking to the owners. But I've always said, I want to stay in Milwaukee. And then you have the legends attract.

And it's like, I need to have a chance to win for a championship. It's all I care about. What's all this? But I'm here. He did the Wolf of Wall Street, like, I'm not leaving thing. Like, that's not, you do the Wolf of Wall Street thing when you're committed to staying somewhere, not when you didn't leave.

But that's what, I don't know. It's weird. I know, it's weird, and that's what struck me last night. I'm like, what if it was all, all that time? And we're going to have to talk about it all summer, dude. All that, what if all that conversation was for nothing? And we're going to talk about it all summer. Oh, yeah.

I'm just going to go out in a limb and say the Knicks aren't going to win the championship. But the second, the buzzer sounds on their final game of the season, it's going to be, who do we send for Janus? It's, it is, you know what? It's annoying. All right. Last one. I was walking down 7th Avenue yesterday. And unlike Zach Lowe, like I do have a dark side.

And sometimes I get jealous and petty and competitive. competitive is a term that I've coined. And I was listening. Do you trademark it? No, I don't have lawyers. I was walking down 7th Avenue and I heard something into my AirPods that was so brilliant and controversial and perfect. It's going to make you uncomfortable because I enjoy talking about race.

I think it's like a, it's just part of our lives that everyone, like no one really tackles heads on. But when Nick Wright pitched Bill, the black versus white all-star game, I was just so mad at him because it's such a perfect idea. And then when he followed up by saying,

trust me, guys would fucking play hard. I was just like, oh my God. I know. If the white team got up by 15 and the black team called timeout, I would give anything to be in the huddle to be like, we can't lose to the white guys.

Oh, we would have to... Like Anthony Edwards addressing the team, I would just... I would pay $10,000 cash just to get a live feed of that huddle. Yes, everybody might have. It would be awesome. That game,

it's... I loat this because it's such a perfect idea. It would never happen. Never. If people are getting their panties in a bunch over, like, bad bunny, like, oh, just imagine what would happen to every side of the aisle, every gender.

A meltdown. There would be people in Australia being like, do you hear what they're doing in America this weekend? Like, it would be, like, they would be in, like, Mongolia on a yurt in the mountains being like, do you know what's going on in the NBA All-Star game across the world? I was jealous of it, too. I mean, just the idea of, like, again, it's pushing the line.

Oh, it's over the line. Who wouldn't watch it? It's crazy. But it's also like from like a basketball perspective, it would be kind of fun too. And if everyone just like did it in good spirits and treated like a goof, it would be so awesome.

It will never happen. Never. Never. Never. But the idea in a million years. The concept, just the thought experiment. Because I like talking about race.

I enjoy just the diversity of our species and just discussing it. Like I don't shy away from these conversations. it's just hilarious to me because it would be competitive. If you got Luca, Yokic, flag, Cnipple, I think Hero would be on the black team.

I think we would just make a concession. Well, no, he made it fair because he said we get the Eastern Europeans. Yes. So you get, you know, I mean, you get Dodgich and you get Yokic, that's a big deal. Yeah, that's huge.

It's a big deal. Huge. It's just, It's funny. I got mad at it. I've never thought of it, and I got mad at it. And everyone's trying to construct new All-Star formats. It's around Robin tournament, and we're going to take one team from the rising stars,

and one team is the world. And now Brandon Ingram is replacing Steph Curry. Like, what are we doing? Just making a race war. That's where Adam Silver's head just goes, it's explode. They're probably not even going to put this. in the show. It's just so

spicy. I like it. It's a great. You were jealous. You were jealous. It's just a great take. It's a great take because it makes you think it makes you uncomfortable. Like it makes me uncomfortable discussing it into a microphone which means it's a great idea. It's a great idea.

Just the uniforms alone. Come on. It's a coach. I mean, I just want everyone. Jay J.J. Reddick is the white. Abby. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Come on. I just want everyone to know that Chris Vernon took his spiral notebook. If you're listening to this, you're not watching on Netflix, and just closed it. And it was just like,

this show is over. Well, we're done. I know. That was our last thing. Spiral notebook is closed on the All-Star break. That means it's over. Jonathan Nick Wright. Yeah, everybody enjoy the All-Star break.

We will be back next week. Thank you to Jeff Jesse. as always. And Jacoby. I'll talk to you next week.