The Mismatch - An NBA Offseason Game of "Do You Believe…?"

Episode Date: August 31, 2021

It’s a tradition like no other. Verno and KOC play an NBA offseason edition of "Do You Believe…?" They definitely believe in life after love, but do they believe that there is a trade out there for Kevin Love (0:30)? They hit on that and the likelihood of Ben Simmons wearing a 76ers uniform on opening night (15:30), whether ‘Donda’ is any good (21:00), and whether the Heat are a top-four team in the East now (29:05). Then they talk about whether the Clippers are going to be good without Kawhi Leonard (31:35), Kevin’s level of excitement about Patriots rookie Mac Jones (41:00), Luka’s chances at winning MVP this season (51:00), and more. Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chef David Chang and the members of the recipe club sift through millions of search results to find the very best way to make the food you want to eat. Each week, they cook three recipes for the same dish, debate them, and ultimately declare the winning recipe. Check out Recipe Club on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to The Misfatch. I'm Chris Vernon. Join him as he does every Tuesday from the rinker.com is Kevin O'Connor, A.K.K. Kevin O'Connor, A.K.K.K.O.K.O.K.K. Kevin O. O. Kavana. What's going on? Another off-season edition of the mismatch. And today, Kevin, on this very show, we are going to tackle a lot of burning topics.

And with that, we are going to play your favorite game. Do you believe? Do you want to sing it? I'm not singing it. Sing it. Come on. Sing it like share. I'm not singing like share.

Sing it. I mean, people can't see the full video, but he doesn't. In life after love, yes, I do, Chris. I do. He does have on fish nets. He has on fishnets and a thong like share in that video. So it is appropriate that we were playing this game today. That is not a mental image that people will probably be happy to have.

Oh, I want to thank you for dressing up like share for this episode. Really gets me in the mood to play. Do you believe? All right. We've got a lot of questions. You're the singer. I'm the guitarist. You're the singer.

We've got a lot of questions to get to. Let's begin. Do you believe, Kevin, that there is a trade out there for Kevin Love? Kevin Love says he does not want a buyout. He said he ain't taking a buyout, Kevin. There's no trade out there for Kevin Love. No.

Really? No. No. No. What about if they pack its first rounders with it? No. I mean, maybe we're talking now. That's what I'm saying.

Then the trade is for the first rounders. Is it? So, so Kevin Love is playing this like, look, if you guys are going to want to buy me out, you're not going to want to buy me out at the full price. I am getting this entire contract. That's, that's what he's playing right now, right? Yeah. It's a public negotiation because he doesn't want to take the buyout as Woj had in the report.

He will take a trade. Yeah. Maybe at some point they, you know, they find a middle ground. Because look, Chris, he's making $31.3 million this coming season and then $28.9 million the year after that. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody is trading for Kevin Love based on those numbers after what we've seen from him the last handful of years. And that's a shame. That's a real shame because just a handful, you know, four years ago was last time he made an all-star team. He's a good player for many years. And maybe if he's able to become a, you know, a 20 point per game guy again with Cleveland and prove that he can stay healthy. These are some big ifs, Chris. These are some big ifs. That's not going to happen.

He's not going to happen because the playing time isn't even there for him anymore for that matter either. They got Jared Allen. They get Evan Mobley. They just invested in Lowry marketing. For Kevin Love, the opportunity is not going to be there, nor should it be because he's not as good as those guys. Not as good as Alan, not as good as Mobley. Holy molly. I am glad that on our Friday episode. We talked about the marketing and trade, but we didn't have the detail. If we had had the details of the contract, I wouldn't have been able to finish the episode. I couldn't. I couldn't fathom. I thought it was a joke when I saw it. I thought it was a prank when it started getting reported what Cleveland gave him in a contract extension. I'm like,

this is not real life. Anyways, you know, maybe out there. Well, let's give the contract details, Chris. It's four years, $67.4 million. And so annually making 15.7, 16.5, 17.3. And then the last year is $18 million, partially guaranteed for $6 million. So, I mean, that's a heck of a lot of money for. We said it on the pod that the idea of Lari Marketing makes sense for Cleveland. idea of Lari-Marquin, a versatile seven-footer who can shoot on the perimeter, do a little bit off the

dribble for you. But the reality of Lari-Marcon and throughout his career has not been that. He's been a guy that can't stay healthy and has been a guy that's been highly inconsistent on offense and on defense has just not been a factor. You just drafted a power forward and extended your center. Like I said, the idea of Laueri-Marcom as a guy you can plug with either of them, you know, Allen plus marketing or Mobley plus Marketing. The idea of him, I get it. Or, you know, Cleveland, maybe they'll even throw out some jumbo-sized lineups with

marketing at the three. He plays like a, he rebounds like a two. What? You know, Mobley can defend some perimeter guys. So maybe you go with a jumbo lineup. But, but we're talking about theoreticals here. We're talking about big ifs. And for Laurie Marketing, he hasn't been that guy.

Maybe in Cleveland, he'll turn into it. and that contract won't look so bad. But right now today, boy, oh boy, what a massive risk, huh? He rebounds like a two and he defends like a traffic cone. Dan Gilbert should have just taken that money, walked over to the river and thrown it in there. That is ridiculous. It's a ridiculous contract. Seriously, this is like last year's Bertan's contract.

I mean, there's just no way that you're not going to regret that contract. There's no way. I refuse to believe it. Unless he stays healthy, which is a big if. And unless he becomes, you know, some more consistent player,

which hasn't happened yet either. Like big ifs, dude, it's, it's for Cleveland fans, I feel bad because Larry Nance Jr. was just such a good player for them for so long. It's just he's a little bit older.

Larry is only 24 years old. Larry Nance is, I think right now 28. He'll turn 29 during the season. So he's just, Larry Nance is too. old and too good for who they are today. Marking in, you know, it's a risk.

It's a major risk. And it very well in a year or two or three, we'll be talking about this is like what a dumb decision that was. But I do think like just playing devil's advocate here, Chris, for Cleveland, a team like them, they are not a playoff team right now. Maybe it is worth a little bit of a risk here that if he stays healthy, if he becomes more consistent at 24 years old,

can turn into something. Maybe it's worth it. I'm just, I'm playing devil's advocate here. I've never been a Lari-Markin and fan. Even before the draft, I wasn't a big fan. Bulls fans ripped me when I gave the picket F-plus. But we should have stuck to our guns on him. From Cleveland's perspective, I understand the risk, but like it might turn out to be very dumb.

All right. Let me, uh, and regarding the Kevin Love thing, I think what's going to happen is eventually you will see somebody be willing to sacrifice, a pick, probably not a good one, but maybe a late, you know, later first round, or one of these good teams that thinks, hey, you know what, if we can, we're willing to take on that extra salary. We're going to give up one or a bunch of, because obviously you're going to have to add them up. We're going to get expirings and picks, and that's what we're going to do.

We're going to give up expirings and picks, and Cleveland's going to say that gets us off of this deal this year. It gets us off of the deal next year. We'll take the expirings on. and then we'll be able to get draft asset in addition to. And that's the way we're going to get off it. Like, you're not going to get anything of value outside of whatever picks you could get in return. And they're probably holding on to hope that they don't have to package a first round er with them, which much like, you know, Detroit did a couple of years ago with Drummond, right? Got a little bit later in the year.

They finally moved him. And they were just trying to not have to. package a first rounder with him in order to move him and interestingly enough moved him to cleveland the one thing i'll say is the so let's think about some of these older guys that have fallen off carmello dwight howard you know drummond isn't old he's you know he's 27 28 years old yeah um with with kevin love one of the reasons why i'm less optimistic about him moving forward is a the health he is just all he's had durability issues for many years now he hasn't proven he can stay healthy.

There's clearly affected his abilities on the floor. But B, I think with Carmelo Anthony, at least he has like, he can be a great spot up shooter at the wing position, at the forward position. With Dwight Howard, at least he can be a,

you know, a guy who runs up the floor, plays hard, you know, limiting minutes as a rebounder. With Kevin Love, I'm not sure what that skill is in a diminished state. What?

I mean, I don't think it's diminished. I think he's, I think he's punted. I think this is Blake Griffin all over again. You think that's what it is? It is Blake Griffin all over again. So if you're right, then yes, he can become a guy who's shooting some threes for you,

who's still rebounding at a high level. And, you know, he can pass a little bit. So he can really shoot threes. Your belief is that like he just hasn't tried at all on defense that he's not just completely done on that end. So that's your belief. Okay. And I also think he's probably not as injured as the amount of games that he's missed.

If you're right, then, then I'm with you. This is Blake. It is. We just saw Blake was the best defender on Janus, probably the entire playoff. Isn't that amazing? It's amazing. And so. Isn't that crazy?

So this is, to me, Kevin Love's going to end up on an awesome team and he's going to be really good again. I guarantee you. Let's say he gets bought out. Let's just say he gets bought out. on that. Let's just say it happens. Oh, well, I mean, maybe for the hell of the conversation. Let's say eventually it can reach to the point where he's like, you know what, screw it. I'll swallow the 30 million. I want to get bought out. Let's say we get to that point because nobody wants to trade for him and he's

sick and tired. I'm riding in the bench, but behind Larry Marketing, he's tired of it. And he asked for a buyout. Where does he go? What's, what's top of his list? Is it reuniting with LeBron in L.A.? Well, do you talk to you remember that entire article that came out where he was like, I had my first kiss in the Rose Garden. Is it Portland? Do you remember all that? Don't you remember all that? Yeah, I do.

It could be Portland. It was like my first kiss was in the Rose Garden and I love Portland and, you know, it'd be a dream. I was like, I can't believe this is like on the internet. People could go find it. Who wrote it? Was it Haynes? Was it Chris Haynes? It was a Yahoo article.

And it was like this whole like love letter to Portland. And I'd be like, man, if I was a Cleveland fan, I'd be like, this is ridiculous. ridiculous. What? I had my first kiss in Cleveland. That was the podcast posted up with Chris Haynes. Yeah. Crazy.

While on the cavaliers, he says, who wouldn't want to play with Damil, Damien, first of all. Dam is he special? Crazy. His Rip City has always been special. Used to go to the Memorial Coliseum growing up. The whole Rose Quarter, my first concerts there. Kissed my first girlfriend there.

Yeah, I told you. Portland is a special place for me. Whether I play there or not ever, I'm always going to go back, and that's going to be a place I represent. Yeah. He loves Portland. He gave props to CJ McCollum

and Carmelo, who was there at the time, Terry Stotz. I mean, he was all over the organization at the time. Some of those guys are gone. How about this one? How about this one? How about? Well, it'd be kind of tough.

You could probably pull it off. What if? Again, I'm just throwing this out there. What if Clay comes back, Clay's healthy. It's not all a perfect fit. Oh, yeah, yeah. Golden State's interesting. And we get Love for Wiggins part two.

Oh, 10 years later. No way. 10 years later. No. Wiggins goes back. Gold State's not doing that. To the original place that drafted him. Wiggins is too good for a trade for Kevin Love.

Too good. All right. Okay. I mean, look, if you're, uh, And then if that did happen, then you would be, you would come out with a void episode saying that Kevin Love just took the warriors over the hump and now they're going to be the champions. They got rid of Andrew Wiggins and blah, blah, blah. If you're right about let's say it's an effort thing with Kevin Love, then yeah, he can still offer a team something. But I'm not convinced you're right in this case.

I think with some of these other guys, they had like specific skills that could allow them to go into a role play. player position. And I think with Blake Griffin, even with him, I think with him, the effort was more of apparent. With Kevin Love, I really think injuries have derailed him on the defensive end of the floor. Like, he is just not the same guy. He doesn't move the same. And maybe that's effort.

Maybe I'm wrong. But I watch Kevin Love and I don't at all see anything resembling the Kevin Love of old. All right. We didn't see the old Blake Griffin either. We buried him. Yeah, the one difference. The difference there, though. we did. We can't do revisits history now.

The difference there is Blake Griffin still can't be a guy who carries your team. Blake Griffin, that's what he had to do for Detroit. They relied on him to bring the ball up the floor. They relied on him to shoot a bunch. They relied on him to initiate that offense. They relied on him to do everything. Blake Griffin can't do that anymore. No.

But Blake Griffin in a specific role like he has for Brooklyn around superstars who do all that and do all the heavy lifting. Yeah, I was excited about what Blake Griffin could offer that team. With Kevin Love, like I said, it's very specific fits where I would feel like he could offer much of anything at this point. And I worry about what he's become on defense. He didn't look at the same. He didn't look at the same. He had dunked like one time in the last two years.

He went to Brooklyn and he starts tomahawking on people. Like, I don't want to hear it. I don't care what he had on his plate. You can't tell me that he was trying. The guy like immediately. No, I'm not saying. He was trying to say. I'm like, what I'm saying is like he had a major load.

Like he had to play 30 to 35 minutes per game carrying a heavy workload for that Pistons team. With Detroit, with Brooklyn, he doesn't need to play as often so he can play harder. Gave him the ability to dunk. Unbelievable. His legs got infused. All right. Do you believe that Ben Simmons will be in a 76 or starting lineup on opening night? Yeah, I do. I do believe it because I think Daryl Morey is a high roller and he's going to wait for Damien Lillard. And if that opportunity doesn't come, then he'll take the next best deal. That would be my prediction for what approach Daryl Morey is going to take. Maybe things, you know, come to a head. Maybe there's a lot of friction during training camp. He's going to like, oh, geez, I can't wait. That's possible. But I'd bet on these guys being professional and dealing with it.

and then letting things work and sell out, work itself out at least until like December, January. And then maybe we're talking about now and move needs to be made. What's interesting is, does that get really bad? Number one. And number two, it's not out of the realm of possibility. Portland's really good. Yeah, it could be.

They really could be. I mean, if they're all healthy, and they've got Nercich, and they've got McCollum, and they've got Nance, and they've got, you know, Norm Powell, and they've got Coventon. I mean, they could be a really good team this year. I mean, the problem with Portland has never been the regular season. It's the playoffs.

They've never had issues with the regular season. No, but I'm saying then he's happy. Yeah, exactly. Then Damian Lillard's like, all right, we're winning 50-something games again. We got a chance at the top four seed. Let's rock. Like, I don't need to be anywhere else. Andy gets along with Chaunty Billups and whatever, right?

Like, the longer you let that play out, you may look up. And it's like, okay, that Damien, and Lillard thing ain't there anymore. And am I getting, you know, as the season goes on and people see, man, I need to, I need to move Simmons, right? Totally. And that's what, you know. Now does that, all right, are you waiting on something that's a long shot and therefore?

Is it a long shot, though? I mean, is it like Damian Lillard's on Instagram live last week and, and he's asked, are you staying in Portland, PDX? and he says, I'm not leaving PDX, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, like a long pause, not right now at least. So I'm not leaving PDX, not right now at least. He's saying that on Instagram live with thousands of people watching. Right.

What's he saying like when the cameras are off and he's talking with his people in his circle about what needs to change with Portland? I'm sure a lot more serious stuff than what we're hearing publicly and we're hearing a lot publicly with him on Instagram stuff reported, you know, through Chris Haynes or Shams or whoever it might be. With Dame and Portland, there's no guarantee this lasts through the trade deadline. Even if Portland is good,

he might look at the situation and say, oh, I have an opportunity to go play with Joella Bede or I have an opportunity to go play with whoever it might be on a team where you plug him in, they become a championship favorite in their conference. Yeah, like there's no guarantees here. There's no guarantees.

And I would also flip at the other side. If you're Neil L. and you're the Blazers, what happens if these offers turn into like seven first-round draft picks and a bunch of young players and you look at your own team and you're like, geez, we're not reaching the expectations we had hoped for. We're good, but we're not great. Maybe in that situation, both parties are looking at it like, oh, maybe a move is for the best. So, you know, with Damien Lillard, I think it's worth waiting for if you're Darrell

Mori and the Philadelphia 76ers. but I just wonder if they can wait long enough before things get so ugly in Philadelphia that a move needs to be made and that's what's going to be happening with these other teams that want Ben Simmons like Minnesota. Those offers will they increase to a point that Darrell Mori says, yeah, it's not worth waiting.

We just don't know how this is going to play out. We don't know, but what we do know is that the Sixers want Damien Lillard. And because, is it fair to say, because of Portland, obviously trying to build around them, that's what makes it to you more likely that Ben Simmons is in that starting lineup

on opening night for the Sixers. Yeah, because they... Exactly, because they're waiting. But the other thing I'd add here, though, Chris, is let's say Philadelphia waits for Dame, and let's say it reaches a point where Dame is like, yeah, I want out. Who's to say Philadelphia would even have the best offer on the table?

I know. You know? I mean, like, even if, even if he were to theoretically force this way to Philadelphia, which we also don't know. That's right. He might want to go somewhere else. But let's say, or let's say he has four or five teams on his list he'd be open to going to. It doesn't matter.

Any team could trade for him because he has four years left on his deal. Any team could do it. You know, like Boston could say Jalen Brown if they want to. Like any team. You remember a couple weeks ago, there was one of those where I was like, you know, usually I look at this stuff and I'm like, this is, this is bonkers, but it was like, you know, quickly and barred and topping. Totally.

You know what I mean? It was like this huge. No, it's like this collection of it's a lot like the old garnet deal, right? Remember when they moved out. They moved like all their young talent. That's a good comparison. That's a really good comparison. Here's all our good young talent.

You get it. We get the star. Right. I mean, it's not. Philadelphia could wait for Dame and then get out bid. That's always a path here that could unfold. All right. Next, do you believe?

Do you believe that Donda is good? I like Donda. I believe it's good. I think it's his best album at least since Life of Boblo. I would argue since our beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. I like Kitsy Ghost. I like the one with Kit Cuddy. Yeah, it's pretty good.

It's not, you know, on the same level of prime Kanye. But you like it, Chris. Oh, I do like. You tweeted about it and say like all these Kanye haters are, you know, they're wrong here. Well, because. Coming up with excuses, you said, I think. He's a polarizing guy. There's no way around that, right?

But I, I mean, and there was always going to be some that had complete inability to be objective about it in my estimation. And so when I wake up and then as the day goes on and I start seeing people say, oh, you know, this Kanye is terrible, blah, blah, blah. You know, like the people that are inevitably going to, they were going to say it no matter. Because there's just no way you listen to that and thought, this is terrible. There's just no way. It's impossible to listen to that.

I mean, there's at least, now look, if you want to say it's too long, too long. If you say you don't like some of the content or you really miss, I don't know, maybe you love cursing. And so you miss the cursing, whatever. But it's censored. I'm not listening to this. There's two things, which, well, I'll tell you this. As a parent, I value that greatly. Yeah.

I love that because I can listen to it in the car. You know what I mean? I would say that there are, and so there are certainly criticisms. It's not all hits or whatever, but there's 12 or. 13 songs at least on there that are outstanding. And the two things that I valued about him so much is what he brought to the table, which is, you know, you follow an artist, they go through their life, they talk about, he talks about his life, right? Like, I mean, if you pay attention to him, he takes you through. And no matter what it is, he's honest. He leaves it out there. This authentic

guy. And the other thing is, he always sounds different than everybody else. Like, There's no mistaking it, whether it's the production of it, whether sometimes it's the way songs are set up, whether it's the features that he's got on there. Like it's authentic to the bone and I value that greatly. And the other thing is, you know, I think now he's older and I'm older too. And so I kind of grew up, you know, I'm not far off from his age and a lot of the same life experiences that he's had are those that I've had. And, you know, except he's like way more rich and been married to Kim Kardashian,

that whole thing. But, but a lot of the, you know, that whole like, you know, you get to a point where you're every guy goes through this where it's like, okay, what now? They call, that's why people call it a midlife crisis. And there's some of that. But, but most of the time people do that. stuff in private. He puts it on a damn record. You know? And I appreciate that.

And there are some songs on there that are just legitimately beautiful. I think also like the song New Again, like about two minutes, two minutes into the song when the beat like drops out entirely and you just hear, you know, make me new again. I'd love to be in a full packed crowd singing that with everybody. You know, like there's some moments like that throw over you. like, oh, this could be translatable live. But I think when it comes to the length of the elm, yeah, there are some duds on Donda that I will never listen to again, that I have interest in never listening to again.

However, like there are some of those tracks, like you said, that are really good, some really good songs. Heaven and Hell are really liked. Jail is a very fun song. Come to Life. That might be the prettiest song that he's ever done. Which one? Come to Life.

Oh, Come to Life is terrific. Oh, when the piano hits in the middle of that thing, it's awesome. And he does that whole bit. There's a line in there that I was listening when I was listened to it the first time. And I was like, oh, boy. He says something like, bought a gift for Northie. All she wants is Nike's. This is not about me.

I was like, oh, boy. Oh, boy. You know what I mean? Because that's real. You know what I mean? All his daughter wants is of Nike's. And it's the moment where it's like, all right, I have to set my ear. ego aside here. Because typically

Kanye West would be like, you are not wearing Nike. You out of your mind? I'm easy for goodness sake. Like we got unlimited amounts of shoes, kid. When it comes to the length of the album, I think the complaints are fine. I understand. Fine, I understand.

But also, we live in an era here where you can create a playlist of the songs that you like. Right. You can make Donda the album that you enjoy. Like, I made a playlist with 16 songs. Perfect. At an hour and three minutes that trims it to a level where it cuts out the songs that I don't care for. If you like, you know, part two of jail more than the jail on the elm, you could put jail part two on your playlist instead of the one with Jay-Z if you prefer the one with the baby. So like you could do that if you want to. And there you go. Now you have a 50 minute or one hour Kanye album, a acceptable length with all the songs that you're, you you like. Maybe those are the, those must be the, uh, the vinyl listeners. Yeah.

Yeah. They got to move the needle for it. For the vinyl listeners, that's what I can do for you. But if you're using CD. The vinyl listeners are big, man. Cassette, you might have some issues too. I can't imagine there's many people listening on cassette. But if you're listening on Spotify or Apple or anywhere you get your music,

yep, make a playlist. Pretty easy. It's pretty simple. Do you think a lot of people criticize his rapping on the album? I mean, like, he's very clearly, like, still an elite producer. Maybe he's not an elite rapper anymore. Maybe he's past his prime there. I think that's okay.

Still very good. Still had some great lines in there, like you said. I thought after some iffy albums, he really has figured out the gospel rap fusion thing. He's figured that out. I thought there was a nice balance within this album. It's like, you know, you mentioned come to life. That song's. Beautiful. New again is about, you know, finding God again, right? I'm not a religious person at all. But like, I think it's, I think he found a nice balance with the sounds. Keep my spirit alive is very good too.

It's split into two. It's like the whole, the center part on the first whatever 13 and then the last 13, they're like the, I'm, I'm a new person. I'm saved. I've found a different, you know, I found a different way to live, different way to live. Different way to. to think, blah, blah, blah. But it's a, look, man, I value the fact, I value that authenticity. And the truth is, like, even as bad stuff's better than most of the stuff that's out, just is, just is. You know what I mean? I'm glad you liked it. I was worried.

I was worried when you responded. We got to talk about this. I was like, oh, no. Oh, no. I didn't even hint anything in any text or anything like that to you. All right. Didn't hint a thing, but I did like it, Chris. I'm happy that I liked it because I've been disappointed for, for years with him.

But it's good to have an enjoyable Kanye L. Then if it's too long, make a playlist with your favorites. There you go. Simple solution. It's wonderful. Kevin, do you believe that the Miami Heat are now a solidified top four team in the East with the Bucks, Philly, and Brooklyn? And then there's the rest of the East. I thought you were going to follow up.

With another album there, Chris, like the new Casey Musgrave single or something like that. No, Kendrick is the one to talk about. Holy mackerel. He showed back up. When's the new Drake album coming out? September 3rd. Okay. Whatever that is.

See the album cover with all the pregnant emojis? What was your heat question? I saw the shirt too. Lame. The heat are now. top four east with the Bucks, Philly, and Brooklyn, and then there's the rest of the east. Bucks, Philly, Brooklyn. Yep.

And then the heat with their offseason, put themselves in the top four, and then there is everything down from that. I'd say like Miami, Atlanta, Boston, kind of in their own group for now with maybe Miami at the top of that. So you don't think they're in the four. I don't, I mean, I'd put the three, I think I have it as a three, Brooklyn, Miami, Brooklyn, Milwaukee, Philadelphia. Philadelphia, like, who knows, we'll see. You know, maybe you could argue it's just two, Brooklyn and Milwaukee, and then another two, Philadelphia, Miami. And then you got the Boston Atlanta group. Maybe that's actually the groupings that I've had that I'd have them in. But I'd have, I think, I don't, I wouldn't put Miami in the top clump on the same level as the other. no. Wow. Even with that and Kyle Lowry.

No, not yet. Not yet. Maybe I just need to see them. But I wouldn't put them on the same level as those other teams. Not yet. All right. Kevin? I think, I think, look, with Atlanta, Atlanta, they need to prove themselves again.

With Boston, they need to reprove themselves all over again. But on paper, those teams can be really, really, really good, like Miami can. I think Miami is in that four. They had a Kyle Lowry, PJ Tucker, too. I mean, they're better. They're better than they were. A lot better. 100%.

And I also think when you get to the playoffs, it's the last team you're going to want to see across from you. Kevin, do you believe that the clippers will still be good without Kauai Leonard? I mean, you can be good in the West and still miss the playoffs. they'll be competitive. Okay, so let's think of a team. Let's just think of a random team. Will they be better than the Pelicans?

Pelicans didn't make the playoffs. They should be. I don't know if they will be. I mean, I guess maybe I should flip that around the other way. I'm not sure they should be. I'm going to flip that around. I think the Pelicans should be better than the Clippers. But I'm not sure that they will be.

All right. Let me flip it around that way. because with New Orleans, there's so many questions about how good is this team going to be defensively, how will this team evolve, will the young guys get better? It's really hard to say with them. But with the Clippers, though, do you agree that they should at least continue to be a competitive team night in, night out? I think that, look, Paul George, if he's going to have to be like an MVP, like one of those guys that we're talking about legitimately, like in the MVP conversation. for them to be good. Other than that,

I think it's going to be very difficult without Kauai lettered on the team. I do. What do we make of their performance without Kauai during the postseason? I think they were very good. There's no question about that, except I think over the course,

over the, again, the regular season, they might be one of those teams that is better equipped to play in the playoffs. right, where you've got days in between and when you've got a bunch of veterans on your team, a lot of them don't necessarily get up for every regular season game. It's like, come on, let's fast forward to the playoffs.

And they don't care as much about what seed they get. They're like, we'll play whoever. Whatever we end up, we end up, right? Younger teams are typically a lot more concerned about the seed and the matchup. Older teams are usually, all right, we've got to win. enough games to get into these playoffs. And then whoever we play, we play. And then we'll jockey for position the last couple weeks of the season, whatever.

I just don't know that in the absence of Kauai, you're putting a tremendous load on Paul George for 82 games. And maybe he can be amazing throughout the 82 games. But you're putting a lot on him for the 82 games. And obviously you've changed some stuff around there where you are not going to have all of the same guys. And I don't think that losing Pat Beverly is going to be the end of the world or anything. But I mean, you know, Reggie Jackson was amazing in the playoffs. Reggie Jackson going to be amazing for 82 games.

And Paul George. That's one of the big questions there, Chris. How much of their success will have to do with Reggie Jackson maintaining what he did in the postseason? which was averaging 18 points per game on really good efficiency. And I will say this, though, in favor of Reggie Jackson. He's also been pretty efficient the last two years. Yeah. He just got way more opportunity in the postseason, especially after Kauai Leonard went down.

So if he maintains that, let's say he does. I mean, let's say Reggie Jackson keeps it up and he's an 18 point per game guy during the regular season. Does that change what Paul George needs to be? Does that change what we think about what the clippers are? Even without Kauai Lenter that if Reggie Jackson's averaging 18 points per game still on pretty good efficiency, that this could be a good team that can maintain a spot like in the playoffs or playing, that maybe next April if Kauai is like, you know what, I'm ready. I'm physically ready.

I think that I think you would need, and I don't think this is out of the wrong possibility, Terrance Man to like, like have a big leap. And I do think that could happen, actually. I'm a huge fan of his. But I mean, you got to remember, Reggie Jackson, as you said, who was official last year, he was 45%, I think, from the field. He's 43% from 3. But, I mean, he's playing 23 minutes a game.

Yeah, not much. Last year, right? We have a pretty long track record of Reggie Jackson. And I suppose that he could be much better than he's been in his career, you know, this upcoming year. but I would have to see it first. It was a great playoffs. There's no way around that.

It was a great playoffs. But, I mean, I'm going to have to see it over the course of an entire year with playing big minutes. And I do think, you know, if Terrence man takes like this big leap and he's like one of the, like a very formidable two-way wing,

which could happen, then, yeah. I mean, I just think, I think they're more, they're fighting for, they're fighting to, get into the playoffs. They're down in that six to ten more than that one to six. Oh, I'm with you. Right. I'm totally. I'm totally with you there. Yeah. So, I mean,

if they make the playoffs, it's going to be a fight to get it to the playoffs. And, you know, those teams at the bottom, I mean, I guess you can argue, are they good? I mean, most of them, I mean, they're all pretty good. They're pretty good. Sure. And I think with the clippers, we know what you're going to get from most of their guys, including some of their role players, Zubots, Morris, you know, Bledso. You don't, you know, you know, Paul, George is going to give you star level production. It's just a matter of if it's like MVP candidate, like OKC, or it's like very good level, you know, great level, Indiana.

The X factors are going to be Reggie Jackson. It's a guy like Terrence Mann, some of their younger players. It's somebody like Luke Kennard can Tylo get even more out of him with more opportunity. Yeah, will he play him? Because there's two of those guys they added, Kemp, that make it. Bledsoe makes you worse and Justice Winslow makes you worse. That's two players that make them worse. Yeah, if you get the version of them that we saw last season

and the year before. And the year before with Bletso is different, though. If you get last year's Bletso, he makes you worse. If you get the year before Bletso, he makes you better, at least during the regular season. Right. With Winslow, I mean, you would have to go back to what, year three, year four in Miami to see a productive player.

It's been on quite some time with Justice Winslow, which is a shame. And that's part of it. You know, does Ty Lou, because Eric Buzzo's been around for a long time, is Eric Butzo getting a lot of minutes, and therefore you're not getting. Like, they played Reggie Jackson big minutes,

and a lot of it was out of necessity, because he just bailed on playing Rondo. And he bailed, you know, he still played Beverly some, but I mean, he played Reggie Jackson big minute. And now we got Rondo back with the Lakers. Yes. Yeah.

It's the island of Misfit Toys they get. I saw this blog. Did you see that Laker blog? And it was like, oh, the Grizzlies are now the Lakers feeder team. I mean, I threw up all over my phone. I didn't see that. Oh, my God.

It was like the Grizzlies had paid out. Was that passed around like in Grizzly Slack or something? Your group texts with a Zach climbing or something? No, no, no, no. I get, when something like that comes out, people on Twitter tag me. Oh, yeah, yeah. Relentlessly. Oh, yeah.

They're like, oh, look. Lakers fans, right? And it's like the Grizzlies are the Lakers feeder team. And I'm like, this is literally. The nicest way to frame the Lakers are signing guys that even the Grizzlies will pay not to play for them. Like, what are we talking about? Like the Grizzlies developed. It was so sad, Kev, for me to watch the Grizzlies develop the talents of Dion Waiters,

only to see him leave for the big market. Like, what are we talking about feeder team? All you sign is bums that the Grizzlies pay to get away because they don't want them in the locker room. It's different. It was like good players. Like, what are we talking? Signing buyout guys is not something worth braggadocio in my estimation. But hey, good luck with it.

Rondo looked awesome last year. I saw somebody on Twitter shared a NBA Reddit stat found by Walk With Elias. and he said with Rajan Rondo going to the Lakers, they now have seven career All-Stars, which is the most in the NBA history since 1987. The Boston Celtics had Aangebird, Gilmore, Dennis Johnson, Mikhail Parrish, Paxson. So since 1987.

I didn't know Danny Age Raid an All-Stars, he? Yeah, he did. Huh? Danny Ames was like a six-sport athlete in high school. Well, he got George. drafted by the Blue Jays. Yeah, he was drafted by the Blue Jays. He did like track and field.

He did a whole bunch of sports in high school. It's kind of crazy. I think he was, I think he was wide receiver in football, if I remember correctly too. Hey, but he played a bunch of different sports. Kind of wild. Kevin.

Mack Jones, who was named the starter in New England this morning. And I had this written down even before that news. Mac Jones is the most excited you have ever been. for a Patriots rookie. Do you believe that? I'd say so because of the context, because of the

circumstances here, the fact that we've been seeking a replacement for Tom Brady. One year of Cam Newton, ups and downs there. And then draft night, I wanted Mac Jones. I was rooting for a trade-up for Mac Jones. And I was watching it with my friend

from high school, Bill, and we wanted the trade-out badly. It didn't happen. Mac's slide. the Patriots for so many years disappointed us drafting offensive guards, you know. Receivers. Receiverer, corner, you know, and a guy that we never wanted. And the Patriots were usually right, though. But they got Mac Jones.

He had his funny little walk to the podium with Roger Goodell. Everybody's making fun of him. But all he's done ever since then, Chris, is impressed. Every step of the way, Mac Jones has looked great. And I've been a little surprised. I understand people can't watch preseason games for all 32 NFL teams, but I was a little bit surprised to see the reaction on Twitter,

like the amount of shock. Mack Jones has thoroughly outplayed Cam Newton every step of the way. And the way the Patriots execute their offense, it looks more like the Brady offenses when Mac Jones is in there versus when Cam Newton was. And Mac Jones, like,

I never expected him to be looked this good as a rookie in preseason. I thought Cam would start the year and that eventually Mac Jones might take over, maybe midway through the year, maybe in year two. But for him to get the gig this soon, it's a little bit surprising, but it's not the level of like Richard Seymour getting traded to the Raiders or lawyer more like getting cut and they go into the bills. This is nowhere close because Mac Jones has impressed every step of the way and I'm fired up.

I'm pumped and jacked. Yeah, did anybody? I can't wait for week one versus Tua in the Dolphins for Mac Jones. I don't know if anybody watched. I guess there's a lot of people that just didn't watch or see watch Cam Newton play last year, man. It's sad to watch. I used to love watching Cam. Cam was unbelievable.

Yeah. I mean, he can't start the ball with any accuracy, man. And he can't run the same anymore. It's it's like it's it's just sad to watch because Cam Newton at his peak powers. What an unbelievable player he was. He was unstoppable. He couldn't tackle him.

That's right. You throw on the run. And he never like was like, the most accurate guy, but he could always at least throw the deep ball at a high level. He's just not the same player anymore. And Mack Jones, the offense just looks more like a Josh McDaniels Patriots offense with him in there. And not to mention that, but he can throw the deep ball. He can run a little bit when he needs to.

You can run a versatile offense with Mac. I think Warren Sharp posted, I think it was like, whatever, 10 of 13 of the drives he's had in the preseason have ended in points. and I mean, again, this is all I would say about Mac Jones, who I obviously paid a tremendous amount of attention to in college being in the South. Look, there was about a year, maybe two years ago. There was a show on HBO. I don't know how many people watched it, but it was Belichick and Sabin.

It was those two guys. I believe it was HBO. Oh, that internet conversation between those two. Yeah, it was a conversation that you could watch. And they have been friends going all the way back. to when Saban worked for him in Cleveland. So, I mean, this is a 20-plus year friendship. Okay.

And these very well might be the greatest NFL coach and the greatest college coach ever, both of them. And all I needed to know that draft night, all I needed to know was that Bill Belichick took Mac Jones to know this is. not like every other college coach who wants to look good and wants their players drafted as highly as they could possibly get drafted and is going to say the right things about this guy, whatever.

There is a different level to this when it comes to that particular kid. There is absolutely no way that Nick Sabin did not confide in Bill and tell him, I promise you. You know what I mean? I'm not steering you wrong. Like, get this kid. Right. I just had him for a year.

This guy is, this is our kind of guy. Like, they're family. Like, that's, I mean, you know what I mean? Like, they're not just like friendly guys with each other. They have been as close as close can be. Spend off seasons together and crap.

There's just no way Sabin would have recommended Mac Jones and said, take this quarterback. There are other Alabama players that they have taken before, and some have worked out and some have it. But it's just too important of a position. And to me,

when they took him, that means Sabin stumped for him and told his buddy, this is the dude. Take him. You know? Totally. He did take him.

And he did. And every step of the way since then, he's gotten better. And I think usually Bill Belichick with some of his press conferences, he can be muted. He can give you the simple answer. He can give you nothing at times.

But, you know, Belichick nationally gets ripped a lot for sometimes the way he acts of the media. But Bill Belichick can be incredibly insightful, too. I mean, Belichick gives some of the best answers that I've ever seen from any coach in any sport about like left-footed punters, you know, like the long snap and, like some real detailed answers. Like, sometimes he'll write the article for a report. You've got to talk football, though.

Yeah, 800 word responses. I've read those for 20 years from Bill Belichick. And with Mack Jones, he hasn't necessarily written the articles for people with 800 word answers. But every step Belichick has been very impressed by his work ethic and his ability to get better from mistakes. And I think we've seen that throughout training camp, throughout preseason. And I can't wait to see how it develops during the regular season because he's going to take his lumps going against starting units. Week 1 versus the Dolphins defense, that's going to be really difficult for him. It's going to be the toughest defense he's ever gone against.

Yep. I can't wait to see Mack Jones learn. And I think the Patriots have the real deal on him. And this is a team. I know Bill and House talked about it. The Patriots defense could be unbelievable, especially once they get Stefan Gilmore back. They have good running backs, good tight ends.

Their receivers are okay. Offensive line is good. If Mack Jones can be good, like many rookie quarterbacks have been in recent years. they get a shot. To make another playoff, Ron, Chris, they get a shot. You always hear people say, ah, it's just the preseason. As someone who got my heart broken

in the first preseason game as a cowboy fan and watched Tony Romo go out for the entire year and watched a kid in Prescott get thrown in there and be absolutely awesome and me watching it going, wait, hold on now, is he awesome? And he ended up having an unbelievable. rookie season and now makes a hundred billion dollars. And, you know, they desperately need

him back. Like it's sometimes it does, you know, foretell what is to come. And it did with him. You know, that was not just the preseason. That was a sign that he is ready to be good immediately. I think, I think it does matter. And true in all sports. Bro, let me tell you, I, on Sunday, as a cowboy event, I flipped on the game at noon against a And I'm watching Trevor Lawrence and I'm like, Jesus, he was unbelievable. Like, freaky. I think he had one incompletion. Now, I know they were playing against backups.

I don't give a crap. He, like, the throws that kid was making, I was like, this is outrageous. How is he this good? How does he look this good? Right now, they throw it like to Leviscus, Shagdal, and Philip Dorset. And I'm like, you got to be kidding me. throwing it between safeties and corners,

throwing it on pump fakes. I was like, golly. Some of these rookies just look unbelievable. It's pretty cool. I mean, you know,

right now, like kind of in the NBA and the NFL, we're in a place right now in the NBA where there's so many old stars. Yeah, like a past generation of stars

who are still producing in a really high level. Similar in the NFL right now with quarterbacks. Yes. You get this new wave of excellent young quarterback you still have the old guard.

You still have Tom Brady. You still have Aaron Rogers and you get the slightly younger guys. You still got Russell Wilson. You still get guys like that. You got Mahomes getting better all the time possibly. You get Dak Prescott still hopefully getting better. You've got these older guys who are even, you know, not stars, Matt Ryan, Matthew Stafford, for that matter, still in the league.

But then you get all these young kids. That's right. Who could have a long, long careers. We're about to see what to do it. Obviously, Burrow looked awesome before he got injured. Justin Herbert last year. Herbert was. Yeah.

Unbelievable. Yeah. Kyleor Murray, super, super exciting to watch. Yeah, we got a lot of good players. Yeah, a lot of good players. All right, Kev. Let's burn through a couple of these real quick. Oh, by the way, James Winston post-eye surgery.

Oh, we'll see. No, thanks. I look forward to seeing James. No, I don't. Next, do you believe, so the MVP on. posted on some different sports books. Luca was installed as the favorite

for MVP next year. Do you believe Luca should be the favorite for MVP? Give me the others on like a Fandul sports book. Give me some of the others. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to know the odds.

Okay, all right. So he was... Don't tell me the odds, Harrison Ford. No, his odds were horrendous. It was plus 400. I mean, that's ridiculous. You would never bet somebody 4 to 1 to win MVP.

Kevin Durant 2nd, 7 to 1, Janice 8 to 1, Curry 8 to 1, Embed and LeBron 10 to 1. And then you have Yokeach 14 to 1, Lillard, 16 to 1. Yeah, I think just hearing the names

and the odds out loud, Luca is the favorite makes sense. Really? You know, when it comes to MVP, you've got to think about multiple things, production, obviously. And there are voters who care about, you know, narrative and story and all that. So I think Luke as the favorite makes some sense.

Would he be my prediction? I'm not so sure about that. I think there will be arguments made for Kevin Durant. If Brooklyn shreds through this entire regular season and Katie stays healthy and plays a lot of games, I think you'll see a lot more Janus hype this year after one year of him not winning it to Yokic. after winning the NBA finals, after winning finals MVP. If Yonis comes back and dominates again, you'll hear more of that. How good will the Warriors be?

If the Warriors are like top four seed, Steph is going to be right there in the conversation, just like he was this year with them as a playing team. People were talking about Steph as top five. Yonkich wouldn't have won it last year if Embed would have stayed healthy. He didn't have enough games. It's usually best player, best team. I think health is one of the reasons why I wouldn't put

and beat as the favorite. It's always going to be a thing with him. LeBron had a chance too. Before a chance. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like he was on those straw poles and stuff. Should he be the favorite?

The Lakers could be the best team in the West. We're talking about story and production and all that, all those variables. Yeah, how many numbers are there to go around? Because it is a numbers game. And Westbrook now is, I mean, that's part of it. It's going to be hard to average near a triple double. And the other guy averaged zero double. I suppose it's possible.

Ross could cut into them. Yeah, that's true. Some of the numbers. It's usually, the only thing is, to me, Luca, who I love being up there, that's a little goofy, because I think you've got to let it play out and see what we got with Jason Kidd

and how good that team is. I would certainly put Durant and Janus and Embed and LeBron. Wow. It's five guys who just listed, right? Well, because look, the history of the MVP is usually best player, best team, or best player on one of the best teams, and unless there is some kind of

massive statistical outlier, which occurred with the triple double year with Westbrook. But again, a lot of people argued that one and said he shouldn't have won that for his individually great statistical year. So that being said, I think Donchich, he's going to, and trust me, there's a lot of these media members that I'm going to remind that when Luca Donchich's team is in six or seventh place and everybody's blaming Jason Kidd, but he's averaging a triple double. I'm going to remind them that triple doubles don't matter and statistical great seasons aren't that relevant and that in fact it should go to somebody that's on a better team.

I have a question for you, Chris. Do you believe Rudy Gobert should be in the MVP discussion? What? The what? The what? The what? Was he like minus 36 in the second half of an elimination game on his home floor? In the half?

You ever seen somebody be minus 36 and a half? I mean, damn, I never even really seen it in a game, much less a half. I mean, I think Bill Russell turns to a pumpkin that night. If anytime you want to talk about that game, we can. Boy, I just, I just threw you the L.A.U. That's like,

that's like, that's like you get to talk about, it's like you getting to talk about Patriot Super Bowls. That was one of my favorite games ever. I just threw you the alley you, Chris. There you go. You slammed it in.

MVP. MVP. M. B. Wood. There you go. All right. All right.

Before we get out of here, let me get one more in here because we are going to do a mail bag on Friday. I'll do a non-basketball one for our last one. Okay, cool. All right, Kevin. Do you believe that you would choose the same career path if you were in college now? I mean, I didn't know what I wanted to do in college.

I sort of just fell into it. I was a psychology major, and then I decided to a communications minor, and then I did a communications major because it was like three more classes, like another half semester. Why not make it a major? And I did an internship at Comcast Sports, New England, now in BC Sports, Boston, and kind of just, you know, it removed all the haze in front of me. And I saw the path to working in sports media and I don't know what I'd be doing. But I wouldn't say that I chose this career path.

I just sort of fell into it. So I would hope that I would fall into it again today. Would I choose it? Yes, 100%. Because I love doing it. I love working in sports. Even if I didn't do this, if I worked like on TV, production or, you know, whatever it might be, I would enjoy that.

I don't think it's for everybody. You work weird hours, you know, whether you're behind the scenes or like on mic or on video, whatever. But I think I would 100% choose it again. Would you turn it around to do that internship again? Totally, yeah. You would. No doubt about it.

Yeah, I worked Thursdays and Fridays. Didn't make a buck. Loved every minute of it. It was super valuable for me. I think, you know, we cut video. We were like transcribe, like practice audio. When video would come in from games, we would like cut the highlights to help ease the process for them cutting together the video for, you know, the highlight, you know, sports tonight is what it was called then. I loved it.

And I, you know, went in a field a couple times. I always remember my first time at a Celtics game. Abby Chin and who's awesome. So did some NBA TV side-on stuff during Summer League. She's terrific. Brian Scalabrini were there. And I remember helping mic up Brian Scalabrini. as just little things like that

I was like back out super super enjoyable just seeing how things happen behind the scenes and everything that goes into a TV production give them that mailbag so that we can we can do this on Friday would you would you

well I did radio so no you know what I mean you wouldn't choose radio I got you would have you went the podcasting route today then I think I'd be doing video content if I were in college right now Interesting. Like TikToks.

No, yeah, just any, all of that video content. I would have done stuff like that. Interesting. So than I would have done, well, I certainly wouldn't be doing radio. I mean, hell, I got out of radio five years ago because I thought I'm not going to be able to be a radio star in 10 years, which is true. You know what I mean? Like the numbers, the sales numbers are never going back up. I mean, people spend money now.

That's where they're spending money now. They're spending money so that you can tell a story about a company. They're spending money so that you can get eyeballs. And the video thing has taken off in such a way that I would have tried to. I think there's a lot of, sometimes I do think about it. Like, geez, man, if that would have been around when I was first coming up, there's so many, you know, when I was young and just getting going, and I just had a million ideas.

And I just wanted to, I mean, I experimented with all of them just on the radio. But if I could have done that, you know, on video and then gotten a crowd and I probably would have had a YouTube channel. I would have done all that stuff now. It's just so much easier. If you've, I was thinking about this yesterday. I don't know if you saw on Twitter. I posted this, uh, this TikTok. And it was this guy singing in a barbershop.

And it made me think I really had this. Oh, yeah, I did see that. Yeah. I had this thought. He's singing Sam Cook. He sounds exactly like Sam Cook, and I'm thinking to myself, there's been millions of these people, and you'd have never known that talent. Never. You'd have never seen it.

You know, maybe he just doesn't get a break. Maybe he doesn't know anybody. Maybe he lives in a small town, whatever, right? But there's guys like that. And now if you've got talent and if you can make people laugh or you can, whatever the case may be. Make people think. Yeah, you can now have an audience. and back when I was coming up,

I needed the outlet to have an audience. Well, now everybody has access to an outlet. You just got to be good enough to command an audience. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's on you. You know what I mean? Why do people want to watch this for whatever reason? So I think that would be the route I would go.

I would do all that internet stuff. I really would. I would make videos. I see these guys. I see these guys now. They're like, they're like, you know, they're not like associated with anybody. They don't have a job with anybody.

And I see them and they're doing like, I mean, it's like well produced like. And they get me watching it because they'll just start out of the video and it'll be like the fantasy running back that everyone is sleeping on. And then they'll like go through and they'll say, this player, you know, average 6.6 yards per carry. The next thing you know, I'm watching the video for two and a half minutes. You know what I mean? It's like now they can make money off of getting, you know, ads, views, sponsorships, whatever else. That's a tough part is now holding people's attention because there's so much good content. That's right.

From so many different resources from so many different mediums, podcasts, TikTok, YouTube, whatever it might be, websites. Now, I say that. I say that. I still would have gone the media route because one of the things that I do think is a mistake with people, not to get too involved at this. But, like, for me, I had a guy, you know, we talked about advice on Friday spot. I had a guy who was an older guy here in town. I don't know who would be that way where you were from. Maybe like a Bob Ryan character, you know, somebody like that, right?

An elder statesman in the town who everybody kind of looked up to and had been around forever. His name was George Lapidus. He's passed away now. He took me to decide when I was very young. And he said, I'm going to give you the advice my first newspaper editor gave me. And he said, it's the most valuable advice I've gotten in my career. And he said, be there. And I looked at him.

I was probably 21 years old. And I was like, huh? And he was like, be there. He's like, everywhere. He's like, you need to be there. If there's a practice, be there. If there's a press conference, be there. If there's a game, be there.

Be there. Because then your opinion is going to carry weight. because you are doing what others are not and you have a different insight than others have. And that served me so intensely well. And so I would say there's a lot of people that want to be listened to, but they, you know, the level of credibility, if you're not involved in it, if you're not talking to people, if you don't have sources, if you're not going to games, if you're not, why should I listen to you? And so for me, somebody creating me a template is to say, if you're there, you're going to be able to bring something to the table that other people cannot. Therefore, people are going to want to hear what you have to say because you have a different insight because you saw this practice or you went to this press conference or you listened to the coach talk about this or whatever else. And you can't just fire up a microphone or fire up a, you know,

a video and then expect people to give a crap what you're going to say. So I do think on that level, I still would be a media member. I just probably would channel it maybe in a different way now than I would have whatever. That's good advice. That's good advice because a lot of times when I get messages from young people like, you know, how can I get into sports media? I'm going to be a freshman in college. I'm going to be a senior in college, wherever it might be, whatever the stage of their life. It's fine.

Sometimes it's finding an outlet so you can get the credential. That's right. Because if you can get the credential and you can be there, That's right. As you said, and be there and be focused and paying attention to the practice. You know, if it's NFL training camp or if it's like NBA preseason and like being in the hallway, like it's a little different now with all the COVID protocols and all that. But just being there allows you to see things in a different way. And also being there allows you to sometimes make new authentic connections with people,

whether it's someone from a team or another media member, whoever it might be is just making new connections with people. and having new relationships, making new friends essentially. Like that, just being there just opens so many different doors that aren't there for people who can't be there, which is, you know, it's tough, but it's true. Like, that's the job. For young people, like, finding a place, whether it's your school newspaper, whether it's like an SB Nation site, or whatever it might be, or a website that you make, for that matter.

Like, the first concert that I ever photographed, my friend and I made a website, a music website and we emailed like Mac Miller PR. It was a show with Mac Miller, Earl Sweatshirt, Vince Staples, the internet, Chance the Rapper. This was in 2013 Mac Miller's tour. And we just emailed a bunch of different, you know, shows coming up and Mac Miller's PR responded. They gave us a credential to photograph the show from some like website we made two weeks prior to that. That's awesome. And we photographed the show. It was an amazing time. It's an experience. I'll never forget. And we did a bunch of other shows later that with a website that we made like on like,

I don't know, some web hosting site. It was like so crappy. But like we put a lot into it, you know? Yep. And we got our credential. So like whether it's your site or someone else's site, be there. That's good advice. It's really good advice, Chris.

All right. Last thing, give out that mailbag address. NBA mailbag at gmail.com. Email us there with your questions. Me and Sasha will go through that throughout the week. Also, I'm sure I'll tweet it out at some point. You can also send some questions through Twitter as well. So that'll be at Kevin O'Connor, NBA, or at Chris Vernon Show.

We'll put it out there at some point on Twitter. But best place is NBA mailbag at gmail.com. Thank you to our executive producer, Sasha Eschelle, as always, and we will talk to you on Friday.