The Mismatch - Cooper Flagg’s Shoe Deal, Mailbag Questions, and Musical Memories

Episode Date: August 27, 2024

Verno and KOC debate whether Luka Doncic really is out of shape and discuss New Balance’s new shoe endorsement deal with top prospect Cooper Flagg (01:44). Also, the guys open up the summer mailbag to answer more of your questions (11:06). Got a question for Verno and KOC? Send them an email at [e-mail]! Or you can send the guys a tweet @ChrisVernonShow and @KevinOConnorNBA! The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the fall of 2014, a group of hackers pulled off the biggest Hollywood heist of all time. They broke into computer servers belonging to Sony Pictures and released hundreds of thousands of top secret documents. The attack would cause an international incident, upend thousands of lives, and change the movie industry forever. From Spotify and the Ringer podcast network, I'm Brian Raftery, and this is the Hollywood Hack. Listen on the big picture feed. Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon. he does every Monday night from the ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, a.k.a. Kevin O. Bomber. Kevin O. Conflict. Kevin O.C. Kevin O. Cranor.

Kevin O. Spierre. Kevin O. Verno. Got throwing in a Kevin O. Mount Joy in there because I saw Mount Joy at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Sunday night. It's a beautiful night in L.A. So that's why I'm rocking the shirt today. Mount Joy. How about that? Did they play with anybody else or were they along? Local natives open for them, but local natives pretty good. Caught the end of their set, didn't see the whole thing. But Mount Joy's was excellent. Mount George was great.

You know, good crowd in the back. You know, up front, you get a lot of like Hollywood Bowl season ticket holders, a little bit of an older crowd in the front. That seems typical for a lot of Hollywood Bowl shows, but it was rocking, you know, behind there. Great. Well, we have a music question coming up here in a little bit. Let me start first with,

We always try to hit any kind of newsy things. There's not been many newsy things that have taken place. The only ones that we can react to that matter greatly are... Matt Ryan, re-signing with the Pelicans? No. The video of Luca at the Draggich thing. Well, first, you had the self-aliute by Nicola Yokic, which is pretty awesome. Yeah, that's cool.

Yeah, wow. But the reaction of people to seeing Luca Donchitz did not look. to be in the best shape of his life. I had recently seen one of these polls that were done, I guess one of these GM polls where Luca Donchich was the favorite to win MVP next year, according to talent evaluators around the league. And I think the expectation was, hey, got a little taste of it, but came up short by going to the NBA finals.

Maybe this will be the turning point. Luca comes back. You know, he's going to go run the mountain. of Europe and then he's going to come back and then he's going to be in the best shape of his life and watch out because the league's going to get set on fire. We saw him last year come to the cusp of winning an MVP possibly and that this could be the year. This could be in the prime. He was right there at the precipice of being able to win a championship, though falling short. And so the best of Luke Adanjic is not only yet to come, but it's,

is about to come very quickly. And then people saw the video of him over the weekend like, maybe not the year that he comes back in the best shape of his life. He looked big, Kev. Yeah, he looked big in the videos of him on the court. But there was a video of him posted from a restaurant and he looked like his typical self. So it's very possible. Camera trick.

Yeah, I mean, it's very possible the puffy jerseys made him look bigger on the court than he actually is. But, you know, nonetheless, it would have been nice to see him look. even leaner in the video of him in the restaurant, more chiseled. We just keep waiting for this will happen at one point. There is going to come a point where Luca Donchitz comes back in the best shape of his career. That is going to happen. And it typically happens. Or maybe not.

It might not, but you hope it does. It will. He's 20 to 25 years old now. You hope it happens in the next two or three years. I don't think we're going to look up in a month at training camp and we're going, wow, this guy is noticeably different than he has looked in the past. So that's one thing. The other thing is we have talked a lot.

I think more about high school athletes and prospective prospects on this show over the course of the last year that we have in the first seven, eight years of doing this podcast combined. Because we know what's on the horizon. And these guys have got a lot of juice. They've got, you know, they've got the ability. to be franchise-changing players in many people's estimations, and we've seen them since the time. They were 15 and 16. Just recently on a podcast, you mentioned AJ DeBansta. We're still a little ways away from him, but Cooper Flagg is the next one on the horizon,

and we are going to get to see him playing at Duke next year. Most people have him as the number one player in the mock draft. I saw him in person at 16 and talked to you on this show after I saw him in an EYBL event, and I said, that is the best 16-year-old basketball player I've ever. seen in person in my life. This guy is everything I could have imagined more. So I've been all in on Cooper Flag for a long time now. I saw him play with his main team in an event.

I guess what would have been his, between his sophomore junior years of high school, we're going to see him on a big stage at Duke next year. And then the story came out this morning that New Balance assigned him to a big shoe deal. and man, how times have changed and how rapidly they are changing. Cooper flags already got a shoe deal, and we're about to see him in his freshman year at Duke. But what's even crazier is I saw the first story, and I was like, wow, great investment. It really is. I mean, what white guy shoe brand?

I know. First Jack Harlow and now they've actually done really good. You know, New Balance has done really well. They've gotten, obviously they got Otani. They got Marvin Harrison Jr., I believe. Yeah, that's on the horizon. Who's a super, that's a cool one to have. Was Kauai their first big one?

Was Kauai kind of the gateway to all these great athletes? I think so. Cocoa Golf, the tennis player, phenom. She's New Balance. They released her shoes. So New Balance has really been on the come up. New Balance is good. I like New Balance.

I don't currently have a pair, but I've had a pair in the past, and they're comfortable. They're good. They work for me. So maybe I'll check out the Cooper Flagg ones when those come out. Maybe I will. Who knows? I will say that getting these guys, you know, locking him in, this is a real bet. You know, a bet my buddy Sonny Vicaro made over and over again, obviously going all the way back to Jordan.

But whether it was Kobe Bryant or it was Trayette. Casey McGrady, or we know with LeBron James and the big battle that was had with Adidas and Nike over him, that like, if you can lock these guys in, if, first of all, and what I really think is, it's the awareness of what flag is going to be. What, what people that have to go into, there's somebody that is going to have to get on a call with stockholders and explain why they are doing this. Yeah. And they will feel fine about it, right?

I mean, because... And by the way, I mean, they're doing a good job already promoting them. Like, the video that they released was just really well done. Just him in a driveway, taking shots. I thought it was really cool. He's got a chance to be, you know, obviously he's got to deliver at Duke, but I think you and I are on the same page. There ain't no way he's not going to deliver.

I mean, he's going to be. a really good player. Sure thing. He really is. As sure as you can get in this. He's as sure as you can get. Good player. At a minimum.

Good player. At a minimum. Like, he'll be a good player. I think at a minimum, great player. I really view him in the... When I say good player, I mean, at a minimum, he'll be like top 30 or 40 in the league. But at peak, he could be one of the top two or three players in the league pretty safely.

Okay. I mean, defensively, I mean, defensively, I mean, he's... I mean, also at a minimum, I think at a minimum, all defensive player. It's just really a matter of what level does he reach offensively. And the trajectory that he's on suggests that he could be a megastar in the league, a two-way, versatile guy that can do absolutely everything on the floor. So I'm stoked to watch him at Duke, man. This next year with college basketball, it's going to be a hell of a lot better than this past year.

It's going to feel more like the wendy year in terms of, I think, hype and excitement in terms of the potential number one prospect. This is by far the best college basketball year in, I mean, I guess the Zion year, because Zion had, it was him and RJ both at the same place. John Morant was at Marie State. And I mean, that was a great, great year. But really, we got to go back to that. And because we had after that, we had that swoon of guys that just were not playing American

college basketball. They were either going overseas or they were playing in the G-League Ignite or they were going to overtime elite. You know, you, and this even, you know, goes up to two years ago where you had Scoot Henderson, who we hadn't seen. You had the Thompson twins who we hadn't seen playing college basketball. Before that, we had Lamello. I mean, there was just a, there was a assembly line of great prospects that weren't playing

American College basketball, but you look up and down mock drafts now. They're all, they're all playing American College basketball outside of, kids that might be coming from overseas because the Ignite folded and now you can make more money playing American college basketball in many cases than you can

playing elsewhere and that was always the trick. You know, you could make money if you played in the Ignite. You could play money if you played overseas. You could play money if you played for overtime elite. Well, now, I mean, there's no numbers on it, but I mean, Cooper Flagg is going to make an absolute

fortune playing it to next year. I promise you that. I mean, there's guys already making money playing high school basketball. Times have changed. Yeah, but it's great for a college basketball fan. It's great because we're going to get at least see a lot of these great, great talents at least one year. All right. Speaking of great talents, well, it might not be great talents, but we're going to start

with our mailbag questions. And I'm going to give you a couple. This one came to me on Instagram, actually, from a. card collector. So this would be good for you, Kevin. I know you're not a card collector, but the question remains the same. I've some that I've taken big losses on.

All right. Because the market went down a lot, but hopefully it goes back up. I told you not to buy those Killian Hases. Oh, yes. Thank you. Appreciate you the advice. Tommy is a card collector.

He said, most people believe, and I think this stands for inside and outside of the card collecting hobby, most people believe in Shepherd and Castle, who were the third and fourth picks in the draft, of the other three in the top five, Risa Shea, Saar, Holland,

who would you bank on? Huh, that's a good question. That's a good question. These are guys that want to, you know, this is somebody that likes to collect stuff. And I was like, I as a collector myself, I agree with him completely. you will search out for the shepherds you will search out for the for the uh castles and you'll feel pretty good about those but of the other three in the top five if you were if i just gave you five hundred dollars to spend on cards for one of them i think i would lean towards alex saar i just think with sar i had him ranked the highest of those three guys um so i think with sarr his i had him ranked the highest of those three guys um so i think with sarer he's he's

his defensive versatility still has great appeal. The flashes of offensive upside, he's in a situation that's kind of a clean slate. Whereas with Atlanta, Risa Shea may not have the ceiling. Risa Shea may be a safer bet, but Sarr likely has a higher ceiling. So I'd be wanting to, for some buy lows, going for the guy that's a bigger bet.

So I think along those lines, you could also make a strong argument for Ron Holland, with his high work ethic, his motor, you know, the try-hard attitude, but the Detroit situation is sort of like Atlanta in the sense that you have Cade there. You have Trey in Atlanta right now. So I just wonder if the ceiling is there for either of those guys

from a collector standpoint as much as Alex Tsar is with the Wizards. I think I lean Holland, partly because, you know, if that Detroit team becomes fun, if they could exceed expectation, because they've got more talent, certainly, than Washington. For sure. And Atlanta, who knows on the Risa Shea and how he's going to kind of fit in, I think I'd go Holland. I don't feel great about any of them.

I mean, you know, but. I mean, honestly, I'd rather be wanting to, like, buy cards for Dillingham with the wolves or Eadie with the Grizzlies, cling in with the Blazers. I think Holland because I think here's what I say number one an American born player is an easier bet for collectors right? Fair. Like you have to be so amazing if you are so because nobody has any awareness of you ever. No one knows anything about Sara or Risa Shay in the States. They just don't.

Okay. Second thing is so many times especially in their rookie years you're buying and then you're trying to flip when they get like super hot it's a hot it can be a highlight deal right there's no question that was what fueled a lot of the morant and zion stuff especially their rookie years it's like you just could not avoid them they were just like everything they did was a highlight and it's like holland probably has the chance to have some kind of ridiculous highlight more so than the others right Wouldn't that be, isn't that fair to say? It's much more likely that Ron Holland crushes someone on some amazing dunk that just becomes

mega viral than the other two. And sometimes that's all that matters. Maybe Saar has like a series of rotations on defense and a highlight block, but like that's not going to go as viral as monster dunks. And that's what matters now. And that's what matters now in terms of getting buzz. And so if I'm doing buzz, I guess I'm going to be. I just have to go Highland because I'm thinking of it.

Like, look, think about this. You see the, you saw the Caleb Williams one, right? Where he rolls around for 10 seconds and then he hits Roma Dunesay down the sideline, whatever. Nobody even knows what the hell Caleb Williams did the rest of that game. Nobody even cares what Caleb Williams did the rest of that game. But they saw that. I saw that a thousand times on, uh, on, on every social media platform. For good reason.

The play was freaking awesome. It's like, you just don't see guys rolling. out throwing across their body. Mahomes-esque. Rogers-esque. Yeah. And I don't even, it doesn't even matter what he did the rest of the game. That's the one.

As soon as you saw that clip, you're like, oh, my God. What kind of highlight is this? Yeah, so I guess, I'd go. And Sarr was just so terrible at Summer League. I can't get over it. I know. And Risa Shea just, blah. You got me off of him early.

So this is, if he ends up being awesome, it's all your fault. As soon as Gavoni came on my pod and was saying, well, he sits and, you know, he's in the airplane and middle seats and he shoots a lot. So he should be good as soon as. I know. That was tough. All right. One other. One other I got on Instagram, Marcus.

I live overseas. Ha, ha, ha. But he did say overseas. I live overseas. Me and my friends want to do a trip to the state to go to an NBA game. next season. None of us have been to one. Anything's on the table. Where would you go? New York for a game, a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden. And the reason why is because that's number one on my list as well, because I've only been to a Knicks game when the Knicks

sucked. And even though the Knicks were terrible at the time, the crowd was still better than it is in some cities when the teams are good. For example, I was in Houston for a game where James Harden, like this was back in like 2017, where Hardin had like 48. 17 rebounds, 14 assists, like one of those monster games in the crowd was dead. And you were butt naked by the end of it.

I was. I was. I was just lathered up. But, but the crowd was dead. Maybe because they were freaked out by me. But when when the Knicks were bad, the energy is just

you can feel it. There's a heartbeat inside of the building. So I would go to a Knicks game. That's at the top of my list. Plus, you'd be in New York City. Yeah, New York City as well. That's part of the draw as well. But like, if you're strictly about basketball, to me, like, I think the Nix energy is going to be awesome this year with that team, man. The Nova Nix. It's going to be a great roster. I'd want to go to a good high profile national TV Nix game. I think I agree with you. The only other one that like jumped at the top of my mind. And this is, again, this is more me because I have been to other arenas

rather than what I would encourage someone from overseas. But you know, the first game I looked for was when do they play the Clippers? Just because if that place is truly what it appears to be versus all the videos, I don't care about the Clippers. Sure. But that arena looks like the ninth wonder of the world. I'm super excited to go there. I am.

I've been to, you know, obviously I'm a Cowboys fan. But when I went to that stadium for the first time, I was like, I've never been to anything like this in my life. Like this is, this is, and it's been open for a long time now. But like you hear all the hype and then you go and you're like, holy crap, this place is amazing. Like I've never seen anything like I've never been at a sporting event like this with that Jumbotron with that and so that would but if you've never been to a game you need to go to like a barn like Madison Square Garden and get the vibes like that for me I would want to go to the new arena just to see yeah I mean it's supposed to be unlike we've ever anything we've ever seen in basketball for an arena. That's the move. Maybe the move is to do a long weekend in Los Angeles and go to a Lakers game and a Clippers game. Like find a weekend where both teams play regardless of the opponent or maybe you seek something out where it's a great opponent. And you go to both arenas. Maybe that's the move. And you stay with Kevin. I'll give him your address. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Feel free. All right. Last one, and this is not a mailback question. This is a question I had with my friends the other night. And this was.

I wanted to pose it to you. You brought up a band. You have friends. You love at the very beginning. I do. Not many, but some. We were having a discussion on a text thread about, did you see this news about Oasis getting back together? Yeah, yeah.

Okay. So my buddies love Oasis. They were big when we were younger. And one of them said, one of my great regrets was not seeing Oasis. He said, the ones I truly regret were Oasis and Prince. And he said, and then he asked us, what are your regrets? That's a good one. Tom Petty for me.

Tom Petty. Not seeing Tom Petty. One of my buddies said Tom Petty and Prince. And another one said Nirvana, was a big Nirvana fan and mentioned them. I said Amy Winehouse, who I loved, and I loved that. back to black album so much. How about Aerosmith? Have you seen them?

I never saw him. I never saw Aerosmith. Aerosmith was my dad's favorite band in his younger years. He saw Aerosmith before their first album released when they were just doing colleges in Boston. He saw them like 10 times, 20 times before they released their first album. But for some reason, him and I never saw Aerosmith Live. Timing just never worked out.

That's one of my regrets, too. Another one that I'm, no, are they ever? Can he not sing anymore? Stephen Tyler, like, apparently, like, they've retired from touring. Maybe they have a comeback some number of years from now, but they're old as hell, man. Like, this really, this really might be it. Well, and I have one that's old guy, too, which is very surprised you. I love Paul Simon.

Oh, yeah. And I went and looked, and, like, evidently, I guess recording his last album or part of it, his hearing, like, left him. And so he can never, he's not, like, he never does anything anyway. He never does anything. Like, you don't meet a lot of people that, you know, I mean, unless you went years and years ago, like on the Graceland tour or something like that. But he does not play live a lot. And so I would have really liked to have seen him because I like his music a lot. And I, obviously, I mean, I'll never get to see him.

along those lines who is the oldest artists you saw in concert because for me it was b b b b king i saw b b king with my dad probably late 2000s early 2010s maybe and b b b binginginging he could still play guitar talked a lot during the concert obviously it's like taking it a little easy but he was great and i also saw buddy guy buddy guy another amazing guitarist from the 1960s um blues guitarist i saw him and he walked down like the you know between the aisles of our section and he played guitar like behind his head like right next to the to the to the row me and my dad were seated in and it was pretty awesome that was kind of a cool formative concert memory when I was a kid oldest I what do you guys still going by the way 88 years old right now still playing 88

I mean, this is probably now. Geez, I don't know how many years ago, six or seven, maybe eight now. But I, and I don't know how old he is now, but I saw Bob Dylan. Oh, wow. Bob Dylan's still torn, too. I mean, he was old when I saw. He's still old now. He's 83.

So I probably, I certainly saw him when he was like 75 or 76, I guess, something like that. Wow. I saw him. Yeah, he was, he was old then. Wow. So I can't believe he still. And I'm trying to think if there's anybody else that's like old, old that I have seen perform. Geez, man.

I mean, you got to, I saw, but that was like, they weren't that old then. I saw Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. I did go to that. Oh, wow. That's really cool. They played with the St. Louis. symphony actually. But I was in like high school then. So I mean, they weren't they weren't that old. But they were old to me, you know what I mean? For sure. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. And that was when I was

in high school. I wish I could, I wish I could have seen like members of Zeppelin played together. That would have been cool. My dad saw Led Zeppelin in 1973 around the same time that they recorded there. The song remains the same live album. He saw them in Boston. Maybe it was like a week before that album was recorded. That's probably close to Peake Zeppelin, 1973. That's pretty awesome, yeah. No, that would have been amazing for sure. They were great when I saw them.

I saw it was the page and plant tour. It was like in the 80s, right? Page and Plant, right? It was in 90s even. Yeah, it would have been mid-90s. Okay, I just looked. They were active 94 to 98 when they did their shows together. That's awesome.

I mean, how cool would it be if they, you know, I mean, They're old. Yeah, I think those are probably, I guess it's probably, it's probably Bob Dylan, honestly. Yeah. How old is Barry Manilow? I took my mom to see Barry Manilow because she loves Barry Manalo. How old is 81 years old? 81.

Well, damn, I mean, that wasn't that long ago. I mean, it's probably, I don't know, six, seven years ago. I probably saw him. But, I mean, my mom loved Barry Manelow, so I took her to go see him. And soon enough, in a couple months, I'll be seeing David Gilmore from Pink Floyd. They're guitarist. He'll be performing three shows of the Hollywood Bowl and in playing one show at Intuit Dome. I'm seeing him at Intuit Dome. And I'll likely go to one of the Hollywood Bowl shows, too, because I love Pink Floyd so much. I'll probably be in the audience alone crying, thinking about my dad, all the shows we saw together in Pink Floyd music. So it'll just feel good to be there listening to David Gilmore, really, one last time. Because 78 years old, he hasn't toured in like 10 years. He'll probably never tour again. Again, Gilmore's a legend, man. And I hope Paul McCartney tours, you know, again, sometime soon.

Because I saw Paul McCartney in 2009. He's 82 years old now, and he still sounds great live. He still puts on awesome shows. His band is incredible. But if Paul McCartney tours again, I will be there. I will go see Sir Paul McCartney, because those shows are amazing. And talk about legends, like that's somebody you don't want to miss. Paul McCartney.

Yes. I will tell you that Bob Dylan show I went to, it was Bob Dylan, Wilco, and My Morning Jacket. Wow, what a combo. I would love to go to that show. And I think that my morning jacket made the biggest impression on me. They were unbelievable, unbelievable. Wow, yeah, they're a great band.

They've never seen my morning jacket, but I saw Jim James. There's their lead singer-gatarist. He performed independently at some small venue in Boston years ago, He was terrific. And Wilco, like, Wilco's a band I haven't explored deeply, but their song, Impossible Germany, I think that whole album, I forget what it's called, Sky Blue Sky, it's like late 2000s, that whole album is great.

But I've been, like, slowly working my way through Wilco's discography because I like a lot of their stuff, but, you know, Impossible Germany's one that pops up first in my mind. Gotcha. Great guitars. Great guitars. All right, what you got? Let's see.

Let's start off with a non-basketball question, just to keep it going. It could be a basketball question from Grace. Are there any interviews either of you have conducted in the past that you wish you could do over again? Oh. You know, when I was very young, I got the crazy. You're going to, in fact, you're going to, you're going to be amazed that this happened, but this is true. I had John Wooden on my radio show. Oh, wow.

Wow. And I would love to be able to do it now. Wow. You know, now that I'm older, I was, I was under 25, for sure. I was probably, I was probably 23 years old or something like that. but he had it was you know back in the day there was early 2000s um sports talk radio had blown up and you could get on these lists for everybody that had any kind of a book or promotion coming out it would always go out to like radio stations and so I had unbelievable producers and these producers would

get on all of these lists. This happened with my producer that I still have to this day. And we would get on all these lists and you would just never believe the amount of people that you could get on to sports talk radio shows because they were promoting something, right? So you could, you know, you would get Joe Montana on because he was talking about high blood pressure, you know, promoting something. Or you could get, you know, I remember we had like John McCain on the show. had like, like, all these, anybody that came out with a book, anybody that came out, and it could be a political figure, it could be a comedian, it could be anybody. And books were a huge deal. So anybody that had a book, if you could get on their radio tour, they would send it out and they would say,

hey, they're doing a slot for this. And so Wooden was part of this book and did this radio tour and we got a slot in the radio tour. And he came on with me. And, and, I could probably find the tape somewhere around my house because I've got most of that old stuff on CDs or some kind of hard drive somewhere. But yeah, I mean, I'd like to do that as like an actual adult. I don't even remember the questions I asked. I don't remember. But I would, yeah, I mean, because that's, to me, that was like, and he's well regarded as, if not the greatest. coach ever in any sport.

He's certainly on a short list of that. And incredibly wise, he was old, obviously, at the time. But yeah, man, if I could go back as an adult and talk to somebody like that, because that's an interview that I did do, but I don't remember it like I should remember it. And in fact, I should go find that somewhere. and see what I asked him. I don't even remember what I asked him.

Maybe it'll be better than you remember. Maybe it will be. Maybe. I mean, I remember, oh, God, I remember being absolutely just, that was like, I don't know if I've ever had anybody where I was legitimately super nervous. Yeah. But I remember preparing for that like crazy. Sometimes you can be over prepared, right?

Yeah, just to not screw it up. You know what I mean? Especially somebody like him. Yeah. There's this statue of John Wooden on the UCLA campus. Sometimes I go for walks through the campus. It's like a beautiful green campus. It's gorgeous.

I don't see how anybody, you see tours of students like going to visit the campus. I don't see how you couldn't go to UCLA when you tour that campus. It's so beautiful. It's like the best park in LA. But there's a statue with a quote from John Wooden near the pavilion of their arena. And it says, success is peace of mind, which is a direct result. of self-satisfaction and knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable. I think that's a very good quote.

I think it's relevant to what you said. You're young in your career. You're doing your best. You wish you could do it again. Similar for me, like really with any interview that I did earlier in my career, like I think about my first year with The Ringer. I did a story on the Celtics. I interviewed Danny Aange and Wick Grosbeck.

And, you know, I think it was an okay interview, but like I wish I could do that one again. for that time and be better prepared like I am and have a better rhythm that I do now when it comes to interviewing players or whatnot. Because at that time, it's like there's nerves. You might be overprepared. You're not as good at delivering questions. And, you know, you learn a lot over the years. But I think maybe I will do that one again.

Maybe I'll get Danny now that is with the Utah Jazz and do something Danny age related in the coming years. Yeah. I also think, and it was crazy because it hit me. a lot. I told you like where my studio is now for my local show was Jerry West's old office and I covered all of those

teams and I was around him a lot. I was just, oh, I was so I was so intimidated. That it was just like, it was not a, but it was not a like, you know what I'm saying? It was more like yes, I asked questions, but I

didn't, I was too scared to like, I felt like I was a nobody, you know, to him. And I just went and I, and you know what I mean? Like you look, you look now and, and he would have known who I was, but it wasn't like, I was so young and I was so intimidated and it wasn't like, you know, some kind of mutual relationship where I could talk to him. It was me asking questions at, you know, press conferences and that kind of stuff and being around.

But I think that it would be a different world now, right, than when I was in my early 20s, I think. Let's do a couple more from Michael. He went to opening night of Childish Gambino's concert tour, and he highly recommends that the both of us go. His question is, do you guys listen to your own episodes? As someone who doesn't like to listen to their own voice, I wonder if that ever goes away. I would say sometimes I listen back. Usually I listen back on two times speed. I used to hate the sound of my own voice even before the days of podcasting.

I never liked hearing my voice back. But at this point, it's my voice. I embrace my voice. I don't really, you know, think about it. But if I listen back, it's more like just trying to get a feel for what the conversation was. And, you know, sometimes it's about like scouting your own conversation. but I don't think about the sound of my own voice anymore other than like I'm just used to it

and I know that's my voice. Yeah, I really don't. Yeah, did you ever at one point, like early in your career? Oh, for sure. Yeah. For sure, but I was hypercritical. Yeah, that wasn't really about my voice as much as it was. Tendencies, things that I said a lot.

Yeah, I mean, obviously I hear clips that people send back to us that happens frequently virtually every episode somebody will clip out something and send it to me but yeah I don't I don't usually if somebody clip something out then maybe

I'll go and try to listen back and try to understand what the full context was but yeah I don't I did when I was young for sure and I was hypercritical of it but Which isn't a bad thing. It's not bad to be hypercritical. That's sometimes how improvement happens. You need either, you know, a trusted person to be, you know, to offer constructive criticism of you or you need to do it yourself or both. I think that's important to be critical. And I think now, yeah, I listen to other people. Yeah, usually. I don't listen back to myself. I mean, I was part of the show. I remember it. I know. Yeah, it's not often I listen back. I'm not, I mean, you know,

I'm not spending a lot of time judging myself on these episodes. Maybe I should. Let's know. Let's do a last question from Chris. This is an interesting one. He says he's a longtime listener, loves the show. He's 38 years old, he said, grew up in the Jordan era. He was a decent basketball player as a kid, but never got the chance to fully explore his potential.

And he says, A psychic friend of ours said that one of our sons will grow to seven feet tall. If that's true, I want to have him in an environment where he can have access to unlock his potential. Anywhere is better than here in New Zealand. That's where they live right now. My question to you is, which state would you recommend to live in for overall quality of life and basketball skills development? Living near the coast would be a bonus, but this wouldn't be as important.

In two states we are looking at are Florida and Texas. And he also says if he ever comes to the states, if he ever goes to a mismatch live show, he'll bring a New Zealand flag, and we'll be waving it in the back of the crowd. That's from Chris. So his psychic friend says one of his sons will grow to seven feet tall, and he wants to be prepared to help facilitate his son's development.

Where would you recommend besides Memphis, Tennessee? I think Florida, if it's really about development, because they have some good schools down there. IMG. Yeah, IMG Academy, you know. But I think it's really, I think for someone from New Zealand, you probably want good weather too, which is why he mentions the coast.

California, if he doesn't mind high taxes. Florida. Texas of Florida, you got no state income tax. Florida, if you don't mind humidity, I hate humidity. I couldn't do Florida. Texas I could do. I could live in Texas, I think.

But even though it's so freaking hot, in the summer. But Southern California. Developing a seven footer, huh? Who's not seven feet tall yet either? And also, why can't they develop a seven footer in New Zealand? I know, exactly.

I think... I don't think you have to move to the United States to make that after. NBA is a global game. You just sent in a question if your son grows the seven feet and he's a top prospect, just hit us with another question. I actually think you're better off staying in New Zealand.

I agree. Because then there's the next thing you know, you're like the number one pick in the draft because you didn't go and play American basketball, right? Because if this Risha Say or Saar aren't any good, it can credit the fact that they played somewhere else, right? Like it's almost like the unknown. Let him go just destroy everybody in New Zealand. I agree.

Send him over, right? Unless the family, he didn't mention this in the email, but unless the family is considering a move to the U.S. anyway for other reasons. Yeah. Then. But you shouldn't move to the U.S. just because your psychic friend said that one of your sons is going to have to accept that.

Yeah. It'd be your luck. You've moved over here. The kid turns out to be 5'9. Now what? Meanwhile, you're giving up. Now what? Your whole life back home.

Yeah, right. Also, who believes psychic friends? I don't know. Do you have any? Who has a psychic friends? I would never. Do you have any friends who like that are psychic at all? What are you talking about?

No, I'm just asking the question. Do you absolutely not? No. And if I did, no, that's ridiculous. I don't want to, look, this guy's a fan. He's going to bring a New Zealand flag to one of our shows if he ever gets to come to one. But that's ridiculous. I would get so annoyed with a psychic friend.

I wouldn't, no. I could not hang out with a guy that. says he knows the future. I couldn't do it. Unless he was right about everything. Exactly. What if this friend was right about stuff in the past? What if this friend told you to buy

Nvidia stock? This guy needs to tell me who to gamble on then. Yes. That's where my psychic friend would actually help me in my life. Yes. That's where you find out if there's proof that this guy actually knows his stuff. Yeah.

So ask him, in fact, email us. Who does he say he's going to win the title? next year. Who's going to win the Super Bowl? Who's going to win the election? Who's going to win this? Who's going to win the Oscars? Right.

He's going to win all of this stuff. Yeah. Not that your kid's going to be seven feet tall. This guy just wants to be your friend. He's just saying awesome stuff. Right? Like who you wouldn't, you wouldn't even like put any weight into it whatsoever unless he said something

awesome. Right? I would love some. I would love some more. context from Chris. If this psychic friend has been right about things in the past.

Psychic friend. I've never even heard of that. I have this psychic friend. No, you don't. You'll find out. Maybe we'll get some more details next episode on Chris. This guy's just the town drunk.

That's what he is. Your kid's going to be seven foot tall. Really? Yeah, I'm psychic. I'm psychic. All right. Well, you can send and more questions to us at NBA Mailbag at gmail.com.

NBA mailbag at gmail.com. Thank you to our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, as always, and Kevin. I'll talk to you soon. Had a good week.