The Mismatch - Next Question: Media Day Reactions

Episode Date: September 29, 2026

Verno and Jacoby run through every team's media day story line, so it's next question, next question. LeBron didn't leave his family to lose in the second round, Jay-Z hexed the Spurs, Giannis meets an iguana, and the young Nets want to golf shirtless. Plus, the Kings' hot mic, and Verno proves he's the opposite of a hypocrite. Welcome to The Mismatch! (1:51) Sixers: LeBron, Embiid and the Jaylen Brown "alpha" question (15:33) Warriors: Porzingis out with "health issue" as Curry agrees to 2-year, $116M extension (20:39) Pistons: Jalen Duren skips media day, still unsigned (22:02) Nuggets: Nikola Jokic will re-sign "if they want me" (25:29) Raptors: Kawhi won't discuss punishment, agrees to 2-year, $115M extension (32:07) Heat: Giannis and Bam, Miami's new superstar duo (36:58) Spurs: Harper and Castle's 'GQ' feature, bench talk, MSG and Jay-Z's hex (55:09) Lakers: JJ Redick says roster makes sense for first time in three years (59:05) Timberwolves: Anthony Edwards on life without Naz Reid and Julius Randle (1:01:05) Nets: Julius Randle says young teammates tried to golf shirtless, broke a driver (1:07:10) Pelicans: Entering Year 8, Zion says career "not where I want to be" (1:12:48) Kings: Hot mic catches reporters rating Ben Simmons and Zach LaVine Leave us a message on our Mismatch Voicemail line! [phone] Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Producers: Stefan Anderson and Jeff Shearin Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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anything 30, 30. Get almost, almost anything with Uber Eats. Order now. Order a minimum of $30 required, valid on grocery, convenience, retail, specialty foods, or flower delivery orders only, Terms and conditions apply. Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon and joining me see us every week from The Ringer.com.

It's Dave Jacoby. Jacoby. Verno, it feels like a new season. It feels new. It feels like it's happening. It feels like NBA basketball is back in our lives. And a lot has changed. And I'm very excited about this season.

Well, and we knew that it was going to be odd yesterday to see everybody report to media days. and then inevitably you're going to get all of the pictures of them in their new uniforms. And it was shocking. Even though we talk about things all offseason and then we see AI generated guys in their new jerseys, you know, with it posted, when everybody's like they're taking pictures, taking pictures amongst their teammates, one of the things that stood out yesterday was over and over again on the timeline, you're seeing these, you know, you're seeing Janice in the Miami Heat jersey,

Lamello in the Wolves jersey, Clay Thompson in the Heat jersey, Paul George in the Celtic jersey. And it is a bit jarring just to realize, like when it's post after post, and this is beyond LeBron James in a 76th's uniform, it all just becomes very, very real when they report and you see them in that jersey for the first time.

And my God, were there a ton of transactions? They're really were. There's a lot of old faces in new places. And again, like, you can't see the Photoshop like LeBron and the Sixers jersey. But like, I'm going to start it here is the most jarring image I saw was the actual physical starting five of the Philadelphia 76ers standing side by side. When you saw that, how did you feel? I thought, wow, that is an unbelievable accumulation of talent. is going to go, and I think you have talked about this in the past, it feels like it's going to go one of two ways. We are either going to look back at it and it's going to be the famous Brooklyn Nets photo with Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce and Darren Williams where we're sitting there go, wow, I can't believe. Look at that they acquired a super team. And then it's going to become like this footnoted NBA history of something that didn't live up to what we thought it was going to be.

or it's going to be devastating. I really don't think in a good way. You have said that it's such a high floor, low ceiling. I mean, the idea that they're just going to be okay is something that is harder for me to process than they are going to be unbelievable or this is not going to be what everybody thinks it's going to be. Yeah, I think you meant to say low floor, high ceiling

because that is how I feel. And I also think there's two iterations of the Brooklyn Nets that were like that because when they had Harden, KD, and Kyrie, I sort of felt the same way. It's just so odd that you could turn Paul George into Jalen Brown and you can get LeBron James for the vet minimum.

It's like, what is happening? Like, how did they do that? They turned Paul George into Jalen Brown and LeBron James, and they were a good basketball team last year and like just Edgecombe and Maxie. Like, don't forget how good. Maxi is. Like, I also, there's some images.

One thing I don't really dig is the whole like, you know, he looks thinner, best shape of his life, look at Luca. And they did it with Joel Embed. Like, he did look thinner. But like, my question is if I'm, you know, I know that you are a very well-respected MBA mind and teams often use you as a resource all the time for their strategy heading into the season. And I'm, if the 76ers and Nick Nurse, I'm sure they're going to reach out to you and say,

hey Verno, like how do we manage Joel Embed this season? What would be your response? Like, how do we make sure we get the most out of this asset that we have that we're paying $70 million to play basketball? What would you say? Every time he says he can play, he plays. That's it. I mean, at this point, at this point in his career, I mean, I just think that the managing of him, we've seen how the managing has gone.

and it's like how do we what is they've tried it a bunch of different ways with still can you make it through the playoffs and the answer may be he's never going to make it all the way through the playoffs if you're playing that many rounds and you achieve what you ultimately want to achieve

but they've tried like hardly playing him during the regular season and that didn't work either so I mean I think you just play the guy as much as you can And I actually think that for the first time, for the first time for their franchise, that's not the most important question. Because now you have like, you're good enough if he doesn't play. You have enough talent, I'm saying, right? Like it used to be, oh my goodness, well, you're not going to achieve anything close to what you want to achieve if he is unavailable.

And now it feels like you've got the reinforcements that it's. It's like you can still have somebody, and in fact, multiple players, be the best player on the floor any given night if he is unavailable. And that is something. Maxi came along to be that in the last couple of years. But now you have two other guys that in a one game set could be the best player on the floor. So that just led to an interesting thought of mine that I have not had yet. It's not prepared in the rundown or anything. I thought to myself, what if they didn't have Joel M. B.

Right? Like, Joel and Bid just like, you know what, out for the season. Where would you stack them up in the Eastern Conference? Because I think they'd still be pretty high. It would be, but I mean, the Easter Conference is loaded now, Jacoby. We've talked about this so many times in many of the recent episodes. It is, I still, yesterday, when I was writing all those teams down, it's hard to figure out who you booed out.

Who's not going to be a playoff team that you expect to? because you see the Orlando's and the Toronto's and the Atlantas of the world yesterday, and you're like, well, these all look like playoff teams. Right? They got players and they got, and some of them have added players. Some of them have, in the case of Orlando, we don't know when they've got a new coach. But somebody that we think that we describe as an Easter conference playoff team is not going to be an Easter conference playoff team simply by the numbers.

there's only a couple of rat teams in that conference. And so that's the hard thing to figure out. So I do think in order, I would say M.B. gives them a chance of coming out of the East. But in the absence of M.B., could they still possibly be a playoff team for sure? Oh, hell yeah, playoffs. Well, LeBron James talked about them going into the playoffs, and here's what we have to say. In order for us to be great, we have to do things that are just not

We have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. That is the best way to expedite being great. You have to fall in love with doing things that's uncomfortable. And if we can do that, then we can be a great team. If we don't do that, then we'd be like, oh man, it was a great team on paper. And we had a lot of great talent and we lost in the second round. Like, I don't want to do that. I didn't leave my family to lose in the second round.

I know that for sure. for sure. So work needs to be done. You know what? I am, as someone who spends a lot of time with this family, like that sounds excellent. You know what I mean? It sounds nice.

Like, I'm just living by myself. I have an apartment in New York. I'm apartment in Philly. I'm across the country from my family. I check in on FaceTime from time to time. Like, the whole, like, I'm sorry. I have to spend more time with my family thing. It's just wildly over.

Two things on this quote. The first of which is, I have seen this called the most bookmarked video in NBA history because people cannot wait to post this when you say I didn't leave my family

to lose in the second round everybody's like it's almost a guarantee you're going to lose in the second round right right it's like that little guy you know the little guy that looks exactly like Jalen Brunson

like the Jalen Brunson impersonator and everybody keeps bookmarking it and saying I dare Jaylen Brunton to have a bad game. Like that is this one. This is the most bookmarked quote ever. The second thing is, okay,

I feel like he's trolling here. Because when people bring up the lack of authenticity of LeBron James, when they will bring up the books that he's reading or his, his favorite movies or whatever. What is commonly posted is this moment in the shop where their guest, the soccer player,

says that quote. And then LeBron goes, oh, yeah, yeah, that's my favorite quote. That's my favorite quote. And then he used it. And then he used it in media day. You've got to find yourself a way to make yourself on a corner like, oh, stop. Oh, yeah. Oh, you're using your favorite quote ever because everybody is like,

your favorite quote ever, right? The fact that he used that, I feel like, was wildly intentional. Not that it does not have merit. I just think that that was a way of, it was almost a recall to that video that everybody posts from his HBO show to prove this is something, this is a credo that I live by, or something that I truly believe in,

that you have to make yourself uncomfortable because when the guy said it on the show and everybody posed, everybody's like, oh, come. Your favorite quote? Really? Really your favorite quote? So one of the things I found fascinating

about his media day is, you know, I produced the game over with Max and Rich Paul. And Rich said, he's like, if the Knicks didn't win the championship, LeBron would have gone to New York. It was like the first thing he said, right? And it just felt like,

weird, especially as a Knicks fan, to be like, wait, he was definitely coming to York if we didn't win the championship. And then LeBron literally said it yesterday at Media Day. Here it is. You know, I have business of definitely, you know, playing in the garden, finishing my career in a garden one of the best places I've ever played. I think it's the number one arena in the world as far as a basketball player. But after they, after they beat San Antonio, I was like, I couldn't do it. Wouldn't feel right? y'all wouldn't have made you all you know but uh no you know but much respect to the next obviously

unbelievable team unbelievable players shout out jalen bronson love that guy he's unbelievable um but yeah i'm happy where i'm at and i'm looking forward to so you couldn't come to new york because they won the championship so you're just going to join jalen brown tairie smacksie joel mbead and vjah edcoe well they haven't won it forever so i mean i mean this is the it can be about me and then he but he is framing it as you guys would have treated me even though that's not so

right he wants to frame it as the world would treat him like Kevin Durant but he's already got all the records he's got his titles he's got the whole thing like that the reason that Durant

got hit up for joining the Warriors is because they had already won and he had not. And so he went there in order to achieve this thing that he was unable to achieve with his own team. That's not the case with LeBron. But is he right that everybody would have said,

oh, you're latching on it. Yes. I would have done that. I would have guilty. Guilty is charged. Guilty is charged for sure. And one last thing from Sixers Media Day, Jalen Brown had an interesting exchange with a reporter.

going into training camp do you guys know who who this team is or who you know who the the alpha is and is that something that matters and is that something that's going to come play out over time next question so verno why does this bother me something about the next question things bothered me because he gave him an out in the question he was like does that matter and i think jalen brown could have easily just said that's not important to us we're a basketball team instead he's like next question. Okay. And why is that bother me?

All right. I'm going to play devil's advocate in this and I am going to stand up for Jaila Brown. That's a question that no NBA player is going to like. No NBA player is going to like having to answer who is the alpha. They are all, I mean, they got to this point because of a level of ego that they have and a level of confidence they have in their own game. nobody so then the idea becomes and i got it that it's not we all can talk about from the outside like he's the alpha on that team you're not going to hear players talk about because then

the the next step is okay he's the alpha we're a bunch of beta's no player is going to like that he's the he's the king of the jungle and we're just the other guys you know what i mean like no no player somebody with the level of accomplishment and recent finals and conference finals MVP like Jalen Brown. What's it? What, okay, how about this? Let me, I'm playing devil's advocate here against it. What's the answer to that?

Let's just say he, forget the next question of whether you like, whether or not he responded with next question. Let's just say he answered the question. What do you think is the proper answer to, have you guys figured out who the alpha it is? Well, he said, well, the question he doubled up, he said, does that even matter? He gave him an out. I would just say, no, it does not matter.

That's the appropriate answer in my mind. Then why even ask it? It wasn't a very well-worded question. Why ask, who is the alpha unless you want to, what do you want to say? LeBron is. It's a bad question. It's a bad question. It is. I defend Jaylor Brown.

Jay LaBron gets beat up for a bunch of stuff. This ain't one to beat him up for. Next question. Bear. Next question. Are you trying to... Are you trying to infer that I'm a bait up? Here's what I want you to do for the rest of the pod. It's just say next question every time we have to transition topics. So now we're going to Warriors Media Day.

One of the biggest pieces of news from yesterday was Christas Porzingis is not available. He's going to miss their trip to Hawaii with a quote, health issue, unquote. Verno, how bad is this? I mean, and this has been going... This is now like the third team. Yeah. This is the third team. I can't remember another player

where it was undisclosed. I'm not saying it hasn't happened. I'm saying, I've been paying attention to this stuff for over 20 years. I can't remember another time where it is routinely not said what the issue is. It was when he was in Boston.

the word respiratory was used, which is like, your lungs. But it's almost like, is there a doctor on the planet that can diagnose this thing and put a name on it? Well,

and then they tried to describe it, I think during his time to Atlanta, whatever, and everybody was just left confused. Like, and then it comes back, but then it doesn't, you can't play,

but then it, who knows. I, and I can't believe that you are leading with that. I thought the story of Warriors Media Day was Potsinski's hair.

That was this. No, you're wrong. The story of Warriors Media Day was Jimmy Butler's earrings. Did you see Jimmy Butler's earrings? When I saw Podzinski and he had always had the big poopy hair and he came in with waves, I was like, what is happening? This is the waves. The waves and Butler's earrings were a lot too.

Because, you know, Jimmy Butler has famously played around on Media Day, but the earrings. were the earrings were something. Here's a little exchange between Steph Curry and a reporter that made some news. Steph, Steve was saying that he kind of likes that no one expects you guys to make the playoffs and that there's a little bit of freedom

to fly. That's how bad is to make the playoffs? From championship to I'm just wondering why you think about that. Do you feel the freedom? That's what I think about there. Damn. What a shot.

Damn. Sorry. Add that one to you, that was in a situation. Partly to her. Woo. Steph, it's a good moment. It is that bad. It is a good, but it is that bad. Look, that is the question about the Warriors.

Like, will they make the plane? They're in it every year. What? Can't you see a world in which Porzingis is not available? Butler doesn't come back and they don't make the plan. Can't you see that? Sure. Yeah.

Sure. Of course. Of course you could see that. I mean, the Porzingis thing is massive. Huge. That's part of the way they get there. All right. They might miss Quentin Post.

They might be like, I wish we had Quentin Post on the roster. Honestly. I was a rat, I was a rat tip yesterday. He's huge, by the way. Huge. Yeah. Enormous. Also, check this out.

You know what I was told yesterday? And I did not, I didn't interview the game. the kid, they told me he is almost like a grandmaster chess guy. Oh. Quentin Post, he's a big, he's like amazing. Yeah, he's like amazing at chess. I was like, really? You learn this stuff about these guys? I was like, really?

New York City is a chess city. Like, every one of my kids was on a chess team and went to chess tournaments. I've been to 40 chess tournaments. Yeah. How boring? You have to watch it? watch it? Bro, it's six hours and your kid has a chess game

once every two hours. It's just so much downtime. And you can't even watch the game. It was shocking. What was that Netflix show about the chick that was amazing at chess? That show was awesome. Green's Gambit? I never saw that one. I never saw that one.

It's one of the very few things I actually did. Yeah, I was about to say everything I'd bring up. You're like, I've never seen it. Sometimes you act like you just watch sports and that's it. I never watch anything, and I watch that. I know. And I was like, this is awesome.

It was great. It was great. She was awesome at chess. Like, Quinn Post. One of the other, I guess, a next question. 20 second timeout. No.

Who is scoring besides Steph Curry if? Pods in the waves. That's just the waves. I think he's the second option. Who is the second option on the Warriors? Potts. He said, he said, He said he's going to let his play do the talking.

Okay. All right. See about that. Say next question. Next question. We're heading over to Detroit where the big news was that Jalen Dern was not at Media Day. He has until Thursday. So as of recording right now, he has not signed a deal.

Why doesn't he just put ink to paper? I'm so sick of this story, dude. His agent, his agent. I know what, Trajan Langdon, I saw the clips yesterday where he was saying he has not talked to him all summer. And also did the whole, like, you know, he was rightfully asked about the quotes out there that Jalen Duren feels disrespected. And Trajanling was like, it's not my job to, you know, deal with the emotions of this thing. Like, you know, this is a business. And I'm not going to get into the emotions of this.

But basically, we want him back, expect him to be back and looking forward to a great season, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It seems crazy that we're going to take this thing all the way to the end only to have him sign that contract. It would be mortifying for him to actually do the qualifying off. No way. There's no chance. There's no chance. Just no chance. Right?

So we're just going to take hurt feelings all the way until we can't take hurt feelings anymore. And then he will eventually sign. And then we're going to do the press conference. Then we'll take pictures of him in the uniform. blah, blah, blah. We know where this is headed. Say next question. Next question. Let's head over to Denver.

One of the big questions there is this is the contract year for Star Nikola Yoakic, and he was asked about it. He was what he said. I'm going to sign next year if they want me. That is, I mean, that is the dream of all dreams. If you are an organization or a Nuggets fan. Right? Because that is going to be the thing, right?

otherwise you're going to get through the year and no matter what happens with them you know let's say they start off 10 in 10 or something then we and the rest of the NBA podcast atmosphere is going to do would they move him is this the end of it

like it was you know did they wait to lose him for nothing right will you lose him for nothing you know are you wasting the best years of his career and did they not build around it properly or whatever like I mean you just take that all completely off the table before it even starts.

And that's why I would say it's... And then Stranya gets photographed in a Lakers T-shirt in Hawaii or whatever. And then the rumor mill just goes. Like, I just think it's interesting because we've watched players use contract years as leverage, right? Yes. That's probably what I would do too. He's just basically just giving all that up. He's like, I am signing next year if they want me.

He's not hanging it over the organization's head and we need, you know, or going, in press conferences, hinting it, getting more help or things like that. He's like, I am signing here if they want me. He just seems like such a sweetie. I love that guy so much. I also think it shows a level of trust. I think that's a good job by management.

Whatever level of trust they have built with him. Because I don't think he is, I think he routinely comes off as nonchalant but is not. I think he is hyper competitive and that's how he's gotten to the level he has. And I think that

behind the scenes, the level of trust that has been built with the people that he answers to and or works with is great enough for him to believe that they are going to do what they can to put him in a position to be able to achieve what he wants to achieve. I don't think, you know, when that trust is broken or when you routinely do not build I think, you know, and also we have to make room for, we passed this up in the Curry thing, the Curry extension here. Some guys want to be where they want to be. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Like, they just don't believe the grass is always greener, you know? And taking that off the table so it's not a topic all year long is a true blessing for a team. If you're in the Nuggets front office and you hear that, I'm just like, thank God. Like, just thank God. Well, I think they know. I think they know.

Yeah, and I also think they had a conversation. They've been like, here is our long-term plan. Right. Like, we might not look as competitive as we were last year, but Aaron Gordon, you know, he can be healthy, play a season. And we have this much cap opening up and this is what we can do. And here's the people we have our eyes on.

And, like, I think that they're in lockstep, yokech in the franchise. And I also love at the end. He's like, if they want. Like, in what scenario would they not want? meekly yoke. It's like, come on. It just seems great. Say next question. Next question. Kauai Leonard said the quiet part out loud when he sat down at his press conference.

Here it is. Hey, everyone. Thanks for coming. I know I'm excited to be here. I know why, you know, some of you guys came. You want to hear about the investigation, but, you know, talking with the NBA and the PA. I think the best decision is to move forward and focus on my time being a Toronto Raptor. I already was a distraction for the past 70 days and wasn't able to meet my teammates do any of that mini-camp stuff with them so

you know moving forward I just want to you know talk about the Toronto Raptors today. I did release a statement that you could go back to and look at. But yeah, like I said, I just want to focus on basketball again and, you know, being a Toronto Raptor. But thank you guys for coming. And like I said, I'm excited to play and be in the city. Another riveting comment from Quay Leonard. Well, he said that the NBA and the NBA PA, and I think you can take that as he's hiding behind that, I also believe that that is absolutely true. Where someone talks about this, this was a condition of being let off as easy as he was let off in this situation is, and let this be the end of that.

We're not going to talk about this. We're not going to, you know what I mean? Like, you can. And that's why I said when we did the episode two weeks ago, who gets the uncle? Dennis, Doc, like we have to have. Like, it's going to be interesting. Like, as time goes on, who all, like, and there is a documentary on the biggest punishment in NBA history, you wonder who are the people that are actually going to talk.

And I think that more than likely, you will never hear from Kauai Letter, ever, until the end of time. And obviously that's what everybody wants to talk about. But I do totally buy. I don't think he is hiding behind that. I think that was actually said to him, like, hey, man, let this be done. Right? Like you, here's your fine.

You're getting to go to Toronto. Traded for a guy with a torn Achilles evidently. Right. That's wild. It gets worse for the clippers. Right. Like, how could this possibly be? The Kauai Leonard business for the Clippers is just like, oh my God, how could it go worse?

Verna was referencing the news yesterday that Brandon Ingram had like a partially torn Achilles. Insane. So you traded him for Grady Dick, a guy with a torn Achilles and a couple of furs? Why? It's all wild the way this is all played out. I can't believe it. Especially over that much time. This trade has been in the works for like six months, it feels like.

And then we get that news on media date? I mean, that came across. I was like, what are you talking about? I had to read it like three times. I'm like, is this NBA Centel or NBA Central? I'm like, what is this? Because this can't be real. I just imagine if you're like the Thai Liu.

You're just like, what? I don't even have Brandon Ingram? Right. Oh, my God. Bananas. Banana. He also signed. Like Steph, he signed a two-year.

$150 million deal, Steph was $116. You know, that was kind of, I think that's part of the conditions. Like, Kauai Leonard, like,

I think that $700,000 thing like you came with conditions. You know, let's not, don't talk about it. This is how it's going to play out. This is not going to work. But like,

he walks away with a new deal, a new team. Yes. And he got traded for a guy with a torn Achilles. And made all that extra money, evident. Yeah.

It's a hundred and 50. Yeah. And his carbon footprint is non-existent. Not a girl. So many trees just pumping out oxygen or hydrogen or whatever the hell trees to. Also, I don't know if you saw the clips where he's like going around with the phone yesterday. And then all these clips all summer like, Kauai Leonard finding and showing this personality that he has kept from us for the last 15 years. is jarring, jarring to say the lead.

Like what? You're going to be like front and center. Like now, dude. Were you just being, were you just being quiet and mysterious because you've been making extra money? And like you're actually like an affable guy? This is so weird.

Do you know I, do you know I have been, I have known people that have like gone out and hung out with him, like and like gone to like parties. and stuff with him. And they're, and they always have told me he is not what you think he is. Everybody says that about everybody.

Like, like, Tim Duncan's hilarious. It's like, is he? I'm sure that Tim Duncan's hilarious. I'm sure why let it's like this, like not who we think he is.

I think he is what we think he is. No, they tell me that like, again, I guess it just depends on the setting. You would imagine that he is like, the hard guy to approach, non-talkative.

Like, they're like, he's not like that. Like if you're around him in like a comfortable area, he is not like that at all. And I'm like, really? Remember that video of him not shaking his teammates' hands? Like stuff like that just can't convince me that he's like a completely different person off camera.

And also people have seen him in the locker room for the last 15 years. And maybe it's just like when he's like not in a basketball mode and he's just like having fun. like that he can actually have, like, you know, he always, you know, the famous club. After the one of the championships, there's a view of him, like rolling a joint in the back of a taxi cat or whatever. Yeah, he said he's a fun guy. I guess he did say, he tried to tell a man gets paid. Next question. Okay, moving down to Miami, where the best video at Media Day occurred in Janus's, I'm assuming, new backyard.

Here is him and his son discussing an iguana that was outside of their pool. I have a brother. Hey, bro. Hey, bro. Yeah. I'm about to open the door, huh? No. No.

Should I open the door? No. Hey. Why does his tail so long? I don't think that's the all tail. I think that must be like a wire or something. There's no way a tail is like eight feet long. But that's a big iguana, man.

That's a big iguana. That's a big iguana. Yeah, you know that iguanas are the invasive species? Yeah, that's a big lizard. I'm not used to seeing lizards. If you think about... Not lizards, no. Lizards are a part of my life at all in the Northeast.

There's no lizards. You literally only see rats, right? Yeah, just rats, rats and humans. That's it. Yeah, I've got everything going on. I got deer. I got raccoons. I got possums.

I've got frogs. I've got turtles. Like, I got all this stuff around me. Which is wildlife. But iguana would, that would freak me out. Like, I don't know. Are iguana is dangerous? I don't know.

No, I don't think so. But they actually have like, they quell the iguana population. We're doing this. They have a thing. It's like a huge iguana hunt in Florida where they like make it legal to kill them. And people just go out and murk iguanas all day. Is that true? Yeah.

I just typed in. I guanas are generally not dangerous or aggressive towards human. But they can bite, scratch, or whip their tails if they feel cornered or threatened. Later on the video, it was really cute. He's like, your dad is a basketball player. We're going to call an exterminator for the iguana. He's like, I play a ball, dude. That's what I do.

Wow. It was weird seeing him and Clay in heat jerseys yesterday. That was. Yeah, it was. And they did like the, I thought the him and bam photo thing that was going around, it's like, I guess it's from like some. I don't really watch anime like that. I know you don't watch anything except for like college football.

And Cowboys games and NBA games. No, and that Queens Gambit. The chess mini series. Yeah, but that's the chess is also a sport though. So it's still sports. You're only doing sports. You're on brand. You're on brand.

But like it was to see Janice and Bam together just reminded me like, just how they need so much shooting. Like it just like, it's just weird. They seem redundant. I don't like my stars to be redundant. It feels like having two point cards. But you see the rest of them, you know, Davey out Mitchell notwithstanding,

you see the rest of them and you're like, bro, are there guys, if you were going to acquire guys, like you just said, hey, all you got to do is stand out there. 40%. And knock it down. Like, you would go get Clay Thompson and Tim Hardaway, Jr.

Hell yeah. I'm saying, like, it might work, like where they do have the spacing because those guys, guys, those guys, look, no matter what, here's what you'll say. Here's what you'll say. No matter what, those guys have to be honored 28 feet away from the basket. Like they do.

And that is, sometimes the trick is not the success level of the, it is how it impacts the entire team. And just the fact, like I saw this years ago in a series I covered where you remember during that Lakers series that every time Memphis brought in Luke Canard, all of a sudden it unlocked something just because he had to be guarded and it gave

Morant like a driving lane and it gave guys some space to be able to go and so that's what I'm saying. If you just have guys that have to be honored that can be out on the perimeter, you have a freight train no one can stay in front of in Yonnas. I mean, that is the

trick. And again, those guys have to be able to reliably knocked down those shots when they are left-off. I'll even push back on the Davion Mitchell thing. He's been shooting pretty well. That's right. He's been getting better. And also, Bam.

Like, Bam can shoot threes. Catch and shoot, like, naked threes. I can see Bam hitting those. Like, there'll be a game where Tim Hardway Jr. hit seven-threes and go seven for nine. Sometimes he just gets hot. And there'll be so much opportunity just to stand there and wait for Giannis to spray the ball out to you

because he's, you know, attracting three defenders and just knock down threes. Like, I can see how it could work. I can definitely see. see how it can work in Miami. And I believe to coach Bo. I am so excited about the next team. The Spurs, we, we.

We've established that you're going to say next question when it's time to transfer to a new team, okay? I know you love your props. Next question. Elegant American. Dylan Harper and Steff Castle, I'm scrolling yesterday, and I see a picture of them. And I was like, but they look like done up, like professionally like wardrobe and it looks.

I'm like, this is like a real picture. And then I find out there's a GQ profile about these two. Okay. And then I read the profile. Kurt Goldsbury, our colleague all over this thing. Did you get a call from GQ? I did not. But again, but I did not either.

But I've got this thing where like numbers that I don't recognize. go straight to voicemail. They probably did. They probably followed me. They also don't want to use us in their feature because they're probably like Dylan Harper and Steph Castle. They're probably earmarked us as the next NBA duo that they want to feature. That's right.

You know what I mean? It would overshadow that. They don't want us to step on that. So that's probably why they use Kurt instead of us. But a lot of it, a lot of the noise coming from this profile was about Dylan Harper and whether or not he's going to start. and Ms. Johnson was asked about it. It just seems like the noise is already starting for this.

And as someone who was rooting against the spurs and the finals, Dylan Harper was terrifying, terrifying, honestly. Like, I would rather Dylan Harper not have the ball. I'd rather Victor Wembeenjama have the ball. I felt less threatened than when Dylan Harper had the ball. Do you think this, like, starting five, should he start or come off the bench or whatever thing, will be an ongoing storyline threat?

No. I don't. So I think they're going to be fantastic. And I do think that I think that Fox has gotten aggressively beaten up in a way that discounts what he did bring to that team was a level of stability.

And the turnover numbers are the turnover numbers. That they have a turnover issue when he is not on the floor. And just the fact that he can be the floor general and run the show is, something that, like, somewhere along the way his foils got, started to outweigh, you know, his positives, I think maybe in an unfair way.

I think. You know what I mean? If we're doing the scale, it's like, he was hurt. Yeah, nobody talks about what he, the good he brings to the day when he was like an all-star caliber player on a team that went to the NBA finals. playing injured.

So if we're talking about where the failing showed up, it's like, okay, like, so the failing showed up at literally the highest level when they were winning games. And again, and some of the plays and obviously some of the game management that took place when you do count on him most, it became an absolute nightmare.

But also you have to take the entire thing. It's almost like if you held, it's like when Russell Wilson threw the pick in the end zone. You know, and you can decide is Russell Wilson a problem or like the, you are in the Super Bowl when he does throw the pitch. Yes. Yeah, yeah. With a chance to win it. You know what I mean? Like one score game, fourth quarter, on the one.

You got to the one somehow. Right. Yeah. So I do see what you're saying. And I also think, like, I fully expected there to be a news story that Deer & Fox had a torn whatever or strained whatever because he was not 100%. He was not himself, but he wasn't 100%. It didn't feel like the lights were too bright. You know what I mean?

It felt like he was compromised physically. That's what it felt like to me. And, man, this next one. And I think Dylan Harple will be fine. Yes. I think it's fantastic. Dude, I was so scared. I was so scared.

No, no, no. I also don't think, like, there are some guys that would be a massive problem if they had the season he had. And be mega resentful look around because we, if we're being fair, we got to the playoffs and we go, are we going to look back? Is history going to look back at the rookie of the year standings and be like, what the hell was that? You know what?

You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, there was a part of us that thought that last year. You're like, hold on a second now. Like, we're going to look back and him getting, what do you? I think he got fourth, right? I think it was fourth, right? Yeah, I think Edgecombe was third, right?

Yeah. Yeah, we could definitely revisit that in five years and be like, Concanibble. Yeah. Really? Especially after the playing games that Concanipple had. And then this next quote, man, I got to take you a little bit behind the curtain in the way that I think.

I was so excited to go after Steph Castle because he said this. It's in the thing. He said, quote, talking about playing the finals in the garden. He said, quote, it was underwhelming in that first game. They made it seem like it was going to be way crazier in there. And I was so prepared, locked and loaded, to go after Steph Castle for this. But I made a mistake, Berneau. I made a mistake.

I actually read the article. And sometimes when you actually read the article, you get the context in which he said this. He was like, yeah, game four, it was the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life. So he basically said, you know what I mean? He's like, the end of game four. It was like the loudest arena I've ever been in

or could even imagine being in. So everybody pulls the game three stuff. And remember the security lines and the Trump stuff. It was a weird game, game three. But he literally said, I made the mistake of actually. reading the article, you know what I mean? Because I really wanted to go after him.

This is why players hate the media. That's the thing. They pull this. They pull this part where he's like, it's underwhelming. The garden was underwhelming in the finals. I read that and I was like, fuck Steph Castle. And then that's what becomes, and then everybody says to each other, do you see what Seth Castle said about those?

No respect for the garden. Yeah. And then they go, the fans are yelling at him. Then you read the article. He literally says, because you remember the comeback in game forward and they're down by a million points and the OG tip. He's like, that was the loudest I've ever seen an arena in my life. Literally, he says the exact opposite thing in like four sentences later. And you can't go after him for this because he said it was underwhelming game three loudest he's ever been around in game four. So I can't be mad at it. I can't even go after Stuck Castle.

I should have never written the article. I know. And you read that when you read the article, you know, unfortunately when you read the article, they all become rather likable. You know what? Everything they say, but then when taken out of context, it makes them seem like they're taking shots and they're not like. The other thing that Harper said, Harper was like, I ain't coming off no bench. It's like, I'm not coming off the fucking bench. And then literally he's like, I was just joking when I said that. It's in

the article. Right. But everybody just pulls the quote without the context. Yeah, the next quote is I was lying. I was laughing. Yeah, he's like, I'm laughing and lying when I said that. You're just like, oh, it really takes the teeth out of these quotes if you get the context. You know what I mean? So I can't even be bad at Steph Castle. And I also

like, I like their clothes. They look really cool. Next question. This one is interesting from the article. No one's talking about this part. Again, I actually read this thing. Partially. I didn't read the whole thing. Come on,

I've never read a whole article in my whole life. What do you think I am? Some kind of nerd? Yeah, I'm going to read, please. I'm watching Queen's Gambit on repeat. This from the article, quote, Harper, all right, so he's talking about, he's talking about, he said, Harper tried the same tactic,

with Jay Z, ignoring the celebrities, which worked until the rapper started to heckle him. Come on, Pove yelled, according to Harper. Then Jay raised his hands to form a Rockefeller diamond in the air as if casting a spell on the visiting team. We started losing, Harper says. Shit went downhill from there. I've seen people take credit for shit they don't deserve for,

but now Jay Z hexed the spur. and that's what brought the Knicks their first championship in 53 years? Jay Z? This is a spell? Look, this is a terrible, terrible thing to happen to Fet Joe. Fad Joe has spent the entire summer.

I didn't even think of that. Fat Joe has spent the entire summer saying he was the one. If you go back and look at the video, he was the one. He said he did it with his little dance. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, tough deal for Fat Joe.

Oh, wow. And some of the listeners, some of the listeners might not know, but Fat Joe and Jay-Z, do you know about the blackout story, right? Oh, Fat Joe and Jay-Z, we're going to, they each have teams at the Rucker tournament, the entertainers tournament, right? This is back when it was like the peak of its thing.

You know about this? Go Google it. Then they both put together teams. Bro, it was like Yao Ming, Kobe Bryant, LeBoh James, Alan Ivers, and they were going to play each other. It was like an all-star game at the Rucker, and then the power went out, and they never played.

But literally Yao Ming was in New York to play basketball outside. You don't know about this? So Jay-Z and Fat Joe have had this basketball thing, and now Fat Joe and Jay-Z... I'm going to look this up. Yao Ming was going to play at the Rucker. Yeah, dude.

Yes. I mean, Fat Joe might exaggerate sometimes when he tells stories, but I'm telling you. And that's not even... But, like, I thought... the Jay-Z cursing the Spurs thing was just a wild detail. This is great. Honestly, this is great for Jay-Z.

Jay-Z, he's got that HBO thing coming out with Rick Rubin or whatever. Quick aside, I don't give a shit. You know what I've seen these clips of Jay-Z be like, when I said, you know, girls, girls, girls, what I really was doing was celebrating the female contribution to society. And I'm just like, okay, Jay-Z. see. Like, you said girls, girls, girls. I will just say this. Like, in between him, you know, the HBO thing and him delivering the Nix of championship,

this does seem very conveniently timed as every other clip on my feet is Colin Kaepernick going out. It's like, all right. Hey, just remember, hey, just remember, I'm an awesome rapper and I got the Nix of championship. So while this guy is doing a media tour talking about what a dirt bag guy. I just need to remind everybody that I got the Nix's title and I'm awesome at rapping. I watched a clips of the Rick Rubin thing. For some reason, it bothered me.

And I can't believe I'm going to say this because of his involvement with the Beastie Boys, which is like my favorite band of all time. I wonder if, like, no one's beard has worked harder for their, like, lore than Rick Rubin's beard. If he was clean-shaven and had a regular haircut, you're like it would just completely take away all of his magic. That beard is working so hard. He looks like a wizard.

But if he shaved. Little Gandalfi, yeah. Yeah. If he shaved, you wouldn't think of him as some sort of like musical mystic genius. He'd just be a guy. I mean, some people have, yeah, sometimes people do have a, yeah, sometimes people do have a trait that has led to their success. I have years ago, I don't know why. RIP Dolly Parton.

RIP Dolly Parton. This jogged my memory, but years ago when our buddy Jason Concepcion was doing his his show. NBA desktop. One of the times he made me do spice, that's what he used to call it, some spice, like just hot tapes, whatever. And at one point that I remember one of mine years ago was dry Patrick Ewing would have been just an average player. that no one in the history of the NBA sweat more than Patrick Ewing and people were disgusted to have to lean up or play any kind of defense against him.

But if he didn't have these consistently open pores where he was just drenched the second the game started that he would have been an average basketball player and the people were disgusted by his levels of sweat. I have a confession to me And that's your And that's your Rick Rubin thing If you had like clean-shaven Rick Rubin is no genius Not a musical producer

Nobody respects it That guy sells his shirts Yeah exactly So you're like going this sensory deprivation tag I'm not going on sensory deprivation tag Clean-shaven Rick Rubin With a beard like oh yeah How many hours do I have to stay in there

When is it when to get inspired I'm telling you. I have to have a confession to me. Let me hear. I'm a super sweater. You are? You're that guy. I'm sweatier than Patrick Ewing.

When I used to play pickup basketball for two hours, I bring three T-shirts. I bring two shirts to my rec league games and change at halftime. Sometimes after warm up, sometimes the guy covering me is like, how are you this sweaty? Like we're jumping the ball right now. I'm the sweatiest guy in the world. There's nothing worse to put your forearm on a guy and your forearm becomes absolutely drenched. It sucks. And then, no, sometimes after I touch the ball, like, I'll pass it or whatever.

I can see the other team like look at the ball. Like, what happened? You know what I mean? Okay. New take. Dry Jacoby sucks. I'm just, I mean, all Jacoby suck. Let's be honest.

Next question. I want to get, yeah, I really, like, one of the. the things I love about doing this show with you. Next question. I respect your analysis. And when I saw this new story, I was like, I really need to get Berno's deep analysis on this. Greg Popovich, married coach,

but, takes place. Brow. That is so weird. It's beyond copyright. What? I mean, like, I would try to explain it. The only way that is, like, if he's dead, that's the only way to me that becomes, like, acceptable.

I'm not talking about food and holster. Is that acceptable? Oh, no. If people were close, you know what I mean? And you have a relationship with those people and your maid is gone and their mate is gone. And now there's a level of comfortability amongst these people and they don't want to be alone, you know, throughout their golden years, as it were, whatever. I can understand that. But the fact that like being his kid's stepdad and like the fact that they were together.

20 years, 20 years. That's just bizarre. And there must have been some sort of phone call that happened, right? I could never. Could you? What's you talking about? Your buddy's wife? That's just bizarre.

No. No. No. No. No, no, no, no, no, no. I just asked Claude. I said, how many women are there in the world, right? And Claude says about 4.13 billion.

And if I was coach Bud, I would be like, there are 4.13 billion women in the world. And you're marrying my ex-wife. The other 4.1399999 women didn't do it for you. I used to have a, look, there used to be this thing where it was like, you know, I've been going NBA games for the last 20-something years. And also, I have the internet. And one of the things that I've talked about consistently with my buddies is like,

bro, how is it all the same chicks? Like, Snoop Dogg has a whole song about it. These NBA guys, like, there's so many. And I'm like, this extends to coaches. It's just the same chick. They're the same 20 chicks they're all going out with. Like, what is going on? How?

How many times do you see like a playoff series? There's one last year where it was like, oh, he dates his ex and this and that. It's like, how is this so prevalent? I don't know. I didn't know it extended the coaches as well. Same chick. Greg Popovich and Coach Bug's ex-wife were like in bed one day and they're like, we need to tell coach.

And we have to tell him. And Greg had to dial his phone number. Coach Bud picks up like, hey, what's up, pop? And he's like, oh, we have to talk. We're going to your house for Thanksgiving. We did you get your ex-wife. Just want to get, just want to make sure I have your blessing. It's like, uh, okay, sure.

It's weird. The kids thing is the craziest. That's part. I don't even, I don't even, I don't know. Like, are we doing,

there's going to be a function. Are we doing Christmas? Are we doing Christmas? Are we doing Christmas? Thanksgiving? And now mom's married to pop? That's just bizarre. Okay.

What do you call him if you're the kids? Uncle, pop? No, he's stepdad now. No. It's just all strange. All strange.

All strange. All right. Next question. Here's what JJ Reddick. This is, this part. This quote, I don't think people picked up on enough of because this was fascinating to me.

JJ Redding talked about the new revamped roster in Los Angeles, and here's what he said. And I think with this group, probably the first time in my three years here that I feel like the pieces actually fit together. And so those roles probably get even more crystallized. First time in three years that the roster makes sense. Huh.

I don't think that's unreasonable. Look, you did go through this transition of, we build out our team with LeBron James in mind to we build out our team with Luca Donchich in mind. And those are unique builds. And I think it's just a way of saying, like, all right, here is, you know, we could go back to the original question, right? Which is the, who is the alpha?

We all have an awareness of who is the guy? That's like that at Lakers Media Day. Yeah. This thing is built around this player with him in mind. And so that is how. And so it,

but it was always going to be a challenge. Everybody could say, hey, look, great players can always figure it out, whatever, but it's always going to be a challenge because the ideal setup with a team that

survives around Luca Dodgit is its best player is not to have, you know, the players that they've had in the past. and more importantly, not to have another guy who is a ball-dominant guy. There's only going to be one massively ball-dominant guy on a Luca Donchin's team. The whole thing goes through him. And in the absence of LeBron James, I can totally understand how it all makes a lot more sense.

It all revolves around him. And it was never going to be able to all revolve around him as long as you've got LeBron James on the team. It almost feels like the roles are more defined, but the ceiling is lower for success. Well, they had to convince LeBron James to be the third best player on that team. Do you remember it was like, like last year?

Like if you really applied the filters for this like one month of Lakers basketball last year, they were like the best defense in the league for like a month. I was completely fooled by that month. Like just defensively, that is what he is talking about when he says, like we've already had conversations

about what's expected to play. He's not talking about, knocking down shots. He's talking about playing defense. Yes. And I'm looking at Luca and I'm looking at Austin Reeves. Right. That's where it's going to be. They're asking Mr. Kessler to clean up everything. A lot. Yes. Everything.

Everything. Yes. It is part of their defensive strategy is Lucas man is going to get past him. Mr. Kessler, you're going to have to fix that problem. Same with Austin Reed. They are also going to be dependent on people missing three. because teams are going to be able to generate a massive amount of open threes against them.

Because if Kessler is the rim protector that they expect him to be, people are just going to be driving to the paint, kicking out, and the rotations are slow. That's it. That's it. So, I mean, you're then, it's like, and some teams can't survive like that.

And just play the math and just say, hey, look, we are going to give up a bunch of open threes, but what we're not going to do is give up corner threes. And so you're going to have to hit a bunch of top. of the key and wing threes against us. I mean, can't you see this playing out? Player X gets past Austin Reeves. Walker Kessler steps in to help.

Then someone helps on what Walker Kessler's man, leaves the guy in the corner, then you kick out to the corner and he hits a three and they jog back on the fence. That's it. It just feels like that's going to happen over and over again. There will be an immense amount of open threes taken against the Lakers.

It's just a matter of whether people hit him or not. Next question. Here's what. Everyone's favorite league pass team in Minnesota, Anthony Edwards, leader of the team, had to say about some of the changes to the roster. I guess had some changes, Lamella coming in, J.K., coming in, just what's your overall thought of the changes that have made and what you think the new guys are going to bring here? I'm going to miss Nause for sure. That's my brother, but I'm super happy about the changes in the locker room. just a bunch of different

mentalities, personalities, and I think it's going to mesh well together. Now, in fair, I know you could draw something from that. Look, the Julius Randall thing.

You could clearly tell that there was a, they weren't all on the same page. Right. They weren't all on the same page last year. And so I don't think it is irresponsible to draw from that. Now, on the other hand, of course he's going to miss Nott.

You know, there was an article written by the guy that asked that question, John Krasinski wrote an article last year about how the three players had been drafted together, came in together, had played together for seven years, and went from the little table to the big table together, and that was McDaniel's aunt and Noss. So, I mean, look, that's a long time that those guys spent together. and Nasreed was clearly a fan favorite. And so it will be a little weird just with Nas Reid and Mike Connolly's not there anymore

and he's kind of been around as a bet guy was on that team, et cetera. But I think they will on court and in locker room miss Nas Reid. And I also think they will on court and in locker room not miss Julius Randall. And I believe that to me. Verno.

When I put together this rundown, there was one story that no one's talking about that I couldn't wait to get your take on. Uh-oh. I could not wait. You are a golf guy, right?

Love to golf. You fly places to play golf. You're a golf, golf guy. You literally during Christie's games, Google golf sunglasses or whatever the hell you were Googling last year.

I mean, in fairness, as I was watching, our starting shooting guard was Lucas Williamson. Okay? What do you want me to do? You're Googling like Best Golf Bizer on the market or whatever you're doing? Golf, big golf guy. Only LeBron James cares more about golf than Berno. This is a quote, I want to get from Mike Forkanov on Twitter.

And this is Julius Randall talking about golfing with Yeager Jomyn, which really should be Igor Dien. I don't know why we don't call him Igor Demons. Yeager Joman, sure. And McKell Brown Jr., young Nets' teammates, his new teammates, he went golfing with them and here's what he said. Quote, I learned that really, really fast on the golf course.

Third hole in, they were trying to take their shirts off. You know, it's just like they didn't understand golf etiquette. McKell broke a club, a driver on one of the holes, so I learned really fast that I'm dealing with kids. I have so many questions, but first I want to hear from Guvrano, have you ever golfed topless? And do you take your shirt off at the third hole

every time you golf? I've never even, like, I don't even think you have to know golf etiquette. Like, yeah, yes. What? Why do you want to take their shirts off? I just think that that is like,

you're giving them an out, like, I got a, golf etiquette. Like, why? It's bizarre. No matter. It's like taking your shirt up in the middle of like a conference room. Like a staff meeting just taking your shirt off.

I've been on, I, no lie. I have been on all manner of golf courses from private to exclusive to munis. I've never seen someone without their shirt on. I haven't golfed. I've golfed some of the hottest days. Like when there's like no one out there.

And one time my buddy, shout to former best friend Mike, he took his shirt off and he was wearing like an undershirt, which has another term that we won't use. And some strangers commented, I'll just say. Wow. Yeah, I've never seen that. And so I think you're giving him an out by saying, oh, they didn't really understand golf etiquette.

No, no, golf etiquette. Why would you want golf topless? I mean, to me, that is like the equivalent of, you know, all went to Target and McAll and took his shirt off. Like, why are you taking your shirt off in Target? Just imagine you're on the operating table and the doctor walks in with no shirt. You're just like, what?

Like, no, no. Put a shirt on my guy. That's not about, yeah, that's not medical etiquette. Yeah, it's not medical etiquette. It's just weird. I just couldn't believe it. Yeah. I was like, is this real? They wanted to take their shirts off. And how did he break a club? I've never broken a club.

Oh, I look. I'm not judging anyone. I have absolutely broken clubs. And I have lost a... You want to know the funniest thing ever? I, years ago, there was a lot of money on a hole. When you say a lot of money, what are we talking?

I don't know. It was a pressed hole. So, I mean, we're talking about maybe a couple hundred hours. I have no idea with that. Like a panini sandwich? What do you mean? It's a pressed hole. Oh, like the bets kept pressing, right?

Like, so... Oh, got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So carry over, carry over, carry over, carry over, get bigger. Let's just say a couple hundred, right? And I am playing, I am playing at this very nice course that is in town. And I, on the last hole, I shank this drive. Like, I mean, I just flare it dead right.

And I took my club and I threw, I took my driver and I threw it. Bro, it went, it hits a tree and stays. in the tree. Good. Buddy, you want to talk about pissed off. All right? So I'm like, to hell with that. I don't care about that driver anyway.

I hope I never see it again. Okay? So anyways, I go on the air. I tell this story. I'm on the radio. I tell the story. Bro, a guy comes up to me at the Grizzan game and he goes, Verno, I've got your driver.

I got your club. I was like, what? He said, I heard you tell that story on the air. He goes, it fell out of the tree. and I happen to be at that course the next day. He's like, and I told him, I said, throw it in the trash. Yeah, true. I don't want to see that thing ever again.

So I'm not judging anybody. I've done it. I've broken clubs. Oh, I've had to have full conversations with myself. I get it. I'll be like, Jacoby, number one, you're not good at golf. Number two, why are you getting this upset? Why?

You're just out here to have a good time. You're barely keeping score. Why are you so upset right now? Like the rage that comes from that sport. I'll play bad at basketball. I miss a bunch of shots and turn the ball over and lose a pickup game. But I'll never get as mad as I do when I play golf court. I've gotten,

I've gotten way better about it. I mean, I can't, that's been years. I haven't done that in years. But when I was like just first like really learning that, yes, the level of frustration.

It's weird. No, no, no. And I think, honestly, I think you get much better once you let go with that. I do.

But it's also, I've never taken a lesson. I play once a month at best. Right. What do I expect? Like, what do I expect? I expect to go out there and shoot 72.

You know what I mean? I don't even, what am I? God, anyway, keep your shirts on. If you're playing golf. If you're playing golf, keep your shirt on. Next question. All right, very quickly, we got two more places to visit. Number one, let's go down to New Orleans.

And I've almost like forgot about Zion Williams. He was asked about his career and here's where he had. Zion, where do you feel like you're at in your NBA career? I'm not where I want to be. Where do you want? I'm just not where I need to be. I'm not where I need to be, not where I want to be. Follow up question.

Do you mean sort of like with the success that you've had or do you mean like not where you want to be physically in New Orleans? No, he means in his career. Like, I mean, he's not where he wants to be in terms of the, you know, what is this year eight? I mean, we're pretty far into this thing. Yeah, we are. And it's like the expectations versus the reality have been

completely different things. but you would hope, you know, you wait for it to switch and these guys, like, grow up and start being able to, you know, he's been around and he's talked enough. Like that answer was like what an 18-year-old would give. Seriously. Like, he knows what he say. Like, expound.

Like, what, like. At some point you want to. They ask a follow up. I know. I know. Where do you want to be? And you want him to sound. I want to be.

You want him to sound like, you know, hey, this guy's like, he's really grown up. There's a level of maturity here that we hadn't seen before. He sounds like a different guy. You know what I mean? That kind of understands why this is gone, you know, I didn't take care of my body like I should have. I haven't, you know, now the next goal is, you know, they keep telling me I'm, you know, Mosley was saying, like, he was very clear. Zion needs to make other players better. Like that's what we've got to get him

You know, it's one thing to be able to go out there And you know Get the 20 something points and get the rebounds or whatever else But I mean like just I don't know It just it sounded like That those answers were like Eli Manning after he got in trouble

You know what I mean? Like you see that press conference They asked him like 50 questions And it took like a minute and a half Because he was just like you know Shut it to play this weekend Yeah right Yeah on Cincinnati

I mean, I don't know. You just, it, it's, it's, it's, I'm not trying to be unfair. It just still seems immature. That's what I say. That's fair. I mean, sometimes I do have to remind myself that he's, we get paid to talk into microphones. He gets paid to play basketball. He's a basketball player.

You know what I mean? So, you know, there's a certain level of, like you say, maturity and eloquence that we want. But, you know, that's not his profession. But it's just not expound. Look, and again, I'm not trying to beat him up. I'm saying, it's just, it's. You know what Media Day is. And so when somebody says, how would you evaluate things so far,

you can either give a thoughtful answer or you can be, you know, smiling, saying not where I want to be. Like, what does that even mean? I come on. So, wait, Bruno, we are recording this. You've been in the league eight years. We're recording this and then we're going to disseminate it via the worldwide web, as they call it. And I just want to be clear that you're defending Jalen Brown, who said next question. but this needs to be expounded upon.

Oh, perfect. I'm so glad you're saying this to me. Because you're a hypocrite. No. You are a hypocrite. This couldn't be an easier answer. The first question was crap. The question that Zion was given was A, a good question, and B, an absolute layup.

That's why. Jalen Brown was asked who the alpha is. which is never going to give you the answer you want to any NBA player. Go to any NBA locker room or any NBA press conference and ask them, who's the alpha on this team? Okay, that's never going to get the answer you want. Whereas when you are just open ending, asking someone to evaluate where they are in this course of their career,

and then you follow it up, giving them the opportunity to explain, hey, man, why do you feel that way? Why do you feel you're not at the place in your career that you want to be? And then you just smile and just say something, you know, I mean, just to make it go away. Those are, one guy is intensely thoughtful and is, like, frankly, offended by the fact that you're even asking, like, who is the alpha on this team? Like, what, what, again, I asked you at the very beginning.

So, no, in fact, I couldn't be further from a hypocrite. I am the opposite of a hypocrite. What is the opposite of a hypocrite? Huh? A truthseyer. A truthseyer. And someone asks me, where am I in my career? It's like I've always wanted to be surrounded in a windowless office the size of a phone booth,

surrounded by massage parlors and like makeup tutorial classes. And creepy people walking around in the middle of the night and CPR training room. I've always wanted to be here just in a stuffy, windowless office talking to Chris Vernon on the internet about the NBA. The truth say. Chris Vernon is the truth say.

The truth say or Chris Vernon. The opposite of a hypocrite. That's what I've always said about. What's the like working with Chris Vernon? That guy is the opposite of a hypocrite. That's it. All right, finally we're going to Sacramento. We all have seen it by now.

The hot mic moments between some beat reporters at Media Day discussing the looks, attractiveness and personalities of some of the new and veteran Sacramento Kings. Berno is someone who's been in front of a microphone

for quarter century plus. How are we feeling? It was so intensely cringe-worthy to press play on that and then hear it. Because you know what is that I think, how do I say this? The idea that you are having that discussion where it is even possible that you could be picked up on a microphone is crazy.

You know what I mean? Like the also, it's not great for. the topic of conversation to be about the looks of these guys, right? I have seen female reporters being like, oh, this is, this is not great. You know what I mean? Like that this is a, because it is an example of, if people want to hold things against you, then they will use this. as an example of

and that the idea that this thing is caught on a microphone is I mean I've never thought about Ben Simmons's skincare routine

he does have great skin and I've never really thought I didn't realize that I guess you see so the girl that talks in the third person it feels like whoever the other girl has kind of gotten off the hook here because she's the one that kind of says the first stuff. There's just one point where I believe they reference playing for the Sacramento Kings will do to your face what being the president in the White House will do to your face, which I think that gets brought up. And that to me is hilarious, number one.

So kudos to that turn of phrase. That cracks me up. Another thing I want to say is I am not going to sit here in front of a microphone. and do some holier than now thing and act like I've never commented on how hot a WMBA player is to a buddy. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not going to sit here and act like I've never done that

because that's ridiculous. I don't lie into microphones. But I will say, as someone who does wear a lav microphone often for their job, it's a night name. It's like holding a grenade. And really what the problem is

is people don't know you're wearing it. So when you're wearing one, there's a responsibility to let everybody know that you're wearing. wearing one. And when people come up to me in the office or whatever, and I'm wearing one, the first thing I say is, I am miced. I am miced. I am miced up, even if it's off. Because you can turn that thing off. I don't feel comfortable unless I could turn it off. I could put it a blender and tear it up and I can block it in a safe and put it in the bottom

the ocean. And I'd still be scared of picking up Sam. I, again, one of the huge failings is she's making fun of Ben Simmons for using the third person so then she says her name and it's like oh if you just wouldn't have you might have been it would be like me saying I'm Chris Vernon and then saying all of this crap behind the night what a nightmare but you're right about

the hey this is funny so yesterday I'm at Media Day and I'm walking by and Cam Spencer who I love is walking by. And Cam Spencer's like between stations, but he's got a basketball.

And he's like kind of, you know, putting stuff up at the basket, right? And so I walk by. And I'm like, oh, I'm Cam Spencer. I can't even do anything without a basketball around. Ball is life. Hey. So he's like, check up.

Right? He throws me the ball. So I checked it up. I go, I put an elbow on him. He comes up through it, hits a shot, and he goes, and one bitch. And he goes, oh, no, I'm miced up. I hope somebody had this somewhere. They too.

Somebody does. I do, too. Somebody does. It was just one possession, and he did get me. But, again, there was like this fleeting moment where he forgot that he was miced up or whatever, and I'm sitting there thinking about stuff, just like you were saying. It's like, you know, good. grief. How was that on the

live stream where everybody could pull it? And again, it's also like there's an audio. Also when your talent, you have to assume that someone's making a mistake. You know what I mean? Because they're on it. They get in your ear, they're like, we're clear,

but the audio person has to cut the mics. The other thing is that the fact that it's the Kings. I mean, I already saw somebody posted this morning. Zach Levine's wife, like, comment did like great start to the season or something. Like the rolling eyes emoji.

It's like it's the most king's thing ever, isn't it? It really is. Could that happen to anybody else? I just... The other thing is they add, did you see like what they as like, then of course, then the algorithm is feeding me king stuff. And like somebody's like, Darius Aikoff, like, hey, what have you liked about Sacramento so far?

And he's like, the food's all right. I had a burrito. Oh, God. Have you been to Sacramento, dude? No, I have. You could roll a bowling ball on the west side of Sacramento, and it's not going to stop rolling until the east side of Sacramento. Oh, wow.

It is not a large city whatsoever. I just want to say one thing about you, Chris Vernon. Absolute opposite of a hypocrite. Yeah, that's what I have many people. Absolute opposite of a hypocrite. That's how most people describe them. Yeah. I mean, I'm going to order the greatest.

They say, they say, that guy, that guy's a hypocrite. And then another person who pipes up and they say, no, he's the opposite. Opposite. Opposite of a hypocrite. Whatever that is. Yeah, you don't know. That's Chris Vernon. The truth sayer.

All right. Too important today show. Unbelievable job by you. I mean, you threw together media. I have worked this hard in 20 years. I trusted you to throw together the media day clip. No, no, no. Jeff and Stepp did an unbelievable job today.

Hold on. I take people behind the curtain. I'm looking at the text right here. What? You know, I'm texting you throughout the day, clips from Media Day. Yeah. Oh, John Concher, the Knicks,

we didn't discuss that. And then you wrote, so how do you want to handle how we do Media Day's news? I can compile a list, but you said you want to play clips, question mark? Yeah.

That is a man passing the buck. That is you, said, okay, I'll jot down a list and just do it as few worth mentionings. That never happened. I do have them. Did you jot down a list? You talked for an hour and 20 minutes. What do you want me to do?

Yeah, I've got my list. You want them? You're just going to send all the clips to the fellas question mark. Make sure they can pull them and play for sure. Ha ha, ha. Think Jesse's not there. So you basically said, I don't want to do the work, Jacoby. You have to do the work.

That's not true. You said, I'll just do it. That's very clearly. That's exactly what I said. I'll just do it. And what did you want me to do? Did you want me to step up and be like, no, no. You said you were going to send some of a list.

I said, I'll do it. I said, where's the list? Where's the list for me? It's right there. I didn't, like, you're going to mail that to me? You're going to put an envelope, put a stamp on it? I said I would do it in case we needed more stuff. We didn't talk Jalen Brown, SNL.

We didn't talk. Well, he wasn't on SNL. Oh, Jalen Branson. Brunson. Brunson. Clippers, totally depressing media day with Keaton Wogler being asked if he felt pressure since they don't have

five first-run traffic until 2035. What else you got? Opposite of a hypocrite. Okay, see, redemption. I've got Tatum and Paul George. I've got the media day I was at, which was mega-strange because of the first time.

We didn't talk about that. No, Jalen. The only thing that matters is Cam's Fennel. or got an and one against me. Yeah, I learned two vets on the grizzlies that have been on other teams, so I did not have an awareness of them prior to, was beef stew and Jeremy Grant.

Mm-hmm. Both, ready for this? You want to talk about how the NBA has changed over the years and what guys are involved in? Both of them? Farmers. Farmers. Farmers.

They both have farms. Farms? Farms. Like overalls, farm. Isaiah Stewart has a goal of becoming the biggest date farmer in the country. Oh, dates are hot right now. He has a date farm. Dates are hot.

He's out in the, go look at his Instagram. He's in the field overall. no shirt plowing. He's a real farmer beef, dude. Like a real farmer. Jeremy Grant, I got Jeremy Grant one time.

I busted him up. I pulled off one of my greatest jokes at media days. Oh, God. Did people love to hear stories about how great your own jokes are? Please tell. This was an amazing joke that I did.

An amazing joke. Brave reviews. opposite of a hypocrite. I told him that he was, that, uh, how lucky he was that we saved him

because this year they were, uh, he was going to have to pay for his parking spot in Portland. He loved that. He loved it. He loved that joke. And you love it. He's still talking about it.

He's still talking about it. To this day. He's still talking about it. have to remix the Gravestone. Here lies Chris Vernon, the opposite of a hypocrite who once told Jeremy Grant that he was going to have to pay for his parking spot if he stayed

in Portland. Yes. I mean, I will say, seeing I thought about this. There is a weird feeling that every fan base has for players that like when I'm looking, when I'm seeing Jared Jackson do the Utah Jazz

vibes video and I'm seeing John talk about life with Damien Lillard. And I'm seeing Jailen Brown. I'm thinking about Celtics fans looking at Jailen Brown and Bucks fans looking at Janus and Grizzlese's fans looking at Jha. And Charlotte fans looking at Lamello. Like it all just becomes very real yesterday. That is one thing that I did, you know, want to mention.

It all becomes very real when it comes to media kids. You're like, damn, man. And so when I walk into like a media day that I've covered, and there's no John Morant, there's no Desmond Bay. There's no Jaron Jackson and there's no John Conchard and there's no Brandon Clark, rest in peace. It's like, bro, where is it? You know what I mean? Like the things that you have become used to for the last eight years of your life, you know, since my kids were little are no longer what you're used to anymore.

It's just very, it's crazy the way the NBA, it's not like I haven't been to it before, but nowadays, you know, even listening to Stewart yesterday, he's like, I thought I was going to be a piston forever. Of course. You know what I mean? Like, I just never even thought about playing elsewhere. He's like, but he's like Memphis is perfect for me. Did you, uh, they love guys like me? Did you ask her about the video?

Oh, the Drew Eubanks? I didn't have him on. So the way it was set up was they brought in guys at different times. So when I was at, when I was at the day, yes, we had, a different group of guys. So I had like Jeremy Grant, Zach Eady, who else did I have?

I can't remember. Who else did I have? I can't remember now. Oh, Ty Jerome was with us. Taylor Hendrix. Just whoever was there at the time. Because they just cycle through. That's the way Media Day works.

They're just all cycling through all the different stations for Media Day. But yeah. The Drew Ubangs video made me think, like you don't, really know how you will react to getting punched in the face until you get punched in the face. He ate it.

That was, he didn't, I gained a, I gained a real respect for Eubanks. I really did. He didn't want to fight. He didn't seem like he wanted to fight. No.

And then he got hit and he just like, you expect the guy's going to be fly. You know what I mean? Like, I mean, Jordan Poole got knocked into a different hemisphere when he got hit. Drew Eubanks just,

ate it. I'm like, yo, okay, Drew U. Banks. All right. All right. You know, one thing they say about Drew Eubanks? You can eat a punch. Opposite of a hypocrite. Yeah, I feel that way, too.

He's probably exactly like me. All right. Thank you to Jeff and Steph as always. Jacoby, just a, I mean, amazing Media Day performance by you. Wow. I'm excited for this. I'm excited for the, we're going to get an Emmy for this, a Grammy? They give Grammys for podcasts? They give Grammys for podcasts?

potty? I don't know. I don't know what they're up. I think we'll get a Grammy. Whatever Amy Polar won last year. Yeah, whatever, Amy, that's what we're getting. I'm going to prepare my speech. Yeah, me too. All right. No, no, no. I'm going to talk. You'll just be standing next to me. Oh. Yeah, yeah. That's fine.

I'm like, uh, Teller. Yeah, but the opposite of a hypocrite. Because Teller never talks, right? He never talks. Yes. He just sits, he just stands there. And he's short. Yeah, we actually do kind of like Penn and Teller. All right. All right. All right, we're out of here. We'll be back next to leave.

Who cares?