The Mismatch - That’s True, That Might Be True, That’s Ridiculous: LIV NBA, 2024 Futures, and Player Empowerment

Episode Date: July 25, 2023

Verno and KOC have another rendition of everyone’s favorite game: That’s True, That Might Be True, That's Ridiculous (01:53)! They debate all the hottest topics in the NBA, from Austin Rivers’s comments about players demanding trades to why the Celtics and Jaylen Brown still haven’t agreed to a new contract extension. Also, they discuss if the NBA should be concerned about Kylian Mbappé’s extravagant offer from the Saudis, KOC’s full-body health scan, and the biggest question of the summer: Just how great was 'Oppenheimer'? 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 check out http://theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Sean Fennessey. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And together we host The Big Picture, The Ringers Film Podcast for new releases, career retrospectives, director interviews, movie drafts, top fives, and so much more. Twice a week, we break down the latest releases, argue about whether movies are doomed, and debate our modern film canon. Listen to The Big Picture on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to The Mismatch.

I'm Chris Vernon. And joining me as he does every Monday night from The Ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, a.k. Kevin O. Palmer. Kevin O. Concer. Kevin O. Climber. Kevin O. Camper, Kevin O. Shredder. Kevin. How are you doing today, man? What's up? I'm doing well. Real offseason now. We have made it past the Summer League. We have made it past free agency. And so it feels like the NBA is all on vacation now, which is the perfect opportunity for us to bring back all of our listeners' favorite show and game. That's true.

That's not true. That's ridiculous. Dun, dun, dun. We need some theme music for this specifically, like, I don't know,

like a little, you know, a ditty. A music bet. Yeah, yeah. With that, with that,

you know, that's true. That's not true. That's ridiculous. Yes. All right, here we go. And I don't know any of these. The way this works.

I did not. I did not prepare Kevin O'Connor at all for these. Nothing. No idea what's coming. For those of you that have not heard this game that has swept the nation, I will give a statement. And Kevin will decide whether that's true. That's not true or that's ridiculous. Oh, no, I'm sorry.

That might be true. I screwed up our own game. Yeah. I have screwed up our own game. That's true. That might be true. That's ridiculous. For goodness sake.

It swept the nation, and I couldn't even remember what it was. You need a teleprompter for the title. Do you use a teleprompter on that TV show? If it's like a monologue-y type of thing, sometimes. It depends on this type. If it's something where you want to get your exact words, then yes. If you, if it's like you riff on it, then no. It all depends on the type of content what you're aiming for.

First statement. Austin Rivers, Ringer podcaster, is right when he says that when stars act like Damien Lillard is, it is bad for the league. He brought up Simmons. He brought up Hardin. He said, look, if you're in a trade, if you're in a free agent year, then you can choose where you're going to play. But trade requests that include a trade request trying to go to a certain place,

that that's not good for the league. Austin Rivers is right. That might be true. I think when it comes to player movement, there's pros and cons to it. Ultimately, if a player is under contract, they do have the right to force their way out and try to go to a team that they want to. Is it bad for the league? I mean, look at what, you know,

some of these teams get for these star players and the great returns that they receive and how it can reset the franchise and put them on a better trajectory as they go through a retooling phase. It's not always the end of the world when stuff like that happens, when you get a massive return back.

I think with that overall rant that Austin Rivers had on the Ringer NBA show, that part got the most play that we're talking about here with Hardin and Sift. Simmons and what they did. I think that's a little different than what what Dame's doing. And he kind of said that in a follow-up tweet where he's like, I'm not saying Dame is doing exactly

what James and James Harden and Ben Simmons have done. He's just saying that when a player, for Dame, if it gets to that point, it's really bad for the league. That's where I do think there's a difference. It is bad for fans when players end up going that far in order to push their way out rather than honoring their conduct.

contracts. And the bigger point that Austin Rivers made kind of off of that was how, you know, it's like we talked about last week, Chris. We kind of joked about it. The Sons with their four big contracts, four big salaries, and then it's Eric Gordon making $3 million. Right. He was saying how like you got players making $50 million or $2 million and you have guys that should be making mid-level type of money at 12, 13, $14 million that are signing for the vet minimum. I think his point within that was these guys that are top-heavy making all this money are the ones dictating where they get to go, when they want to want to go places,

whereas those players who were getting screwed, in part because of the new CBA, what she was very unhappy about and how it favors the best of the best, the top players that only creates a greater divide between them in terms of their power and their agency of where they can go and what they're able of doing, but also all these other guys that are talented players making significantly less money than they otherwise.

could. Yeah. And it's also, it's also fair to couch it with that Damien Lillard has not done this yet. It is a threat that is out there, right? This idea that an agent is going around saying, hey, if you go, if you trade for my guy, you are trading for an unhappy player. As if to, now, I don't think that anybody believes that if Damien Lillard, if Portland did trade him to, you. someplace other than his desired place that he would quit. I think it would be much more likely he does the professional thing, much like you think Chris Paul wanted to be on that Oklahoma City team? Of course not.

But he almost had them as a home court advantage team in his year there. And everybody gained a tremendous amount of respect for Chris Paul there when he was traded to Oklahoma City in that deal. That being said, it is a dangerous deal for seems to wonder will guys like it's not fair to put them in the Simmons and Hardin's class because those guys quit right they didn't get what they wanted and so they quit and just didn't play or they got fat or they just decided they weren't going to participate or whatever else and so the idea that that could become commonplace that is dangerous right you want that to just be

okay this is some weird stuff that's happened with these two all all time flakes, but that this is not going to be commonplace going forward. That a star says, hey, I want to go here. And if I don't go to where I want to go, then I'm just not going to play. Or I'm going to sabotage your season, or I'm going to sit out, or whatever the case may be. You don't want that to become common. And I honestly, I don't think it would with Damien Lilly. I don't think he has ever shown us anything for us to believe that.

And so you hope that it is just, you know, you can be mad about what's happened with Simmons and now with Hardin in Philadelphia, but that it's more about those two guys than it is some type of league-wide problem that this is an example of. But it is happening the next offseason, right? And so we will see. Next statement, Victor Wimbayama, Chet Holmgren, and Scoot Henderson are going to be the top three in rookie of the year voting. It has already decided.

That might be true. I would lean towards no. And one of the complicating factors here is the 65 game minimum. However, the wording of that rule wound up being. We still don't know the full details with how we still don't know. every little detail of how that's going to be determined. But I'd be willing to either Victor or Chet don't play 65 games, whether it's due to injury or load management or not meeting whatever the minimum

minutes thresholds might be. I bet on that. And plus, with Scoot Henderson, we don't have final clarity on the Damien Lillard situation yet. We don't know what players will we're returning that could impact his role and opportunity for Portland. And they still have Anthony Simons there who's going to be taking a lot of touches. is there's still guys within that roster, Jeremy Grant,

they're going to be getting a lot of on-ball touches and opportunity to, where it's not a guaranteed scoot is necessarily going to be a high-volume player, never mind high efficiency. There's other guys, like, I think could be in a similar type of usage rate and have the opportunity to put up big numbers. I'm in Thompson with the Rockets. I know he's playing next to Fred Van Blyte, but Fred Van Bland is somebody who can be a ball shareer as well.

Thompson could put up numbers. maybe somebody like, I don't know, like Keontay George in the jazz bat court, depending on how things balance between him and Jordan Clarkson, but they have a need for a guy who can be a primary and he looked awesome in Summer League after a pretty good freshman season for Baylor. I just think there's other guys too, like even like a grainy dick, like Toronto needs shooting.

He's going to come in right away and I would think be a significant part of that offensive rotation and dribble handoff, secondary pick and roll. there's just a lot of guys this year that I could see as a top three candidate rather than one of the big names, the favorites, as you're mentioned. And they are heavy favorites. Like on Fandul, Wembenyama, minus 140, Chet Holmgren, plus 400, scoot Henderson, plus 460, and then Brennan Miller at plus 1,500. And then Amend Thompson at plus 4,000. So it drops off fast. Those guys are heavy favorites. But I'd be willing to bet the field over those three. should try to extend

Kauai Leonard and Paul George and just see it through. It's the best they can do. Ridiculous. It hasn't worked out so far. Over. It's ridiculous. Ridiculous.

No. No. Not that this is the most, it's not like the metric that should determine what you do, but the few Clippers fans that I know and everyone, every Clippers fan that I have met,

I like talking to them like, how do you feel about the state of the team? They're like, oh, there's no hope. They feel, read. They feel like a directionalist franchise that took a big gamble and it just didn't work out. So to me, like, you're opening this new stadium in 2024 for the 24, 25 season. That's why I'm saying that that's why this was brought up, right? Because this is on the horizon. So going into rebuild, not probably the option that you want when you're trying to unveil some new

awesome stadium. Unless it's a rebuild in which you're trading Paul George, they tried, they at least had some conversations for the number three pick. They had conversations with the Knicks according to reports by others. Mark Stein was one of them. I believe Ian Begley was one of the others. Forgive me if I'm wrong there, but Paul George was involved in some discussions for trades. If the Clippers are, you know, come January, February, if they're in the finals conversation,

they got Hardin and their big three and Russell Westbrook coming off the. bench and they have a chance of winning the finals. And sure, keep going all in this season and try to go all the way. But if it doesn't work for any reason, whether it's come deadline time or next offseason, I think Steve Balmer, you really overpay for Bob Myers one year removed from his time with the Warriors. Maybe you go for a big splash like Missai, Yu-Jiri, get a new GM, new front office, and then have a clean slate entirely top the bottom in the organization.

And I could see that extreme being something that makes sense for Balmer moving forward, having a new stadium where then you build something that you had that was originally appealing to Kauai Leonard. Like Kauai saw potential with the Clippers, in part because of their young players, and in part because of the system that was being built there. And they got rid of a lot of it. But they kept some of the bones that was appealing that made the Clippers a team that was ready for a star. So I think if you can build that again, build more like a small market franchise typically does, that makes more sense to me rather than doubling down on these guys who don't play, can't stay healthy and have not proven that for years. Do you think anybody would trade for Kauai Leonard?

I know that sounds insane on the surface, but, I mean, wouldn't you just be so worried? They have catered to him in such a unbelievable way that you really, you got to just like turn the keys over and let him do whatever he wants to do, I think, at this point, because that's the way he has been treated. And I don't know if you'd be able to go about it as a normal team with him. I mean, Kevin, I was at a, I was at the game where he was awesome in the first half in Memphis, came out in the second half and did not play. And then sat the second half.

Everybody thought, okay, did he get injured? They never said if he got injured. They never said anything that was wrong with him. All right. No, it's one of the only times I've ever been at a game and there was literally nothing said. Like, you know, like you go to the PR people and it's like, hey, what happened? Nothing. Nothing happened.

Okay. And then we were like, all right, well, maybe he's planning. I'm playing the second half of the back to back in New Orleans. maybe that's the case. But it was a winnable game. I think it was like a four or five point game at halftime. Guy just doesn't play in the second half. I've never seen anything like this in 20-something years.

Then Ty Lou is like he's not going to be able to play tomorrow night or he is going to be able to play tomorrow night. And that's all I'm going to say about that. And then people went in the locker room and interviewed Westbrook and interviewed Powell and interviewed these guys. None of them had any idea. that he wasn't playing in the second half. It's like he just decided not to play in the second half. And they were all like beside themselves. They didn't even have time to like they didn't even.

Nobody even like talked it through so that everybody had an answer as to what happened. None of the players, the coach, the PR staff. Like nobody, it was just like he just, you just didn't play. Okay. Okay. And so like I, being that. for that and seeing how that one played out. And it was so obvious that no one had any idea what was going on.

He just walked out in the second half and said, I'm not playing. I don't know, man. Can anybody deal with that? Like, they kind of made their bed with it. The answer is yes. A team would. A team would come deadline time.

If the clippers are sputtering, they're in the playing conversation. And a team calls up and wants Kauai Leonard for the final stretch of the season. his last 35 games he averaged 27 points, seven rebounds, four assists. He shot 47% from three, 90% from the free throw line. He was an efficiency monster.

He was unbelievable. And then he tore his knee again. Yes, exactly. But for three months, from early January until the middle of April, he was a dominant force playing 36 minutes per game. Oh, it was a real thing that he may heads up, take down

Duran and prove to be the best player in that series. That's what we thought after game one. And in game one, he had 38 points and 41 minutes. And then in game two, he had 31 points and 38 minutes. And both of his games, he shot over 50% from the floor. He was getting to the free throw line, putting up the same type of numbers that he did during the last 35 games of the regular season. So for a team that come deadline time in February,

if they're like, you know what, we get a team, we get a chance to win the championship. Let's go for Kauai Leonard all in. And if he adds something to our team, we're going to win the championship. If he can stay healthy for three months, April, May, and June, that's what matters most. So if I'm a team in February, I'd want to load manage the heck out of him for February, March, and April. And then hopefully April, May, June, that guy stays healthy and you win a title. Yes, he's worth it, even though he's an expiring contract, even though he can't stay healthy,

even though he needs to play by his own rules. So would you extend him? I'm all in for this season, if I'm the Clippers. I'm all in from now until February. I'm all in for now until you, it's time to reevaluate in January or February. I'm all in today, but I may not be come early 2024. Let's talk about another oft-injured player. Ben Simmons, who had some very nice things said about him by McHall Bridges on a recent podcast.

Ben Simmons is going to get back to all-star status. That's ridiculous. What are you kidding me? He's some old man. It's no way. No way. McElbredges is all in. He's saying all the things that leaders should say.

Yes, he's saying all things that a leader should say. He said he's like super active on their like group chat and like, like he's been working out the summer and Ben Simmons is coming back. It's Ben Simmons Revenge Tour. Listen, I hope Ben Simmons comes back and is the all defensive player that we saw prior to the holdout back injury year when he got traded by the Sixers. I hope he goes returns to that player. I do. I genuinely do.

But I don't expect it to happen. So I'm saying that's ridiculous. You think he will never become an all-star status player again. I mean, back injuries are scary, man. They're scary, dude. They are. I mean, did you see my... You said what you said.

I mean, they're scary. Did you see my post today on Instagram? The, uh, I got a, like a full body scan thing. I want it because I've been, you know, I saw. No, no, that's in this. Oh, that's in this. Oh, come on. Okay.

You think I'm ignoring that? Skip to it. I didn't know that you saw it. When you said, when you said the Instagram, I thought you were going to say something about Ben Simmons. No, no.

I saw your brain, much bigger than I thought. Well, I was just going to say with that, with the per newvo thing that I got, it was a full body scan. Right. At L.A.

And that's like, it tells you all about these, you know, potentials, like stage one cancers, back stuff, all that. Like all these preemptive things that you can get ahead of.

But I just wanted to do it. I've been working on my health this year. I felt like it was smart to do that. So anyway, it said I have a slightly herniated disc in my lower back, which I'm really not that surprised by after a couple of little back scares I've had the last 15 years or so. So it's all, it's like I'm being extra cautious. I'm not going to jump out of a plane and go skydiving.

I'm not going to go bungee jumping. I'm going to be cautious with my back. Gotta stop pumping your pillow. No, you're herniated this, right? Yeah, I know. You got to be careful with it. Yeah. That's why I'm not getting any.

Let's just move straight to that. That's my excuse. Getting a full scan is worth the money. Yeah, for sure. You're saying that's true? Yes, that's true. The amount of information is unbelievable. Like, I didn't expect to see all the,

type of stuff that they give you in terms of like the scans of every part of your body, like the health of every part of your body pretty much. Like the skeletalature, you know, if anything's wrong with there, the, you know, your liver, your intestines, your heart, aneurisms, your brain. And it's all like presented. They give you, like, you saw the image I posted of my brain. Like that's just a screenshot of like a video. How long does it take?

One hour. I did the one hour one, which is the full body. And then the next big thing is on your post, you edited it at the bottom and said, hey, they reached out to me. If anybody wants to do this, you can use this code and get $300 off. So as soon as I saw $300 off, I was like, okay, this thing's got to be super expensive if they're giving you $300 off of it. How much is this thing? Let me see. I think it's like 1,500, if I remember correctly.

Health insurance cannot cover this at all, right? I don't believe so. No, no. It's something you do on your own. 1,800. Oh, wow. For torso scan, 999. So they have different ones.

So, yeah. But you think you got value? Yeah, I mean, look, dude, like, I think, like, there's little things in there where it's like stuff that you shouldn't worry about, but it's good to be aware of, like a 0.5 centimeter cysts on your, on your kidney or on your spleen where it's like, okay, that's nothing to worry about. But if I ever start feeling like some pain there in three years, well, then I should immediately go to the doctor and be aware of stuff like that.

So I'm very happy I got it because, I mean, as I said in the post, it's like losing my dad and three years ago, like that stuff can sneak up on you fast, right? And about a year ago, I heard about it. No, and I just took a while to get to it, but I feel like it was super easy to do. I liked it. I was able to listen to Pink Floyd while in the MRI. I would encourage anybody to do this, and here's why. I, much like you. And I think that it's unfortunate that we went through extreme tragedy in order to have this. But when you were going through with your dad, I talked to you many times about how my best friend from college died when we were in our 30s, our young 30s. And it was like he was, he was in my wedding and he was at the house and he was like holding his side. And he had had this sport hernia in his side since we were in college. And it just started to hurt him. And so he was like, I got to like, I got to, I got to go finally get this thing operated.

And when he went to go get it operated, they said it's not the hernia. It's a mass. And you've got stage four melanoma. And it's like he always thought that's what it was because he's had that since we were in college, right? He was a baseball player. Just like my dad thought the pain on his side was his hernia that he had kind of like in the middle of his abdomen area. He thought it was just that. And it's a shame that we went through these tragedies, but it does, it gives you this alertness to like, hey, I see what that did to me.

I see what that did to you. I see what that did to his family and everybody else. And I think to myself, man, I was never, I, I never go to the doctor ever. I've just never been. Do you today? I go for the, I go the, I do the, it's called, the thing here is called like life signs. And they do. So like you get your annual physical.

Yeah, full, but it's like they do. They do your blood work and all that. Yes, they do the scans. They do the scans. They do everything. So I for sure now I do it, but it's only it's I never did it before that. I see. Yeah.

In my life until until that happened. And then it starts to freak you out. It's like, bro, he would have known. Yeah. He would have known. You know? Because I come from the like my family's all southern people that just don't, you know, like, stubborn.

You know what I mean? Yeah. One of my friends said to me. me before, like he said he doesn't go to his physical or whatever. He hasn't gone for years. And I was like, you should go. And he says, what, what's he going to tell me that I have high blood pressure? Yeah. Yes. That's what he's going to tell you. And that's why you should go. To get that corrected so you can be as healthy as you can possibly be for your kids and your family and whatever else. Yes, that's why you should go to the doctor for him to tell you that you

have high blood pressure. Exactly. And hopefully, hopefully somebody in our listening audience, it'll help them, honestly. Because I just, it's, it's, scary. And I am an endorser. When I saw you got that, I was happy about it. Yeah. Dude, I was, yeah, like a lot of people were like, hey, man, like I had some people text me like, hey, like, how long did it take you to set up an appointment? Like some friends here in L.A. And I was like, you know, I could have got one last month, but it was during the finals. So it would have been like three weeks to set it up. And I don't know, dude, like, yeah, I wish my mom could go. Like, she wants to go, but she's afraid of MRIs because

that, you know, the noise. So she has a really sensitive hearing. But. you know, with the hearing protection they provided. I sent like five different emails asking, like, how loud is the MRI? What type of, you know, hearing protection that you provide? And I felt very comfortable before going into the machine and while I was in the machine. That hour flew by, especially because you're able to choose your music. And I just put on Pink Floyd Duck's Out of the Moon and just relax for those 39 minutes until it shuffled afterwards. Next statement.

Jalen Brown not signing yet is a cause for. for pause. Everyone always said it's a matter of rubber stamp, it will be done, but the fact that he hasn't signed an extension yet is cause for pause with what's going on with the

Celtics off season. I love that expression, cause for pause that you kind of came up with a couple years ago. It's just so good. Cause for pause. Should trademark that. But, um, Jalen, I'd say that's true.

Because we're at July, 24th right now as we record and he hasn't signed the biggest contract in NBA history something's up something's up I've said this to you before Chris but everybody I talked to in the league

especially in the know with Boston says it's going to get done it's going to get done it's going to get done they said that in June they said it in late June they said it in early July they've said it in mid July well then why not going on yeah why not

yeah what's going on what's going on? What exactly are they haggling about here? If they were going to offer that, what, you think he's not going to sign his name to a $300 million contract? Something is up.

Whether it is Jalen's side of things where he wants Boston to show loyalty and how whatever form that takes, well, he can't ask for a no trade clause because he's not in his eighth year. You can't get no trade clauses when it's an extension.

Could Jane? Alan want to wait until next off season to sign the deal? No way. And actually enter free agency? No way. Bro, if somebody puts $300 million in front of you, you signed the dotted line. I wonder why the $300 million isn't in front of him. If it was just a matter of they're going to do it and then figure it out after that.

Or is it in front of him? No way. But he doesn't want to sign the deal yet. No chance. Okay. No chance. Okay. So let's assume that the $300 million is.

in front of him then. If there's anything we've learned, and look, we can go back to the first statement. Secure the bag, then you make your demands. Okay. Well, let's just assume that the 300 million is not in front of him then,

and that the Celtics are negotiating, and you're Jalen Brown, and all this is going on, this might turn you off more to resigning with the franchise, knowing that they could trade you in a year. And if you're the Celtics, why are you playing this out to infuriate him more?

unless you don't necessarily want to give him that money, unless you think that that hurts his trade value in one year if things go wrong this coming season, unless you're involved in discussions for Damien Loweard very quietly, trying to do a three-way deal that sends Jalen Brown elsewhere to get Dame or whoever it might be. Maybe it's a different guy in the market. I just think the fact this hasn't been signed yet,

something is up or has been up over the last month. Once everything is signed in the dotted line or not, that's when we're going to find out the specific details of what exactly has been happening here and what the holdup has been. Because it's very unclear right now with what's going on. I don't think it's just Jaylen Brown was on some MbPA retreat in Spain. And he wasn't able to be focused on this. Yeah, you make time to sign that contract. And it certainly wasn't done as soon as free agency opened, as many of the deals work. Yep, yep, right?

Something's going on. Yeah. Speaking of money, the tweets are funny for sure about the Mbapé contract. Dremond and Janus, I think, started it off. LeBron James has tweeted about it, about how Mbapay is going to get, like, he's been offered up to like a billion dollars, $747. There's like a $332 million buyout. And so you've got this $700,000.

million dollar time track. And just to be clear, it's the Saudis offering this to one of the top soccer players in the world. For people who don't know, if you're just all in on basketball, he's one of the best soccer players ever. And the public investment fund, which has been, you know, that's, you've heard a lot about it during the PGA stuff and live golf. You have heard a lot about it with soccer in the past. You have heard a lot about it with sports games and gaming EA sports, Activision, this type of stuff that, like, the Crown Prince is a massive gamer. So they got super invested at all these video game companies and everything else. And so you've heard this public investment fund a lot. And then you've heard sports washing a lot.

And so the tweets are all funny, but the NBA should legitimately worry if the Piff ever does want to get involved in basketball. I'd say yes. That's true. that the league should worry, because all it takes is for somebody with money out there or somebody's with money to say, we want to create an 18 Super League featuring the world's greatest basketball players ever. And you go at the top guys in the NBA, you go at some of the mid-level guys to fill out rosters, these guys that as we were just talking about are making $2 million.

dollars. Well, hey, you can make $20 million for our 40 game season over here in Saudi Arabia. I think there's definitely appeal to that. This is exactly what happened in Gulf, by the way. 100%. I mean, they went after them and they

didn't get Rory. They didn't get Justin Thomas. They didn't, but they did get, you know, they started to get bigger ones. They got Cam Smith. They got like... Mickelson, right? Mickelson, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But if you got Curry, if you got LeBron, if you got

You know, big ones, and look, I know there's already people out there that are saying, this is the sports washing works. Because look, now these guys are all joking about it. They're seeing Mbapet get $750 million. And Jonas is saying, yo, holler. LeBron's like, me and Rich Paul, we're putting up the funny memes, Draymond. The ink's not dry on that contract yet. You know, whatever.

It's like, it's becoming, and it's funny. joke, but like, there's a reality that, look, you're not, you're not winning. What golf found out is it, because obviously I talk about golf quite a bit and have covered it, you're not winning the money game with them. I don't give a damn who you are. And if they want to get involved in, you know, people are wondering if they're going to get involved in college sports, with NILs, people are like, they've got the money behind to do whatever they want to do.

And it's all a joke right now. But what if they do pop up one day and say, look, they popped up one day. And the Crown Prince said, I love video games. Google it. Google it. Google what they invested in video games. Google what they invested in the Live tour. Nobody's watching Live.

Billions of dollars. He'd thrown at it. You know, like, it's like, you better hope somebody over there don't love basketball. That's what I'm saying. Well, earlier this year, the Qatar Investment Authority, QIA, bought a small stake in the Wizards. 5% according to this website I'm looking at right now. 5% is what they got in the Washington Wizards. That was late last year when that happened.

So, I mean, money is already coming in for some teams, maybe more to come, ultimately. And I mean, Adam Silver's been asked about it. he called a two-edged sword earlier this year when asked about Saudi money coming into American sports leagues. So he's talked about it. He knows about it. He says, I hear the comments about sports washing. On the other hand, you're talking about it. Others are talking about it in the same way the World Cup brought enormous attention to Qatar. I think people learn about these countries, learn about what's happening in the world in ways they otherwise wouldn't. So I think the media does its job. But now talking specifically about the NBA, we're such a global sports.

sport, I think people are a little too dismissive these days about the benefits that come from the commonality around sports, that with a sport like basketball, it's an opportunity to bring people together. So that was Adam Silver's comments earlier this year when asked about Saudi-backed funds entering the league or specific teams and whatnot. But he has not been asked as far as I know about players being lured away from the NBA into a newly formed. league, which could completely disrupt the model of the NBA. If there's no salary cap for this theoretical new league where LeBron is making $100 billion.

They're giving this guy, 740. They are offering. Yes, that's what they're offering. I mean, three quarters of a billion for one year. for one year. One year. You can't compete with that. No, unless you get rid of the salary cap.

And if that were to happen. You still can't. Yeah, you're right. You can't. You're right. You're right. Most owners can't or wouldn'ts. They'd be unwilling.

They'd say, okay, see you later. No, and this is because this isn't about making the money back. That's not what it's about. Most people run a business and it's like, hey, we got to turn the profit. here, right? You see the amount of money those golfers signed for? They ain't turn a profit.

They ain't turn a profit. So, but they got what they eventually wanted, which was an end to the PGA tour. So it seems. So, who knows? Maybe that, maybe that's the lesson.

Do not, in the end, you have to be proactive about a partnership rather than. And once upon the time, even though Rory McElroy, became the face of PGA versus and he hates Liv and he hates all that stuff.

Once upon a time, Roy McElroy was the one saying, hey, these guys want to invest a lot of money in the game of golf. We should find a way to have them involved in this and have everybody together, right? Like in the end, rather than to set up a competition. So that's the trick, right? Don't set up a competition. In the end, this is what's going to happen. possibly. And so you might as well partner up unless you want to get into a, unless you want to get

into a competition. I don't know. I don't know. But seeing all those guys goof about it, certainly makes you think about like, hey man, don't goof too much because these jokers might throw a billion

dollars at somebody. I think they're joking because they want that offer. Of course they do. Yes. Of course they do. LeBron, he can become a free agent next to off season. And his son can enter the NBA. What if they offer a $150 million package deal for the both of them?

God bless. That's why you just get them involved and then your salary cap goes to a bazillion. You know what I mean? Who knows? Maybe that's where we're headed. You are out on James Hardin as a championship piece. Uh, that might be true. Oh, my.

Mike. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm out, pull you back in. I'm out in the context of the Sixers. I'm out in the context of Philly. Now, did you question it greatly when you saw the picture with all the cheeseburgers? Trillburgers. I did not see this picture. Oh, type in James Harden Trillburgers.

He looked like he was about to get uncomfortable, as he said. Look like he had about six of them. And he was stacked up, right? Oh, wow. Yep, yep. Like, sweating his ass off in that kid. All right, I'll give you another chance. You are out on James Hardin.

A PJ Tucker was there, too. Yeah. No, that might be true because I don't, I don't believe in him with the Sixers anymore, which, I mean, like, no, duh, he wants out. He doesn't want to be there. But, you know. throw him onto the clippers, a team all in with their last hurrah potentially.

I mean, who freaking knows? Like, maybe those guys stay healthy for one run. And James Hardin sets the table for, like, one of the best scorers in basketball and Paul George, a good two-way guy, maybe. So I'm not all the way out. Maybe he's got a chip on his shoulder after being traded for one last good run. And he's able to reach more of the peaks that he did in the, the playoffs rather than more of the lows that he also experienced.

So I'm not all the way out, but definitely more out than I've ever been. He has tested your faith. It's not that he's tested my faith. It's that he's 33 years old and he'll be 34 next season. And he has a ton of miles on his body. But that doesn't change what I've thought of him. And a lot of hamburgers in his hands. Yeah, a lot of beer in his belly.

All right. Last one. And I'm very fascinated by your answer in this. Oppenheimer is great. That's true. I gave an 8 out of 10. I think an 8 is great. An 8 is a great grade.

I had some people saying to me, how are you going to say Nolan doesn't miss, but give it an 8? What's wrong with an 8? An 8 is a great grade. There's only two numbers higher. Yeah, I don't hand out 9s and 10s like candy. Eight's a really good movie.

Like candy. It's a good. movie. And I very much enjoyed it. I had a, I had a great time over those three hours. I didn't really get bored or tired or anything like that. It's not a good movie. A good? Is it good or is it great? It's a great movie. It is. If you want to talk about it from an entertainment perspective, it's fun. I enjoyed it. I had a good time. If you want to talk about it from a technical perspective, it's absolutely incredible. So someone told me today, my co-worker. Musically, the act The acting is some of the best acting that you'll ever see.

It's unbelievable. My coworker Kelsey Rye Johnson gave us a review today on my local show. And one of the things she said was I wish, she's from Canada, so she doesn't know a lot about American history. And she said, I wish I would have read up on it beforehand because there were times, you know, at the beginning, you know, follow along, follow along. But as it went on, there were several times where she found herself going. like, what is going on here? You know, or confused by... I don't know.

They're building an atomic bomb. Right. They're building a bomb. I'm aware of what they're building, yes. I mean, they're at war and they're building a bomb. It's three hours, right? Three hours, yes. It's not too long?

No. No, it's not too long. Like Nolan, like, I think Nolan movies can often be hard to follow, but I didn't think Oppenheimer was all that hard to follow it. I could see the timeline being a bit hard to follow sometimes with how. Maybe that's what it was. You know, but,

you know, the story, the story itself fairly straightforward. But no, I thought it was great. Everybody that was in the movie was, was great. Murphy playing Oppenheimer.

You get Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Matt Dave. A bunch of random actors, Florence Pew. I mean, a lot of,

all of them were great. in the movie. I had a good time. It was fun. I gave it an eight out of ten. Maybe that's a little low in some people's eyes. I think it eight is a great grade. It was also, I saw that Thursday night, I believe, no, Friday night. And I saw Barbie on Sunday night. I went to see Barbie. Barbie was fine. Hold on. Barbie is great. That's ridiculous. Barbie is a perfectly fine movie. It's good. It's funny, but it's not great. It's funny. I had some laughs. Was it too woke for you?

No, I didn't even think it was woke. I don't know. I don't understand some of those criticisms that people have had for. Well, they say they make guys look stupid, right? Guys are all stupid in the world. I mean, I think it kind of makes everybody look stupid. I haven't seen it yet. I'm going to go with my daughter.

I'm going to go. Do you think I'll enjoy it or will I be bored? I think there's some laughs. You'll have fun. The last movie, the last movie, the last movie, I went to go see was what was the last movie? Super Mario, I think.

I don't think I saw that. I think Super Mario Brothers was the last one. I go to all the kids movies. You know what I mean? What are you doing? Barbie this week? Yeah, probably. Probably.

I probably won't remember a thing from the movie by next Monday when we record, but I want to hear your thoughts on Barbie next Monday. Yeah. Are you going to see Oppenheimer? Three hours is a lot for a father of two. I doubt that. I doubt that.

I mean, maybe. It depends. I don't know. It feels like one of those ones where my dad's going to call me and tell me I need to watch it. My dad's going to be like, have you seen this? You know, you need to watch this. You really do need to watch this. There's so much good history in it.

Oh, blah, blah. So, I mean, if my dad bullies me into it, maybe I will. The thing is with three hours, man. I don't know. The word great, I will probably never see Oppenheimer again in my life. Oh, then it's not great. Yeah, but there's a difference between a great in-theater experience. Like, that is a movie to be seen in theaters and experienced with the full silver screen and the loud sound.

That is the movies at its best. But I'm not going to watch it on a small screen. Do you think there will be a... movies like that aren't meant to be watched like that. It is great for what it is meant to be. Do you think there will be an Oppenheimer's rewatchables one day? Oh, yeah, for sure. Oh, you do?

Yeah, I do. So you do think it's rewatchable, even though you won't. No, but, like, not every rewatchable's movie is very rewatchable, in my opinion. Well, it sounds like you've got problems in the office. Well, I mean, they haven't done Interstellar yet. So I'm waiting. You can't believe it. Do you mean for the invite?

No, I'm just waiting. I don't care if I'm on it, just to listen to it. I'd love to listen to Sean Fantasy and Bill and Chris and whoever's on that addition to the show talking about Interstellar. All the pros and cons of it, all the criticisms that they have and all the things that they enjoy in that movie, I would like to hear an interstellar rewashables. But I don't think it'll ever happen because, Most people don't think Interstellar is very rewatchable. And I understand. I understand.

But Interstellar, when the 10-year anniversary comes up next year, if it is in IMAX for the 10-year anniversary, somewhere here in L.A., you bet your ass I will be there. Because it is the best in-theater movie experience I have ever had in my life. I saw it opening night in IMAX by myself solo, feeling good, punching on popcorn. On 50 milligrams. Probably. And I went through,

and I knew, that I experienced going through a black hole. And then I saw it again the next night with my friends. And then I saw it a week and a half later with my parents. And it was, you just kept going to Interstellar. Each time was an absolute thrill. It is the most fun I've ever had in a movie theater,

watching Interstellar. Watching at home is different. Like, again, Nolan movies oftentimes are about the in-theater experience. and I think with Oppenheimer it is very much the same thing and it's like you're like you love history

or like you really love studying film like in all the technical aspects of film because there are some scenes in that movie like the way the music kind of works with the way no one is filming things it is beautiful it is genuinely beautiful

there's a lot for like a young filmmaker to learn but I don't study movies like that if I'm going to see it I should go to the theater because I, you have to. The ADD gets me if I'm sitting at home, especially with a movie that long. Yeah. And you got to pay attention to his.

You do. Yep. You got to pay attention. And the theater forces you to pay attention. Absolutely. And I think the movie, the movie is at a pace where, like it didn't feel like three hours to me.

And I saw it at night. It was like a 7 or 8 p.m. showing. Yeah. But it didn't, it didn't feel like three hours to me. paste well. I don't think there's any moment where I wanted to look at my, look at my phone and, you know, see what was going on on in Scram or Twitter. Well, look, you said it was great and gave it a good score.

Yeah, an eight out of ten. That's a great score. No, no, that's not a great score. It is. No. In my book, an eight is great. An eight out of ten is 80 percent. That's an 80, which is a B. That's a B minus. It's barely ahead of a C. So it's not great.

I'm sorry. Nine is great. Ten is great. Eight. So you're just off on your scale. That's all. You got to decide. Now, my scale is one to ten.

Most people, when they're giving our grades, they're like six to ten. Why not just go one to five if you want to use, you know, half the numbers available? I go the whole way. I'll give out ones. I'll give out twos. A five is average.

And eight is great. That's my take when it comes. That's why I do all of mine out of 14. No one has. Any idea what the hell I'm talking about. I do it 11 out of 14. The 14 star scale is what I do. Kevin is always a pleasure.

Oh, Mailpack. We are going to try to. do those during the summer. And so give out the email address. People can hit us up at our email address and or Twitter or X or whatever it is now. That social media platform we've always used. You can send us. You can add us on that with questions for a mailbag.

Or you can send it directly to our email address, which is NBA Mailbag. at gmail.com. You can hit us up there or you can go to Twitter at Chris Vernon Show at Kevin O'Connor, NBA and just tweet at us with questions or email us.

And if you have, we'll answer as many as we can next week. I'll even talk about other movies. I've given an 8 out of 10 if you want me to. Love to. Thank you to our executive producer, Jesse Lopez. As always, Kevin, I'll talk to you next week. I'm looking forward to work. Let's have a good week.

Enjoy Barbie.