The Right Time with Bomani Jones - Tom Haberstroh on Knicks beating Spurs in NBA Cup final, NBA's injury issue, Warriors failing Steph Curry? | 12.17

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

Tom Haberstroh of Yahoo Sports joins Bomani Jones. First, they react to the New York Knicks' victory over the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Cup Final and discuss why the in-season tournament has been a success for the league. Later, they break down the NBA's injury epidemic amongst its star players and how it can be fixed. Finally, they discuss if the Golden State Warriors are letting down Steph Curry and if LeBron James & the Lakers are poised for turmoil as the season progresses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time, a wave original. My name is Beaumani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. It is that time of week where we have a guest join us coming to us live from Charlotte,

North Carolina. Check him out on his substack time, the finder, Tom Havistro, what's going on? It's good to be here, Beaumani. You hear for NBA Cup action? Dude, I have to say. And we're going to talk. We got the NBA Cup. We got a lot of NBA stuff that we're going to get to.

Incudence and some really interesting stuff about injuries. Wow, that sounded dark. But anyway, the NBA Cup just finished. The Knicks raised that banner, boys. Raise that banner. The Knicks got the win over the Spurs. We'll talk about Victor Win by Yamma in particular a little bit, you know, in just a couple.

But first, I don't know where you are on this. I was a skeptic of this end-season tournament. when it came around, it felt to me to be an example of Adam Silver, listening to podcast, and Bill Simmons cooked something up. And he was like, yeah, hey, you know, why not? Let's go ahead and give this a run. I didn't think that you would be able to create stakes around this. And I thought the stakes were necessary.

But I also think I kind of sort of ignored that these are still professional athletes. And like, there are just some people who trophies. It doesn't matter what the trophy is. Like, you told Michael Jordan that it was a trophy to go out there and win. Michael Jordan is like they're all championships. What are you talking about? Yes, the NBA championship. Oh, this new one? Okay, it's a new championship. And I, the games feel like they have stakes. Like the Thunder Spurs game on Saturday night felt like a game in a tournament of sorts, right? Playoff game feels like you're going too far. But it felt like a game that mattered. And I don't know what the ratings are.

I don't know what ticket sales are. I think that those things, you have to give those time. Like this is a 20 year project to me, if this is what you're going to do. It doesn't matter what those numbers are immediately. But what I did notice, and I felt like this the first couple years of it, it feels like something. And I didn't expect that. Yeah, there's a level of prestige in this that they've cooked up in three years running. And there isn't really any sort of like postseason importance.

Like you're not getting kind of any sort of carrot at the end of this season that matters for playoff positioning or whatnot. The prize is money. The prize is prestige. It's a cup. It's a trophy. And it's also an opportunity to go to Vegas. And I think that's an underplayed element of this is that in the NBA schedule,

it is an absolute grind. It's a grind for these teams. Like to get up for November games, December games, and to try to do this and realize, man, we got five more months until the playoffs. It is an absolute grind for these guys. Emotionally, physically, spiritually, it's tough to go through an end.

NBA season and realize, man, I got to get up for this game against the Wizards on a Wednesday night. The NBA Cup breaks up the season and gives them something with stakes to look forward to to and a little bit of respite from the 82 game grind where that you go to the Las Vegas and you go to the NBA Cup. And it's, you look at courtside, who's sitting courtside. It's a big deal. It's all the greats, the NBA greats. It feels bigger.

I think Amazon Prime taking this and having their production value on the game. game is much better than I think people realize is when you have, you know, Steve Nash, Blake Griffin, Dirk Novitsky, and Adam. So Adam Silver was, I think, at the post game show for Amazon Prime. He's like, I just want to give you guys a shout out. You guys do a great job on this, on this broadcast. And he gave a lot of jabs. He's sub-tweeting ESPN on this one, because I think he was trying to say, we need to build up these games and you do a great job of building up these games and making it feel important. You're on the court. You're on the court pregame in ways that I feel like the NBA needed

the NBA Cup to keep people invested in November and December of the NBA schedule. Because 82 games, I think we can all agree. We'll have this discussion later. It's too many fucking games. It's too many games. And so how do you raise the stakes to make these games meaningful? It's the NBA Cup is one of those answers. So one thing about professional sports leagues,

I think it's fair to say this generally, but I can definitely say this with more firsthand experience about the NBA. The NBA as a league, and when I say the league, I don't just mean the business entity or the people who are playing now. I mean league in a very big, broad sense.

Like in the league in the sense that Robert E. Lee Bob Pettett is still an NBA guy, right? Like the whole NBA, they love a good weekend to come hang out with each other, right? It don't matter. If it's Summer League, it don't matter. If it's the All-Star game, if it's the NBA finals, former NBA players love to go places where the NBA is. Because one big thing about being a former NBA player, I don't know if you play this game as Summer League, it's NBA bingo.

There's no telling what former NBA player you're going to see walking around, former coach, right? And they just sit and eat at the shake shack or any other little place that you might be, right? just out there hanging out. They love that. And so you tell them, oh, did you say, Las Vegas? I think I can find a way to get down there. Vegas might be dead,

but now will we show up? Yeah. I mean, well, I think what's also interesting about this is the NBA is moving, seems to be intimating that they're moving away from Vegas in the future, that it might not be back in Vegas, which is, I don't know what to make of that, other than Adam Silver said before the game,

on Amazon Prime gave him a little scoop here, is that the NBA is considering moving, moving the NBA Cup to a kind of a hallowed grounds in college in college hoops, maybe some, a certain arena where the commissioner might have gone to college. Oh, no, you got to be fucking. And he said some historical venues in college hoops, we might be moving towards that. So, Bomani, as soon as I knew that I was going to be on today's show, and we were going to talk about the NBA Cup, how do you feel about Cameron Indoor or Allen Fieldhouse?

I'm going to guess it's Cameron Indoor that Adam Silver's, you know, intamated here. How do you feel about them hosting at Cameron Indoor in Durham for the NBA Cup? So I don't have a great handle on how big Allen Fieldhouse is. And I want to be clear, Cameron is the single best place

for a college basketball game. Hard stop, right? This isn't just about me hating Duke. We get the fuck out of here, man. No. No. This is preposterous on like 85 different.

First of all, it's a really uncomfortable arena. Like, let's get that part there right now. This is, it is not an NBA arena. It's not up to the standards of what the NBA is. Also, the hoops come down from the ceiling. Like, it's not a, it's not a standard NBA stanchion hoop situation. This is very much, if you put NBA guys in that arena, it's going to feel very different. And I don't think that's disqualifying, Beaumani, because we see it in football.

they play in very different conditions, snowing, raining, what have you. In baseball, they had the field of dreams game in the middle of frickin' Iowa. So, like, I don't think that they're really, it would be unique in that the NBA Cup and in certain situations might be in a different arena basket situation, environmentally different. But it is going to be very different compared to, like, an NBA arena. It's going to feel very different than Madison's group. It would feel amateur. Like, it's just not.

And again, I would say that about if it was in. the Dean Dome. I would say this if they're going to Polypavilion. Like I don't really care. I just don't. This is not, this is beneath the standard of the league to me.

But for those of you who don't know, unfortunately for us, Adam Silver did go to Duke. And so there's that. Well, and camera crazies, the NBA doesn't have really, really have that. Well,

the worst part is those jokers might just show up and be rooting against everybody. You know what I'm saying? Just being annoying, thinking that it's a bad. I'll... Yeah, I know. I'm sorry to drop that bomb on it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it is weird that the NBA is pivoting away from Vegas and in ways that suggest to me, look, they're not going to go to Madison Square Garden on this, because I do think that the NBA doesn't want to really go to an NBA arena because it creates... No, neutral science is necessary. Yeah. Yeah, it's just Dolan getting that little, the benefit of being able to sell out Madison Square Garden for an extra venue.

an extra game. Doesn't seem like the other owners really go for that, which is why I think the Indiana hosting it or somewhere else in the NBA cities doesn't really make much sense. But that's why I think all sides

are pointed to this being at Cameron Indoor next year going forward. I think, and I said this earlier, this is a slow build, right? Like there's going to be a point where you look up and there are kids who dreamed of playing in the NBA Cup, right?

Like that's what you like. I always say when you, move a professional sports franchise into another city. My favorite example is the Arizona Cardinals. And if you remember for the first 15 years of their existence, especially when they were in the same division with the Cowboys, that was a road game for them every year because that city was full of Cowboys fans. It takes a generation to build up fans so where your local team is fully local, right, in that way. I feel like this is very similar. Take the time, make it such that the way you do with Summer League, Summer League is summer.

that for people who like to do it every year, it's like, yo, are we going to go to Summer League? Okay, cool. It's in Vegas. You know exactly what it is. Even if you don't sell a bunch of tickets, you can get people to actually wind up turning up. If you put this in an NBA city and the whole city is not in it, people ain't coming. Like you're talking about putting this in Indiana. I ain't going to Indiana in December.

What are you high? This is ridiculous. Stay here, build it up, make it feel like something. my guess is this sounds a lot more like trying to negotiate a little bit with Las Vegas or Las Vegas trying to play a little hard ball because right now, Times is a little hard down there. I mean, I don't think the NBA feels like they got a little leverage over Las Vegas right now.

Well, I also think that the NBA Cup is awesome. Like, I just want to say that right here. Like, I was a big fan of this because the alternative is what? Like, you're arguing the alternative is that they just play regular season games, right?

Yeah. Like, I don't think. think anybody is out here watching these type of games in the regular season with the same kind of numbers and the same kind of passion and the same kind of pomp and circumstance for a regular season game that doesn't count for much in terms of like the actual stakes of the game whereas this it feels big and and jalen brunson after the game accepting the MVP trophy and they're celebrating at at at at half court it felt big it felt like they really wanted this they they stormed the the court after they won in ways that i feel like

the NBA needs to project this image that this stuff matters. These games matter. And last year when Yannis, he won it. And he was like, yo, everyone chill. We haven't won a championship. This is not the NBA finals. I was like, bad look. Yeah, you know who got it right, though?

LeBron James. One of the best things that happened to this cup was the first year. Somebody who understands how the money works was like, hey, we're going to sell this. We're going to act like, and they're the Lakers, okay? They've won seven, two, is the 18 of these things? they were like, no, we're going to act like this is a thing. And I think that that was important. I think context for me, and I changed the way I looked at it,

and it really hit me in the Saturday Night game. You know what? It felt like the Great Alaska Shootout or the Maui invitation. And I mean that in a good way, right? Like every year it would be, you know, for those, and I guess they still do these tournaments, but they're not at the deal they used to be. But over Thanksgiving or over Christmas,

you had these holiday tournaments, right? in basketball, and that's where you would look up and be like, hey, Carolina's playing against the Fav 5 at the Maui invitation. Like, I still remember that game on grainy HSE on cable. But every year, it was a thing. And when I was watching that game on Thursday, which felt they'd had stakes. Like, those dudes cared about that game. It was like, oh, sometimes you just got to do a little tweak to it.

And now this feels intense. And that game between two teams that might wind up in the Western Conference finals, that game felt intense. especially since my guy, Victor, hates the thunder. I don't know how the thunder feel about the Spurs. I know Chet hates Victor and Victor hates Chet. I felt like Victor hates the thunder and the spurs do too. Victor gets it, doesn't he?

He gets it. We need more Victor being spicy with his comments and messy with his comments about ethical basketball. Like after that game feels good to play pure ethical basketball and we're about that brand of basketball. I was like, yo, Victor is here. for this NBA life. We need more of this. Like we thought that this was going to come from an American

player like Anthony Edwards and I'm like, oh, out here Victor Wembeiyama is talking about this in a way that the NBA needs a lot more antiseptic talking about trash talk, the other players and Chad Holmgren and they do not like each other. Victor Wembeiyama and Chad Holmgren, they go back to even before the NBA

when they're playing Team USA versus Team France when they were teenagers, they went head to head and it was an arrival. Like watching Chad Holmgren and Brian Winters talks about this all the time. He's like watching Chad Holmgren and Victor Wenbonyama playing as teenagers against each other felt like the future, right? It felt like this is going to be the NBA future, these long seven-foot guys who can play point guard, shoot, can do everything super skilled bigs that should be in different areas playing back to the basket around the paint.

They're playing like guards out here. And it feels like this is the next rivalry. It's OKC and the Spurs. And just like LeBron losing to the Dallas Mavericks in 2011, sometimes you need your ego just kicked down a little bit before you can really, really take that next step. And I think Victor Webbenyama doing that to the Oklahoma City Thunder, a team that he does not like, he does not care for,

and he's willing to say it out loud, I think that plus the Knicks loss, I think might be the best outcome for the NBA in terms of the story. Like, Victor Wembe Niam is going to hurt after this one. And I think that Victor Weminiama, what he did against the thunder, man, it's just great theater. I can't wait to see what happens next in the next chapter between Wembe and

and chat in OKC. Also, remember that thought you just had there, but in an analogous situation, when France is kicking our keysters in the 28 Olympics in Los Angeles. Remember, 2024 in Paris was a very similar situation to what you were outlining right here. he forgets nothing. I think the best part of that game against the thunder

is when he hit that shout over Alice Caruso. Well, though, the best part was him clapping every time Chet missed a free throw. But him pointing at Alice Caruso and calling him a little bitch while he ran down the floor. And I don't care how that you are, man. Ain't nobody for France talking to me like that, brother. Like that's, that's like you, your passport cedes your right

to speak to me in such terms, monsieur. Yeah, yeah. And the block against Chet at the end where he was just like, yeah, this is mine. You're going to try to back me down and I'm going to son you. And I wrote about this for Tom thefinder.com, my substack. They didn't challenge him at the rim the entire game. Okay, see, they tried to shoot their way to try to go over the top on Wemby. He finished the game.

And to be clear, as I read this article, when you say they didn't try to challenge him at the rim at all, how many shots did they take with him at the rim in that game? Zero. Literally. The player tracking cameras, they have this stack called defensive field goal percentage at the rim, and they track how many times you are within five feet of the basket and five feet of the shooter in an NBA game. And there were zero such shots in the game against OKC when Wembe was near the basket. Now, there was some quibble with that on like, was he five feet away or six feet away?

Okay. But the point of the matter is that Luke Cornet got challenged eight times in the game in his minutes. and Victor Wembenyama was a zero. Zilch, nada in that game. And so what OKC tried to do was what the Knicks tried to do in a sense. We're going to shoot and we're going to neutralize Wembe in some ways. But are we ready to talk about this next game?

Because I'm here. Let's go. It's right fast because we talked about it. I talked about it on Monday. But the plus 20 that Victor had in seven minutes in the first half of that game was unreal. Like everything changed when he came. into that game. It was kind of the opposite in this game where he was a plus 21 in the in the

Thunder game was a minus 18 in this next game. Yeah. And it felt like that. I felt like when I was watching Wembe in this game, it was a different player. And we learned afterwards after the game, he was tearing up at the press conference and he said that he lost someone today. We later find out that his grandmother passed away and he found out about it before the game on Tuesday morning. And I'll have it in my notes just as something that I wrote even before I found out that news. I was like, Victor is playing like he's doing hero ball on every single play, trying to block everything and trying to shoot threes and try to play hero ball every time down the floor. And it felt like he was kind of off his game.

Like he felt like he wanted it a little too much in the sense that he was out here. There was a play where Tyler Colick is going, driving to the hoop. He leaves O.G. Ninobe on the left corner three and tries to collapse to block Tyler Kulik, who he knows is not going to try on Victor Wembe Nama, because that's Tyler Kulik. This guy who's going to have 15 assists and no turnovers in a game. And that's his idea of a good outing. And he leaves O.G. open in the corner in a big moment. And O.G. gets a wide open three. And I'm watching it. It feels like he feels like he's not making the right decisions out there. Like he's going after everything. And it's kind of like he's over eager to,

make the big home run play took a lot of threes a lot of like hero ball threes in this game it didn't seem like the same dude that we watched on saturn in it against okay c and i don't want to belabor the point but i remember when i was 21 years old and i lost my grandmother i was a mess i was a mess for a week after that happened i don't think i cry that hard like in my life up until that point when i lost my grandmother at 21 years old not to make excuses for victor wemini my own performance but It explains something. When I'm watching him, I'm like, man, he does not feel like he's making the right decisions out there. And that's how I felt the whole game.

Yeah. I mean, I think that makes sense and not to take anything away from the Knicks, right? Because they, I hate that I miss that game that the Knicks played against the Magic. Because I was at the garden on Sunday when they played with Desmond Bain did that weird old move and threw the ball at OG. Like, I was a little curious to see what that was going to look like coming back around. but hey man there's no reason that the nicks can't go to the NBA finals right every i feel like every nick's game is just that's the question you ask yourself it's like oh maybe i mean i guess you can say that about just about the whole east because somebody's got to win it but i i don't have

a compelling argument why not the nix i think they're the favorites and i think they're the clear favorites you know the Detroit pistons have not gotten to the conference finals yet with this group they're a young team the nicks are not a young team and i don't know if you recognize this but mike Brown did not play McKellieges in clutch situation last night. Did not play him. That is not something Tom Tibido would have even dreamed of doing last year, wouldn't even think of doing last year. And Tyler Colick was balling.

They played Jalen Brunson and Tyler Colick together in the NBA Cup championship for long stretches. And it worked. And it worked because of Mitchell Robinson coming off the bench and getting 10 offensive rebounds and 18 minutes and just given it to Victor underneath the basket where, again, Victor was out here trying to block everything out of position and it left him liable for all of these offensive rebounds on Mitchell Robinson who would kick it out to three point shooters and Jordan

Clarks and dagger three Jordan Clarks and dagger three OG on Annanobi dagger three this was by design clearly Mike Brown was out here being like I want to be able to play Mitchell Robinson and capitalize on some of these Victor Wenbonyama swatting and getting out of position and try to get these offensive rebounds and kick out to shooters the Knicks do that better than anybody. A more three-pointers made after offensive rebounds than any team in the NBA. They shot 47% on threes off of offensive rebounds. And the reason is it's very strategic. A lot of teams work very hard to get an open three-pointer on a given possession. You know when you get a lot of open three-pointers on a given possession? When everybody's crashing the boards and you get that offensive rebound,

you kick out wide open threes on offensive rebounds. Some coaches don't like to do that because it feels like, hey man let's try to work a better shot here but the nicks they love this they love it they have like 20 more three pointers off of offensive rebounds than any other team in the NBA and clearly that was the differentiator was Tyler Culloch making the extra pass Mitchell Robinson getting those offensive rebounds and man Jordan Clarks and man jordan clark's and in tyler colick this NBA cup the way that they played and celebrated man they loved it out there something first of all a picture of Jordan Clarkson when he first gets to the NBA versus a picture of Jordan Clarkson now.

It's still hilarious to me. Like you normally see that happen to people in college, right? Like, it looked like he got sent to Juvie for a crime he did not commit and then just had to survive and came out like a whole entirely different person. I don't know anything about him at all. I don't know if he talked the same as he used to, but you go look at Lakers Jordan Clarkson versus this scared straight

didn't take Jordan Clarkson and it is discussion for a different day. Offensive rebound is coming back. People have been writing about this and the numbers are shown. It's not dissimilar to the NFL where running the ball on people has come back. Defenses have gotten small

and so now the move of the margins is to get a little bigger and go run over them. Offensive rebound seems to be coming back as a thing crashing the boards where teams like I remember Boottenhozer was the first person I really remember who was just like, yeah, we're not getting offensive rebounds. We're sending three people back and we're going to stop transition baskets.

However, the NBA is more fun with offensive rebounding because the NBA might bring back offensive rebounders. Like all these tall guys who can do a zillion things are great. We need an Oakley. You know what I'm saying? We just need some guys who are like, Mitchell Robinson is a great example. I just run hard and crash the boards. Those guys make life better.

We want physicality in the NBA. It's one of the reasons why I think the NBA has gone way too far in the office. offensive-minded philosophy and freedom of movement where it feels like a lot of times the referees are just calling fouls on guys just putting their shoulder into you. And the defender's like, I mean, how am I supposed to defend this? And a lot of times I feel like physicality was being rewarded in the playoffs last year and towards the second half of the season when Adam Silver had admitted like, yeah, we decided to make a switch with, which is kind of crazy for a commissioner to admit that they decided to change the rules without telling all the teams about how they're going to

make a rule change mid-season. But I do think that we want more physicality, which is clear. I think from fans, they want none of this grifting to be rewarded when it comes to, you know, driving and James Hardinification of driving and all that. But I also think offensive rebounds and how it gets kind of physical underneath. I think fans want that. I think teams want to be able to play offensive rebound game and try to be physical out there without fearing that you're going to get called for a foul.

So Mitchell Robinson, Victor Webbenyama going out underneath is good for basketball. It's also good for the sport. And I think fans, NBA fans or casual sports fans, whatever large group of sports fans you want to bring to the NBA back, I think physicality is a big reason why you might be able to recruit them back to the NBA. So this is tangential and kind of going back before we're going to break. It's something I meant to get to, but I lost track of. As much as we talked about that is Victor versus the Thunder. the kids on the thunder seem to be different young men than many of the kids on the spurs, shall we say?

There is a great contrast that's going on right now. Like those top four teams in the West are fun to me because they're all so different, right? Like you got Yokic and the guys around Yolkis. That's no shade to them. It's just that like Yolkich's, the numbers he's putting up are absurd. The advanced numbers are absurd. It just makes it hard for me to remember anybody else is on the team.

the Rockets, a zillion condors, right? Everybody's really, really tall. They got a bunch of those dudes. And they have Kevin Durant, who's not the old Kevin Durant, but he's still Kevin Durant, right? And with an Ime-U-Doka mentality of a basketball team. The Thunder, a bunch of really good, nice young men, and the Spurs, and the boys go hard.

Like, they are, they are coming for you, so to speak. Hey, did you realize that Stefan? Castle is a Wake Forest, the son of a Wake Forest player, Stacey Castle, who played with Rodney Rogers and Randolph Childress, transferred out after his sophomore year. But it, on the broadcast, I think they were talking about it after the broadcast that his father played in the ACC. And I was like, oh, oh, so he picked up a couple things from Rodney Rogers. Because the way that Stefan Castle plays, man, it is just like, he's, he's a second year player won two championships at Yukon, but I'm sitting here watching Stefan Castle. I feel total confidence when he has the

And it is very weird to watch guys that young, even Dylan Harper. Dylan Harper is a rookie out here and he just led the Spurs and scoring in this NBA Cup championship. I love the Spurs. I put them on my title contender list before the season and my title tier is calling that do every Monday. Before the season, I said the Spurs are going to make a huge leap this year. And Mitch Johnson, the coach who's replacing Greg Popovich full time, he's going to win

coach of the year. And they're making me look really smart with that prediction, except for on Tuesday, night. They kind of fell flat in the fourth quarter. And it was the Mitchell Robinson and Tyler Colerick show. By the way, rest in peace, Rodney Rogers. I didn't have a chance to talk about this on this show. And for those of you who are too young to remember Rodney Rogers as a player, NBA Rodney Rogers was cool.

College Rodney Rogers was everything, right? Like, we no longer, I don't think we, college basketball doesn't operate in the space now where you just have these guys that were like your favorite college player. And so the thing where Rodney was, he's an ACC, legend in the sense that like nobody hates Wake Forest. And so people did not think that he was going to qualify. Therefore, most of the schools didn't really recruit him, but Wake Forest did. They got it together. He wound up in school. So he wound up being this player that nobody rooted against, because nobody was mad because he didn't go to their school, for example. And he was a force of

nature. He was big. He was a little stocky, right? Like college power forward size. He was sturdy. He was explosive. He could shoot. He could do 360 dunks in games. It was all of it. And he is Durham, North Carolina's basketball player. Like that was, he's the local guy for people in Durham and you see him around and everything. It was a tragedy, obviously, when he got in the accident in the ATV and that left him paralyzed. But when he died a couple weeks ago, I was like, probably more closer to a month or so now. But it was just like, oh, no, no, no. For those of you who do not understand, this one hurts because this was a guy that you had to love if you watched him play basketball. And I got to say the Durham Bull, Rodney Rogers, when people say like, who's Zion Williamson?

And we would make the comp to Rodney Rogers. People thought we were crazy. But if you saw Rodney Rogers that wait for us, you'd realize there aren't too many people who were built like that who could do the things like he did. And he was an incredible player. I think a teammate, a lot of people love playing with Rodney Rogers, who was sixth man of the year in the NBA. And I just think it's tragic what happened to him because he was so invincible. Like that dude was as strong as anybody to come through the NBA, have the ATV accident, basically put him on a ventilator for 17 years.

And as someone who has been around a loved one on a ventilator for several years, I can't imagine the strength of he and his wife going through that. And I'm glad we got a moment to talk about Rodney Rogers because talk about beloved players in the NBA and basketball. There aren't too many people who were more beloved than the Durham Bowl, Roddy Roddy. Let me tell you this, too. My favorite Rodney Rogers detail. I don't know how much this was made.

to be. Rodney took care of his money, but I'll never forget this once, man. I was at the Circle K on Highway 55 and Cornwallis and I'm coming out and walking in is Rodney Rogers in his work clothes for the city of Durham. He was a heavy equipment operator.

Like, that was just how he decided to pass his time. It wasn't that he was broke or anything like that. He eventually became a supervisor, right? But that's how, like, that's how Durham Rodney Rogers was in case you were curious. But yeah, And now, rest in peace to him. Coming up next, we got some more NBA talk.

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routine. That's Drinkag1.com slash Bomani for $126 in free gifts for new subscribers. All right, we are back with Tom Havishow talking NBA. On Tuesday, Adam Silver did the press conference head of the NBA Cup. And he talked about injuries. And he made the assertion that they've got the data to indicate that there are no more injuries this season than there has been in a previous century. But you've been on this research-wise for a very long time. And you had a very interesting point about a bit of rhetorical sleight of hand that our commissioner was. was running. Yeah, so last week I wrote a big feature for Yahoo Sports about the two scariest words

in the NBA right now, which is calf strain, calf strain. We've seen more calf strains than we have in a very long time. If ever, you don't, injury data doesn't go back all the way to, you know, historical data. But I can comfortably say that we've never seen more calf strains in the NBA than we have this. And statistically, through 20 games according to e-street, in-clothes.com's Jeff Stotz, who's the best, most preeminent injury tracker in sports, he found that the incidence of calf strains in the NBA through the first 20 games is up 40% compared to last year. But here's the thing.

The time lost due to those injuries is up by 200% Beaumonti. So what's happening there? Teams, I talk to coaches around the league, talk to the medical side, docked sports docs, some sports docs that are even on the NBA. payroll that a consultant to the NBA, Dr. Richard Furkel, who operated on Clay Thompson's Achilles tear and also on Steph Curry's ankle injuries, to Marcus Cousins' Achilles

tear. Like this is the preeminent, like foot and ankle doc in the NBA. They're all saying something's up. And we're all kind of terrified of the idea that today's game is just too much force on these bodies. Too many games, too many up-tempo games. Like the game is faster. And there's so many three-pointers now, Bumani, that they got to defend 40 feet out now in ways that you would see a lot of pick and roll actions back in Rodney Rogers days. It was 12 feet in, right? You set a screen at the top of the key and then you try to go downhill at the rim. Now it's you're going downhill, building up speed. The runway is 50 feet long. A lot of these screens are now being set at half court.

And so think about the geometry of the game and the force that these guys are playing with where you get downhill now, Bumani, and you're running full speed for 40 feet instead of 10 feet. And you've got to stop on a dime. These decals that you see Anthony Edwards, Jalen Brunson, Denny Obdia,

Stefan Castle. James Hardin was great at this when he was at his peak. The decels, the stepbacks, all of this is in the stew for why we're seeing more calf strains and Achilles tears. There were seven Achilles tears last year, which was a league record. And three were on the same team, the Indiana Pacers, Tyrese, Tiree Salbert, and Isaiah Jackson, and James Wiseman.

Bomani, how many 23-year-olds can you remember tearing their Achilles like James Wiseman did? It's just a very old person injury that we would hear when we were growing up of, like, our uncle who went out here and tried to play pickup basketball, or your aunt who is going to play tennis and terrible. tour their Achilles. We're seeing teams now holding out their guys longer in these calf strains. And the latest ones are Evan Mobley and Austin Reeves. They're holding them out for longer. And I think a lot of it has to do with the kind of PTSD that you see from Tyrese Halberton in the NBA finals tearing his Achilles after a calf strain. And also, Damien Lither tearing his cap, his Achilles after his blood clot in his calf.

you saw Jason Tatum tearing his Achilles. So when Adam Silver is coming out here on the moments before the NBA Cup final in which Victor Wenbaniam is coming off the bench because of a cap stream, he's saying we haven't seen injuries this low in three years, but he is concerned about the soft tissue injuries, and I have the data to prove it. These soft tissue injuries are knocking these players out for much longer, and stars are not playing nearly as much as they used to,

And that is a big problem for the NBA because the stars are what makes money in the NBA. These contracts, Amazon Prime, NBC, they're not shelling out billions of dollars to watch the B teams out here. They're shelling out billions of dollars because Victor Wenbenyama and John Morant and Janice ended Akumpo.

But as the last week, none of those guys were playing because of these calf strains. And it's a big, big problem in the NBA. And it seems somewhat unsolvable because they're not going to dial back the style of play. Like we talked about this with Vinny Goodwill last week,

that once new technology is introduced into any system or any universe, people are loathe to dial it back, no matter how much harm it ultimately proves to cause. This is the smartphone dilemma, is that, boy, we sure need to use these a little bit more, but it can do so many cool things, and people are not going to stop doing the cool things. The game evolved to a place where,

I think another analogy point that I make that I think is similar on this is, the reason they didn't pass the ball and football as much in the past as they did now was passing is really, really hard. And so they figured out ways to make passing easier. But as it goes, they're like, why can't we develop more good quarterbacks? Because this is unnatural what we're asking for them to do, right? The technology has gone to a place that the people can't keep up with. And the technology of basketball, which is these schemes and in part like the size of the players and everything else. It can't keep up.

But it's not going to get dialed back. So what do you do? Do you turn it now into a spring? that runs like hockey where you have like three lines of people and they only play like 20 minutes a game like was the coach and with the Grizzlies who's starting off with his approach this year of we're just going to play really hard for four minutes at a time. I don't think that's a sustainable way to play. I don't even know if he's still doing that nonsense. But that was his plan coming into it. Like I don't I don't know what you're supposed to do now that all these ad vents have been

introduced. How you can get it to dial back. You cut 20 games from the schedule. That's how you do it. Yeah, well, there's that. In Tuesday's press conference, Adam Silver said, you know, we're studying this. We are concerned that star players are not playing as much as they used to. That's a real problem. But he said there is no silver bullet here. And I was wondering if that was a lowercase S, silver or an uppercase S, because there is a silver bullet. And it's to reduce the games and the schedule to build in more recovery days.

And I think the NBA has a marketing problem. And rest, it's not rest. It's not like they're kicking back. and by the beach, by the pool, and resting their bodies, it's recovery. The bodies can't simply keep up with the pace of the game and the travel and the 82 games. And you can say, hey, back in the day, look, man, if you stack up the number of possessions that was in the 98 NBA finals between the Utah Jazz and the Chicago Bulls, and you stack up against the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma City Thunder, it is Mount Everest to Mount McKinley.

It is two very different equations we're talking about, the number of possessions that are in every game. So you can say, hey, MJ was out here averaging 40 minutes a game, and Shay Gildjus Alexander is averaging 30, and they can't play 82 games. If you look at the number of possessions that these guys are playing, running up and down the floor, and mind you, possessions is not some ephemeral idea.

Possessions is running up and down the floor. It is trips up and down the floor. it's as if we added two innings to a baseball game and wondered why all these pitches weren't thrown complete games anymore. It's because the unit of measurement in the NBA, yes, people talk about 48 minutes, it's still 48 minutes, but it's not in the number of possessions. The game is so much faster. The geometry of the game is so much wider that you're asking Biggs to play like

guards out here and defend the three point line when Kevin McHale wasn't out here defending the three point line and pick and roll coverages like they do now. it's so different of a sport and I think the NBA has to get everybody together I'm talking stakeholders on the ownership side I'm talking the medical side the player's side and have them

to come together and figure out a way to reduce games in the schedule without losing revenue and that as we're both at econ guys figuring a way to lower the supply of games but raising the demand I feel like there's a sweet spot

here but man These franchise values are going way up, and I don't know if all of these owners are going to be trying to hear that. Yeah, we are at a point of what they call Pareto optimality, right? Like, you are trying to figure out how to make this one thing better without hurting this other thing, right? And that's their trick bag. And for context for people, the top five seasons for fastest pace of play in the NBA, top 15, excuse me, are all before 1990. number 16 is 2019, 2020 season,

and then number 17 is this season currently. I bring that up to say the pace of the game in the 80s and 70s and 80s was a fast up and down, but the side to side game was entirely different. And I think that's a big change that's happening now is what is demanded of you, not just that it's moving fast going back and forth, but what you got to do once you get to that other end of the floor. That part has changed a great deal, but you're right. You can't have your best players, not just dropping like flies, but they're young players.

And this isn't like the NFL where you just roll another guy up and then, oh, suddenly we have another star, right? Like the NBA NFL is built for those guys to swap in and out like that. This league ain't that. And you hope they figure it out soon because they got a great rookie class in the NBA this year, a really, really good one. And you can't help but wonder if there's going to be dropping about a time at 26. Yeah.

And that's what the worry is, is that not only are you seeing a lot more. injuries in the NBA, but when they come into the league, they've got a lot of specialization injuries, right? Is that when we were growing up, Bumani, if you were good, you're a great athlete, you're playing four different sports year-round, not year-round, but in seasons. You're going to play basketball, you're going to play football, you're going to play baseball, you're going to play lacrosse, hockey, whatever it is. But now these guys are coming into the NBA with, like, way more mileage on those tires and joints than you'd expect, given that they're 20 years old. And so that's the worry is like for the NBA and Adam Silver talked about it. Vinnie Goodwill ask the question

shots to Vinny on this is like what do you attribute this to? And Adam Silver said, you know, we have to look at this holistically, not just at the NBA, but coming into the league. It's not an easy problem to solve. I'm writing about it because I'm, I'm noticing the medical data and I'm noticing all the injury data and seeing that star players now, Bumani are missing one out of three games, whereas just a couple years ago, it was one out of five. One out of three games, a star player is going to miss in the NBA now, which is not good for ticket prices. And it's not a short term hit. I think it's a long-term hit that fans, when they go and they take their kids to a game thinking LeBron's going to play or that Victor Rembenyama is going to play, and they don't because they're

on the second night of a back-to-back, and you're like, I just paid $400 for to take my family to this game. And the guy wasn't there. That's a long-term hit. That's a long-term hit. That means that ticket buyer is going to think twice the next time he can take his family to an NBA game and he's probably spend that money elsewhere. And that's what the NBA doesn't want. They don't want these fans who would punt down $400 to go to a game and take their family and potentially lose that young kid fan for life because they realize, hey, man, it doesn't matter to these games. Even though that's not true, it's just the injuries, the bodies aren't able to withstand 82 games like they used to. So it's a real big problem. And I do think that the NBA has the data. They just got to

figure out how we negotiate this with the players union and the ownership and all of the facts and the data has to come together to find a solution. This is not easy for Adam Silver. Yeah, because most of those players would not give back money to get more time off. You have to make a compelling argument that they wouldn't lose money. And so that's where you got to get the best economist in the room or best salesman in the room. to explain to the players you do in that if we reduce the games in the schedule, revenue-wise, we can make that up on the back end with national TV games or with more eyeballs on the games because each game matters more

and there's not back-to-backs anymore that more people are going to watch. And they have the storylines. Like, I keep coming back to this. In the NFL, in fantasy football, I am constantly looking at my app to the lead-up four days before the game to see who's going to play. the storylines are about the Saturday and Sunday football games with college football and the NFL and they breathe these stories

and they talk about these stories and the matchups and the dynamics at play for days on end. We don't have that in the NBA and I feel like if we reduce the schedule down, we're going to have a lot more energy and a lot more stakes to these games because there's time to talk about it.

And that oxygen, I think, is going to be a real big part of this equation going forward. All right. I want to talk about, Another story that is interesting that has come out, which is that Joe Lacob. Joe Lacob, for those of you don't know, is the owner of the Golden State Warriors. I mean, that's a first-class dork right there. But he's a dork that I had to give him this.

When they were winning 50 games and they were telling us that Mark Jackson was holding them back and he was making all these faces at them during games, I was like, well, how good do you expect Steph Curry and Clayton Thompson to be? and score one for Joe Link. He was there, but then he went too far. And he said there were light years ahead of everybody else. And those light years didn't really last that long. What's the most viable franchise in the NBA right now, Bumani?

And would you have believed when I told you that with Mark Jackson and all the smirks that he was given to Mark Jackson, that it would one day be the Golden State Warriors by a mile. You would have thought I was crazy. No, in a world with the New York Knicks in it. Yeah. Right? Like, no, that is, like, that is, it is crazy.

Like, he's pulled this off. He just has this knack of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Like, remember when they won the championship and he gave credit to whoever it was in the front office for getting guys to all those great contracts, translation, way to work these suckers and not give them as much money as they probably deserve. I was like, what are you talking about, right? He said something crazy about Steph, I feel like up there. I was like, what are you doing?

His latest, what are you doing after, by the way, the two timelines situation where he tried to win for now. and later, which was hubris, just the ultimate hubris. You can't do that in this league. But anyway, now we are here. Some fans sent him an angry email about the current state of the franchise. And for whatever reason, and this happens from time to time, Joe Lacob replied. He, as the kid said, had time.

I am trying to find word for word what it is that Joe Lacob said. but the longer the short, Steve Kerr has said that he didn't have a problem with this reply to the email, which I can't promise you that I would feel that way. But Lekam said to the person who said that Jimmy Rutler was being utilized improperly because the roster didn't have enough size

and he said he was really frustrated. And Joe Lekam replied, you can't be as frustrated as me. I am working on it. It's complicated. Style of play. Coach's desire regarding players. League trends.

Jimmy is not the problem. And I felt like Jimmy's the only person to come out of this unscathed. Man, Steve Kerr can read that and say, that's a shot at me. And any time you have owner emails going out in public, not a great look. It's not something you as an NBA head coach want to deal with at a press conference and have to answer for that. But it's very clear that Joe Lakeb wants Jonathan Cominga and the Moses Moody experiment to work in his favor. Because he was out here bragging about the two timelines and saying, hey, we can win championships and develop players at the same time.

The problem with that is if Jonathan Kaminga and Moses Moody aren't it, you can't go back and redo those picks, Beaumani. That's the thing about being right in the draft is you only got those two swings. And if you strike out on those two swings, then you got to pack it up and say, all right, we made a mistake, and we're getting off of this and we're going to go get some veterans. They still haven't moved off the Jonathan Kaminga thing. They haven't.

and we're now here where he's making $22 million a year to be getting DMPCDs. And Steve Kerr does not want Jonathan Kaminga out there. He's made it very clear of that by benching him in these games in which they need help. I just did the Blazers game. The Blazers are 3 and O against the Golden State Warriors. And Jonathan Kamina, the other night, didn't play a single minute in that game in which Stefan Curry had 48 points. It is not a good situation there in Golden State under 500 here with Jonathan Kamina.

the doghouse. And I got to say, the more that this plays out, I think the Golden State Warriors are losing leverage. And this is the problem by bringing back Jonathan Cabingo and everyone knows he's not here for the long haul is the more that this plays out, the larger chance that this is a situation where they're going to lose an extra, they have to give up an extra first round pick to move off of this guy. It's not a good situation.

And Joe Lekob at some point, he can't be sending those emails out with those kind of particulars because in this day and age, it's going to get out. Yeah, and look, Jimmy, you could argue, is not the player that he was, but the player that he is is still really good. Steph is not the player that he was, but the player that he is is still really good. Like, they're top two guys. I mean, Jimmy's putting up 51 from the floor, 44 from 3, 85 from the line. Like, that's what you're getting out of Jimmy Butler. Like, they're, they still have it at the top.

But if you weren't going to play Kaminga, then it just had, I mean, they, they, they, they, got off a wise man a long time ago, right? I have been fascinated by the fact that this one, he just can't let go up. And I said last year, I got a lot of hell for this where I was like, the discussion were coming up about the idea of LeBron going to the Warriors, which would never happen. But I'm like, hey, don't give up your best young player in order to make that trade. I was like, I would keep coming under them circumstances, but not if it's going to be, if this is what you do. Yeah, it's not because I don't think it's, I don't think it's Jimmy Butler's fault that they're at where they're at. I think it's a roster problem. I think right now the Golden State

Warriors have no athleticism and the one guy who does seem to have it in terms of like the ability to jump really high and finish at a high level. Jonathan Cominga can't get on the floor because Steve Kerr flat out does not trust that guy. It's very clear that he does not trust that guy to play the kind of basketball. And that's why I think style of play is doing a lot of work in that email because I think what he wants to say or with the implication is he's not going to be playing the Steve Kerr brand of basketball. The IQ that you need on the basketball court to play with Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Draymond Green. I don't think Jonathan Kaming is about that life.

And we're going to try to figure out the best situation here, but that's the coach. And Jimmy Butler is not the problem. It's that they have Al Horford, who's hurt and dealing with a very 40-year-old injury that LeBron knows very well, sciatica. This is a team that does not have much athleticism and they're forced to play a lot of three-guard lineups. And in today's NBA, man, it can't be Steph Curry is dropping 48 points in a loss. It can't happen when you have a guy who's at this stage of his career, done this much for your franchise, and he is the reason they're a number one evaluation on the NBA chart and up there with the Dallas Cowboys.

He is the reason, and he can't be out here averaging 30 points a game and being on an under 500 team. That is a problem. And the Golden State Warriors man, I believe in them this year, but a lot of it was hinged on a 40-year-old Al Horford doing the things he was doing for Boston last year. and he hasn't been MIA for a lot of this season. Steph Curry turns 38 in March. We don't. The thing about he and Chris Paul is we don't typically see guys this small being, playing this deep into their careers and still being effective.

Like Chris Paul playing 82 games, starting 82 games for the Spurs last year, is just unheard of. I mean, Steph Curry averaging 30 at age 38 is unheard of. It's unheard of to see him playing at age 13. 38 at the size that he is much less being one of the top 10 players in the league. But that's what we're at with Steph Curry. And maybe if you give one thing to Joe Lekub is like, we had to do the two timeline thing because we could never expect Stefan Curry and Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler to be out

here playing at this kind of level. We had to get some young players in here to fulfill that pipeline. But man, when you have a Steph Curry averaging 30 points a game on 50% shooting and 40% from three, you got to build for now. And now it's really hard to do that when Jonathan Kaminga has zero trade value. I feel like I have always thought the world of Steph Curry, right? Like I covered that tournament in 08, right? The games at Raleigh, like I've been there for a lot of it.

I've seen him play at Cameron Indoor Stadium at Davidson, right? And then he got to the NBA. And I feel like for the last 17 years, without even realizing I was doing it, I managed to underestimate him at just about every turn, while also thinking the world of him. And that just continues every year and every day because there's no way in the world that I thought with the type of game that he had,

that he could still be like this as it is. I have been able to come up with a yeah butt for just about every portion of his career. And he just wipes his ass with every single one of him and then hold it up to my face and be like, smell it. Smell it. Yeah, how does it taste? It's right there.

But at the same time, he's outside of that championship. in 2022, what are we talking about post Kevin Durant in terms of the Warriors and their performance? And the answer is not really that much. But I think you raised a point. It's kind of because they've underestimated him, one could argue. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And when Joe Lakub is out here in a championship speech and saying, hey, shouts to the organization for putting this roster together and leaving out Stefan Curry and his name and what he's done for the franchise, I think you can I think you can safely say that everyone in that organization and everyone in the NBA

underestimated Steph Curry and he is still out here in top 10 in the scoring in the NBA at age 38 is is absurd. But I can't see him being moved. I can't see Stefan Curry not finishing out his career with the Golden State Warriors. So it becomes incumbent on the Warriors to put the pieces around him to succeed. And that's why the Janus ended Akumpo sweepstakes is really interesting here because Jimmy Butler was pursued by the Phoenix Suns and his contract lines up pretty clean with Janice and Adi Kumpo. And so you can see a world in which the Milwaukee Bucks say, we don't really want Jimmy Butler on this team,

but we could want all the picks that you have and some of the young players on the Phoenix Suns. So why don't we just all come together and say, hey, Jimmy Butler, I know you couldn't work things out with Phoenix when he was in Miami, but let's get a three-team trade here. Janice ended Accompo, Steph Curry, and Draymond Green, playing for the Warriors one last time for Steph Curry to make one last championship push. And he's got Janus on his team, which got to give Jimmy Butler credit for how well he's played

with Golden State when he's healthy. But he ain't Janus ended in a Kumpo. And that's why things are really interesting for me. I will say this, the Phoenix attempts to get Jimmy Butler were a full-on clown show. It was the dumbest, I'm fairly aware of what was going on with that one. it was stupid. Like that's the best that I'll say that I'm comfortable saying right now

is I trust that Phoenix will find a way to mess it up if it comes down to doing that. By the way, somehow they are better than we thought that they would be. I want to throw one last thing at you before we get out of here. How do you think this last year of LeBron? Well, maybe it's not the last,

but the LeBron Lakers, 25, 26, where LeBron can have games, but it's obvious he's 40-something years old. it's a world where Austin Reeves can average 30 points a game when he doesn't have a calf injury. And where Luca, Luca's gotten himself in super duper shape, but it hasn't quite been MVP level ball, as I thought that it would be. But how do you think this goes for this team? They got to do something here because that defense is atrocious. They don't get back on defense.

And a lot of it is Luca Donchich. He doesn't have the energy to be the 40 point score. And who does have the energy to be 40 points score, 10 assist a game guy, and also run back on? on defense, but of the top 10 slowest guys in miles per hour defensively in the NBA, there's only one team that has multiple guys in that top 10. And the Lakers have three of them in Austin Reeves, LeBron James, and Luca Donchich. They don't move. They don't play defense in the way that you have to in today's NBA to win championships.

And so they got to find a way, Bomani, to upgrade defensively, because they're going to get wiped out in the first round if they play the defense that they're having here. think J.J. Reddick, as you saw with the rotation last year in the playoffs, that he went small for basically 48 minutes last year, did not trust Jackson Hayes, did not trust the Biggs to play defensively what they needed to in the playoffs. They got to figure out a way that they can get some actual athletes out there, an activity on the wing to cover up for three very offensively dominant players. I suspect you're going to hear a lot of Austin Reeves trade talks here in the next few weeks because I don't know if they're going to move off

a LeBron, certainly not going to move off a Luca, but Austin Reeves, a guy that is, I think, duplicitous, not duplicitous. What's the word I'm looking for? Repetitive, I think it's probably the best way to put it. Repetitive, where he's a little bit redundant. Redundit. His skill set of being a great ball dominant guy who can score and pass, you already got two of the best all time at it, Luca Donchish and LeBron James on the team. And so there's a law diminishing returns here with Austin Reeves and I got to wonder if he's the guy that gets moved at the trade deadline to try to upgrade defensively because this this team it can't have three offensive juggernauts that don't play any defense two things one I make that duplicitous mistake often it was relatable

content duplicative it's not the word I'm trying to say yeah I think duplicative is closer duplicitous means he be lying yeah I know you know but but it feels like it right like like it feels like it lands there number two they can trade Austin Reeves I get it if they do I really do but they got to explain that to the loks, the locals. The locals are some of the, hey man, they ain't had it like this before, baby. Just a good old, red-blooded, hairy American-winning machine. You know what I'm saying?

They ain't quite had it like that, boy. Well, I'm trying to think of where would Bomani Jones like to see Austin Reeves play? Like, what team do you think would be embraced the most by Austin Reeves? Danny age is on line one. That's, that's, I mean, look, the Celtics, of course, would enjoy it. But Danny Age is, is, is, is on, let me have said, Danny Age, that's not, I'm not cast into a Spurson on Danny Age, because Danny Age is also the guy that told Ace Bailey. I don't know what you think, but you're coming to Utah, son.

Maybe that's the deal, right? To counterbalance some of that ace. Yeah, man, Austin Reeves, he's most improved player of the year candidate. I mean, the way that he's been able to ball out over the last year or so, he's going to get a lot of phone calls about him. And he's on this very low contract with makes it tough for trades. And he's going to be up for an extension here and a big contract. But, you know, there's going to be teams.

And that's the thing about Utah is like Walker Kessler makes a lot of sense on the Lakers. But after he had an injury that he's out for the rest of the year, you kind of crossed it off the list like Steve Ushamie, just be able to scratch the Utah Jazz Off list. I don't see them making that trade, but there are other teams that can use Austin Reeves as the fulcom of their offense, and I don't think the Lakers are that team anymore. I think they need to upgrade defensively.

And JJ Reddick, I don't think he's going to do another year of what they did last year in the postseason and just run these guys into the ground because they need to play both ends of the floor. And right now they're not. Walker Castle came into league in 2022, and he'd been on the trade. block ever since. Yep. And he's a restricted free, it's sad, man. We're not out here crying for a millionaire NBA players, but when you are out for the

season, right before you're going to be a restricted free agent, we saw how that played out for Camden Thomas and Jonathan Kammingin and Quentin Grimes this year. That's a tough situation for Walker Kessler and his agent. I cry for people who got to live in Utah. I think, I don't care. I mean, shout out to NBA young boy, but I just, that's not. It's not what I would do. Tom Havistro, check him out at Substack.

Tom, the Finder. Check him out at Yahoo Sports covering the NBA. My man, has been a pleasure. Appreciate you, Bumani. All right. Now, ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on the right time. We do this four times a week. Ryan Brumley handles everything behind the scenes.

Thank you, sir. Hit the voicemail line 3-23-9-6-77-67. Remember, follow the right time, subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. I saw G-Dize in a couple of days. Take it easy.