The Right Time with Bomani Jones - Travonne Edwards on Ja Morant's Future, Western Conference Favorites, and Societies Tech Obsession | 4.9

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

Bomani Jones is joined by Travonne Edwards, host of the The G.O.T.E. podcast with Seth Curry, to discuss all things NBA related. The guys start off the show criticizing our technology obsessed society (3:19) before asking how can we all enjoy sports without gambling interfering? (16:06) They move onto the NBA where they praise what Ime Udoka has done with the Houston Rockets (28:46), why the Clippers are the most interesting team in the West (31:52) and if the Denver Nuggets still can compete for a championship? (37:14) Bo and Travonne round out the show by suggesting why the Memphis Grizzlies should think about trading Ja Morant. (46:56) . . . Subscribe to The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok for all the best moments from the show. Download Full Podcast Here: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6N7fDvgNz2EPDIOm49aj7M?si=FCb5EzTyTYuIy9-fWs4rQA&nd=1&utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-right-time-with-bomani-jones/id982639043?utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Follow The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Social Media: http://lnk.to/therighttime Subscribe to Supercast for Ad-Free Episodes: https://righttime.supercast.com/ Support the Show: Discover faster, more reliable search with Perplexity today. Download the app or ask Perplexity anything at perplexity.com! https://pplx.ai/bomani-jones Download the DraftKings Pick Six app NOW and use code BOMANI. Better payouts. Bigger wins. Only with Pick6 from DraftKings. The Crown is yours. Go to zbiotics.com/BOMANI to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use BOMANI at checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time. A Wave Original presented by Perplexity. 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. Check out the goat, G-O-T-E, greatest of their era. Get that on I-Heart podcast. My man, Trayn Edwards, also with Seth Curry. What's going on, man? What's going on, man? It's been a minute.

What's going on, Doc? Hey, man, you know, I had to go over there to Indochina for a minute, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. See what that was hitting on? Yeah, man. I didn't want to bother you, man. You know, I gave you your idle time.

I said, man, I see my boy when he get back. Oh, yeah, I was long gone, man. I told people, I don't know the last time or if ever I was as long gone as I was on that trip. Like, do a Hawaii, I can get long gone. There is something to be said about being 11 or 12 hours difference. Like you'll still here for some people. You know, you still might have a couple people.

But when it's a complete different time of day, where are you at, like totally different? Yeah. Man, you can just kind of. I mean, but now that I've like known you for some time. At this point, you know, idle time is just the best. Like it'd be like, all right, cool. There's no phone zone with both. You feel me?

Yeah, man, dude. I'm trying so hard to snap this phone thing, man. I've been talking to people about this. I went to the hypnotist about the phone. I've been off by rocker. I did a good job. Like that first week when the hypnosis was really hitting hard, I read like three books that week.

You know what I'm saying? Even with Vietnam, I read three books and one over 700 pages. You know what I'm saying? Like, yeah, yeah. Like, I was out there getting it, man. But I'm just finding myself kind of going up and down through the motions again. got a Twitter window open and they got us, man. We fiends.

We fiends. And I feel confident saying it's we because I know how everybody else is getting down. Oh, I know. Listen, as somebody who's worked in social and I try to separate the two, right, where I don't work in social anymore, but I used to be on it. Like, I've seen Shams like screen time. Mine was grossly close to it because I needed to know everything. and now I don't need to know everything.

I'm still connected to that tissue of you're going to have to figure it out eventually. You know what I'm saying? And it's that fear of missing out. But I'm getting to that point of like, like I said, when we hang out, I normally, hey, I need this gap of time to not hit me up at all. I'm going to turn my phone off or I'm going to put it in my back pocket. When I leave your house, I'm going to probably turn it back on. Yeah.

See, you live with the constant flow. Like, you know, I've gotten into my jazz era of life. You know what I'm saying? Trvon's in his jazz era. And he was like, yo, I got this jazz group chat if you want to check it out. And I said, cool. And I'm going to be honest, man. I had to cut that shit off because it was nonstop.

I couldn't get nothing from it because it was so much. So I read this book that made a very good point about the technology. And it was that the advantage of digital communication over the written word was the speed of transmission. and along with the speed of transmission, the volume of transmission. So you can send more stuff and faster. And we are so far past the point of optimality on that. That is all, like, we're all here sitting like this all the time. Right.

Like we just, we just right there in the wind machine is just hitting us in the chest. Right. We are under not a waterfall. We're under Niagara Falls. Nah, it's real, man. It's not even, I mean, you can say that about music. you can say that about television. It's so many options to a point that even if you did consume it,

you didn't consume it with enough time to sit and actually process it. It is what's next? No, man, the Birmingham PD is out here bull-connoring us with the water hose of content or everything else. It's just and it's hitting you in your chest and you out here, your arms flailing and everything else, right? Like you about to have the dimple in your chest. just because of all this content that is bombarding us at one time.

I saw some people got upset with my take last week about, it wasn't last week because I wouldn't working last week. But I made the point. I think the NCAA tournament was better when it was just all running through CBS. And the idea that, oh, I can watch all the games is cool if there's a game specifically that you want to watch, right? But otherwise, it's just all this stuff. And it's there.

And most of those games aren't good. and people couldn't fathom the idea that having access to something is by definition better than not having the access to it. And that might be the case for each individual observation in the sample. But once you put them all together, it's too much. And so it's a real kind of technocratic outlook that you believe the idea that we have this technology, therefore we have to use it. that anything that is not going to the end game of what is possible with the technology is, by definition, silly. And I'm like, no, man, I was here.

We were here for the other time. It's such a little young ass up, motherfucker. Listen, we were here. And I'm telling you, it was a better bag, but we didn't have all this stuff. The McDonald's All-American Games was going on. And I had some downtime, and they were like, yo, let's watch some games. and I said, yo, y'all got True TV. And everybody turned and looked at me.

Like, what is that? What is that? Yeah, the game is going to be on True TV. And there's another game on ESPN and there's another game on TNT. And there's other game on CBS. And you're looking and you're like, oh, I can't track to the point of who's playing where out of a popularity and greed of money to rationing this around and say, hey, you know what? instead of serving to one channel, we're going to take money from everybody and give you streaming rights to this. And it's overwhelming. It's overwhelming. Like at this point, I am fine

with not finding, being the first at something. I've accepted that part of my life where I'm like, oh, yeah, that's a cool TV show. I'll get to it. I'm not about to stress myself out because you guys are on episode 11 and I'm just now hearing about it and I'm on episode one. And I'm not about to just binge my whole day to watch it. Well, let me tell you something that's ironic, though. When I'm doing my best on getting the screens off, because my bigger problem with the screens is the computer because I do so much work on the computer. Like me and my brother were talking about this.

This is both our issue. That the phone, we can kind of regulate that. And then because communication has gone to text, again, they just keep giving you reasons to go hit the pipe again, right? Like imagine if everything that you did in your life was filtered through a crack pipe. You know what I'm saying? Like, yo, it's time to eat. Let me order some food right fast with the pipe.

Right. Like, every time I needed to do something, oh, man, my mama just sent me a message. Let me hit the pipe right quick so I can hear what it is. Like, that's where we sit it all in that direction and they figured out how to make it a pipe. It is a, it's like an all bad news sort of situation when it comes down to it. Like it truly is. But it's like trying to figure out, like me and the hypnotist talks about this. It's trying to regulate eating.

You don't want to ever, you don't want to stop eating, but you only want to go eat when you're hungry. Only want to go eat when you need to eat something. Even if it's because I like eating something. It can't be because you're bored. It can't just be because foods in America. problem, right? Because you go to other countries and people know how to stop. Or people serve you portions that are proportioned to actually what your body's supposed to handle. Yes. Versus America, we use the words more bigger. You know what I mean? We're using

these adjectives to sell to make you even more hungry. If you said, yo, Trey, let's get something to eat. I know I just ate an hour ago, but I'm still going to try to eat with you. Yep. Well, two things. One, by the way, I find they're on their phones less. Yeah. When you're over there, like in Europe in particular, I notice they're not, they're not really on their phones like that. And two, even I now that I'm not as skinny as I was, I lose weight when I go overseas, right?

They serve you healthier food. They serving it in smaller portions. Because what I didn't know about Indochina or like where I was in Indochina, I don't even think I've talked to you about this part. Brut, they got like the Hawaii-level fruits and vegetables. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like that best mangoes. Man, that watermelon, something different over there.

That dragon fruit, brother, they got something called orange nectar. Okay. Not orange juice. Orange nectar. And I don't know if it was a typo at my hotel, but they called it orange nectar, N-E-C-T-A. But that orange nectar was like, oh, this is what's going on. But all the fruits, all the vegetables is all hitting. But anyway, I ordered some suits when I was over there because that's what they do.

And I'm afraid because I ordered them at the end of the trip, which means I hope I don't become just enough of a different physical specimen now that I have returned to the fat-ass United States to wear my wonderful bespoke suit and tuxedo no longer fit the same way. Well, maybe easier said than done. You do the adaptation of like, what did I consume? and also can I genuinely hold myself accountable to these portions? Again, because it's things that you like, right?

So I think I can do that. But let us stop and appreciate how insane it is that I, of all people, have to say, I don't know, brother, you're going to need a little portion control to stay where you at to get, like, that's how foul we live in over here. Yeah. But it also gets to a point where now you're in the, like, not the body dysmorphia thing. but like you're kind of in a thing of like you fixate it to like no I don't want to get you know I don't want to gain because of this and like it's like yo somebody else is from like a normal hood is like you know it's just food bro eat right and it's like do you don't understand what we're putting in our bodies what we're consuming every day the easy snacks that you can grab yes you know what I mean and consume and say ah it's just that yep it's just be 500 grams of sugar Yo, and all of that is a metaphor for our online existences. Yeah.

Everything that we're talking about there really is a metaphor for all of these things and like all of this stuff that we wind up consuming, right? And we take in and then everything kind of becomes less memorable in a way. Like I said, I mean, I've been reading a lot of doom and gloom, bro. In order to put a little extra pep in my step on vacation, and I instead chose to read books about hijackings of planes. Got to tell you, the hijacking stuff was fascinating. Really? Okay.

First of all, you know, you hear about how they used to hijack planes back in the day. There was one year where there was 160 hijackings. Like, a hijacking stopped being an emergency at one point, and they just had a very simple manual for what to do because they made the wise decision that you should have. always make when somebody robs you, which is come up off it, right? No need to fight. No need to argue. Just come up off it. And it was a succession rate of like the hijacking and the plane actually landing or not like. No, that's what I'm saying. The plan for the airlines was just to

come up off it. Yeah. So the success rate was actually very high. Until a few people kind of got tired of it. Okay. And so, don't motion picture my shit while I'm on the plane. I'm going to tell you that now. Well, so you got to keep it bonded. This is the 1970s. Okay. So in the late 60s. So a big part of the story of hijacking is that it wasn't stopping people from flying and it wasn't costing the airlines money. So they would not put in their share to bring in x-rays and metal detectors. They weren't doing it. They were just like, who cares? These people asked for X amount of dollars. So they'll go. give the plane back, it's cheaper for us to just give them the money than it is for us to put in

security protocols. Security protocols came much later. And the reason was it was easier for them to just let you take the plane and go off on an adventure than it was for them to pay the money. But at some point, you know, there's somebody out here who. So they was being cheap on Wesley Snipes. They didn't want to pass a passenger 50s. That's right. That's right. So, but you know, so eventually it gets to a point where somebody's like, yo, man, they out here playing us. We ain't got to do this. So this one pilot had decided that he himself had had enough. And this little five foot five, I want to say he was a Vietnamese dude. I know he was Asian.

And he tried to hijack a plane and he sent the note and everything else. And like, clearly he was just a distraught dude because most of these people were like that, like people with their own problems. And so the pilot knew an off-duty cop who was on the plane. Keep in mind, there ain't no metal detectors. And so the pilot comes back to talk to a little five-five dude. He's like, come closer, come closer. And then next thing, you know, he holds the dude up. He lays him out on the ground.

He looks at his buddy, the off-duty cop says, do it. The off-duty cop came up and clapped him with a 357 magnum on the plane. I'm still trying to process it like, you know. You didn't see that coming, huh? I did not. Yo. The streets need a body? It was a lot of streets need a body.

Although, I will say, I don't know if it was a one-to-one relationship on how this happened. But it did sound like after that dude got clapped. that hijackings did decrease. I think there were a few other factors that also came into play. But honestly, I think if there was a fatal ending, right, to a lot of things that people do, it would lessen. Well, the problem with this is it would lessen, but the issue with the hijackers was,

and I think that this is a parallel to a lot of what we see going on now, was people who were struggling to find anything to believe in and find anything to live for. And so they were taking these drastic steps. where there'd be a drastic step to get attention or to bring attention to something that was important or anything else. You know what I'm saying?

Like, this is what I had. But these are the stories that I was reading to get me a little more excited because all these books I've been reading about the internet just got me ready to go Amish. Yeah, you sent over some good books, man, and I've really been checking them out, man. But again, I just know how society is set up.

It's not allowing it. See, see, see, that's the thing. that's that's that's that's fiend talk you know what I'm saying well I'm just talking about for work like I hear you but I'm just saying I think that we can find a way to navigate and to get like to a better middle ground or whatever it is but see that's what I think they like I said you say work imagine if the only way that you could get to work was to hit the pipe yeah but I think that they're creating that now sadly there it's the same way as how do I consume sports without gambling you know I mean like it's getting into a part where you have to even include that.

My homie sent me over his resume, Beau, and you know what had to be included on there? Social media handles. Wow. We've gotten to that point. Wow. We've gotten to that point. By the way, you make a great point throwing the gambling thing out there

because the issue that makes the gambling thing different than it has been in the past is now we are sending gambling through the pipe, which is to say, we are taking one of the shranking. strongest rocks there's ever been. And somebody has finally said, have you thought about putting it not just in a pipe, but put it in the pipe, this new, new pipe.

This pipe that, you ain't even got to put a rock in it and make it hit. Now you're going to put a rock in there? No, this is the, this is the, in the movies, that shiny drug that's in the crystal.

You haven't tried this. You tried everything, but this is the one. right and they take a hit and somebody just like falls out it shakes and then they get up and they're like I need some of that again yeah tell everybody like I need that hit I need that yo you know those those are those you sign up you get $50 your first yeah first long end no that's exactly it we get like let's stop and think about so the thing I say about gambling in the casino right they know the longer you stay they're going to get their money back right like

Like the law of large numbers basically is on their side. All of that's going to come together. And the longer you stay, you'll just go ahead and do it. So I think with Blackjack, for example, the percentage is 52%. They're going to, what, 52% of the hands. And if you have a good day at Blackjack, it's just because you hit on a statistical anomaly. You got it going. Okay, cool, right?

Like, this is how it works. The thing that you need to know about Blackjack and all those other games is you are playing for money. and if you ask the dealer for advice, the dealer will give you good advice. The dealer will give you the best advice. The game is so stacked in their favor that they can tell you what you should be doing. And just play along to a set of rules and you still go lose. Yeah. Right.

Like that's how cold the money is in the gambling. game. I ain't never heard in no situation where a sports book closed because they just kept losing. Yeah. No, I always watch people that gamble, that really, really gamble. Like, I used to shoot dice as a team. And I knew there was some extremities to that. But when you get to the point, you go to Vegas, you're bad. Like, I've seen people hit the crap here. One big. Yo, you won 13K. You won 22K They get halfway out They cash out

They say ah I'm feeling good tonight man It's no way I can lose Bro you're almost out the door That itch Yeah like To me when I mess up When I'm up and then go back down

Is I start playing around with the amounts That's it You gotta have the magic number What number did you start at? Yeah you got to stay there You got to stay there Like that's where I think the most of one playing blackjack, I want about $10,000 at Sutherley one time.

Like I just hit a nice run and I kept it going. But like it's to go up and then come back down. Or look, sometimes you just make the decision. Like I was playing Blackjack in Vegas at the Super Bowl last year with a former NFL player. Right. I feel confident his money is good. I watched him go up. I forget how much, but it was a pretty good amount.

and he was running late. He had somewhere to be. Lucky him. And he was late because he sat there and gave every chip back. Oh. Because he came to play cards,

right? He didn't stay committed to the obligation. He got greedy. He came to play cards. But like if I got up, if I get up $13,000, look, I'm out. I'm getting up.

Like, I might play some more, but I'm not getting anywhere near losing 13,000. thousand dollars no no i will say i'm pretty good with morally cashing out i just i'm just no need if it was a magic if i'm if i say if i ever react that that's my that's my like my itch if it's always and i do that because i know i don't have no business having that it's time to go i seen the number where i'm like i actually got excited about it it's time to go if i got excited about any number it's time to go I see, yeah, yeah, it's, it's, that's real talk.

You gotta know, you gotta know yourself because it's no way, it's, you're going to hit twice. Let me tell you what you need to do. If you get $13,000 and this is going to sound crazy, but it's the truth. Go get your ass up and buy something. I have a big fan of them having all them stores right outside the casino for you to hit for that lick and then give it back.

You should spend that money on some bullshit. Like, if your plan was to go hit, hit at Vegas so you could pay off the rent, Oh, baby, you lost already. No, no, no, no. Go ahead and put it on something. That's that fiend stuff right there. You get what I'm saying? When you go in saying, I'm going to go in, and it be in a lot of TV shows.

I don't know if they created that to help the gambling companies, but most people, it's fixated to a point of, you know what, this is our last hundred. We're going to go in. Trust me, I'm good for it. Yes. And I'm going to. change your life. I just got a feeling. I got a feeling. That's TV magic, brother. That's TV magic. You are going to lose it all. Do not. I always tell people, I say, look, I used to, you know, when I was doing the ad reads for the gambling companies, I say, hey, bro, small amounts. You got $5 here?

Cool. Yeah. When you start playing into your check, the 15th and the 30th and it rolled out and you got your 2,500 or your 3,500 from what you're hard-earned money, don't go in there gambling no 200. That's what, that cryptocurrency stuff, I used to be looking. I like, bro, this is life savings. What's it? You're not going to become a millionaire just because of over some digital ape. I'm sorry. Fortune favors the brave.

But hey, coming up next, we're going to talk about this last swing of the NBA season. I had planned to start talking there, but you know what I'm saying? The world got bigger. We'll be back. This episode is presented by Perplexity. Perplexity is an AI-powered answer engine that searches the internet in real time to deliver fast, clear, high-quality answers. Unlike legacy search engines that respond with the list of links, perplexity skip straight to the answers you need explained in everyday language that's easy to understand with sources and citations. Now, Sean, how do you use perplexity, especially when it comes to the right time?

You know, Bo, obviously, like I've been using it all throughout the show, especially when you need questions answered or something. stats confirmed, but, you know, say you're curious about a specific topic from our if you haven't heard segment. For example, if I wanted to know more about this corporate espionage happening with a company called Rippling, I can simply search the question on perplexity and get a full summary of the entire situation, which you can see here. And I would recommend you reading it because it is insane. Hey, man, you got to love reading about honeypots and corporate espionage and incredible that we got that answer so quickly. Discover faster, more reliable search with Perplexity today. Download the app or ask Perplexity anything at Perplexity.com.

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of the last week of the NBA season. Like I said, I told you, I did a good job of not paying no attention to what was going on. I came back into Grizzle or the 8C. Mm-hmm. Like, I guess it's a log jam eight-seed situation, but still, I feel like they were the, I mean,

it's been a while since they were the two-sie, but it wasn't that long ago. No, I mean, the thing was as close as you want to poke your chest out and say, yeah, we're number two or yeah, we're number. Because one, one been locked. One been locked for a very long time. But when you think about all of what the West has been through,

even the, I feel like a fair amount of teams touch number two. The Lakers got a chance to sniff it, the Rockets, the Nug, like, you know what I mean? Like certain teams is poking their chest out as if they were going to remain there. The race was so close that you sneeze wrong, you lose one player. You know what I mean? You're going to drop. And now we're at Game 79, you know, those matchups and those wins and those vital things matter. They matter now because you have to have everybody on board.

You know what I mean? You can't even have a, you can't even get bored and say, you know what? I'm going to bench my guys because that's how intense the West is right now. So the two right now is the Rockets. And they're a lot. Like I don't think there's any chance that anybody catches them for the two. this is what I find interesting about the Rockets. It is good to have a coach who is interesting, right?

Like I think the thing that's missing basketball, all these suckers need to quit quit wearing these pullovers and go get them some suits so they can look like people rather than all looking the same, right? Because the coaches just kind of feel interchangeable and kind of boring, right? That is not the case with EMA. And what I like about EMA as coach is EMA's team's going to have a personality because EMA got that personality, right? Oh, yeah. You can't play for E-May, and he might bench you if you're a star or not.

But this is what was interesting to me, though, about E-May and the way he gets down. His get-down allowed the Celtics to stop acting like some suckers, right? But they've never felt even now as champions as like a swaggering, you don't want no problems with us kind of outfit. The Rockets, where as a lot of younger guys, right, like they finally made the decision, you know, however many years after the heart and trade of, okay, now we're going to start trying to win, and they feel like an E-May squad. Like, the way our men

gets down is like, you got a coach that has said you, that dude, and we're going to go out here, and we go act like these. Like, this is the coach that's all crazy to LeBron James in the middle of games. And he got a squad like that. Yeah. I mean, even when they were building it out, I remember

a year or two when they acquired EMA and they got him. And I know Brooklyn was flirting with him a little bit until they, you know, tried to peep into his personal business. But overall, I knew what type of, you know, moves he was making. He's taking the gamble on the Dylan Brooks. He's signing the Fred Van Vleet.

He's benching the Jalen Green in the fourth quarters because he's not defending. You know what I mean? Like he's drafting a Reed Shepherd, but Reed Shepherd's not playing. Everybody's calling him a madman because, you know, Reed Sheppers is the best thing since sliced bread. You know what I'm saying? And it's like, no, if you don't defend, you don't play. If you ain't tough, you don't play.

Like, it is what it is. I got a certain type of player that I want out there, and he says, you know what, we're not adjusting to the ref. The ref is adjusting to us. So if we're going to get physical, we're going to get tossed out of some games. We're going to get them early three files in the first half. But we're establishing the flow of the game. And when you play us, it's going to be very tough.

And that's the embodiment of it. You know what I mean? Like they lucked up getting him just because, again, like you said, he's not afraid of the LeBron's. He's not afraid of Steph Curry. He's not afraid of most of these people that usually pump fear. and the coach is like, no, no, no, no, don't get them started. They want all of, this is one of them teams that literally want all of smoke. I don't know what they're going to actually do in the playoffs,

but from the regular season to turn Houston Rockets, their two young team and to the number two team in the West as a lot? Come on, E, May. So the two young part is interesting because Oklahoma City is in year two of, are you grown enough? And that is still in the air, right? We still don't have the answer of whether or not they're grown enough. The Rockets raised the question of whether or not they're grown enough.

But the Rockets do have, like, Dylan Brooks is so grown, but Fred Van Fleet is an NBA. Want a chip. Right. Like, that's a grown-up that they have, but he's Fred Van Fleet. Like, how much we're really talking about here? Like, maybe he has a Mario Ellie type of influence where he could be that guy, but, like, it remains to be seen. But then you look at the rest of the conference, everybody's got a bright side.

everybody's got obvious reason for skepticism. Most entered as a team in the West to me, that boy, Kauai is back. And the only thing that's ever stopped that man truly is being hurt, although I guess he was there when they blew that 3-1 lead to Denver in the bubble. But healthy Kauai, look, man, if Kauai Leonard has stayed healthy the whole way through, Kawhi Leonard is a top 20 all-time NBA player. By the way, they got the best defense in the NBA right now.

they have maybe of all the teams in the West they got the coach you want. I will say this too. Huge credit to Tailu, huge credit to getting out all of cancer players, right? Those players that didn't want to be there, the players that, you know, took to social media and said, you know, I should be playing and this, that, and the third. James Hardin, redefining what y'all thought about him. You know what I'm saying? Jim out there. Swag is different.

the sneakers match in the car, the Uno, an all-star. People wrote Jim off. They wrote him off. He's such a fascinating case because as we've tried to write him off, he has become underrated. And what I...

As crazy as that sounds. Right, but he had... And what I don't think he gets enough credit for is his game is far more adaptable than we give him credit for being. Now, it is also static in some ways, right? Like push come to sub. He's still going to be out there

cooking at the time. top of the key. But at the same time, he is willing to step up and step back as necessary for a team. And it has always been willing to do that. Well, no, always is too far. But he has been willing at points. I'll say when he got moved to Brooklyn was the start of this, right? It didn't get enough credit because everybody was kind of in up in arms because, oh, they're cheating. They got three players playing together. And it kind of overshadowed that. He even did. glimpses of it in Philly. But when he got to L.A.

And people was questioning, I don't know. He might be out the league. This style ain't going to never work. He shows up. He quies out, you know, pulled out of the Olympics, you know what I mean, training camp, missed the first beginning of the season.

They had to redefine. You got Jim Hardin out there playing defense. You got Norman Powell potentially peeking at All-Star. You got Zubak potentially most improved. Like they go get Bojan Bandadivik. They make the competent moves to make this team be a threat. They're one of the scariest teams in the West. And I know Lakers fans, oh, yeah, it's just the Clippers, little brother.

Y'all may pay attention. I like Luca and Braun. But from a complete side, a seven-game series, things of that nature. I'm not even taking that win against the Thunder as, like, oh my God, I told y'all. You know what I mean? The under needed to go through that. They needed that more than anything,

because if they would have rolled through the Lakers, then get the Lakers. I don't know. I don't know how it is. Yeah, like the Lakers, I did not get to see them for two weeks. It sounds like a lot of, it sounds like the defense came back down to Earth a little bit,

and then I look up on Sunday, and they just blew Oklahoma City's door. They don't shoot like that. that. They had like a miracle shooting night. That's what I'm looking up, but it's like $125 to 96. That sounds like shooting splits. Yeah, no, they just shot over 70% in the first half. Like 75 some points in the first half. Like, all right, bro. Shows to y'all. I'm happy. You know, but it was like, yo, Vando and the defense. And it's like, they're not, Oklahoma's not showing up like that. They're not showing up like that every night.

Y'all not punking them. Bad night. Bad night. That's it. I give it. Great win for the Lakers. I'm not going to take that away from them. Great statement win to make them feel confident going into any series.

But at the end of the day, seven games. I still like the Lakers veteran. Again, like you mentioned earlier in the conversation, is that are the thunder ready to be men? Right. And not looked at as little boys. because everybody's had a great season where they won 50-something games and they were their one seed and then got bounced.

But can you see the Rockets? Can you see the Clippers? Can you see the Lakers? You know, the only team that's red panic button right now and everything's kind of falling apart is the Nuggets. Jamal Murray is getting hurt at the wrong time. Russell Wischbrook is avoiding questions. Yokic is still being Yokic.

but it ain't looking too great over there. We're reaching the point now where we got to, keeping in mind that Nicola Yolkich has never played with another player who was an all-star the same year as him, this is starting to look like malpractice because he is that guy.

Yes. All right, like that. I said Wilke-like. Yeah, yeah, like nobody can deny it anymore. It's a different kind of Wilk game, but like there's no, there's no room to hate anymore and what Denver seems to be doing. Look, I thought,

If they had stayed healthy last year, I still think they could have won a championship, but they feel now so far removed from where they were two years ago. Like losing Bruce Brown, for example, like that was a thing, right? Like those things mattered. But they don't feel like champions anymore. Or maybe that's just kind of this new era, right? Where like, what is the, we are a champion? How much does that matter anymore when there's the, on one level you would think because

of how much parity there is that that should be an incredible tiebreaker. But it doesn't feel like it. Like the nuggets don't give we are champion. champion vibes. And that's kind of nuts. If they didn't win, we're talking crazy about them. I think the win made it complacency. It's, hey, we got the monkey off our back, brother. That's it. We just needed one.

We're okay. We'll go back. We just make the playoffs a couple times. You know, we got one of the greatest players. Best player in the league. You know, because now they got a flirt with the option. Cool. They get bounced. Where does Michael Porter join you go? Where does this person go? Do we even make a certain change? Because like, it's getting to that point where it's just not enough anymore. The Aaron Gordons of the world. The Jamal Murray's where do I have to pair somebody better with Yokers? Yonk's not going nowhere. But also, he also not about to throw a fit publicly. No, no. Jamal Murray is who Jamal Murray is in our eyes for one reason. He plays with that guy.

Yeah. feel free to turn on the 2024 Olympics. If you don't quite understand what I'm saying, Jamal Murray is really good playing with Nicola Yolkich. It wouldn't be anything like this without him. That is true. Period. Now, we brought up the Lakers a little bit earlier.

I went and pulled up like the Luka Dantje's advanced stats because I find them interesting, especially because he holds the ball so much, which is an interesting skew very often. The advanced stats on him this year are not so great. And quietly, the advanced stats, that's for him in his entire playoff career are not that great. But that's not the point, is it?

Right. What is the point with him is the boy don't scare. He might fall apart, right? Because that can happen. He can get caught up in a bunch of stuff and that's what happened toward, you know, the end there in the finals last year. But the boy don't scare. And they're going to be out there with him and LeBron James,

two dudes that are like, I got that shot, right? If this gets tight and somebody's got. to do it because I think something that is underrated about the NBA and you spend a lot of time around basketball generally, but the NBA specifically is, I think people underestimate the number of dudes that don't want the shot. There are a lot more dudes that don't want the shot that I think that people understand. They got two dudes who want the shot, have made the shot repeatedly and are willing to give the shot to somebody else. Yeah. That's a deadly combination to have, man. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a luxury, but also when you really think about

Lucas definitely taking that shot. I don't care what Braun's out there doing. No matter. Yeah, we love Bronn, year 22, legend, go whatever you want to call that man, but Luca taking that shot. And he's okay with it. I think if he misses it, it's a little groan in. It's a, I could have made it. But he ain't going to take it for himself.

You know what I mean? he going to get some of them tip-ins. Yes. He's going to get some of them close by the rims, making the right decisions. But them jump shots, Luca going to walk it off. But he's going to shoot it. That man fearless. He going to shoot it.

He'll live with the results of it going in or out. And I can't say that for the next man because at the end of the day, it's too much on it. Brom missing is too much on it. It's way too much on it. It's too mic comparison. Instead of fans allowing him to just miss and be human. We're so far removed from that part that he rather drive and rely on the refraff to blow the whistle and say,

officiation was bad today. Yeah. But I do think an interesting thing about LeBron is I think, strangely for a player of his caliber, the most underrated thing about him is his ability to hit those shots in those moments. Like to me, the most overrated thing about Kobe Bryant was his ability to make those shots in those moments. The heroism of Kobe is the willingness to take them. And the part that LeBron struggles to shake is that little stretch of time where he didn't want to take those shots. And we can't shake that.

We don't have any such memory of Kobe Bryant. Well, the logic of it too is making the right play. He's marketed IQ. I'm a smartest player out here and I'm going to make you look at it this way more than why do I always have to shoot the shot low percentage or high percentage because I'm the best player. But to me, it was the right play

when you get it to Damon Jones in the corner against the business. Right? Like that, for example, that was the right move. It really was that 2010, 2011, part of the regular season 2012 that he had to shake off where it was like, oh, no, he does not want these problems. Like, this is, this is, so in individual sports, it's interesting. We treat choking completely differently. It happens to everybody.

We've seen Tiger, every great tennis player, we've seen choke, right? We've seen Serena Williams choke, for example. We've seen a doll choke. We've seen Federer choke. We can go up and down the line. We've seen them all choke because there's nowhere else for it to go. There's nowhere else to push it off on. You're the only one that's out here.

We've seen them short on the putts. all of those things. When people choke in basketball and the way we talk about it is much more of a character indictment. And look, there's some people who are chokers. There's some people who are chokers that we don't talk about like that.

But like Tim Duncan. Oh, no, there's a lot of protected chokers, man. Yeah, Tim Duncan, a lot of choke in them. Kevin Garnett, a lot of choke in them. We can go, I mean, some of those guys have hit big shot. Some of those guys have been at the top. Hey, you're going to have some people up here with the pitchforks, man. Yeah.

And their favorites. But it's true. It's true. Basketball is one of those faces where it kind of gets swept on the rug depending on popularity. Yeah. Well, like, take Garnett, for example, man. The whole thing with Kevin Garnett is being charged up all the goddamn time. Yeah.

Right? Like being super psyched up. Of course that dude might get a little bit too siced up for them shots. But you put them on a team with Paul Pierce and it's perfect because Kevin Garnett can defer. Right. Kevin Garnett can lead the team. and be the great player that he was in that context.

And then Pierce can do that. And by the way, Pierce, who's probably not so great at that Kevin Garnett stuff, okay, cool. And then you got Ray out and take shots. Like, that's why that team came together so well. But with Braun, you're right. The world puts it in those larger context. I don't know if he still does that, though, right?

Like, you could tell when the weight of that was on him. You think he still, like, you think it still comes through now? I don't think he's really tripping off of it because, again, he's marketed the game to a point of, I made the best play. So you don't even get a chance to even bring it to the table to say, what's a good shot and what's a bad shot. He made the best play.

Now, the weight goes more to a Gabe Vincent, of Austin Reeves, a Luca Donchinch, who's catching the ball, and it was like, you were supposed to make that. Right. It's no more of the conversation of, Braun, shoot that. You're never going to, you can check the end of the game,

their timeline never says that. It's trade that bum, get him out of here, why was he on the floor? You're wide open, not understanding how heavy that ball gets in that particular moment. How far, how far that basket is, a 15 foot is an 18 footer once you start getting to the real game. You feel all the pressure because everything's, it's intense. The court shrinks, the actual floor. shaking, there's a silence, a dead silence for that split second that is releasing your hand. Like, we can talk about the national championship game last night, right? It was sharp.

Two moments, he went. The first moment, drive to the basket, one on three. Now, obviously, he probably thought he had a one-on-one matchup before it closed up. The second one, Clayton flying out at him. He thought he was on the blacktop again. He tried to do it up and down. He let the ball go and he tried to seal. It just went blank. And the magnitude of that. We don't talk about how good he was for that entire tournament. We're going to talk about those two moments. Yeah. And that's unfortunate, but that is like you mentioned, basketball and how we how we handle choking. Yep. It is such a magnitude to a point where, again, it is, it's five people playing a game, but if you mess up, Cooper Flag, Miss Jumper,

you choked. He shouldn't be number one pick. It's held to your last shot. Were you the hero or are you a loser for the rest of it? You're hero, a loser. That's it. That's it. That's the weight. That's it. I want to switch gears right fast before we get out of here. Why does John Morant not understand that, son, you can't play around like you're playing with guns? Like, you cannot do this. Remember Mr. Untouchable Nikki Barnes? Mm-hmm. That's John Morant.

He's just got to find out sometimes. You play in the face of whoever it is. And right now, although injuries, suspensions, over the tiniest things, which all points back to him. No one else. No one else. Accountability to herself.

But he's paid to check clears to every first and 15th. He's the franchise player. He's seen all over. He's made game winners. But it gets old, especially when you're not winning at all. Well, that's the thing.

He hasn't gotten to pass the second round of the playoffs. Is it really worth the headache? at this point? Is it worth the headache? I would probably say no, right? But I think a very important part of this is

so much of his game is unreal athleticism. He's probably the most exciting player outside of Steph Curry to me. Right, and so how long does that keep up? Okay, he's 25 years old now. And no, 25 is not that old. But take a guy like Gilbert Arenas, for example.

It was over at 25. Three year run. Yeah. Like 25 is old enough to where the wrong injury happens, right? It's a meniscus thing or whatever, especially if you have a game that's so predicated on your athleticism, which is not really the case for Gil. It is the case for John Moran. Hey, man, there's no promise that there's 10 years on the other side of this.

Like if I'm Memphis and he's not listening, right? He doesn't seem to get what the stakes and what the magnitude is. Oh, we got to find somebody else to take it. I mean, he even says, like, he even says, Like, you know, Chandler Parsons made a comment about maybe they need to trade them, right? Or he needs a new scenery. And he came back with a response, right? You know what I mean?

And the writing's on the wall. Memphis loves you till they don't. Luca Donchish got traded, brother. Right. You know what I'm saying? Whether you want to agree with Nico or not, that should have been the eye-opener for any star. no matter what you've done for the community, no matter how many game winning shots you've made,

you are on a timetable. You are just one of many contracts that need to be paid. And they don't mind hitting a reset button again. They don't. They fired your coach. Hold on. They fired your coach in March. And you're Bipton West at the time.

Right. Your team is going to the playoffs, and they were still good chance to host the first round series, and they traded your next, your next, as far as issues go, you're the next person they look at. Because they fire a coach like that to me, and you tell me if I'm wrong here, not even necessarily because they think the coach is doing a bad job, but they think the coach can't fix what the problem is. And so they need to give it somebody else to try to fix what the problem is before they have to fix the problem.

Yeah. And that problem happens to be 12. Yep. So at the end of the day, despite, I mean, it's just, it's the flow of it, man. It's the player's league until, you know what I mean? But the player has to have some type of awareness. We can say this to the world. Our face is blue.

Sure. Again, this is not even negative because it can be by size and say, oh, you hate no, you just don't get it. And it's like, no, this young man is going to make a lot of money in this league. He's going to continue to do what he does. But you cannot, you cannot have a, I don't give a fuck attitude in a national basketball association as this player, especially when you haven't won a championship, especially when you haven't. Like, winning wins fixes all. We know that.

You could be the worst person to you, the best person. It don't matter. But in this case, I don't see them win the championship this year. and I don't know the clock is ticking and when we look at those European stars and we're starting to look at our American stars and the only person that really want to face

and begging for it is Jason Tatum but we really relied hard on Zion and Jock and they have yet to meet the standards of it like Jock was right there to take off yep you know unfortunately lost to the Warriors whatever and he was supposed to be that next year

got hurt then the situation where he was suspended, then got hurt again, came back, got hurt. Now he's back to playing at a high level, and he's still one of the most exciting players. But bro, when are you going to take this serious? Brother, the most telling two words that you said in that whole thing were young man. You just turned 40 recently, and you understand where that goes. The John Morant is behaving in such ways that make he want to stop but put your hand on his shoulder and address him as a young man right like there's a and there's a care that comes when you tell somebody young man but you need like that is that is that is a tone and a phrase that is reserved for hitting somebody with some true gang right like somebody

needs to give you some true game right now young man if you continue going the way that you're going right Like that's another thing too. When you call somebody a young man, what follows next is an if-then statement. Mm-hmm. If present tense, then future tense. Yep. If you keep going down this road where you're going, it's not going to go the way you want. And I hear like, yeah, I, pa.

I, all right, I'll, I'llke. Whatever you say, right? John Morant, look, back in the day, John Morant was one bad move away from having to cut his hair. You know what I'm saying? Remember that conversations where people were like, maybe he should cut his hair. You always had, it was always the dreadlocks or the braids fault, right? It always was. Now, granted, granted, granted.

Well, I can explain this part. If you're going to fucking court, then it is definitely in your best interest to come in that band boy with an edge up. Like that was, but like, acting like you went to court and you ain't been to court yet, that was always going a little bit too far. My favorite, of course, speaking of the court thing is when they finally, when Michael Vick had to go to court, boy, he had them waves back at a heartbeat. Heartbeat. Once it was clear that he was catching charges,

he went from braids to waves like that. It's very telling, man. When you pop out with the waves, you pop out with that shortcut, you know, hey, as a former person who got their haircut, I used to have hair, by the way. You know what I mean?

And you have to, and you are judged by your actions, please get that haircut, clean up. It used to always be the dreadlocks fault, right? Now you can't even tell a boy like that to cut his hair. Hey, isn't it long hair the symbolism of the devil on the shoulder? No, what is?

Do the dreads talk to you? No, what it is. Do the finger gun. Long hair is the symbolization that you don't care what don't nobody say. You think the rules don't apply to you. That's what long hair. That's what long hair says. You think the rules don't.

apply to you. And I'm not saying it's fair. I'm not saying it's right. I'm just telling you, that is what it is telling people. Oh, you think the rules don't apply to you. And by the way, he clearly thinks that they don't.

Or what he misunderstands is everybody else is doing the play with guns thing. You, not everybody else. Like, he don't understand the ways in which he is and is not like everybody else. Yeah. Definitely not everybody else.

If the NFL cutting out this, you need to stop, brother. You need to stop. Listen, because this is, it's like one of them, you look at the other company and they say, hey, we're going back to the office five days. Yes. Y'all going back five days sooner or later. So if the NFL said no, hey, it might be no tons. It'll be no time league.

Nothing. Just score and just go put your hands in your pockets. Just give them pockets, NBA. Just let them put their hands in their pockets after they score. Oh, man. That's my man, Trouin Edwards. Check out the Goat Podcast, greatest of their era I-heart podcast,

Trayvon and Seth Curry, my brother, I appreciate you. Appreciate you, man. You know it's always love. Yes, sir, man. And ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on the right time. Be sure to check out our ad-free version, $5 a month, $50 a year,

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