The Ringer NBA Show - DeMarcus Cousins Tore His ACL. Is This the End of Boogie As We Know Him? | Group Chat

Episode Date: August 16, 2019

We go over the news out of Las Vegas that DeMarcus Cousins has torn his ACL—what does this mean for the rest of his career, and what will it mean for the 2019-20 Lakers (1:50)? Then, we bounce around the rest of the NBA and talk about the sale of the Nets and Team USA news (20:46). Hosts: Chris Ryan and Justin Verrier Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Liz Kelly and welcome to the Ringer podcast network. Season 2 of HBO Succession is back and The Ringer's Chris Ryan and Jason Concepcion are here to give you the latest in Roy family drama. Every Sunday night, they'll be breaking down what we just saw on our new show called Number One Boys, A Succession After Show. You can tune in live on the Ringer's Twitter every Sunday night right after the episode ends. Basketball is very good. Kevon Loney is a Max player. The Lakers should hire Ernie Grunfeld. Kauai should sign with the Warriors

Basketball is very good Hello and welcome to group chat The tumbleweeds are blowing through the league It's the offseason There's no off season for this podcast I'm Chris Ryan I'm joined by Justin Verrier I'm back He's Justin was so kind

As to come in During what is essentially his vacation Although if we can pull back the curtain a little bit Justin what did you do on your summer vacation I went to a couple beaches. Those beaches just happened to be in Los Angeles where I live. But, you know, beaches nonetheless. Yeah.

I just took it easy. I got back to my roots, you know? It was a staycation. Staycation week. Justin's here. We're here to talk about what little there is happening in the NBA. So that includes. Great self.

No, I mean, because it is like a 10 and a half month, you know, a year league. But I think that we have a couple of things we want to talk about. DeMarcus Cousins tearing his ACL, a little bit of stuff about the Brooklyn NetSale, which looks like it's gone through or is going in the process of going through and a little bit of stuff about the Wizards and a little bit of Team USA. Let's start with Boogie, unless you want to talk any more about your staycation. Let's start with Boogie. Obviously, really sad news. DeMarcus cousins has dealt with some of the most devastating injuries in an NBA player can dealt with over the last three years.

and it was reported yesterday that it was confirmed the rumors that he had torn his ACL while playing in Vegas and he will likely, I would, no Dr. Chow here or whatever that guy's name is, but I'm guessing that he is going to miss next season. Seems like it. And that's terrible. You know what I mean? Like, I think that it's pretty easy to like discuss Boogie in a lot of different ways in terms of like whether or not he's ever reached his potential or whatever.

But it's really terrible to watch somebody that gives people so much enjoyment and so much entertainment to watch their body breakdown like this. And I think that, you know, without getting too far into it, you can tell that there's some systemic things happening right now with Boogie. There's a lot of conversation about whether he pushed himself to come back too soon from various injuries over the last couple of years and whether that's leading to this. It can also just be the he has like really, really terrible luck. What's your reaction to the Boogie news? It's pretty tragic. That seems extreme, but this seems appropriate, considering when he got to the Pelicans, it seemed like his career was potentially going to just take off in a way that it hadn't before,

finally got out from under his Sacramento Kings. Last year, to put this in perspective, this past postseason, that was his first postseason that he's ever participated in, which goes to show you how long that he's been in our lives, but never had reached a certain plateau that most front. front-line players, players of his caliber tend to reach at some point. Since then, we're at the point now where he's, I don't know, will he ever come back? I think that's a worthwhile question.

Even without, like, being doctors, as you say, I think this could be a potentially career-threatening injury because before this, he was down to a minimum contract and already kind of in the ring-chasing mode. Yeah, he had torn, obviously he tore his Achilles with the Pelicans in January of 2018, and then he, He tore his quad in April. And then was able to come back. And, you know, there were times when you saw him in the playoffs with the Warriors where he looked kind of not, if not old boogie, at least incredibly useful. And then there were times where it looked like he was completely off the pace of NBA basketball and was just looked completely not ready for prime time with that.

And this is a really serious deal. You know, I mean, Cousins is somebody that I think. think to me actually represents like a different way of talking about the NBA that I kind of miss, which is like more of an emotional attachment to players and more of using players as kind of avatars for ways of thinking about basketball that aren't analytical and aren't empirical, you know, like Boogie obviously put up great numbers, but I love guys that are divisive and I love guys that, um, I love guys that make people talk and like guys who's value and worth and not even value and worth because those are weird terms.

use, but like guys who are like, you know, you're either a boogie guy or you're not, you know, and most people acknowledge, like, he's in a devastating offensive center at his prime. But like, it's like, it was fun to talk about boogie. It was cool to have guys like boogie still in the NBA. And in some ways, I feel like guys like that are getting like somewhat efficiencyed out in a little ways because it's like, oh, you can't have a headcase or you can't have a big center like that and can't run things through him. He was such an exciting player, but he was such an interesting player.

So I really do hope we, I have not seen the last of him. I think he's one of the most fascinating figures in the league, perhaps in recent history, even, because as you mentioned, it does feel like things are kind of whitewashed to a certain degree where everyone is so brand conscious. And I get the financial aspect of it. It is in their benefit to be a little bit more benign and to not say things as often, as someone like Boogie did. But he really spoke his mind in a way that few players do.

Even LeBron, like when he does speak up, it is very consciously. like calculated and he plots out what he wants to say and how he wants to say it. Boogie just like can't stop himself from saying things. And that was for a while his downfall. And for that reason, a lot of teams kind of probably stayed away from him. There's a reason why he initially, like the Pelicans were the only team that ended up trading for a guy of his caliber because not a lot of teams probably wanted someone like

him on that team. But I think not only was he interesting as a personality, but just as a player, because in the era of unicorn, like when we look back on this era of NBA basketball, it will be Steph, it'll be the Warriors, but I think for the most part, it'll be some of these unicorn players. And while guys like Janus,

guys like Anthony Davis have been more successful, at least on an individual level when it comes to Davis, I think Boogie kind of best represented the unicorn at a time when we were still kind of figuring out what that was. He is the biggest player on the court. And yet he had some of the best talk, that I've ever seen from a big one. Just his ability to pass, his ability to shoot.

Like, even the way it comes off of his hand, it's just like, it's very soft. It almost glides, whereas other guys are kind of rocketing from the three-point line. And then also, when big men were still learning how to shoot three-pointers, boogie was jacking them at a, like, a pretty high rate, which goes to show you, like, the type of, like, personality is

because he's willing to just go for it and, like, also, like, who was going to tell him no with the kings. Right. But he, like, he was kind of a, at the forefront of that movement. And I think when I look back at that time, I'll probably think of him. And it's sad to say that like now two, three years later, I don't know if I'll ever see him again. Yeah. I mean, when you think about also, you know, and I know Dan wrote about this idea, Dan Devine on our site wrote about like some of the what ifs around Boogie and the great

what if of his career, even just down to like what would have happened if he had been drafted in a different spot. Yeah. You know, because that, it was a time for Sacramento, so much upheaval where you've got Westfall, smart, Malone, Corbin, Carl, like all these guys coming in, the constant turnover there, the constant

sort of changing of direction, and he was sort of positioned really early on as the franchise player and whether or not they could make it work with Boogie as the franchise player. And there was so much chaos around him and he was an agent of chaos. Like he was obviously

like there's numerous stories about boogie and boogie's behavior in the locker room behavior with his teammates, you kind of just wonder, I'm gonna look at the draft that he was in really quickly here. It goes, Walt Turner favors Wesley Johnson, demarcous cousin number five to the Kings.

And there's a reason why he fell. He was probably the most talented guy in that draft, but because of all the character concerns, he ended up on a team like the Kings, and the Kings, part of the reason why he was the franchise player was because the Kings just didn't draft well enough to put another guy around him.

Yeah, and you wonder what would have happened if he had either slipped or jumped. So if he had wound up with Philly at two. Or if he had slipped to a Utah or if he had slipped to an Indiana or if he had slipped to a Memphis or Toronto and had like a more stable organization around him. Because Memphis and India at the time felt very much like we know what we're doing. And they still do. But like, you know, they've gone through changes since then. It's a great what if.

It's fascinating. I really hope that he gets back to play even if he's not ever going to be the demarc. Marcus that we saw. This sucks, but we do probably need to address what this means for the Lakers. That's another what if. Yeah. Because even though Boogie is on a minimum contract now and is kind of, was originally going to be playing for probably the next phase of his career, the Lakers, a team we all expect to be in the title race this summer, or next season, is out of center. Yeah. So if you look at ESPN's depth chart, it basically will go, it starts starter, second, third, fourth, fifth, so he's five columns.

There's two columns for center, and they've lost one. So now Javelle McGee is the only quote-unquote center on their roster or active player on their roster. This brings up a huge thing with Davis, with Anthony Davis, because Anthony Davis is, I thought, pretty compelling. Like, it's pretty interesting. I don't know how much we've talked about it a little bit, but he is, like, explicit about not wanting to play center.

Yeah, and he's been more so since joining the Lakers. I think, I don't know if it was a conscious. decision because he's changed agencies or if he just like feels a little bit looser in the LA atmosphere. But he was, I believe, outright in saying that yet again in his introductory press conference or at least around that time recently. Yeah, well, he's allowed to do that. Well, he's allowed to do that just because he's allowed to do that. But it's the perfect time for him to do that because he's not signed there long term. You know, like that is he can apply the pressure of being like, if you want me to be here, I expect to be able to determine what position I'm

to play. And I've arrived at that point in my career. I'm trying to just scroll through this list of available free agent centers. And it is, you're getting into the Amir Johnson's, you know, like you're getting into, honestly, no, not even that, right? Yeah, I mean, and the difficulty the Lakewoods will have is just they just don't have any available means. They're dealing with minimum contracts. They really don't have draft picks to trade. I think they, they, all their firsts are probably, or to a certain degree, most of their first are tied up with the Pelicans because even though they're not going to trade all of them, the Pelicans have rights over a few of them and the stepping mural kicks in. So those are tied up. But they could trade, I believe, some seconds or

maybe they could swap some seconds. One guy, Kevin Pelton brought up on ESPN, was Christian Wood. So they're really just reaching here. Yeah. So they have McGee as potentially a guy who could fill that void. I'm literally just saying names like Tyler Zeller. I have no idea where Tyler Zeller is or like he's currently not on a basketball team, but is 29 and is seven feet tall. It is pushing the Lakers perhaps to reach outside of what they've traditionally gone to under Rob Polenko, which is a lot of retreads. Like after losing out on Kauai, Danny Green was a good signing, but a lot of the guys they got in order to fill in around AD and LeBron were a lot of guys you've heard of but haven't been

potentially all that good the past two years, Avery Bradley, KCP, Quinn Cook, Quinn Cook. Troy Daniels. He's fine. Yeah. I mean, all these guys are fine, but if you had known that you would have

that glaring of a big man, I mean, look, this is somewhat bad planning. Boogie has been injured. Boogie has been up and down. Javelle McGee is what he is. Like, if Anthony Davis doesn't want to play center, you have to treat that seriously.

So, not that you could have anticipated Boogie Terry's ACL in the summer in Vegas, but like you could have anticipated some difficulties in filling that spot. Right. And I don't even know what you were expecting to get from Boogie this season anyway,

because not only was he coming off the quad injury to begin with, but even in that final series when he came back against the Raptors, all the flaws that you worried about, not only about him transitioning to this era of the NBA, but also given his perhaps diminished athleticism, how he would really translate or what his role was, I think he could still provide some offensive pop, which would be a valuable thing for the Lakers,

especially considering you don't know how many games LeBron or AD are going to play next. season. You would imagine there would be some load management for both of them, but especially defensively. Like, that's not a guy you could rely on. And the Lakers are built, even though LeBron often doesn't play at a high pace. They would probably be at their best when they are running with AD and LeBron at the five and the four.

And so if there is a silver lining to this, it is that AD is almost forced to be playing more five in the regular season. Here's the thing. You would assume that you're right, load management for those two guys. so that you don't wind up in a situation like you did with LeBron last year. So you were already going to be in a situation where, frankly, I think the Lakers were going to be trying to manage expectations throughout the season in terms of how good they're doing during the regular season. AD has already kind of like sounded that alarm by being like, I like our chances

in a seven game series. Like I don't see who can beat us in a seven game series when it's me and LeBron. He might be right. paraphrase. But he is counting on like no matter where they are. If they're the fourth seed, you know, behind a clippers or rockets and a, and the jazz or something, they're counting on being able to flip the switch and those guys all being healthy at that time. And then they have all that time, they have plenty of time to figure out who to get in their big man spot. Maybe they, maybe they try and get somebody for Kuzma, although Kuzma makes so little money. I don't know what value you can get for him in some ways.

But it's going to be a long season for them, you know, and it's going to be a long season for them to pretend like everything that matters happens in April and May and June. Yeah, that's the trade-off because, for one, I do think this is going to be what's best for Anthony Davis. He's forced to be playing more center. And if they do fill in the gap with someone like Amir Johnson or whoever you want to throw in there as just like a big body who could potentially just block Tyler from a huge life-changing experience. I think the Zellers have gotten enough money in their careers by just being big. Cody is still out there. That's what Joseph society should do is populate the nets now entirely with plum,

les and zealers. You should be like, whatever. I own Alibaba. Get out of here. Right. That'd be great for the Duke faction. Adam Silver would love it. I do think this opens up things for Anthony Davis, even more so. Obviously, he was going to be featured regardless, but you did wonder if they anticipated playing LeBron A.D. Cousins a lot, and at the very least, they were anticipating starting them, I believe. You were probably going to look away from Davis a little bit more than you would like. You wonder with Boogie, even though he was at a diminished state going into this whole situation and perhaps was humbled by not getting many offers in the offseason,

whether he'd really lost the vision of himself. In the very least, he was going to be playing for his next contract anyway. And I don't know if that would have been a great mix with AD, and I do think it would have really, they really would have suffered on the defensive end. Now AD can be AD. You really just need a body in there to take some of the pounding away in the regular season and to allow him to freelance in the same way that Janus was allowed to do so with Brooke Lopez next to him.

Brooke basically spaced the floor, and he took up space in the center of the paint in order for Janus to be this free safety, almost on both ends. I guess the question, though, is while I think that opens the door for AD to make an MVP push, which is something Bill has talked about, and I wholeheartedly believe that he potentially is

probably at the forefront of that conversation, there is a difference between regular season and postseason. I think in an ideal world... It feels almost more drastic than in years past where it feels like that shortened rotation,

all that stuff. I mean, look at the Raptors. Yeah. Raptors basically like massaged all of Kauai's responsibilities. And while he was a big factor in that team,

they did really well in the regular season, they proved that like, if you're just kind of like just taking your time and almost using it as a warm-up and you can get to the post-season and just turn it on,

and that's all you really need. Yeah, I mean, those guys in a lot of ways are going to have a, I think we'll look back on that, the way that the Raptors conducted themselves over the course of the season, the way Messiah and Nurse orchestrated that as like a blueprint going forward. Now, I don't know in certain ways, like, with the amount of like volatility that we've got now in terms of player movement, I don't know if you're ever going to be able to necessarily recreate that magic. But the idea the Raptors going through the season with this bench mob and go

10 deep and have like this, this like increased value for players who, you know, they've gotten in late first round, second round, off the streets, whatever, and recreate, like, reclamation projects on certain guys. And obviously had a really good vibe going there, while also having arguably the best player in the NBA, all-round player in the NBA, kind of resting his quads all season so that he could be Superman in the playoffs,

and then you could shrink your rotation down to seven. And also use the extra value you've developed for some of those benchmarker guys to make a trade for a Marcosol in the middle of the year. like everything they did was to perfection. It kind of reminded me almost more of like the way baseball teams sometimes run their thing where they like get to the trade deadline, get that closer or get that like third arm that they need going into it. It was perfectly run.

So I don't know. The Lakers do have, don't have anything close to that kind of asset chest. Yeah, that's a really good point. And looking like the Lakers do have death, which was a huge part of the Raptor's success in the regular season last year. They have bodies and that is the one advantage of not going the Kauau route, which is you just have guys to fill in during the regular season, so you don't really have to put as much stress on AD and LeBron as you normally would. But a lot of these guys, I'm not expecting a lot from.

I don't think a lot of people are. No, I think Troy Daniels is expected to hit open threes. Like, I think one of the more interesting guys in their guard rotation is Alex Caruso. That's where we are at this point. I mean, Rondo, I mean, you talk to anybody on that team, they'll just tell you just how terrible he is on defense and how much his reputation just hasn't been earned. Even in New Orleans,

I think a lot of people would tell you that he was really overrated on that end. Bradley was just like one of the worst players in the NBA in recent years. And while like perhaps there's something that they could tap into these guys who were successful within the past two to three years, I just, I think you're counting on that

as opposed to like dealing with what the reality has been in recent years. So it does push the Lakers to perform like one of these better run franchises that we all talk about, the Clippers, the Raptors. They really do need to unearth guys from the fringes of the league because that's really their best hope not only to fill around these guys in the immediate,

but potentially to elongate this kind of window with LeBron and AD. As of yesterday, the Lakers, their win total is still at more or less 51.5. Looking across the various books. Sure. Under, over. I would go under only because of what we just talked about. I think the regular season is going to be a slog for them. A man, a 48, 49-1 Lakers team,

think anybody's going to pay attention to that? I think everyone's going to pay attention to that. When the Clippers are probably going to be flirting with 55 to 60? I think because the Lakers, well, for one, the Lakers have a built-in fan base. They're dealing with, like, they're playing with how it's money at this point. But also, like, the fact that they are going to be a high wire act to a certain degree, that's more interesting than the Clippers just, like, mowing people down with a team that we expect to win the time. title. The thing that they need is they need to have a quiet season. They need to have a quiet

regular season and that's impossible with LeBron and it's impossible with the Lakers. What else you want to talk about today? The Brooklyn Nets got sold. Yeah. Prokeroff is gone. Your boy. You know, he's been, he came in with such a splash and then I think, you know, over the years is kind of like lowered his profile a little bit. And they was the net sold for $2.5 billion, ultimately, I think, is the total of Joseph's society. owned 49% and bought the remaining 51%, I believe, is there correct? Right, and then he also bought Barclays in a separate deal. He did, so he did do that.

I believe there's a deal in place for another billion. Okay. So we're in a world where the rockets go for $2.2 billion, the nets go for $2.5. The nets are obviously, like, you're buying high. They got Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant and a cool building and a cool place to live, and they seem to be run well. Brett Your Mark is going to be leaving the franchise as the CEO. But for the most part, I would assume,

all other major players will stay in place until Kyrie is like Brooklyn is actually not part of New York. Yeah. Or whatever. And then they have to have like a crazy Kenny Atkins and sit down. Do you have any thoughts on our newest owner in the NBA? Not really. Our newest governor? Yeah.

I think what I would say is just it's worth noting that Michael McCann had a piece in Sports Illustrated that talked about why this is like good for BRI, I guess. Sure. This will be interesting. Joseph's size also got a lot of

influence, obviously, in the NBA's presence in China. And I think Belief sits on like it's the board of directors of NBA China or NBA in China. When Yao is on the rockets, like it was obvious that the rockets made huge inroads into China,

and I wouldn't be surprised if the Nets become a team that's more globally well-known if they aren't already. Right, not from the owner who literally lived outside of the U.S. But it's kind of an interesting situation where the Lakers and Nix are old-school owners sort of derided by a lot of the basketball power Twitter users, Twitter power users. But the quote-unquote second teams in those six.

cities are arguably better funded, at least much more like modern in their approach, and seem to be on upward trajectories when we're talking about the clippers and the Nets. Yeah, old money, new money. I think that definitely favors a team like the Nets. I think it puts them in a better situation going forward, all the things that we've heard about what sold Durant and Carrie. Wasn't it partially that like the NIC's facility is actually like two hours from like New York or something like to get there with traffic. So it's like in the suburbs. So it's like Brooklyn's facilities are state of the art and also close by.

So you could actually live in the city where if you're spending most of your time with a team, it's probably at the practice facility. You've got all your life on the BQE. You're doing whatever you're doing. Yeah. Right. So I mean, it's a good sign for the league. It's more money coming into it.

Ultimately, I don't really care as much about this as much as I do about saying goodbye to potentially like the most interesting owner in NBA history. Right. I wonder like. The Prokeroff Boogie era. coming to a close right here on the spot. Kind of is. Like, everything is becoming a little bit more buttoned up.

And I guess if you really want to, like, jam these two stories together, there is that through line, right? You have a literal oligar coming in. And I think that was, I think it was sold to us at the time as the NBA opening itself up to the rest of the world. Yeah. And they definitely have made efforts in that regard in recent years. They want to definitely sell all the camps they're putting up in various places, all their opportunities in China and some of these bigger markets, which I think is great. and it's in their right to sell that. However, I do wonder if they look back on this situation

where, like, maybe we overstepped a little bit by getting this guy on his jet skis who potentially had like some really shady connections to Russia. Well, it was an interesting point in time where also there was like a second where it was like, can you buy an NBA championship? Because, you know, there was a real conversation about, well, if a guy is willing to shatter the luxury tax

and if a guy doesn't care about draft picks and a guy doesn't care about long-term sustainability because he's just like, and this literally did happen in European soccer. You had whether it was sovereign wealth or oligarchs coming in and buying clubs and being like, there is no limit to what I will spend. What will it take to build not only like a championship team this year,

but a championship team for years to come? And that's happening at city at PSG. It happened at Chelsea in the early 2000s. You just see the like the might of wealth coming in. and the NBA has somewhat more strict salary and financial rules that kind of dissuade behavior like that because you eventually will wind up in a repeater tax for a bad team with no draft picks, which is exactly where the Nets were. And they just so happened to get Sean Marks to come in and somehow, you know,

hit the lottery with Caris LaVert and DeAngelo Russell and Jared Allen and all these young players and talk the two most enigmatic NBA players who happen to be all NBA players. into coming to his team. Yeah. I mean, you want to talk about hitting the lottery, it's basically doubling your investment.

Yeah. So Prokeroff bought in originally for $1.7 million. He's now selling it for $2.5 plus Barclays, which is $1 million. Talk about just like an incredible cash grab for him.

A guy who bought the team when they were in the literal swamp in East Rutherford at the Aizod Center. Did you go to the Azoad Center? I think I went once for the NBA draft. I think I went once for

I think I went for a JZ concert How was it? Good. Yeah, it's pretty good. I mean, the building is trash. Yeah, yeah, it's easy to get to though. Yeah. Because didn't Amtrak go pretty close there?

Yeah, I remember taking a... I went to the draft there too, I think. Yeah? Yeah. I wonder what draft were you at? I was at the Derek Williams draft. It might have been that one. I was like working in the back, like doing these chats for ESPN.

Were you? Yeah, it was a really bad job. Like you were the expert? No, I was like, I was like the middleman where they were doing, I think we were doing it on cover it live at that time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like, people would ask questions and the players would sit down and I was like the middleman. The problem was I'm not a very good typeer. In fact, like in typing class in sixth grade, I got like a T. So like I'm, I was trying to get down what they're saying. And it was actually pretty difficult. Wow. I do remember one specific event where Ennis Cantor, I was like trying to convince. what he was saying. He's like, no, under Cantor. I was like, wait, what? And he was trying to make an Undertaker joke. Oh, he's huge. Even back then.

This would be the 2011 draft if it was Cantor. And that, this was, we were at the same draft, dude. Wow. Wow. 2011, I was living in New York, Grant. And it just started and I was following Derek Williams

for the night. Oh, really? Yeah, but I thought it was going to be like fear and loathing at the NBA draft. And it was literally just like watching him get interviewed by like, you know, the local Minnesota Timberwolves

like sports radio guy Yeah That was the Kyrie Irving Derek Williams Enis Kanner Tristan Thompson Yonis Valenciunis

Vesely I remember that Yes Beobo Brandon Knight Kemba went ninth Clay went 11th I remember And Kauai

That was the Kauai draft Oh yeah Yeah I remember telling Kemba I went to Yukon He was very excited Was a big moment for me How are you feeling

about Kemba as Captain America Love it. He's the face of America now. I really like Bill and Brian's pot about Team USA. It got me a little bit more fired up for it. I was like, I don't know if I can handle reading about like one-quarter scrimmages and like whether or not Joe Harris is doing well. I do love the stories about how like Chris Middleton is just airballing it

because the ball is different. But I'm officially putting like I'm putting Donovan Mitchell on notice. I see you out here. getting your story across about how you're jacked. Everybody's like he's 06 Wade. Mm-hmm. Okay.

Wow. You're out. Now, I'm not out? Mm. Just like, where's the pudding? Prove it to me. What are we talking about here? I've never been the biggest supporter.

Obviously, he's playing way above his draft slot. And for that, like, he deserves all the credit. Uh, I do wonder how that's going to work out with him and Conley. But for Team USA specifically, I'm super interested in this year. perhaps more than even the last Olympics. Because when there's a lot of stars together, especially the ones that have played an international competition before,

it kind of just becomes a dick measuring contest. It's like, yeah, you know KD is going to step forward. He's the best guy in that team or Kyrie Irving. Like maybe a guy like Clay Thompson or DeAndre Jordan has a moment and we all look back on it and like a scribe meeting to that as like when he took the leap. I think it's way more interesting when you have teams like the 2010 team where it's a bunch of young guys.

Yeah, that's what's cool about this team. some way. I think I truly believe in the idea of when all these guys get together in Team USA settings or in All-Star, like the guy that kind of stands out above them, I think that's meaningful. Let me tell you something as a Sixers fan too. I love, I love, please play all the Boston guys. Please play four Celtics for an extra six weeks. Yeah.

Please. Please let me see those guys in the playoffs when they've actually been playing for another month and a half on top of all this. It's not going to be great. But on the other hand, they all seem to be getting along. But maybe there's cohesion. And maybe they all believe in Kemba. And maybe they wind up becoming like, you know. It's good for that, like, their notoriety.

Like, I will know way more about Jalen Brown than I ever had. I think people will be exposed to Kemba Walker and ways that they've never had. I think, like, you're already seeing people say like, wow, he's like, he's like the nicest guy in the world. And it's like something I knew as someone who, like, has been thorough. Because he said hi to you in 2011? Yes. There was also a time in Charlotte where I was covering that series,

and so I followed them from Charlotte to Miami. And so I showed up in a... You covered a Hornets Heat series? Yeah. How is that? Incredible, because it was a seven-game series, which meant three trips to Miami. Yeah, I can see that being cool.

And I was living on South Beach for extended stretches at the time. So quite good. Okay. Probably should have brought something other than converses in order to walk the beach. to show you what a cool guy was at that point and still I am. But he was like, who are you? Because he noticed me coming to multiple stops.

He's like, what are you doing? And I was like, oh, man, it really really pierced my heart. So did you say, I'm a fellow wolf of Yukon with you? A fellow Husky? What do you guys say to each other when you see each other? Is there like a secret handshake for Yukon guys? Yeah, it's like a dab with the elbow. Is it a secret payment under the table?

I wish. A check from Jim Calhoun. There's always stories about Maya Moore's like mother all of a sudden living in the store's area in a very nice household. Okay, so my story is that I'm skeptical of Donovan Mitchell being jacked and the reincarnation of 06 Wade and like ready to take the leap. Not that I'm just, I just am. What are you skeptical about?

What's something that you've heard this summer that you're like, give me a break? I've heard this too many times. This is a bit. It's a great question. What are some other things? Like, what else has happened? Like, is it, we didn't get DeAngela Russell to trade him? Oh, do you want to know the thing I'm most skeptical about?

Is it, is it okay to put it on a podcast? Yes, I think so. I just don't think you're going to appreciate this one, and you're going to take it as a personal attack. I'm not. I'm okay. I'm a big boy. It's the Sixers. What about the Sixers? It's specifically the Embed-Horfer pairing,

but more than that, like, I think we're headed toward a Ben and Joel divorce, and I think it should have happened sooner. You've literally been saying this for the entirety of a relationship, so I don't know why you're acting like you're like next time on lost with you here. Right. Well, it's been a while since we've been in front of the like. What has happened since the last time I saw you? You went to the beach twice, so you came back with like a moment of clarity

about Ben and Joel not liking each other. What is it? I'm living my truth now. We haven't seen much of Joel at all this summer. Well, I just think that they've doubled down on the things that I didn't like about the pairing to begin with. You're putting more big bodies in there. And even if Horford is going to be like just more of a spot for Joel Embed when he's hurt or when he's not going to be able to play as many minutes, like putting those three guys in the court together, I think it's

going to be disasters. Well, yeah, there's such a thing as staggering minutes. It's like, all right, here's the new thing that's happening. Ben Simmons, get off Instagram. Is he on Instagram a lot? Just a lot of, a lot of posing. Like, occasionally seem like in front of like a Ferrari. This feels like you're targeting me now because like, it's like what NBA players are posing on Instagram. Just like go shoot three-pointers, my guy. Okay. This is the end of the podcast.

Put the Ferrari in the garage and get in the gym, Ben Simmons. Justin, we can't all be cross-fit religious fanatics like you. I know. I'm going to show them a thing or two. I'm going to my first cross-fit class today. Next week, we're going to do a mailbag episode of group chat, so maybe you'll have better subjects than we did. Bobby, how did we do? I think you nailed it. I was enthralled the whole time.

Thanks, man. Yeah. Ask me question. about cleans and jerks? No, I also ask Justin and I like questions about other NBA players that we've had weird interactions with. That's always good.

So yeah, mailbag, at Ringer MBA, you can send, like, what is it? Hashtag group chat. Yeah. Sure, hashtag Ringer MBA. Just at Ringer MBA to ask me and Justin questions for next week's pod.

You know the Twitters. Yeah, you know the Twitter. You know how those works. In the meantime, thanks so much for listening. Let's talk to you next week. Basketball is very good. Basketball is very good.