The Ringer NBA Show - Ep. 73: All-Star Weekend With Tim Bontemps

Episode Date: February 16, 2017

The Ringer's Chris Vernon and The Washington Post's Tim Bontemps discuss Carmelo replacing Kevin Love in the All-Star Game (6:00), Bradley Beal's snub (14:00), Lou Williams's trade potential (18:00), and the battle for the 8-seed in the Western Conference (24:00). Then, they address the relevance of the dunk contest (28:00), Klay Thompson in the 3-point contest (34:00), and Tim Hardaway Sr.'s LGBT advocacy (38:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer NBA show. I'm Chris Vernon, and joining me today is the National NBA columnist for the Washington Post. Tim Bontems. Bontems. What, Verno? Hey, man, how's it going? I'm doing all right. I'm getting ready to go down to the deep south, to your neck of the woods.

Before you're going to the Deep South last night, you were witness to the Kings and the Warriors. And it looked like the Warriors might just coast into the All-Star Breast. break, Draymond Green gets thrown out of the game, and then they came out in the second half and dropped the hammer. I guess they weren't done playing just yet and had a 22-0 run, which is something you don't normally see when you head to the arena every night. Yeah, you know, like that game last night, Verno, it kind of was emblematic of their entire season where they just didn't really give a crap.

Like they haven't given a crap most of the season, despite the fact that they're 46 or 9 or whatever. It burst in the third quarter where they started to care, and they went. on like a 38 to 9 run overall and outscored the Kings at 1.22 zip over, like you said, I think about a five-minute stretch, five-and-a-half-minute stretch. Also, their games this year have been like that. Obviously, you know, when they played the Thunder the other night, when they played the Thunder all three times, actually, and they played the Clippers, and they played the Lakers

after they lost to them, when they put the Cavs. There's been a few games that they've really been up for. But, I mean, a lot of the time, they've just kind of another, which also says that, you know, when they get to the playoffs, you know, and they have to get up for every game, you would think that this team are in. Do you think they have any Achilles heel?

Honestly, not really. I mean, if they're healthy, like as long as they play up to their level, I just don't see how, you're just kind of seen that. Whenever they've, like the only times they've lost games like that this year, like the Cavs game or the game against your Grizzlies in Oakland,

it's like they, they kind of, they've shut off towards the end of game. So maybe you could say that they could get a little tight down the stretch of some games. But, I mean, even that seems like a bit of a stretch when you've got, you know, the four All-Stars that eight or 40 minutes a game in the playoffs. Do you view them in a total class by themselves, or do you think the Spurs deserve to be in the same conversation with the Warriors? So that's a great question.

I was thinking about that the other day when I was looking at the schedule. So I might go down to the game in San Antonio next month when they find a play again for the first time since the spurs blew them out on open. I think that the Warriors are in kind of a foul-in-by-the-self at this point for as well as the Spree. I think you have to kind of put them in their own class, especially because you have to think when San Antonio gets in the playoffs, with Tony Parker and Powell saw playing heavy minutes at point card and center

when Powell gets back healthy, their defense, I just don't think, is going to be able to hold up against a team like Bolton State. But we'll find out. I mean, look, if San Antonio beat them, in San Antonio next month and wins the first two games in the series, then I think you'd have to look at them as a team that maybe if they do get in the playoffs could give them a little more trouble than people think. The reason I'm asking you if you think they're all by themselves is because last year,

I know there was a sentiment by a lot of different teams that, okay, you have two historically great teams. Like if we're not for the season, the Warriors were having, given the record and the point differential of the Spurs, the Spurs would have, I mean, they had one of the greatest NBA seasons, ever. And so I think a lot of teams with the trade deadline a week from today thought, you know what, it ain't just one team we can't beat. It's two teams we can't beat. And I don't feel like people view the spurs that way this year. And so I do wonder if it's going to, right? And so is it going to

change your trajectory of a lot of these teams where they look at the trade deadline and go, okay, there's only one team we for sure can't beat. And they may be, you know, some Somebody tweaks an ankle, something happens. You know, maybe the door opens. But the fact that there were two teams last year, you know, I think maybe teams didn't pull the trigger on deals that they might have if there was only one team. And so do you think it makes for a more active trade deadline? You know, we just saw it open up in the east where I think a lot of teams are going to go, hey, man, Kevin Love's out for a month and a half. We got a shot now to get a good seed or maybe even a better seat.

And we already saw Toronto pull the trigger. Do you think maybe the West is a lot more active because teams below the Warriors think there's only one team we for sure would be the big, big underdogs too? That's a really good question, Vernal. My guess, just thinking about it right now is no. And really the only reason why is less to do with the fact that teams don't see that opening. and more that I just don't know among those teams, you know, from two to seven, you know, those six teams that are definitely in the playoffs after Golden State Barring something crazy happening. I just don't know how many bullets those teams have to fire off in terms of getting somebody in a trade, right?

Like you kind of go down the list of those teams and the Spurs never make in-season trades. Houston doesn't really have a lot of tradable assets at this point. they want to spend money this summer, so I don't think they're really going to take on anybody. You know, the Clippers have talked about going after Carmelo. I just don't really see that happening. And short of that move, I don't really know what they can do. And then, you know, like Oklahoma City and Memphis,

both are pretty, you know, strapped in terms of assets. And Utah doesn't do much. So I think the teams see that opening. And I think all those teams would say, if we get the right draw, we think we can make a run and at least get to the Western Conference finals. but I don't really know if any of those teams are going to really have the assets and the willingness to pull off the kind of deal that you're talking about.

It feels like the Clippers would be the one. Like I think they need some more toughness and maybe if they got another defender. Like maybe you move a Crawford or a player like that, right? Because he would have value. I said, yeah, not really. He doesn't have a ton of value. He's 36, 37. you've got to pay him again

a million guaranteed year after that. I mean, that's the thing. Like, you look at this offer, the Clippers are offer for Carmelo. It's essentially three bench players that add up to $28 million for Carmelo Anthony. Like, it's not,

they're not exactly offering a ton. I mean, they've already traded a couple first round picks in the future. Like, you kind of go through their assets, and it just doesn't, you know, there's just not a lot there for them to turn around and trade.

So I agree. I think they need, I think they need an inject. of something. I just don't really know short of if this Carmelo thing happens, which like I said, I don't think it will. I don't know if they have the ammunition to really go get

somebody that could really make a difference for him. Let's talk about two of those teams that he could feasibly, because of the opportunity, you could look and say, okay, we could win a championship if I went there. And let's just talk about two of them. Would Carmelo make the clippers a bigger threat to the

Warriors or the Celtics a bigger threat to the Cavs? But in either case, I think he would make the Clippers better, especially if they're trading him for a bag of balls, which is essentially what which is essentially what they'd be trading him for.

What are they talking about like Austin Rivers and Reddick and something else like a sweetener? I mean, essentially, I think it'd be Austin Rivers, Crawford, and West Johnson, which, you know, that obviously makes the Clippers better.

They then have no bench at all, and he doesn't really help any of their issues with defense. But he could certainly score for them and score latent games for them and would be a nice fit. They could have a three-man big rotation with him, Blake and DeAndre being on the court pretty much all the time, which would certainly be interesting. But he would definitely help them.

I can't see him going to Boston. I don't know if he would approve a trade to Boston. Boston in the first place. And, you know, Boston has big designs on free agency and wants to, you know, wheel and deal with their assets in a different way. It's hard for me to see them kind of committing most of their cap space for this summer to go after Carmelo now. And they could they could go after, you know, some guys are going to be on the market like Gordon Hayward and others in July. And given their recent success that they have been on such a hot streak and that you look up and they're just a few games back from the Cavs, does it make it less likely

that Boston tries to swing a move in the next week? I think so. I mean, look, I think if Boston, you know, if Boston could get their hands on Jimmy Butler, I could see them making a move like that. But I think short of that, I just don't, I don't really see them doing much. You know, Boston's history, too, is that they, you know,

there's a lot of talk about them, but right up until the deadline, and then they don't change. My assumption is going to be that they're going to stand pat and ride it out this year and see what they, see how they do in the playoffs and then they'll have a top four pick from the Nets and they'll have Max Capram to go try to sign a guy like Hayward

or somebody else this summer and my guess is that's probably how to try to play it so if you don't think that Carmelow would waive a no trade to Boston you think he would I mean like maybe what are our choices like either Cleveland or or the clippers because there's been this sentiment that like okay that's pretty much it Phil Jackson's trying to run the guy out of town

He wants him to, you know, he wants him, they all want a clean break. No question about that. Okay. So now the other side is figuring out where Carmelo would go. And that's what we think, either one of those two. He would waive it to go to Cleveland. He would wave it to go to the Clippers, don't you think? I think so.

He either of those because he don't really like being in New York. And, you know, as many people have said, I think the way Phil Jackson has treated him as kind of, you know, stiff in his resolve to kind of, you know, shove it to them and say, I do think if one of those deals was put on the table in front of them and said you can go play with LeBron or you could go play with CP3 in L.A., I'd be hard-pressed to believe that he wouldn't say, all right, let's do it. I anticipate the Cavs doing that in particular. I do think the Clippers thing is possible. I just think at the end of the day, there's just too much for them to try to sort out, and it's more likely that until the summer. And we are, of course, talking about surprisingly All-Star Carmelo Anthony.

I was surprised that he was named because it is, I'm not one of those that has a big problem with. If Carmelo Anthony is a huge star and he gets voted in to the All-Star game and that's what fans want to see, I got no problem with that, man. The fans get to choose something. If they choose, they want to see Carmelo Anthony playing in that game, then that's fine by me. But this is different. This is not a choice that was made by the fans. So I was a bit perplexed that that took place last night. And I know that you had thought it should be Brad Beale.

I think a lot of people that have been keeping up with the league this year, especially given how he's played recently, given the Wizards level of success recently, the idea that they should have two all-stars is totally fair. I saw my man Jared Dudley, who was on the Ringer podcast not that long ago, really promoting Brad. He spoke out about Brad Bile last night. I mean, what do we make of that last night?

That was very, very strange. I thought that, you know, when it came for an injury replacement for Kevin Love, it was Carmelo that got the call. Well, I mean, here's the thing. I did say I thought it should be Bradley Biel. He's been utterly fantastic. The Wizards have won 14 out of 16 going into tonight's game against Indiana to end their first half of the season.

they've had the best record in the Eastern Conference this December 1st. They've been fantastic, and Brad's been a huge part of that. So I would have picked him. But Carmelo also, for the past two months, is averaging something like 26-6. So he has been awesome for, no, I don't think it's a crime that he got, he got voted in, even as bad as I would have chose Bill instead. But look, at the end of the day, you know, Carmelo's a big star. And selfishly, from a story standpoint, you know, as fun as it would have been for Brad to be there,

you know, as a first-time All-Star. You know, the fact is, you know, now the NBA has its annual All-Star that might get traded at the All-Star game, which leads to 18,000 stories. And if it wasn't for the fact that, you know, we have the Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook experience this weekend, you know, the fact that Carmelo would be showing up now and playing on the same team as Kai Rearving and LeBron James would be the only thing that anybody probably be talking about the next year. Well, and in fairness, he's a front-court player.

And because of how many awesome guards there were, we thought it was possible that somebody could get left out of All-Star weekend. But Isaiah Thomas made it and Kemba made it and John Wall made it and Kyle Lowry made it and DeRosen made it. And so if you were replacing Kevin Love, if the idea is we're going to replace him with a front court player, I don't really know who else would be strongly in the debate. I mean, there's nobody that comes to the top of my mind like an Eastern conference. you know, what would be considered front court guy that he's getting screwed by Carmelo Anthony. If you're taking an Eastern Conference front court guy, you know, I don't even know who the argument would be. Yeah, well, I mean, like you would have, I would have made the argument a couple weeks ago for Joel and B.

He's obviously now hurt. Chris Sperzingis is, you know, is slumped a bit after a hot start. Jabari Parker was really good. Unfortunately, he got hurt. I don't really buy the sign of white side candidacy as some people are pushing. Yeah, no, I think you're right. And my guess is if you ask the league, what they would say is there's already 17 guards on the roster, and we wanted to pick another front-core player.

Carmelo was the most disturbing one, which, you know, like you said, when you break it down that way, it's pretty hard to argue with that logic at that point. Yeah, there's really nobody else. I mean, unless you wanted to put like an Al Horford in or something, right? Like somebody off of one of the better teams. And Carmel's been great. Like, that's the other thing. Like people, you know, people like to rag on Carmelo for a lot of reasons,

but you do look at the way he in particular has played the last couple months. As bad as the Knicks have been, he's the only reason they've been winning any games. Right. Let's speak to that Wizards team that Brad Beale's not going to be an all-star, so he gets to do the whole big chip on his shoulder the rest of the way. He stayed up and he has been awesome. And you wrote recently that we saw Toronto get the piece when they acquired Ibaka earlier this week.

The Wizards don't have a lot of assets. They're starting five's really good, and then we look at their bench, and it's like, okay, what, Kelly Ubrey and Marcus Thornton, and just whoever, right? But I got the sense that you feel like, yes, they are winning a ton of games right now, but they need to add one more thing

in order for them to be a team that we could see getting into a sixth, the seventh game in the highest leverage situations. Is that fair? Yeah, no, it's totally fair. I think you, I think you sound that up well, Berndt. I mean, they have maybe, you know, they have one of the best.

Brown, Bradley Beal, Otto Porter, Marquis Forrest and Marc Thiessen and Marc Thiancourt has been one of the very best lineups in the entire league this year. I think it's played the most minutes of any five-man line-up in the league. It's a hugely positive lineup. They've been just destroying teams all season. And Kelly Ubray, second year forward out of Kansas, has been really good.

It's taking really big strides for them, which has helped a lot. Yamahimi, is their big three-age signing, has not played at all. You know, they tried Marcus Thorne for a little while. That experiment ended. They've been playing Trey Burke. That hasn't done. I mean, they've actually got some piece production lately since Jason Yamahini came back. But, you know, yeah, they need another guy off the bench, particularly a sport.

You know, because whenever Brad or John go to the bench, they really struggle. And, you know, the, you know, the, you know, the, you know, the. the guy who runs the pod network that we're on right now, your guy Bill Simmons, this morning as a Celtics fan tweeted out that he wants Lou Williams to go anywhere but the Wizards. And, you know, there have been people within the league who have been saying to me for a couple weeks, you know, Blue Williams makes a lot of sense.

So for Washington, go get him, go to beat that score on the second unit when those come in and kind of prop that group up. And, you know, it would not shock me at all if the Wizards go out and get somebody, like that. For people that don't know outside of Washington, there's not a single Washington professional team among the four teams that play, the Redskins, the Capitals, the Nationals, the nationals, and the Wizards that's made a conference championship round, like the semifinals of

the playoffs in almost 20 years, which is kind of unbelievable. If they haven't had one team even get more than like one series into the playoffs, you know, if Washington could get a player like Blue Williams or somebody like that to make an impact and make a deep playoff run, that would be a hugely impactful thing for that franchise. So, you know, like you said, that surgery by the trade I thought was a pretty good trade for Toronto. You know, but if Washington can get another piece, you know, you look at those three teams and any one of them could then get to the Easter conference finals. And like I said, that'd be a pretty huge thing for both the Wizards and the City.

It appears what I'm looking at right now that the Wizards have their pick, which would be slotted as of right now, I believe. Yes, they do. At 22nd. Would you give up your first-round pick and something to get Lou Williams? Yeah, I mean, I think that makes sense. I mean, if you go up a late first-round pick, they'd probably tell the Lakers to take Andrew Nicholson's contract back,

which if I'm the Lakers, I do. Yeah, I think a trade like that makes sense for both teams. I wonder if they could get more than that for Williams. I don't know. I mean, it seems like that would be pretty good value if you got a, you know, a player, like, not a dead body, right? Which we're not, Nicholson's not a dead body.

Oh, Andrew Nicholson went to my college at Bonaventure, so you ain't got to get any negative words about him out of me. I can probably do that. If you're the Lakers, would you do a first rounder in him? I don't know. You might be able to get better than that. You might be able to get a better player and a pick. I don't know.

I'd be, maybe. I don't think there are a ton of teams that are going to be, that are going to be in the market for Lou. I would say if they could get a first round or they should do it. Now, who knows? Maybe somebody will offer a better pick than that or a better player than that.

But, I mean, to me, if you're the Lakers and you're in the situation, you're in, you gladly take another first round pick and you just keep building. Because, I mean, they don't, they're tearing things down and starting over. And I just, you know, I think they should get what they can and move on.

But, you know, whether it's him or somebody else, You know, Washington's definitely been looking around, and I think over the next week, you know, I'll be pretty surprised if, you know, by this time next week, or I guess in a few hours from now a week when the trade deadline has passed, I'll be pretty surprised if Washington hasn't found a way to upgrade that bench and give them a little more pop. That's what you wonder, right? Because we've already seen Toronto, who is right now, as of recording, the four seed in the Eastern Conference, and those two teams ahead of them, You've got, I mean, I'd be surprised if both of them or either of them stood packed completely going into this trade deadline. It feels like there's something that's going to be cooking for both. Like the arms race has started. And so now it's the Celtics and the Wizards move. Yeah, I know something.

I'm just going to hang on to their assets and see what happens this summer. I mean, if they can, you know, if I were them, I would be willing to trade. You know, they've got a whole bunch of first-round picks. Like, they've got, you know, picks of, like, 2019 from the Clippers and the Grizzlies. And they've got a bunch of stuff. I mean, I would be interested in trying to get Todd Gibson if I were with them. Like, I think if they could get, you know, another big to go without Horford, that would, like, a guy like Todd Gibson, even though he's on an aspiring contract,

that could really be, you know, an interesting piece for them. It could help them a lot. So, you know, if they could move, say, Amir Johnson and maybe their own first round pick this year, which especially if they have the Nets pick, which is, just like, I don't know, going to be mid to late 20s. I mean, if they could do something like that and like Toronto did and get a guy that can really help them, you know, they could get a guy like Todd Gibson.

They could make it deep run. But if I had to guess, I would say that Boston stands pat and says, we'll see what we can get this summer and we like our team now, finds a way to get some bench piece, whether it's a guy like Lou or somebody else, to try to strengthen themselves a little bit. Let me ask you about the Western Conference, and right now, outside. There is a huge gap between seven and eight. But eight is, as of today, occupied by the Denver Nuggets. Denver is a game and a half up on Sacramento. They're two games up on Portland. They're two and a half games up on New Orleans.

They're three games up on Dallas and they're three and a half up on Minnesota. So you have all these teams that are going to be vying for the eight seed that are all within three and a half games of each other. And then we're just counting out, we're saying the Lakers don't have a chance and the Sons don't have a chance, right? So you've got six teams all that are going to be competing for that eight seed in these last 25 or so games of the season. Who do you like? I would say Denver, and to go back to what we were just talking about, this is part of the problem for teams like Washington and Boston. Like all of those teams, other than maybe Denver, should be trying to get assets and building for the future. because they, but all of those teams, for the most part, still think they can make the playoffs. And so it's kind of led to this weird situation where with, say, 23 to 25 teams thinking they can make the playoffs a week before the trade deadline,

it's going to be difficult to try to get some of these teams to give up players to try to strengthen some of these playoffs. But to go back to your question, I think Denver is the best of those teams. I think Portland's going to fall off after trading Mason Plumley to Denver. And I think as long, you know, Denver's pretty banged up right now, and they're still ahead of those seams. And I think once they get everybody healthy, you know, which the All-Star break should help with, they might all, they're a team also that I could see making a trade

to try to get somebody, you know, over the next week. I mean, they want to make the playoffs. They've got a young core. And, you know, that's a team that doesn't do necessarily that well at the box office. So if they could get the eight seed and get some, get some revenue from a couple. The pick one of the teams to make it. I think at the end of the day,

Denver's the one that gets in. All right. We're going to take a quick break, and then we're going to come back and talk about this upcoming All-Star weekend and also a story that Tim has coming out in the Washington Post later today. That will be of great interest to you. Today's NBA show brought to you by Simply Safe. As important as home security is,

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Go now. That's simplysafe.com slash ringer. All right, Tim, so you're going to be headed down to All-Star Weekend. Are there any of the extracurricular things outside of the interviews and the actual All-Star game that you care about? Do you care about the dunk contest, the three-point contest, the skills, the skills, celebrity game, any of the outside stuff that is going on? I thought that, great. I thought the dunk contest last year was spectacular.

Last year was incredible. It was incredible. It was incredible. It was so much fun. I went and looked. I don't care about DeAndre Jordan dunking, honestly. Like, I just really don't. Glenn Robinson, the third, I never really thought of as some kind of amazing dunker.

and Derek Jones Jr. I mean, everybody, there is going to be an audible who on Saturday night. That kid is supposed to be a crazy dunk. I know, I've heard that. So we'll see, we'll see if he lives up to it. I mean, if you're a guy, like you said, if you're a guy no one's ever heard of and you're in the dunk contest, you better bring it. Because you're clearly only there because people think you can really bring it.

Now, he is supposed to be, he is supposed to be interesting. Look, it would be fun. I will say this. You know, the dunk contest, you know, it always depends. Year to year it can change. Like, some years, it's really terrible. And then some years, like last year you could argue, last year's dunk contest was as good as any ever.

But if that kid, like Derek Jones, Jr., he comes out and has a few dunks and really becomes like an overnight household name, that would be a pretty cool story. So I will say that, I will say that that will be fun. And even though it's dumb, the fact that they do the skills challenge that big guys against little guys is kind of fun to watch for five minutes. Would you say, I mean, I was trying to think back to like the least accomplished guy, right, that has won the Slamed Don contest. We've had a good run here where this would be like Jeremy. Yeah, this would be like Jeremy.

Yeah, I'd be like. Yes, I was going to, I was going to say Jeremy Evans is probably the best. Or Fred Jones is up there. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I forgot Fred Jones. I forgot Fred Jones was in the league for a minute. Fred Jones. I had to think about that. We've had a pretty good run.

It's been Levine, Levine, John Wall, Terrence Ross, and then you got the Jeremy Evans one. And then Blake Griffin, you had the two Nate Robinson's, you had Dwight Howard, Gerald Green. You know, I mean, again, he's had a career. Yeah, this would probably be either even, I mean, this would go, If Derek Jones Jr. could pull it off, he would go in the Pantheon with Jeremy Evans and... He'd be at the top. He'd be at the top, though.

I mean, because he, this guy, this guy's played, like, two games in a week. I mean, he, like, he literally got signed like a month ago and it was, like, in the Doug content. So, out of the dealies. So, yeah, no, it'd be, it'd be, that would be a cool story. I see what he does. So the antics, I'm sure we're about to talk about. Well, and the super interesting thing, right, is that I didn't. I don't remember him at all from college.

He played at UNLV, but I don't recall him. He only played one season there at UNLV. And so unfamiliar with his work even from college. Yeah, no, me too. I'm curious to see him. I'm curious to see. I'm curious to see. Like I said, I just, you know, he's known to be a huge leper.

So we'll see if he can pull off some. And if Gordon can do anything even close to last year, listen, The one where he jumped over the guy's head with both legs, that was one of the craziest thunks in the history of the world. I really don't know if there, I bet there's five guys in the history of man that could do that. I mean, both legs. Like, that was outrageous.

I know that, I know that I know that I, I know that I could not. I know that. And I know that not many other people could. So, yeah, five, five seems like a pretty good number. Skills competition. Though you don't care, here we go. We do have big guys in it. We have Davis, Cousins, Yokic, we have Devin Booker, we have John Wall, Isaiah Thomas, Porzingis, and Gordon Hayward.

It kind of feels like Isaiah Thomas's deal, him or John Wall, right? Because they're super fast, and it's really about knocking down the three. I think the big guys are at a disadvantage in this thing, you know, when it's a time deal. Yeah, I would say Isaiah probably is probably the best pick. John's a little quicker, but Isaiah said, but, and the way they do it is they have pigs against Littles, and then they have a runoff at the end. So, you know, it really just comes down to who makes the shot first. You know, like Yolkich is a pretty phenomenally skilled player, but he also is slow as molasses.

So, you know, he'll probably do everything right on the first. Like you said, the fact that they switch to that format, like, when it was all point cards, it wasn't really much to pay attention to. But I do think it's kind of fun, especially now with the way the league is gone, that they do have, they do have these big guys out there doing this stuff. Why is Steph not doing the three-point contest? I think he's just decided he'd rather take it easy this weekend. I mean, he was talking last night about how, after last night's game,

about how he was looking forward to not really doing anything but the game this weekend and just kind of, you know, keep it a lower profile and just kind of relax and enjoying the weekend. And I think, you know, I think given everything he's been through the last couple years, I think for him to kind of go there and enjoy the weekend, I think was pretty appealing to him. Okay. All right. But Clay's going to do it. You got Clay Lowry, Eric Gordon, Nick Young, Kyrie Irving, C.J. McCollum, Kimball Walker, West Matthews.

Who you like? I got to go with Clay. Go with Clay Thompson. I mean, there's a lot of guys. I mean, the three-point contest is kind of usually to do that every year now. But I think, you know, I take Clay Thompson against just about anybody in the world. except for maybe step in it. Yeah, probably so.

I mean, like, there are those guys that do those drills where you have to shoot 150 at each spot, or I'm sorry, 20 at each spot. And those guys, like, routinely hit over 90 when they're doing that drill. Oh, it's crazy. It's crazy. No, there's a guy like that that I see on a regular basis, Troy Daniels, who is not nearly the player, obviously, either one of them is. But, I mean, I'm telling you, Tim, I watch this guy.

He's a shooter, though. When you see guys that can do that and hit, like, 80, to 95 of these out of 100. Like, there are stretches where they will hit 50 or 60 in a row. And it's like, what is going on here, man? It's absolutely crazy. It is crazy, crazy. People have no idea, people have no idea how talented these NBA players are.

Like, they do, but like you said, if you get a chance to ever see these guys in a practice setting, they're just kind of casually going, you know, getting their work in. Like, the number of shots, they'll make it a row. is absolutely ridiculous. Well, and just to speak on that, on the Daniels thing, right? He's a bench player on a good team in the NBA. But, I mean, he can hit 90 out of 100 of those shots.

And then, like, the other day, he just banked 13 in a row just for fun. Like, he did banking them for fun. That's right. You know what I mean? Right. I mean, and you step up and you try to take that shot. Hell, you saw Stephen A. Smith try to take it the other day.

When Jay's on tweeted out. It ain't that easy. Which, by the way, have you ever been around him, Stephen A? I have. Okay. For people out there, I will tell you, it was very jarring to me. I've met the guy several times now. He's always been great to me.

So let me get that out of the way. The second thing is the first time you meet him, it is jarring how big he is. He's tall. Yeah, he's not a small guy. No, no, no. No. No, Stephen A. Smith is tall, tall, like, as compared to normal people. And, like, compared to me, he's gigantic.

Yeah, I mean, I'm six, I'm six-four. He's the same height as me probably. He might be a shade taller. He's around the same height. But, yeah, I mean, he's not a small guy. He doesn't look out of place in a locker room. Yeah. Shout out to Stephen A. Smith.

Even though, listen, I give him a pass on that air ball. Hardin did him wrong for posting that. Last thing. I mean, it was all right. Who amongst us? It's a, hey, it's a long shot. A long shot. 23 feet, 9 inches is bare with the ball.

They make it look so easy. All right. Last thing, you have a story coming out of the Washington Post. Maybe by the time people are listening to this podcast, it will probably already be out. And you did a long story on Tim Hardaway, not Tim Hardaway Jr, who is currently in the league, but the father, who was once part of the great TMC teams in run TMC. teams in Golden State. And then 10 years ago was in the middle of real controversy when he went on Dan Lebitard show after the John Amici book came out and had some anti-gay statements that he made that did not go over well at all. And then what's happened with Tim Hardaway? And I guess you

went to go try to figure it out. Yeah, I know. I don't want to give away. I think people are very curious to read about him. People kind of forget how good a player Tim Hardaway was. I'm a NBA player. Fuline MVP candidate in Miami after blowing his knee out, people didn't come back from blowing their knee out. So that was a pretty huge deal. And then, you know, obviously like you said, after his career is over, you know, people now, a lot of people just remember for those comments he made 10 years ago and to try to change that and advocate for some of the people that, and I think it's a act that people out there views on things and can change them over time.

And so I hope people will take the time to read it and think about it. Where is he? He's in Detroit. He works for Stan Van Gandhi now. We used to be an assistant coach in Miami. He's an assistant coach, I understand, in Detroit. It has been there since Stan got there in 2014. Wow.

All right. And he was more than willing to talk to you about all of this, huh? Yeah. Yeah, about his career and about that. I mean, you know, he's a difference. And likely being a finalist, that will be a part of all. All-Star weekend every year is they announced, you know, this week, should get in the Hall of Fame.

I'd be a finalist this year. It could make it this year, not to get political, but especially given everything that's going on in the country right now, I think it's somebody, you know, looking at, you know, decided to change their views on things and change the way people think about. Tim, I have a wonderful time in New Orleans. If on Sunday I pull up TMZ, what party should I look for you in the background? You getting into any parties at All-Star?

I don't know about that, man. I'm going to try to keep myself out of too much trouble. I mean, you know better than anybody. Being in New Orleans, you can get in trouble without having to go to any party. So I'm sure I'll find my way into something. Oh, boy. Well, I'll look for you on TMZ. Hopefully I won't disappoint you, buddy.

Have a good time in New Orleans. Thanks, man. All right, thanks, Bruno. I appreciate it. You can follow Tim Bondtems on Twitter at Tim Bondtems. You can follow me at Chris Vernon Show. If you want to give us any feedback there, thanks for listening. to another NBA podcast

and if you dig what you're hearing give us a rating and review on iTunes and we will talk to you soon.