The Ringer NBA Show - 'Sources Say': NBA Fight Club and Celtics Legends Controversy (Ep. 193)

Episode Date: January 17, 2018

The Ringer's Juliet Litman and Chris Ryan marvel at the NBA fights of late, and offer theories to explain the recent rise in incidents (1:05). Next, they examine the Isaiah Thomas video tribute debacle (11:20) and Clippers-Cavs trade rumors (19:10). Then, they congratulate Jayson Tatum on his new child (21:05), wonder whether the Baby Lakers are friends (22:55), and examine Chris Paul's California real estate ventures (24:20). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Bill Simmons. The NFL playoffs are in full swing, and The Ringer NFL show has you covered for all your pro football needs. Sunday night. Get Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier's rapid reactions on GM Street. On Tuesdays, the Ringer NFL show with Robert Mays, Kevin Clark, and regular guest, Danny, break down all the biggest angles on Wednesday. GM Street again on Thursdays, Clark, Mays, and Danny are back at it again. And on Friday, GM Street's Friday focus gives you all the insight you need for gambling fantasy. and everything else, don't forget about my podcast, too, on Mondays. The BS podcast, Cousin Sal and I playing Guest Alliance. More importantly, the Ringer NFL show, subscribe right now on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. Yeah, litman.

I'm Chris Ryan. Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight. Are we allowed to celebrate fights? Are we allowed to, do we come to this podcast, do you through a secret hallway? I wish I had. That would have been really fun. Instead, it was just a very well-known elevator. You're kind of, how many secret passages surround Staples Center?

A lot. At least now that I know of, like, minimum. It's like a World War II bunker. Well, there's wherever Kobe landed his helicopter and then took the elevator down. Right. So there's a Ritz Carlton to Staples passageway we think about. Yes. There definitely is.

And that's also where a lot of visiting NBA teams stay. Right. So then they can take the underground tunnel there. Now we know there's tunnels between the Clippers locker room and the visitor locker room. What shade by the Lakers to stuff the clippers in a room that's not even private? It's been a lot of shade going on with different, like, stadium facilities stuff going on, because, like, they also had the Warriors' calves, like the Warriors' showers were really cold. And they were like, you could hear them screaming.

I like that. Yeah. Why aren't there more pranks on the visiting team? But in terms of the Staples Center thing, I think the Jeannie Bush should take on infrastructure. And she should build a monorail, underground monorail, from Staples to, like either WeHo or the coast so that people can stay at shutters or they could stay out on the beach or even if they just want to stay at the Beverly Hilton or whatever. They don't have to deal with traffic on Olympic or whatever. What Jeannie should be doing is helping move more quickly

the rail building here in L.A. Yeah, I think so. Well, we need to get a meeting between Mayor Eric Garcetti and Jeannie Bus on the books. But for now, let's deep dive into the fights that have happened in the NBA this week. The 90s are back. The 90s are back, baby. In so many ways. You know, we've got Cardi B and Bruno Mars. The assassination of Gianni Versace. The assassination of Gianni Versace. Set in 90s. We got crop tops.

It's just all happening. And we got guys throwing blows. So I have a slight theory about all this, but we can update everybody. Let's begin with last night's fight. Tuesday night, we had a Wolves versus Magic game, which is a wolves lost, which is ridiculous. And Aaron Aflalo was in a headlock. Because he threw a punch that connected on Bejilka. He missed.

Well, how do you say that guy's name? I have no idea. That's part of the issue. I don't say names I can't pronounce. You know who also might have a hard time pronouncing his name? Carl Towns because he didn't seem to think that he was his teammate, because Carl was just watching this happen. He was not getting involved in this at all.

Interesting note about Carl Towns. I note today Kevin Durant announced he's like helping his fellow MBA players and other athletes like find YouTube fame. Okay. Hopefully he doesn't involve any Logan Paul style stunts. That would not be wise. but one of them that he's helping is Carl Anthony Towns. This is off, this is not on our rundown.

But, like, his list of athletes that he's working with is Jabal McGee, he's already doing the parking lot chronicles with him. Richard Sherman, that makes sense to me. And then this Townsend, Durant kind of makes sense to me as well. They're just like two kind of aloof dudes that are really good. When you say helping, yes. What do you mean?

Like, he's putting up money. He's acting as the executive producer go-between between YouTube and those players. I think that Towns, Sherman, and McGee will, will leverage the connections and infrastructure that Kevin Durant has built for himself for his own YouTube videos. Where you could watch him getting a haircut? Yeah, watch him getting a haircut.

I'd seen Gordon Hayward get hurt. Yes, see Gordon Hayward get hurt. Remember that? That was like one of those videos, right? It's like him getting a haircut when Gordon Hayward gets hurt. Yeah, totally. Yes, that's exactly what I'm talking about. So he's like taking these players in.

So what's Towns' is my... I don't know, man. He's really into his girlfriend. Yeah, but like what's the... Is it going to be about love? is it going to be about Carl Towns and his girlfriend? Have you ever heard Towns like speak like in an interview? Yeah, I have because I've been really into watching Timberwolves post game interviews in the locker room because Jimmy Butler is constantly clowning Towns when he's getting interviewed.

It's awesome because Towns takes himself really fucking seriously. He's just like, well, I just, the craft of basketball. Right. And then Jimmy Butler turns Thomas Red up to 11 and is like, shut up. Yes. Anyway, it makes sense to me that Towns and Durant would. align. Okay.

That's kind of besides the point. So last night, Towns did not align himself with his teammate. He just sort of like watched this fight happen and sort of like stayed far away from it,

which good move or bad move? Like, is that what Carl Towns should be doing? It did escalate really fast. And sometimes there were, like, I've been in bars where there have been fights and like you just are like, wait, what's happening? Right.

But you do definitely know when it does start happening and you kind of have like that immediate fight or flight impulse. And it's just kind of like, as far as my understanding of it goes, you're just supposed to get your team. teammates back. Yeah. And I just didn't feel like he got involved in it and all. And when they were, when Beelika was on the sideline, Towns was kind of like just like, quizzically staring at him like he'd

never seen a man who had been in a fight before. And I was just kind of like, get your head out of your ass. Like, what are you doing? Yeah, Towns seems soft. But there was that fight. And then of course, we had the Clippers Rockets fight. And there was, low key, it wasn't a fight, but it was pretty pretty passionate. It was Ben Simmons and Kyle Lauer. I feel like this one kind of got swept under the rug. but Kyle Lowry was like, I went looking for Ben Simmons. Yes. Yeah, and Ben Simmons was like, come find me. I like it.

Who do you pick in that fight? I feel like as an aged man, I have to go with Kyle Lowry. Uh-huh. I pick Lowry. Simmons obviously has the size advantage. He's got to reach. I just feel like Lowry is like, you just don't bop with him. I happen to love Kyle Lowry.

So I'm kind of curious. Like, is it three makes a trend? Do we have to discuss why this is happening? Yeah. Okay, you want to hear my theory? Yeah, let's hear it. I think that there's, so there's this other narrative going on right now about the players versus the reps and how the relationship between the players and the refs has never been this bad.

And you've got Draymond and Carmelo and Durant talking about just like, you know, I think Mello is like, I don't even want to talk about those guys. I just have like no respect for them. Yeah, because Ross got ejected. And after that, Mello and getting his teammates back was like, I'm done with the refs. I don't respect them. So I think that part of the problem, each one is obviously separate, but especially in that Rockets Clippers game,

I feel like the refs really lost control of the game. They did. Like, I feel like they're definitely, nobody needed to get tossed as much as the refs needed to, like, probably stop things when Dantone and Blake were getting into it. And just be like, what's going on, guys? Like, we ever need to chill out, go back to your corner?

Why is there no video of Blake bumping Dan Tony? There's got to be video of that. There's video. Have you seen it? Yeah, it, he didn't hit him, quote unquote. He just like bumped him, he was walking right on my court. He was saying that there was reports that Blake was angry because he felt like

Dan Tony was out of his technical area, like, where he's supposed to stand. And that he, like, kind of hit him to be like, you're not supposed to stand there. So, like, that's what happens if you keep doing that. And then Dan Tony flipped out at Blake. But the real issue seems to be more that Pat Beverly and Austin Rivers were screaming and trash talking from the bench.

Right. And Arisa got really pissed about that. I want it known. I endorse all of this. I do too. It's an extremely entertaining element. No injuries. No one's hurt.

All good. No one gets her. arrested. A flaw is definitely getting suspended. Definitely. I don't know. Eiza might get suspended because it sounds like Arisa was the one who was the most aggressive after the game in terms of like Wode reports. It's just

that he has been singled out as the person who was trying to get into the Clippers locker room. And that Hardin and Paul were trying to stop him. Right. Initially there were there was the infamous incorrect report from Ashley Brewer. Sorry to her, RIP her mentions where she incorrectly said that

Pardon and Paul were fighting each other. and then Woj just swooped in and totally dunked on her and was like, no, what actually happened was Ariza and Co went into the Clippers locker room to confront Austin Rivers. And then there was another, and then it sounds like Hardin and Paul were trying to stop Areza. But meanwhile, there was another report that Chris Paul went to the Clippers locker room to confront Blake. And Chris Paul, given his knowledge of Staples, having been on the Clippers for five seasons, four seasons. It's five seasons. Six. It was when we were at Grantland.

It was the trade that got next and then redone was. Oh, that's right. I remember that. It was five. Yeah, it was five. Never forget, you know. And neither Grantland nor the trade. And so he, and so he using his intimate knowledge, like, knew all of the roots.

He was an infiltrator. It was like he was in World War II or something. Or he was like, you know, a Marquita Lafayette, perhaps. And so there just was a lot. of wild, wild information. And this is also coming after, wasn't there another tunnel fight like last week or so with,

I forget who it was, but there was another one. Well, there was the boogie one earlier in the season, I think with KD, right? There was that infamous picture of Boogie being held back by three security guards. And Justin was telling us, Varyer was telling us that like,

narrow hallways. It's narrow in there. Like if Boogie wants to get into a room, like he could probably do it. What do you think is behind all this? You think it's just like, New Year blues, everybody's depressed after the holidays? I think with a lot of transactions from this past postseason, there's like, there are agendas and vendettas to be addressed. I think that there's a lot of, like, chippiness because there's a lot of opportunity for different teams.

Like, Gons and I talked with us on Monday, other than the top three in the West, like five through eight is four through eight is really close. Four through ten is close, really. So, like, every game kind of matters when there's not really the separation. And I think that there's just a lot of, like, there's just, it's a good, it's a good season. Like, is that a cop-out thing to say? But there's just, like, there's a lot on the line. Like, a lot of teams feel like this is an opportunity. In the East, like, for the Raptors, they really have a chance to go to the conference finals.

And, like, they are competitive against the Cavs now. So, like, it's just a little bit of a shifting of power. And the Sixers don't want to be treated like doormats. And you've got guys, like, Embed, who are, like, kind of taunting a lot of players who have been the league maybe a little bit longer. Sure. Like, drummond or whatever.

Like, I think that there does seem to be a little bit of a generational shift. We talk all the time about, like, the unicorns and stuff like that. But even something is minor, not minor, but you can even see it in this Isaiah Thomas Celtic situation. Sure. Where, so this is another thing that's been happening this week is, and I actually, this is a bizarre story that this is, like, had this much legs. I have a theory on this.

Okay. Explain what's going on. So Isaiah Thomas obviously had a, um, tempestuous exit from Boston. He was traded after playing through the playoffs, gets really injured during the playoffs in the Washington series, I think, right? Yeah. He'd been injured a few times.

His hips screwed up. He had had mouth surgery to fix teeth that had got knocked out and stuff. Obviously, he was traded for Kyra Irving over the summer. Some people felt like, it's including Isaiah Thomas, felt like that was disrespectful to him for what he had done for the franchise and laying his body on the line. And he'd even gone on to say later on, if I had known I wasn't going to be in Boston,

I wouldn't have kind of over-extended myself in the playoffs, you know, for the Celtics. He said I would not have played in the conference finals. Yes, yes. And since then, there's been a lot of, like, Danny, that was screwed up. Like, I didn't like the way that that was handled, et cetera, et cetera. But I don't even know if he asked for it or if Boston offered it as like a make-good or something, but there was going to be some sort of video tribute to Isaiah when he played Boston again. And it just so turned out that that video tribute was supposed to happen on the same.

same night as Paul Pierce's retirement, but not his Jersey retirement. His Jersey retirement. His jersey retirement. I believe it's February 12th. This one, the Cavs of the Celtics. And today, Jackie McMullen and Chris Forsberg put up a piece that basically went into like really candid detail about this whole saga with quotes from Pierce, who works at ESPN with Jackie McMullen and Chris Forsberg, talking about how he was like deeply offended

that Isaiah was going to be like. that he wasn't cool with it. Danny had sort of asked and been like, you know, I feel bad about how this trade went down. Do you mind if we do the video tribute to Isaiah on your retirement night? And not only we did Pierce have a problem with it, but then they wrangle in Rondo, who's like, really like off the top rope about this and a secondhand Kevin Garnett quote, and Tony Allen, all talking about how like, who's Isaiah Thomas? What has he done for this franchise? We don't celebrate conference championships here. We only hang banners for finals and, you know, like all this stuff about it.

And it was kind of like, it just makes the whole situation kind of sad. The whole thing is weird, but I think there's a lot of competing agendas at work here. Okay, let's hear them. First of all, this is a Sunday showcase game. It's at 3.30 p.m. Eastern on ABC.

So sure, one thing ESPN has really mastered is promoting their own games. And drumming up interest for the games that they're broadcasting. So you have all these people who have associations of the ESPN contributing to this piece. That seems natural. to me. And second of all, everything we know about how Isaiah Thomas feels about his trade and how things are down to the Celtics comes from one source, Isaiah Thomas. Okay. And I like his candor. I like Isaiah Thomas. I hope that he gets back to his full speed. But like he keeps this storyline

alive himself. We keep talking about Isaiah Thomas because Isaiah Thomas is talking about Isaiah Thomas. Sure. Okay. Counterpoint. Okay. What NBA player doesn't do that to some extent or not, or not? I think that Kevin Durant shied away from this more last year. I mean, of course, he was like more on the, from the Russ stuff. Yeah, but he also was more like, if you think there's a right and wrong, Katie was like, yeah, it's like Kyrie doesn't get asked about Isaiah Thomas all the time. He's kind of ducked it and he's obviously had his own controversies this year. But he wants to move on.

Yeah. I just think that there's sort of like a relitigating that's just like constant in part because Isaiah Thomas is a part of it. And I don't blame him for it. Yeah. It's also like, I don't like need to be anti-Isay and how much. I really like him and he's really fun to watch. He makes the cat, even the calves are having like a slide right now.

They're way more interesting with IT back than they were three weeks ago. Yes. They're way worse too. Yes. And way worse. But like, I'm just saying this is not like, why are we talking about this? We're talking about it because IT is talking about it. I'm so through the looking glass on this because I also, there's this whole phenomenon

now where like people just go up to LeBron and like list trending topics and get him to weigh on on them. So I can't really blame Isaiah for people. I guess I understand what you're saying. If Isaiah is the one who's just like, just so you guys know. I wouldn't have played. Yeah. And also he's doing it now. So this kind of ties into the Cavs slide.

And he also was like, just do you guys know, I asked Celtics to not play a video for me two weeks ago. Yes. And we've also got sort of a larger story than the Celtics retirement thing is the almost annual collapse of the Cavs that happens. Usually around this time, this is around the time when David Black got fired a couple years ago. And there was a. piece in the athletic, a piece on Cleveland.com, and a piece on ESPN, all acknowledging each other.

Bill and Zach talked about this yesterday on Zach's pod. And also, we did a piece on it today. It was a very strange thing. All of these pieces acknowledged that the other outlets had, I think, the same sources. They're like, in some places it was described as multiple prominent players, in some places it was described as marquee players,

you can kind of shrink that number down to Wade Love, LeBron, or Isaiah, I guess, are the marquee players there. And they were just basically like, we don't know if we can flip the switch this year, that we're just bad on defense and, you know, we're slow and we're obviously not clicking right now. Now, the other thing about that is I think it's in Joe Varden's piece. Joe Varden. He is, Isaiah is making sure that almost every day, everybody around the team is aware that the reason why he sucks right now is because he's not getting to practice because the calves don't practice. Right, which I was like, huh, why don't the calves practice?

then I was like, oh right, no team practice in the middle of the season. Okay, that's fine. I think that's fine, but it speaks to kind of why the calves have to rely on talent over system and compared to like Boston and San Antonio. Like San Antonio is no business being as good as they are, except they have a really good system. Like talent-wise, Kauai hasn't played this year. Lamarcus is good, but he's Lamarcus. And otherwise, they have a lot of young kids and scrap heap guys, and they keep it going.

That's true. Also, the spurs have continuity, which the Cavs do not. Right. I mean, in Boston, it has a whole new team, and I guess they practice. Well, the continuity is Brad. And the continuity is what Brad says and the rotation Brad makes and the decisions that Brad makes is what goes. And the same thing goes for the spurs. It's like Popovich and that staff decide how they play.

Even if they decide we're going to play more through Lamarcus, there's a style of play that they have there. In Cleveland, I can't really tell you what Cleveland plays like. They play like a LeBron team, I guess, but less athletic version of one. But they were much better when Kevin Love was getting involved in different ways on offense. And now he's standing in the corner again. The weirdest thing is when Dwayne Wade tries to take over. Like that's the weirdest moment of every Cavs team where Dwayne Wade forgets that he's not as. That he's 35.

Yeah, right. Today's his birthday. Happy birthday, do you? He just, it happened. One half of our favorite NBA couple. Yeah. Oh, God, they're so great. I freaking love Gabby.

I was going to ask you, do you feel like you're going to be able to, get over your no horror rule to watch the the Gabrielle Union home invasion thriller? No, I can't. I'll get too scared. But I am going to start watching being Mary Jane from the beginning. I saw that's on Hulu, so I'm excited.

I just think also Isaiah is preparing himself to go to a different team or leaving that option open. I both admire it and find it tiresome where he's really controlling his own narrative this season. He's making it clear that he feels Boston did him wrong, which he's completely entitled to, and I understand that. And he's also making it clear that he does that it's not for his own lack of effort that he's not playing as well as he could.

And that to me indicates that he doesn't plan on being there for very long or with this group of guys on the Cavs for very long. Yes. That's the question that looms over the Cavs. While we're on the topic of the Cavs, trade rumor that's going around, is DeAndre to the Cavs? I think it's a disaster. Apparently the Cavs are convinced that they need big men.

Right. And so there's, Woj says it's targeting Derek Favors. And Ryan Rucilla is like, they're only targeting someone like Bougie. Yeah. So do you think A, either moves the needle? I think Bougie. Boogie would.

Boogie is like a really difficult personality, but like the numbers don't lie with boogie. I mean, I watch, like there are compilations of clips of Bougy quitting on plays. And there was a photo, I think, last night of like, it was like Anthony Davis trying trying to block a shot and like three other pelicans playing defense. And you can see in the background of like, it's like Lawrence of. Arabia. It's like Lawrence riding across the desert on a camel. It's like boogie all the way in the background at the other end of the floor not getting back on

defense. And quietly the pelicans are like a mid-conference seed right now. Right. They beat the Celtics. But if the pelicans feel like the boogie's not going to come back and they can get the Brooklyn pick for them, like Brooklyn and Tristan Thompson, who you can control. Would you have to trade Kevin Love for boogie? I don't know. I think you might have to. Boogie's really good. But one of the rumors is Brooklyn pick and Tristan Thompson for Dandre Jordan. Yes.

Which just seems like a horrible move. Yeah. Just horrible. Yeah. Whatever. Let's take a quick break to talk about our sponsor. Sure. Hey, it's JJ Reddick, and this week's guest on my podcast is retired soccer superstar Terry

on Reed. I had the chance to catch up with him while in London recently to talk about his love of the NBA, why soccer players are more athletic than NBA players, and what we're doing wrong in youth development in basketball in America. Listen to this show and more by subscribing to the JJ Redick podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay. We're back. Congratulations are in order.

There's now Jason Tatum Jr. If I had a kazoo, I would blow it. Born last week. I've heard that he's been dating a girl on and off and that that is with whom that he had a baby. I love Jason Tatum. Congratulations. That's it? That's your take?

I'm going to be honest. I didn't have the time to do my Instagram deep dive, but I'm pretty sure I can figure out who the model is. Is there a rumor that he had? had a baby? No. No, he posted a photo himself with the baby. Did you say it's a rumor?

No, I heard that he's been dating a girl. Oh, okay. I don't know who the mom is yet. Is the point? Right. And I just, as a Jason Tatum supporter, I'd like to know. Right. So Jason Tatum is sort of the male

basketball January Jones. Yes, exactly. He is the JJ. Yeah. She could be on the J. January, Jalen and Jason is definitely a show I would watch. It was just like a talk show, like a chat show. Three Jays and a couple of babies.

The new McLaughlin group. Oh, wow. The new sports reporters or something. like that? I don't know. I'm so in the tank for Jason Tatum. So all Jason Tatum news is very important to me. There's not a lot of it. No, there's not. I will say that's true about most of the contenders, not a lot of hot goss out there. Also, weirdly boring rookie class. I was really disappointed. We didn't get any club photos of either the Celtics or the Sixers in London. Yeah. They got some fun nightlife there. They did a lot of sightseeing. A lot of sightseeing.

Markelle and Joelle seemed to hang out a lot. And Justin Anderson. Yeah. The only person hanging out with Markell as as far as I could tell. Everyone watched Markele a silent film on The Ringer today. Thanks, Julia. It's excellent. Chris is his finest acting yet. Really?

Yeah, I think so. It is a boring rookie class. Other than Markell being troubled, we don't have a lot going on. That's why I was so excited that Jason Tatum had a baby. Like Lonzo could be so much worse. You know, when you think about what's happening around him and he just basically plays three or four games

and then he has like a weird injury that kind of nags him for two days and then he's back and then he's gone. Glad you brought him up. yesterday on Instagram there was like some fun videos of Coos. By the way the Utah basketball team was wearing Coos Mania shirts for warm up shirts

when they were playing in L.A. I loved it. So Coos, Brandon Ingram and Lanzo went to the movies like they're on the road right now like in Memphis or something and they went to see like a horror movie. Too scary so the name didn't register with me. And they were like roasting each other and it was very funny and it was like oh cool. Lanzo has friends. That's great.

You know his brothers are far away. So he's forced in interact with his teammates, teams happy, maybe these guys like each other. And then it turned out it was SponCon. They basically were like paid to go to the movies in the middle of the day. Oh, to go see Slender Man? Yes. Okay. And I don't know. It's like, is a team that SponConn's together, stays together? Like, is that the new saying? Was the Sojourner Truth bit? Yeah, that's also SponCon? I don't think so. Yeah. But it was. I didn't think so either. But, uh, I just, I wonder if these baby Lakers like each other or not. And it's, you know, just, and if they do, does that mean?

I bet they like each other. I bet it's a similar thing with like the cabs where it's like, are we really going to be together? Yeah, is this lasting? Right. Yeah. And it's a, I think those three probably will be and maybe the rest will not. Lonzo, Kuzma and. Angram.

Yeah. Okay. I just also like seeing Ingram have some personality. Yes. Yeah. So get involved in that roasting. Why not? Speaking of Los Angeles.

Speaking of Los Angeles, hot report in LA Times yesterday. Are you familiar with the hot property column? I am because I share an office with you. Okay. Yeah. One of my faves. It tracks like Celebrity Real Estate over the summer. It had all the info on Chandler Parsons' new Bel Air home.

I was recently using it to look at Anthony Hopkins' point doom estate. Oh, nice. How was it? Lovely. So yesterday they had a story about Chris Paul selling a home in Woodland Hills. It was like for one point something million dollars. It's in the valley. In the valley.

As a Rosh Marcosi pointed out on Twitter, it's where many porn stars live. Not at Chris Paul's house. In the valley. In the valley. In Woodland Hills in the valley. Shout out to Arash, one of my faves. And I was just befuddled. It was not, it was clearly a home that they had not done any work in. And it was in Woodland Hills.

It had just incredibly garish bathrooms. The marble is pretty bad. The countertops were, the property brothers would not have approved. And I was shocked. Did have an open floor plan, though, it seemed. Which, if you listen to jam session, you know, I do not approve of. I know. Too much noise bleed.

I also share an office with you. Way too much noise bleed in that bad boy. And so I was really, like, concerned about what Chris Paul was doing with his home decorating. Like, you have access to a designer and Terry Decorator, like, get to it. Bill reminded me that he had actually lived in Bel Air. This was more likely, like, a home for, like, his brother, who was his manager or perhaps his parents or something. And his Bel Air home sold for, like, $11 million. And that was also really nice.

But I just, I learned that Chris Paul is really into dark wood floors. and marble countertops from the 90s and dark paint in the bathroom, which I find very weird. I thought that the thing that jumped out at me about the San Fernando place was its similarity to the settings and lodgings in the state formats

and like how life imitates art. Interesting. I could see if I were Chris Paul. I'd be like, can we just film us at my house? Like I don't feel like going somewhere. I'd be like just come to me. Yeah, it depends on whether he'd be private about like I don't want anybody to see the inside of my home

or be able to like sort of figure it out. Maybe he always knows. knew he was moving and he was leaving. And he was just like, wow, I'm out. I don't care. Film my home. Do what you will. It doesn't really matter. Well, I mean, when they did that ESPN doc, which I don't feel like we've even properly processed.

It was one of the weirdest thing that's happened. Which is Chris Paul. It was like a four-part mini-series online. Jay-Z. Bob Eiger. Bob Eiger. And then who was the other person in the studio with them? Wasn't it? Like, no ID or a producer or something like that?

His brother was there. And it's just like Chris Paul trying to decide what he's going to do. but it came out like way after the fact and it's black and white it's really arty and then it's like kind of like if you're going to plan this it sort of means that you're not going back to the clippers like you just don't make a film like that to be like and I've decided to stay in the Los Angeles definitely not also very interesting because Jay Z is obviously

nominally a sports agent himself and yet Chris Paul believes it's the CA right yeah but Rock Nation's part of CIA oh so Jay Z wasn't like a conflict of interest no it's same agency So that makes sense. But Chris Paul is with Leon Rose. I believe he's not Rock Nation. Yeah. Other news I just wanted to share you in on.

Sure. Nina Marie Westbrook, my favorite Wag. She had her birthday trip in Cabo this past weekend. Anybody famous go with her? So it seems like her best MBA wag friend is Cole Aldrich's wife. Oh, I thought it was Mrs. Collison. I think that she is good friends with her as well. But she's really tight with Cole Aldrich's wife.

But I just find interesting. Is Cole Aldrich on the... Timberwolves? Or on the Thunder? I think he's out of the NBA. Okay. I think for a minute he was on the Thunder. I thought he was on the wolves. He was also on the Clippers at one point, wasn't he? I think it's an LA thing more than anything else because they're from LA. But I just found that fascinating. I couldn't. I was very intrigued. Do you think we'll have any more fights this week? I'm waiting on a Yonis fight. You know what's coming. Yeah, Dark Yannis arising. Dark Yonis is back. He popped in his rookie's car. I'm positive. It's going to happen. So it's just a matter of really when. Who else? I feel like the Sixers like get chippy

I feel like someone Like we talked earlier in the year I feel like somebody's gonna take a shot at Joelle Just shove him at least It's surprising it hasn't happened yet Yeah I was surprised Like if I'm Willie Reed like yes I'm a veteran like journeyman player

But if Joel is like disrespecting me like that Like do I shove him next time we play? I would like a Janus Joel fight That would be my platonic ideal Two unicorns colliding Yeah but hopefully no one gets hurt They don't like land any blows I don't want to affect the season

Yeah I like the drama I come to the NBA for not only basketball, for entertainment as well. Could we get some all-star fights, do you think? It's going to be an interesting all-star game. What are we going to do if they don't televise this draft? Like, what do we do?

Do you think they're not televising the draft so that everyone can do their, like, we did our own draft? Is it, like, really Adam Silver's gift to content creators? I'm very curious, but the type of, like, negotiation that goes on with the... Very telling that Katie was like, I don't want any part of having to pick.

and Steph was like, I got it. What's up with Steph? I'm fucking loving Steph. Oh my God. I feel like a new person. You know, I was just talking to our friend Remmer Brown this morning. And I was like, I just like my personal prison through which I see the world has adjusted ever so slightly. Really?

Yes. And I was like, part of it is I love Steph Curry now. I used to think he's so boring. But you know what? That guy's got a ton of personality. He got kneaded and then groin by LeBron James and then summarily hit a three and patted of LeBron in the butt, which I love. Like, that was amazing.

and he just, he's just coming out of his shell. He's got that weird commercial that's not the Britta one. The Brita one. No, not the, yeah, the other one that's like Steph Curry in a hurry or something like that. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's really weird. And he's like just really, he's fun now. Okay.

Two MVP's and two championships later. And he's like, I'll pick the All-Star game. I'll pick the All-Star team. I'm really into it. Yeah. I think he doesn't take any of that shit seriously. It's like, Katie, like, I wanted to go to Vegas. That was like when I imagined us winning a championship.

I was thinking about the Vegas trip we'll take. And when I saw pictures of the Warriors in Vegas, I was like, I got to go to Golden State because that way I can go to Vegas on a chance. Like, you can go to Vegas every night of your life if you want to. You're Kevin Durant. Seriously, not very far from Oakland. Seriously. And then, but Steph did not go.

No. Opt it out. He's like, I don't either. And I just, I think, I like that he's sort of like, I've won some rings and I've won MVPs and I'm ready. Steph's about getting buckets. I like it. I will say, watching Cavs Warriors this week, you're like, right, this is why Katie's on the team. He's like, he's the kill shot. Yeah, I know.

He brings it on home for them. But we have to keep ourselves interested. I refuse to like, I refuse to like give up on the NBA as a daily form of entertainment. Yeah, me too. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back in two weeks.