The Ringer NBA Show - Stories From NBA All-Star Weekend | The Mismatch (Ep. 389)

Episode Date: February 19, 2019

Our hosts had an eventful time in Charlotte over All-Star Weekend, and they’re here to share some notable highlights. Hosts: Chris Vernon, Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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To The Ringer NBA show, I'm Chris Garnay. Join me as he does every Tuesday. On the mismatch is Kevin O'Connor from the ringer.com, aka Kevin O'Bomber, aka Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O'Conflict, aka Kevin O'Captplace. Kevin O'O. Burnow, what's going on? How are you doing after All-Star Weekend? It was great to see you in Charlotte, as I did many of the other people from The Ringer.

It was my first All-Star weekend, and it was amazing. It was amazing. I had a great time. I had never been to it before. You know, I was the guy who was a little kid. You know, I planned my weekends around that. And, you know, still as an adult, on Friday night, I would watch all that. stuff, the rising stars on Saturday night. I always made sure I was in to watch All-Star Saturday night. And so I've watched that on TV my whole life and then getting to be there in person and then kind of trailing along and meeting so many different people and experiencing things that I'd never experienced before. It was great. It was absolutely great. And I quite liked Charlotte as a city. I'd never been to Charlotte before. I read your Instagram posts last night, Chris, the one talking about

just how nice it was to be there. Like you said, after watching it your whole life, the thankful feeling that you have being there, I echo all that, man. It made me really smile last night, reading that on at Chris Vernon Show, on Instagram, by the way. Which will feature my pictures, which I suppose there are many of you out there

that every friggin' time, the ringer posts a picture of me, my feed goes absolutely bananas with I thought you were old I thought that you that's not what I had pictured in my head this voice doesn't match what he looks like is he 16 like all this kind of stuff

can we just say that that's a compliment by the way like that you look younger than your age I mean it's like what everybody wants to look younger yeah it's great they're like they're like his takes are for old people but he sounds like he's 40 but he looks like he's 16

and I mean this is like To be fair your takes are for old people I'm just saying, shut up. Well, here's a little news flash for everybody, okay? I am a genetic freak. I am old.

Like, I don't know what to tell people. Like, I'm old. How old are you really? Can I ask? How old are you? Oh,

I don't care. I literally just turned 40. Okay. I thought you were like 38 to 41 or something like that. Well, I mean, I have two kids. I got two kids.

Everybody knows I got kids. I got, like, I mean, I started covering the NBA in, well, I guess it'd be, it's going on 18 years is my first job. I got a job in radio, and I had moved to Memphis post-college, and the team moved here the same year I moved here. And so I was trying to, like, figure at that time, I'll keep this story quick, I was trying to figure out the landscape because you look around and you see, you know, you move to a city and there's like a guy who's the Tigers guy.

there's a guy who's the college football guy, and there's the guy who's this guy, right, that everybody goes to and they're kind of like the voice of, if you want to hear an opinion on this stuff. And there's the guy that's like the historian guy and all this kind of stuff. Well, what I kind of realized was nobody would ever be able to say that they covered a team more than I did if I just hit the ground running from the very beginning. And so the first event they ever had were workouts for the draft. And all these guys are retired now, but it was the year they took Palgisal and Shane Batier. And they did it. They did not even have a facility at the time.

And they did it at a small college, Rhodes College. And I went over there. And Jerry West had become the general manager and like all this stuff. It happened very, very quickly. And I went over there. And that was like the very beginning of it. And I've probably missed, I don't know, I'd say less than. You could probably count on less than two hands how many games I've missed in, what is that, 17, 18 years.

So that was going to be like I could always be there. I could always be around. I could always be at an arena. I could always get to know these people over the years. And so that was kind of it. But yeah, like, every time a pitcher's posted, people are like, I thought you were old. I am. I don't want.

You know, all those years in Memphis, the, you know, Tony Allen. Oh, how dare you? That's the first thing you mentioned? I'm not to the point yet, Chris. You know, the grit and grind years, Marcusole and Mike Conley, all these great years, it led you to Charlotte where you met Wolf Blitzer.

Okay. Now, do you want to hear these stories? Yes, I do want to hear these stories, Chris. I really do. I have got some unbelievable ones from Charlotte. Please. So I'm there. And the first night that I'm there,

I go to this NBA event, I get done with it, go back to the hotel. It's late, but it's not like crazy late. It's probably, I don't know, midnight. So I go back there and there's a guy I know that's like at the hotel bar. So I go over there and I meet him with the group of guys that I'm with. And I go over there and now, like we're all kind of talking and I walk up to the bar. So I feel this like, you know, the bar, everybody's kind of just gotten in town. and so everybody's like meeting up with everybody at this place if you're staying within the vicinity.

And so I turn and the bartender is like getting a bunch of glasses out like martini glasses for a toast. And I'm like, hmm, I guess everybody's just excited to see each other, whatever. And so I turned to my right and, you know, it's one of those situations where everybody's kind of like smushed together at a bar. And I turned to my right and it is Sonia Curry. Okay, Steph Curry's mom. And she's like, hey, how you doing? I introduced myself. And she's like, hi, I'm saw on you.

And I was like, I know who you are, whatever. And she is the one getting all of these. So like I'm passing out these drinks to her. And they're about to have this toast. And I'm like, well, what's going on? And she said, you're never going to believe this. It's so exciting. My youngest, Seth, asked his girlfriend to marry him tonight.

They just got engaged. And I'm like, wait. what? So now Steph Curry and Aisha Curry, this is so great for name dropping. They walk in, the dad walks in, like all these like family and friends and all

this kind of stuff are like in there because the son has gotten engaged. So next thing I know, I'm like in the middle of this engagement party, right? And Steph Curry walks in and all these people, like anybody that's there,

is like trying to get pictures with him and whatever else. So I'm watching him as he walks in because of course, you know, he can't go anywhere. And this is his hometown, no less. So he's like the tallest guy in the picture always. He's like the one holding up the phone taking the selfies with people. So at one point, he's taking this picture with a bunch of older guys. And I'm like, huh, I'm like, he, you know, he's stopping and taking pictures. everywhere, whatever. So he takes his picture and the guys from the picture turn around, one of which

is Harold Ford Jr., who is a congressman who I know because he's from Memphis. And so I see Harold and start talking to Harold, and his buddy turns around, who is one of the older guys, and it's frigging Wolf Blitzer. And I'm like, you have got to be kidding me. He is the one taking the selfie with Curry and his group. Okay. Now, by the way, every time I turned around in Charlotte, Wolf Blitzer was behind me. Like, somehow I ended up... He was everywhere. I saw him like three times at the arena, just walking around. I ended up at like all the same places with this guy. Okay. And so anyways, meet him. And I will say this. So I was obviously around there the whole night. Steph Curry, and I get it. It's his hometown. I get it that like, you know,

He's around his family and whatever else. Kevin, I'm telling you this. And this is going to be one of the themes of what I talk about today from All Star Weekend. This guy, I'm talking, every person that walked up to him at this hotel bar. And then as he leaves, every person that walked up to him, I saw people with kids walk up to him. I saw people, and he doesn't know me from anyone, right? Every person he stopped and took pictures with. He signed autographs.

Like, you name it. You know, this is obviously an extremely busy weekend for him. And his brother got engaged. Everybody I know that has like had those kind of experiences with Steph Curry always says the same thing. But I saw it like in person. And, you know, he's there with his wife. He's there with the brother and whatever. And people, they just walk up to him everywhere he goes.

And he could not have been kinder to everyone. that was there. I mean, he stopped and, like, took time with every single person that he came across. And I was just so immensely impressed. And so I did want to tell that story because there's a lot of people out there. I mean, I don't care what your opinion is on Steph Curry, the basketball player, and maybe you hate him in basketball terms or whatever. But I'll tell you as the part- Like Mark Jackson right now is listening to the show and he's yelling. He ruined the game. Yeah, maybe so, but as a father of a young kid whose entire elementary school class worships Steph Curry, kids love him. They do.

It makes you feel great about that's the kind of guy that, you know, you always say, like you hope that guys, you know, if your kid wears their jersey, you're proud, right? And I will tell you, just as a human, like the human side of it, I was just absolutely blown away. It was great. It was really great. You know, when I interviewed Steph from my story, like, he was great for that. He was just a really, really awesome guy to talk to. But one of my favorite things is every time Steph comes through L.A. or I'm at a game where the Warriors are playing,

I always like watching Steph sign autographs before he goes to the locker room before the game. Because, like, you just see those moments where those kids have those just huge smiles on their faces. Like, for Steph to take, or any player, to take a minute to do that, you're not just making a kid's day, but you're making their week. You could change their life for that matter. And it's just really nice to see those moments happen. I think for Steph to take the time to do that, he acknowledges that just taking that time can change that much for a kid.

So it's really cool to see that he did that even during busy weekend and All-Star weekend and with Wolf Blitzer in his midst. I mean, you've got to spend time with Wolf. Hilarious. And that is, as I was talking about one of the themes, there are so many of these guys that I saw out and about or when I was going to the events and I was covering the events and saw their interactions with the things. people and how excited people were to meet them, et cetera, they just did things out of the ordinary.

It is something that does not get talked about a lot. But like in terms of the all-stars and the great players, and even I went to one of the, I went to one of the rising stars, you know, they set these up and people kind of rolled their eyes like they're just photo ops, the NBA cares stuff. But the guys from the Rising Stars game did one of those and I went to it. And as I'm there, I'm around Marvin Bagley, Sharon Jackson Jr., Donovan Mitchell, Luca Donchitz, like all these different guys. And I watch the way that they interact not only with each other, but the way they interacted with fans and then most importantly, children. And, you know, I don't know. It makes me feel great about the NBA, which is growing in popularity year after year.

And not only the guys that are the stars right now, but the stars that, like the guys that are, the guys that are. are coming up that are going to be stars. You know, I think that maybe years ago there was, you know, I don't know, some guys could be off-putting or some guys could be arrogant or whatever, but not only obviously are these amazingly talented guys basketball-wise, they all are seemingly legitimately good guys, which makes me feel great about, you know, kind of where it is now, and then like where it's going. because like I told you, my son worships all these guys. And like as a child, I never had the opportunity to be around any professional athletes like that.

And the ones I did, I don't know, I didn't have great experiences when I was a kid. Around. Yeah, just professional athletes. Yeah. Yeah, generally. I didn't. Like, my father would take me, I'd get to go to baseball games. And I was the kid that went and I would go and I would try to get autographs, right?

Bobby Benia, who's still getting paid by the Mets, no less. Like, you'll love this. I was on the front row, and Bobby Benio was a big star at the time. And I was like, Mr. Benia, Mr. Benia. And he, like, looks right at me, right? And I was like, could I have your autograph? And this dude looked right at me, and he goes, no. Kevin, I'm like seven years old.

I'm like, what in the world? And I hate to say this, but that happened to me. like, I don't know, three or four times at least in my youth where things like that happened. And, you know, it's crushing. It is. It's crushing. And it kind of like changes your view of God. Listen, to this day, I hate Bobby Bonilla.

Because I'll never forget it as long as I live. I mean, I was there early. He wasn't even doing anything. And so when I see all these guys and especially young guys, like it makes me feel great because I do think. there is, it is not just a great collection of players. It's, they're all seemingly really good guys. Yeah, I mean, I had a, I had a really good conversation with us here at Sohe over the weekend, just about this collection of people from around the world. I think Adam Silver said it's like 1,800 members of the media from around the world, but it's not just the media, it's the players

and the NBA executives and coaches and from people from the league office around the world. And like, the cool thing, you know, that I think about this weekend is it's always, reminders, there are just like a lot of, a lot of happy people to be there, right? I think a lot of people who are loving what they do and, you know, loving the experience, whether it's the players at these NBA care events to be able to make a difference, you know, in a kid's day and, you know, kids' life or whether it's, you know, someone who's just working on media like we are.

I think there's just a lot of joy at these All-Star weekends. And it's just, I'm just really, really, really thankful. It's my third year in a row going, yeah, I'm just really thankful for it. It's just a really good time meeting people and seeing new people and just having some cool experiences and getting some good work done too. My greatest regret was never being in vicinity of Rob Polinka or Magic Johnson. I didn't see either of them. Well, they were there. Yeah, they were there.

I didn't see it. I just was never in the vicinity because you know what I was going to do, right, Kevin? I was going to walk right up to him and I was going to introduce myself. And I was going to say, in the words of the great Kevin O'Connor, do not. take LeBron James for granted. Oh my goodness. What? Why?

Why? Because you're always telling, you're always telling like Twitter followers there? Well, I mean, well, we should. That message needs to be received by Rob Polinka and Magic Johnson. You know, when I say that, Chris, I, I mean, this is like, totally like hippie shit over here, but like, none of, none of us should be taken for granted. The good things, the bad things your life, none of it should be taken for granted.

And LeBron James, a transcendent basketball player, he should also not be taken for granted because we're going to look back at this time someday in our lives and be like, geez, you know, we saw LeBron James and KD and A.D. and Steph Curry, and Steph Curry had to Janus. Oh, my goodness. That bounce past, HAL-UPE, that was ridiculous.

Ridiculous! And, like, that's going to be one of my, like, from the basketball side of things, that'll be one of my lasting memory. on the weekend. But we'll look back at this era of basketball very fondly. So just don't take it for granted while it's happening. That's all. All right, Kevin, we'll get right back to it. More stories from All-Star Weekend. But first, I want to remind everybody about our NBA watch of the night.

There aren't any games on tonight or tomorrow. They are coming back on Thursday. So I just want to remind you, if you want to watch every NBA game, the rest of the way, they got great deals on this too. Subscribe to NBA League Pass on NBA.com. or form your preferred video provider. There were so many good things that happened over the weekend. We'll get to some of our thoughts on the actual events that went on, but I've got another story. Please, more stories, more.

Oh, no, you're going to love this. Yeah. Okay. So for years and years and years, I had had Sonny Vicaro, who's a legendary shoe executive and considered the godfather of grassroots basketball. For 100 years, he ran the summer. circuit basketball and a massive, it was called the ABCD Camp, which every great player for like 20, 30 years was there. And a lot of them made their name there. Most famously, Tracy McGrady,

obviously LeBron James played in it. He is the guy that signed Michael Jordan to a shoe contract originally, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady. He had LeBron all locked up with Adidas, but at the very last minute, Adidas didn't give him the money that it required and he actually quit as he left the meeting with LeBron. If you'll remember, his high school team always wore Adidas.

And that was obviously a gargantuan miss on Adidas's part. But he has been involved with and in between his summer camps and in between the effect that he has had on basketball for the last 50, 60 years.

And you can watch, there was an ESPN 30 for 30 called Soul Man about him. He knows everybody. It just so happens. Sunny and I developed a friendship over a decade ago. He would come on the show every week and I didn't even know that we were both going to be there, much less staying at the same hotel. We had not spoken within the last week. And he went on a whim to go be there. And so as I told you, he knows everybody. And I meet him one morning in the hotel lobby and there's this whole group of guys around. And there's people that, like, they all, like, kiss the ring of Sonny Vaccaro. He's like the elder statesman.

So he's introducing me to all these people and whatever. And so I'm standing around and I'm talking to different guys, like one guy's in an ownership group. And one guy is like the president of business for a team. And one guy. And there's so many of these guys that now run teams that have a connection to Sunny some way somehow. So anyways, Sunny ends up and he's going to have to leave to go fly out. And so he has to leave, but there's a group that's all kind of like just standing around milling around talking. And we've been talking for whatever, 15, 20 minutes at this time.

And there's this guy, younger guy named John that I'm talking to. And so me and John are just sitting there talking about all manner of things. And so we're talking about stuff. He's asking me about what I do and whatever. Super nice guy. So like 15 minutes into it. I was like, so what do you do, John? And he said, I'm the general manager of the Bucks.

And Kevin, I mean, you want to talk about like, I'm actually like, I got like a chill on my arm right now. Like, it dawns on me in this very moment. I have no idea what the general manager of the Bucks looks like. And I never asked this guy's life. It's John Horst, who is the general manager of the Bucks, okay? He's 35. A young guy, really young.

He's 35. Now, if you remember the story, it was a crazy story because the ownership all got in this huge fight. So I remember the story, but, you know, even if you go back and read articles, which, of course, I did after all of this. If you go back and read articles, the people that originally wrote the articles when they announced he was going to be the new GM, there was no picture of him on the internet anywhere. So nobody knew what he looked like. And obviously there's pictures of him everywhere now. But he was Hammond's right-hand man. They go and they like interview seven guys.

They cut the finalists down to three, and then they're going to decide on it. The ownership gets in this huge fight, and John, he's not one of those first five or seven, and he ain't one of the three finalists. And then they decide, we're just going to elevate John Horst, which they did. And obviously he has done a fantastic job, and they've got like the best record in the East. Might be exactly be the year? Could be. He probably should after. the Lopez-Iliosova stuff's worked out so well

obviously the hiring of Budenholzer and Mirritch too I mean we'll see how that works out but I mean there's a real argument to be made even though those are all role players they're the right players would you have known A who the GM of the Bucks was and B

any idea what he looked like yeah I mean because I've seen his face since but in a crowd of people you might be like wait is that this was not a crowd Kevin I'm telling you it's me and him talking. Well, I know, but regardless,

if you're just jumping into him, I think you might be like, is this John or Stort? I'm not sure. I guess I didn't know what he did. He was just a cool guy that we were just talking about stuff. I was saying this.

You got those buck scoops, Chris? Hey, you know what would be the best is if I start breaking every buck story? It's like in 2021. Like, Yonan said to Google on a five-year max extension according to Chris Vernon show. I'm going to have to go back

I'm going to have Isaac to lead all of this, right? The Verno bomb. I'm just going to be steady breaking bucks news all the time. So it was almost like I was mortified because there was this level of embarrassment. And I'm sure there's going to be listeners out there that are going to be like, you cover the NBA for a living.

How do you not know what John Horse looks like? Can you do the rest of the show in that voice? I actually don't. Yeah. That's what I sense these, the egg followers on Twitter sound like. I don't worry about that. So they, I did not know what John Horses looked like. His last name never came up.

And so when he said I am the GM of the Bucks, there was this like shock at all that came over my entire body. And I was like, oh, my God. Like I had no idea. And I was like, well, that's awesome. You know, I mean, I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to say. And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I kind of do podcast and stuff and whatever. But I will say this for his benefit. He might be a listener. Who knows, Chris? He might be super nice guy, super nice guy. And now I will expect to break all bucks in this going forward. That is for certain. One of the other things that was inexperience throughout the weekend was I was walking down the street.

It's something I wrote down. So I'm walking down the street and I'm going to one of the events and I can't recall which one it was. And so I've got to walk around this huge gate at what is the Spectrum Center in Charlotte. And as I'm walking around the Spectrum Center, somehow this bus unloads like right next to me. And it is all the basketball without borders kids that are there. So now I'm like walking on a sidewalk amongst all these kids who have just gotten off the bus. and Kevin, it is my prediction that there is going to be this insane influx. There has already been a massive influx over the course of the past two decades of European, African, etc.

Players, even Asian players from all over the world. There's a very high percentage of players that are not from America now. But I will tell you this, Kevin. These were like all high school kids or younger. They were giants. It's a big group. That's for sure. Absolute giants.

Now, I'm around NBA players all the time. I'm walking down the street amongst these kids. I mean, I didn't go and look it up to see who all was here for basketball without borders that the NBA had brought in. But in terms of the length of these kids and the height, and they appear to be, you know, 15, 16 years old,

I was like, okay, this is insanity. And you do wonder when you've seen the M-Beds and the Seacombs and the, you can name all manner of players that have come in and had success. And you know that eventually it's going to filter down to a younger generation to where now they are, they're getting involved in basketball at an early age. They're not just a tall kid at age 15 that somebody sees and says, hey, you should play basketball. Like, they're starting earlier now.

But I was like, I can't even believe there are kids that are this age that are this tall. And arms just go on forever. And I'm thinking of myself like, man, there wasn't nobody in high school that looked like this when I was in high school. And so I can't wait to see what the future holds when we look up at like five, six years. and we see this influx, I don't know how many of them have NBA talent, but I know this,

there was at least 15 of them that looked like an NBA team getting off that bus. It was a strong year for basketball without borders. It was a really strong year. It was my third year going to basketball without borders

and I didn't get to all three days. My third day, like my hotel had an issue and I had to stay back so I wasn't able to make the last day, sadly, that was disappointing. But I was there for all of the first day like half the second day

and Deniavede the MVP of the tournament from Israel 6-8, 6-9, 18 years old just turn 18 in January easily, you know, in my eyes, the best guy this weekend. He's a playmaker with size. He can shoot from literally

anywhere on the court. He had this one shot, I think, on day two from the right wing. It was like his four three in a row that he had hit. And the defender was just draped all over him when he was clearly fouled, no whistle was called. But this dude, like the shots he hits,

it's not like it rattles in. Like it barely touches the net. He just has a pure stroke and playmaking ability with size. So he's undoubtedly at some point going to get up compared to Luca, which I don't think he's that level of a prospect. But he's a really, really high level basketball player at only 18 years old and one MVP in the tournament and rightfully so. He was really impressive and he'll be in the 2020 draft class,

as will, a lot of these players that were here this weekend. Some will be 20-21, but most are going to be the 2020 class. Okay, so the talk when you were amongst people at the basketball without borders was that, in fact, because again, I cannot speak to their skill level. I just saw their size, which was, oh my gosh, Kevin, they got off the bus as a group of high school kids, and I was like, you have got to be kidding me. It was like six, seven to six tens everywhere. player. Yeah, they're a big group, big group. I mean, I think that's, you know, the misconception in today's league, it's like, players are still big. The average height of the NBA player is not changed with this influx of small ball or whatever you want to call it, but

there's a lot of size, like even something like Killian Hayes, a guard, he'll likely be in the 2020 class. 6-5-66, really good player can handle the ball. Like, there's not just all small 6-1-6-2 point guards or even, you know, under 6-foot. There's a lot of big guys who handle the ball. And I think, you know, one of the themes is with size is coming skill. And so we're seeing bigger players do things that in the past, guards just used to do. Like I mentioned Avidia earlier, you know, in the past, maybe he would have been projected as just like a four.

But with his playmaking skill and his ball handling ability, maybe he ends up playing point guard for you. And if not point guard, a prominent secondary ball handler role in your offense sometime down the line. All right, Kevin, we'll get right back to it. First, I want to remind everybody today. episode of The Mismatch is brought to you by Turro. Turro is a peer-to-peer car-sharing marketplace where you can book any car you want,

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Another thing that happened while we were at All-Star Weekend was at one point, you know Rob Perez, worldwide Wob, right? I met him for the first time, actually, on Sunday night. We had never met in person. We chatted through Twitter and DMs and everything, but I never met him in person until Sunday night at the media hospitality. Towards the end of the night, we just bumped into each other. It was great. That's crazy. So,

I've known Wob for some time. Do you call them Wob? Do you call them Wob? I do. I do call them Rob. I do not call them. Yes, I do. I always call them Wob. So anyways, on, what day wasn't. I wasn't sure if I call call them Rob or Wob. It's like, I'm always calling people by their first name. I always call

when they have a nickname. I don't know. Or I call them worldwide. So we ate lunch on, I think it was like Saturday or something. We're in the same place and we went and grabbed lunch. And it had never dawned on me, but for every NBA fan out there and people that follow him on Twitter, you know that he has grown this insane following. And he's always posting clips and funny captions of games. And so like on a regular NBA night, he's always like a highlight takes place and he's clipped it and he's got it up, right? And so it's never, dawned on me to ask him like how he does all of this but we're sitting there and I was like so I was like do you have like a because I've always wondered sometimes you can tell like they're on a

cell phone like he took the video of his TV or sometimes it's like this high deaf clip or whatever I'm like do you have like a computer with like all of these games running and then like you see somebody react to it on Twitter or whatever because if there's like eight games going on in a night. How is there like a highlight in the Brooklyn versus Hornets game? And like within two minutes time, he's got it up. Like it'll be like, oh my God, this Miles Bridges dunk or whatever, right? And I'm like, so how you got this going? And he explains it to me. And this was like some beautiful mind stuff. And I think it would give you a everybody a greater respect for somebody that everybody in the NBA follows.

He has a laptop, two tablets, a TV, another computer that's like cut into like where it's like got the four games going at once and then maybe another TV. So he can have up to, I think he said, eight going on at one time in like his living room, okay, on like a regular NBA night. and I was like, well, how do you know that like some amazing play has happened in one of the games? And I was like, because are you following like along on Twitter or something? And somebody's like, oh, that so-and-so dunk or whatever? Because don't you have the volume up of like one of them?

And this is when it's a moment where you like want to drop your cup because you're like, wait, what? He's like, no, I've got the volume up on all of them. What? No way. How do you have the volume up on all the games? This is what I said. I mean, I understand the game up and the visual, but the sound up on all of them. Boy, sensory overload happening with that.

I mute games sometimes and listen to music or a podcast while watching basketball. This is why I said it's like some beautiful mind stuff or something. Okay. I said, what the hell are you talking about? He's like, his eyes are bouncing from screen to screen. And then when he hears an announcer get excited, he can go to like, whatever. it's up on. He can like rewind it, like immediately. And then he's like, and then I can get it up. And sometimes if it's, if I need to get it up faster, you know, I'll take it off of my phone or he's got like this clip thing that he can use or whatever. And I'm like, you have got to be kidding me.

Like when he told me the volume is up on all of those, I was like, what are you talking about? The volumes up on all of those. Like you said, sometimes I'm watching games with no volume on. And he's like, I guess, listening for the inflection of the announcer's voices as he is scanning through like sometimes as many as six to eight games at one time. I wondered like how these guys that have done that do that. And at least on that side, it was infinitely more baffling to me than whatever I had going through my head as to how this happens. right? How are you always getting clips up so fast? And that seemed like no shit. The most difficult way to do it.

I don't know what the way to do it is, but watching eight games at once with all the volume up on all of them does not seem easy to be. In fact, that seems like torture. Yeah, I was about to say the same thing. It seems like torture to have that going all the same time. It's like I said, sometimes I mute the game. I do like two games at one.

usually, or sometimes three, but usually two. And it's like, I'll mute the game a lot of the time and have music playing or podcast playing. Just as like, I don't know, I've been doing that a lot more this season. I've done it in the past, but this season's been really nice. It's therapeutic. It's nice. It's like a soundtrack to the live game, dude.

I love it. For everybody out there, one of our NBA Twitter brethren, my respect grew infinitely deeper for Wob, and I hopefully everybody that's listening to this podcast will too, because what he does, it's legendary. To get those clips up is possibly the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

He's an artist. He's really, he's a savant. All right. Let's get to, what else did I have that we had to go through from All Star Weekend,

Kev. Oh, road trip for Mr. O'Connor. Kevin O'Connor goes on a road trip with Jeremy Wu to see the Duke

Blue Devils. I want to hear about it. Yeah, me and Jeremy, rented a car and went out to do, Duke, see Duke NC State on Saturday.

And, yeah, I mean, that game, I had a really interesting experience, Chris, because before the game, you know, I'm sitting courtside on a baseline seat, just watching and admiring Zion Williamson workout. Him and RJ Barrett were, like, dancing to Jay-Z. And, you know, Zion is impressive. He's bigger in real life than he looks on TV. Usually TV adds 10 pounds. It doesn't with Zion.

He looks bigger and more impressive in real life. And then my phone buzzes, and I pull it up. And it's former ringer intern, Kenrick Ty, and it's a photo of me sitting baseline. He's like, Kevin, is that you? And it's like, yeah, it's me. And I turn to my left. I see some hands waving from the Cameron Crazy section at Duke. And so I've got to go say hi to Kenrick.

I haven't seen him since like August or something like that. So like I shuffle through the crowd of all these like people painted blue and everything. And like I get, I meet Kenrick. I meet his girlfriend and some of his friends. I stayed there the whole game. No. I watched the Duke NC State game from the Cameron Crazy section. You did not.

Yeah, I did because I was planning on going back to my media seat in the balcony, but there was like a minute left in the clock. And I was like, I'm staying. I can't go anywhere. It's impossible to get out of here. It's like hard to move around. It's like if you're claustrophobic, it's not a place to be. Right. Dude, like, what an experience.

Wait, hold on now. Did anybody see you? I don't know. I have no idea. Like on TV? I feel like I broke the rules. I don't know if I should be, I'll be banned from Cameron Indoor Stadium now for not being in my seat.

Who cares? I don't know. You live in Los Angeles. I know. I know. Oh, I love this. So wait, did anybody see you like on TV?

I did not get any tweets or DMs about it now. We've got to go back and find this. So listen, for all the- Pretty much, like, straight away the opposite side of, like, Coach K, like, seven or eight rows back, something like that. For all the NBA mismatch fans that are out there. Oh, and let me just, a quick little aside,

thank you so much to everybody that came up at All-Star Weekend. Oh, my goodness, yeah. It was awesome. It really was, like, because I met so many people that said so many nice things about listening to the podcast regularly, and that was, that warmed my heart. For real. Me too, man.

Me too. And it was super cool to meet so many people that I would have never guessed and they're from all over different places, et cetera. You and I met someone from Japan, Rayo. You met him. Yeah, we met on Sunday night. Oh, that's awesome. Japan. Yeah.

I ran across him also. Yeah. Yeah. On Friday night, Jessica Inception had a binge mood meet and greet type of thing in Charlotte. And it was awesome, meeting so many people there that were there. to see Jason and your ringer fans. There's this group of like these co-workers who say like they all read Twitter stuff. They all they all read our ringer stuff and pass along on Twitter.

And I remember like that later that night scrolling through my mentions and seeing them like tagging each other and Jason's meet and greet message. Yeah. And we played Connect 4. There's a Connect 4. A Jumbo Connect 4 thing there. And I crushed Jason Gallagher and then two of the people there. It's great. Just crushed them.

Three and O. Connect 4 at a VB. G. G.B. Bear Hall. What a time. What a time. I really regretted not being able to get over there because I couldn't get out of the... Well, you were too busy with like Charles Barkley and Wolf Blitzer and all these high-profile people. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Different night. Different night. That night, I got stuck at the rising stars. And then by the time I get out of the arena, you guys are going to be wrapping up at this place. We wrapped up pretty late.

Did you really? I mean, I forget what time. I was like, I think. our reservation was to like 1.30 or 2 or something like that. Maybe I should have tried. So back to the original, before we got to thanking everybody that we met, we need somebody out there that can find a tape of Duke,

NC State because there is going to be one strange dude in the middle of all the blue-painted Duke-wearing Cameron crazies. The visual of this... Well, it's going to look strange on TV, Kevin, when everybody's in blue and painted up at the camera crazies. And then there's you.

And I'm there trying to hold on to some semblance of journalistic integrity by not taking part in all the chance. It's like one of Kendrick's friends, this girl, Nina, she was to my left and she had like this cheat sheet of like all the chance. And she's like, you have to do these if you're going to stand here. I'm like, no, I have to be a journalist. Meanwhile, I'm like standing in a group of students. And also, Anita told me that in order to get tickets for that section, you have to take a quiz.

Like, there's this quiz about, like, random Duke players where they ask about, like, their childhood and their family and their stats at Duke. And, like, that's how you have to prove you're, like, hardcore enough of a Duke student in order to get a ticket to stand in the camera crazy section. If there is a visual of this, you have to, like, just totally stick out like a sore thumb in the camera crazies. You have to. I probably do. Are you wearing like that black bomber jacket? Yes, I have that on. Yeah.

There's just some dude in a black bomber jacket amongst all of these college kids going bananas. I like how you know I was wearing that. Blue and white. Yep, yep. Yeah, that was me. It was great. Dude, it's a fun time, man. Like every time Duke's on defense, they jump up it down on the stands.

when Zion has the ball on the break, there's just kind of like there's, you can tell something's about to happen, right? And then when it does, like that place just explodes and you might get, people might fall over because these stands are like old,

old little bleachers that you're standing on. Like it's constantly shaking. And when Zion does something crazy, it's like a little mini earthquake on that little section. And it's very easy to fall. Put it that way. I did not fall,

but it's very easy to. So like I said, If you're claustrophobic, and if you don't have good balance, do not go to the camera crazy section. Don't try to sneak in there. But please do if you can. It's quite an experience, dude. Two other things that we need to mention. One is there was a lot of talk, as you would expect, about Anthony Davis and that whole situation that was going on at All-Star Weekend.

And while we're there, the news comes out that Dell Demps has been. fired by the Pelicans, which it was interesting to say the least, given the Pelicans were in the middle of the whole fiasco that went on with Davis at the trade deadline. I listened to Simmons and Rosillo on their podcast, and they were talking about different rumors and Scuttle Butt and things they had heard while they were at All-Star Weekend. And some of it obviously surrounds Clutch and Anthony Davis and everything that went on with the Lakers and the Pelicans and then Dell Demp's being fired, et cetera, et cetera.

I will tell you that with the many people that I talked to while I was there, you know, there were some that think they were waiting on the Celtics deal and maybe that's what Dell Demp's was doing. But now it felt like given what their ownership situation is, Mickey Loom is kind of running the stuff and like that not being standard at all, like the ownership of the organization. And then now the GM situation with Del Dem's gone, Danny Ferry, supposedly walking in to the situation.

I think it now threw a wrench into it where at least from what I gathered, people were not very confident at all in making a prediction on how all of that plays out. Did you hear any differently? Did you talk to anybody that thought that felt confident about what the resolution will eventually be with him in the offseason? I would say there's no confidence in what exactly will happen. I think the consensus certainly is that the Celtics have the most assets to offer and can make the most appealing offer. So that's really no different than what we've talked about all along. So in that sense, I don't think much has changed. I think the intriguing thing is what happens in the short term.

how do the Pelicans and AD and Clutch handle this situation moving forward with this shoulder injury or whatever it is and whether he's going to play or go home which is ultimately for the best for AD to stay healthy heading into the summer and it's for the best for the Pelicans so their asset can retain all his value

for trade this summer. Well, we will see what Danny Ferry if that is who is going to be in charge of making the move decides when it gets to the off-season on the flip side, because you mentioned the Celtics, I do have to mention this. I did talk to a lot of different people about the Kyrie situation, and we will get to this video that surfaced on the internet, which is now the new NBA Zabruder film of KD and Kyrie Irving speaking to each other. And everybody I talked to could end up being wrong.

But I will tell you, there were very few, if any, people that I spoke with that think Kyrie will be a Celtic next year. And I suppose the playoffs could change everything. I suppose that everything could be different. But there was just not a lot of confidence. And then now you add to that, that video that went out surfacing around, which kind of leads everybody to speculate

because that Kyrie and Kevin Durant stuff has been out there for certain. But I guess maybe I shouldn't have been all that surprised, but I didn't run across many people that were confident that when we watch the NBA next year, Kyrie will be wearing a Celtic uniform. And again, everybody could be wrong, but that seemed to be the general consensus from those I talked with. And that's because of the Knicks having two max slots. Is that what people are saying to you this weekend? Yeah, I think it's the Knicks having the max slots.

There are those that think that the LeBron thing is still out there. I don't buy that. And that whole story about, well, listen, they got to get somebody. They've got to get somebody in L.A. If they don't get the Davis trade, I don't think it'll be Kyrie. I mean, what are they going to do, Kauai, Jimmy Butler? I don't think it'll be Kauai. Kobe Butler.

Oh, oh, hey, here's a little side note real quick, and I'll make this story super quick. My longtime producer for our radio show, John Rozier was there with me in Charlotte, right? He goes down to the hotel gym to get some exercise and is running on a treadmill. and he senses that whoever just got on the treadmill next to him is a very big person, right? He looks to his right and who is running on the treadmill. And this is on, I think it was like Friday morning. It was Kauai Leonard on the hotel treadmill. Just running on the treadmill, just like a regular old guy.

It's the most Kauai Leonard story I could ever hear. I was like, wait, what? he's running on the treadmill in the hotel in the morning, just like he was regular hotel guest. And I'm like, okay, that is not what I expected to hear, right? But you see all this stuff about Kauai and like kind of just no nonsense, not a diva, prima donna, nothing, whatever. And I could at least speak to that in that small snippet,

which I thought was hysterical. That is not what I would expect if I were, if I were to go to a hotel gym. By the way, he was playing in the game this weekend, right? He had a nice sequence where he hit like three pull-up threes in a row. Grind never stops, Kevin. Grind never stops. Never stops.

Even during All-Star weekend. But anyway, so no, back to the Kyrie stuff. Yeah, it's just this sense that this season has not been a happy season. Is that fair to say? Sure. For the Boston Celtics. I mean, despite the winning and all that, yeah, there's been some weird stuff happening for sure. No.

And you never know if we look up and they're in the NBA finals or if we look up and they are, you know, in the Eastern Conference finals, then maybe things change, right? But that there is this, there's this sense that things will change there and that he's not going to want to be there long term for one reason or another. And so I don't know. I don't know. And then you've got the KD thing, which everybody's trying to dissect what these guys are talking about. have you found yourself to be a, what do they call them, linguist? Have you been trying to figure out what they're talking to each other about? Yeah.

Too much time. Ultimately, it doesn't matter what's said in that video. We're referencing where someone took a video of them talking in the hallway, which seems very invasive. That's beside the point, though, with the videos out there. I think with Katie and Kyrie, there's been that talk for many years that someday they would want to team up. And that's why the Knicks have appeal.

You know, it's home for Kyrie. Granted, he grew up a Nets fan, not a Knicks fan, but it's home for Kyrie. Katie is, I mean, there's the draw of New York, that big market. Bill Simmons reported this weekend that James Dolan is considering selling the team or at least hearing, hearing office. Yep. I mean, there's. That is the big one. Because Simmons laid that out in this podcast with Rosillo that he is courting offers now.

And that has always kind of been the thing for me, which is that his ownership of that team has been such a gargantuan deterrent, I believe, for years. And obviously, while they have this mecca of a building, it's a great basketball city. And in addition to that, they have this market, which is unparalleled in terms of size. and yet they have had this incredibly difficult to non-existent time of signing free agents over the last two decades. And I do think that would change completely if, in fact, it is reported that James Dolan has found somebody to take over ownership of that team. And it would be interesting if I think that that franchise is valued at $4.5 billion. And Bill said he was asking for five, and that's without Madison Square Garden. There's not a lot of people in the world that can afford that, you know, especially,

not without getting MSG as part of that package. I wonder if it would be like a group because it seems like in today's era of sports teams, you know, changing owners, it's typically groups that buy teams and having a group can create a whole new set of issues, you know, with minority owners who want a, you know, more prominent voice and everything else. We just saw what happened with, you know, at home for you, with Memphis, with the ownership change there. I do wonder if this would happen very, very quickly with Donne ahead of the summer with all the

promise that they have, maybe it's the best time for him to sell. If they strike out this summer, it's not like the value is going to drop, but maybe there'd be less appeal and buying the team at that point. If they occupy that cap space with like Tobias Harris or something like, it was a good player, but if they spend money when they should be punting to another summer, yeah, that's a fascinating, fascinating wrinkle to watch for heading into the offseason if Dolan actually does sell the team. Yeah.

And I think I would, being a singular owner would, I just, I don't think there's any possible way. I think you're, you're on to something. There would be a majority owner who puts the most amount of money up, but then you rally this possibly large group of people together to become minority share owners in this situation with the Knicks. And that's how you rally that money together. You're right. Now, you ain't got to put $4 million down when you're buying.

in the stuff. But you certainly have to put a lot of money down. And being the singular owner of that is probably a bridge too far for even the most wealthy of people. But I mean, we've seen massive ownership groups be able to be put together, much less you could probably find, you know, maybe five to six, right, have one majority owner and then get five other investors. And I don't think that there's not going to be a problem finding rich people that want to own the Knicks. I don't, I don't think that's going to be a problem. And you might just have to find multiple to all throw together, but there will be no shortage of rich people that want to do that. It's like Bill and Ryan we're talking about on that pod. It's like with Joe Lakeip with Golden State Warriors,

he's the guy. He's the guy in the bay, right? Like people want to go to the Warriors game and, you know, there'd be the same thing with the Knicks. Like if whoever were to buy that team, you're the guy. Like, everybody wants to hang out in MSG. Thank you to everybody for listening to the podcast. Thanks to everybody for making All-Star Weekend and coming up to Kevin and I, a memorable and awesome weekend. Thanks to Charlotte, which was, I thought, a great host city. And it was a tremendous experience, to say the least.

And I was glad that I was able to come back on this episode and drop all manner of names. It made me feel so good. it was all a you know i posted you you mentioned my instagram at the very beginning it really was it was all the dream and i might be old now but i have never lost side to the fact that once upon a time i mean i was 12 years old watching this stuff and if you would have ever told me i'd gotten to be in the position that i got to be in this weekend i would have never believed it and i hope i never lose side of that but it was it was so surreal honestly experiences people i got to meet, et cetera, and a great time. So I give, I give All-Star weekend the massive thumbs

up to say the least. Yeah, it was really a wonderful weekend, meeting people, you know, people who listen to the show, read the website, people in sports media, just, you know, meeting new friends, you know, rekindling with old friends and, you know, growing stronger, you know, genuine relationships and friendships with other people too. It's just a really, really nice weekend. And I'm, you know, thankful for it, just eternally thankful for it. And looking forward to more of them in the future, I hope. And my favorite part was, of course, meeting Kevin O'Connor. Yeah, what's our third time seeing each other in person, I think, right?

Once the summer league, then another time, and then this is the third time, right? That's it. Bill Simmons was there, and that was cool. Yeah, I missed him. I didn't see him there. I've been around Bill before, and so that was neat, whatever. Kevin O'Connor being there and getting to just be in your presence. as brief as it was we were we didn't see each other long for some reason in charlotte we didn't

we didn't everybody was busy at charlotte we saw each other for like what 10 total minutes something like that yeah it's probably true we got a photos together capture the memory i think i think either jason galliger or nicole day took that picture thanks a lot to the ringer for putting that up it blew up my mention for 24 hours with what the hell what the hell i thought you were old i thought you were a black guy. I thought you were this. I thought you were. It's funny because I'm usually tagged in all those comments. Like all or all the tweets. So I see all. Yeah, always see him. Nobody says anything about you. Well, no, I mean, some people said I look like your older brother. I just like older. And I'm like, geez. I mean, I didn't shave that morning.

I was like, man, I should have shaved. Maybe I should have taken off the backpack. Yeah, you didn't have the backpack on. That's true. It didn't help things. All right. Thanks to everybody for listening to another edition of The Mismatch. If you dig with your hand, go give us a rating and review on iTunes, five stars, five stars. And Kevin, I will talk to you next week. Talk to you soon, Chris.