The Ringer NBA Show - The NBA’s Return Plan Was Approved by the Board of Governors. Now What? | The Mismatch

Episode Date: June 5, 2020

After Thursday’s board of governors call with Adam Silver, the NBA has almost unanimously approved the league’s plan to return with eight regular-season games followed by a play-in tournament for the 8th seed in each conference. Now all that’s left is for the players union to approve the plan and for each team to get to Orlando and ramp up to play. We discuss potential challenges the teams will face getting ready to play competitively again (0:49), and then we open up the mailbag to answer your questions about the return plan, the league’s openness to potential player protests during games or the national anthem, and more (21:03). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to The Ringer NBA show. I'm Chris Vernon. Joining me as he does every Friday from the Ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, a.k, Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Compter, Kevin O'Chammer, Kevin O'Candyland, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Blessarian. Kevin! The NBA is coming back. It's coming back, Chris. How are you doing this Friday morning? I'm doing well. There was the news yesterday. We had done a podcast earlier in the week that the Board of Governors were going to have their vote yesterday on the 22 team plan to bring the NBA back to Disney World.

And 29 to 1 was the voting yesterday. I was very surprised. It's just odd to see that amount of unanimous decision and then one dissenter. But that was the Portland Trailblazers, as it was reported. But rather unanimous for the league to be coming back under. the plan that was given, which is, of course, there was no way to make it not imperfect. But I don't know.

When you saw that and you saw the news that it was 29 teams saying, let's do it this way. And one team saying, eh, I think we should tweak some things. What'd you think? I was thinking, shout out to the Portland Trailblazers, baby. I mean, I don't know if they were in favor of just 20 teams of the current proposal or 20 teams for the group stage.

But, you know, your vote matters, and I'm glad they voted for what they felt was ultimately right rather than just going with everybody else. But I'm glad that, like we talked about on Wednesday, that a plan was approved, and it is a good basketball plan. I'm happy with this, with the 22 teams, with what we're going to see moving forward,

with double elimination for the play-in tournament for the eight-seat in each conference, if the ninth seat is within four, games. It's fair. And that best represents what has happened already this season and what could have potentially happened had the season normally resumed. So overall, I mean, a couple days have passed since we first talked about it. I'm just as happy as I was then about this plan for basketball reasons. And today, we'll see what the Players Association decides with them actually doing the vote on their end to approve this because that still needs to happen. Yeah. Okay. So first things

first. You and I both talked a lot about how they could possibly come back and finish out this season. We both liked the idea of a group stage and doing something possibly unconventional, but what they decided on, the amount of teams they decided on, the way the playoffs are going to be set, the way the lottery is going to be affected by all this. Is there anything that you, on a very base level that you disagreed with or you didn't like about this? some of the tentative dates that were put out there by the NBA were a little bit interesting and clearly Michelle Roberts was surprised by them as well that she made the comment to Woge that that's too I don't know if she said it's too short of a shot off season but December

first date was a came off as a surprise to her for next season to start as it did for me I would expect the NBA to maybe push that back a bit further, especially if Michelle Roberts representing the PA says that it's too short of an off season. If you have the finals end in mid-October and then you turn around to have next season start December 1st, that means training camps are starting in early November. That's no turnaround time at all to then have another 82 game season for guys who just spent three months. You know, two teams are going to have to spend three months in Disney World. that's a lot to me.

So I'm surprised there, but it is important to make it clear that every date that you've seen this week, whether it's August 25th for the draft lottery, whether it's October 15th for the NBA drafter or even July 31st for the restart of the season, all of these dates are tentative. And all of them can be changed if something happens with coronavirus that makes it necessary for the league to delay further or to cancel some number of games. That is always a possibility. The only thing that probably won't change is the draft lottery on August 25th,

because that can be done remotely. But everything else, that is just written in pencil, not in permanent ink here. Right. I do wonder, I guess I did think it might be a little more condensed, where you were talking about, you know, for the teams that win, that's three months that they are going to be. spending, you know, when you see that and you know, obviously that's just for two teams.

But even for the semifinalists, they're going to be there, what, two, two and a half months at least. Oh, yeah, yeah. I guess I thought they would probably pack it in a little bit more. Now, maybe that would have been an issue with the Players Association, whatever, but when you just see the timeline and you see how far into the year this is going to go to finish, I don't know. I guess how I, and look, I mean, it's still a long ways off.

We're seven weeks away from this thing starting in the first place. And then we're talking about all that amount of time to finish the deal. I don't know. I think I thought that they were going to try to get this done a little bit earlier, especially. I'm a little surprised about that. I mean, July 31st is a long ways away. I mean, right now we're still in early June here. And would the plan, you know, now approved by the NBA and the players are supposed to

voting today, that's where I'm a bit surprised that on the front end, that it's that long of a period of time before games get rolling. But my impression is, is that Chris Paul, head of the NBA's Players Association, representing the players, he, on behalf of everybody, including himself, they want that time. And the NBA is giving that time in order for them to get healthy. Because look here, man, like, it's not just about prevention from coronavirus. It's prevention from major injury, soft tissue injuries, from muscle injuries, you know, bone injuries. There's a lot that could go wrong from a health perspective.

If you have guys going so hard for so long and then suddenly just stopping and then having to get back and playing competitive basketball immediately for some of these teams, look, the Lakers and Bucks are going to get back and treat these as preseason games. That's it. You're going to probably see LeBron on a minutes limit. You're going to see Janus on a minute's limit. But for some of these other teams like Damien Lillard or Jomorant or Zion Williamson, these guys are going to have to get back and play immediately because these are competitive games for them. And so for the NBA, I think it's the right call for the PA and the league to have this amount of time for guys to get back.

But with that amount of time to get back, though, there is the risk with guys going to play games either together or at high school gyms or whatever it may be. something he gets coronavirus or that coronavirus does spread amongst players. But that's the risk that you ultimately have to take to also account for the risk of injury to the body aside from the virus. So it's so difficult for the league in the players association to balance this. So going to October is because of the choice of the front end. And ultimately, I think that's for the best, despite some of the risks with the amount of time between now and then. Okay, well, that being said, and I agree with you that that's probably, you know, the easiest thing is to just approve what they already have. The negotiating is going to be that date where they're talking about coming back, which is a quick turnaround from whenever this season ends to trying to get back started.

It feels like that's what the Players Association, as we know, is going to relent on. And so as all these dates are tentative, as you said, I'd imagine that what we're probably going to have is a, they're going to negotiate where that date towards the beginning of December, that one's moved back. And maybe that ends up being, you know, we had talked about at the beginning, hey, what if they, what if they start this at Christmas? Right. Christmas Day has been one of those, that's the NBA day all day long, or maybe even closer to Christmas.

But I think at this point, I'd be surprised if they come back, they do this for an extended amount of time and they're done in the middle of October and then they turn around and six weeks later they start the new season. I'd imagine, right, that maybe they turn around in eight weeks and start the new season instead, which makes it a lot closer to Christmas. And so the negotiating will be more about when not the schedule that they've already put together for doing it this way, but rather when next season is going to begin. Well, it's interesting. I forget who put this out there yesterday, but it may have been Bobby Marks who tweeted that if you factor in the amount of time from start of season to end of season, if you start December 1st, you could theoretically end

in time next summer in the summer of 2021 to then have the 2021-22 season start in October as normal. And for the NBA, maybe there is some reason for having the earlier start this year, this coming year, in order to get back on an October game plan. the following year. And I don't know if that's the case because, you know, there's a lot of, you know, disagreement amongst front office members, amongst owners about whether in October or December start time is best. Most people prefer what's traditional and that's October. But for the NBA, I do think that there's some reason on their end to at least keep that opportunity there. Whereas if you start in January, which is a potential possibility here,

that the following season could not start until January, starting in October the following year is like it's not going to happen unless you have a shortened season, which the NBA wouldn't want to do. So there's a lot that needs to be resolved. But ultimately, though, whatever Roberts and Silver agree on, that is still tentative.

It's still tentative. You can't lock in any date unless it has something to do that can be done, you know, virtually, like a draft, you know, like some sort of meeting or whatever. You can lock those in, but you can't lock in start of games, start of training camp. You can only say tentatively, here's what we have planned. And moving forward, that's what it's going to be. And it's all so hard to know what the world's going to look like even in three months and six months, whatever it may be.

Well, and one of the things I read Kevin yesterday that was interesting was that they, one of the reasons that the NBA wanted to get started a little earlier than maybe the Players Association or people. people expected and be able to finish at that time is taking into consideration the Olympics and how many international players are in this league and they wanted everybody to be able to do that, you know, that that is a massive showcase and obviously for a lot of their constituency a big deal to be able to compete in the Olympics. And so if your timeline, you know, if you do next season where it's going to run later than usual. Well, now you're running over into where, I mean, you take the NBA players away from the Olympics, you've got a whole different deal going on in those. And so I don't know. I mean, at least it is, it's something that I hadn't

necessarily considered, but clearly there was an onus put on that beyond just changing the whole calendar, you know what I mean? Like they have a calendar that they usually run by, but at least next year was a little bit different than maybe it would be in a non-Olympic year that they would like their players to be able to play in that, you know? Yeah, you know, that's one of the challenges for the NBA here is like when it comes to the Olympics or FBA national team competitions as well, if you have the season end during the summer, a lot, a handful of guys aren't going to be able to play. Whether that's international guys, like, let's say the Nuggets make a run to the final some year

where the Olympics are being played. Yoghich isn't going to be able to play in the Olympics. And that's going to be a shame if that can't happen. But then again, with the timing of everything, you are talking about a small handful of players that wouldn't be able to play in those years because of the timing of everything. So for the league, the league has to do what's best, you know, for the league and for the players and for the teams.

And a lot of guys are still going to get to represent their countries in the Olympics or in FIBA. as well in those years where games are played. But it's certainly something on my mind, too, when it comes to the timing of everything. But, you know, we're going to see what happens this summer. I mean, this is sort of a test run with what's going to happen with ratings. How much interest will there be? How will players like playing at this time of year?

How will they like starting in December or January? This whole next year for the league, you know, with everything happening, it's unfortunate, obviously. they just get an opportunity to see some of the ideas that they didn't expect to, including the play-in tournament or the timing of games. There's a lot here that's being experimented with. Let me ask you about the draft. And number one, how they have decided, again, everything is tentative, but what was voted on, how the lottery would be decided.

That for, you know, I think it's probably not going to have. a profound effect. I mean, it's not going to have a profound effect in terms of the slotting, but that the record is frozen at the end, outside of if a team were to drop out or a team were to get in to the playoffs, clearly that would alter. And those teams that dropped out would then become lottery teams, but they would be slotted where their record was frozen. What'd you think? Do you think that is an equitable way to do this, considering they are only playing eight games

and obviously having this play in possibly to decide playoff spots, therefore deciding lottery slots? Yeah, I think it's fair. I mean, to me, this is a smart decision. It prevents teams from tanking. Because just to be clear here, the eight teams not in the playoffs are locked in to their lottery seeds. So in order 1 to 8, you have Golden State, Cleveland, Minnesota, Atlanta, Detroit, New York, Chicago, Charlotte.

And then the six other teams to make up the 14 lottery teams will be determined after these eight seating games. However, those seating games don't impact record, as you said. Record is frozen. So if Washington misses the playoffs right now, you know, after these seating games, they'd keep the ninth best lottery odds with their 24 and 40 record from when games were suspended on March 11th. But if, let's say, the magic were to lose the eight seed and they were to become a lottery team, their record in the East, their record in the league would determine their slotting in the lottery standings, which would likely be 14th, unless Memphis were to also

lose their eight spot, then they would probably be 14th and Orlando would be 13th. So it's still an order of record based on the standings. To me, like, this is great for the NBA to do that. the lottery. There's no reason for Washington to go 0 and 8 in tank. That's prevented. The only incentive is to win for any of these teams, unless you already have locked in your seed like the Lakers are bucks. But for these teams that are fighting for seeding, the only thing you want to do is win. In terms of the draft timeline and where they talked about the lottery being set and then, you know, and then a draft and then following that free agency,

when you saw how they are going to try to pull that off, what do you think of those dates? Because I know you spend an immense amount of time preparing for the draft and preparing for this year's draft, which is now going to be much later than we would have ever anticipated, is much, much different than any other year that we've talked about this. The tentative date for the NBA draft October 15th, my first question was the NFL is going to be playing then.

Right. And then someone pointed out to me that that is, Thursday night football Chiefs Bills. Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs versus the Buffalo Bills who went 10 and 6 last year, you know, could have another good year coming back. I mean, maybe they win the AFC East with Tom Brady, now not in New England anymore, dominating them for years. Who knows? So that could be a true primetime game, Chiefs Bills,

and the NBA draft wants to go against that. Why Thursday? Why not do it Wednesday or a Friday? I know it's every year the draft is on a Thursday. That just seemed a little bit silly to me. And then August 25th for the draft lottery, in all likelihood, that's going to stay the same. The NCAA is a bit slimy with putting the date in that they did, saying August 3rd is a date for players to remove their names out of the draft. But the NCAA is always slimy.

That's no surprise that they continue to be. I mean, I think for the NBA, it's going to be interesting to see if at some point there can be a combine. That is something we do not. know yet. If there can be a combine for players to, to, you know, maybe have individual workouts with social distancing guidelines in place like teams currently do for players that are trying to get back to the court as well. We don't know that yet.

But that's something I'll be looking forward to moving forward from a draft standpoint. Because for teams, man, I mean, look, you can say workouts are overrated, seeing a guy in an empty gym means nothing. Teams don't feel that way. Teams like seeing what a guy does in a gym, in conditions where they're pushed or they like seeing what a guy can do from a shooting perspective, putting them through a number of game-like drills or what they look like shooting at the end of a practice when their legs are worn out, you know, when they're tired. How do they shoot then?

How do they respond when they're pushed? These are the things teams look for and that they can get in a workout situation, never mind being able to interview somebody in person and see what they're like in person rather than just, you know, Zoom meetings like we're doing right now. So for the teams, they want that. It's just a matter of if they're actually going to end up getting it. But for the dates, you know, I'm cool with that, other than why do the 15th of October instead of the 16th?

Yeah, I know. And you know what's crazy at the beginning of all of this. You know, before this all happened, we got the news about the G League and these kids that are going to be going straight to the G League, including what would be, the number one player in next year's class, Jalen Green. It was announced yesterday that the G League's not going to try to finish at all. Like they just canceled their season. It is over.

And you do wonder, at least part of me wondered like, okay, well, what about for next year? I mean, there's so much going on at a much higher level, just trying to figure out what the NBA is going to do. You do have, and I know it's not a huge deal, but you do have a lot of guys in that development league. you were just about to make that a much more significant deal towards players that are leaving high school and going to decide what they're going to do for their next step. And so how much did that get messed up when this was supposed to be the first go round for this? And really a tremendous test run with one of the best prospects in the country doing this instead of going to play college basketball next year, you know?

Yeah. I mean, you can also say the same about like WNBA. Right now, they have not yet decided how their season will start right now. I believe I saw there was a 22 game regular season proposal and we'll see if that's to be decided on or what. But for the, you know, it's not just NBA here. It's a lot of other basketball leagues around the world, some of which had to be canceled overseas. And that and that's unfortunate with everything going on, the amount of losses that players will experience. Bobby Wagner is here.

We asked for some mailbag questions from our listeners. They have been great on a weekend, week-out basis. Bobby, what do we got this week? Okay, guys, first question comes from Michael. With the NBA having made its decision on the playoff structure for this summer, do you think a play-in path for the lower seats is a gateway to changes in playoff structure? Kevin has mentioned that Adam Silver is constantly seeking new and innovative avenues, and the play-in tournament this summer provides an option to test the popularity

and feasibility of one of these avenues. Yeah, no doubt. The NBA, you know, Adam Silver proposed to play in tournament in the in season tournament late last year in 2019. For him and for the league, this is an opportunity to give this a test run. Whether it actually resembles, what is going to happen now,

which is, you know, there's only a playing game played if the ninth seed is within four games. And then it's double elimination for the eight seed. That remains to be seen. that were the case moving forward. But at the least, you're going to get an opportunity to see how this structure works from a basketball perspective, how players like it, how teams like it, how fans like it, how the league office actually likes it. And then moving forward, you can make

that decision. Ultimately, I would expect the league to propose this again, perhaps in a revised format, because it never went away. It was just postponed. The vote on in-season and playing tournaments is still going to happen at some point. So for the league, we'll see if this strengthens Adam Silver's case and having some sort of playing tournament moving forward. But yes, Michael, this is a test run. And they are doing it with just eight and nine this year. I know when we have discussed in the past that one of the initial at least thoughts was maybe they do it with seven, eight, nine, and 10. Therefore, you have an insurance that more than, I mean, at minimum,

you've got 20 teams that are really scratching and clawing to try to at least have a chance at the playoffs for their fans and for their team and whoever is behind them. I mean, you are really, you now give these teams a tremendous opportunity and incentive to win. You have more teams incentivized to win and try to win than you have before, especially because you're including anybody that's fighting even to get to 10 at that point. Yes. I like it. And that's why, you know, I was a huge supporter of it when I was first proposed because

if you think about, let's say the 10 seed were in play for a play in in the east, Cleveland would only be four games back. Right. Four games back from an opportunity to get into the postseason. And you can say, you can say Cleveland shouldn't deserve an opportunity to get in the postseason. I'm not going to counter argue, you know, with that. But I will say this.

What about the years in which guys get hurt, like with Golden State? Granted, they're in the West, they're out of it, period, even if they could get the 10C, they're 14 back of that. But in a normal year, if a guy gets hurt early in the season and then comes back late, I would prefer a world in which basketball gives these guys an opportunity to compete for the playoffs. It gives fans something to continue to hope for and to have something to root for. Whereas right now, and for as long as I've been a basketball fan, March and April for a lot of teams is just a drag.

It's over. You just can't wait till it's over a lot of the time. Unless you have young guys that are developing to root for, you're looking forward to the next season. This would change things. So hopefully it works and hopefully the league is able to get something implement and moving forward. Yeah, you know, and you mentioned that that's how the standings look this year.

But, I mean, throughout my time covering basketball, I covered a 50-win team that was the eight-seed one year. So you never know, you never know how, you know what I mean. You don't know what the records are going to be. There was a lot of really good teams that particular. And we had other seasons like that in the Western Conference where you had to win 50 games just to get in the playoffs. And so this stuff ebbs and flows.

And so you do what's best for the long term. Because it's not always that the teams that aren't playoff teams now, their record totally sucks. It just so happens this year in one of the conferences. That is true. And there's a massive drop off with a bunch of teams with crap records. All right, what else we got, Bobby? Yeah, I was going to say real quick on that.

Like, that happens in the NFL all the time. Yep. At eight-win team or a seven-win team gets in, but if that's the case, just beat the team, you know. Well, look, I'm a St. Louis Cardinals fan. The year we won the World Series, we got in as the Wild Card. There's a lot better. There's a teams of a lot better record.

I don't want to talk about that, Chris. I know you don't. I'm a Mets fan. Okay, next question from Charlie. I'm ready to ask about how Disney World will balance reopening the park for guests and the NBA.

They recently announced that they will partially reopened for guests on July 11th. Is there any idea how the NBA teams will be separated from the theme park guests?

So we had this question last week but is there any development on that? Have you guys thought about that anymore? I don't know if you have talked to people, Kevin, but I did talk to some people with some teams and they don't have any clarity on this.

No, they don't. No, the details are still to be worked out, but that is the informed speculation that, yes, there will be a portion of the park that is NBA only. And so that is how they are going to separate. You know, there is only, I have not heard anybody mentioned this, but there's one team that needs to think about this whole Disney World concept a lot more than the others. And that is your beloved Brooke Lopez and his brother. For anybody that knows, they are huge Disney fanatics.

And you are, if you are the bucks, you are going to have to temper that enthusiasm that they have. They are being set down in Disney World. And you're going to have to try to keep their mind solely on basketball. But the truth is, all joking aside, they are, they don't know how this is going to work, but they assume that there are going to be hotels and they're going to be massive sections of the park that are just NBA only. I don't know about massive sections, but at least, you know, where their hotel is. I believe that the rumored site for the NBA is, it's Coronado Springs. I think we mentioned that last week.

My memory stinks. I'm not so sure. But Coronado Springs is where the NBA junior competitions have been held in the past. And they've just, it's like a short 10 minute bus ride or car ride from hotel to the ESPN worldwide of sports complex where games will be played. but it's a matter of where their hotel is. And at that hotel, you know,

resort area, there's restaurants. It's near a golf course. And from my understanding is that I heard back in March that the expectation would be that players would still be able to do things. Like you could close off a movie theater for a day, right? And from people at Disney, it's like,

movie theater closed today, sorry, but NBA players could be there that day. But ultimately, though, there's probably enough to do with their resort. court that they can have the freedom to walk around to golf to do whatever they want to do. But still, for the league, one of the most important things is they still want players practicing

social distancing when they're out away from the court. They still want everybody wearing masks when they're walking up hotel hallways and in elevators. That is a requirement. We'll find out more in the coming days and weeks for the NBA's actual safety precautions. They're testing procedures. Adam Silver is supposed to talk with the media next week, and I have heard that they have a plan outline that needs approval. So perhaps that's something that will be on the call today with Michelle Roberts. And we could hear more about it moving forward or maybe by next Tuesday when we do our next show.

And I think what people think about this, they think of if they've been, I've been to Disney World, you know, you need. And there's these throngs and throngs and throngs of people. And that's just not going to be so on the Disney World or any of these places for along. time. Almost all of them are going to be doing percent capacity. And that percent is much, much lower than what you would normally have at a theme park in the first place. Like, I think, I think when you envision it, anybody that's been down there, you know it's a madhouse. And there's a billion people everywhere. And you're standing in line for ever. You have it? I've never been to Disney World or Disneyland my whole life. It's one of the few family vacations I

ever took as a child. I remember my father book. it when I was little and we did the, um, you know, we did like the character breakfast and stuff where I got to go eat with the characters or whatever. And I don't, it's obviously, I don't have like these, I don't have these like unbelievable memories as much as I have memories through the pictures that were taken while we were there. Yeah. Right. That's how all of my memories work is through, through pictures. Well, and now, look, I've looked, I've looked into it because clearly my kids are at, at a great age for this boy, you better be willing to dole out money because it is not cheap to be able to put.

Like what's it cost for that character breakfast these days? No, no. I would just say, I would just say, you know, when I looked into it, it was going to be five, six grand to do it the way, you know. And I'm talking like, because you want to be able to get the fast passes unless you want to, unless you want to stand in line. I am so impatient. I do not want to stand in line for 100 years to ride Space Mountain.

You know what I mean? Like that's just, I'll go insane. So wait. So you're saying like 5, 6K including hotel, including, you know, flight and all that. So that's probably, and that's doing it. That's doing it like, you know, the way that when I'm just saying when I looked it up and been like, man, this sounds like a great idea. This would be awesome. I'm saying like that's probably just for a week, right?

Like that's probably a week or something at this thing. So I imagine what it's going to cost for teams for the league for media companies to send people assuming media members

even get to go I believe they will at least a limited amount but I mean I would imagine with those amount of cost you're going to see some people

who are going to some companies are just not going to send people because the cost will be so exorbit into the tens of thousands if they're there for multiple months

at Disney World not just a week I didn't realize it was that expensive. It's expensive, man. For hotel and everything. Wow. It's expensive. It's like $160 dollars for one day for an adult just to get in.

And I'm sure there will be some people that like tweet me or whatever and say, bro, you're crazy if you think you can do it for five or six. Because if you want to do the other stuff and here's the other thing. That, I'm telling you, Kevin, when I did that, that was just like, hey,

here's what the trip would look like. You know, I mean, I got two little kids everywhere you walk. It's like, can I get that? Can I get that? Can I get that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? So you know you're spending crazy amount of money on all the other crap to eat is expensive,

to drink is expensive, to buy these little souvenirs and crap is expensive. I'm kind of, I mean, when we went on little family vacations, we were like driving New Hampshire and go to Storyland or like places like that, like that's like small little parks. We never did anything really big. we never really left the Northeast. I mean, I never went on a plane until I think I was 24 years old in my life. It was just too expensive for us and not something we did. But in a way, I'm kind of glad that I never experienced Disney World of Disneyland because I want to do that now as an adult.

And it's something that I'll remember and something I think that I'll be able to even cherish even more, something I'll always have with me. And plus, I like rides more than I did when I was a kid. You know, I cried after a roller coaster one time. You did? It was a little dragon roller coaster. I was like eight or nine years old. I was like scarred, afraid of roller coasters after that.

But I love them now. Let me give my pen. Kevin O. Coaster. All right. Here we go. Not going to forget that one. Yeah. I used to be afraid of roller coasters of bees and the Chucky doll.

Those are my. Chuckie. The Chucky doll. Yeah. mine is mine is outdoor heights i cannot do it like i'm talking like if you ever see like if you were ever happened to be like at a like at a like a like a mall with me i know this sounds crazy but like at a mall and you know how like you're walking on like the top level and there's that huge opening in the rail you will see me 10 feet away from that rail i i can't i cannot get near the thing i can't i've had

too many dreams of flipping over or falling or whatever else in my life. And I'm petrified. Accidents happen. And nobody's exempt from anything. And I'm not necessarily afraid. If anything, I sort of like the feeling, you know, that fear that kicks in, you know. But I stay away for safety reasons. Because you never know.

Someone bumps into you. You fall away. I just don't know. I'm just telling you outdoor height. Some people can like dangle their legs off. a building. You know what I mean? Like that is.

I watch, have you ever seen that documentary Man on Wire? I almost had a damn panic attack. I almost had an absolute panic attack watching that thing. I'm not kidding. Like it, that was so much scarier than like, you know,

Freddie Kruger running in. Aha! I'm in your dreams. Like, you know, like that stuff is like, that doesn't, it's like the stuff that's goofy. Yeah.

The stuff that scares me is a guy walking on a damn wire on top of but New York City, I am just, I mean, my heart was going to, I'm like, I got to turn this off. I can't watch this. You mentioned, like, people dangling their legs over the edge. My dad always used to do that. Like, if we were in New Hampshire, you know, in the mountains or whatever, my mom would be like, stop, stop. Don't do it. Oh, boy.

I'm not interested in ever doing that. What else we got, Bobby? All right, this is from Sasha. They asked, with the NBA returning, it seems like it might be weird how quiet the broadcast is. Am I crazy in thinking that it would be super entertaining to have other NBA teams that aren't playing in the stands watching? If these guys are stuck in Orlando with nothing to do, why wouldn't they want to come and watch live? It obviously would be low risk as all these guys are already playing against each other, but just imagine Joel M.B. sitting courtside talking smack

to Andre Drummond as the Pistons play another impotent. Thank you, Sasha. I am, if it's safe, which hopefully it would be, I'm in favor of having players in the stands. to make it like an AAU style atmosphere. And if families are eventually allowed to come to Disney World, I think it would be a really personal and special experience to have them also in the small arena. To make it as normal as possible for players, to make it an experience that for the viewer at home is special. To see so many people connected to the game through family or friends in a crowd

where it's safe and everybody wearing masks and social distancing and all that. But that would be really, really cool if the league were able to make that work as long as it's safe. Well, and the scenario in which he brought up, which is players, heckling other players, would just be absolutely unbelievable. That would be great. You know what I mean? For the players to be the fans? I mean, obviously he brings up Embedit.

I mean, you've got so many of these characters in the crowd. I would love to see Patrick. Beverly on the front row. As if it's not hard enough to play in the game, if Patrick Beverly's there and you can hear every word he's saying, he's barking at you from the side, it would be great. Yeah, we might not be able to get like Embedd talking with Drummond, as Sasha mentioned in the question,

but we could get Embed in Whiteside. Oh, yeah. I'd be happy with anything we get. What we got next, Bobby? Sydney wants to know. The NBA encourages players to speak out, but when Cap began kneeling during the anthem, Silver sent out a memo saying players were still expected to stand.

What do you think Silver's reaction would be now if players start kneeling in solidarity when the season resumes? And should the NBA cares look for ways to show their support while in Disneyland? I think Adam Silver, I mean, I think you'll probably agree with me, Kevin. I mean, this has been easily the most progressive of the leagues. And, you know, there have been times in the past when guys wore the eye can't breathe, shirts or what it be like there is a uniform protocol and where the NFL will start finding guys for you know breaking protocol or whatever else the NBA has over and over again shown compassion

for and empathy for their players and what is important to their players so I would imagine that the NBA will allow them to do what they will um because they have been I think I think I think they have established that they're not one that's looking to punish somebody for taking a stand on things. And in fact, they have been pretty forward in encouraging it. I wonder if the anthem will be played before every game at all. I don't know. That's something on my mind as well because at Summer League, they don't play the anthem before every game. Right.

And with the back-to-back game format that we're going to see, you know, with schedules, especially during the regular season and maybe in the first round as well, I wonder if they're just going to scratch that. I remember when Kaepernick first did kneel during the anthem, there was the debate or the conversation about why the anthem is even played before games in the first place and whether it should be. It all started in World War one back in 1918 in baseball. And it's done now for patriotic reasons, of course. We'll see if the NBA does it.

Maybe it's a once-a-day thing, like the first game of the day, first game in each arena or something like that. But then not after that. But for the league, as you said, Chris, they have always been in support of the players. But then again, Silver and the league did say players are expected to stand at the time. That's true. We'll see if that changes moving forward. But to your point on the question, should the NBA cares and the NBA do something about it?

I mean, besides what players already are doing on an individual basis and a collective basis like we talked about earlier in the week, I think whatever they want to do, whatever players want to do, the league is going to support them. We have LeBron this week talking about the Laura Ingram statement about shut up and dribble for him, but Drew Breeze is told like he's allowed to have his opinion

and LeBron said, I'm not going to be quiet, you know, any longer. Players are going to rally together to try to do something for the greater good of the world in the fight against racial inequality and police brutality and we'll see what that looks like

come July 31st when games resume but I would expect Silver to support the players regardless of what their wishes are with what to do. All right we got a question here from David. How do you foresee your respective features as voices in sports and the NBA changing over the coming months and years

given the broader changing landscape in which sports are encapsulated and then he goes on to specify is this a temporary thing that we're visiting and there'll be return to normal or should we be expecting a new normal? What would that look like? Do you guys ever see yourself speaking and writing more broadly on the way that societal issues interact with NBA? I would just say we have to remember that right now sports aren't omnipresent. That's not

going on. And therefore, I think it has been the benefit for all of us in order to talk about things that maybe we get distracted with, right? We say sports is a distraction, and obviously sports can be a tremendous agent for change. But I cover sports. That's what I do. I don't expect anybody to come to me for my opinion on, I will give my opinion, certainly on things that are taking place. But the line of work that I got into is watching sports and talking about those sports. And I'm, I've always been aware that that is my, that's my job. And that's why people, that's why people have this downloaded on their, you know, to, to listen to on a regular basis. Now, when the time calls for it and things are very important that I feel like I need to speak up

on and give my opinion on, then I will. But I, you know, my, typically there are all manner of things going on. And right now, there are certain times throughout my entire career where everybody needs to use their voice. And if you have a platform, I do think that you should use your voice. But I also have an awareness that there's a lot of voices out there. And a lot of them are more important and more poignant than mine. I don't know how things will change for me as a podcaster and as a writer.

All I know is I've always wanted to talk about things that are important to me. Ever since I was a little kid, I mean, I remember, you know, my dad used to say, don't talk about religion and politics. And I would ask him why. And he would say, because people get mad when you talk about that. stuff. We can talk about it at home, but, you know, be careful talking about it with your coworkers or, you know, people, classmates and whatever.

And I ask them, why? Why did people get mad? I always just felt like conversation was something that was important in finding and understanding between people who had some differences or some disagreements about whether it's minuscule topics or important topics like we're discussing. now racial inequality racial injustices so in many ways i mean it's it's great right now to turn on ESPN and feel like it's CNN with people talking about the stuff that matters the stuff that actually makes a big difference in the world and um you know i think i i think about jalen rose's

statement you know him saying i wish i wish america loved black people as much as they love black and like that that just resonated so much with me you know it's it's just the truth i mean like sports in politics sports and culture always intersect whether it's in major ways like right now or in insignificant ways um so i don't know how much is going to change but i i i do know is that whether it's here on this podcast or other shows or on my own Twitter feed or my own Instagram or whatever, I'm always going to feel a desire to speak about the things that matter. And like I said on the show earlier this week or the show last week, I can't help but feel inspired to see so many people standing up and speaking about what matters.

And I'm thankful to be able to do that on this show with you, Chris. I'm thankful to do that with you, boss. I'm thankful to have that back and forth conversation with you, the listeners, with some of the emails that you send and the questions that you ask. And I don't know how much the conversation will resume. I hope it does. It needs to. We can't ignore what's happening in the world. And there's a duty in some way by having a platform to speak about those things and to try to make a difference in that world.

And that's what I've, last year with my dad got diagnosed with cancer. I tried to make a positive difference by doing the fundraiser and by speaking about things to try to connect with people. And that's all I'm really trying to do right now. If this podcast makes a difference, I don't know. I don't know if it will. I don't know if the sports industry is going to be going to play a big role in that either. Because as you said, there's a lot more qualified people to talk about these complicated issues, these complicated topics. but I do want to continue speaking about them.

And that's my intentions moving forward to continue standing up for what's right. Very well said, Kevin. That's going to do it for another Ringer MBA show. Thanks as always for listening and participating. And we will talk to you next Tuesday.