The Ringer NBA Show - The Nets Coaching Staff Grows and the NBA Draft Rumor Mill | Real Ones

Episode Date: November 2, 2020

Logan and Raja discuss Mike D’Antoni being added to Steve Nash’s coaching staff (7:50). Then they discuss how much you can trust predraft rumors (29:18) and each give out their Real One of the Week (52:44). Hosts: Logan Murdock and Raja Bell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, what's good? This is Logan Murdoch. That's Raja Bell. This is he. We are the real ones. We are the real ones. We had a really fun show today talking about the NBA draft. We basically just made fun of Raja for 20 minutes because he cannot be on the Brooklyn Net Staff with all his friends. They all went to summer camp without him. Mother fumbles. That's my new stuff, so I'm not cursing in front of the kids.

Mother fumbles. Okay, whatever. You cursed a lot during the show. We talked about politics. We talked about politics today. We did get into politics a little bit. It was a well-rounded show. Real-rounded discussion, man.

Produced by my guy, Isaiah Blakely. You know what? We got a little guest producer here. Shout out to the vibes. You know what I'm saying? And the real special real ones, man. Tap in to the real ones podcast. Make sure you put it in the chat.

Make sure that you put it in the chat. Make sure you put it in the chat. Tap in. What's good? Real ones. Logan Murdoch. Roger Bell. We got the rundown that we're putting it in the

chat. Oh, oh, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo do.

What's popping, bro? How are you doing, man? It's wild times out here. How are you feeling?

What's going on? What's like, what's what's consuming me right now? If I could be, like, if I could just take a minute

to... Keep it real, real, son. Get this off my chest. Get it off your chest. I coach a high school basketball team. Like, I run the basketball

program, American Heritage Plantation. It's a really prestigious school down here in South Florida, great academically, great athletic

across the board and I've been tasked with trying to resurrect the basketball program. So this is year two for us. And it's going to be interesting because practice starts tonight and, you know, we, I just don't know what to expect. Like I'm hoping some of these kids came back a year better for the experience they got last year, but having not had them because of COVID and stuff like that and not having the offseason. I don't know what to expect, dog.

So I'm really like anxious slash nervous slash excited to get into. gym tonight. Okay, so are you like the head coach, the GM, the whatever, the athletic director? Are you, what is your role? Are you all at that? So you're like Greg Popovich to this? I am not the athletic director. I am the head coach slash general manager of the basketball team. And then I am in charge of the the sub-level teams, but I'm a good delegator. Let's just put it like that, right? Like I'm not concerning myself with like micromanaging a JV coach. But I run that whole program. How, like, you said you're in the second year of a rebuild, right?

This is an NBA show. Let's make some NBA analogies. Right. What is the team like? What are you, what is your role? How do you feel about going into this season? What is, like, what's going on right now? So last year, we were a, a young team full of probably rookies, right?

Like, we played a lot of sophomores last year. They probably weren't ready to play in high school basketball. games. And there was a culture problem from the last regime. Like, it just was. Like, we weren't tough. Like, people were putting stock in the wrong shit. Like, um, and so, you know, from, from the start of year one to the end of year one, we made some strides. But coming into year to, Logan, like I said, that's, and if you would use an NBA analogy, like, you would, you would take your, you know, your, um, you know, your postseason, like your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, you would show back up

a month before camp and really start getting these cats indoctrinated into the way you want to play. And we just haven't been afforded that opportunity because of COVID. And our gyms were shut down. So we didn't have the opportunity to do that. And I'm scared that we've lost some of the shit that we gained last year.

That's my concern. Are you, okay, I'm not going to get too deep into what I saw before on the pre-production of this. But I did see, I know I've been around NBA lock, I know I've seen GMs a lot in my day. You look every bit of stressed as every GM I've ever seen. Yeah.

Are you sure? How are you feeling? Are you, is your blood pressure high? Do you have to get them to the Peloton a little bit? Are you just to like relieve like whatever eye you got? Are you, what's going on? Yeah, I'm going to take a jog. I'm good.

I'm going to take a jog later to try to get some of that out. I, what happens at that school is you get, um, everybody wants to try out because there are no sub-levels this year. So this was my frustration. This is what you saw. I have a bunch of kids that would have played like ninth grade last year, our freshman team or our JV team, all wanting to play varsity. Because there's no JV this year.

I can't accommodate all of them. And I don't really know their games because I haven't seen them play in a long time. So I can't just have 40 mofos show up in a gym all trying to play varsity basketball. I can't get nothing done. I got two weeks to get us ready to play a game, you know? So my frustration. is that the mom or the dad that reaches out wanting to know if their kid can come out, and he's played like one year of wreck basketball.

And you know what I mean? Like that's trying to navigate that is frustrating for me. But overall, I'm excited because, you know, hopefully all of our sophomores that are now juniors are a year better and they fall back into the competitive level that we try to, you know, encourage and then we're, you know, we're off and running. We don't have to spend the same amount of time just getting them up to competitive. competitive level, we could start really working on what we want to work on. For you as a coach, and I've talked to a lot of coaches who, you know,

done in the league and things like that. One that really comes in mind is Steve Kerr. I've asked him one time about, is it help that you being a role player? Does that help you as a coach, considering that, like, you weren't as good as, as you, I'm just be real. Just be real. You were not as good as Steve Nash. I'm sorry.

You were not as good as Kobe Bryant. But come on, bro. You were not as good as LeBron James. I'm sorry. You don't need to say that. But do you think that helps you when you do coach kids? Like, do you have a little bit more empathy? Because you are, you've been there.

You weren't the best. You had to work harder than, you know, to get where you were than a lot of people. I don't think that necessarily makes me a better coach. I think that it can give you a perspective that like maybe Kobe couldn't have because of who he was. was all the time, right? Like, being as great as he was, like, you wouldn't know what it felt like to be the 12th man on the team and have to carve out a role for yourself by doing a job that someone else didn't want to do. Like, that was my existence in the NBA, right? Like, coming in,

I wasn't even a 12th man on Philly. I was like the 15th. And I had to figure out, like, what the fuck can I do to get on the court? And so, like, I have an appreciation for that. I think any level of player could be a good coach. But I certainly would have a an ability to see things through the eyes of people that maybe a Kobe or an MJ or, you know, someone like that couldn't see it through. I think Steve can know. We've had that conversation because Nash, you know, he, he wasn't great right away. He wasn't the typical superstar.

He wasn't out the gate like he's going to be a star. No, yeah. He had to work that. Yeah. Another question I have for you. Are you preparing right now? Like, are you using this season just to prepare to get on the Brooklyn NetStat? That's what we call a segue, ladies and gentlemen.

Well done, sir. That's a good. Hey, look, it looks like a lot of fun, though, and you were all in my text messages, like, throwing real shape. Let's paint the picture real quick. Let's paint the picture a little quick. So Mike Dantonie has joined the staff. Amari Stademeyer has joined the staff.

Motherfuckers. Steve Nash is obviously the head coach at a Brooklyn Nets. It's funny because there's a running joke in the chat. I always put it every time there's net net stuff in the chat I put it in the chat to Raja

like yo when are you when are you gonna leave us like what's gonna go what's gonna happen when are you gonna leave us and he always plays coy you guys are wild

and stop you know what I'm saying come on man come on dude what are you talking about I don't know what you're talking about or or

he'll send the one like crying laughing emoji like just the one that's my go too like that's like ha y'all crazy right like without saying anything without saying anything but it reminds me of the old school like kindrick perkins instagrams where like when they were in oklahoma city where like there would be outings with the oklahoma city thunder and they would

take pigeons and perk wouldn't be there and perk would be like man go a little big perk out of it while y'all leave big perk. All right. All right, all right, for show. I'm going to check y'all later next time. You know, it's all right. Big perk going to be all right, right? Right. It seems like you're the big perk of this right now, of this scenario. How do you feel what all your potters? It feels like all your potters is going to summer camp and your ass is left out. I got left home, right? How are you going to feel what all the, I know this is going to happen because, let's be real, Steve Nass is the jokester, that that son's team's full of jokes.

How are you going to feel the first face time you get? Where it's just like, ha, ha, Rajah, you're not in the party. Ha ha. I'm going to, listen, I'm not, I'm not going to, I'm going to be salty. Like, that's, first of all, I would have loved to have worked with Steve. Like, and I told Steve that when we talked about the job, like, it was, you know, if there was anybody that I was going to come back to the NBA and work in the NBA on that NBA grind with, it would be Steve.

You know what I mean? Like I wouldn't have probably even entertained it anywhere else. Like the last time David Griffin reached out about maybe coming in New Orleans when he got the job, I just, it was a no because I knew I wasn't ready. But, you know, Steve's a different animal for me. And so let's just start it there. When you start adding Amari and Mike, like those are some of my favorite people on my favorite team that I ever played on. I'm sure they're going to have a blast. And so I will feel like I'm missing out.

But like I told Steve and like I told you, like I just, my family is at a point where my oldest son's 13, dog, like he's about to go into eighth grade and be playing, you know, JV football and basketball next year. And my baby is, he's four and, you know, like, she'll be going to kindergarten in a couple of years. Like, I don't want to miss all of that shit, you know? And I'm, it's just sometimes in life you've got to figure out, even though like that job holds a lot of prestige and it'd be great and fun for me. like would it how much would I miss with my kids and it it it was a no-brainer for me man like I love Steve I love the opportunity but I couldn't commit to doing that right now yeah and also like how much is because you've been you know the grind of assistant not to say you've done that but you do because you've been in a front office how much did COVID does COVID play a role in that right

like huge bro because like you know I talked to Sean marks about you know when we we went pretty far down the path like you and I haven't really like gotten fully in to that, but like, let's get to the shits. Yeah, like, I was, I was really interested. Like, my wife and I had talked and, and kind of, you know, went through the pros and cons, and she's from the New York area. So that was always a destination that we wanted to get back to. I never got to play there. So, you know, we, we saw value in that. Like, if my two older kids, my 13-year-old and my 12-year-old were able to be in the gym, like they were to some degree in Cleveland when they got to be around LeBron and Kyrie, and there's real value in that.

if being in Brooklyn, but none of that was going to be possible with the COVID situation. Like, there was no clarity on that. And then, you know, Marksie, who I love too, wasn't able to really tell me whether this was going to be another bubble situation. Like they talked about having many bubbles. Which is fair. You don't know yet. You don't know.

Like, my kids, they might not even be fans in the gym. So, like, they might not even have been able to come to games. So when I had to, when I had to factor in all that uncertainty, dog, like, again, it was just like, like, the time of this shit just don't work. Yeah. And, you know, I understand that completely. Just knowing the situation. And I get what you're saying, man.

It is a grind, especially if it's just you, especially during informative years when it's just you and your kids are, you know, where they need to be and you can't bring them up. Let's talk about the, I do want to talk about specifically Mike Dantoni on this staff. Yeah. Because we know how great Mike has been in as a coach. Do we think that? he's been an associate head coach before.

He's been one of those number two guys in charge. He did that with Philly. Do you think this is one of those things where he's trying to get back as a head coach? Or is this one of those things where it's like an Alvin's entry role when he was with the Warriors just to. And I know Alvin became a coach later. But is this to like guide Steve into the next one? Do you think Mike will come back as a coach? Or do you think that this is something to guide Steve in the right direction and go off into the sunset that way?

No, I think, like in my heart of hearts, I think it checks a couple boxes from Mike. Like, I don't know how many jobs that were available really appealed to Mike at this point. Like after Philly, you know, went to Doc and stuff like that. And Mike's not the guy that's going to just hop into a not ready to win situation. Like, he's just not at that point in his career as a coach in my, this is just me looking from the outside. So in the absence of having a really good head job available, I think Brooklyn presents a real opportunity to win like next year. And his input as that kind of associate number two coach will be probably more important to Steve

than it would be to a lot of other coaches who are already, you know, established heads. Steve is really going to need. And we've had these conversations, people around him who know the ins and outs that they understand what's going on. And they can teach him, you know, while he's trying to learn the ropes. And so Mike's input is going to be more valuable there than it would in any other place in that particular role. And so when you win and your input is valuable and everything goes well, and we're assuming

that it all goes well, I fully expect Mike, you know, once Steve has his legs under him and they've done well enough there to have another opportunity with a good team. And that job's got to pop up for Mike to hop back into the head seat. You know what I mean? Yeah, sure. I think that, and I think leading into that question, what do you think about just how do you put a staff together for a young coach, right? Especially a coach that hasn't done, hasn't coached ever on the head coaching level. I know the only thing that I have as frame of reference is Steve Kerr.

And I know when he got hired in 2014 with the, with the Warriors, they put a veteran staff around him to mask a lot of the stuff that he just doesn't know, right? And that's no fault on Steve. He just doesn't know. So they put Alvin Gentry to by his side. They put a Ron Adams by his side. Just really, you know, Alvin, you know, has head coaching experience. Great dude.

Yep. And Ron Adams, who's just a lifer, who has just been that guy. And they've continued to do that. You know, and right now, that guy right now is Mike Brown. Right. who has head coaching experience, but can also be an associate head coach. Why is that so important for a first time coach? Well, because you don't really know what you're doing until you start doing it.

Like you have a philosophy of how you would do something, you know, and philosophically how you would approach certain situations. But until, you know, until you get in there, like you haven't done it. you don't know what surprises are going to pop up and kind of derail. It's a distracting job. Like coaching in and of itself is distracting. It's distracting. There's a lot of shit going on.

You have a full grasp of everything that you want to be done on a court. And then it could be a refereeing situation, right? I say refs because it's always my thing. But you get engaged with the ref on some bullshit. And before you know it, you've lost the count of all the other shit that you're supposed to be, you know, keeping an eye on. And you've lost control of the game. So, you know, that's just inexperience. And you've never really coached so you don't have the experience.

So having people around you that can either get you back where you need to be or explain to you like the pitfalls of engaging with a ref and losing sight of the game that's going on or even while you're losing sight of it, they're keeping a firm grasp of what's going on. So when you check back in, they're like, yo, Steve, this is, you know, here's where we are. This is what you know, any number of things can happen to a first time coach. because of inexperience. And so having those dudes that are around are critical. And I haven't even touched on like just, you know, practice planning and the details that go around that. Like I've sat here, you know, all morning texting with my assistant coach on my high school

team putting together a practice plan and figuring out like how we can teach, you know, concepts and then get into something competitive and keep it to where you're not losing a team's interest. Like that's a talent. It's a skill. And you learn that having. coach teams and having missed the mark and said, God, they tuned me to fuck out. You know, and so Steve doesn't have that.

Mike does, Jacques Vaughan. Jacques Vaughn's still there, right? Yeah, Jacques Vaughn is going to be critical. Like, those guys are going to be, like, integral to Steve's success. Yeah, I know. In a lot of ways, they have, like, three head coaches. You know, you have Steve, and you have Mike Gantone, Jack Vaughn. I think the biggest thing is just to make sure you delve out that responsibility and then

make sure that you're a team. It's like, the coaches staff is like a team in a lot of ways. You have to. Oh, no doubt. Make sure that, you know, Dan Tony, I think he's a great hire because he's not going to step on Steve Nash's toes, right? Like, there's a full stop. Like, I am who I am and I can just give this expertise, right? So I think that that's a really good thing.

And you said something about how you need assistant coaches that have experience for things like practice planning and when you're yelling at a rep and just making sure that all your bases are covered. I never really I thought about that but I never really thought about that and one thing that did come to mind when you said that was a time when in Cleveland Cavaliers

when David Blatt his first year and you put Ty Loo on that obviously it was a lot more polarizing because LeBron James was on the team but one of the instances is when

Ty Lou had to tell Blatt about the timeout situation right I think in the moment that was a lot more polarizing than I think that it needed to be because of LeBron and stuff like that. But when you layer it back, you'd think about, okay, David Blatt has been coaching in EuroLeague for much of his career.

It's a totally different beast. Of course, you have someone saying, hey, this is the timeout situation. That happens all the time. It's your job. It's your job. Yeah. If you go to a Warriors game right now, you'll see Mike Brown tapping. Yo, Steve, you got this such and such as right.

you need to be to sub them in. You know, such and such, you got this many timeouts, such and such has this many files, like, just so you know. That's not, when you were in that Cleveland situation, did you feel everything was a lot more polarized for just relatively mundane things, more polarized than it needed to be? 100%.

It was, you know, what comes along with A. LeBron, and then, you know, the, the trio that we had with Kevin Love and, and Kyrie. And then, you know, the David Blatt hire was polarizing in and of itself. Like that, you know, there were a lot of people screaming like there were, there were candidates here that were deserving of it. And David Blatt's proven nothing. You know what I mean? So like the whole situation was like that. But to your point, a lot of the things that took place that got media coverage with that team the year I was there were things that happened on every staff. Like, Logan's job on my staff in game is going to be to keep track of the time.

timeouts and keep me abreast of like where we are doing towels to get towels and say to get but but no like someone's someone else's job on that staff is going to be to keep track of like you know how successful you know our um you know auto was like you know autos are our secondary like you tell me how how many like we've run auto eight times like what percentage is that working at like a head coach can't keep track all of that shit like you're watching the game you got to feel for it you do what you do but that's why you have assistance to take care of some of that stuff. So, yeah, that was blown out of proportion. I think that Mike and Steve, the good thing about Mike and Steve, too,

is neither one of those dudes is like a My Way or the Highway type of guy. Like, they work great together in Phoenix, and they'll work great again together because there's a flexibility with both of them, and there's an understanding with both of them that just because I do it this way, that doesn't mean it's the only way to do it. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Do you think that like would, because when Blat was hired, he, uh, he goes hired right before

LeBron came, right? Yeah. He did. Yes. How much did, like, I want to get back to the Brooklyn stuff, but I do want to hammer this home. How much did you, like, did you guys know or did not know that LeBron was coming? Because I feel like when Blatt was hired, he was hired for like a rebuild thing.

This is how we're going to do things. And then you put LeBron James in. How paid the picture of how maybe surprised you are or how much not in the loop you guys were during that time? I was, I was not in the loop. So that year, around the draft, I was watching the draft. I was working for Fox Sports at the time. So I was in L.A.

Griff had started asking me if I would come. He had got the job. And I was just kind of consulting. Like I had gone up to Cleveland, watch Mike Brown in a practice a couple of times, watched the attitude of the team towards, you know, Mike. And they thought that they were going to have to move on from Mike. I had just confirmed that. Like, yeah, it looks like they're tuned out on him.

So then they got the first pick in the draft. And that was wild. like I was congratulating. And then, you know, I was in the meetings with David Blatt prior to knowing anything about LeBron. I still wasn't hired or getting paid by them yet. But I was involved in the process. And so we were kind of split.

Some people wanted Ty Loo. Some of us thought David Blatt was going to be a great hire for the situation that we had. When they got LeBron, I was one of the people that thought it would really be fine. I thought that it could work. But clearly, we thought that David Blatt was going to be hand. handed a team that he could get from point A to point B, but now we're already at point B and you've got to win right now. The problem was, Logan, like, the guys didn't really buy into David. Like, they never really bought into the shit that he was talking about.

One of David's best weapons defensively is a matchup zone. Like, and you can do that in your league. And real talk, you could probably do it in the NBA. It's not going to be as weaponized as it is. But when you start rolling that out to NBA, guys, they're so conditioned to like, be like, this is some bullshit. Like, he just was met with a lot of that. And it wasn't really fair to him.

Ty did a great job. He won a championship. I'm not taking anything away from that. Like, I think if you had given David time with some buy-in from enough of the guys, I think he would have won a championship with that team too. And to bring that all the way back to Brooklyn with all your partners that you're not going to be a part of

and part of that staff. But to bring that back around, you have two superstars like Kyrie and like Kevin Durant. what do you have to do? And I know, you know, I'm just talking to people, they're bought in. You know what I mean? Because right now they're saying all the right things. Kevin saying all the right things.

So how do you get them to actually buy in? One thing to say it and be about it, but it's another thing to get superstar players who have way more leverage than you do. How do you get them to buy it? That's a good question, man. and I think every superstar is a little bit different in their personality. But Logan, I would say that for the most part,

you keep it a buck with guys. Like, you're authentic with them. You let them know who you are. The conversation we had prior to coming on the show about learning how to navigate, being in a private school versus, like, you know, being in a different environment to playing sports and trying to figure out who you were.

But the reality is you just be who you are. You know what I mean? Like you just be who you are. You're that guy every day. You can't be afraid to hold people accountable. You know, stars don't want to be like browbeat and stuff like that, but you have to be able to hold them accountable when they fuck up. Otherwise, they don't respect you and they walk all over you.

So you got to be able to have that backbone and do that. And then I think real talk, you try to develop a real family environment, like with values that the family is going to put stock in. and a culture how we're going to conduct ourselves. And you try to live that every day with them, you know? And then the flexibility, I think, is the last part of that. Like being able, as Steve Nash or any other coach, to have Kevin Durant or Kyrie come to you and say,

hey, look, Steve, that shit is cool, but this is the way I see it. Like, can we try it like that. And the good ones can. Like, if we try that shit and it don't work, then we're going back to my shit. But I'm not going to just shoot you down. because I think my way is the only way to do it.

And you get buying from people like that because you're in it together. Yeah, I think that's not even just basketball. I think that's in everyday life, right? Like, there's a lot more nuanced than when being a boss. You know what I mean? And it was funny. I do want to get back to this when Kyrie said, I don't really see us having a head coach.

Yeah. I think that, I don't know. I think it might have gotten put out of proportion. It might have gotten, but. Well, here's, Steve's probably fine. Like I think, you know. Okay.

I don't think Steve's tripping off of that. But my thing that Kyrie would be like, listen, man, I'm, is it necessary? Like, do you know what I'm saying? Like, there's some things that just aren't necessary. Like, don't have to be a huge deal, like this time. I don't think it's a huge deal, by the way. I don't think it's a huge deal.

No, I don't have to be a huge deal. But probably I would hope that by now, like, Kyrie's learned that some of it's just not for everybody. Like, you don't need to say some things that could cause something to be made out of nothing. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, because... I say that a lot. Do you know what I'm saying?

How many times have I said that today? You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? You know what I mean? Yeah. Okay. I got you. I have a filler words, too.

It's, what is it? It's, I want to go back to this. I was thinking about this. This is on my mind. It's all good, bro. It's all good, man. We need a jar, like a, you know what I'm saying, jar? And you can have, I want to go back to this jar?

Like a swear jar? Do we just put it to charity? Yeah, I don't know, man. Put that to charity. Or put it to me buying, like, some European players that come over and play on my, my, my, um, some visas, some visas. Can I buy some visas? Maybe not.

No, that's jokes. That's all jokes. That's all jokes. That's all jokes. You know what I'm saying? You know what I mean? No, I don't know, man. We got a nice fan base on the ringer.

They're going to hold us to that shit. What's wrong with the charity jar? Where you put the charity at? What's going on? Oh, man. Wow, this is going off the rails. We're off the rails. But no, I do think that, like, we don't realize how much, like, words mean.

Like, it's, like, I can say something that I say to you all the time, like, hey, man, fuck you, Roger. You know what I'm saying? But if I say that to, like, you know, if I say that in, like, in a column or something like that, if I say that in, you know what I mean? If I say that in an interview. and gets taken out of context. Right. Context and everything.

Then that fuck you, Raja is going to be a full news cycle, right? Yep. Yep. But I'm just talking to my home. You're like, fuck you, man. Why would you say so? That's me, you know what I mean? I'm laughing with you, right? Right.

So I do, I have seen that, um, in general. Like, I have seen that part. Uh, so I do agree with you on that. I do want to, it's a little, it's draft time. I'm not sure if you're aware, Rajas. It's, it's draft time. I am. I saw, I saw a workout the other night.

Like, I'm not that guy that's all tuned into the draft, Logan, but I actually, like, recorded the workout. It was the freshman from Kentucky and then the kid from Georgia, right? Like, they had a... Yeah, yeah, yeah. LeBron was there. LeBron was there. Yeah, like...

Anthony Davis was there. It was interesting. It was really interesting. I think we should... We should televise a lot more of these workouts, man. I think it's just really cool to see. You just have something to watch. I think that'll be dope just to do that.

I agree. And the whole, the whole, um, the whole process of what you're doing in a pre-draft workout is, is pretty cool to watch too. Like I got to witness a few of those, you know, when I was in Cleveland. And it's a pretty, it's a pretty cool experience watching those. How nerve-wracking was your pre-draft experience? Um, mine, mine wasn't nerve-wracking. No, I had one workout. Who was your workout with? The Atlanta Hawks. Like, one workout. Um, I didn't go to Portsmouth or Chicago or Did you think you were going to the league? Like, did you? I didn't know.

I was so dumb. I was like, I mean, it was another day I could play basketball, right? Like, so it was almost like I'm going up. Let's go play pickup in Atlanta. But I don't know. Atlanta, great city. Great city. Yeah, shout out to Pete Babcock, who was the only person who believed that I even

deserved to be in an NBA, like, pre-draft workout. So he was like my biggest supporter. I appreciate that. it made my world. And I've said that to Pete. I got to work with Pete in Cleveland, and I had a tear in my eye when I was talking to him

because I said, hey, you made my life, bro. Like, you giving me one opportunity to come to a pre-draft literally made my life. So I want to thank you for, you know, for seeing something in me. But I only had one, and I wasn't nervous because I had absolutely nothing to lose. Like, I didn't think I was going to play in the NBA anyway, you know?

Yeah, no, I get that. But when you got done with the workout, were you like, oh, it goes a really? gonna do this or I'm gonna go I don't know like I'm gonna use my I don't know I'm gonna go overseas if this is fuck it I don't know like what was the contingency plan you only had one workout I only had one workout the plan like I'm gonna keep the jersey I'm gonna keep I'm gonna keep what I'm rocking like this is a cool little momentum let me get all my gear I want all of it um yeah so my agent I chose my agent it was it was probably you know I mean I mean he was kept

it real I kept I kept I I chose him because he kept it real he came to me after my my senior tournament ended and he said hey man there were a lot of guys you know playing the tournament. I thought you were one of the better ones. I don't necessarily think you're an NBA player, but I think you can make some money in Europe. I think we can make you help you make that happen. And I hadn't had a lot of interest from NBA team, so I thought that was just

a real one. It was a real one. So I said, I'll go with you. So was he were one of the week when you signed with him? Absolutely. And so the plan was, like, to leave there, having a cool experience and then try to get a gig making, you know, pennies in Europe and to work my way up. But that workout

had Chris Heron, Quincy Lewis from Minnesota, and Melvin Levitt, and they'd call him the helicopter or whatever from Cincinnati. And so each one of those dudes checked a different box in terms of what they did. Like Chris Heron was great with the ball, PG, tough, you know, this shit, score it.

Quincy Lewis was kind of a long wing, could really shoot it and fill it up. And then Melvin Leavitt was just, you know, freaky athletic. And Logan, I had a day, bro. Like, I shot the pill off of it. I went 40 on the vert And I and I handled that shit like out of character for me

So it just was a good day So you were a real one of the week when during his workout Oh it was a I fucking put it down like they I put it down yeah yeah they drafted none of those dudes And told me they might take me with the last pick in the draft Even though they did not I mean your career went all right It was cool it was cool but okay so what I really want to get to

It's so like the Warriors have been a big thing in this and where I'm not sure if you're aware of draft rumors. Yeah, I try to stay out of the rumor mill. Get rid of the rumor mill. I don't want the rumor mill. There's been like a lot of, like, you know, I think the Warriors are the most polarizing team in the top three because they have Steph and they have Clay Draymond,

but they also have a top, they have a top three pick. Mm-hmm. And so they're in a very unique state. What are the rumors? Just, I just feel like every day there's a rumor about oh, well, they love Wiseman. Then they don't love Wiseman. Everybody's telling me they love Wiseman.

But I think they might like Anthony Edwards if he drops to them. Oh, then there's a Siddique Bay. Oh, there's this other guy. Oh, my God. There's this other guy. Like, we don't know who the, I think the warriors have done a great job of just throwing out bullshit. Throwing shit at the wall. Just throwing shit at the wall.

Like, I don't know if they're leaks per se, but like they've just thrown a lot of stuff at the wall. Just like, hey, man. Okay, yeah, we're looking at this dude. Hey, we really like this dude. Yeah. I just want to tell you we really like this dude. Hey, don't repeat this.

Don't repeat this. But we like this, dude. Don't repeat this anywhere. I'm going to wink. Don't repeat this anywhere. But I think that this guy is something that we really like. We really like this guy.

Listen, the bullshit that takes place behind the scenes in NBA front offices, like the cloak and dagger shits, like you call it, let's get to the shits. Let's get to the shits. The cloaking dagger shits is like, it blew my mind. It blew my mind.

And everyone, you know, knows who the shitters are, right? So when you hear the rumor come out of said place, they're like, I'm some bullshit. Like, he's a shitter. Like, there's no, there's no truth to that, you know? And so it's really, really revealing. Do you all do that strategically, like, to throw us off the scent? Because there's one story that I always talk up, that I always think about. It's how Jerry West got Kobe Bryant to Los Angeles and the 13th pick.

Like he just threw so much shit to the like he was like I think and there was another thing like he doesn't he'll like Jerry West would do shit like that that guy's trash knowing that he would like want him just to like throw him off the scent just like because you know he's Jerry West and Jerry West is probably the greatest gym of all time but he would just fuck with people's minds and stuff like that right yep what was it do you was during your time in the front office was there people that you would just be like yeah I'm just gonna just throw this shit there. Let's just throw them off the scent real quick. Like, when did you guys know who you guys were going to pick versus like, versus the shit you guys would give to us? Yes. So I didn't get to experience any, any, um, well, we drafted Chetty Osman the year I was there and we drafted Rakim, uh, Christmas. And so what the process that we went through, Logan, we didn't have a high enough pick for us to be dealing in, in that like throwing

you off the scent type of whatnot. We went through with our regional scouts and our whole brass, and we sat in a war room for like three or four days, and we just broke down everyone's list of ranked players, right? And we cross-referenced it, and we agreed to disagree, and then we come to a consensus. And so you had a draft board with people just slotted and numbered. So as people went off the board, they went off your board.

And so when it comes time for your pick, you're going with the dude who's left the highest on your board at that point, right? So it takes the uncertainty out of it. Is that what it is? It's really the person that's highest on your board. So y'all don't really like, there's always the cliche of like, yeah, man, he was, we didn't think he was going to drop to us. You know, he was higher on our board that we thought.

Yeah. No, no, no. But, I mean, so for us, it was the highest person on our board because everybody else had kind of been off the board. And Chetty was still on the board. There are certainly situations where, like, you know, you're sitting there and you're number two guy. You're at, like, number eight. and your number two guy is still sitting there. You're grabbing that up.

Then there are other times where you might draft, you know, for a situational need. Like, I don't, I mean, but we weren't in that space. We were a really good team. So you were, you were just trying to find a piece that could fit and grow with some talent. As a basketball player, when you're playing on a team, how much do you give a fuck about the draft?

That's an interesting question. Like, I feel like you've been on both sides of that, where you're secure on one end, right? You got the deal. You got your bags. You're like, I don't care. on vacation right now. I don't really care about none of them.

And then you're probably on the fringes. So give me both sides of that. When do you care versus when you don't necessarily? So when I was in Phoenix early in the state, I didn't really care. We were good. And then I started to see a pattern like they were drafting wing type two players. Like they got Orlando Tucker and, you know, they'd bring another guy. And that started to just concern me.

Like, you know, you're not really salty because you understand the team. But when you're, you're drafting my position and you're drafting it like a couple years in a row, you're like, that's not a great look, you know. Other places, you know, when you're going out as a free agent or some shit like that, like, it's not a big, it's not a big deal to me. There was one situation in Utah, though. I was in my second year of a two-year deal in Utah. And I had a good first year.

The year after John Stockton and Carl Malone had broken up. were, you know, it was Carlos Oroyo, myself, Carlos Boozer, Andre Carlinco, Memo Acour. We had some talent. We came like a game short of the playoffs. And that offseason, they drafted Kirk Snyder. Kirk Snyder was a super athletic, bigger version of me, you know, could do a little bit more off the bounce. And I wasn't offended, but I made it my fucking goal to make him feel like he couldn't

play in the NBA. and try to just I was. He was going to practice. Logan, I listen, my daily goal was to make, make someone feel like they didn't deserve to be there at that point.

Because I was a third year player in the NBA, fourth year player hadn't been paid yet, was hoping to have another good season to turn that into a deal. So like, I couldn't afford any young buck coming in there taking my fucking minutes. Like, my job is to just try to beat you. And that was,

you know, that could not have been... Do y'all really think, do y'all really think, like, hey, oh, man, he's taking away my kids' food. He's taken away his private school of money. I can't, I can't go out here. He's taking food out my mouth. I didn't have no... I didn't have kids at the time, but I felt just like that.

Like, yo, this shit is... It's either him or me. And it's going to be fucking me. If I have anything to do with it, if politics don't get involved, it's going to be me. And so I spent my days and my practices trying to prove that point. Like as I got older and I was back with the jazz the second time,

they drafted Gordon Hayward and Alec Berks. Like two players that played my position. It wasn't the same thing for me. I was older. I had made my money. Like I understood the team's needs to have a future. So it was different. Yeah.

And so back then you were like, yo, man, yo, Gordon, let me put more arm around you, bro. Let me show you the ropes. Yeah, I like, yeah. Let me show you the ropes, man. Yeah, those were my young bucks, man. Let me take you, let me take you to balkers, man.

Let me get you school. Those were my young guys, man. Them, Jeremy Evans, one that dunk competition. Like, you know, you have a different perspective when you're when you're that vet. Like, I was a, I was an OG at the time. You know what I mean? Like, they were, you know, they were my guys, bro. Okay, okay.

It's interesting perspective, especially during a draft, man. Like, it's a new player, but it's still a job, right? somebody's getting drafted to replace you to replace you yeah and so you know you're from Miami like fuck that this next topic I do want to

I feel like we'd be remiss if we didn't talk about something like this considering his election day tomorrow and I was reading on the ringer John Gonzalez's piece he has a very very great piece about political donations from owners you guys should check that out really really great read he talks about

how obviously the reckoning that the NBA has has had over this summer in terms of how they you know donate to the black community you know the board of governors pledged 30 million over 10 years toward economic empowerment in the black community Michael Jordan and Jordan brand Michael Jordan who's an owner with the Charlotte Charlotte Hornets promise another hundred meal to organizations dedicated to ensuring weight racially equality, social justice, and greater access to education. You know, goes down the list, you know, these entities and these owners have said outwardly, you know, Black Lives Matter and all these things like that.

But historically speaking, their pocketbooks have not said that. They have not gone that way. You know, they have put their money towards causes that don't necessarily help us out, right? and have voted for candidates that don't necessarily help us out. And I want to make sure that I'm really responsible with this. But I think right now, it's not as easy for them now to do that because politics are so polarizing now, right? I think that league owners, they don't necessarily take into account Black Lives Matter when they're trying to get this tax break for their business, right? but as a player, Raja, obviously you wasn't making 50 mil a year growing up.

How does it feel, how would it feel for a player where you're like, I have these interests, I'm black. These are the things that are, my community that are not getting, they're not getting enough attention paid to it. But you are actively, you're saying one thing, but you are obviously taking care of your interests and you're not necessarily helping my cause and you're, in fact, supporting whether you feel like you're supporting an establishment that doesn't work for me and you're not, and you're not really, you're not really helping me out, but you say like, hey, Roger, if you need anything, you need anything, I got you. How does that feel when an owner doesn't necessarily align with your beliefs? Yeah, that's an interesting question. Look, look, we all have to agree, right? So I've always

respected people's, you know, opinion as it pertains to like political, um, agendas and policy and all of that. Having said that, um, there's not room in the world for certain things, right? And, and, and we have to be able to agree on that shit. If we want to be the type of country that, that, that, that we set out to be and we profess that we are and that we, you know, and a lot of people's opinions still have room to go in getting there. As far as ownership goes, players aren't going to be able to ultimately change who they check the box for. You can't do that. And you know that as a player, right?

What you can do is use the leverage that you have in certain situations. I talk about this a lot to force their hand to commit to pony up for things that you think are important as the people that make up the NBA, the talent in the NBA. Do you know what I'm saying? you have to hold their feet to the fire and make them continue to do that. It sucks, though, that you would know in certain circumstances that an owner is out there, you know, talking out of one side of his mouth

and one side of his wallet because you've held his feet to the fire and then, you know, knowing that behind closed doors, he's out the other side of his wallet and the other side of his mouth because his feet aren't held to the fire and he could do whatever he wants. Like, that sucks, but you don't control that shit.

Like you can't ultimately control it unless... unless some of these brothers who have made the type of money that some of them are making now can figure out a way like Grant Hill and the ownership group in Atlanta to get to that point where we're owning, right? Yeah. Where we're owning. And then it starts to change. It shifts the paradigm a little bit.

But as long as you're a player, you know, you can stand up and use your platform. You can try to affect the change. You can affect. When you have the leverage, you can try to hold their feet to the fire. So they've got to support those causes. But you know at the end of the day, you can't make them do nothing, you know? Yeah, I do know. And I can imagine it's frustrating.

It's not, you know, we both know, it's not as this easy as just, it's just, I'm black, so I'm going to own an NBA franchise. Like, it's not that easy. Right. Grant Hill, there's a reason why there aren't enough owners of color, black owners, female owners, all of that, whatever pronoun you want to use. There's a reason why they're not in that owner's chair. it's a bit more nuanced than that.

But yeah, like, it's going to be, it is, it is hard to, I can imagine, like, you would want everybody, in theory you would want everybody, at least on basic things when it comes to racism and xenophobia and all these things, at least very, you know, we want to be respectful of all people, right? Like, we at least want the bare minimum of that. So when you see these owners and you see these executives saying, and these teams saying, hi, man, I really, you know,

I'm with it. We're for racial justice and we're for equality. And then on the, you know what I'm saying? But I'm supporting as racist candidate, whether it's for my beliefs or because of this tax break or not, that's disheartening, right? Like, that is disheartening.

Absolutely. 100%. You know, but again, like, you, you know, what, what, what can you do in a situation like that? That's life. You know what I mean? Like, that's just what it is. So when you have the opportunity to,

to use your leverage, your platform, to get the support that you need from them or make them pony up more than they otherwise would to support the causes that might not be near and dear to them but are near and dear to you. You know, it's incumbent upon you to do that. Like, you have to do that. That's the way, you know, you could take something

or some solace out of a situation like that. Like, this is my win in this because you're not, like the bottom line is, Logan, like a lot of these dudes, I don't know any owners, you know, to be racist or anything. I'm not saying that. But, you know, you'd be naive to think that that some of them don't.

Like, I mean, like, what do we, you know what I'm saying? Like, what are we talking about? I mean, clearly we have an owner on record that was racist, right? Like the Gliber's owner, down the street was clearly on record. Clearly fucking racist, right? Yeah.

But out of the ones that own now, I don't know. I'm just saying it would be naive to think that they're all going to go in there just because, you know, Black Lives Now Matter. And we had this movement that they're all going to go in there and vote socially conscious,

you know, socially consciously, if that's even to work. I will say it was a bit disheartening, and I know that they gave, I know that they, that the owners and that the league has given a lot of money and they're pledging a lot of money, not giving, they pledged a lot of money to all these initiatives. It was a little bit disheartening to hear Adam Silver say,

well, you know, we're going to go back to status, like allude to going back to status quo in an interview with Rachel Nichols in the bubble. That was a bit disheartening to hear that, because it's like, yo, man, the reason why these players got up in arms and in a fuss is because, yo, man, this has happened a lot of times where we've gone through shit. We've told you we've gone through shit. You guys, we've seen it in the 92 LA riots.

We've seen it, you know, even home in Oakland where I'm from, where there's, he's like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is important to us. Diversity is important to us. All this is important to us. And then when that kind of dies down, they go back to the normal thing, normal status quo. I'm going to need the NBA to continue to do that. No, you need that.

You need the player. You need, I'm with you. But it's the player, the players have to keep the pressure on. See, what they're going to do is throw enough money at you at the cause, at whatever,

to get you to shut the fuck up so you can go back to making money for them. Like, that's what they're going to do, right? Like, that's their answer to it. Like, we give them enough. We make enough concessions. They'll shut up. We'll get back to business.

But if you want something to change, you just have to be persistent, bro. You got to be on it. You can't let them slip. You can't let, like, the first time you see slippage in that regard as a players union or whoever it is, you got to be on it. Like, ah, uh, uh, nope. This is, this is not, no, no, not.

This isn't what we talked about. And it's not what we're going to do. And if we start going down that path, here's what we're going to do. And that's a fair point. I think because the, the biggest thing that we do need to realize is like, especially in this election, we're voting for, there's a large segment of the population that's voting. not for like revolution or anything like that.

They're voting for a sense of normalcy. So they don't have to watch fucking news every day. They don't have to watch. They don't have to be so polarized to where they have to think about. They don't want to think about Black Lives Matter. It's incumbent upon black people and not even just, I don't want to say just black people because it's not our fault that we're in racism and shit like that. But it's incumbent upon us to like keep their feet to the fire.

No, this is not over with. We still, okay, you put Black Lives Matter on the court for three months. What else you're going to do? to make sure that you are diverse. And I have to say the NBA is one of diverse leagues that I've been around in terms of, you know, and seeing women and seeing even on the beat, on the Warriors beat, you know, you see people of color on that beat, you know, what, you know, guys like Monty Pool and, you know, women and things like that and Marcus Thompson and things like that.

But they need to hold a feat to the fireman. And I'm hoping that this, this, this happens. And I hope that there's a continued growth in this. and that we're, that people aren't satisfied with what we have now. So I did want to get, make sure we had that conversation because, you know, make sure y'all vote. You know, we got the election coming tomorrow. And, yeah, man, I think that's a perfect segment to go into real one of the week.

Real one. We need some, we need a little theme music for like, real one. A little theme music, bro. You know what I'm saying? Tap in with like one of your Miami artists, bro. I'm going to see if we can get some, you know, some Bay artists, you know. Another one. Real one. Another one.

Real one. I don't know, man. I know you got bread, but damn, I don't know. Can we get DJ Callet for five seconds? I don't know. I don't know if we can afford Callet for five seconds. I don't know. We can afford it in the budget. Real one of the week, someone that exemplifies all the characteristics of a real one. Me or you. Who you want? You want to go? Go first, man. Go first. Because I think mine, I got one, but I think mine is these a little bit more. Yours is a showstopper? All right. I'm going to go. My real one of the week is one John Lester. formerly of the Chicago Cubs. Okay. Help bring a championship to the cursed Cubs for the first time,

and I don't know how many years, but he was, the team or the club declined his $25 million option for the 2021 season. I would have been really pissed and a little salty about that. John Lester was very thankful for his time in Chicago, and so he said that at any of four bars around the city, he would pick up any patrons,

first, Miller Light, the tab would be his and he would pick up the bill. So you could go to one of four bars. Your first Miller light was on John Lester as a thank you to the city for all of its support. And as of like Sunday morning, he actually put money where the mouth was. They had sold over 3,400 Miller lights that were on his tab. And he had racked up over a $25,000 bill. John Lester, that's a real one of the week type shit, my man.

Someone is a beer drinker on this. I am a beer drinker. Hey, man. Shout out, shout out. I don't drink Miller light, though. Shout out Hineken for always supporting the ringer. Shout out of the shows. You know what I mean? But my row in of the week is one LeBron James.

Again, using his platform. And it goes back to what we were saying earlier in this show. Using our platform for change. He had Barack Obama on The Shop this week. It's a really great conversation. You guys should go check it out. But the biggest thing that I just seen from LeBron is, you know, he does the, he does more than a vote, getting people that look like you and me who are historically disenfranchised, getting them, finding them polling places and getting them in places where we can vote. Also having his, I promise school and his foundation.

And using his platform to get a guy like, get a guy, guy, guy. Barack Obama on his show to get the message out right before the election starts. So I just want to give a shout out to LeBron James for being a real one of the week, having Obama on his show and, you know, getting his voice out. That's how you use your voice. And, you know, I think we all need to realize, you know, especially as black folks, we are all in the same team. And we all have roles to play.

And I think that LeBron is playing his roles. So my real one of the week is LeBron Ramon James. LeBron Ramon. That's that boy's better name, Ramon? Yeah. That's what's up? I didn't know that. You know what I'm saying?

Shout out to the vibes, man. Hey, man, this is a fun, it's a fun little offseason edition of the Real Ones podcast. Yeah. We out here. Make sure you check us out on Spotify, wherever you get your podcast. We have a nice little feed going on the ringer NBA feed, Roger. We got the group chat. We got two episodes this week at a mismatch.

just like every week go see R2C2 podcast with Belayo legend Bay legend C-C-Sabathia and Ryan Rucco make sure you just tap in

Ringer NFL show all throughout the NFL season man we got some dope stuff for you might have a guest next week you know what I'm saying you might have guests coming in make sure you tap in man it's been a fun ride dog

let's let's do this man let's do this before Raja ultimately leaves us so um Brooklyn I was just like Hello Brooklyn Alright

Talk to you soon Peace