The Ringer NBA Show - Thoughts From All-Star Weekend, Plus LeBron James Puts the Lakers on Notice | Real Ones

Episode Date: February 24, 2022

Logan and Raja dive into their thoughts on All-Star Weekend, including changes that need to be made to the dunk contest (5:00) and how fun it is to watch all the old heads joke around with each other (18:00). Then they talk about LeBron James’s comments about wanting to play with his son Bronny and his willingness to return to Cleveland at some point in his career and where that leaves the Lakers (31:00). Hosts: Logan Murdock and Raja Bell Associate Producers: Sasha Ashall and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Benefer is back. Brad and Jen are friends again, and Paris Hilton is somehow still making headlines. 20 years later, we're living in the world that the 2000s tabloids created. On this series, I'm going to tell you the story of a decade of American life through the trash we love to consume. From Spotify and the Ringer podcast network, I'm Claire Malone, and this is just like us, the tabloids that changed America. Listen on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We are back. Logan Murdoch here, Roger Bell there.

Roger, I haven't seen you in a week. And a lot has happened over the last week since I've seen you, bro. And most notably, All-Star Weekend. Now, I'm going to be very perfectly honest and candid. This is the first All-Star weekend I've watched in a very long time.

I don't really watch All-Star. It's not something that I do. I watch, I don't know how you go from a player perspective, What I do is I treat it as an all-star break. I don't watch anything. I probably bend some other shows or just do anything but watch the game because we got the stretch run going for the next six weeks after this, right? So it's the calm before the storm. I just want to chill.

My work is done. But I did take a peek at some events. And the overall narrative, and this is something that you brought. up as being terrible. The dunk contest is being terrible and the overall narrative is that the All-Star Saturday needs a revamp. I don't believe it does. I'm going to do a hot take right now. And I know how your feelings are. And we're going to get to those because I see, I see you seething. I see smoke coming out of your ears right now. I see what I see what's popping right now. But I, the overall thing is that it's trash. We need to do away with it. We need to figure it out.

It's not going well, specifically the dunk contest. I just feel like there's ebbs and flows and an all-star festivities. It goes up and down. I feel like we just need to chill and pump the brakes on just. It was just a bad year. Overall, it wasn't a critically acclaimed year. But I don't think it was that bad, Roger, what do you think? I've mixed emotions because when I played, I used the All-Star weekend to get away.

I didn't want to, you know, be at it. I didn't want to be locked in and tuned in. One All-Star weekend. Like, you did a three-point contest once, right? I was at the three-point shootout, and the night before I was supposed to shoot, my wife miscarried. So I had to leave. But even there for that, I didn't really feel, like, comfy. I had went to one All-Star weekend when it was in Philadelphia in 2002, I believe.

And it was a shit show. You couldn't get anywhere. There were so many people. It was just bedlam. So, you know, I was like, I don't want to. go to this anymore. I want to use it for my time off. A lot of players still subscribe to that. Now, now that I don't play and I've got kids that are of age and they're interested, I do watch. I do tune in. I'm not glued to the TV. Like, I'm not going to miss something going on in my

life to watch the celebrity game. But if I'm sitting around on the couch with nothing to do, I'm going to tune in. And I did. So my emotions are mixed in that I don't think it needs an overhaul. I don't believe that the entire weekend is trash. I don't think that, you know, like there's not a place for the pageantry that is All-Star Weekend. I enjoy some of that. Like, I like that. It's a celebration of our best basketball players on the planet. Like I love that. I really do think that the dunk competition, where it is in the schedule of events, the shit show that it has become. And yes, this was a down year, but it's been a shit show sporadically over the last few years.

How so? Well, it's just, it is anti-climactic. It's, it zaps the energy. They're too many, it takes too long for dunks to be executed. I think that doesn't come across well on TV. It's very frustrating. It's hard to watch. And so I think they need to make a tweak to that.

Or just put it somewhere else in the evening. So like your most exciting event, which is the three-point shootout right now, is the culmination of your evening. That's what I believe. So I, I, I, I, plus, okay, we got to do a better job vetting the fucking celebrity game, okay? Go ahead, Ron. What's got, right? What's the fuck?

What is going on with somebody? You, you have to have basketball in your background at some point to make the cut to play in a celebrity game. No one wants to see, you know, X, Y, and Z celebrity who's clearly never touched a basketball, um, running around out there, not having any idea what's going on. There are too many people that know how to play. Put them in the game. It's simple as that. But the dunk competition needs real tweaking, Logan. They got to work on that.

My beef with the dunk contest, and I do think it's ebbs and flows, right? For every, you know, for every Mike Dominique, there's a birdman trying to, a birdman competition where, you know, he's taking 75 attempts to make a simple dunk, right? And that just saps all the energy out of the arena. There's also Zach Levine versus Aaron Gordon. We weren't expecting that. We were not expecting that when it happened. I remember that you're vividly.

It's true. My beef with the dunk contest, and I just feel like it's gone, maybe this is just an overall thing for the world, but it's gone from an event to a big-ass commercial for a lot of different things. Or a big tribute to something that happened before. Let's just dunk, man. Let's just dunk.

We're here to dunk. I know we've seen everything. What's up? More dunkers, right? I know this is going to sound counterintuitive here, but I'm going to say more dunkers. Would you have four this year? Give me a field of at least six dunkers, okay?

Get rid of props. We don't need props in the dunk competition. We don't need extra people. No, yeah, props and extra, I mean, people are props, right? So, like, we're not going to take five minutes to lace up the Tims. Like, we're not going to be doing all, we're not going to take all of this time to be executing these dunks. And then the third.

The three-dunk per-the-three-tri-per-dunk rule, I disagree with that. You get yourself more people, you give them two dunks. And when you release that ball and you've executed a proper throw, if you go up and you don't handle the catch, it is an attempt. It's an attempt. We can't have guys throwing it to themselves running up, misjudging it nine times in a row and saying, yo, that's not an attempt. So I've got three more.

Like, they just got to clean up some of the little rules. And you get rid of the time spent with the damn props and all of the dumb shit there. You curtail the amount of attempts that they have to dunk, which means people are going to stop trying the super risky. I don't even know if I can make this on my best day type of dunk. But shit, I'm going to try it because I get three rolls at it. And I can always do a windmill if I don't make it. Right?

You get rid of that. And then you get a little healthier field of dunkers in there. And I think you got something to work. And then put a time limit on it, Logan. Right? So even if I give you these two dunks, you have 45 seconds to execute that. Maybe that's a lot. 40 seconds.

So get your ass up there and dunk it. Okay. So all that is true, I will add to that, Rod. We need to figure out a way to get a star star in the dunk contest. And I know the other reasons why. I know the other reasons why they wouldn't do it. It's an all-star break. But I'm just going to go out and say it.

I wanted John Moran in the dunk contest. He's the best dunker of the year, right? He's been the best dunker of the entire year. We want a signature shoot for Jha, right? What better way to just bring that to the masses than put him in the dunk contest, right? I thought that was a big missed opportunity for everyone involved, man. Like, shout out to Obie Tobin, shout out to, you know, Wante front of the show. Shout out to all the guys that were in there, Cole Anthony, who was in there.

But we need Star Power in there to carry that. I think a lot of the star power, shout out to Janus for going into the skills competition, you know. And shout out to Steph for historically going into the three-point competition. And I think that's the one right now. But we, the reason why the dunk contest has been so great over the years is because we've been able to have some of the team, the league's most signature stars in it. Mike was in it. Cove was in it. Vince Carter was in it.

That ship's sail, man. I wish I'm on your side. I'm co-signing with your desire to see some of those guys there. I just, I don't know how you incentivize them to the point that they get out there and do that. But would that help, Logan? 1,000 percent, man. Having guys like John Moran. And I hadn't thought of it from that perspective, but you're on to something there.

Like, what an opportunity if there's a shoe in the making for John to go out there? And he wins that dunk competition. Don't get that twisted. He wins that easily. For them to roll out the whatever they're calling. I mean, I didn't even look at it through that prism, but you're correct. I just don't know how you get those guys to do it. I don't know how you incentivize it enough to get those guys to get out there and do that.

I don't know, man, because I feel like players will do, I mean, if it gives them enough attention, I think they would do it. I think the three-point competition is now the new dunk contest and people just want to get into the three point competition. I feel like if, I don't, I don't know the answer to this, but if you somehow can make the dunk contest a, I don't know,

I'll put it this way. Remember the Olympics, right, where, where guys were just, you know, they didn't want to, Team USA didn't get the guys that they wanted to,

right? Guys were not showing up. And then Mr. Colangelo just said, put some sort of incentive for Team USA guys to come out and play. there has to be someone that is like, hey, man. Like, I don't know, get somebody on there with reverence that's a dunker, be like, hey, this is how we got to do this.

This is the legacy here. Hey, you know what? You know what incentivized Team USA to get their best players back as much as anything? As much as what Jerry Colangelo did? What's that? Getting their ass beat in the world championships. Yeah. Losing to the Argentinas, to the Puerto Rico's,

to the teams like that that we hadn't lost to in a while. That was incentive for a lot. lot of people, and it gave Colangelo the platform to go out and say, hey, guys, listen to. Hey, hey, hey, this is not a good look. We need you guys to come out and play. And so maybe if I'm just kind

of going down the path that you've already laid, maybe you get one of these non-NBA dunkers in that bad boy. That's just silly. I mean, I get it, but like if we're going to play this game, we get a YouTube star on the dunk. Maybe you get somebody to come in and win it

and say, hey, bro. Like, we're not the best athletes on the planet as it pertains to Duncan, or are we? And see who shows up to answer the bell. Man. I mean, listen, you might be on to something. Your third eye is open player. Chalkers are aligned right now. All right, they're aligned.

I mean, I don't know. I can't say that it's a great idea. But, I mean, if we're thinking along those lines, Team USA had to start losing and boys started showing back up. I think as an NBA or as an NBA league in sports in general, we are. now just selling product now, right? I mean, I think that's something that we've always been doing, but do it under the prism with that,

you know? Somebody got something going. Put them in a dunk contest. They got a new Nike shoe coming out. Put them in a dunk contest. You know, they got something going. Don't do the extra, like, props and shit.

Just do grand old fashion. Yo, he got some stuff coming out. This is a part of his rollout. Put him in a dunk contest. I think that Bermani was on to something when we had Bermani on and he talked about the dying of the rivalry in the NBA, right? Yeah.

And you used to have real rivalries, even with them, like, Mike and Dominique, that was a rivalry, man. Yeah. Like, those dudes might love each other now, and I'm sure we'll get to Mike, you know, and all of that in a minute. Like, there might be love now, but there wasn't love then, you know? Like, Kobe wasn't at the All-Star game as a young Kobe. to make friends and be all loved.

Like maybe you need a really good... You need someone defiant. And you'll need it. Yeah, but you need a star. You need a star who has a real rival in the dunking space to say I'm in it. And let his rival be in it. And now you got a little rivalry popping again

in the All-Star dunk competition. The most... And this goes to another tangent that I've been just feeling on my spirit for the whole weekend. We don't have rivalries anymore because it's all subliminal. Everybody just wants to be subliminal.

They like a tweet. They don't just say, they just don't say I don't like him no more. They just, you know, they just do it through back channels. I don't like it. It's a different time. I always tell my sons, say that shit with your chest, bro. Like, if that's how you feel, like we're not, as best I can, because they live on their phones.

I'm not going to front. Steve Nash and I had this conversation a few weeks ago at dinner. Like our kids, I try my best. Like, we try to put rules in effect, but you're in the house. But it's really hard to avoid the kids being on those devices as much as they are. It's just the world we live in. But we're not going to be the type of dudes where we're firing off our different beefs. And we're keyboard, you know, gangsters with our beefs.

You know, I ain't trying to raise no gangsters anyway. But if you got something to say to somebody, say that shit to their face. Or, you know, if they got something, you know, to say to you, you know, make them say that to your face. I did think that I would like the quarter system, you know, where they just revamp the score throughout. And also, this is something probably speaks to me not really watching the All-Star game in the last few years because like, like I said, I just, you know, that's my break time. You know, we'll get to that in a second, right?

But I didn't think I would like the quarter system, but going down to zero and stuff. and it gets a little competitive throughout the for each quarter, right? It does, like you want to, obviously, you put an incentive

in front of an athlete that's any competitive incentive. Y'all are just, y'all wired differently. Y'all are going to go after it, you know? You're going to, you guys need that

competitive edge. You got, no matter what it is. So I think that that really rang true during this All-Star. And then that fourth quarter, it was great. It was great.

Steph obviously balled out. Then you had LeBron on a wing. Just give me the ball. I'm going to win this. It was great. I thought it was a really great All-Star game. What'd you think? I can't speak for the first three quarters because I wasn't really locked in for the first three.

So I don't. The fourth quarter was great. You didn't miss much in the first three quarter. Yeah, you usually don't. And so I wasn't really tuned in. I had stuff going on. But the fourth quarter was great. I really enjoyed watching that.

You know, I sat around my mother-in-law who doesn't ordinarily watch basketball. We were in New York. She watched it with us. Like, there were people kind of locked into that. It does get competitive, especially down the stretch. Guys, you know, guys take pride in what they do. We understand it's an all-star game, but given the opportunity. And the Elam ending helps with putting you within striking distance.

So it doesn't, you know, it's always going to have you close enough to where you want to fight for it a little bit. You know, but it was good. Steph's shooting display was awesome to watch. Like it was cool to hear. I thought D. Wade and company and Reggie did a great job on the broadcast. I enjoyed listening to them and hearing how fired up they kind of were about why it was AI over there at the time too? Man, yes.

Yes, he was. Yeah. So I enjoy that. LeBron's shot to win the game. When it came off of his hands, that's how you know when they're basketball gods. Like there's basketball gods. There's somewhere. That shit looked like it was wide left when it left his hand.

Yes. And like halfway to the rim, it navigated back into the hole. The shit was wide left. You know, I don't like you basketball players? You know I don't like you basketball players? I'm just, this is just real mad Hooper because I'm trashed and I'm never on your own level. What I hate is when we play as mere mortals play solid defense, as good as defense as we can do. And we see that ball literally, it's not online.

But it gets because of who shot it, it gets willed in some kind of way. That's exactly what happened. So I thought it was cool for Cleveland. Yeah, I really, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the fourth quarter of that game, absolutely. It was fun, man. And also, like, I wasn't around to appreciate, you know, I was a toddler when the top 50 of all time, NBA players of all time was a thing. That was a thing.

But when it came out in 96, 97 season. A toddler. I was three years old, Roger. I don't know what you were doing, but I was a sophomore. It was a sophomore at BU at the time. Jesus. So when that happened, obviously, you know, when I go on NBA TV and, you know, give my archival footage and see, I appreciate how great of a moment that was.

Right. And to have the NBA 75 and see all those guys, you know, to see LeBron you know around Larry Bird you know and seeing like the the old heads

the OGs who really built the game into what it is today you know being with the young it was a cool that was a cool man

the NBA 75 was really cool it was especially in an era where I think that you know we see a lot of like player on player bashing now you know especially from OGs to youngens.

It was cool to see just like the NBA family of it all. That was pretty cool. Yeah, it is a very, very, very small brotherhood, the NBA, that is. And being an NBA great is an even smaller, more exclusive brotherhood, if you will. And so it was awesome to see those dudes kind of all in one place. I enjoyed, you know, even seeing afterwards some of the tweets and some of the behind-the-scenes

interactions of guys being back there, having their sons or daughters or whoever was at the event with them kind of back there and able to meet. You know, the guys that they bumped against for so long and that were rivals and stuff, and seeing the love that was kind of universal and the respect there was really, really cool watching that. I also enjoyed Kevin Garnett's pettiness. I'm a petty person. Are you petty?

Petty, too. Yeah, I can be petty, but... Let's paint the picture real quick, because I want to help you. So basically, you're speaking when Ray Allen went to do his little handshake with LeBron. And, bro, it was hell of funny because you see

KG and Paul Pierce doing like, like, it felt like a party where like you see you see one of the homies you just you don't fuck with that you used to fuck with and then they do it but you try to act like shit is cool but you see on your face that it's not cool. Oh my God.

I don't, I know that KG gets a lot of that like of the pettiness of that moment but Paul Pierce probably takes the cake in my opinion. Really? Because he was in the corner just like he was in the corner just like bro what? What were?

I thought Paul at least fake the golf clap at it. realized where he was and, you know, we're conditioned as NBA players and know there's a camera around, right? So that's why you see dudes, like when you first come into the league, you might catch someone mouthing something

to another player or on camera. You're like, oh, shit, look, you see what he just said? Right? But like after year, like, by year two, someone has gone into you and be like, you got the hand over to you. Put your towel over your mouth

to throw your hand over your mouth. You don't want the camera. So we're acutely aware that they're always on. So I saw Paul hop into like he was in salt mode. and then he hopped into, uh-oh, cameras, this big event. Let me give him a little clap. So I kind of appreciated that and the inner turmoil that that was.

But KG gave no stuffs about it. He threw that head up in the air, chin up, head back, and was not having any of it. And I thought it was hilarious. Hey, no, but I can make the argument, though, that the pettiest of them all in that moment was LeBron. It was LeBron, because LeBron is the most camera-com. person I have ever seen. He knew that camera was on him. He put a little extra on that handshake.

He did a little smile and a little on a handshake. Because also he knows that K.G. He knew that Paul Pierce was right there. And you know how he feels about Paul Pierce, right? That's great. I think it was LeBron. That was a pedias. How would you have handled that situation?

Because that's where the rivalries are, Roger. That's the rivalries we're talking about that we need back in this game. That makes the game great. Okay, we need the pettiness and we need the rivalries back. How would you have handled that situation? No, listen, I am, yes, I am petty and I'm here for all rivalries as 30-year-old men or young 25, 28. I'll even give you, when you're playing, so let's say 33, 34. Once we're done, man, I got no beefs with anybody, Logan.

I really don't. Like, I really don't, man. I'm too old for that. Like, it was good while it lasted. I'll always enjoy the memories, but I mean, to be holding that to that, to like this day. You know, KG, he's going to hold that. He'll hold that.

I can appreciate it. I hear him. I mean, it's not my style, but I hear you, brother. And I thought it was, like, Ray and I live in the same town, right? Our high school teams played each other, I don't know, a few weeks ago. So I see Ray a bit. We're in basketball circles that cross. And so, and I had our moments.

Like, we used to get into it. But, like, coming. my bro. We're too old. Too grown ass man. Come on, man. You know who I thought was going to be petty throughout the whole time was night? Who was not? Michael Jeffrey Jordan.

Michael Jeffrey Jordan was the star of this whole shindig. I don't know if, I don't know if he was missing folks during the quarantine or if he was, but he was giving everybody love. He was also petty. There was a part of Carl Anthony Towns where he hugged Carl Anthony Towns. And what he said was, according to Kat, was, fuck you, what you did to my, or what you did to my team, fuck you. And they gave him a hug. And they gave him a hug.

He was hugging everybody. My favorite moment was when him and LeBron embraced because we don't know much about their relationship when we think about that. You know, Kobe and Jordan's relationship is well documented. We don't know much about the LeBron Jordan relationship other than little clips. We see the handshake back when LeBron was in high school during the All-American game. We see the 2014 playoffs, Heat versus Hornets or Bobcats, whatever, where LeBron is dunking and then looks at Jordan as he's doing his Tomahawk about to sweep his team out. He does a little, right? I don't know if you remember that.

You're not in the YouTube rabbit holes. I don't know if you're outside of YouTube rabbit holes. But there have been a little, you know, stuff back and forth, like subliminal stuff. and then you see them embrace. And that was just really cool to just see that, to see two goats of their generations embrace. That was probably my favorite moment. Game recognizes game, man.

And we can have the debate, and both of us can feel like we are the goats, and we can champion for our cause, but we both got to recognize what the other one was. LeBron has always talked about, you know, what MJ meant to him in terms of, of, you know, something to aspire to be. LeBron's not afraid to kind of state his case for what he's done either, you know.

I've never really heard MJ. I'm sure he has. Like, he's given LeBron his kudos. But, you know, I think there's more of a natural respect for your elder there from LeBron to MJ, having watched him. But game always recognizes game, Logan. And, you know, in a celebratory kind of environment like that, I'm glad it happened. It was a great moment.

And I do believe there to be real love between the two. You might not just have the same opportunities to sit down, break bread, and really come to some sort of place where the relationship evolves into something else, the way Mike and Kobe may have or something like that. So, you know, it was pretty cool to watch. And I think MJ was probably a lot like Kobe in that when he played, he wasn't trying to be your friend. I mean, that's for opponents.

I mean, in a lot of cases, he didn't give a damn whether he offended teammates in his quest to try to make them better for the team to be the most successful that it could be. And so, you know, I think that not a lot of people were able to get past that wall that they put up, that competitor, that mystique, which is part of, you know, the greatness of those guys.

And what you see as an older MJ is someone more willing, and do that. Someone, you know, more willing to kind of, you know, be, be one of the guys, right? Instead of the standout guy. Still talking his shit, though, still popping off. He was talking big shit throughout the whole time. Still talking big shit. But that's who he is, in a loving kind of fun way. So I was definitely OG, OG and the cookout vibes from MJ. Oh, man. I feel like that was how, like a variation of how Mike has always been, just a big shit talker, but a very, like, there's levels of shit talking. But there's also the, the charismatic shit talker, which is like the magnum opus of shit talkers, right?

The one that is like that people want to be around, even though he can be an asshole, but he tells great jokes. And is Jordan that, is that the type of asshole Jordan is? Or is he, I don't know, it depends on if he respects you, because there was a lot of guys you could see he respected on, on that floor and he wasn't, he was being Mike, but he was also showing love. I don't know. Is that how, like the part of Mike that we just don't see?

See, I don't have a ton of, I played for MJ. I lived for the longest time, unbeknownst to me, right across the hall from MJ. Oh, wow. I've seen MJ in different settings, but I don't really know MJ. So it's going to be hard for me. Now, from what I can kind of piece together, watching and being around and having my limited interaction, he is always a shit talker. And usually it's in good fun, right?

Like that's just what he does, right? Like it's in good fun. He likes to get after you. And most people, because he's MJ, kind of like, you know, you might go back at him if you got a little better relationship, but it's always kind of, you know, within joking parameters and you're going to let him win. Right? Like, because at the end of the day, MJ will ether you in one way or the other.

Because MJ is a chronic winner. MJ is petty too. MJ is not losing. So you can only go so far in jokes with MJ because MJ is willing to go as far as he needs to go to win. So like, you know, but I think most of it's in good fun and everybody understands like that's what MJ does.

And the reverence that I mean, I imagine 99.9% of the people walk in the planet have for him, you know, that's just the type of relationship that you fall in. Like you let him crack the jokes, you might crack one back, and then you guys keep it moving. Yeah, it was beautiful to see. It was just beautiful. Him and Magic, I just, I wish they were teammates. I just wish they were, I don't know if I wish they were, I don't know, but it was just great.

It was just great. They were looking at people, they were laughing at people who don't know they're getting laughed at. They were cracking jokes from like 87, remember what such and such did this. Did you remember what this happened? That was the, that was great. That was great. Yeah, that was great. That was great. Like my favorite, my favorite clip, I mean, I'm, I mean,

I'm sure everyone's seen it, is when MJ comes through the crowd, like you got, like, D. Wade standing there and Jason Kidd's standing there, and Magic's in the corner. You could tell Magic was holding court for a minute. And the C's part, and MJ kind of rolls up, and he's asking him if he's got his gear. His sneaks, you know? Yeah, because he'll kick his ass in a one-on-one right now. And Magic's kind of laugh, I thought, was really interesting.

It was kind of one of those, like, oh, shit, here he comes again with that. Like, I love it, but, ah, damn, you put me all. blast. And then you hear somebody say, damn. Like, like, bro, you just came in hot. Like, that ain't, that's like a hot joke to come in with. You know. Bring your shoes, magic. We almost 60, but bring your shoes. I will bust your ass right now. I thought it was great. It was fun to watch. My, my second favorite part, because that's also my first part of the MJ. My second favorite is when MJ has Dennis Rodman in his arms and is like, yo, Dennis Rodman, and who just wore a –

everybody else in this whole thing has like the suit jacket and like the suit, right? And it's just, you know, like, and Dennis Robin put his suit jacket over a sweatsuit. It was like, all right, this is what I'm wearing.

I don't care. This is what I'm doing. Right? This is how I'm Dennis Robin. And so Mike has Dennis in his arms on the stage, like, what are you going to come out and hang with me? When are you going to come out and golf with me?

What are you going to come out and kicking with me? That was just beautiful. It was beautiful. It was beautiful. What a weekend for Dennis Rodman, too. Great, a top 75, All-Star Weekend Vives, and his daughter, Trinity Rodman, I believe got her first caps for the U.S. women's national team

playing in the She Beliefs Cup. Pretty damn cool. Nice. Nice. Yeah. It was a great weekend, man. It was a great weekend. Now, I'll say a quick break so we can get to the shits. And we are back.

Time for the Shits. Basically, we talked about All-Star, which was great. But we didn't talk about. talk about in that first segment was how one LeBron Ramon James made it about him, made the whole weekend about him. Let me paint this picture for you, Raja. First off, it comes in, and we've heard rumors of this before. Goes to Jason Lloyd of the Athletic and says, amen, I'm ready to talk. And he basically says, one, I want to play with my son, Bronte. I want to play with. I want to play with him before my career ends, which is obviously would be a really dope moment.

Just all accounts, right? We've seen that with Ken Griffey Jr. We've seen that in the past. Really dope moment if that is able to, is, well, that would be a great moment if it were to happen. Then he goes, he compliments Sam Presti, compliments another active GM in his conference. Then, then kind of floats that, hey, man, I'll play. I might play, I'll be open to playing in Cleveland again.

you know, before it's all said and done, while he's a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, who are allegedly going for a title this year. I'm not sure. I don't think, I don't know if they're, I don't know. I don't know. And then just an overall point of making it about him, Roger. What was the biggest thing that you saw out of those three things that I just laid out?

That would be alarming to you if you were a GM or a teammate of his at the Los Angeles Lakers. The willingness to go play with with Brony. And I don't fault, hey, listen, I don't, like you said, I would not fault anyone for wanting to do that. But the fact is, what's that, three years out? Yeah. Potentially.

See, I don't, here's the deal. I don't, like, full disclosure, because I don't follow, you know, the high school rankings and stuff like that. And I've never really seen Brony play. I don't know if we're talking to like one and done. I don't know what we're talking on a time frame, you know? So let's just under the, let's operate under the assumption that he would go to school for one year and then be able to come out. Like, so that would be three years out.

So, you know, if I'm the Lakers, that's got my eyebrows raised. Like, oh, what? And then, you know, the revelation that'd be open to coming back to Cleveland would be partnered with the Bronny one would be of the most concerned. I'm not really worried about him praising San Presti or anything like that. But those two things, you know, the horizon of the time. line for that if they were to sync up and it be LeBron and Brony to Cleveland when Brony first comes out at college at the first availability, which would be three years from now. As a Laker organization, I'd be, yeah, I don't know about that. So I've said this to

you privately. I've said in the prepods, you know, and I've said this about LeBron as the player and the impossible position the Lakers have to be in in terms of who's going to be the first person to ever trade LeBron James? Will there be a team whoever is put in a position where they have to trade LeBron James? Because I've also talked about how hard it is when you get LeBron to protect your future while you're trying to win those. He just not care about your future as a team or as an organization. He does not, but that's not his job.

It's not his job. and being fair to LeBron's nice job. His job is doing championships. And so he sees your job as the team to do whatever you can in that moment to get him those championships. So he's not worried about your future. And in the meat of his prime, I would say absolutely, I have said, I've sat in meetings with ownership, Logan, and said, yes, this is what we do. I co-sign on getting rid of these draft picks and this flexibility three years down the road to try to, to win this championship now because he's still playing at a level that it's going to produce that.

You know, he's dragging teams to the finals. But there comes a point, and I'm not saying that point now, but there comes a point where if he can't do that anymore, you do then have to start worrying about the future of your organization, right, Logan? Yeah. You do. And so, you know, that's just got to be an impossible situation, man. Like, do you, do you, do you know, he's not Kobe to the Lakers.

Like, you let Kobe ride that into the ground, bro. You give him the legacy deal. You let him go out on his own. No, but like, my point is he's yours. He's been yours. So Kobe's going to be there until Kobe wants to be there. LeBron's kind of a different animal in that regard. It's two things, though, Ra.

One, as LeBron has proven time and time again, throughout his career. He doesn't belong to anyone, any organization, anybody. Yeah. LeBron belongs to the streets. It just is what...

It is what it is. The bride belongs to the streets. Damn, bro. Okay. You know? Okay. And so... But I think what's different about this time around is

he's finally met his match as an organization that might have a bit that will match his energy on that, right? I don't think it's funny because obviously the Lakers for the last few years have had a lot of influence from Clutch. They've had a lot of Clutch influence. It started when they signed KCP all those years back, just as a feeler to see how, you know, the Laker organization is and seeing if LeBron would want to go there, right? And then the influence has kind of grown as LeBron has won championships there and things like that. But this is still the Lakers, right?

This isn't the Cleveland Cavaliers. This isn't the Miami Heat. The Miami Heat stood up. But this is the Lakers. This is a different thing. It's not where, hey, LeBron James will never be bigger than the Los Angeles Lakers, no matter how much he tries. You can't strong an organization like an organization like that. You just can't because they are seeped into the fabric of NBA history in a way that is different from all other 29 teams in the league.

So I think that that's something that he's fighting against and also something that he's fighting against is I don't think he's as powerful as he thinks he is right now because he's in year 19. There's because of the recent injury history that he's been he's had. I don't think that LeBron can win this battle in year 19 in a way that he can win the battle if it was year 10, 11. I think that's, I mean, every player is going to start losing some leverage as skill set. And father skill set athleticism slightly start to decline and father time starts to catch up.

So I agree with you. On purely, you're like your leverage as a player, like contractually and stuff like that. those are different animals. I'm not I'm not saying they should trade LeBron. I'm saying in a world that the Lakers live in now

where it's a mess, you won your championship, this roster has you in a bad spot in terms of assets, in terms of movable contracts, in terms of purely playing and getting to championship level,

like you're in a bad spot, right? So if you're sitting around this summer, LeBron would not be what I was trying to move. You know, obviously I'm looking to move Russ. Like, that's an obvious thing. Not going to be easy to do, though. My second piece to move, like AD. I've already told you, I like AD.

I don't believe AD to be a top five player in the league. I've never been on that. Like, that doesn't mean I don't think he's a great player, but that's what I would be trying to move next. I would obviously try to build, you know, the way I could around LeBron to support him in what should be the twilight of his career, keep him happy and try to win chips, right?

But let's say no one's biting on any of that. And they're like, look, here's the deal. And you could get, this is just, you could get John Morant and Luca Donchage in some sort of wild, crazy fucking trade for LeBron James right now. Do you do it if you're the Lakers? And a pick, and a first round pick.

I mean, here's another thing. No, this is just cured. No, no, no. I'm saying I'm going down in the Raj's world right now. I'm going into the make-believe world of LeBron gets traded because he's probably not going to trade it. It's not going to happen. I don't think.

But let me go there with you. If LeBron is openly talking about leaving the organization and there have been reports, Shams, front of the show, said that he's not thinking about leaving the Lakers anytime. soon. And Shams is really plugged into LeBron's camp. So that's food for thought there. But if just on the face value of what we've heard

outwardly, what LeBrona said, if he's openly flirting with the idea of not being with your team long term, at this stage of his career, at this stage where he's, he can't win a championship by himself.

Right? He's really great. He's still a top five talent in this league in my opinion. Still there. And at nights can be the best player in the whole league. It's just what it is. But at this stage of his career, if you could get somebody like that,

I mean, and he's saying that I don't know, like he's openly trying to flirt with the idea of leaving. What do you do? Well, you've, this is where they are. Yeah.

So what I'm saying, what I'm saying you do is, at some point, you have to make the call that protects your franchise moving forward. And my whole point is I would hate to be the team whose feet were to the fire to have to make that call. I do wonder what a trade market would be like for LeBron, though, right? Because you just said, right? You just said if you can get a John Morant level, Luca level, you know, in a trade,

Luca level talent and a trade, you do it, right? No, but no. I'm not saying for one of them. Don't get me twisted. For both of them. Yeah, okay. For both of them. Right, right.

For both of them. Because LeBron is that good. Yes. Yeah, don't get me messed up. If you were to do that, though, what the other team is like, nah, like for what? Is the other team like, no? Because he's in year 19. Yes, this was purely hypothetical.

Like, I haven't vetted out trades. I know. We don't believe this is going to happen. No, we don't. It's not going to happen. It's not what we're saying. No. But I am saying that what you're the late.

I mean, come on, Logan, like, you're going to have to start exploring, you're going to have to start putting things on the table that ordinarily wouldn't be on the table. And again, I'm not lobbying or suggesting that day trade LeBron James. I'm simply saying, as we get deeper into this, conversations have to be had that you weren't willing to have. Like, maybe LeBron's in them. AD definitely is in them. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, Domino's will blow. Okay, Westbrook has always been on the table. Right? We weren't willing to talk about AD. Fuck it.

Now, AD is in the conversation where we weren't willing to talk about him last year. But as it gets into next year, if it's still a poop show, guess what? Guess what? No, no, we got to happen. I mean, the conversation's got to be had. When you say poop show, it's hilarious. It's never not hilarious when you say poop show. I cursed all episode and I chose to say poop show right now.

But I'm sorry, that's all I was thinking about through your diatribe. But here's a thing with the Lakers, though. the Lakers more than winning championships, more than wanting to win championships every year and being in the conversation. They just want to be in the conversation, right? Which means they can ill afford to, they're one of the few teams I feel like,

because we've seen this, Sasha Mac feels me on this, Jomi feels me on this, all the Laker fans around feel me on this. They don't want another era like they did of Kobe's final years. They don't want that. So they don't want to be mired in mediocrity.

Logan, they've been mired and mediocre. They won a championship in the bubble. They won a championship in the bubble. The year before that, they sucked, right? Then last year, like, because of injuries or whatever, you're out in the first damn round. Like, and this year, you suck again. At the very least, they mattered, though. They were in the conversation.

They're in the conversation right now, is what I'm saying. Those are two different things, don't. but they want to be in the conversation when it comes into league shit, right? If they trade LeBron or if they trade A-D and it doesn't pop, that could be, or they trade away picks, that could be catastrophic in the next five years.

And you don't want a chip, and you only got one ship to show for this whole thing? They're only going to have one chip to show for this whole thing, Logan. Like, you need to get up out of that Laker world you're living in, dog. No, what I'm saying, no, what I'm saying, no, no, what I'm saying, No, no, what I'm saying is I am reaffirming you saying that this is a very hard decision because more than anything, they just want to matter. And I do, and I believe throughout all these seasons when they have been mediocre,

they've been great one year this year. I mean, this during this run, they've been great one year. They weren't even great that year. They weren't the bubble. They weren't great. They were great. Go look at that. They caught fire in a bubble.

That's a fair point. But they matter. They did. They mattered. But again. So now it's going to be, is this going to be interesting these next few years is all I'm saying. I agree with you. It's going to be very interesting.

Look, look, what any responsible organization has to do is way, what you're talking about, which is being relevant right now, right? Being a winning team right now. And where we're heading in the next five years. What does that look like? And, you know, you have to try to balance that out. And if the scales get too far tipped on one end of that, you're out of balance and you've left yourself vulnerable. So if it's too much relevancy right now, but we're not winning chips and we've given up every future asset to just be relevant, you've put yourself in a really tough spot as an organization.

And that's not really being responsible. And so again, when we talked about the trades around the deadline with Shams, like he was saying that it was good that they didn't make the move, right? Like they didn't do it at the time. And so I think I heard LeBron over All Star Weekend kind of chirping about that, right? Like, but at least Rob Polinkin company were like, nah, we're not getting, we can't do that right now. We're bad. Like we do have to, to some degree, protect our ability to move into the future, whether that be with LeBron or without him.

But I don't know how much longer the days of moving heaven and earth right now to win a championship. LeBron, how much light is left in those days? I don't have the answer to that. Well, it could be good if you get someone. I don't know. You just have to. And I think the biggest thing that is lost in all of this, it's been talked about other places. But LeBron made this roster in his image.

He made it. This was what he wanted. So that's the biggest thing of this whole weekend is that, bro, this is what you wanted. You know? Yeah. I trade. Like, you trade me for another podcast host and it goes south, Raja. What should go?

And then you go like, well, we need to make it. Well, like, Raja, you had all the power here. Well, to steal the line from Friday and my character, Day Day, play as F up two. Like, they do. Like, LeBron's a G. I'm not taking anything away from him, but yeah, you ain't do so good on this one, bro. You didn't.

But what I would say to LeBron, if I would- Hey, we was with LeBron too at the beginning of the season. We was with him. We was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, they back. I'm still with LeBron, though. I still ride with LeBron because I think he's great, but I do think LeBron falls to some degree

into the category that I talk about a lot of players falling into as they get older is not understanding how you've changed as a player. And while there was a recipe for you to win championships with groups of players around, you when you were a certain type of player, you're not that type of player anymore. You are still a brilliant player, but it has changed, right? Like a lot more done from the perimeter. LeBron's shooting it at a clip that you've never seen him shoot it at. Like, he's evolved, which is what

grades do. Like, he's evolved. That's a, that's a credit to him. He's become a better all-around player. But the recipe you're operating under was when you were like downhill, assaulting the rim, putting defenses in positions that you don't put them in all the time. now. And so your supporting cast could be what it was because you played like that. Now you play different. That supporting cast has to look different. And so he needs to understand that

and allow someone to help them construct the roster around his current style of play and skill set. The thing is, though, with LeBron, and he is kind of, I think, now susceptible to what the criticism like Doc Rivers used to get, which is, if you have a great game against Doc Rivers, he's going to sign you in the

offseason. And I think LeBron is kind of succumbing to that. like Russell Westbrook had great games against LeBron in the finals. You know, he had a great game against LeBron in the NBA finals. It's always been respected by LeBron throughout his career. Same with A, same with A.D. And same with a lot of the bench guys, right? Lance Stevenson stood up to

LeBron, found his way on its team. I think LeBron, and this is not a LeBron thing, but this is like a lot of other stars have done that. If you play against them in their break, Kobe did it all the time. Kobe, you should have signed with the Lakers because of that same reason, right? Absolutely. Game recognizes game. People have respect level for people they play against. So there's nothing wrong with that.

But continue to thought. Continue your thought. I just think that when you have that, it's hard to do this when you're a star player and you also feel like you're invincible. And if they do suck, you can overcome it because you're so great. But I think the thing that LeBron, I would hope that he evolves into is seeing, because he's such a smart basketball player, that he just starts to, like, maybe not. I think if he took a bit less control,

I think things would be better for him in the overall picture. I think you hit the nail on the head right there. So we'll see. I don't know if the – I don't know what else is – I don't know if the Lakers are going to even make the playoffs this year, but I hope it works out. I don't know. We'll see.

There's something to keep an eye on. But we'll talk about that in future episodes. Right now we are out of time before we go. It's time for a little segment we'd like to call. ruin of the week where we shout out a person, entity, an organization

that won the week. I'm just going to keep the propaganda going, Raja. I mean, I really don't. I know you're going to, you know I'm not even

roll your eyes because you like this person. In front of this show, I'm going to go with Juan T. That's my real one of the week. I don't care, I don't care

that your face looks like that. I don't care that he didn't make the dunk. I don't care that he did it. He came in second place in the dunk contest. I'm just really excited that he was there.

So, you know, Wantee, real one of the week, front of the show. So I'm going. I don't care any reservations that you might have for my mom with the week, Rosalie, because you know what? It's my real one of the week. Now, go with your real one of the week. Who is your one of the week, sir? My real one of the week, and it's not even close.

For all you Keynes fans that listen to this pod, I don't know if you're out there, if you are, sing it with me. Mario Cristobal. Like, Mario Cristobal is back at the U, baby. He's a University of Miami lifer. Yeah, he's been all around. He cut teeth at FIU. He was at Bama.

He held it down at Oregon. But he's back, baby. He's back. And what he's doing, Logan, first of all, the University of Miami is spending money for the first time in my lifetime on coaches. The pocketbooks are open.

Great NIL school. The NIL money is flowing. And what it's allowed Mario to do is go out and assemble a damn dream team of coaches. Like, he has got a who's who list of coaches coming back to the university. she in Miami to try to make this bad boy relevant again.

South Florida's got some of the best high school football talent on the planet. And now we got the coaches at the you. Mario, Cristobal, holl at me. Real one. Hey, hey. I know y'all know Rogers as a basketball player, but don't get it messed up. He bleeds that orange and green. What?

He's ready to go. He's ready to go. All right. You might even make it to a game this year, huh? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Five of them.

Oh, okay. Excuse me. That's how we did it. You don't never get out the house, Roger, so I don't know. I've told you that I go to no games. I go to no NBA games. I go to no NFL games. I got five tickets for the Miami Hurricanes this year, baby.

I'm back. We back, baby. Man, it's good to see you, man. It's good to be back. It's ready for this fucking stretch run. All right? Let's get ready to go. All right, let's lock in.

All right. We're back on Monday. But in the meantime, make sure you check out our full slate on the ringer NBA feed. That's weekends with WOS. That's Upside High. You make sure you check out upside high. I love that show. Yo, you need to lock in on that, Ron.

It's a really good show with Charks and Jay Kyle Man. Also, I'm going to needs you guys to fall on the void with KOC. And then make sure you slide into group chat. Also, make sure you go listen to the answer on Friday. It's here and So He and Chris. Ryan. Let's get the propaganda baby. Let's get it going. Let's get it going. Raj, let's get it going. R2C2 with who, Roger Bell. Vallejo legend, the crestside clown, C.C. Sabathia.

Let's keep it going. Black Girl Songbook. Season 3 coming soon with who, Roger Bell? My Girltown legend, Danielle Smith. Hey, listen, make sure you keep it on 115, okay? Make sure you put it in the chat, all right? Make sure you get your prepod meetings ready, okay? for the stretch run. All right. Real ones hollum.