The Ringer NBA Show - What Happened to 'Zero Dark Thirty' LeBron? Plus Meek Mill and the Sixers | Sources Say (Ep. 255)

Episode Date: April 25, 2018

The Ringer’s Juliet Litman and Chris Ryan discuss LeBron’s social media presence during the playoffs (1:30), fresh-out-of-prison Meek Mill attending the Philadelphia 76ers game (12:30), and Hassan Whiteside (16:55). Then they discuss Kevin Durant’s move to Malibu (28:35) and Chris Paul selling his Houston home (31:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of The Ringer MBA show Sources Say is brought to you by Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams is your hub for teamwork in Office 365 with so much to look after. Wouldn't it be great if there was just one place to look? Teams is that single workspace where you can work, share, and connect with the people in your work life. Teams brings together your chats, meetings, files, and apps all in one place, and you can take teamwork where you work with apps for mobile and desktop. So whether you're sprinting towards a deadline or sharing your next big, idea. Teams can help you and your team achieve even more. Microsoft Teams and Office 365,

visit office.com slash teams to learn more. Time for a playoff sources day. I'm Juliet Litman. I'm Chris Ryan. There's a lot to talk about. I actually start that with every podcast I'm on. No, that's not true. Oh, like every podcast that you're on? Because I feel like we've had some fallow periods on, I know. It hasn't really been a dramatic, it wasn't a dramatic regular season, but it's definitely been a dramatic playoffs. Yeah, for sure. Very testy. I think we've definitely after you hit game two or three, everybody starts getting tired of seeing the same old people. I'd like to start with someone who is surprisingly not very testy.

And I find it weird. Yeah. And that's Mr. LeBron James. It's not, what happened to Zero Dark 23? Okay. So it's a tradition unlike any other at the beginning of the play. And the first day that LeBron's team starts the playoffs, not necessarily the first day of the playoffs, but his first day.

He tweets Zero Dark 20, or Zero Dark 30, 23 mode activated. And then he's done with social media until his season is over. So he has been dark on social media. He has an Instagram since the 15th, right? Yes. And he hasn't tweeted either. But his last tweets were like political. They weren't even tied to the playoffs.

It was, I think he was saying to Dion Sanders, like, cool. I'll just read it. Why speculate, you know? Go to the source. His last tweet was on April 14th, which was the Saturday of the playoffs. His game was on Sunday. And he said, preach prime time. Once you understand, you'll be better off.

Hashtag Fax. Hashtag Fend, handle your business. Pound. Preach, pray sign, whatever. And it was, it was, I don't know, emojis. I'm not a kid. Dionne Sanders was tweeting about how being an athlete's a business, whatever, whatever. That is a really like inauspicious way to begin your postseason run if you're a LeBron and we're used to you being like zero dark 30 mode activated.

Let's go. Yeah. Ready for war. Let's do it. Yes. Yeah. I think that also, you know, the most interesting thing that's happened with the cat. in this sort of tedious pacer series has been the Tom Brown suits.

Yes. And it seems like a frankly more frivolous act on LeBron's part than we are used to in postseason. Absolutely. We're not trying to be like concern trolling LeBron. No. He clearly is still like. Not concerned about LeBron. Concerned about his commitment to the Cavs.

Wow. Do I sound like Stephen A. Smith right now? It's like identical. A little bit. Yeah. So, yeah, so LeBron told the story to both Dave McManerman and the New York Times about the suits. And those two stories were ready to roll the second the pictures of the calves in their suits came out. I feel like I should disclose them, quoted in one of them.

But I didn't know it was happening. Right. You didn't know that it was about the suits. You gave a quote about style. Yeah. I didn't know this was happening, though. And when I was like, I saw it, I was like, oh, interesting. A couple of takeaways from that article.

Dwayne Wade was the one who came up with a suit idea. That everybody should wear the same suits. Yes, and he's the first one who started talking to Tom Brown, and they started planning it back in January or February, which is important because Isaiah commented on an Instagram picture of some Cavs in their suits. And he said like, L.O.L. I remember when I got fitted for these. So it's a longstanding idea.

Oh, so this is kind of like branded content that they had been planning for a while. Yes. It goes back to the old Cavs team, the pre-deadline team, because it was Wade's idea, and Wade very actively works with his stylist, and he and Gabbyu go to a lot of fashion shows. And I would say LeBron's like into the finer things, but he's not like number one fashion icon in the NBA. No, pretty nondescript. Yeah.

In comparison to like, you know, Russell Westbrook showed up looking like Andrew McCarthy in pretty and pink the other day. I thought you were going to say St. Elmo's Fire. And I was like, what a great film. But he had like the tie kind of like the baggy suit. Yeah, he did look very John Hughes movie. Yeah. So this is like, this is an old idea.

that LeBron decided to stick with. I guess they had to rush the fittings for Rodney Hood and co. But it's just kind of like a weird look. It's not the LeBron that we're used to in the playoffs. Yeah. You know, I mean, this team is a couple of missed shots away from being swept by the Pacers. Now, they are also a couple of missed shots away from being up 3-1 on the Pacers. But.

Ugly series is what you're saying. Ugly series. And I think that this is probably the more I watch it, the last stand for Tyloo. I don't think he's going to be the Cavs coach next year anyway. Seems that there's going to be a lot of coaching vacancies. Well, part of it is obviously Ty has been dealing with some medical issues over the course of the season. But part of it is also like I just think that he's like run out of ideas of how to play this team. Even though he has all these different tools, there was something really dispiriting kind of about watching like T.T.

And Calderon and Corver and and LeBron and J.R. it's just like, well, what the hell is the point of all this upheaval if you're just going to keep running out the same guys that you've been running out for three years? Yeah, it's a good question. Yeah, it really is a good question. Also, the other thing that's kind of weird about it is like in crunch time, there's been obviously a lot of LeBron and LeBron's carried the team. Playing like all the second half, yeah. Yeah. But I wouldn't say we're getting like killer instinct LeBron that often.

No, and Winnhorst went on Zach's pod and they had a really interesting conversation about not body language in terms of LeBron liking or not liking his teammates, but body language in terms of. terms of how much energy LeBron has in the second halfs and like watching him give the ball up to Jordan Clarkson and Jordan Clarkson kind of like looking to LeBron being like, are you going to get back involved here? And LeBron just kind of like standing there. And so Clarkson has to like create something. Yeah, exactly. But you know, LeBron has been pretty emphatic about like, it doesn't matter if I play 35 minutes or 42 minutes. What matters is like actually getting ready to play in the first place. So I don't know. I wanted to ask you though, like, one person who's been in and out of this team in the postseason,

and I think people thought was going to really bring a level of, like, steadiness to the back court is George Hill. And he's out with a back injury. But I don't know. I feel like he's like Rondo, but not funny right now. That I think is an incredible compliment to George Hill. Rondo is one of the better point guards the last 20 years. George Hill is, like, part of many winning teams.

Like he's part of like many, like, sensations. Spurs, Pacers. the jazz last year. He was like a big part of that run and lifting them over the clippers. But he is not like your glue guy. Like I think he is like on the court. He is really useful and like rises to the occasion.

But he's definitely not someone who you, you know, you're like, let's go grab a beer. Like he doesn't like give like the rousing pregame speech. Like we'll talk more about the Sixers. But it was cool to hear that like JJ told the team about his like 09 experience and how like shortly after going to the finals like it all unraveled or whatever. And so I don't think George, is like going into the locker room and being like,

I know it's like to be on the other side of LeBron James, like when you're on the Pacers or whatever. This is LeBron conundrum. It's like you can mix and match and add all these pieces, but in reality, it's difficult for him to coexist with people who have ambitions to be, maybe not on his level as a player,

but to have maybe a say or control over the team that he's on. And this has happened with, after a couple years in Miami, with Wade Riley and Bosch, it obviously happened after a couple years with Kyrie and nobody of the new guys that they brought in with this overhaul has been able to really challenge him not only in leadership but also just like

I'm the next best player on this team run the offense through me when LeBron is off the floor yeah they don't have like basically what Duane Wade was so do you think they're going to go to the finals I think they I think they'll beat the winner of the Raptors wizard series I do I think they'll play the Sixers in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Okay. And I still think they'll win. But I don't know. The Sixers are exciting. Should we talk about the Sixers? Why don't we? Yeah. Do you want to just like give some kind of spiel? Like, how would you like to go about this?

I don't have a spiel. I wrote something for the site. It's really good. Thank you. Blog father. And it was like also, it's different than the way I felt about writing about other Philadelphia teams because usually with Philly teams, like there's a degree of tension where you're just like, this isn't going to happen.

This isn't going to work. Like what does that? is going to befall this team, like what single is going to get hit through the infield or like football, like Carson Wenz's knee is going to explode or we're just going to lose to Tom Brady and you're just kind of always relieved and surprised. And Ben Simmons just is just like alleviates that. Yeah, he's really good. He's lost once in like three months.

It's amazing. I don't know what happened with their record is in last few months, but they've won six, their last 16 games. They lost once to the heat. And they basically like did that thing last night. that was kind of stunning. They just played around with the heat for three quarters and then they were like,

now we're going to go on a 12-0 run. Yeah, it was awesome. It was the kind of thing that, I don't want to say championship teams do, but very, very, very good teams are able to do. Where it was like, we're going to conserve our energy, then we're going to destroy you,

and then we're going to shut the door. I would say notably what the Warriors did not do against the Spurs last night. Yes, yeah. Very much not the same thing. It was kind of interesting watching those close-out games back-to-back because you expect the Warriors to play more like the Sixers did.

Yeah. And I thought that that would be the Sixers, I thought would be more like what the Jazz looked like the other night where it was like obviously so hype in Utah. There had been trash talk beforehand. Like then and the jazz came out and were super physical just like the Thunder were and they completely took the thunder out of it. But there was just like a cauldron like atmosphere in Utah. And with the Meek stuff before the Sixers game, I thought that it was going to be this cauldron like atmosphere in Philly. And it was loud, at least over TV. But I felt like they. they just played under control the whole time. Yeah, they really did. I feel like they were just like, it's any other game. We're just going to knock this out. Pretty amazing that no one punched James Johnson.

Like, honestly shocking. Well, he managed to he try. Do you think that, like, like James Johnson's not going to have an MMA fight with another human being on the court? No,

but they were really like whacking Ben Simmons a lot. A lot of hard fouls. Like they were trying to really, like I think, you know, like punish him, like really, like obviously it's almost like a compliment.

Like trying to like neutralize his impact on the game. He wouldn't give in. And also, like, none of his teammates gave in. It was pretty cool to watch. I'm very impressed by the ego management of this team. Well, the thing is, is that they're not actually this young team. I mean, they have young players and they have some cool prospects and, like, Markell's there and TLCs there. And Dario is still growing.

It's NBA's fourth season in the league. Yeah, and also, like, Ben looks like he's been playing pro sports for 10 years. He had a season to, like, condition and, like, bulk up. And a lot of there's guys, Covington's a veteran at this point. Redick is obviously a veteran. Eliasov and Bellanelli have played for, like, multiple teams. Well, I only he's a champion. Yeah.

And you've got, I just think that there's just a degree, and Amir Johnson. So you have, like, actually, like, a block of veteran leadership with a few young guys, rather than a bunch of young guys with, like, one or two veterans. Right. And that's a, that's a key thing that I don't know that people are seeing enough. I also think the continuity of Brett Brown's kind of underrated, even if, like, he didn't get a chance to really coach the sort of having the same authority figure or someone who sets a culture and you stick to it, I think is also meaningful.

It seems like M.B. really loves him, which is so sweet. The video where Brett Brown goes over and hugs him, puts his head on his chest because it's so much taller. They're very lovable team. They're a very lovable team. You want to talk about the meek stuff? Sure.

It was just, I mean, look, like, I think it was, it's great that he got out. I'm so excited for him. It's like a pretty, if you follow it. And I recommend people try and read some of the stuff, like the Rolling Stone Exposé about the whole case. There's also a bunch of stuff on philly.com through The Inquirer and the Daily News that's been chronicling it for this whole time. And I think what people were responding to somewhat last night was like,

let's make sure that like the larger point about like criminal justice reform. Yes. It's not lost. And our policies about mass incarceration are not lost in the Meeks free. The world is put right again. Let's get him like as many photo opportunities as possible. Like I have no, I don't begrudge Meek doing anything he wants after he gets out of jail. You can do whatever he wants.

I think people were a little thrown off by like Bobcraft from the Patriots owner and Michael Rubin, the minority owner of the Sixers. Yeah. Being so publicly visible in this case and being like, well, what else are you doing for like what is like honestly like a complete societal ill? Yeah. Like it's a little hard to equal out what we know about Bobcraft's other like political interest with him showing up for meek mail. I'm so confused by it. Do you know why Bobcraft is involved in this? I don't know.

So he said in a Washington Post article that he had heard some of the players talk like the NFL players talking about it and Meeks like a super popular. Like at the Super Bowl? Did he hear the Eagles players talking about it? But I think also the Ruben connection is there because Ruben was part of the group that was trying to buy the

Panthers with Steph Curry. And so I wonder if they know each other through that. Michael Rubin is basically an e-commerce billionaire I guess. He started Fanatics. Yeah. And there's like an oolala or something like a Rulala. It's like a fashion overstock.

Yeah. And so he was heavily, you know, he actually has been involved in this for a while, but, and Meek seemed to have, like, genuine personal affection for him. So it looks like those guys are, like, friends. I know, it did. And it seems, you know, there were pictures last week of Bobcraft going to visit with Michael Rubin. Yeah, yeah.

Like, it's not like. So that's what I think the connection is maybe is like via a rich guy shit, but also NFL ownership stuff. Interesting. Yeah. It's really, it's like, it's fascinating. It's also, um, I feel like Meek Mill. has like popped up in pop culture like you know not only for his music but then for feuding with drake and then

with you know dating nicky menage and then with all of these particularly athletes champion his cause to be released after he was um in prison for a parole violation and so it's kind of like i don't know he just is like similar to the sixers i don't and again i don't untribilize like turvileize like sure it's tough because like you're talking about it's like we're conflating these two separate things yeah we're like obviously prison reform but they but they got they got put together by the staging of his release being very much tied to this to this team in this event. And he's been sort of this soundtrack to Philadelphia sports for the last 12 months. It's pretty amazing.

What are Ron Philly's having, the sports teams? Can I ask you a quick question? Yes, please. Do you think Ben Simmons is the next LeBron? I really do. Do you think that he can develop like a personnel? I think basketball wise, like, yes. I think that, I think he has to like you said develop it.

I don't think he like has the natural charisma of LeBron. But first of all, he is like in the LeBron camp. So his introduction to the NBA and NBA cultures through the prism of being part of clutch sports. So like there's that that's helpful. Second of all, he's so like unafraid of the moment that I think that he could learn those things. And I also think that like one thing that really became apparent to me when we did LeBron versus Jordan Week at the ringer is that Jordan was just such a different kind of celebrity and he was willing to take on various roles. Like he also did not have the same kind of natural charisma, didn't really like play the family man in the way LeBron does. but he is like arguably a bigger star.

And I feel like Ben Simmons would actually be a mold of like LeBron James style, of LeBron James style basketball and Michael Jordan style celebrity. I mean, if you're a 10 year old, if you're a 10 year old kid and you're watching him, you're probably like, that's my favorite player. Of course, because you don't even have to be able to shoot. So he is like obviously incredibly gifted. Like he sees the court in a special way. But he's also just like a really great athlete.

Like in many ways, his type of game is more attainable. than some other ones. Like, it's almost like he's a good foiled Steph, too, because Steph is, like, a testament to how much you can, like, learn to shoot and, like, perfect something against the odds. Like, Ben Simmons is, like, if you're a really good athlete, like, there's the future for you in basketball. Do you want to talk a little bit about your Miami Heat?

Yeah, sure. I'd love to. I was rooting for the Heat in the Series, though I support you in the Philadelphia 76ers. I just love Coach Spow. Yeah. And you've been a Heat fan for life. For life. As a young child in New York, I've rooted for PJ Brown.

I think looking at all these rosters, I think the most improbable to be a playoff team is actually the heat. Like that is just not a playoff basketball team on paper. There's something missing there. Like, they're supposed to be a star there. And it's just like a bunch of guys who are supposed to average 11 points a game, but they play nine of them. So they get there, you know? Do you think that this team with LeBron, this current Miami Heat, would go to the conference finals? Yes.

I do too. And I just think LeBron should go back there. I also think like this team with LeBron would be. Oh, yeah. I 100% think that. I just think that would be a really fun team. Like, I would actually love to see LeBron surrounded by a bunch of drivers.

And they would have to keep Wade. Yeah, but like they can get the, um, John Howard deal. How do you think that LeBron would, slide straight to the front office? How do you think LeBron would feel about only making like five more million dollars than Tyler Johnson next year? He would probably like Tyler Johnson.

Let's talk about your appearance. What can we do here to get you in a Tom Brown suit? Yeah. But I actually would like love to see LeBron with like a rag tag crew. Like it feels like this like a good sports movie. be conclusion. How do you also feel about Tyler Johnson electing to save dental surgery till after the playoffs? Do you think that that was like a I want to look like really rugged and hardcore? I mean, obviously if you have dental surgery, Isaiah Thomas had it during last year's

playoffs, it's really difficult to also play. I'm sure it's a very sensitive time. You can't get hit in the mouth when that happens. But I thought that was a really advanced look for him. It was really something. Combine it with his hand brace because he hurt his hand. Right. I really enjoyed all the people of being like Kelly Olinick, Goren Drogich and Tyler Donson look like their own rum springo. I didn't see that, but I like it. My favorite heat is with Justice Winslow. I actually love Josh Richardson too. I hope they both stay on that team.

Not White Side, though. No, not White Side. Richardson and Justice are like why I love the heat, though. Like, they really develop players. I think it's cool. Great system. Believe in Pat. There's so much more to talk about, Chris. But first, let's talk about today's sponsors.

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With the Google Assistant, I can get the latest scores, team records, and schedules. Download the Google Assistant Today. Now more about NBA Beefs and so much more. One thing we forgot to discuss with the Miami Heat, Beefs. What was your favorite beef from the Heat? What was your favorite, like, antagonistic relation from the Heat Six or Series? I think it was the pregnant pause every time James Johnson squared up with someone about whether or not he would like leglock some guy around the throat. but I also really really enjoyed

how hard Justice Winslow played even though he is now like not a lot in Philadelphia ever again but stepping on M.Bid's mask was like all-time wrestling villain shit It was dope I think that I would like Duke players more if they would like that in college

just be villains lean into it go for it a lot of beef so far this playoffs I actually can't believe how much like jawing there's been no straight up fighting but a lot of jawing yeah and also guys who clearly like from the second they walk out on the floor are like that you and me are we have a problem and it hasn't gone away so

like Joe Ingalls and Paul George have literally been arguing for four games now it's incredible do you know anything about the roots of that like is that like an international basketball situation like what what's the deal there I don't know about it and I don't think Paul George or playoff P is really one for feuds he does not seem to be really like eclipsing this he's not using it as like fuel let me just say I am not surprised it's easy to get inside of his head and what would you find there when you get there. It's a great question. Can't answer that either. It's kind of surprising this hasn't happened sooner. Okay. It actually speaks to how much people like Paul George around the league that they don't try to get in his head. Yeah. Like, I feel like Kyrie is a type of player

who tries to do that sort of thing where he will like try to go at you and I think, you know, Chris Bosch talked about it on the Bill Simmons podcast, how like when you think you can get a mental edge, you take it. Oh yeah. People don't seem to try to seize that with Paul George. I think they definitely done Russell Westberg. in this series. What did you say? I think they definitely have with Russell Westbrook

in this series where it's like they basically like you can get Russ on tilt. Ringer MBA show favorite Rick Rubio is just having the series of his lifetime.

Yeah, I don't get it. I feel like he's just really grown up. The man bun is powering him. Yeah. I do like his man bud. But he literally like Russ came out had the quote about like

Ricky Rubio is not going to do that to me again. You know, made a concerted effort about how he was going to guard him. And Rubio used that to his advantage and got him in two quick fouls. Russ was completely out of it the entire night.

He seemed like obsessed with like foul calls. And then they've spent the last like two quarters basically almost getting tossed the entire time. It's a miracle. It didn't get retroactively given a suspension for like what happened at the end of the game. He really should have. Yeah. I mean it's going to be. I actually think tonight is like a definitive moment in the Thunder franchise.

Really? Tonight. Wow. Thursday, Wednesday night. Well, you can hear your follow up thoughts on that on group chat. Yeah, but like if they lose tonight, if they lose in five games again with this team, Paul's gone, Mello will probably opt in. Russ is on the hook for $130 million or whatever it is over the next few years. This team's screwed.

Like this team and like what, do you fire Billy and try and bring it another person to try and communicate like an offensive system to Russ? I don't know what's going to happen, but this is like a really, really, really big watershed moment for this team. night. They win. They can maybe come back 3-1. We've seen it happen before. If they lose tonight, this is really bad. Related question. Do you want playoff P on your Sixers? Do you want an existing star on the Sixers? I think Playoff P works better within the Sixers than LeBron. Definitely. You got Ben Simmons. You don't need LeBron. Yeah, I actually think that LeBron and Ben Simmons would have like a huge impact on each other. I mean, Ben Simmons naturally plays the role that LeBron has been forced into as he's gotten older.

And he is not with Dwayne Wade, basically. And it's awesome to watch Ben Simmons in that position. And why would you want to, like, stifle that at all? And having LeBron on the team absolutely would, not to mention like some spacing issues. But yeah, it's just, it's really fascinating. I think Paul George will probably still go to the Lakers, but who knows? Who knows where he could go? We didn't really talk about White Side versus Embed.

Yeah, that one just didn't really even rise to the, like, beef level. Whiteside season peaked in the preseason when Joanne Bid, Instagram, about him. I mean, when was CSI Whiteside? Like in August. Yeah, so that's when I think a season peaked. Yeah, because it was like hurricane season. Hurricane season. What should we do with White Side?

But the thing is, is that, like, if I had to, if you had to guess, do you think a on White Side would rather be a weatherman or a basketball player? That's a great question. Probably a weatherman. I think he wants attention. I would love just watching, like, a vlog, a white side vlog. Do you think we could get him to contribute over the summer to Theringer.com? I think it's in play.

I don't know if we could hit his quote, though. That's interesting. Speaking of fights, do you think LeBron got mad at Tristan Thompson for being so sloppy with his various women and having that come out on the eve of the playoffs? Hmm. Because I have an alternate theory. Okay. I'd rather hear your theory.

I think it's almost like good for the Cavs that the Kardashians are down Tristan Thompson. For like for the purpose of the playoffs. Are they down with Tristan Thompson? I think so. Okay. Apparently as soon as Chloe can fly, she'll be headed back to L.A. Okay. With true.

Without Tristan. Without, well, he'll be with the Cavs. What if they're done tomorrow? Like, they could be done this week. I don't know if he'll be welcome back to California. But I think, like, if they do, if they beat the Pacers and they go on, I actually think it's, like, good for the team to not have that extra circus around. Plus, it's not like anyone, any of his teammates would be surprised.

It's not like they're like, what? You do this to Chloe? Like, no. Yeah. I mean, I think that most people around that team, it's not like Kristen was like, I'm going to put a bunch of pumpkins in my bed so that it looks like I'm sleeping,

and then I'm going to sneak out to these nightclubs where no one's going to take my picture. This is like, come on. I know. It's so ridiculous. Also, I feel like there was quite a bit of beefing in the Blazers Pelican series, which now feels like it was ages ago. Yeah, I have like a couple of things.

I thought that I did not find that the Blazers, post the exit interviews were particularly look like when they were like do you think you two can play together to CJ and Dame I did I thought that they did say said the right thing sure but watching the video granted they just lost and everything I did not find them like super convincing even like even on the level of like what George has been saying this year about Russ yeah and how Russ is making his decision really easy and all that stuff like CJ and Dame were not like we're partners like

wouldn't like everybody would want to play with us like we're the best back court we came up against a hot new world's team let us try again they were like you know basically like i don't think we need to be broken up i guess what do we want from basketball players in their quotes but still and then like the following days it's like cj got into beef with jacin quick on twitter um and dame was like i'm kind of like i'm over it cj had this one great tweet someone uh tweeted at him you're tweeting this from Drew Holiday's pocket. Question mark, question mark, question mark. Good tweet at Andre T underscore 98.

C.J. responded. And if I was his brand manager, I would be like, why are you responding, bro? Nonetheless, he said, I'm tweeting from my bends, left my ass and at home today. Shrug emoji. So he's feeling just fine about life. They didn't seem like, wow, this is our year. No.

We're devastated. No. Do you think Stotz is gone? Definitely. It's too bad. I like Terry Stotz. I like him too. But his wed greatest achievement is getting to the second round, right? Mm-hmm. A few times. Let's talk about some lighter fare.

Okay. Great. Where should we start? Real estate? Real estate boys. Real estate boys. Kevin Durant's coming to Malibu, people. If you're a real estate blog boy, are you like a Zillow boy?

Redfin boys? Redfin. He's definitely into Redfin boys. For more picks. Schedule a tour right away. One fine stay boys? I won't tell you the address because that seems inappropriate. But I found it and Googled it.

And I won't be going. worry. I also think it's like a gated street, but I did get led to a two minute and 25 second video that is a visual tour of Kevin Durant's new 12. You mentioned it's on Vimeo, which is like the higher end. It's on Vimeo. It's higher end, just like his Malibu home, which is three stories. On the beach, it's pretty far up in Malibu. I believe the street is gated. And if it's not, it's like hard to get to. It's not just like... Far up like in the hills or far up north? Far up north. No, it's beachfront. But I'm glad you brought that up because I just, I've got notes, which is, I think he went for this home

because it looks like it's on like a very small cove for there's only like five or six houses. So a lot of privacy. Cool, I get it. Malibu, the tides rise and fall, as with all oceans, but the beach really, only certain areas get a good stretch of beach

where you can like hang out when it's low tide. Sure. And he did not pick one of those stretches. So let me cut. This is an indoor home for him. Uh-huh. Which is probably for the bass because seven-footers shouldn't be walking on sand.

Hashtag Vues though? Hashtag hella views. He has got a great bathroom that opens out onto the ocean with like a great soaker tab. You have mentioned bathrooms that open like a bathroom view. I like a bathroom that's like pretty private. I would like to see the ocean from the shower. That sounds great. Thank you.

Okay. It's really, it's a beautiful home. It's clearly a vacation home. It's like a very decked out. I would hope so unless he's playing on being a lake area. I hope like an Airbnb because I love Malibu. But like the kitchen doesn't look like it all really be used as Jeff Chow, our C-O-Pont. pointed out there's no fan above the range so that's a real problem if you're going to really cook

there a lot okay uh so we're essentially looking at a very expensive three-story house with very limited beach access where he will uh hang hang yeah it's just like an extremely pod's bill there it's maybe how about bet it's just an extremely high-end cabana if you bought it to do that to be closer to bill the pod studio that'd be cool i like kd a lot i love when he talks to bill i just don't know that I would have selected this location. But, you know, I wish him well. I think you have different priorities. I think that, like, beach access.

He's probably not like, oh, I got to get in the water. I don't think he goes in the ocean. But maybe, I don't know. Also, a really nice hot tub on one of the decks. There's three decks, which is really cool. I don't know, like, a Malibu house, because it's just not convenient, unless you're, like, retired in 65,

living on the beach of Malibu is, like, really, it is just a very high end to cabana. The world's most expensive cubana is how I view it. And I commend the people who are able to expense it to afford it. it. Speaking of real estate. Speaking of real estate, this one's a little peculiar. I feel like Chris Paul,

so Chris Paul put his Houston house on the market. Yes, he did. It's selling for like $7 million. It's like $6,000 square feet. It's big. Did he re-up in Houston or is this like he's got his like one in? So he got traded and he opted into the fifth year from the Clippers and then that got carried over. So he's up for a new deal. Everyone seems really confident he's staying, but like, huh, he listed his house and he just purchased nine months ago. I mean, he just doesn't like the house.

He seems like he has a lot of real estate investments, though. Well, I bet to say we know that he sold his like second home in the Valley. His other home in, I think, Belair also sold. Like, it just seems like he's moving around real estate a lot. I do think he lives in this house, though. I don't think he has multiples in Houston. Is for NBA players, is real estate just some place to hide your money? I don't think of.

Not hide your money. It's not like a Russian oligarch. Yeah, but I guess what I was asking. Like, what's the advantage of having multiple L.A. homes, unless it's their investment opportunities. Well, for someone like Chris Paul, who really takes care of his family, like one is for his parents, one is for his cousins, whatever. Yeah.

But this is just weird. This is probably him just wanting to move maybe to elsewhere in Houston or maybe outside of the city. Yeah. The Houston Chronicle article is like, but surely Chris Paul is happy here, so they don't think he's moving. Whatever. Also on the newswire,

Derek Fisher and Gloria Govon, the former paramour. Who says love is dead? They got engaged. And apparently, Matt Barnes and Derek Fisher have squashed their beef. That's good. Derek Fisher will be the stepfather to Matt Barnes's twins, Isaiah and Carter Barnes. I recommend following them on Instagram.

Very cute. Yeah, they got engaged against all odds. The Govon sisters just keep on giving. It's this testament to the longevity of this podcast that we've been through so much with Gloria and Derek and Matt. I know. That felt like a long time ago. I don't even.

I can't remember. Did Matt's like tweet, live tweet driving to Sacramento? He tweeted by being mad about it. Where was he driving? I think his team was in town. He went to Derek Fisher's house where they were having like a family party and like they had a fight. Okay.

So I, you know, it must be really hard, divorced, sharing the kids, new guy around, particularly one who doesn't have the best reputation like Derek Fisher. I don't mean like as a bad person, but like as a basketball player, I feel like people thought he was like John Stockton-esque a little dirty sometimes. It turns out that I like dirty players per my enthusiasm for the Miami Heat in this series. I get it You know It's not always

So great Chris do you want Any predictions For tonight's games Or just in general For these series Just in general For the rest of the playoffs

I'm gonna go Cavs Pacers should have Should have won that game So I'm gonna go Cavs for the Cavs Pacers I think wraps still I do too I think wraps in seven I'm going seize

Seas over bucks Just because there's gonna be I just can't see the books I can't see Joe Prunty beating Brad Stevens in a game seven in Boston Hard to imagine.

Yeah. Rocks are going to wrap this up. Like, whatever. Everything's going kind of like, I'm really excited about Warriors Pelicans. Me too. I think that's going to be a tough one for the Warriors. Yeah.

I'm excited to watch how they guard Anthony Davis. There's a lot of options. Yeah. Kevin Durant, Draymond Green. Oh, let's just end by talking about Draymond Green's swagger right now. Okay. Had a good game last night.

Wouldn't say he's having a great playoffs or a great season by his own standards. And C-Web stunned him by saying he wouldn't start on many teams. What do you think about that beef? I don't really get it. Unless he's sort of saying that Draymond's a system player, but I don't, I think if you got Dremont, you would change your system. Right. You know what I mean? Like not a lot of teams play with their like nominal center at the high, like playing at the

top of the key. But Dremont can guard three guys. And I thought, I thought that was a weird quote from C-Web. But I appreciate the takes because sometimes I feel like the ex-players who do a lot of the color commentary or studio stuff. Too deferential. Basically, like, say a lot of nothing. And they're just like, oh, you got to bring it every night. And it's just like, it doesn't really actually add up to much.

So it's a shame because I know Dremon called out Cweb and got like really bothered by it. And I guess you can kind of see why. These guys probably run in a lot of similar social circles and see each other a lot. And they just don't really want to start anything. Totally. It's a hard life being a blog boy. It's very lonely. It really is.

What a win for the ringer. Steph Curry wearing that blog boy shirt on the sidelines. We were all quite excited. You can get one too at the ring. at the ringer.com slash shop. Great. You can listen to so many more Ringer MBA podcasts.

Yeah, we'll be live tonight with group chat. So you can watch us on Twitter and the podcast will be up I think probably late you know, West Coast people chilling watching Corden. You could probably listen to us.

East Coast it will be there for when you get on on your rat infested subway. But yeah, NBA show constantly. Great stuff happened on the Rigged. Also, NFL draft coverage has been great to check it out. Totally. And I can't wait for more real estate moves as free agency in years.

Have a great week and go Sixers. Yeah. Enjoy your expensive cabana.