[SPEAKER_03]: Now, playing, open, floor.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is open floor.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sports Illustrated's Chris Manix back at an LIA podcast with Sports Illustrated Senior Writer.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it's time that the world gets to know.
[SPEAKER_03]: My guy, Chris Manix.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think your opinion's shared by everyone.
[SPEAKER_02]: And now it begins.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now it begins.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the open floor NBA podcast where we talk about the leak and all the big stories that are going on.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it with me this week as she is every week.
[SPEAKER_01]: Fox sports one.
[SPEAKER_00]: What when do we stop seeing with all this smoke?
[SPEAKER_01]: And monumental sports network and getting sports illustrated.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every week for the last few years continues to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: You just blow in my intro there Rachel Nicholson.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just feel I need a new intro.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel at this point we're going to have to do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have an that comes on usually.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like to introduce you know both.
[SPEAKER_00]: I get it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm pointing out your other jobs as kind of like a promotion.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at how much.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are here in Los Angeles, I'm back from Los Vegas.
[SPEAKER_01]: I said this is somebody in Vegas, like 90% of the conversations in Vegas.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Involve when you got there, when you're leaving and where you're staying.
[SPEAKER_00]: And how high does it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you can put that on, you can put on like what I have for dinner last night too, but those three questions come up every single time and I suggest that somebody in the NBA PR office like next year on your credential, it should say what time you arrived.
[SPEAKER_01]: when you're leaving.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just so we can not.
[SPEAKER_01]: And where you're staying?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because then like the small talk would just go away entirely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that could be a problem for people.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean this is you're dealing with a lot of people, some really who needs some conversational crutches.
[SPEAKER_00]: First of all.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how your wife was when she was not that long ago pregnant, but I got to a point when I was pregnant with my twin girls of saying, like, can I just put a sign
[SPEAKER_00]: on my tape, something like a name tag.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the due date.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, it's twins.
[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, it's two girls.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, twins do run in my family.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like I could just go through my grandmother's a twins.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just feel like I could have done it for everyone real quick without having to do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that would lead people without stuff to chat about during summer late.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm good with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what are some really get was for both of us?
[SPEAKER_01]: I was with some like a few days coming out there, not a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, a lot to get into either one of you where I got a fight.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did we get this?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, you were.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did not get into physical altercation unlike some of the other people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, we're just a bad meta-bioteiro hero.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just saying.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wasn't not been a video of that released yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I feel like Vegas is cameras everywhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you're in a public gym or a hotel gym.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess somebody did a better job paying off somebody than in the San Francisco situation.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, where's TMZ with all this?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure they're working on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where's the people that are out there?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why you gotta be like that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why do you want to see Tyler hero beat up?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to kind of want to see what kind of shot he took.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but she did take like a straight crawl.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are a boxing guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Was it as advertised where BAM just kind of walked up to him and said,
[SPEAKER_01]: Hermes said about me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pow!
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean right there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's see it.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's get into on the show.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're talking about the bond james, the future of LeBron still up in the air, the second apron.
[SPEAKER_01]: Adam Silver likes the second apron, David Kelly from the Players Union does not.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's talk about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Gary Trent situation, I'm fascinated by this.
[SPEAKER_01]: This was a big storyline over the last few days in Las Vegas and the Clippers investigation drags on.
[SPEAKER_01]: for another day, or another week, or another month, I mean, well, Carolina did have all people remains in limbo because of akin to that as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I wanted to,
[SPEAKER_01]: Get your take on something, something happened to me this week that I want to get your take on as a media member that's probably been involved in these situations before.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was approached by what's illustrated was approached by a PR firm that was representing an NBA player and he was promoting something.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to say what the player was, I don't want to make him part of this, I don't want to say what the product was, I don't think he was really the product people's faults either.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I get a pro saying, you know, such as such as plugging this, can you talk to him for a story?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, it was like, as long as things were like, if it wasn't July, probably would have said no.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm thinking like, all right, I'll use the audio in the video for the podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll turn the interview into a Q&A for the newsletter.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can make some work.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I get on a Zoom early in the week with this person and like three other people from this person's team or part of the PR team or something like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So in situations like this and you've done radio a lot and other things.
[SPEAKER_01]: situations like this, usually kind of introduce what the person is promoting, at least I do, and then do a normal interview.
[SPEAKER_01]: And at the end, kind of ease them into what they're talking about.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe somewhere in between, you mix it in, you know, you refresh the conversation, say, promoting this one.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I did that at the top.
[SPEAKER_01]: I actually asked this person,
[SPEAKER_01]: About the product right off the top we had a brief like minute two minute long conversation about what he was promoted Then we went into a basketball conversation Okay five minutes into the basketball conversation a voice comes up over the zoom call Voice of God and the voice says please keep the questions to product
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I proceeded to just end the interview.
[SPEAKER_01]: I said to this person.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: I needed on that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I said this person, why don't you tell me what you're promoting whatever this person put it out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I ended the interview.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like hours later, the PR person's like, Chris, thanks for doing that today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let us know when it's going to run.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just kind of ignore the email.
[SPEAKER_01]: Next day, same kind of email.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not going to run because I did not agree to have a conversation with this person about your product.
[SPEAKER_01]: I agree to allow this person to promote your product on my platforms, but I did not agree to have a conversation about your product.
[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, I said, I don't know who the audience is for a conversation about your product with this person.
[SPEAKER_01]: Am I in the wrong on this one?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like if someone had interrupted your flow of a basketball related interview with the voice of God in the background saying, please keep the questions about this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you have taken kindly to it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's funny.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was about to say, man, this is a detour to where the audience probably doesn't care about, because my old boss first saw him at the Washington Post used to always say, don't write about a lack of a access, don't write about your problems.
[SPEAKER_00]: People don't want to hear that people in the media who cover sports for living have problems.
[SPEAKER_00]: Until we got to the point, Chris, where you said, am I in the wrong?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I'm like, huh, an open floor audience definitely wants to have a larger discussion about whether Chris Mann is in the wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: So now we're interested again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would say that you were not in the wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wish I could say otherwise, but in fact, you were not in the wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look, we see it with late night TV, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, so-and-so is coming on because they want to promote their movie, or so, the studio wants them to promote their movie.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they also talk about, like, G isn't it funny that my left earring went down the drain, or whatever it is that makes for good pattern on late night TV.
[SPEAKER_01]: It does do profiles for, like, G-tube, like, G-tube, like they do for a file about themselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because the story is going to be a bit about your movie.
[SPEAKER_00]: great exactly this is standard so obviously somebody there was not playing by the established rules.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was totally fine for you to say great.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not doing promo items so therefore if we're not getting together part we're not doing this but yes I think probably most of our audience is like a whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hate doing interviews like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I usually say no to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, this time of the year, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm
[SPEAKER_01]: Actually, I'm seeing this person do much in the way of NBA media.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think I was one of the only people that said, yes, do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: OK, well, then then you were in the wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm not.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just that the earlier stage.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, not a fan of how that all played out.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're just a no-to PR people that listen to this podcast, that is not how you do business.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to product, you've got to allow a traditional interview to take place.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then,
[SPEAKER_01]: some product promotion at the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's how it worked.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, onto more meaningful issues.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And let's start with the bronze James, who continues to be basketball homeless out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: The bronze, supposedly, I guess, you know, because they homeless or is he at home everywhere?
[SPEAKER_01]: He's at home everywhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: And currently, he's, I believe at home, it is multi-million dollar estate in Akron, Ohio.
[SPEAKER_01]: decamping or hanging out there trying to figure out who knows where he is today.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, I believe he's supposed to do a podcast in New York Yes, I guess as people listen to this, he's in New York.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was going to send you a CDP is that is where he is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Doing a podcast with Tyrese Hall of Burton where he's prepared to announce his move to the end of pacers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't say that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Someone's going to aggregate you saying that.
[SPEAKER_01]: he's not that was a joke but you know what though I don't know I get all these media requests like this time of year ready interviews TV from people like say hey can you come on talk about what the bronze going to do and I've responded to all of them over the last few days with I don't know like at any one that tells you they know
[SPEAKER_01]: is most likely guessing because it does seem like it's just guesswork.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have hit the point of LeBron James's illustrious career where we are seeing something new.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are seeing a player who is not concerned about money whose contract will not affect the books of whatever team that he signs with.
[SPEAKER_01]: Make a decision purely based on what is personal preferences that at this point Rachel I proudly say I have no idea I was sitting Vegas having conversations with a lot of different people over the course of the last few days And I can tell you they have no idea Well, some of these people are from teams who are in the mix for LeBron James
[SPEAKER_01]: told me they have no idea and I believe them like this is a whatever he decides to do and whenever he decides to do it it will absolutely come out of nowhere for most people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, so for I said this last week when we talked I've said this several times on Fox Sports the last couple weeks all of these aggregation stories where you see it's trending toward Cleveland or people around the league think it's Cleveland's to lose and I'm just using Cleveland because then it became Miami for a few days, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Then it became whatever.
[SPEAKER_00]: Conversations being had, quote, around the league between league executives with each other with reporters are the exact same conversation you and I are having is the exact same conversation you listener are having with your neighbor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody has additional information when someone says, oh,
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's kind of trending to a Cleveland because, of course, where else can you see him going at such a good story?
[SPEAKER_00]: That is, they were opinion on how good a story it is and whether that would appeal to LeBron James.
[SPEAKER_00]: It has nothing to do about whether his decision is actually trending to a Cleveland.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, he can end up in a Cavs uniform.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just saying that nobody who tells you that they know right now knows.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you press them, if you really be like, well, what are you basing that on?
[SPEAKER_00]: Not a single person will say it's because of something that came from LeBron or LeBron's camp,
[SPEAKER_00]: Rich Paul is available in the media multiple times a week on his podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: He got the whiteboard, he got the whole thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not telling you what LeBron thinks.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they've made a point about the fact that LeBron isn't taking meetings, which is why Bob Myers had to go on a podcast and pitch LeBron James because he couldn't get a meeting with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Chris Finch went on a podcast and pitched LeBron James because Chris Finch can't get a meeting with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody that we know of according to Rich Paul is meeting with LeBron.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were all talking to him and then he talks to LeBron.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, will we see a little bit from the executive side?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like players?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, players.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those conversations are happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: For sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: People are calling LeBron.
[SPEAKER_00]: LeBron is calling people, etc.
[SPEAKER_00]: But absolutely from an executive side.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are not getting those things.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have noticed when LeBron moves teams that in need.
[SPEAKER_00]: eight to twenty four hours beforehand you do start to see little things come out whether it's the cupcake leading Cleveland to knew that he'd ordered a bunch of cupcakes whether it was oh we had to make the small salary move and people who are on the league are noticing that there's small salary move here they're being made and that's because of X.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is how you might get the information six seconds before he announces it, but in general it will come out when he wants it to come out.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're listening to this and he did his podcast already and he did it in the podcast, then you know more than we do right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only thing I think is interesting is, you know, you and I were there up close when the decision happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think there is a little bit in the retelling of that and we're now so many years down the road from that of why people were angry.
[SPEAKER_00]: And my opinion from being on the ground every second of that, both in Cleveland, prior to it happening, when it happened, spending the season, I am a covering him after it happened, doing the big interview with him where he finally apologized for the first time more than a year later for what he did and said.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can tell you it wasn't that he left Cleveland that was not what that visceral reaction was about yes, of course If he had left Cleveland people would have been upset that's not what all that anger was about it was the way it happened It was that people especially in Cleveland and to a degree around the country felt this guy is playing with everyone's Hope streams and emotions for fun because he wants a little he was the recruiting touring ever got and He wants to like be able to get on TV in front of everyone and hold the country's attention
[SPEAKER_00]: and for sport he's doing it and for money and even though the money went to the girls boys club it seemed like the whole special had some you know two peoples in their minds it was he's playing with our emotions he's playing with our time he's playing with our love for him our love for him on this team my kid crying about it because he wanted to go off and have a good time on this little tour and do a little TV special
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where a lot of the anger came from.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when he apologized, I thought he did a really smart thing of apologizing for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not apologizing for leaving Cleveland, because frankly, you're allowed to decide where you live into an adult.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think most people would say that that's OK as an adult to decide where I want to live and work.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the way he did it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think understanding the way he did it was what angered so many people that first time is that in the subsequent time since he didn't do anything like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was no big circus, there was no hostage situation, it was all very quiet, even when it took a little bit longer when he left Cleveland for, I mean, when you left Miami for Cleveland, it wasn't portrayed as like, oh, he's getting his rocks off, you know, holding himself off to the highest bidder, et cetera, et cetera, like, it was just sort of, okay, this is taking a little longer, but there's a big telegraph of what's happening here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I worry that
[SPEAKER_00]: This is starting to pick up through no fault of the Bronzone, frankly.
[SPEAKER_00]: A little bit of like, hey, we're all being held hostage here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that no matter how he announces it, whether it's on his podcast, whether it's through a small press release, whether it's a tweet from someone that there is going to be some backlash about the sort of saga of it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: And or maybe they'll figure out a PR way around that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll find out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I...
[SPEAKER_01]: Any backlash wouldn't come from me on this one.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, but you now have several fan bases.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you talk to people in Cleveland.
[SPEAKER_00]: They absolutely think he's coming to Cleveland.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: You talk to people in Miami.
[SPEAKER_00]: They absolutely think he's coming to Miami.
[SPEAKER_00]: You talk to people in Philly now.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of people in Philly who thinks he's coming to Philly.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I do wonder if the fans in those markets, if there's going to be a, if this tour, if this sort of thing, which isn't even a tour, he's been at home.
[SPEAKER_00]: He isn't doing anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the fall.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just to the broad the stage is like,
[SPEAKER_01]: maybe fans think differently.
[SPEAKER_01]: But LeBron, to any of the teams that he's in the mixboard, doesn't guarantee anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like before, it's like you get LeBron James.
[SPEAKER_01]: You got a real chance.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he's significantly changes.
[SPEAKER_01]: He enhances, I would say.
[SPEAKER_00]: You had Kenny Acencing go on the radio, we'll get by the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kenny Akinson, I feel, should be taking a moment to think about some of these interviews he does after what happened during the Eastern Conference Finals.
[SPEAKER_00]: He went on the radio, the other day in Las Vegas, and said, well, we could be getting a big change for our team, you know, or freeage, I can have to look up the exact quote.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, I think you guys know what I'm talking about, a free agency thing could be, dude, what are you doing?
[SPEAKER_00]: What is happening?
[SPEAKER_00]: Who's letting him go on and see these things?
[SPEAKER_00]: Now you're gonna set it up.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think Rachel's dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, what analytically we're ahead in these games.
[SPEAKER_00]: Positive thinking wise we're ahead in the Eastern Conference Finals.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is now set up on dynamic.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where if they don't get LeBron, he is now explained to everyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a hole in their team and that they needed him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's happening.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it kind of is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: But how is the coach going to do it now?
[SPEAKER_00]: What is going on here?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you think that you mentioned some of the teams, it's been widely reported and this may just be perception that it's Golden State, it's Cleveland, it's Miami, it's Philadelphia.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are the top teams.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is it?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not doing the tour.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: The tour is happening without us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: People are sick of talking about Cleveland for three days, so now it's suddenly he's going to Miami.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you think there's a team though that we're not talking about?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, do you think he's sitting out there really considering like San Antonio?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I see thinking like, you know what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I think we discussed this last week.
[SPEAKER_01]: San Antonio makes the most sense.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you go to San Antonio.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can say San Antonio makes the most sense.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think San Antonio makes a lot of sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: For whom?
[SPEAKER_00]: For everyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: For whom?
[SPEAKER_01]: For everyone.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think for the spurs.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nope.
[SPEAKER_01]: You get a guy that's been there done that before.
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: You get a guy that can teach you some things in the locker room.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not smart.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not signing him to a multi-year deal here.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a hard one-year deal.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just agree.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I think the getting to LeBron San Antonio helps them get over the mount top.
[SPEAKER_01]: You get another killer in that locker room.
[SPEAKER_01]: Someone that can educate these young stars on the roster and help them get to that next level.
[SPEAKER_01]: And for LeBron, hey, I know they're saying he's not motivated by winning the championship pursuing Jordan, all that stuff, but it's a great chance winning on the championship.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that would be, I think, another feather in his cap.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tell me why San Antonio is not.
[SPEAKER_00]: the obvious basketball choice because I think LeBron is a better team player than people think he is.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you just have to watch him out on the court.
[SPEAKER_00]: He did it again this season.
[SPEAKER_00]: He makes his teammates better.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's still one of the better passers and great court vision and all of the things.
[SPEAKER_00]: He plays the role you need him to play.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can put up video of him and I'm not sitting next to the right guy in the bench and look he's ignoring so and so, but he is generally a good influence on the younger teammates in the locker room.
[SPEAKER_00]: I agree.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of those things can be true and I'm here to tell you they are true.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, also he comes with a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is a huge gravitational force and any locker room he is in becomes largely about LeBron James.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not necessarily his fault.
[SPEAKER_00]: All the other things I just said before that are true.
[SPEAKER_00]: But like it's just a fact, it comes along with him, and that I don't think that San Antonio locker room would be better off for that gravitational pull.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think all of the relentless media questions, again, not his fault, not Victor's fault.
[SPEAKER_00]: not whoever, but the relentless of who's team is this now, is this little thing?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's that really a question.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, on the guy on a one-year deal.
[SPEAKER_00]: You were watching, I am so sorry.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you been not watching no news happen?
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, like, dreams of quote articles and whatever and think pieces and whatever come across about LeBron over the three weeks, we've had no news.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like when you get into the season, I don't think anyone's going to sit there and say, I promise you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wonder which news team it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are victim women, yeah, I'm going to decide to five of your extensions.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are high.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you
[SPEAKER_00]: You do not think, if you do not think there would not be a media frenzy, if you do not think Victor would have to be asked all kinds of questions that are going to create some friction.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you do not think that like the ingredient, when Rich Paul gets on his podcast and says, oh, if they hadn't want it, would have been New York.
[SPEAKER_00]: That would have been easy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you convinced that Leon Rose would have said, I want that gravity in my locker room?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like teams put together.
[SPEAKER_00]: fabric of players.
[SPEAKER_00]: And LeBron being thrown into that locker room, depending on the fabric of players you have, no matter how good he is, no matter how good his intentions are, no matter how much he does, actually help younger players, no matter how much he does, actually bend his game to other guys games.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't matter, it becomes disruptive.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think you have rosters like you do in Miami, where you're still putting out locker room together.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Cleveland, where you've got guys who have been around the block and aren't going to be affected in the same way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Same thing in the sixters who work through on both of those counts.
[SPEAKER_00]: The gravity of LeBron is not going to be disruptive in that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: In San Antonio, in New York, in several other cities, it would have been or would be disruptive.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't buy that there are some up-on-to-sleeper teams.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think Denver wants him, we're not talking about it that much because a lot of people don't think he's going to Denver.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that a sleeper?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Minnesota.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he'd be a great basketball fit in Minnesota.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't see a lot of people talking about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that because it's done, it's not Minnesota's turn yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in three days, if he doesn't announce on the podcast, we'll be talking about Minnesota.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where's that because he's not going to be there?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he's going to live in Minnesota for a year.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, when we say, oh, we're not as there's sleeper team we're not talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've largely stopped talking about the warriors.
[SPEAKER_00]: which posed whiteboard, it just said in the very corner, Steph and Dre, that was like all that was to be said for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does he want a season where he gets to hang around with Steph and Dre and play golf?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because they play golf, they play golf at almost every stop they go to.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like, that's going to be a lot of fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe that's how we want to end it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rich Paula said, oh, I want this to be about happiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, let's go into the LA was what happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was more about non-bass what reason that it was actually for basketball reasons.
[SPEAKER_01]: To go back to San Antonio just for a moment, Victor Wimbin Yamma is one of the great sponges in NBA history.
[SPEAKER_01]: The guy spent last year's season working with the monks, he absorbs basketball related information through the Witcher book series, like he just finds usefulness for everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think the spurs would do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe not, maybe not.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a separate separate one.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not that, oh, it would be bad for Victor.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think as I said, I think the reality of LeBron and the perception of LeBron are two different things, but the perception is an active living thing also.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I just don't think this place is like any media friends you would be much much more tempered in San Antonio at this stage of the Bronzco I don't you're not going to get the spurs in Starry right like we're not going to like people are moving to San Antonio to cover People are moving to wherever the next stop LeBron is going I was vaping minimum going down there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that there were multiple media companies, if you ask around to your friends, there were multiple media companies waiting to see what LeBron does before they decide where they're putting the reporters for this next season, and I'm including some very large media companies.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if it's in San Antonio, then they would move depending on the app.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not what's illustrating on the app.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Really?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Couldn't move that.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's enough of the bronze conversation.
[SPEAKER_01]: We still don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe we'll find out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you think we're going to find out this weekend?
[SPEAKER_01]: Everyone's going to connect the dots.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, on fanatics.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, always a fanatics.
[SPEAKER_01]: Big platform.
[SPEAKER_01]: This podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: This goes back to...
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know who's making the decision of how people find out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is it LeBron, maybe he's in decision?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is it LeBron a rich Paul, maybe he's in decision?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is it LeBron, rich Paul, and a Mendelsohn who's very savvy on public relations and how we should be doing those sort of LeBron's big advisor doing it?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that if the person making the decisions primary goal is to have this be met with good feelings and good fortune, I would not be doing it at fanatics fest.
[SPEAKER_00]: And only because I think the perception that this is a lurk or this is fun or that this is being done for profit or any of that stuff when you have now had this drug on long enough to be playing with like people's emotions, we saw the kid crying about jail and brown being moved all over the you know social media this past week.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just think that people don't get upset because you're an adult and you want to go do what you want to do go go go go go with go with Whoever you believe in go with God go with whatever like you are an adult you have the brand has given so much to the NBA He should be able to play wherever he goddamn wants to play but I think if you were fan of one of these teams that really thinks you're in it
[SPEAKER_00]: And the perception is that there's a little bit of a ha ha ha when the announcement is made that you are not.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that is where the negativity comes and LeBron has done such a great job of sort of rebuilding some of the goodwill across the league that he at one point had lost.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it would be a shame if over something is clerical as one in how he announces.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of that is lost again.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I hope that it's announced in a way that's like just sort of quiet and that whatever Fanbase is like to get him gets him and that the other fanbases who may have wanted him feel like they've got other good alternatives unless of course Apparently you're Kenny Ackinson, who's telling you for an on the radio that
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to get the quote.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wish it into existence.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to get the quote.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to get the quote.
[SPEAKER_00]: That quote just got me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got me again.
[SPEAKER_01]: From LeBron James to a less, let's say, sexy story to talk about it now.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is the second apron, which came up over the last couple of days.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're really.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, look, this came up David Kelly, who is the legendary actor.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're a media struggles.
[SPEAKER_00]: the one, I'm just the topics for this podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean it's right.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the second apron is it's obviously in the news because some of the changes boss have to make.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now you've got David Kelly.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was the executive director of the NBA Players Association coming out and saying that the second apron basically sucks.
[SPEAKER_01]: That it should not have been.
[SPEAKER_01]: that basically the union should not have allowed it to go into place a few years ago and that when the next round of negotiations comes up that is going to be something that they fight again.
[SPEAKER_01]: That silver on Tuesday was asked about these comments, was asked about the second apron, and he effectively said the situation the
[SPEAKER_01]: situation, the apron is work of the system, is working exactly how it should be working.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, which side do you want on this?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you think the second apron is some kind of devil to the NBA or do you think that Adam Silver's right?
[SPEAKER_01]: That hey, we've got eight champions in the last eight years, we've got parity, like we've never had before, the system is working, the system doesn't need to change.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think everybody's working in their own interests and that they are exactly right for what their interests are.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the Player's Association is absolutely right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Installing what is essentially a hard cap and a league that didn't have one is bad for the players.
[SPEAKER_00]: We used to have more free spending.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we have less of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know who that affects most?
[SPEAKER_00]: The players.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, by the way, affects the fans, because it affects teams staying together or not homegrown stars like Jalen Brown.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do they end up leaving?
[SPEAKER_00]: You can argue there is a lot more going on there, but money is obviously eventually going to be part of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that
[SPEAKER_00]: If you are the owners, and if you are Adam Silver, who is an employee of the owners, let's not forget that Adam Silver works for the owners.
[SPEAKER_00]: The league is not like some separate entity.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not like the ownership is one group.
[SPEAKER_00]: The league is another group and the players are either group.
[SPEAKER_00]: The league office is funded for paid for by the owners who are Adam Silver's boss.
[SPEAKER_00]: Adam Silver's bosses absolutely think that the second apron is a great idea, because it is a hard cap on salaries.
[SPEAKER_00]: They keep them from sort of working against themselves by being so, quote, competitive that they sort of outspend each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is why that was put in.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the next collective bargaining agreement, are the players going to get any relief on this?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, because the players have no power in collective bargaining agreements.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is no labor negotiation in sports where the players actually have much real power at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: We see this over and over again, because if the league shuts down for a few years, the billionaires take a loss and in fact on their taxes and in fact sometimes end up with more money in their pocket than they did if the league was running and the players in that only cost them money it cost them years of their life and athleticism and contract.
[SPEAKER_00]: If the NBA shuts down for a year because the players run the hard line on no more second apron, do you know who loses out the most?
[SPEAKER_00]: the guys in their prime who now will have one year less in their prime making money and that is why the players always quote unquote fold in these negotiations and they are never getting that second aid from back so i'm here to tell you Mr. Kelly that is not happening and i'm sure he is experiencing enough to know that um you don't look
[SPEAKER_00]: A hard cap makes it harder for fans to keep their teams to have the teams that they love and the homegrown players that they love stay there longer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what we see because it makes it harder is that you then have a position where players are under pressure and this is what I think he was talking about to take less.
[SPEAKER_00]: because that is the way that we can keep these teams together.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the way we can have a more well-rounded team that could win a couple of years in a row or win it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is true.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you start to put limits on how much money can be spent and you then get into a situation where if the players all take a little bit less or if one big player takes a lot less, you can have a more complete team and therefore have a better chance of winning.
[SPEAKER_00]: And of course, the player's association doesn't like that, because it works in a couple instances.
[SPEAKER_00]: It works if you are Jalen Branson, and the guy running the front office met you as a baby before your father did, and you guys are so close as a family that you know that if you take significantly less money,
[SPEAKER_00]: that the front office Leon Rose, who met you as a baby, before your dad did, is not going to turn around and trade that contract because he's like, oh, I've got Jalen Brown on such a discount.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, Jalen Brown's on such a discount.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to screw you Jalen Brown's in.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not actually taking less money to play for a championship anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're on a team with a completely rebuilding team that could take use of the salary cap room or whatever.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm trading that contract to get something else.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't have to worry about that, because Leon Rose will never do that to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Victor Webanyama took that made the decision that he's going to give up what is an essence what 10 million a year on this five year deal?
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, yes, would most likely be because he is a level of trust with the spurs for an office, partly because Tony Parker played there when Victor was a kid and it's mostly the same people and he just trusts and believes in them and partly because he is
[SPEAKER_00]: potentially one of the greatest basketball players ever and feels like he will always have enough of an upper hand with that front office that if he takes less money over the course of these next five years he will still not get screwed over by that by him.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is it is a very short list of players that can take less money and do that sort of thing we've talked about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we had guys in the past do it, been assured things by front offices, and they turn around and get traded and screwed over.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like, I just don't think it's a workable system to be putting pressure on these players.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you have to take less money here, you have to take less money there, because most people are not jailing, fronts, and most people are not victor.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you cannot trust these front offices.
[SPEAKER_00]: And why should you?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not their job to make the player happy.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's their job to maximize their assets in it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, Bronson tells a very different version of the story.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do, I read your piece.
[SPEAKER_01]: Bronson says that he took the most money he possibly could because he wanted the security.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think he said something that effect before, but I think in his mind, he still looked in himself back then as being somewhat disposable that if he didn't continue this trajectory that the next, even with.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, Leon rose there that they would maybe discard him, trade him, do something else.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he wanted the max dollar, he could possibly get in that moment that he got it, turned out to be phenomenal from New York because had he swayed it as we know would have been 113 more of a million dollars per year.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's interesting here, I'm saying that.
[SPEAKER_01]: The other thing too is it is worth pointing out that
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not like owners are making more money here, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I'm not defending owners, but like, it's a split.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, the best related revenue gets split over.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's happening here with Bronson with Wenbin Yamma is that they're making decisions that are going to get
[SPEAKER_01]: other guys that they may want on their roster, the money they need to keep them on their roster.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like so the Brunson deal, that allowed them to hold a bunch of different things, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Whether it's cat, McHale bridges, signing these guys to extensions.
[SPEAKER_01]: That unlocked a whole host of things that they could do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Similarly, I would imagine, I don't know what exactly how it's all going to work with the spurs.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I would imagine that's going to unlock some things for them over the next few years as they've got to start to pay out the contract.
[SPEAKER_01]: So guys like Wimbain Yama and Brunson,
[SPEAKER_01]: They have enabled their organization, and that's why the trust thing does come in.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're trusting you have to trust that you're doing all this and you're seeing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which is what like Tom said, bring it to this, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like for years, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So he has so literally this.
[SPEAKER_01]: He trusted craft.
[SPEAKER_01]: He trusted Belgium.
[SPEAKER_01]: He trusted that.
[SPEAKER_01]: If he took less money, they would be able to find the guys to help him win.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they did that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it all worked out famously for Tom Brady.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Tom.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love you in Boston.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's the next level to all this, where like star players moving forward are gonna feel a lot of pressure year after year.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are, but then you better bring no trade clauses back.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause that's what I asked.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can still give them out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like Bradley Bill got one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody gives them out anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: We keep talking about how like someone so is the last person to have one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I think so.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to spend a certain amount of years isn't it?
[SPEAKER_00]: With one team, and then there's like the de facto no trade clauses, because of certain exceptions and stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if I am a player, if I am a major player,
[SPEAKER_00]: or anyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, if I was any player in the league, and I was said, eh, can you give a little bit more here?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because it would help us with this flexibility here, and it's going to help you long-term because that way you could win a title.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm actually interested in that, because I am the one who sits here and says every week, how much money do these guys need?
[SPEAKER_00]: How much money do these guys need?
[SPEAKER_01]: How much money do these guys need?
[SPEAKER_01]: It runs as like an extra $X million would not materially change my life at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, a championship is going to material, material, material, change your life, it will change.
[SPEAKER_00]: Travelling is not what happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are.
[SPEAKER_00]: It will lead to more money down the road.
[SPEAKER_00]: It will lead to, I mean, these guys spend so much, so many, I mean, we don't see behind the scenes, hours of their lives, dedicated to this pursuit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you can make it easier on yourself in exchange for money that you won't even notice.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, I think there's value in these guys doing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I would damn sure ask for a no trade clause.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the problem is that you then have teams,
[SPEAKER_00]: I think what would balance this out is that the teams wouldn't want to give out so many not trade clauses because then that ruins the flexibility that they're trying to create in the first place.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is how you get to where Kelly is saying, hey, I don't like this trend because players are being asked to take less now, someone could ask their whole roster to take less, and then our guys are being flung around willingly, what would balance that equation out is if every time a guy take over a glass, he would say, okay, but then you got to give me a new trade clause for an office isn't going to do that for more than one or two guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: So then more one or two guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: probably would do it for the guys that are taking less money like the next probably give jail in brunch right next time around when bronzes do like a $500 million contract if you want to know trade clause take less the next would do it when but yama you get a no trade clause forever um i do think that there's
[SPEAKER_01]: Some wiggle room to negotiate on the second April.
[SPEAKER_01]: I agree with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not going anywhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: Once the NBA's got it, they're not giving it up.
[SPEAKER_01]: They've been chasing some four-ball hard caps.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the David Stern era.
[SPEAKER_01]: They finally have it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not going anywhere unless you're willing to lose like two seasons of basketball to fight for it, which we know is not happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I think the owners would still come.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's the biggest thing to remember in labor.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're in a good way.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are places where there's some point.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the players can really only do so much.
[SPEAKER_01]: I agree.
[SPEAKER_01]: Acceptions carved in for home-grown talent.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think what happened in Boston should not be forced to happen again Now Boston's maybe a little bit different.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot going on behind the scenes with jail and Brown and Jason Tatum and the Celtics and all that that that contributed to this divorce But fundamentally Brad Stevens said it's hard to build the team when you've got two players making up 70% of your salary cap
[SPEAKER_01]: If you draft a player, if you shrewdly make a deal to get a draft pick, draft a player, and look, neither Jalen Brown or Jason Tatum was like the number one overall pick.
[SPEAKER_01]: They weren't like this sure player just digging yourself a deeper into the game.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I'm not because Jalen Brown, it was booed on draft night for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jason Tatum was passed over twice.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like,
[SPEAKER_01]: There's something's got to first round, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: I know of the Celtics or the best example to be pulling with all of this discussion, but sure, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, if you draft it again, Brad Stevens acquired a guy who is now going to help take up 70% of his other cap.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's talking about two years from now, blah, blah, blah.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can make all the exceptions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, my continue.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you draft a player, yes, there should be, I agree.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some percentage of the room, so it may be you pay the guy X, but only counts against X, percent against your cap.
[SPEAKER_01]: That, if I'm the union,
[SPEAKER_01]: that's what I'm fighting for.
[SPEAKER_01]: Fighting for the abolition of a hard cap is a lost cause.
[SPEAKER_01]: Fighting for these little tweaks to the agenda that's or to the CBA, that's something I think they should be proactive about doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I would focus on if I was David Kelly.
[SPEAKER_01]: I happen to have agreed to some extent without himself or
[SPEAKER_01]: I kind of like the parity system.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like this new team winning a championship every year.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like that there's 12 teams per conference that are competitive every year.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think this was the dream that David Stern has.
[SPEAKER_01]: Adam Silver's meant a reality.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the NBA is better for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like we probably, I don't want to say forever if killed off Dynasties, but this system makes it really hard to develop a Dynasties.
[SPEAKER_01]: It does.
[SPEAKER_01]: If that's the only trade off here,
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm okay with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't need to see a Dynastee.
[SPEAKER_01]: Dynastee for fun, Celtics, Dynasty, Bulls, Dynasty, Lakers, Dynasty, all the Dynastees from the last 50 some odd years, but I kind of rather this over Dynastee's personally.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think there's a lot of things that go into whether we have Dynasties or not, because the second apron is only X number of years old, and we haven't had a repeat champion in eight years, and those two Xs is not equal eight, so I think, be conflating a little bit here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's great that a lot of teams are getting a chance to win.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, Dynasties can be fun, and the health of the league actually improves when there's Dynasties.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, everyone knows who Steph Curry is, because of how many times he won the title, and that's good for the NBA.
[SPEAKER_00]: The grandma's around the world loves Steph Curry.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, Dynasties made Michael Jordan famous and Michael Jordan being famous helped the entire NBA.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Dynasties aren't bad for the NBA just as a matter of course, but I do think it's great to have these arrows where more fans get to experience winning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do I think there's a lot of things that contribute to that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely, I do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the owners protecting themselves for spending too much money is only part of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, let me ask you about one of the weirder stories of the week, which is the Gary Trent situation with Milwaukee.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you missed it last week, I guess it was the bucks agreed to a four year, $64 million deal with Gary Trent.
[SPEAKER_01]: This raised a lot of eyebrows because Gary Trent was very bad last year had one of his, I think, the worst season of his career in terms of points field goal percentage, at least in full season Was the kind of player that many executives pointed out to me, they had slotted either as the taxpayer bid level up right around $6 million, some of them had it as the veteran minimum, $3.9 million instead Then the walkie bucks have agreed to pay him $16 million per year
[SPEAKER_01]: year and this got everybody's antenna up because you're looking at it and saying huh well if we look back at this a few years ago Gary Trent signed a very below market value deal back when the bucks were on the tail end of the Damian Lillard y'all seem to cumpo era he then turns around signs a two year with a player option last season at below
[SPEAKER_01]: not player value, a below market value.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, when he has no value, when there really aren't teams clamoring for him, you're going to sign him to the richest contract that you Milwaukee have given it, a $16 million per year deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: Adam Silva was not asked about this as a presser.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was told by the NBA that they're not looking into it yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: mostly because it's not official, like the bucks haven't announced it, and the contracts from what I'm told are not submitted yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the end doesn't have anything to sort of look at, except for a report that says getting four years 64 million dollars.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if the bucks submit this contract, I think it's going to be really interesting, because it's going to put the NBA in a position where there are already dealing with the Coi Leonard stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now you're going to turn around and investigate a deal that,
[SPEAKER_01]: Doesn't look great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Doesn't look like it looks like a cap circumvention type of deal.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I were the NBA, I would be waiting until another team made a complaint.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think there's an official filing for this, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's common.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you think so?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I do think so.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't be volunteering to investigate this in my own only because of this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it is very murky and hard to prove.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that
[SPEAKER_00]: you're, yes, absolutely, it doesn't seem to quote me, it says, why would they be signing to an undermarket deal two years in a row when they needed salary relief to try to help build around Yana's, but then signing to a quote overmarket salary deal when they don't need that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And G was this a quick pro quo, was this a, hey, I mean, your question is basically like, hey, take less now.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll take care of you later.
[SPEAKER_00]: There have been accusations that teams have been doing that with veterans for decades.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can point to 10 teams in the league that if you get on the phone with the other 20 teams, they will say, ah, they always operate that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or, oh, did you see that they hired that guy after his playing career was over?
[SPEAKER_00]: What does he really do for them anyway?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that really just a makeup on salary of the salary they didn't pay him toward the end of his playing career so that they could go sign extra people?
[SPEAKER_00]: These kinds of mushy allegations are part of the standard
[SPEAKER_00]: practice of the MBA, and if I'm Milwaukee, I might say, hey, I can think of three or four different contracts this week alone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Brian Winhorse has gotten on television and said that the Washington Wizard's contract with Tray Young is one of the worst contracts he's ever seen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why it's untradable.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why would you ever do that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody was competing for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is someone on a major outlet who's a very well respected MBA reporter going on and saying this is a complete overpay for no reason.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I'm, I don't know if that's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would disagree being a Washington wizard to person who's not like, yeah, you didn't, the wizard didn't pay tray anything before this.
[SPEAKER_00]: All I'm telling you is that you can find people to criticize.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I'm a walkie and I was defending myself, I'm not saying it was actually happening here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm saying if I'm willing to hear this because I'm dying to see how much I would say.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say I can pick a 10 contracts, I don't know why they did, but they did.
[SPEAKER_00]: We thought he was of this value.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course he wanted to sign here for less than his market worth when Janice was here.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wanted to come play with Janice.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't all you media people talk all the time about how so-and-so we'll take the minimum because they get to live in LA and play with LeBron or Lupinow or whoever it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had to pay him more to keep him here in Milwaukee because Diannis isn't here anymore and we're rebuilding and we had to incentivize him and he's become a really important part of our locker room.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we just felt like we needed him around and yes this past year was an aberration in terms of his numbers.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the whole team was in such a state of flux and then we're all these bad feelings now between Diannis and the front office and we all agreed that this was a bad environment for the team to be operating on.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're not necessarily trying to win where we prioritizing winning as we like to say instead of tinking for draft picks or this or that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the star was arguing about whether he should be playing or not, and no one knew it was going to happen next year.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, it was a down year for Gary Trent Jr., but we believe he will be better next year and that is what we are paying for.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think that this is something that the league can tag them on, and so therefore I wouldn't go down this road if I were the league unless someone made me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, which is the interesting question, because there are a lot of people that believe the proper punishment for the books is to have Gary Paris on their book Gary Harris, Gary Trent on their books for four years and $60 million per year.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there's also a school of thought that any potential
[SPEAKER_01]: cap circumvention needs to be investigated.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think we have a much bigger cap circumvention problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you did a very good job in Adam's press conference of asking and following up on us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what do you do with Trent?
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you do with Trent?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's notable.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's notable to me in this situation that the Milwaukee Box 7 entirely new coaching staff this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if the NBA was going to do some investigating,
[SPEAKER_01]: if they're going to ask them to investigate investigating I think I'd probably start if I was them with the previous coaching staff it's almost like an aspiration let's start with the fire and police you always do it when you're reporters out of the fire people absolutely um... i think there's a way to potentially not know it's just his report it was a wild contract i've yet to encounter anybody that says he's worth that contract
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm curious to see if and when it becomes official.
[SPEAKER_00]: If there's a team.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's just interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: The topic, again, I am not defending the mock-y books, or Gary Trinchinger, or anyone else, or the clippers with choir, or whatever, but we're sitting here, it doesn't escape me that we can have an entire conversation about how good and noble it is that there's contract
[SPEAKER_00]: Fudging going on when a guy is, quote, taking last money to help the team win or, oh, it's so this player gets paid here, they can keep this guy or no, they've got to trade this guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are acknowledging that there were a million things that come into play with these contracts beyond what did you produce on the court this season and therefore we should pay you x.
[SPEAKER_00]: If there weren't, it would just be like, this many points, this many would ever, this is what you get paid.
[SPEAKER_00]: We acknowledge in the NBA, it's what is your value to our team.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's part of what you get paid for.
[SPEAKER_00]: What were the other circumstances of this season?
[SPEAKER_00]: When did you do your deal?
[SPEAKER_00]: And were you making more production then?
[SPEAKER_00]: And but you're still getting paid.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a guy who, if you're Paul George, and you're still getting paid, is the guy who made a certain deal, even if you're not producing at that level, because you're just not playing that many games.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, we allow all the time for the fact that contraction, not necessarily a reflection of worth.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's only when we get into certain parts of this complexity that make certain ownership situations more or less difficult that becomes an envy investing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just as though this feels very Joe Smithy.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is kind of the situation that Joe Smith.
[SPEAKER_01]: went down with Minnesota all those years ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there was a written paper trail.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh yeah, that's what God shows them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, some agent problems and it was some emails that went back and forth and that eventually led to.
[SPEAKER_01]: But like the situation where it's like I'm taking less here, I'm taking less there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then all of a sudden my contract is going to explode on the back end of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: that's why the feels the vibes are very similar.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, I'm just curious to see where this goes.
[SPEAKER_00]: So your point, though, that a lot of people around the league, it's a joke of saying, oh, a lot of people around the league feel that the buck's punishment should just be having to pay out this contract.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's actually why I don't think that many people while everybody is raising eyebrows about it because it's a fun thing to talk about while we're also waiting for all the other things that LeBron is a bit quite, you know, all this stuff to choose to fall.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I don't think anybody feels as indignant about this because whether they delayed it or not, whether they tried to use it to give more of a chance to keep you honest or not, they didn't keep you honest.
[SPEAKER_00]: They do still have to pay the money.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the reason that doesn't resonate in the same way with other teams around the league is the way people are angry about this potential quiet clipper situation is they feel as if they're not going to be paying for it in the end.
[SPEAKER_00]: that sort of the money was done off the books.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not later contract.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was an off the books contract.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's where the distinction is.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was pleased to see you ask multiple times in this press conference about why the co-iliner situation hadn't been resolved.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was surprised we didn't leave with it with this podcast, because I think it is just sort of felt.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, so let's get into that here.
[SPEAKER_01]: But let's finish with that.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Quilot saga continues to roll along no-end insight at this point at himself or was asked multiple times at his press conference on Tuesday and gave some familiar answers Said we're waiting for the report said I'm hopeful to have it resolved this summer
[SPEAKER_01]: said it has to be done by the start of next season.
[SPEAKER_01]: Meanwhile, Coiliner of all people remains in limbo because the Toronto Raptors and LA Clippers will not finalize a deal form until they know if Coiliner is part of NBA Punishment.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know the NBA and this kind of came across during Adam Silver's presser is bewildered that the Raptors and the Clippers got to this point without realizing like, huh?
[SPEAKER_01]: maybe there's a chance that the guy at the center of this investigation could face some form of punishment.
[SPEAKER_01]: Something that could be as light as a fine or as heavy as contract voiding.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like Adam said it right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Adam's like the idea that he would not potentially be involved in this because he was traded is simply not credible, was his
[SPEAKER_01]: his phrase.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you've got that happening there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought Adam revealed something when he said that he was being kept in the loop as to what Wachtell Lipton is learning on the fly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Rick Buchanan legal counsel from the NBA.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has been kept a press think Adam said daily even at least weekly kept up to speed on this investigation
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess what do you think of where we are right now, like with this entire mess, which has gotten messier because you do have two teams now sitting there trying to figure out what to do that could look radically different based on the outcome of this investigation.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's also gotten messier.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have let it just reported was it yesterday, two days ago, that there could be a second
[SPEAKER_00]: No show endorsement deal, that there are questions now about a secondary sort of endorser company, endorsement company, company sponsor, thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now they're investigating that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And is that, you know, are we in a position where there's so much pressure to wrap up this investigation that there's going to be a major stone left on turn?
[SPEAKER_00]: I am where am I in terms of where we are now?
[SPEAKER_00]: I am shocked at his taking this long.
[SPEAKER_00]: I understand that lawyers do a lot of lawyering, and there's a lot of
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, T's to cross and I is to that, but I'm sorry, I don't know why, especially for the amount of money I can only imagine the league is spending on this investigation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why this hasn't been someone's every day and there are enough lawyers at this law firm that you could have put a thousand of them on this right and have this done in half the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: that they had 500 people on this, if they had 100 people on this, whatever it is, you could double it and have it done in half the time or et cetera, et cetera.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know why it was allowed to take this long.
[SPEAKER_00]: I certainly would have pressed for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if they anticipated it taking this long.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that might be six months before it ends.
[SPEAKER_01]: Someone's interested.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, but what do you think about it was point that, like,
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, I can tell him to stop at any time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then we might begin to at point.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, it's got to be done.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know when the calendar turns on when this trade would have to be decided or when they feel like they would have to make this decision.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if it's coming, that means that it possibly, there's a whole new wrinkle of this investigation that could be pretty significant that might just not even get investigated.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's already embarrassing to me that a Pulitzer Prize has been awarded for a media investigation into this, and the official investigation still hasn't even wrapped up.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not that the immediate investigation happened, and the official one hasn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's we've already gotten to the point where a Pulitzer has been awarded into that first investigation, meaning that it was deemed journalistically sound enough by some of the greatest
[SPEAKER_00]: listically sound investigation into problems and potential issues here and that the leak still hasn't been able to come back and say there's a there there or not.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that is problematic and I don't think it's anyone I'm not saying it's Adam Silver's fault it's not his fault he's got a big job with a lot of things to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Am I hiring no offense to the fine people of Wachtel?
[SPEAKER_00]: But I know they are the go-to investigative firm for both the NFL and the NBA.
[SPEAKER_00]: The next time there's been investigation, if I'm interviewing law firms, I might say, hey, buddy, I quickly we're gonna get this done.
[SPEAKER_00]: I agree.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I want to done right, but it can get done right at different speeds.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he has no choice now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Wachdel might have some explaining it to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think Adams got no choice now, but to let this thing play out, because he has got to get the full unvarnished uninterrupted report at this point, because if the result of this report
[SPEAKER_01]: is that he is going to, well, if the result though of this report is that he is going to submit some of the clippers to some kind of serious punishment, he knows that there is probably going to be a fight coming from the 13th richest man in the world, a guy that has the best lawyers on the planet, a guy that is going to be armed to the teeth and potentially ready to fight for years, to drag the NBA into a multi-million, multi-billion perhaps lawsuit like that,
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever percentage you want to put in that happening, that at least has the potential of happening.
[SPEAKER_01]: So at this point, as frustrated as the NBA is, as frustrated as clearly Adam is, as frustrated as people are to be dealing with this, still after almost a year of this initial reporting coming out, I don't think he has a choice tomorrow, he has to follow this thing all the way through.
[SPEAKER_00]: The point you make about Steve Bomber has always and will continue to be true.
[SPEAKER_00]: Regardless of what shows up in that report, Steve Bomber has the legal right to take them to court over.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he could, with all of his money and lawyers and everything outstrag this out for years, regardless of what's in that report.
[SPEAKER_00]: That report could show photos of him handing Kauai Hamburger style, like a grab, you know, a thing of money, a sack, a brown sack, with a big dollar sign on it, and he could still take them to court for years.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that is something that the league is balancing.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's an implied power here.
[SPEAKER_00]: that Balmer has, that the league is going to be balancing.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's certainly talk of, we see sports leagues do this all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: They try to end around that reality by saying, we are basically going to enter into a plea bargain with one of our own owners.
[SPEAKER_00]: and say, we have met, we've talked about the evidence in front of us, we have agreed together that this is the correct punishment and therefore there is not going to be a challenge, there is not going to be a thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: We put our associations as this too, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: They talk and they, oh, we're not going to challenge it because there is seem to have been a back room conversation.
[SPEAKER_01]: Coming to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I see that being the more likely scenario of how this ends.
[SPEAKER_00]: The question is, how much power do both, so that's a negotiation?
[SPEAKER_00]: And how much power do both sides have going into that negotiation?
[SPEAKER_00]: The league's power, the other 29 currently, a 29 other owner's power, is what's in that report.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Balmer's power is still going to be that he has all of this real-life world financial and political and legal power.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's going to be part of this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think the fact that the longer this has gone on, the athletic report,
[SPEAKER_00]: and I have no reason to believe it's not true.
[SPEAKER_00]: If there really is enough evidence of a secondary possible end-around, whether it actually happened or not, it's got to be investigated out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if it's taken 10 months for the first one to be investigated out,
[SPEAKER_00]: How are you telling me that the second one is going to be thoroughly enough done that we're maybe going to be done investigating right now.
[SPEAKER_02]: It might be.
[SPEAKER_00]: I might have already done that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you were.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are potentially.
[SPEAKER_00]: The longer it goes on, the more you were opening up to accusations from all sides of.
[SPEAKER_00]: This got dragged out to give the clippers a break.
[SPEAKER_00]: This got dragged out, but then hurry it up at the end.
[SPEAKER_00]: And wasn't completely the clippers got to break that way, because it wasn't the really investigated out.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Raptor Scott screwed.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Raptors didn't get screwed.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how they can penalize Kauai Leonard without getting into an actual legal fight with the Players Association.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because if you sit there and say, we are getting into the endorsement contracts of you players, an area which, until this point, we've had no jurisdiction.
[SPEAKER_00]: you are going to have a flight on your hands because that is where their real money comes from.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I can't imagine that that's not going to be a legal flight there.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there is a lot that has to be litigated and balanced here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not just when the report comes back.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then Adam Silver has got to figure out what his decision is.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's supposed to be an arbitration process.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe written into these rules.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is why I find it hard to believe that unless there is some kind of agreement between all parties, which I think would be best case scenario.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's what I'm sure whatever you want.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's typically the sports.
[SPEAKER_01]: Where it's like the clippers can find some way to save face where Balmer doesn't get suspended.
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody gets axed.
[SPEAKER_01]: They lose a draft pick that can say.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's happened with the lead.
[SPEAKER_01]: We didn't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you know what?
[SPEAKER_01]: And the interest of moving forward.
[SPEAKER_01]: right this that we didn't with this happened within the organization without my knowledge we're going to whatever expires plausible deniability from the clippers if that happens it's best case scenario but the clippers in all their public statements they seem very dug in that they're not going to accept any responsibility for anything that may remain out of happened with all this like and I asked this about them like Adam how can you get a report let's see get the report next week
[SPEAKER_01]: That's going to be a big report.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is going to be multi-volume.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thousands of pages like you are not going to be able to digest that in a couple of days.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then once you digest it, then you're going to come to the conclusion of whether or not you're going to penalize if you do penalize.
[SPEAKER_01]: How severe are you going to like this?
[SPEAKER_01]: This feels like something.
[SPEAKER_01]: The next port of government, I think, is in January or September.
[SPEAKER_01]: This feels like something that could still be unresolved in September.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which is a really, really feels that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when would the, again, Mr. League machinations, which I know nothing about, when would this coilent of Dio or not Dio have to be?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think it has to be finalized at any point.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it does, obviously, they could just say, okay, we're not doing this, we're going home.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, they could, to the main home, but I think they can always work to be salvaged when we did have to be salvaged by.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I don't think, I mean, it hasn't really been.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no, yeah, there's no data in it.
[SPEAKER_01]: They agreed to the terms of this thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: It could happen in December.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good app, it could happen anytime.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they could do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, if Kauai winds up getting punishable, suspension, obviously, the Raptors they were going to revisit some of this, and let's maybe tinker with the deal a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I don't think there's a hard deadline on and look, the Raptors want Kauai that are not just for this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: They want to extend the guy, bizarre, but they want to extend the guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, again, it's who has, I mean, all that happens every day and say it's, it's the buyer for the house.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who has value to you?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not the same.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just the mind blowing for me that we're here with Coilin or back at the Raptors.
[SPEAKER_00]: Especially when pursuing the help of what a championship.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did the Raptors officially file a grievance when the clippers,
[SPEAKER_00]: I think they sent him at sort of some sort of, hey, wasn't their tampering at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't understand how this contract that they're trading right now could be known for it because it's not even the contract we're talking about isn't it two contracts ago?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's two contracts.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like, I am a little bit confused.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it might be this one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it this one?
[SPEAKER_01]: The last, like, the...
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess it was the one where there wasn't anyone competing for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they'd say I'm still on all of the stuff, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am intrigued at the idea of how they would possibly punish Kauai, void his contract, any of the above, without getting into a huge fight with the union.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if I'm the union, forget fighting over the second apron because that battle has lost my friend.
[SPEAKER_00]: If this happens, if they want to start,
[SPEAKER_00]: Negotiating players endorsements contracts for them, having a say in that, having to have them be approved by people, having to determine whether the player did enough to make it a legit contract.
[SPEAKER_00]: The league is going to say, we are going to decide whether that appearance was of enough of an appearance that you deserve the money you got or whether this is a fake pay for play thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, come on, man, there is no way the player's association should let them do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so sorry, Kawai, you only spent two hours at the autograph signing, that's not enough.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's enough for two hours of autograph signing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I get it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just saying, it's not Hawaii.
[SPEAKER_00]: If it's someone else, Damian Lillard, so-and-so-and-so.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think David Kelly, from what I've heard him say in person and in some of the interviews, he's gearing up to some fights.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this gets really good.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is one I would fight because I am sorry.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would not, if I was representing the players, I would not let the league in that position.
[SPEAKER_03]: I can't wait to be talking about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would not be letting League in my business.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would be fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't wait to be talking about this in September.