LeBron Is Having Fun Again, Early Impressions of the Top Rookies, and Can OKC Right the Ship? | Real Ones

what's popping real ones logan murdoch here live from los angeles howard beck and roger bell in a second uh we go through all of our favorite storylines from over the weekend talk about the sixers talk about lebron talk about ty jerome and then we get into a really really cool conversation about the oklahoma city thunder and then we have a full segment of raj's travels on the road he went to old miss this week on a recruiting trip for his son ty bell and that was a lot of fun we talk about what we love to talk about in this nba traveling landscape which is bad airport experiences it was a lot of fun hilarious and then um yeah that was a show one other thing that i want to uh flag for all the real ones listenership and viewers we are bringing back the mailbag not on a weekly basis but on a probably a quarterly basis so get um your questions into real ones mailbag at gmail.com real ones mailbag at gmail.com real ones mailbag at gmail.com and at some point we will get to your questions in a full episode um in the meantime just get in your questions okay well time for the episode the ringer nba show is presented by fan duel it's the nba season and fan duel is calling it your most rewarding season ever i mean more rewarding than watching a center pull up from three and actually knock it down that's good stuff with fan duel rewards clubs offers surprises and more there's plenty to look forward to all season long download the fan duel app to get started 21 plus in select states 18 plus in dc or wyoming gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in connecticut cliff victoria isaiah better theme music what's popping real ones logan murdoch here live from los angeles howard motherfucking beck over there in the great city of new york rogers somewhere in the south how you guys doing chilling doing great doing great is it the south are you is florida really no like this that's not the south north north florida is north central north florida is definitely the south um south florida as crazy as this sounds not the south no the state of miami and wherever you're at right like that's kind of it's just his own little world geographically it's south but i guess yeah no no no southern like your typical southern vibe that starts as you get more north in the state of florida gotcha gotcha gotcha yeah all right well that's cool um well that's i'm pro football hall of famer brian dawkins and i lived for a long time with something i did not know the name of major depressive disorder i carried sadness and anger because i thought i could handle it alone but i couldn't now i want to make sure others know that that supports me and i want to make sure others know that that supports me and i want to make sure that that supports me and i want to make sure that that supports me and i want to make sure is out there if you're experiencing similar symptoms talk to a health care professional visit mddallies.com to watch my story paid partnership with johnson and johnson brian dawkins is not prescribed capybara lumateperone this little light of mine in the dark found a hopeful sign i needed more from my antidepressant so my doctor added capybara lumateperone proven to provide greater relief from depression symptoms than an antidepressant alone building on my progress without starting over caplita is for adults with major depressive disorder when used with an antidepressant and is available by prescription only individual results may vary in clinical trials weight gain was not common elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke caplita is not approved for dementia related psychosis call your doctor about new or sudden mood changes behaviors or suicidal thoughts right away antidepressants may increase these risks report fever confusion stiff muscles which may be life-threatening or uncontrolled muscle movements which may be permanent high cholesterol and weight gain may occur at high blood sugar which may be fatal monitoring is recommended common side effects are sleepiness dizziness nausea dry mouth feeling tired and diarrhea these aren't all the side effects ask your doctor about caplita learn more at caplita.com or call 888-252-4824 for rogers that um one thing we want to do for this season on the tuesday show to start out is just to bring you know the viewers and listeners into what we thought was great for the weekend right and what we thought the storylines that we like to do started off there and then we're going to talk a little okay see in a second um what stuck out to you this weekend howard motherfucking back um i got two things but let me start here um lebron's having a freaking blast with the sixers yeah um no small thing the dude i did the math he's now 41.8 years old uh creeping creeping toward 42 in december like nothing it's as if nothing has gotten old or old hat or whatever like there's no jaded aspect to his game or his persona and i know like we get we're gonna get caught up in like you know whatever the x's and the o's and chemistry and all these other things about the game and they're all important but if you think about the context of him choosing philly and all the pressure that comes with him choosing philly the pressure that's on the rest of them um the jaylen brown of it all the joel m beat of it all and that can like cook you like that could that can make everybody really tense and oh impress you and try too hard and here they are they've got one of the best records in the league they're thriving and i don't think we should downplay that it's no small thing when the most important person on the team on a team full of stars is a guy who in year whatever 24 is still just having fun out there and yes including last night when he goes and grabs the cup of wine and takes a sip in the middle of the game and it reminded me i'd forgotten about this until i saw him like didn't wasn't there something like this before and there was i had to look it up in 2017 i did a story for bleacher report that was really uh that was actually about this idea of like lebron's joy and what that does for the players around him i know we always talk about steph but like lebron has fun remember like even from his his early years like the taking the fake photos with the whole gang uh on the baseline and all that stuff um and he in april of 2017 he in the middle of a he was chasing a ball out of bounds but he was like came like this close to a vendor on the sideline selling beer and he pretended to grab a cup of beer and drink it and he in this case did not drink the beer but he kind of mocked it then went over and shot his free throws they won the game and i used it as kind of a leaping off point for the story back then and i had this sentence in there i said when the mood strikes james might break into a ridiculous dance or swipe french fries from a kid sitting courtside that's another thing he did high five a throng of raucous celtics fans that's a thing he did these were all links um start a bottle flipping contest on the back on the bench remember when we were doing bottle flipping remember when that was a thing yeah um yeah or lip sync to rick i never got that right i never got that right i was terrible at that um or shimmy to the harlem shake that was the last line that was a low moment in nick's history if i remember correctly that was like that's right that was at the garden yep oh my god um so like he like he's always um somebody in philly might have been uh gina did the story recently on like all the unique handshakes he has with all his he's still having fun at this late stage and still playing obviously at an incredibly high level and setting a tone that's basically like we're gonna go out and we're gonna kick people's asses but we're also gonna have fun and this is this is just basketball at the end of the day i think that's really cool and it's great for their team now i mean it was funny i was having this conversation last night um i went to the uh lakers heat game and one of the things that um you hear was what it was i was i was uh catching up with clay thompson and talking to some people around him and one of the things that i was like oh my god i'm gonna kick people's asses and i'm gonna they were saying was like yo man clay really works on vibes and one of the things that the person was saying you know adding to that was that's what really what the nba is about and playing basketball is about and also playing sports is about right because everybody has the natural ability at this level right but what you need to have in addition to that is just a good way of feeling you know you have to feel good about yourself while you're doing that i know all the real ones are gonna be like no that's so cliche duh logan but for a guy like lebron rajan i know you've seen this up close for the season that you were with you were with him with the calves in the 2014-15 season where when he's down like everyone feels his energy going down right like you can see it from in front of the scenes behind the scenes on the court off the court but when he there's this um anecdote i believe it was in brian windhorse's book uh on the on that calves team on that 2016 calves team and they talk about when he is in uh when the calves are in san francisco for a game and they trade for timothy mosgaw and i believe like lebron was in a hallway or something like that and he sees timothy mosgaw and he's like oh shit like i got a center now and it really just like it geeked him up and then they went on that run for the rest of the season they go to the finals end up losing but they really the calves really turn their season around um what is what is the both sides of that coin though from your experience raja when you're in the middle of the season and you're in the building and lebron is on one way and then he completely turns to an to his other side of joyfulness what does that do for a ball club and a team um yeah look you know this isn't specific to lebron necessarily like there are people within a team it's not always your best player necessarily but there's a guy whose energy is the infectious energy that could be positive or going to. it's cue energy and attitude and overall you know feeling wise from the way this particular person comes into the building every day and it's just a weird thing like one of my sons is like that my son ty's like that his energy is out of control good when it's good but if he's not feeling great because so many people like kind of gravitate towards his energy the energy can be down um so lebron lebron is that guy he just happens to be in most instances the best player on the team and you know when when when he's good and he's engaged and he's leading the way he's led for the majority of his career i mean it is an incredible thing to watch i've talked about before an interaction i had with lebron not that he wasn't leading um or engaged or anything in that season but we were specifically trying to figure out the david blatt situation and guys just weren't buying in um to what david blatt was doing and he was just trying to figure out what david was talking about and we from our seat in the front office it didn't really look like they were really giving what he was saying a chance so we could fairly evaluate it and so i had a conversation with lebron about hey man like trust trust griff and the rest of the front office to do what they need to do if david blatt can't do it but what we need from you is to communicate to the guys and get them to buy in and give it a shot so we can fairly evaluate it overnight overnight was buy-in and people were playing and and it gave that front office an opportunity i eventually left to make the judgment call on whether or not they wanted to keep david blatt but i say that to say that you know that's how he can turn that on and off and when he is orchestrating the buy-in and the vibes and he's having the wine dinners and stuff like that i mean it just takes the talent and the ceiling of your team to another level because without question when people ask me what the favorite you know my favorite team to play on i say phoenix um and i played on some really good teams and have friends on a lot of teams that i played on but our vibes were incredible for the most part now there are guys in locker rooms that aren't always feeling great about that situation but their vibes aren't the gravitational pull vibes so you can get you know they could be unhappy and kind of pouting and stuff like that but you're if you're a gravitational vibes guy like guys are gonna you guys had a few gravitational vibes guys on your team you had you had mike d'antoni you had alvin gentry you have boo-boo boris diaz steve nash like if you only had one of those guys the vibes would be great we have great vibes from from the leadership um on down um but i guess you know to answer your question when you're when a player like lebron that everybody reveres and at this stage in his career um is playing with people who grew up being huge fans of his um he's out there having fun and the vibes are high i mean that's got to be an incredible boost for that team that's already super talented but you know when you want to unlock your your absolute ceiling you want to pair you know your talent your game plan your execution your attention to detail and all of those things with great energy and vibes and so you know that's a really cool thing for philly i'm going to add to this discussion because my observation over the weekend was the sixers weekend in general right and how good they have become they have signature wins over the pacers uh pistons hornets and they just beat the bulls last night right and when you talk and then the clutches team in the league um when i was looking at the stats this was uh prior to last night's game but in the last five minutes of a game their offensive rating is 131.1 and their defensive rating is 97.4 right and what they've been able to do um you've seen a to your vibes conversation you've seen guys that have been playing for a long time and they've been kind of have a different maturation in their game vj edgecom is a great example you saw what he did against charlotte over the weekend um and how he was able to make big shots he's probably been the biggest beneficiary of what you're talking about raja of like it feels like he's like holy shit i'm playing with lebron james this is really cool right he's one of those types of guys that are that is doing that but you're seeing maxi become an mvp candidate right but more than anything what i love about this team is you have maybe four or five guys that are going to be able to play are high iq guys all-time great high iq guys and you have a coach that the nick nurse that is doing a great job uh and letting basketball players be basketball players and i remember you know uh you know when i was covering the words i learned a valuable lesson which is um it's not the clutch teams aren't necessarily the guys that uh make clutch shots and are led by guys that make clutch shots it's teams that are filled out with guys that are going to be who know what they're doing in a given time when five minutes are left in the game right so that means the andre guadalas the draymond greens the guys that aren't really phased by all the lights in the moments i see the same thing with this this uh philly team right where they have guys that just know where to be at a time when they know where to be there right i think about um how unusual it is for a team this early to really be this locked in um offensively and defensively i think about their home opener when they're down 26 and they just have that massive comeback you don't see that from teams like philly who just have a revamped roster and you know really don't know each other but they kind of come together as one i'm i'm really really impressed by this team and it's not only a vibes thing it's a confidence level that you have with guys that you're just now figuring out and i i can't what is you know if they stay healthy i think that they are the favorite to win the title i will say that but i think that they are the favorite to win the title that right now just because of what they can do down the stretch of games and how much they trust each other and how much their coaches is kind of like yo i'm taking my hands off of this you guys figure it out and play basketball maxi when you need your pick and roll we're going to give it to you other than that we want you guys to just figure this out and they are so smart and they can do it in real time and i think that is really really special roger i would agree it's why teams um want when when even when you were filling out the games you're not going to be able to put a roster around like you spoke to the golden state team when you were filling out a roster around lebron um d wade and and chris bosh yeah there's a reason they weren't going out and filling that with first year players looking like you have to put around them like you want guys who have been in those battles that have that have been in the foxholes that that understand you know the the the gravity of any given possession late in a game of a significant significant amount of like uh that has a significant magnitude to it like you you want people with that experience um i've been really i wasn't worried about them i thought that the talent and i was excited for them and i thought it would be something cool to watch i've been really impressed i i kind of said it early um after you know a quick overreaction maybe to like the first game of the season when they played the knicks thinking that jaylen and i i think i said that like jaylen was going to need a little bit more room to be you know version of jaylen because he's kind of like you know he's got this iso part to his game and you know i guess that was my way of saying i guess i was keeping an eye on that like let's see you know and i think where i've where i've been surprised watching them is just how much everybody is bought into just winning basketball games and i watched i watched a interview of vj edgecomb being asked uh i don't remember exactly what the question was but the answer was like listen i just fall in love with being out here and winning and doing whatever it takes to win games and that sounds like something that a fan would be like yeah what the fuck of course he's fallen in love that's not always the way it works in the nba no it's just not always the way it works in the nba like and there are so many agendas um in the air in an nba locker room or on an nba franchise that that a lot of times i've been on teams where guys priority was not winning basketball games like guys priorities were like whether they were scoring enough to meet a bonus or they were in the last year of a contract this team didn't look like it was going to be a championship contender so why the fuck shouldn't they try to score as many points as they can to get the bigger bag and for agency it just doesn't always work like that and so i've been really really like not surprised but really impressed with how all those guys it seems to be the most important thing for them is is just winning games and that's refreshing because you just don't always get that no and not for nothing but we spent the whole summer talking about like oh how's this gonna work you know jalen brown wanted to be the man and instead of having to share it with jail and jason tatum now he has to share with joelle and bead and maxie and lebron and like how's mb gonna react because this was his team and like and and it was all valid discussion this is these were all valid things for us to wonder about but that's why you know you you you have to wait and see you just see how it fits and like that's fitting great they're all about the right things i'm not shocked did you guys know i was bullish on them before the season started and i thought lebron is the perfect person to try to pull this all together but you don't know you don't know until it happens and it's early but like um did any worry about ego and individual agendas at this moment seems like we can put aside totally you know it's funny um one thing i love about this this team well a couple points uh first thing that the sixers need to figure out they need to figure center situation, right? Just how to get through the season. They're probably going to have to get somebody out of the buyout market later and see just where their cap is. And they just got to hold down the fort there. But with that being said, one thing I do love about this team, and it's similar to what I loved about the Spurs of the 2010s. I remember there was a game that I watched, Spurs Warriors, I think it was like 2014. And I think it was a Patty Mills game. I think it was one of those like Spurs games where the Spurs just like rest all their starters late in the season. Maybe it was the second night of a back-to-back, something like that. And I remember Patty Mills just having a great game, just out of nowhere. I believe the Spurs won that game, but it did a couple of things. One thing it did, it gave Patty Mills confidence that he can lead that offense. And then it also gave the Spurs coaching staff confidence that, oh, he can play big minutes down in a playoff series because he's able to get these reps. Similarly with the Sixers, they're having these games where one day LeBron's going to be out, right? One day Embiid's going to be out. Maybe one day LeBron and Embiid are going to be out. But what you see is, and I think you saw this in the game where other guys are stepping up early outside of themselves. And that really bodes well for this team when they get down into the playoffs. Because one thing in this league in general, especially during this time in the apron era, whatever you want to call it, teams have multiple personalities and multiple ways to be able to beat you, right? The Sixers, they can go small, they can go big, and then they can also rely on different types of scoring, right? And I think one of the things that they're able, they're figuring out right now is how to win with multiple personalities. And I just, I'm, the only thing I'm scared of with the, with the Sixers is just injuries. And I think you can just say that, you know, throughout the league, but specifically with this team, because they're just, they're, it's just so thin right there, right? Like you have to manage, like there was a clip that just came out with LeBron talking to Steve Nash. And he was talking about how in the Pacers game, he had, he had to make a business decision when he got a, when he got a steal and he got blocked by that rookie in Indiana. And he was like, I, it was, you guys got to watch this. He's basically talking about like, yo, this kid got this, I got this steal on this kid. He made a boneheaded play. He, he, he was thinking that the rookie is what the rookie was thinking in his head, which is damn Rick Carlisle is going to bench me. I need to prove myself I need to go block LeBron. So LeBron is thinking normally I would dunk this, but if I go dunk, this, this kid is going to get at me, like probably foul me. And I'm probably gonna be out four weeks. Right. And just making executive decisions like that. And that happens when you're 41.8 years old. Absolutely. But that just speaks to how fragile this team can be. Right. And I'm just, that's the one thing that I have a concern that I have for this team, but let's get, we talked a lot of Sixers. Roger, what excited you about the week? This episode is brought to you by Perfect Crime Film, says the Daily Beast. John Turturro gives a career best performance. Don't miss the acclaimed new thriller, The Only Living Pickpocket in New York. Turturro stars as an aging master pickpocket whose latest score puts him in the crosshairs of a ruthless crime family. Also starring Giancarlo Esposito, Tatiana Maslany, Will Price, and Steve Buscemi. See the film that the LA Times calls instantly classic, The Only Living Pickpocket in New York. Now playing in theaters nationwide. I think, I mean, there were, there was a lot to be excited about, but I think ultimately what I landed on was, um, the, the top part of this rookie class and, and what they're doing out there on the floor. Um, you know, Darius Acuff, it hasn't necessarily translated to a lot of wins, but I mean, he's putting up incredible numbers in Sacramento. Um, Cam Boozer is having a hell of a year. He started off a little slow from the field, but like, you know, triple doubled, I think early in the weekend and then had another couple of strong performances. Yaxel, we've talked about him on the show. He's a great player. He's a great player. He's a great player. He's a great player. He's a great player. He's a great player. He's a great player. He's a great player. He's a before, but he had himself a nice weekend and he's playing great. Caleb Wilson in Chicago is putting up really good numbers. AJ's look good. Um, you know, at times missed a few games early in the, in the season, but like that, the, the rookies are balling and you know, I, that's why you take them high in the drafts, which you expect them to do. But, but, um, I feel, I feel like that's a nice, strong class. And there were a bunch I didn't mention as you get deeper into it. I mean, you know, Kingston Fleming's had moments Malik, uh, like there've been other people that have had moments, but the top of that rookie class looked really good. What do you attribute that to Raj? I mean, obviously this is going to be a historic class. It was talked about being a historic class, but you are a, you converse, uh, correspondent. You are a grassroots correspondent. What about, what about this class stick stuck out to you even going into this draft? Well, I think, I think they're looking, look, the different opportunities for them all. Um, and, and circumstances that would allow them to be playing. Well, for instance, Darius Acuff, blank canvas, go shoot all the shots you want to shoot. Um, get to the cheese, my boy, like, let's see how you can do it. I'm not even mad at a shooting person. He's favorite of fucking cakes. Go ahead. Do everything. No, no, no. Yeah. No shade. But like that, that is basically like, Hey, you're a scorer. Yeah. That's what you're going to be. AI ish. Well, here's the platform for you to go out there and do that. You plug him into a different situation. And I'm not saying he wouldn't be good in it, but it wouldn't provide the platform for him to look the way he's looking. Right. And it would be, we could debate how he'd look in that cam boozer. Um, not a, give it to him, go score it every time type of player, but has won on every single level he's ever played at and does a lot of the things that, that, that are integral to winning basketball games. He is physically ready to play in the league. He's huge. And you plug him into a team that is surprisingly winning a lot of games right now. He's a perfect plug and play guy into that. Yaxel, not, not a baby. The golden state warriors have struggled with young inexperienced players and trying to fit them into what they want to do as an offense and a style of play. This is a 20 some year old dude who's played a lot of basketball. He's physically ready. And he seems to, from a mental standpoint, understand what they're trying to do. And he's fitting into that. So like, you know, for different reasons, they've all been able to find places. I think they kind of highlight who they are as players. And I think that's helpful. Howard, what's your rookie class this season? Uh, number one, Yaxel, number two, Yaxel and number three, Yaxel. That's You know what, what's actually really fun about it, by the way, what's really fun about it is, is this, um, we were already talking about it being a potentially historic rookie class coming on the heels of a historic rookie class a year ago. Um, and so it was like, wow, back to back, like, like that doesn't happen that often, right? Like when you have like a 2003 type class with like LeBron and Wade and Bosch, like the next year is usually going to fall off a bit in the year before. It's not going to be as good. This is like back to back years of pretty strong rookie classes. And it's also that it's not just the top three or four guys we were talking about, right? Like the whole conversation was the top three and then it became the top four, including Caleb. But like right now, like sorted by PER, Yaxel is actually leading the 11th, uh, DeBance's second, Boozer's third. And you know, Darren Peterson's off to a little bit of a slow start among the guys who were the most hyped at the top of this class. And he'll come around, I'm sure, but it's so many guys, but also it's guys not just putting up numbers. Like Acuff is just putting up numbers, like, uh, congrats to the Sacramento Kings for getting the first win of the season. I look forward to the next one in about three weeks, but Darius Acuff, Darius Acuff, like, uh, listen, I it's hard. Like Logan said, it's hard to be mad. Like your team is it's going nowhere. You are the only hope in the present and the future for this franchise. I don't know how well that's going to go over with Zach Levine and Damanis Sabonis night after night. He's well, they won't be there. So it's fine. They're not going to be there. They shouldn't be. They really should. None of them should be there. But it's ridiculous that any of them are still actually in Kings uniforms. Darius Acuff is leading the fucking league in field goal attempts per game right now. More than Luca, more than Shea, who took 35 shots last night. Six shots per game leading the NBA, uh, Darius Acuff. Um, but like the guys that I'm looking at, what I think what's fun about this is like the guys who are contributing to winning, right? DeBance is not just like the typical number one pick coming in on a barren team. He actually has to find a role between Trey and AD and the rest of the youngsters that they'd already, you know, the Alex SARS, the, all the guys who had run before and he's contributing to winning and Yaxo clearly is contributing to winning in a way that we didn't expect the warriors to, to be able to do. At all. Boozer clearly contributing to winning the Grizzlies. One of the best records in the NBA right now. Um, Malik Thomas getting the start last night. Like they're ready. Like they're ready. Um, there are nine rookies averaging at least 10 points a game right now. Don't know if that'll hold up for the season, but that's a pretty strong number out the gate. And then the other thing is like for PER purposes. So if, if people don't know when Hollinger created PER, he, he, um, manufactured it so that 15 is always the league average. So if you're below 15 PER, you're below league average. If you're above 15 PER, you're above league average in any given season right now, there are seven rookies who are at 15 or above, uh, headed by Yaxo at 21 to Bansa at 18 Boozer at 17. I point that out just to say, they're not playing just to play. They're not playing just because they're rookies and their teams need them to get some run. And they're just going out and just like jacking up shots. As I said, they're contributing to winning, but also like for, for whatever PER, uh, however people want to view it, it is a gauge of whether you're performing better than the average player in the NBA. Those guys that I just named, the whatever seven of them at 15 or higher means they're playing at league average or higher as rookies. That's not nothing. And, you know, small sample size theater and all that stuff, but still pretty cool. You talk about Acuff and on one hand, I'm really, really excited. I'm also excited to watch him play. He's a very entertaining basketball player. Not even just when he makes shots, but when he doesn't make shots, but all the, you know, the, the, all the hubris and greatness that comes with his game, if you know, you know, but the thing that I'm just concerned about is the infrastructure there, the perpetual infrastructure there and how a lot of historically speaking to how a lot of rookies, their careers just go to die there just from the simple fact that they got drafted there. And I just fear that that's going to happen with him. Right. Like you're coaching. Okay. Yeah. It took a minute. It took a minute, not even stuff of his fault, but like he needed a structure. He needed a GM that was worth a damn. He needed a coach that was worth a damn. And once he got that, the Kings immediately, he took that away from him. Right. And now there is no infrastructure in Sacramento. Like I know Scott Perry is in there, but like, I think Vivek has the most power that he's ever had. And I just, I don't like the coaching staff there. I don't like the infrastructure. It just feels like this is just going to be a perpetual thing for him. And that's what I am afraid of for the next few years, that this is just going to be a thing where he's jacking up a lot of shots. There's going to be front office hubris and he's not going to get a fair shake at what he, at his potential because of factors that have nothing to do with, you know, his game. But leading to that, before we get out of this segment, Roger, who's the person of that rookie class that you feel like has the best setup to succeed right now. And maybe the worst, I might've given you the worst already, but who do you think has the bestest best chance to succeed based on where they're at? The best chance to succeed and success would be, how are we measuring success? Like in terms of, um, well, a great balance of individual and team success in the short term. Yeah, probably the, the Bansta, um, Cam Yaxel, like those three, I think are in good situations. I think, you know, they're in competitive environments that, that they have to produce, um, to Howard's point in a way that contributes to winning basketball games. And you're going to win enough basketball games that winning is, is the expectation. It's not the expectation. There isn't, Hey, let's all kind of like play to develop. Like, do you know what I mean? Like there, your development is going to be a part of the equation, but you're also on teams where winning is expected and you've got players around you that are good enough to win. Um, so your development comes in the vein of, of, uh, of, of like a winning environment. Like, um, a cuff, I can't speak to it being terrible. I don't know. Sacramento, like you guys know, Sacramento, what I will say about what he's doing is if he is allowed to do that for too long, and that becomes what he thinks the NBA is and that's the end all be all for him, because that's how he was raised in an NBA environment. And I know he wants to win and I know he's contributed to contributed to winning. Like he was with, with Cal last year. I watched them play. Um, but, but if you take that away from him for too long and he's just left out there to fly around, and be a volume shooter and score and like that, that becomes a little scary for me. Not right now, right now it's fine. But if he's left to do that and they're not going to support him and build around him, he might get to Cam Thomas territory. Yeah. That becomes concerning. But right now I think the three of them, um, you know, I don't know the whole rookie class, so forgive me. Like I, you got, you guys know, I don't deep dive into like every single rookie that's out there, but those three, I really like, I really like the combination of, Hey, we need this out of you. We want you to do what you do. We want you to continue developing. And at the same time that needs to contribute to winning games. Cause we expect to win games. I think that's healthy. Yeah. Let's take a quick break. Then we're going to talk about OKC on the other side. This episode is brought to you by McDonald's. Every basketball fan has their own opinion on what makes a great team. But when it comes to breakfast, a sausage McMuffin with egg, crispy hash browns and a coffee is a tough lineup to beat. And right now you can get all three for just five bucks. You'll love to see it. Get a sausage McMuffin with egg plus hash browns and a small coffee for just $5. Only at McDonald's for a limited time. Prices and participation may vary. Promotion prices may be lower than meal price. I wanted to talk a little bit, do a little deep dive on the Oklahoma city thunder, especially after last night's amazing performance from Shea Gilgus, Alexander. He shot a ton of shots and they needed every one of them. But OKC currently five and two fifth in the Western conference have lost. J Dub have lost Chet for an extended period of time over the weekend. He's going to be out for at least eight to 10 days. That's a lot of time. He's going to be out for at least 10 weeks with a partially torn patella tendon. That's just really tough. And we also know what happened with case and Wallace. And we talked about that a lot of neat in the last episode. And so my question to you guys is two years ago, this team seemed primed to dominate the apron era, despite, you know, the apron era trying to undercut all dynasties in the way that we see them. This team seemed to be the anecdote to that. Injuries have undercut all of that success. Now they seem to be a victim of the apron era that they seem to, that they, we thought they were going to conquer. And I feel like there's two ways that they can go about this. Howard, right? At this point they can, you know, trade for a wing, right? Trey Murphy will be very, very expensive. Herb Jones would be very, very expensive. Where they can kind of ride out the ship right now with Shea Gilgus, Alexander and try to figure it out next season. They have like a, something like a, a tax bill that would throw their salary into the 500 and 600 million mark. And now that could be offset by the expansion fee. If, if the NBA has an expansion team or announces an expansion team or ownership group and the thunder get a payout, they can probably offshoot that cost. But what is the path forward for this team right now? And what does this say their current situation say about the apron era? And is that successful or not successful for the game? I gave you a Logan Murdoch word salad, but I think you could cipher through that. You know, we touched on this a little bit last week. And so I'll start with this premise again, which is that under any other NBA system, that was not the current one with the second apron in effect, the thunder would be okay because they would not have traded Lou Dort, Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins strictly for cap purposes. Like those were straight up salary dumps, real real lining so that they could afford to give extensions to guys. And they could afford where this thing is all headed in the next couple of years. Payroll wise, Sam Presti was very, very clear about it. When he gave his, his long state of the union address before the season, they did this to set up their books and to avoid the second apron as much as possible. And so in any other system, it's still sucks to lose J dub for the season. It's still sucks to lose case and Wallace possibly for the season, or most of it. And to lose Chet Holmgren for whatever amount of time, as he gets a biological treatment, what are, what are we doing? Can we NBA? I've asked this so many times. Could we have fucking like English mandated and non, non medical obscure terminology? Like by what is like biological? I've never heard that phrase before in all my years of covering the league of being around sports. I don't know what the hell that is. I think I can help you. I just went on clevelandclinic.com. Biologics are medic medications that come from living organisms, like proteins and genes. Fine. Tell us whatever the fuck you did and just don't say biological treatment. It's, it's obnoxious. Like the fans and everybody would deserve better. A little bit more clarity. That's all I'm asking. No matter what, losing those three players was going to be devastating for the thunder. But if you've got guys who have been in your season, and especially a starter like Lou door, who was part of your championship team, you have more to fall back on. And then you plug in the AJ Mitchell's and the Jared McCain's of the world. And the day Mara's, it just sucks that they now have so much less margin for error. Some things that Sam Presti has done pretty much better than everybody else. Aside from injury reporting. He has drafted, I think better than everyone else. Chet Holmgren was, was the only high pick the number two pick, but like Shay, the obviously he wasn't a draft pick. They acquired him, but like he was a lower pick and Jalen Williams was a lower pick. Like not, not top five, top three, top two type picks getting the AJ Mitchell's of the world. And again, make making the trade for Jared McCain, drafting a die Mara. Like they always find the diamonds in the rough. It seems like. And so they, but you can only take so many blows to your depth. It's to the second wave. And then the third wave before you eventually just run out of depth. And Shay having to shoot 35 times last night for just the second wave. And then the fourth wave, which is the second time in his career, by the way, like, and like, you know, he's a high efficiency guy, but he can be a high volume guy, but not that high. That's only the second time he's ever had to take 35 shots in a game. You don't want that. I don't think that's sustainable for 82 games. And so given that, I think it's just a basic truth of the NBA now more than ever, that the time is always now you can't assume just because, Oh, they won the championship of 2025. They're really young. They've got all these draft picks. They can just not be a draft pick. They can just do this in perpetuity. They're going to be a dynasty. Like it's easy for all of us to say, I said it myself, but like you need a certain amount of good fortune to go with that. And that usually has to do with injuries. So, you know, it's, it's not, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a hard thing to do. So the time is always now, like Shea is healthy, knock on whatever you got. He's the back-to-back MVP. And could they still win a championship this year? Yeah. In, in, in theory, Chet will be back. Maybe Jalen Williams and Cason Wallace are out for the season, but like they've, like they probably still have enough. But to Logan's question, if you could go get Trey Murphy or someone, I would do it. Like they've got so much excess, uh, excess draft capital combined that with a couple of, of salaries and you can go get a guy. You absolutely, they have the ability to go get a guy. I haven't done the math on like, you know, whatever, like the cap calculations, like where it puts them in terms of tax and second April and all that shit. But like they could figure that out and you're trading salary for salary. So it would, it would probably be fine in the present, um, cap wise, um, and second April wise. So yeah, I think they should, like, I, I think my guess is they're going to let this play out for the next several weeks until checkups back from his. Biological treatment, um, and see where they are. And then they'll have time between whatever late December and the trade deadline to decide whether they need to go get another piece to kind of backfill the other injuries. But, um, this is the harsh reality, man, to the two harsh realities in today's NBA guys get hurt a lot. Obviously it's one of the biggest stories of the early season is injuries league wide. And two, you have very, very little margin for error because the second apron makes you give up your debt. And puts you in a precarious position. Roger. Um, and I looked at these stats last night during the, uh, during the, the OKC game. So I'm not, or it is immediately after the OKC game. So I'm not sure if this is as current as it could be, but you'll get to just when I give you these stats, check it was Alexander is 46 and six without J dub in the lineup since 24, 25. He is 20 is 12 and three without J dub and Chet Holmgren since 24, 25. So I'm not sure if this is as current as it could be, but you'll get to just when I give he is the the rare guy that can be a singular offensive force no matter he's probably the best player in the game right now but he is the rare guy that can be the singular force and carry a team up with him to a certain level that being said how do you play these next couple of months that that howard is talking about when you this roster very clearly needs some level of help it's they're also in a weird position right now we're like not a lot of trades are happening in on november uh third when we're recording this right it's just the trade market is just isn't made itself um you know come to fruition usually that happens around december um you know during contracts but how do you weather the storm during this time do you is this a situation where like i'm not necessarily going for 60 wins i'm just trying to just tread water as we go along or is it like we're just gonna go balls with a wall with this one singular great force you know a team like okay see i don't i don't i don't think you you're definitely trying to tread water like you're just trying to hold the fort down until you can get healthy again but and as it relates to how you're going to play like you can't play to tread water like you play to win and then playing to win it's got to go through shea and then aj's got to have his turn but i would just say like again to howard's point you know a couple dudes scored 40 last night one was 14 for 35 and the other was luca 14 for 24 like those are vastly different 40 point games as they feel to the player one feels like work 14 for 35 feels like work 14 for 24 is vibes luca was getting cardio last night let's just keep it a buck oh i saw it with my own eyes yeah one is fun and one is like oh fuck man this is this is crazy and so i i don't think that's if he's got to play like that for what's chet out you said eight weeks eight to ten the damage that might that that might cause to to his ability to stay healthy for whenever chet comes back and the rest of the season might be irreparable like that's too much work he can't do that every night like so while i am saying it's got to go through it's got to go through shane like he can't he's not going to shoot 35 shots every night right but like he's got to have the ball he's he's got to be the conductor um you know they've got to find ways i think he had eight assists last night i'm not looking at the stats right now but but um you know he he's gonna have to trust his teammates and you know he's got some capable shooters around him they're gonna have to space the floor he he he might have to try to get to spots that he ordinarily would score in sometimes and and you know kick that ball out not because he's not a great scorer but that three you know if we get four of those as kickouts that result in three points off two like that might be the supplementation from a scoring perspective that we need to help us get over the hump like they're just gonna have to play with how they play until they get the answer right you know but that's going to be a heavy workload because you're you know there's a sample size without without j-dub but the sample size what were the amount of games that you said without the two of them that was a relatively small sample size right that was 15 games eight to ten weeks is a long time dude like that's a lot of basketball um and so you know he's he's a mofo i told you in a league full of in a league full of incredible artists scoring the basketball he is one of the most fun to watch so for me so it's going to be it's going to be a cool a cool thing to see and and kind of tune into to see how they morph um but that's a lot of work for him man 14 for 35 not fun for for the guy doing it here's the good news um he has had to shoot he's shot he's taken 25 or more shots i made the cutoff 25 times in his career this is only regular season they're like 43 and 16 and those 59 games like they kick ass when he takes a lot of shots so it's not one where it's like the efficiency goes down fatigue sets in and you lose while he's like flailing away like that's not the case um they've won both games in his career that he's taken 35 shots as he did last night um they have they are six and oh when he's taken 30 more or more shots in his career like it's a good for them but like like it's just a lot yeah that's the question howard like if you i look i shoot all the shots but i'm guessing those games those are probably spread out right it's not night after night after night that he was like that's 59 games spread over the course of the last seven years or whatever it's not correct and when you do have to do that every night that's it that's a tough thing yeah the other thing though is like i'm looking at his stat line 35 shots eight assists one turnover incredible that's what he's doing that's what he's doing that's what he's a bad man he's he's a bad man he's a bad man and you know what like sorry to cut you off but but to the to the to the point you just made howard about him being able to do that his pace and style with which he scores and conducts business is set up to be able to do it like he's not flying around um you know balls to the wall speed all the time like he's really under control pace is incredible from him so so you know in a weird way if anyone could sustain it it might be him because it's it's just not breakneck pace all the time you know i'm gonna wear my legs out it's still a lot of work though yeah you know what this reminds me of um and i'm just looking at i'm doing a quick google search on the stat line it's not comparable necessarily but what it reminds me of is like that 98 season from jordan when scotty pippen had the trade request when was also injured you got there there's a section of this in the last dance where jordan is just treading water and he's has to be the singular focus um and dennis robin was a big part of that the scary thing that there's there's a positive to this and a negative to this from shay's respect positive is shay's like eight years younger than mike was having to deal with that lift the negative is i don't see another player that is going to have the impact that dennis robin had during that stretch of games right and the other thing that's concerning to me raja correct me if i'm wrong like even when chet comes back he's going to be great defensively he's going to do his thing but he's not going to be a dude and we've talked about this in previous episodes even in this season right like he's not going to be he's not going to take away the scoring burden necessarily on a night-to-night basis right he's going to help and alleviate some stress but what i'm saying is like shay is still going to have to carry that load throughout this season no matter what because dove's not coming back we'll see how aj aj mitchell kind of comes into his his uh form right but he's always he can be hit or miss uh from a scoring perspective on a night-to-night basis i mean you saw that in the playoffs last year i was at the game against the phoenix suns where he like he takes like 20 shots like makes like three right he has nights like that and that goes to your point man of like just the burden that's going to have that's that shay is going to have and it's one thing to have that burden in november it's another thing to have that burden in april when you've already had the burden for fucking five months right so that's the thing that's scary for me with the way that this roster is constructed and i don't even know if a trade is necessarily going to alleviate that pain say if you go break the bank and go get trey murphy i mean is that is is trey murphy the guy that's going to carry you for a week i don't know that's the scary part yeah no i hear what you're saying i don't think you have to be carried though like shay's gonna carry shay shay's gonna carry it's it's it's how much weight does he have to carry and to your point about chad like no I don't think he was ever going to be the guy that you throw him the ball, at least this year. And, like, hey, you carry. I don't think that's, like, who he is as a player. But he provides so much support defensively and on the glass. By doing that, he alleviates your offensive load that you have to carry if you're Shea. Does that make sense? So, like, there are different ways to support him that can all add up to a win. It's different equations to get there. I do think something has to be added to that group if you want to responsibly ask him to have you in a position to compete for something. With OKC, you know, down bad right now, even though they have Shea and they're 5-2, which teams, Howard, and I'll go to Raja with this in a second, which teams in the Western Conference do you see really solidifying that space in that vacuum of the Western Conference? Who are the teams that you think can fill in that void? I mean, it's the Rockets right now, clearly. They're leading the Western Conference at 7-1. I love the Grizzlies. They were one of the other two stories I was going to mention. We can save them for another day, but, like, love what they're doing. I don't expect it to last quite at this level. Some friendly schedule there as well. But, like, the Rockets and the Lakers are the early beneficiaries here, right? Like, if anybody thinks that they've now got an easier path, you know, the Spurs, whatever their start to the season means, the Spurs are still going to be there at the end. We know that. And the Thunder very well may be, but if you're seeing some daylight in what looked like a two-team stranglehold, it's the Lakers and the Rockets who are the ones who are best positioned to go fill that void. It would have been the Denver Nuggets, and it might still be the Denver Nuggets, but as of right now, the Denver Nuggets are looking a little disheveled. How about you, Roger? Yeah, not even a question. Houston, for sure. Lakers right there with them. Houston's a real deal, man. Are you a fan of players throwing up the double bird in the middle of a game, Roger? Throwing up the double? Who did that? Did you see that? Marcus Smart. Marcus Smart hit back-to-back threes and threw up the double bird. I love it. I'm sorry. I love it. Of course I'm a fan of it. What do you mean? You got to see this play, bro. Who was he throwing? It was an awesome sequence. Who was he throwing? He takes a charge. He takes a charge, flips front forward after the charge. That was insane. Like karate? Yeah. Like that. Flips forward, right? You can just tell how great these athletes are. Hits a three. Incredible. If I remember correctly, he takes a charge, gets a stone face from Jason Tatum, and then hits a three, then gets the ball again on the next possession, hits another three, and throws a double bird on national television. I've only seen that once, and that was not an NBA. That was when Marshawn threw the double bird toward the Tennessee Titans in a regular season game that caught on television. Any time a double bird, any time FCC rules are broken because of a double bird, it is hilarious to me. It's hilarious. He's going to get a nice fine. It's totally worth it. I thought it was hilarious. Put that on a t-shirt, underdog. Put it on there right now. Yeah. Anyways, you're a fan of the Houston Rockets, right? Yeah, I do. No, I like Houston, man. I think they're tough, man. I also like the Lakers. The Lakers. But I like Houston more. I think it's time for a Logan apology. I think it's time. This is back-to-back shows. I don't want you to be disappointed. I mean, your eyes are so just, you know, earmuffs. But I got it. Fred VanVleet, man. Just, I was skeptical that he was going to be, because just of everything that bad that happened, even though they won 52 games, the Rockets won 52 games last year, I was still skeptical because of just the behind-the-scenes stuff that they would figure it out. But Fred VanVleet has been amazing for that team. And you see, he just, there's always that one guy that puts things right into place, right? Like, Amin doesn't have to worry about being a point guard. KD can just be KD. And it's, even though he was very, very good, he's been amazing. He was very unhappy last night. He is, like, just amazing that he can do this at this stage of his career. Like, that he can continue to do that. He put Daniel Gafford on a poster, and I thought it was 2011. I was like, Jesus. But they're great. They can play defensively. We'll see what happens. Marcus Smart has just been a really great addition for that team. Real quick aside before we get to Raj's traveling segment. Kai Jerome, talking incredible. Okay? I just want all my real ones. I just want. I just want you guys to do this really quickly. I want you guys to, I want you to set up on your YouTube, or no, I want you to set up on your YouTube the final play of Regulation from last night's game against the New Orleans Pelicans. And I want you to bring up your Spotify, and I want you to bring up Pink Floyd's album, Dark Side of the Moon. And I want you to put play time. And I want you to fast forward time to about two minutes and ten seconds for that beat drop. And you time that shit with Kai Jerome's shot at the end of Regulation of last night's game. And I promise you will feel nirvana. I promise you. I promise. You went a long way to get to that one. That's what I've been doing this morning. I don't know what the hell you guys have been doing this morning, but that's what I've been doing. That's what I want all my real ones to do. You're going to have a good day. You started early on Pacific Time this morning. I did, man. I had to get prepared. This is like if you start The Wizard of Oz and Dark Side of the Moon at the same time, it all syncs up kind of stuff, except it's Kai Jerome instead of Dorothy. This is incredible. What is Dark Side of the Moon? Because I'm 12 years old, I just found out. I knew what the album was, but I just listened to it for the first time a week and a half ago, and it's fucked my whole life up. We'll do that. Time is an incredible song. Dark Side of the Moon? If you guys don't know this, just go check it out. Go Google it, but if you sync up Dark Side of the Moon with The Wizard of Oz, it actually works somehow, like scene by scene. I'm probably going to do that. I'm in LA, and I got a lot of time to kill. I'm probably going to do that tonight. Okay, let's do it. Dark Side of the Moon, listen to time and listen to money. That shit is great, and so is Kai Jerome, a stealth MVP candidate. We are going to listen, man. Can I just butt in for two seconds? Okay, go ahead. Because you mentioned stealth MVP candidate. Can I just say, not a segment, not a thing, but my annoyance of the week, can we stop anointing people MVP? I don't mean the Kai Jerome thing. That's a joke. In fact, the number of people in the last 24 hours who have said, man, Luke has got it locked up, man. That's it. He's got MVP. Oh, hell yeah. That's happening. I don't know. We're not even 10% of the way into the season yet. He might win MVP. It's altogether possible, but can we not do this in fucking November 3rd or whatever we're at? Can we at least wait until the 20-game mark, or maybe, I don't know, January? January 1st, before we start talking about who's leading the fucking MVP race, please? I know this is falling on deaf ears. I know there's just no chance. It's falling on deaf ears. I know. I know. I just have to say it. It's so fucking annoying. I will say this, man. You guys might be long gone, but in like 40 years- Oh, I'll be long gone. I'll be telling my great grandkids about the three-week stretch of Tai Jerome. I cannot wait. I cannot wait. When he was a fringe MVP candidate for three weeks of the season, it was great. It was awesome. It was awesome. Guys, he is prime. Maybe he's going to be better in his career seven years in. He feels like he is who he is territory until this season, and I don't know what it's going to be, but he is shaping up to be a prime, you just had to be there, player. You know what I mean? Just like, I can't explain it. You just had to be there. And so, you know, that's my rant on Tai Jerome. Let's take a quick break, and we're going to see what Roger was doing up on the road. And we are back, ladies and gentlemen, for another segment. A segment of On the Road with Roger Bell, presented by The Streets. We'll get a sponsor one day, I think. We'll see. We put our bid in for a sponsor last week, and, you know, we'll see how it goes. So, you were in Ole Miss. Sponsorship going to be based on, like, how well I tell a story? Because if that's the case, we probably won't get sponsorship. But, like, so, yeah. All right. Let's do this. Can I start this by asking you guys a question? Like, I know this isn't the way it's supposed to start, but you guys have been on airplanes before where, like, the plane's delayed for probably, I don't know, like, a year or something. Extended period of time. Happened on my way here. You're getting somewhere midday. So, you're at a destination place, like L.A., but sometimes you hit these places where, like, it's a major hub for connections. And occasionally, they'll be like, hey, we got people that are going to miss their connection. Can everyone stay seated and let these people make their connection? You guys have been on planes with them, right? Famous last words. Yeah. No one ever does. People suck. It's, right? So, like, I've missed flights because of that before. So. So, we don't go to Texas this weekend because my younger boy, Ty, has an official visit to Ole Miss basketball. So, we're going to go there, spend some time with them, catch the Ole Miss-Auburn football game. And we are delayed out of Fort Lauderdale. We land in Memphis. I mean, we land in Charlotte to connect to Memphis. And we land at, like, 1258. And our flight is leaving at 110. And we're in, like, the exit row in row 24. And, you know, they don't make the announcement. But I'm trying. I'm trying my best to be, like, as loud as I can about, oh, my God, I hope we make this flight. I hope we make this flight. No one listens. So, we actually, like, get off the plane, sprint to the gate, which is only, like, six gates away, luckily. And we are the last two people they let on the plane to head to Memphis. Then we drive down to Ole Miss. Ole Miss was a vibe, man. Like, Ole Miss basketball, Coach Beard, Coach Matt, their whole staff, the team. It was a really good trip for Ty. I enjoyed getting to know all of those people and feeling the energy and stuff inside the building. Um, but this is, this is road tripping right so like what when we get to the football game on saturday um old miss has a real unique setup they have something they call it the grove so uh typically when you go to a football game tailgates tailgates are way spread out they're in parking lots um every tailgate feels like its own separate tailgate so like you might not feel comfortable walking up to logan's tailgate if you don't know him and being like yo hey how can i get down there everyone's got their individual thing well this one is basically like a fair setup it's like this huge rectangle or whatever shape this lot is and everyone has their own specific designated area that you tailgate in every week and they set up shop with their tents they've got chandeliers they've got um like incredible ornate furniture they're they're this is like a production uh the people are not dressed up in like normal football attire like everyone's in like khakis and quarter zips the women are in sundresses and like their southern fair like this was an a plus in terms of uh in terms of like the the atmosphere the vibe the curation of the pageantry like it it was an absolute a plus um the the game was great stadium was rocking um the old miss one trinidad did his thing it was pretty cool to watch him play in person i'm a quarterback um kind of uh a fan now in the house i watched them uh with a pretty keen eye he operated at a high level especially in that second half but at night halloween they have this place in oxford called the square um and they were trying to do it justice telling us yo the square gets rocking like there are people out when i tell you that this square um was out of control on a saturday night on halloween night it was out of control it was absolutely out of control like it made me wish that i had went to like an sec school um to get to like experience that that they were out the co-eds were out but the older crowd that was there to visit their co-eds was out everybody was out in these streets it was cracking so i left ty to go out with the team and i'm like damn dude what do i didn't have my wife with me and i didn't have a road dog with me so yeah i just didn't feel comfortable going to the bar dolo so i went back and i went to sleep i was that guy i watched some college football late i went to bed i saw the pictures the next day from ty and it was like that they were doing it you know here's the thing though it's like i am entering washed age at this point i love now like seeing other people do their thing on instagram i love being in bed about 10 15 and seeing everybody else have fun i have no longer have fomo i no longer have the fomo of like yo man i need to fucking be there bro i wish it was it's like more of like damn that's cracking i'm happy for you and i feel like that's just how you get i'm sure if it's like that for me i know it's like that for y'all no i wasn't look i'm not trying to be in your street but like i would have definitely not minded at 10 o'clock going up to that hotel bar that was kind of popping if i had somebody with me and just like lower key posting that's how i went to bed i want to say to your point though um about people messing up connections for other people that's fucked up y'all that's just really not a good thing to do i i i had experience i was on the good side i was a good samaritan a couple a few weeks ago i was coming back from hawaii a little family trip to hawaii back to sf and i didn't know this because i usually like sf sfo was a great airport i i just don't know it too be a uh like a connector because i'm just it's just my hometown airport it's a major airport but it's just you know i don't really know it you know the intricacies in that way but people had to get from hawaii where we were delayed and then get us to san francisco and i started hearing whispers like you were saying raj and like you know like hey man we gotta but on this flight it was the whispers and it was also the the flight attendants like hey we got to get these people out to go to la go to seattle go to all these people right of course other people didn't listen you know what i did roger i built a wall oh it was like yo hey oh these people have to get through okay i felt really good about myself on that it was you know but you gotta you gotta help the helper in these situations you know what i'm saying you know i've been on the yeah i hate the thing so first of all it should be like federally mandated that you make the damn announcement and i can't believe they didn't make the announcement for you didn't make that flight raja they have they need to make the damn announcement um and then it should be like a like finable offense we need to treat seriously when the announcement comes that says people have tight connections please stay in your seats if you're not making a connection and let like let people off the plane like let and then because what happens is you see it happen some people start to and who knows there's probably some people who are bullshitting and just getting up anyway whatever a few people are going to cheat but the people who you know like not all of you are making these connections and they're getting up anyway the other thing that kills me not in these situations just in general um i think we can all agree just like we kind of all agree like you stay on the right side of the road and the other people not right so we don't like crash into each other um there needs to be an agreement that just the logical thing to do when the plane lands and the belt the seat belt side finally does go off and we all stand up we get into the row immediately because we're all impatient and like antsy and and our legs are stiff it's fine but please folks if i'm in row 19 and you're in row 20 wait for all of row 19 to get out first if you're the motherfucker behind me who just like plows through because you saw somebody pause for two seconds while they were being polite to the other side of the row and you just like fly through and it's not because you have a tight connection you are an asshole and the air marshals should tackle your ass and drag you off to the worst part of the airport they might take that too far but i will say this though before i leave i i before we go i i do have a story about the way maybe things should go in a in a decent society i was at miami airport one time right and well i was in miami you have a story about miami international airport yeah it's it's a very rare one it's a very rare one so what was going to happen was um so i had the the warriors were in town and i needed to get howard fills me on this i needed to get draymond for a piece like he was it was going into his jersey retire right and i needed to get him to write the story to go and because this was the last time i was gonna see him before he went to jersey retired at michigan state so i needed to get him in my end right and the practice was like at noon the flight was like at like 2 30 right and so i get the interview done right and it's at this high school i can't remember it i'll tell you guys offline i forgot it's some private school that they were going to right okay yeah probably the south and i'm driving i drive i get an uber from miami airport to miami airport from that high school and the uber driver drops me off at the wrong gate i've never been the wrong yeah the wrong terminal i've never been at miami airport so i don't really know airport in the best of circumstances right and i realize it i i realize that i'm at the wrong terminal it's and i have a flight to orlando that i have to make right because i have to do an interview with steve kerr that next night for a podcast that we were doing back then right and so i'd knock on the uber like yo this is the wrong terminal i need to get to this one right it's like cutting it close it's like 20 minutes until the doors close on the plane right and so they get me to the right terminal i just i yell yo when i get to security yo i gotta get through it's like 10 minutes till my flight goes the seas apart oh kudos to miami wow this is part hold me down like it's good actually that's where your gate is you're going to get through had preaching you should have played boy and i got to orlando but that's that's a good samaritan even at miami airport we can figure it out okay even there yeah there you go all right can someone explain to me the green saran wrap thing at miami airport that's i think of miami airport and i just think immediately of those machines with the green saran wrap to put around your suitcases i've never seen that anywhere else it's so bizarre i don't know what that is and that's been another edition of on the road with rajah um presented by the streets oh that's been another edition of real ones uh thank you guys so much what a great show that is howard go vote people go vote go vote um and uh that's been another edition of real ones we will see you guys later in the week ah all the bye let's see 21 years and older and select states for kansas and affiliation with this kansas star casino or 18 and older and present in dc or wyoming opt-in required bonus issued is now travel profit boost tokens restrictions apply including any token expiration and max wager amounts see terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org backslash chat in connecticut or visit md gambling help in maryland hope is here visit gambling helpline ma.org or call 1-800-327-5050 for 24 7 support in massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text hope in y in new york for louisiana call 1-877-770-7867 We'll see you next time. 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