Still Shocked About LeBron Signing With the Sixers, Big Wilt's Smalls Paradise, and Verno’s Hole in One

[MUSIC] >> Welcome to The Missbacks. I'm Chris Vernon. It's what we see does every week from TheRingor.com is Dave Jacobi. Jacobi! >> I don't know if you heard Bruno, but LeBron James is on the Sixers. And immediately the second news story was, these 17 teams have interest in Mario, his Zonia. I was just like, well, what? How is this like the second thing to come out? It's like LeBron is a Sixer. Now everyone is in the Zonia sweepstakes all the time. >> Right, not quite Thompson, not the Martin Rosen, not Jonathan Cumminga. It was like, watch out, here comes his Zonia. >> His Zonia could have changed the power of the conferences. >> Depending on where his Zonia signs. >> Mario Zonia, the fifth pick in the draft in the 2015 draft. Last played in the NBA in the 1920 season, but we will get to that a little bit later. All right, so we have now had everybody's done their podcasts, except for us. Everybody's done their analysis. Everybody's done all the shows and the debate shows and everything else. Where are we at on before we get to our three thoughts about LeBron James signing with the Sixers, ingesting everything that has been thrown at us about LeBron James with the 76ers. What is your biggest takeaway? >> Well, you know, I produce game over with Rich Paul and Max Kellenman. >> I heard that. >> And Max likes to talk before the show. I mean, he likes to like talk it out, right? About the different topics. And he said he's like, well, LeBron James really wants to win another championship. >> Oh, okay. >> And I said, oh, you know, it's not just about like golf, you know what I mean, family or whatever. And when he said that, my initial response was, well then the 76ers would probably be the natural spot. Like to be the actually like the best basketball team. Like to team up with the best talent given his options, that would be the 76ers. And then in an hour later, he announces that he's going to the 76ers. So like with all this time to calculate it all and think about it all, I really think it's just, he wants to play with the best basketball team. And the best option is the 76ers. Isn't that fair to say? >> I think it is fair to say that he thinks this is the best opportunity to get another ring. Yes. >> You don't think so. >> Ah, yeah. >> I mean the Spurs obviously, all of the ones he was considering. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of the teams that he was considering, your best chance to win is there for sure. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, let's get to our three thoughts. >> Was I supposed to come up with three thoughts because I saw that you wrote three thoughts in the rundown. I didn't know I was supposed to, but I can just freestyle it. >> Yeah, you can. >> First one. This is still shocking to me. Like it's a week later. I, you know, we talked about this a lot. Steve Kerr is embracing Dremont Green and Steph Curry on the sideline. It's over. He's going to go into the distance. He's going to become a ringer podcaster, slash broadcaster. The whole thing. It's, you know, that time came to an end. And then a few weeks later, he was like, no, actually, you know what? Let's run it back for a couple of years. And I was like, okay, something's going on here. Then you have the whole Dremont situation. Dremont and LeBron are playing golf together every day. Dremont is obviously part of the clutch family. Dremont is not signing his contract yet. And so I was really thinking warriors. And then all the like, he probably is going to film a documentary, you know, farewell to the King type of thing. I'm like, oh, okay, well, that's probably Cleveland, all right? Probably Cleveland. And I would imagine that, you know, that'll be the perfect, if we're making a movie, here's the beginning, the boy from Akron, here's the end, the man from Cleveland. And then at the end, Bronnie comes on and he joins them with the whole thing, right? Like, if we're making a movie, now it's Cleveland. Then Yannis goes to Miami and then Pat Riley comes out and he says, we landed one plane. Now it's time for us to land another. And I was like, well, been around for the last 50 years. Pat Riley's pretty, he's gotten quite a few things done. And, you know, it is Miami. He's played there before. Now they got Yannis. Ball would be in his hands. Unbelievable golf situation. And it's Miami, right? Like, I mean, if we're talking about him being the guy and him having the ball in his hands and making the decisions down the stretch, this is probably a pretty persuasive spot. All of those, I consider drastically more than Philadelphia. The reason I say it is still a week later, like it is not gonna feel right to me even when we go to opening night and see him in a Philadelphia 76ers uniform. Like, I just never even considered. And again, I know others did. You obviously did. I never even considered that he would go to Philadelphia. And I know that like now he's, he's signed with Philadelphia. They do the rollout yesterday. They say he's gonna live in New York. And again, another thing I didn't consider that he would live in New York, I would just think in like, all right, the guys like super into golf. They got four other guys that need the ball. Not a lot of role players. And so and and beat is like wildly unreliable. And he kind of feels like a golden ticket to be able to reach their maximum. And anywhere he's gonna go. And sure enough, that's where he ends up. And I will tell you that a week later, I am still, I still can't believe it, I still have been shocked that he is a Philadelphia 76er, that we will see him wearing. They feel it out via 76ers uniform coming up. That's just not the, that's not, I never even, I never even considered it. And then it makes me think about all those other teams. Like, I'm sure that they were all shocked as well. - I'm not gonna sit here and act like I thought he was going to the 76ers. - If you were to rank before that he made his decision, if I were to rank the teams that he would potentially play for in order, I think the sixers would probably be like four or five. Right? They kind of had that sort of like timber wolves thing where it's like, I guess they're mentioned, but I just can't see it happening. And there's something about the colors and the city and the history. I just like don't, I just couldn't see it. But now that I've seen all the Photoshop's and they've got the crown in this locker room like number 23, like it does make sense. Now here's my first thought, 'cause I mentioned that a conversation I had with Kellyman. And the next thing I said is if he goes to the sixers, this is before he announced, I would trade Joel M.B. for 60 cents on the dollar immediately. Be the first thing I would do. Because the variance of having a beat or not having a beat, it's just so much. You've seen it over the past few years where it's, they're like two completely different teams. And Embiid win right is so good for MVP. I'm not trying to discredit his basketball value, but I would just prefer to have someone less skilled and more available and reliable. I would prefer to have someone that I can count on playing game one, game two, game three, game four, game five, game six of a series. And you just can't what you want to be. We've seen it playoff after playoff. In the absence of these guys already trading Paul George, I would tell you that on Bill Simmons podcast of the worst contracts in the NBA, it wasn't even close who was gonna be drafted number one overall. And it was Joel M.B. He was the first pick in the draft. $58 million. Now I believe second was Paul George. And so that's why I say in the absence of, you know, an old GM one said, you just signed the guy because every contract is tradable, right? Like, and that seemed like something GM's just say. But as time has gone on and as we just saw Paul George get traded, I have continuously reminded that, and we saw a trade. Y'all get it like, we always do because my initial response to your statement is, yeah, okay, you would walk in and you would trade Joel M.B. Really easy. - I said for 60 cents on the dog. - I understand, I'm fully gonna get the return that you would want if you trade Joel M.B. But I think it's worth it because you don't need his creation or scoring even. - Here's, but here's what I would say to Kobe. Yeah, I walk into the office, I say, you know what, the first thing I'm gonna do is trade Joel M.B. And then I start calling around. It's like, is anyone? - Does anybody want a $58 million player that plays 30 years on his deal too? - Who plays 20 games a year? And is not gonna make it through the playoffs? Anybody? - It's completely changing. - And it's your team dynamic based on their availability. - Anybody looks slot in anywhere. - Anybody want that? Anybody, hey, you know what I got for sale? Even 60 cents on the dollar. Anybody want to pay 60 million bucks to a guy that plays 20 games that doesn't make it through the playoffs? Like, I got it. It sounds fine on the surface. - It does, but if you look at the teams, like who would do that and what would you get in return and what would be worth it? Where's the situation where both teams end up happy? - Brooklyn. - I mean, but you need a big, even like Nick Claxton would be nice, you know what I mean? - But again, you can't even sell tickets based on it. You know, that's the hard part with Tim. He's in a, he's in a Tuss5. I think you just sit there and cross your fingers and pray he's gonna be healthy. Number two, the Bob Myers angle of this. So this is one of those, at the end of the usual suspects that Chaz Paul Menteri drops the glass and shatters all over the ground. He's like, oh my God, I figured it all out, right? Did have a little bit of that. Thinking back to the show that you produced game over with Max Kellerman and Rich Paul. And Bob Myers podcast appearance on, I should have made a bigger deal of that. - He pitches Rich. He pitches Rich right there on the show. - We all should have made a bigger deal of that. None of the other GMs were on game over. None of the other executives are on game over. - And he said that he's not a GM, but he's-- - Okay, fine, president. - No, he's like, he's something like Harris Sports Group basketball, president, something, something, but whatever. Okay, he's the most powerful person in the Sixers organization outside the owner, right? - Sure. - And he's on the podcast. And of course, this was one of those, much like the Chaz Paul Menteri's looking at the wall. I go back and I'm pulling it up. And I'm like, okay, now I gotta go back and listen to this and remind myself what this guy was saying. And I was like, you know, pretty persuasive. And the two things of this are, obviously, once about a time he was able to lure KD to Golden State. And I've talked about Jerry West and his ability to help lure people. And there's no doubt Bob Myers learned something from him, probably along the way in terms of recruiting players. These guys that are, and we just saw a guy who's a general manager of the team who built a title team in Leon Rose. And I do think that that portion of the skill set being so good at relating to players serves these guys incredibly well because they spent their lives recruiting players. That's what they did. Much like collegiate coaches, these guys actually have to recruit, their livelihood has depended on them being a salesman. And so I do think that the Bob Myers angle of this is enormous. And I do think that one of the things is, you don't have to tear down the other. But if I am to accept that the primary competition was possibly Golden State, I can't help but think of that being a major part of this, right? That he's the guy that left Golden State, right? He's the one that was there for the Kevin Durant era. He watched Kevin Durant win finals MVP's and whatever and people still question whether or not it's his title. Like, Steph is the beloved one there. And I was listening to House and Bill yesterday when House was saying something like, I don't think it has anything to do with you wouldn't want to go to Curry's team. You know what I mean? I think you would like put that aside whatever. And I couldn't disagree more that that was not part of the calculus. Like that that has to be broke. That's like saying, I don't think the broad James hasn't gigantic ego. Like boy, like he literally just ran away from LA because they got somebody better than him than because he's not the guy anymore. Like it's hard. Like he has, there's two things with Philadelphia that I then consider. A, he will have the ball. Like, and he is the biggest voice in that locker room and in that huddle. He is the guy like with the track record, you know? And the other thing is they've never won anything. They've never won anything. So anything you do is amazing. And if they don't win, I mean, everybody will just blame all his teammates like they have for 20 years. And, but they aren't gonna blame Steph. Like that's the reverse. They blame Steph's teammates. Steph's not the one that didn't get it done. The teammates are. And he needs better teammates. And that's always been the LeBron thing. It's not LeBron didn't get it done. It's LeBron teammates. And now it'll be obviously the Lucas show there. And I just think that when he goes to Philadelphia, that's going to be a part of it. And so I think Bob Myers probably being able to explain exactly what it would be like in Golden State and exactly what it would be like being in a Joe, Joe Lake up operation along with explaining, you know, hey, here's Josh Harris, here's Michael Rubin. Here's all these people that you already have relationships with in Philadelphia. And most importantly, me, I'm gonna let you do whatever you want. You wanna live in New York? Fine. You don't wanna do this? Fine. You want to go, you know, on your off days, you want to take a couple days off here and they're fine. Like, I mean, he's, he's so relatable to players. And especially when you're dealing with a guy that, you know, is going to get it his way. He's going to be able to do whatever he wants. Like the big problem once upon a time, was he ruled the roost in Miami. And but it heads with Pat Riley over that. And he ruled the roost in Cleveland. And ruled the roost in LA, but then they changed ownership. And they added Luca. And so I do think that there's, I think that Bob Myers being there and being so persuasive is a massive reason. Along with, and I don't wanna forget Gansy. Gansy obviously played a role in this. But shout out to Bob Myers. I mean, he has pulled this off. And now you look up and there are wings for LeBron James and Jalen Brown for God's sakes. It's unbelievable, like truly unbelievable. - To my second thought on this, this is one of my first initial thoughts when he announced was they have, like, let's see, one, two, three, four, five guys, they can get you 30 points at any given night. And the thing about this team is-- - Maybe, maybe six if you wanna throw in a pretty assignment. - Sure, he's got his share of 30 points game. - He can score. It's like, and Beats not gonna play 75 regular season games. LeBron James is not gonna play 75 regular season games, but Maxi, Will, and Brown, Will, and Edgecomb will, hopefully. And I see this as much like most Jalen Beads seasons for the past four or five years. It is do whatever you need to do in the regular season to make sure you're healthy for the playoffs. And I think that LeBron is going to take games off. And I think, and Beat is going to take games off, uninjured, just rest games. And I think that they've got so much scoring firepower, that that won't be a problem. I think this is gonna be a very successful regular season team. I really do. - It'll take a while for them to figure it out and how to play against it. - To figure out what. - I mean, look, it even took the heat als a while to figure it out. And the other thing, here's my only question. The balance of NBA teams that are great. They all have two components. Stars and role players. Somebody's got to play a role. Somebody's not getting the ball. Somebody's setting the screens. Somebody, no, you even go back to that. - I never do this, there's only one ball thing. I never believe in that. Give me the most best basketball players we can have on a team, especially with LeBron James. LeBron James has a basketball IQ that can bandaid any of those words. Somebody has to play a role, bro. Somebody says it's great. - Sometimes, Jaylen Brown will be sitting in the corner shooting for two or three's, that's fine. - Well, LeBron. - And then these guys are all highly paid with egos. It's not as easy as you think. - LeBron's not highly paid. - That's the way basketball works. You think about all of the great teams and you think about all the great performances throughout NBA history and championship teams. Somebody's got to take back seats. And you're gonna have to have at least two guys take back seats on this thing. And that's fine. - I'm not concerned about that. I think with the lack of availability with NBA and James resting, I think that there'll be plenty of opportunities, plenty of shots to go around. I really think so. And I think a lot of time, I swear to God, LeBron's gonna get the ball outland it to Maxi or Edgecomb and just stand in his own paint and watch the possession play out and let everybody come right back to him. It's gonna, and Beat and James are gonna. have so many possessions where they don't even cross half court in this offense. I promise you, it's going to be awesome to watch. You're so fun to watch. I think it'll take a little while to figure out and I'm going to be interested to see who ends up in the lineup that is the guy that like, you know, there's, it can't just be Dean Wade, right? There's other guys that have to be setting the screens, moving the ball, setting the, you know, setting the tone and doing all the dirty work. Like that stuff is all essential towards winning. You have to have those guys. There has to be the guys that don't need the ball that do the dirty work and every championship team has them and inevitably there will be guys that fit into the lineup that are the ones that don't need the ball. But like when their best players all are guys that are not necessarily role players. No, I think that's fair to say. And I think I just believe in LeBron James ability to figure it out. But I'm a little concerned about their front court depth. You know, I love Huck Portee, you know, champion, you know, former Nick, a Dembona, like it is a little like if you don't have him be, are you starting Huck Portee? Are you putting Dean is like Dean Wade and LeBron? Is that your front court? I mean, they're, hey, I will say there is a, that's what I'm talking about though. That's just a role playing center, right? Like where it's like, you don't need the ball, get your putbacks, get your, you know, if we dish it off to you after we draw to driving to the late like, but you ain't getting 10 shots. Like you might get six shots, you might get eight shots. And we need you to block shots rebound and run the floor, you know, and be there. And so the last thing is this and this is the craziest. So I was sitting down and I was jogging everything down after they acquired LeBron James and we fully expect Philadelphia to be a force to be reckoned with. Okay. So we expect them to be a force to be reckoned with, right? And then you think about the other off seasons at two sets. So who the hell's not making the playoffs? Listen, we have the Knicks who are the reigning champs. Okay. We have the Celtics who won 56 games and we'll have Tatum back healthy. Do you have the heat with now Yannis? Do you have the Pacers with Halliburton, Siacum and Zubox? You have the Wizards adding tray, AD and DeBonster? You have the magic still with Paulo and Franz. You have the piss. You have the pistons who won 60 games. You have the Raptors now with Kauai. You have the Hawks who had a fantastic off season and added Lou Dorton three draft picks that look good and summer league. Do you have the Hornets who came on at the end of the year, second half of the year in a big way? You have the cabs that have Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, Jared Allen and Evan Mobley. And you have the 76ers who are absolutely loaded. That is 12 magic have a new coach. The Wizards have AD and three young. That's 12. The only teams I did not mention are the Bulls, the Bucks and the Net. Bulls, Buck, Net. Yep. Pacers are in there. Yeah. 12. Where would you power rank the pistons who were the number one team? I don't know. I'd put them like six. And they were the Pacers. What are the Pacers? They were the Easter Carpens champions two years ago. One as of July 28th, the second best player on the pistons hates them. Yeah. Because he's unpaid and they added John Collins and Isaiah Joe. It's unbelievable. If you're like, you were land on magic a year ago, you were like the darlings after adding Bane. And now I'm looking at the magic like, yeah, maybe a play in, maybe a play in team. I'm serious. Like, who? How about the Hornets who were on the come up? And it's like this. That was the first step towards their, you know, moving up. Obviously, they've moved off of Lamello ball. But I mean, they like bridges. You're right. They like their offseason. They added some stuff that, you know, Kobe White is going to be the guy they go with. They've obviously got Khan and Brandon Miller. But like, does that one just hit a, I mean, that would, does that one just hit a detour? Like, they just got exciting for the first time. And it's like, okay, you're on your way up. I mean, you look at these teams and you're like, who's not, who's non-playoff? That's 12 for eight. There's only so many seats at the table. It's like musical chairs. It's just like, it's just not enough room for everybody. Like, I can see the heat being out in the lottery. Okay. And maybe the Celtics, maybe the Celtics, minus Jalen Brown. You could see them falling off. I mean, yeah. Right. How much like Shireman and Bridgerton and Hugo, can you and maybe the Wizards thing, you know, to mean AD, if he plays his customary 50, 55 games and they're not, yeah. No, I mean, it might be in the hornets, right? It might be easier than we think. But these teams all have real playoff hopes in their sides. And that's why I think if you're, if you're a team like the Bulls, right? You know, you got it. It's exciting, rookie, you know, Busellis coming into his own. And I think that you could look at this roster if you're the Bulls and say, you know what? Maybe we'll be a playing team. You know, maybe we'll make some noise, maybe 500s on the table. And now you look at the New Easter conference and they're not even considered. No, not even considered. No. I mean, and it's like, what do we spend that money on? No one power and Nick Clack stood for. Yeah. I mean, we're trying to, but we're trying to be good. I kind of like the Bulls. Or the Hawks, like, I don't know, man. And they, right, and they, I would say that the Raptors, I don't, I don't, dance your question. I don't know who the eight playoff teams are going to be, but it's going to be fun to watch. All I'm just saying is we went to 12 quick. Yeah. 12 out of 15 that there are levels. There's tears. Like, I think you've got sixers, nicks, calves, pistons. As you're like, those guys are playoff teams, right? What do you say that? You put pastures in there? No, I got to see it. Oh, come on. I got to see it. Come on. Hey, Nass. That was two years. It was two years ago, Jacoby. The ball went up to the Raptors and dropped that. Come on. I can't believe that happened. I'll know. I saw him over the weekend doing an East Bay dunk. Do it between his legs and cracked it. And I was like, okay, L Burton's back. Here's the thing I liked about that dunk in that video. shirtless because remember, it just had the Achilles. He had shingles. He was gaining weight because of the medication. He's like, no, that's shingles. At the same time, he's coming back from a, even though shingles are outside of like roofing. One of my buddies had it. He said it was the absolute worst thing you could have. I mean, it lasted months, months, horrible. And it just, I couldn't even like sleep with the pain. God, that is horrible. And he's rehabbing the killings, which is enough. But he looked good. I said, I said, oh my God, that is horrible, man. I am so sorry. Get away from me. Is this, is this contagious? Yeah. Here's my final thought. My third thought here is this whole living in New York to Philly thing. I find it interesting, you know, because, you know, I live here in New York. It's not close. Like, it's not, people think it's close. It's not close. Like, it's a full, if you're on the train, you're taking about an hour and a half. Oh, yeah. The broad tape is taking the train. All right. And I'm just saying, like, if you're in a car, it's about an hour and a half. So the helicopter, I guess is 45 minutes. That's still a pretty long ride. And you got to get to where you're going to from the, the heliport or whatever it is. Like, it's not, it's not close. Have you ever ridden a helicopter? Never in my life. Never, never not once in my life. Me never once. I never once. I don't want to. No way. Why not? I'm terrified of it. Oh, you're one of those guys. Yeah. I don't like playing either. Oh, none of that bothers me. I'm like, I just look at the helicopter. Like, well, that thing's still in tact. So it's been around for 10 years. It hasn't blown up. No way. No way. Oh, I'll skydive. I'll do any of that. Why do you jump? Yeah, all that. Yeah. Have you skydive? No. No. I would. Would you climb the Empire State Building? Yeah. I used to work at the Empire State Building. Oh, on the outside. No. I used to hustle tours the Empire State Building for three years. It was awesome. I made so much money doing that. Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah. All through college, all through college. I worked like 35 hours a week in college. And I got 5%. If you want to go to the observatory, you want an observatory ticket, $3 for children, $6 for adults. If you want to go to the observatory and on the sky ride, the sky ride is a flight simulation. It's a movie where the seats move that takes you to all the major attractions of New York City. If you want to go to the observatory, you stay on this line, you get an observatory ticket. If you want to go to the observatory and the sky ride, you want a combination ticket, $9 for children, $14 for adults. If you want to go to the observatory, only stay on this line. If you want a combination ticket, $9 for children, $14 for adults, come to me with me to the second floor where there's no line to buy tickets. Follow me and then I just walk away and people follow me and I got 5% of the margin which was like 30 cents a person and I was getting like a thousand people a day on a good day. You're Empire State Building Bob Myers Oh my God and the thing is people didn't even speak English They would just follow me because they didn't understand anything I said and then also there's a line to buy the tickets And there's also a line to go in the elevator So some people just be like the people people try to fight me afterwards They're like you said there was no line. I was like I said there's no line to buy tickets. I didn't say there's no line And then you scram that yeah, and I was and I was there's all these girls from out of town Didn't know what to do at night. What should we do tonight? And I was promoting parties at the same time so I'm making money on the state building and then I'm making money on that night It was awesome guys, but I peaked I peaked in like 1998 Anyway, yeah, so I started looking at this commuting thing and everything. Oh J.J. Retic did this Right remember when he was playing for the Sixers and living in Brooklyn. Oh Oh It's like J.J. Retic did this and then I saw this sentence right here Will Chamberlain did something similar decades earlier Living in New York during the season while playing for Philadelphia And this is what got me and running a nightclub in Harlem I was like what is it will Chamberlain was first of all because he wasn't flying in a helicopter Like you know travelers with slower back then right and he's running a nightclub in Harlem So I'm like some googling his nightclub like what's up? Will Chamberlain's nightclub Will Chamberlain co-owned the famous Harlem nightclub smalls paradise What's renaming it big wills smalls paradise in 1961 Located Adam Clayton Powell junior Boulevard and 135 right quote unquote This blew my mind. Hold on. Is it 61 the year that he averaged like 50 and 20 and he bought a nightclub That was like struggling. This is a famous nightclub. Listen to this quote this blew my mind because I go to bed at like 11 o'clock Imagine you will Chamberlain, right? Okay quote unlike most of Harlem clubs which close between three and four a.m Smalls was open all night offering a breakfast dance which featured a full-floor show beginning at 6 a.m. in the morning What was with Chamberlain up to hold on what in the abiza is this what is going on who's starting the party at 6 a.m Here's what 20 second talk about I just went and looked it up The 1961 62 season will Chamberlain averaged a record shattering 50.4 points per game across 80 games with the Philadelphia Warriors Oh, so 50 points right and listen to this Chamberlain spent up to 18 hours a day at smalls paradise. What? 18 hours a day at smalls paradise and putting up 50 averaging 50. He also in that season scored 78 points and grabbed 43 rebounds in a grueling 63 minute triple overtime Minutes and that's going 18 hours of smalls paradise and parting until 10 in the morning also at March 2nd 1962 was the 100 point game And then he went straight to smalls paradise afterwards for a breakfast dance Do you know one of the big things that blew up at smalls paradise big wills smalls paradise? They really say this was the 61 62 season Yeah, he bought it in 1961 And then average 50 points exactly 50 points Do you know what do you want really made smalls paradise blow up because they were struggling with will bought it then turn it into big wills smalls paradise the twist They would have twist-offs shout out to show me to be checker. He just took the nation by storm Yes, the twist that they would have twist competitions like pulp fiction Blue up at big wills smalls paradise. Imagine he spent 18 hours a day there and put up 50 at night in another city You got to look up the address. I did it's two to two nine four and Clayton Powell Junior Boulevard I mean go over there see what it is now. It's been redone. Yeah, I read about it I was I did a deep dive on what is it and now it's like a it's like a learning center a music boom Learning Yeah, where's the breakfast dance Educating children. What are we doing? That's not what Wilton Tendon that is not what Wilton Tendon will chamberlain dude lived in New York Played in Philly average 50 spent 18 hours a day at a nightclub That had a breakfast dance six in the morning All right, well, it needs to be full circle LeBron small paradise Small paradise. He needs to bring it back. That's incredible. What a story And that just and that just so happens to line up like when you said 1961. I'm like, that's the season That's the season the season Yeah Well, I'm gonna go read them forget and there's a little picture of the biography. There's pictures of them Just in a suit surrounded by these like scantley clad servers. It's the smallest pair of days looks awesome By the way looks awesome. Am I crazy or is no one ever done? Is there like a big no is there a big will chamberlain doc? Oh Is there one? I'm sure there's probably is here. I mean, they're probably I'm sure But there's but there's there's five Muhammad Ali documentaries like I we can't get like one big will one Let's get Ezra on it No, Ezra huh size or this weekend Let's see Three-part showtime sports series Goliath It premiered in 2023 is on showtime. It says it says it's on Yeah, it says showtime even existing more. It says it's not a thing It says it's on paramount plus. It says it's for a guard. All right. It says I don't know. This looks good All right. Well, you watch it and report back for the I think I'm gonna do this. It's a three-part series. I've never seen this says on paramount plus Everything's a three-part series now. Everything Goliath We never even heard of it. Never heard of it Hmm. All right. I'll check it out. I would just see if they mentioned small paradise in there They have to right they have to yeah 18 hours a day and the twist offs. All right. Here's some other quick hits that we have happened since we last spoke I was mega fascinated by the Oklahoma City Denver thing weird with Spencer Jones like when would Spencer Jones Be on the top of our minds, but it was like the LeBron stuff ended and then it's like hey Oklahoma City is time Spencer Jones to uh His own yeah, oh, yeah, that's too big new stories. Forgive me. Yo All right, let's pause on Spencer Jones and just do the his own do you think real quick? Uh-huh. I thought that I Didn't think that was real I'm not kidding. Oh, yeah, no, I was like I thought I'm not kidding and I'm not trying to like be a dick When I saw that I thought it was a fake Shams account I was like like I was like c-e-n-t-r-a-l I'm like that's central that's how you spell it and it was like the These teams the Cavaliers and Warriors. I think we're the two that it mentioned Have now turned their attention to Mario of his own and I was like After not getting LeBron James. They've now they're now focused on his own. I was like what? Oh, they're gonna get polka too Like His bullporks false And I was like there's no way this is real. I had no idea what happened him evidently. He was the Euro league MVP last year I guess I think it was two years ago, but I looked it up He shot 45% from three With 4.8 attempts a game in 33 games in 23 24 and he shot 36 On six attempts again. Like that's that's a lot of you know, that's that's six three. Yeah again and 36 is not a bad number so No, I guess if you're looking for like a guy in the corner to catch a shoot if you're the Cavs, why not? I really did. I'm being honest. I thought it was somebody bringing up like a funny name from the past It does feel like one of those like me and the bros sit around and just like bring up random basketball players Zonia's one of those also another you know, he wasn't completely out of my mind because During your next run there was a whole slew of people attempting to Provide their bonafides and so every once in a while you would see like a Hazonia jersey or something They're like you you weren't in the you weren't in the trenches. You don't have an Alonzo tree or jersey You don't have a And like Hazonia was one of those that like came up where it was like okay. I am proving my next bonafides I have a Mario Hazonia jersey. I have a Frank Niela Keen of Jersey, I have a-- - Who does Pablo Prisiononi coach for? Is that the Nuggets? - Somebody, yeah. - He's somewhere, he was in the playoffs. He's like, "Oh, I got him, I remember you." Is he only, so I thought it was a joke. But anyway, hey, shout out to him. He's playing for the-- - Shout out to him. - Yeah, 2.8 million dollars. He's only making, dude, he makes $1.2 million less than LeBron James. That's one of the weirdest things about this whole LeBron thing, is dude is making $4 million a year. What, why is his zone in LeBron James making the same amount of money? LeBron had 20 points of game last year, and seven of this is. - So now we have the Spencer Jones thing, where Oklahoma City, he's a restricted free agent, Oklahoma City signs up to an offer sheet. And the Nuggets have time to match it. Everybody's like, "We're, they were really gonna match this because everybody knows it's like beyond punitive to do it." Like this is, you're really putting the screws to 'em if you're saying Presty. And then the report comes out that they have matched. And by matching the offer sheet, the Nuggets face a $32 million increase in luxury tax from $36 million to $68 million. And enter the second apron. They are deep in tax bills, but could shed money via trades this season, in season. The next Denver's order of business navigating, retaining free, restricted free agent payton watch. So that was from Showns. This was crazy because Spencer Jones was not somebody that was in the conversation all the time, but you have this Sam Presty. Like this feels like, there's two things. Like does Sam Presty, I think it's, I think it's probably two, especially in the absence of, you know, they moved off a new door. I don't doubt that they would want Spencer Jones. And especially want Spencer Jones at that price, but I think that everybody's probably correct in thinking this was, this was serving two masters here. Yeah, we'd like to have Spencer Jones, but more importantly, here's one of our competitors, here's one of our competitors, and it makes it impossible for them, right? I think it's worth pointing out that Spencer Jones, when Yokech was out, both Watson and Jones were very, very valuable for this team. And I think that's why they're currently in the sort of places that they are, because they showed that they are legitimate contributors to a potential contender, especially during that regular season run. And here's the deal. You don't get to do things in retrospect, but in retrospect, there's no way they would have signed Christian Brown to that contract. If they knew Peyton Watson was going to pop off like he did. Yes. And get articles written about him. Like, is this the next OG NNOB? Well, Watson was always athletic in a great defender, but he showed an offensive punch last year that I didn't see. I don't think the nuggets are either. It also feels impossible for them to keep him. At the number he will want. At the number, and I don't, I never buy any of this, any of this, you know, Jayland Durin, Peyton Watson, they're considering playing on qualifying offers. Pull crap. You be insane. Go ask some of these guys how, you know, it, I would say it's what? Five, 10 to one on the played for a qualifying offer and it worked out for me. Like, you, you, you, you, yeah, I mean, time our turn doing that too. Like we take your hundred, two hundred million. Seriously, Cam Thomas doesn't have a job. He could have $60 million. I remember I was here, say it last year. Of course, every, every time we get to restricted free agent and a guy threatens to play on the qualifying offer for a year and get his money. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like go, call New Orleans to well. Call, call these, don't do this. Don't play for you to call Cam Thomas. It happened a year ago. Oh, I'm disrespected. I'm not getting the money I want because here's what happens. That team is in no way incentivized for you to make the most of your next season. Nope. There's no way incentivized to make the most of your next season. And, and then you know, Durin is such a big part of the offense that you can't really pull those levers the way you can with other players like Watson. Right. But it's just, it's just watching it. Reportedly has a 70 million four year deal on the table. That was like what the offer was. How do you turn that down to get paid $8 million on a qualifying offer or whatever it is? 9 million. Well, no, he tries to be part of a sign in trade. That's what he tries to do. You kind of have to though. Yeah, no, yes, because I don't think I mean, this, this is very reminiscent of, I think the Watson thing is more reminiscent probably of the Kessler thing. Walker Kessler had a deal on the table. He can't get, or he believes and his agency believes he can get more than what they're offering. They were right. And they did get more from the Los Angeles Lakers. Same thing goes with this Peyton Watson thing. He believes he can get more and he's going to be right. He will get more. And so they will have to negotiate a sign in trade somewhere more than likely. Unless they're moving off of some other big stuff in one way or the other, they're having to move off some stuff to either make room for a bigger significant Peyton Watson contract or they're moving him and just getting stuff back. And I would imagine the latter is true. That makes the Durant thing more interesting, because I'm not sure on that one. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure more. I'm not sure more is out there. For Daring? Yeah. I'm telling you guys feel disrespected like, all right. If you hear about what seems like a really good contract that guys are turning down. Sometimes there's like the Cam Thomas one. And last year you were a call. I was sitting there going, bro. Like six men don't get paid big. You're not starting for anybody good. So take your money and lock it up because you know the you can go back and look even the Lou Williams and the Jamal Crawfords like they these this role in the NBA has never been exceptionally highly paid and on the on the and so sometimes it's like that. But other times I look at it and go, all right, Walker Kessler's people probably know that he can get more than this. They've already done their due diligence and Peyton Watson's a clutch guy. You don't think Rich Paul knows if Rich Paul is not telling him, hey man, turn that down. If he doesn't know, he can get more elsewhere. He already knows. He already knows he can get more elsewhere. So now you put the screws to him and it's like, you're either going to pay us that or let's do a sign of trade so that he can get somewhere, um, but we're sure he's a valuable player. Restricted three agency always ends in a lot of hurt feelings. And I am, but I sit back and I go, you know what, man, I don't know if Jalen Durin is going to, I don't know if there's somebody else. You kind of feel like if there was somebody else, there was willing to step up and give him 200 or something million dollars for Kessler. That's what it is. It's the lakeers. Right. Like, did he like interview with Sacramento or something? But there's no offer. She being signed to Jalen Durin yet. No. And he wants the max. There's like a last week, the headline was Jalen Durin wants the max. Yeah, I want the max too. Of course, I want the max. Of course, he wants the max. Yeah. That's fine. Yeah. Everybody wants the max tomorrow. It's only wants the max. Right. Well, and you got a couple of other, you got a couple others like this. We got come into all over again. I swear, has any player come in? But more, it got more podcast, air time for doing less than Jonathan Kaminga. And then every once every four games feel like really pop. He's fine. He's fine. It's fine. But I mean, it's fine. Now it's lakers or calves. Here's one thing I want to talk to about Spencer Jones. Oh, okay. And I remember he's done this before. He uses LinkedIn as his like default social media app. And I find it wild. I'm not on LinkedIn. I worked at the same place for like a million years. So I don't have like a LinkedIn profile. But what is going on in LinkedIn? I remember that. Why are people in their 20s like, and he when he signed this deal, he did a LinkedIn post about it. He's like the first undrafted to sign this much or whatever, like, it's all on LinkedIn. And this is his profile, because remember, he was like undrafted. So he was like, we just stand for. He's like an engineer. You might need a job in the real world, not playing basketball. And he was part of his profile, quote, beyond the court, I am passionate about building bridges between sports, technology and business. My experience spends health tech, sports, tech and investments where I aim to bring value through partnerships, innovation and storytelling. That sounds like a thunder player to me. Can he dance? Does he do those twists? Well, no. TikTok. Do you ever go to LinkedIn? Okay, so here's what I'll say by the way isn't that where Luke Cornett posted his salvo about magic city. I think he's got his own like block. He's got his own block, yeah. I thought that way. Okay, so I would say this, I would be unsurprised if that is part of the, like that is a social media preference of some. I think it is a age of these guys that do want to do the, I am using basketball to become a venture capitalist to build my business. You know I was up in Milwaukee last week. Can I just say here's what the hole in one, I did hit a hole in one. Tell me everything. So Brian Anderson, who was a long time voice on TNT, he's also on 2K. Brian Anderson is a friend of mine. He lives up in Milwaukee and the, when it's not basketball season, he is the television voice of the Brewers. So there's a bunch of unbelievable golf courses in Milwaukee. We're talking one day, my friend Gary Parrish, who works for CBS Sports, we're all on this tech start. He's like, you guys got to come up here. There's whistling straights, there's Aaron Hills, and I'm a member at this place called Blue Mount Country Club, which is a historically great golf course. Golf nerds like Revere it because it was designed by this guy named Seth Rainer, who died a hundred years ago. I know. So anyways, we're at Blue Mount on the seventh hole, which is like their signature hole, and it went in, and I did not see how long, how long is the whole 139, 139, the caddies went bonkers. It's all college kids, it was all college kids, and they had never seen one. And so they all go in and I went crazy. I mean, it was one of the most, I mean, I play golf all the time, and I've never hit one. And of my friend group, I'm the only one that hasn't hit one of my group that I play with a lot. And so that was enormous. But anyways, what I wanted to say about Milwaukee, Milwaukee, number one, I loved it. I loved the city. That's where the only city's that haven't been to one of the only cities that haven't been to in the whole country. I like that. I was downtown at this whole like third ward area, it was awesome. I went to the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame, I went to the, the Brewer Stadium is awesome. Absolutely awesome. Awesome. Oh, it's great. I met the Metz announcers, Gary Cohen and Peter Nanda or Keith Hernandez. I said, Peter, you look in the booth, I said, do you, do you know who Peter Nanda is? No, I'm not familiar with Peter Nanda. It's Aaron. It's Bruno Mars. That makes a lot of sense. That's just real. For some reason, I thought his name was Bruno Mars, of course, his name's not Bruno Mars. His name's Bruno Mars. He's really a 50 million dollars in debt to casino in Vegas, because that's some of the craziest stories I've ever read in my life. He is. No way. So any way has to be. He has to have a friend who's like, dude, you're $48 million in debt. Let's not take out another marker. Maybe. I don't know. When you're that big, people don't tell you what to do. So anyways, Milwaukee, the first night I'm driving through downtown Milwaukee, or I'm riding through downtown Milwaukee, and I see the building. I mean, this building is, it's so big and it is hands on the waist, back view, onto to Cooper. And I was like, Oh, what are they going to do with this mural? This thing is awesome. It is awesome. Just keep it. It is an awesome mural. And I was like, yeah, you got to, I mean, you're going to have to cover it up. Otherwise, it's just a constant reminder of what was. It's awesome though. I saw it. I loved Milwaukee. Everybody was super nice. I like the food. I like the beer. I like the golf. I like. To get cheese curds. Yes. 100%. What cheese curds is fried cheese, right? Yeah. Like flash fried. And they're great. Oh, yeah. I really like, so shout out to all of our listeners in Milwaukee. You get a, a Verno recommends. I like that city a lot. And those golf courses are amazing, unbelievable, unbelievable. Aaron Hales is the best golf experience I think I've ever had in my life. It's amazing. But yeah, the whole, the whole, the whole thing was great. And Brian Anderson is honestly, not only an amazing play by play announcer, maybe the greatest host ever. I mean, he was just crazy. He was great. And five people drinks or something to get a whole one. You know, what happened is typically, but like I was not, I didn't have to, because we were in, we had to leave the course and go get ready because we were going straight to Brewer's match. So it did. But I will say blue mound, they gave me the flag, they gave me a score card with my, with my score written on it. They, I mean, they made the biggest deal out of it. It was unbelievable. That's great. It was. It was cool. But I was very first starting to golf when you're bad. This is what I suggest people that want to start golfing. It's just golf by yourself at a part three. That's how it sort of how I learned, because you can't like, you know, just by yourself to part three. And I was in Queens. There's one in Queens by city field. And I used to go there just to learn the game and I couldn't find the ball. I couldn't find it anywhere. And I looked in the hole and it was, it was by myself just in Queens. There's like a five, same business like honor 25 and you didn't tell anybody, it is sticking ricochet off. It's like a ricochet off of a stick that was on the green. I couldn't find the ball in my room. I yelled. I yelled some stranger. I yelled at some strangers. Like, I got a hold on. I was like, all right. It just goes about. Dude. That's so funny. You say that one morning, early morning, I was playing by myself. And I hit one and the ball is rolling toward like right at the pin. I screamed. No, it couldn't be this way. It rolled like right over the edge of the hole and I was like, thank God, I was like, no one would believe me, no one would believe me if I made this. There's nobody out there. It doesn't have to be horrible. Same thing. Yeah. All right. A couple other things I want to mention. That's with all our friends in Portland. This thing is, I was just talking about announcers and how much I love Brian Anderson. I love Kevin Calabro. And obviously that blazers broadcast with the Habers stats and everything. You know, we're so in the weeds that we're watching League Pass all the time. Yeah. Anytime time pops up. I'm like, oh, there he is. I'm a huge Calabro fan, have been for so many years and to watch him get like those quotes about how like basically this was insulting and not even worth my time. And to see the whole broadcast crew just gone from that because that is the fans connection to the team. Yes. They are. Connection, you are the conduit from what is happening on the court to the fans. And you, you get used to these voices in your house and you get used to these guys sharing these moments with you. And he's called so many of those Damien Lillard shots and the playoffs and all this and what I really like, I got like legitimately sad when I saw that come across Twitter that Kevin Calabro had been so anemically loadballed and that he's out and that all that broadcast team is out and that all those people are out. And then it's followed up by yeah. And everybody thinks that this guy is going to try to move the team somewhere. And I'm like, this is just all so wrong, so wrong. When I was on my way back from Milwaukee, I was in the in the airport and I was on the same flight with former Grizzly's coach Lionel Hollins. Lionel was part of the 1970s, he was the point guard for the 1978 or 79 Portland Trailblazers team that won the title and he had just gone up to Portland when I ran into him. He wouldn't mind me saying this. He had just gone up. He was in the Maurice Lucas foundation. They do like a golf tournament and whatever else. And I was asking him about what's going on in Portland and everything and he was like, he's like, you know, I actually just while I was up there, I just, there's like a rips, rips city or like one of these type of like organizations that's been put together and he's like, I just filmed a long video for them and everything else. And he's like, it's, you know, like that people are worried, man. People are worried that like that this guy is, you know, he's torn away so many people that were part of that organization. The fans connection to the team, which is always the broadcast team is now gone. And most importantly, nobody trusts him. Like you read all this stuff coming out of Portland and whatever else. And you know, I echo what Zach Lo said. I hope somebody steps in because this is so wrong, bro. It's so wrong. I hate to see this. The broadcast. It's just an odd because I watched how the league pass. They kind of have like a unique presentation. Yes. The Portland team. It's like, it's actually going to stand out. It's like they're like, they're trying something. You know what I mean, like with with with the Habershow and just like the way they present the game isn't cookie cutter copy paste of every other of the 29 cities. I think they were like doing something, which I really enjoyed. You can tell it was a blazer's game when you watch it and just save money there is odd and then there's also this thing I was reading about. Basically like the city was like well give you $365 million for like renovations for your stadium or whatever and they're like on August 12 we would like you to come to this like planning meeting and they're not coming yeah because they want 406 no they want 575 instead of 365 so they're like basically the city invited them to come to a meeting and they're not responding and here's what the gentleman by dumpy who represents the city said quote it feels like they're either disinterested in transparency and accountability with public dollars which is a non-starter or they're simply going through the motions to run out the clock and burn any remaining goodwill the city and wait for the government to give them excuse to move the team and then he goes on I can make a guess which it is but I have no concrete details to tell me this in life I always try to assume the best and not assume the malicious intent but this doesn't seem like incompetence it seems intentional it seems like there this has been this is making up a reason to move the team this is this has been well and this has been opined by some of their writers literally from day one yeah the lack of trust of what this guy was going to do when he bought the team and inevitably they're going to start blaming and they already have Jody Allen for selling it to him right because what they do is they look at the person who saw like you knew you needed to if you were going to sell this you need to sell this to somebody that was going to do right by the city not just I get my money and not care right and certainly this guy is you know it's not pretty right now and no and and I hope somebody I'm sure that somebody will hire a Kevin Calabro I think he's great I love yeah he's right I love him as a play by play an answer um all right last thing I want to give you credit now I know that it would be very easy for you to just not be objective at all regarding your friend and ringer nicks analyst and half a way to move you know not rare mismatch specifically she's the mismatch mismatch mismatch nicks correspondent who also moonlights as an actor so you had gone to the premiere of the Odyssey and you had talked about how much you loved it and obviously were a few have been praised about that movie um I went yesterday afternoon nice me and my son and it's interesting because the movie's been out for a couple of weeks now and so you see all the discourse that goes on about it and then you read uh you know whether it's like uh and and and it just makes you realize how intensely toxic the internet is right yes when because you can go to you you could go to like the reviews of this movie and you can talk to people that have seen it or you could look at the internet and see what people are arguing about regarding this movie I am no cine cinephile um you're never going to hear me on the big picture I don't have a letter box account I don't even watch many I don't watch many movies like I have a like a movie lover would be disgusted by the amount of movies I have not seen that being said I do quite love going to the movies and I like watching good movies I went yesterday me and my son and we walked out we both loved this loved it yeah it it was exactly like three hours either no and I have like massive ADD uh and I I want it to be entertaining right and and I want to be interested in what is going on and it applied like I want it you know it's a three hour escape which is exactly what I want and I was entertained thoroughly for three full hour that's not easy to do man there and I give this movie way more credit for being able to like there's certainly a couple weeks ago the godfather was on and there's some like there's sometimes where I was like all right here we go with this scene again you know I mean like there's yeah and and I love the godfather but I mean again there's there's down times in the movie it's not like this is this is like a no skips album you know what I mean it's like a no skips album I was so interested in the entire time I also one takeaway and again I'm not giving anything away one takeaway from this I kept having this recurring thought the entire movie which was a boat has to be the worst way to get away from trouble yeah for sure I was like this to in the sand and try like pushing in the water and get chased by giants they're just kind that would it stressed me out every time right like when when you are being chased by someone and then you have to get in the boat and push it yeah it's already like it's in the sand and the whole movie they're just running from and you don't go zero to 100 very quickly in a boat you gotta get that thing going oh my god not the boat again I feel like swimming would be faster so stressful I get so stressed out over parking parking the boat is just really stresses people out really stresses people out I just feel I feel like I feel like I would have swam like I feel like if I'm running from these monsters or if they're because they're the whole movie they're being chased from a shore back into the ocean to the sea every every time every time and I'm like casually leaving island and I was like all right guys thanks so much big big big big great we're gonna head out now they're sprinting for the boat oh god the boat again you gotta try to get inside and you have to push the thing in the water and then once it's in the water you gotta use the oars to get going I would have just I would have just started swimming oh spoiler learned everybody here's my biggest thing about the movie is like it's right it's right after the war they're like all right let's get out of here boom getting the boat and Agamemnon goes like you know home yes and Odysseus is like huh guys how about the scenic group no dude no no no that's it's like it's a very beginning of the movie he made a huge mistake he's like hey guys let's go let's go this way it's like why why why let's go home it's been 10 years why why are we taking the scenic route yes why you heard there's some cool islands over there what are you doing I loved it though I did so good it's so good I have fun watching it like Wizamo killed it right killed it killed it killed like all those stars so there was almost yeah he was great even Oscar yeah I think it was good too I thought Annie was great but I'm yes but like no whole thing was good I just like it I like it I don't care what anybody says y'all can argue amongst yourselves yeah go ahead yeah argue with your door knob Odysseus good bro I wanted to get to the bottom of it so I called one of our colleagues van Nathan and I was like a lot of people are talking about black people in the Odyssey and he's always gonna give it to you straight he's like well it's not a historically accurate piece of fiction there's cyclops you know I mean right and then he said something he's like well the actors aren't Greek and I was like oh good point I was like that's like yeah Aggie Mennon's like a New York Jew you know I mean it's like they're not all Greek people also when we get the whole of a fantastic about it also you said something about spoiler earlier my maybe my favorite tweet that I saw regarding the Odyssey was um for people that are bitching about spoilers in the Odyssey you said 3000 years and you were forced to read it in eighth grade like everyone was forced to read it I didn't remember anything I remember a lot of it because I really like the story I think I think I did the clip in no because yeah because there's there there's a lot that he didn't put in that was smart because I was like how do you do like there's like a bag of wind I don't know if you remember that it's like I didn't show that I don't remember I don't feel a bag of wind he's got wind in a bag and he's like oh use this to get home I don't I don't remember that I I must have eaten too much lotus flowers yeah you must have too much lotus you would definitely get your lotus your lotus out you are you are on the corner just just bent over just lotus lotus hand that's me all right that's you all right I'm gonna do it now it's gonna do it for today's best match thanks to Jesse step to Jeff as always and Jacobi I'll talk to you next week