Hour 1: Fixing the NBA

Summary

Podcast Summary

Podcast: Don, Hahn & Rosenberg (ESPN New York)
Episode: Hour 1: Fixing the NBA
Date: February 16, 2026

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Overview

This lively episode centers on the current challenges facing the NBA: rampant tanking, load management, and the general devaluation of the regular season. Hosts Don Hahn and Dave Rothenberg (with contributions from Ty Butler and callers) debate reasons for these issues, revisit the NBA All-Star weekend and its improvements, and brainstorm possible radical solutions to “fix” the NBA. The conversation is passionate, varied, and taps into both the big-picture woes of the sport and the finer details of recent league events.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Giants’ Super Bowl Hopes Debate (00:30–09:27)

• Opening banter: The show kicks off with a tongue-in-cheek reflection on Dave Rothenberg’s optimism about the New York Giants winning a Super Bowl in the next five years, which both entertains and segues into how quickly things can change in sports.
• Comparisons to recent NFL turnarounds: Reference is made to recent quick success stories—Seattle Seahawks, New England Patriots with Drake May—as examples of how "a real quarterback and coach" can transform fortunes fast.
• Skepticism vs. Optimism: Dave Rothenberg is called “nuts” for his take but defends (with Don occasionally supporting him) the notion that big turnarounds are possible in the NFL’s current landscape.

“Could the Giants not do the same thing?”
— Don Hahn (02:05)

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Who's the Best President in NY Sports? (09:36–10:50)

• Side discussion on New York’s top sports executives, driven by President’s Day and poking fun at the proliferation of “president” titles in sports front offices.
• Consensus: Leon Rose (Knicks) currently leads, with Brian Cashman (Yankees), despite criticism, as a reluctant runner-up.

“I mean, you could make a case for the Islander GM Darsh... but they kind of got lucky with winning the lottery with Matthew Schaefer.”
— Don Hahn (10:12)

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NBA All-Star Weekend Recap: Redemption & Format Changes (10:57–17:58)

• All-Star Game format praised: Hosts commend the NBA for producing a more competitive All-Star Game. Both admit some confusion about the new format but recognize improved competitiveness and effort, especially due to the “World vs USA” element.
• Stars and moments: Shout-outs to Kawhi Leonard’s scoring (31 in a quarter), Anthony Edwards (MVP for the new format), and Wembanyama setting an early tone.
• Event critiques: The dunk contest is deemed “a mess”—lacking stars, novelty, and excitement. Both hosts argue interest has dwindled, and the three-point shootout should now be the main event.

"You got competitive basketball from the best players on the planet. And I just think... that has to go down as a success.”
— Dave Rothenberg (11:49)

“If you're not going to have the best guys doing [the dunk contest], I'm not interested. I haven't watched it in years.”
— Don Hahn (17:01)

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The NBA’s Tanking Crisis—Root Causes and Solutions (19:21–26:29)

• Tanking worse than ever: The hosts contend that NBA tanking is now more flagrant than in any other sport (“throwing away complete seasons”), exacerbated by analytics and misaligned incentives.

• Adam Silver’s response: Silver’s recent comments (“Yes, is my view [that tanking is worse]... teams have to be on notice.” – 21:17) are discussed, with hosts questioning whether his approach is strong enough.

  “It's a disgrace. Tanking happens in a lot of sports…but basketball, I mean, it is teams…”
  — Dave Rothenberg (20:25)

• Radical suggestions:

  • Eliminate the traditional draft—make all players free agents with salary allotments (though the idea is met with skepticism over practicalities).
  • Make the draft lottery entirely random to remove the incentive for losing.
  • Penalties for serial tankers—like restrictions on back-to-back top picks.

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NBA Load Management & Season Structure Problems (33:54–39:53)

• Load management woes: Load management has spiraled, alienating fans by treating regular seasons as meaningless. Discussion of how injuries (many severe, e.g., torn Achilles for Halliburton and Tatum) stem in part from the sport’s increased speed and strain.

• Shorten the season? Hosts propose reducing games (70 as a target) and/or fewer playoff teams to drive up the value of each game. They note financial resistance from owners and players to a shorter season.

  "Basketball has never been harder to play... And so…guys are just getting hurt more."
  — Dave Rothenberg (34:07)

  “I just don't see any scenario where the owners and the players would ever shrink the regular season because that's less revenue for both parties.”
  — Don Hahn (35:31)

• Basketball vs. Baseball/Hockey analogies: Don argues that other sports post every game despite heavy schedules, questioning why NBA stars can’t do the same; Dave counters that basketball’s physical demands differ greatly from baseball’s.

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Call-In Segment: Listener Solutions (31:30–51:09)

• Caller Ideas:
  • Reward play-in teams via draft lottery tweaks (rejected due to loopholes/incentives for “reverse tanking”).
  • Make lottery based on previous year’s record (hosts: tankers will still strategize and find loopholes).
  • Deny back-to-back top-three picks to the same team.
  • Radical randomness: Fully randomize draft, decoupling losses from draft position entirely, though this could let great teams luck into more talent.
  • Punitive measures: Take away cap space or draft picks from serial tankers (deemed tricky due to player union and unintended consequences).

“If you give teams any sort of incentive where losing could potentially get you a better draft pick…they're going to lose.”
— Don Hahn (50:00)

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Final Thoughts: Can the NBA Be Fixed? (45:49–51:09)

• Silver vs. Stern comparison: Don maintains problems like tanking and load management wouldn’t have "gotten out of hand" under David Stern, blaming Silver for lacking a firmer hand with owners and players.

  “He always tries to appease his players…I just think there's times you need to be spearheading the game.”
  — Don Hahn (45:18)

• No perfect fix: Both admit that while progress is being made in the discussion, there’s no clear solution; radical changes, player accountability, and a leadership shift may all have to converge.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the NBA’s main issue:

  • “It’s a crisis point for the league...I just think it’s embarrassing. You’ve got to make some radical changes.” — Dave Rothenberg (21:59)

• On lack of star power in the dunk contest:

  • "If you're not going to have the best, the best guys doing it, I'm not interested...I don't care." — Don Hahn (17:01)

• On player responsibility:

  • “There’s professional pride involved. The bare minimum you could do is show up and play. And other sports, the players show up and play…” — Don Hahn (42:14)

• On possible draft reforms:

  • “Just make it completely random every year...no matter what, we’ve seen the NBA a couple years ago try and make it even tougher...that hasn’t stopped any team from tanking.” — Don Hahn (24:02)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:30 — Giants optimism & rapid NFL turnarounds debate
• 09:36 — Discussing NY’s best President of Basketball Operations
• 10:57 — All-Star Game weekend recap; format changes, dunk contest woes
  • 11:49 — Praise for new All-Star format fostering competition
  • 15:02 — LeBron's dunk contest legacy & decline of star participation
• 19:21 — NBA tanking problem: causes, Silver’s response, and proposals
• 33:54 — Load management & season-shortening debate
• 38:05 — “Make playoffs harder to reach” as a competitive incentive
• 45:49 — Can Adam Silver fix the NBA? Calls for firmer leadership
• 46:05 — Callers suggest fixes; hosts debate practicality and loopholes
• 50:00 — Conclusion: removing all incentives for losing is the real solution

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Tone:
Conversational, irreverent, knowledgeable, passionate. Hosts are unafraid to question authority, mock each other, and challenge conventional wisdom, often employing New York sports talk bravado and humor even while tackling serious league-wide issues.

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For New Listeners:
This episode is a must-listen for NBA fans—especially those passionate (and frustrated) about the state of the regular season. It's also a treat for anyone interested in how sports leagues could actually attempt to reform themselves, full of real-talk, bold ideas, and unfiltered debate.

Transcript

[Don Hahn]

Ugh.

[Dave Rothenberg]

You said you were over him, but.

[Don Hahn]

His hoodie's still in your rotation. It's time. Grab your phone, snap a few pics, and sell it on depop. Listed in minutes with no selling fees.

[Dave Rothenberg]

And just like that, a guy 500.

[Don Hahn]

Miles away just paid full price for your closure.

[Dave Rothenberg]

And right on cue.

[Ty Butler]

Hey, still got my hoodie?

[Don Hahn]

Nope.

[Dave Rothenberg]

But I've got tonight's dinner paid for. Start selling on depop. Where taste recognizes taste list. Now with no selling fees, payment processing.

[Don Hahn]

Fees and boosting fees still apply.

[Dave Rothenberg]

See website for details.

[Don Hahn]

Time. Sometimes fraud gives movement. It sounded like you moved, Han. You heard a squish. And Rosenberg shake gently to assure complete activation. Hello. This isn't North Dakota. This is New York. This is Don, Han and Rosenberg.

[Ty Butler]

The best threesome I've ever heard on.

[Don Hahn]

ESPN New York and streaming live on YouTube.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Who asked for it? The people were clamoring for it. And now you have it. Ty Butler, Jake Asmy, we were getting all these hit ups. When are you guys going to do a show together again? And now we are here today on this Monday afternoon. Beautiful New York City. The weather seems to be, you know, coming around, streaming live on YouTube and hanging out with you until 7 o'. Clock. It's awesome.

[Don Hahn]

Sun in the air, in the sky, weather's nice. What's better than this, Ty? Our first show since, I believe, the first show of the new year, right? Was that the last time? New Year's Day, I believe we did a show together was that.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Here's. Here's what I remember Friday.

[Don Hahn]

So that sounds right.

[Dave Rothenberg]

The last time we did a show together, the Giants stunk. Today we're doing a show together, and somehow my man Dave Rothenberg has those same Giants winning the super bowl in the next five years.

[Don Hahn]

I hired a real coach.

[Dave Rothenberg]

It comes quickly, which we'll have to talk about because I got to get your thoughts on that. I text him immediately and I'm like, you're nuts. You think the Giants, who for the last decade have had the worst record in all of football, they're just going to win the Super bowl in five years, we've seen 12 games from Jackson, Darth, John Harper, let's not forget he got fired because Baltimore, pretty good organization, decided, yeah, we're better off without you. But now the Giants, all of a sudden, yeah, they're contenders in five years.

[Don Hahn]

You put me in a tough spot because I don't want to be the Rothenberg defender. The man takes shot after shot at me all the time, but I feel like I Have to. Only from the standpoint. We just watched the super bowl where the Seattle Seahawks won the whole thing and they've played a Patriots team that a year ago was worse than the New York Jets. But they had Drake May. They got a real coach for Drake May. All of a sudden a year later they had a legitimate chance to win the whole thing. Could the Giants not do the same thing?

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, but the Patriots do that kind of thing. They were bad for like five seconds. Drake May we saw in year one was a star and then Vray was proven head coach.

[Don Hahn]

Did we know he was a star in year one? I thought he was potentially going to be a good quarterback.

[Dave Rothenberg]

I think there was some signs there. You felt like he was being held back by Gerard Mayo who was just in over his head.

[Don Hahn]

Is that not Jackson dart? But again, I don't want to be the Giant.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Also, you are also up against history. No super bowl winning head coach has ever gone to another place and won.

[Don Hahn]

No quarterback has ever won a Super bowl on their fifth team. And Sam Darnold just did it. Like again, someone's going to have to be the first. Andy Reid couldn't win the big one. He left Philadelphia, went to Kansas City. Eventually he won the big one and obviously had the quarterback to do so. I just think Harbaugh gives him a chance. There's at least.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Absolutely. And I'm not arguing but this like we're just going to pencil them in for a Super bowl in the next five years. It's crazy. But because how about this?

[Don Hahn]

Can you win without a coach? Do they have the coach?

[Dave Rothenberg]

They have the coach.

[Don Hahn]

Do they have the quarterback?

[Dave Rothenberg]

A coach who couldn't win with an MVP at quarterback?

[Don Hahn]

Well, I mean look as great of a head coach as Don Shula was. How many Super Bowls did he win with Dan Marino?

[Dave Rothenberg]

But my. But what I'm saying is there's a reason why he was shown the door in Baltimore.

[Don Hahn]

Well, there's a reason why Andy Reid was shown the door in Philadelphia. Like it happens. But good coaches sometimes leave.

[Dave Rothenberg]

I understand that Mike Tomlin was shown.

[Don Hahn]

The door in Pittsburgh. You and I would kill for Mike Tomlin.

[Dave Rothenberg]

If we're doing like let's just draft.

[Don Hahn]

I love that we're all putting it with a Rothenberg take on the Giants.

[Dave Rothenberg]

And we didn't plan on. We got to get to the all star game. I want to talk basketball. 800-9193776 hit us up in the comments if we're doing a draft next five years teams. You, you, you can see winning the super bowl, you'd say Kansas City's there. Right. Like, you'd say Baltimore's there. You'd say Buffalo's there. I mean, Seattle, you put them there. They just won it. You saw the Rams, you put them there. So we're getting five, six teams before we even start to, like, think about putting the Giants.

[Don Hahn]

But you just.

[Dave Rothenberg]

The Bengals. You'd put the Bengals there.

[Don Hahn]

What?

[Dave Rothenberg]

I though all these other teams.

[Don Hahn]

I mean, look.

[Dave Rothenberg]

But you don't think the Bengals have a better shot.

[Don Hahn]

Right.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Like, right now, if I said one of these teams is going to win the super bowl in the next five years, you don't think Cincinnati's higher on that list?

[Don Hahn]

I think they may be peaked already. They had their year. They had their chance.

[Dave Rothenberg]

That's crazy.

[Don Hahn]

I mean, they don't spend any money.

[Dave Rothenberg]

It's. That's. That is an insane. That's an insane. You could guarantee me insane.

[Don Hahn]

Take Joe Burrow's definitively going to be there over the next five years when there was rumors this year of him already asking out he wanted change. So what did they do? They brought back the entire coaching staff because they're too cheap to fire coaches and pay new ones to come.

[Dave Rothenberg]

But he's there right now. So I'm going into this with these teams, as you know, presently constructed for 2026.

[Don Hahn]

Yes, I rather take the Bengals over the Giants. But Dave said five years.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Right.

[Don Hahn]

Again, I don't want to be the Dave Rothenberg defender. You're making me do this. But I don't think it's as crazy of a take if you believe Dart's going to be a star. And I know many Giants fans do think he's going to be a legitimate top 10 quarterback in the league.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Sure. But 12 games into it, we could.

[Don Hahn]

Have said the same thing about Drake May, who came in second in MVP voting. That's my only point that I don't think it's as. Look, would I bet my life on it?

[Dave Rothenberg]

No.

[Don Hahn]

Do I think it's as crazy as you think it is? I wouldn't go that far.

[Dave Rothenberg]

I think it's crazy to think that the team that for the last decade's been literally the worst in football, they're just going to win the super. They're bad. They're a bad team.

[Don Hahn]

Right. But they have the ingredients of being a good. Just like New England did a year.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Absolutely. But considering especially the division that they play in with Philadelphia.

[Don Hahn]

But what does that really mean? Right. Because these things, the Cowboys, these things go in Cycles. Years ago, the commanders were in the NFC Championship game. A year later, they weren't very good.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Well, the quarterback got hurt, of course.

[Don Hahn]

But things change, man. Things have. Are we guaranteeing Nick Sirianni is going to be the head coach of the Eagles a year from now if they don't win at all?

[Dave Rothenberg]

No, I think he goes into this year in a hot seat.

[Don Hahn]

And like, what exactly are the Dallas Cowboys with Brian Schattenhauer? They missed the playoffs. Now two, three.

[Dave Rothenberg]

That beats the Giants every time they play him again. That's what the Dallas Cowboys are.

[Don Hahn]

If you're only judging the Giants based on the last 10 years, then yeah, the history will say that it's. They're going to continue to be bad. But I'm going to look at it from the standpoint of the Giants have been missing the quarterback. I believe they have one. They've been missing a proven head coach. They now have one. I don't think it's as crazy as you think because I think we've seen examples recently that we could cite of teams that could turn it around if they get the right coach and quarterback seemingly in place. And I don't think they're bereft of talent. Their O lines the best it's been in years. This, this past year. They have some real pieces on defense. They have the number six pick in the draft this year. Like, I think you could sell yourself on the Giants being the Patriots. Maybe not to the Super Bowl a year for that.

[Dave Rothenberg]

But that's the point.

[Don Hahn]

Playoff team that has a chance.

[Dave Rothenberg]

But that's the point because you're making the case for them being an improved team, which I am not going to argue with, which is why we all celebrated the hire. I am a big Jackson Dart believer. What I am saying is I am not yet ready to state that the Giants can win the super bowl in the next five years.

[Don Hahn]

The jets could win the super bowl in the next five years.

[Dave Rothenberg]

No, they can't.

[Don Hahn]

They actually can, though. But that's how long five years is. That's my point to you. Think about how much changes over five years.

[Dave Rothenberg]

No, no one screams more about how bad the jets are than you. Right.

[Don Hahn]

You're saying they win the Jets. They won't. But I'm saying five years is incredibly. It's an incredible long time. And I think the Giants have what you need to have a shot. Now we'll see if dart through 12 games actually lives up to being a franchise quarterback. But I know Harbaugh could coach and that alone gives Me some confidence that they're finally headed in the right direction. And a year ago, we would have been laughed at if you suggested that the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots would meet in the Super Bowl. No one would have thought that. So things change quickly in the NFL. That's why we love it so much. Unless you're a Jet fan, then they never win. But even the jets. In my lifetime. In your lifetime, we've seen them in three AFC Championship games. We've seen them with Rex going on the road and back to back years go all the way to the championship game. So, like, things can happen if you actually get the right people in place.

[Dave Rothenberg]

So all of that to say, gun to your head, do the Giants win the super bowl in the next five years, say, no.

[Don Hahn]

But I don't think, David, because I don't want to agree with him, but I don't think he's crazy for feeling that way.

[Dave Rothenberg]

That's the point, you know. You don't agree with him.

[Don Hahn]

No, because I just think we could just throw anything out there. Oh, over the next five years, they're going to Steve Cohen. He said, I want to win the World Series within five years.

[Dave Rothenberg]

That work?

[Don Hahn]

Being the Met owner, he's now in year six. They haven't won yet. It's hard to win these things. Only one team could win, which, by.

[Dave Rothenberg]

The way, and we're going all over the place. And we're going to do that today. Baseball, you know, we'll get to some USA hockey talk. My man Pusick, he was foaming at the mouth this morning in the old group chat. Gotta love it. The Dodgers have won more titles, like, since Steve Cohen has taken over the Mets, the Dodgers have won more championships than the Mets have playoff appearances, which is pretty fascinating.

[Don Hahn]

We counting the. The Mickey Mouse title or no?

[Dave Rothenberg]

So here's the thing about that. Like, once they prove that they're good enough to win it two more times, it validates it interesting. Like, if you had, like, I don't know, the Rockies win in 2020, then you can say, yeah, something shady is going on. But once the Dodgers are winners of four of the. What is it for the last seven years they've won the title, I think we can say that that championship is validated. 800-919-3776. We're off to a great start here.

[Don Hahn]

We'll have fiery sports talk on President's Day, because that's what our country was built on, right? Fiery debate, difference of opinion.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Is happy President's Day. A thing do you wish someone a happy President's Day?

[Don Hahn]

Did you plan your favorite president of New York sports list? Your favorite or which one's the best President of baseball operation?

[Dave Rothenberg]

No, I didn't.

[Don Hahn]

President of basketball operation. When did we go from gm, by the way, to all these guys? Everybody's listed as presidents now, by the way. When did that happen?

[Dave Rothenberg]

I guess Leon Rose has to be at the top, right?

[Don Hahn]

It's got to be Leon right now in New York sports currently.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah. I mean, you could speak more about the Islanders than I can. They have been the Rangers. All they. All they're good at is, like, sending out letters every three years to let their team, their fan base know that they're not trying anymore.

[Don Hahn]

It's definitely not Chris Jury. So we could eliminate him. I mean, you could make a case for. For the. The Islander gm Darsh. I believe his name, Matthew Darsh. But they kind of got lucky with winning the lottery with Matthew Schaefer. It's an interesting question. Yankee fans won't want to hear it. No, Cashman's consistency will make him in the conversation. Met fans are down on Stern.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Consistently not good enough. That's Brian Cashman's.

[Don Hahn]

You know, I think Leon is number one right now.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Has to be.

[Don Hahn]

But is Brian Cashman not number two? You can't put Darren Muji there. You can't put Joe Shane there. And Chain's basically powerless at this point. It's almost by default. I think Cashman has to be number two.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Maybe. Maybe we'll have that conversation.

[Don Hahn]

Top presidents of operations and New York right now.

[Dave Rothenberg]

All Star Games. So here's the deal. It's only fair that if we spend weeks criticizing the league and the players for that weekend becoming unwatchable. Us see what they did this past weekend, which I thought was a success, and not give them credit for it. Like, it's only fair for us to come on here and say, you know what? The new format, while I still don't totally understand what was going on yesterday, produce some excellent basketball where it got everything that we said that we wanted, where, you know, guys are diving for loose balls. We saw blocked shots. We saw three straight buzzer beaters. Kawhi's having a blast. 31 points in a quarter. Got a little Nick flavor to it. Cat getting cooked on defense. We've seen that far too often. LeBron's doing his thing. Durant looking awesome. Anthony Edwards. So you got competitive basketball from the best players on the planet. And I just think that, like, if you're silver, you've taken a beating and rightfully so. Like that has to go down as a success. I don't love the five o' clock start. We got to figure out like where that went wrong. And I understand you got the Olympics coverage.

[Don Hahn]

There you go.

[Dave Rothenberg]

You can't have your game start at 5 o'. Clock. It's just, it's a joke.

[Don Hahn]

Next year you won't have to worry about it because it won't be going up against the Winter Olympics.

[Dave Rothenberg]

But I just think overall, three point Shootout, shooting stars, like the dunk contest is still a mess because you just don't have new material. And then the game yesterday, I had a good time watching it. And maybe it doesn't resonate to, you know, for others, like I'm a die hard hoops guy, but for me, I just came away thinking that was, that was pretty fun.

[Don Hahn]

So for you as a die hard hoops guy, if it was better than it's been, if you came away from it enjoying it, I think that's a good thing. Overall, I had it on. It was kind of in the background bar I was at with some people was kind of casually following it. I'm like you, I didn't quite understand what was going on. Then they got to the championship round and I'm like, oh, I. This is the chance. Like I didn't quite understand. Oh, this is it. You know, this will decide who wins the whole thing. But they at least took it more serious than they have other All Star Games in the past. And I think you give credit to a guy like Wembanyama who right away set the tone. Anthony Edwards ended up winning the MVP for this format. He said yesterday or two days ago when they asked him, hey, are you guys going to, you know, go out there and try and take this seriously? He basically laughed at the question, said, nah, we're not. But they actually did because a guy like Wembanyama playing for the world team actually was trying. So then the other guys going up against Wembanyama, one of the US Teams, they started trying. So at least they competed. That's all. That's all you want. If you're the NBA, there's no perfect solution to an All Star game. Some fans just will not care no matter what. But you as a die hard hoops fan saying you came away enjoying it, I mean that's, that's all you could ask for. If you're the NBA, that's a win. Given how bad the game had been for really the last 10 years, going.

[Dave Rothenberg]

On little bit of a redemption for the NBA. Now you wonder, like, why it happened. Was it because of the, you know, world versus USA element to it? Was it the, you know, having four singular games? Because now it's just broken up into quadrants and you don't have to go a full 48 minute of, you know, explosive basketball. Whatever inspired this change from the players, you just gotta love it and you hope that they can capitalize and going forward, this becomes more sustainable. I also think people go way too far. It's kind of like the thing to do in sports Talk. Just blame LeBron for everything. Like John Winthrop, who I've got nothing but love for. That's my guy. It's my boss, but also my guy. It's like, I blame LeBron for what's happened to the NBA because the clip came out this week. If you remember the 2009 dunk contest. LeBron, who didn't sound like he was sober, but he announced on tnt. Breaking news. I am going to be in next year's slam dunk contest. And that next year never happened because he never chose to do it. But you're going to tell me that if LeBron does the dunk contest, all of a sudden the best players in the league every year are competing. I just. I don't buy that.

[Don Hahn]

If you were. That it would potentially add more. Add more to the dunk contest in a year. LeBron did it. Let's say he did, right? So maybe that could have started the trend of like, oh, if LeBron did this, Kobe was in the dunk contest, Jordan did the dunk contest, and all of a sudden, like, it's like, the cool thing to do the dunk contest, but because he never did it, and we started to then see less and less star players want to actually do it, and now it's unwatchable. I mean, the dunks aren't any good. And the names in the dunk contest, you couldn't care less about.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, but I also think that you just run out of material. Like, what? We've seen all the dunks before, so now you have to involve gimmicks, like props hopping over cars or, like, bring out E40. You can't really come up with the new thing to do because we've all seen it before. And here's the point I would make about, like, how we shouldn't blame LeBron. All right, so MJ did it. Kobe did it. Like, if we're using the LeBron influence as, you know, our measure for other stars doing it, it didn't work on LeBron. If he saw Kobe and MJ do it, it clearly didn't work.

[Don Hahn]

Why didn't he want to do it though? Why did he say he was going to do it and then not do it?

[Dave Rothenberg]

Now, if you, if you remember, for the dunk contest, if you remember, didn't sound like he was sober when he did that on the court interview. So he probably got caught up in the moment.

[Don Hahn]

And so if he was drunk, those are his sober thoughts though coming out that he was gonna do it.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Listen, it would have been fantastic had we gotten a chance to see LeBron do it. I just think that players now more than ever care about the embarrassment of not being able to pull it off. And you go back to before MJ and Kobe, like the star, Vince Carter, like the stars who did it, did it where they were on the come up and it's because they needed it. Like that was their introduction into the league. Help them corral sponsorships. These players don't need that anymore. Like why do the dunk? It's become like the dunk contest needs me more than I need it.

[Don Hahn]

Well, that's a problem.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Which I think before it was the other way around.

[Don Hahn]

We should just completely get rid of the dunk contest then because it serves no purpose. If you're not going to have the best, the best guys doing it, I'm not interested. I haven't watched it in years. I don't care. What year is it. When James Flight White, he was like a G leaguer on the Knicks, remember that year? Like I don't think I've watched the dunk contest since Nate Robinson won. One of the years when he dunked over Dwight Howard, he made a debacle.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Of it too, like where he just kept missing dunk after dunk. And they actually had to institute a rule that you only get three attempts now because of the Nate Robinson debacle.

[Don Hahn]

Again, it's not for me. I think the NBA should just get rid of it. I don't know anyone who's tuning in for it at this point. So I'm completely out on the entire.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Week or just the contest?

[Don Hahn]

I mean, look, if they got rid of the All Star game, would I care? No. But I do think there's a purpose to it, especially if they're going to actually try like we saw for a lot of yesterday for the actual game. But the dunk contest could be completely abolished from the Saturday night three point shootout and all the other stuff they do. And I don't think anyone would Care.

[Dave Rothenberg]

I still like this three point shootout. It's fun. Like Dame winning, that's probably the big story. It's the biggest. Like it's the biggest story maybe of the weekend. Right. Dame torn Achilles hasn't played all year. He wins and I don't know if you said you caught it live, Jacob, but him and Devin Booker coming down to the wire like it was fun. And credit NBC, the broadcast, my guy Noah Eagle, tremendous job. Like they hyped it up. There was a big feel to it. I enjoy the money back. Money rack. Yep, money rack. The money ball rack where you can just put it wherever you want. I think the three point shootout still has some like allure to it, some juice.

[Don Hahn]

I think that at this point in time has to be the main event.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Not only that, the comments by Dame.

[Don Hahn]

After I was praying on his downfall. Like he was praying on Devin Book's.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Downfall because he knew like Devin Booker was hot early the round before and.

[Don Hahn]

Then it seemed like he had the.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Game in the bag. He just was whiffing on shots. So I do like the competition. And also like I told Ty what.

[Don Hahn]

Friday when I saw you or Thursday.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah. I said Dame was probably gonna be.

[Don Hahn]

The only reason I tuned in this weekend.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Three time champion Fadame. I thought the shooting stars where you got Allen Houston still looks good at his age.

[Don Hahn]

Rick Brunson out there.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Rick Brunson as the passer.

[Don Hahn]

Good friend Rick Brunson.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, I thought that that was cool. All in all it was a solid weekend for the NBA. Solid weekend.

[Don Hahn]

I thought the issue the NBA has as while the on court stuff this weekend wasn't bad, the conversation centering around the league being asked to the commissioner when he spoke is all negative. It's about teams going out of their way to lose games and like the regular season being completely devalued where you have like what feels like a third, if not maybe even more of the league tanking. So like that kind of overshadows some of the all star game stuff because you flip on the station. And I was listening to Dave this morning and he wanted everyone to know that he was working today. So congrats to Dave Rothenberg on working.

[Dave Rothenberg]

He's a big fan of like the self compliment. Yeah, he's like, he's like, you know.

[Don Hahn]

But he led the show talk. Yeah, he led the show talk about Silver's comments on tanking. And like again I think that is a bigger story than even the all star weekend. That you have a league where you have teams going out of their way to try and lose. And in the past, it'd be like they lose maybe a couple of games at the end of the year. I've never seen teams throwing away complete seasons before they even begin trying to lose. It's never been worse. It's never been more of a problem in basketball than it is right now with the tanking issues.

[Dave Rothenberg]

It's a disgrace. Tanking happens in a lot of sports like the NFL. We saw the Giants two years ago tank that game in week 18 against the Eagles. But week 18, you get to look.

[Don Hahn]

What the Eagles did this year. Brock Bauer shut down. Max Crosby shut down. He was so pissed. He was told he couldn't play that he posted on Instagram videos of him dunking a basketball, being like, I'm healthy. Don't tell me I can't play. And that maybe ruined the relationship between him and the organization. Like it's more overt than it's been in football. But basketball, I mean, it is teams. The Nets plan to start the year was we're going to lose to try and give us our best chance to win the lottery and give us a superstar in waiting.

[Dave Rothenberg]

It's an abomination. And then they just wait. Flat out waved Cam Thomas, who then goes to Milwaukee and has one of his best performances of the year. But you mentioned Silver. He did speak this this weekend and was asked why is tanking worse this year?

[Don Hahn]

I think what we're seeing is a modern analytics where it's so clear incentives are misaligned. Are we seeing behavior that is worse this year than we've seen in. In recent memory? Yes, is my view, which was what led to those. To those fines and not just those fines, but to my statement that we're going to be looking more closely at the totality of all the circumstances this season in terms of teams behavior and very intentionally wanted teams to be on notice. And there is a bit of a note when you see it quality to this.

[Ty Butler]

I mean, we spend a lot of.

[Don Hahn]

Time at the league office going back and forth with teams on injury reports, on coaches decisions. It's not a position necessarily want to be in. But I'd say also to address your question, it's not what the fans want at the end of the day.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, it's a crisis point for the league and Silver has had, you know, situations just thrown in his direction that he had to deal with and I thought handled it very well. 2014, there was the threat of a team, you know, blatantly like just walking out on a playoff game if they didn't get rid of Donald Sterling. So he handled that well. 2020, the bubble situation, putting that together. He deserves credit. But this is another installment of just a set of circumstances that he's got to figure out. Because you're right, man. The NBA is of the four major sports second. I think in the power rankings, you now have the main spotlight coming off of the Super Bowl. Like, this is your time to dominate All Star weekend into the quote, unquote, second half of your season, and yet it's a third of the league that just decides, you know what, we're better off losing. And I just think it's embarrassing. It is. To a point where you've got to make some radical changes. And this is where I give Rob Manfred credit for what he did with baseball. He made some radical changes that diehard baseball fans did not love. But he's like, screw it, man. I've got to improve the quality of this product because we're in danger of losing fans. And I think it's worked. Shortening games, the pitch clock, all of that. So that's what Adam Silver has to do. You got to shorten the season. You've got to figure out. I say, how about this, like, eliminate the draft. Just make all of these collegiate players free agents, and then do it with, like, salary allotments where, like, the Thunder can't sign Cooper Flag, but just get rid of the draft, make everyone a free agent. You got to do something radical.

[Don Hahn]

But how does that stop tanking? If the Thunder can't sign Cooper Flag, then you're saying then the bad teams could still have access to the players.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, but you do it in a way where you. There's some salary allotment to the work. Like, you get rid of the odds and all of the lottery teams have cap space. They could sign whoever they want.

[Don Hahn]

I just think if you want to do something radical like that, you just make it completely random every year. I mean, again, you look at across the pond, if you will, soccer, right? You know, football, as they say over there, every team's incentivized to win, otherwise they'll be relegated. Like, they could actually go down in a league if they. Like, if you're the 17th team in the Premier League, you're trying to win, so you're not in the bottom three and you're sent to a different league for the next year. Right? So I think there's got to be something that is done where teams are incentivized to win. And maybe the only way to do that is just to completely eliminate any lottery and just make it totally random. Because, like, no matter what, we've seen the NBA a couple years ago try and make it even tougher. Where if you're a bottom three team, your odds of getting the top pick are even worse than they've been. And that hasn't stopped any team from tanking. I mean, the Nets, the Wizards, it's.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Actually made it worse, I would argue.

[Don Hahn]

Yeah, every team's doing it. The Jazz, the Mavs, the Grizzlies, the Bulls. These are just off the top of my head, teams that I know are not doing everything in their power to win. And I think a big issue for Silver and I don't think this ever would have happened under David Stern. The toothpaste is out of the tube now. This has been going on for too long, that Silver trying to step in and stop it too late. Teams have gotten comfortable doing this. There's too many teams doing it. I don't think you could do anything other than just get rid of the lottery altogether and just make it completely random. Then teams, at least we'll try and win.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Start taking draft picks away. I've heard, like, you can't, like, if you get a top three pick, you can't have that in back to back years. In other words, like the Mavs can't get a top three pick next year, you know, because they just, you know, got Cooper flag with the first pick. So there are so many different options. And we'll take a break here. 800-919-3776. I do understand in order for, like, competitive redistribution, you have to allow the draft as an aid to, you know, give these bear, these horrible teams a way to compete. So I don't know that you can just completely randomize it every year.

[Don Hahn]

I do like your rule that if you've had the top three pick, you can't get it back to back years. There, there has to be something like that. But again, the idea that you could do any sort of lottery for the bad teams, these teams have already shown you whatever percentage there is that they're better off losing. The way sports franchises are run with the nerds and the numbers and the analytics dictating everything, they're going to do whatever they can to get the better chance. They're not going to try and win, even if it is only a slightly better chance of them getting a top pick. They have shown you they're going to do whatever the numbers tell them to do. So there's a chance they can get a better pick by losing. They're going to instruct their coaches to end front offices to have the teams lose. That's just what's happening.

[Dave Rothenberg]

800-919-3776 hit us up on YouTube. We are going till o'.

[Don Hahn]

Clock.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Ty Butler, Jake Asbin and for the guys right here on DHR it is ESPN New York and streaming live on YouTube.

[Don Hahn]

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[Dave Rothenberg]

Thanks very much for having me, Michelle.

[Don Hahn]

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[Dave Rothenberg]

My day kicks off with a refreshing Celsius energy drink.

[Don Hahn]

Then straight to the gym.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Pre K pickup back home to meal prep. Time for my fire station shift. One more Celsius. Gotta keep the lights on when the three alarm hits.

[Don Hahn]

I'm ready.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Celsius Live fit.

[Don Hahn]

Go grab a cold refreshing Celsius at your local retailer or locate [e-mail]. thanks for listening to the Don Hahn and Rosenberg podcast.

[Dave Rothenberg]

I didn't listen to anything you just said.

[Don Hahn]

Catch the show on demand whenever you want. Just subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Ty Butler, Jake Asmond. Going till 7 o'. Clock. It would be a dereliction of duty if I did not ask the ass man did he partake in any action on Valentine's Day weekend. Now I know you're like, in a relationship now. What's her name again?

[Don Hahn]

I don't know if you know that I'm in a relationship now.

[Dave Rothenberg]

You said that.

[Don Hahn]

We did. Last time I said I was seeing someone.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Oh, yeah. I thought you guys were in a relationship.

[Don Hahn]

It depends how you want to define it.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Still going steady?

[Don Hahn]

Still going strong.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Is this like, you know, you guys just. Just, you know, mono? Y mano mano?

[Don Hahn]

That's an interesting way to describe it. Yeah.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Exclusive. That's the word I'm looking for.

[Don Hahn]

Yeah, not much has really changed since we last did a show together, which was on the first. I confirmed it, by the way, during the break. The first day of 2026. All going well?

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah.

[Don Hahn]

How was your Valentine's Day? Just got dinner. I wish I had a more exciting story to share.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Any theatrics? No, nothing.

[Don Hahn]

Just trying to keep up with you, man. Well, so here's the kids you have now. Two.

[Dave Rothenberg]

No, that's it. It's over, bro.

[Don Hahn]

You weren't busy on Valentine's Day?

[Dave Rothenberg]

He locked up the shop. See, Valentine's Day, I had to work that night. I was on TV on sny.

[Don Hahn]

What's it like to be a TV star now? By the way, man, I'm trying.

[Dave Rothenberg]

So we had to do the Sunday festivities, so I took her out to brunch yesterday. Great time.

[Don Hahn]

All you could eat. Brunch, drink.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, had a nice time.

[Don Hahn]

Are you a Bloody Mary guy or mimosa?

[Dave Rothenberg]

Can't do the Bloody Mary. That's not good for the stomach.

[Don Hahn]

So, mimosa.

[Dave Rothenberg]

I'm a sangria. Nice little sangria bellini.

[Don Hahn]

Really?

[Dave Rothenberg]

Does that interest you at all?

[Don Hahn]

I. I Personally love the bloody Mary. I also could do a mimosa. I haven't done sangria in a while. I'm not anti it. I just prefer the other two.

[Dave Rothenberg]

I think you're anti sangria.

[Don Hahn]

How dare you.

[Dave Rothenberg]

I think that's what I'm learning today.

[Don Hahn]

I don't discriminate.

[Dave Rothenberg]

I think that's what I'm learning today. But yeah, we had some fun yesterday. Got a chance to watch hoops outside at this brunch spot. But yeah, couldn't do it on Valentine's day. So on the day itself it was fun because we got a chance to just have dinner at home with the kids and I took them to the store to get like, you know, pick out stuff for mom. Brought it home for mom and she was elated. So I did that damn thing this week. I was a great dad, great husband and still got a chance to do my homework for the show today.

[Don Hahn]

I love that for you. And you were a big TV star over the weekend as well.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Had a lot of Mets takes.

[Don Hahn]

Living the American dream.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Lot of Mets takes. Which we will get to at some point. 800-9193776 let's go to Ernie and Queens. He's got a suggestion on how to ways to make the NBA better. What's up, Ernie?

[Don Hahn]

Hey, good afternoon, gentlemen.

[Ty Butler]

How are you guys doing?

[Dave Rothenberg]

What's up, man? Batting leadoff today. So you got to bring it. You got to set the tone.

[Ty Butler]

First of all, Ty, how's the running? You know, I don't know if people know out there you're a big runner.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, man. Got the half marathon next month. Which by the way you want to donate to the charity, man, go to my Twitter profile. Running is going very well.

[Ty Butler]

All right, awesome. So here's my suggestion, guys. I would reward those who those teams that go into the play in. So there's four in each conference and I would put those four in the lottery. It'll be like a two tier lottery. Will be the first eight picks goes to those 18s that get in the NBA. What is it called again?

[Don Hahn]

Wait, NBA.

[Dave Rothenberg]

So, so the playing tournament. So what, what's, what's your scenario? The seven and eight seeds of each conference. Yeah. So. So now what stops. What stops whoever the six seed is from just tanking to get into the playing tournament?

[Don Hahn]

Well, he's talking the Team 9 competitive. Right? Because you're talking about all the playing teams including the 9, the 10 to 7 and the 8. In the current playing tournament format I.

[Ty Butler]

Would do all of them.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, but that so the pro. The unintended consequence there is if you're.

[Don Hahn]

The 6 seed, you're gonna try and get in the plan and you feel.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Like you have no shot at winning the title, you're just gonna tank to get into the playing tournament.

[Ty Butler]

How about if you reward the one with the worst? The worst? Yeah, I know it's difficult. That's why I'm not the commissioner.

[Don Hahn]

Eliminate the lottery altogether. That's the only way you can do it. Because again, as you just outlined there, Ty, there's always going to be a loophole. A team that's like, well, it's still better for us to actually lose here. So we could get into whatever for cocktail scenarios created to try and stop tanking. There's still going to be teams that are going to try to succeed in this scenario. We'll try and be the seventh. So they could be in the play in tournament and they win the play in tournament. Then they would get the top pick in the draft. Like again, that doesn't really work.

[Dave Rothenberg]

So you've got the tanking issue. You've also got the load management problem that Silver's got to fix. And look, I hate it. I've also been like very critical of, you know, when the Clippers were doing it with Kawhi Leonard and I'm like, it's clearly not working. He's always hurt. But if I want to defend teams for a moment. Basketball has never been harder to play. The league is as deep as it's ever been before. The players are more athletic, the pace is as fast as it's ever been. And so we've seen with these stylistic changes, guys are just getting hurt more. You just watched 25 year old Tyrese Halliburton tear his Achilles in game seven of the finals. Two rounds prior to that, we saw 27 year old Jayson Tatum tear his Achilles. And we were both at that game in Game 4 against the Knicks. Like the rash of injuries, and not just the rash of injuries, but the significance of these injuries has just confirmed the sport is too hard to play at this pace, that amount of games. So I think you got to shorten the season. Like you got to go. You can't do it too much because obviously dollars are gonna, you know, be what you know. The NBA is not gonna be in the business of losing money. But can we get it down to 70 games so that you're not playing back to back, you're not doing three games in four nights just so there's not as much wear and tear on these, the bodies of these stars because like they're dropping like flies. And that's also not good for the sport where you go a whole year without two of the best players in the league.

[Don Hahn]

I just don't see any scenario where the owners and the players would ever shrink the regular season because that's less revenue for both parties. If the players don't want as many games, are they willing to give back the money that they're making on a prorated basis for an 82 game season? The answer is obviously no. So they need to play. There needs to be a sense of pride for actually playing. It's a joke what the league has become. Hockey players don't have this problem. It's never been more difficult, you could argue to play hockey. It's physical. And the best athletes in the world, the skill in the sport is now.

[Dave Rothenberg]

We'Re seeing blown Achilles to like cats in their mid to late 20s.

[Don Hahn]

You're seeing injuries in hockey, but like to that degree. Acls I would have to check and compare. I don't know that off the top of my head. So I don't want to speak at a school, but the modern athlete has never been better than the athletes of five years prior. So on and so forth. Right. So like the other sports don't have this problem that basketball does. Baseball doesn't have this problem. And they play 162.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, but there's not as much wear and tear playing a baseball game.

[Don Hahn]

You're still playing every day, playing 162 games in what, 180 days.

[Dave Rothenberg]

But we don't see an increase. Now pitchers, we could say, yeah, like there's been an increase in injury, but that has more to do with velocity. Right. Like someone's got to explain why the injuries are happening at the level of frequency that we have right now in the league.

[Don Hahn]

Why?

[Dave Rothenberg]

I think they're reporting, especially to the younger guys.

[Don Hahn]

I think guys are getting hurt because one they're maxing out like the muscles in their body. I don't think the human was supposed to be able to do some of the things you asked the human to do. Like in baseball, for example, it's an unnatural motion to throw a baseball 100 miles per hour. It's just, it's not natural to do that. So you see guys that have elbow injuries. Like almost every great pitcher at some point is probably going to lose a year of their career if they didn't lose it in the minors at that point with a Tommy John problem. Garrett Cole has perfect Mechanics and he finally blew out his elbow last year and it's coming back this year and let's hope he's great. But like, my point is I think the way these guys now train year round, the way they specialize in sports, I think it just naturally leads to more injuries. I don't know what you could do.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Other than shortening the season, but I.

[Don Hahn]

Don'T know if that will directly lead to less injuries.

[Dave Rothenberg]

I think it leads to like if you're not there, there's no incentive to rest guys if it's not the first or the second of a back to back. Like if you're spreading games out, the games now have more meaning inherently because there are fewer of them. That you have to find a way to solve this issue or and do it pretty quickly.

[Don Hahn]

Less playoff teams make it harder to get in. You can't pump down as many games if you're not going to get in. Instead of having eight teams in each conference with the plan included, make it a lot harder. Make the regular season mean more. Make it. Make it notes. Only six teams to get into the playoffs.

[Dave Rothenberg]

But then again you're talking about like money. Like now that's four. We're getting rid of four teams. There were fewer games, the fewer home games for those teams. So now you're hitting them in the pockets. I don't know what the perfect solution is. Like I just, I think the starting point has to be shortening the season.

[Don Hahn]

Or just you brought a baseball and extend the season. You brought up the back to back excuse. Like the Knicks can't sit cat and OJ And Obi when they're about to play the Pistons because they know they have a game the next day against whoever they were playing, the Sixers or whatever it was. It might have. Honestly, I don't even think it was the next day. I think it was on Sunday. They sat him out on a Friday. They didn't.

[Dave Rothenberg]

They were playing the Pistons Friday night in the Celtics on Sunday afternoon and.

[Don Hahn]

They played them for the game against the Celtics instead. I again, I don't know if there is a perfect solution. Some of it's also just on the players to go out there and actually play. They tried to penalize the player awards where if you don't play in at least 65 games, you're not eligible. I put this in my notes before the show. Just looking at it. Who's the MVP this year in the NBA?

[Dave Rothenberg]

It's sga.

[Don Hahn]

I mean, it would be sga, but are we sure he's Going to have enough games.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, he's not going to miss 17 games. Like he's out with an injury right.

[Don Hahn]

Now and he must play in 16 of the Thunders final 26 games to qualify.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, he'll, he'll make that.

[Don Hahn]

But again if he doesn't. Luka doncic started, missed 12 games. Giannis has been limited to just 30.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Giannis is going to be ineligible. But like Jokic, I think Jokic can only afford to lose two more games. Correct. Luke is going to hit the threshold.

[Don Hahn]

So you're Kate Cunningham's award to lose is my point. If it's not sga, and that's not stopping these guys from, not from doing everything in their power if they're banged up to still play.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, it's, it's a catastrophe, man. And it's gotten to a point where like there's a lot of pressure on Adam Silver to deliver. Like yes, he's making the league a lot of money, but when you're telling the fans that just, you know, the regular season just doesn't matter, wake me up when the playoffs. And by the way, I think the playoffs are going to be awesome. You look at both conferences and you know everyone. Now maybe it's meaningless because you got to get through Oklahoma City at the end of the day and it becomes like a Dodgers situation. But the playoffs I think are going to be phenomenal. The lead up to it can't be irrelevant. Like there has to be some type of a buildup in the two month stretch ahead of the postseason that we're just not getting right now. 800-919-3776 so we'll try to figure it out. Maybe the league should hire us to figure this thing out.

[Don Hahn]

I don't know if we have the right way to do it. I don't think we've figured it out.

[Dave Rothenberg]

We're combing through it though. We're coming with some, some possibilities. Shorten the regular season.

[Don Hahn]

How responsible are the players for just saying, hey, I'm going to go out there and play. Michael Jordan played every game. Kobe played every game.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Again, the argument is the wear and tear. And here's what's interesting. There aren't too many areas of life where you can say getting smarter actually made you worse. And here's what I mean by that. Like Draymond Green on his podcast the other day talked about how like LeBron was the example of how to take care of your body. Like the year long treatment, how much money to spend and just everything that goes into A day of preparing for a basketball game, which just wasn't the case 15 years ago. And so you have a lot of athletes who have gotten smart, a lot of organizations and the players themselves who have gotten smarter with how to best protect their body. And then you juxtapose that with all the injuries that are taking place, and it's led to this problem. It's led to guys just deciding, yeah, I don't want to put myself in jeopardy. And we're also part of the problem, too, where we've just decided, yeah, you can win the mvp. What does it really matter if your team doesn't win the championship? So we've also, as fans of the media for years, have just, you know, come on here and given little to no reason to have, like, the regular season awards actually mean anything.

[Don Hahn]

Well, we devalued any success on the regular season because it's all about rings. Ring culture has become the biggest thing. It's all fair. I just think at the end of the day, the player's got to be responsible. There's professional pride involved. Like, of course, the bare minimum you could do is show up and play. And other sports, the players show up and play. And you could argue those sports are just as grueling or have just as bad, if not more travel. Like, we could say, okay, being a basketball player is tougher on the body than being a baseball player. I'd agree with that. But the travel is worse for baseball. And those guys post. Those guys play. And basketball, they don't. And this wasn't a problem until the last, really, 10 years. It's really coming to the forefront. So between the load management and the tanking issue, these are two gigantic problems that the same commissioner who's been here since 2014 has oversaw, and it's gotten worse, not better.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, I just don't love the baseball analogy because it's just like, you got.

[Don Hahn]

Kyle Schwaber out there. You got Pete Alonzo.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Come on. Yeah, I mean, like, you're not.

[Don Hahn]

Those guys are great athletes.

[Dave Rothenberg]

They put the requirement physically for NBA players versus what is asked by baseball players. With all due respect, it's just not even. It's not Apples hockey, though.

[Don Hahn]

They all play. As Anthony Pusick. He's our hockey connoisseur on the show today. This is not a problem in hockey. There's no load management in hockey.

[Dave Rothenberg]

No, it's not. And that's why hockey players get a lot of respect.

[Don Hahn]

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[Ty Butler]

Did you say someone got shot?

[Dave Rothenberg]

Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman from Miami.

[Don Hahn]

Gunned down the key to this case. It's Brian. An hour before he died, he was on the phone arguing with somebody.

[Dave Rothenberg]

This might be a hit.

[Ty Butler]

You want the truth?

[Don Hahn]

They just want a conviction.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Being placed under arrest.

[Don Hahn]

We had a killer amongst us. Murder at the U Listen now. Thanks for listening to the Don Hahn and Rosenberg podcast.

[Dave Rothenberg]

I didn't listen to anything you just said.

[Don Hahn]

Catch the show on demand whenever you you want. Just subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Ty Butler, Jake Asmith we're trying to fix the NBA. You think we're making progress?

[Don Hahn]

Ideas are being discussed, Opinions are being shared. People have thoughts.

[Dave Rothenberg]

You don't think so?

[Don Hahn]

I don't know if it could be fixed. And honestly, you bring up Adam Silver. I think it starts with him, and that will define his tenure as the commissioner. Because again, I truly believe that if David Stern were the commissioner of the league, it wouldn't have gotten to this point. He would have stopped it well before the toothpaste, so to speak, was out of the tube. It would have been nipped in the butt saying, this is unacceptable. We're not doing this here to raise the snake of it. And I always feel like Adam Silver at times gets pushed over by the players, gets pushed over by the owners. Like, again, like, it doesn't feel like he has total authority of his sport. He's always trying to appease his players. And I think you want to have a good relationship with your players, but I also think there's times you need to be spearheading the game and making sure it's moving in the right direction. And I mean, we've spent the first hour of the show basically talking about all the issues that the NBA's regular season has, and that's a huge problem for a sport that's trying to make themselves appealing now that football is done and we should be focusing in on basketball. And I don't get the sense there's a ton of basketball fans that are super Excited, super locked into all these games knowing that the regular season has been completely devalued.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Let's go to Lee in Long Island. He's got ideas he wants to share with us. What's up Lee?

[Ty Butler]

Hey gentlemen. How you doing?

[Dave Rothenberg]

What's up boy?

[Ty Butler]

I have a couple of ideas. I do want to touch on one thing before I get to them though. Ty was talking about before about the pace of game. You know, everybody talks about like you know the 90s teams and how those guys played all game, every game. But they were averaging about 90 to 191 possessions a game and now they're averaging about 100, 102. That is a huge increase in up and down the court. There's a lot more wear and tear on them than they used to be.

[Dave Rothenberg]

It's. The game has never been harder to play than it is right now.

[Ty Butler]

But now here's two ideas I think that I think could help with. Not outright prevent tanking, but definitely curb it a lot. My first idea is like what you guys said, if you have a top three pick one year, you can't have it the next year. But I also wouldn't base it on the most recent record. I would base it on a year prior's record. So theoretically if you're going to tank, you wouldn't have that draft pick for not the next draft but the following draft. And I think you know, the first time you do this it would be messy but like after two or three years implemented, your record doesn't go and nobody's going to tank for a pick. Two years down the road though, man.

[Dave Rothenberg]

We'Ve seen the Thunder. The Thunder did it. The Thunder just, just punted on like multiple seasons. They sent Al Horford home. Sga. All of a sudden it's got some injury that came out of nowhere. That's how they got this good.

[Ty Butler]

But that, but they did it for each upcoming draft when they knew who was going to be kind of who was going to be available and they knew they could get top number one overall pick or number two overall pick back to back years where with this method you wouldn't be able to. So I can't imagine a team saying I'm going to tank this season for the 2027 draft.

[Dave Rothenberg]

You'd be even know who's going to.

[Ty Butler]

Be in that draft.

[Dave Rothenberg]

You know, I mean you, you, you know who's on the radar and leave one of the teams right now that just like they're, they're the tanking team Utah. Like all, all they do is say, you know what, we're just going to win 15 games this year. They do that every single season. So I don't know.

[Don Hahn]

The Nets have been doing it right here in this town. The Nets have been doing it. And the idea that you wouldn't know who the superstars are coming out two years in advance, I think you would. I think we knew Wemby was coming out two years ago.

[Dave Rothenberg]

You knew that about Cooper Flag. We knew Luca, like, you know who the transcendent players are years in advance.

[Don Hahn]

I don't hate the idea of basing it not just on that current year because then maybe the current coaches and GMs in place would actually be like, I don't even know if I'm going to be here to be able to coach the superstar. We may or may not get. So I don't hate the premise. Maybe there's something better that we could come up with based off of that thought that's at least creative. But again, like, if there's a way, if there's any sort of benefit to lose, I think these teams are going to lose. That's just what sports has become. And I think silver allowing it to get to this point. And that's the issue. So now I think the only thing that you could do is to completely eliminate the lottery altogether and just make it random. It's random. Then all of a sudden you stop teams from going out of their way of losing and you actually have to build a basketball team the right way. And we could say, oh, well, then you're punishing the really bad teams. They can't figure it out. You know what tough. The Knicks, as bad as they have been, did they ever get any lottery luck? Did they ever get the top pick? No. They're oftentimes they'd move. Yeah.

[Dave Rothenberg]

But that's not a good example because the Knicks are still like, it's still New York.

[Don Hahn]

Yeah, but no one was coming to the Knicks. It took smart coaching and smart GM by Leon Rose and Tom Thibodeau to turn the roster around.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Absolutely. But I just think the randomness. If OKC would now this might happen because they've got the Clippers picked. But like if OKC wins the championship again this year year and they. The randomness gives them the number one overall pick, like, how's that fair?

[Don Hahn]

It's not fair. But at least. But at least it's not, you know, the integrity of the game is not being questioned because you're not. They. They didn't do it by losing on purpose. They just got luck again. The Mavericks getting Cooper flag. Was that fair to the other bad teams that throw away seasons? No.

[Dave Rothenberg]

There's also some conspiracy theories around that for sure.

[Don Hahn]

But my point is, at least it's random, right? You can't. If you give teams any sort of incentive where losing could potentially get you a better draft pick, we've seen this in the sport. They're going to lose.

[Dave Rothenberg]

How about, how do you start taking cap space away from bad teams?

[Don Hahn]

How do you regulate that? Because then the NBA Players association is going to say, whoa, you're taking away cap space from teams. That's money that could be spent on players.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, but if you are, and it's flagrant now, what these teams are doing flagrantly, like the Clippers are tanking. They were one of the hottest teams going into the trade deadline. I just decided, let's get rid of Harden and Zubots. If you. And I don't even understand why they're saying they don't have their pick. But if you're blatantly tanking for better draft positioning, we're just going to take cap space away from you.

[Don Hahn]

I think you just take their pick away. How do you regulate cap space? How much do you take away? What's the number? And again, then the NBA pa, the Players association files a grievance saying you can't penalize the players for the organizations not trying to win it. If a team has less cap space, that's less money they're able to spend on players. That drives down the salaries of the sport.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, but the players can just go elsewhere.

[Don Hahn]

Yeah, but not every team is going to be capable of having cap space.

[Dave Rothenberg]

That you can redistribute that cap space that they lose.

[Don Hahn]

So you take cap space away from, you know, let's say the jazz and then 31, or I guess the NBA, it's 30. So 29 other teams just magically get more cap space.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Yeah, but do something.

[Don Hahn]

I guess you could do that, but I don't know if that necessarily serves.

[Dave Rothenberg]

We're hitting you where it hurts.

[Don Hahn]

Listening to the Don Hahn and Rosenberg podcast. I don't want to know how the sausage is made, but I just want to know it's good. Hear more of Don Allen and Peter Weekday afternoon starting at 3 on 8 80, ESPN, the ESPN New York app, and your smart speakers. Calling all fun lovers and memory makers, Texas invites you to cheer from our stadiums and dance like no one is welcome.

[Dave Rothenberg]

Watching.

[Don Hahn]

Culture seekers can find the art that truly inspires.

[Ty Butler]

Wow.

[Don Hahn]

And from our shopping hubs to our chic boutiques. Fashionistas will never leave empty handed. Texas is an unforgettable experience that's waiting just for you. Visit traveltexas.com and plan your trip today. Let's Texas.