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- [00:00]
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Foreign.
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This is no ducks. The only basketball pod you'll ever need. Yes. I'm Tas Melas during euro basket. I'm Tassos Melas. With me it's the man in the middle, Trey Kirby. Hey, but we didn't have exciting basketball games as far as the euro basket went. I mean the first one was fine, but I'm glad we got some NBA news that we'll get to here. Trey.
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A
Yeah, the most exciting basketball in my life happened this morning. Task Melis went 80 on the pickup court. Couldn't get us off.
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B
Wow.
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A
I have four straight threes to end the day. It was ridiculous. I felt like I was playing for Turkey out there.
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B
Yeah, we can bump Greece and Turkey. You can take it over. Were they playing Turkish music in the crowd? Were you like Alfred Shen on the crowd during breaks? Just. Just banging. Just singing to Turkish music?
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A
Oh, yeah, I was banging and singing out there.
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B
Well, I'm glad that Adam Silver had his press conference. We'll start with that in the up down report. It's the uptown with me.
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A
Get to a few things in the NBA.
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B
The first one is the juiciest one. Adam Silver conduct conducted a press conference following the annual board of governors meeting and during or sorry. What drew the most attention during this press conference was Adam Silver's comments on how people watch games these days. Here's that part of the conference.
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C
There's a huge amount of our content that people can essentially consume for free. I mean this is very much a highlights based sport. You know, so you know, Instagram, TikTok, you know, Twitter, you name it, any service, you know, the New York Times for that matter. To the extent that your content is not behind a paid firewall, there's an enormous amount of content out there. YouTube by another example that people that is advertising based, that consumers can consume.
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B
All right, Trey, this is a true up down here. What's your up down feeling on Adam Silver calling the NBA a highlight league?
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A
Yeah. Feel free to follow along in the stream. Team. Drop your thumbs. I think this is going to be exclusively thumbs down. This was a disappointing comment from Adam Silver going Marie Antoinette, let them watch highlights. Super disappointing. Like for two reasons. I really think first of all, if you're an NBA sicko, this is sort of the commissioner saying, hey, those regular season games that we have for an interminable amount of time, don't even bother. You don't really need to pay attention. I thought that was disappointing. And then for the priced out consumer, I think it's even more of a slap in the face like, oh, don't worry, we've got something for you to watch on a free service here on YouTube. At this point, highlights on YouTube are table stakes. It used to be that the NBA was ahead of the curve and I do think they deserve credit for allowing creators like us to run their clips for huge highlight factories to produce highlights for people to watch. But now everybody does it. The NFL has a popular YouTube page. The MLB has one. You can easily watch highlights for every single sport. This is not what you want to hear from the leader of the league.
- [03:35]
B
Right? I'm down obviously. And he shouldn't have talked that much about people liking clips. I mean he definitely talked a lot about people watching games but. But calling it a highlight based sport is just odd. I think you should have just talked more about the huge deal that they just signed. And he started earlier on in the press conference a clip that didn't make any rounds because it just wasn't him saying this is a highlight based sport. He talked about the meeting at the governor's meeting of the ESPN leader and the Amazon leader and the MBC leader and they talked about improving their broadcasts. And I got excited, I said, whoa, maybe we're going to see player intros. They talked about the discovery of the games on the streams or ESPN just working on it. I think if I'm Adam Silver, I say, hey, did you hear what Con Knipple said at summer league? Con Cany Nipple, the number four pick said, oh, these games are going on Amazon. That means my family is going to be able to watch more games. So he talked about watching games. People want to watch games, there's no doubt about that. At the same time it is entirely true that people watch clips. You mentioned all the leagues that are doing it. The NBA set the trend at the beginning allowing everybody to watch their TVs. I remember watching my TV frickin, I don't know, like 15 years ago, filming it, putting it up, they didn't care. And so people have started doing that and people definitely pay attention to clips. There's no doubt about that. But the question that was asked of him, Tanya Ganguly was sitting in the crowd and she asked him, are you concerned that these stream services are going to cost more money now and that it's going to be difficult for people to watch. And he did start by saying, you know what, we've got five more, five times more of the games this year than we did last year that are free because they're on broadcast networks. It's basically what he's saying is that it's gone to NBC and you can watch it free. You got an antenna. You can watch games on NBC and ABC so you can watch 75 games for free and people stream some comment, some content. But he got a little bit too deep after that. Like he, he started talking about literally just watching clips instead of the games. Now he mentioned like the NBA Finals ratings were high. And I said what? The NBA Finals ratings were high. He was just talking about game seven because game seven was extremely high. Yep, yep, that makes sense. But he, you know, he did, he just kind of just went a wrong path in the clip again that's making its rounds is this one. While everything that he said and what's happening with the league is that a lot of these services are paying lots of money to be able to air games because people are going to watch the games.
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A
Yeah, I hope so. I think he should have focused mostly, like you're saying, on the fact that there are so many games that are going to be available on NBC because that was a huge part of, of the new television deal was being able to reach people more easily because a lot of people who are old like me and you are hearkened back to the days when the NBA was on NBC and you could watch the premier game of the week on a Sunday afternoon. That was a huge deal that brought in a ton of fans, many of whom have stuck around for three decades at this point. So I think that would have been kind of the tack he should have taken. I wouldn't be surprised to see him with walk this back and he's getting clipped a little bit here. Absolutely. The NBA is a highlight league. You can follow the league during the regular season just by watching highlights, by hopping on YouTube if you really want to get into it, watching the condensed editions of these games, it's great that they have these services. But it did just feel a little bit like, eh, we got our money. We don't care if you're really watching right now because the check's already been written.
- [07:18]
B
Yeah, you're right, it did feel that way to call it the high a highlight based sport. I think you'll hear that quoted by people, are you going to watch the game? That's a highlight sport. I can just watch it later and listen, I watch highlights to watch the NFL games if I'm not taking in a whole game. Yeah, that's what people do. But a lot of people still want to watch games. And so just saying it that way ain't that great. That's all, that's what it, what it comes out to. But people still want to watch games. Although, I mean, he, he called them national game exposures or, sorry, broadcast game exposures that we're going to have more of this season. It's a weird word, right? Like NBC is going to have broadcast game exposures. I mean, those are sounds like.
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A
Yeah, that sounds like executive talk right there that seeped out from the negotiating table into the press conference. Yeah, what's, what's. Which exposure are you most excited for this year? They just released the schedule of exposures. I can't wait to tune in.
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B
Yeah, it's something that happened in the governor's meetings where they were talking about the exposures. We're being, we're having exposure. So anybody in any rural area, like you're in a farm, you can just turn it on and get an exposure. But I'm like, what is that sun exposure? Like, what are you. That's a weird, weird term. Anyway, what are we putting up here? David Walsh saying y' all getting exposed to the game tonight, boys?
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A
Yeah, if I can. All right. We still got what, like six weeks until the NBA season starts, so I can't guarantee anything, but if I remember, I'm gonna start using exposures when we talk about Games circa October 21st. We got two big exposures that night. Gonna be exciting.
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B
Is that what they're talking about with antennas? Like exposures free? I don't know, man. Anyway, let's get to the second top. We have changed the way we track one teeny tiny stat. Players, don't worry. If you want to take shots from 70ft at the end of the second quarter or the third quarter, you won't be penalized. Unsuccessful end of period heaves will now be recorded as a missed field goal attempt for the team, not the player. As Shamshiranya reported. Now, if you hit the basket, you get the credit.
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A
But.
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B
But if you miss, it's a team's miss. So up down on this one, Trey, the NBA's new heave stat.
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A
I'll be honest, I'm a little bit of a Angel devil situations here, so devil on my shoulder. Yeah, I'm thinking this is rewarding cowardice. Just take the heaves if you're serious about winning. But on the angel side, more heaves, and I like heaves. So if this somehow does lead to more half court shots, then I guess a disappointing way to get to it. But half court shots are awesome, so more players taking them, I think is good. And this incentivizes people to chuck them. I thought, there's no way this makes a big difference on your shooting percentages. So I ran the numbers for Nikola. Jokic took the most heaves of anybody. He shot 41% from 3. 2 for 22. I believe on his heaves this year, his three point shooting percentage would have went from 41 to 44. So it does have an effect for a guy that takes a ton of them in Jokic. So I can understand the impetus behind it, but it definitely feels like a soft move to institute this heave rule. But I love seeing long shots, so if more go in, I'm going to have to be 100 up on this.
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B
Yeah, very interesting. That's a great stat you broke down. So if the 20 misses that he had on heaves went to a team instead to the. The Nuggets instead, his numbers would have jumped from 41 to 44%.
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A
I think so. Yeah. I, I was surprised and I did it twice to make sure.
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B
Yeah. Exposed once because I got lazy. Because I said, I mean, this is ridiculous. This is. This is a way thumbs down on this one because, you know, I am a positive, Pete. I like to think about people's feelings. I thought, wow, maybe this is a good idea for some random player to not have an extra whatever it is. You said it's 22 for Jokic. I started to think, man, like, players just don't do it enough. They're not going to have enough number. It's just not going to happen. I thought at first, well, there's going to. If they have won a game that's like 60 and started doing the math. But now I quit. I said, it's not going to really swing anybody's stats. But you swayed me. You swayed me in that it actually could matter. But I. I totally think that it's. It's lame. It's just truly, truly lame that a player not getting it up. That's probably. Jokic is probably the guy who took the most, right?
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A
Oh, he definitely is. He took the most and I think Trey Young was second most. He took 15. And we're talking about 82 games. You know, that I'm sure Trade didn't play all 82 of them. So we're like one every six games, basically. So the percentage change isn't huge depending on how many three pointers you're taking. But these guys should have been taking them all along. Yeah. If Jokic can. If you're a real shooter, if you can really shoot you don't care about that one heave?
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B
Yeah, totally. Yeah. My. My math was. Wasn't all that good, and I said, nah, I'm quitting. I'm not putting up. I'm not. Not going too hard on this. At first I thought, yeah, each guy puts up 60, so, like, one a game. If you're in there, you throw up 60. That. Yeah, it's actually good for them. But, I mean, you mentioned that's the best stat. I mean, that's the best reason to argue for taking away this stat from individuals, because it would boost him from 41 to 44. All right, next topic here.
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A
Okay, here's a good one. We're asking who's most likely to forget about this rule and refuse to launch a heave. I gotta say, it's gonna be LeBron James. The guy has played a thousand years in the NBA. You know how many heaves he's taken.
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B
In his career tasks, how many threes he's taking?
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No heaves. How many dedicated he's marked down heaves in LeBron James's 22 NBA seasons.
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B
It's not a heaver, but 22 seasons, that's a lot.
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A
Yeah, you would think it would be something like that. 37. He's taken 37 heaves in 22 years. He's gonna forget for sure. That's unbelievable. LeBron is one of the most flagrant field goal percentage protectors. He would never take a heave. He'll dribble the ball out if there's three seconds left at the end of a quarter rather than take a shot he doesn't think he's gonna make. He's all about the efficiency. So I think LeBron, unless he adjusts quickly, he might slip back into the old ways.
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B
Well, this is a sign that it's sad that basically the NBA knows players are not heaving because they don't want. They're yakin. They're not heaving because they don't want the numbers to go down. Another comment here from the Stream Team. LeBron's age is greater than the number of his heaves from Ignatius. Good stuff there. All right, next talk.
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A
That's a great stat. And somebody's asking how may LeBron make two. He's made two heaves in his regular season.
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B
Yeah, they just never really pass him the ball, I guess.
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A
What? LeBron has the ball all the time, bro. He just doesn't shoot him.
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B
I mean, just after. At the end of it, when they're inbounding, it doesn't go to him.
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A
No. He dribble. He dribbles out the clock so he doesn't take the heat. That's why they came up with this rule. They said the king doesn't do it. If he doesn't do it, nobody's gonna do it.
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B
All right, you got to put together videos, some actual footage of LeBron. Just end of quarters, just not doing it. It was changed for him.
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Yeah, you can see it out there. I'll get my dad to narrate it. Steve Heaves is what this stat series will be called. It'll just be him talking about the different numbers that the players take. But let me ask you, Taz, which one of these nuggets do you like the best? Do you like Kerwin or you like Wafutu?
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B
Lefutu. I've got to get my, my screen bigger here. That's a very mischievous hat. I like that. I like that pencil on the mustache. I like that one. Oh, that comes off. That's. Is that Lefutu?
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Oh, that's Kerwin. That's Kerwin. Of course. Get your votes in Kerwin or Wolfutu.
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Give me Kerwin. Yeah. All right. Yep, yep. Okay, next topic here. We had a minor signing in the NBA. Malcolm Brogdon has signed a one year deal with the New York Knicks. Up, down on Malcolm Brogdon joining the Knickerbockers. Tray.
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A
I'll give you like a 3/4 of the way, maybe 2/3 of the way up. I think every bit of depth helps for this New York Knicks team. I kind of assume Brogdon is going to be able to shoot. Last year only 29% playing for the Wizards, only 24 games or something like that. But over his career, he's been a really solid shooter in most of his NBA seasons. But I can't be 100 up on this because I really think the Knicks need a wing more than they need another ball handling. Guard Jalen Brunson plays a ton to begin with, but after him, they've got Deuce McBride. They also signed Jordan Clarkson. Tyler Kolik has been my favorite guy to watch in these random training videos with summer workouts, the guy can't miss. He might be the new Ty Jerome for all I can tell. But at the wing position, it's Mikhail Bridges as a starter, it's OG as a starter. You know, Bridge is going to play every single game, play a ton of minutes. OG a little bit more of a question mark. I know they just resigned Landry Shamit. They do have Gershon Yabu Sele who's kind of a wing. He's more of a small ball, big. But after the starters, it's like Pacom Daddier and PJ Tucker are the wings for the Knicks. I think they needed a wing more than a fourth or fifth point guard in Brogden.
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B
Listen, I'm a huge up on this. The Knicks are just going for it every single way. They see the Eastern Conference and they say we're doing what we can. Tom Thibodeau, take us to the conference finals. Nah, you're out of here. We can do better. Mike Brown, you're in. Mikhail Bridges. Maybe we should wait on your contract coming up at the end of next year. Nah, we'll sign to an extension. We believe in you, Gershon. Yabu Sellik comes on in. I think that's a great addition. I wouldn't be surprised to see him starting at some point with Josh Hart going to the bench and Towns and Yabu Saleh starting together. So with Yabuzeli in there as the. The starter of the bench along with Josh Hart, you know, one of those guys on the bench induce. And Jordan Clarkson, Mitchell Robinson, Landry Shammit, Gary Bird, they just signed as well. Garrison Matthews. They have enough guys. Don't forget about Ariel Porty as well. I think they have enough guys. I hear you about the wings, but there's so many in. Because you said Bridges and OG and Josh Hart out there, you just want. You probably want to see just somebody who can break down, somebody else on the dribble. Right. As as opposed to.
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A
I want to see somebody else that can play. I think that would be the issue for me. They don't really have anybody who's good, who's 6 foot 6 to 6 foot 9 off the bench, but there's also not a lot of great wings that are available right now. Like you want to roll the dice Brandon Brandon Boston Jr. He had some decent games for the Pelicans last year, but there's not a lot of options out there. I just don't think that there's enough minutes to go around for all these guards.
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B
Yeah, they'll find a way. I think they will find a way. I hear your guard. The guards are going to be playing bigger and the bigs are going to be playing smaller to make up for the lack of a few minutes. Really, I think. All right, next topic here. It's a teeny tiny topic. Before we get to the Euro basket semi finals that happened, there's a change to the way people are going to go take in Games. If you're going to watch the NBA cup games live now, this is happening in 2627.
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A
Not.
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B
Not this season specifically. The NBA cup semifinals have been in Vegas since they started the NBA cup in 2324. This year it'll be the same, but in 2627, if you want to go to the semifinals, they'll be in the home teams arena. So up, down on the NBA cup semifinals, moving to home sites in 2627 instead of Vegas.
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A
Trey, big time up. This is a win for Adam Silver for two reasons. First and foremost, there was just no juice for the semifinals in Las Vegas. As a travel sort of thing. The trip is just too long. Last year we were there, December 14th was a Saturday. That was the semifinal. The next game was a Tuesday, the 17th. That is a long Vegas trip. And that's a long time to ask your fans to drop everything and come out to Las Vegas and watch two games. So they're just choosing one of the two. Now you're getting a better environment for the semifinal home game. It'll feel like a home game for the team that's the home team. And then for the finals, it'll be better because people aren't having to decide, should we go on the Saturday during the weekend to Vegas to watch our team? No. They're going to know our team has advanced to the championship. Whatever day they decide to have it, they can buy their tickets, go to that. I think this is good for the semifinals, and I think that makes the finals more exciting, too.
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B
Yeah, totally. We've been there. There isn't enough buzz. Team fans just haven't been excited enough to get there. They even tried it on the Saturday, as you mentioned, thinking, all right, people want to go to Vegas on a weekend. It didn't work out. And now because of that, the NBA cup finals can move to the Saturday, which is the juicier day. And it's a bigger deal because it is the final. So I think you'll get more people and more buzz for the NBA cup finals, which we were there for as well. And it just wasn't. That wasn't. It was definitely juicier than the semifinals, but there could have been bigger buzz putting it on a weekend, making it the sole game on Saturday. I guess they've already sold it in some way to Vegas for this coming year. And that's why the semifinals will still remain in Las Vegas for this coming year. And then we'll change it next year. But totally it needed to be done. There's no doubt.
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A
I hope the next announcement is now that we only have to play one game for the 26, 27 NBA Cup Finals. Guess what? It's in the sphere. They only need one night. Now. How sweet would that be?
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B
That'd be pretty fun. All right, final topic. Could we be having one on one competition at NBA all star weekend? Huh? Tracy McGrady said we are this week on Gill's Arena. Gilbert Arenas's show. T Mac said. I don't know if you guys heard but. Well, actually NBA NBC might get mad at me about this, but there's gonna be one on one games at NBA All Star Weekend. So up down on this report that one on one will be added to All Star Weekend. Trey, do it.
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A
Do it. They absolutely should do this. One on one has a lot of hype right now. The unrivaled women's league. There are three on three tournament. But they also had a one on one tournament. Very cool. I can't believe how many Michael Beasley clips I've watched this summer. Task of Michael Beasley playing against whoever wants to challenge him. And it's fun to watch. The crowd gets hyped. Michael Beasley is a showman of some sort. He's trash talking. I hope the same thing would happen for NBA players. I don't necessarily know if it even needs to be all stars who are in the one on one tournament, but guys that want to be there. This will be super fun to watch and it would be a nice new wrinkle because when you're thinking of the most successful things that have happened at the All Star weekend in the 2000s, I think you would put the Elam ending in Chicago. That was a cool thing. But hasn't been able to recapture the same sort of magic since then. And number two would be Steph versus Sabrina, the three point contest. So there are some opportunities for some different events at All Star Weekend. I think one on one is an easy choice for the NBA to make.
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B
Absolutely. These guys would love to play in one on one. I think All Star Game aside. You know what's different than the All Star Game when it comes to one on one is that it's just on you to to go out and play and you want to kick the other guy's ass. And so I think you'll see some real competition. I mean put it on Saturday night skills challenge goodbye. And you can have these minor one on one competitions. I say minor because I don't think a lot of guys are going to say I'm Doing it. But yeah, I think you'll see like basketball geeks, like guys who live, eat and breathe. Every, every moment is basketball life for them. Like Kevin Durant I think would do it. I think you'll get some big nine, big name guys doing it. So yeah, this is a no frickin brainer.
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A
I wonder, I wonder if the big names would do it because they're so well established. But I don't even think you need the big game, big name players to be in this. Like Jalen Green, go in a one on one tournament. You would make a name for yourself if you look awesome.
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B
Yeah, I, I don't know. Nobody knows the. If players really want to do it. That's the thing. Because I guess you can look bad if you get embarrassed, right? Somebody beats you and that's the worry, that's the worry about the dunk contest if you just ain't good.
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A
Oh man. Yeah. Yeah. Because we got so many undefeated NBA players out there, these guys never lose ever. So it would be super embarrassing to see them lose.
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B
Yeah, well, they would, honestly, in all honesty. But why don't, why don't players join the dunk contest?
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A
They don't want to be embarrassed, that's for sure. I think. Exactly. I think it's a silly excuse from these guys.
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B
Yeah, yeah.
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A
Most of them lose 20 games minimum a year.
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B
Yeah, I, yeah, I wonder. I mean, I feel like the, the hardcore guys, like a Durant would be the name to do it. Would a LeBron do it? Heck no.
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A
He hates one on one. He thinks it's not real basketball.
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B
This is true. I'm not even going to read this comment.
- [26:01]
A
I would want. I'm telling you, I watched Ty Jerome versus Tyler Kolik go one on one for four minutes and it was awesome. I watched Stephen Adams versus Evan Mobley and it was awesome. It doesn't really matter who the players are. These guys are so talented and so skilled that every one of them, even the players that lose are going to look good because they're going to make great moves and things that you haven't really seen from those sort of players. Like you never see Evan Mobley crossing up and getting into a dribble package to get to a mid range jumper. That's just not part of his game. That could be part of his game in a one on one tournament.
- [26:34]
B
That's because Jared Allen's taken up the spot, is taking up all the room in the lane, man. You're right. Even if they do lose, it's quite okay to see to get scored on by a ridiculously skilled basketball player. So it's totally fine. Hopefully they would go into it. I mean, I just mentioned, like the skills challenge. Do it instead of the skills challenge. Anything would be better than the skills challenge and it would be way more memorable than the skills challenge. So maybe Tracy McGrady knows. Maybe he knows. Although when he said it, Gilbert arena said, I got to get paid for that. I got to get paid for that. As if he came up with that idea or something.
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A
I don't know about that, but he's definitely. He's had some influence on the growth of one on one basketball because he just gets these ex players on to talk about how good they are at one on one. Get the ex players in. I don't care. Make it an official event. Let's see Michael Beasley out there because I want to see a ref call him for a travel. The dude takes 18 steps on every single one of these crazy moves he does, but nobody's going to call him because he gets so hyped up that it's a little bit scary. If we're being quite honest, I would love to see him with an NBA referee. Brandon or Brandon Jennings. Right. That's a guy. He played against Lance Stevenson. These guys that recently retired, it would be cool to bring them back and let him play.
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B
Maybe we will hear about it before opening day because one thing that Adam Silver said in his press conference is that the All Star Game format, which we have heard rumors about, will be announced by opening day. We'll get the full details. He wants to get the hype going by opening day. I know Skeets hates this idea of an All Star game, but he's going to be excited too, man. You're going to. You're all going to be excited for Adam Silver and what he plants. International basketball people care about it and so do I. And that's a great segue to our semifinals of Eurobasket that we saw today. Now, one game was heartbreaking. We'll get to that a little later. The first one, Germany versus Finland. Way better. Germany taking care of business. They are going on to the finals on Sunday where they will meet Turkey. What did you think about them taking down the Cinderella story of Finland, Trey?
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A
Yeah, too bad to see Finland go out, but an awesome run for them. And I think taking care of business is the right way to put it for this German team. They got off to a huge lead. They had their first really good shooting night of the knockout stage and took their foot off the Gas a little bit I thought in the first half. But they got major contributions from their stars in Franz Wagner, he had 20 in the first half, only two points in the second half, finished with 22 and five. And then Dennis Schroeder had his best game of the knockout stage, maybe his best game of the tournament. 26 points, 12 assists. Like I said, a nice rally from Finland to make it interesting in the third into the fourth quarter. But Germany was, was just too much for the Finnish team. I think they beat Finland by 30 plus in the group stage. So kudos to Finland for adjusting and playing better in round two against Germany. But Germany was favored for a reason and they did what they needed to do to get the win.
- [29:48]
B
Yeah, and they played it. We played way better than they did against Slovenia to get them here. That they beat them in the quarterfinals where Slovenia sort of slowed them down. They started playing the zone at first and Schroeder and Wagner didn't get into it in that game. Game. And I thought the same thing was happening in this one. Franz didn't start well. He took a bad shot and he was cut off by Elias Faltenen, that guy who had that, that fantastic game against Jokic earlier this series. And then he just, he didn't score. Then he missed a layup. Things weren't looking good. But then he just said, all right, I'm winning this game on a Finland free throw. He leads a fast break. He just literally, I don't care if it's a free throw, I'm going beautiful. Euro step. Then he led another fast break. He just kept going after that. Then he started banging home threes. He had a great block. When Finland was making that run in the third quarter, it was an eight point lead. It looked like he was gonna, they were gonna make it a six point game on a fast break. Bud Wagner, great block. And so Franz and Schroeder, they played to their abilities, although they didn't start well. But Daniel Tice was there, the put back king. He was making things feel good for them there. They are the favorite in this tournament, you know, besides Serbia before they got eliminated. Those two were the, were the teams and, and there's a reason for that. Yeah, the, the Fins just, they couldn't do enough against all those guys who are playing far better than they did against Slovenia. And that's why these one game battles can be anything but. It looked like Germany look like themselves today in this one.
- [31:21]
A
Yeah, it was their best performance. But I haven't been super impressed with Germany in the knockout stage, I think they've been kind of on cruise control. Against Portugal, they shot 10 of 36 from three and most of those makes came in the fourth quarter when they ended up blowing out Portugal on the strength of their talent. You mentioned the Slovenia game. They shot just 9 of 30 from 3 and that one needed another rally in the fourth quarter and were taken out of their game by the style of basketball that Slovenia was playing. Slowing it down and turning it into a half court game. Finland wasn't able to do that because they like to play similar to Germany. They played up and down, Chuck a bunch of threes as well. Kind of played into Germany's hands. But even still, the Germans took their foot off the gas and they were able to win because they're a much better team. But I don't think that they have been the best team in the knockout phase of the tournament.
- [32:13]
B
Yeah, they definitely use their size in this one. Finland starting working in at the five. You could see the Germans decided, all right, we're going to score at the rim and we're going to get our offensive boards. And they did enough of that. So they played to their advantages. Enough of the guys did things off the bench as well. And the blocks were coming and the German defense was good enough. And unfortunately for Ado McShuney, he's not getting his bonus. Fran. Finland's Mac Schooney said, I want to get a bonus after last game. And that did not happen. I don't know, maybe they gave him a bonus for winning the quarterfinals because they got to the semi finals.
- [32:54]
A
He hit a big three in the second half and I yelled, bonuses. That was a great clip for that guy. And hopefully they do get bonuses. The dude made the final four of the EuroBasket tournament. That's pretty exciting.
- [33:05]
B
Yeah, no, no doubt. Unfortunately, the end of your guy. Mika Marin, who is an awesome, awesome guy for Finland this tournament, he was just so damn good.
- [33:16]
A
Yeah. And he got loose for a bunch of dunks right there at the end, which was pretty cool. So at least we got some highlights from Slim Jesus. But it wasn't meant to be for Finland. Gotta ask, do you think Isaac Bonga should come back to the NBA? This guy's solid dude. 10 points, five boards, hit two threes. He's probably their best wing defender. Maybe Franz is up there as well. But Bonga got a huge part of the assignment against Luka Doncic. I can't believe it. Brett Usher tweeted this today. Isaac Bonga is 25 years old.
- [33:47]
B
Oh, he looks like he's 35 for.
- [33:50]
A
He looks so much older. I think back, I'm like, man, he was in the NBA 10 years ago. No, he was in the NBA as recently as 20, 22. He played 143 games over the course of four seasons. I'm just always on the lookout for the next Yabu Saleh, a guy who had a chance in the NBA, it didn't work out. He goes to Europe, he hones his craft, he gets better, he hits his athletic prime and then he's able to come back to the NBA and be a role player. I think it's possible with a guy like Bonga because he's got size, he can shoot, he's athletic, he's a good defender, he knows how to play team basketball. A team should probably take a gamble on him.
- [34:27]
B
Yeah, there's no doubt. You watch him play with his German team and he just plays his role extremely well. He can shut down anybody. I mean, he shut down. Was it somebody with a great block? It was Valton and he just shot him down from the perimeter driving past him. He literally stayed in front, closed down, locked him down and blocked his shot. Yeah, he could be a 3 and D guy for sure. NBA scout should be washing because if you look at his face and you watch these games, you think, oh, we're not signing that old guy. And then you basketball reference him. Oh, he's only 25. He's super young. And they'll be watching Mika Marin and as well another young guy. Mika Marin and 18 years old. I'm sure NBA scouts are excited because he is super, super fun to watch. You know, he showed his youth in this one a little bit. He bited on a couple shot fakes when he was out to close shots and that hurt him as well. But he just does so much, so many fun things. He even had a highlight that wasn't like we used to call it to end the first half where he missed a dunk and it looked freaking awesome. So he's got to get people going. Adam Silver's probably watching, saying all the clips that this guy could make because he can't.
- [35:38]
A
Do you think he watched our short of Mika Mirren and set to John Denver's Country Roads?
- [35:45]
B
I think so. Do you think Adam Silver likes Country Roads?
- [35:49]
A
Yes.
- [35:50]
B
Yeah.
- [35:51]
A
Yeah, everybody does. Apparently. It's the basketball song. You put it to anybody's highlights, it looks good. It's like Titanic.
- [36:00]
B
Yeah, we can. Well, our that that floppy hair with Mika Marin and it just reminds me of JD's son Jackson like that floppy hair going around. We could, we could make a video with Jackson getting some cool shots going on, playing to country road, something going on there. But Finland a great tournament to get to the semifinals. The first time they've gotten to the Eurobasket semifinals. While Germany expected to get to the finals and they will take on Turkey, who demolished Greece. This was embarrassing for the Greek team. This recap will not take long. There's freaking nothing to say about this game. Trey, what do you think?
- [36:40]
A
Yeah, 22 turnovers for Greece. Turkey did a really good job of limiting Giannis onto Takounmpo. He only had 12 points points on 13 shots. This was a pretty easy win for Turkey. Even with Daddy Sengun playing an okay game, just 15 points but also 12 boards and six assists. He could not score. Just didn't have touch early in this game before getting a couple of dunks. So it's kind of steadied everything for him. But it didn't really matter because Osmani had 28 points and six threes. He has been awesome in this tournament. Chetty Osmond 17 points, two threes, Shane Larkin 14 points, five assists and even Ferkan Corkmaz had a nice little stint there in the second half. The only thing that wasn't working for Turkey was Shen Goon scoring, but he was doing everything else including blocking Giannis at the rim and hitting him with the Mutombo finger wag. Pretty impressive performance for Turkey to win the way they did without getting a huge performance from their star.
- [37:34]
B
Totally true. I watched Giannis and I and I and I wondered is he going to get going here? Because Turkey's bigs definitely took away the rim a little bit. But the same thing happened with Lithuania in the quarterfinals where Giannis had four turnovers in that game, but they found a way to get him going on fast breaks. Just give him the frickin ball. And it didn't happen in this one. The Greeks literally just couldn't hold on to the ball. Turkey was out there getting aggressive defensively, but the Greeks just couldn't get into a flow whatsoever. I heard Kendrick Lamar started to be played in the arena and I thought, okay, maybe this is Giannis's time. Giannis loves this song. You saw him, he likes to do the maybe, maybe it'll get him going. But the Greeks literally just couldn't hold on to the ball. They couldn't get him the ball the right times. I think at times in the fast break there, a couple of Greeks had their opportunity to give Giannis the ball, even if they had to turn around and drop it off just to get him going. They did not. And that's exactly how he got going in Lithuania in this one, they did not. And I mean, you could go down every single turnover. For the Greeks, it was just unforced grossness. Now Turkey was really good at being super, super aggressive. They were denying. People everywhere, like Toliopolis denied he didn't have anywhere to pass. He stepped out of bounds. Papa Nicolau guy up against him. So he just stepped out of bounds. Slukas lost the dribble and it was kind of going out of bounds now. Hauser tugged his arm, but no excuse. Lucas lost the ball. I mean, they were getting super physical. Toyopoulos even dropped in, in the backcourt, just fell over. It's endless. Mitoglu ran into his own guy under his own net. Kosta Saidokumpo, who had a couple good games. I mean, he had the ball stolen out of his hands by freaking cork mats. So many. Five turnovers in the first quarter, seven in the second quarter, five in the third quarter, and then another five in the fourth quarter when it was absolute garbage time and nothing could happen. It's crazy because Sengun was 2 of 11 at the half and Janice was 2 of 7. So maybe things will start to work in the third quarter. But the Turks just could not be stopped. And Sengun was singing to the Turkish songs that were being played in the speakers. It was over, man. It was. It was not fun whatsoever. There was no, there was no point in this game. They really were. It was close. They led wire to wire.
- [40:00]
A
Yeah. The one fun part that I did notice was Hito Turkalu was there and he had a notable Greek player sitting behind him. I forget what guy he said. Theopolis. Theo Lucas.
- [40:12]
B
Theo Papalucas.
- [40:13]
A
Theo Papalucas. That Jeff said that was one of his three favorite Euro players to ever watch.
- [40:20]
B
Yeah.
- [40:22]
A
We'Re in blowout mode right here when Jeff's just giving up his. His top three. But shout out to Jeff and shout out to. I think Mike is the other guy as well. Something else I've been wanting to ask you to ask while watching this Turkish team, did you like Barry Larkin as a baseball player?
- [40:39]
B
I respected him, that's for sure. Yeah.
- [40:43]
A
I feel the same way. I wasn't like a big Barry Larkin fan, but the guy was a great hitter. Nine time silver slugger won the mvp. His son Shane is now the point guard and we got ourselves a no puns background. I didn't even Know you could do that here in the yards.
- [41:02]
B
Wow. Had no idea.
- [41:04]
A
All right, let me go. Jeff Mode here. Here are my top three Cincinnati Reds of all time. Number three, Deion Sanders had a little stint there. Number two, Chris Sabo Goggles. And number one, you guessed it, Eric Davis, the Rifleman. One of the coolest cards in the history of baseball cards.
- [41:29]
B
I feel like those are the three Cincinnati Reds anyone knows. Like.
- [41:37]
A
Yeah, my number four. Yeah, it's Barry Larkin, baby.
- [41:43]
B
Great stuff. Great.
- [41:44]
A
Let's hear your favorite Cincinnati Reds here in the Stream team. And you can't say any of those guys, man.
- [41:52]
B
I'm struggling to find another one.
- [41:54]
A
I think they had a Reggie Sanders. I mean he played for a lot, so he must have made his way there. Joey Voto, Joey Vato.
- [42:01]
B
Was he a Red he that he played his whole career with the Reds until he got there. You go. Pedro Guerrero. Probably.
- [42:10]
A
Okay. Literally the Stream team's like, what? Who? The Reds? Elliot De La Cruz. Now that's a good one. He's rising up the ranks.
- [42:19]
B
Oh, now we're talking.
- [42:20]
A
Pete Rose. Oh, I don't know, Steve. I don't know, Steve. I don't know if you can pick Pete.
- [42:26]
B
Just trying to get him into the hall. Another quick NBA note. Is that Bilal Kulabali? This is separate here. Bilal. Cool. Abali is undergoing surgery. Ligament surgery to his thumb to repair a ligament. He's going to miss the start of the season according to Sean Sharania. So maybe there's a reason he wasn't playing as well in the Euro basket because he sustained it while playing the Euro basket. So he's going to miss the start of the season for the Wizards, unfortunately.
- [42:55]
A
Yeah, that's a bummer.
- [42:56]
B
But that's it for us.
- [42:59]
A
One last thing. What did you make about the latest things that Pablo Torre find out? There's a new Denison town and he's paying $2 million for some trees. And then 1.75 million straight to Kawhi Leonard. Interesting stuff.
- [43:14]
B
That's extremely, extremely interesting how the minority owner gave the money and it was immediately transferred to Kawhi Leonard and how. I can't. I wish we could uncover absolutely everything that this investigation that the NBA has opened up will uncover. Everything that. That to me is the puzzling part. Like there's. There's so many layers to this. Like will they give absolutely everything that they can to this investigation? How will it work? This is a so puzzling. But it feels like with every detail it drops that the Clippers are Going to get hit with something.
- [43:59]
A
Yeah, that one. This most recent report with the. The Dennis inclusion, the second Dennis and the fact that he has like. Like he's the only other guy that has even a tiny percentage ownership of the Clippers, and he's Steve Ballmer's roommate from college and his daughter worked for Aspiration. Quite sketchy. And I think at this point, you know, they were calling it podcast court on Pablo Torre finds out in the court of podcasts. It seems like a guilty verdict should be rendered here. And the longer the investigation takes, you have to think that the worse the punishment is going to be.
- [44:39]
B
It is happening. It is currently happening. Adam Silver talked about it at his press conference. Didn't make it seem like it's going to be decided anytime soon. This could. This could kind of take a while. Yeah, but we need to know. We want to know now. I want to know the details asap.
- [44:56]
A
I mean, people are going to be showing up dressed as trees for Clippers games. It's going to be trees everywhere in the crowd. Like, Kawaii's not going to be able to live it down. He was the board man, now he's the tree man, and you're going to hear it all the time. So it will be hanging over the league until a verdict has been rendered.
- [45:19]
B
Absolutely. And that's why it feels like they will punish them to some degree. I don't see it happening to the extent of Joe Smith, but, yes, it does feel like they've got to say something. All right, that is it for us. We'll be back Sunday after the finals of Eurobasket. Hopefully it'll be a better game. And we got to take in the Greeks winning the bronze medal as well that day. Go win that thing. Go beat Finland. They've. I think it's a better sign when you get beaten badly that you'll recover. You know, you can't. You can't have two bad games in a row. So. Yeah, so.
- [46:00]
A
But, I mean, I. I don't think Finland thinks they played well. So who's bouncing back harder? I. I mean, I. I assume that. That Greece will be favored for this game, and they should be. They do have Giannis.
- [46:12]
B
Yeah. And he'll be going at Lowry. Markkanen playing the five. Finland doesn't have the size of. Of the last two teams that the Greeks have had to play. So. Yeah, that'll be. That'll be huge. The finals should be great. That will be really, really good. Turkey playing ridiculously well up against Germany, who. You said you didn't think was playing to their capabilities. So they'll they'll get a good match against Turkey on Sunday.
- [46:41]
A
Yeah, should be a great game. Turkey, I think, has been playing awesome since their very first game in the tournament. Germany has had moments where they look like the best team in the tournament as well. So hopefully we get some high quality basketball on Sunday.
- [46:55]
B
We'll talk about that on Sunday. And just to let you know everything else going on here in the no Dunks world, you can check out our Jurassic World Dominion recap. Our Jurassic palace series continuing with that one along with no buffs because it's a great time to get into Survivor. Obviously right now that starts in a couple weeks. The cast has been announced, so the crew got into that whole cast. You can find that on its own feed or check the notes to see where you can get it. Obviously wherever you pod or on YouTube. But for now, Clipper Bros. You heard it here first.
- [47:34]
A
Have a great time. Turn up. Love you guys. Awesome. Thanks for joining us. And remember, Reggie Sanders hit 125 home runs and made one All Star team in eight seasons as a Cincinnati Red. And guess what? He looked great doing it. One of the great physiques in all of mlb.
- [47:53]
B
Better than Eric Davis?
- [47:55]
A
Well, obviously not.