← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Hoops Tonight - All-Star Weekend Reaction: Wemby & Anthony Edwards' EFFORT set tone for best NBA All-Star in YEARS
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You guys know the drill before we get started, subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Don't forget to like this video and sign up for post notifications. That helps us a lot. And last but not least, if you want to get mailbags into our weekly mailbag, just drop them in the comments underneath our full Episodes Mailbag colon. Write your question that helps me sort them out. We'll get to them on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So I thought the All Star Game itself was Fantastic. The guys played hard for the most part. We had several really cool moments. We had three game winners between the Scotty Barnes game winner, the Kawhi Leonard game winner. They're, they're. Kawhi ended up having this insane 31 point game out of 48 points for the, for the American older team, which we'll talk about. Victor Wembanyama looked like a wrecking ball in that game, was hitting all sorts of shots. He had a 19 point game in just a 12 minute quarters that was impressive in its own way. We had Carl Anthony Towns blow the world's chances by making a couple of head scratching defensive plays. Kind of staying on brand there. We had some insane highlights, although most of those were from Wemby. Ironically, the improved effort got rid of many of those flashy transition dunks that we've grown accustomed to in the NBA All Star setting. I just thought it was a big win for the NBA. The All Star game was very fun to watch, which for the most part it has not been over the years. It was a good television product yesterday and that I think was a big step forward for the league. I think it basically came down to two factors. One, a few guys came out and just set the tone early from an effort standpoint. And then two, Adam Silver, through all the tweaking, has finally found a format that actually works really well. Adam Silver's caught a lot of flack over the last couple of days and I think some of it is fair and I think some of it is a little bit over the top and unrealistic. And we'll get to that when we get a little bit deeper in the show. But Adam Silver did, through tweaking the format, I think find something that works really well through the combination of shorter games and finding some rivalry built in through the roster construction, which we'll get to in a minute. So I want to start with the effort. I really don't think it's overly complicated enough. Guys decided to play hard so that it became embarrassing for any of the players who decided not to meet that level. Effort in exhibition basketball games is almost purely driven by that pure competitive energy. Why? Because it's devoid of the normal things that drive a basketball player in other basketball settings. So like in the regular season or in the playoffs, you have your big picture team goals of winning a championship that drive you possession to possession. No one's playing for their contract in an exhibition game, in a regular season game, in a playoff game. How you play can have a direct impact on your money. Just trying to earn playing time like you're going to play hard and execute if you're somewhere in the rotation, if you're fighting for more minutes, if you're fighting for more opportunity, if you're fighting to be in the closing lineup. None of those things exist in an exhibition basketball game. There's no big picture trying to win a championship. Your money's safe, especially in the All Star game. I mean, just by getting selected, you've essentially increased your ability to earn money. The playing time piece. All these dudes are stars. They're all going to play 30, 35 minutes a game when they get back to their team. So when you get in this exhibition setting, it's. It's going to have to be pure, unadulterated competitive will. That's the one thing that is going to drive effort in a game like that. The desire to prove yourself as better than your opponent. There were several guys yesterday that came out and set that tone. Kate Cunningham was a big one who stood out to me. Anthony Edwards was one that stood out to me. But I want to use Victor Wembanyama as a specific example here. Victor came out wanting to murder everyone, trying to block everything around the rim, mean mugging people, trying to drive and dunk everything on his touches. He made it clear that he wanted to compete. Once that happens, when Victor Weyama decides I'm going at you on both ends of the floor, you have two options as a player. You can either stay in that relaxed mode and just get your teeth kicked in on national television, or you can meet his competitiveness. You can hold your ground, you can try to win from there. It's a very simple dynamic of momentum. If you get three or four dudes who come out and truly try to compete and then another three or four dudes who are like matched up with those guys, hold the line in response instead of staying in chill mode. All of a sudden you have seven or eight dudes on the floor who are playing super hard. And now we have ourselves a real basketball game. Even though there were no real stakes, simply because of the pure competitive nature of the players. Any of you guys have probably seen this dynamic when you're playing pickup towards the end of your run, when it can go the other way, you show up for an 8am run, suddenly it's 9:30, you've played six or seven games. Couple of dudes decide they've played one too many and they start cherry picking or walking around. The game falls apart quickly, right? Because you have the one or two Dudes that are not playing anymore, the one or two dudes that are guarding them, they stop playing. Suddenly, half the dudes on the floor aren't even trying. And now you realize it's time to go home. Or in the NBA All Star environment, when we see that, we know it's time to turn off the tv, right? That momentum dynamic is very fragile in either direction. That's why it's so important that those guys like Cade, like Ant, like Wemby, especially in that first game, came out and set the tone the way that they did. Because at that point, it becomes embarrassing if everyone's playing hard and you're the dude who's not. If everyone's trying to win and you're the dude who's actively hurting your team by not giving a shit, it stands out like a sore thumb. Like, I thought it was really cool that the American vets in particular responded in a real way to that and brought that nostalgia and excitement to the arena. Like, you watch that second game, and all of a sudden it's KD, LeBron and Kawhi, and it's like, are we going to get them in chill mode or are they going to bring it? And they looked at it, they're like, oh, we're getting after it today. All right, go. We're KD, we're LeBron, we're Kawhi. We're legends in this game. We can do this, too. And each one of those guys really met the moment in their own way. And so, you know, especially for me, as a basketball fan that grew up watching that generation of hoops, it was awesome to watch. That's why I want to shout out Wemby and Cade and Ant and the others who brought the initial effort that set that tone. They started a chain reaction that gave us an excellent showcase for the NBA. That is something that I think is intrinsic in a player. I've told this story on the. On the show before, but there was a specific pickup run that I remember when I was. When I was in my early 20s, that I thought was a perfect example of this dynamic I was playing. I was like, 22, 23 years old. I just finished playing in college. I just moved back to Tucson, and I would go play pickup basketball and at the University of Arizona Rec Center. And in that environment, often, especially in the stretches kind of outside of the season, you'd see a lot of the U of A basketball players go up and play pickup. And I remember this specific time is the one time I ever ran into him in this environment, I actually played it with him in some private runs separately, but in this pickup environment, sloppy pickup basketball, college kids on the floor, you know, just like some dudes who didn't even play in college that are on the floor, that are playing on my team in this specific environment. But then you on the floor, you have T.J. mcConnell, who's like a longtime NBA vet at this point, but just at this point, just a guy playing at the University of Arizona in his senior year, right? And there I'm. I'm not going to go name by name, but there were some other guys on the court that ended up eventually playing in the NBA who were on the University of Arizona basketball team at that point. And you know me, 22, 23 years old, I'm like, oh, I'm going to try to bring it against these guys because these dudes are a measuring stick, right? And I'll never forget in this game how the other dudes from the U of A, they're just kind of too cool for school, just going through the motions. And TJ McConnell was out there like, red hot, like 100% savage competitor, trying like crazy to win this damn meaningless pickup game against a bunch of frat boys at the rec center at the U of A. And it stood out to me like a sore thumb because he is still in the NBA in this long established career. And some of the lottery talent that was out there is now out of the league. And it was just one of those things where I was like, this is a fundamental demonstration of that natural competitive energy, which I think is literally one of the most underrated traits that a basketball player can have. That's what drives you to do all the little things that help your team. Wins, win games. That's what drives you to do all the work behind the scenes to make yourself the type of basketball player that can stick in the NBA. I just remember that it was a kind of a first impression of sorts for me with TJ that like, changed my perspective on him as a basketball player forever. And when I look at Wemby and Cade in particular, and I would, I would lump A in here as well, but, like, there have been a lot of stars over the years that, that don't have that same level of competitive energy. And you want to know what's going to drive the next era of NBA basketball? It's going to be Wemby being an asshole competitor. It's going to be Cade being an asshole competitor and building the rivalries and the huge competitive moments that form the history of the NBA. It's just, I think it's always been one of the most underrated traits of a basketball player, that intrinsic competitive energy in our next generation of stars has it. And I think that that's huge for the future health of the league. And Wemby in particular. I just, I loved how he came out and cared and we're going to talk about that play with Kat in a minute because I thought that was another perfect example like that. So beyond the natural competitive energy that drove the effort, the second piece of it was the format. I'm super excited to tell you guys about our new partnership with Vuori. Those of you guys who are familiar with Vuori have noticed that I've been wearing it on the show almost every day now for several years. Today I am wearing the Ponto Performance Half Zip, one of my favorites from them. It's straight up the most comfortable hoodie that I've ever worn, but it's also super versatile. It's something that looks very nice that I can wear out when I'm running errands or going to get lunch with my wife, but it's also like this super stretchy, dry fit fabric that I can wear when I'm going to play basketball here in Colorado. 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I don't think this matters as much as the competitive piece, but I do think Adam Silver is starting to find the right mix here. And it basically comes down to two things. One, shorten games that make blowouts less likely, right? Like if you're in a 48 minute game, there's just too much potential for a bad five minute stretch where a team gets lazy and it's like dunk, dunk, wide open three, wide open three and suddenly it's a 20 point lead for one of the teams and then the effort really falls off of a cliff because then they don't think they're going to win and there's too much time left anyway. And it just, if the game is too long, I think it just breeds it, it increases the potential for a really bad game. The 12 minute games are more likely to drive effort because it's like stepping into the fourth quarter of a tied game. You're basically in crunch time right away. The second piece of it, splitting into three teams I think makes a ton of sense. It allows your shortened games, your 12 minute games to each kind of feel like their own entity. And when you split the teams up right, you can drive some natural competitiveness. Like for all the talk about the US versus the world stuff, which I think mattered, each of those America versus the World Games felt like Team USA trying to prove they hadn't lost ground. So that obviously helped a lot. But I even thought the old guys versus the young guys on the American team was a genius dynamic. Splitting it up so that you have KD, Kawhi and LeBron all on that same team and the younger up and coming American stars on the other team, it forms a different kind of rivalry. It felt like an old guard versus the new guard type of dynamic. Again, Adam Silver has caught a lot of crap for his management of All Star and for the league at whole, which we'll talk about in a minute. And again, I don't agree with every tweak he's made, but I also don't knock him for trying. The thing was broken. He's just trying to find something that'll work. This idea from yesterday is actually a continuation of previous ideas he's knocked on the door of. This idea of shortened games or splitting the teams up. It wasn't perfect. Like, I, I didn't, I didn't agree with putting the rising stars in there. It felt kind of wrong to have those young inferior basketball players share the All Star stage with real All Stars. But it was a refinement on that idea that gave us what we had yesterday. Like, I saw some folks yesterday saying, like, oh, these young stars will bring the effort. Let's just go back to the old format. I disagree. If you go back to the 48 minute format, I think you're gonna get some really bad All Star games again because they end up going 42 to 27 and then suddenly it's like 62 to 32 and then all of a sudden the game's out of hand and, and it, it, it's just gonna be. You're gonna have some bad games mixed in there. And if you keep the game short, but you have just two teams, they'll play super hard in the first one, maybe the second one, and then they'll be in chill mode by the third game. Remember when they tried that with like, each game kind of had its own, like, charity that you get to donate to at the end, but it was still the same guys playing every game, so it didn't work. It's the unique combination of shorter games, but also the split teams that make each one of the shorter games feel like their own entity. That's what works. Get creative with the roster again. World versus usa. That's good. Young versus Old. That's good. Maybe in the future there's like these two All Stars that clearly dislike each other. Put them on opposite teams. Maybe there's a fun public debate like the old Darren Williams vs. Chris Paul debates or the Jokic vs. Embiid debates. Put them on opposite teams. Stay creative within this format and I think you'll be in good shape. I think, I think these tweaks really do matter in the grand scheme of this. All right, let's get to the actual basketball. I have five takeaways that I want to hit from the games themselves First, Kawhi Leonard's huge all star moment. So Kawhi goes for 31 points out of the 48 that they score in the matchup with the world team. He was 11 for 13 from the field, 6 for 7 from 3. Just caught a crazy heater. I loved his comments after the game when he was asked why his teammates kept feeding him. He said these guys know how to find a hot hand. It's a big part of why these guys have all won so many championships. And he's right. Like I was thinking about, there were nine Larry o' Brien trophies on Team Stripes. Those guys have won a lot of basketball games and they wanted to win this one. And they knew Kawhi was hot so they kept feeding him the ball because they knew it was their best chance to win. I thought again, like when you, when you put really good, really smart winning basketball players together, there is no ego, there is no me worrying about getting mine. All they really care about is winning. And when you're in that environment, you feel it out. This is what's working for us. Sometimes it's a single player like oh, we're going to match up hunt Carl Anthony Towns with Kawhi Leonard. Cause that's our best opportunity to score. Right? Right. Or maybe it's in action, they can't guard this two man game. Or hey, these guys can't handle us in the open floor. Let's run more smart, talented winning basketball players diagnose how to win a game. And they did. Kawhi was red hot. Give him the damn ball and get out of the way. And that was their best chance to win. I also thought it was a great showcase of what specifically Kawhi has done so well this entire season. Kawhi's been at a top tier superstar level this year. Career high 28 points per game. He's been flirting with the career high in efficiency on and off throughout the year. He's at 62% true shooting right now. And the specific thing that has driven this crazy season from him is his pull up shooting. Kawai's always been a good pull up shooter throughout his prime, but he has stepped it up especially in terms of volume in a big way. He's making over four of them per game this year. Over four pull up jump shots. That's far and away the most in his career. He's specifically been awesome on those pull up threes like that game winner he hit over Carl Anthony towns. He's taken 141 of them this year and he's hitting over 38% of them. So it was just a cool moment because Kawhi's team has literally no shot to win the title this year. I mean, they were selling talent at the deadline, but All Star gave Kawhi a nice big stage to demonstrate that he's still one of the very best basketball players in the world and to demonstrate the specific way that he's been doing it, which is being surgical with his jump shot off the dribble. 2. Anthony Edwards straight up called out Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic in a post game interview for not wanting to play an All Star. I thought it's a little bit different because of the injury situation with the two guys and we'll get into that in a minute. But I thought it was for the most part fair criticism. All of the best players in the world are out there competing. This is a showcase for the league and they're out there competing and we're already decimated in terms of injuries. Among the star power in the league. Four of the top seven players in the league are dealing with some kind of injury. Now Luca has this hamstring. I'm going to give him a little more slack than Jokic because Jokic has been back from his knee injury for two weeks. Jokic before the All Star break logged four consecutive triple doubles. So like, Jokic should have been able to go out there and give it a real game, right? Luca, at least you can be like, the dude hasn't played any competitive basketball in weeks. I'm going to cut him a little bit of slack. But like Shay Gilders Alexander, abdominal issue, Giannis calf strain, Steph Curry knee issue. That's four of your top seven players in the NBA that are basically out of the game. Since Luca was on the minutes restriction, right? Yic straight up decided he just didn't care about playing in this game. And I think that's a bad look. It's not the end of the world doesn't rewrite his legacy or anything like that. I just thought it was a bad look and I thought it was fair for Anthony Edwards to go like, yo, what's going on here? Because you logged four straight triple doubles going into the All Star break. You're the best basketball player in the world. All the best basketball players in the world are out there trying and you're like, nah, y' all got it. I thought it was a bad look. Again, not a huge world, not a huge, like end of the world kind of deal. Just I Didn't think it was a good look. 3 the young stars winning so convincingly in the final game. I thought this was a classic case of overwhelming athleticism, just finally winning the day. The young Americans had a huge athleticism advantage, not just on the perimeter, they even had Jalen Duran and the older American team didn't have a center on the roster. So it was going to require an especially diligent defensive effort and a lot of jump shots over the top for the old team to beat the young team. And they did. In that first game they were more diligent on defense, they were able to get more stops and Kawhi obviously provided the surgical over the top jump shooting. A couple other guys hit big shots. They were able to get it done. But in that second game the jumpers weren't falling and the effort slipped a bit as they looked fatigue and, and, and then the young guys just ran them off the floor because they were getting to the rim so much more easily. They had a 28 to 8 points in the pain advantage in a 12 minute quarter to give you an idea. So that was kind of what I thought happened in that last game. Just the old guys just weren't able to maintain it. Not a big shock under the circumstances given the athleticism disadvantage. Number four, Victor women. Yama is a damn problem. In the two games he logged 33 points, he's 10 for 13 from the field, four for five from three, eight rebounds, three blocks, was doing it every which way. Was bullying dudes in the posts, hitting smooth mid range jump shots, nailing big threes even in crunch time, just causing all sorts of problems with his defense and in general just bringing the effort and energy that set the tone for the entire event. What I, I generally am, I'm generally of the opinion that when it comes to these kinds of environments where everyone's playing super hard and you have that kind of talent on the floor, I, I don't think it's necessarily the end of the world when certain guys don't look good in that environment because it could be a variety of factors. The ball doesn't find you. You're in a smaller role because another dude has the ball more. It's just kind of a weird setting. But when a dude looks awesome in that setting, I think it does matter. And Wemby, everyone knew he was going to come in and play hard. Everyone knew exactly what he was trying to accomplish yesterday and no one could do anything about it. That's a testament to just how good of a basketball player we're dealing with here just how much of a league shifting type of talent that Victor Wembanyama is. Today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Hard Rock bet, the official sportsbook partner of the Miami Heat and the Orlando Magic. What's better than the sound of the ball on the hardwood, sneakers squeaking and the swish of the net? Winning on Hard Rock Bet. You're home for hoops action all season long, and if you want to score a major bucket, shoot your shot at the same game parlay. Stack your picks on Hard Rock Bet and see your odds grow. But if you missed tip off, don't worry. Hard Rock Bet lets you live bet all game long from the first bucket to the final buzzer, so you're never too late to find a winner or grab the player prop that you had circled. If you haven't signed up with Hard Rock Bet yet, there's never been a better time. Never. 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And then lastly, number five, Carl Anthony Towns does it again. You might have wondered why Wemby demonstratively looked pissed off when Scotty Barnes hit the game winner in that first game. It was because for the second time in that game, Cat made a huge defensive mistake in the form of a bad read. And if he makes the right read in either of those situations, Team World probably wins that game. So for instance, on the play that ended overtime that Victor Weman Yama got pissed. It was first one to five, basically elamending style. Wemby had hit a three, they had hit a two, so it was three to two, World first to five. So as long as they Overplayed the three point line. They were guaranteed to get the ball back with the chance to win even if they would have given up. A wide open dunk doesn't beat you. So Cade runs a ball screen on the right side of the floor. Victor Wembanyama shows on the ball screen up high. Why? Why did Wemby show up high? Because if Cage shakes free and hits a three over the top of the screen, that's game over. Wemby's taking away the three, which is the right read in that situation. But what's going to happen when you show up at the level? You're going to let the roller get behind. So Jaylen Duran gets free on the roll. From there, Cat has a decision to make. Do I tag the roller or do I stay home on my man at the three point line? It's a very simple decision. You either let Jaylen Duran get the dunk which does not beat you, or you give up the three to Barnes which does beat you. And Cat made the wrong read. He tagged the roller. Wimby tried to rotate from all the way on the opposite side of the floor. Yeah, Scotty Barnes isn't a great shooter, but he damn sure can make a wide open catch and shoot three. And he did. And it cost his team the game. There was a very similar sequence at the end of regulation. Ball gets swung across the floor. Anthony Edwards is wide open on the right wing as they're in rotation. Team World is up by three. Cat is on Scotty Barnes in the dunker spot. If Cat's paying attention and is aware of the fact that you can take away a three there and essentially put yourself in a very strong position to win the game. He gets out to Ant. Maybe you give up a dunk to Scotty Barnes, but there's 14 seconds left and you're up one, so they have to foul. You have a really good chance to win that game. But no, he stayed on the dunker spot. Let Anthony Edwards have a wide open three on the right wing to tie the game. They go to overtime. The rest is history. As you guys know, that's a bad read. I've talked about this concept on the show a lot over the years. But there's a big difference between being a football physically limited defender, being too small or too slow, versus being a mistake prone defender. The mistake prone defender is far more damaging to the team, specifically because he cannot be game planned for a defender who is limited, but who is always in the right spot in the scheme and who makes good Reads in big spots can be game planned for the coach can sit down with the staff and go, how are we going to protect our guy against this team in the specific way they like to attack. And by the way, most teams have a guy like this that need to be protected. They come up with a scheme, you know, hey, we're going to, we're going to double team or no, we're going to gap or we're going to strong side zone or there's a variety of different ways that they can protect a guy in that situation. You game plan for it, you can count on guys being in the right spot. You can slide the shot profile towards the kinds of shots that you want to give up. But when you have a wild card, someone that will randomly just do stupid shit, there's no game plan for that. The simplest way I could describe it is if it is a real organized basketball team in that late game sequence. And let's say you're playing the Pistons and you're the Knicks and you have Cat off the ball guarding a non shooter of a non shooter like Scotty Barnes in this case, right? And it's like, oh, you're sitting in the huddle and Mike Brown goes, all right, hey, you know, we've got, you know, we're too big. Look, we got Mitchell Robinson out there. We know they're going to go to the K. Jalen Duran, pick and roll, right? Let's pretend Cat's guarding is Sar Thompson, okay? You're going to, you want to be able to go like, hey, all right, we're going to bring Mitch up to the level to force Cade to get rid of the basketball because we don't want to give up a three. Cat, no matter what you do, do not leave your man. If he can count on that, they have a chance to get a stop or at least give up a 2 and have a chance to win the game. If the coach says that to his team and a guy goes out there and just goes off script and randomly tags the roller when they need a three, it doesn't matter what Mike Brown says, it doesn't matter what scheme you have in place to protect your weaker defensive star. A guy who does stupid, a guy who is mistake prone, is far more damaging to a defense than any sort of physically limited defender. And I just thought it was interesting that we got another example of that out of Cat yesterday. Couple other thoughts from the rest of the weekend. I think it's time to get rid of the dunk contests. I think if you're insistent on having a dunk contest like event, just bring in professional dunkers. I've talked about this on the show before. The problem is dunks have become so played out over the years that it's extremely difficult to have a creative element anymore because everyone's just copying previous great dunks in NBA history. And in order to be creative enough to do something new at this point in the world of dunking, you have to spend an enormous amount of time practicing crazy dynamic dungeons dunks, which all these NBA players don't have time for. So they can go up and they can throw something down through the legs, maybe something through the legs off of some sort of fancy lob, maybe some sort of fancy windmill over lob, maybe they can jump over somebody. But you've seen all that shit before. It's the dudes that are professional dunkers that are going to go out there and do something unique and different. We've already seen this dynamic kind of work with Mack McClung who kind of is more of a professional dunker than he is a professional basketball player anyway. So like, why not just bring in eight legit professional dunkers or four legit professional dunkers, have all the NBA stars there celebrating while it happens and then you can do a dunking event if you want. But I don't see any point anymore in having Jackson, Hayes or Kishad Johnson or any of these other, you know, lower level NBA players going out there and throwing down mediocre dunks anymore. I would personally like to see it eventually get replaced with a one on one competition. Now we all know this is hard to pull off because the players don't really seem to want to do it. There's a lot of fear of embarrassment. But I actually have a vision of this kind of event that could be legendary. I think that there could be enough cachet or respect that comes with winning a one on one competition that could become such a feather in a cap for a scorer's resume that it could eventually be something that players desire to compete in. What are the kinds of things like if you're a score, if you're an elite one on one player, what are the kinds of things that you want on your resume? When a scoring title average 30 points a game for an entire season, scoring 50 in a game, multiple times scoring 60 in a game, having like a highlight reel of awesome ISO buckets and crunch time, whether it's game winning, buzzer beaters or huge clutch shots, are the kinds of things like when we piece together what it Looks like to be one of the great scorers in the NBA, those are the things that you expect to see. I think a one on one competition could trump all of those. I think having a situation where like, oh, in the future some stars are competing in it and it's like this guy won three one on one competitions in 2028, 2030 and 2031. That could be a hell of a thing to have on a resume. If dudes show up and if dudes compete, what I would do is I would just try it. Even if you get kind of mediocre participation at first, I still think it could be a very compelling event. Like even if at first you don't get any big stars, but you just get eight other, you know, bucket getter one on one type of dudes, I think it would still be way more entertaining than the dunk contest. Like just humor me on this. Imagine if you turned on next year one on one competition and the guys that got to sign up were Cam Thomas, Michael Porter Jr, Keante George, Trey Murphy, Shaden Sharp, Dylan Brooks, Brandon Miller and Ty Jerome. Just kind of like a random mix of like different types of one on one scores, perimeter defenders, that sort of thing. All lower level NBA talent. You piece that together, you don't think that would make for an awesome one on one tournament. You don't think watching Cam Thomas at crazy step backs over good contests or Dylan Brooks just mauling somebody in one on one defense. Ty Jerome would be a sneaky, kind of like really difficult dude to guard in a situation like that. Like I think that could work. And then maybe as you see the, the aura build up around the event, suddenly it's like, oh man, Tyrese Maxey just agreed to do it. Oh man. Like we did Victor, just say yes, you know, and like it could gain some momentum, it could turn into a bigger event. But at the very worst case scenario, I would personally rather watch eight midi middling NBA players play a one on one competition and actually compete against each other than whatever the mess the dunk contest has become at this point. And you could do both. Bring in some professional dunkers, do a dunk contest, make it short and sweet, just have four of them. Short and sweet, 20, 25 minute event, get some dunks on your social media feeds, bring in all the middling NBA players, let them play one on one, and maybe, just maybe it will turn into something bigger. But worst case scenario, I'd argue that'd be the most entertaining event of the entire weekend. Even if it was middling type of NBA talent. Last thing before we get out of here today. I generally don't like how much people complain about the NBA. Yeah, All Star sucks, but it basically sucks in every major American sport or at least is prone to having bad versions of their All Star weekend. Generally. I think the NBA is very healthy. It has some things that it needs to address eventually. Yeah. Yeah, I think they need to shorten the season. Yeah, I think they need to come up with a solution for tanking. Yes, I think they need to get foul grifting out of the game. But all those things are more easily said than done. And Adam Silver is at least trying. He's tinkering with the All Star format. Why? Because he's trying to figure out how to get these guys to compete. And guess what? He might have just found the right formula. So, like, if this formula works and sticks, are we really going to care that for five years he was dancing around with a bunch of bullshit, just trying to figure things out? He's throwing stuff at the wall, seeing what will stick. Least he had ideas. At least he was trying stuff. He's finding the hell out of teams who are tanking. He's allegedly been threatening to abolish the draft. Do I think he's done perfect? No. Do I think he could take a harder line on some stuff? Yeah, absolutely. But I think the discourse with Adam Silver has actually gone too far in the negative direction. I. I want to see some changes on some of these things, too. You guys hear me and moan about foul grifting on occasion or the long schedule, but this thing that we seem to do every year where we get to the, like, All Star break basically after the trade deadline, and then for a month we just bitch and moan about the league and talk about how it sucks. I just. I don't. I don't. I don't get that. I think, for the most part, the NBA is in a really good spot. I think the league is aware of the issues, and I think they're trying to do stuff. I've heard a lot of radical ideas. I haven't heard a lot of reasonable ideas coming from the masses. So I think discussing the league burning it down as though it's fundamentally broken is kind of inaccurate. Adam Silver could do better on some stuff. The league clearly has some things that they need to fix. But overall, I think the NBA is in a pretty good spot under the circumstances. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. We have a fun week. We're going to be hitting some different stuff as we don't have any games on the schedule to cover this week where we're going to be hitting some NBA draft stuff. I really want to talk about A.J. debona and Darren Peterson. We're going to do some like awards check ins. Just talking about like all NBA player ranking style stuff. Just kind of talking about how the league looks at this point. We're going to have another mailbag later in the week. A lot of interesting stuff that we're going to get into as we kind of have our last little break before we get into the home stretch again. I sincerely appreciate you guys for rocking with us. We will see you tomorrow. This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.