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The Ringer NBA Show
Lakers Lose Luka in Blowout Loss to Thunder. Plus, Paolo’s Concerns. | Real Ones
01:08:18
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- [00:00]
Logan Murdoch
Foreign. What's poppin real ones. Logan Murdoch here, Howard Beck and Raja Bell in a few we get into a lot of discussion on okc. How dominant are they going to be? Is Shea kind of just recentered how we feel about the Western Conference and by extension the championship race. I know that the spurs have won 11 straight and I know that Wimy's at the top of the game his game. But SGA has got to be the mvp, right? We get into all of that. We get into Lucas very poor timed hamstring injury that is probably just going to doom the Lakers. I I really just don't see how they can go on this season without Luca as their catalyst. They're not very deep team, they're not a great defensive team. JJ Redick has been a great coach this season but I just, I don't know if he can overcome this even with LeBron James on his crosshair. Because LeBron James, 41 years old gonna be tough. Then we talk about the situation that is going on in Orlando. What does this mean for Paolo Ben Caro? We kind of already knows what it means for Jamal Mosley. So we get into all of that. Then we swap some stories about Amari Stoudemire and the Suns days. Mars Satomar is going to the hall of Fame. And then we talk about LeBron's Memphis comments and what the NBA feels about Memphis. And yeah man, it's tough because I love Memphis. Big fan of Memphis. I lived there for a little bit. Child to the commercial appeal shout out to all the people out there, but we get in all that really, really Fun Show. Real onesmailbackmail.com Real onesmailbackmail.com realmwellsmail bagma.com make sure you tap in with us because we're going to answer your questions on Tuesday.
- [01:39]
Podcast Sponsor/Announcer
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- [02:48]
Logan Murdoch
Cliff play the theme music. What's poppin Real ones. Logan Murdoch here hard back there. Roger Bell over there. Cliff on the boards. Balenciaga on the video. Man. Man, let's get right to it, man. We, it was one of those podcasts where we thought we were going to have one thing happen and then something happens during a game last night and then we just completely just.
- [03:22]
Raja Bell
My bad. It's Friday. It's Friday, dog. Come on, man, let's go. Oh, man.
- [03:28]
Logan Murdoch
The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the absolute out of the Los Angeles Lakers. They have, they are, they have won nine of their last 10. They are unquestionably the best team in the league at this point, especially after Shay returned. Shay completely. You know, I think he submitted his, his name as the MVP a long time ago and we'll get to that in a second. But the way the Thunder have just, just beaten the Lakers, God damn it, Ross just got me all flustered and all, all off point now. I don't know what I'm doing, but the way that they beat the Lakers, a lot of storylines going into that game. The Lakers were one of the hottest teams in the league. And then Luca goes down. But I want to talk about Oklahoma City first in this, in this exercise. What did this win do for how you felt about OKC Howard, and what does this mean for them going forward? What did you see from them last night in the dominance? We'll get to the Lakers in a second, but I want to make sure that OKC gets his flowers and what they and, and how we view them.
- [04:34]
Howard Beck
We have a tendency in the media to do this right, where it's always immediately like the indictment about the other team and not about the dominance of the good team.
- [04:41]
Logan Murdoch
Right.
- [04:41]
Howard Beck
And often, you know, like this applies to the Lakers. It applies to other teams too, but especially when you're looking for, for the one team to actually show you something. So not to up your question entirely, Logan, but like it was one of those nights where this told us a lot more about the Lakers than it did about the Thunder long before Luca went down. The Thunder have been dominant all season. They've been dominant without J Dub, they've been dominant with J. And he's looking better by the game. It was a little bit of a. Of a rough RE entry for him, and he's had a couple RE entries this season and he's had, I think, three different injuries. But my, my gosh, like, Hartenstein misses games, Holger misses games, Jada misses games. Shea even missed a bunch of games at one point in the season. Like, they just keep marching on. Like, there have been very few moments aside from when, like, the spurs smacked him around a little bit back in December. When we have had any reason to even wonder about the Thunder. It feels like a very long time ago that they were on pace for like 78 wins and they're not reaching that. But like, there's. There's still the most dominant force in the NBA, the deepest and the most talented. Doesn't mean they're going to win it all again. We'll see in the next couple of months. I'm not predicting that right now, but, like, I think they just simply reaffirmed who they are. They're as close to whole as they've been in a while. And I do think to the extent that it was important or significant as a game as, as one of, of the, you know, 60, whatever victories they're going to have, it's always good to, to smack back the teams that think they're on your heels. Right. Like, we'll eventually get to Thunder, spurs. And I can't wait. Thunder, spurs, whenever. Whenever they meet in the playoffs is going to be awesome. But for now, as we're just winding down the regular season and it's like, oh, maybe the Lakers, maybe Minnesota, maybe Denver Thunder. Nope, nope, not you. You know, try again some other year, some other lineup ain't happening now. So I, I think if there, if I'm going to give weight to this on the Thunder's behalf, it's more that maybe they saw an opportunity to just put this to rest. Maybe even, maybe there was even a little bit, like, I don't think this enters into it, but maybe there's even a little bit of the. Oh, everybody's starting to gravitate toward Luca for mvp. Yeah, let's. Let's, you know, pull the plug on that real quick too. Maybe all of that factors in, but I think it's mostly just the fact that the Thunder are really fucking good. And the Lakers, despite their recent success, had a lot of Holes that were just simply exposed.
- [07:13]
Logan Murdoch
Again, what'd you see, Roger?
- [07:16]
Raja Bell
Yeah, no, I would agree with everything Howard said there. I would. I do think that late in a season, even though they're probably the favorites to win a championship, there are games that as a collective, you could kind of circle and say, all right, like this one may be a little different. I don't know that anyone would ever admit that at a press conference. But you do find yourself in those games late in the season once in a while, and last night seemed to be one of them. I'm with you in that. I didn't really doubt them. I think from wire to wire, you know, I thought they were going to be fine. What's. What stands out to me about them is just how energetic they can be defensively and how many, how many bodies come into the game flying around and just wreaking havoc. It seemed personal on the defensive end last night in a, in a way. And so that. That for me is unique to them. Not. Not many teams in the NBA have that much quality defensive personnel that they can throw out there at you. And, you know, what they do offensively and what Shea's able to do speaks for itself. But I mean, that was a master class defensively last night. I agree with everything you said, Howard, except I do think there was a part of them last night that was like, okay, mofo, like, we got the Lakers, we got Luca, here we go,
- [08:31]
Logan Murdoch
we on national tv. Let's kick their ass. Also, there's another element to that, right? Like, I think there is a. There is a disdain for Luka in OKC in a way. You know, he beat them a few years ago. And also right when he got traded with the Lakers, even out of shape, Luca beat the brakes off of OKC late last season when OKC was, was really rolling. And that was really one of the signature wins of the Lakers season last year. And I think all of that in totality, adding to the fact that, you know, Shay kind of has a chip on his shoulder right now with a lot of things. He was injured a little bit during this season. It kind of messed up the flow because he is the, he is the all encompassing offense and all encompassing player for that team. He is the steadiest ship. So when he is out, that team really is a bit. A bit rudderless without him. And then also I got to think though, there's this thing brewing between Shea and, and Wimy for mvp that's kind of like it's. It's there, right? Because there was A. A comment. We all talked about what Wimby said, how he was like vying for the mvp. And he talked about it and Shea was asked about, you know, what he wanted and what he thought about the mvp and he said, no, I'm good. Thanks for asking though. I'm gonna let my game do the talking. Which was, you know, a little jab at Wimby. Right. And I saw Wimby play the other night in, in San Francisco and granted it was against a terrible front line, you know, he was getting switched on to Brandon Przymki and a couple other guys I've never heard of that were under 6 5. He had 41 and 18. But you could see that that rivalry is starting to kind of come into form. And I got to think that that is on Shay's mind. Let's go to the, with that, let's go to the MVP discussion before we get to Luca's injury and what that means for the Los Angeles Lakers. Shay right now is averaging 30 points on 55% from the field. That's crazy. That's nuts. And that goes into the straw poll. That is. That just got released by our friend Tim Bond. Timps that has Shea, Gilgas, Alexander with far and away won the MVP. He has 88 first pace votes, has 958 total points. Victor Wambuyama has eight. He's second place, has eight first place votes and 63 second place votes. Howard, you referenced, you know, the Luca of it all. But I think more in this straw poll, I was more surprised that the gap hadn't closed pretty much at all with Victor women. Yama and Shay go against Alexander. What does that say about both of those players and where they are right now? And what does that say about, you know, the votership? Because you are a voter and you also participated in this straw poll. What is, what, what, what is. What are you seeing with this and how we view these players and these candidates?
- [11:21]
Howard Beck
I think one of the things this actually points up with Shay getting 88 out of 100 possible first place votes is that the discourse and the debate, the conversation that's happening on ESPN or other networks or various social networks or whatever is a little disconnected from reality and maybe contrived, frankly, because we started talking about this as like a four guy race. Oh, it could be Shay, but maybe it's Wemby, maybe it's still Jokic, maybe it's Luca, he's coming on strong at the end. But. And this straw poll, while it published this morning, Friday morning, April 3rd. Bontem sent those texts out to us back. I think it was Tuesday. So this is before the Lakers get their butts kicked last night. This is before whatever else happened in the last few days. So as of earlier this week, the gap was just massive. No matter how much the conversation on TV or elsewhere is about it's a four guy race or Luka's in this thing. Luca got zero first place votes in, in the straw poll. He got 6 seconds, 24 thirds, 59 fourths. I think I had him fourth. I had Shay first. I think I went Shay, Jokic, Wemby, and then Luca. I mean, this is the reality is that Shay is actually running away with it, no matter what we might say for the sake of podcast topics or radio or TV topics like nope, it. And look, I. What does it say? It says that Shay's been the most consistent from start to finish part of it. It says that the Thunder have been leading the league basically start to finish it. I think his, his case is emboldened by the fact that they have been without key players for. So like J Dub is basically their second most important guy and a guy who carries a lot of the offensive load and creation load, especially when Shay's off the floor, when Shay's hurt, when, whatever. And he's been out for most of the season and they just keep plugging along now. Are they really deep? Yeah, but they're deep with a lot of like really good complimentary players. It's not like, you know, you take isaiah Joe, Jared McCain, you know, the other, the other Jalen Williams, like you, you could take these guys, redistribute them to other teams. They're not making the same impact necessarily. They're like, they're not, they're doing this because they're, they're in Shay's ecosystem, this Thunder ecosystem. And so I, I just think that the strength of the Thunder and the consistency of the Thunder from start to finish and Shay's consistency start to finish and his, he's actually playing even better than he did a year ago when he won it. And that's how you, that's how you get yourself a back to back MVP in this league. Because it doesn't happen all that often. Actually, I should take that back. There have been plenty of them. Like Steph won back to back. You know, Jokic won back to back, Giannis won back to back. You know, it, it happens. Steve Nash, Nash won it back to back. It's been a bit, but, but the, the case has to be really strong. When you are in a league where there are this many super talented players like Wemby has a case. It's not enough of a case clearly, but he's got a case. Jokic. Jokic is going to average a triple double for the second straight year. The only other guy to ever do it in back to back years was Russ. Jokic is the first center to have done it for whatever else that's worth. And YIC is putting up another historic season. But the Nuggets are down and the record always weighs in. It's always, you know, I've said this on this pod before, I'll say it again. Your team's success has almost always mattered and so this reflects that too.
- [14:52]
Logan Murdoch
What does the eye test tell you about Shea Raja?
- [14:59]
Raja Bell
I mean, look, he's, we can debate it. I think he's the best player in the NBA right now. I think, I think he's the hardest player in the NBA to guard right now. Some of that has to do with how well he can create contact and some people's definition foul bait. But, but you know, I've said it was his from the beginning. Throughout the entirety of the season. Like he's, he's really, really grown in the capacity to like make others around him better. The efficient, the efficiency with which he scores. I've talked about his ability to watch a game unfold and decide kind of like there's been a rare few amount of people that can really do that. Just watch it unfold and understand when he needs to kind of take it over and become the Austrian 12 points in a row type of leader that teams need from time to time. Like he's not always on that energy right when he comes out. And so watching him play, fun for me because you know, he, he continues to add to a bag that was already really deep and obviously won him an MVP last year. But I do think he, he in, in, in terms of making people better around him. I think he's continued to grow in that space. I, you know, again we could debate. I mean there's a small handful of players who, who, I wouldn't be mad at you if you said he was the best player in the NBA. But I think definitively Shay's in that group and I think he's the best offensive player in the game.
- [16:31]
Logan Murdoch
Yeah, I mean I, I think there's no really doubt about it. What he brings to okc. He is the, the ultimate ceiling raiser, but also he's the ultimate constant I think that you have here right like, that's. I think in this season, I put him over Jokic because of that. Jokic is also a similar type of player who can kind of raise a team ceiling, but Denver's just been racked with injuries and. And he hasn't been able to stabilize like he's been able to do in years past. And I think that's. And Shea has just. If you are close with OKC down the stretch of the game, you can basically forget about it at this point, right? Like, if. If. If Shay is. Is. Is going to have the ball down the stretch, like, that's a good point.
- [17:13]
Raja Bell
He's definitely the best closer. That's not even. I don't even think it's close.
- [17:17]
Logan Murdoch
Absolutely. Like, even the. Even the. The play against Detroit the other day where, I mean, it didn't count, but there was a play where he gets a steal and just. You knew where he was going the whole time. He was going to go to that wing for a step back, and it was just. And he knew it was going in. Everybody in the building knew it was going in. And he has. He makes those types of things routine. And for a team like OKC who is so deep, the fact that they can have a guy like that is really going to put them over the top, especially in a playoff setting. When you're talking about, like, we all want San Antonio in okc, but the reason why I would give OKC the edge, even at this moment, even with everything that has happened throughout the regular season and how scared I would be if I'm OKC of the length that San Antonio has and the defensive prowess and Wimby and all of those things. The reason why I give them OKC the edge is because of what I just talked about with Shay, right? And that he's been there before and that he can do it on this high level, because there's also this thing. And I know Beck knows this, and I know me and Raj have talked about this in the past. When you win a championship and you are the lead guy that won a championship, everything that everybody talks about is just the level that you get to higher as the lead dog, because you've seen it before and nothing really in phases you. After you've gotten to that point. And I think that. That. That's what Shea has right now is that he has the validation of being a champion. And I think that that really helps him get to another level, because usually, you know, that's the difference, I think, between him and Aunt Edwards at this point is that Ant just hasn't gotten there and he's made big shots but hasn't necessarily done it on the high, high, high level that Shea has done. And there's a calmness that comes with that. So all that to say, very excited to see what Shay does. And I think that they're right in prime position to get to another Finals and win another Finals. The other thing, we got to get back to Luca and you talk about the discourse. Howard. One thing about Luca is he, he just pulled his hamstring and it, he's probably not going to get even get the MVP consideration because of the 65 game room that hovers rule, that hovers over us all. But let's, I'll get, I'll start with Howard and then go to Raja. What does this mean for the Lakers? He is another singular talent that can really raise a ceiling of a team that has no business being in postseason, having postseason success. There was so much excitement in Los Angeles and it feels like all of that is torn to shreds at this point.
- [19:52]
Howard Beck
It's such a bummer to see him go down last night. The guy's so incredibly talented. He just came off one of the greatest scoring months in NBA history. 600 points in March. I believe Michael Jordan's the only other one to ever have 600 points in a month of NBA play. He really revived the Lakers at a time when I think everybody thought, oh, they're a second to third tier team and suddenly they were the hottest team in the league or one of them for a good month there since February 28th. So a little over a month, like five weeks or so here the Lakers were 16 and three. That's tied with the spurs for the most wins in that time, 7th and offense 10th and defense 6th net rating. So they, they had put themselves back in a conversation that I think most of us had kind of written them out of. I wasn't sure I bought it. And there are reasons not to. I think last night, even before Luca goes down, just exposed that the Lakers really weren't in this. I, I, it was nice to, to kind of believe it for a minute. Like, ooh, maybe it's a three team race in the west or whatever it is, right? We're, I think most of us think it's a, it's, it's effectively a two team race between OKC and San Antonio. But there's always that. Will Denver get it together in time? Could Minnesota crash the party? Could the Lakers crash the party? So it's a, it's A one two punch last night. They got the shit kicked out of them. Even before Luca went down. They were down 44, 21 after the first quarter. I mean, they just were never in this at all. I'll get back to Luke in a second real quick. Just because I didn't look it up until this morning. Do you what the Lakers record is against the Thunder and Spurs? Combined?
- [21:29]
Raja Bell
0 and 7.
- [21:31]
Howard Beck
It's 1 in 10 there. Or. Excuse me, the. The top four teams at the top of the conferences. They're. They're 1 and 6 against the spurs and Thunder. Oh, and 4 against the Pistons and Celtics. So against the four leading teams, essentially across the two conferences, the Lakers are 1 in 10, including 1 in 6 against the spurs and Thunder. Like, that's not always entirely indicative. You can finish a season better than you started. Sometimes all the losses are early on. Like, you don't want to ever put too much emphasis, but like, that's a pretty stark trend line for a almost full season now. So I don't know that the Lakers were truly in this, but without Luca, they're definitely not in it. And a hamstring is tough. Like, we don't know as we record here midday eastern time on Friday, we don't have MRI results yet, so we don't know how long he's out. But the playoffs start basically in like two weeks. Two weeks from tomorrow, two weeks from Sunday for the Lakers, probably. Is. Is Luca going to be healthy by then? Is he even going to be available by then?
- [22:42]
Logan Murdoch
I mean, he. The best case scenario is a grade one sprain for him. That would be the best case scenario. And even then, like, that's one to three weeks. I don't know. We just saw Aaron Gordon, who had a grade two. It took him a long time to get back this season. And hammies are just something you just don't with. It's like a calf, you know, we don't talk about it enough, but especially when you're doing what Luca does, you have to have play 40 minutes a game, have the ball in your hands and be so ball dominant. He knew he was fucked up as soon as that happened too. Howard.
- [23:15]
Howard Beck
Oh, my God. But also, by the way, he. He had tweaked it in the first half. Like, he had already been kind of grabbing at it. And like, J.J. redick had to be a little defensive after the game when reporters were asking, like, hey, he had tweaked it. They sent him back out there. He's like, no, we. He was cleared. We checked him Out. We wouldn't risk it. Well, I mean, they clearly did risk it, right? What?
- [23:35]
Raja Bell
Excuse me.
- [23:37]
Logan Murdoch
And J.J. redick. J.J. reddick. Roger, who has had the allegations of keeping his players out too much. Remember. Remember last year in the playoffs with LeBron? 48 minutes. Yeah.
- [23:46]
Raja Bell
I mean, I'm not even. Yeah. I mean, but I'm not even going to get into all of that. Like, if the man tweaked it in the first quarter and you're down the way you're down, or whenever it was. But. But the other context is necessary, is you were. That was over.
- [24:00]
Howard Beck
It was over.
- [24:01]
Raja Bell
So there were. Yeah, I'm sorry.
- [24:03]
Howard Beck
They were down by 32 points.
- [24:05]
Raja Bell
Yeah. Come on.
- [24:06]
Howard Beck
When Luca went down with the hammy in the third. 32 points midway through the third. Like, I get it. Like, you're going to give your guys most of the time. Unless it's like, me sometimes it's like, first night of a back to back, and you do the thing where, like, Pop would just pull the plug and say it. I'm. I'm saving my guys for tomorrow night. This one's a lost cause. I. I get where you want to start the second half with. At least. Let's just try to get back in this. And if we get something going, I'll ride with my guys. And if I don't, if we can't get in it, then I'll pull the plug before the fourth. So, like, I'm not going to be too hard on. On Reddick for that, but I did you. It's fair to wonder what the medical staff did or did not see at halftime, because he did tweak it in the first half, and it was evident.
- [24:48]
Logan Murdoch
Yeah.
- [24:48]
Raja Bell
Look, I'm with. I ride with you, Howard. I understand that. I support that. We're going to give this a run. Unless the orbit of my world has said to us in the first half, he felt something in his hamstring, and at that point, all bets are off. Yeah.
- [25:05]
Logan Murdoch
Remember. Remember Magic Johnson when Alonzo Ball got hurt in summer league and he was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Take your ass out. We're not done. But we're not even playing those games. Somebody had to do that. That. That's done. We should have any. I don't. Is there any. You're Mr. Devil's Advocate, Rogers. Any devil's advocate for the Lakers right now. Luga, is there anything that you can. You can muster up for us?
- [25:29]
Raja Bell
Not. Not this late. I don't think Any of the cases that I would have made for any other silver linings with him being out would have been with a lot of meat left on the bone in the season, giving people opportunities to, that they ordinarily wouldn't get. You know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This late in the season, you know, that's, that's not what you want to see. I have no silver lining for that. The soft tissue injuries are difficult. They're difficult to predict what, what you know, they might say one to three, but even the variance between one and three is like, that's a lot of time right when you're talking about someone could be back from one, the other person at three and you know, you can never really predict what that's going to feel like at the three, the three week mark when you go out there and like I said, you're not protecting it and you're got scripted and then there's getting back in shape because you really can't do when you have a, when you have, when a hammy or something like that. There's no, there's no work that you can really be doing in terms of your conditioning. Luca at times has struggled with that anyway, so, so like there are a lot of reasons why that's just a bad look and I don't have the silver lining for the Lakers. That's a tough, tough pill to swallow this late in the season.
- [26:39]
Logan Murdoch
Right now they have the Timberwolves first round who have their own set of issues, right? Like know Anna's been in and out of the lineup with the D thing, so. But I still don't think they have the firepower to beat a Timberwolves team without Luka at all.
- [26:53]
Howard Beck
I'll take a step further. Logan, take a step further. If Luka's not playing for the rest of the regular season, which is on the table right now, I mean the Lakers only have like a game lead on Denver, so the Lakers can still slip to, to fifth. They've got a two and a half game lead on Houston.
- [27:10]
Logan Murdoch
Yeah, they could slip to six.
- [27:12]
Howard Beck
They could, I mean six, that's three and a half.
- [27:15]
Logan Murdoch
Three and a half.
- [27:16]
Howard Beck
Three and a half with very little games left. So unless they were going to like just lose out, which I don't think is the case, but yeah, they're, you know, they, they may not get home court in the first round. They could. And if they slip to. Well yeah, they're being in the three. Six is probably where you want to be. Uh, though actually you know what, Fuck that. There's no good path for them. You're either. You're. You're either.
- [27:41]
Logan Murdoch
Without Luca, they're fucked, bro.
- [27:43]
Howard Beck
If you get out of the first round, second round, you're. If you're in the four or five, you're getting Oklahoma. And if you're in the. The, you know, the 3, 6, and 2, whatever zone, you're getting the 2, which is. Sound like, no matter what, this ends in the second round for them. They're not beating those teams.
- [27:55]
Raja Bell
No. Even. Even from the perspective. Sorry. Even from the perspective of what LeBron now has to do physically to keep them afloat like that. That's not what you want him having to do this late in the season. You. You know, like that those are his career or.
- [28:11]
Logan Murdoch
Well, both. Yeah, absolutely.
- [28:12]
Howard Beck
Like.
- [28:12]
Raja Bell
Right. You don't. You don't want his efforts to have to be Herculean, like, coming down the stretch, leading into the playoffs. And now he's. Now he's shot for. You know that. It just puts a lot of pressure on them. It just sucks.
- [28:24]
Logan Murdoch
Yeah. Yeah. Let's take a quick break and talk about some more sucky situations. This one in Orlando.
- [28:31]
Raja Bell
Protein is now at Starbucks, and it's never tasted so good. You can add protein cold foam to your favorite drink or try one of our new protein lattes or matcha. Try it today at Starbucks.
- [28:47]
Howard Beck
So good, so good, so good.
- [28:49]
Logan Murdoch
New spring arrivals are at Nordstrom Rack stores now. Get ready to save big with up to 60% off rag and bone, Marc Jacobs free people and more. How did I not know rack has Adidas? Cause there's always something new. Join the NordicLub to unlock exclusive discounts. Shop new arrivals first and more. Plus, buy online and pick up at your favorite Rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack. And we are back. Ra', Jah, I wanted to talk to you about the Orlando Magic. And they are 2 and 8 over their last 10. Bad vibes from Paolo and his coach, Jamal Mosley. I'll give you a couple quotes that happened about a month ago, but it really colors where they are right now, and we're getting a lot of whispers that the team has quit on their coach and that their coach is kind of a dead man walking, especially going to the play in. They've gone from being in the thick of the Eastern Conference to being ninth in the playing race, which is kind of wild considering the expectations that we had going into the season for them. But this was about a month ago after a game in Detroit where Detroit kind of beat the brakes off of them in the second half. Paolo Bankero was axed after that game about second half runs and what needs to happen when an opponent is picking up steam. And he said, we just gotta be more organized, be able to communicate with each other. What we're trying to do. Teams a lot of times adjust at halftime and I think that's why we struggled at the half because we don't really adjust to their adjustments. So that's when we need to learn how they're playing us and we just need to get clearly communicate to each other with what we need to do particularly offensively and fight those runs and continue to play good basketball. It seems like a very, you know, cut and dry answer, right. From a, from an NBA player. Right. And then Jamal Mosley, one more quote, was, was made aware of these comments and said, yeah, I think the one adjustment that Detroit made last night, they just played a little harder. They got into the ball, they grabbed at it a little more, they clogged the paint a little more. And our decisions became slower because we are a lot of gaps. There were no schematic adjustments they made. It was just more or less along the lines. They turned up their defensive heat a lot more, they turned us over. They built walls in transition, yada, yada, yada. But basically there been a back and forth with them. And now they, they, they did go on a bit of a run and a streak after that game. But since they've just kind of fallen off a cliff and you just, there's just such bad body language between the two sides. Jamal Mosley's a good coach. This is probably not the best situation from him. But my question to you is, we've talked about a little bit about Paolo over the years. He seems to have all the traits of an NBA star, right? Like has the body, has the game, but doesn't necessarily have the results. What is the disconnect here? And, and what do the Magic need to do to get not only Orlando on track? Orlando, who by the way has had a 52 point blowout loss to Toronto followed by 29 point blowout loss at home to Atlanta. What do they need right now to kind of figure themselves out at this point? What do those quotes tell you?
- [32:08]
Raja Bell
Yeah, I mean, I don't know what they need. I'd have to be a, you know, I probably need to be around there and in the building a little bit just to watch, watch those two. Just see how the team, you know, when you're saying that a team is quit on a Coach, that's. That's danger zone, right? And I don't want to say that without having watched them thoroughly enough to really weigh in on that. When you start throwing around the word adjust, it starts throwing up red flags, as when a player gets at the podium or in front of the media at his scrum and he's making these comments and everything sounds normal, and we're going down the usual cliches of what we use, and then you say we don't adjust and other teams do. Everybody in that coaching locker room and in that front office, ears perk up immediately. Because whether you know it or not, I didn't see the interview, so I couldn't see the body language when he delivered the line. You have thrown a shot. And, you know, I. On the flip side of that, when what Jamal is saying, I've been in that situation as a coach where you're saying, hey, man, like your. Your assessment as a player was that they made adjustments and schematically changed what they were doing. Except when we broke down the film and we watched it, it wasn't so much schematics or, or. Or really what they did in terms of handling said coverages or executing said pick and roll against us. It was more their energy. And that's basically what he said, is that they were playing harder, they were digging at more balls, they were getting their hands in there, they were clogging the gaps. That speaks to energy. I've been in that situation as a coach where you can bring a team back into the huddle post game, and say, hey, guys, what did we change from half one to half two, schematically speaking. And the team say to you, nothing, Coach. And you're like, yeah, that's right. We just fucking played harder. We just did what we do better, harder and with more intensity. There's clearly a disconnect between those two. And so when you asked me about Paolo, he's got a lot of good things going for him. This isn't really fair because I would have. I don't have a large sample size of watching them night in, night out. But playing at any level requires a certain skill set, a certain ability, and a criteria that you have to meet in those. In those areas. But being a winner at every level requires you typically playing harder than most guys realize, competing for longer stretches for a better percentage of the time than your opponent, and sometimes longer than you as a really good, skilled player are comfortable doing. And so I think that's what I would say to Paulo. Incredible player. But whether this Works out with Jamal or you're right or he's wrong, it doesn't, it doesn't matter. To win in this league and to lead other people to winning in this league, any league, quite frankly, you got to be the hardest working motherfucker out there, dog. Like, you got to be the toughest, most willing to sacrifice best leader in that space of competition that there is. And we can all work on that, right? And the fact that we haven't really won the way we think we should win. If you are the best player in your estimation, you have to have some culpability in that. Like you have to be responsible for some of that. There has to be a moment where you look in the mirror and say, hey, I can get better in that space. That doesn't mean I'm not great. It doesn't mean, you know, I'm not doing a good job. But to get us where we want to go, to get us over that hump, I've got to be better. And I think that's fair. As far as their interaction, clearly they don't see eye to eye. I don't know what Orlando does with that.
- [36:05]
Logan Murdoch
I mean, he just signed a five year, 200 something million dollars.
- [36:10]
Raja Bell
Yeah, well, he ain't going nowhere. Yeah, he ain't going nowhere.
- [36:15]
Howard Beck
Yeah, he's there.
- [36:16]
Logan Murdoch
He's there for five years. He's. He's there. Howard, what, what does this impasse say about Paolo right now in your, in your estimation?
- [36:23]
Howard Beck
I mean, I think it's probably bigger than Paolo at this point. So a month ago, when, when we have this kind of standoff where postgame Paolo is saying we didn't make any adjustments, which. But yeah, 99.9999% of the time when a player says that, that is, that is a direct shot at the coach and it's intentional. Now, whether he's right or not is a different story, but it's a massive shot across the bow, especially when it's coming from your franchise star to say we didn't make adjustments. That is always intentional. And I, I don't think there's any ambiguity about what that's about. The reason I think it's still interesting here we are weeks later, is because, yeah, they've done nothing but lose since then. As you mentioned, they got their asses kicked by the Raptors the other day, and the Raptors are a good team, but they're not got a dominant team.
- [37:08]
Logan Murdoch
Well, they've had their struggles post all Star too. Like, they haven't been very great since
- [37:13]
Howard Beck
the break, they lost by 52 points. It's a franchise record. There. They, there was a 310 run in that game. 31 0. I think that at some point is a sign of a team that has just decided, we're done. We've let go of the rope. Whether that's quitting on each other, quitting on the coach, quitting on the world, whatever it is. You're. You're not, you're not in it at that point. Something is way off track now. Big picture, Franz Wagner has missed most of the season and, you know, was in and out. Ben Carroll himself was in and out. Jalen Suggs, per usual, has been in like they've had injury issues. The other Wagner, Mo Wagner's been. Been out like they've had a lot of go on injury wise. But that does not justify or explain all of this, where this is ultimately leading. Like it, you know, it's been buzzing around the league for a while now that Jamal Mosley's obviously in danger at. At best.
- [38:07]
Logan Murdoch
That's putting it lightly.
- [38:09]
Howard Beck
Put it lightly. I mean, Zach went through like the, the 10 or 11 potential vacancies on his pod the other day, and those are pretty much. I, I think that was identical to like the names I've heard circulating, the jobs I've heard circulating in, in recent weeks. And this is what happens, right? The back half of a season, especially coaches start talking about it, assistant coaches, coaching agents. Like, everybody starts talking about where they think the vacancies are going to be because they gotta, you know, you know, everybody's looking for their opportunities. And yeah, Orlando's been pretty high on that list. So, okay, they'll do that. They'll fire Jamal Mosley. Justified or not, they still got to figure out the roster. They still got to figure out why they can't keep their guys healthy. Is it just bad luck? Do we need a new approach to, to, to training and medical? Like what? Like the, the Magic have bigger issues than just a disconnect between Palo Banchero and Jamal Mosley. Because I think it's probably more than just one player and the coach. And I also think that, that they just need to reassess everything stage.
- [39:10]
Raja Bell
Yeah, look, ingredients. Coaching. Coaching is tough, man. You could be the best in game adjuster. You could be the best time management guy down the stretch with timeouts. You could be the best analytically driven coach. If you don't have players, none of that matters, right? So to the, to the point you just made Howard, if it's not Jamal and you bring somebody else in there, you got to get them a roster that, that can stay on the floor that you deem is good enough and can stay on the floor. Because without it, there's only but so much you can do. I've never been on a team that let go of the rope like that. Like, I. That's not coaching. Now you could say that's that they don't want to play for their coach. And I guess technically that would be coaching. But like, there, we have to have a level of professionalism out there. Like, you know what I mean? Like, we gotta, we. We have to go out there and, and compete. If it's not for the dudes sitting in the chair I played for, I don't like, like that that happens. But like, I've got to roll out and do and. And have a level of decorum and professionalism and competitiveness about myself. And so it could be the disconnect, but it could be the disconnect, and it could be on the coach and it could be for all the reasons the coach is saying, which is. Which is like, we just don't see eye to eye on how competitive a coach thinks a team needs to be in some of those spaces. Right. And that for me is always a hard sell to players. I was a player no one has ever taken. Hey, bro, you ain't play hard enough. You ain't do. That is a hard pill to swallow. It takes, it takes some real self reflection. It takes a lot of examples on film. And quite frankly, it takes a level of humility to sit there and say, hey, man, like that you might be right. And so, you know, it's just kind of messy in that space. And obviously Jamal will get fired. And you know, I, yeah, it's obvious. But you got to get whoever that is to have the type of talent who comes in there, the type of talent he needs to win and keep him healthy. And generally speaking, you know, you've got to put forth an effort and a level of competitiveness, especially if you think you are the dude. There are a lot of cats walking around screaming that I'm the dude. Yeah, a lot of them walking around screaming that I'm the dude. And you know, there are even levels to that. We've talked about it before. Like, you're a dude. You ain't the dude. The dude we talked about last segment. The dudes we talked about collectively last segment. Like, we need to, we need to keep leveling up. And I'm not saying that we can't get there. But we got to keep leveling up until we're there. And if you're offended by someone saying that to you, we got a bigger problem.
- [42:01]
Logan Murdoch
Hey, man. The 2014-15 Cavs had a lot of questions about their coach. Still figured it out, right? With a level of professional. Still did what they had to do. And that relates to the reason why I keep bringing up Pao in this situation. And I know this is an Orlando Magic issue. The reason why I Keep bringing up PA is when you have a 58, 52 point loss like that, that looks bad on you. That looks terrible on you as the franchise leader. Like, fuck the coach. We gotta. I'm not going out like this because all the wins and losses, fair or not like this, are going to be on my shoulders. I got. I'm the 200, almost damn near $300 million man. Right? Everybody's going to look at him for that. And when he's talking about and not having his coaches back or is talking a lot of best, that doesn't look great on him. It doesn't. And listen, the Magic and Paolo are. Are, by all intents and purposes, they're. They're married to each other for a long time, right? Like, Paolo's not going to get this opportunity anywhere else to be the franchise star. He needs to do some soul searching in this moment because when you say things like that, you got to back it up and be like, all right, let's. Let's. We got to figure things out and we're going to go on a run. That's what a superstar does. That's what a franchise leader does. That's what a pillar does. And he hasn't proven that. He's proven that, you know, with the contract he signed. He's proven that with, you know, maybe some of. He hasn't proved it with necessarily the playoff performances or the playoff wins, right? That's what that people are expecting. He's. He's got a lot of. He's young. He's got a lot of time to prove himself. But that isn't a good look, man. Like the. The players that he is compared to didn't have. Didn't have their teams quit on him this early in the season and were part of the. The teams that quit and just like, seem to be checked out. So he got a lot to prove. Got a lot to prove.
- [43:55]
Raja Bell
Yeah, he's. He's young. Like, he's young and. And, you know, I'm speaking kind of in generalities about young players that want to be champions and deem themselves faces of franchise that want to be champions. So I don't mean it's not pointed necessarily at Paolo. It's just we, we, we, we all have, you know, room to grow as, as human beings, as professionals in our field. No matter how good we are, you're always trying to get better at something. Like, there might be less room to grow, but people are trying to grow in those micro spaces once they've gotten really, really good. And so as a young player, you just want to, you know, you want to continue to grow. And if you feel like your game physically doesn't have a ton of stuff that you want to work on, well, then it does become about the mental and it does become about the margins and it does become about, you know, the leadership and things like that. And so, you know that that's what I would say when you asked me the question. What would you say is like, continue to grow. Look, once that relationship is dissolved, take some time and reflect and, and reflect. Like, try to. Try to step away and, and look at it objectively and see where you could grow in those spaces because you are married to the franchise and those dudes, those dudes need you to continue to do that, you know, if you want to take them where hopefully we all are going. And that's, you know, that's all I'm saying in that. But I would say, look, as it relates, the one thing I tell my kids, you don't have to, you don't have to agree with it or not, is when they come to me with any kind of adjustment, nobody gives a fuck. Nobody fucking cares. Like, Ty came over to me in a game the other day and said some they were playing, they were losing. I was like, nobody gives a. Just go out there and try to figure out a way to win the game. Like, just go. We're hooping.
- [45:44]
Logan Murdoch
That what Chris Rock say in the house, outside of the house, nobody gives a about you. Inside the house, little on the fence,
- [45:53]
Raja Bell
but like, you know, people don't have time. People don't have time for all that loose rap, dog. Like, don't talk about it, be about it, you know. And you know, I would say that to people trying to be champions too. Let's not talk about it. Let's be about it, though. Let's do everything we could to. Everything we could do to be in a quest and genuinely say we're in search of that. Let's not just act like that. Like, let's put that foot forward.
- [46:17]
Logan Murdoch
Speaking of someone who was about it? Maurice Stoudemire.
- [46:21]
Raja Bell
Stat.
- [46:23]
Logan Murdoch
Going into the hall of Fame. How do you feel? When did you get the news? How did you. How did you feel? And you got to give us some stories. The story time.
- [46:30]
Raja Bell
Yeah, you know, I'm not.
- [46:30]
Logan Murdoch
What's going on?
- [46:31]
Raja Bell
You know, I'm not tapped in. I got the news from you. Like, I got. I got the news from me. You just found out our group text. Yeah.
- [46:38]
Logan Murdoch
Oh, okay. Okay.
- [46:39]
Raja Bell
Yeah, yeah, I got the news. Stats. That was incred. Incredible to play with. Incredible to witness. That size, speed, twitch, skill combination. Unreal. Unreal finisher. But, like, doesn't get the credit for what he was able to do kind of with the ball in terms of shot creation. That free throw line to 18 foot, 19 foot. Like, incredible.
- [47:06]
Logan Murdoch
Yeah. What do you think, Howard? How do you feel about. How do you feel about stat? How do you. What was that? What was. What do you feel about this hall of Fame class? Obviously stats in it. How do you feel about stat and
- [47:16]
Howard Beck
beyond real quick, by the way, for the. For the youngins who are wondering, why are we calling Amar a stat? Stat's an acronym, not just because he put up stats. So S T A T. Do you guys remember why it's S T A T?
- [47:31]
Raja Bell
Stat, Standing tall and talented.
- [47:34]
Howard Beck
There you go.
- [47:35]
Logan Murdoch
Stat.
- [47:38]
Howard Beck
That's not bad, right? Like, every nickname now is just, like, first initial, last name type shit. Like, Amari just walked in one day and says, I'm Stat. Why you Stat? I'm standing tall and talented. All right, cool. We're calling you Stat.
- [47:48]
Logan Murdoch
Word. All right, Word. When did he make himself that? When did he gave him that nickname? Do you remember? Was that before you got there? Roger? Yeah. Was he already Stat? Okay.
- [47:58]
Raja Bell
We had some crazy. We had some nicknames, though. Like, we had Matrix. No, I'm not even getting. Like, I didn't earn a nickname. I had a. I had a locker room nickname, but we had, like, real nicknames.
- [48:10]
Logan Murdoch
Wait, what was your nickname? Was it Rah Rah?
- [48:13]
Raja Bell
You were Rah Rah Rah Rah. Yeah, but mine wasn't. Like, I. I mean, dudes that when you're on tv, they're calling them the Matrix or Stat Nasty in some regard. With. With Steve. When. Especially when he was in Dallas. Yeah. Pretty cool.
- [48:26]
Howard Beck
Anyway, yeah, no, Steve Nash being Nashty. Yeah, like that. I. I kind of forgot about that one. That one's kind of cool, too. Like, we don't. I don't think we got a lot of like that anymore. Like, Jokic as the Joker is Pretty much. Like, that's the only one where you actually call him by the thing, right? And where he might actually answer to it. Like if you walk in the locker room and go, yo, Joker. Like, he'll turn. There's not a lot of of that anymore. And most of them are just like dumb, like initials or first initial, last name type stuff.
- [48:55]
Raja Bell
And short. Stat and matrix went by stat and tricks. That was it.
- [49:00]
Logan Murdoch
Yeah.
- [49:00]
Howard Beck
Yeah.
- [49:01]
Logan Murdoch
Well, I mean, there's Ant Man. Are we not going to talk about Ant Man? Jesus.
- [49:05]
Howard Beck
Yeah, that's all right. It's okay.
- [49:06]
Raja Bell
His name, though.
- [49:09]
Logan Murdoch
Yeah, well, Joker is his name too, right? Jokic. Joke. Okay.
- [49:12]
Howard Beck
I'm just trying yic, but it's Jokic. It's not. The J is not pronounced like that. I. You know, it's. Yeah. Anyway, stat was awesome and a really fun dude, like, I'm sure Raja would attest. Fun dude to be around. Like, I covered him here in New York after he left Phoenix for here. I. I got to New York in 2004, right? So I'm covering like the absolute, like darkest time in the knicks modern history. That 04 to to 2010 was just bad for every reason on the court and off. When Amare decided in the summer of 2010, the Knicks had cleared all this cap room, they were chasing LeBron, they were chasing Wade Bosch, like all those guys. And, you know, it was. It was an incredible draft or free agent class. And so the. The goal was just come out of it with somebody, right? Obviously they wanted LeBron. Everybody wanted LeBron. They don't get LeBron, they don't get weight, they don't get bought. But Amari walks in for it wasn't even like a big press conference that day, if I recall correctly. It was just like a handful of us or a fairly small gathering. And he literally like puts on the Knicks hat and says, the Knicks are back. And it was just this electric moment and this incredible, just four word quote. Because New York had been through it, man. Like, it like Knicks fans were just like, there was just nothing to grasp onto. And it's a few months later that Carmelo then forces the trade to the Knicks. But Amari's the one who planted his flag first after a lot of other guys had kind of said like, I don't want to be there, or guys have been traded here. Whatever it happened. Amari says the Knicks are back and it meant something. He and Raymond Felton, like, Raymond Felton's never going to be confused with Steve Nash. But Amari and Raymond felton for the, the first or excuse me like it was Amari and Chris Duhan first. Chris Duan I think set the franchise record for assists. Am I remembering that right? I think that Chris Duan had like a like a 20 assist game or something. Like, like they like they had this amazing chemistry. The pick and roll thing, Danton's system, it was all like firing on all cylinders. And the Knicks for the first couple months of the 201011 season was the most exciting they'd been since I'd gotten here. Then they trade for Carmelo and there's excitement to that too. But there was like always the awkward fit of Carmelo and Amari that never really did resolve. When they had the 54 win season a couple years later, it's because Amari got hurt unfortunately. And that was the beginning of the end. So two things that I always remember about Amari, aside from the Knicks are back moment, he was incredible in Phoenix and there is no 7 seconds or less era without him. Right. Like Steve Nash is, is the engine of the whole thing. Dantoni's system is, is the framework for the whole thing. And it's if you want to say it's the twin engines of Amari and, and Shawn Marion as the guys that Nash was, was you know, able to, to feed in the, in, you know, in transition and everything else. But Amari, the, the athleticism is, was so off the charts and he was like this older version of the power forward prototype. I was trying to think of who the modern day one would be. Raj and like if you think of somebody let me know. I, I cannot come up with the modern day version of him. Like the closest we've had is already one era back which is Blake Griffin. Like Blake Griffin to me was like right like that. Just like you know, 6, 8 to 610 type power forward who can just jump out of the fucking gym, dunk on everybody. Incredible in the open court.
- [52:29]
Logan Murdoch
Both had a nice little jumper.
- [52:31]
Howard Beck
Both of them eventually developed like Blake and Amari both had to like develop the mid range game along the way and Amari to his credit did. He could have just like just dunked on fools his whole career. But when you know that you need more to your game and also you know in his case your knees are eventually going to go like you've got to diversify. And he did to his credit and just, just like fun dude. Like you know, super confident to the point of, of of ego over.
- [52:55]
Logan Murdoch
You had a lot of those guys on that team, Roger. You had a lot of Those types in different ways. Right?
- [53:01]
Raja Bell
Listen, you have to be. You have to be that guy to be in the league, though, Logan. You have. Not only. You have to be that guy to
- [53:07]
Logan Murdoch
be in league, but to be that
- [53:08]
Raja Bell
level of player in the league. Make no mistake.
- [53:12]
Logan Murdoch
I obviously, you know, I've covered the league for about, you know, about 12, 13 years now. And so I got obviously, like, a look at, like, how players are from a locker room standpoint, but I didn't really appreciate just the ego that a player has until we did these. This pod. Me and you. Not you specifically, but, like, remember when we used to do those player interviews?
- [53:35]
Howard Beck
Yeah.
- [53:36]
Logan Murdoch
And, like, we would see them before and after the interviews. I'm not going to say any names, but, like, it would just be like, oh, okay. That's what we on. Okay. All right. All right, cool. But what's your best stat story that you can share that sticks out?
- [53:54]
Raja Bell
I don't think I have a great stat story. You, like? I don't. I don't. Yeah, you know, look,
- [54:06]
Howard Beck
You do.
- [54:07]
Logan Murdoch
Hey, the funny thing is, you do.
- [54:08]
Raja Bell
I don't spill tea on my podcast, bro.
- [54:11]
Howard Beck
This is like when I. This is like, what, last week when I ran to Boris Diao out at the Nets game out here, pre game, and I said, boris, let's quick selfie so I could, like, taunt Raja, and said it. I said, by the way, what should I talk? What should I say? Whatever. Boris, like, looked at me. Catch my. Like, no, I got nothing. Like, you got nothing. You just don't want to say it.
- [54:29]
Raja Bell
Hey, we were. We were. That was a good locker room, man.
- [54:32]
Logan Murdoch
One of our best. One of our best real ones interviews is BJL of all time, Boris.
- [54:38]
Raja Bell
Like, I don't know if I told you guys this, but, like, this would have been a month ago. A month and a half ago, he hit me. He was in town. Ty had a playoff game. And so he was, like, the day before he was coming to town, I'm like, boris, what time does. What time do you get in? Oh, I don't have my flight yet. I was like, what? Wait, what? You're gonna be here tomorrow? So, like, that's just kind of how he rolls, right? But then he showed up, came down, watched Ty and then play a playoff game, and. And I was like, boo. What do you want to do, bro? He's like, I got dinner plans, but I'll come back out to the house. So he came to the house and held court at my bar for about, you know, an hour and a Half to two hours. Like, I had. I don't know. It was. My family was over. Some of my friends and, you know, Boris knew my family, but not the friends that came over and just has that ability. Right. Like, even though he's as big a star as he was, he just hung out at the bar and held court for, like, for two hours. But stat. I would say one of my favorite. One of my favorite stat, but it involves Shaq. Was. Was. I think I remember this correctly, when Shaq came to Phoenix in. In an effort to, like, ingratiate himself and. And. And, like, you know, I think Amari could have maybe misconstrued bringing Shaq in for him, trying to step on his toes and how are they going to coexist and so on and so forth. But pretty sure Shaq gifted him a Lambo, like, when he. When he got there. I don't. Yeah. Or loaned him the Lambo. I don't. I don't know. Don't quote me on it. But, like, that's. And it was cool for me because. Stat. Stat. Son Deuce was born when we were in Phoenix. And then the next. They had already had their girl, and Deuce was born, and then Dia was born, and we have pictures from when Deuce and Dia were, like, babies in the family room. And then obviously, you know, I started coaching down here, and my son was, you know, at the high school that he was at, and Deuce was at the same high school and wound up playing on my basketball team with Dia. So I would see stat in the gym. He'd be in the gym at our games. And Dia and. And. And. And Amari played on the same team, so it was. It was pretty cool because I got to see him, and I still get to see him occasionally.
- [56:40]
Logan Murdoch
That's full circle, man. That's what's up. Yeah, that's the. That. But that's the mark of a great team, man. That's the mark of a great team or at least a great group of guys together that you guys can continue to do stuff. Before we get to. Before we get to the room of the week, how many scarves did Boo Boo bring down to South Florida?
- [56:58]
Raja Bell
Boo was scarveless. He was. He was scarfless. He was on his way to some Caribbean island. I don't know, Martin. Who knows?
- [57:05]
Logan Murdoch
All right, all right, all right.
- [57:08]
Howard Beck
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- [57:40]
Logan Murdoch
All right, man, let's get to real one of the week. Let's start with Howard today. The the most prepared on the pod. Pass the ball.
- [57:48]
Howard Beck
Yeah, just, just, just as my little notes app off to the side here, malfunction on me, so I gotta like, readjust here. All right, here we go. Real one of the week. I want to preface this by saying that while I'm citing this person and what he said as my real one of the week, I want to make clear I'm not necessarily agreeing. I just like the realness of what I'm about to present. LeBron James, I don't know when he was golfing or where he was golfing, and I didn't know there was something called Bob does sports on YouTube, but apparently there's a show called Bob does sports on YouTube and LeBron golfed, I guess with Bob. And the clips from this went viral yesterday, and it includes LeBron James basically saying that the Memphis Grizzlies should be playing in Nashville, not Memphis. That he would never. He doesn't want to be in Memphis. He doesn't want to go to Memphis.
- [58:42]
Logan Murdoch
He doesn't have the quote here. I have the quote here. If you would like to. I've got it. Okay.
- [58:46]
Howard Beck
Yeah, no, he, he says staying at The Hyatt At 41 years old, you think I want to do that? Being in Memphis on a random ass Thursday? I'm not even the first guy to talk about this in the NBA. We're all like, you guys have to move. That's LeBron's quote.
- [59:02]
Raja Bell
Something wrong with the Hyatt, though. Like, wait, chill though, bro.
- [59:05]
Howard Beck
I don't know why the Hyatt's taking strays here.
- [59:07]
Raja Bell
What?
- [59:07]
Howard Beck
I mean, I'm more of a Marriott guy. No free ads. I'm more of a Marriott guy. But, like, Hyatt's fine.
- [59:13]
Logan Murdoch
But, like, yeah, I, I, he's basically calling everybody broke. Basically.
- [59:17]
Raja Bell
Again.
- [59:17]
Logan Murdoch
He didn't again.
- [59:19]
Howard Beck
I guess it's just good that he didn't take a shot at the Peabody and the Ducks, like the little duck March thing. Cuz, like, you know, like, leave the ducks alone, man. Like, know they're just, they're just trying to live their life and march through a lobby once a day or twice a day. But geez, the why am I citing this while very clearly again, I'm not necessarily say I'm agreeing. I, I just we talk about sometimes why it's tough for small market teams or non glamour market teams, right? There's the places that guys want to go and they don't want to go. And I think sometimes fans might think like maybe you guys are overgeneralizing or whatever. Do guys really talk like this? Guys really talk like this. And LeBron just pulled back the curtain a little bit. The other reason I want to make him real what of the week for this is like I always love when the players get to the stage of their career. Kobe, his last couple of years, Paul Pierce's last couple of years. LeBron now where it's just like I'm on my way out anyway. Maybe it's tomorrow, maybe it's next year. But like, you know, I, I officially don't care anymore. I'm just going to speak my mind and say it. And like this is, this is pulling back the curtain a little bit. And it doesn't mean that all players believe this. And I'm sure all the Grizzlies players are all going to get interviewed today by Memphis media and they're all going to say, oh, what do you think about our city? Wonderful, blah, blah. I want to spend my whole life here, whatever. I'm just telling you folks, not about Memphis necessarily, or Salt Lake or Indie or Charlotte or any of the other smaller markets. But there are definitely places that guys prefer and don't prefer. And when they're being honest, when they've been given True Serum or maybe a couple of beers on a golf course, this is what they say. So there you go.
- [60:54]
Raja Bell
True, Howard, very true. And he is real for that I will let me tell my story again about the Peabody Hotel and this is defending Memphis. I've said this before Martin Luther King Day. I didn't always wear suits. I didn't like to wear suits the games all the time. But it was MLK day and I had a suit, got to the Peabody. They had a banging ass fried banana and peanut butter sandwich, by the way, but banging. But they didn't have a pressing service that I could get the shirt back. I think it might have been a Sunday like noon game. So they couldn't send it out and get it back to me. So the bellman was like, I'll take it home. My wife will hook that up the true story. I was like, what, bro? I don't even know you, but, like, I didn't really have options and I'm good with an iron, but. But I don't know. I was like, okay, homie. He brought me that bad boy back the next day, man. Pressed, starched, all of that. It was by far the coolest experience I've ever had with a bellman and super, super good people. So that's my defense of Memphis. Even though I am in agreeance with what you said and probably, you know, there are a lot of dudes that feel like that about the market in terms of playing if they had options to play in New York or Memphis, you know, Hope.
- [62:04]
Howard Beck
Hope you gave that bellman a huge tip.
- [62:06]
Raja Bell
Huge tip, dog. I hope I did. I mean, I don't really remember. For me, I thought it was huge at the time. I hope. I hope it was good for him.
- [62:13]
Logan Murdoch
Yeah. And I mean, and after this, there's on. On X and all the social platforms. I just literally just got DMed on Instagram. There has been a lot of sizzle reels of just players shitting on Memphis now. Like Draymond, KD Ants, Just everybody compilation
- [62:30]
Howard Beck
from over the years kind of thing.
- [62:31]
Logan Murdoch
From over the years. Yeah. Just like, what's the worst city? It's Memphis. And I feel for. Cause like, full trans. Stop. Stop it. Full transparency. Full transparency. I. I lived in Memphis for a summer and had a very pleasant times where I got my start in one of my starts into this business. It was a very pleasant city. And then also one thing I feel bad about it is, like, Memphis and the citizens of Memphis are always already have, like, an underdog thing about them. And for, like, the best player in the league who. Who a lot of people in Memphis love. LeBron James, like, love him. It's one of the markets where they go to a lot of Laker fans and for him to, like, on their. Their. Their city, and not only on their city, say they need to move their team to Nashville, who already. Memphis has a complex about it. It really stinks. It's. It. It stinks. And I've had a lot of anecdotes about, like, you know, just even my time covering the beat. I remember one time Steve Kerr, like, they were. They were staying. I think they weren't staying at the. The reason why they don't stay at the FedEx or not the FedEx. The reason why they don't stay at the Westin is because one time he. Steve Kerr was like, trying to get game film and, like, watch game film. But the WI fi was so bad that he walked over to the arena across the street in the middle of the night. I was like, I'm going to use their WI fi because it's terrible. Wow. That's just WI fi up, bro. Get your weight up on the WI fi. Get your weight up on the WI fi, man. Come on. What you talking about? And then also, I was in town for when. This has nothing to do with the city of Memphis, but I was in the. I was in town covering this when Jordan Bell put charges on to Mike Brown's account. You guys remember this? This is very inside baseball. I don't think Rogers, but I know they were at the Peabody. And Jordan Bell got suspended the game because he kept putting charges on Mike Brown's. He got caught putting charges on Mike Brown's account.
- [64:28]
Howard Beck
That's awesome.
- [64:31]
Logan Murdoch
That's bad. But cool French transferred. A lot of players were doing it. He was the one that got caught doing it. A lot of players. That was like the running joke. We're gonna put charges on yours with charges on yours. But he got caught doing it and got suspended for a game in Memphis. And I remember that was like one of those things beckon, remember, where, like, you feel like you're gonna be cool in just some mundane city and, like, this is like a cool, chill day for me. And then like a. Something pops up that you have to work on and, like, write the extra thing you have to write a report on. You're like, I thought I was gonna sleep in today. That was one of those times. But anyways, back to rowing of the week. Roger, do you have a real one of the week?
- [65:08]
Raja Bell
I guess I'll give it to Danny Hurley. Did you guys see him after the. The shot when the ref walked up to him and he went, like, head to head with him. And it was. It wasn't a headbutt, but it was. It was like if your buddy. If you guys were out like, hooping or golfing, and you hit like a long birdie putt or something, and he was like, head to head, like, fuck, yeah. And it was kind of wild because he made contact with the ref. It was a little controversial, but, like, I don't think he meant it in any kind of physically harming way. But real in terms of, like, he don't give a fuck either. He's just like, whatever. He. He's. He just. He don't give a fuck. So. Real one, Danny Hurley, Real one of the league.
- [65:53]
Logan Murdoch
There we go. My ruin of the week is Sarah Strong from UConn. Um, won the College AP Women's Player of the Year, is the just the fifth player to win the award as a sophomore joining Courtney Paris, Maya Moore, Brianna Stewart and Juju. Last year she averaged 18, 7 and 3 and UConn is 38 and oh going into the final four and it's looking like they're going to win it all. We'll see what happens. I don't see anybody beating them.
- [66:25]
Raja Bell
They got South Carolina. When's that? That's tomorrow night or tonight.
- [66:28]
Logan Murdoch
I believe that's tonight. I believe that's tonight.
- [66:30]
Raja Bell
Tonight, Tonight, Tonight, tonight.
- [66:32]
Logan Murdoch
Yeah, yeah. I, I still, I mean so southern South Carolina's tough but you kind of
- [66:39]
Raja Bell
put be the break.
- [66:40]
Logan Murdoch
So yeah, these teams this whole time. But yeah, big time player and she got two more years of eligibility. So look out rest of the college basketball world. It's tough. This kind of lights up for you guys. Yukon's about to go on another run looking like how it's going to be with Brianna Stewart when she got four straight. So we'll see what happens. But Sarah Strong is my ruin of the week. Hour and five minutes, guys.
- [67:04]
Raja Bell
Good job.
- [67:05]
Logan Murdoch
Good work. Nice little Friday pod. Nice strong Friday pod. That has been another edition of Real Ones. I am Logan Murdoch. That is Raja Bell. That is Howard Beck. Make sure you tap in with us on Tuesday. Realms.com realms my gmail.com real ones mailbag gmail.com talk to you soon. Ah, all the shits.
- [67:23]
Raja Bell
Bye.
- [67:28]
Logan Murdoch
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