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- [00:01]
Jomy Dinaron
What's up everybody?
- [00:01]
Austin Rivers
It's Austin Rivers here and we are back for another season of Off Guard.
- [00:05]
Jomy Dinaron
Me and my guy Pasha Hagigi are.
- [00:07]
Austin Rivers
Hitting your podcast feeds every Monday and Thursday talking everything hoops.
- [00:11]
Jomy Dinaron
Austin is bringing that 11 year NBA veteran perspective and of course keeping you guys entertained throughout the season. Make sure you tap into Off Guard with Austin Rivers on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [00:21]
Austin Rivers
And don't forget to follow everything we've.
- [00:22]
Jomy Dinaron
Got going on social media, the off guard podcast, Ringer NBA and of course, check us out on Ringer NBA's YouTube channel. We're getting better.
- [00:36]
Howard Beck
This episode is supported by State Farm. Man, I remember when I first got into a car accident, it was pure frustration because I did not have State Farm. And now that I do have State Farm, it is an exclamation of pure joy. But the only words that you need to remember are like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. State Farm has options to fit your unique insurance needs, meaning you can talk to your agent to choose the coverage you need, have coverage options to protect the things you value most, file a claim right on the State Farm mobile app, and even reach a real person when you need to talk to someone. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Learn more@state farm.com this episode is brought.
- [01:18]
Raja Bell
To you by Smuckers Uncrustables. There's nothing like a snack that comes in clutch. So who's the real mvp? Uncrustables. The best part of the sandwich. It's a round, crimped sandwich made with soft, pillowy bread filled with peanut butter and jelly. It goes straight from the freezer to your lunchbox, making it easier to pack lunch and sprint out the door. Now that's a morning win. You'll find Smucker's Uncrustables in the freezer aisle.
- [01:57]
Jomy Dinaron
Attention please. Attention please.
- [02:09]
Howard Beck
You are watching A Master at Work.
- [02:15]
Austin Rivers
By.
- [02:19]
Howard Beck
Yo Yo Yo.
- [02:20]
Jomy Dinaron
This is Jomy Dinaron, AKA Big Joan, AKA jomiethe Explainer, AKA AKA your friendly neighborhood Nigerian.
- [02:27]
Logan Murdoch
And throughout my travels, I've learned a thing or two about what's real and what's not.
- [02:32]
Jomy Dinaron
Real is more than an adjective.
- [02:33]
Howard Beck
It means genuine, not counterfeit, artificial, or imitation.
- [02:38]
Jomy Dinaron
It's a lifestyle and nobody has exemplified that credo more than these three GS ready to hit the stage. Help me give a yay area welcome.
- [02:48]
Howard Beck
To Raja Bell, Logan Murdoch and Howard motherfucking Beck. Real ones. What's up? This is. How you guys doing? I'm Logan Murdoch. That's Raja Bell this is Howard motherfucking Beck.
- [03:07]
Jomy Dinaron
Hello.
- [03:08]
Howard Beck
And we are the real ones. Little trivia. Oh, well, first, before I get to the trivia, I want to give a big thank you to State Farm for sponsoring the events tonight. So this is like a pivotal moment once, one that we're actually doing this. This is really tight that, you know, everybody came out, we did it in the bay. But this is also a pivotal moment because this is the first time these two people have been in a room since when, Howard?
- [03:33]
Austin Rivers
We think. Was it 2006 or 7?
- [03:35]
Jomy Dinaron
6 07, when Raja was playing for.
- [03:36]
Austin Rivers
The Suns and having little issues with Kobe Bryant, and I was covering that series, so it's the last, but we didn't know each other then, and this is the first time the three of us have been in the same room since we started doing this. Po.
- [03:49]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah, for sure. Good to see you again, Howard. Been a long time.
- [03:53]
Howard Beck
Yeah, it's good. Did you. Did you know Howard at all, like, in that time?
- [03:57]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah. No, No. I mean, I knew. I knew Howard to know Howard in a media scrum, but I didn't know him any further than that. Local guys, I knew all of them because that was my job.
- [04:05]
Howard Beck
Yeah. Damn. Sorry about that, Howard. I apologize, buddy.
- [04:09]
Jomy Dinaron
It's all right.
- [04:09]
Howard Beck
That's tough.
- [04:10]
Austin Rivers
It's all right. It's all right.
- [04:11]
Howard Beck
All right.
- [04:11]
Jomy Dinaron
Well, this is.
- [04:12]
Austin Rivers
This.
- [04:12]
Howard Beck
This.
- [04:13]
Austin Rivers
Can I just say. Can I say.
- [04:14]
Howard Beck
Just say it, man.
- [04:15]
Austin Rivers
This is fucking surreal. Like, Logan and I are both Bay Area guys. Shout out San Jose. Anybody? Said, where are my San Jose people? All right. Santa Teresa High School. Anyone? Anyone? No?
- [04:26]
Howard Beck
All right.
- [04:27]
Austin Rivers
UC Davis. Oh, yeah. Go Aggies. Thank you. This is surreal for us. This is, like, extra surreal. Like, this was. The punchline was something you heard on commercials on, like, ksjo. Anybody old enough to know ksjo? No. For my brother. No. This is awesome. Thank you all for being here. Yeah.
- [04:46]
Howard Beck
Any Oakland in the house? Any Berkeley High in the house? Yes, Lord. Go Yellow Jackets.
- [04:53]
Jomy Dinaron
Piedmont. Piedmont. Piedmont.
- [04:56]
Howard Beck
Anybody? From the People's Republic of Piedmont.
- [05:00]
Jomy Dinaron
Hey, there's a dope little turtle farm in Piedmont. I swear to God, my kids used to love it. Little turtles, waterfalls like that.
- [05:05]
Howard Beck
Yeah, I never, you know, I didn't have enough money to just be, you know, parade perusing Piedmont at the time. So, anyways, let's get to the shits. We're going to do a little segment called. I don't even know what it's called, but it's. We're going to talk about contenders for the first segment, and I'm going To ask you about a contender. You guys are going to tell me how you feel, your confidence meter, if you think they're going to be real or fake. There we go. I just did a segment for this when I found the name of the segment.
- [05:31]
Jomy Dinaron
Real or fake?
- [05:32]
Howard Beck
Real or fake? Let's start off with a team that a lot of people in the Bay Area know very well, the Oklahoma City Thunder. Obviously, they're real, but what can go right for them and what can go wrong for them on their quest for a title?
- [05:53]
Jomy Dinaron
Well, they have a lot of ways to get it right, right? Like, let's just start there. They're really versatile. They got real positional size across the board. They got a lot of guys that can get a bucket, you know, even though SGA is clearly their number one, and he's a professional scorer within a league of professional scorers, like, he's one of the best to do it, they also have other guys that can put it in the rim, you know, so on any given night, he's not really cooking that way. They can still manufacture enough points to win, but that's not what makes them the most scary, quite frankly. It's their ability to defend, you know, and their ability to come at you now with real size and control their own backboard and stuff like that. So those are all things that you go, right. Um, Howard, you want to take what's going to go wrong? I don't know. No, I mean, there's just a lot of things that can go right for them.
- [06:37]
Austin Rivers
Like, there's no obvious holes there.
- [06:38]
Howard Beck
Right?
- [06:39]
Austin Rivers
They have talent, they have size, they have shooting, they have elite defense. And then the only thing you worry about, if you worry about it, like, if you're trying to find, like, where is, like, the potential hole there? Like, they. They haven't been deep in the playoffs yet. Like, that's the really only thing you can say about them right now is they are still a very young team with very brief playoff experience. So if they're going up against the Nuggets at some point, who are a recent defending champion, or if they have to face, like, we'll get to this. But, like, there's some fun, dark horses, right? Like, Luca and LeBron are playing together, and Jimmy Butler's with the warriors now. Like, there's some veteran teams where a young team, you know, might seize up a little bit in the spotlight at that moment.
- [07:17]
Jomy Dinaron
And.
- [07:18]
Austin Rivers
And the. The Thunder have all the talent in the world, all the depth in the world. They should be favored in every series for sure. So if you're. But if you're trying to find that little opening, maybe, maybe, maybe it's the inexperience that.
- [07:27]
Jomy Dinaron
Well, that's, well, that's well done. Because, like, sorry, Logan, but like, the, the other thing would be, and you can't predict this is if they caught a bad matchup, like, you don't know what that matchup's.
- [07:34]
Howard Beck
What are the bad matchups that you see that are like, ah, yeah, I'm scared of this team. If I'm the Thunder, I always, like, he.
- [07:41]
Jomy Dinaron
He brought up a good one. And I don't put a lot of stock in the Lakers right now. Like, I think that's still tb. TBD to some degree. But like, when you get into playoff situations, like, it's people that can just go off and you can't control them with your scout, right? So, like, we're going to spend all this time sitting there, you know, a week's worth of prep, and we've had advanced scout, like two weeks out, and we've got what we find to be like the best possible game plan to stop this. But it doesn't fucking matter because those two are that good at what they do. That. That would be the only thing that I could see and on top of them just not having the experience is if you just caught a terrible matchup and it'd probably be in the light of someone like, like two guys, because one person's not going to be enough to beat them. But if you have two guys, I. E. Luca and. And Kyrie, right, Like two people that you can't stop, that, that could be a problem. But that's a problem for anyone.
- [08:29]
Howard Beck
When I think of okc, I think of Shea, right, Obviously, and a guy that can get to the free throw line. And that's going to be huge. Howard. And obviously in the postseason, for a guy like that, that can kind of just slow the game down when you need it, when you know things are getting out of hand and things are a run is he could be a run stopper by getting to the free throw line. Like, how big of a postseason is it for Shay in this regard?
- [08:52]
Austin Rivers
I think it's huge because. So we just saw the latest version of the Tim Bontemps MVP poll within the last day or so here, and Shay's leading like 2 to 1 over Jokic, right? And like, Jokic has all the stats in the world. Like, there's this super strong case again, but the Thunder are in that. That pole position. And so that puts all the pressure On Shay, he's been sitting there knocking on the door of mvp, the Thunder for the last two seasons now, or the team that. That is, you know, they're racking up the most wins in the West. Like, they've put themselves in that position where it's like, as. Like, you can't say championship or bust. They're young. They've got all the time in the world. Although in this league, doors close quickly.
- [09:26]
Howard Beck
Kind of seen that with the thunder, when, 10 years ago. If there's any Thunder fans here, I'm sorry, but, you know, we've seen that before where you feel like you have all the time in the world. And that's.
- [09:35]
Austin Rivers
That's a good object lesson, though. That's that. That's why you don't. You don't waste. You don't squander these chances. And so I do think there's a lot on Shay and on the Thunder to get it done now. I'm. But I also think, like, no one's going to be concerned day to day. Like, you know what you're going to get from Shea. I think I'm more curious about, like, we haven't seen, like, a ton of those postseason moments from, say, Jalen Williams. Like, who's going to be the second guy on a night when, you know whether Shay's carrying you or not or whether he's having a bit of an off night. Who else on the Thunder, there's a ton of talent, but is there anybody else who can just be, like, the dude on a given night? And I don't think we've seen enough of that yet.
- [10:11]
Howard Beck
A lot of potentials. I mean, Chet is a guy that has the potential to be able to do that. Jalen is probably my favorite player to watch in the league right now. He has the potential. He's got to prove it. Like, what's the mindset, Raja, when, as a young guy, when you do got to prove it at that stage, you've done it in the regular season, but you have to. What's the next gear you have to get to?
- [10:33]
Jomy Dinaron
I don't. I really don't think you change anything. Like, you know, from a. From a player's perspective, I think everything kind of remains the same, right? Like, that's just the step that you're going to make in your evolution as a player. I think where people kind of fall short is when they start to put that pressure on themselves to make a step. That step should be an organic thing, right? So, like, you know, to Howard's point, they don't really have guys who have shown that capability in those moments. They've shown it during the regular season. You're just going to try to continue that, right? Like, we're just going to keep growing, keep getting better if the opportunity presents itself. Hopefully it doesn't, because Shay's just doing what Shay does. And I get to live in this. In this realm that I'm. That I've proven myself in. But if he should come up short, then I just. It's the natural. Next natural step in my progression is to kind of take the baton, but to put the pressure on yourself, I mean, it's like anything else, right? When you start making it something bigger than it is, you start talking about it in a way that the kind of, you know, puts it in this. This, I got to get this done or it's a failure type of mindset. That's when you. That's when you have those failures. So real talk, you just go out there and hoop, right? And you know, look, I've never been the number two on a team, but there were nights in Phoenix when. When people decided they wanted to try to take away Steve or Amari or someone like that. Like, the first time it happens to you, you're. You're not aware of it, right? You don't know that's the game plan. But by game two, you know, that's a game plan. So, you know, you can't go back and be like, oh, shit, I got to be good. I got to do that. You just, hey, I'm gonna hoop. I'm do what I always do, and I'm gonna trust that my. My work in the off season and what I've done to prepare myself for. It's gonna. To work out.
- [12:01]
Howard Beck
Speaking of trusting your work, let's talk about the difference.
- [12:04]
Jomy Dinaron
Look at you.
- [12:06]
Howard Beck
This is live.
- [12:07]
Jomy Dinaron
It's one thing when it's on a video screen, dude, I'm not around.
- [12:10]
Howard Beck
Hey, man, we home, baby.
- [12:12]
Austin Rivers
It's great being able to do this without Riverside freezing up on us.
- [12:15]
Howard Beck
I know. The other. The other podcast, this little inside baseball here. Roger's Internet went out and he was frozen and it was shit. And he had to.
- [12:25]
Jomy Dinaron
He had to put my business, dog. This is just fucking. But he let it put my business.
- [12:28]
Howard Beck
Well, I said it on the podcast.
- [12:30]
Jomy Dinaron
No, yeah. I'd already said it was Comcast. It was Comcast.
- [12:32]
Howard Beck
It was.
- [12:33]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah, yeah, it was Com.
- [12:33]
Howard Beck
The. Barry, everybody knows, like, Xfinity can be up at times. Sorry. Sorry. Everybody out there, everybody, they're not A sponsor. He was frozen.
- [12:42]
Jomy Dinaron
I was frozen.
- [12:43]
Howard Beck
He was frozen. And he did a whole podcast. Frozen. But we figured it out.
- [12:47]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah. Was I. The whole time.
- [12:49]
Howard Beck
It was very. It was teetering. It was frozen. To, like, maybe we see, like, pixels of.
- [12:54]
Jomy Dinaron
You guys missed some good shit. I was on fire that day.
- [12:56]
Howard Beck
No, you were locked in. It was like the Steph. It was the Steph. Look away. That's what it was about. The different Nuggets. What gives you guys pause for the different Nuggets? And what gives you guys optimism? We'll start with Howard.
- [13:08]
Austin Rivers
Oh, optimism. First, because Jamal Murray looks like Jamal Murray again, but that's kind of a recent phenomenon, and we haven't seen that guy a lot for the last year and a half, so I kind of want to see more of it. But they've been as dominant as almost any team for the last six weeks, so at some point, we got to start believing in them again, I think. And Jokic just still the probably undisputed best player on the planet. So Westbrook's fitting in fine.
- [13:33]
Howard Beck
I'm like, westbrook's fitting in fine. Raj, did you hear that? Did you hear that?
- [13:37]
Austin Rivers
That's as far as I'm going with it.
- [13:38]
Jomy Dinaron
He's not washed. He's not cooked.
- [13:40]
Austin Rivers
We thought he was. Look, the Clippers and the Lakers certainly thought he was, and the Jazz waved him twice. Holy moly.
- [13:48]
Jomy Dinaron
You have no Jazz stuff.
- [13:50]
Howard Beck
How's your Westbrook stock going right now? How is it? How are you doing?
- [13:53]
Jomy Dinaron
Listen, my.
- [13:54]
Howard Beck
My.
- [13:54]
Jomy Dinaron
I. I bought, I held.
- [13:56]
Howard Beck
Okay? It's still here. We're good.
- [14:01]
Austin Rivers
No, I mean, if you're the Thunder and you're looking down the standings, like, who am I worried about? Doesn't it have to be the Nuggets first? The most recent defending champion. That's in your conference.
- [14:11]
Howard Beck
I would be scared as hell that Jamar Murray is just putting in 55 points at this stage of the season. Right. Like, we all know he had injuries to start the season. Also was, you know, had to kind of get called out by Shaq. Right? Like, had to. Had to kind of get a foot in his ass. And he's. He's really responded to that point. Like, how. How important has Jamal Murray been, and how important will he be in this. In this postseason alongside Jokic?
- [14:35]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah, I mean, when they've been at their best, when they've been the team that wins championships, like, Joe Jokic has had Jamal Murray at his side doing Jamal Murray or true number two type of things, so, you know, to kind of piggyback off of the question that. That Howard answered, your concern would be that the water shuts off, that for whatever reason, Jamal can't. Can't sustain it. You know what Jokic is going to do? Because they're just not. They're not good enough. If he's not getting the support, he can be as brilliant as he's been, and if he's just not getting true number two support on a nightly basis, it's going to be hard to come out of a Western Conference, even if we can agree that most of the Western Conference is kind of in flux and up for grabs. Right. But, like, that's going to be difficult. So, you know, when they've been at their best, when they're their most dangerous, and those two, specifically because they play so well together, and they. They go through this kind of dance of offense that, you know, I talked about a scout and, like, when you do an advanced scout, like, what we're looking for is, like, your tendencies. Like, you know, where do you like to get the ball? And when you get the ball there, what's. What's Jokic going to do? And, like, how effective are they, you know, on the right side of the floor? Like, those two play in a very, like, kind of organic way when they're flowing together and it's hard to get a scout on it. Like, you kind of know where they're going to be. Like, they got certain actions that they like, but they played so long together and they do it so well that it's hard to scout it. So, like, you know, they're going to need him to be played well.
- [15:54]
Howard Beck
The biggest thing that gives me pause, and I'm going to lead this to Beck, is they're not a deep team by any stretch. They have one of the worst benches in the league. And in the postseason, you don't necessarily need to be deep, but you do need to have bodies just going down, and they don't have that. And that was one of the biggest reasons why they lost so early, in my opinion, to Minnesota in the second round last year, is because they didn't have those. How do they overcome this? Is it. We gotta just. We need to end a few series early. We need to kick some ass early and just get out of a series to get rest. Or is it something more than that?
- [16:29]
Austin Rivers
Maybe It's Jokic playing 48 minutes in every playoff game. I mean, I like, to an extent, like, they do have a little bit more wiggle room there where, when Jokic goes to the bench now at least if you've got this Jamal Murray and you've got Westbrook, you've got other guys who can at least keep the offense afloat instead of just falling off a cliff. But, yeah, I don't trust anybody on that bench. And when they won the championship, you know, Bruce Brown, Jeff Green were really important. Those guys are gone. I don't trust Julian Strother, Payton Watson, who. I mean, just go down the list. Like, I. You tighten your rotation in the playoffs anyway, but you, like, depth still matters to the extent that your sixth and seventh guys, at a minimum, matter. And when you're going up against a team like Oklahoma that can just throw bodies upon bodies out there, and they're always going to be fresh, and their second unit might just blow your second unit out of the water, no matter how good Jokic is. And now you're coming, you know, you're having to make up ground again.
- [17:22]
Howard Beck
There's also a sense that this is the last. You had something to say, Ron?
- [17:24]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah, and I was gonna say, remember we were talking before and they were asking about Sean Marion, because we had seen Shawn Marion around. I was listening to him on NBA Radio with Eddie Johnson in them, and they asked him a specific question about his Mavs team beating, beating the Heat. And his. His thing was that the bench wins the championship when you get, you know, that deep into playoff runs. I don't know that I totally, 100% agree with that. But, like, he literally said that yesterday, which was, like, the reason we felt we were going to win was because we knew our bench was better than your bench. And once we got into it, we were going to run away, you know, so.
- [17:56]
Howard Beck
Yeah, and one of the things that just. I don't know, one of the things that just gives me. Gives me pause with this team is one, the depth. And also, like, there is a sense from this Denver team, if it doesn't work out this season, like, they could be retooled around yogurts. Obviously, Roku is going to be saying Jamal Murray, not Jamal Murray. Michael Porter Jr. Said this early in the season, Ramona Shelburne, just about the urgency of this season. How much do you think that will play a part in this particular postseason?
- [18:28]
Austin Rivers
I think they're feeling it. I mean, we all know, like, there's. There's tensions throughout the organization, right? From the front office to the coach and then the coach to the players. I think, on some level. And, you know, Michael Porter Jr's having to hear his name and not trade rumors, more like trade Speculation right there was the. If Denver's going to make a move to fortify themselves for the stretch run, that's the piece you're moving, right? You're not offloading Aaron Gordon. You're not offloading Jamal Murray. Jokic is obviously your franchise. Like, who. Who else you got? Well, it's. It's Michael Porter Jr. And so, yeah, if they flame out early, everything's on the table. The front office is on the table. The coach is on the table. Every role player, everybody who's not named Nikola Jokic is on the table. So I think that they're. They're feeling that. I mean, Roger, like, you. You've been on teams where expectations are high. Like, don't you always, on some level, feel like going to the playoffs? Like, there are stakes here that go beyond whether or not we're winning a round or a title?
- [19:24]
Jomy Dinaron
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Especially. I mean, look, once you. Once you win the title, I mean, that the clock. You know, if you ever had to guess whether a clock was on or not, like, once you win the title, clock's always on. Like. And so every year you go into those, you know, playoffs and stretch runs, like you're hoping to win that championship in that way. But, you know, the reality is that's not. That's not just them. There are a bunch of teams in the league that are going to be under that type of pressure. And, you know, for whatever it's worth, like, that's just the job we sign up to do. Right? So if you're Michael Porter Jr. Or anybody like that, you know, you asked, how do you get ready for a stretch run? Like, how do you. And I said, well, we're not sitting there necessarily thinking about, like, hey, I got to be better in this. Well, you know, you got an organic kind of, like, fire under your asses. I don't want to be traded. Like, I don't want to be the reason this doesn't work.
- [20:07]
Howard Beck
So you got to play ball, switch gears. There's a. I want to go to a team that, honestly, I don't have a read on. So I'm honestly asking you about this team, the Memphis Grizzlies. Like, John Moran has been injured for much of the season. You know, me and Cliff were talking about just how he hasn't probably found the level that he would want to be throughout this season. They do have Jaren Jackson, who's playing really well this season. Where do you guys stand on them?
- [20:33]
Jomy Dinaron
Raja?
- [20:34]
Howard Beck
Yeah, yeah, go ahead first. Roger.
- [20:37]
Jomy Dinaron
Any Grizzlies Fans in the audience.
- [20:39]
Howard Beck
Grizzly fans in the audience. No, no, we're in the bay, bro. It's hard to get here from Memphis.
- [20:47]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah, man, I don't know how I feel about Memphis. I mean it's pretty, pretty remarkable what they're doing. Jaren Jackson's playing great. You know, I don't, I don't know personally. Although like record wise, I know where they sit. Like, I don't know that I'd have them as a true contender in the West. I just don't. They could beat anybody, but I don't see them as one of the teams that I would have as a true contender in the West. I think with them, if you could get them into a game to slow them down. Like the reason I say this is because our sons teams played super fast, right? Like, and anybody that tried to play fast with us and teams will do that with you in the regular season because you don't have the same amount of time to prep for that. And it's a lot easier to bait someone into running up and down with you than it is to like really slow down. Because everybody wants to fucking run, right? Like, everybody wants to get up and down and get their buckets. But in the playoffs, if you could really slow them down and get them grinding like on a half court game, like that's gonna be a problem for them. Like they just want to play so fast. You know, they're physical. They also can guard. Like they have some good things. But I think it's going to be the style of playing the playoffs is not going to be a great thing for them. It's probably the best way I can put it.
- [21:55]
Howard Beck
Howard, how many? If it doesn't work out with Memphis, they are another team that's kind of reaching the ceiling with this core. Like, what gives if they can't figure it out this season?
- [22:07]
Austin Rivers
It's not a dangerous question, but I have a potentially dangerous answer. Oh, do I want to say this?
- [22:14]
Howard Beck
I guess I will say that I.
- [22:16]
Austin Rivers
Can'T, I can't, I can't like tease.
- [22:17]
Jomy Dinaron
That and then not sponsored by State Farm.
- [22:22]
Austin Rivers
Aggregators.
- [22:23]
Howard Beck
Don't aggregate this, aggregate that shit.
- [22:26]
Austin Rivers
Don't, don't do it. I'm constantly checking in with executives around trade deadline about like, okay, you know what we saw, what we didn't see, what's next. And you're in this league, you are always, always, always on the lookout for who's the next wave of stars that are going to get dealt. Right. We just saw shock of all shocks, the Luca Deal. We saw Jimmy Butler. There's already whispers once again about Giannis, and somebody out of the blue said, keep an eye on Jaw this summer. That again, aggregators don't aggregate this.
- [22:59]
Howard Beck
Good thing there's not any Grizzlies fans in here.
- [23:01]
Austin Rivers
Yeah, they got. But it. Because they're. They're just deep enough into the life cycle.
- [23:07]
Jomy Dinaron
Don't tweet.
- [23:08]
Austin Rivers
Don't tweet that shit.
- [23:09]
Howard Beck
Roger.
- [23:10]
Jomy Dinaron
We're good, we're good, we're good.
- [23:11]
Austin Rivers
Keep that shit on social media. They're just deep enough into the John Morant life cycle. And also the job. Bane, Jaren Jackson Jr grouping. And like, you know, they're young enough, they should have plenty of Runway, but again, in this league, you never have as much Runway as you think you're going to have. And Jaws obviously had some issues. It's. Everything's been fine for a while here. So not. Not to overplay stuff from a year and a half, two years ago, but at a certain point, teams will pivot and. And, you know, there's always. For everything we know publicly, there's always a little bit that's. That's going on below the surface, too. So I would just, like. I'm not saying it's going to happen. I'm not saying it should happen. I'm just saying it's one of those things I'm just kind of keeping an eye on. If they were to flame out early.
- [23:55]
Howard Beck
Hey, Keith, our social media member. Did you get that shit? Wherever you are, did you get that? We will aggregate ourself.
- [24:01]
Austin Rivers
I'm so fucked.
- [24:01]
Howard Beck
Yes, you are. Yes, you are.
- [24:03]
Jomy Dinaron
Fucking Blue Sky. Twitter. It's out.
- [24:05]
Howard Beck
All that shit.
- [24:06]
Jomy Dinaron
It's all out.
- [24:07]
Austin Rivers
Sorry, Zach Clayman.
- [24:09]
Howard Beck
You know, this podcast is also indirectly sponsored by Blue sky because of this guy right here.
- [24:14]
Austin Rivers
Meet me there. You're not gonna find me anywhere else.
- [24:17]
Howard Beck
All right, before we get to the Eastern Conference, I see a Boston Celtics fan here, which is brave. All right? It's brave.
- [24:24]
Jomy Dinaron
Oh, I see Milwaukee.
- [24:25]
Howard Beck
We got two Boston Celtics fans over there.
- [24:27]
Austin Rivers
Milwaukee Jersey.
- [24:28]
Howard Beck
Okay.
- [24:29]
Austin Rivers
Kings in front.
- [24:30]
Jomy Dinaron
All right.
- [24:31]
Howard Beck
Hey, let's. Let's. Let's. Let's just go around to put a bow on the Western Conference. I'll start off. We're gonna do our wild card for each one. My wild card. I had, like. Roger saw me pre pod. I had, like, my notes going. He was like, what the hell are you doing? He. It made him nervous. Yeah. Immediate sweat.
- [24:47]
Jomy Dinaron
I'm like, who fucking did not.
- [24:48]
Howard Beck
Who's trapping for this shit?
- [24:49]
Jomy Dinaron
We Fucking did notes.
- [24:52]
Howard Beck
But I have the Houston Rockets and one of the reasons is they are the team now, like, where they could either be the Kings of two years ago, where everybody actually wants to play them. I don't believe that. Or they could be some version of maybe the 2010 OKC Thunder or the 2011 OKC Thunder, where young team, really well coached, plays, play really hard and they're not scared of anyone. I do. I am scared of. They don't have. I don't think they have a true number one. They are a team based team. And what I mean by that is they play really hard, but down the stretch of playoff games, you need a dude. And I don't know if they have a dude yet, but I'd be scared as hell to play with them. And they're even more scary because everybody seems to be trying to play them in the first round. So I'm going with Eastern Rockets.
- [25:44]
Jomy Dinaron
I just can piggyback off of that. Howard, you go next. The difference between them in Sacramento, I mean.
- [25:50]
Howard Beck
Sorry. My guy in the first row of the Sacramento King.
- [25:53]
Jomy Dinaron
No. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [25:54]
Howard Beck
Oh, just a Bibby fan. Oh, word team Dime. Michelle, we're here.
- [25:58]
Jomy Dinaron
They guard the shit out of you, like, in a way that sack wouldn't. Right. And that. That's scary sometimes in the playoffs because, like, they're young, they're big, they're athletic, they're versatile, and they'll strap up. And so you're right. Like, you need that dude. And they don't necessarily have that dude, but they have ways to stop. You're that dude. You know what I mean? So that's scary sometimes when the team just locks up.
- [26:19]
Howard Beck
Hey, Raja.
- [26:20]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah.
- [26:21]
Howard Beck
You're the dude now that has.
- [26:23]
Jomy Dinaron
Thanks, man. You know what? Yeah.
- [26:25]
Howard Beck
Your turn.
- [26:26]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah, I guess. Wildcard. I mean, I would have taken Houston, but nobody wants to hear me say Houston again. So I. The Lakers, probably.
- [26:36]
Howard Beck
We got any Laker fans here? Like, yeah, Okay.
- [26:40]
Austin Rivers
I mean, tough crowd.
- [26:42]
Jomy Dinaron
Like, are we considered. Well, anybody that we haven't mentioned. It can be a wild card in this. Yeah, you're gonna. I'm gonna leave them for you. Wait, I'm gonna leave them for you. I'm gonna leave them for you. Yeah, I'll take the Lakers just because if. Right. If. And I don't know that I always subscribe to this, but if those two can figure that out. It's got to look a lot different than his look. He's been out of shape. Like Luca. That is like, he's been out of shape they can't play the way they played the last. Don't get me in any more trouble with the Luca man, please. I don't need any more problems. But if he gets in shape, if they figure out that to get the Luca that you traded for, he's got to have the ball, there's no other way around that, right? There's no. Austin reeves is great. LeBron is. LeBron is great. Like, he got to have a ball. That's the only way Luca is as valuable as he was in Dallas. But if they can figure that out and if LeBron can play off of that, and if they're better defensively than I'm going to give them credit for, they become a team in this world where we're talking about wild cards, where if all of that's clicking, they have two of the best players on the planet offensively, and that could be a problem.
- [27:50]
Howard Beck
Well, the NBA is mad about All Star Game scores. They're going to be really mad about the Lakers scores because they're going to be bananas. 175.
- [27:59]
Jomy Dinaron
They're getting them up.
- [28:00]
Austin Rivers
And that's why it's. You can't take the Lakers seriously. They're not going to stop anybody. They've got. They've got no size, they've got no defense, and their two best players don't play defense.
- [28:07]
Howard Beck
And sorry, Jamie, wherever you are, bro, I apologize.
- [28:10]
Austin Rivers
But that said, especially if I were the Houston Rockets, a young team with no playoff experience, and I'm looking across the court @ Luca and LeBron like, oh, yeah. No, I mean, like that. That's. So I will never dismiss them because of how great those two guys are. And they've got all the experience in the world, but only against, like, Houston, right? Like, I'm not. I'm not picking them against the Thunder. I'm not picking them against Denver. I don't know. I don't know if I'm picking them against anybody. And I think the Lakers need a lot of time now in an off season to figure out how to reconfigure this team. Also, Luka needs time to Raj's point. Luca needs time to figure out how to play with and off of LeBron. Like LeBron and Dwyane Wade, you know, they were both in their prime, but they needed months to figure out how to play with each other as ball dominant stars. So I'm not taking them that seriously.
- [28:57]
Howard Beck
Okay, quick. Somebody asked if the warriors were an X factor. I mean, I guess because we are the Bay.
- [29:01]
Jomy Dinaron
No, but that's that's where he's going.
- [29:04]
Austin Rivers
Roger. That's who Roger was leaving for me.
- [29:06]
Howard Beck
Yeah.
- [29:06]
Austin Rivers
Somebody said Clippers. I do think the Clippers deserve some respect, but.
- [29:13]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah.
- [29:14]
Howard Beck
Wow. You breaking hearts?
- [29:17]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm not really. You see Daniel Ewing, tell him I said hello.
- [29:27]
Austin Rivers
Do we have, like, a segment where he's just like, this is the segment where we pander. Let me pander. The warriors are obviously the greatest X Factor team in the. In the Western Conference room, right?
- [29:37]
Howard Beck
Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Whatever.
- [29:40]
Austin Rivers
I've. I've. Making the rounds the last, like, 48 hours since I got here, have seen a number of people with the warriors organization at various levels. They're, like, giddy about Jimmy Butler right now. And I know, like, all of us, we talked about this on the pod before they got Jimmy. After they got Jimmy. Like, there's a whole bunch of stuff that comes with having Jimmy. And so you would think that the warriors themselves might be a little bit kind of like, yeah, it's early. Like, things are okay and we'll see how. No, they're like, fucking giddy. And you've seen it in the results so far. I think he's fitting in really well. I think he was exactly what they needed on so many levels. The defense, just the attitude, just the badassery of Jimmy Butler is just an element they kind of needed out there. Somebody had mentioned to me that, like, it was, like, a little bit tough for Draymond. Like, I know you look at Draymond, you think, like, this is just his natural state. Like, why would he ever need somebody else to do the things and say the things that he does? But he needs somebody else to do it, so it's not on him all the time. And Jimmy can carry some of that.
- [30:39]
Jomy Dinaron
So.
- [30:39]
Austin Rivers
Plus, you've got more of the mid range game and the ability to get to the line a gazillion times a game, which they had nobody doing.
- [30:47]
Howard Beck
Yo, you're making faces right now, brother. No, this is what the shit that he does on the podcast. We're trying to make it. We're trying to make a point stuff. And then Roger's like.
- [31:00]
Austin Rivers
If you ever, like, hear one of those, like, funky.
- [31:02]
Howard Beck
Awkward pauses, don't let this happen. Like, Keith, clip this again. Don't let this. This whole thing happen for them to play in the playing game and lose just because they have good vibes.
- [31:12]
Jomy Dinaron
My.
- [31:13]
Howard Beck
My vibes are very exciting.
- [31:14]
Austin Rivers
The vibes are awesome.
- [31:15]
Jomy Dinaron
My face was about. I heard it in the back and I saved my Reaction for the stage.
- [31:18]
Howard Beck
Yeah.
- [31:19]
Jomy Dinaron
Was. Was just the fact that, like, Draymond needs help being fucking Draymond.
- [31:23]
Howard Beck
Stop.
- [31:25]
Jomy Dinaron
And stop. No, I know it's not you. Sometimes somebody else has to be the asshole.
- [31:29]
Austin Rivers
He wants somebody else to be the asshole.
- [31:30]
Jomy Dinaron
He's pretty cool being the asshole.
- [31:33]
Howard Beck
Can I give him some bail real quick? Yeah, let me give him some bail real quick. So one of the things, like when. When the warriors were at their absolute peak, like, absolute peak, there was a contingency of veterans in the locker room that could buffer the Stop. But I'm trying to hold on.
- [31:51]
Jomy Dinaron
Stop.
- [31:52]
Howard Beck
No. Why? I hear what you're about to like, no. The only reason he's still an. But the only. No. But you can mitigate the. All right. Is what I'm saying.
- [32:00]
Jomy Dinaron
In a good way. In a good way. He's an asshole. Like, I'm not. I don't mean to be like, everything needs it. No.
- [32:10]
Howard Beck
So back in the day.
- [32:11]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah.
- [32:12]
Howard Beck
Before you. I was rudely interrupted by a fellow Virgo. They had a contingency of guys taking David West, Sean Livingston, Iguodala, Barbosa. Barbosa. Y. He said Barbosa in the pre pod. Like, yo, you gotta give my guys some love.
- [32:31]
Jomy Dinaron
But no, they had guys for a second.
- [32:33]
Howard Beck
Exactly. They had guys that could let Draymond be Draymond while also having leadership. Now, I don't know if Jimmy Butler. They still need a few more veterans in that locker room. I don't think that Jimmy Butler is the end all be all. But like you, I've heard optimism too. Somebody told me, like, we haven't had a guy like this who could be both tough, defensive minded and a leader like Iguodala who can offset that, to your point. So I am. I am cautiously optimistic. But, like, also, they haven't been good this season. And I think that they're in the square in the playing now. The Western Conference is tight. They could. I just don't see them at this point getting to the six seed.
- [33:08]
Austin Rivers
They could. And if they end up in the play in and come out of the play in, like, they are going to be the proverbial version of the, you know, the team that you don't want to face in the first round. Like, and especially if you're one of those teams near the top, if it's, you know, holds up as like OKC in Memphis or if the warriors matched up with like, again Houston, younger teams looking across that Steph Draymond, Jimmy Butler assuming, like, listen, we've got a very Very, very small sample size with Jimmy so far. If they play like this for the next month and a half, two months, like, everybody at the top of the standing is going to be like, those are the guys I want to avoid. You may start seeing that at the top of the standings, be the ones to, like, throw games down the stretch trying to jockey for position to avoid them.
- [33:43]
Howard Beck
Is it going to be like that Debo scene where you don't know the difference?
- [33:47]
Jomy Dinaron
Can I.
- [33:47]
Howard Beck
Can I can. Never mind.
- [33:49]
Jomy Dinaron
Can I piggyback, though? Can I explain?
- [33:50]
Howard Beck
Go ahead, buddy.
- [33:51]
Jomy Dinaron
So let me. Let me explain. Like, I don't.
- [33:53]
Howard Beck
You get the Debo rep. Yeah, but I don't.
- [33:54]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah, I don't dispute any of that. And then. And they do need leadership, because what you're describing is, like, you. You need multiple leaders out there. Like, all I'm saying is guys that are typically the assholes on a team, like, in the good way, like, they don't get tired of being the. Like, that's just their job. So, like, they're gonna.
- [34:10]
Howard Beck
The assholes are in the building. Do you guys get tired of being the. No.
- [34:14]
Austin Rivers
I just like the idea Draymond at some point telling somebody else, going, like, hey, man, chill out. It's okay.
- [34:18]
Howard Beck
Like, we can.
- [34:19]
Jomy Dinaron
We.
- [34:19]
Austin Rivers
We need to calm down.
- [34:20]
Jomy Dinaron
It's.
- [34:20]
Austin Rivers
It's like, jimmy, come on, man.
- [34:21]
Howard Beck
We're good.
- [34:22]
Jomy Dinaron
But I think. No, no, no, no. But, like, to. To. To. Like, they're a scare. They're a scary team. First of all, like, all the things that. That Jimmy does are. Are things offensively that. That they just did not have an answer for. Right? Like, that ability to just go pure ice out of structure. You know, get a bucket, get us to the free throw line to. To stop a run, just to slow the game down. Whatever we need to do just to manufacture points, the extra grit. Like, they're a sound defensive team from a schematic standpoint, but like a Swiss army knife of a body and a mindset that's got that level of grit, like, is imperative on a team that wants to win something, and then just what they do is hard to guard when it's working at its best. Like, it's a hard scout, it's a hard prep. It's a hard. There are too many things going on and too many reads that Draymond can make with the ball in his hands for me to be able to account for all of them as a defender. I'm always behind you. Like, you're. You're. You. You make the first step and I'm in reaction mode. It's just the nature of like two things start moving. Right. Like you're moving first. And so if you're going to do that and it's all read based, I'm always behind you. Always behind you. And so when you bring in Jimmy, who's played in a system like that in Miami at times, and you pair him with Steph and all of those things, like, look, I, I still think there are moves that need to be made to make them the ultimate team that they want to be for that next run. But they could be really scary.
- [35:42]
Howard Beck
Yeah. And I think everything you said, and I agree with you, I think even with that, I think their ceiling is probably, if they get into the first round, maybe they can win a war. If they went around, it's fucking cool.
- [35:51]
Jomy Dinaron
Oh yes. But, but you, but like I'm with Howard, you might beat him in a second. You don't want to play him?
- [35:56]
Howard Beck
Nope. Yeah, it's going to be tough.
- [35:59]
Raja Bell
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Howard Beck
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- [38:56]
Howard Beck
Let'S go to the Eastern Conference. Boston, Milwaukee, I see you. Let's start with Boston. What? Get. I don't know if he needs earmuffs right now, but what gives you pause about Boston and what makes you excited about Boston?
- [39:13]
Jomy Dinaron
What makes me excited about Boston is just they. I mean, across the board, they've got guys with real ability to put it in a bucket and defend. Right? Like, they. They just do that. What gives me. What gives me pause about them is if they ever go cold, like, if. If they go cold in their stubbornness sometimes to just continue to shoot the ball.
- [39:30]
Howard Beck
Every time I watch them, like, just gets a free throw line.
- [39:32]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah, like, look. But. But I mean, like, it bears itself out that they win. They win. Like, the numbers work out for them. But, like, if you hit that cold stretch against a really good team, it could be catastrophic. Right? Like, you're not making shots. A couple years ago, Miami beat them where they just. They couldn't consistently make shots like that. Now they've committed more to it now than they. They ever have.
- [39:51]
Howard Beck
I think there was Also, with the Miami series, there was a bit of mind games being played, too, right? Like, they missed shots, but they also. Jimmy was in their head.
- [39:58]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah, but shooting is a mind game, right? Like, at its purest. Like, it's a mind game. Like, we all have jump shots, like, and you see some of the best shooters on the planet to ever shoot, and one of their shots doesn't look exactly like the other one shot. So the end of the day, it is all about confidence and somebody being in your head. I think they're the best team in the East. Like, I know Cleveland's done what Cleveland has done, but not much gives me pause about them. I think they're very versatile, very long, very rangy, very capable offensively. Even in ISO situations, they got multiple guys that can get you buckets. So they're my favorite in the East. But what would give me pause would be if they just were stubborn about how they wanted to win a game. And, I mean, that sounds corny, but it can be a thing sometimes, right? Like, you get stubborn, and we want to do it this way, and that's how we're going to do it. Coaches are in a meeting. You've lost the game, and you look at each other, and you're like, well, we've done this shit for, like, 87 games now. Let's. Let's do it again. Fine. Well, in the 88th game, it doesn't work. And you have the same meeting, and you're like, it's going to work tomorrow. Okay, now we're down. 02, going 03. Like, if they get stubborn, that's what. That's what would concern me, because they're more ways to skin a cat with the. With the compilation of talent that they have.
- [41:03]
Austin Rivers
I feel like they're past that, though. Like, I don't. I mean, even when you've won a championship, there's. There's times when you're never completely past it. Right? Like, I covered the Shaq and Kobe teams where it's like, oh, they figured it out. Oh, they stopped figuring it out. Oh, they got to figure it out again. And the Celtics could have some of that same thing where they're going to backslide and get a little bit too much isolation heavy or whatever, but I'm not worried about Boston at all. Like, I would actually ask the question in the inverse, which is, what's the case for anybody in the east beating them four out of seven?
- [41:29]
Howard Beck
I don't know.
- [41:29]
Jomy Dinaron
That's fair.
- [41:30]
Austin Rivers
I don't know.
- [41:31]
Howard Beck
I give you optimism. Are you excited? Okay. All right. Michelle. Michelle, you should be. You should be running along. Let's go with the. You just talk about. You have to Cleveland Cavalier.
- [41:40]
Jomy Dinaron
Well, here. Here's. Here's the answer to that. What would, what would. Because I tend to agree with you. Like, I. Boston's like. But if the Cavs were to be able to spread them out, right, and really get downhill with those guards, if they did not handle pick and roll well, that's a problem for Boston because. Because Cleveland's as good as anyone in that pick and roll rim run. Spread you out, start spreading the ball around, and they, too, have guys they can kind of get off. So that would be the only thing is if you could get them in pick and roll situations that they weren't able to identify early. Like, let's say you're moving, not just a straight up pick and roll where you're coming down. We know it's coming, but ball moves to one side of the court, we flow through to the other. Ball reverses, reverses. It's on that side, and we're into a quick pick and roll. And now I got someone running into a pick and roll in that drop coverage like Donovan, Darius Garland with the rim runs that they have like that, that could be a problem. I wouldn't. I don't think it's going to be a problem, but that would be the answer to how you might be able to get them.
- [42:35]
Howard Beck
Let's. Let's talk about the. But the Cavs. Are you excited about the Cavs?
- [42:40]
Jomy Dinaron
I like the Cavs. No, I like the Cavs.
- [42:41]
Howard Beck
One thing that gives me pause, though, about the Cavs is like, they. They seem like a great regular season team. They don't seem like they can translate. For whatever reason, whenever I watch them, it just doesn't seem like they're going to be able to translate into the post. Yeah, well, it's a different game.
- [42:55]
Jomy Dinaron
They're. They're a team that, you know, obviously has to take that next step. Not unlike what Howard was saying about some of the players from. From OKC or OKC in general. Like, you want to see them have sustained success in the playoffs. Like, that's their next step to prove to people that they're a playoff team. I think that they will this year. Like, I think they're going to. They're going to be a deep playoff run. I don't think they beat Boston, but I think there's some real sustainable stuff there with what Coach Atkins does and the creation of the space, the pieces that they have within that system and how they want to play. Like, they stick to their guns with that. And it's hard to guard like when. When you have proper spacing on a basketball court and you are like, you're moving your chess pieces around offensively and you're creating, like, for offense. Sorry, guys. I'm trying to. They told me to make sure I don't forget about this side of the room. So I'm sorry. Like, all you're trying to practice, all you're trying to do offensively is, is create one help defender to have to trigger. Right? Like, so, you know, I've got the ball, I got to get by my defender, and if I do that, it triggers one help defender. Well, once that happens, dominoes start to fall. So I swing that ball and he's open, which pulls another defender. And if he swings the ball, he's open, and you're just pulling defenders around the floor. And if someone does that well and has proper spacing, you can't catch up to the ball. You. You just can't. It's five on. It's five on five, theoretically. But it was two on one to start. So now we're playing four on three behind it. They do that better than anybody in the league. So, like, I. They got to win in the playoffs, but I think it's for real.
- [44:23]
Howard Beck
I want to. I want to get to X factors, and I do think this is an X factor in the Eastern Conference. But they were on our contenders list. It can go either or. This is in your backyard, even though you don't ever want to go to Madison Square Garden. The New York Knicks. What do you think of the New York Knicks? We got Knicks fans in the house. Wow. Okay. All right. A Knicks fan with the Steph jersey on. Wow. The Knicks.
- [44:50]
Austin Rivers
Howard, I did throw down a couple of notes. The Knicks are 0 and 1 against the Cavs and 0 and 2 against. Or, excuse me. Yeah, 02 against the Celtics. That may or may not matter when we get to the postseason. I think what worries me about the Knicks in general is that here you've got a Tibbs team that's like middle of the pack or lower in defensive efficiency. Like, a Tibbs team is supposed to be great defensively, first and foremost, but they kind of swapped out their identity in the off season when Hartenstein leaves and they trade for Mikhail Bridges and they get. And they get Carl Anthony Towns. Suddenly they're. They're very offensive driven. It's all about Brunson and Cat just dicing teams. Up and they have great defenders. Anunoby is a great defender, Bridges a great defender, Hart's a great defender. But they're not collectively defending at a high level. And teams are attacking their two best players. They're attacking Brunson and Cat, and their depth is an issue. They made a couple moves at the deadline that may or may not matter. And we have this big wild card there with Mitchell Robinson who's, you know, nearing a return. Maybe we' see him right after the break ends. Does Mitchell Robinson solve their entire defense? I'm not so sure. And he and Kat have never played together. So now you've got a big adjustment in your front court trying to get these guys in sync while trying to be a contender. I just, I think they just have too many concerns or too many, you know, variables right now to put them at the same level with Cleveland and Boston.
- [46:11]
Howard Beck
Sorry, Ben, wherever you are. What do you think, what do you think about the Knicks? Are you on that?
- [46:17]
Jomy Dinaron
I mean, I mean, you basically swapped out. Look, I mean, the knock on Tibbs was, was grueling practices, so much time spent on defense, taking years off of your career type of stuff like when I was playing and like, from all accounts, like, that's just the opposite of what he's doing now. Like, they're really good offensively, but you're only going to beat a certain level of team hanging your hat on that, right? If you can't defend in the way they're supposed to defend and what teams are going to do to them is what, what, what you see teams do. Like, look, if you have one person on the floor that is a defensive liability, that's, that's a thing, right? Like we're going to find that. We're going to get that into an advantageous situation and we're going to beat you up. You got two people on the floor that can't really guard and that's a problem, right? And like, I'm a Jalen Brunson fan and everyone, like all of us aren't created equal, right? Like, he's so good offensively that, yeah, we're going to give him a little break on the defensive side of the ball. But then we went and got Cat, who is so good offensively and he's bad on the defensive side of the ball and hiding two of those is really difficult, especially when you're playing the upper echelon teams, you know, in the, in the league.
- [47:21]
Howard Beck
Any other Eastern Conference wild cards we can get to before we go, we talk about and shit on the All Star format.
- [47:34]
Austin Rivers
The only other team you could even consider is Milwaukee.
- [47:36]
Howard Beck
Yeah.
- [47:37]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah.
- [47:37]
Austin Rivers
I don't.
- [47:38]
Howard Beck
I feel like you. It's. You're obligated to do that. I don't. I. There's nothing that gives me optimism. Sorry, brother. There's nothing that gives me optimism about.
- [47:46]
Austin Rivers
It's respect for Giannis and Dame.
- [47:48]
Howard Beck
Exactly.
- [47:48]
Austin Rivers
And. And Kyle Kuzma. Maybe there's a Big Three somewhere. I actually like the Kuzma acquisition.
- [47:57]
Jomy Dinaron
He's gonna be all right for them.
- [47:58]
Austin Rivers
He's good, but I don't. I don't think that makes them a contender. But you have to give them the respect of. Again, you know, if you're any of those teams and you're looking across the court at Damon Giannis, like you're on your toes, like you're. You're at least, you know, respecting them, I don't think that they're knocking out anybody.
- [48:14]
Howard Beck
I'm going to ask this because we're in the Bay Area, and I want to put you on the spot. Oh, God. What does this do for Giannis if they don't. If they flame out? My mans already know, I think.
- [48:28]
Austin Rivers
I mean, we already put him on the watch list. Right. Like, he's. There's definitely, like, you know, Miami wants to make a move.
- [48:35]
Howard Beck
I mean, some of the pause from the warriors and, like, trading for Jimmy Butler was like. I mean, Giannis is a big fish out there that we've always wanted, and.
- [48:41]
Austin Rivers
They'Ve saved all of their best. Best assets to still be able to make that move.
- [48:43]
Howard Beck
Yep.
- [48:44]
Austin Rivers
So. But, yeah, no, the. The vultures are circling Milwaukee in. In front offices. Everybody's bored in everybody's front office around the league. Who are we keeping an eye on? Who are we saving all of our assets for? And this goes for Brooklyn, too, with all their picks, like, Giannis is right at the top of the list.
- [49:01]
Howard Beck
There you go. No, no, Keith already got it. Keith already clean the Internet now. Keep it good. Keep me good. Those phones in the green. All right. The All Star format, in which Howard is a big proponent of it. There's so many rounds, so many games, so many. What? What's going on? Oh, wait, hold on real quick.
- [49:20]
Austin Rivers
It is that complicated.
- [49:21]
Howard Beck
Hey, Raja, can you give the format of what the All Star Game festivities are? What is the format of the tournament? Can you give it to us right now?
- [49:29]
Jomy Dinaron
I do. I know that. I know that.
- [49:31]
Howard Beck
What is it?
- [49:31]
Jomy Dinaron
That's two teams. It's a tournament, right? Two teams play each other. Two teams.
- [49:37]
Howard Beck
It's a Tournament. That's what it is.
- [49:39]
Jomy Dinaron
Four teams play each.
- [49:40]
Howard Beck
Is that what you said? Sheet with Adam Silver in the house?
- [49:43]
Jomy Dinaron
One question. I just had a question, and I. This is a genuine. Like, how did. How did Candace get Amen Thompson? I have no idea. Like, I really genuinely.
- [49:52]
Howard Beck
Howard. And Howard was like, I didn't pay.
- [49:55]
Austin Rivers
Attention to anything that happened last night.
- [49:56]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah.
- [49:56]
Howard Beck
We would not watch because, like, the.
- [49:58]
Jomy Dinaron
G League team played like another team. Right. And then here, this is. How did she get Amen Thompson off of one of those.
- [50:04]
Austin Rivers
Logan. Nobody cares about that part.
- [50:05]
Howard Beck
Oh, here's the other thing, though. This is. This is why. And I've been waiting to have this conversation for weeks. This is why the All Star format is cooked. Because we have to have these conversations because we have to ask questions going into All Star. What's going to happen? What are we doing? Wait, who's doing that?
- [50:22]
Jomy Dinaron
It is a tournament, right?
- [50:23]
Howard Beck
It is a tournament. But, like, we have to continue to this. And I understand that there is a lack of competitive balance and all those things, but I think a lot of that stuff has to do with the fact that we're not putting the players in optimal. And Raj, I think, will back me up on this. We're not putting players in optimal conditions to actually have a competitive game. They are spending a weekend in a random place. They're having a lot of fun, guys. They're having a lot of fun. You got a lot of fun. And also.
- [50:53]
Jomy Dinaron
Right.
- [50:53]
Howard Beck
And then, like, when they get to the arena itself, after all the fun that they had, they have to. They have to take pictures. They have to do press. They don't even get, like. They get like, 10 minutes of. Of warmup time. And then you expect them to play a competitive basketball game. You're not. Doesn't matter what the format is, in my opinion. I know you're going to push back on that, but I think it's not going to be competitive no matter what. If that's. If you are not putting the conditions to be competitive in place.
- [51:21]
Austin Rivers
We've literally been sitting on this debate for, like, a month.
- [51:24]
Howard Beck
Yeah. Yeah.
- [51:25]
Austin Rivers
Logan's like, it's trash. I'm like, no, it's fine. We'll have the conversation when we get to elsewhere weekend. All right.
- [51:30]
Jomy Dinaron
One.
- [51:31]
Austin Rivers
Dude, not that complicated. There are three teams on Sunday that are made up of the 24 All Stars. Eight per team.
- [51:36]
Howard Beck
Carry the five. And they made it even six.
- [51:41]
Austin Rivers
Even simpler to follow it away because Chuck, Kenny, and Shaq, who picked up the teams, divided up the All Stars, did it Thematically. So there's one team of like under 25 stars. There's one team of mostly international guys, one team of the OG's, LeBron, Steph, all that. And so the other team, and then the fourth team is whoever the fuck won last night, which I was not with.
- [51:58]
Howard Beck
Amen Thompson who lost somehow. Right.
- [52:01]
Jomy Dinaron
And how did Amen Thompson get with them?
- [52:02]
Austin Rivers
Don't, don't know. Didn't realize he was in the game. So two of those teams are playing each other tomorrow, then the other two teams playing each other and the winners of those two are playing in the final of this new All Star format. That's not that complicated.
- [52:16]
Jomy Dinaron
It's a tournament.
- [52:16]
Austin Rivers
So they're playing to a target.
- [52:18]
Howard Beck
With more than two teams. With more than two teams.
- [52:21]
Austin Rivers
Four in fact. It, it, they're playing to a target score. It's not this drawn out, 48 minute ridiculous three hour affair. Like guys are going to get to 40 points quickly in today's NBA. So you will have two snappy semifinal games followed by a probably equally snappy final where Whoever gets to 41st and because of of the the format of going for 40 as opposed to having to play 48 minutes in this long slug also you only got eight guys. It, it's going to have some urgency and some pace to it that the All Star game in recent years has had zero of. To your point, Logan? I agree. Like part of the problem here is it's the last thing they do on a.
- [53:01]
Howard Beck
They trying to go to Cabo.
- [53:03]
Austin Rivers
Yeah, no, that's the thing.
- [53:04]
Howard Beck
Jays SFO are already like, they're already ready to go.
- [53:09]
Austin Rivers
They've got the rest of the week off. They want to just get the hell out of Dodge and just go have fun and relax before the season starts again. True and true also that all the sponsors, all the events, all the stuff they got to do the rest of the weekend, by the time they get to Sunday night, these guys are cooked. They don't give a shit about trying to put on a great show. But you, unless you're going to either move the All Star game to Friday or Saturday or start eliminating sponsor events. Good luck with that.
- [53:33]
Howard Beck
Do that.
- [53:34]
Austin Rivers
I don't know how you change the cond. I agree the conditions are part of the problem, but I don't know how you change that. The other thing frankly is just that the All Stars of today makes so much money, I don't think they have feel the same obligation and investment as their predecessors did to say, you know what guys, this is a signature event. Of a signature weekend for our league. And we got to do this, we got to put on a show and at least try a little bit, because this is how we keep the game going. They've got like, you know, 70 billion coming or whatever in the next media rights deal. No one is worried about.
- [54:06]
Howard Beck
You know what I think though, on that counterpoint on that? I don't think, and I've said this recently, but, and I want to, I'm gonna push this to, to Raja. They don't. I think we're in a transitional phase in the NBA where the LeBron's and the KDS and the steps are phasing out and they at a point in time were OGs that players respected to be like, okay, I guess I gotta play hard now. Cause LeBron said let's fucking go. Right? But they don't, they don't necessarily have that energy right now. And so we're in a transitional phase. But then you hear other players, young guys, Anthony Edwards, wimby, saying, oh, we're going to turn this shit up. And I think there is some level of optimism going forward about that. How much is that? Is that a factor in your eyes, Roger?
- [54:49]
Jomy Dinaron
Oh, it's huge. I mean, if you're new, if you're a new generation of guys, takes it more serious and wants to compete in it, then that's, that's all that really matters. Right? Like, because they're the ones that are going to be carrying the game forward. Clearly dudes don't play as well hungover anymore. Right.
- [55:04]
Howard Beck
Because I just said fun. But yes. Drinking. Yes.
- [55:07]
Jomy Dinaron
Right, like, because like every, like, I mean, that's just the thing.
- [55:11]
Howard Beck
How did you play?
- [55:13]
Jomy Dinaron
Very degrees of success with that. But like, generally speaking, I wasn't bad. It was all right. I mean, there were a few.
- [55:22]
Howard Beck
Hey, you're potting pretty well right now.
- [55:24]
Jomy Dinaron
Thank you.
- [55:24]
Howard Beck
Potting.
- [55:25]
Jomy Dinaron
Thank you.
- [55:25]
Howard Beck
Good job, buddy.
- [55:27]
Jomy Dinaron
Who would have known? Yeah, no, look, man, it's always going to be, it's always going to be hard. This generation of Hooper. If any of you guys have kids that are out there kind of hooping in the, in the AAU scene or the, the shoe company like scene and stuff like that. Like, I've been in it since, I don't know, for like eight or nine years. And then my, my middle boy is just now getting on the shoe circuit scene. Like any type of all star level event that you go to is played like that. It's played like where they don't give a shit in a way that like. And I know this comes off as like, you'll get off my porch, old dude, but we just played a lot harder and stuff like that, like, even when we were coming up. And so you wind up with a generation of players that are kind of conditioned to not really come to something like this and want to give out effort that would, like, set them back on the back end of All Star break or even get them hurt. Right. So it becomes critical to have stars, young stars especially, that are saying, hey, we want to compete and we want to get after it. The only thing I'll say to the structure of this, on top of the fact that I still clearly don't understand all the moving parts, is like, more than two teams. Yeah, we've established it's a tournament. Right. It's a tournament. I used to like seeing the matchups, like, I used to like seeing the Western Conference matchup of the. Of the power forwards versus the Eastern Conference power forwards and stuff like that. And I think you lose that a little bit when you're split into four teams and everybody's not going to play each other and like that. But.
- [56:52]
Austin Rivers
But I think the allure of that has faded anyway because we're in a league pass era where every. Everybody in every market sees every team all the time. And we've seen these players all play with each other either in the Olympics or because players change teams so often in this era. There's the mystique of All Star. When you and I were younger and Logan wasn't born yet, we were going to get to age jokes eventually. Was. Was that it was the lone time of the season where you saw these guys in the same court together. It's like, wow, this is awesome. Look, man, like, you know, Magic and Jordan and Bird and Nick and all these guys are out there together like that. I just don't think it has the same resonance. And on top of that, yeah, they're not playing as hard as they used to, you know, and every time we talk to guys from the 90s, early 2000s, like, that's the one thing they keep saying. Like, we actually cared, like, we wanted to go out there and be the dude. And. And the guys now are just like, hey, let's just like throw lob dunks from half court.
- [57:49]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah, no, it's hard. It's hard to watch. I mean, is there an au ification.
- [57:54]
Howard Beck
Of this All Star game, do you think, Raja?
- [57:58]
Jomy Dinaron
An AAU ification? I mean, the NBA is a UFI period, right? Like, not in. Not in a bad way, but like, that's just where all your products coming from. So, like, all of those, you know, players say for the. The. The. The foreign players are kind of coming up in that system. You really want me to rant? You want me to rant? You got.
- [58:17]
Howard Beck
You want me to go? People wanted to come here.
- [58:19]
Jomy Dinaron
Not.
- [58:20]
Howard Beck
I'm not going to go. No, I know everybody wants me to do it.
- [58:23]
Jomy Dinaron
Let's go.
- [58:24]
Howard Beck
All right, let's do it.
- [58:25]
Jomy Dinaron
Also, aggregators get this look, we. When you start playing, when you start playing when you're in the third grade, and this is real shit. When you start playing 200 fucking basketball games over the course of a spring, you start to desensitize to, like, losing and shit like that. You're just rolling out there to get your numbers. You're rolling out there to get your little viral high and stuff like that.
- [58:50]
Howard Beck
You're speaking my Uncle Money's language right now. He's right there in the white hoodie. You're speaking his language right now.
- [58:53]
Jomy Dinaron
But that's real.
- [58:54]
Howard Beck
Speaking his language right there.
- [58:55]
Jomy Dinaron
That's real talk. And I'd have kids in my program, I know we're not all here for this, but, like, I try to tell their parents, this is. These are third grade people. Like, and you. You would think, like, you come to a program for a little bit of guidance within your program. If it's not me, like, I had other, like, multiple other, like, college and pro players within the program, and they're like, hey, man, you guys aren't playing this weekend? You know, is it okay if we go play for X, Y and Z? And I'd be like, yeah, you do whatever you want, but, like, I don't think your kid needs it. Oh, well, he really loves to play. Or, you know, this and that. All right, go ahead and do it. Hey, we're not playing over the course of the next three months, like, because we don't play all year round. Right? Like, I don't believe in that. I think kids need a break from it. You know, hey, we. Can we go play with X, Y and Z team? Or what do you think's in my kid's best interest? And I'd be like, mom, do you want to know dad? Real talk. Let him go play soccer, let him swim, let him, like, go play anything else other than basketball.
- [59:45]
Howard Beck
Yeah.
- [59:46]
Jomy Dinaron
And no, I honestly, I'm not. Not even pandering. Like, I believe that. Let them go do something else so they get away from this. Not. Not just for, like, their own sanity and, like, you know, the Pressure that comes with training. Like you're a Pro when you're 8 years old. But, like, you know, you're playing too much basketball and it's taking away from like, what basketball is about, which is competition and like trying to win basketball games. Like every time you touch a basketball court, you should be trying to win a basketball game. Like, and if, if you ever touch a basketball court and that's not your priority, then someone has missed along the way in your development. Straight up.
- [60:20]
Howard Beck
Good, Roger. All right. All right, it's time for your questions. Oh, do you have something to add on that? Do you want to. Do you have no solution to All Star Game? Real quick, let's see your solution to All Star Game before.
- [60:34]
Jomy Dinaron
Since bigger tournament.
- [60:36]
Austin Rivers
All right. Yeah, there we go. Bear with me. It's a four team tournament, a mid.
- [60:40]
Howard Beck
Season play it tournament.
- [60:43]
Austin Rivers
I do like the fact that the young guys, whoever the hell that team is from last night that's advancing, no one's going to want to lose to them. So, like, there's extra incentive on Sunday. The whole thing. It's a big psychological mind game with the players. Right. They've demonstrated for years that they don't care enough to play hard and the league has, like, you know, cajoled and beseeched and whatever. Like, we need the ghost of David Stern to come back and bully them for a minute or something. But, like, they've tried everything.
- [61:07]
Jomy Dinaron
Where is he?
- [61:08]
Howard Beck
Roger's still getting high. Raj is scared as I didn't mean.
- [61:13]
Austin Rivers
To trigger the ptsd.
- [61:15]
Howard Beck
Wait, wait, Raja. There he is. He's right there.
- [61:19]
Austin Rivers
Did you ever get called to the principal's office?
- [61:21]
Jomy Dinaron
No.
- [61:21]
Austin Rivers
Olympic tower.
- [61:22]
Howard Beck
More like lived in the principal's office.
- [61:24]
Jomy Dinaron
Not my bestie.
- [61:25]
Austin Rivers
But if you've tried, if you've tried everything else, like being willing to try this and do something else, and it is a, it is a psychological game. Try to get them to care in a way that they've already demonstrated they don't. And when you change the format and you add like these little gimmicks that make some urgency infused into the thing. We'll see. I'm, I'm, I'm clearly, I'm the optimist here.
- [61:46]
Howard Beck
Logan wants to already every time we come in, he's like, yeah, man, I think every, I think it's going to work. Yeah, look, I, I'm Roger Logan. I think it's going to work.
- [61:55]
Austin Rivers
I'm, I'm the guy who craft all over the NBA Cup. So, you know, I, I'm going to give Them credit on this one craft in the Cup. Not. Not in about.
- [62:02]
Howard Beck
Okay, yeah. All right, all right, let's get to the question. Let's get a little loopy here at the punchline. Let's, let's. All right, this is a funny one because we haven't talked about this team. And also I'm gonna do this one first because of all, there's only. There's a lot of questions, and I thank you guys for this, but there's only been, like, two people that said their names, and this is one of them. So I'm just gonna shout this person out. Shout out to Owen. Is Owen here? Where's Owen? Yeah, gap it up for Owen. He gave a great question. Does Jason Kidd quit in the next two weeks? And does Nico Harrison get fired this off season? That's not it.
- [62:41]
Jomy Dinaron
Wow.
- [62:41]
Howard Beck
Go Lakers. And Boston sucks.
- [62:45]
Jomy Dinaron
Oh, wow. Stir it up.
- [62:49]
Howard Beck
Wow. Had a great time in Boston.
- [62:53]
Jomy Dinaron
Boston is a good time. I went to school in Boston for a little bit. No and no to Nico and, And. And. And. And Jason Kidd. Look, Nico, look, I.
- [63:08]
Howard Beck
I sense a. That's my guy coming over. Hearing.
- [63:11]
Jomy Dinaron
Right? This is hearing an establishment aggregator alert. Nico did not do a great job in terms of. Of. Of. Of getting back in return what he could have gotten for a talent like Luka. I am not one that's weighing in. And I've said this before, and to some. To some people's, like, you know, they didn't really appreciate it, but, like, I'm not in the building, right? None of us are in the building. And you hear people say this a lot. If anyone's going to know someone in the NBA, it's going to be the people that see him all the time. That doesn't mean that they had to trade him. Right. That doesn't mean that 31 other GMs would have traded him. But for whatever it's worth, they decided that that's what they're going to do. I would say all that to say that, like, Nico didn't make that move, like, unilaterally. That wasn't Nico just saying, hey, guess what? I'm gonna wake up on Tuesday and trade his ass like that.
- [64:00]
Howard Beck
There are also no guardrails at all.
- [64:02]
Jomy Dinaron
Like.
- [64:02]
Howard Beck
Yeah, because if I tell you, I'm the GM right now, hey, I'm gonna go trade Luca. What are you gonna tell me? What if Luca's on our team?
- [64:08]
Jomy Dinaron
Who am I?
- [64:09]
Howard Beck
You're my boss.
- [64:10]
Jomy Dinaron
Oh, am I the. I'm the owner.
- [64:12]
Howard Beck
You're the owner.
- [64:12]
Jomy Dinaron
Well, like, but that's my point though, right? Like if like they're in lockstep, like that's something that like they had to be or he doesn't get to pull that off.
- [64:21]
Austin Rivers
Are they in lockstep or is it just that Nico had standing and the new owners don't know shit about basketball?
- [64:25]
Jomy Dinaron
No, I. You. I don't think he fleeced. I don't, I don't.
- [64:28]
Howard Beck
I love, I love how Howard talks about how he doesn't want to get aggregated and then says shit to get aggregated.
- [64:33]
Jomy Dinaron
Listen, I mean, look, I don't know.
- [64:35]
Austin Rivers
They do tequila shots.
- [64:36]
Jomy Dinaron
I don't know that he fleeced the.
- [64:37]
Howard Beck
New two of them.
- [64:38]
Jomy Dinaron
So I don't think he gets. I really don't think he gets fired at the end of the season. Like, I don't. Because I don't think that they pull that. Does he get fired? Eventually. They all do. But like, I don't think he gets fired at the end of this season.
- [64:47]
Howard Beck
Also. Getting fired in the NBA is not like getting fired from your nine to five.
- [64:51]
Jomy Dinaron
That's fair.
- [64:52]
Howard Beck
You know what they do after they get fired in the NBA? They go to Cabo.
- [64:55]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah, they're on. They're on the PJ at sfo.
- [64:57]
Howard Beck
Exactly. Exactly. All right. This is from Chris. Chris, are you. Are you here? There's a lot of Chris's. Okay. My dog. Seen the Fire1v1 competition that the unrivaled league shout out to the unrivaled league hosted this past week for the women's game. Do you think the NBA players could ever be convinced to try the same plus negative. Hold on, hold on. Who from the current players would you have a shot at taking the crown? I'm going to, I'm going to start this off. I think it's kd. I think KD would do it. I saw KD at a practice one time. Like it was like king of the court and he did like three moves and he kicked everybody's ass off the court. He just did away here. Wap.
- [65:48]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah.
- [65:49]
Howard Beck
And he's so tall and so unguardable and he's made for a one on one series. So I think it would be kd.
- [65:53]
Jomy Dinaron
All right. Giannis.
- [65:56]
Howard Beck
Yeah, he did okay. Just like. Okay.
- [65:59]
Jomy Dinaron
I mean, look, what you're talking about is an, is an unrivaled skill set with like length and athleticism and shit.
- [66:05]
Howard Beck
Like that pun intended.
- [66:06]
Jomy Dinaron
Right. I did pretty good there. But like when, when you're stripping like the other nine players off of a court, like that becomes way more valuable because, like, we can't get all the way to the basket. You know what I'm saying? Like, we can't. We can't get exactly where we want to go all the time because there's somebody else there. So my ability to like, raise up in the air and shoot a jump shot, like sometimes one on one becomes like just brute force. Because ain't shit else out there. It's just you and him. So, like, in that world, if you give a Giannis the ball first, he's caving somebody's chest over and over and over again. And so I take something like that.
- [66:46]
Howard Beck
We're never going to think about that. Yeah.
- [66:47]
Austin Rivers
And we're never going to see it because, like, the reason that the women started the league is because the W doesn't pay well enough and they need. Need other sources of income. And this was a really smart endeavor that, that they're. They've gone into the NBA. Guys don't need it. I wouldn't do it. So I. We probably won't see it. It was interesting when I did so because we were going to talk All Star and format and how. What if we just like deconstructed the whole weekend started over. I threw the question out on Blue sky and only on Blue Sky. Some of the, Some of the responses that came back were things like, hey, let's do one on one, two on two, three on three. Like, let's. Like, it'd be. It would be really fun to see like the best, you know, the All Stars get into it that way where like, there is more pride in the line with a fewer of you on the court. It's a different format. Like, I like that, but I don't think it would ever be like a. Separately, like unrivaled.
- [67:34]
Howard Beck
Yeah, for sure. I didn't think about the good on the Yada sanity.
- [67:38]
Jomy Dinaron
And a lot of it's like, who gets the ball first?
- [67:40]
Howard Beck
Yeah. For real, right. Okay. This is from Kyle Matson. Where's Kyle Manson? Is he here? There he is. My guy. Kyle Mountain to all, is the top 10 in the west set or can the Suns or Spurs sneak in over the Warriors, Kings or Mavericks?
- [68:00]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah. What's that look like?
- [68:01]
Howard Beck
And to Logan, who is your favorite former NBC co worker and why you guys want to go ahead? You go, I'll go first. Okay. Cats out the bag. Me and Kyle worked at NBC Sports Bay Area, so. Yes, Kyle, obviously. But I do want to. Since this question is here, I do want to shout out the one and only Kerith Burke, who Is. Yeah. My best friend at NBC held me down. I didn't know shit about television or how to do television, and she held me down. And she's one of my best friends, so shout out Ker motherfucking Burke. Hope she hears this. And Kyle motherfucking Madison. Do you have. Do you have the standing, Sir?
- [68:39]
Jomy Dinaron
Standings are in.
- [68:40]
Howard Beck
Okay, let me see that. Go ahead, Howard. Howard studied for this. We were out here. We were on flights partying and, like.
- [68:48]
Austin Rivers
Did no such thing. I think I said it on the show a week or two ago, so I better just stick with it. Even though they've been a little wonky, I. I think the spurs crack the top 10.
- [68:56]
Howard Beck
Yeah.
- [68:57]
Austin Rivers
I like the Deer and Fox pickup. I. I think the. Not a Kings fan, right?
- [69:02]
Howard Beck
No, no, no, no. That's D. That's just. That's Bibby.
- [69:05]
Austin Rivers
Straight B.
- [69:06]
Jomy Dinaron
All right.
- [69:06]
Austin Rivers
All right. That's cool.
- [69:07]
Howard Beck
I, I.
- [69:07]
Austin Rivers
The Kings could fall out. The Mavis could fall out. I think the Suns and Spurs could both break in, But I don't have much faith in the Suns overall. I think the Spurs.
- [69:14]
Howard Beck
Oh, man, the Suns are.
- [69:15]
Jomy Dinaron
How many. How many back with the spurs again? Sorry, I didn't.
- [69:17]
Howard Beck
The Suns are so sad, bro.
- [69:20]
Austin Rivers
So the Suns are.
- [69:23]
Jomy Dinaron
I know your sons are going to rise out of me, bro. I'm not giving you it.
- [69:27]
Howard Beck
The sun.
- [69:27]
Austin Rivers
The Suns are a game and a half behind. The warriors for 10 right now are.
- [69:30]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah.
- [69:31]
Howard Beck
Yeah.
- [69:31]
Jomy Dinaron
Spurs. Yeah. I don't know. No, the sun's gonna get in. I know. The spurs are kind of back there, though, aren't they? The spurs are what?
- [69:39]
Austin Rivers
How many games back are they behind us?
- [69:41]
Howard Beck
They have good vibes. All these other teams that you describe have bad vibes. The Mavericks are injured. Nah.
- [69:47]
Jomy Dinaron
But, yeah, I mean, they're injured right now.
- [69:49]
Howard Beck
Yeah, but this is like.
- [69:49]
Austin Rivers
They're also shell shocked.
- [69:51]
Howard Beck
Yeah, they're also shell shocked. The vibes aren't immaculate, and we only.
- [69:54]
Jomy Dinaron
Have, like, shell shot. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Shell shocked. With white. With white. The. The.
- [69:57]
Howard Beck
Luke. The. The craziest.
- [69:59]
Jomy Dinaron
Did you see them playing in the first game AD Was back? Did you?
- [70:02]
Howard Beck
And where's AD Right now?
- [70:03]
Jomy Dinaron
No, no, no, no, no. But that.
- [70:04]
Howard Beck
Those are right now.
- [70:06]
Jomy Dinaron
Two separate conversations, though. Clearly. Clearly. When? When. When. Without health. I mean, we're having a different conversation.
- [70:11]
Howard Beck
But that's right. That's what's right in front of us, though.
- [70:14]
Jomy Dinaron
No, but what I'm saying is, like, they're not, like, shell shocked. I can't subscribe to because that team. Did anybody watch them play in AD's first game they were playing, did anybody get the sense that those were upset? No. Yeah, no, but I'm like, listen, like, like dog. No, dog. Seriously, that's a real thing. Now I'm not there. And again, I'm not saying definitively that that's the case, but I watch body language and I watch Hoopers and that team came out not like feeling sorry for themselves. Oh, shit, they traded Luca. They didn't do that.
- [70:46]
Howard Beck
They literally did.
- [70:47]
Jomy Dinaron
They did not do that. And so what I'm saying is if they're healthy, like, I wouldn't count them out.
- [70:51]
Howard Beck
That's a huge if. Yeah, that's a huge if.
- [70:54]
Jomy Dinaron
That's the other conversation. They're not healthy. And who knows within that, what do you got?
- [70:57]
Howard Beck
I will say this though, a doctor.
- [70:59]
Jomy Dinaron
Or something like that.
- [70:59]
Howard Beck
And yeah, and then their front court is just depleted with lively out and gaffer.
- [71:05]
Jomy Dinaron
All that's real talk.
- [71:06]
Howard Beck
But I think that if I, I, I do believe that the spurs do have a shot. But are there any Kings fans here?
- [71:14]
Austin Rivers
Yes.
- [71:17]
Howard Beck
Yeah. Was it hard? Okay. Was it hard how inconsistent Dear and Fox could be at times?
- [71:25]
Austin Rivers
I think the front office set him up.
- [71:27]
Howard Beck
Okay, all right. All right. For sure. I do think, I think that is fair. But I do think that one of the complaints his coaches had, De'Aaron Fox. Right. If I'm gonna like say, maybe have a caveat to them doing good, is that he struggled with consistency and would only play well when he was angry. That's something that we all hear throughout the time, throughout our travels and he's so talented, but he's going to have to find a motivation other than being angry. Now, obviously there's Wimby there and there's a lot. There's Chris Paul there to help him out. But if there was something that would give me pause about Darren Fox, I'm just trying to just grasp it and shit at this point. But like, if there's something there, I would say that'd be something to look at.
- [72:08]
Jomy Dinaron
All right. I don't travel, so I don't, I don't hear any of that stuff. But you did today.
- [72:13]
Howard Beck
Hey, clap it up for Roger getting on the flight.
- [72:15]
Jomy Dinaron
I'm glad to be here. No, thank you, guys. Thank you. I'm excited. This was a good trip. This is air where it's airing. Yeah. I shouldn't say it, but my wife's got like her brother and my sister in law and their kids in town, so it wasn't the worst two days. Like it wasn't the worst.
- [72:31]
Howard Beck
They're.
- [72:31]
Jomy Dinaron
They're there for like six days, though.
- [72:33]
Howard Beck
Like, I get four days. We were not expecting you to be here two days. No one in here was expecting you.
- [72:37]
Jomy Dinaron
It just worked out like that. I didn't plan that. I did it and it worked out.
- [72:42]
Howard Beck
Hold on.
- [72:43]
Jomy Dinaron
Huh?
- [72:44]
Howard Beck
Go ahead.
- [72:44]
Jomy Dinaron
Can I just want to say this about, about him. Like, it could just be that. Dear Fox. That is. Right. Like, it could be that, like he's just not a number one. Right? Like. Right.
- [72:55]
Howard Beck
And so you foreshadowed that a lot, huh? You foreshadowed that a lot. That's. That's the AD Memorial pick for not necessarily number one.
- [73:02]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah, like, but, but so you're watching people play and their skill sets. Like, it's not a skill set thing being a number one in the NBA. Your average NBA dude that you, that you, you think is trash because you guys don't see him on the court and when he comes in, like, he's rusty because he doesn't get the ball and it's not his job and shit. Like, that person, if you put a court like right here in the middle of that and asked him to make shoot 100 jumpers, he'd make 88 of them. Like, like he'd do shit that you'd be sitting there like, really, like they're, they're that good. So it doesn't. Like a number one isn't always dictated by the skill set, like, or the size or the combination of the two. It's. It's dictated by their mental makeup. Right? And like, what, what they'll do in those situations that are pressure packed and only like, some people can rise to that level and, and meet the challenge. And so while, and I'm only saying this about Deer because I believe him to be a really, really good player, I just don't know that he's a number one. So like, you know, putting a franchise on your back is. Well, that shit's not easy. Like, putting a team on your back for one night's not easy. But putting a franchise on your back and trying to take them to places that they haven't been in a long time is unbelievably difficult. And so I just cut him a little slack because I just don't think he's a true number one. And I think if you put him somewhere where he's got support and this might be kind of echoing what you're saying, like, if you put him somewhere where he's got real support and they make up for some of maybe his shortcomings. Like, I think he'd be.
- [74:22]
Howard Beck
I. What advice would you give for a person trying to put a pickup team on their back?
- [74:25]
Jomy Dinaron
Put a pickup.
- [74:29]
Howard Beck
All right, this. This is messy.
- [74:30]
Jomy Dinaron
Shoot or shoot, homie. Get him.
- [74:32]
Howard Beck
This is messy. Messy. This is so messy. I need to put a name on it.
- [74:35]
Jomy Dinaron
Damn.
- [74:36]
Howard Beck
And this is for you, Roger. The five most underrated players you've ever guarded. And then the five most overrated players you've ever guarded.
- [74:47]
Jomy Dinaron
Where's the camera?
- [74:49]
Howard Beck
Raja didn't pre screen none of these questions. Neither did I. We didn't even. Let me look at them.
- [74:54]
Jomy Dinaron
They're giving me shots of tequila. Ain't nobody let me see a picture of them. Like, I ain't seen a photo.
- [74:58]
Austin Rivers
If we promise that Keith will not put this on Instagram, then can we get the True.
- [75:02]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah, that's tough. See, that would have been a good one for me to have a little, like. Because, like, those are hard to come up with off the top, but I'll take a shame. Let me take a shot. Boom. Damn. Underrated that I had to guard. Kevin Martin played for the Kings. Yeah.
- [75:23]
Howard Beck
Really funky shot.
- [75:24]
Jomy Dinaron
Really tough to guard. Really weird to guard. Trying to think of dudes. J.R. smith.
- [75:31]
Howard Beck
Yeah, you're hot.
- [75:32]
Jomy Dinaron
J.R. smith. Get really hot. Big body, like, bigger than you think. Six, five, six, six. But, like, real good size on him. Flip Murray.
- [75:42]
Howard Beck
Flip Murray.
- [75:43]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah.
- [75:43]
Howard Beck
That's a day.
- [75:44]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah. Flip Murray. I mean, you remember those seasons he had. Where was he. Was he in.
- [75:47]
Howard Beck
It was like, four, but I do remember it.
- [75:52]
Jomy Dinaron
But it's crazy.
- [75:53]
Howard Beck
Not. Not. I was there. Cleveland.
- [75:57]
Jomy Dinaron
Like, where was he? In the Sonics. Right. Like, and I think Ray had gotten hurt. And maybe Rashar. Rashard. Had he been shipped out? Yeah, or he was hurt, but Flip was. Flip was cooking. And another. Another one of those dudes, you'd be like, flip who get. Give Flip the ball and let him shoot 25 times. And he's gonna have 40 points because, like, he's hard to guard. Man on. I'm trying to think of other J.J. barea, J.J. barrea. Yeah, yeah.
- [76:26]
Howard Beck
Any Laker fans announced.
- [76:27]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah, yeah.
- [76:27]
Howard Beck
Do you see it? Remember what J.J. reddick cooked the Lakers?
- [76:31]
Jomy Dinaron
And you asked for five, right? You asked for five.
- [76:33]
Howard Beck
Yeah. We also have overrated.
- [76:35]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah, yeah. But I'm gonna give you.
- [76:36]
Howard Beck
Are you gonna get to that? Overrated.
- [76:37]
Jomy Dinaron
Here's my fifth underrated. And it's another. You said Lakers, and it's real talk because I could not guard him, and I couldn't figure it out, and I Played him maybe three times. He was with the Wizards. He wound up with the Lakers. Nick Young. Yeah, he's fucking really hard to guard also.
- [76:51]
Howard Beck
Nick Young?
- [76:52]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah.
- [76:52]
Howard Beck
Top three person I've ever covered in my life.
- [76:54]
Jomy Dinaron
Hilarious. No, he's hilarious. He's hilarious. I sat with his parents at a Laker game. Like, they're even better than Nick Young. They're better than Nick Young, bro.
- [77:01]
Howard Beck
So. Nick Young. I got a story real quick. I got a Nick Young story. So when Nick Young was on the warriors after his pregame warmup, he would, he would dribble the basketball all the way to the, to the locker room, and he would try to get people to like, steal the ball from him. He would shake the out of everyone and then he would see. He would see Mark Medina, who was at the San Jose Mercury News at the time, and he would shake the. Out of Marc. And then one time Mark stole that and he was like, yeah, shout out Mark Medina. Shout out Nick Young. Too. Amazing guy to cover.
- [77:34]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah.
- [77:35]
Howard Beck
Are you gonna do the overrated? Are you gonna be.
- [77:38]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah, I think I want to Overrated. This would have. Listen, all right, let me. Where the cameras. You have to take this in context, Right, I'll put some context.
- [77:49]
Austin Rivers
Major disclaimer coming here.
- [77:51]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah. Because I caught Keith at different stages in their career, right? Like that's fair. Right. Like, I caught people at different stages in their evolution as players. So, like, when I came into the league, LeBron was not very hard to guard. He. But no, no, no. I'm just. Listen, listen.
- [78:11]
Howard Beck
This is.
- [78:11]
Jomy Dinaron
He was a baby. He. He hadn't, he hadn't figured out, like, he hadn't figured out all of his, all of his weaponry. And like, I was able to kind of be physical in a way and kind of get him into some things where, where like, he just wasn't putting 50 on me in that way. Right. And like, I got so many 50 balls dropped on me that if you didn't that then, like. But I would not want to have to guard him now or a few years ago. But back then, yeah, he, he, I could kind of bait him into trying to post me up. And LeBron didn't have a post game yet, right. And so he'd settle for a lot of kind of fade aways and stuff like that. Because the old thinking was like, you're so much bigger than him. Go fucking post him up. And I was like, perfect, come post me up. Because I couldn't stay in front of him. But he'd settle for the jumpers and so, yeah, he'd be one. I know that. That's crazy. Don't. Don't put me up on shit saying that. But is there any other ones trying to. Yeah, no. That's a tough question, man, because dudes were so good. Overrated. Like most of your, you know, most of your Kobe's. And like, those. Those dudes were what they were. They were impossible to guard. And. And I'm trying to think, man.
- [79:18]
Howard Beck
It's okay.
- [79:19]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah. I'm sorry, I don't have a great answer.
- [79:21]
Austin Rivers
Somebody who's like, really great, but you had more success against than you would have expected.
- [79:26]
Jomy Dinaron
Someone that was great, had more success.
- [79:29]
Howard Beck
Good.
- [79:29]
Austin Rivers
Howard, he like walked away thinking, you know what? They still got theirs, but I made them work for it. They shot 35 to get their points or whatever.
- [79:35]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah, Vin. Vince Carter. Yeah, Like, Vince. Vince. Yeah, that's fair. Vince. Like, I mean, but these are guys that also, like, you go and find a tape. And they gave me 40. You know what I mean? It's just what it is. But. But like, Vince, you know, who would have been really hard to guard. It's no secret because he was. But. But Gilbert Arenas was incredibly difficult to guard. Incredible. No, no, not. Not in the. I did a good job, like, and I got my ass busted, like, a lot. He was really good. Who else? I don't know. Howard. I guess I wasn't that great a defender after all. Yeah, those two. I mean, look, kd, for what it's worth, kd, when I played KD when he was young, I played him when he was in Seattle. Not. Not the hardest person to guard, but again, had not figured shit out yet. Like, he was a baby. He was shooting a bunch of deep threes. He was really skinny. Like, he hadn't rounded out, like. So you catch him at the right time. And you could be saying that about a lot of guys, you know what I mean? Like, probably somebody sitting around and tell you MJ wasn't hard to guard at one point when he first came in the league. Like, real talk.
- [80:42]
Howard Beck
So we got a few more. We're just gonna go till they fucking tell us to.
- [80:45]
Jomy Dinaron
Come on, let's go. Dude.
- [80:46]
Howard Beck
Just talking, bro. Logan, give us the top five football players in the Bay Area you played with or against. Number one one is actually in here. I don't know what it answer. Delinsy Parham, he went to Idaho. He's over here. He played Troll. He played at Berkeley High. He was really hard. He was really hard to play against. Marcus Peters, I played against Him. And I think I've told this story on the pod, but I'll tell it again. I was in a passing league. He was. We were playing in Contra Costa College. Anybody went to Contra Costa College.
- [81:23]
Jomy Dinaron
Here.
- [81:24]
Howard Beck
We were doing a. We were doing a seven on seven. And I was throwing against a cover too. Is. I'm about to speak Raj's language because Raj is. He's really a fool.
- [81:32]
Jomy Dinaron
Dialed in, baby.
- [81:33]
Howard Beck
Dialed in. So Marcus is playing the flat.
- [81:37]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah.
- [81:37]
Howard Beck
And he. So I thought, like, hey, I could throw. I felt really good about my armor. Contra Costa. The wind was at my back. I felt like, ah, get it right in there, right where the safety comes.
- [81:50]
Jomy Dinaron
Tried to hole shot him.
- [81:50]
Howard Beck
I tried to hole shot him. He fucking baited me. He jumped into the zone from the flat.
- [81:55]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah.
- [81:56]
Howard Beck
Got the pig with one hand. Didn't even run to the end zone. Gave me the ball, said, here.
- [82:02]
Jomy Dinaron
Oh.
- [82:06]
Howard Beck
I was like, oh, he's going to the NFL. Yeah, going to the NFL. He's a ball hog.
- [82:10]
Jomy Dinaron
Early stuff.
- [82:12]
Howard Beck
Shadow McClyment.
- [82:13]
Jomy Dinaron
Shadow.
- [82:13]
Howard Beck
Bih.
- [82:14]
Jomy Dinaron
Should ask him to sign it. Hey, man, fuck him.
- [82:21]
Howard Beck
I don't know, man. There's a lot of. Ricky Galvin was a great. I played with him. He ran for 2,000 yards. He was a stud. He went to Washington State. Oh, no, here's another one. Keenan Allen. Yeah, we had him. We had a. We used to go to Cal camp and every year they would. UC Berkeley would have a. Would bring all the high schools together. And Berkeley High, we were coached by Alonzo Carter, who is a big coach. Now he's at Arizona. He's the associate head coach of Arizona. But we were like the renegade team we would have. It was Berkeley High, but we just had like studs from like, other recruits come in who Cal was just trying to poach. And Keenan Allen was on the team and he was my wide out. He was my number one whiteout. So I'm fucking throwing posts. I'm like, ah, who's this kid? I thought I could have get a Scully. That time I saw my grades, I was like, nah. But he was amazing, bro. Like, he was great. But there was a few more, but those are the ones that stick out.
- [83:19]
Jomy Dinaron
No doubt.
- [83:21]
Howard Beck
There's some for Roger. Oh, here we go. This is what everybody wanted to hear. What is your most memorable interaction with Kobe Bean? Bryant. You knew it was. You knew it was coming.
- [83:32]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah, yeah, sure. There were a few, obviously. Like, we had our moment. We are a moment. So I've told this story. I'll tell a couple stories. So the next time I think we played them, we were in the preseason, we were at unlv. And you know, at unlv, the locker rooms are kind of separate, so you don't really get any interaction with like the other team or anything like that. So there was no real opportunity for anything to jump off, and it was fine. But like in the Staples center, like, you all come in one way. Like, you come from like the parking lot where the families park and like the buses are in the same place. And then you walk down this hallway, you pass the Lakers hall home dressing room, and then you get to the visitors dressing room. Like, you guys would know this, right? So to leave, I've got to walk from my locker room past the Lakers locker room and then to the bus where their cars are. So I'm like, all right, well, who knows who I'm going to see in the, in the, in the hallway? But like, you got to be ready, right? Like, who? Who knows? Like, I haven't seen him since the happened, so I'm.
- [84:39]
Howard Beck
Words are sugar free. Yeah, stay ready. So you ain't got to.
- [84:41]
Jomy Dinaron
No, but straight up. So. Cuz, I don't know, like. So I'm walking down, like, and he's. I see him. Boom, there he is out in front of me. And he's walking with like four people. And I'm like, here we go. So I'm walking, picked up my pace a little bit, like briskly kind of trying to get there. And as I pass him, he, he called my name and I was like this motherfucker. And so I turned around, I turned around and he was like, hey, Raj, this is, I want to introduce you. This is my wife, you know, Vanessa. This is my mother in law. And he had one of his daughters with him. And so like, that was. Yeah, that was pretty cool, right? Like, that was, it was, it was a cool moment. From then on, we were pretty good. Like, people don't really know this. Like, and I don't, but like before every game, like, we'd be chopping it up about families and stuff like that. Most guys you just like, you know, dap up and, and say, like, have a good game and like that. Like when he'd come out to, to Utah, like, he never came. And I understood why. Like, he was a really guarded dude and, and like, he can't just go anywhere. But I got invited him to Thanksgiving and like that when he was in town and we played. One of my other favorite ones is, is I was in Charlotte. So this was like, you Know, fast forward a few years, and I was playing and I'd hurt my. I'd hurt my wrist. I had to have wrist surgery. I didn't know it at the time, but I hurt my wrist bad in the game. And I played against Kobe. We had talked the whole. It's a preseason game. Like, we had chopped it up out there and everything. And so I was in my. In my locker, kind of like, down, like, doing my shoes or putting lotion on or something, and I felt something kind of standing over me. It was like a shadow. And I. And I looked up, and it was a dude standing there. Men in black, right? Black suit, black tie, white shirt. And he was like, hey, Mr. Bell, my name is Robert. I'm Kobe Bryant's personal security. Mr. Bryant would like to know if you'd want to have dinner with him. And I was like, but no, I mean, that was cool, but, like, I just fucking played this cat for, like, 30 minutes. Like, he could have just asked me if I wanted to go to dinner when we were on the fucking court. Like, what the fuck? So, like, just little shit like that. It was cool. And then my. One of my. One of my last interactions with him was when I didn't go to dinner. No, My. My wrist. I had family in LA and my wrist was hurt so bad that I didn't. It's kind of one of, like, this is one of my. That was a big regret. Not. And not. And then I was a free agent, and I didn't really have a deal on the table yet. And so, you know, I was coming out to LA to go to the ESPYs and that. I had talked to Kobe. Kobe knew I was coming out. He had called me the night free agency started, right? Like. And he was like, you know, he said some pretty. Some pretty nice stuff. And he was like, hey, man, I want you to come be on this team. So on and so forth. I was like, all right, cool. I'm coming out to la. I'll be at the. I'm be at the Ashby's. And so he called me. He was like, look, man, I'm out in Malibu, but I don't know L. A. So I'm thinking, like, we're going to have a coffee or something like that. He's like, that shit's kind of far, dog. I don't drive that. He's like, I'll just send the helicopter to come get you.
- [87:30]
Howard Beck
I'm like, what?
- [87:32]
Jomy Dinaron
I was like. He said, yeah, the helicopter, I'll send it. Come pick you Up. You meet it over there. I was like, all right, cool. No, within the next two and a half hours, my phone started ringing from my agent. And between Kobe's invite on a helicopter and that and the. The pickup, I had gotten two deals. One from. From the. The Chicago Bulls with Tibs. I was like, yeah, I don't know how I go do that. I don't know about that, dog. And then. And then to go back to you, Utah, when we had a really good team and I thought we were going to be kind of viable in the Western Conference. And so I had to tell him I didn't want to waste the chopper or the gas, so I had to tell him that I wasn't coming out and that. And he understood because they couldn't pay me. Like, it was going to be the minimum and like that. But so I didn't get to. Didn't get to take the chopper. And I wish. I kind of want to take the chopper out to Malibu, you know.
- [88:20]
Howard Beck
Sorry, buddy. Damn. Any Laker fans wish they would have this hat guy on the Lakers?
- [88:25]
Jomy Dinaron
No, that. That would have been cool, though, just to see, like. And it's sappy and like that, but just to kind of see how he worked. You know what I mean? Like, I consider myself a worker and someone that, like, like, you know, got after it. And obviously he's legendary in that regard. So it would have been just cool to see if. If you could live up to that, because there were a lot of cats that didn't live up to that. You know what I mean? So, yeah, we can do.
- [88:47]
Howard Beck
Oh, man, this has been such a treat, you know, I mean, we. We talked about this pre pod. Me and Howard, just two bay kids, like, never even knowing that they could do in something like this to sell out the punchline, which is fucking crazy.
- [89:01]
Jomy Dinaron
Thank you, guys.
- [89:02]
Howard Beck
Thank you guys.
- [89:03]
Austin Rivers
Thank you guys so much.
- [89:04]
Howard Beck
We got the best fucking fans in the world. Me and Raja was talking about this pre pod, just like me and Raja started this. We had a phone call for 15 minutes that was the most awkwardest shit ever. I don't even know how we got to 15 minutes. And we just, you know, we grew a friendship and then we get Howard into the fold. This has been a treat, man. So we appreciate all you guys.
- [89:24]
Jomy Dinaron
Yeah, guys, thank you guys for coming out. Thank you all.
- [89:27]
Howard Beck
We are going to give us a quick minute, but there is a meet and greet out right outside at that little step and repeat. We'll take pictures. Sign what you guys want to sign, anything. And thanks again, man.
- [89:38]
Jomy Dinaron
We really appreciate this. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Foreign must be 21 plus and present in select states. For Kansas and affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18/ plus and present in D.C. gambling problem. Call 1-800- gambler or visit rg-help.com, call 1-887-89-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY in New York.