# Stephen A Smith Finally FACES OFF With Gil's Arena

An episode of [Gil's Arena](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1689097415), 11 Mar 2025, 2 h 24 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/895dfae1-64b0-4981-adea-b4b300f0d0f6/1e03c1d1-fd2e-4741-b65c-b4b30175b11a/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=d110bf8d-fc65-45fb-856f-b4b300f0d117

Stephen A Smith Finally FACES OFF With Gil's Arena as the Sports Broadcasting GOAT & ESPN Media Mogul finally delivers on his promise after 138 days and joins Gilbert Arenas & The Gil's Arena Crew inside Gil's Arena for what's sure to be an EXPLOSIVE episode of Gil's Arena. They kick off the show by reacting to another battle in the NBA MVP Race as Nikola Jokic & The Denver Nuggets took down Shai Gilgeous Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder and debate if these performances did enough to sway the opinions of MVP voters like Stephen A towards the Joker. Stephen A Smith then gets real on his new contract with ESPN that cements him as the true goat of the media before breaking down the truth of what happened during his now viral encounter with LeBron James. They then get Stephen A's thoughts on the season for the New York Knicks before hearing his perspective on his public battle with Jaylen Brown and the importance of protecting your sources as a journalist. Finally, Cemetery Larry invites Stephen A. into his body bag as the Gil's Arena Crew challenge him on his GOAT rankings and debate why he doesn't have Kobe Bryant in the same conversation as LeBron James & Michael Jordan. Please give us a like and subscribe!!! Gil's Arena Crew - Gilbert Arenas, Josiah Johnson, Stephen A Smith, Swaggy P, Rashad McCants & Kenyon Martin Gil's Arena Merch is Available NOW at https://gilsarenamerch.com/ Sign up for Underdog Fantasy HERE with promo code GIL and get up to $1000 in Bonus Credits and A FREE Pick: https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-gil's-arena Find signature comfort in everyday styles at https://MeUndies.com. Get 20% off your first order and free shipping with orders over $75+ with code GIL at checkout. To get YOUR FREE Jumpstart Trial Bag, go to https://ruffgreens.com & use Promo code GIL USE Code GIL10 for 10% off tickets on SeatGeek https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/GIL10 Join the Playback chat to interact with Gil and Josiah https://www.playback.tv/gilbertarenas SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAvjYgmwadC682OoC4Cc6TQ Join the Underdog discord for access to exclusive giveaways and promos! https://discord.gg/underdog Stream Josiah's Film "Memes & Nightmares" Available NOW on Hulu and Disney+ 0:00:00 2 Min Countdown 0:02:06 Show Start 0:06:39 Stephen A Smith Enters The Arena 0:09:44 Stephen A Smith On His MASSIVE New Contract 0:13:01 Stephen A On Jokic vs Shai for MVP 1:05:25 Stephen A GETS REAL On His Confrontation With LeBron 1:49:21 Stephen A vs Cemetery Larry On The GOAT Debate 2:10:29 Stephen A On His Beef With Jaylen Brown Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: Welcome back to Gil's Arena, presented by Underdog. Whoa, whoa!
[0:06] Speaker 1: Y'all already know we got a special one today, so
[0:08] Speaker 1: we're gonna get right to it. As always, we got
[0:10] Speaker 1: the legend, Gilbert Arenas, here with us.
[0:12] Speaker 2: What's up, Gil? What it do? What it do?
[0:14] Speaker 1: Y'all see, I got some Kobe's last week from Slam.
[0:18] Speaker 1: I went upstairs to go rob Gil. My Kobe's were gone.
[0:21] Speaker 1: I see what happened to them. Gil, you got the
[0:22] Speaker 1: Kobe's all right now?
[0:23] Speaker 2: No, I'm just borrowing them.
[0:24] Speaker 3: Okay.
[0:24] Speaker 2: They like both ours. They like both ours. They like
[0:27] Speaker 2: both ours. Appreciate you.
[0:29] Speaker 1: We got NBA champion of the world, championship pink, Nick Young.
[0:36] Speaker 2: In the house. It's three.
[0:38] Speaker 1: On this side of the couch, former number one pick,
[0:40] Speaker 1: the bully from Oak Cliff, Canyon Martin, back here with us.
[0:48] Speaker 1: And the man known as Cemetery Larry, Rashad McCants, is
[0:52] Speaker 1: in the arena. So for all the fans out there,
[0:58] Speaker 1: we still got two viewing options for you. Our traditional version,
[1:00] Speaker 1: mobile vertical version. Pick whichever one you want to watch.
[1:02] Speaker 1: Just make sure you support the show. Here's what's cracking
[1:05] Speaker 1: in the arena today. The Thunder and Nuggets split their
[1:08] Speaker 1: back-to-back games with SGA striking first and Joker striking back.
[1:12] Speaker 1: How did these past two games impact the MVP race?
[1:15] Speaker 1: The Cavs are in the midst of their second winning
[1:17] Speaker 1: streak of at least 14 games this season, have the
[1:19] Speaker 1: best record in the league, should Cleveland be the favorite
[1:22] Speaker 1: to win the chip this season, and the most important topic,
[1:25] Speaker 1: of course, Stephen A. Smith is finally pulling up to
[1:28] Speaker 1: the arena. And we got some things to discuss. But
[1:31] Speaker 1: before we get into all that, as always, this show
[1:33] Speaker 1: is brought to you by Underdog. Go ahead and download
[1:35] Speaker 1: the app. Use promo code GILL to get up to
[1:37] Speaker 1: $ 1, 000 in bonus cash plus a special pick-em. And because
[1:40] Speaker 1: it's a special episode of GILL's Arena today, Underdog is
[1:43] Speaker 1: offering a special to GILL's Arena viewers. Underdog is offering
[1:46] Speaker 1: a free pick on any player of your choosing. Just
[1:50] Speaker 1: click the link in the chat or scan the QR
[1:52] Speaker 1: code to claim your prize. The special will be available
[1:55] Speaker 1: throughout the show, so those of you who tap in
[1:57] Speaker 1: later can take advantage as well. You see the sign,
[1:59] Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen. 138 days. We're hoping to get it
[2:02] Speaker 1: to zero in the very near future. And as always,
[2:07] Speaker 1: if you can't watch the show on YouTube, we've got
[2:08] Speaker 1: audio versions available on Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your
[2:10] Speaker 1: podcasts from. As a reminder, we are doing our Gillian
[2:13] Speaker 1: subscriber giveaway. We are trying to get to a million,
[2:15] Speaker 1: I mean one Gillian subscribers on the Gill's Arena YouTube.
[2:18] Speaker 1: For every 1,000 subscribers, we get between 900,000 and a
[2:21] Speaker 1: million underdogs. is giving a lucky underdog user $ 1, 000 in
[2:25] Speaker 1: bonus cash. So we are up to 955,000 subscribers on
[2:30] Speaker 1: the channel as of.
[2:31] Speaker 2: This very moment.
[2:33] Speaker 1: That means we are giving away at least $ 2, 000 on
[2:36] Speaker 1: the show today, but obviously we got a very special
[2:38] Speaker 1: guest in the building, so it may jump up. Go
[2:40] Speaker 1: ahead and hit that subscribe button if you can, and
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[3:46] Speaker 1: You don't have to change your dog's food to improve
[3:48] Speaker 1: your dog's health. Just add a scoop of Rough Greens.
[3:51] Speaker 1: You said you sampled it.
[3:52] Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. The dog loves it. The truck. The dog's
[3:54] Speaker 2: going to live. I need some more. My dog will
[3:56] Speaker 2: be alive. I use it regularly. The dog will be
[4:00] Speaker 2: here to stay. I need another shipment because the dog.
[4:02] Speaker 2: I get it. That's right. The dog 220. He listen.
[4:05] Speaker 2: He needs it. You like the lights on. I got
[4:08] Speaker 2: a whole human. I got a whole human. We got
[4:11] Speaker 2: to do what we got to do. We got to
[4:12] Speaker 2: build the place.
[4:15] Speaker 4: Ever since you've been on the movie shit, you've been
[4:18] Speaker 4: doing longer monologues. Them shit's been stretching out a little
[4:22] Speaker 4: bit longer. It's about me, man.
[4:25] Speaker 2: He trying to show people his range.
[4:29] Speaker 1: Are you going to see range in a second? You're
[4:31] Speaker 1: going to see range in a second, but let's get
[4:33] Speaker 1: to it. Let's get to it. After a 138-day wait,
[4:38] Speaker 1: the time has finally come. A man who needs no introduction.
[4:49] Speaker 2: What if it came out like this?
[4:52] Speaker 3: He's the king of TV.
[4:53] Speaker 2: ESPN, give him whatever. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
[4:59] Speaker 2: What's going on, y'all?
[5:10] Speaker 5: He's the host of First K.
[5:13] Speaker 2: The show with kid number one. Don't, don't. Hey, why?
[5:16] Speaker 5: He's Rob Green. His kids get protection.
[5:19] Speaker 2: He's Rob Green. To be used on this discrepancy.
[5:22] Speaker 5: To be free of infection.
[5:24] Speaker 2: That shit was hilarious. He's the king of TV.
[5:27] Speaker 1: Hey! Special guest making his first appearance in the arena,
[5:46] Speaker 1: internationally known, nationally recognized, locally respected, host of the Stephen A.
[5:50] Speaker 1: Smith Show on YouTube and everywhere you get your podcasts,
[5:53] Speaker 1: New York Times bestselling author, and host and executive producer
[5:56] Speaker 1: of ESPN's number one morning show, First Take, Stephen A. Smith.
[6:01] Speaker 5: Welcome to Guild Arena.
[6:06] Speaker 2: What's going on?
[6:07] Speaker 5: Can I start out by saying something first? It's been
[6:11] Speaker 5: 138 days. Y'all keep reminding me of this shit.
[6:13] Speaker 2: You got me there, right? 138 days? No longer, sir.
[6:15] Speaker 5: Check this out. Check this out. Debray Smith is in
[6:19] Speaker 5: the arena.
[6:20] Speaker 2: So now I can say it.
[6:23] Speaker 5: I started negotiations five weeks beforehand. So what happened was that,
[6:29] Speaker 5: first of all, congratulations on the podcast, what y'all doing
[6:32] Speaker 5: is special. That's why I'm here. Congratulations to all of y'all.
[6:35] Speaker 5: But here's the deal. Y'all some wild-ass brothers, man. You
[6:39] Speaker 5: understand what I'm saying? So I'm like, yo, I don't
[6:43] Speaker 5: need to be going on there in the middle of
[6:46] Speaker 5: my negotiation. So the negotiations, just so everybody knows, that
[6:51] Speaker 5: shit took us 275 days. I've been negotiating for 10 months.
[6:57] Speaker 5: I signed the deal last week. And the next day,
[7:02] Speaker 5: you're like, where you at?
[7:03] Speaker 2: I'm like this.
[7:04] Speaker 5: I'm coming. And the deal's signed. You know what I'm saying?
[7:07] Speaker 2: So that's what happened. I just want y'all to know. Congratulations, bro.
[7:09] Speaker 2: Thanks a lot.
[7:10] Speaker 5: I didn't want to come in the middle of the negotiation.
[7:12] Speaker 2: I don't blame you. That's all I want to do.
[7:14] Speaker 2: I don't blame you. One thing for sure, two things
[7:16] Speaker 2: for sure. This shit can definitely go left at any
[7:19] Speaker 2: given time.
[7:19] Speaker 5: That's right.
[7:20] Speaker 2: Don't let up that price. And don't let these N-words
[7:22] Speaker 2: get in the way of your money. There we go.
[7:24] Speaker 2: Trust me. That's all it was. That's all it was.
[7:26] Speaker 2: So that's it.
[7:27] Speaker 6: So I'm here.
[7:28] Speaker 2: So we got a lot to say. $ 200, though. Huh?
[7:31] Speaker 1: You could have pushed it up.
[7:33] Speaker 5: Hey, you know, anything's possible. I should have waited.
[7:36] Speaker 1: So, we got a lot of things to discuss. First
[7:38] Speaker 1: things first, as you mentioned, you got that new five-year deal.
[7:40] Speaker 1: Eight-figure range. We ain't pocket-watching. We just say eight-figure range
[7:43] Speaker 1: is what we've heard. So, what does it mean to
[7:45] Speaker 1: you to sign a deal of that magnitude, and what
[7:47] Speaker 1: does it say about your position in the sports media game?
[7:49] Speaker 6: Well, it's humbling.
[7:51] Speaker 5: You know, unless you an athlete or an artist, you
[7:54] Speaker 5: don't expect to be able to sign for, you know,
[7:58] Speaker 5: that kind of money.
[7:59] Speaker 2: And so.
[8:00] Speaker 5: You know, it's like I'm very blessed. I'm very fortunate.
[8:04] Speaker 5: You know, I can sit up here and talk some shit.
[8:05] Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I earned it.
[8:07] Speaker 5: I earned it in terms of the work that I
[8:09] Speaker 5: put in. I was how hard I work. But that
[8:12] Speaker 5: don't mean you don't end up getting some shit like that.
[8:15] Speaker 5: And so the fact that I was able to pull
[8:16] Speaker 5: that off is a very, very big deal to me
[8:19] Speaker 5: because I'm the cat that I wake up. I'm reading
[8:22] Speaker 5: The Wall Street Journal. I'm reading, you know, the Financial
[8:26] Speaker 5: Times and shit. It ain't just the tabloids and all
[8:28] Speaker 5: of that stuff. So I'm monitoring the money. And then
[8:32] Speaker 5: I'm monitoring who getting the money. And then I'm monitoring
[8:35] Speaker 5: how is it relatable to what I do. And then
[8:38] Speaker 5: I'm saying, well, wait a minute now. That person got
[8:40] Speaker 5: that money. That person got that money. How you going
[8:42] Speaker 5: to justify? So, you know, if you ESPN and you
[8:46] Speaker 5: in the news because you signed one of my colleagues
[8:48] Speaker 5: to five years, $ 85 million, and another cat got $ 20
[8:52] Speaker 5: million at the end. Then you look at Fox and
[8:54] Speaker 5: Brady got $ 375.
[8:56] Speaker 6: You're like, where do I fit in?
[9:00] Speaker 5: And I'm looking at it from that standpoint, and I'm like,
[9:03] Speaker 5: all right, this is my worth based on My ratings,
[9:07] Speaker 5: the revenue that I know the show is generating, kind
[9:10] Speaker 5: of know all my business and stuff because in 2009
[9:13] Speaker 5: when I got fired and got let go, I mean,
[9:16] Speaker 5: I was a dumbass.
[9:17] Speaker 2: The fact of the.
[9:18] Speaker 5: Matter is I thought popularity was me being on commercials
[9:21] Speaker 5: and being on the side of buses and stuff like that.
[9:24] Speaker 6: And, yo, that means I'm popular.
[9:27] Speaker 5: But I didn't have any way, any knowledge of how
[9:31] Speaker 5: to measure my worth. And so they came to the
[9:33] Speaker 5: negotiating table and they said, you're worth this. I thought
[9:36] Speaker 5: I was worth that. They said, all right, shit, go
[9:38] Speaker 5: out there and get it.
[9:39] Speaker 6: Find it.
[9:39] Speaker 5: And then I went out there and there was no
[9:42] Speaker 5: market for me in 2009. And they didn't want me back.
[9:46] Speaker 5: So my career was in jeopardy.
[9:48] Speaker 2: I was off.
[9:48] Speaker 5: People don't realize this. From 2009, when they let me go,
[9:52] Speaker 5: I was off the air until 2012 television. When I
[9:56] Speaker 5: came back in 2011, I was confined and restricted.
[10:00] Speaker 2: To radio.
[10:01] Speaker 5: Fox Sports had came and got me in 2010. Then
[10:04] Speaker 5: in 2011, ESPN came back and get me. But they said,
[10:07] Speaker 5: you can only do radio. You can't do television. And
[10:10] Speaker 5: it wasn't until I got on first take that all
[10:13] Speaker 5: of a sudden everything started growing again and growing again.
[10:16] Speaker 5: So all of that shit I brought into... negotiations, my
[10:21] Speaker 5: knowledge of what I experienced, what I went through, why
[10:25] Speaker 5: I went through it. And then along the way, as
[10:27] Speaker 5: I got these contracts, you know, it would be, you know,
[10:31] Speaker 5: brothers coming up and I'm like, yo, this is what
[10:33] Speaker 5: happened to me. Don't let that shit happen to you.
[10:36] Speaker 5: And that's how it all happened.
[10:38] Speaker 1: Well, we appreciate you. We were monitoring your contract situation
[10:40] Speaker 1: as well. And shout out to Underdog. Download the Underdog app.
[10:43] Speaker 1: Use promo code GILD. Get up to $ 1, 000 bonus cash
[10:45] Speaker 1: plus a special pick-em. And be prepared to hear from
[10:48] Speaker 1: our agent soon. But Stephen A., you abduct us no longer.
[10:50] Speaker 2: Yeah. We got to dump the sign.
[10:53] Speaker 7: Yeah.
[10:54] Speaker 2: All right.
[10:54] Speaker 1: We got a lot to discuss. We're going to start
[10:56] Speaker 1: with the biggest story in the league right now. So
[10:58] Speaker 1: on the second night of a back-to-back, games between top
[11:01] Speaker 1: MVP candidates Shea Gildas-Alexander and Nikola Jokic, the two led
[11:04] Speaker 1: their teams to another entertaining game. After OKC won the
[11:07] Speaker 1: first game of this set, it was important for the
[11:09] Speaker 1: Nuggets to respond, and they did. Let's take a look
[11:12] Speaker 1: at some of the highlights from last night. We were
[11:13] Speaker 1: watching on our playback watch party, playback.tv slash Gilbert Arenas.
[11:18] Speaker 1: For all of those who weren't aware, we had Mr.
[11:20] Speaker 1: B on there as well. But Joker had 35 points,
[11:23] Speaker 1: 18 rebounds, 8 assists, just one turnover in the win,
[11:27] Speaker 1: played 40 minutes, was a remarkably efficient 15 for 20
[11:30] Speaker 1: from the field. Jamal Murray did his thing as well.
[11:32] Speaker 1: 34 points and 6 assists in 40 minutes. He was
[11:33] Speaker 1: 11 for 22 from the field. Perfect nine for nine
[11:37] Speaker 1: from the free throw line on the OKC side. SGA
[11:40] Speaker 1: had 25 points and seven assists. We all remember he
[11:43] Speaker 1: dropped 40 in the win over Denver back on Sunday.
[11:46] Speaker 1: Lou Dort was actually the Thunder's leading scorer on the
[11:48] Speaker 1: night with 26 points. Key injury note, all-star Jalen Williams
[11:52] Speaker 1: missed the second half of this game after suffering a
[11:55] Speaker 1: right hip strain. We'll be monitoring that situation in the
[11:58] Speaker 1: coming days. But let's watch a little bit more of
[12:01] Speaker 1: these highlights. Joker really did his thing, helping elevate his squad,
[12:04] Speaker 1: getting his get back. Second night of a back-to-back against
[12:08] Speaker 1: the Thunder in OKC.
[12:10] Speaker 2: He didn't take all them shots. S.J.
[12:15] Speaker 1: Was not shooting like he said. He was looking to
[12:18] Speaker 1: make a statement. He had an opportunity to make it.
[12:22] Speaker 1: No Aaron Gordon either, so it wasn't, you know.
[12:30] Speaker 5: See, I see stuff like this and it just, it
[12:33] Speaker 5: makes me look at Oklahoma City a little different. Like,
[12:37] Speaker 5: one minute, I think they the dogs to beat. And
[12:41] Speaker 5: the next night, they'll turn around and lose, and I'm like,
[12:44] Speaker 5: you can take them. You can take them.
[12:46] Speaker 6: And that's what happened last year.
[12:47] Speaker 5: You know, they go on to play as the number
[12:50] Speaker 5: one seed, and Kyrie and Luke could give it to them.
[12:54] Speaker 6: You know, and I'm like, that's.
[12:55] Speaker 5: A series you could win, but SGA was the only.
[12:58] Speaker 6: One that showed up consistently.
[13:00] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[13:00] Speaker 6: The other cats did it.
[13:02] Speaker 5: And that's the kind of stuff that I look for
[13:03] Speaker 5: at this late, at this late in the season. Yeah,
[13:06] Speaker 5: you got Denver the first night. They came back and
[13:09] Speaker 5: get you. But it's not whether you win or lose.
[13:10] Speaker 5: It's how you got done. You know, it's like for
[13:13] Speaker 5: them to answer the way that they did last night
[13:16] Speaker 5: is what gives me cause to pause about OKC.
[13:19] Speaker 2: It's that being young, man. You don't understand the severity
[13:24] Speaker 2: of each and every game. Like, if you're trying to
[13:27] Speaker 2: make a statement, trying to prove that you're one of
[13:29] Speaker 2: them teams to beat You got to show up again, man.
[13:34] Speaker 2: And Denver knew the severity of this, right? Right. We're
[13:38] Speaker 2: fighting for something. This man's MVP is at stake, so
[13:42] Speaker 2: they fighting for him.
[13:43] Speaker 1: Right.
[13:43] Speaker 2: Yeah. What was Jalen Williams' numbers at half?
[13:48] Speaker 6: Let me pull it up for you. I think he got,
[13:50] Speaker 6: didn't he get hurt last night?
[13:51] Speaker 2: Yeah, he missed the second half.
[13:53] Speaker 3: What, 22?
[13:54] Speaker 2: Half with the hip strength. Yeah, 22 at half. Let
[13:56] Speaker 2: me pull it up for you. That's crazy. Yeah, but no,
[14:00] Speaker 2: I'm saying the game before when we was on our
[14:02] Speaker 2: way back, right? So we all was watching the game
[14:07] Speaker 2: on our phones coming back from San Diego, dog bowl.
[14:11] Speaker 2: And we all was like, man, this man really out
[14:13] Speaker 2: here hunting shots, man. Like, it looks like, I understand
[14:17] Speaker 2: he averaged 32, but it just, it looked bad the
[14:23] Speaker 2: other day. Jalen Williams had 12 and six in that
[14:25] Speaker 2: first half. The first game, Sunday's game. Okay, okay. 12
[14:28] Speaker 2: and six. 12 and six, Sunday's game. Shot the ball, what, 33?
[14:31] Speaker 2: 32 times. 32, 33 times, right? 15 to 32 from
[14:33] Speaker 2: the field. Right. And the foot, he got more like
[14:36] Speaker 2: the makes he made, what, four late? Yep. Maybe. Maybe five.
[14:41] Speaker 2: Five straight. Five late, right? And so.
[14:46] Speaker 2: The 40, we were all like, yeah, but this is like,
[14:48] Speaker 2: when you look at it, it's like, dude, we get it.
[14:52] Speaker 2: Do you see how they do that, though? Compare it.
[14:56] Speaker 2: But then they adjust it, and you don't take that.
[14:59] Speaker 4: But was it an adjustment, or was it Shea trying
[15:02] Speaker 4: to dial back what he said initially is, I shot
[15:06] Speaker 4: the ball too many times. It's exactly what we've seen immediately.
[15:09] Speaker 4: We on the bus, we like, come on, man. And
[15:11] Speaker 4: then you can see the 40 and the 8, And
[15:14] Speaker 4: a win feels good to the team. But it don't
[15:18] Speaker 4: feel good to him. For some reason, I took too
[15:21] Speaker 4: many shots. Can I throw this at all of y'all?
[15:23] Speaker 3: That's a good thing.
[15:24] Speaker 2: I look at Jalen. He the key.
[15:27] Speaker 6: See, I'm not worried about Shea.
[15:31] Speaker 5: He's showing me he gonna show up. To me, Oklahoma,
[15:36] Speaker 5: you know, I was debating with some cats about this.
[15:39] Speaker 5: I don't know whether it was Big Perk or somebody else,
[15:41] Speaker 5: but it was like, they were like, Chet Holmgren's the key.
[15:43] Speaker 5: I'm like, yeah, but I expect him to do what
[15:46] Speaker 5: he does. I expect Harnstein to do what he does.
[15:50] Speaker 5: Jalen to me is the key because if you got
[15:53] Speaker 5: somebody other.
[15:54] Speaker 2: Than Shea that you can say, here's the ball, take
[15:58] Speaker 2: us there.
[15:59] Speaker 5: Now, now they could go to the finals. But without that,
[16:02] Speaker 5: I don't think so.
[16:03] Speaker 2: He too young. He too young to be putting that
[16:05] Speaker 2: much pressure on him right now.
[16:07] Speaker 6: Even as a secondary option?
[16:08] Speaker 2: Right now.
[16:08] Speaker 4: Because what they've done is, okay, see, if they're depending
[16:11] Speaker 4: on SGA so much to the point where a 25-point
[16:15] Speaker 4: game is not nearly enough to beat Joker and them
[16:18] Speaker 4: after a 40-point game. 14 shots ain't nearly enough than
[16:22] Speaker 4: the 32 that you just took. So you took a
[16:24] Speaker 4: major step back in both production and I'm not going
[16:28] Speaker 4: to say direct leadership, but what we're looking for, for
[16:32] Speaker 4: us to come back in the fourth, and we just
[16:34] Speaker 4: lost the secondary option, 14's not enough.
[16:38] Speaker 2: Now we need you to hunt shots.
[16:39] Speaker 5: But what I'm asking is, when you say it's too much,
[16:42] Speaker 5: as a secondary option?
[16:44] Speaker 2: Yes.
[16:45] Speaker 4: To depend on him to carry the load if he's
[16:48] Speaker 4: not having a good game. It's his first year as
[16:51] Speaker 4: an all-star. He hasn't really shown that he can.
[16:53] Speaker 2: Handle a load.
[16:55] Speaker 4: He can't handle the pressure of.
[16:58] Speaker 2: I got to be the guy.
[16:59] Speaker 6: But I'm not.
[17:00] Speaker 2: Yeah, I disagree with that. Yeah, he got to... No,
[17:02] Speaker 2: you're an all-star now, brother. Boys, he's supposed to be
[17:05] Speaker 2: an all-star? Yes, absolutely, J. Well, then they can't win. Huh?
[17:09] Speaker 2: They can't win then. Yeah. Because if... If Murray is
[17:12] Speaker 2: a second option here. Yes. And we know what he's
[17:15] Speaker 2: going to do. You know what he's going to do.
[17:18] Speaker 7: If LeBron is the second option to the Lakers.
[17:20] Speaker 2: Right. Comparable. Come on, man. You're talking about Jalen Brown
[17:25] Speaker 2: or Tatum. You're talking about Dame.
[17:28] Speaker 7: So the fact that these are second options, if you
[17:30] Speaker 7: can't rely on him to average at least 23 in
[17:33] Speaker 7: the playoffs, you can't be consistent, you have no chance.
[17:38] Speaker 2: There's no chance of winning.
[17:40] Speaker 6: Can you ask me this?
[17:41] Speaker 5: And I ask all of y'all. We're not questioning that
[17:45] Speaker 5: he has the talent to do it, right?
[17:48] Speaker 2: No, no. That's where I'm coming from. Experience.
[17:52] Speaker 4: I'm saying the experience to handle the moments and the
[17:55] Speaker 4: pressures of the 23 you talk about consistently.
[17:58] Speaker 2: We need a game four. He ain't show up. We
[18:01] Speaker 2: need you to give us 27 tonight. Okay. You can't
[18:04] Speaker 2: give us 21.
[18:05] Speaker 3: But did you need that sometimes?
[18:06] Speaker 4: He is not going to be mentally ready to just
[18:09] Speaker 4: dial that in.
[18:09] Speaker 6: And I guess what I'm saying is.
[18:10] Speaker 2: Be a focal point on somebody's scouting report. Boom. Like, hey,
[18:13] Speaker 2: we're going to double him. We're going to do this.
[18:15] Speaker 2: We're going to play him this way.
[18:18] Speaker 5: But what I'm saying is, because you lost last year,
[18:22] Speaker 5: for that reason.
[18:23] Speaker 2: See what I'm saying?
[18:24] Speaker 5: If you ain't been there, I got it. My point is,
[18:28] Speaker 5: if you OKC, you can literally look at yourselves and
[18:32] Speaker 5: go like this.
[18:34] Speaker 5: If I showed up, we in the conference final last
[18:38] Speaker 5: year against Minnesota instead of Dallas. If he showed up,
[18:43] Speaker 5: because Shea gave you two games. So I'm looking at
[18:46] Speaker 5: him and I'm like, I don't.
[18:48] Speaker 2: Need you to be Shea.
[18:50] Speaker 5: But if you can give me that bona fide number
[18:54] Speaker 5: two option on a night in, night out basis and.
[18:57] Speaker 2: A best of seven. We got the rest of it because.
[19:01] Speaker 5: Caruso, Hartenstein, Witt Holmgren has elevated their defense.
[19:05] Speaker 6: You know Shea, who was my.
[19:07] Speaker 5: MVP last year, by the way.
[19:08] Speaker 6: I voted for MVP.
[19:09] Speaker 2: He was the Gills Arena MVP as well. That's right.
[19:11] Speaker 6: I voted for MVP. He's my vote this year.
[19:15] Speaker 5: I'm looking at it and I'm like, I can depend
[19:18] Speaker 5: on him. It's Jalen that I'm worried about.
[19:21] Speaker 2: I got a question for you. Yeah.
[19:23] Speaker 4: So is Jalen the actual second option?
[19:27] Speaker 2: Or is he the guy that's getting the leftovers?
[19:31] Speaker 6: That's a legitimate question.
[19:33] Speaker 4: Look at the game and what I'm talking about. Look
[19:34] Speaker 4: at the game. SGA, the way he plays. I got
[19:39] Speaker 4: to get mine. I ain't got it.
[19:41] Speaker 2: Go.
[19:42] Speaker 3: Second option.
[19:42] Speaker 2: Leftovers.
[19:44] Speaker 4: We're talking about the second option, right? We're talking about
[19:47] Speaker 4: a guy who comes in and the coach is like,
[19:49] Speaker 4: we got to run.
[19:50] Speaker 2: Shit for him. You can't get leftovers with an average 20.
[19:52] Speaker 2: Not just give him the ball. Derek White is getting leftovers.
[19:56] Speaker 2: I see what he's saying. Derek White is getting leftovers.
[19:57] Speaker 2: That's leftovers.
[19:58] Speaker 4: Pritchard's getting leftovers, but they taking advantage.
[20:00] Speaker 2: Of those leftovers.
[20:01] Speaker 5: But when you say leftovers, are you saying leftovers because
[20:03] Speaker 5: schematically that's what ends up happening, or are you saying
[20:06] Speaker 5: leftovers because Shay.
[20:07] Speaker 2: Kyrie was getting Lucas leftovers.
[20:09] Speaker 5: But what I'm saying is Shay might be ball hogging
[20:12] Speaker 5: a little bit too much. I'm asking because.
[20:13] Speaker 2: There's a difference. Because he can't get a rhythm. He
[20:16] Speaker 2: can't get a solid rhythm. If Jalen Williams can't.
[20:19] Speaker 4: Get a solid rhythm, if he always has the ball
[20:22] Speaker 4: doing his thing.
[20:24] Speaker 2: I don't think he needs you right now.
[20:25] Speaker 5: He's good.
[20:25] Speaker 6: I didn't even know they were behind.
[20:28] Speaker 2: Appreciate y'all. Just in case.
[20:30] Speaker 1: So, look, we talked the SGA side, but let's talk
[20:32] Speaker 1: a little bit of the Joker side. So, Nuggets and
[20:34] Speaker 1: Thunder in the season with 2-2 series split. After the win,
[20:37] Speaker 1: Jokic was asked about the MVP race and gave this quote.
[20:40] Speaker 1: He said, this is my third or fourth year in
[20:42] Speaker 1: a row, so I cannot control it. I will say
[20:44] Speaker 1: I think I'm playing the best basketball of my life.
[20:47] Speaker 1: So if that's enough, that's enough. If not, SGA deserves it.
[20:50] Speaker 1: He's really, really amazing.
[20:51] Speaker 2: And y'all say he don't want that.
[20:53] Speaker 1: Even though you said SGA right now is your frontrunner
[20:56] Speaker 1: for MVP.
[20:56] Speaker 5: I don't give a damn what nobody wants.
[20:59] Speaker 1: But do you agree that three-time MVP Nikola Jokic is
[21:02] Speaker 1: playing the best basketball of his life?
[21:05] Speaker 5: I've seen him be great. This great?
[21:07] Speaker 3: Like this?
[21:07] Speaker 2: Like this?
[21:13] Speaker 4: And don't even say numbers. We're not even going to
[21:14] Speaker 4: talk numbers. Just look at it. We're not talking numbers.
[21:17] Speaker 2: Just look at it. Who's stopping that? Just look at it.
[21:21] Speaker 1: 35, 18, and 8. Off of that 30, 20 game.
[21:23] Speaker 1: Whatever he wants.
[21:24] Speaker 2: Fuck them. 30, 20, and 20.
[21:25] Speaker 1: The rebounds aren't phasing me that much.
[21:27] Speaker 5: The assists do. because Kat's missing. They don't have a
[21:34] Speaker 5: bunch of snipers on their squad, so those assists are legit.
[21:37] Speaker 6: So in that regard, fine.
[21:39] Speaker 5: But are we taking defense into consideration too?
[21:42] Speaker 2: Because last time I checked, Shakes plays that. He's second
[21:45] Speaker 2: in steals. Both tied for second in steals. Come on now.
[21:49] Speaker 2: Come on now. I don't want to hear this shit.
[21:52] Speaker 2: Because it's up there, and if you want.
[21:54] Speaker 4: To bring stats to me, you know what I'm going
[21:57] Speaker 4: to do.
[21:57] Speaker 2: Don't make me put this helmet on. But for someone who.
[22:01] Speaker 2: Doesn't look to score to average 30.
[22:05] Speaker 3: Stop saying he don't look to score.
[22:07] Speaker 5: Not to average 30, though.
[22:09] Speaker 4: He's not going out there saying, I'm trying to get 30.
[22:13] Speaker 2: Him the other day, he shot nine threes the other night.
[22:16] Speaker 2: We all was like, damn. What the hell are you doing?
[22:21] Speaker 2: He doesn't look to go out there, motherfucker, for shots.
[22:23] Speaker 6: But the comeback would be this.
[22:25] Speaker 5: Just because you don't look the part don't mean you ain't.
[22:29] Speaker 5: What I'm saying is, you shoot enough.
[22:32] Speaker 2: He does. He'll pull up from three. He'll pull up
[22:35] Speaker 2: for a perimeter.
[22:35] Speaker 5: He don't care. I'm just saying, but he views him.
[22:39] Speaker 5: He's not just the number one option. He views himself
[22:41] Speaker 5: as the number one option.
[22:42] Speaker 2: But why?
[22:43] Speaker 5: Because he deserves it. He's worthy of it. I'm just
[22:46] Speaker 5: simply saying, because that's the case, look at him. Look
[22:50] Speaker 5: at Shea. Look, Denver's climbing. Denver's right there. We get that.
[22:56] Speaker 5: What's Oklahoma City record right now?
[23:00] Speaker 6: They're like 11, 12 games ahead.
[23:02] Speaker 2: And Shea averaging 32?
[23:03] Speaker 5: I mean, he got numbers that's comparable to the shit
[23:07] Speaker 5: Michael Jordan was doing.
[23:08] Speaker 4: Y'all argument is so flawed because if it was about winning,
[23:12] Speaker 4: like you just brought it in, we'd be talking about
[23:15] Speaker 4: Donovan Mitchell. He's not average. Why he got an average 30?
[23:20] Speaker 4: Why he got an average 30? You can't throw him in.
[23:23] Speaker 4: We're talking about the best player on the best team
[23:27] Speaker 4: in the league. Donovan Mitchell ain't been missing.
[23:32] Speaker 2: Why not? Throw him in there as well. Donovan Mitchell's
[23:35] Speaker 2: number one. But they've been penalizing Jason Tatum for years
[23:38] Speaker 2: for us.
[23:38] Speaker 5: That's what I'm saying.
[23:40] Speaker 2: His number's not good enough?
[23:41] Speaker 5: I hear you. Here's my comeback to review that. Let's
[23:46] Speaker 5: look at Oklahoma City. You just finished bringing up how
[23:48] Speaker 5: you can't trust Jalen. I don't know if you can
[23:50] Speaker 5: trust Jalen. We all acknowledge what your kids got around them.
[23:54] Speaker 2: There's an absence of.
[23:54] Speaker 5: Depth, and you don't have shooters, right? What don't Cleveland
[23:58] Speaker 5: have this year?
[23:59] Speaker 4: They didn't have a consistent coach. They just got a
[24:02] Speaker 4: new coach.
[24:02] Speaker 5: No, no, I'm talking about this year.
[24:04] Speaker 2: I'm only talking about this year. Everything new. And DeAndre
[24:08] Speaker 2: Hunter came in. The only time they.
[24:10] Speaker 4: Lost to Boston was that game that he didn't get
[24:12] Speaker 4: to play during that game.
[24:12] Speaker 1: Right.
[24:13] Speaker 6: They undefeated with him in the lineup.
[24:14] Speaker 4: How many different 10-game win streaks have Cleveland had?
[24:17] Speaker 2: Boston. How many? Yeah, three. Three 10-game winning streaks.
[24:21] Speaker 5: They're already having their second 15-game winning streak.
[24:23] Speaker 4: We're not talking about a guy who's already in this
[24:26] Speaker 4: league for 70 points.
[24:28] Speaker 5: He's in this conversation, but you also got to take
[24:30] Speaker 5: this into consideration. We look at the East. We respect
[24:33] Speaker 5: the Knicks, but we're looking at Cleveland and Boston. It's
[24:36] Speaker 5: a two-horse race.
[24:37] Speaker 6: In a Western Conference, it's wide open.
[24:39] Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
[24:40] Speaker 5: So they got to take that into consideration as well.
[24:42] Speaker 5: That might be a reason why everybody's been mentioning Shea
[24:45] Speaker 5: and Jokic, because we can't have Jokic fall in the three.
[24:48] Speaker 5: We can't have that. So we know he's cemented at
[24:51] Speaker 5: least at number.
[24:52] Speaker 2: Two, possibly number one. But why can't we put Giannis
[24:53] Speaker 2: up there?
[24:54] Speaker 5: Giannis?
[24:55] Speaker 2: Why is Giannis being... Because Milwaukee... Because.
[24:58] Speaker 4: No Donovan, no Giannis, nobody in the East except for you.
[25:01] Speaker 2: Everybody want to mention Tatum.
[25:04] Speaker 4: Who underneath those other two, he's underperforming. He's performing at
[25:10] Speaker 4: MVP level, but not like Donovan Mitchell, not like Giannis.
[25:14] Speaker 4: Then we got on the other side, Shea and Joker.
[25:18] Speaker 4: It's like the conversation is flawed because of what side
[25:21] Speaker 4: you play on.
[25:21] Speaker 5: So do you believe that it's fair to put Shea
[25:24] Speaker 5: and Jokic as one and two and everybody else in
[25:27] Speaker 5: the conversation out of the East?
[25:30] Speaker 4: I would rather say Joker and Giannis... have the conversation,
[25:35] Speaker 4: and Shea and Donovan be in the conversation.
[25:38] Speaker 2: Head up, head up. Can be head up, head up.
[25:40] Speaker 2: One has three All-Stars on one team.
[25:44] Speaker 3: Cavs.
[25:45] Speaker 2: They're both number one. They have... The reason... They're both
[25:48] Speaker 2: number one, so it shouldn't even matter.
[25:50] Speaker 7: It's hard to put one in because he does have
[25:52] Speaker 7: two extra All-Stars on his team, and then they traded
[25:55] Speaker 7: someone that has 18, who's averaging 18 points off the bench.
[25:59] Speaker 2: So his team is actually a lot better than people think.
[26:02] Speaker 4: So Cleveland has four All-Stars? Three All-Stars. So what's the
[26:06] Speaker 4: name has two All-Stars? Okay, so he got two All-Stars, right?
[26:13] Speaker 7: And Garland is a better All-Star, a better.
[26:16] Speaker 2: Player than Jalen Williams is. Okay.
[26:18] Speaker 3: At this moment?
[26:19] Speaker 2: Okay. So therefore, Nikola is the MVP. I mean, in
[26:24] Speaker 2: the future. I'm talking about right now. And then you
[26:27] Speaker 2: got Mobley.
[26:27] Speaker 7: It is a better team, so he's doing less.
[26:31] Speaker 2: So he gets penalized. We all know that. Yeah, so
[26:33] Speaker 2: Nikola is the only one who... Nikola's the... Nikola has
[26:38] Speaker 2: no All-Star. No All-Star. Has never had an All-Star. Never
[26:40] Speaker 2: had an All-Star. And he's been doing his thing.
[26:43] Speaker 1: But.
[26:43] Speaker 2: And better than he has... And better than he was
[26:46] Speaker 2: in them previous years when he won MVP.
[26:48] Speaker 7: But yes, he has a better team than OKC because
[26:50] Speaker 7: they're a young team.
[26:52] Speaker 2: Murray is better than Jalen Williams. Right? So it's just unfortunate.
[26:55] Speaker 2: But he's not an all-star.
[26:56] Speaker 7: But he just hasn't made that all-star game. But he's
[26:59] Speaker 7: a better player than what's-his-name, but he can still say, hey,
[27:02] Speaker 7: I don't have an all-star here, and this is what.
[27:04] Speaker 2: We've been doing. Absolutely.
[27:04] Speaker 1: Joker on the verge of being the first big man
[27:06] Speaker 1: to average a triple-double, doing it very efficiently, also on
[27:09] Speaker 1: the verge of being the first player in league history
[27:11] Speaker 1: to be top three in points, rebounds, and assists. And
[27:15] Speaker 1: we're talking about an individual accolade award. It's not a
[27:17] Speaker 1: team award, right? It's the most valuable player.
[27:19] Speaker 2: Well, one thing for sure, they just jerked Lamar... Jackson
[27:23] Speaker 2: for MVP as well. If we're talking about history, history
[27:27] Speaker 2: don't matter with this conversation at all. Because what Lamar
[27:30] Speaker 2: Jackson just did in the NFL was something we have
[27:32] Speaker 2: never seen before. That's true. Right? And so Josh, they
[27:37] Speaker 2: give it to Josh Allen. Granted, he had a great season. Absolutely.
[27:40] Speaker 2: Not taking anything away from Josh Allen. So it'll be
[27:42] Speaker 2: the same thing in this situation. Nikola is doing something
[27:44] Speaker 2: we've never seen before. So, because there's a basketball player.
[27:49] Speaker 2: There's a basketball player.
[27:50] Speaker 5: You're saying if that's the criteria, that's what you're saying?
[27:53] Speaker 5: You're saying if that is the criteria? Because I'm looking
[27:57] Speaker 5: at Lamar Jackson, for example. We looked at Lamar Jackson.
[28:00] Speaker 5: Lamar Jackson did shit we never saw before, fair enough.
[28:02] Speaker 5: But they came into the season having acquired Derrick Henry.
[28:06] Speaker 5: And they were projected to be arguably the favorites outside
[28:08] Speaker 5: of Kansas City to get to Super Bowl. Whereas Josh
[28:10] Speaker 5: Allen lost both receivers, Stephon.
[28:12] Speaker 2: Diggs and Gabe Davis.
[28:13] Speaker 4: That's a bullshit cop-out because Lamar Jackson didn't go ask
[28:17] Speaker 4: for Jared Cameron. So you can't penalize him for being
[28:20] Speaker 4: the MVP because he got a good player.
[28:23] Speaker 2: Just like Shaquan Barkley. But, but, but, but. So if
[28:26] Speaker 2: he didn't have him.
[28:27] Speaker 4: Right.
[28:30] Speaker 3: No.
[28:31] Speaker 2: The numbers are still like... Yes, it's still Lamar Jackson.
[28:34] Speaker 2: It's still Lamar Jackson, right? He's won it. No, no, no.
[28:37] Speaker 2: Less picks with the major running back through less picks
[28:40] Speaker 2: than he had at any time in his career. More touchdowns.
[28:43] Speaker 2: More touchdowns. Rushing yards. 900 yards rushing. 4,200 yards passing.
[28:49] Speaker 2: But to take nothing away from Shea or Nicole, whoever
[28:52] Speaker 2: wins it, right? Like I said, we really concentrate on
[28:56] Speaker 2: the history of the game and the thing like not
[28:59] Speaker 2: to taint the history of the game and shit like that,
[29:02] Speaker 2: then let's be like, we've seen someone average 32 before.
[29:07] Speaker 3: We've seen someone average a triple-double before.
[29:11] Speaker 2: This doesn't look like this. So when the guy did
[29:15] Speaker 2: average a triple-double, so how many triple-doubles did Russ average? Four.
[29:20] Speaker 1: How many MVPs did he win?
[29:22] Speaker 2: One. So it doesn't matter. We've seen it, but we didn't.
[29:25] Speaker 4: It became a stat pattern.
[29:28] Speaker 2: Have you ever did it? I'm saying. Have you ever
[29:31] Speaker 2: did it?
[29:32] Speaker 4: Have you ever tried to patch your stats in that regard?
[29:35] Speaker 5: Have you ever tried to patch your stats?
[29:38] Speaker 2: Yep. And how did that shit go for you? And
[29:42] Speaker 2: how did that shit work out? So therefore, you can
[29:46] Speaker 2: say that shit all you want. That shit take effort.
[29:48] Speaker 2: It don't take effort. It don't take effort. It don't
[29:51] Speaker 2: take effort. It don't take effort. Have you ever averaged
[29:53] Speaker 2: 10 rebounds in it? It don't take effort. Huh? It
[29:59] Speaker 2: don't take effort.
[30:01] Speaker 4: When you playing against nobody. NBA is playing against nobody.
[30:04] Speaker 4: Is that what we're doing with the conversation?
[30:06] Speaker 2: I'm just saying. Shay got to go up against every.
[30:08] Speaker 4: There's nothing but great guards. I'm just saying, it's great
[30:12] Speaker 4: guards in the NBA. Can't name another great league. You
[30:15] Speaker 4: just made an exception about Cleveland, though, right?
[30:17] Speaker 2: I'm missing about Cleveland. I'm missing Donald Mitchell. You got
[30:20] Speaker 2: more all-stars on the team. You got to do what
[30:24] Speaker 2: you got to do to win. His coach put him
[30:25] Speaker 2: back in the game to score 50. That shit corny.
[30:27] Speaker 2: Kobe didn't nobody criticize him. His coach put him back
[30:29] Speaker 2: in the game to score 50. His coach put him
[30:31] Speaker 2: back in the game to score 50. That shit corny.
[30:33] Speaker 2: All right.
[30:34] Speaker 3: All right.
[30:35] Speaker 4: Now he just said Joker don't look like he's trying
[30:37] Speaker 4: to score.
[30:37] Speaker 2: Now we have a whole different conversation.
[30:39] Speaker 4: His coach put him back in to score 50.
[30:42] Speaker 2: That shit corny.
[30:43] Speaker 4: Hey, he didn't say he wanted to win MVP. He
[30:45] Speaker 4: said I won MVP. three or four of these already.
[30:50] Speaker 4: If you don't give it to me, I'm cool. But
[30:54] Speaker 4: I think you should because... I feel like I'm having
[30:56] Speaker 4: the best year ever.
[30:58] Speaker 7: Okay, when we have these two type of players that's
[31:03] Speaker 7: really making an argument for themselves, and you said you
[31:07] Speaker 7: already say and shake, Wouldn't that be a closed door
[31:12] Speaker 7: on all information that Jokic would bring in?
[31:14] Speaker 2: With 20 more games left?
[31:16] Speaker 6: That's totally fair.
[31:17] Speaker 5: What I'm saying is if Shea continues on the path
[31:22] Speaker 5: that he's on and Jokic does the same, I'm going
[31:26] Speaker 5: with Shea. I don't mean to imply that Shea can
[31:29] Speaker 5: fall off the map in what he has done up
[31:31] Speaker 5: to this point. It stops. He sneaks up the joint
[31:34] Speaker 5: the last 20 games of the damn year, but I'm
[31:37] Speaker 5: going to vote for him anyway. That's not what we
[31:38] Speaker 5: mean when we say something like that.
[31:39] Speaker 2: That's what it sounds like.
[31:41] Speaker 5: I'm sorry.
[31:41] Speaker 2: What the fuck that sounds like to me? No matter
[31:43] Speaker 2: what he do for the rest of the way, you
[31:44] Speaker 2: already got your mind made up. It's tough to have
[31:46] Speaker 2: you on the jury then because if you go on
[31:48] Speaker 2: the motherfucking jury, you already got your mind made up.
[31:50] Speaker 2: We got the footage. We got the footage. He did
[31:52] Speaker 2: not hear that, man. Check this out.
[31:56] Speaker 5: He didn't fucking do it.
[31:59] Speaker 4: We saw him sue him.
[32:04] Speaker 5: Guilty as charged. To use his analogy, if you rob
[32:09] Speaker 5: a deli, right?
[32:10] Speaker 2: If you rob a deli, somebody say you.
[32:12] Speaker 5: Robbed a fucking deli, and then they got footage of you, right?
[32:16] Speaker 5: And they show me the footage, and it's you.
[32:20] Speaker 2: You got that right.
[32:20] Speaker 5: I'm assuming you guilty at that point.
[32:22] Speaker 2: Now, I didn't walk.
[32:23] Speaker 5: Into the courtroom thinking you guilty. But once they showed
[32:27] Speaker 5: me that shit, we might have five days of trial
[32:29] Speaker 5: left to go. Don't tell me that somebody's waiting for
[32:31] Speaker 5: the next five days before making the decision. Come on,
[32:34] Speaker 5: none of us do that. At some point in time,
[32:36] Speaker 5: you ain't going to wait. You ain't going to wait
[32:37] Speaker 5: until the last game of the season. You ain't going
[32:39] Speaker 5: to wait until the last game of the season. At
[32:40] Speaker 5: some point in time, you're going to make the call, yo,
[32:43] Speaker 5: this is where I'm at. Now, it's too early to
[32:45] Speaker 5: do that. So that's fair. I understand that. And based
[32:48] Speaker 5: on what I said, you're absolutely right. I'm telling you
[32:50] Speaker 5: what I mean is.
[32:51] Speaker 2: Okay. Tell me what you mean. I'm assuming... He's.
[32:55] Speaker 5: Doing the same shit Jokic is doing, the same shit
[32:58] Speaker 5: they've both been doing.
[32:59] Speaker 2: That's where I'm at. Now, if he falls off the
[33:01] Speaker 2: map the.
[33:01] Speaker 5: Last 20 games of the season, then I got to
[33:04] Speaker 5: come back and go like this.
[33:05] Speaker 2: Yeah, I got to.
[33:06] Speaker 6: Change my damn mind. I know I said that shit,
[33:08] Speaker 6: but this is where I'm at.
[33:09] Speaker 2: I was waiting on that day then. You watch boxing, right?
[33:12] Speaker 2: I love boxing. Love boxing. Okay, Floyd Mayweather. Yeah, me too.
[33:16] Speaker 4: You think he would ever lose going the distance on
[33:20] Speaker 4: the scorecard as the actual champion?
[33:25] Speaker 2: Even if it was a close fight.
[33:27] Speaker 6: Are you ready for my answer?
[33:28] Speaker 2: Who are they going to give the fight?
[33:29] Speaker 3: Are you ready for my answer?
[33:30] Speaker 6: It depends on who the fuck he's fighting.
[33:33] Speaker 2: If he's fighting Manny Pacquiao, he's fighting... Let.
[33:36] Speaker 5: Me tell you, if it were close, and it was
[33:39] Speaker 5: a decision they gave it to Manny, it wasn't close.
[33:41] Speaker 5: If Floyd is the champ, I'm saying, they would have
[33:44] Speaker 5: gave it to Manny.
[33:44] Speaker 2: It just wasn't close because.
[33:45] Speaker 5: Manny couldn't hit him.
[33:46] Speaker 2: Do you have to beat the champ? Yeah, because he
[33:48] Speaker 2: waited 12 years. Or do they give you the... Do
[33:50] Speaker 2: they ever just give you a point? You love boxing, right?
[33:53] Speaker 2: So that means you know who Marvelous Marvin Hagler is, right?
[33:55] Speaker 2: Of course.
[33:55] Speaker 5: Well, how did he feel when he fought Sugar Ray?
[33:58] Speaker 2: Did he do a rematch?
[33:59] Speaker 1: Huh?
[33:59] Speaker 2: No.
[34:00] Speaker 5: He didn't want it because he felt he was appalled
[34:02] Speaker 5: that he got robbed. He was appalled that he got robbed.
[34:05] Speaker 5: He said, I'm the champion. I'm chasing this motherfucker around.
[34:08] Speaker 5: And y'all gonna just give it to him when he ran.
[34:12] Speaker 2: for.
[34:12] Speaker 5: Two and a half rounds, fought the last 30 seconds.
[34:14] Speaker 2: And y'all gonna give it to him. Huh? Joker not running.
[34:17] Speaker 6: Joker not running.
[34:18] Speaker 2: No, no. Joker not running.
[34:18] Speaker 5: I'm just using boxing analogy.
[34:19] Speaker 4: I'm saying, you gotta knock him out to win. He's
[34:24] Speaker 4: won this too many times. He's produced and shown his
[34:27] Speaker 4: value as the most valuable player too many times.
[34:30] Speaker 2: You were a newcomer.
[34:31] Speaker 4: You're like Allen Iverson. You're like Kobe. You're like KG
[34:35] Speaker 4: when he won his. You gotta do some shit. We like, yo,
[34:38] Speaker 4: we gotta give it to him.
[34:40] Speaker 2: Okay. We got to give it to him. What you
[34:41] Speaker 2: about to say, fool? Why he win last year?
[34:43] Speaker 4: Because he was close to getting the triple-double, right?
[34:45] Speaker 2: No, he was won because he was the best player
[34:47] Speaker 2: in the fucking NBA.
[34:48] Speaker 3: And he was close to a triple-double.
[34:49] Speaker 2: Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. I'm just saying.
[34:53] Speaker 2: Why he win? It was close to a triple-double. Close
[34:55] Speaker 2: only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. I said... We
[34:58] Speaker 2: thought Shea should have been MVP last year. And I said...
[35:00] Speaker 2: I said on this couch... But Dakota was the best
[35:04] Speaker 2: player in the NBA last year.
[35:05] Speaker 1: I said.
[35:06] Speaker 7: The fact that Nikola won last year, it left too
[35:10] Speaker 7: much room for.
[35:11] Speaker 2: Him to win it again.
[35:12] Speaker 7: There's nothing Shea was going to do that was going
[35:14] Speaker 7: to increase it because you already had somebody who averaged 33, 8, and.
[35:17] Speaker 2: 9, right?
[35:19] Speaker 7: So what Shea's going to do versus what Jokic has
[35:21] Speaker 7: the potential doing, he can put up his scoring.
[35:25] Speaker 2: He's going to have 10 and 9. He can average
[35:27] Speaker 2: a triple-double. Yeah.
[35:28] Speaker 7: Almost a triple-double won it. A triple-double wins it. He
[35:31] Speaker 7: averages damn near 39-9.
[35:34] Speaker 2: He wins it. Like, there was just.
[35:35] Speaker 7: Too much room for improvement where they could have gave
[35:39] Speaker 7: it to Shea to save himself. Now you're really going
[35:44] Speaker 7: to be.
[35:45] Speaker 2: It would look really.
[35:46] Speaker 7: Horrible for the athlete side to have a dude win
[35:50] Speaker 7: these MVP awards with worse records.
[35:55] Speaker 2: than he had, right? Worse numbers than he had.
[35:58] Speaker 7: To see him pull a triple-double, he might fuck around,
[36:03] Speaker 7: put a 50 ball out here with a triple-double 10
[36:05] Speaker 7: and 12, and then you sit.
[36:08] Speaker 2: Here like, all right, Shay, you got it, right? It
[36:12] Speaker 2: just doesn't make sense.
[36:13] Speaker 7: And that's the problem sometimes in the inconsistency because as
[36:17] Speaker 7: a player training and we're going into the season, we
[36:20] Speaker 7: don't know what we're fighting for.
[36:23] Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
[36:24] Speaker 7: And we don't know what we're doing this for. Like,
[36:27] Speaker 7: Jason Tatum is really confused with y'all. He's like, I
[36:31] Speaker 7: sacrifice individual awards. I sacrifice scoring titles.
[36:36] Speaker 5: And all this to not... Respectfully, you just made me laugh.
[36:41] Speaker 5: Because you said y'all. No, I mean, I'm just me.
[36:44] Speaker 2: You too. You vote.
[36:46] Speaker 7: You got to vote.
[36:50] Speaker 2: I'm getting it.
[36:51] Speaker 5: I'm getting it right now.
[36:52] Speaker 6: I'm getting it right now.
[36:55] Speaker 2: It's just y'all and shit.
[36:56] Speaker 5: Let me tell you this. Let me use the example.
[36:59] Speaker 5: I'm not talking about the literal vote. I'm not talking
[37:01] Speaker 5: about the literal vote for a second. This show right
[37:04] Speaker 5: here epitomizes the problem that the media has with voting.
[37:09] Speaker 2: Absolutely.
[37:10] Speaker 5: Because we'll go and we'll talk to y'all. It got
[37:14] Speaker 5: four or five different damn opinions. And then when we
[37:17] Speaker 5: reach the conclusion, everybody bitching. Wait a minute, where we
[37:20] Speaker 5: get it from?
[37:21] Speaker 2: I'm talking, I didn't play no game. I wasn't good
[37:24] Speaker 2: enough to be on that level. Y'all was.
[37:26] Speaker 5: I came to you, y'all sitting in the locker room together.
[37:29] Speaker 2: Yeah. It didn't go like this.
[37:31] Speaker 5: This brother, Swaggy P, like Yoke Steven, it got to
[37:34] Speaker 5: be Shay. Gil, it got to be Yoke.
[37:37] Speaker 2: It got to be Yoke. It's him.
[37:38] Speaker 5: It got to be Shay. All of a sudden, we
[37:41] Speaker 5: go out there.
[37:42] Speaker 6: Motherfucker don't know what he talking about.
[37:44] Speaker 5: Where we get it from? It ain't like we sat
[37:46] Speaker 5: in a bubble not talking to anybody.
[37:49] Speaker 2: Nah.
[37:49] Speaker 5: We walk in the locker room. We talk to the
[37:55] Speaker 5: cats who do this. We reach out to Hall of
[37:58] Speaker 5: Fame because y'all know this. Cats are the veterans. Cats
[38:02] Speaker 5: have retired. You won the championship and shit. You're the
[38:05] Speaker 5: Hall of Fame and all of this other stuff. You
[38:07] Speaker 5: ain't sitting at home being silent. Who you think calls us?
[38:12] Speaker 2: Who you think texting?
[38:13] Speaker 5: Who you think talking? Yo, man, I got to holler
[38:14] Speaker 5: at you. Where the hell was you? Where you get
[38:16] Speaker 5: that vote from?
[38:17] Speaker 2: What was you.
[38:18] Speaker 5: Thinking when you said that shit? And I'm like, no,
[38:21] Speaker 5: this ain't us talking in a bubble. We talking to y'all.
[38:25] Speaker 5: But then we can't because obviously most of the conversations
[38:28] Speaker 5: off the record.
[38:28] Speaker 6: Don't quote me on this. That's what a lot of
[38:30] Speaker 6: them say.
[38:30] Speaker 5: Don't quote me on this. It's just us talking.
[38:33] Speaker 6: But I'm telling you, you don't know what the fuck
[38:35] Speaker 6: you talk about.
[38:36] Speaker 2: Why would you say that? Well.
[38:39] Speaker 5: They don't know this Hall of Famer said that.
[38:41] Speaker 2: And this one said this.
[38:43] Speaker 5: And you taking all of these opinions into consideration while
[38:46] Speaker 5: you're watching. While you're watching. So I just, I laugh
[38:50] Speaker 5: about it when you say the media, the media, because
[38:52] Speaker 5: if you really are media, your intel comes from those
[38:57] Speaker 5: who know anybody that tells you that they just know
[39:01] Speaker 5: this shit that didn't play on y'all level.
[39:04] Speaker 6: Fuck them. Ignore them. Don't listen to them.
[39:06] Speaker 5: Pay no attention to them. The number one thing that
[39:09] Speaker 5: should come out of your mouth is, yo, I got
[39:12] Speaker 5: this from somewhere, yo. I talked to these cats. This
[39:15] Speaker 5: is what they said. And they gave me this to consider.
[39:19] Speaker 5: They told me to go back and watch that. That's
[39:21] Speaker 5: what media is supposed to be.
[39:24] Speaker 6: Not the other shit that people be trying to put.
[39:26] Speaker 2: But here's the thing, though.
[39:27] Speaker 1: Swaggy, you do not have an MVP vote. Cemetery Larry,
[39:29] Speaker 1: you don't have an MVP vote. Ken, you don't have
[39:31] Speaker 1: an MVP vote. Gil, you do not have an MVP vote.
[39:33] Speaker 1: But you have the ability and the power to sway
[39:36] Speaker 1: an MVP vote with your vote. But my question for
[39:38] Speaker 1: you is, as an MVP voter, how do you feel
[39:40] Speaker 1: about potentially being responsible for players making or losing millions
[39:43] Speaker 1: of dollars?
[39:44] Speaker 2: All-NBA, MVP? I hate it.
[39:46] Speaker 5: I think that's... I think that's... There is no way
[39:50] Speaker 5: something like that should mess with a cat's money.
[39:52] Speaker 6: Let me tell you something right now.
[39:53] Speaker 5: Klay Thompson has a legitimate case to hate media for
[39:58] Speaker 5: the rest of his life. They cost him $ 30 million.
[40:02] Speaker 5: I wasn't one of them because I had a third-team All-NBA.
[40:06] Speaker 5: And I could have put Kemba Walker in that year
[40:08] Speaker 5: because he had dropped like 28, 29 a game for Charlotte.
[40:12] Speaker 2: I refused.
[40:13] Speaker 5: Not just because it was comparable, but I knew that
[40:16] Speaker 5: wasn't going to cost Kemba money. You're going to cost
[40:19] Speaker 5: Klay Thompson $ 30 million? He's a champion. I think at
[40:24] Speaker 5: the time it was three chips. He had three chips.
[40:28] Speaker 5: He's one of the Splash Brothers. Universally recognized one of
[40:31] Speaker 5: the greatest shooters ever in the history of the game.
[40:34] Speaker 5: First seven or eight years, shoot better than 40% for
[40:37] Speaker 5: a three-point range with Steph Curry as his superstar teammate.
[40:41] Speaker 5: And you're going to cost this brother $ 30 million. Now,
[40:45] Speaker 5: knowing you're going in to vote and knowing your vote
[40:48] Speaker 5: is going to cost him $ 30 million, there's nothing inside
[40:51] Speaker 5: of you that says, yo, man, I.
[40:52] Speaker 6: Got to help this brother get that $ 30 million.
[40:54] Speaker 5: Because he deserves it.
[40:55] Speaker 2: It ain't like he didn't earn it. He deserved it.
[40:58] Speaker 2: If that man hates the media for the.
[41:01] Speaker 5: Rest of his life, if I was Klay Thompson, you
[41:03] Speaker 5: know what I would do? Any media member that wanted
[41:04] Speaker 5: to talk to me, I would be like, you had that.
[41:05] Speaker 2: Vote that year? Who'd you vote for?
[41:08] Speaker 5: That's what I would do. I'd say, I want to
[41:09] Speaker 5: know who cost me that damn money. That would be me.
[41:12] Speaker 5: Because that shit was unforgivable. I will openly confess that.
[41:16] Speaker 5: We should not be messing with Kat's money like that.
[41:19] Speaker 5: We shouldn't have any say in that. I don't know
[41:22] Speaker 5: how that happened, honestly, but there's no reason, there's no.
[41:25] Speaker 2: Excuse for it. They don't want to have the responsibility.
[41:27] Speaker 2: They put the onus on y'all.
[41:29] Speaker 7: Yeah, I cannot blame them for that.
[41:31] Speaker 2: It ain't me. Listen, it ain't me. It's them.
[41:34] Speaker 7: Should it just stick to shoe contracts and bonuses versus
[41:38] Speaker 7: actual contract money on first team, second team, third team?
[41:44] Speaker 2: That is a problem where.
[41:47] Speaker 7: you're sitting there, I might have a great relationship with you,
[41:50] Speaker 7: he got the numbers, and I'm sitting here like, yeah,
[41:53] Speaker 7: he didn't give me an interview last week, fuck him.
[41:55] Speaker 2: You know what I mean? Because we know that too.
[41:58] Speaker 2: Or he didn't answer my question the way I wanted
[42:01] Speaker 2: him to answer the question. And we know that. Damn,
[42:03] Speaker 2: anything like, just hold on to that shit.
[42:06] Speaker 7: Should that be taken out of part of getting extra money?
[42:12] Speaker 5: You can make an argument for that because if you
[42:14] Speaker 5: can point to it costing cats money then i say
[42:20] Speaker 5: you do something about that if it if it warrants
[42:23] Speaker 5: that extreme measure you do it because that should what
[42:26] Speaker 5: you do on the court is what you do on
[42:28] Speaker 5: the court everybody can't make it everybody can't make first
[42:30] Speaker 5: second third team i understand that but i know this
[42:33] Speaker 5: much i should have no say in costing the cat
[42:37] Speaker 5: money yeah yeah yeah I should have no say in that.
[42:41] Speaker 2: That's wrong.
[42:42] Speaker 5: And I'm just, I've always been adamantly opposed to that.
[42:46] Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't like the supermax, right? Here's why. Let's
[42:50] Speaker 2: say I'm LaMelo Ball.
[42:52] Speaker 7: I don't make no all-star, I don't make all-NBA team
[42:54] Speaker 7: because of how you vote.
[42:56] Speaker 1: Right.
[42:57] Speaker 2: I'm a supermax to this fucking city.
[43:00] Speaker 1: Really?
[43:00] Speaker 2: I'm not a regular Max.
[43:02] Speaker 7: I am a super Max player to my city and
[43:06] Speaker 7: to the league itself. But there's only 15 names you
[43:09] Speaker 7: can pick.
[43:09] Speaker 2: Okay. Right?
[43:10] Speaker 7: And some of those guys is getting it because the
[43:12] Speaker 7: team wins. So as a player who's averaging 29, 8,
[43:15] Speaker 7: and 5, and y'all don't give it to me, I
[43:17] Speaker 7: am pissed off.
[43:18] Speaker 5: Well, I don't know anybody that's averaging 29 and ain't
[43:20] Speaker 5: making the first, second, or third team.
[43:22] Speaker 2: That's number one. What if they won 15 games? Yeah,
[43:25] Speaker 2: that's it. Remember Tracy McGrady? Tracy McGrady in Orlando.
[43:28] Speaker 5: And just so y'all know, just from my perspective, I
[43:31] Speaker 5: don't want to interrupt you, but just from my perspective,
[43:33] Speaker 5: let me say this.
[43:36] Speaker 2: There's a difference.
[43:37] Speaker 5: A star, when you start talking about superstars, right? Understand
[43:41] Speaker 5: where I'm coming from. This is where I'm coming from.
[43:42] Speaker 2: This is me.
[43:46] Speaker 5: There's a difference between a superstar player and a superstar. See,
[43:49] Speaker 5: when you want certain kind of money, I want you
[43:53] Speaker 5: to be box office. Because that's generating revenue for me.
[43:58] Speaker 5: You understand what I'm saying? Now, there's a number that
[44:02] Speaker 5: you should be paid based on your ability, your achievements,
[44:05] Speaker 5: your level of production. And then there's that other level where,
[44:08] Speaker 5: wait a minute now, that brother contributes to the bottom line.
[44:14] Speaker 5: Like when Kobe or LeBron or an MJ or various
[44:18] Speaker 5: others throughout history, Tim Duncan was a superstar player.
[44:22] Speaker 2: You didn't walk through the turnstiles to see Tim Duncan.
[44:24] Speaker 2: You knew he was great.
[44:25] Speaker 5: You knew he was going to win. But you didn't
[44:27] Speaker 5: walk through the turnstiles to see him. You walked through
[44:30] Speaker 5: the turnstiles to see Jack Diesel. You walked through the
[44:33] Speaker 5: turnstiles to see a Jason Kidd. You walked through the
[44:36] Speaker 5: turnstiles to see the Kobe's, the LeBron's.
[44:37] Speaker 2: The MJ's, cats like that.
[44:39] Speaker 5: You didn't walk through the turnstiles to see a Scottie Pippen. Talent-wise,
[44:43] Speaker 5: give him the max. But when you start talking superstar,
[44:50] Speaker 5: now it's like, Wait a minute. Are you box office?
[44:55] Speaker 5: I think there has to be a category for.
[44:57] Speaker 2: That, too.
[44:58] Speaker 7: But does that have to do with winning?
[45:01] Speaker 2: Security. Right? So, like, John Moran, right?
[45:05] Speaker 5: He's box office.
[45:06] Speaker 2: Okay. Right?
[45:07] Speaker 7: There's certain people that's box office, but, you know, the
[45:09] Speaker 7: winning and all that stuff.
[45:11] Speaker 3: You got the mask on.
[45:12] Speaker 5: Well, I only brought it up because you brought up
[45:13] Speaker 5: how you were talking about supermax cats, and I'm a
[45:17] Speaker 5: supermax in this city. Well, if you a supermax in
[45:20] Speaker 5: this city, then I should be making revenue because of you.
[45:25] Speaker 6: I'm not talking about.
[45:26] Speaker 2: Them numbers with the goddamn jerseys and this mellow ball.
[45:29] Speaker 2: John Moran's making that. You're going to make money in
[45:32] Speaker 2: that city. I don't know about that. Are they mad
[45:35] Speaker 2: at me, too, about that? No, but what I'm saying is...
[45:38] Speaker 2: They don't know about that. No, what I'm saying is JJJ, right?
[45:41] Speaker 7: He gets the defensive team or he makes the All-NBA. Yeah,
[45:44] Speaker 7: we know what that is. He's Supermax, right? But the
[45:46] Speaker 7: Supermax is John Moran. He is the superstar of the team.
[45:50] Speaker 2: Yes.
[45:50] Speaker 7: But the third option might be Supermax on the contract.
[45:54] Speaker 2: Yeah, he is too. Cemetery Larry, go ahead. But fortunately
[45:57] Speaker 2: for him. Unfortunately for them, but fortunately for him. Cemetery Larry,
[46:02] Speaker 2: sorry you're raising your hand. Let's go back to the vote, right? Okay.
[46:08] Speaker 4: How often is a member of the media manipulated into
[46:16] Speaker 4: changing their vote? by said reasons. Is there manipulation attached
[46:23] Speaker 4: to being a voter?
[46:26] Speaker 6: I need specific with that question.
[46:28] Speaker 2: Intimidation. Nah.
[46:31] Speaker 6: I can't imagine that.
[46:32] Speaker 2: Can't imagine that.
[46:33] Speaker 6: I can't imagine. Intimidation?
[46:34] Speaker 5: You intimidated into voting for one person over the other?
[46:38] Speaker 4: Or, you know, I run up on you and I
[46:40] Speaker 4: tell you, you know, a certain thing or two, and
[46:43] Speaker 4: I say, man... I would have considered voting for you
[46:48] Speaker 4: for MVP, but now I don't really like you like that.
[46:50] Speaker 2: I feel like you crossed the line.
[46:54] Speaker 4: Is there a biased judgment when it comes down to
[46:56] Speaker 4: media and player? When you talk about Charles Barkley, he
[47:01] Speaker 4: has a vote. Him and Kevin Durant don't really get along,
[47:05] Speaker 4: do they? He didn't get along with a lot of players.
[47:09] Speaker 4: Does that relationship matter?
[47:12] Speaker 5: With some, you're probably right. With me, it doesn't. I
[47:15] Speaker 5: don't give a shit whether I like you or not.
[47:16] Speaker 5: Your level of production speaks for itself. I'm not going
[47:19] Speaker 5: to shred my credibility by letting my personal feelings about
[47:22] Speaker 5: you interfere with my judgment about what everyone sees you do.
[47:27] Speaker 6: And there's no excuse for it.
[47:28] Speaker 5: As far as I'm concerned, a journalist that does that
[47:31] Speaker 5: shouldn't be allowed to vote. Matter of fact, I'd make
[47:33] Speaker 5: the argument they should be fired.
[47:36] Speaker 4: So how do we separate the player media dynamic when
[47:40] Speaker 4: it comes to personal and.
[47:45] Speaker 2: Let's just say, business. It's hard.
[47:50] Speaker 4: How do we not cross those lines?
[47:52] Speaker 5: There's lines that shouldn't be crossed, and the media's got
[47:54] Speaker 5: to call the media to the carpet for doing shit
[47:58] Speaker 5: like that.
[47:59] Speaker 2: It can't just be y'all as players.
[48:01] Speaker 5: We got to be able to do that, too.
[48:03] Speaker 2: So, therefore, we think whoever vote, we all should, that
[48:07] Speaker 2: shit should just be, put it all out there, right?
[48:10] Speaker 2: Whoever voted for who, everybody got to vote. we all
[48:13] Speaker 2: should know it, right?
[48:14] Speaker 5: I totally agree with that. I can't stand, I can't
[48:17] Speaker 5: stand confidential votes.
[48:19] Speaker 6: Nah, I totally agree with that.
[48:21] Speaker 2: Everybody that got a vote, we need, like, every single,
[48:24] Speaker 2: for whatever it is, put it out there, right?
[48:26] Speaker 6: I have no problem with that.
[48:28] Speaker 5: And I prove it.
[48:28] Speaker 2: Because they know how much money a motherfucker make every game, right?
[48:32] Speaker 5: I prove it because any vote that I make, I
[48:36] Speaker 5: put on national television.
[48:37] Speaker 2: Yeah, you always say so.
[48:38] Speaker 5: I always say, this is who I voted for. Here's why.
[48:40] Speaker 4: Do you think that MVP candidates deserve criticism?
[48:45] Speaker 5: I think anybody deserves criticism. Just because, just because you,
[48:49] Speaker 5: but just because you, I think this is the important part.
[48:53] Speaker 2: Criticize what people do.
[48:56] Speaker 5: Not who they are.
[48:56] Speaker 2: You don't fucking know them.
[48:58] Speaker 6: You understand what I'm saying?
[49:00] Speaker 5: Unless you have personal experience with them and you're able
[49:03] Speaker 5: to say, this is how I feel based on my
[49:07] Speaker 5: dealings with him, and you put that out there for
[49:10] Speaker 5: public consumption, you got no business.
[49:16] Speaker 6: Feeling any kind of way.
[49:17] Speaker 4: Do you think LeBron has been fairly criticized?
[49:20] Speaker 2: Sometimes. Do you think you've been fairly criticized? Me?
[49:24] Speaker 3: Yes.
[49:25] Speaker 5: I think I've been fairly criticized. I think at times,
[49:27] Speaker 5: where I have a problem with people criticizing me is
[49:32] Speaker 5: when you try, and I'm not talking about y'all, I'm
[49:35] Speaker 5: not talking about anybody. when you try to talk about
[49:38] Speaker 5: my character, who the hell I am, if you got
[49:40] Speaker 5: a problem with something I said, I'm good with that.
[49:45] Speaker 6: If you got a problem with my actions, I'm good
[49:47] Speaker 6: with that.
[49:49] Speaker 5: Because I'm going to either defend myself or I'm going
[49:51] Speaker 5: to have to own up like, yo, you right. But
[49:54] Speaker 5: when you act like you know me and you don't
[49:58] Speaker 5: take into account my history, I've been covering sports for
[50:02] Speaker 5: 30 years. And there's a I can't tell you the
[50:06] Speaker 5: shit that I don't say, that I don't touch. There
[50:09] Speaker 5: are lines I never, ever, ever crossed. And so when
[50:14] Speaker 5: somebody is talking about me like that, I'm like, yo.
[50:18] Speaker 2: Where you get that from? Are you the goat in
[50:20] Speaker 2: your industry? I leave that to other people to judge.
[50:23] Speaker 6: I know that I try to get.
[50:24] Speaker 2: Paid like that.
[50:25] Speaker 4: Do you feel like you've done some unprecedented things?
[50:28] Speaker 2: Yes. To pave the way? Yes.
[50:30] Speaker 5: That last word right there, to pave the way.
[50:32] Speaker 2: So you're a goat in your industry? Yep. There's a
[50:35] Speaker 2: golden hour industry. Yep. Right?
[50:37] Speaker 4: You're a reflection of that. So everything you criticize us for,
[50:43] Speaker 4: we get to now criticize you for.
[50:45] Speaker 3: Sure.
[50:45] Speaker 4: Because guess who's not above criticism? The criticizer.
[50:50] Speaker 3: Sure.
[50:50] Speaker 2: So we have to.
[50:51] Speaker 4: Bring the same response and energy as a player, right?
[50:55] Speaker 4: If we can't get on a podcast and articulate our
[50:58] Speaker 4: emotions about the shit you're saying about us properly.
[51:02] Speaker 2: i.e.
[51:02] Speaker 4: The Kwame Browns and all the other players that if
[51:06] Speaker 4: they say something back to the media about the media,
[51:09] Speaker 4: they get trumped, they get killed because I'm in contract.
[51:12] Speaker 2: Now I look disgruntled.
[51:13] Speaker 4: Now I'm defending myself against somebody that I want to
[51:16] Speaker 4: fight or feel some type of way about.
[51:18] Speaker 2: So us, we have to internalize that, right?
[51:22] Speaker 4: So when we see y'all in public, if we get
[51:23] Speaker 4: the opportunity to say something, goddamn, it's the only time
[51:27] Speaker 4: I'll actually get to say something. But now 360, we're
[51:31] Speaker 4: in the position now to say something and criticize you.
[51:35] Speaker 6: Can I come back?
[51:35] Speaker 2: Straightforward. Yeah.
[51:37] Speaker 4: So if we can criticize you now, and you can
[51:40] Speaker 4: criticize us for playing the victim for your criticism, we
[51:44] Speaker 4: too sensitive. You can't take that. But now it's back
[51:49] Speaker 4: on you now.
[51:49] Speaker 2: Okay.
[51:50] Speaker 4: You got to be able to take our criticism of
[51:52] Speaker 4: how you criticize us.
[51:53] Speaker 5: Well, I'm assuming you're talking about the industry.
[51:57] Speaker 6: Because you can't be talking about me.
[51:59] Speaker 4: I'm talking about everybody that criticizes.
[52:03] Speaker 2: Including us.
[52:04] Speaker 6: Well, hold on.
[52:05] Speaker 4: We criticize a lot of players. It is because we
[52:08] Speaker 4: play and we care. It's tough love. As players, we
[52:11] Speaker 4: don't like the outsiders saying certain things because they haven't played.
[52:15] Speaker 4: They're spectators. We respect the point of view. But when
[52:20] Speaker 4: we hear it, like you just said, you don't know me.
[52:25] Speaker 4: I'm looking at you in a reflection like, yeah, bro,
[52:27] Speaker 4: we feel the same way.
[52:29] Speaker 2: We got the same.
[52:30] Speaker 4: Energy you feel, but you get attacked way less because
[52:34] Speaker 4: the guys on your platform are not going to attack you.
[52:38] Speaker 2: Because you are ready to go. Who are the guys
[52:39] Speaker 2: on my platform? Who?
[52:40] Speaker 4: Well, the guys that are on your level, your playing field,
[52:42] Speaker 4: the Will Bonds and all of those guys.
[52:44] Speaker 2: You got one enemy. You know who he is. So
[52:48] Speaker 2: that's one guy. Right.
[52:49] Speaker 3: Right?
[52:50] Speaker 4: You look at all of the guys we criticize on
[52:52] Speaker 4: a daily basis, they hear us talking.
[52:56] Speaker 2: Right. They don't want to talk to us either. But
[52:58] Speaker 2: to see you get blackballed is because it's karma. Okay.
[53:02] Speaker 6: Can I respond?
[53:04] Speaker 5: First of all, When we talk about the media, I'll
[53:08] Speaker 5: get to me in a second. When you talk about
[53:11] Speaker 5: the media, here's the part that former players like yourself
[53:16] Speaker 5: don't realize. Y'all look at the media as the big
[53:22] Speaker 5: bully on the block sometimes. Y'all don't realize that in
[53:25] Speaker 5: this day and age, y'all are the big bullies. Because
[53:30] Speaker 5: as former players... Understand that the media industry has changed.
[53:36] Speaker 6: Print has dissipated dramatically.
[53:39] Speaker 5: Podcast ain't free. Most motherfuckers in the media don't make
[53:44] Speaker 5: that kind of paper. You don't have sponsors going to
[53:49] Speaker 5: newspaper reporters or local radio hosts or friend number podcasts
[53:55] Speaker 5: that could pay them seven figures. Motherfuckers out here making 75, $ 90, 000.
[54:01] Speaker 5: So I'm just saying.
[54:03] Speaker 2: Okay. I said the newspaper. I said newspaper. So what
[54:05] Speaker 2: I'm saying is, I said the newspaper folks. I ain't
[54:07] Speaker 2: saying y'all.
[54:08] Speaker 6: That's what I'm trying to tell you.
[54:10] Speaker 2: Do a little bit better. Stay with me.
[54:12] Speaker 5: So what I'm saying is when you talk about the
[54:15] Speaker 5: media industry, the potency and the power that the former
[54:19] Speaker 5: player has resonates significantly.
[54:22] Speaker 2: Why? Because you're players and you have credibility. Because you
[54:27] Speaker 2: have sponsors and.
[54:28] Speaker 5: Advertisers who know that they come to y'all instead of them.
[54:30] Speaker 5: Because y'all did it. They could it.
[54:33] Speaker 2: We could it. Right?
[54:34] Speaker 5: Then on top of it all, the industry has changed. Remember,
[54:39] Speaker 5: it was.
[54:39] Speaker 2: Com.
[54:40] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[54:40] Speaker 5: And then it became the podcast. And a whole bunch
[54:43] Speaker 5: of guys. Lord knows how many.
[54:45] Speaker 2: Hundreds of thousands of podcasts.
[54:48] Speaker 5: But everybody ain't Gil's Arena.
[54:50] Speaker 7: Right.
[54:50] Speaker 5: Everybody ain't about to touch on a million subscribers.
[54:53] Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
[54:53] Speaker 6: Everybody don't have. You know the sponsorship dollars.
[54:56] Speaker 5: Everybody don't have this. You see some of these motherfuckers
[54:59] Speaker 5: with a podcast. They sitting on the couch.
[55:01] Speaker 2: They got two seats. They got a little camera. You
[55:04] Speaker 2: know what I'm saying? They got a little microphone. Squeezing
[55:06] Speaker 2: in with.
[55:06] Speaker 6: One another trying to make sure they can be seen.
[55:08] Speaker 5: They ain't got it like that. You see what I'm saying?
[55:12] Speaker 5: And then on top of it all, the credibility... Is
[55:15] Speaker 5: it the same? Because y'all played and you were in
[55:18] Speaker 5: the locker room. So when you talk about the media,
[55:21] Speaker 5: you talk about the media like they the big bully
[55:22] Speaker 5: on the block. Most of the people in the media
[55:24] Speaker 5: looking at y'all like, ain't this some shit? Do y'all
[55:26] Speaker 5: realize who y'all are and.
[55:28] Speaker 2: What y'all doing?
[55:29] Speaker 5: Now we'll get to me. I'll talk about me now.
[55:32] Speaker 5: Obviously what the fuck I just said don't apply to me.
[55:35] Speaker 5: It's a little bit different.
[55:37] Speaker 2: You do have a show, though, on YouTube as well.
[55:39] Speaker 2: Over a million subscribers. That's right.
[55:41] Speaker 6: So I'm doing my thing.
[55:42] Speaker 3: Talk that talk.
[55:43] Speaker 2: I'm trying to catch you.
[55:44] Speaker 6: Now, listen, and I.
[55:46] Speaker 5: Hope you do.
[55:47] Speaker 2: I ain't here to hurt the show. I'm here to help.
[55:49] Speaker 5: I got love for y'all.
[55:50] Speaker 2: It ain't no good. Y'all get on me. That's all love.
[55:52] Speaker 3: I can't last.
[55:53] Speaker 5: If you right, you right.
[55:54] Speaker 2: I'll say so.
[55:55] Speaker 6: If you wrong, I'll challenge it.
[55:56] Speaker 2: It's just that simple.
[55:57] Speaker 5: But to get to me, now here's the deal. Am
[56:02] Speaker 5: I going to criticize?
[56:04] Speaker 2: Sure.
[56:05] Speaker 5: I focus on what you do, not who you are.
[56:08] Speaker 5: I remember when my man Ryan Clark for The Pivot
[56:11] Speaker 5: was interviewing Kwame Brown. I said to Ryan, if there's
[56:15] Speaker 5: one regret I had, Man, they still running memes of
[56:20] Speaker 5: my video. Man, that was 16, 17 years ago. I
[56:23] Speaker 5: didn't know it was going to resonate and be like that.
[56:27] Speaker 5: I was just speaking about, like, damn it. I didn't
[56:29] Speaker 5: think he was a great player. I mean, damn.
[56:31] Speaker 2: I wasn't alone.
[56:33] Speaker 5: Everybody was saying that.
[56:34] Speaker 7: But they held on to my meme, right?
[56:36] Speaker 5: But the reason why I brought up the whole Ryan
[56:38] Speaker 5: Clark thing, the reason why I held up the whole
[56:40] Speaker 5: Ryan Clark thing, do you know why? Ryan Clark allowed
[56:44] Speaker 5: this man to sit up there and say, I want
[56:47] Speaker 5: y'all to brace yourself.
[56:48] Speaker 6: Don't faint.
[56:50] Speaker 5: This man said I cost him endorsement dollars. And I'm
[56:57] Speaker 5: sitting there going like this. See, I can't because at
[57:00] Speaker 5: that moment, I'm looking at.
[57:03] Speaker 3: Yes!
[57:04] Speaker 2: Yes! Yes! I'm looking at this, right? And I'm going
[57:08] Speaker 2: like this, y'all.
[57:11] Speaker 6: I want to... And this is where I'm different.
[57:13] Speaker 5: I want to see what NBA player gonna sit back
[57:17] Speaker 5: And let this man get away with saying that shit.
[57:21] Speaker 1: Because.
[57:22] Speaker 2: This is... Come on, y'all.
[57:24] Speaker 5: You can hate on me.
[57:25] Speaker 2: You can.
[57:26] Speaker 5: Come on, y'all.
[57:27] Speaker 4: But sometimes that does happen, though.
[57:30] Speaker 5: I'm just saying to y'all, it's like.
[57:32] Speaker 2: Listen. Never.
[57:33] Speaker 5: Come on, man.
[57:34] Speaker 2: Never. Come on, man. No, the media can't... I was there.
[57:37] Speaker 5: Double down on that.
[57:39] Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying?
[57:41] Speaker 7: There was no sponsorship coming.
[57:42] Speaker 5: Come on, man.
[57:43] Speaker 2: It wasn't, but.
[57:44] Speaker 5: You gonna say that?
[57:46] Speaker 2: Double down? Stop it.
[57:47] Speaker 5: I'm like, I'm just saying.
[57:48] Speaker 2: It's like.
[57:50] Speaker 5: If we going to sit up there and talk about
[57:52] Speaker 5: being real, then let's be real and fair. I'm not
[57:56] Speaker 5: wrong all the fucking time. I mean, if Stephen A.
[58:00] Speaker 5: Wright say it, because if Kenyon or Rashad or you,
[58:04] Speaker 5: if you say something, I'm going like this. Shit, you
[58:06] Speaker 5: called me out for 130 days. You was on with
[58:08] Speaker 5: fucking Stephen A. Shit, you came on his show.
[58:11] Speaker 1: 138.
[58:11] Speaker 5: And I went like this.
[58:12] Speaker 2: He's right. He's right. Negotiations don't, but he's right.
[58:17] Speaker 5: So I'm like, you just going to let people say,
[58:20] Speaker 5: and I'm just using that as just one of many
[58:23] Speaker 5: examples where, yeah, I'm critiquing it, but I was sitting courtside.
[58:30] Speaker 5: I was a beat writer for years. For over a decade,
[58:34] Speaker 5: I'm at over 120 games a year. I'm in the
[58:38] Speaker 5: club afterwards, I'm on the streets afterwards, I'm, come on,
[58:40] Speaker 5: to access the information that I have and the shit
[58:43] Speaker 5: that I could have said, and I'm going like this,
[58:45] Speaker 5: all I'm talking about is your game.
[58:47] Speaker 2: Your game.
[58:48] Speaker 6: And so when cats.
[58:49] Speaker 5: Get sensitive and they get mad about that, I'm like, well,
[58:53] Speaker 5: I remember when Jordan got mad at me one time.
[58:55] Speaker 5: Last point, Jordan got mad at me one time. And
[58:58] Speaker 5: I literally looked at Michael Jordan, and I said, you
[59:00] Speaker 5: know what, fuck it, $ 250, 000.
[59:03] Speaker 6: He said, what? I said.
[59:04] Speaker 5: Because you want me to be your publicist. You don't
[59:08] Speaker 5: want me to be your journalist. You don't want me
[59:10] Speaker 5: to be somebody covering the damn league. You want me
[59:13] Speaker 5: to say what you want me to say. Can I
[59:14] Speaker 5: do my job? It's like I'm covering the game. I'm
[59:19] Speaker 5: covering the game. Now, if I don't, if y'all know
[59:23] Speaker 5: the difference, and when the cat crosses the line, shit,
[59:26] Speaker 5: y'all would check him in a heartbeat, and you should.
[59:29] Speaker 2: And you should.
[59:30] Speaker 5: But if it's confined to the game, can we deal
[59:33] Speaker 5: with the game and what was said as opposed to, nah,
[59:38] Speaker 5: I don't like that motherfucker.
[59:40] Speaker 7: That's exactly how it is. But, dude, can you... Go ahead.
[59:45] Speaker 7: Think about just growing up, period. Yeah. AAU, high school, college,
[59:50] Speaker 7: we're heroes. The first time we actually ever hear something negative.
[59:54] Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. is when we get to the NBA.
[59:56] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[59:57] Speaker 2: Right?
[59:57] Speaker 7: If we're going to get booed, we're going to be
[59:58] Speaker 7: booed on the road because we're good. So the first
[1:00:02] Speaker 7: time we hear some shit about us.
[1:00:04] Speaker 2: Right. is usually from a beat writer or in the news. Okay.
[1:00:08] Speaker 2: It can be 100% correct. Mm-hmm. I don't like you. Right.
[1:00:13] Speaker 1: Right? Yeah.
[1:00:14] Speaker 2: I took 35 shots. Yeah.
[1:00:15] Speaker 6: You called me out.
[1:00:17] Speaker 2: That means you got a problem now.
[1:00:18] Speaker 7: Right.
[1:00:19] Speaker 2: And that's just us. Right? You know what I mean?
[1:00:22] Speaker 2: So most of the time we're mad. We're mad because.
[1:00:25] Speaker 7: You're making us look at ourselves for no reason.
[1:00:27] Speaker 2: Yep. But in his case, like he stated, right, he
[1:00:31] Speaker 2: in the club with guys after the game. He's hanging
[1:00:33] Speaker 2: out with guys. He knows guys. He knows guys' homeboys
[1:00:38] Speaker 2: and their managers and their friends.
[1:00:40] Speaker 1: Family.
[1:00:41] Speaker 2: Family members. He knows them, right? So he's not, he shouldn't.
[1:00:47] Speaker 2: in some guy's eyes, go in there and say I
[1:00:50] Speaker 2: fucking played bad. So now they're taking it personal. I
[1:00:53] Speaker 2: dare this motherfucker. Just had drinks with him. We was
[1:00:57] Speaker 2: out till four in the morning. How the fuck he
[1:00:59] Speaker 2: think I was going to play?
[1:01:00] Speaker 5: How dare he go on the TV and say I
[1:01:02] Speaker 5: played bad?
[1:01:03] Speaker 2: I was with him. I was with him last night. Well,
[1:01:06] Speaker 2: it's never like that.
[1:01:06] Speaker 5: But what I'm saying is that.
[1:01:11] Speaker 6: My point and my argument, in fairness, in.
[1:01:14] Speaker 5: A roundabout way, because I used to have this issue
[1:01:17] Speaker 5: with AI. You know that's my man. And I'm like,
[1:01:22] Speaker 5: did I say anything about this, this, this, this or that?
[1:01:26] Speaker 6: All I said was, shit, you in a slump.
[1:01:29] Speaker 5: You playing like shit right now. That's it. You know why.
[1:01:34] Speaker 2: You know I didn't say why. We know why.
[1:01:36] Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying? I didn't say why. What's
[1:01:39] Speaker 5: the problem?
[1:01:40] Speaker 6: And that's where I'm going.
[1:01:41] Speaker 2: Go ahead. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Sean. I fucking dare not.
[1:01:44] Speaker 4: I just have to say, man, I'm disappointed in you, Steve,
[1:01:49] Speaker 4: because I'm little Steve right now in this space.
[1:01:56] Speaker 2: Okay. I used to play ball. You used to be
[1:02:01] Speaker 2: all right.
[1:02:02] Speaker 6: Won the national championship.
[1:02:03] Speaker 4: And I remember when I won the championship and I
[1:02:05] Speaker 4: was getting drafted, there was only one guy that spoke
[1:02:08] Speaker 4: good about me that whole time. And I was getting drafted,
[1:02:12] Speaker 4: walking on that stage, and that voice was Stephen A.
[1:02:15] Speaker 2: Smith. I can't believe McCance is still over there. The
[1:02:19] Speaker 2: national champion.
[1:02:20] Speaker 4: He gave me a whole monologue about when he gets
[1:02:23] Speaker 4: to Minnesota, he plays next to Kevin Garnett, he going
[1:02:27] Speaker 4: to tear it up. All he got to do is
[1:02:29] Speaker 4: show up. Now I'm looking at this space. The only
[1:02:33] Speaker 4: thing that disappointed me is what happened the other night.
[1:02:36] Speaker 4: And you held this standard of being a strong stand-up nigga.
[1:02:40] Speaker 4: I'm going to stand ten toes no matter who come
[1:02:43] Speaker 4: at me. And you've always done that. And I think
[1:02:46] Speaker 4: that I presented myself as the same type of nigga.
[1:02:51] Speaker 4: And I think they're scared of me because your only
[1:02:53] Speaker 4: flaw is that you didn't play. Guess what I did?
[1:02:57] Speaker 4: So I'm the Stephen A that played. that got stats.
[1:03:03] Speaker 4: Imagine how hated I am gonna be when I come.
[1:03:05] Speaker 2: For your spot, boy. I want 100 million too.
[1:03:11] Speaker 4: So you can't be bowing down and no king we
[1:03:14] Speaker 4: going to conquer.
[1:03:16] Speaker 2: So, Let's talk about that real quick. Sure, no problem.
[1:03:19] Speaker 1: But by now, everyone knows about the situation with you
[1:03:21] Speaker 1: and LeBron.
[1:03:22] Speaker 2: Is that the biggest thing you should have ever seen? Thursday,
[1:03:25] Speaker 2: let me get to this, let me get to this.
[1:03:29] Speaker 1: By now, everybody knows about the situation with you and LeBron.
[1:03:31] Speaker 1: Last Thursday, Knicks-Lakers game in Staples Center during a stoppage
[1:03:35] Speaker 1: in play. We've got the video as a reminder for viewers.
[1:03:37] Speaker 1: During a stoppage in play between third and fourth quarter.
[1:03:39] Speaker 1: LeBron pulled up on you, you know, wanted some smoke
[1:03:43] Speaker 1: with you.
[1:03:44] Speaker 2: Brief interaction.
[1:03:45] Speaker 1: Obviously, LeBron took issue with things that you have said,
[1:03:48] Speaker 1: particularly about him and Bronny, right? So here's the clip.
[1:03:52] Speaker 1: It was very quick. Tried to get the lip reading.
[1:03:54] Speaker 1: I hope the Legends got at least close to what happened.
[1:03:57] Speaker 1: But I want to spin it forward to the Lakers-Celtics
[1:04:00] Speaker 1: game on Saturday. Before the game, the ESPN Twitter account
[1:04:04] Speaker 1: posted a clip of Richard Jefferson and LeBron talking before
[1:04:06] Speaker 1: the game.
[1:04:07] Speaker 2: The Legends, once again, on it.
[1:04:09] Speaker 1: They seem to be talking about that situation that went
[1:04:11] Speaker 1: down on Thursday.
[1:04:13] Speaker 2: During the Lakers. Obviously, the Lakers won that game. You
[1:04:15] Speaker 2: were there. You saw Luke out there cooking LeBron as well.
[1:04:17] Speaker 2: But that's neither here nor there.
[1:04:18] Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. But you addressed it on Friday, first take, and
[1:04:22] Speaker 1: on the Stephen A. Smith show, your podcast on YouTube.
[1:04:25] Speaker 1: You addressed LeBron and RJ Exchange on Monday on your show.
[1:04:28] Speaker 1: So what do you make of LeBron confronting you in
[1:04:31] Speaker 1: the aftermath of that situation?
[1:04:33] Speaker 5: I thought it was weak. I thought it was some bullshit.
[1:04:39] Speaker 5: But in the moment, I knew that I was listening
[1:04:45] Speaker 5: to a father.
[1:04:47] Speaker 2: Here's what happened.
[1:04:50] Speaker 6: I'm represented by William Morris Endeavor. The founder of William
[1:04:53] Speaker 6: Morris Endeavor, Ari Emanuel.
[1:04:56] Speaker 5: Had courtside seats right next to the Lakers bench. He
[1:05:01] Speaker 5: had Larry David with him, star of Kirby Enthusiasm. I'm
[1:05:07] Speaker 5: sitting with them. I get there in the first quarter.
[1:05:11] Speaker 5: I'm sitting courtside. And I stand up, and then I
[1:05:16] Speaker 5: got my head turned. And then I turned back around,
[1:05:20] Speaker 5: and a lot of people thought this was the end
[1:05:22] Speaker 5: of the game or something like that.
[1:05:24] Speaker 6: This was in the third quarter.
[1:05:28] Speaker 5: Apparently, LeBron had walked out of the timeout, and I
[1:05:33] Speaker 5: turned around, and he's right here in my face. He said, yo,
[1:05:38] Speaker 5: you got to stop talking shit about my son. You
[1:05:40] Speaker 5: got to stop fucking with my son. That's my son.
[1:05:43] Speaker 5: That's my son.
[1:05:44] Speaker 2: And I was like, what? He said, nah, fuck that.
[1:05:47] Speaker 5: I said, yo, let's talk later.
[1:05:49] Speaker 6: He said, fuck that. Nah, fuck that.
[1:05:51] Speaker 2: You got to stop fucking with my son.
[1:05:53] Speaker 6: And I said, all right, though.
[1:05:55] Speaker 2: And he walked off.
[1:05:57] Speaker 5: So I remember during a time out in the first
[1:06:03] Speaker 5: quarter seeing Bronny. And Bronny looked over at me. And
[1:06:09] Speaker 5: he had this sad look on his face. And I'm
[1:06:12] Speaker 5: imagining Pop saw that shit and it hit him. And
[1:06:18] Speaker 5: he couldn't hold it and he rolled up on me.
[1:06:21] Speaker 5: And so when I went on the air the next morning,
[1:06:25] Speaker 5: first things first, believe it or not, I know this
[1:06:27] Speaker 5: is shocking for people to believe, but I didn't have
[1:06:30] Speaker 5: any intentions on talking about it until I woke up
[1:06:33] Speaker 5: that morning and saw that the shit had gone viral.
[1:06:36] Speaker 5: Once the shit had gone viral, the bosses at ESPN said,
[1:06:40] Speaker 5: now you got to talk about it. This is you
[1:06:43] Speaker 5: and him.
[1:06:45] Speaker 2: You got to talk about it.
[1:06:46] Speaker 6: I said, fine.
[1:06:48] Speaker 5: So I go on the air and I said, the
[1:06:49] Speaker 5: first thing that I'm going to do is establish that
[1:06:54] Speaker 5: this was a father talking to me, not a player.
[1:06:59] Speaker 5: And that was what threw me off. And I was glad,
[1:07:03] Speaker 5: even though I thought that he misrepresented the argument. I
[1:07:07] Speaker 5: was glad he did. Because you see, what he was
[1:07:11] Speaker 5: really talking about, which was confirmed with his conversation with
[1:07:14] Speaker 5: Richard Jefferson, is that I was talking about him as
[1:07:19] Speaker 5: a father. And so what happens is that had he
[1:07:22] Speaker 5: said that to me, then I wouldn't have been thrown off.
[1:07:27] Speaker 2: I'd have came right back at him. Yes, I was.
[1:07:30] Speaker 5: I was talking about you. You did this shit. which
[1:07:34] Speaker 5: I'll get to in a second. But because he didn't
[1:07:36] Speaker 5: do that, I said, fine, you let it go. Mind you,
[1:07:42] Speaker 5: I just agreed to my contract. Of course, that day
[1:07:46] Speaker 5: was when it was announced. It's all over, all over, everywhere.
[1:07:51] Speaker 5: I'll be right. It's a nationally televised game. The cameras
[1:07:57] Speaker 5: are rolling. And I'm like, if I do anything, this
[1:08:00] Speaker 5: is going to be a scene. Now, We can sit
[1:08:03] Speaker 5: up here in front all we want to and act
[1:08:05] Speaker 5: like we don't work for somebody. Damn it, I work
[1:08:08] Speaker 5: for Walt Disney. And if I had gotten into some
[1:08:12] Speaker 5: shit with him at courtside right there at that moment,
[1:08:16] Speaker 5: no matter how right I would have been, it would
[1:08:18] Speaker 5: have been wrong. And I was like, I'm not going
[1:08:21] Speaker 5: to do this. But once I saw the tape, of
[1:08:27] Speaker 5: him talking to Richard Jefferson Saturday night in Boston, that
[1:08:32] Speaker 5: was when I got really pissed because that was confirmation.
[1:08:35] Speaker 5: Now let's get.
[1:08:36] Speaker 6: To the father thing.
[1:08:37] Speaker 5: And I want, and I definitely, I'm so glad y'all
[1:08:40] Speaker 5: asked me about this shit because all I would ask
[1:08:44] Speaker 5: is that I've been around for 30 years. Tell me
[1:08:46] Speaker 5: the parent that said they heard me talking about them.
[1:08:49] Speaker 5: I've never done it. What happened was this man was
[1:08:53] Speaker 5: the one that said, You want me drafted?
[1:09:00] Speaker 2: Him.
[1:09:01] Speaker 5: I'll come play anywhere he's at. It ain't even about
[1:09:04] Speaker 5: the money. This man is the one who said he
[1:09:09] Speaker 5: better than some of the NBA players are right now
[1:09:13] Speaker 5: when he was in high school. If you go back
[1:09:16] Speaker 5: and look at the tape, back.
[1:09:18] Speaker 6: Then I said, stop.
[1:09:22] Speaker 5: You can't do this.
[1:09:24] Speaker 2: If you do that shit, you're.
[1:09:26] Speaker 5: Bringing more pressure on your son. LeBron, stop. I said
[1:09:31] Speaker 5: it then. This is before he got drafted. Stop doing this.
[1:09:36] Speaker 5: He goes to USC.
[1:09:38] Speaker 6: He got the heart ailment. I'm like, thank God he's OK.
[1:09:43] Speaker 5: He going to be all right. But I'm not going
[1:09:47] Speaker 5: to go see him at USC just like I didn't
[1:09:50] Speaker 5: go see him at Sierra Canyon because I ain't seen
[1:09:53] Speaker 5: Melo's son. I heard your son is all world. I
[1:09:56] Speaker 5: ain't seen him.
[1:09:57] Speaker 2: Your son.
[1:09:58] Speaker 5: I never saw these guys until they came pro because
[1:10:02] Speaker 5: I know.
[1:10:02] Speaker 2: What's wrong with USC? No, no, no.
[1:10:03] Speaker 5: It's not that.
[1:10:04] Speaker 2: I don't want.
[1:10:05] Speaker 5: I know that because of who I am and what
[1:10:08] Speaker 5: I've established for myself in this industry, if I walk
[1:10:11] Speaker 5: into an arena... Everybody is looking for me to critique
[1:10:15] Speaker 5: that person. And I don't want to do that because
[1:10:18] Speaker 5: they want to come up.
[1:10:19] Speaker 2: I don't want to.
[1:10:19] Speaker 6: I'm not covering college.
[1:10:20] Speaker 2: I'm covering pro. And their kids. Huh?
[1:10:22] Speaker 5: And their kids.
[1:10:23] Speaker 2: Well, I'm saying that. But if I was a college reporter,
[1:10:26] Speaker 2: then I would have had to. But I wasn't. So
[1:10:28] Speaker 2: why am I going to be there? I didn't want
[1:10:29] Speaker 2: to put that extra pressure.
[1:10:31] Speaker 5: So I never went. I went on national television and
[1:10:33] Speaker 5: announced to the world, I'm not going to see him.
[1:10:36] Speaker 2: He goes to USC.
[1:10:37] Speaker 5: I'm not going to see him. It's too much. It's
[1:10:40] Speaker 5: too much.
[1:10:40] Speaker 6: And then now he's.
[1:10:41] Speaker 5: Got to overcome this heart ailment, so I can't judge him.
[1:10:44] Speaker 5: But then they said, oh, he going pro. So then
[1:10:48] Speaker 5: once you say he's going pro, okay, you're talking to
[1:10:51] Speaker 5: the scouts and the evaluators and everybody else. Yo, man,
[1:10:55] Speaker 5: this is them.
[1:10:56] Speaker 6: He'll be lucky to be a second-round pick.
[1:10:59] Speaker 2: He'll be lucky.
[1:11:00] Speaker 5: He ain't ready.
[1:11:01] Speaker 2: Blah, blah, blah.
[1:11:02] Speaker 5: And I'm like, I ain't seen him, y'all. I haven't
[1:11:04] Speaker 5: seen him. Then all of a sudden... Rich Paul and
[1:11:08] Speaker 5: others at Clutch. And then the story headlines follow. Boston
[1:11:12] Speaker 5: might be interested. Golden State might be interested.
[1:11:15] Speaker 6: Phoenix might be. Clippers might be.
[1:11:16] Speaker 5: You start hearing all of this and you're like, I,
[1:11:20] Speaker 5: you know, this could be true or this could be
[1:11:22] Speaker 5: them wielding their magic to make.
[1:11:24] Speaker 2: It look such a way. I say nothing.
[1:11:28] Speaker 5: He gets drafted by the Lakers, which everybody knew was
[1:11:31] Speaker 5: going to happen because, you know, the skids were greased
[1:11:35] Speaker 5: and he gets drafted. I still say nothing.
[1:11:38] Speaker 2: He goes into the, it's open at night.
[1:11:42] Speaker 5: Now remember, most cats talk about the leak. I cover it.
[1:11:49] Speaker 5: What I mean by that is that you can give
[1:11:51] Speaker 5: your opinion. You might not be on the phone with
[1:11:55] Speaker 5: the commissioner. You might not be on the phone with
[1:11:57] Speaker 5: the executive VP. You might not be on the phone
[1:12:00] Speaker 5: with other people that work in these offices.
[1:12:02] Speaker 2: I am.
[1:12:03] Speaker 5: So because of that, I'm hearing all of this.
[1:12:07] Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, we're just going to go.
[1:12:08] Speaker 2: Along with it.
[1:12:09] Speaker 6: Open the night, I'm talking about. Open the night.
[1:12:11] Speaker 5: We're just going to go along with it. Or you're
[1:12:15] Speaker 5: hearing the Lakers are just going along with it. You're
[1:12:17] Speaker 5: hearing this stuff. Now, I'm not saying they told me that,
[1:12:20] Speaker 5: meaning the Commissioner or Jeannie Buss, but I'm saying you're
[1:12:22] Speaker 5: hearing that from those organizations. So I'm getting all of this.
[1:12:26] Speaker 5: I still say nothing. I'm at Crypto.com Arena. I'm one
[1:12:30] Speaker 5: of those cats standing there.
[1:12:32] Speaker 2: Staple Center.
[1:12:32] Speaker 5: Ken Griffey, senior and junior, who all-stars... Hall of Famer
[1:12:38] Speaker 5: and King Griffey Jr. They got them there.
[1:12:41] Speaker 6: And, again, I've been covering it for 30 years. Not NBA.
[1:12:45] Speaker 2: Sports. You understand?
[1:12:48] Speaker 5: So how you think it's all looking to me? It's
[1:12:50] Speaker 5: a little bit too choreographed.
[1:12:52] Speaker 2: But I'm still. I'm still like this. Congratulations.
[1:12:58] Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying? Because I'm thinking let's have
[1:13:02] Speaker 5: this moment because LeBron deserves it. The brother, I got
[1:13:06] Speaker 5: him number two all time behind Jordan, right? He's done
[1:13:11] Speaker 5: so much for the league. He's generated so much money.
[1:13:13] Speaker 5: I want to hear about Bronny and the $ 8 million
[1:13:15] Speaker 5: as far as I'm concerned LeBron underpaid. Shit, that's $ 8
[1:13:18] Speaker 5: million he should have had in his pocket.
[1:13:20] Speaker 2: It's no big deal to me.
[1:13:21] Speaker 5: But the one thing I did say was that one
[1:13:25] Speaker 5: game right there is the moment. Now you got to
[1:13:28] Speaker 5: go to the G League and earn your stripes. Instead,
[1:13:33] Speaker 5: he's playing. And playing.
[1:13:36] Speaker 2: And playing.
[1:13:38] Speaker 5: And I'm getting stats. And he go against Philly. They
[1:13:45] Speaker 5: put him in in the first quarter. And Tyrese and
[1:13:50] Speaker 5: them gave it to him. And then they plaster on
[1:13:54] Speaker 5: SportsCenter 0.3 points.
[1:13:57] Speaker 6: 0.3 rebounds.
[1:13:57] Speaker 2: 0.4 assists. Blah, blah, blah. And I said, Damn. Why?
[1:14:07] Speaker 5: Because I'm like, now I can't ignore it. Because how
[1:14:13] Speaker 5: am I doing my job? If now you put me
[1:14:16] Speaker 5: in a position where because they put the stats up,
[1:14:20] Speaker 5: everyone is blowing it up.
[1:14:23] Speaker 2: They're putting it on all their social media pages.
[1:14:26] Speaker 5: And it's like, how all of that's happening? But Stephen A.
[1:14:30] Speaker 5: Smith got nothing to say. I can't get away with
[1:14:33] Speaker 5: it no more. So I go on the air and
[1:14:35] Speaker 5: I say the same thing I said over the summer.
[1:14:41] Speaker 6: Yo, LeBron, if we see.
[1:14:44] Speaker 5: This, you're his dad and you're a basketball savant.
[1:14:49] Speaker 2: You must see this. Don't do this.
[1:14:54] Speaker 5: Because you're putting him under such a microscope. it's going
[1:14:58] Speaker 5: to be too much for him to overcome.
[1:15:00] Speaker 2: Give him a chance.
[1:15:02] Speaker 5: So that's what I said. And because I prefaced it
[1:15:05] Speaker 5: by saying as a dad, the only reason I said
[1:15:08] Speaker 5: as a dad is because you marketed yourself as his
[1:15:13] Speaker 5: dad to help him get into the league. You didn't
[1:15:16] Speaker 5: do that. Melo didn't do that. Or hasn't yet. And
[1:15:21] Speaker 5: I know he wouldn't.
[1:15:22] Speaker 2: D-Wade.
[1:15:22] Speaker 5: D-Wade.
[1:15:24] Speaker 2: Tim Hardaway Sr.
[1:15:26] Speaker 5: Rick Barry, the list goes. None of them did that.
[1:15:30] Speaker 5: None of them.
[1:15:31] Speaker 2: He's the only one.
[1:15:32] Speaker 5: And I said, yo, that's why I'm saying this to you.
[1:15:36] Speaker 5: I don't want to do this. I know your intentions
[1:15:38] Speaker 5: are honorable. Go back and watch the whole tape of
[1:15:40] Speaker 5: me saying it. I know your intentions are honorable. I
[1:15:43] Speaker 5: know you don't mean harm. But there's some vultures out
[1:15:47] Speaker 5: here and they're going to come for him. And how
[1:15:50] Speaker 5: many times over the years to get to your point
[1:15:53] Speaker 5: in terms of what you asked me about what you
[1:15:55] Speaker 5: expect from.
[1:15:55] Speaker 2: Me, Stephen A., blah, blah.
[1:15:57] Speaker 5: How many?
[1:15:58] Speaker 2: Find the brothers in.
[1:15:59] Speaker 5: The industry that will tell you I did not give
[1:16:03] Speaker 5: them a lookout. I go up to them all and say, yo,
[1:16:06] Speaker 5: come here. I'm not going to be able to help
[1:16:08] Speaker 5: you if you get to this point. You need to
[1:16:11] Speaker 5: stop this shit right now because it's coming.
[1:16:14] Speaker 2: It's coming. It's coming.
[1:16:16] Speaker 5: That to me is where I reach back and I
[1:16:20] Speaker 5: pay back by giving cast the heads up of the
[1:16:23] Speaker 5: minefields because I've been here for 30 years.
[1:16:25] Speaker 2: I got fired.
[1:16:26] Speaker 5: I lost my job. They thought my career was over.
[1:16:28] Speaker 5: I've been through all of this shit.
[1:16:30] Speaker 2: All of it.
[1:16:30] Speaker 5: And I'm like, yo, I know where the minefields lie.
[1:16:33] Speaker 5: And I'm telling you what's coming. And then this shit
[1:16:37] Speaker 5: go down and everybody act like I never said none
[1:16:40] Speaker 5: of this. I'm like, I said, this is fucked up.
[1:16:43] Speaker 5: Because it's all on tape. If you go back I
[1:16:47] Speaker 5: gave the heads up.
[1:16:48] Speaker 2: That's too easy for people to do. That's too easy
[1:16:49] Speaker 2: for people to do. Right.
[1:16:50] Speaker 3: So we shouldn't uplift our kids? Like, we can't talk about.
[1:16:52] Speaker 5: I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you.
[1:16:53] Speaker 2: You said what? We can't uplift our kids.
[1:16:56] Speaker 4: We can't say he's better than some of the players
[1:16:57] Speaker 4: in the league.
[1:16:58] Speaker 2: But you gotta be truthful. What you mean truthful?
[1:17:02] Speaker 3: It's my son.
[1:17:02] Speaker 2: I think your son is good regardless of not. I
[1:17:06] Speaker 2: don't give a fuck, but it's not... Your son suck,
[1:17:08] Speaker 2: he suck. No, no, no. Not in his heart. Yeah,
[1:17:12] Speaker 2: I understand. You can be that dad, but you made
[1:17:15] Speaker 2: it to the high... You're not trying to live... But
[1:17:17] Speaker 2: you're not trying to live vicariously. You're not trying to...
[1:17:20] Speaker 2: So obviously he don't suck. You're not trying to live
[1:17:22] Speaker 2: vicariously to your son.
[1:17:23] Speaker 4: I'm seeing something that y'all seeing now, and I've seen it.
[1:17:27] Speaker 2: I'm not saying Bronnie suck, but I'm just saying... But
[1:17:30] Speaker 2: you just tell me I can't help my child. Yes,
[1:17:32] Speaker 2: you can be that. Listen, I coach lowly rec girls basketball, right?
[1:17:41] Speaker 2: Trust me when I tell you. Some of them parents
[1:17:45] Speaker 2: being there cheering their fucking heart out for their child.
[1:17:48] Speaker 3: You supposed to, shit. It's my child.
[1:17:51] Speaker 2: You see that product. They ain't got nobody athletic in
[1:17:57] Speaker 2: they family tree. Whoa, whoa, man. They looking for an anomaly.
[1:18:01] Speaker 4: They ain't got athletic bone in they body.
[1:18:04] Speaker 2: They ain't got athletic bone in they family tree. And
[1:18:07] Speaker 2: they got they child out here and they out in
[1:18:09] Speaker 2: them motherfuckers with signs and shit. Go get them.
[1:18:13] Speaker 4: But all I'm saying, this all started when you said
[1:18:17] Speaker 4: my child is better.
[1:18:18] Speaker 3: Than some of the players in the NBA.
[1:18:19] Speaker 2: They don't mean that. Wait, don't you coach your son
[1:18:21] Speaker 2: on the girls' team? No, no, no. Oh, oh, oh.
[1:18:23] Speaker 2: This boy, he respect me, fool. He respect me. No,
[1:18:26] Speaker 2: I thought. No, no, they ain't going to do this
[1:18:27] Speaker 2: in front of Stephen A. No, this is not. No,
[1:18:29] Speaker 2: I thought. We got company. We got company. No, don't
[1:18:32] Speaker 2: y'all play in the same league? I got a six-year-old son. Yeah,
[1:18:35] Speaker 2: my son. He got a son.
[1:18:37] Speaker 1: Oh.
[1:18:38] Speaker 2: No, I got a, no, fool. I thought you was coaching.
[1:18:41] Speaker 2: Ass boy.
[1:18:42] Speaker 5: But the other part that I would bring to you,
[1:18:44] Speaker 5: the other part I would bring to you, Swag.
[1:18:46] Speaker 2: Is this. That's all I'm saying, Because you.
[1:18:48] Speaker 5: Played in the NBA, it ain't just about how you feel.
[1:18:52] Speaker 5: It's about how you know what's coming.
[1:18:54] Speaker 2: And then I got to know.
[1:18:55] Speaker 5: And so now, as a parent, you got an obligation
[1:18:59] Speaker 5: to protect from what's coming.
[1:19:03] Speaker 2: To your point, right? I used to tell KJ all
[1:19:06] Speaker 2: the time, internally, I see it. You have what it
[1:19:08] Speaker 2: takes to play in the NBA. Right. All you got
[1:19:11] Speaker 2: to do is keep getting better. Right. Right? This is
[1:19:15] Speaker 2: my whole message. Right. Keep getting better. Right. And I'm
[1:19:19] Speaker 2: pretty sure Bron is telling Bronny the same thing, but
[1:19:24] Speaker 2: it was interrupted. Not saying that he can't get there,
[1:19:28] Speaker 2: that he would never get there. I think he got
[1:19:30] Speaker 2: a chance. But it was interrupted. And they pivoted. And
[1:19:34] Speaker 2: they pivoted in a way that we all said. We
[1:19:39] Speaker 2: all took pause in it, right? We're like, but that's
[1:19:42] Speaker 2: their family. That's their decision. So we all going to
[1:19:45] Speaker 2: sit back and whatever comes with it, comes with it.
[1:19:49] Speaker 2: And I'm the same way that sit on this couch
[1:19:51] Speaker 2: and say, we're going to treat him as the 55th pick, right?
[1:19:56] Speaker 2: My son was the 52nd pick. I fucking get it, right?
[1:20:01] Speaker 2: It worked out for KJ in year five. He listened,
[1:20:04] Speaker 2: he got better, he did things, he was in a
[1:20:06] Speaker 2: decent situation to play. It just, right? It's just unfortunate
[1:20:11] Speaker 2: my name ain't to that. Everything that KJ has done,
[1:20:16] Speaker 2: everything that he's doing is being critiqued.
[1:20:18] Speaker 1: But it's help.
[1:20:18] Speaker 5: It's help because with you, you were.
[1:20:21] Speaker 2: A rough rider.
[1:20:22] Speaker 5: Everybody know you could defend your ass off.
[1:20:24] Speaker 2: Everybody, you wasn't.
[1:20:25] Speaker 5: Scared of shit.
[1:20:26] Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying?
[1:20:27] Speaker 5: You wasn't going to be some soft ass playing alongside you.
[1:20:30] Speaker 5: You wasn't having it. No one disrespects your son.
[1:20:36] Speaker 2: Because they're scared of him. Just tell him. But no,
[1:20:38] Speaker 2: it's not about being scared of him.
[1:20:40] Speaker 5: No, no, no. It's his makeup.
[1:20:41] Speaker 2: Tell him he's a bully. No, no.
[1:20:43] Speaker 5: It's his makeup.
[1:20:44] Speaker 2: If you don't tell him, he's going to make sure
[1:20:45] Speaker 2: you tell him. That you was a bully. Tell him
[1:20:47] Speaker 2: he's a bully. Tell him he's a bully. But what
[1:20:48] Speaker 2: I'm saying is... So he comes into the league, but
[1:20:50] Speaker 2: it's not just about respect for him as a player.
[1:20:52] Speaker 5: It's respect for how he handled.
[1:21:03] Speaker 2: His son coming into the league.
[1:21:06] Speaker 5: Listen, you talk, I had to ask you about your
[1:21:10] Speaker 5: son the other day. I've been hearing about his son
[1:21:12] Speaker 5: for a while. I had to ask him about him.
[1:21:15] Speaker 5: You got to ask, I mean, Melo, listen to Melo
[1:21:18] Speaker 5: talk about how he had to step back. You know
[1:21:20] Speaker 5: he was desperate for his son to go to Syracuse,
[1:21:22] Speaker 5: but he didn't want.
[1:21:23] Speaker 2: To influence him.
[1:21:23] Speaker 5: You said, Melo never talked about his son like that.
[1:21:27] Speaker 6: You had to ask him.
[1:21:28] Speaker 5: And so you see a lot of this stuff happen,
[1:21:31] Speaker 5: and then you see this. And I'm like, so as
[1:21:34] Speaker 5: a media member now, this is the part y'all may
[1:21:37] Speaker 5: not take into consideration. You don't have to care, but
[1:21:40] Speaker 5: we do. If I don't say nothing. Wait a minute now.
[1:21:45] Speaker 5: I ought to say something about somebody else. I ought
[1:21:51] Speaker 5: to say something before.
[1:21:55] Speaker 2: How long am.
[1:21:57] Speaker 5: I supposed to go without doing my job? The brother
[1:22:02] Speaker 5: is in the NBA. He is wearing a Lakers uniform.
[1:22:07] Speaker 5: So it's like, wait a minute here. You got to
[1:22:12] Speaker 5: a point where it left you no choice. So then
[1:22:15] Speaker 5: all you could do is speak respectfully, but honestly. And
[1:22:18] Speaker 5: then everybody was caught up in as a father, as
[1:22:22] Speaker 5: a father, as a father. And I'm like, come on, man.
[1:22:24] Speaker 2: Come on, man. This is how simple it goes. It
[1:22:27] Speaker 2: goes this simple. Please. Let's see. you've always been stand
[1:22:32] Speaker 2: up Steve.
[1:22:33] Speaker 4: So whenever there's a situation that we looking to Steve
[1:22:37] Speaker 4: to stand up, and they're trying to take that away
[1:22:40] Speaker 4: from you, you gotta look at it. From my perspective,
[1:22:43] Speaker 4: I'm like, I'm always the one that's gonna say something.
[1:22:48] Speaker 2: Right?
[1:22:49] Speaker 4: And I'm going to be always the one that's the hater.
[1:22:52] Speaker 4: Because what I'm saying is in opposition to what everyone
[1:22:55] Speaker 4: either believes or has been told. So I've always taken
[1:22:59] Speaker 4: the Stephen A.
[1:23:00] Speaker 2: Smith seat. Okay. I'm going to say it. Yeah, I
[1:23:03] Speaker 2: said it.
[1:23:04] Speaker 4: I know some of y'all feel that way, and I
[1:23:07] Speaker 4: know some of y'all watching what I'm watching.
[1:23:09] Speaker 2: But it's not a critique. It's just what I'm seeing.
[1:23:12] Speaker 2: It's an observation. What if somebody want to play with
[1:23:13] Speaker 2: their brother like that?
[1:23:15] Speaker 3: The asses.
[1:23:15] Speaker 2: The asses. The asses.
[1:23:17] Speaker 5: He took up a roster spot.
[1:23:18] Speaker 2: Who didn't? Who didn't? You weren't on the show then.
[1:23:20] Speaker 2: Justin Holliday. They got criticized, bro. I said he was
[1:23:23] Speaker 2: taking up a goddamn roster spot. What's wrong with wanting
[1:23:26] Speaker 2: to play with somebody you love? When J.R. Smith, J.R.
[1:23:30] Speaker 2: Smith and Chris Smith. J.R. Smith. He got criticized for that.
[1:23:33] Speaker 4: No, you're not in the media like every day, like
[1:23:36] Speaker 4: five years.
[1:23:37] Speaker 5: Their dad is in LeBron James.
[1:23:41] Speaker 2: He's not in the go-to thing.
[1:23:43] Speaker 5: In a couple ways. Giannis is a bad example. Giannis
[1:23:49] Speaker 5: is a bad example.
[1:23:49] Speaker 2: He's a superstar.
[1:23:50] Speaker 5: He comes over to America and they were talking about
[1:23:53] Speaker 5: how he was alone and he's not comfortable because.
[1:23:55] Speaker 2: He's not trusting.
[1:23:56] Speaker 5: You got that man there to keep him comfortable. Wait
[1:23:58] Speaker 5: a minute, he's worth it because you ain't going to
[1:23:59] Speaker 5: the 12th man on the bench any damn way. So
[1:24:01] Speaker 5: stop that. Now, to get to your point, to get
[1:24:04] Speaker 5: to your point, You're right, except for one thing.
[1:24:08] Speaker 6: I haven't always spoken first.
[1:24:10] Speaker 5: There's plenty of times in my career where I've laid
[1:24:13] Speaker 5: back and I haven't said anything and I've waited.
[1:24:16] Speaker 6: It's just that when I spoke.
[1:24:17] Speaker 2: That it resonates. That's what I'm saying.
[1:24:21] Speaker 4: But you holding back sometimes works against you because you
[1:24:25] Speaker 4: could have said it when everybody was feeling it and
[1:24:28] Speaker 4: everybody knew it was supposed to come out and you
[1:24:30] Speaker 4: were supposed to say.
[1:24:31] Speaker 2: It, right?
[1:24:31] Speaker 4: So you holding that brawny information, you holding on to it,
[1:24:35] Speaker 4: knowing we all saying it, right? And we waiting on
[1:24:38] Speaker 4: stand-up Steve to say it because that's going to validate it.
[1:24:42] Speaker 4: It's like if Steve.
[1:24:43] Speaker 2: See it, we know it's moving.
[1:24:45] Speaker 5: But in that situation.
[1:24:46] Speaker 2: I don't know if he said anything. I didn't.
[1:24:49] Speaker 4: He's the only foreigner that needed somebody next to him?
[1:24:52] Speaker 2: No, I said it. No. I said he's the only
[1:24:55] Speaker 2: foreigner that needed help.
[1:24:56] Speaker 1: He's the only four with a brother that damn good.
[1:24:59] Speaker 2: How about that? What's his name? Okay.
[1:25:01] Speaker 5: Everybody ain't Giannis.
[1:25:02] Speaker 2: Everybody ain't Giannis.
[1:25:04] Speaker 1: Joker Brooklyn should be on the bench with him.
[1:25:08] Speaker 2: They are on the bench. He was in the league
[1:25:11] Speaker 2: before Giannis, though.
[1:25:12] Speaker 5: But you're not wrong with what you're saying.
[1:25:14] Speaker 2: You're not wrong.
[1:25:14] Speaker 5: I'm just saying that it depends on the story. Everything
[1:25:19] Speaker 5: isn't meant to be put on front street day one.
[1:25:22] Speaker 5: Sometimes you wait. Because sometimes the story is more potent
[1:25:27] Speaker 5: when you wait, as opposed to you being, just get
[1:25:29] Speaker 5: it out there first.
[1:25:31] Speaker 2: Nah.
[1:25:31] Speaker 5: Sometimes you want to wait and see. You can do that.
[1:25:34] Speaker 6: You get to make that decision as a media member.
[1:25:36] Speaker 5: As long as you're honest about it.
[1:25:38] Speaker 4: Let me ask you this then. Is the timing right
[1:25:40] Speaker 4: now as potent as it is? Is it bubbled up
[1:25:42] Speaker 4: at the right time now?
[1:25:44] Speaker 5: Well, he made it that way.
[1:25:45] Speaker 2: For everybody.
[1:25:46] Speaker 4: For the league, for Steve, you just signed your deal,
[1:25:49] Speaker 4: that happened. The league just got Luca. They just turned
[1:25:52] Speaker 4: a viewership coin. Everything has turned due to all of
[1:25:56] Speaker 4: these interactions.
[1:25:57] Speaker 6: I'm still saying it still depends on the story.
[1:26:00] Speaker 5: It depends on how much of something is resonating and
[1:26:02] Speaker 5: how much is percolating. If the shit's percolating, damn right
[1:26:04] Speaker 5: you touch on it. If it ain't that big of
[1:26:06] Speaker 5: a deal in people's eyes, then you might wait. But
[1:26:08] Speaker 5: he made it what it is.
[1:26:10] Speaker 2: He made it fast.
[1:26:11] Speaker 5: When he rolled up on me, caught God.
[1:26:13] Speaker 7: Okay, isn't it weak, though? Like, when you think about it.
[1:26:18] Speaker 7: You know he wasn't ready.
[1:26:20] Speaker 3: Right?
[1:26:21] Speaker 2: Of course. As a father, You're still a father to
[1:26:25] Speaker 2: your son.
[1:26:25] Speaker 7: You're still trying to praise them and make them feel
[1:26:28] Speaker 7: like they're worthy of playing basketball because they can get
[1:26:31] Speaker 7: discouraged at any moment in time, right? So I'm pretty
[1:26:34] Speaker 7: sure every game he's over the line, you got it,
[1:26:36] Speaker 7: don't worry about it, just go out there and play
[1:26:37] Speaker 7: your game. That's that part of it. The NBA part
[1:26:41] Speaker 7: knows he's not ready yet, right? But as the father part,
[1:26:44] Speaker 7: him sitting there nervous and shit, you're like.
[1:26:46] Speaker 2: Hey, relax. You're going to go out there and play.
[1:26:49] Speaker 7: At what point When he gets drafted 55, do you
[1:26:54] Speaker 7: supposed to sit back and be like, all right, there's
[1:26:57] Speaker 7: nothing to talk about here. He's 55. He wasn't 17.
[1:27:01] Speaker 7: He wasn't a first round. His draft status actually let
[1:27:05] Speaker 7: you know what he was.
[1:27:07] Speaker 5: But what I'm saying to you, he's at the back bottom.
[1:27:10] Speaker 5: That very draft status that you pointed to, all of
[1:27:15] Speaker 5: us would have that attitude if his pops hadn't done
[1:27:19] Speaker 5: what he did.
[1:27:21] Speaker 6: So what I'm saying.
[1:27:22] Speaker 5: Is that because of what he did publicly, We had
[1:27:28] Speaker 5: no choice but to ultimately address it. And as a 50-50,
[1:27:33] Speaker 5: all he had to do was this. Listen, I got
[1:27:35] Speaker 5: this moment.
[1:27:36] Speaker 2: With my son.
[1:27:36] Speaker 5: All right, now it's time to go to the G
[1:27:38] Speaker 5: League and do.
[1:27:39] Speaker 2: What you're doing. And we'll see you next year. Or
[1:27:43] Speaker 2: let the draft happen organically. And if somebody's going to
[1:27:46] Speaker 2: draft him, let them draft. Like, you know, just for
[1:27:51] Speaker 2: shits and giggles. Right.
[1:27:52] Speaker 1: Right.
[1:27:53] Speaker 2: What if somebody at 44 wanted to pick him? No.
[1:27:56] Speaker 2: I'm just... But shit's in giggles. No, I get... Right?
[1:27:59] Speaker 2: Somebody at 44 wanted to pick him, right? Yes. So
[1:28:03] Speaker 2: you gonna stop? Yes. Hold on. Because he wants to
[1:28:07] Speaker 2: play with his kid. He don't want to see his
[1:28:09] Speaker 2: kid play in the NBA. He don't want to see
[1:28:11] Speaker 2: his kid in the NBA. Okay.
[1:28:12] Speaker 4: He wants to play on the same... I think we're missing... Yeah,
[1:28:14] Speaker 4: that's way different. That's way different.
[1:28:16] Speaker 2: And here's why. My son... could have died. Yes. I've
[1:28:22] Speaker 2: been in the league 21 years, right? So what is
[1:28:24] Speaker 2: the dream? Hold on. I've been in the league 21 years.
[1:28:26] Speaker 2: What is Bronny's dream? To be in the NBA. Yeah.
[1:28:29] Speaker 2: I've been in the league 21 years.
[1:28:32] Speaker 7: I missed 19 to 20 years of his life.
[1:28:37] Speaker 2: You know how we are as parents. We're in, we're out.
[1:28:40] Speaker 7: Out we're in we're out my first born with my
[1:28:43] Speaker 7: name almost passed yeah and you're telling me that i'm
[1:28:48] Speaker 7: gonna keep i'm gonna keep playing this league to.
[1:28:51] Speaker 2: Miss this Fuck no.
[1:28:52] Speaker 7: This is going to be the first time in my
[1:28:54] Speaker 7: career where I get 365 days with my son.
[1:28:59] Speaker 5: I'm not letting someone else draft him.
[1:29:02] Speaker 2: I want him near me. Because of what happened. Are
[1:29:05] Speaker 2: you going to do it to Bryce too? But you
[1:29:06] Speaker 2: don't get every day. I do get every day. If
[1:29:08] Speaker 2: he's on his team, I get every day. But he's not.
[1:29:10] Speaker 2: He plays on the gym. I get more than I
[1:29:11] Speaker 2: did for the last whatever. He plays on the gym.
[1:29:13] Speaker 2: He gets to come home to me though. He lives
[1:29:15] Speaker 2: by himself. He gets to come home to me. He's
[1:29:16] Speaker 2: a pro. Are you not... Are you understanding? It's a professional.
[1:29:19] Speaker 2: Once his kid.
[1:29:20] Speaker 5: Once something happens to his kid... Everything that you're saying
[1:29:22] Speaker 5: is true, Gil, yes.
[1:29:23] Speaker 7: Yes, absolutely.
[1:29:23] Speaker 2: 100% factual.
[1:29:23] Speaker 7: I hear you.
[1:29:24] Speaker 2: Yes.
[1:29:30] Speaker 7: But what is Bronny's dream? Bronny's dream was to be
[1:29:35] Speaker 7: in the NBA. Bronny's dream was this. I don't give
[1:29:37] Speaker 7: a fuck where I get drafted. I just want to
[1:29:40] Speaker 7: hear my name.
[1:29:41] Speaker 5: That was his dream.
[1:29:42] Speaker 2: So therefore, what I'm saying is... That was his dream.
[1:29:45] Speaker 2: Let that happen organically.
[1:29:49] Speaker 7: As a father, I don't want it to happen organically
[1:29:52] Speaker 7: on your draft.
[1:29:53] Speaker 2: Hold on, Gil. I want it to happen on my draft.
[1:29:55] Speaker 2: Hold on, Swag. Hold on, Gil. So you don't think...
[1:29:58] Speaker 2: It meant something for me to hear. Listen, I told
[1:30:00] Speaker 2: y'all sitting in this motherfucker, I was a bigger wreck
[1:30:02] Speaker 2: on KJ's draft day than he fucking was. Right. Right?
[1:30:06] Speaker 2: For sure.
[1:30:06] Speaker 3: You should be.
[1:30:08] Speaker 2: A bigger wreck. I'm trying to stay away from him. Right.
[1:30:10] Speaker 2: Because I don't want him to sense this shit. Right.
[1:30:14] Speaker 1: Right?
[1:30:15] Speaker 2: So, yeah, I wanted more than he fucking wanted.
[1:30:17] Speaker 1: Yeah. Right?
[1:30:18] Speaker 2: Absolutely.
[1:30:19] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:30:20] Speaker 2: But it's his dream and his... Journey is what I'm saying.
[1:30:24] Speaker 2: Who cried? Happy for him.
[1:30:25] Speaker 5: I did.
[1:30:26] Speaker 2: No, no, no. Who cried when Bronny got drafted? I
[1:30:29] Speaker 2: didn't watch it.
[1:30:30] Speaker 6: They said it was Bronny. I thought I saw him crying.
[1:30:32] Speaker 2: Yes, I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure he did.
[1:30:35] Speaker 7: His only dream was to hear his name called.
[1:30:39] Speaker 1: Yes.
[1:30:39] Speaker 2: I'm with you. I'm saying yes, Gil.
[1:30:41] Speaker 1: Yes.
[1:30:42] Speaker 2: Absolutely. Hear his name called by any fucking team. Right.
[1:30:48] Speaker 2: For any team.
[1:30:49] Speaker 1: Right?
[1:30:50] Speaker 2: Right.
[1:30:53] Speaker 5: But here's what he's saying.
[1:30:55] Speaker 6: He said any team, right?
[1:30:57] Speaker 5: Which means that when we're talking about the Lakers, that's
[1:31:00] Speaker 5: about LeBron, not Bronny. Bronny wanted to get drafted by
[1:31:05] Speaker 5: any NBA team. He wanted to hear his name.
[1:31:09] Speaker 2: It was LeBron.
[1:31:10] Speaker 6: That wanted him as his teammate. So what I'm saying is.
[1:31:13] Speaker 2: Now why?
[1:31:14] Speaker 5: So what I'm saying is, because of the reasons you
[1:31:16] Speaker 5: pointed out. So what I'm saying to you is, what
[1:31:18] Speaker 5: I'm saying to you is, if LeBron had rolled up
[1:31:22] Speaker 5: on me, this is all he had to say, because
[1:31:24] Speaker 5: I said this to Rich Paul when Rich Paul called me.
[1:31:27] Speaker 5: I said, Rich Paul, I only asked for grace in
[1:31:29] Speaker 5: one level, on one point.
[1:31:32] Speaker 2: If you had called me.
[1:31:33] Speaker 5: And said, LeBron pissed off, motherfucker mad as hell, he
[1:31:37] Speaker 5: won't see you man to man.
[1:31:39] Speaker 6: I said, what would I have done?
[1:31:41] Speaker 5: Rich Paul said, you'd have hung up the phone and
[1:31:44] Speaker 5: you'd have flew to L.A.
[1:31:45] Speaker 6: I said, thank you.
[1:31:47] Speaker 5: So my point is, rather than come up to me
[1:31:49] Speaker 5: at courtside, all you had to do was say, yo,
[1:31:53] Speaker 5: I need you to stay.
[1:31:54] Speaker 6: Don't leave this game. I need to see you after
[1:31:57] Speaker 6: the game.
[1:31:57] Speaker 5: That's all he had to say to me. Then as
[1:32:00] Speaker 5: we speak, he says that.
[1:32:02] Speaker 2: Let's take an example. He said what you just said.
[1:32:06] Speaker 6: I stand down.
[1:32:09] Speaker 5: And not only that, I'm going to make sure I
[1:32:12] Speaker 5: go on the air.
[1:32:13] Speaker 6: I ain't looking at it that way. That's on me.
[1:32:18] Speaker 2: You didn't do that shit.
[1:32:20] Speaker 5: You said you fucking with my son.
[1:32:22] Speaker 2: No, I wasn't.
[1:32:22] Speaker 5: I was talking about you. I was talking about you.
[1:32:26] Speaker 5: Wasn't about your son. I know he's number 55. I
[1:32:30] Speaker 5: know he got work to do. I believe that he
[1:32:33] Speaker 5: got potential. I believe that he got the potential to
[1:32:36] Speaker 5: go pro. I truly believe that. It's going to be tough.
[1:32:39] Speaker 5: But I think he can pull it off. And by
[1:32:40] Speaker 5: the way, I root for him. I ain't rooting against nobody.
[1:32:44] Speaker 5: But I'm talking about your ass.
[1:32:46] Speaker 2: You. You did this.
[1:32:48] Speaker 5: You're the one that had us as reporters, as a league,
[1:32:52] Speaker 5: as an NBA franchise. All of us got to sit
[1:32:55] Speaker 5: back and be quiet and capitulate.
[1:32:57] Speaker 2: To your shit. Come on now. You did that.
[1:32:59] Speaker 5: And so when I see people talking and I'm like, oh,
[1:33:03] Speaker 5: my God, can somebody. I mean, I know I got
[1:33:07] Speaker 5: a show and I know I got my podcast, but
[1:33:09] Speaker 5: I'm like, God damn, y'all, I'm fair.
[1:33:12] Speaker 2: I don't give a fuck who it is. It's you,
[1:33:13] Speaker 2: it's you, it's you.
[1:33:14] Speaker 5: It don't matter who it is. Dammit, I'm just meeting you.
[1:33:16] Speaker 5: If somebody unfair to you, I'ma be like, that's not fair.
[1:33:20] Speaker 6: That's not fair.
[1:33:21] Speaker 5: But when it come to me, everybody get crickets.
[1:33:24] Speaker 6: That motherfucker Stephen A.
[1:33:25] Speaker 2: On his own.
[1:33:26] Speaker 5: That, respectfully, excuse my language, that's fucked up. I'm on
[1:33:30] Speaker 5: my own when, number one, we know I'm right. Number two,
[1:33:34] Speaker 5: we know the perspective that I'm coming from is real
[1:33:36] Speaker 5: and it's authentic. Number three, he set this up.
[1:33:40] Speaker 2: Number four....
[1:33:42] Speaker 5: All you had to do was tell me. Listen, Kenyon
[1:33:46] Speaker 5: told me, you keep talking about, I'm bringing this up
[1:33:49] Speaker 5: for all fun. He talked about how he approached me
[1:33:51] Speaker 5: in Puerto Rico.
[1:33:52] Speaker 6: I swear to God, I don't remember.
[1:33:53] Speaker 2: I swear to God. But I know this much. But
[1:33:56] Speaker 2: you do.
[1:33:57] Speaker 5: And let me tell you what I did. I was
[1:33:58] Speaker 5: writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer. This is from 1993 to 2010. Shit,
[1:34:04] Speaker 5: I said, what the fuck you talking about?
[1:34:06] Speaker 2: I called Philadelphia Choir, I said, I need, I called Marisa,
[1:34:09] Speaker 2: look up the archives.
[1:34:10] Speaker 5: I want every goddamn article I wrote about Kenya Moore,
[1:34:12] Speaker 5: and I don't know what you talking about, right? Because
[1:34:14] Speaker 5: I'm looking at articles. I said, I knew that brother
[1:34:16] Speaker 5: was a stud. I knew that brother deserved his money.
[1:34:19] Speaker 5: What the net, where the nets going? Nets ain't going
[1:34:21] Speaker 5: to fucking back-to-back finals without you.
[1:34:23] Speaker 2: I'm like, I know.
[1:34:24] Speaker 5: What is he talking about?
[1:34:25] Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying?
[1:34:26] Speaker 5: So I'm looking for the shit, and I found some
[1:34:29] Speaker 5: shit where you got it, some shit with Byron Scott
[1:34:31] Speaker 5: or whatever. But I don't know. But I'll take your
[1:34:33] Speaker 5: word for it. My point is, Kenyon Martin would talk about,
[1:34:37] Speaker 5: I rolled up on Stephen A. I'm like, he ain't
[1:34:41] Speaker 5: the only one. It's black motherfuckers that rolled.
[1:34:44] Speaker 6: Up on me.
[1:34:45] Speaker 2: Glenn Robinson and I.
[1:34:46] Speaker 5: I mean, butt heads because I thought he got Randy's
[1:34:48] Speaker 5: ass fired.
[1:34:49] Speaker 2: I couldn't stand his ass. Let me tell you. Let
[1:34:52] Speaker 2: me tell you.
[1:34:53] Speaker 5: I mean, it got to a point where motherfuckers just
[1:34:56] Speaker 5: walked in between us because it was just hostility. I
[1:34:58] Speaker 5: couldn't stand his ass. And then I was in Houston
[1:35:03] Speaker 5: and I saw Glenn Robinson III. And he saw me
[1:35:07] Speaker 5: and he put his head down and he walked by me.
[1:35:10] Speaker 6: I felt like such shit. I stopped him in.
[1:35:12] Speaker 5: The hallways of a Houston Rockets game.
[1:35:15] Speaker 6: And I said, come here, man.
[1:35:17] Speaker 5: Whatever's going on between me and your father, it's my fault.
[1:35:21] Speaker 5: And when I see him, I'm going to apologize. Because
[1:35:23] Speaker 5: for him to look like that, we done took this
[1:35:25] Speaker 5: shit too far. There's no reason for it. I just
[1:35:28] Speaker 5: thought that show Randy is the same rest as you
[1:35:31] Speaker 5: show Larry Brown or some shit. That's all it was.
[1:35:34] Speaker 5: But for it to get like that, I didn't mean
[1:35:35] Speaker 5: for that to happen. So I instantly told him, whatever
[1:35:38] Speaker 5: it is going on between you and me and your father,
[1:35:40] Speaker 5: it's my fault. Your father's fine. I'm the journalist. I'm
[1:35:44] Speaker 5: supposed to know better. That's my fault. That's on me.
[1:35:48] Speaker 5: Shit like that could happen with somebody like LeBron. But
[1:35:51] Speaker 5: LeBron up here, and he know he up here, he
[1:35:54] Speaker 5: don't give a fuck. Problem is, when it comes to
[1:35:57] Speaker 5: the media, God damn it, I'm up here.
[1:36:01] Speaker 6: You understand?
[1:36:02] Speaker 5: And as a result, you can sit up there, you
[1:36:03] Speaker 5: can make some noise and make a scene and do
[1:36:05] Speaker 5: whatever it is that you do. But you see, I
[1:36:07] Speaker 5: got 10 hours of airwaves a week live. And I
[1:36:11] Speaker 5: got my podcast. And I got other outlets. And y'all
[1:36:14] Speaker 5: don't even know what the fuck is coming down the
[1:36:16] Speaker 5: pike in terms of opportunities I got coming my way.
[1:36:18] Speaker 5: I'm just getting started.
[1:36:19] Speaker 6: You should have tripped him.
[1:36:21] Speaker 5: As soon as he.
[1:36:21] Speaker 6: Turned his back.
[1:36:23] Speaker 2: Not at all. Bob. Nope. Not necessary.
[1:36:25] Speaker 5: Not necessary.
[1:36:27] Speaker 2: It's like, yo. Question for you. This is what it is.
[1:36:30] Speaker 2: This is what it is. Hold on. No, I'm just saying,
[1:36:32] Speaker 2: what was he going to do? But the thing is, right?
[1:36:34] Speaker 2: Rolled up on me, motherfucker. See, the thing is, and that's...
[1:36:38] Speaker 2: So when we get to... So I told Angela, she
[1:36:41] Speaker 2: does our social media, so we gonna start a segment, right?
[1:36:44] Speaker 2: And you remember the old bracelet they used to serve? WWJD. Right.
[1:36:50] Speaker 2: So we just going to change the letter J to
[1:36:52] Speaker 2: a K? And what would Kenyon do?
[1:36:54] Speaker 5: That's a good one.
[1:36:58] Speaker 2: See, people do that to people, right? Like, people do
[1:37:02] Speaker 2: that to people where they know what the response is
[1:37:05] Speaker 2: going to be, right? If he thought that Steve was
[1:37:10] Speaker 2: going to be on bullshit in the moment, I didn't
[1:37:12] Speaker 2: know what he would have did at that moment. Right?
[1:37:15] Speaker 2: If he thought there was a slight chance that this
[1:37:19] Speaker 2: shit could go left.
[1:37:21] Speaker 1: Right.
[1:37:21] Speaker 2: Right? They're not going to put themselves in that situation.
[1:37:25] Speaker 2: Trust me. You approach me, it ain't going to be
[1:37:27] Speaker 2: the fucking narrative. It's going to be way worse than
[1:37:30] Speaker 2: what you... Listen, it started out as you... Motherfucker. Motherfucker.
[1:37:36] Speaker 2: And then, take me out in cuffs. Cool. You bought
[1:37:39] Speaker 2: this ass whooping upon yourself in public because you thought
[1:37:42] Speaker 2: that was going to be the narrative. It's not going
[1:37:44] Speaker 2: to be the fucking narrative. They do that shit to
[1:37:46] Speaker 2: people who they think and they know they can get
[1:37:48] Speaker 2: away with it in public.
[1:37:50] Speaker 3: Steven, I'm serious.
[1:37:51] Speaker 2: He's not.
[1:37:52] Speaker 5: That's him.
[1:37:52] Speaker 2: That's why I said, what would Kenyon do? A little trindle.
[1:37:55] Speaker 2: And I said, Lord, don't put me in those kind
[1:37:59] Speaker 2: of situations because I'm going to fail tremendously. What was
[1:38:01] Speaker 2: LeBron wrong? I'm going to fail that day. You're going
[1:38:03] Speaker 2: to have to try a little harder. Serious question for you, Steven.
[1:38:07] Speaker 2: I know y'all don't fucking listen to.
[1:38:10] Speaker 1: Shit I do anyway, but I'm a movie star now.
[1:38:13] Speaker 1: Serious question for you. If LeBron would have came up
[1:38:17] Speaker 1: to you.
[1:38:18] Speaker 2: No, we good. We got bags coming. We got bags coming.
[1:38:21] Speaker 2: We got bags coming. We buy bags.
[1:38:24] Speaker 1: Serious question for you.
[1:38:26] Speaker 2: Now, you're my dog. We got bags coming together. If
[1:38:29] Speaker 2: LeBron would have came up to you and said, let's
[1:38:30] Speaker 2: talk after the game. I'd have waited. Would you have
[1:38:32] Speaker 2: brought Larry David with you, though? No. No, no, no.
[1:38:35] Speaker 2: I'm bringing Larry David. What you going to do now, bro?
[1:38:38] Speaker 2: I just met him.
[1:38:39] Speaker 1: I got Larry David right here. I just met him.
[1:38:41] Speaker 1: It's a smoke coming, Larry.
[1:38:43] Speaker 2: But seriously, it's like, yo, like, listen, listen.
[1:38:47] Speaker 5: When you got people, they got the podcast, they got
[1:38:50] Speaker 5: the shows, and, you know, all of this competition going on.
[1:38:54] Speaker 5: Most people in my position don't do a lot of interviews.
[1:38:59] Speaker 5: You can't find them. So why do you find me?
[1:39:02] Speaker 5: Because I feel I owe it. I've interviewed you before.
[1:39:07] Speaker 5: I've interviewed you before. Yo, I'm talking about people. Why
[1:39:13] Speaker 5: am I going to write? What license do I have
[1:39:16] Speaker 5: to have? If you had something to say and you said,
[1:39:17] Speaker 5: Stephen A, you free today? Man, I got to rap
[1:39:20] Speaker 5: to you about this LeBron shit. It's a scheduling issue
[1:39:22] Speaker 5: if I don't show up.
[1:39:23] Speaker 2: I'm not running.
[1:39:25] Speaker 5: Because, yo, Stephen A, I.
[1:39:26] Speaker 6: Think that's some fucked up shit you did.
[1:39:28] Speaker 5: Okay, let me tell you what happened. Now, if you
[1:39:30] Speaker 5: still think I'm fucked up after I give you my version,
[1:39:32] Speaker 5: I'm good with it. But the point is, is that
[1:39:36] Speaker 5: to me, when some of these players do shit, it's
[1:39:40] Speaker 5: like everybody just taking this gold. I'm like, really? I'm like,
[1:39:45] Speaker 5: they don't lie. You know, they don't lie.
[1:39:49] Speaker 2: The biggest lie.
[1:39:50] Speaker 5: They don't bitch up sometimes. They don't come up with
[1:39:53] Speaker 5: narratives to make you look bad to cover themselves.
[1:39:56] Speaker 2: Oh, they just paragons of virtue. Come on, y'all.
[1:39:59] Speaker 5: We know better than this. And I'm going like, yo, that's...
[1:40:02] Speaker 5: And I'm not saying any of.
[1:40:03] Speaker 2: You know, you got cats.
[1:40:05] Speaker 5: I had my man Cameron interview me.
[1:40:07] Speaker 2: He was like this.
[1:40:08] Speaker 5: You know, do players talk to you?
[1:40:11] Speaker 2: Oh, so.
[1:40:12] Speaker 5: You know, and that's my man. He's like this. I'm
[1:40:14] Speaker 5: just asking.
[1:40:15] Speaker 2: I said... People see four or five.
[1:40:17] Speaker 5: Players getting on me and they think the other 440
[1:40:21] Speaker 5: plus don't talk to me. So you think I have
[1:40:23] Speaker 5: information by accident?
[1:40:24] Speaker 6: I said, do you know?
[1:40:25] Speaker 5: I've been, again, I've been around. It's GMs, it's presidents,
[1:40:29] Speaker 5: it's player personnel directors, it's scouts, it's evaluators, it's owners.
[1:40:36] Speaker 5: I remember one time KD, one of the many times
[1:40:39] Speaker 5: he talking shit, was sitting up there talking about, well,
[1:40:42] Speaker 5: you know what?
[1:40:43] Speaker 6: Fuck he know. Who the fuck he talk to? He
[1:40:47] Speaker 6: in Brooklyn.
[1:40:48] Speaker 5: Fuck he know about Golden State? What the hell he
[1:40:51] Speaker 5: know about what's going on? He turned around and did
[1:40:53] Speaker 5: a double take. Because that night I was sitting with
[1:40:55] Speaker 5: the owner. Another night it was a GM for another team.
[1:41:00] Speaker 5: Another night it was one of the GMs, assistant GMs.
[1:41:04] Speaker 6: It's like, you don't know who I know.
[1:41:08] Speaker 5: There isn't a team in the league that I can't
[1:41:12] Speaker 5: get information from. And trust me, it might take a day.
[1:41:16] Speaker 6: It might take an hour.
[1:41:18] Speaker 5: It might take a month. But I'm going to get
[1:41:20] Speaker 5: it if I want it. If I want it. Because
[1:41:24] Speaker 5: when you've been around that long, they feed it to you.
[1:41:27] Speaker 5: As this show continues to grow, remember I said this
[1:41:31] Speaker 5: to y'all. All you motherfuckers got phones. You get text messages.
[1:41:37] Speaker 5: Watch as you get a million. And two million, because
[1:41:40] Speaker 5: y'all going to be around, because y'all doing.
[1:41:41] Speaker 2: A hell of a job. Why the hell I'm here?
[1:41:43] Speaker 2: That's the bottom line. Thank you.
[1:41:45] Speaker 6: Remember this.
[1:41:47] Speaker 5: You're going to get to a point where your head
[1:41:50] Speaker 5: going to be down a lot. Because they're going to
[1:41:54] Speaker 5: be texting you about shit all the time. Because when
[1:41:59] Speaker 5: you grow and you got a voice that resonates, they're
[1:42:03] Speaker 5: going to start feeding you information. I'm at a point
[1:42:06] Speaker 5: now I don't have to go to a game.
[1:42:08] Speaker 2: I haven't talked to anybody.
[1:42:09] Speaker 5: Do you understand that there's nothing in my contract that
[1:42:11] Speaker 5: says I have.
[1:42:11] Speaker 2: To talk to you? I'm talking about the players. Okay,
[1:42:13] Speaker 2: I thought you were talking about... No, no, I'm talking
[1:42:14] Speaker 2: about players. And I would understand if it was in
[1:42:15] Speaker 2: your contract.
[1:42:16] Speaker 5: There's nothing in my... I get paid... When they get ridiculous,
[1:42:21] Speaker 5: I'm like, I don't get paid to talk to you.
[1:42:24] Speaker 5: I get paid to talk about you. I don't have
[1:42:27] Speaker 5: to look at you.
[1:42:28] Speaker 1: Man.
[1:42:28] Speaker 5: But, but, Rashad, I still go to the games.
[1:42:32] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:42:33] Speaker 5: I still make sure they have access to me. I
[1:42:35] Speaker 5: haven't changed my number in 23 years. For the sole
[1:42:40] Speaker 5: express purpose of making sure you can find... And we
[1:42:43] Speaker 5: both know I got an excuse to change my number.
[1:42:45] Speaker 5: Because when you make a little paper, everybody wants to know.
[1:42:47] Speaker 5: Everybody wants to hold something. I got it damn right.
[1:42:49] Speaker 2: You know that shit. Especially now. And I still....
[1:42:55] Speaker 5: And I still can't change. And I don't change my
[1:42:59] Speaker 5: number for the sole express purpose. I'm not hard to find.
[1:43:03] Speaker 2: Listen, I have the same. I run into people, hey, man,
[1:43:06] Speaker 2: let me get your number.
[1:43:07] Speaker 1: And I give it to them.
[1:43:07] Speaker 2: They be like, oh, I already got it. Yeah, my
[1:43:09] Speaker 2: number ain't changing. That's right. I don't change numbers. I'm
[1:43:12] Speaker 2: not one of them guys. I ain't changed numbers in
[1:43:13] Speaker 2: fucking years.
[1:43:14] Speaker 5: I've been tempted to, but I ain't changed.
[1:43:16] Speaker 2: I get you, because listen. I change mine every three months.
[1:43:19] Speaker 1: Nope.
[1:43:19] Speaker 2: I don't want to talk to you. My number ain't changing.
[1:43:21] Speaker 1: Right.
[1:43:21] Speaker 2: Because I have, listen, because one thing for sure, two
[1:43:24] Speaker 2: things for certain, I I can pick and choose who
[1:43:27] Speaker 2: I communicate with, how I respond, and who I fucking
[1:43:31] Speaker 2: respond to. If I don't want to fucking respond to you,
[1:43:34] Speaker 2: I don't. If I will, if it's accordingly, or if
[1:43:37] Speaker 2: it just want to be a one-word ad, I'm like...
[1:43:40] Speaker 2: The whole shit is this.
[1:43:42] Speaker 5: When you have platforms like this and shit like that,
[1:43:46] Speaker 5: you got cast.
[1:43:47] Speaker 2: That's just real.
[1:43:49] Speaker 5: You understand what I'm saying? You ain't bullshitting.
[1:43:51] Speaker 2: And so.
[1:43:52] Speaker 5: you're going to come at shit from a real perspective.
[1:43:55] Speaker 5: What happens is, is that if you take issue, you
[1:44:00] Speaker 5: might call the cat out, me or somebody else, because
[1:44:03] Speaker 5: of what we said. This is where my problem lies.
[1:44:06] Speaker 5: We got players in the league that do that shit
[1:44:11] Speaker 5: and then start complaining about, you know, you talking about
[1:44:14] Speaker 5: another brother, you selling out, you know, it's black. They
[1:44:17] Speaker 5: doing shit like that. And I'm going like this. Y'all
[1:44:20] Speaker 5: don't see what they doing? They trying to make it
[1:44:22] Speaker 5: so it's difficult for you to walk the streets because
[1:44:25] Speaker 5: it's like, yo, when you see him, look, that motherfucker
[1:44:28] Speaker 5: ain't for us. That's what they trying to do. Oh,
[1:44:31] Speaker 5: because you playing like garbage. Oh, because you ain't leading.
[1:44:34] Speaker 5: Because you ain't living up to the expectations that you
[1:44:37] Speaker 5: promised when you walked into the negotiating room and said, yo,
[1:44:40] Speaker 5: I deserve this paper.
[1:44:42] Speaker 6: And then you going to come at me and I'm like,
[1:44:44] Speaker 6: y'all letting them do this shit?
[1:44:47] Speaker 2: Because if they do, this is the.
[1:44:49] Speaker 5: One thing where my cachet comes into play If you
[1:44:53] Speaker 5: can do it to me, what's up for everybody else?
[1:44:58] Speaker 5: Because if you covering the league and you calling it
[1:45:01] Speaker 5: like you see it and you see what they doing
[1:45:03] Speaker 5: and they able to twist the narrative, all I'm saying is, nah,
[1:45:08] Speaker 5: don't let them do that.
[1:45:09] Speaker 2: Fuck that.
[1:45:11] Speaker 5: Yo, if I'm wrong, do you. But if I'm right, yo, Steve,
[1:45:16] Speaker 5: it ain't right. Don't let them get you like that.
[1:45:21] Speaker 5: If they come and they say, nah.
[1:45:22] Speaker 2: Fuck Gilbert. Who the hell is he to talk? Hold on.
[1:45:26] Speaker 2: Was he right?
[1:45:28] Speaker 6: Yes or no?
[1:45:29] Speaker 5: Don't give me all that shit.
[1:45:31] Speaker 2: Was he right?
[1:45:32] Speaker 6: If he was right, then why are you doing that?
[1:45:35] Speaker 5: Because you can't take the criticism.
[1:45:38] Speaker 2: It's going to be a butt with it.
[1:45:39] Speaker 6: And that's what it is.
[1:45:39] Speaker 2: It's going to be a butt with it.
[1:45:40] Speaker 5: And that's all I'm saying about a lot of these cats.
[1:45:43] Speaker 5: Not most, not all. But it's too many of them.
[1:45:45] Speaker 5: And they're getting away with that shit.
[1:45:47] Speaker 4: So how does Kobe move out of your top two?
[1:45:49] Speaker 2: Kobe?
[1:45:50] Speaker 3: You said moved out?
[1:45:52] Speaker 5: I never had him in my top two.
[1:45:53] Speaker 2: I was going to say nobody. Hey, can I go home?
[1:45:56] Speaker 2: Y'all can start this conversation. Hey, hey, hey, but before
[1:45:59] Speaker 2: we get to that, before we get to that, we
[1:46:01] Speaker 2: were talking about contracts.
[1:46:02] Speaker 1: Before we get to that, we were talking about contracts,
[1:46:04] Speaker 1: so we'd like to give a shout-out to me, Yandis,
[1:46:05] Speaker 1: for sponsoring today's podcast. Fellas, it's time to throw out
[1:46:08] Speaker 1: your old nasty-ass underwear. No more faded fabric.
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[1:46:29] Speaker 2: Stephen A., we'll get you some MeUndies as well if
[1:46:31] Speaker 2: that you are so inclined to switch your underwear brand.
[1:46:33] Speaker 2: But what do you fellas think about me undies so far?
[1:46:35] Speaker 2: I got some on right now as we speak. Okay.
[1:46:37] Speaker 2: Kenyon's wearing me undies as we speak. Gil's been wearing
[1:46:40] Speaker 2: me undies all the time.
[1:46:42] Speaker 1: Swaggy, you may be free balling, but if you are not,
[1:46:45] Speaker 1: you got some me undies on.
[1:46:46] Speaker 2: I wouldn't want to know if it was free balling
[1:46:48] Speaker 2: or not. That is between you and Nick. That conversation
[1:46:51] Speaker 2: is between you and Nick. It's between Nick and his guy, Kenyon.
[1:46:53] Speaker 2: It's between Nick and his guy. It's between Nick and
[1:46:55] Speaker 2: his guy.
[1:46:56] Speaker 5: I'm glad you brought up Kobe, and I don't want
[1:46:59] Speaker 5: to leave before we talk about Jalen Brown.
[1:47:02] Speaker 2: Okay, but real quick, real quick, real quick.
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[1:47:16] Speaker 1: the GOAT situation first. GOAT debate, one of the most
[1:47:19] Speaker 1: polarizing conversations in basketball. So we're going to play a
[1:47:22] Speaker 1: game of blind resume. We'll list the accolades for six players.
[1:47:25] Speaker 1: then rank them afterwards. We reveal which resume was attached
[1:47:28] Speaker 1: to which player. Let's show the full screen right now,
[1:47:29] Speaker 1: if we can, please. Good folks at Underdog. So, player
[1:47:32] Speaker 1: number one, two MVPs, one finals MVP, four rings. Player
[1:47:37] Speaker 1: number two, one MVP, two finals MVP, five rings. Player
[1:47:40] Speaker 1: number three, three MVPs, three finals MVPs, five rings. Player
[1:47:44] Speaker 1: number four, six MVPs, two finals MVPs, six rings. Player
[1:47:48] Speaker 1: number five, two MVPs, three finals MVPs, five rings. And
[1:47:51] Speaker 1: last but not least, player number six, Three MVPs, two
[1:47:54] Speaker 1: finals MVPs, three rings. So just looking at those blinds
[1:47:57] Speaker 1: without names, how would you rank these resumes?
[1:48:06] Speaker 2: Who would like to go first?
[1:48:09] Speaker 5: Listen, to me, number four would be the top resume.
[1:48:14] Speaker 2: What stands out? The six MVPs, the six rings?
[1:48:17] Speaker 6: Six rings, six MVPs.
[1:48:20] Speaker 1: Top resume on the list. Who would you put second?
[1:48:28] Speaker 1: Number three?
[1:48:30] Speaker 2: Yeah. Okay. Three MVPs, three finals MVPs. Five rings. Number four?
[1:48:36] Speaker 5: I would tell you two and three is a toss-up
[1:48:38] Speaker 5: between number three and number one.
[1:48:41] Speaker 2: Okay. Then you got number five. Yep.
[1:48:50] Speaker 3: So six is last.
[1:48:52] Speaker 2: Four, two, three, five. And two. She said four, two, three, five. Four, two.
[1:49:02] Speaker 6: And I said four, one, three, five, two.
[1:49:06] Speaker 2: Okay. Four, one, three, five, two. Yes, sir.
[1:49:10] Speaker 4: I see you had to recalculate that number as we
[1:49:13] Speaker 4: started to figure out who's who.
[1:49:15] Speaker 1: You gentlemen have been around the game a long time.
[1:49:16] Speaker 1: I'm sure if you look deeply at these blind resumes,
[1:49:19] Speaker 1: you can start figuring out who's who.
[1:49:22] Speaker 2: Figure out who's who. But we're blind. We're blind. You
[1:49:25] Speaker 2: start putting your list together. There's no faces attached. Oh,
[1:49:28] Speaker 2: six and six. Okay, that's him. Right. Four and two. Okay,
[1:49:34] Speaker 2: that's him. You're not going to put the four and two.
[1:49:36] Speaker 2: Are you going to say this or not? Somehow I've
[1:49:38] Speaker 2: got to put four and two at number two. That's weird.
[1:49:43] Speaker 2: Somehow number three, number three is just in the middle.
[1:49:46] Speaker 2: Shout out to the underdog champ. I don't want to
[1:49:49] Speaker 2: be a part of this conversation. It's all weird to me.
[1:49:51] Speaker 2: I like the graphic. It's pretty dope. Graphic's nice. Graphic's nice.
[1:49:55] Speaker 1: Steve, now you have the number one morning show, all
[1:49:58] Speaker 1: the sports. We have the number one YouTube show in
[1:50:01] Speaker 1: the basketball space. And we're number one live on YouTube
[1:50:06] Speaker 1: at this very moment. Just want to point that out
[1:50:08] Speaker 1: before we continue this conversation. Right now, at this very moment,
[1:50:11] Speaker 1: we surpassed 82,000. We need another sweet underdog. A game
[1:50:16] Speaker 1: of our choosing.
[1:50:16] Speaker 6: Can I say this? If I may.
[1:50:21] Speaker 5: Look, I'm 57 years old. I've been in the business.
[1:50:26] Speaker 3: For 30 years.
[1:50:30] Speaker 5: Y'all thought y'all had haters when you were playing. It
[1:50:35] Speaker 5: ain't shit compared to what's coming. So all I want
[1:50:41] Speaker 5: you to do is be mindful of that shit. It's
[1:50:45] Speaker 5: going to be a lot of cats smiling in your face.
[1:50:48] Speaker 5: They ain't your friends. They don't want you. They don't
[1:50:52] Speaker 5: want you to succeed.
[1:50:54] Speaker 4: You can't be smiling in my face while he's saying that.
[1:50:58] Speaker 4: That's not good.
[1:50:59] Speaker 2: Say it again for the people in the back. They
[1:51:02] Speaker 2: ain't your who?
[1:51:02] Speaker 6: They ain't your friends.
[1:51:05] Speaker 4: Don't smile in my face while you're saying it, though.
[1:51:07] Speaker 4: It's like because I consider you a friend and you're
[1:51:09] Speaker 4: smiling in my face. We are friends on this show.
[1:51:12] Speaker 2: You are now friends with the family by pulling up here.
[1:51:14] Speaker 2: What are you trying to tell me, friend?
[1:51:16] Speaker 1: I told him my motherfucker wasn't his friend. So, Paolo,
[1:51:18] Speaker 1: can we put the blind resume back up? What is
[1:51:20] Speaker 1: your friend trying to tell me? Paolo, put the blind
[1:51:22] Speaker 1: resume back up. I'm going to take that, too. Gil,
[1:51:25] Speaker 1: can we reveal who the players are? I think the
[1:51:28] Speaker 1: chat is seeing, the fans are seeing, the couch is seeing.
[1:51:30] Speaker 2: Let me know.
[1:51:32] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[1:51:32] Speaker 2: Reveal it, please. If you can. Put the shit.
[1:51:36] Speaker 1: Obviously something that no basketball. That's Steph number one. Kobe
[1:51:40] Speaker 1: number two. Magic Johnson. Kareem number four. Tim Duncan number five.
[1:51:50] Speaker 1: Last but not least.
[1:51:51] Speaker 2: You know.
[1:51:52] Speaker 1: We support all races just like you do. We got
[1:51:54] Speaker 1: Larry Bird on here as well.
[1:51:57] Speaker 6: I knew it wasn't Jordan because Jordan has six finals MVP.
[1:51:59] Speaker 2: Yeah, that's about right. That's about right. So, yeah, we
[1:52:05] Speaker 2: take the, yeah. You want to answer this question.
[1:52:08] Speaker 5: Before I move on from the Kobe subject?
[1:52:10] Speaker 2: We're going to get to the Kobe subject. Okay, I'm sorry. Okay,
[1:52:12] Speaker 2: we get to the Kobe subject.
[1:52:14] Speaker 1: So, one of the reasons you wanted to come on here,
[1:52:16] Speaker 1: one of the reasons you wanted to come on here,
[1:52:18] Speaker 1: Stephen A., was because you don't include Kobe in the
[1:52:20] Speaker 1: GOAT conversation. Obviously, Cemetery Larry is not feeling that. You
[1:52:24] Speaker 1: guys have both made those points previously. Now you're both
[1:52:25] Speaker 1: sitting on this couch right now. So, with all respect
[1:52:28] Speaker 1: to the Black Mamba, the Lakers legend, Where is Kobe
[1:52:31] Speaker 1: on your all-time list, and why does he fall short
[1:52:33] Speaker 1: of the GOAT conversation in your eyes?
[1:52:34] Speaker 5: He's easily top ten, probably top five. He's not my
[1:52:38] Speaker 5: GOAT because he's number two as an off-guard. He didn't
[1:52:43] Speaker 5: eclipse Jordan. So because he didn't eclipse Jordan, he's number two.
[1:52:47] Speaker 5: And because we're making the argument about LeBron in terms
[1:52:50] Speaker 5: of his versatility, being a guy that can play four
[1:52:52] Speaker 5: different positions, being a point forward, being a guy that's
[1:52:55] Speaker 5: a 27-point game scorer, and the kind of things that
[1:52:57] Speaker 5: he's been able to do, and we have him on
[1:52:59] Speaker 5: the Mount Rushmore, nobody's resume supersedes that of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
[1:53:04] Speaker 5: outside of Bill Russell. But we know that Bill Russell
[1:53:08] Speaker 5: wasn't Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as a talent. He was as a
[1:53:11] Speaker 5: leader and a champion and a winner, 11 titles in
[1:53:13] Speaker 5: 13 years. But when you look at Kareem and the
[1:53:17] Speaker 5: all-time scoring champion before LeBron eclipsed him, the only individual
[1:53:21] Speaker 5: in the history of the sport with one patented move
[1:53:23] Speaker 5: that was considered unstoppable. Everybody knew Skyhook, all right? Six-time champion,
[1:53:29] Speaker 5: 19-time All-Star. what he was able to do, but LeBron's resume,
[1:53:35] Speaker 5: in a lot of people's eyes, 10 NBA finals, four MVPs,
[1:53:37] Speaker 5: four championships, and what he's been able to do with
[1:53:41] Speaker 5: his versatility. I look at Kobe, and even though I
[1:53:45] Speaker 5: would rather have Kobe, particularly in tight situations, my attitude
[1:53:50] Speaker 5: was Kobe's number two off guard, so automatically I didn't
[1:53:54] Speaker 5: think about him as the GOAT.
[1:53:57] Speaker 2: That was my argument.
[1:53:59] Speaker 3: He's not in the top five.
[1:54:00] Speaker 5: I said he might be in the top five. The
[1:54:02] Speaker 5: only reason I say not top five, I'm talking about Kareem.
[1:54:05] Speaker 5: Some people say Tim Duncan's the best powerful, whatever. They
[1:54:08] Speaker 5: look at Kareem as opposed to Russell or Shaq or somebody.
[1:54:12] Speaker 6: You're including all of those names.
[1:54:14] Speaker 5: But when you talk about the off-guard position, I think
[1:54:16] Speaker 5: it's MJ and then it's Kobe.
[1:54:19] Speaker 1: And just quickly, Kareem also almost whooped Bruce Lee's ass
[1:54:21] Speaker 1: in Game of Death, so that would elevate him in
[1:54:23] Speaker 1: the goat discussion. But no, let's move over to Cemetery, Larry. Obviously,
[1:54:26] Speaker 1: you took issue.
[1:54:29] Speaker 2: With Kobe not being mentioned amongst the goats. No, I
[1:54:32] Speaker 2: didn't take issue with that at all. I take issue with.
[1:54:36] Speaker 4: minimizing Kobe's legacy in order for another slot to be
[1:54:40] Speaker 4: taken up. And it's not even about, he has an opinion.
[1:54:43] Speaker 4: He can say what he wants, and everybody can, right?
[1:54:47] Speaker 4: But we're talking about legacy. He's talking about somebody that's gone,
[1:54:49] Speaker 4: that could obviously speak for himself when he's here.
[1:54:53] Speaker 2: So there is nobody.
[1:54:55] Speaker 4: That can actually be the spokesman for someone who's passed
[1:54:59] Speaker 4: and that can say, what do you mean? Shaq carried me.
[1:55:03] Speaker 4: What do you mean it don't count because he was
[1:55:05] Speaker 4: on my team? What do you mean you don't know
[1:55:08] Speaker 4: what a three-peat means? And we almost did it twice
[1:55:11] Speaker 4: because of a short season of a CBA agreement.
[1:55:14] Speaker 2: And we got swept. We got swept because of the turmoil.
[1:55:19] Speaker 4: The turmoil in our team and shortened season. But then
[1:55:23] Speaker 4: you look at Kobe Bryant's whole legacy, it's not about
[1:55:25] Speaker 4: the whole stats and all NBAs and none of that
[1:55:29] Speaker 4: to me.
[1:55:29] Speaker 2: You say 1A, 1B. There can't be a number two
[1:55:32] Speaker 2: if you got 1A, 1B. Okay.
[1:55:34] Speaker 4: So at the legacy point, when you're like, all right, Colt, man,
[1:55:39] Speaker 4: rest in peace. You did everything you needed to do
[1:55:42] Speaker 4: to lead this next generation, and hopefully they leave the
[1:55:45] Speaker 4: game as you left it. And he left the game
[1:55:48] Speaker 4: as scoring 15,000 in two different, 17,000 in two different jerseys.
[1:55:53] Speaker 4: Introducing the mama mentality. This ain't got nothing to do
[1:55:55] Speaker 4: with stats. This ain't got nothing to do with accomplishments
[1:55:57] Speaker 4: and awards. It's just influence and inspiration. I think greatness
[1:56:02] Speaker 4: outside of the 1A is right there.
[1:56:06] Speaker 3: When they argue he's the closest thing to Jordan, then
[1:56:08] Speaker 3: you put him at like.
[1:56:09] Speaker 2: Number six.
[1:56:10] Speaker 4: If I'm the closest thing to greatness, how can I
[1:56:13] Speaker 4: be that far? Then you put somebody else in front
[1:56:16] Speaker 4: of me who's done less.
[1:56:18] Speaker 2: Yeah, but you also got to... See, respectfully, look.
[1:56:22] Speaker 5: That's where we let emotion get into the mix. Let
[1:56:24] Speaker 5: me tell you why. We all miss the Black Mamba.
[1:56:28] Speaker 5: I know I had a lot of love for him.
[1:56:30] Speaker 5: I was with him three weeks before he passed away.
[1:56:32] Speaker 5: By the way, New Year's Eve, we brought a New
[1:56:33] Speaker 5: Year's Eve together. We was at the same party and shit.
[1:56:36] Speaker 5: And his wife was there and the whole bit. You
[1:56:39] Speaker 5: know what Kobe meant to all of us. But I
[1:56:42] Speaker 5: will tell you this quick story. So I'm rapping to
[1:56:46] Speaker 5: Kobe and Kobe knows how I feel about MJ. And
[1:56:50] Speaker 5: Kobe is like, Shit, I'd give anything if I could
[1:56:53] Speaker 5: rewind the clock and I could have been in the
[1:56:55] Speaker 5: same areas and I'd have bust his ass. You know,
[1:56:58] Speaker 5: and I'm laughing or whatever. And he was like, tell him.
[1:57:02] Speaker 5: He'll tell you. I tell him that shit all the time.
[1:57:05] Speaker 6: So I picked up the phone.
[1:57:06] Speaker 2: I called him, Jay.
[1:57:08] Speaker 5: And he's like, started laughing. He said, yeah, he tells
[1:57:12] Speaker 5: me that all the damn time. You know, so what
[1:57:15] Speaker 5: you're saying about him, be clear. He believes that. You know,
[1:57:19] Speaker 5: you ain't lying.
[1:57:20] Speaker 6: When you talk about what.
[1:57:21] Speaker 5: Kobe believes and what Kobe would challenge anybody on. But
[1:57:25] Speaker 5: here's the thing. Kobe wouldn't bring up legacy off the court.
[1:57:30] Speaker 5: He would leave that to others. He's like, you know,
[1:57:32] Speaker 5: that shit speaks for itself. He believes just strictly talking
[1:57:36] Speaker 5: about his game.
[1:57:39] Speaker 2: He was. He was MJ. The baddest.
[1:57:42] Speaker 5: He believes that. He believed that, God rest his soul.
[1:57:45] Speaker 2: That's how he felt.
[1:57:47] Speaker 6: No doubt about that.
[1:57:48] Speaker 4: That's why I said to them, like, it wasn't about
[1:57:51] Speaker 4: what you said. It was in the context of the
[1:57:53] Speaker 4: defense for him. When you, like, the younger generation is
[1:57:57] Speaker 4: hearing us talk about a guy who can't speak for himself.
[1:58:00] Speaker 4: So all we got now are memories and highlights. So
[1:58:04] Speaker 4: we got our own peers who 5,000 guys watched this
[1:58:07] Speaker 4: dude play. We all should be, not just because he died,
[1:58:10] Speaker 4: but because of what we've seen.
[1:58:12] Speaker 2: Like, yeah, he was one of them. He was one
[1:58:14] Speaker 2: of them.
[1:58:14] Speaker 5: Yeah, but the flip side to that is we're talking
[1:58:18] Speaker 5: about basketball. So in my position, all you could do
[1:58:23] Speaker 5: is say, yo, when he was alive, this is what
[1:58:27] Speaker 5: he said. This is how he felt. I might have
[1:58:31] Speaker 5: disagreed with him about point A or point D, agreed
[1:58:35] Speaker 5: with him on C and D, but as long as
[1:58:37] Speaker 5: you're not discrediting him by omitting.
[1:58:41] Speaker 2: The stuff that he said and believed.
[1:58:43] Speaker 5: And pointing out his accomplishments along the way, then you're
[1:58:46] Speaker 5: not disrespecting him.
[1:58:47] Speaker 2: You're just talking basketball.
[1:58:50] Speaker 7: Being better than someone, me being better than you and
[1:58:54] Speaker 7: me having a better NBA career than you is two
[1:58:57] Speaker 7: different things. We're not talking if they played one-on-one, we
[1:59:01] Speaker 7: know Kobe going to mop them. Having a better resume
[1:59:06] Speaker 7: than someone is two different things.
[1:59:09] Speaker 2: You can't confuse the two. Because we never had that conversation.
[1:59:13] Speaker 7: You can't say take away the resume. Once you say
[1:59:16] Speaker 7: take away the resume, you can't be validated.
[1:59:20] Speaker 5: You can't say take.
[1:59:21] Speaker 7: Away the resume, you take away my five, these, you
[1:59:24] Speaker 7: take away this.
[1:59:25] Speaker 2: You can't do that.
[1:59:27] Speaker 7: My resume is my resume. We played in the same era.
[1:59:30] Speaker 7: You needed MVPs?
[1:59:32] Speaker 2: I got them.
[1:59:32] Speaker 7: You can't say I was a better one-on-one player than you.
[1:59:36] Speaker 2: Take this away. You can't fuck that. So I can
[1:59:38] Speaker 2: say I'm the best.
[1:59:40] Speaker 7: You can say you're a better one-on-one player.
[1:59:43] Speaker 2: I'm the best one-on-one player.
[1:59:44] Speaker 5: Cool.
[1:59:45] Speaker 2: I'm the best scorer. Cool. My time. I'm the best. Cool.
[1:59:48] Speaker 5: That is great.
[1:59:49] Speaker 2: I'm the best clutch player. Cool. So if I'm the best.
[1:59:53] Speaker 4: At all these things and you are only the best
[1:59:56] Speaker 4: at these two things, that means I'm better.
[1:59:59] Speaker 2: My time is faster. So who's faster in reality? You
[2:00:02] Speaker 2: just move the goal post. If we finish the race.
[2:00:04] Speaker 7: And I finish faster, I don't give a fuck how
[2:00:06] Speaker 7: you ran it.
[2:00:07] Speaker 2: You got a good start. Cool.
[2:00:08] Speaker 7: It's part of my resume.
[2:00:09] Speaker 2: My start is part of my resume. My ending is
[2:00:12] Speaker 2: a part of my resume.
[2:00:13] Speaker 7: You can't pick and choose what you're going to use.
[2:00:15] Speaker 4: Yeah, because we're not talking about... You just said we
[2:00:18] Speaker 4: come in and have two different conversations. Resume or who's
[2:00:22] Speaker 4: the best. So, you want to have this conversation because
[2:00:26] Speaker 4: you can use all of these metrics and stats to
[2:00:29] Speaker 4: prove this. When we talk about this, you can't have
[2:00:32] Speaker 4: the conversation.
[2:00:33] Speaker 2: That's an eye test. No, it's not an eye test.
[2:00:35] Speaker 2: It's not, because he said it.
[2:00:37] Speaker 4: He said, Michael, the best version of Michael Jordan that
[2:00:42] Speaker 4: we've seen in comparison to the best version of LeBron
[2:00:45] Speaker 4: James we've seen, bro, if you don't get the fuck
[2:00:47] Speaker 4: out of here.
[2:00:48] Speaker 2: You said, who's the better clutch player? Between who? Jordan and,
[2:00:53] Speaker 2: I mean, LeBron and Kobe.
[2:00:56] Speaker 3: Kobe.
[2:00:57] Speaker 2: Who has the better clutch percentage? LeBron. Who has the
[2:01:02] Speaker 2: most clutch shots? I don't know. I mean, you can
[2:01:05] Speaker 2: tell them. But you're using stats, right? Again, so what
[2:01:09] Speaker 2: are you using?
[2:01:10] Speaker 4: I'm using what we've seen in those moments. Those moments.
[2:01:13] Speaker 2: So when Kobe's making his, you're looking.
[2:01:15] Speaker 7: When LeBron's making his, you're not looking.
[2:01:17] Speaker 4: So the clutch shot LeBron's making is at the end
[2:01:19] Speaker 4: of the second quarter.
[2:01:20] Speaker 2: So again.
[2:01:21] Speaker 5: But if you're using moments, he didn't have more moments
[2:01:24] Speaker 5: than MJ.
[2:01:26] Speaker 2: Who? Kobe. Yes, he did.
[2:01:27] Speaker 3: Clutch.
[2:01:27] Speaker 2: Yes. And game winners. Game winners. Who has more game winners?
[2:01:32] Speaker 2: Game winners. Who has more game winners, Kobe or LeBron? See,
[2:01:35] Speaker 2: he brung up the clutch stat. Okay.
[2:01:37] Speaker 4: Which can be end of quarter, can be a lot
[2:01:39] Speaker 4: of different things.
[2:01:40] Speaker 2: Last three minutes.
[2:01:41] Speaker 4: But when you talk about game winners, that's the metric
[2:01:45] Speaker 4: of the legacy. That's when you say, man, Christmas against
[2:01:48] Speaker 4: the Miami Heat, Kobe.
[2:01:52] Speaker 2: Backboard? On Christmas? Merry Christmas, niggas.
[2:01:56] Speaker 5: You said Merry Christmas.
[2:01:58] Speaker 6: I saw MJ do it to win championships.
[2:02:00] Speaker 2: You have to use every... You got to use... 1A, 1B? Legacy, yo.
[2:02:05] Speaker 1: 1A, 1B?
[2:02:05] Speaker 2: You can't use what you want to use.
[2:02:07] Speaker 4: We can because we all got our own opinion. That's
[2:02:10] Speaker 4: exactly why he sat there and said his opinion. And
[2:02:13] Speaker 4: then you can't tell me I got to use your
[2:02:15] Speaker 4: metric to get your fucking numbers. He just laid it out.
[2:02:18] Speaker 4: This is why I got him one. This is why
[2:02:21] Speaker 4: I got him two. And that's why I sat there
[2:02:22] Speaker 4: and was like, you know what? I respect that shit
[2:02:25] Speaker 4: because that's your reason why.
[2:02:26] Speaker 7: Now, I asked you a question. I said, who is
[2:02:30] Speaker 7: a better clutch player? Shooter, you said Kobe. I said,
[2:02:33] Speaker 7: who has the better percentage? You said LeBron. I said,
[2:02:36] Speaker 7: who has the most clutch shot? You said LeBron. Now,
[2:02:38] Speaker 7: if you're LeBron, how are you convincing anyone that Kobe
[2:02:45] Speaker 7: is a bitch clutch shooter? What are you saying? Like,
[2:02:50] Speaker 7: how are you proving this? If nobody ever seen these
[2:02:53] Speaker 7: two play, how do you prove it to that person?
[2:02:56] Speaker 2: Do we have to show them highlights?
[2:02:57] Speaker 3: Do we have to look at the fan?
[2:02:59] Speaker 4: Do you want to show them highlights if we never
[2:03:00] Speaker 4: seen them play? Do they get to see highlights?
[2:03:03] Speaker 2: Yes.
[2:03:03] Speaker 4: So they get to see highlights of Kobe's moments of
[2:03:05] Speaker 4: hitting clutch shots compared to LeBron.
[2:03:07] Speaker 2: But you got to show the other one too, right? Yeah, yeah.
[2:03:10] Speaker 2: So if we base it.
[2:03:11] Speaker 4: On that alone, Kobe's definitely better.
[2:03:14] Speaker 7: So if one has 100, one has 50, one is
[2:03:15] Speaker 7: shooting at a 40%, one is shooting at a 60%.
[2:03:18] Speaker 2: How do you, like... At the buzzer, Gilbert. At the buzzer. Game.
[2:03:22] Speaker 2: Buzzer beaters is different things than clutch. No, it's not.
[2:03:25] Speaker 2: It is clutch. It's the definition of clutch.
[2:03:28] Speaker 7: If I say who's a better free throw shooter, what
[2:03:31] Speaker 7: are you going to use?
[2:03:32] Speaker 2: To determine that. A percentage, right?
[2:03:37] Speaker 7: How do you want to use percentage on one thing,
[2:03:39] Speaker 7: but then you don't want to use it on the other?
[2:03:41] Speaker 2: That's the problem. We do. Use it all. We do.
[2:03:44] Speaker 2: It's called 6-0 in the finals.
[2:03:46] Speaker 3: But, yeah.
[2:03:47] Speaker 4: You don't like that percentage, right? You don't like that percentage.
[2:03:49] Speaker 4: You don't use the Kareem and Bill Russell resume.
[2:03:52] Speaker 2: No.
[2:03:53] Speaker 7: You're supposed to use every one. You can't pick and
[2:03:57] Speaker 7: choose what you want to use.
[2:03:58] Speaker 4: So then, Bill, like I just said, Bill Russell, number one.
[2:04:02] Speaker 7: I just gave you, how do you choose who shoots
[2:04:05] Speaker 7: a better free throw?
[2:04:06] Speaker 2: You're just going to go straight to percentage.
[2:04:07] Speaker 7: You're not going to go off of look, how it looks.
[2:04:09] Speaker 2: You're going to go off of the percentage. That's how
[2:04:12] Speaker 2: it all... You only want to change it.
[2:04:13] Speaker 4: So if the guy that only shot one for one
[2:04:15] Speaker 4: and is shooting 1,000%, is he the greatest free throw
[2:04:18] Speaker 4: shooter of all time, Gilbert?
[2:04:20] Speaker 1: No.
[2:04:22] Speaker 2: Is he shooting 100% from the free throw line? But
[2:04:25] Speaker 2: he shot one. He hasn't missed. So if one... So
[2:04:27] Speaker 2: does the percentages count or not? So if... So one shot,
[2:04:31] Speaker 2: more shots, with a higher percentage. Who's in the front
[2:04:35] Speaker 2: of the leaderboard? The guy who has 100%. So, wait.
[2:04:41] Speaker 2: I'll switch this up.
[2:04:42] Speaker 5: You know, one of the things that I've always wanted
[2:04:43] Speaker 5: to throw at y'all, I've often said this about LeBron
[2:04:47] Speaker 5: at the small forward spot. Give me LeBron for the
[2:04:50] Speaker 5: first 46 minutes. Give me Larry Bird.
[2:04:53] Speaker 2: The last two minutes. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Hey. Last
[2:04:57] Speaker 2: two minutes.
[2:04:58] Speaker 1: Hey.
[2:04:59] Speaker 4: So how great you going to be if you going
[2:05:01] Speaker 4: to sub him out in the last two minutes?
[2:05:04] Speaker 2: Okay. Huh? So you think you're better than me?
[2:05:06] Speaker 5: You think you're better than me because you played two minutes?
[2:05:08] Speaker 5: I said I against Larry Bird.
[2:05:11] Speaker 2: I need Larry to be on the court, though. You
[2:05:12] Speaker 2: telling me you need Larry to be on the court.
[2:05:14] Speaker 2: But LeBron will be on the court.
[2:05:15] Speaker 5: Well, I'm also telling you I trust him more with
[2:05:17] Speaker 5: the free throw line.
[2:05:18] Speaker 2: Of course. Larry's a legend.
[2:05:20] Speaker 5: But that's the problem.
[2:05:22] Speaker 7: You're trying to sub in two minutes from my 46.
[2:05:25] Speaker 2: Right.
[2:05:27] Speaker 4: Because we know you can't take us home.
[2:05:28] Speaker 2: And you can't play 46. And I can take us home.
[2:05:31] Speaker 2: But I take us home. You can't play 46. But
[2:05:33] Speaker 2: I take us home. Steve don't know how to get here,
[2:05:35] Speaker 2: but he know how to get us back. And you
[2:05:36] Speaker 2: don't know how to get us there. You know how
[2:05:38] Speaker 2: to get us back. But you don't know how to
[2:05:39] Speaker 2: get us there. We don't need to. That's what I said.
[2:05:41] Speaker 7: Like, I'm lifting 46 minutes to your two, but you
[2:05:44] Speaker 7: think you're better than me.
[2:05:44] Speaker 2: That's why we work together.
[2:05:46] Speaker 7: Nobody's putting Ginobili in front of Tim Duncan.
[2:05:49] Speaker 2: Why would they? He finished the game. They're on the
[2:05:52] Speaker 2: same team. What are you talking about?
[2:05:59] Speaker 3: Where are we going with this?
[2:06:01] Speaker 2: Can you tell me what team... When you said LeBron's
[2:06:05] Speaker 2: 46 minutes, and then you put in Larry.
[2:06:07] Speaker 7: They was on the same team when you did.
[2:06:10] Speaker 2: This, right? No, no, no.
[2:06:12] Speaker 5: What I'm saying is when you talk about the small
[2:06:14] Speaker 5: forward spot, I think that LeBron James... Let's say, for example,
[2:06:17] Speaker 5: we're talking about a forward. I think that LeBron James
[2:06:19] Speaker 5: is the greatest ever in that regard, at that position.
[2:06:23] Speaker 5: But what I said was, shit, I saw that damn
[2:06:27] Speaker 5: Larry Bird, bro. In the clutch.
[2:06:29] Speaker 2: You understand?
[2:06:30] Speaker 5: And don't leave them open. Don't let that happen. Don't
[2:06:35] Speaker 5: send him to the free throw line. Don't let that happen.
[2:06:37] Speaker 5: That's how I was looking at it because I know
[2:06:39] Speaker 5: that physically, athletically, in terms of what you're doing over
[2:06:42] Speaker 5: the course of a complete game, he's not LeBron. But
[2:06:46] Speaker 5: when you talk about those last two minutes, that's all
[2:06:48] Speaker 5: I was saying. That's certainly not to pick him overall,
[2:06:50] Speaker 5: but I think about it sometimes.
[2:06:52] Speaker 2: That's a dare. That's a dare, too.
[2:06:54] Speaker 7: In clutch, when it comes to somebody like Larry Bird, Kobe, Jordan, who, like,
[2:07:00] Speaker 7: because for the most part, You know, I've never really
[2:07:03] Speaker 7: seen Larry like that.
[2:07:05] Speaker 6: For me, it would be Jordan.
[2:07:07] Speaker 2: For me, it would be Jordan. All day, every day.
[2:07:11] Speaker 5: I just think he's the greatest ever.
[2:07:12] Speaker 6: And not only that, he did it on both ends.
[2:07:15] Speaker 2: And we never bring that up about Kobe.
[2:07:16] Speaker 5: And Kobe, we do need, we need to more. We
[2:07:19] Speaker 5: need to more. Because Kobe plays, Kobe had some years.
[2:07:21] Speaker 2: He was the only. Kobe had some years.
[2:07:23] Speaker 5: Where he was locked down.
[2:07:24] Speaker 2: All NBA office, all NBA defense. Yeah, he got more.
[2:07:27] Speaker 2: The same, right?
[2:07:28] Speaker 3: Ain't it the same?
[2:07:28] Speaker 2: The only, the only player. Ain't it the same? Like nine,
[2:07:31] Speaker 2: all defense?
[2:07:32] Speaker 5: I need to see that stat. Because I think Jordan
[2:07:34] Speaker 5: got him beat even on that one.
[2:07:35] Speaker 2: Yes, he does.
[2:07:36] Speaker 4: No, I think, In the decade from 2000 to 2010.
[2:07:39] Speaker 7: So we're taking out 96 to 2000.
[2:07:42] Speaker 2: That's the problem. You can't take out shit, man. Just
[2:07:45] Speaker 2: let everybody rest. Because you don't like me. I like
[2:07:47] Speaker 2: doing shit he don't like. I like doing shit he
[2:07:50] Speaker 2: don't like. So take out rest of me.
[2:07:51] Speaker 4: It's supposed to be his favorite player, but he don't
[2:07:53] Speaker 4: like me putting his favorite player at number one.
[2:07:55] Speaker 2: No, you got to take out rest of me. You
[2:07:57] Speaker 2: be glad. Because he has totally everywhere. every time I
[2:08:00] Speaker 2: bring him up... No, no, you can't just do that.
[2:08:03] Speaker 2: Kobe over Jordan.
[2:08:04] Speaker 7: Just let everybody Resume speak for itself.
[2:08:06] Speaker 2: Stop minimizing this year versus this year. You can't do that.
[2:08:09] Speaker 2: You can't say from 2000 to 2000... When did he
[2:08:10] Speaker 2: win his last EVB? 2000 to 2009, Kobe was... You
[2:08:11] Speaker 2: can't do that, man. Kobe did.
[2:08:20] Speaker 7: Let everybody resume speak for the whole resume.
[2:08:23] Speaker 1: We got to put a pin in this right now, Stephen.
[2:08:24] Speaker 1: We know you're a busy man. You only got a
[2:08:26] Speaker 1: little bit of time left. You said you want to
[2:08:27] Speaker 1: talk about the Jalen Brown situation. So let's get into
[2:08:29] Speaker 1: that quickly before we let you go. We got some
[2:08:31] Speaker 1: PF Changs here, too, just candidly. I'm ready to get
[2:08:33] Speaker 1: my grub on.
[2:08:34] Speaker 2: Of course.
[2:08:34] Speaker 1: You are one of, if not the top dog in
[2:08:36] Speaker 1: sports media. Words carry a lot of weight. Obviously, players
[2:08:39] Speaker 1: are affected, impacted by them. You had a previous issue
[2:08:42] Speaker 1: with yourself and Jalen Brown after a source told you
[2:08:45] Speaker 1: that he was unmarketable.
[2:08:46] Speaker 2: Yes. Obviously, you said on episode of First Take. Yes.
[2:08:48] Speaker 2: He took exception.
[2:08:49] Speaker 1: too, after you shared that information on First Egg, he's tweeted,
[2:08:52] Speaker 1: state your source. You've since hashed it out with Brown
[2:08:55] Speaker 1: on your podcast, Stephen A. Smith Show, but is it
[2:08:58] Speaker 1: fair to share information that doesn't have a name attached
[2:09:01] Speaker 1: to it? And how cautious are you before sharing that
[2:09:03] Speaker 1: information from your sources, knowing the impact it can have
[2:09:05] Speaker 1: on players?
[2:09:06] Speaker 2: Yes, it is fair.
[2:09:07] Speaker 5: And here's what you're not going to like about it.
[2:09:10] Speaker 5: Sports is not nearly as important as health care, the economy, inflation, immigration.
[2:09:19] Speaker 5: and all of these political issues, right? When do you
[2:09:22] Speaker 5: see people covering the White House or the state or
[2:09:24] Speaker 5: the nation's capital giving sources?
[2:09:26] Speaker 2: They do it every day.
[2:09:28] Speaker 5: So we're talking about profound issues where people get away
[2:09:34] Speaker 5: without attaching a name to their sources, and these are
[2:09:38] Speaker 5: people that are legislating our lives every day. But we're
[2:09:43] Speaker 5: talking about a Jalen Brown situation.
[2:09:45] Speaker 6: First of all, let me be very clear. There was
[2:09:48] Speaker 6: never an issue And I'm going.
[2:09:50] Speaker 2: To tell you why.
[2:09:51] Speaker 5: Because what I did was say, this is what they're
[2:09:55] Speaker 5: saying about him.
[2:09:55] Speaker 2: The same exact segment, just.
[2:09:59] Speaker 5: So y'all know, because I know y'all got on me
[2:10:01] Speaker 5: about it. I said, quote, I don't believe this.
[2:10:05] Speaker 1: But this is what they're saying. Right?
[2:10:09] Speaker 5: So we go to Dallas. His mama, his grandma, and
[2:10:15] Speaker 5: his brother roll up on me. Thank you. That's what
[2:10:20] Speaker 5: they rolled up on me to say because they needed
[2:10:23] Speaker 5: to hear it. I was saying to folks, do you
[2:10:26] Speaker 5: understand what's being said about this brother? This brother was
[2:10:30] Speaker 5: literally compromised in the NBA draft because he was too brilliant.
[2:10:35] Speaker 5: They were saying he's too smart. He'll question everything. He's
[2:10:41] Speaker 5: going to challenge us for shit. He's going to expose
[2:10:44] Speaker 5: our ignorance. This is what they were saying about him before.
[2:10:48] Speaker 2: He got drafted.
[2:10:49] Speaker 5: And so he comes into the NBA. They are making
[2:10:53] Speaker 5: a run for a title. Before the age of 28,
[2:10:56] Speaker 5: he had been to five conference finals.
[2:11:00] Speaker 2: Five!
[2:11:02] Speaker 5: The brother ball and averaging over 20 a game. He
[2:11:05] Speaker 5: had just signed for over 300 million and didn't have
[2:11:09] Speaker 5: an endorsement. Model citizen, cares about the community, goes back
[2:11:16] Speaker 5: to Oakland, contributes to that community, Literally goes to MIT
[2:11:23] Speaker 5: investigating black issues and black causes to help uplift the
[2:11:28] Speaker 5: depraved and impoverished in our nation. Got white cats supporting
[2:11:33] Speaker 5: him in doing so. Never in trouble. And he don't
[2:11:39] Speaker 5: have one endorsement deal. I said, how you explain that?
[2:11:43] Speaker 5: And I was looking at y'all and I was saying, fellas,
[2:11:46] Speaker 5: I understand what you're saying about getting on me, but
[2:11:49] Speaker 5: are you hearing what I'm saying? I'm not saying it.
[2:11:52] Speaker 5: I'm tipping him off to what they're saying about him.
[2:11:55] Speaker 5: Then he sits down with me and he confesses he
[2:11:59] Speaker 5: thinks it got something to do with Nike that he
[2:12:01] Speaker 5: was on Team USA because I was like, how the
[2:12:03] Speaker 5: hell is he not on the Olympic team? How are
[2:12:06] Speaker 5: you Jason Tatum? I mean, you Jalen Brown. And two dudes...
[2:12:11] Speaker 5: who spend 82 games a year deferring to you and
[2:12:15] Speaker 5: Drew Holiday and Derek White on the Olympic team ahead
[2:12:18] Speaker 5: of you.
[2:12:18] Speaker 7: How?
[2:12:20] Speaker 2: How?
[2:12:22] Speaker 5: It can't be basketball. So what I was doing was
[2:12:27] Speaker 5: what I always do.
[2:12:29] Speaker 2: I was tipping you off.
[2:12:32] Speaker 5: I wanted everybody to know this is what they doing
[2:12:35] Speaker 5: to him. Who it is, we don't know specifically. but
[2:12:40] Speaker 5: we know that the industry has blocked him. Why are
[2:12:45] Speaker 5: we not talking about that? Instead, we got a bunch
[2:12:48] Speaker 5: of cats talking about Stephen A. Goddamn Stephen A.
[2:12:51] Speaker 1: You dog.
[2:12:52] Speaker 5: I'm like, no, I'm not dogging him.
[2:12:54] Speaker 6: I was looking out.
[2:12:56] Speaker 5: So when he finally sat down with me, he was like,
[2:13:01] Speaker 5: he started talking about the sources. who were trying to
[2:13:04] Speaker 5: hurt him.
[2:13:05] Speaker 6: He wasn't talking about me.
[2:13:07] Speaker 5: He was talking about people that had the audacity to
[2:13:09] Speaker 5: say that about him. And the only reason, like, it
[2:13:13] Speaker 5: wasn't like it was somebody from the, it was, you
[2:13:15] Speaker 5: have agents who negotiate these deals that connect with these
[2:13:19] Speaker 5: people that are saying, this is why we can't market him.
[2:13:22] Speaker 5: This is why we can't sell him. What have we
[2:13:24] Speaker 5: been lamenting for decades? Black men who are intelligent and
[2:13:29] Speaker 5: articulate and are empowered to represent themselves. They always have
[2:13:35] Speaker 5: the most trouble. Why is it a big deal that I.
[2:13:39] Speaker 6: Just signed this deal? Because it usually.
[2:13:43] Speaker 5: Doesn't happen for black men who are outspoken. So if
[2:13:48] Speaker 5: we notice, and history has shown us this, Why would
[2:13:53] Speaker 5: we then look at the messenger and say, yo, we
[2:13:55] Speaker 5: got a problem with you when I'm tipping you off
[2:13:58] Speaker 5: to what's happening? That's where I was coming from.
[2:14:01] Speaker 4: It's the insinuation that you leave open for interpretation. Because
[2:14:06] Speaker 4: there's no, hey, if you're going to tip me off,
[2:14:11] Speaker 4: tell me everything. Hey, listen, if you the homie, don't
[2:14:14] Speaker 4: tell me what them niggas over there talking about. I
[2:14:17] Speaker 4: don't want you to bring that over here to me
[2:14:19] Speaker 4: and be like, hey, yeah, this is what they said.
[2:14:21] Speaker 2: Woo, woo, woo. And I'm like, you sit there and
[2:14:23] Speaker 2: listen to the whole thing?
[2:14:24] Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
[2:14:25] Speaker 2: Damn. It wasn't the whole thing. It was just a text.
[2:14:28] Speaker 4: No, I'm just saying as far as the context of
[2:14:30] Speaker 4: how we function, it's our context. It's like, damn, bro,
[2:14:32] Speaker 4: you just, you sit there and listen to them say
[2:14:34] Speaker 4: all of that and you ain't say nothing? You ain't
[2:14:36] Speaker 4: back me up? Well, I don't really know you like that.
[2:14:38] Speaker 2: So I'm just telling you what they saying. Right.
[2:14:40] Speaker 4: And then he's like, hey, sorry, who is they then?
[2:14:43] Speaker 4: Let me go get at them because they lying. Hey, listen,
[2:14:46] Speaker 4: I can't tell you who that is, bro.
[2:14:48] Speaker 3: And sometimes all you hear is, he's not markable, so.
[2:14:52] Speaker 2: And.
[2:14:52] Speaker 4: Then you take out of account the fact that Jalen
[2:14:55] Speaker 4: Brown may say to all of those endorsement deals that
[2:14:57] Speaker 4: you want him to fucking... to sign, and you think
[2:15:00] Speaker 4: that's good for him, that Jason Tatum got. He's saying, nah,
[2:15:04] Speaker 4: I want that. Nah, I want that. Nah, I got
[2:15:07] Speaker 4: my own shoe. I got my own brand. Yeah, I'm
[2:15:10] Speaker 4: gonna go start.
[2:15:11] Speaker 2: My own shit.
[2:15:11] Speaker 6: Uh-uh, remember, he was on the record.
[2:15:14] Speaker 5: telling you, like, it was public that he was butting
[2:15:17] Speaker 5: heads with some of the sneaker companies.
[2:15:19] Speaker 2: Nike.
[2:15:20] Speaker 5: It was public that he had a problem with how
[2:15:23] Speaker 5: he was treated.
[2:15:24] Speaker 2: And so.
[2:15:25] Speaker 4: Black Lives Matter, he got pushed back from being an
[2:15:27] Speaker 4: activist during the season, all that shit.
[2:15:30] Speaker 5: Right, but what I'm saying is, that stuff was out there,
[2:15:32] Speaker 5: so when the text message came through, it didn't get
[2:15:35] Speaker 5: into the weed specific. It was a general perspective about
[2:15:40] Speaker 5: what they felt. So what I was saying was... Yo,
[2:15:43] Speaker 5: this is how they feel about him. It ain't right.
[2:15:45] Speaker 5: There's no excuse to feel this way about him. And
[2:15:48] Speaker 5: if you can't market this brother, what does that say
[2:15:50] Speaker 5: about the rest of us? Or what does it say
[2:15:52] Speaker 5: about people that you're choosing to market? What is it
[2:15:54] Speaker 5: that they are that he's not? But that warrants a
[2:15:58] Speaker 5: discussion that's provoked by platforms like mine, like yours, and
[2:16:03] Speaker 5: various others. If we keep it silent, nobody talks about.
[2:16:06] Speaker 2: It, and then they get to keep doing it.
[2:16:07] Speaker 4: But is it fair for Jalen Brown to not want
[2:16:10] Speaker 4: to be like everybody else and get what everybody else
[2:16:12] Speaker 4: is getting?
[2:16:12] Speaker 5: I totally agree with that.
[2:16:13] Speaker 4: He got $ 300 million to not want to do all
[2:16:17] Speaker 4: of that other shit?
[2:16:17] Speaker 5: But what you're arguing about is what he has a
[2:16:21] Speaker 5: right to and to not feel.
[2:16:23] Speaker 6: What I was talking about is.
[2:16:26] Speaker 5: This is their justification for this. It ain't right, but
[2:16:30] Speaker 5: this is what they're saying. Deal with that reality and
[2:16:34] Speaker 5: then fight from there because now you know the bullshit
[2:16:36] Speaker 5: they saying about you. Would you not rather know? That's
[2:16:39] Speaker 5: like what I ain't going to say. I got, I
[2:16:41] Speaker 5: have somebody that's a coworker.
[2:16:44] Speaker 2: He's an executive.
[2:16:46] Speaker 5: And he's the kind of cat. You don't, you can't
[2:16:51] Speaker 5: tell me the source. Don't fucking tell me nothing. I
[2:16:53] Speaker 5: don't want to know his ass out of a job.
[2:16:58] Speaker 5: Because when you're an executive, there is a game that's
[2:17:01] Speaker 5: going to be played with or without you. And with
[2:17:05] Speaker 5: or without you, the game's.
[2:17:06] Speaker 2: Going to be played.
[2:17:07] Speaker 5: So now you got a decision. Do you want to climb?
[2:17:11] Speaker 5: Do you want to ascend? And if to do that
[2:17:15] Speaker 5: calls for you not to play the game, but to
[2:17:19] Speaker 5: be hip to the game so you don't get lost
[2:17:22] Speaker 5: in it, you're going to ignore that? Or you're going
[2:17:26] Speaker 5: to get the intel so you're hip to the game
[2:17:28] Speaker 5: and you know what mine feels to avoid. That is
[2:17:32] Speaker 5: what comes with it. And if you can't deal with that,
[2:17:35] Speaker 5: you don't belong in the game.
[2:17:37] Speaker 4: But it's the timing. Remember the timing of the information
[2:17:40] Speaker 4: that was let out? The Olympic situation? And you're looking
[2:17:47] Speaker 4: at a situation where jaylen brown is like damn where
[2:17:49] Speaker 4: all this coming from so the information comes out he
[2:17:52] Speaker 4: don't make the olympic team and everybody's looking at him
[2:17:55] Speaker 4: and i like this is the reason why you didn't
[2:17:57] Speaker 4: make the olympic team because now this accumulation of information
[2:18:00] Speaker 4: is now available to everybody to insinuate Well, what's the
[2:18:04] Speaker 4: reasons why he not getting endorsements? He's not likable. He
[2:18:07] Speaker 4: thinks he's arrogant. He's too confident. He's too smart. Yeah,
[2:18:11] Speaker 4: and then it's like, oh, he walk around with the
[2:18:12] Speaker 4: smug shit. And it's like, well, when you're smarter than
[2:18:15] Speaker 4: other people, that's how it fucking goes.
[2:18:16] Speaker 5: And what I'm saying is, is that That's a beautiful
[2:18:19] Speaker 5: thing for us to know. Cause how could you possibly
[2:18:22] Speaker 5: justify with a straight face holding the brother back? Cause
[2:18:25] Speaker 5: he's smart and he's intelligent and he's going to ask
[2:18:28] Speaker 5: the right questions and he ain't going to just take
[2:18:30] Speaker 5: any song and dance you throwing in his face. So
[2:18:32] Speaker 5: that's what you, that's why you holding him back. That's
[2:18:35] Speaker 5: a discussion that somebody like him. And I know this
[2:18:38] Speaker 5: for a fact because once I saw him face to
[2:18:41] Speaker 5: face and we talked about it, he embraced it like that.
[2:18:44] Speaker 5: It was like, yo, I see this shit. I see
[2:18:46] Speaker 5: what they doing. But he may not have known.
[2:18:50] Speaker 4: Well, imagine if ESPN actually runs the story of Jalen
[2:18:53] Speaker 4: Brown being a fucking genius instead of being a guy
[2:18:56] Speaker 4: you can't market. Imagine that narrative during the Olympics instead of, oh, oh, oh.
[2:19:02] Speaker 4: I think that's the disconnect between some guys that are
[2:19:05] Speaker 4: actually trying to do the right thing the right way
[2:19:08] Speaker 4: and guys who get away with shit.
[2:19:09] Speaker 5: But there have been stories run about him at MIT.
[2:19:12] Speaker 1: 100%.
[2:19:12] Speaker 5: There have been stories run about him and his commitment
[2:19:16] Speaker 5: to his community and how he made sure when he
[2:19:19] Speaker 5: signed that contract he had businesses committing to investing. We
[2:19:22] Speaker 5: covered that press conference. So these things have happened. The
[2:19:25] Speaker 5: problem is the viewing public, it don't stay with them
[2:19:29] Speaker 5: like the other shit stays with them.
[2:19:31] Speaker 2: That's why we need, like, that show, like, Inside Stuff
[2:19:33] Speaker 2: used to be on, right? They used to highlight shit
[2:19:35] Speaker 2: that guys was doing positive, right? Yep. Bring back some
[2:19:38] Speaker 2: shit like that, right? Yeah. Positive light on guys, man.
[2:19:42] Speaker 2: And it's unfortunate.
[2:19:44] Speaker 5: But you also got to get cats that got to be,
[2:19:46] Speaker 5: and I'm going to say this shit, you got to
[2:19:48] Speaker 5: get cats that's mentally stronger. And in this girl, God,
[2:19:51] Speaker 5: I mean this.
[2:19:51] Speaker 2: Oh, shit. Good luck. Yeah.
[2:19:53] Speaker 5: So in this guy, this is what I'm saying. So
[2:19:56] Speaker 5: let's just say for the sake of argument, because I'm
[2:19:58] Speaker 5: not going.
[2:19:58] Speaker 2: To give any details.
[2:19:59] Speaker 5: You talk about It could be Black Lives Matter. It
[2:20:01] Speaker 5: could be the riots that was taking place in the streets.
[2:20:04] Speaker 5: You could see players coming together and, you know, trying
[2:20:07] Speaker 5: to do some things, and they need all the help
[2:20:09] Speaker 5: they can get, and they reaching out to the media.
[2:20:11] Speaker 6: And a cat like me would be like, come on.
[2:20:14] Speaker 6: Come on, first take.
[2:20:15] Speaker 2: Talk about it.
[2:20:16] Speaker 6: We don't have to talk about basketball at all. Fuck
[2:20:20] Speaker 6: that nigga Stephen A.
[2:20:20] Speaker 5: Smith.
[2:20:22] Speaker 6: I ain't trying to come on his show. That's going
[2:20:24] Speaker 6: to do something for him. I'm like, what?
[2:20:28] Speaker 2: What?
[2:20:29] Speaker 5: Yes, it's happened.
[2:20:31] Speaker 6: I'm like, first take.
[2:20:35] Speaker 5: I'm here like we number one for 13 straight years.
[2:20:41] Speaker 5: This is the audience we have. You trying to promote this.
[2:20:45] Speaker 5: It's a sports show. And I said, the hell with
[2:20:48] Speaker 5: the sports. This is your story. It's bigger than.
[2:20:52] Speaker 2: Me and you. Yeah, you don't like something I said.
[2:20:55] Speaker 2: So what? You trying to promote this.
[2:20:58] Speaker 5: You trying to make this happen. You trying to do X, Y,
[2:21:00] Speaker 5: and Z.
[2:21:01] Speaker 2: That's it. I said, come on.
[2:21:04] Speaker 5: Numerous occasions throughout the years.
[2:21:07] Speaker 4: Nah.
[2:21:08] Speaker 6: That's going to help him.
[2:21:10] Speaker 2: And I'm like, really?
[2:21:11] Speaker 5: You haven't noticed that with or without your ass I'm
[2:21:14] Speaker 5: doing just fine? I'm trying to do this for you.
[2:21:18] Speaker 5: I'm trying to.
[2:21:18] Speaker 2: Do this for your cause.
[2:21:21] Speaker 1: But.
[2:21:22] Speaker 5: That's their problem. See, we don't talk about stuff like that.
[2:21:25] Speaker 5: It's like, what sense? Listen, we all know what happened
[2:21:29] Speaker 5: with me and LeBron.
[2:21:30] Speaker 2: All right?
[2:21:31] Speaker 5: I don't give a shit if I never speak to
[2:21:32] Speaker 5: him again in life. And I'm sure he feel the
[2:21:34] Speaker 5: same way. If that man had something going on in Akron,
[2:21:38] Speaker 5: Ohio with the kids, or out here with the kids, yo, man,
[2:21:43] Speaker 5: we need Stephen A.
[2:21:44] Speaker 2: Help.
[2:21:46] Speaker 6: What you need. It ain't got nothing to do with us.
[2:21:50] Speaker 2: What you need.
[2:21:51] Speaker 6: You know how many cats in the league won't do that?
[2:21:55] Speaker 6: Y'all know that.
[2:21:56] Speaker 5: Because they mad that you said something. They don't see
[2:22:00] Speaker 5: the big picture.
[2:22:01] Speaker 2: And nobody talks about that.
[2:22:03] Speaker 5: We just let them get away with it. But they
[2:22:05] Speaker 5: do it all the time. And that's new. Because when
[2:22:09] Speaker 5: you play, when you play, times before y'all, no matter
[2:22:12] Speaker 5: what kind of attitude, you can hate a motherfucker now.
[2:22:15] Speaker 5: But if you had a higher calling, a higher issue
[2:22:19] Speaker 5: to address... That superseded the individual animosity that may have existed.
[2:22:26] Speaker 2: And you good. Not today.
[2:22:28] Speaker 5: Because they like y'all, man. We don't need them. We
[2:22:31] Speaker 5: got our own social media following.
[2:22:33] Speaker 2: We can do this stuff ourselves. Really?
[2:22:35] Speaker 5: Then why the hell you care so much about what
[2:22:37] Speaker 5: other people got.
[2:22:38] Speaker 2: To say then? Come on now. Self-awareness. Everyone don't have it.
[2:22:42] Speaker 2: You got to be comfortable. Stephen A.
[2:22:44] Speaker 1: we appreciate you taking time out of your schedule.
[2:22:47] Speaker 2: Yeah, man. After 138 days, man of your word, pulled
[2:22:50] Speaker 2: up to Gil's Arena.
[2:22:52] Speaker 5: Yeah!
[2:22:52] Speaker 2: Pulled up to Gil's Arena. Got some smoke for you now.
[2:22:56] Speaker 2: Am I all right? I deserve the body bag. Am
[2:22:59] Speaker 2: I all right? No, you didn't put it back there.
[2:23:01] Speaker 2: You didn't put it back. The body bag has reentered
[2:23:04] Speaker 2: the arena. No, no, no. We're going to leave him out.
[2:23:06] Speaker 2: We're going to leave him out. Thank you, thank you,
[2:23:08] Speaker 2: thank you. He survived. Thank you, bro. Survived the body bag.
[2:23:10] Speaker 4: Because I never seen nobody get as amped up about
[2:23:13] Speaker 4: LeBron than me.
[2:23:14] Speaker 2: Like, he really got really like, ah! Fuck this nigga.
[2:23:18] Speaker 2: Did y'all just become best friends? Nobody did.
[2:23:20] Speaker 1: But everybody, make sure you watch First Take. Make sure
[2:23:22] Speaker 1: you watch the Stephen A. Smith Show. Before we go,
[2:23:24] Speaker 1: we got to do the Gillian subscriber giveaway. We are
[2:23:26] Speaker 1: over 956,000 subscribers on the Gills.
[2:23:28] Speaker 2: Arena YouTube channel.
[2:23:29] Speaker 1: So we're giving away $ 3, 000. Our three lucky winners. Mikey Ruthless,
[2:23:33] Speaker 1: you are getting $ 1, 000 courtesy of Underdog. Vino6464, you're getting
[2:23:39] Speaker 1: $ 1, 000 courtesy of Underdog. Last but not least, Birdshit. That
[2:23:43] Speaker 1: is his underdog name, Birdshit. You are getting $ 1, 000 courtesy
[2:23:46] Speaker 1: of Underdog. And we just got word from the folks
[2:23:49] Speaker 1: at Underdog that our special free pick for our viewers
[2:23:52] Speaker 1: will be available for another 20 minutes. So take advantage
[2:23:55] Speaker 1: of that if you haven't already. Click the link in
[2:23:56] Speaker 1: the chat or scan the QR code. Again, thank you
[2:23:59] Speaker 1: to Legend Stephen A.
[2:24:00] Speaker 3: Smith.
[2:24:00] Speaker 2: Take the time out of your schedule to come to
[2:24:02] Speaker 2: Gil's Arena presented by Underdog.
[2:24:06] Speaker 1: This has been another episode of Gil's Arena presented by Underdog.
[2:24:09] Speaker 2: We will see y'all tomorrow.

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