Local Hour: The McFlurry Machine Metaphor

Speaker 1 All right, Smirnoff, official vodka of the NFL, world's number one vodka. Chris Cody, you're with me here.

Speaker 2 Smirnoff!

Speaker 1 Wow, you're on the money with Smirnoff. Spinoff.
I'm gonna ask you, Chris, what's your favorite game day food? Smirnoff! Not your favorite game day drink. What's your favorite game day food? Smirnoff!

Speaker 1 All right, here's the deal: game day is everything: the noise, the rituals, the passion, the dip, the wings, the dip again. Spirit off.

Speaker 1 Smirnoff off belongs in that mix because if you're tailgating or hosting or just sitting there checking your fantasy lineup every 30 seconds, you need Smirnoff! Otherwise, it's not a real game day.

Speaker 1 They've been doing it since 1864, which is, I don't even want to do the math. It's a long time.
It's like when Greg Cody was born. They're award-winning.

Speaker 1 They make cocktails super easy and they're all about bringing fans together. So yeah, we do game days.

Speaker 3 That's their thing.

Speaker 1 And if you're over 21, you should too.

Speaker 5 Why, Chris? Smearing off.

Speaker 1 Grab a bottle of Smearin' Off at your local retailer and head to Smearin'Off.com to find recipes of delicious cocktails perfect for game day. Smearing off! Please drink responsibly.
Smearing off!

Speaker 1 Number 21, vodka distilled from grain, 40% alcohol by volume, the Smearin' Off Company. New York, New York.
Please do not share with anyone under legal drinking age. Smearing off.

Speaker 5 Folks, losing at fantasy football has consequences.

Speaker 4 It really does.

Speaker 1 I mean, a new tattoo, a bad haircut, waffle challenges.

Speaker 7 I've seen those waffle challenges.

Speaker 5 Those look delightful.

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Speaker 10 This is the Dan Labatar Show with the Stu Gats Podcast.

Speaker 11 All right, we're back for game three.

Speaker 4 There we go.

Speaker 11 A little change to the starting lineup. Our man Hawk is gone for the day.
He might be back later in the week.

Speaker 6 He wasn't benched. He was benched.

Speaker 4 It's a DMP.

Speaker 11 Well, the voice that you hear is

Speaker 6 the replacement for Hawk.

Speaker 12 They're called in the left-hander.

Speaker 4 They're called in the lefty.

Speaker 12 Not even lefty. That's the crazy part.

Speaker 8 It is Mr.

Speaker 11 El Hassan, the dream himself.

Speaker 11 You've been walking around with a lot of confidence around here.

Speaker 12 You know that nickname? No, i mean it's always a nickname in rhymes that's the that's the right nickname to go that was my nickname when i worked for the sons man right yeah

Speaker 12 i mean the dream right yeah i mean that's it or dreamer these

Speaker 11 dreamer so we got dreamer in here no mike ryan today billy's back chris cody who's been the rock big red the rock is here and the treasure the return of smetty wap we also got my man charlie who at some point so a couple of things we're going to get in today charlie and i went on a gallivant last night um with some friends one of our friends was kidnapped i heard a story about a lunatic um strength coach that happened last night what else happened last night charlie that was crazy we don't have to get into the story specifically but we can tease them for for later i feel like you think less of me now

Speaker 2 damn

Speaker 11 um no no i just got to know you more like multitudes everybody has these stories did charlie have a sam rockwell and white lotus type of night No.

Speaker 2 No. So I don't know.

Speaker 15 I heard that yesterday's show was a lot of sports talk and I heard that the series is even right now but yesterday's show was a run the ball day sort of like ground and pound like let's let's tie it up the the ugly way and today is gonna be like a we're feeling good we're gonna kind of play our our style ball now is that is that what I heard

Speaker 11 I mean we got to see what the defense gives us the way that desperate enough for a flea flicker

Speaker 11 save that for maybe Thursday or Friday start it you start the game off let them know we got um Jon Fantas coming on later in the show to talk to us about the tournament so that's a run the ball situation situation.

Speaker 11 We got David Sampson, which is always fun. I love David Sampson.
He makes me seem so smart. He's the best.

Speaker 11 But I think at some point we're going to get to Steph Curry hitting a ridiculous amount of threes, but I think we got to start with what Jokish did last night in double overtime, a 61-point triple-double.

Speaker 11 He's insane. All the shots in the paint look like they're mistakes, but they always somehow go in.
He's incredible.

Speaker 11 The passing, and I was watching the highlights of that game this morning because it was on way too late for me, but Charlie was still up. He couldn't sleep because he's a Jokic head.

Speaker 14 Yeah, I mean, got home, and it was double overtime against the Timberwolves. Jokic was unconscious, but I don't know.
Amin, I wonder what you think about this, too.

Speaker 14 Is the lead for you, Jokic or Russell Westbrook, who we've talked about all year,

Speaker 14 he's tempered his Russ. He's deferred to Jokic in seemingly every big moment to the point where he's almost overpassing.
And then with 17 seconds left, the Wolves turn it over.

Speaker 14 Russell Westbrook smokes the layup rather than dribbling the ball out to get fouled up by one.

Speaker 12 But he doesn't give up.

Speaker 14 Russ always has motor. And he fouls to kill Alexander Walker with 0.1 seconds left after complaining for a call.

Speaker 12 I don't know if you guys saw the reverse angle. After he smokes the layup, he just stands there and sits in it for a little bit as action is going.
They're playing.

Speaker 12 And he's just like, yeah, I might have just blown that game. And then he gets the idea, like, I got to make up for this.
And he runs. And the craziest part is watching the TNT broadcast.

Speaker 12 When the foul happens, he's like, oh my God, there's a foul of the buzzer. And they just centered in on Peyton Watson going like this.
And I was like, oh, Peyton, man, like, come on, buddy.

Speaker 12 You got to earn your spot. You can't make mistakes like that in the clutch.
And then I showed the replay. He's like, that wasn't him.
Why are you guys focused on him? Because he looked shocked.

Speaker 12 I'm sure everybody looks shocked on the team. Why are you going to focus on him?

Speaker 11 It was a KG Vett, the guy who's been there, been in all the moments, the guy who is accustomed to being blamed for teams coming short of their championship expectations.

Speaker 11 Well, obviously last night wasn't a championship moment. It felt like a playoff-level game.
It was one of the better games of the season so far with the Nuggets taking on the Wolves.

Speaker 12 And I don't know if you know this, the playoffs have already started. Yeah, in the NBA, the playoffs have already started.
All of these games have stakes. Every single game has stakes.

Speaker 12 And so there's no, well, we'll just get them next week or whatever. Like, everyone needs to win.

Speaker 12 Denver's chasing Houston for the two-seed and the right to not play whoever's six, which is probably going to be the Warriors. And so this was an incredibly important game for them.

Speaker 12 At the same time, for the Timberwolves, they're trying to move up and they're now tied with Memphis for 6-7. They lose a tiebreaker, but everybody was playing for something.

Speaker 12 And that's what made that game so incredible and so compelling, both those games, really.

Speaker 11 Those games are particularly interesting, and those guys are playing for something. There are some teams in the league that are playing to lose also.
But I'm not going to get negative into tanking.

Speaker 11 At some point, I think I got to solve for Tanking. We're going to get to that later.
But I do appreciate the fact that we're at a point in the season where all the games matter

Speaker 11 and we're locked in. They're playing hard.
You go double overtime. Steph is doing Steph things.

Speaker 11 And in that particular game, the thing that stood out to me was I was shocked at how many big shots Aaron Gordon hit, big threes.

Speaker 11 And I was like, let me look up, because it was always the thing on Aaron Gordon was like, he couldn't be a number one in part because of his abilities.

Speaker 11 Well, I mean, you looked at me like I was stupid. They pushed him as a number one in Orlando.

Speaker 6 Don't act like they didn't.

Speaker 14 You can't be a number two in the playoff team.

Speaker 8 Don't act like they didn't try to trick us into being Aaron Gore to be a number one.

Speaker 12 They wasn't tricking us. They were doing the thing that you do and you invite people over and all you have is like this futon from Ikea.

Speaker 12 And we're like, yeah, I just got these new cushion right here, these new

Speaker 12 seat cushions just to spruce it up a little bit. And you're like, oh, wow, yeah, that's really nice, man.
It really brings color out. But like, we all know, like, damn, bro, you broke.

Speaker 2 You broke.

Speaker 6 That's what's happening.

Speaker 8 That was what was happening.

Speaker 11 I was setting this up to be a compliment to Eric Gore. That's not what I meant.
I set it up improperly.

Speaker 5 What kind of furniture is Jokic?

Speaker 12 Oh, man. That's a sectional with the USB plugs in them.
Ooh. Right? And the cup holders.
And the cup holders. And that little, like, that pocket thing where I can put my remote control in.

Speaker 5 It's honestly doing too much, that couch.

Speaker 3 What?

Speaker 2 It's just like, I don't need it all.

Speaker 11 I don't need an outlet.

Speaker 2 What? Oh, man.

Speaker 12 You know how many times I have to reach over?

Speaker 2 I gotta charge my phone. Hold on.

Speaker 6 You guys aren't on the portable charger game?

Speaker 13 I'm in the portable. I'm not like couching.

Speaker 5 I don't do the thing from the couch anymore. Like, those things

Speaker 8 are bad.

Speaker 5 A month in, they're not even working anymore.

Speaker 12 Oh, for real? I don't have one.

Speaker 5 I have my couch.

Speaker 5 I had a charger thing plugged in, and then I was into it, and then two months later, it just stopped working.

Speaker 12 So this is what this is. This is really just you railing against the furniture salesman who...
bent over a barrel and showed you things.

Speaker 5 But I do like the portable charger.

Speaker 5 My wife has like 50 of these things. So now I rarely even use the wall chargers anymore.

Speaker 5 I just, I'm walking around with my portable charger, and then when I leave the house, I plug the portable charger.

Speaker 6 You know what I don't like about the portable charger?

Speaker 12 I got to charge it. Yeah.

Speaker 6 I'm guessing Chris's wife does that. Yeah.

Speaker 11 You want a solar portable charger?

Speaker 12 Yeah, I mean, just something like maybe like dynamic or something like kinetic energy.

Speaker 3 You could run.

Speaker 8 You could run down the street, shake it up.

Speaker 11 Speaking of running, Taylor, he might get embarrassed today. Because I walked in this morning and that fool Taylor was, I'm in.
I don't know if you would know about this, I mean, but yesterday.

Speaker 17 Yeah, yesterday, Taylor was out here popping a little, a little talking a little cash to me like he could beat me in a race.

Speaker 11 And I was like, i'm not trying to race because i don't want to get injured like my guy uh at the at the hawks game

Speaker 11 yeah i don't i don't want to get injured like my guy at the hawks game but anyway i walk in here and taylor looking at me like like i'm a i'm a kid like yeah

Speaker 11 look lynch relax kelvin sampson you can't run with me chill out young taytay and then so he's sizing me up so i'm sizing him up and i have even more confidence after i sized him up because i didn't check out like we saw his shoulders and arms but today he was looking at me like he wanted to race me so I had to check out the engine.

Speaker 11 Taylor ain't got no donk he can't run. He ain't got no engine.
He don't got no cakes.

Speaker 17 You can't fly if you ain't got no cakes.

Speaker 11 I'm sorry this is uncomfortable. I don't mean to objectify you Taylor, but I know this from when I was being scouted

Speaker 11 the the coaches and the scouts take the tasks first.

Speaker 12 Yeah, they checked they start.

Speaker 6 I remember my dad turn around boy.

Speaker 11 My dad wasn't a very good athlete, but he

Speaker 11 obviously was very involved in me getting recruited. And I went to like my first combine when I was in a sophomore in high school.
And the coaches were standing next to my dad. Like, man, yeah.

Speaker 11 I mean, he's going to be a good player. He's explosive.
And he got real nice hips. And I remember my dad was like, you know what school you're not going to?

Speaker 2 That one.

Speaker 8 He's talking about how you got nice hips.

Speaker 11 I was like, no, no, dad. It means like I turned well or whatever.
He was very confused.

Speaker 12 No, no. Your dad was right.
Anyone compliments my child's hips? Yeah, we're ending that conversation right then.

Speaker 11 I mean, that's a football thing.

Speaker 8 You'll hear, if you listen to draft stuff, you hear a hip.

Speaker 7 I'm sure you hear even worse.

Speaker 12 Here's the thing.

Speaker 12 What's the worst thing? You know, here's the thing.

Speaker 12 98% of the time, you're probably right. It was just a football remark.
But then there's that 2%, right? Do you really want to risk that 2%?

Speaker 12 And then everyone will be like, well, the man did tell you he was complimenting the hips. And you're like, yeah, thanks.
And so to do something about it. No, you can't take that.
You cannot.

Speaker 12 It reminds me, I watched

Speaker 12 that docuseries about all the things that were happening at Nickelodeon behind the scenes to those poor children or whatever.

Speaker 12 And one of the kids, like, his dad was really kind of involved. And it was like, no, like, always picking him up, always on top of things.

Speaker 12 Then he ended up having a divorce and the mom was getting in custody. And the mom was like fully into the Hollywood mom life and just dropping the kid off and leaving him be.

Speaker 12 And so years later, the scandal comes out like, man, these kids got, you know, messed with or whatever.

Speaker 12 And the dad is watching the news with his son and he's like, man, see, I'm glad I kept you away from all of them. Turned out, his son was one of them.

Speaker 13 Yeah.

Speaker 12 So, like, you don't want to be that dad thinking, like, oh, yeah, I did everything right. And then, yeah,

Speaker 11 my dad stood in the way, and I did not go down to school, not because of that, but I think that it's part of it is that you,

Speaker 11 you're probably right, but I have been around football so much that some of the lingo in football is comfortable to me. I wonder what the basketball, because y'all ain't better than us.

Speaker 12 Wait, did you go, was that Penn State? Or is it what that workout was?

Speaker 8 No, it was not.

Speaker 12 That's a Sandusky joke, folks.

Speaker 12 That's right.

Speaker 6 That's how we're doing it. Flea flicker.

Speaker 6 We started this game with a flea flicker.

Speaker 2 Oh, man.

Speaker 12 The basketball equivalent.

Speaker 11 Yeah, is there a basketball equivalent of terminology? Because that was definitely, we talked about high hips, loose hips, nice hips. There's butt conversations.

Speaker 11 It's always butt conversation in football because that's where your power is from. And speed, there's like, yeah, he's got a good butt.
You can hear coaches say that.

Speaker 5 Same in baseball.

Speaker 2 Like, all the power from hitting Yeah. Right here.

Speaker 8 Right here.

Speaker 11 There's no basketball equivalent. You guys are too evolved for that.
You are the most progressive sport, they say.

Speaker 12 Yeah, well, you know, we don't objectify our players. We say, got a nice personality, that kid.

Speaker 11 That's what we say. A hard-working fella.

Speaker 12 Also, got nice open hips.

Speaker 11 Open hips. Okay, so open isn't objectifying.

Speaker 11 Do you believe, so watching Steph and the Warriors, well, and the Warriors is the right way to phrase it after last night. Steph went for 52, 10, 8, and 5 with 12 threes versus Memphis.

Speaker 11 I've been hesitant to accept the fact that Jimmy Butler has taken this team to being a legitimate title contender, but I have the dream here, a real NBA expert, to let me know, should I be serious?

Speaker 11 Because I know they're better. I know they're not, they're going to be a tough out, but I have a hard time convincing myself that they haven't.

Speaker 11 They actually have a chance to win another title this year.

Speaker 11 Should I change my opinion on that?

Speaker 12 They have a chance. Change your opinion on if they have a chance.
I mean, they obviously have a chance.

Speaker 12 I mean, I'm not talking about like a mathematical chance in the same way the Timberwolves have a chance of winning the championship. They have a legitimate chance, yes.
Are there obstacles?

Speaker 12 Hell yes, there are obstacles in that way. And chief among them is they don't have a lot of size, right?

Speaker 12 Like they're playing Quentin Post, who before this season, no one even had heard that name before. They're playing Trace Jackson Davis has fallen out of the rotation to some extent.

Speaker 12 Kevon Looney is 700 years old and yet somehow not 30, I don't believe.

Speaker 11 He's got 700-year-old knees, it would appear.

Speaker 12 Old and young at the same time.

Speaker 14 He doesn't have open hips.

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 6 Them hips close early.

Speaker 11 His hips close early. They're not 24 hours.

Speaker 12 And then you got Draymond and Jimmy Butler playing undersized, pretty much, which they're all tough and

Speaker 12 they bring some to the table, but at some point, you run into someone who's just big.

Speaker 12 And when you look at the Western Conference, that's it whether it's Jokic

Speaker 12 or you know

Speaker 12 Chet Holmgren and and Isaiah Hartenstein or even someone like Shingun right like you're gonna have problems you're gonna have to see one of those guys on the ascent maybe even multiple and are are they you're saying okay my guys are tough enough and smart enough and experienced enough because a lot a lot of people don't realize guys like Moses Moody and Kaminga like they won a championship too they've been around

Speaker 12 I just I don't know. I'm not I don't know enough to say oh no no they're you're nuts but also not like yeah man put it all on the Warriors.

Speaker 11 This is so one of the things about the NBA that people complain about is how the style of play has become a bit homogenous.

Speaker 11 But I can say when you look at the Western Conference, it does feel like there's some like eclectic roster constructions that is kind of interesting to see those things clash like from what the Timberwolves have to the Warriors.

Speaker 11 Like is there a chance that the Warriors could small ball their way past some of these teams?

Speaker 11 Because, like, that is always the hang-up for the Warriors, or excuse me, not for the Warriors, for the Timberwolves or for a Gobert-centered team is like, is he going to get taken off the floor?

Speaker 11 The Thunder, I guess, like, Chet can run well enough, and they're so damn dirty, man.

Speaker 12 The Thunder is the perfect team. It's like, you're talking about, you're right.
There are a bunch of, like, every team I look at in the West, like, yeah, what about this? What about that?

Speaker 12 Look at the Thunder. I'm like, nah, y'all got it, man.
Like, I have no notes.

Speaker 11 I mean, the criticism, I I guess, that I've heard about the Thunder, and you could let me know if this is accurate or not, is

Speaker 11 very reliant on one specific player who is also very reliant on the referees blowing the whistle in certain situations, right?

Speaker 12 I wouldn't say he's reliant. I think he plays a way that makes it very hard to guard him.
Right. Right.

Speaker 12 And either you're going to give up a shot that you don't feel comfortable giving up or you're going to foul. Right.

Speaker 12 So, so, well, it's not, but it's, it's, it always drives me insane when people are like, oh, the refs. Like, no, he's getting fouled.
Right. He's getting fouled because he plays at a pace.

Speaker 12 And if you think about all the guys that are great at drawing fouls, that are not like Giannis that are just because. You're talking about SDA, Shea Gilles, Alexander.
Yeah.

Speaker 12 Shake Elis Alexander, James Harden, Luka Doncic, like all Jalen Brunson. What do all those guys have in common?

Speaker 12 They're not like, one would think, oh, the guy that's blazingly quick and jumping over everybody, that's the guy that everyone fouls.

Speaker 12 like no it's the guy that makes you play down at their pace yeah they know how to slow it down and stop and and speed up in small windows and that's what gets unruly defenders off balance and makes them foul but like to me it's not it's not like watch me fool the refs one more time no he's getting fouled and and he's getting fouled because you have no recourse yeah i mean and i i guess my point you're right i don't mean to to say that he's like a foul grifter like the fouls are genuine but it is a part of his game.

Speaker 11 And the reason why that I've heard that that should give me some concern is like the refs don't call every game consistently.

Speaker 11 And then in the clutch, when you need those plays, the refs tend to swallow their whistles in those situations.

Speaker 11 Or their wishers. And they don't have like a true secondary like playmaker in a way that you would expect them.

Speaker 14 Well, isn't that the bigger question?

Speaker 14 Like Shay at this point.

Speaker 14 We expect him to go awesome in the playoffs, but the question is more Jalen Williams and Chet and if they're going to play really well consistently as a second and third one.

Speaker 12 I got J-Dub, man. I can't believe you're sitting here

Speaker 12 doubting J-Dubb, man.

Speaker 12 Look, you're right. The game plan, the game plan, which is always my favorite thing about the NBA, it's the difference between the NBA and the NFL.
NFL, you guys have a game plan.

Speaker 12 It's like, it's a secret. Don't let anyone know what the game plan is.
It's a game plan. They're not going to.
Oh, my God. What are they doing? Oh, our heads are exploding.

Speaker 12 The NBA is like, yeah, yeah, hey, man, you want our game plan? Here it is. Your opponent, here, take it, take it, take a look at it.
Now, stop it. Try and stop it.
Right?

Speaker 12 So the game plan is we're going to get the ball out of Shay's hand. We're going to throw two at him.
We're going to make someone else beat us. We're going to see how much,

Speaker 12 if we can go to the well to J-Dub again and again and again, him and Chet, how much they can continue to convert before it dissipates on them, right?

Speaker 12 The reality is, Shay Gillsius Alexander leads the league in scoring at like 33 points a game. Eight of those points come from the free throw line.
So he's still scoring 25 a game,

Speaker 12 not getting to the free throw line.

Speaker 2 Again,

Speaker 12 it's so easy to say, oh, yo, just take Shea off the board, and then what are you going to do? All right, go ahead. Yeah, there you go.
Here you go. And here's my game plan.
Now take him off the board.

Speaker 11 Yeah, no, it's impossible to eliminate him similar to the way that it's impossible to eliminate Jokic.

Speaker 11 You just try to get him in situations where you're more comfortable or where you think he is not as comfortable.

Speaker 12 It's why in the NBA, a much more successful tactic when you see these amazing offensive players is the opposite. Let them get whatever he wants, but nobody else breathes.

Speaker 12 Like that's way more common because, again,

Speaker 12 60 points last night aside, the idea is that nobody can continue to do that over the course of 48 minutes and also still be in the game and also still be able to defend and all those things.

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Speaker 10 Don Lebatard.

Speaker 2 Amino Hassan.

Speaker 17 Stugats. Amino Hassan.

Speaker 10 This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats.

Speaker 11 That's why those players are so valuable, which is why there's another story, the NBA, that's kind of been percolating.

Speaker 11 We know how valuable those star players are, which is why the NBA is the league of tankers, if there's such a thing.

Speaker 11 There's no other league where I feel like it makes more sense to tank than an NBA because the value of a player like that is so huge.

Speaker 11 And so there were a couple articles yesterday, one of which on ESPN about the league's initiatives to try to address tanking.

Speaker 14 The big one by Mike Vorkhanoff on The Athletic, where he started a four-part series about ways to address tanking, because it's not even saying that there's a

Speaker 14 process Sixers are happening. It's just that earlier in the season, 15, 20 games less, we're seeing teams like the Sixers play like a Delaware 87ers roster.

Speaker 2 Can I run down the Sixers roster?

Speaker 11 So, Quentin Grimes is balling. He's the player, the name that you know.
Then they got Lonnie Walker the fourth, Adin Bona, Justin Edwards, Ricky Counsel, also to the fourth.

Speaker 2 To the fourth.

Speaker 15 Clyde mentioned that on the broadcast, but isn't Lonnie Walker, his siblings are named Lonnie?

Speaker 12 First of all, I am so, like, I was like, why would you be listening? Oh, yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2 Because I believe that's it.

Speaker 6 It's terrible. I don't want to talk about it.

Speaker 15 I do love Clyde. That was his 80th birthday on Sunday.

Speaker 2 Let me tell you something.

Speaker 6 That's how

Speaker 12 I did well on the SAT Verbal. Hand of God.
Listening to Walt Clyde Frazier because he would say things, serendipitous bounce on the left side. Like, what does serendipitous mean?

Speaker 12 Oh, the Knicks are in there, Shangla, and there's Xanadu. I'm like, what's a Xanadu? How do you even spell it? All of those words came up in my SAT verbal.
Shout out to Walt Clive Frazier.

Speaker 15 Okay, it's not Lonnie Walker. I think it might be Ricky Counsel.

Speaker 13 Oh, that is.

Speaker 7 I'll get on this.

Speaker 8 There you go.

Speaker 11 He's the fourth because

Speaker 11 he has other brothers.

Speaker 11 So it's not like.

Speaker 15 It was described as a George Foreman situation on the broadcast.

Speaker 12 Together, they formed.

Speaker 15 Yes, Council's two older brothers are also named after his father, Ricky Council. Both Ricky Council 2 and Ricky Council 3 also played college basketball.
Wow.

Speaker 12 Together, they formed Pretty Ricky.

Speaker 17 Grind with me.

Speaker 11 Our first show, we learned about, or we discussed a little bit about naming conventions in families.

Speaker 8 Man.

Speaker 2 That one is.

Speaker 8 Hold on.

Speaker 8 Leroy and G-Roy.

Speaker 6 Hold on, man.

Speaker 11 Geroy's a great Maryland receiver.

Speaker 12 Let me just say right now. There is nobody I want to see on the playground after I done call someone, maybe your mama.
And then here come Leroy and G-Roy. Like, what you say about my mama?

Speaker 12 Like, that's, those are bullies, right? That's the name of twin bullies that come out.

Speaker 6 It's Leroy and Geroy.

Speaker 11 They definitely seem like the characters from a 90s cartoon that were always causing havoc that the gang had to get away from.

Speaker 12 And then they always refer to each other by their name.

Speaker 6 Ain't that right, Leroy? Yeah, hell yeah, G-Roy.

Speaker 12 Leroy and G-Roy.

Speaker 11 Are there, so we talked about this on my show a little bit yesterday, and I kind of fumbled into what I thought was a reasonable

Speaker 11 tanking solution. So I want to hear, I'll throw this to you.

Speaker 11 I think when we are talking about creating incentives, that's the problem is the teams are incentivized.

Speaker 11 Like the 76ers need to lose enough games so that they are in the bottom six, so they retain their draft pick. This is not even, this is not just tanking for a draft pick.

Speaker 11 When you have these protected pick trades, which I think with OKC, the 76ers have a trade, they need to lose enough games just to keep their draft pick.

Speaker 11 And so you want to create some sort of structure that eliminates the incentive to lose. But why that's not a full solve for tanking is because you also need to create some incentive to win.

Speaker 11 And because you could just be like, all right, we're out of this. All right, being the worst doesn't get us a better chance.

Speaker 11 But why would I put my good players out there if we are not going to make the playoffs? We have no chance they could get hurt.

Speaker 12 Okay, so you hit on exactly the point. The point isn't that the incentive to lose is too great.
It's that it's not greater than the incentive to win, right?

Speaker 12 And so I've heard things where like, yo, we should have a tournament of all the teams that don't make the playoffs. And then that's the team that gets the number one pick.

Speaker 12 I said, okay, so you basically just incentivize whoever's in the bottom of the playoff picture.

Speaker 12 Do I really want my head beaten in by the Cavs or the Thunder? Or do I want to go get Cooper Flat?

Speaker 12 So like

Speaker 12 if that were the rule right now, that's what I would accuse the Miami Heat of doing, of tanking so that they miss the playoffs so that they can then go run roughshod on Washington and

Speaker 12 Charlotte and all those teams.

Speaker 5 I like this idea. Let's do this.

Speaker 12 So the problem is, as you said, it's the incentive does not match, right?

Speaker 12 I think Philadelphia is a bad example because they are specifically in a weird spot where they wanted to win. They entered the season wanting to win games, wanting to win a championship.

Speaker 12 And even as late as maybe January, they're like, it could still happen, right? If we just get healthy at the right time. And then injuries just pretty much cut them off at the knees.

Speaker 12 On top of that, they owe a pick to Oklahoma City. Do you know why they owe that pick, by the way?

Speaker 11 No, trade?

Speaker 12 Well, yes.

Speaker 12 One Dominique.

Speaker 2 We'll play.

Speaker 12 About five years ago, maybe a little bit more,

Speaker 12 the Sixers had Al Horford on their roster. They paid him a bunch of money and like, it didn't work.
This is a bad move. And they're like, we got to get rid of him.

Speaker 12 Who could take this salary out of our hands? And Oklahoma City city's like i'll take it for a couple of picks

Speaker 12 and that's what it is and then and then and then and by the way then okayc flipped him to boston for some more picks and he's still being productive playing too many minutes for somebody his age right now but he's still being productive guarding luca on the perimeter in big moments yeah yeah so so

Speaker 12 where we're at here is is to me i think we solved the problem Five years ago, this shit was out of control.

Speaker 8 Like,

Speaker 2 All-Star Break, nah, I'm tanking.

Speaker 12 All these teams were going heavy. Now, because of the play-in,

Speaker 12 you've extended the window of teams saying, I could do it. I could put something together.
And, you know, what Miami did two years ago has now given the play-in a different meaning.

Speaker 12 It's like, hey, it's not just the right to get your head bashing. Maybe it could be you, right? So

Speaker 12 they have solved that for all but like the four or five teams that are awful every year, which I think is kind of part of the process. Like everyone needs bad teams.

Speaker 11 I mean, I'm fine. They're going to be bad teams.
What I don't appreciate is when like I look at the 76ers and they're giving DMPs to Kelly Oubre and it's like play your best players.

Speaker 11 Try to have your best.

Speaker 11 And even if it's just four teams, I feel like at least, and I'm normally not one who, I'm going to defend the players most of the times, but I have found myself becoming a little bit more sympathetic and a lot more sympathetic to fans where it's like, look, we got a whole damn season.

Speaker 11 This is my team. Y'all not even trying?

Speaker 6 And no, I'm serious.

Speaker 12 I like the idea of you like for years, Dominique is like, if them fans, man, just pay me my check.

Speaker 12 And then, and then, like, a couple of years removed from retiring, you're like, is this what you guys have been witnessing?

Speaker 2 This is preposterous.

Speaker 11 And it's not because that's not what we do in football. So, like, I haven't had this, and you can't create the same situation in football because 82 games means money.

Speaker 11 We're never going to go down to fewer games because I think that would help

Speaker 12 any situation.

Speaker 12 There's none of that stuff right it in football it's a very simple system that creates that it's not the scarcity of games it's the scarcity of guaranteed dollars right so everybody is kind of clawing at this pot of money right whereas i i would disagree with that because i i think the scarcity of guaranteed dollars may motivate the players, but that's not what motivates the teams.

Speaker 11 What motivates the teams is a couple different things. I think it's the complexity of the game of football.

Speaker 11 Football is not a game where you can get one player in the same way that basketball, you get one player, it's worth it because that will turn your team around.

Speaker 11 I think football, we've never really seen that happen. It's so rare.
And even all the great quarterbacks that we talk about,

Speaker 11 I guess.

Speaker 12 But Aaron Rodgers, he turned the Jets around.

Speaker 2 Exactly.

Speaker 12 Full 360.

Speaker 11 Case in point. And I think it's because of the complexity of...

Speaker 11 Case of the complexity of football is the reason why so many times we're like, we know this team's going to be good.

Speaker 8 We know that.

Speaker 11 And you can't do it. You have to build up the teams that are consistently good are teams that build up that type of culture and are good continuously.

Speaker 11 I don't think that if you remove guaranteed contracts from basketball, that you would get a better product because the teams would still be incentivized to create DMPs or to tell some guy who's never really been that good to go out there and get his numbers and they lose.

Speaker 11 You have to remove that incentive.

Speaker 12 So, there's a couple of things, right? Number one is the players,

Speaker 12 like the teams, when they play these guys. So, let's use Philadelphia as an example, right?

Speaker 12 I don't know of any fan who's like, I bought tickets to Sixers Knicks, and then I found out Kelly Oubre was a DNP. How dare they?

Speaker 12 Like the number of guys who actually that move the needle on that, of like, I don't feel like I'm getting my money's worth, is rather limited.

Speaker 14 I think that's like the backwards way of looking at that, though, because it's not about Kelly Oubre.

Speaker 14 It's the fact that if you're a Sixers fan and you get to see Jokic once a year when he comes to Philly or Giannis, and it's when those guys, like we're playing a dogwater dogwater Philly team that's playing their G-League players.

Speaker 14 You know what, Giannis, we're going to give you the night off.

Speaker 12 Yeah, I mean, like,

Speaker 12 again,

Speaker 12 I don't think that,

Speaker 12 for instance, the Bucs have that luxury

Speaker 12 or any of those teams.

Speaker 14 Giannis might not have been the best of the teams.

Speaker 12 I'm just saying, like, look, look up and down all the states.

Speaker 2 I don't think

Speaker 6 that matters.

Speaker 12 It's really easy. Like, Cleveland.
Oh, they don't have to play that. Yes, they do because they're tracing a number one overall seed.
They want a home court advantage in the finals, right?

Speaker 12 Denver, they're chasing two in Houston. Houston trying to keep Denver off their backs.
Lakers trying to move up to two or three. Warriors trying to stay out of seven, eight, nine.

Speaker 12 Like every single team, every night at this point, has a reason to play their guys other than if it's a back-to-back. It becomes a mitigated risk, right?

Speaker 12 So, so, from that standpoint, from the other standpoint, if I'm the Sixers, it's part of it, sure, it fits in with, like, yeah, we want to lose these games.

Speaker 12 But the other part of it is, why am I going to play Kelly Oubre, who I know who he is? I know what he's about. How do I figure out if Ricky Counsel is really good or not, right?

Speaker 12 The number of guys, so Miami did this for years with Kendrick Nunn, with

Speaker 12 Duncan Robinson, with

Speaker 12 Haywood High Smith. These are all guys who actually got called up the year before, right? At the end of the year, and they're like, all right, let's see what we got here.
Let's see what we got here.

Speaker 12 And then they come back, and the next year you're like, this guy's in rotation. I never heard of him.
Yeah, he's been here. But like, you didn't realize it.

Speaker 8 So I think

Speaker 11 we I don't think we need to argue whether it's a problem or not.

Speaker 8 The perception is out there and whether you're playing that's a problem. No, no, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 12 If you want to talk about what the NBA's problem is, is that we allow perception.

Speaker 11 But it's not saying that's that's trying to pretend as if it's only perception. It is.
It's also fact. Teams are tanking.
Let's not. Come on, Amin.

Speaker 8 Teams aren't tanking.

Speaker 12 It's not a problem, though.

Speaker 2 It is a problem.

Speaker 6 Why is it a problem?

Speaker 11 Because the game that we got last night, the games where we get where people are trying, are a better product.

Speaker 11 The idea that it's okay to have some some distributors of your product say you know what we are going to continuously purposely put out a trash version of the product stinks that's not a good precedent to set and is the precedent's been set that's not a good culture to to in indulge Chris you ever been to McDonald's and they told you the McFurry machine wasn't working hate that

Speaker 12 every time you go to McDonald's I still eat I'm not sure what that was so what's some McDonald's don't have a working McFlurry machine and so we still do we boycott the McDonald's? Nah, we still eat.

Speaker 12 We still eat, man. We still go, okay, give me a two cheeseburger meal and some nuggets on the side.
Maybe that $5 meal that comes with all this stuff in there. I really like McDonald's.

Speaker 2 That's such backwards.

Speaker 11 That's such backwards thinking to me.

Speaker 8 It's a backwards thing. It is backwards.
So hold on. Everyone,

Speaker 11 can I ask you a question?

Speaker 11 Would you like the NBA better if no one tanked? If everyone tried their hardest?

Speaker 12 I don't think it would make a difference.

Speaker 8 Okay.

Speaker 12 Like, I don't think it would make a difference.

Speaker 2 Absolutely.

Speaker 12 I don't think Washington is playing all its guys. Do you care?

Speaker 11 No, I think that people, teams construct their, or organizations construct teams based on the fact that they are incentivized to be terrible. I think we will be looking at a different NBA.

Speaker 11 I think we all accept that the NBA is more talented than it's ever been, but we know that some teams are like, you know what? We need to be really bad right now. We construct the roster that way.

Speaker 11 We bench players and we have games that are non-competitive that no one cares about.

Speaker 11 And I guess I wanted to get into some of the the solves for tanking, but I somehow found the one man in America who thinks that tanking's not an issue.

Speaker 11 Even the league, even Adam Silver wants them to stop tanking, but you're like, no, it's cool.

Speaker 11 We don't need McFlurries.

Speaker 12 We're doing 2019 sports talk right now. Like, it's not an issue.

Speaker 12 And the only reason why people are talking about it this year, because I don't remember anybody opening their mouth even halfway to talk about this.

Speaker 12 The only reason why it's this year is because there's a guy who's coming out that everyone is tantalizing over and when you got a guy like that everyone is going to look at every single action as i see you're tanking for flag again like no it's just sometimes this shit is cyclical and bad teams are just bad and whether they play a player who wouldn't start on 30 NBA teams or not does not change the product, right?

Speaker 12 The other thing you're assuming, Mr. I Love the Players, is you're saying that like, who the hell are these guys?

Speaker 12 Man, there might be another guy coming in. One of these guys who's playing, getting that time.

Speaker 11 Agreed. There might be a guy in there.
That doesn't mean that you should intentionally break the McFurry machine.

Speaker 8 So, Memphis.

Speaker 2 What are we talking about?

Speaker 11 Everybody loves McFurry's, and you're like, who cares?

Speaker 12 No, you don't need a McFurry. No, my point is this, is the McFurry machine is not working in some McDonald's.
That doesn't make you stop going to the McDonald's.

Speaker 11 But if you are the McDonald's with a bad McFlurry machine,

Speaker 12 you think their sales go down? You want to go?

Speaker 19 If you want a McFurry, you'd go to McDonald's.

Speaker 5 You might discover another item, though.

Speaker 6 There could be other items there.

Speaker 2 This is horse poop.

Speaker 11 Um, speaking of the NBA and people who are not performing that well, there's a guy in Atlanta who was we were talking yesterday a bit about um how I was not gonna race Taylor because I didn't want to get injured.

Speaker 11 Dog, this is a this is so I was talking trash to Taylor, but then I saw this video pop up on my socials, and now I'm no longer sure that I want to embarrass Taylor in a race today.

Speaker 12 This is the partner.

Speaker 5 I was this guy tanking, is the real question.

Speaker 13 Go!

Speaker 13 Oh!

Speaker 13 Different!

Speaker 13 Oh, no! Hold on! Let's make sure my guy is good! The announcer.

Speaker 13 Oh, man.

Speaker 5 Other guy just continuing to perform.

Speaker 12 It's Bagman.

Speaker 12 His name is Bagman.

Speaker 15 Is that bad sportsmanship to keep playing?

Speaker 15 You don't think they want to just get what was the prize on this?

Speaker 13 Bagman.

Speaker 5 For the audio audience, there's two people competing. They're doing the thing where they have to go make a layup and then they can come back and play tic-tac-toe.

Speaker 5 And one guy tears his ACL and is just laying down.

Speaker 6 And the other guy continues playing.

Speaker 8 We're not sure that he tours his ACL, are we?

Speaker 6 Well, allegedly.

Speaker 12 Allegedly. But here's the thing.
He goes to check on him. And she turns and looks at the camera and goes, yikes.
Like she's working on the office or something. What are you doing?

Speaker 12 Like, you got a vamp.

Speaker 2 You got a vamp that whole time.

Speaker 12 You got to be like, hey, man, hope you're doing all right. We're going to get you to take care of with a good family.

Speaker 2 It's her fault.

Speaker 12 I mean,

Speaker 2 who did I say? It's your fault.

Speaker 15 Are you finding you're finding fault in her being like, oh no, I don't know what to do.

Speaker 2 This never happened before.

Speaker 12 You got a microphone on. You got to keep talking.
Keep feeling. You can't just look at the camera and go like, oh,

Speaker 14 defender of tanking, hater of women.

Speaker 13 I mean, the dream.

Speaker 19 I mean, do we know he's actually hurt, or is that like, I'm embarrassed, so let me lay down and pretend I have a serious anger. Wow.

Speaker 12 This is another reason why you keep bamping you make him prove it go ahead stand up she goes let's make sure my guy is good what what could she possibly have done wrong here

Speaker 12 the part where she's just silent and the guy goes to go check on the other guy and she's like oops

Speaker 12 dang is also not bamping by the way dang

Speaker 13 dang

Speaker 4 I mean it's an in-game

Speaker 13 thing

Speaker 12 20 seconds they gotta go there's 20 hold on it's in Atlanta. There's 12,000 people in that building.

Speaker 13 That guy's fine.

Speaker 11 I guess

Speaker 8 maybe

Speaker 8 you should have some protocol.

Speaker 11 It's like it's not a crazy thing. It's not like the building got hit by a meteor.
Like, we got old people trying to do sporting events.

Speaker 11 In her mind, she could be like, maybe, possibly, what do I do if somebody blows out a knee?

Speaker 12 It didn't happen. You remember the Dark Knight Rises?

Speaker 2 Remember that? Yeah, when the

Speaker 12 Hyde Ward is running and the the whole field blows up?

Speaker 2 I remember. There you go.

Speaker 12 Now, what you haven't seen is the director's cut in which the in-arena announcer keeps going.

Speaker 12 Keeps going.

Speaker 15 My mother was right, and that in-stadium announcer was a man.

Speaker 2 That's it.

Speaker 11 Yeah, I just was happy that it wasn't a mean embarrassing himself playing basketball.

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