The Trade of the Century?!?! Luka to the Lakers! . . . and a Royal Rumble Recap!

[00:00:01] Speaker A: What's up guys? This is Rome. We're back for a special pod. Except although we were gearing up, you know, the transition from the NFL season to the NBA season and start coming a little more hockey and college basketball and and F1 as that picks up and baseball, etc. Etc. We did not expect to get hit with this type of info, this type of breaking news over the weekend. We kind of sat on it for a little bit just to kind of see what unfolded. So we record this Monday night and glad we did. But even now we're gonna probably still talk about it in the next few pods to come. But Luca is now a Laker joining LeBron in La La Land. Pretty wild. I'm gonna miss AD one of my favorite Lakers in a while. Going to Dallas now. Two of my favorite players to watch in the NBA. AD And Kyrie are now on the same team and it breaks my heart. But we'll talk about that. Kind of go over that and as well as the D. Aaron Fox trade becoming a spur since that broke out as well. And then we'll end the pod. Jason is the the most pumped up I've ever heard him. Even more than F1. He's going to give you the full breakdown of what happened in WWE's Royal Rumble over the weekend. This guy sounds really excited. I think we're have to give him his own pod just for wrestling. That's how good it is. So don't go anywhere guys. Is a big pot tonight. It is late Monday night. This is the only time we can get on or the fastest we can get on. Lots of trades in the NBA trade deadline this Thursday. This might be the craziest NBA tread downline in a long time. So before we get into what has happened, what has transpired, I'm trying to think like the last time we had like a lot of action might have been when AD that whole drama was going to the Lakers. There's only one way in, one way out. And the Lakers gave up a lot. At least it seemed like it was a lot. It looks like they made out pretty well on that one. Before that, I'm thinking it was like an offseason thing. That would have been Kawhi Leonard to the Clippers. Was he going to go to the Clippers or the Lakers? And then Paul George coming out of nowhere. That shocked the NBA making the way from the Thunder, I believe. Right. And for that it's been a long time. It might have been the Paul Gasol trade as well. Like the last time it was a crazy NBA trade that kind of took people by surprise. But this for sure took everyone by surprise. We're talking about Luka Doncic getting traded to the Los Angeles lakers in a 3, 3 team deal. Lots of funny parts into it. Utah's part of the trade as well. Utah gets Jalen hood, Schifino, a 2025 second round pick. Two picks actually in 2025, one with Dallas and then ones coming via the Clippers as well. Funny thing, it came out today. So this is Monday night. It came out earlier today that Danny H. Didn't even know he was helping facilitate a Luca trade. That's how secretive this thing was. Dallas, we all hear it now. AD I'm a big fan of AD I love AD he's been playing great. Probably his best two year stretch besides that other stretch when, when the Lakers won the chip in the bubble. Dallas also gets Max Christie in a 2029 first round pick. That's it. That's it. You would think there would be two or three more first round picks, but no. And we will talk about that as well how that transpired and we're, we're going to still find out more information as the days roll out. So I'm kind of glad we're actually talking on Monday night. Lakers, they get Luca, they get Maxi Cleaver and Markief Morris. Pretty good little haul and it took the NBA world by storm. Not only the NBA but just everywhere. I was in town just getting off of my other engagement and saw my phone. Jason, your text is the one that alerted me of the trade. I'm thinking like this is dude Sham got. It's a sham from, from Shams. You know this hat, you know, he ought to get hacked or something like that. Which I think is what everyone thought. And then he tweets again. No, this is the real deal. Everyone's still talking about till this day. We've had some other blockbuster trades, but let's start with that. Lakers get their new star for the next possibly 10 years. What were your guys initial reactions, man, because I'm still processing it. I'm happy, I'm sad, I'm happy because we have our next star. But there's lots of layers to this story. [00:05:13] Speaker B: So we're not Talking about the 2025 Royal Rumble first to start the show. We'll get to it because I, I was gonna say main event. Jey uso. Winning the Royal Rumble was the biggest news of the weekend. Just shocker there in Indianapolis. But then I think not more Than an hour later. Yeah, Rome, I texted you the tweet from Shams. I, I, I didn't think it was real and I, you know, follow a bunch of random people on Twitter a lot of times and you're like, is this like NBA spot Sentra or something? [00:05:47] Speaker A: Yeah, that's the one weird account. Yeah. [00:05:49] Speaker B: So I literally, I literally looked through it like twice and then like, okay, yeah, this is the guy. This is, this is Sham's account. And so I, I, I sent it to you guys and yeah, you talked about reaction from it. I try not to be prisoner of the moment, but it probably was the most, it's the most shocking trade in NBA history, maybe the most shocking trade ever because there was nothing leaking that Luca was really on the, on the market. There was some just disgruntled stuff, I think around Dallas with, regarding to his injury and his conditioning and things like that. AD I don't even know he's even talked about him being like available for anything right now. He was pretty much tied to LeBron and hey, this guy is going to be the successor to LeBron in LA. You were going to be finding a young piece to pair with AD when LeBron decides to retire. [00:06:38] Speaker A: So that was the game plan, right? [00:06:39] Speaker B: Yeah, it's, I mean, that was just a long, you know, they gave up everything to New Orleans to get him. And this is going to be the future and the guy, you know, another, another, you know, big man in the history of the Lakers franchise that this is going to be like the next guy up there. But when you look at, you're like, what, what is the point of this? And then what is Dallas doing? Like, what are you doing? Like, the guy's 25. Ads. What, 32 Rome, something like that. [00:07:07] Speaker A: 31. 32, right? [00:07:08] Speaker B: 32, yeah. [00:07:09] Speaker C: I mean, Luca will be 26 into this month and mid March ad will be 32. [00:07:15] Speaker A: So. [00:07:15] Speaker C: So they're basically six years difference in age. [00:07:17] Speaker B: I mean, yes. You're trading basically a whole contract gulf of age for maybe a top five player in the league right now. I've seen a lot of stuff, you know, talking about how many all NBA this guy's been and he's been. The only people more I think are like LeBron, Janice Durant, something like that. Like, so he's one of the top five players in the league and seems like we're just gifting him to the Lakers. You know, I don't, I don't want to, I don't want to call conspiracy for your Rome, but we, I Was I was the hardest person on this spot. Aaron's close with me and talking about how boring the NBA is right now and nobody wants to watch it. And so I don't know, did commissioner pick up the phone and say we need to make this season more interesting and hey, let's get the Lakers, you know, the young star, make sure we can make them relevant here in the playoffs. But I mean you don't see many superstar for superstar trades like this in the NBA at the same time. You can say, you know, not in their prime. Yeah, no, it's, I mean you could say it was one sided for, for the Lakers because they get the, you know, the six years edge on a young budding superstar are going to get to be able to sign Luca to the, the Supermax or $350 million, whatever it's going to be. But usually in the NBA it's like, oh, I'll give you my aging contract salary dump in a second round pick so I can take your superstar from you. So you know, you can read into it both ways. I think ESPN.com gave like the Mavericks and F out of this trade, but I mean they got superstar for superstar out of this so maybe they're good for this year. They're obviously losing the future and you never trade a super max guy. But I mean, I don't know how many more good players or great players you're gonna get in in a trade like that. I mean who if they were to offer Luca on the open market, I think then, then you're going, okay, why are you trading this guy? And you could look at the Jimmy Butler situation. When a guy becomes available, hey, no one's going to give you anything for him. [00:09:08] Speaker A: Yeah, there's been a few times in the history when a all star player, all Perino NBA guy asked for a trade and it gets a bidding war. Right. You want to get the max return. Even when Kobe asked for a trade, they were starting to figure out like what that was going to look like. There's multiple first round picks, what kind of talent you're going to get. Usually teams want at least some young potential to come back to the team. You can have some expiring contracts as well, you know, as like a favor for taking on whatever the hell it is. But the fact that there was no grumblings about this, it's really impressive that there was obviously two guys. Nico Harris, Rob Pelinka, they've known each other since the Kobe Bryant days. Two very close people to Kobe Bryant. Crazy how he's still having an impact on the NBA, even though he's. He. He's long gone. But this was like a buddy, buddy relationship. I think I called you Aaron the other day really quickly. Was that yesterday? These days are starting to blow. [00:10:07] Speaker C: I mean, we. We spoke yesterday really briefly. [00:10:09] Speaker A: And I'm just saying, like, dude, this feels personal because this does make. This does not make any sense still. And I know there's. Ramona Shelburne has a pretty good article. I just started reading it earlier, but I haven't got a chance to, you know, even get like one fourth of the way. But they kind of break it down, how it's going down, and even Nico's press conference afterwards saying, like, you know, me and Jason Kidd are on. On the same page. Jason Kidd did not look like a guy that was on the same page. If there was ever a facial expression, like, what the. That was it. I do believe that they're talk, you know, they're obviously pissed at Luca. And now all these things are coming back up with, like, what was it? Michael Finley taking Luca's beer after they clinched a T.R. to the finals. And then Brian Winhurst Wemby, you know, he. He was really critical of Luca during the finals. You know, being really bad on defense. Was that, like, the turning point was, you know, does this guy party so much in the off season? Do they hate that he's like 10 pounds overweight? Like, the fact that, like, there's just so much angst about him, like, he's not even in his prime yet. You know, usually that's like 27 to 32, 30, 33. And he's a guard, so that maybe that extends a little bit longer. He was just about to get in there. And he's been a perennial MVP caliber player since he got in the league. He took the team to Western conference finals and an NBA finals already as a 25 year old. That's impressive, I think. Rusillo, I just saw a clip. I. I want to catch that one as well. He's like, dude, Luca could be smoking cigarettes up the court, and I'd still sign him to a supermax. Like, that's hilarious. Like, that's how good he is. He's so phenomenal. So, yeah, lots of things. [00:11:56] Speaker B: Yeah, for the NBA, this is. I don't know if it's breaking a golden rule, but you look at 20 other franchises around the league once you get the guy, and, you know, this is better than most of the others. This is a top five player. If you're saying that you don't let this guy go, you give him the super max. You deal with it, you figure out what, you know, other superstar to pair them with and some good surrounding pieces and you let it run and you just go out from there. I mean, you meant. We talked about the Bulls pre podcast like, you know, Aaron and I've been waiting for the Bulls to be good for like 25 years at this point, you know, small run because we had Derrick Rose and some good things with Lu all dang and then he gets hurt and it's over. They're still searching for a guy, you know, the Knicks, hey the, you know they traded everything for Carmelo, thought he'd be the guy compared with Amari. It didn't work out. Now they got Jalen Brunson, he's going to be the guy. And some other pieces around that. But like man, just what Dallas is giving up. You had Dirk Nowitzki for all those years, was able to get the championship, made another finals, always was trying to pair pieces around him, you know, got got a lot out of it, successful. Then you luck into, hey, you're getting your next guy and now you're just giving up with the guy where like Rome, you said hasn't even mentioned his prime as a general manager. I feel like there's got to be something more to it. But at the same time you're Talking about these two guys from GMs are friends and so like okay, what do you know that you're going to be giving up on a 26 year old superstar if it is that bad and untenable that you're not going to sign this guy to a super max because I feel like you're losing out in leverage. Even the point that you should have went to the summer with him, sign into the supermax and now you have five years of control. If you really were going to go on that leverage. Because the whole point of the collective bargaining agreement that you get to resign your superstar to a supermax was I think it's like 100 plus million difference if that player was a test free agency. These guys always sign. So no matter what franchise or hey, you have the leverage being the hotel team, he's not going to give up 100 million to go just sign with the Lakers. Like they're gonna, you know, force his way in a different way. But it's, it's just crazy in that thing and that Dallas, you know, maybe they have a good year this year because hey, Anthony Davis is still really good. He's towards the end of his prime. Kyrie's played really well, so it's not like they have nothing. But now, two years, two, three years from now, what do they have? Like they're gonna have an aging Anthony Davis and probably not Kyrie. [00:14:27] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, Dallas is windows now. They're two, three year window. They're all in their futures win now. [00:14:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:35] Speaker C: Lakers. Rob Palinka thinks at best, we view Luke as the face of the franchise for the next 10 years. The Lakers, as the roster is constructed, they're done. They're done in the West. They're not gonna, they're not gonna compete for a title. And LeBron, whether or not he walks away at the end of the year, who knows? He's kind of quiet on that. He's got one year left. Rome, we talked about 12 hours after this trade came out. He announces it gets. I, I plan on staying the Lakers and not exercising my no trade clause. He didn't know about this trade. Him and AD Were really close. Basically represented by Rich Paul, same agency. Say what you want. AD and LeBron have had their issues, but Rome, like you said, AD the last two years has been on the court and he's delivered. He's been a top five player. And that's kind of, you know, you never see superstar for superstar given the age difference, given the gap. But Dallas stuck it to Luca Rome. We, we talked. You know, Jason just mentioned it. They cost Luca 100 plus million dollars. [00:15:30] Speaker A: Yeah. He can't get that. [00:15:31] Speaker C: They could assign and trade him in the season and gave him the supermax. And the Lakers still would have gladly taken them. [00:15:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:37] Speaker C: But they basically said, dude, we're gonna fleck you out of 100 plus million. That's. That stings. I don't care who you are, we're gonna trade you away secretly. We're not even gonna let the head coach, any personnel really in the organization know. I, I do know. Nico, from what I heard, did talk to the president of the organization, got the A. Okay. Remember Mark Cuban sold off majority stake in this team. [00:15:59] Speaker A: He did not know about it. [00:16:00] Speaker C: He would never, never in his lifetime trade Luca away. We know how loyal he is to player first kind of guy. [00:16:07] Speaker A: Well, he was happy that he got Luca because that was the next guy. [00:16:09] Speaker C: They traded for Luke on draft night. Remember they swapped Trey Young for Luca on draft night with the Hawks. [00:16:14] Speaker A: I did want to talk about that in a little bit because, yeah, this, this trickles down for when they traded for Luca. [00:16:22] Speaker C: You know, they, they, I mean, they viewed Luca as a Savior, he's gotten to the finals now. I, I, I want to give Nico a lot of credit. This team wasn't a Finals team last year. He traded for P.J. washington. Yeah, he traded for the big guy. What, Guilford, Whatever his name is. [00:16:38] Speaker A: Guilford. A center. Yeah. [00:16:40] Speaker C: And that's what put this. And then Kyrie. Kyrie balled out, too. I mean, don't forget, Kyrie balled out in the playoffs to get him to the finals. This wasn't like, you know, Luca put the whole team on his back, and it's just all Luca. PJ Washington was great in the playoffs. Luca was good in the playoffs. Kyrie, as a collective team, they were good. And they got good matchups, too. I mean, they got a Laker, they got a Clippers team. No Kawhi okc. Thunder was really young, undersized. They took them out. And then the Minnesota team that was emotionally drained after beating the defending champ Nuggets, and then they got smoked in the Finals. [00:17:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:12] Speaker C: So, I mean, personally, if what Everything. Their concerns about Luca being conditioning, injuring wise, a lot of people are saying, hey, you pay the guy 350 million. It's not my $350 million to pay if I don't believe in the guy. And I don't think he can stay healthy. Calf injuries tend to lead to what, Achilles tears? That sets you out 18 months in the NBA season. Is that the future of Luka? I don't know, but he's had continuous calf issues for the last two years. Concern. Conditioning is a concern. He's listed at 260 at 6 6. Doesn't have a lot of muscle mass on him. Should probably be down to about 230. To be honest. He needs to lose about 25, 30 pounds. [00:17:51] Speaker A: All these European players, though, man, they're pretty, they're pretty soft. They all got the dad bod. Look at Joker. [00:17:58] Speaker C: I mean, Joker. [00:17:58] Speaker A: I mean, Joker looks soft. [00:18:00] Speaker C: Joker's actually in really good shape and strong. I don't know, Ox. [00:18:04] Speaker B: I don't know if soft's the right word. It's just not all of them are just leaned out. [00:18:08] Speaker A: Not so much muscular body, body wise. Yeah, they're not, they're not very cut. [00:18:13] Speaker C: I mean, they don't look. I mean, if you look. If you put AD next to Luca and put a photo of them about their shirt and muscle cut off, you'd say that's a, that's a still of a trade. Just off body physique alone for the maps. Let's leave it at that. [00:18:24] Speaker A: It's not a bikini contest. [00:18:26] Speaker C: But I mean, I like the move by Dallas personally. The two, three years window for them to win. If you don't trust Luca, if you don't believe in them swapping them away. I mean now the Lakers get him for four years. 240 million. It's a discount for them. I get why they do it, but as right now the Lakers roster is constructed, they're not going to compete in the West. Dallas now who? [00:18:51] Speaker A: Lakers? [00:18:52] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:18:52] Speaker A: You think they're gonna drop down? [00:18:54] Speaker C: Oh yeah. Lakers are done. [00:18:55] Speaker A: Oh, no way. [00:18:56] Speaker C: Yeah. With Luca and LeBron, they're done. No, big guy, they're done. They can't even beat Houston. They can't beat Dallas. San Antonio's better than now with Fox. The Lakers are going back to the playing game now where they belong. [00:19:09] Speaker A: That's a bold tag. I don't think so. I, I think, I think Dallas, I. [00:19:12] Speaker C: Think Dallas has jumped. Dallas has jumped to probably the number two team in the west and can compete now with the Thunder and get to the finals. And that's why they made the move. [00:19:21] Speaker A: Yeah. So I like Davis. [00:19:23] Speaker C: Keep an eye on Jimmy Butler, maybe to Dallas too. If we're talking about I think Jimmy Butler, I think Jimmy Butler's gonna, that. I think Jimmy Butler to Dallas is still in play. [00:19:33] Speaker A: I like AD On Dallas. Definitely is like a win now mode. They do value defense, so man, they, I love AD but to do like a straight up swap for Luca with just one first round, it, it still doesn't make any sense. And AD he's had a two year good run but you know, these big guys one injury away, you know, from, you know, you could be like Joel Embiid for like the next few years. So I, it is exciting. I'm really curious. Kyrie. So two of my favorite players down the NBA are both on Dallas. It kind of breaks my heart a little bit now I'm going to be watching a few more Dallas games and that's why they signed Klay Thompson, because they're, you know, they feel like they needed another shooter to compete for a championship. I, I do get, give you that, that it puts them in position to compete in the next year, year or two and try to grab a trip. But after that though, they're in deep with Lakers. They've been playing really nice, looking like a contender, especially the last week and a half and then bits and parts throughout the season. They beat a really good Knicks team on Saturday, which is even crazier when you think like how well LeBron was moving. He's kind of like morphing into like this Karl Malone type of move, you know, where he's not really as effective anymore, but he has a big body, he's really strong and he picks his spots when he's going to attack and, and gets everyone involved. I think there's a chance, I'm not sure how the, how Luca and LeBron fit, but I think Luca being around LeBron is gonna be a big plus. And if Luca hasn't had that fu moment yet because everyone's waiting for him like the better conditioning or, or like, you know, improve his defense. Part of this thing on the, on the background was Dallas fired all his favorite coaches earlier in the year. I didn't know that. It totally went underneath my radar. So there's been like some tension going on in Dallas. I guess it was a, it was an aim at trying to wake him up to improve his conditioning or whatever or stop drinking, whatever it is. I'm curious to read more about it, but Lakers are now, they're lingering around the five seed. I, I still like them to still be in that spot. Even go up, you know, possibly to, to the four seed and in a, in a seven game series against anybody in the West, I think they can still make some noise. The trade deadline is not till Thursday and I, I imagine they're going to need a pit to pick up a big before then. [00:21:54] Speaker B: One thing as of right now, Monday night, I haven't seen any quote from him on it besides him saying it wasn't his team anymore. But if, if Mark Cuban still owned this team, it was in basketball decision making. Powers, does this trade even happen? [00:22:09] Speaker A: No, no, not even close. [00:22:11] Speaker B: Yeah, it's the, I think it's the most interesting thing him, him selling the team and I think he was on the, he was a, the governor of the team in a little while. But I know that I think that may have phased out at this point too because he was kind of just more of a figurehead because of who was buying the team at the time and, and whatever ceremonial stuff they were trying to do power. But I mean Donches was his guy like coming in and now if you're saying he's there getting rid of the coaches and all this type of stuff, like, it's just very interesting what's going on in Dallas and different, a different regime. And if you're looking at, hey, the next decade of mavericks basketball, like, hey, this isn't, this isn't the whatever 25 years of Mark Cubitt opening this Team where they were always relevant, they were always part of the conversation. You know, are we now on kind of just a downward trend of where this organization is going to be? I mean, this was not seen. You know, I saw some clips on Twitter or something like that. People like basically brought like a casket or something to the front of them or something going on. Like, I mean, these are the type of trades that like, you know, just, they take away a generation of fans just because of like, hey, you're, you're taking something away. And I know this gen, this generation is maybe, yeah, I mean, this generation's a little more numb to it because I mean, I don't think the player loyalties were back in the day, but like, you know, you go into a different sport like baseball, you know, the Marlins always come to my mind where, like, hey, this team's won two World Series championships, you know, during kind of our lifetime where they've quickly just gutted the roster and traded anyone away and any reason to believe in a team and you lose, you know, a generation of fans. You know, I'll rip, I'll rip all the Chicago teams left and right. We talk about the Bulls. They somehow still sell out every year, but like, you know, have the best attendance. But does anyone really even care and relevant about the Bulls at any point right now? But like besides just getting money for seats, but like they've lost generations of fans because teams just becoming irrelevant the, the post Jordan era, like just, hey, we're gonna stop winning right now and go on to the next thing. And this is the type of thing where you look at The Mavericks in 10 years, like, are they even relevant if Doncic brings the Lakers NBA championship to even won at a certain point? Like it was worth it. Probably the Lakers front and the Mavericks. [00:24:29] Speaker A: Possibly get some two or three in the next 10 years. [00:24:31] Speaker B: And the Mavericks, they, they get nothing out of this trade. And then you know, you're past the AD prime and hey, you're just in rebuilding mode and you become like a bottom feeder in the league. It's, it's very questionable. Like this could be a turning point of a franchise where it's like, hey, this team's irrelevant for the next 15 years. [00:24:47] Speaker A: You know what's interesting about this trade though? I, I, so I kind of believe the, the reports that no one knew about this. Allegedly Polinka had Davis as well as AJ on a phone call. Then he called Lebron and then I forgot who the third call was, right? But Anthony Davis waived his five and a half Million dollar kicker, whatever it was, I feel like he kind of knew what was coming at least a little bit before that. Tits. For that to happen on a pretty serious phone call if we have to call everyone else before the story breaks, like in a matter of 20 minutes, which was like the case for the Jazz, right? They had 20 minutes, right, when they found out that, you know, what they were part of. And Danny H. Was so pissed because they kept them out in the dark like that. That's like a quick turnaround. I feel like something had to be brewing. Like, maybe AD Was fed up, you know, with the Lakers, too. You know, maybe because, you know, they. They were just on ESPN talking about, like, how they need another big. Lakers have been moving bricks for LeBron and the whole Clutch family. Hell, they got Bronnie on the team. So I. I saw like, a clip. You know, maybe this is like the. Maybe it's like the Lakers like, you know, you to clutch, but it's already a little too little too late. I doubt it's that, but it's just so many different stories, and I. I don't know if we'll ever get the true story. [00:26:09] Speaker C: Yeah, Rome. I mean, the days of LeBron now running the Lakers organization, it's over. [00:26:13] Speaker A: That's now it's Luca. [00:26:15] Speaker C: Now it's now it's Luca. I mean, stories broke out, you know. You know, Nico and Rob basically met for a cup of coffee three, four weeks ago. [00:26:24] Speaker A: You read that? [00:26:25] Speaker C: Yeah. Shooting the. And kind of throwing hypothetical deals out there. And Nico. Nico and AD Are boys. He got in his first shoe contract there Nike years back, so there's a lot there he trusts. [00:26:39] Speaker A: Obviously. [00:26:39] Speaker C: Obviously. Nico doesn't like Luca. Doesn't like how he approaches the game. [00:26:45] Speaker A: Well, that's obvious. [00:26:46] Speaker C: Doesn't. Doesn't like his defense. And I mean, say. Say what you want. I mean, Luca, from an offensive standpoint, is one of the greatest players probably in NBA history. But defensively, he's bad. He's. He's awful. I call him James Harden 2.0 because he don't play any defense. [00:27:00] Speaker A: Is it that bad? [00:27:02] Speaker C: And James Harden has won zero titles. And then Luca. I mean, in the NBA, defense does win championships. Say what you want. All the star players pretty much outside of a few teams here and there, but every star player going back to the Jordan era, Shaq, Kobe, Tim Duncan, LeBron, Wade, Bosch. They're all great defensive teams, and they're all good individual defensive players or average. Lucas, below average defensive player. He's a below average team defensive Player and I think Nico, Dallas fans, you know, they got a right to be mad, but once they see how good AD really is and he still has a year, 2, 3 left in the tank and they start and they win. I'm not saying they're going to win the title, but they're going to win games, they're going to be in the playoff push, people. If Luca does bad or Luca gets hurt, then it's all gonna basically look like, hey, man, Dallas look like geniuses. So I mean, if Dallas wins a title and the Lakers win a title, everybody will call it a wash. Like. [00:28:04] Speaker A: A Greg Odin level of injury for, I mean, great. [00:28:08] Speaker C: Well, Greg Odin was always Greg Odin looked 30 on when he was like 15 years old, man. [00:28:12] Speaker B: I mean that guy, I mean, Aaron, Aaron brings up an interesting point. You know, I, I mean I, I, it obviously I think Nico isn't going to make this trade if he doesn't see something. And it could be because these boys with A.D. like, like Aaron mentioned. But like you're, I'm almost rooting actually for the freezing cold takes of it all if the Dallas does win the championship with everyone calling this guy an idiot and this is the worst trade ever and blah, blah, blah, blah. And it turns out like, hey, from a basketball perspective, it's actually, you know, hey, maybe it's a better deal, you know, in the short term and it delivers them a championship and sets them up for the long run. You know, it's not the conventional wisdom. I still think you're making a massive mistake because you're trading a young superstar and you just don't do that. You just deal with it in the NBA. But you know, there's, there's been stranger things that have just won one championship. I think a lot of times all these organizations are building up to win, hey, multiple championships, are trying to win three or four. We're building a dynasty and stuff. But you know, you look back at, you know, earlier Mavs runs, Dirk, just the one championship. They got it done. The Pistons, you know, they got it done. Those, the, the, the, the Garnett Pierce Celtics, they just got the one championship. [00:29:22] Speaker A: So like Dallas too, they gave that one away to Miami. [00:29:28] Speaker B: They did, but they're in the conversation. But you know, if they can get one championship out of it, you think of the Lakers at this point, they traded all that stuff to New Orleans for AD they got the one bubble championship and that's really all they got. Now they're able to flip AD and everything they gave up for Luca at This point. So that's really kind of the result of this trade. And what can they parlay that into the future? But, you know, there. There's. There's an argument to be both ways. And we'll be looking back at the trade, you know, several years from now. And Nico's taking a massive risk, and this is going to be probably his legacy as a general manager. Whichever way it goes. [00:30:02] Speaker C: Nico's career depends on this trade. Oh, hell, like, if it fails. If he fails, he's out of all NBA general management circles for life. [00:30:10] Speaker A: For life. Yeah. This is. [00:30:12] Speaker C: I'm sure he sat down and they've. They looked at all the numbers, they looked at the data, and they had to put this together because, I mean, look, if you sign Luca to a supermax and your team sucks, no one's ever going to blame you. They're like, dude, Lucas, Luca. Like, they're not. You're not gonna. It's not going to be a career ending now. If you move Luca and he goes to the Lakers in Rome, you say wins two or three titles in the next 10 years. Eight years. I mean, Nico. I mean, he won't be able to show his face to the state of Texas ever again. [00:30:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I would say. Who was the general manager of the 76ers that was just based. Doing the process, basically just tanking every year. [00:30:56] Speaker A: Oh, man. What. What was his name? I forgot. [00:31:01] Speaker B: I bet you guys. [00:31:02] Speaker C: Everybody forgot. But yeah, I know literally say, hey. [00:31:05] Speaker B: I'm gonna tank every year and stuff. And just like, he. He's. I don't know if he's in the league anymore or anything, but he was basically run out of the league. [00:31:13] Speaker C: But, I mean, yeah, injuries. I mean, you look at Joel Embiid, guys. I mean, Joel Embiid, injuries got paid. Max. He's done. Paul George, another guy. I mean, he's been hurt a lot of money. Kawhi Leonard. So you're seeing a lot of stars get paid max contracts, and they're not living up to it. I don't think Lucas at that point, but obviously Dallas is scared to the point where they're like, we can get A.D. and A.D. i mean, he is 32, but his numbers aren't declining. I mean, he's still balling. I think AD can give us three more years like this if he stays healthy. [00:31:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Relative. Yeah. No, I was looking forward to having AD Finish his career with the Lakers, and it's broken a lot of records. LA loves him. He's pretty mellow as a superstar, you know, pretty Chill. Nice. [00:32:01] Speaker C: I mean the lakers are in fifth in the west because of the AD's really dominance. I mean ADs. He's the best. He was the best player on that team. Even though they had LeBron. AD was basically the guy. Even though he wasn't the face of the team, he was the guy. [00:32:15] Speaker A: Yeah, I think when I did my initial power rankings for like top 25 players, NBA AD was definitely in my top three or four. I know a lot of people don't have that same opinion, but he wasn't on a tear. But Luca, 25 and he's been in that top. Depending on who you talk about, people are talking about he might be the best player in the world. Like even last year, you know, some people have him one, two or three in most conversations. [00:32:43] Speaker C: I, I mean I maybe have them top 10. It's hard, it's hard for me to put a guy that doesn't play defense as an elite player. This isn't like another sport like football or whatever where you just focus defense, one player offense. NBA is a complete game. Can you play offense? Can you play defense? I mean you're Talking about guys, LeBron Jordan, Kobe, guys. And I was there, great defensive players as well. Offensive players. Lucas defensively is just bad man. He's bad for me to consider him an elite player, you know, offensively, yeah. But to consider him a top, top, top tier guy. There's a number of guys you'd want in the league over them. I mean SGA from okc, Ant man with Minnesota. I would take all these guys over. [00:33:29] Speaker A: Luca, it's definitely worth the conversation. Darren Fox, he said he was not going to sign. Not happy with the Sacramento Kings, got his coach fired. I'm pretty sure he was a big part of Brown getting canned there. Christie, Doug Christie, if you remember him from the early 2000s, a menace on the Kings self. [00:33:54] Speaker C: The self proclaimed Kobe stopper. [00:33:57] Speaker A: Yeah, there's a few of those. [00:33:59] Speaker C: He was one of the better ones at the title of that though. [00:34:02] Speaker A: He was actually. Yeah, they definitely gave the Lakers fits, but he's done a pretty good job. They've. I think they won like 8 of 12 or something like that. Since he's taken over, kind of rallied that team. Talk about that trade next I guess because Darren Fox, lots of talents. I think me and you. I think Aaron, you have talked about this, how the Lakers have, you know, should have drafted him over Lonzo Ball that year, but Magic Johnson was running the team and you know, I'm not a big fan of that, of those Two months that he was running things and he's still bragging about it till this day. But Darren Fox, he's big name, big superstar. I think he's a level below everybody else, but still to kind of end up in the with the team that you want to go to. Pretty impressed that he had that kind of pool. He ends up with his dream scenario with the San Antonio spurs to team up with Wemby. Him and Jordan McLaughlin go to San Antonio. The Kings got Zach Levine. Levine, Levine from Chicago, which a lot of people thought that he was not movable because of his big contract. And Kings just picked up a lot of picks, man. Two first rounders in 25 and 27, another one in 31 and then three second round picks, 25, 282 and 28. One via the Nuggets and one from the Bulls. Funny how they got a bigger haul than Dallas got for Luca Doncic. The Bulls, they got Kevin Hoarder, he's been having a pretty, pretty solid few years. Trey Jones at Collins, you know, nothing too crazy, but at least San Antonio, I think I might have had him on the under on their over under for wins this year, but still moving up, being pretty competitive. Wemby's on a holy totally different trajectory. He's dominating the league already and it's just a matter of time when he's the top dog potentially. Right. So adding a guy like De'Aaron Fox definitely makes him a fun combination. And they obviously want to make a move now to be competitive at least in the playoffs. So thoughts on this other mega deal that happened I think just hours after the Luca deal happened. [00:36:29] Speaker B: Definitely got overshadowed. Agree with Aaron. When you're talking about Darren Fox. [00:36:39] Speaker C: If. [00:36:39] Speaker B: You'Re quoting Aaron, right, that the Lakers should have taken him. But I think it gives Wemby another piece that he probably just really hasn't had thus far. It's for better or for worse, been kind of almost a one man show in San Antonio. So hey, this is, this is going to give him, you know, an upgraded running mate than what they've had in San Antonio is kind of this rebuild has gone on. The Kings, I mean, they've been, they've been kind of in the NBA's bottom sellers since what, the early 2000s. You know, once that Doug Christie, Weber, Stojakovic team kind of disbanded, they just, they haven't really done anything. And so they kind of had this resurgence the last couple years under Mike Brown and a couple of these players. Now are we kind of just, you know, putting that to the side, Zach Levine's been on the market, I think in Chicago for years upon years right now, just waiting. [00:37:29] Speaker A: It was like forever. [00:37:30] Speaker B: Forever. And, you know, I mean, one of my friends text me is like, so the Bulls got nothing. I mean, they got their own first round pick back from San Antonio and, you know, some salary relief and stuff. So the Bulls need to be in full, like, rebuilding Mode. They're just in 500 Purgatory, which is just generally what owner Jerry Reinsdorf does. Like, I'll put a good enough team out there to maybe get the eighth seed in the playoffs or 10 seed, you know, get one couple home playoff games and be quote, unquote relevant, sell out the building because we're kind of there, but not actually put a winner out there. And in the NBA, like, yeah, you got to be bad and go get some of those generational stars and hope you luck into one. And the Bulls haven't done that. They've done a bunch of half measures. Getting, you know, getting Lonzo, getting who else at the center. Why am I drawing a blanket? His name probably. [00:38:21] Speaker C: They're probably gonna move him too. [00:38:23] Speaker A: Sabonus. [00:38:24] Speaker C: No. [00:38:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm pronouncing his name wrong, but yeah, probably gonna move him. So, I mean, and the Bulls had a crowded backcourt as it was, you know, with Kobe, White and some other names there, and Lonzo as it was. Lonzo's on the last year of his deal. So the Bulls have a ton of cap space. They'll probably be super bad. Last year they're already like trending, probably not to make the playoffs this year. I don't know what they really got out of this besides some potential cap room. But I think all in all, the end of it. I mean, the spurs got. Got a guy to go with Wemby and got a. A serviceable but not as good player in Zach Lavine to kind of maybe continue to do some sort of winning in Sacramento. But I think Sacramento got worse, San Antonio got better, and the Bulls are trying to blow it up. [00:39:13] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, the Bulls, like Jason said, I mean, they're gonna have draft picks, they're gonna a lot of salary cap dump guys. Be interesting to see what they do in the summer, what they're gonna do. Love the move for the spurs. Getting Darren Fox. You team them up with Wimy. They got other young, talented players there. Castle out of Yukon, rookie, probably gonna be rookie of the year. I'm hearing. Really nice player. They didn't have to really give up anybody. Gave up what, you know, A draft pick. They dump Zach Collins contract on the Bulls, which was a terrible contract for them. You mentioned it, Rome. I said it, what, five, six, seven years ago when Dear and Fox came out that the Lakers should have taken over Alonzo Ball. But the pressure of Ball being a local kid here from Chino, UCLA Guy, Magic, Rob Planka, whoever you want to blame for that. [00:40:01] Speaker A: Ucla. [00:40:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:40:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:03] Speaker C: Whoever you want to blame for that pick. They fell to the pressure and they let Darren Fox. I blame Kentucky, go to the Kings there, and then I. Rome, we were talking yesterday, like you said, if. If I was the Lakers, I would have, you know, they've. They've said, Austin Reeves is untouchable. Maybe he's available now that they got Luca. I would have moved Reeves some draft picks, and I would have picked up De'Aaron Fox and brought him to the Lakers and kept AD in. That team would have been a contender to come out of the west and win a title. And at least you try it for a year or two and go from there. But they took the future route and going with Luca, spurs with Wimby, man, he's gonna be good next year. Next year, the spurs are gonna be top five, four team in the West. They're gonna be there. They're gonna be ready to compete, getting close to a title. It's coming. I mean, Wimby and Fox, they're gonna win title, and I like that combination. To win a title over Luke and the Lakers right now. And I'll. I'll go on record and say it. The spurs will win a title before Luca and the Lakers do. So you can put me down for that. Put in your notes, whatever notepad you got, record this hot, take it. Whatever. Wendy and Dear and Fox will win an NBA title before Luca and the Lakers ever do. [00:41:12] Speaker A: That's ridiculous. Wemby's just in year two, man. [00:41:15] Speaker C: I'm telling you, it's coming. It's coming very, very soon. Closer. Closer. It's like the old saying, objects in the mirror closer than they appear. That's. That's coming. The spurs are coming. [00:41:31] Speaker A: Anyways, interesting thing about the Sacramento Kings, man. They've been pretty competitive. They looked really good just a couple years ago in the playoffs. Just a few balances away from making the Western Conference finals another piece away from being contenders. Then they fire their coach. They get Mike Brown. They kind of retool a little bit. They were now, like, they're stuck into, like, this, like, decent team with good players. They got Sabonis, who. Who is phenomenal. He's having another career year. And so they got Zach there. I don't know what it does for them. They just kind of stay where they're at. They have a lot of things to do, a lot of moves now. They have a lot of picks. So I know their. Their management. It's kind of a mess, actually. [00:42:21] Speaker C: They are the Bulls of the Western Conference. You got Zach Levine and DeMar DeRozan basically teamed up against Chicago. I'm telling you. And like Jason said, they have been irrelevant since the early 2000s. They are the Bulls of the Western Conference. [00:42:35] Speaker A: Like, how can you get a team like that close to be really good and they just, like, miss it, you know? It's a. Yeah, it is what it is. [00:42:46] Speaker B: Rome. [00:42:46] Speaker C: You haven't been to a game at Sacramento, right? You have not been to the. [00:42:49] Speaker A: I want to go. We gotta go, dude. [00:42:52] Speaker C: Seventh, March 7th. Put it on your calendar. Darren Fox returns back to Sacramento. That's a Friday. Spurs Keens. I might come up. I might come up. [00:43:01] Speaker A: Let's go. Let's go. I like to see Wemby. I'm really curious. [00:43:05] Speaker C: I want to see him, too. I like this. I think the seats will still be cheap. We'll be able to get some good seeds, I think, there at the. Was it Golden Spoon? Golden Spoon Arena? Is that what it's called now? [00:43:14] Speaker A: The Golden Corral? I. I don't know. [00:43:16] Speaker B: It's not the Cow Palace. [00:43:17] Speaker C: No, Cow Palace. [00:43:19] Speaker A: No, Cow palace is a little venue here. [00:43:21] Speaker C: I remember it was the old Arco arena back. Oh, yeah. I haven't got cast, everything. [00:43:27] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. No, that'll be on your calendar. [00:43:32] Speaker C: March 7th. [00:43:32] Speaker A: Rome, March 7th. Let's look into it. For sure. I think that'd be fun. Jason, come up, man. I don't know. [00:43:39] Speaker B: I got. I got a lot of trips going on, man. I got March Madness kind of right after that. I'll be out there, you know, WrestleMania. A lot of Vegas stuff for me for the spring. [00:43:47] Speaker A: That's right. It's just. Love that already. [00:43:50] Speaker C: He's got a pad there. He's got a pad. Secret pad. Make secret deals. Kind of like Nico, you know? [00:43:58] Speaker A: Yeah, dude, that whole Nico thing still, it's just wild. Some stuff that also came out, like, I. I guess like in that Ramona Shelburne story, is Nico just didn't want to feel the pressure from the fans. Didn't want to feel pressure from other teams to force a trade or, like, what's the biggest haul and not doing, like, the right pick besides Anthony Davis, I guess when you're breaking it down. Like, what other players they could have gotten that would have fit what. What they were looking for? You got Giannis from Milwaukee. They're not going to do that after that. There's no one really else that kind of fits that prototype. Unless you're looking at the Heat with Bam, but that's not good enough as well. Is there any other player that they could have even looked at that would have been enticing for them? [00:44:53] Speaker B: I don't know. The team. I don't know. Team would have done it, like, with the. Would. Would the Celtics talk about Jason Tatum for Luca? [00:45:02] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:45:03] Speaker B: I mean, that could be interesting. I mean, you're not gonna. You're not. You said Bam, but you're not gonna do like, Jimmy and Bam or something for that. You know, Giannis isn't going to be entertained. You're not. You're not going to be talking to Oklahoma City about Shay Gillis or anything. [00:45:18] Speaker A: Oh, no, they're stolen from the Clippers. They're going to keep on saying that they're gonna win a title, by the way. They have to win a title now. Yeah, people are showing up. [00:45:26] Speaker B: I get where people are saying, oh, you don't open the bidding and stuff, but the thing about the NBA is, man, you turn this into a circus, you start losing leverage. Like, you know, then. Then the player owns like, a lot of this stuff, like where I will go and where I won't go. Yeah, look at Butler right now. Think of Dame Lillard. You know, when he was trying to get out of Portland, he wanted to go Miami. He's like a Miami. Miami turned into a big. Got a big fiasco and go there. So, like, I mean, this could be the best way. [00:45:52] Speaker C: And. [00:45:52] Speaker B: And did he get the best deal? I mean, I don't know what would have been the other deals out there. But you're talk. You're talking. You're getting a good haul in return. And I think he's just lucky like I have. You have a tight relationship with that particular gm, with Rob Pelinka, that he's not going to link. Leak it. Because, you know, if they would have brought Danny Age in any earlier, that would have got leaked 100 that. That was even being talked about. [00:46:14] Speaker A: If Magic Johnson was in charge of it, that thing would have been leaked the minute that they had coffee. He would have tweeted about it. [00:46:21] Speaker C: He was. Screenshotted it right there. [00:46:23] Speaker A: Screenshot the conversation. [00:46:24] Speaker C: Having a. Com. If you put a recording. We had a little secret recording and aired that you believe this guy wants to trade Luca? [00:46:32] Speaker B: I, I think NBA trades are just because of the way the collective bargaining agreement is written, because you have to do the salary exchange and all these other goofy things just to get deals done in the NBA. Like it's, it's a complex, complex thing to happen. And then you know, all these contract like clauses and draft pick rules and things like that. Like these things just get like thrown in just to cobble together a trade to trade like one or two guys. [00:46:59] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean could he have gotten more. I mean Rome, you mentioned. [00:47:02] Speaker A: Oh for sure. [00:47:03] Speaker C: Keane's got what, three first round picks or whatever. [00:47:06] Speaker A: It was a lot of assets. The spurs have a lot of assets. [00:47:09] Speaker C: But I mean what are, I mean draft picks to me in the NBA, they're not really worth what they used to be, say 20 years ago. I mean there's teams, I mean look at the Brooklyn Nets have been stacking draft picks for the last decade and they still suck. [00:47:23] Speaker B: Yeah. What was the trade last week where I think Utah just traded like three first round picks for like one first round pick or something like that. Something absurd they did they give to the Lakers or. I forgot what that trade was, but it was. No, it was the Suns. They traded like three first round picks back to the Suns or something like that. Just in just a swap type thing just for. [00:47:46] Speaker A: I see this trade shook up the NBA though. Like the like Nico, hell, the ballsy move. We'll see how this pans out. If it doesn't though, you're right, Aaron. His ass is long gone in the NBA. No one's gonna give him a second chance because he obviously has like a personal amendettas and he'll keep it. And I think maybe we might see similar things where these teams try to take back that power that the, that the NBA players have. You know, that NBA empowerment, these fully guaranteed contracts, it might not be a thing in the future. I think now that they get be getting paid 50 to 70 million. That's what they were afraid of, right? Giving guys 70 million when he's not even listening to them at 40 million, it's going to change things. This is going to have repercussions throughout. [00:48:32] Speaker C: Well that and Jason said, I mean if you openly shop Luca because he doesn't have a no trade clause so you could trade him anywhere. What if he goes like after a year and be like, dude, I don't want to be here. Like he's not going to say that to the Lakers. He's going to sign Him, The Lakers. It's the Lakers. He's going to stay there, but if you would have sent him Utah, you know, Washington Wizards and been like, hey, Luca, like, Jesus, you're going to be in Washington. He's not going to sign there. [00:48:57] Speaker A: They have cool jerseys, though, so it's. [00:49:01] Speaker B: Not keeping you there. [00:49:02] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. I mean, one of them. They got, like, nine wins, so, you know. You know, Luca's not leaving the Lakers. You get a superstar in return in AD Though. The window for him being a star in the league is two to three years if he stays healthy. Max Christie is a good wing player. I like him. He's 21, he's long, he plays good defense, he could shoot threes. Who doesn't like that in the NBA? Today reminds me of, you know, Caruso, kcp, all these guys the Lakers have given away before where they get these young guards that can defend and shoot threes. They're going to help playoff time, because guess what? If Luca and the Lakers are in the playoffs against the Dallas Mavericks, you're going to have Max Christie guarding Luca, and, you know, if he gets by him, guess who's going to be there at the rim to protect. It's going to be A.D. i mean, that. That'd be the ultimate playoff series, if that's what it is. I'd say the Mavericks win in seven, but that would be a classic series to see if it's Luca, ad, Nico, Rob, Lakers, Mavericks. [00:49:59] Speaker A: Yes. [00:49:59] Speaker C: I mean, the NBA couldn't write a better script, if that's what it is, to say, get to a Western Conference final. [00:50:04] Speaker A: It was crazy. Like, the fact that AD Got traded. Like, if anything, I would. I would have assumed LeBron got traded to the math. So you can go back and play with, you know, Kyrie, you know, have that magic again, and, you know, he's playing with another warrior. You know, LeBron's been itching to be a Warrior or playing with one of those Splash brothers for a long time. [00:50:21] Speaker C: So don't be surprised if LeBron gets traded here to the warriors by deadline. I know he said he didn't want to get moved. Yeah, but, Rich Paul, like you said, clutch sports knows they're no longer clutch in la. It's time to move on. So he may want out, dude. He may want out. [00:50:38] Speaker A: We'll wrap this up right here. I don't know if you guys caught Giannis's comments on the trade, how Luca is now in la. He's saying that's his dream for all the big European basketball players to End up in big markets. [00:50:54] Speaker C: So we'll see where Yanis hinting at something. I mean, last time I saw Giannis, he was pitching at Chris Paul, wanting to fight him over some like, flagrant foul or something. [00:51:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I haven't seen that clip yet. I didn't hear about that though. But it had been a rough fall. Foul. [00:51:09] Speaker C: I mean, CP3 is our size, guys. Come on, y'all, let's pick on someone your own size, dude. [00:51:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Things to look out for, which we'll do another updated pod with the wrap up. Where's Jimmy Butler going? This guy said no to an extension with the Golden State Warriors. This guy's a problem. I loved Jimmy Butler, but it's a little too much drama for me now. If I was 10 years old, maybe even 12, I was a big TL guy, I would probably still like Jimmy Butler. Being this older and dealing with the drama that I've dealt with in my life, I'm not a big fan anymore. [00:51:39] Speaker B: I'll say the funnier part of that is I love the people in Miami who thought this wasn't going to happen to them. Even though it happened in Chicago, it happened in Minnesota. Yeah, it happened in Philadelphia. [00:51:47] Speaker A: Well, you know. [00:51:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Ah, we changed him with Heat culture and everything like that. And we did this. And like, I thought so. [00:51:54] Speaker A: I thought so, too. But it's just Jimmy, it's whatever that coffee he has, it's him. He's getting paid 50 million for the end of his career. Dude, that, like, was he on 70? Like, no way, no way. Any other big guys that we should be looking out for at the trade deadline? Because definitely there's gonna be some other trades going down. This is going to be a trade deadline to remember. [00:52:18] Speaker B: You know, we talked about the Bulls being active. Yeah. I mean, a couple other guys. [00:52:25] Speaker A: Bradley Beal, the only other guy with a no trade clause, which. How the hell did that happen? He's with Phoenix. [00:52:32] Speaker B: Curious. Curious. With the Warriors. You mentioned the Warriors. What, what they do. Like, that seems like maybe the only Jimmy Butler destination at this point. I don't know what they're gonna be able to give up. I don't know what Pat Riley's willing to do. I mean, he'd be able to say, hey, free agent of the year, we'll eat it till the end of the year and then be on your way. And they have the cap space. Like, that's. It's an organization that when they've wanted to, they've gotten the big stars and they weren't concerned about Young players. But then over since the LeBron era, they've been about drafting and developing players and making the most out of stuff they, the guys they sign. So I don't know, seems like they're pretty dug in on both sides in Miami. [00:53:10] Speaker A: I kind of like the Miami situation though, because Pat Riley's getting pretty old, man. And I don't know what it is, but these, these older guys, when they start approaching 80, they start getting really cranky and they don't like it when the younger guys start giving them trouble. And it's kind of giving me like, it's not Jerry Jones vibes, but he's just similar. The way he was responsive in the, in the media. Pretty funny. [00:53:33] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, nobody, nobody wants any drama or stuff like that. When you get, like you said Rome, I mean, you just said at 40, almost, you're tired of Jimmy. Now 80 years old, the greatest basically guy management guy ever in NBA history. Him and Jerry west, those are the two greatest. And he's orchestrated multiple championship runs with the Heat, with Wade and Shaq. LeBron. Wade. Jimmy Butler's got into two NBA Finals. He got beat in the bubble and then he got beat by Jokic there in the, in the Nuggets. So where is he gonna end up? I don't know. I mean, every team that's called on him, he just basically gives you a big ax for. No, no, no, no. I still think Dallas is in play. Keep an eye on that for Jimmy Butler. So, I mean, Butler could get moved. KD could get moved. I mentioned LeBron could get moved. Paul George has been talked about maybe getting moved, but does somebody want to take on that four year contract, his age and injuries? [00:54:36] Speaker A: No way. Stay away. [00:54:38] Speaker C: I'm staying away too, dude. Phil, I think the Nuggets need to make a move. They, you know, now, now that AD's gone with the Lakers, he's gone to Dallas. They need to get a player too, man. I mean, the Nuggets, really nice, dude. [00:54:53] Speaker A: Westbrook and him have been a great comp. We haven't even touched that. We'll talk about that later on our, on our NBA update. But that has been really fun to watch. I've been watching a lot of their games and it's, it's phenomenal. [00:55:05] Speaker C: They are Zion Williams, I think it's moved too. And Brandon Ingram from the Pelicans. There's a lot of pieces are going to get moved by the next time we're on. [00:55:12] Speaker A: Dude. [00:55:13] Speaker B: I, I thought I read some stuff. Zion to the Lakers at some Point. [00:55:17] Speaker A: I wouldn't mind that. I would not mind that. [00:55:21] Speaker C: I wouldn't be surprised if it's that. [00:55:23] Speaker A: Get some of these troublesome guys. That can't hurt. Well, I don't know. [00:55:29] Speaker C: The Lakers do that, man. They're gonna be eating fat burgers and Sundays after the game because that's all that team is really becoming, man. [00:55:36] Speaker A: Nah, man, they. Zion's always hurt, but this guy's doing 360 dunks. You know why? He's on the injured reserve list. Like, what the hell's going on? Yeah, I'm excited. It's a lot of fun. I've been watching a lot. A lot of basketball. I've been actually watching a lot of hockey lately, which is weird. I don't know what the hell is. Turn that on. [00:55:58] Speaker B: Guy goes to a couple Sharks games, man. [00:56:00] Speaker C: Is those Milks? Is those Mills in the crowd? Dude, you saw the sign. You saw the sign. [00:56:04] Speaker B: Just a big puckhead now. [00:56:05] Speaker A: You know, it was some cute white girls. [00:56:07] Speaker C: He likes the old five, old man. Nothing wrong with that. [00:56:12] Speaker A: All right, I think I'll do it. You guys want to talk about anything else? [00:56:20] Speaker C: I think Jason wants to recap Royal Rumble and then we get out of here. [00:56:23] Speaker A: Let's see a break. Jason's been biting at the bit. He wants to do a recap on Royal Rumble. So tell us what happened, man. Give us the deets. Break it down, Rome. [00:56:41] Speaker B: The road to Wrestlemania begins at the Royal Rumble every single year. This one did not disappoint. Was happy to see Aaron found out he had Peacock found out the Royal Rumble was on there. Just a huge, huge night. I think a stacked Royal Rumble card, bro. Do you know the rules of the Royal Rumble? Just want to make sure we just bring the audience along with you. You can be just the voice of who's not watching WWE nowadays. [00:57:08] Speaker A: You know what? I used to watch it. Aaron's the one that got me into it when we were like, six years old, and I haven't seen it since high school. We're talking about 20 years, so. [00:57:17] Speaker B: So 30 men or 30 women? There was a Women's Rumble. [00:57:21] Speaker A: Do they have a trans event yet or. [00:57:23] Speaker B: No, no, no, no, no. Men's women's Rumble to start at first match, we had a Men's Rumble to close the show. So, you know, you start with two competitors, every two minutes, another person enters. So basically an hour worth of entrances, big pops, popping circumstance pyro music just waiting for surprises to come through. All the way to 30. You got to throw your opponent over the top rope, two feet touch the floor. WWE's probably second biggest event of the year. Just been a staple on the calendar every, you know, every year. For me, I think it's just, it's a unique event that only gets this type of race. Generally you're looking for huge surprises, returning legends, maybe somebody that's you know, shocked, that's you know, Dennis, you know, just signed from a different company or something like that. Back in the day, you know, you get some surprises from WCW guys coming over or maybe you get some just random person that joins. But yeah, this, this was a stacked Royal Rumble field that they had inside. So John Cena, the face of WWE basically the last 20 something years, you know, really made ventures in the Hollywood over the past five or so. Announced last year. This is going to be his final year competing in wwe. He's going to run in a full time schedule from the beginning of the year all the way to the end of the year. It's going to be his final rumble, his final mania coming up in Vegas at WrestleMania 41. And he's gonna go to the gauntlet. It's gonna be his last run. So it's his last Royal Rumble. You have CM Punk, Rome. Do you know CM Punk is. [00:58:52] Speaker A: Yeah, all right. [00:58:53] Speaker B: The voice of the voiceless. One of the biggest stars in the industry. He went over to the competitor AEW for a little while. Really put them on the map after two years of existence for them. Ton of controversy we can get into another day. But left the company. Came back to WWE after 10 years after he basically swore out off the company. Got into a legal dispute with the, with the doctor and WWE and all sorts of stuff. But came back. One of the biggest surprises, you know, a year, a little over a year ago and then you had Roman Reigns Rome, you know, Roman Reigns is all right. I mean he's the current face of WWE right now. He's the, he's, he's the top dog man. He's the tribal chief, you know, he's the big star they have now. Was WWE Champion for over three and a half years. The longest reign of the modern era. Number four all time. And the only ones longer than him are guys from this, you know, 70s and 80s when wrestling wasn't on TV every single week like it is now. And then Seth Rollins, who's kind of like the macho man, Randy Savage, the workhorse of the modern era. One of my favorites. Just great in ring guy, former world champion and stuff. Yeah, these four guys in the Rumble at the same Time towards the end, which was just like pop after Pop was great. You had some surprises, Aaron. I don't know who he was. The TNA World Champion. So tna, another wrestling organization, had their world champion in the rumble. Guy's name is Joe Hendry. You ever heard of him? Super popular. He's got a catchy scene theme song. You say his name and he appears and has a great song. Man. Aaron, did you see Joe Henry? [01:00:22] Speaker C: I did see him pop out and there it was. They said to say some. They said they only announced crew. Someone must have said his name because he is like you said, huge Internet. [01:00:31] Speaker B: Fame with this guy. He's from Scotland. Put together a whole song and thing and everything, you know, outside of wwe, but has, you know, made a few appearances. The TNA World Champion, he. He shot. Showed out Rome. I think I sent you the clip of I Show Speed. Do you know who that is? [01:00:46] Speaker A: I don't, but I. I did see the clip. [01:00:49] Speaker B: I. I don't either. I'm gonna say, you know, we're a little bit of an old man trending on this pot. I shall speak. Apparently huge YouTube guy, you know, was. [01:00:57] Speaker C: It wasn't initially in the Rumble mentioned that he was not initially in. [01:01:01] Speaker B: Was was not in there. Akira Tozawa came out and got attacked and was not cleared to compete. And so Triple H told the gm, someone's got to go in. And I Show Speed was in the back and said, hey, you're in the Rumble goes out there, super athletic guy does a few things, but then basically gets cut in half by Braun Breaker in one of the most devastating spears you could probably do on a human being. Bron Breaker, the son of the legendary Rick Steiner. So the Dog Face Gremlin himself. Bron Breaker is going to be main event WrestleMania one of these days. Runs the ropes. Former football fullback. He played a little bit for the Baltimore Ravens as a fullback. The guy runs the ropes at 23 miles an hour. So if you can imagine, you get a hitting with the spear at 23 miles an hour. [01:01:48] Speaker C: Dudes, Beast broke. [01:01:51] Speaker B: I show Speed in the half. Some of the great moments of the Rumble and really Rome, if you go to the end of it, just shocking win. You mentioned the winner. I don't know if we were off air on air, but the winner. At the beginning of the pod, I mentioned main event. Jay uso been a guy on the rise. Been on the roster for over 15 years. Part of a tag team. Twin brother Jimmy. They've been tag team champions, I think 10 times. The son of legendary WWE hall of Famer Rikishi really has made a name in the last three and a half years. Roman Reigns. I mentioned the face of wwe, the travel chief had this faction called the bloodline. One of the best storylines WWE has ever, ever done. The last three and a half years. They were basically just a big faction of all kind of the Samoan dynasty that were in there and out of this story, man, they have just made star after star of kind of these guys in the Samoan lineage. Jay uso one of the most over guys in the company right now. He says yeet a lot, which I I was told by WWE announcers that's in the dictionary right now. But that's kind of his catchphrase, gets the crowd going. It is a, you know, concert vibe atmosphere when this guy comes to the ring every time. And probably one of the more over guys in the company. So him eliminating John Cena, which shocked everyone because you went down to a final six of basically the biggest names in WWE with CM Punk. You know, Roman Reigns, John Cena, Seth Rollins, Logan Paul. You know Logan Paul, I assume Romy bigger than I. So Logan Paul was number 30 in the rumble. He was in there too. And Jayu. So final six, you're thinking, man, it's gonna be Roman, it's gonna be Cena, it's gonna be punk. You know, CM punks never made it WrestleMania, but Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns got big history, you know, the shield. Back in the day, they were almost limited each other. CM Punk throws him about out. Logan Paul then throws CM Punk out. So three of the favorites gone within that, within that kind of few seconds right there. Kind of shocked everyone in the crowd. You ended with Logan Paul, you ended with John Cena and Jay uso. Logan Paul gets thrown out and you had the showdown really of the legendary John Cena and this new up and comer at the moment I'm like, all right, they're going to give Jay uso a little rub here, but Cena's gonna win. But nah, Jay uso knocks Cena out, wins the Royal Rumble. Going to the main event of WrestleMania for the champion of his choosing, either world Champion Gunther or WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. So phenomenal event earlier in the day. At night you had Charlotte Flair winning the Rumble and yet Cody Rhodes defeating Kevin Kevin Owens in a ladder match for the WWE title. Highly recommend that match, one of the great ladder matches we've had in recent years. So incredible. Premium live event, Rome, we don't call them pay per views anymore. They're premium live events. Because you don't pay no more. They're on Peacock. [01:04:35] Speaker C: That's why I was shocked, man. I saw it on Peacock, it said watch and I thought it was going to send me to a link for like 49.95. It just appeared on. I said wow, I might as well watch this damn thing. [01:04:47] Speaker A: That's kind of cool. [01:04:48] Speaker C: But yeah man, the ladder match was great, man. I love ladder matches. Cody Rhodes with a powerbomb on KO literally KO in them and they going up and grabbing both belts. The old dust. Was that the old stone cold WWF WWE belt? That's the one KO had stolen. [01:05:04] Speaker B: Yeah, the old Winged Eagle belt. So WWE brought back the heralded Saturday night's main event a while back in, in December. So they got NBC Saturday nights. You know, used to be Andre the Giant Hulk Hogan back in the day. Brought back a vintage show and stuff for one night only. Triple H said we're gonna bring a surprise. And he gave Cody Rhodes this giant briefcase. What could it be? It turned out to be the Wing Eagle championship belt. Which is pretty much every belt wrestling guy. The Wing Eagle belt is the belt that you want to have. So he had that night. And then after Cody Rhodes got the victory, Kevin Owens wasn't happy, attacked him after the match, stole the belt and said he was the rifle champion. So we got a ladder match with the current WWE championship belt and the old Winged Eagle belt there strung above, above the ring and you know Cody wins and gets the whole both belts high classic wrestling storyline. [01:05:57] Speaker C: Classic ladder match too. That was a good one. That was a good ladder. I mean might have broken a record for all time ladders used in a wrestling match too. I mean there might have been about eight, six to eight different ladders out there for that. [01:06:07] Speaker B: Really at least they even had a, looked like a step stool ladder at a certain point where Kevin Owens was going to do a spot off of it like it was a big thing and then just said the hell with it and just threw the ladder out of the ring. So some, some great stuff. Kevin Owens, I think one of the great modern performers. He had a Wrestlemania main event a couple years ago and stole cold Steve Austin in Dallas on night one of that Mania WrestleMania 38 in, in Dallas. So one of the great performers that, that we've kind of had. The guy is really great in out of the ring, sells stories. He's, he's done some good stuff since he, he has returned to the dark side and been a heel and his vengeance against Cody Rhodes this last fall. [01:06:44] Speaker C: He, he Kind of reminds me, I think they even mentioned he spoke with on Mick Foley. As for getting tips for this match, he kind of, he kind of goes down that dark path now where it's like I'm just, I don't care if I got to go through Ladder Cage. I want to destroy Cody Rhodes at all cost and get his belt that he rightfully thinks is his. So, yeah, I mean, that was a great match. That was a really good match. [01:07:07] Speaker B: Absolutely. So paves the way Rome. I said this is the beginning of the road to WrestleMania. I will be there in Las Vegas for WrestleMania. A few buddies of mine, my cousins will be hitting it up in the streets of Las Vegas for the two night WrestleMania spectacular. The card. This is probably one of the most unpredictable WrestleMania cards I, I think we've come into. If you had told me a year ago, I thought we were getting Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton for the WWE title. I thought we were getting the Rock versus Roman Reigns, you know, in a showdown between cousins CM Punk and Seth Rollins. I thought that was a world title match that was there. But then now if it turns out to just be a blood feud, just so much great stuff. WWE right now. If I'm boring the majority of our podcast audience right now, but it is probably in one of the peak times of wwe. I know, you know, you guys are, I mean, you guys are thinking back in the Attitude era, and that's probably from a pop culture standpoint, but they're going arena to arena right now. We had 70, 000 people in Indianapolis for this. From a pop culture standpoint. You know, they had, you know, Tyrese Halliburton from the Pacers was there. He's a massive WWE fan. They had the Netflix premiere a couple weeks ago in LA at the Intuit Dome where the Clippers play. They had all sorts of celebrities there. Like it's, it's a different vibe with WWE now where it's, it's a super mainstream thing. People want to be a part of it. It's much more of a show from a Hollywood, from sports. Like it's all tied in. Like it definitely was big back in the day from the 90s. And I think us growing up, that that's always going to be our heyday. Yeah, but we're, we're WWE now under their new management. Vince McMahon being gone. Nick, Nick Khan, you know, former big time agent that basically repped all the big time guys for espn. Being CEO of wwe, he's taking this thing really global and there's tons of Wrestling in the marketplace right now, especially WWE product, but they make these events just like they are show of shows. And they're making them a little more exclusive because they're taking this stuff international. Like, they're going to do a big show in Paris next year. The Royal Rumble next year is in Saudi Arabia. You know, they did Berlin, they've done, you know, England a few times in Wales and Scotland and different stuff. And those European crowds are just insane. It's just people for four straight hours just singing and going crazy. And, you know, the gate prices for these events are just insane every time they're going out now, I just looked. [01:09:27] Speaker A: At the tickets like, I think last time you were talking about, I was like, God damn, you must have dropped a few bills on that. [01:09:33] Speaker B: I did, and I bought them when they went on sale. And they're early. Brett. A week and a half ago, the cheapest in the nosebleed was $700 for one night of WrestleMania, just for one night. So you're talking $1,400 to be at the top of Allegiant Stadium, you know, to go to this year's WrestleMania. So these are. These are spectacular to be at right now. For your wrestling fan or not, it is. It is a. Is an experience to go to one of these things. Just the vibe, the energy, everything that goes into the pageantry, these events, and it's just bigger and bigger every year. And I think WWE's current product has made it better. Triple H, you know, legendary wrestler behind the scenes. From a booking perspective and kind of him putting all the shows together just. He just interweaves so much that, you know, things like Vince McMahon didn't do. Like, there is just stories that just build and build and build upon each other. Just makes every show just that much bigger where, hey, the same guys aren't on every show. But this stuff is just stretched over like a year. Everything's building. The stories are even wide. Things are referenced back like it's. It's just a great product right now. If you're a wrestling fan and has just put WWE kind of into overdrive and, you know, it's a golden era right now. I think of WWE product right now. We're living in. [01:10:44] Speaker A: That's a hell of a statement. I just barely found Royal Rumble, though, by the way. I was like looking on the underneath sports. Didn't find any sports. And I was like, wait a minute, that's the logo in the left hand corner. So I clicked on it. This thing's four hours long. [01:10:58] Speaker C: Four hours, four hours, 18 minutes, I believe. [01:11:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:11:02] Speaker C: And it's four matches, two royal matches, the tag team title and Cody Roberts and Kevin Owens ladder match. [01:11:11] Speaker A: I'll have to figure out how I can just go straight. [01:11:13] Speaker C: It took me, I watched, I watched like half of it last night and the other half while waiting for this show to get started. So I watched the men's Royal Rumble before this show got started. Just not fall asleep. And I watched the other three matches. [01:11:24] Speaker A: That's hilarious. I, I, I miss playing WWE on Super Nintendo. That brings back memories for me. Yeah, spring back memories for me. [01:11:36] Speaker C: Yeah. But I mean 70, 000. Yeah, they're going to Paris there in August. [01:11:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:11:40] Speaker C: Jason just mentioned but Saudi Arabia. [01:11:42] Speaker A: So I didn't mean to get cheaper than 1300 bucks for one night when I looked. [01:11:46] Speaker C: So I mean these, these events are going to be sold. They're gonna be packed. Going international. Smart. I mean I know they got some kind of partnership or same management group under what the UFC is. And the UFC has gone international, gone big too that way. So there's between mma, ufc, wwe. Right now, this is the golden age. As Jason pitted for both sports right now. Globally, they are big, big brands. [01:12:11] Speaker A: Yeah, they bought everything. [01:12:12] Speaker B: Yeah, it's one company, it's the TKO group. They, they own both WBA and UFC. I think that was, you know, Vince McMahon selling it to this group. That's kind of what was the intent that they basically have the, you know, kind of sports entertainment, you know, marketplace stuff and there's a lot of like co branding between the two. You see UFC stars in the crowd, wwe, a lot of the wrestlers are big UFC guys themselves and you know, kind of this stuff going back and forth and you know, both brands huge internationally and it's making it, making it big in the United States as well in a different level. [01:12:42] Speaker A: We just need them. [01:12:43] Speaker C: You've had, you've had crossover too. I mean Brock Lesnar's came over to the ufc, had a lot of success, won a belt, was a heavyweight champion. CM Punk came over, did not have as much success. He got out quick. But yeah, I mean the crossover is big. The sport is big. Gonna be exciting, man. I will, I will catch WrestleMania now that it's not a pay per view and it's on the peacock. I will definitely tune in and see a few more events for sure. [01:13:12] Speaker A: Nice. Thanks for the recap, man. That was, I think you did a great job on that. [01:13:17] Speaker B: I appreciate that. You know, I was, you know, just want to, you know, little WWE in formula ones are on the corner. We want to make sure all my niche sports on the pod. I just I just get to talk a little bit about each thing. Indy car racing coming up, too. I don't know if You've seen the IndyCar commercials right now. IndyCar broadcasting on Fox. They got some good stuff with Joseph Newgarten and Alex Palau. I I think IndyCar is another sport right now. I'm hot on so IndyCar in my youth was it was a huge thing in the early 90s. And there's a big split in IndyCar in the Cartworld series. I IndyCar is about to be the upand cominging sport here in the United States, too. [01:13:52] Speaker A: I love it, man. I love it. We back on later in the week to talk more NBA trades, NBA updates, super bowl preview, prop bets, all that good stuff. Thanks for doing this pod. Solly guys.