Cavs & Harden Go All-In + Disastrous Summer in Denver? & Updates On Lakers' Drama

Of course, in Europe, Russian, Russian, with the greatest Russian population worldwide.

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Hello, welcome to the Collective Podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing on Thursday afternoon. Joining us from Los Angeles, California, Dave McMetter. So Brian, sub-tim? And that is Dave, jumping in front of me and introducing from Dallas, Texas, Panic Man. Howdy, partners. I like the back yard.

Backton, I mean, going for the Slater vibes there. Yeah, this is one with nature in the off season. That's one something we can all strive to try to achieve. Well, there's another guy in LA in a good mood right now, and that's James Harden.

Because today he signed a three year, 97 million fully guaranteed contract with the calves with a player option.

God bless America.

“Well, he worked with him and it worked out well for him.”

We'll talk about that aspect of it in a few minutes here. But we had a mid-August sign in trade. I'm going to tell you, like, let's just, I just want to be real here. Like, there's some good agent taking that has been done here. Because to Fridge Paul and his, you know, colleagues at Clutch to pull off getting paid in Watson signed and traded in the middle of August with no cap space out there. And a spot where the calves had to do a five team trade execute it.

Like, seriously, you can say whatever you want. You can say I'm pandering. Go ahead. I don't really care if you say that you don't know. That's pretty good work by Rich Paul and Peyton Watson comes out of this pretty good considering the landscape.

He gets four years and 88 million with a player option.

I don't understand why everybody in their brother gets a player option these days. But that's out of the barn and down around the corner. Mick Mann, Peyton Watson gets four years, 88 million. The calves do all kinds of different things to get this player. There's a lot of aspects of this to go through the calves aspect.

The nuggets aspect, the clippers aspect. Let's start with the calves. I actually want to start with my aspect. Okay. I had a bet with bond ends. The Peyton Watson will get more than mid level.

This is significantly more than mid level. So just as soon as the NBA League office gets done with this aspiration investigation, I'm going to ask them to determine whether bond temps as a team employee can still pay off a bet that he made before he was hired. So there's that.

But for the calves, listen man, this didn't come without a cost. And you know, 231 pic, okay. But the cost, you know, as you mentioned when you basically very accurately forecasted this deal. On the last spot is they, they really thinned out the depth of the roster.

“And I think you can kind of look at it is they need Peyton Watson to come in and be an upgrade to the combined production”

of Max Drew. She was hurt most last year, but Max Drew's in Dean Wade. Now if he produces like he did last year, which, unfortunately, was cut short due to injuries. And I think this is going to be a pretty sweet deal for them. He's obviously a young guy extremely athletic. Um, I think they have one of the best defensive front courts in the league now putting them alongside Evan Mobley and in Jared Allen.

And then last year he had a great up or, you know, really good breakout offensive season where shot at almost 50% from the floor and better 40% from three point range. A much higher volume than he had in the past, but he got paid on a pretty small sample size of production. Yeah, Dave in, um, in January and February before he got his, um, his hamstring injury. Now there were other injuries being affecting the, uh, the nuggets at the time, which is one of the reasons why he got the opportunity. But in January and February Peyton Watson won on an 18 game stretch where he started all 18 games, uh, he averaged 36 minutes.

So this is a guy who's averaged in the load of mid 20s before that. So he was getting full on starter as minutes was probably, I don't have this looked up. He probably was averaging. We's probably one of the NBA leaders in minutes during that stretch. Uh, because the nuggets just didn't have depth and they were, they were banged up. He was averaged in 36 minutes in that stretch. He averaged 21 points.

And shot 45% from three, always, also average five rebounds of three assists.

And so the question really is, is that 18 game stretch before he pulled his hamstring?

Um, is that the Peyton Watson? Cause if that's Peyton Watson Dave, the calves doing a five team trade and giving away a whole bunch of players.

“That's a hell of a pick-up. Or is Peyton Watson the guy who he was before and after that, which is a guy who's a quality piece, a starter quality piece.”

But averages, you know, 12, 13 points and his for his career shot under 40% from three. Well, dude, they wanted to be that guy who had those numbers for the 18 games because part of it as you alluded to was because of the reason nuggets had players who were also out during that stretch. He was thrust into a larger role. What they wanted to be is a dynamic two way threat who can also be clamped down the fender on the perimeter when you already have mobility and Allen patrolling down on the paint. To make open shots, but I mean, the ball is going to be in dot of the Mitchell's hands and James Harden's hands. He's, I think for sure, third on that pecking honor in terms of shot attempts per game. Now, obviously in transition, you want to get in the ball. He can finish six foot eight, long, good athlete.

Getting to the foul line, you know, obviously those type of scenarios to get his touches and gets his minutes or get his kind of numbers that way. But I think what the cab's got is just an addition of talent.

When as you mentioned, they had lost some talent. And as good as Max Truce was the the first year after they acquired it from Miami, he was not really a part of their team last year.

And so in this particular deal, you are given up the future first drop pick, but you're not really giving up a player that last year's team relied off.

“Well, so here's the thing. So during that stretch of games, because of the injuries and nuggets had, including, you know, Yo Kitch being out, the ball was in Peyton Watson's hand.”

So his usage rate in December, you know, I'm slicing the season up, but in December when he was a starter and playing 28 minutes a game, his usage rate was 17. Okay, his usage rate in January when he played all those games and all those minutes, his usage rate jumped to 27. 27. So a part of the reason why he, he's got that huge surge in, in, in, in, you know, output was because the nuggets were in trouble. They put the ball in this hand and said, Peyton, you, you know, make some plays for us. And he did.

“You know, I'm going to float and I'm going to say this. Let's take a look at the calves roster now because here's the thing. This trade. It looks like Max Drew's a first and a second for Peyton Watson, but that's not really what the calves did.”

If you look at where they were to start the off season and they were a second apron team last year, okay, but they let Dean Wade walk in free agency.

They let Keyon Ellis walk in free agency. They trade Dennis Schroeder. They did two moves. Basically to get off Dennis Schroeder's money. They traded for train man and then they flip train man for cam went more, who they waved in stretch. And those, say, series of transactions got off a Schroeder's money, but still they had to get off a Schroeder's money to enable them to sign and trade for Peyton Watson because your hard capped under the first apron if you acquire a player of sign and trade. So even though those players didn't go to Denver, those players came off the calves roster to make it happen. So really, the calves are down Ellis, Strauss, Wade Schroeder, okay, and the first round pick, the unprotected 32,000 31 first round pick. All of those things came off their roster. So here's what's left. Now they do have two roster spots.

And I expect them to fill those roster spots. But as we sit here right now, they're starting point guard is James Harden. Their backup point guard is Craig Porter, who's been a times backup for them, but has been mostly a third string guard. Maybe he's going to be really good. That's their backup point guard. Their backup three behind Peyton Watson is Mario Hizonia, who was a non guaranteed contract who's coming over after six years playing in Europe. I don't even know if he's going to work. And then other than that, you have Jalen Tyson and Sam Merrill. Those are like their two three backups. So behind Donovan Mitchell and Peyton Watson, it's Sam Merrill, Mario Hizonia, Jalen Tyson. I'll throw in Tyreys Proctor who was your second round pick in 2025, like maybe he's ready to play minutes, but I was going to say two years ago when the calves had that 61 season. If you remember that roster that they had, okay, they had, you know, Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobile and Jared Allen.

But their backups were Tyreys Proctor, who got six man of the year votes. The Andre Hunter, who I know had a bad year last year and got traded, but he got six year of the man of the year votes.

So here's their bench now, Craig Porter, Jalen Tyson, Sam Merrill and their two backup bigs behind Evan Mobile and Jared Allen.

“As of today, now they have roster spots, but you know, take a look at their free agents. It's not.”

When you do a deal that creates roster spots and you need minimums in July, you know, you have a choice. When you do that deal in August, you know, your choices are way down. They're backup bigs, do you, man, do you even know who they're two backup bigs are? And I'm not trying to put you on the spot. If you can tell me. Thomas Brian is their backup center. If you know who they're back up for is, by the way, I couldn't probably do this for other teams. I couldn't tell you the mavericks to deep. They're back up for as of right now is Nick Juan Tomlin, who was on a two way to start last season.

So listen, that's 35 hard and Mitchell Watson, Mobile and Allen, like, it's pretty good. And if, if Peyton Watts, like, look, the hardest thing to get in the NBA is athletic two way wings, right? Like, that's hardest. I mean, a super star is the hardest thing to acquire, but if you're trying to build it your team, that's why the next page so dearly to get Michael Bridges and OGN and OB because getting those those types of wings are hard, the calves think they got one in Watson. And they think that Jalen Tyson, who's are young rookie can develop into a key two way way, but the calves are awfully thin right now.

“Okay, now here's the second part of this deal. To allow this to happen, remember that James Harden opted out of a contract would have paid him 43 million this year.”

Now, that contract was not fully guaranteed. It was only guaranteed 12 million, but the truth is the calves weren't going to cut him.

He's their starting, he's their franchise point card. So a few, it opted into that contract. They would pay them the 43 million. He was getting the money, okay? So James Harden was willing to opt out of that contract and sit around all summer and basically pick up the phone whenever the calves call his agents more than anything, but and say, yeah, I'll go down a little farther up a down a little farther. And so as the calves made various moves, Harden not only was willing to reduce his salary, but he was willing to recruit.

He from what I understand, like I assumed out of the Mitchell was two I haven't heard this, but he recruited Peyton Watson. He was on the, I guess at the, at the fanatics fest where you hung out day, you had to get a fun couple of days there. At the Java Center, they were both there and like at that time, you know, the calves were recruiting Watson and Harden was with them and like recruited them and Watson is from LA and Harden is from LA and they had some connection there, even though they're, you know, I think 13 years apart.

And so the bill came to McMahon, the bill came to and so James Harden gets a three year 97 million dollar contract all guaranteed and the third year is a player option.

I bet you'll pick that option up. Well, or he'll opt out of it and do this again in a couple years. And it'll be pretty old to be optin out of it at that point, but he's he's he's turning 37 next week, happy birthday. This is from 37 38 39. Um, this contract will take, well, I'll, I'll stop on that.

McMahon three years, 97 million dollars for fully guaranteed for James Harden, God bless America. Listen, man, the calves are all in on right now and they're trying to kind of, which is a tough spot to be. You're all in on right now with real questions about your bench and not a whole lot of ways you can go about upgrade. Aren't they hard cap now as well? Yes, they are.

So like to to upgrade the bench, even during the seasons, going to be extremely difficult to be able to pull that off. Um, and you know, Watson is kind of a combination of being all in now and trying to give yourself some long term upside. And I do think he has long term upside. You know, you mentioned the 18 game stretch. There's really a half season stretch as a starter for him.

38 games since, you know, Christian Brown got hurt. He started every game he played after that. It was 17 and a half points, student better than 50%, 44 from three, you know, decent rebounder, good defender.

“And I remember in the middle of that stretch, you know, when he was really rolling.”

They came to Dallas and I was talking to Aaron Gordon about him.

And the thing that really surprised people was like, because you always said about Watson, like, hey, if he can just become a decent three point should he's going to be a really nice player.

And he had proven that and then you saw him doing all the stuff off the dribble.

Well, listen, then with the calves depth at ball handler, you know, what we'll hear from Kenny Atkinson and Kobe Almond in the coming days. The calves may need him to do some of that.

I mean, he'll be there second secondary ball handler and line up when one of the guards is sitting.

I would think a lot of times. But I've been when I was talking to Aaron Gordon. He said, dude, we see this stuff when we play pick up and things like that. We see him for a while. He said, he reminds me of the young Paul George.

Now, I think that might might be hyperbly there. You know, young Paul George is awfully good. But his point was he looked at Watson as a really dynamic athletic versatile six eight wing.

“And, you know, if that's what the cows are getting, then honestly, the deals, it's not crazy money.”

Twenty two millions, not and today's NBA is not a crazy number. So here's the thing. We're stronger money. Look, you could talk to different people who give you different opinions. He's 23 years old.

So they're signing him for ages 23 to 26 basically is 23 24 25 years, whatever. I feel okay about signing a player to that kind of a deal when they're in their mid 20s. Yes. I'm not, you know, you can find people that don't like paying him 22 a year. If that's when you're going to gamble.

Look at the nuggets apparently. Yeah, well, we'll talk about the nuggets in a minute. You know, you guys know how I feel. When a, when a contract gets signed, I asked a question, can a, can this contract be traded? I've talked to executives today who have said, I don't like that contract.

But I've also talked to executives who've said he's 23 years old.

“That's probably going to age pretty well.”

If he was 33 years old, I wouldn't like it. But 23 years old, I like it. So I don't think they could trade it for huge value this afternoon. I'm not of the, of the concerns I have about this calves maneuver. Right.

I'm concerned that they have no depth because they've hollowed out their depth to do this. I'm concerned that they now have no tradeable first. So when they need to add to their depth. That they're hard capped and they have nothing to add to the team. Of the things I'm concerned about with Cleveland.

Whether Watson is going to be this type of player. Whether they can fill out their roster appropriately. The, the, the level of contract is not at the top right now. Sorry. Yeah.

I do think we should discuss hard in this a little bit more here. And Sean said reporting in his story that he is now going to become the fourth player in

League history to make over half a billion dollars in salary.

And obviously the other three are, you know, the Olympic teammates in 24 and LeBron, Kevin Durett and Steph Curry. And it's just kind of a fascinating look at James Hardin's career to step back. Obviously the MVP, the trip to the finals with the thunder. But to be able to have that this career earnings is part of what he's able to accomplish in the league.

Like probably someone underrated in terms of what he's on the league. Right. Well, when you stack them up against those other three guys, like there's one pretty obvious glaring omission from his resume. And the final trip was as a six man.

He's not got a team to the finals as a lead guy. We've been as a starter and obviously no championship. So I mean, he's a no-brainer Hall of Famer. But when you discuss and legacy to me is an over-use word. But when you discuss Hardin's legacy, unfortunately, you get to the playoff failures pretty quickly.

Let me just say this. So we talked about agent agent and, you know, and earlier this summer, just the recap, like I was very willing to praise Aaron men's and CAA for how they handled. I mean, Aaron men's and CAA getting trade young taking care of starting with the trade out of

Atlanta and getting Walker Custard taking care of. Good run. Great stuff. Rich Paul, I just said, paid Watson. Now I'm going to shout out Mike Silverman and the Troy Payne who are what, who are Hardin's agents.

“Last year, like I don't remember the exact date.”

Don't hold me this date. But you know, there was some point in December, January, where the clippers decided they were pulling the plot. You know, they got off to that bad start and then they got hot, but they didn't believe in the team. Obviously they traded a bit to Zubatch.

They obviously traded Hardin and then eventually they traded Kawai if that ever happened. But Hardin had this team option or, you know, like it was a player option, but it was only,

you know, 12 million or 13 million guaranteed.

So he's sitting there. He knows he was about to be traded and his future contracts were in a shirt. And that trade to Cleveland was manufactured by the agents.

Now, the calves liked him and, you know, were watching the situation too.

“So they go out and just like the deal to Washington was partially executed by CAA, okay?”

And so just like, you know, you talk about power and the influence of power in the NBA, like, yeah, the two teams have to do it. There's all kinds of relationships that matter in trades. You know, for example, the calves do this deal where train man passes through their hands to Washington. The part of the reason the train man is now in Washington is because we'll dock into the GM drafted him when he was in Oklahoma City.

So there's all these things that happen, right? But they get Hardin and to a spot where they're willing to pay him. And if you would told me when the clippers were pulling the plug-on last season and about to trade Hardin away, that Hardin was going to end up in a $300 million deal. All guarantee the following summer I would have told you would not.

Hardin's a pretty good business man himself. Agreed. Well, yeah, well, he had to play well. He played well in Cleveland. He created a relationship with head coach Kenny Atkinson and he created a relationship with the organization. And like, how did he feel about moving from his hometown of L.A. to Cleveland?

I don't know how he really felt, but you'd never saw it show up in his attitude or his performance on the court.

I mean, I think he's a good guy. I think he's a good guy. I think he's a good guy. I think he's a good guy. I think he's a good guy.

I think he's a good guy. I think he's a good guy. I think he's a good guy. I think he's a good guy. I think he's a good guy.

I think he's a good guy. I think he's a good guy. I think he's a good guy. More whoop collective podcast after this.

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McMahon to the nuggets part of this. So here's the thing. The nuggets from what I understand.

Offered Watson around four years and 70 million.

I was reported elsewhere, but I checked on it. I'm not sure it was at 70 million. It might have been a hair under. And they offered him that deal before called 17 year. Okay, they offered that deal before the thunder put them to the test with Spencer Jones

on that six million dollar a year deal. And here's the thing. From what I am told. The nuggets had options to trade Cam Johnson and get them off of their books. There were teams that were willing to do that where they wouldn't have been penal to them.

That they could have moved Cam Johnson. I'm not sure that they could have moved Christian Brown for value. Brown had it was injured all last year. Has a hundred million dollar contract that's just starting. They probably could have traded them, but not for actual like one of the things they do.

But they could have traded Cam Johnson. And they could have not matched on Spencer Jones. Okay. They made the decision to keep those two. And not that Jones and Watson are exactly Apple Staples because obviously,

116 million and 120 million. So I'm, but they had options on their plate. Just like the thunder, okay, if the thunder had wanted to keep Lou Dore, there were options that existed for them to do that. Okay, I know that the thunder gave this Valentine to Lou out the door and all this stuff. But at the end of the day, the thunder chose a different path than Lou Dore.

Obviously the nuggets are now in the second apron. They're not going to be able to keep this entire team together. Okay. They, I think, the here's the nuance. Were they willing to keep Peyton Watson?

“Yes, that's why they offered him a multi-year contract for 17-ish million dollars a year.”

But there was a threshold in where they preferred the Cam Johnson Spencer Jones do well. And Brown, I'll put that in there too. I don't think Brown was really moving this summer. And they chose that pathway. Also make a pet with you well.

You know, if you want to talk about what's happened to the nuggets or Oscar, you got to go back to really last fall.

“And that's when Christian Brown got a five year 125 million dollar extension.”

And they couldn't come to an agreement with Peyton Watson, who at the time wanted like middle-level money.

Wanted like 14 million a year.

And the nuggets wouldn't go a dollar over 10 million was my understanding. Look, hindsight's 2020, they had to do all over again. They had to give him Peyton Watson's 14 million. And waited on Christian Brown, and you know, been in discussions with him. And they'd probably been able to keep him both.

But that's not the way that things played out. Well, I had been Christian Brown who was in a restricted freeage in Quagmire. It might have been, it might have been deemed that one of them was going to be gone anyway. And you know, the Spencer Jones thing was a tricky little curve ball thrown by Sam Prestey that added to it. You know, there was all this noise about the nuggets or will and to keep everybody pay everybody,

you know, pay whatever luxury tax bill. Even after losing Peyton Watson, who was, you know, one of their five best players, Tim Hardaway, who was a six-man a year can. Even after losing those two guys from last year's roster,

they have a 75 million dollar tax bill that's staring in the face.

And they're over the second apron to get bounced in the first round and get worse. And by the way, they got bounced in the first round by a really wounded, Timables team.

“Remember, I ain't got hurt in that series.”

Don't take deep in chenzo, unfortunately went down for within Achilles. By the way, Peyton Watson did not play in that series. You know, there were some folks with a nuggets who kind of look at that situation sideways saying he's putting business above the team right now. I didn't see the MRI as I can tell you what that's true or not. But this is a bad bad summer for the Denver nuggets man.

They're really expensive. Well, and that's not forget that Yoke did not extend. Whatever you want to spend spend that. Yeah, and look, everything Joker has said every indication from him as he's not ever going to consider leaving Denver as long as he's winning in May, uniform. You speak Serbian, Tim?

I don't. But I haven't heard him say it in English yet. That's what I'm saying. Sure. No, he said it in English.

He said it. Okay. We're not this summer, but right.

Here's the thing, though.

None of that stuff is binding, and their damn sure are going to be teams that are hoping that either changes his mind or, you know, call what you want. And there's a ton of pressure on the nuggets. There's pressure on the front office, there's pressure on the coaching staff, there's pressure on ownership. And that's regardless of Joker's contractual situation. You have one of the greatest players of all time who took you to the top of the mountain.

And you are in serious danger of essentially wasting the rest of his career.

“I think the question that you had to ask, though, is we know how great he is.”

And of course, every superstar, as we've seen Brian and I in particular cover in Lambran. If you're that great, the pursuit is to try to add much talent around you because it just opens up your window that much longer and that much wider. At what point do we say that they've done everything they can to feel the team around and to the point where they're in the second apron. And this could become a Milwaukee situation where you just have a finite amount of time in order to have enough resources to put around a player like that.

Or I'll give you another example and become the Durks situation. Where even if Joker stays, he's staying in the awesome, it's a one franchise legend, he's loyal, but he doesn't have a chance to compete for championship. For the rest of his prime and it was twilight. And not only have they ducked on in the second apron and done all his things. This pick that they got from Cleveland is now the only tradable pick that they have.

And by the way, do you know who owns their 27 and 29 picks, who two separate deals? I'll give you one guess. Okay, see I think. Of course. There you go.

Well, by the way, the reason they had no tradable first was because they traded, so they were cutting payroll last year. So in the transaction, they made sort of cam Johnson, it makes 23 million this year. Okay, and that's that. You know, that's a factor that what, you know, that's essentially what probably is slightly less. Probably slightly more than Watson, but essentially that's the same salary slot.

But, but Michael Porter Jr., who they traded for Cam Johnson, he makes 40 million this year.

And the differential in those two salaries was one of the reasons, one of the primary reasons that Denver included a first round pick to Brooklyn.

It's part of that deal. So, you know, that was a factor. Yeah.

“And it's tough when you are a team that should be continuing, wants to be continuing,”

and you're having to give up pick a pick to get off money. By the way, speaking of Yokech, as we speak, Yokech is playing a friendly with the Serbian National team in Belgrade against team France. Pretty high profile friendly. Yeah, so they're up. So the windows in here coming up in a week or so, the windows to qualify for the for the World Cup next summer in Qatar are happening.

And so some high profile players are playing for their teams because it's hard to qualify out of Europe. And I was talking to a scout who was at the game and really go bear his plan and alongside Victor. And Victor was, by the way, named French National team captain. Captain? Which isn't a surprise, but you know, there's some older guys on that.

Like Evan Fornier is on the team. And, you know, there's some guys who have won real medals and real stuff for their French. But... Wendy's won a real medal for the French. Silver, that's right.

By the way, so anyway, I was talking to a scout. And he told me not that this should be a surprise McMahon. But he told me that really go bear looks in spectacular condition. I mean, he wrote one thing you didn't criticize him all the way along. One thing the CAD does is keeps himself from phenomenal shape.

Yeah. It's actually half tough. And also the scout that I'm texting with told me that Yokek was in good shape as well. And it's a one point game in half. I'd like to call it.

Jokek better being good shape as playing 47 minutes a game. Yeah.

Actually, the one rotation player they brought in this year is Marvin Wagner's third.

You know, he can score off the bench, but he's a journey man. This should be a surprise. The Cavs, the other big man and Kevin love his out there. And that's a guy to keep an eye on for Cleveland. They, I think the Cavs would love to have Marvin Bagley on.

So they should try to get it. Try to try to get him in that deal. Real quick on the wolves as an aside. Watch the wolves in the next couple days.

“Because now that some of these, some of these, well, here's the thing.”

There's been some report. I don't know who to give credit to. But I think there's a possibility of tomorrow derrosing, signing with theme nuggets. Yeah, hangs, hangs was about. Oh, Chris, hangs, I saw that.

You know, now that this is happening. Some of the things are falling into place. So my favorite topic, Jonathan Kominga. I mean, the wolves. Listen, if he's going to play for the minimum, and he, he absolutely should go to Minnesota.

Because he can walk into probably a starting job at the four. Right. So it's still open. There's still a window there, Dave, four. The Lakers to do a Kominga sign and trade. But using Jaden Hardy.

But my thing on the whole Jonathan Kominga sign and trade thing is it. For the, for the hawks to do a sign and trade, they're going to probably end up in the tax.

Unless you can ship someone to a third team last to be paid.

And I've just been very doubtful that unless the hawks are in love with the situation that they're going to end up. You know, signing and trading Kominga. The other thing with Kominga is a sign trade has to be three years. It doesn't have to be fully guaranteed, but it can't be player options. It'll be team options.

And so if Kominga can't get a contract number that he likes in the first year, even if it's a more money. This is one thing that Lakers fans, you know, the Lakers fans have been sort of putting Kominga on their team in their head. And look, maybe it does get done. But Kominga, he doesn't, he wouldn't control his contract. And that first year salary, even if it's higher, would be less than he thinks his value is right or wrong.

So if the timber wolves, now that these other doors are closing, if the timber wolves can close that deal, McMahon and land Jonathan Kominga. That would be not, you know, you guys know how I feel about to Kominga.

“I think he's a highly talented flood player.”

Are you representing Kominga now? If Kominga comes up. Well, shout out his agent now too. Cook, we've already got through the roster very, very awesome. Yeah.

I appreciate you. I, like I said, I, I an, I an inviting scorn and I don't even have to invite it with Dave. Dave will just give it, we'll just do it out. I an inviting scorn talk about the agent, I agree, but this is, you know, my job is to watch the league and talk about it. I'm seeing age or thing. Can I ask you a question, Brian?

Yeah. Am I interrupting? Okay. So for Kominga, obviously this decision will bring forth the salary for 26, 27. But to me, it's more about the next five years beyond that, right?

Well, what is going to be in this league? In order to achieve that, what does he need?

Opportunity touches, right?

He wanted out. He wanted out of Golden State because there were enough touches. The Lakers. It goes away. He let all change every other day.

Sure. But that was a big part of it was not getting the touches. The Lakers part of ways with LeBron James. And part of that equation was, well, now the ball is, it's clearly through Luca Dodges.

“Is that the best situation for him to then set up himself for the next five years?”

I don't know. I feel like it could be a similar situation where he finds himself as where's the opportunity? Well, and again, in Minnesota, there is a clear void at the four that you can slot a minute in the starting line out between Jane McDane. Those are really go bare, which will be mellable and aunt in the back court.

And it's a pretty defined, like, hey, we need you in this role. And if you're going to sign a proof at contract, which it would have to be, obviously. Then, okay, let me prove myself as a guy who's going to be playing 30 plus minutes per game. You know, 14 that is probably going to play fast and, you know, be a fun team, be a team. It's going to be a playoff team.

And the role is not as clear with the makers. Luca's more ball dominant than an ant or lamello. But more so, it's just like, you know, they sign Mamu. And, you know, it's just a little bit more crowded. So, again, I just, you know, I'm not the highest guy in the world on Camingo.

But if Minnesota can get him for the minimum, I think that's a deal that makes a sense for both sides. When you talk about, I had an agent and tell me something very funny. I would never quote him. The thing about it is that it's very, it can be dangerous for a player whenever he takes a minimum. Because he sends this salary.

Or even if it's not the minimum of it, but it's vastly below his market. Because it ends up being sort of a whole year to dig yourself out of. And so, you hear agents say, I can't let my player take the minimum. You know, even if it makes sense. So, that's something the coming has got to do.

But I was talking to this agent and he was saying this. He's like, you got to be careful taking the minimum, especially if you're in your 20s. And I was like, well, you know, there are examples of players who have taken the minimum when they, when their market has been low and then they've rebuilt their value. I'll give you a recent example, which is Kelly Ubrae.

I thought you're going to say Gary Shenji. Well, that's what the guy said. The guy, the guy, the, the, the, the, the, we, we, you dropped the thing. He's like, yeah, look at Gary Trent.

“Which, um, where is that on the NBA's investigation?”

I don't know, but I just determined they have to pay the contract. No, I know, but well, I know it's funny. But I'm saying on the NBA's process of, you know, they're, they're, they're, they're, you know, they're investigating. Why they're, they're trying to deal with, um, you know, the lake

or situation, we'll talk about in a second.

They're doing what trying to do expansion. They're trying to, if Bond Tim's is going to pay off his bets. I'm trying to do it. Trying to do NBA Europe, you know, the, the, the, the, the, like, you know, if it's like, why gets traded or whatever.

That's all part of aspiration. Where is the Gary Trent? Like, um, you know, where's the Gary Trent investigation? They're, they're mad that we're talking about it because they're hoping people forget it because they look like the bucks on TV for like,

I think the bucks on TV for the first half of a game and said the word. And that's it. You know, you know what, you know, it was fascinating. And I mean, um, uh, look like, uh, it is what it is. But um, the, the, when the TV deal market, when the TV schedule came out,

the Zion Williamson and Pelican totally had two games. You know, I mean, one, you can't count on being on the same. No, I'm too. They're not being good. They're sizing it.

I'm just saying. You know, when Zion's on the floor is still exciting, but you can't bank on being there and there's, you know, like, there's just not a buzzer from him has been gone for a long time. Hey, can we go back a little bit though?

Can we discuss the potential fit of derosen with the nuggets? Because I think it's honestly pretty clunky. Well, I mean, I get need space. And by the way, this is a classic case. You know, derosen is, you know, going to be moving into a minimum zone.

Um, but anyway, go ahead and it's late 30s.

Um, many people moving into a bench for the first time in his career.

Which honestly is the role that I thought would be best suit him for a while. But he would, you know, he decided he, he wanted the number one or number two option. And then I get it like, they need Ben scoring. They need a guy who can prop up the offense and give it some kind of life in the, 14 minutes or so that Joker sitting.

But I don't think you can play derosen with Joker because derosen needs the ball. He doesn't space it. He's not a cutter.

“It doesn't do the things you, any other things you need to really thrive off of Joker.”

And then that duo defensively stinks worse than morning breath after 12 pack of cores light.

So I'm just saying like, I get it like it's not exactly.

“There's not just a ton of guys sitting on a market.”

But like the idea that derosen would would salvage the summer for the nuggets. I don't think so, man. Well, I don't think it's salvage it. But, you know, I would, I would be interested to watch the two man game. Because they're both very effective.

You know, I don't think derosen. I don't think it's off the ball and he gets to the line. Doesn't move. We'll have to ball. I don't know.

I mean, he loves getting to that kind of mid range, mid post area and operate out there. And a lot of times the nuggets. He has a move on from all of his JJ Reddick or Rip Hamilton. I mean, he's not running floppy. But I'm just saying like Dave said he, you know, he will position.

You know, he gets into position. Yeah. So also dribble. Well, that's okay. So, well, let me do what you just says.

I don't want to gloss over the clippers. Yeah. Because while the clippers are dealing with all bunch of other things,

“I think it was nice business to get Max Drew's for a second round pick.”

So they, you know, they traded Colin's senior moment John Collins to the pistons, which was a whole nother move that I, the pistons, not signed to buy a Sarah's and taking on John Collins. I don't know.

Anyway, they got a $17 million trade exception for that.

And they took on Johnny broom in a deal to move off to help his car wall pope end up with the six. Right. So they did a roster spot move for the six or so. They take that second round pick that they just got for taking a roster spot.

And the trade exception for John Collins. And then they use that to acquire Max Drew's. Look, the clippers have other challenges. And they were actually at one time this year deemed a, a possible spot for Peyton Watson.

So they don't get paid Watson, but they get in. In Strues, you know, he's 30 years old still very much in his prime. And, you know, would be in a contract year and we'll compete with both ends. I actually thought it was, I had one executive tell me the team that I liked. Business the most out of this was the clippers.

Yeah, I mean, he's a solid, he's a solid rotation player. You know, hopefully he can be healthy this year. Solid rotation player for a team that there's no benefits and the clippers being bad. Guess who owns their pick this year. But, you know, and they took an actual trade exception and turn it into,

you know, a guy who might be a human trade exception. He's an expired and contract. There could be value in that. You know, as a trade deadline approaches. Yeah.

All right. Let's move on to the Lakers. Dave, you've done a lot of reporting. You should be taking it easy in August. I feel bad for you.

I appreciate that, the sentiment. So there's a lot out there right now. You know, there's, I want to slice. There's three different things with the Lakers right now. One is the fact, obviously, that Josh Kushner and Bob Iger are in the process of buying majority control of the team.

Okay. That is unaffected by parts two and three that we are going to discuss here in a second.

And that is what is most important for the MBA and the Lakers organization is that there is going to be a change in controlling owner.

“I honestly don't fully understand what the contractual obligation of keeping genie buses the governor is.”

But the one thing I know about the MBA is that there's one controlling owner. Now, those, you can come to an agreement that there's a rotation or whatever, but there's one controlling owner. And my understanding is that's going to be Josh Kushner. Josh Kushner is going to be the controlling owner. Now, Bob Iger's, is that contrary to anything that you've heard Dave?

Josh Kushner lives in Miami, works in New York as a place in Malibu. Bob Iger's. Bob, Bob Iger's primary residence is in Brent. No, I mean, I'm not saying Bob Iger was in the office. Kushner will have the largest financial state.

He'll have the largest share. Okay. Yeah. Well, yeah, of course I've heard that. I don't, we're talking more.

Yeah, here's the thing. No matter what anybody wants to say, no matter what anybody wants to announce, like Mark Cuban announced. When he was selling the Mavericks.

One of the immutable rules of the MBA is one individual is ultimately the face of the team.

Whether or not they want to be the day-to-day operations person, whether or not they want to be the public face of the team or whatever.

It's not always person has the most money in.

“Yeah, but the buck stops with one person ultimately.”

And regardless of what happens with the bus family, Mark Walter owns 73% of the lakeers. Is that right? Or something like that? It doesn't necessarily hire them. Okay.

But that shares is on process to transfer to Kushner and Iger's group. And that's, you know, assuming no hiccups, that's going to happen. Okay. That's silo one. All right.

“And how they decide to move forward with the lakeers is a big giant story in the MBA and will be something we watch very closely.”

Now Dave Park 2, which is the bus family drama, which I know is a couple of days old now. But you have done a lot of reporting on this and have lived it for decades. I have something I want to say, but I'll wait for you to follow you. Well, I love this line that someone told me yesterday. It was, if somehow Gini Bus gets through this current fiasco and still remains the acting governor.

Adam Streisand deserves the next statue outside of crypto dot com. I'm sorry. Because this is mired in muck and red tape and quite frankly, the logical side of things. When you consider that in 2025, when the bus family agreed to sell their steak to Walter, sources tell me there was a provision agreed to buy all the siblings called a tag along the provision.

Basically, if Walter sells at any point, we can roll in our shares to that sale at the new valuation.

Now, of course, Gini Bus or any other siblings could have foresaw that it only being a ten month ownership period for Mark Walter. But that's what it turned out to be. Gini Bus's lawyer, Streisand, is contending that back in 2017, when there was another round of family drama, it was determined by the court that if the bus siblings were to sell at any point, three trustees out of the six would have to sign off on it. Jini Bus, who used to run the Lakers East Foundation, Joey Bus, who was instrumental with the Lakers G league team over the years, and Gini would be the three trustees.

However, in the eight years since that court agreement, not only did they agree to the tag along the provision, but Gini Bus has ousted to those trustees from the organization in Jini and Joey. So if this ever goes in front of a judge, the judge would have all this information to consider and weigh and meet out. And at the end of the day, it still seems somewhat implausible to me that the conclusion wouldn't be that five six, the majority vast majority wants to sell this thing. And I'm not going to be the judge to step in front of that sale. We also are not legal specialists. Right, and certainly that. And look, the legal argument, like, I went to college for years, but I'm sure I don't like whatever man.

But just the common sense argument here, like I thought the statement that that Shoms got from the bus five, which is going to be the most, like remember the Hampton's five, now we've got the bus five. The bus, but yeah, but the bus five statement ended with it is time to use this opportunity to move on and exit gracefully, while we still can. Now, you can argue whether they still can, but like it is damn sure time to move on. Well, that's one thing that Gini has going to have to weigh here about whether what she wants her role to be going forward.

And that's something that's a conversation that can be with Bob Eiger and Josh Kushner. Yeah, the MBA succession show needs to end. What's the, you know, shows finale? What's amazing is there's been two shows about the bus family in the last five years, the HBO show and then the Netflix show, which is the, like, the Gini Bustory and neither of them are going to be the best one, which is going to be about this.

But let me ask you this, if you're a Josh Kushner and Bob Eiger, I know, I just said, you know, basically, yeah, yeah, we welcome, Jean love it, but he left a pretty wide.

Yeah, there's a lane of wiggle room, less things change. Why, why would they want her still there?

“I just just a mess. Here's the thing at the end of the day, this is very basic, but very important.”

The difference between a year ago and now is that a year ago, the bus family was the majority shareholder and now they're not. Okay, the deal that Mark Walter made with the bus families with Gini, he had to make that deal because they were the ones deciding the control share.

They are not, okay, so one of the, one of the immutable facts I talked about with, you know, MBA ownership is there's one control owner, another immutable facts is if you're a minority owner, you are just that.

You are to be seen in that herd.

Now, Gini worked out this deal and it was an incredible deal for her, but at the end of the day, if you are a minority shareholder, you get good tickets, and that's just a truth, okay. So, I have, I know a guy who is a minor, it is a very small owner of an MBA team, it's a sliver of a team, and he will call me and ask me.

“Or I shouldn't say he doesn't have my number, he will message me.”

And ask me what his team is doing because he's 100% putting it in the dark. Okay, Cuban. Well, I, to this day, don't understand, you know, Mark Cuban, who's one of the most forward thinkers in the league for the last 20 years, how he was, how, how is his viewpoint of that was so wild. Brian also said he's a small owner, Mark's probably like six feet tall, so I've got to be. Anyway.

But like, so that's one thing, is it, is it, this is now a, it's a significant share of the team, you know, 18% of the lakeers is a ton of money. And divided by six is like 330 some odd million of peace. Right, okay. Secondly, Adam Streisand, her attorney, is an excellent attorney. I do not want to go ever go against him in the court of law. He has successfully argued for Jeannie in the past and his interpretation of their family trust, which he is obviously an expert in, has delivered a winning argument.

Okay, and his interpretation of this, and I'm not going to get into the chapter in verse of it because I'm not an expert, but his interpretation of this might end up being correct in front of a judge and they may win.

But here's what I know, okay, actions over words.

What I know is this, when it came time to sell the lakeers to Mark Walters group, it wasn't Jeannie bus who made the decision. She had to get a vote. Okay. And here's time to sell it again. It's not going to, well, I'm not going to, I'm not going to, I'm not going to, I'm not going to, I'm not going to, I'm not going to, I'm not going to, I'm not going to. It's pretty tough numbers.

Right, but last year, she made this maneuver with her brothers, which broke some of her family's hearts and ruined, but backster Holmes did a story about all this, that was excellent. I think back in January, February, but she had to have the votes a year ago to sell. Okay. If the vote was needed a year ago to sell, why would the vote not be needed now? But I'm going to step out of that, of that minutia, and just say that this is a fight over 18% of the lakeers.

The other 70% percent, which is the control share, is going to move on. And even though Jeannie was the governor, Jeannie was not deciding, you know, whether the sign LeBron James or not. I mean, she may have been in the room, but that was being decided, you know, by Mark Walter.

“So, I think those are, you have any problem with what I just said, either of you, or you think I'm off?”

No, I'm, I, I, I, that all tracks. All right. The third slice of this is Mark Walter's personal situation, which doesn't really matter that much to the NBA anymore, because he's about to exit.

It's a very nice. But it is a problem act situation, as you look, and there's a whole bunch of, so he was, he has been under investigation for almost a year. And it became public that he was under investigation about six, six weeks ago, maybe eight, I'm not sure, sometime this summer. Yeah. And once that happened, a whole bunch of media and also like people who have their own, you know, just like in basketball was a bunch of people like us who are reporters who have, you know, who do video podcasts or whatever, or people on sub stack, all those people descended onto all the legal filings of all of Mark Walter's insurance companies.

And every day, there is more and more stuff coming out about the financial engineering that is going on.

“I remember, when I was, when I was a teenager, my dad was a middle manager at a really big company, and I had a friend who went to the Ivy League, went to a Ivy League school.”

And when I was like 19 or 20 years old, I came home and my friend came and my dad was sitting there and he goes, "Hey, what are you studying there?" And he goes, "I'm studying financial engineering." This was in 1998, okay? Something financial engineering. Oh, okay, cool. And he leaves my dad goes, you know, my dad was, you know, in his mid 40s, you know, and he's like financial engineering.

You, if you spent any time reading about Mark Walter's stuff, this is just one giant piece of financial engineering. But I do have, or some might call it a shelter. Some might call it a shelter game, right? Yeah, okay. But it's financial engineering. That's a nice way to put it. All right, so here's my story time, brought to you by SoFi, get your money right. Where are the two of us from Athens? And where are we going to get back to Routeros?

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When the Walter Cale closed last year, was it earlier this year? One day, it actually closed. It was October of 2025. Okay, so I started talking and writing about how Abu Dhabi, Muda Bala, which is the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi.

You guys know I've been Dhabi a number of times, the delperation ships and some of their government offices, and have written and reported a lot

“about their investments in American sports and the NBA.”

Abu Dhabi had given $10 billion, committed $10 billion to Mark Walters fund,

which was called TWC Global. TWG Global, I'm sorry. And not only that, but like Abu Dhabi, as you can imagine, being, you know, and now they're in the middle of dealing with the conflict with Middle East, which is their whole situation has changed.

But when they make an investment in something, they, you know, they often set the terms because of how much money they have. And they did something when they made their partnership with Mark Walters, that was very unusual. They were investing $10 billion in Mark Walters company, and they were allowing Mark Walters to in return by a percentage of their sovereign wealth fund.

This had only happened one other time.

“But the point of all of that is that they believed so much in him that this,”

you know, super elite financial operation said not only do we want to invest in you, we want you to be our partner in our operation. So just a year ago, or a year and a half ago, the respect level that Mark Walters had was immense. But here's the story that comes to this one I'm going to tell.

I was talking about this investment that Abu Dhabi made in Mark Walters fund, and then Mark Walters fund then buying the latest. And I got a call from someone attached to Mark Walters. And they said, "Please stop connecting Abu Dhabi with Mark Walters purchase of the Lakers." And I said, "Why?"

Abu Dhabi gave $10 billion.

And then a couple of months later that same fund, TWG, bought the Lakers. As probably coincidence, like ball, we're giving all that money down there. So pay listen, if I'm wrong, I want to be correct, you know, I said, "Why?" And this person said, "Because Mark Walters bought the Lakers with his own money." And I said, "Okay."

I said, "Please don't take offense to this." Because, you know, it was bought for a $10 billion valuation. But it wasn't really actually $10 billion. First off, he and his group-- 75% versus--

Right, not even that. Because he and his group already owned 27%. That's right. They were buying about 50%.

So they needed, like, $5 to $6 billion.

Did Mark Walters personally have $6 billion?

Because I knew that he ran an insurance company that had billions under management. But that doesn't mean, you know, you have the money yourself. And I kind of got laughed at, yes, of absolutely, of course. And so I was just saying, like, the common sense is, Where did that-- I was just like, "Well, so by the way, I stopped saying it."

I was like, "Okay, if I was wrong, I won't even know it was public information that Abu Dhabi invested." And then when the Lakers sale was announced publicly, it said, "TWG." It was like, "Right there." I was like, "All right."

Okay, I won't connect to many more. But I didn't understand how he would have that kind of money. If he already owned the Dodgers and he already owned Chelsea and he already owned the sparks, and he already had this, he would also have that much money. It just didn't make sense to me.

And so anyway, I would just say that this whole thing is one giant, is one giant financial quagmire.

“Right, have you called that guy back in the last two weeks?”

I would be relishing that phone call. Hey, let's talk about that. I'm not sure. I still am not sure what's true. I just know that, like, I know that what Warren Buffett says.

By the way, Warren Buffett has bought and invested in a lot of insurance companies. And he would say that insurance is profitable, but it's not the kind of profitable that would allow you to be buying all these sports teams. But I know nothing this true. As soon as they can get Mark Walter and Jeannie Bus,

they're hell out of the building, the better. Well, anyway, the lesson here, though. Sorry, I don't hope I'm not stepping on your final point. Your grand finale, Brian. But the lesson here is that the league needs to do a better job of letting

all of these major partners that are coming into it. Whether that be a team sponsorship from aspiration with the clippers, whether that be the board of governors voting on Mark Walter's acquisition of the prize franchise, the crown jewel of your league. Because, hey, guess what?

The Wall Street Journal reported that in September of last year, 2025, Mark Walter had devices seized from him as part of the Fed's investigation. In October, the NBA board of governors said, "Yup, put the red stamp on it. He's new to Lake New Lake or his owner."

“I think the NBA needs more resources in their vetting process.”

But I may just say this. Let me just say this. Abu Dhabi doesn't mess around. And Abu Dhabi invested with him and they didn't know. Yeah.

Well, I believe so. And here's the other thing I'm going to say. Here's the other thing I'm going to say. Again, assume this is reported by the Wall Street Journal. I assume this is correct.

They didn't find out about this. You know, potential, you know, financial engineering issues. Because like, they did it with an investigation. It was a whistleblower. Somebody came to them and said, "Hey, this is going on."

So like, I think there's only so much the NBA can do. What Mark Walter did was he said,

"Here's my account with six billion dollars in it.

There it is right there." And the NBA is like, "Is this actual money from six billion dollars?" Yes. And the NBA is like, "Okay, he's got the money. He's also owns the Dodgers and owns Chelsea."

Which means, usually baseball approved him. And, you know, they're approved with the soccer, you know, national soccer bodies. And he's got the money. And Abu Dhabi invested with him.

Like, you know, some of this becomes self-propetuate. And by the way, he might not have done anything illegal. This may just be risky. He's being investigated or doing something illegal. But I think the point is this.

If you see something that doesn't quite make sense, you know, and this is again, what Warren Buffett says. If you see something that you don't understand, just stay away from it. Even if something anybody else is making money on it or whatever,

if you don't understand, you don't understand. I didn't understand how Mark Walter had the money to personally buy the lakers. It didn't make sense to me. I didn't have the of Sapena Power or the, you know,

financial engineering doctorate from Princeton to totally understand if it was going on. But it didn't make sense to me that he had the money personally to buy the lakers. It didn't make sense to me.

So, make of that what you will.

“If you want to call me an adequate, that's fine.”

But wouldn't be the first.

But Dave, so the crazy thing here is is that the lakers were in the middle of this makeover for their team. The entire business operation has been turned over. You know, there are people.

You know, I know of one guy who was a front office guy, who was in the middle of leaving one team to go to the lakers. And now of said they're in a hiring freeze.

You know? It's cool. I don't know. These are the questions.

“And obviously the on-court product is relatively locked in.”

Obviously we talked about Kamega who knows if that happens.

But they have the 16 guys on the roster. The teams must have got to look like what's going to look like for next season. But when you are trying to contend and trying to add an 18th banner, you're going to have to win around the margins.

And part of their intention going to this off season was to use Mark Walters resources and put it towards other ways that they can enhance the program. And you know, they Rob Polinka stated he wanted to hire two assistant general managers.

He was only able to bring in one. The other spot remains vacant. As you just said, the hiring freeze. We're going to see if I haven't been in the lakers practice silty in months and know they just unveiled new practice

courts that they showed on social media.

But part of the idea of the gling team moving to Palm Desert

“was to use the space that the gling team occupied and turn it into”

advanced training equipment and medical equipment that the players could use on a daily basis. I don't know where that stands. These are the type of things that while we wait for the sale to be completed with the auger and Krister could be put on pause.

And you know, when you're a local touch, and you made the NBA finals with the Mavericks and now it's two straight years without getting back to that that perch and wanting to have every available advantage at your fingertips to try to get back there when you have someone like Shane Gulers out of the end

or who's now left you with the championship and two league MVP's. We'll see how patient he's going to be with this process. And look, just like Joker can profess his loyalty to the nuggets. There's still going to be teams that are positioned themselves and monitoring that and all that kind of thing.

It's the same thing with Luca. He's done nothing but express optimism and excitement about the lake or since he signed that extension.

“But it's not that long term of an extension and you better believe”

there's teams randomly that are looking at that situation saying, Hey, if this thing goes sideways, we'd sure like to get Luke in it midway through his prime. Well, we'll say this. And if you're Luca betting on the brand is pretty safe,

which is why the lake is sold for even more money this old four a year ago. And chances are if they sold it again in the year, they'd sell for even more because you're betting on the brand. Well, and the brand is so strong that despite pretty

cost and mismasment through Genie Bus is rain, they've managed to win a championship because the brand so strong that LeBron James decided he'd want to come there. And 84's to trade there. Like, you know, there's advantages to being the most glamorous

franchise in basketball, located in sunny Southern California. One thing Dave, you had a story that came out this week because you bet you'd tag along right. So the concept of the reason you'd have a tag along right would be if you're a minority owner of a team

on the team control sales sales, you would, you want to be able to have the right to sell your shares at the same time because, you know, if you're buying a controlling piece of a team, you're going to pay more for it. If you're buying a piece of a team that only doesn't give you control

at all, you're probably going to pay less. You know, if the lakeers controlling share

or sold for a 12 billion dollar valuation,

and you know, the bus fail may keep 13% and they sell in a year, you know, that would be very valuable. But I don't think they could get 12 billion. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think they could get the whole reason to have a tag along right is so that you can, if you're a minority owner,

it gives you an off ramp to join the highest sale possible. So that's one of the reasons why the bus family other than just to nail Jeannie for, you know, for firing all of them. I was gonna say it's best if you're my naughty owner who

is fired and like keep down the building. Yeah, like one of the reasons you want to tag along right is ability to maximize your, your value for your share. I assume Patrick Schoenchong, who is, who is the lakeers, minority shareholder, who you wrote a story about this week,

had tag along rights, but he's, you, he's passing. You wrote about that this week. Yeah, he's passing. And it's significant one in just the sense of understanding what the entire scope of the ownership

will look like whenever the Iger and Kushner sale is ratified by the Board of Governors, but it is also significant because the athletic is reporting that if Jeannie bus loses her legal battle and all of her siblings are free to sell their shares off.

And she's left with just under three percent. The athletic's reporting that she is interested in

hold 15 percent is what the requirement to be the acting

“governor, which was her intention to do it for five years”

at a minimum at time of the Walter sale. So we've already ticked off one of those five years. Well, guess what? That's four percent. That is unavailable to our Patrick.

Soon, she augs not selling. And Rossky Jr. has three percent out there. And then everything that's left will be under Iger and Kushner's jurisdiction. And I don't really see the motivation for them to sell back

12 percent to Jeannie bus.

“Well, I mean, in theory if she had a better relationship with her siblings,”

she could buy them out. Sure. Three of them had a job a year ago. And now they don't because double the price. So think about it.

Yeah. All right. Well, that's a lot of financial engineering

for a basketball podcast.

So on that note. Thank you very much, Jason. Your friend must be pretty damn smart. It's he's the one out of the YouTube. I really like school.

“I feel like you could, you could've said,”

not really. Wow, whatever. What an incredible. We see trying to like butter me up for something. I want to come here. I want to Kent State University,

which is the Harvard of Portage County, Ohio. There we go. Yeah. All right. Thank you so much, Dave. Thank you very much, McMahon.

Thank you to our producers, Tucker, and Jackson, of course, is back with us after he went to another wedding over the weekend. All this guy does is going to weddings. It's where to go. I knew he had so many friends.

Seriously. All right. Thank you for listening and watching the Who Collective. We'll talk to you next week. Harry, it's me, girls.

Where are the two of us from Athens? And where do we meet again? Of course, we meet in Europe. We meet with the greatest challenges. A lot of thousands of friends were waiting for you

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