Coaches Frustrated With SGA + Mark Cuban’s Biggest Regret In Dallas + LeBron’s Future

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Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up then start streaming in the ESPN app. So all of ESPN all in one place sign up for activate now. Hello, welcome to Collective Podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing on Tuesday afternoon, joining us from New York City Tim Bottoms. Hi, everybody. By the way, I'm wearing a U-Bat hoodie, a guy Ryan Rucco, sent it over. We do, we know where it's established on the pod that we like free merch. So, there it is, free merch from our guy Ryan Rucco.

“I have not gotten mine yet. He prioritized bond temps, I think. That's right, as you should. Ryan Rucco calls games for the NBA and WMBA and college college too, right?”

Yeah, he's a voice of all women's basketball. Women's basketball, theficionado for ESPN edition was NBA duties and netstudies. His trademark is when a shot goes down, he goes, you bet. You bet. But my preference is when he's considering a U-Bat when the player misses, he just goes, no. Bottoms for three? No.

Jordi has some Dallas Texas just back from Oklahoma City where he had a lovely little two-game road trip. His band, McMahon.

That's what I thought was an off-the-recorded luncheon. There was an on-the-recorded portion at the end of this clarifier that G-Wiz cute when it said something publicly recently. That's news. All right, we'll get to that. Okay, I would like to ask for something. I asked for so little. That's not true.

This could be grandest should be easily granted. We're going to have a grown-up conversation now. And that grown-up conversation is going to be about Chagildo Selixander and Fowls. And because you just experienced this for the last 48 hours, McMahon, the thunder are going to play many, many big games over the next two months, and all likelihood.

And I would like to have a conversation about what we are going to see and what's going on. And I would like to invite you wherever it's side you are on this discussion to step out of your feelings and your assumptions. And let's have a discussion as adults who watch professional basketball at a reasonably into level of intellect as you would be if you listen to this podcast. Can we all agree? You know, McMahon's on the pod, right?

Hey, hey, I'm not, I'm not live tweeting my thoughts on calls during games. I will say that McMahon, I liked the questions that you asked to mark Dagon Mountain Shade after the game against the pistons, where you invited them to make an MVP case. Oh, they, I think they liked them too because they liked, oh, you know, those Oki folks, they liked those high roads. They liked those high roads, baby.

All right, we're going to be adults. Which is an Oklahoma city.

There's no silver, this is one, you know, Sam Presty has like five amazing quotes.

Like, you know, I'm not being facetious, like, they're awesome.

“And I'm never forget that one, like, three years ago.”

There's no silver platters at Oklahoma. Which, you know, I get what he's saying. There are silver platters at Oklahoma. That's what they serve when they serve McMahon at the go. They bring it, they bring it, they bring his IPA on a silver platter. No IPAs.

All right, well, I don't know what you drink, whatever you drink. They water. All right, anyway, Mike Brown with the Nix and J.B. Bickerson. Although, McMahon, Bickerson staff didn't really, he kind of took a little bit of the high road. He didn't really go in on the rough.

“I mean, honestly, Mike Brown and J.B. Bickerson staff, both of their comments were very similar.”

Also, both of their interactions with the officials were very similar, which I had a front row seat. And both of these games sitting in the score table right behind the visiting coach and, you know, doing my best to ease drop on some of those conversations. But they both credited J for essentially being a master foul bader. And, you know, they, they, I think they both said, hey, it's something along lines of it's a skill.

He's operating within the rules.

I think they both might use words if he's, you know, something along lines of he's mastered how to manipulate the rules. Nobody is accusing Shay of doing anything unethical to use a, a word that, you know, has been bounced around. That is a grown up, I, I like here next.

“I didn't see all of J.B.'s comments, but I like hearing that because that's what I am encouraging the basketball community writ large to do is act like a grown up.”

And listen, neither of them were thrilled with the whistle just to be clear. Shay shot more free throws in the opposing teams in both of those games, both okay. So he wins. J.B. at one point is young, it's got foster. He's allowed to miss too.

You know, there were, like, there were times where he was saying, hey, he's driving the basket like anybody else that's marginal contact for anybody else.

You're sitting in the line. You know, so that, there was that argument. And then one thing that opposing coaches really do harp on with the rats with Shay, is the arm bar, the push-off, the stiff form sometimes. So if you want to call it, which J.B. lobbied and lobbied and lobbied and they blew the whistle on that,

on what would have been a go ahead shot with four seconds remaining regulation. And as J.B. about that after the game is like, yeah, they made the right call. Yes, it was not an arm bar in that particular case. It was not an arm bar. He, that was a push-off.

It is perfectly legal, and it is a skill to be a physical offensive player who uses your shoulder to create space. Shay's a master at that. Lucas, outstanding at that.

You know, basically, every guard who's able to score in the paint and in the mid-range excels at that.

I think Shay's as good as there is. Now, that's the shoulder. Not, the difference is when you get that arm extended, then that should be an offense foul. Shay usually does a good job of not extending the arm. He got away with it in the biggest shot in the NBA finals.

You know, games will work the end there when they needed that bucket to avoid going down three one in the finals. You didn't get away with it on that one. He didn't get away with it with four seconds left in regulation. Right, okay, so bond-tumps. This is what I'm saying. The, which Shay does, especially at the end of games. Okay, when he comes in with about six, six minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the thunder need baskets.

“They go to him at the top of the key, and sometimes they run pick and roll.”

Sometimes they run straight isolation, but Shay goes to this move. He goes with the whole game, but it's particularly late in the game. So, as we go into the playoffs, this is what's going to happen. He can, he can do it with either arm, but he particularly is good at it. I've seen with his left arm. The hand is in a fist.

The arm is parallel to the court, and he, and he uses it to, to change speed on his opponent. In a lot of ways, it's sometimes to accelerate, sometimes it's, just to create space. And we can debate about whether this should be called an offensive foul. It's something that may be debated whether it should be called an offensive foul in the future. But I'm telling you, they did not call this as an offensive foul in October.

They did not call as an offensive foul in December. They're not calling it in March, and they're probably not going to call it in May and June. Okay, and many other players know this and use the same move. It is routine in the NBA for a guy to use that arm bar to create separation. And in a lot of cases to change speed.

What I mean by changing speed is that they can sometimes use that to accelerate. A player can drive into somebody, use the arm bar, he can slow down. And the player he's defending can keep going. And that's how space is created. And when that happens, it really looks like a pushoff.

But sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's literally just him using it as a brace that he can slow down with it. Bontemps. This is regardless of whether you want to believe it is a foul. Not you, Bontemps, but the royal you, they're not going to call it.

“Okay, can we all understand they're not going to call it?”

If the arm's not extended. It's arms not extended, and the hand is not being used, right? Because on the play for the foul, he was using the hand. And the case of Michael Jordan, the famous where he moved, moved rust a lot of the way, which is cemented in the jazz Wi-Fi, isn't it?

McMahon? Yeah. The Wi-Fi at the media center at the gym. I've been there for a while, but it was, it was the most there, yes. Jordan pushed off, isn't that what he did?

Something like that. Yeah. Anyway, Bontemps, like, has any, you have any problem with anything I've said so far?

I don't. Okay.

Well, not just personally, like professionally.

No, I don't, yeah, I don't, I don't disagree with anything you said. No, okay. And by the way, Luca fans don't want that called. Jason Tatum. Jalen Bronson.

Kauai Leonard. Yeah. This is her. But Johnson and Kupo. All these guys operate the same move.

I asked my name a cuchin about it in October at the officials meeting. And he, you know, disagree.

“I mean, I said, I think this is a huge problem and something that the lead should look at.”

And he didn't think it was something they really should have as part of their points of emphasis this year. I'll be curious if they do next year. Yeah, I mean, it's not like it's only Shay that does it by a long shot. And I don't know, I just really enjoyed Shay coming in and getting to his spots and not hitting the rim on any of those jumpers. Like yeah, he got found some.

He also came in and immediately banked three shots in a row and got exactly where he wanted to. And instantly erased a seven point deficit almost by himself, which, you know, is why he, as one of title and might win another and it has an MVP and might win another. But the kid coming in, by the way, who was hurt last night also does the same thing. Like all the great players have figured out this is a way to create more space and more room to operate on offense.

And, you know, the lead has in general shifted towards a more physical style. The past couple of years, it's why we've talked a lot about these small guards, you know, the tray young to Jon Moran, so the world having more issues in in the past because more physical play is allowed. And what's the, the through line of all these guys we're talking about? I mean, jail of grunts and it's not tall.

The rest of these guys are all tall. And all these guys play with physical force and they all know the rules inside and out. They all know exactly how to manipulate the rules inside and out. And it's why they're all wildly successful players. And it's why both to your point, Brian, this is a topic we'll be talking about a lot in the playoffs.

And it's why they all use this move because it's super effective. It's not, it's certainly not one guy that's figured out. Well, and, and the way my brown put it, and again, bigger stats comments were pretty similar. It was she is the best and league in terms of games and chip. And I said, what makes them the best there?

He said his body controls amazing.

Not only that, he knows window attack, how to attack, and who to attack. Then he still has the awareness of where everybody is in the floor. And when he goes into a shot, he does a fantastic job of contorting his body. And if he feels any contact at all, he knows how to twitch his body or whatever. It's just the gamesmanship to get the call.

That's exactly right. And so you can say that you don't like that a player does that. That's totally fine. You can say that you don't think that player should be rewarded. That's an opinion that's totally fine.

But I'm telling you that most of the time, of course, not all of the time. But most of the time, they are fouls. And if they're not, then you're going to see opposing coaches use their challenges. Right. But I'm just saying, like, people go crazy, and most of the time when you watch the replays, they're fouls.

“Well, and here's the thing, you know, I've asked Shae about this.”

He kind of shrugs and says, that's a conversation that's out of my control. Like, I'm not worried about it. And he'll tell you the players that I grew up watching and loving and studying were great at getting to the foul line. You know, Michael Jordan was great at getting to the foul line. The best scores over the history of the league have all been great.

Again, to the foul line. And, you know, this foul merger, Frita Merchant has become like an insulting time. It's like, well, you want to guy who's great at avoiding getting foul. What the hell, since does that make? Well, he's also a hit clutch 18 footer in the fourth quarter of Merchant.

Well, and we do have the holidays back to coming up later. Okay. Not even at the end of the month.

Oh, my god, this is amazing.

And the other thing is, yeah, you remember this time. And the other thing is, too, if they change the rules, this summer, and say, hey, we're going to get rid of this arm bar. You know what? Chey and Jason Tatum, and Kate Cunningham, and look at that. Chitch and Victor M. Yama and all these guys.

Well, I'll figure out other ways to get to the foul line. And we'll still get fouls. And we'll still get free throws because they're all really smart. They know the rules inside now. And they know how to manipulate the rules.

Just like to go back to the other day when we were talking about the tanking stuff. Once there's no tanking rules in place, whatever they are, yes, what? All the teams will sit there and they will figure out if there's a way to manipulate them and how. So if they get in a situation where they can, they will.

“Because that's what people do when the rules are set up.”

They find ways to figure out how to use the rules of their advantage. This is what happens everywhere, not just in basketball, not just on the court. And it's what's going to happen with this. And like, some of the conversation around Chey, I just find to be very strange. Because I love watching the guy play.

Like the final five six minutes that game in regulation was a masterclass. Like he comes in, he's immediately banging all these shots. He doesn't hit the rim. It makes a great play to hit Jalen Williams. Who, by the way, is a really, really underrated good player.

Sometimes doesn't play.

Arkansas, Jalen Williams.

Arkansas, Jalen Williams. Sometimes he doesn't play. Sometimes will play 28 minutes and score 25 points. You know, like makes a ton of big plays for him. And he just figures out a way to win all these games.

And knows exactly the right play to make all the time. It's, it's awesome to watch. It's funny because there's been a lot of, a lot of wine and then cry in from, I would say a lot from casual fans, frankly, about all they do in the NBA, shoot threes, wow, wow, wow.

If you love the mid-range game,

“you should have the thunder and league pass watching Chey every single night.”

He is one of the best mid-range shooters in the history of the game. The guy shouldn't 55% in the floor. And a large percentage of his shot diet are all dribble mid-range jump shots. I know that this little public service we just tried to perform will fail miserably. It'll be popular in San Antonio.

I think they'll love it in Los Angeles. Well, I just, you know, I'm, these particular last two nights where I thought Chey was terrific. You know, I mean, do I prefer it like a couple weeks ago when he played the,

the warriors and did that like incredible escape dribble to his right and hit that three pointer.

What I prefer him to win games like that as opposed to winning games to the free throw line? Yes, I would prefer to do that. That was the, or the quote was, I have the answers. I just wait for the questions. That's where it's spawned.

No, that was a Denver game when it was a very similar shot. Oh, sorry. It was the next day. It a lot of jump shots in this game last night. Yes, that like they also hit that exact same shot.

It just got waved off for the game. That's right. Well, that's right. It wasn't the exact same. And that was a foul.

That was, I mean, actually, I give the referee ransom.

“I can't remember how you pronounce his first name.”

A thing is finisi. I give him credit for making that call. That took guts. I think that was the correct call. It was called from another offense foul earlier in the game.

It was a hook, Scott Foster called it. And I was able to hear very clearly what JB said on that one. He said, at least somebody has some bleak and courage. Well, shade does he, I will say this. He does get fouled, but he also is known to hook.

He will get in there and do the hand fighting and he'll hook. And you know, if he took, they should call again. So will every single other great offensive player in the league. I agree. It's not just like a one person thing.

Right. But you know that we're going to have a bunch of games in this playoffs come down to these moments. Of course. But that will be the case. Whether it's the, if the lakers and spurs are playing, it'll be the same thing.

Like it, all the great players do, all the same things. It's just, it is what it is. The luka leads league and free throws in the officiating of luka also tends to dominate the conversation. But it's about how much he gets screwed by the rest. What's the over, yeah?

“What's the over under on when luka gets his 17th technical?”

Will it be against the calves tonight? The recording is before the game. Like we said, it's a freebie man. Like go all out. I suspect they'll get attack against the cast.

But that's just a guess. We'll see if I'm right tomorrow. More who collect it podcast after this. But what do you still want to do today? You don't want to get a whole bunch of students.

The master by Drac Laptop is a soft indie internet. It's a master's. I'm really sorry. You can say, you can say the rules. You're the master of the game, right?

But you don't want to do it. You're the master of the game. You make the game just like this. And if you work then you can do it. Do it.

That's right. Save. Like this. You get the rules. Now post it.

Let's try it. Okay. So I didn't really think that this was news. But ended up as a headline written by you on our website. Ben McMahon.

I wasn't thrilled about that. But it's a story. People are talking about going on. Okay. Well, you talk.

There's a story about Mark Cuban that you wrote on our website. It's on the front page of ESPN.com.

Which probably means it will get one million plus views.

So what? What was this story? Yeah. And there was this podcast clip. And I'd be also going to look up with the exact podcast was it's not a sports podcast.

I don't believe anyways. And so there's a clip that came out yesterday at some point during the day. Or Cubans. The quote that has gotten the most attention is when Cubans says. I don't regret selling the team.

I regret selling the team to those people. And I mean, I don't regret selling a regret who I sold to. I made a lot of mistakes in the process and I'll leave it at that. This was on the intersections podcast. That clip came out yesterday podcast published today.

Cubans said that to me many, many times.

“And I've always said, Mark, if you want to talk about that on the record, I'll write it.”

But if you want to like complain about it off the record and like do, that's your problem. And he decided to say it on the record. He didn't give it to me. Now, I might have had some different follow-up questions. Perhaps that this has something to do with the might be right about that.

The platform that he chose. And so okay. And listen, and then this comes on the heels of this story that Mark Stein had. I don't remember exactly when it was. Was it brown, false, star break, I believe. So anyways, I don't remember the last month sometime.

Where it's like Cuban and this group of mystery investors are trying to put together a plan to buy back the Mavericks. And then Cuban shot that story down to the Dow's Morning News a couple of days later. And listen, I don't like getting into the business of guessing who one of our colleagues are one of our, uh, peers, sources are, you know, what they're sourcing is. But I can just tell you, people close to Patrick DeBont, the governor of the Mavericks,

are pretty sure that Mark Cuban leaked the story in the first place.

So it was put to me. They said Mark Cuban is, uh, one hell of an arsonist and a firefighter. And so like look, Cuban sold the team. And now he's saying he sold it because there was, you know, that the emotion. She's given like five or six answers on this.

I'm not sure that any of them are credible. The emotional stress. They didn't want to pass down as kids. Well, he has said that before. He said that before.

The reason Mark Cuban sold the team. And as he said, on the record, the day the sale went through is because as a mere middle class billionaire. No, I'll put those words and quotes as a mere middle class billionaire. He could not afford to fund and then be a contender. The Mavericks hadn't paid the luxury tax since they want a championship.

You know, Jonathan Brunson got away in part because the Mavericks weren't completely cheap. Cuban wasn't completely cheap though, also because they drastically misvaluated him. And so, but then, you know, there was this Cuban was adamant that he was going to control basketball operations. He's still adamant that was part of the, wasn't writing. It wasn't in any of the language that, you know, it's been suggested me was pulled out that what I saw.

The language that was supposed to remove from contract just said he was allowed to have a seat in the room. Now, don't Cubans mind to see in the room, well, why wouldn't I be in charge on the smartest guy in here. But that's up. You can just have a seat in the room on this podcast. Exactly.

That's not the way these things work. But my point is this. Look, things have blown up since Cubans sold the team. Patrick Dumont drastically screwed up by letting Nico Harrison and Cubans now saying. And Jason Kidd, by the way.

Tray Luca Donchich. Okay. And Dumont has to wear that. He has to own that. He had to, you know, he's still in the process of trying to clean that up.

But here's deal.

“How did Nico Harrison get in that position in the first place?”

Did Patrick Dumont hired? Was that Patrick Dumont's guy? Or who hired him? Do you ever remember? I believe Mark Cuban hired him.

Oh, that's right. How did he get those titles? Who gave him those? I believe Mark Cuban gave him those. Damn, that's right.

That's weird.

And Cubans said, yeah, but I've never meant for him to have autonomy.

I never meant for him to actually do the job. Those, I was going to do them. He was just, I just wanted his relationships. You created the situation, a blooper face. Like we're supposed to play violence and listen, you cry.

Can you break? Well, he also, was this the same podcast where he also said that, you know, again, something that's been interesting that Jason kid was involved in the Luca trade. And listen, we, I have reported that Jay kid was absolutely frustrated with Luca Donchich. I cannot sit here and tell you straight up that I know for a fact that Jay kid was part of pushing Luca out the door. I damn sure, suspected.

I have written as much. I have said as much. I can't tell you that for a fact. I don't know that Mark, because Mark was very, very intentionally completely boxed out of the decision-making process. But my belief there is he is probably right.

You know, and why is he airing that now? Yeah.

“Do you think this will help with his intent to buy back the shares for the team?”

He knows he's not buying it back. It's going to go the other way. Addison to month families can buy 20% more of Cuban share, get him down to 7%. That's going to happen. So what? Cubans frustrated because he thought he was going to get back in at least the room in terms of basketball decision-making.

And do month kind of said, you know, like, he didn't want to listen to him as far as, like, the lobbying to fire Nico.

And then Cuban realized, damn, I'm really not going to have any say.

Like, they really don't want to hear what adversarial Cuban's mad. He feels like he got his toy taken away. Yeah, Cuban's having a temperature. And I don't really care what Mark Cuban has to say. I just really don't.

But no disrespect to Mark Cuban. He had a great 20 year run on the maps and won a title. And, you know, it's become a hugely famous and successful business band. And like, that's all great. But he doesn't know the map of anymore.

I don't care about his thoughts on any of these things. And why, why doesn't he own the map of anymore? Because he sold them. He sold them to somebody else. He made the decision to sell them.

That's right. He sold us these, he sold the team. I don't care what he has to say about the Mavericks. I don't really care about any of these things. I don't really need to hear more rehashing of the Luca Dodges trade.

It's now in the rearview mirror.

It doesn't matter anymore.

Like, what's done is done.

“And what matters now is what the Mavericks do to have a front office to lead them going forward.”

Whether they keep the current crew or they go higher. Somebody knew to do that. Was anything said about that today? Make a man. So, yeah, this lunch.

It's Rick Welts and Ethan Kasem who, you know, I forget the exact titles. But like the two-top business side executives, Rick Welts, Hall Famer. Basically, he was the CEO.

I think he's still the CEO. Getting the arena done. It's his primary thing. And Ethan's, I think he is the president now. Came over from Minnesota tomorrow.

Anyways, it's like a little informal thing. And then there's an on record session. And Ethan's up there. Poor guy has been there like seven months.

Never worked for Cuba and now whatever.

And they're like kind of saying, "Oh, that's a great partnership between Cuba and Obama, blah, blah, blah." And it was like, "Do you see what Fox 4 is?" Basically, I said, "Well, how does that square was Cuba's comments?" I said, "They don't regret selling the team,

but it regrets who he sold them to." And poor Ethan. It was like some of these politicians these days when things were going viral. Oh, I hadn't seen that. Didn't cross my desk.

I got admitted. I burst it out. I burst out laughing at that one. Well, I just didn't know if they had updated on the timing for maybe hiring or placement the bottoms are for it, too.

Oh, I'm sorry. I was, those know, because those those guys are not. Those guys are not going to be making that decision. So what they are saying, what people are saying, pretty critical draft need a guy in place for the draft process.

Not just the draft pick. And the off-season and for each see and deciding what to do with careerving and the rest of the roster. They got a ton of decisions to make across the board. It's a hugely important summer.

They got a nail to draft pick wherever it lands. They got to figure all this stuff out. And that's what matters. Like, the Lucas Austria doesn't matter anymore. They got Cooper flagged.

They're going to get another high pick.

“Like, you know, that's what matters is what they do go and forward.”

So I don't really need to hear Mark Cuban rehashing this stuff. And I don't really need to hear anything from their human at all, because he's not the one deciding who's going to be running the team. That's what matters. Speaking of the trade, I thought that was funny.

Ruby Hutchomer of the wizards were in LA on Monday. And he said, I forgot the FD. They was playing for the wizards. He's like, I was supposed to have looked down there. I saw an AD down there.

I was like, well, he hasn't played for him yet. Well, he hasn't played yet. By the way, what I got distracted and tuned out bond tips, which also is just kind of a natural reaction. I was replying to a text from a former Mavic staffer, I'll just say.

And the question was, what does Cuban trying to do? Stay relevant. All right, we now joined by ESPN's LA-based reporter, Dave McManamin. Hello, Dave. How are you? Thanks for joining us. I'm doing well. Happy to join you both.

Hey, before we talk about the story that you and bond tips published on Tuesday, I want to talk about what happened at the Laker Game the other night. I heard about this. So, all right, I know nothing about collectibles. I know nothing.

All right, Matt 10 does, though. Yeah, well, he does. He's like, my go-to guy. I know. That's what I mean. He does.

“So, I'm staying at some beats a second hour before the game,”

and I'm standing on the court. And I was actually talking with Rob Polinka. And this guy comes up to me. He's got court side seats, and he's like, hey, check out this card. He shows me this card.

And it's a LeBron James rookie card, apparently. Actually, Dave, I don't want to be. So anyway, he showed me two cards. One of them was a Kobe card. One of them was a LeBron card.

I assume this is going to be a window card story. Window, windows trading card. No, no, no. Hi, value. Hi, value. And so he tells me what these cards are worth.

I was gobsmacked. I walked into the media room, and I saw Dave. I told Dave, and he's like, I got to see these things. We go back out. All right, Dave, what did this guy have?

Because I don't know what I was talking about. Okay, so it's an upper deck, exquisite. There's a high end product.

Back then, a box of that product probably cost anywhere from two grand to five grand. Oh, wow, okay.

And the idea is like, every, wait a second.

When you bought it at the time, I didn't buy this. The problem at the time. No, no, no, no. I'm asking.

“Went so in 2003, that box cost $2,000 to $5,000 for how many cards?”

I don't know, not many cards, maybe 50 cards. So the idea is only, slowly. There's this super high end product that exists. And it rounds around the time when it first became a thing where every single card in the box, you pull is either numbered or has an autograph or has a relic,

which would be like a piece of a sneaker, a piece of a jersey, et cetera, et cetera. And this one had a piece of a jersey, right? This one had a piece of a jersey, right? This one had a piece of a jersey. So this was a LeBron James RPA.

So rookie, rookie card. P is patch and the A auto. So LeBron James RPA. Number to 99. PSA 10 graded.

A perfect card. With autographed, right? Autographed. That's the A for the autograph. Yeah.

“And so only about 60 or so of the 99 have showed up”

in the 23 years since that product came out. And it's kind of his most desirable rookie card. And this guy's holding in his inside pocket and sitting in court side. It took a great photo on Instagram where he's holding up the card. And you see LeBron James behind it behind the card on the court still playing.

So he told me this gentleman, I have no idea what's true. I mean, he's very nice guy. He told me he paid 600,000 for it.

Yeah, that's it. That's about right. There's one on eBay currently going for a million dollars.

I'm sorry, Bond Temps. We went on on about trading cards. Oh, it's fine. This is one of these very favorite subjects. Yeah, it's not really. It's like a very, very, very side hobby. But it's one of the other subjects as you do. Anyway, I didn't know, he knew all about this quiz at thing.

I couldn't relate to this. I still can't get over that it cost $2 to $5,000 for a pack of 50 cards.

“20, 20 years ago. How about this guy just walking around with $800,000 with the cards on?”

That's the one. I mean, that's a choice. It's sweep in the nation though. It's very popular again. Yeah, I was with the pelicans sweeping the nation. As with the pelicans staff a couple weeks ago, they were going to the shop and Beverly Hills by their hotel. Jake LaRavia, every city we go to, he's finding a card shop.

Do you think Jake LaRavia has any exquisite cards? One, one. Yeah. I would just say this was front row mid court at the Laker game. So there probably was a bunch of people who had stuff on them that were worth a million dollars. It's not invaluable. More who collected podcast after this?

All right. Sorry. Tim's and McMahon admin had a story that ran on Tuesday. What is next for LeBronjays? Basically looking into where he could be next year when he for the first time since 2018 will be an understricted free agent. And this was the first time in his career. He's been playing where he doesn't have an option on the contract.

He's always had a player option on this contract.

I guess they had his team option. Sorry. Story time. When the Bron was a rookie, you know, back then you signed a four year contract. And the fourth year was a team option. Now in the contracts year three and year four are team options. But back then year three was a team option or year four was a team option.

So I guess technically the he had a team option. Anyway, after his rookie season when he won rookie of the year, like at the exit interview, like Jim Pax and told me this story. As like sort of, hey, we are so happy with the way your rookie season. Why keep it up. They picked up his option for his fourth year.

So like, you know, so he was a rookie in three, four, five, five, six. So they picked up his 2006 seven contract option in like the spring of 2004. Like they're like, hey, LeBron here. Here's the piece of paper. Your contract option is picked up. Bon times you think it's possibly the earliest contract pick up in NBA history. Probably up there. I would think.

All right. Here we are again. I'm way down the story timeline. So Bon times this story. You guys put this together. Why don't you take us through you and Dave take us through this. I'll shut up for a little bit. Go ahead, Dave.

I mean, listen, Tim, we talked to people all the time and be a game. And whether it be coaching staff members, agents, scouts, whatever.

It comes up nightly if you're at a game, not just the Lakers game.

Just had a game around the league. And so Tim and I got to put together some of the conversations that we've had with these people and tried to put our best kind of sense of organizing that information to give readers a sense of where LeBron could be going and the factors that will determine that decision. And so right off the bat, he needs to determine who is going to play or not.

It seems like his intention is to play. He's got to decide how much money he wants to play for. And when he's going to make that decision whether he's going to play or not. Because if he waits too long, waits into August.

“I think a lot of teams will have their rosters already kind of settled.”

There might be less options for him then. And then Tim, how about you tell us some of the teams that people are talking about? Not David's hosting. Yeah, no, look, I think if you go back to the summertime. And when Rich Paul put out the, I don't know if it's fair to call it infamous statement.

But statement along with announcing that they were picking up the player option for this season. And since that moment forward, there's been discussion about where LeBron is going to play next year. And today's point about the timing.

This really is the first time, I don't know.

You would know this better than me, Brian. But probably since LeBron was in elementary school, our middle school at the latest that the basketball team he was on was not centered around. LeBron James, what LeBron James is going to do in the future. Maybe I've ever known him to be on was centered around him.

So it makes for a unique situation. And it's why it's been such an interesting talking point in the league. And yeah, like we went and talking to people. We came up with several teams. Do you want me to run through all of them?

“And then we talk about him, Brian, or do you want to do them?”

What are the time I would you like to do it? You can run through them. Just run through them.

So the teams, the teams that we had come up in conversation with people.

Obviously, one would be staying with the Lakers. Another would be going across town, playing for the other Clippers. Stay in the same house. Could potentially go up the coast and play with Steph Curry and dream on green in the Golden State Warriors.

Could go back to Cavs Corner with East Ohio. Have a nice storybook ending there. Could come to New York and do the long anticipated Stunt with the Nicks and finishes career at the garden. And one, I think pretty intriguing option that has come up with conversations I've had with people

is to go play with Nicole Yokech and then. Doesn't mean that's the entire list. But those are the teams that we came up with. And Dave, I think like if I asked you in October and I asked you in December, you may have different rankings.

What do you think as we do this, it's beginning of April? Yeah, you asked me in October or December. I'd probably put retirement as the number one option here. You're right. As of today, cover in LeBron with the Lakers Wing 15 out of 17 games and accepting this role that I didn't know I'd ever see him actually except

being willingly this much off the ball. Why wouldn't he say with the Lakers? It gives him all the off-court things that he values as business empire is family. His son's on his team, his other son is the short flight away at Arizona. And Brani is starting to really do really well.

Yeah, Brani's has gotten some meaningful minutes over the last two weeks, which is a new development as well. And they're winning. So, you know, I think the only part of the equation that would be less desirable than other situations would be the money because the Lakers do intend to build this team around Luca Donchich and use their cap space to get younger and get some two-way type players, some talent.

And it's quite frankly, they don't have a ton of cap space after their resigned awesome reviews and Jackson Hayes and Luke Canard and maybe Ruby Hatcher Moore. It's not like they have all the money. I don't think they have any cap space if they reset every side of all those guys. That's the right team.

So yes, that will be there. So if he wants to come back, I mean, you're not talking about a lot of money. That's the sacrifice he would make, but everything else checks the box. So the Lakers, I think, are the number one by a wide degree at this point. That's interesting.

I'm not sure I would agree with that personally. But I would tell you, tell me you're arguing with that. Well, this is the thing that's come up in every conversation I've had about this for six months, which is really since going back to last June when the option decision was made. What is the brown wine?

I don't think anybody really knows.

“Honestly, like to your point Dave, like does he want to say an L.A.?”

He may not know. Well, I'm not saying he does, but like, does he want to say it? Does he value staying in L.A.? And being with the Lakers?

Does he value making the most money?

“Which has been what he's valued at a different point in his career?”

That probably doesn't make sense to be with the Lakers then. Is there another team that is going to want to pay him a max that he'd want to go to or a lot of money? Why are we just flat out discounting that though for a team that's 115 out of 17? Well, not discounting it. I don't know if I would say that there's any team that's a wide margin ahead personally.

That's all. That's all I meant. I'm not saying he's not staying with the Lakers. But I personally don't have a sense of one team that's in front of anybody else just from my conversation with people. But that doesn't mean it's right.

You might just, you might say with the Lakers. But that, to me, it comes back to like, does he want to have the best chance to get a fifth ring? Does he want to make the most money? Does he want to live in Los Angeles? Like, what?

As LeBron plays his, like, it's a 24th season.

That is the question that everybody that I have talked to is sort of as back.

What do we think LeBron wants? And I don't think anybody really knows. Okay. And let's just acknowledge that. But let me just say something about like the idea of Cleveland because that's something that is out there.

LeBron's only going to Cleveland if he's willing to play for the minimum. Right. Because the calves don't have cap space. And they're going to be in either in the second apron or the first apron. If you're in either, you're not going to have a full mid-level exception.

And the idea that you could sign and trade form, like, let's say the Lakers say all right.

“LeBron, if you want to go and Cleveland, we'll sign and trade you for Jared Allen.”

Lakers need a center. It's not the craziest concept ever. The calves aren't allowed to do that trade. If you're in the first or second apron, you can't receive a player in a sign and trade. Where they are in now.

They'd have to make subsequent moves to get out of that. Correct. They'd have to really retrofit their team. Like I think there's ways to do that in some form with LeBron that don't require massively heavy surgery. Right.

But the concept of LeBron is that, you know, in Cleveland, is that you're going to play with hard and Mitchell and Mobley and, you know, right.

It only works if he's taken the minimum, which is $4 million he's making 50.

Right. And that's where it comes back to, I think. Maybe he will. I'm not saying he won't. But that's where I think it comes back to is what.

What, what does he want to do in what's either the last year of his career? One of the last years in his career. Like, to Dave's point, he has done a great job sort of falling into this, you know, whether it's Chris Bosch Roll or Kevin Love Roll, whatever is like the third star on the team. Like, does he want to do that again next year?

Would he rather go have the ball more somewhere else? Would he rather play with other players? Would he rather be in a situation where he optimizes the chance to win a title? Would he rather, you know, put the caps on of his career going back to Cleveland again and playing their one last time with the team that could win the east.

Obviously, if you just put him on the team at a minimum, especially like they're going to be the favorite story in the east. Like that. I don't even talk to anybody that has a sense of what it is he's going to want to do. When I think going back to how Dave laid it out the beginning from the timing of

his decision to how much money wants to make to where he wants to play. All these things come back to that. Central premise to me of what is it to his decision making process going to be? Well, Dave and Tim break it down significantly.

“You should check the story out on ESPN.com.”

Dave, thank you so much. We'll talk to you and see you soon. Thanks, folks. All right. It's that time of year.

The time of the month. I should say, not that time of the month. It's a big man's favorite time of the month. It's a high for the可能is factor. [Music]

Which means you've got the ball, McMahon. Both of them. It is a segment that has been described as one of one, baby. Here we go in. Let's make sure we get this in on time.

It's definitely not one of one honorable mentions. That's for sure. We've got two honorable mentions. We're trimming the last day of the month off for time purposes. Just to make sure we get this at the beginning of the month.

April Fool's Day and all. Only one true buzzer be to this month. So only one buzzer beading honorable mention. Anybody remember? Anybody? Anybody? I don't.

It's been a long time since high five. I need to keep in the beat. My amy 80's three or something like that. Kevin Durant passed Michael Jordan. And really kind of saved the day because it would have been like,

how do you celebrate past the Michael Jordan a few? If you missed the game beside and shot. So men Thompson swooped in saved the day. You know, they had a nice little celebration in the locker room. Vives are high in Houston or so.

They want to keep telling us. So anyways, that was the one buzzer bit. The other honorable mention. Dennis Jenkins from Detroit Pistons has kept that thing. Not only kept it afloat like they've been playing pretty good basketball.

He almost had another buzzer beading okay see it.

He would have been in the top three. If that thing would have fallen.

“Because I would have been a buzzer beader on the road against the”

defending champs with the pistons. He wouldn't have won with two buzzer beaders.

The first one wasn't a peer buzzer beader, but it wasn't.

I told the shot to count 30 point performance against the Lakers with. You know, with a game winner. He's getting the love of a of a winner though with this with this with one of a multitude of honorable mentions.

Yeah. So yeah, if if the three would have fallen and so. Okay, see he'd have been up in the top three. But is a pretty damn jam packed. Top three.

So we will start with the brass balls. I've got it in the same spot. Here is I do on my mythical MVP ballot. So far for the season on on the on the ballot that I just turned in for the LBS straw pole that is Luke Donchitch.

Mm. The student percentage in the clutch wasn't pretty for him. But the results overall were he did hit kind of. I was pretty shocking that that shot he hit against Denver was his first

like, you know, last whatever was five second last 10 second game winner

in a Lakers uniform. But it was. He was plus 28 and 35 clutch minutes. Uh, the Lakers as they've done most of the season were pretty dominant. In crunch time, 28.7 assists.

Like I said, not a pretty shooting percentage. But, you know, carried the Lakers to a lot of a wins down the stretch of games. And so Luke Donchitch with the brass balls. Reaction feedback objections.

I was just waiting for the jam packed listing of the of the award east. To be done.

“No, I mean, I think it's pretty good chance Luke is going to win.”

Well, they don't give a player the month in March. They do it for March and April, right? So, well, God, top of this thing's going to have a chance here. So, the Denver nuggets really kind of bizarrely went through a mid season clutch funk where they kept losing close game after close game after close game.

Um, and, you know, you're used to that two man game. Uh, Joker and Murray take him home and for whatever reason. They weren't able to do it during his significant stretch of the season after Joker came back from that knee injury. Well, they've got things to fix specifically the defense.

But they fixed the, their little crunch time issues. Jamal Murray led the league in clutch scoring last month. 45 points in 35 minutes. Also had seven assists. They went seven and three in clutch games.

Uh, nut cutting time. It's last three minutes within three points. 21 points and five assists plus 21 and 17 minutes. And there were six and two in those games. Joker had some really nice numbers too.

Um, but Jamal Murray's jumped off the page. We're talking about one of the best big shot makers in the NBA. And he's back making a bunch of big shots for the night. Yeah, 53 point game last week. Yeah, not a clutch situation.

That's true.

“Uh, although actually, you know, there were, there was some in that one.”

And I think about it. That's the one where. The Maverick. They came from 130 something in the matter. Because I guess back to they got some things to fix.

I told you was Alice versus Amber. That's right. That was. They got some things to fix. Something like that.

And was that to get up the euro and they liked that. That was NBA today. I was in the across little. All right. - All right, little desk.

- Oh Jeremy Lynn, he liked that. Oh no, it was perk, perk liked it. - Everybody liked it. - Everybody liked it. - Everybody liked it. - Everybody liked it. - Everybody liked it. - Everybody liked it.

I am like an eggcare, but I've heard you say. - No, I didn't. - Otherwise, in his career, it was definitely Kenrick Perkins. (laughing) He didn't disappear late in his career.

- Well, I took Jeremy Lynn really took to McMahon.

He'd never really seen anybody quail.

All of his travels of basketball over the NBA and all over Asia. He'd never quite encounter anybody like it. - It's unique individual, you know that. Do you know that?

- Hey, speaking a defense, can we just mention my defense effort against Jeremy Lynn. I helped him scoreless. Dernie several minute long segment. - Yeah, I mean, he didn't shoot,

but had he shot, I'm sure I'm sure he would have missed. Getting a clutch, clutch, honorable mention for your defense on the show. - No, I want a 10 day from a tanking team is what I really want.

- It's on the car off. - I'm gonna give me a break. - It would be a good place. Listen, I'm just gonna pull the curtains back a little bit. So, I mean, okay, see Monday night

and, you know, Shay had big game, 47 points, 21 of those were in the last seven minutes of the fourth and over time, pretty strong performance. I mean, JJ Reddick had been lobbying for Luca Doncich earlier in the evening to be MVP.

You know, when he recently had his little three-prong campaign pitch.

It's been a lot of lobbying going on for MVP.

I said, what do you think of MVP race? It's just been a lot of chatter. You know, and it's great for league. - Instead of it's good for the league. - Yeah.

- Yeah, good for league. - You know, a lot of great players makes for good conversation. So, well, there's been chatter on behalf of other players. He'd like to chatter on your own behalf. - He said, nah, I'm good at thanks for asking though.

- How much do you think the retail value of those sunglasses were he was wearing while he was talking to you? - Hmm, probably at least as much as my entire wardrobe. Okay, but he said, I let my game do the talking.

Oh, is that a little shot at Wimby?

“Is that a little shot at our favorite ethical seven and a half footer?”

- I loved it. (laughs) Whoever it was.

I loved when Victor said this stuff and I loved that too.

- So, and then Dagger, nobody who in no case he's gonna lobby on behalf of Shay for MVP. Well, then I said, they're all way. - They're above. - I'm not.

- Well, I don't know if I'm allowed to say this out loud, but I see Shay in the hallway and he was grovelling for an award. - Bagin' me to be the Kahone's factor player of the month from March. - Wow.

- I mean, just like, listen, he said, well, he's got everything else on the mantle. - He says, I don't care about MVP if it comes to comes. He says, but the Kahone is factored. That's the award that really has great meaning in the NBA

or let, like, you know, I get a lot of lobby. It's got so much meaning that there's more honorable mentions than winners. - That's not true. - And I said, you know what, Shay?

You had 44 clutch points on 21 shots in 29 minutes this month. I said, you know, you hit that dagger against the Warriors. That night, you broke, will it's record? Or tied, will it's record, rather? You hit that game winner from just about the same spot.

- Remember, when this was gonna be fast, Brian? - To beat the night, it's set up fucking preamble to saying, Shay, the clutch player, was in the clutch player the month. - Jackson, is that new button broken?

Like, what are you doing here? - You got the game winner weighed off against the pisses but boy, did he fin a strong nut cut in time? I mentioned Murray's test to have up this. 22 points, six to seven from the floor plus 17 and 11 minutes

that tunnel it's five and all in those games.

“Am I leaving out the free throws stats intentionally?”

Yes, I am. There were a few free throws and you knocked those down too. Shay, you'll just have Alexander. Yes, I will give you your wish. I'm like a genie, baby.

I will grant your wish. You are the countless factor player the month from March, congratulations. - Clear that mantle. Pushed as Bill Russell trophy and the Michael Jordan trophy

just pushed you to the side. I'm sure he bought the Laryo Bryan replica. - Imagine John's, wait, no, what is it? Who was the, is it Oscar Robertson? Who's the conference finals one?

- Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. - Yeah, that's right. - It was a magic magic, it's two. - Oh, one's pro bat, basketball players, so should I guess. - And also, when you win the championship here,

I think your Danny Green was telling me this here, you can buy a replica of Laryo Bryan trophy. It's not cheap. It's like many, it's thousands and thousands of dollars. I don't, I don't think it's the exact replica,

but you can buy one. I'm sure he, I'm sure he, I'm sure he, but. - I should've got a contract extension this summer. I'm guessing he can afford all the replica, Laryo Bryan said that he wants to get his name long.

- All right, you've done it again. You've done it again. Another brilliant season of Gohan Ace Factors. It's beautiful. - So it's on the how he does it.

- All right, we have a cool thing that one of the friends of the show did McMahon. - You, you were liaison for this once, you take it away here. - So Scott Morrison, Utah Jazz Assistant Coach,

his wife Suzanne, have a foundation called "The To the Macs Foundation."

“And I think a lot of fans have seen every season”

for at least last, I think this thing

is a third year they're doing it.

Or around this time of year, all the coaches is part of the NBA coaches association where custom painted shoes. And for the last couple of years, it's been Air Force 1s for this year.

It's the Nike Air Max 90s. And we, very, of course, we are honored to be a part of this. - Sweet, that cool logo on the back too. - We sure are honored. It's awesome.

Again, this is a foundation inspired by their son Max who has autism and this is to celebrate autism acceptance month. And so for the coaches, each coach wears a shoes once.

And then signs him and sends him back. They're auctioned by Sotheby's. That'll be May 12th, 2018. The 100% of those proceeds go to the To the Macs Foundation. It creates meaningful access and experiences

for autistic individuals and their families. You can check out Sotheby's.com/To the Macs Foundation to learn more about that. And it's not just the shoes from the coaches, but there's a ton of NBA memorabilia.

- Scott Morrison is a Canadian.

Remember when I used to point out that Wallshade contributes to the Thunder Defense,

“they do hide him on the easiest matchup all the time?”

Well, this is the Canadian who slept my wrist

about that and chastise me about always

point that out, basically. We got it. He's up. Well, Shane has since, at least last year, send him some memorabilia.

I know that his game worn jersey certainly was one of the items that was able to raise his significant amount of money for a great cause. So again, I wore mine last night. They are painted, our podcast logo is a lot of orange units.

So they paint ours in this custom orange. You see the logo back here. - One of three. One of three. (laughs)

There you go.

“I will admit, I was a little self-conscious last night”

'cause I didn't think this all the way through. I wore them to a Thunder Pistons game and I felt a little funnery in them. Oh, matter of fact, JB Bicker's staff looks down on my kicks pre-game, he's like, what's up with that?

And then he was wearing it, he wore his last night too. So I said, you know, the to the max foundation, all right, all right. It goes, I thought you might have gone fanboy on us. That is definitely not happening. But this guy's getting thrown out of a reeness.

He had button, hey, no kiddin', I'd probably had, like 25 people last night, but I mean, nice, like I'm walking through the reeness. This is nice kicks. So they definitely are eye poppin' in attention grabbing.

- Sky used to be with the Celtics. He's a really good dude.

He's done an amazing job at this foundation.

It's a really cool thing.

“And I think all you need to know is you see how many,”

if you watch games, you see all the coaches around the league, wherein' 'em, like Scott's a universally liked and respected guy. And it's been very cool to see what he and Susanne have done with this foundation, very neat.

So it's cool to be part of it. - Thank you so much Scott, best of luck to you and your family, and we'll be bringing these out and we'll have 'em on countdown. - There you go.

- Oh, amazing, that's great.

- Yeah, fire. - Yeah, they're definitely fire. - Thank you so much to McMahon and Bond Temps. Thank you to Scott Morrison, his wife and son and their foundation.

Thank you to Jackson Mark and Devon, our producer, thank you to McMahon and Devon. Thank you for listening and watching to Collective. We'll talk to you later this week, Friday, the Bond Temps poll, this is gonna be spicy.

- Ooh, three. - Ah, it's me, it goes. (upbeat music) - At tab, we're on for the NBA News, by one. (crowd cheering)

On any Thursday or Friday NBA matchup, if you'll play a points like Mrs. By one, tab will still pay it out as a winner. Now that's something to shout about. (crowd cheering)

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