History May Tell Us What Comes Next For Clippers + Key Signings Updates In The West

We talk about the NBA, which we're going on Monday evening, almost midnight here in London,

which I'll explain in a few minutes. Do you want to have some good old Dallas Texas? It's band McMahon. Howdy partners. So, McMahon, it's Monday night, it is a holiday weekend.

Not a lot of businesses got in done. Because of now, we have no lawsuit or any reaction formally from the Clippers. I have no information that one is coming, but nothing is, it's all but all quiet on the front. The Clippers have not made any statement in days.

I mean, they made too pretty loud statements in the aftermath. The trade between the Raptors and the Clippers for Quay Leonard has not gone through. That's interesting. Well, again, this is Monday night, we'll see what happens on Tuesday, in talking to people,

“I think that trade is going to go through, when I think it's going to go through as is.”

I was scolded for implying, or maybe not implying, but wondering whether or not the terms could get traded. I'm getting from Southern California, and not Canada. I'm not going to say, but I'm just going to say that everybody, people say in the NBA, you've got to go, but your word is important, and so they've agreed on this trade, and

I think they're going to go through with it as constructed, which to remind you, coming to Toronto, coming to the Clippers, is Brandon Ingram, Grady Dick, to unprotected

first, 2031 and 2033, McMahon educated me on that last week, at that wrong, and a pick

swap in 2028, in the first favor. 208? I thought it was 27. I know. I'm not, I'm sure you're right, I'm not debating.

I don't have in front of me. I'm yielding to you on this one.

“I believe it's, I'm not 100% certain, and I believe it's 27, which would mean basically”

the right to swap with Oklahoma City, because Clippers almost certainly will end up with OKC's pick, and so they could swap that for Toronto's, basically, would be that math. Okay, that makes sense. All right, a couple of things on this one, McMahon.

First off, in talking to some folks, I think Steve Balmer largely, and I mean, I have

not talked to all 29 other teams, but in talking to some influential people, I think Steve Balmer was getting the benefit of the doubt from his peer owners through this process. I know that there were some people who believed that he was, you know, especially the teams that were trying to get Kawai back in 2019, and heard out of Uncle Dennis' mouth, you know, the requests that came through here, and the teams that were impacted by Kawai

picking the Clippers, they may not have felt that way. It wasn't in the Raptors, by the way. Correct, the Raptors. I mean, look, Masai Yujiri was telling people in 2019 that Uncle Dennis was doing this, and not that I didn't believe him, but when you, you know, I've heard some things happen

when some teams lose free agents, and sometimes that I'm not saying this is what happened, but sometimes teams take leave of their senses. I'm not going to give examples, but there's been a couple of situations where I've had some conversations where a team lost a star player, where I was like, I put down the phone, and I was like, they're on tilt.

Well, you know, the Dan Gilbert letter being the one thing that went public, but just me there, but others, but it wasn't just coming from Toronto, and the Lakers had reason to feel a certain sort of way, because he chose the cross haul of the time team, and not them, but it was just certainly coming from the Lakers too. And those were the three teams that were in the mix, and in my understanding with the

Raptors at the time, was it was, you know, they're stance based like, okay, we'll see how things shake out, everything will come to the light at some point. It did.

“So, but my point is, I think Steve Balmer had support of his peers in this, even though this”

was pretty severe accusations, and I'm not saying everybody again, but I think people wanted to believe him, his peers. I'm not talking about the other GMs, I'm not talking about the other GMs, I'm not talking

GMs.

“So, the word that it was said to me by a very influential person was that the other owners,”

some of the other owners, were a gased when they read this report. That was the word that was used to me, a gased, and regardless of what Steve says, the support that he had is no longer there. I mean, it's a pretty damning report, not just that, hey, there were instances of cap circumvention, but like the detail in it, the audacity of just how blatant flagrant a lot of this was,

and again, and then you factor in his history, and so it's hard not to read the report. And again, it's wasn't like, well, dang, there was one instance of the cap circumvention, but you know, has this fraud company, you know, no, there was four, four, right. So I will just say that if Steve Balmer elects to go to battle here, legally, I cannot predict what would happen within the league with the other owners.

I can say that right now. Again, you heard me last week, and I wrote a piece that ran on ESPN.com over the weekend, that said the same, where I advise the clippers to accept the penalty and try to leave room to negotiate later, I heavily researched what happened with Minnesota in 2000.

“Mike, man, do you know when the timber wolves got their first draft pick restored?”

It was about a year later, wasn't it? It was two days after they played guilty, two days.

Mike, man, the penalty came down in October, and the wolves had their first returned pick

back before Christmas. And I'll just point out, like the wolves, at first, were in denial, the process was different back then, they used an arbiter or not a law firm. But when the wolves were found guilty, Glen Taylor said words that were not I'm guilty. Kevin Kale, who was the vice president of basketball operations, said words that he was like,

"I didn't even know this existed," he played ignorance. They thought about it, and they ended up pleading, they negotiated with the league office, and they played guilty.

And two days after basically they waged the white flag and December, David Stern gave him

back a pick, and a year later he gave him back the second pick. Now, he gave him back, he suspended five years, took away five years of picks. He gave him back year three at first, and then year five. It wasn't if he gave him back immediately.

“But I think the clipper should study that.”

Well, and he thinks here, number one, and you could say this is because the league had to cut essentially a deal or get quite a sign off on it to accept it to avoid arbitration, because only the player can trigger the arbitration process, but by not avoiding Kale's contract in a way, that delivers them two picks back, right? Two picks plus a swap right there.

I mean, that's a massive difference because if this contract gets avoided or again, even if there's like a significant suspension, that's when the Raptors would have absolutely had every right in the world to say, "Okay, let's redo this trade, let's renegotiate the return." So, you have that, and the other thing is you have the potential written into the league statement for further digging and further punishment.

I mean, the league, and that's right in paraphrasing, but the league basically said, "Hey,

they're very well could be more to find. We'll keep looking, and if we find it, we can swing another hammer." Well, look, I talked to a number of people about this, and some people said that the clippers should go on the offensive because part of the way that you get what you want is by going on the offense, and that that's what lawyers are for, and that there's more ways to achieve negotiation than

support amongst the ownership is currently nil, and I can't predict what's going to happen there.

“The second thing that I'm going to say is I have seen some people talk about.”

Well, to your, let me just say one one thing first, your point about Kauai,

sort of doing his own negotiation, back in 2000, the league didn't do this this way. They avoided Joe Smith's contract immediately, and Joe Smith did go to arbitration, which allowed the timberals to fight it for a while. Joe Smith didn't play that this suspension came down in October, the ruling came down in October, and Joe Smith said on the sidelines for two months, and didn't play, and then in the late November, they

arbiter ruled in favor of David Stern. Joe Smith lost his contract was avoided, and he went and signed with the bulls. And then the wolf's play guilty, but it did open up the way for the wolfs to fight it through arbitration. Well, a couple of lawyers who were involved in that decision back in 2000, were Adam Silver, who was one of the lead lawyers at the NBA at that time, and Rick Buchanan, who's now basically the top lawyer at other than Adam Silver at the NBA, and they learned

from their lesson. They said, you know, last time, we penalized the player before we had a guilty play from the player, and that opened us up to having to play defense. And so you saw how they learned from this one. Yeah. They made a lot of take a plea deal, which for him was a $700,000 fine, which is like, man, I made a lot more than that. Let's go. And he defanged one of the routes that the clipers have here. So the lead office learned from Joe Smith, let's see if the clipers learned from

Joe Smith. The second thing I want to say is I can't prove what Kawai Leonard knew and what he knew it. Okay. Um, the implication that he didn't know this was happening, and I saw, you know,

“dream on green came out, and others came out, and so I believe him. Listen, I don't know what”

Kawai knew, but I do know this. If Kawai did not know that Uncle Dennis was getting him 30

plus million dollars in deal in, in endorsement deals he wasn't working for. I mean, 40 plus the

equity than it had been worthless. Then Kawai needs to to talk to authorities, because that would be multiple level felony. If you were misrepresenting somebody and taking money on their behalf, to a knowledge that hasn't happened. So, you know, publicory tweeted out the screenshot of the LLC that has Kawai signature on it. Well, it was a docky sign. So, yes, that, that, you know, first up, I'm not looking to disprove that. I, I find it, I'm very unlikely Kawai didn't know,

but if his, if his explanation is that he didn't know, the Uncle Dennis stole tens of millions of dollars in his name, and should be facing federal charges. Sure, like you took my knowledge to my knowledge that complaint hasn't been brought by Kawai. Yeah, these deposits didn't hit Kawai's account,

“then that's a whole another deal. I'm, I think Uncle Dennis took a healthy commission would be my”

guess, but why got money and money off of this. And, you know, as far as Kawai's approaching this, he didn't have to explain anything. Clean slate. He's playing for the Raptors and Kawai's

already, he's already given his explanation. He's never been one whose mind had awkwardness in a,

in a media session. So, that's true. That's true. More who, collective podcast after this. I was talking to somebody who's been around the league for a long time, and he said, you know, the Clippers were guilty of the same thing that the Nets were. They had little brother syndrome. Oh, yeah. And they really tried to, they were so focused on not being a little brother anymore, that they took way too big of gambles and stuff. I didn't, you know, and so, and the Nets have

done it twice. The Nets did it with the KG pierce deal. And then they did it again with the Kawai

I'm sorry, that's a Kawai KD Kyrie, and then trained for James Harden soon thereafter.

That's a situation. Anybody who would have been in that position to do it would absolutely have done it. And anybody who would have been in a position to get Kawai Leonard, fresh off of finals

“MVP and Paul George, fresh off the first team all in BACs. And I think what have done it too,”

you can you can quibble with the price. And obviously, even before all these penalties, the price it completely blew up in their face and paved the way for OKC to have a championship team in the potential dynasty. But little brother syndrome, absolutely trying to fast forward, no question about it. But it's not like at the time people are question, why would you do quiet Leonard at Paul George? No, I understand, but it's just sort of the, like, you know, they moved to Brooklyn,

which that was a good move to move to Brooklyn. But you know, remember when they like a, you know, they announced their arrival, they had Jay-Z billboards outside the garden and, you know, we're like trying to take them on. The clippers are the same thing. Now, they shared the same arena,

“but like they went a whole campaign LAR way. Yeah. They changed their name from the Los Angeles”

clippers to the LA clippers. And, you know, they built their own arena and said, we're, you know, we're going to be bigger and better. And they were chasing both both teams. They had some bad luck. Obviously, Coise injuries, you know, who knows what happened? Paul George's injuries. But there was hubris that contributed to both of these teams, stopping their toes. Well, and, you know, Cari's injury, James Harnes injury for the net. It's no question about it. And in an alternate

reality, maybe both of them work out, maybe, but yeah, it was a little brother syndrome and just desperately chasing relevancy for, you know, I don't know, when's the last time the net's were really truly relevant in the NBA? It's been a long time. And for the clippers date, they had of stretch relevancy with the Lob City clippers that he's weren't able to break through. And then

bomber basically decided that no matter what it took, no matter what rules needed to be broken,

no matter what trade needed to be made, you know, whatever it took, he was going to get Coise alerted. And in that process, he, the power structure of the clippers was Coise slash uncle Dennis at the top and then bomber. And then downhill. And that was an epic disaster. I had a, um, I had someone tell me that not a walk-tell lift and is, um, done with this. Well, they're not really done with the investigation, but, you know, not. We continue. They, uh, they, um,

they suggested that the NBA reopen the investigation from Mikhail Proker off into Andre Kira-Linko. Um, hey, I was like a very junior investigation. Yeah, now you can move on to that.

“David Andrews, I believe it's David Andrews, the, uh, one of the lead attorneys. He's moving on to”

move on to Gary Trent. In the case of Andre Kira-Linko right after Mikhail Proker off, and, you know, Proker off was bomber before, bomber, although extremely different temperament, but now this extremely wealthy Russian, um, who just throw in money around like crazy, um, you know, shortly after he bought the nets and the nets were sort of ramping up. Andre Kira-Linko, who's the greatest Russian ever, and I'm the NBA. Yeah, since since you don't, uh, sense of bonus,

you know, yeah, so, so this is not what I mean. Yeah, I mean, so bonus played for the Russian National Team until, right, that whole geopolitical event happened. Yeah, so anyway, Andre Kira-Linko was, he was, he was, he was on the backside of his career, but he was playing in Minnesota, and it was clear that, you know, that the, the, the, the, the, the, uh, Proker off wanted a Russian player, wanted the best Russian player, and so, Kira-Linko had a contract option with Minnesota, a 10-year

contract, a player, or a 10 million dollar one-year player option. He didn't a decent year the year before, but not a great year, and, um, he opted out of it. And shortly thereafter, he signed a two-year six million dollar deal with the net. Yeah. And, um, so he, he left seven million on the table

in the first year and four million overall. And, you know, this is in 2013, you know,

consider inflation, you know, six million US dollars, and what's the Russian currency who knows

holes, uh, you know, this is back before Bitcoin, um, uh, um, you know, this is back before you could like have a drone, like, you know, drop a bag of cash and someone's backyard or something.

“But, uh, the NBA did investigate a thorough review, they said, and they, I think it's too”

that we should have had Bobby on here, because I think Bobby was involved in this. Bobby might be on here bleeding the fifth. I would advise Bobby not to speak about it. Um, yeah, for a variety of reasons. Yeah, but I'll just say that I've heard some stories about Procaroff and players that involved, well, I want to be careful at what I'm going to say here. I was good about that. I'm on the, let's see. I have heard stories about Procaroff that involved

offering currency delivered in other countries, uh, as offers, not that it actually happened, but that it was a lot of leap. Ball number would have been better off going like old school, South was conference style and just leave it, double bags, stuff with cash, you know, for, for a quiet stumble across. Quite clearly, who's to say that? Well, I'm not going to say that. Yeah, or, you know, just, you know, leave a envelope of diamonds in his locker or something,

that the paper trail is what, um, what paper trail and third parties are what got them here.

“And, you know, the paper trail is funny, uh, you know, the whole aspiration thing, right?”

Right, but how did Ball number become involved with aspiration the first place? Because, you know, there is this desire to, uh, help the environment and the, the separate, very famously, did go paper free, right? And so, like, for example, uh, I found out that, um, yeah, we're laughing at the day about the notes that Lawrence Frank kept, you know, I'm like, I'm like the BS deals and all that kind of stuff. Those were on paper. Those were in the computer.

Do you know that for sure? Yes, I was told this. So the part of the, uh, those were discovered because of that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Did it as well, print? Help, the environment hurt, hurt your, uh, your story. All right, well, I guess we'll see on that one. More who collected podcast after this.

“All right, some other events in the NBA. We haven't spoken, I think, since I'm in Thompson,”

did his five year, two hundred eight million dollar extension with the Houston Rockets.

Not a, uh, first of first couple days in September, I'm a little bit of an unusual time to get a contract extension done, uh, McMahon, but uh, the Rockets obviously were pleased with doing this, because, um, they've been a team that has been, you know, they've, they've, they've, they've held their ground in rookie extensions, whether it was with Jebari Smith, um, um, uh, outpair and shengoon. I'll pair and shengoon. They got, they got, I think, a pretty good deal on that.

I mean, we would say jaren green back there and green. Yeah, no, I mean, jaren green. That was, uh, you know, definitely of sort of creative deal that happened near the deadline. Um, um, so my guess is in good and jaren green with both right before the deadline. Jebari Smith, Jr. was like, right as free agency opened. Remember, uh, and then this, typically, typically, when it comes to rookie extensions, you either get a done deal right away or it goes through the deadline. It's kind of

unusual to happen in the middle. Yeah. And so far, there's only two, um, from this first round

draft class at least, uh, there, uh, and, and both of them are examples, uh, I don't want to say taking less, um, but actually, uh, in the, in the case of Victor Wimniom, there's no question. It's an example William, taking less now. He hadn't technically qualified for the supermax escalator, the, the, the 30% but if he plays 65 games, it's an absolute no brainer that he will. And he said, nope, I'll do 25% flat. You know, I don't need anymore. I want to have flexibility. And this is a case with, um,

so we said, you know, you said the fun max had died and Wimniom's like the exception to that. But this is a case, like I'm in Thompson's a guy who would have been an easy fun max, uh, decision probably on the previous CDA. But this is significantly less than the 25% and obviously there's no,

up 21% basically, uh, across the board. So, like 20.6 something percent according to Bobby

Marx's, uh, handy-dandy, uh, cat figures that we have. So, like, you know, you're talking four plus percent less than fun max like that. That's a, that's a, that's a significant, uh, 4% doesn't sound like a lot. But when you're signing for hundreds and millions, it makes a difference and trust me, I feel like the Denver nuggets would love to have 4% back of some of their highest salary increase. Right? And again, the way that teams are thinking about these figures is not, this is not

about cap space. It's about room to the aprons because that's, these playoff teams, these contenders,

“that's what they're talking about when they talk about, uh, flexibility because that's how trades are”

made now, right? And so, if you're talking about like $7.8 million in a year, yeah, boy, that, yeah,

that is a, that's a some significant wiggle room, uh, when you're trying to stay under an apron. All right. So, as somebody who spends a lot of time around the rockets, what is your opinion of this decision? For the rockets, I think it's great business. And I, you know, I've been telling you for a while just how much the rockets value, I'm in Thompson. No question. I mean, like, if, if there's one untradable player on the roster, it is him, I, you know, they, according to their metrics,

you know, they think he's one of the top 10 and I might be inflating that number, most valuable players in league. Now, we can argue and we can debate and you can say that's ridiculous. I'm just telling you the way that they view him. And so for them to get a player, they value that much on this deal is, you know, that is great value for them. And, you know, for I'm in Thompson,

look, do $208 million full of guaranteed. And there's no options either way in the deal.

He's set for life. You know, he wants to be in Houston. He's going to be in Houston. He's going to be rich. You know, his bloodline will be rich for generation. So I absolutely can see why he was like, "Hey, great. Let's get it done. Let's sign it." And, you know, let's get ready for training camp. Well, you know, my standard, could you trade the contract? He's not eligible to be traded right now,

“but could you trade the contract? I think yes, absolutely. Yeah, again, again, you know, we,”

we talk about the dollar's dollars reported, but when you talk about and when teams think of these things, it's in, it's percentage of cap. On then Thompson, at a 20 point something percent, percentage of the cap is a valuable player of the trade market for sure. And anybody who talks about this will immediately talk about his offensive struggles. That's been what we talked about since he was coming out of overtime in host high school. There's no doubt that his offense

is an issue. And I had one executive say to me, his shooting to be clear. Right, yes, his shooting, you know, is, which, which got worse actually from long range last year. His, his ball handling is, is, he's, he's got some wiggle. No, he's, that's something, he's a dynamic finisher, obviously. He's a good playmaker, not great, but a good playmaker. You know, he's, he's good attack and off the dribble. He's just a, he's a complete non shooter at this point. I had one executive say to me,

okay, it's a five-year contract. He's got this year left on his deal, so it's really a six-year deal. So it's how many of all of our teams have been making in those six years? If I gave you an over-under

“of two, what would you take? Well, I think if he was making the max, you know, you'd like to have”

more than two, but he's not making the max. So I think if you had a two-time all-star, you'd be pretty happy with that. Mm-hmm. But his point was this contract is someone who's reserved to be a multi-time all-star, even at this number, is what is what his, his point was. So well, there's a lot of bad contracts in the league then. Yeah, like seriously, it's true. I mean, talk to me about Franz Wagner.

Yeah. Well, he was a 25% and I'll just ask you this, if you're building a team, would you rather have Palabancaro or Min Thompson? Well, I have to figure in the contracts. I'm talking about the player. Forget the contract. I'm just talking about the player. I think that'd be an intro. I think if we took a poll of the President-Bassball operations,

I think a lot of people would take on men because what he does is so highly desired in the league and you need versatile athletic defense and it's harder to find than what

Palo does, which is, you know, offense first, which is how you usage, middleing of this. Yeah.

I don't know, like the thing about Palo, anytime you have a discussion, you just bring yourself back to the plus minus. Yeah. And so a men, like the rockets haven't made a playoff run yet. They haven't gotten on the first round yet. But like the analytics nerds would take them in Thompson. I can tell you that. I agree. Yeah. Well, the, well, I see the plus minus, the magic have continued to have to be outscored with Palo on the court. Yeah. It's been happening for

years. And, you know, that's, that's a factor. Speaking of difficult plus minus,

“Ben Simmons resigned in the NBA. By the way, interestingly, I think a men Thompson,”

like the best version of him is a young superstar version of Ben Simmons. The best version of him offensive. We really have, I think that's, that's Comfort him. Like Ben Simmons was a superstar, was a superstar. I mean, I was a, I'm just telling you, I think that's the kind of player that a men Thompson can be. By the way, when the when the sixers gave Ben Simmons his Max contract, he had already been a two-time all-star. He was rookie there in two-time all-star. He

already was a multi-time all-star. Yeah. Now, what's the most points per game that Ben Simmons ever scored? I, I just happened to have it in front of me. Right. So I know that he averaged his first three years. He averaged 16, 17, 16. Yeah. And look, Scoran's higher now. I don't was back then, but men Thompson averaged 18.3 last year at age 23. But my point is a big, hyperathletic dynamic attacking playmaker who's just a minister defensively, but does not have a

“jump shot. And you need to surround those players with shooting. I think to maximize Ben Simmons back”

in the day to maximize men Thompson now, you've got to surround them with shooting. Ben Simmons first year won rookie of the year. Okay. Actually, first year he had the broken foot. So then he had, then he was rookie of the, then he was rookie of the year, a second year. And still mad about it. He was a little doubt of the Mitchell Dumpton. Third year made the all-star team. Then I guess he signed his extension. Yeah. Then he was a all-star again, third team all NBA, first team all defense.

Yeah. His first year of after signing the contract, fourth, fourth defense player of the year voting all star NBA 13, first team all defense. And then his fifth season, fourth year of actually playing second and defensive play of the year, made the all star for the third straight year defensive all defensive team. Yeah. And then had the middle block meltdown. You know, when he passed out of the lab. Yeah. That last year in the play, you know, most of that stuff

was done before the pandemic came back. I don't know. He was never quite the same player.

Well, it was a combination of clearly there was some middle blockage. There was some, yeah, I don't even know what to say. But some psychological stuff. And then the back injury. And for the back injury, the back injury plays bigger roles than anything. Absolutely, because this is a dude who was just an extraordinarily dynamic six foot 10, 240 pound athlete. And then he just wasn't that same kind of athlete.

You know, after he had the back issues. And I'll be honest with you. When the back issues first popped up, I thought it was BS to get his way out of Philly. And when he was in that, uh, that standoff with the sixers. But that's right. Well, he has held out and then had the back injury when he came back. Yeah. And he has a smurgent. And hopefully nobody, nobody has back surgery, just to, you know, because like that. That's not the last, that's a last

ditch type of thing. And he just never was the same after that. And his whole game was was

predicated on being one of the most dynamic players, athletically, that we've seen in a body that

“big. I mean, that dude, when he was young, I remember him coming through Dallas, his rookie year.”

And I still remember he had a putback dunk and traffic where I was just like, I have never seen a point guard do that. I mean, just like going up in a forest of bodies, over everybody,

would do defensively, you know, he was one of the only guys in the league who could take

“Luca one on one and like his odds, like his odds and that match up. Right. That's true. He just”

turned 30. He didn't play the league last year. We was fishing apparently. The last time he played was two years ago. He played with the nets and the clippers. It was last year with the clippers. He was not effective. No. So, you know, we'll see. Yeah, I mean, look, it's a minimum deal. Is it even guaranteed? It's not guaranteed, is it? I haven't seen the details on that. I would be stunned if it was. I would do it. Except for it is the kings. You know, if it just is a flyer, like I get it,

I just, you know, I don't know what Ben Simmons is in today's NBA. I don't think he can be a point guard anymore. You know, I don't think he has that kind of quickness and athleticism anymore.

You know, could you talk me into him being some kind of like second unit,

playmaking power forward? Yeah. He could peek under the right circumstances. He could play center. He has played center at times in his career. Yeah. So, you know, the king's roster is sort of all over the place. You know, so they've got these. You know, obviously, you're going to, you know, if you're a king's fan, you can't wait to see Darius A cuff. Like, what's going to get you to the games is let's, let's watch Darius A cuff. Like, that's your hope that you're turning your team around.

And, you know, they, they have a couple other, you know, interesting young players, Nick Clifford and Max Reno last year were interesting. Like, those guys could be

players going forward. They drafted Alex Karabon and the first round this year. So, we'll see

what that is. But then they have sort of, and they have, you know, he can Murray's still pretty young and they invested time in him with a contract extension last summer. And, but then, you know, we talked, you know, then they've got sort of Zach Levine hanging around who they can't get rid of. And Malik Monk hanging around who they can't get rid of. And subonus who, you know, is going to be sure what is going to be difficult. Right. And they have the Andre Hunter who was injured after

they traded for him last year. So, they've got these, you know, I don't know, I don't know where Ben Simmons fits. And then, yeah, I mean, let's be honest, we don't know where Zach Levine fits and he's

making what $49 million this year. Like, we know where he doesn't fit, where he doesn't fit in their

“future. I think the question is, can they use that expiring contract to do something in the trade market?”

But it smells like a buyout candidate to me, you know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, they'll hold onto them for a while to see what they can do with it. Right. I would be surprised if he finished the year with the ganks. Yeah. But, all right, well, good luck to Ben. So, McMahon, today I got a tour of fullum, the English football club, I got a tour of their, the new wing of their stadium. And fullum is on the west side of London right along the TEM's river. And they built

the name of the river. On TEM's and me. They did both of you. It's great. It's nice and clean too. It's actually reminiscent of you too. It's very, it's very shallow. Oh, wow. Okay. You know, mile wide and an inch deep. No, it's actually, it's not that shallow, but it is shallow by fullum. And the reason it's interesting is the spurs were recently over here taken to look at it. And what I thought was fascinating about it was, so they, so they have this very old stadium

called Craven Cottage. And it's known for in the corner of the stadium is a actual cottage.

“Okay. That you is actually, I think the bottom level is like the locker room. How old are we talking?”

Oh, Google 100 years type of thing. Yes, probably 100 years old. What's it called Craven's Cottage? You keep talking. Craven, Craven Cottage. Oh, Craven Cottage, 246 years old. There you go. That's cool.

The main civilian was built in 1905. But anyway, they rebuilt one side of the stadium.

“And they put in a social club. And 330 days a year, it's a social club. Like you have to be a member.”

Like a horizontaly type of social club. Yes. And it is so wheat. I mean, as, I mean, opulent, yes, but not like opulent was like, you know, gold leaf hang and everything. Just there was really 1780 as a cottage. That's why I just said, okay. Those are 1870. Oh, maybe I did. I don't know. Anyway, it's all, so the spurs, visit of that. They did because, you know, the spurs are building a new. Right. Oh, yeah. And

this, I've been to many stadiums over the course of my career. I've never seen a state. And so there's a hotel

in there, too. There's a small hotel in there. And so it's like a, so if you're a band of the Soho house, make a man. I have not. Jackson, if you're a band of the Soho house, I feel like Jackson would have been the Tucker. Have you ever been to the Soho house? I've not had the privilege yet. Anyway, it was too gorgeous. I knew Tucker had been to the Soho house. It's built like, what's all over, they have all over the world, but it's like a private, it's a private club. Oh, I sure. The long two. And

“anyway, the Soho club helped full of design. What I'm telling you is I think NBA teams are going”

to look at this. This is my point. They already are looking at it to like have a private province part of the arena type of thing. Yeah, that you use on nights where you don't have, you know, during game day, it's their hospitality area. Right. You know, like high-end hospitality. And the rest of the year, it's like a social club. By the way, they have a swamp. They have an infinity pool in there and outdoor infinity pool, which there can't be too many of them in London. That's that you

can see the pitch. How do you like that? Okay. And you see the pitch and the hotel from hotel windows. You can. Some of them. It's kind of like the Blue Jays ballpark. Yes, yes. How does it feel? It's a, perhaps the curtain should have been closed. Yes, that was a little bit of a legendary situation. I can't speak. I'm sure the Londoners are much more high-class than that. But, you know, I thought it was really interesting. And I thought

that this could be sort of the next frontier of stadiums, which is to use them for more than just, you know, the games themselves. Well, you know, yeah, the Mavericks and that the Las Vegas Sands Group were trying and still would love to, but they haven't made any progress on this. They were trying to build their arena as part of a big casino slash resort. They're still planning to do them like the resort and all that stuff around. But obviously, the casino that there's

been, I don't think they've made any kind of progress as far as getting gambling legalized in Texas. But, you know, that that's the idea is to have the arena be, you know, kind of a focal point, but just a part of a massive resort. Well, I will just say that, you know, Jackson made a joke on our chat about the form club. The form club changed the way people go to games, you know,

and this potential, this is a potential game changer. I thought it was, you know, and the, you know,

full of them is not one of the bigger, it's a London club. So it's naturally, you know, it's owned by Shad Khan and Tony Khan, who is on Tony, who, on the Jaguiers. But, yeah, I, I thought it was really cool. I, I, I can see, you know, the spurs are building a downtown arena. It's out there. Yeah, right there by a, you know, world him as fair arena was back in the day. Right. So, you know, this was, this was pretty cool. I also want to thank Manchester City for hosting me while I was

here this weekend. Taking care of wonderfully by a man's city, enjoyed their game

“against Coventry City, the new member of the Premier League. How do they beat?”

Well, that's good. Early in Holland score. You know, early in Holland is? I do, he's the dude with ponytails, who was like, couldn't say off. Oh, no, well, he was, yeah.

Well, hence, my continued. Yeah, anyway, um, it's Holland, that's not Norway.

“Good question. I'll have to research that. I think Finland has a guy named Norway.”

Tonight I went to a league one game, which is sort of akin to double a baseball. It's like two divisions down from Premier League. AFC Wimbledon versus Bromley FC. You know, I've heard AFC Wimbledon referred to as the Ackon rubber ducks of, you know, well, the Ackon rubber ducks won two nil tonight. In that case, um, we were, I was hosted by Bromley tonight and I want to thank them for hosting me. So I had a little soccer. Now, I'm kind of good thing, because I want to

get my little Google on Craving College. There are public tours. I'm, I'm guessing you didn't take one of

those. Sorry, you're, you're coming in and out here. I'm not quite getting off. No, I want to thank

full them for, um, for their accommodation. I didn't get to see them. I've seen a match there before.

“I was, the very, very kindly invited by Tony Con wants to sit in the cottage for a match.”

There's a, there's a great experience. Well, it's been nice to have been here. He said, "Tell you what?" Yeah. Um, but, uh, yeah, so I had my little London excursion here and now it's back to the Grindstone back, uh, back to the U.S. We ramp up for training camp. Uh, coming up. You know, the, uh, speaking of the, the sand's group, the games in Macau, the preseason games, which would be Mads Rockets this year, are played in the arena that's attached to the Venetian

Resort. So that might be kind of a little sneak preview of at least conceptually what they're thinking about doing here in Dallas. Interesting. I'd love to see that arena. Nice. Um, all right. So, that's all I got for, for this episode of Macau Man. Well, it did pretty well, man. I'm, I hope you're not tuck it out from doing all your, uh, you know, what is it? Hi, T, all that kind of stuff up there and, and London. When did we get you back on the side of the pond? I'm headed back on Tuesday.

How do you feel about that? You know, listen, this, this is the best time of year football season is going on. I mean, I, you know, how was your first college football Saturday? Uh, first college football Saturday was good, man. It was out. It was a pretty wild, uh, you know, not a real impressive

schedule, but a pretty wild weekend. Never the last. I mean, I stayed up. I woke up. I woke up to the

mission. I woke up on Sunday morning to the mission. I had extra second. I'm sure you're a little Ohio state, uh, but he's, have had some things to say about that. You know, it's not like it used to be now, you know, an individual lost doesn't matter as much. Buddy, an individual lost in a coach's debut from Michigan to Western Michigan would they come on now. That would have been a pretty big deal. I am just waiting for the investigation into Central Michigan and Connor Stallions to be completed.

I still have not heard the results of that investigation. Put it right there on the back burner with uh, Gary Chen. Get my trench union. I want to hear the results of both be announced. Walk-tell, get on, counter-stallions on the sidelines at Central Michigan. Speaking of which, speaking of college football, Ohio state at Texas. Oh, that's right. We're not going to speak now. That's the week. Our college game day brethren will be down there in Austin.

You know, my daughter's all excited about the festivity coming up over the week in the come. Since you already owe me two dinners, due to bond tips is uh, I literally bought you dinner less than a week ago. Go ahead. I was from my birthday. You still owe me two. Here's a deal. Here's my proposal. If Ohio State wins, I will buy an Ohio State hat and wear it on a podcast. I'm asking you to do the same if Texas wins for Texas. Buy a nice long-horned hat just

“I should want one podcast where of out of it. I think that's a reasonable wager. All in good fun.”

All right. I accept. Okay. And I won't try to, you're not going to try to change the terms. I don't just straight up. I haven't even, I don't care about the line. I haven't looked at the line. Okay. Right up. Okay. Straight up. If, you know, if, if arch in the boys, you know, if if, if Mr Manning, not the Mr Manning that were working for you on the podcast. Yeah. I mean, you know, we're, we're very, we're, we're partners with the Manning's family.

Right. But it, but if, if, if, if, if arch leads the horns to victory, you will wear a nice, it doesn't have to be burn-horns, but at least, you know, it's got to be a Texas hat.

buck eyes hat. All right. Well, we'll just say that, you know, I just thought I'll let you know.

“Remind you that Ohio State is two and no against Texas the last two years. Now,”

one was on a neutral field, although it was in Texas and another year was at Ohio State. Oh, all right. This, I recall the ones very distinctly that was on a neutral field. I,

“I attended that game. Not sure if you remember that. Yes. Well, how do you get those tickets?”

Friends and higher places. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So we'll see how they go. I would say, I mean,

I was, it was arches. It wasn't as first start of this career, but it was his first

“performance as, you know, the QB1. I think that I, I don't think he was quite ready for the stage.”

I do believe he is now. That's all I'm going to say. Yeah, I would agree. And I would just say that that game doesn't really mean a whole lot to me because Ohio State's quarterback, Julian Sand was,

it was his first college game as well. And both coaches were petrified of their quarterbacks.

And they just ran a bunch of three yard, three yard routes. It was not most aesthetically pleasing college football performance in recent history. Yes. So I will look for it. I love watching college football in September. So it's one of my favorite things to do. So I look forward to it. And all right, McMahon. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you so much to Jackson and Tucker, who won over time behind the scenes. Thank you to Mark and Miles, our other producers.

Thank you for listening and watching with the who-collective. We'll talk to you later this week. Okay. And out here is some egos.