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00:00Let's go to Kruiser, who is hanging out either on 209 or in the 209.
00:08Hi, Kruiser.
00:09What's going on?
00:10What's going on, fellas?
00:11Yes, I'm in the 209.
00:13Gibbs, to your point, you're right.
00:16I feel these guys don't care.
00:18So speaking of the All-Star Game, so what I propose, what I think we should do, this
00:24isn't an answer.
00:25It's a suggestion.
00:26I think that the NBA and Nosferatu himself, Adam Silver, needs to take a page out of the
00:33WWE handbook and probably manufacture some drama.
00:38So I think Klay missed a golden opportunity this weekend to go into the three-point contest,
00:43potentially win it, and turn around and say to everybody, yeah, you missed me here.
00:47You missed me here, right?
00:48So that'll get people talking.
00:50Maybe have Kameen say to LeBron James, hey, you know why you never entered the dunk contest?
00:56Because he don't have hops.
00:57He can dunk a ball, but he got no flair.
00:58He got no style.
00:59He's like Floyd Mayweather, who doesn't have knockout power.
01:01That's why he's running around all the time, right?
01:03Get LeBron gassed up.
01:05Maybe he goes in there just to shut him up.
01:06In the meantime, people will tune in to see something like that.
01:09I skipped everything.
01:10I didn't care.
01:11There was nothing in the lineup that made me interested.
01:15So I'm afraid that the gimmicks that they've been doing is going to kind of be here to
01:19stay.
01:20But in the meantime, you've got to hit these guys where it hurts.
01:22Since you can't do it on the wallet, you've got to hurt their pride.
01:25Back in the day, we had real robberies, right?
01:29Now everybody's friends and stuff, so they're not trying to hurt each other's feelings,
01:33right?
01:34They might be friends off the court, but on the court, you knew Jordan was trying to kill
01:37everybody, right?
01:38So these guys, KD is trying to be friends with everybody.
01:42He's got Bruce's feelings very easily.
01:45So what we need these guys to do is we need some real chingasas to go on.
01:49You have to make sure these guys kind of have not a level of hate, but disregard.
01:53We need a Kendrick Lamar, Drake level beast to get this game more interesting.
01:58But Cruiser, you can have that opinion all you want.
02:01I'm sure you understand why that would never happen.
02:04The NBA is not like, let's all go to the Bay Area so that we can embarrass half of you.
02:10That's not...
02:11The league is trying to celebrate the sport, not embarrass its top performers.
02:16You know what I mean?
02:17I'll tell you what, Willard.
02:19I would tune in to see that.
02:21The casuals would tune in to see that.
02:23I mean, you can tell them whatever you want.
02:26But that's not what the NBA is trying to do.
02:28Like, I'm just telling you, ratings is actually not the end-all be-all when it comes to this.
02:34They're not...
02:35They're not trying...
02:36And Cruiser, thank you very much.
02:38They're not trying to embarrass their players.
02:42And we are misremembering what an all-star game used to look like.
02:46We really are.
02:47This idea that back in the days of Michael Jordan, these guys were all foaming at the
02:50mouth and playing hard five-on-five, just YouTube it, go watch what an all-star game
02:56looked like back in 1995.
02:58It's a little bit different.
03:00It's a little bit different, a little bit more fast-paced, but it was a lot of get out
03:05of the way and let guys perform and do their dunks and all of that.
03:09It was all of that.
03:10It's always been all of that, as long as I can remember watching it.
03:13Yeah, and it comes down to the players.
03:15And if the players don't want to compete, then there's nothing you can do to have a
03:19game where players compete.
03:21And I think about the NHL all-star game that I didn't watch, but I've gone back now and
03:26watched a lot of it.
03:27And you had three fights initially when the puck dropped.
03:31You had guys actually looking to fight each other because it matters.
03:35And that's part of the culture of the NHL.
03:37But it wasn't just a let's skate around.
03:40And they did a four nations format where there was actual pride.
03:44And these players take pride in not losing to players from other countries.
03:49And it's because the players actually care that you had games that were competitive,
03:54games that actually had hitting and fighting.
03:57And the NBA, I mean, they're so far from that.
04:00I'm not advocating that you have a game where players actually fight each other.
04:05It's a completely different culture.
04:06They won't do that in the regular season.
04:08But the NHL, a sport that is desperate for eyeballs and desperate for something, they
04:14have players who actually show up and compete in the NBA right now.
04:18Most of the players now are so rich and content that they don't care about the general fan.
04:25They don't care about their sport.
04:27And this is my opinion.
04:28I haven't talked to all the all-stars, but when I watched them play in the all-star game
04:33and I watched the majority of them play in the regular year, they don't have that same
04:37desire.
04:38They don't have that same hunger to get eyeballs because you've got a guaranteed contract.
04:44And I'm going to do a favor for all the audience.
04:47I'm going to go through during the break, or maybe the next couple of breaks, and I'll
04:51add up all the salaries this year of the 24 all-stars and see if it's a half a billion
04:56dollars.
04:57Why?
04:58Because that tells me what these players actually, they don't care.
05:02The NHL guys are not rich?
05:04They're not rich.
05:05They're not rich.
05:06How many NHL players do you think are making $50 million a year?
05:12None.
05:13$40 million?
05:14$30?
05:15$20?
05:16$10?
05:17Like, some.
05:19And by the way, you don't need those numbers to be rich.
05:23They weren't fighting out there with one another because they're like, we're not making enough
05:26money!
05:27Why are they fighting?
05:28Why does it matter to them?
05:31Whether it was rivalries that are already within that sport, whether it's the culture
05:34of the sport, or whether it's basically national pride, if you will, with the way they set
05:40it up, and it's why some people are talking about this USA vs. the world thing.
05:44It won't matter.
05:45But it's a completely different culture.
05:46I love that people are spending today being like, NHL's got it right.
05:50You're not watching that sport.
05:52That sport is actually literally on life support.
05:55I can tell you guys, after the game last night, these conversations were obviously being had
05:58by the guys, and from everything I heard, the two maybe best ideas were what you're
06:03talking about, USA vs. the world, and a bunch of the foreign players, the Euros, super into
06:08it.
06:09Giannis said he would be all in.
06:10I bet.
06:11Wemby said he's all in.
06:12I think it'd be pretty competitive.
06:14The other one, and on that first one, I don't know how Americans would feel and if that
06:18would be something they would get up to, a USA vs. the world.
06:21I have a question to ask you on that, but go ahead.
06:23The other idea is the 1v1 tournament.
06:25I think you guys brought it up earlier, and pretty much to a man, every all-star said
06:29they would compete, they'd be into it, and that would be something that would be fun
06:33for everybody.
06:35That's great that they said it.
06:36I don't buy it.
06:37I don't think that they would try in a 1v1 tournament.
06:40I just think that that's one of those things that sounds better than how it would look.
06:45They say a lot of things when a microphone and a camera are on them.
06:48John Morant tweeted over the weekend that now he wants to be in the dunk contest.
06:51I got five bucks, says he won't be.
06:53So did Giannis, and then he said he got hacked.
06:55Exactly.
06:56He said his kids stole his phone and tweeted that for him, which was funny.
06:59Here's the problem with the USA vs. the World thing.
07:01It's not a problem in my opinion, but how would y'all feel about it?
07:06Watch this.
07:07I'm going to give you 12 names, and then I'm going to keep going, and you tell me who doesn't
07:13get to come, okay?
07:15So I'm literally just looking at average points per game in the NBA right now, all right?
07:21Tyrese Maxey, Anthony Edwards, Kevin Durant, Jason Tatum, Devin Booker.
07:27Count these with me.
07:28Tyrese Maxey, Edward Durant, Tatum, Booker, Jalen Brunson, Dame Lillard, Anthony Davis,
07:34Cade Cunningham, Carl Anthony Towns, De'Aaron Fox, Kyrie Irving, stop.
07:40That's 12.
07:41Now I haven't even gotten to LeBron and Steph yet.
07:44Towns represents the Dominican Republic.
07:45Okay, fine.
07:46We'll skip Towns and go to Norman Powell.
07:50Like I haven't gotten to Donovan Mitchell.
07:52I didn't get to Tyler Hero.
07:54I didn't get to Trey Young.
07:55I didn't get to Steph.
07:56I didn't get to Jaren Jackson or Jalen Brown or LeBron or Darius Garland or James Harden.
08:05I could go on and on.
08:06How do you make only 12 American players, and are you okay with who would get left out?
08:15It would also impact the snubs, right?
08:16Because if you only-
08:17That's what I mean.
08:18You can only choose 12 American, then 12 of the Euros.
08:20Right.
08:22What that means is you may be looking at those, guys like that are left out.
08:27Jalen Brown doesn't get to come, but DeMontis, Sabonis, and Nikola ... I'm sorry, not Jokic.
08:36Jokic?
08:37No, the guy that we talked about with the-
08:39Busevich.
08:40Busevich.
08:41You're going to end up with those guys on the ... Are you okay with that?
08:45Sabonis is in and LeBron is out.
08:48Well, Sabonis would try and show up.
08:51Maybe.
08:52I don't know.
08:53LeBron won't show up, so Sabonis would show up and play.
08:56LeBron would, but like Donovan Mitchell, let's use that as an example.
09:00Like Donovan Mitchell probably doesn't make the team.
09:03I'm okay with it.
09:04I'm just wondering if the NBA, if fans around the league, if you're okay with really high-level
09:12American All-Stars won't be on the team if you do a 12 versus 12, USA versus the world.
09:17The Americans who do show up on the team, would they try?
09:21And I don't think that they would because they're not the same amount of civic pride.
09:25And the hockey example is one that I only brought up because it actually worked where
09:30you did a four nations thing, they showed up, they tried, they actually fought because
09:35their sport is ... They're hungry.
09:37They're hungry for your attention.
09:39The NBA is not hungry.
09:41These players are no longer hungry.
09:43They're all making between $25 and $60 million a year and they have no incentive to go out
09:49there and grow the game.
09:51They don't show up during the regular year to grow the game because it's load management
09:55and it's better for them.
09:57It's not better for the product and ratings are down and I haven't seen the All-Star game
10:01ratings yet, but I would imagine that they're probably down year over year.
10:06They've been down, NBA finals ratings are down, salaries are up, ratings are down.
10:11And so, if you're a player, what is your real incentive to go out there and put on
10:17a show?
10:18You have no incentive.
10:19I can't argue with what you're saying other than to say, like in the same sentence, we'll
10:22be like, well back in the 90s, I'm sorry- I'm not talking about the 90s, I'm talking
10:27about yesterday.
10:28Or Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, were they eating chunky soup?
10:30Like the NBA All-Stars- What was Michael Jordan making in 1990?
10:35Was he making $4 million?
10:36Michael Jordan is literally one of the richest athletes who's ever walked the face of this
10:40earth.
10:42Right, which was already well out of the box.
10:46So I just like, I understand where you're coming from, but I don't think that people
10:51used to try because they weren't as rich.
10:53It's not about, for me, it's not about the 90s.
10:56It's about yesterday.
10:57And you watch yesterday and we all talked about last year and you said it last week,
11:01where last year was an embarrassment.
11:04It was an embarrassment for the league- They said it, doesn't matter what they said.
11:08Adam Silver said it.
11:09You said it and you're a consumer.
11:10You said it and they said it and it's a fact.
11:12And so they changed the format and was this weekend any less of an embarrassment?
11:17I mean, look at anything- Less, yeah.
11:19It was less.
11:20Absolutely, it was less than last year.
11:22Maybe a little less.
11:23No, it was definitely less than last year.
11:24To me, it was still embarrassing.
11:26What you put out yesterday, where if you want to talk about the telecast from the opening
11:31tip to the end of the game, there was almost more like concerts and, hey, let's bring out
11:38Charles and the fellas and give them fishing hats for 20 minutes.
11:41It was more schlock than it was basketball.
11:44Maybe.
11:45I don't know.
11:46I don't find the word embarrassing to be the right word.
11:49I just don't think it's that compelling.
11:53So it's not embarrassing.
11:54It's just like you got to do something different.
11:57What would you call it?
11:59Not compelling.
12:00Okay.
12:01Yeah.
12:02That's it.
12:03I would call it not compelling.
12:04And some people were like, I mean, here, let's go to Rick in Pacifica.
12:06Hi, Rick.
12:07What's going on?
12:08Thanks for taking my call.
12:09Yeah.
12:10You know, I don't understand what all the sniveling's about, Mark, because the one caller
12:18kind of pointed out, you might be a little jaded, yeah, who isn't?
12:23These guys are making crazy money.
12:24They're not ever going to be motivated to win East versus West.
12:29We thought, I'll give you a little sample size.
12:32Our neighborhood got together and watched the game last night, and we were all entertained.
12:39And in the end, it's all about entertainment.
12:42Some of us didn't understand it.
12:44Some of the guys were pointing out to the ladies, vice versa, this is how the game goes.
12:52But the deal was, you know, the ship sailed on it being a real competitive deal.
12:57I would say, however, the fact that they put in the up-and-coming kids playing the vets,
13:04you know, the vets didn't want to get smoked by these young kids.
13:08You saw it in their play.
13:09There's a couple times they're getting close to the score, and hey, we've got to make a
13:12couple of trades here and go, you know, do a little dance and dribble by them to get
13:16a bucket.
13:17So, yeah, that was kind of entertaining.
13:19I mean, I liked it.
13:20Hey, Rick, can I ask you something?
13:23What did you think of Draymond Green, basically?
13:26We can play it for you, but basically Draymond's take on the Rising Stars being in this whole
13:31thing was that that was kind of unfair because players work their whole lives to be All-Stars.
13:40And then suddenly on All-Star Sunday night, you've got kids who've been in the league
13:44for one year getting to share the court with Steph Curry and Kevin Durant in an All-Star
13:49game and Draymond thought that was kind of offensive.
13:51What's your take on that?
13:52Draymond's a prickly dude.
13:54We already know that.
13:56Here's the deal.
13:58You've got to have a little bit of a sideshow to make this appealing to the general public
14:02because the game itself does not hold the appeal that it once did back 40 years ago.
14:07I'm 66.
14:08I've seen a few of these things where it meant something, where Pete Rose would slide into
14:13second base and take out somebody in an All-Star game, right?
14:16It don't happen no more, but the sideshow was pretty entertaining.
14:20We loved it.
14:21We had a good time.
14:22That's great.
14:23The kid who made his little free throw thingy?
14:25Darren!
14:26Thank God, Matt!
14:27That was awesome!
14:28See, that's what I'm telling you, Rick!
14:29The free throw thingy.
14:30That was the deal, though, Rick.
14:32So Rick, first of all, if you enjoyed the hell out of it, good on you!
14:36That's great.
14:37Although, when we get to in the end, you liked the Darren thingy even better.
14:42The free throw thingy.
14:43Yes!
14:44And it wasn't a free throw thingy.
14:45It was actually a really long three-pointer.
14:48And it was like five feet behind the line.
14:50The kid thought it was a half-court shot.
14:52It wasn't.
14:53He laughed at the words.
14:54He's like, I was shooting half-court shots against Damn Leather Saint.
14:56You weren't.
14:57But that's okay.
14:58Yeah.
14:59And that was brought to you by Mr. Beast.
15:00And I don't know if you've seen a lot of Mr. Beast's material.
15:03Not a lot.
15:04I know your kids have.
15:05Not a lot.
15:06And he actually has a thing now, I think it's on Netflix called The Beast Games, which is
15:10a play on Squid Games, which I got about halfway through.
15:14It's pretty entertaining.
15:16This guy is like a borderline billionaire, and he'll do things like, okay, I'll give
15:20you a million bucks if you can live in this grocery store for three months.
15:24Oh, boy, I could do that.
15:26Well, you'd be surprised because you think you could do it for like 100 days in a grocery
15:30store.
15:31I think I could do it for the rest of my life.
15:32Like, where do you sleep?
15:33I sleep in the aisles.
15:34One of the people actually built a bed out of toilet paper rolls, and it's like a YouTube
15:40thing.
15:41You watch it, and he comes in every 10 days, and it's like, ooh, now we're going to take
15:44the power out for four days.
15:45And they do certain challenges.
15:48Don't do that.
15:49Mr. Beast is a guy who's like made his money doing these YouTube challenges, so like for
15:55the younger audience, the Mr. Beast piece, and even for our 66-year-old caller, that's
16:00a big deal.
16:01Absolutely.
16:02That's all I'm saying.
16:03I just think, and you know, it was funny.
16:06He's like, oh, they're used ... He's like, I've watched it when the All-Star Game mattered,
16:11and then he brought up Pete Rose.
16:12I'm like, whoops, that's baseball.
16:15Listen, I'm 50, and I've watched the NBA All-Star Game I think every year, probably since I
16:20was eight years old.
16:22No, no, no.
16:23It never mattered, and nobody ever went crazy and started pulling out people's legs and
16:30dunking on people's heads and screaming in their ... No, it never happened.
16:35It's all a figment of your imagination.
16:38Was it different?
16:39Yes, a little bit.
16:42I'm sorry.
16:43Like this idea that in 1988, boy, this time it counted, and everyone was out for blood.
16:50No.
16:51Didn't happen.
16:52I watched.
16:54It was windmill dunks and smiles.
16:58That's what it was.
16:59Let's go to Cole in Palo Alto.
17:01Hi, Cole.
17:02Thank you for calling.
17:03Hey, guys.
17:04Thanks for taking my call.
17:05Yeah, man.
17:06Long-time listener, first-time caller.
17:07Really enjoy your guys' stuff.
17:08Thanks, man.
17:09I was working in the city on Saturday.
17:14I thought the environment was actually really nice.
17:18I'm not in the city that often, but from what I experienced, I actually really, really enjoyed
17:25it.
17:26I didn't get to see any of this stuff, so I can't really comment on that, but in terms
17:34of the game, I actually enjoyed the format.
17:40The one thing I didn't like was just the presentation of the whole thing.
17:44I thought the actual play and effort level was maybe not where people wanted it, but
17:49it was definitely a step up from the last couple of years.
17:54I think one thing that could probably help would just be to raise the target score.
18:02I was actually reading something online that in terms of the actual length of the presentation
18:09from TNT, out of the three hours, only about 40 of it was the actual games, so I just think
18:16there's just way too many breaks, and that's just something that I just really didn't enjoy.
18:23But in terms of if people want to go back to doing the two-team thing, I think in terms
18:29of trying to give the players money, I don't think there's any certain amount that could
18:34be given to the players that would make them try.
18:37But you saw, for example, when the OGs are playing the Rising Stars, I think when the
18:44players have something on the line in terms of losing, that's when they really try.
18:48So what about the players have to, instead of the league giving the winning team money,
18:56what if it's the other team?
18:57What if the other team has to give, I don't know, like $25,000 or $50,000 to another player
19:04on the team after the game?
19:06It's a fun idea, Cole, but I think you know, I mean, you think you can convince those guys
19:12to pull out their own money?
19:17I don't know if you can, but I think it would definitely be interesting.
19:20Oh, it sure would.
19:21Yeah.
19:22Cole, I love it.
19:23Thanks, Cole.
19:25Kind of echoing what I was saying during the crossover, which is the one part of the whole
19:29experience that I enjoyed was when the Rising Stars took on Steph's team, because those
19:35young bucks, they wanted to win.
19:37That was when people were playing the hardest.
19:40When one team wants to win, and even though you're NBA players and they're G leaguers,
19:45you can't just go 70% and beat them.
19:47You kind of have to go 80, 85, but it's funny you say that because I watched it and early
19:54on they were going like 90, 95, and then they got the lead and they were going like
19:5870, 75, once it was kind of understood, but there was that moment in the game where the
20:04OGs, Shaq's team, they actually went about four minutes of real time and they actually
20:09played basketball.
20:10They were like, we better get a lead.
20:11Once you get to, when you get to 30, you better get a lead.
20:14Yeah.
20:15And so they got an Autumn and then the rest took care of everything else after that.
20:18But it was kind of fun to at least watch in that because the youngsters were like, dude,
20:2225 grand if we win, like this is it.