 The Grammys ended with a straight up robbery, Adele should have won. Run it back, starts now. Run it up, do run it back, yeah. Run it up, do run it back, run it back, run it up. Run it back, yeah. Run it up, do run it back, yeah, yeah. Whoo, happy, happy, happy Monday morning. My goodness, what a gift the NBA is to us each and every day. I would like to say hello to my friends and partners in crime from Stadium Insider, Shyam Sharani, by the way, Shyams, I'm right across the street from you, staring at you through a window right now in Chicago. Are you scared? You're in Chicago? And you don't even let me know? I'm hurt. I can see you, put your pants on, son. Chandler Parsons, as always, from some random scary room in his house, but he's back in his house. And Eddie G on the end, who I feel is going to have a very long show today. So why don't we get there? I hope you took a lozenge because it's time to start talking. Kyrie, my goodness, my goodness, my goodness, traded to the Mabs for Spencer Dinwitty, going back, Dorian Finnesmith, a first round, multiple second round picks. All of that, of course, Shyam's breaking it. I mean, I guess it was Friday. It was insane. All right, Shyams, let's start with you. How did we get here? Yeah, I mean, you have to trace back a lot of events. Last summer, the Nets and Kyrie Irving were not able to reach an agreement on a contract extension, a new deal. That, of course, led to him playing out the final year of his deal. And then you had the suspension earlier in the year, the eight-game suspension, then he comes back. And then the last couple of months, he's played at an elite level, all-star starter, almost 30 points a night, six assists, five rebounds. So he's re-emerged as being a key face of the NBA at the guard position. But yes, he asked out for a trade on Friday. There were principal differences with the franchise, and they told he did not feel like he deserved stipulations in a contract extension like they offered him. So he requested out on Friday. And immediately once that trade request was made, everyone around the league looked at the Lakers. We've been talking about the Lakers for eight months. They've had multiple opportunities here to try to engage with the Nets. And I'm told they put together an offer of Russell Westbrook, two first-round draft picks. And the Nets asked for Austin Reeves and other assets. What's interesting here is I'm told that the Lakers never really countered with Reeves or any other asset in these trade negotiations. They really stayed firm with Russell Westbrook and those two first-round picks. And the Nets did not hear from them on Sunday, the day of the Kyrie Irving trade. And so when you look around at the different offers that were made, Spencer Dinwiddie, Doreen Finney-Smith, the draft capital, that allowed them to go and really compete. And bringing in a guy like Spencer Dinwiddie can be a number one, number two option. Doreen Finney-Smith can really do anything on the floor. And so to them, that gave them more value than the Lakers deal or Chris Paul J. Crowder in a pick. They feel like the Mavericks deal is best for them to try to continue to compete this season. And we're going to get back to the Lakers and sort of the reactions that came out of that part of the world. But there are a lot of mixed emotions on the result, the final result of this trade, Chandler, your guy, Mark Cuban, are you questioning this at all? Do you think that Kyrie, along with all of the baggage that follows him into town, is going to turn out to be in their favor? I mean, listen, there's definitely some doubt here. Everything that kind of Kyrie has gone through, the drama, all the antics that have gone with him this season, especially, there's definitely concern. And only time will tell here. Listen, for now, though, I love it. The Mavs needed a splash. And we sit here and talk about every day how Luca needs another star. He needs help. And his usage rate is impossible to sustain. So now he's got one. And he's got that star player. He's got the all-star starting point guard. That was just coming from the Eastern Conference. So listen, this could be the best backcourt of all time if it works out. Or three months from now, he walks. And it pans out to be a really, really bad trade. But listen, I think now, I think you look at Kyrie Irving and his track record. He knows how to play with stars. He's played with LeBron. He played with Tatum. He played with Katie. LeBron clearly just wanted him back. So whatever the issues were there, they weren't as big as wanting him back to come on the Lakers right now. I think he fits with Luca Donkage. I think they both can play off the ball. Don't get this twisted. This is still Luca's team. What? Still going through Luca. They both can score. They both can play and make. They both can facilitate. So I think on the court, it works. And again, Kyrie knows how to play with other stars. It's just all about gelling. It's all about the other stuff. It's always been like that with Kyrie Irving. We know how good he is on the court. And again, we talk about they should have resigned Jalen Brunson. They need another star. They got one. And now it's just, we wait and see if it works. And I think they do, they need a lot of other help, you know, otherware. They're not very deep. They're not very good defensively. I wouldn't be surprised if they go and make another move. I'd love to see Jay Crowder somehow end up on the map. I think they need more guys like him to play with these two stars. But listen, I think this is a good trade for both teams, honestly. But when you have a chance to get a Kyrie Irving, like the Knicks had a chance to get Donovan Mitchell and they didn't, maps had a chance right now to get Kyrie Irving. And they did. So hopefully they can lock him in long term and not just let him walk in three months though. I mean, has anyone thought about the poor basketball and its perspective on who he's going to be so confused? Who is supposed to have him? No one's going to know what's going on. This is, first of all, I have not stopped laughing since Friday when all of this broke. Like this has been just such a gift, more than the usual that the NBA gives us. But how do you like the idea of Luca and Kyrie as teammates? Are you seeing that as being a successful teaming? Well, how are we measuring success? On offense, they're going to be incredible. I've always said this heliocentric style basketball, they call it with one guy pounding the ball a ton. It's never one. The only two times it's really gotten close and you could call it a win is when LeBron did it. And he did it with an incredible secondary ball handler and it was actually Kyrie Irving one of those times. So we know that this style of ball can work. We know that Kyrie likes to be off ball, attack off the bounds, off the catch. We know that. When James Harden came to the Nets, he immediately declared, James is the point guard, I'm the off ball. And it worked. They could have won a title, should have won a title, blah, blah, blah. But we know it'll work on offense. The Mavericks are a bottom 10 defense in pretty much every statistical version of that you care about. And they just traded away their best defender for Kyrie Irving, who is on his best days a neutral defender. He can work when he wants to. You've just gotten a much worse defensive team. You're in the log jam that is out in the Western Conference and you have to guard some incredible offenses if you're going to go on the playoffs. So will there be a more exciting team, a more entertaining team where they score a ton of points? Absolutely. But are they going to defend? Are they going to defend enough to win four playoff series? No way, no how. So I'm with Chandler. They need to add somebody on that wing who can defend. They just traded away. The guy who every night, night in and night out, they said, go guard the best player. Doreen Finney Smith, go guard Kevin Durant. Go follow Steph Curry around the court. Go guard Koai Leonard. Go do this, go do that. And now he's gone. And they don't really have a replacement for him on that roster. It is crazy too, because as all the rumors were ramping up, it would always sound like Doreen Finney Smith off the table. And then it turns out he's not at all. Look, the odds have moved a little bit according to Fandall Sportsbook from plus 1,900 to plus 1,400. So I ain't putting any money on that, Chandler. But I'll ask you anyways, because you're a bit of a homer when it comes to this topic. Do you consider the maps to be legit title contenders now? I mean, like we just touched on a contender right away, no. But I also don't think they should be done right now at the deadline. And I do think they're going to add more. But listen, they have the offense. They have the shooting. They have the playmaking. They just they have to somehow add defensive pieces. They have to add tough, great, gritty guys, like the PJ Tucker's, the J Crowders. They need someone like that to pair with all these offensive mindset players. And listen, again, this is going to be a time will tell situation with Kyrie Irving. But I'm swinging for the fences if I'm Mark and I'm the Mavs. And I got a chance to sign this very, very talented elite basketball player. And I have his bird rights. So I could I could sign him long term this summer. I'm all in on it. And look, is it going to work? Who knows? But I think they expect Josh Green to kind of fill in for those minutes for Dorian Finney-Smith. They need Reggie Bullock to step up. They do have a couple other bad contracts there with Bertons and Tim Hardaway. I don't necessarily love their bigs. But listen, I think when you have a chance to get a talent like Kyrie Irving, you have to take full advantage of that. And I really, really like it for the Mavs. And again, how many teams really play defense? Like there's no real elite defensive nuggets. The nuggets are first in the NBA. They play no defense. So listen, if you can't beat them, join them. Just try and get guys to score more points. You know what? Screw the idea of betting on whether or not they win the title. I want the over under on months before Kyrie blows another team up because for me, that's where the real money is to be gained. Here's another thing. Kyrie Irving has to behave. This is honestly his last chance. No, he doesn't. If he doesn't behave, there's no chance someone takes a flag or flyer on him this summer. So you know what? You want to stay your 30 years old. You have a lot of basketball to play. You're in now a great situation with a great ownership with a great staff. Play ball and behave. And you have Luca Duncan right next to you. You could really, really make some noise here the next three or four years. So I like it. OK. I want to say that sounds a lot like Nets preseason narrative as well. Thank you. So I don't know if he has to do anything. If Kyrie has shown us anything, is that he's going to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. He asked for a trade in the middle of them being a four seed. There are five and five in their last 10 games and they were somehow treading water with that Kevin Durant. And he still asked for a trade. So I don't know he has to do anything. He doesn't. And here's why. Because for two months he played balls out, right? Like he was in it and everybody thought, wow, this is it because he wants the extension. This is going to be great. This is the perfect version of Kyrie. And the minute that that offer was made and was not exactly to a T what he wanted, blows up another team. So no, he doesn't have to do anything. If anything we've learned, the normal for Kyrie is this. It's chaos and blowing things up. I'm here for all of it. I'm so happy he doesn't play for the Spurs. I would die if he did. Shoms, let me ask you this. Because you heard Chandler and Eddie like this is this is potentially a great move for Dallas. What else are they going to add? Are there any other rumors coming out? Are there reports coming out as far as what they're looking for before Thursday's trade deadline? Yeah, I think I think right now the Kyrie Erring move is going to be the big move. I think keep an eye on Christian Wood. What do they do with him? They've offered him an extension from what I'm told. And so clearly that has not been taken yet. What happens with him? They have one first round pick they can play with. But if they wait for the summer, they will unlock about three or four first round picks. So there's going to be a give and take of waiting for the summertime. They already burned one first. And I'm told in these conversations, the Nets initially wanted two first round picks from the Mavericks. So they ended up settling on one first and two second round picks. So the Mavericks were able to keep some flexibility. I would expect them to, yes, like Chandler said, be active in the marketplace. But as far as trying to get a third star, I don't know if they'll be able to do that now. But I would really look at this Mavericks organization as a team that's going to try to go get another big time player, another big time 3-4 in the off season. So talking about the Nets, because depending on your perspective of that, a lot of people are like, whew, dodge that one. How many teams reached out to Brooklyn when all of this broke, Shams? So to my knowledge, there was about five. Lakers, Clippers, Mavericks, Sons. I was told there was even a Mystery 5th team that reached out. And so Phoenix came pretty aggressively initially. Matt Ishvia, the new incoming owner there. He's going to take over this week. I'm told, you know, I think they identified Kyrie Irving as a guy that they feel could take this team with Booker and Aten to another level. So they made an offer. Chris Paul, Jake Crowder and a first round pick. I'm told if they had reached three first round pick threshold, the Nets likely would have accepted that. They did not. The Lakers, as we just discussed, they had a window of time where I think if they came in with Reeves, maybe Swaps, you know, other draft considerations, maybe they get that done. They didn't do that. And then the Mavericks. I think the Mavericks held firm with their offer. They knew they probably had the best overall players and value. And then they added the second round picks in the first round pick and secured the deal on Sunday. Eddie, how are you feeling? I mean, you go to these games. You watch this team more than anybody. How are you feeling as far as what you got back? I mean, I think it's a decent haul. I think in some ways you improved your team. In other ways, you created a massive hold that other teams will exploit. The Celtics were blitzing Kevin Durant in the playoffs last year with Kyrie Irving on the court. They're going to do that times 10 now with his outlet being Spencer Dinwoody. I like Spencer Dinwoody. I think he's a solid player. He's not Kyrie Irving. There's a reason why you have to attach Doran Finley-Smith and some picks with him when you trade them for Kyrie Irving. Even Kyrie's the lowest of all-time value he's at right now. So they've created this weird deficiency, even though they've added to their wing depth and some size and some rebounding that will help them on that end. So I look to them to continue to try to improve this team. I don't know if they can because I think league-wise they've been dealing with the same issue all year long. They have the same players all year long. They've wanted to trade away. They've offered up and they've tried to attach picks and whatever else they've done. But people just aren't in a line to go get those players and give you a much better player back. Their real trade trip was Kyrie Irving was now gone. Kevin Durant, who they've clearly shown they do not want to trade by any circumstance, and Ben Simmons, who we know his value is negative at this point. So I'm not exactly sure how they improve but they are a little more a little bit more dynamic scoring-wise and ball handling. And that's exactly what they just traded away with Kyrie. You know what's weird about... Oh, go ahead, sorry, Shaler. No, I just think the timing of this, again, I think it was very strange. I felt like we just talked about kind of the drama is finished and everything's in the past and Jack Vaughn's doing such a good job and Kyrie's an all-star starter and then this happens. So that was confusing. But listen, I like it for Brooklyn, too. They give back future picks that they could build in the future and they get players that can help them right now. I love Spence. I love Dorian Finney-Smith. He's one of those 3 and D guys that are very, very valuable in today's league. But like Eddie said, Kevin Durant doesn't have Kyrie Irving over there now. And when double teams come, you're now looking at, you know, Kyrie and Joe Harris and, you know, Cam Thomas is probably going to get more minutes. Like, who knows? So it's going to be a different look because it's a lot easier to guard one star than two stars. And so they're going to definitely have that hole to fill. But listen, they got back picks. They got back guys that can kind of fill in now. And I still think they're right there in the thick of things in the East. I just, I don't think they can win it all now. But I want to tap Katie, but Choms, just yes or no, I guess on this one real quick, I want to ask you because when this broke on Friday, a lot of people were speculating because we sort of been here before with Kyrie. Is all of this just deploy? Is this a negotiation option? Or is he still going to be a net? And people thought, oh, he's not going anywhere, whatever. Was there ever a chance that he wasn't going to be moved at this time? No, I think wherever this ended up during these negotiations, these contract negotiations, and, you know, as this, the last couple of weeks went on, I think Kyrie Irving was out regardless. Whether the nets had offered him a maximum contract extension full four years guaranteed, he would have been out. I think he looked at, I think when you talk about Kyrie Irving, his representative, I think they looked at this window of time right before the deadline. Him being a free agent at the end of the year is leverage. And I think James Harden, we saw him go through a similar process last year. You don't want to lose a guy of that caliber for nothing. And I think this was the moment that Kyrie Irving striked, and he used this moment in this week window that they had and requested a trade. And so even if the nets, so yes, breaking news for running back, even if the nets had offered a four-year, $198 million max contract, Kyrie Irving would not have taken it and he would have gotten a forced trade. And as we saw, he did not play before the trade and it didn't seem like there was any intention that he was ever going to step foot for Nets uniform again. Man, that thing is broken. All right, Eddie, this is a gazillion-dollar question. Kevin Durant, what happens now? I mean, it's a very... You're talking about somebody who eight months ago asked for a trade very publicly and then admitted it on a media day, didn't duck and hide from it and said, yeah, I did. And here's the reasons why. And a lot of it was organizational. A lot of it was the issue of when he went out, they lost 10 games straight, 11 games straight. And how do they tread water without him and how do they hold things together without him being there to be the tie that binds everything? And when he goes out this year, they tread away their other superstar and he immediately asked out and, you know, I guess they tread at water on the court, but they obviously didn't do that otherwise. So, you know, he knows basketball. It was like Chandler Barsons knows basketball and he looks at them and says, probably thinks the same thing Chandler just said. Yeah, did they improve some stuff? Yeah, are they true title contenders now? I'm the most biased guy in the room and I don't think there's true title contender now as they sit with this team right now. So, if anybody knows that it's him, so there's got to be some frustration. And if you're the next, you've got to be wondering a little bit about a guy who just recently asked to be traded and the other guy who has asked, who's essentially asked out twice now and got out, what that means for the future of your team? A lot of talk about draft picks. A lot of talk and then the pick they got from Dallas is 2029. The picks they were thinking about getting from the Lakers are 27 and 29. The Sixers pick, I think it's 27 or 26 depending on where it lands and all the stuff. Kevin's 34, it'll be 35 in September. What does a 2029 draft pick matter to Kevin Durant right now? That guy is in eighth grade. He does not care about the 2029 pick from whomever. You have to be really aggressive and I know we're going to talk about him and I know this is like, you know, hit it on your bingo card now and it took, what are we looking at, 18 minutes. But I look at him the same way as you look at LeBron. If you're LeBron and the team you're with and you're playing as well as you are at your age, it's far in your career and the title is the only thing that matters. And your team is not overly aggressive to improve your roster to be a championship roster on the fly. Yeah, you got to fill away. So I look at him and Kevin in the same boat. You have to maximize the time you have prime Kevin Durant left and whatever LeBron is, past prime, barely past, still a little bit, whatever. He's still amazing. He's averaging 30 points a game. He looks incredible. You have to maximize that. And you're looking at two teams who are kind of like fiddling around with whether or not they should. And I think you might be looking at two disgruntled mega stars now, not even in the summer now. And you can't blame them. And listen, on the flip side, I think that's exactly why Dallas makes a move like this because they have to maximize Luca Donkic. And everyone's talking about how this is impossible to sustain and he's going to get frustrated. This just showed him, if I'm Luca, I'm hyped. I'm willing to, they're not going to trade Luca. If this doesn't work, he's going to walk in the summer. And yeah, they have to rebuild. It's probably worse than it was now. But I have to respect, I have to respect Nico and I have to respect Mark for making this bold move. That is a risk at the end of the day. And same thing for KD. KD goes to Brooklyn to play with James Harden and Kyrie Irving. He's now playing with Ben Simmons and Royce O'Neill. So like it's a different dynamic. That's not what he would do. And again, like Eddie said, this guy has to be traded. They didn't trade him. Kyrie, get traded. They trade him 48 hours later. So there's definitely, if I'm KD, if I'm frustrated, talent trumps all in a situation like this. And with Kyrie, they're a contender. And without Kyrie, they're not. So if I'm KD, I'm definitely frustrated. We've seen this team before. We've seen the team with great role players and the one star. And they usually run into the team with great role players and two stars, three stars and beyond. Look at the teams we just saw play in the finals last year. Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, Draymond Green, Jordan Poole, who I would call a star at the moment as well. And then the Celtics on the other end. We have what we think is the best duo in the league, the best wing dough, the best young duo. Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown, the defensive player of the year. The other guy who a lot of people thought was the defensive player of the year, great role players. That's how you win titles. You don't win titles with the one star and the great role players. That's just not how it happens. So if you're LeBron and if you're Kevin, you're sitting there and you're looking around and LeBron does have AD, don't get me wrong. But LeBron AD and Kyrie Irving, and the way the West is right now, we just talked about how vulnerable everybody is. And Chandler said, if nobody's going to play defense, we're going to play defense either. You put that trio on the court and all you lost was Russell Westbrook and maybe Austin Reeves. That's looking like a championship team, whether we love it or hate it or whatever. And so if you're LeBron, yeah, I tweeted yesterday, he should be livid. He should be pissed. And I bet he is. You saw him in his press in the scrum the other day. They asked him and he tried to play Koi. He tried to play as Koi as he could. He said, yo, you know, that's a question for Rob. That's the front office. I play basketball. They run the team, blah, blah, blah. And then he goes, duh, duh, we would want Kyrie Irving in this team. Of course. And so, you know, he's upset. To me, the Lakers' thing in Austin Reeves is like the Knicks not putting in Quentin Grimes. It's like that, that's what you have. It's like the Raptors. The Raptors didn't put Scotty Barnes in. That was the deal breaker, right? What are we doing? What? Like, I don't really get it. By the way, shout out Ben Simmons for getting a pass this weekend and getting to go on a date with another Hollywood starlet because he just gets a slide right under this all silently. I want to concentrate on the Lakers for a second. And as basketball fans, I do feel like we got ripped off, right? We got what, 74 games of Kevin Durant and Kyrie playing together. 74 in three seasons. Come on, man. Like, that's not right. But the Lakers side, you guys have touched on it a bunch. Lakers fans are upset. Probably no one's more upset than Cryptic Charlie over here, LeBron, with his tweet. Oh, yeah. Yes, it's definitely you, LeBron. That's why this didn't happen. So, look, he goes to Dallas. Eddie, you were on it too. You said that LeBron should be livid right now. Shoms, what's going on in the Lakers' front office today? What is the next move now that they've missed out on this opportunity? I think you continue to survey the marketplace. I think they're going to keep being active to see what players can they get with one first, maybe two firsts. I just don't see a two-first-ron pick trade in the available market. I think Kyrie Irving was that guy. Unless you can somehow get Oji on a newbie in a piece or Pascal Siakum for those two firsts. You know, the jazz routine that comes up with Mike Conley, Malik Beasley, Jared Vanderbilt. I'm told that's a scenario that the Lakers have looked into. That would be a one-pick trade. Bogdan Bogdanovich in Atlanta. Boyan Bogdanovich in Detroit. That's probably a one-pick trade as well. Terry Rozier in Charlotte. That's another one-pick trade. And so the only framework for a two-pick trade that really looked like a no-brainer all year was Kyrie Irving. And they did put those two firsts on picks and they put Russell Westbrook in. But when they were told that you need to go all in to make a competitive offer, I think they took that as that's what we're going to stay at. So I think that's what the net's feeling was, was that they were fine as is with their offer. And so if you're the Lakers, you just have to keep being aggressive. It's crazy because I think I, along with most people, thought for sure when this happened on Friday, like, oh, he's going to the Lakers. Like, done deal. We'll just sit here and wait for Shoms to break the news that he's, I don't know why I looked at my watch, that he'd be a Laker at some point and that would be it. And then it didn't happen and Mavs came out of nowhere seemingly, Chandler. But if the Lakers don't get anything done and they've got a few more days here before the deadline, what do you predict this means for LeBron's future in LA? It just means he breaks the scoring record and we celebrate him. And if they don't make a move, they're not a team to fear at all this season. And this one's a head scratcher because obviously LeBron with that cryptic tweet right there, he's pissed and he wanted Kyrie Irving. And they had those two first round picks to possibly get him. And he's frustrated. And as much as he's going to be politically correct, he obviously is upset by this. And listen, when the guy like LeBron, the GMs, the owners, they're going through LeBron and they don't make a decision without his input at the minimum. So this hurts if I'm him because you are kind of right there. You have Anthony Davis coming back. There's still other options like Dom's just touched on that they could get help from. But the Nets not hearing back from them after trying to have Austin Reeves. What are we doing? You have LeBron playing at this level. There's no reason to lose games. So this is it. And you had a chance to get Kyrie Irving who LeBron knows him better than anybody on this planet and he still wanted him back and you don't throw in Austin Reeves to get that dude. I don't get it. I don't either, Eddie. Can you put any reasoning behind this? I don't understand. And if you look at the Lakers approach to the LeBron era and then Anthony Davis and LeBron era, they have maximized off the dribble shot creation. They've done that really much to this May of everybody else watching them. But as soon as LeBron came, they went and got Lance Stevenson. People were like, what? Clearly something there, whether it comes from LeBron or whomever else, have maximized that and wanted that. And then even this summer, this past summer they got Schroeder, they got Lonnie Walker. They wanted guys who could create off the dribble LeBron and Anthony Davis is life easier. Who is the best guy in the league at creating off the dribble and making LeBron's life easier? It's Kyrie Irving. They have passed on him now three times since this summer. Three times. Obviously the ones when they were given permission, as Shams reported today, to talk to him and they actually passed on talking to him. I think the story said again in November when things got a little rocky and the Lakers called and asked again. And then this last week, what is the issue? They put in the picks. They wasn't that this time. Now it's Austin Reeves that's the hang up for you as you're trying to appease LeBron. Two years left on LeBron's deal. We know LeBron will rock the table and do whatever he needs. If he's not happy somewhere, we've seen that before. This is the guy who burned his hometown team. Twice. Why do you think he's so beholden to the Lakers to go, oh yeah, just keep piling on. It's whatever. I'm just playing it out. LeBron wants to win titles. He's been very upfront. He was very upfront about Kyrie Irving. He was even upfront knowing that like two years ago, he got fine for tampering for asking the answer in the same question about Anthony Davis and he still answered the Kyrie question. I don't understand it at all. I don't understand it from a basketball sense. I don't understand it from a front office sense. If the hurdle was always the picks, you gave up the picks. What are we doing? Why is Kyrie Irving a Dallas Maverick right now? I'm very confused and I guess they want certainly LeBron there this summer. Well, they try to put together next year's team. But Chandler's right. This is not a contender now. There's no means to get that player anymore. They had their magic Russell Westbrook trade that they could have made to make the team much better. They passed on it three times and there's no means to contendership now. It's just breaking the record probably tonight, maybe the two days from now. And then that's it. The Lakers season is over. We're just looking towards whatever's next. We're looking towards 2029 because that pick better be a superstar. We're all going to be dead by 2029. Who can even think that far ahead into the future? And by the way, could somebody give Austin Reeves a hug today and just whisper in his ear, it's not your fault. It's not your fault, Austin Reeves. Like you didn't do this. By the way, we, we, by the way, I just want to say we liked, we liked the days when Chandler was outspotted with models, you know, those were the prime days of a TMZ material. So, you know, I just got to get that out there. Chandler. Thanks, Shoms. I like Mary Chandler. I like Mary Chandler. I love Mary Chandler. I love Hayley. Shout out Hayley. Hayley gets a shout out. I just, I just had to say that after the last couple weeks of events. Getting awkward. I love this so much. All right, we're going to take a quick break. Believe it or not, other things happen in the league over the weekend, like a good old fashioned basket brawl. When we come back, Shoms is going to tell us who got in trouble when run it back. Return. Welcome back to run it back. So for those of us who thought the Warriors were about to flip the switch, myself included. They got a bit of bad news on Saturday. Steph Curry injured himself in a game against Dallas Shoms. What's the latest on his status? Yeah, really tough news for the Warriors. He has partial tears of the superior tibial fibular ligaments in his leg, along with a contusion. I'm told that it will be multiple weeks and it could be as little as minimum of around a month, around four weeks. The Warriors are waiting for the swelling to subside in his knee or his leg area. And then after that, they're going to see exactly where he stands and exactly how long he'll be out. He's definitely going to miss all star weekend because this timetable. But right now, this is a Warriors team that's two and a half games out of third place in the West. And they're one and a half games out of the playing entirely. So they're right there, smack dab in the middle of competing for a playoff spot of home court advantage and not being relevant in the playoff run. And no Steph Curry for right now, what could be about one month. Which is crazy. Look, Steve Kerr had a reaction to it. And it was pretty optimistic. I'll read it to you. We know we can hold our own now. We went through this last year. We're confident that we can keep things going and where we want to be by the end of the year. That sounds very optimistic Chandler, but you also just heard Shoms talk about the standings and how wonky they are. Are you as optimistic as Kerr? No, because even with Steph this year, they haven't been that good. And they pretty much where they are with him. And they guess they've dealt with some injuries. They've dealt with Wiggins out play in and out. They've been dealing with things as have all these other teams all year long. But you look at the standings right there. This is a troubling time for them because like Shoms just said, this is when they should make their run. And this is when they should go on a heater here. And without Steph Curry, that's tough. With Jordan Poole hasn't really taken that step. Wiggins has been struggling since he's been back. This is a weird time for them that could go south really, really quickly. And when you talk about a torn ligament and the leg like that, it's a hard, that to me looked like a knee to knee. Like a bone bruise makes sense. But to tear something on an impact like that is very, very strange. I don't know if I've ever seen something like that. But no, listen, again, this is a team that we keep saying we're not worried about. We're not worried about. We're getting, we're in February. This has kind of become who they are. And it's been a roller coaster for them. And as good as those other guys can be, Steph Curry is the Warriors. And so this is a tough time to lose your everything. And guys are going to have to step up. Like we've been saying all year long, these young guys are going to have to step up. Clay is going to have to be more consistent. Wiggins is going to have to get back to how he was and guys are going to all have to kind of step up their game individually and collectively to kind of keep this team afloat until Steph gets back. Because again, if they are fully healthy, going into the playoffs, they can beat anybody. So I think that's where, where Curry is coming from where he's not worried because he still do have a couple of months left. And they aren't right there in the thick of things. But this is a tough time to lose Steph Curry. The last time Steph Curry got hurt, I said, oh, this is their season. This time it really is their season. Even with Steph, they were playing so-so ball. They're a game over 500. They're jumbled up in the standings like everybody else. They cannot afford to miss a month of Steph Curry right now. Thankfully for them, there's a week in the middle for the All-Star break, but it does not look good. And Steve Curry is right. Yeah, they can tread water. They can make it so-so effort. But they need him. They absolutely need him. And the further they slip down the standings, I guess the only good news for them is the Lakers didn't get Kyrie Irving. So that's one piece in the standings. They won't have to work too hard to stay above. So there's your silver lining. Shoms, I know you are uber, uber busy right now. Get out there, make us proud. We'll talk to you in the morning. I can't wait to see what kind of news you drop in the next few hours. I'm scared. We want to keep talking about Steph, guys. You're obviously sticking around because the All-Star game is fast approaching. And now with Steph Curry not expected to play and things are changing up, I ask you this. Eddie, who gets that roster spot? It should be De'Aaron Fox. What I wonder is with Kyrie Irving changing conferences, is it him? And then we had to pick an Eastern Conference player. I would pick Fox. I like Ant as well. But I would definitely pick De'Aaron. I think he was the worst snub. He's average 24 points a game. He's on the third best team of the conference. It should be him. I'd love to see Ant in the game, just period. Like, I don't care what team he's on. I don't care if he's just a ringer you throw out there. Let him go dunk on everybody. But yeah, I'm going with five. Like the beam, all that good stuff. And I think it will be him when it all is said and done. Okay. I like that confidence at the end, Chandler. You agree? I totally agree. I think, listen, these kids had an unbelievable season to have the Sacramento Kings in the third seed of the Western Conference right now. He deserves to be there. And again, when I was playing, I would hate when guys would make the All-Star team. And media would say, this guy shouldn't make it. This guy should have been over him. This year, there was a lot of confusing selections here. And the one I looked at was, listen, Jared Jackson, Jr.'s had a great year. He is the head favorite to win defensive player of the year. But I saw it still by still here of him and Anthony Davis. And it's honestly shocking the stats that they, you know, it's not even close, really, the year that Anthony Davis is having. Obviously, the Memphis Grizzlies are winning more and Anthony Davis has been in and out of the lineup, but they've played nearly the same amount of minutes and the numbers are pretty, pretty crazy. But yeah, I think it's De'Aaron Fox. But I think you could have gone in different ways with this. I think you could have went James Harden over Damar and Drew Holliday. I think you should have gone Brunson over Julius Randall. So I think all guys were deserving. But the one that got snubbed to me the most is De'Aaron Fox. You can't bring the Kings back first playoff bid and, you know, 16 years or whatever it is and have the Kings in the third seed and they only get one All-Star. I don't like that. That seems to be the overall consensus from everyone I've listened to or read about. De'Aaron Fox is the guy. You guys, there was a big fight. Just a big old delicious NBA fight over the weekend. And I just want to, I want to give you the news what's come out of it. So it was Austin Rivers, Mo Bamba, T Wolves in Orlando. Because of what you're watching right now, Mo Bamba has since been suspended four games. Austin Rivers three, Jalen Suggs got a game. The amounts of money here, Mo Bamba is going to lose $284,000 in salary. Rivers will lose about 60. Suggs will lose about 47K. That's 285 grand for an Austin Rivers moment. That's weird. Chandler, your initial reaction when you saw this? Whoa. Like, you know, these NBA dust-ups are, you know, it's kind of fufu. It's a lot of talking. These guys actually went at it. And I don't know what was said over there. If it was, Obama said, Obama said something about, you know, this ain't high school anymore, alluding to the fact that Austin Rivers player in high school, Austin Rivers being from Orlando. Maybe there's a personal beef there that we don't know about. I don't know. But this was nuts. You don't really see a good old fashioned fight like this. Suggs with the choke slam only getting one game was pretty shocking. And the NBA has a no off the bench, very, very, very firm policy. So the fact that Obama wasn't even in the game and is now on the court growing hands, it's pretty fun to see. Dude, the Suggs move is legit, Eddie. I don't have a hat on, but I would love to tip my hat to the NBA for this week, because if I had two guys on top of my life, he just looks so punchable on the court. The top of my list would be Dillon Brooks and Austin Rivers. They just seem so irritating and annoying and just like, I'm shocked it took this long for either one of them to get punched and they got punched in the face within days of each other. This was nuts. Like to get off the bench and go grab him is wild. And for it all to be about that the high school mixtape is even funnier. Mo Bamba probably isn't the guy to talk because as Austin Rivers reminded him, he's just a guy from a Sheck West song from five years ago. But this was wild and this is about as scrappy a fight as we've seen in some time. And the fact that it happened on the whole other end of the court and the announcer is kind of like, whoa, whoa, whoa. This was great. This is the kind of entertainment I need for my fights. Everybody's okay. I don't really feel like anybody didn't handle themselves well. Austin was fighting five people. But my thing about this is like, you know how much of an irritant you have to be for somebody to come off the bench to try to fight you in the middle of the game knowing all the consequences? And the magic were winning this game. And he still did it. Like, I don't know. Austin Rivers, he just does it to people, I guess. But no, this was hilarious. And shout out to Donovan Mitchell for the deal. Dylan Brooks deserved what he got on that play, by the way. Like, I don't know if we're showing that or not, but you can't just grab a guy like that and not get a basketball thrown at your face. So shout out to Donovan Mitchell for that one. By the way, Eddie, for the record, the president of the Punchable Face Club, Grayson Allen, would like a word. Don't you ever leave him off that list again? Thank you so much. He's absolutely on the list. Absolutely. Yeah, no, it was a real... But $285 grand for an Austin River. That's a lot of money, Mo Bamba. I don't know. That ain't worth it. That's a really nice car. It's a really nice car. When we come back, we're going to talk 76ers. Look, they're not in trouble. They have blown two 21-point leads. We need to discuss when we run it back. When we run it back, returns. All right, we are back. Believe it or not, we're going to show some basketball plays right now. What time is it? Yeah, at 9.45. We're going to show you some basketball plays right now. That man's got a family. We had some moments. We have some good ones for you guys to critique or judge as it were. Trey Lyles, you are up first, my friend. Very underrated roll guy for the Kigs, Trey Lyles. And this is nasty. My turn is dunked on a lot, don't he? Goodness. He hit him with the slow-mo Kyle Anderson shot fake right here and threw it on one of the best shot cutters in the NBA. That must have felt nice. That's tough. You get a runway like that. You've got to punch it. And he did. He handled it. I like this one a lot. It's the price he got. Yeah, wait it. Harrison. Mr. Harrison Barnes. Old man Barnes. I think Tatum got him earlier too. This kid's catching some bodies early on in his career. Yo, HB is like corner shooter now. I didn't even know he still had this in him. But yeah, that's tough. That's nice. This is a really good game, by the way. Yeah, I like this matchup. The two bounce is different too. I swear I could barely dunk off two feet my entire career. I was a striker and put jumper. Oh no. This seems angry. Big rock. They should give the Celtics the ball out of this block. Dang, right? That literally went in like eighth row. Yeah, that's like section 104. That's not even court side. That's a whole new section. Well done. I've never seen a block shot possibly hurt somebody. Coming in hot. Real hot. Kendrick Nunn. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Day Day. Jump earlier, Day Day. Goodness. A small guy on a big eyes always looks great. Where was this on the Laker? Right. That's on all the Laker fans. Goodness. Great win for the Nets. Great win for the Nets. Eddie's doing that. Yeah, that's a nice one. God, it looks like so retro with all the lighting. Norman Powell on Julius Arandol. And one. I'm just saying, I think this is my dunk of the year so far. This was ridiculous in the time he did it in the game and everything, and who he did it on. This was ridiculous. Like, whew. Yeah, that's good. Like, I remember he was dunking on guys' heads at UCLA. He is an athlete. He's having a hell of a year too. Oh, six man of the year, maybe. Six man of the year, that's disgusting. That's a guy. Hold him back. All right, so we want to talk some 76ers, Nix. This is from yesterday afternoon. So the Nix, they raced a 21 point first quarter deficit. They end up winning that game. Brunson and Randall with a combined 45, 14 and 14. We're going to start with the winner here first, right? That's only fair, Chandler. How impressive of a comeback is this for New York? This is really impressive. This is, you know, this is a team that's starting to play. Well, Evan Forney got some minutes and had, you know, five threes, I believe. This was a huge, huge win for them. And again, this happens all the time in the NBA where teams get a lead. And I agree with Doc Rivers where they kind of let their guard down. They think it's just going to be a shootout and you're going to score more than the other team. And this didn't happen. And they, and the Nix really locked in defensively in the fourth quarter. And this is the second time this has happened to Philadelphia. And this is a vet team that has the defensive talent and roster to not allow these type of things to happen. And listen, this was, it's just one game at the end of the day, but this cannot start to be a trend for Philly. They're too good. They're too deep. They'd have the talent to be a great defensive team. When you get a lead, it's the common curse is to kind of ease up and allow a team to come back. But this falls on the second unit to, you know, kind of sustain that and build them lead instead of giving it up. Eddie, go ahead. It is a great win for the Nix. I mean, second night of back to back, they played overtime the night before. They actually blew a lead the night before they were up three with like four seconds to go and Clippers sent them to overtime, beat them and over some had that incredible dunk that we just saw. This is a great win for the Nix for the Sixers. It's very troubling because like Chandler said, they've made a little bit of weird habit of this. And this is a game that they had, you know, the game was over. People were turning their TVs off and they made it work. But Jalen Brunson, like as a crunch time scorer, I don't have the numbers right in front of me. I don't know what it is. I know I was pissed when Julius Randall did not give him the ball against the Lakers and for good reason. The way he's able to break down defenses and finish in the paint at that size is absolutely absurd. I cannot believe he's able to do that. He's been incredible down the stretch for them. I agree with Chandler earlier. I think he's the all-star on the Nix. Shout out to Julius Randall. Great season for him as well. But Brunson has been amazing and he carried them yesterday just like he carried them the night before and a few nights before that. And I'm just happy he's getting the line like now and he's getting his respect for what he's doing because he's been incredible all season long. By the way, I've heard a lot of people saying why Randall and not Brunson, Chandler. Is there an explanation? Is it a, hey, he's been there longer. The prize here? I mean, they're both having, they're both deserving, honestly. But I just think when I look at this roster and I look at the season they've had, Brunson's been their best player. He's been their closer. He's the guy that kind of initiates and gets them into everything. He's got the biggest shots for them. To me, it's Jaylen Brunson. And to me, this team is not very good without him. And it just shows you each day what kind of Dallas is missing, what they could have had. So they both deserve it. They're both having a very good year. But yeah, if I had to pick out of these two, it's Jaylen Brunson for me. So weird. By the way, just real quick, how do you fix Philly? I mean, the fact that Doc had to come in and say the second group comes in and thinks it's an offensive, no, you got to play defense. How do you fix them? Because clearly they're good enough to be making some waves, Eddie. But what do you do? I mean, I think it's just a little bit of focus. You shouldn't be downed in games like this. I think the onus is on James Harden and Joellen Bede as well. They have to take control there. They have to be more dominant. They've had great seasons. I think Joellen Bede's still the MVP. The issue for them is, just like you see in those standings, they are below those top two teams. And I think the Celtics and Bucks are the best two teams in the league right now. So it's, you know, they have to find another level for them to get there. The loss to Orlando is embarrassing. We're showing that. How dare you? You know, I think it's on Joellen. He has to be dominated and whether that's fair or not, he's going to have to be the best player in the world for them to advance in the playoffs, two, three, all the way, all the way to the fourth series. And I think he can, you know, that's the thing that's available for them. I think he can, you know, we're in the dog days of February. It's almost all-star game. So you're going to have these lapses. But if they want to lock in, if they want home court against the Bucks or the Celtics, they're going to have to get it going now because those two teams are not looking back. Yeah. When it starts becoming a trend like this in Philly, you got to hold the two best players accountable. And this falls on Joellen B. This falls on James Harden. This falls on Doc Rivers. You know, you have to be able to stop the bleeding in a run like this, but you cannot let your guard down. Teams are too good this year. The NBA players are too good. It doesn't matter who you're playing, if they're tanking, if they're not in the playoffs, if they're a top three seed, it doesn't matter. These dudes are talented and they're not going to stop playing until the whistle blows zero. So this kind of falls on the best team, slow down to the best player, slow down, get in your offense, call a timeout, get a, you know, three stops in a row and kind of have that mentality to kind of avoid these late, you know, late crunch time, you know, smoke jobs that they're having the last six days. I like to call the mini collapses for now anyways. We're going to take a quick break here. When we come back, new week, new us. We are about to go on a hot street tear with our Arles when Run It Back returns. Well, Eddie, I guess Chandler and I owe you a huge apology since we suck at this. Chandler, would you like to apologize as well? I didn't know at the time Kyrie was going to ask for a trade here. I actually think I may have, but yeah, we got to be better. Yeah, we're going to be, you know what? The good news is today's a fresh start. We get to do it again. Eddie, what's your, what's your like today? I got the Kings five, even with the spread against the Rockets. Look, if you're supposed to be a contender, these are the games you're supposed to win, Kings. There. Make it happen. Beat the Rockets by six. It's not too much to ask. All right, Chandler. I like the Warriors minus four against Oklahoma City. I know Steph's out, but okay, she's kind of all over the place. They play hard, but I just like the Warriors kind of getting on track without Steph tonight. I'm going to go jazz minus nine and a half against Dallas. I think this is just absolute chaos and the mabs are confused and it's going to be a massacre. That's it. It's a guarantee. Probably not. We'll see you guys in the morning. Bye.