 run it up, run it back, run it up, run it back, run it back, run it up, run it back. Good Tuesday morning and once and lastly, happy new year everybody. Today's the cut off. Is there anything you need to say? Happy new year to all. Go ahead to get it out of your systems now. Okay, good. We're all on the same page. I'm challenging Mexico. What does it matter? Stadium Insider, Sean Charania, Chandler Pee from down south. Lou Will with the fancy setup. I like that. It looks very profesh. I did not have this on my bingo card in a weekend full of sports and fun shums but we had a big old trade over the weekend. The Knicks making moves. They get OG and a Nobby Precious Achooa, Malachi Flynn. They ship out RJ Barrett and Manuel Quickly at a 2024 second round pick. I remember my phone buzzing. I was like, ooh, things are happening shums. Why did this go down the way it did? For the Knicks in a lot of ways, it's consolidating the roster. You trade with RJ Barrett and Manuel Quickly. You move out 35 points in your lineup but you're getting OG on a newbie back. Great defender, better all-around defender than the other two players that you traded away. You have just 15 points a game but you're hoping in this type of a role, he's starting, he's really going to be the third, fourth option on many nights for this Knicks team. He's going to be able to potentially have a bigger role in this offense. And really off the bench, how will this impact players? Quinton Grimes is someone that's fallen out of the rotation. Some of this was also to get him back into the rotation, get him more minutes. And the Knicks have gone after OG and a Nobby for the last year. So last year around the trade deadline, they offered the Raptors a package around Gazzik Evan Fournier and first round picks. This year, they get him. Only give up one second round pick but you give up two better players and RJ Barrett and Emmanuel Quickly for the Raptors. Those two guys are going to be able to come in immediately and start Emmanuel Quickly. This is someone with tremendous upside, we have not seen the best of Emmanuel Quickly yet in the NBA. Now he's going to go to Toronto, he's going to be the starting point guard. RJ Barrett gets a new change of scenery, he gets to play back home. And so for the Raptors, they view this as a fresh opportunity and really a new infusion for this team. They've been kind of going down this path of trying to figure out are we going to keep going around Pascal Siakam, Scottie Barnes, OG on Nobby and the first process starts with OG on Nobby getting traded. They have decisions to make still though with Pascal Siakam. But both of those guys entering free agency, this was the time over the next month or so where they're going to have to decide on their future as they made one decision over the weekend. I felt like finally one of the Toronto pieces has fallen because we've talked about this all the time. Chandler, I'll start with you. Do you like the deal for the Knicks? I do. I like it for the Knicks because I think OG is the best player in this trade. And like Sean said, I think this is kind of a lateral move, right? I think this frees up some players on the Knicks and now we're going to get more opportunity like Equiton Grimes, like a Josh Hart, like a D'Vincenzo. They just extended McBride to give him a little deal. So I've looked for him to get in the road, but yeah, I don't think this puts them over the top. I don't think this makes them a contender. I think it makes it better defensively. OG can clamp the best wing or smaller post-up player on the opposing teams. So I think he gets a little bit more there. And this just ran its course with the R.J. Barrett, Randall, it just ran its course. I think just having a fresh start, R.J. getting to go home, OG coming to New York, pairing with Jaylen Brunson, who's a great player and it's going to make the game easier for him. I do like it from that point. I like that they kept all their first round picks. So I also like Preston Situ. I think he's going to come in and get some minutes and kind of expand his role. I don't know much about Melakae Flet, I know he can shoot it, but I do like it from the next, but does it really, does it move the needle? No, but I think it had to happen. Yeah, I'm curious to see what happened with this next team. And like both of you guys just mentioned, it gives them a better balance. You know, OG is a guy that's going to come in. He's going to be able to guard other teams' best players. He's also going to be able to play off of the ball. And so that allows Jaylen Brunson and that allows Julius Randall to be naturally scores themselves and not worry about a third guy won the ball. You know, OG is going to score the ball. He's going to make wide open shots. He's going to cut back door, can play off of the block a little bit. So this gives this team a great balance. But I also like it, you know, for the Toronto Raptors as well, for a team that needs it, that wants to play faster, that needs more of a scoring punch, you know, they got two guys that can put the ball in the hole. So this gives Emmanuel quickly an opportunity to shine, to come out of that six man role and be a starting lead guard for a team. So this is going to be interesting on both sides. I don't know if this gets the Knicks over the hump, but it definitely gives them an opportunity to play at a better clip than they have been. And we'll get back to Shams on that as well. But he had 17 yesterday. It was his big debut, I'm sure, having your first game in the garden, big game, Minnesota Timberwolves, fouled on a really stupid call. But Brunson had a bad shooting day as well, and they won. So I know it's just won in a sample size channeler. But as far as him fitting in specifically with Randall, with Brunson, do you like that? I do. And I think it is a good fit. Like we just said, he's a versatile player. He's not going to go and get you 35-40. It's not his game. He's valuable in other aspects of the game. He's a Swiss Army Knight. He can do it all. He can defend. He's not really a knockdown shooter. Everybody can shoot better than R.J. Barrett. Think he'll space the floor a little bit more. He's good at the transition from the rim. I do like it from that standpoint. And again, this is the first game, you know, taking with the grain of salt. But I like what he brings. Like I said, sometimes just to change a scenery, a fresh start, all the route, like I think Chicago is going to be in such a much better place once they just get off Levine, once they move to come to distraction and annoying for fans, for guys on the team, for the staff. You don't know who's going to be in, who's going to be out. So I just felt like this is a great move for Toronto and the next just just to get it over with. Getting it over with. Oh, that's lovely, Lou. Choms, let me ask you this. Yeah, I mean, oh, go ahead. No, that's it. Everything has been said. You know, we've only seen a sample size so far. It's only been one game, but it looks like it's a good move for both sides. All right, Choms, they kept their first round draft picks. Can we go ahead and expect something else coming down? The Knicks have all the flexibility. They've maintained all their assets. They still have eight first-round picks, Michelle, to trade. Up to eight first-round picks. They still have a trade eligible. Guys like Evan Fournier, that's an expiring contract that you can put into a deal. He's making significant money. That gets you into a position to make a trade for a really valuable player around the league. I expect them to prioritize playmaking. They're always going to have interest in Carl Anthony Towns, but nothing is materialized as of yet. They have the pieces, they have the contracts, they have the young players. Guys like Quinton Grimes that you can potentially throw into a trade. I'm curious about Quinton Grimes' future out of everyone on that Knicks bench. We know Josh Hart, he's locked in. Dante DiVincenzo, he signed the infre-agency. He's locked in as part of their future. But Quinton Grimes, a young player that they've really held off on trading over the Diamond Mitchell talks a couple summers ago. They valued him, but he's fallen out of the rotation. Does he get back in the rotation with this trade? Does he still stay out? Do they try to move him? What happens with this future? That's going to be something curious to me, but overall in the grand scheme of this trade, like Chandler said, I think it's tough to say that the Knicks for sure won, but anytime you have Julius Randall and you have Jalen Brunson, those are your one-two options on any given night. It's tough to also have RJ Barrett and Emmanuel Quickly, who are clearly scores first. They value, and they're a lot more beneficial for Toronto right now in this stage. Good. Let's talk Toronto for a second, because you more than anyone here know how many times we've talked about the Raptors, Pascal Siakam, OG Ananobi, are they getting traded? Is this the time? And finally we have one. So let me ask you this. You mentioned it earlier in the show, the fact that the price for OG Ananobi last season was much higher. And they were willing to drop it now. Were you surprised by that A? And is it telling in the sense that maybe they are willing now to hear deals that maybe weren't exactly what they wanted to hear last season? Meaning, where's Siakam going? Go. I mean, on OG Ananobi, the tricky part with first-strong picks is it can get rumoured like the Grizzlies or the Knicks or whoever could offer three first-strong picks for a player. But if those first-strong picks are in the 20s, a team might be more apt to just go with an offer like this one, where you're getting two players who can start for you immediately, score 35 to 40 points. Like, RJ Baird and Emmanuel Quickly on this roster are good for all, potentially 40 points a night for you. As OG Ananobi was giving you 15 points a night, clearly something needed to change there. That dynamic wasn't going well. He was going into the agency. Pascal Siakam is an interesting place because he has not made progress on an extension with the Raptors from what I'm told. There hasn't been significant conversations on an extension. He's eligible for an extension four years up to $191 million. And the fact that he's an expiring contract who has not yet extended, I mean, Chandler and Lou both played long enough to know what that means. If you're not extended going into the final year of your deal, the Raptors have to keep all their options open. That means listening to offers on Pascal Siakam, but he's been there. They have a high value on him. It'll be interesting to see what will the price tag be on Siakam if his appetite is not there to commit on a long-term deal anywhere else. I think when I talk to team executives around the league, there's no doubt he could be the next domino potentially over the next month, month and a half. They're building everything around Scotty Barnes in Toronto. He's their guy. He's their max player moving forward. He's the untouchable. All right, so we're going to keep track a little bit. RJ Baird had 19. Quickly had 14 against the Cavs. You're looking at him right there. They're 13 and 20, which is only good enough for 12th in the East right now. Chandler, you want to start telling me how these guys fit in Toronto? Yeah, like Lou mentioned earlier, obviously quickly in the starting lineup, this is a whole nother role for him. This is a talented score that's been thriving in the sixth man role that I think obviously has more than enough talent and potential to become a bona fide starting point guard off guard in the NBA. So I love him here. RJ Baird, him going home, that's huge. There's a certain amount of pressure and expectations when you do something like this. But also there's this breath of fresh air and there's this excitement where, you know, he's from Toronto. That's a great opportunity for him. And when you look at this roster, I think obviously Siaco, I think he's clearly next, right? And then once they get that over their head, Scotty Barnes is their guy, but I love Boucher. I love Gary Trent. You know, they have these young pieces now that they could really continue to add here and there and become a real threat in the Eastern Conference. So I like to trade for them. RJ Baird as the third picker from the draft, I think people expected him to kind of blow up a little bit more than this. He's got to continue to work on his outside shooting. I don't think he was the best fit in New York next to Julius Randall, but I think he'll really thrive here. And for the Knicks, I can argue that they're going to miss quickly more than Baird because he was that hard plug off the bench. He's that bucket getter. So I do like both of these guys here. And like I said, I think it's a pretty lateral move. I think OG is the best player in this trade. So if I had to give an advantage, I'd say the Knicks won the trade. But I think it ended up like a Sacramento, Indiana trade where this works out for both. Yeah. And it doesn't look like a rebuild to me. You know, obviously Siaka may move, but they're still going to keep some really good young pieces on this basketball team. And they're showing you that they're changing their identity. They're just going to go out and try to outscore basketball teams. They're going to try to play it, play fast, play up and down type of basketball game and try to outscore teams to win games. Yeah. The second biggest story of the weekend and perhaps the biggest winner of this trade was the Detroit Pistons. Timing is everything, ladies and gentlemen, because they got the Raptors on the tail end of that 129, 129, 227. They finally break the streak at 28. My goodness. Kate Cunningham with 30-12, zero turnovers. Kate Cunningham's leadership, his play, his skill level, his future. We talked so much about that. Yeah, I know. Are you crying? Did somebody here call it? I feel like one of you guys said Toronto. Did I make that up? Somebody called it. I think I did, but I don't know. Well, yeah, both of you did. That makes sense. Chandler, his leadership. I mean, look, it couldn't have been easy. 28 losses in a row is unfathomable. And yet he kept showing up. He kept saying the right things. What can you say about Kate Cunningham? Well, it's hard to say anything is impressive about this historical run, right? This is, this is, this is hard to do. I'm here in Cabo with James Donnelly, the Kate's agent. And you don't believe the press, even he's going on through watching these games, just hoping to get off the snide. Because if there's one bright spot on this team, it's Kate Cunningham. And it's the way he's played. You see his numbers there. 30-12, zero turnovers. He's this big body point guard that makes everyone around him better. He can get to the hoop. He can get to his mid-range. He is a stud. And when I watched this game against Toronto, they didn't look that bad. Like when I'm watching them play, I love, I know Durham's been in and out of the lineup. Isaiah Stewart's out of the lineup. They have solid vets. I love by Donovitch. I love Alec Berks. There's just certain pieces on this team that don't really fit. Some of these young guys, some of the guys they went with in the draft, I don't think are very good. And this team, Kate Cunningham, especially he needs shooting. He needs, he needs buddy healed. He needs Malik monks. He needs these scores that can get in a bucket and help them out. Killian Hayes doesn't really do it for them. You know what I mean? So they need certain players to fit this mole, which they don't have. But it's crazy to say, I don't think they're in the world for shape. I'd rather have their current roster than Charlotte. I'd rather have their current roster than Washington. So when you look at the youth they have and Kate Cunningham has this star going forward. Yeah, I see it. But there are long ways away. And it's hard to say anything was really impressive during this awful stretch, but they play hard. Monty Williams is going to get them to play hard every single night. Hopefully they learn from this and just they just started off a new streak last night with another L, but we'll see where it goes from here. You're the worst. You'd rather have this lineup than Charlotte's right now? That's what I was hearing. For the future, for sure. And Washington for sure. I think I think I don't see it. Those guys give me two stars. I don't see anything on Charlotte's besides LaBello ball. I love Doran. I love Kate Cunningham. Brandon Miller. Yeah, man. I personally like these. I like these better than those two. Wow. Look. Like Monty, the point guard that they took from Denver, I like by Donovitch. I like they just they need to add more. It reminds me of not nearly the town, but the Lakers first team that throughout there, they didn't even make sense. Didn't even fit. There's nowhere to go. There's nowhere for them to try. There's no spacing. There's no shooting. The team just doesn't make sense. Yeah. Wait a minute. Listen, remember, I had this team picked as a playoff team. So I was very confident that bringing Monty Williams in and the talent that they had on this roster, that they would make some strides and become the Detroit Pistons team that they think they can be. Listen, they've won a game, but I'm still not so. You know, this is still a team that's won three games over the season. And like you said, they've already started a new losing streak. And so I'm just not so on the talent that's on this team. I like I like Duran. I like Isaiah Stewart. After that, blow this whole thing up. Let's start fresh. And like you mentioned, Chandler, they need some other guys that can put the ball in the hole. If you look at the if you look at that film after they win, Kay Cunningham looks exhausted. He put everything that he had into trying to go out there and win a basketball team. This is not going to be good for them moving forward. And so they got to get more talent around them. It's just I played against some bad like that Philly team back in the day, the Cleveland team. Those were bad like rebuilding teams. We're talking about like a Sir Thompson, J-90. We're talking about bona fide top 10 picks. Is all I'm saying for like their future. Maybe they've taken them a little bit longer. But when I watched them against Toronto, it's like I lose 28 in a row. It's lose two straight months. That's hard to do, especially. I mean, they play hard. It's just, it's really mind boggling to me that this group could lose that. Not saying that they're great, but 28 in a row is unbelievable. That's fair. It's a reminder, by the way, for everyone who thinks they could take on an NBA player that even the worst team with 28 losses has dudes that are just so much better than everyone else. And it's probably why it's confusing, Shoms, as we all sit here and watch this. Because as Chandler said, there are top picks on this team. And yet, so now I ask you this, what happens next? This is the trade deadline approaches. What are we expecting Detroit to do? They have some veteran players, like Chandler said, you have Boyanburg Dynamics, you have Monte Morse, you have Alec Birx. Those guys will get trade interest. There are teams right now calling the Pistons on those guys. We'll see if they move them. The Pistons have had multiple first round picks at different points to trade Boyanburg Dynamics. They haven't. They've held on to him. They have 50 to 60 million in caps facing free agency. I think that's where their focus is in the summertime, striking on a couple frontline players. You think about, we talked about it last week, getting a four. Now that Ojean and Obi's off the board, you look at guys like Pascal Siakum. He's still out there to buy his hairs. We'll be a real target for them. Miles Bridges will be in the mix as well. So they're going to look at free agency as a way to get their team better. They're probably going to have, like, let's be honest, they're probably going to have to pay, overpay a player to get players in there. Because, you know, this is an interesting situation for sure. They started off the year 2-1-1. They had playoff aspirations in Detroit. I don't think they expected this year to go this way. Hey, you know what's crazy? We talked about how bad they are because they lost 2-1 straight. There are three games behind Washington. They just have spaced out their losses. So it's not like Washington and Charlotte, by the way, there's four games above them. So as people have been, they might not even finish last. I'm taking it. They might not even finish last at the Eastern Conference. So again, there's other teams too that are in the holes like this. You're still alive, Lou. You're still alive. I'm not giving up yet. They're 10 games out of the play, Lou. They're 10 games out of the play. It's possible. No. I'm not rolling. I'm not rolling. I take the seven games over three every day. I don't care. Oh, man. That put it into perspective. All right, we're going to take a quick break when we come back. Our guest today, Meta World Peace joins the show. It's going to be good, y'all. Run it back. Run it up. Run it up. Run it back. Run it up. Run it back. Run it back. Run it up. Dry played in the league 17 years. He's a champ. He's a defensive player of the year. He's Meta World Peace. And Meta, I got to tell you, I love when we have guys on that spend a little time with Lou Will because he's a very secretive man. He doesn't like to share too much. So if you could just give us a little bit about Lou. What was it like spending time playing with him? Man, shout out. Good morning, everybody. Playing with Lou, man. It's been great because I was at the end of my career. I was kind of going through an identity crisis because I wanted to still play honestly. I'm so competitive, but Lou always kept things in perspective and he was a leader to the young guys. Lou was like a leader to the older guys and a leader to the young guys. I mean, it was a joy. It was like, you know, kind of build a great relationship. You know, even though we didn't see each other much after, I went back to school, we did a bunch of other things. But, you know, Lou definitely stands out for sure. Hopefully that wasn't too sentimental, Lou. Yeah, Lou, right? No, that was perfect, man. Our times playing together was an experience, man. Between us trying to bring the young guys along, farewell tour, and trying to stay competitive at the same time. It was definitely an eye-opening experience and we built great relationships out of that. You know, my son calls you Uncle Mehta. He spends a lot of time around you and your family. Yeah, so, you know, we developed great relationships out of that experience. For sure, man. I love to take care of him. Yes, that's my little dude, man. Every time he come over, he's got a lot of energy. He might be a six-man. He might be a six-man like you, man. He might be a six-man like you. Yeah. He hasn't picked that ball up yet, but I'm giving him some time, so. Come on. I like that. No pressure. All right, your first stand with the Lakers was with Kobe. You guys won the championship. Can never get enough Kobe stories. What was it like to play with him? Did he make you better? What are your biggest memories? Man, I love Kobe. RIP Kobe. Kobe is so competitive. Honestly, the first time I got there, you know, we didn't have much to say. I think he wanted to see. He just told me, don't mess it up. Hey, they tell me that. But I've never heard much from Kobe. I mean, I knew the Triangle. I kind of, I was a math major, too, so the concepts made sense. So I caught on to the Triangle, like, right away. And then other than that, my work ethic was probably second to none. Maybe Kobe's just probably up there. So other than that, we just talked about the game. We never really went out, never had lunch, none of that stuff, no dinner. But on that court, we was, we were synced. The second year after that was kind of tough. But Kobe overall, you know, seeing them in the gym at 5.30, we heard these stories, 5.30 a.m., working on that Japs, working on that pivot, you know, all that type of stuff. That's Kobe. Matt, you spend those four years with the Lakers. You win a championship. Then you go on to the Knicks. And then you come back to Lakers for a couple of seasons. What was different when you saw Kobe the second go around? What was different with him those two years than compared to the first four? He was way more fun. You know, like, I was talking to him at the end of my career. I had a little knee injury at the end. And then Kobe was just trying to finish out his career. But he was way more fun. The second time he was talking to rookies, laughing a little bit. And, you know, my first step with the Lakers, that was, and so, you know, he was just really, really serious all the time. But it was good to see him just kind of let his guard down a little bit, even though he still would compete when he was in the game, as we saw. But I was happy to see that he let his guard down. Matt, in 2010, you won that championship with the Lakers and hit that huge Game 7 3-ball assisted by Kobe, actually. What do you remember the most about that shot? How special was that shot? It was crazy. It just summed up my career. I mean, I got a big ego when it comes to basketball. I think I'm better than what I am. But I needed that bad. Like, I needed that championship to fill my ego, because, honestly, I don't know if I would have been able to live with myself without a championship. I got one. It's not enough. And he, you know, it was kind of surreal that he passed the ball to the right. But, you know, you had to stay ready. I remember that playoffs, I was actually with my therapist. She from Houston. So I flew her in because, you know, you just got to be ready. Some games, you're taking four shots. Some games, you're taking two shots in the playoffs. You're never in a rhythm. You know, so you just got to play in a rhythm, though. And playing in a rhythm isn't going to look bad on a stat sheet, because you're playing in a team rhythm, but, you know, your shots are not full. You just got to try everything, you know, deny, box out, correct passes, sprint back. You know, you got to try to do all these things that don't show up in a stat sheet that you get no credit for. And then on top of that, squaring up, right? Squaring up when the ball comes, let it go. Some days you're going to look bad. Some days you're going to look good. And that was just like, probably, you know, just summarized my career. Getting defensive player early, you know, being an all NBA team, all start early and then going through the broad and kind of awards going away, all the stuff, all the recognition going away, all the stuff getting awards. At that time, that championship just like, I just couldn't think. I didn't think the basketball gods would ever give me a championship. You know, we've talked about you playing with Kobe and winning the championship. But throughout the course of your career, you've played against them almost 30 times. What do you remember about those battles? I remember about him winning 70% of those battles. I got him calculated in my head. I got the first battle in Chicago. I blocked his shot to go in the overtime. It was a great block. It was a crazy block. But other than that, he won the rest of the battle. So, playing against Kobe was crazy because he wasn't lightening quick. But he was just so mentally tough, so he will wear on you mentally. So those games, you know, I think maybe once or twice I went out the night before, but for the most part, I was never going out the night before playing against Kobe. I was sleeping and getting my rest. Because you're talking about a 50 piece. You don't want to be on the other side. That was your matchup. Yeah, that was my matchup all night. I love that it circled. Like, don't go out the night before that. Okay, you know what lists do to sports fans and all of us who do this for a living. We love lists. We also love to see who's left off of lists. So you did your top 10 not that long ago, but in the top five, neither Kobe nor LeBron was on the top five. Did you get here for that and talk to me about who who is your top five? I mean, I'm not going to like this change a lot, but shout out to LeBron. I love LeBron, you know, and Kobe, obviously I play with Kobe and I live in Los Angeles. But I think you got a guy like Will. I'm changing. He's number one. This is right there. But when you got a guy like Will, Will only averaged 13 points this first season. So everybody's saying he played against fireman. Well, those firemen kept him to 13 points and then 20 the next season. Will put in so much work where eight season later, later he averaged 50 and Will also played against Karim Adujabal and Karim played it. You see, I'm saying so from that perspective, Will blocked a lot of Karim shots and we put Karim as number one sometimes. So you can't forget about the dead. You know, Will was a dominant force and then Bill Russell with those 11 championships even though he wasn't scoring a lot, but he also averaged 22 rebounds along with Will. I think that's number one. You know what I'm saying? So from that perspective, you can't just bypass Bill Russell, you know, and then you have a couple others. I forget who else I had up in there. Your magic. Yeah, people sleep on magic. And magic is he's older, he's a politician. He don't give himself a lot of credit, you know, but magic is asleep with magic. You look at Magic's stat line, you know, his awards, he was the man on that team. You know, without magic, they don't get over the hump and those five rings is with the Lakers. So you got to give him some credit. And I don't think people give Shaq enough credit. I got Shaq at 10 somewhere over there. You know, Shaq has arguably top five, but I think Shaq got bored with the game. Shaq stopped working hard and that's why people passed him, you know, because Shaq just, you know, he got bored. It was too easy. The same thing with Michael Jordan. Will Chamberlain, if you got to think about what he did, he said I'm going to set records so nobody could ever pass. That was the league first start. So he was already seeing the future. And I think Michael Jordan just got bored, but LeBron is doing what Will did. So LeBron, when he retires and it's all said and done, we got to give him that, though, his flowers. There's no way he's not number one. He put in the work. He, you know, he's a great man off the court. I'm not saying others are not, I'm not saying to, you know, to be with the same family. That is really difficult, along with being one of the greatest players that... So I think when LeBron retires, I'm going to give him the nod. Mehta, is it true that you crack two of MJ's ribs in a game of one-on-one? How did that happen? What happened? Take us through it. What? Man, you know, actually, I didn't release that story. That story was released by my good friend, Sam Smith from the Chicago Tribute. You know, I'm not going to snitch on Michael Jordan, but when that story came out, I was 19 or 20 years old. And we was, you know, I was super competitive. People didn't really know how what I was bringing when I was 19. So we was in this gym where LeBron was there, a young 15-year-old LeBron, Antoine Walker, Finley, Jordan, and a bunch of other people. You know, and my defense was I had a lot of energy. I didn't really get tired. And I was super strong coming in. So Michael was just posting me up. And he had referees and everything. So he was posting me up on the left block. And as I was denying him, you know, Michael put his arms and holds you. When Michael holds you, you can't get around. And one of the issues with Mike is if you let him touch the ball, he going to score. So in those games, those games were super competitive. So as I was denying, I moved his arm out the way. And then the ref called the offensive foul. And so he actually got called for offensive foul. But then I hit him by mistake with my right elbow, went into his ribs. And, you know, and then I found out I broke his ribs. I was in a bed for like two days. I didn't go to practice. I taught summer practice. I was sick. I couldn't even get out the bed. And my agent called me and said, man, you got to go to practice. I said, I broke Michael Jordan's ribs. I think I can't even function right now. And then Mike called me. And then Mike called me. Mike was like, hey, man, that happens. I want you to keep coming back to the gym. I was like, sorry, Mike, that's crazy. Mike hit me up. Then I went back to practice, summer practice. Summer practice. Would you say, would you say, would you say MJ is probably one of the toughest players for you to guard? Yo, Mike was, yeah, Mike is definitely the toughest. He's not as fast as LeBron. Don't jump as high. Not as strong. LeBron for something different. And Kobe also brings something different. Very similar with Mike. But Mike is strong, efficient. It ain't like you're going to contest his shot. And he, you know, he's going to be on balance. Good space. Definitely the toughest dude I've played against for sure. Who would you think would be the toughest guard for you right now in today's game? I look at it a lot. I just stopped being a competitive maybe two years ago. I couldn't sleep with myself. I just stopped thinking about the game like that. But I looked at some guys' career as it went on and on. You can't tell the first day you see a guy the first year or even at first entrance into being a star. So you got to give it a yes to see, like, wow, you know, I think I'm not going to put no names on it. Honestly, I'm not going to put no names on it. There. But there's definitely a few guys I feel like I would have for sure shut down. And then there's definitely a few guys I'm like, ooh, you know, maybe I don't have a chance. You know, like Kobe, you know, don't really have LeBron, you know, you don't really have a shot. Trying to get that. You also played with one of my favorite players, Tracy McGrady, and he was so cold. And I feel like people don't talk about him enough as a one-on-one scorer. It's a scorer in general. What was it like playing with him? Was he one of the hardest matchups in practice or regarding him? Man, that's what T-Mack growing up. Yeah, T-Mack was, he was hurt when I got to Houston. But that first training camp, that training camp was incredible because the thing, the pieces we had was incredible. People forget about the Ken Bay Mottumble. The Ken Bay were average 10-10 when he got into the game. The Ken Bay was playing incredible before he broke his knee in the playoffs. I was playing only eight minutes a game before T-Mack got hurt. Then I started playing and kind of showed what I could do, but that team was stacked. T-Mack got hurt, I think, 25 games in. So then, but, you know, when I was playing with him, you know, to watch him play, and it was pretty impressive. He could pass the ball. He could score the ball. He's such an unselfish player. He's just so gifted offensively. But definitely one of my favorite players. Definitely. All right, Metta. We've got to talk Draymond Green for a second. Obviously, suspended indefinitely. The Nurkitsch hit was the final straw seemingly there. And part of his suspension is he's got to go through some counseling. You know, we all know your past. You've been very outspoken about everything and what you've done to sort of better yourself. Like, do you reach out to a guy like Draymond? Would you give him advice? Are you comfortable doing that? I mean, definitely, I think Draymond's an elite winner. And I think that just, I want that to be highlighted. You know, you don't want the, you know, this part to be highlighted. I definitely always reach out. Any time I see a guy getting into trouble, I don't always get a response. I used to. But, you know, I'm always there for any player going through anything. That's an open line for any player. Even though I, transparently, I do have my own agencies, but I'm not trying to steal any players. But I just want to see players do well. You know, I want to see players do well. I think Draymond's going through a little bit, right? Because you're not as good as you used to be. You're not young, you're not as young as you used to be. You're not as good as you used to be. But you're still competitive. And you got to, you know, you got to, you got to be a little give and take. So I think he needs to take off the competitiveness a little bit and just have this fun, have some fun, ride it out. I was super competitive my last year, but actually my last, it's the season before my last year, but then I started to talk more to rookies, you know, growing up in the 90s and stuff like that. You just don't have friends. You don't have friends on the court. And I think, like, if Draymond doesn't take his foot off the gas a little bit, I think, you know, those friendships he could, he could make and those people, he could help. There's young players out there right now that's probably like another young Draymond, right? But Draymond is so competitive, he don't see it like that. He just sees food, you know? So from that perspective, I just hope he takes, takes his foot off the gas a little bit. His legacy is cemented already. There's nothing else for him to prove. He's a winner. He's going to be in all of it, right? So there's nothing else for him to prove, but to go out there and have fun. And hopefully, you know, he can take that into consideration. Matt, as one of the best perimeter defenders ever, who do you think is the best defender in the game today? Right now, you know, I like that kid Max from Philly because he's doing it on both ends. You know, he's, he's, he's super unique. Obviously before Kawhi's injury, I like Kawhi. Obviously Rudy's just walking away with a bunch of defensive play of the years. I got a little salutation on my mouth when I see so many people walk away with multiple because I shot myself in the foot. I should have had two or three of them, but I'm just getting suspended all those other nonsense, but Rudy's like walking away with it. But in terms of just like, you know, on the ball, guarding, I got to go with that kid Max because he's doing it on both ends. That's pretty hard. Are you talking, are we talking about Maxie? Yeah. Yeah, he's pretty, he's pretty. Yeah, he can score and can lock up. That's a high praise. Yeah. All right, that's very high praise. I like the praise part of things because you, you talked a little Victor women, Yama, obviously I'm a huge Spurs fan and that was a big moment for all of us. And you said he could average 40 at some point. You still seeing that or what, what is it that you see in him? I mean, just take away the size. That's, we all see that, but what? Yeah. He, he's the closest to will that we'll have, that we'll have to see. Um, you gotta remember will average 13 points his first year. Um, and 20 plus rebounds. But, um, but I think this kid going beef up, he going to get better and he going to run into a, oh, he going to run into like a Detroit Pistons from this year or the Clippers from 20 years ago. And he don't go get a hundred and one at some point in time in the next seven years. You know, he's going to get a hundred and one. Yeah. He's going to for sure catch a rhythm where some rookie that can't guard, don't know how to deny, can't backdoor, making a ton of mistakes. And boom, 101 piece, averaging 40. I think you don't see it from here. Okay. There's a banner race for that. I don't want to hear any argument. If you get a hundred and one, you get a banner. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. I think he, I think he's going to be, even though Chet having a better year, but he's on the way by the team. Yeah. So I think it's going to be special, especially when he beefed up. Remember Giannis? I didn't even know Giannis was going to be there. I didn't know this kid was, he's just some string being running out there. Now he's like a force. I think this is this year. I think when Giannis going to be like that. You also gave really high praise to Jalen Brunson saying he could be a top seven, I think Nick player of all time. What have you seen from him just to kind of, to justify that and to see so much of him? Well, he's young. He's putting up numbers at a fast pace. And then also, you know, I think in a garden, it's hard to play in a garden as we know, the rims shrinks in the garden. For him, it seems like it's wide open. Like he's super confident, not worried about the fans, not worried about the weather, Nick fans. You know, we are all bad bandwagon fans in New York, all of us. This kid seems very comfortable in the lines there. So you got to imagine he's going to do this for a couple more years. And I got to imagine that other free agents see this and they're like, okay, I want to compare him because he, the leader looks very comfortable. Obviously Julius Randall's really playing well in the garden also. Now, it's not easy to play well in the garden, you know, and for somebody to play well, he's playing, what point guard played better than him? You know, how many point guards? Not many, maybe Mark at some point in time. You know, so I think this kid is going to, for sure be in the playoffs, championship, you know, we'll see. But for sure be in the playoffs, they'll get past the first round at some point. They might make the Western Conference finals. And at that point, it's all about, you know, the players you have on the team. The coaching is pretty solid. You know, so I think he's going to walk away with at the end of his career. If he stays or Nick and just, you know, just keep working hard, you know, staying in shape. Don't get out of shape, stay in shape, and just finish your career strong. You can see him being a top knit, all-time knit. Nick's fans everywhere are very happy. Madda, before we let you go, you were on the Masked Singer, a show that just perplexes me, honestly. You were the cuddle monster. How does that come about? I didn't know. You could sing? How does that even happen? No, I cannot. I cannot sing. Yeah, Lou told me how to sing. You know, Lou got bars. It was fun. I try to stay off TV, honestly, but, you know, I'm always getting called to do TV. And then I told my wife, I don't feel like doing this one. And then my friend, they said, dude, it's going to be fun. And my daughter was like, you got to do it. It's going to be fun. I said, all right, cool. Yeah, I'll do it. And then when I got there, I had way more fun. I mean, I do like to have fun. I do like to entertain. But nowadays, I'm just not interested in anything television. But that show was fun. It's the only time you get a chance to sing like you in the shower with, you know, you know how that go? You're in a shower. You start singing. You think you look the Vandross. We all sound good. Everybody's out there in the shower. They put a little auto tour on my voice. I was like, all right, we good. God, that's awesome. Yeah, that would be a fun one. I'd like to see everyone. Metta, I know, I know you just said you don't want to do TV, but we appreciate you doing it this morning. Oh, for sure. Hopefully you'll come on again. It's been a pleasure. Absolutely. Thanks for having me, Lou. Thank you. My brother. Good to see you. Good to see you. You all have a great season. All right. Thank you, sir. We'll be back with that band. How's the family? After this. Run it up. Run it back. Run it up. Run it back. Run it up. Run it back. Run it up. Run it back. Run it up. And some of these are hard to watch. Oh. Okay. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. There you go, Chandler. Hi, Morgan. Get no chance to block. He's literally under the bass. Trying to block Anthony Davis here. Yeah. I'm surprised you even bothered. Yeah. No, no, no, no. Coming in hot. Anthony Davis on a tear. Peyton Watson. No comment. I like this kid's game a lot. This kid's game a lot. I don't even know what we're supposed to say here, y'all. Yeah. This is a lot. This just makes sense. Sometimes I get caught up in just watching the highlights. I forget I got to talk. This one's mean. Hurdle doesn't jump high. We all know that. Why is that, Michelle? Don't make me say it, Chandler. Also, he just doesn't jump high. He's just smiling. And they won this game. Come on. I know. This is a big moment. Oh, man. All right. Oh, gosh. On Tyler. Oh, this is going to be bad. Oh. Oh, yeah. I actually thought Tyler was going to finish that. I guess I should have read the caption. No, no, it's better if you don't. This could have just as easily went the other way because he tried to really throw it on him here. He was about to do something bad here, but mm-mm. That's a good one. All right. That might be my favorite so far. But hold on. We get some chat here. He's so long. He's so lanky. It's crazy looking. How? How about Scoot Henderson saying he's going to still have a chance to win rookie of the year, Lou? You saw that? Tripping. Yeah. This is, this is Chandler. This man can average 20 and the rest of the season and will not win rookie of the year. Yo, if you didn't watch, if you didn't watch the game yesterday, Hardenshine had some moments. He had a few of these, by the way, on Rudy Gobert. They were nice. Oh, yeah. They were nice. Yeah. Man favorite. Oh, yeah. I like it. We like it. Who says the NBA doesn't play defense anymore? Look at these highlights we're watching, y'all. I love these. I'm starting to like blocks way more than I like dunks. I feel like they're just meaner when done well. You just got to mix it up sometimes. Good. And we have those suns here. God, look at this. It actually happened. The big three all there. They defeated the Hornets. They defeated the magic. We did get Katie out last night, though, with a hamstring soreness. But the big three have played four games so far and they are two and two just perfectly average loose. So we can't figure anything out from that. But they're 18 and 15. They're eight in the West. The big three needs to play how long? How long do we need to see this thing happen before they can make magic? Because right now it's pretty mediocre looking. Yeah, they got to get going. How this team is built. They're built for this team to play at full strength. They don't have a lot of depth. So they need all three of these guys to be on the floor for them to compete at a high level and give themselves an opportunity to come out of the West. You know, going into the all-star break is going to be important for them to start racking up win after win and put themselves in a better position when it comes to the standings. And so right now, like you said, they're mediocre. They're two and two with those guys playing together. I think they get better and better as more they build chemistry and they get everybody on the floor. You know, it's been such a tease, Chandler. Everyone wants to see the big three, what they are going to do. But you know, as we sort of speed through this season, it feels like, is it enough? I can't believe I'm even asking this, because before the season started, I was like, I'm putting money on the Suns. But the big three, are they enough when it's all said and done to go all the way to the finals? Well, I think the best thing for them is it's wide open right now. And depending on what matchup they get, if they can find a way to get healthy, and you can't really put a number on it. You want to see them play just as many games as possible. But yeah, if they stay in that 70, 80 seed, and they happen to get Minnesota or Oklahoma City, it sucks for one of those teams that have this great season and the Suns have guys in and out of the lineup all year long. And if they happen to be peaking and fully healthy going into the postseason, yeah, I think they have enough. I think they can get a matchup in any round and they could be the fate there. They have that much talent. They have that much depth. They have the star of power. They have so many different ways they can hurt you. And they're two and two together. But it's hard to get that rhythm when you don't get the reps, when you don't get the time on the court. No practice, no shoot-around can emulate game speed and game reps. So obviously the more they play together, the better off they're going to be. But the way this is trending, this is going to be bad luck for one of these top seeds that have to get a fully loaded Suns in the playoffs in the first round. It's going to be brutal. And Chandler, on the flip side, if they don't get going, they're going to run into a top team early on and that's going to be a challenge for them. If you run into a Denver or you run into a Los Angeles Clippers team in the first round because you didn't get over that hump, that's also going to be a tough road. So for them right now, they got to get in that top four and give themselves an opportunity to get home court advantage. Or they're the Miami Heat of the West, which could happen as well. Somebody's got to be at some point. Take it a quick break when we come back. It's happening. Prop party. Have we gotten all of them right? Or none of them right? Who knows? We'll try again after this. All right, time for a little prop party. Chandler, go. We got Celtics tonight. Both hot, hot teams. I like the Celtics to get this one that I don't think they're a better team or experienced team. And I think Przingis is going to take it on himself to kind of go at Chet. Very similar bodies, very similar games. I think he could punk him a little bit. I like Przingis going over. All right, Lou. I like Celtics on the road as well. And I like Jalen Brown to have a big night on the road. This is going to be a great test, great basketball game. I'm probably going to watch this one tonight. But I like Celtics. And I like Jalen Brown going for 25. All right, okay. See, I got you. I think you're going to win this game. That crowd is awesome. They're fun to watch. But I do have Tatum over 26 and a half. And let's be honest, I'm nailing these. I'll be back tomorrow.