 Oh, that's right, eight-time All-Star, two-time All-NBA, played for 22 years. I just love getting that in there every time. Vince Carter joins the show this morning. Vince, look, we started the show talking a little bit about the Lakers' loss last night. What a pretty. And then, of course, LeBron had some comments afterwards. The guys weren't super thrilled with him. It was a little bit of the throwing the rest of the team under the bus. I don't know if you heard him, but the gist was he knows how he'll react. He doesn't know about everybody else. What did you think? That's LeBron, you know, yeah, he may annoy and everybody might not be happy with his comments, but, you know, we've seen him do this before. It's just in his mind, he's motivated. I'm challenging you publicly, which, you know, all the time I'm not going to say that's the right way to go. You have to kind of know your locker room, but at the same time, LeBron doesn't care. He's like, I'm going to be ready to play. You follow, either follow my lead or, you know, you get left behind type thing. You know, after, you know, LeBron knows how to bounce back after an embarrassing loss. He's going to come out aggressive. He's going to come to play and he's going to expect that from everybody else. If not, there again, go sit on the bench and watch what I did. That's I mean, I bet. Yes. He's the one that seems the most amped. Jermon Green, the big return of Jermon Green tonight. He missed, of course, the five games due to the suspension. He was asked about it. It said he has no regurts. Never does his behavior. Did you say that at this point it's a little detrimental to what the Warriors are trying to do? I'm going to start off by saying that's a wild boy. He's a wild boy. I mean, the way, I mean, I get the fact he's like, I'm going to protect my teammate at all costs. Okay. Cool. But at some point, like you got my man in like the list, he's like, he's almost night night time. He was tapping out. He was tapping out. I didn't really watch that clip. He has nothing to do with his teammate. No, nothing to do. Nothing to do with his teammate. His teammate was fine. He got pushed and he went to go get his leg back. He saw exactly. He saw an opportunity. He's like, oh, it down right now. This is my chance. Come here, boy. Yeah. What you said now? Come here, boy. Yeah. So long. It was awkwardly long, actually. Yeah. Like I always wonder, I mean, look, there are guys on there that are never going to say anything, but then there are guys of equal stature, if not greater, like a Steph, for example. Or the coach. Yeah. Or the coach. Like what? Do you say something? Does anyone say anything to him? Like how does it work in a locker room with a guy like Dreymon? I think, you know, they have respect, the respect of each other, where a Steph, I mean, obviously, Steve Kerr said it publicly, like it was entirely too long. You know, we don't need this, like he has to find a way to dial it back. So I think they can have that conversation with him and he trusts and he will allow those guys to do that. Now, if that was like a Jordan pool, like, no, not so much as a teammate, you love it, right? Like you love that he's getting it back, but to an extent now, and then missing games becoming a distraction, then it's a problem. Yeah. Five. Yeah. They're now like eight and nine and 10th in the West, like, you know, they're very capable. They're known to having slow starts where they can click it on. But it's like, you kind of got to deal with the media now. You got to find your way again, which they can do. I know that, but like you want, you got to find your consistency because I feel like if they're going to do it again, this is going to be the toughest year. I feel like every year from here on out, we're going to say, this is the toughest year. Like last year, like, yeah, like this is going to be the toughest year. V.C. Last week, Chris Paul ejected by Scott Foster, C.P. three after the game says it was personal. So what was your take overall in that situation? It's, I mean, I mean, at some point, I mean, I look at the history of it and like, like, come on, man, like, we know it's personal. I don't, I don't, I mean, I feel like every time you see that together, you expect a Chris Paul loss. Yeah. But, you know, the one thing that, you know, I've had a situation in with the referee. Who was it? Yeah, I don't know. Go on. What did it rhyme with? Donahue was his last name, Donahue. No, no, no. We had some spats. I mean, I've had some with Joey Crawford, but that's not the one. But nevertheless, it wasn't Joey Crawford, but it was a back and forth, back and forth. And, you know, I'm like, all right, if you're going to say what you're going to say under your breath where nobody can hear you, the referee, I have the right to rebuke. And you can't use that against me. So, I mean, I can tell that definitely was a part of that. Plus, they had history. And, you know, from what Chris Paul said, it has something to do with his kid. So I agree. I agree with V.C. Like, if you're a referee and you're going to engage me and we're going to go back and forth, you can't use the power of your whistle when it doesn't go your way. Once you feel like you're losing. Yeah. You feel like you're losing that argument. Don't use your whistle as your way out of this and getting me out of there. Some referees, you give them credit. If we're going back and forth and no T's called and we continue to play, I'll earn respect for that referee. But if we're talking trash to each other and I get a one up on you and you decide to throw me out, I can't respect you. So I love like a Tony Brothers or a Zach Jarbrough, they'll talk shit back to you. That's who I was going to use as an example. You go back and forth and then he'll say, that's enough. And, you know, like that's enough. And he'll walk away, you know, as a, you know, a veteran official. And then obviously if you come back and you continue that conversation, then, you know, it kind of goes wherever. And you know, there's like scouting reports too for refs. Like, you know who you can mess with. You're supposed to joke around with like the. You don't mess with Joey Crawford. Joey Crawford team at one time for Steve Javi. He team me up one time events for looking at him. Well, Tim Duncan of it all, we're just smiling. Right. And they lean into it. Y'all remember Joey, Steve Javi, the mascot. Yeah. The spurs. Like, you know, you just knew who not to mess with. Like, but Dick Bavetta was another guy that you can have your argument. He lets you say what you want to do and he'll back up. He's like, that's enough. I'm giving you a chance. So and Scott Foster, he leans into it. Yeah, he knows he's, he knows he's a villain. And he kind of carries himself like that when he's refereeing basketball games. It's unfortunate that it's gotten to that point with Chris Paul, but I promise it's another 40, 50 guys that has the same issue with Scott Foster. That's a big number there for sure. For sure. Vince, last week we saw the Spurs Clippers game pop. Literally, he literally grabbed the mic like it was Lake Hal versus Ovito and told the crowd to stop booing. Have you ever seen that in your career? No. In the NBA, maybe. If I'm Kawhi, you kind of appreciate it. I mean, you forgot, I went back to Toronto and I got booed. So if you know, if there was a coach, you know, if Sam Mitchell or any coach there after, like, hey man, but it's a part of the game. It's, you know, I think they have a lot of respect for him. It's kind of the thing you do. So, and you see what the fans like, everybody respects pop, but at the same time, they're like, pop your trip. Yeah. Boo and they kept booing. Yeah, loud enough. It's like, it did, you know, it didn't, I get what he's trying to do. But I also understand after hearing what pop says, he's like, we don't want to poke the bear because he knows what superstar players can do. You don't want to motivate them and give them ammunition to, because they're a young team and they weren't going to probably win that game anyway. No. But at the same time, you know. He said that, that's a great spin job. The bear was poked. That's it. He said that at the end. He's like, you know, you don't poke the bear. And they're like, what do you mean? I mean, I said it, you don't poke the bear. If you don't know what that means. I mean, I understand what he's saying. We're not trying to give him more motivation because if you're going back to San Antonio and they're booing, just like for me, I was going back to Toronto and they're booing. That was more motivation for me to kind of get busy. Not definitely want to win. I already wanted to win. But now you're booing and calling me this, that. That's a spin job. That's a great spin. You like that? Well played. Yeah, well played. He probably had all half time to think of that one real quick. Man, it was a moment, I'll never forget. That's for sure. Sunday we had a Marcus Smart yell. I love a Marcus Smart yell. But at his teammates during the climb out, yelling that what they were doing was embarrassing. Are you on board with the delivery of the message? Everybody delivers a different way. Me being a veteran with a young team for a lot of years, Marcus Smart has been to the NBA finals. He understands how tough and how hard it is to get there. And I know he sees the potential in the Grizzlies who's been very close. So he's not letting this team slip and get away with anything. So yes, I mean, you can look at it as harsh, but you know a teammate. We all had teammates who just, you know, they get amped when they talk. Like that's what it is. And you take it with a grain of salt. So today's NBA, some people, fans, or media and players can't handle that. But it's like, you know, I know it's coming from a pure place. Like he wants to win. We know Marcus Smart is all about winning. It's nothing personal. VC, I gotta ask, despite the- Y'all just gonna let me say it. Y'all just gonna let me say it. Well, we thought you knew it, honestly. It was just a kiss. Absolutely. You fact- I got nothing. You covered all the bases, bro. I gotta ask, despite the courts, I was critical of the N.C.'s in tournament. I wasn't a big fan, it was archer. But listen, now that we're getting down to the nitty-gritty, I'm enjoying the games. I'm enjoying the excitement around it. What do you think about the tournament? Well, you can see the strategy behind this. And you know, you see teams are making sure that guys are ready to go for the N.C.'s in tournament, more so than the regular game. So they know Tuesday and Friday. So I have Wednesday and Thursday, if you get guys healthy or back or be ready to play the big minutes, because it does mean something. And you know, regardless of, we say, you know, guys are making, I'm enjoying hearing superstar players who are making 30 million or more, saying that one that they're, you know, this matters, this is a chance to win something, but they want to do it for their other guys who don't get the chance to make a quick, that's a quick 500. Right, and that's what I wanted to ask you. Would you give Max effort for the N.C.'s in tournament? Is that 500K an incentive to you, if you were a player? Absolutely. I mean, because, you know, a lot of guys are playing for a lot of things. So throughout the season, like, I mean, obviously you're winning something. You know, when you win championships, this opens up doors for other opportunities later on, other contracts and so on and so forth. But yeah, I'm all for going at it. And I definitely would. It's another opportunity to win, you know. You know, if you don't get the opportunity, and I think, Lou, you said this earlier, some of these teams like a, I mean, the Magic or the Pacers who already, who are playing great basketball, they get a chance to win this tournament, you know, but maybe not have a chance in the world, you know, to win the NBA finals. But you're winning something and you walk away with something and now you're putting people on notice. Now you're, you're, you win an N.C.'s in tournament. You know what that does for you and for free agency? Like it just, it opens doors. Now you're starting to get guys in. Some of these guys too, they're not making, they're making one, two million dollars. That's a huge chunk of money for them to get for not even, for not playing too, you know what I mean? That's a chunk of money for anybody. I don't know where it would all take it. That's just some of money, man. Like this thing, if you win the N.C.'s in tournament, you get 500,000 and you don't make the playoffs, but guess what? I don't think my 500 makes it out of Vegas. My 500 will make it out of Vegas, V.C. Is this gonna be like a playoff share where you can give it to the staff or give it to the, will we see that? No, staff gets that too, though. This is N.C.'s in. I know we see like Steph Curry give his 500,000 to one of the guys here. This is good. This is gonna be no chance. This is a N.C.'s in tournament. I think so. They're getting paid first to 50. Okay, maybe that 500,000. Maybe. Let me get that 500,000. A nicer Christmas gift. A bonus. I mean, still, you give him 10, 20, like you would do for a playoff, boss. Like a playoff, yeah. Exactly. I like it. I'm not giving you all the 500. I think the high players, I almost, they gotta do that. That's, oh, I didn't think that. Hey, Lou, I'm gonna say this about some of the courts. I heard you a couple of days ago say about the courts. Some of the courts are hideous, but I like, but it differentiates. I like the difference. I like the separation. It differentiates. Correct. You like, if you don't know the schedule, like, you know, we obviously know the schedule, but if you don't know the schedule, you turn it on like, what's up with the court? Yeah. It's the N.C.'s in tournament. You're probably gonna see some pretty good basketball, and you're probably gonna see your favorite player play. Yeah. So it differentiates, I mean, I think, go back and just kind of work on a few of the courts, but I like that. It's the All Red. The All Red is angry. Yeah, I know. It's triggering, I think. I'm changing my position. I'm in. Oh. You're so open-minded these days. Who are you? Listen, once you get to know me, you know I'm an open-minded guy. I live freely. Yeah. I'm in. I'm enjoying the N.C.'s in tournament. So I was very critical of it because I thought it was gimmicky. And a lot of my feeling about it was because of the courts. Yeah. If they, listen, calm the courts down a little bit. We get it, leave the trophy in the middle of something, maybe do something like that. Let's calm the colors down. It's hard to watch. It's hard to look at. There's court. But the fans are in. Couple of the courts have too much pop. Oh, yeah. It's one big hallucination when you're watching these courts. Well, the red was, yeah, that's the one where court was tough. Red All Red stuff. I really don't know. That's the Ronald Raptors court was tough. Bulls is tough. I think bulls and, yeah, those are mm-mm. Anything with Carolina Blue is tough, too. OK, there you go. That's fair. That's fair. VC, you're in Orlando, right? Your teams won seven games in a row. Their second best in the East, third best in the NBA overall. One of the best teams in the league so far. Have you caught Orlando magic fear? Fever, I should say. I guess Fever. Yeah, I definitely work with them. I definitely work with them. So I definitely watch them and support them. But the power ranking, they're still seven. I don't understand. You got to explain that one to me. But they're playing great basketball. And I'm going to speak from my experience first. When I got the opportunity to play in the Olympics and came back to the next year, the confidence that I had as a player, I think we're seeing that from Paolo. Like he got the opportunity to play in the Olympic trials with some great players, seeing how they prepare themselves, how they work on the game, how they make other players, whether they're superstars, player or not, better. And you're seeing that from him. He's averaging what? 19-8? But also, Frans is averaging like 19. He's getting it done. He's playing with a lot of confidence. He's getting off the ball when he needs to. And he understands when it's my time, it's going to be my time. But he's allowing another great score like Frans to flourish as well as everyone else. I think another one, Cole Anthony. Buying into his six-man role has been huge for his game and the team because he wanted to be a starter. He kind of lost his body with powder a little bit. Then all of a sudden, you see him buying and he's really taking off because he understands, he's the guy that's taking you. Shout out Jamal Mosley, too, because he's one of the... Absolutely, man. There's not many more coaches cooler than him. Shout out. I mean, he's done a great job with a young bunch of guys with a lot, you know, doesn't have a lot of experience. Coach of the Year, he should be up, he should be in the talks for it. I also love that Orlando's crushing because it gives us an excuse to bring out some vintage video, which is obviously one of my favorite things to do. When you were there, you guys, Dwight Howard, you had a pre-game ritual. Oh, man, the magic show. Yeah, the magic show. We called it the magic show. Yes, it was... It got out of control for a while. It was a beautiful event instead of me. Yeah, hey, man, look. So it started off like we literally had a show where we had a presentation and it literally, you know, we had... Yeah, this is where it started right here. Jason Williams was kind of our dictator, believe it or not, White Chocolate. It got to the point to where we're in a landline. Jay Will would be in the tunnel from somewhere doing hook shots. It was out of control. Oh, my goodness. It was out of control after a while. But we were a very good team and once Stan Vangunny got wind of it, he kind of like, hey, tone it down or shut it down, type thing, because Stan just cares about, obviously, X's and O's and what you do on the court. But we were winning and we were getting the job done and when the ball was up for play, we were locked in. So, you know, but yeah, that was the magic show. I love that. I love that team growing up there, VC. We also, we both played with Trey Young in Atlanta, you a little bit longer than I did. He's a little bit of a lightning rod amongst fans. Do you think he, you could build a championship team around Trey Young? I think, I'm gonna, I'm thinking now, Trey Young, as before, at first I'm like, hey man, you got to tone it back. But I understand what Trey was trying to accomplish as a young guy coming in, proving, oh, he's too small, he's not able to, you know, he won't last long. And, you know, the man got talent, man. Like he's averaging 10 assists second in the league behind that man, Halliburton, who was balling, by the way. I know we were talking about him, but I think you're starting to see Trey understand he has to get other guys involved. He's not there yet, but at the same time, he's toned down the crazy shots, the bad shots. I think he's, you know, Lou, you can speak to this as well, but I think he's given a little more effort on the defensive end. It's a little more important to him. It kind of matters. I mean, you have times I watch the Hawks as well. Sometimes I'm like, come on, Trey. Just a little effort, just to give your bigs a chance to, you know, get in defensive position to help you. Lou, what have you seen? I just feel like he's taking baby steps. Right. I just, I feel like for him, stability is going to be important, man. He's on his fourth coach in his young career. And so, you know, I've spoke to it. He has some trust issues when it comes to coaching because he hadn't had anybody to really take him under their wing and really give him the game and give him the guidance that's needed for him to get from point A to point B in his career. And so that's been my whole thing, just that stability that he hasn't had yet. And I think that's why he's, I think he's doing a little better with this year because he's had coached last year. Now he has a full, a whole summer. And then this season kind of the focal point, they can get together and kind of get on the same page. So hopefully, you know, this lasts for a good little while and he continues to buy in. For sure. All right, last time we talked, the Clippers had just traded for James Harden, but we hadn't seen him yet in uniform. They're now four and sevens since he joined the team, but four and two, since Russ went to the bench and then we had the loss last night. So right now your assessment of this Los Angeles team is what? I'm gonna start off by saying this. Shout out to Russ, man. Like that's, that's, that's big of him because you know, we know how Russ is. Like Russ wasn't going to teams or Russ was like, I'm not going to the bench. Like he put his pride to the side for the good of the team. Giving, you know, Harden an opportunity to kind of play himself in the shape. And I think that's what it is. It's like, it's a lot, to me as a point guard, you know, you have a lot of response, scoring point guard at that, you know, you can score, but you also have two dogs shoot more than that, but you have Kawhi, you have PG. So you got to make sure you get those guys involved and figure out how to get your shots and how to get big zoo, you know, involved and how to make, obviously at the time, make it work with Russ, you know, and that, that with the four of them plus zoo. So shout out, when I heard that, I was like, good for him. And I think it's freed up Russ's mind because he doesn't have to keep hearing it from the media or people talking about it. It's like, you know what? No, my man need to get them to get right. I'm gonna find a way to get right. And it's worked out and you're starting to see them turn the corner a little bit. Team Russ, worst loss last night, Lakers, Clippers. Lakers. Boom, see? That's okay. I just, I just think like, you know, you're talking about, you're talking about, first of all, you have LeBron James there and you have a guy who's gonna come to play every day. You know, I just, I just think, you know, opportunities like this matters for someone like Anthony Davis, more so than LeBron. Like, you know, you talk about the next man up. This is, you know, this is your opportunity. This is your team. You talk about you want to take the step. You want the keys. Eventually you have to rise to this occasion. I mean, Joellen B is playing at an MVP level and this year already. So, you know, that's just a tough, that's a tough matchup. Not saying that, you know, it's a bad, it's a tough loss. It's a bad loss. I think, I think Philly took the fight away from him. Yeah. Period. Crushed him. Crushed him. Triple-double in three quarters? Got it. I know. So you said he's gonna get a double-double. I underestimated him. I didn't think about that matchup though. That's your position. You gotta stand, you gotta hold your ground. That's your position. I feel like a meme right now. I'm like, mm, okay. Vince, as always, we will talk soon. We appreciate you. Thanks for the time.