 Sure. World World 3 is trending, but we're just here to talk about the buyout market. Run it back starts now. Run it up. Run it back. Run it up. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. Woo! Happy Tuesday morning. We are Run It Back. Are we going to talk about stuff? Sure. Do we know? No, we have no idea what we're going to talk about, but to do that we're going to need people regardless. So, as usual, Stadium Insider, Shyam Sharaniya there. We got Chandler P, Eddie G on the end. Guys, no games, so the only thing we could come up with, which I think is brilliant, is to play our own games. A little version of you buying that. And we start with Katie and Kyrie, loving it. They basically said that trade requests aren't bad. Katie, I don't think it's bad for the league. It's bringing more eyes to the league, more people are more excited. The tweets that I get, the news hits that we got from me being traded, Kyrie being traded, it just brings more attention to the league. And that's really what rakes the money in when you get more attention. So, I think it's great for the league to be honest. Okay. I mean, you can go in a million different ways with this. Chandler, we'll start with you. Are you buying that trade requests are not bad for the NBA? It depends how you look at it, I suppose. I mean, how they're looking at it, it does, I guess, bring attention and likes on this new age of social media and it's shedding light on the NBA and everyone's talking about it and all the drama and all the headlines that come with it. I guess that does bring attention. But when you usually are requesting a trade request, it's usually negative and it's usually something has transpired. Something's happened on that organization. There's usually some sort of dramatic effect where it's not usually a good thing. Obviously, someone's not happy if they're demanding a trade that they want out there. It's bad for business where they are and they want a fresh start, which I also understand as a player, you have a small window to kind of maximize your potential and your career. And if you're unhappy and you're in a position like Kevin Durant, like a carry everything, you kind of hold all the chips and you do have the juice. But to say it's good for the league. I don't agree with that. I don't think the NBA needs any more negative attention or anything like that. But I do agree where if you're not happy and you are a star player and you've worked your entire life, you should put yourself in the best situation to succeed. And that's what these guys did. It's just unfortunately, a lot of times these guys think the grass is greener on the other side and then it ends up not being. And when does it stop? So I can't sit here and say it's good. But I definitely agree that players should be where they want to be. And they have that choice and that right, especially when you're a star player like these two guys. Yeah, I'm curious. Why is this suddenly like a thing? You know, Charles Barkley, I know has made a lot of comments about trade requests and guys asking for trade. I think I think Eddie even tweeted something out and Kevin, Kevin Durant responded to it on Twitter, but like we act like trade requests are so foreign. They've been around for decades on decades on decades. And this is something that when you speak to people, you know, around the league, you know, in the league office, they'll be quick to point out like, yes, we don't want guys to publicly request trades. We would rather not have guys ask out. But there's also an understanding that this has been going on since, you know, whatever 60, 70s, 80s. This has just been a part of the league. I think with social media, everything is so magnified. Everything is always dramatized now. You know, it just is what it is because of social media because of, you know, the high stakes media that is taking place shows like ours. So I think overall that that's why I attribute to personal. But I also will say, sorry, Eddie, not to cut you off, but teams trade players all the time, right? And they don't get any, they don't get any, they don't get any negative. Oh, why'd you do this? Why'd you do that? It was best for the team, right? It was best for the organization. But then when players do request, it is, it's kind of frowned upon and it's a negative light. Usually when that player wants out, but on the same, same thing, teams never get backlash for trading guys. And that happens all the time. Guys will take less money to stay on a certain team. And a year later, you see them getting traded anyway. So I agree that it is a short window that these guys have to maximize. And it's just sheds a bad light when you do request to trade like this, although teams do it, you know, nonstop all year long. I mean, there are levels already, right? Trade demands have been a part of basketball since basketball has been a sport. They've been a part of sports as long as there's been lines on the ground to play sports. Will Chamberlain ask for a trade? Karim Abdul-Jabbar asked for a trade. Babe Ruth asked for a trade. Like we're talking about hundreds of years of athletes going, I don't want to play in this city no more. Send me to the other city. It looks like it's more fun there. This is not new. It's not bad for business. If anything, it seems like it's good for business. We've been talking about this for two weeks now. We're talking about it all since the summertime. And these aren't the latest guys to ask for a trade. Kobe Bryant asked for a trade. Middle of his prime on a team that he didn't plan his entire career for. It's not new at all. Is it good? Is it bad? It's neither. Like Chandler said, teams trade guys all the time. Little to no warning. We're hearing about guys on the team bus on their way to a game finding out they're getting traded. Josh Hart is shaking guys' hands on the sideline right before a game saying, yo, I'm out of here. My bad, bro. This is sports. It is what it is. I'm all for, I get it. I'm pro player, blah, blah, blah. I'm all for players taking a little bit of control and saying, hey, you literally can send me and my family anywhere in this league on a Wednesday. Well, I want to choose where I go. I'm going to take a little bit of control. I'm the asset here. I'm the attraction here. Let me take command of it a little bit. I enjoy the player empowerment area. I know a lot of people complain about it and try to figure out Charles Barkley's hilarious because like I did tweet, like Son said, he didn't technically ask for a trade. But if you read his quotes out of his own mouth in the moment, he pretty much let it be known he wanted to be traded twice in his prime to two different cities. It's it's it's just sports. It's fine. Like I don't know why we're holding it against guys. They play their contracts out somewhere. Their contracts aren't for a specific team there for the league. Like legally, it's all cool. Michelle, we have worked at that one company to not be named and we have sat there and not and they said, you know what? I want to go somewhere else and be a human again and have soul and spirit. I got to get out of here. It's the same. It's the same. No, I will say in the game of life unless you own your company, we are all the players in whatever it is we've chosen to do. We all report to someone, right? And I 100% have been in a place where I woke up and said, I don't want to be here anymore. I'd like to leave. I get all that, right? But I do think there's a bit of a disingenuous vibe and saying like Katie, I get right. But the way Kyrie has done certain like, you know, announcing on a Thursday, you want to be traded or announcing on a Friday, you want out of there by the trade deadline. Like I think that is what the league is probably thinking. Yeah, we can't have that. A, it sort of kills your negotiation value. And B, it's just not a great look. I think there are ways to break up with people. Some are good and some are bad. I mean, look at Kevin Love. I realized it wasn't a trade. But he had garnered so much equity with the team that not only were they like, yeah, we'll buy you out. We don't even care if you go and stay in the Eastern Conference. Like there are ways to ask for trade. I also get wanting to burn bridges and blow them up very much. I understand that as well. So I get both of these things. But you know, I sort of see both sides on this one. Kevin Love is a really good example, Michelle, because we don't know what went on there. And clearly he was unhappy and he thinks he can play more. But it's the delivery of how he got it out that he wanted to buy out and look what happened. His fans are applauding him. There's no hostile feelings towards Cleveland. Like that when however he did that with his marketing team or his agency, that was the perfect way to kind of fly under ask for a trade move from Cleveland, Ohio, to Miami, a better city, a better team. And there's no hard feelings. So I think it is. It's it's how you do it. It's how the world perceives you do it. Are you doing it selflessly? Are you doing it because you're unhappy? You're moody? You're, you know, Kyrie Irving has all this other stuff. So he doesn't get another strike to do something like this. So it's and however Kevin Love did it, Bravo, because he got out of a not not a horrible situation. But you know, he got out scotch free. He's like he's golden and now he's being celebrated amongst a lot of people. Look, there were some quotes that we didn't get to yesterday from from the All Star weekend. One of my favorite moments and probably a new favorite for a lot of fans of the NBA happens to be Anthony Edwards who had the following to say if there's anything I could change about the league to make it better. Probably just all the guys sitting resting. That's the only thing I probably don't like. Um just play man. If you if you if you if you 80% said you got to play. I don't I don't like all the sitting missing games and stuff like these people these people might have enough money to come to one game. You know what I'm saying? And that might be the game they come to and then you sitting out. You know what I'm saying? So I take pride in trying to play every game because I don't know it might be one fan that has never seen me play and I'm trying to play. So I don't that's the only thing I don't like. Uh guys just sitting out. That is like the most perfectly answered question because he repeats the question. He tells you exactly what I just I love it so much. Look, he is a young man in this league. We're used to hearing it from the retired guys and all of us you know, bitching and whining about load management, but he's a young up. He's a star Chandler. So what are your thoughts on what he had to say? There's no cursing on the show. First of all, Michelle. Listen, I love it and and I agree and listen, I'm somebody that did miss a lot of games for real injuries, but nowadays you have to take it with a grain of salt. Also, he's very young. His body is is bouncy. His body is fresh. He is not going through kind of the things he's going to go through in the latter half of his career. So I feel him. I respect him. He's 100% right. I was a kid growing up in Orlando. I've said this before I would go and I'd watch Hakeem Olajuwon come to Orlando and he didn't play that game. I was devastated at the end of the day. Hakeem Olajuwon didn't care. He was trying to, you know, put his body in the best position. The Rockets were trying to protect him to get to the finals that year, and that's just that's just what it is. But I do agree that as time goes on, especially now with all the medical stuff, it's it's out of players hands. If Anthony Edwards sprains his ankle in practice tomorrow and they're swelling in his ankle, there's no chance in hell that the Timberwolves are letting him play the next game. No matter if he maybe if it's a playoff or if it's an elimination game or a play in game, sure. But if it's February 20th or whatever the date is and he is some some sort of banged up and this can linger and this could affect his future, there's no way they're letting him play. So to a point, there are some soft players. There are some guys that milk injuries. There are some guys that sit and rest. But a lot of this is out of the players control and the medical staff, every team now has a team doctor, a medical director this that this it's not even up to the player to a certain point. So I feel him. I get him. I love him. I think he is dead ass right. And I'm sorry. I just curse. I see 100% right. You see what you started, Michelle? I know. But again, there's going to come to a point in his career probably this season where the Timberwolves hold him out because he's a little banged up or he's got a flu or whatever it is. And it's going to be out of his control. It's just it was interesting for it to come out of such a young person's mouth given who usually talks about it. But look, Bobby Mark said that there's a possibility that the league is open to the idea of having a 60 game season provided there's a sort of midseason tournament in their eight games. Oh, good. Eddie, I'm glad you've responded physically because what do you think is that as a fan? I don't hate it. If they make the money work, what's the problem? As a fan, I hate it. And look, to be 21 years old again, Anthony Edwards, I love this coming from here. He's one of my favorite players in the league. He's one of the most exciting players and he just seems to genuinely care. But like Chandler mentioned, a lot of times this is not in the player's hands. A lot of players would play with a little bit of swollen ankle, with the hand a little hurt, with the knee a little aching. Its team's literally shutting you down saying no. It's team scheduling out games where four guys are going to sit and they're scheduling out rest days for their older guys. And so like this is great marketing by the league and by the teams. The fact that it's consistently blamed on the players. The players want to play. Like I remember hearing on a podcast actually about Chandler. It's like Chandler wants to play. I don't know why everybody's upset with him. He wants to be healthy and play. The players want to get on the court. As far as for a shorter season, I'm just like, I guess, a historian in the sense of like none of the records are going to make sense to me with 20 less games. And I'm sorry, but I just care. I just care. You can have its 35 points in 60 games and probably would have petered down to 32 in 82 games. But that just matters to me. If you can't even qualify right now to be a season leader with I think 56 games, you have to play more than that. Right. So if we're like, what are we doing to the records and the standards in the league? You can get hurt on game one. You can get hurt on game 62. I watched Gordon Hayward's leg break and game one of the season, the first game broadcast of the season. I don't think that less game. I'm not a doctor, but I don't think less games is going to cut back on less catastrophic injuries. More time between games like I don't know. Like I said, I'm not a doctor, but I still find it hard to believe that the owners will ever sign off on 20 less games of revenue. So we'll see. But if you know what will happen, if there's any two games, guys will play 65. If there's 60 games, that's the problem. Seven games. There's never, there's always going to be rest. There's always going to be no back to backs for Zion. It doesn't matter if they play 30 games. Zion's only going to play 17. So why shorten the season and when nothing's going to change, they're just going to play less games overall. That is the problem, right? Like the dam has been broken now that we're just sort of making tweaks to any sort of new rule change. It's built in. But Shams, this whole midseason tournament, I know we've talked about it on this show before and people, it's getting, you know, when I hear people talk about it, my brain sort of stops listening. Explain to me, what would be the point? How would it even work? So it would actually be an in season tournament because it wouldn't be technically in the midseason. Oh, part of the schedule. It would be November, December, and I haven't heard 60 games. I think they're really looking at 82 games regular season. I don't think there's a plan to tweak that 82 games as of yet. Now could it be slightly lower? We've seen in the in the year after the bubble season, we played, I think what, 72 games that year? So could it be slightly lower, I guess potentially, but somewhere in that 82 game ballpark? And those games will count for the regular season schedule as well as the in season tournaments. You're kind of playing all the games in one is just that some of the national TV games will be heightened, have, you know, bigger stakes will be national TV games. So instead of a Thursday night TNT game just being a normal regular season game, that game might just end up being in season tournament game or in season championship tournament game. So there's, there's, there's different ways that the league is going to try to up the stakes on regular season games in the form of an in season tournament sometime in November, December and at the latest it would go potentially into January. Yeah, I don't really get it. I don't, I don't, like what's the advantage, what's the point? Are teams really going to care about winning that in season tournament over then, you know, an NBA championship? I think that's still the ultimate goal and that always will be. So, I mean, it's something different. Again, it gives teams like Charlotte and Orlando or whoever a team to play on the bigger stage on national TV. I just don't think teams will make this a priority to care or try harder to be the in season tournament champs rather than, you know, get to the playoffs and where everyone's actually watching. So it's cool to mix things up and maybe try it out, but I don't see this, you know, lasting or being like a real thing. I mean, I guess if they brand, they branded rival we reeked two weeks ago and it was like, I guess, I mean, who are watching the next I didn't really care about that and everybody says, yo, you look at soccer soccer fans that ain't like these and all this stuff. These aren't soccer fans. These are basketball fans and they're so used to their 82 game schedule and the playoffs. The problem to me isn't that we need these kind of gimmicks in the regular season. We need the players and the teams to really care about the regular season in a way they have it in like a decade and that's like professional pride. There's something to that and, yo, we can peel back another layer and say we created rings culture by screaming at like it only matters if you win this way with these guys and the team you started with and all this other stuff. And so if that's all we're telling Jason Tatum that matters, well, why does Jason Tatum care about Tuesday against the Hornets in January? He has to win a ring because he has to be Kobe or he sucks forever. And so we've developed that into these players and now we're in this place where like these games just don't matter and they don't matter to the teams either because they got to keep their eyes healthy because all that matters is April, May, and June and we've just created this monster. I wish the regular season game still mattered in my head by romanticized version of when I watched Jordan and early Kobe and all this stuff they did. They probably didn't. They probably were just as lazy but that's the problem with me. We don't need a tournament. We need the games to like count and they don't always feel like they count. That's why I think fewer games gives a heightened importance and by the way you could definitely make the money work because it used to be there were one or two networks that would vie for the TV rights. Now we've got everybody and their dog every streaming service wants to part if you wanted to you could probably nationally televised almost every single game. The money could be fixed somehow in there if you made it fewer games that would mean more. I mean I know they use the NFL but it's just it's too hard a comparison. One game a week physically is all they can really manage. If you imagine three NFL games a week I don't even know what to do with that. Since we're on the injury thing and all that good stuff Giannis was front and center in the entire weekend of course we didn't get to see him play other than the twenty seconds. Do we have the latest on him Shams. Yes so Michelle he flew to New York right after the All Star game on Sunday night. So on Monday he did get further testing on that risk. There was a lot of concern that this could be a ligament injury. He had X-rays after the injury on Thursday that those came back negative. So no fracture but there definitely was concerned that there was ligament damage potentially. But I'm told that those those tests that he took yesterday showed no serious injury no ligament damage no bone fracture. So he's going to miss some time here as the swelling subsides the pain goes down. I'm told but this is a major sigh of relief for obviously Giannis for the Bucks because this could have been you know feared to be an injury that was going to sideline him for a much more extended period of time because that swelling but I think right now they're just going to wait for that's going to go down him to get some mobility in that in that risk area. His right wrist. And so I think they'll know more here in the next few days to week. Yeah I feel like this is good news. I feel like anytime there's not surgery needed or something physically torn. This is just time. This is everything without with inflammation with swelling. This is just something that's going to take time is going to take rest. And this is a huge huge huge break for the Bucks because obviously he is the engine that keeps them running. And now that he they know that it's nothing serious. It's all about just managing the swelling and moving forward. And they're like they're in a comfortable spot in the east. I think that's the benefit of sort of taking care of business. You buy yourself a little extra time for these kinds of moments. So obviously great news from Milwaukee. Yanis still though we were sticking with Yanis because he said that nobody could beat him in one on one Chandler. Are you buying Yanis or the field. I'm taking the field. I mean listen. Yeah it's a big field. I mean listen. He's dominant. He's I like someone bigger physical. I like Joel and B. I don't think he could be one on one because he's going to have to make shots. He's not going to be able to bully him and Joel is mobile and can move his feet. Kevin Durant. Jason. There's a lot of long strong wing guards that he also can't guard that can kind of bang with Yanis. So I think he's a special talent. But I think Joel would give him the biggest fits because even if Joel lets him come downhill Joel has the size. He has the physicality. Yanis is you know shooting isn't his strong suit. But yeah the field against Yanis. What are we doing. I'm taking the field. I'm taking the field. I'm taking the field over anybody. Like there's too much talent. That's a tough one. Yeah. I'm going to do it. I'm just going to be Homer and really because Chandler took the words out my mouth. I would pick Joel and B. If I had to pick somebody. But yeah like Kevin is probably beating Yanis. Rely on the jumper in the one on one. Like save your legs and just snatch back and get you a nice jumper. And when you can do this at the same size as Yanis. Yeah. I'm going to go with that guy. Typically I you know going back to the conversation yesterday I'd love to see the one on one tournament. But please believe if we do it would not be these guys who we're talking about. Like the fellas who are guarding him. But it will not be Katie and Yanis and Joel and B. And Kyrie and whomever you know. We maybe get a Brad Bill right maybe. But I'm going to go with a couple guys who have a little bit better jumpers than Yanis. But Yanis would be an absolute force in a one on one tournament which I get his confidence. I've heard stories about him just obliterating guys in practice on the books and and one on one. But I'm going to go guys with a little bit better jumper. And I think Joe's be first. Are we putting like a are we putting a dribble lemon on because I'm going to book if there's like one or two dribbles someone that all our guys have no like dame Steph Kyrie. These guys are unbelievable one on one. But they can't guard Yanis. So if you put a dribble limit you can throw some of those guards in there too. But give me book. We've already. This could be an all start day. OK. The field. The field is ready. One of them is I would pay so much money to watch all of that. All right. So Russell Westbrook the news coming out of course that he's planning on signing with the Clippers. He had his pick apparently between the Bulls Wizards heat. But he he felt like he had a chance to win a title. He didn't have to leave LA. It's to stay home. Chandler you buying the idea that this Westbrook signing will make the Lakers regret trading him. Regret regret it. No. Because they've been shopping this guy all year long. And it just was never a year. Yeah it never worked. They've been dying to get rid of him. I don't think they'll ever regret it. I do. I even think that they think he'll be better on the Clippers and the Clippers are a better team and they'll make a deep run. But the fact that regret it. No I think the Lakers got a lot better. The Lakers got a lot younger and for whatever reason it just wasn't working the last couple of years in LA for us with the Lakers. So I think it's mutually a great move. The Lakers got better. Russ went to a better team where he can continue to have this roll off the bench and it doesn't have to be the guy with the loaded deep Clippers team. So I think it's a great move for both. And I definitely think that Russ helps the Clippers. I think he gives them more athleticism, more explosive and off the bench than Reggie Jackson and John Wall did. And I think he's going to be a critical piece come to come post season for the for the Clippers. I think the Lakers regret trading for Russ a few years back. They don't regret letting him go no matter the result of the rest of this season. And I just want to shout out Sean Serania for kick starting the Russell Westbrook free agency conversation last week on Running Back, because I feel like it was quiet. It was quite as quiet. And then and then some said a little traction and then boom, now he's a Clipper. So good job on you, Sean. We got to get you. We got to get you to cuss. So now we have the whole, you know, everybody, but we'll work on that next in time. Yeah. What would it take for you to cuss, Sean? What do we need? Like money to your favorite charity? What do you want? The charity would be me. So that's not all this work. What's your bare mode? What's your bare mode, Sean? Just ripping that ball? Yeah, Chandler's the one you want. No, I'm not a sellout. I'm not a sellout. Nope. We'll get you. If it's the last thing I do, I swear. All right, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, Sean's going to work. He's going to have the latest on Lonzo Ball's future, now and later, Running Back returns. Welcome back to Running Back. It's been quite some time since we've seen Lonzo Ball on a court and there's such mystery around his health, Sean. Do you have the latest on him? Well, it's not good. Lonzo Ball has been shut down for the remainder of the NBA season. This is a guy that had two surgeries in 2022, one in January of 2022 for a torn meniscus, and then he had one right as training camp was beginning this past September. Both were supposed to help that left knee, that ailing left knee that he has, but both have not worked the pain and the discomfort has persisted in his knee. And I'm told right now the next step for Lonzo Ball is figuring out strategies where he can try to recover and find a way to get out back on the floor. And if those options that he's looking at don't work, I think there definitely is some internal fear within the Bulls. How much does this threaten his career long term? Will he be able to make it back after missing a year and a half without stepping foot on NBA court? You know, you could end up missing two full calendar years. And so obviously Chandler is a guy that has dealt with a lot. But Lonzo Ball guys, twenty two and thirteen, the Bulls were last year with him in the lineup. They're competing for being the top seed in the East. To me, he's one of the best guards when you look around the league making teams better, making teammates better. He made the Bulls a lot better. And he personally elevated his game, became a much better three point shooter. So it's unfortunate. Of course, we all hope he figures it out and gets back on the court. But Chandler, your guy that's been through a lot throughout your whole career, and we talk about needs and surgeries, meniscus, all this. What do you make of a guy that could end up missing two full calendar years of his career when he's supposed to be in his prime? Yeah, this is tough. And this hits me close to home because I wouldn't do the same exact thing where I just had a freak accident kind of spill where I kind of bang my knee on the ground. And I got an MRI and I had a dime sized piece of cartilage that chipped off the medial part of my knee. And it was basically called a conjole lesion where, you know, it was said to not get worse, to just rest and strengthen the areas around it. Everything that Lonzo Ball has been going through. And you come back and I came back for the playoffs that year and I had landed again. And sure enough, blew out my knee, got a different MRI and that dime sized cartilage went to a quarter sized cartilage. And that's when you start talking about micro fractured surgery, which is what I had, which is extremely hard to come come back from. And nowadays they have different they have different things. They have the Regenokine, which is this Dr. Peter Veiling, which is where Kobe used to always go to Dusseldorf, Germany. And my guy, Barron's Betos, takes all these players over there still in the summer and it's kind of like a five day process where you do different injections, you train in the morning, then you come back in the evening for another injection and it's all legal, doesn't fail you on a drug test and just kind of gives you that temporary relief. The problem is you can't really go to Germany during the season and it wears off after like four to five months. Now they have different stuff. They have cart, they have cartilage regeneration where it's a different doctor in Germany where they're actually regrowing cartilage in your knee. I believe Fessus Azilly tried it and it didn't really have the outcome that he liked. But and it's also it's another year rehab on top of that. So it's an intense process with not a lot of research done on it so far. So it's a tough spot because there's nothing you can do. You can fix an ACL. You can fix fix fix a meniscus. You can't really row regrow cartilage back like that. And what happens is it's so jagged and they'll smooth it. It's a trickle effect. And from that I tore my left meniscus and I tore my right meniscus and it's kind of just a spiral effect of issues. So I feel for the kid because he is a great player and he's exactly what the bulls need. And he's one of these point guards that are the Jalen Brunson types that can run an offense that can shoot that can see the floor that can pass. But this is tough and I hate to hear this because even if he does go the cartilage regrowth process we're talking another year it's a two years that he's out. He's out of the league for three years. That's hard to come back from. So this is this is a sad case where I hope he can find relief. I hope he can because you can only do so much cortisone and PRP and all this temporary fixes for an issue like this. Which is what it seems like they've been doing since the mystery was so strong Eddie. We've known this guy for so long him and his family and we've watched so much of their lives. It's really easy to forget Lonzo Ball is just 25 years old. He's only played five years in the NBA and to say his career is already being threatened by an injury. That's just tough to hear. He was really coming into his own as a player. He spent a lot of time figuring out his shot form on the NBA level to be an NBA level shooter. He's been a great defender since he touched down into the league and it really found a role for him in the NBA. So hopefully he can get back to himself. But so much of his game was built on his athleticism, on his ability to defend, on his ability to shuffle on defense, on his ability to get around defenders, to create space, to create shots for his teammates. So he's going to need that. If he's going to come back as a less athletic version of what we had previously seen in Chicago and New Orleans, I don't know what that player looks like. So you know, wishing him the best, hoping he can get back. But as Chandler mentioned, there's a lot for him to figure out and this is the type of injury that just do rails your career in that way. Again, just 25 years super frustrated. If you're a fan of him, of his family, of all of that we've seen of his entire come up to this player. So yeah, hoping he gets back on the court and hoping he looks like his old self. Yeah, especially because go ahead. Sorry. The good news is he got paid. The good news is he got paid four years, 85 million. I don't want to say that. Let's let's make sure that's that's out there. This would have been like a heartbreaking situation if he didn't get paid and he was figuring out a way to just get paid after this process. But thankfully, he did get paid. So shout out to Lanzibar. He is a good point because this this is something that is not going to pass on a physical. So if he was going into a free agent year, no way a team's given him a long lengthy 85 million deal with these type of injuries. So good good news is that he did get the bag and secured that and at least set himself up financially. So so he sits while he figures out what he can do next. But the Bulls are still they still made a move, right Shoms? Yeah, so the Bulls are going to be adding Patrick Beverly, a guy Chandler knows very well. They're signing him to a deal for the rest of the season. And they they looked into the rest of us pretty hard. They thought they had a good shot at him. But after he ended up deciding to go to the Clippers, the Bulls moved on pretty quickly to go get Pat Beverly. He's a guy that has not had the greatest statistical year this year. But when you think about culture, you think about toughness, you think about defense leadership. Those are all the qualities that you think of when you have Patrick Beverly on your roster. And I do think being back in Chicago, being in a situation where he can start, he can lead a team, he can run a team. He's not really fighting for true minutes, you know, as far as stay staying power at the point of position in Chicago. I think that will give him a good chance to to like he said, put on for a city. Look at him. He's already he's already talking, Chandler. Does it move the needle at all for Chicago? I love him so much. No, it doesn't move the needle. It's awesome that he's back home. It's awesome. I do think he, you know, he is Chicago through and throughout. He is from the absolute hood right down the street. This is great for him. And he's with family and he's with his friends. It's a tall task, though, you look at those 10 teams that are above them in the standings right now. I don't think Patrick Beverly really puts the needle here. I don't think Westbrook. I don't think whoever they could get must have was a huge trade at the deadline to kind of put them in a spot to succeed in the postseason. But I do love a story like this where a guy gets to go home and he's comfortable when he's familiar with everything. He's playing with a lot of talented guys playing for a great coach, Billy Donovan. So I love it for him. Does it move the needle? I don't think so. So it's okay. So maybe it won't move the needle. But more importantly, Eddie, do you think the other guys, the stars that are already on this team, will they embrace him? Will they be put off by him? What do you expect? Oh, everybody loves Pat Bev when they play with them. That's the whole difference. You love to have that scrappy guy who's willing to do it all for you in the court and who's willing to fight literally anybody. We've watched Pat Bev Deck a center this year for a backup guy on his team. Like everybody loves to have that guy on their team. So yeah, Zach Levine, DeMar DeRozan, they're excited to have him there. Now are they going to be excited when he breaks another wide open three? I don't know. But they need some energy on that team. We've talked about them all year about how they just look frustrated in general. Shams had a great report in December of just how bad the team felt. And you know, they need this guy to pick me up. And they're one game out of the plan right now behind the Wizards. They can make a real run. And this is a team in November we thought could really make some noise. So if they get healthy, they make a run. Hey, maybe they win a playoff game or two in the opening round. But they got to pass the Wizards first. And you know, I don't know if Pat Bev helps on the court, but maybe he helps them rile and gets them in the right place. To them then handle it on the court themselves. It does feel like an injection of sass at the exact right moment. Like if you're trying to make a run to just get in barely. You definitely need that right now. Right. It feels like a good move like on their part. No matter how it turns out, Shams. I'll say this, when this was when this was going on, I literally text Cuban. I was like, go get Pat Bev. Like he would be perfect for like Luca, like his little body guard. You know what I mean? I was like, what? So I love that game. Yeah, why? Why didn't he? I don't know, man. I thought he would have been perfect in the house. That's probably why I'm not working in the car. She was in juice in the Dallas Mavericks regime. Never thought I'd see the day. Try it so hard. No juice. It sounds like you do. It sounds like you do. Shams, thank you. Go have a very fun rest of your Tuesday. Yes, it is Tuesday. And we will talk to you in the morning. Guys, you're sticking around because it's convinced me time. The All-Star Edition. All right, Chandler, convince me that the All-Star Game should be a WWE Battle Royale-style game where every All-Star is on the court at once. And then slowly they are eliminated. Like by fighting or by scoring? Yes, fighting, Chandler. Fighting. Well, I don't know how this could work. Is there one ball or are there multiple one-on-one? No, there's one ball. I think if you miss a shot, you're out. That's like... Convince you that? Yeah, convince me. Okay, I guess you can see that all the talent is on the floor at once. And it's, you know... Oh, this one's tough. I really should have planned... I should have planned for this one. This would be interesting because there'd be a bunch of different matchups, bunch of different sizes going on each other. People would be fighting over the ball. People would be really crashing the offense in glass. It'd be physical. I guess it would be some sort of entertainment to watch everybody out there at once. But the load management and the team doctors would never allow this. Anthony Edwards would win this, though, because he'd be playing through injury during this thing. And Demontus Sabonis. I feel like those two, we'd be the last two standing and we'd see what happened there. All right, Eddie, convince me that the next dunk contest should feature former winners as well, almost like a survivor all-stars, if you will. That's dope. Oh, like, are we... How old are these guys, though? Are we talking current, still in the NBA, guys? Because we've been, like, an old-timers game a while back and guys has legit got hurt on that court. So, you know... I do like this idea, though. Like, have some credentials and run it back for guys who have won it already. Yeah, let's do it. We can't do the old-timers dunk contest. My guy, Marcus Johnson, who is now sort of with the Bucks, he's still dunking at 67. We don't need that. See? Yes, we do. If we can... If we can roll out guys who won a couple years ago, that's the frustrating part, though. Do you even remember who won a couple years ago? Like, I remember Zach Levine won a while back and that's kind of it from there. So, yeah. Maybe we can ask some passing winners to get Mack McClung out of here next year. Maybe that's exactly what we need. And can we, like, Vincent Domenico on, like, a nine-foot hoop? That's what I'm saying. Like, lower the hoop for them? Yeah. If you reach a certain age, you can lower the hoop just to see if they can still do something similar that they did on the ten-foot hoop. I think that'd be interesting. I'm in. Dwight Howard, I know he would try. He would 100% try. Yeah. Look. You'd have to still do that. Look at what John Morant has done to us. Look at where John Morant has left us by just not doing the dunk. Thanks, bro. Well, according to some, LeBron James is responsible. Look at this. Look at this guy. Big fella. Big fella. I don't know if we're going to see this whole video, but, yo, watch his arms when he takes this jacket off. Like, my guy's yoked still. 67, huh? Oh, it's like a whole film. He does this every year. I'm kind of nervous. He does this every year. Oh, dang. Okay, we're doing this. He does this every year. And then, so, shout out to his son, Josiah. The guy. There he goes right there, Josiah. Oh, my God. He keeps going. Look at his arms. Yeah, he still got it. Post routine. Oh, school. By the way, right? That's his 1980 All-Star jersey. Heck, yeah. Okay. Now we have to sit here and watch this. I'm not not watching it. So, okay. See? He can be in it. Boom. He's going to get points for me. Chandler, would you be in it? They'd have to lower the rim for me. There'd have to be some real handicap management here for me. That's fine. That's fine. All right, Chandler. Speaking of the rim. Like, there's good, there should be. Convince me, there should be a vertical dunk contest. Basically, the rim keeps getting raised as people make it. Jericho Sims would be very, very good at this because his whole specialty is that he could basically put his head over the rim. I don't know if they would like eliminate your heights that are actually doing the vert test, or if just the taller, more athletic guys would win this. Like Dwight Howard could damn near touch the top of the backboard. It would be cool to see, you know, Jericho Sims dunk on a 13, 14 foot rim. That would be interesting to see who's the highest dunker not even throwing height away. Because, but then that would hurt the smaller guys. Mack McClang would have no chance of dunking on, you know, a seven foot guy with a eight foot wingspan. But this could be fun just because you can actually, just like the Olympics, you can see who can just go on the highest each round and then whoever misses is eliminated. So I actually kind of like this one. Yeah, like it doesn't have to be the main dunk contest. It could be a supplemental category, like since they keep adding things anyways. Better than some of the skill stuff. We're taking a quick break. When we come back, the finalists for the Naismith basketball Hall of Fame been announced and it is good. We discuss when we return. A young Duane Wade never thought that this moment would be here. You know, sometimes when you're young and you have a dream, a lot of people don't believe in your dream. It seems so farfetched. But I've always been a dreamer. But I would be lying to you guys if I would say that I didn't want to quit on that dream many, many times. But I didn't. And so to be here, I've had many nights throughout this journey where I envision having an orange jacket. And so I want to step closer. Of course, that's D Wade talking about being a 2023 Naismith Hall of Fame finalist. This is a pretty loaded class, if I do say so myself. There's some spurs heaviness in it, which makes it feel even better, of course. But you had D Wade. You got Dirk Novitski, Paul Gasol. And then you have Tony Parker, Becky Hammond, and arguably or inarguably, if you will, the greatest coach in all of sports. Greg Popovich, five championships, been here forever, was almost fired and then turned things around. And now look, we'll be talked about for the rest of forever as one of the great three-time coaches of the year. And just all around, great guy. This is the thing that I like most about this is that I can't think of a person other than Tim Duncan, who hates this kind of stuff more. And I would imagine Tim Duncan will have to be on hand when this goes down. And just watching all these guys who don't like these moments be uncomfortable gives me life. So for that reason alone, I'm very excited about this one. Chandler, what do you see on the list? Who do you like? I mean, this is a really, really loaded class. All these people deserve it. I got to give respect to my guy, Dirk. Honestly, I think he's the greatest European player of all time. He's an NBA champion. He's a finals MVP. MVP of regular season, 14-time All-Star, all-NBA, 50-40-90 club. The guy won the three-point contest, everything he's done in FIBA and the Olympics. Arguably, the worst team to ever win a championship is this Mav Sheldon 11 team. And it was pretty much all because of him and everything he's went through. And same thing you just said about Popman. As good as he is, I looked up to Dirk. I wore a Dirk Nowitzki jersey in my fifth grade yearbook picture in the fact that I got a chance to play with him. This guy took less money for me to play with him. He was just at my wedding in October. He is one of the greatest people of all time. He's the best teammate I ever had. And he changed the game. He literally invented power forwards, becoming stretch power forwards who can step outside, shoot the ball, pick and pop. And that's all because of dirty. So I just want to give him a little love there and big congratulations. And like you said, as good of these people, players and coaches that these guys are, Dirk is even better of a person. You know what's crazy, Eddie? We're now old enough to be like, man, these kids have never seen a guy like Dwayne Wade play basketball. They now know him as a thousand other things, but not basketball. So if you had to describe to the young ones out there his game, how would you do it? Before we get to Dwayne, I just want to say, you guys call him dirty. You guys call dirty dirty. That's amazing. I love that. I love that. Yo, Dwayne, it's easy to forget when he came out of Marquette, he was how unheralded he was and how quickly he hit the ground running in the league. There was a point where it was up for conversation if he was better than LeBron. People were constantly debating if he was the best player in the NBA. The 06 final run, I think it's a little marred by time and the idea of all the foul shots he took and all that good stuff. But he was incredible. And when he got that last two years of shack, he made the most of them. Dwayne was amazing, one of the best shooting guards of all time. Much like we were talking with Lonzo, his knees ended up becoming an issue later in his career. But LeBron James has not won a title without Dwayne Wade. LeBron James would have had more titles if he could have matched Dwayne Wade in 2011. And so LeBron is the goat, but this is his ultimate Robin. And Dwayne was a Batman himself. If you want to keep using those analogies, he was amazing. I love that him and Dirk are going in together because they're probably the truest rivals of each other. I know Dirk had Timmy in all those years as well, but the two finals they played against each other, the little bit of little, little beef. I don't know if they'll ever admit it, but the little bit of beef they had as well. I love that they're going in together. I want to see who goes in first. I want to see who's the guy at the top of the ceremony. I think it'll be Dirk, but we'll see. Yeah, I don't know. Also, real quick, Michelle, are we 100% positive that Tony Parker's their first ballot hall of famer? He's in, but are we first ballot? That's a great question. I mean, that's the big battle, right? I've been asked that quite a few times. It just depends on how you look at it. I mean, I know you can argue that the system and all these guys, like Manu, all these guys were parts of something that would not have been without all of it. However, you can make that argument for a lot of great Hall of Fame players. And you have to also add in the European background. First ballot, I'd like to think so, but as we all know, I'm nothing if not one of the world's biggest homers. So yeah, for me, yes. But Chandler also touched on the fact that Dirk Novitski is arguably the best European player of all time. We just happened to have three European players on this list. Do we give them a different sort of list of requirements to make the Hall of Fame? Like, how are you looking at them? Is it just NBA? Is it international play? Is it Olympic? Like, what do you look at? Because Pal-Gasol, I mean, also... Yeah, I mean, I think you got to look at everything. I think you have to look at your resume as an All-Star, your resume as a champion. I think FIBA includes. I think you're draft if you won Rookie of the Year. I think all that goes in the resume. And you look at Pal-Gasol, too. He's a deep-time champ, six-time NBA All-Star. He was NBA Rookie of the Year, and he was a stud on Memphis. And he's a huge part of these championship teams with Kobe. Then same thing as Dirk. He was this innovative big man. Now we see it a lot with Jokic and these guys, but he'd get the ball in the rebound. He would go coast to coast. He could throw no-look passes. He was a more seasoned, you know, Vlade Divac, who was athletic and long. You could step out and face you up. And these European guys, they play just at another level of IQ. Like, they're just... They're so brilliant. They see the floor differently. And it's tough to pick because these guys all deserve it. And I do think Tony Parker is a first-ball hall of fame. I don't care about system. I don't care about playing with Pop and all these stars. He was the head of the snake of all four of those championship teams. And he was a huge factor. And everything he did, I love it. But, yeah, all these people deserve it. And Pop, I think, is the greatest coach of all time. So this is a stack. That's so good. And by the way, Eddie, there is a little beef with Dirk and D-Wave because you remember what happened when they were down in the series and he was sick. And they were doing that. Yes. And then Dirk came and busted their ass the next two games. How do you forget that? Yeah, yeah. That was such a... Yeah, look, I don't know if it still persists. I know, you know, those guys may be embarrassed. But I know in the moment, yeah, Dirk definitely felt the way. And he should have. And he showed them. Yeah, that's... Yeah. We're taking a quick break. When we come back, you know what? We can't do a parlay for tonight, but we can do one for the future. At least talk about it. We'll run it back returns. All right. We are obviously amazing gamblers here, the three of us. So we're taking a quick look here at the Fandall Sportsbook NBA title future odds. Okay. All right, Chandler, you got 20 bucks. Well, you have more than that. But let's say I give you 20 bucks and you've got to put it on one of these. Who are you going with? I like the Clippers. I like the Clippers. Those are crazy odds, plus 1,100. I love what they did at the deadline. I love Kawhi Leonard healthy. Give me the Los Angeles Clippers to win it all. Okay. Okay. Okay, Eddie. I like the Suns. But the fact that the Warriors are not on here tells me those odds are incredible. So think about betting them. I would. I would. And I did. Like, yeah! Celebrity's fine. All right, everybody just wave. Remember, we're on an hour later tomorrow and next week. She's so confused.