 Oh, sorry, just scheduling my workout with Yanis so I can learn how to carry my own team. Run it back, starts now. Run it up, do run it back, yeah. Run it up, do run it back, run it back. Run it up, do run it back, yeah. Run it up, do run it back, yeah, yeah. Welcome to Run It Back. I am Eddie Gonzalez. I'm stepping in for Michelle Beto today. She's in the middle of a 16 game losing streak with the Spurs, traveling back with them. Of course, I'm joined by Stadium Insider, Shyam Sarania, and storied Atlanta Hawks teammates, Chandler Parsons, and Evan Turner on the end here. How are you fellas doing? Hey, you came out hot. You came out hot, Eddie, Yanis with the Yanis joke. Hey, we got to hit the ground running. So we're going to get to the biggest report of the day yesterday from our own Shyam Sarania. LeBron James out indefinitely with the foot injury. Shyam, what can you tell us about LeBron and his foot that popped on this play? Yeah, LeBron James is expected to miss an indefinite amount of time. It will be an extended period that he will be out. I'm told likely at least two or three weeks. And guys, the interesting part here is I'm told he initially hurt that right foot in January. He was faced with the decision at that point to shut it down for an amount of time or keep playing on it. He decided because of where the Lakers were in January, and they've been most of the season just scratching and clawing, trying to get into the playoffs and trying to get into the play-in picture. He decided to keep playing on it. And then we saw on Sunday, he said on air, he heard a pop. He somehow played through it, got back into the game. And this injury comes at a devastating time. And in opportune time, there's 21 games in the Lakers. Season left. They've won three in a row. They're two and a half games back of sixth place. And now LeBron James is going to be out an extended period of time. Anthony Davis is going to have a lot of the burden on him now. He's averaged 28.16 rebounds in nine games without LeBron this season. So he's shown, and even in the last few games, he's shown that he's back to the form that we saw him earlier this year. But that's why you go and make that trade. Get D'Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, Jared Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura. They have the depth to at least be competitive. But this team without LeBron James, and we don't know when he's going to be back. The hope is for the Lakers and LeBron that over the next two or three weeks, that injury, it doesn't flare up as much. And it can tone down. And he can try to make a return before the playoffs. Just a devastating injury at a devastating time for the Lakers. Chandler, how tough is it to come back from a foot injury, especially if you have to rush back? You're in the playoff race. You have all this pressure on you. Is it even reasonable for him to get back relatively soon? I mean, this is no good. This is with a dude that size, with the way he plays at that age, how explosive he is. You see what happened with Joellen B, someone like that's foot. This is no joke. And obviously he's saying he heard it pop. Who knows what that exactly meant? But with 21 games left, and LeBron was saying, this is the most important games of his career. And now he goes down. And it sounds like it's going to be for quite some time. And it's a good thing that they made these moves at the deadline because they did get younger. They did get deeper. They do have a talented roster still, but let's not get it twisted. This team is not going to go far without LeBron. James Alina. D'Angelo Russell has still been out. We know Anthony Davis is kind of in and out of the lineup. This is on him now. This is his team. This is his show. He's got to absolutely dominate for this team to even have a chance to get into the play-in. But this time, this stage of the season, especially with LeBron, the way he's played all year long, this is a tough blow to the Lakers who did better their team, who did make that push, who did bring in a breath of fresh air with all these new guys. This is going to be a tall task, in my opinion, for them to kind of overcome. And I don't know the injury. I didn't see the scans or anything. But when you say at least a couple of weeks with basically a month and a half left, I wouldn't be surprised if he's done for the season. Yeah, I agree. I definitely agree with you, Chandler. I think at this age, at this point, the injury, the foot injury, that's a big deal. But one thing that nobody talks about is they've gotten a whole new roster, but they haven't had any time to really mold and gel together. I think that Brian does come back as one or two games before the play-in game. And you have to really worry about making sure everything flows right. The play-over of Brian's guys have to adjust their game. They have to get to marching how he marches. And I think he had a whole new team having to get ready to follow his lead. And it's just a detrimental time. So Evan, obviously with Anthony Davis, your Buckeye brother, DeLoe, on the way back at some point, can they stay afloat for two, three, four weeks as they're a half game out of the plan right now, two and a half games out of the six seed? Do they have enough to remain competitive and hopefully get into the playoffs still? I think so. I think they have a decent amount of talent. I think they have size. I think they have versatility. They just have to really make sure they stick together. When you lose a big piece like the Brian, everybody has to step up and be accountable. And I think if the schedule's in their favor as well, I think they can go on a little run. They're only a half game out. And just with a little bit of luck, things are swinging. All they have to do is make the play in and hopefully Brian's healthy and things can change from there. Yeah, I got to be honest, looking at the schedule too, it's not the craziest schedule coming up. They have a lot of winnable games and they're going to have to beat teams ahead of them to advance and to kind of move up in these rankings. But Portland is right above them. You best believe Damian Lillard, the way he's playing, he's going to want to get in there. New Orleans with them finally getting healthy BI back in the line of Minnesota, Utah. These teams, I mean, they're all just as talented and just as good as the Lakers right now. So now with LeBron out, with Dilo still out, this is a really tall task, honestly. And they've dug themselves quite a hole here. And LeBron going out here is just, that's just something they can't afford. All right, Shoms, look, this is a LeBron James led team. This is LeBron, this is AD, this is Clutch. Player movement is always the conversation here. If this season does not end well, is there a possibility that there could be some movement over the summer? Not only those two big stars, but the rest of the roster as well. They've got, their entire roster is really influx because they're going to have cap space potentially. But all these guys, you think about Malik Beezley, D'Angelo Russell, you know, Rui Hachimura, these guys are all free agents, likely free agents in the summertime. Malik Beezley has a partial guarantee. We'll see if they pick that up for next season. So there's a lot of influx there. And then when you think about Anthony Davis and LeBron James, they came to LA and wanted to be in LA to win a championship and bring multiple championships. They've already won one. And I think now we'll see what happens. And the play-in and the playoffs, they want to make it there. And so if they don't, what happens, how much is it a conversation with the organization about where it wants to go. But those guys have wanted to be in LA, have wanted to win in LA. I don't think that that's changed per se, but I do think that's, I mean, it's got to be a question. Especially if you missed the play-in slash playoffs for two consecutive years. You know what this is? This is just more ammo for the MJ goat comparison of LeBron not making the playoffs. And this is just another, this is more ammo for them. And I don't think it changes much. I still think LeBron's a Laker next year. I think he heals that foot. He gives them time to see what moves they do make this summer. And then he's made it very clear he wants to see where Bronny goes. And latest mock draft, I just saw they have this dude going 10th. So who knows? I think he got, he has one more year left with the Lakers. Hopefully they can kind of maximize his potential because it looks like LeBron's not slowing down any time soon. And they still have a lot of value there. And they do have younger assets to start this season with next season. But it's not if the Lakers missed the play-off. It's when the Lakers missed the playoffs. They're going to have to start obviously planning for the future and next season. And what are they going to do with LeBron? Because he's made it clear he's out in a year once he sees where Bronny goes. Look, five seasons in LA for LeBron, missed the playoffs once, exited in the first round once, may miss the playoffs again a second time. But he won a title. I mean, at the end of the day, LeBron can say I brought a title to every team I played for. But yeah, if he lips off into the sunset, we were just talking about where is his statue going to be in this arena? Is his number, which number is going to get hung up? This is a storied franchise. They're not just hanging up statues and numbers for one title. It'd be very interesting to see if he decides to opt out and ask out to somewhere else this summer. I don't even know where he could go. Everybody's talking about back to Cleveland with how great they look. But who knows? Well, from one LeBron team, though, to the other, the Miami Heat. Great big win yesterday in Philly. Pulled off a late game. Heroics, Jimmy Butler, a huge shot. Bam added Vio, some huge stops on Joel and Bede. James Harden missed a game winner, a possible game winner. They look good on TV, just back-ironed it out. Chandler, what do you think about how Miami played yesterday against the Sixers? And what is their outlook going forward? Are they a true contender for this playoffs? This is exactly what we talked about yesterday. When you look at the Eastern Conference and you look at Milwaukee, you look at Boston, you look at Philly, Miami is kind of that next team of who can actually contend in the Eastern Conference. And they showed why last night. They play so physical. They played great defense. They have multiple ways to hurt you. And last night, I felt like this was their game from the jump. They played with more energy. They were double-teaming. Soon as guys crossed half-court, they were throwing traps. They were scrambling. They were playing defense, like a college system, picking up full court. Like the intensity they were playing with, the Sixers didn't know what to do with it. And they were trapping Joel. They were forcing guys to get out of their comfort zone. Tobias Harris had a rough night. And these are the kind of games where Joel is getting doubled. When James is getting blitzed and pick and rolls, you need Tobias Harris. You need these guys. Tyrese Maxie got hot in the second half, but it just seemed like every single time that the Sixers would cut it close. Someone on Miami made a big play. Bam got a big stop. Or Streus hit a big three. Or Hero hit a big three. This is why this team is dangerous because they have that DNA. They have that culture. They have a deep roster. And Jimmy Butler played great last night. He made one of the craziest finishes I've ever seen, kind of the spin up and under. And that was pretty much the game. And so this was huge for them. They went on the road to a team that we know is a better team than them. That's an actual contender. And they got a huge win on the road. Yeah, I definitely agree with you, Chandler. I think tone and physicality really sets a standard. And Miami, that's their culture. And I think when it comes to playoff basketball, and you include Jimmy Butler, his best can be as great as any superstar's best any given night. And when you have the role players and all that experience, these guys are battle tested. There's a lot of guys on that roster that made it to the finals a couple of years ago. And once again, they bought into the heat culture and they can go into a lot of different environments and make a series very interesting. Yeah, look, they just brought in Kevin Love. They've gotten older. And we know the Miami Heat. We know that system out there. We know Eric Spulster, Pat Riley. This is when they turn up. It's March. It's winning time now. It's time to get back to it. Kyle Lowry, supposedly on his way back soon. They're starting to round in the shape. And what I love last night is the way they let bam, they let bam just guard Joel Allen Beach straight up. That would help a little bit and shade a little bit afterwards as well. But they have a championship defense on that team. They know it. They have the nucleus of that. And they're a team to look out for going into the playoffs. They're going to be a tough matchup for Boston, Milwaukee, and Philly. And those are the three teams we're talking about all year long out East. Shams, it wasn't about a month ago, Dwayne Dedman, who was no longer there, threw a Theragun on the court in protest at his coach. But look, they've got him out. They've got Kevin Love in. They're ushering a new regime in that sense. What's the morale like out there in Miami? And what's the energy as they get forward and looking forward to the playoffs? I wonder which one of Chandler or Evan would throw a Theragun in Atlanta back in the day under Lloyd Pierce. That's a great question. I mean, Chandler would throw it and then say, we. That would mean I was actually dressed and on the bench to have a chance to throw the Theragun. So I was using the back plan dice with the forward. He's using the suit. Yes. He's using the suit on the bench, the black-on-black fit. White under here. Ever even had my opportunity to get into trouble, Shams? But no, Eddie, to answer your question, I think the heat, the culture that they've built, they're always going to be confident. As long as they have a puncher's chance in the playoffs, they feel like what they've built. They've been in the conference finals twice. They've been in the NBA finals twice in the last three or four years. So this team has clearly proven that they're battle-tested. But to me, it's been interesting just to see Jimmy Butler has been picking and choosing his spots at different points this season. You'll see him get up for the big games like last night against Philly in Philly, his former team, and he always brings it against Joel and Bede in that group. But you're starting to see kind of a changing of the guard there. Bam out of bio, Tyler here, where those guys are getting a lot more repetition, a lot more opportunity there. And Jimmy Butler last night, 23 points, 11 rebounds, nine assists, four steals, nine field goals made. Only Luca and Nikola Jokic have put up those numbers in a game this season. So Jimmy Butler has shown he can do it. I'm curious, from Chandler and Evan's perspective, you guys have been in a position where you guys are younger players, looked at as emerging, but then you've also been on the other side, being the older players like Kyle Lowry and Jimmy Butler, and you guys are trying to figure out your position and really battling for hierarchy. What is that like for Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry right now? Well, to me, Jimmy Butler, it's his team, right? He's the best part of the team. He is older. Kyle Lowry now is in a different position, right? He's now turned into a leader of that, a good locker room guy, and he's there to basically help Gabe Vincent. He's there to help Tyler Hero, and he's there to obviously contribute and give them stability in the playoffs. But this is why this team is built for the playoffs and built to win a championship, because they have a little bit of everything. They have older guys, they have vets, they have youth, they have toughness, they have shooters. They can score in many different ways, but they defend, man, and they played, they didn't even play good last night. And I'm watching this, and I'm actually pissed because I bet on Philly last night, and I'm watching this team, and they're so tough. Nothing comes easy. Like I said, the minute the Sixers would make a run or Tyrese Max, he would go off for a quick five or seven points, somebody would step up, somebody would deflect the ball and get in the passing lane and kind of disrupt everything that they were doing. And to not play good in Philly against this team and still find a way to win a game is huge. And that's just the DNA, it's the culture that Pat Ryder, that Spowe, that everyone has there. But it's a fine line of once you get older, man, it's different. Most guys' role kind of diminishes a little bit, but that's when you really, you know, swallow your pride. And like me and Evan, we were in a weird situation in Atlanta where we both went to kind of a tanking, rebuilding team and we never really got a chance to play. So it kind of shifted to like taking Trey Young, taking Cam Reddish, taking these young guys under our wing and just kind of trying to show them the right things to do while helping them on and off the court. So, and if we got a chance to make a playoffs that year, maybe we got thrown into a game and we could possibly win a game for the Hawks, but it's just, it's a fine line of playing and then kind of being that player coach once you get older. Evan, they have 20 games left. There are two games behind the Nets, two and a half games behind the Knicks. How far can they push this? Are we talking about this is a possible five seed here? How far can they go right now? Yeah, I think so. I think this last 20 games, you see a lot of teams going to run. And I think they're definitely trying to finish off the season strong and go into the playoffs with a lot of momentum. So I think their focus on is to try to win every single game as opposed to other teams might give in to this or that. They're trying to win a championship. I think everything about their off season in between a season, deadlines and plays is to win a championship. So I think they're gonna try to push it and keep climbing up the standings. And I think they can get to that fifth seed. Big minutes last night from Cody Zeller who they signed off the street. Not often you can sign two unathletic white guys and I'm like, hey, those are nice pickups. But from Miami to the team that beat them in the playoffs last year, the Celtics, tough loss for the Celts in New York. The Knicks kind of just ran them off the court as they in their road trip. Jason Tatum ejected for the first time in his career. It's kind of surprised about that. Chandler, people were questioning whether or not this would last this season with the Knicks. Not so much anymore. Is this a good team that we're looking at? No, I mean, listen, I think they're solid. I think they're solid. Every team above them, I do think is better. If they happen to stay in this seating right now and it's a four or five of them against Cleveland, I think they could possibly advance in their toughness. Julius Randall's had a great year. I love the signing of Josh Hart. He's kind of this guy that's doing a little bit of everything and they basically gave up Camp Reddish who they weren't playing anyways. So that was definitely an upgrade. Emmanuel Quickley is playing really good. And to me, the key has been Jalen Brunson. That was the biggest move for me. I've been talking about him all season long. Just the way he handles himself, he's a pure point guard. He could score, he defends, he moves the ball. He knows how to get Julius Randall his ball into spots. He knows how to get RJ Barrett his ball into spots. He keeps everybody involved. And this is a dangerous team just because of the way they play, the way they're balanced attack, the way they try and defend. But do I think they have enough to win it contend and advance? I don't think so. Maybe one round, if they get a good matchup, but the east of the top is too stacked. Yeah, now I'm definitely a fan of this team. I'm hyped for the six straight wins. I think the league in New York is even more electric when the Knicks are doing well. I think if they get the right first round matchup, I think they have enough toughness, enough defensive toughness and explosive offensive power to win one series. I don't know what year they'll be contenders, but I mean, this is good energy. I think the energy around the Knicks organization will help bring the right type of franchise players there and get the ball on the roll. Shoms, the two New York teams were the talk of the league all summer. Neither one actually made the big move. Neither one made the big trade. What has been the key for the Knicks turnaround this year? They were in a lot of turmoil. People were wondering if Thibodeau was gonna be their coach going forward. Everybody wanted Donovan Mitchell there. That didn't happen. They were disappointed. R.J. Barrett got his bag and everybody was wondering, should that have happened? What turned these things around and has led into this great season for them? Knicks fans are gonna be in your mentions. I think that they feel like Josh Hart was a major trade. And the way that he's played since he's been there over, I think around 20 points a game. It's like everywhere he goes, he plays at a high level after he's getting traded. But I think for them, they won six in a row, six in one since the trade deadline. They ended up going out and getting a guy that I think matches with Tom Thibodeau. He's been really yearning for having another Wayne coming off his bench or starting for him. They brought in Cam Reddish last year, right before the deadline. Traded a first round pick for him. And he clearly didn't pan out. Didn't get any minutes under Tom Thibodeau. They burned a first round pick to get him. They could have used that first round pick to get down to Mitchell. They needed one more first. They didn't wanna put it in. They used it on Cam Reddish and now they end up trading Cam Reddish. But they're able to get Josh Hart back. And I think that you can look at as a win for this team. Tom Thibodeau having someone that he trusts is a benefit as well. And on the Celtic side, Jason Tatum, I got this stat. He scored, he's had four games of under 20 points in February so far. He only had four in the first, you know, October, November, December, January of the first four months of the season. So Tatum's kinda hit a little bit of a lull here. But for the Knicks, I'm sure they're pumped right now and I'm sure they're gonna be in your DMs. You know, trying to come up on that. Aren't they always though? Aren't they always? Evan, the current matchup for the Knicks right now is the Cleveland Cavaliers. They're two and a half games out of them for the Four Seed. If they come up, if they get the Four Seed, they get home quarter vanish. Who you like in that series? Very interesting matchup between those two teams. What do you see happen in there? Man, I'm usually a big fan of guard play. I mean, I'm torn right now, but obviously I think the Cavaliers have great guard play, you know, Diamond Mitchell, I'm a big Darius Garland fan, but it's a game of runs and Knicks are on a great run. And I'm kind of rooting for Knicks because when he had that home split with Atlanta Hawks, the whole city went crazy. So I kinda wanna see how they would go if they actually wanna play off series. Yeah, I think that it'd be cooler for the NBA. And I think the league is better when the Knicks are better and they're advancing and the garden's rocking and everyone's there. But I think this series would go six or seven games. I think the Edge would go to Cleveland. I think their youth, their guards, like Evan just said, ET and, I mean, Diamond Mitchell and Darius Garland, they're tough to control with their, and then they have the Bigs down low. I like Cleveland in this series, but this is definitely, I think both teams are looking at it, like this is who we want first round. So it's gonna be interesting. I'm with you, Chandler. I think this is the best matchup for both teams. They wanna avoid that big three, a top to standing. So they wanna stay in four or five best they can. I love the theater of Donovan Mitchell. Going back to New York, his hometown play against the team that everybody thought was gonna get him and who knows what happens. But I think Darius Garland is the key there. And he's played as well as any point guard this season, really he's been incredible. It was kind of shocking. He didn't make the All-Star team. So seeing him in that series, matching up with Jalen Brunson, you gotta figure they'd guard each other just off size alone. It would be very interesting to watch how he does in that setting, but we'll see. I mean, I think that is the matchup we're gonna get, hopefully, and we'll see what happens. But from the Knicks side to the Celtic side, tough loss for them. They ended a quick road trip. Overtime win against the Pacers, buzzer beater against the Sixers. Chandler, are you reading anything into this loss? Like Shiles mentioned, been a rough month for JT. Now he did get a new shoe. He did win All-Star game MVP. But in the games they count, a little shaky here and there. Anything to read in here or is it just the dog days of March for this team? Jalen Brown was out. There wasn't, they weren't at full strength. They're just coming off All-Star break. Is it worrisome? No, I mean, they've had some losses for whatever reason. They can't beat the Orlando Magic. Like they've had some inconsistent losses, but for the most part, they've been the best team in the Eastern Conference all year long. And still, bucks have went on this crazy tear now. But again, there's 20-21 games left. This is when you start watching the standings, right? This is when you start looking at everybody, how everyone else is playing. You see a team like Miami, that's the seven seed. That, if I'm in the tour and I'm tied right now with Milwaukee, I'm doing everything I can to get that one seed, to play in Atlanta, to play at Toronto, to play at Washington, someone like that. So I do not want to play Miami first round if they're gonna stand the seven seed. And obviously a lot of stuff can happen here. And I still think the Celtics are a very good team. They're deep. They also defend. And if you look, everybody we're talking about, these teams are good. They have stars and they can score the ball, but they also defend. And the Celtics have that. They're not gonna win every game. This is when they're gonna watch film. They're gonna flush it. They're gonna get better from it and move on. But this is a team they could potentially see in the playoffs. So you definitely want to handle and you want to take care of business, but I don't think there's really anything to look here. Tatum's frustrated, Jalen Brown's out. I look to them to kind of get back on tracks. Yeah, I agree. I agree with Chandler, obviously. You know, the Celtics, they fell on some tough times, but at the same time, they're a very dominant team. They're very gifted, very versatile. And they have two of the best players in the game that play both sides of the ball. And when you have a guy that can go get 50 down there every other week, you'll take four, you know, sub 20 games. I mean, give them a break. He just had 52 and I had an all-star game. Just dropped a new shoe. He's been doing marketing and commercials. A dude is tired of being a superstar. So once, once February ends, I think March will be something special. And, you know, Tatum, he has a lot of experience. He's going to show up for the playoffs, 100%. Yeah, I agree, Evan. I shot JT a text last night. He was kind of laughed off the ejection. But yeah, I mean, he's been on the road for a few weeks now. And he did everything at All-Star. He was at the All-Star MVP. And then you know how All-Star goes. They immediately go on the road, a quick vacation, and then they're on the road with the team. So those guys look a little sluggish, in my opinion. Same thing for Jalen Brown. Even their coach coached the All-Star game. So I think they're happy to get back to Boston as soon as they can and get back to their season and kind of get ready for their stretch run here. But yeah, from the top of the standings to the bottom of the standings, the Pistons and Hornets randomly notable game last night. Lamello ball balled out. He hit my parlay, hit six threes. So I appreciate that. But then he left the game with a tough injury. It's tough to see non-contact, fractured his ankle. Shams, what can you tell us about Lamello and his injury and what's looking like the end of his season? Yeah, I mean, this clearly threatens his season. I'm told he's gonna get more evaluations on it, but there's no doubt. I mean, internally with the Hornets, I don't think there's an expectation that he's going to be back this year, but we'll have to wait and see on that. But guys, three ankle turns this year. He had a grade two ankle sprain in preseason on his left ankle. He aggravated it twice after that. He's missed a good amount of the season. And then last night, non-contact, he fractures his other ankle. So it's been a brutal year for Lamello ball. It's been a brutal year for the Hornets when you look across the roster with injuries. Terry Rosiers missed time. Gordon Hayward missed time. Lamello Balls missed time. Dennis Smith is missed time. That's four guys that are playing key rotation roles, all missing significant points of this season. And then Miles Bridges on top of all that hasn't played a game this season. Doesn't look like he's going to play a game this season. So this team has been beat up and clearly they're playing for lottery balls at this point, more than anything, seven and 20 without Lamello Ball this year. It's just the type of season that has been for them. Yeah, look, you wouldn't notice looking at the standings, but they've won five straight games. This has been such a weird season with Lamello's injuries, which is all of their turmoil with the Miles Bridges situation. Chandler, is there any positives to take away from this season? Like the couple of games, they were healthy. They looked decent. This was a playoff team last year. What do you get out of this season if you look back on it, if you're the Hornets? The number one pick and that big old French dude that can change their, I think honestly, shut down Lamello Ball for the rest of the season is a blessing in disguise because obviously this kid's yelling, you don't want to be a substantial injury where he's a surgeon and he's on the shelf for quite some time. But this is a classic. He rolled his ankle, rolled his ankle, he overcompensated and now the other ankle goes. And I think this is the best case scenario for the Hornets organization. They shut them down. They do not sign Miles Bridges if they have thought about bringing him the last couple of years. And they literally try and lose every game possible for the rest of the season. And the only thing that would make this a little bit better is if they get the number one pick or number two pick because they need to add talent to this team. And they do have a solid roster, but going into the season, they knew they weren't going to compete. They knew they weren't going to contend. And now the worst thing they can do is go on a five, six, seven game win streak at the end of the season when pointless wins just to further, just to worsen your chances to get vectors. So I think the best case for them. Yeah, I agree. I think you have to really count your losses and remember what you do have. So last year you had a mellow ball, one of the youngest All-Stars ever. Unfortunately you had a couple of injuries, but you're able to build talent up and go draft around a 20 or 21 year old kid and in the next two or three years the talent that he has and the possible, you know, opportunity to get big Vic. I mean, that could take you to the next level. I mean, that type of energy can bring a lot of free agents and the pure talent alone to put your franchise in the right position for the next decade. Yeah, tough season for MJ's team. Tough season for the ball brothers. Let's get those guys healthy, get them back on the court next year. But hey, that's how the cookie crumbles. But up next, Shams has the scoop on the new collective bargaining agreement, plus some of the craziest posters of the week and that man has a family. Run it back, be right back. Welcome back to Run It Back. Shams, we're starting with you here, man. The CBA deadline for the NBA is at the end of March. They've extended it a few times and this is how you make the big bucks. You got news here. What's going on with the NBA in the CBA right now? Yeah, there's been progress in their negotiations. There's an urgency to get a deal done. At some point in March, there's a March 31 deadline like you just said. And there's been three pillars of these negotiations and where this really stands. The first is they're negotiating a new tax bracket and expanding the lower tiers. We've talked a lot about the higher end spenders like the Clippers and the Nets and the Warriors. And it'll continue to be more punitive, but I think finding a way to expand and increase the lower end of the tax brackets to allow teams to at least dip into the tax without those crazy penalties. I think that would open up even a little bit more spending. The second thing is draft age eligibility going down to 18 years old. So that would effectively end the one and done rule. I'm told there's momentum on it. The one pushback is that the NBPA is trying to make sure that vets aren't eliminated and those jobs aren't going away from the vets. So whether it's a condition, an exception that makes sure that the veteran players have to be on teams with high schoolers that come into the NBA. And the third thing, and this is something that Evan and Chandler will appreciate is contract extension limits right now are at 120%. The league and the Pierre are discussing elevating that to 140 or 150%. So players like Jaylen Brown, Ogyana Nubi, guys like that that are extension eligible, they'll be able to extend for a little bit more than they're able to right now. So I'm curious, you guys played, what's your thoughts on those three different factors that the league and the union are working on right now? I wish they did that in 2014, in 2017 when we got our big bags. They'll be under contracts right now. I'm just looking at them right now. Well, ET got the cap to spike, you know? He got the cap to spike in the exact right. Hey, let me tell you something, Michelle, breaking news. I got ET paid when he got his contract because I messed up the whole market that summer and I got the 96 ball and then sure enough, next tweet, boom, Evan Turner gets the bag from Portland once I went to Memphis. And I was like, damn. Evan Turner, Kent Bazemore, Lorde, Jokey Noah, Chandler Parkside, that was the summer. I opened up the floodgates for these cats. Look it up. Look at you guys now. I love it. I do like the 18 and year one too because many of the times these kids prematurely go to the draft and they don't make it. There's been the flip side too, where I grew up playing with this kid, Vernon Macklin. ET probably remembers them. They called it big ticking. It's supposed to be the next Kevin Garnett. And they changed the rule before he was draft eligible that you have to be one year removed. He goes to Georgetown. He gets hurt. He doesn't play well. He transfers. He actually transfers to Florida. He comes and plays with me, prolongs his career. Never really makes the NBA. And if he was able to go to the NBA as an 18 year old, his family's set for life. And he signed, he gets 10 to 15, whatever it is to be a lottery pick, guaranteed money. So I think if the kid's ready to play right now, if Ronnie James or Victor, these kids are 17, 18 years old and they're draft eligible, I make them go play overseas. Why make them go play in the G League? Like, I love that rule. I think it's selfish to not let a kid to stunt his growth, to not let him just go hoop and fulfill his dreams as soon as he can. Yeah, I agree too. I think we have a lot of prodigies. We have a lot of great young talent here. And you even look at Scoot Henderson. He's a man already amongst boys. And I think sometimes just wasting that one year does nothing for anybody but the university. And when you break it down for the other sports, baseball, you know, all those other sports, they don't have like an age restriction. So, you know, let them hoop, let them ball. Yeah, I love it. I'm with you guys there. And let's get the kids on the court, especially if there's safeguards that keep the vets there on the team as well. I think that was the mistake we made in the early 2000s. And we just ended up with not enough vets and too many young guys. But Shoms, I know there's a TV deal on the way too. So, there's a lot going on. It's imperative for them to get this done now. And shout out to the guys that said, all the trade demands, we'd lead to a strike or, I guess not. But Shoms, thank you as always for being here and for the news. And you have a great one. And now we're moving on to that man as a family because it's time to see some dunks, some blacks, some insane plays. This is my favorite player of the weekend since the All-Star break. This is like MVP stuff, right? I don't know what Jai was thinking, but yeah, Joel, don't be humbled him a little bit. What do you guys think of this one? He tried to get him with two hands too. And who's that? PJ tried to take a charge at the same time there. This is Jai was doomed from jump here. What did they say? Jump with Jai if you want to go viral? Right, I was going to say that. Joel said, yep, let's go viral. Let's do it. I guess he's not wrong. They still went viral. Oh, absolutely. At that point in the game, too, that's tough. That's, whew. He had no clue Joel was coming though. I got to love this. Trey Marks stuff, Kairi Lebron. Future teammates maybe in some city. Kairi's got to know better when you're playing against this man. He plots and he's slow steps to get to this block. My God, man. Brian, remember back in the day he was doing it 10 or 12 years ago, it's like three times a game, he was just chasing it down, knocking it to the sky. I'm glad this is amazing. You know what's crazy is like I don't know if they're doing this all the time before him. It's like he invented the chase down block, but I know it happened before him. Right, whew. Pascal on his head. No push. That's tough. That's tough. You blame his teammate? Andy finished. Man, it's just tough luck because Pascal Siakam isn't the best ball handler and you got dropped by him. You know what I mean? Like that's shot up a Pascal, but it's like, come on, man. The Iverson joint boredom, no way. Yeah, I'm so bad at Killian Hayes not wrapping him up here and letting him actually put a little cherry on top with him. I'm cussing out Burke. I'm standing up and cussing him out. Look what you did to me. Hey, you got his remains. Bro, everybody does on Jake Pertle. Why is that, Evan? I think it's because he's white. Now it's white. Why do you think, man? This man tried. He tried to like block it, but he was confused. Is it like a vertical? Do I try to block this, dude? And it just ended poorly. And he was pissed and broke at the other end. It goes another white guy getting dunked on. Yeah, this is this is racist at this point. Next clip, please. Black history month. Let's get it. Let's get it. It is Smith has he's had the he had the craziest mixtape. Remember his mixtape, too? He had easy bunnies. I remember seeing him in high school and like not to be bad. I was just like, bro, he's going to tear ACL because he just jumps too high. He was like jumping out him in seventh woods. I don't know what was going on. Seventh woods. He's been doing this forever, but I'm with you. Like, knees aren't meant to do this, but he keeps doing it. That was you know, we got here. I missed a 71. Oh, yeah, this is at that point in the game. It just makes sense. Yeah, he had everything going for him. There's no way he wasn't going to push this. Yeah, he's already at 60. I appreciate your barry Smith still trying to stop him after like the 60th point in like 20, 22 minutes. But yeah, you might want to let this go. Barry probably feels real athletic. And then this dude does that to him at 32 or whatever it is. 19 year old getting banged on. He had a season full of highlights in one game, bro. Yeah, that's how do you score? The way he's been scoring. It's like he's been playing public school basketball. This is the best league in the world. He's scoring at like a crazy level. And like these 13 games don't don't even equal Colby's 13 game tear, which is even the craziest thing on earth. This man pulling from half court. He's sidestepping. He's back. He's doing everything. Yeah, he's insane. He's been a monster. And officially scoring 70 on 30 shots. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, up next, guys. Katie hasn't spoken to Kyrie since the trades. And Benson, his former teammate has a lot to say about Big Ben. But that's next on Running Back. Did Mac McClung bring the dunk contest back? He's been like your adversary all weekend. Yeah, like all people think I was hating on Mac McClung when I was more so pointing out with the NBA had to go get Mac McClung to revive it. Like Mac, I was not. It was more so a shot at the NBA more so than you. I'm sorry, you caught a stray. You felt like you caught a stray. But we actually said, you said Mac is going to put on the show. And I say, I was, Mac, come on. Evan, much like you, I talked to a Warriors Finals MVP for a living, my other job. What do you guys think about the Mac McClung drama? I thought he took a shot. I'm just saying, I thought Kevin took a shot. What are you guys saying? I guess one thing that everybody was just struggling with is like Mac McClung is not in the NBA. You know what I'm saying? There was tons of people in the past that we for sure wanted to see dunk. Like, remember DJ Stevens from Memphis? Yeah, that type of stuff, you know what I mean? But at the same time, I think Mac McClung made us all put our foot in our mouths because he legit was the highlight of the weekend. Even, I guess, the all star game included. He literally showed up and showed out. And even though I knew he could do a lot of those dunks, I was still sitting back like, damn, he turned up four dunks. First attempt, shout out to the Whites. I understand. The fact that he didn't miss any was the most impressive thing to me. And again, like Evan just said, bro, he's not in the NBA. So KD, myself, I said the same thing. I'm not hating. He's just not an NBA player. And even the other guys aren't really good NBA players. And all I think fans and guys want to see, they want to see the stars perform. I want to see John Morant. I want to see Zion. I want to see Zach Levine. I want to see guys like that that, you know, my wife has heard of. Or like my kids know, you know what I mean? Like it's part of the thrill for all star weekend. And with that being said, yeah, like Mac McClung, he's a viral sensation. This is what he does. He was born to be in this NBA dunk contest. And like Evan said, the NBA was aware of that. And they went and found this man knowing none of the good players are going to do it. So I see both sides. But that was the frustration was even like next year, are we going to let him back in the NBA, even if he's not on a G-League team? Let's say he's playing in like Europe or China. Are we going to fly him in for the weekend to let him do the dunk contest? Because I got some, because I got, I told him, but I said, I got some homies in Orlando that are bouncy. And I can like, I can, I can apply for them. And like, I can all back them. So like, when does it stop? Now some other dude that had like DJ Stephens or Stevens, that kid was crazy bounce, right? I think he would beat Matt McClung in a dunk contest. So why don't we do that next year? I know a couple of crack kids that'll do it too. Jump high, high as a sky, high as a sky. You know what I mean? It's the NBA dunk contest, bro. It's not, it's, it's, it's not the end one street. It's not anything. It's, it's got to be a player in the NBA, bro. Yeah. I think what makes it worse sometimes, it kind of isolates the skill of the game. So like when you add up, you bring Matt McClung in. It's like, you see the game going into threes and only threes and the casual fans just thinks all you need to do now is just hit a three and it's over. You know what I'm saying? Now when you do Matt McClung, all you need is one trick pony or a dunk or to be viral. And that's an NBA player. And when it's come into a lot of casual fans and our sport is spreading so much, some of the moves that we're making, much like the low management stuff, you have to be very sensitive because there's a lot of people in this world that just don't know, they're going to go off what anybody says or what tells them. You know what I mean? Also, I wish you would just go Simon Charlotte. Simon Charlotte, now that Lamello is out, so he can actually play. He's on the Sixers where he's never going to play either. So, Simon on one of these bummy teams where he can actually get minutes and show people he can play and deserves to be here. And in jerseys are going sell too. Definitely opens. So like get your money out. Definitely opens up a can of worms. But look, obviously we had to talk about the elephant in the room when we sat down for the setters as well. So, here's Kevin on Kyrie and where they stand after everything that went down. That part of it because I love to play. That's all I'm focused on in this league is hooping. You know, not that other shit. What kind of doing behind the scenes with his contract negotiations was like, I don't even want to think about none of that stuff. So, whatever he is doing, that's him. And I trust that he's going to make the right moves for him and his family to move forward. Like I don't, and I trust him on that. And we haven't had a conversation, but eventually we will. A lot of stuff is moving fast. He figuring out his situation in Dallas and I'm figuring out my situation here. But yeah, at some point, I'm sure we'll have a conversation and kick back and reflect on all of it. But it's like, after the, initially I was like, all right, it is what it is. And I try to move forward. Chandler, Evan, you guys have both been moved. You've been traded. Evan's been traded in season, Chandler off season. You've had teammates traded in the season. Chandler, is this typical? Is it just like, yo, he's out, take him out the team group chat and make a new group chat and we're moving on? Or like, what do you think of this? You definitely take him out of the team group chat because I don't want to be on that anymore. Talking about, I'm not there anymore, but depending on your relationship with the person, like when I left Houston, I was super cool with James Harden and with Dwight Howard. And when I left to Houston and I went to Dallas, I didn't speak to them. I didn't have like a conversation of why or what. I'm sure they just understood. I did what's best for myself, my family, my career at that time. And then yeah, when I saw them when I played the Rockets, it was all cool. And we went to dinner the night before. I saw them this summer. We were still friend and kind of maintained that relationship. But I don't think there's anything to read into it that they didn't have a discussion. I think they're going to kick it in LA in this off season and everything will be absolutely fine. That's usually how it goes. Unless there's some sort of underlying B for issues that you had with someone in the past or something, then it's like, whatever, I don't think we're done. We broke up. Something like this, Katie and Kyrie, they're friends, they're cool. They're going to see each other and it's going to all be back how it was in my opinion. Yeah, I would definitely hope so. Correct me if I'm wrong. I know for sure they kind of made a decision to kind of play with each other a few years back. And I know for sure a lot of media thread coming around was how I saw that they were to work with each other. So I'm not reading too deep into it because I don't too much really care. But at the same time, I think they'll figure it out when they're ready to figure it out. And a lot of static occurred from that situation alone. So I think everybody needs to take a step back and breathe. But they'll be smooth. It's not as crazy as when Katie left the Warriors and he had a Draymond beef and all that stuff. All right, from two former Nets All-Stars to a current Nets, Ben Simmons, he's still got at least one more game with knee soreness. But his former teammate, George Neang, he had a lot to say about his experience with Ben and Philly. So take a listen to this and yeah, let's hear what you guys think because this is a lot. This is a lot. What is the difference between this year's team at this point and last year's team? Because last year's team just had gotten James Harden. I was gonna say, I got a lot to say about last year's team. By the way, your five wins ahead. We are? Last year's pace. So this is where you're sitting at? Yeah. Well, Ben Simmons kind of handicapped us at the beginning of last year. Oh, there we go. That's fine. I mean, I wasn't gonna say it, but now you know what I mean. Now you're playing to the crowd. Now you're literally playing to the crowd. We'll stop clapping. Let him go. Exactly. Drew Philadelphia. Let's build the team. We love that. See, now this to me is different. This there clearly is some sort of disconnect or beef here with Neang and Ben Simmons. And the whole media, it's almost like beating a dead horse at this point with Ben Simmons, right? He's not the player he was. We don't know if he'll ever be the player he was again. But this again, this is a relationship where it's he's kind of been dragged in the media. He's been shit on pretty much all season long. This to me is a little unnecessary. It's like at this point, that whole drama, that whole, like that's it's over with. It's in the past. Georgie Neang is also, he's not really like a star type player to be able to kind of say these things. But clearly again, there is some beef here. There's some issues. You can see them getting into this now. And this is just a lead up of when they were in the locker room together, who knows what happened or who knows if they're cool or not. But you can, I can tell by this comment, by this interview, like he wanted to kind of air it out a little bit. He wanted to people know that there's beef in. It's clear. Listen, Ben Simmons, everything, it's already been scrutinized in the media. This is nothing new. Usually I would, I think last year we sit right there. I understand Georgia's frustration because at any day in a locker room, no matter what occurs to the coach or front office, you want to be accountable and make sure your teammate, you know, your teammate's there, has your back. I think a lot of times last year, certain players felt like Ben rightfully so, chose himself first and just quit on a team. And what you didn't see from that clip, Georgia was like, okay, now you have to make up for a franchise guy. Role players that make $2 million have to make up for the talent that a franchise guy has. In regards to which, Georgie works hard and he does everything he's supposed to do. I know he's not on an all-star level, but eventually somebody has to tell, you know, the talent that Ben is, the man to hell up, and legit just be, you know what I mean, be the leader of the team. You get everything else you want. You get all the baddest women, you get a hundred bajillion dollars, you're a fresh prince, you're a fresh Prince of Philly that can carry LeBron like legit. Now show up when it's time to show up. That's literally all they're asking you to do is to be a franchise and lead the team. And coming from a locker room. Yeah, which he didn't. So obviously this is why he's pissed off. And like, there was just no effort, but like. No effort at the same time, like, go Eddie, I'm sorry. Yeah, I mean, look, lots of drama in Brooklyn, but look, guys, we gotta get to a break. After this, we're gonna talk our parlay. Evan, I'm sorry, we're probably gonna lose the parlay. Coming back, we'll run it back in a second. Fellows, we had so much to say about Ben in the NBA dunk contest. I'm just gonna run through the parlay real quick. I like it, which probably means we're gonna fail. Evan, your pick is the best. I don't know how Chandler is going with the Clippers here, but hey, do whatever works for 10. They have to win. Evan, thanks so much for being here today. Michelle will be back tomorrow in the big chair. I'll be over there and we'll see you guys tomorrow on running back.