0:01

Welcome to open floor. I'm John Gonzalez, joined

0:03

by s I s Own, Rohan nod Crenae

0:05

Row. Happy Thanksgiving Week,

0:08

Happy U, S M N T Versus Whales

0:10

Day. Are you into the World Cup? John?

0:13

Okay, A couple of things I wanted to address here

0:15

at the start of the show. First of all, I have

0:18

to apologize. We got an

0:20

email from Matt Villanueva

0:22

who said, in all caps to

0:24

me specifically, stopped talking

0:26

over people when you do the show.

0:28

This is This has been a long running

0:31

problem from the day I started doing this podcast.

0:34

And the problem is, I just get excited. I'm just

0:36

excited. I love talking hoops with you, John,

0:38

I love talking hoops with Chris. I

0:40

just I'm sorry. I know it's a problem. So I

0:42

just wanted to acknowledge that off the jump. Like

0:44

I know, I listened back to the podcast

0:47

and I get annoyed for myself here. So

0:50

in spirit of Thanksgiving week, I'm back home

0:52

in South Florida. Still

0:55

hot here. Yesterday it rained

0:57

like cats and dogs for fourteen hours straight.

0:59

So tifical Florida. Nonsense, My

1:02

parents,

1:04

our Dish Network subscribers, and Dish

1:06

Network has been in a dispute with Fox

1:10

for like years now, and

1:12

so I can't watch the World Cup like I'm

1:14

at home and I can. Don't

1:17

you have do you have like any service that

1:19

you stream from l

1:21

A that you could ostensibly watch

1:23

it on and or if not because

1:26

my parents services.

1:29

We have an antenna, but it's like a complicated

1:32

and like you know, it's a whole thing.

1:35

The antennas. The antenna should be

1:37

like five percent easier than it is. Well, the answer

1:39

then is you got to go to a bar and watch it.

1:41

Because we're we're about an hour as we record

1:44

this program, we're about

1:46

an hour and a half from the U.

1:48

S and Wales kicking. So you gotta you gotta

1:50

get out there. So we're gonna rattle through this

1:53

podcast because we all know what's actually important

1:55

today. Uh, coming up later in

1:57

the show injuries. We're

1:59

just gonna talk about a lot of injuries. Dame

2:01

Lillard, Paul George, Yris, Maxie and also

2:03

now Joel Embid. Right before we started

2:05

recording, that came out is the headline

2:08

of this podcast is Joel Embid ducking

2:10

Benson. Mike will get into that,

2:12

Mike Connolly, Russell Westbrook and John

2:14

Morant. Those are all injuries that we must address.

2:16

And then we will wrap up with a topic that

2:19

you and I are both very excited about. Ladder

2:21

Gate. Janissanta ta Compo picked

2:24

a postgame fight in the last city in

2:26

the world where you'd want to do that. But first

2:28

pick the fight. But interesting,

2:31

well, we'll discuss who picked the fight with whom,

2:33

But first, don't call it a come back. Kyrie and

2:36

Kauai have been here for years. Both Kyrie

2:38

Irving and Kawhi Leonard have returned.

2:41

Row. I'll let you pick which one. Do you want to start

2:43

with, Kyrie or Kauai. Let's

2:46

start with Kauai. All right, We'll go to Kauai.

2:48

So uh. Kawhi Leonard returned for the Clippers.

2:50

He made his first appearance on Thursday. He had six

2:52

points in twenty five minutes and

2:54

an extremely ugly win over the Pistons,

2:57

and then he followed that up with eleven points in twenty

2:59

two minut It's in a win over the Spurs that wasn't

3:02

too difficult. He said that returning from an

3:04

a c L injury can be a two year

3:06

process, and he called it a long journey.

3:09

Row. How do you look I

3:13

mean, you don't the

3:17

I guess he didn't look great is not what I would

3:19

say. But it's not like he looked bad either. It's

3:22

just the reason I wanted to bring it up, John

3:24

is it's weird. It's weird what's

3:26

happening here. And I don't expect us to get any answers

3:28

anytime soon, because that's been the nature

3:31

of Kawhi Leonards career. But

3:34

to recap kind of his season. So he tears

3:36

his a c L. Now in

3:39

two thousand and twenty one, he tears it during

3:42

the playoff run. Now granted these

3:44

playoffs went later into the summer the

3:46

normal, so it was around I think

3:49

July when

3:51

he actually tore the a c L close to it from

3:53

June or even perhaps. And

3:56

you know, he sits out all of last season.

3:58

He comes back to this one, he plays two

4:01

games twenty one minutes each. In those games,

4:03

doesn't start, comes off the bench, and

4:06

then they're just like he's out. He's out,

4:08

definitely misses a whole mess

4:10

of games, comes back, plays he's two more.

4:12

He's still in the minutes restriction. I

4:16

understand he's later in his career, he's had

4:19

injuries. You look at a guy like Jamal Murray.

4:21

Now, we haven't talked about him

4:24

specifically too much on this podcast yet. I

4:26

don't think Jamal Murray has looked great to

4:29

start the season. You could tell he's still playing to get

4:31

his legs back under him.

4:33

At the same time, he's been out there for most of the Nuggets

4:36

games. He's playing major minutes. I

4:39

understand Kauai saying like, yes,

4:42

and a lot of instances, it might take two

4:44

years before an a c L someone

4:46

coming off in a c L tair looks normal. But

4:49

I don't recall anything

4:52

remotely like this from

4:55

an a c L TARE recently. Like we're

4:58

kind of post a c L tare. It's like, you know

5:00

that person is gonna miss a year, but we kind

5:02

of expect that person to come back now, right. That

5:04

is a really interesting point. Obviously, we

5:06

don't know what kind of discomfort Kauai

5:09

has, uh you know how it healed.

5:11

Neither of us are doctors, but um

5:14

super macro pull back thirty feet

5:16

view of that injury when

5:18

we were kids, or when I was a kid, at least

5:20

you were probably not even born then when

5:23

I was a kid. That was a massive injury,

5:25

right, that was something that could be even a career under

5:27

Now it's one of those things where you're like, man, they you

5:30

know, if it happens at the beginning of the season, they'll

5:32

be fine by the next season. So it

5:34

it is a little unusual relative to

5:36

how a c ls have been treated over the last

5:39

decade. Yeah,

5:41

man, And it's you

5:44

know, obviously he is generally

5:46

been very cautious with injuries. I mean,

5:48

remember when he got hurt. We were

5:50

kind of like, is it a torn a c L. Do

5:52

we know what's gonna happen. Is he gonna play in Game six

5:55

of this next series or is he gonna miss the next year? Like

5:57

we didn't even know. And

6:00

Yeah, the reason I wanted to talk about it is I still

6:02

just don't really get a great vibe from

6:05

all this. And

6:08

listen, this is the scene that came into a lot of expectations.

6:10

We did the Mega preview pod

6:13

myself heiring Mannix and Beck. One of the

6:15

questions I had formulated for

6:17

that was are the Clippers considered

6:19

a failure if they don't win the finals this year? Which

6:21

you know was meant to be a little

6:23

hot taking in nature at

6:26

the same time, like this is now you're

6:29

four of this experiment. You know they're

6:31

lumped in there with the nets. They

6:33

made one conference finals and that was a good playoff

6:36

run. Paul George is really really good

6:39

in that playoffs. But this

6:43

is starting to get like,

6:45

does is anyone taking them seriously

6:47

as a contender at the moment? Or I understand

6:49

it's still really early here. We're gonna have to wait

6:52

a month or do you see where Kauai

6:55

ends up in terms of this recovery period?

6:57

But you'd

6:59

like to see them get it going a little bit. I'm

7:01

glad that you brought this up because I didn't want to spend

7:03

this forward a little bit. You've got these

7:06

questions about Kauai in his absence.

7:08

Paul George has been gangbusters. He's been incredible

7:11

this season, but he was held out of the second half of the

7:13

Spurs game with knee sore nous. You don't like to hear that

7:15

they're playing the Jazz tonight. Clips are ten and seven.

7:17

They're seven and three over their last ten. As

7:19

you mentioned, they were one of the preseason favorites, high

7:22

high expectations for

7:24

them. I

7:27

don't know, I don't know what to make of this. Team because

7:29

you don't know what you're gonna get out of Quai. Anytime you

7:31

hear injury and Paul George in the same sentence

7:33

whether or not it's knee soreness and they're just precautionary

7:35

or not, that sends up a red flag. You're

7:38

right that this this was the team

7:40

where where people thought, hey,

7:42

man, it's finals are bust for them, because this experiment

7:45

can't go on forever, and right now it looks

7:47

busty. I know it's early. I don't want to get

7:49

too hot Tiki on this, but I haven't

7:51

like I thought. You and I beginning

7:53

of the season, we're like, man, they're so deep, Look

7:55

how many things that they can throw at you. And then

7:58

like all of a sudden, like you

8:00

know, what's seventeen games into it, you

8:02

go, ah, maybe not as deep as we thought

8:04

when you when you're uncertain about the main two guys.

8:08

Definitely, And I do think we're

8:10

getting close to the point now where you

8:12

know, twenty game mark of the season. The

8:15

Q. Yeah, the early

8:17

sample stuff, the early sample size

8:19

stuff starts to wane a

8:22

little bit. Not that teams can't change, not

8:24

that they're still not a lot of ball game

8:26

left. But yeah, man,

8:28

I just don't get a good vibe from all this.

8:32

I'm I just want

8:34

to see him play thirty three minutes in a

8:36

basketball game. I just want to see Kawhi

8:38

Leander played thirty three minutes in a basketball game, and

8:40

that will make me feel a lot better about the Clippers

8:42

chances. You know what

8:45

is the top of the West right now? The

8:47

Warriors are on a little

8:49

bit of a wind streak here, and you know

8:51

they've beaten some bad teams. They still gave up

8:54

a hundred and twenty points to the Rockets, by the way,

8:56

like it's like they blew the doors off the Rockets.

8:58

Even Clay had this massive night. You

9:02

asked about the top of the West. Let me let me run

9:04

through this, and you tell me you stopped

9:06

me when you get to a team that you like,

9:09

the Clippers better than all Right,

9:12

so we've got the Jazz at the top,

9:15

followed by the Sun's, the Blazers,

9:18

your Nuggets. Now we get into a little

9:20

weird situation. The Kings, who I know you go and

9:22

and Chris talked about at length. The Grizzlies,

9:25

who have a lot of injury issues that we'll get into

9:27

and then you get to the to the I like

9:29

to think the Clippers are still better than the

9:31

King's long term, but like

9:35

the Clippers offense hasn't been very good and

9:38

the Kings has. Yeah, the Kings

9:41

haven't been one of the best. I

9:44

don't know, man, it's still weird.

9:46

I think, you know, you think

9:48

the Jazz are going to kind of level off here. You see

9:50

them scuffle somewhat the

9:54

last week or so, But it's

9:56

been a really, really weird You're particularly

9:59

in the Western Conference. And again

10:02

I brought this up with Harry, you and I talked about the Blazers

10:04

last week. John we got an email saying

10:06

I wasn't effusive enough about the Blazers

10:09

in my answer about buying Blazer stock. I

10:12

like it. Yeah, So

10:14

I don't know if those things are gonna remain near the top,

10:16

But I don't know that I'm confident

10:18

the Clippers are gonna go on some massive run here, especially

10:21

as they deal with injuries. Be extra cautious,

10:24

like, even if they do end up being pretty

10:27

good, like they might be setting themselves up for

10:29

kind of a tough path just with the way they treat the

10:31

regular season. And

10:34

on one hand, I can appreciate that they

10:37

take the playoffs so seriously that they

10:39

don't want to overburden their stars. On the other

10:41

hand, I'd like for the regular season

10:43

to matter a little bit more

10:45

than the Clippers have have made it out to matter

10:48

the last few years. Yeah, you mentioned the Jazz

10:50

and whether or not they're gonna level off. We've

10:53

we've been asking that question every single

10:55

episode. Uh so far, not

10:57

yet, But I do want to get into

10:59

how those injuries impact some of those Western

11:01

Conference teams a little later in the show. But first we

11:04

gotta we have to at least talk about Kyrie

11:06

returning. We have discussed

11:08

the subject ad nauseum

11:11

on both the Monday and the Friday edition

11:13

of Open Floor. But after his eight game

11:15

suspension for promoting anti Semitic ideas

11:18

and tropes, uh, he addressed the media

11:20

on Sunday before the Nets host of the Grizzlies. He

11:22

said, I don't stand for anything close to hate speech or

11:24

anti Semitism, or anything that is anti

11:26

going against the human race. He

11:28

said it's necessary for him to take accountability

11:31

for his actions. He said he learned the power

11:33

of his voice is strong, and the influence he has

11:35

within his community is also strong, and

11:37

he said he should have handled it on the

11:39

first day. But he also

11:42

said he was quote rightfully defensive

11:45

when people called him anti Semitic because

11:47

they didn't know him. So what do you make of his

11:49

apology and does this put an end to it?

11:53

It's hard to say anything's ever over with Kyrie,

11:56

and I do think the NBA is gonna be in a weird

11:58

spot. And when we saw Jalen Brown initially

12:00

kind of tweeting and support of

12:04

I just don't feel like unpacking all this to be

12:06

perfectly honest, but like you're just

12:08

gonna see people support the wrong things.

12:11

You're gonna have Kyrie makes statements, he filed

12:13

a grievance through the union, which

12:16

has to play out, and it

12:18

doesn't feel like anything's ever over

12:21

with him

12:25

his public statements. On

12:28

one hand, I think what some

12:30

people have come to respect from

12:33

Kyrie over the years, and to

12:35

a degree I've always understood it is he doesn't

12:37

want to perform for the media. Right. There's kind of

12:39

a dance that players

12:41

and media do sometimes, and

12:44

Kyrie's never really been one willing to

12:46

do that dance. He doesn't want to perform,

12:49

and there's

12:52

you know, there's reasons behind that that I understand.

12:56

In this instance, his

12:59

his distaste for kind of running

13:02

through the typical

13:04

apology blueprint,

13:06

etcetera, has

13:09

created more problems. And I just

13:11

I don't see him ever coming

13:14

out and giving the the apology

13:16

that that people are gonna appreciate, or at least

13:18

the kind of apology that can put

13:20

this to bed, you know, the one

13:22

that people make even when they've done something terrible

13:25

that for whatever reason, we're just kind of like, yeah,

13:27

well, he said the things that you know he's supposed

13:30

to say, and now we're just tired of talking

13:32

about it, like that's not Kyrie. And

13:36

I I'm not

13:38

saying he's gonna promote

13:42

something or say something explicit, but it's

13:44

just you get the sense of things that are never really

13:46

just over with this guy. I thought he got pretty

13:48

close. You know, I've been I

13:50

don't want to be labor this much longer. I want to talk

13:52

about actual basketball. I've

13:55

been as critical of Kyrie and what he

13:57

promoted on his platform

13:59

as anybody. We've talked about it extensively

14:01

on the show. I thought it was reprehensible. I

14:03

thought it was indefensible. I thought his uh,

14:06

the way he handled it initially was a joke,

14:09

uh, and that he should have just acted like an adult

14:11

and said, yeah, I screwed up. You know,

14:14

I'm not anti Semitic, but I can understand

14:16

why the Jewish community has piste off about this.

14:18

And I apologized profusely, and I hope you'll

14:21

forgive me for it, and let's move on. And I'm gonna,

14:23

you know, try my hardest moving

14:25

forward to show you that that wasn't my intent. It's

14:28

pretty simple. I thought he got close

14:30

on this until he did the whole. But

14:33

I was right to be defensive because you guys don't

14:35

know me, Like, just also let it drop. Man,

14:37

you messed up. It's okay to say you messed

14:40

up, and not to get your back up about

14:42

everything. I'm

14:44

paraphrasing. That was growth, by the way, because it

14:46

took all my strength there not to talk over

14:48

you. I'm I'm paraphrasing

14:51

here. He also something to the effect

14:53

of like, I want a platform where I can

14:55

say things without being partially criticized

14:57

or and it's like, hey, man, like

15:01

that's called you know, thoughts,

15:04

That's that's called thoughts. It's uh,

15:07

like keep those in your head if you really feel

15:09

the need to say wild stuff.

15:12

But that's the

15:14

blessing and the curse of him being in the position

15:16

he is. He has the platform,

15:19

and he wants to share certain things, and there

15:21

are things that he shares that or

15:24

has shared in the past that are important, and

15:26

he's made good use of the platform. But

15:29

you can't pick and choose when people are going

15:31

to respond to it or critique

15:34

it, or have a reaction to

15:36

it, whether that's fair

15:38

unfair. That's kind of the social

15:41

contract that we're all currently taking part

15:43

in, and he's used it to

15:45

his benefit before. He can't. You

15:47

can't escape that when it's convenient for

15:49

you. No, you can't.

15:51

And this will I mean, this has been a thing with

15:53

him his whole career. So we'll

15:56

see if it continues. I want to talk about basketball.

15:58

The Nets beat the Grids Lee's The Grizzlies

16:01

notably did not have jaw does

16:03

in Bane or triple J but they want anyway.

16:06

In Kyrie's first game back, Kyrie

16:09

twenty six minutes, UH five of twelve

16:11

from the field, UH fourteen points,

16:13

five rebounds. No assess,

16:16

hard to do for him, At least

16:19

I thought he looked okay. Ben Simmons

16:21

looked considerably better. We're gonna get to Ben Simmons

16:23

in a second basketball wise,

16:25

how Kyrie look and is this

16:28

nuts experiment? Back on track?

16:30

What do we think about this? Yeah,

16:32

it was interesting. You know they started Simmons last

16:34

night. Kyrie. It's

16:37

funny that he I

16:39

understand, no matter what, you gotta get

16:41

your legs back. He missed all

16:44

that time. It's funny to think

16:46

that he had um

16:49

not like a minute's restriction, but limited

16:51

playing time because of a

16:53

a suspension for his nature. That

16:55

was just kind of silly to me. You

16:58

know, there's something that we said about they

17:01

seem to be you know, they had a couple of losses.

17:03

They seem to have found something briefly

17:05

without Kyrie in the lineup. I

17:08

do think that there's something you said about they're always

17:11

seemingly always going to have trouble defending

17:13

when he's in the game. And

17:18

you know, Katie had that quote to

17:21

Chris Haynes about you

17:23

know, when you see the lineup, you're expecting

17:26

them to win because of me. And I thought he did a really

17:29

good job, not that he had

17:31

to do anything. I thought he he explained

17:34

kind of his reasoning for saying that eloquently

17:36

on his own podcast about the point he

17:38

was trying to get across. The

17:41

point I'm making is there's something that he said about You

17:44

mentioned Kyrie's no assists when he's

17:46

on the floor, like he's gonna have the ball in his hands,

17:48

and obviously he can

17:51

do good things with it. He makes the highlight plays.

17:53

But to me, there's something you

17:55

said about when you have someone like

17:57

him and him taking the ball out of the hands of someone

17:59

like Kevin dury it and the style

18:01

of play they could maybe have if

18:03

they didn't have Kyrie. I'm

18:06

not so, I'm not. I think they're

18:08

gonna be better than they were to start the season. I

18:10

like what Jack Vaughn has done. I think they're they're

18:12

playing more competitively, but I'm

18:15

not. I'm just not sold on the Katie Kyrie

18:18

partnership. I'm not either. There's

18:21

six and four over their last ten, they're eight and nine

18:24

overall. They are at present

18:26

just outside of what the playoff picture

18:28

would be that'd be in that play in game.

18:31

I don't know what this team is. I thought

18:33

it was encouraging though, that you get all you

18:35

have all three of them back and Ben Simmons had

18:37

his best game. I want to talk about that too. He was

18:40

eleven for thirteen from the field, mess

18:42

is the only free throw, but had twenty two points, eight rebounds,

18:45

five assistant to steel. This

18:48

is something that we have discussed and

18:50

Jack Vaughan brought it up where he said, you

18:52

know, Ben is kind of like a one five where

18:55

he can get the ball off the glass, push it up the floor,

18:57

and then we're gonna put him down low because he has

18:59

to play next to the basket because we all know he's not going to

19:01

shoot from outside the paint. This

19:04

was the best case scenario. This was the Ben

19:06

Simmons that they've been looking to see joined

19:09

their team since they traded for him,

19:11

right. I mean, he was injured, he had

19:14

mental health issues, he was

19:16

you know, slowly working his way back. This

19:19

was the Ben Simmons that was promised, and I thought he

19:21

looked really good. Like you know, I've been as critical of

19:23

Ben Simmons as anybody, but that's

19:25

the kind of effort they need to get from Ben Simmons.

19:27

And then also defensively, if this thing is

19:29

going to work, now big huge, you

19:32

know, grain assault is they were playing

19:34

the Grizzlies without their top three guys, and without their

19:36

top three guys, that roster looks thin, absolutely,

19:40

And so first of all, I mentioned

19:42

they started Simmons, they started him at center,

19:45

they started to line up I think we've all been most

19:47

interested in play Durant, O'Neill,

19:49

Harris, Irving, Simmons. Um.

19:52

I thought Simmons had been looking good going back to that

19:54

King's game, which I know they lost big, but I thought

19:57

Simmons had some good moments in

19:59

that game. The next

20:01

game I think was the first time he'd scored double digits

20:04

since this Philadelphia days, and then yeah,

20:07

twenty two points. There

20:09

was just at the start of the season, it looked like he

20:12

was It almost looked like

20:14

he was this physical specimen.

20:17

Who was This is gonna sound

20:19

like an insult, it's not. It almost

20:21

looked like he was someone who had this great physical

20:23

potential and was like learning

20:26

the nuances of basketball, Like he had to relearn

20:28

the nuances of basketball when to apply

20:30

his physicality, when do applies

20:32

athleticism? Like no

20:34

feel for the game, and

20:37

just on an eye test level, he's looked like he's

20:39

at such a better feel for the game over

20:42

this last week, um

20:45

like much more appropriately I

20:47

think defending, cutting,

20:49

etcetera. You know, playing

20:52

with the ball in his hands. He looks a

20:54

lot more comfortable now and

20:57

that has been a really positive development.

20:59

I still don't know that it's you

21:02

know, you obviously need to see him sustain this. We're

21:05

talking about a guy who was All NBA All

21:07

Defensive Team like

21:09

so good even even you

21:13

know, with all his struggles,

21:15

a guy who when he was on the floor, his teams

21:17

were better. His teams were good because he was

21:19

on the floor. Um, a guy who

21:21

could make a significant impact in an NBA game,

21:25

and you obviously would like to see

21:28

him sustain that level of play. But really

21:31

positive steps in the right direction for Ben

21:33

Simmons, and he just looks so much

21:36

more comfortable than he did the first week of the season

21:39

last. Ben Simmons thing also kind of goes to

21:41

comfort and then we'll get onto uh running

21:43

through all the injuries. Ben Simmons

21:46

in Philadelphia against a

21:48

sixer team that's not gonna have anybody playing

21:50

for it. I don't know if you're available, but

21:52

if you can make it to Philly on time, they'll give you some minutes.

21:55

But he's going to be in Philly and he was asked about

21:57

it and he said, you know, somebody

21:59

said, you know, has enough time passed

22:01

that you think that they might let it go? And

22:04

he said, in Philling he made a hilarious space.

22:06

And I love that he gets what's going

22:08

to happen and that he's kind of having

22:10

some fun with it. Um,

22:13

do you care about his return to Philly? I'm

22:15

too close to this. I

22:18

cared a lot. It

22:20

was funny last year when you

22:23

know, the fans paid like three thou dollars

22:25

to boo him and then they got blown out and he didn't even

22:27

play, didn't even play. That I that I really

22:29

enjoyed. I cared

22:32

a lot about this when I thought, ay, the nets

22:34

were gonna be good and be the Sixers

22:36

could have had Maxi, Harden

22:39

and Embat in the lineup. But now that those guys

22:41

aren't playing, especially no Embied. You

22:45

know, you want to see him beat and Simmons

22:48

go at each other. That's what you want to see. You want

22:50

to see you want to see Simmons driving. Remember,

22:53

Okay, my like one

22:56

of my favorite memories as

22:58

a basketball fan was to lead

23:00

up to the first Heat Lakers Christmas game

23:03

after Shock had gotten traded to the Heat,

23:05

and Shack was like, what's

23:07

it gonna be like when a Ferrari drives into

23:09

a brick wall, like you already know? And

23:12

I was like, I had never been so

23:14

excited for something before in my life. John,

23:16

I was like, I didn't know that the

23:19

anticipation like this could exist. I was

23:21

like, Shock versus Kobe, this goes against

23:23

everything I know as a basketball fan of

23:25

only known these two teammates. Obviously

23:29

Embeat and Simmons. They're not Shock and Kobe.

23:31

They never got out of the second round,

23:33

as you very well know. But that's

23:36

what I wanted to see. I wanted to see the collision.

23:38

You know, you know there was gonna be a

23:40

moment in the game like embiad

23:42

would have willed it himself, where

23:44

Simmons is driving the lane and Embeat

23:46

is waiting for him. You just you

23:48

know, those guys were gonna have a moment to go ahead to

23:50

head. The Philly crowd is gonna be insane,

23:53

like you you know, would have meant you

23:56

know what, who knows how Simmons would

23:58

have responded to the environment. You know, would have meant a

24:00

ton to Eimbeat. You know, that he's

24:03

he gets up for games like that, and I'm

24:06

very bummed to be missing out on such a

24:08

like classic basketball confrontation.

24:10

Yeah, we gotta wait again, which kind of sucks.

24:13

He's gonna get booed every single time he touches the

24:15

ball. We all know that, but I'm glad

24:17

that he's sort of leaning into it. It does

24:19

suck, though, that we don't get to see him and against Embid

24:21

because we saw the

24:23

animosity as Ben Simmons sat out last

24:26

year and then when he was traded, and I would

24:28

have loved to see that too. But this will we'll just

24:30

go to the We'll go to the injury. See if you're if

24:32

you're Ben Simmons, shouldn't

24:34

you just shoot like eight threes? I

24:37

mean, how how

24:41

much would that anger you? If he just started pulling

24:43

up from three and draining him a three

24:45

would be amazing. That brings us to the injury

24:48

portion of the program. Uh

24:50

man, there's a ton of them here. Uh

24:53

Tyrese Maxie will start with him out three

24:55

to four weeks. Small fracture in his

24:57

foot. Uh he steps on somebody's foot

24:59

in and trans it against the box. As soon as that happened,

25:01

he started limping and I was like, man, that didn't look

25:03

good. Somehow they won that game. Uh,

25:06

they lost the They might have won the battle,

25:08

but they lost the war. They still don't have James Harden.

25:11

He's out until early December. And then today

25:13

this morning we found out that no Joe l

25:15

Embiad he's got a foot spring and he'll miss the

25:17

Brooklyn and Charlotte back to backs.

25:20

Uh. Walking wounded for the Sixers right now.

25:22

Ralph, Yeah, you know

25:24

you mentioned that Bucks game. I thought that

25:26

was a really nice win for Philly. Weird

25:28

game, obviously, will get into the ladder stuff later. That

25:31

embiide foul on honest was so weird.

25:34

But to win that second half without Maxie,

25:37

I thought was really impressive. Was actually already down

25:39

Hardened. I'm curious how you feel, John,

25:41

because there's there the rumblings that some people

25:43

would think the Sixers look better

25:46

without hard and Uh

25:48

with the Maxie Nmbiad is kind of the two

25:50

man team. I've long said

25:52

on this show, I don't think you treat Embiid

25:54

like a traditional superstar. I don't

25:57

think he's the kind of guy you pair with a ball dominant

25:59

player because of how uniquely talented.

26:02

He is within the current scope of the NBA.

26:05

Obviously, the Sixers listen, they're in a terrible

26:07

spot. I do think e Beat

26:09

is so good so far this season that

26:11

even without Maxi, they can

26:14

be competitive, like they're going to have a good team

26:16

when he's on the floor. It's how do you manage the

26:18

minutes when he's off? Can you survive

26:20

the thirteen minutes a night he's not on the floor.

26:23

That's gonna be their big issue. I don't know

26:25

who carries those lineups. I don't know what they do.

26:28

I think they played like Paul Reid and Montres Herald

26:30

together briefly the other night, like they're gonna

26:32

have to do some weird stuff. How they stay

26:34

alive during those minutes is

26:36

going to be the real question for them, because I think they're

26:38

still gonna be really good with him Beat on the floor. But

26:40

I wanted to get your opinion on the

26:43

non hardened m being minutes

26:45

so far this season. Do you do is there any credence

26:47

to that? For you know, I mean, like

26:49

a player of James Harden's caliber, you're going to be

26:52

better with him. The overarching

26:54

point here, though, is this

26:56

is shaping up like a little bit of a curse season,

26:58

right you No, No, Maxi, Maxi

27:00

goes out all of a sudden, Embiad's

27:03

missing it back to back. By the way, I didn't even

27:05

mention Tobias Harris was out

27:07

on back to back with a hip injury.

27:09

He returned to practice today. We'll see if he goes against

27:12

the Nets. Um, they're just they're

27:15

really really thin because

27:17

of all these injuries. I mean, you've got Shake Milton

27:19

and the Anthony Milton is your only guards,

27:21

neither of whom are actual point guards. It

27:24

just I'm not I'm looking at this. We came

27:26

into this season looking at the Sixers

27:28

as they had a nice professional,

27:31

quiet offseason where they added

27:33

some good pieces, everybody was healthy,

27:36

and now it's like, hardly anybody's healthy.

27:38

They're eight and eight and like you know,

27:40

they're they're basically going

27:43

to have to tread water until Harden gets

27:45

back. And they better hope nothing

27:47

like serious is wrong with EMBIID

27:49

because it's gonna be really

27:51

really tough to do anything

27:54

with one of them out let alone multiple

27:56

players out. So, Uh, my answer

27:58

to your question is, I'm pretty

28:00

pessimistic on their outlook, right now, But we have a lot

28:02

of other a lot of other injuries to rattle through

28:04

too, and I want to ask you about how they're going to affect

28:07

those teams as well. So let's start. Let's go to the Western

28:09

Conference Dame Lillard. Initially

28:12

it was said that he would miss a game or two with

28:14

a calf injury. Then yesterday

28:16

a Sunday Sham's reported that he's got a

28:18

Grade one strained. I don't even know what this

28:20

is. Is Is it solus or soul us?

28:22

Dude? Can I know? I know this is

28:24

a thing. Hold on, it's a right lower

28:27

leg injury that was evaluated,

28:29

uh, that will be evaluated in one

28:32

to two weeks. I saw you tweet about this. Take

28:34

it away. Listen.

28:37

First of all, again, I'm trying

28:39

so hard not to interrupt you. I can't. It's

28:42

so filly of you to go straight to this is a

28:44

cursed season. It

28:46

might be, it might be, it might be. Okay,

28:50

I am getting completely

28:52

sick and tired of NBA teams. I don't know

28:54

if this is a bit. I don't know who started

28:57

it to me, like they're doing

28:59

this under the veil spec specificity,

29:02

when actually it's another

29:04

attempt to off you skate. It's like we're

29:06

gonna throw out weird jargon and lingo.

29:09

No one's gonna understand what we're talking about. Damian

29:12

Lillard Grade one strain of the soleiest

29:15

muscle. I've never heard of that, John.

29:18

If I asked you to point out your aductor, could

29:20

you do it? I think I could

29:22

pull that one off because

29:25

I don't know where my abductor is. I'm

29:27

gonna be honest, I don't. I have

29:29

no clue. Um.

29:31

So basically what you want is the hockey

29:34

version where it's they just tell you upper or lower

29:36

body and then leave it. Bait. Do

29:38

you know what Mike Conley's injury is. That's

29:42

on It's on my list. He's

29:45

got a ligament damage and literally

29:48

literally never seen this word

29:50

before in my life. And I've seen a lot of words,

29:52

John, I'm not from this country. I've seen a lot of words.

29:55

And a

30:00

pop Lydius strain of hope Lydius

30:02

strain. Yeah, I don't know

30:04

what that is either. That sounds

30:06

fake, like enough, gimme calf,

30:09

gimme ankle, gimme hamstring,

30:12

elbow, shoulder, abdomen.

30:14

That's it. That's the only body parts they're

30:16

getting way out of hand it. Growing

30:18

up, there was like eight things a guy

30:21

could injure. Okay, he was like, knee back,

30:24

you know you might, you might say calf, calf,

30:27

ankle hand. Now

30:29

it's like his six the meta carpal

30:32

on his and it's like, what,

30:34

well, who is this four? What

30:36

are we doing? Who is this helping? I don't

30:39

I don't know who it's for, who it's helping. I do think

30:41

that they're trying to be specific in

30:43

any event, and I knew that you had to get that

30:45

off. So I'm glad that you did because I saw you do

30:47

on Twitter and I was like, this is definitely on rose radar.

30:50

But in any event, either way,

30:52

no Dame Lollard for the Blazers. For the next

30:54

one to two weeks, the Blazers are tenant six or

30:56

five, and five over the last ten puts

30:59

them square early at the top of the Western

31:01

Conference, a game behind the Jazz. As we record this

31:04

man in the same way that I super

31:06

do not like the idea of the Sixers trying to tread

31:09

water without the guys that we mentioned the

31:11

Blazers, just like it wouldn't

31:14

it be nice for the Blazers and for Portland, if

31:16

they could just have Dame around, Like

31:19

every time he's he comes back, he's out

31:21

again. It's like that, I think I'm out,

31:23

they pulled me back in. It's the reverse with him.

31:26

You know, I will say they've

31:29

had You know, Jeremy Grant has been

31:33

someone we haven't talked about a ton of the podcast this year.

31:35

He's been fantastic. You

31:37

know another thing that's weird about Dame. You

31:40

know, look at look at his games played. This

31:42

is this is Dame's game played in his career eight two,

31:44

eight two, eight, two, seventy seventy

31:47

eight, sixty six, which

31:49

was all sixty six of a shortened season, sixty

31:52

seven and twenty one that's coming out of

31:54

the bubble year. Um, also

31:56

a little bit of a shortened season. Then last year twenty

31:58

nine. Now this year his second injury.

32:01

It's a bummer to see someone who's been one of the game's

32:03

great iron man's start to get

32:05

these little injuries. Um,

32:08

I think that they can tread water a little bit.

32:10

Shade and Sharp has been great. I think it's gonna

32:12

be a good experience for Shade and Sharp h

32:14

to get some more run. Anthony Simon's

32:17

is as we know, can fill it up. Jeremy

32:19

Grant, like I said, Shelby

32:22

is getting in here. Um. He

32:25

says, they have more problems than Dame

32:27

Nurkic just playing like bleep, and

32:29

they allowed you to want to no be to score

32:31

twenty points on their home court. He

32:34

adds, I think they'll be at the

32:36

point though I think I don't think they're

32:38

gonna be as good as they've been ten and six

32:40

good, but I do think they can tread water with

32:42

the guys that I've mentioned. I'm a

32:44

little nervous about Dame though they said I

32:47

believe they said this is a different part of the calf

32:49

that he injured. I believe. I saw that on

32:51

Twitter in the same leg.

32:55

Calf injuries can be very tricky men. They

32:57

can, you know, sometimes playing players are able to come back.

32:59

There's no problem. They can linger.

33:02

As we know, like we saw with Kevin Durant, they can

33:04

turn into an Achilles thing. They

33:07

got to be very careful because, as you mentioned,

33:09

like good things have been happening for them, They've built positive

33:11

momentum. I expect them to be a playoff

33:14

team when Dame Lillard's healthy. That's been the standard

33:16

he's set for his entire career, and

33:18

he's lived up to it so far this season. But

33:21

they've got to be pretty cautious, man. You

33:24

don't want this turning into like a

33:26

lingering long term.

33:28

You know, they've been one of the most fun stories

33:31

of the season so far. They absolutely have.

33:33

I have mentioned this to you on

33:36

the show. I love watching game. I love

33:38

the Portland Trailblazers experience. I think

33:40

it's one of the great in arena experiences

33:42

in the NBA. It's in my top

33:44

five for sure. I just wanted to be back out there

33:46

and healthy because as you as you mentioned, he's

33:49

been one of the great iron men of the game. And now

33:51

these last two seasons, like you know,

33:53

fits and starts, intermittently available and

33:55

then out and it's and it's just a bummer. And I

33:57

and I'm with Shelby that I

34:00

worry about what this team looks like and

34:02

how well they can play without him around.

34:05

Uh, let's rattle off. Let's run through the rest

34:07

of these real quick. You mentioned Mike Conley.

34:09

Evidently he avoided a major injury or

34:11

ligament damage. He's gonna be right.

34:15

That's all he did, which everybody knows

34:17

is a thing. He's gonna be reevaluated on

34:20

Tuesday. Um

34:23

potential effects to the Utah Jazz,

34:25

who are still a top to Western conference. He's

34:28

been really good for him this year, and he's got a lot of run,

34:30

which is crazy's been really good. He's

34:32

been really good. I will say. The beauty of the Jazz

34:35

is they're just like a wave. You

34:37

know. They got like six guys who can score.

34:40

They got market In, they got Clarkson, they

34:42

got Malik Beasley, they got Kelly Olynik,

34:45

they got Colin Sexton. Weirdly

34:48

a team I can't believe. I was saying this

34:50

built to its stand injuries. The Utah Jazz

34:53

built to a stand injuries. And also now, um,

34:56

you know Sexton hasn't been getting a ton of run,

34:58

so now maybe he fill in some more men. It's with with con

35:00

Sexton, who I expected to be more in the

35:02

mix than he's been, so this might open up an

35:04

opportunity for him. That has been interesting. Huh.

35:07

I think we all thought, oh, this is gonna be the guy

35:09

they played thirty five minutes, pulled

35:11

the ball in his hands. Try to turn him into

35:13

something maybe a little bit more kind of by

35:15

brute force, blunt

35:18

object, no other choice.

35:20

High usage turn him into something maybe

35:22

a little bit more than what he's been in his career, and interesting enough,

35:25

he's just been part of the ensemble, just

35:27

part of the ensemble. But we'll see how it chakes

35:29

out with Mike Conley. We mentioned the Grizzlies earlier

35:31

in the program. John Morant, I hate this. I hate

35:33

it because I love to watch week to week

35:35

with an ankle injury. Uh, Triple J

35:37

didn't play the other day. They already lost Esmond

35:39

Bine for an extended period of time. They

35:42

were at the top of the West. As

35:45

we record this, they've they've fallen back just slightly,

35:47

their game and a half off the pace there ten and

35:49

seven. They were one of the great surprises

35:52

last season. They're young and up and coming.

35:54

When they're healthy, they're one of the best teams

35:56

in the conference. Without

35:58

those three though, they are extremely

36:01

thin thin.

36:03

It's like putting it generously. I mean it's

36:06

like, you know, imagine taking Lebron

36:08

Wade in Boss off the Big three heat. You

36:10

know this is listen.

36:13

I thought Memphis was gonna take a step back this year.

36:16

You know, Trip was out to start the season, and

36:19

I've been really impressed with them, dominant

36:22

at home, six and one at home. Jaw

36:24

has been fantastic. They've

36:26

played better than I expected him to. John Bain

36:29

best backcourt in the NBA this

36:31

season, And

36:34

you know, the other night, I'm getting so excited.

36:36

I love Jaren Jackson Jr. I think last

36:39

year or the year before I picked him for most

36:41

of them, Like I've always been such a big fanas game.

36:44

I'm I'm excited. I Jered Jackson Jr.

36:46

Is back This rocks. The same day

36:48

he's back, they announced Desmond Baine might miss up

36:50

to a month, and I'm like, here we go, now,

36:53

Jaws out if any

36:56

Like they were beating Brooklyn at the half

36:58

last night, they were up by five for eventually

37:00

losing that game. You

37:02

know, they've done a good job over

37:05

the last year and a half now battling

37:08

injuries. Really impressive.

37:10

Good for them. This is this is too many

37:12

to overcome for an extended period of time. Hopefully

37:15

John can get back soon. I think, you

37:17

know, Trip is

37:19

in an injury management situation. I think

37:22

that they can expect a little

37:24

bit out of him. But yeah,

37:26

man, I'm I was really

37:28

impressed with the resiliency they showed started

37:31

the season. Obviously, Durantte Durante

37:33

John Rant missed a ton of time last year. They

37:36

were fantastic even without him in the lineup,

37:39

so they've they've kind of been built to withstand

37:41

injuries. It's

37:44

just crazy how snakement they've been this year,

37:46

but they're They're truly one of the most resilient teams

37:48

in the league. Yeah, I'd like to see those

37:50

guys back sooner than Basically, the takeaway

37:52

for all these injuries is I'd like guys to be healthy

37:55

and available to play because I like to watch basketball,

37:57

and it's kind of a bummer when some of

37:59

these teams are so significantly impacted

38:01

by injuries. Last injury for you less

38:04

less potentially concerning for the team

38:06

in question. But the Lakers go and smash San

38:09

Antonio Spurs on Sunday night. In

38:11

the process, though one Russell Westbrook

38:14

Uh injured his thumb. The x rays were negative.

38:16

He's going to be examined again today on Monday,

38:18

but he left the arena row with his thumb.

38:20

Wrapp didn't look great. Um

38:23

potential edition and

38:25

by subtraction, I

38:28

don't know that I'm actually willing to go that far just

38:30

yet, only because he's

38:33

been good in his role off the

38:35

bench. Lebron has been out, so

38:37

they've actually needed to rely on him a little bit more.

38:40

He's kind of forming a chemistry

38:42

with I think some of the role players

38:44

on the team, when in Gabriel Thomas Bryant's

38:46

been back and looked decent. Can we actually talk about

38:48

the Lakers for a second, who

38:51

we've we've tried to step away from on this show.

38:54

They've won three in a row without Lebron

38:56

James, which seemed

38:59

inconceivable at any point during

39:01

this Los Angeles three They could win three games in a row

39:04

without him, and I think that does speak to you know,

39:06

guys like Russ embracing their roles, playing a little

39:08

bit better. Anthony Davis

39:11

either Davis perking up a bit here, John uh

39:14

three straight thirty point games. I believe he's

39:17

been fantastic again. I

39:20

know it's you know, against the Spurs. I

39:22

believe they beat the Pistons in this run. It's not

39:24

like they're beating world beaters for

39:27

a team that was as bad as the Lakers. Then

39:29

winning three games in a row, massive

39:31

accomplishment and and a d

39:34

if if this is the Anthony

39:36

Davis, they get kind of getting

39:38

rid of the bad jump shot, diet dominating

39:41

the paint, the thing

39:43

that's always stressuring about Davis. I

39:45

guess I'm an enabler because when I wrote my

39:47

SI story about him, part a big part of it

39:49

was how much he worked on his jump shot,

39:51

in the work he put in, and how effective he

39:53

was as a jump shooter. But were

39:56

you have someone that athletic, that

39:59

big, that counted, why are you taking

40:01

him away from the rim? And it feels

40:03

like he kind of just the switch flip

40:05

these last three games where he's like, wait a second, nobody

40:08

can guard me within fifteen ft of the basket.

40:11

And if that's the version

40:13

of eight they get when Lebron

40:16

is back, they've become they

40:18

become moldly frisky, oddly

40:21

frisky. Yes, they still have a lot of work to do

40:23

though, because there's still five games under five

40:26

hundred, so big hole to climb

40:28

out of. We'll see if they can pull it off. All right, this is the topic

40:30

that I wanted to discuss with you the most.

40:33

When it happened, I was like, Roe is gonna love

40:35

this. You tell me, Ladder match,

40:37

whether it's in basketball or wrestling,

40:39

I am in. That's what happened after the

40:41

sixers in the Bucks game on Friday,

40:44

So Janice came out. For those of you who missed

40:46

it, man, you you missed a treat. Janice

40:48

came out after the game trying to shoot some

40:50

some free throws. He likes to try to

40:52

make ten in a row. So I'm gonna read you a quote

40:54

from your honest I went back out there

40:56

to shoot and there was a ladder in front of

40:58

me, and I said, can you please move the ladder? And

41:00

they said no, talking about a stadium worker, and

41:03

I said, can you guys please move the ladder? They

41:05

said no. I was like, guys, I have two

41:07

more free throws. I guess he admit made eight in a

41:09

row at that point, can you please move the ladder?

41:11

And they said no. So the ladder was in the in

41:13

the way, so he moved it. Then the arena

41:16

crew moved it back. Then he shoved it

41:18

out of the way and it fell to the floor. Now he

41:20

said he didn't mean to push it all the way over. But

41:22

in the process of all of this, Montrez

41:24

Harold came out of nowhere and grabbed

41:26

the ball and took it away from Janice,

41:29

which created this huge kurf fluffle than

41:32

a Santa to compo ended up. Janice's

41:35

brother ended up jawing with Harold. Harold said,

41:37

al beach, your asked, excuse me for the for the language,

41:39

That's what he said. Uh,

41:41

there's a lot to unpack here. I'm gonna get

41:43

into Harold's side of the story a little

41:46

bit later. But there's video of Janice

41:48

shoving this ladder down, which is not

41:50

a great look because the arena guys are trying to do their thing.

41:53

H I said, he picked a fight with Philadelphia

41:55

and the arena crew. You say, first

41:59

of all, could you imagine

42:01

just shoving down one of those

42:03

ten foot ladders with one hand, like

42:06

tossing it aside? Like I

42:08

don't even I don't even know what the what the human

42:10

equivalent is, what the non freak equivalent

42:13

is. What's something I could just not like

42:15

like a Jenga tower. He just knocked

42:17

it over like it was a pile of Jenga

42:19

bricks. That was. Uh.

42:23

Something we're not talking about enough is how

42:25

easily he knocked that ladder

42:27

over. So I'm still

42:30

to this day a little bit unclear

42:32

of the timeline, like when did Harrold come out?

42:34

Who did what? When a

42:37

weird I kind of don't

42:40

listen. The ladder falling down was not a good

42:42

look. I believe that he was not trying to knock it

42:44

over. I don't think he was. I don't think he's

42:46

stupid of you, like I'm gonna knock a

42:48

ladder over in an arena that it's

42:50

still his people on the floor. You

42:53

know, people are trying to now say Janice

42:55

is fake humble, this is the really honest.

42:57

That's a stretch to me. That's ridiculous.

43:00

Is I think that it's

43:02

We've heard so many stories of players getting

43:04

up shots after games is the normal thing.

43:08

I've never ever heard it result in this.

43:11

I'm definitely siding with you, honest on this one.

43:13

Is where I'm getting at. I think

43:15

that it was a little so Harold, I

43:17

think said something effective like you're

43:20

honest, Maybe asked if I wanted to work

43:22

out with him and I was like no, and then they were like

43:24

fighting over court space or something weird

43:26

happening there. Yeah, Harrold was saying

43:28

that the so the Sixers

43:30

had to back to back and they had to change the

43:32

court over, because the next night they were using the city

43:34

edition court. So Harold was saying,

43:36

I'm trying to get my shots up, and also

43:39

they need to change the quarter over, which

43:41

doesn't quite add up, because how are you getting shots

43:43

up if they have to change the court over. It's like either everybody

43:46

gets off the quarter or you might as well both just take

43:48

one end and the honest could be at the other. I

43:50

don't care, though, because I love

43:52

this so much. Of all the cities in

43:55

the in America where this should happen,

43:57

it should be in Philadelphia, of course.

44:00

Is the arena worker was like, nah, man,

44:02

I'm not moving the ladder. Could

44:04

you imagine? That's another thing that I'm I'm blown

44:06

away by that. Like it's amazing the

44:09

general vibe. And

44:12

for better or worse, it's like people are walking

44:14

on eggshells around athletes

44:16

in these scenarios because there's such

44:19

creatures of habit. You

44:22

know, you don't want to be the guy who interrupted

44:25

this person's routine or whatever. It's

44:28

such a delicate atmosphere.

44:30

Even after a game, you

44:33

don't wanna You

44:35

just don't want to get in someone's way, is how I would

44:38

describe it. For this guy

44:40

to be like, nah, even

44:42

after he moved the ladder to move it

44:44

back, the guts, the

44:46

guts to be like I'm moving it back and under

44:49

something like he's just doing his job. Listen.

44:51

That is I've that is unlike

44:54

anything I've ever Hyeah

44:57

in any other NBA city,

45:00

with the exception of a couple in

45:02

any other place, like if you were in Memphis

45:05

or l A or you know,

45:07

San Francisco or whatever. You're right

45:10

that you see an NBAS not even just

45:12

like an NBA player, but an NBA superstar

45:15

out on the court shooting. You are not getting

45:17

in his way. You are not bothering him.

45:19

You are certainly not bringing a physical

45:22

object to obstruct his shooting

45:24

and then putting it back. The only

45:26

places where this could have happened are Philadelphia,

45:29

New York, in Boston. Those are the only three

45:31

cities in America. Whatever this is happening,

45:34

I would argue that it would happen in Miami, but

45:36

not as an attitude thing, but as like someone

45:38

literally was like I don't know who that is. Maybe

45:42

maybe, but as the attitude thing, That's what I'm

45:44

saying. Where the arena worker was like, nah, I'm

45:47

moving it back like those are the three

45:49

cities. Maybe Chicago, I don't know, they

45:51

can like Midwest nice can sometimes

45:53

come into play there. But that's that's the

45:55

funniest part to me, row that poor

45:57

Janice got a full helping of phil

46:00

Alphia. And I love it. I love

46:02

the whole story. I'm not on anybody's side here. I

46:04

love because the other thing is, you

46:06

know Jannice, he's apologizing him whatever. Right,

46:09

Nobody in Philly is going to take offense to this.

46:11

This is just one of those things. Oh yeah, we got an argument,

46:13

Sure, no problem.

46:17

I who am surprised no

46:20

one's done the story interviewing the arena workers

46:22

yet right that there, it's

46:24

their side of the story. Who I would like to hear most,

46:28

just the truly the guts it takes.

46:30

Like, dude, if

46:32

you saw Janice, obviously

46:35

he's not gonna go beat you up, like he can't

46:37

go fight you. But

46:39

that's not someone I want to make angry guy

46:43

built like a Greek God? Are you kidding

46:45

me? Just joining m

46:48

bro? I know I spent man,

46:50

I can't tell you how many games I covered in that building.

46:54

A lot of those people that when I

46:56

was there, they're all still there. I

46:58

know a lot of the people in at arena.

47:01

This does not surprise me at all, Like

47:03

not even a little bit, Like you're like, you know, like

47:06

who has the stones to all of them? Do? They're

47:08

all from South Philly, they all love to

47:10

jaw right. Who are you that I'm

47:13

this is my building, I am, I'm here, uh

47:16

forty one nights a year. You're just coming

47:18

through. That doesn't surprise

47:20

me even a little bit. It's the it's a fantastic

47:23

story. I want to thank you. Realize

47:27

Janice had I didn't realize Joanna said

47:29

haters either that like that

47:32

was there's another fake everybody. But

47:35

no, but there's like this huge like fake humble

47:38

movement going on now. You can't really read too much

47:40

into Twitter, but people fake

47:42

humble And I'm like, where did this come from?

47:45

There's people like who

47:47

wants to Who's trying to

47:49

tear down Johannese. It was a weird

47:51

look. It was definitely a weird look. If

47:54

anything, he gets more credit

47:56

now in Philadelphia. This

47:58

is something that they were serious, Like the city

48:00

loves that kind of thing. It's like a

48:02

small cheer the next time he checks. Oh yeah,

48:04

I mean like I give him a clap for

48:07

for getting into a little a little

48:09

scrap, all right, last one for you.

48:11

This is breaking news and then we're gonna wrap

48:13

the show. Uh, breaking

48:15

news on open floor. First

48:18

time it's ever happened for you, And I just

48:20

hit my inbox. I've been alerted

48:22

to a

48:24

company in Miami that has made

48:26

an offer to rename the arena.

48:29

According to the Miami New Times, booby

48:33

Trap Arena, a strip

48:35

club in Miami, has

48:37

offered five million dollars to put booby

48:39

Trap on the Miami

48:41

Arena. Are you taking it? Rohan nod

48:44

Crony are resident s I

48:46

Miami Bureau Chief. I

48:49

really need to do like a proper ranking

48:51

of top five Miami

48:54

companies to take over the

48:56

arena. I think

48:58

if you were, if you were

49:01

going to play in that arena,

49:03

no pun intended, you could

49:05

do better than than that particular

49:08

establishment. I think, do you know of

49:10

the booby Trap strip club? I

49:13

only by name, but now

49:15

it sounds like now it sounds like a cree

49:18

All I'm saying is Rick Ross

49:21

is not like Rick Ross is talking about King

49:23

of Diamonds. You know what I'm saying. Um,

49:25

I'd rather they named it Rick Ross Arena. Frankly,

49:28

wow, that would be cool. How much would Rick have

49:30

to put up? Because I'm gonna, I'm gonna like, I get

49:32

that this is a publicity stunt by the Booby Trip

49:34

Strip Club, but I mean here we are talking about it on open

49:37

floor five millions light. How much would

49:39

Rick Ross have to put up to get his name on it.

49:42

So the thing is, I think Rick Ross could work out a deal.

49:44

It's like he's giving you a certain number of free concert

49:46

dates guys, etcetera.

49:50

Um, I still vote. You know, Versailles's

49:53

gotta be on the list. But also the U

49:55

goos Um you know they got

49:57

options. I don't think they have to settle

49:59

just at it is really

50:01

depressing that. Of course it's the heat that went. You

50:03

know, other other teams have their

50:06

crypto partnerships,

50:08

and the Warriors had an f t X one, but of course the heat

50:10

went full on ft X arena.

50:13

Unonis haslem I love

50:15

Unonis hasm with all my heart. He's done so

50:18

much for the community down here,

50:20

opening businesses, etcetera. Unonis

50:23

has him appearing in an f t X commercial.

50:25

Is age so poorly? Yeah? Um,

50:28

that's a tough one. So of course it's them

50:30

that get caught up in this kind of this crypto scan.

50:33

I hope they cash that check before the company

50:35

went belly up. All right, we're gonna wrap

50:37

this up now. Ro you got anything you want to pub

50:39

for the people. I

50:42

have a story coming out I believe

50:44

this week that I'm going to write about, um,

50:47

the Atlanta Hawks and their lack

50:49

of three points shooting. That's on the

50:51

docket, so keep an eye out for that. I also

50:54

have a couple of features I know have been like teasing features

50:56

on the show. I don't like talking about my features

50:58

until they're actually out. John, It's like a weird superstition

51:02

that I have. But there's two stories

51:04

that I I have reported, and I'm

51:06

very excited for them to come out. I think one is

51:08

finally supposed to drop this week. This team keeps

51:11

getting injuries at the worst time,

51:13

or random stuff keeps happening that kind

51:16

of ruins the timing for me. But just

51:18

you know, stay tuned. I guess the problems

51:21

on make stay tuned to my Twitter. But you know that's

51:23

a ticking time bombs. Who knows, really, Stay

51:25

tuned. Go and read that Hawks piece. They could use

51:27

somebody like say, oh, I don't know Kevin Herder.

51:30

That would be nice, wouldn't that wouldn't that be great

51:32

for them? And uh As I said, the U

51:34

s m m T is set to kick against Wales. I

51:36

went to England and wrote a piece about Kristen Pulisic

51:38

and trying to find this form of middle the pressure.

51:41

You can find both of those stories, all

51:43

of our stories on si dot com roll. We'll be

51:45

back on Friday with another episode of Open

51:47

Floor. I'll be back on Monday. Thanks for

51:49

listening, everybody. I'm happy Thanksgiving. WHOA

52:01

one one one one on