Report: Is the New NBA League of Parity improving the product because teams have 2 PLAY HARD to win?

Report: Is the New NBA League of Parity improving the product because teams have 2 PLAY HARD to win?

[Music] Good morning, Raptor Freaks. Alexi Alexi here. Sunday morning. We’re doing a Sunday special report and today we’re talking about one of the things that has kind of been a hot topic recently around the NBA and it’s parody and dynasties and how does that all work? There’s a new article out in the last two days from Tim Bontemps on this issue on ESPN.com and he’s tackling is this going to be something that’s just how the new norm is that there just isn’t going to be dynasties anymore that there will be uh new champions all the time and there’s a lot of evidence that’s pointing to this being the new norm that this is just how it’s going to be. And you know, some people are upset about it and think that it’s uh ruining the league, but I think that’s exactly the opposite. I think it’s making the league better. You know, some people may be all about Golden State Warriors dynasties and LeBron James strangle hold on the whole entire league. Some people may be all about uh double threep by the Chicago Bulls in the 90s. Some people may be all about uh the trading of championships in the 80s between the Lakers and the Celtics. Some people may be all about almost a whole decade of Larry O’Bryant championships going towards the Boston Celtics in the 60s. To me, that’s boring. That’s like watching the same rerun each year for almost 10 years. That’s boring. And in some ways, I could argue so many different ways why the way that Adam Silva is shaping this league is better than what it was before. Some people are absolutely upset about parody. It’s crazy. Some people be like, “I don’t like this parody. I don’t like this parody.” I feel like these are people that like monopolies, like uh you know, just uh juggernauts that just don’t are easy to win. They want to root for easy ways to win. They’re lazy people in some ways that are all about dynasties and superstars and superstar teams winning because they got three superstars and that’s how they win. No, that league’s over. It’s done. Adam Silver hated it. He saw how it was losing money long term over time and it was not good for the future of the NBA. This is the damn truth. People that don’t believe me, you can understand the the viewership and the revenue may have gone up a bit. The viewership went down when during the LeBron era to a degree. A lot of old established veteran NBA fans that have been around watching since the 80s turned it off in the last 20 years because they saw a lot of different things they didn’t like. And one of them was the players were lazier in the LeBron era. A lot of co coasting on just hanging around. You know, I’ll go when it’s time to go. And that’s the playoffs. During the regular season, I’m not trying. I’m just playing on autopilot. I’m doing enough to get by, but I’m not actually going all out, but oh, I’ll turn it on when the pre postseason starts. Don’t worry. You know, there’s a lot of that kind of [ __ ] that was happening during LeBron’s era. And it’s stupid and it’s it’s it’s it’s it’s robbing the people of good quality basketball during the regular season. The All-Star game is a good uh example of poor basketball that’s not fun to watch because nobody’s trying and nobody gives a [ __ ] In some ways, that is the extreme example of the sliding scale that the NBA goes towards. you know, the the fact that like Magic and Larry and Isaiah and Michael back when they did the All-Star game, they put effort into competing and they actually got to a point that showed that they had a commitment to the NBA and making it what is right. And in some ways, the the newer generation, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, uh LeBron James generation absolutely failed in this department. They did not take the sanctity of competition and responsibility to compete in the All-Star game seriously. And that is a telltale sign that this is a lazy NBA era. This is an era where that generation went half ass half the time. And it was fine because a supreme talent like LeBron could just collect championships without trying his ass off. You know, there’s a lot of that. There’s a lot of not having to go all out by the Warriors because they had a a a group that was very solid and they could rely on each other in certain ways. But in some ways they, you know, that Warriors dynasty in some ways is kind of full of [ __ ] because the NBA just happened to be a certain way it was at that certain time that they just were lucky that they could capitalize on it. You know, I feel like people that want the superstar model and the dynasty model are Monopoly fans. They’re the kind of people that want to play Monopoly. They’re the kind of people that want to get gouged on their cable bills by Rogers. Ed Rogers, [ __ ] you. And uh basically they’re like, “Oh, I don’t see any problem with monopolies in this world. I don’t see any problem with monopoly, [ __ ] You don’t see any problem with monopolies. This is how they are raking us over the coals and gouging us, price gouging us. There’s only one show in town and you have to buy from them, Rogers Cable. Then, you know, they can do nefarious [ __ ] And that’s why championship uh being different for different teams over the years is a good thing for the NBA. A dynasty is like a monopoly.” And it’s not good for business. It’s never been good for um uh deals and uh health of your economy. So why the [ __ ] would it be good in in the NBA to have a dynasty and a juggernaut and one team like the Celtics in the 60s that just dominates the whole entire league? You’ll run that league into the ground. If you had the Celtics in the 60s in this league right now, if you had that settings where this one team won nine out of the 10 championships in a decade, it would absolutely run the business of the NBA into the ground. They would run out of business. I’m telling you right now, wouldn’t survive. So, the league of parody is in some ways essential for the survival of the league. Seriously, uh, Adam Silver quoted that having seven different champions in the last seven years is a sign that what I wanted to do with this league is is is being successful. He wants this. He wants this and I’m with him. I appreciate him for doing this. There’s some things Adam Silver does that I don’t appreciate, but this is definitely one that I do because I can take the direct linkage between the parody in the league and the ability of all 30 teams in the NBA to compete possibly for the championship if they do things right. uh and uh actually uh uh connect it to uh better play in the games this year, a better finals than the year before. Uh more uh exciting playoff games this year. Yeah, because you know what? Like Rick Carile said recently, this is a play hard league now. Yeah, because the parody has even things out. And where’s the difference made? You get the guys who have full effort. You had the guys who play all out, the 94 feet guys, the guys that are going to give it their all every single second they’re on a court. And in some ways, Rick Carile coming out recently saying the teams that are going to win in this league now are the play hard teams. the teams that are going all out, the teams that don’t have any lazy ass veterans from the last generation that are hanging around still in their age just because of the of prestige and uh reputation, but they aren’t actually work hard workers. They’re lazy asses that dog it on defense and show up on offense when it looks good and they get glory moments. LeBron James, Kevin Durant, people like that. That’s who I’m talking about. I’m calling out your generation, LeBron, today because y’all did not do a good job of stewardship of the NBA and its product during y’all’s era. You ran it in the ground a bit. You went viewership went down in some ways. You didn’t increase the the the league in the right ways. The economics of the league was going to grow either way because the new media and different other things are going on. But to be honest, the NBA is less popular than it was uh before LeBron came. It was way more popular in the 90s. It was way more mainstream. It was way more u uh a better quality product. And in some ways, that’s what Adam Silver wants to get back. He wants to get back the better quality product. He wants to get back the viewers. He wants to get back the old head watchers like me and you guys that remember the old NBA and how it used to be good and how it’s been ruined in the last 15 years or so, 20 years of LeBron James’ era. Yeah, we want to get back to the good stuff and he’s got a good track here. You know, this is really good for the Raptors because in some ways the age of parody and what I’m describing right now is a ecosystem that the Raptors can very much be successful in. You know, in some ways we’ve had different things that have held us back. Literal rules the NBA had has held us back at different times. like not being able to draft Allen Iverson at first pick and a draft the year we should have had the first pick and drafted Allen Iverson. Yeah, there’s been all kinds of rules that held us back, but the rules for the NBA right now are liberating for the MB for the Raptors. Liberating. They’re of giving us a chance, you know, because in some ways our strengths are huge strengths in this new uh landscape. Huge huge strengths. And one of the huge strengths that we have is Bobby Webster. It used to be Bobby Webster and Messiah, but sadly Ed Rogers III’s an idiot and he doesn’t understand that he shot himself in the in the face just to be mad at somebody with a grudge. Well, Bobby Webster is still here and he’s still a badass and he’s a capologist. He’s one of the best GMs in the league. And in some ways, I want him to stay the GM because I feel like he’s so good at that position. We need him to stay there and maybe get Casey to be his president. But I would say this, because Bobby Webster is such an astute capologist, he’s really smart. There’s hardly any waste. There’s something that we’ve talked about with Logical Raptors fanatic. There’s uh there’s a NBA team waste as far as waste in draft picks, wasted moves, uh not hitting on uh trades, not hitting on this. There’s all kinds of ways you can waste as a GM front office in the NBA because you made a poor mistake and you messed up. And that’s what Tim Bontemps is saying in his article this uh this weekend is that one of the things to be sustainably successful in the NBA right now is you cannot make any more mistakes in the front office. If you make any mistakes, any missteps like Paul George Philadelphia, it really [ __ ] your team up for the whole entire year and maybe years to come because you saddled yourself with a big contract and a player that’s a loser who isn’t trying to do anything. Bradley Beal, LA Clippers. Yeah. Yeah. This is this is this is this is this is part of it. You can’t make these mistakes no more. In some ways, the way the Raptors do things is is really going to be in their favor because we don’t draft knuckleheads. We don’t draft lazy guys. We don’t draft guys in low character. We are getting people ahead of time that we know are most likely going to hit because we’re drafting for character. We’re drafting for hard work. We’re drafting for a chip on their shoulder. We’re drafting for guys that ain’t trying to waste their life. Uh, come in the NBA just to collect money and then sit on their ass and be Ben Simmons. No, we’re drafting guys that come here from mission and even if they get the bag, they ain’t stopping then either, just like Siakum and Fred. So, I’m just saying, you know, in some ways we’re in a good position because we have an adept and smart GM front office that doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. I’ve talked about this before on this channel. People think the Raptors front office is what are they doing? But honestly, if you look at most of what they do, they make very few mistakes. If they did stats on GM front offices in the NBA, like a batting average in the in the MLB, our batting average for hitting on most of the things we do as a front office is very high and it’s much higher than most of the other GMs in front offices in this league. So, in some ways, that’s a huge strength because this is the thing. Oklahoma City just won a championship, right? They want to get another one. Everybody’s wondering, can they be a dynasty? Well, there’s all kinds of ways they can misstep and [ __ ] up and miss out on a second championship or in the next couple years because you could look at what Denver did. Everybody’s saying the same damn thing about Denver a couple years ago. Denver’s going to be the new dynasty. Denver is this. Denver is that. Well, the reality of the new parody of the NBA showed itself and they showed that, yeah, no, it’s not that easy. It’s not as easy as saying, “Oh, you’re the new they’re the champion, so they’re obviously going to win the championship next year. Okay, Boston Celtics. Okay, yeah, you’re the champion. Obviously, you’re gonna win again next year.” Okay. How’d that work out? How’d that work out? Because there’s it’s not just the normal stuff that could [ __ ] a team up from repeating a championship. It’s injuries like that. Injuries, you know, uh there’s now the new stuff, the new things that’ll mess you up from repeating. Bruce Brown leaves Denver all of a sudden. Yeah, I can’t. We can’t keep Bruce Brown. Bruce Brown’s got to go. He’s our X-factor for our championship. He’s got to go. Sorry, you can’t afford him. I’m sorry Oklahoma City, but you can’t afford Lugette’s Dort anymore. You cannot afford Alex Caruso anymore because you had to pay Chad and SGA and Jaylen Williams so much money. It’s just going to get harder. You know, that’s the thing. Success begets more expenses. That’s part of it. And that’s what Tim Bonteps is saying in his article. You win the championship, well, all those guys that are coming up on their contract ending that summer, well, they’re getting pay raises. And how does that fit with a jammed up salary cap? You already got all jammed up all crazy already. How does that fit to fit all those guys in? How does that fit after those rookie contracts are over for Homegrren and Jaylen Williams and SGA and all them? And how does that fit? How do you fit it all in? You can’t. In some ways, it’s impossible. And that alone will stop teams from getting dynasties because they can’t afford to retain Bruce Brown because they can’t afford to retain Lugett’s Dort eventually. L there going to be a tough decision about Lugett Dort for Oklahoma City coming in the next couple years because they the money ain’t going to be there for the right thing for the right thing and the price is high for him. And then you add in other things like you win a championship all of a sudden your assistant coaches become more attractive to get hired away as head coaches. It’s really hard to repeat in this league. It’s harder than ever. In some ways, the NBA allowed for repeat and championship because there was a lot of uh uh continuation and uh uh continuity in the roster from year to year. You know, in Tim Bontamp’s article, he talks about the Bulls in the 90s. And he says I in in the Bulls dynasties they had only three guys that were there for all three all six championships and that was Michael Scotty and Phil Jackson. Everybody else was switched in and out at some point. The early nuculus of John Paxton, Bill Cartwright, Horus Grant. That all went away at certain point and it became uh Bobby Hansen and uh Randy Brown and uh uh Dennis Rodman and Luke Longley. you know, it it switched, but in some ways it’s like the key important uh franchise player, Michael was there still and his his his buddy Scotty Pippen and the coach, but in some ways it’s like they felt the right pieces to go around them still. In some ways, they were duplicate pieces of the pieces before that were just different people, you know, like this the the shooter like Paxton became Bobby Hansen, you know, the or Jud Buler and then your center Bill Cartwright became uh Luke Longley and Will Purdue, you know, [ __ ] like that. So, it it’s it’s an interesting thing. These are these are all reasonings why, you know, if you want to be a dynasty in this uh league, you’re gonna have to be creative and retooling your team like the Bulls, but you may not have the flexibility and the easiness to keep certain players in certain ways. You know, the Spurs, another team that was very successful at retooling and coming back up and getting Larry O’Brien’s in the last 25 years. They did a really good job of around Duncan’s era of continuing to bring people in and uh bring new talent in and bringing it up and every once in a while coming back and getting championships. And that was that was part of it. That’s part of the secret of success for what you got to do now. It may not be that you’re able to get a backtoback. It may not be that you’re repeat, but it may be that like, you know, could it be that Denver does something good this year and they all a sudden win the championship this year three years later and they get like a a dynasty separated is spaced out more. That could happen. It may not be that the Thunder repeat this year, but they may get another one in the next five years. Then it may look like a dynasty because it’s more spread out. I think that we need to distinguish between a dynasty and a repeat. That a dynasty can happen over an extended period of time like the Spurs dynasty and it doesn’t have to be a three repeat like the the Bulls dynasty. That it may be it’s really hard to hit them right in a row, but it may be easier to uh have a year or two off and circle back and try and get that Larry Bryant another time then. We’ll have to see. It’s all coming of the way. is coming. And I like it because in some ways, look, everybody who argues that they like the LeBron NBA with dynasties and superstar model, [ __ ] you. You’re [ __ ] idiot. I’m gonna say this right now. And the reason why is because in that era, there were a lot of teams in this league that were have nots that had no chance. They were laughing stocks. They were like, “Oh, well, why are you even a Charlotte Hornets fan? They have no chance. Why would you even pay a ticket to go to their games?” Because they’re not one of the halves in the NBA. They’re a have not. If you have a a league of halves and have nots, if you have a tier of pre premium teams like Boston, New York, the Lakers, the Bulls, the Heat that uh the Sixers that we do on that we want to win, NBA wants to win, and then everybody else is just like secondary teams. What the [ __ ] kind of league is that? No, that’s no good. You can’t just do on the teams that people want the NBA wants to do on. Yeah, they already have do that in marketing already way too much. But in the reality of the NBA in competition, those teams shouldn’t be in the finals every year. No, that would be too doctor. That would be too WWE. You need every team, all 30 teams to have a chance to get to the Larry O’Brien for this league to be seen as a good league. I’m sorry. Now, bad teams will mismanage and they’ll miss out like Washington Wizards and Charlotte Hornets just like they always do, but there needs to be a level playing field to a degree. And I feel like Adam Silver’s done a good job of doing this. So, Rick Carla came out this week and said the teams that win in the NBA going forward are play hard teams, meaning teams that going above and beyond and playing their ass off every single second. All five of the guys on the court at all times. And there’s certain teams that are like this. The finals showed this. Rick Carile’s team was like that this year. So was the Thunder. And in some ways, the cream rise to the top and got the finals because they were play hard teams that had good talent and were playing very well, playing good basketball. And that’s what you want. You don’t want a team with a superstar like the Dallas Mavericks two years ago with Luca just get in the finals without a real team behind him because you see in the finals how shitty the finals were when they went up against a team that was a team the Boston Celtics. That was not good television. That was very very poor in some ways. You got to have it this way. You got to have it this way because it’ll fix the NBA. It’ll bring back the old viewers and it’ll make for good basketball. So, it’s a healthy ecosystem with parody. And anybody who’s anti- parody in the league, you’re an idiot. And you probably want to bootlick Ed Rogers III for being so awesome, for being a Raptor Rogers uh cable uh monarch of uh having such a smart man to figure out how to game the whole system. [ __ ] [ __ ] He just Monopolies are never right. And the monopoly of of anything is absolutely horrible for everybody except for the person who owns a monopoly. It’s absolutely the way it is. So the play hard comments by Rick Carile are great because you know what he said early this year, halfway through the season when he played the Raptors, the Raptors play hard. That’s what he said. I mean, I really feel like he got inspiration from us when he played us in the middle of the season. He said, “Whoa, whoa, Darko’s got these guys running all out for a whole 48, busting their ass. Look at the way they play defense right now. Holy cow. You know what? It’s a copycat league. We bet should do more of this on Pacers because maybe we’ll get somewhere.” And I feel like they did. They turned a switch in the middle of the season and they went all out more and more and that energy just built all the way up into the finals the whole year after that. I think this is a sign and once again this is a ace up our sleeve. This is an advantage for Toronto Raptors franchise because we are a play hard team. We are a team that plays their ass off and in some ways Darko is a student of the games. Darko studies the trends of the game. Darko studies and visualizes what he thinks the future of the game will be. In some ways he’s a visionary. In some ways he gets to create some ways what the the the sport of basketball is evolving into because he’s on the cutting edge. He’s at the highest level in some ways. He’s a guy who looks at all kinds of scheming and the direction things are going and he wants to project ahead. So, he’s ahead of the competition. That’s part of the secret of success for the Raptors is we’re visionaries. We have been visionaries since Messiah took the job 15 years ago or so. And uh he he really was forward thinking. There was ideas like vision 69. There’s ideas like uh uh uh uh the resting of Kawhi Leonard uh load maintenance, load management. You know, there there’s all kinds of interesting innovations that the Raptors have actually been the source of, but nobody will give us credit. And uh you know, we’re setting trends and I feel like we’re doing that under Darko’s defensive scheme, too. That there’s we’re seeing more and more teams do fullcourt press and really harass bringing the ball up the court. We’re seeing more and more teams uh playing their players that are going all out and less of the lazy guys who kind of stand around, wait for the ball to get thrown to them, and they just shoot shots and then they don’t play defense. We’re seeing more of that. And that’s that’s good for us. That’s very very good for us. To compete in this league, you have to have health and have some luck with your injuries. You have to be able to be astute in your front office as far as not making any mistakes, not allowing yourself to make a poor free agent signing or a a a quick trade that kind of screws you up. Actually, there’s all kinds of ways you could go wrong with your front office and screwing up your team is already a championship, you know. So, you know, this league is about not making mistakes at this point and playing hard. And I like that. I like that a lot. I like that a lot. You know, Tim Bontemps kind of leaves it open in his article saying, “Well, this league has always been built on dynasties. At least it always has been. But we’re in a new era. We’re in a new era.” And in some ways, I like it. I like it a lot because it’s bringing back stuff that I remember when I was a kid. Players playing all out. Players games looking way better and more competitive. And that’s what we want. We want good basketball. We want a good NBA product. And this is working it. This is working it towards it. That’s right. One of the things that Tim Bontep says that is part of the reason why it’s so hard to win in this league at this point is it’s the league is more talented than it ever has been and the talent is pretty dispierced all over the league on all teams. So it’s like on any given night you could be playing an NBA team and you know their their their players could get hot and you know they always used to say this any team on any night could win. Doesn’t matter what the mismatch is. There’s always the possibility in the NBA that the underdog, the team that shouldn’t win, comes up and embarrasses the other team. Well, in some ways, this is true. This is still true. Any team can win any game, but also at the same time, it’s partly because the talent in the NBA is more evenly spread out all over the entire league. And that is partly because of the cap. That is partly because of the cap and the cap and what it does. So yeah, the cap is a huge part of the parody, but also the the the just the trending of a lot of talent being all over the league is part of it, too. That’s what Tim Bonmps is saying on ESPN this morning. So there’s my spiel. I feel like the parody for the league, the Sally Cap structure is good for the league because in some ways there’s no pay to win. In some ways there’s no stack superstars to win. There’s no like we’re just going to buy championships by buying extreme talent up at the top. You know that none of that. And that’s good for the league. And no monopolies on winning is good for the league. And the ability for all teams, all 30 teams, small market teams, teams that are not the most attractive in the finals to be in the finals and win the championship is absolutely essential. Absolutely essential. If you have a finals matchup that don’t work as well, Adam Silver, well, you know why? It’s because you have disrespected and lowered the the the the reputation of one of the teams in the finals so much with your marketing. That’s the only reason why it’s not that good. You don’t blame the team that got to the finals that achieved getting that. Blame your your u your salesmanship of the league on not selling that team better as a team that deserves to be there. There so many people were complaining about the finals being boring. These are two teams that shouldn’t be in the finals. are not exciting. Well, that’s because of the NBA marketing has taught you to think that a small market team like Oklahoma City or a team like Indiana is not good enough to be in the finals because it’s not the Celtics or the Lakers. [ __ ] all that [ __ ] And if you have that kind of mentality, get over yourself. It’s elitist and you’re full of [ __ ] is what I’d say right there. So, yeah, there’s my spiel. I think the parody is good for the league because the teams are playing harder because of it. to win in this league if everybody’s equal. What’s the e advantage? You play your ass off the whole 48 and you have a team that’s bought in and they’re and the other thing is too the the chemistry. Your team has to be honestly all for one and one for all and really connected because it’ll show on the court if there’s even amounts of talent on all 30 teams. When you get on the court, the team that’s not together, the team that on the download does not really like each other, they’re going to lose the team that does like themselves, likes each other. That’s part of it, too. And that’s why in some ways once again we’re set up for success because we have that taken care of also on our team right now. So yeah, there’s a lot to like and all signs are pointing to yes on the magic eightball for the success for the Raptors coming up. All signs point to yes, we’re going to be successful. The biggest thing that can mess us up once again is uh games missed by players and knock on wood that ain’t happening this year. That’s right. So there’s my spiel. Let me get in the comments now after a half hour spiel on the subject today on the Sunday report. I hope I illuminated some of the things I’m seeing and the new trends in the league and why it’s good. There may be a lot of press out there and people on social media complaining and whining about it. Well, I would say you Adam Silver is doing a good job with this and we need to continue to go forward this. You know what? I feel like a lot of the people that are whining and complaining about the league of parody are Warriors fans that just wanted it to be easy like it was before for them. It’s just uh Lakers fans who want it to be easy. Celtics fans who want it to be easy. No, it’s not going to be easy. Y’all ain’t gonna get by on your prestige and your history. Nah. Nah. You got to do the work every single year, every single minute, every single game, every single player, every single second if you’re going to be a champion in the NBA going forward. That’s right. SGA and the Warriors, I mean the Thunder, they deserve their championship and they got it because they worked hard and they did it the right way. And in some ways, that’s the other thing I love about it. None of these pretender teams, these shortcut teams, these teams that going to try and sign Paul George out of the blue just to try and win a championship, none of that shit’s going to work anymore. Your cockamani schemes, your shortcuts, your half-ass ways to try and get a championship, lazy and easy ways, [ __ ] that. None of that shit’s going to work. The hard way is going to only be the only way to work to get it the hard way. You’re going to have to go the hard way. And the people that are going to make the sacrifices, the people that are going to work the hardest, they’re going to get su success and get rewarded. And all these [ __ ] lazy championships that were won in the LeBron era, they’re going to look like [ __ ] compared to the new championships that come because these teams are going to win epic game series like the seven game series that we just saw in the finals this year. You know, that’s what I’m saying. That’s why the NBA is fantastic. Once again, it wasn’t for a long, long time. They used to be able to say NBA action, it’s fantastic because it was, but it hasn’t been pretty much since 2000 in some ways to me. Really, I don’t know when exactly it was. I think it was just it was after Vince left Toronto. I think that’s when the league went to [ __ ] honestly because Vince in some ways is the last NBC superstar like Michael and Reggie and uh Patrick Ewing and John Starks, you know, he’s the last kind of NBC le uh NBA on NBC legend, Vince Carter. And after Vince went to New Jersey, it’s kind of that’s I’m going to point to that as the the point when the league kind of went to [ __ ] as far as as far as the quality and the laziness and the trying to win championships like the Boston championship with Garnett and Pierce and Ray Allen, the championships in Miami with their [ __ ] you know, the the Warriors dynasties. It’s they’re they’re all similar and stupid and uh you know, the league was lazy in the LeBron era. That’s just the damn truth. Is not as working as hard. But now you gotta work hard. Now you gotta work hard. All right, let’s see what you guys are saying in the chat on my subject today. I think it’s a pretty good subject. Good Sunday report. Uh Trevor J’s words of wisdom. One thing about God, he let the scene play out. He’ll let them mock, lie, screenshot, and gossip then bless you in a way that makes the enemy choke on their own words. Woo. I mean, in some ways, I wonder about that idiot in the White House if he’s able to ever get in trouble for his own words because he has it seems like he can say whatever the [ __ ] he wants and nobody’s actually pulling him to it criminalitywise. At some point, all the receipts have to catch up. There’s a lot of information and evidence that has been collected hopefully by the right people that at the right time. This can all be put in a court of law and adjudicated and criminally punished for. Because honestly, all this stuff sounds like this is the stuff that needs to be collected. Screenshots, lies, uh, uh, crazy grandiose statements and crazy, uh, unhinged interviews, you know, uh, bragging, uh, you know, accusatory accusing of other people when it’s actually you that is doing what you’re accusing the other people of. I want everybody to keep their seats on Trump world mega [ __ ] because around some point there’s got to be have to be some tribunals there’s going to have to be some criminality that is punished for the crime family that’s running the United States right now. Yeah. Yeah. There’s going to have to be seriously at some point. Thank you for the words of wisdom Trevor J. Trevor Jay’s bringing up a record was broken in the CBL just recently and uh yeah it’s not for one game just so you know that’s not how many people came to one game in Winnipeg. Recently at the Winnipeg uh Seab Bears CBL team they had the largest attendance uh in the history of the CBL for the season. They’ve had 92,13 people come to CBL games in Winnipeg this year. That’s not for one game, Trevor. Just so you know, they did not put on a Pontiac Silverdome of Wrestlemania 3. Uh, no, they didn’t have that whole entire amount. That’s the a total attendance for their whole season for all their games so far. And that is the record. Part of the reason why Winnipeg was able to do this is that they have the highest capacity for their arena in the whole entire CBL. So, they broke the attendance record for the season. 92,13 people have come to CBL games in Winnipeg this year. And that’s fantastic. Let’s not get it twisted though. You wrote it in there as a game and we want to keep it all right and uh uh factual. That’s right. Cass is here. Good morning, Lex Free Crew. Good morning to you, Trucker Cass. And we’ll do our WNBA check-in with Cass, an exceptional WNBA fantasy player. All right, let’s see. Right now, MK has got the lead 100 points over Coolcat. We got uh Mike uh is losing barely to uh Kareem. That’s a very close game. That’s the closest game we got right now. It’s about 25 point lead. So logical Raptors fanatic, you have a chance to still win today. It’s the last day of the week. Uh let’s see. JP is beating Edmund. Uh we got Cass with a huge lead over James at this point. He is beating him by 260 points. That’s amazing. And then I’ve got almost a 100point lead over Fiery on the last day of the competition today in the WNBA fantasy week. And we’ll see who wins. And it could be very much that tomorrow uh there are three teams that are nine and two nine and two teams. Three nine and two teams as of tomorrow. The referees for WNBA games on the slate today. Minnesota Links only lost five games this year so far. It’s amazing. Minnesota is amazing this year. The Lynx, they’re in New York to play the Liberty today. Eric Brutin is the crew chief. Angelica Suffren is the ref and Angel Kent is the umpire. Washington Mystics are at Dallas. Tony Patio is the crew chief. Ryan Ceano and Blanca Burns are there. Also, Seattle Storm at LA Sparks. Roy Gibben with Kevin Fehey and Sarah Williams. Atlanta at Phoenix. M. Forsber, Jenna Renault, Katherine Chang, and Connecticut Sun at Las Vegas Aces. Michael Price is the crew chief with Fatu Sissoko Stevens and Kelly Broomfield. There’s your ref check for WNBA action next year when we do WNBA stuff in the summer. It’ll be refo. And I won’t be doing the whole league like I just did. I’ll be solely focusing on our Toronto tempo, our WNBA franchise, Terresa Res, Monica Wright Rogers. Yeah. Larry Tannon Bomb. Yeah, we’re gonna we’re going to be focusing on them very directly just like the Raptors previews and reactions every tempo game in their inaugural season next year. So, be ready for that. And I will do the research, Teresa, to keep up with the referees and let you know which referees are nicer to the tempo and which ones aren’t. I do it for the Raptors. I better do it for y’all. Equality injustice. That’s right. That’s right. Thank you, Cass, for being here. James is here. I like when teams have one main star and the rest role players like the early 2000s. Yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t say the early 2000s. That was the the model in the 80s and the 90s. That really was. And it was smart how David Stern marketed the NBA back then because, you know, he didn’t really make the league feel like there were shitty teams. Sure, there were teams that had bad records and didn’t do well, but they didn’t disrespect them. They were just a team in the league. That’s part of the problem right now. There’s a very much a bully culture on media and ESPN with their talking head. Stephen A. Smith and Shaq and idiots like that. Bully culture looking down on people. It’s like an insecure [ __ ] has to look down on people. That’s the problem. That’s the whole basis of MAGA energy is there insecure people that have to look down and hold other people down and make other people suffer to make themselves feel good as empty shells of humanity. you know, in some ways the NBA marketed under David Stern was uh not 30 teams at the time, but there was around 25 or something like that. And every team had one guy on the team that was usually a superstar, Rolando Blackman for the Dallas Mavericks, Alex English for Denver Nuggets, uh you know, Kelly Trapa for the Charlotte Hornets, I don’t know, [ __ ] like that. But they had each team had some sort of star that in that local market they could market around them. Well, other teams got greedy and they started hoarding stars in the 2000s and they were like, “Oh, wait. You can’t take the Raptors franchise player Chris Bosch and LeBron from Cleveland and put them on Miami. That’s just not right. Those are franchise players. You can put three franchise players on one team.” The superstar model [ __ ] up the league for a while. It really, really did. And that’s what I’m saying. It was easy shortcuts to try and get easy, lazy championships. I can’t do it by myself. I’m LeBron. I have to go help get help with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosch. You know, it’s pathetic. That’s why people don’t respect that era as much because all those superstars did it the same way. All three of the guys that they’re talking about or they’re leaving soon. They all had uh help. LeBron had to have help to get his championships. Uh Kevin Durant damn for sure needed help to get his two championships with the Warriors. And even Steph, you could say the same damn thing. Steph needed certain things around him, too. Back in the day, you know, a lot of the championships, you know, maybe in the 60s, there was a superstar team for the Celtics, but most of the time, a lot of the championships in the 70s and 80s were one superstar like a Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul Jabbar maybe, or Larry Bird, who’s next, Kevin McCale. He’s the six-man. I don’t know. Most of it was one superstar kind of teams. And I I don’t know. This is kind of going back to this, but still in some ways the NBA and the way it markets itself, it it does kind of look like, well, there’s still going to be some teams that can get away with having multiple superstars on their team, but can they really do that? Like, let’s look at the Lakers this year. Are they going to have a two superstar team with Luca and LeBron? probably not because one of them will be the preeminent superstars most likely be Luca and the other one will probably be hurt or lazy and just not playing at the highest level that they could. You know, with Luca around, LeBron doesn’t have to try anymore. He already wasn’t totally trying all the way and now he really doesn’t have to try with Luca around. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Uh James saying big three is bad for business. Yeah, it’s bad for business. That’s what I was saying. I wrote a tweet after the the Warriors won their championship. We traded Demar and uh Demarcus Cousins had signed with the Warriors for the next year, the year we won our championship. And I said in the summer of 2018 after Demar Rosen was traded from the Raptors to the Spurs, why even watch the NBA anymore? It’s like they predetermined the champion already. Everybody thinks that the Golden State Warriors is going to win this year because they’ve already won a bunch of championships in a row just now and they just added Demarcus Cousins to the pile of Kevin Durant and Steph and Clay and Draymond. And I’m like, yeah, why does anybody even want to watch this year? And I posted that and I linked the NBA to it. I put at the NBA. Who knows if somebody saw that at some point? Maybe Adam Silver saw on my tweet in August of 2018 and he said, “You know, this guy Raptor streak, he seems like he might be right. Why would anybody watch this if it’s just on repeat? If it’s just going to be the Warriors and the Cavs in this in the finals every year, why would anybody want to watch this? Let’s shake it up. Let’s uh let’s see what happens.” Somehow someway the Raptors won the championship in 2019, and that changed everything for me. That was like, “Wow, we got a chance. Wow, this league may be worth watching again because they, you know, people were telling me for a long time when the Raptors came around, oh, the Raptors will never ever get a chance to win the championship. They’re the Canadian team. And that’s part of the thought and that’s part of the energy that holds us down. That’s part of the [ __ ] that says, no, you’re lesser than you’re a lesser than person. There’s so many uh dimensions of looking at the NBA and the the microcosm of the NBA and applying it to the outer outside world, the bigger picture of the world. You know, in some ways it’s like, you know, that there’s people that just have to have other people to look down on. And that’s been a big problem with the NBA is bullying, looking down on lowassing people, players, and teams saying, “Yeah, yeah, that guy, he’s a loser. That team’s a loser.” And no respect for them. And that causes problems in this league because people get looked down on. And that’s part of what’s happening in society. People look down on people because, oh, immigrants this, immigrants that. There’s a lot of [ __ ] out there. And a lot of it’s just bullying, hate, and insecurity from the source of the person who’s saying the [ __ ] to the other people. It’s more insecurity from the hateful side that is manifesting. This is what it is. That’s right. That’s right. Infamous saying, “Solute freaks. No disrespect, but this is a horrible narrative. I will address this Thursday. You think this is a horrible narrative? No, it’s not. You know, I get it. Money makers are LeBron. Money makers are uh uh big teams, but honestly, it’s not good for uh small teams because why would they stay in business if it’s a league where it’s just, oh, we do on five superstars and five uh top league teams? What what is that league for everybody else? And what happens when those smaller market teams start running out of business because they’re not taken care of properly or they’re not even worth having? It’s like, well, this team’s always been this [ __ ] Washington Wizards. Why don’t they just fold? Why don’t they just fold? Why don’t you get relegated to the G-League? Why don’t you go and become something else? You know what I’m saying? I mean, listen, there’s g this is a hot button topic and there are two sides to it. And it sounds like Infamous has the other side and he he he he thinks it’s a horrible narrative. Ah, parody makes the league work harder. What has been one of the biggest problems in this league the past few years is laziness and half-ass play. People watch NBA games, they’re like, “Why am I watching this? These guys are glorified uh uh millionaires that don’t do jack [ __ ] to earn their money. This is a Why do Why do these guys make so much money? They’re lazy. They sit out for hangails. They stand around on the court.” No, we needed to change this. And this is how you do it. You light a fire in their ass. You make the league have parody. And now you have to bust your ass to win and be successful in any kind of way. This is good for the league no matter what. Parody makes the league work harder. And the All-Star game’s been an embarrassment and it’s been a canary in the coal mine for the problems with the league. And Adam Silver, I commend him for actively trying to fix the league is he’s doing a good job. I love the finals. The finals this year were way better than the finals the last few years before that. Seriously, way better. And having different teams in the finals every year is fantastic because everybody gets a taste of success and they get to try to get to that Larry O’Brien. If there’s only two teams that are going to get the Larry O’Brien every year and we’re going to be back in the 2010s, [ __ ] that [ __ ] It’s annoying. It’s boring. And who gives a [ __ ] about watching that? That’s what I say right there. Yeah, James is saying, “Lex, do you think Chad Holgrren is overpaid?” Not right now. He’s on his rookie contract, but we’ll see how much he gets after his rookie contract. All right, Dan Rosario is bringing in the news from last night and we watched the game again on Discord last night and we’ll do it again tonight. So, it’s not over. We got Mexico versus Jamaica tonight and we will be in the Discord server watching it live. Sergeant Wayne Strainer and I have been watching the games together and I have to say I’ve been really really enjoying watching Jamaica play with Sergeant Wayne. Sergeant Wayne has Jamaican uh roots. He’s a Jamaican man, so he has a lot of invested interest in watching Jamaica. And it’s been a blast watching these games with Wayne. I’ve really enjoyed hanging out with you, Wayne, the last couple nights. It’s been a total joy. Total joy. And I’m looking forward to tonight, too. Y’all should join us tonight. We’ll be in the Discord. I share the screen, so you don’t even have to have your YouTube up. You can watch the the game through the screen on the Discord with us, and we can talk during the game live and react to it live. If that sounds fun, it is. Come on in tonight. I think the game will be at seven or something. I maybe Dan will tell me here. Jamaica’s now 2 and0 in FIA qualifiers after beating Costa Rica 80 to 76 in overtime. Uh Powell had 34 points, one rebound, and two assists. Uh Ramaro Gil had eight points, 18 rebounds, including nine offensive rebounds, nine defensive rebounds, and two assists. Jamaica plays Mexico tonight at 10. Okay, so the game tonight is at 10 PM. So it’s the last game of the night and it’s going to be a later one. Okay, that’s good to know. So if you can stay up late and watch Jamaica versus Mexico from 10 p.m. to midnight tonight, we’ll be in there on the Discord watching it. Now, this game last night was fun. It went into overtime, but it didn’t have to. It was kind of crazy. In the last five minutes of the game, Jamaica had so many chances to make a basket. They just need one point and they wouldn’t have gone in overtime, but they were failing left and right. And uh Wayne and I were laughing our ass off in some ways and getting really crazy because there was one point where Jamaica had like eight shots on goal in the last minute of the the game and they could not make a single damn shot. It was hilarious. It was a little bit comical. And it was like there were some of them were like little push shots that Ramaro Gil had within f five feet of the basket. He’s like right there and he’s so tall he couldn’t put it in. and he got like three different shots. Even Norman had a shot in that whole exchange and he missed his. And then number 15 got fouled. Number 15, he hadn’t been doing nothing for the whole game. He kind of looks like a weird version of a weaker uh Ben Muran number 15 for Jamaica. And he got up to the line and he was pissing Wayne off. Wayne was like, “This guy, get him off the team. [ __ ] this guy.” Because he got up there and he had two free throws to win the game. He could hit one and they would have won the game. He missed both of them and I’m like, “Oh my gosh.” It was just like that one game where Siakum missed two free throws and Kawawaii had to win it for them in overtime against Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2019. This dude totally screwed it up. But man, Norman was electric. Norman was way better in this game. The first game against Barbados, the Jamaican coach was not putting the ball through Norman Powell, which was a total fail. He wasn’t getting the ball enough. That’s why he only had 12 points in the first game. Well, this time they made a concerted effort to put the ball in Norman’s hands uh very early in the shot clocks and it really paid off. Norman was getting handoffs at the top of the key where he didn’t in the first game and he was making things happen. He hit a bunch of threes. In fact, Norman shot 54% from the field. His team shot 33% from the field and that just shows that like he’s a tier way above and beyond the guys he’s playing with in Jamaica. They’re bad. Let’s just put it that way. Wayne and I were were like, “Yeah, we’re glad Jamaica’s winning, but they are not playing well.” And it also made me realize last night that Scotty has no business ever ever playing for Jamaica, guys. No business whatsoever. I’m telling you, a lot of people like the idea and they’re like, “Does Scotty go play for Jamaica?” No, he has no business going there. If he does, he needs to go there like Norman later in his career. Like maybe if Scotty does not make the team USA for like 10 years and he could go play for Jamaica then in his later career, but not while he’s a young man, not while he’s an upand cominging star in this league because it will hurt him because those guys look bad out there. They made Norman look a little bit bad just because of how inept and not good basketball players overall the Jamaican team is. So, as much as the idea of Scott playing for Jamaica is enticing to some people, I say no way. No way. It’s a bad idea, don’t go play for Jamaica, Scotty. Unless you’re like Norman and you’re like a 10 or 12 year vet in the NBA and you want that FIBA and you’re going to go there and help them as a vet. Don’t go there as a youth, though. Don’t go there as a youth. You’re going to get called up to USA. I know you will. When this contingency of older players retires from USA basketball, you will get the spot because you’re just going to be a badass in the NBA and they’ll won’t be able to deny you. They gave the spots to Dear and Kyle as Raptors eventually. So, you will get one, too. You will get your chance to go to the Olympics, Scott. I know you will. And if you went to play for Jamaica, it’ be a waste of your time. I’m telling you right now, it’d be a waste of his time. And and uh people that have the idea that Scotty should play for Jamaica, just let it go. let it go right now. He’s there’s no signs that he wants to and there’s no there’s no evidence that it looks like it’s going to happen. At least not now. I said the only scenario that’s possible that where Scotty may become team Jamaica is going to be like he’s Norman’s age in his bracket like older and and not going to get on team USA no matter what. And he still wants to have that FIA experience. I could see him doing it that way. That’s the only way. That is the only way right there. That’s right. That’s right. Yeah. So, Mexico’s the host country, and this is great. Jamaica being 2 and 0, it really is going to help them get to the next part, and we can continue watching them go through this America pre-qualifier that’s going on. And the the next part is they play Mexico tonight, and then the two best teams from this group A that uh Jamaica’s in will play the two best teams from group B. And it’ll be similar to the format at the Olympics and Paris last year where they got to play uh the two best the two teams from the other side and they’ll determine who’s the winner and qualifies for the America Cup. Now the America Cup is a totally different part of this tournament. This is like the pre-ournament for the tournament. And what happens in the American Cup is Canada, USA, Puerto Rico, these teams show up, the better teams in the Americas, and uh Jamaica will get a chance to compete with them if they get through this pre-qualifier, which it looks like they probably will. Now, the USA team was announced recently that we’ll compete in this America Cup tournament. There’s a couple of former Raptor names on the American roster. The first of all, one of the assistant coaches is Patrick Matumbo. Patrick Matumbo, former assistant coach of the Raptors, will be assistant coach for Team USA under Steven Silas. Silas, of course, was the former coach of the Rockets, the the son of Paul Silus, the NBA player and coach. So, yeah, he uh Matumbo is there as an assistant coach for USA. And on the roster, former Raptor Jamaias Ramsay will be playing for United States in the America Cup. The a lot of the players that are on the American team are not NBA players. They’re fringe players between the NBA and the G-League and they’re mostly non-name players. Now, this is very much on purpose because in some ways they don’t want to have any of the NBA guys in char involved at this lower level stage because they could get embarrassed. Honestly, if they’ve came in with uh a lot of NBA guys and they lost, oh, it would look bad. They don’t even want to have that chance. They know that if they give a good certain amount of talent between GLeague and NBA that they’ll be fine and win anyway or do very well and that so they have to find the exact right level of talent uh to put out there for this. So it’ll be interesting to see the team Canada roster also for America Cup later this month and see if Jamaica gets through this pre pre-qualifier and will be playing USA and Canada later on. That’d be awesome. So yeah, there you go. Little bit of more news on the American Cup and what’s coming up. Jamias Ramsey is playing for USA for America Cup, just so you know. Yeah. Yeah. Two fiveyear $240 million for Chad. I don’t know. I mean, he’s he’s a talent for sure. I don’t like him personally, but I mean, I could see where that money I mean, what is that average to? That’s less than 25 million a year, right? So, he’s maybe on a good deal. Them locking him in on this price with the TV contracts expanding and the salary cap expanding. This may be actually a really good deal for him getting him this early for that amount because that averages out to be what? That’s less than that’s like 20 something million a year. That’s not a huge contract, especially if they got him at that rate for five years. So, I would say that’s a good contract for him. I don’t think he’s overpaid. I think that that contract will look good over time as long as he stays healthy. If he gets hurt and he misses a year again, that that contract won’t look as good. Yeah. G saying Powell will be at Chubbies on August the 15th celebrating Jamaica Chubbies restaurant in Toronto. Yes. Let’s go to the Instagram stories. G, thank you for being here and thank you for that. First of all, on Norman’s Instagram, we got the backstage in the locker room, the Jamaican team celebrating after the victory last night. Jamrock 2 and 0 beating uh Costa Rica last night. And yeah, the guys are in the back celebrating. Norman, you know, every time they huddle, the Jamaica team huddles, they’re all huddling around Norman. He’s like the coach on the court. He’s telling them all what to do at this point. It’s kind of interesting to see because they all gravitate around him now. And they really do look at him as like an elder statesman smart guy who knows way more about basketball than any of them. And he’s basically like the coach on the court. I would even say possibly because I was talking about Wayne about this last night that you know the coach of Jamaica’s horrible. He’s horrible. Like he did not set them up very well at all to close out the game. They had the game in their hands to win, but he didn’t call any timeouts. He didn’t get anything like set up in the right ways for them to have a winning play to try and score. And they won despite all that. They won despite all that. The coach of Jamaica is absolutely horrible. And that the fact that he didn’t have Ramaro Gil down camped out by the basket in the fourth quarter when Costa Rica was running around their defense and just getting layups to come back into this game is really poor coach. Really, really poor coach. And in some ways, I would even wenders that maybe Norman Pal’s more of a coach for Jamaica at this point. Seriously. Seriously, he might know more than the coach does the way he’s coming out there and talking to the players. But yeah, good job by Norman. Fantastic game. Ramaro Gil 18 rebounds, nine offensive rebounds was absolutely essential also. So yeah, Norman shot really well. The rest of his team did not. He was carrying that team for sure yesterday. Yeah, Norman delivered. He had a little bit of everything. He had a couple drives to the basket. He had some crazy threes. He had one three in the corner where he was absolutely guarded and he made it. He was really good. He made like five threes in this game. So he he was really really good in this game. So yeah, final score 80 to 76. Yeah, there’s going to be an event on August the 15th and Norman will be back in Toronto. And it’s interesting doing it in Toronto. Like he’s not going to do it in LA, right? Because the Clippers just traded him. He’s not going to do it in Miami. He just showed up. He doesn’t have a fan base set up there. And if he had the event in Miami, I don’t think anybody would show up because they’re like, “Oh, it’s Norman. We haven’t even seen you play yet.” But where is his home default? It’s Toronto. And he’s going to come and do this Chubbies Team Jamaica party here in Toronto. uh on August the 15th. So go check that out. Norman will be there is what I’m hearing. There’s Kelly Ool Lin on his Instagram stories. KO getting it done. I you know I never see Kelly Oolen Instagram stories of him working out. I always see him doing the food stuff, but now I seen him actually working out on here. Okay. I knew he did. I’m not saying he never works out, but we never ever saw Kelly in workout Instagram stories. Never. Ever. Hardly. Yeah. Luke gets Dor. I’m not sure where he is, but it looks like some fancy Oh, it’s a wedding. He’s at a wedding. There’s the lovely couple. They’re having their first dance. So, Lou had a friend who got married. Is that Alex Caruso? It kind of looks like him, actually. It looks like it might be Alex Caruso. Did Caruso get married this weekend or some [ __ ] I don’t know. Where in the world is Sergeant? The game is played every day on the Raptor Freak in Instagram stories. Well, he’s in Toronto. We know this. He’s riding around in Toronto with his buddy. And he’s uh he’s in the hotel here in Toronto. And there he is at Ovio Center taking advantage of the Raptors Supreme Premium uh workout place. And there’s the Raptors logo on the floor. And Serge is in the wait room. And he’s in Toronto, guys. That’s right. Ibaka is in Toronto. Where in the world is Serge Ibaka? He’s in Toronto. That’s where he is, guys. Demard Rosen, we showed the love for him yesterday and he’s sharing the love today for the big three. Demar Rosen advertising on his Instagram stories for Ice Cubes League, the big three going to some games in the big three. Looks like his son is next to him in this picture here. That’s really cool to see Dear’s son. Uh, you know, we barely ever see him. He’s growing up fast. I can see there’s Demar’s son. I believe his son’s name is Frankie. That’s right. But yeah, there’s Dear with Michael Beasley who plays in the big three dapping each other. Michael Beasley said the the biggest hindrance to his NBA career was Eric Spolstra. That’s what happens when you don’t play basketball right. Michael Beasley, uh Terresa Res putting on blast and and this is an example of someone. Uh Wayne and I were talking last night that it doesn’t seem like anybody’s at these pre-qualifier America Cup games in Mexico, like the crowd is empty. And he’s saying that uh Mexico doesn’t support basketball. They don’t care. I was trying to tell him, you know what, it may not be that. It may actually be a lack of advertising that people just didn’t know the event was going on and that’s part of the reason why nobody’s coming down there to go. I don’t know. There could be all kinds of reasons because a good example of this is this threeon-ree tournament going on in Toronto this weekend. I don’t think that it was advertised very well or people knew was going on because the first day they had it yesterday. There was very poor attendance. There wasn’t a whole lot of people down there. But hopefully they’ll get more people today because they’ve heard about it and they can get down there to see the second day of three versus three in the beltway, underneath the overpass. It’s like they’re playing underneath the the highway and it it looks like a great event, but once again, the events don’t go nowhere if you ain’t got no p publicity, if you don’t got no advertising. And if FIA is not advertising America qualifier pre-qualifiers in Mexico, maybe the Mexican people don’t know about it and they’re not coming out to see it, just like the three versus three with the Canadian uh uh tournament going on this weekend, the national championships under the bent way. They call it the bent way. The bent way. Yeah. Sunlife and uh Canada basketball putting this on all the different provinces uh playing. Savannah Hamilton is down there. So, check out the action today uh from 12:30 to 5:00 pm down at the underneath. It’s a cool uh venue because it’s like outside and it’s, you know, we’ve seen stuff getting filmed out there a lot in the recent years like that commercial with R.J. where he plays the guy with the the suit, the basketball, the he plays basketball with the guy in a suit. He shows up, he wants to play R.J., you know, [ __ ] like that. That’s where the venue is right now. So, check that out. Go to it today if you can. Can Canada nationals three versus three. Very very good stuff. Toronto Tempo has got uh something like what is it? The evening role of women in sports panel. The evolving role of pan women in sports panel number one and panel number two women redefining sports culture. There you go. Yeah, we’ve had uh some great examples with uh Victoria Muboko and Summer Macintosh and uh you know the WNBA as a whole. we’re getting some really good um uh really really good evolving of women’s sports and what they’re doing and they’re changing the this narrative and that’s awesome. So, there’s been a couple of different uh workshops and uh uh conventions going on about women’s sports around in Toronto Temple are putting it on blast. Emanuel Quickley wants to remind you he has a basketball camp August the 11th through the 15th in Bair, Maryland. And uh it’s the boys and girls uh uh from 6:00 to 18. Let’s have some fun campers. So, sign up. IQ basketball camps. Uh, Churchville Road, a 703 East Churchville Road at the John Carroll School. That’s where he will be holding the next round of Emanuel Quickley basketball camps. So, yeah, he already had some. He did some just before he went to Europe, but where in the world is Emanuel Quickley? That’s the Eiffel Tower. So, the Raptors finished their Madrid CA training camp, I believe, on Friday or Thursday, and a lot of those guys took off, and some of them came immediately back to North America, and some of them stayed in Europe. And Emanuel’s taken a weekend in Paris. I think he enjoys Paris, France. He had a lot of fun at the Olympics last year. So, he did the same thing. It’s kind of like he’s a creature habit. He did the Madrid basketball camp last year and then he went to the Olympics and hung out in Paris. Well, he’s doing the same thing. He was in Madrid. Now he’s in Paris right now. That’s where IQ is. That’s right. Samantha Hamilton putting on blast at three versus three. That’s right. That’s right. And she’s there actually uh being involved in it and stuff. There’s Ashley Dawing. She’s involved too. Uh but yeah, also there’s a very cool event that Savannah’s going to be involved in in a August 11th and 12th out in Victoria, British Columbia at the University of V Victoria. There’s a special Vancouver Island Indigenous Girls Basketball Camp, Coastal Wave Basketball, Jump Through Hoops, where culture meets the court. They’re gonna have a camp for indigenous women to come and play. And uh Savannah Hamilton is a feature coach for it. So, she will be there coaching the people. It’s Jessica Ro is the other one. She’s assistant coach for Canada uh women’s team. So, yeah, very, very cool. She’s going to be hosting the first ever all girls, all indigenous basketball camp at University of Victoria in V Victoria, BC, August the 11th. Very, very cool. I love seeing that, Savannah. You keep doing that kind of good, awesome stuff. Yeah, there you go. There’s uh all kinds of stuff going on this weekend with basketball. So, go check it out. Uh Evan Gillard putting himself on blast. He got uh for Calgary, 17 points, seven assists, and four rebounds in a game recently. Uh Jacobe Walter getting some love from the Raptors official and men for his uh his fits coming in the walkway. Of course, I like looking at those pictures of Jacobe from last year with his longer hair and uh also his little pink bag. And you’ll see his percentage of carrying the rookie bag with him coming in. He was good about it. There were only a couple times where I didn’t see him carrying the bag, but it may have been in the backpack or somewhere else around him. But check out the Jacobe Fitz. Yeah, he was locked in for sure. Raptors admit he was locked in. AJ Lawson is one of the guys who’s back in North America. Once they got done in Spain, he came right back to I believe he’s back here in Toronto. It may not be back here in Toronto exactly, but he was on the street with a Bentley. And uh yeah, he’s back with his dog at least. His French poodle or his French uh French, it’s not a French poodle. What is a French bulldog or whatever. Uh all right, there you go. There’s your Instagram stories. Raptors are done with Madrid camp and they have dispersed to other places at this point. Fiercely here. Good morning, fam. Happy Sunday. Really cool that Fiery got to go to the CBL game on Friday night on her birthday to see the Ottawa Blackjacks play CBL, baby. It’s going real good. And uh Jamal Mccclure and the Scar Bro Shooting Stars did a good job raising money for Scar Bro Healthcare Network uh in their game on Friday night. Good job on that. Uh Isaac Campbell saying, “Lex, let’s invite uh Norman to the Real Jerk. I cannot make it, so all I got is Wishful Thinking.” Yeah, I’m not even sure we’re going to do this event. Uh the the um the response has been underwhelming and to be honest, it’s kind of coming up so fast to get this all organized and stuff like that. I’m thinking we may not do anything for my birthday, guys. And I’m just going to do a family birthday because I I feel like in some ways things got screwed up by Bryant because he was like going to say, “Yeah, let’s do it together.” But Brian’s fallen off the face of the earth in the last month. I have no idea where King is from. To the point. And he won’t respond to me. So, in some ways, I’m I’m thinking I might just do a private birthday with my family. And uh yeah, because I think throwing this together at the last minute, I don’t even know if The Real Jerk’s the right venue because I don’t even live near there anymore. And why would I go all the way down there? So, I I feel like it’s getting all disorganized. And honestly, it doesn’t seem like the enthusiasm to get together is that there. So, I’m just I’m I’m going to pass. And I think we’re just not going to do it. We’re just not going to do it, unfortunately. But, you know, it is what it is. It is what it is. If it was saying there’s uh there is no such thing as an easy championship. Yeah, you can say that but the bubble would say something else. I mean the bubble would say something especially in a team sport. Yeah, I don’t I mean this is all uh I guess this is all subjective in a certain way. Like there’s levels of easiness. Is that does that make sense? Like I agree with you. Winning a championship is accomplishment no matter what, but there’s different levels of really winning it. like Isaiah Thomas, my foot is broken and we won a championship. Like Kyle Lowry, I have a body part broken and we won a championship. There’s a lot of other guys that in some ways are just lazy and they coast the championships because it’s easy. I’d say the Boston Celtics championship was one of the easiest ones that was gotten in recent years. I say the bubble championship by the Lakers was set up for them by the NBA and it was an easy championship. So, I mean, I won’t disagree with you, but there are harder championships to get than other ones. And I I have more respect for certain championships, certain championship routes and teams you have to take out than some of the easier routes you might have to go. And especially if the NBA and their marketing machine’s rolling a red carpet out for you by giving you a good schedule for the season, by giving you referee crews that will help you in clutch times and games. Yeah, it can be easier for certain teams. It can and I know that as a Raptors fan. So, I’ll say that. James is saying, uh, it felt good to dethrone the Warriors. Salute to Kawhai. They’re still salty. There’s all kinds of little ways that, uh, Warriors fans are still shading us and doing all kinds of weird [ __ ] There there’s a lot of this kind of stuff. In fact, that whole article I read the other day about them saying ex warriors uh, Chris Buché traded to the Celtics is a is a symptom of this every which way. and be Chris Buchet’s picture being on the front page of ESPN for like three days, four days now is only, you know, that would have never happened if he was just Raptors. It’s because he’s a Celtic now. So, it’s that kind of stuff. Yeah. Warriors Nation still hates us because we’re the team that beat them and they never beat us. And you should hate us, Warriors. [ __ ] you, Warriors Nation. Because on the down low, I know that you’re a part of throwing holding the Raptors down in the the vision of the the league, because of your [ __ ] narrative that we didn’t really earn our championship because of injuries to your team. [ __ ] all that [ __ ] We went against the grain and came and got a championship that nobody thought we should get ever. And don’t even give me that crap. It is harder for some teams to win championships. Infamous, it is harder. That is right. Uh let’s see. Uh G saying, “Not many people know this. The league is run on income sharing model. 10 teams contribute to the pulp pool and funds the entire league or teams like the Nuggets couldn’t afford Joker. The leagues need small market teams to do well. Yeah. Yeah. And some people would say, “Well, those teams can’t function and do well on their own.” What? That’s socialism. Yeah, it is. And it shows that a healthy world has socialism in it. Yeah. Yeah. If you’re going to say, “Oh, if they can’t take it on their own, make it on their own, and they’re going to fall and falter.” Well, in some ways you get the society the United States is building right now and there’s going to be a lot of people falling through the craps cracks and there’s going to be a lot of ne unnecessary death and there’s going to be a lot of unnecessary homelessness. There’s going to be a lot of necessary unnecessary misery. You know, it’s like if you want to believe in equality and freedom for all, well, in some ways you have to make an equal freedom for everybody. And the NBA is doing a good job of showing the model to maybe the general world on how it should be run. Seriously, you know, some people say that’s not right. If the Knicks are making all the money and have to share it with the other teams, that’s not right. Well, that’s the money hoarding capitalist mindset. This absolute [ __ ] If you want a healthy ecosystem, you take care of all of your citizens. Crime goes down, and things get cheaper, and life gets better, quality of life gets better, the citizens overall are happier. You You want to go the way that the United States is going with unregulated capitalism? Well, you’re going to see just how much this plane crashes into the ground. You’re going to see it in the next couple years. You’re going to see it. If there’s no social responsibility to the workers, to the community, to the people, to the lifeblood of society, you’re going to see how that plane called capitalism crashes right into the ground in the next couple years. You’re going to see it by the end of this year already. You’re probably already seeing it. You’re probably already seeing it. Yeah. I mean, in some ways, that’s the thing. If you really want to help them, if you have a bootstraps mentality, you know, allow them the growth to be able to be sustainable for themselves by being successful. But if you’re going to push them down and say this is a league of halves and have nots, and I’m sorry, Washington Wizards, you’re in shitty and you’re just who they are. We can’t say share any money with you. Well, Wizards may run a business. They may run a business if they’re not getting help from the rest of the league in certain ways because who the [ __ ] should go to a Wizards game? Why would anybody go to Wizards game? You’re crazy. If you’re a ra a Wizards freak and you’ve been doing like what I do for this team, for your team, you’re crazy because there’s no signs of anything going right. And I even with your young crop of players, I don’t even believe it. I don’t even believe it. That’s right. If saying there’s a difference between what people say they want and what they actually want. What do you mean? I mean, I get what you’re saying, but listen, what we’re doing right now is working. I mean, it’s one thing. It’s like, look, if people are enchanted by the LeBron era and all this [ __ ] it’s because they only know it. They only know it. That’s why they don’t know how good it was before. A lot of it is age. People aren’t old enough to know the or era of Jordan, the era of Bird and Ma Magic. They don’t know how [ __ ] great the NBA was back then. They only know the era of LeBron. And in some ways, I feel sad for those people because they have not seen the best that the NBA can be. But I think we can get them there again with NBC showing up and the changes that Adam Silver has done. So it’s like don’t even tell me it’s like what they want and what they actually want. These people don’t know how good it could be because they don’t know the difference because they’ve never seen it. They’ve only known the era of LeBron. How old is LeBron? How long has LeBron been playing in the league? 20 years. And well, there’s people that are under 20 that only know the era of LeBron. And they don’t know the era of Michael. They don’t know the era of Dr. J. They don’t know the era of Isaiah Thomas. And that’s that’s that right there. I know it because I was alive. I saw it. I saw how the NBA could be badass and amazing. And I feel like Adam Silver’s building us towards that again. And it’s way better for the league. I’m telling you, people that cry about the ratings say, “Oh, nobody’s going to watch the Thunder versus the Pacers, those people aren’t real basketball fans anyway. They’re they’re they’re fake fans that just love uh ideas and u uh superstars and they don’t really care about basketball X’s and O’s. They don’t care about the game looking right. They don’t care about uh teams playing as teams. They only care about superstar mentality or superstar uh uh uh uh legends. Like, oh, it’s just LeBron. He’s just awesome. He’s so great. No, it’s a team sport. And the teams that play the best as teams should be in the finals, not the team that has the most marketable star. [ __ ] that. That’s not a That’s not a good league. That’s not a good league. Wayne saying, “Morning rapper freaks. Watch Mexico last night.” Cool. You did watch it later against Barbados. Game was relatively good. I enjoyed it. Physical size matters in basketball now. Lifting weights is a must. Yeah. Yeah. Especially with the FIA style. It’s very physical. There’s a lot of extra pushing that’s allowed. And you can play defense in the FIA game. In some ways, the NBA that was part of the problems is that the defense got its nuts chopped off for a while. and the offense was way too powerful against the defense. Well, there’s been some rectifying that too in the NBA and making it a little bit more allowable to play physical defense, but the FIA game’s way better for this. And if you play a certain style around underneath the basket like Charles Oakley and Rick Mahorn used to, you can do it in FIA. We’ve seen it in these games and it’s fun. I like seeing it. I love seeing it. It’s fun. Yeah. Yeah. So Wayne is my uh Jamaica uh watching games partner and it’s been fun to watch the games with him. Very very fun Wayne and hopefully we’ll be able to be up tonight at 10 p.m. to watch them play Mexico tonight. Yeah, the Mexican team he’s scouting the center. He’s worried about him. He’s saying uh he’s a big thick strong guy. We got to watch out. He might be able to push Jamaica around tonight. We’ll have to see. Isaac’s saying looking forward to watching Mexico’s bigs tonight. Yeah, I hear they’re both 69 and that uh they have some some size. Ramaro Gil is actually a 7 foot one player, so he’s like the biggest guy, I think. And in some ways, he should be dominating, but he’s really slow and he doesn’t have a very good shooting touch. That’s the other problem. He really doesn’t. Wayne’s saying Mexico has size and their bigs can shoot. These games are okay fillers until preseason and English Premier League for some of us football fans. That’s right. I like having the basketball distraction in August. You know, where’s the Rico Hines runs? I don’t know. I don’t care. I don’t need to watch Rico Hines runs. We’re not involved with him anymore. It’s probably just going to be a glorified Sixers practice. So, it’s like, yeah, FIEA action in Europe, in Africa, in America. Yeah, sign me up. I like Western basketball. Let’s get some basketball on. Norman Pal. That’s right. That’s right. Dunk for Wayne. Yeah, we’ll do that. Isaac Isaac was there for a special conversation the other night and so he he he’s enjoying the talk about the Mexico centers. That’s right. That’s been a hot topic for us. and he wants to dunk for uh Wayne on that one. 87 on the dunk charts for Wayne. 87. What a great year. That was a good year. 87. 1987 is a good year. That’s right. Uh Dan Rose saying this. According to Mark Stein, the NBA is expected to announce the full schedule at some point next week. Opening night, Christmas Day, and games being played in Mexico City, Berlin, and London have been released. Yeah. Yeah. And Raptor’s not on any of those lists, which is fine with me. That’s fine with me. We don’t need any of the specialty games that they build the whole schedule around in some ways. We’ll just have to see what the full schedule is. Obviously, when we get the schedule, I’ll go over it like a fine tooth comb and I will point out all the stuff I’m seeing in the the schedule and the travel and the backtobacks and why we’re scheduled this way and how many of the tough teams were playing where and the weak teams where. Yeah, I’m gonna analyze it all and we’ll definitely be talking about on this channel shortly after the schedule comes out this month for sure. Koy saying, “Morning Lex from Rapak Family.” Santino sends his love back to young Santino. I hope that that young man is having a fantastic Sunday morning. And uh his dad is doing very well also. How about that? Yeah. G saying the small market teams and expansion teams are investments. Funding them is for the best interest of everyone or there would be only to 10 teams. Teams like the Raptors are already funding themselves. There you go. I like G. G’s dropping truth bombs on the whole situation. The league wants to expand. The league doesn’t want to contract. And to be able to expand, business has to be good for all the teams in some way. So, you can carry a couple Deadwood teams here and there, but eventually they need to try and start getting out of the mud. If you’re not making any money as an NBA franchise, in some ways, you got to get out of the mud. You got to start doing things. I like some of the ideas that some of the pundits are saying about stop rewarding teams for being so bad and giving them high draft picks every single year. And some ways I agree with that. I think that that’s somehow some way that the way that the Dallas Mavericks and Philadelphia 76ers got two top two of the top three picks in the draft this year. It’s like in some ways they’re like, “Fuck you Utah. [ __ ] you Washington. [ __ ] you Brooklyn. [ __ ] you all the lower teams that are trying to tank to get a high draft pick. We’re not going to reward you. We’re not going to give you the number one pick. We’re going to give it to Dallas cuz we owe them one. And we’re going to give it to Philly cuz we like them and we want them to be good and they need a lot of help to be good obviously because they’re so badly run. We propped them up so many different times and they still can’t get anywhere because they’re so such a shitty team. Philadelphia 76ers. It’s like we propped them up. We’re going to give them a third pick in the draft because we’re going to try and prop them up and we’re going to uh uh not help these teams that are losing on purpose. I agree with this. The Wizards gonna be bad every year. They should not be getting top picks every year because they ain’t going anywhere. They’re not showing the responsibility of getting somewhere from having top draft picks. In some ways, that’s what you’re supposed to do with the lottery. You get a top draft pick, you’re supposed to have more talent come in and you’re supposed to rise back up in the standings. You’re not supposed to hang out in the bottom all the time and just collect these top tier talents on your team and go nowhere. No, Jack Armstrong’s right on this. He he said this on the broadcast near the end of the season that uh stop rewarding teams for being bad by giving them high draft picks. I don’t know what system would work best though. I don’t know what system would work best. Yeah. Uh G saying you should only be allowed lottery picks two years in a row in my opinion. After that you can choose outside the top 15. Wow. Wow. Yeah. There may be some rules that come around like this. I don’t know if two years is the right number. Maybe it’s like three or four. Maybe if you’re in the lottery five years in a row, you’re out of it for the next five years no matter what. I don’t know. There could be some sort of fair decision by the NBA, Adam Silver, and the NBA players association that could be coming about that out of this. That’d be fantastic. Once again, my general point is Adam Silver, thank you for doing a good job with the salary cap and the parody in the league. It’s very, very good for the league. It’s making me more interested and excited about watching the NBA. In some ways, I have more interest and excitement about this season coming up uh than any season since a long time. In some ways, seriously, the ups and downs for the Raptors uh with the Tampa and all that kind of stuff pretty much since Tampa. This may be the season I’m looking most forward to. And this is building from last year. I look forward to last year. I’m looking forward to even more so this year. Partly because of Brandon Ingram, partly because of him. That’s right. Clo saying, “This is why I love the Raptors rebuild. We selected our players and put our chips in into them. No long rebuilds. Yeah. No to long rebuilds. Yeah. And that’s what why we’re poised to be in a good position. Tim Bontep’s saying that you have to be good with your front office and not make many mistakes. Well, the Raptors don’t get super high draft picks and we get amazing players still. So, that’s that’s a symptom of showing that we’re a very adapt adept front office that doesn’t waste that smart. If we get a certain draft pick, like a Jacobe Walter draft pick, we’re making the best of it. we get a certain draft pick like a Pascal Seakum dra pick pick. We’re making the best of it. We’re getting the value out of that pick. We’re not we’re not just making the pick and hoping, oh, it’s going to pan out. No, we’re doing our homework and they’re hitting when they come and and that’s a big part of it. A lot of players are getting drafted in the league and they’re bust and they’re going to be bust. But to be a smart team and draft and consistently get players that are helpful and useful and not bust is very tough. Is very, very tough. But the Raptors have a good track record of it and that will really help us in this new environment of the new league. That’s the way I look at it right now. All right, let’s get to the straight goods on Canadian goods, guys. Today I’m talking about cereal. You guys got to eat cereal. You like eat cereal. Uh 10 out of 10 on the score is from Adagio Acres Naked Oats. Now, Adagio Acres is a brand out of Manitoba and that’s a good cereal brand. If you want to get 100% Canadian cereal, Dagio Acres is a great company. Their oats are grown and processed in the province of Manitoba and they are completely 100% Canadianowned. So don’t have to go buy General Mills. You don’t have to go buy Kelloggs. You don’t have to go buy Post. You can go get some Canadian cereal and support your country and say f you to all the big US corporations right now. If it’s McDonald’s, if it’s Starbucks, if it’s Coca-Cola, if it’s uh Exxon, say [ __ ] you to all those companies and stop buying from them. We’ve hurting them. We’re seriously hurting them. The United States is messed up now because their tariff system is actually hurting themselves. And I’ve heard recently that Canada’s doing great right now economically. So yeah, you go ahead and mess around, find out, Donald Trump, you idiot. That’s what finds out. Adagio Acres, great cereal, Canadian 100%. There you go. There’s your straight goods on Canadian goods. That’s right. Koy saying, “How are we seeing things play out with the new CBA while players getting 60 to 80 million per year? How long till we see top tier players see a pay cut?” I don’t see it because in some ways the money is just getting increased for everybody. So, it’s not that those top tier players will lose money. It’s just that the money is expanding for the the billionaire owners that own the team. They’re making a huge amount. So they’re getting huge balloon payments also from profits and shares of the television revenue and which is huge because Amazon’s deal and NBC’s deal is huge and in some ways that’s part of the thing that they’re leaving out when they criticize Emanuel Quickley’s contract and other Raptors contracts is the money is expanding and the money that we’ve got these players locked down on for the next few years is going to look good compared to the the ballooning of more and more pay. Like seriously, in some ways the locking guys down now, even if the money seems ex exorbitant for somebody like Emanuel, it’s actually going to look real good in like two or three years from now because the cap’s going to expand and there are not going to get pay cuts. There’s going to be ballooning payments even bigger. Now, maybe there needs to be some changes to the CBA with the middle class in mind and maybe President Fred Ban Vleet can do his part to on the behalf of the middle class of the NBA to get it more uh fixed with the salary cap structure so that the middle players in the league are getting paid their fair share. So, maybe there’s not more pay increases for the top, but definitely not a pay cut, but there’s pay increases for the middle class from those extra profits coming from the TV deals. They need to redo the middle class for the CBA. They really, really do. It’s broken and in some ways it’s messed up. And I know if anybody smart enough and able to do this in the right way, it’s Fred Bambble. So hopefully he’ll get this done for the players and fix the mess that CJ left from his last uh tenure as the NBA Players Association president. That’s what I want to see right there. That’s right. That’s right. Uh let’s see. Uh let’s keep going in the chat with uh some other stuff here. Let’s see. Uh, anything interesting on blue skies? Not normally. No, there isn’t. Just uh dumpster fire US politics is what’s there. Uh, let’s see what’s going on Raptors Reddit. Uh, somebody on Raptors Reddit saying that they think that our rebounding next year could be crazy. I love that. It say last year the Raptors ranked fifth in the league in rebounds per game. Did you guys know that we were the fifth best rebounding team in the league last year? That’s pretty damn good. But this guy’s projecting on Raptors Reddit that we’ll be even better because of people like Colin Murray Boils and Sandro Mamu showing up and he may very well be right. There’s a lot of evidence that’s showing that Colin Marie Boils is going to be a workhorse on the boards and I’m all about that. I am all about that. So, this is a good thing to put a pin in and check out for this season coming up. How are the Raptors gonna be rebounding this year? Could they be dominant rebounders as a team? I think they could. I think they could. Here we go. We got a new fan and they’re hoping to learn more. Uh let’s see. This is interesting. I’ve decided to pick a team from each major sport to have something to follow during regular season. And for the NBA, I decided to go with Raptors. I love their colors and the sick mascot logo. I’m hoping to find a group of welcoming fans for a newbie. Who should I watch? What should I know? Who do we love? And who do we hate? All right, let me send this guy a message real quick. I’m going to give this guy a message and send him the link to our channel. Uh I’m just gonna say follow Raptors Freak on uh YouTube. That’s what you need, bro. Follow Raptor streak on YouTube. That’ll be enough for you, man. You’ll get it. All right. There. Right there. Right there. All right. Jace Racer. That’s right. There you go. He’s up in uh Pacific Northwest. Okay. He’s in the Pacific Northwest. So, he uh I Hey, there’s a lot of Raptors fans over that way, you know, but in some ways, I respect that you wanted to come and join our team here as a fan nation. All right. There’s your Raptors Reddit checkin. It’s goofy, man. Let me just go see Discord if you guys posted anything interesting to talk about. There’s a I see that James posted Vince Carter’s gamewinners for his whole entire career. Of course, a lot of them were not all with the Raptors. He had gamewinners later and all the other teams he played on, too. But that’s probably a really good clip. But yeah, we were talking about that yesterday that that’s one of the reasons why James rates Vince Carter as one of the greatest Raptors of all time. Uh because of his game-winning prowess with game shots. But I still bring up that Philadelphia game as evidence to the contrary. Now Nabbatia has posted on his Instagram a picture of him and Vince and he’s saying he’s the OG and Vince is the grope. It kind of makes me feel gross. I get it. You and Vince have had a very nice relationship the whole entire time. In fact, you had no animosity towards him the whole 20 years like I did because Nav, you were best friends with his mom and his him. And in some ways, you were one of these turncoat Raptors fans for a while that didn’t didn’t turn on Vince because you were like, I don’t know. In some ways, you’re a sch smoozer. You’re a businessman. In some ways, you make allowances. You’re not totally a diehard Raptors fan in the way that you you you have adversity. You like to be a fan of everybody and be a a true friend to everybody even if they’re our enemy. And in some ways that that was a problem with Dr. De Rozan in a particular game. Yeah. Yeah. You being a little too friendly Nab Batia. So yeah, you go ahead and think Vince Carter is the Groat Navatia, but I’ll strongly disagree with you. Kyle Lowry or Demard Rosen is the Groat and not Vince Carter. You gonna put him as a Groat? Nah. There’s 20 years that would say otherwise. Let’s just put it that way. Nav is a super fan of Nav. Yeah, that’s that’s not that’s not far off, Wayne. That’s not far off. And I know your opinions on him bringing Dr. D. Rose into the game in that play playin tournament game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But Knob is dedicated as far as coming to the games every single game. Some ways that’s his own ego. But also at the same time, I do appreciate all he’s done for the Raptors and putting us a global spotlight on us. He is the most one of the most famous fans in the NBA’s history. He is in the Naymith Hall of Fame. But yeah, you’re right. In some ways, he’s uh he’s Nav is for Nav. Exactly right. Exactly right. Right there. All right, let’s keep going. There’s no birthdays today, unfortunately. Uh it’s just that it happened to be that way. No August the 10th birthdays in the Raptors world. So, let’s go ahead and do the classic card of the day. Let’s see what’s going on here. Maybe we’ll do uh one of these team cards again because I haven’t had one of those team cards in a while. So, let me see if I can find a team card because we’ve got extra time today and we’ll do this team card. All right, here we go. All right, remember this is this is a lot of names on here. Let’s see how many we got. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12. 12 names on here. 11 players, one coach. And the team is in the 1990 year. So, this is the team. What team was who was on this team in 1990? And who was their coach? 11 players, one coach, full name answers, 100 points for each name. You can get uh let me get my pen so I can mark who got what. And we’ll start. Here’s the team. 1990 Atlanta Hawks. Who was on the 1990 Atlanta Hawks? And who is their coach? And I will give you 100 points for each one of the names you get. We’re going to try and get all the names on here. This is a fun classic card. It’s a little bit classic card deluxe. But who were all uh on who all was on the 1990 Atlanta Hawks? Don’t cheat. Try and do it off the top of your head. See if you can figure it out. So yeah, full name answers. 1990 Atlanta Hawks coach and 11 players. Full name answers. We’ll see if anybody can get any of them. Oh yeah, these are all the normal names that you would think would be on here. That’s right. Oh, yeah. Okay. And try not to put them all in one comment. Maybe put one in, hit enter, then put another one in. All right, Kevin Willis. Smooth brown man’s gonna say Kevin Willis. Yep, Kevin Willis is here, Reggie. So, you get Kevin. Kevin Willis, of course, great Raptor. He is on there. Uh, let’s see. Cliff Levston. Cliff Levston is not on this list, I believe. Cliff Livingston by this point may have been on the Bulls at this point. John Conac. Yeah, you spelled that crazy. But John Conac. John Contract. Yeah, he’s on here. Reggie, you got him. John Contract is on here. They were still paying him some crazy money at this point. So yeah, you got Kevin Willis, John Kak. Who else was on the Atlanta Hawks in 1990, guys? And who was their coach, guys? Do you remember who their coach was in 1990? And who else was on the team? But Kevin Willis, former Raptor. Yes. John Contract. Yes, he was on the team. Some of these are real easy and you could just be like, “Oh yeah, this guy was on the team.” Stacy Ogman. No, Stacy Agman was not in the league yet. He was not drafted into the league yet. He was not on the Hawks yet. So, he’s not on this list, unfortunately. So, uh, nope. Uh, Dominique Wilkins, former American former. Yeah, Dan Row, you got Dominique. Dominique is on the Hawks in 1990 still. So, Dan’s getting Dominique Wilkins, the human highlight reel, of course, was the franchise player for the Hawks at this time. Yeah. Paul Graham. Paul Graham. I don’t even know that name. I’ve never heard of a player named Paul Graham. Paul Graham. H. No. No. Paul Graham on here. I’m not even sure who Paul Graham is. Paul Graham. You may be thinking another name that’s similar, but I don’t remember an NBA player named Paul Graham. But yeah. No. No. Not on the list. We’ve only got three out of the 12 names, guys. So, let’s get to it. Coach Wilkins. Well, what do you mean Coach Wilkins? Coach Dominique Wilkins. Coach uh uh Eddie Lee Wilkins. Coach Gerald Wilkins. Full name answer. Full name answer. Which Wilkins you talking about? That’s right. I think I know who you’re talking about, Wayne. I think you’re talking about our former coach Wilkins, but that’s not on this list. The coach of the team was not Lenny Wilkins at this time. Yeah, John Butler. That’s close. Trevor J, you’ve got the first and last initial right, but the last name is not right. John Butler plays in the league currently. He’s a player who’s just barely in the league. He’s in GLeague and uh I think he’s on Washington. John Butler Jr., but no, not John Butler. But a John B. Yeah, there’s a John B on this list for sure, but it’s not John Butler. That’s not his name. Good try, Trevor J. And I like you being involved in the classic card. I like you trying. John Battle. That’s right. You got it. The battle is won by Trevor J. Knowing is half the battle. GI Joe and Trevor Jay figured it out. Is John Battle. No relationship to Jameson, I don’t think. I wonder if they are related. I wonder Smooth saying Doc Rivers. You know what? You’re right. Glenn Rivers is on here. You didn’t put Glenn, but you put Doc and that’s fine. Doc Rivers is on this list. So, uh, good job, uh, Reggie getting Doc Rivers. So, we’ve got one, two, three, four, five. Five out of the 12 names. Still seven names on this list. Who was Atlanta Hawks 1990, guys? Including their coach. players and coach are we’re looking for today on the classic card who was on the Atlanta Hawks in the year of 1990. That’s right. Yeah, Doc Rivers was on the Hawks at that time. That’s exactly right. Yeah. Let’s see. You guys want to start getting some clues for these? I mean, some of these guys are very well-known names. In fact, there’s two guys on here that are have not been guessed that are Hall of Famers. There’s also uh some very interesting uh stories on here. Mookie Bllelock. I like that guess. It’s not right. Smooth. Reggie uh is not Mookie. Mookie is not on here, but they I do have two two or three point guards still left on this list. There’s like three point guards still on this list that you could name from Hawks 1990, but Muki is not one of them. The original name of Pearl Jam, Mukie Bllelock. That’s right. Mookie was still in uh New Jersey at this time, I believe. I think he was still on the Nets at this point, but he did go to the Hawks after this. He was on the Hawks at a certain point. This is a very educated guess. but you just missed. You know, think a little bit earlier with the point guards and you might get one. There’s a very famous backup point guard for Atlanta in the 80s. If you can figure out who that is. Yeah, Spud Webb. That’s right. Dan Row knows who it is. It’s Spud Webb. Spud Webb is a very famous backup point guard for the Hawks. And he is on this list. Spud Webb, former dunk champion, is one of the Hawks from 1990. So, good job, Dan Rosario getting Spud Webb. Atlanta Hawks 1990, guys. Who’s our other names on the list? We got six of them. We have halfway to go. There’s still another half to go. I’ll start giving you guys some more clues on the names on here. Like I said, there’s two Hall of Famers on this list, including one guy who was the first player to ever come into the NBA out of high school. The first player to ever come into the NBA out of high school is on this list. And that should be a big clue that gives away right there. There’s also a guy who’s from the USSR on this list if you want to get that clue right there. Those are two good clues for two of the names. First player to ever come in the NBA out of high school. Moses Malone is the name. That’s right. Smooth. Moses was their center at this time. Still Moses Malone. Tim McConnell. You’re close, Trevor. Once again, you’ve got the first name and the Mick, right? But it’s not Tim McConnell like TJ McConnell. The last name is not exactly right. But Tim Mack is a name on this list. There is a Tim Mack on this list, but it’s not McConnell. McConnell is TJ uh from the finals in the Pacers this year. No, not McConnell. You’re getting the last names just off. I want to see if you correct yourself on this because there is a Tim Mack on this list. Backup center uh for the Hawks at this time. Uh what is the Tim Mack that is on the list. Let’s see if anybody can remember that. He is on here though. There’s a guy on this list that got in trouble and went to jail for being a criminal and he actually kind of screwed over his own family. So yeah, that is on that guy’s on this list too if you remember who that is. And he was actually a rookie this year. I think in 1990 the guy was the Atlanta Hawks rookie and he got in trouble because he was a scam artist and I think he’s in jail and we’ve talked about this. There you go. Trevor’s got it. Tim McCormack. It’s not exactly spelled correctly, but it’s enough. Trevor, you’re gonna get Tim McCormack. He is the backup center. We’re talking about Tim McCormack. And Ramil Robinson is the guy who grifted his family that I was just talking about. Ramil Robinson was the draft pick for the Hawks right around this time. So now we’ve only got three names left. One is a Hall of Famer who’s more famous for playing the Bucks. One’s from USSR and the other one is the coach. So if you can get the coach, the USSR player and the guy who’s a Hall of Famer, I think he’s Hall of Fame. He should be. He He’s He was on this Hawks team near the end of his career. This may have been his last year in the league, man. Russell Robinson. knows Ramil Ramil Robinson and Reggie just got it. Yeah, this guy was a a defensive stalwart but also a very important player in the Milwaukee Bucks franchise and near the end of his career he came and played for the Hawks in 1990 and that’s it. I think he was done after that. So, it’s like this guy, the one of the names on here is that guy. He’s I think he’s borderline uh a Hall of Famer. He may be a Hall of Famer. I want to think he’s a Hall of Famer. He should be, but maybe he isn’t. I don’t know. He could be one of those guys that just fell through the cracks. A great player, but somebody who never actually got to the Hall of Fame. Now, the other guy, like I said, if you know who the Russian guy that was on the Hawks during this period of time, you should get that. There’s there was a very specific Russian player from the USSR that played alongside Dominique and Doc in Atlanta during this era. And if you can remember his name, you’ll get his point. Spud Webb is already guest. Trevor, they got Spud Webb. You can see Dan has it up above. Yeah, you all make sure you’re live, too. All right. All right. So, three names are left on the Atlanta Hawks 1990 roster. The Russian guy, the guy who’s a Hall of Famer who played for the Bucks before, and the coach. The coach is a bald man that wore glasses. Coach is a bald man that wore glasses. That’s right. Sasha Bereric. They did call him Sasha, but that wasn’t his real name. And those and his last name was not Bazeric. And it’s not that one weird card we had one time. This guy’s more famous than that Sergi Bazeric guy. No, he’s way more famous than this guy. You should know who this guy is, Reggie, because he actually played and he wasn’t a bit player. He was in the rotation for the Hawks and he got to play regular minutes and he was a player that I was very uh known knowing about because the Hawks were on TV on TBS and we saw this guy get to play. So, there’s a Russian player uh who’s a forward and he did get called Sasha as his nickname, but it’s not his real name. And h let’s see what’s a good uh you know what he has the same last name as probably the most famous Russian in WWF history. Does that give it away right there? The most famous Russian in WWF history’s last name is the same last name of this Russian player. So, that should give it away right there. It’s spelled differently, but it is the same last name. So, Atlanta Hawks 1990 Russian who has the same last name as the most famous Russian who ever wrestled in the WWF. That is the clue right there. If you know who that play that Russian wrestler is, who was in the WWF in the 80s heyday that was Russian, you know the last name of the player. And there you go. It’s that easy. It’s that easy. The uh the first name of the Hall of Famer guy is also uh one of the biggest cities in Australia. There you go. The first name of the other guy is also that Alexander Volkov is the name I was looking for. Smooth. Alexander Sasha Vulov is the name of the Russian player. Alexander Vulov. That’s right. That’s right. Uh Nikolai Vulkoff. Alexander Vulov. That’s right. Boom. Goes the dynamite. See, you work it through. Now, the other guy, his first name is the same. It’s not spelled the same, but it’s the same as one of the major cities in Australia. One of the biggest cities in Australia. Maybe the most famous city in Australia is the first name of the other player, Gary Leonard. That’s an interesting guess. It’s not right. It’s not right. Milwaukee Bucks, possible Hall of Famer, defensive specialist who has the first name that’s the same as a city in Australia. That should be giving it away right there. That should be easy. And the coach, well, he’s a ball guy with glasses. If you’re gonna get that that uh clue right there. Yeah, we’re getting we’re getting into this time here. Trying to get this. This is like pulling teeth, but you got getting closer. Reggie’s doing a good job. He’s going to catch up a lot of points on this one. And I’d like to see Trevor get multiple ones. And Dan also, but yeah. Who is the coach for the Hawks at this time? Maybe we won’t get that one, but you guys should get the other player. Uh, first name is the same as a major city in Australia. Played for the Bucks. He’s probably a Hall of Famer, but I’m not sure. And he was a defensive kind of specialist, but also he could score, too. And in some ways he’s a very valued um a person in the history of the NBA on the down low, but nobody ever remembers him and and obviously because we’re not remembering him right now. I have a card of his too from like way back. I think it’s like a almost 70s card of this player because he was in the league in the 70s too. So he is very much There you go. Dan got it. Sydney Monreef is the right answer. Sydney, Australia. Sydney Monreef. And uh Dan Rosario is getting that one. Good job, Dan. I like to see that. All right, last chance on the coach. Last chance on the coach. The coach is a bald man with glasses. And uh he did play in the NBA. He uh I believe he played in the NBA for the Celtics and the Spurs. Yeah, he I think he did play for the Hawks. The coach played for the Hawks way way back. But like I said, he’s a white guy who’s bald and he had glasses. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, if you can remember who he is, I remember the in the hoops uh collection, the the second hoop set that came out, NBA hoops cards, they put out coaches, current coaches in their playing days. They had like Phil Jackson, Don Cheney, Casey Jones, uh uh Larry Brown even. They had a Larry Brown card with him in his playing days. Well, they had one for this guy, too. Bob Weiss. That’s right, Reggie. You got it. Bob Weiss. It was the coach of the Hawks at this time. Reggie got it. Bob Weiss. Bobby Weiss was in the NBA at this time. So there you go. There’s the back of the card with all the names. John Battle, John Conac, Moses Malone, Glenn Rivers, Alexander Vulov, Spud Webb, Dominique Wilkins, Kevin Willis, Ramil Robinson, Tim McCormack, Sydney Monreef, and Bob Weiss. There you go. No, I said that Sydney is a Hall of Fame. Not Bob Weiss. I said Sydney Monreef is a Hall of Fame player. That’s what I I did. It sound like I was saying he was a Hall of Fame coach. No. No. Monreef. Monreef Hall of Fame. That’s what I meant to say there. All right, I think that’s it, guys. I think we’re pretty much done. Uh, if there’s anything else you guys want to add real quick, get your comments in really fast. We’ll do the wrap-up real fast. Once again, my main point on today is that parody is good for the league. Uh, every team having a chance to win is good for the league and its revenue and people being more ex enticed to watch, more attracted. I feel like the league really turned a lot of people off in the era of LeBron and that, you know, some people that think the era of LeBron’s so great is because they only know the era of LeBron. They don’t know anything else and how good it was before in the era of Jordan. And I think that that’s a big part of it. And I think that Adam Silver is going in the right direction in some ways. He’s got to stop celebrating chumps. He’s got to stop celebrating half-ass guys who showed up just because their names or they want to market them. People like Ben Simmons, people like Zion Williamson, people like Jean Marant, they need to start marketing the guys that deserve it, that have achieved, that do things on the court, and then they get the accolades and the marketing, not before. And that’s the big thing you may have needed to learn in your in your tenure as NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver, is stop rewarding guys that uh haven’t done jack [ __ ] because you look bad and marketing them so much. People like Ben Simmons, people like Zion Williamson. So, start marketing on the success that they’re already showing and stop handing out things to people that don’t deserve it yet because they’ve burned you and made the league look bad. That’s right. That’s right. Koy saying, “I think we’re going to see a monster season from IQ and RJ with all the noise and motivation.” Yeah. All of these guys, Scotty, and in some ways, they got chips on their shoulders. They’re getting overlooked. They’re getting disrespected. They ain’t getting the uh, you know, the right kind of due. And but in some ways, they haven’t gotten it yet. They got to go and prove it and then everybody will wake up and see what’s going on. Yeah, this league is I I really am happy the NBA is moving this direction. I know some people may be worried. Some people may be upset, but I’m telling you, this is way better and healthier for the longevity and sustainability of the league and being growing and doing better and better as time goes on. And that’s how I feel about it. All right, y’all. Thanks for watching the Raptor Freak stream today. Please like, comment, subscribe, and share, and join the channel. If you join the channel, you’ll get access to Discord. And at 10 p.m. tonight, we’ll be watching Mexico versus Jamaica live and live uh commenting during the game. And you can literally watch it through the screen. You don’t even have to go on YouTube. I’ll share the game and you can sit in there with us and you can watch it with Wayne and I if Wayne’s up and and able to be there. So check it out. Tonight, Discord 10 p.m. Jamaica versus Mexico pre-qualifier America Cup FIA. And it’s been fun to watch. Romero Gail, uh, Norman Pal and the Jamaican team trying to do what they’re doing. It’s been fun. It’s been fun. They they’re they’re they’re they’re goofy and they play weird, but they’re making it happen, and that’s what matters. All right, y’all. I’ll see y’all tomorrow. Monday moment tomorrow and Tuesday trivia on Tuesday, of course. So, yeah, the regular offseason Raptor Freak stream stuff. As always, I plow through the offseason and I figure out what we’re going to talk about. Parody is good. Playing harder is good. superstar model is bad and uh you know dynasties not necessarily good. Dynasties if they happen naturally and uh they really earn them okay but in some ways dynasties just for the sake of dynasties because the NBA always had dynasties and manufacturing dynasties is not good for the NBA. I’m going to say that right now. The 2010s were one of the worst eras of basketball for the NBA. even though that was when the Raptors had their climb to relevance and getting better and better, but it really was one of the worst eras in basketball. I’m not going to lie, the 2010s were one of the worst decades in the history of the NBA. And that’s just the damn truth. That’s just the damn truth. I think that most people would agree with me. All right, let’s go Raptors. Let’s go Tempo. Let’s go CBL. Let’s go team Canada basketball, women’s and men’s. Let’s go threeon-ree tournament under the Bentway today. Let’s go. Literally go go down there and see Savannah Hamilton and the great athletes playing three versus three under the highway. Yeah, there you go. All right, I’ll see y’all tomorrow. Monday moment. Let’s go Raptors.

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