Welcome in to an off season edition of Clippers Talk. You may be watching this on YouTube. You may be thinking that you're watching this on the Clips and Dip podcast page. Well, I've gone solo, Me, Chuck and Will. We've all broken up familiarity, breedze, contempt. No, it's nothing like that.
We were on a break.
I just I gotta get more stuff out. There's so much to talk about with this team, and so little time before the season starts just two months away. I thought I would start my own YouTube channel connected up with Clippers Talk, which is already something you could subscribe to on Spotify on iTunes. We've been doing this for some time now in a five seventy LA sports. You're a home with the Clippers. So we'll have it in podcast form audio only, and then we'll have the vodcast
is what they call it. Yeah, we'll have that too at follow Adam a on YouTube, just like my Twitter x handles at follow out of Ma same thing on YouTube. Some people want me to put it on TikTok too. Well, they don't like long form videos. And even though I'm doing some shorts and I'm showing you some behind the scenes stuff with my life. I think I took a video of my sister earlier that was kind of weird.
She was holding a Chicago Bulls starter jacket. Even though I'm doing other things, maybe some fitness advice on my YouTube channel, I just look. I'm trying to make sure that we don't run into the same problem that we are right now with streaming. The rebundling must start because I am so damn tired of having to go to five different places to watch TV shows, to watch movies. Nobody likes it. I know we all wanted to cut
the cord. Initially, we were wrong. We have to admit that now, so I'm not going to do the same damn thing. There's just two places to find me and at follow Out of May is the handle for both on YouTube now and on x been there since two thousand and nine or something like that. Got my birthday balloons on Twitter recently. So This is an off seasoned edition of Clippers Talk edition and edition with some of the guys that are now on the squad some of
the guys who are gone. We'll talk about some of that. We've discussed it at nauseum.
Paul George PG.
Thirteen with CND with Chuck and Will on the Clips and Dip podcast. Still, I think I have a few more things to say. I think Matt Moore might join me from HP Basketball because we got into a Twitter spat recently, so that could be entertaining a little back and forth, a little embraced debate. Speaking of more on that in a little bit here with some comments from Stephen A. Smith. I put out a tweet earlier at follow out of May. That's really the only reason I'm
doing this episode. I just feel compelled to talk to you right now. I get these urges to want to talk more and more about the Clippers, and sometimes I can't wait for Chucking Will. I just got to go and I have the capabilities here, got the microphone, got the HD stream going, and a little bit of a show for you, even though we're two months away from being it into a dome. If you haven't gotten the tour yet, I have not checking for that email.
Or I gotten it back yet. No, maybe they fired me.
No, I'm gonna get it. I'm gonna get some video for you add into a dome. I'm not Carlo Jimenez with the tiktoking and the snap faces and all that stuff, and I can't edit the way he can, but I can do something. I could do something for you. I just want to bring you more and more Clippers content, and that's really what this channel is about. It will veer off into some other areas and maybe I'll be talking about Game of Thrones later or anything like that.
I just earlier today. It was a little bit impulsive, but I made the commitment to be involved with social media more for a year and just see how it goes. See if I can grow the account at all. See people care, if they're interested, if they.
Want more Clippers Talk from me.
There is an off season edition. We won't have any Clippers basketball Summer League's over two and a half muscle the season stars. But again we got a pretty good I don't know, we're poor myself in the audience here.
We've been doing this a long time.
Those of you that have listened to Clippers Talk, the Official Clippers podcast and show prehalf in post is what I like to do. It is one of my favorite things in the world. And every postgame show with Clippers Talk where we take callers, we'll be doing that here so much, just podcast form. Maybe at some point I'll do some live streams and stuff, but every show ends up at Clippers Talk on Spotify, on iTunes, wherever else
you find it now on YouTube and video form. If you want to see me wearing a black tank top like I'm Pat McAfee. It's not homage to him or anything like that. It's just really damn hot lately. And you know, I roll with the original pms. Not the original original, but the show Petro some money show. Those are my guys. Pat McAfee's fine, whatever, don't care.
I will go after somebody else.
Though a little bit later here in the show, I do feel you know what I'm gonna get you right now, some type of way over a tweet I saw a little bit earlier.
If you're looking at my account at follow out of May, I gave it a retweet.
It came from I had to double check this NBA Central, the Dunk Central, which I think, while an aggregator does not put out, you know, fake tweets. Barry mccochner stuff, who I do like and I've interviewed before, but it's not a fake account like MLB Facts with an X that says Mike Trout has missed the last three thousand games straight. It's an MLB record. It's nothing like that. Now there is another one called NBA Central.
I think that.
Tries to throw people off, like a fake WOJ account. But this one, NBA Central, is legit. How do I know it's legit. Well, it's got one point six million followers. I've got like less than twenty right now on YouTube.
I'm just starting. Give me a break. But the content that they put up earlier today comes from First Take, And while they didn't post the clip, they posted a snippet a quote from Steven A. Smith, something we've seen many times before because one of his favorite people, for whatever reason, to go after is Kawhi Leonard.
Full disclosure. I met Steven A.
Smith one time at Fox Sports Radio back when he was there. I went and got him pancakes late night from someplace. He was nice, much quieter off the air, and by all accounts, really good guy behind the scenes. Of course, you don't get to see that side of him. You get stuff like this, him saying, quote Kawhi Leonard invents ways to get her.
Now, am I part of the problem too?
Because I am dunking on that comment and using it to create my own content.
Here a little bit.
We were all guilty of it from time to day time. But this is not the first time that stephen A has said this about Kawhi Leonard or something to this effect.
Remember after you got hurt, tore the.
Meniscus right knee in game two, might've actually tour it in game one, played through it in game two, wasn't able to go the rest of the series against the Phoenix Suns in twenty twenty three in the first round, well, he said he should retire. Then Kawhi Leonard came back, had one of his best seasons last year. Ever regular season wise ended up I think at sixty seven and sixty eight games played before. Unfortunately then he was swallowed up again or swollowed up again. But he had a
stretch that was historic. I was chronicling it saying Kawhi for MVP with a hashtag all over Twitter. I was trying to make sure everybody knew just how efficient he was. Where over a thirty game stretch, he set the all time efficiency record an NBA history over that long of a period of time, shooting shooting splits of fifty seven fifty one ninety fifty seven percent from the floor, fifty one percent from three ninety percent for the free throw line over a thirty game span. God Tyr is just
scratching the surface of what he was doing. Basketball deirvana was being reached. It was unbelievable. And I've said this before and I'll say it again because I'm hoping for it to happen again. When Kawhi Leonard has gotten hurt, he has come back stronger and a more efficient player.
That's a fact we've seen.
People always talk about the run in twenty nineteen with the Toronto Raptors. The numbers he was putting up in twenty twenty one with the Clippers were even better in the playoffs before he got hurt. The numbers he just put up last year coming off the meniscus.
That's the best regular season stretch up.
His career, and people slept on it. They weren't paying attention. Why the Clippers were at the top of the conference for about two days if that, and then they went through that swoon in January and February dropped down to fourth place. He gets hurt on March thirty first, apparently against the Charlotte Hornets. Was out after that tried to give it a go in the playoffs. And this is kind of the crux of the issue here. This is
where I have a problem with Stephen A. Smith. I'm not going to go after him like he went after Kalmi Brown, but there are I'm sure people in the business, in the industry that feel the same way about him and his ran about kawme because he does stuff like this, and I get it. He is ESPN and this is how he gets paid, and apparently he's damn good at it. He's the highest paid person there. But he says ridiculous
things for attention. Quote Kawhi Leonard in Ben's Ways to get hurt, quote Kawhi Leonards to retire, he finds a polarizing subject. This is what.
Gets me going.
People act like there are actually classes on sports media and broadcasting and journalism. There are classes out there. I think my friend Rob Parker teaches one of them. Maybe a usc love Rob the hobmong the YouTube at some point on clipper Stock. But there are actual sports media classes out there, Like it's not obvious what Stephen A. Smith is doing, Like they have to teach you a class about what's happening here. The jig is up, guys. It's pretty obvious to everyone, at least it should be.
I'm gonna lay it out for you.
All you do to gain attention.
Is get on a big enough platform, say some inflammatory, usually inaccurate things, some low information takes about a polarizing team or polarizing player, teams like the Lakers and Cowboys or Patriots, or players like Tom Brady and Lebron James. And what you do is you split the audience into two, not in a bad way, not like you're talking politics
and you're gonna lose half the audience. You actually gain both sides because you garner attention from the positive side of the group that likes what you're saying, loves that player, loves that team. If that's the angle you're taking, say, it's I don't know, Skip Bayless defending Michael Jordan as if his legacy hasn't been defended enough all the time. It is a religion for some of these older gentlemen saying get off my lawn, or shaking their fists of
the clouds, get off my clouds. Kind of what they're saying, the.
Old ways were better.
I think their nostalgia tripping. That's beside the point. Half the people are going to agree with them and they're gonna get attention off of that.
The other half.
They're gonna hate what they're saying, but they're gonna hate watch it. They're gonna continue to watch to hate watch like I have with somebody shows I should have gotten out of earlier, like The Walking Dead, like how did I make it to Season seven? Stupid Mayer and stuff, and then Nakan the Bat that was a pretty good tease of whoho is going to kill? But they killed two people.
This is what sports media has become.
Just talk about someone polarizing, talk about a team that people love to hate and some people love to love, like the Cowboys, and you will get your audience. And it's so simplistic and so it's sports simpleton. That's what it is, sports simpleton talk. I hate it. I've been asking for this for a while. I've been waiting for a hot take bubble to come. Maybe it's happening Skip Bayless.
I don't know if he's retiring or just leaving FS one, but people are patting him on the back, like Nick Right and saying he carved out a lane.
Nick right.
I think acknowledge that he might not have a job or be in this business and the manner he is if it wasn't for guys like Skip Bayless. I think it is some of the downfall of sports talk, of commentary, of analysis.
If you want to call it that.
Some people call it journalism. The landscape has changed so much, but it's just so transparent what's going on. It's so easy to be divisive. I don't see it as talent so much. It's just a formula for success, an easy one that they've been writing for so long, like a bad dose coin or something some whacked out crypto Kanye coin. What is that still around? Do I still have some.
The bubble may be happening before our eyes.
I think people are starting to tune out guys like Steven A a little bit more. I think the rating can say that, I don't know if it's a cry wolf thing. How many times do we have to hear false narratives and inflammatory speak and outrageous takes when we know better. Granted, sometimes once in a while it's entertaining.
He was screaming about weed. Lay off the weed. I once in a while, Max Kellerman saying I want a goadala that gets used in the DJ beat, But I think it's just so appealing to the lowest common denominator that I think is starting to smart and smarten up.
And I'm hoping.
Because I really changed things here with my one reach wheet of the Steven A. Smith quote regarding Kawhi Leonard saying, quote Kawhi Leonard events ways to get hurt, and me saying, Kawhi is trying to give it a go in Game three, as I posted the clip of him hanging on the rim against the Dallas Mavericks when he probably shouldn't have been playing at that point, but was trying so hard
to go for the Clippers. He was laboring out there, noticeably gimpy, limping around, and he caught that alley from Paul George, who I don't know why he was throwing him an lu if he knows Kawhy is hurt.
Kawi went up and.
Got it, and then he hung on the rim, afraid to land. It looked like because of that impact on the force of hitting the court on his right knee. It's hard to watch, it's painful to watch, and I'm sure it was painful to be out there.
And he was.
Don't tell me he's inventing ways to get hurt. Don't tell me he doesn't love basketball. Don't tell me he isn't trying to win a championship for the Clippers. His body has betrayed him. Yes, that's a fact he's been injury prone. It's a fact he hasn't been able to close out a season the last four for the Clippers. No one is more upset about this than Kawhi just because he's not holding the press conference, just because he's not putting the press sho release out there on social media.
And I know he doesn't need me defending him. But when you see Lawrence Frank out there talking about Team USA sticking up for his guy and Kawhi, you knew who was disappointed I'd being able to play. And we've talked about what seems like a double standard. Kevin Urant didn't play at all in exhibition games that for TMOSA this year, but they kept him on the team. Okay, didn't seem like much of a collaborative effort with Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers for why he was left off Team USA.
Different subject for a different day.
We talked about it on Clips and Dip with til Marrazari a couple of weeks ago. But he wants to play. You don't got to kick a guy when he's down. That's what Steven A. Smith is doing. And it's just so weak and just it gets me irked because he's gonna get eyeballs over and a lot of low level NBA people are gonna be like, yeah, Coawha never plays, he can never play. You can never make it through the playoffs, make it through the regular season. It's like,
what do you want to do? Scream at his knee stop swelling, and what can he do outside of put the work in, do his best, be prepared for each and every season. I mean, now we see we hear the same people who are giving him grief for allegedly load managing when I think he was hurt. You saw him limping around the twenty nineteen finals, was coming off that injury. Load managed the first couple of years with
the Clippers. It's like, yeah, I think if there's anyone who's rightfully load managing, I think it's a guy like Kawhi Leonard. I think it's someone who's one of the greatest NBA players at his peak in a high leverage situation in a playoff series.
That we've ever seen.
I think there's probably a top ten all time playoff performer. You look at his numbers over his last sixty playoff games since he became an undisputed Number one was San Antonio in twenty seventeen.
Ridiculous numbers.
Over thirty points, over fifty percent, shooting about forty percent from the outside. He's a playoff all time riser. But to continually harp on it and go after him for not being out there doesn't really help the situation much. He wants to be out there. If his body allows him to be out hit there, he'll be out there. I just I don't know a guy like Steven A.
Smith who.
Seen some of his basketball highlights. Not that I say, because you know who am I that would be.
Hypocritical of me.
I'm not saying you got to be a professional basketball player to criticize guys. But I'm saying, if you're going after someone for trying to play, playing through it, being injury prone, no fault of his own, his body betraying him, that might be crossing the line. As someone who didn't play at the highest level that suspect to me. But again, the attention is going to be there regardless unless we get rid of this hot take bubble world we have
been living in for far too long now. It would be great to have some more honest sports takes, like how is Tim Leagler not the most well known basketball guy on ESPN. He's brilliant. He's hopefully going to be calling a lot more games next season. I don't know why that hasn't started up before this him as the
color commentator. Fantastic, He's an actual basketball analyst. Instead, we have to listen to stephen A and Kendrick Perkins routinely get the facts wrong and just spit out hot take after hot take, with Bob Myers trying to join them, I don't know, reduce himself to throwing out hot takes.
It's tough.
I love the TNT guys, I also feel like they could do a little bit more basketball analysis. I understand the point of their the most entertaining of the hot take artists out there, and they are Sometimes they sound pretty well informed and like they don't actually watch games, and I think they've admitted that many times before. Still, they are the most entertaining studio hosts in the history of existence. That's not the case with Stephen A. Smith. A lot of these guys are just living off of
saying inaccurate things for far too long. And I just did not like what he said about Kawhi Leonard over the last week and what he's been saying about him now for a couple of years. How is he the guy to tell someone else to retire a professional athlete. Yeah, you know, it wasn't as hot in here earlier, but now I'm kind of kind of getting myself worked up a little bit here.
I get it.
He's the best at his craft. This is what he does, this is how he's made a living. Doesn't mean it can't push back, not that Kawhi needs my help. And yeah, maybe I'm using him for content, just like he does with other stuff. Ah, it's tough not to well. I have to live with those double standards sometimes rules for the.
Not for me.
Look, I'm not telling any professional athlete to retire, not in a position where I'd feel comfortable ever doing that. But the clickbaiting, the aggregating, this is what works.
I'm hoping.
I'll play less of the game myself and just talk more Clippers basketball as we move along here. I do want to talk with I believe he's at HP Basketball. Matt Moore. Yeah, Matt Moore, NBA writer for Action Network HQ. Now, we did get into a debate about Paul George or he said something that I found to be a little bit off, and I'll just give you a preview of that in case I have him on later this week.
I am efforting that conversation, but he said something to see the effect of what they'll miss most is Paul George's leadership. I'm not sure that's the case. They will miss Paul George. I think on the court is basketball talent. Yes, there's no way to replace that guy. However, the way the Clippers have pivoted pretty impressive. From the front office. I have to say, I'm a big Lawrence Frank guy.
Let Lawrence Frank cook. This offseason. You got to see him a little bit less restricted with some of the moves he's been making and how he'd liked to build the team because they're under both aprons. So am I excited for Clippers basketball? Yes, this defensive oriented team that we're gonna be looking at this year, It's gonna be fun. You can win a lot of games on defense, God willing, Kawhi Leonards is healthy, James Harden and the Clippers still have enough on the offensive side to scare a lot
of teams in this league. I just want to see Kawhi Leonard be healthy. That's what we all want.
I think we all want.
Well, this has been an off season addition of Clippers talk. I'm oudam Oslin and these impromptu episodes could just be happening now. I don't know. I see something else on Twitter gets me going. Somebody was telling me about Kayi Jones and how he should be the starter. Maybe I'll try to put that to rest. As the rumors are eat to Zubots, you know, contract extension, who knows could
be coming. We just saw another big man and Jared Allen get paid in the Cleveland Cavaliers, and it beats Zubots top five room protector has been pretty much the entire time he's been in the league so far. So maybe I'll address that a little bit later this week. I don't know. I just like the freedom to be able to crack a mic and turn it on whenever
I feel like it. If you're listening to this on the Spotify side, on the iTunes side, on the podcast side, well that's cool, but maybe give me a subscribe on YouTube, check out the video, maybe watch clips and dip. I don't normally wear a tank top on there a jersey. I have one before Dick Povetta. But yeah, I'm in rare form in some ways going after the sports media landscape.
On the hot take bubble.
That may have just popped a little.
Bit, a little a little bit of the air came out.
I don't know. Skip Bayless is probably gonna go back on ESPN. He mad Dog and Steven A. Smith will endlessly going after one another. Oh that would be painful, and mad Dog's another one. Yeah, I don't want to have to light up too many people here. I could just start playing clips, but then I may copyright stuff YouTube. I don't know how all this works. You guys know me and technology. We're trying to figure things out together, our relationships. A little bit afraid. Until next time, this
has been Clippers talk. I'm out a Mason, I'll talk to.
You later this week.
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