You're tuned into Heat Check with Triste Quick.
On this episode of the Heat Check, we're digging in to why Adam Silver and how Adam Silver loves France just so damn much.
We break down Jeremy Sohan's new free throw shooting style to break down his free throw blue. We have some Karl Anthony Towns drama shocker, he's never in the news, and we also get into some other.
Tea from around the league.
So much popping as a trade deadline approaches, So do me a favor, Nick and drop that generic each before we get into everything popping around the league. I wanted to give a special shout out to all the good, fine, fine folks in buff New York for hosting me as America's guest in Buffalo for the Bengals Bill's game.
I I'm not sure.
I haven't gone through a table yet, but I believe just shy of that I'm a part of Bill's mafia, which means, of course I take some sort of blame in going there and declaring my AFC fandom just so they can get their ass at home. I'm sorry, Buffalo, we know it's a huge sports town. We talk about that not only in some of these radio hits that I do in Buffalo, but also in Rochester, so I
got to talk a little hoops with them. A lot of people there reminded me multiple times that Buffalo was the original home of the what is now the LA Clippers.
Did you know that? If you're not a historian, you did not.
And I was told an incredible story about the Buffalo Braves, which was the original NBA team, well one of the original NBA teams in Buffalo.
So I had to fact check.
It turns out this crazy story that they told me while I was tailgating near double propane burners trying to warm myself up at their tailgate was true. It's actually maybe the craziest reason that an NBA player has been traded in league history.
It's absurd.
It's it's got a little ism to it, you know what I mean, Like, there's a little there's more to this story than just that anyway. So the Buffalo Braves NBA franchise from nineteen seventy to nineteen seventy eight. They have a fascinating history in the sense that they have three Rookies of the Year in four seasons.
Think about that.
Three out of four of their years, they had the Rookie of the Year, and they were a team on the rise, and then all of a sudden, ownership decided, fuck it, we're just gonna take We're just gonna try to sell this team. Pretty bad luck if you're trying to sell the team with multiple Rookie of the Years in nineteen seventy six. So they're shedding guys, right, They shed Hall of Famer Bob McAdoo, the league MVP and a four time All Star at this point for cash.
First of all, outside of this trade story, that's bonkers and that is absurd. David Stern would have stepped in and said no. So they wanted to deflate attendance numbers so they could just break their lease in Buffalo twenty twenty two. Buffalo would never allow this to happen, I promise you.
The Braves then turned.
Around and got Moses Malone, who was just absolutely a monster in the pain as we know later World champ with the Sixers.
His career lasted.
Exactly two games in Buffalo, two games before he was traded to Houston.
Why why did he get traded? What did he do that was so wrong?
What was so egregious in his behavior that would cause them to move someone who's this level of a player in two games. Well, coach Tates Locke immediately got it in his mind that Moses Malone, Moses Molan was lazy because Check's notes he slumped on the bench during timeouts.
No, that's the reason.
That's the reason it is Moses Malone got traded from Buffalo because of bad posture. Or maybe a more reasonable idea is that Tates locks as an asshole. Edie didn't like Moses Malone like that's probably more accurate. According to the recent history of the Buffalo Braves, Locke talked the owner into trading Moses Malone immediately because I just don't like the way he sits on the bench, just rubs me the wrong way. He gives me vibes of just man. It feels like a very complacent player.
Moses Malone. We're not talking about some janitor. We're talking about Moses Malone.
A year later, the Braves are in San Diego, so their efforts to get themselves shipped out of Buffalo worked. They then later as we know, moved to Los Angeles because of all of the things that were happening with the Clippers, and that's where they are now. But what a story. I gotta make my way back to Buffalo. What an incredible story.
That was big.
Thanks to all the folks in Buffalo who came by, said hello, did not throw me through a table, gave me the original Buffalo Wings, showed me a great time.
Went to Auto's amazing subs.
I think there's like a sausage patty and some sort of meat thing in there and cheese awesome. Also Chop Gene Battaglia bulldog who did not come out, but we'll see him next time. And now I know what Bill's mafia is truly like. So onto the league current league news. I just had to share that before we got into more ridiculousness from our current commissioner.
Adam Silver.
So we've talked about how much Adam Silver just fawns over Europe, just loves it, just loves everything about the culture. Clearly wants to be a part of the culture, wants this culture to be a part of the.
NBA in some way.
And now I feel like there's even more evidence of that. A new country has struck Adam Silver's fancy and it is France.
Currently in love, currently a Franco file real quick.
As an aside, if you look at Adam Silver, does he kind of just look like the guy who just picture him in your mind? Doesn't he look like someone who would correct you for saying croissant wrong? I guess quissant it's and I was like, okay, guy, you're American.
Doesn't he seem kind of like the guy who has.
A couple maybe five, maybe seven berets in his closet in different colors that he wears with a turtleneck when he goes out to a French restaurant and orders Flakral, Like, doesn't that seem.
Like Adam Silver?
Like you just know when he goes to dinner parties, he regales you with that time that he discovered one of the best cheeses on the planet when he took his trip with his lovely wife to Roquefort. You know, like that's him, That's Adam Silver, and he's gonna shove French culture down our throats whether we like it or not.
That's just what's going down.
So last week they decided to have a game in Paris. NBA did first ever game in the city of Lights. Who played in that game?
Was it?
Was it Lakers Bucks? Was it somebody star studded? Do we get to see I don't know, do we get to see Steph Curry and the Warriors play against I don't know, even the Boston Celtics.
Oh, it was much better than that.
Something really to just warm your palette up a little bit, get you get the juices going. It was they decided to send the dead last Detroit Pistons with a total of twelve wins, to face the Chicago Bulls on the verge of a rebuild. Did the French have they not been tuning into the NBA since Michael Jordan era, because that that game in nineteen ninety one would have been amazing.
But hey, zach Lavine's name does sound.
A little French, Leval zach Levan, so that counts, I think for something. So I'm watching the game at three PM, which is in itself weird, but nothing is weirder than when you're watching Adam Silver chare karoons with Emmanuel Macron of French Presidents, right, like that's how he wanted me to say it.
I wouldn't say it like that. That's how he wanted me to say it.
So, according to the AP over a Cafe, Adam Silver and Macron struck a deal to work together with the hopes of continuing to grow the game of basketball internationally in France. So the question is now, why now, why are we doing this now? Well, if you know anything about what's popping around the league, you know why. Adam Silver has been commissioner for a very long time. We know he's been loving things France, all things French since I don't know, like he went to the Louver on
a senior class trip at his private school. We know he's been in love with French women for fifty years now. So why the urgency, why this international deal at this moment?
I mean, it's very simple. It's two words. It's stick your Wambiyama like it's him.
Yeah, the guy Magic Johnson just came out and called the best player of the world. He is coming to America, presumably going to blow basketball up in France along the way, because the French are gonna be so excited. They have only had Tony Parker and Rudy Gobert and Evan Fournier, like they finally get a real guy in the NBA, right, they finally get someone they can be proud of, not some chucklehead that they all get made fun of about. And then you add in the twenty twenty four Olympics,
which by the way, is in Paris. Even though we just had the Olympics in Tokyo, feels like just yesterday and now we have a.
Full blown partnership going on. So what is in this international coord that they just struck?
First and foremost, They're going to have a collab between the NBA and the LNB, the French Professional Basketball League. So we already saw that to a degree so far this year. More exhibitions like we saw with the Metropolitan ninety two and Victor Wambiyama against the G League Knight and Scoot Henderson Rights. That was a game that we all liked to see. Was in Vegas.
It was lit. And beyond that, there were two things that came from this trip. The league. You're gonna hype up the Olympics, probably.
Meaning that Adam Silver is going to put pressure on all the big stars to show up and play. Steph Curry, You're fucking playing in these Olympics now, like you're not ducking this anymore. You're on the tail end. You've been saying,
you've been part of this championship window. You don't want to compete in international basketball because it messes up your your training regimen and your calendar of load and duration frequency, and you don't want to tail off before the season gets to a turning point.
But no, no, no, you're playing in Paris, Steph. That's what's happening. Demarto Rosen's already committed.
Not sure if that moves the needle from an international perspective, but the second thing that they decided.
On is fascinating.
NBA and French officials are going to work together to grow the game in Africa. Why well, we've heard this multiple times from folks like Jerry West. Other gms around the league are talking about Okay hoopers from Victor Wambayama, Rudy Gobert and Bape and Soccer all having roots in Africa.
Jerry West has said that at Summer League that the NBA is deeply interested in that corner of the world because that partnership feels like probably where the NBA is going future of the league all stems from that France Africa connection. And now Adam Silver has aligned himself with the government whose colonial policies.
Controlled most of the area. So it's a win win, right Like, so who knows what that means? What is the end goal of all this?
Well, there's a closer relationship, most likely between the NBA and the EuroLeague, and surprise, surprise, the same day of the accords of the EuroLeague announced they were having talks to fix the kind of fractured relationship between the two entities.
Everybody wants the.
Olympic Games to go well, right, but ultimately, for Adam Silver, a franchise in Paris has to be the end game. Pick me, pick me, I'm coming, I'm going. Whatever the name of the franchise is, I am in. I'm changing my entire life. I'm sure that they would love an NBA betting analyst to show up and eat some.
Macaroons with Macron.
I don't think it's gonna happen like tomorrow, but maybe like ten years, ten, fifteen years from now. The NBA is going to be international folks in our lifetime and Paris, of course is at the top of Adam Silver first list.