Time for just a little news from around the NBA, around the league, and news that went way under the radar, and I mean way under. The Mexico City Capitanes began their second G League season this week. I have to confess I didn't even know it was already a G League team until now, like right this second last year due to COVID, they were forced to play out of Fort Worth, So this was their first actual game in Mexico itself. And you know what, it's going to change
the NBA forever. Why why you say one word expansion. Adam Silvert is trying to take this NBA thing to the GBA, not the National Basketball Association, but apparently the Global Basketball Association because he wants to put a team south of the border, folks. The kickoff to the Capitane season was a part of a two stage process by the NBA to push to promote, to sell the NBA in Mexico. The first stage was the inaugural game for Mexico City, the latest G League franchise in the first
ever in Mexico. Adam Silver has long wanted to tap into the Mexican market, and now he has a foothold in the fourth city's fourth largest city in the world.
It's pretty pretty important, pretty.
Big players are already raving about the facilities, including the Arena CD in Mexico, which is pretty lit, seats sixteen five hundred eight thousand for g League games. And the second Stage is an actual NBA game that's taking place in Mexico City between the Spurs, a team that's already got strong Mexican fan base, in December, and this is gonna be an annual thing. Apparently huge event. Mark Spears from Anandscape, a subsidiary of ESPN, was just down there.
He reported this on The Hoop Collective. He said, everything feels really good. He said it was actually better than Beverly Hills down there, which is pretty stunning. All of this is taking place against the backdrop of the NBA expansion, because Adam Silver recently came out and said it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when the league will expand, and we are not talking about tomorrow. This is kind of like Game of Thrones when you
know it's coming, but it's like seven years away. Everybody's talking about it. Oh, when what we see John snow Well is John snow alive or is John snow actually dead? I saw the red woman what was her name, the Red Witch or whatever? I saw her in his room. Does that mean? Does that mean he's coming back to life? It's like, bro, we're not gonna know until like four years from now.
We won't know until there's a new president elected.
Why are we talking about this because it's fun to speculate. So the NBA is getting an expansion team, but it's probably not until like twenty twenty seven. Right, It's obvious that the league wants to expand into the Spanish speaking world. This is why their Mexico city moves are getting tons of push. I don't I think this is going to be very high priority. Seattle is a lock as well, since they stole a team from the team up north. The Sonics bolted down to OKC. Where does that leave Vegas?
Vegas seems like a lock as well. So you have three spots when the league wants to expand, and then you have to give balance to the conferences. So that means there must be four spots on the table, doesn't there hmm? What would that fourth spot be? Apparently possibly San Jose, another Spanish speaking market. One of the fastest growing cities in the United States. For what reason, I do not know, but that brings up another issue that
not enough people are talking about. Does the league actually have enough quality players to flesh out two expansion teams, let alone four expansion teams, Because that means an extra thirty to sixty NBA players. How many more truly elite basketball players are there out there just sitting on couches, not playing in the NBA, playing overseas, playing in G leagues. On the top of my head, here's a short list of players either in the G League, playing overseas or
unsigned free agents. I think that would definitely get a look.
We can count them.
So we've got Dwight Howard who's playing in Taiwan. We know he can play. He was just playing, Carlmelo Anthony, he was just playing unsigned free agents, Boogey Cousins, unsigned free agent. As an aside, he wants to play back in Sacramento. We will see about that. The Taco Fall played in the NBA unsigned free agent. Don't know he would get a lot of run, but he would make up a roster spot for sure. Greg mon Roe played in Milwaukee on the G League on the go Gos.
Unsigned free agent Hassan Whiteside just played in an NBA team. A lot of centers just want to point that out. A lot of big men, uh, probably not all going to the four teams and his freedom another big man unsigned free agent Dante Exum Europe, Kevin Pangos Europe Toomas Saturanski didn't even know he was out of the league. Really Europe, Uh, Carson Edwards Europe, Bilichia. Probably not going to go back from Europe because he just left the NBA to go to Europe.
But he could make a team.
Of Vasili Michic Europe. Okay, see writes Rocas Jocobatis Europe. New York Knicks rights Mike James just a shit talker on about balkaira h. Steph Curry Europe. But there's one wrench in the plan though. Wind Horse reported that the recent sale of the Denver Broncos impacts the NBA market as well because it sold for four point six five billion dollars. That opened up a lot of eyes about
how much sports teams are really worth. Wendy said there's starting to be some rumblings of some NBA owners maybe looking to sell. This market is getting right for NBA owners to sell. The Broncos set a new North American record after selling for four point six five billion in June. This could carry over to the NBA as well, and the upcoming collective bargaining agreement in the new rights deal
could help values grow even more. There might be some folks sitting on the sideline sort of wondering, like should I sell? And they're gonna see these numbers. Keep in mind this too. The Fenway Group is putting the English Premier League soccer team Liverpool also on the market.
Think about that.
Initially it was reported that the team was for sale for four billion, but rumors are that it might go for as much as six billion. If that happens, you would imagine there's gonna be a lot of NBA owners saying, if I can get two million, it's two billion more than asking maybe it's time for me to get on out before this bubble pops. Well when then I you have brawn and you have KD who say they want to own teams. They've got unlimited money. They could probably
buy a team for seven billion dollars. It's a safe bet there's gonna be multiple teams changing hands in the coming years. What that means for the league remains to be seen. T Wolves, let's move on on them. Nothing more than I that I love than being ahead of the news cycle. So I sense my breakdown of the Wolves about ten days ago. Now everybody's on board. Go bear.
Trade sucks. Fucking sucks.
People now saying this is the worst trade in NBA history. It's only been ten games, by the way I saw it after two the wolves woes. Most of it stems from the fact that their starting lineup is statistically the worst in the NBA. We talked about this last episode as well. Aunt Edwards addressed that in a postgame presser. He says, are starting five all minuses minus eighteen minus twelve minus fourteen. Their whole starting five plus twenty plus.
That's crazy. Our bench plus plus plus. That's the story now of the year. The bench is playing great because they play as a team. The starters suck because they all have egos. We note that, but Chris Finch says that he's changing lineups now. We consider changing lineups and rotations all the time, but I don't know if we feel one hundred percent confident that this is the problem. But we are going to shuffle the deck with the starting lineup. But I'm not there yet. What does that even mean? Uh?
Not one hundred percent confident?
You have a starting lineup with a net rating of minus five over per one hundred percent per one hundred possessions, that scores ninety seven points per one hundred possessions. That's worse than the Lakers. I would think that that is probably priority one. I will do a deep dive into Karl Anthony Towns because he's the worst.
But be on the lookout for that.
But if you're a Wolves fan, when your head coach is saying that the starting lineup isn't the problem, when it is one hundred percent the problem, and then maybe he is.
The problem that is concerning.
Oh, let's move on. Michael Porter junior man. He's a fascinating dude. One of the nice surprises to start the season has been his performance. He's been plagued with injuries. As you guys know, he fell down the draft board from Miszoo because of his back issues, and then he had more issues with his back and now he's back back. As an aside, I don't even want to tell you about his three point prop because it's probably just gonna
continue to go up if I give it out. But if you can get it at two or more, it is just an automatic.
Lock right now.
Anyway, off the court, he's had a bit of a rough week. He got a bunch of shits stolen in his hotel room during a recent game, to the tune of a lot of money. What did the thieves steal?
This part was very interesting to me.
They stole money, yes, okay, they stole a gold bracelet, yes, okay, two Louis Vuitton bags, yeah, I got that. And a bible a bible wait what Yes, they stole this man's Bible with his notes in it and everything.
He had pages ear marked. What is a man to do?
Like, you can't can't leave you fucking bible in the hotel room. By the way, there's another bible that's not his in just every single hotel drawer. Everybody knows that if you wanted a Bible, you don't have to steal his personal possessions, his bible. You stole his bible. Let's face it, man, that's weird. That's fucking weird. What thief goes into a hotel room.
Is like, yeah, let's get this bible.
Yo. That one has a leather binding on it. It's like the early edition, a OG bible. Like this one's hard, super rare. I can't even get it on Amazon. I don't even know which kind of bible. How rare could a bible be? Like the King James first Edition, not the Lebron James first Edition, but the King James first Edition.
I have a friend who's a publisher.
He doesn't even bother to lock his car when he goes to trade shows because he says, an I quote, there is nothing on earth safer from being stolen than a box of books. And you steal a bible Jesus Christ. I'm not a fan of breakins. Someone broke into my car actually right outside of the studio. And what they steal They stole a blanket, an ug blanket. I had clothes in their shoes in there, a basketball in there. I don't know, like a pair of headphones in there. No,
they didn't steal any of that. They's stole a blanket. So my thoughts go out to MPJ because like you can replace money, you can replace a couple of Louis Vuitton bags, but like his og probably had it since he was four years old. Bible has every verse highlighted that he goes back to when he's in certain moments of adversity. Oh yeah, let's go to John three sixteen. That's on page this one. I got this one highlighted. Oh yeah, there's additional lines of scripture that I made
notes on. Oh yeah, remember this. Like now he's gotta go back through the Bible and find all that shit out new fresh pages. Gotta sort that out. What's that gonna be a special Bible? That shit means something? All right? Moving forward, Derreck Rose, I need to let you know this is a very pro Dereck Rose podcast.
Love him.
I know that he's been hated on. I know he's been slandered, but not here.
We love d Rose.
Nothing was cooler than him and Tibbs having the love connection that they've had. I love it. They are like they are like peas and carrots, right. They and he literally put the knicks on their back. They didn't even have a point guard. It was like a manual quickly season and he was like, nah, I got this. They carried them to the playoffs pretty much just on one knee alone, and then as sadly has been the case
for him. His body breaks down last year, he has to sit on the bench, which probably makes the injury worse. You know, when you have a bad back, bad knee, you're sitting down. If you've ever had a bad knee and you've had to sit in a car on a plane, you know what I'm fucking talking about. And so now they brought in Jalen brunts it. Now there's no room
really for d Rose anymore. And not surprisingly because d Rose is who d Rose is, they ask him about it and they're like, hey, have you talked to TIBs about the facts that you don't get to play anymore? Your guy, the guy that's like Peas and Carris with you, have you asked TIBs like, hey, TIBs, am I gonna see the floor anymore? Or what he was like, No, I'm letting everybody be. The last guy he wants to hear from is the guy who's been in the league
for fifteen years going in complaining and bitching. I'm just trying to give everybody the space I'm in the unknown. He doesn't even care. He's like, you know what, I'm just gonna see how it goes. 're just gonna let it be when I get in. When I get in, it's like kind of like me and my Saturday shows on w FAN. When I get in, I get in, I'm not even gonna ask. I'm fine, We're good. We'll see how it goes. How do you not love d Rose? No wonder Tibbs just cannot do any team stuff without
Pencilingrose's name in. He is just like the last He's not even like close to a diva compared to the guy that we saw as the MVP for the Chicago Bulls back in the day.
Like I loved Ros And this is exactly why.
I don't know how much is in the tank for d Rose, but I have to believe that in the playoffs, if they get into the playoffs, he can come in, give you good ten to fifteen minutes, smart basketball, good decision making basketball. And if he does that, he get another two three years left in the league. I think the Knicks and the league are better with d Rose in the league. I think we need to have a talk about NBA Twitter. It's under fire, it's under attack
right now. You didn't even know that, did you? Have?
You almost eaten.
The trash in the last forty eight hours since Elon Musk took over.
I bet you have.
I bet you saw something from from Adrian wardaw Janowski, WARDI and Zanowski and you're like, is that really woj or is it not wojo? This is the bomb, this is the nope. Uh, that's nope, that's the best, not even WOJE. Nope that fuck that. Come on, now, Elon Musk is jumbling up Twitter to the point where we can't even trust Twitter to be Twitter anymore. Blue checks for you. You'll get a blue check. You'll get a blue check, You'll get a blue check. Come on. I thought that
this shit was safe. I almost got taken by a fake woj bomb, saying that the nets had released Kyrie Irving, same photo, same blue check, sixteen thousand likes and fake as fuck.
Bullshit.
I think very bullshit. If I can't trust woje a blue check mark WOJE with sixteen thousand likes, what can I trust? You know what I mean?
What can I trust?
I can't trust a man if I can't trust a woje account with a blue check mark in sixteen thousand likes, saying that Kyrie Irving was released, then who what can I trust? Can't trust my Bible to be in a hotel room without getting stolen.
I'll tell you that I have no idea what's happening with Twitter.
All I know is you got to click on every single account, and you gotta be sleuth, and you gotta do this, and you gotta do that, and you gotta make sure it's being retweeted by the right people. And then you gotta make sure that you don't retweet it before other people that you trust retweet it, or you just end up eating the trash. If he fucks up NBA Twitter for me, I'm gonna be so mad. That's all the time that we have for the Heat Check. We'll be back Monday with a new episode. Check out
the feed past episodes, many episodes. We're dropping them all the time. You got to make sure you look out, make sure you subscribe so that they send alerts to your screen and they say alert alert, there's a new Heat Check episode. Also, do not forget to download, Do not forget to subscribe. Please tell all of your friends and make sure you follow us on social ad at
this heat Check and at Trista Crick on TikTok. Big shout out to my producer, Nick Berlanski making sure this shit sounds tight and right for y'all, and thank you again for listening.
Super appreciated,