Really quick before we talk about some of these series, I want to just kind of like make sure everybody's up to date on some of the things happening in the background where real basketball is also being played. So you've got a few things happen, You've got a little bit of news trickling out, not a ton, You've got rumors around movement of players, You've got lottery NBA draft news, and then obviously you have the games excelf and we're getting down to only a couple of different teams left right,
and pretty much Dallas we already know, is dead. So let's talk about some news just to kind of keep us current while these games are going underway. So the first moment I knew the Timberwolves were for real, that they were serious about being a real NBA franchise was not when they sold the team to a Rod and Mark Lori. It was when, not when Tim Connolly came. And we'll get to that news in just a second.
This happened in January. The Wolves hired a man named Marquise Watts, an executive from Clutch Sports, to be their new chief experience officer. Let's be honest, Glenn Taylor doesn't give a fuck about the athlete experience, like they don't care. But this guy and a Rah and Mark Lori do with the task of redefining the player experience in Minnesota. That was a big shot, huge deal at Clutch, who
came from under Armour, who came from Adidas. So let me just recap really quickly what Watt said in January when he was hired, just to get us to this place where like they weren't playing around when they said changes were coming. He said, this leadership here in Minnesota is serious about building a world class organization. There is much to untap, much to explore culturally, experientially for our players and the community. This is just the beginning and
there is a lot to look forward to. So we're not going to get into how important it is to have somebody in the front office or in charge that's connected to Clutch, considering that Clutch represents pretty much all of the major players in the NBA or at least has their fingers in every deal. They're like the mob of the NBA. Right Like Aunt Edwards is a Clutch client. Lebron James's best friend started Clutch. But I will remind
you what I said at the time. I said, this is a symbol and a sign that a Rod and Mark Lorie are dead serious about changing the culture of this team. His job is not only to cater to existing players, but to make Minnesota a place that people actually want to go in free agency. That's a hard thing to do, a very hard thing to do, given that it's cold, it's white, I mean, and there's not a lot of culture around except for like fish and like ice and all kinds of shit. Anyway, ice fishing exactly.
They have like a I think they have like this bungee jumping thing into the ice. I know that they I got offered this uh near Mall of America. They have the Mall of America. Like how how like whitebread? Can you get right? Like Minnesota. We're gonna fix this, though,
he says, how do you do that? You roll out the red carpet for guys, You make sure the team environment's tight, you make sure you got the right people making decisions, and then you have a dump truck of cash ready to give it to as many people as you can to build that team. And then you've got big connections to sponsorship deals. At the end of it.
I love that. I love being right, because that's exactly what ended up happening, because the new look Wolves signed the Nuggets top executive Tim Connolly just stole them right out from under the Nuggets. He didn't even want to leave. It's like, made me a deal I couldn't resist. Kind of a thing. Wold reported it. This is the bomb.
This is the sound the Wojes bomb. Denver Nuggets president Tim Connolly has agreed to a deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves that will make him one of the NBA's highest compensated executives. Significant coup for the Minnesota franchise. Nice editorial Woje. Significant coup that was his own little sit and see. I'm gonna add something to this anyway. Five years, forty million, but more importantly because eight million's a lot, but it's not as much as Daryl Moore's getting. But the most
important thing is he's getting equity in the team. It's the first time ever that's happened. Connelly, beloved in Denver, did not want to leave Denver, but you do not change. I don't even know how much money that's gonna be worth, but I'm sure it's life changing. Legacy altering money and for those who don't know who Tim Connolly is and what he did, like to quote if you're a Marvel fan,
to quote and paraphrase Obadiah Stain from Iron Man. Connelly was able to build a conference finals team in a cave with a box of scraps.
Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave with a bunch of scraps.
Do it? How come we can't be a conference finals team? So what did he do? Here's a short list of some of the scraps he was able to turn into gold. Jokichap forty one second rounder Bones Highland twenty six, All Rookie Team, Michael Porter junior at fourteen, max player, Jamal Murray number seven, All Pro Mark, Keith Morris at fifty one. Also Yusuf Nurkich, who's our big man in Portland, Gary Harris,
Malik Beasley, all outside of the lottery. Denver desperately wanted to keep them, but they knew we can't give this man equity. You can't find a person that says a bad word about him. He's as close to being as universe beloved in the NBA as you can get everybody. When you're in the league long enough, people got bad things to say about you. And he's built a really good team out of nothing in a market even smaller
and wider than Minnesota. Perfect fit. Honestly, He's like, I know I had this blueprint, I can do this, and if you're if you're a Wolves fan, you cannot wait until Glenn Taylor is all the way out of this place, releases his cold, bony little hands from this franchise that he's trying to like choke it out. Every little bit of power he still has left. He's trying to just finagle.
And it also shows that even though a Rod and Mark Laurie don't truly have control of the franchise yet, they're still pulling the strings and they're still setting the pieces in place for this team to be good for a really, really long time. And now when they really take over, Sky is the limit. You know that we can't on I wish I had that music, but we don't anyway, insert music. We're just gonna play music, just but finally now understanding something that we haven't understood in
a long time. We never really got the full story of Kyrie speaks for the very first time in six years. He's ready to explain, and did explain. Why the did you ask out of Cleveland? Why did you demand a trade? We know you demanded it, We know you wanted to go to a contender. You said it was to be
your own man. But at the time that didn't really make no sense because you were with Tatum and Brown, Like, so you're not really And now that we know truthfully, he'd never wanted to leave Lebron, he just wanted to leave Cleveland, like he just He's like, I don't even care about Braun, like me and Bron were good, Like I just didn't want to be in Cleveland anymore. This franchise sucks. They sat me down, he said on this
I Am Athlete podcast. They sat me down. They told me what their plans were, how I fit into those plans, And me and Braun truthfully didn't really fit into their plans long term unless we were all willing to stay together. We didn't fit in to their long term outlook, basically shedding cash and starting afresh, basically armageddoning the team. He's like, so, yeah, I'm working out of here, but he didn't tell Braun, and Braun thought it was about him, of course, because
Braun is Bron sensitive. Let's be honest, like he's sensitive. He's like Yrie, like, come on, man, Like I thought you're my little bro dude. Like I think Braun said that too publicly. I didn't make just make that up. He's like, man, I was like, I'm a little brother. He didn't tell me he wanted to go. I wish I would have known, like I could have maybe helped him. And this is now fascinating because Kyrie's in an interesting spot.
This was a very interesting time for an inner, given that you're at the end of your contract and you have a player option and you maybe could go somewhere else. Opens up a whole new range of imaginary imagination possibilities here. He even said on the I Am Athlete podcast, I would probably be in LA right now if me and Lebron would have actually hashed this out and talked, oh boy, oh boy. So I want to play a clip something even more of what he said that just made me go, h,
what is it? Let me just back that up and play that again. Is he saying what I think he's saying.
I'll probably be in LA right now, probably be traveling with his backpack and I'm joking, man, that was like, that was a time in my career I look back on and we've had conversations, me and Bron plenty of conversations. So cool shout out because I was in the same maturity lovel I am now and understanding who I am, and I look back on that time, then we definitely definitely would have won more championship the other because there would have been a better man to man understanding about
what I'm going through I could. I didn't know how to share my emotions. Yeah, I didn't know how to do that. So instead of sharing, I isolated myself and I just started pouring myself more into the game of basketball. And I had one of my better seasons, but I wasn't connecting with everybody as much during our championship year. So in twenty seventeen, it was a different year for us. So we went against Golden State, We went against a
great team. When you're not a great team and you're not clicking on all selling the others and together, you're easily defeatable, you're defeated before you can get to the arena. We were in those games against Golden State. But we definitely could have get a run for that money.
Wow, we definitely would have won more championships together. Instead of sharing, I isolated myself and threw myself into my work, into the game, right. Yeah, And Kyrie had one of his best statistical seasons. He granted it out, but he just wasn't you know how when you are so focused on work, you make no time for anyone else, You make no time to connect, you make no time to enjoy. That was basically Kyrie. Kyrie was in a spiral of his self. He was just reconnecting with his native American
anterest sucesstory. Like, I think that's pretty true. He says that earlier on the podcast. It's not even any shade, and he didn't really know his place in the world and how the game was a part of a larger picture that was unrelated to the game. This is all quotes from the podcast. You have to go back. I'm not gonna play the whole thing for you. It all get sued. But so that's why they said Kyrie wasn't
talking to anyone in that last year. It's like because the man was like apparently isolating himself away from the rest of the squad, they won it, and then the next year he was like done. Notice though he didn't say him and Broun would have won more championships together in Cleveland, he probably would have just initiated some way of going to whatever place the lebron would have gone, which is why he said I'd probably be in LA
right now. A lot of rumbling right now going on whether the Nets are gonna sign him to a max contract. I mean, it was fascinating. The whole interview is fascinating. Go watch it. Also pac Man Jones, he sucks. Like, if you're not an NFL fan, like you don't even know what I'm talking about. But this guy is awful on the field, off the field, just a terrible, terrible person. Also just annoying anyway, interesting stuff. He's on that pod. Can't cannot wait. He's on that pod. That's not like Ane.
He's on the pod. It's Brandon. What's Brandon's last name again? Brent Marshall, Ye, Brandon Marshall, Shady McCoy and pac Man Jones. What a ragtag crew for a podcast. Love it. Pac Man Jones always talking over everyone else, The King of crosstalk, can sucks like Also, like it's Kyrie Irving's interview, you should got pac Man about what Kyrie Irving was looking to do. Okay, anyway, that's a total total side road.
Listen to the pod. The nets are in a quandary and Kyrie is talking about how he wishes he would have won more championships Lebron James by being more vulnerable. This feels pretty vulnerable to me. Laker's looking to trade pieces, Lebron saying he has more could be an interesting thing. Or Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant makes me wonder if there is a possibility that we could see Kyrie and Braun reunite. I would love to see it, and I
think they would love to see it. The question is whether the franchises that are moving the pieces, whether LEGM and La Kyrie, can make that shit happen. I'm sure le Broun remembers how good he was with Kyrie. I am sure Kyrie remembers how easy it was besides Lebron telling him he needs to play all the games. Like with Lebron, I strongly believe the Lakers would die to have Kyrie Irving on this team, and I suspect Sean
Marks would also be happy to let him go. All things being said, a lot of baggage they're not sure they can come back from, and I don't even think they've spoken yet about his extension. But I am very very excited to see whether these recent comments turn in to something bigger than just an interview.