Ruh Roh Embiid

On this episode of This League, I have some words for Philly fans. We talk about how Kyle Cousan's production is down, but his value as a player has never been higher. We cover the feel good story of the year in Karis Lavert coming back from cancer, and we also get into a couple listener dms, please find me someone who gets ratioed on Twitter more for less than I do.

Please find me find one.

Find one person that has a blue check mark or not, that talks about anything any topic that gets ratioed for less.

Reasons than men.

I can have never seen anything like this in my life.

It happened again, folks, Yes it did.

Since I started talking about Ben Simmons, Sixers fans have been ravenous in my mentions, ravenous. I think we have beef. I think now it is a life long quarrel and it's all one sided. I don't hate Sixers. I like Tobias Harris, I like Darryl Moury, I like Doc Rivers.

I love the whole concept of trust the process.

You took embiid first in our All Star draft.

Took embid.

I'm glad you mentioned that. I'm glad you mentioned that and Embiid. Actually I have a funny story about him, Okay. So I interviewed him in the summer in the Upper West Side, I think at Rucker Park.

Okay.

It was like one hundred and.

Five degrees out. It was so fun Have I told you this story before? Never one hundred and five degrees out. Joel Embiid has a white T shirt on right, and Joel Embie's big, big man, and there's music going right like there was when Drake's Nice for what was out right? So that was playing and Joel Embiid is body rolling, just straight body rolling in his chair waiting for the interview to start.

Right, So it's like twenty eighteen ish, uh.

Yeah, summer twenty eighteen. It was when Lebron had not chosen where he was gonna go. Ah right, ye, And so Joel Embiid had been tweeting about Lebron and basically pitching Lebron to come to Philly.

And so I had never met Embiid, but he's one.

Of obviously the funniest guys in the league, one of the best follows on Twitter, et cetera, et cetera. But he is sweating at this point through his white T shirt like I'm talking about uncomfort, like you're seeing And at this point, Joel Embiid hadn't gone on the Kanye's workout plan yet and so he his man his man chest was prominent, right.

It was uh, it was.

It was sweaty and it was kind of like there was there was like a little boob action going on, right and I'm like, oh man, I'm uncomfortable for Joel Embiid, Like, hey, Joel, you know what we could do? You know we could we could just shoot you like chest up and he was like why oh, And I'm like, what do you mean why? Like you're sweating through your T shirt. It's pretty hot, Like if you want, He's like, I love my body. I love my body, and I go, you love.

Come on, now, come on now.

I like a lot of things about the Sixers. You know what I don't like six are fans. They are the fucking worst, you guys. You guys have gotta be one of the most easily triggered, sensitive, delusional, hateful fan base this side of the LSU Tigers.

Wait, come on, that's just that's just not fair or right. Come on, Marty delusional.

Well LSU fans aren't delusional, but you're easily triggered in your mean and you're.

Hateful, definitely mean.

Yeah, we were both at that game where it was Oregon versus LSU. They called it back then, the Cowboy Classic. That's what they called that.

Jerry's World.

Jerry's World at and T Stadium, Yes, sir, one hundred and five degrees outside. I'm in my little green and yellow hungover at the time, and I'm walking the streets of Dallas and there's fucking LSU fans dragging a dead duck, multiple dead ducks, bloody.

On a string and saying.

Tiger bait y'all ducks, just tiger bait yep to kill another life, to take a life for the sole purpose of trolling a fan base is fucking mentally insane.

Okay, first off, I feel like they use those ducks for a different purpose after that, so it wasn't completely irresponsible, and I find that hilarious.

Sorry, it's horrifying, Marty, It's horrifying.

So outside of LSU, I mean, there was a bloody duck. Oh my god, I'm like, am I? Next? Am I getting on the string? Next?

We had Philly fans posting my address on Twitter?

Oh damn, that's tough. I didn't know.

Multiple times, like what did you want from that? What did you want? Did you want people to show up at my house? Was that? What that was? Did you want people standing outside my lobby.

With the like peta with the bucket full of fake blood to go splash as soon as I leave? Like?

What were you trying to do?

Are you encouraging people to send anthrax to my crib? I had the craziest sweatshirt sent to me, Marty. It was it I'm gonna bring it in. I might wear it, but I'm afraid to wear it because I think like it may be a signal that that's her, like go kill it. It was it was like I'm telling you, it's the most insane streetwear hoodie that I've ever received.

It was it was one person. It was like almost like a Roman. A Roman look.

Two people, one person grabbing the other person's head like almost like justice. Just that person's dead. It's a decapitated head and it looks all like Roman. And there's like a gold chain around that person, the killer's neck, and on the back it says one eight seven. That's a police code for murder, oh for homicide.

I did not order that fucking hoodie, oh lord.

And that came the day after those tweets where my address was posted, so they had to have been sending that beforehand. Let's just say it's gotten to a new low, right, So this is what happened that caused this rift.

You know, I have been saying that a lot. This is what happened. As it relates to Sixers fans.

Jojo embiid my guide I Love my body went down with an injury.

Look bad.

I was watching it live. No one at this point knows if the injury is serious or not. And I was like, rot Row, that looks serious to myself. That's what I said aloud, rot Row, Holy shit, what's going on here? This is threatening to the title hopes of the Philadelphia seventy six ers fans. And I didn't mean it in a way that was a troll. I meant it like truthfully, rot Row, Oh my god.

Fuck.

I could have said uh oh, I could have said oh no, but I didn't. I just thought, I don't know. I just thought rot Row, Embiid. And you could think I was hating Philly because of what I said about Embiid and Ben Simmons and the haircut.

Did you see, by the way, what Ben Simmons said about.

His barber, Yeah, I did this morning. He said, uh uh. He sent me a text.

He felt bad, but you know, it is what it is. It's a crazy time right now. He's still my barber for sure, because he's got those fresh lineups.

Because he's got those fresh lineups and now the annibody Ben Simmons and now.

The antibodies as well.

That's the key piece really, Ben, is that he's got the antibodies for a good six months, so you're in the clear for those lineups.

Fam So you may be.

Thinking I was coming for Philly and shooting from the hip, and then I also quote tweeted it right, and it was like, you know, I wasn't trolling. I'm not meaning to hate on you. And people were like, oh, nice pivot. Way to turn around, way to flip it and try to recover. No, no, no, I don't do that. I don't recover. I don't pivot when.

I am standing in my truth. Marty, I own it.

Did you see my mister balloon Hans video after I made those comments? I will double triple, quadruple down. I never pivot.

I never say ooh that was a bad look. Maybe I should try to get out of this.

No, I don't like Sixers fans, I don't like mister balloon hands, and you know what, I really like Joel Embiid and the rot row. Maybe he didn't like the way it sounded. Maybe you thought it was sarcastic. But I am sorry. But I am not someone who's going to pivot, not once. I never run from the smoke, not once, not never, No way, ratioed ratio.

Did you see the tweet?

I did four hundred and sixty seven comments, two hundred and ninety seven quote tweets, fifty two likes, surprising that there were even fifty two likes. Truthfully, between the two tweets over a million impressions.

That's Philly fans for you.

One of the things that was said to me was that you're the worst kind of humans. That was one of the nicest things said. So I'm sorry, King Simmons won two three seven nine two one. But when you put another man's name in your handle, King Simmons, that's your Twitter handle, maybe you are the worst kind of human. Maybe if you call someone a cunt and tell them to put a bullet in their brain, you, King Simmons seven two three four seventeen, are the worst kind of human.

Maybe when you post a.

Woman's address on social media implying that someone should go out and hurt her, cause harm to her, find her, stock her, maybe you, Philly native, are the worst kind of human. I talked to a Philly native, one of the guys working in the sports world, and he said this to me.

He texted this as this was going on.

First of all, he was like, yo, I think that people are taking us way out of context, out of hand, so fucking sensitive.

So yeah. The update on Mbd's injury is that it's going to be a couple of weeks. It's nothing serious.

He's probably out of the MVP race, but that really doesn't matter. I mean, this is what you need. You need him in order to go deep. So better to have this happen in March than in May. And remember Philly fans when you said I didn't know basketball because I said Ben Simmons was being poorly used as a point guard and he was really more of a power forward. If you think that that was a hot take, you

Yeah, I mean, I've said it before, and I know I'll take flack Ford as Westbrook gets of the free throw line as the call on the floor stood the challenge by Doc Rivers. I think Ben Simmons is one of, if now, the most overrated players in the NBA, and he's gotten so much love and attention that people aren't paying attention to what Tobias Harris is actually doing.

On the floor.

We'll cover that later.

Oh my god, Justin Kutcher, I am a fan, especially after he followed that by doubling down.

I like a man that doubles down, he said. He tweeted this.

Yes, I said that Ben Simmons is one of the most overrated players in the NBA, and I stand by it. I didn't say he was bad, just not as good as everyone makes him out to be. Great defender, potential defensive Player of the Year. But I think he made All League All Star teams based.

On hype and good night Wow. Listen.

He must know that hating Ben Simmons gets you a little get you a little law. I don't know something in the ether, Ben Simmons had a great clapback, he said. When I asked his comments, Ben Simmons says, isn't he like a five to five comments er for the Wizards.

I don't give that too much attention.

Is that a good clapback?

I don't know.

Like funny, Yes, it's funny.

It's funny. What would be a better clapback?

I mean, I don't know. Yeah, he probably had to go there.

By the way. By the way.

As an aside, I don't know if you know this, Marty, but Ben Simmons's sister, the one who tweeted at me, she.

Deleted her account.

Oh, I didn't know that she deleted her account.

I bet you.

Ben Simmons had a little talk with Live and was like, what the fuck are you doing on Twitter right now?

Like delete your account? This is insane.

You can't be going after people in the media. Let's say negative things about me anyway. Listen, say whatever you want about me. I only call Ben Simmons overrated when he's on the court. This guy, justin Kutcher. Ben Simmons isn't even playing at this point. He's in a COVID protocol and he brings up his name for no reason.

At all, no reason.

Justin my best friend just content to ricochet shot Ben Simmons from across the floor anytime, any place, that, folks, that is the guy.

Ah.

Let's talk about the Lakers for a little bit. Tons of information coming out on the Lakers. They deserve their own segment. I almost did something on Lebron as well, but it would have just been too long, so we'll do that later. First off, Anthony Davis news is out, just as I thought, Just as I said, Anthony Davis isn't playing anytime soon, folks. Every time it's okay in two weeks. We're gonna reassess again in two weeks. The only thing that Anthony Davis is doing right now is lifting weights.

He's not running, he's not jumping, He's not doing shit.

And I talked to people in the soft tissue business when this injury went down, and they said, it's not happening folks until May. He's not playing games until May.

I'm sorry.

That means he's got two three weeks before playoffs.

Get him ramped up, get him ready to go. Who fucking cares?

Right?

Yeah, I mean at this point, but they're making it like on ESPN, David mcmanhamhon my favorite Spin Zone analyst who's like on Lebron James's Jock Hard Hard.

He moved from Cleveland to LA to be with Lebron.

Okay, so we already know what's going on there. The headline was Anthony Davis progressing well, and underneath it was like, nothing's happening.

Reevaluate in two weeks? He do? We know that he's progressing well?

Like it made it seem like he was about to get on the court Like now, I was like, oh okay.

David mcmannimon, got it, got it.

I see that's such the easiest like report to make. Yeah, like an injured player when there's no news, he's progressing.

Well, progressing well.

You could say that about literally anybody.

Update, progressing well, closer to closer to getting back on the court.

So I know everyone's excited to.

See Ad again because he is a baller, and the Lakers are better with him for sure on the court, and they're slipping and sliding all over the place down the standings.

But it's gonna be a while. That's the way of the world.

And if the Lakers can keep Ad on ice until he's ready and hold the bleeding off, stay in the top tier, they'll be fine.

They'll be fine.

The next news in Laker world is from our friend Kyle Kuzma. Hit the drop on the the intro for Kuzma, Oh yes, oh yes at six eight from Flint, Michigan, representing the Los Angeles Lakers taking his first moderna shot.

It's Kyle Kuzma, goos good.

Is there a better quote out there than Kyle Kuzma.

There is not. There is not. In what world do you find a human being? I don't know where.

One one night after the game, he's like, yeah, I fuck my teammates to give me.

The ball, very sexual, very sexual. I I fuck him. And then the next you drop a quote about Jesus play the clip.

Was that a set play?

Did you?

Did you think Lebron had a passing lating to you there?

Yeah?

I mean, I mean we were looking at each other.

The entire possession.

You know, I was was pretty much a pretty much high fuh. You know he found me.

And makes Oh my god, nobody's progressed more with the Lakers, thanks, but he still makes comments like this one. At any point in time, when you see a guy like Bull Bull in front of you, is there any doubt At what point did you know that ball was going up from ar where you were out when you got it?

I think Jesus could be in front of me on out rod still.

Shooting, so.

Matter me pretty sure.

That's not the first time I've heard Kyle Kuzma say that, because when I heard that quarter, I was like, I feel like that was said eighteen months ago. Kyle Kuzma will shoot over Jesus himself. That's the type of confidence that Kyle Kuzma has in his own abilities, folks. He believes he is the best laker all in the court at any given time. That's what he said. I'm not even the only one who knows that he thinks he's better than Ad, than Lebron. He even thinks he's better

The fuck are we paying Kyle Kuzma forty million dollars? Why on the eve of this season after his contract was announced.

So usually it's like, cuz, you know, that's when the celebrations come, right, But instead, here's what one article had to say. Kuz was expected to They said Kuzma Kuzma was expected to develop into a serviceable starter alongside Ad and Lebron, and that hasn't exactly happened.

This is so fucked up.

He's a player coming off the bench and not exactly a key component to the title run.

He also doesn't I mean, is there anything positive about him? Is there?

He's also shown he doesn't shake off criticism very well and that has impacted his game. He hasn't been paid much and going to coast to another championship. Oh my god, he's before he's overpaid by a bad team, complaining that he's not in LA anymore.

Holy shit.

If I could construct an article to help this argument, there would be no better article than that. Folks, the world was saying, Kyle Kuzma, all you are is a guy that looks like Cisco out here with your gold fucking hair showing up on league fits.

He does get fits off. He does get fits off.

He does. Yeah, he kisses fits off, boy. But that's what he's known for.

He has been a laughingstock in some ways based around all of his antics. But guess what now he's a key piece on the team. We can think, of course, Lebron James, but really we can thank Phil Handy. According to an article in The Athletic, Handy says that Kyle has worked his ass off, and he he has worked his ass off to get Kuzma to buy in to Frank Vogel's scheme and his new role to be a role player when he had been prior the second leading scorer on the LA Lakers before Vogel got there. That

Can you read that quote, Marty?

Sure, phenomenal talent. That kid has all the attributes to be an All Star in the NBA very very soon. I think what people don't understand when there's a shift in the dynamic of the team, a lot of things happen. The Lakers went from a team that was rebuilding and they go to a team that's competing for a championship overnight. Those are two different teams, So that required that Kyle's role changed as well. He's really taken on the mindset

Before his role change, kuz was averaging nineteen points a game, second leading scorer. Now he's averaging twelve. But the interesting thing is that he's averaging seven rebounds a game now, almost three more than last year, including twice as many offensive rebounds, just crashing the boards. And he's shooting thirty seven percent from three, up from thirty one percent last year.

I would say that's development.

Let's look at Kuzma's last five games, because that gives you a snapshot of what he's called to do and how different it is every night. Five points, four points, twelve points, twenty five points, twenty four points. Some games he is not even close to.

A focal point of the offense.

Other games he has to hit a game winner and go off, and he does back in twenty seventeen.

This is phenomenal.

This is what tells you how much he's changed. Luke Walton, who in his own right is not very good, called Kyle Kuzma selfish.

He said he's a player that only.

Looks out for himself, and look at him today. Just I fucking Lebron shooting over Jesus and doing everything that he can to get his team wins. If Kyle Kuzma continues to develop, folks, he continues to be what Phil Handy knows he can be. That is trouble, trouble for the rest of the week this league. Is there anything that makes you appreciate what you have more than seeing Karis Lavert all of a sudden come down with a terminal illness when he thought he was completely healthy.

That was a crazy story.

Twenty five years old. I mean, this is one of the best stories in the NBA in.

A long time.

Yeah, a sad trade, a trade that everybody thought, like, wow, they got rid of Carris Lavert into a potential tragedy that ended up being a life saving occurrence.

We're talking about Kris Lavert.

Lavert was part of a four team James Harden trade January fourteenth that sent Victor Oladipo to Houston, brought Krris Lavert from Brooklyn to Indiana. And trust me, Brooklyn had no plans to trade Karris Lavert. They really wanted to trade Spencer Dinwitty. I know that because I was talking to friends, development coaches, etc. That work with teams and they were like, hey, we're out in LA and everybody on the nets is here in LA running everyone out

In the NBA that you could assemble.

It was a pickup game, Nets versus everybody, and they were blowing fools out. And you know who wasn't there. Spencer Dinwoodie was not there. He was nowhere near the team. So it was like, Spencer is on his way out right, he does not fit in with this crew.

He does not want to be a six man. And then what happened.

Spencer Dinwiddie like a few days into the season tore his ACL up and then he's like untradeable. So now you got to get rid of Carris Lavert. So if Dinwitty doesn't blow out his ACL, there's a good chance that Kearris Lavert might be on the road to a terminal illness and death.

Uh. Yeah, it's heavy to talk about. I mean, that really is nuts that a trade could do that. Yeah.

I think it's probably the first time in history.

Uh, Casino Mobiley had something similar happen. It was when he I forget what trade it was, but it was like Nuggets, Rockets something like that.

But yeah, So how it happens is is you don't have to take a physical when you're on your current team. The only time you need a full physical is when you're getting traded. They have to do a complete work.

Up on you.

Players in the middle of their contracts don't normally do it until a new contract. So there's a possibility that Karis Lvert wouldn't have gotten a physical full physical unless he was doing it himself for twenty four months at that point.

Who knows.

So the doctor discovered in that physical a mass in Karis Lavert's kidney, and he felt completely healthy.

It was a cancerous mass.

He was discovered to have renal cancer in his left kidney, and he underwent emergency surgery on January twenty fifth. He said, I didn't have any symptoms. I felt one hundred percent healthy. I was playing in games. The trade revealed what was going on in my body. The trade saved my life.

Holy moly, And just six weeks later he's back on the court, folks hoopin' what a story.

I hope people really understand and watch Karris play because we could he so many things could have happened been He is a fucking bucket though. Oh yeah, for those not in the know on Kars Lavert, which I don't think there's any NBA fan, real NBA fan that doesn't know Karis, But for the casual fan, he is a fucking bucket. He was a key component for the Nets

Yeah, they were laying like nineteen something like.

That, nineteen and they were getting en Yeah, getting getting nineteen and they won outright. That was because of Karis Lavert, the guy that put up fifty one against the Celtics. This guy was averaging nineteen a game last year. He can put up forty on any given night. And that's exactly what Indiana has missed as of late is some scoring in crunch time. And guess what first game back dog walk your team, Marty, I mean dog walked.

One eleven.

That game was not close late, Yeah, I know that is what the Pacers can be with Kris Lavert.

He's going to add a new dimension.

He's exactly the kind of player that Nate Bjorkren wants in his guys an upgrade over Oladipo on and expiring. And now you pair him with Brogden, and you've.

Got a dangerous, dangerous backcourt.

Adding Dougie Buckets, Sa Bonus, Miles Turner, TJ. Warren and Human Steel Machine TJ McConnell off the bench and the two Holiday brothers. Oh my god, this team is officially a problemo for the East. I don't know how good they can be, but I tell you what, they can be a lot better with Karris Lavert possibly scoring fifty on any given night than without him, certainly. How amazing is it that they discovered this so early that he didn't even have to undergo chemo and he could play

Just goes to show you how weird life.

How random, unrelated events can affect you.

And I think we can all agree on this. Fuck cancer, Ah just picture it. Picture it. I'm on my couch and every time.

I open my Instagram DMS, that song comes on in the background like it's soundtrack. Ah God, all right, let's get into some dms. Marty read me something.

Uh okay, uh coming out hot? Is Tobias Harris disrespected?

Is Tobias Harris disrespected? What do you think?

Do you think he's overrated, underrated, or properly rated?

I mean, all questions like this, I kind of it all kind of depends on who you're talking to. Like, amongst casuals, he probably is underrated. But like any like smart person, you know, I mean, you always have people that like, Okay, I can talk hoops with this person, and I feel like they all know what the deal is and when he's able to actually do his thing, he shows it. But probably amongst your average NBA fan, he probably is a little underrated.

Yeah, I think for overshadowed.

Overshadowed is a good way of putting it in the national media.

For sure. Underrated. No one speaks.

Tobias Harris's name. We're gonna speak about his name right now, Tobias. Tobias, for one, would say he's very underrated. He would say he's very disrespected.

How underrated. This is what he said during the All Star break Listen if.

Philly fans understand that I'm an All Star, these are the same fans that probably would have escorted me out my house last year.

I don't know what that means. Me and Doc talked about it.

I just told him, look, I got a bounty out for coaches that didn't vote for me.

That's a murder threat.

And the national media that skipped over me also threat So listen, I take murder threats a little seriously. Right now talking about bounties, let's just stop pause. Tobias does have a big chip on his shoulder because he's bawling and no one's talking about him. Really, he's putting up when I didn't even think about it until he said that.

Let's dig into his stats. He's putting up.

Twenty seven and a half and three and a half, and he's shooting fifty forty ninety. That is that's how you know you're a hooper. Fifty forty ninety. That's all you need to say. Yeah, and for his career, he's forty seven, thirty six and eighty two. That is a big jump. This year he is having a year. Tobias Harris, you talk about the Sixers being the number one in the East, Ben Simmons production slipping, Tobias Harris killing.

Maybe it's not Ben Simmons. Maybe it's Tobias Harris. It's the reason. Sorry, sorry, Maybe Tobias.

Should have taken Ben Simmons spot on the All Star team. How about that for a thought? Huh, that would be incredible if he's being overlooked. At least Doc Rivers told him why. Me and Doc discussed that you make your name known in the playoffs. And I tell you what, if there's a player not named Joe El Embi that's gonna make their name known in the playoffs for the Sixers, that person is not named Ben Simmons. I promise when embiid gets double teamed, I promise you it's going to

It's better to walk.

Into a room and be underestimated because you're the only one that knows what you're capable of. So when it's May, when May comes, that's when we find out what Tobias here is really capable of.

Nice.

Uh, okay, And now we're gonna go, uh, how bad is the Pistons front office?

So I know what this means. It's not about Blake Griffin. How bad is the Pistons front office? Let's dig into it. Let's stig into it. So everyone was commenting on how Blake Griffin gave. They just generously gave thirteen and a half million dollars back to the Pistons to settle his contract so that he could sign in the open market

In Detroit anymore. Who got the better part of that deal? It's not Detroit.

Sadly, this is not the first time that this organization has been fleeced in the open market.

Oh my god, no it is.

This is not the kind of If the Detroit Pistons were a person, they do not want to go to a country like Greece, to the plaka and start negotiating, you know, a ring or like a sherpa. You know, they would get completely hosed. They don't know what they're doing. They always are that person that comes back with no pants and like one little necklace. It's like, what happened to you? Let's talk about Tobias Harris, who we just

Who won that trade, not the Detroit Pistons. Let's talk about Andre Drummond, who everyone wants. Everyone's just clamoring for drum and drumming. Where's he gonna go? Drum and drum and drumming.

Yeah, they traded Drummond to the Caves for John Henson, Brandon Knight, and a second round pick. I don't know if you know this, because I didn't, but Henson and Knight are currently not playing in the NBA right now. If anyone knows their whereabouts, please let me know, because they are nowhere to be found on Google. Reggie Jackson signed an eighty million dollar contract in twenty sixteen. That, folks, is the same amount of money that the Warriors paid Draymond Green, an All star.

Guess what.

He was waived by the Pistons in twenty twenty. To recap all of that, Pistons front office managed to turn Tobias Harris, Blake Griffin, Andre Drummond, and Reggie Jackson into a single second round draft pick.

Let that sink in.

Fuck yikes. All of which to say, Jeremy Grant, you better hold on to that guy, better hold on.

But would it surprise.

Anyone if the Pistons actually traded him to the Celtics at the deadline for like Jeff Tigue and Grant Williams in a twenty twenty seven second round pick.

Wouldn't surprise me? No, it wouldn't. That's all the time we have, Jesus Christ, Pistons.

We have another this league bet in the Penn Barstool app this Wednesday. By the way, Milwaukee at Philadelphia. Who's gonna get the better of who? Sixers fans in my mentions, here's your chance to back your boy balloon hands, Drew Holiday versus Ben Simmons, points, rebounds, assists who you got. Download the Barstool app, and remember to bet responsibly. Always have to say that, and that's all the time that we have. Please subscribe, rate review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.