The NBA Landscape Is Evolving

China. Yes, you heard that right, China.

I wish I had like one of those buttons where I could make my voice lower.

China.

Uh, well, China end up owning multiple NBA teams. Probably yeah, probably lost in the shuffle this past month is a decision that Adam Silver and the NBA made about who can own an NBA team. The NBA Board of Governors made a rule change that allows sovereign wealth funds. Anytime I hear those three words together, I start freaking the fuck out. Sovereign wealth funds I don't know, like Saudi Arabia, and let's just look that up for a second. Endowments,

He is. China just made it up the top of my head, probably true. Who else would it be?

Tilman for Tidda of the Houston Rocket seems like he would be open to selling the share to Saudi Arabia. Listen, I'm not gonna slander anybody else, but I'm sure there's a few people who would do it. They could take positions also in up to five teams at the same goddamn time. If you think tamprings a issue, now imagine if let's say Saudi, let's say Russia. Russia owns five NBA teams five Imagine what kind of trades are we gonna see, What kind of free agency situations are we

Can be, and let's just go through it.

Why is this a problem, Well, let's say the Chinese government buys a twenty percent stake in five NBA teams. We know for a fact that the Chinese government can just randomly decide to ban an NBA team if they're doing something they don't like. We saw that happen right with Daryl Morey and the Houston Rockets. They did this to the Celtics over the enis Cant freedom situation. So the question is what does Adam Silver do when there's China owning teams?

How does he deal with that? Does he take a stance Probably not.

Like what happens when more problems arise with China when they own the equivalent of the entire NBA team.

Let's talk about other prominent sovereign wealth funds.

Countries like Cutter host the World Cup right now, Ask what's been going on?

And Cutter do a quick little Google search.

Uh, did you see any of these football players putting their hands to their mouth because they've been silenced by the government about the atrocities that took place just to build those fucking arenas. Imagine, imagine the type of things that could happen on our own soil if Cutter owned the fucking I don't know Seattle SuperSonics, be honest, I don't know Las Vegas Rattlesnakes.

That would be fucking wild.

They could put themselves in position to own and influence the league in ways that probably no foreign nation should. Here are the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world. Let's just go through them. One China Investment Corporation one point four trillion dollars.

I think they could buy.

A couple of teams, maybe the Phoenix Suns. I don't know, it's hot there. Norway Government Pension Fund one point one trillion abu Dabi Investment Authority.

Look at their human.

Rights called situation right seven to ninety billion Kuwait Investment Authority.

Are you starting to get the chills? Seven hundred and fifty billion dollars?

Shout out to Norway being probably the only one that's like, I'm accepting that.

Yeah, let's let them be the only one.

But eleven of the thirteen largest sovereign wealth funds in fact, are either Middle Eastern or Chinese.

Boo, folks, folks, I don't.

I know, it's not a political podcast. You don't need my political takes. But I don't see how letting governments that are knee deep, like I mean, like like armpits deep in human rights abuses, having oh, any influence at all in this league like none. It's not a good idea. I don't Adam Silver is becoming very unlikable, is he not? This is something David Stern would never allow and Adam Silver just wants to do everything he.

Can to grow and expand the.

Revenue of this league. And I tell you what, I'm not fucking here for it. Am I too cynical? Am I too cynical? Let me know your thoughts. I'm not one to hit the panic button. But is the NBA headed for a lockout? Way sooner than anyone expected? Because rutt Row, everyone knows that the current CBA is set to expire at the end of the season. What most people don't know, however, is that there is a super secret opt out agreement from either side that actually the

Right?

Mark Stein broke it down perfectly. He said, an opt out from either side in the next nine days will sound immediate alarm bells because A it essentially breaks the contract effective at the end of this season, and B it's a measure that instantly makes the threat.

Of a lockout tangible.

Tangible means you can feel it in your hands, means actually is real. According to reports, the NBA and the NBPA are nowhere near a deal and there could now be big time warning signs that all is not well in Adam Silverland. Yeah.

The issue right.

Now is that the un owners have started taking a very hard look and stance on what they call the upper spending limit, just another fancy term for a hard salary cap, right and there is no way, no way that the NBPA is going to allow that, none.

Zero.

There are other issues as well on top of that, how moving the age limit back to eighteen will affect rookie scale contracts, but all that ship pails in comparison.

To the hard cap. Honestly, let's be honest.

This is about our Warriors. They don't want that shit no more. No, no, no, no, you can't do that anymore. Joe Lacup Lake Ups are fucking this up. The Warriors are projected to have a team payroll right now, including the luxury tax of four hundred and eighty three million dollars next season, and is forcing nearly every owner in order to compete to keep up.

Which listen, as a.

Fan, I'm fine with fine, Just make the rights deals go up more, make the TV contracts go up more.

I'll pay more for League Pass. You can pay those players more.

And as a result, me as a media member, my paycheck goes up too. So I'm not mad about that. And I love the player empowerment era. I love them getting as much money as they can in life changing generational wealth even though they don't pay anything except for their team issued gear that they take.

Go on like, I'm fine with that. I'm fine.

But here's a shocking step. According to spot track, only five teams in the end entire NBA are currently under the salary cap.

Take a guess at who they are. Take a guess. Take a guess. Take a guess.

Orlando, Detroit, Indiana, San Antonio, and the only one that shocks me is Memphis. Why why does that happen is because John Morant is still currently on his rookie deal, even though he's already signed his extension. The other twenty five teams ranged from twelve million dollars over to seventy eight million dollars over the salary cap. And this is what the owners want to shut down.

They don't want that. Do you think they want to pay extra.

No, they do not, even though they end up getting more from the rights deal. I don't know what it is. They just don't like paying players. At some point, one hundred million dollars per year is what they're gonna have to pay. We're up to like sixty six for Damian Lillard or something like that. Two years for one hundred and twenty seven million dollars. That's where we're up to. When I talked to Jerry West, he said there will

MVPA.

They're gonna want to protect that. They want their players to get paid. They want their players to get paid with their worth. And the NBA continues to get more popular, it expands, sovereign wealth funds start to buy in, and you know what, anything's possible when it comes at So I don't think either side is stupid enough to fuck this up. With media rights coming up in twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five, the year after the new labor.

Agreement would go into place.

But listen, if the owners stick to a hard cat, folks, we might reach NBA arm again sooner than later. Joe Missoula maybe the most interesting coach in the NBA right now outside of like, did you guys see the Royal family quote that he had.

We didn't even talk about that.

Holy shit religion and the oh God can't do it anyway. Missoula gave his first interview to Mark Spears about the Emi Udoka drama. It is a fascinating insight into who is running the ship there. Let's face it, there was no way Missoula thought he was gonna be a head coach this early in his career, at least in Boston.

He admitted this.

He was like, yeah, I've always had faith I was gonna be an MBA head coach. I believed in myself, but I didn't know what was gonna happen this fast. I didn't know what was gonna happen in Boston. There's probably some sort of like thank God for this thing, like Jesus is supporting me and looking down on me, But how did he find out about the e May's situation. Everybody thinks, by the way, Real Side wrote, everybody when

God wanted us to win.

There's like some divine lord's plan for why the Boston Celtics made it to the final or why you ended up being the head coach?

Oh yeah, did.

God step in and have em Udoka fuck somebody on the team so you get this job? Is that God's will? Get the fuck out of here? Anyway, Let's keep going before I get canceled. How did he find out about the e May situation? And what were ain't Joe's thoughts when this came up? It was like, it is what it is. There's nothing I can do about it. The only thing I can control is how I just go, just because I know that for my wife and for my family, we're supposed to be here.

We're supposed to God's will for us.

Faith is really important, and we felt like we follow God's plan to.

A t as where he wanted us to be.

I'm sorry, this is ridiculous and it wasn't even a thought.

You don't have time to contemplate.

Man, no way, him reverencing his wife and being a family man and being a man of God is not like a direct shot at Emai Udoka.

Siner, sinner, shame shame, Like if Joe Mizula had to stone email Udoka to death for this job, would he do it?

Like?

Probably, let's be honest. Additionally, he says he hasn't communicated with Ema.

Of course, he hasn't commune unicated with I may think he's willing to turn his back on the guy that made him an assistant coach because why sinner sinner?

Anyway?

Uh, he said he hasn't talked to him because after he got suspended, it was like, we're not allowed to communicate.

Does anybody believe that? Shit? Really?

Does anybody believe you can't communicate with your colleague to be like yo.

Big ups man, Like I hope you're doing okay.

Nope, he's like willing to throw the stones and get ahead because it's predestined.

Missoula, let's move on.

Has one hundred percent taken advantage of this opportunity.

He has made the Celtics a really good team. He's a very good coach.

There's no share to him because he has been doing a good job in times of turmoil. They're clearly top two team in the NBA. They pounded the Suns by what forty two nights ago forty They are a favorite to win the title.

But he is a fascinating dude.

I don't know where we're at in society where this is like it's starting to come front and center, you know, his sovereign wealth funds like or the doc's religion, Like this is starting.

To get crazy. He was asked last week what it was like to play.

In front of royalty because the Prince and Princess of Wales were in attendance, and he said the only royal family he acknowledges is Jesus, Mary and Joseph. That was not ironic, by the way, Like that was like dead ass serious And he looked at him like why would you even question that? And I'm fine with anti royal family rhetoric, totally fine with that given all the human rights abuses they've been up to, but like, the only only royal family I acknowledge is Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Okay,

That's it. Just don't screw it up. And that was it.

But the reason I think he's successful is, like, honestly, is his philosophy. And it's not rocket science. This is what he told Spears. The NBA is a league. It's just a basketball league. The Celtics, if you take away all that, it's just basketball leadership and management. And so the same kind of systems, conversations, environments that you're cultivating at the division at any level, is the same that you have to do here. There are just more people

We gotta keep an eye on him.

He's still got the interim coach title attached to his name, so we'll see how that goes. And it's a shock, probably considering how well things have gone in Boston that it's still the interim title.

But one thing is for sure. If Boston doesn't lock them down

In the long term for Brooklyn, that smite