You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty.
It's Later with Mo Kelly. Let's go beyond the box Score with Jackie Ray. Jackie Ray is good to see you. Let me ask you this. We knew that we're going to have to answer this question, but now we have to answer this question. The Philadelphia Eagles have decided as a team to not go to the White House and do the celebratory handshake with the President and be honored by the White House.
Is it a big deal or not?
Obviously that's going to be depending on who you ask. For most people who are paying attention, it is not a big deal right now. A lot of the people who are going to be upset about this are the same people who would say, hey, you know what, athletes shouldn't talk about anything political. And I think if you're one of those people, then you should also say they shouldn't have to do anything political either way, because going to the White House symbolically means you support the president.
Not going symbolically means you don't support the president. So if we don't want that to be a thing, if we don't want athletes talking about or speaking their opinion on the political landscape. Then I don't know why we're still doing this at all. Honestly, it used to be where it was just the president.
Whoever the president was acknowledgy greatness in sports, regardless of the sport, regardless of the team. But to your point, since everything is viewed through a political lens, and I would say sports figures have more of a microphone because of social media. You can have Lebron James, for example, just fire off a tweet or some other social media statement and it then becomes news. It wasn't like that ten years ago. I understand how we got here, but
I'm not exactly sure why we got here. Why don't we just say be done with it were there's no more invites to the White House, respective of sports.
I think that's the best thing to do.
I know this might also be a trigger for some people, but I've also said the national anthem shouldn't be played at the beginning of sports. Now, for context, the national anthem wasn't always played at the beginning of sports. That became something that happened when the military wanted to do a push for patriotism and then potentially recruits so this was a marketing scheme. It wasn't a symbol of yes,
we're patriotic. That's not what it was. You have to pick a side, and if you're on the side that sports are just sports, it shouldn't be a political landscape, then you have to take everything out of it that is potentially political.
You've often said that athletes are people too, athletes are citizens as well. Are you then suggesting that if we take the politics out of sports, or the political element out of sports, that then athletes should also shut.
Up and dribble.
That's a great question, but no, that's not what I'm saying at all. Because all of us have a job in nine to five that we go, we behave as well. I don't want to say all of us, because clearly there's one percent of us that don't, but most of us have a regular job, and our thoughts and our views we typically kind of keep to ourselves when we're at that facility, when we're doing our thing. We also
have things that we volunteer at outside of work. We have lives outside of work that are just as important, and I think it's very important to make sure that everyone remembers that. Speaking your voice is part of our rights as Americans. So I absolutely am not saying that. But what I am saying is you can't have it both ways. You can't have it where you're saying, we don't want athletes involved in politics, but we want them
to stand for the national anthem. We think you should shut up and dribble, But now we want you to go to the White House and co sign on a president that for very much for this team. He might even think that Jalen hurts. It might be a DEI higher. So it's one of those things where you have to be calculated in the way that you are moving and what you are saying.
And if you are one of these people who are who lead with.
Patriotism, keep that same energy across the board and don't put people in positions that you say they should have they shouldn't even be in.
We know right now it's NFL football. We know that NBA basketball will finish up in June. We know that historically basketball players have been more vocal than NFL players when it comes to social media expressing politics and what have you. Do you think that possibly before we get to any final decision on whether the White House or we give some sort of grand agreement about not going back to the White House. Where do you think the NBA might come out on this. Watching what the NFL does.
Adam Silver knows better.
What might be the knee jerk reaction if you're the commissioner is to say, this is our policy, because they have a national anthem policy, so they might want to institute this is our policy with regards to the White House. If we're going to the White House, we are all going to the White House.
This is our policy. However, I think.
He understands his players and things that will not fly, So I don't think that he's going to implement a policy. I think he's going to leave that to the end individual and the teams.
Now, the flip side is we want the players to act a certain way. Now we have to expect the president to act a certain way. The president chose to show up at the super Bowl, the president chose to show up at NASCAR. Would you then recommend that we have an actual physical distancing as well. Yes, the president is an American, but it's not a civilian in the
traditional sense. Should we pull away from having the president or other political figures high level political figures going to these sports events because they're obviously political photo ops.
That's a logical standpoint, But I don't know if that's a standpoint we can really debate when we have the leader of the free world making a fake Time magazine and calling himself king and saying long Live the King. So I don't think that we can have that conversation now because I don't think we can have a logical conversation about that. But I do think going forward, maybe four years from now, then we do have to have
a solid conversation about what is your purpose? Why are you going at these events where people have to have a reaction.
People are in the spirit of cheering.
Rooting, for booing, whatever, So there's going to be an automatic reaction from people when you attend an event like this as a politician. So I think that there should be the same guidelines that you want for the people, you should set for yourself. And I think that's something that we should expect from the White House. I just don't think that's something that we can expect right now.
The temperature in America is increasing for whatever reasons. We have the president's proclamations, we have the president's policies and people are going to be impacted by that. Maybe you know someone who is a federal worker who was laid off, Maybe you are somehow impacted by dose. And I expect using history as a guide in the past is prologue that we're going to see more pronouncements from athletes speaking out on these issues.
I don't know what the answer is.
I do think it's kind of nih Eve, and I kind of agree with your point. It's kind of naive to believe that you're going to have athletes not speak out, You're gonna have politicians come to professional sporting events and then say, hey, you know, I don't want politics in sports to mingle. So we're going to have to find some sort of consistency in this somewhere, right.
Because if you don't, it's a level of hypocrisy. Now, if you're saying the president shouldn't abide by any sort of higher level of consciousness, which I think every president should.
I don't think that the president should be like.
Well, I'm a fan of football, I'm just going to go to a football game. No, you are a leader of the free world, and how you present yourself matters, So there should be a disconnect in some way. It's a logical expectation to think that that disconnect should be automatic, But I just think that right now we are not in a logical time, So we just kind of have to ride this one out and then look to the future and say these are the things that should happen going forward.
When we come back, let's talk about the NBA. Anthony Edwards, who's probably one of the most talented guards in the NBA for the Minnesota Timberwolves, not only received his fourteenth technical foul and on the verge of being suspended per the NBA Rules and Code of Conduct. He's also being asked about whether he is going to be the face of the NBA or whether he wants to be the face of the NBA. Spoiler, he says he doesn't want to be. Let's talk about that when we come back.
It's Beyond the box Score with Jackie Ray here on Later with Mo Kelly KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty.
KFI AM six forty, It's Jackie Ray and b Kelly. Jackie Ray not everyone may know Anthony Edwards. He was on the Olympic basketball team won the gold medal. He is one of the most exciting players presently, also one of the younger superstars in the NBA. The NBA has always been about who is the face of the league.
In other words, when you think of the NBA, which player comes to mind, be it a Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan or Lebron j teams going back in the day, the Magie Johnson and Larry Bird who are like co faces of the NBA. Today, the discussion is whether Anthony Edwards could or should be the face of the NBA. And he was explicitly asked that to which, and I'm paraphrasing, says, no, I don't want to be the face of the NBA. And so people talking about whether Victor or Wiben Yama
will be the face of the NBA. Is it necessary or important to have a face of the league. The NFL doesn't promote players like that. They promote the shield the league. The NBA promotes players. Where do you come out on that?
Historically that's been the thing.
If you really go back to when Michael Jordan became the face of the league.
It's because the league was failing.
So the NBA has a model now that has worked for them, where people good or bad, they gravitate to certain players, whether it's you gravitate to Magic or Larry. That was a rivalry and the league pushed that in order to gain new fan bases. So I think the league at one point had evolved past the need for having a face of the league. They had a product that was well watched, It was fun to watch.
People were die hard fans.
You had the bad boy Pistons out here beating up everybody that you could. Everybody could hate them, or everybody could hate the Knicks. It became this entity that drove itself because the level of play was great, the teams were great, the fan bases were great. So even though you had faces during that time, I don't think it was really needed. But now we're seeing a decline in the level of play. The level of play isn't as exciting.
There's no such thing as a player. Well, I don't want to say no such thing, but technically I think I'm right on that there's no such thing as a player. Just saying I want to start my career here, and I want to end my career here. Now players are saying I'll start my career here, but I'm going to end with a team that's paying me the most.
So you don't have player loyalty.
I'm a strong example of not having team loyalty because I go where Lebron goes. I'm not the only one who thinks like that. You follow players around. So the need for the NBA to have a face of the league is necessary because the product is failing. But if the NBA decides to invest in the game a little bit more, it probably won't be necessary because the fandom will be so intense that people are gonna watch their favorite team regardless no one on if you're if you're
a Suns fan, you don't care about Anthony Edwards. You care about who's on your team, and that's how.
You should be.
You should try to be building team loyalty over a face of the league.
You've made some great points, So I'm gonna put it just a little bit differently. Back in the eighties and nineties, there were storylines between franchises. It's the Lakers history and majesty against the Celtics dominance and Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. They embody that decades long struggle. Even into the nineties with the Bulls and their dominance, you had consistent storylines.
Now you can't develop those storylines because players do not stay so and also with fantasy sports and betting, people care more about individual players than they do teams or even the league. And the NBA has I think struggled and failed in trying to reverse that trend or develop something new because the product, to your point, is subpar.
And I get tired of all the excuses. I get tired of watching these players run up and down the court and pull up for logo threes, or they're running a fast break and they pass it back for a three. The skill set being demonstrated is less than I don't care about the athleticism shooting lower percentage shots. Going back to Anthony Edwards, he recently received his fourteenth technical foul, and I believe it's fifteen or sixteen in the NBA.
If you get that in the season, you're automatically suspended. Anthony Edwards, for all of his talent, is not as let me say, marketable or as savvy as other players. As far as the public presentation, and I think he's self aware. He's saying, you know what, I don't want to be the face of the NBA because I don't want the pressure of everything rising and falling on me.
I just want to play basketball. Are you cool with that?
Yes, I'm cool with anybody who is self aware. And to be fair, Michael Jordan might have had the same amount of fouls if he didn't have a team of people who protected him.
So the game has changed.
There was literally people who were on the team to make sure that Michael Jordan was okay. And we all knew that, and we used to all get mad about that, but it pulled you in. But when you really think about the league right now, it would either be Anthony Edwards or John Moran.
We know John Moran is in the.
Rebuilding of his reputation right now because but he is explosive.
And Yoki studying even talk.
He does it, and Yokich will tell you really quick he's ready to go home right now, right So he is not the one.
I love Jokic.
I think Joker he's one of my favorite players because of how grounded he is as a human. But that's how that's me. I like the totality of players. I like a great basketball player who's also a great human, so that will draw me in. But that's not the average basketball fan. The average basketball fan wants to see
something exciting. So to your point, I love Victor Wominyan, but there is no way he could be the face of the league because there is not an ounce of explosiveness in that he's too big to be explosive.
And the thing, and going back to Joki, sorry to interrupt you, I don't know if the NBA, and is so very American based fan base, will embrace a foreign born player as of yet.
That is a great point because Jannis said when Luca came to LA he said it was great because he wanted more Europeans to be in big markets so people could start focusing on European players. So there's definitely a shift, and it's interesting to me because we are very One of the other downfalls of the NBA, in my opinion, is the lack of us having the ability to attach
ourselves to young talent. Because now these players are going to college, they're usually one and done, so we don't have the opportunity to build up that fan base for that specific player. The WNBA right now is the opposite.
These women are staying in college for three four years, and so they're taking their fan base with them to the w Now, when these kids are coming into the NBA, what you're probably going to do is watch the combine real quick, watch a bunch of his highlights, and then say, oh, is he good for my team or not. But you're not connected to that person as a player or as a human. So there's a bunch of different places where if I was a marketing person in the NBA, I
would say, let's take a step back. Sometimes, if it's not broke, you shouldn't fix it. We fixed a lot of things that are negatively impacting the NBA right now.
Well they need to fix something because there's a lot broken with the NBA, and it's all about eyeballs. If people don't want to watch, they don't want to pay to come to the games. It's very difficult for that any organization, much less of multinational global organization to grow it's fan base.
It's Later with mo Kelly. It's always good talking to Jackie Ray.
Yes, thank you.
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on Demand from Kfi a M six forty