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It's a Later with Mo Kelly and Jackie Ray as we go beyond the box score. We're live everywhere in the iHeartRadio app and Jackie Ray. I loved past tense. I loved the NBA. It's my favorite professional sports league. But now I realize that it's not the same league that I had originally fallen in love with. And there is different reasons for different people. But for me, the NBA product is less than what it was five ten years ago, with just all the three point shots, the
laisse fair attitudes about defense and conceding rebounds. You know, jack up a three and you just start running down the other way. You're not actually following your shot. Just basic basketball. And we know that the All Star Game has also suffered because the players who are coming to the All Star Games were not trying hard. The dunk contest, you know it, it was tired. It was old in the sense of nothing was really new.
It was more stunts than actual dunks.
What was your read of the NBA coming into this All Star weekend?
Not good?
And that kind of summarizes everything I don't know. You know, traditionally as journalists, this is something that we try to get credentials to. It's one of those most sought after credentials go to the All Star weekend, and I didn't even think about it. I had no aside from seeing Lebron, who I also now have a bone to pick with, but aside from seeing him, this the game itself, to
your point, has just devolved so much. And so when you're when you're talking about a game that doesn't have the big moments, we just we don't talk about the big dunks anymore. Yeah, we'll talk about it from job, but that's in a game where it's just I call it running tennis.
Now while we're doing is running tennis.
So you don't really have that player that you're looking forward to, to your point, to say, oh, he's gonna do this big dunk in the game, or you're gonna get this McKim bate, the Kim Bae Mtumbo big Black in the game, because nobody's doing that, nobody's playing defense like that.
It all just the league, just the league.
So you don't have that player that you want to see because you know no one's going to be full speed in the game, but you just don't have these players that you're looking forward to. At best, you can look forward to Steph hitting a crazy three, but he's he's about to age out now, he's not the same. And to be fair, I still blame Steph for a lot of this running tennis that we're getting in basketball right now.
I don't blame him.
In other words, because people wanted to be like Mike back in the day, true and Steph playing he is an anomaly. There is no there's been no one like him ever, you know, shooting logo threes. They coined that term because of him. He would pull up on the other side of half court and unfortunately a lot of people have tried to emulate him.
But I'm not going to blame him for being the best. Everybody does. That's fair, my bad stuff. I'll take it back. But when you're talking about the All Star Game, and I think it's an interesting time for me because I cover the WNBA as well. I do think if Caitlin Clark had agreed to doing this three point challenge with Steph and with Sabrina and Escu, that would have really brought another influx of fans agreed, but because it didn't. I'm gonna be completely honest.
I forgot. I forgot it was even happening.
And then my phone goes off and I was like, oh, and I watched it, but it's this afterthought, like I was literally working and not focus on the game because it's just not exciting. And the dunks. To your point, when are you going to jump over a car in a game? When is that gonna happen?
Right?
You think a dunk is an adjunct of basketball, right, Jumping over a car is not connected to basketball. It's just a stunt, which is different from a dunk.
Now, you can still do a stunt like jumping over shack. You know that's cool because somebody is talking.
So we've seen Vince Carter jump over someone in a game.
Yes, this is what I'm saying, So you can imagine that one day this person can do this. But I mean, the world is getting crazy, but I don't think it's going to get crazy enough that we'll see a car on a basketball court.
I know why the NBA was trying to spice up the game.
They had lagging ratings and.
And let's be honest, the All Star weekend is one of the biggest weekends for the sport. It's it's the crown jewel as far as all star events, Bigger than obviously NHL, bigger than the NFL Pro Bowl, bigger than a Major League Baseball All Star Game.
So I understand why the NBA wanted to save it. This was just not it.
And for those who don't know, they broke it down where they had the rising stars, the rookies and like sophomore players fielding a team, and they had a team called the Ogs, which was just older players, and then they had the international players team. They played a four team tournament on one day, and.
They had six and forty two commercials.
Not only that, Not only that, the whole production couldn't figure out whether it wanted to be a rap concert or a Kevin Hart comedy show who was very unfunny, or if it was going to be a basketball exhibition, and they tried to please everyone and ended up pleasing no one.
That's the saying, right, you can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please everybody all of the time.
Well they got nobody none of the time. This weekend. How this relates to our viewing habits. I think it's going to I think it's a statement on how you just can't throw everything at the screen.
We are still discriminating viewers. And I think the brand was damage. I believe it without being hyperbolic.
And I think this is the age of social media. I think what we saw with the All Star weekend was and it also might be the lack of older, wiser voices in a room, because what it looked like to me is you saw a bunch of young people who spend all day scrolling on Instagram, TikTok or x saying.
This will be a good idea. At the same time.
Right, they don't need to have an actual dedicated basketball game to showcase the talent.
Let's just have four short basketball games to forty.
In this TikTok Instagram limited attention span world.
Right.
So, now, when you go, if you didn't watch the All Star Game and you're scrolling through social media from the thirty second clips you're seeing, you're like, this is what it was?
Not amazing.
I don't let those thirty second clips fool you, but this is my thought process. I really think it was just a bunch of people who were born and raised in the social media era era, and they figured they could make an NBA All Star Weekend based on that, and it failed miserably.
I can appreciate the greatness of Lebron James, but I've also heard a lot about the selfishness of Lebron James. Lebron James was named to his twenty first All Star Game and he did not play. If you don't know the NBA, when a player does not play, if they acknowledge that soon enough, then some other player can get the chance to play the All Star Game, maybe someone like Devin Booker who was not there, someone who is
up and coming, a rising star. I can't remember all the players who weren't selected, but Lebron James was having ankle issues prior to the All Star Break. There's no reason that he was going to play at the All Star Break during the All Star Game when he didn't play the two prior games coming up to the All Star breaks. In other words, everyone knew that he was not going to play, and then he didn't announce it until maybe an hour before the game.
Yeah, shout out to Devin Booker.
I think he would have been a great replacement, But I'm more concerned about the people who paid one thousand dollars to sit in the nosebleeds specifically to see Lebron. They could have scout those tickets, they could have sold them to other people. And unfortunately, we do not live in an economy and I don't know when we will ever live in an economy where you can just throw
away a thousand dollars like that. People probably saved up for that, and I think that this is another problem with the NBA.
I think that the NBA, we've talked about this too.
They're focused more on their financial partners as far as people who advertise with them, than they are with the fans, and it's failing. But we've also seen when we're talking about the Phoenix Sun complete opposite. They've lowered the prices of food in the stands, they can home teams, they can watch that on TV for free. This is the opposite, and they've seen, Yes, they're taking a loss right now, but they've seen an influx in season ticket holders. They've
sold out every single game since then. Merchandise sales are up, so in the long term they're going to probably double in that, but that's because they are focused on the fans, but the NBA as a whole is focused on their advertising partners, and that's why the game is suffering.
Well, there's something else to consider now that their broadcast partners are changing. If you've watched they All Star Weekend, you knew that this was the last year which T and T right was going to be hosting it, and T and T the conception of the NBA is very closely aligned with T and T, with Shaq, Kenny, Ernie and Charles.
Inside the NBA, it's a crown jewel of the league.
Supposedly, they're supposed to carry that show over to the NBC networks, but I don't know if it will feel the same way. In other words, before we go to break, I think it's something else which is going to diminish the overall standing of the.
League absolutely, because that's another thing. If you're a diehard NBA fan, you like the commentators, you stick around for the halftime show, your personality is exactly it's part of the show. And I guess in closing, I would like to say, NBA, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. You got to fix it now because you broke it. But think about what it was before, revisit that, and then don't break it again.
Well, there's something else that the NBA needs to fix, or at least help make sure that they can avoid more bad press, because when we come back, we want to tell you about an NBA coach assistant who's arrested after allegedly pistol whipping his girlfriend.
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Still going to Beyond the box Score. We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
The Dallas Mavericks have been in the news a lot lately, for I would say a controversial and unexpected trade with the Lakers sending Luka Doncic to the Lakers, and the Lakers sending Anthony Davis to the Dallas Mavericks, who immediately got injured in the first game and maybe out for like months. Right, there's that, and now there's this. Dallas Mavericks assistant coach DARRYL Armstrong was arrested after allegedly pistol
whipping his girlfriend with a gun. I think, or I'm of the opinion that after a certain age, you should be able to avoid certain controversies. You should be mature enough to not get your ass in certain types of trouble.
Now here's what happened.
The incident occurred around three forty five am after an argument, of course, according to an arrest warrant after David, the confrontation began when Armstrong's girlfriend saw a message from another woman on his phone, sparking a dispute. Okay, this is a story that a lot of people know about, have been through.
We all have something to say about.
Either we were the person who was cheating or the person who whiting on. It's all the message, so we all can personally identify to the emotions likely involved. Armstrong reportedly intoxicated, of course. And and Daryl Armstrong, I remember he had like a fourteen year NBA career. He's older than me. He's fifty six years old. He's old enough not to be in this type of stuff. He demanded her apartment key. In other words, he's kicking her out
so you don't have access. Give me my keyback. Armstrong, at some point during the exchange, allegedly entered the kitchen, struck the victim on the right side of her face with a pistol and threatened to shoot her after loading the gun.
I know he was drunk, but.
Nowhere, at no time, at no point, was there any voice in his head saying, dol you were an NBA assistant coach. There is no way, in any scenario that this story is not going to end with you fired or also in jail.
I think when you are a narcissist, those kinds of thoughts don't enter your head. And I'm going to very confidently assume that mister Armstrong is a narcissist for a few reasons. Number One, when your girlfriend asks you about another girl on your phone and you don't take accountability and you ask her for her key again, narcissist red flag.
Number one, So I can't argue with that.
And then.
For you to all of a sudden take this stance with her, there's a level of disconnect between who you are and the reality that you actually live in you feel entitled to treat her this way. And please understand when I say the following that I'm not victim blaming in any way. But throughout the course of my life, I have worked with several women who are in these domestic violent situations. And while this has been reported. This
is not the first time this has happened. No, this is not the first time that has happened, probably to her. And it's not the first time that Daryl Armstrong has pulled out his gun on someone, most likely a woman exactly, and the advancement of the threat. And like my dad has always taught me, people treat you the way you allow them to treat you. So if he felt entitled to treat her this way, he has gotten away with this at least a few times before. So and again
this is not victim blaming. This is just understanding that again, people, when they don't have consequences, their actions tend to escalate. So I'm going to assume that it might have started small, but it is escalated to this point. And the narcissism is just obvious to me because to your point, I'm not going to say that I've never wanted to punch anyone in the face, but I have too much to lose, Yes, too much to lose, and I know his salary is
higher than mine. So how does that lightbulb, How does that not go off in your head? I don't understand that this.
Could have had obvious a much worse ending, I'm going to assume that the gun was loaded. I'm going to make that assumption because I don't think that he's just waving around and unloaded gun.
I don't put this way.
He was obviously intoxicated, so there's no reason for me to believe that he made the conscious decision to make sure that it was unloaded. And there wasn't a bullet in the chamber, right, So I'm gonna assume that it was loaded. I just don't understand after a certain age. Yes, I understand people make mistakes. Yes, people are cracked vessels that they fall short. But you're fifty six years old.
Dog can't fall that short. Yes, you just can't.
At some point you gotta leave that stuff alone. Ye, she's mad.
She's mad, and I think now this.
I don't know what the charges are gonna be, but I hope the charges are severe, and I'm gonna tell you why because I'm a big proponent of guns, but I also believe in gun safety. And if your emotions can get a hold of you to the point where you can't grab the gun, sir, you should never have a gun ever again in life, and you should face very serious criminal consequences for this incident.
That that's my hope, because it could have gone very easily right, become deadly over a domestic dispute. I'm not saying he was right or wrong as far as their relationship. I'm saying how he responded to it was very dangerous.
One.
He picked up the gun when he was obviously knowingly drunk. Right that scarce the but Jesus out of me, This is.
What I'm saying.
So, your emotions got the best to you, the alcohol got the best to you, and then someone that you're in a relationship with, your first mode of action was to grab a gun. Gun Listen, even like I'm with you, I believe it was loaded. But even if it wasn't, she probably believed it was. So what who You're not in your right mind. You should never have a firearm in the house ever again. And the entitlement to pull it in this situation is just mind boggling to me.
Let me close with this, I'm wondering what the Dallas Mavericks are going to do. I hope that they respond swiftly. Yeah, still probably say we're not going to comment on a pending investigation.
We're gonna wait, all the facts.
About yeah, yeah, yeah, blah blah blah, But there have to be swift consequences when the time comes, and there have to be thorough consequences.
I think, and I've been a big fan of teams allowing things to play out through the legal system. I think that's the stances they're going to take, like we're gonna wait, We're going to cooperate with authorities. And while that is my stance, I do think that there's some instances when you have to judge the content of that person's character. I think this is one of those instances. But I also think that if that is your position as an organization, you have to stick to that no
matter what. So I'm gonna be fascinated to see what they do as well.
Well there's what they say publicly and there's also what they know privately. I don't believe that the Dallas Mavericks have only had this one publicized incident with Darryl Armstrong. If he's doing this, there are probably some other things. I always talk about the roach theory. If this is not the first time he's pistol whipped someone or done something which could have brought infamy to the Dallas Mavericks Organization.
I just don't believe that because his judgment is obviously not all that all that good.
There's been a woman that they know something happened to and she's like, well, i'll go away for this amount. I would bet my last dollar that's happened.
I'm not taking that bet because you're probably right, Jackie Rate. It's always good to see you.
Great to be here.
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty