All right, were lave today, Tim Dally Nissan Here in Salt Lake City. It's forty five twenty eight South State Street. It's their year end clearance event. Even though it's February. They've extended it special financing as low as zero percent and no money down, no payments for two months. So if you're in the market for a car, coming out and say hello, it's forty five twenty eight South State Street here in Salt Lake City. Our next guest knows Salt Lake City is a small town called a small town.
Last week, let's welcome him in, Howard Beck on a Friday afternoon. Howard, Happy Friday. Which large city do we find you in on this Friday afternoon?
I am happily ensconced in the Borough of Brooklyn in traffic on my way to the arena, where I will see the Barnburger between the nets and Portland trailblazers who also hail from a small city.
By the way, Okay, if Portland's it was the town thing that got me, the small town. If Portland's a small town, I think that's fine with us out here in Salt.
Lake I love all the small towns equal, you know.
I know you do.
Well, if you're in traffic in Brooklyn, we get you for what forty five minutes to an hour today on a Friday.
According to the lift drivers mapping, we're six minutes out, which means it'll actually be fifteen.
Okay, fair enough. Well let's get into it then, because obviously time is of the essence. So I wanted to get your take on some comments Lebron made about you know, Anthony Edwards said doesn't really care to be the face of the league, and Lebron, I'm paraphrasing, said, well, who would want to be the face of the league when everybody talks about the league just takes a bleep on it on a daily basis. So I think this is an interesting topic for somebody like you because you'll be
good with it. I think there are a lot of things to criticize right now with the modern day and age of the way that the business of basketball is being run. I get feedback and I have a sense, and it's a league I love. It's a game that I love that most people feel like the modern day NBA has run like a Fortune five hundred company that only cares about creating value for shareholders.
Now, look, I'm a grown up.
I know this is a front facing, revenue generating entertainment product. But does Lebron have a point or is he, you know, reacting a little bit in a soft way as it pertains to a league that sometimes deserves to be criticized.
There's a lot of different pieces of this that are worth talking about, in a lot of different paths we can go down. So I'll give you my first reaction to what he said, and then we can hit the other parts of it if you want. But let me
start with this. I'm glad you asked, because one of the things Lebron said, the thing that struck me most is the thing about why would you want to be facing the league when everybody's always basically crapping on it and all this, and just feeling like, if you're the face of the league as he has been, you put yourself in a position where you are just in the
crossfire every day. I get that part of it, But to me, what it speaks to is some thing that has been a growing concern of mind for a very long time, going back years, which is that players today feel that kind of criticism and feel that kind of siege from what they believe to be like Capital M media because they are flooded every day with whether it's TV debate shows or maybe some podcasts, radio, Instagram commenters,
Twitter commenters, anybody. They are constantly feeling like everybody's just kind of criticizing them all the time, and then they put this on the Capital M media and then lump everybody together. The reason I view it that way or I'm concerned about it from that standpoint is there are a lot of us who cover the league and Lebron actually use that phrase. Those people who cover the league are the ones, you know, crapping on us every day.
The vast majority of us who will cover them league, especially as reporters, beat writers, are not the ones he's actually talking about. It's the TV debates show, It's people on Instagram, it's aggregation accounts that just take things out of context and then use it to tee off on people.
It's all this other stuff.
The people who are dedicating the most time and effort to reporting and writing and actually going into the gym, actually going to practice and shoot arounds and games, doing the job that I used to do for sixteen years, which is, you know, be a beat writer covering a team from start to finish, all eighty two games plus playoffs. Those are no other people who are firing off takes
and living on the hot take economy. And my concern as a twenty eight year writer covering this league, my concern as presidents of the Pro Basketball Writers Association, is that we have a growing problem where players view just this big noise machine as one big conglomerate and it's not.
It's hundreds, maybe thousands of voices. But we are taking the brunt of this because what's happened is it makes it harder to cover the league when players are always on the defensive or cut off or or too reticent to give their time and their thoughts because they fear being in the next spin cycle. And that is a that is a problem, and that is a massive concern of mind.
So what is what's fair to be critical of in your opinion?
You know?
Because yes, to your point, when these players are hearing a million different voices and they're on social media, they're on Instagram, they're on Twitter or Blue Sky or whatever, and they are in their echo chamber and the algorithm feeds them, you know, whatever it does and suddenly, you know, a very small group of people in their mind represents all of us right that cover the league, and then
suddenly we're all thrown in the same category. But as I referenced, I do believe there are things that are very fair to criticize, and I think there are things that are fair to criticize with the way Lebron at times handles themselves for all of the brilliant So your points are well taken, But I will ask you what is fair to criticize in your opinion about the modern day approach of NBA players and the way the league the league is run.
Now, I'm not I'm not trying to be cute here, Spence. I don't know how to answer that. Because everybody has their own view of what might be wrong with the league, or what needs to be improved, or what they think is broken, or whatever it may be. I've got my views of it. You and I have had various discussions over you know, the months and even years about how we viewed certain aspects of the league and the state
of the game. What's fair, I mean, everything's fair. It's not that anything is off limits to criticize, although you know, times people get a little too personal or a little mean spirited or so hot taking that they lose track of the fact that these are human beings playing this game. But also I would separate cover you know, the criticism of you know, the game written large, that the league and what the league is doing at a given time
changes it's making or the quality of the products. That's a different case or a different issue than how the players are feeling about being ripped apart on a maybe sometimes daily basis by some people who again have no interest in it other than their ability to market their takes.
Do you think any of this has to do directly with the way that some of the inside guys handle it? The inside, you know, the inside of the NBA on TNT, which is still, in my opinion, the most entertaining studio show.
Out for any sport, not just pro basketball.
But it seems like there's a lot of players now that don't necessarily appreciate some of the gut they get on that show. Do you think any of it's deeped with the inside stuff?
I don't know. I mean, I think it's everything. I don't think if any one thing, and I don't want to like, you know, get into names of various on air personalities on any of the networks. But there are people who obviously have made a living off of just you know, firing off takes on players and test sometimes taking it to uh, illogical or unfair extremes, and you know that's that is the unfortunately the media landscape we live in right now. I don't know, like you have
to ask you to ask Lebron. I don't know whether he's referring to Turner inside the NBA, whether referring to ESPN, whether referring to Fox debate shows what I don't I don't know. I think this is more about this is less about how the game is being talked about in terms of what he said, than than the way he's been talked about.
I think he was.
Referring to his own experience as the face of the league.
Yeah, now that that that makes sense. Hey, porter, will you effort Lebron. Let's get Lebron on to kind of ask him. Uh, we'll get him on to cask him directly,
obviously tongue in cheek. Now, Look, I'll tell you what, Howard, Not everybody covers a league through the prism of negativity and the last couple of weeks, I have turned on basketball and I have watched basketball players seem to care about playing basketball, and it is a reminder, look, maybe this is just the world of basketball now that we all should just say, look, we'll touch you after the All Star break, We'll hit you up in late February,
early March. But the past couple of weeks, when these guys have been locked in, it is a reminder of what this league looks like and what this sport looks like when the best players are playing hard with a purpose.
I mean, there were great games in October, November, December too, So I don't know, like I do think that there is such a thing as the dog days of the season, especially in January. I do think that when we get back from the All Star break and there's it's not even the midway point, it's it's beyond the midway point.
There's usually like thirty thirty five games left. And when when the teams that especially know they're they're locking in for the postseason and have you know, the spring to look ahead to and it's getting closer, it certainly brings a different level of focus and intensity. But like we were all raving about certain games back and I'm trying to remember, like there was a bunch involving the Warriors, some involving Under, like there were good games earlier in
the season like it. I'm not I'm not sold on the idea that that suddenly the whole landscape changes the second we get back from the All Star Game. But you know, I there the problem is in the in the context of the bigger conversation here, people's complaints about the league might be that, oh, we don't think guys play hard on the given night, or maybe because they didn't play hard in the All Star Game, or it's
guys are load managing too much or whatever. Like there's bits and pieces of all of this, and everybody's got a little bit different version of what's bothering him about the league at any given time, And so I just I don't I don't know which part of that is the one that needs to be focused on. All right, I'm getting out of the car here real quick.
Hold, hon say all good. Howard Beck is our guest, one of my favorite riders. He's joined my show for a number of years. You can get him on Blue Sky mostly. He is technically on Twitter, but he has, it's been at a number of different places. He always does his job at a high level, and he does his job so well that he's going to see Brooklyn and Portland play tonight in person, which is very impressive.
So let me just ask you point playing your opinion then, instead of dancing around it, do you feel like from your vantage point, you know the league is in a healthy place, you know, as opposed to what anyone else has to say about What does Howard Beck have to say about the current state of the NBA.
I think it's fine, honestly, I really do. The game has changed, and some people don't like the way the game has changed stylistically. The load management part of it is an absolutely legitimate issue and concern, especially for fans who pay a lot of money go to a game. I'm bringing my daughter to a game soon and I don't want to say which game am I gonna do? But I'm sitting there going like, are the players that I'm hoping are going to play that night going to
be there? Because I worry about it the same way as anybody else does, right, I bought tickets like that. That's a serious concern and the NBA. They've tried to deal with it. We know that. You know, it was a you know, starting last season when they instituted all these rules to try to make sure that players were playing more often than not and not abusing the latitude that teams have.
To rest guys.
So those are issues.
But the state of the game, honestly, it's fine. Like it. I think it's mostly depends on who you're rooting for. But thunder fans are thrilled with the state of the game, Sixer fans probably not so much. Suns fans probably a bit depressed right now. The Nets fans that I'll see in here tonight, you know, they they're just happy that their team is playing their butts off despite not having any stars, and you know they're hoping for lottery balls. Like I don't. I don't think the game is in crisis.
I think that has been wildly overstated based on some early ratings data earlier in the season, a lot of which has kind of evened out. It's still down, but it's not down dramatically. And the league lucked in a seventy billion dollar media rights deal. Like you know, that goes back to your your view of the cynical take of like, yeah, it's just a business and they're just accruing value, and I think there's something to that, But I don't know where the crisis is here, all right.
I will ask you because I often ask you these philosophical questions on how to fix certain issues, because I was talking to and your point about who you cheer for and where you're at currently, as it pertains, your opinion of the state of the league is really good. And obviously out here there are a lot of people that are frustrated that we're in year three of this rebuild, and we focus on the good stories when they manifest.
Walker Kester had a great game the other night against El melsa bonus, and there's some stuff with Isaiah Collier and Keyante George that are pretty exciting. But it does feel like every year about a third of the teams are just unseerious about winning. And I get it, and certainly out here I get it, and I think the JASH should have done this two years ago, as we've talked about. But is there is there any fix to
this scenario? Where and John Hollinger wrote a good piece for The Athletic about this, where you're either in the halves or the have nots. And it seems like every year about a third of the league as this this situation where they're not serious about winning, they're trying to develop young players, and then a rebuild is hope that some young players pop, acquire assets, and then hope you
get lucky in the lottery. Is this just the NBA where about a third of the teams every year are just not going to be able to compete with the top shelf team, so they go young, try to develop, and try to get lucky in the lottery.
I wrote a very long piece last week during the Ringers NBA expansion Week, as we called it. We'd all packed the stories about it. The idea of expansions been talked about so much, and it seems to be on the horizon, although as I reported, I think it's actually
three to five years out still if it happened. But the piece I wrote was about kind of this, which is that there still aren't enough stars to go around, especially when you know stars like to join up with each other on U given teams or teams you know are able to get them on their own. Yeah, it's it's stars are a finite commodity. This is a zero
sum game. So we can look at the Jazz or the Nets and the Blazers, two teams I will see either tonight or the Wizards and say, well, they're rebuilding, they don't have enough talent whatever, They're in the have nots category. They're hoping for lottery balls, they're hoping for something. The fact is, whether you're doing it intentionally or just because that's just where in the life cycle your team is, naturally you're you're you're trying to pursue stars that aren't
there because they're on somebody else's team. It's a zero sum game. And we can talk about the fact that there's more talent than ever around the league today than ten, fifteen, twenty years ago, and there is, but it's not franchise star level talent, Like the Jazz have Lowry Markinen, who's a really good player, all NBA caliber, but that's not enough for them to win enough games to be in the playoff hunt. And you know, the Nets and the
Wizards certainly traded away players to do their rebuilds. But the fact.
Is there's so few true superstars or stars that you can do that and have there still be a bunch of other teams that are still searching for talent as well, Like this is just the state of things. You can't possibly have thirty teams competitive at the same time, no matter how much Adam Silver has tried to engineer parody, And there is more parody now than there has been
in the history of the league. But it doesn't ensure that every team is going to have a chance every season to be a five hundred team or a playoff team.
All right, I know you got to go. So let's get a couple of things that are actually going on in the league. John Embiid is going to miss the remainder of the season due to a knee injury, and it feels like this was the only course of action for a Philadelphia team that was just firaling out of control.
What's next for Philly? What's next for MB?
Who knows what's next for Embid because I don't think we really know the true extent of his knee problems, and he is notoriously private about his health and about whatever's going on any given time. So the Sixers are not very forthcoming on these things and haven't been because MB doesn't want them to be, which is his prerogative, but it's frustrating if you're a Philly fan and you have no idea whether he's ever going to be himself again.
So we don't know the answer to that. And if he's never himself again, and he just signed a massive extension last summer, they are screwed for the foreseeable future
on that alone. On top of that, they signed Paul George to a max four year deal, and you know he's on the downhill slide too, so they're shutting down EMBIID is the practical thing to do from a health standpoint, probably, but it's also the practical thing to do from a draft standpoint because they owe a pick to Oklahoma that is top six protected, So if the Sixers pick lands in the top six, the Sixers get to keep it.
If it's seventh or later, it's going to Oklahoma. So the the the insult to injury here for Philadelphia is that their their seasons already toast and beat us on the shelf, and if the pick a seventh or lower, it's going to Oklahoma instead of them getting the benefit in Philly. So uh they are it is to there. It is in their best interests to shut down everybody at this stage. Do whatever you have to do, take the fines from the league, but do everything possible to
have the worst record possible. And even that doesn't guarantee anything, because the lottery balls could bounce the wrong way and it could drop the six ers to seven or eight or nine or whatever, and they could still lose the pick. So uh, they do need to increase their odds of having a top six pick.
All right, before I set you loose, I'll let you get to the game. Uh, who keeps Mark dagnalled up at night the most?
Is it Denver? Is it La with those two? Is it Golden State with Jimmy? I mean, Oklahoma State clearly is entrenched themselves.
As the favorite. But who keeps Mark up at night the most?
In your opinion, probably Denver because they've got the best player on the planet in Jokic, and that the team that won a championship within the last couple of years. I think, you know, Look, I'd be the first to say I don't want to face a Luca Lebron tandem at any time, but supporting cast is a little questionable. They don't have any size and you know, Lucas still trying to get his legs back under him. He's not
shooting well yet. They'll probably come around. They look pretty good so far, but you know, let's check back in a few weeks or you know, a month or so. I don't I don't know that the Lakers as constructed have enough to make a run this year. They didn't make that trade for this year. They made that trade for the next ten years. And you know, with the Warriors, that one's interesting, like they're playing their butts off. They look really good. Steph goes for fifty six last night,
and Butler's fit in perfectly. They have a little bit better depth in roster balance the Warriors than the Lakers do. I'll put them Monacha ahead, but probably it's Denver Howard.
Thank you, my friend. It's always fun. And enjoy that game that I had. I know you will and we'll chat soon.
Thanks buddy, I'll try great.
Howard Beck, now with The Ringer, spent some time with the New York Times, LA Times and was a nick beat writer for a number of years. He's a very talented NBA riter. He's worth your time to listen to and read. We appreciate his time. He technically is on Twitter, which is just his name at Howard Beck and from there you can get the link to Blue Sky, where I think he's posting more now, or just go to the Ringer dot com and search Howard Beck. Appreciate Howard's time, Yeah,
if you missed it. Lebron James was asked about Anthony Davis. Anthony Davis said he's not really trying to be the face of the league, and Lebron said, quote, why do you want to be the face of the league when all the people that cover our game and talk about our game on a day to day basis bleep on everybody. Obviously I didn't ask to be the face of the league. I feel an I understand this is weird energy when it comes to that, and there's been a lot of
reaction about it. And as I reference to Howard, you know, I'm one that has spent my entire life around pro basketball and.
I've always enjoyed it.
I enjoyed playing as much as I could before, you know, I had to find something else to do because I couldn't keep up with pros And I enjoy covering it, I enjoy watching it, and it is a different league than it was back in the day, and certainly there's an argument to be made that it's time just to shut.
Up and embrace it.
It is what it is, and it is overstated a little bit as far as players not going hard all the time, but it's not entirely overstated. I watched this league a lot, and there are plenty of nights where I'm watching games I'm excited to watch where those guys.
Are nailing it in man. Then there are plenty of games I sit down and watch it are awesome.
And ever since this league came back from the All Star break, there have been a lot of games that have been worth watching. Players are showing up and they're playing hard, but we shouldn't have to wait for that to be consistent for like four months.
Like, show up and do your job, man, you're getting paid a lot of money.
The fans show up and they watch, and I do think players have an obligation of fans, even though players don't seem to think that they do. And sometimes they say the quiet heart out loud, like Kevin Durant did when he said, we don't ever really take any consideration what the fans have to say and if that's the attitude, you are going to turn a lot of people off. And quite frankly, I think pro basketball has That's just my opinion. But the Warriors game was awesome last night.
The Bucks and the Nuggets played a really good game, Lakers and the Timberwolves played a really good game. And tonight we've got Jazz basketball as Rudy Gobert, Mike Conley, in addition to Joe Ingles and Nikhil Alexander Walker are back in town with the Minnesota Timberwolves, and it'll be fun to kind of see those guys and hopefully they get a good roud of applause and ovation. I imagine that they would Timberwolves. Good team, not a great team. Just about five hundred