Yeah, the Utah Jazz have a game tonight.
Of course, we have been reacting to the news that Craig Smith has been relieved of his duties is the head coach of the Utah men's basketball team. As you're proud home at the University of Utah, But the Jazz welcome in the Blazers. Our next guest knows a thing or two about the Blazers. Tom Haverstraw on Monday, Tom, Happy Monday, sir.
How are you the Blazers.
Who just put a fifty three point SmackDown on the Charlotte Hornet. It's a franchise record. Watch out for the Blazers. Huh.
Well, let's you know, let's pump the brakes a little bit, Tom. But you know, two teams in a similar position. First of all, I don't even know this. Do you travel with the Blazers broadcast team. I probably should know that about you.
It is a post COVID era where remotely I do this out of my house. They put up a studio in my garage, like I've had a garage apartment up top, and I do it from here in Charlotte, which is crazy.
Huh, that's awesome. How do I get that gig. I need to get a side gig like this, Tom, how do I do that?
Well, you got to talk to the jazz. You gotta gotta talk to Danny. You gotta talk to Justin, maybe Will Hardy. You give a you know, you got to talk to them about that that gig where you can do it basically TV from your uh, from.
Your house, probably going to be probably need going to be a different team, Tom, But you know we could probably talk about why you know another time. But I appreciate your time, man, appreciate your time. So before we get to Jazz Blazers, let's kind of jump around a little bit, do some big picture of NBA stuff. Since I've been able to talk to you since the All Star Break, and of course since we're both NBA media members,
we have to do the topic on the show. How did you digest the All Star Break and what do you think about, you know, the conversation surrounding it, and is it even a game that we need to have anymore? And your thoughts on the new format. I just need the Tom Havers show taking on All Star weekend.
Well, the All Star Game died a long time ago, yep. And That's true for every sport, not just the NBA. So save me the whole. You know, the NBA has lost the plot. The NBA doesn't know what it's. It's it's NFL. Major League Baseball and NHL have had to do away in one form or another with the thing we all grew up on, which is watching Michael and watching Kang Griffey Junior and Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire watching all these stars come together for the first time
all season and having this like spectacle. That's all gone. We need to not hold on to the nostalgia of it all because two things have changed in the NBA specifically, one is the player empowerment era. We don't have the same sort of regard for the novelty of seeing all the best players play together. You know why, because they already are. Luka Danciz just got traded to the Lakers, and Lebron has now played with Luca, Anthony Davis, Kyrie, Irving,
Kevin Love, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh. You go on, Dowt ray Allen. You don't get the same sort of dopamine hit of seeing these guys play in the All Star Game together because they already have played together, and it's a different era in that respect. And secondly, the social media cell phone era has made it so that we have instant access to all of these guys, all of them. If you wanted to get highlights or see these guys in their you know, normal behind the scenes, their personality,
we already get it. All that used to be where you got to see you know them hanging out and get this behind the scenes access access is now everywhere. And so we used to get a to see all these guys and around the court and all, look there's Shack with his camera out, and look it's KG. Oh, there's Kobe, that Michael like. That was such a novelty
back then, but now it's not. And so I think I think everyone has to come with the grips on the grips with the idea that the All Star Game is now obsolete and every sport has figured this out, and the NBA needs to understand and they've come around to the idea that like three point competition is probably going to be the main event going forward if there
is a one on one tournament. Okay, but I do think that the All Star Game as we know it that thing died many, many years ago, and that's true for all sports.
Hum.
You know, it's interesting because I have not talked to you since the All Star Break, and it's exactly how I feel about the game. And I'm only aware that the reason I had bitch and moan about in belly ache about it is for thirty years it was the best pickup game in the world, and it was awesome for a number of years.
But to your point, it's a long time now.
That it's since it's been like that, maybe two decades. Quite frankly, you know, if you want to go back that far, is there any meat on the bone? And we've seen international versus domestic before, but with the evolution of you know, I don't know, however you want to rank it, maybe five of the top seven or eight players in pro basketball being international players. Yanna's talking about,
you know, maybe doing this overseas or something. The problem with it, as I'm talking and I'm listening to myself out loud, is that I don't think you're going to get these guys to give a rip about it if it's played in Paris or Salt Lake or wherever.
But is there any meat on that bone to.
An international domestic competition played overseas.
I think there is. I'll tell you what I was watching.
Court of Gold, so good, so good, tom awesome.
You know, I talked about access, and I talked about how rare it is. You know that we used to never see these guys together and now we see it all the time. This was a different kind of access where you're getting in ways that like they don't normally do it with the NBA, Like there is no hard knocks NBA. But this Court of Gold was really special behind the scenes, getting these guys to talk candidly about how big this all felt, and there is a sense
of pride. Kevin Durant was so emotional that it brought him to tears thinking about what this game has brought him and how cool it is that there's twenty seven thousand screaming fans saying USA and backing Team USA and how important that meant to him. He was brought to tears, And there is a sense of pride, and I think
there is something to unlock. There is the idea of where you're from and if you were call what Kevin Durant was talking about was I came from nothing, and how hard it was to survive my neighborhood, and basketball gave me a ticket to getting out of that that hard life where you're just going to become a statistic. And his mother didn't want him to become a statistic, and the gave the game gave him life. And I'm wondering if it's not USA versus World, I'm wondering.
If it's BC East Coast versus West Coast versus Central where you have three you have three different American teams East versus West, and then you go Chicago, Texas and that and that hole basically the central part of basically the Central time zone, and you have basically the New York DC Crew, and then you have the LA West Coast Seattle Crew, and you go and you play basically three three American teams, and then there's an international team or you do Team Europe, Team Africa, Team US, and
then Team Canada something like that. I think there's something there, but East versus West. I'm sorry these people who think that that's going.
To revitalize things. No one cares. The players don't care. East versus West isn't a thing anymore because teams, players are switching teams from East to West all the time. Right now, I don't think there's a sense of pride East versus West anymore, especially in the player empowerment era. But I do think there might be a foreign Nations thing possible with the NBA. But it's gonna have to They're gonna have to thread the needle, and we probably
could do eight podcasts on this concept. But I do think there is a regional aspect with Foreig nations that could be applied to the NBA.
Before we move off of this, give me your thoughts on the presentation and broadcasting decisions. Like if I was playing in that format and I played my ass off to get a win, and then they came over to me. They said, you're gonna sit down for thirty minutes while Kevin Hart makes fun of sha Shaq's turtleneck, and we're gonna bring on some streamer who's.
Gonna like, I don't even I'm old.
I guess I don't know these streamers, and I understand wanting to cater to younger audience. But they interviewed Jokich Tom and they said, so what'd you do during the break? He said, I got tight like It was beyond dumb to ask these players, some of whom Stephen Curry Kevin Durant are in their early to mid thirties, to go
sit after playing and then have them play again. They're lucky somebody didn't tear a an achilles, Like, you know, rip apart of an achilles ten like, tell me your thoughts on the way they elected to go about the presentation and the flow of the whole thing.
It's business for president over basketball. That is all that is is that they were trying to figure out a way to lengthen the broadcast as much as they can to fulfill their advertising revenues and their advertising partners and
their corporate partners. And that's tough, especially because the last couple of years I remember, Chris Paul and Steph Curry have been talking about it is like we wanted to get rid of all the pomp and circumstance, the pageantry of the intros, because they'd warm up, then they'd have an intro stand around for twenty minutes, and then there
was a musical act and then they would play. And Chris Paul brought it up to Adam Silver's like we got to do something about that like warming up and then sitting for a half hour and standing around before the game. We got to get rid of that, and then they did. They tried to solve that problem, and they went right back into it this year, and I just think that it was look, I think Lebron sitting out. I had more of an issue with Lebron sitting out
than a lot of the things that went on. I think the fact that he took the last minute and didn't even get into his uniform to take the photo.
It seemed like a sort of statement in me and l Hassen on the Basketball Illuminati podcast, we just put it out last week and Jamie Fox's commenting on it, Draymond Scottie Pippener commenting on our podcast, because the meme was like it seemed like Lebron was trying to make a statement, like Clutch was like upset with the All Star format going bringing me All Star or sorry the rising stars into the four team competition and Lebron wasn't having it. Draymond Green did the you know the hat
emoji for cap meaning it's a lie. But the fact that Lebron is opening up this conversation of why he sat out the All Star Game is not a good look and saying like my foot hurts, so I'm gonna sit out last minute. Everyone needs to care more about like making sure this is perfect and making sure this shows that the players care. And the whole weekend, it just seemed like no one is taking charge of this thing. And this is what you get.
Yeah, and I've made my sentiment known on the Lebron thing. I thought it was a clown show. Quite frankly, I'm not a Lebron hater. But he also kept money from one of his peers because you know, these all star clauses and contracts, you know, obviously they're paying out bonuses if you're named an All Star, and whether it's you know, Sabonis or Norman Power or whatever, like, if you're not going to play, just say something. Don't make it all about you all the time, Lebron, Like, we get it.
But if you're not going to play, say something. Let one of your peers step in as a replacement, you know.
Yeah, And and look, he's forty years old. He gets some grace on some of these things. But he knows that he knows what time it is, like, he knows what it's what imagine if that was one of his teammates that got scammed out of a spot on the All Star team. You know, like what if it was Luca, who was not to say that he would ever be a borderline All Star candidate, But let's say it's Austin Reeves.
You know, would the conversation be different for Lebron or the thought process be different if it was one of his guys who was going to get one of those spots. I'm sure it would be. So I do think that that was a miss. I get that if he's injured, he's injured, whatever, But you know, it does seem to me like that was an unexplainable, inexplicable situation that he would not even dress for the photo shoot, that he
was just like so out of out of it. But you know what, they've played really well since since the All Star break. So whether that means that he got healthier and it was a good decision to take the All Star break off, or that he was trying to make a statement he was healthy enough to play, he just didn't want to play, I don't know. Whatever it is, the Lakers look really good with that with him out there.
Yeah, I look, you know, it even continued with the whole like, hey, he's questionable the game against No, he's not like he was fine, you know, but continue the narrative or whatever. But let's move off of this because since you and I last spoke, some rough news came down the Victor weban Yama's shut down for the year. And when I heard blood Clott Tom, I thought bosh. That was my first thing, right, I thought, Chris Bosh.
And you're like, oh no, Now, all of the reporting around it is there's optimism that he's going to be just fine. Of course you got to shut him down immediately with something that serious, But you've done some work on this, your thoughts on this unfortunate news in the future of Victor webben Yama's pro basketball career based off this health issue.
I had the same reaction, Oh no, is his career in jeopardy now because I covered Chris Bosh in Miami and that scared the living daylight time of me. It's seeing Victor webin Yama the next great superstar. If he's not already the face of the league, it's going to
be sooner than we think. And the key here is that DVTs vain thrombosis effect the shoulder is potentially and I say this potentially just because I'm not a doctor, but I did talk to a doctor, Brian Sutter, for an article at Yahoo Sports that went into detail about why this is different than Chris Bosh and potentially less severe of a case because Bosh the blood clot had traveled to his lungs. It started in his leg, it
traveled into his lungs. He complained of chest pain and that's like life threatening situation and that also might not be a structural issue that can be fixed. Whereas Wemby the shoulder blood clot is the same thing that happened with Brandon Ingram, the star for the Toronto Raptors New Orleans Pelicans drafted by the Lakers. He had the same
issue that Wemby is. From what I can tell, it's the same thing, and he had surgery to remove part of his rib to basically free up that vein and a allow the blood flow to go through okay, and by doing that he hasn't had an issue since. And so that was right before the ad trade. He had the DVT, the same thing that Wenby has, and he has he took you know, some time off, and he came, he got traded to the Pelicans, and then had an
all star year the first year. So he's had his best years after DVT, which is to say that Wemby does have a very serious condition right now, a serious medical issue that if he does take care of this, like brandon Ingram situation was taken care of, he might be fine and we might not ever see the words, you know, or associate it with career threatening or any
sort of thing like that. And so Wemby while he is having season ending treatment, I do think there is optimism from a medical standpoint that if this is a brandon Ingram situation, it is not a Chris Boss situation. And blood clots are scary, but it is apples and oranges in some sense where because this was a shoulder deep bay thrombosis thoracic compression syndrome, I believe it's what it's called. This is a shoulder issue, blood clot issue,
not a leg one. And I think that's a very important distinction between what we're seeing with Wemby and Bosh.
All Right, one question about a team out east, and that is my beloved new York Knickerbockers that can't seem to win against a you know, win a game against a really good team, you.
Know, at least out that way.
But you know, ultimately I still think it's a team that can obviously make the postseason win around.
And maybe that's it.
I don't know, but we all know that Boston is still perceived to be the best team out that way, and the Cavs just won't stop winning. So it does appear that there's a tier of two and then a drop off. And maybe it's the Knicks and get into the Box and the Pacers or whatever. But what are your thoughts on, for whatever reason, the nixt inability, at least on paper as of now and what we're seeing when it comes to playing good teams, they just can't seem to get it done.
One. It is a concern of mine that they are not able to play up to the abilities of the rest of the cream of the crop in the NBA, that they cannot get over the hump. And it's not even just being it's not even winning those games that they that's been elusive. It's even being competitive in those games it's proved elusive. For the new York Knicks. They're getting blown out, not just losing, but it's not even close.
So that's one thing that is the concern, and I think it's the defense, is that when you're playing against seventy five percent of the NBA, they can score enough that they can basically, in the most purest sense, outscore the opponent that they can be an average defense and get away with it. Against top ten offenses. The defense has the twenty ninth ranked defense according to Cleaning and
Glass dot Com. That's absurd, like Tom Thibodau's defense being the second worst in the NBA against good offenses is unheard of. And the second part of this that I want to talk about is Karl Anthony town should not gone back in that game yesterday and he had a knee injury he could barely walk, and then in the fourth quarter he's at the scorer's table and comes back into the game in a blowout. That should not happen.
And Tibbs, We've been down this road so many times, and I do think there is a Tibbs tax where he demands so much of his players in the regular season, and we're seeing it with the minutes totals he gets really great regular season results, but last year I think is more common than not where they just break down. And I'm worried about the Knicks on two fronts. One their ability to play with the best of the best, and two, I am worried about Karl Anthony Town's knee.
And if they've got this investment in Karl Anthony Towns and he's got a knee injury, that could be a problematic going forward. They got like four more years on that contract. And if you can go from a bad situation to a really bad situation, if there's any sort of issues there with his knee.
I Tom, before I say you lose Jazz Blazers tonight, make it interesting, go.
Well.
I think when you look at the Timani Kamara, this guy, I think is going to get a lot of talk for all defense, maybe even Defensive Player of the Year. He shut down LaMelo Ball a night ago. He shut down Tyree Taliburton. This guy, Timani Kamara, He's worth the price of admission watching him what he does up and down the floor. So this guy was a second round pick traded from Phoenix in the DeAndre Ayton deal. Yusuf Nurkic Phoenix have been awful this year and Timani Kamara
is one of the best defenders in the NBA. So the Blazers just put a spa on the Hornets, a fifty three point win franchise record. And I got to tell you this guy, Timani Kamara, who had a plus forty five in the plus minus column, I want to see what he does against Isaiah Collier. I want to see what he does against the Jazz because what he's been doing against the opponent's best player all season long has been worth a price of admission. So keep an
eye on that dude. Timani Kamara from Belgium had twenty points, ten rebounds and six assists the other night. Watch out for this guy. He's a real gamer.
Tom, you are the man. I appreciate the time. Good to catch up. Have a great call on the broadcast tonight and we'll chat soon, buddy.
All right, s Bence, have a good one.
Tom haberstrow busy Busy guy writes a piece for Yahoo Sports.
Yeah. I think he has four different podcasts.
He's on the Blazers analytics team as well on the broadcast side of things. On Twitter at Tom Haberstrow is where you find him,