The Indiana Pacers get a shot at the in season tournament title against Lebron James and the Lakers. We're gonna talk about the two teams that made it to the IST title game. We're gonna talk about the two teams that lost in the semifinals. What is going on with the Milwaukee Bucks, and what is going on with Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans. Should the IST champion hoist up banner? We get into all of that next
here on the latest edition of This League Uncut. Welcome to this League Uncut in the world of twenty four hour NBA News. This's you love, Chris Hans. Let's go, time works time, It's so time. This League Uncut is underway in on fire. This should be a good one. Hei, everyone, Welcome in to the latest edition of This League Uncut. It's a jealousy tinged edition of This League Uncut because we are taping this on Friday evening. It's still afternoon
time in the desert where Chris Haynes is. Yes, Chris Haynes is at the nd season Tournament. He got to see both games Thursday, saw him all over NBA TV. On Friday he'll be there Saturday when the Pacers and the Lakers play for the first Ist crown. I am jealous because I am not there. I hate missing out on Vegas, but due to a number of reasons that
I don't want to bore you with. Despite our best attempts to reunite in Vegas, like we did in July when we did a live edition of this podcast with Lakers coach Darvin Ham at a very well known sports book on the Strip, we couldn't quite make that happen this time. It's my fault. That's my those are that's supposed to be my department. I couldn't get it done. And so Haynes is there amid all the glitz and glamour,
and I'm just fifteen hundred miles away. No, not fifteen hundred, I'm a thousand plus miles away and very envious, very envious.
But so you felt the need style style, You felt the need to correct yourself right there. You went from fifteen hundred miles away to a thousand As if anybody would have called you out on that.
I just like to I have to be accurate at all times. I mean, it's Dallas to Vegas. Is not fifteen hundred miles Dallas to Dallas to Cali or Dallas to New York, is you know, in the fifteen hundred ballpark. But it's more like it's a thousand plus.
Okay, I think it would have been fine.
But striving for accuracy. How is how is the strip treating you? Rub it in? Tell me what's going on? How's it been so far?
Well? This is? You said it that the Vegas is the desert, and I don't know what desert is. Fifty degrees it's cold, stein you know, I've never been to Vegas and it's been this cold. This is the first I haven't been on the strip. I haven't walked. The only time I've walked. I've walked a few times back and forth to the arena. I'm staying at the Aria and the hotel is like a block away. It's about a seven minute walk if that. So, I've been doing that. But stiin this cold man.
Cold Vegas is wonderful? How could what you like it better? When it's one hundred and ten? I mean, what's wrong? Throw on a fancy TNT jacket and you're good.
I didn't bring a jacket. I didn't bring. I have one sweater. I have a hood hooded sweater, but it doesn't go with all my outfits, so I can't be wearing it all the time. But no, Star, I mean, this is this is the desert, right, So in December, I expect it to be seventy five plus give me seventy five to eighty eighty five. That sounds about right cold.
But man, cold Vegas. Like I said, cold Vegas sounds wonderful to me.
I'm not feeling it. And in the arena stein t Mobile Arena, it is super cold in that arena, super cold. You know they got that ice under there for hockey. Man, So god, I hate freezing. I hate freezing. But look, I'm in Vegas. I'm enjoying getting to see my comrades out here. Miss you out here. Stein.
But uh, it sounds like a big media contingent is on the scene.
You know what. I wouldn't say. No, I wouldn't I wouldn't call it big. It's not that, it's not that, it's not that many. You know, I would probably say there's probably the same amount of foreign media here than American media. I'll say it's probably more forim media than American media. There's not there's not a large contingency here, Stean, there's.
Not bad info apparently.
Yeah, well it doesn't from from my eye, you know, from the naked eye, doesn't look that way.
Well, look, before we get into the Pacers and the Lakers, and of course we're going to talk about the Bucks and the Pelicans too, before we get into all that, just tell me your impressions of being in the building last night. Again, we're taping this Friday, almost seven pm Eastern time.
So.
It was last night, you know, the Bucks, especially that Bucks Pacers game five pm Eastern tip off, two pm local tip off. And I can't imagine that a slew of Bucks and or Pacers fans made their way from the Midwest all the way to Vegas on short notice. So I saw Damian Lillard said something like neutral was a good word because it had a neutral atmosphere in there. I mean, what was the noise like.
Noise? The PA announcer was making a lot of noise. He probably made the most noise. You know during that Pacers Bucks game, there was a lot of seats available. I say that you could have grabbed the seat last minute and probably had you a really good seat, A lot of seats available for that two o'clock local time start between the Pacers and Bucks. The wasn't really an atmosphere. There wasn't really a Pacers fan contingent or Bucks fans contingent.
You know, obviously there were some of those fans there, but nah, it was pretty Yeah, it was. It was neutral, but it didn't have much of an atmosphere. Really.
It was a good game, though, so I mean, it looks like it didn't have any real impact on the game.
Yeah. Well, the players are playing art because everybody's trying to get that money, so you know, the product didn't suffer. But that was my concern starting a having a two o'clock game start at start on a SAT on a Thursday. So that was my my, my baby, excuse me, stein my baby. She is facetiming me right now. Jada cannot call you back, baby. Your hair looks nice. I love your baby. Hear my daughter's Styn She said, hy Mark sty always said bye my bad okay, bye bye baby,
love you. That's my third youngest daughter right there. She is thirteen. She just got a new hair. Deuces. She facetimed me right now avid podlistener, Yes, big blistener subscribes and everything to this league uncut but no, yes, Stein, so she would show me her hair, her new hair, dude. But Stein, Yeah, it was like it was, you know, it wasn't really an atmosphere now, the six o'clock game, the six thirty game or whatever. It was, Lakers Pelicans,
definitely Lakers fans all in the building much more. The arena was much more packed, much more of an atmosphere, an environment. I would have liked to have seen a more competitive game, but yeah, it was night and day were talking about the atmosphere and the environment from the two o'clock game to the six o'clock game.
Well, I think we knew that was gonna happen. Vegas, of course, well known as a Laker town, so we knew there were gonna be no issues in the night game. And look, the league, honestly to me, has gotten everything it could have hoped for with this championship game matchup Saturday night because the Pacers and you know, you've had to hear these lectures for me about how the league
is trying to make this. You know, the league has used soccer tournaments abroad as the guide for this, but there are so few soccer elements to it, and that's something that has bothered me from the start. But this is the Indiana Pacers have made a classic Soccer Cup run, exactly what the NBA would have hoped, because you know, they're beating Boston in the quarterfinals at home. They're beating
Milwaukee in the semifinals in Vegas. If it's a seven game series, the Pacers are obviously not going to be favored against either one of those teams. And you'd struggle to imagine a scenario where the Pacers won a seven game series against the Celtics or the Bucks. But this is supposed to be a knockout competition, a cup competition. Mama said, knock you out, and that's what the Pacers have done. They're six and oh in these knockout you know, they went four and oh in the group. They won
their two knockout games. They beat two of the Eastern Conference powers in Milwaukee and Boston. And that is what's supposed to happen in a cup. Those are the kind of magical things where a team gets hot and catches fire and goes farther than it normally might have because they've only got to win. You know, anybody can beat anybody in one game. And then on the other side of it, it's the Lakers, and of course this is
the NBA's dream, this is what Adam Silver wanted. Unfortunately, it comes with the assist of a very disputed ending in the quarterfinals against Phoenix, when a call was clearly missed and the Lakers got a timeout they shouldn't have.
But obviously the Lakers left no doubt with the way they destroyed New Orleans in the Semis, and Lebron James is on the final stage, and you know, for the league office, that is huge beyond words, because again you've got the Cinderella Pacers on one side, and you've got Lebron to attract the national TV audience and legitimize this thing because he clearly wants to win it. It's something that means something to him. So honestly, to me, the NBA couldn't have drawn it up better had they tried.
Although again, there will be cynics out there who will point to the way that Lakers Suns game ended and say that, you know, the league, the league did have a role here. Although look, I'm I'm by no means suggesting that there was league intervention. It was a bad call. It shouldn't have happened. It was a missed call. It was it was a mistake, but it did help the
Lakers on this path. And again, full credit to the Lakers for taking advantage of that and blowing New Orleans out in the semis Stein, I'm slow.
I'm slow, and I probably shouldn't be acknowledging this or saying this, but I'm gonna say it because this is this league uncut Starn, I'm slow. I'm listening to you, and you're saying, this is exactly what the NBA wanted. You know what single game elimination knockout scenario. When you said that, Stime, I've came to the rezation. I understood now. That's why they played that ll COOJ song. Mama said knock you out, the knockout round. That's why I never knew exactly why.
I thought, you remember my big rant when we got the news that the league had convinced LL COOLJ to do a freshened up version of Mama said knock you out. And I thought that was a great idea. But what bothered me so much was that was the anthem that is the NBA's official anthem for the nd season tournament. But because there are sixty group games only seven games in this tournament, can you actually get knocked out? That
was my issue. The song is awesome, but like, yeah, and you've always you've seen this week when they're when they're when when there is a knockout, We've seen great We've seen great stuff. You know, the indie crowd was great when the Pacers beat the Celtics, and then obviously that was you know, Pacers Bucks went went all the way down to the wire. I mean that that's what we want. That's that's the the novelty and the newness here, because nothing in the NBA is single elimination, nor you know,
obviously in the playoffs there shouldn't be single elimination. I remember being a kid, and you know, in the first round of the playoffs, they used to have the mini series, which was two out of three, and that was considered too short, and then we had three out of five in the first round and they even did away with that. And I think there are some people who do miss the playoffs when the first round was just best of five. But obviously now in the playoffs it's best of seven,
all four rounds. So if the playoffs are gonna be best of seven, all four rounds, let's make the end season toment. Let's have even more single elimination games. Let's get crazy.
Yeah that I'm down for that. I'm not opposed to that. Yeah, I'm just slow. So I had I had to admit that I'm slow. It makes sense now.
Well it was a bold admission, because yeah, it makes sense. You know, I've been I've been harping on that one. But I think it also just proves that you're not you're not reading. You're not reading my substock as close.
I on the other, hold on, I got a question for your style. First of all, I do read. Second of all, I got let me ask you this. Would you rather I read all your work or would you rather I subscribe and pay for a subscription? You pick one?
Sty Oh, I'd much rather you pay for the subscribe.
Okay, thank you, all right, because I do pay.
But difference is Last night, when Chris Haynes posts a story for Bleacher Report about some post game tensions in the Bucks locker room, I click on it instantly and read every single word of it.
I do. I do the same as well. Most of the time I do. They're reciprocated.
Most It's fine. All I want. All I want is to sum it's fine.
You got that check out, let's check it.
Let's talk about your Buck story. I don't want to. I don't want to make a huge deal of it unless you tell me I should. But I mean, I do think it's worrisome. Now. Look, the Bucks, even after losing the Semis to Indiana, they woke up on this Friday at fifteen and seven. They've got the second best record in the East. They've been, you know, very good
lately when Dame's been in the lineup. So I mean, it's you know, it'd be overstatement to suggest that there's some kind of crisis going on, but there has just been you know, Adrian Griffin is basically a quarter of the way through his first season with the Bucks, and there's been a lot. I mean, it's been you know, Terry Stotts leaves the coaching staff before the regular season
even starts. You reported how various Bucks players went to Adrian Griffin lobbied him to reinstate more of last season's drop coverage schemes on defense, and the Bucks did that. There was the game against Boston recently where Jannis did not look thrilled about being taken out of the game, and there was some back and forth between Giannis and
the rookie coach. And now this story that you reported last night, and I should probably let you expound on what you actually reported instead of assuming that everyone read it as closely as me.
Well, if you look at the game, look at how it and it was it was a collapse on the offensive end. You really didn't see any structure, You didn't see any plays being called, and it definitely were not executed. So I went, you know, I'm waiting by the Bucks locker room and I just I noticed it. You know, it's taking a little bit more time than usual to get out, and you know, usually when that's the case, you know, okay, something might be going on. And you know,
I got word, you know, numerous people. I got word that Adrian Griffin went in and you know, he started harping on rebounding, on their lack of aggressiveness and losing the rebounding battle, and you know, Bobby Portis I heard interrupted and was like, nah, we got to you know, we got to have more structure on offense. We got to have more sets called. You need to called more sets to get us, you know, running the right offensive sets. We're out there, not not doing anything, We're just going.
And you know, there's one play that sticks out the last two minutes of the game where where Giannis imbounds the ball but he inbounds it to he inmbounded it to Chris Middleton. Damian Little was coming over to bring the ball up, but Chris Milton kept the ball to bring up, bring it up the court, and emotion for Dame to go opposite. So Dame goes. You could tell
Dame's a little bit confused. So Dame goes, and then Chris, once he passes half court, he starts looking for Dame and Bruce Brown is just hovering Damon and Chris throws it and Bruce Brown picks it off and Dame stops him from scoring. But nobody got back and Buddy Hill was able to get the offense rebound and put it back in. And so there was a couple of plays just down the stretch where there was really no plays called.
They were just they just going freely. And so what you have to understand not you, Stein, but I'm talking about people have to understand about the Bucks is that they're in win now mode. You know, the stakes are high. And yes, Adrian Griffin is a rookie head coach. Yes there's going to be it's going to take time. But you know, this is the situation, this is it. You know, there's pressure, there's a miss pressure. Players feel it. And their record is good Stein for fifteen and six you said,
or fifteen and seven. Really they have a good record, but they haven't been winning games by large margins. You know, a lot of these games have gone you know, I've been going down the stretch and they they're closing based off of their talent. Dame has heroic plays, or Giannis has hero plays or Chris Middleton lately, you know, they continue to struggle in the first half. They start games off slow. They're always like finding their way back, you know,
climbing out of large deficits. Like so they haven't been playing good, you know, so that the standings can be misleading. So I think what it was, you know, but it look and so in my report as well. Excuse me, you know, Bobby Porter's harped on that and then Adrian Griffin I was told, was like, you know, I can take that criticism. I'll accept it. I'll embrace that. So, you know, Griffin has been receptive to listening to his players to hear what they have to say, and he's
changed some things because of it. But Bobby Porters, you have to remember, he's one of the leaders of the team, one of the vocal leaders of the team. You know, he he has huge respect in that locker room and around the league. So if anybody is going to say something, or if anybody sees something, you know, he's well within his right to do so. And so you know, not only did he Chinese Griff, but he challenge the players to be able to execute. So but yeah, uh, nothing
to get too big off of it. I wouldn't you know, I wouldn't jump over a cliff if I'm a Bucks fan. But you know, I think what it points to is just the urgency that players feel about having, you know, trying to get this season right and trying to make the most of it even though they're only in December.
Well, I think it's something we're gonna have to keep our eye on because it's just again there have been, I mean, there have just been a slew of these kind of stories, headlines, however you want to term it, since mid October, and it's a lot for a rookie coach to have to deal with. Again, like you said, because the Bucks are on that list of teams that they are judged by championship or bust if the Bucks
don't win a championship this season. Obviously, I think we all remember Yannis at the podium last year taking issue with that kind of championship or bus talk. But that is the reality. That is the way that the Bucks are going to be analyzed by the outside world, especially when you make a trade for someone as good and
as accomplished as Dame Lillard. So I mean, I think that is one of the early stories of the season that you know, how is Adrian Griffin as a rookie coach adapting to this high pressure situation because there have been last night's story from you was not the first.
Let's shift gears now and focus on the absolutely splashiest Morning after headlines because Zion Williamson put under the microscope like never before after New Orleans got absolutely trounced by the Lakers in Thursday Night semi final, and you know, this worked out for the Pelicans in precisely completely opposite fashion to what they were hoping. Of course, Zion Williamson has never played in a playoff game in the NBA.
He hasn't even played in a play in game the NBA, So this was the foremost stage he has ever been on since leaving Duke and coming to the NBA. And this game was, you know, the Pelicans against the Lakers, the two teams who were at the heart of the Anthony Davis trade. And you know, this was probably the you know, the most the most the game with the most stakes between these teams since the Anthony Davis trade.
And you know, New Orleans had so impressively gone to Sacramento and won in Sacramento to book their spot among the four teams in Vegas. And then Zion Williamson just absolutely punchless in this game. Lebron James guarded him, sagged off him, nothing went right for Zion, and after the game, just an absolute torrent of criticism sent Zion's way. And we're going to take a listen to some of it.
We're gonna start with this was Charles Barkley on the TNT postgame show talking about Zion and his own career and repeating challenges that Barkley has issued to Zion in the past. But both both Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neil were really critical of Zion. And then we have another
clip from JJ Reddick right after that. JJ Reddick, of course he's an ESPN analyst now, but JJ Reddick played with Zion Williamson in New Orleans, so really interesting and must listen stuff to me to hear Charles Barkley and JJ Reddick analyze Zion Williamson in this manner.
The thing that disturbs me is he's not a young kid. When Moses told me I was fat and later I was a rookie. He's been in the league long enough. He's got two guys a team that a better player to him, and they shouldn't be shouldn't be.
He should be.
He was the number one pick in the draft. He should be a better player to. We like ingram Ovis, we love CJ. He should be the best player and he's not even close number one. He's got to get in shape. I've told you, I've been very disappointed he's averaging six rebounds a game. He's only had two double doubles all season. Man, if my grandmother was alive, she used to call me up to every game OU didn't
get double faker rebound and just kill me. A big guy that talented should never get less than ten rebounding. He should be averaging eleven twelve rebounds games easily, but he doesn't run.
The floor at all.
I was disappointed, and overall I've been disappointed in Zion this season. And look, we can certainly point to counting stats and say he's having a fine season, but you can be in the building, you can watch on TV, you can be court side, and you can see he's not in shape. He's still not in shape despite everything that he's gone through, despite numerous conversations with legends of the game about being in shape, he gets called out on national television once or twice a year for this thing,
this very thing. And earlier this season he had a press conference where he was talking about trying to buy into what the team wanted. And the reality is Zion Williamson has not bought into his own career yet and that is disappointing.
So this game that was supposed to be this huge opportunity for Zion Williamson to really on a significant stage show us what he's got, and it just turns out disastrous. And I do wonder though, if this actually somehow becomes a blessing for the Pelicans because the organization's attempts to urge Zion Williamson to get in better shape, to take
better care of his body, to address these things. I mean, Charles Barkley has told the story so many times, and it's such an important story in NBA history when Charles talks about Moses Malone, legendary Moses Malone getting on a very young Charles Barkley in Philadelphia and basically telling him the way you take care of yourself is unacceptable. You've
got to change to succeed in the NBA. The Pelicans as as an organization, they've tried to convey this message to Zion Williamson in a variety of different ways over the past few seasons. It's never worked. And you know, let's see now, let's see if such widespread, loud public criticism has a different impact on Zion Williamson. Because I have to think from his perspective, it's one thing to
hear it from guys like you or me. It's a whole different thing to hear Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neill, and a former teammate like JJ Reddick speaks so pointedly.
Stein, I was talking to my foot well FaceTime and my youngest daughter, she's years old as we're FaceTime, and I had my laptop on and I was listening to people criticizing Zion Wilson basically saying it has to get in better shape, just all the things that you you know what JJ alluded to, what Charles Barkley, Shack and others have said. Right, So it was like this compilation I was I was listening to and my daughter heard it. And you know, Stein, we live in a different era.
Things that we were able to say, the terms we were able to use, the words we were able to say back then was nothing. But you use those words, those same words, those same phrases now and it's something really negative in today's world. So I'm saying this to say this. So she's talking to me, but I'm not really knowing. She's picking up on what they're saying about Zion, and she said, Dad, are they fat? Sham and Zion
I said, I said, what said? How they gonna tell him he needs to lose weight and get in better shape? Maybe he's happy, you know how he is? Stop. So I didn't know how to start. I didn't know how to explain. I didn't know how to explain this because I get in trouble. Could. I have a daughter who is just turned twenty, and she is like, she'll always correct me on like the proper terms, what you can use and cannot use, like according to this new generation.
And so I told my daughter, my youngest ones, we're talking about Zion. I was like, well, I said, baby, like, you know, there's just a level of I guess there's a level of fit and being a professional athlete that you're supposed to uphold, especially if you're like a player that's the face of a franchise. And she didn't get it. She was like, it still doesn't matter. She's like he made it there like that, why is he being fat shame? And I couldn't tell her it wasn't fat shaven. Well,
I can't say. I couldn't tell her. I just didn't want to go down that role. I didn't want to have an argument because you can't argue with the youngsters nowadays. So why did I bring that up? Stein? I just brought it up because you brought up Zion and this. But really stin my personal opinion, my personal critique is he has to get better. However way he needs to
get better, it's up to him. But he has to be able to play thirty five plus minutes and be able to do it consistently and be able to do it and be able to do it and play to his best. And in order to play to your best, you have to be in good physical shape. Now I will say this, good physical shape as far as your stamina. Maybe he can still have that same physique, Maybe he can still have that same body stature, Maybe he can
still be the same way. I don't know most people that most people are saying he needs to lose weight. I'm not gonna go out there and say that. But he needs to be able to play thirty five minutes and do it and dominate. And so however way he needs to get to it, that's what needs to happen, or else there's gonna be more of this and staring with this n season tournament. This gave him a platform, just like it gave the Pacers a platform to see
how special this team is. The Pelicans had that same opportunity, but it worked in the opposite for them. And you know, it can item make you or break you. Right now, I broke Zion, but he has a chance to pick up the pieces and get it back together. But he's going to have to do so because people are paying attention now. And that's one thing I like about this this season tournament.
I look, it's not comfortable to talk about, and he is. His potential is so ridiculously high, and that's I think what disappoints people. They want, you know, they they want to see him play to his maximum ability or something close to it, because you know, we've seen peek Zion can be a destructive force. But I mean he's not rebounding either, you know, I mean it's he's he they need, they just need they need more from him to go somewhere.
They've got a lot of interesting, good players on that team and and a lot of good, complimentary players, but you know, you need your star twosome to function well. And you know, this week, even in even in the quarters, when they beat Sacramento, you know, Zion had a very quiet game. So you know, when it's when it's fellow pros and you know, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neil, who have been in that same position as Zion as face of the franchise, when they say it, I mean, there's no
way people are going to tune it out. It's going to be discussed and it's going to be talked about, and you know, we'll see what kind of response now we get because I'm sure this in season tournament trip to Vegas was not a memorable and pleasant one for Zion and the Pelicans.
Yeah, and and it speaks, it speaks volumes coming from Shaq and Chuck because those guys know that they had to get in better shape to be able to play their best, and so they're speaking from experience and somebody that's probably that's gone through what Zion is going through right now. So I still I like, again, you know, Chuck and sometimes Shack, but Chuck a lot of times gets a bad rap for being too hard on players.
I really do think that it's been constructive criticism as far you know, they're speaking from a place of experience of going through what Zion is going through now, so hopefully Zion takes he and A and he's able to take his game to the next level. However way he needs to do it.
All Right, before we go, let's get into something that It's a topic both you and I have been interested in. I actually saw you on NBA TV today asking DiAngelo Russell about this because there is the question, and we don't have clarity yet, what how will the team that wins the nd season tournament celebrate. On one hand, you've got the Pacers. They've won three ABA championships, but they've never won an NBA title. They went to the NBA
Finals one famously in two thousand. They played the Shaq and Kobe Lakers lost that finals in six They you know, have won a division here and there. You know, they won the conference in two thousand. Obviously they were Eastern Conference champions. If you make the NBA finals, but the Pacers don't have a building full of banners. The feeling, I think is that if the Pacers win this thing on Saturday night, they will hang a banner. And it is it is not definitive. I actually spoke to Rick
Carlisle today and asked him that very question. And he said that for me to ask him such a thing right before the championship game, he said, Stein, that is a karmically flawed question. I'm not going to answer it, but uh, you know, he left me with the strong impression that, yes, if the Pacers can win this thing, they're gonna make a big deal about it. Then on the flip side, you've got the Lakers. The Lakers do not hang banners when they win conference championships. They do
not hang banners when they win the Pacific Division. They only hang banners when they win it all. They've got seventeen titles tied with Boston. And I discovered that we've both reported separately. We didn't realize that we were doing this, but I think both you and I have reported that. The official word we're getting is the Lakers have made no determination yet one way or the other what they're
going to do. But I think the expectation is that an end season tournament championship is not enough for them, because even Lebron you saw him postgame with your colleague Ali LaForce, and Lebron played so great against the Pelicans. I mean, he was the best player on the court at almost thirty nine. But he told Ali he's not going to get too out of control happy because it's
only December. So that's my long winded way of saying, what do you think happens if the Pacers win it all or the Lakers win the.
Highest Pacers are putting up a banner for sure, you know what I think. This is my feeling, and this is I have no sourcing on it whatsoever. I haven't spoken to anybody on it, aside from getting the message from the Lakers that they haven't made a decision. But
this is what I think. I think a team like the Lakers or Celtics might feel obligated to do so at some point because I think this is going to be something that gets bigger, right, I think this is going to be something that's going to continue and it's going to be a big thing. It has yet to register to me at stein because you know, I'm not into the the soccer culture and I don't understand you know, the different cups and tournaments, you know what I mean.
But if this becomes ingrained, you know, this is this is this tournament is going to speak to the younger generation coming up who are going to come up watching this. If this really is, becomes not equal but pretty close behind winning a Larry O'Brian Trophy. I can see the Lakers saying, you know what, this is gonna be here to stay, even though we don't feel the significance of it now. We might want to throw something up there, or maybe they can wait stein the Lakers. That's what
I would do. If I'm the Lakers or the Celtics and I win the first or the second nd season tournament, I'm gonna make a banner, but I'm gonna just hold it, put in the closet, leave it the storage. Let's see how big this thing is. Then about a tenth year. If this thing is huge, go ahead and throw up that batterer from eight nine years ago. Ahead, go ahead.
I'm in the other camp. Every team should hang a banner for this. And the reason is, you know, the league came up with this. Adam Silver has wanted this for ages for really two main reasons.
Yo.
There's the business reason, of course, the one that they don't like to admit, but the one we all understand that if this thing goes well, and by all accounts, people don't grade it as hard as I have, so I think the reviews have been more positive than negative. The league would love to sell the inn season tournament as a separate TV package to a media rights partner down the road. That's what it's hoping to do on
the business side. But on the competitive side, Adam Silver, and this is the part he does take from soccer. He's always said, this is a league where there's one winner and twenty nine losers because unless you win the Larry O'Brien Trophy, you're a failure. And the thing he did really want to take from soccer is, let's create a second trophy opportunity that teams are excited to chase.
Because there are teams in the league that when they win a division they hang a banner because they're not the Lakers and they're not the Celtics and they don't have seventeen championship banners. So to certain franchises, winning the division or winning the conference's that is banner worthy. And the you know, basically what I'm really looking forward to Saturday before the game, Adam Silver is going to have a press conference and I hope someone asked the question.
I hope someone asks, what is the league's stance on banners, And even as I talk, as I say this out loud and start thinking about it, Adam will probably say something along the lines of we don't want to be in position of telling our teams what to do. But my gut instinct is the league office wants to see everyone whoever wins this thing hang a banner and treat
it like a big deal. Because the league's goal here, and you know, you can't say they're there yet in year one, but the league's goal here is that this is the second most valuable prize a team can win. The league wants this to be bigger than a division title or even a conference title. That the league is hoping to establish this as the number two prize for teams in the NBA. So to me, if the Lakers won it and didn't hang a banner, that's a slap in the face to the league.
Well remember look what you say, Stan, you said. The league is hoping this becomes the second most significant award during the regular season, hoping, hoping, hoping. What if it isn't, what if it doesn't make it to sustainability, So then the Lakers are or the Pacers, they're just they're stuck with an inn season tournament that doesn't in season tournament banner that doesn't exist anymore.
I guess you know what it is. I just I can't see it going away now, Like I.
Don't think so either. I don't think so either. I think I don't think so.
Like again, I think I've been as critical of this thing as anyone. And and you know, all of my almost all of my criticisms are based on group play and counting these regular seas and games twice and the fact that the nd season tournament is not separate enough. But I think I'm in the minority. I think this has generated many more fans than foes in year one, and the fact that Lebron has taking it so seriously
in year one has certainly helped it. So I I guess I'm just I'm kind of skipping steps here and operating under the premise that I think. I think it's here. I think it's here to stay.
Yeah, I believe so too. I still will tell the Lakers make the banner, believe it in storage. Well, let's let's wait, let's wait to see what.
Well, you know what's gonna happen. You're right, because again, now that you know someone is gonna ask Adam Silver and he's probably gonna say, we don't want to tell teams what to do. And if the league does not compel teams to hang a banner for this, maybe the Lakers won't. Maybe the Lakers will do exactly what you said and take a wait and see approach.
Yeah, take a wait and see approach. STEI. Before we get out of here, STEI, have you ever and Producer Ryan feel free to chime in. We don't let producer Ryan chime in enough. He has a lot to say.
He's putting out too many fires, airs, gaffs, controversies. The man is busy.
Star. You know, it's what I experienced yesterday was the equivalent to me of experiencing Is it called the solar clips Is that what it's called? Where? Where? What the Earth? How does what the Earth rotates around the sun? Moon or sun? It blocks out the sun? Yeah, it blocks off the Sun and it's like you only see at that what time. I've never seen it before, but what I experienced last night is the equivalent equivalent of that. So, Producer Ryan and STEI, have you ever been in a
high riser hotel like I am right now? I'm in a high Riser hotel, are you and you justly hear a loud thump at the window. You hear a loud thump, thump, thump, thump. Have y'all heard that never?
I don't know where you're going with this.
I mean, I'm gonna tell you so all the time, every time I'm in high Risers, I hear a loud thump at the window, bump, thump, like every now and then, like probably three or four times a day. So y'all need to pay attention. So those thumps are birds hitting the glass window because they don't see the glass window. And I always, for years, I'm forty two, I've never actually seen the bird hit the window. I finally saw the bird hit the window and drop all the way
down to the road. I saw it finally, after all those thumps I heard all these years, I finally just happened to be looking out my window and I seen a bird going straight for the glass. It was like the glass like ten feet away from mop building. It was just going straight. I'm like, what this bird doing? Where's this bird going? It kept going fast, it didn't slow down and boom, and it just slid down the rest of the glass window.
Onto, and that was your solar eclipse.
That was my solar I finally saw it after years of hearing that. So y'all never heard a thump when you had a high where you had a high rise of hotel glass windows, You've never heard those thumps at the window?
Yeah, no, I had. I mean I just experienced similar during a stay at JW. Marriott, LA live right across the street from yes, the building formerly known as Staple Center. But I did not deem it podcast worthy.
I did not.
I didn't. I didn't know that. I didn't know that that was the story that would that would be good for the pod. And that's because you only heard it.
You didn't see it. You didn't see it.
Now you gotta see it true too. I did not. I did not see the bird.
I am looking at this bird and it is speeding and not slowing down.
Could you could you identify what kind of bird it was?
It was? It was like a black crow, like sometime a black crow. It was a black bird, but it was speeding, it was not slowing down. I'm like, doesn't this see this building? This glass And I'm like, hold on, is this gonna be swat and just slid all the way down.
Who knows, Maybe now we're gonna get some bird watching traffic on this pod instead of just NBA listeners.
Hey, we're here for everybody. I just know that. I just know there are people out there that hear those thumps. And then there's some people like producer Ryme who didn't actually know what that thump was. That's what the thump was. It was birds that they think. They don't they don't see the window. They think it's they think it's a clear shot to get wherever they're trying to get until they get where they're at.
Producer Producer Ryan doesn't get to go to any hotels because his full time job is keeping this pod glued together and troubleshooting all of our messes. So he yeah, we can't even remember the last time he was in a hotel.
Yeah, he listens to us go splat, That's that's what he does.
Yeah, and then yeah, all right on that note, that is going to do it for this edition of This League Uncut. The next time we are with you, Chris Haynes will be back from Vegas with certainly more stories. A notebook full of stories from the NBA, and who knows what else he'll see an experience on the strip.
I'm coming. I don't forget about that, but.
At least he won't be in Vegas any longer by the next time we speak, and so my jealousy factor will have declined significantly. And yes, Tuesday Night Lakers at Dallas, Chris Haynes on the sidelines for TNT, wearing some fresh new gear for sure for the national TV audience, and I will be in the building critiquing his every move. It'll be our first time in the same place since July, almost basically five months since he and I were together.
So definitely looking forward to that Lakers MAVs game and what sort of mayhem ensues. And we're working on a special guest next week as well. Don't want to jinx it, but I think we're gonna have a very high profile NBA newsmaker join us as well. So we got lots of good stuff on the way. Please remember, as always rate review, subscribe to this League uncut via Spotify or Apple Pods or wherever you get your pods, and Chris and I will be back with you again, Harry Larry soon.
Enjoy the ist final everyone, and that'll do it for us. See you next time. This League Uncut is an iHeartRadio production Chris Haines and Mark Stein.