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KGMZ-FM / 95.7 THE GAME
  • 2 days ago
Transcript
00:00Zach Levine and DeMontis Sabonis out tonight for the Sacramento Kings.
00:07And honestly, why would they play?
00:10Like, why would you play?
00:12I mean, because you have to?
00:14Well, you don't.
00:15You get 82 games.
00:16I mean, you can play if you want to, but you don't have to.
00:21So why play?
00:22And I don't know if they're injured or if it's October, November, load management,
00:28whatever it is, but just go ahead and take the night off, guys.
00:31Zach Levine has low back soreness.
00:34Okay.
00:34The exact same thing they're listing Jimmy Butler with.
00:37Yeah, and that can be brutal when you're 28 years old.
00:39And DeMontis Sabonis has a left rib cage contusion.
00:44He has a tummy ache.
00:47No, he has a contusion.
00:50He has a tummy ache.
00:52His ribs hurt.
00:53Okay.
00:53Jawan Jennings has five broken ribs, and he plays every single snap that he possibly can.
01:00He's a football player.
01:01Right.
01:01He's built different, and there's only 17 of those.
01:04I get it.
01:04And also, he's fighting like hell to get to his incentives so he can get that chicken.
01:11I don't know what Sabonis' contract is.
01:13I'd look it up, but I don't really care to look it up.
01:15I'll look it up.
01:16He is Eric B and Rakim.
01:19He's paid in full.
01:21Well, everybody in the NBA is.
01:23Right.
01:23So why play?
01:24If you're the Adorables, and I appreciated you sent me that before.
01:29Granny, I sent him a picture of my daughter from Halloween, and she's unbelievably cute.
01:35And Willard's response was, she's cuter than a Sacramento King.
01:38I know.
01:39She's more adorable than a Sacramento King.
01:39That's what he said.
01:40And I was like, that's a damn five.
01:42Yeah.
01:42Very funny.
01:43Demonta Sabonis is a fully guaranteed four-year, $186 million contract that has two more years
01:51on it after this year.
01:5342.3 this year, 45.4 next year, 48.6 the year after that.
01:59Look, can I...
02:00What's the 25th letter of the alphabet?
02:02Uh...
02:04One, two, three...
02:06Why?
02:06I don't know.
02:07Why?
02:08What do you mean, why?
02:09Why play?
02:10If you've got a rib contusion, then you know what?
02:14Do you actually feel this way?
02:15I feel that NBA players are less motivated to play through stuff than NFL players.
02:21Well, that's for sure.
02:23That's any sport.
02:25Any sport.
02:26I'm not impugning Steph or Jimmy or Draymond or Zach or any of the various sub-bonuses,
02:32but what's your motivation?
02:34It's November.
02:35If the Kings win or the Kings lose, it's not going to determine their season.
02:40And it's the same thing for the Warriors.
02:42And this is the problem with the association, is that the majority of players, they aren't
02:48motivated to actually play basketball.
02:51Unless it's intrinsic.
02:52Like, you love it and you want to do it.
02:54I get it.
02:55But if you are, you know, if you have a little ailment and it's November, I'm good.
03:00I get where you're coming from.
03:01I really do.
03:02I have a hard time putting this directly on the athletes, though, and acting like now,
03:07here we are in 2025, and all of the NBA players just don't care.
03:11They just don't care, and there's no reason to play.
03:14There's no motivation to play.
03:15You do not become a professional athlete if you're built that way.
03:19These dudes are wired with unbelievable motivation.
03:23That is how you achieve something like this.
03:27And I would agree with you more if this was coming solely from the athletes.
03:32If it really was just a bunch of spoiled dudes who were rich,
03:35therefore they don't need to do anything anymore,
03:39DeMontis Sabonis is 29 years old.
03:41If he's decided before his 30th birthday that, like, whatever,
03:45I don't need to do anything anymore, and it was only about money,
03:48I would hear that more.
03:50But this is coming from the teams also.
03:53We just played what Steve Kerr says about this.
03:56Like, they, this is high-level analytics, strength and conditioning coaches,
04:02Rick Celebrini sitting down with plans, some of which need to be adjusted
04:08on a night-to-night basis, and becoming complicit with this entire idea.
04:13And so, like, I don't know.
04:14I don't think this is nefarious.
04:16I don't think it's laziness.
04:18It's just the nature of the league is where you don't have to win that often.
04:23And you can be the 10th seed, and darn it, you've got a fighting chance to be,
04:28you could still be a champion.
04:29Unless you're really, really, really, really, really, really bad,
04:33you've got a shot to still make the playoffs,
04:35which makes the regular season largely irrelevant.
04:38That's the problem.
04:39But other than football, where is that not true?
04:42Give me the sport where, like, the urgency to win every time you play,
04:47take away NFL and college football.
04:49Where else does that exist?
04:51Baseball's different because it's an individual sport.
04:53So as an individual, well, basketball's not.
04:56Like, basketball, and I just looked it up, Zach Levine and his career,
05:00he's not even 31, and Zach Levine has never been a winning player,
05:04and he's already made $209 million.
05:08This year he's making $48 million.
05:10So if you're Zach Levine, and you're on a team that is not very good,
05:14and you know you're not going anywhere, what's your motivation?
05:17But is that really what you think is happening?
05:19Do you think that Zach Levine...
05:20I think in general, I'm not going to say this about Zach.
05:23Do you know what I mean?
05:23I'm saying in general, if you're an NBA player,
05:26and you have a guaranteed contract,
05:28and you've already made a quarter billion dollars in your career,
05:31what's the real motivation to get out there?
05:35If you're a baseball player, I want to be 30-30,
05:38I want to be a Hall of Famer, whatever it is, you're an individual.
05:41You get the bat four times a game, and you try to hit the ball, and that's it.
05:46This is different.
05:47I don't see it that way.
05:49Same thing is true for them.
05:50Their numbers, their Hall of Fame candidacy, that's all the same.
05:55What's their motivation?
05:56That's what they do for a living.
05:58That's what they do.
05:5964 times out of 82.
06:00No, but that's not how they got here.
06:03I think that's a pretty tough putt.
06:05But once you get here, it's different than how you got here.
06:07Well, there's no doubt.
06:08They're human beings, but at the same time,
06:10if I were to follow what you're saying,
06:13we would have dudes all over the league at age 30 just leave.
06:17Leave.
06:18You don't need more money.
06:19Why leave?
06:20Why stay?
06:21Because you can play 61 out of 82 and make $28 million.
06:25Why play the 61?
06:28Why play at all?
06:30Because basketball is fun.
06:31And you're not going to get hit over the middle and break five ribs.
06:35No, but yes, you are.
06:36In the 61 that you play.
06:38Somebody might scratch you across the neck.
06:40I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not.
06:42I'm being a little sarcastic, but the reality is this is what's wrong with the league,
06:48is that these players don't have the intrinsic desire to go out there
06:53and put it on the line because they don't have to.
06:55But you're making it sound like it's their decision.
06:58They're not.
06:59It's not.
07:00It's not.
07:01It's not about a decision.
07:02It's about the construct.
07:04The construct is this.
07:05You can be mediocre as a team.
07:08You can hang around at 38 and 44.
07:11And, okay, we get to the play-in.
07:14Now let's try.
07:15Now let's really go out there and try to win.
07:16That's the problem.
07:17But I think ramping things up to a different level is actually part of sports.
07:23I've been told that, as have you, by athletes in every sport.
07:28You know what I mean?
07:28When you see somebody pop in the preseason in the NFL, people get excited about it sometimes.
07:35Ooh, look at this guy.
07:36And we'll always go, relax, it's the preseason because the speed goes up when you get to the regular season.
07:43And then the speed goes up again when you get to a division game.
07:47And the speed goes up again when you get to the playoffs.
07:51It's just the nature of human beings.
07:53You know what I mean?
07:54When it's a big moment, you're going to dress up a little bit more, right?
07:58You're not wearing sweats to your wedding.
08:00Like, that's a bigger day.
08:01So, like, I'm just having a hard time with the best athletes in the world who have shown the ability to be focused, motivated, smart,
08:12block out all these distractions, become pros the second they get a massive contract, life-changing money.
08:20Now they don't give a rip anymore.
08:21And their coaches and executives and GMs and strength and conditioning people are telling them, you're out tonight.
08:31I just don't think this is all on the players at all.
08:34I'm not saying it's all on the players.
08:35I'm saying it's on the construct of the league.
08:37Last night, Zach Levine and Dama Sabonis played 37 minutes apiece.
08:42They played nine and a half minutes in the fourth quarter apiece in Denver.
08:46And they lost a tough game.
08:47And so now you come home and you've got a game against Golden State and, you know, now we're not feeling super-duper.
08:55And that was two days ago.
08:56I think that the problem is not solely with the players.
08:59And it's what Steve Kerr talked about.
09:01And even 72 games, that's probably too much.
09:04You need to find a way to make these games matter more often.
09:08Because these games don't matter.
09:09That's fine.
09:09But that's two different points.
09:11It's the same point.
09:12But, no, it sounded for about five, six minutes like you were questioning the motivation and the structure inside the brain of a player.
09:21Now you're questioning more the overall umbrella of the league.
09:24Because if you're the player and you're making $47 million and the trainer says, yeah, you need to sit out on a Thursday or on a Wednesday against Golden State, you're like, okay, cool.
09:35I'm going to make $580,000 in my sweats?
09:38I don't think most players are built that way.
09:41I don't think that's how you become a professional athlete, by not caring about your craft and not caring about being out there and not caring about fans and all of those things.
09:51Sure, does money change people?
09:53I guess to a degree.
09:55But, I mean, we're sitting here watching 40.
09:57What the hell is Al Horford still doing?
09:59He's got to be motivated by something.
10:01And it's not money.
10:02And it's not I don't care.
10:04Why is he still playing?
10:05He loves the game.
10:07Well, there you go.
10:07He's not making $47 million.
10:08But he's made bajillions in his career.
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