00:00A little more basketball. It's a quick segment. Only got a couple of minutes for it.
00:03It was announced. I've been at the front end of this. You could ask Adam Silver,
00:07my dear friend, the commissioner of the NBA. And every time I see him and speak to him,
00:11I keep putting it in his ear. We got to fix All-Star Weekend. And the easiest fix to it
00:15is not just getting the biggest names players to participate in the dunk contest,
00:19but for the game itself, which has become absolutely unwatchable. USA versus the world.
00:25It's a no-brainer. Well, the NBA finally came around and listened to me,
00:29but they added their own little caveat to it, which I don't like,
00:32so I'm just going to walk you through it real quick. It's USA versus the world.
00:35As you can see there on the screen, two USA teams, one world team.
00:40Yeah. So it's a three-team round robin, and then the top two teams,
00:45based on the round robin, then play against each other for the title.
00:49So by default, it's going to be the championship game of one of the team USA teams.
00:54Either against the other Team USA team, which defeats the entire purpose
00:59of USA versus the world. The idea is that USA should play USA,
01:05one team gets eliminated, and then the winner plays the world.
01:09Having Team USA versus Team USA, which is a possibility, I guess, makes no sense.
01:14And here's the problem, and here's the rub to it.
01:18Adam Silver, and more importantly than Adam Silver,
01:21the American-born NBA players know a fact that none of us want to really admit publicly.
01:28If it was just one team representing USA and one team representing the world,
01:36we probably lose.
01:39And it pains me to say that as the nation's foremost basketball aficionado,
01:45but we probably lose. Could we win?
01:48Yes, we could win. It'd be a very competitive game.
01:50But when you start considering the makeup of Team World
01:55versus just a single Team USA,
01:58and I know we have great players still playing,
02:01the majority of our team is still going to be what we call in the streets OGs.
02:07They're going to be old heads.
02:08It's going to be Kevin Durant.
02:10And LeBron's going to force his way onto the team despite not belonging on the team.
02:14Fans would vote him on the team.
02:16The fans would vote.
02:17Hold on. There shouldn't be a fan vote.
02:18No, there's still going to be a fan vote.
02:19No.
02:19It's the All-Star game. It's about the fans.
02:22Time out.
02:22You can't make it not about the fans.
02:23No. It's about our country's dominance over the world in our sport.
02:29I don't want to vote on this.
02:31The fans shouldn't vote on this.
02:33This should not be a popularity contest.
02:36LeBron James should not be on Team USA this year.
02:41If the fans want him, he should be.
02:42No. If you want to go have a little get-together somewhere else
02:45and have a popularity contest and sign some autographs, I'm all about it.
02:49This is about asserting our dominance as a basketball country.
02:54And all the American-born players know a nasty, disgusting, ugly truth.
03:00We probably lose the game.
03:02Because when you start talking about a team with SGA and Giannis and Jokic and Luka,
03:11I know we've got great players, too, and we do, and I'm Mr. America when it comes to basketball.
03:16The reason they've set this up with not one but two Team USAs
03:22is because we're afraid that we're going to lose.
03:25We don't want the European-slash-Canadian smoke.
03:29We don't want it.
03:30Victor Wambayamba Mama, Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic, right?
03:36And all the other guys I mentioned, right?
03:38Giannis and SGA, the current MVP of our sport, and on and on and on.
03:44We want no part of that.
03:46And that's sad to me because it's like an admission that world basketball has passed American basketball.
03:54And I'm not ready for that to be the case.
03:58And the reality is that because people like Tyrone, I'm glad you said it,
04:03are going to view this as a popularity contest.
04:05Like an All-Star game.
04:06Here's what's going to happen.
04:08We're not going to put our best possible team together.
04:11We're going to put politically certain guys that have to be a part of USA basketball.
04:18So, yeah, LeBron's going to be on the team.
04:21No doubt about it.
04:21Because the fans will vote him on.
04:23I don't give a rat's ass what the fans want.
04:25Well, I do.
04:26If we are building the best current Team USA basketball team, meaning American-born basketball players,
04:33to be team world, and we better win this thing,
04:36because this is going to become the new Olympic Games in a manner, right?
04:40Because, you know, you got only the best that are vying for the championship.
04:43Well, I'm concerned.
04:47I don't know.
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