00:00Rick, I got to start with the all-star game here. I mean, you know, there's so many problems that
00:05are going on with the all-star game when it comes to visibility. What's wrong with the NBA's all-star
00:11game going into NBA all-star Sunday? What do you think is wrong with it? Well, it started decades
00:16ago. Back when I played, it was an incredibly meaningful game. I mean, we took great pride in
00:24that to see whether, you know, you could beat the guys, the great players from the other conference.
00:30And then for some reason, I guess maybe because the money got to the point that it was crazy,
00:34the players just decided that they were just going to go out and put on an exhibition. And I think
00:39decades ago, of course, the NBA never listens to anything I have to say, that they should call it
00:44the NBA all-star exhibition because it's not a game. Okay. It's not a game. Now, to their credit,
00:51they have tried in their last decade or so to come up with new concepts, new formats,
00:56to try to get the players to take it a little bit more seriously. This one might have a chance.
01:04And I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens. And here's why. I'm hoping that the
01:09foreign players all get together and say, hey, let's go out there and show the world that we are
01:16great basketball players and go out and try to kick butt in the games that they play, which would force
01:22the other guys to not get embarrassed, to have to play to match the other team's intensity to try to
01:28win. Now, I'm hoping that happens. Now, whether it does or not, it's really all on the back of the
01:34foreign players to decide if they want to do that. Now, conversely, I don't think this would be the
01:40case, but it could be that the American players, since this format is there with the world, they want
01:46to prove that they're the best, and they're going to go out and play more seriously to prove that
01:50point. I think it's more likely that it would be the reverse, that the world players, the foreign
01:55players would take the position that I mentioned first.
01:59What the lack of effort, though, Rick, do you think really it's the money that really has changed the
02:06landscape on when you guys played or when I'm watching Bird and Magic back in the day was East
02:11versus West? There was a legitimate effort, like you said, to go out there and show, hey, I'm better
02:17than you. Hey, I want to put a show on for the fans. Rick, every time you stepped on the
02:21court,
02:22you wanted to put a show on for the fans. When did that dynamic change? Well, it really wasn't. I
02:27don't think show is the right word. I don't know. I never tried to put on a show. I just
02:30tried to play
02:30my best basketball and play smart basketball and play serious basketball, and that's the way that we
02:35approached it. Now, back in our day, I think the winning team might have gotten $3,000 or something.
02:41That was a fifth of my freaking salary, and so the money is irrelevant to these guys as far as
02:45what
02:46they're getting to do it, and I think for them, and what it turned into was I think they got
02:50the
02:50point, well, let's just put on a show and just have some fun and do all of these crazy things
02:54that
02:54they did, and to their credit, they did some amazing stuff. I still remember some of the things
02:59that they do. I remember Steph Curry throwing a bounce pass from half court that went up, and I think
03:04it was Giannis who might have caught the ball and dunked it. I mean, they do some amazing things,
03:09but it's more entertainment than anything else. It's just, I don't know when, but it happened a
03:15long time ago, and these records, just setting the records, I mean, come on, their records mean
03:19nothing. You know, it's crazy. They don't guard anybody, and I always hoped that in the past,
03:24I was hoping, well, I hope the game's close in the last four or five minutes because maybe they'll
03:28get serious and want to try to win, so I'm hoping that the foreign players do what I said earlier
03:34and decide they want to go out there and make a point, and if they do, they can force the
03:38other
03:38guys, I think, to try to play hard because I know if I was a player, I wouldn't want to
03:42be shown up
03:42and be made a fool of, and if they come out and play serious, you have to match that, otherwise
03:46you're going to look foolish.
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