00:00Let us begin by setting the table with some of the latest news that has happened in the sports world
00:05in just the last little bit, in the last half hour or so, news coming down from the Miami Dolphins,
00:11who of course have a new general manager, a new head coach, and are going to have a new looking
00:16product on the field as well that will not include Bradley Chubb, or more notably, Tyreek Hill.
00:23You see the picture there in the tweet from Adam Schefter, Miami's eight-time pro bowler, the wide receiver Hill,
00:29is being released. Hill turns 31, 32, pardon me, in a couple of weeks on March 1st. He's recovering from
00:36a dislocated knee and a torn ACL, will now be an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his
00:43career.
00:43Now, Hill in his time with Miami overall, 54 games, 340 catches, almost 5,000 yards. Remember those first two
00:54seasons, he was incredible. 1,700 yards and about 1,800 yards, respectively.
00:5928 total touchdowns, an all-pro a couple of times, and voted the NFL's top player in the top 100
01:06after the 2023 season. But of course, due to that injury, only, pardon me, four games last year. And so,
01:15what does that mean for Hill's future as he recovers?
01:18Again, unrestricted free agent. For my money, and we'll see how it all plays out, don't be surprised by kind
01:24of a prove-it deal back with his old team in Kansas City and helping out Patrick Mahomes in a
01:30very thin receiving core that they have right there as he looks to, even at an advanced football age, if
01:37you will, rehabilitate his career approaching 32 years old.
01:41Short-term, one, maybe two years, low money, wouldn't surprise me at all. So, keep an eye on that as
01:47we get going with the NFL offseason.
01:49But, to look back on what we just experienced over the last couple of days at the Intuitome in Los
01:54Angeles, the NBA All-Star festivities, I would say for the most part, successful.
01:59Going in reverse order, looking at yesterday, it was a round-robin competition. Team Stars, the winners, against Team Stripes
02:07and Team World.
02:08He had four games, each of those lasting 12 minutes, one quarter of action. Of course, right there, pictured on
02:17your screen, Anthony Edwards, the MVP across his three games was very, very good.
02:2332 points, nine rebounds, three assists, shot 13 of 22 from the field, six of 14 from three. A deserving
02:31MVP, again, on the winning squad.
02:33But, I think what really jumps out is the fact that Kawhi Leonard, for one, had north of 30 points
02:40in only one game at one point there in a win, including the game-winning three-pointer in a victory
02:47over Team World.
02:48So, once more, 12-minute quarters. He went for 30-plus points in a quarter.
02:53So, these were not generally lower-scoring games. You had anywhere between high 60s to low 90s across the four.
03:02But, you had three games in the round-robin, each with a game-winner, Scotty Barnes, De'Aaron Fox, and,
03:09of course, Kawhi, as mentioned before.
03:10Or, unfortunately, sort of brought down the hype and tempo of the night, or afternoon, as it were, in L
03:17.A., a blowout there in the championship with a 20-point win for Team Stars against Team Stripes.
03:24Nevertheless, the reason this kind of won the day for a lot of fans out there who clamor year after
03:28year, how do we fix the NBA All-Star game, was the fact that you had players out there trying.
03:33Anthony Edwards certainly took a cue from Team World star in one of the faces of the league, Victor Wembenyama.
03:42Yeah, he set the tone, and it was definitely competitive with all three teams, I feel like.
03:47I feel like the old heads played hard, too. They was playing real good defense.
03:51But, yeah, he set the tone, man, and it woke me up for sure.
03:55Again, here on the left side, third row.
03:57Yeah, we see the MVP trophy right there, you know, first off. Congratulations on that.
04:00How does it feel, you know, to get that get-back in the last game against the OGs?
04:04It felt good.
04:05Kay, before we walked out, Kay was like, man, we got to get our lip back.
04:08So, you know, we came out and stomped on him.
04:12Over here on the third row, we've got the microphone coming your way.
04:16Ant, I'm not going to lie, you were cooking people out there.
04:18Where do you get your confidence from?
04:20Is it just something you're born with, or is it just something that you've gotten over the years?
04:24I feel like it comes from the work.
04:26Like, all the hours I put in in the gym, I'm always in the gym.
04:29So, being in the gym, shooting those shots all the time, it's just, you build confidence within that.
04:35As far as All-Star Saturday, what once was All-Star Saturday night, again, an afternoon affair.
04:41Everything bumped up this year with NBC's coverage due to the Olympics.
04:45Understandable.
04:45Actually, I think it worked out pretty well for people on the East Coast that didn't necessarily want to stay
04:49up late watching these things.
04:51Saturday's festivities, not incredible.
04:54The three-point contest was pretty entertaining, however.
04:56Damian Lillard, who was out this entire year with his Achilles injury, still a participant, and now a three-time
05:02champion of the event, ousted Devin Booker in the final 29-27.
05:08So, Lillard getting the crown again for the third time.
05:11Won't see him on the court at all this year outside of this.
05:14So, a lot of people were hyped up about it.
05:16Personally, and I've talked about this on other SportsGrid programming, pardon me, I didn't, you know, it was fun to
05:22see, and actually I bet on Lillard, so it was fun to cash the ticket.
05:25I just thought it was a little bit ridiculous and stupid, quite frankly, because there are plenty of active players
05:30who are deserving.
05:31Nevertheless, he was a participant and made the most of it.
05:34Now, as far as the dunk contest goes, you had Keyshaad Johnson win this thing.
05:38If you're thinking who, you're entitled to feel that way because you had four participants in this thing, including Jackson
05:47Hayes, who's the only one probably that you've even heard of.
05:50From there, two rookies and another guy who's only been in the league for a couple of years.
05:54It was a terrible, terrible competition.
05:57Not entertaining at all.
05:59The dunks were not glamorous, not impressive by NBA dunk contest standards.
06:04Not sitting here saying, I could do these things, but given what you expect in a centerpiece event at All
06:11-Star festivities and looking for a showdown of sorts in the dunk contest, very, very, very underwhelming and disappointing.
06:19Quite frankly, not only in terms of name recognition, but performance, it might have been the worst dunk contest that
06:24we have ever seen.
06:25And making matters worse, Mack McClung, of course, of G League fame and NBA All-Star Weekend fame, the reigning
06:32three-time champion, did not participate in the event.
06:35Now, whether he wasn't asked to or simply declined, that I'm not sure, but he was not out there.
06:40And he had said going into the event that he was going to release the four dunks that he would
06:45have used in the event on social media after everything went final.
06:50He did exactly that.
06:51And I'll tell you what, all four that he displayed in the pre-produced video there were better than anything
06:57that we saw, even one out of any of the participants in the event.
07:02So it was incredibly unfortunate.
07:04The Shooting Stars competition.
07:06Congrats to producer Frank and Team Nix.
07:09They came away with the victory, Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Alan Houston in this one.
07:14And I'll tell you what, between winning the NBA Cup, the in-season tournament, winning this event here, why not
07:21sprinkle the Nix at around 15-1 to win the NBA championship?
07:24Because who knows how many banners we might see for both of these things.
07:28You know, Nix fans, they like to celebrate just a little bit of anything.
07:31And this one came home for them against the Harpers and the Legends and other participants, good on them.
07:38But, yeah, I think overall, NBA All-Star Weekend was a reasonable success.
07:43Again, the three-point contest was really the showcase event.
07:46And the game's not too bad.
07:48Now, LeBron James, was it the last time that we will see him participate in these things?
07:53Of course, I mean, hard to say.
07:56He's not going to answer those questions.
07:58But he'll always be asked, and he gave us this.
08:02LeBron, I guess I should ask, do you still have the same uncertainty about next year?
08:08Do you have an inkling of what you want to do?
08:12Yeah, I mean, I want to live.
08:15When I know you guys, I know.
08:17I don't know.
08:18I have no idea.
08:19I just want to live.
08:21I think what I want to do at 45, 50, or 55 will be a lot of creating great vibes
08:33and fun with my family and my friends.
08:35That's one of my passions, great memories that will last forever.
08:40You know, and so that's for sure that's the most important for me, you know, creating things that we will
08:47never, ever forget.
08:48So, you know, my family, my friends, of course.
08:52I think congrats to Colin Morikawa for his win at Pebble Beach.
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