00:00Maybe it went a little under the radar yesterday, but we've kind of arrived at a spot after talking to
00:08Mark Spears three times in the last four weeks.
00:12He joined us when we were on Radio Row.
00:14He stopped by live when we were at Splash last week, and he came on the show yesterday on YouTube.
00:20For those of you who don't know Mark, you probably do if you're an NBA fan, but a very tapped
00:25-in longtime reporter with ESPN.
00:27So tapped-in that in the middle of our interview yesterday, he's getting texts from Jonathan Kaminga.
00:33Yep.
00:34Right in the middle of the year, right between the interview.
00:36So all that's going on.
00:39That's funny. I just got a text from Jonathan Kaminga.
00:41And we thought it was really funny.
00:43But he's got a theme that he keeps bringing up to us.
00:48A little bit of a different form every time he says it, but a theme.
00:52And the theme is basically about the health of the Warrior organization post-STEPH.
01:00We don't need to worry about it yet, except for kind of, kind of, what is it, March 14th, right?
01:07He's going to turn 38 years old.
01:09Yep.
01:10And he is currently not healthy enough to play basketball.
01:14Mark Spears keeps talking about something in a way that I don't think you or I have felt, and a
01:20lot of our fan bases has felt.
01:23Mark is in this complete and total state of calm.
01:28Bill Murray Caddyshack.
01:30Like, complete and total consciousness.
01:34Goonga galunga.
01:35Goonga galunga.
01:36Yep.
01:37With regard to the Warriors post-STEPH.
01:40He's like, you don't have to worry anymore, Warrior fan.
01:44I feel like Mark has been petting all of us on the back of the head and getting rid of
01:49past trauma.
01:50Past trauma from the Chris Cohan era.
01:53Right.
01:53And all of the things that Warrior fans have been through.
01:56And he's trying to tell us, and I would love to know if Warrior fans believe him or not.
02:03But once Steph goes, it's going to be okay.
02:08Do you believe that?
02:09I don't believe it because I've lived through Franklin Muley and Chris Cohan, and I don't believe that they are
02:17yet the Lakers.
02:18But you think about the Lakers and what they've done from, you know, Magic and Kareem.
02:22So you had Kareem, and he was getting old, and you got Magic, great.
02:26And then from after Magic, you got Kobe, and you got Shaq.
02:30And after that, you've gone, you know, into LeBron and now, you know, Luka and all the rest of it.
02:37I don't think that most teams get to do what they've done.
02:40And what Mark Spears is saying is that the Warriors are now kind of Laker-ish, where, you know, you
02:46are the Warriors.
02:46And so when Steph is gone, you'll be able to attract the next LeBron or the next, I mean, Kobe
02:53was drafted, kind of.
02:54I mean, he was drafted only because, like, they told the Lakers, they told the whole league that he's only
03:00going to be a Laker.
03:00But they got Shaq and, you know, the rest of it.
03:03And so, for me, what he's saying is that the Warriors can be what the Lakers are.
03:08And I'm not sure.
03:09Take a listen.
03:10This is Mark Spears on with us yesterday.
03:12I think that the best thing the Warriors got now, Post-Steph, is their brand.
03:17This is the most attractive franchise from a financial standpoint in the NBA.
03:23They're worth more than the Lakers and worth more than the Knicks, which is an incredible feat for the Laker
03:28-bin company to be able to do that, to be able to build that.
03:32And I would have never guessed that watching them 15 years ago in Oracle.
03:37So, to me, I think what happens is because you have that brand now, because you're in the Bay Area,
03:43because you're in the market,
03:44I think the Warriors will be able to attract free agents in a way that they never could post the
03:50Steph explosion.
03:52I mean, obviously, playing next to Steph is a draw for anybody in the world.
03:56Certainly will be different when he's there.
03:58But the Warriors are a global brand now.
04:01They're a Lakers, they're a Celtics, they're a Cowboys, Yankees kind of brand.
04:08Maybe not, but they're there.
04:09So, I don't think that these guys are the key to the future, but there'll be somebody to be named
04:16later that will be the key to the future.
04:19Yeah.
04:20I mean, wow.
04:21Okay.
04:23I don't think Warrior fans believe that.
04:26Right.
04:26But should we?
04:28And, like, I can't even tell you how many times.
04:32It's come up a lot this year, and I get why, right?
04:35Like, once Jimmy gets hurt, especially Steph's now out, and it starts, okay, the fading dynasty,
04:42and this comes up, this idea that the Warriors, not the Lakers, not the Knicks,
04:48it's really kind of breathtaking if you stop and think about it for a minute,
04:51and I think we fail to do this often.
04:53If you stop and think about it for a minute, it's breathtaking.
04:58The Warriors, not the Lakers, not the Knicks, are the big dogs.
05:05In terms of franchise value, and I hear this a lot, two things.
05:09Number one, a fan goes, why do I care what the franchise value is?
05:12I think what Mark is saying is why a fan could or should care about the franchise value.
05:18Other thing I hear, and this one I really can't speak on, I'd have to talk to an expert,
05:23but I hear a lot of people go, what do you think that franchise value is going to do as
05:28soon as Steph leaves?
05:29And I literally go, I don't know.
05:33Are we to believe that a $12 billion valuation just becomes eight if he retires?
05:41I don't think that's how it works.
05:44But I don't know.
05:46I don't know.
05:47Like if you ask me post-Steph, why would the Warriors be worth more than the Lakers?
05:52I don't know.
05:54But they are.
05:55They are right now.
05:57And I know arena, et cetera.
05:58Like I get it.
05:59Brand, market, the whole thing.
06:01Yeah.
06:01But if that's what they are, then couldn't we all just take a moment and pat each other on the
06:08back of the head and go, don't worry.
06:12Don't worry.
06:13Let me tell you, having worked at the Laker flagship station, they don't worry.
06:18They don't worry.
06:19They expect.
06:21They demand.
06:22And the second one star goes, they think you've waited too long to get the next one.
06:27Yeah.
06:28Yep.
06:28And if you're good and you're in the league, you're expected to be a Laker someday.
06:33But they've been that for, I don't know, 50 years.
06:36Yes.
06:36And this has been this for about 10.
06:38So it's hard to, I mean, really wrap your head around the fact that maybe you are now what that
06:44is and what that has become.
06:45But the whole thing for me is, you know, if you're a free agent and you look at this team
06:50and you look at any team, you're thinking about, you know, money and can I win and how are you
06:56going to treat me?
06:57And so here you can get money and they're going to treat you great.
07:00But can you win here?
07:02I don't know.
07:02Well, I mean, that's not like you don't always win when you go to the Lakers or the Knicks either.
07:07Right.
07:08I mean, you don't.
07:09You don't.
07:10But you feel like you have a great chance.
07:12Like you go to L.A. and it's like, you know, you're not going to be terrible for more than
07:15maybe a year or two.
07:17Oh, Kobe was.
07:18At the end.
07:19Yeah.
07:19I mean, and they were terrible because he was terrible and they were terrible before he got there.
07:24Yeah.
07:27I mean, like, you know what I mean?
07:29Yeah.
07:30Everybody goes through it.
07:31So the Warriors might go through it.
07:33But Mark's point is, I think, like, long term, this is going to be OK.
07:40And I would love to explore whether or not people buy that.
07:44Like, is this really all about Steph or have the Warriors now established something that is completely sustainable?
07:51It's just so hard for me as a 57 year old man who has been through so much of this.
07:56It's hard for me to be like, yeah, I mean, this is the new this is the Warriors now.
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