00:00The NBA and the NBA Players Association have ruled in favor of Lakers' Luka Doncic and the Pistons' Cade Cunningham
00:08on their Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge for the 65-game rule, which makes them eligible for MVP, All-NBA, and all
00:17the other awards.
00:18And I know you have been on the record to say you did not.
00:21Yeah, because it's stupid.
00:21Well?
00:22Like, because you chose to miss the other 15 games when you weren't hurt.
00:26Let's start with Luka.
00:26So, Luka's Extraordinary Circumstance is that his girlfriend was giving birth to their child in, like, Estonia or Latvia or
00:34something like that.
00:34So, he flew over there.
00:36Missed two games.
00:37Watched the kid get born, flew back, missed two games, and did not play the 65 games needed to be
00:43qualified for the Supermax and a lot of the postseason awards, right?
00:46Right, he's caring about that Supermax.
00:48And he's caring about that Supermax because he knows he's not going to win anything.
00:51And I'm saying to myself, they allow you to miss 17 games, which is more than 20%.
00:56Actually, it is 20%.
00:5820% of all the games.
01:00They don't dock your pay.
01:02So, if you decide that you're going to go to Europe or Latvia or wherever the hell he was to
01:06watch your baby be born, which we all respect as a man, you want to be there for the birth
01:11of your children.
01:11I respect that, of course.
01:12Well, then, don't take two other days off for load management.
01:17So, I would have ruled against him.
01:19Okay.
01:19And this is why people are mad at the NBA.
01:22Because we already allow you to take 20% of all the games off for no reason at all.
01:30Or for any reason.
01:31For any reason.
01:31It could be injury.
01:32It could be, yeah.
01:32And now, you wanted two extra days off.
01:35We respect why.
01:37But that means if you really cared about postseason awards and the Supermax, it ain't hard to play 65 games.
01:44He chose not to play 65 games.
01:48Now, what's the extraordinary circumstance for Cade Gunningham?
01:51His injury?
01:53His injury.
01:54Guys get hurt.
01:55Yes, true.
01:56But.
01:57So, why is that extraordinary circumstance?
01:59He also, he didn't load management.
02:02Cade is not a load management guy.
02:04And absolutely, by merit, is an all-NBA first-team performer based on his play this year.
02:10So.
02:10He did not load manage.
02:12And they're both in the same spot where they both played 64 games, right?
02:15And they're saying that this is what this exception is for.
02:19Okay.
02:19For a baby or injury where you literally become one game short.
02:24Because he did not load manage.
02:25Unlike Luka, Cade does not load manage.
02:28I don't know.
02:28Cade plays.
02:29I know he missed 11 games with the collapse long.
02:32I don't know why he missed the other seven games.
02:35He had an ankle earlier in the year as well.
02:37So, no.
02:37He does not load manage.
02:39So.
02:39And he's one short.
02:40But here's my problem with it.
02:42Injuries, as we all know, are part of sports.
02:46So, the fact that you played 64 games.
02:49Right.
02:49And we're well aware of your, the lung.
02:51I didn't know about the ankle.
02:52So, fine.
02:53Let's just say it was a legitimate injury.
02:54It was.
02:55It was.
02:55Well, that's part of the game.
02:57There's nothing extraordinary about a player getting hurt.
03:01And I'll give you a great example.
03:02Uh-huh.
03:02Let's say Jason Tatum.
03:04Yeah.
03:05Came back and played the last 20 games of the season.
03:07Yeah.
03:08And I'm making this up.
03:08It's arbitrary, right?
03:09Let's say the Celtics were in the seventh spot when that happened.
03:12And Tatum comes back.
03:14They go 20-0.
03:15And he averages 40 points a game.
03:16And they go 20-0.
03:17They go 20-0.
03:18And they go from the seventh seed to the one seed.
03:20Making it up, right?
03:21Yeah, making it up, yeah.
03:22Would you allow him the extraordinary circumstance provision and make him eligible?
03:29No, I would not.
03:30Okay, you don't stop.
03:30And the answer to no is because he was injured.
03:33For me, no.
03:34Right.
03:34The answer would be, to me, there is a difference between 64 games.
03:38But there should be.
03:3965 is an arbitrary number also.
03:40It was the number they made up.
03:41The other part is, just so we're clear.
03:43I hate this.
03:44But it doesn't make them automatically all NBA.
03:47It makes them eligible for people to vote their all NBA.
03:50And that's different.
03:51But the flip side is, if you don't play 65 games, you're not eligible.
03:55Unless you have special.
03:56It just means you can vote for them now.
03:58Yeah, that just means you can vote for them.
03:59MVP, all NBA honors.
04:01Then you get the super max.
04:03If you make all NBA.
04:04Which these two will for sure.
04:06To me, this is another example.
04:07By the way, Adam Silver's in my radio studio tomorrow at 5 o'clock.
04:10Talk to him about it, yeah.
04:11I'll ask him about it.
04:13Look, I'm not going to lose sleep over it.
04:14And he's, by the way, he said he's keeping the 65 game.
04:17But he's not.
04:19We've just thrown 65 out the window.
04:21That's separate from him.
04:22This is an independent arbiter that goes to that.
04:25Okay.
04:25And this is for special circumstances.
04:27And they say in most courts, at least on the Luka side, he would win because of the birth of
04:31a child.
04:31Yeah, but I don't know what's special about the fact that you're having a baby.
04:35Like, a lot of guys have babies.
04:37Right.
04:37And he works in California.
04:40That's not my problem.
04:41Right, but anybody who works in California can miss a couple days of work for having a baby.
04:45I don't know if I, I don't know what the NBA rules might be different than that.
04:49I know they allow paternity leave.
04:50I'm saying if he took it to court, he would likely win in court.
04:53He would win.
04:54Well, he got paid.
04:55I don't think the court would say that because we're in California, because not every game is in California, as
05:00you know,
05:00that all of a sudden the California courts can decide you're eligible for bonuses.
05:06It'd be more about.
05:06Right.
05:07It'd be eligible for it.
05:08Eligible to be voted on.
05:09You know, the problem with this, Tyrone, in my opinion, and we can bicker about this for the next couple
05:13weeks.
05:14I'm not necessarily.
05:14I'm not doing it.
05:15This is the other side.
05:16Yeah, I know.
05:16I'm with you.
05:18I don't think there's even a right or wrong to it.
05:19It's just a fascinating conversation.
05:21But this is another example, and I'm not sure who the arbiter is, of the league, you know, basically currying
05:29favor and kissing the players' asses.
05:32Okay.
05:32You know, and the NBA does that more than anybody.
05:35But, like, you set up an arbitrary number.
05:37We're allowing you to take off, for any reason at all, 20% of all the games your team plays.
05:44You've got to figure out how to manage that if you're the type of dude that wants to take all
05:4917 games off.
05:50Now, I'm not the one that told you not to move your wife to the United States of America.
05:55You chose that.
05:56Or your girlfriend, I guess, at the time.
05:58I didn't choose not to give birth in this country.
06:00You chose that.
06:01It's your right to choose it.
06:03But if you also now want to be there for the birth of your child, which we all respect, you
06:07know, sometimes that comes with consequences.
06:09You know, the consequence for you is that, you know, instead of making $70 million next year, you only get
06:15to make $55.
06:16Wow.
06:18Ain't nobody crying for Luka Doncic.
06:20Now, the Cape Cunningham one's a little bit different, I guess.
06:22It is.
06:23But I wouldn't give him extraordinary circumstances either.
06:25Here's the other part that would also.
06:27Wemby's eligible.
06:29He played 65, right, on the number?
06:31Yeah, both these guys have played hundreds of more minutes of basketball.
06:35I know.
06:35I saw that, Seth.
06:36Both of those guys did.
06:36Don't matter to me.
06:37So that doesn't matter.
06:38No.
06:38It's just the games.
06:39It's not how much basketball you play.
06:41Now, the rule is you have to play at least 20 in those games for the games to count.
06:45Except Wemby got a special dispensation for playing between 15 and 20 on the bus.
06:50Or he might be on it.
06:51Yeah, which I don't agree with that either.
06:52I know it was written before Wemby used it.
06:54To be fair, it's not a Wemby rule.
06:56Right.
06:56He's the first guy I know that's used it.
06:58But I think it sucks.
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