00:00I got to start off with some basketball today, Tyrone, because as you know, the Oklahoma City Thunder did last
00:04night.
00:05We all expected them to do. They were 15-point favorites. They won by 18.
00:09The game was not competitive at all. The best player for the Lakers last night was LeBron James.
00:14All right, Austin Reeves was terrible. Couldn't hit the broadside of a barn.
00:18LeBron had 27-4-6 last night, and yes, he's still 41 years old.
00:23But it got me thinking.
00:25Oh, boy. Okay.
00:29Assuming, I got to say it.
00:32Assuming the inevitable happens, and I don't think you and I disagree that it's going to happen,
00:37the Thunder are going to beat the Lakers.
00:39Oh, yeah, for sure.
00:40And that's just the reality. The Thunder are the best team in basketball.
00:43They might sweep the Lakers.
00:44They might.
00:45Assuming Luka doesn't come back and play, and the way Austin Reeves played last night,
00:49that's not an indictment on LeBron James last night.
00:51He was the Lakers' best player.
00:53Okay?
00:54That being said, LeBron James has not won an MVP award since 2013.
01:00That's more than a decade since LeBron James was thought of as the best player in the NBA,
01:06which means we are covering the entirety of his 30s, essentially, without an MVP award.
01:15You and I can argue and bicker about whether or not the COVID championship should be recognized as a real
01:21championship.
01:22You say yes, I say no.
01:24It is what it is, right?
01:25Mm-hmm.
01:28Ten years without an MVP.
01:31Ten years without a legitimate championship.
01:34Well, I don't agree with that part.
01:36And now, a second-round exit against the best team in basketball, okay?
01:42How in the world can LeBron James possibly retire with that sitting on his head?
01:49Oh.
01:50Because if he walks away a week from now and says, you know what?
01:54I've got other interests.
01:55I've got other things I want to pursue business-wise.
01:58I don't know, golf-wise, whatever it might be.
02:00I've had a storied career.
02:02I'm a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
02:04My resume speaks for itself.
02:07I think it opens up the door for fair and legitimate criticism of his legacy.
02:15What?
02:16I think it's fair.
02:17I think it's fair.
02:18This is out of control.
02:20I'm just asking.
02:22Do you see a world where LeBron James walks away from basketball,
02:29having got a decade without an MVP award,
02:33not having a real championship in the near decade he will have spent to Los Angeles, right?
02:41Knowing that when you compare him to the other greats,
02:45the other greats, none of them have that on their resume.
02:49Yeah.
02:51Good night, everybody.
02:51Because when Michael Jordan was 40, he didn't make the playoffs.
02:54Like, we just going to skip that part?
02:56Like, this is what I don't like.
02:57You make a comparison and only give one slanted bad part of the comparison.
03:02When Michael Jordan was old.
03:03Michael didn't have Luka and Austin Reigns fight next to him in Washington.
03:06No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
03:07Neither does LeBron.
03:08LeBron had him a whole year.
03:09LeBron does not have Luka right now.
03:10Luka got hurt with like two weeks left in the season.
03:12No, no, no, no.
03:12But you're judging him by this playoff series.
03:14Yes.
03:15Without Luka.
03:16That's correct.
03:16Meanwhile, Michael Jordan was the one who had Rip Hamilton, a future champion,
03:21and couldn't win with him.
03:22Why?
03:23Because he was old and selfish.
03:25So, no, I don't buy that.
03:27And I just want to say this.
03:28Ten years without an MVP.
03:29That doesn't matter.
03:30No real championships in L.A.
03:32He did have a real championship in L.A.
03:34And the thing I'm getting to here, Tyrone, is it just further cements my belief.
03:38And I think you're with me on this, too.
03:40As much as we like to argue about LeBron James and Michael Jordan, that this is a guaranteed
03:46lock that LeBron James comes back for another year.
03:50Now, I thought it was going to happen anyway, because I believe LeBron James, the narcissist
03:54that he is, wants the retirement tour.
03:58And he's going to get it.
03:59Wait a minute.
03:59You could even say he deserves it.
04:01But he wants it.
04:02He's going to get it.
04:03But, man, he's going to end his Laker career without a real championship.
04:07He already has a championship.
04:08Not a real one.
04:09This thing that you have where you want to hate the greatest basketball player of all
04:13time.
04:14And, you know, I have to wonder.
04:15I have to wonder.
04:16Go ahead.
04:16You have not.
04:18Really, you don't enjoy LeBron.
04:19You watch it with hate in your heart.
04:21I thought last night LeBron was great.
04:22He was great.
04:23I didn't think the game wasn't all that competitive.
04:25No, but because.
04:25Because the Thunder didn't play well in the first half.
04:27It's still of eight.
04:28Yeah, but Huchimura is their second best player.
04:31I agree.
04:32I mean, what are we doing?
04:33I want to be fair.
04:34LeBron James is playing with half a deck.
04:36I'm not suggesting that when they get eliminated.
04:38By the Thunder.
04:39That's a legacy thing.
04:41It's not.
04:41100% I'm with you on that.
04:43I think it guarantees you that LeBron comes back for another year.
04:47And guys like you who think the NBA basketball world revolve around the moon.
04:53I don't think it does.
04:53And the sun and the earth.
04:54I don't think so.
04:55That is known as LeBron James.
04:57No.
04:57I think you're going to be very happy.
04:59No.
04:59See, here's the deal.
05:00No, you're wrong.
05:01This guarantees you another year of LeBron.
05:04Yeah, but I don't want.
05:05You should be celebrating.
05:06There are three players I actually want to leave the league immediately.
05:09Leave the league?
05:10And there's three of them.
05:11I got to tell you about that.
05:11LeBron is one of them.
05:12And there's two other guys that I think need to leave the league and turn it over to the
05:17Kay Cunninghams, the SGA's, et cetera, of the world.
05:20Are we agreeing that Chris Paul's no longer in the league?
05:23Yes.
05:23Chris Paul's gone.
05:24Because theoretically he did play this year.
05:26No, no, no.
05:26These are three guys that finished the regular season.
05:29Okay.
05:30You want them to retire today?
05:32Today.
05:32So LeBron after this series is one.
05:35Okay.
05:35And then there's two other.
05:36James Harden is the second.
05:37Nope.
05:38I mean, yes, but no.
05:40That's not the one I'm talking about.
05:40Kevin Durant.
05:41Yes.
05:42Is one for sure.
05:43You hate KD.
05:44And there's one more.
05:45Easter West.
05:46West.
05:47West.
05:48West.
05:49Wow.
05:49So not Embiid.
05:51Not Jalen Brown, who you can't stand.
05:53He's too young.
05:54Yeah.
05:54A guy in the West that you think you want.
05:58Oh, Steph Curry.
05:59That's right.
05:59There you go.
06:00I think that those three guys have dominated so much that we're not giving necessarily
06:05the love we deserve to give to the other guys because they draw so much attention.
06:10I think the three of them, it's time to move on.
06:13But yes, I do agree with your premise.
06:15LeBron James is going to return and it's good.
06:19He's coming back for sure.
06:20And it's good for the league.
06:21And I still believe that if the Knicks don't win the championship, next year on the Knicks,
06:27I truly believe this is going to be Giannis and LeBron.
06:30We don't want LeBron James.
06:31You don't want LeBron James.
06:32You don't want LeBron James.
06:34Nobody in New York wants LeBron James, even though he's good enough to still drop 27 in
06:39a playoff game.
06:39And I believe he's coming back.
06:40And I do believe he's going to pick a team he thinks he can win a championship with.
06:45And I think that the Knicks will be one of those candidates of teams, especially if he's
06:50playing for the minimum.
06:51It will not be the only team he considers.
06:53No, I think he'll consider Cleveland to try to end it where it started.
06:57I think that that actually makes a lot of sense and some poetic justice to that.
07:01I think he will consider a team that appears to be one step away from a championship in
07:08which a veteran player might help out.
07:11Like, for example, and I'm making this up as you are, like he wouldn't go to the Thunder,
07:15but if the Thunder beat the Spurs, could you see him going to San Antonio for a veteran
07:22minimum?
07:22I could.
07:23So that he's the reason the Spurs get over that Thunder hump?
07:27Yep.
07:27I could see something like that.
07:29And I could also see him going to Golden State and playing with the guy you want to
07:32retire as well.
07:33But I was just looking at my list.
07:36Guys who've won MVPs more recently than LeBron James.
07:40Yeah.
07:41Joel Embiid.
07:42Yep.
07:43Russell Westbrook.
07:44Come on.
07:45James Harden.
07:46Come on.
07:46Steph Curry.
07:47Yes.
07:48Giannis twice.
07:49Fair.
07:49Jokic three times.
07:51Fine.
07:51SGA.
07:52Yeah, that's fine.
07:53Yeah?
07:54Yeah.
07:55Durant.
07:55Durant should not have had one over him.
07:57And then your guy.
07:59It's been a long time.
08:00Long time.
Comments