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00:00the stakes aren't low i know that and i keep saying i think sometimes people think i'm saying
00:04the stakes are low when we talk about this lebron thing no it just they're not what they've ever
00:09been with lebron and the calves and making this decision it can never be 2010 again it can never
00:14be 2014 again it can never be 2018 again and so the the pros of him coming home again versus
00:22the
00:22cons of him not coming home to finish his career while yes it would still be devastating because
00:28i think people now just expect him to come home and so for the short term i think people would
00:32have an emotional reaction long term we're in the let's just watch this dude ball and hope he wins
00:38a championship but hopefully it's in cleveland side of things but you heard kenny atkinson and
00:42that was the part that i thought was interesting in the clip is that atkinson went down the path of
00:46uh this could be our big jump that we take right as if he's putting a lot of stock into
00:51getting
00:52lebron james and if you don't get lebron then i would ask kenny atkinson where's your big jump
00:56that's what i want to know like the revelation from that clip was the idea that atkinson's
01:01acknowledging there's no ace up their sleeve they don't have anything as of right now because they
01:05haven't changed the roster at all and if they're expecting something big to happen which they need
01:09some change to happen seems like they're banking a lot on that being lebron which is fine as long
01:14as lebron comes here yeah so this is this is the point where i have to point out that i
01:17like
01:17kenny atkinson because he says stuff so while i wouldn't advise him to say what he said and i do
01:23think
01:23there could be blowback there i like that kenny atkinson said stuff uh the other part of this is
01:28i wouldn't advise kenny atkinson to say this for a multitude of reasons he's got a real chance to
01:34blow up in your face my first thought was oh no if they don't get lebron the conversation's going to
01:39be where's your big jump now kenny yeah you said this is going to be the big jump you're acknowledging
01:44you're short on talent as is and you need this big jump to happen if you don't get lebron what's
01:50going to put you over the top and all you've done to this point in the offseason is lose valuable
01:54role players dean wade and i keon ellis is tough because they traded for him to be something he
01:59didn't end up being but you lost two players and haven't really hadn't really replaced him i just
02:04have to say like i like kenny because he says things that other coaches don't a la kevin stefanski
02:11yeah but i also while i'm not going to criticize him for this i have to tell him like listen
02:16if you
02:17get lebron yeah we're fine this is not gonna be a issue at all if you miss out on lebron
02:23knowing how fans work in general people are going to circle back to kenny as much as they are now
02:29the
02:29calves because kenny's the one that's been out there in the public talking about it people you
02:33mean me i'll circle back to this and i'll be like wait a second you you said right there and
02:37not in
02:38that one in the previous clip we played about this big jump that's coming and then uh like the
02:42expectation you have is that you're getting lebron and that's going to be the jump that you need well
02:46what happens if you're left holding the bag and there's nothing there and that's that's i mean
02:50i just it's just one of those things and so maybe that just means he's incredibly confident that he's
02:53going to get lebron sure great made me feel good but i i just i think there's just really dumb
02:59things to say when you don't know what lebron's going to do i do think that we've shifted from
03:02every day a different team gets to be lebron's potential homecoming with the calves still kind of
03:07seen as the i guess front runner uh to now we're just summer league rumors with nobody really
03:13reporting anything that's the that's like the closest that that's where all of a sudden i get
03:18confident that something's actually happening when the news cycle runs out sure or at least it seems
03:23to for the moment we're getting there that that now all of a sudden maybe we might be actually closer
03:28to a decision we are getting there uh and even in that in that clip we played bouncing back i
03:32mean
03:32atkinson talking about lebron that way some people had a problem uh with him speaking the way that he
03:37was speaking about him and it's like guys that you can say now that's a comment you can say whether
03:42he
03:42goes there or doesn't go here right you can call him the greatest player of all time in your humble
03:46opinion whether he suits up for the calves ever again or doesn't that that part doesn't change but
03:51some things people are reading into like a buddy of mine sent me the uh the fanatics uh you know
03:56the
03:56uh like the it's not the program but it's like how their advertisement is and it says like the king
04:01returns and speaking about fanatics yeah and they're like well she's got to be talking about cleveland
04:05is this is this a double on is he meaning it here to mean that he's coming here and then
04:09also he's
04:10just returning to fanatics fest are they are they labeling this all in one big way and i still just
04:14i i can't say it confidently because nobody knows yeah it's it's interesting that in the same way that
04:19i think i don't have a problem with kenny saying it as a matter of fact it got me a
04:23little like
04:23juiced up did you get excited there that somebody mentioned it i can see the downside of it and i
04:29just
04:30like i really hope for kenny's sake that it doesn't the downside doesn't appear i feel the same
04:35thing about like lebron and his process i have no problem with him doing it he has earned this
04:40process to handle it however long he wants to however he wants to including making a decision
04:46that i personally won't like right but i also understand that when you're when everybody shuts
04:52up and nobody's saying anything and nobody really knows what's going on the downside is you start
04:58getting people the tinfoil hat and and all of a sudden connecting some of those dots yeah and so again
05:03like i don't have a problem with it i think like do what you do man like this is good
05:06for my business
05:07it makes my job easier too the same point like the downside is the more you go if it's any
05:13decision
05:13but cleveland it's only going to amplify the blowback because people are starting to read the tea leaves
05:18that aren't really tea leaves at all well and on top of that you get some uh even like that
05:22poster right
05:23there you think the people at fanatics don't know what they're doing yeah they know exactly what
05:26they're doing they're getting people riled up in cleveland and i would make an argument also miami in that
05:30respect too because he it's if you say the king returns that could also mean the heat the same
05:34way it could mean the calves so there's there's two different cities that you're operating within
05:38you know because they used to sell those do you remember those heat jerseys they used to sell
05:41it's like a player's weekend day where uh on the back of the jerseys they put king james on the
05:46back
05:46of it so lebron wore it in real games it said king james and then i feel like like my
05:50thinking on it is
05:51so many heat fans ended up having that king james jersey so you can make an argument that the heat
05:56heat fans probably think king james means something to them the same way people here
06:00think king james is exclusively to us so we did start talking about this in the first segment and
06:05the question is was this a mistake from kenny i don't think it was a mistake but i understand how
06:09it might end up being that with how people feel about lebron and what a touchy sensitive subject that
06:14this can be uh craig responded to our video at 92.3 the fan on twitter and he said uh
06:20seems like
06:21their fallback plan is kaminga which is a pretty big fall off to me like i think kaminga is a
06:26really nice basketball player and i do think that when he is plugged in he's a i mean he is
06:31what
06:31you've been missing as well the problem is kaminga just feels like deandre hunter 2.0 like a guy that
06:37for some reason he plays the position you need in the nba the different like hunter at least was
06:43washing out of atlanta who was a bleep show when that happened kaminga washed out of uh golden state
06:49who basically didn't want him around and just got him off the books to then go to atlanta who is
06:55in
06:55the midst of winning and then didn't want him back that's that's like that's basically three
07:00strikes with with kaminga specifically even if i'd still take him if you don't get lebron and the
07:04other side of this is not only kaminga but this goes to the derozan convo as well is that every
07:08team that misses out on lebron have these roster spots that are open and so you know you're in
07:12contention with all these guys for even someone that is not anywhere close to as valuable but even
07:16someone like jonathan kaminga derozan versus kaminga feels like a sophie's choice that being said
07:21i'll take kaminga i just like demar derozan friends don't let friends sign demar derozan
07:27you can't have okay listen you can have james harden you can have demar derozan you can't have
07:34demar derozan and james harden i can't you gotta make a choice you gotta choose one of the
07:39chuckleheads both too many appearances in drake songs yes and both have just a history of not
07:45being winning postseason players yeah it seems like that's going to become the the calves identity
07:51because it already started to be between donovan and harden and it's like lebron was going to fix
07:55all this but if we had derozan in them it's not great all their minuses are somehow going to become
07:59a plus there now speaking from the lebron side of things uh rich paul continues to talk and continues
08:05to do these media tours and he was on espn this weekend talking about what lebron isn't chasing
08:11in this process he unlocks something on one of all 30 teams the team he chooses i don't know yet
08:18there's a seriousness that comes with this there's a competitiveness that comes we know how hard it is
08:23to win championships no roster no organization is guaranteed to win a championship but you do want
08:29to be competitive you do want to have an opportunity come late april and early may to compete at a
08:34high
08:34level and give yourself the best chance of winning he's not chasing the ring you know you hear these
08:39things like why do we have to chase he got four there's nothing to chase he's not chasing the
08:43ghosts or anything like that but when you've worked as hard to position yourself the way you have
08:47and you can actually decide what you want to do who wouldn't take advantage of that so we're not
08:52worried about nobody's opinions or anything like that he's gonna make the best decision for himself
08:56we'll see what happens so it's funny the the just ring chasing motif that has kind of been thrown
09:02lebron's way in this uh if lebron's still going to be one of the three most impactful players
09:07on a championship team or potentially in cleveland the most impactful player given where he plays
09:13and what he can unlock with everyone else that's not ring chasing to me ring chasing is vince carter
09:20at the end of his career playing 15 minutes for a team right or i i never thought this way
09:25about
09:25charles barkley because charles was still a a very good player at the end of his career yeah but even
09:30if you want to say charles averaging 14 points a game his last year with the rockets playing with
09:35hakeem and and klyde drexler that is more ring chasing lebron is is like ring asserting like
09:42wherever he goes he gives them a better chance to win that's not ring chasing i think ring chasing
09:47would have been the spurs or the thunder i did does denver qualify as ring chasing no because they
09:52they weren't very good last year that's kind of how i looked at it too uh but like even like
09:56but i did
09:56when i when i heard this initially i did think the 76ers took a blow like out of the teams
10:01we've discussed
10:02miami he still has work to do to put him over the edge calves still has work to do to
10:06put him over
10:06the edge although i think it would instantly make the calves the eastern conference favorites but
10:10nobody's looking at this calves team for reasons we've already named in this show
10:13as a as a you're just jumping on a team that's already fit and ready to go golden state's obviously
10:19not ring chasing like maybe this takes the 76ers out of the equation are you surprised though that
10:24the calves don't look like ring chasing to people outside of you no we don't i don't think we've
10:30earned it no no so i don't either but i think outside of cleveland i don't i don't think i
10:35don't
10:35think people outside of cleveland are as down on the calves after the eastern conference sweep as you
10:40and i were they just call it eastern conference finals appearance exactly that that rework has done
10:44a lot of lifting and we kind of knew we knew it would this is how this always works in
10:48sports you get
10:48a month after and it doesn't matter that it was a four-game sweep and it doesn't matter that uh
10:52you blew the game one the way that we did the the end result is you were a final four
10:56team and you
10:57were the eastern conference finals but i don't think lebron is ring chasing no not at all and
11:00honestly even kevin durant going to golden state as much of a front runner jamoke move as that was
11:06that wasn't ring chasing he was that one of the three best players on the planet joining the best
11:10team in the nba i'll tell you why it's not ring chasing for the calves nick it's not ring chasing
11:14because most people that watch that series for the calves instead of looking and saying this is a team
11:19that's going from one level to another level and this is all about levels and you got to hit a
11:23spot
11:23to get to a new higher spot in the nba they looked at it and said oh no oh no
11:29that team can't win that
11:30donovan mitchell can't be your main guy on a on a on a team that actually finishes the job like
11:35that team
11:35i've never seen a team make the conference finals the way the calves do and everyone's not everyone's but
11:40the resounding thought was do they have to blow this up yeah like do they this is just this is
11:44not
11:44constructed right and so that's why it's not perceived as just ring hop in and ring chase well
11:49here's the other thing um lebron to the calves makes sense to more people than it doesn't lebron to
11:57miami with yannis and bam sounds a little ring chasey i don't think it is because he's freaking lebron
12:05and he actually like he will be if they were to win the championship next year he'll be a major
12:10reason
12:10why lebron to philly even with mb who apparently is part of why lebron is unsure about that sounds
12:15ring chase but like but it's still no guaranteed but even then like he's still one of the three
12:20best players on that team so it's funny to me that people already want to paint a move that he
12:26hasn't
12:26made yet in some sort of way and it's but but i think again if he doesn't want to hear
12:31the ring
12:31chasing thing i think cleveland absolves him of that because it's cleveland and again like people
12:38haven't thrown that out as a ring chasing spot already calves definitely do i think golden state
12:42also does as well because golden state's going to be looked at it's a couple things there obviously
12:46the golf there uh the uh the all the different money involved in san francisco and the amount of
12:53different startups and everything that's there like that's going to be a part of it because he's
12:56growing his portfolio in such a way and ultimately just playing with buddies it's playing with it's
13:00playing with friends that's going to be looked at it's all it's going to be in the west if you're
13:04not
13:04the spurs and the thunder you're not ring chasing so the weird thing about the the warriors is one
13:09optically it's garbage i mean lebron in that after the rivalry they had for five years lebron in that
13:18uniform would just be disgusting optically as a calves fan and i think for for more than just calves
13:25fans i think it would cheapen that rivalry and his place in that rivalry to gone fishing
13:33with lebron and steph and dre it's just like it it that feels like mailing it in that feels like
13:39mailing in the next two years because you're probably not going to win a championship yeah
13:43you probably will be at least a first round of the playoff kind of team but it's just like i
13:49i don't
13:49even understand like the feel good essence of it because the gimmick of lebron and steph playing
13:55together i think loses its relevancy when they're an okay-ish western conference team
14:01in in moments like i think that wears off by the time we hit december yeah all right so we
14:05so we've
14:05we've gone through and we've dissected the different teams that we think are ring chasing
14:08or not ring chasing let me ask you this and i think i know where you stand on it but
14:11i gotta ask
14:12you do you even care if lebron ring chases no like i don't care i feel like he's earned it
14:17i feel like
14:18this is if he wanted to ring chase are there are there going to be that many people that look
14:21at it
14:22as such a bad thing you know why because i think they want to cheap it if he wins another
14:26ring
14:26but but it doesn't matter to the broader discussion for lebron anymore he's no he's not chasing six
14:31with mj that's still two away to begin with anyway okay so he's not he's not really even chasing
14:35matching michael jordan but he's he's at he's at a point where we don't bring we're not gonna bring
14:40up rings when it comes to a lebron conversation at the end of the day we're just not but mj
14:45you do
14:46because he went six for six it's a different story it just is different but the same way mj was
14:51never
14:51gonna touch bill russell when it came to winning rings and but mj was still better than bill russell
14:56he passed him at some point like it just that's just the conversation so i think it's i think
15:02there's a fair amount of people who just want to find any creative way to dump on lebron and i
15:07do
15:07think like in the mj versus lebron thing they've got one thing six for six in titles lebron is
15:16potentially gonna play 25 years it's a quarter of a century lebron's gonna have the all-time
15:20scoring record lebron's going to have the all-time postseason score he's going to have
15:24every conceivable record and i think it's people trying to grasp on to their ships to fight about
15:31lebron versus mj or lebron versus anyone really lebron and his people know that's already a fight
15:35that they're never going to win they they win two more titles they're still going to have uh what's
15:39he lost like six other times in the nba finals i think he's like four for ten like he's still
15:43going
15:43to have so many losses in the nba finals because he's always been punished for making it in a way
15:49that
15:49obviously mj never was because mj went six for six but there was all sorts of years
15:53where mj mj never got punished for not making the nba finals in 89 yeah never got punished he
15:58in hindsight looking at it he should have if that if mj made the finals the way that lebron had
16:04in
16:04that same spot in his in his time uh and then lost it somehow that would have hurt his legacy
16:10i think
16:11we're inching very close to the best uh the nj side of things have is well you just didn't watch
16:18him i think that seems to be the best thing that they have that's not the most used card that's
16:23why lebron shouldn't care about whether or not people think he's chasing a ring or not because
16:27you're not you're exactly right you're not going to please everybody in this and the people that want
16:30to believe it's mj they're always going to believe it no matter what lebron would ever do
16:34you
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