- 2 days ago
Willard and Dibs react to Shams Charania's latest report on LeBron James' free agency decision, which featured no new information. Are you over this yet?
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00:00The latest from Shams.
00:02We got a Shams bomb?
00:03It's not a bomb.
00:05Grandy's going to grab it here in a second.
00:07Okay.
00:07We'll play it.
00:09The latest from Shams.
00:10LeBron.
00:11I love it, yeah.
00:12List of teams.
00:14By the way, of all the things we've all kind of agreed this whole charade has gotten a little ridiculous,
00:21the biggest pawn in the ridiculousness is absolutely Shams.
00:26Just my opinion.
00:27Listening to him talk, every other sentence, I'm like, that's not happening.
00:31That's not happening.
00:32That's not happening.
00:34And may I be the first or maybe the thousandth to ask, what the hell is a voice memo?
00:42We've never called it that in the history of our lives.
00:45Nobody refers to it as a voice memo.
00:48Well, what is it?
00:48Even a voicemail is getting like, I don't know, kind of so 10 years ago.
00:53I don't even know who the hell listens to messages anymore.
00:57If you leave me a voicemail, I'm pretty sure you're spam, a stalker, or a weirdo.
01:03Like, voicemail?
01:05You've left me one career voicemail.
01:09Must have been serious.
01:11It was serious.
01:12This is serious.
01:15You sent me one voicemail.
01:17And recently I called somebody and the answering machine or whatever came on.
01:21It's not an answering machine.
01:22I'm so old.
01:23I am so old.
01:25That's where voice memos used to happen.
01:27I was about to leave a message and I thought about you, like, if I leave this message, they're not
01:32going to listen to it, so why even bother?
01:34What are we doing?
01:35I hang up and you see that I called and you either call back or you text or you don't.
01:402026 and Shams is out here being, well, the Timberwolves have left LeBron James a voice memo.
01:45Right.
01:45And they have listened to it.
01:47And they have decoded it.
01:49And we'll go from there.
01:51And they're in the mix.
01:52They're not at the front of the line.
01:54But they're not in the back of the line either.
01:56They're somewhere in the line.
01:57I recently got a couple of voice memos from Guru.
02:00Okay.
02:01He might have been driving.
02:02He actually does leave a voice to text.
02:04Yes.
02:05Right.
02:05And so I also was driving, so I hit, like, just translate or whatever.
02:09And it was like, oh, wow.
02:11It's going to be a lot here.
02:13But this whole thing is so stupid.
02:16All right.
02:16Now that we're saying, hey, we're going to go to the phones.
02:19Bleacher Dave, I want to take your call, but stay right there.
02:21But here's Shams.
02:24Latest on LeBron.
02:26My understanding is right now, as we speak, LeBron James has the information that's needed
02:31to make a decision.
02:32It's decision time right now for LeBron James.
02:35Team presidents, GMs, they're all talking to Rich Paul here again this week.
02:40They've made all their pitches.
02:42LeBron James has listened to multiple voice notes delivered to him by Rich Paul from other
02:46owners and presidents from teams that are trying to give him their best pitch.
02:51And the feel is, is that those five teams remain in the mix, but a focus on Cleveland, Miami
02:57and Philadelphia.
02:59And he's made it clear.
03:00He wants to be a part of a team where he has a chance to compete for a championship, a
03:04new
03:06team environment and culture.
03:07He can be a part of.
03:08But the reason that this is taking so long and why he's able to take his time is this
03:12is not a money driven decision.
03:13So you have teams that are offering him minimum deals, exceptions, some salary cap space as
03:20well.
03:20So he's able to take his time and sift through this decision.
03:23But this could be really any day, any week now.
03:25Okay.
03:26Um, that entire minute of our lives, a, you won't get it back, but that's true at the
03:31end of every minute.
03:32Um, and B that is all complete and total horse bleep.
03:37Oh, all of it.
03:39That is complete and total horse bleep.
03:43Um, voice note, he referred to it as.
03:48Yep.
03:48Have you ever heard that before in your life?
03:50No.
03:50A voice note.
03:51I've know about post-it notes.
03:53Did anyone send a telegram?
03:55Right.
03:55I don't know.
03:56Like a voice note.
03:58But anyway, this idea, everyone's left voice notes.
04:02They've gone through them.
04:03They're sifting through them as we speak.
04:06Um, in fact, he's got a three ring binder and he's put all of the little notes in it and
04:12he's going through it every day to see which culture he likes the best.
04:17And even though they've already gone through all the pitches, well, they're all still talking
04:21to Rich Paul because they're kind of tired of voice notes.
04:25So they figured maybe we can just speak face to face, even though we've already made all
04:30of our pitches and listen closely, Malika.
04:33We're getting close.
04:35It could be any hour or any day or any week now.
04:40Wow.
04:41What the hell did you just say?
04:44He's not wrong.
04:45Of course.
04:46Because everything he said can't be wrong.
04:48Like any month.
04:49It might be at some point in the future.
04:52How many days, LeBron, will it be?
04:54Not five?
04:55Not six?
04:55Not seven?
04:56This is just absurd.
04:58It's not five.
04:59Not six.
05:00Not seven.
05:00None of that is happening.
05:02That I'm calling BS on every single thing that Shams just said.
05:06He is simply puppeting what he's being told to say because it keeps the train moving down
05:13the road.
05:15Everybody's made their pitch.
05:16Now LeBron's in a dark room and he's looking through all the pitches.
05:20He's thinking about it.
05:20He's making pro and con lists.
05:23None of that's happening.
05:24And it could be, it's coming soon.
05:27It could be any day.
05:29Or any week.
05:30Right.
05:31And I.
05:31What are we saying?
05:32What we're saying is.
05:34What did we just say?
05:34And I, I'm going to go shock a con here and say, I feel for you, Shams, because he has
05:40a job as the number one ESPN NBA reporter.
05:43And so you go on any of the shows, whether it's dead up featuring my former partner, Joe
05:49Fortenbaugh today, shout out getting those holiday touches, or if it's any of the other
05:54shows like Pat McAfee, Hey, let's go to Shams.
05:58Shams, what's the latest on LeBron?
06:00What's the latest on LeBron?
06:01Are you asking me the latest on LeBron?
06:03Oh, even listen to the phrase that he uses to start every one of these reports.
06:07What I'm hearing, you're hearing nothing.
06:10Well, he's hearing everything.
06:11No, you're, you're, all we're being told is even LeBron's best friends don't know.
06:17But Shams knows.
06:18Well, I mean.
06:19What I'm hearing is that Golden State has moved into fourth.
06:22Philadelphia's moved into, what are we talking about?
06:25Does someone make a list?
06:27Is there a totem pole?
06:29When this whole thing's done, do we get to find out what place we came in?
06:33They better not come in second.
06:34What if we came in sixth?
06:35How does that sound?
06:36That would be better than coming in second.
06:38What is this production that we're watching right now?
06:41This production is the narcissist LeBron James, who is having the entire league wait.
06:47And you mentioned this before, like James Harden, he opted out.
06:51Are you going to get a new deal with Cleveland?
06:54What's that deal going to be worth?
06:55I have to wait for LeBron.
06:57Anthony Davis, am I going to sign an extension with Washington?
07:00Do they want me?
07:01They might.
07:02Got to wait for LeBron.
07:03Even Jonathan Kaminga, who did not have his option picked up in Atlanta, he would love
07:08to be a basketball player again.
07:09And he will be.
07:10Got to wait for LeBron.
07:12So if you are any NBA player right now without a team, you are waiting for LeBron.
07:17And that, I think, is the essence of it.
07:19And you think that the king knows this?
07:22Absolutely.
07:22And he's relishing in it.
07:24I want to play that again in a little bit.
07:25And you and I can both sort of make, we can pick what word we want to use, but make
07:30some
07:30sort of noise every time we hear something that is clearly ridiculous.
07:36Clearly ridiculous.
07:37Okay.
07:37And by the way, I don't want this to sound like I'm coming at Shams.
07:41You're right.
07:41This is his job.
07:42Right.
07:43This is his job.
07:44And yes, I'm sure he's got an ear to the ground.
07:46I don't know if the ground is saying anything.
07:49But he has to give these reports.
07:51Right.
07:52This is part of the ESPN schedule.
07:54All right.
07:54We're going to go to 12-11.
07:56We're going to go to Shams.
07:57He's going to do a four-minute segment.
07:59Oh, yeah.
07:59And he's got to say something.
08:01And so this is what you do.
08:03And you say a bunch of stuff that can't be wrong.
08:06What's he going to say?
08:07Well, the LeBron decision had already happened, but we missed it.
08:11No, it's coming in the future.
08:13We get that.
08:14He's decided 11 days ago, and we're all just waiting.
08:16What kind of a report is this?
08:18This reminds me of when I did overnight traffic on KCBS.
08:22So you would work the 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift, and, okay, it's 118.
08:27Let's go to Dan Dibley with traffic.
08:29Nobody's driving.
08:30Nobody's on the roads.
08:31There are no accidents.
08:32Looking good out there, Bob.
08:33We got road work on 280.
08:35It's a long-term closure in the right-hand lane.
08:38And, yeah, so next update, 128 on the traffic leader.
08:42This guy said yesterday, he goes, hey, every day we're getting closer to the decision.
08:49Yeah.
08:49Yep.
08:50Every day we're getting closer to everything that's going to happen in the future.
08:54Sure.
08:55I mean, I mean.
08:56Any lies in there?
08:57Possibly.
08:58I mean, it's possible that we aren't here next Sunday and stuff.
09:01LeBron and Shams both closer to death today than they were yesterday.
09:04Fact or fiction?
09:05I think it's factual and stuff, and I think we all are and stuff.
09:09This production.
09:10Can you just answer your own question?
09:11All right.
09:13Let's go to Bleacher Dave in West Oakland.
09:15Hello, Bleacher Dave.
09:17Thank you for calling the show.
09:19Hey, well, thank you for having me on.
09:21I appreciate you guys.
09:22What's going on?
09:23Not too much, man.
09:24Just hanging.
09:26Dude, these ribs are fantastic.
09:28You got to come over here one day for the cookout.
09:30Good Lord.
09:30Hey, man.
09:31Just give me the address.
09:32That's right.
09:34Town DeRosa, West Oakland.
09:36All right.
09:37Cranking tunes on the shower radio, I'm sure.
09:42That would never be broken.
09:44Never.
09:44The power of the shower.
09:45That's right.
09:47Yeah.
09:48Hey, so, you know, gather up lots of Warriors stuff today.
09:53So, let me just answer and go to the first one.
09:55So, I'm intrigued by which player won't be appreciated in 10 years.
10:01Steph Curry.
10:01Because I think it's more like 25.
10:04Because I have always maintained, I think so have a lot of Warriors fans.
10:09There is no, currently, no analytic to quantify gravity.
10:13And Steph is the most gravitatious person in the history of the NBA.
10:18And the ability for him that impacts on team basketball is we don't know how to quantify that.
10:24Now, we as Warriors fans watch other dudes get open.
10:27You know, we watch tic-tac-toe for the dunk, right?
10:30And so, we see that.
10:31But I don't, there's no number that quantifies Steph's ability just by being off the ball.
10:38Not even holding him up, being off the ball to have all eyes on him, which provides so many more
10:43opportunities.
10:44One day, they'll have the computers and analytics, they'll come up with something.
10:48And they'll figure out how to quantify gravity.
10:50And when they rerun Steph's tape through that, it's going to be off the chart, right?
10:54Off the chart.
10:55He's going to be top three of all time.
10:58And I'll let everybody decide where he's going to be.
11:00But that thing was super interesting to me.
11:03Warriors fans kind of costing them, like, you know, if we win in 20 years, we're golden.
11:09Because I remember every single one of them, 40 years, between 75 and 2015, every single freaking one of them
11:18I went to Warriors games in.
11:20So, you know, I'm happy.
11:23I can't just say I'm satisfied.
11:24I don't want to win the championship every year.
11:26But I'm not 12 anymore.
11:28And so, you got to figure out how to be entertained when your team does not win the championships.
11:35And for those of us, like us and y'all, who've been around for a long time, we know what
11:40not be entertaining looks like is a bad look.
11:43The last thing I got for you, they were talking earlier, top five Warriors all the time.
11:47Steph, for me, Steph, Clay, Keith Wilkes, before his name was Jamal, Clifford Ray, and the most underappreciated player of
11:58all time, Rick Barry.
12:00Those are my five Warriors, given where they were when they were here.
12:04I know a lot of people say, Nate, they traded Nate, they won the championship.
12:08Give me Johan.
12:10Please do, Dave.
12:12You left Sharunas Marshalonis out.
12:14But, no, I was actually, I grew up a world B-free guy.
12:18Oh, yeah.
12:19And then quickly became a sleepy Floyd guy.
12:22A little purpose short in between.
12:23He is Superman.
12:24For sure.
12:24Yeah.
12:25He was awesome.
12:25And it's hard for me if we get into that, like, Steini made a good point earlier about the champions.
12:31So, you take the champions, and, of course, Steph, Dre, Clay, and even if you want to throw in KD,
12:36I personally wouldn't because he was here three years.
12:39But there's a certain amount for me and you being around long enough to remember the lean years.
12:45And, like, Rod Higgins has a soft spot in my heart.
12:48Larry Smith, Mr. Mean, and Chris Mullen.
12:51And so, best and favorite, it's hard for me to not conflate the two because, like, when Mullen became a
12:58warrior, like, he's my favorite player of all time.
13:00Yeah, I think you're hard-pressed to do a top five all-time warrior list that doesn't have Mully on
13:05it.
13:06I think that's, I think you're pretty hard-pressed to do that.
13:08It's tight, though, because you start, I mean.
13:11It depends on where you're coming from on the conversation.
13:13Right.
13:13I mean, it's, for me, it's Steph and Rick Barry.
13:16And, like, Wilt Chamberlain, sure, that's even before my time.
13:19Right.
13:20It's rare for me to say that.
13:21You know, and he talked about gravity, and I actually do think there are metrics for gravity.
13:25It just depends on which ones kind of want to resonate with you.
13:29But while he was talking, I pulled this up.
13:31I don't know how many of you all know this.
13:352025-2026, top NBA jersey sales.
13:39Do you know where Steph ranked in the, I have the top 15 on the board in front of me.
13:44Do you know where he finished last year, 38 years old, played half a season.
13:51Where did he rank in the top selling of NBA jerseys?
13:54If it's not one, and I, I mean, you might be setting me up for number one, but I'm going
14:00to say third.
14:01I think Wemby would be ahead of him.
14:04And Luka Doncic as a newish Laker.
14:11Number one.
14:13Number one?
14:14Jeff?
14:15Number one.
14:1638 years old, missed half the season, team didn't even make the playoffs.
14:22Number one.
14:23Pretty good.
14:24That's gravity.
14:25Yeah.
14:26That's gravity.
14:27Steph, one.
14:28Luka, two.
14:29Jalen Brunson, three.
14:30Victor Wimbanyama, four.
14:32LeBron James, five.
14:34There's your top five.
14:36The next 10 go, let's see, Ant, Tatum, Shea, Cooper Flagg, Jokic, Durant, Maxie, Booker, Cade, Lamello.
14:47There's your top 15.
14:49All right.
14:49Strong.
14:50Number one.
14:5138 years old, played half a year for a team that was a 10 seed.
14:55Number one.
14:56Number one.
14:56There you go.
14:57So that's all gravity you need.
14:58Let's go to Omar in Oakland.
15:01We'll do the thing here off the Iguodala thing coming up next.
15:04But Omar, what's up, man?
15:06Thanks for calling.
15:08Man, I'm tired of this dude, LeBron.
15:10I'm going to make two points.
15:12First of all, he lost a lot of respect to me and his go status.
15:15Michael Jordan would never do anything like this.
15:17And to think about it, the decision he made in 2010, all right, you know, he made a big
15:22deal.
15:22He kind of left Cleveland, but he did it a little professional.
15:26And then he was a little more professional when he came back to Cleveland in 2014.
15:29He didn't even make a big deal.
15:30You're 41 or 42 years old.
15:32What are you holding the NBA hostage for?
15:34I'm just trying to understand, like, you're not a top five, top 10 player.
15:38And at the same time, do we really realistically think that LeBron is the answer for the Warriors?
15:44Like, if he comes to the Warriors, is he the final piece to a championship?
15:47I don't think so, because he's done.
15:49Like, his prime is over.
15:52And the fact that these teams have let salary cap space open or Draymond opted out, it's
15:59just, I don't get it.
16:00It's diabolical.
16:01Well, I think, Omar, you might be asking a different question than the Warriors are asking.
16:06So, that's kind of how I would respond.
16:09And thank you, Omar.
16:09Appreciate it.
16:10When you say, is LeBron the answer to the question?
16:14My response is, what's the question?
16:16And then you followed up with, is he the final piece to a championship?
16:20No, he's not.
16:21You're right.
16:22But that's not the question I think the Warriors are asking.
16:25That's not like, what if I ask the question a different way?
16:28What's the best thing the Warriors have an opportunity to do this offseason?
16:33What's the best acquisition they could make?
16:36Forget where they're going to finish.
16:37What's the best they can do?
16:39Best foot forward on the open market.
16:42For this upcoming year, it would probably be LeBron James.
16:45I mean, Trey Murphy, if you could.
16:48That's not a free agent.
16:49Oh, right.
16:50Free agent.
16:50Yeah, you're right.
16:51Like, I'm talking like, who can you get?
16:53You can't just have Trey Murphy.
16:56You can't just have him.
16:57Right.
16:58I mean, Kaminga's out there.
17:00Right.
17:01So, I mean, Kaminga and LeBron.
17:03Would that be great or what?
17:05That would be.
17:06Would that be great?
17:08Like.
17:08So, they don't get LeBron.
17:10He goes to Cleveland.
17:11Would it be great?
17:12He went to Atlanta.
17:13He saw the world through a different lens.
17:15So did the Warriors as they go into an offseason and need people who will play.
17:21They get on the phone.
17:22They make up.
17:24They see the whole world through a completely different angle.
17:28And he puts the jersey back on.
17:30Hi, this is Jonathan Kaminga.
17:32Would it be great or what?
17:34I mean, would it be great for us and like the content machine?
17:39Yes.
17:40I think that fans would absolutely melt down.
17:43No, but what if everybody came at it from a different angle?
17:47What if they did?
17:48Just what if?
17:49Right.
17:50What if Jonathan was changed?
17:51What if Steve changed?
17:52What if the timing changed?
17:54What if the needs changed?
17:56What if everything was different?
17:58You know, everybody moves on and then gains perspective.
18:02Because you see, like, it's just different.
18:05Right?
18:05Yeah.
18:06It's different.
18:07You see a different set of teammates and a different coach and a different this, that, or the other.
18:11You know?
18:13I had a guy who came out and did some work on my wife's house back when we were just
18:18boyfriend-girlfriend.
18:19And come to find out, he has married the same woman three times.
18:24Oh.
18:25Married, divorced, remarried her, divorced, and remarried her.
18:30And current status is?
18:31Don't know, but I'm going to look into it.
18:33Okay.
18:34Report back.
18:35Right.
18:35Or let Shams know.
18:36He's good at it.
18:37It's a little bit like Billy Martin, I think, with the Yankees, right?
18:40That's a good comment.
18:41He was the manager, and then he wasn't, and then he was back, and the whole thing.
18:44Well, he and George, they were just screaming at each other, you're fired, now you're back, now you're fired, now
18:48you're back.
18:49Joe Lacob said he wanted to fire Steve Kerr five times.
18:52He just didn't do it.
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