- 12 hours ago
Grant & Danny are wondering why LeBron James has put the entire NBA on pause with his decision.
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00:00All right, let's pivot and get into LeBron James, though,
00:02while we're talking hoops, because he has still not made a decision.
00:05The decision.
00:06That was his big coming-out party as a, what would I say,
00:12like a selfish, all-about-me marketer, so to speak.
00:17Well, now he won't make one.
00:19So vitriol the first time, vitriol the second time,
00:21I guess he can't win.
00:22But here's what's weird about this.
00:24The entire NBA now, not just teams, but the association itself,
00:30is on pause until he decides what he's going to do.
00:34Adam Silver spoke about this.
00:36He said they can't make the schedule until they know where LeBron's going to play.
00:41Because there's networks on the schedule, whether it's Netflix or NBC or Peacock
00:47or whoever else, they want that team.
00:49They want LeBron.
00:50If LeBron goes there, there's a really good chance someone else goes there.
00:53We've heard rumors that he's waiting because he's trying to get Anthony Davis
00:56moved to that team, or he's going to try to get Kyrie Irving moved to that team.
01:00He's picking a club to try to win a title.
01:02And if that's the case, then they're going to be a relevant team.
01:05They're going to be in the playoffs.
01:06They're going to be, hopefully, in LeBron's case, making a deep run.
01:09So they're going to be interesting for networks.
01:13And because he plays on them, you could put them on the worst team in the NBA
01:15or the most irrelevant team in the NBA,
01:17and suddenly you want that team playing on Christmas Day at 3 o'clock
01:21because of the way the sport operates.
01:23But the entire association is now waiting for him.
01:28And I guess they were under the impression his decision was going to come
01:31about a week ago, and he just keeps waiting, and he keeps waiting.
01:34My prediction was early this week because I thought he was kind of waiting
01:38all along for the biggest lull in the sports calendar to have all of the
01:44attention dollars on him.
01:46But if he waits a whole lot longer, NFL training camp ramps up.
01:49You've got to compete with some football storylines.
01:52So now would be the time to do it if you're LeBron,
01:55where there's almost nothing going on.
01:57And that's what I've always thought this was about,
01:58is just him getting the most attention and having people talk about him
02:02for the most amount of time.
02:04Yeah, if you put he and Ovi together, you get zero.
02:06Like the negative opposite of this, right?
02:08Where Ovi's like, I don't want the serenade.
02:09I don't want the swan song.
02:10I don't want all the glad hands and the handshakes and whatever.
02:13And he's like, I need more of that.
02:14I put a commemorative patch on this decision-making process so he can put
02:18another one on my jersey when it comes time.
02:19He is doing the fanfare thing to the nth degree, to the billionth degree.
02:24This is, you know, this again, this is the untelevised Jim Gray sit-down
02:29decision where he's wearing a shirt that looks like a picnic tablecloth.
02:32My God, it'll stop when he's out of the league maybe,
02:35but it still might not, honestly.
02:36The Lakers wore a LeBron James patch last year.
02:42It's one of the more under-talked about things that is just
02:44astounding.
02:45So I don't think, I saw someone talking about it recently,
02:49and basically they suggested they wore a patch because it was going to be his
02:53last year, so to speak.
02:55I don't think that's what it was.
02:56They wore a patch to commemorate his career over 23 years,
03:00which in and of itself you can make the cases fairly ridiculous,
03:03but I think that's what it was.
03:05Yeah, I'll make that case.
03:05It's a technicality.
03:06But in other words, like someone's like, why would he let them wear the patch
03:09that says he's going to not play anymore if he knew he might play?
03:13And I think he probably knew he might play, and they probably knew he might
03:16play, but they just said, we're going to wear a patch.
03:18Maybe it's to suck up to him, to kind of kiss the ring a little bit,
03:22to hope he stays around or for whatever reason.
03:24But they wore a patch to honor year 23.
03:29Is that the record as well, 23 seasons or no?
03:33I think it's the most, and it's incredible.
03:35I know his next season would be, but if that's the most ever,
03:38then I could see wearing a patch to honor him doing something no one's ever
03:42done before on your team.
03:43It just seems very self-serving, and that's what it is.
03:46If you like him, you have to do the universe.
03:48Well, there's nobody more self-serving.
03:50Yeah, that's my point.
03:51In terms of professional life.
03:51Now, again, he was so great for so long that you just didn't employ 15 of your
03:55friends as fake security?
03:56Of course, employ your friend as a special assistant.
03:58Of course, employ your friend to hand out lotion to people.
04:02Absolutely.
04:03Get guys that your agent also has on his roster, like Tristan Thompson.
04:06Of course, please.
04:07We definitely want to do that, Mr. James, sir.
04:10It is the most seasons played.
04:12He overtook Vince Carter at 22 seasons.
04:14Yeah, Carter 22.
04:16Then you had guys like Parrish, Kevin Willis, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki,
04:20and Chris Paul at 21.
04:21So I think the argument about them wearing a patch to commemorate his season,
04:27I don't care about that because I think they were honoring something like history,
04:31basically, that had never been done before.
04:32It'd be like wearing something to commemorate him breaking the all-time points record.
04:36Sure.
04:36I think a nice ceremony probably does that.
04:38I think a nice, a lot of things do that.
04:40But the, hey, I'd like everyone to wear a patch, please.
04:42And then everyone does it.
04:43But did he say he wants everyone to wear a patch?
04:44There's no chance.
04:45I don't know that he said it personally, but I'm sure behind the scenes,
04:48it's the way it always happens with him.
04:49Did Rich Paul make a call and say, you know what you guys should do is you should wear a
04:52patch?
04:53And him and LeBron, you know, thought that up over wine?
04:56Maybe.
04:56Yeah, the same guy that said, no one's allowed to draft my kid, except for us.
05:00And we'll be drafting my kid, please and thank you, so I can play with my son.
05:03With all due respect to a son, not an NBA player.
05:05A lot of people are not.
05:06I'm not.
05:07He's not either.
05:08But he got to be one because his dad's there.
05:10The same guy hinted that a patch would be nice, got a patch.
05:14Just saying, it's part of the same pattern.
05:15So I want to go back to this.
05:17When did he hint that a patch would be nice?
05:19Like, is that public information or you're just speculating?
05:21Speculating.
05:22Okay, because I think there's a big difference.
05:23I don't think LeBron James ever suggested they should wear a patch.
05:26I think it'd be like the Capitals wearing an Ovi patch this year or something.
05:29Like, to me, they just decided, and maybe I'm wrong and I don't have all the details,
05:33so someone can correct me if I am.
05:35But I'll bet you they just said, we want to wear a patch to commemorate 23 years.
05:38I don't think that's a LeBron being LeBron thing.
05:41I just think that's something that happened.
05:43But two things are true.
05:44He's the second greatest player of my lifetime.
05:46He is one of the greatest athletes in the history of the world.
05:49He's probably the single most important, influential, culturally relevant athlete of my lifetime.
05:56And also, while I have grown to appreciate him more, I bristle at fewer things that he does than I
06:03did early on.
06:03Just as I've gotten older, I've told you this, I've made a concerted effort to not despise greatness.
06:09Like, forever I was like, I rooted against Tom Brady, I rooted against LeBron,
06:12and one day I just kind of had this epiphany where I'm like, why am I doing this?
06:16Like, what don't I like about these people?
06:19Why can't I root for them?
06:21And I just kind of decided I'm always looking for the underdog, and I didn't want to do that as
06:24much.
06:25But I do find he makes it easy and gives me a lot of ammunition.
06:28Yeah, so he collaborated on the patch, so he was involved in some way.
06:32So, again, I don't know who said what to whom, but there was a direct involvement,
06:37and I bet you I kind of know based on some context clues that he was intimately involved.
06:42I'm just saying you can't convict on that.
06:43Like, I'm throwing that out of my LeBron hate court.
06:45I'm not going to convict, but it fits my pattern.
06:48So this to me is less about rooting for or against greatness as it is rooting for someone that I
06:52just find so irritating.
06:53It's pretty simple for me.
06:54There have been a lot of great players that I like.
06:56I'm rooting for Giannis.
06:58I'm rooting for Luka.
07:00I'm rooting for, I don't know, Jokic.
07:03You pick your superstar.
07:06I find him so annoying, and I always have and always will.
07:08Then the next paragraph is, he's the second best player I've ever seen in my life.
07:12He is transcended.
07:13The fact that he's able to play at a high level 23 seasons in is remarkable.
07:18Everybody else at the end is sort of shuffling up and down the court and sort of is a token
07:22here or there,
07:23and I'm doing a celebrity wave.
07:24We're doing a glorified Globetrotters appearance.
07:26This guy's still a helpful basketball player in year 23 and will be in year 24.
07:32That's incredible.
07:33I also find him annoying.
07:34He can still play.
07:36Yes.
07:37It's amazing.
07:37At a really high level.
07:38It's amazing.
07:39It is annoying, though, for a lot of people, I'd say, that you're still the son of the solar system
07:46in the sport,
07:47which I understand, but you're acting like you're still the best player in a sense.
07:50Like, by holding up league business, when he did this with the decision, you were the best player and the
07:57most important player in the whole thing.
08:00You can make the case maybe he's the most important player, but you're not the best anymore.
08:04I don't know where he would be on that list.
08:05It's still very, very high, by the way, because he is great, but you're going to a team that is
08:10probably not going to win.
08:11It used to be you're on the team, you're in the finals.
08:13It's not that way anymore, see the Lakers over the last couple years, where you go get Luka, who's actually
08:18one of the five to seven best players on the planet,
08:20and you're still not winning titles, like, with that guy with you, right?
08:24But there's still a lot of acting as if, where the rumors, the reports out there have been he's trying
08:29to hold this up because he wants the team he's going to to trade for Anthony Davis.
08:33He wants the team he's going to to trade for Kyrie Irving.
08:36And that's what is basically slow rolling this and taking so much time.
08:41Now, I do want to point this out because this just came out within the last half hour.
08:45According to Shams Sharani of ESPN, he was on the Pat McAfee show discussing LeBron and Rich Paul, his agent.
08:54And he said, quote, so that my sources, Shams is talking to Rich Paul, probably, but he says,
09:00My sources tell me that LeBron James and Rich Paul, they're not waiting for another domino right now.
09:05They're not waiting for Anthony Davis to get traded anywhere.
09:09They're not waiting for anyone else to move around anywhere, end quote.
09:12So this is Rich Paul's attempt to push back on that narrative, which is, and this story's been out there.
09:20Was it O'Connor that reported this today? Where'd this come from?
09:22Is that who it was, Kevin O'Connor?
09:23That the reason LeBron hasn't picked a team yet is he and Rich Paul are pulling the strings to try
09:28to have a trade happen first.
09:29They're figuring out who can get Davis or who can get Kyrie.
09:33And his camp puts out today, that's actually not the case.
09:36So then the question is, well, what in the hell are you waiting for?
09:38Yeah, my belief is that is the case.
09:40And you're trying to win a PR battle.
09:42But again, it's all, this is part and parcel.
09:46The league has transformed into this.
09:49So the person I blame as the catalyst.
09:51So there's a couple different things.
09:52If you're angry that the whole league shoots threes, you can be mad at Steph Curry.
09:55Well, let's get back into this next because we got to step away.
09:58I want to tee this up, though.
09:59So remember what you were about to say, 800-636-1067, 800-636-1067 if you want to join us.
10:06First question, I guess, would be, what do you think LeBron James is waiting for?
10:10Why hasn't he made a decision yet?
10:12And then the other thing I want to get into that I want to ask people because I've got a
10:15take on this is,
10:16should the NBA wait like this?
10:18I understand scheduling and different things that they want LeBron's destination so that they can have him on Christmas Day
10:25and some of the different variables they're in, but the entire sport is at a standstill,
10:29which was fine for a few days, but there's no imminent end here.
10:33He could make the decision tonight.
10:35It could be next week.
10:36You're just not going to do any business for a week because he's holding you hostage?
10:40What do you guys think?
10:41800-636-1067, GND on the...
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