Hour 2 – Chris Mannix, Who Cares about the NBA All-Star Game?

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Speaker 1: You are listening to The Dan Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio Hour two.

00:00:05
Speaker 2: On this Thursday, Dan and the Dan Nets Dan Patrick Show, We're going to talk about the NBA All Star Weekend and tanking. Chris Mannix from Sports Illustrator will join us eight seven to seven three. DP Show email address dpat Danpatrick dot com, our Twitter handle at TP show. Stat of the Day is always brought to you by Panini America, the official trading cards of the DP Show. Keep your Friends Close, Your neighbors Closer. Keiki Palmer Stars in the Burbs, a new original series streaming now only on Peacock, which is where you'll find this program also the NBC Sports Network. Eight seven to seven three. DP Show operator Tyler is sitting by. At the end of last hour, had a phone call Rich in Chicago was basically telling me to stay in my lane talking about c J. Stroud with the Texans, and I wouldn't extend him. Not now. I want to see another year because do I want to give sixty million dollars or do I want to bolster the offensive line because you might not be able to do both. But they've got a couple of skill position players mixing got hurt. But Tank Dell, you know, Nico Collins Schultz. You know, they have some players, and they were a playoff team and they are really good defensive team as well, so they're not that far away. But we had a caller who thought that I was casting aspersions on CJ. Stroud, as if I was making this personal. I'm just telling you what I feel when I'm watching this. I have no bias whatsoever. Hey, if he's great, pay him sixty million dollars. Couldn't care less. Yeah.

00:01:41
Speaker 3: The best part of that discussion is that it's essentially no one wins, no one's wrong. You know, all right, you're gonna pay him, payhim? See what happens, yeah, or don't? Okay, and then don't. There really is It's almost like there's no point to it in some regard other than like, do you like c J.

00:01:59
Speaker 4: Stroud as a quarterback right now or not?

00:02:01
Speaker 5: Yeah?

00:02:01
Speaker 2: And I brought up Bryce Young that I wouldn't extend him either. That's not a great comparison. By the way, If you're like CJ. Strapp is one of the best quarterbacks in the league, what are you talking about? Do you gotta pay Bryce Young?

00:02:12
Speaker 4: Ah Man?

00:02:13
Speaker 3: That's not who you start with when you're comparing them to great quarterbacks.

00:02:16
Speaker 2: In the league. Well, Bryce Young did make the playoffs, that's all I mean.

00:02:21
Speaker 3: I get why you would compare them, but that's not the one that you want to make.

00:02:25
Speaker 2: But if you're at that point where you got to make a decision, I'm not extending either one of those guys early. I want you to prove it, and it might be prove it for two years. But he has shown glimpses, certainly his first year. But what nineteen touchdowns maybe eight interceptions. That's not a franchise quarterback. But blame blame the Texans, Blame blame the front office. There's the one. They're the ones that didn't, you know, bolster fortify that offensive line. And that goes back to what I've said about Andrew Luck. If you spend one hundred million on your core back and you spend you know, one hundred dollars on your offensive line, we know how this ends. And I kept saying it's malpracticed what the Colts were doing. They didn't build the offensive line when they got Andrew Luck. This is what Vegas should be doing. The cautionary tale for the Raiders should be Andrew Luck and the Colts. Yes, Marvin, and back to your CT shroud point.

00:03:23
Speaker 6: Troy Aikman was talking about this during the playoff game, like, look, the Texas have decisions to make going into the off season. If you want to pay this guy sixty million dollars after throwing four interceptions in a playoff game.

00:03:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's Troy know about playing quarterbacks? Oh and money? Yeah, yes, Todd.

00:03:40
Speaker 7: I don't understand how he got so crazy with you like that. But there's no bashing involved.

00:03:45
Speaker 8: You're just you know your opinion like you're supposed to do.

00:03:47
Speaker 2: I think because I brought it up to a couple of different guests. But you know, this is a fact finding mission that we have sometimes where we actually try to get answers from people, analyst experts. And that's why I asked the question. Somebody may come back and say, you know what, he's one of the best quarterbacks. They'd be crazy to move on from him. They'd be crazy not to extend him. Okay, then I give you that opportunity. I don't know what your answer is going to be. You may fire back and say that's ridiculous. Okay, But I asked the questions because I'm curious about what the answers are. All right, Seeton pull question for hour two. Man, I'm fired up, I'm ready to go.

00:04:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it might be are you paying CJ. Stroud or not?

00:04:30
Speaker 2: Actually? I think we are going to do that.

00:04:31
Speaker 4: We have up there right now.

00:04:32
Speaker 3: Would you rather a player sixty games for fifteen years or eighty two games for eleven years?

00:04:39
Speaker 4: Right now?

00:04:39
Speaker 3: That's hovering at about sixty nine percent, Ah with eighty two games for eleven years.

00:04:46
Speaker 2: Of all the Jersey numbers that Todd got with the San Jose Sharks, he got the number sixty nine. It's time, yes, Marvin.

00:04:57
Speaker 6: And also when so Joe, Joe and Ah who got everything together for us, they were like, hey, what Jersey numbers do you want? And I said, you know, can you give me thirteen? And Todd said, hey, can I get either ten or sixty nine? Do you really think they were going to give you number ten if sixty nine was the other option?

00:05:12
Speaker 5: Yeah?

00:05:12
Speaker 7: The fact that I just put that out there as an option, I guess they kind of ran with it, as producers should do.

00:05:17
Speaker 2: But why did you want the number ten?

00:05:19
Speaker 7: Because I'm ten, ten sixty nine and I liked the number ten a lot. I had number ten in literally because I loved Chris Chambliss growing up and I played first base. There's a lot of connections to ten. It's a nice round number, not as round as sixty nine depending on the situation.

00:05:32
Speaker 2: Oh nice. And that led to the inappropriate text message that you sent to your wife with your kids on the text mail change.

00:05:42
Speaker 7: Yes, I sent the photo of my Fritz sixty nine jersey on the ice at the sap Arena at the Shark's Place where we were doing the shooting and riding the zamboni. And then I said something along the lines of, you know, I'm sure you missed me this whole week that I'm on the road in San Francisco, so maybe we can incorporate my jersey in some fashion. And I kind of left it at that, And then I realized that she was not the only one on that text, and Mario helped me delete the message sponsible.

00:06:04
Speaker 2: But your kids did see it.

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Speaker 7: It's quite possible they have not brought it up, either out of embarrassment, shame.

00:06:09
Speaker 8: Not put me on the spot.

00:06:10
Speaker 7: Well, they're not bringing up they're just pretending they didn't see it or maybe I deleted it in time when they didn't get it.

00:06:14
Speaker 2: Don't even Joe and Rachel. They were responsible for our sets, you know, the look of the show when it's on the road, they do a wonderful job. Again, shout out to Rachel who is pregnant with twins. But they are wonderful people and whenever you see the show on the road, they're responsible for that. Look. All right, eight seven seven three DP show. We'll talk to Chris Mannix about tanking and the All Star Weekend. Chris and Syracuse joins us. Now, Hi Chris, thanks for holding what's on your mind?

00:06:43
Speaker 9: Hey?

00:06:44
Speaker 10: Thanks Dan yea, I got a couple things for you. You know, leading up to and before Super Bowl sixty was even played, ESPN had constant self serving promotion to Super Bowl sixty one. It was kind of embarrassing. And a couple NBA items. I think James Jones may have been a little light with the suspensions he handed out for the Pistons, Hornets, Melee. I mean, you can't have players throwing punches. I mean someone's going to get seriously hurt. I mean just look at current Washington Rudy Key as a prime example, and the NBA is really trying to find ways to increase the interest in the All Star weekend. But what they really should be worrying about is increasing interest in the regular season. And I don't think the NBA Cup is the answer. And another thing Adam Silver should be worried about is Yannis being an investor and public partner with a gambleet site. I mean the optics on that look awful.

00:07:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I saw that nut good. By the way, I did see the ESPN promo the commercial for the next Super Bowl, super Bowl sixty one got down. I'm going to guess I'm going to find where the super Bowl is at some point. I don't know if I need a heads up now, where is it going to be? Just for the record, ABC and ESPN, Yeah, Abc, and it's ESPN though, But ABC, ABC and the ESPN. Yeah, but I already saw it the commercial for the Super Bowl. Yes, Todd, so.

00:08:06
Speaker 5: Kick off in three hundred and sixty one days.

00:08:09
Speaker 8: Is that where we're at?

00:08:09
Speaker 2: I want to make sure my math is right now. Pregame starts and a few days. Josh and san Antonio, Hi, Josh, Hey Dan.

00:08:19
Speaker 9: As a longtime spirst fan, I just.

00:08:20
Speaker 11: Want to call in, and even though it did work for us and extended careers for the Big Three, especially Tim from ninety nine to fourteen, for those championship years, I want to solely take responsibility for load management in the NBA. You can blame us, and you can blame Greg Popovich in the first franchise. On a second note, as men of culture usually do, I was scrolling through Facebook, watching highlights like you do, and I came across an old sports center commercial where stone cold Steve Austin is sitting in the break room and you smack him in the back with the steel chair twice. And I was curious, if you could kind of take us behind the scenes. How many times did you have to hit him? Were you worried about how the force you have to use.

00:08:59
Speaker 2: I'd love to hear your on that, all right, Josh, Yes, you can go on the internet and you can see that commercial. Where I'm at my desk, I get up, it's late at night, and I go in and stone cold Steve Austin is sitting in the break room and he needs to pick me up, and he wants me to grab a folding chair and smash him in the back, and I thought, okay, like I like the premise of it. But then he put a small pad in the middle of his back and he said, just hit me right there. And I said, I don't swing a metal chair very often. Here, Steve, he goes, just hip me, you hit me right there. I'm okay, well the first time I did it. Bang. He goes, you gotta hit me harder than that. I go okay. So then we do the commercial again. I grabbed the chair and smack him. I'm going half speed and he said, you gotta make it believable. I said, okay, So I grabbed the share again three quarters and he goes arder. I go, oh damn it, Okay, here you go. And then I swung as hard as I could and that there was a like a bulletin board there and the papers were like flying, like because I created some pretty good force there. Smacked him in right on that pad and he goes, hey Dad, hey yeah. But you know, then there was one where he said I can I have another?

00:10:29
Speaker 9: You know?

00:10:29
Speaker 2: And they're like all right, and he was great. But you know, Widen and Kennedy they take all the they deserve all the credit. They came in and just said this is what you need to do, and this is the premise of the commercial. And they did a spectacular job. And those those live on their evergreen they live on forever. They're always fun to revisit. Xavier in Tampa, Hi, Xavier, what's on your mind?

00:10:57
Speaker 12: I'd like to give you my idea about ending tanking in the NBA. All right, wave with the lottery, you're rewarding teams who don't want to get better. Sixteen teams to make the playoffs, fourteen are in the lottery again, Get rid of the lottery, give the timber one pick to the best record that didn't make the playoffs, and so on down the line. That way, teams are trying to get better constantly.

00:11:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've tried. I've offered that up to the commissioner before, Xavier. But thank you for the phone call. Backroom guys just sent me a list and said, all right, what quarterbacks would you take over? CJ. Stroud? So I got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Let me see you there are more than that. So there's ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen twenty. Wow.

00:11:54
Speaker 4: Okay, So far, you take twenty quarterbacks over c J.

00:11:57
Speaker 2: Stroud. No, I'm looking at the list here, because if I said, all right, Matthew Stafford, you're taking Stafford for how many years? One year? Josh Allen, Dak Prescott, Drake May, Justin Herbert Trevor, Lawrence, Sam Darnold, Caleb Williams, Jared Goff, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Got Love, Purdy, Baker Mayfield, Bo Nicks, Jalen Hurts, Jayden Daniels, anybody. Is there any quarterback that you would remove that you would not take over c J. Stroud. There's cam Ward, There's Jackson, Dart, Kyler, Murray, Bryce Young. Those would be questionable there, Yes, Paulie.

00:12:39
Speaker 13: I wouldn't take Jordan Love over c J. Stroud or Baker Mayfield or.

00:12:46
Speaker 2: Those.

00:12:46
Speaker 13: Off the top of my head. I think if if he was on a good team c J. Stroud, with some blocking and some talent around him at decent defense, he would do great things.

00:12:55
Speaker 2: Well, he's got one of the best defenses in football.

00:12:57
Speaker 13: Yeah, yes he does. He gets the ball back a lot, but like it's been brutal. I would just say, like what his rookie year looks so good. It's still got to be there. There's something still there. And a guy like Jordan Love, I don't know if I've ever seen him max it out.

00:13:11
Speaker 2: Well, you know, Chris Sims came pretty close to saying that he would take Malik Willis over Jordan Love. He wanted to. He came pretty close, and he knew that was going to go viral and be like, uh, and I like Malik Willis. I think he's a starter in the league. I do, yes, Marvin.

00:13:30
Speaker 6: Just the last group of guys that you mentioned, those are only group that I would take over.

00:13:35
Speaker 8: I would take CJ. Stroud over the rest of them.

00:13:38
Speaker 2: Toss up, maybe, well, you'd take him over cam Ward Jackson, Dark Kyler, Murray, Bryce Young. Yeah that's what you're saying. Yes, but nobody else on that list. You would take bow Nicks over him, Baker Mayfield.

00:13:50
Speaker 6: Over him, Like if they just switched quarterbacks, if those teams switch quarterbacks, Is that what you're saying, Yeah, well, I I might take CG over.

00:13:59
Speaker 2: Bow Okay, Yeah, I'm not saying they give up on him. I'm saying I wouldn't extend him. Now, that's it. It's just a business decision. I couldn't care less about the Texans. If he plays well, great, If he doesn't great, it's content. I don't care. But if he gets the opportunity to go back to way he mostly upset for somebody't.

00:14:22
Speaker 4: Care when people do that.

00:14:25
Speaker 3: You just played right into that dude's hands somehow by getting upset in enlisting thirty five quarterbacks, you would take over him and be like, see he told you.

00:14:33
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's the beauty of this show. I never know what direction we're going in because it's not scripted. Okay, take a break. Chris Mannock's going to join us. We'll talk about something exciting like tanking yay, and we'll ask him the pull question. Well, take a break. This is h hour two on this Thursday, Dan and The Dan Ask Dan Patrick Show.

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00:16:07
Speaker 2: Podcasts Now, I'm being inundated with CJ. Stroudstats. Just to let everybody know and give you a refresher. I wouldn't have extended Kyler Murray. I said that in the moment. I wouldn't have extended Danny Dimes with the Giants. I gotta you know, there has to be a proof of concept here. I gotta realize or find out if this is sustainable. How good are you, I'm going to give you three hundred million dollars. Sorry, if I wait a year or two. Now, you can extend Josh Allen because you have confidence in Josh Allen and Joe Burrow, and that happens after Like the Patriots after next season will probably extend Drake May. They would probably be happy to do that. There are certain quarterbacks where I say, just like Tua, never would have extended him. But I said these things in the moment, just so everybody knows I'm not picking on CJ. Stround. Chris mannix Sports Illustrated senior NBA writer, and he contributes to NBC Sports covering the All Star Game this weekend, seating you want to give Chris the you have an NBA whole question today?

00:17:23
Speaker 3: We do, okay, In fact, we have would you rather a player sixty games for fifteen years or eighty two games for eleven years? Right now we're at about seventy percent of the audience would rather eighty two games for eleven years?

00:17:36
Speaker 2: All right, what would you do Chris with We know load management is here to stay. But if I can give you your guys, let's say your star, he's going to play sixty five games, but that extends him four more seasons, or you get him for eighty two for four less seasons.

00:17:55
Speaker 16: Well, we're the sixty five game player. Does he get the playoffs? Two?

00:17:59
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:18:00
Speaker 5: Yeah, because then that's the ballgame there.

00:18:02
Speaker 16: I would much rather have the guy for four extra years playing sixty five regular season games if I can get him for the postseason. The right for a contender the regular season is close to irrelevant when it comes to that.

00:18:15
Speaker 2: Yeah. How did we get to this point though?

00:18:19
Speaker 5: The tanking point of where teams are just.

00:18:22
Speaker 2: Load the league, No just load management that but also load management ties into tanking as well. So how did we get to this? What came first? Load management or tanking?

00:18:34
Speaker 16: I think load management came first, and a lot of it begin began. If you want to find a spot in history with the Greg Popovich San Antonio Spurs, who were aggressive in resting their stars. We all remember that great. I think I still have a picture of that stat sheet where it said Tim Duncan dnp rest which is one of the early days of just straight resting guys. And that was what the Spurs did in the early twenty tens, and teams quickly adopted it. After that, you know with the back to backs, if you get an older player, you're gonna limit his minutes. And then Kawhi Leonard comes around twenty nineteen and Toronto wins a championship by load managing him.

00:19:15
Speaker 5: So I think, you know, the success of.

00:19:17
Speaker 16: One team begat More teams doing it, the success of the Raptors, begat More teams doing it, and it became part.

00:19:24
Speaker 5: Of the you know, kind of the fiber of the NBA.

00:19:28
Speaker 2: Who is going all in tanking where it's that it's not reading between the lines, it's just blatant.

00:19:35
Speaker 5: It's more than one.

00:19:36
Speaker 2: I mean, well, Utah to me is really curious about So yeah, Utah is the.

00:19:43
Speaker 16: Most glaring example because of how they're doing it. Like Utah is trying to throw games at the end, like simple as that. Like that game they had against Orlando on Saturday, they were up by seventeen I think it was at one point seven at the end of the third and they tried to throw the game and succeed. Against Miami on Monday, they tried to throw the game and failed because Kyle Philipowski and Bryce Sensebab made.

00:20:06
Speaker 5: A bunch of shots and that was how that.

00:20:08
Speaker 16: Went, but they have tried multiple times in the last week to lose games in the fourth quarter.

00:20:14
Speaker 5: Now, last night, I hate watched the King's.

00:20:17
Speaker 16: Jazz game last night just to see what would happen. Of course, they boat race Sacramento. That was predictable, but the way that the Jazz have been doing it has been the most egregious. But they are far from the only offender. Like people know, Trey Young could probably playing basketball at this point Indiana, which is just as egregious right now as Utah. I mean, I thinka Zubac gets acquired. He had been playing through what was determined a mild ankle sprain, and now that ankle sprain is so serious that he's got to sit out for an extended period. So the Jazz, because of the fact that they're playing their guys and then benching their guys, they are front and center, but they are far from the only offender. Dan, this is the first time in league history that we've gotten We're before the All Star break and roughly a third of the league does not care about winning games. That is a five alarm fire for Adam Silver to address.

00:21:12
Speaker 2: Okay, what can what's solvable, what's the solution here.

00:21:18
Speaker 16: Well, let's unpack it from a couple of ways. Short term, one thing that the people in the league that I've talked to have been pushing for is a fine with a warning. Right, So the first you go to Utah, Washington, whoever, and you say, all right, seven hund and fifty thousand dollars for trying to lose games. If you do this again, we're gonna dock.

00:21:39
Speaker 5: You a couple of second round picks. If you do it again, we are going to reduce your lottery odds.

00:21:45
Speaker 16: This is something that's come up from a couple of executives, like, if you finish the season with the fourteen percent chance of landing the number one overall pick, we're gonna slash it. We're gonna take away some of your ping pong ball combinations, which is within the purview of Adam Silver to to do. He can unilaterally do stuff like this, so short term, they want to see him threaten a big stick to some of these teams because there is twenty five plus games left in the regular season. As far as fixing the problem, there are two camps in this. One of the camps says, let's just keep putting band aids on these bullet holes. This is what they've done over the last ten years. They have tweaked things, They've added the play in tournament, they've flattened the odds, They've done things to try to save the system.

00:22:28
Speaker 5: And those people.

00:22:29
Speaker 16: Say, hey, if you eliminate lottery protections, good luck getting.

00:22:32
Speaker 5: That past the general managers.

00:22:33
Speaker 16: But if you eliminate lottery protections, that's going to take away a lot of these things. If you say a team cannot draft from the top four for two consecutive years, that's going to solve a lot of problems. There's some people that believe that. There are others that say the system is broken. It needs to be taken out into the woodshed and shot, like, just blow up the whole system and let's all get into a room this summer and figure out something else. Those are the two camps right now, and those are the two sides that are you know, as we speak, lobbying Adam Silver about this these changes.

00:23:05
Speaker 2: But how do I know if somebody is tanking? How do I know if Trey Young is not hurt? How do I know you know Anthony Davis can't play the rest of the season. I mean, what does Adam Silver do how do you, you know, do something in a clandestine way that you're healthy enough. We saw you doing yard work here.

00:23:24
Speaker 16: Well, I mean it doesn't take inspector gadget to see like some of these guys are. Maybe Trey Young had a quad strain in early January, like like Anthony Davis fine gallstat de compo, if he decides to know the season, I would say the same thing.

00:23:38
Speaker 5: The Jazz again are playing their guys and look the Jazz.

00:23:42
Speaker 16: One of the problems that people in the league have with the Jazz is that right now they're a pretty damn good team. Like they've got three guys that are borderline all stars like Jared Jackson, Junior Lowry Marketing, Chiante George.

00:23:54
Speaker 5: They're not all stars, but they're on that next tier.

00:23:56
Speaker 16: Yes, So if these guys were all playing, could they make a run at the playing tournament right now?

00:24:02
Speaker 5: Probably not.

00:24:03
Speaker 16: They're like nine games back of that that ten spot. But the teams above them meant this, the Clippers, they're not very good. You know, maybe maybe if you really put your foot on the gas that you can go and get it so that that's you have to almost put that on a shelf. I think you've you've got to use common sense in these situations. You've got to make teams. If there are injuries, you've got to report it. You've got to have medical evidence. You've got to give the league a chance to review all of it before so they can make an informed decision.

00:24:32
Speaker 2: Talking to Chris Mannix, Sports Illustrated Senior writer and the All Star Game coming up this weekend. Okay with the format, even though we have some stars not playing. No, no, no, this this this I I I don't like.

00:24:46
Speaker 16: I don't like anything about this anything like I let's start with the dunk contest, which you know again needs to be destroyed.

00:24:53
Speaker 2: Nobody cares about the dunk contest.

00:24:55
Speaker 5: But nobody knows who these guys are. Like I mean, I two of them.

00:24:58
Speaker 16: I had to go look up, Like I isn't sure who they were off the top of my head. Like this, we have gone from being able to get Dominique Wilkins and Michael Jordan to being able to get Blake Griffin and a bunch of guys that were top Deer guys to having guys like VJ. Edgecomb and Cooper Flag say hell no, Like this is where we are. We can't even get the top young guys in the league to play it. I think that's gonna be pretty bad. Kevin Durant said something last night, and he's dead on about this. Like the the USA versus the World can work in some context. It it could work in an Olympic setting where there's a medal of the line. You're playing for your country out there. But the greatest defenders of All Star indifference are the Europeans like nikolei Okic. Can't get him to care about an All Star Game. Luka Doncic if he plays, can't get him to care about an All Star Game. It is that alper Prince Sangoon, Al Prince Singoon is not going to care about the outcome of the All Star Game.

00:25:52
Speaker 2: I think it's it is the outcome, Chris. It's the style of play in the All Star Game. It's just running up and down and dunkin and shooting threes. And you know your kitchen, Luca, that that's not their style. That's why they don't care. Nobody cared there about the Olympics than those guys did. Joker did so. I think if you attach an actual game to this instead of just a pickup game. Those guys will care.

00:26:22
Speaker 16: I don't think they'll care. I think you're still gonna get them shooting like half court shots. And look, you're never You're never gonna get like high and you're not gonna get like early two thousands All Star We've all seen the clips of those games in the early two thousands.

00:26:34
Speaker 5: You're never gonna get that again.

00:26:36
Speaker 16: The NBA is searching for a way to just get something more than what they've gotten over the.

00:26:42
Speaker 5: Last few years. I can't see how this is going to be successful.

00:26:46
Speaker 16: I mean, the one thing the NBA could have done Dan that would have added a level of intrigue, and they should have done this. And maybe there'll be an opportunity in the next couple of days. I don't know what Luca's situation is going to be. Put Dylan Brooks on the All Star team. Put Dylan Brooks on the World All Star team, Like you want to get people to watch. How about you add a guy that's competitive in like warm ups onto the All Star team. How about you put a guy that has bad relationships with like every star player in the league, including Lebron James, on the All Star team.

00:27:15
Speaker 5: You want to.

00:27:15
Speaker 16: Get some intensity. Put Dylan Brooks on the World team. I'm begging the NBA.

00:27:20
Speaker 5: They passed on it with Kawhi and Leonard.

00:27:22
Speaker 16: They blew an opportunity putting Shangoon on it over Dylan Brooks. Make Dylan Brooks an All Star if you want to make this game interesting.

00:27:29
Speaker 2: Nobody cares about Dylan Brooks.

00:27:32
Speaker 5: But the way he'll play. You keep talking about the style.

00:27:35
Speaker 16: I'm not saying they care. Do they care about Shangoon? Do people really are they focused on the game for him? So let's just add something that that maybe mixes it up.

00:27:44
Speaker 5: A little bit.

00:27:45
Speaker 16: Like I want to see Lebron and Dylan Brooks in the same locker room. I want to see them them, you know, kind of going at each other during practices. I want give me a little bit of spice to this All Star game.

00:27:56
Speaker 2: I have the betting lines here, so they expect a competitive game. According to DraftKings, USA getting two and a half against the World, that's the Stars team, and then the Strip's getting one and a half against the World, and then Stripes is favored over to the Stars so by one and a half. So they're expecting a competitive game. Chris what's the.

00:28:21
Speaker 5: Definition of insanity.

00:28:22
Speaker 16: They're doing the same thing over again expecting the same result.

00:28:25
Speaker 5: I just I don't see it.

00:28:26
Speaker 16: I look at it could be interesting because of the format, maybe you can get some guys to be more engaged, but I don't think a format change is going to do it. I just think there's nothing. We are on the path to the Pro Bowl is what we're on with the NBA All Star Game, and I don't think there's anything that's going to stop it.

00:28:43
Speaker 2: Is this Lebron's last season in LA?

00:28:47
Speaker 16: There's a good qualifier. Is it his last season in LA? I'm going to say no. There are options out there for Lebron James.

00:28:59
Speaker 5: It's not just Cleveland, although that's obvious.

00:29:02
Speaker 16: I think Golden State is another great opportunity if he wants to, and that's another way to stay in California as well. What we have to remember is that Lebron James when he signed with the Lakers back in twenty eighteen, it was about more than basketball. It was about lifestyle, it was about business interest. I don't think a lot of those things have necessarily changed. Now two of his kids are off to are gone, Browny's playing with them, You know, Bryce is in college, so that dynamic has changed to a degree.

00:29:30
Speaker 5: But I think that his desire to be in.

00:29:33
Speaker 16: LA goes beyond basketball. Now, what will the Lakers be prepared to offer him in the off season, I think is going to be interesting. They are pretty committed to rebuilding or retooling. I guess around Luca Austin Reeves, you know, a prototypical center that plays around those plays well with those type of guys. Will they be willing to make him a competitive offer or is it just, hey, we got the mid level except at twelve million dollars or whatever may be, and we want you to stay that. That, to me is the big question. I do think there's part of Lebron that wants to stay in LA, but he's not going to stay.

00:30:11
Speaker 5: I don't think if they they lowball.

00:30:13
Speaker 2: Him, who is more likely to be playing their last games with their respective team? Yanis with the Bucks or Lebron with the Lakers.

00:30:25
Speaker 5: I'm gonna say Gianis with the Bucks.

00:30:28
Speaker 16: You know, Milwaukee, Look, did they entered these negotiations with other teams in good faith? Like nobody really denies that, Like there was some uncertainty about whether or not they'd pulled the trigger on a deal, but over the in the week before the deadline, they were talking to teams making counterproposals like.

00:30:45
Speaker 5: That, they were engaged in all this.

00:30:47
Speaker 16: There just wasn't a deal that made sense for them to pull the trigger right now, when the expectation is more teams can get involved in June and the offers from the current teams are going to be better. That being said, from what I hear out in Milwaukee is like, you know, they're not gonna spend the next few months thinking about what offer they can get. They're gonna spend the next few months thinking about who they can get to bring in to convince Gianni's stay. Like they could have I believe three first round picks the deal around the June draft. They've still got some movable contracts. You don't know what's gonna shake out in the postseason. Who's gonna wind up becoming available that you don't expect right now. So option A for Milwaukee is still to find that player, find that Drew Holliday, find that Damian Lillard, find that guy that can make Gianna say, you know what, I'm gonna sign my name to an extension right now.

00:31:35
Speaker 5: I don't think they're going to find it.

00:31:37
Speaker 16: That's why I think it's more likely Yiannis is gone at the end of the year in some kind a blockbuster deal.

00:31:42
Speaker 5: But that's gonna be the priority.

00:31:44
Speaker 16: I love Dan seeing see Cam Thomas last night by going for thirty four and there's that clip of Yanni's like big smile on his face coming off the bench. If Cam Thomas winds up saving Jannis's future in Milwaukee, that will be the greatest plot twist in NBA drama history.

00:31:59
Speaker 2: Not good enough to play for the Nets, but good enough to play for the bucks. Good thirty four? Yeah, thank you, Chris, have fun this weekend. You got it. That's Chris Mannock Sports Illustrated Senior NBA writer and he'll be out there for the All Star festivities. We'll take a break. More of your phone calls coming up. We're back after this Dan Patrick show. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to listen live. Collins in California, Hi Collins, what's on your mind?

00:32:35
Speaker 9: Good morning Dan.

00:32:35
Speaker 15: And the Dan Nets. Hey now, Hey, now, Chritsy Hey CJ. Stroud, he's got the yips. If he comes back with the Texans, it'll probably be able to nickel back aka Rick m keel. Got a question for you, Yeah, which which NFL or nil jersey would you like to have? Following the twenty twenty five twenty twenty sixth season, Sam Donald had a great chance to not necessarily a campaign, but had a great sales pitch opportunity Week sixteen when Philip Rivers came out of that tunnel as the you know, the comeback player of the year. Sam Donald should have come out with a jersey with a space between the darn and the old, wore a darn old jersey and had a legendary jersey exchange at midfield with Philip Rivers.

00:33:25
Speaker 2: I thank you call it. It's a deep dive, yeh see.

00:33:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, we go back to the All Star Game again real quick. Sure, I think that we're there's one part of the Americans versus or you know, the United States team versus the international players that I think we're missing as to why the international players don't care about the All Star Game. It's because All Star games are a uniquely American experience. We're really the only people that do that. And if you're coming from an international experience or background, those teams would be like, why would we do an exhibition game and risk our top talent getting hurt? Like that doesn't make any sense. It's so stupid. We don't do all star games. We might have all star selections, but we don't do all star games. You want us to play our best players in a meaningless exhibition game.

00:34:12
Speaker 4: Why would we do that?

00:34:13
Speaker 3: But here it's baked into like the fabric of our sports, like, ah, who's going to be in the All Star Game? We got to make the All Star Game mean something, and it really shouldn't. It really shouldn't mean anything. And I think that that's sort of a there's a cultural difference between those two things.

00:34:28
Speaker 2: Well, I don't think it's fair for Kevin Durant to question Joker and Luca and do they want to play hard? I can't sit here and say, boy, those us All Stars they play really hard. They don't. It's all kind of fun and silly and shooting threes and dunking and that's it. You know, you'll get an interesting, you know, pick and roll combination that you wouldn't expect, but there's no real drama with that.

00:34:57
Speaker 16: No.

00:34:57
Speaker 2: Oh my god, that guy dove on the flour for a loose ball. Yeah.

00:35:02
Speaker 3: But the reason Kevin Duran is being asked that question is because nobody wants what you just described. People don't want the silly like throwing up through is maybe a decent pick and roll, like whatever you like. No, you're supposed to play hard. Why isn't anybody playing hard? And Kevin Duran is like, what do you talk about? I want to play hard. These guys don't want to play hard. They don't want to play hard in that format. Now nobody should want to. Yeah, there's no reason for anybody to actually want to play hard in that game. There's no reason for the game really to exist.

00:35:27
Speaker 2: Well, that's the only reason why they're trying to bring the world against the United States, hoping that you get some kind of pride right that that would carry over. But I don't tune in to go man, is he locking down such and such or he is lighting somebody up? There's really all it is is you get to see them, and you get to see some interesting matchups or combinations that you wouldn't normally see. That's all, but I don't know who won last year. I don't know who won the year before, or the year before or the year before. Yes, Marvin, your point.

00:36:00
Speaker 6: I always disagree when you say the international guys are going to play hard, so they're just gonna play for the world against across their chest.

00:36:06
Speaker 8: Like to me, it's not important to them.

00:36:09
Speaker 6: Serbia is important to them, Canada is important to them, but the world. Okay, we beat you guys in a meaningless game.

00:36:16
Speaker 2: This is a last ditched effort to try to bring some eyeballs to this where you go, Boy, that was fun. I'm not saying it's going to work, but I'm saying this is the last opportunity to try to get something that does sort of resemble an actual game or the spirit of a game.

00:36:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, see right, And in a league that probably already has too many games, we're trying to make a meaningless one mean something. Yes, it's just it's a it's a fool's errand yes, like it'll you can't. You can't, especially now when you know, maybe back in the day when you got to see one game and you're like, dang, imagine if these guys all played against each other, that'd be crazy. It was probably really special, but that's not the case anymore.

00:36:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you weren't facing each other as many times, Like there's no novelty in any of these sports anymore, because you know, Baseball, American League, National League, and there was pride and they played hard in that game and it mattered in that game.

00:37:09
Speaker 4: Like I hate inter league play, Yeah, I do too, I hate that.

00:37:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's what ruined you know, that feeling you had in the Baseball All Star Game.

00:37:16
Speaker 13: Yeah, Palling, I agree with everything you guys are saying, but it's what the NBA got because of this as they the decades go. But then you compare it to the four Nations NHL thing last year, where that was compelling to people were in bars rooting on their thing, and that's a sport that's way more physical and you know, more chance of injury, I think. And you compare that four Nations to an NBA All Star Game with this one being international, I don't think it's gonna compact.

00:37:43
Speaker 2: They dropped the gloves before one of the games. Yeah, I mean, that's how intense that was. But no, you're not going to get that with the World against the United States All of a sudden, they go out for the jump ball and then they drop the gloves. Well they don't have gloves on. That'd be wild if they had a gloves. Yeah, David Cincinnati, Hi Dave, what's on your mind today?

00:38:04
Speaker 9: Hey Dan, thanks for taking my call. Just a couple of things. First thing is you're really out a merchandise. Uh, stay in your lane week if you're going to have all these guys on you this week. Secondly, with the All Star Game, you're not gonna get these guys with you know, motivated by money or you know anything like that. I think maybe what you do is say the winning team gets has to make the losing team where their signature shoes. All these guys get shoe deals, and if contracts you know negate that, then maybe the guys that you know Tina wins gets the doctor up the losing team shoes with like door the explorer stickers or something like that.

00:38:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can't force somebody to do that, you know, medical issues there with your imagine if you got hurt in somebody's shoes. No, No, I can't make you care either do or you don't. It's just like you as a fan, I can't make you care about the All Star weekend. There's nothing to care about. Yeah, well you know, I mean, like even.

00:39:06
Speaker 3: What what West side roots harder for the East side of the country. Who There's nothing to care about. It's an exhibition.

00:39:14
Speaker 2: Well, let's see how it plays out. In fairness to the format, Let's just see how it plays out.

00:39:21
Speaker 3: If it was a if it was the sort of like Paul was saying, the Four Nations and there was four nations playing against each other, that would be awesome. But it's us versus everybody else, and that's not awesome.

00:39:31
Speaker 2: David in Ohio, Hi, David, Hey.

00:39:35
Speaker 17: Dan just had a quick comment from that Richard Chicago guy from the first hour. Yeah, I think he's I think he's just mad because survey says Dan Patrick, show beats people name rich On family.

00:39:49
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you, David. Yeah, there won't be any rematch in family feud celebrity family feud. There won't. But because we wont that's it one and done, w n and done.

00:40:06
Speaker 6: Yes, Marvin, Well, what if we move up against like Good Morning America or CBS This Morning.

00:40:11
Speaker 8: No, you're done, yeah, John Caliperry want and done.

00:40:14
Speaker 2: No, I'm good. I got more stressed out doing celebrity family few than I ever thought that I would, because I thought we could, we could really go viral here in a bad way. You're nervous there, I was. I screwed up the rehearsal, I got yelled at. I mean, that's not my lane.

00:40:37
Speaker 4: So I was nervous as hell up there.

00:40:39
Speaker 3: All of a sudden, we walked up on the stage and I was like, oh crap, this is really happening.

00:40:43
Speaker 2: What are we supposed to do?

00:40:44
Speaker 3: We're just supposed to stand there, so instead, I don't know why. For summary, I was like, you know what, I just need to start dancing. And I just started dancing and smiling the whole time. I was up there until the camera started and then I stopped. But right up until that moment, I was dancing the whole time. Noah, I'm not nervous.

00:40:57
Speaker 2: Hell No. When I screwed up the rehearsal question and I'm like, oh my god, like we're gonna we're gonna get boat raced here, dude, you good. No, I wasn't. And I'm I'm trying to you know, I know it's coming back to me. And then I'm trying to nudge Marvin and say, you know you got anything for me? And Marvin goes, yes, he had something for him. He wasn't sharing it with me.

00:41:25
Speaker 6: But I couldn't because look, they were on people.

00:41:30
Speaker 2: I know, I know Eyesen Show. They would have been apoplectic. They're cheating. They're cheating right there, final hour on this Thursday, Dan and the Dan Nants. After this