Rigged & Basketball (with Tone Bell)

Is the NBA rigged? Langston and guest Tone Bell (Can't Cancel This on Showtime) make a slam dunk on this conspiracy theory and get to the bottom of who and what's at stake during these games.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Adam Silver looks more hybolicle than David Start. David Started
at least looked like a dupeist. No, David Stern looked
like a shaved ewalk. And now Adam Silver looks like
truly one of the more menacing, unclosed the mentors I've
ever seen in my life. Just even looks like he
either has no shadow or he has two no shadow

(00:30):
or too much shadow. That the Adam Silver story. Why
is your shadow so thick? Adam Crow? Chips in your
mails are racist whole money stuff? I can't tell me. Yep, yep, yep,

(01:03):
there it is there it is. Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome
to another phenomenal episode of My Mama Told Me, the
podcast where we died deep deep into the pockets of
black conspiracy theories and we finally work to prove that
Dwyane Wade's name is not misspelled. It is actually part
of a secret code to help Nicolas Cage find the

(01:26):
Declaration of Independence. That's right, niggas, black people can find
the Declaration of Independence to stop limiting yourself, expand your brains.
Dwyane Wade is part of a government conspiracy, y'all. He
mispelled his name is Mama is Mama spells Dwyane Fine,
she's helping us save the world. I'm your host, Nankston

(01:49):
Kerman as always coming in hot, batty, I'm feeling good.
I'm back in l A. I'm recording once again in
my own home, which has moderately better Internet than the
then the ship apartment I was living in and New York.
It's not much better, but it is better than what
was happening before. But you know who has fantastic internet?

(02:10):
You know who who everything in his life I think
is coming up gold just hot. He's a man who
has never stopped working since the day I met him,
and he was working real hard before then. But man,
is he's so talented, so funny, a comedian and after
extraordinary you know him? Uh? I think the thing that
you need to know most is that he has a
special one showtime called can't cancel This and he's so funny.

(02:33):
Please give it up for my guest, Mr tone Bell. Lord,
what has happening there? Hell yet? Thank you? Thank you? Everyone?
Sit down, sit down, let's get this thing started. Let's
get started. Baby. How you feeling Hey man, I'm good man,
I'm good man. I ain't seeing you so long, man,
It's actually really good to see your face. It has

(02:54):
been a while, and and our listeners should know that
this has been an attempt to record or that has
probably taken upwards of three months. I think, I would
say longer than that of just constant emails going back
and forth with either myself or a tone, needing to
cancel because of various obligations. But we're doing it today

(03:17):
and this is very exciting. I truly can't wait to
dive into it. Because you came with a conspiracy theory,
I would also I would also like to say, if
I can interrupt just for a secondly, I would like
to say that I love and friends cancel on me.
Oh really, I love when you cancel on me. That
means you got shipped to do that was more important

(03:38):
what we already had to do. That's a good problem.
I can. I appreciate that, which means that, like my time,
the time that you needed, you had to take it
from me because it was more important, there was more
money in that. Let me say this, I felt terrible
canceling the times that I did it, So it does
help me sleep a little easier knowing that you were like, fuck, yeah, yeah,

(03:59):
go again, man, this is working. God damn he doing good.
Go ahead, all right, Well I'm gonna sleep good tonight
now because because I did it multiple times, I'm a
real mom man. I was saying up six or seven,
six or seven times? Can on me? I go, this
motherfucker is really going to work right now. Well, we're

(04:23):
not working to day. You know who's not working to day.
It's me. I'm in shorts, baby, I'm here to talk
to you about this conspiracy theory. It's an exciting one
because you said, my mama told me the n b
A is rigged. I said it, and I said again,

(04:46):
tell me again. I would love I need to know
everything that you you know that you think you know
about this conspiracy thing. I stopped believing in this because
you know what it feels like to me. It got
too much to be like wrestling. M feels like performance
art now because whenever you I mean, I ain't never
seen this many players with this kind of technology. Fifty

(05:07):
years ago, when Nichols was playing in Chuck Taylor's there
weren't as many injuries, there was no ankle support. Everybody
wearing full body sleeves. Now wearing copper and and compression socks.
And for some reason you only got to play like
fifty eight games a season to be on the team.

(05:27):
I don't believe it refs everywhere you can gamble a line. Now.
I ain't gonna lie because and here's why I really
believe this, because you could probably if I was in
the league, you could probably buy me whoa Okay, now
this is exciting. So you're saying you would slut it
up immediately for a little bit of bread that you
would were not a little bit of bread. My apology.

(05:50):
You're no cheap or you you wore. If I'm gonna
slip myself out, it's got to be worth it. My
name is gonna be tainted people find out you're gonna
Pete Rose me, it's gonna be You're gonna have to really,
you have to really really pay me to take that shame.
Do you think, okay, I love that you're taking it

(06:10):
down this. Do you think that Pete Rose is happy
with the amount of money that it cost him to
not be a Hall of Famer that, like you know,
Pete Rose objectively should be a Hall of Famer and
and just isn't because of his personality in gambling addiction.
We're still talking about it, Okay, I still know how

(06:34):
great he is. I mean the Mark McGuire's who was
that he was h Mark McGuire's, Barry Bonds and all
of them. I don't care whoa, I don't care. I
don't care what if you're doing it to entertain me?
Get it in Oh, so this is exciting. So so
you are recognizing that these sports leagues are rigged, but

(06:56):
you are not saying your anti the rigging. No, I
get it. And it does take something away from it.
It takes away it takes away the mystique of the surprise.
But I mean, it's like watching Patrick Beverley last week
talk about who's gonna get quote unquote injured in the

(07:17):
middle of the third quarter because the Suns are getting
blown out. All of a sudden, there's a hamstring or
a quad and like somebody, somebody has to go to
the locker room. So I go, oh, man, I'm not
the only one thinking this. Okay, So now you start speculating, Man,
what the Suns have pulled it out if Chris Paul
stayed because it's so now so now leaves you it

(07:39):
leaves you, uh, I make up a word, wonderment. It
leaves you to go, what if uh huh, because because
if Chris Paul just stays in the game, or if
Devin Booker whoever, just stays in the game, then you
don't have to wonder. And then you just go, oh,
they weren't as good as I wanted them to be
or I thought they were. But if they go out

(08:00):
of the game, you get to keep sending spelling or
sort of selling out this legend of point God and
like the Team that Never Was or whatever it is.
I think it goes so far that like, look, you
know how many commercials, how many State Farm commercials we
haven't seen since Chris Farm. You shouldn't Stay Farm, Oh ship,

(08:27):
I'm coming for that's all right, they got insurance old on,
Wait a minute, they get that's how they get you.
If you funk with Stay Farmed, you're gonna work around
and lose your kneecaps. And you know what I mean,
Like you, Jake from State Farm's gonna beat your ass
if you come. You funk with his money to see
that they o Jake is still around, but Chris Chris ain't. No,

(08:48):
They've they've they've been waning off of both Chris and
Cliff Paul for quite some time. Now, I'm telling you,
I'm telling you, because he getting older, I gotta bring
somebody new in. Damn. Okay. So you're saying that we
are going to see the last of the Chris Cliff
Paul's and maybe this is when we start to see

(09:09):
I don't know. They're not gonna put Pat Bevan there.
His personality is terrible, truly, one of the more unlikable
people that has ever crossed any in the NBA threshold.
But a younger, more spry person with a big personality
could take Yeah, yeah, I mean I wouldn't be surprised
if they finally get Tray young trade younger young is

(09:30):
a good answer. Tray younger hopping there. But see look,
but see look now who you got going up? You got?
We thought they were trying to they were trying to
villainize the Warriors. Yeah right, Louis can't play Wiggins, can't
play Clay back from his injury. They're trying to villainize
Steff again. Who won m v P. Luca Not no joking.

(09:52):
That's another big another big foreign man. I'll be high
a lot. So look, but you got Luca who everybody
looks and we know your beast, right, and then you look,
you gotta get in in an NBA. I think, uh,
the majority of the NBA is black. Yes, not a conspiracy,

(10:13):
we know this. No, yeah, I don't think there's much
argument there. Anybody at home who's like, hold on, brother,
wait a minute, literally say less, say less? That mad thing. Correct.
So so lucas a minority. M hmm, we gotta have them, Yeah,

(10:35):
we gotta have we gotta have Dallas play. We've seen
we also we also knew that if Milwaukee didn't move on,
we needed to be more excited because I thought it
was gonna be Milwaukee. I thought Milwaukee. I thought Milwaukee
was gonna play. Who didn't playing? Now Miami? Yeah right,
two Celtics done our. Horford's down, Marcus Smart's down. Miami

(10:56):
had to set some people down because Kyle Lawie couldn't play.
So you have to even this whole thing out because
I think Boston is too good. So we have to
get excitement back East real, east coast, West coast. Boston
has to win this series. So so just so I'm
I'm fully understanding the scale at which you feel like
this is functioning. It's not just rigging in terms of

(11:18):
like they sit down at the beginning of the season
and go, Okay, this year, Miami is our champion, and
we are going to do everything to ensure that they're
the champion. It's more day to day, game to game
kind of thing. I think we watch as the season
goes on, before the All Star break, who's getting the numbers,
who's getting the commercials, who's getting who's getting the ticket sales,

(11:39):
who's merchandise is moving, who's exploding this season? Who is healthy?
And then after the All Star break we start pushing
because you can notice calls go you know what, the
first half X team gets gets all these calls? Why
team gets nothing? And then it could flipping in the
in the second half, watching hashtags and watching trends. Who's
people talking about out and then where the line of

(12:02):
Vegas goes probably shifts calls. And I see that's interesting
because in that way it sort of has a level of, uh,
it has a slightly egalitarian rigging happening, right that, like,
to some extent, everybody has the chance to earn Adam
Silver's crowning as the team that we will then bless

(12:26):
towards the end of the season. Okay, let me say
that I watched something recently that made a lot of
sense to me. But it's like imagine the Okay, so
instead of like point shaving, right, is that a team
of coach at GM or ref can do to to
switch calls balance out who gets more possessions? Yead yah yea.

(12:47):
I was listening to I don't know if you've ever
seen this, but uh that there was an interview that
Gilbert Arenas was doing and he was talking about the
incentive contracts. So if I gotta drop, if I got
an average twenty, if I gotta average twenty nine and
seven for the second half of the season to get
an extra three million dollar bonus, you're not getting them

(13:08):
minutes right right. The organization saves money. The team needs
you because you got high enough stats even having a
set up contract, which means that we're gonna save money
in the budget because you're probably got two many miles
on you, so we won't see you next year. WHOA
See That's interesting because that also then makes me think
about like Golden State, right, and how like objectively Jordan

(13:31):
Poole was moving between being there their first and second
best player throughout parts of this season, but then at
some point in the season they opted to sort of
like reshuffle, bring Clay back in. And now all of
a sudden, Jordan's numbers are are waning a little bit.
He's still playing at a high level, but it's not

(13:51):
necessarily the performance that he was having at the beginning
of the season. And to your point, maybe some of
that is a money shift. Pool and Wiggins switched, uh huh.
We just wasn't getting that kind of love because he
was he was a little to the draw. Pool was
coming up. Poo ain't getting the numbers all the time
that he was. Wig is killing right now, but over

(14:13):
the course of the season, the numbers gonna level out, right,
so we can make sure that we don't have to
give him some weird bonus that he doesn't that that
we can still benefit from. Now this this out of
nowhere kid who people all thought was washed when he
was in the G League is suddenly playing at this
elite level, But we don't owe him extra bread at

(14:34):
the end of it, despite benefiting from his celebrity. I mean,
and you talk about the the idea of in real
time now with so much technology, you can see a
parlay coming, whoa and so do you think that then
in seeing it coming, that fox up the betting system
because I'm not a betting man, but I have to understand, like,

(14:56):
are the people in Vegas now being like, Yo, this
is too easy, all just getting bred or are they
making it? How are they accounting for the fact that
that all of these things are so clearly laid out.
I mean, sometimes I'll be at the bar watching the
game on my phone and the game on direct TV
at Buffalu way about forty five seconds off, and I

(15:17):
think it is quick to send a text, right, So
I was like, Yo, you cannot let him. He cannot
hit another three, another three? Get him out the goddamn game, right,
you know what I mean? I don't know. I don't
know Howard, and I'm not really a batman either, but
I know way too many people that make money on
parlais and stats to go, this is crazy that this

(15:38):
just happened. Happening in the third quarter sure like, And
some of the parlays are so absurd that it feels
like a level of of silly rigging has to be
happening on the on the base level in order for
this to even make sense. You know what I mean
that it's like it's all cartoonish bets after a while

(15:58):
and not just about like who's winning the game anymore.
If I was sitting courtside and my girls at home,
I'd be texting like, Yo, I don't think steps gonna
play the fourth Yeah, you gotta be just listening in
on the couches conversation. DC rivers, Uh, despite his best efforts,

(16:19):
he talks in a whisper, but it's a loud fucking whisper,
So you know somebody's hearing this ship. Let me ask
you this before we go to break, because I do
think this is gonna be helpful and sort of exploring
some of the uh, the research that we have coming up.
When did you start to feel this way? Who introduced
this idea to you? Was this was this born of

(16:40):
your own brain or was someone in your life? Like yo, tone,
you know this ship ain't real? And then you started
to peep it? Uh, I guess want to really started
paying attention to it was probably a couple of years ago.
And I don't want to say the league and I
don't definitely want to say the player's name. But you know,
you get into this game and you start development friends

(17:00):
outside of comedy but in acting, but also and so
I got a couple. I got a couple of buddies
who who you know, played different sports. But I will
say that I had a friend like just kind of
you know, we had some drinks and uh, just hey, y'all,
we were drunk. Anyway, he just got a little loose
lip and bro, he said a couple of words and

(17:23):
I was like what and and it was like, oh, yeah,
we we knew. Damn, we knew he was thinking. We
knew he was taking as L before we ran out,
before we ran out there, before we ran out there,
we knew we were taking us L. So he just
told you straight up that it was already on uh
sort of like uh, not record, but it was already
sort of made clear to them that this was not

(17:46):
going to be their victory in this game. That's what
it sounded like. To me. Okay, I hope I'm wrong,
but that's that's how I've heard it. I was drunk,
he was drunk. I go, what, No, you don't say

(18:07):
I And I go, you know, you know it is
what it is. I pray my drunk ears betrayed me,
but I'm pretty sure I heard this NIGGD say we're
gonna lose. I still love a game. Hey, Hey, happy
to be here. All right, We're gonna take a break.

(18:28):
We'll be back with more tone bell more, my mama
told me. And we are bad. Passes it to the man,
shoots it and boom goes to dynamite. Yeah, we're back

(18:49):
here with more tone bell more, my mama told me.
We're still talking about the possibility that these professional sports
leagues are rigged, that this is this is a ruse,
that we're all fallen four, that they're not in fact
playing their hearts out, but some of them are playing
with half their hearts so that they get better bonuses.
And I guess help the league narratives. Do you feel

(19:12):
like there are players and I've always been curious about
this when people have accused like games of being rigged
or situations of being rigged, do you think that all
the players are consenting into this as well? Or is
it just like it's it's more that the league figures
it out and the players have accepted that. Yo, you
pay me enough. I'm not gonna like blow up the

(19:33):
spot for my own benefit. I think, I think, uh,
I think you can't tell everybody. M you can't tell
everybody because the pay scale is different, right because somebody
making somebody making thirty one million this seed and somebody
making three five thousand for the season, who making three

(19:54):
seventi five can't know. Fuse And he's say, and Drew
Holiday's little brother don't know that the league is rigged.
He's like, man, he's doing two days. He just happened
happy uniform. He's watching it himself. God, that's all embarrassing.

(20:16):
Whoever driving himself to the game don't know. But he's
just sitting there like, man, we're gonna get it next time.
Fellas and everybody like, I don't know, Dog, I don't
think we are gonna get it next time. If you
don't need security, you don't know. But if you've got security, oh,
I trust you a little more to know some ship
because you know you got at least that's what I'd
like to believe. I'm like, I'd like to believe I

(20:39):
can handle a thirty two million dollars secret. Mm hmmm.
That and that's that's a good point. You know what
I mean that, Like, at a certain point the bag
becomes so large that it's like, what is the benefit
here to come forward and be like, hey man, this
is all Adam Silver. David Sterns still live planning games

(21:01):
and ship like you can laugh. I got it. I
couldn't do this out public. David Stern is still alive
in a in a cloak made of Craig Sager's soups uh,
strategizing there like, look, man, I was there, I was there.

(21:22):
I know I got a different angle. Let me in,
Let me in the club. It's pretty scary to some
extent to think the amount of people I guess that
have to be consenting inside of this. And that's always
the sort of big question of conspiracy theory and all
of these conversations when it becomes like a mass agreement,
is how many people are actually consenting and knowingly allowing

(21:46):
this thing to happen. It's it's challenging, to say the least,
to get that many people on board, but when you
pay them enough money, it makes it at least a
little bit easier and more likely to happen. You got
the hater, but you go, if if I would, I
would rather me get the opportunity to have to hold
onto this than to play your game, and you get

(22:08):
the control of this if if if I can do it,
I'm taking the task. I'm taking the opportunity that that actually,
uh is I think a good transition into some of
the research that I want to talk to you about today.
Like all television programs, there there are arguments, at least
everything that I've read suggests that the rigging is less

(22:30):
about deciding the ultimate results of games, but more protecting
the longevity of the league and its stars. That's the
main argument that sort of is presented. So they say
that like all television programs, they're weaving stories, and you
made this example with the wrestling, which means that they
need the main cast and most prominent teams to maintain

(22:53):
their positions at the top of the league. I watched
this interview actually today with Jalen Rose where he was
talking about how we see it in situations like with
John Wall being paid very handsomely to not play basketball
for an entire year, or Kawhi Leonard, who is basically
like the king of load management, truly the greatest load

(23:15):
manager in the history of the league, and has opted
to probably play somewhere in the range of forty games
for the rest of his life, despite being arguably one
of the best players in the league at all times. Well,
I mean, there's always a passing on the towards when
generational generations of the league. When the game changes, you

(23:38):
gotta get a new face, right, And we're watching it
right now. We saw Lebron still be arguably the best
player ever. Okay, especially in era we we watch it.
We passed them to towards Kobe got it from Mike,
Mike got it from Magic and Isaiah, and Isaiah's was
short lived compared to when when Mike came through. But

(23:58):
everybody gets an opportunity and every every three to six years,
five or seven years, that new face. Steph had his time.
This is probably steps last year's being the face, right
because now you got yeah, right, you're saying that these
individuals that were rooting for because they change, then the

(24:21):
the rigging as it were, will also change that. Like
Golden State was not a powerhouse until you get Splash Brothers,
specifically Steph as a face of this organization. And now
we will do everything to make sure that if nothing
else there at least in a conversation. Until these these

(24:41):
dudes are no longer valuable. You can watch the Lakers
game from anywhere there's you will never be in a
city with cable and the Lakers playing, you won't be
able to watch it. The Lakers played everywhere, Yeah, all right,
Boston still play everywhere, Miami probably play everywhere. Fair you
had the Clippers play everywhere, Go to State, play everywhere.

(25:04):
Golden State game on. You're gonna see it in bars
that don't have television. Yeah, And frankly, you and you
and I come from a generation where that was not true.
Do you know what I mean? Like, I never watched
the Golden State game before Steph Curry became Steph Curry. Like,
it's not it did. It wasn't even possible. They told

(25:25):
me that there was that like hero season with Golden State.
I didn't watch that ship when Baron Davis and Stephen
Jackson all of them were going crazy, I didn't know
because they didn't play all games on TV. I had
no idea. But good for you boys across the county line.
They don't play them games. They're right. They didn't playing

(25:46):
that in Oakland, right, they were like the fuck watching
Steven Jackson the funk out of here. And now look,
look you can watch Melo so LaMelo so excite, and
you watch watching You're watching UM games, You're watching Charlotte
games across the country. I was watching that ship at Toronto, right,

(26:09):
you watch the Charlotte games in Canada. Now he's exciting,
Jaws exciting. So yeah, so look that's a new change
in the guard. But also we're gonna need Kauai another.
He's not exciting for he's an exciting player, but he's
not exciting, and they try to make him excited with
that that creepy as laugh. He's surely one of the
more boring superstars that have ever existed, and it works

(26:31):
perfectly in the Tim Duncan tree of life that he's building.
But yeah, now it he is dull, dull, you know,
I mean, sharp is his foom. You do not want
to see him on television, you want to He's He's
a stat guy, that's it. So we gotta get I'll
take somebody that's terrible but exciting. I was hoping Lamela

(26:56):
was gonna be exciting and that he did not disappoint. No,
Lament was a very exciting player, and to that, to
that point that you're making the Charlotte Hornets before LaMelo
arrives are a pretty terrible team. Are are a non
it's a nonstarter conversation, and LaMelo is very good at basketball.
But the transition that they've made does seem exponential in

(27:21):
a way that makes you question and like, Okay, what's
going on here, because it's you know, he's he's not
even arguably the best player on the team, and the
team has suddenly become something greater than it was even
when they were still that core. The last time we've
really talked about Charlotte was like when master p had

(27:45):
like a one day or contract. I think he had
a tende contract, and I think Alonso Morning was still
involved somehow, you know what I mean. I think this
was back when LJ was throwing up the weird ship.
But but to go back to your point, where like
the narratives, I mean, but we need it to right,

(28:05):
we need it mm hmmm. And I I think that's
that's the interesting thing that everything that I read tapped
on him. So I want to go through some specific
examples to to sort of help ground this a little bit.
And I'd love to just get your thoughts on whether
you agree with this, whether some of these are more
far fetched. Some of them feel legitimate to me, and
I watched them happen in real time, so I have

(28:28):
like an emotional connection. And then some of them feel
very hypothetical. And so I'd love to hear hear where
you live in all of this. Here's a great example
to start off with. There's uh there was a bleacher
report op ed that I read that argued that the
rise of the two thousand five New Orleans Hornets, this
was back when they were still the Hornets, is a

(28:50):
great example of the rigging that happens. So two thousand five,
Chris Paul has been in the league for two years.
He has sort of solidified himself as one of the
superstar point guards in the league at this point. But
in two thousand four, in the previous year, they were terrible.
They were complete ass they did not play well at all.
And then two thousand five happens. Obviously, this is the

(29:12):
year of Katrina. They get misplaced or or sort of
like moved to Oklahoma temporarily. Obviously New Orleans is in
need of a hero story. And then the following year,
the New Orleans Hornets are second seed in the in
the West coming out through the league, and their team
doesn't change much at all. It's still mostly just Chris

(29:35):
Paul and I think Tyston Chandler are like the key
sort of like players in this and there's not a
lot of evidence of how this team, other than maybe
Chris Paul becoming a better point guard than he was
the year before, uh, suddenly goes from being not even
a factor, not even making the playoffs, to suddenly being

(29:56):
second seed in in the Western Conference. Ah My, I
can see it. Yeah, I can see it. I mean,
it makes a lot of sense to me. It's you
hate to think it, but you go, man, that's that's
a great time for people to rally for want to
get money back in the community, for people to donate,
for people to uh you got you gotta give out

(30:18):
some jobs like oh man, yeah, man, I see it.
I see it. And in some ways what you're saying,
i'll be honest, sounds a bit heroic almost that like
what a nice thing to do to be Like, Yo,
this city just suffered one of the greatest catastrophes that's
ever happened to any American city. We at least should

(30:42):
like put some bread back in the pockets of the
people that live there. That's not that's not a horrible intent.
If if you know, I'm a person watching this as
a rigging on the surface, it's not more of them
on the surface, you're saying something dastard man. Let's let's

(31:03):
go ahead. Hey man, we need about twenty thousand people
that we can pay nine dollars an hour two so
we get back to the community. What diabotically we make millions.
I'll say this, you're you're being hugely generous with nine
dollars an hour, because this is two thousand five. The
motherfucker's were making a quarter an hour to serve up

(31:26):
hot dogs with with creole sauce on them, calling sa again,
let's give people back to the French count French quarter
Canal street needs and bodies on it. Yeah, we just
need people to serve up enough that they can get
drunk and go to make money for us, and to

(31:47):
your point, make money for the people that we actually
care about, which is a bunch of billionaires and millionaires
and all that. That that one sounds like that, that
one sounds like everybody wins mm hmm okay, and and
by everyone wins some yes, okay, there we go. That's
the that's the part that that I needed to hear

(32:08):
out loud and some way more than others. But everybody
more than something. Yeah, everybody wants to get Greece. But
so you know, some people that Bank of American, some
people got still briefcases. Hey look at this, like at
the opener savings account. This is pretty cool. Thank you, NBA.
I got to fill up my Rush card, which are

(32:31):
still okay in two thousand five. Not in the future though,
you know, because of what Russia did. Okay, here's another
example that people point to, and this one is uh
this one, Oh, this one hit home for me. I
don't you're from Atlanta, You're I have to assume that

(32:51):
you were a Hawks fan growing up, or at least
I'm a Bulls fan. I spent my summers in Chicago.
Oh shit, family, my family is from that way. I
wasn't sports fan. So my family that was a sports
fan was all the Chicago. So I when I was
going up there to summer, I'm I'm a Bulls fan.
I got you. So you're a Bulls fan growing up?
I will say that, I I think it was impossible
not to be a Bulls. I'm from Chicago as well,

(33:13):
so I'm from very easy, very easy to be a
bull fan. It was easy being a Bulls fan all
the way up till nine and then they got real
easy to stop being a Bulls fan when all we
had was Tony Cook coach to protect us. But during
that time, one of the teams that I gravitated towards
was the Sacramento Kings. I was a huge Sacramento King fan,

(33:36):
largely because of Chris Webber and then like Bibby and
as you know, in the two thousand two finals, the
Western Conference Finals, the Kings faced the Lakers, and it
is I would say, one of the more infamous rigging arguments,
or at least arguments that a rigging took place. The
the Sacramento Kings are up three two in the series.

(33:58):
There the the clear your favorites at this point to
basically win the title, and then the refs start to
get involved and there's a bunch of videos you can
watch on YouTube that break down all the bullshit calls
and fake fouls and whatever whatever that happened. But basically
the Lakers end up coming back and winning the series

(34:19):
for three and the game six I think is the
one that's most infamous, as like, oh, they really just
sucked around on these guys and for years. I'll be honest,
I was. I was devastated by this loss. I really
wanted the Kings to win, but I didn't necessarily believe it.
But then, and I'm not sure how much you've heard
of this ref. Tim Donaghy, who is UH now literally

(34:43):
gone to uh I think jail for the ship or
at least been fined insane amounts of money had has
come forward and specifically in terms of this game, which
he did ref he was like, yo, we bullshit at that.
The league wanted us to make sure that the Lakers
won or at least kept a series going as long

(35:04):
as they could. I think it's harder now with technology
to do what with that two thousand two finals did
UH in the in the very obvious takes a little
more time to to see replay where we didn't have
if as many you know, sidebars were arrest going to
talk about it and you get go watch footage in
real time. I think we all got too many cameras,
so it's a lot more difficult than that. But I

(35:26):
do think it's easier to allow a series to go
seven games because we know like this, I don't. I
think everybody's checked out of this for this finals. For example,
there's Golden State Mavericks series. It's like, we need Golden
State healthy, don't get anybody hurt. Let them go ahead
and get four and out. We need them healthy for
the final. They still really like seven games. We want that.

(35:49):
We want to see seven games, So the finals going seven,
but the conference finals we need Stephen collect We get
the most money when these month buggers are healthy. And
at that point, we there's nobody in the league who
thinks that the Dallas Mavericks are gonna win it. So
what the funk are we giving them a chance for?
Why are we? Men? Luca dropped his he got his stats,

(36:12):
he do it well. We like him. No, no, just
like we we He's fine. Yeah, Reggie Bullock isn't gonna
be your the finals MVP, So let's just move on
and let these boys. Let's get Clay and and and
the boys and Draymond so he can get back to
his podcast. Draymond's got some big guests coming up, and

(36:39):
we we can't afford for him to have a sore throat.
Let's let these boys win. You know he likes yelling.
We gotta get him off the floor. But me, Roopa
has talked about this all the time, shouts of rope
and we talked about this all the time. Is um
is like things to make the game more exciting but
also make it fair. And you're talking about the referees

(37:03):
right now. Make me feel like what we should do
is at least once a game which we have to decide,
when we can let Twitter decide, the real Twitter, not
the box, the real the real Twitter. We left the
real Twitter decide which call that when they go over
to the sidelines, which call is going to be a
fan decided call? But it can't. It can't be a fan.

(37:25):
Excuse me. It has to be a woman who doesn't
watch the sport. Oh that's smart, Okay, yeah, because if
it's a fan, there's so much bias cooked into it. Right,
I'm never listen. Clay Thompson, to me, is the greatest
human being to ever walk this planet Earth. He's he's
beat autism and he's made his way to to arguably

(37:48):
the second bet shooting position in the history of the game.
He's so fun so funny to me, I love him
to death. I'm not calling a call against Clay Thompson.
I don't give a funk what he did. He didn't
do it to me. I love Clay Thompson, so I
can't fairly answer any call. If you go Nope, I
didn't see nothing like not my sweet boy. You can

(38:15):
watch her on the Oculus and be like, I don't
see ship. I don't know that. That just looked like
a good man out there playing his hard out. Nope,
said he didn't do it. Clay didn't do it. Clay,
did you do it? All right? He said, you do it? Well, Hey,
I don't know what we're talking about. That we wat
some time. Let's get back to the game. Boys, Clay
want to shoot? Uh No. But to that point, if

(38:37):
my wife was watching and she just goes and he
pushed them down, I'd be like, yeah, you're right, baby,
I don't yeah, like that was supposed to happen. And
he was like, you know, okay, that was non biased.
You gotta explain what just happened, and this is what's
not supposed to happen. Did she see that happen? And
she's gonna go that looks like it was fair to
me that Like, that wasn't that hard of a hint?

(38:59):
I was. Now that's perfect because when they go in,
the refs go and they like they meet up together
at the scores table and they're like debating the whole thing.
If you just added a nice lady in the middle
of their who's who's like that, they can take that
time to explain all the rules to her play the

(39:21):
thing back and then she goes, oh, yeah, no, you
can't do that, and then they can call the call
the way that it was. It was meant to be
called boom called the park at work in the park
a lot. Who'll tell you where to park? Could I

(39:41):
ask you? Real quick? She set seen nothing. If you're
ever at the fucking uh Staples Center, it guess not
Staples anymore, Crypto dot com, whatever the funk it is.
But if you're ever there, they're like those ladies that
sell those bacon wrap hot dogs out there. Actually I
wasn't going that direct for a second, and then I
go Then I was like, no, events staff would probably

(40:03):
leaves me closer to the team she actually works there.
Give me, give me a very stout Mexican ladies selling
bacon wrapped hot dogs and peppers. And I want her
to decide the the the ultimate. Yeah, I need her
to just the objectivist fuckingness. And then I want one
of them my dogs, so they'd be good than all Right,

(40:29):
We're gonna take more more break. We'll be back for
more tone bell more, my mama told me. And we
are anyway. Yeah, we're back here with more tone bell more.

(40:56):
My mama told me. We're still talking about the possibility
that these leagues are rigging games for their own benefit
to make people richer. That is the theory that is
on the table. I have to ask you, do you
have you ever been the at the loss of one
of these rigged games. I know you said you're not

(41:16):
a betting man, but are you as a fan, as
a as a person just sort of like observing, have
you ever been fallen victim to what you feel was
a very rigged situation? I mean not really, not really
with consequences other than you know, I mean like emotionally
being like, oh man, I wish there was more basketball,

(41:36):
but uh, I don't think. Now I'm gonna say no,
I'm gonna say no. But but I do think I
do think we were robbed of a little job this season. Oh,
I think John got where he was supposed to get,
meaning that Memphis wasn't supposed to make it past the
second round of the playoffs. Correct, But you think we

(42:00):
should have seen more job throughout the series, and that
what I'm saying. I would have loved to see more job.
I got you. I don't think the injury was. I
think we had just enough job for him to go
have a good summer. Okay, hey, we did it. Memphis
is on fire. We look good for next year. He
had new face, the commercials are coming. It's he's a

(42:21):
brand now. He solidified. That saved him up because we're
gonna need him and to say we're gonna need him
in the future. He did his job, get him out
of here for now, and then let's let go go
and stay, go ahead and get their last run before.
That's really interesting because I think, to some extent, it's
almost like I think when when I think about these

(42:43):
rigging situations. To some extent, Kevin Durant feels like the
type of guy. And I'm a big fan of Kevin Durant,
but he feels like the type of guy that wouldn't
play along in whatever this ship is, you know what
I mean that like if if any player in the
league was like, no, nigga, it's gonna be k D.

(43:04):
And I feel like his injury the season that Golden
State lost to Toronto feels very much like that, where
it was like they told him k D, you gotta
sit out, dog, you're injured in a way that you
shouldn't be or that you know it's gonna not necessarily
protect the brand, and he was like, funk that I'm
playing basketball. And the league was okay with it to

(43:27):
some extent because it still puts Kevin Durant on the floor,
which everybody wanted to see and could be a hero story.
But then when he got injured, they were like, fun,
we knew this nigga was gonna cost us some money.
Righteous man, if you don't go get a haircut and
sit down with the ethics. Yeah, he seems like he

(43:51):
just loves basketball more than uh whatever millionaire games are
being played, so he's gonna go. He's gonna go play
even if they tell him not to. I mean, I
think it's my thing. The smart Cats are doing what
they do like, you know the cats who know that. Man,
I might got two or three more seasons left, so
let me go ahead and figure out why next career
is gonna be. And Katie's like, hey, man, I lay

(44:11):
step past me to the ball like I'm I played basketball. Man,
I've got nothing else. I ain't got no kids, i
ain't got no wife. I like basketball. I'm going for
another ten season. Were you gonna have to go play
in the Big Three? You better call ask. Yeah, we
can't keep it. We can't afford whatever. This personality is

(44:31):
around all the time. Another thing bring up all the time.
It's like I wish because like this is like the
narrative of these things. I wish that there was like
a game within a game, right, so I wish it
like instead of this one. Just I'm thinking about this
right now. But you cant file on the three, right
you shooting foul on the three? You can choose whether

(44:52):
or not you take three free throws or everybody clears
the court. We play one on one for three points.
Who oh, that's exciting. Now, that's that's fucking exciting. You
get thirty, you get shot seconds, maybe you get maybe
you get your four teeth. But you got I got

(45:12):
four these seconds. It's quick. You filed me. If I score,
are you one on one? I get my three? And
if if and if and if you if you stopped me,
then y'all get y'all get the possession. Oh that's really
fun because then it feels like it's uh, it's kind
of he got game quality to it, where it's like
you're kind of rooting for the jail nigger to come

(45:35):
out of this, but no, Ray Allen's gonna push him
down and dunk on his bitch ass because because you
know you are you go here nigga bought a lie
every everyone on one, every one on one. I wish
we would do this more. I'll say this very exciting premise. Truly,
I don't know that the egos of this league could

(45:55):
could even begin to manage what you're suggesting. It would
destroy Ali so many people emotionally too. At the point
that you get knocked down and dunked on, you would
people would melt down for short. Oh, I mean we live,
you know how we live in now? Everything? I mean, yes,
within the game, I got play. I mean it's gonna stop.

(46:18):
You always gonna take us one person to get injured
that they couldn't afford. Right, if takes that link, if
Lebron takes that kind of l it's over. It's it's done. Yeah, okay,
I love that. Let's let's dig back into a few
more of these examples before we we wrap this up.

(46:40):
This is a really interesting one. There's a draft lottery
that I guess is one of the more infamous moments
of quote unquote rigging, and there are a few examples
of rigging throughout history. Some argue that even Lebron being
drafted to the Calves is another example of rigging. He's
a hometown kid who suddenly is now being drafted to

(47:03):
the team and magically creates, you know, this narrative of
of salvation despite the next best player being what was
that Moe Williams. It was like he truly had nothing
on that team Anderson vere Jael. I think where his
two next best Larry Hughes. That was all garbage. That said.
The nineteen five draft lottery is when, for some reason,

(47:27):
the league opted to shift from their traditional ping pong
balls to pull the names of the teams as they're
being picked for the numbers, and instead shifted to these
giants almost like uh, vinyl disc cards, do you know
what I mean? Like the thing the envelopes that you
keep vinyling. They use those and put those in a

(47:50):
giant spinny wheel, right, And so everybody is like, this
is a little weird, but I guess the league's trying
something different. But then on top of that, the GM
of the Atlanta Hawks this year nine came forward before
the draft even happened and said, the Knicks are going
to get the first pick because they are the team

(48:12):
that the NBA is invested in the most, because of
the the sort of like scale of their market. Everybody
starts bugging out about the fact that he says that.
But then even worse than Knicks do in fact get
the first pick, and they get Patrick Ewing that year,
which then just sort of solidifies the kerfuffle. And inside
of that, this is my favorite part of the whole thing.

(48:33):
People discovered that the accounting firm that was in charge
of the cards and in charge of this lottery as
a whole, was in fact owned by you guessed it,
the New York Knicks, and the person who specifically was
in charge of placing the cards inside of it was
a person inside of the Knicks organization. Uh. And there

(48:55):
are some people who even argue, this is the craziest
part that they froze the Knicks card so that David Stern,
when he reached his hand in could differentiate the Knicks
card versus the other ones. So what it just wasn't
a red and all the rest of them are white.
This one. It's like, I mean, here's the hard part,

(49:20):
Like would you even care? Hey? Man? Like it's that
That's that's the hard part to me is like I
understand that people probably couldn't handle it, but I think
most of us will go. I don't know, man, New York.
I mean, they make a lot of money, they spend
a lot of moneys in expensive place. Yeah, they do
deserve to go number one. And then you get to
mid season, after the draft, you go, man, who's who's

(49:40):
killing it right now? Before the trade deadline? What can
we do? I think sports fans can handle that ship.
I do, but I think there's there There hasn't been
an element of surprise and unknowing not knowing, So they
have to make it exciting because I mean, I remember
win the whole lottery because we didn't used to see
really the draft lottery like that, like now it's a
huge event. It was kind of like, you know, it's

(50:01):
you know, it's out here and you know what happens.
But then it became like, you know, just a real
big short an entire day. It's a production. Yeah, but
I don't know. I mean that's hard because I I
don't disagree with how they did it. I just go,
that's like what they should have done. It's like, let
us they should have went to um like a make

(50:24):
a wish, like they should have brought a blind kid out.
And then somebody whispers, reach for the reach for the
cold one, right, if you feel cold, you got it yet,
teaching what cold is. What you do is you make it.
You make it. You make them all different, every envelope,
thirty different colors. So there's no way he saw it right,

(50:46):
and just like he just he just reached it there
and then like he just whispered, hey man, get the
cold one. And then there's like oh ship and people
love this blind kid, and it seems like something else.
I think to your point, that's that's part of the
problem that they keep facing, right, is that they keep
using the same motherfucker's to do the thing and pretending
like we're not supposed to start calling bullshit like at

(51:10):
the core of it. If you want to rig sports,
and I'm not saying you should or you shouldn't, but
if you want to rig sports, stop making the head
of the league the face of each event, you know
what I mean? Like you said, bring in some weirdos
and some some extra folks that have nothing to do

(51:30):
with it to be the face of these choices so
that it feels at least somewhat objective, or at least
feels like a third party is involved in some kind
of way. But David Stern, he's a part of all
of you. You gotta come in looking like you don't
know shit about it and go, hey man, you gotta
win your contract to act like you don't know shit
about this. And you just got picked up up three
like a lot of like a lottery winner. And then

(51:51):
that's it. Yeah, did your one season now Walking the
Chocolate Factory. Baby. We already knew Charlie was gonna get
up in there, but Maga seem like he's in trouble.
I don't know, I feel like people can handle that,
Like the way we grew up evicually found out that
wrestling was a storyline, and still it does well. Yeah,

(52:16):
I think the wrestling analogy is a good one for
me because it reminds me of how I was very
invested in wrestling as a kid, and I remember there
would be weeks where like Stone Cold or The Rock
would like take off, right, like they just weren't a
part of it. They weren't, you know, it wasn't in
the stories or like the you know, there was a
point where I think like one of them had gotten

(52:37):
injured and that was like part of the storyline was
like they aren't they aren't wrestling anymore whatever, And I
didn't like those stories, right, I remember as a kid
being like, fun, man, those are my favorites. I want
them to be a part of it. But then there
was also the moment when they came back, and that
was so much more meaningful and exciting than if they

(52:58):
would have kept just doing their bit every week, the
same as always. And so I think, to some extent,
that's what we're getting, right. It's more of a hero
story for Cleveland to have Lebron James lose Lebron James,
Lebron comes back and gives them a championship than it
is for Lebron to just stick it out for the

(53:20):
entirety of his career and then ultimately earn himself a championship.
Somewhere in the middle of that, well, I mean like
it's it's like and I don't know, I'm sure we
could string this together. But but but even having for
for Lebron to go from Cleveland to Miami back to
Cleveland and then get to l A is like, we
can make that happen, but you gotta go back to

(53:41):
you owe Cleveland more give them one before and I
don't think that's him and go, hey man, it didn't happen. Yeah, yeah,
he probably was like I don't want to go back
to NA. We'll let you go to al started paying
my mortgage in l A. I'm moving, And then they
do we actually don't give a funk about your more.

(54:05):
Just you two inside. Now you got you gotta do this.
You get well Cleveland one, give you space jam. How
about that? Are you gonna do that? Oh that's good
that They were like, man, we'll give you that, but
like we're gonna need one. Persons need space Jam. You
don't gotta be good. In fact, you can go out
of your way to make it got awful, but you

(54:25):
gotta give us another space jam. So staying on the
David Stern is Evil track, there are a couple more
examples of David Stern sort of doing some of some
of his wild according to at least some people who
are accusing him. Ship In two thousand six, the Finals
win Dwyane Wade and the Heat. This is the the

(54:46):
Shock and Dwyane Wade Heat, not the Lebron and Dwyane
Wade Heat. But they were facing the Mavericks and Dwyane Wade.
They're down, uh, they're down two oh to the MAVs
at this point. They're they're almost certainly about to lose
this game. I think they were down by like almost
twenty in the third game. And then Dwyane Wade went
on to shoot as many free throws as the entire

(55:09):
Mavericks team that game. So in the third game, he
shoots as many free throws as the entire team, which
I think is twenty five plus free throws on his own,
ultimately wins that game and then goes on to shoot
similar amounts of free throws throughout the rest of the
series and wins them a championship, and then Mark Cuban

(55:31):
is so angry at what's happened that he comes forward
and says that it was rigged. He comes forward and
says that the refs bullshited this game in the league's favor,
and then gets fined a quarter of a million dollars
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for talking out of turn.
That season. Love Mark cuba for that, and I go,
you know, it's a double standard. You know, when the

(55:52):
when the rig goes you away. M hmm, you know.
But I mean, if I'm not mistaken, this is this
is at this point, d Wade is with Nike. He
has a shoe. They they're doing this whole campaign. You
know you you fall down eight times, get up nine right,
and that this year and they're talking about all these files.
This this these are those years when he was he

(56:14):
jumped and not know how he's coming down, so he
always end up on his back or or chest or something. Yeah.
This was This was the Duane Wade and Derrick Crows
I think had similar instincts of like, I I'm just
gonna leave everything in in the air and see what
the funk happens, and uh, sometimes it worked out really
well and then sometimes it uh ended their career real early.

(56:39):
So I mean you're talking about this is not even
like I mean, we need we need more time for
to make this ad go, right, this Nike ad go?
What is it? What is gonna be his thing? Mm hmm,
what's his narrative? What's what's gonna be this thing? We
gotta get him? Oh so, yes, I mean so so
the fact that they win the series. But now they
got all this foot of they got montage after montage

(57:03):
of end game getting foul. It's really not a foul,
but but he's going to the line and he's strong
as funck and he's and he's a big ship talker,
so he's gonna go up there, get knocked down, dunk
it or do a weird spin and put it in.
And then you get footage of him now like on
the ground being like yeah, yeah, yeah, that's to your point,

(57:26):
great footage for Nike or whoever is should sell it.
And let's be honest, we all know what built Miami.
Then ref's probably scared shitless if Miami don't win. Yeah,
the cocaine boys are uh courtside they they're not talking
out a turn in Miami. Hey man, everybody Miami were

(57:48):
all white to the games. Cokaine. That ain't for the team. No,
this is this is a personal This is personal for them.
They would they wouldn't even be called the heat that
they could call them the the what the my Miami cocaina,
they could have it that they can call it powder

(58:10):
if they can call it anything else. My the Miami
good stuff, the Miami Let's party and you like the
party is a big number one. They do the pinky
with long with the long nail on it has a

(58:30):
long nail on it and a little there's a little
bit of unexplained dust right right at the end of that.
Thank you, just a little bit, not enough that it
defends the children. But we number one. Bro Okay. I'll
point to to arguably the most glaring historical example of

(58:50):
the rigging, or certainly the one that that feels most
present to today, the fiasco that took place when Chris
Paul is vetoed from joining the Lakers by David Stern. So,
David Stern, I don't know how well you remember this,
but Chris Paul plays for the Hornets at the time
in New Orleans. He ultimately is deciding to leave. The

(59:13):
Hornets are then going to make a three team deal
to land Chris Paul in the Lakers. Now here's where
it gets weird is that I go back and go
back one more time. I'm trying remember this. It's Chris
Paul leaving the Hornets trying to go to the Lakers.
I believe it is two thousand six. I want to say, no,

(59:34):
it might have been. It might have been later than that.
I'm not a I'm not remembering the the year. Well,
so I apologize to the listeners. Please don't yell at me.
But long story short, this is right before Chris Paul
actually ends up on the Clippers. So whatever year he
ends up on the Clippers, this was the year he
attempted to go to the Lakers. They were trading for

(59:55):
him to go there, but New Orleans didn't have an
owner at the time. For whatever reason, their team did
not have an owner, and when you don't have an owner,
the head of the league becomes the sort of like
acting owner for the team. David Stern and David Stern
vetoed the deal, saying that Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant

(01:00:16):
would be too much of a impossible duo for anybody
to be and said that it wouldn't be beneficial to
New Orleans and then forced them into a trade that
actually ended up way worse for New Orleans than they
would have been if they ended up with the I
think they were gonna get like four pretty solid players

(01:00:36):
in exchange for Chris Paul and then ended up with
like complete bullshit afterward. M M. That those interesting here too,
because like if if, if those years are right where
you're talking, this is it's a lot, it's a lot
happening these years. So yes, because you gotta spread the
wealth right with this, I mean, that's that's the it

(01:00:57):
has to be. It has to be shared a you know,
we gotta we have a narrative because I mean, this
is we're kind of talking about the same era because
we're still talking about Dwayne because uh Wade, Wad only
got to Miami because of some trade to Indiana in
the medical condition, right, so I forgot I forget the
player's name, but that went to Indiana. Wade ends up

(01:01:18):
going to Miami because he was supposed to go to Toronto.
We're supposed to go Toronto, So it's it's a bunch
of ship that that happens there. But they're also gonna
keep They're gonna keep Kobe there, and because the Bronch
probably already trying to get there, Yeah, there's probably there's
probably like, hey, we can't you can't come here until
Kobe's done. And this is to be clear, this is

(01:01:39):
two thousand and eleven. I was I was way off
in my years, but basically Los Angeles would have ended
up with Chris Paul. New Orleans would have ended up
with Lamar Odin, Kevin Martin, Louis Luis Scola born Dragic,
all of which they would have all ended up on
New Orleans, and then the Rockets would have gotten Paua Saw.

(01:02:00):
That would have been the the three team trade that
was happening for all of these players, and then David
Stern was like, nah, we're good and then Chris Paul
ultimately found himself on the Clippers instead. What what what?
What year did say? I don't know this, but I'm
wonder what year did Chris Paul take the position of
Player Association President? Oh, I can find out. I don't

(01:02:23):
know off the top of my head, but I definitely,
because you know those I mean to me, those kind
of things like oh, now you've got too much say so,
or we have to make it. Let you think you
have too much say so? So, now you start being vocal.
And apparently he's a when it comes to the players,
if I'd not mistaken, I think he's a pretty good
reputation as the president. I know on the court people,
I think I think he is extremely well liked as

(01:02:43):
a representative for the players in the league and also
extremely hated as a person you have to play against
in the league, if that makes sense. See people funk
with him. They love that he goes so hard for them,
and then they're like, fuck is snaked for falling down
on top of me and getting a free call? And yes,

(01:03:04):
Olivia is correct to is when he became the the president.
So he clearly this feels like it's out of a
response to David Stern fucking over his potential championship with Kobe.
So you're talking about, Look, you don't just start overnight
when I become the president. That means you're very vocal. U. Yeah,
a couple of years leading up to that's hard to

(01:03:26):
I mean, yeah, that's hard because I mean, we're that
these are years where technologies getting better, iPhones getting better,
people can talk quicker. I mean you start to hear
ship talking crazy now, yes, And so to that point,
the ship talking got so intense for David Stern and
the League that there are some who argue that is
the reason why, very shortly after Anthony Davis was drafted

(01:03:48):
to New Orleans, despite them having I think only an
eleven percent chance or some very low percent chance of
getting the number one pick, they end up getting Anthony
Davis that year. And this is them the league essentially
trying to make up for the fact that they fucked
over not only New Orleans but also the league as
a whole by nixing this this trade. But isn't it

(01:04:13):
I mean it's such a soap opera, yes, which is
we can go to any scenario. But then here's the thing.
It's like, Okay, I believe everything you just said. All
every the five stories we read that we saw had
to unfold for us to know them, right, So like,
so this is history when it comes to the league.
And also it's it's what I don't like. It's like,

(01:04:35):
oh man, that's interesting. I've gotta be honest, man, I'm
still watching the game. I still love it. I don't
really care. I don't you tell me it's something that
it wasn't. I don't like being lied to. Sure, I
don't like it, but I'm well, I'm still gonna go
to the games. I'm still gonna watch him. I'm still
gonna hate Jacob Stay for him for being the most
active actor and is everywhere. That's that's gonna mean a

(01:04:57):
lot to him coming from you, But even one of
us could have had that job, either one of us.
Sure it's not it's not a super challenging job, but
it does seem like it takes a lot of work
that uh, I'll be honest, I'm not willing to do.
I couldn't do some of what Jake has to do
a year. But also he's Jake's stay far and forever.

(01:05:19):
Like if he's in bed and he was like, say
my name, you're gonna make a smash with a red
T shirt off? All right, But what really gives me
about it is like when you talk to people, even
just in passing, and you talk to somebody about it
like this and they go, no, man, I don't believe it.
Why would they do that, I go, there's no, there's

(01:05:41):
nothing about it that seems like kind of weird, Like
it's not orchestrated. They just have the conversation like that's
what I don't like. I don't like talking to people
about it like this, and they like, I can't see that,
Like you can't see it, right. I'm not saying you
gotta believe it, but you can't see it. Let's play
the game. Let's entertain each other a little bit with
this conversation. I think to the the original point you made,

(01:06:03):
and this was one that, uh sat good in my spirit.
It felt correct for everything that I I sort of
believe in this is. It makes for great stories and
it makes for a good conversation. It's the fun that
that also is added to the league. If it's too rigged,
it's not fun anymore. We don't want this to actually

(01:06:24):
be wrestling. But if it's just rigged enough, then we
all get to feel like we can reinvest in our
teams and the possibility of of maybe the rig working
in our favor in a way that we won't be
able to if we just know the Lakers or the
Celtics will always be the best team. Because of history
and circumstance more than just chance and fun. I mean

(01:06:48):
it might help it. I mean you don't want ship
leaning too far. I mean some shi it has itself correct.
It's not too robotic, It's not it doesn't look like
the same thing happened every night. I mean you still
get you know, explosive players and highlights and used to
get all the cool stuff. And then sometimes you gotta
manipulate because it is a business. Fuck it, Yeah, it's
a business. And and goddamn it, we're dealing with the

(01:07:09):
most business e business men there are. They truly are
all billionaires who are gonna make business as choices, even
when it comes to fucking athletics. Hey man, Buffalo wild
Wing sell sizes now, And what a great way for
us to leave this conversation. Buffalo wild Wing cells thighs now.

(01:07:31):
That's all you need to know. That's that's the answer
to all of y'all questions and concerns. Here love to him.
I think we did it. I think this is a
wonderful I had a great time. Could you tell the
people had a wonderful time? Man? Yeah? Could you tell
the people at home where they can find you? What
cool ship you have going on. Man, I just I mean,
I just finished a new movie last week. That's the

(01:07:53):
Looming Tunes movie. I just finished that, which which I'm
excited about that to be out next year. I got
a movie come out on Netflix that they haven't announced yet,
so I'm not gonna say the name, but look out
forward to see my face. Uh. And then I got
a new show coming out on Netflix in September that
I'm not gonna say that the name of because they
haven't announced it yet, but man, look out for me. Man,
I'm out here and I'm Tone Bell on all the
socials I don't post about these days. I'll be out

(01:08:16):
here trying to live in real life and and uh
and not record stuff all the time. But you know what,
if I get a couple of follows I filled post
for ship, I post for ship, I probably should Yeah
and T O N E B O L Man, you know,
follow your boy. Yeah, and funk Jake from Stay Farm
because he's working too much, unlike you, who's who's keeping
it real cool and humble with your eighty eight jobs

(01:08:39):
that you just listed, but no follow Tone. He's hilarious,
very talented and now always you can follow me at
link st Kerman on all platforms. I ain't got ship
going on, so I'll be available and posting about nothing.
Then we hang up. Can I Can I say this, yo,
I love bus down Brock. Yeah, I know I said
it on like probably on Instagram. But while I got

(01:09:00):
you live, man, I funk with it heavy man. I
had a good time watching that because I didn't know
what to expect. I knew y'all was doing it. Richard
Keene is the homie and he was telling me about it,
and I kind of didn't know what it was. I know,
you've been working in a four minute you know that
ship came together. But it's dope series. I always tell
people it's our toxic little baby. We we made some
you know, real weird and funked up and I'm glad

(01:09:23):
people like it. I had a wonderful time even going
to the episode when I was like, Yo, this is
not what I thought I was gonna be. But then
I watched. I watched the whole I watched the whole thing. Man.
I funk with it, heavy man. There's no way, and
I take a lot of Proude in this. That episode
one could have been what you thought it was gonna be.
We didn't set up episode one to be whatever that

(01:09:43):
was at all. So you know, I'm glad. I'm glad.
You dug it that. That means the world to me. Yeah,
well we did it. I think this is it okay.
By bitch from Ships in Your Hands, Uncle Wala bears

(01:10:04):
were racist. The also player from Oaks, the money r.
She's in many Turkey stuff. I can't tell me nothing