Hour 2: What Does Kawhi Leonard's Future Hold?

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Leonard still delivered a career best just over just under 29 points per game in his 14th season strengthening his case as an all NBA first team candidate with one year remaining on his contract Leonard is eligible to sign an extension for up to two additional years with the Clippers and after the game he was asked about his future in LA. You're going into last year of the contract that you signed a couple years ago with the team. You are extension eligible. I was just wondering is this a place that you would like to stay going forward into the future? Let me cry about this loss a little bit more. And you know we're going to have our discussion so when that time comes. Let's welcome in to time NBA finals champion Kenny the Jetsmith. I don't even know if I need to do that whole intro thing with you. You just heard Kauai last night obviously watch that Clippers Warriors match up. What should Kauai want to do going forward? Obviously all is speculative but if you're Kauai Leonard the one thing that you can't be is part of a rebuilding process and I think that's the biggest thing. Obviously when the Clippers traded away hard and traded away Zubac it felt like they were in a rebuild. So at this stage of his career the Clippers and Lawrence Frank and also the ownership have to say hey no we were in a pause. We're not in a rebuild. We're in a pause and this is our direction and how we're going to do it. That would make him feel comfortable. I would think if I was Kauai Leonard that would make me feel comfortable. Stephen are you going to jump in there? Listen here's my answer. I don't give a damn what Kauai wants. I mean it ain't about what he wants it's about what the Clippers want. Queezing the building, fly background. Only you can do it like that Kenny. Only you can do it like that baby. I ain't mad at you but here's the point. Here's the point man. Listen Kauai Leonard is a superstar caliber talent. We all know this. We all know when the brother is healthy he's on the he's on that superstar list. It's just that kind of impact that he has. But Kenny the jet I'm going to remind you my brother and put Kenny on the screen I got to see my brother when I'm telling him this okay. Kenny I'm going to give you I'm going to give you I'm going to remind you of this nugget of information. But why Leonard wants to come to the Los Angeles? The Clippers want him desperately. He sits up there and black mails them and tells them yo you don't do what I want you to do I'm going to go to the Lakers. I want Paul George. So they could get him as a free agent but that wasn't enough for him. All right. So instead of just being that they gave up Shay Gilgis Alexander Danilo Golanari five first round picks unprotected and two pick swaps. One of those picks was Jalen Williams in 2022 plus they lost last night and OKC got their first round pick. So this brother is responsible for OKC starting back court of Shay Gilgis Alexander and Jalen Williams who dropped the 40 piece in the finals. OK. And what the Clippers have to show for it especially over the last five years is two two playoff exits. They didn't make it and five and five trips home in the first round or three trips home in the first round over the last five years they've been out of first round and this is a playoff twice and they've been out in the first round. If somebody came to you Kenny the Jetsmith Queens in the building my brother and they said to you that this brother who blackmailed you in the getting this in the getting Paul George to come here knowing that we want to build a new arena knowing that we can let him go to the Lakers and a blackmailed you in the getting the board and get Paul George to come join the team. And we gave up all of those assets. And now years later this is what we have to show for it. Man only one three playoff series only one. He's got just as many contract extensions from the Clippers as he has playoff series wins. OK. The conference finally done nothing. OK. But put up some numbers when healthy Miss 40 percent of his regular season games Miss 30 percent of his playoff games and that brother came to you wanting an extension. What would Kenny the Jetsmith do. Well firstly his value when it first everything was going down when he signed it was actual meaning I'll give you an example. I remember when you were writing columns in Philadelphia you're not the same person today that you were there. Your value has increased. So yes his value was at the highest level that it could be. So now when I was signing him I can't look at what I did prior. I'd have to look at what I'm doing moving forward. His value was his value that was supply and demand. And so yes. So today's Stephen A. Smith. I would have to say no I can't give you a little column in which I have to say your value today is so different. So now I have to just. All right. Thank you. Go ahead. Go ahead. I think we lost Kenny. Go ahead. Yes. I don't know what Stephen we understand they made a terrible trade. But what does that have to do with right now. We get it. They made a terrible trade. He's been hurt a lot. He's missed playoff games. I understand that. But that's over with. He's still very good. The team was 6 and 21. They came back made the postseason. He's still great. Yes. I like to have more availability. 100 percent. I like to have 75 games instead of 65 games. 100 percent. But to give him away and get nothing in return and you're not getting anything back because he's older. He's going to cost your fortune. Cap situations. You know you're not going to get the same value back. Steve's gone back to five years ago. Steve we get it. It's terrible. Sam Preston stole him. He stole. I'm going back to the last night. It's not the same now. You got to look at it from this point not five years ago. What about what Kenny is saying in terms of he doesn't think Kauai should be part of a rebuild. So if the if the Clippers decide they're going to go in a rebuild direction you have to move Clippers are not going to decide that in Los Angeles and out of arena to go in a rebuild situation the fans will disappear and they never come back to get the Lakers five feet around five feet away. They're not going to do that. It's like the Mets and the Yankees. That's all going to rebuild the Yankees right here. It's the same thing with those franchise. Shut up for this week. Go ahead. That's not that's not the truth. That's not the truth. That's that's patently false. The fact is this if the Los Angeles Clippers are a respectable 500 team that's around what Kauai Leonard was doing anyway. So guess what I'm not telling you they can nose dive and stick up the joint and expect fans to come. You got me there. I'm not implying that. What I'm saying is if you could move Kauai Leonard to a championship contender for a late first round pick or something like that or another piece you know what it doesn't even have to be on this level. The point that I'm trying to make to you is this. He hasn't accomplished much with the Clippers. We have to sit here and look at Tyloo who we know is a great coach who we know is a championship coach but we also have to say those five years that y'all can't get out of the first round. That's on Tyron Loo's watch as well. So guess what you rode the wave. Okay. You bet on him. It hasn't materialized into anything significant. I think you move on. It's just that I'm not saying losing for nothing. You still got him on the contract for another year. But what you don't do is extend that man. You do not do that. You do not do that because he's not going to come cheat and he's not worth the price. He's not. The good news is the Clippers have another year to kind of figure this thing out. They have an extension situation now but he does have another year left on his contract and then they can go from there and figure out exactly what they want. Maybe Kawhi has a good year next year again. Maybe he's available a lot and they do something different in the postseason. Time will tell. Let's go to the winning side. And they'll go home in the first round again. Oh, maybe you're right. Let's go to the winning side of this situation now. The warrior Steve Kerr last night. High praise for his squad after the win over the Clippers. Here he is. I just told them it was, you know, with all the wins we've ever had here, a lot of them with a lot more at stake. This is right up there. Just because, you know, of where we are and our age and our, you know, the decline of our performance this year, the injuries, it was just a display of, just a beautiful display of competitive will. And this is why Steph came back. So everybody out there who thought Steph should have taken the rest of the year off. This is what he does. This is who he is. If he can compete, he's going to compete. And it was just incredible to watch. It was fun to watch. It was fun to watch a vintage Warriors team. That's what it felt like last night. But the reality of the situation was it was a playing game. This wasn't even a playoff game yet. What's your reaction to what Steve Kerr? Well, you had 37 and 45 and you hit it right on the head. They had a great fourth quarter. I mean, obviously, Curry was wonderful. Four threes by Horford. Steve's going to wax for it. I care on dream on in a sec. But you have to lose on Friday. Who cares? Who cares? One of the great wins. What are you kidding me? You're 37 and 45. This is a playing game against the Clipper team that we want to blow up because of the fact that Lannister was so terrible. We want to blow up the whole team. We want to trade Lannister here. We want to do this. We want to rebuild. So let's not go crazy. They beat the Clippers. 37 and 45. They lose to Phoenix on Friday night. This is a flip on the screen. It doesn't mean anything. So although it's a testimony of what they've done, but in a big picture, it's not that big a deal unless they build on this and end up with something. Go ahead. Yeah, you know, I. You need a vacation. No, I. Back from vacation. Maybe you just need or maybe you just need a sabbatical from the world of sports because let me tell you how I'm looking at it. How I'm looking at it is not if Golden State loses. What if Golden State wins Friday? Then we get at least four more games to watch Steph Curry. And guess what? Everybody was signed up for that, including you with your commudant self. You know, I'm telling the truth. This is Steph Curry. What's the story about? The greatest shooter God has ever created. That dude, this brother that shows up when the lights shine bright, baby, this brother shows up. This is what he lives for. Like Steve Kerr said, this is what he does. That's what you want to see. And it's not just his shot making ability. It's the swag. It's the it's just everything that comes with it. Look on the road, listen to the crowd, listen to how you react to him. Look at how he galvanizes the basketball world. You can appreciate that because that's what Bird used to do. You understand? That's what people like that used to do. You remember that stuff. That's what you loved about it. But suddenly you want to forget that because they're 37 and 45. Well, Steph Curry missed about 28, 29 of those damn games. He was out. Jimmy Butler out. So guess what? Listen here and tell me that you're going to lament the play in. I hope you're not going to do that, doggy, because the play in has been great for the NBA. All right. Fabulous for the NBA. I know Kenny's back now. Yeah, let's get Kenny back in here. So now you hear this argument, Kenny. Look, last night was awesome for the Warriors. Is Steph Curry the best show in town? Are we talking last night up to just a playing game? Well, firstly, I want to say Kendra Perkins was 100% right. He told me if I start cooking on this show, they're going to pull a plug. That's what he told me. He said, soon as you start cooking, you're going to start pulling the plug, brother. So all right. So he was 100% right. But no question about it. I do believe that Steph Curry is just great for basketball. I was watching a game last night with my son and I look at him, I go, this is the hardest cover in the last 10 seconds of a game. He's like, why? I said, because the shot you're trying to make him take, that's the one he's looking for. So you want him to take a one-legged pull-up three, fading away, falling into the stands. He's like, oh, that's the shot I'm trying to get. And so his uncanny ability to make tough shots and take game-winning opportunities is what you want to see in a playoff setting. So regardless when lose a draw, I would be watching without question when he plays. All right. The Warriors still got to win one more and then they get the chance to face the Oklahoma City Thunder. So, yeah. Me while it's co-wilded, we can take it or leave it. No one is great. We can still take it or leave it. But Steph, we can't get enough of. See the difference? Doggy knows he should anyway. I know my man Kenny does. Let's see. I don't know. He's rolling his eyes over here. All right, Kenny, please don't touch anything on your remote device there. He's going to stick with us here for a little bit longer here. I'm first take because we're going to dive into the Knicks. Do we believe that they have a run in the finals in them with Jalen Brunson leading the way? Plus, Mad Dog has a couple things, of course, to get off his chest as we let him unleash. The only way he knows how. He blocked first take, rolls along after this. The ESPN app is home to WrestleMania 42. In every WWE Premium Live event, you want to be there for the biggest moment. You'll need the ESPN Unlimited Plan. To sign up, go to the link below or you have ESPN for one of these providers. ESPN Unlimited is included as no additional course. Just head to Activate.espn.com. Follow the steps to get set up. Then sign in to the ESPN app near your end. WrestleMania and the biggest WWE Premium Live event all in one place. Anytime, anywhere. 911, where is the emergency? It's the middle of the night in a small town on the Jersey Shore. Someone reports an abandoned car on a bridge. A search gets underway for the missing driver, 19-year-old Sarah Stern. Is it a missing person? Is it a suicide? At this point, nobody knows. Most friendships, buried cash, and a sinister plot that was once pitched as a movie plays out in real life. I'm Juju Chang from 2020 and ABC Audio. Listen now to Bridge of Lies, wherever you get your podcasts. We are so excited about this. The 42 Saturday and Sunday in Las Vegas, highlighted by WWE's biggest star, streaming on the ESPN app using the ESPN Unlimited plan. Sign up or log in with your TV provider to unlock your access. Coverage begins at 6 Eastern 3 Pacific on ESPN 2 Saturday and tomorrow and on ESPN on Sunday. Back to the NBA. Knicks are set to face the Hawks since Jalen Brunson's first postseason with the Knicks in 2023. New York has won a postseason series in each of the last three years. Brunson has averaged almost 30 points per game in the postseason since joining the Knicks. Kenny the Jetsmith back here with us. So let's stay with Jalen Brunson. Can Brunson be the best player on a championship team, Kenny? Yes. He's proven that he's a winner. The funny thing, I used to watch him play when he was in high school and on the AAU circuit. And I used to be like, man, can he do those moves and get away with that in college? Goes to college, goes to Villanova. He's a national championship. I'm like, can he get away with that type of basketball in the NBA? So every time that I thought about it, he's always delivered. So 100%, he can be that player. Yeah, I think Kenny, and great to talk to you again. I think he could be, I think he's going to be the two guys. Look at the teams right now who have chances to win championships. So just in postseason play very good teams. He's not as good as Donketsch with the Lakers. He's not as good as Joe Ketsch with Denver. He's not as good as Wembleyama. He's not as good as Brown. He's not as good as Tatum. I'm not even sure if he's better than Cunningham. He's certainly not better than SGA. So if you look at the players that are threats to win championships, these are all number ones. He's not as good as Anthony Edwards. He's not as good as... So I have a question when you say not as good as. Because in the playoffs, to me, I wouldn't say, yes, maybe he's not as good as. But is he as impactful? Well, I mean, defensively too. I mean, he gets killed defensively. We're going to throw the defense in too. Gets caught in those pick and rolls. He gets destroyed. All that is not a great defensive player. We put... No, no, it's Donketsch. I understand that. But my point is, look at the 1A's on all these teams. Plus, SGA had even mentioned him. And he's the Nick 1A. That makes it difficult in my eyes for them to go out there and win a championship if he is their best player and their number one guy. He's great. He's great. But to win a title, you got to be pretty close to the mortal. You got to be a phenomenal player. I'm not sure if he's on that level. Steve? Two things could be true. Kenny could be absolutely right with what he's saying in terms of Jaylen Brunson has consistently answered the call on the collegiate level, on the pro level. A matter of fact, people forget that when Dallas went to the conference finals years ago, it was him that carried them there. Luca got hurt. And it was him that carried them, if you remember, when they got to the conference finals and they had lost to Phoenix the year that Phoenix went to the finals. We forget that. This is when he was a reserve, when he was looking to get paid. And you know what, Dallas was hesitant to give him 50 plus million dollars. Well, look at that. How that panned out, okay? So we know that was wrong. But the point that I'm trying to make is this. Kenny, here's where I would side with Doggie. It's not so much that he's not good enough. It's not so much that he's not impactful. I don't agree there. But I do look at size as playing a role as the playoffs continue to progress. When you look at some of the stars, you look at the Jaylen Brown and the legit 6'7". Shay Gilgit is a legit 6'7". Luca Donchick 6'7". But you know, 250 pounds. You look at LeBron, of course. Steph Curry is just a different breed because he can shoot from anywhere and he's sending people to the infirmary to get oxygen because they're chasing him around all the damn time. You got all of that going on. And then you see the yokiches of the world, the Victor Wimbyniamas of the world. You look at guys like that. You look at Jason Tatum, who's a legit 6'9". And stuff like that. I do believe that size comes into play. The size and the athleticism and ability to Kevin Durant of the world, stuff like that. As the playoffs continue to wane and you go deeper and deeper, I do think that as great as Brunson is, he even has shown us he needs a little bit more help. And that's why I would say the answer to this question is, you know what, when you talk about a championship caliber team, meaning competing for a championship, yeah, he could help you get there. If you want to get over the hump, I think that you need somebody bigger and just as great. It's basically his size that I'm holding against him more than anything else, Kenny. Well, I would put it in this direction. I would say if I was in New York next, I would show the Detroit Pistons when they had Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton, and tell Kat, you have to be Rishi Wallace. And that's the type of team that's going to have to win this championship. We aren't a championship where one of us, particularly, can do it all the time. In contrary, just as an individual, if there's 10 seconds to go and you've named all of those great players and you said, Jaylen Brunson has the ball as well, I'm feeling super confident he's going to get his shot off and get us into what we need without question, regardless of his size. I agree with that. Yeah, I mean, I know we're talking championship here, but what the Knicks were before Jaylen Brunson arrived were so inconsistent. He is going garbage. Yeah, garbage. Okay. He's completely transformed that team. It was garbage. You can't even see. We are very grateful. All right. Go ahead. We're very grateful to him. Well, hold on. We're very grateful to Jaylen Brunson, but Kenny, which you want to air, I feel obligated to make sure I bring this up. What I did hold against him, I know he wasn't the one in the room when Leon Rose made that deal, but you can't let that man give up five first round picks for Miquel Bridges. You're your four first round picks up today. You just can't do that. I mean, you got to sit there and say, Leon, I love my brother. We won a title at Villanova together. I love him. I want him here, but you can't do that. You got to stop that. That's all I'm saying. That's the only thing I hold against Jaylen Brunson as a Knick. I hold nothing else against him. Everything else I'm very grateful and very thankful for. I like Miquel Bridges. He's 150 million. He's worth it. But four first round picks, six overall, when you consider the swaps for a non-All-Star, you cannot let your organization make that decision when you are to face other franchise which Jaylen Brunson is. That's my only knock against him. Nothing else. Nothing else. Kenny's silence makes me seem like he's like, yeah, that's kind of a thing. I can't eat it. I'm controllable. It's like, Stephen, you don't control the gifts you give for Christmas sometime, man. He can't control every part of the franchise. That's a Liam Rose call. That is not a Jaylen Brunson with 10 seconds to go call. You open your gifts at Christmas and sometime you look at them and you go, man, I got too much or I didn't get enough. All right. Coming up here, Kevin Durant and LeBron James. Don't miss what we think is at stake for Katie in this series and in these playoffs. That's next. At EDF, we don't just encourage you to use less electricity. We actually reward you for it. That's why when you use less during peak times on weekdays, we give you free electricity on Sundays. How you use it is up to you. EDF, change is in our power. The NCAA gymnastics championship semifinals are once again on ESPN 2 with expanded coverage on ESPN plus. The first rotation is today at 430 Eastern. That's 130 Pacific. It includes LSU, Florida, Georgia and Stanford. That rotation is at 9 Eastern 6 Pacific with Oklahoma, UCLA, Arkansas and Minnesota. Top two teams in each semi make it to Saturday afternoon's team final on ABC and the ESPN app. Let's wake everybody up. Geez, if I have to break down Kawhi Leonard, where is he going to play next year? I'm going to go crazy, Stephen. Crazy. Okay, number one. I don't want to hear now or a week away from the draft. Let's leave Rogers alone. Everybody's going to want to know what Rogers is going to do and everybody's going to blame him for keeping the Pittsburgh Steelers and their fan base and guys like me in the media on edge deciding if he's going to play in 2026. You knew with Rogers and the Steelers knew with Rogers what he was...this is his game plan. He's going to leave after the end of the postseason year when they got buried by Houston. He was going to go out to Oregon, hang out in a cave and wake up around the draft to tell us until then if he was going to play in 2026. I think he will play but everybody right now, we've got our buddy Adam on podcasts. You can tell the Steelers are a little frustrated because they've got to decide what they're going to do with the draft pick. Maybe they take Ty Simpson anyway but you get the idea. Everybody right now is getting a little annoyed at Rogers. What's the delay? Why haven't we found out if you're going to play enough? This is what you get with Rogers. It's not his fault anymore. It's the Steelers fault. When you make a deal with Rogers and you tell everybody at the end of the season as Art Rodney Jr. did say, well we like to have him back next year. We want to be competitive. Well, this is what you get. He's going to tell you about five minutes before you make your selection. Next Thursday, whether he's going to decide to play in 2026 and you have to live with it. He's earned that. This is his body of work. This is what he does. So if you're the Steelers, no molding load in this week. If you're a Steelers fan, no molding and going this week. You make a deal with Aaron Rodgers. You work with Aaron Rodgers. This is what you get with Aaron Rodgers. I think he can't play. He'll let us know when he's due time. He's done this forever. So if he's the Steelers, deal with it. Number one. Go ahead, Stephen A. I mean, you're right but what do you want to cookie? I mean, everybody knows that. I mean, it's a Steelers decision. I mean, that's your take. I mean, I have to admit, you know what? What's there to be mad about? It's not like they're pointing the finger at Rodgers. He's the headline. He's the news. But we all know it's on the Steelers because you don't have to sit around for this waiting game. It's an indictment against the organization because you're going the geriatric route in football parlance that is by waiting for a soon to be 43-year-old quarterback to make a decision as to whether or not he wants to play for you because your options are minimal. That's an indictment against the organization. Everybody knows it and quite frankly, I think it's a relatively weak take on your part. It's one of the worst takes that you had about what are you mad about. I'm mad at you for the damn take because I think it's a waste of time. You should have seen the other ones that gave me an option four with number three so you'd be happy to get that number two. Hey, do you remember the Steelers haven't even offered him a contract yet? Remember he went on McAfee and said, I haven't even offered a contract. The contract. They didn't give him a contract for a second. Hold on now. The contract's easy. If he wants to play there, pay him. We know that. Well, it's so easy. Give it to him so he can make a decision. Now go on. All right. Number two, what the Spurs did on Sunday night against Denver was an absolute disgrace. If they played Wembleyama who didn't play and they beat the Nuggets, which I think they would have beaten if he did play, they would have avoided Denver for the postseason. Instead, they didn't play Wembleyama because he had played the 65th game. They counted that challenge cup final. So they didn't count. They didn't play him in the game. And so what happens is the Spurs, if they beat Portland, they're wrapped up with Denver in the second round. If they had beaten Denver at home last Sunday night, last game of the year, NBC at 830, the Nuggets dropped to the 4-5 and they played the winner of Lakers' Lockets down there. So now they are forced to play Jokic when he beats the Timberwolves. They won 14 in a row. They won a championship a few years ago. He's the best player in the league and not even an issue. And you suddenly got Murray. You had a chance to knock them out of there. Not to have to worry about them in round two of the postseason. Now if you're the Spurs because you decided to give Wembleyama the day off when he has a week off before the playoffs begin, now you're going to have to beat the Nuggets and the Thunder back to back to get to a final. That was mind-boggling to me. You got a chance to knock Denver out of the three-hole and you don't got to play them in round two and you let Wembleyama sit at 22 years of age. That is asinine. Look at the playoff structure. You're the radius of when I rather play Denver or the banged up Lakers in round two. You'd rather play the Lakers if they get by Houston. Mind-bogglingly stupid by the Spur organization. That is number two. What are you laughing for, Shay? You're right. You're right. You're just so psychotic, but you're right. You're right. Go ahead. Even a... I don't view it that way. I don't view it that way. First of all, Wembleyama had an injury. The not playing him bought an additional seven or eight days for him to heal up for the playoffs. That's number one. And number two, I can't believe the hypocrisy of Matt Dogrusso. This is not a good day for him. San Antonio Spurs have the attitude. We know who the hell we are. We took out the reigning defending NBA champion in four to five meetings. We beat them and we'll take out Denver too. We don't give a damn. We don't care who we're going up against. As long as we're healthy and ready to go, we don't give a damn about who might be waiting for us around two or around three. We'll take them. Doggy, the doggy that I once knew and loved, the doggy that I once revered would love this stuff. He would be like, hey, way to be courageous. You know you confident in who you are. We don't give a damn. Let's go. But instead, you're maligning them for it now. You have changed. You have gotten softer. I don't know what the hell is wrong with you today, but it is what it is. Game six in Denver. We're in a down three two. You tell me in the round second round if you want to play, play, yoke and face the world. They ain't going to be down three two. They ain't going to be down three two. All right, number three. Number three. Number three. Listen, this is ridiculous of what the NBA did. And I know they did it for the money. They got a fortune. They blew off all their local carriers who carry all these regular season games. You know the first seven games of the NBA postseason are on prime video. First seven. All four play in. The Nick Hawk on Saturday at six o'clock is on prime video. You don't get a game on over the air until 8.30 Saturday night with the Lakers and the Rockets. Think about that for a second. You got to find where these games are on prime video. That is number one. And how about if you were a Portland and a Phoenix fan on two nights ago when that game went in overtime and you panic not knowing put them out. I don't have my local team doing a Trailblazer's Sons. I got to go find it. You got to go full out of your remote. You got to go back to where you started with your menu and find out and click the Trailblazers and Sons. And if you want to watch Trout and the Yankees, you can't do that because you got the Hornet game on. So as a result of that, you got to go figure out how to get to the Yankee Angel game. And then over his feet, cookies and milk before he hits the sack, Adam Silver's got to see technical difficulties in the fourth quarter. Technical difficulties. The last time we had technical difficulties in a huge game, you got to go back to 1958 when the Giants and Colts played the championship game at Yankee Stadium and somebody pulled the plug on the field and of course 70 million people were heartache because they didn't know if they were going to finish that great game. And over time, when the Colts beat the Giants 23-17 at Amici, we had technical difficulties. That's the first time I have ever seen that and I've been watching sports for 60 years that I have seen that in a pro-off game where I got to make sure it's 15 seconds to go. I almost didn't see the finish of the Charlotte game. Why? Because we had to run the Prime Video just like baseball had to run the Netflix just like the NFL had to run the Netflix on Christmas Day. Now in the world, the first eight games or seven games of the post-season, why are they on Prime Video? You got to be kidding me. And then of course if you're pulling Phoenix, you got to be able to find a game, you got to screw out your remote and you kill MSG. How about MSG? And Breen said this the other night, good for him. 80 games they do in the regular season, the NBA, and they usually do the first round of the playoffs, first year, no first round for local television. So they're there all year for six months covering Nick's Kings in January and then the first round of the playoffs, we don't get Clyde Fasier in New York. What a joke. Number three. Really quickly, I agree with you. I hear what you're saying. Last night, first of all, I was watching that heat 20s game when that happened and then last night, you know what? It was technical difficulties in my hotel room while I was watching the game with the Clippers and the Warriors and I had to grab my phone real quick to see it on my phone in real time because the TV, the prime on TV went kabut. But here's the bad news, doggy. Despite how right you are, 170 million people watched regular season games this year. It's an 86% jump in the NBA from last year. That is the reality of the situation. The NBA is flowing right now. So I get that you're complaining about it, but they'll make the argument it's working for them. Doggy, I don't agree with you. The technical difficulties, I'm going to put you in a hard attack. Hey, Steven A., really quick, one thing to be mad about. Look at how Dog takes his notes. This is a napkin and it just says Boston Philly over and over. This is how this dude takes his notes on this pathetic napkin. This is what you should be mad about, that there's no paper for you in the green. He talks while he's writing. Unbelievable. He talks while he's writing. I think it makes him smarter. Coming up after the break, very significant breaking news out of the NBA regarding Luca Donicic and Cade Cunningham. We'll have that for you. Don't go anywhere. Welcome back to First Take, breaking news here according to Shamsherani and the NBA has since denounced it as well. The NBA and players union ruled in favor of the Lakers, Luca Donicic and the Pistons, Cade Cunningham on their challenge to the rule that players must play 65 games in order to qualify for postseason awards. Both fell one game short. This ruling means they are now eligible. Member Donicic missed two game in December because of the birth of his child abroad and then Cunningham had a collapsed lung which caused him to miss some time as well. Kenny the Jetsmith is back here with us. Kenny, what's your reaction to this? Well, I think it's great that the great players get to be eligible for great awards. So at any point of that, I think there's always a positive to it. I do think that there is a threshold and that 65 game number is, I think, a realistic threshold. I think that in these circumstances you should be able to appeal. And these guys, one, not only were appealed it, but they actually will be part of the actual award ceremony. So there are people who can appeal their awards that will not be part of it. So yes, I do think that these extreme circumstances, a collapsed lung and things of that nature, you should be able to appeal if you're one to two games within the threshold. But if you drop down to 55 games, I don't think 55 games, no matter how great you play, you haven't made an impact on the season as someone else has. Well, what happened if somebody breaks his leg with, I played 63 games? You're going to let him win the MVP award too? I mean, when? If you make an impact on the season, you could appeal that. That's what I would say. You could appeal if you're in that threshold of one or two games. But if you drop down to 55 games, your impact on your team is not strong enough. But in 65 games, Kaye Cumberham and Luca Donkis, their impact on their team and where they are in position is directly related to what their performances are. I wouldn't put any games on it then. I mean, I thought- So eliminate the rule. Let's eliminate it. I mean, Bill Walton won an MVP one year, he played 59 games. Just eliminate it and don't put it in there. I know they're doing that to make you play the 65, but these two didn't and they're still going to be eligible to win the awards. So they should just eliminate the 65 game thing. That would be my argument there. Stevie? Follow the money, number one. I mean, you've got the rule in place because obviously it came across as a dereliction of duty on the part of teams and on the part of some of the players and they needed to do something to make the case that this is something that can't be tolerated where these guys are missing and an ordinate amount of games. So I agree with Kenny. 65 games is obviously a good threshold. If you just come a couple of games shy of that, obviously that's not intentional. You know what, but if you missing, if you only playing 50, 55 games or less, hell no, you don't need to be eligible for an award. I like this because I like the fact that the NBA took into consideration. These are legitimate injuries. This ain't load management or anything like that, a collapsed lung, a Lucca Donchia situation with the hamstring and stuff like that. Stuff happens and when you take those into consideration and you have an appeals process in place where you're looking to look at things on a case by case basis, I think that's something that's more fair-minded and it's something that the players can ill afford to refute. Nobody can complain about that when there's an appeal process in place and you're taking into account the severity of an injury that forced you to miss games as opposed to you just missing because you needed a rest day or whatever the case may be. No, we're not going for that anymore. And that's what the league addressed and I'm good with that. So I like the fact that Cade and Lucca are both eligible because we know there's legitimate injuries as to why they missed games, not just rest. And it's interesting, Stephen, how we've come full circle because we started talking about the San Antonio Spurs, Weston, Winburne, and Yama and this whole rule is because of the San Antonio Spurs where they started resting Duncan, Parker, and then Genoble. And here we are again talking about a rule that basically these guys have implemented and the reason why there is low management and start of the thought of that. Right. All the time, I know the producers are telling me to be quick. Listen, this is very, very important because what Kenny brought up is very, very important. This is how bad the San Antonio Spurs were. They had a game in Orlando years ago. The next night it was a nationally televised game when Commissioner David Stern was the Commissioner of God rest his soul. And Greg Popovich didn't play Tim Duncan, Manu Genoble or Tony Parker. How did we find out they weren't playing Shea, Doggy? They were at a Chick-fil-A inside the airport in Orlando waiting to board a Southwest flight back to San Antonio. It was a TNT game, Kenny. Y'all had the game and it was Miami going up against San Antonio and we all was waiting for the game and we found out that Tim Duncan, Manu Genoble and Tony Parker wouldn't be playing because Greg Popovich was ticked off to David Stern and then for a back to back so he sent them home on Southwest Airlines. That's the kind of stuff Greg Popovich used to do. The great Greg Popovich. All right, Kenny, thanks for joining us. More first take after the break. Here are the week four NHL NFL Network and ABC-UFL matchups tonight. Louisville Kings and Houston Gamblers begin at 8 Eastern, 7 Central and then Saturday, two and one team square off. DC defenders host the St. Louis Battle Hawks at 1230 Eastern, 1130 AM Central. All right, Stephen A., I will see you in Las Vegas for WrestleMania. You're going this weekend, right? Yes I am. I'll be there. I'm staying all weekend. Yes I am. Are you really all weekend in Vegas? Doggy. Wow. You want to go, Doggy? I'll pass. He's passing. Okay. See you tomorrow from Vegas.