This is the baseline discussing the hot button topics of the NBA. Welcome everybody,
your tune to the baseline Cali one shall discussing the hot button topics of
the NBA. Fresh off of NBA All Star Weekend, burning the midnight oil,
heavy conversations about what took place. NBA All Star Games finals come to
an end, and now they focused after a few days of restler relaxation.
I suppose for our tired gaming warriors out there in the NBA and for us
who've been covering the NBA so far this season, maybe we'll have a few
days for us to kind of collect our breaths a little bit and focus our
attention on the final stretch run that is required, you know, for said
teams. But can overlook the idea that you know, NBA All Star Weekend
arrived. It happened in Indie and as always, my man Shaw keeping his
eye on the most important things that are going on during there. What's going
on. My brother good to be here. As always, family, you
know what it is this year, we need to make it out the All
Star Don't feel like I missed too much. It was too cold and you
can keep on at snow and you know, those thirty degrees. So at
the end of the day though the festivities, from what I did see off
the court, I think a lot of people had a really amazing time,
a lot of great activations that also a weekend as they always are. So
might make our return out there to San Francisco in debate next year. Yeah,
I think that's going to have to be checked off on the list.
No disrespect to Indy, because I you know, ironically enough, I think
part of the allure with trying to have it in Indie, I really think
I was expecting the NBA to lean in a little bit more on the history,
really put emphasis on how much the game of basketball is really chairing and
beloved to find it, you know. Kind of funny because they made it
a point when they had Reggie Miller and they had Larry Bird, and had
they had Oscar Robertson, you know, come out on the main floor.
And even though Reggie Miller took up the bulkload of the conversation, this to
me could have really been an awesome teaching moment. And and you know,
I feel like, you know, as much as Larry Bird by skin Color
does not identify with Black History Month. However, his impact in the game
of basketball and speaking about the history of basketball, I thought would have been
a great opportunity for the NBA to kind of really lean in and give some
some moments where you know, there are individuals there who have really made significant
contributions to the game and where you know, black history kind of aligns itself
in there. So you know, I know, we're going to talk about,
you know, some of the hits and some of the possible misses that
definitely happened due to the course of NBA All Star Weekend, but let it
not be you know, forgotten that. You know, it's it's always great
when you have the game of basketball in the middle of Black History Month and
all eyes are focused on you know, arguably one of the more popular sports
that is spearheaded by black athletes. Well, I mean, I'm not gonna
give them a break per se, But there was a bunch of different programming
on I think throughout the course of the weekend that kind of tapped into a
little bit of the overall history of Indiana and it's connected to basketball. I
wouldn't say BHM so much specifically, other than very virtual of some of the
athletes that might have been featured. And then I think, again, when
we're not there physically in the presence, you know, you don't get the
full or and sense of all the things that are happening, so like at
what's curated for television to some degree, and then obviously for the All Star
Game itself, like there was two hours of pregame stuff going on. So
yeah, maybe they could have did a little bit more, you know,
to kind of lean into that aspect. But I do think Indiana itself tried
to really kind of lean into the overall history and it's connection to basketball through
various other activities that we weren't privy to by virtue of not being there physically
and in the presence. But there was some other things. I think even
on NBA TV, you know, they have a conversation. It was more
about basketball obviously, but as I had Thomas, Larry Bird, Rechi Milber,
they had like an hour long conversation. You do these things that almost
at every All Star weekend where they kind of bring back some semblance of history
or you know, the legends if you will, and have some symbol of
the conversation. They squashed they squashed beefs and those types of things there.
So I'll give the NBA, you know, a little bit of a pass
on some of that, just because again we didn't get to see everything maybe
in person. But I definitely understand the aora kind of what you're saying.
Yeah, Look, it's not so much that I'm trying to you know,
get listen. There's way too many other things we can get on the m
about not getting right with All Star Weekend. You know, I'm you know
where I would be going with this, So we'll get to that part of
it. Well, I think what I'm what I'm just more so alluding to
is these are just prime opportunities to allow the NBA to still stay ahead of
the curb when it comes to these initiatives, and especially when it's aligned properly
for you to just you know, you just got to do it. I
don't disagree with where you're coming from, because there were those opportunities there that
was done by NBA TV. I'm sure if on a regional level there was
a lot of emphasis and the focal point for the fans that were there.
But what I was just more so alluding to was the primetime opportunity that could
have been had with ESPN and TNT and TBS. I felt like there were
just spots, not necessarily emphasis, that could curtail that and really play into
to the idea that you're celebrating within a significant month, a sport that illuminates
and highlights where the majority of those athletes are black, that can speak to
the history young and old, like that conversation you're talking about would have been
a great conversation to be had with a combination of young athletes and older athletes.
So again, this is just me thinking about it in the context of
the NBA is always supposed to be ahead of the curb on these things,
and where the emphasis is about brand activation and things of that nature, there's
also that opportunity where history could be your brand activation and so that that to
me, is what I was hoping a little bit more from, especially if
you're going to bring it to a city like Indianapolis. Well, again,
I'm not going to go back and forth from that at all, because I
think it's definitely something that you know, the league needs to take a take
a serious look at overall in general, and the overall probably they prey no
matter what city they're actually in, and I think with also are always falling
in the middle of Black History Month and around Valentine's Day and all these other
things that are going on. You know, they've got to take a lot
of things into consideration as they're trying to do, you know, and promote
the sport, but also make it about the athletes themselves as well too.
Absolutely all right, So listen, on a scale of one to ten,
what was your you know, your overall assessment of NBA All Star Weekend.
So I'll give it a solid like six seven, And that sounds low.
I'm not disappointed. I think I've just I've come to know what to expect.
And I'll get on a soapbox for half a second and I'll jump right
back off. Listen. Social media was a dumpster fire all weekend, and
it's just everybody is complaining about what it is and kind of like what it
is from the aspect of the overall product. This competition doesn't work, Why
is this player doing this? This sucks blah blah blah blah blah. And
at this point, like I don't I just I don't know what is to
be expected. So I mean, you know, for me, All Star
is not really about the All Star Saturday anymore. It's not about the All
Star Game on Sunday anymore. It really is about being in there, the
fellowship, the networking that kind of takes place, and everybody's kind of letting
their hair down for kind of what's supposed to be a foot event, but
that's not realistic from where we are currently in society and how the leak actually
operates now. So to me, while I don't think it was a perfect
product, I mean, you know, I'm not. I'm not dissatisfied.
So a six or seven is because yeah, I knew what to expect,
so I wasn't. I wasn't expecting a whole lot, and that's six or
seven is basically just it's I think that's what it is pretty much every year.
So people are saying it's the worst All Star Game or All Star Weekend
ever, Hey man, it's it's whatever. So I'm just not on that
same vibe that everybody else is. And that's not to say that you or
anybody else you know doesn't have any right to to make ripes. I'm just
not. I'm just not in that laying currently. So what about you where
would you give it overall? Yeah, so I give it a five.
I you know, that's that's neutral, right for saying one to ten,
don't hate and don't particularly care for, you know, NBA All Star Weekend.
And I think part of my problem is is I'm coming from a space
of this is exactly what happens when you don't control the narrative or you don't
initiate to take control of the narrative of how you want the NBA All Star
Weekend to really be. This is not about a popularity contest, and it's
not really about appeasing. There was a time when the NBA set the standard
and we all fell in line to understanding why it was done and the way
it was done. And really, you know, put put our emotions,
you know what I'm saying, put more of our fandom a little bit to
the side. But again, it's a business. There is a marketability factor,
and of course you can clearly see where the NBA succumbed to where a
lot of their platform is predicated on where there is businesses happen to lean on.
A lot more is what the NBA sphere happens to speak to when you're
talking about the social media platforms and the way that the players engage and utilize
those platforms and manipulate those platforms to be another voice in things of that nature.
That being said, my issue has always been on really keeping your eye
on the ball about what it is that you're driving your people too, like
what it is that you want them to take away from the game of basketball,
and why you're even having this weekend to begin with, and what you're
starting to see again, and I speak to this SHAW is a distancing,
a disconnect in the understanding of what you want people to take away from from.
Also, if you want this to be about the players having a good
time bringing their family, you want this to be about the stars. They
do not put emphasis on the seriousness of the competitiveness during these courses of the
weekend because I just honestly don't see the genuine competitiveness. The only thing that
was competitive that I found from this weekend SHAW was the three point competition between
Steph Curry and Sabrina na Yescu, right, And that was because they spoke
to the importance of them wanting to make this happen, and because they did
that, I think people took it seriously that they wanted to compete and show
both sides of the coin in the importance of what it is to be a
shooter in the current modernday every NBA, and what it's like as a female
to finally say when we say we want to challenge you, we don't need
you to give us handicaps or mulligans or put us on. No, no,
let's do it. Let's actually have this contest. And I feel like
this would have been great had they done that, say Friday night, and
did that as a lead up to the three point contest, instead of doing
that and then doing the three point contest. You know what I'm saying,
Like, there's a setup, there's a way that these things can be done.
And again, I feel like the NBA misses the mark on them.
In other words, there muddling the message about what should be taken from this,
and so it just kind of hurts the idea that you want to be
supportive of these type of efforts. But then when you lay it out and
you and you put it out there for the masses, it's almost like you're
saying, well, we want you to tell us what you really feel like
and what you see when a lot of it could be controlled by the NBA.
I think that's something that the league can continue to figure out better,
especially when it comes to the integration of the W right and we saw some
years ago, and forgetting the name of the competition now, but basically they
would pair up two stars like a current guy, a legend. I think
it was the skills competition. They teamed up W n B A, n
B A and a legend I believe. Is that what they were speaking to.
Yeah, there was, yeah, but it was a different version of
the skills competition, kind of not like the one we see you're not,
yeah, not the one on one it was, Yeah, it was.
It was a try effective Yeah. I think generally speaking, the league is
you know, they can do a better job I think of integrating the w
and the NBA together. I think the other side of that too is,
you know, when the WNBA is having it's All Star weekend, can the
men go over there too, or if you guys, you know, participate
in that other than just showing up and being on the sidelines, there is
some conversation, you know, is that an issue? Do the men overshadow
and all that? Again? I don't want to get into so much of
that as opposed to just what is the best way to cross polinate and I
think elevate the game of basketball, both male and female. The rest of
it though, like we're not even going to talk about the celebrity game,
right, We're not going to talk about you know, what's going on with
the rising stars. All those things are flowfits just for a way for fans
to get closer to the guys, and they're not going to be this actual
competition. I think that's taking place throughout the course of the weekend. And
that's where I just kind of stood on it, Like I understand what it
is. It's this let's get close to the guys event, But if you're
looking for real life competition, this is just probably weekend where you're going to
see that. It's about you know, Instagram taking pictures, celebrities being involved,
influencers, et cetera, et cetera, ceta, et cetera, and
then yeah, you get a hint of competition maybe to the three point three
point contests on Saturday, but everything else, man, it really is fluff.
And I'm just that's just kind of where I'm at with it. So
That's why I don't have the same disposition I think that a lot of people
have when it comes to their distained for the NBA El Straw Weekend that they've
had really for the last ten years or so. Well, I think a
lot of that vitriol, though it really stems from just the lack of genuineness
that the NBA is is not is not speaking to right, Like, in
other words, if this is about if this is going to be fun,
then just be fun, right, But don't sell me on Oh, you
know, is it really important that Damian Lillard becomes the MVP of the All
Star Game and we're gonna speak to you know, the All Star Game itself
and the score and the totals and all this other kind of stuff. And
it's just like, you know, there's a point where the game, the
weekend, all of what it reflects evolves, and I think there comes a
point when the NBA kind of has to stop and just basically be like,
look, we want this to be about entertainment, so let's let not this
be about necessarily the idea of how competitive it is, because we want to
give people the glory days of what it would because we're not talking about the
same set of people who are a part of who are influencing those competitive skills
during All Star weekend. It's just not the same thing, you know,
And that's the unfortunate part. I can let it go, but I can't
let it go when you keep trying to sell me on the idea that you're
really taking this seriously and you're really putting forth this kind of effort, and
then this is what you give me over the course of the weekend. I
would just rather you just be like, look, just get those guys,
sit them on couches, and have them play NBA two K and I can
live with that a whole lot better than the idea that you're actually going to
try and sell me on the seriousness that these guys are actually taking it upon
them or you know what you knew. If you really are concerned about where
the future of the NBA is, let's start opening up the platform to the
guys that really deserve that opportunity, because I'm sure that they will give you
their one hundred percent, especially if they're playing in places where they're not getting
that level of recognition, they're not getting that kind of prime time. So
yeah, I want to see the hungry guys that want to compete and play.
I don't have to see Lebron. He could be there. You can
focus the camera on him, let him coach up some of these young guys.
But that's who my focus would rather be on than seeing us dance around.
The whole idea that you know, there's a level of seriousness and competitiveness
that really is coming from this. You know, when guys are shooting up
left handed shots, you know, Jalen Brown is dunking, you know,
with a left hand, trying to say, you know, this is a
Michael Jackson moment, Like, No, I don't care about that stuff.
I really don't, unless the idea is that you're just trying to entertain.
All right, Well, let's get into the course of the weekend itself in
some of the events that's obviously that we've hinted at here a little bit.
Listen, you can just skip over Friday night, as alluded to a little
while ago. There's just not much that I had no intentions of speaking about
Friday Night. Yeah, benneg Matha, and you know you played great on
Friday also, But it was great to see Deadlas Shrimp. I gotta tell
you, I was listen man I and Jalen Ruse again. You know,
there's there's a lot, There's there's some stuff there, right, But the
crux of people's cross that everyone is dying on here is really the Saturday night
exhibitions and then obviously the All Star Game itself too. So Team Piacers wins
the skills competition, uh, Damian Liler repeats as a three peat three peat
sorry, three point champion, Steph Curry beats Serbrina and Escu, and then
Mac McClung beats Stalen Brown in the slam dunk contest. By far and away,
the three point contests itself with Dame and and then the one with Steph
and Sabrina took the cake for the best events for the course over the course
of the weekend in general. Now, uh, I think there was a
lot of like, hey, let's get the pacers highlighted, Let's get Turny
Retallliburton winning some stuff. You can try to win the MVP here, you
know, in the game itself too, which we'll talk about it a minute.
But from the Saturday stuff, to me, yeah, it was a
little bit overdone, but I enjoyed a three point contest. I don't mind
that they have a lot of gimmicks in it here now the three point three
ball in there, the story ball. I guess if you want to do
the proper branding where you're talking about that, then you know, obviously they
integrated the full moneyball rack where you can put that anywhere. They did that
a couple of years ago as well too, So I think overall it was
nice. You know, a lot of guys got twenty six points, you
know, Kat Trey Young Dame obviously as well. It was just again,
I thought that was pretty well done overall, in its overall and its entirety.
But I really enjoyed the integration of Sabena and stuff. I thought that
was well done, other than the belt being a little bit cheesy, which
there were a lot of jokes on that, A lot of jokes on even
the quality of the belt. I think I saw somebody I say they ordered
that thing from Tibu and that made me laugh. You know, that made
me laugh. But overall, do you really want to be the n B
A. Do you really want to be the n B A and be the
butt of these type of type of jokes. I just know you know,
you really don't. But again, we get what we get. And I
have a trophy shop that's up the street, bro that could have There's no
doubt you couldn't bowling league and w nothing. But I've been a bowling league
and and and we had, we have better trophies. And that craziness that
it looked like a toy bell, looked like something that they could have gone
out of Walmart. And listen, now I'm ragging on it too, but
again, to me, it was funny because I'm just like, it wasn't
really about the hardware as much as it was about the showmanship that listen,
you know, listen, you know, as much as Sabrina was it was
like, you know, a static that you participated in that, and she
was it. I'm sure she was very she was quite content. And she
didn't have to put that thing on her and that to put that on her
shoulder, they have to walk it around the I mean, do you know
how often she was being interviewed from the time that that thing ended all the
way up until the you know, the game tonight and stuff like that.
Can you imagine we're having a walking around with that belt? Then Okay,
well, listen, so I'll get serious for a quick minute. I think
there was a lot of missus I think in the overall commentary, and then
I think while there was this the sense that we really needed to highlight the
platform itself, and I think Ernie even missed it. He didn't get a
lot of stuff for I mean, everyone was killing Kenny Smith for what he
was saying, and Sabrina should have shot, you know, from the w
NBA line and all that stuff like that too, and yeah that was out
of pocket or whatever, but I thought like Ernie wasn't. He wasn't even
trying to be malicious, So maybe that's why people let it go or whatever.
But he was just like the thing he says about, oh yeah,
and they told you you couldn't play and that you needed to go play with
dolls, And I was like, yo, like what like we're just like
kind of force feeding the narrative here a little bit. There's I mean,
if you're watching this competition, you know she's a hooper. You know she
can vall. She's involved for a very long time. And to just kind
of feel like we need to always have to figure out this place how to
I don't know inspire, I guess if you will, at every every single
aspect of getting a microphone in front of us. I don't know. I
just found that to be maybe a little bit cheesy and a little bit off
putting. But that and that's not to say that's us not an inspiration you
know, to young women and young men as well too, But I just
think it's it was. I don't know. I thought it was a little
bit overdone in that aspect, and I didn't really enjoy that part of the
of the competition. Oh, I didn't care for it at all. Listen,
if two great athletes say they want to get something going, you know,
growing up where we grew up, right, whether it be New York,
Florida, wherever that spoke in and of itself, you don't need any
manufacturer journalism in order to give people and incentive to see greatness come together and
finally compete. You know what I'm saying, Like, the story is already
there, The story is already being told. All you gotta do is just
give it a platform for it to to speak to. And this is the
day and age where everybody has to inject themselves to be a part of that
story and I'm not saying that that's what Ernie Johnson did. I'm not saying
that's what Kenny Smith did, But I am saying that this is the culture
by which sports entertainment tends to live in at times and without it's just it's
reckless, I guess, I guess the way you can call it. They
recklessly undermine the story being spoken by the people who truly are participating in it,
you know, And that's that's the part that's the bad part about it,
right Like, that's the part that sucks, and you try to tune
it out, but unfortunately you can't. So yeah, and I think for
being ahead of herself, you know, absolutely, you know, but it
you know, I just she probably didn't need to go through a lot of
that stuff. And again, the social media was a minefield, I think,
with comments and people making their interpretations misogynistic and others. It was just
a lot going on. And it was a little for me here, I'm
gonna say the word that I really want to utilize. It is overutilized in
art in our cultural society now. But it was a little toxic, you
know, to kind of be on there. And now she's just like hero
just kind of kind of just all over the place, and even in the
altcast, I wish is this is a Sunday night thing too, but I
don't know, Man, listen, I'll probably get in trouble for it.
But I think if you watch the aultcast, so the not not the Twitter
broadcast, the Room of TT, the one Untrue with Taylor, Rooks,
Draymond and Charles, Like Charles is he making these kind of like comments.
Towards the end, you could see he's trying to hold himself back, you
know, with some stuff that he was even trying to say about Taylor,
and even that I was just like, well, like really, you know,
just just just call the game, just you know whatever everything else,
Like there's a lot of great and funny moments in there, but it was
just like always having to make some reference to not always, but he made
more than on more than one occasion, you know, how she looks or
how he thought she looks, or the case be, and those types of
things. It's just like, it's it's stupid and it's silly. And while
that T and T crew wins Emmys and they are a lot more popular and
famous and will ever be and I get all that too, but they don't
always get it right. And I guess I don't know. They're lauded in
a way sometimes just like yeah, but she didn't see that. Yeah,
Kenny caught hell. Kenny caught hell for his comments. But to me,
they need they all need to tighten some things up here a little bit too,
and trying to you know what I mean, I don't know. It's
kind of like the old Guard, if you will. And I feel like,
and I'm an old guy, but I feel like it's kind of the
old guard continuing to just kind of hammer some messages that don't probably necessarily need
to be said. I mean, look, after a while, the message
tends to get a little bit tiring, you know, And even within its
simplicity, it tends to get a little bit tiring, you know, Like
at some point you would you would you would expect that their voices no longer
just sit in a booth with the same four guys. And I understand that
the T and T has expanded and we're getting off of track for our conversations
with also are we do? But I do think again, Shaw, this
highlights the point about where the NBA has opportunities to rewrite the script, because
right now the script is being written by outside factors that have in many respects
and no disrespect because we're all doing it. We're making money off of it
in some way, shape or form, popularity, whatever the case may be.
And the NBA is just riding along with it. But they're not.
They're not, you know, setting certain standards, meeting certain you know,
requirements, setting certain things like dictating a certain path that we want to kind
of make sure that we're staying on. It's almost like we're being guided by
the voices of only the guys from T and T. We're only being guided
by the people from Bleacher Report. We're only being guided by We're not being
necessarily guided by the people who are actually involved in the game of basketball,
being elevated and televised and spoken to in a certain kind of way. And
this is the danger that comes from it, because now when you're wanting to
genuinely write the script, you want to genuinely put your best foot forward,
the message gets muddled, the message is misinformed. The message is now coming
from people no longer playing the game, but yet suddenly think that they know
everything about the game. And everyone rides along with it, and that's not
necessarily how this is supposed to work, you know. So we were in
a space where we like who we like or perceivedly you know what I mean.
And there's a lot of group think, I think when it comes down
to who can get into this gatekeeping space that we all know is truly real.
And yeah, while Cannus Parker was there and she had some moments where
she got to be on the telecasts, there should probably been more female representation
kind of throughout. But can we get some new authentic voices kind of throughout?
So that's where it like, it's interesting because you know, now I'm
kind of going into that to that overall mantra, not trying to complain,
but more of this. It really is a critique, right, And so
if you're going to have all these social media influencers and different people kind of
coming into the space, great, awesome, right, But I'm sure there's
a lot of great, great, you know, broadcasters and journalists who are
also looking for a shot. And I understand the TV rights and all those
other things, like you know, T and T has to get their get
their shots off, ESPN has to get their shots off. But I would
like to see some great integration into some of those other voices as well too.
And I will say this, I want to give T and T credit
because they did highlight a young man for youm and I'm gonna mess it up.
Whatever they did. Highlighted a young man who's basically getting a journalists in
scholarship, and he got a chance to kind of show himself throughout the course
of the weekend. He made it on the big pregame show in terms of
some of his interviews and things of that nature. But there are a lot
of people working within the NBA space and the sports space in general. It'd
be nice to kind of hear some of that too, But we missed that
by virtue of not physically being there because maybe they are getting highlighted and doing
their own thing as are now platforms. But as you said earlier, to
get on the big stage, if you will, to get on TNT,
ESPN, we're going to get kind of the curated content that they're used to
giving us absolutely your tunes to the baseline. Cali Warnshaw discussing the hot button
topics of the NBA as we get into our overview of NBA All Star Weekend
one quick thing. I just wanted to highlight syaw like so and to the
point what we were talking about. You know, I'd be remiss because I
was texting this, you know, to a couple of my boys up here
on how you know, I'm just tired of the NBA Slam Dunk Contest being
the end of end all be all of the you know, all star night.
It is no longer the most important, you know event that people are
really coming to watch, except to see stars sitting there when and I and
and you know, pulling up their phones and things of that nature. And
you know, I just again, this just really speaks to what is it
that we're asked, Like, what is it the NBA is asking us to
embrace about these events? Right if we're embracing the quality of the three,
the shot of the you know, the beauty and the art of the three.
Okay, when you've got guys like Damian Lillard and Steph Curry and those
guys representing and this is what they do, you have a moment where you
fuse together one of the great shooters in the w NBA and one of the
great shooters in NBA history together and Steph Curry is still in the prime of
his career shooting it out between each other. Love that, that's great,
awesome, you know, run with that if you feel like that's what's necessary.
But the slam dunk contest, Like, and I said this, what
are we telling people? Like what does the dunk really mean at this particular
moment in time? Is it just a bunch of guys is jumping up in
the air and doing a whole bunch of stunts and you know, like just
doing all kinds of nonsense that you pretty much are going to put on America's
Got talent. That's not what I come to pay for if I want to
do that, and I'm gonna go watch America's Got talent. But if I
want to see guys going up and dunking the basketball, if I want to
see that, because it's a part of the art, it's like a part
of what is making you know, the game of basketball really great, the
NBA really great. The NBA has to do a better job of laying that
out, telling us why this matters still, Like why does it mean so
much? I don't think I see. That's where I think you're wrong,
because I don't I don't think they can, and they that's that's not a
pillow that they've been willing to swallow. So your your point is so well
well put in the aspect of it doesn't matter anymore. But it's like,
but then when you take it away, the purists get mad, well,
how dare you? But then everybody all week and long, bitches and bitches
and bitches about it being there. And I think it's one of those things
like either you move it out of the spotlight spot altogether, right it's not
the feature event on Saturday night, or you can slit or maybe you bring
it back every fifth year, you know what I mean, And so that
way, maybe there's not some flare about it, but maybe there could be
some level of interest. But we're at the point now there's just not enough
dunks that people can do, the people competing, and this is no disrespect,
you know, shouts to Jail and round for at least trying to bring
some star quality to it. But Jalen himself is not somebody who a lot
of people identify with in terms of even being an NBA All Star or not
right, So to me, that's where the NBA needs to make a hard
decision and say, listen, hey, we're we're done with this in this
current format one word or the other. Take it out of the feature spot
on Saturday Night, or take it out altogether, and then I think you
have you know, you can try to replace it with some other, you
know, quirky event if you want to. But the game really is about
shooting now and dunks more or less. Things that people get excited about are
people dunking on other people. Okay, not gonna do that, right,
right right, I understand that. But again to the point sh'all, that
is what I'm saying is the NBA reading the temperature in the room and recognizing
it's almost like they're afraid to transition off of something that no longer fits the
narrative of what the NBA's culture and game is. And remember they're responsible for
that because they chose to go down this path. It's not to say,
like, listen, for something that you're you're putting more into means something is
gonna come out. Something eventually is gonna have to be removed from the equation.
And that's that could very much be a hard pill to swallow. Three
on three basketball is a much more viable product to put out there right now
than it is about guys getting up and dunking the basketball, you know what
I'm saying. So there just comes a point unless the NBA figures out of
way in order to make a fine. Look, they had one of the
Topen brothers. You could easily had the top and brothers go against each other,
and you didn't even need anybody else, you know, Matt McClung.
Fine, you want, you know whatever, But he's a representation of the
G League. So fine. They had a guy like this the night before.
I forget who it was. He wound up winning the G League at
and T dunk contest. Fine, put those two guys together. You know
what I'm saying. I don't need to see four guys dunking, especially if
they're not if they're not even if people are not wanting them to be a
part of the competition, you know what I'm saying. And then the judges,
the judges, how many of them were actually dunkers? How many of
them? You know what I'm saying. Like, I love my man,
miss Richmond. He's one of my favorite players to follow. Boyd Anderson Alump
and I spoke about this. Why is he judging this, he does not
need to be judging the slam dunk contest that was not his in town.
Give you something to do, and that's why you should be there, spokesperson,
Bro, because you can lay out all of the genuine excuses that would
have talked to me off of the ledge. But at that moment in time,
I'm sitting there saying, and you're wondering why people are giving you the
vitriol that they're giving you. So again, like you know, so it
is what it is. But I'm hoping that, like you said, the
NBA will take notes and we'll see what comes of what they're gonna try to
do for twenty twenty five. Right, I will say this though, hopefully
they will bring all of the visualization that they put a lot of emphasis on.
I thought it was pretty cool that they did all that, So you
can work with that. You're too debase. Like Callie Warrens show discussing the
hot button topics of the NBA, coming up, we're going to talk about
an important land milestone that was achieved in the NBA. Our man Lebron James
doing something that few people have been able to do, and the question is
can it ever be done again once he walks away from the game. So
you'll find out what we're talking about in a little bit. But before we
do that, did you know that there's a whole collection of black lead products
that fit into your daily routine and lifestyle that you can get at Walmart.
And it's so important that we show Black founders some love, not just during
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Slash Black and unlimited to discover all the amazing black owned products that you can
add to your daily routine. More Baseline Cali warn Shot, don't go away.
We're bat Cali Warren Show, the Baseline NBA Podcast and we're doing our
NBA All Star overview or post game discussion, post All Star weekend discussion.
However, we want to put that one so Lebron James, you know,
add another notch to you know, his legacy, you know, twentieth All
Star basically passing. I believe it's Kareem, Yeah, Kareem Abdul Jabbar for
most All Star appearances and listen, he probably still has another one or two
in him. I would probably say unless plays, or you know, or
if somehow rules suddenly change. But we won't go there on that. But
what does it mean for Lebron James, you know, to achieve this you
know milestone And I think you posted the question that I think is a very
interesting one in that do we think that anybody is in range to possibly surpass
Lebron James's achievement or is he going to be the last you know, of
the Mohicans. Yeah, I mean we say last, I mean the last
of our proverbial lifetime because after we're we know, we're out of here,
you know, we'll know, we'll have no idea what's happening in the league.
But I think, you know, as we're watching it currently and understanding,
you know, the current landscape. Yeah, I think we're hard pressed
because, as you alluded to, he's at twenty now and he'll get one
for each year, each more year he plays, so even if that's two
or three more seasons, right, So I'm just trying to figure out,
well, we have another twenty time All Star. That number seems so daunting.
Is one thing to be a twenty time All Stars another thing to even
play twenty years. So I don't know that we're gonna see so many.
You got so many players who will play twenty years in this league current right
now, Curly Kevin Durant is a fifteen time All Star or sorry, a
fourteen time All Star. So do you think Katie has six more years in
him, six more years even to get the twenty I don't think so.
And then when you take even some of the younger generation, like Luca,
So Luca's a five time All Star, you think Luca's gonna play till he's
forty years old? And just I think even with his game style, I
think that's kind of pushing it. He'll get into the double Jeditch thirteen fourteen.
Curry is already thirty five. Durant's thirty five too. Forgot to mention
that Curry is thirty five and has what ten Curry's not playing ten more years?
Bro and not making ten more All Stars than ten more years. So
to me, it seems like it just it really kind of goes to show
what Lebron has been able to do. And I don't know that we're going
to see another player of not necessarily just of his Olken overall greatness. And
I normally say the great the game itself is in great hands, and I
don't disagree with that, but there's not another Lebron in terms of the overall
magnitude, the overall skill set, and I think the overall fandom good,
bad or indifferent, whether you love them or hate them, there's nobody who's
inspiring that level of emotion like Lebron is in today's game. And I don't
think there's anybody even on the horizon coming up right now. Yeah, so
I agree with you there. I'm gonna throw something into what you were talking
about that lead that leads me to that point. So in other words,
we're agreeing on the same point, But my logic as to how we arrived
at that, I think is a little bit different methodology. Yeah, got
you. So I look at it like this until the NBA goes back to
the rules where they allow high school athletes to come and enter back into the
NBA. You're not going to see this. The uniqueness about this situation when
it comes to Lebron James is from the very big Lebron James has always put
emphasis on the greatness of his ability to play the game of basketball, and
he invested in that. And the reason why I don't foresee anyone really getting
as close to Lebron, at least within our generation, is because the climate
and the conversation about what the NBA means to some of these players is totally
different, right, And you can you can say Lebron James helped that and
also hurt that because now a lot of these players have their hands in so
many different pots, so many different initiatives, and listen, sometimes that means
that they have to put their energies in different places, which means that it
takes away from the same dedication that they give to the game. It would
be completely different if a lot of these guys, you know, are really
really hungry. But if you really think about it, Kevin Durant has already
supplanted his level of greatness. He will always be in the conversation among one
of the greatest players to play the game basketball. But he'll never be the
greatest, right, He's already kind of etched out a little bit of where
he's gonna has to go to be able to do that. So, no
matter what he does, it's really gonna come down to do you love the
game enough that you want to continue to keep playing it the way that you're
playing it, how you're playing it, right? I don't see that with
Katie, With Steph Curry, to your point, the uniqueness of his game
is so far out there that it's like, does he have the legs to
continue to keep doing what he's doing? So a lot of the momentum in
them still being given All Star considerations has all been predicated for everything that they've
done leading up to this point, whereas with your Lebron James, that level
of greatness I think has always been etched in does he really love the game
of basketball this much? Well, he was one of the pioneers to this
to have us ask that question because of the amount of money he's made and
the way that he's changed the NBA culture, way he's moved the ball forward.
But I think had he not been in the cross heirs of Kobe Bryant
been in the cross heirs of a lot of great plays, like he was
one of the few that crossed that that rubicon sort of speak to have access
to that level of competitiveness. Now he sits the top of it. And
because he's so far ahead of it, I just don't see the only other
people who I really think have that opportunity to probably do it is like Anthony
Edwards, you know what I'm saying. But even then that's again, where
will the NBA be in another ten years to what we see from what Anthony
Edwards does. So I think the only way that this great experiment works again
is if the NBA rescinds that thought process that a player has to be,
you know, two years or has to hit a certain age to be eligible
to end to be able to enter the NBA. I think we got to
see another seventeen year old come back into the fray and essentially mimic or ascend
a lot faster and a lot a lot higher to what Lebron is doing for
us to have that conversation about what he's just done. Yeah, but I
think a lot of what he's done is because of his overall popularity and then
he's actually good. Right, So your point about the years is so so
poignant because you see, you force somebody have to come in at nineteen.
Now they got to play till the thirty nine, and they have to get
it in on their first go. I think even with Lebron, I don't
believe he got it in his first year, right, and then every year
basically since then he's been an All Star. You can you know, fact
check me on that, so to speak. But again, coming in at
seventeen has made a lot of the difference in that too. So you're looking
at somebody even having a twenty year career, let alone twenty All Stars.
It just seems so far gone, especially with the way we are in terms
of this now be like I will be the old commagine. You know these
guys, Listen, the money is so much more than it was even from
when Lebron came into the league. You don't have to play twenty years to
kind of get the proverbial back to really set you up for life. Now,
Jaylen Brown's making what sixty million dollars a year? Why would he play
till he's forty years old to forty two? Why would anybody do that when
you're gonna just stack enough money. And now there's so many other ways you
can make money and reinvest that money, So you definitely can work smarter if
you will, and make your money work for you, and you don't have
to use the playing the basketball court as your sole source of income. And
that's another reason why I don't think we're gonna see twenty your careers, let
alone twenty twenty time all sort of like Lebron, this really is, as
you put it so eloquently, I think, the last of the Mohicans here,
even with some of the guys who are on Lebron's heels, if you
will, and Katie kt most most recent, because he has the most amounting
right, he's gonna have fourteen fourteen all SAR appearances. Katy might play till
he's forty. He might, I mean, there's a slim possibility he does
that, and then he he'd be right up there probably with Kareeman right under
the twenty and Lebron. But again, Lebron's going to be at twenty two
or twenty three before all is said and done. Kevin Dryant he doesn't.
But I think again a lot of that also comes down to the style of
player that we're talking about. Like Lebron James impact in the NBA right now
is that he is he is a leader, right, Kevin Durant has has
leadership qualities, right, which a lot of it is spoken through the way
he plays his game. So if his game doesn't translate and he's not available,
is he really gonna be there? Is he really trying to be there
for like these other guys to come up, and And that's what I mean,
Like maybe with Steph Curry, I see that a lot more than I
do see that with with with KD. But I don't I don't see that
with too many other guys, except if you go as far back, because
like even if you want to listen, for example, you want to consider
Jalen Brown, he's already missed a few years, right like when he first
came into Yeah. Yeah, So you know again, like it's gonna come
down to these young the younger you know, hot out the gate kind of
like Patrick Mahomes, you know, fast start legacy stuff. We're already in
that kind of conversation and where you fit in the hierarchy of that level of
greatness that you're showing year and year out in order to build up the momentum
for that talk to be had. Because I to your point, y'all,
like you just spent a few moments really speaking to the business of what a
lot of these players are talking about regarding the NBA, and a lot of
it doesn't necessarily translate to what they're expected to do on that basketball court.
Like there's a you know, it's interesting. Over the weekend, we were
hearing how guys are really getting tired of the conversation. Oh, I'm sorry,
was Damian Lilie. He's saying he's really getting tired of the conversation about
you know, I got to have rings attached in order to show that I
have had a great career. And I hear him, I understand where he's
coming from. But at the same time, remember a lot of those guys
that are talking about that were guys that spent a lot lot of years before
they found an opportunity to play in the NBA finals. So you know,
they're sitting there saying, damn, I wish I had your skills. It's
like, because my passion to want to win a championship, It's like,
you're kind of like, oh, well, you know, if I don't
win whatever it has, Like, I don't understand how you can have that
mentality and still be playing in the NBA. And I think that's where a
lot of that, you know, that side ey is coming from from,
a lot of the criticism when guys are just saying, yeah, you know,
I'm not really worried about that, and that's not going to define my
career. It's not something that you should be speaking loudly about anyway, because
the idea is is that you'll play as long as it takes to get you
to that point where you're playing for an NBA championship, and rings should matter
in the grand scheme of things. Is why most guys wound up staying in
the in the NBA a lot longer than necessary. Yeah. No, I
think really great points, really great points. And you know, I think
as your targeting is trying to think about, you know, Tyre's celibrat and
kind of one of the princes something, All Star, All Weekend, two
All Stars and four years that he's been in the league. But he's already
twenty three, right, So I think I mean already twenty three, right.
Anthony Edwards, same thing to All Stars in three years or four years
as well. He's twenty two. So I just but there's just there's just
not going to be the need. They were already making more money than Lebron
May when he was twenty two or twenty three, even four or five times
the amount that he was making at that point. So I said, there's
the need and want to be in the league for twenty years, it's just
not going to be there. There's some guys who really do love Hoopen and
that or I think we were talking Ryan Allens right a couple of weeks ago.
He's like, yeah, Tyr's Heyliburton. Man, he's gonna be playing
until he's whatever. And maybe that's true. Doesn't mean it's gonna be an
All Star until he's whatever, right, I think that's that's that's what we
need to kind of discern here. It's not just, hey, well,
even if Haliburn has a twenty year career, to think he'll be a twenty
time All Star, I think that's probably you know, a little bit out
of the overall scope long term. So all of this to give Lebron to
his proverbial flowers and and you know, and not that he needs our pats
on the back or that of boys, or what are the case me?
But this is truly, truly remarkable. You know, I gotta throw a
dig in here, though I don't. I'm sure you caught his statement about
he didn't know if he was going to do a fair World tour. He
does no how long more, how much long he's gonna play, or if
he will do a fair world tour, or if he will just retire like
Tim Duncan because he's uncomfortable. He said he's uncomfortable with praise, and a
lot of people don't know that about him. Sure, sure, but shots
to Lebron man, because he definitely obviously is a real one and one of
the best to ever do it. But you know, listen, we see
that Fairwell tour. For sure, Lebron puts an emoji right of an hour
glass, right, so should we put an emoji of a Come on,
man, I'm just like or or yeah, bro, that's really what it
is. It's what what are we talking about? The need for a kind
of needless drama is I think it's it's always been a little bit of interesting
common station. I think all around his surrounded around his overall greatness. But
he is great. He's absolutely great. But again I think that's just kind
of a funny one way or the other. Listen, we will forever be
decoding Lebron messages, even when he walks away from the game of basketball.
Does it surprise you, though, that the NBA didn't really celebrate like Lebron
James in that he you know, I know that they you know, they
have the nice announcer and everything like that, and he was the last person
you know, introduced for the Western Conference All Stars. I mean I saw
I saw more than one or two different montages to him kind of throughout against
a lot of stuff pregame, you know, and things like that kind of
So to me, I think it was enough for what it for, for
where it's at. Passing Kareem great. They acknowledged it. But come that
farewell tour and whatever his last All Star Game is two three years from now,
where whatever that ultimately is, there will be a celebration like no other.
So you're not worry about But I think for the I think for the
purposes like look, you know, I don't think Kareem was there in attendance,
and I know that he's been battling some health issues, you know,
through the course of this regular season, so you know, fortunately he was
there to see Lebron break the all time scoring record and things of that nature.
But I do think that like these are the like, like we said,
y'all, like these are the kind of things that help remind us why
we have these, you know, events when we do, and how these
things happen, because they'll you know, listen, the level the list of
what Lebron has achieved. There's a long list, and I think we'd be
remiss if we didn't, you know, in our own way as as the
culture, try to acknowledge it, because again to your point, it is
not easy, you know, getting getting to this point, like these accomplishments.
And you know, listen, if there's one thing that you want to
one up Lebron James over Michael Jordan, this would be it. Right Like
at this particular point when when Michael Jordan is coming out on that basketball court
at the age of thirty nine, we're not seeing the Michael Jordan that we
lauded and applauded for a good stretch. You know what I'm saying of the
nineties. You know what I mean, and in the late eighties it was
you know, a remnants of it, and you saw spotty moments of it,
but you weren't getting it, you know, on a consistent basis.
And I think you know, this is the reason why, you know,
to your point, it was important that we highlight this because again, this
is one of those like those unspoken achievements that probably will never be accomplished for
quite some time. It's gonna be a long time before we see somebody actually,
you know, get somewhere close in proximity of doing it, you know
what I mean. And that's and that's saying something yeah, yeah, like
I said, and I'll just close with this, it's duality of it.
It's not just the twenty time All Star. It's being able to play at
that level and even play twenty years. Well, he's setting he said,
he's setting the standard at his position right like at his age, you know.
And and again like we can sit here and we can you know,
argue semantics about you know, what the criteria is, but you think about
all of the guys that play his position right now in the Western Conference,
name me, outside of Kevin Durant. I mean, he's still a better
you know player right now, even a better player than Karl Anthony Towns,
who you know, we've always said he really should be playing the five rather
than playing the four. But since he plays the four, you can make
the argument, well, his numbers should be something equivalent to what Lebron James
is doing. He doesn't. He doesn't meet those numbers, you know what
I'm saying. He doesn't do and he doesn't do it with the same consistency,
which again he sets that bar you know, ultimately, and so you
know that's saying a lot like again, he could take a year off,
come back, and he'll probably still wind up being an All Star because you're
not going to see too many people playing that position like he plays that position,
which makes him a viable commodity in the current state of what we consider
an All Star. Yeah, so our hats off and salute to Lebron James.
It's going to be hard pressed, if if pressed at all, to
be able to match what he's been able to do for the longevity and at
the level that he's been able to do it. So we definitely wanted to
give him his proverbial flowers you know, on our show here too. And
put a wrap on what was an interesting All Star weekend. And we'll see
the based on boys make their parents out there in San Francisco. Maybe we
can get the vibes going again. We'll see what's going. They definitely need
us to be the party starters. We'll get it. We'll get it livened
up. Speaking of flowers, did you give flowers to your missus? Excuse
me too, did you give flowers to your missus? Oh? I mean
you're talking about Valentine's Day? Yeah, man, we we did that.
We did the damn thing, brother, we did the dam I mean,
listen, man, we didn't give a whole lot of love in this UH
in this episode of the Base. I'm trying to try to try to give
us a safe somewhere here. You know, we gave love. We gave
of you know, to UH to our partnership with with UH with with Walmart.
Shout outs to Walmart, you know again for continuing the UH the initiative
and you know again being a great platform UH for the black and black community.
So you know, we encourage everybody and once again to make sure that
you go to walmart dot com, slash black and unlimited to discover all of
the amazing black owned products. They're available out right now, all right man,
So once again we like to thank you and yours for hopping on board
with us this week. Thanks for burning the midnight all with us to the
baseline Cali Warren. Shall we appreciate you, guys, Thanks for hopping on
board this week. Gots with you next time.