Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: It's a Later with Mo Kelly and Jackie Ray as
Speaker 2: we go beyond the box score. We're live everywhere in
Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app and Jackie Ray. I loved past tense.
Speaker 2: I loved the NBA. It's my favorite professional sports league.
Speaker 2: But now I realize that it's not the same league
Speaker 2: that I had originally fallen in love with. And there
Speaker 2: is different reasons for different people. But for me, the
Speaker 2: NBA product is less than what it was five ten
Speaker 2: years ago, with just all the three point shots, the
Speaker 2: laisse fair attitudes about defense and conceding rebounds. You know,
Speaker 2: jack up a three and you just start running down
Speaker 2: the other way. You're not actually following your shot. Just
Speaker 2: basic basketball. And we know that the All Star Game
Speaker 2: has also suffered because the players who are coming to
Speaker 2: the All Star Games were not trying hard. The dunk contest,
Speaker 2: you know it, it was tired. It was old in
Speaker 2: the sense of nothing was really new.
Speaker 3: It was more stunts than actual dunks.
Speaker 2: What was your read of the NBA coming into this
Speaker 2: All Star weekend?
Speaker 5: Not good?
Speaker 4: And that kind of summarizes everything I don't know. You know,
Speaker 4: traditionally as journalists, this is something that we try to
Speaker 4: get credentials to. It's one of those most sought after
Speaker 4: credentials go to the All Star weekend, and I didn't
Speaker 4: even think about it. I had no aside from seeing Lebron,
Speaker 4: who I also now have a bone to pick with,
Speaker 4: but aside from seeing him, this the game itself, to
Speaker 4: your point, has just devolved so much. And so when
Speaker 4: you're when you're talking about a game that doesn't have
Speaker 4: the big moments, we just we don't talk about the
Speaker 4: big dunks anymore. Yeah, we'll talk about it from job,
Speaker 4: but that's in a game where it's just I call
Speaker 4: it running tennis.
Speaker 5: Now while we're doing is running tennis.
Speaker 4: So you don't really have that player that you're looking
Speaker 4: forward to, to your point, to say, oh, he's gonna
Speaker 4: do this big dunk in the game, or you're gonna
Speaker 4: get this McKim bate, the Kim Bae Mtumbo big Black
Speaker 4: in the game, because nobody's doing that, nobody's playing defense
Speaker 4: like that.
Speaker 5: It all just the league, just the league.
Speaker 4: So you don't have that player that you want to
Speaker 4: see because you know no one's going to be full
Speaker 4: speed in the game, but you just don't have these
Speaker 4: players that you're looking forward to. At best, you can
Speaker 4: look forward to Steph hitting a crazy three, but he's
Speaker 4: he's about to age out now, he's not the same.
Speaker 4: And to be fair, I still blame Steph for a
Speaker 4: lot of this running tennis that we're getting in basketball
Speaker 4: right now.
Speaker 3: I don't blame him.
Speaker 2: In other words, because people wanted to be like Mike
Speaker 2: back in the day, true and Steph playing he is
Speaker 2: an anomaly. There is no there's been no one like
Speaker 2: him ever, you know, shooting logo threes. They coined that
Speaker 2: term because of him. He would pull up on the
Speaker 2: other side of half court and unfortunately a lot of
Speaker 2: people have tried to emulate him.
Speaker 4: But I'm not going to blame him for being the best.
Speaker 4: Everybody does. That's fair, my bad stuff. I'll take it back.
Speaker 4: But when you're talking about the All Star Game, and
Speaker 4: I think it's an interesting time for me because I
Speaker 4: cover the WNBA as well. I do think if Caitlin
Speaker 4: Clark had agreed to doing this three point challenge with
Speaker 4: Steph and with Sabrina and Escu, that would have really
Speaker 4: brought another influx of fans agreed, but because it didn't.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna be completely honest.
Speaker 5: I forgot. I forgot it was even happening.
Speaker 4: And then my phone goes off and I was like, oh,
Speaker 4: and I watched it, but it's this afterthought, like I
Speaker 4: was literally working and not focus on the game because
Speaker 4: it's just not exciting. And the dunks. To your point,
Speaker 4: when are you going to jump over a car in
Speaker 4: a game? When is that gonna happen?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: You think a dunk is an adjunct of basketball, right,
Speaker 2: Jumping over a car is not connected to basketball. It's
Speaker 2: just a stunt, which is different from a dunk.
Speaker 4: Now, you can still do a stunt like jumping over shack.
Speaker 4: You know that's cool because somebody is talking.
Speaker 3: So we've seen Vince Carter jump over someone in a game.
Speaker 4: Yes, this is what I'm saying, So you can imagine
Speaker 4: that one day this person can do this. But I mean,
Speaker 4: the world is getting crazy, but I don't think it's
Speaker 4: going to get crazy enough that we'll see a car
Speaker 4: on a basketball court.
Speaker 2: I know why the NBA was trying to spice up
Speaker 2: the game.
Speaker 3: They had lagging ratings and.
Speaker 2: And let's be honest, the All Star weekend is one
Speaker 2: of the biggest weekends for the sport. It's it's the
Speaker 2: crown jewel as far as all star events, Bigger than
Speaker 2: obviously NHL, bigger than the NFL Pro Bowl, bigger than
Speaker 2: a Major League Baseball All Star Game.
Speaker 3: So I understand why the NBA wanted to save it.
Speaker 3: This was just not it.
Speaker 2: And for those who don't know, they broke it down
Speaker 2: where they had the rising stars, the rookies and like
Speaker 2: sophomore players fielding a team, and they had a team
Speaker 2: called the Ogs, which was just older players, and then
Speaker 2: they had the international players team. They played a four
Speaker 2: team tournament on one day, and.
Speaker 5: They had six and forty two commercials.
Speaker 2: Not only that, Not only that, the whole production couldn't
Speaker 2: figure out whether it wanted to be a rap concert
Speaker 2: or a Kevin Hart comedy show who was very unfunny,
Speaker 2: or if it was going to be a basketball exhibition,
Speaker 2: and they tried to please everyone and ended up pleasing
Speaker 2: no one.
Speaker 4: That's the saying, right, you can please some of the
Speaker 4: people some of the time, but you can't please everybody
Speaker 4: all of the time.
Speaker 2: Well they got nobody none of the time. This weekend.
Speaker 2: How this relates to our viewing habits. I think it's
Speaker 2: going to I think it's a statement on how you
Speaker 2: just can't throw everything at the screen.
Speaker 3: We are still discriminating viewers. And I think the brand
Speaker 3: was damage. I believe it without being hyperbolic.
Speaker 4: And I think this is the age of social media.
Speaker 4: I think what we saw with the All Star weekend
Speaker 4: was and it also might be the lack of older,
Speaker 4: wiser voices in a room, because what it looked like
Speaker 4: to me is you saw a bunch of young people
Speaker 4: who spend all day scrolling on Instagram, TikTok or x saying.
Speaker 5: This will be a good idea. At the same time.
Speaker 2: Right, they don't need to have an actual dedicated basketball
Speaker 2: game to showcase the talent.
Speaker 3: Let's just have four short basketball games to forty.
Speaker 2: In this TikTok Instagram limited attention span world.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: So, now, when you go, if you didn't watch the
Speaker 4: All Star Game and you're scrolling through social media from
Speaker 4: the thirty second clips you're seeing, you're like, this is
Speaker 4: what it was?
Speaker 5: Not amazing.
Speaker 4: I don't let those thirty second clips fool you, but
Speaker 4: this is my thought process. I really think it was
Speaker 4: just a bunch of people who were born and raised
Speaker 4: in the social media era era, and they figured they
Speaker 4: could make an NBA All Star Weekend based on that,
Speaker 4: and it failed miserably.
Speaker 2: I can appreciate the greatness of Lebron James, but I've
Speaker 2: also heard a lot about the selfishness of Lebron James.
Speaker 2: Lebron James was named to his twenty first All Star
Speaker 2: Game and he did not play. If you don't know
Speaker 2: the NBA, when a player does not play, if they
Speaker 2: acknowledge that soon enough, then some other player can get
Speaker 2: the chance to play the All Star Game, maybe someone
Speaker 2: like Devin Booker who was not there, someone who is
Speaker 2: up and coming, a rising star. I can't remember all
Speaker 2: the players who weren't selected, but Lebron James was having
Speaker 2: ankle issues prior to the All Star Break. There's no
Speaker 2: reason that he was going to play at the All
Speaker 2: Star Break during the All Star Game when he didn't
Speaker 2: play the two prior games coming up to the All
Speaker 2: Star breaks. In other words, everyone knew that he was
Speaker 2: not going to play, and then he didn't announce it
Speaker 2: until maybe an hour before the game.
Speaker 5: Yeah, shout out to Devin Booker.
Speaker 4: I think he would have been a great replacement, But
Speaker 4: I'm more concerned about the people who paid one thousand
Speaker 4: dollars to sit in the nosebleeds specifically to see Lebron.
Speaker 4: They could have scout those tickets, they could have sold
Speaker 4: them to other people. And unfortunately, we do not live
Speaker 4: in an economy and I don't know when we will
Speaker 4: ever live in an economy where you can just throw
Speaker 4: away a thousand dollars like that. People probably saved up
Speaker 4: for that, and I think that this is another problem
Speaker 4: with the NBA.
Speaker 5: I think that the NBA, we've talked about this too.
Speaker 4: They're focused more on their financial partners as far as
Speaker 4: people who advertise with them, than they are with the fans,
Speaker 4: and it's failing. But we've also seen when we're talking
Speaker 4: about the Phoenix Sun complete opposite. They've lowered the prices
Speaker 4: of food in the stands, they can home teams, they
Speaker 4: can watch that on TV for free. This is the opposite,
Speaker 4: and they've seen, Yes, they're taking a loss right now,
Speaker 4: but they've seen an influx in season ticket holders. They've
Speaker 4: sold out every single game since then. Merchandise sales are up,
Speaker 4: so in the long term they're going to probably double
Speaker 4: in that, but that's because they are focused on the fans,
Speaker 4: but the NBA as a whole is focused on their
Speaker 4: advertising partners, and that's why the game is suffering.
Speaker 2: Well, there's something else to consider now that their broadcast
Speaker 2: partners are changing. If you've watched they All Star Weekend,
Speaker 2: you knew that this was the last year which T
Speaker 2: and T right was going to be hosting it, and
Speaker 2: T and T the conception of the NBA is very
Speaker 2: closely aligned with T and T, with Shaq, Kenny, Ernie
Speaker 2: and Charles.
Speaker 3: Inside the NBA, it's a crown jewel of the league.
Speaker 2: Supposedly, they're supposed to carry that show over to the
Speaker 2: NBC networks, but I don't know if it will feel
Speaker 2: the same way. In other words, before we go to break,
Speaker 2: I think it's something else which is going to diminish
Speaker 2: the overall standing of the.
Speaker 4: League absolutely, because that's another thing. If you're a diehard
Speaker 4: NBA fan, you like the commentators, you stick around for
Speaker 4: the halftime show, your personality is exactly it's part of
Speaker 4: the show. And I guess in closing, I would like
Speaker 4: to say, NBA, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Speaker 4: You got to fix it now because you broke it.
Speaker 4: But think about what it was before, revisit that, and
Speaker 4: then don't break it again.
Speaker 2: Well, there's something else that the NBA needs to fix,
Speaker 2: or at least help make sure that they can avoid
Speaker 2: more bad press, because when we come back, we want
Speaker 2: to tell you about an NBA coach assistant who's arrested
Speaker 2: after allegedly pistol whipping his girlfriend.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 3: Still going to Beyond the box Score. We're live everywhere
Speaker 3: on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2: The Dallas Mavericks have been in the news a lot lately,
Speaker 2: for I would say a controversial and unexpected trade with
Speaker 2: the Lakers sending Luka Doncic to the Lakers, and the
Speaker 2: Lakers sending Anthony Davis to the Dallas Mavericks, who immediately
Speaker 2: got injured in the first game and maybe out for
Speaker 2: like months. Right, there's that, and now there's this. Dallas
Speaker 2: Mavericks assistant coach DARRYL Armstrong was arrested after allegedly pistol
Speaker 2: whipping his girlfriend with a gun. I think, or I'm
Speaker 2: of the opinion that after a certain age, you should
Speaker 2: be able to avoid certain controversies. You should be mature
Speaker 2: enough to not get your ass in certain types of trouble.
Speaker 3: Now here's what happened.
Speaker 2: The incident occurred around three forty five am after an argument,
Speaker 2: of course, according to an arrest warrant after David, the
Speaker 2: confrontation began when Armstrong's girlfriend saw a message from another
Speaker 2: woman on his phone, sparking a dispute. Okay, this is
Speaker 2: a story that a lot of people know about, have
Speaker 2: been through.
Speaker 3: We all have something to say about.
Speaker 2: Either we were the person who was cheating or the
Speaker 2: person who whiting on. It's all the message, so we
Speaker 2: all can personally identify to the emotions likely involved. Armstrong
Speaker 2: reportedly intoxicated, of course. And and Daryl Armstrong, I remember
Speaker 2: he had like a fourteen year NBA career. He's older
Speaker 2: than me. He's fifty six years old. He's old enough
Speaker 2: not to be in this type of stuff. He demanded
Speaker 2: her apartment key. In other words, he's kicking her out
Speaker 2: so you don't have access. Give me my keyback. Armstrong,
Speaker 2: at some point during the exchange, allegedly entered the kitchen,
Speaker 2: struck the victim on the right side of her face
Speaker 2: with a pistol and threatened to shoot her after loading
Speaker 2: the gun.
Speaker 3: I know he was drunk, but.
Speaker 2: Nowhere, at no time, at no point, was there any
Speaker 2: voice in his head saying, dol you were an NBA
Speaker 2: assistant coach. There is no way, in any scenario that
Speaker 2: this story is not going to end with you fired
Speaker 2: or also in jail.
Speaker 4: I think when you are a narcissist, those kinds of
Speaker 4: thoughts don't enter your head. And I'm going to very
Speaker 4: confidently assume that mister Armstrong is a narcissist for a
Speaker 4: few reasons. Number One, when your girlfriend asks you about
Speaker 4: another girl on your phone and you don't take accountability
Speaker 4: and you ask her for her key again, narcissist red flag.
Speaker 3: Number one, So I can't argue with that.
Speaker 5: And then.
Speaker 4: For you to all of a sudden take this stance
Speaker 4: with her, there's a level of disconnect between who you
Speaker 4: are and the reality that you actually live in you
Speaker 4: feel entitled to treat her this way. And please understand
Speaker 4: when I say the following that I'm not victim blaming
Speaker 4: in any way. But throughout the course of my life,
Speaker 4: I have worked with several women who are in these
Speaker 4: domestic violent situations. And while this has been reported. This
Speaker 4: is not the first time this has happened. No, this
Speaker 4: is not the first time that has happened, probably to her.
Speaker 4: And it's not the first time that Daryl Armstrong has
Speaker 4: pulled out his gun on someone, most likely a woman exactly,
Speaker 4: and the advancement of the threat. And like my dad
Speaker 4: has always taught me, people treat you the way you
Speaker 4: allow them to treat you. So if he felt entitled
Speaker 4: to treat her this way, he has gotten away with
Speaker 4: this at least a few times before. So and again
Speaker 4: this is not victim blaming. This is just understanding that again, people,
Speaker 4: when they don't have consequences, their actions tend to escalate.
Speaker 4: So I'm going to assume that it might have started small,
Speaker 4: but it is escalated to this point. And the narcissism
Speaker 4: is just obvious to me because to your point, I'm
Speaker 4: not going to say that I've never wanted to punch
Speaker 4: anyone in the face, but I have too much to lose, Yes,
Speaker 4: too much to lose, and I know his salary is
Speaker 4: higher than mine. So how does that lightbulb, How does
Speaker 4: that not go off in your head? I don't understand
Speaker 4: that this.
Speaker 2: Could have had obvious a much worse ending, I'm going
Speaker 2: to assume that the gun was loaded. I'm going to
Speaker 2: make that assumption because I don't think that he's just
Speaker 2: waving around and unloaded gun.
Speaker 3: I don't put this way.
Speaker 2: He was obviously intoxicated, so there's no reason for me
Speaker 2: to believe that he made the conscious decision to make
Speaker 2: sure that it was unloaded. And there wasn't a bullet
Speaker 2: in the chamber, right, So I'm gonna assume that it
Speaker 2: was loaded. I just don't understand after a certain age. Yes,
Speaker 2: I understand people make mistakes. Yes, people are cracked vessels
Speaker 2: that they fall short. But you're fifty six years old.
Speaker 5: Dog can't fall that short. Yes, you just can't.
Speaker 3: At some point you gotta leave that stuff alone. Ye,
Speaker 3: she's mad.
Speaker 5: She's mad, and I think now this.
Speaker 4: I don't know what the charges are gonna be, but
Speaker 4: I hope the charges are severe, and I'm gonna tell
Speaker 4: you why because I'm a big proponent of guns, but
Speaker 4: I also believe in gun safety. And if your emotions
Speaker 4: can get a hold of you to the point where
Speaker 4: you can't grab the gun, sir, you should never have
Speaker 4: a gun ever again in life, and you should face
Speaker 4: very serious criminal consequences for this incident.
Speaker 2: That that's my hope, because it could have gone very
Speaker 2: easily right, become deadly over a domestic dispute. I'm not
Speaker 2: saying he was right or wrong as far as their relationship.
Speaker 2: I'm saying how he responded to it was very dangerous.
Speaker 3: One.
Speaker 2: He picked up the gun when he was obviously knowingly drunk.
Speaker 2: Right that scarce the but Jesus out of me, This is.
Speaker 5: What I'm saying.
Speaker 4: So, your emotions got the best to you, the alcohol
Speaker 4: got the best to you, and then someone that you're
Speaker 4: in a relationship with, your first mode of action was
Speaker 4: to grab a gun. Gun Listen, even like I'm with you,
Speaker 4: I believe it was loaded. But even if it wasn't,
Speaker 4: she probably believed it was. So what who You're not
Speaker 4: in your right mind. You should never have a firearm
Speaker 4: in the house ever again. And the entitlement to pull
Speaker 4: it in this situation is just mind boggling to me.
Speaker 2: Let me close with this, I'm wondering what the Dallas
Speaker 2: Mavericks are going to do. I hope that they respond swiftly. Yeah,
Speaker 2: still probably say we're not going to comment on a
Speaker 2: pending investigation.
Speaker 3: We're gonna wait, all the facts.
Speaker 2: About yeah, yeah, yeah, blah blah blah, But there have
Speaker 2: to be swift consequences when the time comes, and there
Speaker 2: have to be thorough consequences.
Speaker 4: I think, and I've been a big fan of teams
Speaker 4: allowing things to play out through the legal system. I
Speaker 4: think that's the stances they're going to take, like we're
Speaker 4: gonna wait, We're going to cooperate with authorities. And while
Speaker 4: that is my stance, I do think that there's some
Speaker 4: instances when you have to judge the content of that
Speaker 4: person's character. I think this is one of those instances.
Speaker 4: But I also think that if that is your position
Speaker 4: as an organization, you have to stick to that no
Speaker 4: matter what. So I'm gonna be fascinated to see what
Speaker 4: they do as well.
Speaker 2: Well there's what they say publicly and there's also what
Speaker 2: they know privately. I don't believe that the Dallas Mavericks
Speaker 2: have only had this one publicized incident with Darryl Armstrong.
Speaker 2: If he's doing this, there are probably some other things.
Speaker 2: I always talk about the roach theory. If this is
Speaker 2: not the first time he's pistol whipped someone or done
Speaker 2: something which could have brought infamy to the Dallas Mavericks Organization.
Speaker 2: I just don't believe that because his judgment is obviously
Speaker 2: not all that all that good.
Speaker 4: There's been a woman that they know something happened to
Speaker 4: and she's like, well, i'll go away for this amount.
Speaker 4: I would bet my last dollar that's happened.
Speaker 3: I'm not taking that bet because you're probably right, Jackie Rate.
Speaker 3: It's always good to see you.
Speaker 5: Great to be here.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty