Speaker 1: What is going on? Clippers fans, Welcome to a off
season happy hour clips and dips, something we've started doing
because there's not a whole lot usually going on in
the Clippers sphere in the off season, so we're coming
at you with a live once every two weeks and
a full episode all the weeks in between that. I
am Chuck Mockler, joined by Adam Austin. William Updyke is
at a wedding in Malibu, so he cannot make it
our situation. I'm sure I mean a wedding in Malibu.
I've been told it's a very and that seems like
a totally normal wedding. Thank you for hanging out with us.
If you're listening to this and you missed the live,
you can always find us at YouTube dot com slash
at Clippers podcast. You can clip, subscribe and then you'll
be notified when we come and talk about stuff. Adam,
how are you doing, buddy? Before we get into what's
been going on? How are you? How are you?
Speaker 2: Oh? Am? I you know, I'm actually doing pretty well.
Been doing a lot of radio as.
Speaker 1: Of late, killing it. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I got a thing coming up at Marongo a week
from tomorrow for AM five seventy where I'm going to
do a Clippers talk from there for an hour. Oh yeah,
twenty seventh at Marengo Casino in a resort. Come see
me there. I think there's a little stage area or not.
I'll just be walking around and have my head set
on and do a little bit of Clippers talk and
hopefully I don't have to talk about as much as
what we've had to focus on the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: Oh, and we're going to focus on it some of
it in just a bit. That's awesome. Yeah, catch you
out of at Marongo if you need a roadie or something,
let me know.
Speaker 2: I'm there.
Speaker 1: I wanted to start off this episode by giving a
shout out to a former Clipper who was just named
Coach of the Year in the w NBA. Coach Natalie.
That's right, shout out Coach Natalie. Real Clippers fans know
that Natalie Nicassi was a fantastic coach with the Clippers.
All the players loved her, and now she's killing it
in the w n B A So shout out to
coach Natalie.
Speaker 2: We're not surprised. We saw this from humble beginnings, not
at all. We knew her win.
Speaker 1: Yes, you leave the Clippers and great things happen. No,
just kidding, but yeah the chat, Yeah exactly. Hope the
success continues and there was no other news about the
Clippers this week. Everything else was normal, no for those
of for those of you who missed it, it's been
another hell of a week for Clippers fans. The vibe,
the bad, the bad outside vibes momentum kind of continues
fester and should be for a while because we were
told that the NBA does not expect to have a
resolution on the Kawhi Leonard salary caps are convention investigation
until after the All Star Game. But this was also expected, right, Adam.
We talked about this last week when all three of
us were here like billible hours were hosting the All
Star Game. They want to get this right.
Speaker 2: This wasn't that surprising, right, Yeah, We're gonna stretch this
process out. No, and they need to be through about
this because well, if Pablo found three thousand pages, the
NBA might found find twenty thousand pages. I don't know
how this is gonna work. I think Mark Cuban is
currently tweeting out his own investigation that he's got going on.
Now we can.
Speaker 1: Pull that up and Mark. So the other issue, there
was an interesting part with fourteen minutes ago. All right,
we're gonna put the tweet up in a sec. The
other there was another publetory episode. There was a very
boring ESPN article about Kawhi which we're going to talk about,
which Adam, you and I can agree, not a lot
of new information in that. It's felt like kind of
kicking the Clippers when it's convenient when they're down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, here's a recap for all the casuals and non
Clippers fans who have been going through a lot of
this stuff. And there wasn't anything revelatory there, right, it
was It was not eliminating.
Speaker 1: It was Yeah, I was just like, we get it, man,
like journalists has ever really been around the Clippers? Also
is the other part of it? You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Like that felt like ESPN needs a story out. Let's uh,
this Clippers thing's hot right now, So why don't we
talk more about this and just everything over the last
six years?
Speaker 1: Totally So Mark Cuban is currently tweeting about the situation.
There was an in the last episode of the Poblatory
finds out podcast Cuban. They take this point where Cuban asked,
why didn't the Clippers just buy carbon credits from Aspiration
to pay Kawhi. He noted that if the Clippers purchased
those credits up front, it would be a big red flag,
as carbon credits are very messy, and then Pabulatory just
showed that that was exactly what happened. The Clippers spent
sixty million in carbon credits for into It Dome in
twenty twenty two, over three payments. Into a Dome wasn't
completed yet, so there's no need to rush. So anyway,
the more that Mark Cuban talks, I'm conflicted to be
because I don't know. Justin Russo had a great article
about this on his substack. I'll share it in the chat,
but he started off by saying basically, like I don't
know anything about this subject matter, Like I don't know.
I have a college degree, albeit from the Harvard of
the West the University of Montana, but like.
Speaker 2: That's the appropriate way to start things. Hey, guys, I'm
a dumb ass. Do not listening.
Speaker 1: I don't know in terms of like, I just mean
in terms of like people listening to the show who
are maybe looking for some kind of like gotcha or
we know what is happening, and maybe you know a
lot more about contract love than me. I don't mean
to lump you in with this, but like it seems
like the more that Mark Cuban talks, the public opinion
of everything goes south, which is kind of for the fans,
I think the more lasting issue of this whole thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hadn't reviewed whatever documentation that Mark Cuban put
out there today to support his angle. I will say
it feels like it's gotten personal, not between Pablo and
the Clippers, but between Pablo and Mark.
Speaker 1: I think there's a there's a once you get to
a certain level of wealth, there's an ego that comes
with it, just as any certain level of like you know,
athletic ability or something like that. So I think if
you're billionaire Mark Cuban, I think you're right, Adam. I
think that's a great thing to point out.
Speaker 2: It's like the Clippers are getting caught in the crossfire
here between these two guys in some ways, and this
is what's continuing to fuel the story. Neither one of
them wanting to end up looking wrong. I don't know. Again,
I didn't. It seems like a lot. I haven't gone
through it. I don't know if anybody has any cliffs
notes on that. That seems dangerous because you watch the
other episodes and it's like, this is so long and
this is so much information to take in.
Speaker 1: It can't be cliff noted, like you can cliff note
the episode, which a user on Reddit did, thank you
for cliff noting the Pablo episode, but like, it's so difficult.
Speaker 2: The one thing I will say that I think is
fair to point out it a week to week and
a half ago, everything was about, well, well, hey, I mean,
what are you going to say? Balmer put in fifty kauwha,
I got forty eight. Obviously it seems like something's going
on there. Well, the money that the Clippers are put
in has completely changed that argument in that theory. Now
it's one hundred and eighteen million, So that overly simplistic
argument that seemed to be there before no longer stands.
That at least needs to be considered here, because it
really felt like that was the crux of the argument,
right this finite Yeah, they're similar, Oh must be suspicious.
And now that's totally out the window. So we're pivoting
to Mark Cuban said if they were going to do it,
it was carbon credits, and Pablo's saying, well, it was
carbon credits. But if you're doing that, it is moving
of the goalpost to some degree from the argument you
were making before, in the theory you had before. From
what I can glean from my understanding of it.
Speaker 1: I like this comment from Johnny sixty six. Mark and
Pablo should settle the beef on a one v one
at the blacktop outside into it domb I hope. So
that would be great. So the goalposts, people are saying
the goalposts are moving, Adam, you brought that up. I
think that is a good point. The goalposts also seem
I think part of it to be moving because that's
Pablo Tory has done. You know, he's waiting, he's not
releasing everything at once, so the goalposts are easier to
move in that sense. I don't mean this in a
bad way, right, like the Adam Silver thing, when Adam
Silver is like, I've never heard of aspiration, and then
Pablotory goes, well, here's the clip of you, you know, like,
how did you not hear about three hundred million dollar thing,
and then Silver goes on whatever show or conference that
was was like I actually have heard about aspiration. So yeah,
the controlling of it information is weird in this scenario
because I agree with what you're saying where things keep moving,
but I'm also wondering if things are moving because there's
seemingly only two people with all of the documents and
Mark Cuban in publatory and who are putting stuff out.
Speaker 2: I should say I get where Pablo is coming from.
You guys think you're gonna undercut my reporting from seven
months because yeah, yeah, because Mark Cuban's first comment was basically, well,
someone that rich cannot make mistakes like this, and now
he's kind of backed himself into a corner where it
seems like he has to keep defending his point, and
now he's getting more detailed with it and going into
his own investigation mode.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's also like, dude, the optics of Mark
Cuban posting five thousand character length tweets are.
Speaker 2: Bad, especially when you don't want to go back on
his podcast. It looks like because it's a waste of.
Speaker 1: Time because you know that Pablo Tory would be like,
come on the pod man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's game for it, obviously. And I'm not saying
Mark Cuban is a coward here or anything like that.
It just it would be really really nice for Clippers
fans to have them release everything, get it out in
the open, and now we can wait for the dust
to settle with the NBA's investigation and we can talk
about something else. But as they continue to dig in
here against with their positions digging in, but then also
this wedge that has been driven between one another by
being on polar opposite sides here, and it seems kind
of like a pissing match. I don't know if we're
going to get a chance or reprieve anytime soon.
Speaker 1: I like what you said about just all the information
coming out at once, because that that would make right.
Now the public has decided the Clippers are guilty, it
doesn't really matter what the NBA investigation says, and if
they did something wrong, they should obviously be punished for it.
Everyone on this involved with this podcasts agreed with that.
But in the eyes of public opinion, which I think
for fans is the more important and meaningful battle is
kind of already made up, which bums me out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this would happen with any team. I don't
think it'shound the Clippers. Opposing fans always come from a
place of bias, because that's what it is to be
a fan. Everybody else is cheating but us. Everybody else
is doing wrong but us. And you know in some
ways that spirit at its core is a big part
of fandom totally. But in this case, it would sure
be nice if people would not shoot first and ask
questions later, which is what they're doing currently. Yeah, and
I don't even know if they are going to ask
questions later. I think this is just about simply any
red meat that's out there for a fan base to
pick at. They will always do. The Lakers will never
not hear about twenty twenty being in the bubble. Sure,
this is what comes with the territory when it's about
opposing fan bases getting some red meat to criticize you with.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I feel bad for in this current just media
news cycle everything for Clippers man, because it does suck,
because it's just like we Alex Web posted it in
this chat, which if you'd like to post things in
the chat, subscribe to us at YouTube. I'm just ready
for balltalk. I'm exhausted about talking about trees, agreed, Alex,
And that that is what's so difficult because and we're
probably honestly, I think next week, if nothing new comes
out about the Kauhai saga, you will not hear about
it on this podcast that week, Right, I think that's
a fair thing.
Speaker 2: How is nothing new gonna come out with the way
Mark right now?
Speaker 3: What is?
Speaker 2: I know?
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 2: It's any time a fan base has a chance to
discredit something of your of you from your team, they
will do it. Joke's over facts, all these things, and
it really is frustrating that it's happening to the Clippers
right now, especially because there's no basketball going on, and
this is the biggest story, not just in the NBA.
This is leading headlines throughout sports for all the wrong
reasons when you're a Clippers fan.
Speaker 1: I remember we were on here the first Live when
this broke. We were like, thank god the NFL is
starting this week, because surely that will overtake the news. Nope,
that happen.
Speaker 2: All these damn backup quarterbacks right.
Speaker 1: That?
Speaker 2: Yeah, what about that pick? What's wrong with him? Shock?
Come on?
Speaker 1: I know what's wrong with him. We all know what's
wrong with him. He's been hitting the head fifty times.
He doesn't want to throw the ball down the field. Sorry.
The patreon is for Dolphins, Panthers movies, and diptalk. We'll
keep it over there. So this is a question from
starman Hove. Do we know?
Speaker 2: So?
Speaker 1: This is an interesting This brings up an interesting point.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: Starman Hove, who comments a lot thank you for engaging,
says do we know what the punishment could be for
this kind of thing? I honestly don't understand what is
going on? Second part, totally fair. First part, it feels
like the public sentiment of what the punishment was going
to be two weeks ago was like Adam Silver, we
know what he does. He's a very Goodell Roger Goodell
type owner, where it's let's protect the owners, not a
crazy you know, not a guy to punish you like crazy,
not the velvet hammer. That was kind of the vibe
a couple of weeks ago. And now it seems like
the public sentiment and all of these reports from guys
like Zach Lowe and people who are like, oh, the
executives I've talked to dot dot dot. Now it seems
like people are getting more pissed off and there might
be a stronger punishment than we initially thought. But that's
not to say it will be an incredibly punishing punishment.
Not to sound like a weird rhyming children's book.
Speaker 2: You know, yes, I have no idea. We know what's
on the table. It could be picks. It could be
a fine voiding of contract owner being suspended for a
year based upon precedent, the last there being very unrealistic,
of course, which what does.
Speaker 1: And I understand this might be a stupid question. An
owner being suspended for a year to me, I guess
in the lens of having our owner already someone who
spends a bunch of money, so we're kind of set up,
you know what I mean, Like we're not paying year
by year for like facilities or something like that. Balmer
being suspended for a year does not seem like that
big of a deal in terms of on the court performance.
Speaker 2: I think it's more of a punishment that's yeah, isolated
to the owner of having to be away.
Speaker 1: Which for Balmer that'd be a pretty big punishment.
Speaker 2: Balmer is a super fan for this team, obviously, yeah,
this would be different than Glenn Taylor, and this is
again this is good.
Speaker 1: Does Silver have the power to levy more because it's
like it's like four and a half million dollars like
a first round picker. Like there are things in the CBA,
but they're very light.
Speaker 2: He has, as he said, broad power, but those are
kind of the framework. It's fines, it's picks, it's suspensions,
it's voiding of contracts. Suspensions and avoiding of contracts. Seems
like they would really have to find a smoking gun
like they did with Minnesota, which they only got because
they put it in writing. In case Glenn Taylor, uh
past right, so he wasn't a young, vibrant man, although
he's still alive. That'sh relations in it. I think the
avoiding of a that stuff happening.
Speaker 1: I don't see them unless there's some discovery in this
investigation that is a huge They're not voiding Kauwai's contract
because that starts a huge thing with the players union.
I think I could see them because again, if this
is happening after the All Star Game, I could see
them suspending Balmer for the season, which is more of
a punishment again to Balmer.
Speaker 2: And they suspended after the All Star Game for the
raider of the season. That's something that crossed my mind.
I was like, oh my god, that would feel for
the top three seed in the West. And this is
I don't want to doom. I don't want to speculate, no.
Speaker 1: I feel, but it is it's hard to not right.
So I think the other part of that kind of
this discussion is like, as partly fans, it's hard to
not think the worst when most of the sportsphere other
than Mark Cuban and some Clipper and Clippers fans that
we know are have just already decided that like we're
going to be. You know, I'm worried that because with
the new apron stuff, I wonder how the new apron
can factor into punishments. Maybe you make the Clippers operate
as a second apron team for a year despite being
under the first apron, you know what I'm saying Like that,
that to me is a way bigger punishment than spending
the owner for a year.
Speaker 2: I heard someone theorize that, oh, they'll eliminate the Clippers
twenty eight million dollars on the CAF less to spend
because that equals the money that Kawhi was getting. This
was early on. Yeah, that stuff.
Speaker 1: Seems that seems too soon.
Speaker 2: Unrealistic, right, Like, Yeah, I just I don't want to
get into the punishment. Look, honestly, with the stuff that
has come out recently, I think it's perfectly reasonable to
be in the Clippers camp of believing that these are
two independent things going on. Yeah, that's Steve Baumer invested
in a company. That company independently had to deal with
Kawhi Leonard. I do think that needs to stay on
the table in front of mind, which for everyone involved
in this, that no one should be jumping to any
conclusions just as much as yes, the other side of it,
the Clippers could have done something wrong. Can we walk
and showgum at the same time a little bit here?
Do we not? Just let's wait for the facts to
come out. Let's wait for the invested investigation. These are
the two major scenarios that we're looking at right now.
But they both seem you know, I don't want to
say equal, but they both seem like they could be
a part of this reality of the scandal of what's happening.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because we talked last week about in the Zach
Low article he talked about I think it was his podcast,
you know, the Lppers kind of doing what you said,
which was this was this is two separate things. This
is supposedly Balmber getting scammed in a way where it's like, well,
I guess I thought it seems easier to scam the
one of the richest guys in the NBA that I
thought it was, and like you said, Kawhi and Uncle
Dennis doing a separate thing. So I do think with
the amount of discovery and the timeline we've been given,
they should they being the firm that's going to investigate
this in the NBA, should be able to differentiate between
those two things.
Speaker 2: I just don't want to approach this from the point
of view like we kind of have been the last
five minutes of what's the worst that can happen to
the Clippers? What about the other side of it, what's
the best that can happen They totally get cleared of
this that is on the table.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like what Alex Webb is bringing up a
thing the Clippers could appeal that. That's an interesting move too,
because I don't know if Balmer would appeal because he's
been so obviously he wants an investigation. He's obviously going
to say he wants an investigation. You can't go on
ESPN and say I, actually, maybe they don't investigate us.
It would be funny. Yeah, it would not help our
case at all. I don't know if they appeal, because
appealing is like you just open it up again for
whatever and down the road. Yeah, you're just and it's like,
let's just have this happen for whatever.
Speaker 2: I also wonder how that works because when the CBA
those bylaws come down, they're agreed upon by both parties.
This is the punishment. I assume you can appeal, because
you can with anything.
Speaker 1: Right, But yeah, in my head, I'm like, I didn't
even think about that.
Speaker 2: But it's not a court of law. It's different. They've
already agreed to these things ahead of time. I don't know.
I really don't like going down this road so much.
Let's see what comes out of it. Let's hope for
the best, yes, without expecting the worst. Let's just for
the best.
Speaker 1: Let's just hope for the best. Ummm, someone, We're gonna
do a quick audio break because we are gonna put
this out on audio. At break at what time is
it twenty four minutes? Coming up, we're gonna talk there's
a new Clipper Vision Higher, which I wish we could
have led this episode off of, but we have to
talk about this aspiration stuff coming up. We're gonna talk
the Clipper Vision Higher and then a little bit about
that ESPN article coming up in three two one.
Speaker 2: Welcome back in. It's Clips and Dip with Clips and
Dip live for you guys, and maybe you're listening to
in podcast form now I'm out of Mosland. He is
Chuck Makler. No will Updyke today, but he returns soon enough.
Speaker 1: He's in.
Speaker 2: Malibu with Miley. Does she have a song about Malibu?
Speaker 1: I don't know. Sure. You're the resident Miley fan on
the pod, so we'll take your work for it.
Speaker 2: I know I'm a wrecking ball. Uh. You want to
talk about a Clippers recent hire here that became official.
Speaker 1: Yes, Stan Vrett new gig is the Clippers studio host,
which is pretty cool. The Clippers broadcast team is very
on point. I would say for a local broadcast team,
the talent I agree, from the radio pre and post
game to the radio play by play, we got it.
Speaker 2: All Carlo was doing Big ten last week. He was
on the call the UCLA getting stomped out by New
Mexico game, and then thirty six hours later Deshan Foster
being fired. It is a mess over there.
Speaker 1: How can I don't like my mom? My mom's family
from Oklahoma, so we were kind of Oklahoma fans. I
went to the University of Montana, so it's different. How
can UCLA be so bad at recruiting? Because that seems
to be the issue, right, And we'll talk about this
for like thirty seconds and then stop. But I don't
get it. Should they hire Troy Aikman he went to UCLA,
bring him back?
Speaker 2: He at least agreed with Petroschapadakas recently that one of
the issues is the lack of fervor around the program
in general, even when they're decent. Is because you arena
is off campus.
Speaker 1: And I would say off campus is generous to describe
where the UCLA football stadium.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a beautiful stadium. Obviously they host championship games there.
It's just when you have an on campus stadium, it
leaves less excuses for people not to go, and especially
when you're bad. They went out and paid two million
in nil for Nico from Tennessee and I can't pronounce
his last name until they get a in. They had
a little bit of momentum heading into the season, and
to start one to three when they haven't even started
the Big Ten schedule yet, so it just means things
could get worse from here is It is baffling. It
is dumbfounding just how bad they've been.
Speaker 1: It's crazy too because at UM which FCS powerhouse, no
big deal, the stadium my college apartment. We would walk
to the stadium anyway. Shout out to the UCLA football fan.
So you're doing okay. There was another clipper Vision update
that had me kind of worried, which was as a
valued subscriber of Clippervision, all of us got this email
that said they're informing us that they are transitioning the
Clipper Vision offering. As a result, this will serve as
cancelation notice of your current subscription no longer be available
as of October eighteenth, Justin Russo is texting me. He
wanted me to let you know that this is UCLA
football's worst start since World War Two.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, especially because damn not just the O and
three record the competition, the lack thereof that took them
out just they should be two and one at worst.
Speaker 1: Justin Russo said he would be on the pop, but
he's currently eating, so shout out Justin. I shared his
substack in the in the thing earlier. Anyway, I'm worried
about what's going to happen with Clipper Vision because well,
I don't care. I know what's gonna happen with UCLA.
They're going to continue to trend, tearn down. I'm I
work in marketing, uh and seeing the phrase we are
transitioning the Clipper Vision offering does not strike me with
a feeling of enthusiasm for what the new offering might be.
It was such a simple thing. Here are the here
are the Clippers games, except for a handful obviously because
of blackout laws and whatnot. But with the way that
sports viewing has been going, I don't hold a lot
of confidence that this is a good update.
Speaker 2: Honestly, I'm not familiar with the situation.
Speaker 1: I'm a radio list that's fair. Radio is as live
as you can possibly get.
Speaker 2: I hope it's as user friendly for Cliffer Nation as possible.
Speaker 1: I hope it's I mean, I hope it's user friendly.
I hope it works better, and I hope they're not
raising the price to something absurd, and I hope there's
not any tears that have to you know what I mean,
like buy this package and you get whatever. Maybe I'm
being cynical, but while watching sports gets harder every single year,
unless you're a Phoenix Suns fan. Shout out to the
Suns who are celebrating. I think a huge extension of
just showing their games for free to everybody.
Speaker 2: And unless you just like consuming highlights, then you're good.
That's all you need. Check out Twitter, check out X.
Speaker 1: Yep, push more people over to X.
Speaker 2: Walked back, ily, that was everyone overreacting to That struck
me as I'm not a highlight guy. I watched the
full games. I'm a basketball expert. It's a lot. That's
what it felt like to me. Yes, people patting themselves
on the back and letting everyone know I don't just
watch the highlights.
Speaker 1: But it was a bad SoundBite.
Speaker 2: It was, and that's why you had to walk it back.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I also just appreciate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's done a lot of clarifying recently.
Speaker 1: Yeah, speaking of clarifying. I'm gonna check in if Mark
youban it's continuing to clarify. Oh yeah, he is all.
Speaker 2: In, man, this is the story simmer right.
Speaker 1: I said Mark Chill on our Clippers on the clippers
pod account, and people were like, let him cook. He's
helping us out, and I was like, I think legally
he might be helping us out. But again, I cannot stress.
What makes me the most disappointed of this whole thing
is that doesn't matter the legal punishments. And I say legal,
I mean NBA legal punishments. Whatever ramifications happen to the
Clippers management or how they operate the roster or all
that pales into comparison, I think for what fans now
have to deal with from kind of here on out,
and that that's what disappoints me the most. I'm not
saying the Clippers did anything wrong. There's a whole lot
of smoking guns. We talked about wanting more sleeping guns
on last week's episode, but it doesn't seem like we're
getting those. It just the damage from a fan perspective
has been done. And my hat is off to any
Clippers fans, as it always is, but like right now,
weird hand to be dealt. When we had a racist owner,
everyone agreed he sucked ass and shouldn't own the team anymore.
Speaker 2: And the actually Mark Cuban didn't interesting here we go.
Speaker 1: I forgot about that.
Speaker 2: He said something to degree could be a slippery slope,
and invasion of privacy maybe was involved. I don't know.
I'm just being technical or puredantic here now.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm yes the public again, Mark Cuban
interjecting on Clippers business, get out of here.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's good or bad. He's defending
fanning the flames of the story. It's I don't know, man,
so convoluted.
Speaker 1: We do have thick skin, thank you data man. If
you're a Clipper fanning to have thick skin, especially living
in La, that is true.
Speaker 2: The La Armadilla's yeah, might as well.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: We continue to soldier.
Speaker 2: On if any, if any fan base has been through
you know, the ringer, so to speak, is that who
probably works for now the athletic But you know it
has been through. It base has been through enough. And
this is what I always say. You know, Clippers fans
are the best fans because they're still here. After everything
they have been through, we're still here and we'll get
through this too.
Speaker 1: Hell yeah, I actually think that might be a great
way to end the live if I'm being honest.
Speaker 2: I did have to go to the bathroom really bad,
which is why I said that. I was hoping you'd
be like, there, let's put a ball on it.
Speaker 1: He absolutely nailed it. Let's put a bow on it.
Adam has to go to the bathroom. So we're going
to get out of here.
Speaker 2: No, but I do that's a good thing about these
wireless headphones. Check. I'm just gonna walk over. You can
take a gun.
Speaker 1: Should we send justin Russo? The link?
Speaker 2: Does he want to end it? Is he finished his movie?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Sent him in?
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: I'm interested to know.
Speaker 1: Was yeah, what were you eating? I guess.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I know, like Media Day, there's been some scuttle boat
that Pablo Tory is going to be at Media Day,
which is in like eleven days.
Speaker 2: I would guess he'd be smart enough to know that
they're going to say it's an NBA matter that's being investigated,
and they're not going to expand on anything anyways. So
I don't I don't know what you're gonna get out
of that.
Speaker 1: I hope it's complete chaos. I hope he freaks out.
I hope Balmer has to be held back. I hope
it is a brew Haha. It won't be.
Speaker 2: Clippers will handle this with class.
Speaker 1: They will yeah, media Day. So I will not be
at Media Day because they always have it from like
nine to two on a Wednesday. I have to work,
but Adam, you will be there.
Speaker 2: I will be there at least the start of it.
And yeah, I will be there. And I'm not expecting fireworks.
Speaker 1: I'm not expecting fireworks. I am expecting someone to ask
Tyleru about it, and Tyleru to have a very funny answer,
you know what I mean, Because Tyleru, he is as
far as someone within the organization could be. Tyleru. His
responsibilities are as far removed from this as possible, you
know what I mean. Someone is going to ask tyler
about this, which is a bad idea, and he's just
gonna say we're just focusing on the season I'm the
head coach, or he's gonna say I didn't see it,
which is a classic titlism.
Speaker 2: I have one thing I want to ask why about
that has nothing to do with this subject matter. But
if there's too many people, I let the professionals and
the journalist, what are you going to ask? What do
you want to ask a lot of tease?
Speaker 1: Okay, I guess we'll find out in eleven days. When
is it?
Speaker 2: Uh? Because if I say, you know, Justin's going to
steal it or tell me.
Speaker 1: You're right. A lot of the stuff we talk about
to do their job, A lot of the stuff we
talk about ends up in their articles. I don't know.
We love all the people. We're talking shit. Man, I
wish Bokey wasn't hurt. I keep remembering that too, and
I was like, God, damn it. Like we need Bogey.
We need Bogey.
Speaker 2: We do need Bogey. What we don't need is as
I refreshed, X is more. No, No, he hasn't say
anything in eleven minutes. We're clear, Mark, even as I'm
post to anything for eleven minutes.
Speaker 1: It's insane.
Speaker 2: I can't keep up with all this.
Speaker 1: His personal assistant has to be in hell right now,
you know what I mean? Just being like Mark, just
let it go. Man.
Speaker 2: Did I tell you about the time I pitched a
TV show to Mark Cuban, Well, I wasn't on Shark Tank.
I was, uh, you know, I didn't make it into
the aquarium. I had a treatment that was in a
gift bag that I went to a Lakers Dallas game
of O nine to try to get a hold of him,
to get in touch with him, and so I got
there extra early. I'm at Staples Center and I caught
him by the tunnel and the overhang. So I'm standing
up here and I lower the gift bag down to him. Mark.
Mark got his attention. And there's a treatment for a
television show and it also had a gift in it
and instead saying World's best dad, it said world's best
owner in Mavericks colors.
Speaker 1: Okay, a T shirt? So far? What was the show
called like Adam Knows Best or something?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was I think I don't want to I
don't want to say too much, but it was just
like a sports show. There's still time. It's only been
fifteen years. Sixteen years. It was a sports show. And
he emailed me, and I have the email. It was
later that night or the next day, and I held
on to this one. God was this pre Shark Tank
oh nine, And it's said.
Speaker 1: Got to hear the story.
Speaker 2: He said, there's already a show like that. Thanks for
the T shirt, which lets me know he didn't read
the treatment because we compared the differences between our show
and that show.
Speaker 1: Send me, send me the treatment, Chuck.
Speaker 2: We've only worked together a couple of years.
Speaker 1: Now, Okay, we'll put on the Patreon. We're welcoming Justin Rousseau,
whose microphone is covering half of his face. That's perfect,
mister Russeau, How are you doing? Just first of all,
you're muted. We can't hear you.
Speaker 2: Who cares how he's doing. Let's get to the meat
and potatoes, which might have been what he was eating.
Speaker 1: Yeah, nope, just go know mic just go computer.
Speaker 2: Microphone, it don't work.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I like this.
Speaker 2: Let's win it, Dow, let's go bowling, Let's go clippers.
Speaker 3: Can you hear me now?
Speaker 2: Or no?
Speaker 1: There we go? We got you.
Speaker 3: Okay, it's that's my AirPods. I don't want it through
the AirPods, though.
Speaker 1: I don't know what to tell you. Man's the only
way we can hear you. Do uh say again?
Speaker 2: Nope, I get it. When you get a new microphone,
you want it to actually works. Later, I think the
whole reason he is coming on is to test out
his new microphone.
Speaker 3: Then he'll go back, No, no, this is this is
not a new microphone. I've had this microphope for like
ten years and I.
Speaker 1: Don't know what it is.
Speaker 2: You know what it is on the back.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I updated my my Mac operating system because
Apple rolled out all those things and the other I
updated it two days ago and I've been having an
audio ship with it since.
Speaker 1: So all right Mac mac uh oh updates aside, which
I know is what most people came to talk about.
Where are you? We got about ten minutes justin what
do you make? What's I love your piece about it?
I shared it with your chat.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: This is just a nightmare until it's over, right or yeah, okay.
Speaker 3: I there's I'm up two minds, Like, obviously, if something
the fairy has happened, then yeah, like the books should
be thrown at them. No one should ever argue otherwise.
I think it's weird when people kind of retort back
with yeah, but other teams are probably doing this, like okay, maybe,
but those other teams in this instance would not have
been caught, so you can't you can't hold it against
someone if they're not caught for it. So it's also
really interesting because I've had discussions with people. This is
what the last few weeks have been like for me.
It's like I've covered the Sparks, so like there's people
there that will obviously like they know I covered the Clippers,
wi They're talk to me about it, and then we
have these really long conversations and every every conversation always
just ends with me going, I don't know. I also
kind of don't care, Like that sounds bad.
Speaker 1: I know what you mean, though, don't know.
Speaker 2: Don't care? Is the T shirt that.
Speaker 3: Should be the investigation T shirt that the Clippers rock
every day?
Speaker 1: But no, we do not need a team wide Well
I'll tell you what the members don't need is a
team wide boycott of the investigation. I think that hurts
public pr more than more than Mark Cuban.
Speaker 3: Maybe fair. I maybe my my thought process on this
has been too and I didn't put this in the article,
but this is how I've I've verbalized it to other people.
No crime was really committed, like we like, if you
actually read everything, there's no actual crime. There is the
alleged breach of the CBA, which.
Speaker 1: Yeah about actual crime, right, yeah.
Speaker 3: No, well the aspiration has been yeah, correct. I guess
that this context of the Clippers could be criminals by proxy
at that point, but you know, you never know.
Speaker 1: That would be better, maybe, I don't think.
Speaker 3: But like, so it comes down to like a moral
and an integrity issue essentially, and an ethical issue. Now.
I also think that optically it looks awful. No one
could dispute that optically it's horrendous of a look. I
also think that there are people on both sides publicly
who have handled this about as poor as people can
handle it. You have one side that is completely convinced
that there was no wrongdoing, and maybe there wasn't, but
we don't know. And you have the other side that
has done their heels in, which is the Clippers are guilty.
Speaker 1: And let's execute everybody who Yeah.
Speaker 3: And that could be the case too, but like we
don't know, because there's an investigation and look, but I
also feel like a lot of this is very performative.
Speaker 1: Like of course, like Adam brought up, like Mark Cuban,
I think as soon as Adam said it like kind
of clearly now has kind of a personal condet against.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and also I will say about Mark Cuban, someone
should form him that when you tweet something out and
your tweet says the words show more. If your tweet
runs on for for more than three more words beyond that,
no one's reading that, Like, no one is reading.
Speaker 1: No one is five thousand words chat GPT dictated breakdown
of either clippers are anything.
Speaker 3: I don't need to go on Twitter and get a
full rendition of the Iliad.
Speaker 1: Okay, well that's you should read the Iliad because.
Speaker 3: I have the book in my back room.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying, but that's honesty.
Speaker 1: Sorry, yeah, come on, man.
Speaker 3: I don't go on Twitter to read you know, these
long things like it's it's all absurd and so like
Mark Cuban is on one side just being absurd and
then pabulatory, who's done incredible reporting. I'm not dismissing his
reporting or course or anything that he's done over the
last seven months to bring this to light. And I
understand that he has to go through a vetting process
with information with lawyers and all this stuff, but it
also feels performative on that end when like it's like
little by little and.
Speaker 1: Look, that's not saying about like the goalpost can be
moved because he's waiting to release information. So it's like, well,
now what about this, Like it's like I do think, gotcha,
he can still just release it later.
Speaker 3: And I'm understand, I understand, like that's part of investigative journalism,
Like not everything comes to light at one time, right,
but it's it just feels like everything just feels like
the slowest of burns, and it's just at a certain point.
I got, like a week ago, I got to the
point where I was just like, this is dumb. Why
why should anyone even care? Until the investigation wraps up?
Speaker 2: Neither of these guys are gonna determine the outcome.
Speaker 1: And of Pablo started it for sure, but he's not gonna.
Like Adam said, if Pablo has two thousand pages, what
do we think the law firm that pays the most
and charges the most billable hours every single year, it's
going to like we gotta wait for everything.
Speaker 3: I mean, the only there's two so like there's two
things in the case because I've read all through this crap.
Speaker 1: You've read all the cases.
Speaker 5: No, I've read through Like I was like, just stop,
I've read through like what's been released right in terms
of like this, you know the information that everyone else Yeah, okay, great, yeah, No,
I'm not that psychotic that makes me feel.
Speaker 3: Better about your well being, but I might like this
point where I was reading through it and I'm just like,
what's the point like because of the of the slow
league and stuff. Well, no, just like, what's the point
about everyone getting up in arms about this on mid.
Speaker 1: September when hey, it's a year round league. Dude, Sylvia
to be a year round league and he got it.
Speaker 3: I mean, they're not going to come to any you know,
conclusion on this until well after the All Star break,
and that had been known even before that came out
like yesterday, I guess, like it had been known that
like this is gonna take and you know, a while,
just simply because the NBA doesn't want to pull an
All Star Game out of Los Angeles, and I.
Speaker 1: Know they don't want to give it to they don't
want to give it to Crypto, like I've seen people
claimoring for.
Speaker 3: So this is where I get to, This is where
I get to say I've been inside Crypto Arena, probably
more recently than a lot of people who are saying
that the All Star Games should go there. No, the
All Star Games should not go there. I've been inside
that arenas as recently as about ten days ago. No,
just no, it's the amount of construction happening in that
arena is ridiculous. Now, I understand, I understand by February
a lot of that's already dissipated. But no, that arena
cannot host an All Star game anymore. It just can't happen.
Speaker 2: It's like a high school auditorium compared into it. Don't
come on, it's just it's it is what it is
at this point.
Speaker 3: But there was something else though. It was a oh,
the most fascinating thing to me and all this was
the sit down with ESPN, which I completely understand both
sides who are like, he shouldn't have done it, and
then I understand the side that was like, it's fine,
he has to do it.
Speaker 1: There's not a there's not like we already have sorry
to cut you off. At my point point here is
the Clippers already have one very key member of his
whole story who is not going to say anything, which
is Kawhi Leonard. So if you're Steve Balmer, you're not
even gonna have like not in the sense of like,
ohkah I should have a podcast, Like Kawhi is not
going to say anything about this. So the whole kind
of like someone has to try and save face for
the team does fall on Bomber, as it should as
the guy who's also involved with this thing. But I
think he felt that pressure even more when you have
someone like Kawhi who is watching the US Open and
you know, like, no, this like he should do that.
But you know what I mean, like he he had
to say something.
Speaker 2: In terms of judging in on how it played. I
think the audience that he was speaking to Clipper Nation,
for the most part, I think they felt good about
it overall. I did, Honestly. I didn't hear many people
on Clipper Nation complaining about it because he was saying like, basically,
we get it, We're we're in this together. We want
to know that we are on the up and up,
and you can believe in us in this franchise. That
did not come across as I thought it came across
as credible the way he the way he spoke, I
thought he spoke well.
Speaker 3: Yeh I it was it was.
Speaker 6: It all falls in line with the performative aspect of
a lot of things that we've already talked about. Like
it was, it was very much like the way I'm
going to tell my side of the story is as
much as I can right now. But what I was
gonna say is the interesting The only interesting thing that
he really said in that entire thing, at least to me,
was when he mentioned that they'd already handed everything over
to the DJ as far as like emails and stuff.
And the only reason I say that I found that
interesting is because that is above and beyond like the
NBA purview of things. So like, while the NBA can
get emails and stuff, and they can obviously the investigator,
well they can get the email.
Speaker 1: And sending them countless emails.
Speaker 3: And well you're just one person. You're you're you're not
a highlight guy.
Speaker 1: So Adam Silver at NBA dot com, that's who I've
been sending these two.
Speaker 2: They've been getting them chucked. They also have been printing
them and then putting them into a shredder.
Speaker 1: I hope I'm costing them some money.
Speaker 2: Is it true that you mentioned Steve Bomber saying we've
already submitted this stuff well, is it true that Steve
Bomber and the Clippers were one of the parties to
report the fraud to the SEC?
Speaker 3: Going on, I'm not exactly I'm not exactly certain of
who uh brought it up to the SEC. I'm really
not I from what I from what I remember from
the stuff that I've.
Speaker 1: Wanted, what did you bring up to the SEC? Misters,
So let's talk about that.
Speaker 3: I brought up role Tiede is what I brought to
the SEC at this point?
Speaker 2: Bringing much then, because they're.
Speaker 1: I'm not even an I'm not an Alabama fan. But
if the SEC ever questioned me about anything, I'm going.
Speaker 3: To honestly, you probably get out of anything that you want.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that would someone who saw the case would be like,
all right, no, he's actually.
Speaker 3: Like this guy gets it like you know.
Speaker 2: Not that I heard that somewhere where they were one
of the entities that reported Joe Sandberg for fraud to
the SEC could have been I. If anybody has an answer,
please hit us up. In the comments.
Speaker 3: A lot of people, Yeah, incredible. You can't just say whatever.
Speaker 2: Old double source it with two comments, have.
Speaker 1: Another comment agrees with you? That sealed baby.
Speaker 3: I'm just I'm very interested to see what happens because this,
this is probably the closest that we'll see in a
while to an organization possibly being on the brink of
a potential death penalty in sports. Like when I know
that term us to get thrown.
Speaker 1: Around, Well, let's wait for the ni L situation.
Speaker 3: I mean, usc USC got it with Reggie Bush right
like for at least a little while, and then SMU
historically got it back in.
Speaker 2: The eighties only excess.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that's what happened. And I mean the championships,
though the Timberwolves got it to some degree, the Clippers
would just get it to a you know whatever, and
so yeah, like.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're getting a death penalty. Like death penalty to
me is like operate as a second Apron team for
five years, no matter what, lose five more first round picks.
Kawhi's contracts pointed, I mean, who's who's to say that
just seems like like.
Speaker 2: Based upon what we've seen so far, you could say
that's unlikely. But the NBA is doing an investigation. Let's
see what happens.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's kind of my whole thing is I don't
know what's gonna.
Speaker 1: I would like them to only be fined two second
round picks.
Speaker 3: Why those are the picks they do well with? Like
if anything, wait, wait you could you could take the
first Yeah, it's like the leave the gun, take the canoe. No,
they're Look, anyone who says that this isn't a big
deal's kidding themselves. I just I'm just mostly like what
do you do? Like, media day is gonna be media day.
They're gonna get asked about it and they have to. Look,
they're gonna tell the line, which they should, and I'm.
Speaker 1: Not gonna lash out at a question, you know, Like.
Speaker 3: No, Like I mean, they're just gonna answer it with
to some degree of like, you know, that's a league investigation.
We can't comment on it. And that's just gonna be
what they have to answer to everything. And that's just
the way that it is. And I don't fault them
for it. That's just what's gonna happen. And yeah, I
don't know. I mean, I wrote that piece yesterday and
it had been something I had been contemplating writing for
a while. But then obviously this whole thing happened. And
then Baxter wrote his ESPN thing, which was really good
and it was just like it was really good, Chuck.
We don't have to sit here and make faces.
Speaker 2: It was good for a recap.
Speaker 3: I like, well, it wasn't. His thing wasn't meant to
be a recap. His thing is basically saying that independent
of what's transpiring the Clippers to a front office degree
of basically.
Speaker 1: Of course, yeah, we knew that.
Speaker 2: They're not building around a guy who's thirty four and
going to be thirty five next But I didn't find that.
Speaker 3: If I was on Steve's payroll, you wouldn't see me anymore.
Speaker 1: Who is this reporter who seems to only watch the
game via helicopter, He's never even at the stadium.
Speaker 3: I just no. I mean Baxter's piece, I get why
people think it was like whatever, But in it, when
he's talking to two dozen sources directly tied to the Clippers,
and you have an actual Clippers officials telling you flat
out like we're over the like we're just done with
the Kawhi Leonard stuff, that's a pretty big deal. That's
not like a you know, a roundabout way of like,
oh well they you know, they're kind of over them
and all this. No, like this is someone directly telling
you like this, like it. They're done with, Like they're
done with the idea of him being there. Guy. Now,
when I ended up writing.
Speaker 2: Was, but he's thirty four. Like to say you're building
around somebody in his mid thirties doesn't make a lot
of sense.
Speaker 3: I don't think they meant it from like the building
around standpoint. I think they meant it from like the
dealing with the drama of him standpoint.
Speaker 1: What drama?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Oh, what the hell are you talking about?
Speaker 3: It's like the regular Friday.
Speaker 2: Night What was the quote of the last thing that
said in the article? It sounds like building around to me.
Speaker 3: I'd have to pull it back up.
Speaker 1: I don't we know you got you know you got that. Yeah,
a couple of minutes when I have to.
Speaker 3: Leave, Okay, Uh the balloons, man, the balloon, the balloons
are out, Buddy Jesus Christ was Wait where do it go? Uh?
They're done building around Kawhi. They know that, and he
knows that. Yeah that's from a former staffer, but he
had the person on there from the actual staffer earlier
in the article, Like they've been done building around him
for like the last eighteen months. That's why. That's why
when I wrote like the thing the other day or yesterday,
like the first telling sign of it was James. Yeah,
like like yeah, you could go out and get James
for kawhi MPG. But it's also like James is just
the guy who's there every day. That's the guy they're
trying to Like, Yes, and as I wrote, you can
qubble every everything after that. But you know, I but
this is I haven't put pen to paper on this yet,
but this speaks to a larger thing that I've that
I've mentioned, uh in passing to some people, which is
I think they accidentally stumbled upon their pathway forward, which
is that they're just basically building around Zoo at this point,
not in like a Zoo's our superstar, but like Zoo
is the guy that we should build a round for
the next five however many years beyond.
Speaker 2: That well foundational piece.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So, and they stumbled upon that. Don't let anyone
ever fool you and tell you like this was something
that they of course they.
Speaker 1: Stumbled upon it. They traded Mike Muskala for Zoo. Okay,
didn't even ask about it.
Speaker 3: But I don't mean from that standpoint, I don't mean
from that standpoint. I mean from like they tried to
replace them with Serge of Baka basically that didn't. They
tried to basically go the three star route with Russ
that didn't work. They brought in James to basically, you know,
augment Kawhi and PG. That didn't didn't really work at all.
And then it's like, all right, well, we're just gonna
let PG go give more touches to Zoo. We won
fifty games. I guess we could just keep doing that
and it worked.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think obviously some people on the front
office didn't want to do the rush thing.
Speaker 1: No, yeah, one of one of them, a pretty prominent
member of the front office. Yeah, all right, I have
to get out of here. I could talk about this
in the next three hours, justin do you want to
come on next week at some point and talk about this.
It's more interesting than talking about the Kauhi bullshit.
Speaker 3: That's fair, that's fair.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's real bad.
Speaker 3: Listen. I just want to say one thing. I respect
Kawhi for just going to the US Open like nothing happened.
Speaker 1: It's expected.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, but like it's still very funny, like.
Speaker 1: Like listening to headphones.
Speaker 3: Yeah, wired headphones even more respect to that. Like this
is like if any other athlete had been brought up
to light on anything like this, they wouldn't have shown
their face make a statement though. I don't think they
would have. Okay, I just I just kind of say
most of the time they just there's not one needed.
I mean. And then next when we whenever we talk
next week, I kind of just think that we can
all delve into the Uncle Bennas stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that sounds awesome fun justin where can you exactly? Justin,
where can people find your stuff?
Speaker 3: No one needs a look for my stuff, Seriously, it's
it's the off season right now.
Speaker 1: Next week I'll say things like that, where can people
find your stuff?
Speaker 3: You can find me at justin russlo dot substack dot
com or at fly by Night.
Speaker 2: K and I t E.
Speaker 1: Thank you and thank you for your content for Clippers
fans and for WNBA fans. Adam one positive thing. And
where can people find your new show.
Speaker 2: Fn A on FSR or later tonight eleven to two
on Fox Sports Radio. That'll be on A five to
seven LA Sports after the Dodgers game locally here, but
throughout the country. You can find Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1: And where can they find you? On the twenty.
Speaker 2: Eighth, twenty seventh, I think is not this Saturday, but
next Saturday. Today I'll be at Morongo Casino doing some
Clippers talk for iHeart Radio at five pm. Come on by,
come say hi.
Speaker 1: Come on by. Adam will be at Adam twenty six gambling.
Speaker 3: Adam is gonna be brought up on insider trading at
Morongo for the Clippers.
Speaker 1: No, no, alright, see Russo this is what we don't
have you on. Man, all right, We will talk to
everyone later. Thank you for hanging out. Find us at
YouTube dot com, just at Clippers Podcast. Find me on
Twitter at Chuck Buckler if you feel like it, and
the show is at clippers Pod. Good night and have
a wonderful weekend. Here's to know more stories coming out.