Takes

The Cleveland Cavaliers are going all-in for the 8-seed

Then the Cavs did the opposite and traded for [Andre] Drummond and were like, we're going to go for this. ... There's nothing better than the team that's just like, we're all in for the 8 seed.

The recent NBA drama between the Warriors and Grizzlies was likely scripted

I'm convinced that there was a script going around to the Golden State Warriors to the Memphis Grizzlies... This is like sweeps week. Everyone in the NBA knew now's our time to strike and they did it with a perfect timing... It was almost a little bit too perfect and too coincidental.

Ja Morant will win Rookie of the Year

And Ja Morant, who I love, future Rookie of the Year, responded with Kevin Durant being like hey who won those rings Kevin Durant?

Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons cannot play together

I mean the Sixers are in a big trouble. I'm prop trust the process. They don't know what to do. They have two guys that can't play together.

The Miami Heat will make the Eastern Conference Finals

In the PFT basketball prediction Market, I think the Heat are going to make the Eastern Conference Finals.

NFL games only have 12 minutes of actual action while the NBA has 48

The thing about football on TV... you only have to watch 12 minutes. There's only 12 minutes of action. In an NBA game, it's a little bit harder. Yeah, because you're watching 48 minutes of action, there's always something going on.

LeBron James is using his name to help the Knicks front office as leverage for his son's future

Rich Paul being the president of the Knicks... LeBron James being like hey use my name to get my son drafted... This is LeBron James being like hey use my name to get my son drafted... LeBron James never plays for the Knicks. No, absolutely no no chance in hell.

I will get Kevin Durant on the podcast before my 36th birthday

I will say if we don't get Kevin Durant on this podcast in our age of 35, cancel my birthday next year. I'll just stay 35 forever.

The NBA should have canceled all games on the day Kobe Bryant died

I think [the NBA] should have canceled the games today because of what he meant everybody in the league. It seemed like Kobe had some sort of influence on every single team... it felt like one of those things where the the whole league was like sleepwalking.

Claiming a bad system or bad teammates ruined your career is just an excuse

That sounds like excuses to me. I mean, you got to figure it out, right? If you really have an obsession to figure it out. You will figure it out, right and every puzzles constructed differently... You just got to figure out Your own puzzles.

Shaq admitted he used to coast through the summer because he knew I was training

When we sat down we did the interview together. He finally He copped to the fact that after we won championships, she's like I can just relax and Coastal with the summer because I know I got a teammate who's going to be training 8 10 hours a day and I was like see that's the BSS yet that would piss and shit.

Zion Williamson is a bonafide bust

Zion is a bust. Parentheses: I went to sleep at halftime.

Zion Williamson is always one bad weekend away from being fat

He is not fat, but he's always a bad weekend away from being fat. A bachelor party, going on a trip. Maybe a trip to New Orleans... you come into work on Monday and everyone looks at you like you got stung by a bunch of bees.

LeBron James blaming his son for a poor performance is a new low

LeBron blames his son. A new low. A new low. Even for LeBron. He has gone as low as possible. He has blamed his son on his poor performance on Monday night. He said that he was a little out of rhythm because he went and watched his son play basketball in a tournament.

I can no longer dunk on a 10-foot basketball hoop

Not at the moment, no. I don't think I could dunk a 10-foot goal. I'm sorry, man... I've tried to touch the rim. So if you can't touch the rim, then you probably can't dunk. No, I can't. I can't touch it.

The Lakers are peaking too early in the NBA season

The Lakers are really fucking good... peaking too early. They didn't even have Anthony Davis and LeBron the other night, and they fucking smoked the Thunder... I'm putting in the tickler file... peaking too early.

Jim Boylen is the worst coach in the history of basketball

Yeah, he is the worst coach in the NBA. He might be the worst coach in the history of basketball... He called a timeout with 33 seconds left in the third quarter to stop the run... there is a timeout that's naturally [between quarters]... He's such a fucking idiot.

Zion Williamson is a Duke bust

Might be out for the whole year. Jesus Christ, dude. Bust. Fucking bust. Another Duke bust.

The Lakers and Celtics will meet in the NBA Finals

I think it's going to be Lakers-Celtics in the championship.

Ben Simmons made his first career three-pointer too early

I actually think that he did it too early... Because it was such a big moment. He should have waited till like year 10 looks like your virginity you get it out of the way. Yeah over quickly than you do it a million more times.

Luka Doncic is the best player of all time

Is Luka Doncic the best player of all time? Yes. I think so. I think he's going to be—he's really good. Of all time. He's crazy. 42 point triple double.

NBA games were manipulated by refs based on points of emphasis, not by direct point shaving

Fixing games. I mean, some people think that I went out there and put Shaquille O'Neal to the bench or LeBron James to the bench so that some of these bets won. That's really not what happened. I picked the games based on relationships that existed between referees and players, referees and coaches, and referees and owners, and what took place in the morning meetings with the referees and what was going to be called that night and how a team was going to be put at an advantage or disadvantage.

Officiating in the 2002 Lakers-Kings series was manipulated to ensure it went to Game 7

Definitely manipulate it when you talk about Dick Bavetta at the in 2002... the famous Lakers Sacramento Game 6. He openly said to a lot of us that he was the NBA's go-to guy. He was put on Game 6s to make sure they went to a Game 7 and that was one of the most fucked up games in the history of the NBA.

55 out of 58 NBA referees were gambling in violation of their contracts

Then [David Stern] did an investigation and found out 55 out of 58 NBA referees were gambling, going to casinos, betting on football, betting on golf, couldn't fire everybody, and immediately started to backtrack that whole thing.

James Harden travels are intentionally ignored because the NBA wants the highlights

The thing is that the NBA doesn't want that travel called. And when [James Harden] does travel, and even when it's obvious, they'll come out and say it has something to do with the gather, the Eurostep, the way the rule is written. It's just a bunch of bullshit to protect the fact that nobody called the travel.

Carmelo Anthony has been a hipster his entire career

I'm actually thinking his entire career Carmelo has been a hipster. Yeah. He dropped out of college. I went to go chill in Denver for a while got real high tried to go to New York because that's where all the Arts and stuff are happened... his greatest accomplishments all happen when he was traveling abroad.

James Harden plays worse in cities with high-quality strip clubs

A person on Reddit did a deep dive... and came to the conclusion that if James Harden is in a city with an above-average strip club, he has a bad performance on the court... Credit to him for doing the research. And it shows a statistical correlation.

Anthony Davis will sign with the Bulls in free agency next year

Anthony Davis was at like a school speaking... and he called Chicago the mecca. And he said they asked about like him coming back to Chicago to play and he said I am a free agent next year, but we will see. Door is wide open. Those are just fans already sick LeBron. Those are just facts.

Joel Embiid is the most beloved athlete in a city that hasn't won a title

I joined them bead. I threw this out there earlier. But like is there a city that loves a player more than Joel embiid is loved in Philly. ... he is Philly at this point... other than just being wildly out of shape every spring and them not being get out of second round. I don't think you can do know he can do any wrong in Philadelphia.

Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant's relationship is a Jay and Silent Bob dynamic

I kind of like that Dynamic though. It's a little Jay and Silent Bob ish, right? So you've got Kyrie that never says anything and then you got Kevin Durant that just says everything, right? Yeah, I'm fine with that. Yeah. This is sounds like it's going to be a good buddy cop type thing.

LeBron James only defended China to protect his Space Jam 2 ticket sales

LeBron is so transparent that he only wanted to say nice things about China because he wants to sell his stupid movie Space Jam 2. Space Jam 1 is better.

LeBron James' statement on China was so bad he could have claimed it was 'Opposite Day' 10 minutes later

He actually – it was such a bad statement that if he had come back and 10 minutes later been like not or like opposite day, he would have been good. He would have been good if he was like everything I said, that was a joke. I meant the opposite of that.

Zion Williamson shooting 80% in the preseason is incredibly impressive

Last three preseason games, 77 points in 81 minutes and 29 for 36 field goals, shooting 80%... 80% is pretty damn good, I would say.

Ben Simmons will hit a three-pointer in his first preseason game tonight

He has his first preseason game tonight, so we'll see if he hits one. Do you guys think he'll hit one in his first game tonight? A three-pointer? ... I think yes.

Zion Williamson won't be an explosive dunker anymore because he measured at 6'6"

Zion's on the hot seat because I don't think he's going to be able to be an explosive dunker anymore now that he measured in at 6'6".

Shaquille O'Neal won the diss track battle against Damian Lillard

The problem was that Shaq's diss track went harder and Shaq has the power of Inside the NBA... lyrical M3 time Finals MVP MVP candidate. You are not one.

LeBron James only supports NCAA likeness rights to keep elite competition out of the NBA

He wants to players to get paid. So they're more likely to stay in college the elite players so they don't come to the NBA and compete against him. That's what's really happening.

Ranking Steph Curry over Kobe Bryant all-time is crazy

Bleacher Report came out with their top 50 all-time NBA players and Kobe was 14, Steph Curry is 10... They're mad. They're real mad. They're big mad.

Super teams have always been a part of the NBA

Super teams have always been a part of the league. You know, in the 80s, Showtime, the Lakers, Robert Parrish, Larry Bird, you know, Kevin McHale. I always tell people, the Lakers had Ron Harper. Ron Harper won five championships. They don't even mention Ron Harper.

The Spurs intentionally turned off the AC during Game 1 of the 2014 NBA Finals

[Big Cat]: Do you think the Spurs intentionally turned off the AC in that final? [Bosh]: Absolutely. Of course. That's like Red Auerbach was known. If you're in Boston, the fire things that come off or whatever... I mean, he never denied it, right? But yeah, if I'm them, I'm trying to win.

LeBron James cramps more than people realize because his muscles are so dense

I knew Brian [LeBron] was going to cramp, though. Yeah, because his muscles are so dense. He cramps, like, more than you think, you know, because he's so big.

Chris Bosh earned over $31,000 for every rebound in his NBA career

Chris Bosh totaled 7,592 boards, and on the court, he earned $239,063,622. Do the math. Bam. That's more than 31 grand per rebound. Not too shabby.

The Knicks will make an Eastern Conference Finals in my lifetime

Will the Knicks make an Eastern Conference Finals in your lifetime? I'm gonna say yes, but I think I'm being too optimistic about that.

The Lakers signed Dwight Howard to be the fall guy for LeBron James

Lakers fans, no matter what happens, no matter how shitty the team plays, they're going to hate LeBron or they're going to hate Dwight more than they hate LeBron. So LeBron has a real easy fall guy to point at and Dwight Howard and then be like, we got rid of the fall guy. Now it's time for us to gel as a team.

Christmas Day is the official start of the NBA season

People start caring about the NBA on Christmas Day. That is the official start of the season. They should just start it at that point and then move on from there because, yeah, football, we own the fall.

Devin Booker complaining about double teams in open runs is a soft move

Devin Booker was mad because Joakim Noah sent a double team on them. And Devin Booker was like, hey, we don't double team and open run... it just showed maybe Devin Booker is the s word soft... what more could work on your game than having a double-team you get double-teamed in the NBA. Why wouldn't she want to be double-teamed right here?

Sebastian Telfair was going to be the greatest NBA player of all time

Sebastian Telfair Through the Wire. I watched that movie like this kid is going to be... I was like this He's skipping College like he's dominating Dwight Howard. He is going to be the greatest NBA player of all time.

Greg Oden was a better prospect than Kevin Durant

I was Big Time Greg Odin's better than Kevin Durant and I was like, how can you pass on a big man this good? I think I was probably biased because he played you know, I watched him play the Big Ten... I would have put everything on Greg Oden being that block.

Michael Porter Jr.'s spine is made of dust

My hot seat is Michael Porter Jr. You guys remember him? Remember he's in the NBA? Has yet to play a minute. His spine is made of dust.

Rich Paul is a great disruptor for challenging the NCAA establishment

The NCAA has created a new rule... any agent that wants to talk to a player... has to have a bachelor's degree. Rich Paul does not... As much as it pains me to say this, I love it. Because I love people who make the establishment super nervous. The NCAA has been just milking everyone forever. Having a disruptor in there... is great for everyone because NCAA will have to change if Rich Paul keeps disrupting.