FULL: MAILBAG - Lakers game presentation changes; ESPN FINALLY speaks on Clippers reporting; Q&A

0:00Oh boy, he always seems to get involved. I'm telling you, too many coconuts are hitting him right on top of the skull. I think Anthony will be a great acquisition. I think we can do it all. Every who shows us. And we're live. Welcome everybody here to the Lakers Lounge podcast. I'm Anthony Erwin, senior Lakers Insider as well as lead Lakers content creator for Offside joined on this fine Wednesday afternoon by you guys. Today on the show, it is our weekly mail bag, mail bag episode, obviously done a little

1:00bit later on the week than usual because of the holiday earlier this week and because we had Harrison yesterday. And so here we are. Today on the show, we're going to be talking about, I've already gotten one iTunes question or iTunes review question who was asking about a game presentation. I also wanted to really quickly address very quietly, Don Van Not a junior who was one of the writers of that infamous Clippers article. He gave a statement to Puck, a kind of an internet on Bootsman type of article or platform about that story and kind of defended the reporting that was done in it and the way that it was presented and really kind of fired back at the notion that ESPN operates as a corporate PR arm for certain outlets, teams, personnel owners, whatever.

2:04So we'll talk a little bit about that if you guys are interested in it. And then really for the most part, I have to go pick up my daughter in about an hour or so. So in that time, you guys can ask me about anything that you guys want and I will answer as many questions as I can possibly answer between now and when I have to go out and pick up every from school. So that'll be kind of the premise and basis of this here episode. Please hit that like button, please hit that subscribe button. Comment, like, share, all of that good stuff. This show is brought to you here on YouTube by price picks, use that promo code HMA and get $150 worth of free price pick selections. When you sign up, use that code and win a $5 lineup of your own. Happy NFL season, by the way, kicks off a little bit later tonight looking forward to that game. We are also obviously available in podcast form. Please subscribe wherever it is that you get those podcasts preferably on Odyssey, but

3:07anywhere that you get them is perfectly fine by me. And yeah, let's go ahead and dive on in starting with the Lakers game presentation, which starting this year and then certainly over the next couple of years is going to start looking and sounding very, very different. So first and foremost, here's what we know, right? What we definitely know is that Lawrence Tanner has opted for retirement and will no longer be the Lakers public address announcer there in the arena. He was the guy who had those dulcet tones and two minutes left. That kind of stuff called out travels and calls and substitutions and stuff. So the game, if you're going to a game, we know that that is going to sound different. I haven't heard or frankly really looked into who his replacement is going to be. What kind of complicates who that replacement might be is that we don't know who's calling

4:11the shots. Like the Lakers have or the league has governors board meetings next week, I believe, and we don't know who the Lakers are going to be sending. And why that matters because when Mark Walter was primary owner of the Lakers in terms of percentage shares that were owned, when he was the owner, he had Lon Rosen going in and firing everybody. Lon Rosen was making huge sweeping and frankly unpopular changes to the non basketball side of the organization. One such change is that he, I'm told, wanted to modernize the way that the Lakers games sounded. He was really kind of pretty right.

5:12Let's just go in and there and making a bunch of changes. We already saw that Mike Trudell who used to write the Lakers schedule breakdown for NBA.com and for Lakers.com. He no longer does that. All of Lakers' digital basically was just completely wrecked by some of those decisions. And then because of the wishy, washy nature of Lakers ownership over the last couple of the years, a lot of those positions have remained unfilled and a lot of that content has suffered as a result of it. You look at the Lakers Twitter account and it is still very bare bones and there isn't really like a consistent voice or theme to those tweets and stuff like that in social media posts. Everybody right now in the organization is all kind of looking around at each other and like what they're already a thin group as it is that is asked frequently to do where

6:20several hats and with it being just gutted to the extent that Lakers digital has been gutted since Mark Walter bought the team and since Lon Rosen started gutting all of those things. And now that those positions have remained unfilled, you're looking at and already bare bones, Lakers' digital operation that is now all the thinner. Drink up baby, fantasy football happy hour is here to get you wins and have some laughs. Matthew Berry here and my podcast, fantasy football happy hour, has the sleepers bust and start to advice you need to win your league. We're diving into the tape, we're crunching the numbers to bring you sleepers, bust weekly start to advice whether you're defending a title or desperately avoiding last place, I've got you covered every single weekday. The bar is open, it's fantasy football happy hour with Matthew Berry wherever you get your podcasts. So and then on top of that, what I had heard under Mark Walter was that the plan was

7:23for Billy Mac and Stu to basically look at this season as their retirement tour in the booth, might even see them part time in the booth as the Lakers try out their replacements live on the air. There is going to be other changes to Lakers broadcast that you're going to feel as well that I can't quite get into right now. But yeah, the Lakers are going to look and sound in terms of their game presentation, whether that's in the arena or watching on TV. That's going to be very, very different next year. And some of those changes, we might enjoy some of them, we're going to be kind of blind side of buy and wonder why we are getting those changes. And yeah, it's kind of a mess. Like spectrum is kind of in flux right now with some of the hosts who do or do not have jobs or don't know if they have jobs and they have, you know, at the end of last year,

8:26we had seen a real kind of adjustment towards former players being presented in post game and pre game duties, whereas before you would have somebody like Mike Breznahan as a regular part of those things. And that's another change that I've kind of heard some rumblings about. You know, his role at spectrum, having changed significantly as well. So yeah, we'll kind of have to just wait and see what this is actually going to look like and what makes all of this even more complicated is that in the matter of 14, 15, 16 months or whatever it's been, you've had, you know, the prior leadership under Jeannie Bus and she was somebody who was very comfortable in maintaining the status quo with Lakers presentation. She wanted to abide a lot of the traditions that her dad had outlined to her and to her

9:30siblings. And so a lot like not much was really changing anytime soon with that stuff. Then you had to mark Walter, sail and obviously Lon Rosen comes in and changes everything that he can. And you have, you have the sail from Mark Walter to Bob Eiger and Josh Kushner and they don't really know right now who was going to be representing the Lakers at the governor, Board of Governors meetings next week. And it's just kind of a mess. And so like nobody really knows how this is going to look by the way, the first pre season game is less than a month away. I know that I kind of freak out a little bit about like, hey, you guys still have some adjustments to the roster that you actually have to make before we get to the preseason and training camp and that stuff. But a lot of this, like what the Lakers are going to look and sound like, kind of want

10:31that ironed out a little bit before, you know, the weeks prior to these games actually getting underway. So, you know, I would imagine we're going to find out more definitively on a lot of these fronts in short order. I would hope so at least, but I would expect, you know, and I would warn those of you who are watching, Lakers are going to look and sound very, very different next year. So we'll see. And like, look, I see people saying that it's going to be Kushner who's going to be representing the Lakers. Maybe the thing is, Iger and Kushner, Iger specifically, had said that so long as Jeannie and her family maintained enough percentage ownership in the Lakers that they would abide the prior agreement between Jeannie and Mark Walter, where Jeannie would remain the governor

11:32for the next five years, you know, at the time of their striking ideal, which, you know, we'd gone through one year of already. We have four more years of that left if this continues. The big shakeup obviously is that the other bus siblings sold the Lakers to Iger and Kushner out from under Jeannie, but that is now being held up in court by way of the documents that Jeannie and her lawyers have already filed. And by the way, that original court date, which was going to be in early November, that's already been pushed back to December now. And again, you have board of governor's meetings next week, which I don't know who is going to be representing the Lakers at those meetings. If you're Jeannie, do you want to maintain a strong face and go and try to represent the Lakers there as you fight to maintain that governorship in the courts?

12:36If you're Iger or Kushner, do you talk to Silver and be like, we got to get some kind of clarity on this before the season starts, right? Right? Right? I don't know how this is going to go. So this is just one of several things that are all kind of held up right now by way of Jeannie and her siblings squabbling over the 15 percentage points that are 15 to 17, whatever the official number is, that they previously owned and then tried to sell to Iger and Kushner. And once we get some clarity there, I guess maybe we'll get a little bit more clarity on some of these decisions, whether it's basketball facing, whether it's basketball presentation, whether it's business decisions and stuff like that. I guess we just have to wait and see. I mean, the sale isn't even official yet, right? It's supposed to be voted on at these board of governor meetings next week. And then at that time, if Iger and Kushner are voted in, which the expectation I would

13:43assume is going to be the case, like that they will be voted in, at that time, will be get more, like I would imagine that will be the first opportunity for us to get some clarity on what these agreements are going to be because those other governors, these other owners of these other teams are going to want to know who's calling shots when it comes time to call y'all for trades who has final say on this stuff. So yeah, it's a bit of a mess, but I do think that the Lakers are going to look and sound incredibly different next year. And then certainly in the years to come, I would be pretty kind of surprised if Billy Mack and Stu Lance were the play by play and color commentator for the Lakers games after the season. All right, let's go ahead and dive into another kind of ambiguous response to a weird story. And that is ESPN.

14:45Now remember, ESPN releases an article that was written by Don Van Aude, Jr. Baxter Holmes, Ramona Shelburn, and originally Sean's Qurania. Sean was on, he was in the tweet that Baxter Holmes sent when they released that article. And it looks like ESPN removed Sean's byline from that article, right? So obviously, what happens right after that article, which the headline was something along the lines of NBA finds no evidence of capture convention by the Clippers. And they were, you know, the article went through links and links and links to explain why the Clippers were getting ready to get off Scotch free. The NBA then immediately releases a statement, refuting a lot of that article, Mike Bass,

15:52in typical Mike Bass fashion said, go bleep yourselves. That's not what's going on here unofficially. And then obviously, we come to find out that the league comes down really, really hard on the Clippers, docking them five first round picks, finding them $30 million, suspending Steve Baumer a year, suspending Lawrence Frank six months. And he only got that suspension because he cooperated with the investigation as well as the other executive who also got either a year or two years suspension from her duties with the Clippers as well. And so yeah, what you have now is a lot of people calling out ESPN wondering like what the hell is going on? How do you release an article that you admit in the article contains zero feedback or input from the NBA

16:55and was only told from the Clippers standpoint. Several other media outlets have since, you know, traditional media outlets have pointed out some of the conflicts of interest at play there have called into question the integrity of that article and of the journalist behind that article. And ESPN has remained very, very quiet zero editorial feedback from ESPN officially on that article. And the this Orrin puck is is or John Orrin who writes for puck, which is a newsletter about kind of the media industry received an email from Don Van Nouda, Jr. One of the again writers of that article and in that email received to this point what is the only official or even pseudo

18:00official statement from ESPN or anyone from ESPN on the matter. So I'll start with let's see. All right. He writes, I'm not going to read the whole whole thing, but still I'll read a chunk of it. Quote given the sensitive and impactful nature of the topics we explore and investigate, we understand the scrutiny that comes with our reporting. That's why we take such care, scrutinizing ourselves throughout a multi layer process involving experienced editors, reporters and leadership leadership was, uh, capitalized for some reason. For this particular story and the most important test in our view is how our August 17 story holds up against the findings ultimately released in the walk tell report more than two weeks later. Accuracy is critical and we hold ourselves to the highest standard. We believe readers who judge the facts of our August 17 story against the specifics released in the report two weeks

19:01later will see that we accurately reflected the status and direction of the NBA's investigation at the time of publishing. And so that is where we're starting to get a sense of the spin or the defense of that article was, well, that's what we knew at the time. And to to that point, I would just ask a relatively straightforward follow up, which is hi, yeah, Don, yeah, one quick sec. How'd you take in more time and say, I don't know, gotten input from the NBA on this story or for this story, do you think by the time in, you know, in that gap, that two week gap between your article and when the NBA officially punished the clippers that you could have maybe written a different version of this, a more updated version of this, a more balanced even version of this that would have actually more accurately reflected the actual outcome to the article, not

20:06the outcome or the outcome that you foresaw at the time of that article. And this is a thing. And look, to the to the meager extent that I do reporting here, I always try to say that, you know, like, for example, I'm sure I'm going to get questions over the course of this episode about what I think is going to happen with the Lakers roster from here until training camp and then, you know, by the time we get to the NBA season, when it has to be trimmed down from the 16 guaranteed contracts that it currently has to the 15 guaranteed contracts that it can legally carry going into the season. And I will say whenever I do any kind of reporting that this is what I know as of right now and things are going to change between now and when the Lakers finally pull the trigger on whatever move that they're getting ready to do. And now I would also point out that

21:12what the Lakers are thinking about doing with Jaden Hardy or Dalton Connect or Bronny James or whoever they wind up cutting or trading to get down to that 15 number, what like that holds that when it comes to importance compared to ESPN reporting the direction of one of the most important cases in recent NBA history, it kind of pales in comparison. The other thing I would also point out is when you have a platform like ESPN and Don Ben, not a road, you know, kind of touched on this at the beginning of a statement, when you have a platform as large as ESPN that is looked at or was previously looked at carried the reputation previously of the height of sports reporting

22:14or journalism, whatever you want to call it, when you have a platform that is placed on the pedestal or has placed itself on that pedestal, there's a lot more writing on what these people reported than Joe Blowblogger over here, right? Now one day I hope to arrive at a place where I am held to and I try to hold myself to as high as standard as I can possibly be held to, but it is different when it is like this guy says in Army of Editors, allegedly, leadership with a Capitol L and three, I think four, reporters who all have their own sourcing, right? And so this whole notion of, well, see, this is what we wrote at the time and that's what we thought was true at the time. Well, yeah, but the thing about accurate journalism is it supposed

23:18to stand the test of time. The thing about accurate journalism and balanced journalism is that it is supposed to, when, you know, years down the road, you know, when you look back at stories and the way that they were reported on, you look back at them and say, damn, that was really accurate and clear and thorough reporting that X or Y platform did for the case of this specific story that Pablo Tori and his team did and you compare Pablo Tori's reporting on this and the thousands and thousands and thousands of documents that they comb through and, you know, hundreds of sources that they spoke to from all kinds of backgrounds to eventually compile the story to the extent that they did. You compare that to an ESPN article that in the middle of the

24:21article explicitly states that the NBA did not have input on this article like that's how ESPN tarnished its own legacy and the way that we are going to look at it moving forward compared to how we're going to look at Pablo Tori and his team moving forward. And by the way, you know, and I messaged him this the other day, this is, I think Pablo, Pablo who's kind of done is shown at least some of the smarter people who have been paying attention, the dumbest people on the internet are calling him a snitch. But what Pablo's story has shown is the extent to which journalism in sports has just fallen off of a cliff because it's all access reporting. It's all favor reporting. It's so much of it is, well, I'll say this on your behalf so that I can get the next

25:22scoop. And Pablo's report has at every turn been, no, this is reality. This is what's actually gone on. No, I don't expect to break any kind of story on the Clippers eventual trade of co-I Leonard to the Toronto Raptors, which Shamseb was going to happen in a matter of days. We are now a week or so removed from it. And that trade still hasn't gone through. And so like what Pablo's reporting and what this entire ordeal has I hope highlighted for a lot of people is the significantly higher standard that we have to hold reporters to myself included. And so hopefully what comes of all of this and hopefully what comes of the response to Mr. Van Nade's statement here,

26:25what hopefully what comes of it is people notice, well, hold on, hold on. You can't just hide behind the fact that facts or situations change as a defense of poor journalism. That's not an applicable defense. You got to be better at your job because at no point in this article is it ever is like sorry, mentioned I don't think. You know, ESPN takes great pride in its commitment to investigative reporting. We'll put our track record of impactful stories centered on leagues, teams, and sports figures of significance against that of any outlet in the industry. Finally, sir, go fuck yourself because all you're doing right now is hiding behind the actual journalistic reputation that ESPN did at one point work really hard to abide by. But what you've seen at ESPN is a lot of those

27:25people shows entities platforms go away ESPN the magazine gone outside the lines gone. A lot of those journalists who were involved with that gone even even around the horn, which was supposed to give you in a quick glance at localized reporting all over the nation. That's also gone. They sacrificed all of that for the Church of McAfee in Stephen A Smith. And what you arrive at when you got, just like we just talked about here with the Lakers and their digital team, when you got so many of these teams that already were operating in the Lakers case at a real deficit because the Lakers weren't investing enough into those teams and other non-basketball player commodities. Like what you arrive at is, you know, that was already a thin team that is capable of mistakes,

28:28but still did great work. Now when you got those teams even further, you get statements like this where it's like, yeah, we will hold our reputation, the reputation of the Bob Lee's. And Publatory who previously reported for ESPN, that reputation that was earned through all of that hard work. That by the way, like Don Van Auna has done some great reporting on his own, Ramona, right, has hit some stories on her own. Baxter, obviously, it has hit on some stories as well. Like, I'm not saying that these people have always been sus. That's not the case at all. What I'm saying is, when you fuck up to the extent that you did, you can't sidestep criticism with, well, that's what we thought at the time. And also, well, our reputation from years on by, we'll stand by that reputation. No, at some point you got to take some accountability and be like, you know what, we probably should have talked to the NBA. Or maybe we should have waited

29:30to see how this thing actually played out. But nope, you get that. All right, let's see. Let's go up to the first question that I see here. Sir Terrence Williams, we trying to replace Stu now. Yeah, it's kind of a bummer how this is the thing about Stu is he missed large chunks of last season. He is certainly not young. And, you know, he commutes all the way from San Diego to LA for Lakers games, something that is honestly kind of insane for somebody at his age to do. So I think whether it was Lon Rosen forcing him and Billy Mac out the door eventually, whether it was Stu Lance stepping aside of his own accord, I think eventually like Stu Lance was probably going to stop calling games. And I'm going to miss him whenever he isn't calling games anymore.

30:33I think he's kind of become kind of a parody himself in caricature himself and in some stretches. But I still think he can fire a fastball when he needs to. And he's a Lakers legend, man. I grew up listening to Chick and Stu. And, you know, when that time comes for Stu to either step aside or be ushered aside, that would be a sad day. He's had an incredible run and, yeah, you know, I don't think they'll retire his microphone or anything like that. Maybe he's been around long enough and he's called enough meaningful games. I think for them to really consider it. But he's a central figure to a lot of our childhoods and and Lakers lives. That's for that's for damn sure. The next question here, yes, Sean Harder, my favorite stuism, the Mr. Floor is undefeated.

31:40That's I would agree. It's a good one. I just like the way he says noise. Like my son, he's he turns four in a few days here within a week. And he he started saying when he says mine, he goes, it's mowing. It's mowing. And whenever he says that, one, Jen and I laugh really hard. But I also hear Stu noise. I'm going to miss Stu quite a bit. All right. So double you writes asks, who will make these decisions? Kirsten Eiger? Yeah, that was the point that I was trying to make in that in that first segment that this entire ordeal of trying to figure out what the Lakers games are going to look in sound like next year. It really kind of highlights how ridiculous the state of the organization is right now where it's like is a genie that's going to be making this call because if it's heard,

32:43then they would just stick around forever. If it's Eiger making the call, then maybe he goes and find some ESPN talent that he previously liked. If it's Walter and Lon Rosen making the call, then you get the axe to a whole bunch of people with seemingly not much plan on the other side of it to to prep for what comes next after you fire people. And yeah, you have a Lakers organization right now that are all kind of looking at each other going like, okay, sure. You know, like the number of people that I've spoken to who have just kind of like chuckled when I ask very simple follow-up questions to the situations there. It's just like, you know, it's this sad kind of begrudging acceptance laugh that is really kind of a bummer to hear because this is a prideful organization

33:47that in many ways, you know, back when Dr. Bus was running things really kind of built out what modern day basketball should look and sound like. And this organization has just kind of gathered cobwebs in the decades since. And then now you arrive at an opportunity to help revolutionize or further revolutionize how Lakers games are going to look and sound. And we have no idea who's going to be making those decisions or what the let alone what those decisions are going to be. So yeah, it's it's it's a whole last mess man. It's it's it's it's not I would love to have better news on that on that front for you guys. But unfortunately, this is just kind of where we're at. Let's see. Mr. Math Simon, thanks for pointing out the problem. The SPN decided to release a

34:54statement claiming that the NBA found nothing wrong when they did not get a response from the NBA. Why even release that news? Well, this is the thing. You said ESPN said that they they don't have any input in that story from the NBA or walked out lifting or whatever. Like it was just some anonymous sourcing that sounded like Lee Jenkins or Lawrence Frank or Steve Balmer being handed a pen to to you know, lash out at the NBA for this investigation. And then you know, the NBA does release like they didn't Pablo said this on on his show today, right? That like the NBA didn't have to release the entirety of that at that report when it did they technically could have just put together some cover letter or some general findings letter that that summarized everything without going too far into detail in an effort to protect the you know, the involved parties here

36:02from you know, taking reputational hits. And you look at some of the parties that did take reputational hits, right? We talked about ESPN. We talked about how Balmer seems to have lied at every turn throughout all of this. And Lawrence Frank has lied on the mic about this stuff too. Or very clearly side-step questions about it. And so the NBA could have protected those parties, but I think in no small part because of ESPN's article there, I think Adam Silver and Leag's folks folks people you know, basically said, you know, fuck these guys. They're going to try to bully us into into a conclusion here. No, get out of here with that. Here's what you guys actually did. Here's what we presented you when we came to you to try to land on a settlement with all of this stuff. Now if you want to take us to court and go into even further and deeper fact-finding missions where people have to give up their phones, you really want to do that.

37:07You know, something tells me ESPN, or ESPN probably doesn't want that to happen. And I'm sure the Clippers also don't necessarily want that to happen either. Let's see. Unknown music 2175. Is there any truth to the LaRavia Bulls buzz? JK, DK and Jake and Adil for Jalen Smith seems to make sense to me. I personally haven't heard anything on that front. All that I've heard is that the Lakers are continuing, you know, some conversations with teams around the league to try to find some way somehow to make their roster legal without just cutting somebody. And I've been thinking about kind of outlining either for Substacker, maybe on here,

38:08both the assets that the Lakers have lost for nothing over the years. And you know, use that to paint a picture at how the Lakers arrive here where they have a team that, yeah, they probably paid commensurate prices for each individual piece on this team, but they don't have very much outside of what they spent to build this roster to improve it if it needs to be improved on. And like if you just go through the years, right, of players at the Lakers of Lofts for nothing who either were valuable at the time or let alone became valuable down the road, or like assets that were valuable at the time. And because of the Lakers, the decisions that the Lakers made with those assets, they became less valuable. The Lakers have squandered a lot of shit. And so it is how you arrive here where it's like, yeah, I wouldn't hate that. Dalton and Jake

39:09for Jalen Smith would be an interesting flyer on a, you know, kind of smaller center high motor guy, like I kind of like Jalen Smith, I wouldn't hate the move. But the Lakers might be reluctant to make that move because we'll shoot. Do we have to include a second rounder? We only have a couple of those. Any move that would theoretically take a first round pick, you can't even discuss those trades until the end of the season for the most part without selling off a player who hopefully garner a first rounder for you. So as far as the LaRavia stuff goes like, you know, or any of these players, like I think the Lakers would like to hold on to Jake LaRavia if it all possible, just for the simple fact that you played 82 games for them last year, played 20 to 25 minutes in those games was a real innings eater for them. And if you trade him in this deal on like a biolo candidate like Jalen Smith and Jalen Smith doesn't work out, well, you just traded away your

40:10likely starting power forward for a potential project still. Now I like Jalen Smith quite a bit, but I would much rather trade Dalton and party and, you know, Bronny or something like that. And couple of second rounders for Jalen Smith just so that you keep a rotation player in house in in Jake LaRavia. And you trade away a couple of the guys who are either on the outskirts for out of the rotation altogether in Bronny and Dalton and you bring in a player who could crack the rotation. But the Lakers, you know, right now we're holding on to those second round picks like Jack held onto that door in Titanic because that's all they have. And so we'll see how this plays out. But I, you know, the Lakers are especially as teams start getting ready to go back to training camp and

41:15as we get close to the training camps actually launching and preseason games let alone the actual official games, we'll get some clarity on what the Lakers roster will finally look like. I have a feeling it'll probably just be waving one of those guys and then going into the season with it with the roster as it is, but I'd love to be surprised. That'd be great. This is an interesting point. The false article from ESPN was great for the NBA when it was proven false that dramatically increased the NBA's credibility. A lot of people thought Balmer would escape untouched. Well, I think the deal that the Bucks seemed to have made with which player am I thinking of Gary Trent Jr. The deal that the Bucks made with Gary Trent Jr. felt to me, especially

42:15after we find out what kind of contract he got after the year so that he was with the Bucks. But that deal felt to me like the actions of a desperate organization that is doing whatever it could to continue to build a roster around Janus before he told them he wants to leave. But it also felt to me like a team that looked at that Clippers investigation and decided it would gamble on the fact that the Clippers seemed likely to skate by on that only to then find out, oh, shit, they got in trouble? No. No. I'm really curious what's going to come of that Gary Trent Jr. thing because like one thing ESPN kept on hammering home is that there was no concrete evidence of you know wrongdoing there by the Clippers as it pertained to Kauai Leonard. There were no you know handwritten and signed notes from Steve Baumer to Kauai Leonard saying, hey,

43:21can't wait to circumvent the salary cap with you buddy. Like there wasn't any of that concrete evidence but there was enough circumstantial evidence with no other possible explanation for that situation then illegal activity or suspect activity on the part of the Clippers with Kauai Leonard and his people. And so like Bucks fans might be sitting there saying, well hopefully our team wasn't dumb enough to write in an email or sign some kind of contract between them and Gary Trent Jr. that was at all traceable to either party. Saying, hey, Rich, so we'll sign this minimum deal or you know if you guys because the Lakers were one of the teams that were in the Mixford Gary Trent Jr. and they felt at the time fairly optimistic and confident that they were going to get them and then he signed with the Bucks and you know we come to find out that the Bucks

44:27seemed to have allegedly promised him, hey if you signed with us here's the contract that you would get as soon as we could possibly give it to you. And Gary Trent Jr. agrees to sign there and people might be saying, well why does it matter like how much of a difference does Gary Trent Jr. make? You know isn't the punishment, isn't that contract punishment enough for that Gary Trent Jr. situation? And I get it so funny joke but it isn't enough because that could have swung the you know a game here and there or a series here and there who knows you know and so if I'm the Lakers I'm certainly looking at the league to be like you're going to handle that one right and so yeah I agree with with the intellect here who kind of points this out that this does and at least as far as Adam Silver's relationship with teams and owners that he can maybe control a

45:31little bit easier than the players union because Kawaii Leonard did get off way too easy but at least in this sense the the reputation of the league which was at risk if the Clippers had skated on this it is it does kind of remain intact and I do think that is a real benefit for the league moving forward. Let's see yeah all right I think that'll do it. I think that will just about tie us up here for the episode um little shorter today but it's Wednesday September 9th we are right around the corner from these you know from from from training camp practices and reports coming out of that more information on the Lakers roster actual preseason games that we

46:34get to analyze we are right there as as as emphasized by tonight's football game which by the way promo code hma on price bix if you want to make a couple selections there um so yeah I'm going to go ahead and and end this thing here um and then release this in the morning and podcast form so please hit that like button please hit that subscribe button turn on notifications for the show and for YouTube so you get the notifications to the show continue to comment here I'm doing as much as I can to reply to as many comments that I see here in the chat or in the comment section after the fact as I can um hit me up on discord twitter adentoniora at antoniora when l a and until tomorrow when I will figure something else to talk about have a great rest of your day make somebody else's