PART 2: ESPN's defense doesn't hold up; Mailbag/Q&A

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1:10Oh boy. He always seems to get involved. Hey, I'm telling you, too many coconuts have hit him right on top of the skull. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ I think Anthony will be a great acquisition. He can do it all. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Every, who shows this? [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ 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.

2:11And you compare Pablo Tori's reporting on this and the thousands and thousands and thousands of documents that they combed 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 article 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, what Pablo has kind of done, is shown at least some of the smarter people who have been paying attention, the dumbest people

3:12on 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 scoop. 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 Shamsab 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.

4:15And 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, right? And so like hopefully what comes of all of this and hopefully what comes of the response to Mr. Van Nade's statement here, what 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

5:16centered on leagues, teams, and sports figures of significance against that of any outlet in the industry. Kindly, 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 people shows entities platforms go away ESPN magazine gone outside the lines gone. A lot of those journalists who were involved with that gone 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 and 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,

6:19when 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 that was already a thin team that is capable of mistakes, but 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 Anna has done some great reporting on his own, Ramona Wright has hit some stories on her own. Baxter obviously has hit on some stories as well.

7:19Like I'm not saying that these people have always been sus. That's not the case at all. When 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 to see how this thing actually played out. But nope, you get that. 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.

8:21The bar is open. It's Fantasy Football Happy Hour with Matthew Berry, wherever you get your podcasts. 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 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. I think he's kind of become kind of a parody himself

9:25in caricature of 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 Stu, and when that time comes first to either step aside or be ushered aside, that would be a sad day. He's had an incredible run and yeah, 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 Lakers lives. That's for damn sure. The next question here, yes, Sean Harder, my favorite stuism, the Mr. Floor is undefeated.

10:29That's, I would agree. It's a good one. I just like the way he says no, he's like my son. He's, he turns four in a few days here within a week. And 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 goes, noise. I'm going to miss Stu quite a bit. All right, so double, you writes, asks, who will make these decisions, Christian and I are, yeah, that was the point that I was trying to make in that first segment that this entire ordeal of trying to figure out what the Lakers games are going to look in sound light next year. It really kind of highlights how ridiculous the state of the organization is right now, where it's like, is it a genie that's going to be making

11:29this call because if it's heard, then they would just stick around forever. If it's a eager making the call, then maybe he goes and finds 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, what, 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

12:30because this is a prideful organization that 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 a whole last mess, man. It's not, I would love to have better news on that front for you guys, but unfortunately this is just kind of where we're at. Let's see.

13:37Mr. Math Simon, thanks for pointing out the problem. The SPN decided to release a statement 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 don't have any input in that story from the NBA or walked out, looked in 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, 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 his show today, right? That like the NBA didn't have to release the entirety of that, that report when it did. They technically could have just put together some cover letter or some general findings letter that, that summarized everything

14:41without going too far into detail in an effort to protect. The, you know, the involved parties here from, 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-stept questions about it. And, 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, and Leach's folks people, you know, basically said, you know, fuck these guys. They're gonna try to bully us into, into a conclusion here. No, get outta 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.

15:42Now if you want to take us to court and, and, and, and go into even further and deeper fact-finding missions where people have to give up their phones, you really want to do that? You know, I, something tells me ESPN to, or, well, ESPN probably doesn't want that to happen. And I'm sure the Clippers also don't necessarily want that to happen either. Uh, let's see. Um, unknown music 2175. Is there any truth to the LaRavia Bulls buzz? JK, a DK and Jake and Adil for Jalen Smith seems to make sense to me. I personally haven't heard anything on that front. Um, 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

16:46with out just cutting somebody. Um, and, and, uh, you know, like I've, I've been thinking about kind of outlining either for substacker, maybe on here or both. Um, the, 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, 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, um, 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 them become 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. Um, the Lakers have squandered a lot of shit.

17:46And, and so, uh, it, it, it is how you arrive here where it's like, yeah, I, I wouldn't hate that. Dalton and, and Jake for 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, 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, uh, 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 garners a first rounder for you. So, um, as far as the Lurevia stuff goes, like, uh, you know, or, or any of these players, like, I think the Lakers would like to hold on to, to Jake Lurevia, if it all possible, just for the, the simple fact that you played 82 games for them last year, played 20 to 25 minutes in, in those games was a real

18:48innings eater for them. And if you trade him in this deal on like a Bilo candidate, like Jalen Smith, and Jalen Smith doesn't work out, well, you just traded away your likely starting power forward for a potential project still. Now, I like, um, Jalen Smith quite a bit, but I would much rather trade Dalton and party and, you know, brawny or something like that. And a couple of second rounders for Jalen Smith, uh, just so that you keep a rotation player in house in, in Jake Lurevia. And, um, you trade away a couple of the guys who are either on the outskirts or out of the rotation altogether, um, in, in brawny and, uh, Dalton, and you bring in a player who could crack the rotation. Um, but the Lakers, uh, you know, right now we're holding on to those second round picks, like Jack held onto that door in Titanic.

19:50Um, because that's all they have. And, and so we'll, uh, we'll see how this plays out. But I, you know, the Lakers are, especially as teams start and get, start getting ready to go back to training camp. And as we get close to the, 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, uh, with the roster as it is. But I'd love to be surprised. That'd be great. Um, the, this is an interesting point. The false article from ESPN, uh, was great for the NBA when it was proven false, it dramatically increased the NBA's credibility. A lot of people thought Balmer would escape untouched. Well, I think the deal that the box seemed to have made with, um, which

20:55player am I thinking of Gary Trent Jr. The deal that the, the box made with Gary Trent Jr. felt to me, especially after we find out what kind of contract he got after the, the year or so that he was with the box. But that deal felt to me like the actions of a, of, uh, the, 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. Um, 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. Ah, shit. They got in trouble. No, no. Like I'm really curious what's going to come of that Gary Trent Jr. thing, um, because like one thing ESPN kept on hammering home is that there was no concrete evidence of, uh, you know, wrongdoing there by the Clippers

21:58as it pertained to co-I Leonard. There were no, you know, handwritten and signed notes from Steve Balmer to co-I Leonard saying, Hey, can't wait to circumvent the salary cap with you, buddy. Um, 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, um, on the part of the Clippers with co-I Leonard and his people. And so like box 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. Um, saying, Hey, Rich, uh, so we'll sign this minimum deal or, you know,

23:00if you guys, cause the Lakers were one of the teams that were in the mix for Gary Trent Jr. And they felt at the time, fairly optimistic and confident that they were going to get him. And then he signed with the bucks and, and, you know, we come to find out that the box seemed 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, um, and Gary Trent Jr. agrees to sign there. And people might be saying, well, why is 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. It's a funny joke, but it isn't enough because that could have swung the, you know, a, a game here and there or a series here and there. Who knows, you know, and so if I'm the Lakers, I'm, I'm certainly looking at the league to be like, you're going to handle that one, right?

24:01And so, um, yeah, I, 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 little 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, I do think that is a real benefit for the league moving forward. Let's see. Um, yeah, all right. I think that'll do it. Um, I think that will, uh, just about Tyus up here for the episode,

25:04um, little shorter today, but it's Wednesday, September, night. 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 get to analyze. We are right there as, as, as, as emphasized by tonight's football game, which by the way, promo code HMA on price, 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 is I can, um, hit me up on discord, Twitter, add Anthony or, uh, at Anthony Irwin L.A. And until tomorrow, when I will figure something else to talk about, have a great

26:07rest of your day. Make somebody else's non-talking. Bye everyone.