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14. The Rockets Streak - The Kings Blow - Hayward the Coward - Ball Family Roundup

Greg: Hello and welcome to another episode of double drivel. We are a weekly podcast offering a fan's perspective on the news and issues surrounding the NBA. Thank you for joining us. My name is Greg and as always I'm joined by my co-host JT. You can find us on twitter @Doubledrivelers or email us at doubledrivelpodcast@gmail.com. JT what up my friend?

JT: Good morning Greg. I like this morning edition. I feel energized. I got my juice and it’s great.

Greg: t's a rare occasion when we're both wide awake. It's nice and early, and we’re starting the day with NBA.

JT: Let's do it.

Greg: We got some good stories this week. We got the Rockets kicking some serious ass at the moment. We have the Kings absolutely blowing. We got a Gordon Hayward update, and there’s always a Lavar Ball story. We're gonna start with the Rockets. They are killing it 22 and 4. I think we'd like that for our teams. If we were to talk about the Jazz and the Hornets at 22 and 4 we would be strutting around pretty good at the moment. They're playing great.

JT: They're playing pretty good. Chris Paul's back from injury. Did you see that little dribbling tantrum he threw the other night? Reminded me of that little thing you used to say to me, “what would you do if you could dribble like Chris Paul for 24 hours?” Would you just walk down the street getting nasty? Just cross people up on the sidewalk?

Greg: They seem to be the best team in the league.

JT:: They are looking a little crisper than the Warriors in my opinion. They will most likely be playing them for the Western Conference Finals. Do you like Washington? Have you watched many of the Rockets games?

Greg: I don't think I've watched a whole one I've seen parts of a couple. I never liked watching Rockets. I don't like James Harden I never enjoyed watching the Clippers either.

JT: Are you are you unable to watch players that you don't like?

Greg: It's not that I'm unable to, I just get so, as the kids would say, salty. I don't enjoy it. I don't like the Warriors but I enjoy watching them more than the Rockets. When the Warriors are really popping they're a lot of fun to watch. I don't feel the same way with the Rockets.

JT:  I don't know if I agree with that. It doesn’t makes much sense.

Greg: It doesn't have to make sense. I'm telling you I don't think it’s enjoyable to watch the Warriors, but they're certainly more fun to watch than the Hornets. The Rockets are playing great basketball on both ends too. I don't I have no hate against them. Their best lineups are with Chris Paul and James Harden not on the floor together. That's deadly. The second unit that has Chris Paul in it, that's amazing. In the NBA you'll tear teams up, and they've been winning. They got an 11 game winning streak going, and they've been winning by an average of 17 points. I know this because I watched them torch the Hornets the other night. Beaten by 24 points. It's just gross.

JT:  Before the season started Greg we talked about what the Rockets might look like with Chris Paul. Do you remember which one of us predicted that he would lead a second unit?

Greg: It was probably you.

JT: It was me. You know which one of us insisted that he would not come off the bench because the guy-

Greg: No no-

JT: It's either you or me.

Greg: It was definitely me, but the fact that he was injured helped. When he was coming back they could ease him into it, and he could get the taste for what he could do.

JT: So you make it like it's his decision?

Greg: That's where I think that went. I don't think if you told him he was starting on the bench he would like it.

JT: I don't think that would go over well with me. I don't know how that's gonna go over with him.

Greg: A lot of speculation, I love speculation. Chris Paul, good for him, he’s playing great. We will get on to your boy Gordon Hayward. You should just take the lead on Mr. Hayward. I know it's got a special place in your heart.

JT: Hayward's out of his walking boot because his ankle snapped. He got injured, which is a significant step in the healing process. The Jazz will be playing the Celtics tonight in Boston. Guess who's not gonna go to the game Greg?

Greg: Hayward’s not gonna go.

JT: Hayward’s not gonna go to the game. He's not gonna go to support his team and be there on the bench. The fans like to see that he's not gonna do it because he's a fucking cupcake and he's gonna avoid controversy. He did say that he hopes that the Celtics win by 40. Dude, how hard do you want us to hate you? How hard? A lot of people are gonna hate you a little bit more because of this. Why would you say that? No one ever says anything like that. People have left teams on horrible terms and didn't say they hope they win by 40.

Greg: It's pretty lowbrow, but he's kind of a douche bag, so that's what we should expect from here on in. It occurred to me when you said that he wasn't joining his team at the game, does he really have a team or is he just playing with a bunch of other people? He had a team, but he didn't seem to really care much about them, and now he's in Boston and he still seems to be all about

Himself. He's really making this about him, when he should be attending the game, especially if he's out of a boot. He should be in a suit on the sidelines like everybody else that's injured.

JT: He’s making himself special yet again. He’s making you hundreds of thousands of dollars per game. He could at least put on a monkey suit and sit there.

Greg: What about the fans that he allegedly cares about in the new city? He could be signing autographs before the game, and every night after the game. There's a lot of things that you can do injured. You can endear yourself to your new people in your new community, but that doesn't seem to be his deal. He seems to be all about himself.

JT: Suck it Hayward!

Greg: Another guy who left the Jazz and not doing as well-

JT: He's doing better than his leg exploding, but he's not doing that greatest.

Greg:  -George Hill, who was on the Sacramento Kings. The Kings are a steaming pile of a team. They walked into this season with their game plan. Zeebo, who was fresh off a drug charge, Vince Carter, who's got to be 50 at this point, and George Hill. They were gonna contend in the West.

JT:  Yeah, they said playoff team.

Greg: Everything I've just said in the past 30 seconds is delusional, absolutely delusional. Did you watch George Hill for an entire season and actually like him?

JT: He played very well in Utah. He was a great player last year, but the Jazz got him from Indiana, where he was playing alongside Paul George. The Pacers fans were ready to see him leave. He showed disinterest as the season went on, and came to Utah. He seemed like a great fit because we were in need of veterans at the point guard position. He brought a particular set of skills that aligned nicely with the Jazz.

Greg: He was awarded Western Conference Player of the Week the first week of last season.

JT: I saw him hit a half-court buzzer beater in person in Utah, very exciting. We were calling him St. George for a while. He had only signed a one-year deal with Utah. Everyone knew when the season was over we were gonna be left with “will he stay will he go?” This guy wants a lot of fucking money, let's put that out there first. He wants premiere dollars to play for you, a king's ransom. The Jazz offered him a pretty fat contract. He thought he could make more if he went and played the market himself. He does that, the Jazz go to the playoffs, and George Hill doesn't play great. In fact, he did not play because of a seemingly minor injury. This was a popular theme in the playoffs for the Jazz last year, but I digress. George Hill thinks he can make more so he came at his agent. His agent doesn't represent anyone else in the NBA, which is usually not a good thing. They're looking for a lot of money, and no one's picking him up. These guys want to make a lot of money, but they also want to play on teams that can compete. He signs a deal with the Kings Greg, and he left about thirty million dollars on the table in Utah. He signs a three-year 59 million

dollar deal with the Kings. That sets the stage for last week when George Hill tweeted 26 mad emoji faces.

Greg: He's salty because the Kings can't win a game. How you gonna win a game bro? Zeebo, Vince Carter and Rudy, probably their best player, got traded away last year. He got no bookie. He's gone too! Who's winning these games? Why are you salty? You're delusional. You're crazy. It makes no sense.

JT: I'm glad the Kings are shitty. It keeps ticket prices down. I can pay like ten dollars to sit courtside and watch the Jazz fucking bend them over.

Greg: That's the best, but that's a problem. Vince Carter's got to be tired. He spends all day chasing strange kids around. It's gotta be exhausting.

JT: Not much juice for the Kings. I see them being a shitty team for a while, and maybe even sold.

Greg: Are they considered your local team or is that the Warriors?

JT: The Warriors are closer, it's gross.

Greg: Oh yeah.

JT: You go south 35 minutes. I could pay $200 for a nosebleed, or I go two hours north west and spend $20 to sit very close. I think I'll take the Sleep Train arena. Sleep Train arena looks pretty good. They redid it quite a bit. It has that amphitheater open-air vibe now. It's different than when you were there last.

Greg: I'll have to go back for very low low prices one of these days. Another story we have is Mr. LaVar. I know they're not your favorite family, but God I enjoy the antics of the Ball family. I'm a sucker for it. He has taken his children, one out of high school, one out of UCLA. He took him out of UCLA, but UCLA was happy to let him go after the whole incident in China, The shoplifting and all the unpleasantness. He moved both of his sons to where else but the Lithuanian league. It's not even the big city in Lithuania, it's a smaller Lithuanian league.

JT: What's going on here? What's up? What the hell is going on? Who takes their 16 and 19 year old son and 86 any idea of Education? That's number one done? The last thing on earth that matters is these kids getting educated, now let's get to Lithuania and burn fucking bridges everywhere. You go this guy with this family not even talking about Lonzo and his struggles in the NBA,

but you're going to the new Vitas team?

Greg: I figured I'd leave that one to you. In the esteemed Lithuanian professional basketball team what could go wrong?

JT: What could go wrong? Plenty could go wrong shit head. This is a bad idea. It's a bad idea to put your kids in a small market Euroleague when they're pretty much blacklisted from major universities. Pro scouts don't give a shit about these two.

Greg: The younger one has potential but the 19 year old is nothing. He's really bringing down the 16 year-old to bring up the 19 year old here which is terrible. He should cut his losses with the

middle one. You can't have three NBA players. You’re better off shooting for two and hope for the best. He tainted them already with the sneaker contracts. The NCAA wasn't gonna go anywhere near him. The NCAA doesn't want anything to do with the Ball family now.

JT: That's a win for the dirty NCAA, finding someone even worse than them that they don't want to be around or have anything to do with.

Greg: It is kind of amazing to me. As this story was unfolding this ball guy he must have frequent flyer miles like nobody's business. Who's with the kids in Lithuania?

JT: Their mom is with them.

Greg: You don't hear anything about her. Maybe Chi lays low, but she's the only smart one in the family. The kids are in Lithuania but he's still back here in the states criticizing Luke Walton. He's getting rooms changed there's a room that all the family can go into before and after the game, and they can meet with the players and talk to them and not be surrounded by other people. He's apparently ruined that for people too. They don't want him in that room anymore because he drags the press in with him and makes it a whole circus. He's burning every bridge. The other player's parents and family, the NBA, the NCAA, and soon enough the Lithuanian League are not gonna want anything to do with him.

JT: What's the path from here? What if the other two kids are screwed after this?

Greg: He's gonna fall by the wayside. He's gonna have three players, two could've beens and one should have been.

JT: That might be a best-case scenario. What if Lonzo doesn't get right? What if he doesn't become the premier player that people are saying?

Greg: He just seems like a point guard that doesn't shoot well. He's got the rest of his life to work on that if he really wants to. There's a lot of people who have spent off seasons just working on their shooting and really turned their shit around. He's getting comfortable in the league. There's people who looked a lot worse than him. By next year there should be a level of comfort. If he doesn't get his shooting together that's gonna be a problem.

JT: He looks so disinterested Greg. He doesn't seem to have much love for the game. He's never had to speak a word about anything. He's had his father like a bullhorn stuck to the side of his head since he was born.

Greg: When he played in college it was the same thing. That guy got torched in the finals.

JT: In the finals?

Greg: In the NCAA playoff, yeah. Moving on to the NBA was just the next thing. No emotion like you said.

JT: That type of mentality will show itself in a few years. When you're 19 years old and you have that spring in your step it's one thing. As you get a little bit older, and you go through these 82 game seasons, if you don't have some part of the game that you attach to and like, whether it's the competition or just the traveling, something other than the money, that's gonna show. That's gonna put you in a different category of players. You're gonna be a multi-millionaire, you're gonna be set, your kids are be set, but as far as NBA legacy goes he doesn't care. I'm trying to think of a player for an example as to who he might end up like, but it's hard. It's so different now. It's a different crop of players that we see. I can't think of anyone.

Greg: I don't remember a lot of guys that completely checked out from when we were little like. There were guys going through the motions, but none seemed like they weren’t playing hard. Back then you kind of had to be into it or else you were you taking elbows. Barkley was roughing people up down low and the Pistons were nasty. You really had to be into that shit because you were gonna get hurt if you weren't paying attention.

JT: I miss those old days.

Greg: All right JT let's end the show with something fun. AOL Instant Messenger went down today. We both have a lot of love for AOL Instant Messenger. This isn't exactly directly NBA related, but you're going to make it that way.

JT: It was one of the first things that we had as computer users back in the day. We could communicate in a text-based way that wasn't dorky or IRC or something. Regular people were going to use it. It was a regular awesome chat. There were favorite lists and all the things all sorts of other good things. There were NBA Instant Messenger handles. You collected a nice little list of those. Doug-E Mic Buckets Greg, his old handle was lovetocourt23. Kevin Love Greg, was ballaboveall. Joaquim Noah came in with the doggystyle, no funny spelling either.

Greg: He must have got that pretty early on.

JT: Nick Van Exel had h8aprf, hate a professor something like that.

Greg: Yeah, fuck all y'all professors.

JT:  JJ Reddick with JJshootathree. Mark Cuban had the handle Boris123.

Greg: He looks like a Boris. He's got the thick eyebrows.

JT: Shumpert Grant comes with true26for90. Brian Winhorse comes with Dubs96. Jeff Green with the least creative, JLGreen08.

Greg: Not a lot of basketball passion in some of those. Kids that were really into basketball would have pickled KevinLove and ballmustfallaboveall.

JT: Bucketswins, lovedaCourt…

Greg: These all come from screenshots that someone created. That's the best thing about the internet, things come from very very strange places. That's usually good.

JT: I'm not gonna give it away Greg, but just for an appreciation of continuity, my email address is the same as my old AOL handle. I have not changed it.

Greg: The original that was a good choice. It takes a lot of forward thinking to get a username that's gonna work when you're in your 30s and when you're a teenager. That's pretty good for you to get something that lasts like that. It's not that common that that happens.

JT: Good job on me. I'm thinking ahead. That almost makes up for all that all the bitcoins I didn't buy.

Greg: Young JT with the foresight older JT didn't have with the bitcoins. There's all sorts of other things of use you could get if you really get into that. There's a lot of stuff we missed, not just Bitcoin. We'll be poor while the rest of the world gets rich. It'd be like that Simpsons episode. Homer cashes his stock in for l5 dollars and then it pops later in the day. Everybody has cars and shit and they're all happy.

JT: Love that episode.

Greg: Let's move on to predictions. Who's gonna lead the league in technical fouls? Last year it was Boogie and he had 18. Rasheed Wallace holds the record with 40. That’s is a solid record right there. That's a 100 point game. Boogie is in the lead this year with nine. Who do you think ends up with the most?

JT: Boogie is a strong candidate with nine already. We’re a quarter way through the season. If he keeps this up he's on track for 36 which is be amazing. That's almost challenging the record, but

that's gonna be expensive. Draymond Green also Gregg. Right now he has seven and the closest person to him is KD and Dwight Howard both with six. A pretty tight race.

Greg:  I'm gonna go with Draymond Green

JT: That a good guess, especially if they start playing shitty or continue to not play up to their potential. They're gonna get more and more annoyed and he's gonna run his mouth more and more. It's just not gonna work out.

Greg: Boogie is pretty consistent though. He's gonna get it. He's gonna get a big number. He's on pace for 36 like you said. Even if he tones it down we're looking at 25 easy. We're a little bit past the quarter mark so the way it lines up isn't exactly 36, but he would pick up a little bit of steam. He's gonna have to pick up a lot of steam to be that angry and get that many T's. He has that reputation. He's kind of a big baby.  

JT: Absolutely. Did you ever see a thing where he had serious beef with this one particular writer from Sacramento? Have you ever seen anything about this?

Greg: No not specifically.

JT: There's clips of one instance. This writer goes into the locker room after the games to ask regular questions. He’s this little ass white dude. Boogie towers over him. He sticks his finger in his face like, “What do you want? Get out of here!” I guess this writer had written something about Boogie’s brother, his actual brother, and he never forgot it. I don't know what he wrote, but the fact that he would mention them really pissed Boogie off.

Greg: From what I understand Bill Simmons is also blocked by Boogie Cousins on Twitter.  He didn't even say anything that negative, Boogie just wanted Bill to keep his name out of his mouth, so he blocked him.

JT: Definitely sensitive, bless his heart.

Greg:  Bless his giant heart. Another great episode JT. I like the morning.

JT: Love it in the morning.

Greg:  All right we'll be back next week with another episode. You can follow us on twitter @doubledrivelers or you can email us at doubledrivelpodcast@gmail.com. Subscribe to the show on iTunes, Podbean, or Google Play. Until next week, we'll see you on the Internet.

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13. Trump vs Lavar Ball - Ray Allen is a jilted lover - How old was Manute Bol?

Greg: Hello and welcome to another episode of Double Drivel. We are a weekly podcast offering a fan's perspective on the news and issues surrounding the NBA. Thank you for joining us. My name is Greg and I am joined as always by my co-host JT. You can find us on Twitter @doubledrivelers or email us at doubledrivelpodcast@gmail.com. JT what up my friend?

JT: Not too much Greg. It's so nice to be talking with you again. Where have you been? It seems like you've been somewhere else lately.

Greg: I hosted Thanksgiving, and then we had a little family trip to Germany for a dance completion. I am known as the Lord of the dance. The Lord of the dance is what they call me. There's a lot of things you don't know about me and one of them is so my German folk dancing. It's very important to me, but I'm very private with it.

JT: That's incredible. What is the best thing about Germany?

Greg: My favorite thing is the food. There's a lot of great food, and the people are very nice. You can drink almost anywhere. I don't know of a place you can't drink. I don't really know the laws or the language well enough to know where the limits are. I know that I drank in a grocery store walking inside. I walked in with a beer from outside, drank it walking up and down the aisles of that grocery store, and checked out with that same beer. No one even blinked or looked at me or really cared in the least. Amazing, it's just a strange amazing place. From what I understand there was a lot of strange amazing stuff here during the time since we last spoke. Lavar Ball and Donald Trump went head to head, Ray Allen had some issues, and there's a story about someone that we loved growing up, a really big guy, Manute Bol, We're gonna start with the heavyweight matchup, Lavar Ball and Donald Trump. You had the best little

line here in the notes that it's a federal level Twitter beef, and it really was. Why don't you go over a little bit on why they're fighting?

JT:  Yes sir Greg. We have the President of the United States, who recently took a trip to China, a planned trip. The presidents travel, and wheel and deal. This is coming on the heels of three young UCLA basketball players who were arrested for shoplifting in China. We discussed committing a crime in China on last week's show Greg, which is actually a big deal. They actually will throw you in jail for a really long time for things that.

Greg: If you told me people still got their hands cut off in China for stealing I'd believe it I believe it 100%.

JT: There was a high-end retail shop attached to the hotel they swiped some watches from. They got caught, they

got arrested, and we were kind of on hold for a minute. Then they got released and the president started speaking

about how their release came to be. He says that he had to have conversations with powers-that-be in China, and he had to essentially call in a favor. The basketball players were released, they came back to the US, and then they put

these three kids up on the podium do a press conference at UCLA. They ask them look like a hostage video. Those

kids weren't even smiling. They were saved from 10 years in prison. They stood up there like they weren't thankful or happy about anything.

Greg: Very strange to me, but please continue.

JT: Imagine 19 years old and then you go from a very high end Chinese hotel to a Chinese prison to staying in that Chinese prison for a decent amount of time. Then they were on house arrest at the hotel.

Greg: They never made them actually go to the prison that was one good little thing.

JT: They didn't even spend time in a Chinese prison?

Greg: That's great. No one should-

JT: Fine even if they don't have to go there, they come back and our president was waiting for a thank you that he never got.

Greg: Trump was not happy. He felt slighted because he was never formally thanked. He went on an offensive.

JT: Oh no, mercy me.

Greg:  Lavar Ball said the release of the students didn't have a lot to do with Donald Trump. Mr. Ball had some people on the ground kind of downplaying Trump's role and it wasn't a big deal. That was the worst line of all. It wasn't a big deal he said.

JT: That's the kind of thing that gets Donny boy fired up. as we've

come to understand and let me pull up

Greg:  If they said any sort of thank you he would have caught it. He would have known He would have replied to it on Twitter the same way he replied to the fact they had not said thank you.

JT: It's important to always say thank you regardless of your views. If the guy got you out of ten years of Chinese prison you definitely say thank you.

Greg: The original tweet from the president was “Do you think the three UCLA basketball players will say thank you President Trump?”

JT: He was ready. He's just winding up. They were heading for ten years in jail yeah and this man transitioned right to the 280 characters of Twitter.”

JT: “Donald Trump from Twitter on November 22nd “Lavar you could have spent the next five to ten years during Thanksgiving with your son in China no NBA contract to support you but remember Lavar” he keeps using his name “shoplifting is not a little thing it's a really big deal especially in China ungrateful fool China strongly says.”  Strong words from the president.

Greg: You know what they have in common? They both have WWE appearances. Much like WWE careers one actually had almost the whole storyline built around him and one was just really a one-hit wonder that showed up on one episode. Lavar ball wishes he was at the level Donald Trump is. He is someone who wants to be in the news every day. This is someone who's dying for the kind of beef that Donald Trump brought him. It  gets him in the news and that's all he cares about. And fighting with the president, you don't do better than that. That's high level beef.

JT: Why waste the words on this? I didn't think it was gonna happen this way. I figured it'd be something stupid, but never did I think that a father of an unproven rookie, who doesn't have the platform for this volume of a message, he just doesn't fucking have it- There's no way I thought that two months into the NBA season these two numbnuts would be wagging dicks at each other. This is certainly much faster than anybody would have anticipated. I would have doubted that those two comments would have put across at some point.

Greg:  You're kind of a Monday Morning Quarterback though.

JT: Let me try to guess who else that he'll have a fight with. It's got to be easy enough. After the fighting with the president it's kind of like shooting fish in a barrel.

Greg: He's just rounding up people now. It's where we are, everybody's coming into contact. It's kind of amazing.

JT He's gonna fight with Kanye, how about that. He will straight up be fighting with Kanye in the next six to nine months. Like when  screech fought Hoody in the fucking celebrity dumb shit boxing show.

Greg: He's fought the guy from Welcome Back Kotter. Poor Horshack. He fought Horshack. Up next we’ve got something that you love, so keep your laughing face on. Ray Allen's on the scene. I know this is a story very close

to your heart. I actually heard someone reference his appearance in a certain movie, and how he was the best part of that movie. I don't know how I feel about that comment. Why don't you tell us a little about your love for Ray Allen, and give us a little backstory.

JT: I don't have a tremendous love for Ray Allen. The majority of it comes from my close association of late 90s basketball movies of which I am a huge fan. There's three I love, “Above the rim with Tupac and Leon. You know my man Leon, who also played David Ruffin The Temptations NBC movie which you know I fucking love Greg.

Greg: He was in Oz too wasn't he?

JT:  Yeah and White Men Can't Jump. I have that painting in my garage of Billy Ho getting his Reeboks pumped up by Sidney Deane. I also love He got Game the Spike Lee movie with Ray Allen and Denzel Washington. Everyone loves Denzel Washington.

Greg: In all honesty I don't know if I've ever seen that movie. I've seen bits and pieces of it, but there's no way I've seen the whole movie.

JT: In He’s got Game Denzel puts on a stronger performance than Ray Allen. Ray Allen's character’s name is Jesus Shuttlesworth. Not “Hay-Zues,” they go straight up Jesus. One line from is Jesus Shuttlesworth impersonating his own mother from childhood. They live in the  projects and there's a basketball court surrounded by high-rise apartment buildings, and come dinnertime his mother would put her head out the window and yelled “Jesus Jesus!” so yes, he go by Jesus. It's a great movie Greg, you should see it.

Greg: I'll watch it over Christmas break when I'm home.

JT: Be sure to watch it. That’s what put Ray Allen on my radar. He's in this movie I really like and then Ray Allen has a very successful NBA career. He sets the record for the three-point percentage in the regular season. He sets it for that same three-point percentage record for NBA playoff season playoffs. He's out but then he pops back up in the news. Ray Allen recently appeared in the Florida Court to respond to a claim of stalking. Ray Allen responded to claim that he has been stalking a man named Bryant Coleman. You know this isn't going anywhere good. Do we know a lot of stories about NBA players stalking anyone?

Greg: I can't think of any. The closest I can think of is a story I love with Matt Barnes. He drove all that way to punch Derek Fisher in the face. He drove 50 miles to whoop his ass because he was at his ex-wife's house. That's certainly not stalking but that's court stuff I think about when shit's getting dirty. Even in that situation that's NBA player versus current or former NBA player, and you can follow the charges and the situation. What could possibly bring on bothering and stalking a man

JT: I  bet you Greg Ray Allen wishes this was a drug charge. He was sitting around like “God I just need one reporter to think I got a coke problem, please!” He claims that this guy Brian Coleman impersonated many different women online and effectively catfished him.

Greg: That's no good. Isn't that weird though? Why would Ray Allen stalk someone who was bamboozling him? Allen was claiming that he was multiple women?

JT: At one time he was kind of stringing Ray along on whatever avenues he was pursuing women on, whether it be Craigslist or-

Greg: It was  probably Craigslist

JT: This is what Ray Allen claims, but Brian Coleman says that all along he was looking for me. There weren’t any girls or catfishing. My mam was looking for the Bryan. This guy says Ray knows I'm a dude, we get down, we've done this in the past, and we've done it pretty recently. This guy might have signed a non-disclosure agreement about it.

Greg: Oh snap! They're getting down like a couple of bills fans in the parking lot. Ray’s got to pay him off and get him to sign an NDA and then the guy breaks it. Usually you don't get into that type of situation unless you want someone to stay quiet. The only thing we can do to clear this up is invite them both on the show. We'll just clear the air. We can bring Alan, he’s always welcome, and Brian Coleman. I'll have to try to reach out but, Ray Allen, you’re always welcome.

JT: This is a come as you are, judgment-free environment. Anyone with anything to say can come on and clear the air. That invitation is out there. Ray Allen join us when it's convenient for you.

Greg: If you're in any sort of trouble I'm not gonna hit you with the hardball questions. I’ll give you a nice soft landing here to give you a platform. Thanks again Ray, we love this story. We are gonna move on to our good friend who we grew up with a big tall fella, Manute Bol.

JT: That's a guy who was 7’7. He was the tallest person ever to play in the NBA. There is reason to believe that he made up his age.

Greg: I always found it crazy that you didn't even know how old you were, that there was so little documentation around you that you wouldn’t have any idea. He looks old in some of those pictures we were looking at. He may have been 50 years old. Go back and look at those pictures JT. He looks about 50 years old.

JT: When he went to Cleveland State Greg he enrolled at the University of Bridgeport, a Division two basketball school. When he had to fill out the paperwork, apparently the coach just fudged the numbers because no one knew how old he was. I can relate to this story personally Greg. You and I were rubbing elbows at this point in Pleasant Valley with  Mark Bang’s son.

Greg: 'm gonna take the other half of the story. There were two kids in our grade at our school. They were adopted and they definitely came internationally. I don't know what country, but there is reason to believe Mark was very old.

JT: I remember eating lunch with Mark. We were in elementary school. I'll never forget it. It was second grade, and there was a man sitting at our table. His name was Mark, and he was in my class. He was not in second grade. He was 13, and he had a brother who had some disabilities. He was even older. Mark used to yell at him like he was a little brother, but he was much smaller. Joey's age also very cloudy.

Greg: I don't think the world will ever know how old Mark and Joey were.

JT:  They were great people Greg. They were great teammates. I got the opportunity to interact and spend time with both of them. He played Little League with us. They were fast as fuck Greg. Fast as the day is long, like a cheetah. He would hold his hands in ninja stance, do you remember that? When he was running it was like he was chopping through the air. He was probably five, six, seven years older than the rest of us.

Greg: Joey, Mark, and Manute Bol kind of riding that same wavelength. They're saying he was 50 years old when he was finishing up his NBA career. That's crazy to think about. He was so tall at the same time, just remarkable. He didn't weigh hardly anything. The guy was thin as a rail, but he was one of the first big men that was shooting threes from the outside. He used to line up behind the line all the time. That wasn't something people did at his size. They still don't. It was a very precious shot he had. It was a lot of fingertip and both elbows were  out. He gently put it up there.

JT: Now his son is playing Greg. His son, whose name is Bo Ball, just committed to Oregon. He's gonna be a duck. Greg: He's gonna have that big Nike logo on his giant self. Congratulations to the Ball family. However old Manute is on his next birthday, happy birthday to him. I may have just wished a dead man a happy birthday.

JT: Oh Christ alive, let's see. Yeah, he died in 2010. God rest his soul Manu Ball.

Greg: His son really carrying the torch for the family. That's good for the Ball family. Another great episode JT.

JT: Absolutely. Glad to have you back in the states,

Greg: I'm glad we're back too. Danka. We will be back next week with another episode. In the meantime you can follow us on twitter @doubledrivelers or you can email us at doubledrivelpodcast@gmail.com. Subscribe to the show on iTunes, podbean, or Google Play. Until next week, we will see you on the Internet.

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11. Chinese Big Baller Bail - Awful NBA Officiating - Not Much Hornets Buzz - Eric Bledsoe Gets out of Phoenix

Greg:  Hello and welcome to another episode of Double Drivel. We are a weekly podcast offering a fan's perspective on the news and issues surrounding the NBA. Thank you for joining us. My name is Greg and I am joined as always by my co-host JT. You can find us on Twitter @doubledrivelers or email us at doubledrivelpodcast@gmail.com. JT what up my friend?

JT: Hey Greg, not too much at all. Hanging in there, watching basketball, living life, playing a little at the old local Y

Greg: Getting down?

JT: I played today. A lot of elbows being thrown there Greg. They're dirty elbows. We had a good time. That's how they do it down there.

Greg: We got some great stories this week. Harden goes for 56 on the Jazz, I know you like that story. Eric Bledsoe is going to the Bucks. We’ll start with some piss-poor officiating. What is going on in Oklahoma City?

JT: Can I be so bold as to say they're being targeted?

Greg: I don't know if you can say they're being targeted. They have some aggressive offensive players. They are high profile players. They draw more eyes on them to begin with, but both Carmelo and Westbrook got the shit end of lousy calls in the past few days.

JT:As bad as the Westbrook one was I think Carmelo's ejection was worse.

Greg: Will you please go through the tale of why Carmelo got ejected on an offensive play?

JT:  They were playing the Blazers. It was confusing to watch because Melo comes with a double clutch layup kind of like leaping, in and it goes in. It looked like he drew contact. He’s getting ready to take his free-throw shot, and they chose to give the play a review real quick. They were like yeah, we're gonna eject you instead. Here's a quote from the dumb zebra, “We deemed that the contact was excessive and not a natural basketball move whereas he is seeking out near catch that hitting him in the face with an elbow and then goes back to the basket and scores.” This seems like a lot of thinking in the air from this take, if you ask me. Jump off the ground, look around, bop this guy in the face with an elbow, then turn around and go back to playing basketball, all while your feet are off the ground.

Greg: It's possible, it just seems pretty calculated. He went from making a great basketball move to getting called.

JT: Loving it my man. Hit a great shot. A very Carmelo shot. That is a very characteristic shot for him to take. That's how he drives and takes laps. That's how a lot of players in the NBA go to the hole and make some off-balance shots with limbs flying.

Greg: The funny thing is when you raise your arms they're about the height of heads, and it's the damnedest thing, things the same height might occasionally hit into each other. He goes, makes a great move, gets the call with the n1, and 'm not gonna say mysteriously, they reviewed the play. They did go over and review it and they came back with a crazy explanation. Who wrote that? Who even said that and can take themselves seriously? He drove to the basket and took a shot, there was nothing more than that. I didn't see any bad intentions on those elbows. I didn't see any anything to that effect.

JT: That's just the wrong call. After the game they asked Melo if he wanted to say anything about it, and he said I don't have anything to say about that play. I think the league will do what's right. He’s taking the high road. Is that what Carmelo Anthony is known for?

Greg: Poor officiating there, and nobody likes that. The next night Russell Westbrook goes to one of his well known spots on the court. Russell Westbrook plays. He won

MVP last year, he's Russell Westbrook. For him to get called on this kind of offensive shot, where he stopped and was looking for contact? This was not a malicious intent of any sort. He went from getting what should have been a one and done,  to a flagrant one.

JT: That's absolutely insane. Come on guys. I thought on this play. They were playing the Kings. We're talking about bottom boy on offense Greg. Another Eastern European guy. Westbrook took a jump shot, and I thought they were gonna call him for kicking his feet out. It looked like he did maybe a little bit. Still not enough to be called in my opinion. They got him for a follow through. An unnatural follow-through. He smacked Boyd, son a bitch, in the face top to bottom style. Three Stooges style. He sold it. He flopped. This fucker, he played his part to get the reaction.

Greg: In the previous, story oddly enough, it was also a fellow Eastern European with  Bogdanovich.

JT: Here's the thing about Eastern Europeans, they're very tough. Arguably the  greatest heavyweight cage fighter of all time, Fedor Emelianenko, is Eastern European. He's

a legend. Another championship boxer, Yvonne Drago from Russia. He’s very much a champion. These guys are tough, they don't need to be flopping. They don't need to be doing this. They don't endear themselves to any of the other fans in the league by playing that way.

Greg: Eric Bledsoe whined and successfully got his trade. He was the one who famously went on Twitter and said, “I don't want to be here.” He said was talking about a hair salon and hilarity ensued. The Twitter pictures, the jokes, the everything. It was all fun and games, but he got his way. He's going to a better team. He's going to a team that's on the rise. They’ve got some great players to play with now, and I hate this. How do you feel?

JT:  It's rewarding bad behavior. He basically decided he didn't want to be there. He tweets I don't want to be here. The league find him $10,000 for that. Two weeks later he's traded and gone. Ten thousand dollars well spent. Ten thousand dollars! What does that mean? This definitely makes the Bucs a better team Greg. I don't know anything about Monroe, but they got a draft pick to the Suns.

Greg: I hope Bledsoe doesn't ruin what seems to be a pretty cool thing going on in in Milwaukee.

JT:  If it was three or four years ago I might have wanted Greg Monroe, but I can't imagine wanting him now. He's just taking the spot and probably some money for the trade. When Kyrie Irving successfully got traded that “we don't like this, and this is not this,” I don't think a lot of people like that. It's gross.

Greg: The NBA is lucky enough to have guaranteed contracts. The NFL would kill for guaranteed contracts. If they're gonna get all the money the NBA  should at least play all

the time, that's just fair. If they want to get traded or something that's business. Refusing to play is garbage. It is just not cool.

Something that you're very passionate about, the Utah Jazz got a spanking from the beard, James Harden. The other day he scored 56 points. It didn't look like he could miss. I know you intently watched him hit every shot. What do you think of that game?

JT: Things aren't great in Utah Gregg. The defense is okay, but it hasn't been phenomenal. Harden couldn't fucking miss. He had 22 points in the first quarter. He knew it was gonna be a long night after that.

Greg: You texted me when he had 22 in the first. I knew you weren't gonna have a good night I don't even know if I replied, I just knew it was gonna beone of those nights.

JT: He tried some different things, but he ended up with 56. The Jazz lost by a lot.

Greg: That's why Harden is consistent MVP candidate. He can put up big numbers like that.

JT: I don't care for his style of play either. I don't think that Chris Paul is going to make that much of a difference either. The first game they played together, it not only didn't look like it was working that night, but a lot of people said what is the real plan? It's gonna be great to have two good players.

JT: It never hurts, but it's too similar in the position. It's not gonna work, especially because Harden’s getting used to scoring all these points. He's playing exactly how he was playing last year. He's just continuing.

Greg: Is Chris Paul gonna hinder that at all?

JT: I know you don't agree, but I think Chris Paul is gonna be in a backup kind of position. They will let Harden either start, and play the point guard, or Chris Paul's gonna come off the bench

and lead a second. He's slowed down a little bit. He's smart enough to know if Harden can put up these kind of numbers, you don't want to interfere with that. You want to like see where you can complement him. That's gonna be when he needs a break.

Greg:  It doesn't seem like they need to help scoring points. They could use his other talents with the assists or going in for the rebound.

JT: Chris Paul, he's got respect. My man goes in for a guard rebound. Not really in there, but he's definitely going for it better than some guys.

Greg:  He's scrappy. JT what is with the Celtics? I am a Celtics hater. I don't like anything about Boston. I feel dirty that I even felt any sort of pity for Tom Brady when deflate gate was going on, because that was a sham. I hate Boston and that was a sham. I don't care for Boston at all, football, basketball, hockey-

JT: None of it?

Greg:  Well baseball, let's not forget baseball. The Red Sox, hate them, but they're playing pretty well. I am NOT a Kyrie Irving fan, especially how he got there. They had to trade away three starters from last year to get Kyrie Irving, and four other moves in the offseason. They also lost a guy they only had for a couple minutes. Pretty crazy that they are still playing this well. How great would they be if they had the great Gordon Hayward as well?

JT: Do they even need him? They won nine in a row. They look fantastic. Kyrie looks incredible. Do they need Hayward? They had to have him? It's not like he's gonna go anywhere, but they look really good. It looks like Boston made the right deal. Shipping out Isaiah Thomas, J Crowder, and Avery Bradley for Frick.

Greg: Brad Stevens is a good coach, which Kyrie has never had.

JT: You're always on his nuts. You say you hate Boston, but you're always on Steven’s nuts.

Greg:  Look at the guy. Who did he have last year for them to be playing as well as they have? Even the year before that they played pretty well. When you see that guy in the huddle, he gives a shit. There's a lot of the coaches like the Hornets coach. That guy's trying, and that's all I wanted, a little bit of effort. I also liked that guy when he was a college coach. He made it to the tournament one year. They played great when he was at Butler. He was just as big of a star as the kids were. He seemed like a good coach then, and it if the guy can get some little crap school into the tournament and get them very far in college, and he does very well with the professionals, then there's a common denominator there. It's him being a good coach.

JT:  You love him, and you love your man on the Sixers, JJ Reddick. They're both very handsome players Greg.

Greg: You couldn't get me to say a bad thing about JJ Redick. I don't really care how he looks.

JT: His hair's a little shorter this season. Do you like it better this way?

Greg: It doesn't really bother me one way or the other. I'm good on that. The Celtics play the Lakers tonight. If they win it'll be ten in a row.

JT: Kyrie Irving is gonna fucking smoke Lonzo Ball Greg. He's gonna smoke him dirty all night long.

Greg: He might. He doesn't play defense well though. Neither one of them are great on D. In

unrelated news, how could we even talk about Lonzo Ball without talking about his brother

shoplifting in China? Did you see this story?

JT: He has two little brothers. This is the youngest one right?

Greg: This is the one that's on UCLA. There's another one that's still in high school.

JT:  He and a couple other players from UCLA were on a trip to China, and they decided to steal some sunglasses. They were just released on bail. It's one thing to go somewhere and act up a

little bit but, you're gonna steal in a country like China? That that seems crazy. That seems like you think you're bigger than any problems, or any consequences. That's madness. To make it even worse their father came, and they're currently a reality show.

Greg: Of course.

JT: He's there with the camera crew for this whole thing.

Greg: The show is going to be called Ball in the family.

JT: This all turned into petty theft in China Gregg. For petty theft in China you get thrown in jail. I'm terrified of international prisons. I'm scared of jail in general, but the idea of being in jail or prison abroad is-

Greg: They had that show locked up abroad, remember?

JT: No, what's that?

Greg: People would tell their stories. Guys would go in Venezuelan prison, or there would be somebody who had been there on vacation, did something stupid like this, and ended up in prison. There's all different people with stories every week. There were horrible terrible stories of international prisons. It’s not like any prisons good, but I don't want to be in some Chinese prison, I'll tell you that right now.

JT: There was that movie from the mid-90s,Claire Dane's travelling abroad, and some dude slips drugs and herb in her carry-on bag Greg. Next thing you know she's in a fucking wooden cage in some Thai prison. No one can get her out. That shit's scary. I don't want that. Do you remember when we were in middle school, and  that guy got caned?

Greg: I believe it was in Singapore.

JT: He stuck gum or something somewhere, or threw it on the sidewalk or something. My fifth grade teacher made a point to tell us they moisten the cane so it can wrap around the body when they hit you with it. He was quite a fella. The strikes Gregg, they're administered by a martial arts expert. He also taught us-

Greg:  In fifth grade you learned that huh?

JT: Yeah, maybe too young for that. Maybe a colorful fella.

Greg: We'll leave it there.

JT: Dwight Howard Gregg, fined $25,000 for an obscene gesture. Do you know the gesture he gave? The old DX crotch chop.  I was pleased because it took me a minute to find what the gesture was. I had to do a little internet sleuthing.

Greg: I assumed it was the middle finger, but no, it's the old DX suck it. I was happy to see people are still putting that one out there. There's something retro actively wonderful about that. It takes you back to a better time when the crotch shop was prevalent, and wrestling was a bigger part of our lives.

JT: Sucks to have this guy on your team though Greg huh?

Greg: It does. It sucks a lot. If I'm opening for the days of X-Pac, who God rest his soul, right?  Didn't X-Pac leave us a couple years ago? Please look that up while I'm talking here. I think X-Pac left us. I believe something stupid happened. I believe it was like a backhoe accident or something. Something ridiculous. But yes, having Dwight Howard on my team, I can go off about the Hornets while you look that up. I am very unhappy with the Hornets at this point. I watched them lose a game the other night by just a couple points. It was a game they should have won. It was a game that was in their hands. The worst part is, now these teams have a Twitter presence. Any person on Twitter who feels like they need to be commenting or making observations of what's going on, that's not their job. They should just keep quiet. They may say

everything's going great, but we're watching the game,  I can see when it goes down to the

other end of the floor. Offense has no freaking clue what they plan on doing. There's no person that's gonna take command. People are jacking up threes. People are playing hero ball. Nobody is doing anything. We all saw the great video of Cody Zeller getting blocked four or five times by Porzingis last night when they played the Knicks. It's disgusting basketball right now. There's teams all over this league playing above their capabilities and beating teams they shouldn't beat. Even the Suns beat somebody the other night. They beat the Thunder. They beat the

Wizards. The Suns are a garbage team, and they are beating people. The Hornets are trash right now, and it makes me so mad to watch. The coach after the game says everything's fine. We're gonna tighten up on defense. Old coach Cliff gonna tell me everything's gonna be fine, just gotta tighten up on D? Knock off that trash right now. You're playing like trash! Nobody cares. There's no go-to guy. You're wasting a good rookie. People are laughing about Malik right now.

JT: He wasn't that good

Greg: He is pretty good, the horn isn’t using him very well. I'm getting tired of watching these games. They're not playing well. It's driving me nuts. I'm used to them sucking, but this seems

worse. I had a little bit of hope. I haven't even said a word about Dwight Howard. Dwight Howard is a walking disappointment. That guy has been okay for us, but he should be so much better, so I won't shit on him too hard. We have so many other problems.  He's just a small part, but damn it.

JT: Well said Greg, well said. I don't know if this is gonna brighten your spirits at all, but xpac lives Greg.

Greg: Why did I think he was dead?

JT: He was arrested earlier in the year for meth.

Greg: Okay, just dead inside.

JT: I won't go as far to say that, but a little trouble with the law. He is alive. Road Dogg was the d-o-double-g. Road Dogg, I almost thought they were the same person.

Greg: Not the same person, just the same kind of person. The DX kind of person.

JT: Don't forget about Mr. Ass too.

Greg: I don't want to go too deep here with the wrestlers, but we love Mr. Ass. We're gonna move on to predictions. What is the prediction for me this week JT?

JT: We are about one month into the season. Neither one of our beloved teams are doing particularly well. Is it too soon to call this season a bust and just fucking tank it Greg? Should we tank it?

Greg: It’s too early for us to tank. Do you feel like the Jazz are playing as bad? I haven't heard you complain that much about them.

JT: I’ve been keeping it quiet Greg. Some things don't feel good to talk about.

Greg: I should have asked. I feel like it's my fault that we haven't gotten to it sooner. There was an issue that I knew was there, and I was avoiding it.

JT:  Things aren't good. I think you're in the same boat but we play on. 

Greg: I just don't know what we would be tanking for. Do you feel like your organization drafts well enough that you would get a great player and turn next season around?

JT: I don't know if it's that that I worry about. other More so having an effect on our rookie Donovan Mitchell and and pissing off Rudy. He might be less inclined to stay after his contract expires. It's pretty hard to watch sometimes. We just can't fucking buy a bucket you know? Rudy's working. Rudy looks exhausted. He looks so tired because he's working so hard. You got favors shooting threes and Rudy's shooting jump shots a little bit. You see them looking for offense wherever they can find it. It's a little disheartening. 

Greg: I feel the same way. 

JT: It's not that I'm worried about the draft for them finishing low and getting the draft pick, it's the fact that it's tough to attract free agents when you're just not good and missing a couple pieces. We need almost a whole team. I'm just wondering if it is time just to get rid of everybody  and roll the dice as they are and then see what happens and start with new players next year and see what we can do.

Greg: Too early to say, but you know come on guys give us something to get excited about . Let's get some wins. 

We're gonna be back next week with another episode, and in the meantime you can follow us on twitter @doubledrivelers or you can email us at doubledrivelpodcast@gmail.com. Subscribe to the show on iTunes, podbean, or Google Play, and until next week we'll see you on the Internet.

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10. Gordon Hayward Halloween Costumes - The Cavs Not Named Lebron Suck - Beal vs. Green

Greg: Welcome to another episode of Double Drivel. We are a weekly podcast offering a fan's perspective on the news and issues surrounding the NBA. Thank you for joining us on Halloween night. My name is Greg and I am joined as always by my co-host JT. You can find us on twitter @doubledrivelers or email us atdoubledrivelpodcast@gmail.com. JT what up my friend?

JT: Not too much Greg. Happy Halloween to you. One of my favorite holidays. I have a great costume. I dressed up as Rocky Balboa from Rocky 2 Greg, not rocky 5.

Greg: Of course Rocky 2. Red headband Rocky. It looks great. You even went to a local place with a staircase and took a, I don't want to call it an iconic shot because it certainly wasn't, but the stereotypical Rocky shot.

JT: I took some good pictures shithead.

Greg: Who took the picture for you?

JT: What's it to you? It don't matter.

Greg: You definitely had a friend. I thought you were just going there to take some sort of selfie. I didn't actually think you would bring a friend with you to take this picture.

didn't really think it over that much

JT: I'm the real deal. Sometimes friends help each other do things that matter.

Greg: I don't know if I would call somebody to be like, “Can you come take a picture of my Halloween costume? I just need a picture on the stairs like I'm Rocky.  Not like big stairs though, we only have the local post office stairs. Can you help me out?

JT: You're such a shithead, just a hater.

Greg: I give you credit. You have a Halloween costume. I'm not good about getting a Halloween costume. I never am. I always wish I did, but I don't do it. I should, and I wish I did, but I don't.

JT: I'll meet you to look local post-office you fuck>

Greg: We got some good topics on this spooky night. We're gonna talk about Blake Griffin, who's been playing pretty good. We got the surprisingly good teams that are in the league from the start here. We

have the surprisingly bad teams in the league, and we were gonna follow up on what happened with Bradley Beal and Draymond Green and their little fight. But, we're gonna start, since it's Halloween with Halloween costumes. There were some Gordon Hayward costumes on Twitter. What are your thoughts in those costumes?

JT: I'll only speak to one costume in particular that was a huge success The guy nailed it. He seemed to be a partial amputee, missing one leg from the knee down. He was able to take his prosthetic and kind of arrange it in a way that made his foot bend completely backwards. He took a photo of himself on the ground in the Hayward gear, and looking like he was in a lot of in pain. It got a lot of backlash, but I think if anyone's allowed to do this costume, this guy pulls it off. He's allowed. He knows what it's like to not have the use of his leg. Hayward will get the use of his leg back, so people need to lighten up. This was very funny. It was all good. The best comedy, or satire. If you're in a bad situation and you're making a good joke like that, that means you've got a great sense of humor. That means you are probably in as good a place as you're gonna be. Good for that guy. Screw the Internet. Bunch of haters. His wife went on Instagram Greg, and said she had been seeing a lot of people in these type of costumes. She didn't think they were funny. Do not tag her in them.

Greg: At least she took a strong stance on the matter. Blake Griffen has been playing pretty good. I saw Blake hit a game-winning shot the other night. I've seen that in quite a while. They've been so busy with all the bullshit fighting over there, and all the stuff with Chris Paul. They seem to be playing free and easy. I almost enjoyed watching the Clippers.

JT: Blake Griffin looks good Greg. He did not look like this last season in the playoffs. We got a good look at him in the first round versus the Jazz, and he wasn't there. He wasn't an offensive factor. The Jazz weren't sweating him too much.

Greg: For good reason, they didn't have to.

JT: That's not what we're seeing this season. He looks crisp. Long ball looks good. He's getting the basket at the low post. He it's almost the whole package with Blake Griffin. Look for LA to be a contender for those later playoff slots in the West/

Greg: Absolutely. There has to be one team in LA that's good, and it's certainly not the Lakers right now. It's good that's it's not the fucking Lakers. The Clippers are taking up that helm. remember how shitty the Clippers were? The Clippers were the shittiest team of our childhood. I don't have the numbers in front of me but-

JT: The Clippers and the Mavericks were the two absolute trash teams when we were little. The Mavericks have the worst record ever. was it Ron Harper? Some poor bastard on that team lost like every game a season

Greg: That's no fun. They did have awesome uniforms. I have a hat right now with their with their old logo. I love the M with the cowboy hat on it. The best logos are long gone. They have that ugly horse now.

JT: know that logo you're talking about. That is a good times logo. I like it too.

Greg: There are some other teams that are surprisingly good, It's not just the Clippers. The Orlando Magic are surprising a lot of people. They are playing free and easy and they are killing it. Have you watched them play at all?

JT: I know you're shitting on me. A week or two ago when I said they looked good you were like they're trash. You're trash and I think they look good. I knew you were gonna bring this up just to reinforce your point. They look ok. Aaron Gordon looks very good. He’s kind of playing that same game as Blake Griffin right now. He’s showing a little bit of everything.

Greg; Can I do another victory lap while we're on the subject of Aaron Gordon? There was all this consternation about people being able to find even players to vote the eastern all-star team, because oh my there wasn't anybody that was gonna be on the team. It was gonna be devoid of anyone! That's not the case. Every team has someone. On this podcast we said people were gonna rise up play better than we expect them to play, and there's gonna be a whole new batch of all-stars in the East. It looks like it's gonna be that way. I would bet at this point on Aaron Gordon making the all-star team.

JT: Yeah he'll make the all-star team. There's no one else to make the all-star team. Who else has risen up and will make the all-star team? They still don't have a whole team.

Greg: The Pistons look good. I don't know if there's one player that you can pin it on, but they're playing great too.

JT: That doesn't make any goddamn sense. Nothing about them looks good. They’re playing with a chip on their shoulder.

Greg: Avery Bradley missed that dunk the other night. You see that?

JT : That video uh-

Greg:  See you don't know that he's been playing well all season.

JT: You haven't heard anything and then you see a clip like that, that gets looped over and over and over. I saw him. He was playing amazing defense on Curry. Someone put a clip video together of the last three or four minutes of the Pistons Warriors game, and he completely shut down Curry. Every aspect of his game was really cool.

Greg: What about the Memphis Grizzlies?

JT: They lost to the Hornets the other night. I know that because they were shouting about on their Twitter feed, that they beat the best team in the West. You're not doing a victory lap because you beat the

Grizzlies. They do look good, but come on, it's still very early. I have a tiny idea for a bit of a marketing strategy for the Grizzlies Greg, and it's subtle. I have a hard time embracing the grind city aspect of Memphis without z-bo.

Greg: Did you know Zeebo was slinging weed?

JT: Why?

Greg: He was their dude.

JT: Was that a thing that you knew at the time?

Greg: I didn't know that he was like.

JT: You should make mention of the story referencing Zeebo

Greg: Zach Randolph, who used to be on the Grizzlies, got busted after the season. He was caught during the offseason with a large amount of cannabis. That was after he got traded to Sacramento.

JT: During the offseason Gregg? People can do things during the offseason okay? They should go to like a new grind City kind of thing, like New Jack city, a more modern blue-collar thing. What do you think? Greg: It’s almost like a disco grind city. Go grind city. Hell no.

JT: You’re just a hater. You're such a fucking hater.

Greg: I took it where it didn't need to go. We won't do new garage city. Memphis is playing pretty good. I did like the new grind city.

JT: What? That's the shit you talk when you like something?

Greg: It was a good idea, that's all. They're doing pretty well. I don't know if they're going to make the playoffs though. We'll see. They are almost a perennial and eighth seed. I would be surprised they didn't make the playoffs.

JT: Your mouth is a perennial. 8th seed? What about the bad teams? What about the Cavs? Everybody's been talking about the Cavs, they're bad. I don't want to go on and on about it, but damn. If they didn't have LeBron James it would not be a good team.

Greg: I don't think that's a hot take. That's been the fact for every year since he's been in the league, or been on their side.

JT: They traded Kyrie, who was their clear and obvious second-best player, and in return for Kyrie got wise. Isaiah Thomas, who's injured and sitting on the bench with a hip injury, isn't winning anyone games.

Greg: In a shocker, Derrick Rose was hurt for a chunk. The Cavs are smart enough with LeBron though. They don't need to be first seed to win a championship. They win games strategically, and place themselves where they want. Best-case scenario Isaiah Thomas gets well sometime around the new year, and then they start getting into that groove, playing some games together. They're able to kind of get into playoff mode and hunker down when the time comes.

JT: They only won 52 games last year. They're not afraid to lose.

Greg: Not at all. Second seed doesn't matter.

JT: That's not turning out of the playoffs. Just get behind the Brawn.

Greg: They have no problem not being the first seed, no problem at all.

JT: Nope, not afraid of it. The Thunder are three and three. That's not bad. They've lost a lot of close games they had that amazing buzzer beater by Andrew Wiggins when they played the Timberwolves. I didn't see that coming. That was a great ending. We've had some great endings this year so far. Carmelo came down and hit a three. It looked like they were going to win, and then Wiggins came down, hit a three, and won the game. It was an incredible ending to a regular season game. Edge-of-your-seat action. It felt like a playoff game. There were two really good teams playing, but Thunder came up on the wrong side of that game. Three and three right now. I'm surprised. They have had some decent opponents.

Greg: They look good at times. Defenses look better than some of us were expecting.

JT: How about Andre Roberson and his free throws Greg?

Greg: We always end up talking about free-throw shooting. It's been a problem recently. Did you see the two he missed? Two free throws in one trip to the line?

JT: We're not professional athletes Greg.

Greg: There's one aspect of professional sports where any Joe fucking Schmo can put himself in that position, Anyone can ask themselves  could I succeed at this? Could I be put in this position and be successful? It's free throws. No one's guarding you. You're just standing there. It's called a FREE throw. It's just you. You could do a granny style. You could do it regular style. You can do anything you fucking want, because no one's guarding you, and this guy bricks two in a row.

JT: He doesn't even hit the setup Greg. That's sad. It's embarrassing.

Greg: He should switch over to granny style.

JT: It's pride. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants to have a good record, good numbers from the line, and god forbid that's it.

Greg: What about the Miami Heat?

JT: I've heard very little about them besides the fact that they're just sucking. The Heat stays on my radar a little bit Greg because for some fucking crazy reason Hassan Whiteside thinks he's good. Him and Rudy are getting into it on Twitter.

Greg: Yea, but Whiteside is good.

JT: If you're good you win games.

Greg: Oh right I forgot. What about the 76ers?

JT: They don't have the best record. They've been playing decent. Ben Simmons looks pretty goddamn good. They haven't been winning all their games so don't take them too seriously. A lot of trash in the East right?

Greg: The other thing that we wanted to talk about was Bradley Beal and Draymond Green. They got into a fight last week, so it's kind of old at this point. The league did not end up suspending anybody. That was a pretty nasty fight as far as the fights had been recently. They were down on the ground and everything. No one threw any actual legit punches, except when people were on the ground, which is kind of shady. Kelly Oubre was throwing punches into the pile which is a dirt bag move. I'm surprised nobody got suspended.

JT: Oubere donkey punched Steph Curry, or was it Clay? He donkey punch one of them Greg. He punched him in the back of the head.

Greg: That's not cool. That was a decent fight as far as NBA fights go.

JT: That was a good one. They looked like they had some bad intentions on some of those shots. Don't get me wrong, none of them-

Greg: That's the best line, bad intentions. That sums it up perfectly.

JT: I don't like Draymond Green. He was deserving of being ejected this time. He plays hard. He talks shit. Some people just can't keep up with his game. That's when they started getting dirty with him. He plays dirty.

Greg: I'm sure he instigates all game. That shit's got to get old at a certain point, and Bradley Beal just popped. Bradley Beal doesn't strike me as a guy that's going at somebody like Draymond Green. There's a size difference.

JT: Good for Bradley Beal for taking it right at him. I can't stand Draymond Green. I can't stand that bastard.

Greg: His jersey ripped.

JT: These jerseys are shit Greg. They don't last. LeBron's ripped a couple weeks ago. Every time it's been up I've taken a picture, like many other people, and I posted it to Nike on Twitter. I've done funny things with some of them. Drayman's was literally torn in half, Have you ever seen a basketball jersey even rip a little bit? In all my years of watching basketball sometimes I would see a little fraying on the end of them if it was got really crazy, but never ripped in the middle.

Greg: I'll have to go back and watch the video. When Ron Artest went out into the crowd that night of that fateful fight madness was happening, I don't recall any torn jerseys. They were all very much intact, looking strong, looking tough.

JT: They're expensive Greg. They should make them a little bit better.

Greg: I never assumed the ones that we were getting as regular people were the ones the players were getting.

JT: That's definitely the case now. Those jerseys they have don't look special at all.

Greg: One thing that is special JT is predictions. It is prediction time. Today we are going to guess where is Eric Bledsoe going to end up? He's not playing for the Suns right now. They need to trade him somewhere because it's stupid to have an asset as good as him just sitting on your bench.

JT: He's not even sitting on the bench. They wouldn't let him in the building.

Greg: Where's he going to go? Where is the destination for Eric Bledsoe? What's your prediction?

JT: They've been the final destination for too many people already. I couldn't imagine they would have another player. You really think that's going to happen?

Greg: Nope. The best kind of prediction my man

JT: I don't know we're gonna go Greg. He might end up in Europe because no one seemed to want to touch him right now.

Greg: I heard we're the only team that was legitimately going after him.

JT: I can't see him going to the Bucs. They got a good thing going on. Bledsoe seems like a bit of an ego. A lot of room filler.

Greg:  He's not as good as Chris Paul. He seems like a pretty dominating type of personality. I hope he doesn't go to the Bucs because they don't need him. Unless they get him on the cheap-cheap-cheap, maybe that could happen.

JT: I'm having a really hard time seeing where this guy goes. I don't like what he did. I don't like how he insisted on being traded. We don't like when people do that. We like when people honor their contracts and play hard throughout every year of that contract. You're making tens of millions of dollars a year and all this other shit and endorsements.

Greg: Where did the narrative start that he was an elite player?

JT: He's not, but he certainly gotten talked up recently. He has a great build for la really strong dominant ball handler.  He's not a very good player. We haven’t seen him hit his stride, and Phoenix didn't seem to be the place where that was going to happen for him. You always hear this stuff about players who we haven't shown. Talent that people keep making mention of. He definitely is one of those cases.

Greg: Send him to the East. Put him up on the Knicks. Who cares? I don’t see him moving the dial this season for anyone. Where do you think he's going?

JT: The Spurs need a point guard.

Greg: They're not going to get him. They're not going to play his kind of game. They don't want a guy like him. That would be a good team to end up on though.

JT: Like you said, throw him on the Knicks. Who really cares? I could care less where the guy goes. Maybe the Nets? The Nets have a better team than they expect. They can make some moves, maybe get a couple guys going. He'd be another good player to have around. Maybe someday he'll get his shit together and be good.

Greg: I'll tally up the predictions. We both don't give a fuck where he ends up, nor do have any sort of good idea where it's gonna happen.

JT: That’s the best kind of prediction.

Greg: With that, we should say goodnight, and happy Halloween. It's late where I am, but you've got a couple hours. Any fun plans on Halloween night?

JT:  Me and the wife getting dressed up Greg, and were going out to do a little dancing to Cajun music. Should be good time.

Greg: Cajun music in the Rocky costume? Love it.

JT: Voodoo style baby. It's going to be great.

Greg: How did you with that tape job in the hands?

JT: I don't see any athletic commission letting me in the ring with these hands Greg. They look barbershop school style if you know what I mean.

Greg: That's fine. We'll let you go. Have a good time and be safe out there. Another great episode. We will be back next week with another episode. In the meantime you can follow us on twitter @doubleddrivelers or you can send us an email @doubledrivelpodcast@gmail.com. Subscribe to us on itunes, podbean, or Google Play. That's it, we'll see you on the Internet

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09. Joe Ingles Slaps Adam’s Dingles - Suns Supernova - Fultz Can’t Shoot - Jordan ‘Jumpman’ Bell

Greg: Hello and welcome to another episode of Double Drivel. We are a weekly podcast offering a fan's perspective on the news and issues surrounding the NBA. Thank you for joining us my name is Greg and I am joined as always by my co-host JT. You can find us on twitter @doubledrivelers or email us at doubledrivelpodcast@gmail.com. JT what up my friend?

JT: Not too much Greg. Doing good, feeling good. Happy to be here. I think we should start off by thanking all the new listeners. A lot of new international listeners. Welcome to everyone. and make sure to subscribe tell a friend, or multiple friends, or whoever you want. Please help spread the word. We'd appreciate it.

Greg: Check us out on Twitter for the full Double Drivel experience. We've been posting a lot of NBA related gifts and getting some pretty big retweets, so check us out there. It's a lot of interactive fun.

JT: We've been having a lot of fun. It was something we always did separately in our Twitter, but now we're going at it as a team.

Greg: I love it. I also love the topics we have tonight. We got some great stuff. We got Sloppy Joe Ingles getting fined. We have the Phoenix Suns, who are falling apart right before our eyes. Marquel Fultz who says he has a jacked-up shoulder. And, Jordan Bell, with what I will refer to as a tasteless alley-oop. Starting off with Sloppy Joe Ingles getting fined $15,000 for not tapping Stephen Adams. This is a Utah Jazz story. This is all you JT. What's going on with Sloppy Joe?

JT: You know I love Joe Ingalls Greg. You know he's probably my favorite active player in the whole league. He's got great numbers right now. He's fucking killing it. Guy looks like you're garbage man. The guy who picks up your trash and rides in the back of the truck. The half shaven kind with a grimace. He does not look like an athlete, not the Heisman Trophy posed picturesque athlete you might imagine.

Greg: Nobody's an Adonis.

JT: He's a hard worker. He’s a scrapper. My man is from Australia.

Greg: Another great country close to Australia is New Zealand where Stephen Adams is from.

JT: I think we have a little bit of a feud that goes beyond basketball between these two. I like to speculate the play in question was actually Ingalls, who wasn't called during the game. It was only after the game when they were reviewing it.

Greg: I don't agree with that.

JT: Hear me out here. Let's see what happened first.

Greg: No I'd rather get angry first, but I guess I'll let you finish.

JT: Steven Adams is setting a pick and Ingels was kind of coming behind him and gave him a little back knuckle tap on the nuts. Adams, don't forget this is the same guy who Dremon Green kicked square in the nuts last year during the playoffs-

Greg: Square in the fucking beanbag. This guy that has some of the most notorious nut shots.

JT: This is certainly one of the worst. I'll never forget that shot that he took from Jerry Mott. This wasn't nearly as bad as a little, I never fucking did this in the locker room, but like as they say boys do, to each other in the locker room. A little tap, and then the next play when Adams is coming down the court he shoves Ingel’s elbows in as he's rolling by and they call Adams for the technical. They didn't call the nut tap until after the game was over. 15 K to my man Joe Engels. He signed a huge deal last season. He's been very candid about the fact that he makes ton of money.

Greg: He makes way more money than he probably should. 15k is not gonna keep him up at night.

JT: This puts me over the top with Joe Ingles Gregg. I love this guy so much I'm buying a jersey. I'm buying a fucking Joe Ingles jersey. I don't even know if they'll have a smart jersey for my man, but I'm getting one.

Greg: There's no way they have a smart Jersey for your man.

JT: If they were smart I don’t think they would have a jersey for him Gregg

Greg: Who would have known that the feud between New Zealand and Australia would manifest itself in a nut shot on a basketball court in America. If that was a real nut shot I, and I don't have to be a

pro athlete to know how this goes, I have the equipment we're talking about here. If you get hit in the nuts hard enough that’s a foul.

Greg: It's gonna hurt and you know it’s a time out because Stephen Adams is gonna be like holy shit I'm in pain. If it didn't get to that point I don't see how you look back through the tape later and say oh look at that. That's that's a foul right there. That's something we need to fine. You can't go through the tape and look for fines that's unacceptable. If you get away with it during the game that's just how it goes. In this age of going back, and not even just instant replay or any sort of review, going back and reviewing the entire game for infractions, that's insane.

JT: They're just gunning for my man because they know he's hot. They know that if they don't slow him down he's the next Steph Curry. Without a doubt.

Greg: Oh hell no,

JT: Yes.

Greg: With that we will go on to the Phoenix Suns. The Phoenix Suns are imploding before our eyes. They were an awful team to begin with, and this year they're even worse. I thought they were supposed to be better.

JT: That was my understanding. I didn't think  they were gonna be this bad this year, but they are really bad. One thing in particular that's going wrong for them is their player Eric Bledsoe who tweeted that he did not want to be there.

Greg: Quote, “I don't want to be here,” I've never tweeted that about my job. I'm sure you have not either JT. He felt like that was necessary to do and it was going to help him out. The Suns weren't having it. They

took a harder line with things than I expected. How do you feel?

JT: Well first he says I don't want to be here, then they asked him about it and he says I'm talking about being at the salon with my girlfriend, that's what I meant when I said I don't want to be here. So first you say you don't want to be here then you don't even have the nuts to say yeah that's true I'd rather not be here? You make up a story, not even a good story, nothing behind that story holds up. It's bullshit. It's weak. You're just looking for attention. Then the Suns GM says I don't buy your bullshit, we don't want you back. I couldn't believe he sent him home. I could not believe that. You almost never see this happen. They usually get dragged out for quite some time with this type of thing. Good for the Suns’ back of the house to kind of stand their ground. They definitely took a harder line than I expected. I thought that was good.

Greg: You a little note which felt like a hot take. You asked an important question. What is that question about the Phoenix Suns?

JT: I think at every point in a franchise, wherever they are, this question should be asked. Is this working out here? We pose that question to the Phoenix Suns. Does the Phoenix Suns franchise make sense in Arizona? Is that a city and state deserving of a billion dollar NBA franchise?

Greg: Do you think the city is why they're bad?

JT: I don't know. I know a couple people in Arizona, and I don't want to speak for more than the couple that I know, but there’s a lot of electronic dance music Greg. Beading and crafting of necklaces, jewelry made of plastic beads, I see a lot of that. I don't know if they have professional basketball at the top of their list for things that that mean something to them.

Greg: I can keep a list of things, so I if I'm ever looking for a new basketball city, it has to be low on beads, beading, bead related materials, and above all else you can't have any EDM. As long as there is no EDM, no electronic dance music then that is the place to be. So you don't like Phoenix, you don't think they deserve a team?

JT: That's basically what this comes down to, Miami is not a nice place either. Miami's shitty for a bunch of different reasons, but it’s a little better suited for basketball.

Greg: To round it out, we don't like Phoenix and we don't like Miami, but for two completely different reasons.

JT: I have a ton of other places I don't like, but we're not talking about me right now.

Greg: Moving on to someone we are going to talk about, Marquel Faults. His shoulder is what he's blaming for his horrific free-throw shooting motion. I didn't realize he was shooting that poorly in general. I didn't

recall his shot being that strange. His free throws have been horrific. This is somebody you've been watching, what do you think of his shoulder?

JT: We talked about Faults shooting free throws disgustingly Something's up there. It looks like something is terribly wrong with him. Today his agent came out and said yes,something's up. He had a bunch of fluid drained from his shoulder, and that's why the form looks like this.

Greg: Agents making statements is a red flag. If I know anything one thing about basketball, it’s if your agent’s talking for you, it's not good. Unless it's about your contract,they need to not be talking. They're just covering for you.

JT: If you're recovering from some type of procedure, and you're unable to go through the normal movements you do for your job, why the fuck are you playing? Why are you playing professional basketball if you're if your body isn't right? You see almost nine times out of ten when someone is injured teams always play it conservatively.These guys are just worth so much cash it doesn't make any sense to risk injuring

them for an extended period of time. If this Faulse thing is true, if he's recovering, get him out of there. Get him out of there and rehab it properly. Don't risk further injury.

Greg: This story makes absolutely no sense. He's on the 76ers and they will not let him play back to backs. They won't make him play ending minutes, not even extendedminutes. They won't let him play normal

Minutes. Ben Simmons sat out the entire year last year so this is not a team that's afraid to sit people for a while. That’s not what he's saying. There's something's not right about this. I'm gonna call it right now, this man is going to be a bust. He doesn't look like he has the fire. I thought the same thing the first time I saw him. Hiis number gotpushed up somehow. He had good momentum behind him. He was gonna be the number one pick. That's all you kept hearing, was he's the number one pick, he's the best player. There's so many other guys that have already proven themselves, and they look better than him. He's gonna be a loss. I'm putting it in stone and on tape right now Mark Fultz is a bust.

JT: Damn Greg, it’s like that?

Greg; Yeah, it is like that. The next person we're gonna talk about, Jordan Bel, is another perfect example. This guy was drafted by the Chicago Bulls, and then traded for three million dollars from the Warriors. When you're trading somebody for cash that's insulting. In the league you need to be traded for a player. That man could have been traded for a professional basketball player, but instead it was just dirty dirty money. It seems like you're buying and selling people at that point. You're not trading anything. That's buying and selling people. I don't like trades that involve just money. People don't like it, it's a personal thing that I've always had. This is an instance where it happened, and the Warriors ended up with someone. I saw him when he played in college. This guy could jump. As the kids would say, he had hops, and it was

shocking to me that they would trade him for 3 million to the Warriors. I said this guy's gonna be good, well it turns out maybe he's not good, but he can certainly jump and he can certainly dunk. He did something that was a little tasteless during the game the other night against the Mavericks. They were up by a lot, he was on a fast break, and he threw it off the backboard and dunked it, basically a looping to himself. He did it not at home, which is a little more tasteful. He did it on the road which is very insulting It wasn’t right. You feel a little differently though?

JT: What about it is not right?

Greg: You're gonna be playing here for years. You don't need to get that out of your system right off the bat. We're a couple games into the season and you're a looping off the backboard to yourself? This is a team that's supposed to be disciplined. They're the champions. Steve Kerr's got all this control, and I don't like that they're gonna be playing that way. Draymond Green runs his mouth but we don't need him showboating too.

JT: People kill me Greg. What the fuck are you gonna get offended by next? This guy is a professional basketball player. People love dunks. There's three minutes left in the game, it's not like the game's over. Our man LeBron chirmed in on this. You know what he said? Quote, “We're all men. Stop me from dunking. We're not trying to hurt nobody. You play the game until it's over. He threw it off the glass and dunked it so what?” and quote.

Greg: If this was baseball-

JT: If this is baseball we’d all be asleep.

Greg: Oh shots fired! No, baseball is great. If this was baseball they'd be throwing the ball at his head next time he's at the plate. That's the kind of shit that would be happening for that kind of showboat.

It's tasteless.

JT: That’s why no one cares about baseball, because they let little things like that get to them. If that's what would happen in baseball that's stupid.

Greg: That's what they would do, throw it at you at the next time you got up.

JT: They probably throw it at whoever the best player on the team is when they get up. That's how they roll.

Greg: This was a nasty dunk. I don't want to take away from that.

JT: It was a great dunk. The guys on the bench didn't even know how to react because they knew it was nasty, but they knew it was a little naughty. It was fun to watch. If you don't like this kind of thing you're watching the wrong game. Spare me all this talk about classless and unspoken rules. This is exactly why people watch.

Greg: Act like you've been there before, that's what I'm saying.

JT: You know he's been there before because he can fucking dunk like a maniac.

Greg: All right, another great episode there JT. We're gonna be back next week with another episode. In the meantime you can follow us on twitter @doubledrivelers or you can email us at doubledrivelpodcast@gmail.com. Remember to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Podbean, or on Google Play. Thanks, and we'll see you on the Internet.

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08. Warriors Struggle - Bobby ‘One-Punch’ Portis - Lonzo Ballin’ - Hornets & Jazz Update - Hashmojis

Greg: Hello and welcome to another episode of Double Drivel. We are a weekly podcast offering a fan's perspective on the news and issues surrounding the NBA. Thank you for joining, us my name is Greg and I am joined as always by my co-host JT. You can find us on twitter @doubledrivelers or email us at doubledrivelpodcast@gmail.com.  JT what up my friend? JT: Not too much Greg, having a great week. My favorite time of the year, just a few days away from my birthday. Did you know that? Greg: I was quite aware. It's not just that I have you in my calendar like I always have, it's every social media platform on Earth that tells you your birthday is coming up.You really really can't miss it these days if it's a friend of yours. JT: Things are good, and the NBA season is in full swing. It's so great already. It's been fantastic. Greg: It has been very good. We got some great stuff to talk about. We got Golden State struggling, Lonzo Ball and his progress so far, we're gonna check on the Hornets and the Jazz and how they are doing, we have the NBA Twitter hashmojis, and we got a bunch more. We're gonna start with Mr. Bobby One-punch Portis. I know you were really excited about this story. Why don't you talk about what happened with Bobby Portis? JT: At Chicago Bulls practice Greg, not even during a game, Bobby Portis apparently- Greg: as the great Iverson would say, “we're talking about practice man.” JT: He fucking cold cocked his teammate Nikola Mirotic and fractured his orbital bone Gregg. The bone setting that holds the eyeball of your face, which is in your head. It's cracked. He cracked this part of his team mates’ face bone. Greg: And gave him a concussion right? JT: Yeah. With that kind of trauma you're talking concussion no doubt. Greg: What is going on at Chicago Bulls practice? Do you think Fred Hoiberg has any control of what's going on? Are there any assistant coaches? What exactly is happening that this can actually escalate to this point? JT: I have a take that is of course 100% speculation. Greg: The best kind. JT: You don't see this type of injury too much in the NBA. You do see this, I won't say often, but more regularly, in mixed martial arts. Those guys are punching each other in the face with four ounce gloves. I don't think this type of injury happens if two guys are squared up with each other in the NBA setting flapping their gums, pushing, and throwing a little shot. I think Portis sucker-punched him. Greg: Wow, that's a hot take. JT: I don't think Mirotic saw this coming at all. I think Portis loaded up with the big dominant hand, came up from from behind, and blasted him. Greg: You're obviously assuming he had his guard down. What if he’s assuming because he's at practice and he's with his teammates he can let his guard down a little bit? JT: Well my idea is that you don't receive a shot like this without seeing it coming, at least a little bit. There's gonna be some type of build up. Greg: Oh there was build-up. They said were going at it. JT: If two guys who are building all this tension towards this one event you would think that they're also on the defensive a little bit. They’re not going to let their guard down completely. Maybe Portis snuck up on him and gave him a  haymaker from Hell. Greg: With all the build-up it got to the point where they're punching each other. You don't feel like anyone should have jumped in at that point and realized things were escalating? No one got between them before this happened. That's where it's completely out of control. JT: That's a less fun avenue to talk about.You would think there's plenty of fucking handlers and assistant coaches monitoring these millionaire athletes making sure they don't get caught up in this petty shit. What's going on in Chicago I have no idea.Who knows what's really going. It could be anything. Greg: For real. It's a mess. The Golden State Warriors are one and two right now. I don't think anyone expected them to have two losses at this point. Everybody blew smoke up their asses all summer. They told them how great they were, how they weren't going to lose anygames next year, and how they’re gonna get handed another title. I was skeptical of that. It looks like there was a reason that they don't seem to have their shit together. Curry and Durant ejected together last night in a loss against Memphis. Curry threw his mouthpiece like a little bitch. There's no other way to put it. He threw his mouth piece like a little bitch. JT: He threw it at the ref Greg! Greg: Did you see Steve Kerr and his sarcastic reply, “They need to you get rid of him for 10 games for doing that.” That's fucking bullshit. Everybody else in the league can keep themselves under control and not throw their mouthpiece, none the less in the the the direction of an official. It's insane. You can't let that shit go down. You can't let them get special treatment. Their heads are getting big. You can see how it's going. Durant thinks he is unbelievable. Curry does too. They're not playing that great. They're losing. JT: Something's up there. Something is up in Golden State. This is not the way it felt or looked last season. I think something's up with Durant, something having to do with the way the team views the way he spent the off season with his silliness on on Twitter. Greg: He spent too much time and that Cole Cashwell guy. It's been nothing but an anchor at his neck. JT: If you think there's only one Cole Cahswell, and there's gotta be more- Greg: There’s  probably a Colisha Cashwell. There's at least one female that was defending him. JT: They're not playing great basketball. They're losing to Memphis and getting their best two players ejected in the process at the end of the game. Getting ejected at the end the game is the worst you could do in that type of situation. Sometimes like a coachwill purposefully say something to a ref to get himself ejected to you motivate his team. That's a tactic, but for your two stars, you're gonna check to the end the game. You're not in control there. It's spiraling a little bit. It was starting to derail. Greg: This was a very "me too" way of getting kicked out. It was tag-along. It made no sense. JT: That's exactly what you don't want someone like him to do in that situation. You would want that other heavy-duty offensive power to be there. They need to check themselves a little bit. This isn't what you want. Greg: It's one thing for Draymond to act like that, but when Durant's responding that way, that's not cool. To flip off or flash his ring finger to the crowd on the way out? Other people have titles. LeBron doesn't handle himself that way. As they say, act like you've been there before. Get your shit together. Act like a man. Flashing your ring at the crowd in in Memphis? Those people have nothing. They have some barbecue, and they have Fed Ex. What more do those people have? You need to shit on them and show them a ring? JT: That team needs to settle a little bit. They need to settle into being who they are, which was is mostly a super team. Everyone was talking about them being a dynasty and it hasn't showed up yet. Straighten up boys. Deflate those heads a little bit. I don't think Steve Kerr helps. He looks like he's just enabling it with his replies. If they want to keep losing games, keep going that way. Greg: Did you see the Lakers at all? Have you watched Mr. Lonzo Ball play any of the two games? JT:  I haven't watched them play live. I've just caught up in the highlights. Greg: We all saw the highlights on opening night when Patrick Beverley tore him up, but Patrick Beverley is an unbelievable defender. I couldn't judge the young man by that. JT: I can judge Patrick Beverley, and I would say that he is an animal. That guy played defense like you want people to play defense. Greg: Before the game standing outside the locker room screaming that he wanted a piece of him? He was a little bitch. He didn't say exactly who it was, he just referred to him as the guy he wanted. JT; I think that's really great. If you're gonna get things going that's how you do it. That's the kind of stuff I would expect from Patrick Beverley. That was wonderful. I loved that. He did get things flipped around against Phoenix, which is an awful team, an absolutely terrible team. He was one assist away from a triple double. Greg: Phoenix might be the worst team in the league. It seems like watching them play the one game, and then seeing some highlights, they're not doing well. They're disgusting. JT: They're pretty terrible. Do you remember they were one of the teams Kyrie was meeting with, and there was a chance he was going there? Could you imagine?   Greg: What the hell kind of reporting is that? Did he really ? Was there a possibility? JT: There's no way. Maybe he got a phone call. If he did take a phone call I guess it's fair game to report that. Why not? It's not going that much better for him in Boston than it would be in Phoenix. Greg: You're really down on Boston, we should talk about that a little bit. JT: They had the horrific injury. Kyrie left the court the other day, when they were playing the76ers, and a fan was yelling something about him and LeBron. Kyrie told the guy to suck his dick. What are these people? They never responded to fans. We've talked about how many things so far? Three different things. We've talked about multiple people responding to fans or interacting with fans somehow. That's insane. Kyrie told that guy to suck his dick, the guy got it on video, and the league find him $25,000. It's the second game of the season. What do you think every fan's gonna be screaming at this guy for480 more games? Have you been to Philly? Those are the biggest bunch of assholes on Earth. That's their job. I haven't decided which game I'll be going to this season, but if I might have to yell that myself. Greg: If he's gonna get it from anybody it might as well be from you. You know the people around you high five your ass if you're right by the tunnel. If you're screaming at him on the way out, that's beautiful. Don't give us any ammunition man. That's something you're sensitive to. They come on thin-skinned. Little bitch. That's him man, that freaking guy. All right, after the break we will check in on the Hornets and the Jazz, and we got the NBA hashmojis. We're gonna go through some of the best and worst of those. JT what do you have a Utah Jazz update? JT: At three games into the season we stand at two wins and one loss. Last night we won an upset victory versus OKC, and the defense Greg was amazing. Stifling defense. Greg: Though to be the Jazz. JT: What's that supposed mean? Greg: It means you guys are weak in other places, like offense. You have to stand up on defense. JT: We did, and we won a game that people thought we wouldn't. The Jazz are developing this identity. They don't have a superstar per se, but it's turning into a balanced offensive effort. We got four guys all averaging about 14 points a game, which is kind of okay as long as the defense is amazing, which it has been. Things are good. Greg: That's what we said was gonna have to happen in the West. There are some high scoring teams out there, and Oklahoma City is one of them. If you guys kept them down then that's your first test and looks like you passed it. JT: Yep, and kept Westbrook cranked to six points. That's pretty damn good. Not a lot of people did that last year. No six points on two for 11 shooting, which we'll take that all day. Greg: If there's any other questions I could ask, whether the Utah Jazz, I don't know- JT:  Don't be a shithead Greg: Did anyone have the poops possibly? Anything like that happen? Any sort of issues with any players that miss any games for any reason? JT: I think I know what you're talking about. We did have a player who missed a little bit of playtime with some gastric distress. Greg: It's just slightly important who that player is. Who was that player? JT: Rodney Hood Greg:  Rodney I don't show up for the playoffs but I show up for this toilet seat Hood. What is up with this guy? What is going on? What is up with Rodney Hood? You need him. All we talked about is the lack of offense on your team, and this guy does this to you? Was Michael Jordan ever out with the poops? Michael Jordan had something called the flu okay? What is this guy doing? Was eating at the same sandwich place  Gordon Hayward ate last season? What is going? JT:  Better for it to happen right now in October, than for them to have these issues in the spring. He has an emotional stomach okay? I can relate to this. It's not his fault Greg. He just cares so much that it affects his body. Yes he had the poops, and he couldn't play this- Greg: You know, there's nothing better than saying the poops. It may be the most juvenile thing on the planet, but you know that's why he was out. One of the tweets we saw said that, and it made me laugh. It's still making me laugh. JT: We will not fault him for this. He will come back stronger because of this/ Greg: We'll move on to Charlotte. They are one-on-one at the moment, and they lost to a decent team. I'm telling myself Detroit Pistons is decent. They won against a very bad team, the Atlanta Hawks, and watching them play they're a middle team. I'm staring at the most middle of teams, and  I can't imagine that they're gonna be anything higher than an eighth seed. A lot of these teams are better, especially in the East. I've watched Orlando beat the Cavaliers, that was a great game. They tore up the Cavaliers. They beat them. The Magic are better than  people expected. There's a lot of teams in the East that are gonna be sleepers. The Hornets are not one of them. JT: What does that mean Greg? Greg: Sleepers? Did you expect Orlando to be good? To make the playoffs in the East, I don't think that makes you good/ JT:  You keep saying that. These are decent teams. They're not just gonna be walkover teams like everybody thought. They play reasonable teams. They're gonna get wins like they always would have. I don't think they're automatic w's if you play the magic. The magic look good, they look solid. Last night I was impressed. Greg: They're not that good. JT: They scored many more points than I ever thought they could possibly score. They look pretty alright. Greg: We'll see. Also not impressed with the Hornets. Buzz City, not where I want to be. That's what happens, highs and lows. That brings us to the hashmoji. The Charlotte Hornets have their hashmoji. I'm not sure if the team's pick these or the NBA. The teams must have submitted them. I'm sure the NBA reached out to them and said you need a hashtag name. I think they started this last year. Some of them still seem to be the same as last year, but some of them have changed. There are some lazy ones on this list JT, and it is pretty bad. There's teams that just put no imagination to this at all. The Celtics, Knicks, Rockets, and Pacers, it's just their names. It's just Pacers, Rockets, and so on. That's completely lazy. Why do that JT? JT: Yeah tag me in on this one. I got the fire. This is a Twitter thing. When you type it, the hash tag and then whatever the phrase or word is, your team's logo pops up right alongside of it. I love that. I think it's cool. It looks great. A lot of these fuckers just mailed it in. Some of these teams have really clever things that speak to a larger picture, and some of these teams just use their name. Yea man, so that is weak but it gets way worse. What if you couldn't even think of something as plain as your name and you wanted to have something that was way worse than that? Some of my favorite teams want us to hate our hashtag. Heat culture? I don't know what that means. what the fuck does it mean? is it a Pat Riley thing? should I be slicking my hair back? I'm not sure. I don't know what heat culture is. Is this like a warm-blooded group of people that think about things that make them hot? Don't tell me it's a Miami thing, because then it has to be like Cubano sandwiches and meth. Greg: I thought they were more bath salts. JT: You think more people do bath salts in Miami than meth? Greg: I thought so JT: We'll get Mitch on that. We didn't even factor cocaine in but whatever. Other especially shitty hashmojis:  #doitbig Greg. Who do you think that's for? I don't like it. Without knowing anything, what city or region does that spark in your mind? Greg: I don't know. JT: It doesn't make any sense for who it is. You shouldn't know because it's stupid and it makes no sense. Greg: I don't know. I don't know who that is. Which one is it? JT: It's the pelicans. You didn't automatically put that together? Do it big and the pelicans, come on. Greg: I thought for a minute was this other stupid hashtag we got, the stupid Brooklyn Nets one. JT: it was also the hashtag of several porns that were released last year. That's two letters away from we get hard which is very awful.  One of these is far above the biggest piece of shit. I had to google this, which I don't like to do. Hashtag capital letters MFFL. What the fuck does that mean? What does it mean? Greg: I wouldn't even look it up. I didn't even want to. I'm gonna tell you, I'm here to hate it. I got banned for life from the Mavericks. JT: It is indeed Mavericks. Greg: I solved the fucking puzzle. That's great. JT: No, that's really bad. Who in the world thought of this, said it was okay, and convinced a bunch of other people that it was okay? This is stupid marketing. Genius Mark Cuban has this as his hashtag. How would Mark Cuban think this is okay? Greg: I can't imagine it's the worst one. JT: it's the worst one by far. Sacramento proud is on that list too. We didn't even bring that one up go Spurs. They put no effort in. It says go Spurs go, and MFFL is still worse than that. Give me anything to work with. Just tell me something about you and your story. But just letters? MF is motherfucker right? Greg: Yeah, and FL. Motherfucker for life. It looks like motherfucking Florida. That's what it looks like. JT: Whatever Texas, sucks for them. We've been very negative. We took a shit on this pretty hard. So far anything positive you like there's two great ones that are better than the others, no, there's three. You put one on here that's not good. Greg: Don't tell me  you don't like pure magic. I thought that was pretty good. What else are they gonna put? I thought that was fairly slick. Pure magic. Pure fucking magic boom! JT: That's not good. What does that mean? That that's just your name again. You're saying you are indeed the team you said you were. Greg: I am confirming that we are indeed the magic. JT: To me it almost makes me think that up until now you were not in fact the team you said you were. Greg:  I don't think that's true at all. That doesn't imply that in any sort of way. It's just a word or two. JT: They have a pretty big definition. That one sucks. It's pretty bad. Greg: Compared to the rest of the list that one actually bubbled to the top, because there's some really bad ones on here. JT: Yeah I'll give you that. It's not terrible, but some of the ones that are great, and maybe even in competition for the first place lot is Milwaukee with hashtag fear the deer. I absolutely love it. Fear the deer, the best one, hands down. Greg: Yeah it's cool. JT: The Jazz who have hashtag take note. That's a reference to their jazz note symbol which is their logo. They use it usually based around that singular Jay note.  I like a nice pun. I like your team's also Greg. I like buzz city. Greg: I think buzz city works because a little pun works in there. There's rip city for a Portland. That was actually named that. They get to use that, and it works very well for them. JT: There were two things that I wasn't aware of. I knew that Toronto claims some sort of ownership of the north as it were, and they have the we the north. I've seen that the past couple playoffs when they got eliminated. The Timberwolves also have one, all eyes north. Greg: That makes no sense to me, because Toronto is the north as I've been told. I'm very confused. There seems to be some ownership issues of the northern section of things. JT: I always liked we the north for the Raptors because they are in Canada, and a bit isolated. They have this kind of Game of Thrones house stark tie-in, which is like the most popular show that you don't watch Greg. Greg: Yeah, makes me sleepy. I don't like it. JT: Minnesota slipped in the back door and I don't think it works for them. They had this cool thing, I don't remember exactly what it was last year. The herd or the pack or something? That made more sense, the wolf pack kind of thing. If they don't have a wolf reference they fail. Greg: This is another example of piggybacking. The idea doesn't quite suit you, so suck an egg Minnesota. Get your own hashmoji. There were too many assholes in the room trying to make a decision. That's a groupthink answer right there. We are going to do predictions right now. What do you got JT? JT: Do you think the professional basketball team from Boston will make the playoffs? Greg: The Celtics? Of course they are gonna make the playoffs. I don't think that you really you think- JT:  You were battling me before saying there weren't good teams in the East. You were telling me that the Orlando Magic, that I know are good because I've seen them play- Greg: I was there. I watched them play, and they're good, but they're not better than the Celtics. Celtics are gonna play hard. Kyrie is obviously pissed off. He's telling fans to suck his dick and shit, that guy's fired up. if he doesn't get injured maybe he can keep shit together. He was the one who I thought was gonna get injured. JT: You felt an injury coming? Greg: There's too many people in the league. I've been watching football this year, people have been getting injured left and right. We had this in the first week of basketball. We had some season enders right off the bat, with some big people, and you're playing the numbers. If you have a bunch of superstars on your team and everybody's playing like they're playing, especially in Boston, they're playing hard. Somebody's gonna get injured. I didn't think it was gonna be anything like that. I'm not gonna act like I saw something like that coming, but Kyrie's knees have always been a problem. I thought they would've been the first thing to act up, almost like Chris Paul. He played the one game for the Rockets, and now he's like old man Chris Paul. He's got to sit out a couple weeks, and get his shit together. JT: That whole thing in Huston, I don't know if that's gonna workout. I'm right on the fence with Boston. I'm gonna go way to the other end of the spectrum. I don't think they're gonna have what it takes to pull together and make the playoffs. If  they do, seventh eighth seed maybe. Greg: I don't think there's any way. Even if there are better teams in the East, I don't think there's any way they drop below fifth. JT: It's on tape now so, it's on like Donkey Kong.  We can always jump back and say we're gonna see what's up a couple months from now. Greg: We're gonna be back next week with another episode. In the meantime you can follow us on twitter @doubledrivelers, you can email us at doubledrivelpodcast@gmail.com, subscribe to the show on iTunes, Podbean, or GooglePlay, and until next week, see you on the Internet

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07. NBA Opening Night - Cleveland Cavaliers vs Boston Celtics - Gordon Hayward’s Gruesome Ankle Injury

Greg: Hello and welcome to a special opening night episode of Double Drivel. We are normally a weekly podcast offering a fan's perspective on the news and issues surrounding the NBA, but tonight we are here for an opening night special. Thank you for joining us. My name is Greg and I am joined as always by my co-host JT. You can find us on Twitter @doubledrivelers or email us at doubledrivelpodcast@gmail.com. JT

it is opening night. what is up my friend?

JT: I am so excited my friend. I cannot believe it is finally opening night and the big game has actually already finished. The Celtics verse the Cavs. I can't wait to talk about it with you.

Greg: Do you believe that they actually played basketball on a court today with people watching, teams, and a score? They played actual basketball! We're not talking about trades. We're not talking about beefs. We're not talking about all the trash that you can't stand. We have actual games to talk about. Well, game. The other one is in progress right now. They have that disgusting ring ceremony going on, but we'll get to that later.

JT: Boots on the ground Greg. It's over. The Cavs have defeated the Celtics by a score of 102 to 99. This game was chock full of hot action, and I would love to tell you about something that happened during this game. may I?

Greg: There was a ton of news, huge news, but please go on

JT: One player in particular had a performance that I don't think any owners prepared for tonight Greg. Do you know who I'm talking about?

Greg: Was it Jalen Brown?

JT: Pretty good. He looked pretty solid tonight, but no.

Greg: Was it Derrick Rose?

JT: Derrick Rose took the second most shots on the Cavs. Did you see that guy took 14 shots tonight? Who the hell is Derrick Rose to think he can take 14 shots? Derrick Rose showed up a little bit more than I think anyone was ready for tonight Gregg. Derrick Rose looked phenomenal. Did you see him? He did not show any signs of injury. He was shucking and jiving.

Greg: He looked pretty good, but every time he did leave the ground I was worried what would happen. It still worries me every time I see the guy play.

JT: You know the player I'm talking about Gregg, is LeBron James.

Greg: Whoa, LeBron James playing better than you expected?

JT: Better than I expected. in fact, he looked like Peake LeBron. Like play off LeBron. My man looks so good. Not missing the beat, looking strong, looking just incredible.

Greg: That's how he tends to look though. That's just his thing. That guy comes to play every single day. It's unbelievable, just amazing. LeBron James, definitely the big news story out of that Cavs Celtics game. There is really nothing else to talk about, nothing else major happened.

We're burying the lead here, let's get to the real action. It was pretty gruesome. I don't think there's a better word, you got a better word than gruesome?

JT: Gordon Hayward had one of the worst ankle injuries I've ever seen in real life. It's not in real life, but like on TV right in front of me. That's real life to me.

Greg: That counts. That is probably one of the most gruesome ankle injuries I've ever seen. It wasn't pointing in the correct direction. It didn't look like an ankle looks. There were so many things that were wrong. I'm not good at looking at injuries or anything. I can't stand it. It makes me sick to my stomach. I feel it on me. Whatever it is I feel it, and it makes me feel bad. What about you? I know he was on the Utah Jazz for a long time. I know there was some sour grapes with him leaving, but yeah nobody wishes for that to happen to anybody.

JT: Let it let it be known Greg, I hate this motherfucker. I hate Gordon Hayward. I hate how he chose to play his exit from Utah. It was not the way you want to do it, but not how you want to see anyone go down. This looks like a nasty injury. They're calling it a fracture, but if this is a fracture man, I don't know what a break is. This shit was bent so far backwards-

Greg: I thought a fracture was a break? What's a fracture? A contusion is a break a fracture?

JT: It is my understanding from what I've read on Twitter that a fracture-

Greg: Oh my god, Twitter! Holy shit, my Twitter medical degree tells me that he's got a break. Just cut it clean off and hope the next one that grows back is better.

JT: If you're a sports fan I think you want it to be a fracture more so than a break.

Greg: If you're a sports fan you don't want that happening to your guy. I don't think you'd give a shit what it is. My god it was disgusting. It was a botched alley-oop. It was just not good. You're going to Gordon

Hayward five minutes into the first the first game fucking. He does an alley-oop from like the three-point range, are you fucking kidding me? Did they do this in practice? Is that why? I just I don't understand why your high-flying Gordon Hayward into the fucking paint up against LeBron and Tristan Thompson are you fucking kidding me? I can't believe that happened, but that's the risk all along. You make these teams, you assemble all these people, and in a flash somebody's injured. They're gone, and then you don't have them all season. The best laid plans of mice and men and yada yada you know?

JT: We got some hot info off of the Google machine from our friend Mitch in the back. A fracture and a broken bone are the same thing Dr. Greg. That's one point for doctor .

Greg: What is a contusion? Can I connect to mitch again? Can I throw a contusion to Mitch?

JT: Mitch can you check out what the Google machine says about the contusion? What is contusion? Meanwhile Greg, not good for Boston and their high hopes of fucking run in the mill on the

east this season. This is your boy, you paid a 138 million dollars for this guy. That's a problem. When I looked at the roster tonight, and the people that were playing, those guys are playing hard. They like playing for that coach. This is not a shitty team. Do you think that they can get by without him?

Greg: They don’t know shit. They don't know exactly. They don't have anything. They're not used to having him so they can just go on without him. I don't think that he's that special of a player that they can't adapt or find somebody to fill his role. What does he do best? You watched him for how many years? What is his skill? What are they gonna miss the most with Gordon Hayward twisted up like a pretzel in the ankle?

JT: Nothing at the moment. In Utah the offense was built around him and that's not the case in Boston. They have Kyrie, who can create a double for himself at any point, and Hayward was like a best case

second option. Brilliant game plan by Brad Stevens, but I don't  know at this point when you have this 35 million dollar-a-year players sitting on the bench with a broken ankle for god knows how long –

Greg: Oh my god I wish we could overlay a huge picture of that disgusting ankle any time we're talking about it. You got to be able to see it. It's just awful. None of them could look at it. The guys on the court, the guys off the court, they all  walked immediately. They must have turned and looked real quick, because that shit wasn't pointing in the right direction. He's sitting there screaming in pain, and they look down for a second, saw that that's why, and they all walked away.

JT: Greg, Mitch says contusion is a bruise. That's when there  is bleeding under the skin that may or may not be due to trauma. It's like a black and blue okay? That's what a contusion is. Way less severe than a

fracture or break. A fracture is a break and that's a problem.

Greg: You don't want that when you're playing basketball. You need nickels and neat knees and legs and fibbies and tibias and all that fun stuff. you don't want to break those.

JT: These guys are always thinking big picture, and you don't want to ruin your shit in the attempt to get back in the game sooner. You have more worth if you play longer.

Greg: Did you see that a Skip Bayless was a getting a little loud about all this? He was running his mouth. He had some comments that people are just not happy with. He took the opportunity as soon as the injury happened to jump on Twitter and talk about how this opened up a chance for LeBron to lose a sixth title much easier this time. Everybody always goes to their own selfish nature when things happen, but that just seemed dirty. It was minutes after the injury happened, and the only thing that he could think of was that this was gonna make it easier for LeBron to lose another championship.

JT: As the kids say, he is throwing a lot of shade. What's up with Skip? LeBron often takes the high road, and to take the opportunity for an injury? You can say a lot of things about these NBA players, but when someone gets injured you rarely if ever see anyone talking shit about someone who has had the ill fortune of taking a bad hit. Fuck you Skip Bayless, that's like the lowest hanging fruit. Kudos to LeBron for you taking a moment to embrace a word while he was down. He seemed to say a word or two to him give him a couple pats in the back. All these NBA players who have taken a moment to say something on Twitter take the high road. It's not even the high road, It's just the fucking road of being human. You all are just playing basketball. I hate the shit out of Gordon Hayward, but not in this aspect.

Greg: Paul George put out a message out on-

JT: If anybody knows how to go down with a horrific injury in your leg, it's Paul George.

Greg: He immediately put a message out on Twitter. Brian Winthorse said that LeBron went to the Cavs locker room where they had Gordon Hayward, He checked them out at halftime just to see how everything was. Classy guy. Plays basketball like a bastard. You could say a lot of stuff about LeBron, but you cannot tell me he's not a good guy.

JT: The average recovery time for that particular injury is six to eight weeks. That's about two months. We're in October now Greg. Hayward could be returning sometime in the new year.

Greg: The obvious question would be, is that six to eight weeks for a world-class athlete, or is that six to eight weeks for some guy that goes and sits at a desk all day and doesn't actually use his ankle?

JT: Greg unfortunately we didn't pay the retainer on our on our office position, so information is limited to whatever Mitch can get for us.

Greg: I understand.

JT: He's is not a Karl Malone type. Reckless abandonment, throw caution to the wind. What we remember of Gordon Hayward-

Greg: No, I can't imagine that being his MO. I'm always amazed how many players have gone through Utah I was saw the thing about Richard Jefferson the other day and I forgot that he was on Utah for a while.

JT: He's a Jazz man Greg.  There's so many people who cycle through that team. It's actually incredible when you look back but people don't stay everybody cycles through. I think that's a problem.

Greg: We've gone off on a tangent here. Anything else you noticed in the game? I had one thing that made me laugh. At the end of the Celtics game Kyrie went to his spot behind the three-point line that he likes to go. The spot where he hit his famous shot over Steph Curry. He had LeBron guarding him and he took that shot. The shot was short. They lost immediately. He embraced LeBron, and LeBron embraced him, and then all the other Cavs lined up to do the same thing, but they all still had their custom handshakes that they did with him when he was there. It made me think of all the wasted custom handshakes they had. They all had these different elaborate things that they did with him, and now they won't do them anymore. It's amazing all the little things they have. They don't seem to harbor any ill will about him leaving. It kind of cuts down on the drama just a bit from the NBA

JT: The handshakes were looking pretty good to me. Are you are you saying they were all the same ones from last season?

Greg: I don't know if they're the same from last season. I don't know how often they change it. I know that the Kevin Love Kyrie Irving handshake is different than the Kevin Love LaVon shake. 

 JT: It was a fun game. The Hayward shit was weird as fuck. It started off with that, and then the the Cavs totally took over for two quarters. Celtics came back at halftime, and it was competitive for sure. 

Greg: Brad Stevens is a good coach.

JT: They had some good still shots of him after the Heyward injury. He looked panicked. He looks scared. 

Greg: He planned so much. All they ever say is he's like a lunatic with how much he plans. It's like sitting on a chair and somebody rips a leg off.

JT: Contingency plans are something I think a lot of people don't plan for. Especially with these young coaches, it's interesting to see how they respond when shit hits the fan. I wouldn't say he immediately responded, but these are some of the subplots that make the NBA the greatest fucking thing in the world.

Greg: They were playing hard. I didn't expect them to be playing right to the buzzer like that. That was a good game. They was some quality basketball. It's great to start off like that.

I'd like to talk about the ring ceremony. What's your feeling on the ring ceremonies? Do you think they should even have it?

JT: I feel like this is a loaded question Greg. You know how I'm gonna feel about this.

Greg: If the Jazz won, and the next season on the first game they had the ring ceremony, would you say to yourself this sucks, or would you be like yeah, this is so good?

JT: It never makes any sense to do any type of ceremony outside of two weeks of the event. For them to be attempting to do anything related to last season, that's too far. That's disconnected. No one gives a shit yeah.

Greg: I don't think looking backwards is good in this instance.

JT: No one knows what you're talking about. It's so dumb. They should do it two weeks after like they do an awards parade. 

Greg: It's not even about the Rings, the people can’t see the rings. They're gonna do a big opening thing anyway for the team that won the championship. Having the actual physical ring ceremony is a bit unnecessary. You're right. That's a good point. You have an event within two weeks of something happening. After that you-

JT: Say it again, say it again. 

Greg That you're right? 

JT: Yeah 

Greg: Yeah yeah, you never hear that....

JT: I'm watching the Hayward break. Oh my god Greg. Oh fuck me.

Greg: It's terrible. It's absolutely terrible.

JT: As the night goes on you get better and better clips. This one's pretty goddamn good. 

Greg: There's one awful still where he's just laying there. He's looking down at his feet. 

JT: Who tossed that pass? Let's see who tossed that pass.

Greg: That's what I'm saying. Look how far away it was. It was like from three-point range. What are you doing? It's Gordon fucking Hayward.

JT: Its Kyrie Greg:

Greg: Reckless motherfucker. Selfish, reckless motherfucker, that's what I call him. That  flat earth bastard fucking throwing passes because he doesn’t understand gravity and the fucking rotation of the earth its gonna bring the ball down. He’s trying to get his man killed. Look who's defending. Is it Tristan Thompson and LeBron? 

JT: This is a play the Jazz ran all last season. You know who would love this? You know who is running the point in lieu of Kyrie Irving? 

Greg: George Hill?

JT: No, you’re fucking man Joe Ingles. If you google “Joe Ingles lob Gordon Hayward” you will see this play done at least six to ten times last season. Hayward starts a little further out during the Jazz plays. I think this is just a case of getting to know the spacing a little bit better and understanding how your new teammates respond to certain situations. The Jazz ran this play so many times last season, and Hayward finishes I'm gonna say 80 to 90% of the time. All of his big-time dunks that were highlighted, it's all an Ingles lob, just like this play. 

Greg: Did he do it into LeBron and Tristan Thompson though? Was that a Joe Ingles lob? Was he trying to get Hayward killed?

JT: I don't think Ingles would lead him into these fucking killers like that, but I can't be sure. D

Greg: Does that paint look open to alley-oops? Is that a lob lane to you? What the hell is going on? 

JT: This seems to me like something they talked about, and this is complete speculation, but they look at tape like “yo I hit this place so many times last season. Check the tapes. Look at it,” but in the times last season Hayward had a lot more open floor. This is way too crowded.

Greg: You're going into a couple pillars in there, and you ain't winning that battle, as we saw.

JT: So soon Greg. As basketball plays go that's fairly high risk. Why do that so soon the season? 

Greg: Doesn't make any sense to me.

JT: The hot clips are coming. We have so much evidence to back this up.

Greg: He's just throwing the lob in there without any regard. He practiced against those guys. He knows LeBron and Tristan Thompson. If they're in the lane and some guys coming in for an alley-oop do you think they're letting that happen? Do you think that's the kind of thing even in practice they were letting happen? No. It’s just reckless.

He's looking for a clip. He's looking for that SportsCenter highlight. This is a bad play. 

Greg: Do you have anything else you would like to go over in our special opening night edition?

JT: We'll see how the Warriors game plays out. If we need to we'll be here tomorrow night.

Greg: We certainly will. Great episode. We'll be back next week. In the mean time you can  follow us on twitter @doubledrivelers or you can email us at doubledrivelpodcast@gmail.com. Subscribe to the show on iTunes, podbean, or Google Play. Until next week see you on the Internet.

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06. Lebron Sauvignon - Rodney Hood Robbed of a Contract - CJ McCollum Off the Bench

Greg: Welcome to another quickie episode of Double Drivel. We are a weekly podcast offering a fan's perspective on the news and issues surrounding the NBA. Thank you for joining us. My name is Greg and I am joined as always by my co-host JT. You can find us on twitter @doubledrivelers or email us @doubledrivelpodcast@gmail.com. JT what up my friend?

JT: Christ Greg, I just want to talk about basketball. I'm tired of talking about fucking Twitter beefs and this bullshit. How long do we have we have?

Greg: A quickie episode worth, and two days of real time. I'm actually fairly excited. I love this stuff. This is why I watch basketball, not just for the exciting athleticism, the suspense, and all the other stuff you get. I love the little beefs, the fights, and all the trash. We are chock-full of that today.

JT: Fights? These fools don't fight Greg.

Greg: We'll get to that later, relax. We have a few little issues to get to, Rodney Hood, Mr. CJ McCollum making some poor decisions, and MJ and LeBron in wine country. We're gonna start with a quick little story about LeBron James. This really gets to my heart. He had a quote this week that shined a little light on himself. What was that quote JT?

Greg: Here's a quote from our man LeBron, “I'm not turning on data roaming. I'm not buying no apps. I still got Pandora with commercials.” and quote.

Greg: How great is that? I personally love that. How do you feel?

JT: It's confusing to me man. It's funny to me how you can be so particular about penny-pinching in certain areas, but then in other areas have no problem spending money.

Greg: I can understand that not turning on data roaming. That's insane to just jump on any carrier. You never know who you're gonna end up on. I like that he doesn't like to waste his money. That makes me happy. Not buying apps, it pains me to say, but I can't remember the last time I bought an app. Especially an app that cost more than a dollar. I'm a sucker for a free app, or at worst a dollar. I don't like spending that. The $2 app I'm gonna hem and haw, and I'm gonna go back and forth. If it's $5, it might as well be five million. I'm not buying that app, it's just not gonna happen. I can understand where he's coming from. Pandora with commercials, he's probably on half of them and has to endorse them. He makes so much money off of commercials. He has to endorse the experience of listening to something with commercials like he has to act like he rides in a Kia and enjoys it.

JT: I can't see LeBron in a Kia IRL.

Greg: They got that huge Kia though so, maybe.

JT: One thing that LeBron seems to have no problem paying top dollar for is his beverage of choice.

Greg: Oh you have some inside info on Mr. James, and his, I don't even know what it is, like a merlot? Is that a red wine?

JT: Merlot is a red wine.

Greg: Oh yea, look at me. I got a bottle of Gatorade in my hand talking about some Merlot.

JT: This is not secret stuff. This took me just a minute or two on the old Google machine to find. People have compiled all the wines that Mr. James has tasted and enjoyed. and posted pictures of the bottles and labels on his Instagram over the years. And I tell you my friend, Mr. James, he's got an affinity for the upper echelon of cabernet sauvignon of the Napa Valley region of Northern California.

Greg: He spoke out on Twitter this week about the fires that are going on, something that you know a lot about. He spoke out in support of the Sonoma area and the Napa region.

JT: LeBron frequents the area during his offseason. He has a taste for a certain variety of wine that is very popular in the Napa Valley. May I throw some numbers at you Greg?

Greg: Oh please do.

JT: LeBron, who's not really willing to shell out a dollar or two for an independent developer who probably worked his tail off to buy or to create an app or game, has no problem paying-

Greg: I'm sure he doesn't pay.

JT: He likes a certain wine called Opus One Proprietary Red, and the cost for the public Greg comes in around $350 a bottle. Another one he enjoys, Staglin Family Vineyard’s Booth Bella Oaks is about $400 a bottle Greg.

Greg: Hm, yes, unquark one of those for me to.

JT: I've had the opportunity to drop in the Opus One winery on Highway 128 in the Napa Valley. At any other winery Greg, a tasting costs five, ten, dollars. At Opus, $180 to $120 Greg, just for tasting. Just to let my lips touch the bottle. So if we're gonna be conservative with our money Mr. James, perhaps we stay out of Opus One. Staglin’s not cheap either my friend.

Greg: That's why you have money. If you're not drinking expensive wine then you're not doing it right. He does all the other stuff right. He's got nice houses, nice cars, and an insane medical staff. You’ve got to drink the expensive wine, that's just part of the game. There's no other reason to be rich. It's one of the one of the top reasons. It's something you have to do. I support it.

JT: I feel no ill will towards our friend LeBron. We both love him very much, and I appreciate him bringing attention to the food and wine industry and in particular the region in Northern California affected by the fires. he is good people and we love him.

Greg: I saw some growers on the news and they said the best thing you can do is continue to buy our wine, continue to come and visit. It's not the end of the world. It's just some fires. Things will be rebuilt. Don't be scared away. Tourism is a big deal. Get out there.

There's no real way to transition, so I'll just go into it. CJ McCollum is going to be suspended for the first game of the season. It's for a stupid rule, but he was also stupid to violate it. It's a rule that's been instituted for a few years now. It's about leaving the bench when there is a fight. I'm gonna turn this over to JT because you were watching this as though it were your final for some sort of class. I've never seen you go over a video this much just try to figure out what exactly was going through his head. I'll let you explain JT, please take it away.

JT: When a scuffle takes place on the floor during active play players that are not currently playing, ie on the bench, may not leave the bench. You're not allowed to do it. In this instance Caleb Swanigan and Alex Len, two big men, positioning down low for a rebound. They got tangled up. A little shove here, a little shove there. This wasn't that serious of a scuffle as far as NBA scuffles go. None of these motherfuckers are trying to fight each other okay? No one's tried to fight in the NBA in like 20 years okay?

Greg: Bill Laimbeer was the last guy that was getting pissy or throwing fists. There hasn't been a lot since then.

JT: You're not trying to fight each other. Everyone should just shut this shit down because it's so stupid. These guys get mixed up, and then CJ McCollum takes four steps onto the floor. He doesn't touch anyone. Then one of the Blazers trainers or medical staff, some suited individual, comes and pushes it off. That gets you 86 for a game. He's gonna miss the first game of the season for taking four steps on the floor, doing nothing, and getting pushed off.

Greg: My only contention is it's not a new rule. It's probably been a rule close to as long as he's been in the league. I can't say that I feel bad for the guy.

JT: I can. This is so stupid. Especially because in the West, the Blazers are positioned similarly to the Jazz as far as projections go. They're both looking at competing for the final playoff spot. Every game matters. You're looking to win every single game. You need your best players available who aren't injured, and you're taking yourself out of the game for nothing. You didn't even get a chance to intimidate someone. You didn't get to send a message for next time these guys are in town you’re going to remember this. I think CJ just kind of forgot what he was supposed to do in this situation. He just let instinct take over.

Greg: You can't let a game go in the West. He's giving a game away.

JT:This is really taking it under a microscope, but at the very least you’re teammates are gonna have to play harder. If you look at the whole season maybe that takes a toll. Maybe that has an effect somewhere down the line. It's just so dumb.

Greg: It's actually pretty funny. Their first game of the season is verse the Phoenix Suns, who this whole incident occurred against.

JT: Advantage Suns, I have to say.

Greg: They gave up a nobody player. No one got suspended from that right, the two guys that were actually in the scuffle just got technicals? CJ was the only one that was actually dumb enough to go on the court. That's too bad.

JT: I've had the pleasure, the displeasure, of seeing Damian Lillard play opening day two years ago.

Greg: Oh, Dame D.O.L.L.A got them beats!

JT: He smoked the Jazz. He came out just 100% ready to go. Maybe Lillard is on point for game one and makes it no big deal. He could be dropping dimes everywhere. He's nasty Gregg.

Greg: He's a guy that's missed the all-star team a couple years because of various things. I think he may have made it last year. I know on his contract year, I think it was two years ago, he didn't make it. That was a big deal. He didn't expect to not make it. He was on the cover of the video game NBA 2k that year. To make that all-star team in the West, very tough in the West. Certainly not the East. It is so tough in the West because of something that people call super teams. A super team is some team with a lot of superstars. I don't consider the Warriors a super team.

JT: What the fuck?

Greg: Before Kevin Durant they were still winning. I guess now that they have Durant they are a super team. Fine, I'll take that back. The Warriors are a super team now. Previous to that they built their team. They did it the right way. That's how you're supposed to do it. Buying Durant was just a ridiculous cherry on the top of it all. There's a lot of teams in the league who are just building out the way of super teams. One person who does not like this is Michael Jordan of all people. Michael Jordan is an owner in the league. He is an owner of my favorite team, the Charlotte Hornets. His quote kind of worries me. He said with super teams you end up with 28 teams that are garbage and two that are good. That makes me think he's not talking about the Hornets as one of those two good teams. If even he knows his team is garbage how does that make me feel? I'm rooting for these guys every single night. He's not gonna lie. It concerns me that even the other owners know that they're up against very difficult odds.

JT: Not the best way to pump your people up man. Give us some fluff. Sell it a little bit.

Greg: He could say it just means we have to work harder to beat these supposed super teams, anything is possible, or me and Scottie weren't a super team. He could say other things. We needed Rodman to win. It's just too bad. He's probably right, but it makes me feel bad about my team and I don't like that.

All right well that's about it for today's episode. What'd you think JT?

JT: Greg can't we talk about my man Rodney Hood?

Greg: I tried to skip it. I did all I could to skip it. We can certainly talk about Rodney Hood. We're gonna end on some news-

JT: Greg he’s my man! Tell me your beef with my man!

Greg: I don't think he's good. You know what, fine, let's talk about this. It makes sense to talk about. Please continue. What are we talking about with Rodney Hood?

JT: S Jazz fans are hoping that Rodney Hood and jazz brass would come to a contract extension agreement before the season began or at the deadline, which was yesterday.

Greg: He wants his playoff performance to be the last thing in their mind before he signs some sort of contract or does negotiations?

JT: That's not a great way to phrase it. These guys get their rookie deal as soon as they get drafted. That lasts three years. Then they get their next deal wherever so you're not a rookie anymore.

Greg: You're not a rookie anymore, you're a man! You're in the league, and now that your man in the league, that's the kind of performance that you put on for us in the playoffs.

JT: I don't know why you have to keep phrasing it that way. It’s like, we have to do this next deal, and can we agree on it or or do you want to not agree on something? Then it goes to restricted free agency and he can shop around and hear what other teams have to say. Jazz aren't gonna lock him up where it gets to that stage. They're gonna let him play a little bit of basketball, see how he looks, and then shop his value around. It could work out fine for everyone, but depending on the individual it can leave a bitter taste in your mouth if he team you're playing for didn't want to settle up with you right away, worry about other shit, and want to see you perform more. You know I love Rodney Hood. It's all gonna work out great. He's gonna win Most Improved Player of the Year this year. It's not gonna be a big deal.

Greg: Mr. Hood woke up and realized that he didn't get this contract extension because of that sour taste he left in their mouth at the end of the playoffs last year. I bet you they gave him the chance. Now that that trader named Gordon Hayward is gone he's gonna have new opportunities. He's gonna have a whole new chance to prove himself. Maybe they're gonna give him the opportunity because they're very good about that in Utah. They're very giving there. They will give you the chance. We'll see if he takes advantage of it. If he has a performance like he did, and continues to play that way, then they made the right decision. I would not have resigned him either. I wonder who would be itching to get their hands on Rodney Hood. I wonder who the GM's are they're sitting around with him up on the big board. They got Rodney Hood penciled up as number one, like “f my man Rodney becomes available we're gonna make some moves. We're gonna make it happen to get Rodney Hood in a Magic uniform. What it’s gonna take to get you in Orlando Mr. Hood? I don't think so.

JT: You're a Hood hater. That's nice I see it and I recognize it, and that's alright. You'll see.

Greg: I must say, I was impressed with the Jazz in the final or the finals.

JT: Oh my god, last year verse the Warriors in the playoffs?

Greg: They played very hard. You can tell they’re a good team. They're coached well. If they had a better player where Rodney Hood’s spot was they could have made a little bit of a difference. He definitely let them down when the lights were the brightest and it mattered the most.

JT: So did a lot of other teams playing the Warriors. They wiped the floor with everybody last year. There's not a fucking mouthwash strong enough to clean your whore mouth Greg.

Greg: It's just true. I can't help it. You're not gonna beat the Warriors with players like him. I'd hate to take the gloves off on Rodney Hood of all people. You're not beating the Warriors with subpar players. You're not beating them with bullshit. The best player since Michael Jordan can't beat them. It's not about the players it's the supporting cast. He is not part of a supporting cast. That's troubling because somebody needs to beat them, and God forbid it be the Rockets. I hope it's Oklahoma City or somebody.

JT: You remember all this next time you want to skip a talk on my man Rodney Hood.

Greg: This is a great little great chat we had about Rodney Hood, you and I enjoyed it. We'll be back next week for opening night. In the meantime, follow us on Twitter @doubledrivelers, and you can email us at doubledrivelpodcast@gmail.com. Subscribe to the show on iTunes, podbean, or Google Play. We are also on Instagram so check us out. Until Tuesday, see you on the Internet.

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