Only One Mic Podcast
Carl Jerard, Brooklyn Dre, and JRob welcome you to The Only One Mic Podcast. We are joined each week by authors, activists, advocates, community leaders, and professionals from several walks of life who would like to offer their experience, expertise, or commentary on the various topics you will be interested in learning.
Only One Mic Podcast
Is the NBA Trash Now?
Has the NBA All-Star game fizzled out like a dud firework? We're lighting up the airwaves with a full-court press on the lackluster event that's become more sideshow than showdown. Tune in as we go hard in the paint critiquing everything from the half-hearted dunks to the scarce presence of true balling legends. We're not just armchair referees; we're calling out the big names – yes, LeBron, this includes you – challenging them to breathe life back into the game we adore. And don't get us started on the technical fouls and how they've defanged the once ferocious competitive spirit. It's a no-holds-barred conversation that's as fiery as a contested three-pointer at the buzzer.
We're also stepping off the court to survey the seismic shifts in American sports – from the NFL's African expedition to the European invasion in the NBA. The landscape is changing, with international talent reshaping the game, and we're dissecting what this means for the future of athletics and the place of African American athletes in the mix. This episode isn't just a rundown; it's a rally cry for a return to the gritty glory days and a reality check on the present state of play. Join us as we dish out our unfiltered take on the evolution of basketball and its warriors. No guests, just us, serving up raw insights that hit harder than a blindside pick.
Listen, let's get into the All-Star game, brothers, because Silver should be fired, man. Yeah, I didn't even realize there was an All-Star game. My nephew told me this like Saturday night, and I'm like what All-Star game? So I don't know because I don't watch too much network television, but this thing really promoted like that, or what man.
Speaker 3:See, it was promoted the way they normally do. The thing is is that it's turned to garbage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's trash. Not only did he tell me that, not even know it. Once he told me, I really wasn't interested anyway. You know what I mean? I'm like maybe it's my error, man, you know what I mean. They don't even play, yeah.
Speaker 2:Not even just the festivities before that man, the NBA dunk contest. Man, remember when the dunk contest would be something you ran huh?
Speaker 1:Highlight the whole weekend. Yes, yes, it highlighted the whole weekend. Man, it's like yeah. You can tell me that it wasn't. So let me ask y'all a question. For those of you that watched it. You know I'm speaking to the brothers here. You know what I mean. What was your thoughts on that Particularly?
Speaker 2:The dunk contest was trash.
Speaker 1:The whole good thing was trash man, blaine, lebron James, it was all LeBron folks, just for the context of this, you know, because again a person like myself who did not watch it, they're not, you know. Yeah, I didn't watch it.
Speaker 4:I'm about to say I'm charming out too, because I didn't watch it either. I didn't know it was on.
Speaker 1:And I'm quite sure a few people out you know in the audience probably didn't watch it. Give us some context on who was actually in the dunk contest, if you can please.
Speaker 2:I can't even remember. So some kid from the G League and yeah, Lil White guy.
Speaker 3:Lil White guy who won last year? Lil White guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, lil White guy, then I'm sad. Hey, then I'm sad. Philadelphia 76ers gave him a contract. This is when the dunk contest last year. Then he represented Philly last year when he.
Speaker 4:Last year he did.
Speaker 2:He was in the 60s they gave him like a week contract or something like that, just in the dunk contest.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was our black club.
Speaker 3:They probably knew the kid could dunk or whatever. You know what I'm saying. They wanted to try to put him on, but he ain't never playing the games. And then when he did play it was like garbage time.
Speaker 2:Oh, really Sad man yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna say this because this was a quote that I heard. They said this kid jumped over Shaq. So that's kind of impressive, you know what I mean. Like you jump over Shaq and the kid, jaylen Brown from the Celtics, jumped over some little blogger who liked 5-2. Sitting in a chair, so it's like what are we watching here?
Speaker 2:The sad part about it is man. I remember like growing up the dunking contest was exciting until, sad to say, until the Brown got in the lead.
Speaker 3:All the greats did the dunk contest, even Kobe. Yeah, kobe won the dunk contest with nice dunks.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And again I always say, man, the people can say what they want. I don't think he really competes, man. I think he plays the game, but I don't think he's really competing. He's really putting it on the line. You know what I mean. Like the greats want everything. Like he wants the dunking contest. You know some of the greats couldn't even shoot and gotten three point contests. You know what?
Speaker 3:I mean, they want it. All the greats want to beat you in flipping quarters. They want to win.
Speaker 1:The.
Speaker 2:Japanese, whatever it is, yeah, yeah, and then uh, Not LeBron.
Speaker 3:If he ain't got a stack team, he don't want to play.
Speaker 2:He don't want to play man. It's sad. And then uh, with Adam Silver man and all of this stuff that they're doing to make the game exciting. Thewhat is it?
Speaker 3:The NCCC championship the free free clubbing.
Speaker 2:Adding on another, what is it? Adding on another playoff game, all this other stupid. You know how you make it exciting. Play defense. There you go, bring defense back. You know what I mean. We got this, uh, you know this, uh, big three garbage, and you know. Just play defense and the game will go back to what it is. You know what.
Speaker 3:I mean Make people actually have to earn a check. Stop calling these tiki-tak technical files. Let's get back to where technicals are real technical, you know what I mean. And we go on. We've had some good competition.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they ain't like this is football or nothing. They ain't like you're going to get, like you know, a concussion for getting a hard foul or something like that. You know, I mean occasionally, I guess, but not, you know, every foul down field or something.
Speaker 3:You're not getting a real concussion. You're not getting a football concussion. You might just get bopped in the head and your head might hurt a little bit. But come on, man, you got to stop. I blame LeBron. Lebron don't want to compete. He don't want to compete in a dunk contest. If you're the best player in the league, supposedly, why wouldn't you? And you can jump, why wouldn't you want to go out there and dump and do it for the fans?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah and make All Star, All Star Week what it is. It's kind of like a fan appreciation thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:Like, you make a, you make a lot of money.
Speaker 1:Also heard that when they was presented the trophy at the end not for the dunk contest but for the actual game it was really like no fan fan to it, like it was just like here's the trophy. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:That's going 200 points in one game.
Speaker 3:Kind of stupid garbage. That's right, that's ridiculous.
Speaker 2:No defense being being played man. It's ridiculous man.
Speaker 3:They just, they just coming down and just pulling from half court, like what are we doing here as we play? If we was in the park right now and somebody shot from half court, you'd be like yo, get off the court.
Speaker 2:Right, get out of here, man.
Speaker 1:But see, that was we speaking to our generation of playing though, man, these kids is like that.
Speaker 2:Well, that's, I think I think I think that's one of the things that missed this whole thing up man the dog on participation trophies. That's why everybody happy when they lose and everybody hugging you know when they, when they not, it's like nobody's really having a competition. I was like all right, so what we lost.
Speaker 3:Let's get back to. Let's get back to if I lose, I don't want to shake your hand. Let's get back to that, at least for today.
Speaker 2:At least for today. We can get over it later down.
Speaker 3:Hey, if we play five times over the next five years and you beat me five times, I don't like you.
Speaker 1:So, competition is yeah but, we not friends.
Speaker 4:You know I'm saying it's just like the pro bowl. The pro bow, pro bow is not what it used to be no more non-flag, it's black For a man.
Speaker 2:Nobody wants to compete.
Speaker 4:You know what it is? Because there's a lot of YouTubers going around. I forget his guy name. Oh, his name is destroy, I think, the young boy out of Florida. He's a kicker. My boys watch him all the time but he go around and y'all probably seen him in commercials. So because now he got some kind of connection with the NFL, but him and another guy go around all these big cities and have all these young boys and meet up at a football stadium. Oh yeah all on running routes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, I like that, man I had a DB's.
Speaker 4:Hey, it's very entertaining. Yeah, yeah, I like that, I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2:I know something. Yeah, I want to say that, oh, t'oreau Longans out there one time, man he was out there.
Speaker 4:They had the last one I saw. He was in Philadelphia. They had Michael Vick at their quarterback and throwing the ball. Yeah, and no kids out there playing aggressive man Having some fun man Dude, I'm telling you, see all type of dudes out there running, old dudes think they still got it. They got white boys trying to prove that they rough.
Speaker 2:And some of them are rough. Yeah, some of them are nice too, and that's the thing, sports, competition and sports has always been fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah if you can't find the fun in wanting to win in an athletic competition, you shouldn't be out there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, right, Right about that man.
Speaker 2:And then you're calling these guys the greatest and really they don't really want to compete. I don't think LeBron really wants to compete. I mean, I like LeBron as a person. You can't take nothing from him as far as business is concerned.
Speaker 3:And for the philanthropy.
Speaker 2:For him being standing up for a lot of social issues and stuff like that, but on the court man, he's nothing compared to some of the other guys. Man, we're talking about killers in the past. Man Like Mike Colby Colby.
Speaker 3:So, he's old.
Speaker 4:But he's old too, though he's one of the older players out there, LeBron.
Speaker 2:You know what, though? I think the reason why that is is because they like to compare them to Mike and Colby and them guys. But Mike and Colby and it was double team and triple team in the entire career. He, since his first four or five years in Cleveland, he ain't had no double. True, he hasn't had the stress on his body that they've had for those years, you know what I mean. And not to mention, they're not playing basketball like they were back then. He's not even getting a hard five, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:All the same, you have rarely seen somebody knock him out the air or put LeBron on his back. Yeah, yeah but you might get kicked out the league.
Speaker 4:True, that's true, that's true. But you got to realize too a lot of these dudes are flopping like crazy. It gets sick sometimes.
Speaker 1:I see yeah.
Speaker 4:You know, I mean to the point that they got YouTube clips now showing where it's just so outrageous that the other flops that they be doing.
Speaker 2:But he's the king. He was the king, flopper man.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, lebron was.
Speaker 1:Lebron was the king flopper and I look at like these kids now when they actually play ball. If you go to the court, a lot of them are just doing it. You know what I mean Just flopping, just to do it. You know what I mean. It's like a part of their game. Now you know what?
Speaker 2:I mean Right. And then people have the nerve to say now that the basketball players now are more talented than those in the past. Let me tell you something. The problem with basketball right now everybody wants to be a three or two. You know what I mean. They want to be a shooting guard or they want to be a small four. I don't care if you 7-5 or 5-1, everybody plays the two or the three position.
Speaker 3:It's that European style basketball, positionless basketball, that's not hooping. I mean, you 7 foot, you're not going to play point guard, you're going to play center or a power forward. Get down there in the box, get your money yeah.
Speaker 2:Get your money. That's what it is. I remember as a kid, as soon as you went out on the court coaches told you right here are you a big man. All big men go down here point guards go there, so on and so forth.
Speaker 2:And this is the problem. They say everybody is more skilled. Skilled in what? Being a, two or three? What about learning about the drop step and all the different moves and different things that you got to do under the backboard and stuff like that? Nobody really is, I guess I think Joel and B is probably the only one that actually still somewhat have that kind of big man game. You know what I mean? I don't know too many players that have that the Joker got a big man game.
Speaker 3:He's just European. I ain't going to lie. He got the moves, he's just slow and can't jump.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, joker's one of them.
Speaker 3:He got some footwork.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's not bad at all, Joker, but then again he also too, is the one that bring it down. You know what I mean. So he's not. I mean he got the traditional moves when he wanted, but he got to bring another skill.
Speaker 3:That's another thing. Why the point guards or the guards don't go take the ball from these big men dribbling the ball?
Speaker 2:That's another thing. I said man Again because there's no defense being played. How in the world you got a 7-5, man coming down dribbling and crossovering you and you 6-2, 6-3. There's no way that should happen. Yeah, there's plenty of defense.
Speaker 3:Go take the ball from him.
Speaker 2:Go take the ball from him, man. But Adam Silver should be fired, man. He's really messing up the sport. That whole big three garbage is really killing the lead. You know what I mean? And the sad part about this some good talent in the NBA. Now you got the job of Rance. You got the kid down there. What is it?
Speaker 3:Anthony the kid, the kid Wimby is nice. You got Anthony Edwards from Minnesota.
Speaker 2:Anthony Edwards yeah, that's what I'm about to say that was yeah, you got some nice talent out there man, A lot of nice talent man, and he playing around yeah, speaking of John Moran.
Speaker 3:John Moran said next year he won't do it. You should save it.
Speaker 4:Well, he doing it now.
Speaker 2:What I do like about these young kids now. They're not playing around with LeBron in them, man, you know what I mean. They're coming out and trying to compete, man, trying to take their heads off.
Speaker 3:And that's the reason why I say LeBron will never be better than Mike, because people feared Mike. Nobody fears LeBron.
Speaker 2:They go and try to dunk on him.
Speaker 3:Anytime they get, they go try to do things to him. They never do that to Mike. They feared.
Speaker 2:Kobe too, man Kobe was feared the mamba was feared man. The mamba was definitely feared man. But yeah, adam Silver, they need to get him out of it man. He's killing the league man. The sad part about it's like only really one sport now that you can watch and get some competition out of it. I think that's football and the sad part about that and they trying to mess that up too.
Speaker 3:I think the only sport you can watch and really see competition is boxing or UFC, because this football, this is the one, somewhere else.
Speaker 1:I don't know if it's been too much time on the football thing, but I want to ask y'all, man, because we weren't together when the Super Bowl came and went. You know what I mean, and we all see how that turned out, which, I gotta say, I predicted that, like two weeks prior to that, taylor Swift was going to win that Super Bowl, but what happens?
Speaker 3:is. You know what I'm talking about man.
Speaker 1:You don't even talk about the brother to actually score the touchdown. You ever notice that Nobody speaks about it.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. It's that big farmer.
Speaker 1:We'll save that for another affair. But what happens is I notice in one of the commercials they're talking about now that the NFL is about to go into action, start recruiting people from overseas man With a heavy focus on the commercial in Africa. You know what I mean. So what do y'all think about that? Do you think that's a good idea, or do you want to turn?
Speaker 2:it to basketball at some point. I think that's what's happened. Well, I think it happened in baseball. It's happening in basketball now and the crazy thing about it is it's kind of eliminating black players. Yup, because baseball they did it, and now you can't find no blacks in baseball, and right now you're seeing how the Europeans are taking over the NBA.
Speaker 3:And that's the thing right.
Speaker 2:I don't mind if you can play.
Speaker 3:The Europeans and the Africans. But this is the thing right. So you got the Africans and the overseas players actually being trained in the skill of playing basketball and the science of the game. Where you have the American players, they just basically playing pickleball today. Get to college or get to the pros. Like you don't really have an understanding of the game. And then over there it's basically putting them behind.
Speaker 2:And then also too, over there, even though it's a Euro game, that Euro game is aggressive. You know what I mean. Over here we still playing Patty Cake now. You know everybody's all soft and everything like that. It might nicks us out of it. You know we laugh at it.
Speaker 3:It probably will.
Speaker 2:You know, people will sit here and listen to it and they'll say, oh no, well, black people will never be out of basketball or whatever like that. But look at baseball. I think somebody said one time it's like 1% of baseball is African American. I remember one time or another Reggie Jackson, and all of these names was in baseball, Reggie Jackson was in block though.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I found out later on.
Speaker 2:That's when I found out he was a Puerto Rican, or something like that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, excuse me, not Reggie Jackson, let's say Darrell Strawberry and Dwight Gooden, the Koch brothers man.
Speaker 3:Right Now. I remember a couple of years ago the Phillies was in a World Series and they handled black players. It was just crazy.
Speaker 2:A lot of teams don't have black players in baseball. You know what I mean and where you get fooled that is, you think, is because they're taking them. They're Spanish, but they'll be Dominican and you know brown skin but they're not really, you know, African American or people of color, but they're not, you know, they're not. That's, I guess you would say. But yeah, that's what's going on. That Euro game is actually fitting to to the number. We hated the Euro game.
Speaker 3:I still do.
Speaker 2:But we hated the Euro game. We wanted this aggressive basketball that we had, you know, with birds and magics and stuff like that. And then the Euro game came in and everybody talked bad about it. But now that's what it is.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but the thing is for me like watching the basketball 80s, 90s, even early 2000s. You had to have heart, you know what I'm saying. And now, like you can't do nothing, you can't touch nobody, you can just run down a court, do whatever you want and it's like everybody's talking trash. It's like you're not even built like that. You wouldn't do that if I could punch you in your face. Seriously.
Speaker 2:Right, right right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you're right, because now, now they've thrown you and throwing you out of the team and stuff and spending for long periods of time now for fighting back in the day they didn't. They weren't that harsh with you fighting. I mean you would fight and then you may sit out the rest of the game. But you can't wrap that way. Now it's like with anything in life. People don't want to be punishing them more for for the actions.
Speaker 1:Right about that.