Notes From Mike Gansey, Bob Myers Speaking to the Media

Mike Gansey stepped to the podium earlier this week to speak to the media as he answered questions about the roster, his relationship with Bob Myers, and the upcoming first-round draft pick. What should fans expect from this first-time Pres. of Basketball Ops.? #Philadelphia76ers #NBAonX

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:01

One. But two. Check me out right here, yo.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, into another episode of the 610 Podcast. I'm your host, Jay Hollowhan. We're back here on this Tuesday evening. We're going to have a separate episode coming out, but just about an hour ago, the Phillies did lose to the Toronto Blue Jays tonight, so we're going to have a little bit to talk about on a separate episode, so uh stick around for that. You should be getting these two in your in your wherever you get your podcasts, they both should be exported together and published together, so look out for that. But we're talking a little 76ers basketball here. First time we've been on since the Seventy Sixers announced the hiring of Mike Anzi. And I believe that was that was before the NBA final. So we'll do a little talking about that. We got some I guess some notes to talk about after the Game 3 win last night for the San Antonio Spurs. So we'll do a little bit of that. But we gotta obviously talk about the day that was yesterday on Monday. The Philadelphia Monday, yesterday meaning Tuesday evening, yesterday being Monday, two days ago now, I guess, if you're listening to this on Wednesday, of course. But Mike Gansy, Bob Myers, and Jameer Nelson step to the microphone. It was announced over the weekend. Jameer Nelson was named the general manager of the 76ers, so obviously something we were keeping an eye on about whether or not Elton Brand would be back. And as the general manager of the team, now uh sounds like Elton Brand may be staying with the Seventy Sixers in some type of a department. Um I don't, you know, he's taking on a new role, what role that necessarily is, whether it's the in charge of scouting, because you have to figure he would take on some type of a leadership role. He's not going to be, you know, working in a cubicle somewhere, obviously. Uh, and I wouldn't anticipate him to be in charge of the accounting department or something along that nature. But no doubt, there's probably going to be some role that Elton Brand will have, I would assume in scouting or something in the G League realms, you know, whatever it may be. But in terms of the hiring of Mike Ganze, as we're just going to get right into it, I was curious to hear from Bob Myers and why Mike Ganzey, and here he was.

SPEAKER_05 2:29

Yeah, I think you saw some of it up there today. Um, leadership qualities, experience. I think he's at the right age, kind of for a long time. I like guys that came up through the scouting ranks. I do think the former player, um, the relatability to players, even though he wasn't an NBA guy necessarily, but uh like I said, he made a good comment, I think, about being a G League GM. It's the closest thing you can do to approximate being a GM. Very different level of scrutiny, obviously, but you're you're managing a coach, you're managing a roster, you're dealing with agents, you're negotiating, not at the same level as the NBA, but I think all those things combined. Um, and then look, he presents a certain way. He's uh he's a work with type of guy. Um, had some good conversations about what he thought about our staff. Um so it was over a course of time that started growing on me, and then I asked a lot of people one advantage is I've worked in the NBA a long time, so I know a few people and really good responses when I asked about Mike, what kind of guy it was kind of universally praised, so it's a lot of those factors.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Well, I think the 76ers have the they have something right going on in at least one of their positions of leadership within this organization. I think that piece is Bob Myers. Probably one of the best hirings Josh Harris has done in terms of just anything overseeing his sports enterprise is bringing in Bob Myers. Because at the very least, that is a guy that understands what it takes to build a championship team. Now I know he obviously Mark Jackson has been given a ton of praise for the Warriors dynasty. But Bob Myers was obviously the general manager for that team. Bob Myers did need to make decisions. Now, Bob Myers also at the same time signed a Kevin Durant, and I don't think anyone anticipates the Seventy Sixers are going to bring that type of a player in at this point to change this team or that they are like a Kevin Durant-like player away from competing for a championship, because the Seventy Sixers right now are just in this continuous state of being not good enough to win a championship and be a true contender, and not bad enough to need to be a lottery team. They're somewhere in between. They're essentially what they were fourteen years ago when they decided to trade off Andre Aguidala, when they decided at the trade deadline that year to trust the process. That is where they are right now. Let's be honest about this thing. And with young players that project possibly better than where those young players did then. Because I think there are some pieces here that you can obviously work with. We talk about Tyrese Maxie, whom his age in and of itself in his mid-twenties, he's not incredibly young like Vijay Edgecombe, who's obviously the player that we're more talking about in terms of having a type of player where in two or three years you could project to him with Maxie and then go get someone else and continue to build this thing going at a linear pace and going at an upwards trajectory, not staying stagnant and going horizontal at this vertical linear type of move up on the graph chart. When you look at other teams around the NBA, when you look at the successful teams, they have always had the ability to get better. And I think from my takeaway with what Bob Myers had to say, that is what I believe he is looking at. And some people might just say it, and it's kind of just lip service, and it's not actually something that they believe in, and they are stuck in their own ways and their beliefs and not looking to actually try anything new. Now, from the 76ers perspective, are they actually going to go that route? We don't know yet. And here's where I found things very interesting. When I heard from Mike Ganze on the roster building, and here were a couple minutes of his feeling on Joel Embiid, his feelings on kind of building guys around Tyrese Maxie, V.J. Edgecombe with Embiid and Paul George. So here was uh here was the new president of basketball operations.

SPEAKER_09 6:38

Well, obviously, we have Joel. You know, I've had a lot of good conversations with him so far. Excited to meet with him this week, but uh, you know, with him and the roster we have, you know, we got we that's who we have. You know, we got to get those guys on the floor. We got to create an identity and get them, just get them to play basketball. Um, I think the group that we have, you know, Joel, obviously, so um we just want to get them going and uh you know we're excited to see what we can build.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Mike over here, Gina myself from the Philadelphia Inquirer. Um, sort of to go off of that question, just how would you describe what your sort of overall roster building philosophy is and how you balance the immediate term of what you have right now versus sort of the long-term vision for the future?

SPEAKER_09 7:18

Yeah, no, I want I want guys that that want to be in Philly, first and foremost. Um, you know, obviously guys that can fit around our players that we have currently under contract. And you know, I want I want fountains not drains. You know, I want guys with high character, guys with high work ethics, and guys that want to be in Philadelphia.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

Mike Tony Jones from the Athletic. Do you see this roster as capable of competing right away, or do you see this more as a long-term uh kind of endeavor to get you guys where you want to be in terms of championship level?

SPEAKER_09 7:50

You know, they got swept in the second round. So it's not a championship caliber team right now, but we're gonna work on that. Um, obviously getting those four, getting the big four together on the floor. But you know, we're gonna do everything we can to bring players in here that that fit and that obviously can help. And um, you know, we're not gonna we got a great staff here, and we're gonna do everything we can to get the best players in here to help us get to the mountaintop.

SPEAKER_07 8:13

Uh Kyle Corland, Sixers wire. I'm curious, when you look at the timelines kind of kind of off the roster, you look at Tyrese and VJ, kind of how young they are, then you've also got Joel and Paul, obviously much older and obviously still productive. I'm curious how you kind of balance the timeline of Tyrese and BJ versus Joel and Paul.

SPEAKER_09 8:30

I don't look at it as a timeline, I just look at like we have those four and we gotta maximize those four. You know, obviously BJ and and and Tyrese are younger, but um but Paul and Joel can still play at a high level. We were 24 and 14 when when Joelle played, and you know, obviously in the playoffs coming back from Boston, like you know, we just we gotta we gotta rely on those four and obviously keep them on the floor and then just build build around it.

SPEAKER_08 8:54

Um and then you have a guy in Paul George who will only be here maybe for two more years, giving his age and his contract, etc. How do you balance um obviously there's players that can help you win this season that might not help you win three years from now, um, and then vice versa. As you're building the team, um, what's your philosophy with regards to the team that will be here after, uh Paul and Joel, and and the team that will be here now back in Cookie the next one or two or three years? Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 9:21

I just, you know, again, I just got here. You know, I've had conversations with Coach and you know, the staff that obviously we have here, and you know, Bob and Josh, but I just want to get the best out of them. You know, obviously I haven't had a lot of conversations with Joel and Paul yet, and you know, Tyrese and BJ. You know, we've connected, you know, obviously everyone's all over the world right now. My world's spinning right now, so I just want to get to them and kind of have see what they're feeling too, you know, get coaches input, get their input, and see if we can get this thing together. But again, I just don't look at it at two timelines. Like there are four guys, they're under contract, you know, and we gotta do the best to get them to the to their best self. Because I think every night at seven o'clock, we gotta get them to their best to help them.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Okay, so this is where my first kind of antenna went up on this, because he starts talking about like he has a plan for everything, and he kind of has I don't want to say the answers, but he has some type of blueprint in mind as to where he wants to go with this thing. But then at the end there, he's telling you, well, guys, I just got here. Hold on a minute. You know, everyone's around the world, I'm trying to get my bearings. Well, wait a minute. You were just telling me you had some quote unquote great conversations with Joel Embiid. Okay. Now, are you gonna sit here and tell me that you reached out to Joel Embiid and Embiid reached back to you, but then you reached out to Maxie and Edgecombe and PG and you know, Ubre and Grimes and Drummond, you know, some of your unrestricted free agents coming up here, and they didn't get back to you, and you didn't really get a pulse on where everything's at. And not only that, but when you walked into that interview, did you not present a plan for how you wanted this team to move forward? Now maybe he's not looking to tell everyone that in the moment, that's fine. But you gotta give me something more than, whoa, wait a second here, guys. I'm just getting my you weren't hired you know, in the last hour. And it's not like like I said, it's it's not as if you wouldn't, I would assume, have gone into that interview without presenting an idea as to where you want this team to go from here. Now, someone who I think gave a much better answer on all this was Bob Myers.

SPEAKER_06 11:29

Bob Mike talked about the big four that you have.

SPEAKER_05 11:32

On the court, what do you feel like you is your biggest need now? We gotta find an identity. We just don't have one. I mean, that's maybe a harsh thing to say, but but look at the numbers. I mean, we're we were not eat offensively or defensively. Um, and that's not that's not if you're gonna win at the highest level, you've got to be great at something. We have the capabilities, I think, and we have the the players and some of the talent, but in order to see what we are, we've got to be on the floor, right? You have to have a consistent product on the floor, and you find out, and maybe that's not good enough, or maybe it is, but we got to figure out what are we, what can we stand on as a team. Some teams stand on both. Some teams are great offensively and defensively, but we've got to be great at one of them at least. And we've got to find out which one of those is. And to get there, we've got to have guys on the floor.

SPEAKER_04 12:17

How hard is it? The identity problem comes in part because it's been tethered to an elite player who doesn't play for 12, 13 years now. He's thinking about that short sample size. Three more years left on his deal. How in the world can that expect to change if you're still counting on who might play 30 games next year? He might play 16, he might not play at all, he might play, you know. Yeah. How does any of that change as long as the connectivity?

SPEAKER_05 12:39

Well, you know what you have to do? He um the good news is this there's no scheduled surgeries this summer. Um, there's no injury going into the offseason. In the past, there has been that. Um, and so this is an opportunity to get better for not to play catch up for Joel, but to actually get better and build on last year. And with that, the hopes that you can be on the floor a lot more and get more confidence in your body. He said his words were he thought it was a successful season from the fact that he feels like his knees were good at the end of the season. I don't know if he's been able to say that in the last few years. So you have to have that. Um he's too important. Um, and we're we are a top heavy team, right? That's just what it is. Look at the contract. So we need those guys to play. And you need depth underneath it. The league has changed, so we need both. But to experience what it is, we need a healthy roster, I think, in training camp. But we're set to do that. But these are just words that I'm talking. We need to actually put that into practice.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Folks, it's what I've been saying this entire time. I've been saying this ever since it was announced Daryl Morey was fired. I was saying this, I think, even before Darryl Morey was fired. The Sixers need an identity. They have no identity. There's no identity with this team. The only identity they have is they have a really terrifically athletic, can be a lights out shooter in Tyrese Maxie. They've got a young, promising VJ Edgecomb. They've got a center who, unfortunately, due to health abilities, is not available for a full season. And they've got an aging power forward that they signed to a stupid contract. Then they've got some guys that are around them that are some really solid defensive players, like a Kelly Ubre or an Adembona, a guy who can rebound the basketball with anyone, an Andre Drummond. And they also have Quentin Grimes, and he just doesn't seem like he really fits into the mold of the team. And when I hear Mike Gansy talk about we want guys that want to be here, well, does Grimes actually want to be there? And that's the one guy that because they kept saying we want people that want to be here. Well, now you're now it sounds like you're telling me someone here doesn't want to be here. And the one guy that I just did not think fit into what the Sixers were looking to do last year was Quentin Grimes. I thought a bunch of I mean, and hell, if you you had told me McCain or Grimes, who would you like to move on from? At the trade deadline, I said Grimes. Absolutely. I mean, I would have said he's a much older player, younger, Jared McCain, I think a better three-point shooter, guy who's more of a catch-and-shoot guy, doesn't I mean obviously you need to build a rhythm into a game, but I think he can build a rhythm a little bit quicker than Quentin Grimes can. So I I just I think when it comes to the roster, we're gonna have more to do on that, but it's obviously one I think has a more clear direction in Bob Myers. And here's the thing, folks, with Bob Myers and this relationship. Myers has the four NBA championships. Right. He has been there, done that with the Golden State Warriors. He's overseeing the 76ers and is kind of Josh Harris's, you know, I don't want to say puppet guy, but like, hey, I own the team financially, but I feel like you he is viewing Myers as you are going to be the guy that makes the decisions that I should make because I don't know what the hell I'm doing, and I'm tired of, you know, constantly being scrutinized here and constantly being scrutinized there. So let's just meet in the middle and you're gonna make these decisions for me. And that's where I think they're heading with this Bob Myers relationship. Now, with the Bob Myers, Mike Gansy relationship, how does that work? How is that really who has the final say? Does Bob Myers obviously have the ability to overrule Gansy? Where's that going? Take a listen to both Gansy and Bob Myers.

SPEAKER_09 16:26

Well, first of all, when I was interviewing, I mean, having Bob Myers in my corner, I mean, four-time champion, one of the best executives of all time. Like, I mean, who would want him on your side? You know, obviously I'm the day-to-day president of basketball operations. You know, me and my group, always a great group, we're gonna work together, but you know, it's just like every front office, you know. Like, you got him, he's an extension of ownership with Joss essentially, and any recommendations, any ideas and stuff, you know, I that we're gonna go through them. We're gonna be in alignment throughout the whole organization, you know, Nick Nurse included, coach is gonna be involved. We're gonna we're gonna be aligned throughout the whole building, and having Bob is is what I call a cheat coat. You know, you have someone that I can call anytime I want, and having him is is pretty special to have on the side of me.

SPEAKER_06 17:08

To follow up on your involvement, uh to follow up on some one of your answers from the previous press conference about your involvement, while Mike is the day-to-day, um, you know, beyond this point throughout the season, how visible do you think you will be to the to the public uh in terms of you know being at games and whatnot? Uh how how much will you be in situations like this speaking to the media? And I this is I know this is a multi-layered question, but in terms of HBSC and all the properties, do you do do you foresee yourself focusing most on the Sixers or are you going to spread it out between all the different properties?

SPEAKER_05 17:41

I think the thing that this is the the world that I came from that I probably have the most experience in. Um so naturally I'd probably be able to give more input in the NBA space just having been around it for so long. But I think really just much is required. Um being here at the draft, being here on the trade deadline for agency, things like that, but also going to games. I don't I don't know if you saw how many games this year, and I I was at some games, I'm not gonna be at every game, um, but I made quite a few. Um and so just being supportive for for uh for Mike and the whole staff, Nick and everyone. But I'm excited to work with Mike. Um again, this there's only not every franchise in the NBA is the same. This is a historic franchise. I mean it's a chance to work with a place like this that with a fan base that is this passionate. I I came from a place um not well, they did come from Philadelphia, Warriors did, but I know I I tell people the best part about winning is the parade because you get to see the fans. Um that's what I'm doing these things for. So I will do whatever is required to support Mike to help him make decisions and try to get this team to where we all want it to go.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

It sounds like to me, honestly, like again, this just feels like the extension of Harris to Myers feels like the extension of Myers to Gans. I do not have a full s I do not have the sense that it is Gansy's team to run and his say is final. And I'm curious if this is where some of if if that has been kind of approached to him and whether or not Gansy is fully aware that Bob Myers, who has the cache, has the ability to overrule or should have the ability to overrule him, because I'll be honest with you, he has not been the lone decision maker in Cleveland. He was not trading for James Harden, he was not the sole decision maker in trading for Donovan Mitchell. Those were people above him. That was Altman and company that were making those decisions, not Mike Gansy. So when it comes to his relationship with Bob Myers, again, it just feels like it's Bob Myers is kind of really the president of basketball operations, Gansy is the face. Or Bob Myers is going to say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Where are you going with that move, Mike? I'm hearing rumors about this, what's going on down here? You're going after this player? No. Not gonna happen. You need to do this. And that's gonna be that that word is going to be final. Because while he might not be in terms of the day-to-day, I think he's still gonna have that approach. And obviously, big picture is going to be Bob Myers and kind of managing what's below him. I think that's kind of where this is gonna go. And it was shown here as to Mike Anzi's attraction to Philly. Take a listen.

SPEAKER_09 20:43

Obviously, I loved Cleveland. It was it would have been really ri it it would have taken a lot to get me out of Cleveland, but you know, having conversations with Bob, Josh, you got a championship level coach in Nick, you got a lot of really good players on the roster. And Josh is Josh's passionate. He wants to win at the highest level, and that's what I want to do. He hates to lose, I hate to lose. And, you know, the more conversations we had, I was really excited about this, and you know, very fortunate that that I'm here and I'm just ready to work with these guys because you know, Bob's won four championships. Nick's won a championship. I won a championship Cleveland. So, you know, we we want to get that, we want to do the same thing here in Philadelphia.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Yeah, Gansy, who number one looks like he's about to go coach lacrosse, someone told me that they think he looks like an NHL coach, which, yeah, he looks like a hockey coach or he looks like a lacrosse coach. Um, he basically is just clearly immersed in learning under Bob Myers. Well, if you you're not becoming the president of basketball operations if you're gonna learn under someone, dude. You are the guy. Because if if you are hired to be the president of basketball operations in any other situation, I am led to believe your say is final. Now, if you're gonna tell me, well, I'm learning under Bob Myers, well, wait a minute. Why isn't he the president of basketball operations and you're the general manager? And you and Jameer Nelson learn from him. Because it doesn't sound like to me Like your say is final in this whole thing. I mean, listen, I'm gonna give him the shot, I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt, but it just seems like there might be too many voices and too many causes for clashing within the walls of the Harris Blitzer Sports Entertainment ownership of the Philadelphia 76ers. Because this is not off, in my opinion, to a fantastic uh start in terms of the way it sounds like the operations going on here. It sounds like there's going to be way too much cause for concern, way too much cause for pause and say, that doesn't sound like that was a soul move by this person. That sounds like it was made from up top in order to pick that player, in order to sign this player. And trust me, if they go out there and they sign a bunch of Warriors players like they did with uh Daryl Mori and his Houston Rockets, we know right then and there, yeah, you're the face. When you get to the podium, I'm probably just gonna tune you out. Let's be honest. Now, where Mike Gansy and Daryl, or and sorry, not Daryl Moore, where Mike Gansy and Bob Myers, I think will have their first potential test is obviously coming up in this draft. And here was Mike Gansy on that approach.

SPEAKER_09 23:24

You know, the group right here, I mean, they've drafted really, really well, obviously. And I'm excited to learn from them and you know, obviously put my vision and put my imprint on on the draft. But, you know, I think at 22, it's you know, you you want to get a combination of best player available and fit with our roster. So, you know, we're gonna dive into that the next two weeks and try to get the best person and uh player for the for the first sixers.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

Well, we I kind of have an idea of what we want the 76ers to take in this pick. We want it to be a power forward, we want it to be something for the wing. Either the 76ers go into this draft with the free mind of taking the best player available at 22, that could be any position, and you land someone like say, you know, imagine you land, in my opinion, who I would take, and it's not just because we both went to the same university, but I would honestly take Zubiafor. I have no, in my opinion, I have no reason to think that this guy is not going to get better as an NBA player. Playing in college under Rick Patino, you basically have the answers to the test already. You're a step ahead. The guy, in my opinion, out of anyone in this draft probably, understands the defense first mentality and the way that a championship team needs to look. And a team that needs to contend has to look. Look at the New York Knicks. And I heard Jameer Nelson say this in his. He said the big reason why the Knicks have been able to win, the reason why you're looking at an upstart Spurs team that granted they have the great player in Victor Wembanyamba, but they got a bunch of guys around him. The big thing that these teams have is something you cannot measure in any player. I don't care if it's a LeBron James, I don't care if it's Ben Simmons. You cannot measure how badly they want it. You can measure the height, you can measure, you know, how great of a three-point shot they have. It's what separates the Steph Curries from the Zaire Smiths, right? It's what separates the great players from the total busts. It's what celebrate it's what separates going from being a Kobe Bryant in the league, you know, being a no-doubt championship player that has the winning chip mentality, and an Alan Iverson, who is also as equally of a great player, but as you've heard from interviews in the past, where one would go back to the court and work on their free throw shooting and the other would go to the club. That's the difference between picking those type of heart, and I'm not trying to say Allen Iverson didn't have heart, I'm just saying that is measuring it going from even seeing a guy that has heart to then that killer instinct. And that's something that, in my opinion, they need to have here in their ownership because they haven't had that. The Celtics have that, the Knicks now have that, the Warriors had that, the Lakers have shown that their organization has that. Hell, even the Spurs have the ability to do that. Because look at the guys around Wemby. It's the one thing the Sixers never did for Embiid. They never put enough guys around him that really wanted it to. They never put the right guys around him that wanted to win. And it's something that the Spurs have been doing right now, and it's something that the Sixers never did. Now, also, Embiid couldn't stay healthy. That was another problem. We don't deny that. But the guys around him, did you really think that they were going to win a championship when you looked at Mike Scott out there or Ferkon Korkmaz and company? I mean, please, give me a break. So the big test coming up is going to be this NBA draft. But as we talk about Jameer Nelson, why Jameer? Here was Bob Myers.

SPEAKER_05 27:30

Just again, being around Jameer all last season, um, I think Daryl did a great job of empowering him a little bit more. He was on the road a lot, interacting with Nick. Again, another guy that came from the G League space. Um, and look, being being, I don't know how many of you are from here, I think it's important that somebody from this community is in a leadership role with this team. I think there's nothing not being from here, you recognize the importance of connecting to the community and the fan base, and Jameer has that. Um and he has that equity, and he has that equity with our players and the community. And like Mike said in talking to Mike, he's he asked me multiple times, can we keep Jameer? Can we elevate Jameer? And I said, Look, I'm not going to tell you who has to be on your staff, but I I think Jameer's great. And then he's speaking to Jameer, asking if he's ready for it. And and certainly Jameer's the one thing that you you may or may not know is how much he led as a player. And I just think leadership is so important. And so to have those two guys kind of together moving forward is a tremendous advantage. Is there a feeling that there was a disconnect locally between the franchise and the other thing? I don't know. That's not for me to say necessarily. I would more say it from a positive standpoint of any time you can put somebody in a leadership role that understands and embraces it and is reared here, it's an advantage. I don't know to say that it was negative last year or in the years past, but I do think that most people would agree that having um, like I said, this is a very uniquely spirited community and the history of this organization. Um and I think having someone just that knows that and grew up and feels that, I think it's is and the responsibility um that comes with that. And I just I love that Jameer is in the place he's in. He deserves it, he's earned it. And I think bottom line, he's gonna help us win.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

His question of I don't know if whether or not it's actually they've lost the city. The the city has kind of said, I disown the Sixers. In a sense, yes. I mean, you at the very least have two promising players, Bob, but there's just one problem. This city was expecting a championship. They were hoping that this team would take on an identity. This team would take on what the Knicks have. I mean, let's face it, there is something to be said for bringing in a group of players that and as I just went on and ran about earlier, it's not the best players. It's not going after and needing to trade for someone who was, you know, an all NBA superstar. It's about bringing in the right guys. And I think that's something that this city has just completely tuned out when it's come to the 76ers. I also think the NBA has a whole, you know, the city doesn't necessarily appreciate because this is a football town. And the NBA and the NFL are two completely opposites. You watch Cam Jurgens, you know, basically not have a back in the Super Bowl, and a guy in Landon Dickerson give it all throughout the entirety of a season, and you look at the NBA, and you've got players sitting out because of load management. I mean, let's just call it what it is. That's the reason, in my opinion, as to why s some of which this has to do with the city tuning out the NBA as a whole. But a city that and a fan base that has just completely lost its mind here over the last week, as we turn our attention now to the grandscape of the NBA, it's the New York Knicks. New York Knicks finally lost last night. They haven't lost since, I think they said, the night of the NBA draft. You know, so about a month and a half ago. And here's the thing with the New York Knicks. Now, the New York Knicks obviously and the City of New York is chasing a championship for the first time since Eli Manning and Tom Brady faced off in Indianapolis in the rematch in February of 2012. That's the last time the City of New York won anything, by the way. And I know that might sound crazy, like people like, oh my god, really? Yeah. They've only made championship games three times, and think about how many teams they have up there. You know, they got pick your poison. You know, in terms of uh, you know, basically nine teams, and if you, you know, include the Devils in that. And you think about it, the Yankees were their last team to go to a championship game, it was in 2024, and I'm talking about the Big Four, so any New Yorker listening to this, don't be shouting out the New York Liberty of the WNBA. They also had, or NYCFC in MLS, we're talking about the Big Four here. They had the New York Mets in 2015 and the New York Rangers in 2014. And of those three teams, and now obviously the New York Knicks making four, the Knicks have the best shot to win. So they're going completely berserk up there for that reason, number one. Number two, the Knicks have sucked for a majority of people my age's lifetime. And if you if you're in the if you're in your twenties, you don't know what it was like when the Knicks were good in the nineties. You have not experienced the Knicks actually being good. They had a blip on the radar with Carmelo Anthony and Lynn Sanity and company and J.R. Smith and all that, but over the last four or five years they've built a culture around Jalen Brunson. And now they're finally at the opportunity, you know, to stick it to the Boston Celtics fans, to stick it to the 76ers fans, although there's really nothing that I mean, it's not like the Sixers have won anything anytime soon, um, or will win anything anytime soon. But you look at the New York Knicks and their fans right now, and new all of New Yorkers who are just in general, I don't care if you casually follow the Knicks, I don't care if you don't even follow the Knicks at all. If you follow a New York team, you're from there, blah, blah, blah. I don't want to hear anyone talk about how the fans of Philly are. I don't care about your opinion on snowballs at Santa Claus or jail at the vet or anything you see on social media. Remember last year when someone pulled a beanie off a commies fan walking down Broad Street, and that was the big thing? Oh my god. It he just pulled the hat off that guy and threw it 15 feet in the air. I can't believe oh the humanity. Oh my goodness. There are Spurs fans running for their lives in New York. Like, are we serious here? I mean, it's you lose one game in a month and a half and you don't know how to act. Imagine if they A win this? Imagine B, the Spurs come back. Dear God, is there gonna be a city left up there to mandate and police after that? Twenty-one arrests last night. And and they're NYPD, cops harmed. I mean, give me a break. Sometimes listen, I get I'm shouting into a microphone here, it's been over 30 minutes. We all care about sports. It's a big part of our lives. It's not that deep, okay? I promise you, it's not that deep. Go to your find nine other friends, go to go find a court somewhere in the city. It's the same it's uh the same thing that they are playing. It's the same game, it's the same rules. It is not that deep. I promise you, it's just basketball. Okay? It's a joke, the way that they sit there, and you would think the way they talk about Phillies fans, that that's the wine and cheese crowd up there. It's not. The Yankees fans throwing trash on the field after Alex Rodriguez knocked the ball out of Bronson Arroyo's glove in 04, throwing garbage a couple years ago at the Cleveland players, and now this. The New York Rangers fan who colcocked a Lightning fan a couple years ago, and now this. Or my buddy who was at an Islanders Aves game as an Avs fan. Now granted, he was being an idiot and provoking them, but he had to get a police escort out of the arena. And then you watch what's going on now. I is this downtown Benghazi, or is this New York City? I mean, seriously, this is just it's just unbelievable the way people act at these at at these things and the way that they act up there in their in their high horse on on everything. Just unacceptable and a joke. And I don't want to hear about, oh, but it's not it doesn't speak for all Knicks fans. I'm I get ridiculed if I say that about the the Eagles, okay? I don't want to hear about it. Your city sucks just as much. You have crappy fans too. They're everywhere. Get used to it. Come to grips with it. And for those of you who act that way, change or spend the night in the can. I don't care. That's all I have to say about that matter. But off my chest, and now back to the whole 76ers thing here with Gansy, Bob Myers, and company. These next two or three years, in my opinion, are so important and so vital for the 76ers. Now people were probably saying this back in 2012 too, and 2013, and so on and so forth, but this really is hugely important for them. They have to make right decisions here. They cannot afford to go back into the tank. They have to somehow, somehow, get the fans on their side. So we'll see how they go about it. No one's going to be a bigger critic than us here as to how they go about it. No one's going to be a bigger critic than the fans that are left in support of this organization. We'll talk to you later.