Episode 28 Two Leagues, One Game

The NBA: Playoffs and New Draft Rules                                                   

The impact of the NBA Finals, team legacies, and player narratives are a hot topic for Mary Lou and Phyllis. A break down of the NBA's new draft rules, exploring how the changes could affect player development, roster construction, and opportunities for the next generation of talent are also discussed.  The season may be ending, but there’s always so much to say!

The W: A League Transforming Professional Sports                                           

The OGs dive into the latest happenings around the WNBA, breaking down the league's hottest teams, standout players, and most impactful contributors. They explore the storylines shaping the season and what they mean for the league moving forward.

🏀🏀🏀Vacation time is here so the OGs are easing-off their recording schedule - about every two weeks until August and September when we'll just record once a month.  It must be summer!  🏀🏀🏀

Thanks for listening and we’ll keep you posted.

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Transcript

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Welcome to OG's Talking Ball. Phyllis and I are here with you today for two segments. We're going to, of course, take a look at the NBA and then, of course, the WNBA, because those are the two major players going on or the major uh entities that are playing basketball at this point in time. And we wanted to first start out by starting with the teaser that we ended with the last time about where Phyllis and I were going to lunch. We did go to lunch. We did. We went, we've been a couple times in between, but that particular time we did go to a place in Portland called the Sports Bra. And that is a bar who and a restaurant who that caters to uh all gender uh personnel and not even personnel but clientele. And uh we had lunch there on a very quiet Saturday, I would say. That's probably what they they probably don't consider that to be their norm. What do you think, Phyllis? I don't think so. That there were, you know, a lot of opportunities to watch different ball games. Right, of of women playing. Uh-huh. There was softball and maybe a soccer game was on too, I think. But um, yeah, there was no end of oh, we saw the end of a W game, the Chicago Fire uh was playing. Yeah. And I yeah, that's been okay. Anyway, but um, yeah, so those lots of big screen TVs around the establishment. The server was excellent. You know, he took good care of us. Actually, you go to the bar and order, and then he brought things out to us. But um it was it was Yeah, yeah, and the food was fine. The food was fine. The menu wasn't extensive, but it it included plenty of things we would eat. Right, exactly, exactly. So I think we both concluded that we want to go again when something maybe later in the day, like maybe for a happy hour, or maybe when there's more people out and about. Or when there's a more exciting game. Yeah, yeah. So maybe an away game. We'll have to look at our calendars, and they're like crazy in the next few weeks, but um, see when the Portland Fire, you know, might be playing because that's our local team, and people come out in droves at all kinds of different locations for them, which is a really cool thing. So supporting them. Yeah, we it we just thought it'd be fun to uh route the team on as a group, a collective, right, right. And there was there was probably maybe 10 or 12 people in there, and a family was in there at that point. So I mean it looked like there was some nice neighborhood clientele, perhaps that came in, customers. So, I mean, all good. We have a very small sample, though. Right, very small. So we'll go again and talk to you about that another time. So um, we had a couple other things you wanted to mention, opportunities that you had to give out stickers. Oh, I just thought it was really interesting because in the last couple of weeks we've given out a lot of stickers. I'm almost out. I have honestly honestly, I forgot to mention that to you earlier, but I'm on my last hurrah. So last week at golf, I didn't realize there's a group of women who come and play each week, and I they didn't have stickers. And I looked at one of their water bottles and said, Where's your sticker for my OG's Talk and Ball podcast? And she looked at me, she goes, What? And she goes, You probably said that to me, but I don't remember. And I anyway, so that was an opportunity, and I know you've had them too. Yeah, yeah. I I um recruited a couple of new listeners, I think. Great from um some nanny work I do, and that was fun. Not the babies though, no, not yet, their parents, but we're we're getting them. I think it sounded like their parents are getting them because you said you walked in the door and there was a game on that you weren't expecting that to be on. Yeah, that was kind of cool. Yeah, that was cool on a Saturday night. So cool, yeah. So and then, you know, on a sad note, um, Portland lost or Oregon lost uh Rick Adelman, and um, you know, he was he was you would remember because you were here during his time. So maybe Chad. When when Rick Adelman was the coach, and we know that he passed it last week, and and um that was sad. He was quite young, only 79. Yes, very get looking younger and long younger that age is. It's very, really kind of sad how many folks in their 70s, that's our age bracket, have passed or not doing well, or you know, those kinds of things. So yeah, and I don't know what his, they never really said what his exact cause of death was, but you know, probably six, seven years ago, one of my nephew, great nephews was christened, and his family had a child, not Rick's, but one of his kids had a child that was born about the same time, and so they were at the christening as well, having that baby baptized. So my brother actually went up and chatted with him for a moment, and um we even both commented that he looked pretty frail at that point in time, and certainly wasn't the robust guy, but you know, it's not like we're 40 either, so you know that robust stuff might have gone out the window. Anyway, so we're sad. Portland is sad, and um, I don't know if there's gonna be any kind of a public memorial at Moda for him. I haven't heard any of those kinds of things discussed, but um, I don't know. I don't know. I I wouldn't be surprised, but on the other hand, you know, the Blazers aren't playing for a long time. Right, right. So we'll see. Yeah, we'll see. But we're gonna talk about the NBA today. Yes, we are just a smidge. We've got a couple topics. We wanted I found some fun facts about the playoff teams, even though uh we're still in process there, but I thought it was a couple of cool things I wanted to uh mention, and then we also wanted to dig into a bit so that everyone has because you know, remember that the uh three R's of education are repetition, repetition, repetition. So we're gonna start. We have we'll have a minor conversation about the new NBA draft rules that don't go into effect until 2027. But we want people to kind of have an idea as the NBA draft is looming, coming up next month, um, of what that's going to look like after this year. Yeah, the draft is this month. In in June. That's right. I'm sorry. Okay, oh my gosh, I know it's already June, whatever it is. Right, and so we'll just tell you what's going to happen next year. It's summer league that's coming up next month. Like I said, I'm I'm my brain is starting to get scrambled a bit. Okay, so fun fact. So I think everyone has probably already heard this, but the Sun uh the Spurs are one of the youngest teams that have ever reached the finals. And of course, we know being little of the championship of the finals, uh the end of the road, uh, we know that the youngest team was the Portland uh Trailblazers, who averaged in age at 25.03 years old, and the Spurs are 25.06. Oh, they're they're older. Older. The last appearance for the Knicks we and I'm sure this is like repetition too, and I apologize, but was in 1999 and the Spurs in 2014. And 2014, that championship year was uh the Portland Trailblazers interim coach was an integral part of that team, Tiago Splitter. So that was fun. So do you have anything to say about the playoffs? You know who the oldest player is, players are that are playing? Well, I do when I'm watching it. Okay. Well, for the Spurs, it's Harrison Barnes. He's 34 and he's been around the playoff block for a while. So is he the the oldest Spurs? He's the oldest one, as coordinated. I mean, he's been i on the Spurs the longest. Every time somebody comes on, they come he's more reason. He's probably the last couple, two, three years. He was with Golden State prior to that with the Warriors. So um, but he's had playoff experience as well. And then the one for the Knicks is Jordan Clarkson, who was on the Utah Jazz for many years, and um he's 33, so he's their old guy. So so they're not old like LeBron or something. They're not really old. They're not really like over 40 or anything, but yeah, you know, as as you get, I would think as a player gets toward their mid-30s, they're they're starting to think, okay, how much longer is my body gonna allow me to do this? But LeBron has really set the tone for that to all change, I think, too. You know. So and the youngest player on the floor, do you know who that is? No, who's the baby? The baby is uh Dylan Harper. Oh, yeah. He's um 20. Boy, has he been um showing himself in the playoffs? Amazing, amazing. Wow. I mean, seriously, as a rookie and just the savvy that that kid has. But you know, the younger of the other brother, the other brother is um Ron Harper Jr. And then dad, can you imagine the three of them, you know, playing horse or shooting baskets or whatever in the back of the in their yards when they were growing up? So I think the youngest kid really had to show his stuff. Yeah, he had some competition there. Uh yeah, definitely, definitely. You know what? The did you hear about what the Knicks did with the tickets? You know, they had um they had this advertised pre-sale opportunity for face value tickets um for their loyal fans. And they scrapped that. Oh no. And they said it was gonna come and it was and they put it off and put it off, and then they quietly just scrapped it. And um and now the most of the tickets went to ching, cha ching. Ticket brokers to scalp mega bucks, and to priority access people, and now the nosebleed seats are over four thousand dollars. Oh my god, I don't want to know anything more. Instead of their loyal fans. That's awful. That's not that's not a good good showing for the next management. Shame on them. Shame on them. Corporate sponsors and VIPs and um uh are the ones that get the seats and the courtside seats are fifty thousand dollars. Plus, I mean, I think some are more. Except the the resale value is in the six figures now. Good Lord. So people buy them and that's nuts. Get rid of them. All right, we're gonna drop that topic because that's not a real positive way to end it, but that's the facts, folks. Um, let's just dabble a little bit about those new NBA draft rules. How is it gonna be so different, do you think? Well, instead of trying for the bottom, uh uh traditionally teams who are doing poorly and are going to be in the lottery try to have the worst um the the worst games that they can. Right. So they lose the most. Right, especially after All-Star Break. You start to hear this mentioned, like, oh, the player's gonna have load management or you know, they've got an oui and they're not gonna play. And you know, it's kind of a lot of stuff that are is this for real or not? You know what I mean? It makes you wonder. Right. If you have a legitimate injury, then sit. Yeah. But what happens is people buy tickets because they want to see certain stars for the visiting team, and then they come and none of the starters are going to be playing. I know. That's so disappointing. And you want to take a family, it costs a bunch of money, and that's I think that's very disheartening for fans. You know, so now that they'll be starting next year for for 2027, 28, and 29, these are gonna be the rules, and then they're gonna look at them again, and they have to vote if they're gonna stay the rules. But the bottom three teams in the lottery are now going to be penalized, they're gonna have less chances of getting first uh, you know, high high draft picks. Uh-huh. Right. You know, they pick them according to the number of balls that are that are there. Right. And they have some really other nice rules. They're they're not going to put up with tanking. The bottom three teams will just have two balls in the in the mix instead of three balls. Right. Okay. And um no but nobody can um have the number one pick two years in a row. That is a very nice. It says a team cannot receive the top five pick in three consecutive years. I like that too. Yes. So they they've kind of put the clamps on so that we're not going to see perhaps a team that looks like the Spurs, you know, that have Wemby and have Harper and have some of these high draft picks that other people were salivating for that really probably could have used them and really needed that. Yeah, for Dallas to get the number one pick as they did, you know, when they got um Cooper flag. But yeah, I I think it's been a long time coming and probably a real n necessary kind of thing. And I know there's still a lot of rumbling and grumbling out there about why change it or why are we doing, but I think, as you said, this is gonna be a little bit of a work in progress, right? And let's see what it looks like. But at least teams have a year in advance notice, so to speak. Right, and they have instituted some severe penalties for um tanking, uh, including losing draft picks or losing um position of draft picks. Okay, I think the fans are gonna really appreciate that, you know. And they can be fined ten million dollars. Oh, for God's sakes, that's a lot of money. That's a lot. It's enough so that they should look at that. Exactly. I would think, yeah, because a thousand bucks, ten thousand dollars, even sometimes it's like a drop in the bucket for some of these, you know, big big teams, right, right. Eve all teams, because there's a lot of money involved. So um but um we'll see if those actually get um enforced. That's what I want to know. Well, this is will be interesting, you know, it will be interesting. And I know there's a lot of talk about um some of the rules as far as the flopping, and there was so much controversy about OKC being on the ground so much, you know, during their playoff run. Um, that are we really doing what we say we were going to do? And is it selective that some of the refs, and remember we talked in our ref segment that you know summertime is an opportunity for them to kind of tighten things up as a general group. So I know, and we are to the point of of uh calling this enough for this particular segment because we want to move on to the WNBA and have a chat about that grouping and those what's happening in their world too. Yeah, so okay, all right, we'll take a little break and hopefully we've given you a little bit of information both about um the playoffs at this point in time and what those new draft rules look them up online because it's interesting. It is an interesting read if you have a minute or two to do that. So, all right, hang on and we're gonna take a break and we shall return. Welcome back to part two of OG's Talking Ball. We're gonna discuss the WNBA now. And we're right in the middle. Well, we're right at the beginning of the Commissioner's Cup tournament. Right. We talked about that briefly before, but we thought we might bring some points back to the forefront now that we're in it. You know, because sometimes I hear something and say, Oh, I don't want to know about that right now because it's not happening. But now we're uh most all the games that are going on between now and the 17th of June are Commissioner Cup games. Yes, they are. It's an in-season tournament, and the championship game will be played on June 30th. Not until June 30th? Right. Oh wow. Okay. Oh, because they had to add that in to the because it's an extra game for whoever those teams are, right? They probably had to find a time. So okay. So the actual tournament is till the 17th, but the championship game isn't until the 30th. Right. And that's that involves a lot of money and money for charity. So that's right. I like the money for charity part of the I'm not real keen on Coinbase being the sponsor of this because that's I don't know, that's money. I like to see it, you know what I mean? I don't know. Yeah, and besides. So you're not bitter because they they haven't um sponsored us, are you, Maryland? No, no bitter, no bitter. They haven't contacted us either. And certainly we'd listen to them if they did, you know. But I yeah, it's okay. It's okay. We can we can live without a sponsor, but um, and we're having I'm having a good time. How about you, Phyllis? I'm having a good time. Good. And there are some players that are having a good time because the we now have some players and coaches of the year and I mean of the month from May, you know. We've had a month of the WNBA, so we've seen some very good basketball. So a lot of shout-out and cheers. So who are we gonna cheer? Who gets cookies? Woo-hoo! Well, well, you know, Ricky of the month was Olivia Miles. Oh yeah. She she was the number two pick from UConn, and we watched her during the college season. Actually, she was from TCU. Oh, TCU? Yeah, she was at Notre Dame for her undergrad years and then transferred last year to TCU. But yeah, she is uh she's got she's cooking for the Minnesota Lynx. Right. Right. Now, so you know she um she made NBA uh WNBA history this this last week. She um she set a record that was not just for rookies, but she had 19 points, nine assists, three steals, and shot 75 percent. Oh god, that's unheard of. I mean, seriously. Well, it was unheard of. Yeah, I guess. I guess yeah, nobody had ever done that before. Oh my god, that's a lot. That's amazing. Isn't that wonderful? And she's short. Well, she's 5'10, so she's not all that short now. She's not like a five's sixer. No, but relatively, now that we look out there and see all the six foot and six foot plus women. Yeah, way so you know, there's seven feet tall women, aren't there? There's a couple of seven feet. There's one I know the gal from China who's on the Liberty, maybe not quite seven foot, but I don't know if there's any seven feet Phyllis. I I'm not sure though. We'll have to look. We'll get back to you on that one, folks. Okay. So anyway, we've got teams. Uh speaking of um Olive uh Olivia's team, uh the Lynx have only at this point dropped two games, lost two games. Yeah. And Nafisa, you know, their their head honcho player, their best player, their star player. A lot of leagues and a lot of definitions, is not playing yet because she's got that ankle. She had both of her ankles operated on over the winter break. And the last one in March, wasn't it? So she's still maybe soon, you know, that she'll be surfacing. But wow, is all I can say is look out because if they're doing this without her presence, and what a great opportunity for Olivia to get her sea legs, you know what I mean, so to speak, in the W. Established in on her team as a winner. Yep. Winner, winner, chicken dinner, and she can have some cookies. Yeah, there you go. There you go. We'll have to share those cookies. So, what else do you have for uh honors this past week or a month in the W? Um, well, I know um Ajay Wilson. Ajay? Asia. Aja. Asia Wilson. She was a player of the month for the Western Conference. Okay. And Alicia Gray was the Eastern Conference. Yeah. I'm averaging like 80 of 80. I'm just reading my numbers backward. 28 points and 15 rebounds. Oh my gosh, that's a lot. You know? Alicia plays for Atlanta. And then Mary Lou. Guess who was coach of the month? I know, and I'm excited for the city of Portland and for the Portland Fire. And his name is Alex Sarama. Sorama, right, right. Alex Sarama, who coaches the Portland Fire, which is a brand new team. Right. A brand new expansion team this year. One coach of the year for the first month of the season. And for his, I don't think he's he's not been a WNBA coach before. This is everything is new here, you know, for the team in Portland. And um actually I wanted to give a shout out to Sandy Brondello. On speaking of the teams that are brand new this year, she's the coach now of the uh Toronto Tempo. They played in New York the other day, and the uh fans gave her a standing ovation. It was she was choking back tears, and it was hard to watch that and not have can you imagine the feeling that she was there for so so long and such a fan favorite and a teen favorite. Yeah, she was their coach, pretty surprised New York. Right, right when she was left for she didn't leave for Toronto, she had to just leave. And figure it out. Like, okay, now what? She was uninvited. Yeah, she was not gonna be renewed. So that was good news to know too. But they loved her in New York, so no. Yeah, that was very sweet. That was very sweet. And the tickets weren't four thousand dollars. No. And I'm sure they um you know that they're loving her in uh Toronto as well. Yeah. They're they're that team is holding their own. And they're doing okay. Yeah, they're holding their own. For a brand new team. Yeah, they're like uh 500 levels, so that's they're interesting to watch. They have some good players. Yeah, uh-huh. They do, they do. Uh-huh. So any other teams are in the middle of the city. Well, Marina um Mabry? Yeah. Uh plays for that. Right. Right. She plays for Toronto. Um, she's making herself invaluable, and she was player of the week. Great. She was named recently as player of the week. Good. So that it's it's exciting basketball. You think about those players that were I hate to use this, but put on the chopping block, I guess, from their teams. It's not that at all. But either their contracts were expiring, right? Non-protected, like how I don't know. I guess you have if you're at that level, your feelings have to not be a major part of that, and that you just understand that this is how this is done and this is how the game is played. But for somebody like um Mabry, what a what a great opportunity for her to basically reinvent herself. And you know, heard some of the fire uh players interviewed too, and they kind of had that same sentiment of like, yeah, nobody really believed in us, and we were like we were like non-people when it came to being a player of relevance. And I mean, you can just you can imagine, you know, and then they came here, and of course, Portland has uh welcomed them with open arms, and there was another sell-out crowd uh when the fever were in town, over 19,000 at the Moda Center. So fans are showing up and really, you know, supporting that team, which is great. And like I said, I know they're doing the same in Toronto, so it seems like we've said this before, that there's plenty of talent out there, just not enough teams to field all that talent. So it's great that there will be a new team coming up the next three years, one each per year. So we've got um that lined up to do. A lot of women who can play basketball. Yes, uh well, not just well, yeah. One of them, one of them was here in Portland recently. Her name was Kayla Thornton. She plays for the Valkyries, Golden State. Oh my gosh. She was in Portland? They didn't play here. Oh, they played in um right. Yeah, they'll be here. Valkyries will be here later in the store. Yeah, but that game, that that game, they made 18. I was gonna say the three pointers. They could not, there was no way to defend them, it didn't seem. I mean, I keep always thinking, where are you people? Get out there. Anyway, um Yes, they made so many. It was just like pop like a slot machine, you know, paying off. Yeah, 18 of 43 pointers, and Kayla Thornton made five of them. It was just automatic. Every time they shot, it was embarrassing for the fire because they couldn't stop them. No, no, and they and then they were cold. Fire were cold shooting because I don't know if it was just because of who they were playing. But you know, the Valkyries are a second-year expansion team, and they really kind of have set the tone for all teams, not just expansion teams, but for all teams in the W, that they are not to be slighted. You know what I mean? That they're there to play serious basketball. Yeah, that that's serious. We were we were impressed with them. Absolutely. Absolutely. Um the you know, the fever won the um commissioners cup last year. But um I don't know. Uh Caitlin Cart Clark seems to be struggling more this year a little bit. I still don't think her back's right or whatever her injury is. There's something, you know, she used to be pretty fiery and you know, energetic. And I saw her them when they were here in Portland on the 30th of May, and she just was flat. You know what I mean? Just personality wise, it just kind of there's something not right, and I don't know what it is, but you know, it's just kind of the feeling thing too. Yeah, but I felt bad for her too. She only got like had like five points that game, so that wasn't even anything close to what she's used to. She is under so much pressure every night. She she has more attention than any other player uh you know in the league. And well, she gave us a taste. Yeah, what she showed us what of what it was. Exactly, exactly. And then she got hurt, yeah, yeah. And she's guess working her way back. I I hope she comes to full energy. She had energy. Same thing kind of that Damien had, you know, that oh but she didn't have surgery on it, she just had the healing time and what was that called again? The abdominal thing. Remember what that was? I can't think of it. Anyway, and then she ended up, I told you I watched her land on her back uh one game about three or four weeks ago, and that was rugged to see. So I think it's just a combination of hopefully and you know, and they the fever won the other day, so you know they know that they can. So hopefully it's just a matter of time because I know the Indiana folks would really like to see that team um again being in the playoffs. I'm not I even know. It's only it's so early, it's only twenty-five percent of the games have been played so far. So a lot can happen. We know this through the course of the season. It reminds me of Indiana Pacers. That's a fun fact for Indiana Pacers. What I read this week. What did you read? I read the one their name came because they were across the street from uh racetrack. Right and the pacers uh pace car. Yep, yep. They're they're not quite across the street, but they are they're in the vicinity. This was horse racing. Oh, a horse me, you didn't say see, I think of Indianap Indiana and Indianapolis, I'm going uh 500, you know, right away. This was horse racing. Oh, interesting. And the pacers in horse racing. Uh-huh. Got it, got it. They they have not that Phyllis is catching Mary Lou's ADHD at all, but that was a bounce from a different anyway. Well, so bringing it back now to the WM. But we were talking about Indiana. I know it wasn't the right league, but it was Indiana. I gotcha. I I know you're from Indiana. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. When I saw that, it stuck in my mind. Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay, Loki. Um, I don't know what else. I think that's about all I have to say about any of this. You probably have something else, I imagine, because you usually Well, I have a big subject called uh what is Project B, but well, I don't want to go into it at this time. Do we get any kind of a little glimmer? Well, it's uh it's it's a new for the WNBA, correct? Well in basketball in general, give us that much. It is a new league, uh uh worldwide league for for men and women. And they want to Separately Separately and it will it's going to be a touring league. They will play in Asia and Oh my well let's let's leave it at that. And I'll let me have the opportunity to look that up too. And maybe our listeners are gonna want to check that out. And if you don't, we'll get into this in the next uh month or two. Remember, we're on a modified schedule now with our podcasts dropping there about every other week right now. But come August, I think we're just gonna do one in August and one in September because our schedules are just so whacked, you know what I mean, with too much else going on with summer, you know. And the reason it caught my eye was that uh Janelle Solon um was going to play on that league, but she withdrew. And so it was the first player that withdrew from that project B. I see. And look at it. So it it made news, and I thought, well, I don't even know what Project B is. Yeah. But we're we'll talk about it. Yeah, definitely. That's a good one. I'm gonna write that down right now, too, Phyllis, because you know, if I don't write it down, I'm gonna forget. Okay. I think we're gonna close out then and uh thank everyone for listening to us at this uh particular point in the in the juncture, and thank you to our new listeners and everyone who's been with us since the beginning uh last October. This is actually, is this number 27 today or 28? Number 28 podcast. Oh my goodness. So for some folks, that's a lot of time on the treadmill. I've had quite a few people tell me that this is like the perfect half hour on a treadmill kind of uh thing to listen to. So we thank you. Uh whatever you're doing, and tell a friend, that's always a big help for us. And um, we love having listeners and the feedback, of course. So, you know, life is better with basketball for me, and I know for many, many, many of you. So continue to enjoy and hope your summers are going well. And Phyllis, in your closing, I would say be kind to each other out there. Amen. All right, take care.