Skeets & JD's NBA Paris Games Recap
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Bonsoir, sweet world. It's January 25th, 2025. Saturday night, no dunks. Coming to you from Paris, France. I'm Jay Esquides with my partner in crime the last few days, super producer JD. Hello. Oh, bonsoir. Ah, bonsoir. The red wine has been poured. I say we cheers right now. Cheers. Cheers to a fantastic week.

What did you go with here? This is a Beaujolais, a Morgon. Okay. Beaujolais. No, not a Beaujolais. My bad. I think it's a Bordeaux. He doesn't know what he just ordered. I asked for the driest they had. Okay. And this is the driest I have. And it's...

Awesome. This is a first. We are set up here in our hotel lobby. We just got back from the Accord Arena where we watched game two between the Spurs and the Pacers. Not going to be a lot of game talk.

Here on this pod, we'll talk about our week here in Paris for the NBA Paris Games. Similar game, in a weird way, to the first one on Thursday. Yes. Which had Wemby Nyama taking over at the end of the third quarter, blocking everything, diming up guys, scoring, sort of blew the game open, and then they ran away with it in the fourth. It was the reverse here tonight. Correct.

Indiana superstar Tyrese Halliburton scoring, I think, 16 straight there at the end of the third quarter. He couldn't miss. He turned into Steph Curry. I'm surprised he didn't drop the, you know, night-night, nuit-nuit. And then it was a blowout in the fourth quarter. Correct. So they come all this way, both these teams, and they leave with a win apiece. Yeah. A nice revenge game on a Saturday night here in Paris. Yes. I mean, yeah. You mentioned before that when we were watching the game tonight, you were like,

The first quarter of the first game felt like an all-star game almost. Yeah, it was pretty loose. It was very loose. It was supposed to be a home game for the Pacers, but the crowd was definitely there to see Wemby and the Spurs. And maybe that got in their head maybe a little bit. I don't know. It definitely looked like the Pacers played with a little more oomph here in Game 2 on Saturday night. Defensively, they were a lot more locked in. And it did feel like, hey guys, we didn't come all this way.

to just lose two here to the Spurs. Like, remember, the Pacers are a better team. They've been one of the best teams since the calendar flipped to 2025. Spurs are the opposite of that. So it's like, let's at least get one of these. And again, Halliburton took over and they ran away with it. And yeah, sent the crowd home, I guess a little disappointed.

A little bit. I guess. What do you think of the crowd for both of these games, the production here in Paris? What do you think? I thought they did an incredible job. The arena, the Alcor Arena, is a weird arena. You mentioned it before. Very weird. In terms of the exterior is completely covered in grass. Like, the wall. It's like a slanted wall. Yeah, slope. Yeah. I guess for environment reasons, but...

It's also old. It's pretty old, yeah. It's like 40 to 45 years old. Yeah. So it's quite old. It felt old in the bowels. Yeah. Normally, you know, I mean, the bowels are never sexy necessarily, but the upstairs concourse felt like what a modern stadium feels like. Sure. And I feel like they must have done that recently.

For the Olympics, I guess. Yeah, maybe. But what about the crowd? The crowd was amazing. I mean, they were completely into it tonight.

I don't know if they did this the last game because we didn't get there that early but they kind of gave like a an orientation I felt like I was being they were like training the crowd to say you know when when you hear boom boom you go defense that's right that's right boom defense it was taking me back to early Raptors days but here is how basketball is played and the

And the crowd, like, they were into it. And there were a lot of Spurs fans, of course. It was like 99% Spurs fans, or if not, Wemba Nyama fans. But you're right, they had those two guys on the mic. One of the weirder things was when someone would go to the free throw line, I guess a majority of the time it would be a Spurs player, we'll say two shots, and you will chant it back to us. Yeah.

But it was in English, that part. Yeah. Like, what's the French word for defense? I mean, is it two syllables? Why not go with that? But anyways. Yeah. But yeah. And then at one point, and the crab wasn't doing it. They were doing it. Absolutely. Two shots. Two shots. Yeah. Until there was one shot. Yeah.

Yeah. The announcer made a little boo-boo. Yep, yep. Said two shots, but not everybody was... They were like, hold on, man. No, see, that's when I was like, okay, respect to this crowd. They didn't really say it bad. They were like, that's not two shots. That was a man one. It's only one shot. Say one shot. Yeah. But, yeah, those guys, you know, they were trying to get the crowd into it. And, man, then the anthems hit. Holy crap. Chills, man. For both the American anthem and the French anthem. Totally. There was like a pot, like the American anthem. I can't believe we're talking about the anthem.

anthems but the American anthem same singer both nights I think for both and you know she hit a high note in the middle of the song and like she got a pop like from the French national anthem it was amazing it was great and you know and then of course the French national anthem

was awesome. Like, I got chills with, like, the entire room. I know. Very dramatic anthem, too. Oh, yeah. And then she was doing, the singer was doing the, like, okay, I'll stop singing, then you take over. And then she would come back in. She was doing that flawlessly. So they were ready. I think the Game 2 crowd wasn't as crazy.

crazy as the game one crowd. And I mean, maybe some of that's a bit because it went differently and the Pacers ran away with it. But like just from the jump, there was like that Wemby fever and there were way more Wemby chants or way more MVP chants. We still heard some tonight at times. And he finished with 20 and 12 and then checked out when it was a blowout and got a good standing ovation or a good ovation. But yeah, man, it was Wemby mania. That guy must be exhausted.

I think he's having the time of his life. He's embraced it? Yeah, seeing him. He showed up at the celebrity game last night. Which apparently was a packed house too.

Crazy. For, I mean, look, a lot of French celebrities, so why would we know them? But I'll tell you what, I was offended when I saw some of the people in this celebrity game. Yeah, fair enough. There's a woman, I don't really know how she became famous. I think through YouTube. I'm sure she's very funny. Yes. I believe her name is Studio Danielle. Okay. Has over a million followers, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But...

An older woman who I don't think has ever played basketball. Yeah. So again, I was like, damn, I'll never make it. Yeah. Rumor has it not a lot of them knew how to play basketball. Yeah. It wasn't the greatest game ever played. But you're right. Wemby was there. He's been everywhere. Yeah. But I keep thinking, like, of course the NBA would probably want the Spurs back here again. You would think. But the Spurs probably don't want that.

Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Like, on one hand, it's great for the brand, you're growing the brand here and all that, but, like, it is exhausting. Yeah. And you're putting your players, and especially your star players, through a lot in Wibinyama. Like, you're asking a lot, I think. You do it once, and maybe you come back in a couple years, but I'd be sort of shocked if the Spurs are, like, here again next year. I agree 100%. It's sort of what we hear the...

The rumor is that the players don't love All-Star when you're an All-Star because there are so many social things that they have to do and then you're totally exhausted by the end of the weekend and Wemby must be feeling that for sure. He has to. He has to. And an incredible ambassador.

Like, he's just a natural. Yeah. When he took the mic before game one, obviously, and had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hands. And just, like, everything I've been following on social media, he's, like, he's just popped up everywhere. Yeah. And it's, like, he's got time for everyone, too. It's not like, here, take the photo, now I go. He engages with people. He's just, like, a good kid. So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see who comes. And will we ever get an entertaining game here? This is the other part that sucks. I mean, I was disappointed that both turned into...

Just snoozers in the fourth quarter. Yeah, because that's like now five games here regular season games in Paris You've got to have a really competitive game, right? So what's the answer?

send number one and number number one of each conference no the answer is to rig it the answer is to tell the official hey let's get that team back into it let's put on a show here you know what like they were like the Pacers played hard tonight and when we put on a show the first night so like yeah I don't think the French the French are

Annoyed like I don't think they're I think they enjoyed it like yeah, they're here for the spectacle I don't what like do you think tickets went on sale at the exact same time and like if they did I was wondering like How many people were there in the arena for game one on Thursday night and we're also there tonight for game two Which started a little earlier here on Saturday. Yeah, I

I didn't recognize anybody from midnight one. Besides the media? I saw Tim Reynolds both nights. I saw Joe Varden both nights. Confirmed. NBA Sickos, those guys. But I wonder. For sure, yeah. I mean, the answer has to be some people.

Yeah, there's definitely sickos here. I mean, yeah. So, yeah. Did you see anything like, wow, that's French for an NBA game? Anything like come to mind? Two dapper dudes walking through the concourse with champagne glasses in their hands, like frosted plastic. Double fisting. Double fisting champagne. Both of them.

Yeah, that was... Ooh la la. Yeah, that was... It was perfect. It was fun seeing people sipping on champagne, like in the concourse and walking to their seats. Just something you don't see at an NBA game in North America. Yeah, not at all. Like, I don't even know, can you buy champagne at the Fortress in Atlanta? That's a great question. Champagne is... I mean, I know it was huge, and we are in France, but... Yes. I mean, like...

on the flight over here we were served dinner which was also weird but they served us dinner and you know would you like some red wine with that i'm like yeah of course yeah and then it's like and would you like some champagne i'm like uh yeah of course so they're just like all right so i'm starting this like why did you say it was weird that they served you dinner on a flight just because of the time yeah i mean i guess in international flights it happens but because i didn't even eat well you missed out i slept

Delicious. But they woke me for breakfast, and I respected that. A little tap on my foot. Got very lucky. Very lucky on our flights. It was pretty empty, the plane. And we each had a complete row in the middle. Four seats. Four seat row. Like, I was not as comfortable as you could be, but lying across four seats, but, like, stretched out, curled up, a million pillows, a million blankets.

- Like four pillows and four blankets. - Yeah, it was great. It was great. - It was great. Who needs a sleeping pod? - Those suckers, man. They paid like 10 times the amount. - Exactly. - I had a better sleep than anyone in first class. - That is definitely not true. That is definitely not true. - Probably not true, but it was a pretty good sleep for the red eye, I guess, that we took. Heading back tomorrow to Atlanta. What else from the trip? I mean, we can talk about either more from the game or other things we did, because we feel like we've done a lot.

I mean, again, the production of the game itself I thought was amazing. Inside the arena. I mean, there wasn't a ton. I guess the first night it felt like there wasn't a lot of stuff in between, like, you know, activations and stuff. I agree with that. I agree with that. They ramped it up here. It felt like a mess. And I was wondering if that was, like, because it was the Spurs home game.

And the first one was the Pacers, and it was like, this is not going to be a home game. Let's not go overboard on, like, cheer for us, the home team, because nobody cares. Yeah, that's interesting. But I don't know, man. It definitely seemed like the Pacers' production and then the Spurs' production, because the Coyote was at tonight's game, and what is it, a cat? Yeah, it's a cat. Boomer? Is it Boomer? It's Boomer. Boom, baby. I don't think the French crowd was into any of their antics.

Either mascot? Yeah. No. No. What do you think they liked the most? They loved Krishna and Scooby. Oh, okay. They loved Scooby. Yeah. Of course. The star. Yes. Go check out our short with the both of them. We reversed roles. We made the man. We made the human do the dog tricks. Yeah, exactly. Or see if you could. Great sports, Krishna and Scooby, but they popped for Scooby. They generally liked the trampoline dunking. Yeah. Who doesn't, though?

It's true. I feel like they have more respect for the Cirque du Soleil type acrobatics. Yeah, yeah. And fair enough. But mascots, they don't do anything. Whatever. It's a guy in a suit. Who cares?

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What else from Paris here? I mean, Paris. You've eaten well. We have eaten. You drank well. Yeah. I mean, we did like the thing where you just try to find a bad meal and you can't do it. You can't. You can't do it. And then we went out for an awesome meal that you reserved last night. We were like, uh-oh.

Maybe we jinxed it because we actually planned this one. I know, I was concerned. Oh, it came through. Because like you said, all week long it's like, okay, either location reasons or we're starving reasons, so let's just like, I guess pick that place. We'll just roll the dice. Yeah. But it's Paris.

Almost every place is amazing food. Incredible. It was just like perfect, perfect, perfect. And then I was like, oh yeah, watch this. The one place I actually made reservations for, uh, we're going to go to and it's going to be horrible. Yeah. But it wasn't. No, it was awesome. And it's also fashion week here in Paris and we got a little taste of it last night. We did. We, uh, we met up with a buddy of yours who was here for fashion week, 10 days working straight through. Uh,

And he came with us to dinner and then he took us out to the left bank and then we went to the third and then we smiled. - Wow, yeah, oh good.

Just ended up in a bar full of Fashion Week people. How old did you feel last night? A million years old. Oh my god. We were the hippest place we went all week here. Yeah, and it was fun. It was totally, it was so much fun. But it was like, dear lord, I'm surprised they let us in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They were all guys were happy to see us. Yeah, they were. So yeah, Fashion Week happening at the same time as NBA Paris Games. We also today went to

NBA Paris House, I guess it's called. I still don't know if it's called NBA House Paris or NBA Paris House. La Maison. I swear it's been called both things, unless I'm going crazy, and at this point I am. But it's like an activation thing, and showed it to a guy, Keith, that helped us get us in there, sort of before it opened up to the public. I mean, crowds lined up for blocks today. Yeah.

Which, it's a free thing to get in, and then you do all the stuff, and that's great. And, you know, there's some branding, of course. There's Foot Locker there, 2K. But then it was cool that Pacers had that LED court, and then the Spurs had, like, this sort of, like, boutique-y, very French, like, you can get macarons and some other chocolate, and they brought their trophies. Like, they were flexing on that. Oh, totally. But I thought it was okay. Yeah. I mean, it was great, and it was great to see the crowd there. I mean, I've seen...

Similar lineups for like NBA Jam in Phoenix, Arizona. Crossover, I guess it's called now. Right, exactly. So yeah, I just love seeing the French fans out there. And the Hoops bus. Yeah, the Hoop bus. The Hoop bus. See, I don't think they bring the one from America over. They don't put it on like a barge and send it over. I don't think. But it did say Le Hoop bus. I did notice that. A little decal. They may have just added that. Yeah. But yeah.

The weather has been a little rough. Okay. It's January. It's Paris. What do you want, man? Well, for it to not rain would be a good start. Yeah, that would be nice. But you know what? We said this. If it's going to rain on you sort of all week, sort of on and off, but drizzle or rain, basically the entire time we've been here, and it's like five days now, not really a better city for it to rain in than Paris. It's still beautiful. The lighting is incredible for photos. It really is. And you walk out of the hotel, and it's like...

slick streets, you know? It's like in movies, they hose down the streets, you know, before they call action. So it's just picturesque. I mean, yes. Is it gloomy? Yes. Yes. But again, we're in France in January. What are you going to do? Go inside. Exactly. Have a glass of wine. Enjoy some fromage. Right, right. What else? What else? How do you feel like the work week went for us in terms of churning out the content? Hey, we

We did our best. I think we came up with some decent stuff. I can't believe how much mileage we got out of the Hennessy run that you were... That happened like 24 hours before we came here. Like, hey, do you want to come to this Hennessy run? Like, yeah, sure, yeah. I'm going to be jet lagged like crazy, but yeah.

And shout out to JB, it was a pretty amazing activation or event I guess. Just the opportunity to be like go play on the court they played on these last two games. Exactly. We got a good short out of that and both of us were zombies because we had just arrived so off the red eye and basically went right there. Yeah.

And, yeah, and shout out to JB, the guy who invited us. And then Jan Mahini. Jan Mahini was there. We didn't even know he was going to be there. He's also been everywhere. He has. I know he's a former NBA player and obviously French ties of being a Frenchman, but, like, that guy's everywhere too. Yeah. And again, like, okay, that's like, oh, he's here. He'll maybe take a photo. He'll maybe sign something for, you know, these Hennessy reps or whatever, whoever these guys were that were part of the run.

No, he's officiating the game. He's calling fouls on me left and right. You got more fouls than anybody. Got a little insane, I thought. You almost fouled up. Yeah, I probably had four or five fouls. Yeah, I at least had four fouls. Only one of them was a real foul. Right. He had it out for me. Now, I was a little psycho. I was playing maybe a little too much defense for a very casual pick-up game. Hey, you were taking it extremely seriously. That's right. That's right. I mean, I...

JB, the guy again who invited us, he did put you on his team. So maybe there was a little pressure there on you to perform for JB. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, hey, look, we didn't lose. No. We didn't lose. Our Pacers team went 3-0. Yeah. And then obviously the real Pacers team went 1-1. Right. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. Did I have a better performance here in Paris than TJ McConnell? Maybe. Maybe. It's possible. I mean...

It's being discussed. It's being discussed on the internet right now. It's being discussed. There's a lot of discourse around me looking like a child standing next to Yann Mahimi and me playing like T.J. McConnell. And honestly, there's a lot of truth in both those things. Anything else we got to let the people know from your time here? I mean, it's just, it's been great. I mean, Paris is awesome, man. Like, I can't be blasé about it, pardon the pun. It's just incredible.

Well, okay, can I jump in here? I did a quick hit with some guys that cover the NBA from Denmark. Oh, yeah. And before we obviously did the video, you know, I said, how's the week going? Or what do you think of Paris? I'm sure you've been here before. They live in Denmark. Hate Paris. What, really? Despise it. Why? Their whole thing is like...

Everybody, they talk about Europe, they talk about Paris, this city of love, this city of love, and they're like, there are a million cooler, better spots in Europe. I was like, okay, okay, okay, okay. Yes. Hey, look, I went to Bath for Paris. I was like, I hear you, and yes, there are other amazing spots. I've been fortunate to have been to a couple of them, as have you, but I'm like, come on, guys. Can't get a bad meal, like we said. It is pretty damn picturesque. One of the easiest cities to get around with the metro. It's got some things going for it. Yeah. Yeah.

And also, yes, it was raining, but Denmark is, I'm sure, pretty cold right now, comparatively. I haven't checked my weather apps. It's true. Have you been to Copenhagen? No. Oh, geez, you should go. It's beautiful. It's the Paris of Scandinavia, they say. It is great. It's great. It's great. It's great. Yeah, it was pretty funny. I just never heard somebody say that.

You're like, you know what? Pierce is overrated. Yeah, but I mean, if your neighbor is like the best looking guy on the block, you're like, okay, fuck that guy. Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point. Maybe that's what was going on. A little jealousy is what you're saying. Yeah.

Maybe. Well, I don't know. I've never been to Copenhagen, so, you know. You know what? I'll go to Copenhagen, and then I can finally say that Paris is definitely better than Copenhagen. And you'll have no idea what you're drinking, just like you do here. Yeah, just one of those bottles. What color is it? Sure, surprise me. Isn't that where they have, like, the pickled shark or whatever that makes everybody barf? Oh.

Oh, really? Is that Denmark? It's one of the... Maybe it's Finland. Anyway. Yeah, okay. Now you're... Oh, jeez. Now you're really... Yeah, everybody's coming after me today. Flame him.

Look, I'm sorry. I'm in Paris. It's recency bias. I'm charmed. I am charmed by this city. And the people have been amazing. Like, you know. Oh, yeah. I mean, no added. Like, I always hear this, like, Paris, like, the Parisians are so snobby and whatever. And, yeah, they are. They're Parisians. Yeah. And I love it. You love it. I love it. Yeah. But they've been nice to us. I feel like. They absolutely have been. And...

I know the other thing for some Americans here when you go out and eat or go to get a drink, it's like, it's slow. It's slower. It's slower. Than like, America's like, oh, you've sat down here, your menus, what can I get you? I'll be right back. There's a gallon of water. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's like, that's not it. Like, you can, you'll find your, like, grab a seat and then wait 10 minutes. Like, then I'll maybe get to you. That's why there's cigarettes, guys.

You haven't smoked a cigarette? No, of course not. No. It's a disgusting habit. And it's a disgusting habit, but for as crappy as the weather has been, there are still a lot of people outside on patios, and you're like, whoa, it's cold and raining. Yeah.

You're addicted to cigarettes. It's true because that looks like a miserable place to sit right now. But you're totally right. The vibe here is just like, sit down and just chill out, relax. They'll come to you. They'll get to you. One other thing maybe to touch on was we caught Adam Silver's press conference, which was on Thursday before game one.

packed house for this. I mean, there was not a seat to be had. We were like lying against the walls way back. All the press there to hear what Commissioner Silver had to say. He spoke about three main things, I would say. He talked a lot about this European expansion for like this NBA European League that there were rumors a couple months ago and he addressed that. He talked about the new All-Star format and then he talked about

A little bit about the idea of, like, complaints about three-point shooting in the NBA and maybe how to fix it or not fix it, don't overreact and stuff like that. Those are the three main things. Did you have any takeaways or... Yeah. Are you surprised by anything you said? I mean, I was...

The thing he said about the USA versus the world suggestion for All-Star Game. All-Star Game format that a lot of people have thrown out there. They think it's going to save it, which I roll my eyes at, but yeah. Yeah, and he brought up, I thought, an amazing point, which is there are 14 players who are in the NBA who are from France alone. So you could put a roster of French guys alone to take on the US guys. Yeah, right.

And this sort of attitude of, I mean, he was very savvy because he's on the world stage. He's in Europe and he's like, hey, we don't want to be the American sort of bullies like, come on world, take us on. Come on, we'll take you on, yeah. And 30% of the league, I think he said, is international. So you have less players to choose from anyways. So I thought that was a good point. Yeah, he was like saying, how is it really fair? It is a little like, oh, look at us, big bad Americans. Like this isn't,

the Olympics, right? And we also, by the way, saw some pretty damn entertaining games between one nation versus America. Then there's the whole thing like, okay, the best players right now are generally all international. So there's that part too. But he was like, yeah, it's sort of like disrespectful to the, really to the international guys because they might be like...

Like, no offense, like, why don't you just give me Team France? Right. And, like, we'll take on New Americans or whatever country where you have a lot to pick from, Canada and a couple others. I mean, France very nearly walked away with gold over the summer, right? For sure, for sure. So, you know. And it's just like...

Yeah, I was happy to hear him say that. Again, I know a lot of people probably watching right now, listening, they've been saying, try this, try this. By the way, we tried this in a Rising Stars game once upon a time. No one remembers that. No one cares. It did nothing. It didn't change the competitive spirit. So that's why I'm like, I was happy to hear that. No, no, no. But then he definitely did not lean in this year to be like, don't worry, it's going to be competitive. It's back to basketball. Like he, I thought.

He talked about the new format. We talked to the players. We talked to the competition committee. Like, we're trying this. But he was almost like, hey guys, we're trying. We're doing our best. We talked to all the all-stars, you know. I wonder how those conversations were, if they even happened. But yeah, he's a...

There's a lot of pressure on him, obviously. What's he supposed to say? "I'm cautiously optimistic that the All-Star game will be good." We know it's not going to be, so maybe this new format? Again, it doesn't matter the format. It just depends on some players, some leaders, some, let's generally call it as it is, like the vets.

the LeBrons, the Currys, the KDs, it's up to them. It sort of is. To at least for a moment within this game, or from the jump, I mean, if you want to, to make it as much like a real basketball. Right. It's possible, but like...

Yeah, it doesn't matter the format. Anyway, I just thought it was funny how he generally was like, eh, we'll see. We're trying. Like, what's the worst that could happen? Yeah. We'll give it a go. Exactly. If they've been brutal the last two years, we'll hope this one's better. And maybe it will be. I sort of believe Steph in the Bay, in front of his home crowd, might try and put on a show. They should have it in Copenhagen. Oh, wow. There you go. What about Paris? Well, trying to throw a bone to Copenhagen. Oh, okay. Okay.

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And then as for the NBA draft,

European League, this came up a lot. And this was the most we've heard him basically say, this is happening. We think what they're currently doing here, they're not really tapped into this market. They're leaving a lot of money left on the table. And we run five leagues. They run a couple other leagues in addition to the NBA. We can do it better, and we'll do it here. Intriguing to see how this one goes. And I almost feel like there was some...

reservations from a lot of the European press of the impact this could have on the European League as it is and how this goes and maybe like a trickle-down effect does this start like taking out club teams like lower level and stuff like that I guess it could for sure I think the Europeans like their league

Right. I mean, you know, we've seen Lee Ellis go to games and the atmosphere is insane. Yeah. And, you know, maybe they don't have a ton of basketball fans yet, but the ones that they have are very passionate about their teams and they don't want to necessarily see them go away. But as he also said...

The Europeans are a little more open to open leagues, right? Where, you know, an EPL team can play in a Champions League and so on. So, yeah, we'll see what happens. He sees dollar bills because it's a large commercial opportunity, especially in a setting now that they've got the huge TV deal. It's like...

have we like sort of plateaued in North America, so to speak. So it's a huge opportunity to make a bunch of money. And then, like you said, like maybe this opens up a bunch of things, but this is happening. I mean, he basically said, I know he like tried to like, so, okay. It's like nothing official. We don't have dates or times and stuff like that yet, but like this is going to happen. There's a reason. I mean, how many Spurs, ex-Spurs do they have out there on the court tonight? I mean, Oh my God, the Spurs had like,

It felt like an entire team. I think it was 12 plus. It may have been closer to 15. They brought all the legends out. Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, Manu Ginobili. Tiago Splitter. Tiago Splitter, nice call. Who was the weirdest one? There were some. There were guys I had never heard of, to be honest. It's true. The Spurs mainly take care of their guys. Surprised Matt Bonner wasn't here.

Yeah, what the hell? He's working. He's got the raptors. I had to remind myself, sort of all week, especially at the games, that it's like, oh yeah, this is just a regular season game. It felt like All-Star. It felt like something special. Totally. And the part when the games are on for us here, and then you compare it to when the games are on East Coast time back in the States, it's like,

We're in bed by the time the games are on. So you almost forget they're happening until you see the highlights the next morning. Oh, what happened? Are you listening to No Doubt? Oh yeah, okay, that happened. You just feel so removed. It's like this is like my goal start. The fans here have to work so much harder to consume the game. There's a guy who works here at the bar who was just desperate to get a ticket. He couldn't get a ticket. Shout out to Jan.

We didn't come through for you, man. His name was Jan, too. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah. What did we tell him? We're like, very unlikely we fall into a ticket, but we will come back and give it to you if we do. We had a few pops at that point, so we're like, well, you know. Oh, we got you in, Mike. Don't you worry. And he was like, I'm not going to be here. Yeah. But he was like, what? I don't know if these guys are real or not. Yeah. He looked us up, and I think he might be listening to this now. Hey, man. Hey, well, come. Hey, look.

Bartender here at the Citizen M. Jan. Jan. Come to Atlanta. Yeah. I will guarantee you I'll give you tickets to the Hawks game. And he said he had a couple favorite teams. He was like Cavs, Mav, or whatever. I forget what they had. He had like four teams that he liked, so...

That's on us. Yeah. Well, it's on the Hawks. We'll make sure. Yeah. You have to get yourself there though. Yeah. Yeah. You, yes, you got paid for your own ticket. Is there anything else, my man? One more thing about silver. Did you, did we talk about the three point shooting? Okay. We didn't talk about that. I don't know. It came up right at the end of the press conference and he, you know, talked about how the NBA has embraced analytics and,

Yes. Over the past decade, and that has increasingly...

recognize the value of a three-pointer and teams have adjusted their offenses to obviously respect that and shoot more and take more. But his like thing was because everyone's like, oh, we got to fix it. Oh my God. This is like, honestly, it's turning into college basketball. That's sort of what I think. Like I used to crap on college ball like 10 years ago. Cause I was like, all they do is shoot threes. It's sort of like, it's not entertaining. NBA has sort of like gone a little bit more that way. But he said, quote, this is silver. I don't want to overreact.

But I think there are potentially some adjustments we can make. So he, they recognize that it's maybe not the greatest, most entertaining product that the NBA can put on, but he was like, you can't overreact to this stuff. Like we can't immediately like whatever widen the court or allow this or allow that. Like let it, let's see, let it happen naturally. Maybe. Right. The, the, the way that we let, let the teams make the adjustments. He, he,

He called out the Celtics, saying that their three-pointers are down. Yeah, he was like, look at them. They were shooting a million three-pointers, hitting a million of them, and now look what's happened. Now they stink. Now they can't hit them. Yeah, yeah. So relax, is what he's saying. Yeah, and then he made a comparison to the Olympic Games, where he's like, look at all the three-pointers that were in those games. Right. In the gold medal games.

No one complained about that. There was high drama. It was amazing. It was like true. Yeah, I mean, I kind of agree with him. Like, Steph went off with three pointers at the Olympics and it was amazing to watch. It was amazing. When three pointers are being hit, it's awesome. Yeah.

Forget about the three-pointers, guys. Focus on the last minute of the game. That's what we should be focused on. To fix it from an entertainment standpoint. Yeah. I 100% agree. Yeah. And that is whatever, getting rid of timeouts, tweaking things in terms of just the flow and play. Yeah. You put all this work in, you watch these games, and then sometimes the final minute of a game can take 20 minutes. Nobody wants that. Casuals like me are like, whatever. I'm not that into it. I'm going to go check out Pickleball. Yeah. Yeah, you literally just watched two basketball games.

Over the span of three days. In Paris. If you had told me five years ago, "Hey, you're going to go to Paris for four nights, and two of those nights you're going to be attending an NBA game," I would have punched you in the face. Wow. You would have been offended. I would have been... Excuse me. You'd be like, "No way I'm doing that." I will be at Moulin Rouge on one of those nights and something else. I don't know. Right, right. Drinking in a bistro on another night, but yeah, I don't know. Hey.

But you were into it. I was into it. I was definitely into it. And you were doing some work as well. Yeah. But you were out there for a lot of it, watching it. I enjoyed it. Yeah. It was fun. This guy loves basketball. I love basketball. As long as it's in Paris. Yeah. I think that's a big part of it. Yeah. Whenever there's a game in Paris, I'm happy to come and work.

I mean, when we do the All-Star game, I almost never go to the All-Star game. Well, I mean, that's the one. Hey, if you're going to pick one NBA basketball game to not go and see, make it the NBA All-Star game. That you have figured out. But maybe all the other ones. Well, maybe we'll get you out there to some more Hawks games now that you got the bug. Well, yeah, we'll see. Has this made you like the Spurs or Pacers? Spurs for sure. I had a Pacers, yeah. I mean, yeah. I was very impressed with...

by the Spurs in general and Wemby. We already talked about it. You know the one guy who would have loved this? Who? Greg Popovich. He would have loved... You would talk about love this. I know. That's what I'm saying. Cheers to Pop. Good health, hopefully, to Pop. Yes. He's recovering, hopefully. Yeah, he would. That's a great point. That is a great, great point. And Silver did.

address that. He did. Right off the top of his press conference. Sending his best. And the only other thing from the press conference is everybody wants a game in their country. Oh yeah. Germany wants a game. I'm sure Denmark wants a game. Oh yeah. Everybody. Just you gotta ask about it. And Silver has to like say like yeah. I would just love for him to have the balls to be like where? Come

Copenhagen? No fucking way. That'd be amazing. Stern would have done that, I feel like. No, we're not going there, buddy. Sorry. But Silver, a little more diplomatic in his responses. He should run for office after all this. You think he's doing a decent job? I mean, a lot of people think it's like, you know, had a super, super strong start.

to his commissioner tenure, and maybe he's in a lull now trying to fix All-Star games and fix the game itself. Yeah. Oh, he's too kind with the players, and maybe he veered one way too strongly where Stern was more of an owner's guy. Yeah. And there's some truth to that. Look, when you meet a politician, I'm talking about any politician, or a survivor player, you know? Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like somebody you might hate, and you are in the same room with them. Mm-hmm.

It's like, okay, I get it. I get it now. Like seeing, for a full hour of seeing Silver, like, just work the room, you know? And like, you just, take questions with such poise, you know? You know what I mean? Like, it's just like, he's actually a charming guy.

guy to be around in real life. He is, he is. And he's like self-deprecating enough to know like, "Oh, these are long answers." Yeah. Like he made a joke about that. He did, yeah, yeah. Like, "Do we have time still?" Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

In just, like, watching it even through social media, it felt like the Pacers and Spurs, their teams, creative teams, their entire squad, right, really, like, did, like, way more stuff here. Yeah. Than just, like, fly over here, here's a game, everybody. Donovan Mitchell scored 45 against the Nets. Okay, bye. It felt like just, like, they're, like, the Pacers were doing these, like,

scavenger hunts. Yeah. That like, like completely like blew up and like to get free tickets and stuff like that. And the spurs were everywhere and obviously jerseys and stuff like they just like, and maybe the part of that was like, they were here so long. Two games. The two games. And I think that's a way to do it. Yeah. I think that's smart. Yeah. Cause you can like take over parts of the city and do fun things like build your fan base. Yeah. So I think, uh, overall very successful. I'm happy. I'm happy as well. Cheers to you, my man. Cheers to you. A great work. Fun week.

with JD cranking out the content. Obviously hit the social media channels to see all the shorts we've done and all the photos we've shared and stuff like that. We just did a fun one with Christian and Scooby. Yeah. As we said, so go check that out if you're catching this somewhat soon after we post it. Otherwise, back on a 10-hour flight.

Tomorrow? Oh, no big deal. You think we're gonna be able to lie down tomorrow? I'm gonna be sitting in my seat just like waiting for the food. Yeah, see this is interesting because now we're not flying red-eye. Yeah, yeah. So are you gonna stay up? You're gonna raw dog this flight for 10 hours? I'm not raw dogging. I'll be watching probably three or four movies. So you are gonna stay up. I'm staying up. Be terribly exhausted when you get home and then just force it.

Yeah, I mean you get home and it's like... We're gonna get home at like 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Yeah, which is like, I guess 9 or 10 for us. Yeah, not brutal. It's fine.

a little bit of that a famous last words yeah i'm gonna see watch him cancel uh mondays oh monday yeah yeah that's gonna be rough i'm not gonna be a happy guy then but in theory we will all be back together in the classic factory on monday for some nba weekend winners and losers i'm sure the guys in taft and tray will have more questions about paris um for us so uh yeah check that out hit the like button make sure you subscribe share the show if you're new here for whatever reason maybe you

Maybe you just stumbled upon this as a French fan. - Yeah. - Looking for a breakdown. - It's not always like that.

It's as if you just showed up at Tass Mellis' house during the holiday party. It's not usually like this. That couch isn't there. That table's not there. It's never like this. He's never talked this much. No, you're right. But he should more often. He's a natural. But we'll be back on Monday. Appreciate everyone for all the likes and the shares and everything while we've been here. We have had a blast. Thanks to The Athletic, obviously, for getting us over here. And hopefully we'll do it again. Until next time.

Until Monday, au revoir. Au revoir. Oh, you said it better than I did. Yeah.

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