WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.160 Okay, let's get into it. It is February 18th, 00:00:03.160 --> 00:00:07.440 2026. We are officially on the other side of 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:10.039 the all -star break, which means we're deep into 00:00:10.039 --> 00:00:13.880 the dog days of the 2025 -26 NBA season. For 00:00:13.880 --> 00:00:16.440 sure. The homestretch. And I have to be honest 00:00:16.440 --> 00:00:18.800 with you, and I think I speak for everyone listening 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:21.969 right now. If you've been trying to predict who 00:00:21.969 --> 00:00:24.070 is actually going to hoist that trophy in June, 00:00:24.210 --> 00:00:28.089 you are probably exhausted. Exhausted is definitely 00:00:28.089 --> 00:00:30.449 the right word. But it's a good kind of exhaust, 00:00:30.710 --> 00:00:32.969 you know. Yeah, what do you mean? It's the exhaustion 00:00:32.969 --> 00:00:35.649 that comes from genuine excitement. We are living 00:00:35.649 --> 00:00:37.710 through what everyone, not just historians, but 00:00:37.710 --> 00:00:39.890 like everyone watching is already calling the 00:00:39.890 --> 00:00:43.130 parody era. It is absolute chaos. I mean that 00:00:43.130 --> 00:00:45.390 in the best possible way. I was just looking 00:00:45.390 --> 00:00:47.270 at the list of champions before we started recording 00:00:47.270 --> 00:00:49.969 just to get my head straight. We've had seven 00:00:49.969 --> 00:00:52.229 different champions in the last seven years. 00:00:52.369 --> 00:00:54.990 Seven. It's just it's unheard of. From the Raptors 00:00:54.990 --> 00:00:58.039 way back in 2019. all the way to the Oklahoma 00:00:58.039 --> 00:01:00.320 City Thunder lifting the trophy last year. Yeah, 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:04.099 in 2025. It's unprecedented, really. If you grew 00:01:04.099 --> 00:01:07.540 up watching the NBA in the 90s or even the 2010s, 00:01:07.540 --> 00:01:11.060 your brain is just wired to expect dynasties. 00:01:11.060 --> 00:01:14.140 For sure. You expect the Bulls or the Lakers 00:01:14.140 --> 00:01:16.400 or the Warriors. Exactly. You expect the same 00:01:16.400 --> 00:01:18.900 two or three teams to meet in June every single 00:01:18.900 --> 00:01:22.579 year. But those days. They feel like ancient 00:01:22.579 --> 00:01:25.260 history now. The script has been completely shredded. 00:01:25.500 --> 00:01:27.620 And that, I think, is really the mission for 00:01:27.620 --> 00:01:30.340 this deep dive today. We've got a massive stack 00:01:30.340 --> 00:01:33.200 of notes here. Articles, legal briefs, historical 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:34.920 records. That's science and stuff. And it all 00:01:34.920 --> 00:01:38.599 paints a picture of a league that's at this massive 00:01:38.599 --> 00:01:41.120 crossroads. On the one hand, you've got this 00:01:41.120 --> 00:01:43.799 incredible competitive balance. I mean, the Thunder 00:01:43.799 --> 00:01:45.959 just beat the Indiana Pacers in the finals. Right. 00:01:46.200 --> 00:01:47.719 That's a matchup that would have sounded like 00:01:47.719 --> 00:01:50.140 a joke five years ago. Absolutely a joke. But 00:01:50.140 --> 00:01:53.420 now? Business is booming. The new media rights 00:01:53.420 --> 00:01:56.239 deal is, I mean, it's astronomical. And the talent 00:01:56.239 --> 00:01:58.900 level across the board is just off the charts. 00:01:58.959 --> 00:02:00.900 There's always a but. There's this massive shadow 00:02:00.900 --> 00:02:02.519 hanging over the court right now, isn't there? 00:02:02.659 --> 00:02:04.560 You're talking about the gambling prosecution? 00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:08.699 Exactly. The news from last October. October 00:02:08.699 --> 00:02:12.919 2025, it was a bombshell. The FBI arrests. Terry 00:02:12.919 --> 00:02:15.699 Rozier, an active player. Chauncey Billups, a 00:02:15.699 --> 00:02:18.680 head coach. Damon Jones. It's the sort of headline 00:02:18.680 --> 00:02:21.219 that just shakes the very foundation of professional 00:02:21.219 --> 00:02:23.520 sports. So that's our goal today. We want to 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:26.539 connect these dots. How did a league started 00:02:26.539 --> 00:02:30.479 by? of all people, hockey arena owners, just 00:02:30.479 --> 00:02:32.680 to sell extra popcorn. How did that evolve into 00:02:32.680 --> 00:02:36.280 this global juggernaut that is somehow juggling 00:02:36.280 --> 00:02:39.000 massive success with, well, a massive integrity 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:41.659 crisis? And that origin story, the hockey arena 00:02:41.659 --> 00:02:44.460 owners, it's so important. It sounds so unglamorous. 00:02:44.699 --> 00:02:47.080 It does, especially for a league that's now all 00:02:47.080 --> 00:02:49.860 about high fashion, celebrity row, billion dollar 00:02:49.860 --> 00:02:51.939 valuations. But that's the reality of it. It 00:02:51.939 --> 00:02:54.039 wasn't born out of some deep passion for the 00:02:54.039 --> 00:02:56.099 sport. It was born out of real estate. So what 00:02:56.099 --> 00:02:58.680 does this all mean for the league in 2026? It 00:02:58.680 --> 00:03:01.340 means that to understand the chaos of today and 00:03:01.340 --> 00:03:03.539 understand why the Thunder are the champs and 00:03:03.539 --> 00:03:06.379 why the FBI is making arrests, we have to go 00:03:06.379 --> 00:03:10.039 all the way back. To 1946. To 1946. Okay, let's 00:03:10.039 --> 00:03:12.379 dive in then. So our source material says the 00:03:12.379 --> 00:03:15.960 Basketball Association of America, the BAA, was 00:03:15.960 --> 00:03:19.680 founded in June of 46. And you're telling me 00:03:19.680 --> 00:03:22.379 this wasn't really about a love of the game. 00:03:22.699 --> 00:03:26.319 No, not at all. Not at its core. It was a landlord's 00:03:26.319 --> 00:03:29.479 solution to a landlord's problem. Okay, explain 00:03:29.479 --> 00:03:32.680 that. Well, you had these huge arenas in the 00:03:32.680 --> 00:03:35.460 Northeast and the Midwest. Think Madison Square 00:03:35.460 --> 00:03:38.699 Garden in New York, the Boston Garden. The guys 00:03:38.699 --> 00:03:40.740 who owned these buildings, the guys writing the 00:03:40.740 --> 00:03:43.060 checks, they had a gap in their calendars. A 00:03:43.060 --> 00:03:45.819 pretty big gap. A huge gap. They had hockey games. 00:03:45.860 --> 00:03:48.840 They had the circus, maybe a rodeo or a boxing 00:03:48.840 --> 00:03:51.319 match here and there. But they had dozens and 00:03:51.319 --> 00:03:53.979 dozens of empty dates on the calendar. And an 00:03:53.979 --> 00:03:56.099 empty building doesn't make any money. Exactly. 00:03:56.219 --> 00:03:58.139 An empty building is a money pit. So they looked 00:03:58.139 --> 00:03:59.919 at basketball, which was getting pretty popular 00:03:59.919 --> 00:04:01.680 in the colleges at the time, and they thought, 00:04:01.759 --> 00:04:04.300 hey, we have the seats, we have the lights, let's 00:04:04.300 --> 00:04:06.240 just put some teams together to fill the Tuesday 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:08.680 and Wednesday nights. So the NBA basically started 00:04:08.680 --> 00:04:10.819 as calendar filler, like a monster truck rally. 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:13.840 That's exactly what it was. And that first game, 00:04:13.979 --> 00:04:16.920 it really reflects that humble beginning. November 00:04:16.920 --> 00:04:21.060 1st, 1946, Toronto Huskies versus the New York 00:04:21.060 --> 00:04:23.579 Knickerbockers at Maple Leaf Gardens. And some 00:04:23.579 --> 00:04:26.000 guy named Ozzy Sheckman scored the first basket. 00:04:26.199 --> 00:04:29.040 He did. It's a great trivia question. Historic 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:31.120 moment, sure. But here's the thing you have to 00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:33.620 understand. The quality of the play. Not so good. 00:04:33.779 --> 00:04:36.720 It was not great. Because, and this is the key, 00:04:37.399 --> 00:04:39.519 The best basketball players in the world weren't 00:04:39.519 --> 00:04:41.800 even playing in the BAA. So where were they? 00:04:41.959 --> 00:04:44.759 Well, you had these amazing independent touring 00:04:44.759 --> 00:04:46.839 teams like the Harlem Globetrotters, who were 00:04:46.839 --> 00:04:49.439 significantly better than the actual league teams. 00:04:49.560 --> 00:04:52.620 They were the show. And then you had the rival 00:04:52.620 --> 00:04:54.939 league. The NBL, the National Basketball League. 00:04:54.959 --> 00:04:56.779 Right. And this is where the story gets into 00:04:56.779 --> 00:05:00.199 full -on corporate warfare. The NBL had been 00:05:00.199 --> 00:05:02.439 around longer. It was more established. Crucially, 00:05:02.500 --> 00:05:04.740 they had the real talent. The better players 00:05:04.740 --> 00:05:06.759 were all in the NBL. So what was their problem? 00:05:07.160 --> 00:05:09.420 They played in small industrial towns in the 00:05:09.420 --> 00:05:12.220 Midwest. Places like Sheboygan, Oshkosh, Fort 00:05:12.220 --> 00:05:15.040 Wayne. Okay, not exactly the media capitals of 00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:17.980 the world. Not at all. So meanwhile, the BAA 00:05:17.980 --> 00:05:21.360 has the big cities, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, 00:05:21.620 --> 00:05:25.660 and these massive famous arenas. So the BAA just 00:05:25.660 --> 00:05:27.759 executed a corporate raid. It was basically a 00:05:27.759 --> 00:05:29.860 hostile takeover strategy. They just poached 00:05:29.860 --> 00:05:32.100 all the good teams. They looked at the NBL and 00:05:32.100 --> 00:05:34.920 said, we want your best assets. They lured them 00:05:34.920 --> 00:05:36.899 away. They went to the owners of the Fort Wayne 00:05:36.899 --> 00:05:39.259 Pistons and especially the Minneapolis Lakers. 00:05:39.519 --> 00:05:41.699 Who had the biggest star in the game? George 00:05:41.699 --> 00:05:45.480 Mikan. The first true superstar. And they promised 00:05:45.480 --> 00:05:47.480 them the bright lights. They said, come play 00:05:47.480 --> 00:05:49.660 in the garden. Come play in the big city where 00:05:49.660 --> 00:05:52.500 the newspapers are. And it worked. Oh, it works 00:05:52.500 --> 00:05:54.720 like a charm. The NBL just couldn't compete with 00:05:54.720 --> 00:05:58.240 that kind of allure. By August of 1949, the NBL 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:01.399 basically surrendered. They agreed to a merger 00:06:01.399 --> 00:06:04.379 with the BAA. And that merger created the National 00:06:04.379 --> 00:06:07.660 Basketball Association as we know it today. And 00:06:07.660 --> 00:06:09.779 looking at the notes here. The integration of 00:06:09.779 --> 00:06:11.600 the league starts pretty early in this process, 00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:14.420 too. It wasn't just a business story. No, it's 00:06:14.420 --> 00:06:17.540 a crucial part of the history. You have Wataru 00:06:17.540 --> 00:06:20.199 Misaka, an Asian -American player who actually 00:06:20.199 --> 00:06:23.600 broke the color barrier in 1947, which is a fact 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:26.019 that's often overlooked. Wow, that early. Yep. 00:06:26.300 --> 00:06:30.500 Then in 1950, you have the formal arrival of 00:06:30.500 --> 00:06:33.360 African -American players like Earl Lloyd, Chuck 00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:36.819 Cooper and Nathaniel Sweetwater Clifton. So the 00:06:36.819 --> 00:06:39.459 league is diversifying right from its early days. 00:06:39.639 --> 00:06:42.360 But even with the merger and even with all the 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:45.139 best players finally under one roof, the game 00:06:45.139 --> 00:06:48.480 itself had a fatal flaw, didn't it? It was excruciating 00:06:48.480 --> 00:06:50.600 to watch. You just have to try and imagine basketball 00:06:50.600 --> 00:06:53.160 without a shot clock. I can't. It feels so fundamental 00:06:53.160 --> 00:06:56.019 to the game. Like a hoop or a ball. Well, back 00:06:56.019 --> 00:06:58.439 then, if a team got a small lead, let's say they're 00:06:58.439 --> 00:07:01.139 up by two points in the third quarter, they would 00:07:01.139 --> 00:07:02.939 just stop playing. What do you mean stop playing? 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:04.540 They would just hold the ball. They'd pass it 00:07:04.540 --> 00:07:06.680 back and forth near midcourt, play catch. There 00:07:06.680 --> 00:07:08.579 was no rule that said they had to shoot. So the 00:07:08.579 --> 00:07:11.220 defense just had to stand there and watch them. 00:07:11.379 --> 00:07:14.439 Or foul them, which made the game even slower 00:07:14.439 --> 00:07:17.560 and uglier. It led to these incredibly low scoring, 00:07:17.699 --> 00:07:20.160 boring games. I mean, fans were literally reading 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:22.699 newspapers in the stands. That's a bad sign. 00:07:22.879 --> 00:07:25.319 A very bad sign. They were booing their own teams. 00:07:25.339 --> 00:07:27.740 You had games ending with scores like 19 to 18. 00:07:27.819 --> 00:07:29.779 It nearly killed the league before it ever really 00:07:29.779 --> 00:07:32.079 got going. It's amazing to think the entire sport 00:07:32.079 --> 00:07:34.860 could have died. Right there. Because of a lack 00:07:34.860 --> 00:07:37.899 of a simple timer. It was that close. So in 1954, 00:07:38.220 --> 00:07:41.040 they introduced the 24 second shot clock. And 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:43.720 I will argue to my dying day that this is the 00:07:43.720 --> 00:07:45.779 single most important invention in the history 00:07:45.779 --> 00:07:48.220 of the sport. Why 24 seconds? Was that just a 00:07:48.220 --> 00:07:50.860 random number? It was math. Danny Biasone, who's 00:07:50.860 --> 00:07:52.959 the owner of the Syracuse Nationals, he and his 00:07:52.959 --> 00:07:55.300 general manager basically sat down with a stopwatch. 00:07:55.480 --> 00:07:57.759 They calculated the average number of shots in 00:07:57.759 --> 00:07:59.680 a game that was actually fun to watch, and they 00:07:59.680 --> 00:08:01.879 divided the total game time by that number. And 00:08:01.879 --> 00:08:04.439 they came up with 24. They came up with 24. And 00:08:04.439 --> 00:08:07.199 it worked instantly. It forced action. It forced 00:08:07.199 --> 00:08:10.000 teams to shoot. It created the rhythm, the flow 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:12.379 of the game that we love today. It saved the 00:08:12.379 --> 00:08:15.060 entertainment value of the sport full stop. And 00:08:15.060 --> 00:08:17.500 that invention. really paved the way for the 00:08:17.500 --> 00:08:21.379 first true superstars to shine. We enter what 00:08:21.379 --> 00:08:24.939 the historians call the era of giants. Yep. The 00:08:24.939 --> 00:08:27.620 Minneapolis Lakers, led by George Mikan, were 00:08:27.620 --> 00:08:30.759 the first real dynasty. He was the first dominant 00:08:30.759 --> 00:08:34.120 big man superstar. He was so good under the rim 00:08:34.120 --> 00:08:36.799 that the league actually had to widen the lane 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:39.460 from 6 feet to 12 feet just to push him further 00:08:39.460 --> 00:08:41.340 away from the basket. They changed the rules 00:08:41.340 --> 00:08:43.049 because of him. That's how you know you're a 00:08:43.049 --> 00:08:46.009 legend. He won five titles. But if we're talking 00:08:46.009 --> 00:08:48.049 about dynasties, the gold standard, the one that 00:08:48.049 --> 00:08:49.950 still kind of haunts the league in a way, is 00:08:49.950 --> 00:08:53.049 Boston. The Celtics. I'm looking at this stat 00:08:53.049 --> 00:08:55.789 and it still just blows my mind. Eleven titles 00:08:55.789 --> 00:08:58.250 in 13 seasons. It's the longest championship 00:08:58.250 --> 00:09:00.230 streak in the history of American professional 00:09:00.230 --> 00:09:04.129 sports. Eight straight titles from 1959 to 1966. 00:09:04.769 --> 00:09:07.279 Eight in a row. Think about that. For nearly 00:09:07.279 --> 00:09:09.460 a full decade, if you weren't wearing a Celtics 00:09:09.460 --> 00:09:11.779 jersey, you had zero chance of winning a championship. 00:09:12.059 --> 00:09:15.259 And that entire era was defined by this one rivalry, 00:09:15.460 --> 00:09:17.860 Bill Russell versus Wilt Chamberlain. It's the 00:09:17.860 --> 00:09:20.460 archetype for every great rivalry that followed. 00:09:20.559 --> 00:09:23.879 It's the classic debate, you know. On one side, 00:09:23.919 --> 00:09:26.039 you have Wilt Chamberlain, this individual force 00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:28.799 of nature. He's the guy dropping 100 points in 00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:31.220 a single game. Which is still insane. Completely 00:09:31.220 --> 00:09:33.720 insane. He averaged 50 points a game for an entire 00:09:33.720 --> 00:09:37.179 season, grabbed 55 rebounds in one game. If you 00:09:37.179 --> 00:09:39.580 just look at the stat sheets, Wilt is a basketball 00:09:39.580 --> 00:09:42.340 god. But Bill Russell had the rings. Eleven of 00:09:42.340 --> 00:09:45.279 them. Russell was the ultimate winner. He didn't 00:09:45.279 --> 00:09:47.600 care about his points. He only cared about the 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:50.519 team's defense, about winning. He was the anchor. 00:09:50.679 --> 00:09:53.480 It was the classic stats versus winning argument 00:09:53.480 --> 00:09:56.000 decades before Twitter existed to argue about 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:59.620 it 247. And Russell's side won out. Overwhelmingly. 00:09:59.950 --> 00:10:02.809 He proved that a cohesive team led by a defensive 00:10:02.809 --> 00:10:05.950 genius could consistently beat a singular, overwhelming 00:10:05.950 --> 00:10:09.210 offensive force. But then we hit the 1970s and 00:10:09.210 --> 00:10:11.490 the sources all suggest the league started to 00:10:11.490 --> 00:10:14.990 wobble again. The Celtics dynasty faded and trouble 00:10:14.990 --> 00:10:17.330 started brewing. Wobble is putting it lightly. 00:10:17.470 --> 00:10:20.350 By the late 70s, the NBA was in serious, serious 00:10:20.350 --> 00:10:22.769 trouble. Attendance was dropping off a cliff. 00:10:22.830 --> 00:10:25.360 Why? What happened? There was a massive perception 00:10:25.360 --> 00:10:28.720 problem about drug use among the players. Cocaine 00:10:28.720 --> 00:10:30.840 was a major issue and it was widely reported. 00:10:31.220 --> 00:10:34.220 The league was also seen as, well, too black 00:10:34.220 --> 00:10:37.100 for many white advertisers at the time and just 00:10:37.100 --> 00:10:39.559 too chaotic for mainstream America. It had an 00:10:39.559 --> 00:10:41.860 image problem. I read here that the finals were 00:10:41.860 --> 00:10:44.399 sometimes shown on tape delay. Can you even imagine 00:10:44.399 --> 00:10:47.379 that today? In 2026, we're upset if the stream 00:10:47.379 --> 00:10:50.559 buffers for half a second. But back then, CBS 00:10:50.559 --> 00:10:54.220 would air the NBA finals at 1130 p .m. after 00:10:54.220 --> 00:10:56.440 the late news. After the news. Because they didn't 00:10:56.440 --> 00:10:58.539 think anyone would actually watch it live in 00:10:58.539 --> 00:11:01.240 primetime. The league was treated like second 00:11:01.240 --> 00:11:04.220 -tier programming, a total afterthought. That 00:11:04.220 --> 00:11:06.639 sounds like a death spiral for a pro sports league. 00:11:06.700 --> 00:11:09.360 So who saved them? Two guys who first met in 00:11:09.360 --> 00:11:12.750 the 1979 NCAA championship game. The most watched 00:11:12.750 --> 00:11:15.230 college game of all time. Magic Johnson and Larry 00:11:15.230 --> 00:11:17.649 Bird. Magic and Larry. Lakers versus Celtics, 00:11:17.669 --> 00:11:19.269 the next generation. But it was more than just 00:11:19.269 --> 00:11:21.710 a rematch of an old rivalry, right? Oh, it was 00:11:21.710 --> 00:11:24.789 a narrative goldmine. It was perfect. You had 00:11:24.789 --> 00:11:28.490 the Showtime Lakers in Los Angeles. Flashy, fast 00:11:28.490 --> 00:11:31.309 -paced Hollywood led by Magic Johnson's incredible 00:11:31.309 --> 00:11:33.970 smile and no -look passes. Now on the other side. 00:11:34.230 --> 00:11:37.710 You had the Boston Celtics. Gritty, blue collar, 00:11:37.970 --> 00:11:42.029 tough, physical, led by Larry Bird's quiet intensity 00:11:42.029 --> 00:11:46.049 and genius basketball IQ. It was East Coast versus 00:11:46.049 --> 00:11:48.549 West Coast, black versus white, flash versus 00:11:48.549 --> 00:11:50.889 fundamentals. It was perfect casting for television. 00:11:51.169 --> 00:11:55.110 It was. And between 1980 and 1989, one of those 00:11:55.110 --> 00:11:57.230 two teams was in the finals almost every single 00:11:57.230 --> 00:11:59.950 year. The Lakers won five titles. The Celtics 00:11:59.950 --> 00:12:01.990 won three. They didn't just play basketball. 00:12:02.149 --> 00:12:04.110 They created a compelling story. They made the 00:12:04.110 --> 00:12:06.799 NBA must -see TV. They brought the advertisers 00:12:06.799 --> 00:12:08.659 back. They brought the fans back. They saved 00:12:08.659 --> 00:12:11.000 the lead. And amidst all that, the league also 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:13.480 introduced the three -point line in 1979 right 00:12:13.480 --> 00:12:15.519 as they were coming in. Was that a big deal at 00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:17.259 the time? Not at first. Everyone thought it was 00:12:17.259 --> 00:12:19.799 a gimmick, like from the ABA. Coaches hated it. 00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:22.120 They thought it was a circus shot. It took years, 00:12:22.340 --> 00:12:25.200 literally years, for teams to fully embrace the 00:12:25.200 --> 00:12:27.440 math behind it. That three is worth more than 00:12:27.440 --> 00:12:29.759 two. A pretty simple concept. You'd think so. 00:12:29.919 --> 00:12:32.899 But Magic and Bird, they laid the red carpet 00:12:32.899 --> 00:12:35.419 for the guy who would take the league from national 00:12:35.419 --> 00:12:38.340 obsession to global phenomenon. His airness. 00:12:38.899 --> 00:12:41.980 Michael Jordan. The 1990s belonged to Michael 00:12:41.980 --> 00:12:44.399 Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. It's that simple. 00:12:44.580 --> 00:12:47.419 You had two separate three -peats, 91 to 93, 00:12:47.700 --> 00:12:51.139 and then 96 to 98. Six titles in eight years. 00:12:51.360 --> 00:12:53.059 But it was more than just the titles, wasn't 00:12:53.059 --> 00:12:55.679 it? It was the cultural impact. Absolutely. Jordan 00:12:55.679 --> 00:12:57.700 wasn't just a basketball player. He was a brand. 00:12:57.980 --> 00:13:00.299 He was arguably the most famous person on the 00:13:00.299 --> 00:13:03.860 planet. Sneakers, movies, commercials. He was 00:13:03.860 --> 00:13:06.080 everywhere. And the pivotal moment for that global 00:13:06.080 --> 00:13:09.320 expansion was the summer of 1992. Barcelona. 00:13:09.740 --> 00:13:12.039 The dream team. I still see clips of that and 00:13:12.039 --> 00:13:13.980 it's just awe -inspiring. It was the first time 00:13:13.980 --> 00:13:16.000 NBA stars were allowed to play in the Olympics. 00:13:16.059 --> 00:13:18.840 You had Jordan, Bird, Magic all on the same team. 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:22.120 Charles Barkley, David Robinson. It was like 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:24.419 the Beatles of basketball decided to go on a 00:13:24.419 --> 00:13:26.500 world tour. And they didn't just win gold. They 00:13:26.500 --> 00:13:28.559 destroyed the competition. They won by an average 00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:31.600 of like 44 points. But more importantly, they 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:35.340 sparked a global obsession. Kids in France, in 00:13:35.340 --> 00:13:38.700 Argentina, in China, in Africa. They watched 00:13:38.700 --> 00:13:41.639 that team and they said that I want to do that. 00:13:41.779 --> 00:13:44.019 You can draw a straight line from the dream team 00:13:44.019 --> 00:13:47.340 in 92 to the flood of international talent we 00:13:47.340 --> 00:13:50.460 see dominating the league in 2026. It's a direct 00:13:50.460 --> 00:13:52.980 line. The seeds that were planted in Barcelona 00:13:52.980 --> 00:13:55.919 blossomed into the forest we are living in right 00:13:55.919 --> 00:13:57.600 now. We'll definitely get back to that international 00:13:57.600 --> 00:13:59.899 takeover because it's a huge part of the current 00:13:59.899 --> 00:14:02.899 landscape. But, you know, moving into the 2000s 00:14:02.899 --> 00:14:05.200 and 2010s, it felt like we were still in the 00:14:05.200 --> 00:14:08.240 era of dynasties just with different faces. For 00:14:08.240 --> 00:14:10.240 sure. It was the era of the West's dominance, 00:14:10.539 --> 00:14:13.379 really. First, you had the Kobe Bryant and Shaquille 00:14:13.379 --> 00:14:16.220 O 'Neal Lakers, a true force. Let's repeat. Yep. 00:14:16.259 --> 00:14:18.779 And then you had the quiet dynasty of the Tim 00:14:18.779 --> 00:14:21.850 Duncan and Greg Popovich Spurs. between 1999 00:14:21.850 --> 00:14:24.769 and 2014, the Lakers and the Spurs combined for 00:14:24.769 --> 00:14:27.269 10 titles. 10. That's an incredible concentration 00:14:27.269 --> 00:14:29.909 of power in just two franchises. It really is. 00:14:29.990 --> 00:14:31.549 And then, of course, LeBron James enters the 00:14:31.549 --> 00:14:36.110 chat. And he defined the entire 2010s, that streak 00:14:36.110 --> 00:14:38.990 of making eight consecutive NBA finals. It's 00:14:38.990 --> 00:14:41.659 absurd. First with the Miami Heat, then back 00:14:41.659 --> 00:14:43.639 with the Cleveland Cavaliers. We kind of took 00:14:43.639 --> 00:14:45.360 it for granted at the time because it was happening 00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:47.799 every year, but making the finals eight years 00:14:47.799 --> 00:14:50.820 in a row is just superhuman. And of course, his 00:14:50.820 --> 00:14:53.340 run collided with the rise of the Golden State 00:14:53.340 --> 00:14:55.480 Warriors dynasty. The Steph Curry revolution. 00:14:56.100 --> 00:14:58.799 Steph, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, they completely 00:14:58.799 --> 00:15:01.080 changed the geometry of the game with the three 00:15:01.080 --> 00:15:02.840 -point shot. It wasn't a gimmick anymore. It 00:15:02.840 --> 00:15:05.299 was the primary weapon. Four titles in eight 00:15:05.299 --> 00:15:09.110 years for them. And that 73 -9 record in 2016, 00:15:09.350 --> 00:15:12.490 breaking the Bulls' old record. An incredible 00:15:12.490 --> 00:15:15.950 run. But even then, that 2016 Finals. Cleveland 00:15:15.950 --> 00:15:18.769 coming back from being down 3 -1. That still 00:15:18.769 --> 00:15:21.090 gives me chill. An all -time historic moment. 00:15:21.289 --> 00:15:23.009 But notice the pattern here. We're talking about 00:15:23.009 --> 00:15:25.350 the same three or four teams every single year. 00:15:25.629 --> 00:15:28.909 Lakers, Spurs, Heat, Warriors, Cavs. Right. It 00:15:28.909 --> 00:15:30.710 was predictable. Totally predictable. We knew 00:15:30.710 --> 00:15:32.590 who the main characters were before the season 00:15:32.590 --> 00:15:35.179 even started. Which brings us to today. February 00:15:35.179 --> 00:15:39.519 2026. Because that norm, that predictability, 00:15:39.700 --> 00:15:42.240 it's dead. Completely dead and buried. Since 00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:45.200 2019, the script has totally flipped. Let's just 00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:46.960 run through the list of champions again because 00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:49.700 it's worth hearing. Go for it. 2019, Toronto 00:15:49.700 --> 00:15:54.480 Raptors. 2020, Lakers in the bubble. 2021, Milwaukee 00:15:54.480 --> 00:15:58.080 Bucks. 2022, the Warriors get one more. 2023, 00:15:58.659 --> 00:16:02.240 Denver Nuggets. Then last year, 2024, the Celtics 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:04.980 finally got their 18th title. breaking the tie 00:16:04.980 --> 00:16:08.179 with the Lakers. And then 2025, the Oklahoma 00:16:08.179 --> 00:16:11.139 City Thunder. Seven years, seven different champions. 00:16:11.220 --> 00:16:13.100 We haven't seen a repeat winner in almost a decade. 00:16:13.870 --> 00:16:15.870 Why is this happening? Is it just a coincidence? 00:16:16.029 --> 00:16:18.269 Is the talent just more spread out? It is definitely 00:16:18.269 --> 00:16:20.629 not a coincidence. It is by design. Specifically, 00:16:20.809 --> 00:16:22.450 it's because of the new collective bargaining 00:16:22.450 --> 00:16:25.990 agreement, the CBA. In 2023, the league and the 00:16:25.990 --> 00:16:28.309 players union agreed to these new rules that 00:16:28.309 --> 00:16:30.090 introduced something called the second apron. 00:16:30.309 --> 00:16:32.529 Okay. Apron sounds like we're about to start 00:16:32.529 --> 00:16:34.470 baking, but I know this is about money. So break 00:16:34.470 --> 00:16:37.429 it down for us. Why does this rule kill dynasties? 00:16:37.820 --> 00:16:40.460 Think of it like a hard salary cap, but in disguise. 00:16:40.980 --> 00:16:43.820 It used to be that wealthy teams like the Warriors 00:16:43.820 --> 00:16:46.100 or the Clippers could just pay a luxury tax. 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:48.879 If they went way over the salary cap, they just 00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:51.080 had to pay a fine. And if your owner was billionaire, 00:16:51.379 --> 00:16:54.460 he didn't care. Exactly. Steve Ballmer would 00:16:54.460 --> 00:16:56.899 just write the check and keep signing superstars. 00:16:56.980 --> 00:17:00.759 Money was no object. But the second apron changes 00:17:00.759 --> 00:17:04.240 the penalty. Now, if you go over that really 00:17:04.240 --> 00:17:06.440 high spending threshold, you don't just pay more 00:17:06.440 --> 00:17:09.400 money. you get handcuffed handcuffed how the 00:17:09.400 --> 00:17:12.079 league takes away your tools you lose the ability 00:17:12.079 --> 00:17:14.099 to trade your draft picks seven years into the 00:17:14.099 --> 00:17:16.920 future they just get frozen you can't sign players 00:17:16.920 --> 00:17:19.220 who get bought out by other teams you can't combine 00:17:19.220 --> 00:17:21.700 player salaries in a trade to match a bigger 00:17:21.700 --> 00:17:24.900 contract so the league basically takes away your 00:17:24.900 --> 00:17:27.319 ability to improve your team You're stuck. It 00:17:27.319 --> 00:17:29.500 forces you to break up the band. It makes it 00:17:29.500 --> 00:17:31.440 almost financially and logistically impossible 00:17:31.440 --> 00:17:33.859 to keep three superstars together on maximum 00:17:33.859 --> 00:17:36.420 contracts. You have a very short window to win. 00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:39.380 And then the financial penalties basically force 00:17:39.380 --> 00:17:41.299 you to trade someone. And that spreads the talent 00:17:41.299 --> 00:17:43.440 out across the whole league. That's the idea. 00:17:43.619 --> 00:17:46.700 The whole super team model is now legislated 00:17:46.700 --> 00:17:50.200 out of existence. It's just unsustainable. Adam 00:17:50.200 --> 00:17:53.049 Silver, the commissioner, said it himself. the 00:17:53.049 --> 00:17:55.730 goal was to have 30 teams capable of competing 00:17:55.730 --> 00:17:58.490 for a title and looking at the standings in 2026 00:17:58.490 --> 00:18:02.190 he kind of got his wish he really did any team 00:18:02.190 --> 00:18:04.769 that drafts well and manages their salary cap 00:18:04.769 --> 00:18:07.329 can win it all and the teams that just won the 00:18:07.329 --> 00:18:09.349 thunder they seem like they were built perfectly 00:18:09.349 --> 00:18:11.529 for this new era they are the poster child for 00:18:11.529 --> 00:18:13.730 it they didn't go out and buy a super team they 00:18:13.730 --> 00:18:16.430 built it They spent years accumulating draft 00:18:16.430 --> 00:18:18.289 picks. They suffered through losing seasons. 00:18:18.529 --> 00:18:21.230 And they developed their guy. Shy Gilgis Alexander, 00:18:21.650 --> 00:18:23.829 he's the face of this new generation. He really 00:18:23.829 --> 00:18:27.210 is. He was the 2025 scoring leader, the MVP, 00:18:27.470 --> 00:18:30.990 and the finals MVP. He just plays with this smooth, 00:18:30.990 --> 00:18:34.210 relentless, herky -jerky pace that nobody can 00:18:34.210 --> 00:18:36.950 seem to stop. And importantly, he's Canadian. 00:18:37.269 --> 00:18:39.150 Which brings us right back to that Dream Team 00:18:39.150 --> 00:18:41.309 influence we were talking about earlier. The 00:18:41.309 --> 00:18:43.740 international talent is just... It's not a novelty 00:18:43.740 --> 00:18:46.259 anymore. It's the whole show. It's the dominant 00:18:46.259 --> 00:18:49.019 story of individual talent in the league right 00:18:49.019 --> 00:18:51.859 now. I mean, just look at the MVP list. For seven 00:18:51.859 --> 00:18:55.740 straight seasons, from 2018 -19 all the way through 00:18:55.740 --> 00:18:58.339 this current cycle, the MVP of the league has 00:18:58.339 --> 00:19:01.279 been an international player. That is a staggering 00:19:01.279 --> 00:19:03.920 stat. Think about the names. You've got Giannis 00:19:03.920 --> 00:19:07.059 Antetokounmpo from Greece, Nikola Jokic from 00:19:07.059 --> 00:19:10.019 Serbia, who won three of them, Joel Embiid from 00:19:10.019 --> 00:19:14.250 Cameroon. and now shy from Canada. It's wild 00:19:14.250 --> 00:19:16.349 that the best players in the National Basketball 00:19:16.349 --> 00:19:18.509 Association aren't from the United States anymore. 00:19:18.730 --> 00:19:21.150 It completely challenges that old USA versus 00:19:21.150 --> 00:19:23.369 the world narrative we grew up with. The world 00:19:23.369 --> 00:19:25.210 is here, and they're winning the biggest awards. 00:19:25.630 --> 00:19:27.950 And remember, the NBA's definition of international 00:19:27.950 --> 00:19:30.930 is anyone from outside the 50 states and D .C. 00:19:31.309 --> 00:19:33.069 Right. So even Tim Duncan counted because he 00:19:33.069 --> 00:19:35.529 was from the U .S. Virgin Islands. Exactly. But 00:19:35.529 --> 00:19:38.049 these guys now, Shai, Jokic, Luka Doncic from 00:19:38.049 --> 00:19:40.650 Slovenia, they are the system. They run the league. 00:19:40.710 --> 00:19:42.930 They control the game. OK, let's pivot a little 00:19:42.930 --> 00:19:45.210 to the actual structure of the league itself. 00:19:46.329 --> 00:19:48.630 For someone who might be tuning in this season, 00:19:48.730 --> 00:19:51.289 maybe they stepped away for a few years. What 00:19:51.289 --> 00:19:53.509 does the NBA calendar actually look like now? 00:19:53.960 --> 00:19:56.180 It's still a grind, but they've added some new 00:19:56.180 --> 00:19:58.640 wrinkles to spice it up. It's still an 82 -game 00:19:58.640 --> 00:20:02.200 season. We've got 30 teams, 29 in the U .S., 00:20:02.200 --> 00:20:04.660 and, of course, the Toronto Raptors up in Canada. 00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:08.299 The season runs from October to April. But they've 00:20:08.299 --> 00:20:10.819 tweaked the format recently to keep people interested 00:20:10.819 --> 00:20:13.279 during those long winter months. Yeah, the big 00:20:13.279 --> 00:20:16.099 one is the in -season tournament. That was introduced 00:20:16.099 --> 00:20:19.839 back in the 2023 -24 season. It's basically a 00:20:19.839 --> 00:20:22.319 cup competition like you see in European soccer 00:20:22.319 --> 00:20:24.220 that happens in the middle. of the regular season. 00:20:24.559 --> 00:20:26.980 The games count toward the normal standings, 00:20:26.980 --> 00:20:29.940 but there's a separate trophy, the NBA Cup, and 00:20:29.940 --> 00:20:32.660 significant prize money for the players. I remember 00:20:32.660 --> 00:20:34.339 a lot of people were skeptical at first. Oh, 00:20:34.359 --> 00:20:36.339 very skeptical. People were saying, why do we 00:20:36.339 --> 00:20:37.960 need another trophy? This is just a gimmick. 00:20:38.039 --> 00:20:40.779 But it was designed specifically to cure the 00:20:40.779 --> 00:20:43.200 November -December boredom. That lull before 00:20:43.200 --> 00:20:46.460 the big Christmas Day games. Exactly. That period 00:20:46.460 --> 00:20:49.700 where casual fans tend to tune out. And it brought 00:20:49.700 --> 00:20:52.859 this playoff -level intensity to a random Tuesday 00:20:52.859 --> 00:20:55.819 night in November. And now, looking back from 00:20:55.819 --> 00:20:58.720 2026, you have to say, it's actually worked pretty 00:20:58.720 --> 00:21:01.059 well. The players care because of the money, 00:21:01.160 --> 00:21:03.619 and that makes the games better. And then, after 00:21:03.619 --> 00:21:05.839 the regular season, we have the play -in tournament 00:21:05.839 --> 00:21:08.740 before the actual playoffs even start. That has 00:21:08.740 --> 00:21:11.579 been a massive game changer for competitive balance. 00:21:11.880 --> 00:21:14.900 It used to be simple. The top eight teams in 00:21:14.900 --> 00:21:16.680 each conference made it, and if you were ninth, 00:21:16.859 --> 00:21:18.920 you went home. That meant a lot of teams would 00:21:18.920 --> 00:21:21.579 just give up late in the season or tank to get 00:21:21.579 --> 00:21:24.220 a better draft pick. But now? Seeds 7 through 00:21:24.220 --> 00:21:26.400 10 have to battle it out for those last two spots. 00:21:26.619 --> 00:21:28.779 Exactly. The 7th and 8th seeds play one game. 00:21:28.940 --> 00:21:31.279 Winner gets in. The 9th and 10th seeds play an 00:21:31.279 --> 00:21:34.059 elimination game. It keeps way more teams trying 00:21:34.059 --> 00:21:36.460 to win late into the season. It adds this high 00:21:36.460 --> 00:21:39.220 -stakes single elimination drama right before 00:21:39.220 --> 00:21:41.019 the main courts of the playoffs. And the playoffs 00:21:41.019 --> 00:21:43.660 themselves are still the same format. Still the 00:21:43.660 --> 00:21:47.359 classic best of seven series. No receding. It's 00:21:47.359 --> 00:21:50.519 a fixed bracket. You have to survive four grueling 00:21:50.519 --> 00:21:53.490 rounds. First round, conference. semis, conference 00:21:53.490 --> 00:21:56.430 finals, and then the NBA finals to win the Larry 00:21:56.430 --> 00:21:58.829 O 'Brien trophy. We mentioned the money earlier 00:21:58.829 --> 00:22:00.549 with the apron, but let's talk a bit more about 00:22:00.549 --> 00:22:03.930 the business side. The NBA is, I mean, it's incredibly 00:22:03.930 --> 00:22:06.170 rich. It is a financial juggernaut. It's the 00:22:06.170 --> 00:22:08.690 second wealthiest pro sports league in the world, 00:22:08.710 --> 00:22:11.089 right behind the NFL. And because the rosters 00:22:11.089 --> 00:22:13.769 are so much smaller, only about 15 guys compared 00:22:13.769 --> 00:22:17.789 to 53 in football, the NBA players are, by average 00:22:17.789 --> 00:22:20.230 annual salary, the highest paid athletes on the 00:22:20.230 --> 00:22:22.809 planet. And the really big news for this 2025 00:22:22.809 --> 00:22:25.349 -26 season, the one we're in right now, is the 00:22:25.349 --> 00:22:28.470 huge shift in media rights. NBC is back. I have 00:22:28.470 --> 00:22:31.160 to admit. Hearing that round ball rock theme 00:22:31.160 --> 00:22:33.799 music again. Yeah. The nostalgia is very real. 00:22:33.960 --> 00:22:36.119 It hit a lot of people right in the feels. The 00:22:36.119 --> 00:22:38.480 new 11 year deal kicked in this season. So you 00:22:38.480 --> 00:22:40.660 still have ABC and ESPN with their package of 00:22:40.660 --> 00:22:42.720 games. But now you've got Amazon Prime Video 00:22:42.720 --> 00:22:45.200 streaming games and you have NBC and their Peacock 00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:48.220 service back in the mix. And NBC losing the rights 00:22:48.220 --> 00:22:50.839 back in 2002 was such a huge cultural shift. 00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:54.339 It was. For a whole generation, that music was 00:22:54.339 --> 00:22:57.380 the NBA. Having them back feels like a homecoming 00:22:57.380 --> 00:22:59.859 for a lot of older fans. It's interesting how 00:22:59.859 --> 00:23:01.680 they're targeting different demographics. You 00:23:01.680 --> 00:23:05.299 have Amazon for the younger cord cutting crowd 00:23:05.299 --> 00:23:08.579 and then broadcast TV for the traditionalists. 00:23:08.720 --> 00:23:11.480 They have to. The NBA has the youngest audience 00:23:11.480 --> 00:23:14.390 of. any of the major American sports. Something 00:23:14.390 --> 00:23:18.029 like 45 % of the viewers are under 35. These 00:23:18.029 --> 00:23:20.009 are people who don't have cable. They live on 00:23:20.009 --> 00:23:22.609 streaming services. So putting games on Prime 00:23:22.609 --> 00:23:24.890 is just meeting them where they live. It's also 00:23:24.890 --> 00:23:26.930 the most diverse audience. Correct. It's the 00:23:26.930 --> 00:23:29.769 only top North American sport without a white 00:23:29.769 --> 00:23:32.069 majority audience. And that diversity drives 00:23:32.069 --> 00:23:33.789 a lot of the marketing strategy, a lot of the 00:23:33.789 --> 00:23:36.410 storytelling. Speaking of marketing. Yeah. Let's 00:23:36.410 --> 00:23:38.750 talk about the jerseys, the sponsorships. The 00:23:38.750 --> 00:23:41.210 patch. Yeah, that started back in the 2017 season. 00:23:41.490 --> 00:23:44.230 It's just a small 2 .5 inch square on the shoulder. 00:23:44.369 --> 00:23:46.289 It seemed so controversial at the time. People 00:23:46.289 --> 00:23:48.369 were screaming about ads on jerseys. And now 00:23:48.369 --> 00:23:50.269 you barely even notice it. Now it's just normal. 00:23:50.349 --> 00:23:52.690 And it generates hundreds of millions of dollars 00:23:52.690 --> 00:23:55.089 for the lead. It was inevitable. And Nike took 00:23:55.089 --> 00:23:58.289 over the uniforms in 2017, too. They completely 00:23:58.289 --> 00:24:00.910 changed the naming conventions. They did. They 00:24:00.910 --> 00:24:03.069 got rid of the simple home is white and away 00:24:03.069 --> 00:24:05.759 is color. Now it's the association. edition, 00:24:05.880 --> 00:24:08.339 which is white, the icon edition, which is the 00:24:08.339 --> 00:24:11.259 main team color, the statement edition, which 00:24:11.259 --> 00:24:13.400 is an alternate, and then the city editions. 00:24:13.599 --> 00:24:15.400 The city editions are the fun ones because they 00:24:15.400 --> 00:24:17.880 change every single year. It's a brilliant revenue 00:24:17.880 --> 00:24:21.400 stream. It almost forces diehard fans to buy 00:24:21.400 --> 00:24:24.220 a new jersey every single season just to stay 00:24:24.220 --> 00:24:26.799 current. It's basically fast fashion applied 00:24:26.799 --> 00:24:29.960 to sports. They say it ties the team to the local 00:24:29.960 --> 00:24:32.519 culture, which it does, but mostly it ties the 00:24:32.519 --> 00:24:35.420 fans' wallets to the team store. And here's where 00:24:35.420 --> 00:24:37.599 we have to take a serious turn. It's not all 00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:40.099 just cash flow and cool jerseys and fun tournament 00:24:40.099 --> 00:24:42.299 games. We have to talk about the elephant in 00:24:42.299 --> 00:24:45.230 the room. The dark side. This is where the story 00:24:45.230 --> 00:24:47.849 of the modern NBA gets really complicated. And 00:24:47.849 --> 00:24:50.630 frankly, quite ugly. We have to talk about gambling. 00:24:50.809 --> 00:24:53.750 Right. So for context, in 2018, the Supreme Court 00:24:53.750 --> 00:24:55.690 overturned the federal ban on sports betting. 00:24:55.890 --> 00:24:58.769 And the NBA didn't just accept it. They embraced 00:24:58.769 --> 00:25:02.250 it. Embraced is putting it mildly. They sprinted 00:25:02.250 --> 00:25:05.559 towards it with open arms. Adam Silver, the commissioner, 00:25:05.839 --> 00:25:07.839 was actually one of the first sports execs to 00:25:07.839 --> 00:25:10.220 write an op -ed saying we should legalize this 00:25:10.220 --> 00:25:13.039 and regulate it. He argued it would bring integrity 00:25:13.039 --> 00:25:15.460 and transparency to something that was already 00:25:15.460 --> 00:25:18.180 happening in the shadows. And the league signed 00:25:18.180 --> 00:25:22.339 huge partnership deals. Massive deals with DraftKings, 00:25:22.400 --> 00:25:26.759 FanDuel, MGM. If you watch a broadcast today. 00:25:27.500 --> 00:25:29.160 The betting lines are right there on the screen. 00:25:29.299 --> 00:25:31.559 The announcers talk about the over -under on 00:25:31.559 --> 00:25:33.359 a player's points. It's completely integrated 00:25:33.359 --> 00:25:35.539 into the product. It is the product now in many 00:25:35.539 --> 00:25:38.539 ways. But this opened a Pandora's box because 00:25:38.539 --> 00:25:41.500 the history of gambling in the NBA is, well, 00:25:41.660 --> 00:25:43.700 it's traumatic. You have to remember what happened 00:25:43.700 --> 00:25:46.380 in 2007. Tim Donahue. Tim Donahue. He was a veteran 00:25:46.380 --> 00:25:49.339 NBA referee, and he went to federal prison because 00:25:49.339 --> 00:25:52.440 he was betting on games that he himself was officiating. 00:25:52.559 --> 00:25:54.869 It's the ultimate conflict of interest. Absolutely. 00:25:55.069 --> 00:25:57.410 He claimed he wasn't fixing the games in the 00:25:57.410 --> 00:25:59.690 traditional sense, but that he knew the other 00:25:59.690 --> 00:26:02.170 refs' tendencies, he knew how the league office 00:26:02.170 --> 00:26:04.430 wanted a series to go, and he bet accordingly. 00:26:04.690 --> 00:26:07.529 He made these specific explosive allegations 00:26:07.529 --> 00:26:10.990 about the 2002 Kings -Lakers series. The infamous 00:26:10.990 --> 00:26:14.190 Game 6. Infamous Game 6, where the Lakers shot 00:26:14.190 --> 00:26:17.069 27 free throws in the fourth quarter alone. I 00:26:17.069 --> 00:26:18.630 mean, that game is legendary for all the wrong 00:26:18.630 --> 00:26:20.529 reasons. I still watch clips of it and just shake 00:26:20.529 --> 00:26:22.829 my head. Right. The league survived that. They 00:26:22.829 --> 00:26:26.440 did. They painted Donaghy as a rogue actor, a 00:26:26.440 --> 00:26:29.299 lone bad apple. They said, we fixed the problem. 00:26:29.400 --> 00:26:33.380 Our refs are clean. But fast forward to October 00:26:33.380 --> 00:26:38.079 23, 2025. This season's bombshell. The FBI executes 00:26:38.079 --> 00:26:40.460 arrest warrants. They arrest Terry Rozier, an 00:26:40.460 --> 00:26:42.440 active player for the Miami Heat. They arrest 00:26:42.440 --> 00:26:44.339 Chauncey Billups, the head coach of the Portland 00:26:44.339 --> 00:26:46.980 Trailblazers, and Damon Jones, a former player. 00:26:47.160 --> 00:26:49.720 An active player and a head coach. That's unprecedented 00:26:49.720 --> 00:26:53.140 in modern American sports. It is the absolute 00:26:53.140 --> 00:26:56.720 nightmare scenario for any league. And the charge 00:26:56.720 --> 00:26:58.980 isn't just that they were, you know, placing 00:26:58.980 --> 00:27:00.859 a few bets on their phones. It's that they were 00:27:00.859 --> 00:27:04.240 connected to a federal investigation into the 00:27:04.240 --> 00:27:08.480 American mafia. Wait, the mafia? In 2025, it 00:27:08.480 --> 00:27:10.480 sounds like a movie plot. That's what makes this 00:27:10.480 --> 00:27:13.500 so jarring and so scary. We all thought we were 00:27:13.500 --> 00:27:16.640 past the Goodfellas era of sports fixing. But 00:27:16.640 --> 00:27:18.759 the allegation is that massive gambling debts 00:27:18.759 --> 00:27:21.099 were accrued and that organized crime figures 00:27:21.099 --> 00:27:23.680 were then exerting influence on these guys to 00:27:23.680 --> 00:27:25.940 try and clear those debts. That strikes at the 00:27:25.940 --> 00:27:28.460 very heart of the integrity of the game that 00:27:28.460 --> 00:27:30.440 Silver is always talking about. It completely 00:27:30.440 --> 00:27:32.500 destroys it. Think about it. If a coach makes 00:27:32.500 --> 00:27:34.720 a weird substitution in the fourth quarter or 00:27:34.720 --> 00:27:37.700 a player misses two crucial free throws or a 00:27:37.700 --> 00:27:39.960 star suddenly sits out. out with back soreness 00:27:39.960 --> 00:27:42.119 and you know they are under federal indictment 00:27:42.119 --> 00:27:45.079 for gambling connections, how do you trust what 00:27:45.079 --> 00:27:47.000 you're seeing? You can't. You start questioning 00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:49.460 everything. How do you know that missed shot 00:27:49.460 --> 00:27:52.140 wasn't on purpose to cover the spread? You can't. 00:27:52.299 --> 00:27:55.759 And the terrible irony is the league is taking 00:27:55.759 --> 00:27:58.319 sponsorship money from the betting companies 00:27:58.319 --> 00:28:00.980 while its own employees are being arrested for 00:28:00.980 --> 00:28:02.960 betting related crimes. It's a huge conflict. 00:28:03.420 --> 00:28:06.380 That's the tension. Adam Silver wanted a regulated 00:28:06.380 --> 00:28:09.680 market to protect the game. But when gambling 00:28:09.680 --> 00:28:12.480 is everywhere, when it's normalized, when it's 00:28:12.480 --> 00:28:15.059 on the jersey and on the TV screen, the line 00:28:15.059 --> 00:28:18.339 between fan engagement and potential for corruption 00:28:18.339 --> 00:28:21.359 gets incredibly blurry for everyone, apparently 00:28:21.359 --> 00:28:23.279 even for the people on the court and on the bench. 00:28:23.420 --> 00:28:25.500 And it's not just gambling, though. The NBA has 00:28:25.500 --> 00:28:27.759 faced other headwinds recently. Viewership was 00:28:27.759 --> 00:28:30.019 dropping pretty significantly for a while, right? 00:28:30.140 --> 00:28:33.079 Yeah. Between about 2012 and 2019, they lost 00:28:33.079 --> 00:28:35.640 somewhere around 40, 45 percent of their viewership 00:28:35.640 --> 00:28:39.059 on traditional TV. And the 2020 finals in the 00:28:39.059 --> 00:28:41.180 bubble had the lowest ratings ever recorded. 00:28:41.420 --> 00:28:43.200 Why was that happening? It's a mix of things. 00:28:43.299 --> 00:28:45.480 Chord cutting is the big obvious one. Younger 00:28:45.480 --> 00:28:47.339 fans watch highlights on TikTok and YouTube. 00:28:47.480 --> 00:28:49.319 They don't sit through a three -hour game with 00:28:49.319 --> 00:28:51.359 commercials. There was also the load management 00:28:51.359 --> 00:28:55.400 issue. A huge issue. players resting during nationally 00:28:55.400 --> 00:28:58.599 televised games. If you buy an expensive ticket 00:28:58.599 --> 00:29:00.779 to see the Bucks and Giannis sits out with a 00:29:00.779 --> 00:29:03.259 sore ankle that nobody believes is real, you 00:29:03.259 --> 00:29:06.240 feel cheated. And, you know, the political polarization 00:29:06.240 --> 00:29:08.200 of the country played a role, too. The league 00:29:08.200 --> 00:29:10.779 is very progressive. Players are very vocal. 00:29:11.079 --> 00:29:13.539 And in a divided country, that unfortunately 00:29:13.539 --> 00:29:16.670 did turn some viewers off. And speaking of politics, 00:29:16.849 --> 00:29:18.750 there's this sports -watching critique, especially 00:29:18.750 --> 00:29:21.130 regarding their international games. Right. The 00:29:21.130 --> 00:29:24.529 preseason games in Abu Dhabi and the UAE. The 00:29:24.529 --> 00:29:26.769 league has been going there since 2022, trying 00:29:26.769 --> 00:29:29.430 to grow the game globally. But in 2024, there 00:29:29.430 --> 00:29:31.750 was heavy criticism because of the UAE's human 00:29:31.750 --> 00:29:34.170 rights record and their involvement in the Sudanese 00:29:34.170 --> 00:29:36.869 civil war. Critics say the NBA is helping to 00:29:36.869 --> 00:29:38.990 clean up the image of an authoritarian regime 00:29:38.990 --> 00:29:41.930 in exchange for money. That's the argument. Human 00:29:41.930 --> 00:29:43.970 Rights Watch wrote letters. Activists called 00:29:43.970 --> 00:29:46.500 for the games to be canceled. The NBA stance 00:29:46.500 --> 00:29:48.680 is usually that engagement is better than isolation. 00:29:49.039 --> 00:29:52.259 But when you preach social justice at home and 00:29:52.259 --> 00:29:54.579 then take oil money from regimes that suppress 00:29:54.579 --> 00:29:58.279 it abroad, it can look like hypocrisy. It's just 00:29:58.279 --> 00:30:01.519 the messy reality of being a massive global corporation 00:30:01.519 --> 00:30:04.480 in 2026. OK, so let's pull back and look at the 00:30:04.480 --> 00:30:08.440 league today in February 2026. Despite the scandals, 00:30:08.440 --> 00:30:11.930 despite the chaotic parody. Is the league healthy? 00:30:12.269 --> 00:30:15.029 Financially, yes. Absolutely. The new TV deal 00:30:15.029 --> 00:30:17.309 secured the bag for the next decade. The apron 00:30:17.309 --> 00:30:19.190 system, for all its complexity, has successfully 00:30:19.190 --> 00:30:21.809 killed the super team, which means fans in places 00:30:21.809 --> 00:30:24.109 like Oklahoma City, Minneapolis, and Indiana 00:30:24.109 --> 00:30:27.130 actually have legitimate hope. And that is incredibly 00:30:27.130 --> 00:30:29.029 valuable for the long -term health of the sport. 00:30:29.150 --> 00:30:31.240 And the actual product on the court. The talent 00:30:31.240 --> 00:30:33.359 level. It has never, ever been higher. The average 00:30:33.359 --> 00:30:35.519 skill set of an NBA player today is just light 00:30:35.519 --> 00:30:37.619 years ahead of where it was in the 90s. Everyone 00:30:37.619 --> 00:30:39.859 can shoot. Everyone can dribble. We have seven 00:30:39.859 --> 00:30:41.819 footers like Wemby and Chet Holmgren who play 00:30:41.819 --> 00:30:44.779 like point guards. The product on the floor itself 00:30:44.779 --> 00:30:47.519 is spectacular. So what does this all mean for 00:30:47.519 --> 00:30:49.880 you, the person listening to this? It means we 00:30:49.880 --> 00:30:53.119 are in completely uncharted territory. The era 00:30:53.119 --> 00:30:55.920 of the guaranteed dynasty is over. If you're 00:30:55.920 --> 00:30:58.859 a fan, your team, no matter where they are, has 00:30:58.859 --> 00:31:01.079 a legitimate path to a title if they manage their 00:31:01.079 --> 00:31:04.079 cap space and draft well. That's incredibly exciting. 00:31:04.480 --> 00:31:07.079 But there's a flip side. There is. You also have 00:31:07.079 --> 00:31:09.359 to watch with a more critical eye now. When you 00:31:09.359 --> 00:31:11.700 see a weird foul call in the last two minutes 00:31:11.700 --> 00:31:14.859 or a star player misses a key game, the shadow 00:31:14.859 --> 00:31:17.500 of that 2025 gambling scandal is going to be 00:31:17.500 --> 00:31:19.440 in the back of your mind. You can't unknow that. 00:31:19.960 --> 00:31:22.279 Integrity is fragile. It's very fragile. The 00:31:22.279 --> 00:31:24.539 NBA spent 80 years building it up from those 00:31:24.539 --> 00:31:27.039 empty hockey arenas, and they could lose it a 00:31:27.039 --> 00:31:28.799 lot faster than that if they aren't extremely 00:31:28.799 --> 00:31:30.539 careful. Well, we've covered a lot of ground 00:31:30.539 --> 00:31:34.160 today, from 1946 in Toronto to 2025 in Oklahoma 00:31:34.160 --> 00:31:38.140 City, from the merger to, well, the mafia. The 00:31:38.140 --> 00:31:40.519 NBA is nothing if not dramatic. It's the greatest 00:31:40.519 --> 00:31:42.799 soap opera on earth, just played by the greatest 00:31:42.799 --> 00:31:44.920 athletes on earth. I like that. Before we go, 00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:47.230 here's a final thought for you to chew on. We 00:31:47.230 --> 00:31:49.150 talked so much about the international players 00:31:49.150 --> 00:31:52.950 taking over, Shai, Jokic, Luka, Giannis. The 00:31:52.950 --> 00:31:55.609 NBA has always been seen as an American export. 00:31:55.930 --> 00:31:58.549 It represents American culture to the world. 00:31:58.710 --> 00:32:02.029 But if the very best players, the faces of the 00:32:02.029 --> 00:32:06.180 league, are no longer American. Does the NBA 00:32:06.180 --> 00:32:09.200 eventually stop being an American league and 00:32:09.200 --> 00:32:11.400 just become a global league that happens to play 00:32:11.400 --> 00:32:14.599 most of its games in the U .S.? And if so, does 00:32:14.599 --> 00:32:17.920 that change how we as American fans connect with 00:32:17.920 --> 00:32:21.079 it? That is the billion -dollar question. And 00:32:21.079 --> 00:32:23.140 looking at the next generation of talent coming 00:32:23.140 --> 00:32:24.759 up from all over the world, I think we might 00:32:24.759 --> 00:32:26.500 already have our answer. Thanks for diving in 00:32:26.500 --> 00:32:28.740 with us today. Keep watching the games, enjoy 00:32:28.740 --> 00:32:30.920 this incredible parody era, but maybe keep one 00:32:30.920 --> 00:32:32.799 eye on the news ticker, too. You never know what's 00:32:32.799 --> 00:32:34.519 coming next in this lead. Catch you next time.