00:00on the wise heart right we make it right call kyle wright hotline of 97 one the fan in los
00:06angeles longtime nba analyst bill writer joining us now what's up buddy yes capitalism price couch
00:12baby what's up guys that was very funny to listen to so i do want to know do you still
00:18feel this way
00:18about price gouching or holding the princeling hostage cleveland honing up if it's you guys i
00:27mean i think listening listening back to it and i don't know this isn't humble enough i was thinking
00:32man that's a really good point i'm making yes i do think i wanted to make sure yeah because you
00:37were
00:37talking about you being funny in the clip and then you having a really good point in the clip bill
00:40i've
00:40known you to be more humble than this but i i actually appreciate this twist now i'd be only
00:44because you're being you know very very like hey this is a great take i need to see what you
00:49think
00:49about me poking a hole in it okay is that all right i mean try do your do your best
00:54i can't wait to hear
00:54it okay there's no world where you let uh you try to demand a a rich return uh to a
01:03guy like rich
01:03paul who you're gonna have to deal with for the next 25 years in the nba like if rich paul
01:07gets mad
01:07at you because you won't give brawny over to lebron and you're demanding a king's ransom i don't see
01:12that being beneficial i don't i don't let brawny get in the way of the most powerful agent in the
01:17sport here's my counterpoint to your counterpoint and it's a good one one i don't know that it's a
01:22guarantee rich paul will be that powerful in 25 years lolo in 12 years too my understanding this
01:28is speculation i gotta aggregate it last time i was on this show and people got very mad at me
01:31including lebron so this is my speculation aggregators i would suspect that lebron and
01:38rich are not super happy with the lakers already based on the way that lebron exited the lakers
01:43and three too bad i mean i know for a fact the lakers didn't love being held hostage by clutch
01:49sports
01:50when lebron was there i would imagine a little freedom from that now that he's gone will be just
01:54fine so it's interesting bill um i don't like i have a lot of respect for the lakers organization
02:00and what they've accomplished um and not direct tv rob low rob palenka though i but i but i jj
02:07reddick's
02:07grown on me uh i actually really do like luca as well i and i i respect lakers fans in
02:13general i think
02:14they were tone deaf as hell for what lebron meant to them and that guy really rescued them from the
02:20luau dang timothy mozgov abyss what is la's reaction been to lebron leaving the lakers though
02:27so what this is for i mean people are very he didn't connect here and i will say this and
02:34i'll
02:34like let's have like a nuanced conversation on this because i think it's really interesting
02:38people in cleveland burned his jersey when he went to miami right and that was a crazy reaction based on
02:44an incredibly tone deaf way that he on television 16 years ago yesterday announced he was going
02:49to miami the miami heat organization that i covered you know i was based there loved lebron until he
02:57surprised them and went back to cleveland and that front office and i mean i know this i hated him
03:02for
03:02a time i think they're fine now for whatever reason and you guys tell me i don't know how cleveland
03:07felt when lebron left for la maybe it was fine because he won a title lebron is beloved when he
03:12goes
03:12places and he tends to not be very loved when he leaves places and that's certainly true here not
03:17with the same animosity that cleveland felt the first time in miami felt the time he left them
03:22but there's definitely like something between like a careless insouciance to a good riddance vibe
03:28for 50 or 70 percent of lakers fans here in la so most calves fans in 2018 understood it because
03:36they looked at the roster and also the title right there are there's always going to be a pocket of
03:41people who don't like lebron and that goes even beyond him leaving i put out like 85 percent to
03:45what you're talking about yeah but it's like a strong strong strong majority that were like i get
03:51it don't love it but he's still lebron which is which is why the only way he could really hurt
03:57his
03:57standing with calves fans is by leading them on even if he's not the one doing it but he's allowing
04:02it to happen by that's interesting by the calves being portrayed as a front runner only to then go to
04:08like freaking minnesota that's really yeah i mean look there's a lot of sort of like factors
04:14that go into the la market and i don't know how much you will sort of want to dive into
04:18those but
04:18the big one right uh 50 percent of the sort of blame pie for why lebron is not loved here
04:24and he
04:25didn't respond well so i would argue to that sort of lack of adulation is because nobody was going to
04:30be able to fill kobe bryant's shoes even when kobe was alive and then obviously when he passed away
04:37rest in peace kobe it became a whole other thing luca is going to have a much fairer opportunity
04:42to win the hearts of of lakers fans than lebron did because lebron did the hardest thing there is
04:48in la he he followed kobe bryant as the next great star yeah uh all right we're just ignoring
04:53timofey moskov's attempts to replace kobe that's funny that guy by the way his he i used to see him
05:00all the time i think he moved but his kid used to go to my kid's school and his kid
05:03you'll be shy
05:03was very tall i'm sorry timofey for listening i'm shocked he was so tall uh all right uh let me
05:10ask you about where we currently sit a lot of rumblings about the calves today with lebron
05:14you covered the heat you mentioned that do you feel like we're we're sleeping on the heat are we
05:17sleeping on the 76ers should we be talking more about the warriors what's your dynamic here here's
05:23my answer and i know it's not like a great radio answer but it's an answer based on having covered
05:27this
05:27guy every time he has gone somewhere it has been a shock to the general consensus from nba insiders
05:33from nba media from fans and so while i like if you ask me to guess it's a guess i
05:40would guess
05:40cleveland but lebron is always surprising and look i don't hate lebron like people think i do most of
05:47the time and i'm not a second to lebron like people think i am sometimes because if you say
05:51something about lebron people react in a very aggressive way whether they know anything about you
05:55or not i actually like lebron but he can be a little tone deaf he can be a little insular
06:00he can
06:01have behaviors that i think can be misunderstood as narcissism sometimes and i do think the way
06:06that he's conducting himself right now is attention seeking and it makes it really hard to know where
06:11he's gonna go i i think it's cleveland but nothing would surprise me because every time he's gone
06:16somewhere i have been surprised so it's interesting because i i do think that his his his actions can be
06:24construed as attention seeking but it's funny like all lebron has done is kind of not say anything
06:31and his it's kind of bottled up his camp why do you think that gets confused with attention seeking
06:36i'm not saying he hates his attention by the way i just think i think to the degree that people
06:40take
06:41it it's it's kind of going back to that word that you said narcissistic and i don't i i think
06:47the guy
06:47likes to be loved but i don't think this is like a power play or like a you know like
06:51a necessarily a
06:52negative thing that he's doing this offseason so here's what i would say on that i agree i don't
06:57think he's a narcissist i do think he likes to be loved i i agree i the people around when
07:03you're
07:03the president or you're lebron or well messy is at that level there's very few athletes or humans on
07:08earth or at the level that lebron james is at in terms of and he's very smart he knows this
07:13when he
07:14speaks when people speak in his name it is a tsunami of sort of information that follows he so you
07:20are
07:21in my opinion as one of those rare people you are responsible you're going to get attached i think
07:25fairly to the words of the people that are that are authorized to speak in your name and so when
07:30rich paul goes on a podcast and it's having the guy that runs basketball operations bob myers in
07:37effect elevator pitch beg lebron to come to philly when rich paul is saying that most every team in the
07:45nba should reach out if they're interested i think that's lebron doing it or at least the people that
07:50he has the power to speak on his behalf and so if you include rich paul in the news that
07:55comes out
07:55through sean's that's approved through lebron i do they get the tension seeking and i do think
08:00lebron is a responsible for it because he could put a stop to it and b probably approves it bill
08:05i love
08:05your basketball brain so i want you to do something for me here uh between the heat the warriors the
08:1076ers and the calves can you go one through four and how you think the fit works with lebron
08:16are we talking pure basketball like to win an nba championship pure basketball yeah
08:22man that's a really good question okay so i'm gonna counterintuitively i'm gonna go last on
08:27philly because i just think the the if you're lebron in this conversation you have to win a
08:32championship that's the goal that's the deal and so he is i think a difference maker anywhere he goes
08:38if everybody is out there and joel that beat is always hurt he's just he's always injured so if you
08:43tell me mb can play 70 games and be healthy for two and a half months to the playoffs i'll
08:48put philly
08:49higher but i can't believe that so philly's last i will go for me if cleveland and miami are 1a
08:561b and
08:56i if you want me to sort of fit i don't know right like i think suppose the best coach
09:01i'll go miami 1a
09:02i'll go cleveland 1b till i give you an answer i think janice and bam and lebron is so dangerous
09:07and
09:07spoken coach around a lack of depth on that bench and i think that cleveland for me is just
09:13behind that i do have severe doubts about donovan and james in the postseason those tend to go away
09:18if lebron james is a part of that basketball team and what we saw him do in la in march
09:22where he was
09:22the third guy and he made austin reese a lot of money and he made luka dodgers even better i
09:26mean
09:26they were 15 and 2 in that stretch when lebron basically selflessly took a back seat over that
09:31stretch and i'll go to golden state warriors three i think the warriors have a higher ceiling than most
09:36people do guys if lebron is there i just think their floor is very problematic given their age
09:40all right bill uh i'm always interested about this because i think so much of the lebron uh
09:46frustrations or the criticisms come from the fact that he's really the first athlete we've seen in
09:52the 24 hour of you know social media and the way that sports has exploded over the last 20 years
09:59in
09:59terms of media coverage so i don't necessarily need think he needs to win a championship but what do
10:04you think this last leg this last landing spot what has to happen here to to add to his legacy
10:12as opposed to just fading away like michael's final two years in washington were and and certainly
10:18kobe's last couple years in la were that's a great question i will you didn't ask me this but i'll
10:23say
10:23i don't think anything detracts from his legacy i think there's nothing that occurs going forward
10:26that takes away from him being the best or second best player of all time regardless you sort of
10:30depending on how people see it i would say i mean i i think if he makes an nba championship
10:37even if you lose especially with cleveland i know we won one with you guys but but obviously donovan
10:44and james haven't been able to get over over that that hump and they haven't won one i think that
10:49honestly as i think it out loud i think cleveland's the thing that is the most of an enhancement to
10:53his
10:53legacy because you win with yannis who's won you win with spo who's got a bunch yeah you're going to
10:58get
10:58credit but they've done they've done before obviously to go to the warriors you're going
11:02to get treated a little bit by like kevin durant did by lebron haters i think in cleveland it is
11:07very clear that the sole champion on that team the guy that brought a championship caliber excellence
11:12if if if it were to go the right way for the calves would be lebron james so i think
11:17it's making
11:18the finals with anybody is an enhancement and i think the biggest enhancement is doing that or even
11:22winning with the calves in cleveland bill i saw a clip of you when you were saying that miles garrett
11:26has already put himself uh in a a better spot with la people and the local people out there
11:32than lebron ever did uh what has that reception been like and everything that's followed since
11:37oh my god they love him they love him i mean like and this is the thing like in our
11:40market and i don't
11:41know if it's true in cleveland too the dodgers are more important than the lakers the lakers would
11:45probably not appreciate that but it's it's real like the dodgers are everything and just garrett going
11:50to a dodgers game and throwing out the first pitch it like people look man garrett was a mercenary just
11:55like lebron and people in la will love him until they turn on him that was a very big thing
12:00for him
12:01in terms of people here being all in but miles garrett doesn't have to follow kobe bryant like
12:06there's a lot of factors for this it's not just miles is better it's that la fans are very particular
12:11and sort of like how you win them over but people in la are over the moon i mean people
12:15are really
12:15excited about about miles garrett because there is a conviction here that a rams championship is
12:20borderline i don't know about guarantee but they feel very good about things if stafford stays healthy
12:24so i'm glad you said that because i was thinking about this uh we we almost did a topic before
12:29i
12:29went on vacation a couple weeks back just thinking about the the pressure on that rams and rams team
12:35i don't know any team has been expected to be a lock for a championship like this year's rams team
12:41since tom brady went to tampa bay do you think that's fair or unfair i think it's totally fair and
12:46i
12:46think this i mean i'm in it right so sometimes when you're in the current it's hard to have to
12:50be
12:50rational about it i i think it might be even in a higher standard it certainly is a higher standard
12:54here in los angeles i mean and it's crazy because as you guys know the division is brutal the seahawks
13:00just won the super bowl the niners are very very very good and it's the national football league there
13:05are going to be forces of nature we don't even see coming that's just that that's how the nfl works
13:10but in la they feel like they gave away that game against seattle they feel like stafford has
13:16another at least year of being another mvp level quarterback he's obviously the reigning mvp everyone
13:21is convinced because of miles garrett that aaron donald's going to unretire sean mcveigh is basically
13:26a football god in the streets of los angeles so you're you're right i mean it is it's it is
13:31a
13:31borderline expectation with a lot of people which is a really good recipe for heartbreak because the
13:35nfl is not major league baseball or even the nba before this run of eight or nine teams who kept
13:40changing the championship trophy hands bill you were part of launching 97 won the fan in los
13:45angeles these last couple months one congrats on your guys early success there too and i say this
13:51because periodically it happens to every two-man show on the face of the stinking planet have you
13:58and your partner had your first real on-air donny brook that got awkward the second you turned off the
14:04mic mics for the first time it's crazy because like this guy doug is wrong all the time and he's
14:11the
14:11nicest guy in the world so i tell him he's wrong and so far he just he smiles afterwards and
14:17he he
14:17has very he has very thick skin i keep trying to have the experience nick you're asking me about i
14:22keep pushing for it because i like i like that stuff i let's but no not not yet but i'm
14:27sure it's coming
14:28that's the honeymoon phase right there those were the steak days my friend i hear a lot of problems
14:33on your horizon yeah yeah sounds like you guys aren't communicating enough you should tell doug that
14:38he's a real b yeah doug's going home to his wife and complaining about you every night
14:44i don't doubt it i would all right bill great stuff buddy appreciate you thanks boys bill writer there
14:4997 won the fan in los angeles uh nba analyst and reporter in the wise heart ride we make it
14:55right
14:56call kyle right hotline
14:57kyle right hotline
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