点击查看原文：A season in vein for San Antonio
A season in vein for San Antonio
Columnist Mike Finger and Spurs beat reporters Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn discuss how Victor Wembanyama’s diagnosis with DVT changes the Spurs’ trajectory this season and what it means for the team going forward.
Suggested reading:
Finger: With loss of Wembanyama, surreal season takes another sobering turn
On Victor Wembanyama’s long road back, a bright side remains
Spurs big men Bismack Biyombo, Charles Bassey bond over injury history
Is ‘caring too much’ hurting Spurs’ Devin Vassell?
\
\
Here is the transcript of the podcast:
From a highly secure network of top secret locations across North America, this is the Spurs Insider, another wait till next year edition. I’m your host Mike Finger, joined as always by our panel of Express News Spurs beat writers Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn along with Sports Editor Nick Talbot.
Well, we had a half a season, we had more than half a season. We had through the All-Star break, well into the Rodeo Road trip until it finally came to pass that we are once again talking about the local cagers in terms of what they might be in the distant future.
Because in the first game back from the Rodeo Road trip, when we were all convening in Austin, we find out that Victor Wembanyama, the centerpiece of the franchise, the face of the league, will be out for the rest of the season due to a blood clotting issue in his shoulder.
This was stunning news for the franchise, stunning news for the league. The good news is it is something that the franchise believes will be able to to be fixed, to be addressed, will not affect Victor’s health for the rest of his life or the rest of his career, should be back for the start of next season.
But Tom, who is joining us from his secure location in the Big Easy, wanted to check in with you first just to look back on the week as a whole on how kind of the whole outlook changed this week, didn’t it?
Yeah, I mean, yeah, we’re we’re back in, you know, two seasons ago kind of uh with Victor gone. Yeah, I mean, it’s like you said, Mike, it was stunning. You know, but but yeah, the good news is uh you know, he seems to be going to be okay.
You know, a little bit worried about that though whether this is, you know, could some somehow be an ongoing thing, we’re not, I mean, I’m you know, I’m hoping like heck it isn’t, but um, you just never know.
Um, but yeah, we’re right back uh, you know, where they’re playing without Victor and and um, you know, it’s just it’s just a weird, it’s a weird vibe around the team. Uh, they carried on of course, but still it’s just everyone’s just trying to still wrap their heads around it and um, you know, the whole season, you know, pop the the um, the stroke early in the season.
Now, Victor, um, you know, it’s just just been a been a weird season to say the least.
And Jeff, because we like to be optimistic on this podcast and that’s why people tune in to this show every week, um, there I know you’re not in the medical expert, but you’ve talked to medical experts and there are a couple of ways when you’re talking about blood clots, uh, deep vein thrombosis.
Um, could be genetic, uh, and that it could be one that recurs and that’s something that cost a really great player like uh Chris Bosch, his career eventually. Uh, when he had to hang it up.
But the the optimistic part of this is that uh this seems to be possibly one of those issues that affect baseball pitchers, that have affected Brandon Ingram, an NBA player a couple of years ago, Alsar Thompson where it can be addressed.
It can be localized to uh to one area where uh uh like with a pitcher in the shoulder where it it’s repetitive use and uh you can take care of it and move on, right, Jeff?
Um, yeah, I mean let’s let’s go over like this this isn’t unheard of um in sports and even in the NBA. You mentioned the worst case scenario which is Chris Chris Bosch and that was a thing where his they couldn’t keep his blood clots from recurring.
Like he had one, came back from it, had another one, uh one of them traveled to the lung and like that’s just all all all bad news and and um, you know, he had to retire.
But you look at, you mentioned Brandon Ingram, you mentioned Azar Thompson, um, Christian Koko is another one who’s currently in the NBA. Those are those last three are examples of guys who have had blood clot issues and um, returned in relatively short order, like in a timetable that would have uh if Victor followed the same, would be back for the start of next season and and returned to to full health, full recovery, didn’t, you know, became didn’t didn’t lose anything on the court.
Um, I talked to a couple of doctors after this um, like uh after this uh news broke. Obviously, these are guys that have not, they’re not Spurs doctors, they’re not people who have uh um Examined Victor. examined Victor, looked at his charts or anything.
They have no inside knowledge at all, but just what what they would look for in a patient of this type. And um, what I’ve been told is what you know, a blood clot in a in a healthy 21 year old is if if it shows up is almost always going to show up in in the lower extremities in the legs.
Um, Victor’s being in the shoulders um really points to um a high possibility and I don’t want to act like we know that Victor has this. we’re not really sure.
But I’m just saying in general, the first play the first uh thought these doctors had when they hear it’s in the shoulder is this thing called thoracic outlet syndrome, which is basically there’s a blood vessel that gets sort of squeezed or compressed between your your clavicle, your your collar bone and and your rib, your first rib.
And that creates clots. And um like you mentioned baseball pitchers, that you see that a lot in baseball for whatever reason. Um, and the the only the the the the cure whatever, the fix is is surgical.
It’s a surgical procedure. Basically they remove a rib. Um, Remove a rib or I I believe um you can shave down the clavicle too. Yeah, one or the other. If you can picture it like you have to do one or the other just to create some to relieve that that compression, that pressure in there.
And that sounds like, oh God, Victor’s going to have to have a rib. If Victor has to have a rib remove, that sounds awful, but actually that would be a decent outcome because if it is this thoracic outlet syndrome, you have a culprit.
Like you know what’s causing it and you know and you know there’s a proven way to address it and fix it and get him back on the court and have a really low likelihood of the uh blood clots coming back.
Like the worst case scenario is we don’t know what’s causing these blood clots and maybe we can fix them now with blood thinners and get them back on the court, but then they come keep coming back because we have no way of knowing why they’re why they’re forming in the first place.
So I think if if it turns out he has um something that that can be identified and uh, you know, medical science is always already has a proven track record of correcting. I think that would be good news.
What did I say? Medical science? Yeah, no, no, that’s a good kind of science. Oh, okay, yeah. Well, yeah, if they could do that then uh, you know, that would be that would be the most positive outcome and and you know, I should point out the Spurs are not giving us a lot of details about all this.
They probably already have a good idea of what’s going on. more than they’re they’re they’re letting on. They are Basically everyone is. They are they are telling us, as you said at the top, that they’re expecting that this will be something that they can uh handle.
It’s more like a an episode that they can handle in the short term and it won’t affect the long term. They’re not expecting this to be a long term issue for Victor. So that might tell you, that might just offer some clues, you know, if you want to connect some dots about what maybe they’re seeing.
Without the Spurs providing a specific diagnosis, they are sort of uh releasing details that lead us to believe that everything that Jeff said is true.
Like you you can put the dots together and figure it out. And uh, like like when they’re adamant, this is not a Chris Bosch situation. They’re adamant this is not something that they believe is a uh uh genetic situation.
So you you put all that together and what you’re left with is um a timeline that should um like like Jeff said, have him ready for if not training camp next season, then the season.
I think the Ausar Thompson one happened in March of last year, like the it was exactly a month later than or or or approximately a month later on the NBA schedule um than than Victor’s was and Ausar was cleared to return the first couple of weeks, first week or two of November.
So you move all that up a month and uh uh you know, Wembanyama on the same timeline would be first couple of weeks of October, which would maybe not have you ready for the start of training camp, but could have you pretty close and if you have to miss a couple games, that’s not the worst thing in the world.
And you know, if he he has a rib removed, I I have a distant, long, long, long ago relative who had a rib removed. I think all of us do. Way, way, way, way, way, way. And it worked out for him.
Um, Did it hit it though? Well, some of his, some of his descendants have not done great. I mean, like his immediate descendants like murdered each other. Oh, yeah, I forgot about that.
Oh. I forgot about that. And there’s still descendants that are not the best. So, but I but maybe Victor’s will work out better. Um, yeah. Oh.
And uh, I I don’t know. I’m not sure whether to go big picture or or zoom in now, but I guess big picture, you’re looking at another close to the season, like Tom said, sort of like two years ago where um, there the Spurs aren’t going to be bad as as bad as they were two years ago, but they are They’re loseran.
They’re loseran, their Elegants. They’re losing to the Pelicans. They are uh, they are in kind of uh what am what am I trying to say? uh dual objectives here to improve on the court.
You still have players that you want to get better with. Deran Fox, Stefan Castle, Keldon Johnson, Jeremy Sohan, uh Devin Vassell, uh like you want those guys to get better. You also have big prizes out there in the uh draft lottery.
And the Spurs aren’t going to end up with uh one of those top four um uh odds, like they’re not going to have as many lottery ball combinations as they did two years ago. But they have theirs. They could have, I mean they do have Atlanta’s.
Atlanta’s could be in the top 10 somewhere. The Spurs could be in the top 10 somewhere and this is a really, really good draft. So the Spurs just completely fold on Sunday in a game that Tom covered in New Orleans in which the fourth quarter was just a kind of a disaster.
Things fell apart and you lose to one of the the worst teams in one of the worst teams in the league, the worst team in the West. And uh that’s discouraging. But in in these next couple of months there’s always going to be sort of an upside which is uh which is the draft stuff.
And we’re like I said, we’re back where we were before. Um, I guess how we we know, we’ve talked to Mitch Johnson about this. We know the Spurs are going to continue to try to win.
It’s another one of those where the the tank sort of happens naturally though, right? Yeah, they don’t have to try to lose as we saw the other night. I mean, they’ll win a game here or there, some games here or there, but like man, up, what was it?
Up 17 against the worst team in the West and then to not only lose but to lose by 18. Like that that that flip is pretty pretty rough and like like you were saying, you would feel really discouraged about it but then you’re just like, oh well that that helps you in the in the draft lottery.
Uh-huh. Hohum, he. So right. It should be pointed out, I guess that they lost to Charlotte with Victor. Yep. At the start of this trip.
So Also beat Phoenix without Victor in the first game back. Phoenix is just kind of a meth. I think that’s more on Phoenix than anything else. And and they were playing with so much emotion in that game, you know. Yeah.
And Phoenix was That was fun. I don’t know, I’m changing the subject. It was fun at the Moody Center to be kind of down on the floor. Um, not kind of but actually down on the floor.
We’re not usually there anymore and just to hear like all the things that were going on and what people were saying. And like it was if you couldn’t tell on TV or you couldn’t tell from like the upper deck of Moody, being like like five feet from the floor, like those Phoenix guys are just rubbing it in on the listeners that you have a better seat than they do.
Those Phoenix guys are not having not having a good time. Like they’re not, they’re not connected to each other. You can just tell by looking at them, by hearing them speak to each other.
That was that was kind of interesting to me. Not not to change the subject, but whatever. Um, the the another difference between now and and two years ago is you’re farther along in this, in this new team that you’ve built.
Uh, you’re you’re farther along in the process. And uh you have guys, as opposed to two years ago, who are going, you expect to be around when the team is winning again and those are the names that I just mentioned.
Like there’s probably four or five of them that you hope are going to be integral pieces of the next contender. And so, um, a a difference that I see this time around, even though we are kind of talking about the draft and we are talking about a team that’s not going to be competing for playoffs over the next couple months, you’d you’d like to see some kind of um, not only progress but progress in terms of playing with each other in uh in Deran Fox in Stefan Castle in uh like like somebody who sticks out to me right now is Devin Vassell.
Like uh, Victor’s gone now, you want a little more of a scoring load from players like this. What do we think about where Devin Vassell is right now? I’m I’m not saying he’s been terrible, but I think the hope the Spurs had was he would have been farther along than he is right now.
Like to to address your broader point before we get to Devin specifically, like all yeah, all that would be beneficial if the guys that are remaining can show you something. But it’s also you’re take like with Victor gone, you’re taking this huge center of gravity off the floor.
So you so like Devin Vassell’s not going to get the same shots. He he would get if if defenses are worried about Victor. Deran Fox is not going to get the same kind of shot.
So it’s almost like you want to see something but you’re seeing something in a in a context that you, you know, if all goes well, you’re not going to see a lot going forward. So it’s just interesting to see how that will play out.
As far as Devin, yeah, it’s it’s um he I’m like he probably has not taken the leap forward this year that you would like in a perfect world. I think maybe that you can you can give him some passes on some stuff like never having an off season.
Like again, surgery after surgery, did not have an off season, did not have a training camp. Didn’t you know, you you talk about the guys that like work all summer on this skill or that skill, Devin couldn’t do it because he was on the shelf with surgery.
So maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that he didn’t take the big leap that you’d expect. Um, but the fact of the matter is that he he really hasn’t.
He’s he’s had he’s had his moments um but but been really inconsistent with it. And I don’t know if you can really expect him to carry you or or up up his game with Victor off the floor for the end of the this season.
Maybe maybe you can, maybe he just gets a lot more shots, but I don’t think they’re going to I think they’re going to be worse shots. So I don’t know. Mitch said something after after the game, the New Orleans game that I I thought he said out loud something that I’ve thought for for quite some time that you know, as Mitch said, he he thinks Devin cares too much, you know.
And the point I do not have that problem by the way. Yeah, yeah. The point being he is, he is very conscientious.
He wants to do super well especially after that huge contract. You know, there’s a pressing factor. I I’ve thought that about him for for quite some time and you know, Mitch said, you know, I want him to keep shooting.
I want him to be super aggressive, but at some point, you know, I just also want him to have that attitude of I don’t give a bleep, you know. And and just put it all away from him what the all the outside noise, the um you know, what people say about him, what people think about and the contract, everything else and just just go out there and and get angry and be aggressive and do what he’s capable of doing.
I I thought that was like I said, I thought it’s something I’ve thought for quite some time. You know, that that contract weighs on him in in to a certain extent. That that said it was a it was a big contract at the time and he I think if I’m not mistaken, I maybe Deran is now, but he Devin might be the highest paid player on the team right now.
But like as the as the CBA grows, that contract’s not that Vassell contract’s not going to be all that big, all that big in a percentage of the salary cap.
Like it like when all this gets put together, Yeah, with all this, when all this gets put like probably we’ve probably seen enough of a sell to think he’s he’s probably like a number four on a really good like playoff contending championship contending team.
Like that’s probably his ceiling now. Maybe he’s a he’s he’s the fourth best guy. And you’ve got Victor, you’ve got Deran Fox.
Maybe Stefan Castle becomes your number three, maybe it’s somebody that comes in a future draft, maybe it’s someone who comes elsewhere, but if Vasil can slot in as a number four guy, which means he doesn’t have to score 25 points a game.
You know, he just has to, he just has to give you something consistently um each night. Like a Harrison Barnes is kind of kind of production.
If you think of him in those terms, I think he can be fine and also I think by the time we get there, his contract will he will be paid like a number four. He’ll probably be the fourth best fourth highest paid player on the team by that point.
So maybe to tie all this together with Abo, maybe if he can just um calm down and realize he doesn’t have to be uh their second best player or their best player with Victor out or a guy that scores 25 points a night.
Um, and can just just live with those ebbs and flows, maybe just the whole thing will look better and maybe everyone will feel better about it. to um to to transition to another Mitch Johnson aside that caught my attention this week.
Um, Mitch was talking about having Deran Fox and Chris Paul uh staggering them, making sure that one of them was always running the floor. that you have these two point guards.
Mitch kind of on his own, unprompted, said that he considers Stefan Castle part of that group. And the reason that jumped out to me is that it sort of sheds some insight into why um the Spurs might like having Stefan Castle coming up coming off the bench for the last half of this season.
It gives him more of an opportunity to hone that skill. Now, I don’t think that they consider his long-term top position to be point guard. I think once he becomes what they want him to become, like he’s playing alongside Deran Fox, um, as that wing defender, uh, another creator out there from the two or three position, um, a guy who can guard a lot of positions.
But I I I found that sort of fascinating and that that that was Mitch saying it’s still important uh to remember that Stefan Castle does have point guard skills and can initiate offense.
And so I I don’t want to spend more time. We’ve spent enough on uh on the Chris Paul thing and and why he’s still starting.
But I think there are long-term let’s say that’s just a reminder that there are long-term reasons why they might be doing it this way because that does give Stefan Castle more reps as an initiator.
Also, Stefan Stefan Castle seems to be I don’t want to use hitting the wall because that can be a loaded term sometimes, but coming back from the break, it’s understandable.
He didn’t have the break that everybody else had. He’s he’s had a a few rough games in a row and maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world to have him kind of battle through some of that uh uh some of those tough spots and come off the bench and figure it out.
I still think he’s going to be awesome. I still think he’s the front runner for rookie of the year, not that that matters a whole lot. Uh, he he is the the 2024 25 season has been a huge, huge, huge plus, a huge encouragement uh from from for for the for the progress of uh of Stefan Castle.
And uh I I I think people worried about that, oh he’s not getting enough minute minutes off the bench. Um, he’s he he should be starting. I think there is definitely a plan for him long term and people should be really encouraged by that.
I agree with you. I don’t have a whole lot to add, but I agree with you. Yeah, I mean it you just yeah, coming out of the All-Star break, he he was pretty busy in San Francisco.
So a little bit of a dip here, but yeah, I mean you can’t have these knee jerk reactions with him. You know, he’s he’s he’s going to be pretty darn good and um, you know, if he has a dip here and there, well, that’s part of being a rookie.
Not not not to really compare the two, you know, directly, but like the guy who won the unanimous rookie of the year last year also had a couple stinkers along the way as well. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Kind of happens.
It does, it does. And he’s got a good attitude about it. Um, walked out of the Moody with him one night and uh, you know, after a rough night and he uh he was upbeat.
Uh he’s he’s definitely not complaining about anything. You know, he wants to be better. he wants to be great every night, which we know that players can’t be and especially rookies can’t be.
But I think he’s going to be. I think I I think that’s one thing if you’re a Spurs fan that you do not worry about the future of that guy, the future of that position. He’s going to be really, really good.
Um, Do do we need to talk about the the pop news that really wasn’t all that newsy? Well, sure. Uh, you know, that that’s and and and we’re going to do it without um kind of crapping on any on anybody else.
It’s it’s um it’s something that’s been awkward all year and uh if if you go back and and say read the first column that I wrote two hours after the Spurs made the announcement about the stroke.
If you listen to if you read everything that Jeff and Tom have written since then, if you listen to every podcast that we’ve had since then, uh including the one where uh the Spurs put out the Greg Popovich statement about his progress.
And I think if you go back and listen to that podcast, you’ll remember that the charming host pointed out uh that even though Pop talked about coming back, we should not take that at face value that he’s going to come back this year or ever come back.
That it was encouraging that he that he’s made the joke that he made in that statement. I think not not to be too flipping about this, um, he Greg Popovich before he had a stroke was the oldest person in history to coach an NBA game.
By a lot. He had By nobody had ever coached an NBA game at age 75. He’s since turned 76. Um, he had what was turned as a mild stroke. There’s that’s that’s that’s that’s that’s sort of a oxymoron.
Like there’s there’s no such thing as a mild uh situation like that, especially when you’re 75, 76 years old. Um, I think it’s it’s great that he uh uses in the thought of coaching again as something to shoot for.
I think it’s great that the Spurs consider that, continue to consider that a possibility. It would be great to have him back. But to say all along that that it was likely that he would return this year that uh it was it was say better than 50% that he would return ever.
I’m not sure that we’ve ever given that indication on this podcast. I’m not sure we’ve ever, I know we have never written that. And uh so uh when we get into uh breaking news about the Spurs expectations, which is what the breaking news over the weekend was that the Spurs, that the expectation is no longer that he returns this year.
Like I’m not sure that ever truly was the Spurs expectation that Greg Popovich returns this year. That always was going to be kind of a best case scenario.
And I guess now that it it it’s a situation where people are talking about it more openly. Uh Tom wrote about it this weekend about the Spurs kind of committing to play for Mitch the rest of the year.
I don’t think that was any kind of huge shift. There was not there was not a shift in the Spurs outlook on Pop this weekend. Um, if anything, it’s been sort of gradual acceptance of that over the past three months.
I think the the as the longer this has gone on without, you know, Pop being back in the building, um, it became clearer and clearer, yeah, he’s not going to come back this year.
Like he’s not going to show up for the last month of the season, the last week of the season. Like that that doesn’t make a lot of sense. And if he’s not going to come back this season, then yes, of course his long-term future is also unclear, right?
Which is what the news was this weekend. Right. And and not to and again, we’re not bashing anybody else. Like you get that um you you get that quote uh on on on on the record.
Um, uh yeah you can go with it, go with it. That’s great. Like like yeah. Um, but I I I I don’t think anybody here and I don’t think any of the listeners were shocked by that.
I think most people who’ve been paying attention to this realize that uh it’s it’s a long road back for Pop. Um, you start to wonder the is is is it worth it um for somebody with who’s made as much money as he has, who has grandkids to enjoy like I wrote the day of the the announcement.
Like there’s there’s all kinds of reasons why this is not something that you’d want to push, especially if it risks his health. So we’re still uh wishing for the best for for Pop.
Um, hope it works out. We’d love to have him do a a press conference and and and question the uh sanity of our questions again. Like that’d be that’d be fun for old time sake.
But I don’t think that uh that has ever been like a 90% certainty that uh or or an expectation that we thought was that was definitely going to happen again. Yeah, you look you know, after the All-Star break, that would have been that would have been a spot where where he could have come back.
I mean, you look at the schedule. If you’re going to do it, yeah. Yeah, there’s no there’s no way to ease into this schedule. It is brutal the rest of the way.
Which is why 75 and 76 year olds had never done it before. Yeah. Like it’s it’s it’s it’s a we can all speak to this.
I know Tom, you can. It’s a young man’s game to be out there on the road covering this team. Uh let alone like game planning and and uh running huddles and stuff stuff like that.
And none of us do every game. I know us between us three. Yeah. The coach usually has to do every game.
It’s true. And speaking of young men, 38 year old Mitch Johnson, it’s not a case where Pop’s looking at this thing and says, oh man, everything I’ve built, everything I sweated for all these years is falling apart, you know.
It’s it’s carried on as if he was here. And they’re in contact? Yeah, Mitch is, Mitch has handled everything really well. Um, I’m not talking about Xs and Os, but just carrying keeping everything going and and the program intact, you know, the values and principles intact.
He’s done a great job with that. So why not finish the season with him? Um There’s Yeah, there’s they they they get along.
There’s there’s respect. Yeah. Uh, and and on that note, I think that it’s it’s worth we this has been sort of a serious podcast with serious issues that we’ve discussed.
But I I do think it’s worth because the people have been asking about these podcasts. You guys still hate each other in social media? Oh God.
Uh the the comments that Jeff is bringing to my attention on the on the on the various uh Did you guys go to like couple’s counseling in the last week? Get back on the same page? I I I I don’t want you I don’t want you to make this into into into just two people.
I think I think that that the thought is and if if if and please let me get through with this because I I I think it’s worth I don’t want any interruptions here. Uh, I I I think it’s worth a thoughtful explanation.
There apparently are people out there who believe that I I don’t like my colleagues. And uh let let me let me let me just let me just tell you that uh I met Jeff McDonald as a freshman in we were freshman in college nine on three decades ago.
I met Tom Orsborn 19 what was it a Cowboys a mini camp in 1999, I believe Tom? No, Mike. This this this is why we don’t get along.
You You. It was a long time ago and and when you were in high school. In high you you you met me with you interviewed me in high school.
That’s right, Tom. when when I was when I was a high school baseball player, you interviewed me for the Express. my story. I promised I to use them.
So anyway, let me let me finish. Since then, we’re talking about three decades of of traveling the country to city sweat wet dozens of cities across America, plane rides, car rides, shared dinners.
We’ve shared hopes and dreams. I know these these two guys families. Uh uh long nights uh in in press boxes in in in in media workrooms and uh and and just all this history we have with each other.
And so for people, when people ask, do I not like these guys? Of course I don’t like them. Like like I’m sick of them.
It’s it’s enough is enough. So there, so there you go. That’s the answer to your question. Do I like these guys?
I’ve known them 30 years and they annoy the hell out of me. Well, the feeling is mutual. It’s family. Here’s what I think.
I think I think we maybe have some um maybe I’m maybe I’m wrong but I think we have younger maybe our our demographics skews younger than us. That could be true.
I I don’t know, but I just know like the younger generations don’t realize in the 90s that’s that’s that’s this is what we did to each other. We just bust each other’s chops. Oh, that’s true.
Like I’ve noticed you’re not If you’re not busting chops then you don’t even like that person. Like what are we even doing? One thing I have noticed about the younger like the the the the guys, the the the the the guys and girls and and and men and women that we that we cover in in like Generation Z and whatnot, they like to hug and support each other and and and you know, say nice things and and and it that’s just different, man.
That was I mean that was not the love language back in the day. Exactly. The busting the chops is the busting the chops is the it was the love language in the 1900s. Yeah.
Anyway, yeah. I I I think y’all should uh we we appreciate the concern.
We appreciate the queries, the uh the uh the conspiracy theories about the Spurs Insider podcast, but I think it’s fine. and yeah, um and I guess I wanted to mention this like uh one thing that might help you to bury the hatchet is um I’m I’m I met up with a friend of mine from uh from high school from Madison High School who lives in Austin now.
Did ever did he ever play in the NBA? Did not Well, I that was a different guy. This is a different story. Oh. Uh this this is a guy called Mike Byers, he’s a friend of mine. Oh yeah.
He works at uh at 512 Brewing uh brewery there in uh in Austin. And uh he’s he’s a big fan of the podcast as well and sent us a a care package.
So uh when when I see you guys again, I’ll I’ll give you your part of the care package and maybe you guys can uh tilt a pecan porter or an IPA and and get back in the I’ve tasted alcohol before. In the good in the good graces of each other if that works out.
Okay. We’re going to get care packages. We got to be each other’s throats more often. You know that’s that’s that’s true. That’s true Tom.
You always make great great points. You’re a good man uh who could who could dislike you? Um, yeah, I know you have a shoot around to get to in the big Easy this morning. Um, need to get let you get get on your way.
I need to get Jeff let get on his way until next time. Were no quick predictions? No quick predictions. Oh, I’m sorry. we’ll do that.
Good good looking out, Tom. You’re a good colleague. I don’t I don’t I don’t like the lovey dovyiness of this podcast now. Well, the thing is the You remember that the the the uh the uh the rule of of Larry David’s rule for writing Seinfeld, no hugging, no learning.
We’re getting little too close to hugging and learning right now and Well, uh it’s all sarcastic. It’s all sarcastic. and also by the way the the predictions Tom, that if if you want to keep with it, that’s fine.
I consider them less and less relevant in the current You got it. scheme of things. they did not go 4 and0.
Jeff’s Jeff’s prediction last week of 4 and0 did not quite happen. I’ll give him a a pass because uh Victor Wembanyama wasn’t available.
I I will say we