Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
It's the Boomer and Geo podcast from WFAN. Hi, Boomer and Geo coming to you live from the Bill Ford Tough Studio on the fan and CBS Sports Network. If you call in at 888-828-1019, that's the Red Pocket Mobile fan line. It's brought to you by your new ultimate cell carrier, Red Pocket Mobile.
I just heard a new sponsor that was read by our great production guy, Paul R. Zuman, where he goes, do you have gold or silver laying around?
I'm like...
I wish I did.
Yeah, I know.
I'm Boomer Esaias. I mean. I sadly do not. I saw a guy once show me like a, I didn't know people still like had gold. Yeah. And I guess they don't, but there was a guy, a friend of mine who showed me once when he had a couple of drinks, he had a, he has like a real. Like a gold bar? Thick ass gold bar. Really? And I was like, wow, that's really cool.
I mean, it keeps it in a safe and everything, but I hope so. I mean, it was a big-ass gold bar. What do you do with it? Just look at it? I guess at some point you sell it to somebody to make some cash, and you wait as it grows and grows and grows in value, and then you strike while the iron's hot with the gold. I suppose so.
Like you had a strike with Bitcoin at $100,000.
Yes. Well, I got out at $75,000, unfortunately.
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Chapter 2: What solution does Mark Cuban propose for NBA tanking?
They didn't get any of them. Now they had all those five first-round picks, and they wound up with, you know, it seems like a good group, but... What is this season? That's two lost years in a row. It's a lot of lost years, but you get my point.
Sure, but they're still going to do it because they're going to play the percentages every time. So, I mean, no general manager or owner is like, you know, let's not tank because, you know, look at what happened to the Nets and the Mavericks went up to the top. They're always going to try to get the top percentages.
All right, so risk-reward, though, if you're the owner of a team like the Nets. You do that, why as a fan would you go to the games? You don't. Okay, then you don't get the top three pick. Then what? It blows up in your face.
Every single time. Yeah, I mean, it's not good. And these are decisions and the consequences you have to deal with. You know, when I heard Evan talking about this the other day, his idea was to have, you know, like a tournament and the teams at the bottom who win. You know, if they win, then you get the number one overall pick.
And then he said, well, you need to have an incentive for the players that are on those teams to play hard. And then he came up with, which made me laugh, he came up with, well, if the team that also wins the tank tournament, they also go to the playoffs. And I was like, what? It's like, what? First of all, those guys don't want to go to the playoffs.
I'll tell you right now, if they have no shot of winning the championship, they don't want to go to the playoffs. They want to go home. They want to go home. So then you think, all right, well, what is the thing that would get them more motivated to play at the end of a season when their season is in the toilet and that would be more money?
But here we go again with we got an NBA cup now where we got to dangle more money to get these guys to play in the regular season. Now we got to pay these NBA players that are making a gazillion dollars more money just to care at the end of a season to get their team to get a number one pick. It's impossible.
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Chapter 3: Why is tanking considered a problem in the NBA?
It sucks.
Anyway.
It really does suck on so many different levels. And it's just like you say, we're throwing more money and more money and more money at a sport that while, yes, I do agree, in April, May, and June, it's a blast. It is. It feels like, to me, like a dying regular season sport that not many people pay attention to. I mean, we get wrapped up in the Knicks for sure when they're playing well.
When they don't, we ignore it.
Yeah, I mean, it's basically what it is. Did anything happen in the game that could affect their postseason? Yeah. Get us to May. That's how I view these games. Is there something alarming that's going on that I can project to the postseason? There's something great that's going on I can project to the postseason. Is everybody healthy? Did somebody get hurt?
Those are the only things you look for in his regular season.
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Chapter 4: What factors are contributing to the current tanking trend?
You said something, I think it was Monday, maybe it was Tuesday, that was so spot on in terms of... watching and rooting for a team. When you're the up-and-coming team, you are so into the regular season. You're so into the development. You're so into seeing how far they can take it because you're really not expected to be a championship contender.
Then after a few years of that, and you get better and better and better, now it's not about that anymore. Now it's about you're one of the favorites to get to the NBA championship. We're talking about basketball in this case. And the regular season doesn't seem as fun. And it's almost like if they don't win, what the hell are they doing? Yeah, I mean, that is invested in it.
I mean, that's what the Yankee fans been dealing with for a very, very long time. I mean, not everybody is Chris McMoneagle, who loves every single game of the 162. No, a lot of people are just like, OK, and if you get to the playoffs and then you get out immediately in a three game series, it's like, what the hell? You've got to start over. You've got to start all over again.
Yeah, which is why when you have those opportunities like the Mets had, again, the Dodgers were better a couple of years ago. It's like, you were right there. The Yankees in the World Series against the Dodgers, you were right there. Last year with the Blue Jays, you're right there, and you just can't.
Do it. Yeah. I mean, this is why one of my favorite phrases is expectation is the thief of joy. It is. When you've got some expectations on you, then you're not paying attention to the happy things that are going on in your regular season. And, I mean, it applies to most sports, too.
I mean, if you just ā and I know that you have to have expectations, especially if you're a favorite in a certain situation. You want your team to be ā
But if you happen to have that team that no one expected to do anything, that overachieves, and the outcome in the end is always going to be okay because you made it further than anybody expected you to make it, those are more rewarding than losing in a Super Bowl or losing in a final series. Agreed.
There's also the aspect of this, too, that it is supposed to be entertainment. Because if not, then why have a season? Just get together, have a training camp, and have one giant NCAA tournament-like thing.
Because otherwise, what are you having people pay for? So this right here is the biggest point. Because... What happened, chicken or the egg? Did we only start caring about championships because the regular season sucked? Or did the regular season start sucking because the fans and the players only cared about championships? It's a great question. I don't know.
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Chapter 5: How do teams attempt to manage tanking strategies?
Right.
And I hate the argument, well, you know, when you go to a Broadway play, sometimes you see the under... Okay. This is supposed to be different than that. It's supposed to be sports. It's supposed to be real. And it's supposed to be not scripted. And when I pay a ticket, and you know what? If you're going to tell me tickets are $20, then do what you want. When you're charging me $140 a ticket...
At some point, you've got to give me a product that is worth what I just spent. For $4, I think $140, look at Knick tickets. It is expensive as hell. You're talking about $560 just to walk in the building to watch that game. You've got to give me something.
When St. John's was down there for a number of years, we used to go to a game a year.
Chapter 6: What are the potential solutions to stop tanking in the NBA?
I would choose the worst opponent at Carneseca. Because that was the most entertaining thing because I felt like they could win. And it was in that atmosphere. And then I would try to enjoy that and then not think about the rest of the season because I knew they weren't going anywhere the rest of the season. This is when they were down. Understood. For all those years.
So that's where you try to squeeze out the entertainment in it and going to a game. It's like, all right, what's the best situation where I can go and enjoy myself and not walk out of there miserable? Because that's the other thing, too.
I mean, when you're so wrapped up, and I used to be like this, and a lot of people still are, so wrapped up in the wins and losses, it's like you can't go to a game and then walk out of there happy when your team loses.
That is part of it. And then you throw travel into it. Like, I love a travel trip.
Yeah.
If you go there, let's say you go on a Mets travel trip and you go watch them like they had last year, I think, in Miami at the end. I think they got swept there. They lost two out of three, whatever it was. Imagine you pay all that money. You think you're going to get a couple of good wins. They wind up losing the first two games. They get knocked out of the playoffs. What was that for?
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