Los Angeles Falling Apart: Inside the Clippers' Historic Collapse and the Lakers' Shady Sale

Shot Clock Pod Sept 6 2026 === Jose: ​[00:00:00] All right, it's time to talk basketball. I'm Jose Salviati, editor at thePeachBasket.net. He is Steve Purciello, ~a longtime, uh...~ ~Or pardon me,~ host of Celtic Chalk Talk, ~then ~a longtime educator, vice principal, high school basketball coach, and athletic director. And this is the Shot Clock Pod. The Shot Clock Pod was born out of content in Steve's 13 Rules: Random NBA Thoughts articles, which he publishes weekly. Steve and I have exactly 24 minutes to discuss what's on his mind around the NBA. Today, we'll be discussing his latest 13 Rules: Random NBA Thoughts article, and it's the first time in all the time Steve and I have been doing this, when I am, let's say, sad to talk about the topics at hand. But on we go. Now, if you've gotten this far, we we just want to quick pause and thank you for listening, thank you for watching. We are part of an independent fan-driven show on the Peach Basket Podcast Network of shows. We're not owned by a big media company, which means what you hear comes straight from real fans who live the game every day, and I think it'll be real evident today. If you believe voices like this should be [00:01:00] heard, the best way to support us is simple. Keep listening, keep watching, comment, like, subscribe, tell a friend. As soon as this episode ends head over to the Peach Basket Podcast Network. Head over to thePeachBasket.net, check out more fan-run podcasts, and help this independent network grow the way it started, organically, one hoops fan at a time. We are grateful for the support. Thank you. All right. This week, Steve looks at the destruction of both La- Los Angeles NBA franchises. And, I use the term lightly for one, maybe appropriately for the other. We'll get into it in a minute. And then a chance for a former NBA star. We'll talk about that in a little bit more. Let me get my timer ready. Steve, are you ready? Steve: Let's go Jose: Let's do it. Clock is running. All right. Steve: Before, Jose: Los Angeles Clippers. Steve: Mention something. Talk about basketball players. If you follow the game like we do, you understand ownership is [00:02:00] everything. There are owners in the league who are living off the tax money they get back from keeping their salaries low. They don't really worry about winning. There's other owners that want to win. But when you really judge your team and your franchise, you look at ownership. And if ownership is strong about the winning, you will win. Look at the Lakers with Jerry Buss, who was all about winning. Get a star and win. This whole thing here, looking at ownership, which we are doing today, is all about that, and I hope fans can understand the importance of ownership involved in the whole process Jose: Yeah. And, we pride ourselves in being a basketball site, right? Not an NBA site. We wanna talk about all things basketball and including the business side of it. And a- as much as, it kinda hurts, certainly talk about the topics at hand today it's basketball, man. And everything starts, I think with the top, right? If you've [00:03:00] got, bad ownership sometimes and I think you can make an argument this happened in New York, sometimes, a blind squirrel finds a nut, right? But generally, when you've got poor ownership, it trickles down. Generally, you have great ownership at the top, but that trickles down. So it is important and it's obviously the, one of the biggest news items in, during this off-season, so we gotta talk about it. So yeah, Steve: Do Jose: good call out. Let's talk about it. The Los Angeles Clippers. Now a little... y- before we dive too deep into this, we've got a couple topics obviously on hand. But for those who don't know, I started out in basketball covering the Los Angeles Clippers for another site. So they, they got a, a soft spot in my heart. This is a team that obviously has never won anything. And, when they do, and they will at some point, not anytime soon, but one day they'll win, it'll be very sweet. But up until then it's just been a rollercoaster ride for this franchise and for fans of this franchise, and it just got demonstrably worse. You and I have chatted about the, the [00:04:00] possibility with the Clippers. I thought it was gonna be a big nothing. I sincerely thought that. I agreed with Mark Cuban, that Steve Ballmer wasn't that dumb. He wasn't gonna do this. But it looks like he did. Now they're pushing back the Clippers, and I think there's a lot of danger there, right? In terms of, are they gonna sue or are they gonna grind the NBA to a halt here? Keep in mind Steve Ballmer's the richest owner in the NBA. He's got a lot of resources. What's he gonna do? I don't think he's just gonna accept it and go away. I just don't. But anyway, let's get back to what you wrote. You wrote three things specifically about the Clippers. Number one, you said the, the penalties are warranted. And no argument from me if what they say happened. The penalties are warranted. You said the Clippers are in chaos. Undeniably, we talk about that. The worst part you said was the loss of the first round, the first five round-- the, the five first-round draft picks, which basically puts them in mediocrity for the next five years plus. And then the interesting part you said is fining [00:05:00] Kawhi $700,000. Let's take those in any order you want. There's lots to unpeel here. W- what's your take? Steve: Now let's talk about, let's talk about Ballmer. I looked at him as the modern owner and great and all that stuff. Jose: Yeah Steve: I have to think that he... Pe- when people have a lot of money, which I don't, but people have a lot of money, they think they're, they're sharper, they can get away with things and so on. And I really believe that might've been part of it. And this if you think about it this ruins the whole balance of the NBA. If he got away with something like that or his team got away with something like that, fr- free agents will be getting money, from all different sources through the team to sign with their team. So he couldn't get away with it. And that would be the first thing. The next thing is that the fines or whatever the NBA gave them. First of all, the 30 million he's gotta pay is going to pay [00:06:00] for the investigation basically, 'cause that's what they said it, it cost. losing five draft picks is the worst thing in the world because, A, you trade off draft picks, B, you build off draft picks. They don't have it. what free agent is gonna wanna go there? If Jose: Yeah Steve: when Minnesota got caught with Joe Smith, which was about 20 years ago, 20-something years ago, it ruined Kevin Garnett's career. But more importantly, they signed people like Ricky Davis. Ricky Davis played with Boston, played with a few teams. He wa- he was a, a very talented player, but he was a little known to be a little off, off beat, wasn't a great team player. This is the guy who threw up a shot... No I'm trying to remember what he did. He shot at the wrong basket to get the rebound so he'd get a Jose: To get a triple-double? Yeah, I remember that Steve: You, this is the players you're gonna get. You're not gonna get a quality guy because he's gonna... [00:07:00] Why is he gonna come there? They're not gonna win. Jose: Yeah. Steve: players, if they're free agents, they've been in the league long enough, they wanna start winning. So you're really hamstrung for a long time. After those five years it's gonna take a couple more years to get yourself together. So Jose: Right Steve: it really it that's just a horror show. The money Ballmer, 30, 30 million for Ballmer, that's like ashtray money, so that's not gonna hurt him. But that's gonna hurt the team. It's a horrible situation. How is it Jose: Yeah. Steve: LA with the people? What are they, the fans and all? Jose: Yeah. It's, it's-- They're hurt. They're hurt. Clipper fans, and you hear this from everybody who covers I think any NBA team, but I mean this sincerely, Clipper fans are great because they've been through so much and they love their team, like unconditional love for this team, and they're constantly defending them. They can take a punch because they've been punched a lot. But right now [00:08:00] they're not defending this team. Clipper fans are mad. Clipper fans are mad at Ballmer. They're mad at Lawrence Frank. They're mad at Kawhi. They're just... Right now it's deer in the headlights. They're still trying to process it. The team that, they spend money on, the team that they defend, the team that they love is just gonna be a non-entity for the next five maybe the next decade. Like you said, after the five years are up, they still gotta rebuild after that. What do you do with that if you're a fan? So there's hurt Steve: What do the fans want? Jose: It depends who you ask, but the most amazing take I, I have seen and there's quite a few likes and comments on this, I think, I believe it was on X/Twitter. Somebody said the only way out is for Ballmer to sell, right? 'Cause right now, Steve Ballmer, who came in on a white horse and changed everything, there was so much optimism and it was warranted. He just was-- seemed to be doing everything right. There's a stink there now. And it's not [00:09:00] unlike what happened... it's a little different, but y-you'll see the analogy here. With Arte Moreno, when he came in and bought the Los Angeles La- Angels, he came in on a white horse. He brought in some, some free agents. He was spending money, and they were all mostly busts. Steve: Yeah Jose: but he made his effort. He lowered the price of beer, which endeared him to fans here. But then absolutely nothing. There's a stink. And then when he f- when he sold, there was, there was-- there's a party. I just-- I can't imagine, Ballmer selling, but I understand the thought process, right? If we're gonna reset, let's reset. New ownership, get rid of everybody. Let's rename the team. Let's just start over. So there is a th-th-there's a group of folks here that are just ready for a hard reset Steve: I also wonder what a guy like Ty Lue will do, because he's a good coach. Does he want to... I don't know how many years he's got on his contract, but does he wanna just [00:10:00] go through this or will he ask the Clippers, "Just let me go." "I don't want my... let me find a new team." will be interesting because-- And I don't know if he's a good coach for that situation. I think you wanna bring in somebody young can, handle getting beat because in two, three years not gonna be real good. And you're gonna have a tough time with that. So Jose: yeah, it's a good point. It's a good point Steve: yeah, and before you even... Like the Clippers don't-- I know Ballmer's fighting or he's mad about it and he's trying to... he's gotta put a management team in place before he even, you know-- Because now they're cast adrift. In fact, that, that trade it really hasn't gone through for Ingram. It's being, it should go through soon, the Kawhi-Ingram. And while on the subject of Kawhi, let, let's discuss that. do you think about the Kawhi situation? I have a lot of thoughts, but I wanna hear yours first[00:11:00] Jose: Well, give me a more direct question. In what sense Steve: in, in this whole mess, in this whole thing, Jose: Yeah Steve: put Kawhi? Jose: Ay-yay-yay. We talked a, about it a little bit, before we started. Before I dive in Tai Lue is signed through '28, '29 season. He's not gonna make it that long. Steve: No Jose: but yeah, Kawhi, y- yeah, he's denying any knowledge. He's let go of his uncle. He's not a part of, his management company anymore or anything. And obviously he got a slap on the wrist $700,000. I, I... Man, I don't know. It's like you you wanna believe these guys, you wanna take them at face value, but then you've gotta ask yourself: how did you not know? How did you not know? In everything that I've read, the, the demands that were made of the Clippers were also made to the Lakers, were also made to the Raptors. And these teams, apparently, allegedly, were smart enough to say we're not gonna [00:12:00] do that. We're not gonna entertain that." The Clippers said, "Ah let's talk it through." So if this is something that is basically etched in stone, this is what it's gonna take to get me to play for you, the Raptors, Lakers, Clippers. Because if it's a one-off and it was only the Clippers, then you can make the argument, "Hey, listen, the uncle was working on his own. I had no idea." But this is something that apparently was boilerplate stuff that every team was getting that had entertained a Kawhi Leonard contract. So I just... I, he had to have known, and y- we talked about a stink on Bomber. There's a stink on Kawhi, man. And his fall from grace, a- again, we talked about this a little bit before, but think about 2018, 2019. This guy was the, one of the best players in basketball, king of the hill, owns a country, Charles Barkley said when he won in Toronto. He was at the top of the heap. And going into 2020 with the with the Clippers, he had an opportunity to be the first player to ever in the history of the NBA win three championships with [00:13:00] three different teams. Had an opportunity. The Clippers were good. We forget that. They could have won. They probably should have won, but the, the bubble dismantled them, and he didn't get that. He was at the very top of the NBA heap, and since then it's just been a dramatic fall from grace. I have a hard time believing he didn't know. That's my take. Steve, what do you got? Steve: he looks at his bank account, he must have realized, where did that money come from? So I would think he Jose: Oh, sure. Sure Steve: And the problem I have, and I have a lot of problems with Kawhi on this, one of the problems is if you're a basketball fan, we're not naive, but you wanna believe if you root for the Clippers, you wanna believe Kawhi likes being there. Then when you start seeing that and you see he's a mercenary, that takes away that feeling that these players really want to embrace the city they play in. No. They're looking for the bank account. And I understand that. You- that's a living. as a fan, you're rooting for the [00:14:00] laundry. And if you're rooting for the laundry, you wanna believe that these people belong in that, with that laundry. And, it doesn't say it. Now, as for Kawhi, and I'll say this, I know he's won a couple titles. You win with quality people. question I'll ask you, does it sound like he's a qual- I know he's won 'em, but does he sound like a quality person right now? Jose: Yeah. No Steve: I wouldn't get in bed with him, boy. I, as a player, I wouldn't bring him into my team because I'm finished. This guy it's about him. And it's really sad. if I remember when they tried to re-sign him, he talked about he didn't like the weather and different things, now all of a sudden the weather's pretty good, huh? So let's, let's examine this. You had a lot of choices back then. Now they're getting smaller. They're getting a lot smaller. And Toronto's selling their soul on a memory of seven years ago. They're not selling their soul on what he can do right now. So I just... I- it's it's [00:15:00] really wild, but nobody is blaming him. And the piece... and I wrote about this, that Kawhi, he's not getting fined heavily, $700,000. Again, that's ashtray money for him. But he's not getting fined heavily because if the league goes after him, it opens up arbitration and opens up the whole thing, and Bomber could get, could get away with something or beat the league. So they're gonna let him lie. But if I'm a, if I'm the Toronto Raptors, am I gonna re-sign him after this year? Not for 40 million, not at all. You're crazy. And plus, what are you gonna get? You're lucky if you have a good time, he'll get 60 games. You're gonna get 40 or 50 games out of him. Jose: Right Steve: just the whole thing. And also it makes you start wondering, did he really wanna play or was he happy playing 40, 50 games a year and getting his money? So that, that's my thoughts. But he's no angel, and he's in the middle of this Jose: [00:16:00] Yeah. Yeah. And listen, I'm not gonna defend. This is undefensible, indefensible. Clipper fans, sincerely I feel your pain, and I'm so sorry that y'all are going through this. You all are a great fan base. I have nothing but respect for Clipper fans, and I'm just sorry that y'all are going through this, sincerely. Steve: Yeah. It's terrible. It's Jose: Yeah Steve: It's just a horrible thing. You're disillusioned. They were disillusioned 10 Jose: That's the word. Steve: the Jose: Yeah Steve: with Sterling now, or 11 years ago, whatever it was, but now they're disillusioned again. It's terrible Jose: Disillusionment I think is the hashtag for every Clipper fan y- across the board. It just is what it is. A- and before we move on to the next one I'll finish with this 'cause y- you had kinda talked about it. Right now, the Clippers are rudderless, and so I think that's a big part of why we're not hearing anything from them. Clipper fans here are very... A- and again, for those who don't know I'm LA-based. Steve is in the East Coast. P- Clipper fans are very upset that the Lake-- pardon me, the Clippers have not come out to [00:17:00] say anything about this, apologize. T- generally at le- at the very least season ticket holders are gonna get, conduit of information that the rest of us don't get. Nothing. It's been crickets, and I think Steve's point's well taken. Right now Clippers are in disarray, like a bomb went off. So there's nothing going on but Clipper fans are hurt, and again, I absolutely feel that pain. I wish now I could say, "Let's pivot. Let's talk about Denver. Let's talk about Oklahoma City," but we're staying in LA, man 'cause there's some weirdness with the Lakers as well. Pablo Torre, who basically started the whole thing with the Clippers, has now shifted focus. It's not in your article, but you certainly implied, right? And he's calling out Mark Walters for some shady dealings. It- the Lakers right now are certainly looking good when you compare them to their neighbor, the Clippers, but they're in a bit of a mess as well, right? They got flipped like a r- hit second-hand, [00:18:00] run-down house which is super weird. And then all of a sudden in, in this conversation, they've got Jeanie Buss, who was promised, o- team president position for a while. She doesn't wanna give that up. There's a lot of weirdness going on in LA. And of course, and you alluded to it in your article here, the rumor is that Walters sold because he's being investigated for tax fraud. Walter, rather. Oh, and the, the other thing you said about this was, and I thought this was very interesting, Jeanie Buss and the Buss family represents an outgoing model in, in the NBA that we'll probably never see again. What model is that and what do you make of the Lakers' drama? Steve: The Clippers were-- the Clippers, the Lakers were an interesting thing. When the Buss family owned it, really ran a skeleton operation. Infrastructure was not good. By infrastructure, scouting and analytics and all the other th- where most teams have. The, the [00:19:00] Lakers didn't do that because th-they were mom and pop, and they're making money off the team. They didn't Jose: Right Steve: mortgage business or some other thing. They were so different in that way. Now, Walter came in, spent a lot of money to buy them, and he began to improve it, which makes you realize if he's making improvements, something happened where he's gotta get rid of it. So it makes put two and two together and say he was there for the long haul, but now he's not." And by the way, Magic Johnson might be implicated in this whole Jose: Yeah. Steve: Yeah, which is really... that's horrible. But, y-you start to wonder. Now, he sells it for a lot of money, twel- 12 billion or whatever it is, which, that's fine. But what it does is it really makes you begin to wonder. You don't buy something like the Lakers and in one year get rid of them, especially this guy who owns the Dodgers. Y-you don't... and other teams, but you don't do that. Jose: Yeah Steve: makes you wonder what's going on. Now, when we talk about the Buss family mom and [00:20:00] pop, Dad had a bunch of group of kids or a bunch of kids, and all they were doing is fighting each other, it's really a shame. It's really a shame. I don't know whose fault it is. I don't know what the problem is. But the beauty of the Lakers was this, Jerry Buss was brilliant. He did a tr-tremendous job. He made a the Lakers with the run-and-gun in the '80s and the way they played and Pat Riley, the whole thing. That was the talk of the league. And, gone. And Buss, because he didn't put a lot of money into infrastructure, nor did his daughter, he always lived on the fact you get the best player. was the modern best player, but he Jose: Sure Steve: to get the best player to make the franchise. That's over, and you're never gonna see an owner come in and rely on the team to make his money. They, from this point forward, every guy that buys, you read about putting together a group, and they've all, from various areas, made bundles of [00:21:00] money, and they have a business to worry about. that's the shame of it, and the NBA has become gigantic, not big, gigantic business Jose: Yeah. Y- and th- the Lakers owe the Clippers a, a debt of gratitude because if what happened, what's happening with the Clippers right now isn't happening, this is the biggest news in the entire NBA. But this is really being swept under the rug a little bit because there's a much bigger story, literally down the hall. Steve: Right Jose: but this is a big deal. And you mentioned Magic Johnson. I, I listened to Pablo Torre. I read the accusations. I cannot make sense of them. It sounds like Mark Walter borrowed money from one business that he owned to fund another business that he owned, and then he gave Magic some kickbacks. I honestly can't make sense of it. But it, at the end, at least what I'm hearing is that there is the possibility this is just illegal enough. There, there could be prison time. This is a big [00:22:00] deal. And we saw what happened with the Clippers from the time that we first heard about it until the time that, the bomb went off. It was a very long time. It wasn't quite a year, but I think it was maybe about eight, 10 months or so. So I think right now the Lakers are on a, bit of a ticking clock right now. They've gotta figure out what's going on. And I don't know how this is gonna end, but it doesn't look good. And I'm just talking about the sell, and m- whatever Mark Walter did to buy the team. I'm not even talking about Jeanie Buss and the lawsuit she has with her brothers and her sisters to maintain ownership. So LA is in disarray right now, man, and I... it's a bummer Steve: the irony of this, and there's an irony here, the NBA thrives on big markets. Your second biggest market, both teams a mess. The NBA can't be happy about that situation Again, ratings with TV and everything else come when bigger market teams are playing.[00:23:00] Jose: Yeah Steve: who are you gonna show from LA? think there's gonna be many Clipper games on national TV next year. There Jose: Any, Steve: did the schedule. But, and now the Lakers, the Lakers are... you got Luka and that'll draw people and interest. It's a bad situation Jose: A- and I can't think of a more appropriate way to end this very depressing show. It's just a bad situation. It's the first time in the history of of the Shot Clock Pod, I think, that we really didn't talk basketball. We had topics, right? We wanna talk about Amen Thompson and his contract and why he may need to burn it, right? And then about Ben Simmons getting another shot. Tell you what let's do this rapid fire 'cause the shot clock did go off and but, we've got we got a little bit of leeway. It's our show. We can do whatever we want. We don't wanna go an hour though. So let's do rapid fire as best we can. Great contract. Amen Thompson, you called him out. Great defender. You said second to Wemby. I... And it's [00:24:00] funny, as I was reading your article, I guess 'cause I just w- I just got done reading about Kawhi, this guy is kinda Kawhi-ish, right? In that he's a great defender. He's just gotta up his offensive game, and that's what you called out. You said, "Listen, he's getting paid star money. He's gotta get better at what?" Steve: He, what is he, two, 22% or 23% career shooter from three? You've gotta do it all if you're making that money, and he's not. And there's a lot of great defensive players. He's one of... He's-- I, I think he's second best. But guys don't make 40 million. So he's got... He did average 18 points a game last year, but that's mostly getting into the paint and scoring in there. If you're playing against him, are you doing? You're not guarding him when he's out on the three-point line. Jose: Yeah. Steve: us. Make some shots. And so it's gotta get better, otherwise people will look at that as that's a lot of money." And by the way, his salary is 22% of the overall cap. [00:25:00] Now you got Sengun, who's probably about 25%, you got Durant, and you got VanVleet. You're in the tax and, as you-- they have some young talent, Smith and so on. It's, you just can't throw money around like that, otherwise in a couple years they'll be trading everybody Jose: Yeah. Yeah. And we've talked a lot about the, the tough job GMs have in managing all that money and making sure that you, y- you, it's appropriate, appropriately assigned. This might be a little bit of a of an overpay, and we're hearing that a lot. Walker Kessler with the Lakers, a lot of folks are getting probably a little bit more money than, than they should. Let's pivot real quick to Ben Simmons. This is a player who was also in the top of the NBA world. We talked, we were talking about Kawhi earlier, and y- an incredible fall from grace. Thankfully for Ben, it had nothing to do with bad contracts or illegalities. He just, he lost his basketball skills. He's like a modern-day Monstars in Space [00:26:00] Jam, right? He just gotta touch that, that glowing basketball. What do you see for him? He signed for Sacramento. Is there any, any possibility he comes out of this okay? Steve: I think it all went out the window when Doc Rivers said he didn't know if he could, do what he, Jose: Lead a team and Steve: Win a championship. I think it all went out the window. I think it's very apparent he doesn't wanna shoot foul shots at the end of games. He doesn't wanna go to the line. He does- so he backs off in certain parts of his game. That's all very apparent. The thing I'll say to you is, to be a star in the NBA, it's sorta like being a relief pitcher in baseball. You can't get upset if you fail. He does. You gotta get rid of the thin skin, and there's one more piece to it. Is he playing the game for the money? You-- There's not many jobs out there that'll pay him 3 million. Or is he playing the game because he loves the game? If you're going to be a star, you gotta love the game, too. So are things, y- you [00:27:00] can't be thin-skinned. Every-- Nobody likes to be picked on, nobody likes to be told they're not good, but you gotta handle it. handle it, and you gotta move on. I don't know if he can handle that. So what's gonna happen if he's in a, a game with the Kings in the fourth quarter with two minutes left? Is he gonna take the ball to the basket? I don't think so. And so you're taking this talent, and he's not, because he's worried that he's gonna miss a foul shot and cost his team a game. So I'd love to see him come back, 'cause I thought he was very good player, an all-star, Until everything fell apart. But he's gonna have to be, he's gonna have to have a, a mentally change his ways or his attitude Jose: Yeah. Yeah and not anything that came up here, but given more time, I would love to talk about how, what a weird signing this is for the Kings. The Kings are turning into the NBA equivalent of y- the old Oakland Raiders with they'll just bring on anybody, reclamation project. I don't-- I'm not building a team to win, I'm just building a team. It's just weird to me. I [00:28:00] would've liked to seen Ben Simmons end up somewhere else. I think he'll get a lot of time, he'll get his chances. Let's just see what he does with them Steve: I think he was brought there to I think there's a concern that they're only gonna win 25, 30 games, Jose: Sure Steve: there might be a curiosity Ben. That's what Russell Jose: Yeah. Steve: It's a distraction and a curiosity that maybe people will go to the games because that franchise is the modern-day Clippers. They're being run right into the ground and it's a shame because the fans are good and, they're into their team. Jose: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah Steve: So it really is a shame. And they go through management like, like I, I drink water or whatever. They just... There's a, Scott Perry, I think is the GM now, but, he just came in about a year ago. He'll be gone soon. And probably going back to what we started with ownership, that's a situation where the owner wants to run the team he don't [00:29:00] know what the hell he's doing Jose: Yep. There we go. All right. Perfectly going all the way back to where we started. Well done. Well done. Steve: Symmetry Jose: done. And, one quick shout-out. You mentioned Russell. Russell Westbrook has retired. We never talked about it, so congratulations on a phenomenal career and sincerely, I enjoyed watching him play. He was a special kind of player. But that's it. Our time is up. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. Make sure to read Steve's entire 13 Rules of Random NBA Thoughts article. We will link it wherever you are watching or listening to this today to get all of his thoughts on everything we've discussed and more. And of course, join us next week when we once again review his 13 Rules of Random NBA Thoughts article. We'll talk then. Thanks, Steve. Steve: Take care