24 DEC 2020 · Just in time for the start of the season, The Athletic’s Jared Weiss broke down the most striking storylines around the Eastern Conference with an emphasis on the Boston Celtics, whom he covers so closely. Among a slew of timely topics, Jared discusses his favorites to emerge out of the East, Jayson Tatum’s next expected leap, how good the Heat actually are and the new-and-improved Atlanta Hawks who seek to get back into the playoffs after a three-season absence. *Due to dynamic advertising, time stamps may vary - 5:14-5:40: “I think it was Ryan Ruocco. I’ll give him credit for putting them as…they’re basically like the Death Star. And the Death Star very famously had a major vulnerability that allowed you to blow it up. And so if somebody can nestle right in there between Kyrie and KD and make the chemistry fall apart, this team can really, really fall apart . But they’ve got a giant frickin’ laser beam basically when it comes to KD and Kyrie.” 21:51-22:20: “The big thing for him (Jayson Tatum) this year is now that he’s the big star, everybody knows it. The amount of attention he’s gonna get, the matchups he’s gonna get, the coverages that he’s gonna get, he’s gonna be getting a lot of traps, a lot of blitzes and double-teams, he’s gotta be able to handle it. He’s gotta be able to handle that defenders, that they know that the spotlight’s on them when they’re covering him, and they’re gonna be showing up with their A-game, and they’re gonna be playing way harder on him than they were playing last year. He’s gotta be ready for that.” 35:52-36:25: “If they’re starting John Collins and they’re starting one of the wings that they signed this offseason, then their defense is in critical condition because obviously Trae (Young) is a turnstile and then who do you put at the 2? … There’s not really a correct answer for their starting lineup. Their starting lineup’s always gonna have some sort of defensive compromise, pretty much.”

18 DEC 2020 · Sekou Smith of NBA TV, NBA.com and the Hang Time Podcast returns to the show to survey the ultra-competitive West, a conference replete with fascinating storylines ahead of the season’s start. For instance, should the Lakers be considered heavy favorites, what’s going on in Houston, which teams are best primed to squeeze into the postseason and what can we expect from the Warriors following a lost '19-20 season? Sekou tackles all these Western Conference questions and more, plus he offers a bonus Giannis extension reaction and Aaron delivers a Spurs-themed Sexy Stats segment coming out of the break. *Due to dynamic advertising, time stamps may vary - 8:09-8:38: “To me, there’s a built in advantage for (head coach) T(yronn) Lue in familiarity that wouldn’t have been there otherwise. He’s the kind of human being – knowing him as well as I do – and kind of coach who’s going to be extremely beneficial to the Clippers as an organization. You’re talking about a guy who’s had experience with the pressures that come with a win-or-else proposition like he had with LeBron.” 12:16-12:53: “They’ve changed the expectation for themselves in the postseason, which if you’ve built the way that they have – which I think is some of the best front-office work, roster building, player development we’ve seen in the past few years – then you’re right where you want to be. You’re in that conversation among the best teams in the Western Conference. You have young stars who are entering into their primes. You have even younger potential stars, like Michael Porter. Jr. – Bol Bol being an even bigger reach but certainly with an upside that is really incomparable when you think about his size and skill set.” 20:44-21:16: “Houston is such a difficult team to evaluate because we don’t know, is this the team they’re gonna carry throughout the season, is this the team that’s put together now with James (Harden) bought in or is James committed wholeheartedly at all to sticking around? When you strip all that away, if you start moving pieces and changing things up, then, to me, they fall out of the conversation of teams that are trying to make the playoffs.” 32:44-33:17: “I want to see him (Zion Williamson) play 30 minutes a night, just to see if he can sustain what we saw in glimpses during an injury-filled rookie season. He’s a mind-boggling talent when you look at his combination of size, heft and skill. And to me, that is the beauty of NBA seasons and the NBA in general, just watching talent evolve and seeing if it can reach its potential in a given situation.”

14 DEC 2020 · Longtime journalist Melissa Isaacson, who spent years reporting at the Chicago Tribune and ESPN, among other outlets, appears On the NBA Beat for a discussion devoted to her third book, “State: A Team, a Triumph, a Transformation.” It’s an intensely personal tale documenting her and her team’s four years as bona fide high school basketball pioneers that culminated in a state title. Join Missy as she details the inspiring journey. *Due to dynamic advertising, time stamps may vary: 9:14-10:17 - “I think that we’ve had our days of incremental progress. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with demanding change. … In the same ways that getting a uniform was a huge step and playing in the boys’ gym was a huge step, and we were patient and we did take each victory as the big thing that it was, I don’t know that patience is something that we should have (today). Not to get all political, but we’ve been waiting for the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) to pass for some time now, and patience hasn’t done us any good.” 15:42-16:10 - “I walked out into this bitterly, bitterly cold, cold, cold night back to the car with my friend Connie, and she said, ‘Miss, you’ve gotta tell our story.’ And it just hit me that I did. And it wasn’t mine to tell. It was our story to tell, but I was gonna be the one to have to tell it. And it was gonna be quite an undertaking, a responsibility, but I knew at that point that I had to tell the story.” 28:54-30:26 - “It was her (Arlene Mulder’s) idea to stay away from us senior year because she wanted the new coach to bond with us. And then we won, and she got no credit, no thank you, no nothing, while the new coach got hallways and streets and awards named after him and was in the Hall of Fame and all these things. ...It took the reporting in the book to find out how unselfish she really was and how much a part of our victory she really was. … This is a woman that was really the heroine of the book, without question." 41:13-41:42 - “Books about girls are not generally put in the hands of boys. And so while I don’t in any way think this is a girls’ book – and I don’t – it’s probably not one that a lot of boys would naturally gravitate to unless they’re told to, and then I think they would find a lot of common themes and some inspiring themes to our story. So that’s the greatest thing that I heard.” 45:51-46:51 - “You really do remember the…holding up of the trophy in the middle of Assembly Hall in a court that we could never, ever, ever envision in our lives being allowed to stand on, much less play on. … I remember it vividly, and all just looking at each other, and we didn’t say one word. We just looked at each other and smiled, and it was like, ‘Damn, this is really just unbelievable. Who would have ever thought? We are gonna remember this the rest of our lives.’ You know what? We did! I did! I do!”

17 NOV 2020 · Javier Pesquera, roving NBA draft analyst and occasional consultant for The Stepien, returns to break down the fast-approaching 2020 draft. Then, after the break, Agu Ibañez Baldor stops by to discuss his book, “Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Teams in NBA History.” *Due to dynamic advertising, time stamps may vary: Javier Pesquera at 7:28-7:39: “At No. 1, I do have LaMelo Ball in his own tier by himself, and I think LaMelo Ball is gonna go No. 1 unless Minnesota actually finds a trade that they like, which I don’t think is happening at this point.” 12:25-12:42 (JP): “I think there are a lot of doubters as well. I do like him [Obi Toppin]. He has as much potential as anybody in this class, and that’s related to his physical tools. … The comparison to Amar’e Stoudemire pops in your head right away because of the way he leaps off the floor and the way he finishes in transition. He has that type of ability.” 23:49-24:14 (JP): “I guess if Golden State surprises the world and takes somebody else other than [James] Wiseman or [Anthony] Edwards, that would also change things quite a bit. I don’t expect any trades in the top 10. I think the only one that could happen and it’s, more or less, the most possible one is if Charlotte actually trades up with Golden State and they give some sort of minor asset to secure themselves selecting Wiseman No. 2 instead of risking Golden State taking him.” Agu Ibañez-Baldor at 34:38-34:48: “I just wrote it the way I talk, honestly. I’m a bit sarcastic. I’m a bit opinionated. I’m a bit mean, but in a let’s get along kind of way.” 38:01-38:21 (AIB): “I think my favorite’s Pat Riley though. Pat Riley’s just an assassin. He’s a basketball assassin. He takes teams to the highest level and makes them win every single time. Even with the Knicks, he’s probably had the most competitive and successful rosters and teams since their championship days in the ‘70s.” 48:22-48:36 (AIB): “I put them [the Nuggets] down specifically because both [Nikola] Jokic and [Jamal] Murray recently signed long-term max contracts, so they have their two best players for the next five or six years locked down. And for that I think they have a very good chance, just for that continuity.”

9 NOV 2020 · Author Paul Knepper takes us back to the 1990s, a time when the New York Knicks, led by Patrick Ewing, perennially made the playoffs and once came within a game of winning it all. Boasting a bruising, physical style that's long since disappeared from the league, these Knicks are remembered fondly by New Yorkers who pine for a respectable basketball team (the Nets obviously don't count for Knicks fans) again. In "The Knicks of the Nineties: Ewing, Oakley, Starks and the Brawlers That Almost Won It All," Paul adeptly tells the story of these Knicks, and lucky for us, he's here to provide the highlights of the narrative. *Due to dynamic advertising, time stamps may vary: 6:17-6:53: “You get so immersed in this topic. It’s like writing a dissertation. It’s all I thought about for a couple years, and I’m just so heavily involved in [it]. So there’s these little nuggets of information or details that I pick up that I find really fascinating maybe, but I have to question: Is someone who’s not immersed in this topic like I am, are they going to find this stuff interesting, these little details? And these little details, can I make them work within the flow of the book?” 18:17-18:59: “If you give me a choice between talking to Patrick Ewing – especially Patrick Ewing, who’s very guarded – and talking to five to 10 people who knew Patrick Ewing well about Patrick Ewing, I’ll take the five to 10 people any day. I think they offer different perspectives. I think they are probably more honest than Patrick might be. I just think they see him in a different light. … So you start to paint the picture through all those different sources.” 22:23-23:21: “There seemed to be greater intensity, and I think the physicality contributed to that. Every time down the floor, every possession felt like a battle, so that’s one. I also think there was more player continuity then. Certainly among stars, but even in general, the contracts are shorter now, so teams aren’t together for quite as long. … Patrick and the Knicks played Jordan and the Bulls in the playoffs five times from the late ‘80s to the mid-‘90s, they played the Heat four years in a row in the playoffs, they played the Pacers six times from ’93 to 2000. And it was the same guys. Reggie Miller was with Indiana the whole time. Patrick was with New York the whole time. Through the whole decade, you had less player movement.” 24:56-26:06: “It’s been brutal, and [Knicks executive James] Dolan gets a lot of the blame for it, and I believe deservedly. I think he’s been a big source of the problem. But I do believe it can turn, and I think it can turn quickly. It happens. Teams that have been really bad for a really long time, you get the right people in place and you get a little bit of luck, and all of a sudden you’re a great team…I would just say that things can turn around relatively quickly even when it feels like it’s been bad forever.” 30:30-31:29: “I think Patrick gets a bad rap. People say he couldn’t get them over the hump, and he couldn’t beat [Michael] Jordan, and he lost to [Hakeem] Olajuwon in the Finals. And all those things are true. But nobody could beat Jordan then, and Olajuwon is, I think, at least top 15, possibly top 10 player ever. He was magnificent. And the other thing is look at his career, look at his teammates. He never played with another Hall of Fame player. … You typically need another great player, a Robin to your Batman to win it all, and Patrick never had that.”

22 SEP 2020 · Thanks to Anthony Davis' buzzer-beating 3, the Los Angeles Lakers narrowly escaped with a Game 2 win Sunday night to extend their series lead over the Denver Nuggets to 2-0. Just as the plot begins to thicken, Harrison Faigen of SB Nation's Silver Screen and Roll and Katy Winge of Altitude TV and Altitude Sports Radio join the show to discuss the series' most noteworthy and fascinating storylines. Harrison marvels at how seamlessly Davis and James' games have blended together, opines on the so-called #WashedKing, explains why Alex Caruso is a remora fish, and details the team's many defensive strengths, among other topics. For Katy's part, she illuminates Denver's impressive ability to roar back from large and late deficits again and again. She also breaks down how the Nuggets can realistically make this a series again. *Due to dynamic advertising, time stamps may vary: Faigen (29:50-30:09): “It’s almost Jordanesque in the way that they look for perceived slights, and I think honestly they’ve gotten a lot of them. They heard all the chatter before the Blazers series. ‘Oh, the Lakers don’t want to play this Blazers team. They’re really dangerous.’ And then they went out and stomped them. And then ‘Oh, the Rockets. I don’t know if the Lakers can keep up with them.’ And then went out and stomped them, too.” Winge (39:43-40:15): “This team has the mental toughness and the fortitude of no other team I’ve ever been around. And I think each guy just has this chip on his shoulder individually and as a member of the Nuggets team. And even head coach Michael Malone takes on that type of mentality as well, so you can see that kind of bleeding into his players and into the franchise. And it’s something that they’ve leaned into, especially when they’ve been on the stage during the playoffs and have gotten more attention than they’re used to. But they’ve been asking for respect for the last couple years.” KW (57:45-57:48): “This team just never dies. They never quit.”

8 SEP 2020 · With the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers tied at one win apiece, Rockets reporter Salman Ali lends his insight and analysis about the intriguing matchup that’s only just begun. A General NBA writer for Clutch Points, Salman also covers the Rockets for the Red Nation Hoops Podcast, ESPN’s Houston-based FM station, and his own new Substack newsletter called “State of the Rockets.” In the series, he argues, two styles are pitted against each other: Big Ball vs. Micro Ball. Which does he believe will prevail? Tune in to find out.

17 MAY 2020 · Melissa Isaacson, former sports reporter for the Chicago Tribune, relives covering the historically dominant Bulls teams of the early 1990s, as she breaks down The Last Dance, the popular docuseries in which she appears. She also discusses her latest book, State: A Team, a Triumph, A Transformation. Time stamps may vary due to dynamic advertising: 4:25 - 5:40: "Over the years, he [Michael Jordan] really has been sort of portrayed as this egomaniac, and he's kind of helped along with that narrative. His Hall of Fame speech was taken in a way that I was sort of really shocked by. I actually really liked his Hall of Fame speech. It sounded to a lot of people like he was being selfish. … Hopefully the audience will see through the docuseries, those who maybe had one opinion of him, that the competitive side of him is crazy. No question. It's on a level that...is not even close [to most people] – it’s not a stereotype – but that is exactly what makes him who he is, what makes him as great as he is. So there's gonna be some eccentric qualities, but I would never ever call him an egomaniac, and I wouldn't call him a mean person regardless of some of the scraps we've seen him get into with his teammates.” 9:43 – 10:44: "They [Bulls players] were all just really sensitive to me being pregnant. I have a lot of stories and a lot of memories of...guys interacting with me, Michael patting my stomach before he ran on the court every game when he came back [from his first retirement]. He'd look for me and pat my stomach for luck, I guess. Ordinarily you might be a little put off or uncomfortable, but, again, this is Michael Jordan. … It was just a magical, magical time. I felt blessed. I still feel blessed. A lot of people have asked, 'Were you aware of how great it was?' Oftentimes, it takes many years to look back and fully appreciate things. I fully appreciated it, I did, because it was clear that he was the best player in the world." 25:56 - 26:26: “I think they [the filmmakers] were given this opportunity, and they were given this unbelievable amount of footage and so either you do it or you don't. They had to have the permission of Michael and the NBA. I'm glad it's out there, and you can argue if you want about every journalistic standard – was it adhered to? I feel it's a fair portrayal as someone who was there. I feel like it's been a very authentic and accurate portrayal." 35:04 - 37:09 "As empowered as we were and as inspiring as I think our story was, I like to say, If you would have said to us 40 years ago while we were 17, 18-year-old girls that in 40 years you're gonna have hundreds of thousands of men, women and children fill up soccer stadiums and cheer for a women's team, what would you say? We'd be like, 'Well, yeah, of course. Are you kidding? We're gonna have a woman president, we're gonna have women GMs, we're gonna have women coaches, I'm gonna be the owner of the Bulls’... We would've thought anything was possible because of how far we had come in just that decade. And so then if you would have said to us, 'OK, but those hundreds of thousands of fans will also be chanting for equal pay for those same women athletes,’ we would have been devastated. … We have not 'come a long way, baby'... Overall, it's really a letdown to think of all the…especially women older than us that really paved the way who will die probably without seeing so many of the things they fought for." Check out Melissa's piece on her most poignant memories on the Bulls beat (http://www.melissaisaacson.com/bulls-blog/), which was referenced early in the interview.

11 MAY 2020 · SB Nation's Silver Screen & Roll writer and editor-in-chief Harrison Faigen discusses the present state of the Los Angeles Lakers as uncertainty swirls around a potential NBA return this season. 7:56-9:03: "The only way to change this (mental health stigma) and have people be more comfortable talking about it is to have more people talk about it openly and have it not be that big of a deal. And so I want it to not be a big deal when I talk about being afraid to go outside or being afraid to go back to work. These are things we all feel on some level or another...We're all feeling that, and everyone who's struggling should be able to talk about that. One of the most insidious things, at least with my own mental illness, was it made me feel like I was weird and that there was something wrong with me and that you shouldn't talk about it because other people aren't going to be able to relate. What I've found through talking to other people...and the overwhelming feedback to the piece was that there a lot of other people going through these same things, and that appreciated that I was willing to talk about it.” 14:18-15:38: "Nobody was seriously thinking that LeBron (James) was washed (up), but there were more doubts about him going into this season than there probably ever have been...He's mostly been a really important part of the Lakers defense, he's been basically their sole competent ball handler on offense, and for him to be doing that at 35 with the workload that he needs to take on and not really load-managing...I think it's probably as good of a 35-year-old season as anyone's ever had." 20:49-22:17: "I'll put my hand up and fully admit that I was skeptical when the Lakers brought him back like I think almost everyone was. It was kinda like (Dion) Waiters, where you could look on paper at the fit and be like, ‘Yeah, they do need another big man. They need a guy who can take some center minutes.’ ... At the same time, we've been saying Dwight could be that guy for his last eight seasons in the league basically, and he just has never wanted to do those things or showed prolonged commitment to doing those things...Bottom line: I think he knew this was his last shot. If this didn't work out, you may not have seen a team sign Dwight Howard the next time around." 26:05-26:17: "I just don't get the sense that they would have given up everything that they gave up if they were not getting strong indications from Anthony Davis and Rich Paul and LeBron that AD was going to stay for a while." 32:19-32:28: "For someone who covers the Lakers, it's the best season that I've ever covered. It has also been easily the most exhausting." 33:41-35:22: "The Clippers are...not only are they kind of the little brother team in the Staples Center building. I think sometimes a Lakers fan will (have an) 'Ah, no, I don't acknowledge (the Clippers) vibe, when really that's the Lakers' chief rival right now, whether you want to admit it or not. But there's this dismissiveness of it and this kind of animosity between the fan bases, but it's the most passive-aggressive rivalry I've ever seen. ... It seems like there's genuine dislike between the two teams as much as they've tried to downplay it throughout the year. Both teams know that they were constructed to beat the other one, and it really showed out there on the court. Those felt like playoff games." 42:35-44:00: "The thing that I kept coming back to in the days after he passed was the last time that I saw him in person. … I remember we were walking around Disneyland, and I saw this really tall guy and I was like, "Wait a second. Is that Kobe?" He was just walking around with his kids. … He had the second-youngest on his shoulders, and he was bouncing her around, and he just looked really happy and just wandering around with his kids through Frontierland. It was cool to see him like that, and it was cool just to think back on that memory and how close he was with his daughters. It made it more sad in retrospect as well, but it's the one that I kept coming back to because it really emphasized, I think, who he became as he aged, and he really had committed to being a family man and being a #girldad and that was where his passion had went." Harrison's story on mental health: https://www.silverscreenandroll.com/2020/3/16/21181634/basketball-our-oasis-what-do-we-do-when-its-been-ripped-away-lakers-coronavirus-nba-season-suspended

27 JAN 2020 · Tomer Azarly of Clutch Points joins the show to discuss the state of the Clippers just past the season's midway point. Enjoy these clips/Clips: 6:04-6:42: I just think it's a work in progress. It’s a team last year that had an underdog mentality all season and now you add two superstars from two completely different programs in Kawhi and PG, and it just takes time to incorporate these guys. We haven't even talked about the fact that they have one game healthy all year. That was the Laker game on Christmas Day. The following game, Trez missed because of the flu, and then Pat went out with the wrist injury. So they've only really had one game healthy, one practice the day before that healthy. We’ve really yet to see what this team can be. So I don't think it's time to overreact yet, but this team is still a work in progress. 14:47-15:46: Their numbers while [Ivica] Zubac is on the court have been pretty close to phenomenal. They've been a really good defensive team when Zubac on the court because he not only blocks shots, but he changes shots. He’s a really big guy inside. He takes up a lot of space. I’ve been saying this all year: play Zubac more. Get him more minutes. For whatever reason, the Clippers are not getting him more minutes right now. Maybe they're showcasing Trez more. Maybe they feel like they can outscore teams and sort of be OK defensively, with Trez on the court. But I do think a bit of their defense always comes back to Zubac and having him on the court because inside, statistically, like blocked shots, he hasn’t been a crazy force, but he's been a shot-changing force at the rim for the Clippers. 17:50-18:24: I think the series honestly might just come down to health. The Clippers have shown that, they they can play the Lakers very well. They match up pretty well against them. You know, Kawhi is able to really put pressure on LeBron. LeBron does not want to guard Kawhi right now. I don't think he will in the playoffs either. I just look at it and say the Clippers have all the right pieces to slow down the Lakers; it's just a matter of can they be healthy when they play them. Can they have enough repetition under their belt together as a team to beat the Lakers? 21:04-21:25: Home court matters, but they will be content being a 4 seed if they are a hundred percent healthy. If they have PG, Kawhi healthy, Pat's 100% or close to it, they've built some chemistry over time and they go on as a four seed, I can tell you they'll be very confident about their odds and their chances because that's just the kind of team this is. They're not really worried about seeding. 36:50-37:00: I was the one that asked him [Harrell] about the vibe of the locker room. I didn't get a weird vibe before that, but once he started speaking, I wanted to know what the vibe of the locker room was. Subscribe to, rate and review On the NBA Beat on iTunes. Follow @OntheNBABeat and your hosts (@byAaronFisch, @JJTheJourno, @LorenLChen) on Twitter. Discover the rest of the Lineups Podcast Network at https://www.lineups.com/podcasts/ Music: “Who Likes to Party” by Kevin MacLeod.