11 Comments

I was looking forward to this documentary, was going to watch it later this week. When Nicoll said there was a big portion of the doc devoted to bitcoin and his almost religious hyping towards bitcoin, it really soured me on the doc. I hope he isn't letting his own personal feelings get in the way of an interesting, and from a basketball perspective, important aspect of the present and future of basketball.

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They were having a very intelligent and relevant conversation about the dangers of hyper-commodization of basketball, and he ends it with 8 minutes straight hyping the great digital scam known as Bitcoin, completely contradicting everything they were just talking about.

"You know it's kind of screwed up how much we're commodifying these talented children, you know what would really help them is if they bought into this tech-stock-in-a-trenchcoat 'currency' as the key to their financial freedom. Surely there aren't literally hundreds of celebrities who've lost millions of their own earnings in this circus within the past few years"

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No it’s the most powerful financial tool humans have ever had access to! It works just like money but everything is harder! How do you not see the value?

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I stopped listening when he started hyping bitcoin. I’m open to crypto becoming a mainstream currency someday, but have no interest in hearing dudes hyping it.

But also it just wasn’t a great episode. Mike kept taking the conversation different directions in awkward ways and he didn’t even do so to make a captivating point. Ethan and Wos bailed him out a bunch of times. So the guest just didn’t have much currency (pun intended) with me to where I’d entertain his baseless crypto pitch.

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The bitcoin worship was disgusting and this guy does not have the expertise to speak about it. Ethan I wish you’d asked him how much he owed.

Will be ignoring this guys documentary and media appearances going forward.

Wos and Ethan were great as always.

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-11 of 15 all NBA spots were players developed in the American system.

- European academies are compensated with "sell on fees" anytime one of their players is sold throughout their career. We will never have a system like that.

- European soccer players are "load managed" aka rotated.

-none of these European countries are producing better players than Los Angeles County much less all of America. There is a reason why they limit the number of foreign players on their domestic league rosters.

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Gary Payton catching strays for no reason at all...

The Euro step was a travel.

The Gather step was a travel.

The Crab dribble was a travel.

Modern players are not "more skilled" because they have taken advantage of the loosening of the rules, which is what 95% of the pod was about (if you take out the BitCoin pitch)

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Bizarre infomercial at the end.

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A major thesis for the conversation was centered around the over emphasis of AAU on individuals and brands over teams and winning with the implication being the European system is not subject to the perverse incentives. Later on in the episode, someone to use an example an NBA player who was the highest paid player on their team and cried about being snubbed for an All-Star appearance to demonstrate the me over the we...yes? And this person was obviously Rudy Gobert.

Did anyone else notice this contradiction?

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On the comment about poor NBA owners. Why do they overpay for these teams? Just get the best suite and watch the games. Especially when you have to buy a team on layaway, like the Celtics will be sold.

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Good listen. On AAU, remember enjoying the book Play Their Hearts Out by George Dohrmann.

There was an article (believe about Omar Cook) where a college scout noted, from playing youth ball in cramped CYO gyms, NYC point guards have a low, hard trajectory on their shot.

P.S. Actually found the article.

https://vault.si.com/vault/2000/11/20/all-points-bulletin-whether-youre-looking-for-a-nice-knish-perfect-pastrami-or-a-peerless-playmaking-guard-the-best-place-to-look-is-new-york-city-and-the-tradition-continues-with-three-new-big-east-point-men

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