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Is the #nba playing in our face? What's with this sudden interest and talk about #memphis
[00:00:06] Yo, good afternoon out there, good evening on the East Coast and beyond. 2-5 Daily, 2-5 and 10, Sports Reports As Ordered. Be back. Let's get right into it. So, you know, I was sitting around thinking to myself, you know, I gotta get 2-5 Daily back on track because, you know, I really enjoyed doing this. I got some positive feedback from it. So consider this to be the relaunch.
[00:00:35] So, here we are. We're back tonight to talk about the NBA, the League of Conspiracies. So, every time I turn around, people are telling me that the NBA is rigged, it's fixed, there's always some kind of extra play going on in the background, right?
[00:00:56] So, the Luka trade was one of those points of contention, you know, hey, the Lakers in the league got together, conspired, got him to the market of the LA, the best team, you know, as far as ratings and all that kind of stuff. Okay. So, then it was like, but damn, they couldn't have gave Dallas a little bit more than Anthony Davis?
[00:01:19] So, then you turn around, you fast forward, it's like, oh, Dallas gets the number one draft pick in the lottery, Cooper Flagg on the way. So, the Lakers ended up selling for $10 billion. So, it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. So, did the Dallas Mavericks really trade Luka for Anthony Davis and Cooper Flagg and for the Lakers to get $10 billion?
[00:01:45] I don't think that was in the works. I don't think Dallas would have agreed to that part of it. But anyway, so, you know, that was considered to be a conspiracy. Fast forward, you know, we saw the video last night of the bus, Oklahoma City, NBA champions, right? Everybody was like, oh, I guess, spoiler alert. But that was before Halliburton got hurt, you know?
[00:02:08] So, I don't know. You know, I don't think Halliburton agreed to blow his Achilles in game seven, right? Okay. Now, I was thinking about something that was said last week. And even though I'm not generally your conspiracy guy, I decided to run with this one a little bit.
[00:02:30] So, a little while ago, when the whole Luka trade happened, my thought was, hey, you know, the new owner of the Mavs, Dumont, Las Vegas guy, is this a play to try to get the Mavs to Las Vegas? Hmm. Things that make you go, hmm, right? So, then I came back after the fact, and I was like, okay, we'll see how that plays out. Now that they got Cooper flagged, you have your future star.
[00:02:57] So, I'm not saying it could be off the table, but let's run with it a little bit further than that. So, last week on First Take, the one and only Stephen A. Smith was talking about how he was getting feedback from NBA players and different sources that players don't want to play in Memphis because of how dangerous it is. Okay.
[00:03:19] So, the thing that I think he wasn't supposed to say was that Jimmy Butler was one of the sources that led with this comment. And, of course, my first thought was, Jimmy Butler, a guy that played in Chicago, a guy that played in Miami, currently playing in San Francisco. So, it's not as if he's a stranger to danger, you know, saying I didn't do that on purpose. You know, and, you know, saying he grew up in Houston, right?
[00:03:48] So, what makes Memphis so bad? You know, so then I started thinking, I said, okay, let me look at some stats because, you know, I'm your unorthodox statistician. So, last year, 2024, right, per capita, Memphis was number two in murders per capita. Okay. That's pretty damn bad. But then when I look at it, right, let's look at some more here. This is all in the top 20. Number four, New Orleans. Number five, Detroit. Six, Cleveland. Eight, D.C. Nine, Atlanta. Ten, Milwaukee. Thirteen, Chicago.
[00:04:18] Fifteen, Indy. Sixteen, Minnie. Seventeen, Philly. Okay. So, then I looked at 2025 so far. You know, Memphis is all the way down at number eight. New Orleans and Cleveland in front of them. Detroit as well. And guess what? So is Vegas. So, it made me think about that because Mr. Logical a couple of weeks ago or last week said, hey, why don't we move New Orleans to Las Vegas? Nobody cares about them anyway.
[00:04:47] But what if Memphis is the play here? You know, you got Ja Morant. You already got a face, a star, Nike deal. All that kind of stuff was on his way ascending before he got in trouble. So, what way to do a reboot than a relocation? Because expansion announcements are expected to come pretty soon according to Mark Spears. You know, that was after game six of the NBA finals. So, as you look at that, why now?
[00:05:16] Memphis didn't become dangerous last week. Memphis didn't become dangerous yesterday. So, why is that conversation happening now? You know, we just saw Desmond Bain get traded from there. They were in the Kevin Durant sweepstakes. Did he turn them down? Because it was too dangerous? I think it's a bunch of BS. And it's one of those ways to shit on a small market because we tend to do that.
[00:05:45] You know, because when you look at it, New Orleans and Memphis are the smallest markets in the NBA at 50 and 51, respectively. Now, granted, Vegas is only at number 40. So, it's not like you're talking about a top 10 or top 15 market. But when you're talking about Las Vegas, you're talking about the entertainment industry, the gambling, the women. You know, everything going on out there that would draw. You bring an NBA team out there. You know, the Raiders have been successful as far as money.
[00:06:14] I'm talking about money. You know, the Vegas Knights have made a Stanley Cup final. You got the Oakland A's on their way next year. So, Vegas has been the worst kept secret in the NBA for at least a decade now, if not a little bit longer than that. So, what better way to move a team there? Because, like, if you're thinking about this the way that I'm thinking about this, it's about money, right? So, Seattle's coming back. Supersonics, we miss them.
[00:06:44] We miss the uniforms. Not the ugly ones, KD, and then we're wearing them, but the Sean Kemp ones. Then you got, you know, Vegas. But it doesn't have to be a new team because you want Vegas to be good, right? So, instead of an expansion team, why not move a current team? And then, you know, you phase out this small market in Memphis. And now you can bring a third team. So, that would be Memphis going to Vegas.
[00:07:12] You know, that would be Seattle getting a team. And now you still have a spot because I don't think you want to expand by just one team to get 31. You got to expand by two. So, now there are other markets. You know, on Sports Reports' order, we've been talking about places like Kansas City and Jacksonville, so on and so forth. Because I think the original idea is bring in Vegas, Seattle, move Minnesota or Memphis over to the east. But why do that if you don't have to have Memphis?
[00:07:43] So, you know, Memphis has been passionate. The grindhouse. You know, we go back to Zeebo, Marc Gasol. This city has embraced this NBA team and it's become its own identity. But with all the talk from Stephen A. Smith and people of that ilk, kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it? I know. It's been a matter. I think it's been a matter of. Thank you.