Tea Time with Mo Mooncey: NBA Bubble Wrap-Up

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / RSS

Skylar Smith and Brian Bosche are joined by Mo Mooncey, The Hoop Genius and Presenter at Sky Sports, to discuss the NBA season. They chat about what it was like for Mo to cover the NBA Finals for Sky Sports, their biggest takeaways from the Finals, their thoughts on the NBA Bubble, how the players and league handled COVID and social justice issues, who had the best fits, and then answer listener questions about next season.

Full Transcript:

Brian Bosche:
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to High Tea Hoops. This is Brian Bosche at the Duke of Hoops. We're joined by Skylar as we are always what's up Duchess.

Skylar Smith:
Hello, Brian.

Brian Bosche:
Welcome back to the show.

Skylar Smith:
Thank you so much.

Brian Bosche:
We always have an awkward intro. Today we have a very special guest, Mo Mooncey the Hoop genius presenter at Sky Sports. What's up Mo. Thanks for coming up.

Mo Mooncey:
Man, it's an honor to be here, man. Joined by the [inaudible 00:00:31] the Duke and the Duchess, thanks for having me through. We've been meaning to do this for a minute, but it's been busy with playoffs and finals, so it's good to have some time now catch up and talk buckets.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, let's start with... you took a little break because you were doing a Podcast every day you were on TV until what? 6:00 AM every morning. Talk to us a little bit about what it was like covering the NBA finals and the NBA playoffs.

Mo Mooncey:
You know what? It was a dream come true for me because I've always wanted... in this broadcast, the media, however you want describe it. It's a dream come true to be covering the NBA finals. It was kind of sad because otherwise I would have been out in Miami and LA.

Brian Bosche:
Would Sky have sent you there?

Mo Mooncey:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think so. So, that would have been crazy. I'm kind of worried now that next year might just be like Milwaukee.

Skylar Smith:
You don't want to go to Milwaukee?

Mo Mooncey:
I'd much rather go to Miami.

Brian Bosche:
Just switch off Miami LA, it's the whole way from journalists for sure.

Mo Mooncey:
What's hilarious is, the first ever show I did at Sky, this is like over 12 months ago, JD actually said NBA finals are going to be Miami and LA. I said, "Why, why'd you think that?" He goes, "I don't think that I'm just putting out there into the universe so that we can go to both of them. And I was like, "Whatever." And fast forward 12 months that this guy was actually right. But the way the universe works, we're stuck at home.

Brian Bosche:
Post pandemic finals.

Mo Mooncey:
Yeah, man, it was crazy. Hopefully next year we ain't the same. So, fingers crossed. We get out to that, but no, it was a dream come true, man. It was great. I'm trying to keep the UK audience up and alert at all times, trying to give them time to enjoy during the live coverage, trying to give them also a voice of someone they could relate to and maybe talk a little bit more sense than certain other personalities on certain other networks. But I'm not going to say much more than that.

Skylar Smith:
Name names.

Mo Mooncey:
I'm not trying to fumble to the background now but I always say to people, "If you don't want to listen to Reggie Miller tune in to Mo." So, I'd say to how you will.

Brian Bosche:
You are definitely the reasonable voice. And you did... So I love the watch alongs you did about, it was every series going into the finals, right?

Mo Mooncey:
So, it was the Congress finals.

Brian Bosche:
Sorry the Congress finals.

Mo Mooncey:
We did it like once or twice a week throughout the first and second rounds just because we have some other stuff going on. The Congress finals, we did every game for both conference and we actually did the game seven of the nuggets in the semi finals I think, and then we did the whole Congress finals. Obviously I couldn't do the NBA finals because I was on TV. But when the regular season goes popping in again, I'm trying to get these watch alongs and all of that active because I feel that people enjoy it. It's good to talk to groups. Especially in England for a lot of people here, the reason why I started doing them is I spoke to a lot of people and they're like, "Oh Mo, I love your stuff, I want to tell all my friends to watch your channels, but none of my friends actually like basketball."

Mo Mooncey:
Because everyone's so spread out around the country and it's kind of a niche thing. A lot of people like basketball as in, they'll watch the highlights, they'll follow NBA on Instagram and buy the jerseys, but they won't stay up till like 5:00 AM watching. So, I thought, what's the way that I could connect all of these people who are all around the UK and by the end of it, we were getting people from Australia, New Zealand, India, Canada, America, like yourselves tuning in from Seattle. It was crazy. So [inaudible 00:03:56] and I'm definitely trying to get popped in again when the regular season rolls around because it's just good to engage people and get chatting, talking buckets.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, it's a fun community to build when you're kind of sitting at home alone in the pandemic or lockdown and you just want to have that shared experience. So that was when you brought on at different influencers, would they like being called influencers or not, but people with high flow-

Mo Mooncey:
I just bring on Amanda. That's just my friend who just happens to have a lot of followers. You know what I mean. [crosstalk 00:04:24].

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, but in other industries too [crosstalk 00:04:26].

Skylar Smith:
Brian calls them influencers because he went on and he is an influencer.

Brian Bosche:
That's a sort of shout out. I was on for a minute for a half.

Mo Mooncey:
You are a TikTok influencer though?

Brian Bosche:
Yes Skylar

Mo Mooncey:
You probably have more followers than a lot of the guys-

Skylar Smith:
I'm not saying that sarcastically, Brian. I was not saying that sarcastically.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, I got to build up my Duke of Hoops TikTok. My personal one's good. It's a little bit harder now to grow TikTok following. But yeah, the watch alongs are really fun and you did some incredible interviews. You had Duncan Robinson, you had all these players on [crosstalk 00:04:59].

Skylar Smith:
Dunkin.

Brian Bosche:
Skylar really liked the Dunkin one. What was your favorite interview you did leading up to the finals?

Mo Mooncey:
Well the first one I did, I was with... it wasn't with a player in a bubble. It was with my guy John Collins, who was at the training camp for the Hawks. They were doing each team who wasn't in the bubble was doing a mini camp just in their own say. Probably I've known John from way before, so it was good just to reconnect and catch up and just catch up on everything that's been going on. But yeah, I spoke to CJ as well, just when he came out of bubble. That was fun. That was a good laugh. Some of the shadiest friends was the Clippers, it was a bit funny.

Mo Mooncey:
I was made to chat to Duncan Robinson as well though, you sit with me, I'll just do stuff in life and then once I do it, I'm thinking what's next and what's next. But one of my boys tweeted like Mo is really out here during NBA finals interviewing players that are playing in the finals. So when I read that tweet I was a whole lot, like, this is kind of nuts. I'm about to watch this guy play, but I was just chatting to him. So, that one kind of made me feel kind of good about myself.

Mo Mooncey:
Also, the insight from Duncan was really interesting, the way that, especially what we talked about in him getting open off the ball and stuff like that and how you saw him progress. Each game he scored more and more points throughout the series, except for that disgusting game six where-

Brian Bosche:
We don't remember that we just expunged that from the records.

Mo Mooncey:
So, it was great to get the insight from Duncan and also because he like myself, we both had plans to play in the NBA with backups of getting a sports media and one of us made it to the NBA. One off us made the sports [inaudible 00:06:44]. It was good to see where my life could have gone. Because I feel like if I was in the NBA, given that I'm only like 6.3", I'll be playing a similar kind of role to him just shooting from behind the arc. So parallel universe, we might have switched places, but it was great fun to chat with him.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, him DMing... who was it? It was Titus. Mark Titus.

Mo Mooncey:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
From Titus and Tate and hey, we'd love to learn more about you that's because it was the Michigan business school class Skylar. We've had to go that through that too. They're like, you got to set up your LinkedIn profile. So Duncan has this really clean nice LinkedIn profile still where he's professional basketball player at the Miami heat, which is hilarious. Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
It's like internships at hardware companies. It's something completely random. And then it's like professional basketball player, Miami heat.

Brian Bosche:
He doesn't need that Linked In profile anymore.

Mo Mooncey:
I haven't updated my LinkedIn in years. I don't think I've updated it since like my last day at uni.

Skylar Smith:
It's just funny to me when professional athletes even have a LinkedIn.

Mo Mooncey:
Oh no. For real, I'm not really planning to update my LinkedIn until I somehow I'm part of a team that wins a championship, whether it's like front office, whether it's media and then I'm going to log in and just change it to NBA champion. [crosstalk 00:07:59].

Brian Bosche:
That's all you need.

Mo Mooncey:
And that's all I can go on LinkedIn. That's what I'm waiting for. So one day.

Brian Bosche:
That's perfect. All right. Let's transition into some listener questions. We had a bunch of good ones. So if you have any questions for any guests in the future, please we don't have any hashtags or anything, but just tweet at us at High Tea Hoops at Duke of Hoops at the Duchess of Hoops who I switched that one at Duchess of Hoops. There we go. All right. Let's hear some questions. This one is from Eshanaria00, a friend of the pod also a friend of the Hoop genius streams.

Mo Mooncey:
Shout out to Eshan always representing.

Brian Bosche:
What's your bold trade prediction for the off season? He sang Al Horford ends up on the warriors. What do you think Mo?

Mo Mooncey:
Well, I think Al Horford moves. I think they have to move out Al Horford and I see them on the Kings. I see buddy healed on the sixes, gives them a nice bit of shooting, gives them a bit of spacing on the floor as soon as NBA operate. Then for the Kings, I see them making another terrible decision because that's just what they do. Also they were huge fans of Al Horford. They were trying to sign him when he became a free agent. When he signed that deal in Philly, they were really going hard after him.

Mo Mooncey:
At the end of the day, he picked the team with more chance of winning, but I think they really value him. Also, here's the thing with Al Horford is he had a really bad year, but last year, the year before, the year before he had really great years. So, you got to look at, has Al Horford really fallen off or was he in a situation that just didn't play to his strengths. I think it's the lab because I still think he can be effective. I feel like what he could be most effective at now at this stage in his career is mentoring younger guys, especially the big men that they've got, Marvin Bagley and Sacramento to kind of pass on some of that wisdom because that's one thing that I feel a lot of squats, especially young teams.

Mo Mooncey:
That's why I worry about teams like the Hawks. And now that Vince Carter has gone is they don't have guys around to... from speaking to NBA players and the most successful ones that I know they all tell me when I first came into the league, the most influential player on them is not the LeBron's or the Kobes or whatever. The most influential player to them is like a veteran who barely played, but he was just hidden amongst the locker room. And he said, this is how you lost in this league, this is how you'd be a pro. Also when you're bringing in Al Horford and you're talking to a guy like Bagley or whoever he is, Al Horford played against all of these guys. So, you can say, "Look when you're guardian beat, he's going to try and do this, this and this."

Mo Mooncey:
So you can say when you're playing yoke hitch, watch out for this. And that's really invaluable because a coach can only tell you so much from watching film, whereas Al Horford as having played against all the best bigs in the league and have been up amongst all the best bigs in the league. I feel like he's got some wisdom and I feel like that that could help the Kings. So, I reckon that that [inaudible 00:10:55] for Al Horford swap could be ones keep an eye on.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, I think that, I don't think anyone was maximized at the Sixers.

Mo Mooncey:
[crosstalk 00:11:05] I think that was it.

Brian Bosche:
When we did the casual NBA fan guide and we covered the Sixers. That one was a little scary for the Sixers-

Skylar Smith:
I was very afraid at that one.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, that was bad. Skylar, do you have any, before I throw my wishful thinking out. Anyone you want [crosstalk 00:11:23] in the heat.

Skylar Smith:
I just think it's nice to have Mo on the Pod and balance out how much I don't care about trades for too late. Free agent.

Brian Bosche:
I don't know your corner. Know your corner. I'm going to whisper out. Like if the Clippers just want to give up, just send us Paul George to the nuggets, we need another stroke. That's not happening. So I'm thinking Ola depo maybe.

Mo Mooncey:
Wait, wait, wait you'd want Paul George?

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, absolutely.

Skylar Smith:
Why?

Mo Mooncey:
Who are you trading out in that trade?

Brian Bosche:
We'll probably have to give Michael Porter Jr. Or if they want Jeremy Grant, I think Jeremy Grant's opting out though. Then we have Pecks. I don't care get them low.

Mo Mooncey:
But you got to match a big salary though. Michael Porter Jr. is on a rookie deal. So you're going to have to Chuck in a sign and trays for Grant and Mill Sappen.

Brian Bosche:
Let's give him Gary Harris. Let's give him-

Mo Mooncey:
More than that. Do you think Paul George will fit? Because in my opinion, he flourished at Indiana at OKC because he was the headline act. This year, he wasn't the headline act and he got in his head and he wasn't being the Paul George that we knew from before. So, now if he comes to join Jokic and Jamal Murray, I don't know how his ego will respond to that.

Brian Bosche:
I think his ego is pretty low right now and getting onto a Denver nuggets team with a little less pressure because the market's so much smaller and Jokic a facilitator where he can just play that wing, maybe it will help. I'm hoping for Oladipo though, because I don't think they're going to trade him.

Mo Mooncey:
Oladipo would be nice. Oladipo would be nice. Also Gary Harris could bounce back. He had it down yet, but I've got faith in my guy.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, I really liked Gary Harris. Next question so we don't get rabbit hold here. Does this season prove or lend weight to the fact that Kawhi can't lead a team that doesn't have the infrastructure already set up? This one is from, at Mr. J Breezy, a Carl Heinz, big friend of the pod. Does this lend credence to that Mo. Can Kawhi win a championship without an infrastructure.

Mo Mooncey:
I can see the argument for it. I can see the argument for it, but we're acting like Kawhi is the one on the meltdown. Yeah, he had a terrible fourth quarter in that game seven. But aside from that, in all of the other games, he did what he was expected to do. It's not his fault the rest of the team didn't perform. Also, the way that the clips were built and I put a lot of that down to they gave a lot of minutes to Harrell when they should have been going to the Zubac. I feel like they could have closed out a series earlier. I get it like it could be said for any team, except for LeBron. You need good structure and great coaching and whatever. I think LeBron being so great kind of holds Kawhi to his standard that no other players should be held to.

Mo Mooncey:
But the thing is with the Clippers is, for me what this season proved is that load management is a scam because load management works. It's not so much like Kawhi works when he's in an infrastructure. Load management works in an infrastructure like they had other Raptors and the Spurs, but it doesn't work when you have throughout the regular season, you have Kawhi playing one or two games a week, Paul George playing one or two games a week. So, they're basically alternating games that play. Then they played together on a big national TV, Christmas day, these are superstars we're going to go. Then they play together a bit. Then all of a sudden, the playoffs come around and I said, all right, "You too on the court now and everyone's like..." in basketball, you guys know this. When you're playing with a team and you're a unit, you know where everyone's going to be. If you're a good point guard, you can have your eyes closed and be able to pass the ball to a teammate in that sport, whatever play you're running because you know where everyone is. But if you haven't been doing that, that's the difference between the Nuggets and the Clippers.

Mo Mooncey:
The Nuggets were doing that throughout the year even with injuries, they're putting guys and saying where's the Clippers they were so... their line ups were so inconsistent, their rotations were so inconsistent. I think that's what it proved. I've got no doubt as well. This is what people forget about the Clippers, like saying it's not going to work whatever. The heat, LeBron James playing away, Chris Bush, they lost them for season two. They melt it down against a big European guy. Same thing I put the Clippers then look what happened a year after. So, I wouldn't be too worried if I was [inaudible 00:15:24] it.

Brian Bosche:
You saw that we talked about this on the pod, after that series where it was just alternating between Kawhi and Paul George over and over. So back and forth, they really didn't look like they had played together. Even Nuggets going to game seven against the Jazz. They figured out who's our closer, what are we going to do in these key moments? And the Coopers just didn't figure that out. Even though they were so upset. I think infrastructure you need for any team except for what seemingly LeBron, other than these first years that he puts on is the infrastructure.

Mo Mooncey:
LeBron is the infrastructure.

Brian Bosche:
LeBron is the infrastructure. He will build the infrastructure around him. All right, we have a bunch more-

Skylar Smith:
Let me make one point on this. I forget who was saying this. It was either Shack or Chuck. They're the same. And my brain is stuck on the same. I swear they are the same. But they were saying, "It's such a new thing in the basketball world for us to look at a team's performance and judge their potential based off of one year." No one ever really was doing that with Jordan. Jordan had all these failures, like was getting knocked out of the playoffs, whatever.

Skylar Smith:
No one was like, oh should Jordan leave, should Jordan go somewhere else to win a championship. Does this mean that Jordan is our leader? Like all these things. It's not just kind of with LeBron and this new kind of modern era that we're looking at, that fans will look at a team and if one year it goes badly there all of a sudden making all of these conclusions where that's just not helpful.

Brian Bosche:
The cycle is so short, like one year and you're just canceled.

Skylar Smith:
It's our attention spans. Just can't handle it anymore.

Mo Mooncey:
Yeah, I think it's like humans nowadays crave instant gratification and everything leads into this. Like even Instagram, you put a picture up because you want to see that red like button just go beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. And people like this, what I said about Yannis, everyone's clowning Yannis for not winning the guy's 25. You know what I mean?

Brian Bosche:
[crosstalk 00:17:14].

Mo Mooncey:
Yannis is the same age as me. It's like someone coming to my job to clown me for not being Stephen A. Smith, like that's a journey you have to go on. No one goes to like a law firm to the 25-year-old intern and says, "Why aren't you a judge?" What other jobs does it happen in? But what I will say about the Clippers is the reason why there's so much pressure on them is this is now we're going into the final year of Kawhi and Paul George's deals. They've got player options after this. So if they don't win now, that could be the end of it. And they've leveraged their entire future for this. So it's basically, Championship or bust this year. That's why they're an exception. But I fully hear what you're saying because the way that people are talking about Yannis, Yannis is a flat one. Bro come on, man.

Brian Bosche:
Give him time.

Skylar Smith:
I think that's what the original point was about. Whoever was making it Shakar Chuck, the original point was about Yannis moving and how everyone was talking about that.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, all right. Next one. What does Luca need to do to get a ring? Does he need to get out of Dallas. Could he win one with Dallas? This is from Dan Munarrez @Dan_Munarrez. Thank you Dan, for the question. Sorry about the name pronunciation. What does Luca need to do to win this ring, Mo?

Mo Mooncey:
I feel like that's a perfectly timed question given what we were just talking about. He doesn't need to do anything. He needs to stay there.

Skylar Smith:
He's so young.

Brian Bosche:
He's in his third year. Third year he needs a ring or he's a loser.

Mo Mooncey:
Luca in the real world would be office face at a party at college right now. You know what I mean? What are we expecting from a 21-year-old? Let's be real. The guy has at least 15 years left in this league? He's going to finish his career and a hall of fame with multiple MVPs, with multiple championships. All he needs to do is work on his craft and ensure that he can keep his body healthy. If I was Luca Doncic what I'm doing tomorrow or today, I'm picking up my phone and I'm calling LeBron James I'm saying, "LeBron, I need to sit down with you and I'm going to learn about how you take care of your body." That's the only thing Luca Doncic needs to do.

Mo Mooncey:
The talent is there. The talent is undeniable. At this age I don't know if you've seen anyone who can score the ball and play the game like Luca Doncic-

Brian Bosche:
Unbelievable.

Mo Mooncey:
... in the NBA. In a long time. All he needs to do is make sure he stays healthy and keeps himself in the best conditioning possible. That's why I'd holler at LeBron and find out how he's managed to play for so long. In terms of teams, Dallas is a great setup.

Mo Mooncey:
You've got an owner who's not afraid to spend money to win. You've got one of the best coaches in the NBA and Rick Carlyle, poor thing is being healthy or not that's a whole another issue. But Luca can't do anything about that. The other thing I'll do, if I was Luca I'd be trying to chat to Yannis I'll be telling Yannis "You'll hop on Walser let's play a few games. That's what I'm saying fortnight. I just want some [inaudible 00:19:56] to build up a little bit of comradery because that would be a nice little European linkup in Dallas. If Yannis decided to leave the IC Milwaukee.

Skylar Smith:
Just some late tampering.

Brian Bosche:
Just A little bit. Everyone tampers now.

Mo Mooncey:
If you stream it, it's not tampering though. You don't have to talk about basketball or anything. You just have to play the game.

Brian Bosche:
This is part of the interview. Call Steph Curry's trainer from Santa Barbara to figure out how you can run without spraining your ankle. You figure out where LeBron got his chamber for recovery. Come on Luca, keep your body healthy.

Mo Mooncey:
The blueprint is there. The blueprint is there. It's also whether he wants to do it or not. Also get a signature shoe. That's what I want to see. I don't like how Donovan Mitchell has got the Dons. I think the Don's should be Lucas sneaker. I want Jordan Brown to bring out the Don ones and just say we don't care kind of Spiderman shoes. These are the Dons because I feel like, I don't think a European player has had signature shoe before and I feel like that could be huge for the market.

Brian Bosche:
Is that true? It must be right, Duck didn't have a shoe.

Mo Mooncey:
Duck didn't, Tony Pucker didn't. None of these guys got signatures.

Brian Bosche:
Man, open up a big market in Eastern Europe.

Mo Mooncey:
Nike, holla at me.

Brian Bosche:
Free ideas, Nike. All right, we have got a couple more. I'm going to throw this one to you, Skylar and then to Mo, to see if he agrees or not. This is from the Rim Talk Pod, also friends of the Pod. Great Podcast. Check out the Rim Talk Pod. Where does Jimmy Butler rank in terms of active player, Skylar?

Skylar Smith:
Number one.

Brian Bosche:
Number one great. Mo, your counter.

Mo Mooncey:
See, I'm not a huge fan of these ranking lists because they're so subjective. They change.

Brian Bosche:
Skylar's is objective. All right. There is no bias in Skylar's opinion on this one.

Mo Mooncey:
It's weird because it's like for me, are we talking current players or players that are injured or included? Because otherwise we've got Steph Curry and Katie technically active now. Because they're healthy again.

Brian Bosche:
It's a great question. They did not specify in the tweet question.

Mo Mooncey:
So, I'm going to put it like this. LeBron and Yannis had in Steph Katie, Luca, Yoke Hitch. So I could add Jimmy Butler a eight. I could slide him in at eight.

Brian Bosche:
I think the eight, nine, 10 spots are open for Jimmy right now.

Mo Mooncey:
I don't see him in that top tier. I've always said that, I see LeBron and Katie as A plus players like teammate grades on 2K, I have them as A plus. And then in the A category I have like Harden and BDO couch those guys. I've always had Jimmy at A minus, but this final's has moved him up one spot to an A grade player. I still think that he lacked the... I know he was exhausted he couldn't have done any more, but all I'm saying is LeBron did more when he was on that Cleveland team and if LeBron can do it and he's A plus player and you can't do it, that means you're an A, and there's nothing wrong with being A. Only like three or four players in the world can be A plus. But that's my take on Jimmy Butler. He's not there but I think he's in danger of being slightly overrated after this very fortunate circumstances of Milwaukee completely melting down, Brad Stevens forgetting anything about basketball and not knowing how stupid he is.

Mo Mooncey:
It just happened to be in the NBA photos, but he is a great player no doubt. He's one of those players though, is you need the right pieces around him. Whereas Harden, Steff or whoever you can put in with a bunch of scrubs and they will still do what they do. Whereas Jimmy Butler, you need the right pieces to play the right roles around him.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. I think he's in that same tier. Thank you Skylar, we'll keep your at number one.

Skylar Smith:
Thanks.

Brian Bosche:
Jimmy Butler at number one in your hearts. Skylar is bringing a lot of off core thanks to Mo. So let's be fair there. Skylar are you trying to be-

Skylar Smith:
Let me hold my heart.

Brian Bosche:
Are You paying that $20 bucks for that Jimmy Butler coffee. Is that what you're saying?

Mo Mooncey:
If Jimmy hands it to her?

Skylar Smith:
Yeah, if I get to talk to Jimmy, if Jimmy is my barrister, I will pay $20 for that coffee.

Mo Mooncey:
How much would you pay that. What's the maximum limit that you'll pay for walking into a coffee shop and Jimmy Butler is behind the counter making you some breakfast coffee. What's the most you'd pay for that?

Skylar Smith:
Listen, it's a pandemic out here. I'm trying to be real smart with the money lately. There things that honestly, probably like $500. I would pay for just coffee.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, seriously.

Skylar Smith:
It's like I'm paying for a meet and great but I get a coffee out of it. I'm also a big coffee girl. I drink a lot of coffee. I will happily pay $500 for a coffee-

Brian Bosche:
With Jimmy.

Skylar Smith:
... and five minutes of Jim.

Brian Bosche:
That's also an Instagram post model, going back to the Instagram gratification. You're getting some content from that. It's good for Heidi Hoops. That's an investment.

Skylar Smith:
Maybe we can become friends. Yeah, maybe it's an investment.

Brian Bosche:
Maybe he comes on pod. I don't know if you [crosstalk 00:24:48].

Skylar Smith:
If he comes on the pod-

Mo Mooncey:
Would you want to be friends with Jimmy Butler though? Because-

Brian Bosche:
I don't know.

Mo Mooncey:
... how would you feel about being woken up at 3:00 AM to go work out.

Skylar Smith:
[inaudible 00:24:58] wake me up?

Mo Mooncey:
If one of my friends woke me up at 3:00 AM-

Skylar Smith:
I don't think he wants me in the gym. I think he wants me to sleep. Maybe there's something I can do for him in the gym.

Brian Bosche:
You got a good jumper though. Skylar. Maybe he wants that corner three spot when Duncun [Keen 00:25:12] in it.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah, I can definitely take that over for Duncun.

Brian Bosche:
All right. Last question. This is a fun one from Josh Coin @poundcoin, always with great questions for the pod. How's your shoulder, Mo and what does it mean for your jumper?

Mo Mooncey:
My jumper stays money, Josh would know that. My jumper stays money. My shoulder however is an absolute myth is constantly as we speak my shoulder is paining me. I dislocated about six times. So I've been out for the past three seasons. This is looking to be the next fourth season I don't play. So, basically any time I put my shoulder above my head, it kind of just pops out and being not a professional athlete in the NBA. I don't really have anyone to fix it. NHS are fantastic, but they don't really specialize in sporting athletic injuries. They're kind of more life or death situations.

Mo Mooncey:
So, until I get rich and can afford to get my shoulder actually repaired properly, it's going to be a myth. It's not looking great. But if you need a spot up shooter in the meantime I got you.

Brian Bosche:
You're there. God the shoulder injuries. I played a lot of tennis growing up and the same, luckily it's healed since then. So, I haven't popped it out or heard it, but they just nag at you. And when you sleep, it gets to you. Shoulder injuries suck.

Mo Mooncey:
Oh, if I twist the wrong way on my sleep, I can wake up with just a floppy arm. I've missed a meeting before, because I've woken up and I can't move one of my arms as I was bringing it up, picked up the phone in my left hand. I don't think they believe me. They're like, "Mo why are you not here?" I'm like, "Yeah, my shoulder has popped out. So, I cant make it in." I don't think they believe me.

Skylar Smith:
[inaudible 00:26:46].

Brian Bosche:
Skylar we're not old. You're just young.

Mo Mooncey:
How old are you?

Skylar Smith:
I have no complaints about my body right now. So that's a flex, I guess.

Brian Bosche:
Are you 23?

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
So you're young. How old is Yani?

Mo Mooncey:
Yani is 23 as well.

Brian Bosche:
You're the younger one in the podcast.

Mo Mooncey:
Yani got his first injury a couple of months ago.

Brian Bosche:
In the pandemic?

Mo Mooncey:
Now it hits me up now a lot, bro my ankle is killing me today. Welcome to the club. Like welcome to my life. So, I'm hopefully not, but maybe be careful when you Hoop that's what I'm saying to the young teens out there.

Brian Bosche:
I'm 30. It gets worse don't worry. You just got to keep active. Keep those ligaments fresh and keep them active where they just lock up.

Mo Mooncey:
I'll do yoga. That's what I've been doing right now.

Brian Bosche:
Check Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Just start doing the mobility. You have to.

Mo Mooncey:
That's the one. That's the one.

Brian Bosche:
All right. Thank you all listeners again. If you want to submit questions, just tag us for future podcasts. Those were fun. I liked those. We always have some good ones from the audience. Let's go into the NBA finals. So Skylar, I'm going to kick this one to you first. What was your biggest takeaway from the series other than Jimmy Butler being the best player on earth?

Skylar Smith:
Honestly I joke around about it, but my biggest takeaway truly was Jimmy can't do this on his own. It made me really sad just because I felt like we saw such a strong heat team that they just got so plagued with just injuries and fatigue, that it really just kind of melted down in that finals. But honestly, that was my biggest takeaway was the Lakers just had too many weapons for this heat team, especially with Dragic and [Bamdown 00:28:38] for most of the series that Jimmy really, he dragged them to two wins, but that's... You could tell in that game six, he had already given everything he could have given to this team and there was just nothing left in the tank. So, yeah. I mean it wasn't as fun of a series as I would've liked, but I definitely think we saw Jimmy give it his all and it just, it wasn't enough to drag this heat team along.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. What about you, Mo?

Mo Mooncey:
I think my biggest takeaway was even though you could have a squad more talented on paper, you can never underestimate the importance of having veteran players on your team. Because for me looking at this championship, when I saw Dwight lifting the Larry OB, I was so happy. Because it's in Orlando where he played so long for the Lakers where the franchise booed him out. Then not only that add to that Rondo who Laker fans were hating on the entire year and KCP. Laker fans wanted him off the roster the entire year. Both of these guys came up huge in the finals. Dwight came up huge and not conference finals against Jokic. So, although there were other teams out there who might have looked like they've got deeper squads or better teams on paper, these guy were just veterans who are just desperate to win a ring or another ring in Rondo's case.

Mo Mooncey:
I feel like that's something that you can't quantify on paper, you can say, all right, cool. If you take it back to the Clippers, all right, "You, look at our bench, we've got mantras, we've got, Lou Will put us up 20 points a game. We've got this guy, we got that guy" But there's something to be said for pure hunger and pure desire. And I feel like no matter what the heat did, even if Dragic [inaudible 00:30:29] healthy those guys, because they're new to it all, it's their first time there. They just simply couldn't win the whole series because if it came down to it and game seven or whatever, the desire and the hunger from the Lakers and the experience. One thing that stood out to me was Rondo's post championship interview.

Mo Mooncey:
He talks about how basketball was a mental game, and this is what I've been saying to people from a whole life. Look, you can be the best athlete in the world, but if I understand the game and I understand you better, I will beat you every single day of the week. And that's why I put in Rondo and LeBron together on a team it's just dangerous because those are two top three players at any possible IQ. LeBron, Rondo, Draymond Green, maybe [inaudible 00:31:12] is up there as well. But putting those two together on a team in a seven game series, I don't feel like there's anyone that they wouldn't have figured out. Any of them, you could say they had an easy path or whatever. I don't think there's a single team in the league that they wouldn't have figured out over the course of seven games.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, I don't think they even had an easy path people say that, but it's the trailblazers who shouldn't have been the eighth seed. They had the Rockets, the Nuggets, Nuggets were probably the second best team, right Skylar and the heat amazing as well. But I just listened to the interview with Jared Dudley and he was talking about Rondo specifically and Rondo's IQ and breaking down film for the team after the game and saying, "You know what, Jimmy Butler's their only playmaker right now, John gets out. So let's haunt him full court. Let's completely tire him out." So, Jimmy was exhausted, but the Lakers caused that. And to have that IQ on the team is insane.

Mo Mooncey:
This is what I said on the [inaudible 00:32:03] I was like, if you've got Rando or you've got LeBron, you don't need a coach. Frank Vogel has the easiest job in the world. His job is just to manage [inaudible 00:32:09].

Brian Bosche:
Personalities. You got to manage the humans.

Mo Mooncey:
That's what he needs to do. Unlike Skylar who was saying, she'd pay $500 to go have coffee with Jimmy Butler. I would pay 5,000 to watch film with Rajon Rondo and [inaudible 00:32:19]. Not that I have $5,000 spair like that, but hypothetically speaking,

Brian Bosche:
He obviously won with the Celtics. So I'm sure you're a big fan of Rondo, but they tried-

Mo Mooncey:
I love Rondo. Here's the thing. Rondo was very young when he won that first championship. Then he was really one of our best players during those 2013, 2014 years. Then after the net straight, he was the face of the franchise. Then in fairness to him, he didn't want to be here playing with Tyley Zillow.

Brian Bosche:
Who was on that team.

Mo Mooncey:
Jared Sullinger, Gigi Dotome know, these guys. So, they traded him to Dallas. We got crowded back in a deal and we got some draft picks back in the deal and he had one year left on his deal. So they said, "We'll trade you to Dallas for now you can play with Duck. And then next time you're a free agent go do what you want." I think it worked out well for both the organization and for Rondo himself.

Skylar Smith:
I think the veteran conversation is interesting because I feel like towards the beginning of this bubble or playoff series or whatever, I think I was trying to talk myself into the heat, having these great veterans. I was like, they got Iggy. They got [Hazlam 00:33:33], but it's like, you have to have veterans. I was like, thinking like, oh, okay they can help out, Hero and Duncan. And these guys who are going to kind of need coaching up to be able to handle a final series, but you need them on the floor honestly. And you need them to be producing on the floor. Like we saw the videos of UD screaming at the guys and we would see Iggy on the floor, but neither of it just wasn't making that big of a difference. Whereas the veterans on the Lakers were actually coming in and producing a ton. So it's like, you need like the mentorship from the veterans, but you also need them to produce, like you can't just drag along veterans. Like that's what coaches are for. If you're just dragging along veterans to kind of mentor the guys.

Mo Mooncey:
The other thing is with all due respect to you D and E they don't have anything left to prove. Their reputations are solid. You know that, whereas guys like Dwight, he needed that championship. Guy's like Rondo he needed to disapprove everyone that he wasn't finished. Like they all said throughout the year.

Brian Bosche:
AD need it.

Mo Mooncey:
AD needed it badly.

Brian Bosche:
Look at their young players. [crosstalk 00:34:45].

Mo Mooncey:
If they didn't win that final series, the conversations we'd be having would be so different. LeBron fans would be panicking.

Brian Bosche:
I don't know what, LeBron might not need this motivation, but having Jordan in his shadow all the time continues to motivate him.

Mo Mooncey:
LeBron needed to win this year because he didn't make the playoffs last year. You can say injury, whatever. He didn't make the playoffs last year. And if he didn't win this year with Steph, not there with Katie, not there with Kyrie, not there, if he didn't win this year, then that would have been a disaster for him.

Brian Bosche:
I would have hated sports media if he didn't this championship. It would have been awful.

Mo Mooncey:
In all fairness, it would be the exact same storylines that are banned now because we're about to enjoy the four months of LeBron versus Jordan.

Brian Bosche:
I hate this debate so much.

Mo Mooncey:
I don't even. Sometimes I do it just to troll people. But it's great because I don't really care. I can switch sides depending on whoever I feel like trolling. And if you ask me, I'll say about Larry Bird or say an upscale.

Brian Bosche:
There was something crazy out there.

Mo Mooncey:
Here's my whole thing. Okay. Until your favorite player has dropped 60 with their left hand. Don't come and talk to me about how great that player is.

Brian Bosche:
You're not going to troll us right here. All right. We're going to move on. So, on the Jared Dudley interview, he talked about the Bubble where they can't hear the crowd noises we hear on TV, they don't hear in the actual arena and it's very quiet. And he said all the bench players could yell out, defensive schemes could yell out the opposing team's plays. They could hear them and they were very connected. So this is a question for you Mo, how do you think having no fans in the Bubble affected the play?

Mo Mooncey:
That's a massive advantage to the Lakers as we were just talking about Rondo and you guys might remember, and if anyone listening go to YouTube after this podcast and type in, it was when Rhonda was playing against the Sacramento Kings, I believe. They are running an hour bounce after timeout play. This was when Rondo was... Was he on the Pelicans. I can't remember which team it was. Anyway, he told his big man stand there don't guard anyone just stand there. And everyone's [inaudible 00:36:48] but Rondo recognized just from where the players were standing on the bounce place, what play, the other team was about to run. And because he told his big man to stand there, he literally just reached into the air and caught the ball because the team didn't recognize it. So, when you have players to that level of IQ and in an arena, sometimes, especially in the playoffs, you can't hear each other.

Brian Bosche:
That's what Dudly said, they can't hear normally.

Mo Mooncey:
So now you've got a significant advantage because there's no anyone on the Miami Heat or any other team in the league that has the ability to know the opposition better than they know themselves, even LeBron's calling out, what other teams. I can't remember which player it was, but I remember someone saying like, LeBron, one time it was like a regular season game in Cleveland and they were rookie and he was telling them where they needed to be running to and where they needed to be standing for the play that their team was running. The rules are no cut to the quarter.

Brian Bosche:
I remember that.

Mo Mooncey:
So yeah, I think that definitely played into the hands of the veteran teams. It also shows some players perceived, I don't want to say it's true. I want to say that perceived such as a Joel Embiid to play better with the crowd. Soon as Philly was so bad on the road, so got to home and some players, they get that boost from people, cheering them on the exterior motivation. Without that, you can't really see who's really, really going to hoop. Like my guy, BJ Armstrong was saying the other day, the Lakers and the Clippers need to run an underground game in LA, no one there. They just need to run it for the pride of seeing which squad can ball out better because that's when you find out a real Hoops though.

Mo Mooncey:
We'll take it to the blacktop. Ain't no one here. It's just me and you. And we'll see, who's really the best Hooper. Ain't no crowd, ain't no announcement no music will play. And I feel like this, I said it from the start even though the Lakers won and I'm [inaudible 00:38:40] I can't put an asterix on this and I can't talk it down. Boom. The best team wins.

Brian Bosche:
It was just them out there. It's hard to realize when you're watching on TV, but if they are just alone out there even their fans, their guests can't talk, they can't boo, there's rules and restrictions over what even their fans that are in there can do. So it's tough. But Skylar, you had a great tweet about the families on the court celebrating. How do you think having no fans affected these celebrations?

Skylar Smith:
I don't know. It's weird. It's kind of there's pros and cons. Like I work for a sports club and I fortunately have won a championship while working for that sports club. And it's hard to get down to, the court, the pitch, whatever it's going to be. It's really hard to get down there when you're winning a championship, even for like people who work for the teams. And so I just remember seeing like Te'a Cooper running right on to be able to snead why after they won, families were able to get right on the court immediately be reunited with their families, their loved ones on the team. They didn't have to deal with all the kind of madness. But then at the same time, like the players don't really get the madness. That is like part of the fun. So, it's a weird one, but I also was listening to... I listened to JJ Reddick's podcast and Sue Bird came on after they won their WNBA championship, go storm.

Brian Bosche:
Go storm. It's a storm digest.

Mo Mooncey:
I love the way you guys said that the same time. Go storm. I feel like I missed that one. I should have joined it. Go storm.

Skylar Smith:
Do you want to do it again? One, two, three, go storm.

Brian Bosche:
Go storm. We missed it again. That's all right.

Skylar Smith:
We're not doing it again.

Mo Mooncey:
That's all right. I got again next year.

Skylar Smith:
She was saying that people kept asking her do fans make a difference? Do you know fans make a difference? And she said that "It didn't make a difference the whole way until they got to the finals." So, then all of a sudden she could like really feel the difference. She was saying like she thinks that this NBA final series would have been really different. Had there been fans. She was like, you could see when Miami would get a little run started and you would kind of think, ooh, could they maybe make a come back. It's like she was saying, "If they got that run started and they were in Miami, their fans are going to pump them the fuck up."

Skylar Smith:
And that run is going to get extended. Whereas they were just running out of steam a lot of times on their runs. Then she also brought up the Danny green shot and was like you were saying, she was like, I'm not going to say he would make it if he was in a stadium full of fans, but there is something different when you go up for that shot and you feel the whole stadium hold their breath a little bit, knowing that if it goes in, you went like whatever. So, I actually think that Brian, we talked about this a lot, but I think the fans actually did play a lot bigger role in that final series than in a lot of the games before that. And yeah, the celebration especially was really weird without fans.

Mo Mooncey:
What I will say is I think the fans affect the role players more because someone like Danny Green, if you look at all of his stuff to ask for, especially with the Spurs, he shot lights of our home and then he was struggling road games. So, that's why they were trying to get a home call advantage. And so I think, for the role players, spot shooters and those kind of guys that affects them. But I feel the guys, the Jimmy Butlers and the LeBrons of the world, I think they're so locked in. That they don't even see it.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah, for sure.

Mo Mooncey:
Because they are going to be locked in regardless. But with these celebrations, I actually preferred it, especially after the chaos with the whole [inaudible 00:42:22] incident. And yeah that was ridiculous. Can I stop it? But we won't get into that, but what I will say is I liked that the teams being that the GM owner, I will say a shout out to, Jeanie Buss for letting the players lift up the trophy because I hate every year when I see a group of players work hard to win this championship, then this rich old man just walks down and lifts up the trophy as if he earns it. That proper annoys me. Well, I get it. You paid everyone's wages. Cool, whatever, you didn't earn a championship, you didn't play a minute. Like that probably annoys me. So she was like, I thought it was great. How Jael Smith was the first one to say that.

Skylar Smith:
I know. I wanted to say that. Kim grabbing it first [crosstalk 00:43:10].

Mo Mooncey:
I love the confidence because everyone was shall we? And I was like, hell yeah.

Brian Bosche:
He just snuck in there, grabbed it. Yeah. It was great.

Mo Mooncey:
It was nice. They had all the kids there and whatnot. I feel like it's going to be a nicer memory for them then than otherwise because there's more intimate [inaudible 00:43:26].

Skylar Smith:
So just shout out, Jeanie Buss, first woman owner. Was she the first woman owner in sports or just in basketball?

Mo Mooncey:
We said this on my podcast the other day because I don't really know about many other sports except for basketball. And apparently the Raiders have a female owner.

Skylar Smith:
Oh, interesting.

Mo Mooncey:
I don't know who they are or if they've won or anything about them. So I'm going to claim it as the first woman in sports.

Brian Bosche:
[crosstalk 00:43:53] We have no fact checker on.

Skylar Smith:
Butler Jimmy, that bad bitch. I love her.

Brian Bosche:
I got to her Twitter profile picture Skylar showed me and I was like, "Whoa, all right, Jimmy."

Skylar Smith:
What's that up. Anyone wants the fun time.

Brian Bosche:
Anyone wants to look at it. Oh yeah. I was just going to say also it's memories for, I think I saw Bam post there's the loneliest photo of all time of him looking over the Laker celebration party and the bowl.

Skylar Smith:
I saw that.

Brian Bosche:
And it's just like when you have to sit there and watch the other team celebrating you don't get that another finals.

Mo Mooncey:
Fuel to the fire, fuel to the fire for the heat.

Brian Bosche:
Absolutely. All right. Any final thoughts on the final series before we move to Bubble talk.

Mo Mooncey:
Shout out to Joe Dudley, man represent for the deadbolts, proven that, even though you ain't going to see spot, you can still become a champion. Shout out to Jared.

Skylar Smith:
I have one last thing to say, which is, it was very surreal for me to watch Duncan Robinson taking charges from LeBron James when it was just like two years ago that I was seeing him literally every single day in our apartment buildings elevator. It's just like sometimes I would see him on the screen with LeBron and my brain would just break knowing that sorry, this is just a completely personal moment. Very surreal.

Mo Mooncey:
That was dope It just shows the journey that he's been on. You know what I mean? It was after Lee was so unexpected. Had she known this before if I was you I'd try to put a ring on that finger and secure the NBA bag.

Brian Bosche:
I mean, we tried with Mo Wagner that didn't work.

Mo Mooncey:
His little brother is supposed to be sick. He's coming out of Michigan next year.

Skylar Smith:
He is. Yeah, he played... last year was his freshman year and he unfortunately got a little injury, but yeah. Excited to see him back this year.

Brian Bosche:
Oh, little Mo, little Mo, little Mo, not little moments. Little Mo.

Mo Mooncey:
No, they call me big Mo.

Brian Bosche:
Big Mo, big Mo all right, let's go to Bubble Wrap or Bubble Wrap up. I think that was a No Dunks pod for a long time. Skylar. How do you think this NBA bubble went, takeaways overall?

Skylar Smith:
I think if I go back to my concerns that I had before the bubble, that's kind of a good way to judge how this Bubble went and I had two primary concerns going into this bubble and that was a COVID and social justice. I think those were pretty much everyone's concerns. COVID basically just, I didn't want a single one of them getting sick, not even dressed. I don't want any of them getting sick and I wanted to make sure that they could keep it locked down in the bubble. I was not sure about that. Then social justice, like it was definitely nerve wracking seeing like how much momentum, the social justice movement and Black Lives Matter and everything had in the US and kind of knowing that they were going to go to the bubble and how that might just distract people. I don't know just kind of lure people back into just complacency and it's a distraction.

Skylar Smith:
Mostly black men can be your entertainment, but we're not actually going to do anything. It was a concern and so with COVID obviously I think, it went incredibly well. We saw zero cases, which is insane. I would like Adam silver to run for president [crosstalk 00:47:26] is exactly where I was going with that side.

Mo Mooncey:
Great minds. Great minds.

Brian Bosche:
Is it Silver pops now, silver Popovich?

Skylar Smith:
I would go with silver car.

Brian Bosche:
Silver car. All right, we've changed.

Mo Mooncey:
I liked Greg because Adam silver is a nice guy and Greg's the feisty one.

Brian Bosche:
True.

Mo Mooncey:
You got to have someone who can lay down-

Skylar Smith:
That's true.

Mo Mooncey:
... the law.

Brian Bosche:
Good cop, bad cop.

Skylar Smith:
Honestly, I would take Stan Van at this point.

Mo Mooncey:
If I was you guys I'll take any one of this point.

Brian Bosche:
Seriously.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah, that's true.

Mo Mooncey:
Even Jared Dudley.

Brian Bosche:
Especially as we're seeing with the NFL now where it is just a shit show of teams-

Skylar Smith:
And college football and literally every other sport is having problems.

Mo Mooncey:
Even premier league.

Skylar Smith:
Even premier league. So yeah, I think COVID, it was incredible. They kept it completely locked down. Amazing. Adam silver for president, I think social justice. It definitely got to some points where I was like, okay, it feels like we're not really talking about things anymore, but then we had the boycott and they just shut things down. When it wasn't as much of a focus, we saw a lot of good things come out of it. We saw all of the stadiums become voting centers. Chris Paul got almost every NBA player registered to vote.

Skylar Smith:
LeBron is single-handedly, making felons be able to vote again. I'm just kidding. Not single-handedly shout out to everyone doing great work out there. So I think my two main concerns were handled really, really well. It was also incredibly entertaining. It looked great. The style of, or the level of play was great. I think overall this Bubble went genuinely as well as it could have. Zero changes. They couldn't have done anything better.

Brian Bosche:
Maybe the heat winning or the nuggets.

Skylar Smith:
Maybe the heat winning.

Brian Bosche:
What about you, Mo?

Mo Mooncey:
I agree with everything Skylar has said. I would have made a few changes.

Skylar Smith:
What changes?

Mo Mooncey:
I would have made it so that all the other teams had to come and watch the other games being played. Like imagine the Lakers in the crowd for the Clippers Nuggets game seven, imagine-

Skylar Smith:
Oh, the players that were there? How were they going to make the Pistons go to the Bubble to watch the rest of the team playing.

Mo Mooncey:
That would be so funny. Because they were a couple of games and like the warmup games where like [inaudible 00:49:50] and those guys came to watch some of the teams. But I would have just loved to have like a camera on that crowd the whole time. Just like the trash all coming from the crowd, it would have just been insane. I would love to see a documentary about it as well. I don't know if this actually got filmed or if they had camera people now, but like an actual 106. Well, I loved it as well. Was the blogs from Matisse and Travail, given that firsthand insight into the Bubble. That was dope. But yeah, the main things to COVID absolutely smashed it and the social justice board to the forefront. This is the thing about people saying, it's a distraction. I get it. We add notes for us it's a distraction.

Mo Mooncey:
But there was a time, I'm not going to say this person's name, but there was a time where I took a break from making content for a while and someone reached out to me and they're like, "You, what's going on, man? Why aren't you making videos and why are you doing this?" What's up bro? Just life I'm just not feeling that whatever, I'm just... as in not feeling it as in, I'm just got a lot of things going. This is when I was at Uni. So I was like, I've got exams going on. I can't really do this. And they were like, " You, I really miss the content, man. Like, yo, I'll be struggling with stuff sometimes and you just prize up my day to be able to talk about who like to listen to other people talking about it."

Mo Mooncey:
So, for a lot of younger people out there especially yoga people from the FD minorities. It's a nice escape from, because we're out here. If we were out and about police come and harass us anyway. Then we turn on TV and our people are being killed. So, sometimes it's nice to have a distraction. Even if it's not talking about whatever, like as in for younger people it's a nice escape into a different world of, all right we told my boss, we ain't got to worry about anything here. We, ain't got to worry about this person, that person whatever's going on, your safety, whatever. This is just basketball. It's just a game. And it's like your role models as well. How many kids look up to LeBron and look how many kids now want to be Jimmy Butler?

Mo Mooncey:
Look how many kids are going to go and be working out, trying to be like Jimmy Butler. So, I get the idea that it's a distraction, but this is what Jaylen Brown said to the rest of the guys during that strike, when they have the mass meetings, he said, "Look, what are you really talking about? Because I bet we can stay here with all the cameras in the world, pointed at us, everyone watching and use our voice. If you don't go home, are you going to be on the streets out everyday protesting? Or are you going to be in your house?" Because most of them-

Brian Bosche:
They're not going to go out.

Mo Mooncey:
I'm not saying they wouldn't, I'm just saying they didn't back before the bubble. Only a handful of players were really out there representing our shots are the ones that did, when you think about like the hundreds of players in the NBA and there's only like 30 of them that we had videos and pictures of being out there. I feel like being inside a bubble with everyone, talking about it and having the things on the T-shirts and on the court, it might seem symbolic to some people. But to other people, like I think about young people because you know, that's my primary audience and I'm still quite young compared to most people in this industry. Is for young people like kids growing up, teenagers might, it will probably whatever they see this on the call and it might be something they never thought about before. Because oftentimes when you're young, you don't know these things are real till you get older, you're just a child.

Mo Mooncey:
Especially if you're a White kid growing up, there's so many of my friends who are White, I don't know if it sounds offensive, whatever. But so many of my friends who are White, they didn't know anyone who looked like me until they came to the university and they didn't know that any of these problems existed in the world. Because they lived in that nice suburban neighborhood and everything's nice and there's no trouble and everyone will have whatever. So, it may open the eyes of a lot of people that you don't realize to say why they are saying Black Lives Matter. Let me go and look into this. Why does the court say Black Lives Matter? I'm going to go and search about this and what's happened. So if anything, it can seem like a distraction, but I think that's a very pessimistic way of looking at it. I feel like that's a very selfish way of, yeah, of course. If you're like a 30, 40-year-old and you go to work and then in your spare time, you watch an NBA instead of protesting and doing this, I get it.

Mo Mooncey:
But there is a lot more people in the world. And I feel like using your voice and your platform, like even myself, I went on the show and talked about all these different issues. And I even talked about some issues that we have in the UK, just because the NBA players were talking about that, I felt like I could say and it's not just the US. Then I went on to discuss some of the stuff that was happening here and had the NBA players not done that, I would have never had the chance to raise my voice-

Brian Bosche:
Exactly.

Mo Mooncey:
... voice those issues and those issues that no one on TV has ever spoken about. We were a sport show and I have people coming to me like, "You, even the news don't talk about this even the politics shows don't talk about this." So the fact that I know it sounds selfish, I'm talking about myself, but it gave my community and my friends, everyone felt represented on a national scale and same way seeing the NBA players, you feel represented. That's the way I see it. So I feel like the bubble was amazing.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, I agree on that. I think people will criticize the Bucks for how they performed on the court, but they had one of the most impactful moments in sports history. They stood up and decided that they were going to protest and every other sport followed through. it was unbelieved. That weekend was one of the most shocking I've seen in sports where every single league shut down and that's a huge takeaway and they actually recentered on all right, we need to accomplish these goals and they put a big focus on it again. So it was incredible for a lot of different reasons. But, I think you guys nailed those two. Also maybe if they would've sent Sky Sports presenters to the Bubble. Maybe that could have improved.

Mo Mooncey:
I told them I was available. I told everyone, "Look, I don't mind going, I ain't got any kids. Ain't got no family to worry about, you know I'll take my PlayStation for the off time and I'll stream some 2K while stuck in my room doing the quarantine, but I'll be there.

Brian Bosche:
All right, let's go on Skylar. Who is your bubble MVP off court and it can't be Jimmy.

Skylar Smith:
Off court?

Brian Bosche:
Off court MVP of the Bubble.

Skylar Smith:
I wouldn't have said Jimmy for off court. Come on.

Brian Bosche:
Of course you would have come on what are you talking about?

Skylar Smith:
I can be non biased. I just choose not to be quite often. I feel like I immediately went to LeBron and Chris Paul, and I honestly think you give it to either of them. I feel like they're doing slightly different work. They're both doing great work. Chris Paul was more like internal within the league. He really like led the league and led the players through this whole Bubble situation. He really like helped get it running as the president of the NBA players association. He's definitely been the one leading on getting them all registered to vote. He's just been a really great spokesperson for the players and how they're feeling and all of that. He's just been doing great work with the players. Then LeBron, I feel like is more of he's more working externally with... from the league where he... we've talked about his whole more than a vote campaign and non-profit and everything that they're doing to work on voter turnout in the US helping get felons able to vote again.

Skylar Smith:
LeBron is kind of the person who everyone makes answer these questions for the league and for the players at all times, he kind of doesn't really have a choice. He kind of always is forced to be the spokesperson for the whole league. And so he's just, he's just handled it really well.

Skylar Smith:
I love LeBron and I'm always impressed by LeBron, but I think this Bubble was really incredible for him. Just the way that he was able to perform so well on the court, be doing so much with more than a vote, be a father just be handling the day to day struggles of a Bubble and a Pandemic and being a black man in America. So, I feel like it's Chris Paul or it's LeBron. I could honestly be convinced either way, and I honestly don't want to choose between them.

Brian Bosche:
It feels like you pick LeBron. Rip Brawny when LeBron gets back home.

Skylar Smith:
Brawny got her own house.

Brian Bosche:
That house is, if you try to get that house in London, you're paying like three, 4 million pounds would be unattainable. So sorry. What about you Mo off court MVP.

Mo Mooncey:
Yeah, I can't disagree with LeBron and Chris Paul. I think George Hill, he led that Buck's standing up protest Jaylin, of course. Jaylin is a huge list amongst players and a lot of players actually go to him because, they feel like he's one of the smartest guys around. So, a lot of other players go to him on like a private level to say, "How can I learn more about this? Or can you explain this?" So, amongst those guys, but I want to say this a bit more lighthearted. I feel like I want to have some fun with it. The off court MVP, there could only be one man for this. Because the man who only played on the court for seven minutes is Jr Smith.

Mo Mooncey:
He had his top off before the game finished. He is the embodiment. He's the embodiment of when you do a group project, but don't create any work and you still get an A he's an inspiration for every high school kid. So, literally I made up because he's literally been off the court except for seven minutes. Lou Will was hilarious with his chicken wings, Danuel House as well, doing the most.

Skylar Smith:
I'll definitely feel bad about because he has a whole wife and kids who found out that way. But the Danuel House one, I'm just kind of sad about that one.

Mo Mooncey:
The thing is no one, there was no proof that those two met. The only evidence they had was his door opened within 30 minutes of her entering the hotel. Right. But what if he had just gone to the toilet? I needed to air his room for a little bit. So he popped the door open. No one thinks about these things. You know, that's too quick to make judgements.

Brian Bosche:
I would not want to be him going home out of the Bubble though.

Mo Mooncey:
Yeah, exactly. Man. That's why the rock is booked early plan.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, exactly. I agree with all of that. I'm going to give a shout out. I think Deuce was want Baby Deuce, one of the MVPs of the Bubble and through that, maybe Tatum, but just the Deuce content was incredible. Him doing the bedtime stories over Zoom and then coming to the Bubble, just a great arc for Tatum and little Deuce.

Skylar Smith:
He's so young and he's so tall. I wish we would got induced in the Bubble earlier. I felt like we got cheated out of Deuce and Bubble content.

Brian Bosche:
Go and blame Brad Stevens for that one. Yeah. Come on baby deuce in the finals, a huge missed opportunity. Let's go to another fun one Skylar who won the Bubble fashion. So we do best fits every week, Mo and Skyler, who do you think? I was always the same. It was like every week. And I'm like, come on, Skylar we got to just get away from him. He does have good fits. So who won the fashion show? That was the NBA Bubble. You got to think we'll stall for you.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah, well you can let me know if you agree with my choice. I was thinking about it and there's a lot of contenders who left the bubble pretty early. Like I love a Russ fit. I love a PJ Tucker fit and they've been great. Jordan Clarkson there's so many, but they've just been gone for so long and we actually didn't like, the Lakers are fine, but the Lakers and Heat aren't great fit teams for the finals. But I feel like every week we had Tyler Hero and Kyle Kuzma and my top fits the week, literally every single week, at least one of them was in there. And so I feel like it's got to come down to those two and I'm giving it to Kuzma. I know, I feel like Tyler Hero, he just kind of, he's just starting to figure out how his style, he just kind of got enough money to where he can actually be trying to figure out his style.

Skylar Smith:
So I feel like he's maybe a couple of years away from being our King and also just, I find a couple of his outfits, a tiny bit cringe. So, I feel like it has to go to Kuzma. Kuzma never disappoints. He just always has really good outfits and he switches it up a lot. We see a lot of them, like Dwight comes in with a cohort site a lot. Like there's just a lot of them who kind of stick to the same thing. Tyler Hero wore the same sweat suit in three different colors to three straight games. Kuzman on the other hand, that's like, all right, this week, he's got a track suit. Next week he's got like some cargo pants and like a fire button down the next week he's got like a completely different, but he like really changes it up. And I really, they all hit for me.

Brian Bosche:
Do you think Winnie Harlow had a big impact on that. Him stepping his game up in the Bubble?

Skylar Smith:
I feel like Kuzman has been pretty solid for a while. And so I think I don't want to take away too much credit from just his original style. Plus we're from the same area, literally from the same town. So I could feel like I kind of get it, but yeah, maybe Winnie Harlow helped him step it up a little bit.

Brian Bosche:
What about you Mo?

Mo Mooncey:
Fit King.

Brian Bosche:
This is a tough one because-

Skylar Smith:
No.

Mo Mooncey:
You don't know who actually surprised me with some of that fits Maya's Leonard. They're very simple is usually just a T shirt and some shorts or whatever, but the T shirts are always wavy, always coming with certain cool on them. I've really liked the bronze outfits because a lot as we go into the finals, they were either kind of Kobe tributes or they'd have a powerful message on them. So that's kind of my kind of style. What I will say though, about getting onto Tyler about his tracksuits is in London tracksuits sell out the uniform for Amanda.

Skylar Smith:
[inaudible 01:04:39]

Mo Mooncey:
No, but this is the thing you'll see me in a tracksuit. You might see me in the same tracksuit seven days a week, but I just think-

Skylar Smith:
No, I'm not saying he needs to wash that. I'm not doubting it.

Mo Mooncey:
Well, I mean, is where do you find a track suit that fits like the perfect fit. If I find a tracksuit that fits, I'll go and buy seven of them. And I won't care what anyone thinks. Because I'm rolling in comfort. I might go and buy all seven different colors because for me it's the comfort of the tracksuit. The materials you use, the way that it's cut.

Skylar Smith:
That's fair. I feel if you're prioritizing comfort, you can't exactly go for fit King at the same time.

Mo Mooncey:
Listen, the best outfit is the most comfortable outfit. That's what I will say.

Brian Bosche:
hat's what I was saying during the whole Nugget series. Skylar never nominated a Nuggets player one time.

Skylar Smith:
Because they were all rolled up in please trash aspects. This man was rolling off in.

Brian Bosche:
Just a lot. Someone's done YOKA trust in his uniform going into that.

Skylar Smith:
They're a part of their uniform.

Mo Mooncey:
Can I say like an assistant coach was the worst fit. The worst fit in the Bubble was when Nick nurse and erupted resistance wore that white and red striped stripes polo tee horizontal strips.

Skylar Smith:
I feel like the worst first of all, we never got an explanation on those polo tees. They were so random and weird, but doc and the clipper staff wearing that salmon polo. I swear every single game when they lost every single game that they wore the salmon polo tee for it

Mo Mooncey:
They did have it.

Skylar Smith:
Because of awful polo?

Mo Mooncey:
I think shy comes with five fits every time. If he didn't get knocked out so early, I would've give it to him, but I'm going to go with LeBron for the message more so than anything else, I'll go with a message over the flashiness of the way I say is I like fits that I would wear. That's the difference as well. I'll never wear half of Kuzma's fits.

Skylar Smith:
That's the problem is half of the fits I pull up for Kuzma. Brian just goes, I don't understand this fit. So it makes it pretty tough. I also appreciate how often LeBron was shirtless this Bubble. He was just straight up rolling up to games with a shirt on, but just wide open.

Mo Mooncey:
Should I tell you something though? If I was built like LeBron James, I would never wear a shirt again in my life. I could be winning. I could be an Oscars award ceremony and I would be shirtless. I couldn't be at the Oprah house and I would be shirtless. I could be at a wedding and I would be shirtless. I would be in trouble. I would wear nothing but a backpack.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, I don't think Jared Dudley popped the top off.

Mo Mooncey:
Thank God.

Brian Bosche:
Okay. Mine. I'm going to cheat. I'm going to go to the Wobble, Kurt Miller.

Mo Mooncey:
Oh, that's no fair.

Brian Bosche:
Head coach at this time.

Skylar Smith:
[inaudible 01:07:40] going to the wobble it's going to be [inaudible 01:07:43].

Brian Bosche:
Well, I'm the host. I pick Kurt Miller, loved the tropical shirts through the finals. Every single game was amazing and he got to wear his fits during the game, not just walking fit. So I nominate Kurt Miller. Otherwise, I'm not going to pick Dwight. That was the other one that I liked. I'm not going to pick Dwight for this. Sorry. Even though he had a three pointer in the NBA finals.

Mo Mooncey:
Tatum had some firefights as well.

Skylar Smith:
He's good he made fun of the week. Quite a few times.

Mo Mooncey:
I've been trying to get hold of some of the clothes that these guys wear, but it's so impossible because they're all like sold out instantly. Or they're like 20,000 pounds for a T shirt and I'm like God's sake, but trying to dress like NBA players a lot harder than you think.

Brian Bosche:
All right, let's close this out with some favorite memories from the Bubble, a little nostalgia. We're not going to have NBA basketball for a while still no start date. So, Mo when you look back on the Bubble, what's your biggest takeaway, your favorite memory? What are you going to take with you as the 2020 season finishes off here?

Mo Mooncey:
The biggest takeaway and the biggest thing I would say with is the social justice. You're using your voice and putting yourself in a position to get a spotlight in order to use your voice for the things that you care about. Like what the Milwaukee Bucks did is leveraging your power. As a young person all of these guys, I consider young in the grand scheme of things because they're not the owners, they're not the GMs young guys like myself are able to leverage their talents to bring about a change to a course. That same for me has really inspired me.

Mo Mooncey:
So that's my biggest takeaway. But if we're going to stick straight to basketball, my biggest takeaways. I need to show Brad Stevens how to pick apart his own defense. And LeBron James is unstoppable. My favorite series, I guess, was actually, Denver versus Utah. Yeah. I still, even though it was the first round and it was great because like they had those games on super early. So it was like 6:00 PM in England. And we were like watching it before dinner. So it was great times and the basketball was amazing. The other thing I loved is that Tyler Hero coming out pie I'm 28, but I'm a Hooper I can really Bu. So, I've been telling people about Tyler for a hot minute, so it was good to see him finally come out of his shell. Less than I could, the list would just be endless.

Mo Mooncey:
I could be here all day. I think a lot of people are starting to forget about the games that happened before the playoffs. [inaudible 01:10:27] over Paul George, and Kawhi then Lou composite B. Like, it seems like so long ago now, but every moment I've loved it. It's been what, three days now, four days I miss it so much. I don't know what to do, but we move.

Brian Bosche:
What about you Skylar?

Skylar Smith:
Yeah. Mo took it super serious to start off with I'm going to go. Well, honestly, the Baby's Bubble was such a highlight for me. I loved seeing the kids so close to the games, every game I wish we would have gotten more kids in that final series. I wish we would have gotten Zuri James celebrating, but that's fine. The babies were definitely a highlight. I think that it was really fun to just see how messy this Bubble got, because we were getting so much access to these players in ways that we haven't before, like the Lou will thing. So messy.

Skylar Smith:
Did you guys see Dwight Howard like exposing that him and Te'a Cooper were in a big fight, like after the finals, because he went live on Instagram and accidentally screen shared his messages with her and they were fighting like this Bubble was just so messy and I love it because I live for mess. Adam silver, we've already said he should run for president. He could run this country so much better than the current occupant of the white house. And yeah. I mean the social justice stuff was so important. I was thinking about the people who would watch on broadcast and just the kind of issues that were being talked about. I bet that a bunch of people didn't know that attorney generals were elected officials in the US side. People know that now because of this NBA Bubble, like that is going to be so important in the long scheme of things. Anything else? It feels like this has taken up so much

Mo Mooncey:
The way I see it is like, everything was good. I can't think of anything bad about it, except for my course. But yeah, aside from that I can't think of the only thing, the only thing that I would change if they were to run it back would be to create some sort of ventilation system, because you saw the play slipping on the court and luckily no on took it too seriously. But the reason why they will slip in is because of the condensation from all the sweat in the room, because it's not actually designed for sports. So maybe a ventilation system, but even then that's nitpicking at things. Yeah. That will change. But it was a resounding success.

Skylar Smith:
That Bubble was just such a nice distraction of the pain of daily life during this pandemic. And it's going to be a long time until we get basketball again. So I'm very sad.

Brian Bosche:
For me, it's the zero COVID cases, at a time in this country where like we're still on lockdown in the State Mo like it hasn't stopped.

Mo Mooncey:
Yeah. We enter it just announced London's coming back into a lockdown this week, or I don't know, bro. Like I stay locked down though. This is the thing I ain't taking no chances I stay, I've got my computer. I've got my PlayStation. Why am I leaving? If you want to talk to me meet me in the neighborhood on two K and that's it. We've got FaceTime. We've got WhatsApp, we've got Twitter we got Instagram. You don't need to see me I'm staying inside.

Brian Bosche:
And it's just been like, especially seeing different States in the US where they just completely ignore all science and safety precautions and Florida specifically. And to just have the NBA, embrace the science, actually put in a system where they don't have cases and they stop the spread. And then that can be done around this country. It's just a glaring example of how much leadership has failed us, which is, it's good to see the NBA doing it. And there's also been jokes. Like anything can happen if billionaires decide it should happen, which is what happened in the NBA Bubble. That's no joke though, is it? No, it is true. Like damn the billionaires wanted this to happen. So. they made it happen and we could have done this, but we just have it in the country.

Brian Bosche:
So, I think the COVID cases is huge. Then you're at the fun thing. It felt like this was the NCAA tournament a little bit where it's this it's we had so many storylines to the different rounds of the trailblazers going up to the plane and having that play in tournament in playing game, having the first rounds go to seven, like the Nuggets and the jazz. It just felt like there were like six different seasons within this one season. And there was so much drama. It was a lot of fun. And luckily we have the British basketball league. So we still get a little bit of basketball.

Mo Mooncey:
We'll condo. It's been postponed.

Brian Bosche:
Oh, they are again, I thought it was the 31st, the 30th.

Mo Mooncey:
No. I'm hearing a lot of different things from a lot of different peoples. I don't know who I can actually listen to man, but I'm hopefully fingers crossed, but I just want to make sure that all my guys stay safe, so I don't want them taking any risks of, because I know they can't do a Bubble here and they call it, make sure everyone's standing inside. Like I'd rather make sure my guys stay safe rather than a get out and play. But hopefully time in time, if they did a Bubble here, that would be kind of cool. And I feel like it could really help the game as well. That's another thing.

Brian Bosche:
I don't know if they pull it off. I don't know if there's enough money.

Mo Mooncey:
Well, this is the thing, but you got to think about it. Like if I was a brand and I was trying to get people involved, I would maybe invite a few different European teams to a Bubble and do like a Euro league style Bubble. But then include a few. Maybe the lions, maybe the writers. Few guys there. That would be really fun.

Brian Bosche:
Just set up in Surrey and they're in their sports park and just-

Mo Mooncey:
Oh, it's arena. Because arena has loads of hotels around it for the events. So, it could be like a little campus and there's nothing happening at the outside arena because obviously COVID so that whole area, because you don't go to that. You don't get off that ship station unless you go into the [inaudible 01:16:37]. So, that would be isolated anyway.

Brian Bosche:
All right. Nike, listen to Mo BBL listen to Mo some sponsor get in their sponsor Bubble. We'd love to see it, but thank you so much for coming on Mo thank you. Skylar it's been a great episode. Great show.

Mo Mooncey:
Yeah, man. I feel like we could talk all day long, but thanks for having me. It's been great to talk out with you both? And we'll talk soon, man. We'll talk soon.

Brian Bosche:
Absolutely. Anything to plug. Let's hear the channels. Let's hear the-

Mo Mooncey:
No, you know the vibes Man is Hoop genius on YouTube Hoop genius on Twitch Hoop genius on Twitter, Hoop genius on Instagram, you know where I'm at. It is Mo you know how I do, man. So yeah, I'm going to be bringing out daily concept throughout this off season, starting from that next week, because I just need some time to just seriously. What I've been doing for the last two days when I say, when I'm taking a break, I spend about 15 to 20 hours a day sat at my desk. So I'm South, right? For like 15 to 20 hours a day. So over the last few days, I've just been laying down. I was laying on the bed. I was even sleeping. I've still been working, but horizontally, just laying down and my back just feels refreshed and renewed,

Mo Mooncey:
So, once I've had a little break, just from constantly working on stuff, going to be doing, daily streams on Twitch, could it be doing a bunch of gaming stuff with 2K? Could it be doing a bunch of YouTube, really trying to push to YouTube. Now we're going to get that pop in Instagram, Twitter. That's just my thoughts. And just wherever I want to share about like anyone who wants to get involved and talk Hoops tweet me app me. I'm always around just trying to spread this movement of basketball for the basketball fans, the new care and across the world, man, just trying to spread the love of the game. That's what I do.

Brian Bosche:
All right. Thanks, Mo.

Mo Mooncey:
Appreciate it.