The Jazz are off to the races, do we really need an All-Star Game? And Jayson Tatum stops by to share his journey to the NBA.
On this episode of The Crossover Podcast, Chris Mannix and Howard Beck discuss the Jazz’s strong start to the season (and if Utah is built to win in the playoffs), Shaq's comments towards Donovan Mitchell, what's wrong with the Mavericks, the NBA’s plans to push ahead with an All-Star game during the pandemic, the latest developments with Bradley Beal, more. Plus the impact the pandemic has had on sports journalism, why reporters have stopped going to games, more. Later, Jayson Tatum on being raised by a single mother, how he honed his game in St. Louis, his rapid rise in the NBA, the influence of Kobe Bryant on his career, the lessons he learned from a snake-bitten second season. And much more.
The following transcript is an excerpt from The Crossover NBA Podcast. Listen to the full episode on podcast players everywhere or on SI.com.
Chris Mannix: I've got plenty of issues I've had and I've written about my issues with the NBA and what they've done with these first couple of months of the season. This is another beef I have with them, that they're doing an All-Star game when they couldn't satisfy certain obligations by just announcing All-Stars. And I don't know about you, but I think it's a completely unnecessary risk.
Howard Beck: Now, listen, guys should get the honor and the ballots are out. We will elect All-Stars. And that's as it should be for posterity, and for contract clauses and all kinds of other stuff too, like bonuses and all that. That's fine. But the All-Star Game itself, some years it's a lot of fun, and a lot of years it's pretty crappy. It's a spectacle, it's not essential.
Mannix: Wait, wait, when is it fun?
Beck: The ending last year, that was fun.
Mannix: All right, I mean the ending of the game was but like the event itself, who cares? I stopped going years ago.
Beck: So I still go for all the schmoozing and all the just being around the NBA.
Mannix: But there are better options for that. Like I agree that's a necessary component. But Summer league supplies that, even the Portsmouth Invitational kind of supplies that, and the combine usually supplies that.
Beck: There are other places. You're right. Look, for All-Star weekend there are the corporate sponsors, all the corporate people they bring in who are comprising most of the audience for those things.
Mannix: I go for the free swag bags, what do you go for?
Beck: I've got a lot of really good swag. I still have my NBA umbrella from one of the New Orleans All-Star games when it drenched us during the text of it and they handed out these free umbrellas to everybody as they were leaving. I've still got that umbrella, it's a little tattered now though it's getting beaten up. But the game, the dunk contest, three-point shootout. I think if you're a kid or if you're younger like that still holds a lot of allure. I think for guys like you and me, who have seen way too many of these, it's just not as entertaining anymore.
But I'm not going to tell other people that they shouldn't find it entertaining. So it's fine, it serves its purpose. But let's put it this way, is it essential during a pandemic? You can say, is the NBA essential? Well, no, but the NBA also is a provider of thousands and thousands of jobs, and it's a revenue generator. And so I understand restarting the season. I don't think anybody said don't have an NBA season, but you're doing it within certain limits that you've already imposed. 72 games instead of 82, no fans. They're sacrificing God knows how many hundreds of millions, in not having fans. There are certain conditions that you believe you have to impose to make this workable and safe or at least semi safe. And yet still we've had 24 games or whatever postponed so far and a lot of guys who have gotten sick.
So you're just ranking levels of essentialness, right? You've decided the games are important enough because of the money, because the jobs, because of all that. The All-Star Game and All-Star Weekend is completely nonessential. That is where you should draw the line.
It's an exhibition game and not a very good one most years. So as you put it Chris, why are you putting all these guys on planes from all these various parts of the country, flying them into Georgia, which has done a really crappy job with this pandemic and has been really hands off people, and from what I gather, there's not a lot of mask wearing going on in Atlanta. And you're going to put an All-Star Game together there? You don't need to do this. Whatever money is being lost, find it somewhere else. You can weather that storm. You're already losing hundreds of millions this season anyway. Just deal with it. I'm sure some part of this is that Turner, which broadcasts all of All-Star Weekend really wants it. I'm sure the players who have to sign off on this, that there's certainly some financial incentive for them. I just don't get it, this is where you should draw the line.
Mannix: They're slaves to the TV network right now, and it's their only source of real income so I get it. But to me, it's just an unnecessary risk. Just do away with it. Come back next year, swallow a little bit more of a loss.
Beck: No one will miss it.
Mannix: No one will miss it.
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