The Drama Is ESCALATING In The NBA

Things are close to escalating in Phoenix and it's not only that but there's even more drama around the league before the season even starts. Sit back and let me dig through this chaos. What up everybody, my name is Stefan and this is Heat Checked. Let's get into it. First of all, I should have caught this in the initial press conference. Look at Aiden's reaction on his max contract. And with the latest passive-aggressive comment from the intro, now everyone is really sensing the tension between him and the coach. So, of course, Manny Williams had to respond and he tried to downplay it. The problems that these two had throughout last season that even impacted the contract negotiations are seemingly at their peak. To make matters even more interesting, the Suns cannot easily just press the nuclear button and trade him if it gets even worse. Because in that max contract, DeAndre also has a one-year no-trade clause, so either they find a way to make it work or this could be a season of implosion for the Phoenix Suns. Next up is a real heartbreaking update from Lonzo Ball. Initially, he was given a 6-8 week recovery for an injury that happened in January, but he never came back. And this is from yesterday. Let me remind you that at the moment of his injury, on January 14th, the Bulls were number one in the East. And while some of that was the easier schedule at the beginning, a lot of it was also the phenomenal play and especially defense from both Lonzo and Caruso. From that point on, injuries started to pile up and the Bulls slided down the standings. Ball is an extremely important piece to this team and it's scary that the team is bracing for a possible season-ending recovery. Let's hope that this won't be the case. And this Russell Westbrook story is straight up trash, so I need to call out the reporter on his BS and for trying to stir things up. In yesterday's video, I specifically praised Russell for how he handled a tough question about the Lakers not wanting him to be there. Well, Bill Plasky from the Los Angeles Times asked that question and then completely flipped the narrative and called his answer combative in his article. You see how he conveniently cut the quote right here so for anyone that hasn't seen the video and heard the tone with which it was said, along with the context later on, just reading this half quote sure sounds combative. Then he created a narrative and wrote an entire piece on it. Plasky was criticized heavily on Reddit and I love the reactions. Trying to craft your own narrative and twist someone else's words to say something that is the complete opposite of what they meant, that's total BS. The NBA has enough drama as it is and there's no need for creating more with fake quotes and twisting words. Hey, I'm less than 5k away from 600,000 subscribers so hit that button. Talk to you in the next one. Peace out.