JJ Redick Rips NBA and Media for Not Promoting the Denver Nuggets and Nikola Jokic | THE ODD COUPLE

We are having some robust conversations about the NBA and we are going to keep it that way. An E from JJ Reddick, former NBA player who was a very good player and has really become maybe an even better analyst and media personality. I love hearing him talk about the NBA. But he was talking the other day on First Take, the show with our friend Stephen A. Smith, and he was kind of chastising the NBA and the NBA media and so on and so forth for not promoting the Denver Nuggets and Nikola Jokic and that's why so many people are saying I didn't know he was so good and oh my, wow, I underestimated him and I underrated him and so on and so forth. Here's what JJ had to say. This is just the way that we have sold the NBA. I don't love it. After game one of the Nuggets-Lakers series, I was on a show. I was on Get Up for Two Hours. I was on the show for two hours. I would say over half the conversation was about the Lakers and what they did. Oh, by the way, Nikola Jokic had his third straight triple-double that game and had 34, 21, and 14. How much did we talk about that? We don't do a good job of selling what the NBA is, which is 30 teams, 450 players, multiple superstars. The fact that people are now being like, oh, I didn't realize Nikola Jokic was good. Well, let's put him on TV more. Let's talk about him more. Stephen A? All right, I'm going to say this. What made the NBA, and I'm a little bit older than you, Ephraim. A little bit. I remember a little. I remember when the NBA was on tape delay. I remember. Now, it wasn't as hard back in the day to avoid knowing the score, right? There were only three channels and, you know, there was obviously no social media, no, you know, internet and all that. And so you just didn't watch the news, basically, if you didn't want to know who won the game before you watched it at 1130 after the news. And that's those are the NBA finals in the late 70s. And what made and this is one reason I think David Stern is the greatest commissioner in American sports history. The late David Stern, who preceded now Adam Silver, the commissioner David Stern, when he took over the league as commissioner in 1984, what he said that I think and I think it was smart and what he did was he began marketing individuals, not just the teams, but the individuals. And it got to a point, Ephraim, where essentially every team had a marquee name. They might not have been a very good team, but every team had a guy you you knew the name and you wanted to see him play. And that is what took the NBA into the stratosphere. And so, JJ, yeah, that sounds nice. But I look, I used to be when I was on SportsCenter and I would be responsible for giving them some news about the NBA. They only wanted a handful of teams or players or unless there was something incredibly controversial about Sacramento, you know, or Atlanta or, you know, some middling team at that point. And but this is the thing. And, you know, this you don't we don't talk about all sports. We don't talk. We talk not don't talk that much about baseball. We don't talk hockey. We don't talk, you know, college baseball, lacrosse. Like we're not just saying, you know what? We are sports talk show. We got to talk all the sports. We talk what people want to hear. And the NBA puts the teams on television for the most part that people want to see. And Jokic in Denver will be on a lot more next year for sure. And the talk shows talk about the players who are exciting, who move the needle. We did. How much did we talk about Tim Duncan? Right. You're absolutely right. And I'll tell you this. Yeah, the Nuggets are going to be on TV a lot more next year, but they won't be against the Houston Rockets. They won't be against Orlando Magic. Right. Right. Right. They're not going to just be on TV against. They'll be on TV against another marquee name and another marquee team. The ABA was wildly more popular than the NBA was with the Dr. Dre. I mean, the Dr. J. Right. And the Afros and the dunks and the showmanship. Three point shot. The three point shot. The excitement of the game is what made it popular. What took the NBA to the next level was a young man out of Michigan State by the name of Irving Magic Johnson. Yep. And David Stern knew he had lightning in a bottle. You had another kid coming to the NBA from French Lake, Indiana by the name of Larry Bird. Yep. Yep. And those two individuals made the NBA what it is today is a reason there's the Celtics and the Lakers. Now, if this was the case, if what J.J. Reddick is saying is true and to an extent it is true. Yeah, we get what he means. We understand it. But in terms of marketing and brand, right, and revenue, because the NBA is a business just like the NFL, in terms of that Denver Nuggets and the Joker don't resonate with anybody. Right. And he now and look, and I didn't even I wasn't even thinking about this before the show or before this segment even. But the San Antonio Spurs are the perfect example. They won five championships with Tim Duncan, but they never really moved the needle because of his style of play and his understated personality, at least publicly. And now I do think he from Jokic now he is a phenomenal passer. I think he's the best passing center ever. I mean, it's not even a question. Right now, he's not as exciting. And you mentioned Larry Bird. Larry, I said he's kind of like a seven foot bird. But Bird was a great passer, but also a relatively fancy pass. And, you know, like, no, it was a dog. He didn't get in your face. You don't talk trash. Right. Right. That was the persona. That was the the energy. Right. Right. That was you don't get what Jokic did. He's I think he's a dog inside. Did you get more like Tim Duncan? Right. It's going to run down the court. You're going to get the rebound. Push the ball. Great pass. Hit the shot, which is fundamentally exactly the type of NBA player you want. But as an owner, I'm trying to increase revenue. As a business, I'm trying to increase revenue. The Lakers played six of the top eight games and ten of the top 13 highest rated playoff games this year. The only games they got a higher rating were the game sevens between the Warriors and the Kings, 76ers and the Celtics. You see what I'm saying? Yeah, you have it right. That is what the NBA is like. Yeah. Hey, promoting a great passing and playing and and this player. There's nothing exciting about Nicola. Right. He is everything he does is perfect. Right. Everything he does is exactly how a coach will want a player to do. Right. You take John Moran, John Morant and Nicola and you put them next to each other and you go around to every AAU team or our our business and ask them, who would you watch? Who would you put your marketing dollars like? There's a reason why the Joker had a sneaker. He had a sneaker. He was the new face of Powerade. All that's gone now. Right. But this is what it's the excitement. It's Memphis. It's a small market. Right. Right. But we talked about the Memphis Grizzlies and we watched them on national television more than anything else. Yep. Now that you you're absolutely right. And now look, I wonder because as we said, Denver is going to be on more next year, I wonder Jokic's game. I do think it's more exciting than, say, a Tim Duncan's because he is such a phenomenal passer. He does lead the fast break. You know, a guy that big. I I wonder if from if because, OK, he'll be a champion. He will probably be widely recognized as the best player in the world. He's such a unique player for that size. Duncan did, you know, the typical things you expect of a big man, but obviously at a super high level. But he wasn't leading the break. He wasn't shooting threes. He wasn't, you know, passing getting tennis is the game. And also Nicola Jokic obviously is white. And I wonder if those factors is the uniqueness of his game, particularly for a player that size and the fact that he will be. We haven't had a white guy be the best player in the league since Larry Bird. And so I wonder if that and I'm not even talking about a all white people going to rally behind him. Maybe some some probably will, of course, but I'm not even talking about on that level. I even think it'll be a fascination for whatever your race is, because we haven't seen this in a full generation or two. And so I wonder if that could all could lead to him being popular on TV as well. Not the style of basketball he plays. The person you're talking about, the white player that you're talking about is Luka Doncic. That that's fair. But I wonder if people are tired of him dominating the ball so much. No, because that's what you want him to do. That's what you want to see. You want to see him dominate. Not you, but in terms of fans and all of that, he is. I love Luka and I do love his game. I love watching him more than the Oakens. I give you that. Yeah. So that's what I'm saying. Right. Like if you're a center and you're taking the think about the centers that were the faces of the NBA and that brand. Right. Look at Shaquille O'Neal. He would put you in the back. You want your center to put somebody in the rim. The Joker may dunk once every four games. I don't mind my center diming like he does. I get it. I understand. But guess what? Your two guard can dime. Your stretch forward can dime. You get what I'm saying? What they can't do is dominate somebody and put them in the rim. You take someone's soul out of their body when you can give them chest to chest, dribble, dribble, turn and just dunk on them. The Patrick Ewings, right? The Alonzo Mornings, the Shaquille O'Neals. Like when you're talking about bigs, the Dr. Jays, when you talk about bigs and you talk about marketability for those guys, that's where you want that. You want that. Well, those are the guys that the individuals that lifted the league. You mentioned Bird Magic. Very exciting. Both of them. Dr. J before them. Obviously exciting. Then, of course, Michael Jordan. Yep. As great as Kareem was, it wasn't Kareem. No, it was Michael. That lifted it. But now, of course, Michael Malone, the coach of the Denver Nuggets, has been very vocal. I actually like it. But been very vocal about what he perceives as disrespect for Nikola Jokic and his team, but especially Jokic. Here he is. Let's be honest. That was a national narrative was, hey, the Lakers are fine. They're down 1-0, but they figured something out. No one talked about Nikola. Just had a historic performance. He's got 13 triple doubles now. Third all time. What he's doing is just incredible, but the narrative wasn't about the Nuggets. The narrative wasn't about Nikola. The narrative is about the Lakers and their adjustments. So, you know, you put that in your pipe, you smoke it and you come back and you know what? We're going to go up 2-0. Look, I think Michael Malone is being smart, because he is not only speaking to the media, he's speaking to his own players and he is selling the disrespect card big time and it's working. Look, I don't know if he's mad that Jokic didn't win the MVP this year, but I don't think, yes, some people are seeing Nikola Jokic for maybe not the first time, but one of the few times they've watched him and recognizing how great he is, but I don't think the media has done that. He's won two MVPs. He can't be that overlooked, that disregarded and disrespected when he's won two of the last three MVPs and finished second this year. Can he? Am I tripping? A little bit. Really? Yeah, because it goes back to what we were talking about last segment about marketability, right? What's a better story? What's a better story? The Joker playing the position he does and the way he's playing it are the Lakers, are Boston, are, right? Everything about the Miami series has been about what Boston isn't doing right, what they need to do. Everything about this series, the Western Conference Finals was about, like he said, Mike Malone said, the Lakers are doing this, the Lakers are doing that, the Lakers are going to now do that. LeBron needs to do this. LeBron needs to do that. I get it. If I was a coach of a team like Denver, I'd be going crazy too. Look at what we're doing. We're the number one seed, the last number one seed in all of basketball. We've done nothing but dominate the teams, the superstars that we've had to dominate to get here. Oh, by the way, we just swept one of the NBA's storied franchises and arguably one of the greatest players to ever play. We just swept them and yet the narrative is still, what are the Lakers going to do next year? What is LeBron? So the disrespect is real. I do think for the team, that's fair, but the narrative is also Nikola Jokic. For those that didn't know how great he is, and for those that did know, it's kind of like we told y'all so. Yeah, but the problem is, why didn't we know? He was the MVP. We did know. That's my point. He won two MVPs. Listen, hold on. You know because you're in the business. What I'm saying is, you made a statement just two seconds ago for those who didn't know, now they know. But Michael Malone was talking to the media. That's all I'm saying. He wasn't talking to your average casual fan. The actual casual fan didn't know who Joker is. They don't know. They're like, who is who? And that's fine because the average casual fan is not the one making the narrative either, and that's why I'm talking. I'm saying the media wasn't disrespecting yo. We've known in the media how good he's been. Right. We've known how good he's been. Precisely, because we gave him two MVPs. But we don't talk about it enough, and that's what he's saying. We'll talk about the people who didn't win the MVP award, and how many votes they didn't get. But it's like you said, because their games are more exciting. We didn't talk about dunking. That's exactly right, and that's all. As great as we knew he was. That's all Mike Malone is talking about. The disrespect is real. I think the disrespect for his team is real. I don't think the disrespect for Joker. I've been in arguments with basketball fans and all of that, and nobody's trying to give. Somebody said something to me before the season started. It was like, Joker's just the best player in the NBA. And I was like, are you out of your mind? Right? I couldn't bring myself. Me knowing what he's done, I couldn't bring myself to be like, yeah, you're right, man. Right? Just because. You had no reason? Because I was saying that too at the beginning of the year, but I had a reason. But then you were like, you know, you got Kevin Durant. You got Steph Curry. You started naming out all of these people. But those were legitimate arguments. But none of them can do what Jokic can do. None of them. But my point, the reason I felt Jokic wasn't the best was because of... He can't sell shoes. No, he had nothing to do with shoes. It was a lack of defense. Now, what we've seen is that that is his weakness. And it's not really a negative, but it's not like a great positive, like Giannis or Embiid. But his lack of defense hasn't stopped him, certainly this year, from excelling. And anybody else you would say in the league right now who you think might be better also has weaknesses. Giannis can't shoot free throws or jump shots. That's a weakness. Embiid is just, won't go in the post, won't play to his size, you know. And he got weaknesses. So my point is, they all have weaknesses. I'll take Jokic's weakness with what he does better, you know, offensively.