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If you had to bet on the first player to get a flopping fine, who would you pick?
Giannis and LeBron Gone?
NBA stars mesmerized by Mbappé’s offer
Saudi money is coming for sports as we know it!
First, there was LIV Golf, which aims to merge with the PGA Tour in a way that initially seemed impossible. Then, Cristiano Ronaldo, at the end of his career, decided to leave the EPL for €200 million with Al Nassar. Lionel Messi reportedly turned down $1.6 billion over three years to play in Saudi Arabia. Now, the club Al Hilal is coming for Kylian Mbappé, the 24-year old French megastar who currently plays for PSG in the French League.
The reported offer is $776 million over one year for Mbappé, and the transfer fee would make the deal clear $1 billion. Those numbers don’t even make sense, but that’s the gist of it. If you’re not much of a soccer fan, it was explained to me like this: Imagine LeBron James was offered a contract for $1 billion to go play in the Saudi Premier League … when he was about to sign with the Heat in 2010.
Obviously, these staggering numbers caught everybody’s eye. Giannis Antetokounmpo joked to Twitter and Al Hilal that he resembles Mbappé.
LeBron James joked (?) using a Forest Gump gif that he’ll be gone if Saudi Arabia calls Rich Paul and Maverick Carter about that one-year deal.
We also saw current Blazer and hopeful Heatman Damian Lillard throw a “wtf lol” at the reported number for Mbappé. His former and brief teammate Gary Payton II wondered if Al Hilal needed a defender on the pitch.
I don’t think we must worry about NBA stars heading to Saudi Arabia to play professional soccer, but I do wonder if/when the SPL gets into the mix at some point. Granted, soccer’s status as the world’s most impactful sport makes it easy to see the glitz and glamor of going after past and present stars.
Basketball also has its own global presence, but the top talent is all in one league, unlike soccer, so ostensibly, it’s more difficult to attract big names into a league like the SPL. But maybe it’s not if the money is that significant.
For his NBA career, Giannis has made roughly $147 million with at least another $150 million guaranteed coming. Lillard is around $193 million with at least $216 million more guaranteed. LeBron will soon be pushing $500 million in NBA career earnings and is an actual billionaire right now. And those guys are blown away by these illogical but real figures from Saudi Arabia.
We’ve seen Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Donte Greene, God Shammgod and Priest Lauderdale all spend a little time in the SPL at some point. I doubt NBA stars would truly forgo their primes and incredible salaries to play in a hypothetical situation in Saudi Arabia. Players at the end of their careers? It could absolutely happen if they decide to make the basketball league a much more global presence.
If you don’t buy that, well, soccer and golf (and F1) can prove otherwise.
Flopping Forecast
Who’ll get the first such technical?
Every once in a while, NBA journalists/media types like myself receive an email from some betting company pursuing headlines with their latest odds. And it sometimes works! Or, at least, the approach gets some good traction on social media.
The latest example is exploring which player will be assessed the first technical foul for flopping next season as the NBA institutes its new rule — at least until the NBA and its refs get bored of enforcing such a thing like they do with new rules and points of emphasis.
These were the top five flopping odds from BetOnline:
These odds don’t actually appeal to me. It could be any combo of LeBron, CP3 and Draymond, but that partially depends on how that first night of basketball will look.
Remember, we start out with two primetime games on a Tuesday. You can assume Nikola Jokić (25:1 odds) and the Nuggets will open the season with their ring ceremony. I would assume they face the Lakers or the Warriors that night. And we’ll likely get an Eastern Conference battle between maybe teams like the Celtics and Bucks. Maybe Miami or Philadelphia get the nod in there, but expect some combination of the four.
The Celtics and Sixers led off last season. Joel Embiid has 14:1 first-flop odds with Antetokounmpo coming in at 28:1. We don’t have any Heat or Celtics players in the listing, but Celtics fans might cheer for the recently traded Smart to still win the bet.
A Teague of His Own
The ultimate podcaster
Remember Jeff Teague? The Wake Forest point guard who played 12 NBA seasons, primarily for the Atlanta Hawks? He was the starting point guard for that 60-win Hawks team in 2015 and made an All-Star Game. The guy even had over 10,000 points and more than 4,500 assists.
He had a solid career and made nearly $100 million in earnings, but it turns out he’s also the greatest podcaster in the history of the basketball internet — better than everybody. Teague is a hilarious storyteller and willing to tell just about any story you’d like from him. His candor and personality have shined through to bring some great viral moments so far.
Here are some of the best highlights of his podcast “Club 520 Podcast” so far:
(WARNING: choice language!)
- He had beef with Tracy McGrady in Atlanta: Teague described how his heart dropped when T-Mac talked trash to him in practice.
Note: T-Mac has since refuted he has beef with Teague, via Oddball Hoops.
Shoutout to NBA editor James Jackson for contributing to this section.
Bounce Passes
Teague isn’t the only good NBA podcaster. Law Murray writes about Paul George and his fun podcast endeavor.
Remember SlamBall? It’s back and has the potential to rule social media.
Michael Jordan is no longer the primary owner of the Hornets. I miss him already.
Kemba Walker has signed with AS Monaco on a loaded roster in the French League.
Gilbert Arenas absolutely eviscerates Bol Bol and wants people to stop a narrative (WARNING: Lots of bad language).
Screen Game Homework
Last Friday, we reviewed Whoopi Goldberg’s ultimate Knicks fandom movie “Eddie” from 1996. This week, we’re staying in the mid-90s with the 1994 legendary hoops movie “Above the Rim.” It’s one of my favorite childhood movies, but we need to honestly assess if it holds up.
You can watch it on Amazon Prime if you want to do some homework ahead of Friday’s review, right here on The Bounce. We’ll answer the age old question:
Why was there a basketball hoop so close to the ledge on a high-rise rooftop?
(Top photo of LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)