If The WNBA Needs Time Why Forget The NBA Did Too

I hit the biggest basketball talking points on my mind, starting with the Kawhi Leonard investigation and what “no evidence” could mean for how teams build rosters and pay stars. Then I get into Tyrese Haliburton’s national TV frustration and close with a bigger message about giving the WNBA room to grow the same way the NBA once had to.  

• Kawhi Leonard allegations and the NBA saying it finds no evidence  
• What salary cap workarounds could mean for roster depth and player pay  
• Why I am intrigued by Kawhi’s next chapter and his potential impact  
• Shoutout to Karl Anthony Towns and his wedding news  
• Tyrese Haliburton’s opener not being national TV and why that happens  
• “Levels” of stardom and why opening night favors the biggest draws  
• My personal watch preference between Kyrie Irving Damian Lillard and Haliburton  
• Why WNBA criticism ignores how long the NBA took to stabilize  
• Bird and Magic as the NBA turning point and Caitlin and Angel as a WNBA catalyst  
• Pumping the brakes on WNBA slander while still leaving room for real critique  

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Transcript

Welcome And Quick Housekeeping

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What's up, everybody? It's your favorite show's favorite show, get a bucket. I'm your host, Trey, as usual. I hope you're all having a wonderful, wonderful day. Today we're going to talk about a couple of athletes that can get a bucket. You know what I'm saying? But before we do that, please make sure to hit that like and subscribe button. Comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show. Trying to get the ratings up a little bit, you know, just a little bit. And if you wonder why you heard this before, that feel you've been listening with me Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. So I greatly appreciate your support.

Kawhi Investigation And Pay Loopholes

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Now, told y'all we're going to talk about some buckets. Well, at least some athletes that can get some, right? Some buckets. So let's go ahead and start it off. Kawhi Leonard. Yeah, we know he had an allegation, right, that was being investigated where they thought the Clippers was trying to circumvent the legal way in the NBA to pay Kawhi Leonard. They thought they gave him a little couple extra dollars. Which I ain't gonna hold you. I didn't do the investigation, right? The verbiage that's being used is that the NBA has no evidence that Ballmer funneled money to Leonard via sponsors. So it's not that he didn't do it, it's that they have no evidence. Which could mean that they didn't do it, or that could just mean Ballmer and Leonard are the are are two bad boys, you know what I'm saying? And I wonder if they did find a loophole into circumventing how to play, how to pay NBA players. Because now maybe we can spread the wealth a little bit more. Think about it. What happens if we find out that Jalen Brunson was paid under the table? Or is gonna be paid under the table? He the star of the Knicks. But what if this is a new way to get stars or get athletes their bread while at the same time paying the others? Because the others still need a little capital, right? They need a little revenue. And if you can feed everybody, people are gonna work hard for you. Yeah, sure, you can argue about complacency and things like that, but if you got a good group, you might as well keep them. So I'm curious what this does for the league going forward. Yes, we're gonna see Kawhi Leonard pair with Scottie Barnes, and I think that's gonna be a wonderful pairing, both now and for the future, right? Because I would love for Scottie to learn some things from Kawhi and then eventually partner up with Anthony Edwards. I want to see that match up, that duo personally. But Kawhi Leonard, he may have a bigger impact on the league. I'm gonna be curious about this one myself personally, but he will be paying or playing for Toronto yet again. And, well, the Clippers are finally on a new ten year. Because, yo, it seems like he's been there for

Quick Congrats To Karl-Anthony Towns

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a minute, right? Next, I'm gonna give a quick, since I guess I talked about the Knicks, shout out to Kat. You know what I'm saying? He just married his now wife, Jordan Woods. Kudos on them and their and their nuptials, right? It seems like a lot of good things are coming for the Knicks players. So kudos to them. I just wanted to throw that little plug in there.

Halliburton And National TV Respect

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But here's something that we do want to mention. And by the way, Kat can get a bucket too, so I guess he still fits, right? But Tyrese Halliburton, somebody who I know he's known for his passing, but remember though, he did hit some clutch shots. He had arguably one of the clutchest playoff performances that we've seen, right? He was also recently married, too, right? Tied the knot, right? Heard you. He's upset because he found out that his opener isn't a nationally televised game. Keep in mind, it's levels to this, right? Like he's gonna be on a nationally televised game when he plays against the 76ers. Forget which game that will be for his schedule, maybe second. But I hear him. I do. Right? We saw Jason Tatum and his nationally televised game. Like, like we we've seen these caliber players. I don't think anybody's ever called Tyrese Halliburton top 10. And that's part of the issue. Like, why would we want to see Tyrese Halliburton over maybe Steph Curry or LeBron or Kevin Durant or Giannis or Jokik? Like, it's levels to this, ladies and SGA, Anthony Edwards, it's levels to this. And I get you. We just, when Tyrese Halliburton was healthy, he was just in the finals. I told you he arguably had the greatest, not greatest, but greatest clutch performance in NBA history, hitting multiple game-winning shots in series. And then he starts game seven off kind of crazy and then gets injured. Like, I understand the draw that Tyrese Halliburton thinks he has, but again, fella, it's levels to this. So don't be disrespectful, don't take it as too much disrespect if we're not watching you day one. There's other storylines to follow. And again, it's day one. I prefer to see you later on as you shaking off the rust. That's just me personally. Like, I'm not that hyped to see Damian Lillard in his day one. And keep in mind, Dame's status, Dame's star status is higher than Halliburton's. So again, it's level two, ladies and gentlemen. So I'm gonna love to see Halliburton and Dame and players like that returning. Kyrie Irving. I'm gonna love to see them returning for sure. Actually, matter of fact, I'm curious who you all are more interested in seeing. First, Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving, or Tyrese Halliburton. Because me personally, I may have to go Kyrie Irving, and that's not because I'm a Duke fan. It's because I genuinely like Kyrie Irving's game over those two other players. Not saying he's better. I'm saying my personal preference in watching. I'd rather watch Kyrie Irving get a bucket than Damian Lillard or Tyrese Halliburton. That's just me personally. But again, there's levels to it, and I just need to make sure that that was

WNBA Growth And NBA History Parallels

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stated. Now, speaking of levels to it, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna kind of merge both the NBA and WNBA. Because I've been talking with some people recently, right? And I've I've had these conversations before as well, too. More so when Angel and Caitlin kind of came into the league, right? I said that they were going to be similar to Larry and Magic for the NBA. You had the racial component, and then you also have the viewership component. People forget, ladies and gentlemen, that the NBA was actually not in the best space, which is kind of going at the point that, oh, the WNBA has lost has lost money each and every season. Heard you. Heard you. Until recently, where they've been turning a profit. Like we got teams who are now in the multi-million, like hundreds of millions of dollars in talking about evaluations. There's even an argument that one team is currently at a billion. Worst case scenario, we're talking about $750 million. That's still a lot of bread, ladies and gentlemen. That's a high number for evaluation. So why am I bringing up the NBA? Because again, they struggled early on. We gotta remember, the NBA used to be called the Basketball Association, right? Uh well, Basketball Association of America, to be technical. And they merged with the NBL, the National Basketball League. And that was in 1949. So before 1949, it was called the BAA. And they were struggling to survive in them early years, right? Like struggling. And it actually was not until, I want to say, yeah, when we got Bird and Magic in 1980, that that thing started to take off. Matter of fact, the league started out with 17 teams, if I'm not mistaken. Then I think, and that was in 1950, 1949, 1950, they had 17 teams. Then that very next season, basically, they dropped down to like 11. Then, you know, a little bit longer after that, they dropped down to eight. So we've seen the NBA actually whittle whittle away almost. Matter of fact, the Chicago Bulls, if I'm not mistaken, disbanded before they came back. Like Chicago's original team faltered. So like imagine a world where we don't see Jordan on the Bulls or the Bulls don't have six championships because of Jordan. That feels weird to say. But the NBA was at a point where it almost did not pan out. And again, that was during the early stages, those first 30 years, ladies and gentlemen. So even in the 70s, you still had issues with viewership. Still. And why am I bringing this up? Because I hear too much slander about the WNBA. Oh, they don't turn, they haven't been turning a profit in their entire history. Heard you again until recently. And I gotta say, I don't like all the commotion and distractions that we're getting around the WNBA today. I've talked about that before. And I need us to make sure that we're focusing on the growth of the WNBA. And if we're gonna compare the WNBA to the NBA, then I think the WNBA is right on track in terms of what they should be doing. Because again, this this the hoop law around the NBA sparked off because of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. The hoop law of the WNBA. I'm talking about to the to the masses too, ladies and gentlemen. I'm sure there were basketball sports fans that enjoyed the NBA before Magic and Bird. Just like I enjoyed the WNBA before Caitlin and Angel. That doesn't mean that I am looking forward to the WNBA getting back to what it used to be. Because I enjoy what I'm watching right now. What I'm saying is the fans, the casual fans, started paying more attention because essentially of these two athletes. And that's what we're doing with the WNBA. You got players who are energetic now, charismatic. You gotta love that for the WNBA. But again, it's starting off very similar to the NBA. So again, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I need y'all to pump the brakes on the WNBA slander and just enjoy what we're watching. Because if you're if you're gonna complain about the growth of the WNBA, then you have to complain about the growth of the NBA. But you're not complaining about the about what the NBA looks like right now, unless you're comparing it to the 2000s era, which, you know, we're talking about as the greatest era of all time, arguably, or the night or the or the 90s or even 80s, where defense is maybe a little tougher. That's the only time that we're that we're complaining about the game of basketball today. It's about the actual product. But not how we view the sport itself. People are still trying to play in the NBA, people are still loving about game of basketball. So let's not forget that, too, ladies and gentlemen. So again, let's show a little more grace to the WNBA. Because 20 seasons from now, who knows? I wonder if it reaches to the level of the NBA. That would be interesting. But, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I just wanted to make sure that I talked about those topics real quick. Because again, quick hitters, right? Should be fun ones to study. Like I'm looking forward to seeing Kawhi Leonard and how does he play now, knowing that the allegations, the investigation is over. Is the allegation and investigation actually over? Are they gonna try to spin the block with it? I don't know. Let's find out. Maybe Tyrese Halliburton is gonna show the rest of the league, or is it gonna show the league, hey, y'all need to put more eyes on this? What if the Pacers get back to the finals this season? Hell, what if they win it this season? That'd be interesting. So we gotta pay attention to Tyrese Halliburton and the Pacers a little bit because they are at minimum interesting. And if they're all, and if they're gonna remain in the playoff race, they will be talked about over the season. And then speaking of the season, again, NBA, WNBA, let's speak about these positively. I don't mind criticism for sure, but slander is where I kind of lose you a little bit. Especially when you talk about the WNBA like it's completely less than. But in comparison's sake, they're right on

Big Questions And Final Sign-Off

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track. But I'm curious, ladies and gentlemen, what do you all think about the episode thus far? What do you think about Quiet Leonard's investigation? What do you think about Tyrese Halliburton's situation or statements that he's making about not having his first game being televised? And then what's your thoughts on the WNBA's trajectory? I'm curious. But ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, that does conclude the end of the episode. So please make sure to like, subscribe, comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show. My name is Trey, I'm the host of Get the Bucket. I hope you are all having a good one. Take care.