Follow The Money | July 22, 2026 | Hour 2

**Pauly Howard** (0:11)
Pauly and Dustin, Mitch on vacation all week. He's sweating this Brewer game, 4-2 Milwaukee, bottom of the eighth.
And you want to get nuts with the Mets. You're never out of the game in play. Mets 15 to one to come back. Natsali Dharaki's one nothing in the sixth. Brian Mahoney joins the program, now covers the NBA for the Associated Press. Brian C. Mahoney on X. He's on the Progressive Guest Line, and he joins us now to talk a little hoops. And day 23, Brian, of indecision, do you think there was something to what happened last night with the mix up with the YouTube and what the Heat did, saying LeBron Press or July 27th?

**Brian Mahoney** (0:48)
It certainly makes you think. I mean, obviously, Miami, we all thought was going to be a candidate, maybe a favorite. So when that happened, sure, you understand where it can be an accident and all that stuff, but you also kind of wonder, like, okay, is this really the hint we've been waiting on? And certainly, I would understand why people think that was telling us something. And as much as the Heat say otherwise, obviously, we'll find out at some point. But certainly, it gives you reason to think maybe we're inching towards something here.

**Pauly Howard** (1:17)
Well, I hope so.
I think at one point, we all would like to be in a position where we could tell our boss to go bleep himself. How about Adam Silver says, hey, wrap it up, let's go. We have to make the schedule and he says, I'm just going to take longer now. It's unbelievable.

**Brian Mahoney** (1:34)
I understand exactly what Adam meant when he said that. Because obviously, look, I'd assume if he goes East, whatever team it is would probably play the Knicks on opening night. If he stays West, probably goes to LA on Christmas. So I know exactly what Adam meant. But of course, if I was a Bron, don't rush me. You're right.
If you could say you want an answer, guess what? You're not getting an answer. Most of us in life can't, but LeBron certainly can.

**Dustin Swedelson** (2:00)
Brian, I keep getting stuck on this, though. You've covered the league for a long time. So you probably know him way better than we do.
He loves the attention, but he also loves the perception. He wants to control the narrative. He cares about how he's perceived and how he's viewed. If you're going to rank the four teams in the mix, Miami, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Golden State, which team for his legacy and how he's going to be viewed down the road makes the most sense for him to go to right now.

**Brian Mahoney** (2:26)
You know, it's such a good question. I'm having such a hard time with this one because, you know, I don't really necessarily know what he wants because I don't think any one of those is like a guarantee that if LeBron goes to it, they're going to win or even if they're going to get close.
So whether, you know, I think if he goes to Philly, if I had to answer one, I would say Philly, because they have obviously not even gotten past the second round in 25 years. They need, you know, something to... So if he goes there and they make the move, if he becomes the, you know, the Jalen Brunson in New York to win in Philly and all of a sudden the team gets good and they keep going, I think that probably is the best legacy one for him. But, you know, I don't know if he necessarily wants that anyway. And, you know, Philly is a tough fan base and they're impatient and there's guys there who don't stay healthy and Joel Embiid. So it's a lot of, just a lot of reason to kind of wonder on each and every one. There's an easy answer for LeBron on this one.

**Pauly Howard** (3:20)
Isn't it a bizarre fit in Miami with Bam, Fim and Freak?

**Brian Mahoney** (3:25)
I mean, it's an unbelievable front court and a lot of questions after that. It's, you know, I think, you know, I think it'd be fun to watch him and, you know, him and Giannis together and Bam sort of behind them backing them up.
But yeah, it's I'm not sure it's any better than, you know, some other big threes we've seen in a lot of years. And it's certainly not one that's going to stay healthy. Giannis gets hurt a lot now. But Brian is at an age where he's going to need to sit out games. So, you know, when that happens, then what do they have behind him to win? So it's again, like I say, it's there's a lot of fun choices for him. There's a lot of all of them that has a guaranteed at least one or two questions that make you think it might not go as well as he would want it to.