Hour 2: Brian Windhorst and Don LaGreca

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Hey babes, it's Paris Hilton. So I was checking my points balance in the Hilton Honors app the other day, and yeah, I've got about a billion, which feels excessive, even for me. Just kidding. You can never have too many Hilton Honors points. And I want to do something iconic this summer, so I'm giving away all my Paris points. Just find somewhere you've always wanted to stay, then go to my socials or Hilton's and tell me about it. Just make sure you're a Hilton Honors member, and I might be sending you Paris points, because when you want points that make your summer even hotter, it matters where you stay.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:31)
This is The Michael Kay Show Podcast.

**Michael Kay** (0:34)
I gotta get more Kay.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:35)
Listen live weekdays at 1 on the Espn New York app and your smart speaker.

**Michael Kay** (0:41)
Welcome back to the show, everybody. Just spoke with Jeff Passon, and he gave some good stuff on the upcoming trade deadline. I wanted to talk to Brian Windhorst for a couple of days now, and we're lucky enough to be able to grab him right now. So I want to welcome him into the show. Brian, how you doing?

**Brian Windhorst** (1:00)
Hello, Mr. Kay. How are you?

**Michael Kay** (1:03)
I'm doing great. Now, I don't know if you are the vindictive type like me. I don't know you in that way. But I would think, Bon Temps picks up and leaves and becomes an executive in the NBA and leaves your hoops collective podcast, which is so great. Are you angry at him? Will you ever talk to him again?

**Brian Windhorst** (1:24)
He now has to be very careful when he talks to me. You know, now it's a source relationship. But I think I got to start buying his meals. That's what's so annoying.

**Michael Kay** (1:33)
It's unbelievable. Good job for him. And the hoops collective will continue to go on, I assume, right?

**Brian Windhorst** (1:39)
It will. And listen, I don't know if anybody thinks we're any good, but obviously some front offices liked what he had to say, at least he got hired as executive by the Hawks.

**Michael Kay** (1:48)
Well, you're next. You're next, Brian. So you have known LeBron James since he was a teenager in high school. Were you surprised at his choice of the Sixers?

**Brian Windhorst** (1:58)
I was, of course. You know, I didn't have the full information, Michael. I mean, we didn't know that him wanting to win the championship this year was the number one priority. And, you know, it's easy to say that, of course, you want to win the championship every year, but that's what we didn't really know. You know, he left the Lakers and he said he wanted happiness. And, you know, that can mean different things to different people. And, you know, when he came out with his statement and he said, this decision wasn't being made for money, we didn't know that. He said this decision wasn't being made for family. We did not know that.
And this is the team that he thinks he can win the championship with. Those are two of the three giant pieces of information that we didn't fully know. So once you know those two pieces of information, it really comes more into focus. But even the 76ers were not sure this was happening within 48 hours of the decision. So this whole thing, and I don't say this critically, this is not me criticizing it, this is me commenting on it. It's a preposterous, ridiculous situation. It's a historic one-off moment, and he made a one-off decision. And I think it's very interesting, and I'm very engaged by it, and I'm looking forward to it. And I think that's a good thing.

**Michael Kay** (3:22)
Now you say he wants to win a championship, and they're starting five, obviously, as championship caliber.
But to me, I look at that squad, Brian, I go, well, Embiid has to be healthy. He can't go into this thinking that Embiid is going to be healthy. He's never healthy. So without Embiid, are they a championship level team?

**Brian Windhorst** (3:42)
It's a great question. And I, of course, agree he can't assume that. He's barely played the last three years. And here's the other thing. The last time we saw the 76ers, Michael, the New York Knicks were ripping them on one side and the other of the court. And particularly defensively, they attacked Jaylen. You know, that's what they, or they use Jaylen as an attacker. Like that's what they did. They found the pigeon, right? That was their strategy. They found the pigeon and went to work. And we, Mike Brown talking about what the way they put James Harden in knots, if you remember. And that's what they did to Joel Embiid. And, you know, of the 16 teams that made the playoffs, the Sixers ranked 14th in defense in terms of their defensive rating. And when the Sixers started this offseason, before they knew they were getting Jaylen Brown and LeBron James, their number one priority was, we need to get a guy with size who can defend. And they went and signed this guy for $40 million from the Cavs, Dean Wade. Now, that didn't make Sports Center.