Which matters because, according to a league memo shared with teams and obtained by Adrian Word, Yanovski, the N B A and the Players Association are expected by next week to have finalized an agreement for not just picking all Star teams, which the league was always expected to do.

Right.

You need those for contracts and everything else but hold on actual All Star Game on March 7th in Atlanta.

Her the memo.

The single night event will encompass the game as well as the skills competitions.

And so LeBron was asked about all this last night and LeBron was not pleased last night.

Take a listen.

I have zero energy Onda zero excitement about an All Star game this year.

Um, I don't even understand why we're having an All Star Game.

But it's the agreement that the players association and lead came about short off season for for myself and my teammates, with 71 days and then coming to the season we were told that we were not having All Star Game.

So we had a nice little break, you know, five days from the fifth to the 10th, you know, on opportunity for me to kind of recalibrate for the second half of the season.

My teammates as well, some of the guys in the league.

And then they throw all star game on us like this and and just breaks that all the way up.

So pretty much a kind of a slap in the face on, Do you know, we're also still dealing with the pandemic.

We're still dealing with everything that's been going on, and we're gonna bring the whole league in tow.

One city that's open U.

S.

O.

You know, obviously, the pandemic has absolutely nothing to do with it at this point when it comes to that weekend s o.

Obviously you guys could see I'm not very happy about it, but it's out of my hands and you know I'll be there if I'm selected.

Um, but, um, i'll be there physically, but not mentally.

Wow, a lot.

They're a slap in the face, LeBron James says.

Now, Vince, you are an eight time All Star And you also were an all Star over the time.

I just wanna give context here the league evolve where they used to just sort of throw you into the All Star game through you back at your teams.

Then the players union negotiated having a few extra days on each end.

So the guys who were all stars could at least also get a break.

That's not going to exist this time, either.

It's really just a four or five days stretch to be off from your regular schedule, and they want these guys to fly to Atlanta.

How would you feel if you were LeBron?

I would feel just like he feels.

Because think about this.

You know, you're asking these guys to have a quick, turnaround shortened offseason to get back in, and obviously money is involved, So if you come back, you make your money, okay?

Cool.

You agree with these guys that, uh, that's what I had bounced back then.

By the way you bring with you, you still have bounced.

Continue a little bit, but you get these guys to buy into coming back, and you're you're promising them that they will have five days off No All Star Game and you can utilize that time.

You know, Obviously the catch up went with Miss games.

But these guys came into the season, particularly Lakers and the Heat, feeling like, Hey, this would be the chance where they can kinda relaxing played ketchup to everyone else who had some time off.

And now all of a sudden you're saying There's the All Star Game and you know, I'm here in Atlanta.

It's open.

You're free to do whatever just about around here.

So I understand their concern and you put your when you bring the whole entirely here, or at least all stars at risk.

I mean, you're talking about all the all stars, all the best players from the best teams coming into Atlanta.

I don't know.

You know so and then you know one more thing I want to add to that and that you're hearing other guys and I hear some people saying, Oh, you know, Deer and Fox and whatever saying what he had to say.

All of these guys kill the saying it's like they don't feel safe.

Clearly, that's what it is.

And somewhere there's some miscommunication between players in the union, and it needs to be fixed.

Well, absolutely.

And one word comes to mind with me.

And that's the word.

Trust the word trust because the players trusted MBA and the Players Association word when they gave it to him at the start before the start of the season, when they told them that it wasn't gonna be a All Star Game All Star weekend.

And and so with that being said, When you look into it and look at how the players sacrifice so much a short, a short turnaround, guys not being able to have a full training camp and said you know what we'll make the schedule earlier and make Christmas Day will make the Christmas Day game happened because we know how important this is to the n b.

A.

We know how important this is.

The fans into everybody, the Christmas Day game, the players of sacrificing a lot being stuck in that hotel rooms testing daily to make sure that these games happen.

And on the flip side of that, games are still getting post home.

So everyone is still figuring things out for is dealing with this pandemic, and yet you have an All Star.

You just throw, throw, throw in the All Star Game All Star weekend, just on the spot of the spur of the moment.

Without really having no real communication, it breaks the trust.

This is why you get things in writing.

This is why you have happen under contract for situations like this.

You know what?

I've learned that even when you get something in writing, that doesn't always mean you want your product, the MBA product, to be at its best on the second part of the season because that's leading into the playoffs and then the playoffs.

So you want these guys to get is much rest is possible.

So you have your best player and your best product on the floor to show the world, especially being like it is now.

You don't have a lot of fans, so the basketball, you would agree, has been very competitive and very good.

So don't mess with that.

Don't mess with that.

You know, I don't want to pretend like anyone's digging ditches in the MBA.

Everyone is very privileged, and they're traveling on private planes and in a privileged way that being said, just to give an accurate idea of what is going on and different this season, teams now are being asked to test on the morning of games super early so that those results are back before tip off.

Because, remember, we had a couple examples early in the season where results came back when a guy was already on the bench and they're trying to avoid that.

That means some teams travel the night before, get in, have toe wake up test.

It's 6 a.m. then have their whole schedule and game day again.

Not a card ship in the grand scheme of things, but to give context to what these guys were doing every day right now and why that five daybreak might have been more important to them.