Brian Windhorst and The Hoop Collective are taking their podcast on a global tour in October, as the ESPN/Omaha Productions show will travel to Manila, Macau, and Melbourne.
The ESPN NBA insider spoke to Front Office Sports about the impetus for the tour, if he was surprised that Adam Silver dropped the hammer on the Clippers, and several elements of LeBron James signing with the 76ers.
Front Office Sports: Tell me about this global tour and how and why it came together.
Brian Windhorst: I really had interest in going to Abu Dhabi. I’ve had really good visits there—I went three years in a row, twice with Team USA and once last year for the NBA games. There’s a tremendous amount of NBA fans who come from the Middle East to come to those games in Abu Dhabi. It’s really a kaleidoscope of jerseys at those games. And so I thought it would be really cool to go there, and the arena in Abu Dhabi is near a restaurant district.
I sort of had this plan all along to do Abu Dhabi and then go to Macau because the Rockets and Mavericks are playing in Macau and Vegas Sands, who owns the Mavericks, said that they’d love to have our podcast come there. So, I kind of had this idea of going to Abu Dhabi and then Macau.
And then, when I went to the World Cup of Basketball in Manila 2023, I got incredible responses from people who listened to the podcast. 1% of our audience comes from the Philippines. The No. 1 country is the U.S., No. 2 is Canada and then the No. 3 country in terms of listens is the Philippines—it’s like tens of thousands of listeners and viewers every month. It’s a lot of people, so, I always had that in my mind.
Unfortunately the war [in Iran] made Abu Dhabi not happen this year. And so I basically said, ‘Can I still do this because Macau—the Vegas Sands was interested in hosting—and ESPN Australia has NBA rights as legacy from the 20th Century Fox deal.’
So I’m going to go down and do one at a venue in Melbourne on a Friday night, October 2nd, and we’re going to be at this place called Courtside Melbourne. They have courts and shops and restaurants, and it’s like a basketball hub in Melbourne. And I’m going to attend a Melbourne United versus Cairns Taipans game, and I’m going to be a part of the broadcast.
And then I’m going to go to Manila, and in Manila, where Disney+ has the NBA rights. We’re going to do a bunch of promotion in Manila and have a podcast on October 5th with some guests at all these places. And then we’re going to go to Macau. There’s two games in Macau on the 9th and 11th, and on the 10th in between, we’re going to do a live event at the Venetian in Macau. So I’ll have guests from the Rockets and Mavericks and other NBA people on.
So it’s kind of a little bit crazy, but as I’ve gone across the world, I’ve covered international basketball, so I’ve traveled the world over the last decade. I’ve covered the national team and gone to Asia and Europe many, many times, and these people always talk about the podcast.
We’ve gotten really good response from live events in the U.S. and, to be honest with you, a few months ago, Pat McAfee was on an all-hands call and encouraged people to find ways to take their shows on the road because it’s been a great boon for his show.
There’s so many positives with it and especially if you can get partnerships and I was already thinking of doing this but you know, there’s, McAfee, who has had a lot of success and so I definitely took his encouragement under advisement and we got this deal done.
FOS: Were you surprised at how hard the hammer was dropped down on the Clippers?
BW: I was surprised. I was not surprised when I saw the evidence, but I was surprised how much evidence they had. And the reason why is because Adam Silver said publicly that he was getting updates on the investigation and so presumably, he was aware of what they were discovering, and there were several very incriminating details that this report revealed.
But the last two times Adam spoke about it, at the Finals and then at the owners meetings in Las Vegas, he gave no impression that there was this coming hammer. And I don’t think the Clippers thought there was a coming hammer. And so, what I was surprised about is, I think for months, all of us speculated that something had gone on, but we weren’t sure that it was going to be, they were going to be able to rise to the level of proving. I think even Pablo [Torre] would admit he was preparing to react to the league finding something and then having sort of a lukewarm reaction.
So, when they came down with that hammer, you gasped, right? Is that the first thing you did? And then I really commend the league for putting out that report immediately. There was a link right there in the release. And when you read that document, you were like, ‘Oh my God, they’ve got a ton of evidence.’ And we just didn’t see that. I mean, they have four companies. If I had read the report first and then you asked me what I think the penalty was going to be, I would have said, ‘Yeah, they’re going to get the same as [the Timberwolves with Joe Smith], they’re going to lose five first round picks.’ But obviously, I got that in reverse [seeing the punishment before the evidence].
FOS: As you report on the league, how do you sift through people who obfuscate or spin in order to deliver the truth to the audience?
Well, this is probably something you have to do every day, too. It’s an everyday challenge. And sometimes you screw up. But you definitely have to be aware in every conversation of what alliances might happen, whose agent represents who. One of the big things about the NBA is that agencies represent players, coaches, and executives all in the same agency, and those alignments come into play all of the time.
But at the same time, they don’t rule the day. Sometimes people will go against it, but you have to have as much of a 360-degree view as you can. And you still are going to mess up because you’re never going to have all the information. But yeah, it’s a real, real challenge. And often what I do is when I think I’m getting lied to, I just will try not to take a position on it at all [and avoid talking about the subject]. Like, if I’m told something and I think it’s a lie, I’ll just not say it, and that might cost me a scoop or insight at times.
Obviously, if the story is so big and you have to talk about it, you will. But, it is definitely a challenge with the job—every single day.
FOS: Given what we know about helicopters, are we sure it’s a good idea for LeBron to be commuting from New York to Philly via that manner, as you’ve suggested might be the case?
BW: Well, I don’t know if that’s what he’s going to do. I think what I heard was the first inclination that the 76ers got that they might actually win the sweepstakes was that LeBron started asking questions to people on the team about commuting, and like where to live and like what about commuting between New York and Philly.
I don’t know if he’s made up his mind. I’m sure we’ll get an update on that at Media Day. But it just so happens that the Sixers’ actual practice facility in South Jersey has a premium helipad. It was constructed here because Josh Harris, their owner, routinely commutes from New York to Philadelphia by helicopter. But I don’t know. I said that I knew that LeBron had investigated it.
I don’t know at this point how much time he’s going to spend in New York. There have been players throughout the decades that have lived in New York and played in Philadelphia. JJ Reddick was actually the last one that I know about. He played in Philadelphia and lived in Brooklyn. He drove, I think, most of the time.
But if you’re asking me, I will never be on a helicopter because I am absolutely an aviation geek and can tell you everything about every jetliner in the world, but I would not get on a helicopter.
But just to be clear, I don’t 100% know those are LeBron’s plans. I just know that was what he was investigating.
FOS: How much of a factor do you think that Bob Myers was in wooing him for this?
BW: I think it helped. I don’t think it was the most important thing. I think LeBron had a bunch of imperfect choices. The last two times, I think there were clear choices. In 2014, it was either stay in Miami or go to Cleveland. He had some meetings with some other teams, but he never considered anything. And in 2018, it was, he had decided on LA and he made the decision very quickly.
This one I think was a tough call. He was weighing imperfect choices against one another. Like, obviously if it was simple, he would have made it a lot faster. And the fact that he was going to play for the minimum, if you’re going to play for literally less than a tenth of the money, you’re going to want to have a lot of other things that sweeten the pot. And I think one of the things he was really examining was, what are the trade-offs? If I’m leaving my family, leaving my life in Los Angeles, I’m playing with a 90% pay cut, where can I find happiness?
I spent a couple of years working next to Bob. I spent many hours sitting with him in green rooms watching games. After spending time with him, I totally understand why so many teams were crawling all over themselves to try to hire him because he’s a very impressive guy. So, whatever he said publicly on that podcast [with Rich Paul and Max Kellerman], I think was smart, but whatever he said privately to Paul or LeBron, there’s no doubt in my mind that that was a value-add in the recruitment.
FOS: One more LeBron question. As a keen observer of both him and the media, what did you make of Fanatics getting a simultaneous break on it? Even ahead of any of the league insiders, Fanatics was posting about it.
BW: LeBron led the whole marketplace and the whole athlete revolution of commoditizing news. The media companies have commoditized news for 100 years. When ‘The Decision’ happened, that was him taking control and trying to not only benefit from that, but also to profit from it. Now, in that particular case, they raised a bunch of money for charity. In fact, that’s actually one of the tragedies of The Decision was that nobody remembers that they raised and donated money for charity from it.
But anyways, he’s got a sweeping deal with Fanatics. And, when he does three different panels or podcasts at Fanatics Fest, do you know what it costs for three hours of LeBron James’s time? I don’t know what the deal was. I wish I could tell you. But let’s just say that Fanatics is probably sending a large sum of money in his direction.
So, that’s something that has value. And by the way, like I said, he’s taken a 90% pay cut. Certainly LeBron’s financial situation is different than mine—but if I was taking a 90% pay cut, I might be searching for other ways to achieve value, and he certainly did that.
Really, at its core, the Fanatics tweet is the same concept as The Decision—taking ownership and commoditizing your choice. And so, really, it’s kind of just a new take on something that he’s already done.
