Episode 240: Repack regulation, Russell in the US plus more Wondershine

 Episode 240 of You Can’t Comp This is packed with hobby buzz, NBA chatter, and on-the-road stories. Russell checks in live from San Antonio, sharing tales from his U.S. trip — including a first-hand look at Victor Wembanyama’s explosive play — before diving into the latest hobby headlines. The guys break down the massive $10 million Wondershine purchase of the Jordan–LeBron dual Logoman, debating whether the market’s high-end bubble is sustainable. They also revisit Panini’s final days before the Fanatics takeover and discuss Blaise’s bold move buying out every VJ Edgecombe Panini Instant card. The New York Times’ feature on repacks sparks a thoughtful talk on transparency, regulation, and the future of hobby ethics. With plenty of laughs, sponsorship shoutouts, and basketball insights — from Nick Smith Jr. to Austin Reaves — this episode captures the perfect mix of collecting, competition, and community 

Transcript

00:00:00.00
Adz
you ready to go? i will hit the go live button.

00:00:02.20
Russell Gibson
Yeah, I'm recording.

00:00:02.47
Adz
Yeah,

00:00:03.49
Russell Gibson
yeah

00:00:06.42
Adz
yeah tick, tick, tick, working live stream, digit-da-da Twitch, YouTube, go do the thing, multi, yep.

00:00:15.52
Adz
And we are live. How's that?

00:00:34.31
Adz
Welcome, everybody, to episode 239 or 240.

00:00:42.46
Russell Gibson
Let's say 240.

00:00:43.52
Adz
Let's say 240 because the timeless moment became the full episode. 240 of the You Can't Cop This NBA Trading Card Podcast. We are your hosts, Adam, Amy, and Russell Gibson, and you will forgive the somewhat disjointed beginning to the show.

00:00:57.96
Adz
where We're at opposite ends of the planet. Russell, you have a very you have a very different background there.

00:01:01.18
Russell Gibson
Literally. Yeah.

00:01:06.20
Russell Gibson
Ironically, it's nicer than my my desk at home. I'm not too sure what that says.

00:01:10.00
Adz
Got the curtains.

00:01:11.30
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:01:11.75
Adz
It looks like curtains. Are you behind the curtain? are you Are you over behind the curtain with the Memphis Grizzlies in front of the curtain?

00:01:16.68
Russell Gibson
I'm in front of the curtain.

00:01:22.16
Russell Gibson
I'm currently in San Antonio, Texas, and we've had ah fantastic holiday so far. so

00:01:27.83
Adz
um Have the fired of the fire department come down and put out that fire that Wemby started in the first half of that game.

00:01:28.41
Russell Gibson
um

00:01:34.15
Adz
Wow.

00:01:35.80
Russell Gibson
He was good.

00:01:36.02
Adz
Emphatic.

00:01:36.75
Russell Gibson
He was really good.

00:01:36.95
Adz
Emphatic.

00:01:39.14
Russell Gibson
and like It's been a really good trip, and i do apologize we haven't been putting up content since I've been away, but i even for my own, like, you know, my true work, I've been really finding it hard to navigate the time differences.

00:01:50.98
Russell Gibson
I've pretty much been like a day or two days behind on correspondence just because of the time difference.

00:01:55.02
Adz
Mm.

00:01:55.98
Russell Gibson
it's it's It's actually quite amazing. But um yeah, look, America's fantastic. I love America. And I'll say as usual, the Americans have just given me fantastic hospitality and and so friendly. And even in Memphis, which is allegedly the the highest crime rate in America at the moment.

00:02:13.79
Russell Gibson
I felt very safe there and the people are very friendly and you know I was out drinking with people and it's just, yeah, I think Americans get a hard time sometimes in in the and the media and maybe it's the perception on Americans is not fantastic, but yeah, honestly, I always have a ah great time in America.

00:02:25.73
Adz
Yeah.

00:02:32.87
Russell Gibson
So yeah, thanks America. i i always love being here and enough about me. Let's talk about what's going to be on this week's show. We're going to talk about the Wondershine Index again. We're going to talk about Blaise.

00:02:44.67
Russell Gibson
Maybe Blaise listens to the podcast. It's difficult to know. We're going to talk about Lewiskey James. We're going to talk about Repacks.

00:02:51.48
Adz
Yes.

00:02:53.07
Russell Gibson
It made it all the way to the New York Times, and that sort of ties back into Whatnot a little bit. And then for the rest of the show, it's just about notes I was writing when I was seeing the game.

00:02:58.29
Adz
and

00:03:03.07
Russell Gibson
So I've got some notes about Nick Smith, Austin Reeves, Ozo Iguodoro, ah Michael Porter Jr., Gigi Jackson, Cedric Coward, Ja Morant, Victor Wembenyama, Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey, who I've got a massive heart on for.

00:03:18.06
Russell Gibson
I'm just going to put that out there straight away. Kevin Porter Jr., James Wiseman, Kevin Durant, Garbage Pail Kids, and Good Old Cat. So we've got a pretty busy show this week.

00:03:28.54
Russell Gibson
Hopefully we can get through it.

00:03:28.53
Adz
Busy show.

00:03:29.58
Russell Gibson
if If we don't get through it, a you know we can always um get to it next week. I do need to do one shout out though. So to our fans who are listening on Central Coast Radio, ah two things to shout out.

00:03:45.59
Russell Gibson
I'm also doing a metal show now, which is going to be played at 1 a.m. m Melbourne time. but Somehow it won the week. So thank you to all the Central Coast Radio listeners listening to that.

00:03:56.75
Russell Gibson
Centralcoastradio.com is where you find that out. And also a huge shout out to our listeners in Canada or Canadia, as we like to call it, back home. They are coming to Central Coast Radio in absolute droves.

00:04:10.95
Russell Gibson
So thank you, guys.

00:04:11.99
Adz
ay So can I ask metal show? Is this metal shop like metalworking, like fabrication or?

00:04:19.20
Russell Gibson
Yeah, so it's just me sitting in my office hitting with a hammer onto a tin basically for 55 minutes straight.

00:04:25.02
Adz
Okay.

00:04:27.79
Adz
No wonder people are tuning into that.

00:04:28.19
Russell Gibson
It's amazing. yeah Yeah, it's kind of like meditative.

00:04:29.51
Adz
Yeah. ASMR.

00:04:32.73
Russell Gibson
um No, look, I play a bit of old metal, so...

00:04:34.72
Adz
ASMR. ah you say mom

00:04:38.27
Russell Gibson
Yeah, yeah. Bit of old metal, bit of new metal. So we played some Deftones. We've been listening to the new Lorna Shore album. ah We played some Pantera. you know So it's a little bit of everything, but basically just music that I enjoy, basically.

00:04:49.26
Adz
Okay.

00:04:52.86
Russell Gibson
so

00:04:53.53
Adz
DJ Russ.

00:04:56.14
Russell Gibson
Look, I don't have a DJ name. i just say it's hosted by you know myself. But maybe one day when I start wearing...

00:05:01.83
Adz
If it's metal, I think Rusty works for metal, right? It's a DJ Rusty.

00:05:06.80
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:05:07.43
Adz
There you go.

00:05:08.20
Russell Gibson
You know, I've the i mean looking at some other streamers out and maybe we need to start doing this.

00:05:08.16
Adz
It's a metal joke.

00:05:12.98
Russell Gibson
We need to wear the fancy hats and, you know, the big sunglasses. Like who was that? Laker used to do it even on the and the cherry streams.

00:05:18.69
Adz
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, true.

00:05:20.78
Russell Gibson
He used to wear like the big, you know, gold chains.

00:05:20.91
Adz
Just like gold chains, like glasses.

00:05:24.82
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:05:25.34
Adz
And all right, maybe i'll need to get some novelty glasses or something.

00:05:26.27
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:05:29.72
Russell Gibson
Maybe we can do it for one episode and see how it goes.

00:05:33.29
Adz
You can try it and if it works, I'll i'll follow.

00:05:33.92
Russell Gibson
Anyway.

00:05:37.40
Russell Gibson
but Anyway. All right, let's talk about Wondershine. So if you you know didn't know, we've been talking about this the last couple of weeks. um Mr. Wonderful decided to get into sports trading cards.

00:05:46.53
Adz
Woof.

00:05:49.48
Russell Gibson
His mantra is only buy the good stuff and have no trash in your collection. So he's been basically buying up a lot of high-end stuff. ah we We spoke about the Jordan Kobe one-of-one logoman that he purchased for, was that for 5 million ad?

00:06:03.74
Adz
Yeah, 12 point. Oh, which one?

00:06:10.08
Russell Gibson
The Jordan Kobe one-of-one logoman.

00:06:12.45
Adz
5 million, 12 point something million, you mean?

00:06:15.50
Russell Gibson
Okay, my memory's faulty. All right, so for $12 million, thank you for setting me straight on that.

00:06:20.06
Adz
12.7 million after buyer's fee, but yes.

00:06:23.17
Russell Gibson
Yeah, then he went on national news and basically was talking about his collection and how he's going to put it on display in a museum on Father's Day for for dads to bring the kids to come along to it.

00:06:31.63
Adz
Yep.

00:06:34.27
Adz
yep

00:06:35.71
Russell Gibson
And then there was another massive sale this week. It's the Jordan LeBron. one-of-one logon with dual autographs on it.

00:06:42.17
Adz
ye

00:06:45.00
Russell Gibson
ah That sold for a straight $10 million dollars in a private sale. It was verified. They had screenshots of the wire transfer. So in terms of um authenticity of the sale, that has been verified.

00:06:56.93
Russell Gibson
This is currently being reported by Card Ladder. It's on all of the big platforms, but I just chose the Card Ladder.

00:07:00.33
Adz
Yeah. So is that is this wonder show is this is this the group? Is this the an actual purchase from the from the group?

00:07:06.59
Russell Gibson
Yeah, it's confirmed. Yeah, yeah.

00:07:08.92
Adz
Wow. there they say

00:07:11.20
Russell Gibson
And so, sorry, after you, mate.

00:07:14.10
Adz
So this is like, this is them showing. So $10 million, they've obviously just made that as an offer, direct offer, and has been accepted, I reckon. and That's got to be the way that the the but the conglomerate, the group, that the Wondershine group have just basically gone.

00:07:23.63
Russell Gibson
Hmm.

00:07:27.21
Adz
$10 million? And the person's gone, yep, done, tick. So that goes into that epic collection.

00:07:32.86
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:07:35.38
Russell Gibson
Correct. Yeah.

00:07:36.36
Adz
Wow.

00:07:37.08
Russell Gibson
And if you take what he says at face value, you know, this won't be available for sale until he he's dead, basically. And that's that has been his mantra.

00:07:43.61
Adz
No, it's a museum piece, right? Like he's actually, this goes into that that epic collection. It's two big one of ones to be owned by the same group. Is it an investor group or is it just him?

00:07:54.28
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:07:55.43
Adz
No.

00:07:56.99
Russell Gibson
Well, he's leading the investor group and he's being advised by Shine, hence the Wondershine tagline that he created.

00:08:01.65
Adz
Yeah. Yeah.

00:08:06.10
Russell Gibson
I think if you're having a consultant to you know to give you advice, I think Shine is...

00:08:08.13
Adz
If he needs another advisor, I'm happy to chip in if they want to.

00:08:13.86
Russell Gibson
Yeah, i I think Shine would be better than you and I.

00:08:14.10
Adz
I'll take a share in that.

00:08:16.58
Russell Gibson
And the reason I say that is because I think he's got a lot more experience dealing with that high-end stuff. Because like where I'm going with this, there's a lot of fakes out there, right?

00:08:21.94
Adz
I agree.

00:08:25.08
Russell Gibson
And I think, you know, I could tell you oh this this is a good card to buy. but I probably wouldn't be able to tell you the best price to pay for it. And also I wouldn't be able know how to verify it.

00:08:32.64
Adz
Yeah, yeah,

00:08:35.32
Russell Gibson
And I feel like, you know, you've got someone like Shine, if you look at his personal collection, it's wild, man.

00:08:40.97
Adz
yeah.

00:08:42.58
Russell Gibson
he And he's been doing it for a very, very long time.

00:08:42.80
Adz
It's pretty crazy.

00:08:46.34
Russell Gibson
I think the question I wanted to talk to you about, like what got me thinking was that, so my first impression when I saw this, it wasn't reported. It was purchased by Wondershine. It was just purchased.

00:08:57.19
Russell Gibson
But straight away, was like, this has to be Wondershine.

00:08:58.14
Adz
Flat out.

00:09:00.11
Russell Gibson
just because of like the dollar value and also the actual value that it was.

00:09:00.96
Adz
the price the The price, yeah, $10 million, dollars flat out.

00:09:03.38
Russell Gibson
Yeah,

00:09:04.30
Adz
It's an offer and accepted. Done. Tick.

00:09:06.75
Russell Gibson
yeah, I mean the prices, but it's also the card too. Like this there's too much similarities add between this and the Kobe Jordan one of one.

00:09:13.16
Adz
Yeah. As you can tell, though, that LeBron's worth less than Kobe, as you can tell from the final sale price here.

00:09:15.10
Russell Gibson
So I think my question,

00:09:19.40
Russell Gibson
yeah, i think that's what I wanted to talk to you about.

00:09:20.38
Adz
Yeah.

00:09:21.36
Russell Gibson
You know, is this a better purchase than the Kobe? You know, is this is this a good purchase at all? You know, is this overpaying? Because, The other thing that's being floated around on socials at the moment is that actually we're currently sitting in a high-end bubble.

00:09:27.91
Adz
Yeah.

00:09:33.29
Russell Gibson
And, you know, he might be driving the bubble and he might be 80% for fault at it, but has he actually overpaid for this card? So that's, I wanted to talk to you about that.

00:09:42.86
Adz
but maybe that's why Maybe that's why it was accepted ah because we are in the bubble.

00:09:43.33
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:09:47.51
Adz
Like it might be kar kar ma current current market says that the card was going to go from eight to nine million.

00:09:48.83
Russell Gibson
Yeah. This is a fantastic offer. Yeah. Yeah.

00:09:55.08
Adz
he offered 10, bang, sale. But I mean, you look at and we do the comparison between stocks, ah the stock market and cards. And the reason we do that is because they're very similar parallels.

00:10:08.66
Adz
But you see, even

00:10:10.68
Russell Gibson
the stock market just took a massive hit yesterday after those chinese tariffs right yeah

00:10:10.53
Adz
even if and

00:10:15.09
Adz
Right. so know And that's a really good example, right? So over over the years, over a 50-year span, regardless of all the bubbles and the bubbles that burst, the stock market trends up.

00:10:28.43
Adz
Regardless of how bad it falls, it's always a positive aggregate overall.

00:10:31.84
Russell Gibson
yeah yeah money in the bank long term sure yep

00:10:33.49
Adz
So if we're in a bubble and cards drop in the short term, long term they go up. So paying overs on this card now, regardless, even if there's a ah drop of $2 million in the next two to three years, over 10 to 20 years, this card will be $15 million dollar card.

00:10:49.97
Russell Gibson
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

00:10:51.82
Adz
Like it will naturally grow.

00:10:52.79
Russell Gibson
Yeah. If you're doing the the long-term view, which it seems like this guy is, yeah.

00:10:56.77
Adz
One shine are definitely, so over time, even if you pay overs, you you get value out of it.

00:10:57.27
Russell Gibson
Okay. I see what saying.

00:11:04.38
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:11:05.20
Adz
um And it's not like, it's not, we're not talking about investments.

00:11:06.08
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:11:08.44
Adz
Like this isn't as a stock investment where you oh yeah, the return on this will go up. There's no return on the card so that you don't get dividends from a basketball card. So that's why it's probably different.

00:11:20.15
Russell Gibson
actually Actually, that is true, isn't it? Yeah. If you've got a million bucks, at least you get dividends of a mid-share.

00:11:22.31
Adz
So, I mean, at least you're, ah

00:11:25.93
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:11:26.03
Adz
At least you're – but the but the the change is the price goes up by a lot. The percentage it goes up by is a lot more. um

00:11:33.44
Russell Gibson
Yeah. I mean, if he's if he's cornering all the high-end cards, essentially he can just determine what the price is going to be in the future though, isn't it?

00:11:39.14
Adz
That's – well, exactly right.

00:11:39.52
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah.

00:11:40.35
Adz
If you've got a bunch of Jordan and LeBron and Kobe, one of ones, you're in a pretty good bargaining position should anyone want those cards. So –

00:11:48.91
Russell Gibson
Yeah. ah In episode 238, I thought this was a boring segment, but actually it's turning out to look fantastic for us. So we went through all of the Panini instant cards on the website.

00:12:02.06
Adz
Yeah.

00:12:02.68
Russell Gibson
I made a spreadsheet out of it. We went through the draft picks. So if you want to go and listen to that, it's 238. It's much more topical now because Blaise went onto his social media and I looked it up just to make sure that I had actually broken the story before he did.

00:12:15.52
Adz
Maybe Blaise does. Maybe he listens to the pod.

00:12:18.96
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah. So we dropped that episode about 10 days ago and five days ago, he was talking about this online. And then three days ago, he's revealed that he purchased every single VJ Edgecombe Panini instant card. So we were talking about that. You know, we were asking the question, you know, is this a good buy or not? So clearly one of the influencers believes that, you know, it is a good buy.

00:12:41.87
Adz
Blaise, thanks for listening to the episode.

00:12:42.44
Russell Gibson
You know, I think

00:12:43.69
Adz
Really appreciate it.

00:12:45.83
Russell Gibson
Yeah, I mean, I think the follow-up for me, obviously, like, i'm I'm enjoying this moment because, you know, we got to something before somebody else did.

00:12:48.51
Adz
Yeah.

00:12:52.19
Russell Gibson
But I think the other reason why I'm also enjoying this story too a little bit, it's like Panini Instant isn't something that people are normally talking about.

00:12:52.20
Adz
Yeah, for sure. um

00:13:02.10
Russell Gibson
And I also think that, you know, the timing of this to me is a little bit ironic too. Like, the minute that Panini is leaving the market, which essentially they're gone, we should probably tie this into it too, technically,

00:13:13.37
Adz
Yeah.

00:13:14.27
Russell Gibson
as the 1st of October, you know, their license is finished, um they are now becoming actually, you know, relevant in some ways where people are actually going onto their website, you know, and buying out all their cards.

00:13:14.72
Adz
Hmm.

00:13:26.69
Russell Gibson
And this is something that's not happened ever. I feel like Panini Instant, you know, have not been received and people haven't, you know collected them a lot. And I think that this Panini fanatics war is going to keep on going. I don't think this is going to be the last time that they're going to be trying to sign off some of these athletes. So I think moving forward, this is going to be a thing.

00:13:49.00
Adz
Yeah.

00:13:50.68
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:13:51.74
Adz
Yep.

00:13:52.22
Russell Gibson
Because I think as much as fanatics have tried to fuck with Panini the last couple of years by signing away Wemby, signing away Cooper flag, I'm pretty sure Panini is going to have just as much fun, like, you know, competing and,

00:14:04.86
Russell Gibson
trying to throw bags of money at the top guys, even if they just do it to to push up the dollar value of their contract, right?

00:14:07.15
Adz
ah ah Just a mess around. Yeah, correct, correct, correct. Yeah, true, true.

00:14:12.51
Russell Gibson
Honestly, I think, you know, this is going to be there, and particularly the way it was such a hostile takeover too. There's no way that Panini is walking away from this, you know, feeling good about it.

00:14:22.47
Adz
Yeah.

00:14:22.79
Russell Gibson
I think this is a pretty short segment.

00:14:23.15
Adz
but um Let's hope he doesn't get injured or Paul Blaise has done his dough.

00:14:24.84
Russell Gibson
Closing thoughts on this ad? Yeah.

00:14:30.93
Russell Gibson
I think he'll be okay. All right, you know? He'll put it into a repack at the worst and the worst outcome.

00:14:36.92
Adz
That's it. I mean, like a special repack where get all 10 of the BJ Edge Kim cards anyway. Pretty funny.

00:14:43.80
Russell Gibson
Glaze is going to be fine. He's a smart guy.

00:14:44.97
Adz
I think, yeah.

00:14:46.02
Russell Gibson
He'll win it back in gambling probably anyway, so if he does lose.

00:14:47.72
Adz
True, true, true.

00:14:50.10
Russell Gibson
ah This next topic is called Lewisky James. Have we got time for this? but Yeah, let's do this real quick and then we'll go for a break.

00:14:55.16
Adz
Oh, come on. i It would have been perfect. well We'll go for a break and then we'll talk about the decision. I'm joking.

00:15:02.25
Russell Gibson
Do you want to go for a break?

00:15:02.16
Adz
Sorry. No, no, no. But that's that was the way LeBron announced it, right? We're not going to wait like LeBron. We're not goingnna we're not going to troll people by saying this news is going to drop after a commercial break.

00:15:11.72
Russell Gibson
but's right

00:15:14.42
Adz
We'll we'll drop it right now.

00:15:14.67
Russell Gibson
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. I was a bit slow to pick up where you're going with that, man.

00:15:19.23
Adz
He...

00:15:20.02
Russell Gibson
So I think you should do this story. I feel like this is far more in your wheelhouse than me. I actually, I could care less about this, but I think we have to talk about it.

00:15:27.79
Adz
i thought I thought it was very amusing.

00:15:28.36
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:15:29.51
Adz
i woke up to the news just like everybody else or woke up, ah saw it whenever it was announced. the The following day at 12 p.m., there's going to be a bit. The decision number two will be streamed live, blah, blah, blah.

00:15:41.26
Russell Gibson
yeah

00:15:43.66
Adz
Poor Aussies had to get up at four zero in the morning apparently to to to watch the decision. i just waited until I got out of bed. LeBron isn't retiring, but he's he's doing a cross promotion with Hennessy.

00:15:58.26
Adz
At which point, what, the the tickets for like the final Lakers games were selling like hotcakes.

00:16:03.42
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:16:04.52
Adz
Prices went from like $200 to $1,000.

00:16:04.87
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:16:07.85
Adz
It was crazy. It was bedlam. Everyone started projecting. And ironically, because the Lakers play the Utah Jazz on the 16th of April as the final game, which happens to be identical to the final game Kobe played.

00:16:26.36
Russell Gibson
That's a crazy coincidence.

00:16:27.85
Adz
And this is LeBron's 23rd season. Everyone's like, this makes sense. He's going to retire because, you know, likes a good narrative.

00:16:33.14
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:16:35.41
Russell Gibson
That's some weird poetry, isn't it?

00:16:37.63
Adz
Yeah. Anyway, that's not the case. He's um doing a cross promotion with Hennessy, which I thought being a wine drinker, because he always talks about his, his, his, his Vino's and stuff on the, on the Steve Nash podcast.

00:16:50.11
Adz
He does now that he's, he's doing Hennessy.

00:16:51.86
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Okay. So, all right, so let's, let's talk about product choice because that was on my mind too.

00:16:52.71
Adz
Yeah. Yeah.

00:16:57.54
Russell Gibson
Like as a week, as a whiskey drinker, I,

00:17:00.30
Adz
It

00:17:01.41
Russell Gibson
don't I don't touch Hennessy, right? So is that more about appealing to ah demographic for pet of people that's also a very large demographic demographic of people in America?

00:17:10.06
Adz
might be.

00:17:14.34
Russell Gibson
do you know what i mean I wonder if it's like he chose that product very strategically to sort of reach a large amount of people.

00:17:15.05
Adz
I think he's he's trying to show that he's still the boy the high school kid from Akron, Ohio.

00:17:21.78
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:17:26.22
Adz
Do you know what I mean? like It's like I'm just a kid from the

00:17:28.16
Russell Gibson
Yeah, yeah, sure. It's also a clever choice too, I think.

00:17:29.57
Adz
I'm just, yeah.

00:17:31.15
Russell Gibson
Yeah. I think, you know because in America, wine is, it's drunk, but I don't think it's as widely drunk as um as whiskey is.

00:17:37.41
Adz
But you know, he's like, you watch if you watch, um what's the show?

00:17:39.00
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:17:41.88
Adz
Starting Five, the Netflix series. He talks about after games, I just want to get home and have a nice bottle of red. I just want a glass of wine. I just want a glass of wine. And then to come out and do Hennessy, it's such a narrative driving move.

00:17:50.64
Russell Gibson
yeah

00:17:57.08
Adz
And it's like, yeah, I'm just, rather than,

00:17:57.68
Russell Gibson
I think Hennessy is iconic culturally though.

00:18:00.01
Adz
ah Exactly. But I think but it's all yeah that's it but it was it's like rather than the billionaire that drinks red wine, LeBron wants to have an image of being that kid from Ohio.

00:18:02.20
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:18:13.61
Russell Gibson
More down to earth.

00:18:14.96
Adz
Yeah.

00:18:15.24
Russell Gibson
Yeah. More accessible.

00:18:15.77
Adz
just

00:18:16.38
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:18:16.63
Adz
You know, like kid from the streets. Started at the bottom.

00:18:21.23
Russell Gibson
yeah

00:18:21.13
Adz
Now I'm here. Whatever. Like ah like ah it's very narrative driven, I think.

00:18:27.27
Russell Gibson
100%.

00:18:27.38
Russell Gibson
would also say too that they photoshopped his head and put hair onto it. There's no way he's got that much hair.

00:18:31.55
Adz
and and And made it black rather grey.

00:18:36.49
Russell Gibson
but

00:18:37.12
Adz
We're in the grey age of LeBron James.

00:18:39.17
Russell Gibson
ah ah We are absolutely. All right.

00:18:41.33
Adz
Yeah, he's got just as much grey in his beard as i do.

00:18:42.12
Russell Gibson
That's enough of um us making fun of the Whiskey James. Thank you to Fastbreak Trading Cards for your ongoing love and support. This week at Fastbreak Trading Cards, we have actually something I'm very excited to talk about. 2025 Topps Chrome SpongeBob is out.

00:19:01.25
Russell Gibson
It's actually been out for about a week or so. The one-of-one super refractor of Squidward has already been hit. There's also the triple auto one-of-one that's already been hit, but people are getting these hits out of retail. So if you are interested in having a dabble in it, they've put some really nice hits into the retail product of this.

00:19:20.91
Russell Gibson
If you were a kid that grew up watching SpongeBob, like yours truly, and I can still watch it today, I'm actually, I'm going to buy some of this ad.

00:19:31.07
Russell Gibson
I know this is like very much a, um,

00:19:31.39
Adz
No, the Squidward's gone. The Squidward's gone. I'm done. No, look, I'd love to, but no, Squidward's gone.

00:19:35.92
Russell Gibson
nah. um'm I'm totally fine with this. Other releases this week too is the 2025 Topps F1 Turbo Attacks One Piece PRB02.

00:19:46.84
Russell Gibson
I have no idea even what that means, but it is out.

00:19:48.15
Adz
So there's a new one piece set out. Yeah, I know. I know some people that were off to to get that this weekend.

00:19:51.96
Russell Gibson
Yeah. 2026 Topps Premier League retails also hit the stop. So if you would like to get some of these products from our very good friends at Fastbreak Trading Cards, go to fastbreaktradingcards.com.

00:20:05.92
Russell Gibson
Or head down to 75 Chilip Street in Cheltenham, Victoria, Australia, 3192. three one nine two Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and now Sundays. The guys have expanded their opening hours to four days a week.

00:20:19.68
Russell Gibson
They're absolutely killing it down there. Get down there and check them out. Thank you guys at Fastbreak Trading Cards.

00:20:34.20
Russell Gibson
Adam! We're back. How you doing, buddy?

00:20:36.11
Adz
We're back. I'm good. I'm good. I'm still waking up. If anyone's watching the YouTube feed, they can see me sipping away on my coffee. um It's early.

00:20:44.93
Russell Gibson
okay.

00:20:45.56
Adz
It's early.

00:20:46.17
Russell Gibson
As long as you're not drinking Hennessy.

00:20:50.43
Adz
um ah if i If I was going to do the LeBron thing and announce a second decision, ah i would stick with coffee.

00:20:50.87
Russell Gibson
That's okay.

00:20:54.26
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:20:58.32
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:20:59.02
Adz
I would release coffee.

00:21:02.18
Russell Gibson
All right. This next topic or this next subject is about repacks being discussed in the New York Times. And so the reason why I think this is relevant, I don't think we need to go through the article, you know, word by word or step by step, but these are the two points that I, you know, wanted to talk to you about in the article.

00:21:21.20
Russell Gibson
It basically breaks down, you know, the basics of it, of how repack works, the the basic fundamentals of it.

00:21:24.40
Adz
Yeah.

00:21:27.82
Russell Gibson
If you're listening at home and you don't really understand it's when a person um they put 100 random cards into unidentifiable boxes or envelopes, and then they sell them off for say $40 each, you could get 50 cent card, or you could get $1,000 card and that the product itself is determined by the person who repacks it.

00:21:44.53
Adz
Yep.

00:21:49.82
Russell Gibson
So as you can imagine, the variability is incredibly high, the return on investment or your return on spend is also very variable, it could be

00:21:49.87
Adz
ye

00:21:59.26
Russell Gibson
a fantastic ratio or it could be, you know, the worst in the world. um And I think that this has really come into vogue or it's come into um focus very sharply because of, of what not people have been making a lot of money doing this on what not.

00:22:16.43
Russell Gibson
And also to, I think as hobby prices have skyrocketed, people are starting to look for different areas of value. And there is a strong argument to be made that there's a better return on investment buying into repacks versus buying into a sealed retail product or a hobby box.

00:22:35.68
Russell Gibson
And I think that's, I think that's a very ah valid argument too, by the way, I'm not poo-pooing that at all. So I think that, you know, the people that we did the podcast with originally.

00:22:45.77
Russell Gibson
So if you remember, um, what was his name that we did the podcast with originally?

00:22:46.51
Adz
Mm-mm.

00:22:51.06
Russell Gibson
That was, um,

00:22:53.51
Adz
Panther, was it?

00:22:55.29
Russell Gibson
Yeah, so Shane Panther and his mate Neb or Ben, they did a repack.

00:22:58.64
Adz
Yeah.

00:23:00.52
Russell Gibson
And that was their argument, you know, from from day one. You're like, buy into my repack and see what you get and compare that to a hobby box. You know, like you're not going to beat us at what we're building.

00:23:08.33
Adz
Mm-mm-mm.

00:23:11.22
Russell Gibson
And I think the second example of that where we've had relationships with people, and this is going to tie into whatnot too, is is Darren at the Melbourne Cartel.

00:23:17.14
Adz
Yeah.

00:23:19.22
Russell Gibson
So his passion from day zero was to build something that he felt happy giving to people. And also too, with the transparency, with the checklist.

00:23:26.02
Adz
Yeah.

00:23:28.37
Russell Gibson
So if we take this now full circle back to whatnot, they've essentially made only particular people can now be repackers, repackers breaking on whatnot. And the second thing.

00:23:40.48
Adz
Wasn't but that, that goes deeper though. There needs to be full transparency now.

00:23:45.47
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:23:45.29
Adz
Why do they,

00:23:45.67
Russell Gibson
So that's right. And the,

00:23:46.09
Adz
I don't know why you have to have both though.

00:23:50.14
Russell Gibson
i I suspect that the application process for becoming a repacker will change over time because I think, because i think okay, my my perception of that is like they can't lose that much business because at the end of the day, they get a percentage of everything.

00:23:57.37
Adz
Change and evolve. Okay. Yeah,

00:24:06.87
Russell Gibson
So if they're cutting out 20% of their volume, you know they're not going to want that.

00:24:07.21
Adz
yeah, yeah.

00:24:11.57
Russell Gibson
So I think there'll be some type of application process.

00:24:14.24
Adz
Yep.

00:24:14.48
Russell Gibson
But I also think too, and what you just touched on then, probably at the end of the day, in my opinion, what is more important is the transparency part of the list.

00:24:20.78
Adz
Yep.

00:24:22.78
Russell Gibson
The only thing where I think that's a little bit like, yeah, it's important and it's, know, it's, it's a good thing to happen, but how many people are going to sit there and go through the, the comps on a, on a 200, on a 300, on a 400 card repack?

00:24:22.67
Adz
yeah

00:24:35.19
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:24:37.40
Russell Gibson
co repack

00:24:39.26
Adz
but But this is the thing, right? It's not about whether or not people will do that. People need the opportunity to be able to see that information should they want it.

00:24:44.41
Russell Gibson
yeah

00:24:48.52
Adz
And I think there's an ethical line.

00:24:49.20
Russell Gibson
yeah

00:24:49.88
Adz
i don't I don't like the fact that they've made particular breakers exclusive, but I guess they've already verified their checklists, right?

00:24:56.72
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:25:01.45
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:25:01.97
Adz
And this is the thing, it's negating risk.

00:25:02.23
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Well, I think.

00:25:04.33
Adz
there's There's got to be a level of, and this is a big, for me, it's a hobby regulation issue where I think what not, which is positive.

00:25:10.95
Russell Gibson
Oh, what not is regulating the hobby? This is, yeah. You need to wear your t-shirt. Yeah.

00:25:14.97
Adz
Yeah, it's very much a, they are trying to regulate and look, it's not a perfect science, but I agree with it conceptually.

00:25:16.39
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:25:22.64
Adz
I just think there should be, I mean, I would expect they evolve their practices to allow breakers that, or people that make repacks,

00:25:32.01
Russell Gibson
yeah

00:25:32.20
Adz
that are doing it in and with an integrity focus, with transparency in mind, and they will allow those people to apply, upload a full checklist so that they can break.

00:25:40.36
Russell Gibson
yeah

00:25:43.20
Russell Gibson
Yeah, I wonder if

00:25:43.13
Adz
But I think i didn't think ah think the transparency fact is is important. We went to the national, right? We've been to many, many a card show.

00:25:51.26
Russell Gibson
and yeah

00:25:53.27
Adz
Would you feel more comfortable buying a repack where you see five cards displayed, as the kits and over 200 things on the table, or would you like for a full list, check out X, Y, Z, and then go, and then you can skim it to see if you'll get, if, if the baseline is a 50 cent card or the baseline is a $10 card. Yeah. Yeah.

00:26:20.71
Russell Gibson
but Yeah, well, I mean, speaking of that, and I don't think I'm speaking out of line here. Again, um taking this back to Darren, and we were discussing the different principles of repacks.

00:26:29.25
Adz
yeah

00:26:29.70
Russell Gibson
His perception was actually the repacks that sell the best can have the most amount of shite in it, but the ones that sell really, really well is like that one super hit at the top. So people are willing to pay their $40 or $50 with the chance of hitting that $1,000, $2,000 card.

00:26:41.98
Adz
Big risk, big reward.

00:26:44.87
Russell Gibson
And the thing that people... one thousand two thousand dollars card and so that's the thing that people

00:26:47.30
Adz
ah Yeah.

00:26:50.84
Russell Gibson
covet more than getting value per se.

00:26:51.92
Adz
Which is hilarious, iss right? Because becauses there's a common sense argument to be made.

00:26:54.27
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah.

00:26:56.75
Adz
and And obviously I don't want to segue this into a big gambling discussion, but that's where the gambling temptation comes in, right?

00:27:02.29
Russell Gibson
Sure.

00:27:04.44
Adz
You're telling me that rather than a fair and balanced product with ah a product run of 50,

00:27:05.21
Russell Gibson
Sure. Yeah.

00:27:10.32
Adz
right, with transparent list where the variety goes, if I'm paying, and we'll use $100 because $100 is a nice round number, and I go, I'm going to buy into this product at $100, but I know based on the list that the worst thing I can do is get a $50 card versus, and the best card is only going to be $250, versus buy in $100, could get $2 card I could hit $5,000 card.

00:27:10.60
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:27:15.21
Russell Gibson
Yeah. yeah

00:27:21.11
Russell Gibson
yeah

00:27:33.62
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yes.

00:27:35.74
Adz
i could get a ah two dollars card or i could hit a five thousand dollars card

00:27:40.86
Russell Gibson
Correct. Yeah.

00:27:41.42
Adz
And I don't know what the count is.

00:27:42.00
Russell Gibson
Okay.

00:27:45.71
Russell Gibson
Yeah. But what if you could have transparency and you could have the thousand dollar card?

00:27:51.71
Adz
I think that that, but that makes it fair.

00:27:52.29
Russell Gibson
And I think that's correct. I think as long as you're telling people, look, there are some shitty cards in this repack, but there's also this Steph Curry, or you're doing what Darren does, you know, there is a very strong middle here.

00:28:05.64
Russell Gibson
i think as long as you're telling people, to just with you I've got no problem with it either way.

00:28:08.08
Adz
Agreed. No, no. the trend But that's the thing.

00:28:10.03
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:28:10.70
Adz
Like what my problem with it is, I don't know if some of these repackers have done 500, 1,000, 2,000, and they're selling them at $100 a pop and you might pull it.

00:28:11.04
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah. yeah

00:28:19.74
Russell Gibson
No, you don't know. You don't know. But you will now know.

00:28:24.13
Adz
Yeah.

00:28:25.17
Russell Gibson
The argument is now, though, is that if you're going to go onto Whatnot, you will now know that the checklists are available for you to then to look at. I think that is actually important.

00:28:32.48
Adz
ah the i think that's an internet and I think that's a huge step in the right direction integrity-wise.

00:28:34.57
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:28:38.14
Russell Gibson
yeah I would also say, too, like, what Whatnot would know the back end of how many complaints they're getting.

00:28:40.32
Adz
right?

00:28:44.00
Russell Gibson
And they would know that, like, from the big boys, they get this many percentage complaints. They will still get complaints. Like, there's no way these other guys aren't getting complaints. But then when you start to dive down to, you know, smaller repackers, they're getting triple the complaints.

00:28:58.67
Russell Gibson
ah So I also wonder too, if it's like a data-driven decision because it's costing them money having to refund people, do the customer service, like all that stuff is insanely expensive too.

00:29:03.41
Adz
follow him right

00:29:09.97
Russell Gibson
You know, so if you're taking, and let's let's be pragmatic about this.

00:29:10.64
Adz
um No, no.

00:29:13.50
Russell Gibson
If you're just taking it back to a business decision, I wonder if it's also about the number of complaints you get, which i' would also turn that around and say, look, so if you've got someone like Darren and look,

00:29:15.79
Adz
Yeah.

00:29:22.81
Russell Gibson
This is not about Darren, but I'm going to use him as an example. And I'd also, just for full disclosure, I don't know how many complaints he gets. I'm going to assume he gets very little complaints. They should then use that as a powerful tool to say, actually, you've been on this platform 12 months. You've earned the right to continue repacking.

00:29:39.76
Adz
Agreed.

00:29:40.07
Russell Gibson
I think that's you know something that could be...

00:29:41.75
Adz
honestly Honestly, given the the restructure and the way dar the the love the level of integrity that Darren um operates with, I would expect him to be back on whatnot in no time.

00:29:42.72
Russell Gibson
and

00:29:49.84
Russell Gibson
yeah

00:29:52.11
Adz
But as far as the complaints thing, like i'm the the repac like i've I've bought repacks from from Darren and I've always been super happy with the cards I've got out of it, be it the major hit, a minor hit, an average card.

00:29:52.50
Russell Gibson
Yeah, 100%. I think he's still there. It's just repacks that limited. Yeah.

00:30:01.08
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Ditto. Yeah.

00:30:07.86
Adz
like The list is great and it curates everything.

00:30:09.34
Russell Gibson
I mean, look, I could have been happy if I had had got the top hit. I'm not going to lie it to you.

00:30:12.75
Adz
He curates a very, very ah fair and reasonable repack.

00:30:13.16
Russell Gibson
ah Yeah, he does.

00:30:17.81
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, he does. Yeah.

00:30:20.89
Adz
and And I like the lack.

00:30:22.11
Russell Gibson
Amen.

00:30:24.46
Adz
I'd rather have an opportunity to get slightly overs but not get too hit with the unders. But I'm not a degenerate gambler.

00:30:30.77
Russell Gibson
yeah

00:30:32.45
Adz
sorry like, I do like a flutter, but that's not with my repacks. I'm like, I want to know that the variation isn't – the feels bad can't feel terrible.

00:30:35.85
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:30:42.67
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:30:42.84
Adz
And there's ah and the then the market research says that it should because that's people don't care.

00:30:48.59
Russell Gibson
yeah Yeah. And I, well, no, I think that, and so you found a product that suits your personality type and I think that's, that's, that's good too.

00:30:53.68
Adz
True. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

00:30:55.79
Russell Gibson
Right. But yeah.

00:30:56.41
Adz
Yeah. Yeah.

00:30:58.96
Russell Gibson
Alrighty, we are going to go to a break.

00:30:58.95
Adz
Yeah.

00:31:00.36
Russell Gibson
And speaking of repacks, we're going to talk about Neon Trading Cards because they also do offer a fantastic repack service. They also do breaks, soccer, and NBA, and MLB, F1, AFL, NRL, WWE, UFC, Marvel.

00:31:16.61
Russell Gibson
They're also they on whatnot. Speaking of whatnot, go to www.neontradingcards.com for all of your breaking and also ah card protection needs, sealed boxes is also on there too.

00:31:33.80
Russell Gibson
Just one very quick reminder when you are looking on their website, make sure you put the filter on to available. Otherwise, you'll be wading through thousands of different breaks that are currently sold out.

00:31:46.70
Russell Gibson
What else should we talk about with neon trading cards, Ed?

00:31:51.14
Adz
No, they're just, they captured most of it.

00:31:51.55
Russell Gibson
Did I capture it all?

00:31:54.47
Adz
They're some of the best in the business.

00:31:55.23
Russell Gibson
right.

00:31:56.44
Adz
They're, there're yeah, as you as you well pointed out, a lot of those breaks are sold out. So you won't be the only one looking for a break. um They fill very quickly and yeah, they're still on whatnot.

00:32:08.92
Russell Gibson
yeah

00:32:08.93
Adz
So get on there.

00:32:11.12
Russell Gibson
ah say Thank you guys Neon Trading Cards for your ongoing support.

00:32:18.87
Russell Gibson
um I've just put a ah note in the, I'm assuming you're doing editing this week. I've just put a note in at 31 minutes, 45 seconds.

00:32:24.40
Adz
I will.

00:32:26.88
Russell Gibson
You'll need to edit me asking you questions. What else do we need to talk about?

00:32:30.42
Adz
that's That's all right. Look, yeah, it'll be it'll be fun.

00:32:34.24
Russell Gibson
Yeah. oh Needs editing. And we come back, back at 32 minutes, 43.

00:32:47.66
Russell Gibson
Adam, we're back.

00:32:48.94
Adz
And we're back.

00:32:51.45
Russell Gibson
Good to see you again. For all our listeners out there, thank you for sticking around. We really appreciate you. And also i should mention this too. Thanks everyone for downloading the last couple of weeks. Our numbers are up a lot.

00:33:03.23
Russell Gibson
They're up about 30, 35% the moment. So guys,

00:33:04.84
Adz
A lot of you listeners out there, which is which is great to hear. Yeah.

00:33:08.56
Russell Gibson
Thanks for tuning in.

00:33:08.87
Adz
Yeah. Yeah.

00:33:10.45
Russell Gibson
Actually, and on that note too, go to our Instagram page, go to our pinned post. We're currently got a giveaway that will be going for the next week or so. All you need to do is like the post, follow us on Instagram and put a comment down.

00:33:23.21
Russell Gibson
If you tag somebody else in there, you get also another um

00:33:27.86
Adz
yeah

00:33:28.41
Russell Gibson
entry into the raffle. We'll be giving away a blaster box. I'm doing this worldwide too because I've been thinking about this. If you're in America, I'll just buy the box at David Adams and I'll get it shipped directly to you. I don't need to you know worry about paying international postage and stuff.

00:33:41.74
Adz
Yeah.

00:33:42.40
Russell Gibson
That's easy for me to fix.

00:33:43.89
Adz
Nice.

00:33:44.14
Russell Gibson
So guys, you know if you're on, like don't worry. The fact that we're in Australia, you know we can get the postage sorted out to you guys. We'd love your support to follow us on Instagram. Talk some smack to us. That would be fantastic.

00:33:55.81
Russell Gibson
All right. We are now going to talk about ah Russell's travels through the US. And I've been writing some notes down as the games have been going on. The first game that I saw was Lakers and Suns in Palm Springs. My God, Palm Springs is beautiful, but it is damn hot there. I'll leave it at that.

00:34:13.16
Russell Gibson
My three takeaways from the game was Nate Williams. Sorry, four takeaways from the game was Nate Williams, Nick Smith, Austin Reeves.

00:34:21.10
Adz
yeah

00:34:21.89
Russell Gibson
And then we're going to talk about also Iguodoro. Let's start with Nate Williams. He is a guard who's currently been in the league now. This is his third season in the league. He's a six foot five guard.

00:34:32.68
Russell Gibson
He's incredibly lengthy. I really liked watching him play just for the way he was playing ah defense. Where am I going with this? Do I recommend that you go out and do I go at, do I recommend you prospect on this guy?

00:34:41.88
Adz
I have no idea.

00:34:46.96
Russell Gibson
No, I don't. I think he was just someone that I just really enjoyed watching play. You picked him up. ah in the off season, he just finished playing with the Houston Rockets. I think you're going to like this kid, Adam. I think he's going to give your team a lot.

00:34:59.92
Russell Gibson
I think particularly when you're playing with like Luka Doncic and LeBron James, you need somebody just to like go out there and, you know, give people a hard time, defend. Also, he's going to be, you know, very versatile for you guys.

00:35:10.15
Russell Gibson
He could easily defend three positions, which I think you need that around Luka.

00:35:10.57
Adz
Yeah. Yep. Yeah.

00:35:14.42
Russell Gibson
So you can put Luka onto the weakest offensive player.

00:35:14.42
Adz
Mm.

00:35:18.00
Russell Gibson
um I think his shooting is going to be the thing that's going to make or break his season just for the fact that, again, you need to be able to shoot the ball when you're standing around watching Luka dribble the ball, you know, 35, 45 times a possession.

00:35:30.08
Adz
Get off it.

00:35:30.92
Russell Gibson
Anyway.

00:35:30.82
Adz
Luka's not one of those. There's also a LeBron on the court. Come on.

00:35:35.81
Russell Gibson
Okay, fine. Between Luka and LeBron, they're going to dribble the ball 35 times the possession. Are you happy now?

00:35:41.32
Adz
No. No.

00:35:43.67
Russell Gibson
Look, I liked him. So yeah, let me know if you watch some Lakers games coming up and you see him play, you know, and see what you think. um Yeah, I think he's really cool. ah This next one is Nick Smith. So Nick Smith ah originally was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets in the second round in 2023. So obviously very fresh of the league.

00:36:01.69
Russell Gibson
He's still only 21 years of age.

00:36:01.82
Adz
ye

00:36:03.65
Russell Gibson
Again, you guys picked him up for nothing in the off season. I like this kid a lot.

00:36:06.49
Adz
Yeah.

00:36:07.58
Russell Gibson
I think that the Lakers need young talent on the team. They need someone that can you know give you, say, 10 points in a quarter once every five or six games just to sort of take the burden off the rest of your team.

00:36:15.27
Adz
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Mm-hmm.

00:36:20.23
Russell Gibson
I think that he's going to have – he's going to give JJ Redick some serious headaches, and Redick was, like, ready to punch Aiton in, like, game one of the preseason. So I'm actually probably more worried about the DeAndre Aiton relationship than Nick Smith, but I put him into the same bracket of, like,

00:36:40.58
Russell Gibson
You can just see like Redick's head just exploding sort of, you know, slowly as the game goes on. But he's got good handles. He's got a very much like a um a hot and cold, you know, jump shot.

00:36:50.60
Russell Gibson
But again, I think that's going to be good ah around, you know, Luka.

00:36:52.69
Adz
yeah

00:36:54.70
Russell Gibson
And also too, you just need talent on ah on an NBA team and to sort of fill out the roster. So, you know, great pickup there.

00:36:59.69
Adz
yeah yeah

00:37:01.76
Russell Gibson
i think the only thing about this kid that i I do wonder, like why was he released from the Hornets when they've already got a young team and they need, Like, is it a personality thing? Does he have some sort of work ethic issues? Or is it just simply size? He's only six foot two.

00:37:18.14
Russell Gibson
He's kind of like handles aren't that great to be a point guard, but he's probably a little bit too small to be a shooting guard. I think actually, though, I would say you could prospect on this guy. And the reason I say that is because his prices are really, really low and he's going to l LA, which is a major market.

00:37:35.93
Russell Gibson
And he could have that lightning...

00:37:37.16
Adz
If he does have a – yeah, yeah, lightning in a bottle.

00:37:40.17
Russell Gibson
Yeah, he could have that lightning in the bottle sort of like moment this season, you know, going into the playoffs.

00:37:45.88
Adz
It is hard under Luka, but that's the thing.

00:37:46.16
Russell Gibson
I think he's a fun one.

00:37:47.96
Adz
Like, you look at the Lakers and they're they're actually deep this year, deeper than they were.

00:37:53.87
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:37:54.65
Adz
So getting that opportunity will be obviously through the age and injury if if that happens.

00:37:55.53
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:37:59.86
Adz
So, like, someone like Marcus Smart getting injured or – yeah.

00:38:01.10
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:38:05.32
Adz
Gabe Vincent.

00:38:05.89
Russell Gibson
yeah

00:38:05.95
Adz
there's ah The guard depth chart is actually...

00:38:09.20
Russell Gibson
Is Smart still with the Lakers?

00:38:10.86
Adz
Yeah.

00:38:12.56
Russell Gibson
okay

00:38:13.48
Adz
Smart signed in the offseason with the Lakers.

00:38:14.75
Russell Gibson
Okay. I'm getting confused with Memphis. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, you're right.

00:38:17.51
Adz
Yeah.

00:38:18.23
Russell Gibson
Yeah, my bad.

00:38:18.50
Adz
Yeah. Anyway.

00:38:19.51
Russell Gibson
So Nick Smith, let's just talk about some sales just recently. So the Prism Blue Ice to $125, that sold for $25.

00:38:26.63
Adz
Nice.

00:38:26.85
Russell Gibson
There is a Tiger Stripe for $15. That's obviously from Select. There is the Prism Decker Mojo to $25. That sold $35. There's a 10. as a psa ten numbered 140 fold that sold for $70. So this guy's prices aren't, you know, nothing.

00:38:46.07
Adz
Well, yeah, like he's, he's a, it was late first round that he was picked up. He's 27th pick of the draft.

00:38:50.61
Russell Gibson
Second.

00:38:50.72
Adz
So yeah, it says first round 27.

00:38:53.08
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:38:53.27
Adz
So

00:38:56.36
Russell Gibson
Oh yeah. My bad. Thanks.

00:38:57.23
Adz
so he's at the end of the first round, but you may as well be the second when you're 27th.

00:38:57.70
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:39:00.26
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:39:00.75
Adz
Yeah.

00:39:01.84
Russell Gibson
I still think it's a good pickup for you guys, man. I think that's a good risk to take and particularly um with your roster, how it's.

00:39:05.32
Adz
He's statistically. Yeah.

00:39:07.48
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:39:07.58
Adz
It'll be, it'll give, it'll give.

00:39:08.70
Russell Gibson
ah So capped out. Yeah.

00:39:10.02
Adz
Yeah, exactly right. And that's, they, they need to pick up some young hungry talent.

00:39:11.26
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:39:15.02
Adz
that that are prepared to play defense and lockdown because that's going to be the Lakers thing.

00:39:15.82
Russell Gibson
yeah

00:39:18.88
Adz
they've got offense They've got offense covered with the likes of Luka and LeBron. Obviously, Aiton's inside.

00:39:26.13
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:39:26.28
Adz
and you got to hope that they work that works out somehow. um

00:39:30.51
Russell Gibson
Well, Aiton said he's only going to be there to block shots and rebound.

00:39:30.49
Adz
But I think...

00:39:33.79
Russell Gibson
So he's not worried about points at all.

00:39:34.27
Adz
and he also he said he hasn't...

00:39:35.51
Russell Gibson
That's basically what he said.

00:39:36.46
Adz
Aiton's come out and said that he hasn't actually trained with Luka or LeBron yet.

00:39:40.82
Russell Gibson
Yeah, but I think i think that's as as like, I don't know why that captured headlines. LeBron's got sciatica. hes He's out for the next six weeks, right?

00:39:49.65
Adz
Sure, sure.

00:39:50.00
Russell Gibson
Luka's been playing.

00:39:51.22
Adz
But in the preseason, Aiton didn't look – it looked disjointed. It looked like he didn't know where he was going, right? Once you put Luka into the picture, Luka's a better person to run a pick and roll with than any other person in that Lakers team, right?

00:39:57.79
Russell Gibson
Yeah, sure. Sure.

00:40:06.63
Russell Gibson
Sure. I don't disagree that. But then Luka was like off playing for his national team. So I don't know why that became a headline. Like that to me is like, that's stupid.

00:40:13.15
Adz
i think No, no, no, but he's saying it's an Aiton.

00:40:15.42
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:40:16.25
Adz
It's a simple narrative driver. He's like, oh, Aiton doesn't look like he's fitting in well in Los Angeles. It's like he hasn't even played with the whole team yet. Give him some time.

00:40:24.99
Russell Gibson
Oh yeah, sure. I get what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, of course.

00:40:26.94
Adz
Give him some time. there were All the critics are saying he's a ah train wreck and the Lakers were stupid.

00:40:27.90
Russell Gibson
Of course. No.

00:40:32.07
Russell Gibson
No.

00:40:31.99
Adz
They're like, well, he hasn't even played with Luka and LeBron, who are two of the highest IQ basketballers in the league.

00:40:34.08
Russell Gibson
yeah

00:40:39.15
Russell Gibson
Yeah, ah look, i I personally found him a bit frustrating that night because the two shots he did take were pretty soft.

00:40:46.25
Adz
Sure.

00:40:46.75
Russell Gibson
But I suppose maybe he's gone into that mindset of like, I'm not shooting. So when I do get the ball, it's like a little bit sort of thing.

00:40:52.18
Adz
I'm not, I don't need 20 and 10. I don't need 20 and 10. I need to catch lobs and block shots.

00:40:56.94
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:40:59.31
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah. and And that's like, that's the other other side of the coin is in he had but nine rebounds in 18 minutes.

00:41:01.21
Adz
but

00:41:05.20
Russell Gibson
Like that's actually, you know, a fantastic output.

00:41:06.07
Adz
True. Solid. I think Aiton will be a role player and that's the redemption he's got.

00:41:08.22
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:41:10.97
Adz
He's got to be the role player.

00:41:13.39
Russell Gibson
Yeah. ah So the obvious standout for that team, minus LeBron, minus Luka, was Austin Reeves.

00:41:14.73
Adz
but Anyway.

00:41:19.63
Russell Gibson
He was north-south down the court in a very impactful sort of way. He got to the basket, i' would say, almost at will. My take on Austin Reeves is that do you really need Austin Reeves, Luka, and LeBron? So are you actually better off trading Austin Reeves for a better piece?

00:41:37.27
Adz
The whole league says it, and it probably.

00:41:37.50
Russell Gibson
And then also the win for Austin Reeves, is that then he gets to like control his own team. like The way that he was creating shots in that game, honestly, why isn't he a number one option on a more appropriate team?

00:41:49.53
Adz
can i Can I just weigh in on that and just say, i i given, and you just said it, LeBron's got sciatica, I think this might be the end of LeBron James.

00:41:51.67
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah, of course.

00:41:59.94
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:42:01.78
Adz
um

00:42:02.29
Russell Gibson
Oh, man, he's 42 years of age.

00:42:03.26
Adz
i it There's no way the Lakers are ah going,

00:42:06.05
Russell Gibson
I'm bloody crippled.

00:42:07.65
Adz
the the Lakers aren't going to renew his contract. um I don't know if he's ready to, if he, if he's accepting being Robin to Luca being Batman. i'd I think I'd rather have, i but no, no, bit bit but it's,

00:42:19.74
Russell Gibson
That's insane if he's not though. Like the the ego that that is, is nuts.

00:42:24.72
Adz
He's earned the ego. He's earned the right to think that way. But for the team first, Luka won, Austin Reeves too. LeBron can sit. Let's trade, like, free that cap space up and then build depth around those two.

00:42:39.50
Adz
I'd like to have it.

00:42:39.99
Russell Gibson
Sorry, sorry. What are saying?

00:42:40.74
Adz
I'd rather Luka and Reeves.

00:42:41.23
Russell Gibson
Are you saying trade LeBron?

00:42:42.90
Adz
Yeah. Or let LeBron retire. Like, I think Reeves is...

00:42:46.16
Russell Gibson
Yeah, okay, was going to say, I think the more likely thing there would be to let him play out his contract and then it becomes Austin, Reeves and Luka.

00:42:51.69
Adz
And rather than let Austin Reeves go elsewhere, why wouldn't you say, LeBron, your money's going off our books at the end of the year?

00:42:52.36
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:42:59.39
Adz
Austin, you can have some of that and we're going to now build a roster.

00:43:04.41
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:43:06.38
Adz
Anyway, look we'll see what happens.

00:43:07.41
Russell Gibson
but

00:43:07.62
Adz
It's a long season.

00:43:08.85
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Austin Reeves, silver PSA 10, population on this is 85. The price is $137. Actually, I don't mind this. I'm not going to call this a strong buy, but I would also say too, that's...

00:43:16.82
Adz
I think it's good. Yep.

00:43:21.89
Russell Gibson
um How can I say this? I think to lose money on this now is going to be very difficult, also because of the fact it's down from 300.

00:43:26.95
Adz
Yep.

00:43:28.73
Russell Gibson
So, yeah, I really like this as ah as a buy. Austin Reeves was was fantastic.

00:43:31.93
Adz
Yep.

00:43:33.57
Russell Gibson
he He played fantastic.

00:43:35.21
Adz
He's always been good.

00:43:35.45
Russell Gibson
All right, now here's the guy...

00:43:36.27
Adz
Solid.

00:43:37.99
Russell Gibson
Here is the guy that I was absolutely frothing over. i was talking to this guy offline. So the background for this is he's a Phoenix Suns center. I think my concern with the Suns this year is that they've lost Kevin Durant.

00:43:51.74
Russell Gibson
The rest of their roster, to me, isn't super balanced.

00:43:53.48
Adz
Bradley Beal.

00:43:55.77
Russell Gibson
So Beal's gone. So now they've got Jalen Green. They've got Devin Booker, which to me is like a lot of overlap. And also their point guard position, for me, is very much up in the air. Ryan Dunn.

00:44:07.67
Russell Gibson
played point guard. They ran so many sets for Booker. they They ran him off those sort of like Ray Allen, you know, multiple screens and stuff that.

00:44:14.12
Adz
Yeah, yeah.

00:44:16.50
Russell Gibson
And Booker was great. He played really well.

00:44:17.59
Adz
Booker's the only guy there though.

00:44:20.59
Russell Gibson
Yeah, but I think my concern for that team was the center position. And again, we're talking about this offline. So they've got Nick Richards. They've got Mark Williams. But I really hope they give this Ozzo-Iguodoro guy like 30 minutes a game.

00:44:33.32
Adz
Yeah.

00:44:33.86
Russell Gibson
He's in his second year He was drafted in 2024 as a second round pick, pick 40. I can't go through with you how many times he's already been traded, but basically he's been moved around like absolute crazy.

00:44:40.88
Adz
Yeah.

00:44:46.89
Adz
Just an asset, yeah.

00:44:47.19
Russell Gibson
He was literally, he was included as as a throw-in, I would say, for this trade. But for me, I think he's fantastic. He's 6'10".

00:44:59.21
Russell Gibson
Some people gotten listed as 7' tall. He's incredibly mobile. He's agility side to side is fantastic.

00:45:04.20
Adz
Hmm.

00:45:06.48
Russell Gibson
I think defensively, he's not the best rim protector, but again, due to his agility and the way that you can switch in the NBA now, I think that's going to be quite powerful for him. The other thing he does quite well too, he's a good jumper so he can get rebounds, but his ability to lead the break intermittently, I don't think he's someone like Jokic that you can use him as a point center.

00:45:16.69
Adz
Yep. Yeah.

00:45:21.05
Adz
yeah

00:45:27.75
Russell Gibson
I'm not saying that, but Once or twice a quarter, you know, he can bring the ball down the court and really start that, you know, fast break for Phoenix. And he was fantastic at doing that.

00:45:37.66
Adz
yeah

00:45:37.89
Russell Gibson
I like this kid a lot. Like in terms of investment potential, I'm going to say this guy for me is like a 10 out of 10. Is he a project? um Is this very high risk? Yes, yes, and yes. Like I'm not saying this is an absolute home run, but let's go through some of the cards that have sold recently for him.

00:45:56.22
Russell Gibson
The one-on-one RPA numbered to 49 that sold for $25. Mosaic basketball season ticket. That's that sort of weird crossover that they had.

00:46:05.16
Adz
Yeah.

00:46:05.65
Russell Gibson
That sold for $2.25. Donruss rookie autograph. That to me looks like it's on card that sold for $6. Like this guys, you know, we you want to talk about pocket change.

00:46:15.34
Adz
You can pick up stuff super cheap so it's not a high-risk investment.

00:46:19.12
Russell Gibson
Yeah. You want to talk about pocket change.

00:46:19.24
Adz
Yeah, sure, sure.

00:46:20.80
Russell Gibson
You want to talk about, you know, dollar buys, all that type of stuff.

00:46:22.65
Adz
Yeah.

00:46:23.16
Russell Gibson
You know, this is,

00:46:23.91
Adz
Yeah,

00:46:24.95
Russell Gibson
I like this kid a lot, you know, and look, it could just be that he had a fantastic preseason game. And then, you know, when...

00:46:30.41
Adz
yeah. Either that or you drank too much in Phoenix, one or the other where you're just not.

00:46:35.32
Russell Gibson
I think I was pretty sober that night. The beer is too expensive at the stadiums, like, for me to get drunk, man. Let's not go into that. That's another thing. Look,

00:46:43.32
Adz
I don't know. You speak about players like this, I just feel like your drink's been spiked. That's all.

00:46:47.92
Russell Gibson
but So, honestly, the player that I enjoyed watching the most...

00:46:54.34
Russell Gibson
out of all the players, like I'm going to put him up in the in my top three. And he really took me by surprise too.

00:46:59.47
Adz
Really?

00:46:59.88
Russell Gibson
Like I'm raving.

00:47:00.31
Adz
Interesting.

00:47:01.84
Russell Gibson
I'm genuinely raving about this kid. it was it was fantastic.

00:47:03.95
Adz
i hope I really hope for for for for that and anyone that does ah follow your lead on the prospects.

00:47:06.00
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:47:10.36
Adz
but buy some of his cards and then see him get an opportunity. And I think Phoenix is the place you can get an opportunity like that, given how much they blew up the roster.

00:47:18.14
Russell Gibson
Yeah, i think I think that roster is like actually almost... four spots are up for grabs. Like I'm not exactly too sure how they're going to play Jalen Green and Booker together.

00:47:25.50
Adz
Yeah. Yeah. The only, the, yeah.

00:47:29.15
Russell Gibson
Ryan Dunn's not a lock. Like the center position, absolutely.

00:47:31.20
Adz
Yeah.

00:47:32.95
Russell Gibson
You know, so it's, yeah.

00:47:34.40
Adz
Good. I like it. It's, it's something entertaining. I won't be following Phoenix on league pass, but I'm, Looking forward to hearing about the highlights.

00:47:43.23
Russell Gibson
Jeez. I mean, they're going to, I think they're going to be tough to watch this year. Honestly, i think they're going to be really tough.

00:47:46.68
Adz
Agreed. Okay.

00:47:48.39
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Let's go to our next sponsor. a Thank you to US Sports Cards Australia. Go to ussportscardsaustralia.com.au. Ross is building an absolute powerhouse when it comes to a hobby page.

00:48:04.54
Russell Gibson
So you can buy on there whats sports breaks.

00:48:05.25
Adz
Mm-hmm.

00:48:09.50
Russell Gibson
You can also buy singles, collectible protection, hobby boxes, sports memorabilia, and his pet project at the moment. which again, the group chat has been going off.

00:48:20.82
Russell Gibson
Check out My Cards Australia. He is getting more submissions, but he's also getting sales on that too. So guys, if you would like to submit your cards to Check Out My Cards Australia, it is a consignment service.

00:48:32.40
Russell Gibson
Ross will take care of all the backend for you. You send your cards to Ross, he'll send you the money once the sale has gone through. When you fill in your application form, all you need to do on there is write, you can't comp this for a free submission, which will save you

00:48:47.36
Adz
bang

00:48:48.48
Russell Gibson
six Six cents per card, if my memory is serving me correct. Thank you so much to US Sports Cards Australia for your ongoing love and support.

00:49:03.38
Russell Gibson
Alrighty. The next game that I got to see was the Nuggets playing. And it was really good to see their retooled lineup. I think there's a lot of optimism for the Nuggets this year.

00:49:16.63
Russell Gibson
One comment I would make, and this was my probably my leaving thought about the Nuggets this year, is like losing Michael Porter Jr., even though this guy has been a social media train wreck in the offseason, they are going to miss his scoring outbursts and the absolute fire that that guy can come through with because they traded him away in the offseason. They picked up Cam Johnson as a replacement. I see the upside of Cam Johnson in that team, particularly as he learns – I think playing with Jokic is very nuanced and I don't think, you know, you're going to be playing your best with him day one.

00:49:46.91
Adz
Yeah.

00:49:49.89
Russell Gibson
So I, I, I get that. I recognize that I'm acknowledging it, but I'll just say that Cam Johnson does not have the same scoring spark that Michael Porter Jr. does. And I think I'm sort of like, I'm worried about that. Like, I think there's going to be some nights where the nugget's going to be very clunky.

00:50:06.98
Russell Gibson
And so maybe the offset of that is that then Jokic takes more shots. So if you're a fantasy guy, If you're thinking MVP betting, MVP voting for this year, this actually could impact positively for Jokic in that sense.

00:50:24.29
Adz
Based on the Jokic or the Embiid rule, he'll come second this year, Jokic to Luka, so we're fine.

00:50:30.80
Russell Gibson
Or what about Wemby for MVP?

00:50:32.96
Adz
who

00:50:36.75
Adz
the gm The GM survey was done this week as well, but we can talk about that next week.

00:50:41.84
Russell Gibson
So there is some hobby buzz around Cam Johnson. He was trading at $15 in mid-August, and now his last sale is $47.49.

00:50:47.05
Adz
Mm-hmm.

00:50:51.99
Russell Gibson
So the question I have to you, Adam...

00:50:52.19
Adz
So there's a lot of positivity. There's a lot of positivity on the move to the nuggets and and and suggestions of success, I think.

00:50:55.35
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:50:57.77
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:51:01.44
Russell Gibson
I think being stuck with the Nets and then being traded to a championship-caliber team, I understand why that purchase has been made. My question to you is buy, a hold, or sell at $47.

00:51:11.43
Adz
Let's sell. It's a $20 card max in my eyes, but yeah.

00:51:13.66
Russell Gibson
Okay.

00:51:18.17
Russell Gibson
I think Cam... Look, we did a segment about this guy, you know, years ago. we did Cam Johnson versus Mikael Bridges. I would say I infamously chose Cam Johnson.

00:51:30.07
Russell Gibson
I'm going to stick with that and say, look, this could, in my mind, easily go to $100.

00:51:34.94
Adz
Okay.

00:51:35.41
Russell Gibson
I think that if you've been holding Cam Johnson, i think this is a really good thing for you. I think this, you know, it's very fortunate. I think you hold though. I think you start to look at, you know, buying him now and then selling and selling him at the back end of the season.

00:51:47.97
Adz
Oh, okay.

00:51:51.85
Russell Gibson
Because if this is spiked for $50 before even the preseason game was played, you know, I think there's some optimism there. Or you could say, you know maybe there's some smart money there that's going to keep trickling upwards.

00:52:02.08
Adz
Yeah.

00:52:03.38
Russell Gibson
So, yeah.

00:52:03.86
Adz
Beautiful.

00:52:06.22
Russell Gibson
i then went to Memphis for two days. Oh, sorry, for three nights. I saw two games there. my takeaways for that was Jammer Ant, Gigi Jackson and Cedric Howard. So I want to start with Gigi Jackson.

00:52:20.66
Russell Gibson
i think there's been a lot of hobby love for this guy. And sometimes i i don't get it. And then when you see someone in the flesh, I think sometimes don't,

00:52:32.85
Adz
Yeah,

00:52:33.14
Russell Gibson
like How do I explain this? Watching basketball on TV is one experience and watching it, you're watching the same game, but watching it in person, I find it a completely different experience. Like they look bigger or they look smaller.

00:52:44.73
Russell Gibson
They move faster or they move slower. Do you know what I mean? i don't feel like TV, you always capture, you know, the right thing.

00:52:47.36
Adz
yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:52:51.86
Russell Gibson
So if we go to Card Ladder and you look at Gigi Jackson sales, they are up and down like a yoga. And that seems to me is like people are very hot and cold on this guy. And i would also say too, it's like people haven't worked this guy out.

00:53:01.66
Adz
Yeah. Yep.

00:53:04.65
Russell Gibson
I also think too, with so many sales, it's like people know there's some talent there, but it's like, what are you going to do with this talent? And that was my takeaway from him.

00:53:11.65
Adz
and Okay.

00:53:13.11
Russell Gibson
It's like, he's a big guy. He's very athletic. He's clearly got like really good handles and he's got some skill. His jump shot is like still a work in progress, but um you just leave the game thinking like he could have done more.

00:53:30.40
Russell Gibson
My other takeaway from him was like, I was really hoping they were going to play him at center. And in the second half of the first game I saw, they played him some backup center minutes. And I personally think it's like the Ozzo-Iguodoro thing, right?

00:53:39.57
Adz
Okay.

00:53:43.44
Russell Gibson
He can then bring the ball up the court.

00:53:43.55
Adz
The athleticism. Yeah. Okay.

00:53:46.15
Russell Gibson
Yeah, he can rotate around on defense, you know, a lot better. He can switch, he can do all that sort of stuff.

00:53:51.30
Adz
Yep.

00:53:51.98
Russell Gibson
My only thing though, is they're kind of loaded at center and like I get the feeling they're not going to give him, you know, heaps of center minutes, but

00:53:57.50
Adz
But the aren't there injuries? Aren't there aren't there many? Like Triple J's injured, Clark,

00:54:02.05
Russell Gibson
Triple J's out. Zach Eadie's out. Ja Morant's out. And Ja might be out for a little while. That's the other thing. I want to talk about Ja Morant in a minute. But um yeah, so I think there's going to be minutes for this guy.

00:54:09.92
Adz
Yeah. Correct.

00:54:12.33
Russell Gibson
He last traded at $37 US. Look, I don't think this guy's a bad buy. My only thing with this is with this guy is like, I think he could go down to $15 or he could go up to $137. Like for me, and the future isn't clear on this kid too. Like I think he's like one of those like classic NBA cases of like,

00:54:32.32
Russell Gibson
He's got talent, but it's like, what is he going to do with it?

00:54:33.57
Adz
yeah correct

00:54:35.29
Russell Gibson
yeah Yeah. Where are you at with Gigi?

00:54:38.81
Adz
um Look, given as far as watching Memphis go, I like i hope he gets some opportunities. And I think with all the injuries they they have and continue to get, he'll get opportunities.

00:54:46.84
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:54:49.23
Adz
But as far as a card thing, I think because A, Memphis is a small market and B, he's not at the top of the ah the list.

00:54:49.82
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:54:56.14
Adz
I think he's um he a stay away. Like I'm not going to pay my, I'm gonna not going to spend my last $30 in the hope that I can feed my family.

00:55:01.32
Russell Gibson
yeah Yeah. Double your money. Oh yeah, for sure.

00:55:06.07
Adz
and double my money and feed my family. Do you know what i mean? Like he's not the gamble I'm taking.

00:55:09.00
Russell Gibson
For sure. Yeah, for sure.

00:55:10.38
Adz
Yeah.

00:55:11.01
Russell Gibson
Yeah. ah The next guy Cedric Coward. So I'm going to put this into the ah Herbert Jones, my love for the game, the Nate Williams that we talked about early, really big body, fantastic wingspan.

00:55:26.61
Russell Gibson
um I think his temperament is excellent. I think that he,

00:55:29.36
Adz
Okay.

00:55:31.42
Russell Gibson
represents that sort of grit and grind. You know, you can throw him out there. He's not going to complain.

00:55:35.94
Adz
Yep.

00:55:36.61
Russell Gibson
um i love i loved watching him play, and I was so happy when they sort of, you know, inserted him back into the game.

00:55:43.51
Adz
Yeah.

00:55:43.88
Russell Gibson
The background story on this kid is actually pretty interesting. So as per and NBA DraftNet, he was 21 on their big board and 26 on their mock draft. He went number 16 overall.

00:55:54.61
Russell Gibson
So clearly the Grizzlies either loved him

00:55:56.37
Adz
They traded up to get him. Yeah.

00:55:59.08
Russell Gibson
Yeah, they traded up a lot too and they paid a lot to get him. We can talk about that in a second. um So either they love him for the fit on their team or the culture they're trying to build or they see something in him that you know other teams you know might have missed.

00:56:10.64
Adz
I mean,

00:56:11.65
Russell Gibson
They think he's got a much higher upside. I think that... ah Look, I don't know what an NBA comparison for this guy is actually. I think it's a really tough one because is it Herbert Jones? Like is his highest possible ceiling Herbert Jones?

00:56:27.78
Russell Gibson
Or is it someone like Joe Johnson where he has got that huge body?

00:56:27.64
Adz
i mean

00:56:34.82
Russell Gibson
I mean, Joe Johnson was such a good scorer though. that's a really tough comparison. But, you know, Joe Johnson wasn't he wasn't great on D. No, that's a really bad comparison. I'm going to have to think about that a little bit more and come back to you next week on that.

00:56:45.40
Adz
ah all right find out the comp yeah it'd be interesting

00:56:48.74
Russell Gibson
But, um yeah and yeah, in terms of what they gave up for him. So they gave up for him 20-28 first-round And two second round picks. So essentially they gave up three picks to get this kid.

00:57:00.29
Adz
yeah

00:57:01.12
Russell Gibson
i I think that's a lot to give up. But at the same time too, they also traded away Desmond Bain and picked up a whole bunch of assets, um getting KCP, you know, into that team.

00:57:12.06
Russell Gibson
And actually I love that KCP.

00:57:12.99
Adz
i feel like that I feel like there's this rebuild happening that's that's that they've got a plan and injuries have sort of spoiled it.

00:57:13.62
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:57:18.83
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:57:19.18
Adz
but

00:57:20.45
Russell Gibson
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah. And so I think the last one I want to talk to you about is Ja Morant. Ja didn't play a minute, but he was so engaged with every single player on that team.

00:57:31.87
Adz
you were You were behind the Grizzlies bench, weren't you?

00:57:32.63
Russell Gibson
and let's

00:57:35.38
Russell Gibson
I had insane seats. for the It's so cheap. No one wants – that arena was half empty.

00:57:39.45
Adz
Did you have a chat with Jar?

00:57:42.54
Russell Gibson
No. he So the girl next to me was was like screaming her head off at Ja the whole time.

00:57:43.00
Adz
You missed out on the interview.

00:57:49.62
Russell Gibson
They're like, these athletes are impervious to like heckles and stuff. He looked at her once and was like her heart melted when he just looked at her. Like that made her not. So there's no way that me, i'm going to be yelling at him. He's going to like, you know, pay attention to me. It's not happening. ah This is not happening.

00:58:05.51
Adz
Bugger.

00:58:07.06
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Sorry, man.

00:58:08.24
Adz
But, oh, so he's engaged.

00:58:09.18
Russell Gibson
But look, so he was so engaged.

00:58:10.48
Adz
but But he's a leader, right?

00:58:12.14
Russell Gibson
He was teaching.

00:58:12.71
Adz
He's supposed to be.

00:58:14.49
Russell Gibson
Yeah, but hang on a second. Okay, so this is what I want to talk to you about, right? So in LA, LeBron wasn't there for warm-ups.

00:58:17.64
Adz
Yeah.

00:58:20.53
Russell Gibson
He wasn't there for tip-off. He walked out after the game started. He got the biggest standing ovation and cheer from like everybody, from everybody, right?

00:58:28.60
Adz
He's LeBron. Yeah. Yeah.

00:58:31.96
Russell Gibson
He sat at the end of the bench. He didn't go into timeouts. I didn't see him teaching. I didn't see him giving high fives. it Honestly, it was weird, right? Then if you cascade that to what Ja was doing,

00:58:41.03
Adz
Interesting.

00:58:44.06
Russell Gibson
Like, that's what... Okay, if you're injured, like, that's fine.

00:58:45.08
Adz
Question, question, was Luca there?

00:58:48.36
Russell Gibson
Luka was there. He sat at the other end of the bench to LeBron.

00:58:52.06
Adz
Whoa.

00:58:52.72
Russell Gibson
It was fucking weird, man. it Like, honestly, it was it was very unusual.

00:58:57.92
Adz
Okay.

00:58:59.48
Russell Gibson
Yeah. And then to see Ja Morant up close behaving like that, I was sold.

00:59:00.61
Adz
Interesting.

00:59:04.69
Adz
But he's a mentor, he's a mentor.

00:59:05.41
Russell Gibson
I'm like... Yeah, and he genuinely loved that team. and you know he wanted And that team's got a lot of young kids on it too. So you know he was take if like I could hear him talking about like defense and like offense and stuff like that.

00:59:13.07
Adz
yeah

00:59:18.32
Russell Gibson
It was awesome, right? So I want to talk about this. Jar Marant, silver PSA 10, last sold for 283. I'm super high on this right now just for the fact of like how much hype that kid brings.

00:59:31.92
Russell Gibson
how exciting he is, also the low price point. Like if you're buying to JAR now, this is a different conversation to to two years ago.

00:59:39.59
Adz
Yeah, for sure.

00:59:40.12
Russell Gibson
And just how engaged that like he's not on the way out in Memphis. He is bringing that team forward. The other thing to talk about too is like, they're building this team around JAR.

00:59:50.76
Russell Gibson
All the pieces that they're bringing in make sense around JAR Morant.

00:59:53.97
Adz
job Yeah, agreed.

00:59:56.78
Russell Gibson
All right, so currently trading at 283. The maximum trade on this was like, $700. Is that right? That seems... Sorry, the highest was $240. Sorry, $740. No.

01:00:10.80
Russell Gibson
Oh, God. oh god

01:00:12.89
Adz
So, hi hang on. Highest was 740 September 2024.

01:00:14.87
Russell Gibson
Let me... if If you go to all time...

01:00:16.95
Adz
in september twenty twenty four

01:00:19.04
Russell Gibson
No, if you go to all time at the highest is $4,700. All right? Yeah, all right

01:00:22.64
Adz
No, no, no, I did the last two years. But, yeah, over the last two years, seven.

01:00:25.46
Russell Gibson
yeah yeah, me too. But fine. Okay, fine. That's for the last two years, but all time is that. He's currently trading $283. Look... this this is a take that could age horribly, but I'm, I'm all in at this point.

01:00:38.16
Adz
You flipped the script. you you went from You went from sell, stay away, big red flag to, and I'm like,

01:00:40.75
Russell Gibson
I have. Yeah.

01:00:45.17
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah. I am. I know that. I know.

01:00:48.33
Adz
i've been I've kept one foot in on Jar and I'm like, I'm tempted to step off.

01:00:48.80
Russell Gibson
know. I know it's like,

01:00:52.73
Russell Gibson
i know. like And I know it's such like a small sample size.

01:00:53.90
Adz
Oh,

01:00:55.32
Russell Gibson
Like I just saw two games and you know, blah, blah, blah. Like I, I get the critics. Like that's totally fine. But he was so engaged at like, it's,

01:01:03.83
Adz
ah look, don't get me wrong.

01:01:04.08
Russell Gibson
It's actually refreshing to see that.

01:01:05.27
Adz
i think I think if Jar stays healthy and becomes a leader, then this this this trends up.

01:01:05.95
Russell Gibson
yeah

01:01:12.61
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Look, we're at the hour mark already, Ed. So why don't we we'll do one more little one and then we'll we'll head off, okay? I want to save Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey.

01:01:25.45
Adz
We'll do the Utah, Utah and Utah and San Antonio next week.

01:01:25.90
Russell Gibson
Let's do...

01:01:30.65
Russell Gibson
Yeah, because I've got a lot to talk about with Wemby. I've got a lot to talk about with Ace Bailey, like a lot.

01:01:36.27
Adz
Yeah, that's fine.

01:01:36.77
Russell Gibson
If you thought I was, if I was getting excited about Ja Morant.

01:01:36.79
Adz
Something. God, can we, you said, like can we, oh God, you've had to segue me and you said, can we talk about a little one before we go?

01:01:40.38
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

01:01:44.82
Adz
In breaking news, Toronto Raptors, the Toronto Raptors have reported that Grady Dick has grown an inch.

01:01:45.93
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah.

01:01:56.40
Adz
Sorry, I had to.

01:01:58.80
Russell Gibson
I like your style, Adam. em

01:02:00.14
Adz
ah

01:02:01.07
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Well, what we could really finish this week's show is is a prospecting note, okay? And this one I'm not going to give any advice on.

01:02:07.67
Adz
Garbage. Oh.

01:02:10.98
Russell Gibson
Kevin Porter Jr. will be the Milwaukee Bucks starting point guard throughout the 25-26 season, okay? so So if you know who Kevin Porter is, he was a really talented guy that came into the league.

01:02:24.88
Russell Gibson
um The concerns around this guy was his off-the-court behavior.

01:02:29.62
Adz
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

01:02:30.06
Russell Gibson
legal problems, an attitude towards his teammate. Basically, he was traded away from Cleveland to Houston for a bag of chips, and then Houston let him go. He was out of the league for a very short period of time.

01:02:44.90
Russell Gibson
He has resurfaced in Milwaukee. Now, if we go to the all-time on this, people were paying $628 for this card at its peak. It's currently trading at $17.00.

01:02:55.25
Russell Gibson
seventeen dollars I was going to say to you guys that I wasn't going to give you advice on this. I think this is a buy. I think at $17, he's going to be the starting point guard on a pretty good basketball team this year. I think Giannis, any team that Giannis is on, it's tough to think that they're not going to be at least a playoff team.

01:03:16.72
Russell Gibson
They've got Myles Turner. If those three guys can click together, which I think they will be able to do Porter can play on and off the ball. And then it's never been about talent with his kid.

01:03:29.67
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

01:03:30.63
Adz
um

01:03:31.28
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

01:03:33.38
Adz
Interesting.

01:03:36.06
Adz
can we Can we finish instead of finishing on a Jordan, since you said it at the beginning of the show, we can't let the listeners down.

01:03:41.40
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

01:03:41.90
Adz
Can we finish on the garbage pail kids?

01:03:44.86
Russell Gibson
Okay. Sure. No problems, man.

01:03:46.21
Adz
No.

01:03:47.92
Russell Gibson
You run this, you run this story, man. Yeah.

01:03:49.77
Adz
I don't know. I just saw the link and I heard you say Garbage Pail Kids and Squidward and there's been all kinds of things today. um

01:03:56.63
Russell Gibson
that

01:03:56.70
Adz
Tell us more about – about the

01:03:59.19
Russell Gibson
All right. So look, I'm an eighties baby. So there was garbage pail kids stickers just floating around. I don't even know how I got them. It was just one of those things. I got them. They're still doing it. They released a card set a couple of years back.

01:04:12.51
Russell Gibson
They're putting in 10 new and NBA players into the garbage pail kids. So Kevin Durant is going to be in this Durantula.

01:04:19.26
Adz
The Durantula. Yep.

01:04:21.47
Russell Gibson
Yeah. ah ah LeBron James is going to be LeFlick James and he's flicking boogers around.

01:04:25.57
Adz
Flicking a bit.

01:04:26.08
Russell Gibson
Actually, it's pretty good.

01:04:26.25
Adz
Oh my God. Oh, this is. Yep. Cool.

01:04:29.40
Russell Gibson
Donovan Mitchell is Donovan the spider.

01:04:29.27
Adz
Yep. How can you have the Durantula and Donovan, the spider?

01:04:32.68
Russell Gibson
ah

01:04:34.50
Adz
Honestly, two spider cards.

01:04:36.13
Russell Gibson
yeah I get what you're saying, but I mean, there's another Booger reference here. Jalen Brunson is Jalen Brunslime.

01:04:43.63
Adz
I like it. It's a good look for Jalen Brunson.

01:04:44.82
Russell Gibson
oh Wemby is Victor Skeletola, which he is actually getting taller. Luke is still in Dallas uniform.

01:04:53.84
Adz
ah

01:04:55.32
Russell Gibson
He is Luke a don't kick.

01:04:58.28
Adz
Well, given he's in the Dallas uniform, that makes sense.

01:04:59.28
Russell Gibson
Cade Cunningham is Cade Cunningham and he's in a dodgy looking trench coat with some hams.

01:05:04.21
Adz
Carrying ham.

01:05:06.34
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Uh, the Joker, which is Nicole Yoki, who's actually just dressed up as a Joker. That's not that original. That could have probably done better. So yeah, look, I think the question for our show is, are these collectible?

01:05:18.10
Adz
Dirty butler.

01:05:18.31
Russell Gibson
I think and a very, I think at a very, very low level, these are collectible. And I think some people will go out and buy all the NBA ones. I would, I mean, if they're available for a couple of bucks, I'll i'll buy them for a couple of dollars each for sure.

01:05:32.48
Adz
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:05:34.09
Russell Gibson
the

01:05:33.90
Adz
Sort of, I suppose. We've got Dylan Harper and he's is is in his little white white robe playing a harp.

01:05:40.02
Russell Gibson
Harper.

01:05:42.86
Adz
Ace Bailey, although the Boston, the lucky, the the the Boston hat doesn't really suit the Jazz, but anyway. And then Dirty Butler, I guess that's Jimmy. Yeah,

01:05:54.63
Russell Gibson
He deserves the dirty butler thing, and by the way, too.

01:05:57.06
Adz
it's true.

01:05:57.34
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

01:05:57.62
Adz
Have you seen his his shenanigans with... Buddy Heald, him and Buddy have got this love-hate thing. They're best buddies, but he yeah.

01:06:07.55
Russell Gibson
but

01:06:07.52
Adz
It's good, apparently, except Jimmy hates him.

01:06:08.14
Russell Gibson
are they

01:06:12.81
Russell Gibson
Thank you, Adam. Thank you to all of our listeners. Thank you to all of our friends on Central Coast Radio. We appreciate you. We'll catch you next week.

01:06:22.13
Adz
We will see you next week. Don't forget if you're on YouTube to to hit that subscribe button so you and click the bell so you know when we go live, even when it's randomly at 8 o'clock on a Sunday morning instead of 8 p.m.

01:06:28.06
Russell Gibson
Absolutely.

01:06:34.32
Adz
ah Yeah, please do follow the the promo on Instagram.

01:06:37.05
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

01:06:38.62
Adz
Get those those numbers up and go in the draw for that that prize.

01:06:40.55
Russell Gibson
Yeah, that's it.

01:06:42.76
Adz
Central Coast Radio, it's good to see.

01:06:43.56
Russell Gibson
Yeah, it's pretty easy to win a box.

01:06:45.36
Adz
And if you're on Central Coast Radio, check out Rusty, DJ Rusty doing his medal.

01:06:50.22
Russell Gibson
but but DJ Fox.

01:06:52.31
Adz
DJ Fox, Rusty Fox, instead of the Silver Fox.

01:06:54.44
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

01:06:58.39
Adz
right. Thanks, everybody. We'll see you next week.

01:07:04.10
Adz
Tick.