Why the Fox-Harper Bond Is a Strength, Not a Storyline — Plus the Spurs' New Way to Watch

0:00This is the Lockdown Podcast Network celebrating 10 years of your team every day. This is Jake from Lockdown. When the game's on the line, the best no end to pass. Because the right assist can change everything. And off the court, it's no different. That's where your State Farm agent comes in. Whether it's protecting your car, your home, or helping you prep for the unexpected, they'll help set you up with a game plan that works for you. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. And cover options are selected by the customer, availability and eligibility, vary by state. Thank you for making Lockdown your first listen every day. For your second listen, find the Lockdown NBA Podcast where there's no off season. West Matt and Hayes keep you up to date on contract negotiations, rumors, and everything you need to be the most informed NBA fan. Find Lockdown NBA on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

1:04The boys are back in town. There is no more jet setting to Paris. There are no more random appearances in New York. It is time for South Texas basketball, man. Let's get into it. You are Lockdowns first, your daily San Antonio Spurs podcast. And at the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Do you see that wardrobe, wardrobe changed? Do you see the professionality in all of this? I got this Lockdown hat in the mail that my head is gigantic. It barely fits me, but it kind of looks like the Spurs silver and black. It's a little bit perfect car heart, by the way, car heart. That's impressive. That's a high quality brand. Y'all know that here in Texas on the show. Today, we're going to get into some video footage of your San Antonio Spurs being back in the building, training camp is mere weeks away.

2:09They're ready to go. They're getting, they're bringing everyone back together. And of course, we love to see that. We're also going to talk about the Spurs New Broadcast partners. And that's the zone. And also Jacob Toby back in the building. Back as your play by play announcer. But first, Dylan Harper shares his mind and shares his thoughts on what I think had become. Not I think I know is looking like a battle for, maybe for people who may not be educated to the idea that this is kind of what pro sports look like. That this is kind of just like the complicated nature of when you're a good team and you're trying to get better and you bring people in like a deer and fox. What it might look like along the way when you have really high draft picks coming your way.

3:15And in this case, as you all know, we've talked about it ad nauseam on here. The deer and fox Dylan Harper relationship scoop B Robinson Brandon Robinson is his name. I believe this is from one of the Harper camps that were going on over the summer in the New York, New Jersey area. He had a chance to meet with him. And he got him, I guess, a Q&A type of thing. But he got some good answers from him. And one of them was in response to a question about his relationship with the deer and fox because like that has been a hot button issue for sure. And everyone who's been listening to this podcast following the spurs knows that. So Brandon scoop B asked him about that relationship.

4:20And I quote, and I quote from his article from his Q&A. This is Dylan Harper when asked about his relationship with deer and fox. I feel like what's understood doesn't need to be explained. And I think that's a, but this is just me opining. I think it's a great way to start it because if you have been listening to this podcast, if you have been a fan of this team and like really looking into this stuff, you would know for sure that this is a good relationship. This is a obviously professionally competitive relationship. But I digress. Let me move on from there. Again, Dylan Harper. I feel like what's understood doesn't need to be explained. Fox, Deerin basically took me under his wing my whole first year and helped me and allowed me to grow in this space.

5:20And my thing is me and him never had a problem. By the way, I'm kind of cutting out some of the filler words and things like that. So just to expedite it. Even though I'm not expediting it at this point, I'm just holding it up. All right. And my thing is me and him never had a problem. Like what's, I've never seen a problem playing with two to three ball handlers on the floor. Everyone last year, last year for the spurs, everyone last year said that it was not going to work this, that in the third. I think some of us kind of wonder that ourselves, right? But I think it worked pretty fine this year. And I think we expected expectations a lot. For me, all I care about is doing what's best for the team and winning and he, Deerin, is a big factor and he is a big piece for us winning now and in the future. So for me, Dylan, I have no, I don't have anything bad to ever say about him because at the

6:28end of the day, he's taught me so much. And he's taught me so much about the league and how to grind and to take control of the game. It's little things. I'm close with him. Every time I see his son, every time I see his family, we're all super close. Me and him have a great relationship where I joke with him all the time. It's kind of, and I love this. That's my opinion. It's kind of my uncle. He just teaches me things that I don't think anyone else that hasn't been in his position could teach me. Tyler, the producer, I'm going to bring him in right now, probably earlier than he expected. I know that was a lot to read, but it was. I love what he said about the idea because I was in the rooms when Deerin would be answering questions, like whether it would be a good night or a bad night, it doesn't

7:33matter. Usually it was a good night when these guys were having fun. And by the way, they won 62 games, so there were a lot of good nights. But Dylan would poke his head into the interview room and say, hey, Hank, like while Deerin was answering questions. And I think that it's important to point out that like this is a person in Deerin Fox who, man, he's only 28 years old, but like every, he just, it's one of those things where it's like he dresses for success. And I know that's a maybe a silly term. He does it literally. It's like, it suits every single night. It's like Sunday photos with his family, his big family as a 28 year old. Like this guy has his act together. And so when we talk about the idea of the competitive balance, when we talk about the idea

8:38of like, this guy might be coming for your job. He keeps it professional. And you can see the reaction from the people on his team. And I think that in this whole conversation that is has been inevitable and will continue to be inevitable, just hearing that from Dylan and saying like, I don't think that I would be the same player if he wasn't on the team. That matters, right? Like that matters. Yeah. Absolutely. And someone coming for your job is just professional sports. Like that's just how it is. There was a time when Tyrese Halliburton, everyone said Tyrese Halliburton was coming for Deer and Fox's job in Sacramento. So this is just kind of how the discourse of basketball gets, especially, you know, in early September as we're all itching for more basketball to get here. Well, and this is kind of the complicated nature of like, if we're talking about just

9:41a normal job, like, obviously there is no comparison between what professional athletes go through and what like, those of us in normal jobs go through. Is this a normal job? No, it's definitely, it's definitely not a normal job. But we, you and I have both been in normal jobs. Like we know what normal jobs look like. And there is no comparison to this where it's like, you are 28 years old. You're in the prime of your career. But you have this, and you're paid like it, by the way, you're paid like one of the best on the planet. And by the way, I think that matters. Like Deer knows, like he's good. Who's got to continue to be good if he wants to keep this up. Like that's the competitive nature and balance of what it is these guys do.

10:42But like there are very few jobs on the planet. There are very few jobs on the planet. Because like if you're working in corporate America or any other job, you can sort of like fill in here and there, right? Like you can be like, oh, this guy in this gal, they can do this and they're great at this. Let's keep them there. Let's move this person over here and do that. There are very few jobs on the planet where you're like, well, we're going to have to pay one of these guys, one of these gals. Like it's very seldom. You find that on a regular basis. And I think that it speaks a lot both to Deer and to keep that professionality and say, like, I'm in it. By the way, again, we've talked about it on this show before. He has made sacrifices to like, Deer and could have come out last year and been like, I'm going to be Sacramento, Deer and Fox. I'm going to do that. He could have done that.

11:44And he didn't. He said, no, I know what my job is and my job is to get other people involved. And you see the respect from the guy who theoretically, maybe it's not even theoretically, it's just a reality. The guy who's coming for his job telling you, I would not be as good as I was this past year if it was not for him. Yeah. And I think that's the important thing to remember. And it's also one of the reasons they brought Teran Fox to San Antonio. This is better in experience. And I think that's the interesting part. Like we didn't know that, right? Like we didn't know that. We figured that he was going to be the guy, obviously, who you wanted to put the, you wanted to put the ball in his hands. But I don't think that we, at least on the outside looking in, knew what sort of veteran

12:46he was going to be to these guys, because it was obvious with all these young pieces that there was going to have to be some leadership there. And not that we were doubting his leadership, but you're talking about guys who are in his literal position, right? Like he didn't know when he was traded to the spurs and we got to go to break, but we didn't know when he was traded to the spurs that they were going to get the second overall pick and that they were going to be able to draft Dylan Harper, who by the way, it plays his position. Yeah. It's been interesting to watch. Speaking of watch, we know where you're going to be watching the spurs next year when they're not on national television, which is like half the schedule, but coming up next, the zone, get familiar with it.

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15:59So, speaking of broadcast, the spurs are going to be if you are trying to catch them on a day when they are not on national television. By the way, 34 games on like the big national telep, so ESPN, peacock, Amazon prime, all of the above, ABC. And they are not on that. There are still like additional games on NBA TV. So we're talking about like almost half the schedule on national television. Well, a new broadcast partner has popped up for the spurs and it's funny that we even bring this up because we were talking about this fairly recently in terms of being able to watch Wembee on the international stage in their FIBA adventures or at least his FIBA adventures, but being part of Dizzone and that is DAZ in.

17:05It's pronounced Dizzone, technically, I guess, but this is a, it's a streaming platform that is similar to FANDOL, that is similar to what we've seen over the last couple of years from the spurs. So it's the same idea, basically, you can go by a monthly subscription and annual subscription. I believe Dizzone has like four different subscription options for you to be able to watch the spurs. This is all stuff that you can download to your smart TV, to your phone, all of the above. It's the same idea. It's just a company that while you may not be, if you're much more of a domestic sports sort of fan, you may not be entirely familiar with it, but yeah, Dizzone is your new sort of local streamer for the spurs. And I think maybe the bigger news in all of this is that Jacob Toby is going to be back

18:09as you're a play by play announcer. And I don't want to relitigate anything because as I said at the time, I just felt bad for everybody involved in that whole situation. I am a big fan of people getting second chances for things that they screw up. Lord knows I've had, I don't know how many second chances. So at this point, it would be like second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth. I don't know. So I am happy for Jacob. I hope that, and by the way, like he's like 29 years old. Like this is a kid. And this is an incredible opportunity. And I'm, you know, just as a person, not saying that I advocate for anything that we know

19:15as far as social media goes what he did. But I am a big fan of giving dudes and gals and anybody. Second chances when they, I think that they are deserved. And that's what we're getting here. I think that he and Sean Elliott were really building something as a, as a broadcast team. And I think this is good. And I think that most people probably feel the same way, not advocating for what allegedly happened, but also understanding that there are bigger problems in life and that people like him, talented, talented dude and a good dude. I'll just say that straight up. Man a mistake. An important one that he needs to, I'm just saying this out loud. If he hears this, you know that I, you know the way I feel about your performance, about

20:21your job about the way that you've handled all of this, I think you deserve another chance Jacob. And I think that that it's good that you're getting one. And I, and I actually kind of applaud the spurs in doing this because they could have basically terminated this. And they didn't. So I know it's complicated. That's, that's how I feel, man. That's how I feel. I don't know anybody involved in all of it. I think it's cool. Cool. It's not the right word. I think it's good that he's getting a second chance and that I'm glad that they have their announcers for the season. Yeah. Yeah. We got to just know that from the start, right? Like you got to, you, you got to, you got to run into the season knowing what you have. And, and also by the way, Jacob has put his thoughts online on Twitter and other places

21:27maybe I don't know. I just saw his thoughts on Twitter. But he is basically saying like I'm grateful for the opportunity to, to get back to this. And I am, as Jacob speaking, I'm just saying what he put out on Twitter. Grateful for this person, for letting him, or for separating, letting him step away and figuring out this part of his life. I don't want to get too much deeper into this because we're just speaking for people in a sensitive position and I don't want to be insensitive to the other people in this entire equation that were, that were hurt, right? And that's, I think, something that we need to be careful of and sensitive about. Yeah. And it was not a, it was the furthest thing from a pretty situation that you could imagine.

22:35But good for him, for being back, I sent him a note. I said, I'm, I'm happy for you. I am glad that you get this second chance and let's see what you do with it, man. And that's kind of where it goes from here, right? Like as with all of us, when you get another chance, you got to prove yourself. So, all right, enough of that. I'm waffling. Coming up next, we have video. The experts are back in town. They're back in the building. They're, they're back in the practice facility back in South Texas. And they're not going anywhere until the season starts basketball is upon us. The problem of finding clothes that you can live it all day, be comfortable and do whatever you need to do, whether it's just chilling, go into meetings, playing golf, being on the move. That problem has been solved by Kozierth.

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24:40end to that commercial, to that ad read and very well done by the person who, where's my hat? Who owns locked, who started locked on? David Locke. All right. For our final segment, we got video of the guys back in town. Let's get right to it. We sure do spurs posted this on Twitter. It's game time. It's game time. It's game time. And I got a text from someone who I reached out to. I said, everyone's back in the gym. How they looking? And the response I got was, well, a couple of things, but the most important thing, I'll

25:46tell you what, it's awesome having talent everywhere. And I think that that is the thing that we are all sort of latching on to for the upcoming season is like no matter where you look, whether it's the 20 year old superstars or it's the late 20s or early to mid 30s veterans, like there is star power everywhere. And this is going to be one of the deepest teams in the NBA. A lot to look forward to, man. And it ain't too far off. We are just mere weeks away from training camp opening. And I think there's a lot of reason to be excited. And I talked about it on this show. I'm trying not to be too loud about my expectations for this season because you can always, it can always go south, right? It can always go south.

26:47But like it's really difficult to look at what this team can be and not get overly excited about the possibilities, not get overly optimistic about what things are going to look like because this team has everything, man. It has everything. It's got a superstar, a crazy superstar, like maybe best guy in the league. It's got young guys who could make a jump this season. It's got old guys who are still pretty good. It's got role players that do their job and do it well. And don't break the bank. And we also talked about it. I talked about it at the top, like the Dylan Harper knows his role. But what I've talked about in the past as well is everyone in that building from the start, like I'm talking about early last season said this kid is a superstar, Dylan Harper. So if there is a jump to be made and I can't imagine there won't be,

27:54you never know what happens with like sophomore slumps and things like that. But that dude seems almost above that threat. I guess if you want to call it a threat. There's a whole lot of other things for the defense to keep track of other than just Dylan Harper. So I think he'll still have some space to move and do his thing. For sure. And that's like the whole, that's like the big question, right? That's like the, is this guy, what kind of step are we talking about? And I'm not asking you because we don't know. But like what kind of step are we talking about here? Like is this guy going to be even in the, with keeping in mind the conversation about him coming off the bench, being a six man, things like that. In my opinion, he should be the leader in the clubhouse for six man of the year.

28:56But like is he going to be more than that? What is the next step for Dylan Harper? What's the next step for Steph Castle? We all saw what Devon Vaselle grew into. What's he going to be next? Julian Champeni continues to grow. What is the second year going to be like for someone like Luke Cornett? Across the board, a lot of just stuff to be excited about. And they are back in the building. Like I said, it's South Texas from here on out. It ain't Paris. It ain't New York. It's San Antonio. Thank you all for making locked on spurs. Your first listen where we covered the San Antonio spurs every single day. Remember to subscribe and follow wherever you get your podcast. So you get all the latest episodes. You can find me on Twitter at Matthew underscore, Tine and and over the corporate knowledge newsletter. That is Matthew Tine and dot substack.com. Tyler, where else can they find you?

29:58We find you over on Instagram at Tyler Prince Film and over on substack at the video man dot substack.com. And for your second listen, if you just want to go out and listen to NBA stuff in general, locked on NBA wherever you get podcasts and at the same name for the YouTube channel, there is no offseason for them. Stay up to date on everything in the NBA. So you are the most knowledgeable fan in your friend group in your text threads, all the above for Tyler Prince. My name is Matthew Tine and we will talk to you tomorrow. Here's Victor Wimbanyama. Appreciate y'all. See y'all. Never. On on cow she you're trading against peers in a live market, meaning there's no house and as the probability changes, you can buy in and out of your position for a limited time.

30:58Download the cow she app and use code locked on to get $10 when you trade 10 K. A L S H I cow she trade on anything 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices, values and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see cow she.com slash regulatory. Thank you for making locked on your first listen every day. For your second listen, find the locked on NBA podcast where there's no offseason. West Matt and Hayes keep you up to date on contract negotiations, rumors and everything you need to be the most informed NBA fan. Find locked on NBA on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Part of the locked on podcast network. Your team every day.