Mark Jones, ESPN – All-Star Break Will Be Good For the Kings

Mark Jones, ESPN – All-Star Break Will Be Good For the Kings

In the Louis Vuitton Don Man Mark Jones will undoubtedly be broker when this conversation is over the man who encourages spending wear your blessings Mark Jones oh yeah hey man the ancient Egyptians taught us you can’t take it with you that’s what I’ll talk about well see there it goes

We’re all on the clock guys not to be fatalistic but we’re all on the clock the clock Gotta Get it while I can add to cart add to cart worst thing they ever created see worst thing they ever created was that little fingerprint payment you could just touch the

Computer and boom that package will be to you in two days damn I can buy this car right now right now right now hey man worry about car note later you know Mark what’s good man we miss you on the call you’re not as round as

Much do you have any uh uh any duties in in in in Indianapolis this weekend you know what I’m I I wasn’t able ble to make it this year uh Indianapolis um taking a little decompression time with the family good for you um just catching up on things and um spending a little

Time with uh my wife and especially my daughter who’s um you know um after 2 ACLS and back on the court um her time is kind of on the clock too so uh I don’t want to miss anymore man I’ve missed a lot of big big playoff games

And big nights and at some point in your life you uh you have to make a decision to be there so I’ve made a decision to be there a little bit it’s it’s been wonderful been wonderful AB the whole work life balance man trying to unlock the whole world work life balance you

Know yeah yeah you got to do it man and how how’s the B how’s the bounceback season going man and you know San Jose stay and everything they got going on how how’s that going going going well going well been a few speed bumps along

The way but um you know um the knee is the KNE is a lot better and um you know there are a few uh few girls on the team got an illness and it kind of made its way through the locker room and uh like

It does in all sports teams and um had a little uh asthma situation but n she’s um doing well man doing well doing well man hey when you wake up man you just got to give thanks sometimes you know yes indeed Gotta Give Thanks so but it’s uh

It’s F I look forward to you know down this uh last third of the NBA regular season uh being on the mic and calling a lot more uh Kings games because uh this is this is money time for for uh for Sacramento and for the rest of the teams

In the Western Conference and and it’s uh interesting to see the wild swings that the Kings have had this year you know losing at home Detroit and then going on the road second night of a back toback and beating the Denver Nuggets is pretty amazing so how do you how do you

How do you explain that stuff Mark they beat Denver three times but lost to as you said Detroit they lost to Charlotte they lost to like this weird version of the blade too yeah it’s it’s it’s strange I do think that you know my my barometer is

Always going to be for this team and how you determine their ceiling is looking at their uh defensive rating you know um last year finished 25th 24th uh currently sitting at 20th but where as high as I think 14 at one point uh but have been hovering mostly around uh 1617

Which I think puts them in the ballpark for a pretty decent playoff run you know and they showed last year in the playoffs that they were able to you know defensively turn it on when they had to most of the time and um it was pretty

Promising so I think this year’s team is is better defensively and you know is deeper and has a little bit more versatility and then at the offensive end man I mean I’ve been I’ve been amazed at the way that Mike Brown and J Triano have um evolved the offense you

Know like the the numbers aren’t as sexy as they were last year in terms of points per game and offensive rating but it’s built more for playoff success um when you look at what they’ve kind of added and been able to impact during the course of the regular season so far um

It’s um it’s been pretty good you know like I I look at some of the stuff they they put in for Harrison Barnes that got Harrison BS off recently and um you know the way that they’ve um the league caught up to them a little bit in the

First two-thirds of the season and I’ve been able to see some nice nuanced adjustments by our guys offensively to make sure that the train keeps coming down the tracks yeah and I see that as well you know you talk about some of the numbers um compared to last year and

Where they are rankings and things of this nature Mark the funny thing is it’s it’s really not that far off off from last year it’s almost the same like across the board offense you know defense some of the numbers that the guys are putting up are almost about the

Same the record is even almost about the same at this point last year the Vibes feel different and I remember last year I said hey enjoy the way you feel this year because the weight of expectations are going to change you guys could do the same thing next year but the

Expectations are gonna make it feel different do you kind of feel like that’s why The Angst is what it is like it’s just the expectations because it’s almost almost the same team yeah and it’s a great place to be right I mean last year’s success is different from you know potentially this

Year’s success and it’s it’s nice that the bar has been raised to the point where you know the record is pretty much the same on on par on course for about 48 47 wins anywhere between 47 and 49 right now right exactly where we were

Last season but it just uh it it looks different and yeah you have to enjoy it man because when you look at nine and 10 right now that’s the Lakers and the Warriors in a play in tournament position um it just tells you about how murderous and how tough it is in the

Conference to to win you know like winning is hard I you know the sky was falling after that loss at home to Detroit but you know on that very same night I was calling the Clippers game at home against um New Orleans and like Sacramento the Clippers had come home

From a seven game two-e Road Trip their Grammy road trip and they got dragged at home that night by the Pelicans mind you that’s not Detroit uh no disrespect to the Pistons but it happens and the Clippers have been arguably the best team in the NBA over the last two months

And they got hammered at home so you know losing is losing and it it it happens to the best of teams and you know now the Sacramento Kings come back a few nights later and win in Denver and um you know you you’ve got to look at

The big picture I think sometimes we get a little bit myopic and and focus in on the negative but man moving forward AR rested dearon Fox and the version of sabonis that we’re getting right now uh this is a team that make can make a deep

Playoff run I really believe that we say this all the time the Grizzlies beat the Bucks last night yeah that’s that stuff happens like it’s frustrating but it it it happens um you know what else is frustrating Mark is like how is domas not an

All-Star yeah it’s wild man I uh I mean it’s a great field of Allstar players this year in the Western Conference but you know I I don’t I don’t know I I don’t know and then it it comes who do you take off like I would definitely say

That domas had to be on that team but who do you take off and the yeah yeah take Anthony Davis off cat’s the one take Carl Anthony towns off yeah see I would go Davis before cat because winning has to count for something and uh Minnesota has been in

First place for most of the season in the Western Conference so I think they deserve that kind of Grace and Cass cat can ride that a little bit but uh Davis would probably be the one you know but I’ll say this um you know I I spoke with an agent uh a couple

Weeks ago and he was in the midst of making calls to different teams so that his player would not be selected to go to the All-Star Game and this is a player who’s all NBA so some guys don’t want to go some guys would rather have the rest and

That’s the quiet part out loud right you know like this is God bless goas and dearen right now they got their toes in the sand maybe somewhere or they’re relaxing and and decompressing and you know getting good treatment and because uh the these guys go to Allstar Weekend

And you know there’s there’s usually a Thursday night party if you’re not playing on Thursday night and there’s a Thursday night event there’s a Friday night event there’s Saturday morning uh media there Saturday morning Habitat for Humanity Saturday afternoon appearances for the league corporate appearances private appearances and by the T time

The game lines then you get that Jordan party invite and it’s a wrap yeah you can’t miss that hey if you get a if you get if you get an invite to the Jordan party that’s the one yeah that’s the one yeah it one year in Los Angeles guys I

Got an invite to the Jordan party and my wife and I took a cab to this quote unquote secret location which was up at some high school in Beverly Hills and you had to show your path to get into the parking lot and they had shuttle buses running people from that secret

Location to another uh house up in the hills and that’s where the party was out it was like super like duper DEFCON 5 red SE top secret stuff it was and the I mean the set was wild man it was it was dope they they had all kinds of great

Music and uh you know that’s like date night for wifey and I allar weekend it was it was really cool and uh I remember uh standing in the kitchen uh with my wife and saying oh man Sarah there’s ads over there she’s like oh man forget him I’m gonna go talk to

Usher and that’s when I really got worried understandable understand right no we we doing this together all right no we’ll go see Usher baby that’s what we’ll do we’ll go say hi to Usher we you and I together Mark we always appreciate your time I gotta ask you before you go you

Know a bigger picture uh NBA question question because this guy’s connected and the way when the way I look at it is it’s the pecking order is probably dwade Rick Ross and Mark Jones for dawn of Miami that’s that’s really what it is it’s that’s the order Mark John depends

On the day he might get up to number two but that’s the that’s a three right there one thing that’s always one thing that’s always um he just recently passed Luke at number four hey Luke luk was my old neighbor in Miami lak man that’s my guy that’s

That’s well that’s probably a story for off the air you can you can share us the details of that L there brainy black and white floating out there somewhere man I’m worried about 305 stand up baby but uh but one thing that’s always kind of baffled me

Because I pay attention to this stuff is how it’s been like 35 or 34 years since Miami’s got an Allstar Weekend I know there’s some kind of convention that happens always that that weekend is it like is it just forever gonna be there are they ever gonna because I’m just surprised NBA is

Not going back to Miami for All-Star Weekend yeah it’s been a while what happens is the last one they had was in the 80s uh when Harold Miner was um in his early years with the Miami Heat that’s how long ago it’s been no I’m

Sorry it’s early early 90s I want to say like 9293 Kenny Skywalker won that dunk con yes I remember that yes yes yes right there at the old Miami arena uh on the border of Overtown and um yeah man I’d love it to come to to Dave County

It’s it’s you know this city is built for parties right in good times and um what happens is they have an event called the boat show that weekend every year and I want to say that that’s pretty much the reason why it’s tough to to to work around that and as many hotel

Rooms and Convention centers as we have in uh in Miami um it becomes a little bit of an issue and um I I’m pretty sure that’s why it hasn’t made its way here in a while and you know the NBA likes to award it to um cities that have uh new

Arenas too uh that’s a little bit of a trend right almost any city that has a new Arena yeah hey you caught that I’m glad I’m glad that one yeah I got it I got it you know it’s going to chase it’s going to be their first time in the

Building in San Francisco and then it’s going to the Inuit Center in uh in Englewood and la so you know I don’t it has not come to Miami since they’ve had um you know it’s not American Airlines Arena anymore but um you know it’s it hasn’t come here and and I’m pretty sure

It’s all about the boat show because uh as as crazy as Miami in Dave county is on a on a Monday it’s it’s even more turn during the boat show um yeah mention that and this is the the tourist season too so you’re talking about Allstar Weekend Boat Show tourist season

Uh March break a spring break for a lot of college students yeah yeah man yeah yeah maybe it should go yeah that could be problematic I hope it does at some point my favorite Allstar city is New Orleans be honest with you I I love the big you

Know because the Arena’s right there the Smoothie King center is right there uh the central business district is right there Canal Street the French quarter and the convention center it’s all in walking distance too you know and the climate is always going to be pretty good in New Orleans too so you know

Because I the cold weather stuff is tough man I go from ashy to you know clashy to ashy that’s a tough one you know yeah you’re not missing much no no go ahead they they let letting it snow like Boys to Men out there y’all go

Ahead and do your thing we just fine right here we just fine right here uh Mark we can’t we’re we’re we’re excited to hear you more on the call to final stretch of the Season man always always a great pleasure to talk with you real quick mark you you gonna be there uh

Next Thursday next Thursday I I have the heat game next coming up oh you missing HBC you night HBCU night next Thursday man I know I saw that that one hurts that one hurts hey Mark we got you we’ll cover whatever you need us to cover that night

For you we’re that’s the earliest we’re gonna be to a game all year we’re gonna spend the whole afternoon at the golden one Center I love it man the Sacramento Kings do do the damn thing right I love it I love it I uh that that one hurts

I’m not going to lie to you yeah got a got a commitment that night but um I’ll be looking for the video guys if You’ be kind enough to send me some just easy got you just going to tell all the fraternities you I know Mark Jones right

That’s be our way Mark Jones comes on our radio show y you yeah yeah yeah yeah no come on we’ll talk we’ll talk we’ll talk Mark we appreciate you man thank you as always brother you got it say blessed fellas yes sir

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