What's up everybody? Welcome to the Ringer MBA show. It's the answer. And we're going to be coming to you every Friday, kind of doing a little bit of a week in review conversation with a couple of guests talking about the biggest storylines in the NBA. And there's only one story line in the NBA right now.

There's obviously COVID and how the league is grappling with that with a lot of positive tests impacting different training camps as preseason games start this weekend.

But the other big story, the only big story really beyond that is the James Harden soccer. Now I had I thought as I went to bed on Wednesday night. I was like, there can't possibly be any more chapters to this story until maybe he actually gets traded.

And of course, I was wrong. Shams Rani reported on Thursday that the list of Harden's acceptable destinations and a trade has expanded to include the Milwaukee Bucks and the Miami Heat. And that's interesting.

You know, it's interesting that Harden is trying to essentially conduct a free agency from the pulpit of a guy under contract. You know, it's like who has leverage in this situation.

And the other thing that's really affecting this entire conversation is this idea of player empowerment, which I think we heard a lot of people talk about the player empowerment era.

And I think that that is at once accurate and not accurate way of describing this time that we're kind of going through in the NBA.

What one thing you see that is happening right now is something that really only applies to about 12 NBA players is being used to brush the entire league. This idea that anyone can decide at any given moment that they're not happy in their situation.

So they want to be traded and not only they want to be traded, they want to be traded to this specific place.

And that that is somehow undoing the competitive balance of the league, I think is a little bit of a fallacy. You know, we really only have a couple of examples of this happening over the last couple of years.

You acquire Leonard, Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, Jimmy Butler, Paul George, and now Harden, you know, and I think that there has been some free agency stuff. There's been pressure put in different places.

But for the most part, I think you have to ask yourself, how many guys could actually call their shot like this? You know, like if Kyle Lowry walks in to Messiah Jerry's office and says, try to be right now.

Does that even make a sound? Do we have a week of conversation about Kyle Lowry trying to call his own shot, call his own destination and talk his way out of Toronto?

For all we know, there has been situations like this before with mid-level players, with replacement players, with role players, with bench players, where these guys have been like, yeah, you know what, this isn't working for me.

I thought I was going to be getting about 25 minutes game. I'm only getting 12. I'm not going to get a contract. You got to trade me somewhere. It's probably happened.

You know, the player empowerment idea seems to mostly apply to all NBA level of talent and the idea that teams are on a clock that ticks faster than the player contract suggests it should.

That somehow Milwaukee is on a clock to please John is that Houston is on a clock to please Harden.

And I think what those teams would assume is no, we have the full extent of this person's contract to work these things out.

But maybe that's just not the case anymore. And maybe, maybe that's not a good thing. Maybe that's not a good thing for people who buy James Harden jerseys.

You know, maybe it's not a good thing for Houston Rockets fans. I'm sure if Joel and B or Ben Simmons wanted out of Philadelphia, I would feel upset about it too.

You know, but the question is, is like, what I be upset is Ben Simmons got traded for James Harden? Does it go both ways?

Does that loyalty go both ways when it means your team can be improved? And does it apply to all the different parts of the NBA?

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