Hour 2: Giannis Speaks, Trade Deadline Tension, and What It Means for the Knicks with Ian Begley

Evan & Tiki

Audacy

Sports

4.2 • 988 Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2026

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With the NBA trade deadline just hours away, the league is holding its breath after a revealing quote from Giannis Antetokounmpo: “I want to be here, but I want to win.” Evan and Tiki react to what that really signals about Giannis’ future in Milwaukee and whether the Knicks were ever truly in the mix. The guys are joined by Ian Begley to break down why Giannis may ultimately stay put, how his situation slowed the entire trade market, and what realistic moves the New York Knicks could still make before the buzzer. They also examine how recent moves by Cleveland and Boston reshape the Eastern Conference, why asset limitations matter for New York, and whether the real Giannis sweepstakes are more likely to spill into the offseason. It is a deadline-eve deep dive into superstar leverage, front office patience, and what Knicks fans should actually be rooting for when the clock hits 3:00 PM.

Transcript

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0:00.0	NBA trade deadline is tomorrow at 3 o'clock. This just came out from The Athletic, a bucks reporter who covers the Milwaukee Bucks for the Athletic. His name is Eric NEM of the athletic. Hopefully I'm pronouncing it right. Just secured an exclusive interview with Janus Antonacumbo. And here's the money quote about Janus heading into the trade deadline. Quote, I want to be here, but I want to win, not fighting for my life to make the playoffs.
0:28.6	So, I mean.
0:30.1	Yeah.
0:30.9	That means he doesn't want to be there.
0:32.6	Yeah.
0:33.3	This is the honest thing.
0:35.0	It is a nice way of saying, I'm done. Yeah.
0:38.3	We'll get to Janus, his future, the Knicks scenario, not just the Nixon, Janus, but other scenarios going into tomorrow's trade deadline.
0:45.4	But the guy that we trust the most does a great job covering the NBA for SNY. Ian Begley, Ian Begley, Ian Good Talk to you. Happy Trade deadline, Eve to you, sir.
0:54.9	Is it happy?
0:56.2	I mean, I hope it's happy for you guys.
0:59.9	Well, it's just interesting.
1:00.8	Interesting, even if not happy.
1:03.0	Yeah.
1:03.3	Why have we seen so much action on Tuesday instead of the leading instead of Thursday?
1:08.1	You know, I think a lot of it was teams, going back to last week, just wondering about
1:13.6	the Yonah situation kind of holding, yonest situation was holding things up.
1:18.1	And I think it's more of a realization that the Yonest thing is unlikely to happen.
1:24.0	And if you're a team who maybe thought you were going to get in and realize
1:27.8	it's impossible, then you go ahead and make your other moves and move on with your deadline plans.
1:33.8	Obviously, the honest thing is still up in the air, but I think the number of teams that thought
1:38.5	they could be involved either directly or as a third team had dwindled down. And that's
	...

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