Welcome back to another episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beecham.

First episode of the year, man.

Thank you all so much for all the support getting to this season.

And in 2026, the goal is to continue to get out good content.

You know how it goes.

So today's episode, there is no gimmick.

There is no theme.

We're kind of just jumping around the league and talking about some teams that, you know, just going through the notes of the previous episodes to start the season. I haven't really talked about these teams a ton. And I want to talk about them. I want to talk about some of the more topical situations around basketball. The 65 game rules should be abolished is a big conversation over the inner webs. and the teams we're talking about later, the 76ers. Ooh. Hey, man. I know it's not really a big three, but they're fantastic. I don't even know what you want to say. They look as good as ever. The last couple nights had a good game against the New York Knicks where they went into Madison Square Garden and the Knicks didn't really stand a chance. All right, we got to talk about that. The Phoenix Suns, I feel like, should be a bigger story in the NBA, considering nobody expected this team to have 20 wins at this point of the season. They're over under was 30 and a half. They're already two-thirds of the way there and we're not even at the All-Star break. Then we got to get into like Jalen Brown and the Celtics, just ahead, a little 50 ball, and then some smaller topics later on.

Let's start off with a 65 game rule. Now, Nicole Yolkidge went down an injury. Ended up being something they said he'll be reevaluated on in four weeks, which is like a blessing because when he went down, you know, Yonkers don't go down often. He's, he's an iron man. He very rarely misses minutes, misses games and stuff. So when he went down, it was like, oh, snap. Because in my mind, the different nuggets are what, number two in a league when it comes to my overall contention teams? And when he went down, I was like, just don't be nothing serious. Don't be nothing serious. And four to six weeks is what they're saying. Four weeks to evaluation and maybe a two extra weeks after that. So we'll see. Now with that, when he went down on his injury, a lot of people, me included, was like, hey, Nicoli Okins was the MVP at that point. Shea had it for the majority of the season. The OkC Thunder had a week when they lost two games. And boy, don't you dare lose two games if you're supposed to be legendary. And on the same thing, On the other side with the different nuggets, they were missing three starters and they were still winning basketball games. And Yolkich was putting up 40s, 12, and 12s. He had the best Christmas Day performance ever, even though half the world was sleep because it went into overtime. So he was just playing such great basketball, which is the Nicola Yolkich way. and now because he's going to miss four to six weeks, he's in jeopardy of not just not winning MVP, but in jeopardy of not making an all-N-B-A. And I've said it before. I've said again, just for the people that may be the first time to listen to the show, when I look at all-N-BA, when I look at awards, I look at it, and it is a snapshot of the season that we just watched. It is a way for me as somebody that was not

really, I mean, I was watching basketball in 06,

but like I was 10 years old.

So when I look back in 06 and I see the all NBA teams in my mind that those are the 15

players that the league had decided were the best 15 players in the world at that point.

The MVP was the MVP.

And now with the 65 game rule, this conversation

is like, hey, will we have a real representation of what 2025, 2026 the NBA season ended up being?

Because right now, we did this two months ago. We were talking about how there was potentially

eight all NBA spots open for grass because of injury, because of Halliburton, because of Dub, because of Tatum, because James Hardin and the Clippers weren't playing well. And I guess they kind of figured some things out. But in that wind streak they was going on, the opposing team was shooting 28% from three. Then he went against the Celtics, a three-point shooting team, it got smacked. There were so many different players, right? between LeBron James going down with his injury and so on, there were so many all-NBA spots open. And now that number's even higher if YoKids is not going to get the 65 game thing. So can we look at the 2025-20206 eventual all-NBA players to say, hey, these are the guys that represented this season. And I do want to say, I mean, I'm sure there are people in the industry or people that are talking about this topic of the 65 game rule that are literally just talking about it because it ends up being Yokic is the victim of it all. I am not one of those people. It could have been Yokic. It could have been anybody, honestly, but it's just the, he is the breaking point, if you will. Like, with all those names, it's like, man, now it's Yolkich. Now it's, you know, it could have been now it's Luca. Now it's whoever. It's just one of the top guys that are making us having this conversation. And should we abolish it? I am, I am pro 65 game one.

I want to take a step back a few years ago when it was incorporated and what the idea was from Adam Silver in the competition committee and the players association.

Their goal was to get it so that the superstar players, the best players in the world,

were low managing,

which was a conversation for what felt like eight years leading up to the 65 game rule.

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