A heads up to NBA podcast junkies-- Adam Mares and Tim Legler have a new pod together... and it's very good. (ALL-NBA podcast)
As somebody who spends 4 to 5 hours a day in my car for work, I have spent an unhealthy amount of time over the years listening to NBA podcasts.
Some of them are often enlightening (Thinking Basketball, NBA University back before Tjarks unfortunate passing, the Lowe Post), some of them are pure entertainment (Simmons + Rusillo, the Mismatch) and some of them have banished from my phone (Dunked On I'm looking at you).
Anyways, I often see people here lamenting that Tim Legler isnt given more airtime on ESPN considering how good he is at breaking down the game. Meanwhile, Adam Mares time covering the Denver Nuggets has taught me a ton about the game of basketball and is also a very likeable dude (he's always looking to chat hoops at his bar in Denver). However, he has long shyed away from national coverage because he acknowledges how hard it is to watch all 30 teams.
Thus, I was intrigued when it was announced that he and Legler were staring the All-NBA podcast together with the goal of covering the whole league 4x a week through the lens of X&O's.
One week in and I would say it's a very worthwhile listen. Both men have a bit of a mindmeld in how they view the game and it's resulting in some really solid conversations and ample coverage for teams that a lot of corporate pods shy away from. My only real critiquew is that they are still finding their chemistey together and that it can feel a bit dry at times. Adam is an entertaining guy with a lot of podcasts under his belt but it does feel like he is still finding his confidence next to somebody he clearly admires.
Below is a link to their lastest episode where they discuss Celts v Wolves in depth and then briefly touch upon Harden with the Clips and New Orleans versus Denver:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7pOvlIGixwDGz8iLQCaWYh?si=Sdh0tqjQTpSya5-qWhXQEg
And then here's them discussing the new look Mavs:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4tltfSqYx4qlUCs5OvVeNA?si=ok1MRo8DTqigLN03kWVvog