Episode 22: Lakers/Nuggets And The NBA All Star Game Pushback

last night's Laker Nuggets Lakers Nuggets game. I went back over the film, UH in an in depth manner today, UH, and I have a bunch of thoughts on a bunch of different things having to do with the Lakers, and then I just want to give my quick two cents on the the NBA All Star Game and all the pushback that they've been receiving. UM. Usually when two sides are agreeing to do something, there's kind of like a public push, but then there's obviously a private push as well,

and I think I understand where those folks are coming from. UM. But let's let's start with the Lakers and the Nuggets. So, you know, one of my favorite things about last night's game is it was the the the embodiment of everything that I've talked about this team being over the course of the last few years, because uh, you know, there's been this this big emphasis on how big the Lakers are.

You know, they had they had Dwight Howard Day, had Vale McGee, Lebron six nine seventy pounds, Anthony Davis is this big athletic freak. There was always this talk about how how big they were, and a lot of people who weren't watching the Lakers very closely would say that that was the reason why they were defending so well. They were just too big for teams, and I actually

disagree with that. I think their size is a huge problem on the offensive end, particularly with Lebron and Anthony Davis, because they can bully you to get close shots, shots at the rim. You know, Anthony Davis more so is an offensive rebounder, but Lebron as a post up player, and just the way that that can really cause problems for your defense, especially in a playoff series. However, on the defensive end, I've always said that it wasn't built

on their size. It was built on their guards and their wings and the fact that they were all so dialed in to being in the right spots, to communicating to rotating all the effort and focus stuff. You guys, everyone who's been listening to me for a while knows

that I've been beating that drum forever. And you know, when I was looking back at the film today, their defense really took off when Montrez Harrold was playing center later in the third quarter, uh yesterday, and you know, and Anthony Davis was kind of floating around on the perimeter, and and uh talent Horton Tucker was getting everything going with his length and his quickness out on the perimeter guarding Jamal Murray, taking Jamal Murray out of his core actions,

bothering him from behind with his length, and then when he would get switched off of Jamal Murray by some sort of pick and roll or other screening action, he would stay engaged in the play, immediately rotate to another man that he needs to needed to in the sequence. And there's a lot of like instinctual stuff, people knowing the right places where the right places to be at the right times, and the way that that can disrupt

a really good offense. There's a play on my Twitter feed if you scroll down and you look at the video clips that I've posted today There's a play where he starts on Jamal Murray and then gets caught in a ball screen action with Yokich which he inevitably has to switch, where he switches and gets up underneath yo Kitchen pushes him out kind of to where the semi circle was, which leads to a rotation on the back end where he believes Yokich to sprint out to the

corner to contest to Michael Green and it leads to an air ball. And that's an example of what I'm talking about here the Laker defense that it hasn't just been uh talent Horton Tucker this season. Contavious called Bo Pope has been great with that for the last two years. Alex Crusoe has been great with that for the last two years. You know, Avery Bradley was great with that

last year. It was always built on just this total team effort and commitment to rotating and covering for each other and being in the right spots at the right time. That's always what it was that, Don't get me wrong. Having Anthony Davis and lebron Is, these super versatile forwards in the front line that can protect the rim and guard on the perimeter is also a huge chunk of

what makes that defense so good. But I've always thought that the guards kind of got the short end of the stick in terms of the media and the way that the Laker defense is portrayed, because I think they're just as important, if not more important, to the success of that defense. And I think last night was a

great example of that. That whole third quarter run was was sprung by by town Horton Tucker and honestly Mantrese Harold, who was great so real quick on tres one of the things that I thought was really interesting and if you guys listen to the pot I did with Jason Maples, I talked a lot about this, But I've always said that I thought Mantrese Harold, with the clip and a little bit with the Lakers to start this year, has been set up to fail because they've been using him

as kind of like a center that patrols the paint, where he's not a great room protector, not in the sense that you would think of like being head up with guys and being able to disrupt them and change shots. He can block shots if he really gets loaded up in the right spot. If another defenders involved. That prevents the the the offensive player from being really aggressive to the rim. He can really load up in block shots

and he will get blocks that way. But he's never been great as just an overall just rim presence is just too small and his instincts aren't that great. But he has strengths. He has legitimate athletic strengths that would make him a great defensive player. He's very quick for a for a big man. He's got really long arms, and he plays super hard. He's got a great motor, which fits great into what the Lakers are trying to

do every single game. And so what you saw, what you saw last night is ironically what turned things around for Trey's was the fact that that center that they were using, Yokich was starting a lot of actions with the ball in his hand. So he wasn't defending a ball handler out on the perimeter as a screening defending like defending the screener where he was caught kind of in some sort of weird drop coverage or in between. Instead a lot of times he was on the ball.

So because of that, he opted to ball pressure Yokich and kind of get up underneath them and get into his his handle a little bit, and it really bothered Yoki. And I think that was a big reason why he had so much success defensively last night. What was he was kind of by virtue of what the Denver Nuggets were doing. It allowed the Lakers to play treads to

his strengths. Uh. And then you know, Jason Maples brought this up a lot in our pod, but he said that, um, you know, it's very important for treads to be aggressive in certain matchups, and a lot of times last night they would have Michael Porter Jr. Playing the four, you know, And so they were at the end of the third quarter that lineup they had Yokich at the five and

MPG at the four. They'd had u Yoki on Anthony Davis and Tres was just destroying the uh, the Nuggets, especially in transition when they would get caught in a cross match or like Michael Porter Jr. Would end up on Kyle Kuzma, uh and all of a sudden, he's got Jamal Murray on him or Will Barton on him right under the basket, and he's getting he's getting dunks

and deep seals and things along those lines. There's one in transition that he got out in front of Jamal Murray for a dunk, and then there was another one where he got switched on to Will Barton just did a really good side seal and Lebron through a really nice bounce pass into the right spot and he got another dome. That's that's an example of Montrez finding a way to to to use his strengths, the things that he's really good at. Because all of these role players,

they all have they all have pros and cons. You know, because if if there was a player out there who was playing a role for a team who had no weaknesses, he would be on the floor all the time and he'd be he'd be a star. He wouldn't be a role player. So when you're dealing with these kinds of guys, these in between or type NBA players, they've got downsides, and so you need to structure their role on the team in a way that that that strengthens what they do.

So what I used to talk about all all the time last year with the Laker guards. Everyone was obsessed with the fact that the Lakers didn't have good guards, And I said, who cares, Lebron's your guard on offense. All they need to do is defend, and it turned out all of them could defend, and they didn't need to be you know, uh, super versatile defensive players that could defend all three levels. They just needed to chase people off of the three point line and funnel him

into Anthony Davis. So it worked. The everything is about, you know, taking your player, finding out what he's good at, finding out what he's bad at, and then keeping him in in a wheelhouse for him or he's gonna play well. Uh, you know, the same goes for talent Horton Tucker. I talked a lot about how I wasn't sure if talent Horton Tucker was going to be usable as a playoff

rotation player, and it was never about the offense. Like he he was incredible offensively last night, particularly attacking close outs.

He did such a great job in situations where the defense was chaotic, either in transition or in the half court, or he would get catch the ball on the wing and you could either have a defender who was too slow or no defender at all, one that was closing out on him, and he was able to attack and make quick decisions and get into the paint that that that's amazing, that's great, but that's not what you need

from talent Horton Tucker. In order for him to play in the playoffs, he needed him to defend at an extremely high level in the entirely focused on that on the ball. Remember in the Portland's game early in the season, I think it was their second loss of the season. In the Portland's game, he got absolutely killed by Gary Trent Jr. Because of the fact that he wasn't paying attention on the defensive end of the ball every single possession.

For him to have progressed to where he is now, where he's like a regular rotation member, he's actually like their six man. It's all about the fact that he is now committed on that end of the ball. Whatever you get offensively from him is great. He had a couple of turnovers he had wanted transition where he got a little crazy and tried to throw a chess pass

to Lebron that got stolen. Those are the other things that he's got to be careful of because it's so like decision making is so important in a playoff series. But I mean, from from a month ago, we were all wondering is this kid gonna be usable at all in the playoffs too? Now it looks like he's he's a very important part of their defensive backcourt. That it's it's remarkable how much he's progressed in in such a short period of time. All Right, I want to play.

I want to pay Kyle Kuzma a compliment. So, you know, Kyle Kuzma has a specific personality about him that would suggest that he'd be a certain type of player, right, Like, he's he's very online, he's very on social media, he's very he behaves kind of young. I mean, I don't want to call him immature, because he's not. He's a grown man. But he behaves in a way that would would make you think that he's wired in a in a in a kind of a young, selfish kind of way.

And to see what's happened in the last couple of months between him signing this extension, uh to to make potentially less money than he could have if he left the Lakers to go put up big numbers on a lesser team, and then too after signing that extension, really embrace a minimal offensive role that has him just flying around all over the place, getting offensive rebounds, getting blocks, sprinting back in transition, and becoming just a really really solid,

almost veteran esque role player is remarkable to me because, like I said, it doesn't matter, it doesn't mess up with what you think his personality would be. Like you know, when you meet people like that, the person who's very online, they're usually the They're usually the person who is a little self absorbed, a little more worried about what they've

got going on it. And you know, it's so it's so cool to see him buy into this concept and and quite frankly, like that's gonna be the thing that keeps him in the league as a as a Shane Battier type of wing for you know, for a really long time. It is him becoming that guy that him having a seventeen year NBA career is gonna depend on

him being this guy. And and and I just like I said, I just wanted to pay him a compliment because this is literally a player who took potentially less money to stay on a team where he is in a much smaller role, and he's just addicted to playing winning basketball and doing all of these little things that lead to a lot of success on the team level. And and I and again like I me, just like just like all of you, just like most of the people in in uh, in the Laker fan base. I've

been really hard on Kyle Kuzma. Are a lot of reasons over the years, and a lot of it had to do with the fact that he wasn't embracing those little things. And to see him do it now, like, uh, you know, I don't want to say necessarily that we owe him an apology, because we had reasons to feel the way that we did, but but it's it's incredible to see his transformation from that guy into literally like the guy who was playing harder than anybody on the

court last night. It was really really impressive in my opinion. So about the next thing I want to talk about is Anthony Davis. So I read a poll last night and I asked a very simple question. I said, our Anthony Davis struggles based on the fact that he's not getting enough touches or is it based on the fact that that he's just struggling, you know, that he's just in a funk. And the voting came came back at about thought that he was just in a funk, and

that it wasn't related to his touches at all. Now, you know, I think there's two I think I tweeted this last night, and I think it. I think there is some truth to the fact that his touches look different than they did last year, and a lot of that has to do with Schroeder in the starting lineup. This is something I talked about, uh in a couple podcasts recently. You know, when Schroeder's on the floor with Lebron and Anthony Davis, they destroy teams without a doubt.

It is good for the team to have all three of them together. However, having all three of them together in the starting lineup has a couple of unintended consequences. One that I always beat the drumon is that leads Lebron to run half of the second quarter by himself or with four role players rather than with one of the other co stars. And two, I think it really

does potentially have an impact on Anthony Davis's rhythm. UH. That meaning that in the beginning of the game, the fact that you've got two of these primary ball handler type of players on the floor with Anthony Davis is just leading him to getting less touches uh initially in

the game. And one of the things that I that I preached about all year last year, if you guys remember, is that I thought, you know, Lou Williams over aggressiveness uh in Montrese, Harold and as well might have had something to do with some of the inconsistency from from Paul George. Now, Paul George is proving me very wrong this year. But I do I I do think that there is some truth to the basketball you know thought process that having too many ball handlers on the floor

can cause some issues with rhythm for players. That is true for Anthony Davis. However, he has been really really bad on the offensive end of the floor. And at a certain point, like if you think of the line between the two outcomes, like this is where it's based on his rhythm, and this is where he's just not playing well, Like it's somewhere in the middle, Like at some point he's got to accept some blame for what's

happening here. At the end of the day, he's he's not dribbling the ball very well at all, he's not shooting the ball very well at all, and he's not being physically aggressive around the rim. Almost every shot that he's making this year is something where he's being set

up by one of his teammates. He's having like one of his worst you know, uh scoring individual scoring seasons in terms of his isolation, in terms of what he was doing so great in the bubble, He's he's having a terrible season in that regard, and I can't entirely

blame that on the touches. Now, there are a couple of people that I follow on Twitter, people that are Laker fans who have been beating this drum all season, and I don't want to undercut that because they are right, Like, there is something to be said about the fact that, you know, Lebron is playing basically the same way he played last year, the same amount of touches, same overall control of the game, same everything, and Anthony Davis is

getting less touches. So what is the difference. It's Dennis Schroeder that that goes without saying. But at the end of the day, like, I don't think you can entirely blame Shorter because you gotta worry about his rhythm and if Schroeder just entirely gives up his feel for the game and the initial stretches to to force feed Anthony Davis.

It's very likely that Schroeder will have some struggles, and he has had some struggles for certain stretches of this year where he hasn't played very well well offensively, where he hasn't shot the ball really well. So from that standpoint, I think, like, you know, if you're Anthony Davis, you've got to kind of acknowledge the realities of the situation. Okay, I'm getting less touches because we have another really, really good ball handler this year, and so as a result

of that, my offense has changed. But he also has to look in the mirror and say, however, that's not changing. Schroeder's not coming out of the starting lineup. It's very clear that he wants that the Lakers have a vested interest in trying to keep him here and and and get him to come back after his contract runs out. So I doubt they're gonna move him to the bench. So if you're Anthony Davis, you've got to acknowledge the realities of the situation and be like, I have to

play better. I don't know if I have to spend extra time in the gym working on my shot. I don't know if I have to just like demand the ball a little bit more from maybe from Lebron, because Lebron is, you know, less dependent on rhythm, and he's someone who's a little bit more capable of of deferring and then coming back into the game later on, uh and being more aggressive later. I don't know what he

has to do, but he's got to do something. And my and and you know, he had a really really good defensive stretch to end the third quarter and in the fourth quarter last night, he defended Joel and Bed really well at the end of the fourth quarter in the Philadelphia game. He's had stretches defensively this year where he's been great, but he's also had a lot like long stretches of the season where he hasn't been great defensively.

So at a certain point, like I said, at a certain point, Anthony Davis has to kind of, you know, accept some responsibility for for what's happening here. And it attempts to make a change, and I try to do something, uh to turn things around. But I'm not I'm not worried about him. But I mean, let's this is now, We're now over a quarter of the way through the season, and he's actually really slumping worse now than he was

to start the season. So I think all I'm saying is, I think it's time for Anthony Davis to to try to figure this thing out really quickly. On Lebron, um I said in the podcast that I did with Tommy on Tuesday, I said that I thought Lebron was the the m v P front runner just by a hair.

I think it's important to understand that embid Yokich and and be Kauai and Lebron, those three are kind of on the same tier, and that that's typical and such a short in such a short uh sample size, because all that they haven't played enough games to really build some gap between each other. But all three teams are right around the same record, They're all within a half game of each other, all three of them are putting up ridiculous numbers, and all three of those teams are

at the every top of the league. And so from that standpoint, they absolutely deserved to all be in that tier together. And then I basically said that the reason why I thought Lebron deserved to be on the top over Kauai had to do with the fact that Kauai has had somebody on his team playing just as good as him and Paul George, whereas Anthony Davis has kind of faded and Lebron has had to deal with that

really quick short turnaround. And then I also said that Mbiid, who has missed I believe five or six games already this season, that his availability is starting to become a differentiating factor, even though his numbers are better than what Kauai and Lebron had been putting up. But last night was another great example of that, because you know, uh, you're at home, you're playing against You're playing against a team that very clearly wants to send a message to you.

The Nuggets came in with their hair on fire in that game, especially in that first half, coming in there attempting to to to knock the Lakers off. The Nuggets have been playing really well this year. They were eleven and four in their previous fifteen games if my math is correct, and they were top ten in defense. They were ninth in defense in their previous fifteen games, and they were top five in offense. They were fourth in

offense in their previous fifteen games. So the Nuggets came in their hair on fire trying to beat the Lakers. Lakers don't have much to play for. It their at home, the game doesn't mean much for them in the standings. Uh. Anthony Davis comes out and he was he was aggressive on the offensive glass early, but he didn't have anything going offensively outside of that. And Lebron did what an m v P does, which is he just refuses to

let his team lose. And throughout that game. Although you know, the role players were amazing in that game, but they always are for the really good teams. But Lebron throughout that game asserted himself when he needed to, uh, in order to keep pushing that that uh, that winning go forward and and I just think, like you know, over the course of the season, that's gonna be a part of his case is understanding that the Lakers did did get dealt up pretty shitty hand that really quick turnaround.

You know, like it's very clearly affecting Anthony Davis, but for whatever reason, Lebron is just not letting it affect him. And he's been really, really good on the defensive end. He's he's incredibly gifted around the rim with his hands in a way that's actually pretty crazy because you know, when you're when you play, when you play basketball in college or really in any competitive level, almost every single coach and ref will tell you to never swipe down

on the ball. They always tell you to swipe up. That's why when you see guys practice at defensive slide, they always kind of have that left hand out with their hand up and then the other art hand is up as they kind of slide down the court. The idea is they're they're training you to reach up at the ball because they don't want you to get called

for a foul. And Lebron just has this ridiculous ability around the basket to strip guys on the way up, and he does it by reaching down, and he does it without getting foul calls, which which is amazing to me. But again, I've been, I've been, uh, you know, I took a little bit of not heat. But a couple of people that I'm friendly with on Twitter are making fun of me yesterday because they said, oh, like figures Lebron had Jason as Lebron as the m v P again And you know, yeah, man, I think he's the

best player in the league. And outside of a handful of seasons like two thousand fifteen when he missed several weeks with injury and UH when his team kind of struggled through the regular season, and two thousand and sixteen when Steph was just otherworldly, and then two thousand nineteen when he was hurt, I do think he was the

m v P every year. But it's because I don't think any basketball player impacts winning nearly as much as he does, and and more often than not, like I think that that that needs to be something that is factored in the MVP race, and and it it. You know, if you go look at the the UH the NBA dot com stats website, and you you scroll down and you look at points per game leaders, there are a lot of guys that are averaging plus points a gain a lot of them that that doesn't mean anything in

the NBA anymore. You know, Zach Lavine averages over points a game, you wouldn't say he's a top twenty player there that that part of it is such a small part of what it takes to win basketball games. And so when I'm looking at that, when I'm looking at at what Lebron brings to the table. Those are the that that's the kind of stuff that I try to see beyond and look at all of his impact and that that's why I'm going to favor him in a

case like this. And I don't think it's a coincidence that when you put him on a roster that has the pieces that they need to contend that all of a sudden he can win a championship or beyond the team that's in the top two or three records in the league. That that's literally what it means to impact winning at that level is if you put them in in a set of good circumstances, they're going to win. Alright, one,

This is gonna be a shorter show today. There's one last thing I wanted to touch on before we're done, and if any of you guys have any questions, If you guys have any I'll take him at the end, m um. So I wanted to touch on the All Star Game. So important thing to understand about the way that I look at stuff. I you know, I'm an optimist when it comes to uh, my sport, my sports interests.

When I'm rooting for something I'm an optimist. I'm naturally easy going in life, and naturally, when I'm looking at at something like that, I'm always going to take a glass half full type of approach. But when it comes to like society and and like, you know, more more intense and less playful type of topics, I tend to be more of a pessimist and a realist. And I think that that's just part of the way I'm wired.

And I don't think there's anything wrong with having a different approach to that kind of stuff, But like, I'm always going to look at some of these things with a kind of a harsh reality type the type of perspective, and and that's kind of the way I look at this, this All Star Game thing, because you know, Lebron comes out last night and he says, you know, I don't want to do this, Like I'm exhausted. I was looking forward to having a break and to kind of recalibrate

and prepare for the second half of the season. Like I don't want to be there. I think this is stupid. And as I've said several times on Twitter and as I said in the pod with Tommy, like the reasoning for having an All Star Game is literally the exact same reason for having the season. Coming into this season, nobody wanted to play basketball in December. None of the owners wanted to do it. None of the players wanted

to do it. Why because of the fact that the owners weren't weren't gonna make as much money without fans, and because the players needed a break from the bubble, and because they knew the pandemic was gonna make the season less fun. None of them wanted to play the same thing Lebron was feeling when he was talking about that All Star Game is the exact same way he was feeling when he was talking about this season in general back in November, that that that that was the

reality of the situation. But they went forward with the season for a couple of really obvious reasons, For really simple reasons. The players really wanted to keep this current cb A intact, and so they wanted to uh to to try to capitalize on as much of the TV contract as they could, because they knew if they didn't that the owners would rip up the c b A, and that that they didn't want to play seventy two games, but they had to in order to fulfill as much

of the TV contract as possible. They didn't want to play in December, but they had to because the TV partners were aggressively pressuring them because of the low ratings as a result of them playing during the election coverage and during the heat of the NFL season back in in uh August and September and October. Those were the

harsh realities of the situation. They knew that if they and then also all of a bunch of people in the players Association were from other countries and really really wanted to play in the Olympics and play for their country, and so they needed to be done in July. So there were all of these reasons to push through with seventy two games from December to July that would that would lead to them having kind of a hectic, weird

season without fans that kind of suck. With all these restrictions that they inevitably that they had to even tighten further than they did. That this was always going to be bad. This was never meant to be fun for them. This was work. You know, we all have jobs, but you know, they have a more fun job than most. However, this season became less fun for them as a result of the lack of fans and the lack of the ability to you know, have fun in these cities that

they were traveling to. And that really sucks. And I'm not debating now, you know, there's no there's no point in and and and trying to tell them how to feel about a situation, because obviously they have reasons to feel the way they do. All all I'm saying is that they knew what this was when they signed on the dotted line. This season is gonna suck. It's gonna be seventy two games, it's gonna run from December to July.

None of us want to be doing this, but we're doing it for the c b A, We're doing it for the television contract or doing it so that we can get back to normal next year. They had all these reasons why they were doing it, and like if I'm the league and Turner Broadcasting comes into the room and sits down with Adam Silver and goes like, hey, listen, like, the All Star Game is part of our contract. If you guys do it, it's gonna make up you know, a hundred and fifty million of the of our total

TV deal or whatever it is. I don't know what the number is. But then Adam Silver calls up uh, Chris Paul and the Players Association and Michelle Roberts and goes, hey, listen, like this, this All Star Game is gonna make up a huge chunk of our overall TV deal. All we gotta do is keep the same protocols and fly everybody into Atlanta, have them do dunk contests, have them do with three point contests, have them do a game, and then fly you out of there. It's gonna put a

bunch of money in all of our pockets. It's the exact same reasoning for why we're doing this whole season to begin with. Let's go ahead and do it, you know, and and for the you know, one of the most common bits of pushback that I've seen is people's saying, you know, well, I don't like the idea of putting all of our stars in one place. And I get that.

In theory, if if if an outbreak took place at the All Star Break at the All Star Game, that would be the worst possible place for it to happen, because a bunch of stars from a bunch of different teams would get it that that's that's terrifying, right, But that's the exact same fear that was in play during the bubble. You've got all these players in one spot. If if a if an outbreak happens to take place in there, it's gonna infect everybody. Blah blah blah blah blah.

But what kept the bubble secure was the protocols, and that's the whole point of trusting them for the purpose of the All Star Game. Yes, if COVID happens to get into a player who is at one of those who's at an event at at at All Star weekend,

it will be problem. But there's been one positive COVID test in the last two testing cycles within the n b A strictly because they have great protocols, you know, and people people really like to to to roast the NBA and to talk a bunch of shit about how terrible they are because they're trying to have a season. But they really did go to great lengths to to uh to have great protocols, and and it's funny because they they uh. If you think about what basketball is,

like I I caught COVID playing basketball. I went to an alumni game at the school that I played in college, and they stuck a thermometer at my forehead and said you're good to go, and made me just sign a piece paper that said I wasn't experiencing symptoms. I'm pretty sure that's where I got it. You know, you do catch COVID playing basketball, but somehow NBA players aren't catching

COVID right now, and it's because of the protocols. So for all the the ship talking about shaking hands at mid cord or shaking hands at the free throw line and all and all of the people given the NBA a hard time about some of the cheesy rules, well, underneath the cheesy rules, there were a lot of really smart rules, and they're basically running like a mobile bubble everywhere they go. The team basically exists with within its own bubble that travels around to all these destinations, and

it's working. It is. It's not perfect, it's not as perfect as a real bubble, but it's doing really, really well. And the NBA deserves more credit for that because for all the talk about them being a business who just wants to profit and make money, they're at least doing it. Unless of a dumpster fire fashion in the NFL did where they where. They just didn't care that people were getting it all over the place. These NBA players aren't really strict protocols and they know it sucks and they're

pushing through. But my thing is, like, what what's the difference like as as it pertains to the All Star Game? You know, as long as they obey those protocols there, adically, nothing's going to happen to the group of guys in there, even if you had you know, Obama and Gandhi and every other famous person in the world within that bubble. If they're if they're behaving according to the protocols, they're going to be fine. All right. Do we have any

questions in the comments? Do you care about the NFL? Do you care about the NFL? If so, who do you have winning the Super Bowl? I do care about the NFL, but I'm a very casual fan. I grew up a Cowboys fan because all of my my family, so my my dad and mom met in Dallas, all of their brothers and sisters live in Dallas. Um I used to visit Dallas two or three times a year, and as a family growing up, every year for Thanksgiving, we would travel back to Dallas. My parents both moved

to Tucson, Arizona. That's where I live now, but we would travel back to Dallas every single year, and on Thanksgiving Day we'd watched the Cowboys play and we watched the Lions play. Because my dad was originally from Detroit, but I grew up a cow was fan. I've always really really liked the NFL. I just had a really hard time getting into this season and and that that

there's a lot of reasons behind that. One is the uh, the Cowboys having been very good to the thing with the fans and COVID has made it kind of weird for me. But three, and this is this is the most important. Like, you know, I'm married now, and you know I I really invest a lot into my relationship. I think it's one of the reasons why you know, my wife and I are very happily married is because

I invest heavily into that. You know, Like when I wake up in the morning and I'm making my plan for the week and I'm planning gym time and I'm planning work because I've run my own business and I'm planning all of these things out I also set aside time for my wife. I have to, because if I don't, I think that sort of thing is what builds all of the scar tissue that can lead to a really bad relationship. And so um, you know, and it's not perfect.

I'm not perfect. I mean, my I'm twenty nine years old. I'm learning just like every to else. But so far it's it's so far, so good as it pertains to that sort of thing. And so I really enjoy doing this. I enjoy recording these podcasts. I enjoy covering the NBA as closely as I can with all of the other

responsibilities I have. And and one of the ways that I do that is I've basically told my wife, like, look, if there's a Laker game on, I'm watching it, and but outside of that, I'm gonna keep as much time

for you as I can. So the old days when I used to wake up on a Sunday and watch football all day, you know, those days are pretty much gone because now I set aside the three nights a week where I'm gonna be, you know, very closely watching the Lakers and and uh and and afterwards being on Twitter, you know, kind of engaging in the conversation and and

doing all of those things. I set that time aside, and I save as much of the other time as possible to be with my wife and for the other social engagements, whether it be my family or her family or our friends and things along those lines. So I think that's probably be one of the bigger reasons why I don't follow the NFL more closely than I do is that I'm taking this NBA stuff really serious, and uh, I really really enjoy doing this. When I come on

here and talk about the Lakers. Usually I've watched every Laker game twice. Because I don't like being someone who's talking out of my ass. I try to I try to pretend, at least pretend like I know what I'm talking about. So uh, I think that probably is the bigger reason. Let's see any other questions. Nope, that's it. Um, all right, guys, thank you so much for listening in. Like I said, UM, I just wanted to hop on for a little bit before we all get busy with

our weekends. But I would imagine I'll be doing something with Tommy early in the week next week, and then uh my next Laker guest that I'm having on is Vine. We had a bit of a scheduling conflict last week, but we have three kind of week Laker games coming up. The they play the thund Or twice, and they play the Detroit Pistons. But after that, there's a lot of really good games and we're gonna have a lot of good Laker basketball to go over. But thank you guys

as always for your support. And I'll have the podcast version of this up shortly and I will see you next week for another show.