What's Wright - NBA Contenders: Lakers TIER 1, Suns checked out, Nuggets problems + Bengals ALL-IN

it's the listen. It has just enough qualities of a sport that I could get into that I'm gonna be open to actually getting into it. You know what I've grown to like demons over the last few years, and that you're gonna laugh at me. Opulent wealth, opulent displays of wealth where it's just like crazy rich people flaunting how rich they are. And F One's got a lot of that. By the who goes to it, it's like, oh, the Monaco Grand Prix, here's the super yachts, the all

of it. And one little spoiler before we get to the meat of the show and last night's basketball, I really, without asking anyone for permission, this is one of the bright sides I suppose of owning the podcast. Now, Sierra our F one correspondent filled out a credential request for the Miami Grand Prix to be our on the ground F one correspondent for the Miami Grand Prix. Yeah, and now it might get denied. I'm not certain. They asked for like, you know, business letterhead and how many viewers

we have and things. They're like, you need at least this many viewers a month. I'm like, man, we crushed that number and so and so. Yeah, so hopefully you know we're expanding. It asked where our business was located, and I'm like, well, best I can tell, it's located than New York, LA and Miami. We have people everywhere. We're try Corystal at this point right boots on the ground.

So that coming later in today's show. Here is what is not going to be in today's show, but kind of in today's show because I'm saying it's on today's show. Cavs winning streak ends at sixteen. Multiple fifteen game winning streaks for them, Though wildly impressive baseball season officially underway

as of this morning show. He Otani and the Dodgers won a baseball game that counted in Tokyo this morning, and the producers are you know this is they're twisting my arm, and so I will start the show with this my annual March Madness bracket rant, which is very simple. Fill out as many brackets as you'd like, enter as many contests as you'd like. Have a mascot bracket, have a best looking head coach bracket, Have a who would win in a fight bracket? I have a coolest sororities bracket,

have a favorites bracket, of an underdog's bracket. Do whatever the hell you want, but understand the rules, and the rules are simple. If you fill out more than one bracket, I'm not saying if you enter more than one contest, but if you have for the sixty four tournament games, I'm sorry, sixty three tournament games, anything other than the exact sixty three winners of those games. If you have any variation of your original bracket, you're never allowed to

say the following words. I picked that upset, I have that team in the final four. No, these are just the rules. I understand that our society is fraying day by day and that established norms are going by away side. Yeah, well, you know what, I don't even really you know, I have varying opinions on participation trophies. My buddy Laslo used to say, adults get them all the time. It's called your weekly paycheck. You think you were the best at

your job this week. No, you just showed up. You just showed up every day and at the end of the week you got a paycheck. That's an adult participation trophy. That's not what I mean. I'm just talking about. We don't there's no there's a lack of take integrity. And I'm all for bragging about picking a sweet upset, and I'm even okay with you being like, oh, I had that upset picking a twelve over a five, even if your upset was the Vegas favorite, I'm okay with just

being like, no, they were the lower seeded team. I'm not a gambler. Fine, all, that's fine. What I am not okay with is folks who fill out six different brackets with conflicting results, and therefore people are like, I had that one, I had that one, I had this one. No, if you fill out more than one, you have to watch the tournament basically in silence. If you fill out just one brag away. Those are the rules. We all know the rules. We all should accept the rules. Now to the actual show.

probably listen to me. And the day after the Lebron injury, I did an emergency pod and I said, I think the Lakers need to be planning on Lebron missing on the high end ten games, and then I said I would anticipate that he should be returning. My guess was that he would be returning before their game in Chicago Thursday,

March twenty seventh. It now appears might that my updated guests would be Lebron is going to return right around Thursday, March twenty seventh, maybe a few days earlier, thankfully for my own purposes. He should be definitely back by Saturday, March twenty ninth, which is the game against the Grizzlies. Now went as far as them navigating it. When I looked at the ten games that I thought they might have Lebron, I said, the goal is to go six

and four. Going five and five is acceptable. Anything worse is a problem. They started with a loss in a game that you hoped they could have won, the Brooklyn game. But that and that Brooklyn game was, you know, a highly problematic loss, especially because Luca did play, and so that put them behind the eight ball. You anticipated they were gonna lose to Milwaukee. They did. You anticipate they

were gonna lose to Denver. They almost stole that game without Luca, But then they had to beat Phoenix, they had to beat San Antonio and they did. And now so they they started off zero to three, and I said six and four was the goal. They're now two and three. And again, if we're gonna use the ten games as a level set home for Denver, home for Milwaukee, in a back to back home for Chicago at Orlando at Indiana. I look at home for Chicago at Orlando and at Indiana as the games they've got to have.

And if somehow you can steal one of the Denver Milwaukee games, and they've played really well against Denver, and you've got They beat Denver when they were at full when the Lakers before Lebron's injury, and they damn near beat them when they were without Lebron. Luca Ruey, Jackson, Hayes, Dorian Finnie Smith, Gabe Vincent six of their top eight but the other So yes, I think that they're fine,

and I will take it a step further. What Austin Reeves has done during this stretch and what Luca's done during this stretch has made the Lakers look even more dangerous when Lebron gets back. The other thing that's happened is this the team they're chasing other than the Rockets. None of them are red hot now. The Rockets have won seven in a row, but the Lakers, despite that four game losing streak, they are sitting there at twenty five losses. The Rockets have twenty five, The Nuggets have

twenty five thanks to that. Well more in the Nuggets in a moment, because that Nuggets Warriors game last night was interesting. The Lakers have twenty five, and then the Grizzlies are sitting there at twenty six and the Warriors, who some people were like, oh, could the Warriors climb up? The Warriors given the loss last night to a Nuggets team without Jokic or Murray, and then Steve Kerr talking

about Steph potentially sitting out sometime, the Warriors. They the Warriors question is are they gonna fall back a seed into the play in not are they going to climb into the five line. But the Lakers are still just sitting there, you know, basically tied with Memphis, but a game up in the lost column and tied in the lost common with the Rockets and Nuggets, so seating wise,

they've been fine. We are seeing how important it is for if, in case you didn't already know, for any team with Luka Ancic, to just have one viable lob threat, because Jackson Hayes all of a sudden, you know, is you know, looking looks like a fifteen million dollar a year player just by catching lobs from Luca and Man oh man, is Austin Reeves a hell of an asset and a hell of a player, And I understand the internet on my behalf this week, you know, took a

bit of a victory lap for me about my Austin Reeves Bradley Beal take from fifteen months ago. What's the meme? They called me a madman? Guys, here's one of the benefits of watching basketball. You know more than people who don't,

and anyone. And I'm not gonna act like I had been watching a ton of Wizards and Bradley Beal, and I like Bradley Beal personally, but I had watched enough that I knew he is not at all what the Sons need, and he is significantly on the downside, and he doesn't really fit within that team needed strong point guard play and a bigger post presence. What they didn't need was another version of the exact player they have, Like, what the reason I never liked well? And We're gonna

get more on the Suns in a bit. But I'm you know, I'm interrupting myself. I'm bouncing around excited to talk to you guys today. So it was not surprising at all that Austin Reeves was a better third option than Bradley Beal. What has been surprising is Austin Reeves has made it really clear he could be a second option on a decent team, like he third option on an excellent team, but a second option on a decent team.

And here is my real question about what. Because Lebron is watching all of this, processing all of it and T one thousand style figuring out the best way for him to play when he gets back, seeing not only how Luca is playing, but how Austin is playing as the secondary ball handler, similar to how Austin played as the secondary ball handler when Lebron was in Luca's role before they got Luca. I do wonder if when Lebron comes back, he's gonna take a lot more reps. Say it again, what were.

I thought the best loss of the NBA season was the Lakers loss to the full strength Nuggets. And then the Lakers, clearly, I thought, you know, from their own play, were a little invigorated by that, because then they blew the doors off Phoenix. I know they only won by eleven, but they were up twenty immediately and annihilated San Antonio last night, and now they're gonna get Lebron back in the next ten days at the latest, and the stretch run gets going. I know you have one follow up on.

regular season. In Berkley and Simmons, both of them. Simmons like, no, he's probably done with the rest of the regular season, you know, probably not going to be eligible for all NBA. Barkley said that, you know, he's not gonna play again this year until the playoffs, all of it. And then a week later they're throwing out there and Barkley hasn't

done this. The Bill did. Are we sure he actually got hurt or did Lebron in that Celtics game, which is now being framed as, oh, he knew they were gonna lose, that game was over even though it's a four point game with five minutes left, knew the schedule, knew Bryce, you know, might be playing for a state championship, needs some time being a little PTO, and just you know, is is faking essentially the injury as opposed to Oham's raiser, the most obvious, you know, the simplest answer is usually

the right one. The most obvious answers usually the right. When I might have got Okham's razor, they're wrong a bit. There's a little irony in that or maybe the guy who's played more men and it's of NBA basketball than any human being alive. One of only two guys ever make it to year twenty two, the oldest player in the league, a forty year old, tweaked a soft tissue injury in a game where he had to play center against the defending champs, moving up and down the court.

I think that probably makes more sense.

three week injury at the most. And that's what it is. I think the Lakers, though, right now I am and we'll get to these teams shortly. I am downgrading the Nuggets. I am the Nuggets slash Warriors. I'm kind of upgrading

the Warriors, downgrading the Nuggets. And to me, in the Western Conference, it is Oklahoma City and the Lakers on their own tier of contention, and then Nuggets Warriors on their own tier beneath them of contention, and then everyone else who and the everyone else is kind of just Minnesota and Memphis as their own little semi content, you know, not really contenders. But maybe all right, let's talk about I just listen.

and I bet everyone listening agrees with me. I think Houston is way more likely, way more likely to lose in Round one than to make forget the NBA Finals, the conference finals. I think they're like the I think it would be a great season for them to win around a great season to win a round, And if they lose in the first round, I don't think it means this wasn't an excellent season, Like these are the steps you've got to take, So no, I don't consider them.

If if I were to break the probable Western Conmerance playoff teams into pairings, it would be Oklahoma City and the Lakers group one, Denver and the Warriors group two, Minnesota and Memphis group three, and the Clippers in the Rockets group four. And I understand people you might be hearing that be like, man, the Rockets. You have the Rockets beneath Minnesota. I do because I saw Minnesota, Yeah make a conference finals last year, right, and you have

Anthony Edwards who's going you know? And so even though like it's not like they're a profit team and that they have their guy. And so I do wonder if Houston, Sorry to get off on a little Houston tangent, I do wonder if Houston could be an interesting home for Kevin Durant in the offseason. I think that's uh. I would certainly put to Houston and Minnesota as possible possible Kevin Durant destinations. All right, let's talk six seed in the West.

the Spurs and the Bulls. So Phoenix, if they were fighting for something, you'd be like, oh, they're in rough shape. Here's why it matters. Minnesota has the third easiest schedule remaining Minnesota. Now, it's a bad loss last night, but Minnesota is a you know, the teams they're up against have a combined winning percentage of four point thirty, and they have games remaining against New Orleans, two of them the Jazz, two against the Nets, one against the Sixers.

So you have five games remaining, no, i'm sorry, two against New Orleans, two against the Nets, one six Ers, one Jazz. Six games remaining against teams that actively want to lose. So that's super helpful for Minnesota. The Warriors are right at league average as far as their schedule remaining. Their easiest games are New Orleans Toronto two against San Antonio. Miami and Portland. Here's why it's to me somewhat noteworthy.

That's they they own. As far as teams that want to lose, it's really only four for the Warriors as far as the games they have left, and it's six for Minnesota. So that plays in Minnesota's favor significantly. They you know that Minnesota has two fewer games left than Golden State. They have won more loss than Golden State. When I heard Steve kerseay, you know we are you know, Steph's worn down, and that essentially we're going to take care of Steph down the stretch and rest him tomorrow

or tonight, pardon me. Against Milwaukee, now they don't have The Warriors don't have many. In fact, they only have one, no two back to back's left. They have a back to back at the Lakers and then home for the Nuggets, and then they have a back to back a week later at Phoenix and then a home for San Antonio. Right now, I would and this is not going to be where Vegas would have it, but right now I would anticipate that the Western Conference standings and mark this

down and let's see how this ages. But I think the Western Conference standings are going to end up Minnesota six, Golden State seven, Clippers eight, with the Kings being the nine seed and then that ten seed being just the saddest competition ever between Dallas and Phoenix, just two teams who did not ever think this is where they were going to end up. But it's where they have ended up.

over the hard cap. Now, because of the way NFL contracts are structured, you can always manipulate that year's cap, guys cap figures by turning salaries into signing bonuses, spreading them out over multiple years, so it can feel like a soft cap at times, but the cap is the cap, and however you need to manipulate it. You can manipulate your own guys' salaries, but you can't ever be over it.

That's why the NFL doesn't have things like a luxury tax, because a luxury tax is for a soft cap sport like the NBA, where we have a cap, but you can go over it for various reasons. You can go way over it. At times you just pay a penalty in luxury tax. And one of the reasons the NBA kind of has to work like that is because NBA player contracts are guaranteed. For the most part, you can't really manipulate a player's contract like, oh, we're turning your

salary into a signing bonus. It's not how it works. So they need a soft cap except and of course, there are certain things NBA teams can do transactionally which triggers an actual hard cap. So if you're an Apron team and do a sign in trade, all of a sudden, you have a hard cap. If there's certain things, we need Bobby Marx to really explain all of it. But there are certain things that can happen where Oh no, now you do have an NFL style hard cap. The

MAVs are a T with a hard cap. So here's why you're hearing about the MAVs potentially having the forfeit games. You must have eight healthy players ready and able to play. The MAVs are close to exhausting their limit on two way guys, guys from their G league team that can call up, send down, call up and send down. They have had all these injuries and because of the hard cap demons, they are not allowed to sign another minimum player. They can't go over the hard cap. They are running

out of two way guys' eligibility. Even they are so close to the hard cap, they don't have the space for another minimum guy. They can't sign their version of and Alex Lynn to just be like, hey, come off the street and play for us.

in this league. We gave him away for Aleb Martin for no reason whatsoever, and now we're gonna have to maybe forfeit games. Unprecedented, just unpressed in it. But flip side of that is AD's ramping up and they might make the playoffs or the play in over the damn Suns, who desperately want to win and are incredibly healthy. So let's talk Suns here.

But the Suns, I don't know that this is a hot take. The Suns are in the worst position moving forward of any team in the league because Mattishpia came in and bought the team and traded away everything for Kevin Durant and then traded away everything they had left for Bradley bial Bial has a no trade and is not good. Durant is approaching thirty seven and not going to get you a ton in return, and is gone this summer. And then you have Devin Booker, who's a

real asset. But it doesn't really make sense to trade Booker because you would then be tanking, and you don't demanse. They do not have their own pick until twenty thirty two. Twenty thirty two, it's twenty twenty five, so they they traded their picks away, and then they swapped picks, and then as part of the Beal trade, they swapped the swaps. This is like a mortgage crisis, but in the NBA.

So they over the next seven drafts, they either simply give their pick away or they are in a three way swap with other teams where of the three teams they get the worst draft pick, so even if they're the worst team in the league, that doesn't help them. And they traded away most of their second round picks, so it was again I used to this is sorry for all these kind of non sequiturs. Today's a show.

I'm gonna be totally honest. Today's show that is not necessarily going to go viral for a lot of things. But real folks that are real, what's right or as awkward as this is to say, like Nick Wright fans are going to really be enjoying today because we talked hard cap softcap. I did my basketball March Madness rant. I'm now going to talk about Ted Steppien for a second. So Ted Stepien was an owner in the NBA in the eighties and he was so bad and so disastrous

for them calves. The NBA made a rule that's called the Stepian Rule. That's about how many draft picks you can and cannot trade. You can't trade draft picks in consecutive years. That's why teams have to like, you know, I'll trade you my twenty five and my twenty seven because you can't just trade away all your picks and you can only trade draft picks like six years out. You know, those seven years out. Those are the rules they put in to prevent an owner from just destroying

a team. And there has been a lot of frustration from GM since then of like, man, I would like full flexibility to you know, run my team as I see fit and not have these guardrails in there. And I think at one point there was a little momentum in the league, like all right, we're not in the tape delayed era of the eighties. It's smarter people running the teams. It's big money. Maybe we don't need to, you know, have these guardrails in. And then Manishbia came

along and is like Ted Steppian holding my beer. I'm gonna show you, I'm gonna speed run, absolutely wrecking a decade of a team that again, the Suns right before you took over, made the finals, and then we're the number one seed sixty four win or sixty some win team. And then Luca eviscerated him, and then they trade for KD.

Then they trade for Beal, and now they're just ruined, absolutely ruined to a point to where they even though the Mavericks are two and eight in their last ten, don't have any healthy players, their fans have turned on them. The Mavericks still have a cushion in the standings. It's really a remarkable, remark arkable turn of events. All right, let's talk one more basketball thing before we get to NFL stuff.

legitimately angry, probably under sells it. I was irate. Now was that me being a little sensitive? Sure? But because Daniel and I got through that rough patch, I have now I have a bit of an affinity for the Nuggets. In this regard and their fans. I respect the fact that they were right and I was wrong about how great jokicch is. I respect it like I you know, I pat myself on the back all the time when I'm right and when I see things other people don't.

And I was adamant. While I stand by a lot of what I've said about the actual MVP votes, one of my general premises was, you know, we are elevating Yokage to all time legendier when he's not that, and I was wrong. He is an all time legend. And because I have such a steadfast belief that anytime you have an all time legend in his prime in this league, you're a viable championship contender. I have disregarded a lot of the Nugget struggles, but this past weekend was jarring.

They were trying in theory against the Lakers, who again were without six of their top eight players, and Austin Reeves and Dalton connect lit them up for sixty five points, and the Lakers had a three point lead with a minute left. And what made the the fact that they didn't take that game seriously at all and almost lost to me was should have been a Okay, guys, we

gotta show up if we're gonna win. And to follow that up with a loss to the war to the Wizards, is I was just I said it on TV show, I'm out on the Nuggets, and it seemed like Jokic was out on the Nuggets.

ball anyway, I can't have it. And I'm gonna say another thing to Nuggets folks. I saw, we all saw when it was all good with Ross early in the year. Folks be like, oh, why couldn't Lebron get this version of Russell Westbrook the Joker can get and listen, Russ was good last night, and Russ has had some nice moments. But I also know everyone that watches Nuggets games. Every once in a while you have these moments where like, Russ,

what are you doing? Or where you see how the offense can get a little gummed up because the smart teams are like, hey, Russ, shoot the ball, got shoot it?

not Christmas? Can someone convince Jamal Murray to be in shape in the offseason.

point is this. I don't judge yo Ki, your Luca for you can't see their muscles, but all of the American athletes I do like that's the like I'll tell, I'll give you a guy. It's right. It's not a white thing. As much as I like Austin Reeves, I need Austin Reeves to get on the Alex CRUs So workout playing this summer. Like Austin Reeves can't as awesome as he is.

not Eastern Europe. I know, man who Like again, now I'm really just talking about the foreign guys. So it's not just Eastern European guys. But for some reason I deal with it more. But I the where did they? Oh it was about Jamal Murray. Jamal Murray, I need you to be a little more in shape. I think that's totally fair.

And I guess I'm not doing white guy white guycause of the subject of this conversation, Shimal mart But yeah, but yeah, right now, Joker and Luca are the only ones who are like, eh, whatever everyone else.

He's not going to play enough games. So just looking at it, Guys on there who have been on the you know, awesome player but a little dowie over the course of their career at different times. Joker obviously, Harden, Brunson, and Cat. That's the list of those guys. Okay, and what do you disagree?

and parlays. Draftkinks Ultimate college basketball destination for March. Ready to make your first bet, check out the matchups, and pick a team to win. It's that simple. Here's what I'm looking at for this weekend and for the tournament as a whole. Well, just just my opinion. I like the volunteers. Tennessee lay in a smooth eighteen and a half against Wafford, and you can get them at a nice twenty two to one to win the whole thing. Now they're in tough draw. I gotta get past Houston.

I really like. I didn't pull the odds for this, but again, just me, I like the winner of that region, the Tennessee Houston region, to win the championship. That's a fun bet. As always, of course, lines and odds subject to change. First time. Here's something special just for you new DraftKings customers. Bet five dollars, get two hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly two hundred dollars. Bet the unexpected with DraftKings Sportsbook. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use

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It's that having all of your huge contracts just be about the passing game doesn't make a ton of sense, and having all of your resources debt like it's a low key insult to Burrow. And I know it's what Burrow wanted, so he doesn't view it this way. But here's what I mean. It operates as if you're not gonna have an elite passing game unless you have both of these elite weapons. And I think Joe Burrow's better than that. I think Joe Burrow would be just fine

with just one of these guys. And I think that again, the example people use as a defense of this is Peyton's cults. But here's the problem with you. Because Peyton's calls had Reggie Wayne, and Marvin Harrison. The problem with using that as an example is they also had Dwight Freenian Robert Mathis as bookend defensive ends. But the other problem with that is Peyton's with respect underachieved. You had thirteen years of Peyton Manning, eleven of those are peak

Peyton Manning years. You made two Super Bowls one to one. Compare that to the Broncos who had four years of Peyton Manning only three of those peak Peyton Manning years. They also went to two Super Bowls and one to one by building a well rounded team. Compare it to the Chiefs who had a choice to make a few years ago. We are not going to be able to pay Tyrek and Chris Jones, so you know what, We're gonna move Tyreek to save the money for Chris and

ask Patrick to do more with less. And they've been to every Super Bowl since then. And so and yeah, mahomes last two years as numbers of DIP. Now his first year without Tyrek, he won the MVP at the most yards of any player in the season ever, first player win League MVP and Trouper Bowl MVP since Kurt Warner, but set that aside. Uh, it is just to me the wrong approach to building a team. So what would

I have done. I would have a year ago, a year ago traded t Higgins when I could have gotten a first round pick for him and dedicated more resources to the defense. But here is what I'll say about it, demonse I Burrow wanted this, and it's fine. But he's a smart guy and he understands the resources are limited.

He understands what this means. It kind of removes a little bit of the If next year goes how last year went, where Burrow's numbers are unbelievable, the Bengals offense is excellent and they missed the playoffs because the defense is terrible. It's not quite as an accomplishment for Joe Burrow as this year he got MVP votes because it was like, oh my god, he's doing his job. What

can he do about the defense being awful? Well, when you go on every talk show imaginable and say you need Higgins and Chase back and you understand what that means about your ability to improve your offensive line in your defense, well now it probably is a little more fair to at least put some of potential Bengals struggles, even if they're defense related at the feet of their quarterback.

I know that sounds odd, but I just think it's I think it's probably the wrong approach to building a sustainable champion, and it also is it It is to me, certainly not the right place approach to win that division. And the problem with that is, I don't think you have any shot of winning three straight road AFC playoff games that'll probably be outdoors, probably in cold weather cities, with a defense that looks like the Bengals is going to look for the near future. So I just think

I think it's a mistake, even though it's fun. All right, let's talk Aaron Rodgers.

time or attention. And I really don't understand why the Vikings would be entertaining this demon's unless they are unless they have undisclosed news about JJ McCarthy's injury that they sum. But the only way that even makes sense is if they got this news somehow in the short window of time between when they let Darnold walk and you know,

this last week, which is only a few days. Because now that we have the actual Sam Donald contract details, chalk another one up to the sports media on Budsman by the way, who said, instead of all these tweets just giving love to the agents that negotiated the deals, can we please get accurate contract info. For a week, we were told Sam Darnald got fifty five million guaranteed.

Turns out he got thirty seven million guaranteed. Turns out the contract Sam Donald got is essentially one year, thirty seven and a half million dollars and then two team options afterwards. Who de thunk it? If that's all it was going to take to keep Donald, they could have gotten him essentially for one year forty million bucks. If you're worried about JJ McCarthy, then do that. Yeah, he's better than Rogers at this point.

is what some would say. All right, time for Nick Write's storytime. Unless you've got something else, demanse you wanted to do?

of cousins, nieces, nephews running around everywhere. I didn't have. I didn't have that. And so the only reason I'm even including that story is I had like no experience around babies like I was. You know, my sister's a year older than me. The I had. I never baby sat. I didn't have you know, cousins or anything. And so when my friend uh had a baby, it was and he and I over a summer where I was damn

near living with him. She it was like, you know, I call her, I said, even though I wasn't, I think officially named her godfather that I was her godfather, and it was my first experience ever with little kid with babies. And then I watched this little girl, you know, turn into a toddler as you know, as happens, and then and this is why this is this is a really touching kind of story for me. So again, the sports were f one minutes coming, but that the just

stay with me here. And when I met Demanse's mom, my wife, Danielle, and I then first met Demonse and Diora. Diora was the exact same age as my goddaughter, and I had like a little experience orience of dealing with a child Diora's age because of my relationship with my goddaughter. And I've always kind of felt that one of the reasons I was comfortable and kind of knew how to interact with Diora when she was a baby, when she was when I met her, she wasn't even three, was

because of my my experience with my goddaughter. And then our families became super close. My goddaughter had an older sister who was almost exactly Sorry, if you're listening on the pot, I promise I'm not crying, but it does sound like this would be a time where I would cry the same age as Demanse, and they became close and then they had another baby, this baby boy, who was just a bowling ball of energy, yeah monster. And

our families in Kansas City, you know, grew up together. Essentially, Danielle and I ended up getting engaged, and you know, our families grew up together. And in fact, when I I don't know if you remember this part, you probably wouldn't, but there was two months when I got the job in Houston, or six weeks when I was in Houston by myself before you guys came, and I drove from

Kancity to Houston. I drove from their house like we were all together at their house, and then I got on the road with my car packed up, like the last place I saw you guys before you guys came to Houston was their house, and because everyone was hanging out together. And then, you know, kind of sadly we didn't fall out of touch, but we moved to Houston and they were in Kansas City, and then part of

the family ended up moving. Their family moved to California, in another part moved to Miami, and we were, you know, we went from seeing each other all the time and talking all the time, not seeing each other that often. I kind of, you know, it was bad, a bad

godfather in those times. And then Demandse moved back out to California, and I was moved to California briefly, and we kind of reconnected, and Diora and my goddaughter became super close again, and I actually and I the had a did an event in Vegas and Diora and her came and everybody kind of reconnected again, and then reconnected again at our wedding. Vower knew all about a year ago.

Well, we didn't get see each other all that often, And there I found out, because I didn't know this, that Sierra, who is the girl in this story, wanted to be a sports broadcaster, and that her the sport she loves is F one, which is the sport I know almost nothing about. And so the culmination of this for the longtime viewers or listeners of the pod was the F

one minute that we created last year. And a few months ago, Sierra called me and said she had enrolled at Jacksonville University in Florida, that she was majoring in broadcasting and was going to have a studio for the F one Minute. And I do this podcast because it's good for me professionally and it's good to you know, grow my brand in these different things. But I do this podcast because I want it to be ultimately my

family business. It's why Demanse is my co host. It's why I will at some point do a show behind us with my wife, and it's why it is so thrilling to me to watch the first baby I ever held twenty years later be this wildly impressive young woman who is our F one correspondent for the second season, Sierra Fidel. And so here is the F one minute with Sierra Fiddel. Take it away.

drivers to eventually spin off and crash. Luckily, nobody was seriously harmed in the making of this Grand Prix, and so the jama begins with a front row lockout for McLaren, Norris and p One and p Astree behind him. Norris manages to protect his position despite some dicey action between Verstappen and Pastry and the opening meters, but things slowed down once rookie Jack Doing from Alpine collided into the barriers during the first lap of the race, bringing out the first of.

everything a little bit more exciting. Both McLaren's slid off the track and we had two different race leaders within this timeframe. Now it's important to note that it's a huge challenge to race with the wrong tires and heavy rains, so drivers like for Stappin and Hamilton led the race, but only for a moment because they sort of gambled on thugging it out. Should I stay out, should I

go in the pits? But eventually they caved and they switched to eat eat intermediate tires and so oh, I forgot to mention there was another crash between Liam Lawson and Gabriello, not together, they just crashed on the same lap. And so with that crack, with those crashes, the last safety cars were out. In the closing moments of the race.

Max stalked Norris right unto the end. But big props to Lando Norris because despite the other changing conditions, the safety cars and the pressure run behind and he started and ended the Australian GP in first place for a stapp And ended in p two, and we're also at Mercedes ended in p three. Now I'm going to introduce something that's kind of new and it's my twiste on DRS. So normally DRS stands for Drag Reduction System, but here on the four minute DRS stands for disastrous race Shenanians

and for the Australian JP. I have to hand it to our friends at forts of Ferrari because we had Charles L Kirk complaining on the radio that his seat was full of water. And then we have Lewis Hamilton who just joined the team, only to see both Mercedes in front of him, not only a Mercedes though also a Sober and also Williams. So he ended this race with one point. So welcome to the team, I guess, Lewis, but it's only up from here. It's the first race.

It was pretty tricky. You're not going to hit it out of the park every race, so we'll see. But we've had a fascinating season open in Australia and now it's off to Shanghai, China for round two this Sunday. That's it for four minute and I'll see you next time.

is Verstapping got some work to do. Is in second, Lando, Norris uh in first, and Team Ferrari had Lewis Hamilton. He came in tenth, Charles Leclerk came in eighth. All right, good, great f one minute with Sierra. All right, let's do a couple listener questions to monsday before we go.

Let me give his Twitter a shout out. Oh he is kind of a bad Twitter handle, but that's fine. It's not bad, like inappropriate. It's just hard to remember. His Twitter handle is Dallas two one four, five, eight eight three three. So there, shout out to him. All right? Next?

got it. I'm gonna say you got it here? Tell me like the I like it I like it. Yeah, No, that was good. I like that one a lot. All right, let's do the last two quick, and then I.

In that regard, I do understand where like Austin Reeves in a pinch, can be your second guy, hell can be your best guy on certain nights, as he was in one of the games the Lakers won, or well, they almost beat the Nuggets, but they also had a game right after the Luca trade when Austin was that against Boston. Boston that Austin was the top guy doesn't matter. Uh, but yeah, I think that is smart. All right, let's do the last one.

all right, great job, de Mond's a great job. Our friends at Blue Duck, thank you to our friends at DraftKings in the volume, and I will see you guys on Thursday. What's right