New eps drop first on Patreon! Sign up for that new-new! Exterminators (2:03), the RNC (16:32), bedtime for President Biden (24:32), Kamala Harris, your 2024 Eastern Conference Playoffs candidate (45:02), WNBA All-Star Game and why the NBA's version sucks (1:20:13), RIP Heat Culture (1:38:21).
Cookies: A Basketball Podcast
Key Bumps: Cookies 465
(upbeat music) ♪ I love cookies ♪ ♪ I love cookies ♪ ♪ I love cookies ♪ ♪ I love cookies ♪ - Welcome to Cookies, the world's most influential basketball podcast. It's a money day here in New York City. - Little gray overcast, that does not stop. Andrew Quo, from having the brightest demeanor in the world. Andrew, what's going on? - That's right, man, y'all. I got a rat problem up in here. (laughing) It's crazy, it's that time of year. Look out into my backyard. These survivors, these warriors, these dogs. Rats in my backyard, like on the fence tops, in the bushes, like underneath stuff. Like, God damn, have you ever had a rat problem in your kind of living vicinity? - Well, I just thought when you said a rat problem, I thought that you had snitches in your midst. - Oh, we're getting to that. We are getting-- - You had stool pigeons, perhaps? - Listen, I'm an NBA newsbreaker, fight your tongue. I'm no rat, I just report news that I hear that other people give to me so I can leak it. For example, a president stepping down from his nomination process. - Yes, I get that. I thought someone on X, formerly known as Twitter, the quasi viral meme, I can't remember if your boy Elon or someone else had reposted it, but the gist was like, it's always your friends that betray you. (laughing) - Right, right, that's what betrayal is. God. - My enemies have stabbed me in the back. - Yo, these haters-- - I didn't see it coming. - Hating, yeah. - My ops. - It's always those closest to you that end up betraying. (laughing) - I thought that my ops could be trusted. - The call is coming from inside the house. Okay, so these rats, man. I am sympathetic to rodents, I love rodents. They're kinda cute, they do cool stuff. They, I had hamsters growing up, so I like their whole aura. But, you know, when you're living somewhere, it's not great to have these gray maestros, rooting around, making their nests, and feasting on the key food garbage, two doors down, and there's also construction going on. So, I had to get an exterminator at a solidarity because my neighbors got an exterminator. And in order for that to work, everyone has to do it. So I was like, fine, this guy's really cool. I'm like, I will do it, even though I do not want to kill these rats, or harm the cats that hunt the rats, whatever, you know, I'm burying the lead here. The exterminator came and did not Paul Pierce, my house. It's so crazy, I was watching, I was baited breath. I was like, what's gonna happen first? And the first thing they did was look at for the rat. It's like they didn't rush to the bathroom, come out to four people carrying this one person. And then triumphantly emerging from the wheelchair to fix my rat issue. - Well, were you kind of insinuating that perhaps he should take a shit? You know, like, hey, to get to meet you, you're sure you don't need to like take a load off and kind of like, you know, nodding towards the bathroom door or gesturing in its direction, anything like that? - Oh no, I have a rat problem, not a turtle problem. Turtle heads are not a problem here. But if they are, the bathroom is down there. - You need to chuck up a deuce, anything? - Listen, these rats are not chocolate covered hostages. They don't, the release does not have to be negotiated. But if you do that as a thing, the bathroom is right here. - So he just, they? - Yeah, it was not a he. - Okay, so they? - Yeah, sure. - They refused your bathroom, right? Was it not good enough for them? - Is my bathroom not good enough for you? I had cleaned it too, right before they came in. This is a whole 'nother saga I wanna talk about, man. Have you? Like, how weird are you about household cleaning supplies? - I mean, cleaning up the bathroom for the exterminators, awesome. - Wait, you don't do that? When someone's coming to fix stuff in your house, you don't clean up like bathroom stuff? - No, they're not allowed to use the bathroom. - No, they're first thing they do is take the shit in the bathroom. - Oh, not allowed. I'm like, "Hey, task rabbit, "you might wanna shit before you get here." - They're gonna shit on the whole job, man, man. That's a bad culture. - Bathroom for residents only, sorry, not my rules. - Every time I expect someone to come over, whether that be like a task rabbit or an exterminator or a plumber or a friend, I always, the first thing I do is clean the bathroom. Like, I wipe down all the counterstops, I clorox everything, and then I spray the floors. You don't do that? - I mean, I don't clorox everything before an exterminator comes now. - Oh, well, I've gotten weird with cleaning supplies. I got children around, so I don't wanna spray everything with bleach or chemicals or anything. So I've been mixing vinegar and water and alcohol, rubbing alcohol, not like, sriracha or martinis, and my whole house smells like vinegar. - How is this concoction working? - That's pretty good. I heard it's just as good. It's hard to tell. Do these chemicals actually hurt you? I mean, I switched out all my aluminum stuff to stainless steel stuff because I heard aluminum leeches too much into food. I don't know. It's not gonna be the aluminum that gets me. It's gonna be the politics. - That's the thing about the microplastics, right? It's like, whoa. - It's in my balls. - They're in everybody's balls. You're like, I guess we're in an even playing field then. - I like people on social media being like, how can it be in a hundred percent of balls when they haven't checked mine? - Like, sir, we've checked your balls. (laughing) - When, don't, you don't worry about it, but rest assured, it's full of plastic. - You're not really awake right now, but that's a different story. Yeah, the microplastics thing freaks me out because it's not like, it's just like washing machine stuff. It's polyester, right? It's like Donald Trump t-shirts that are like 50/50 blends. - So I was thinking about before we get into real politics, fictional politics. Say you were running a country 50 years ago. Hey, I'm Obie Toppen. I'm running the country 50 years ago. Plastic, not allowed. It's not allowing it. You can't manufacture plastic in America. Could things have just gone on in that way? Or 50 years ago, no more oil, no more gas. It's gotta be electric. Like, could the world have taken this totally different route and it was just based on just governance? Plastic is illegal using gasoline to fuel things is illegal. Not to say that things would have function the same way, but could that have happened? - This reminds me of AOC's plea on social media. You're like, we just cannot do it. There's unions in the way. There's a process for this. We cannot have a change of a candidate. And I was like, this is not the sunset or like the rotation of the earth. You're a politician, do it. And I agree with you. It's just like, what if at some point where we're like, hey, everyone's wearing shoes and we're not using plastic? - Yeah, it's like, okay, so this substance that we've created, it never disintegrates. It just stays around forever for eternity. So this tiny little toy that you're giving to people and a pack of bubble gum or popcorn, whatever. Just like, I'm thinking like 1950s nostalgic toys. So this is gonna exist forever. For the eternity of humanity, this little plastic bubble will exist. Okay, yeah, that's illegal. - Right. I mean, at that point, the world felt endless. We're getting into some silent generation versus boomer shit here. - Sad that conflict of heavyweights is now over. May never see the light of day again. - The gray maestros, as you put it? - Yeah, the gray maestros. Man, they're smart little critters. Maestros, as they say. Maestros. Yeah, I don't know. It's like, what stupid shit do we do like margarine? Like, I think fake meat now is, would you be surprised in five years? Everyone's like, you know that lab room meat turns out not great for us. Turns out not good enough to even sell in supermarkets. Like, would you be surprised? - The fake meat is in my balls. Oh, come on. - It's in everyone's balls. But yeah, it's like, what if we decided not to eat cows? Man, did you see that viral tweet? It was amazing. Maybe it was a TikTok that went on to my Twitter feed. Some woman was like, I'm 29 years old and I didn't know you can eat the lemons that were growing on my lemon tree back in my backyard. And she was like, did anyone not, does anyone think this? Like, I didn't know I could just take fruit off the tree and eat it. And she got roasted. And I was like, but I kind of see her point, right? 'Cause they tell you you can't drink any water from any lake. You cannot just use stuff that's available to you. It has to be like, you cannot eat fish. You know, I was like, do not eat fish that comes out of the guanas canal. It's like, okay, but it's water. And it's a natural thing. It's like, you cannot eat the fish. She might be like, don't I have to buy it from a place that made it in a controlled environment and not just like my backyard with car zooming by and like rats being mice grows, conducting orchestras around my tree? - No, no, I agree. And yeah, she sounds like a dimwit. I mean, obviously. But your point, I think, is fair that there is a disconnect between these products that we consume and their origins. As you were saying, like, we don't look at a pig and say, I'm going to butcher that. We go and we get a slab of meat that's on a little styrofoam carton with plastic around it. - And it's called pork. It's not a pig. - Yeah. It's pork, right. - I've told the story several times, I think, about eating like a pig's face at an Italian restaurant and it feeling closer to God, Andrew. - Right, the whole pig in, is it Vietnamese, cuisine, like sea-sig or Filipino, maybe? That sizzling pig face platter? - Right, right. - Delicious. You gotta go with it. - This was Italian, but it was like, yeah, just like, hmm, give me that jowel dog. - Italian, it's a swagger jacket. All the Asian countries. - It started in the boot. It'll go. (laughing) - Isn't it crazy how no matter what happens, no matter what crazy thing happens, well, that's not true, but probably we will have an Asian person in the White House. - Are you saying that Trump is partially Asian? - You know, JD Vance's wife is Indian. - Mm, I mean, his kid's name is Vivek, I think. - It's a lot of goaded Viveks out there. I guess my question is, is the wife of the vice president? Are they technically in the White House? - That's a good question. I think they are. - I consider the White House the president, vice president, and their family. I don't know. - I mean, they're White House adjacent, they're Oval Office, pilled. - Like Dick Cheney was mother fucking White House. Kamala Harris is gonna be maybe the next president. She was in the White House, right? Like, this is the VP families in there. The MHA family is up in there. - Do they live there? - That I don't know. I remember when Trump was like, this place is full of rat on mice. He was really complaining about now, things weren't gilded and gold and pristine. Sort of like my house. - Is the White House kind of shitty? - It's, yes, I heard it is, but it depends on your definition of shitty, because I think as New Yorkers who aren't filthy rich on billionaires or what we might roll in and be like, this is not shitty at all. - It may be a little outmoded and they don't have the J.J. Reddit gold toilets. - Wow, does Reddit have a Maritzo cut-a-long toilet? - I just feel like, if you're an exterminator and you get to J.J.'s house, like, wow, you're going right for the gold toilet. - I imagine everyone who enters J.J.'s house goes into a pristine bathroom and leaves with a sleeve. It's like, yeah, you went to Redix? It's like, yeah, man. - Yeah, I got a moving five tattoo. - Check out these Asian symbols. But yeah, so. - All right, so you're saying there's going to be an Asian in the White House? - Right, yes. - But isn't there already, then, by your definition? - You're right, but no matter what happens, moving forward, maybe we're eight years into Asians, running this shit. - Like, no, it's going to be totally different than it is from right now. - Well, it's crazy that the Magaside has an Asian person in it. That's wild. I mean, J.D. Vance is confusing, right? Like, to pick anybody, did you expect, it was, you know, talked about rumored rats were talking about it, but I was surprised 'cause he's got some weaknesses. - Well, he's an interesting chap. - He sure is. I mean, all right, he's in two bands, Death Cap for QD and Postal Service. - He's in the Walkman. - Oh, do they have a J.D. Vance ass player? Like, the keyboard is maybe? - I thought they did, again, I haven't looked a picture of the Walkman in years, but they had the song "The Rat." - That's true, that is about Jean. That's about Sean's, right? - Woj asleep at the switch. - Didn't even announce Biden stepping down. - The classic indie sleaze song about Adrian Wojanowski. - So, yeah, Vance is a bit of an odd duck. An obvious huckster, but also maybe a true believer, kind of an interesting dynamic there. He wrote a book about his upbringing in White Trash's ville and arrived at the conclusion that the reason that poor white people have shitty lives is because they're lazy. Although the book itself was fairly empathetic to their plight in the pillheads and opiate fiends of his community and his me-ma and everyone, but he arrived in a place that I did not see the movie, but I guess the conclusion was that, well, they're lazy and that's why their lives suck. - So, he's a populist who also went to Yale and seemingly hates the poor. - It's confusing, right? I mean, he doesn't seem to love the poor if he's gonna saddle up to Trump. And he's publicly made disparaging comments about Donald Trump in public and in private and I think his roommate ratted him out, like the classic rat behavior calling him like the H-bomb as everyone does. Didn't accuse him of being the P-bomb though, which is the song of the summer. But he is confusing, right? 'Cause JD Vance believes in pro-life policies and with no gray area. And I think that is a confusing message to run on if you're any politician 'cause that stance is deeply unpopular. - I can't speak to his motives for getting into politics, but there is one theory. - Money, it's money, come on. - Well, no, there's one theory that he, similar to Trump, was embarrassed and angry by reviews of the movie. - I love it. - It was like the liberal Hollywood rejection of Harry's. - In the same way that Trump ran for office after Obama made fun of him at the White House Correspondent Center. - Do you have that experience in your life? - I don't know if that's true. - Did something ever happen to you? What do you use it as bulletin board material, so much that you wanted to run for office? - Yeah, honestly, this happens almost daily. - Do you tell? - You know, someone makes fun of me. I'm like, I'm running for the US House of Representatives. - Wow, yeah, I'm gonna be there. - Ben, you're a bitch, cool. - Now I'm Aldermen. - Go back to your own country. It's like, I'm gonna be the rat czar of Brooklyn, man. Just watch out. Composting, that's my thing. - Didn't like the pod. Okay, I'm running for king. (laughing) - Yeah. Hated your nixtapes. Dictatorship, here we go. - You're in a gulag, now what? (laughing) - So, I didn't quite enjoy that. I haven't heard that origin story with Vance, but that makes sense because that can really motivate somebody, especially a criticism of a memoir that's your memoir. - I felt as if it was the Neolibs really loved the book and elevated him to being a literary star based on that because it kind of fits in with Neolib culture as well, even though he's from a conservative about the idea that poor people fundamentally, you can be empathetic towards them, but it's because they suck. - Also, the popularity of the book is quite anecdotal too. It's soul that became a New York Times bestseller. There's a lot of those, and there's discussion about how that happens, but fair enough. And the movie was fine. It got made to be a movie. It's like Tatum Nation being like, he's the most hated player. I'm like, he's first team all NBA. He's an all star. He's representing the team USA. He's always mentioned as an MVP. I don't know what you want. That is not hate, but any slight for motivation works, right? So, I don't think it's like a Neolib thing. It's just, he was popular enough because people love poor like poverty porn, right? - Yeah, I mean, it's Clint Close wearing her poor person outfit. - Make me ugly. Give me the award. Yeah, I don't think it's like a political kind of motivated thing. And this is my theme about everything. I think we're overthinking everything. Books like that become bestsellers all the time. - They usually escape from Dan Amora, Makeup Kit. - A lot of like sunspots. - Like, oh, you're from upstate New York. Let me, let's give you the escape from Dan Amora look even if you're in the Appalachians. It's just a general sort of poverty filter. - They were dragging gates for shooting up with talking about needles. Botox like at the RNC. And I kind of like, and you know, your boy Biden doesn't look the same as he did like five years ago, even though this is the fourth Biden, or he might even be a hologram, who knows? But I kind of felt sympathetic towards people who get Botox because, I don't know, you try your best. And it doesn't even look that weird. I'm so used to like Hollywood people getting this that I'm like, I just saw Hillbilly Ulogy. I saw Glenn Close. I saw Paul Dano in his cultural costume. Like this is not anything unusual to see, right? Like people shot up with Botox, it's just very normal-seeming. - Well, let me say this. Matt Gaetz looks snatched out there. He was yesified as far as I'm concerned. - Is he gone through his brat summer? - Matt summer. - Matt summer. I mean, he's not my favorite. - His eyebrows were, as they say, on fleek. - They were very 2017, incredible. Matt MSG, I'm watching the Pablo release party. Joe Biden's giving a fiery speech. It was on fleek. - Yeah, he was, so yeah, he was snatched. Yes, he was yesified. Yes, he was on fleek. His eyebrows look very angular, very angular. - Yeah, he's turning into like a Dracula-type dude. - How old do you think he is, Andrew? - Mm, 52. - 42. - That's almost as old as I'll be topping. - I'm just saying, he doesn't need to be getting all this work done at 42. - I don't know, he's got to appeal to a younger crew. He's got a certain kind of riz, man. He's not dealing with the same deck as we are. He is, Dime Square is full of old-timers to him. - The kids, like Matt Gaetz. 'Cause you know what the kids have? Eyebrows that are on fleek. - No wrinkles, fleeked out, yeah, I mean, I don't know. He, to me, is not my favorite politician. But then I realized all this, Biden, Kamala, JD Vance, I like people who want good things for the country, for the more better, more perfect. I hate all politicians, man. I've not seen one on my television or newspaper that I've enjoyed. I just don't like politicians. So like, I don't really like Kamala. I'm like, yeah, I agree with you, 'cause no politician's that chill. - Well, let's get to the big story of the day. - Hulk Hogan, whoo. - The Cloud Strike PC hack. - Yeah, where were you? Where were you when the Cloud Strike PC hack happened? - So let's get to it. - You're man. Sleepy Joe, AKA genocide Joe, AKA fat Joe, the fat gangster. - Listen, they nicknamed me on the streets for that wonderful politician from Pennsylvania. - A remarkable statesman who dedicated his life to the service of this country. Fat Joe. - Fitting father, yeah, fat Joe. What is fat Joe? Can you get on a ticket? I mean, it's close, right? Like watching footage of Monto Jordan roll up with his girlfriend, Kamala Harris. One of his two girlfriends, Kamala Harris. It's kind of surreal. - Yes, also if Eric Adams needed a running mate, which of course you do not, because the mayor doesn't have a running mate, you could almost rest assured it would be fat Joe or Jadakis. - Or a rat, an actual rat, like on a leash. And he would be holding the leash. And the rat would have a tiny podium next to his normal size podium. - Andrew, let's get back to the main story. So, let's take a walk back through time. June 27th, the calamitous debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, in which it is revealed that Joe Biden, unbeknownst to all of us who thought he was fit as a fiddle. - He was sundowning, man. This is a bad time of day. That this decomposing man has been unfit for office for some time. And then the calls started coming out. This guy has to step down. Now, we're nearly a month later and he did. It's official as of yesterday afternoon. He will not be seeking a second term. He's still our president for the next six months. I mean, this guy who is unable to tie his own shoes or run a popsicle stand is still the leader of the free world, of course. But he's not gonna say four more years. - But isn't it kind of ironic that he is doing what any able bodied president would do every day, right? Like, I think if he was 40 year old Joe Biden, he would do the exact same shit. Maybe not even the good stuff that we like, like forgiving student loans. Maybe he's like, ah, I'm a great grandpa now. My son smokes crack, everybody. You owe too much money. It's a rigged system. I'm gonna make it easy for you. Like, that is an old man thought, right? And I don't, the debate when Trump won was, what does a president actually do? Turns out quite a bit in terms of Supreme Court justices, writing things into law. Like, should Biden just burn everything down now? He has a few, he has a small window to just be like, I'm gonna pack the courts. Everyone, their student debt is forgiven. What was the big one, oh, making election day a holiday? Like, he could just do all this stuff right now. - I would say he won't because Joe Biden is a bad person and a bad politician. I just mean the idea that based on the fact that he no longer is running for election, he could do all this good stuff. It's like, well, he's just as likely to do bad stuff. I mean-- - Sure, but the presidential seat is a seat that you must kind of commit to bad stuff, right? Like there's no, and you're talking about the Middle East disaster, right? - Well, I'm talking about everything. I would say Joe Biden, for his career, has been an utterly reprehensible politician going back 50 years. He's been wrong about everything. He's a segregationist. He's, you know, in a puppet for the credit card industry, he was pro-Iraq war, he's funding a genocide. I mean, Joe Biden, architect of the epic crime bill, he's been terrible his entire life. And like now that he's stepped down, or I'm sorry, will not be seeking reelection, people can stop appealing to his vanity because wow, what an exemplary man. Like, no, no, he's been wrong about everything. He's been really bad about everything. So I'm only bringing up this critique of him as a great man or a statesman to say, well, Joe Biden untethered, I don't see why he'd do anything that was good. Joe Biden untethered may be like, hey, we're bringing back segregation. That's what I like. And this is kind of-- And with no rules as a de facto dictator for six months, there's no indication he would say, you know what? If you were arrested for crack cocaine, wink, wink, you're free. And this is kind of what I meant by like, I am not into liking politicians. They have jobs that make me dislike them. They have responsibilities at their job that make me dislike them. But, is there a politician, is there a president you do like? Hello? - Sorry, Preggen pause on that one. Is there a president I like? - Has there been a president in your lifetime that you were like, they did a good job? - Mm, I would say no. Obama had moments where we were really optimistic about-- - That's different. - Being optimistic, right? 'Cause he was-- - But this is gonna be awesome. - It was not awesome. And Biden kind of does the same thing Obama does, right? And Obama kind of did the same thing W did. Is like, now that Biden is relinquishing the nomination, is there any person realistically that you would enjoy being in this position? - Like a politician that I would like as president. - Yeah, if there was a name being like, it's gonna be Bernie Sanders would you be like, finally? - Yeah, that's not a lot because to be in office-- - I would say zero, right? - A big fat zero. Because we're judging it on a weird scale. We're not judging on people we think are ethical and moral and we'd like to have a beer with. All these politicians to get to this point in their lives have done things that we will not enjoy. - I think about that sometimes, right? Because your man Matt Gaetz snatched, he acidified on fleek. There was the whole thing with the sex trafficking and whatnot. Just kind of faded into the background. I guess it's fine, the crossing state lines. - It's still there, yeah, it's still there kind of like, but we didn't even talk about Donald Trump almost getting shot. Like that just feels like a million years ago. We didn't even pot about that yet. - Oh shit. - You know what I mean? Like, who cares about that? Like the Celtics are champions. I'm like, yes. - No, no, no, no, we, yeah, no, we did. The last pod we talked about it. - Did we? Okay, okay. - And we both concluded that we don't really care either way. - Oh right, 'cause I was like, "Hey man, shit's crazy out there. "I am not one to value life on a different scale." - Just landed on President's Diary Day B. - Right, right, right. Hey man, what are you eating? Those, the seed oils every day, man, dodging bullets. - Look, we got microplastics in our balls. What do you, you want me to be concerned about? - Hold on, hold on, not my balls. Hey, no one's checked my balls. Oh, I'm asleep, this is a simulation. God damn it. - Andrew, yep, there's plastic in there. - God damn it. Oh well, I'm just like everyone else, no. Yeah, so I don't know, I get skeptical Democrats. That's a whole thing on my feed. And like, my Twitter feed is just my Twitter feed. It's not real life when statisticians, political statisticians pop up on my feed like Nate Silver. I'm like, "Yeah, you're doing a Twitter thing though." When Jamel Hill comes on, it's like, "Well, the take is." I'm like, "This is a Twitter only thing." I don't-- - You know what? - What's that? - Oh no, sorry, sorry, I finished that thought 'cause it made me think of something that I wanted to bring up. Please finish that thought that much. - There's not much more to it, but like, we are complicating this way too much. This is unprecedented, AOC being like, this cannot be done. I'm like, it all can be done. If this all can be done, you can replace nominees, you know, when the bar stool guy is like, you know, one by, you know, everyone knows the rules and takes 20 bytes, he's like, you cannot do that. I'm like, aren't you guys the party of like flipping it around, switching it up? Like, the dude's too old. You said he was too old. We agree, he's too fucking old. - Well, yes, the Democratic party really loves to quorum if nothing else. - You know, they're politicians though. - It can't be done, okay, we're doing it. - Well, I guess it can. - I mean, right, it's like, these are not our friends. Maybe that's my point, right? It's like, and maybe that's Kamala Harris's weakness. She's a prosecutor. She is not friendly. She tries to be friendly. We can see through the bear number three in a split second, right? And I think voters are savvy that way. Like, we smell a rat. - Yeah, I saw someone tweeting. This is literally a felon against a prosecutor. It's like, don't make this harder than it needs to be. - No, this is not hard, yeah. - Are you making me second guess what should we voting for here? - Yeah, all right. I mean, we love cops. It turns out we love talking about a Twitter only thing. I'm deep into like BLM. That whole movement was like super meaningful. And then New York City turns around in an Alexa cop who's been paid off, like everyone knows this. And I'm like, oh, maybe the feelings on my feed that are so curated are not reflective of what's happening in a voting booth. - Hard to say, right? Not to get way laid on an Eric Adams discussion or the sort of dynamic with, you know, millions of Americans taking it to the streets saying we need, you know, reform of the criminal justice system and America's response. We're like, we hear you. We're gonna pump more money into the cops and put them in the vice presidency in the mayoral office in New York. Got it. Just, we've heard your plea, America, your chanting came up into our ivory towers and we have given you exactly what you want. More funding for the police and more power. - And it's hard to figure out what was right and wrong, right? It's hard to figure out what worked and what didn't. It's like, it's still up for debate. So I don't know, you know, I am not a political nihilist. I believe stuff has immediate effects and ramifications. But at some point I'm like, and this is what Republicans feel. It's like, how do I make my one vote 20 votes? You know, like, that's what it feels like. It's like, can I convince someone on Twitter? I'm like, no, you cannot. - How do I vote early and often? - Yeah, it's like, well, we want to, we want to. So they must be doing it. But what was your thought about the den intermediary? - Well, my thought about the RNC, I did not watch a ton of it. But being familiar with the Republican conservative platform in 2024, they are pretty clearly Twitter poisoned. - And do you think so? - I think it's evident that this echo chamber of conservative punditry on Twitter with Fox News and the sort of swarm of followers and the people who are in that world, like these three sort of pillars of it, whether it's like the vestiges of traditional media with whatever the Breitbarts or whatever, the other-- - Newsmax. - Exactly, Newsmax. And then you've got the politicians and the pundits and then you have their fandom, like the people who propel their posts to popularity and other words that start with P. I'm like, you guys are really, really into yelling about trans athletes. Like, you're super into this, like, oh my God, the trans athletes, we need to get up there at the convention and yell about trans athletes. It's like, I'm not sure these are big issues. This feels like you guys have discussed this and yelled about it and you think they're big issues. You think this is how you get burned, you get traction off of yelling about six foot five swimmers that are, you know, originally born men and are ruining the high school sports. I'm like, this doesn't seem like a real barn burner for the average American voter. They just feel very Twitter-brained. - Yeah, I mean, I still stand by the take that the GOP's fucked, like the ghost of Biden would have beaten Trump. I only say that 'cause it already happened. And I think the RNC was more proof that they got nothing. They wanted to hammer the economy. The economy's doing better than we thought, so they lost that kind of thing. They don't want to talk about abortion 'cause that will lose them everything even more so. But they do one good thing, which is if they mention it, people care about it. They kind of like workshop different ideas in small ways, but by the time it hits you and in RNC, it has become a thing. So I think I can have an exterminator and it not be gender-specific and be fine with it. I think a lot of voters still care about that. And I only say that because the Republican Party does a good job of bringing up subjects that get them votes. - I think that's true. They've always been very savvy when it comes to wedge issues. But I do think they have lost their way. I've been Andrew. - They're fucked. This is lame-ass shit, man. - No, I really think it is the Twitter feedback loop where it used to be focus grouping and whatever, but now it's like, no, you guys are really talking about nothing. This is just really nothing. And I'm not saying that flag-burning was a more valid topic, but I felt like some of those at least, they were figuring out things that people reacted to in the voting demographic. I'm not sure any of these issues are. I mean, we saw them get get smoked during the midterms, running out the same playbook. And like, all right, to buy us Harris. - Oh, dude. Yo, come on. New York native catch and strays. God damn it. - Dude, it's Harris season. - It is Harris, we're Harris peeled up in here. Yeah, I mean, I do think they're running out of tricks and the Marjorie Taylor Greens are kind of running out of ammo. And their Biden's age was the thing. And to calling him a pedophile was the thing that kind of worked, which is super ironic, obviously. It's so funny, like the one feeling I have in my head as I'm going through, we're all starting this marathon of the next few months is like, we're making it too complicated. It's like, to your point, like, let's not confuse everything. Your candidate told us to inject bleach and sunshine into our veins. He thinks windmills give us cancer. He's on a different planet. Biden being old is on kind of in our realm of relativity. But now that you take that off the table, I think they're kind of fucked. I mean, personally, I thought that Trump is an abysmal candidate. The worst ever. He's demented. Well, the worms have not eaten his brain as far as we know. He is not a cannibal as far as we know. You attempted to overthrow the US government. That thing, right? It's just like when the reporter asked JD Vance, it's like, well, are you afraid of what happened to Mike Pence might happen to you? He's like, well, I don't think Pence was ever scared. He's like, not the point. They showed up wanting to hang his sitting vice president because of the one thing he did that was procedural. It's like he kind of flipped everything. And the one thing he was tasked to do was just to, you know, acknowledge the will of the people he did and they wanted to hang him. JD Vance is like, well, when you put it that way. Talk about UOGs. Well, yeah. Like, what happened to his last vice president? Yeah, why is it he running? Trump is a moron, man. He's the dumbest guy I've ever seen with a microphone in front of him. I mean, he's an incredible entertainer. He's really funny. But a lot of his competence is not the word. It's not the right word. Yeah. A lot of his appeal was when juxtaposed next to a husk of a man. That goes... The hologram of the noble statesman Joe Biden who dedicated his life to this country. Named after a rapper, Fat Joe. Did you know that? Me, the embittered shell. I saw Joe. Yeah. I saw Joe. Yeah, dude. The day when... Like, if I get sick, I might drop out. Like, within 45 minutes, I have COVID. Yeah. I saw Joe. How come we haven't seen him? It's like, well, because, you know... I did want him to step down or not seek reelection. I keep missaying that. But I also did enjoy his bumbling humiliation. I felt like it was richly deserved. And it's kind of sad to think that he will go down as a good guy who was just a, you know, feeble-minded, cotton-minded Joe at the end. Like, no, no, no, he wasn't. He was a real shitty dude. But I kind of liked him staggering onwards in this quest to become president despite being completely addled. But we're over that. The Biden moment is done. We're in our brat summer. I think we're over old dudes in politics, right? I think, unless Trump wins. Well, you know, which he might, like, when I say the Sixers were the better team, but the Knicks won. Probability is probability. I think the GOP is going to get smushed. Is it 90-10? Is it 80-20? I think around 75-25. So 25%, you've got to keep it open. So it's not like black or white. But... We're over... Or of a gray, a gray maestro. I know, that's just like, of course the Knicks could have won that series. It was kind of like 60-40. 40 is like, I would not bet $20 on 40%. But it's still an underdog. I don't know. Just what I want to ask you, Andrew. Yeah. So from my understanding, there may be some kind of primary, whether this happens at the DNC convention. Maybe some other context. But Harris, when she thanked Joe for his service to this country, said, "I look forward to earning this nomination." Whatever language she employed. She didn't say, "I'm the nomination." She said, "Winning this nomination, earning this nomination." So there were rumors that Elizabeth Warren was going to throw her. Oh, God. Yeah. And there's a manchin coming back from the dead. I mean, at the hologram of Joe Manchin. Pocahontas was... Yeah, it's... I was like, "Please, Pelosi, I just don't need to see it." It's like Pelosi's such a mastermind. I'm like, "Can we get the fuck away from these people?" I just... I know. I know in my bones, Andrew, that Hillary's like... Do we got one last run in us? She's like Dwight Howard being like, photoshopping jerseys onto herself. Still available, guys. We got one more, like, you know, kind of rolling your neck, getting it limbering up a little bit, like, one last game. Putting on that Superman cape, getting that prop phone booth. Um, I... Yo, can we just, like, get rid of these old ass politicians? Like, respect to these lives lived. Like, Bernie Sanders has been a senator for, like, longer than Obie Toppen's been an NBA player. That's a fucking long time. Like, okay, can we just, like, flip it over a little bit? You were an electoral procedure buff. Can you explain to us how this is going to work? No, it's going to be. It's going to be, uh, and I can say this, and you cannot say this. But it's going to be, um, an Asian fire drill. And that's just when people switch seats in a car. You know, it's harmless, it's a little tomfoolery, as they say. But it's going to be fast and loose because it has to be fast and loose. But I don't believe decorum and procedure matters here. When I watch "Law & Order" on TV, I want Stabler to go through the process. This is what I enjoy. But, like, at this point, Donald Trump has taken a poop in our clean bathroom already. Fuck it. Everyone just take a shit in my bathroom. So I'm not an electoral procedure buff like you are. But I do believe that Harris, not speaking much to bias, Harris needs to prove that they're a winner. She needs to prove that people will vote for her. And I think that the Democratic Party basically bullied us into Hillary, bullied us into Biden, and are now going to bully us into Harris. And I understand that the party machinery is repelled by the idea of the people having a choice. Like, they hate. That's who they are. You know, if we want to talk about the Republicans being fascist or whatever, the Democrats are careerist and corporate. That's their deal. Are we omitting the "never Trumpers" here? Like, the Republican Party, many of them thought they were bullied into Donald Trump. But they weren't, though, because Donald Trump was an outsider. They may not have liked him. They were more so because he was an outsider. I'm saying Donald Trump... I mean, they were bullied in by the will of the people if that's the reverse verse. But not even, right? Like, it's hard to tell because polls are weird and primaries are strange. But like, Hillary beat Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders was very weak. Kind of candidate, right? Like, we didn't want him either. I mean, those... Hillary beating Bernie was very sus. Biden beating Bernie was sus. And also, so many people didn't run for office against those. Well, this is just what politics is, right? This is not a tournament. This is not March Madness. There's ways. Like, there's basketball players who are as good as Paul George talks about on his pod. They are as good as any starter, but they just don't have a political lane to get minute. This is true. But whatever you want to say about the Republicans, they ran 12 people out in their primary and Trump won. Maybe he benefited from name recognition, but he won. They ran 12 candidates. It wasn't, oh, it's some schmuck you've never heard of going against Joe Biden. It was Jeb Bush versus the field. But we were like, as we were watching, I think we potted about it. We're like, Jeb fucking Bush over here? No one wants this. You think we want it, but we don't. Oh, no doubt about that, but I just mean they had 12 candidates. They ran a bunch of debates. There were a dozen people on stage and Trump was the outsider. You had people like Lindsey Graham who were feverishly anti-Trump. The establishment was anti-Trump. Did Jeff Lee run? I think Jeff Flake was one in there, yeah. I'm saying Trump won the nominee and then became president based on voter enthusiasm. Sure, sure, sure. His path to success was not clean. But it was earned. That's all I'm saying. What? Trump. Trump, Trump earned that nomination because he was an outsider. He beat everyone else in the field. That's all I'm saying. This is not even giving him praise. It just means you knew that Republicans were willing to vote for Donald fucking Trump because he went out and won the nomination. And that's my concern about Harris was that Harris didn't even make it to Iowa. Harris's campaign floundered and collapsed before Iowa, if I remember correctly. It went nowhere. It was a completely stillborn campaign. And this is what gives me a bit of Hillary flashbacks was that it was clear that Hillary was deeply unpopular and not a particularly electable candidate. I know she's still won the popular vote. But I'm just concerned that Harris hasn't really proven that people will go into a ballot box and vote for her. She's got weaknesses. She's Asian and a woman. So there's rumors that she's just going to, her VP nomination is going to be like a the most basic white, respected basic white dudes. But just like uncontroversial in their prototype. Yeah, there's the challenge there. I think an Asian black woman is going to be difficult. But at the same time, like who else you got? Like this is AOC's point. Like Beto O'Rourke, Gavin Newsom has not really expressed any desire to do this. He probably isn't as strong as Kamala Harris. And you know, I mentioned the AOC rant a bit. She made some really good points. Like she was not wrong. I kind of agreed with her. She was like, our best chance is to stick with this old guy. It's not perfect, but it's our best chance. And I'm like, that's valid. I can accept that. I'd rather have Kamala Harris, but who would you envision over her at this point? Well, I mean, I don't really know why AOC decided to hit her wagon to an absolute dead end. Well, she explained it, right? I mean, it had to be to try to get some political concessions by showing loyalty. I just mean, it's implausible that she thought that Joe Biden was going to keep writing this out. Well, she explains it for an hour, right? Like she was like, I'm going to talk about stuff that's boring about the guts of our government. Come with me, you know? And she made some good points. She was like, this has to happen. We don't talk about this. This has to happen. This is illegal. This is kind of legal, you know? Like it was an interesting support. In the end, she's like, I'm team Kamala Harris and our country's facing imminent disaster. And I believe that when Trump tries to overthrow the government and says he's going to execute his political enemy, he's like, it is code red. I mean, I don't trust Trump, honestly. I know that too. He might be like, oh, I just like being here. That was just jokes. Trump told us, he insisted that he was going to lock up Hillary Clinton and he didn't do it. I do not believe a word that guys said. Make Mexico pay for the wall. He lost that steam. I was a one issue voter, locking up Hillary Clinton. He did not make good on that promise. He did not. But you know, you got to take everyone by their way. You got to vote by what they say. It was the unification party. Incarcerating Hillary. I know. It's people going, I'm moving to Italy. Hillary is walking around free, man. Yeah, I'm still powerful. Where do the Clintons live at this point? Are they still in Westchester? I think so. It's crazy. I drove by that house once. It's a nice house. It's not extraordinarily nice. What's the area called again? It's not Poughkeepsie, is it? No. It's got another name. Is Chappaqua? I call all that upstate. This is upstate, man. I feel like the NYX have a practice facility there somewhere. Yeah. I think Jalen Brunson lives in their basement. You know, he's an ethical king. But my point about Harris was that I just wish there was a way to say do a mini primary. Hey, four voters are coming out. We're going to do two debates and we're going to do a national election. Is that totally off the table? I'm with you. A primary to vote them in. It might be too tight. It might be too tight. It could be. But I only say this because I think you want to rouse up some voter enthusiasm and I think having some spirited rizz off would make that happen. Wow. The dreaded reverse rizz. She's mugging. Who knows? She's reverse mugging. But I think the people who are like, no, no, no, no. It's Harris. It's Harris. Hey, wait. I thought the thing was saving democracy, right? Like getting the strongest candidate, the one that's going to win. And now people are like, well, no, you can't take it away from her. She, she, you know, is the one who got the votes. I'm like, no, she didn't. She was vice president. She was not. She did not win the nomination. People did not vote for her to be president. Like she did not win this in any democratic sense. She is in a position that if Joe Biden stepped down, she would become president. That's what people voted for as the ticket. They did not vote for her as the presidential candidate. I'm only saying if beating Donald Trump in saving democracy is what's on the table here, then you should have the strongest candidate and it shouldn't be about what you think is fair. To Kamala Harris. I hear that. And in a, as a worldview, I agree with that. In this situation, I'm just like, you don't have to share the ball. Like played. I always want the Democrats ever since Trump showed up to like play kind of dirty. Just be like, nah, fuck you a little bit, you know, and this might be an example of that. Where I, in my heart, I think there should be kind of like, I should see the selection of vegetables. I'm always going to buy the bok choy, man. Let's just like load up on bok choy. Um, I think I'm a, yo, I just want them to be a little like aggressive and cutthroat pace. Seven seconds or less. Like game of fun. Wouldn't that be? No, I don't think saying let's, okay, let's, let's do a mini thing. Who's running? Show weakness. Being, debating the one that you're pushing and giving them an opportunity like Team USA to play the WNBA All-Stars is not a wise decision. It's just like, no, put them behind glass. Do something else because you don't want to test this because this is all about Aura. I hear that idea except that she's also a paper tiger. Now a paper tiger. Like she, she has never won an election on a national level. But we're past that. Like Trump donated to her campaign, what like in 2011, like people are trying to use that as a gacha. It's been, many things have changed. Many fucking things have changed. And I think candidate, the original candidate of Kamala Harris that we saw wasn't the weakest one, but was surely not the one we wanted. Is totally different than the one we see now. Same with Joe Biden. Same with Donald. I don't, yeah, look, I don't view her as a, as a particularly weak candidate or anything. I mean, I think she'll benefit from lowered expectations because everyone just views her as like the pillhead who talks about falling out of a coconut tree. Which will work to her event. In reality, she's a, she's a good debater. She's smart. A prosecutor. She can, I'm saying she will be far more capable, especially when compared to a frothing madman like Donald Trump. I'm just saying, I think you gotta, you can't turn this into the 2024 Eastern Conference. Why not? Because the NBA didn't get what they want because it's a vacated championship. But like ideally they would want the Celtics to do it. This is their entire script. I'm just concerned that she's a loser. Yo, that's a valid concern because, but I'm not trying to smoke weed with her. I just want her to be president. None of these motherfuckers are cool. No, I think she's actually, might be a fun hang. Like it's me, you, Montel Jordan, her. We're going to go listen to. Montel Jordan's a other girlfriend, right? Like, Del the fucking homo sapien. Montel Williams. Yeah. Oh, Montel Williams. Del the fucking homo sapien, god damn. It's like, oh, it's like the, you know, hobo junction versus high row battle. Kamala's here. Like we're getting like real Bay Area 90s. I think she'd be a fun hang in that regard. You know, she's got some perk 30s. But she might be a loser in terms of electorally, that people just don't want to vote for her. I just, I think, I understand your idea of you're building the aura. She's the one you unify before. Boom. But I'm like, but what if people won't vote for her? That's all. Yeah, I agree. But in the, you know, in an elimination game, in the fourth quarter, it's not time to try new players out. It's like, hm, a deuce. I think you got this, man. It's like, no, no, you have Jalen Brunson. Go with Jalen Brunson. It's like, but deuce has been hidden shots in practice. It's like, not the time. Maybe tomorrow in the first quarter, but like we're running out of clock here. And that's kind of my feeling. She's just so arbitrary. But isn't politics arbitrary? I hate these. I hate them all. I do not want to hang out with Kendrick Lamar or Kamala Harris. But like they have a specific function that they're good at, just do it. I think we're complicating it too much. Like we're not supposed to like them. I'm not saying there's a plethora of other great candidates. I just like the idea of a little bit of spirited competition, an old-fashioned Rizzoff. Like West Side Story, like the rat battle going on in my house, but in my back. Yeah, I hear that. And that is not a bad or incorrect thought to have. I just think there's like little time left. The results, if Kamala Harris is like broken by Joe Manchin, this whole thing is fucked. Why even chance it? You know, I see people saying America, if she doesn't win, it's an indictment of America being a sexist, racist country. They won't vote for a black woman for president. I'm like, well, look, it is preposterous that we have not had a woman president. Like that's just insane. We can talk about how this has reached this point and how this country was deep in equalities and still does. We can talk about that. It is lunacy that we have not had a woman president. Like that's fucking crazy. I thought Geraldine Ferraro was going to kind of like bust the gates open a little bit. It was like a lifetimes ago. I mean, it's crazy. It's crazy. And the only woman who has actually been on the ballot in the battle box is Joe Biden puts it. One time I asked the wife of a former president. Like it's real fucked up. One time I asked my primary care doctor. He pushed me. He's like, you need a therapist buddy. You've been a Knicks fan for too long. Like your body's good. Your brain. You're a sad dude in your Knicks shorts. Like your body is cock diesel. Full of microplastics in the balls area. But otherwise like everyone else. I've inspected everyone's balls on their jam bat. But he was out. He was like, do you? I have a list of therapists. Do you have any requests regarding age five, someone you're most comfortable with? And I was like, please let it be a woman because men are just too stupid. I am stupid. I need someone to teach me how to do something. And like seeing another bro in there being like, dude, I'm sad. It's like, we'll stop watching Knicks games. I'm like, don't. Yeah, it's your point. I'm like, how has there not been a woman president in our lifetime? This was started when we were really young, this discussion. There's not even been like a woman's head coach in the NBA yet, which is like super odd. Yeah, it is outrageous. So I don't believe though that America won't vote for women. I believe there are obstacles and barriers and all these social constraints that have created a situation in which we have not had a woman president. I don't believe that America is like so fundamentally sexist. They won't put a woman in charge. I just don't believe that. I think that's going to win. Yeah, I do too. I just don't believe that America is like so depraved that they're like a woman president. No way. We won't do it. What if she's on her period and nukes someone that's like, come on, man. I just don't believe that America still thinks like that. That's not to say that there aren't sexist and there aren't sexist barriers, but of course there are. I just don't think that America's like that far gone in that way because America also voted for Obama twice and that was recently. So I don't think there are absolutely sexist and racists who won't vote for Harris because she is in terms of her gender and her race, but they weren't going to vote for a Democrat anyway. Yeah. This exercise is kind of simple when you mention archetypes or identities. She's someone we've never seen as a president, but she's running against a criminal who's a real estate like fraudster from Manhattan. Don't make this more complicated than it needs to be Andrew. Exactly. It's just like maybe a fraudster from Manhattan. Tell me more. It's like one candidate's a motherfucker and the other candidate is someone we've never seen win this job. I'm going to go with the new thing. Trump is such a bad candidate. I don't know how to describe it. It seems redundant. It's just like this guy thinks he has a finite number of heartbeats so he doesn't work out, which is incredible. That's my favorite, Trumpism. Not like he is stupid to a point where I don't even trust him to get an Uber for the crew. The guy survives one assassination attempt. It's a good photo. Great photo. Great photo. He's out there fist pumping, like this man. He might be God. In fact, a deity, a higher power than an curious during the convention, like fall sleeping while I saw his son give us a speech. No. He's invincible. Yeah. This guy's, he's not even mortal. He's just over there like snoring and dosing off. Get Amber Rose on stage. And you know, I kind of believe the maniac or the morons who are like, it's CNN's fault. It's a New York Times fault. They're just talking about how there's infighting in the Democratic party. I'm like, you have a point because there's comedic gold on the other side. The mega thing is just like extremely fruitful. You guys eat those lemons from your backyard. They're okay. They won't put lemon rinds in your balls. I'm thinking about becoming a Biden dead ender now. No, I love this. We're not out of it yet. Still in the game, boys. I mean, someone was really funny. I forget who our friend who posted this on Twitter is like, guys, there's a chance Biden won't even remember that he stepped out. Like he's going to wake up on Monday and be like, all right, what's the next step fellas? Yeah. Yeah, did they do the classic deathbed will move on him? Like someone just typed up the doc. Dude, I was- Joe. Joe. Wake up. Yeah, yeah. Just sign here. It's a delivery of hard candies. So we got some, some Beecher's butter to sign for him. Yo, butterscotch gets a bad ret man like Werther's stand up. Werther's nation stand up because it's not the worst candy. Some spiral peppermints. He just shows up in a leather. Waiting outside. You just got to put your John Hancock here in a brown and tan leather Werthers. I thought the- Was it that your boy, Akanele said, like, Herbieon, hand you a cock? Where is Akanele? Everyone's trying to make a comeback, man. I saw Smith and Weston played a stoop in Bedstuy, I think, like, a couple of weeks ago. Oh, I got one for you. Akanele dead or alive. Hmm. There you go. Yo, and to that- Him and Chubrock are somewhere right now. Oh, God damn. Your Chubrock fascination. No one can say where they are. With Danny Ainge. The funniest thing that could happen. Not funny. Yo, life is a gift to everybody. I am grateful to be alive. I want everyone to live, including Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Who are you about to kill? Well, what if a hacker got to the hologram of Joe Biden between now and November 6th? And we spent a few- A good chunk of that time discussing the statesmen. A great politician, a man, a father who gave his life to our country. Like that worked. The architects of the iconic crime bill. I mean, people actually like that, which is crazy. That works in his favor, because if you look at MAGA, their whole thing is like cracking down on crime. Kamala Harris and Joe Biden are not the right opponents for this MAGA movement, for that reason. It's like, we need more policing. It's like, well, you got to cop right here. You're like, ooh. All right, Amber Rose, do your thing. But imagine eulogizing Biden during this run-up to the electoral, is this going to be? That would be the craziest. And he's just chilling with the Akanelli. Yeah. I feel like they need to stop talking about him. It's going to happen. I mean- Of course, of course. Yo, the shooting feels like so long ago, man. And my friends were texting me, being like, it's over. It's over. I'm like, first of all, fatalist Democrats are the worst dudes to talk to. And then second of all, I'm like, we're going to forget this in a week. Kind of totally forgotten, at least personally speaking. I'm just like, a lot of shit has happened in between. Like do we still talk about RJ Barrett? Right. I have a question for you. I'm this exact topic. So I remember my mom was talking about when she was growing up. Little girl in a rural area. And she's like, the highlight of the day was when the mail would arrive. Yeah. I lived too. Here comes the mailman. Yes. Pulling up in his truck and he's like, here's a serious catalog and an electricity bill. And they're like, wow. I have our brains been reconfigured. I'm agreeing with you. It's like, if this was 30 years ago and when shot the president, it would just be the only story that we cared about for months on end. I mean, I think it was Willie Stally on Twitter was talking about Jose Conseco, the ball bouncing off his head. It's like, that's kind of all we cared about for like a year. You know, his finger fell off in a poker game. That dude is get him in the White House. Right. Because remember, it's like you, sir, are no John F. Kennedy. Oh, we talked about that for like a decade of the biggest deal. The name Dan Quill comes up and I was like, stupid. It's like, boy Benson, either of him. Yeah. Posterized. Mogg. I mean, Michael Jordan hitting like a mid-range jumper ends up like. Being the discussion for 20 years, he's switching hands for a layup. Work still kind of obsessed over it, but like only the old heads, right? And I think we're smarter for it. I think our brains are better. Obviously, there's always going to be a static proportion of the population who's like super annoying, super weird, super dumb in there, just would lump me right in there. You can put me in there. That's right. When the silent, the silent generation. That's right. But I fall for all these tricks. I'm not above it. I'm not better than this, but I enjoy it. I like the speed of it. It makes me feel fucking alive, man. But like, I like, there's a time to do nothing when teams rebuild. I'm like, stack picks, Detroit Pistons do not sign Tobias Harris. And then there's a time to do something like the Knicks had to do something. The Democrats had to do something, and I have to switch gears on Twitter every five minutes or else. I'm going to fall asleep watching my son give a rousing speech. It's talking to my dad. He's like, "What's with those moron sons? Get the word speech you've ever heard." Dude, that's on point there, man. I'll have to check that out. Give me a minute on that. Yeah. Amber Rose, Hulk Hogan. It was kind of fun, right? I missed most of it, I got to be honest with you. But I did see the Hulkster, and there's a little Hulkamaniac eating my vitamins. I was glad to see him still able to rip his shirt off. Yeah, man. I loved it because, obviously, I want only white players to sign with the Celtics and Jazz. I only want show boaters to sign with the Lakers. I only want Timbaland out dogs to sign with the Knicks. And Donald Trump's RNC was so distinctly his, right? He had like an adult worker and the Hulkster, like, "That's... I got to give him kind of a golf clap for that." He should have had John Dale Leon, like, "Where's Litrovino? Is he still alive?" Litrovino? Yeah. I can tell you. I mean, do we know if Tiger Woods is a Democrat or a Republican? My vibes are that he's a centrist. Yeah, fair enough. I mean, he's got an Asian mom. I feel like he would vote for Republicans but maybe not Trump. I vibe with that. Yes, I agree. I mean, he is... He's based on nothing. Well, he's an extremely rich man. He has a billion dollars. So automatically, I think that makes you kind of a fiscal conservative. And that probably trickles over into spiritual conservatives. I'm not a mayor Pete Dude by any means, but he keeps it simple. And when he was on HBO, Max, talking about why Zuck is, you know, supporting why Elon is into Trump. He's just like, "It's his money. They're rich and they get to keep their money. That's all." We absolutely need to keep Mayor Pete away from this vice presidential election. Yeah, your anti-Mayor Pete. Let's go. I mean, I don't find him that. Well, I'm sorry to run over you. Go ahead. I just don't think we should have a CIA plant there because, you know... A rat? He's such a rat, man. He's such a little industry plant. But isn't he a rat for someone like Kamala Harris? Like, aren't we in the world of rats? I'm not trying to exterminate them. They're trying to exterminate me. I'm trapped here in my house with them. I don't even know who's being positioned as potential vice president. I am sure, as you mentioned, it'll be like a white dude. It has to be. If it's Josh Shapiro, I'm not voting for the ticket. If it's Mayor Pete, I'll be disgusted, but I guess I'll vote for it. You don't have to vote for a Democrat or a Republican. Like, I have many friends who are into politics who don't vote for those parties. Like, you don't have to vote for Kamala Harris. I will be... I'm for Jill Stein. It can't be a woman. I wish it was, I wish it was like a big deal. Oh, oh, I thought you said it was an alternative to voting. Oh, no, I did. Is Jill Stein going to last? Is she on the ballot? Unclear. Let's get some brain-eating worms up in here. Not sure. Not sure if she's actually on the ballot. Should we talk about basketball a little bit here? Always. So, we have the interns who are wildly gesturing. But you know, it was a momentous week for politics, so we ran over, you know, a cup run off over Andrew. It's funny. It's like full of balls filled with plastic. So this was not a big week for the WNBA. But fortunately, we had other kinds of basketball. So the WNBA All-Star game took place on Saturday, Saturday, right? Yeah. I believe so. And what had a much higher elevated stature this year due to the league's surging popularity and also in the format that they were using. So they had the women's Olympic team going against basically the Olympic snubs, which included a lot of younger players. So one side-- I really get players. Exactly. So on one side, you had players like Caitlin Clark. You had players like Angel Rees. You had Enrique-- Uncle Jones. Say it. Say it. Uncle Jones. Say it, Erica's name. Oh, goon. Can you read this name? Oh, goon-ba-wale. A goon-ba-wale. I think. It's hard, man. A goon-ba-wale. Yeah. I think that's correct. Baller. She's just a baller. Bucket. Yeah. And then the other one had goats, the 65-year-old Diana Tarasi. You had Brianna Stewart. Asia Wilson. Asia Wilson. Like some-- Like Chelsea Grey. The greatest-- MVP, MVP, run-up. Britney Grind. Yeah. That's a Britney Grind. Yeah. Great, great players. Hall of Famers. So the game was very fun, hyper-competitive. The Team WNBA, as they call the snub team, got the win pretty handily, even though it got sort of close to the end. But for the most part, it was a very competitive game. The teams were playing hard. Afterwards, you saw Tarasi bringing together the Olympic team and kind of chewing them out a little bit. Yeah. She does. She's so funny. She always does that. Which is also the remarkable following an all-star game. I can't hear it. It was embarrassing, though, and we were all rooting for outcome, right? Yeah. So you can talk about the game itself, but I also want to hear how you think this compares to like the men's game and those inevitable discussions that we're going to have. I mean, I don't like the men's all-star game. But I get it, right? It's why superstars don't want to do the slam-dunk competition. It's why the Democrat should not have debates for Kamala Harris. It's like LeBron James is like, I don't want to look like I'm trying necessarily and like get beat again. It's like, why would I do that? There's nothing at stake here. But the WNBA, the wrinkle of the controversy surrounding the USA national team with the Olympics coming up playing the players that were mentioned in this controversy, like Angel Reese and Caitlyn Clark, like that's amazing and I think the NBA's reached a level where like these guys are walking, talking companies, corporations, that like you don't put yourself at risk when you don't have to, but the WNBA is dealing with like a growing kind of upstart, like startup, right? Like this, it's finally catching fire and I think having a competitive game this year makes sense. I'm not expected to be competitive next year. I'm wondering if the structure is the wrong word, the aesthetic differences in the men's game and the women's game, make it less likely that the WNBA all-star game will disintegrate into Tom Foolery. Number one, they don't jam, not slam jamming out there. There's only so many ways you can do a fun layup, like, "Uh oh, looks like Caitlyn Clark's got a breakaway, what's she gonna do?" It's like, "Oh, it's a layup." The in-game dunking in lobs is such a part of the men's all-star game. But one other thing, go ahead. You know, if everyone stood back and Angel Reese was like, "I'm going to 360 dunk this, it could be incredible," right, if everyone's like, "Go for it." I mean, true. I'm just saying that's such a part of all-star games, it's like T-Max is going to dunk it off the backboard, people are going to throw lobs, "Oh, it's a 360, it's a windmill, all these things are just part of the all-star game." But the biggest reason is that, this is a pet theory, is that it's impossible to defend in the men's all-star game because they take so many threes. Last game, I counted him up, it took over 170 combined threes. That leads to long rebounds, it leads to outlet passes, guys chucking from wavy on the line. You can't defend that. It lends itself to a hyper-scattered game with the ball bouncing around, one kick out, someone chucking. You can't defend, it's impossible. So the women's game, because it still has the same amount of shooting on the court, let's say, as 2010, a lot of teams just go out there and don't have three-point shooters, that the women's game does not have that kind of chucking. I think they combined for about 60 or 73s, which is like a typical game. It's much easier to keep a game looking regular and locked in in a half court when you aren't chucking up a zillion threes. That's kind of my personal sort of theory on why the men's game has fallen apart so badly lately, and that could change. As three-point shooting in the women's game becomes better and better and better and better, that could happen. In five years, you just have the WNBA All-Stars coming across half court and heaving up threes and then the game sucks. It could totally happen the same way. That's right. I'm not with Silver on this. I could give a fuck about the All-Star game. I don't think the DNA of this game itself, the standalone game, is something I think about that much, do it, don't do it, I don't care. Name the All-Stars, everyone go on vacation. I know Silver wants to make money, I know the WNBA wants to showcase their players, but this All-Star game this year for the WNBA, I felt like, had a gravity to it. It was because there was a beef, right? Not only was Caitlyn Clark the most popular player in the WNBA, aside from Asia Wilson, not only was she left off, she'll reave the coach of the national team, talk some shit. There was Reese and Clark and Reese Nation, I think are being used as Patsy's here, but there was that beef that kind of dissolved during the game. We kind of got to see them be like, they actually like each other. This beef is just kind of on our own time. Every broadcast was crazy too, just discussion of Caitlyn Clark, I'm like, "Calm on." Yeah, and they're building something successfully, right? These are the cultural kind of wars they want, race, generational, national pride, all these things are unsolvable and you want them flowing through your entertainment world. The national team were villains. It was awesome, you saw our favorite players, Angel Reese and Caitlyn Clark, were playing against the goats, the gatekeepers, the people shaking their fists at the clouds. Get off my lawn, right? It was so delicious watching the Caitlyn Clark kind of orchestrating this victory being picked up in the back court, full court pressure to start the game. There was pride on the line, and that's... Yeah, in that second half, they came out on the Olympic team, doubled Caitlyn Clark off the inbound. Incredible, and our buddy Pablo always says it's like, it is always fascinating to watch a sporting event when humiliation is on the line. Like it's great, boxing, prize fighting, this stuff, and... I think that's why people love this podcast so much. I'm always humiliating. I'm always being humiliated by the cock diesel, and you're close. Listen, I have a little rat with little headphones and a little mic right next to me, so I'm in my own world. But you know one thing about the WNBA, that I think this is kind of self-evident, but maybe we haven't discussed it, is that I think the moment right now where you have people who love these vestiges of the 90s, the race wars, the not taking too many threes, the all-star game that is played with grave seriousness, but it also is tied to this vector of women's sports and being progressive and equality, and it's a really cool combination where you basically have like the Jordan originalists version of basketball tied into progressive politics and ideas, and a very forward-thinking league in those ways. And this balance, it just plays out in very strange ways where you have some people who are just like, "Yeah, they aren't really good. They're smoking layups. I don't like it." But then you have other people who are like, "Super into Caitlin Clark, but don't like the sport itself." The dynamics of the WNBA are really delightful right now in that way. Yeah, it gets people heated. There is an endless discussion everywhere you look, and a lot of it is like, it's hard to look in the mirror, right? It's just like, we're all all men are sexist a little bit, like, and we have to confront that, and how do we get better, be better fans, be better at talking about politics and basketball, like, this is all good, and we may make missteps every now and then, but like, the end product is going to be a better version of all of this. Yeah, it's almost -- it's almost some Kamala Harris shit. Dude. Fascinating. We're going to have a black one present, but she's a cop. How does this make me feel? How does this work, right? It's like, yeah. Is this progressive, or is this deeply conservative and regressive? I don't know. Yeah, I'm a girl dad with a pickup truck, and my girl should play in the NBA, but marry a dude, and give me grandkids, you know, like, I'm a cat dad, you know? And like, shout out to this collection of NBA stars, they're all fascinating, man. Like of course, Stewart and Wilson, who are the two best, are kind of by the books, Jaylen Brunson-wise, but Tarasi's awesome. Tarasi Plum is amazing, like, even -- even Inescu kind of talks some shit, and then obviously you have Brittany Griner, who is like a fascinating human being on this planet. I don't know. This collection of stars is really interesting. It was a great group. I thought the same thing. It's like, when I was watching it, I was like, "Oh, there's Brittany Griner, she's got a story to tell." Dude. All of a sudden, Brittany Griner is hitting layups, and I'm like, "We haven't even talked about her. Holy, she's here playing a game. That's incredible." Like, Tarasi, goaded, you know, for real, goaded, right? Like, the goat, probably. Cheryl Swoops, I don't know, like, but Tarasi, someone was like, "Yeah, is she like, I don't know?" Some people are saying they didn't market her well in her career. It's like, Tarasi was kind of thrilling, and the NBA didn't really proper up, WNBA didn't proper up the right way. That may be true. It's a different time as well though. For sure. For sure. And what I mean is I pushed this theory repeatedly, but the idea that Steph Curry, excuse me, Steph Curry, and Kyrie, their version of basketball that was not reliant on jamming on people or incredible, yeah, not being the biggest guy on the court, like, this distinctly modern perimeter-oriented, skills-oriented, footwork, ball handling, pulling threes off the dribble, was something that men embraced in the last, let's say, 15 years or so, as being this incredible part of the game that's even more exciting than great dunks, that this is really what the modern game is about. And the trickle-down effect to the WNBA, it just wasn't there yet. For sure. And I think people were still interpreting the changes in the men's game, and now we can look and say, "Oh, like, Enrique, she's filthy. Look at that. Boom, boom, boom, boom." She's out there playing like... That was crazy. That was crazy. She's playing like Hobie, you know? And I think we now have this interpretation of what amazing basketball looks like, and we can apply it to the WNBA in a way that maybe we weren't as capable of doing an Taurasi's prime. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, Caitlyn Clark shot over 7 from 3, 2 for 9 from the field, but had her fingerprints all over that game. She broke the double team, she broke the press, she had 10 assists, and she was like a good ambassador for her league. She was like hamming it up with some players who were sitting in court side. What's up with your boy Sudeikus? Is he trying to like... Is he getting this WNBA clout? Is he the one? Like, dude, she's not gonna let you smash. I mean, not even that like, I've never loved his movies. I thought they were like kind of gross, gross out movies a little bit in thematically. But like, and I don't like his feel good Apple show, that is like the bear before the bear. But he is the face of celebrity WNBA. I mean, Aubrey Plaza was court side. I wanted them to get some real heads there, like where was Fat Joe? Well, and like, I don't really think Jason Sudeikus is attempting to smash. No. But I like the idea that what if this whole thing was him just desperate to smash. I mean, he's a heartbroken guy, publicly, yes, no, I mean, he's like, no, I just have this incredible crush on Caitlyn Clark, so I go to all of her games and travel around watching her. Not good. I mean, I'm in the fan zone. Yeah. I'm court side. This could be a good beginning of an A24 stockroom movie set in the backdrop of the WNBA. Sudeikus in the fan zone. He has a crush. He's a fan. And he's also an assassin. Yeah. I apart. I don't think he's doing anything wrong here, and this is not even like him trying to smash joke. That's over. I moved on. You've matured since then. You're not the same candidate you were. That was a fan zone moment. I'm over that. That was the old me. Yeah. We can live in our past then. Don't judge me for the things I'm done on things I said years ago. What I'm saying is that he is a huge clout demon, but he genuinely, he genuinely may just be like, yeah, I'm just really into women's basketball. I think that it's so cool and a fan of Caitlin, but he's always on TV being like, hey, it's the fan zone. Jason Sudeikus, like, you're a baller. I've played. I've played with him before. He's a bucket. He can, he can, he can hoop, no doubt, but it's weird that like the WNBA is having this explosion in popularity, with all these amazing plot lines, and it's like Sudeikus is there the whole time. Jalen Brown, Sudeikus, I'll reply as a fan, shout out to Arby Plaza, hilarious, but also the fact that she blew out her ACL, playing knockout. Yeah. Was wearing sunglasses, Raven, I mean, funny. She should have been wearing Apple Vision Pro, but Sudeikus, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I think the surrounding this game with the right celebrities is also a strategy that is important. I don't know. I don't give a fuck. I'm interested in the WNBA now, they've got me, they've captured my attention, but to make this thing really explode, everything needs ambassadors, right? So I don't know. I just, I wonder when that's going to cross over. Have you been to a WNBA game in the last few years? No, not since, not since the Madison Square Garden Liberty, but I don't go to many games. Why? What am I missing? It's good. No, we've talked about this, right? Yeah, yeah. I was just curious because I think what is most impressive about to me is that it's good on TV. It's fun. The storylines are good. The in-person product is great. It really does work. And I was just, I think the development of the game, what I was referring to earlier, the amount of long-range shooting, the accuracy, the ball movement, the intricate plays. I'm not saying that wasn't part of the WNBA 15 years ago or so, but I really do think we've all sort of caught up together, if that makes sense. The fans, the game, the way that we interpret and view the sport has evolved since then. I think the basketball fan base is far more informed than it was 15 years ago in an array of ways. But maybe that's just me and you because we're so informed and smart. That's right. With my little rat buddy over here, treating me lines. I can't understand rat. But this is my thought about gentrification and the gentrification that we talked about with real estate, neighborhoods or basketball or movies. Nothing's supposed to look the same after 20 years. This is supposed to change. We're supposed to get Botox and Crazy Eyebrows. We're not supposed to be watching the Rebecca Lobo years of the Liberty. If we did, I'd be like, "There's something wrong here." That's what I mean by team building. At some point, you don't do anything. I don't think the WNBA should do anything currently because they have the agents of change in the game already. But if you don't, you have to do something. The Knicks had to do something because they're not winning a championship with a current roster. It sucks to see lovable players go, but something had to change. The WNBA, I feel like, is at an inflection point that we keep on talking about, but I think the heat behind Caitlin Clark is kind of dwindling because of politics and assassination attempts and holograms getting deleted. But I think now we get to your point, now we get into maybe actual basketball stuff as we enter postseason stuff and we're not talking about cultural elements. We're talking about basketball talk. In the same way that, say, the three-point shot evolved in men's basketball, the exact same thing, and I think that's really kind of a—it makes total sense, but the Liberty Take 47 threes a game, the same as the Boston Celtics, and if you went back to 2002, the league average in the WNBA was 13. So I just think as a product, it really has hit all these vectors at the same time, I guess is what I'm saying. The storylines are there. The game has evolved. The players are better. It's a good product. You know, Alice is a good product. The Miami Heat. The hardest working, most caffeinated, biggest face team you ever seen. We are doing key bumps on heat culture down here in Wade County. I mean, heat culture is one of the few cultures in the NBA, right? Like, there's the Lakers, there's the Celtics, there's the Knicks, and then there's Heat. The Heat. I don't think the Celtics have a culture. Are you sure, like white boy summer kind of stuff? Oh, there's a fan base, but I mean as an organization, I don't think of them having a culture. LA actually, I don't really either. I think of them as having an imaginary culture. Well, yeah. The Heat is one, and the Spurs are one, that have really been mythologized, and I think the Spurs, they're descent into being a bad team, and kind of irrelevant, and co-ileaving, how they will be. First. Right. I'm saying, now that Wembley is there, and they're going to be inevitably good, we're going to hear like, Spurs culture again, it's going to happen. Now that Wembley is part of their future. But I would say those are two that really stand out. Heat culture and Spurs culture. You don't hear so much about like, Pistons culture. You hear about jazz culture a little bit. Many wives, you can't watch, remember that old owner couldn't watch playoff games because it conflicted with his religious observance? Sort of. What do you think about Pelican's culture? Ooh, we're talking po' boys, fried shrimp, spicy gumbo, I'm into it, A plus. I think more organizations should try to push this cultural idea though, like every time the magic wins, like hey, well that's Orlando culture right there. The Knicks have so much. That's boy bands, that's EPCOT. Right, because the culture everyone wants is the Heat culture, which is the version of New York like Timbalins and hard-nosed munch pails and hard hats, like that's the culture everyone wants. Like no one wants to be like, we're the prettiest or we're the most racist. It's like that's another win for the Celtics, we're racist. Yeah, I think Knicks definitely have a culture in the way that there is an idealized version of what the Knicks look like, and- This is it. They were, you know, the worst team overall for 20 years, but now the, I mean, technically they lost more names over 20 years than anyone else, but now that they're good and they've pandered to this idea, they are exactly inhabiting the platonic ideal of Knicks culture, of Fat Joe, Jada Kisses here. We've got on Tim's, like we're eating, we've got Chewsticks, we're selling mixtape in front of Fat Beats. We love Rhett S.A., Uncle Murder. Taylor Barnes is rattling his tin cup in his cage, being like less gruel, that's right. I said, even less gruel. Knicks, Knicks definitely have a culture right now, and that's why they love FIBs. Yeah. But yeah, I can't think of too many teams. But the reason I'm bringing this up is that heat culture may be exposed. First of all, we've got my guy, Caleb Martin, as a Caleb Martin day one, who apparently took less money from Philly, or at least did not give Miami a chance to match the offer to leave Wade County to go to the Sixers who are not necessarily notable as a winning culture. He bounced. He had enough. And he just needed, he was needed in Miami, he's a very kind of valuable rotation player for them. And he's like, I'm out of here. Yeah, he took less money. Yeah. Didn't have much to say, also your boy, Chad Holmgren, talk about white boy summer. He goes out and says, I like Miami because it's just like empty. As the away team, you just got to build that lead in the first three quarters. And then it just stays quiet for the fourth. Damn. He later clarified that he was saying that, you know, people were in the, like, lavo meatballs and the clubs that's within the bowels of the heat stadium in the third quarter because of halftime, which feels as if he was just kind of trying to temper down a quote that would be construed as calling the heat fans non-existent or quiet. Famously. Right. I've been to that club. And I know what he's talking about. It also isn't that true. Like there aren't that many people out of the inhabitants of the stadium that are in the club. The club is hilarious. It's like people walking around with a model of service, like champagne sparklers. Although they're, they're not real because of flammability issues in the stadium. So they have like fake champagne sparklers. How do you fake a sparkler? They're like lights. Oh, okay. That's festive. Yeah. They're talking fettie from the ceiling and then it falls on the food on the tables and in your drinks. And they're doing that at halftime. So that's, I think what Chet is referring to, but anyway, their fans are getting called out. People are leaving the team. Then he got D Wade who comes out and says, Brian is an amazing player, but you have to work around him. Nobody wanted it. My team didn't want it. My family didn't want it. Okay. They were pissed. Bronze team didn't want it. No one wanted that to happen. The game of basketball didn't want it to happen. Any culture in shambles, Andrew, how? Why? It is in shambles, right? And, you know, Jimmy Butler, taking them to the finals last year, kind of solidified this idea of heat culture. They mean jerseys. They put writing on the floorboards. But then, you know, all season everyone was like, well, the culture's there. Just wait. They're not. They're just waiting for the playoffs for the right time. Jimmy's just resting and he's going to blow your mind. They did not blow any minds. I think they got swept. The gentleman's sweep, I forget. But they went out like they were supposed to and now their off season has been kind of disappointing. They didn't really add a star. They claim that Terry Rogier was their ad. They just did it early and were like, eh, that is not what we were looking for. They were looking for a splash and, you know, at most, I don't know who they were targeting Paul George and at least Demar de Rosen on that level. They didn't get any of those players. And I think they're at a significant disadvantage because I think every team and organization needs a writer or a media person to kind of be their spokesperson. And Dan Levittard I think wrote so well and was such a good talking head for Miami Sports for so many years, but kind of has grown as a person, sort of like you have grown as a person. Yeah, I'm not the same guy that I was. And you had those Jason Zudakis takes, you know, like, I don't want to hold you accountable for that. That's not you. That's not who I am. But Levittard has become a bigger thinker and he's not bothered with the like daily operations of Miami Heat basketball in terms of public facing. And you need kind of those advocates in order to establish if you want a culture and they don't really have a voice down there, so we're kind of active victim of the BMM who's probably stronger than ever and they love this shit. I agree. Also, I think Bam Edabaya was a really good player. Very, very, very good player, excellent defender, mobile, big, fast, can do all these things. You really have not enjoyed the evolution of his offensive game. His love of taking mid-range jumpers sucks. It sucks. It makes him whack to watch. It's hurt his efficiency a lot. I mean, this season when he really started leaning into that part of his game, his free throw rate plunged, his efficiency plunged to league average, he's just not that good of an offensive player when you take that away from him and he also isn't passing the same degree that he was, you know, early 2020. And he's not asking him now, like they have point cards now. Yeah, and I totally get why that's the case. But in our book, The Joy of basketball, which is phenomenal and you need to buy several copies, in that book we talked about Bam kind of being the future of the league in many ways, which was that he was versatile, he could run the floor, he could handle the ball, he could pass, he couldn't really shoot, that there were these different ways, you know, to create new offensive players going forward. And he sort of swerved into being almost hyper-conventional, like a 2008 basketball player. There's a whole slew of these guys, I think Evan Mobley a little bit, you know, like so much promise in terms of evolutionary kind of prototypes and ends up to your point kind of being things we recognize very well. Bam is a player I get mad at. I get mad at certain players because they play teams, I consider rivals like the Bucks, the Celtics, anyone in the East that kind of beats the Knicks, I'm like, come on, he beat this team and Bam's just taking these baby jumpers, I'm like, God damn it. Eric Spolsch, clearly the best coach in the NBA, like is this just what your guy wants to do or is this a design because like we're deep into his career at this point and he's not shown like kind of the evolutionary potential that we thought he had. At this point, you know, Bam has, you know, still really topped out at 20 points a game last last four years, 1920, 1919. So we know where he is, right? And his minutes have been in the low thirties, like really, you know, traditional big starter minutes, 34 names, quite a lot, but so we know he's not a big time scorer. But at this point, he's taking 40% of his shots are now jumpers and, you know, they're from places where he's shooting 40%, 38%, 35%. You know, like for his career on 16 footers, he's shooting 33% from 3, 22%, it's like, what's going on? Like, I know how brilliant Spo is, he's not unaware of these kind of developments. I mean, that's ethical basketball, if he culture is ethical, right? I mean, true, they are, but it's just odd to see someone develop in a way that feels counterintuitive to modern basketball, but for a coaching organization that is at least presented themselves as being super insightful. And I think they are. I think Spo is an awesome coach, and I think he has great ideas and he is adaptive. Just Bam's transformation from being weird and cool and unusual to kind of irritating is strange to me. I mean, he looks good with AD on Team USA defensively, but I think I'm not knocking his defense. He's an awesome defender. Great switcher, smart guy, dream on green, ask, but I think the question you're asking that I kind of love is, do you think he culture is shaping a lesser team with this personnel? Are they like, hey, we do things this way because we are heat culture. We don't do things that way. And you know, like Jaime Hakka's Jr. is one year older. I love Yovich. He's a year older. Like they have pieces there where they don't have to make a move. I thought it was fine to stay put for them. But like, is the culture branding hurting their chances of winning more games? Hmm. Hard to say, I mean, they've always been a defensive first team, even when they went to the finals against the Nuggets. You know, they had injuries and things like that. But they were 25th ranked in offense that season. You know, last year, you know, Butler was hurt, but 21st ranked. You know, a couple of years back, like the one where they lost the Celtics where Jimmy missed that shot, you know, they were a top 10 offensive team. But you know, this is a team that typically has been better on the defensive side. So I think that's kind of what you're getting at is like, are you so indebted to your self-identity that you are putting your personnel in positions that are not optimized? Mm-hmm. Like, are you not playing yo-vitch because he doesn't fit into your idea of how the heat are supposed to look on the court and what their vibe is supposed to be? Yo, and cracking down on spring break, the heat culture is the life on the beach of Miami and the income taxes and all that. Like heat culture is based off of Alonzo Morning going there, LeBron James, Chris Bosch, free agency, basically, Shaquille O'Neal, like, and then all those tertiary pieces that make a championship team, like Lamar Odom, it's like, I would love to play in Miami with those guys. Absolutely. And not pay income tax. Well, that's funny that you mentioned that because in comparison to Miami as a city, heat culture is so antithetical to that. Yeah. Right. Right. It's like Miami. Oh, yeah, yeah. Hard work. We draft, you know, we turn pieces of coal into diamonds, Duncan Robinson. We're going down for Art Basel to get a little of that Miami culture, grueling workouts, hard work, labor, dedication to craft, mastery of mid-range jumpers. But then cracking down on spring break this year, I wonder if free agents were just like, nah, Miami is not the same. I don't want to deal with that culture stuff. I'm going to go to Sacramento, you know, like, I want to-- Teen culture. Pornography. Crypto. Club promoters. Oh, you never know. It might be like, I fucking hate that mayor. Like I just cannot deal to live in a state with that mayor. So like-- Dizzy didn't work for me. Yeah. Yeah. There's not enough skating. There's not enough Andrew branding everywhere. Shout out to Dizzy. But like, it's totally based off of the cycle of nightlife, taxation, and personnel that this-- the heat have. And right now, they're flipping over, right? Like, Jimmy's getting older, the rookies are not quite ready. Like, they're going to lose a ton of games. I would-- it wouldn't be crazy to think that eventually they would deal bam out of bio for a ton of picks, right, for like a proper rebuild. Ooh. This is true. Also, we're forgetting another key component, which is just babes. Mm. Like that's-- Yeah. Well, you're back here to see Duke. It's a dakest take. OK, look. That was the old me. That was the old me. That was the old me. Now, this is the new new me. The new me. The old me. No, these players don't care at all about the bathing suits in the beach and the fact that you can live in a rap video, for example. And, like, yeah, it's not even-- You drive around in your convertible and warm weather, not with babes. That was the old me talking. And this is why the Dame Lillard saga is fairly funny, but unfortunate for your favorite Portland rapper, was that he was going through a divorce. That sucks. He's like, well, at least I'm going to be in Miami. Like, actually. [LAUGHTER] You're like mini bowling? Like, loaded fries? There's been-- Like the RNC convention? There's been rumors that the nicks are inquiring about Brooke Lopez. And I'm like, you know how much I love Brooke Lopez, even though he's getting older, he's almost as old as he'll be topping. But it's the hologram of Brooke Lopez era. But I can't believe they've dismantled a solid team this quickly by, like, getting rid of their really good coach, by paying too much for kind of, like, a sunsetting shooter. And then trading away, rumored to be trading away, their legitimate stretch big, who's their best defender still, like, what's-- to the nicks, like, what's going on? So there was a rumor about Doc Rivers and his lack of regard for Brooke Lopez. Oh, fuck. But he believed they should basically find a new center, and that their defensive strategy with Brooke Lopez wasn't going to work. And that's right. This was a few months ago, and I heard that, and my ears perked up, Andrew. Yes. Because I don't think Doc Rivers has good ideas. And I do think that the lone reason, the lone reason that the Bucks remain dangerous has been the front court of Brooke Lopez and Giannis. That dynamic really works. Brooke, space in the floor, Giannis running and dunking, Brooke planted beneath the rim as this, you know, sentinel in the lane, and then Giannis flying in like a pterodactyl as a weak side helper. That's all they can do. And that was Coach Bud's ingenious pairing. And since they put those two together, the Bucks have been incredibly good. They've won a title, they've made some deep runs, they're extremely good. And it's due to that duo and that dynamic. And when I heard that Doc Rivers didn't like it, man, that was wonderful to hear. I want to see what Doc Rivers can put together. Two Doc Rivers defense, which I say way too many times that I'm comfortable admitting. Brooke Lopez seems like an independent thinker and kind of like has very many opinions on the court and questions coaches, and maybe Doc doesn't appreciate that, right? It's like, we're not winning a ton of games, you didn't win a championship this year. Why are you questioning my defensive scheme? Brooke Lopez likes to be more mobile and doesn't like to be saddled next to one player necessarily. Styles make fights, whatever. But Brooke Lopez, I think, is a coaching caliber NBA brain. And he is one of the few players, I think, who could be player coach. And when someone tells him to do something, he's like, this isn't the right scheme. I'm telling you, they're going to cook us. So I can imagine him being tough to work with. I mean, I will also say, Brooke is 36 years old. Yep. He had a good season last year, though. I mean, he's good at what he does. But he is 36. And I'm not suggesting there isn't another way to skin the cat, so to speak. I just mean that I'd love to see Dr. Rivers' solution, because this is someone who from a Sixers fan, I want to see him put Giannis next to a non-shooter, because he's always itching to do it. Like Bobby Portis and Brooke Lopez kind of activate the court for Giannis. And this is easy to see if you watch the games, bro, right? Their spacing is crucial to give defenses a wrinkle. And if you take that dynamic off the table, Giannis isn't the same player. It's weird how Giannis kind of echoing our conversation about heat culture. Like we speak of him as if he was a cultural changer, as if him healthy on the court kind of changes the will and morality of a team. It's the spacing of the bigs, isn't it? Yeah, and look, offensively, Bobby Portis can do the same stuff that Brooke can. Yeah, he can post up smaller guys, he can shoot more mobile. Portis has been a great fitting for them. When he's out there with Giannis, the offense is fantastic. That's not the issue. It's that Lopez, like so many of these, that's what we're phrasing it, like other rare legit stretch bigs slash rim protectors, is the easiest plug and play type of component in the league, like Chad Holmgren, Brooke Lopez or Xingis, if you have a legit rim protecting stretch five, you can figure out what you need to do. And Brooke Lopez makes life really easy for that team. And when he's out there, they can't defend. So yeah, I think Portis is a very good offensive player. But I also look at that team, I'm like, well, Doc, please put a non-shooting big out there because I want to watch it. I want to see Giannis operate with another guy in the lane just for my own amusement. But yeah, they were 12th percentile as defensively when Lopez is off the court and Portis and Giannis were out there. They cannot defend. They had a net rating of plus one as a contender. Please, Doc, get creative. You know who doesn't have to get creative? The perfect pot? Yeah, the yeah. I don't know how we did it. I was shaky. I was like thinking about those rats, thinking about that poop. Somehow. Yup. Perfect pot. And I pass. I love for kids, I love for kids, I love for kids, I love for kids. I love for kids, I love for kids, I love for kids. I love for kids, I love for kids, I love for kids, I love for kids.