The Daily Zeitgeist - BubbleBall with Ben Golliver

Episode Date: September 22, 2022

Miles and Jack were pleased to be joined by the national NBA writer for The Washington Post, Ben Golliver on the latest episode of Boosties. The author of "BubbleBall" took them through what the experience of covering the NBA in the Bubble was like, whether the Lakers will be improved this year and plenty more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Keri Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry.

Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. I'm Keri Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Caitlin Clark vs. Angel Reese. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball.

And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. There's so much beauty in Mexican culture, like mariachis, delicious cuisine, and even lucha libre. Join us for the new podcast,

Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12-episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of lucha libre. And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, emperor of lucha libre and a WWE superstar. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream podcasts. We're back, and the preseason is less than 10 days away,

and we've got one of the all-time great team reunions, and plus maybe ones we would want to see on our own. We've got some news and notes from around the league in the anniversary of what was one of the greatest titles of all time, the 2020 title. To discuss with the author of Bubble Ball and national NBA writer for the Washington Post, Ben Goliver. I'm Miles Gray. And I'm Jack O'Brien. And this is a Miles and Jack got 60 boosties. I mean, mad boosties.

Mad boosties. Okay, we did it. Well, we cleaned it up. We cleaned it up. And I'm more safer. What's up, Ben? Ben, Ben, welcome to the show.

Ben G in the building. It's great to be here, gentlemen. You guys sound excited. I mean, the preseason is right around the corner. We got media day coming up, all that good stuff. It's been kind of a while, huh?

Long offseason. Yes. And I have, as a Laker fan, I have many questions. I wait with bated breath to hear the answers on media day to make sense of what might be happening this season. What could they tell you on media day that you'd be like, oh, oh, okay. I don't even know.

I know that's the kind of like magical thinking I have where I can't even articulate a statement that would be like... You have been saying all offseason, just wait for media day. Just wait. I want to hear it from them. What do they have in mind? But yeah, Ben, you're coming to us. You're in LA as well, right? Absolutely.

I mean, aren't you guys waiting for the Russell Westbrook trade destination? Isn't that what you want to hear on media day? Are you holding out that it's going to somehow work out with them? Because they're bringing in every available point guard. It's getting pretty obvious, right? Yes, I think so. And while many people are like, there's no way. I'm like, well, I don't think the Lakers would say, hey, really trying to get rid of this guy.

If anybody's interested and you might as well go with the positive spin of like, yeah, we look good. We like what we see. Let's get into camp and then take it step by step. All right. So Ben, where are you from? I know you're living in LA, but where, where'd you grow up? Kind of what's your fandom? What's your fandom journey? Well, so I actually grew up in Beaverton, Oregon, which is pretty much known for being like headquarters of Nike. So I was, you know, I had all the swoosh propaganda kind of pumping through my veins as a kid and went to college back east, moved back to Portland after college and started covering the Blazers, you know, in 2007, which was like a really hopeful time. I mean, Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, Greg Oden. I actually got my start because I started a blog spot website, if you remember those, trying to convince the Blazers to draft Kevin Durant. And I was convinced they were going to listen to me until they did it.

And I was almost in tears on draft night. But so I kind of use that to get my foot in the door and, you know, sort of covering the NBA kind of at large in 2010 and moved down here to L.A. for Kobe's last season. So I guess I'm a Western Conference guy if you want to look at it that way. And so I guess I'm a Western Conference guy if you want to look at it that way. But I have a lot of good memories from like the Rip City Blazers era of the early 90s, as well as, you know, kind of the modern Blazers, which kind of went from that Brandon LaMarcus era into the Damian Lillard era as well. Yeah. Which Dame was like my standout memory from the bubble. I don't know if we want to get into the bubble already but we'll get dame and uh jamal murray like to just were so like the most unconscious i've ever seen like the best shooting i think i've ever seen on a basketball court to that point was them in the

bubble was just like so wild man well and don't forget tyler hero too i mean we had some bubble guys who just went absolutely nuts it was one of the big lessons. If there's no crowd, there's no distractions, and you're just kind of in a pickup-type environment, clean gym, all of a sudden, all these dudes just could not miss. I mean, Damian Lillard, I think he went for 60-plus in one game. 61, yeah. dragging the Blazers into the playoffs. It was absolutely nuts. And he was screaming, give me my respect, you know, put some respect on my name. And do you remember that shot that hit the back of the rim, bounced like 10 feet up in the air and then came down, switched through? Yeah, that was an all-timer.

I was there for that game too. So yeah, you're bringing back some really good memories, man. I mean, it was two years ago. It feels like 20 years ago, because I mean, it was the last time the Lakers were good. And that feels like a long, long time ago.

So, uh, yeah, it was good times. Yeah. That was Dame in his 61 point game that they ended up beating Dallas from the logo, hit the back of the rim,

shot up like above the backboard and then just like dropped right through. And it was like, all right, he's got some sort of spiritual thing going right now. This seems like it is defying the laws of physics and just whatever leaves his fingers is going to drop through the basket. Lillard, five to shoot, a minute and a half to play.

That's a bomb! Oh my gosh! At a certain point, I was really, as a fan, just like, man, I'll have some of that. I'll have some game time in my life. It was also a time when i remember that game because nothing else was really going on at that time and so i just remember everybody started tweeting at the same time they're like uh-oh dame's on one and so you know

20 points into a 61 point game i just was on it you know watching that and ignoring my three-year-old, I think, at the time. Tugging at my shirt? It's like, shh, Dame. No, not dad, dad. Dame time. Not nap time. Dame time. That's right.

One thing I remember about that is, so when the Blazers clinched the playoffs, we just coincidentally were like kind of let out of our little media bubble for one of the only times in the entire experience to get to have like almost like a team dinner at this pretty fancy restaurant that was at one of the hotels the players were staying at this was like a rare luxury i mean they kept the media super super locked down the entire experience and so the blazers were actually at that hotel they were the only team left from that hotel that hadn't been eliminated because as soon as you got eliminated from the playoffs they just got you out of their asap like the next morning you were just gone right like guys were like packing up even before the games um on some occasions and so they had this big like

welcome sign like congratulations trailblazers like you're the king of the hotel and like they had it all like decorated with their um you know with their logo and then these guys had nowhere else to celebrate so they're just like sitting in the lobby of their hotel, you know, with their logo. And then these guys had nowhere else to celebrate. So they're just like sitting in the lobby of their hotel, like, you know, having some drinks, sitting at the bar, like having a good time, you know, super stoked that they made the playoffs, obviously, because, you know, it would have been a real effort for them to kind of climb up into it. And yet, like at the same time, probably wishing they could have a cooler party because like, you know, it was so lame that even like the the dork nba riders like myself uh were uh able to at least like see what was going on so

um you know that's what happens when you can't go anywhere you know it was a very unique circumstance in that uh in that playoffs man i make myself a congratulations jack you were the king of the hotel sign every time i checked into a place i didn't know that they actually did that for real that that makes me very jealous yeah you gotta you to achieve a few more things to get that. But do you put it as a special request whenever you check in next time to a hotel? Can you hang this signage up on check-in? Yeah. Yeah. Congratulations. You're the king of the hotel. Thanks. Okay. So, I mean, I think we should just get into it. The bubble was a fantastic moment from my perspective as a Laker fan. But I think for most people as basketball fans, it came at a time where we were trying to figure out what sports we could watch again,

how a league could do something safely. Would it rise to the same level? Just overall, I mean, as someone who was there, tell us a little bit about how unique of an experience that was, because you've obviously seen the league in every form, whether it's in the arenas and then to this version of the bubble. Then I'm also going to ask, tell me something interesting about the bubble that I have not heard because I know you've probably heard or seen something. Well, I mean, it was so, so weird. I was really paranoid just about my own health because there was no vaccines, no boosters at that point. I had to fly from LA to Orlando. So I hopped on that plane with one of those crazy like shield masks, know and i was wearing like doubled up on the masks and i remember like

rachel nichols was on my flight she was like doing the same thing like everybody was just like so paranoid about uh they're just even getting mask yeah yeah yeah i mean exactly super duper intense i you know i even had uh the plastic gloves on like i was walter white you know right oh because cause I'm sure at that point, it's like, I'm not going to miss this experience. Like I would, yeah, I feel like anybody would have wore like a hazmat suit. Well, and also just, you know, really nervous about like what happens if you get this disease, because, you know, for those first couple of months, it's easy to kind of all runs together, right? But for a lot of people during those first couple of months, we were all pretty much locked down and I was being really, really careful. I mean, I was trying to order in all my food, doing all those kinds of things from

a safety standpoint. So the idea of flying across country and then being in the same spot as hundreds of other people was kind of like mentally intimidating. And then as soon as you get there, they just throw you into like basically a 10 day quarantine where we couldn't leave our hotel rooms. And I was just going crazy. So I actually wound up going viral because I took a video of myself just pacing back and forth in my hotel room, eight steps at a time. So I was trying to get my Apple watch steps. So I wound up walking more than six miles a day, even during the quarantine, just back and forth in the hotel. And you can, you know, obviously you understand how pathetic that is. I mean, you're just pacing around your room for an hour and a half and dedicated to

closing those rings though. Yeah, it had to be. And also to try to not to go crazy, you know, real stir crazy when you're really like that intensely locked down. But once we got out of it, I was really impressed by just the,

the court set up in terms of how they made it good for television. Right. Because you don't want to watch an empty court. They use the technology. They have the cool lights. And then as a basketball junkie, man, it's like, well, this is great. Like I have a front row seat. I can hear everybody trash talking, right? Like there's only 10, 20 people in these, uh, these games. And like when the bucks did their protests, like I was one of three reporters who was there at tip off, you know what I mean? What was scheduled to be the tip-off. So the reporter side of me was like, God, this is incredible. Like this is,

I got the lucky ticket to the Willy Wonka basketball factory. You know what I mean? But I mean, there was so many twists and turns along the way. You guys remember the Daniel house incident, right? Where during the middle of a playoff series, he like gets in trouble for allegedly bringing someone into his hotel room. who's not supposed to be there. You've got the Houston Rockets all up in arms saying this is like a competitive disadvantage and we need to be able to have our guys. And then almost immediately after that incident, the Rockets just pretty much quit. The Lakers run them off the court the next couple of games. And so you can look and say, when are we ever going to have a scenario where an unauthorized hotel guest will swing a playoff series? are we ever going to have a scenario where an unauthorized hotel

guest will swing a playoff series? You know, it's never going to have that in NBA history ever. And the answer is probably no. But, you know, one of my big takeaways from the whole experience was it would have been so much worse if they didn't have a champion in the record books, right? Like, I know you guys are basketball junkies as well. Like, you know, growing up, you're reading the history books and every single year it says, here's who won the title, right? Lakers in the eighties, Celtics in the eighties. And you go all the way back to the

sixties, fifties, there's always a champion. And for me, I was so glad that they were able to actually crown a champion and get the thing done safely because having like a spot or like an asterisk in the record books to me, it would just never would have sat right. You know, it would have just always like rubbed me the wrong way. And so it was pretty exciting to have them able to do that. I feel like you could argue like, because, you know, you sometimes hear people, I've never heard this like said in good faith, but you do hear people being like, that wasn't a real title or like,

you know, you need to put an asterisk next to it. The Lemicki crowd. Yeah. I feel like you could argue that was maybe the purest highest level basketball tournament of all time because there's like no advantages no disadvantages due to travel it was everything in normal playoff says but just like hyper focused on basketball and team dynamics with an added level of like psychological experiment thrown in but just the ability to focus through that i feel like is just everything a normal nba championship is

plus like an added level of difficulty and i'm not a lakers fan like i was blown away by what everybody did that year but especially the lakers i totally agree with that it was such a mental test and not everybody wanted that test right look at the sixers they got out of there as quick as they could sweep went home they were fine with it you know you look at the clippers they could have buckled down in their second round series and gone further and they were ready to go home you know and they've even kind of admitted that after the fact of like they just didn't really want to be there guys were uncomfortable because they were separated from their family members even a guy like yannis who had a brand new, even though he was with his two brothers

in the bubble, never really felt like he was, you know, clicking on all cylinders because he was separated from his family. He's such a family type of guy. It was really hard, man. I was there for 93 days. I put on weight. You know, it was like really like mentally taxing. And I didn't have to play.

I'm just going there to watch the games, right? You put on weight and your leg muscles right from just all those steps you were just your legs were shredded by the end i wish but it was also just like the quality of the food there i don't want to talk too much uh negativity about disney world but it wasn't my typical diet sure and it's just the stress of game game day game day, game day, and really having no other healthy, um, outlets, you know, we couldn't go for a ride, you know, we could go fishing, you know, we could take a little boat ride every once in a while. You could do little things like that here and there. You could ride a bike if you wanted, but I mean, this is central Florida in the middle

of July and August and September, you know, it's humid, it's nasty. I mean, you know, there's thunderstorms and you don't always want to go outside so it was taxing for sure plus the fish you catch might be flounder from the little mermaid you know yeah exactly or nemo you never know no it's well it was catch and release so don't worry no fish were harmed in the course of my expeditions that's for sure so like so ben when you were there did you go to the bubble thinking like, well, this is going to be a fantastic book? Or was it more of a like, I'm there, I'm actually seeing in real time how special this is? Because I'm sure on some level, as a journalist, you're always thinking on how to record history and things like that. But how did you arrive to actually writing

the book? No, I mean, I always say I'm kind of like Forrest Gump, man, stuff just falls in my lap. Like I did not have any like grandmaster, but I would love to be able to say like, oh yeah, as soon as I understood I was going to go there, like I had laid it all out, like have my book pitch ready. But it wasn't like that, man. I went there wondering, are we even going to be there for a week? Is this going to work? Are we all going to get sent home? Is somebody going to give up and pull the plug? Like I had no idea it was going to work. So when I did go there, I knew I had a unique perspective on like everything that was happening. And so we decided to do something that's pretty rare at the Washington Post and actually just write like first person journal entries where I was just kind of describing like, hey, here's what I'm doing.

Here's what it looks like. Here's where they're practicing. Here's how the players are acting. And it was from my own perspective, as opposed to like the typical, you know, reported third person type of voice that I would use. And an agent, you know, saw those diaries and was like, look, dude, you got to turn this into a book. This is wild. And at that point, you know, we're still only a couple of weeks into it. We still didn't know if the whole thing was going to work, but thankfully a publisher bought into the vision and the deal came together really quickly. And then the only thing that made it trickier was my bosses said, hey, look at the post. They said, when you're when you're in the bubble, just focus on your work for us. Write the book when the season's over. And I was like, all right, that's totally fair. You're paying for me to be down here. No problem.

And I thought I was going to have a long off season to write the book because I thought, oh, they're just going to delay this. Right. You know, months and months. And they turn back around and like, oh, by the way, we're starting in December. And so I had to write that book in like two, three months. I mean, just crank it out. It was pretty hard to do. But, you know, I was glad that I had enough perspective to no longer be living in it so I could reflect on it without like two years passing.

Because if I tried to write that book now, I would have forgotten everything that happened, like all the little specifics. So the whole thing actually came together pretty pretty well i think in terms of the timeline do you feel like there is there was something like it just felt like the shooting was better yeah in the bubble do you do you think that was just like depth of field like not having a moving crowd behind the glass backboard or do you think some people just like really respond like dame like um you know some of the players that just yeah ad jimmy butler like i mean lebron donovan mitchell like there were some players who like really stepped up but i i mean with lebron

and ad and jimmy butler even there are people who've like stepped up outside, but I don't know, like Donovan Mitchell was out of his mind. TJ Warren was out of his mind. Jamal Murray, I think Jamal Murray, that was like, I was like, this is the guy now. Like this is one of the best two guards in the league now. And you know, he's, he's had some injuries, but it just, it did feel like there was a level of shot making that was almost next level. Yeah. I mean, a couple of things, first of all, no travel makes such a difference, you know, just after this most recent playoff grind, I think I took 37 flights in like three months,

you know, to cover the NBA playoffs, which when those are going from Boston to San Francisco boss, I mean, I understand these guys are flying charter, but they're logging so many miles over the course of a playoffs. And when you take all of that travel out, it's so much better for their sleep schedules, for their rest and recovery time period. And I just think that it helps them get into a groove. I think playing in the same gym over and over and over is important psychologically. You're not making any sort of adjustments. And I think no crowd means no pressure. know like there were just it's not the same when you have to go and make shots in boston garden game six like steph curry did there is one guy who can do that that's definitely right you you're talking about in a a random like

basically aau gym uh you know on the campus of uh you know an amusement park where there's 30 people plus you know a couple of uh a dozen family members watching these big games and they're not even really allowed to boo. You know what I mean? You saw that big confrontation between Russell Westbrook and, you know, one of the family members and that guy got kicked out. Like he didn't get to stay and there's no heckling involved. And I think the psychological aspect of it being quiet, calm, and then no travel together with the consistency of the gym is what really spiked up the shooting percentages and helped guys get comfortable. But you're right. There was like 10, 15, 20 guys who all outperformed their typical baseline by a lot. And you look at the following season, we still saw that a little bit, even when they were back traveling.

I mean, guys like Julius Randall, Zach Levine, you know, they cashed in with career years that following year. And I do think that the crowd dynamics played a role in how well those guys shot too. Yeah. Travel is so exhausting. Every time I travel, I'm like, why am I the most tired I've ever been in my life? So yeah, that makes sense.

And why is your three-point percentage going down? Yeah, my three-point percentage. I thought you were going to say there are two guys who can do the Game 6 thing in thing in boston garden and mention me but that's fine like i get it because i haven't proved it yet but uh one of these i'm sorry yeah yeah you know who else loved the no travel though who the referees because they have to slum it you know on the commercial airlines those guys so they were whining because they didn't get any marriott points right but they love the fact that they didn't have to take the flights. And it's like,

you know, it's kind of a fair trade off, honestly. I mean, after you go through the playoff grind, you know, you understand, like, I mean, every summer I come out and I just feel like I'm, you know, my head is spinning. Like I need to almost like detox from traveling and basketball after the playoffs. You're like, what time zone am i even in right now an nba ref needs to start a travel blog because like they probably are the most seasoned at traveling commercial and right you know just putting on their headphones because everybody's gonna like recognize them want to talk to them about stuff so you know just how to do it without talking to anyone they're george looney and up in the air basically exactly they're, exactly. They're like, no, you don't want this flight.

You want the other one. They got better hardware on this airline. All right, let's take a quick break, and we'll be back to discuss even more with Ben right after this. I'm Kerry Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports, where we live at the intersection of sports and culture. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. I know I'll go down in history.

People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Every great player needs a foil. I ain't really near them. I just come here to play basketball every single day, and that's what I focus on. From college to the pros, Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Angel Reese is a joy to watch. She is unapologetically black. I love her.

What exactly ignited this fire? Why has it been so good for the game? And can the fanfare surrounding these two supernovas be sustained? This game is only going to get better because the talent is getting better. This new season will cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke.

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podcasts. And we're back. And obviously, as a avowed Laker fan, the bubble playoffs, that was fantastic for me. I got to see Anthony Davis do things I couldn't believe. And to this day, I hold those

memories dearly as I wear my AD bubble Jersey. But for you, I mean, you, this, your whole experience, basically you were there, you got to celebrate, or you at least got hit with the celebratory champagne. Do I have this correct as part of your bubble experience? Yeah, that's, I mean, that's why you should feel sorry for your Lakers. They're the only team that won a title, had nobody to celebrate with, and then had to pick on the media members with the champagne bottles, man. They were looking around to spray anybody. And I, you know, I had the camera rolling when LeBron came out of locker room with the, I think it was like double fisting bottles maybe at that point. And he just absolutely soaked me. I mean, my suit, so we all rushed out of the bubble.

Like as soon as it was over, like the next morning, I'm on a flight home. And when I got home, my suit still smelled like that champagne. And I had it laundered and finally it went back to normal. But it just completely doused me. It was a very memorable moment and just an incredible run. I'm never going to forget that Lakers playoff run because of the amazing access we had to the players during like warmups, pregame, post to fit it in and quickly before, you know, mostly before football season started. And to just watch the amount of just sheer hours he would put into his game that we were able to actually witness in that spot was special. I mean, everybody knows he's one of the greatest players of all time.

He's always going to be in that kind of a conversation. And, you know, to me, having that happen, like right after watching the last dance where you had so much behind the scenes footage of MJ, it was just kind of like a really cool, special experience for like a basketball dork where you're like, yeah, there's going to be documentaries made about this. Like, maybe I'm going to be in the background, like filming LeBron as you know, they were going through some crazy pregame routine, but that's kind of what I'll remember more than anything about that run. They were dominant. I mean, they wiped just about everybody off the court and they got lucky, you know, in terms of Miami, not really being at full

strength when the finals, you know, took place, but still LeBron was some really just all time classic performances, 40 plus points in some key games to bring that title home. And like you said, AD didn't miss a shot the whole time. Even KCP was getting highlights. He's hitting big corner threes and daggers and all this kind of stuff. So having watched that team for that entire season, because I'm here in L.A., I was never convinced that they were going to win the title.

Even going into the bubble, I thought maybe the Clippers should be viewed as the favorites here. You know, they're kind of like the hot new thing in town and LeBron delivered. And we didn't start that great in there either. So that was definitely a moment. It was like, we were doing so well in the buildup.

And then we got there. I, I, my confidence wavered a bit as well, but then it came back around. But to your point about seeing, you know, seeing things that you normally wouldn't, what's an example of like your understanding of what the player you thought

lebron was or the squad that the lakers were at the time and then the things you saw that were sort of adding a little more texture to like your analysis of that well you know a lot of times uh you know you hear these stories about how lebron knows the other team's entire plays all their coverages and he's able to like call them out right and you know you sometimes wonder like are people laying it on thick you know to kind of like you know add to the lebron mythos right when you're in the empty gym and you know they start off they're really made a point the lakers did of being very vocal on the bench which led to some trash talk i'll be honest i mean guys like dwight howard these other guys were just like you know talking a lot of junk to the other team, which was kind of funny to listen to.

Right. Um, but LeBron was making a point of like, look, we're going to win this title with defense. So we're going to talk a lot on defense and he's calling out like every single coverage switches. Here's who needs to guard whoever else there's nobody else in the league or in the bubble who is doing it like that. You know, he's just sort of a one-of-one type guy. I think it was an example of, you know, his vocal leadership, an example of his basketball IQ, and just sort of like a peek behind the curtain that, you know, I wouldn't normally get. You know, typically when I'm sitting at games, you know,

Staples actually, or I guess Crypto.com now, has really good media seats, but there's still so much going on and so much noise, you can't always hear the guys. And it was just, it was as if it was like a mic'd up segment for the entire game where you could kind of always hear what LeBron was saying. You could also hear him work the refs too. And you know, he had a lot of different tools in his pocket. You know what I mean? He knew how to butter guys up. He knew how to play the like, you know, I'm frustrated. I'm outraged. I'm the superstar.

You've got to give me that call angle. Him and Chris Paul both actually just know the intricacies of the rule books so well that they would get into these really complicated, convoluted arguments with the officials. I remember one time Chris Paul actually came over to the guy who was like the executive, the NBA executive and head of the officials and like almost like appeal to the referees bosses in front of them it's like if you go to the grocery store and say hey can i talk to the manager yeah no that's like he did that like right there monty mccutcheon like right there in front of me where he's like carrying on this long debate with monty mccutcheon about a rules interpretation so you just see how competitive these guys are up close and personal and you realize like every story that you've heard about them is probably true. Knowing there would be a Last Dance style documentary eventually, did you try to like, did you think about restyling your hair like that one bull security guard to just like become a character?

Yeah, like a little girl, a little. Yeah. Jerry curl in the back. That character I was was the guy who was whining about all the cameras being in his way you know because they actually had the same guy who did the last dance a lot of that footage was in the bubble for the last especially for the like the last month or so following the lakers around and inevitably like we would be in these press conferences set away from the players socially distant so that there wouldn't be any contact right and inevitably one of their cameras would like go right in front of where i was trying to shoot. And I have to like look at the PR guys and be like, come on, like help me out here.

Throw me a boat. So, you know, it was funny. You know, everybody's fighting for the same content in that little fishbowl. But I think that it's going to age well. Like I would love to see the content that they've got because LeBron was playing so well. And he was, I mean, it was such a range of emotions from him. You know, some days he was like really sad that he's missing Bronny's birthday.

Other days he's missing home. Some days he's locked in and like just completely punking the Rockets and going through these crazy, like pregame dunk competition type stuff where he's trying to, you know, get his team energized. You know, he's quoting Kobe Bryant, saying the job's not finished

after they win the Western Conference Finals. I mean, don't forget Anthony Davis's amazing game winner. winner you know that crazy uh you know three that he hits uh i mean that was a really fun you know a scene where they're celebrating and and uh basically in an empty gym so there's so many good moments if you did a laker specific documentary from that bubble run that would uh would hold up and and i think would look great you know you just gotta fast forward like 10 years so that it feels like it's like the nostalgia factor you know yeah right we're getting the redeemed team one right now right i wonder should they do something like this for what you know there there's a lot of conversation happening about in uh in-season

tournaments um that that would be dope if like the in-season tournaments took place at a neutral location, not bubble. People's family could come. But if there was something about it that recreated that fraternal atmosphere, I don't know. This just got me excited. You describing what was obviously an emotionally, spiritually harrowing thing. I'm like, oh, that sounds so tight.

We need to recreate that. But there is something cool about that. No, you're onto something, man. It just doesn't need to be 93 days long, right? Like the Maui Invitational. You know, Maui Invitational is a nice bite-sized event, right? So I'm with you. I actually think it would be cool if they did like a single site,

something to kick. Like maybe they had all like the first week games were all in the same place. What was kind of fun is that the players would go to the other team's games right so like you got Damian Lillard like watching the Lakers from a courtside seat right you know you have that kind of stuff happening a lot Chris Paul loved to watch the other teams play because he's such a basketball junkie and so that part of it was really fun it kind of felt like summer league on steroids a little bit and it would be cool if they could incorporate that more regularly but uh you know you just gotta you just can't have it run for three months that's yeah yeah like a week a week with single elimination or something rotate the tournament location each year like the super bowl i don't know that that sounds like it could be

super fun you heard it here first yeah and because this is an nba podcast i think they have to do it they have to do it you guys heard it okay uh let's take a quick break we'll come back and we'll we'll do rapid fire oh yeah i don't know if you're ready but that's not a statement on you i don't know any human can be ready it's a little bit like parenthood or you know like those big life events, the bubble that you can try and mentally prepare yourself. But it's really it's hard to explain. You're going to see. We'll be right back. I'm Kerry Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports, where we live at the intersection of sports and culture.

Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Every great player needs a foil. I ain't really near them. Why is that? I just come here to play basketball every single day, and that's what I focus on.

From college to the pros, Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Angel Reese is a joy to watch. She is unapologetically black. I love her. What exactly ignited this fire? Why has it been so good for the game? And can the fanfare surrounding these two supernovas be sustained? This game is only going to get better because the talent is getting better.

This new season will cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. Hey, everyone. Jake Storielli here from John Boy Media. I want to tell you about my podcast, Wake and Jake.

It's your go-to spot for anything and everything sports. Baseball, football, basketball, hockey, golf, college, whatever's hot in the street, we're talking about it on Wake and Jake. So if you're a diehard fan or looking for the latest buzz, we've got you covered, no matter your favorite sport. We're breaking it down with the passion that'll make you feel like you're in the stands with us. Plus, we've got a bunch of guests.

Foolish Bailey, Jolly Olive, Chris Rose, and more. Mock drafts, rankings, whatever you want. It's the sports world. And come on and join our friends in the Wake and Jake family. You will not regret it. So, new episodes Monday and Wednesday. You can watch

along on the Wake and Jake YouTube channel or listen to Wake and Jake on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, this is Jimmy O'Brien from John Boy Media. I want to quickly tell you about my podcast. It's called Jimmy's Three Things.

Episodes come out every Tuesday and for about 30 minutes I dive into three topics in Major League league baseball that I am interested in breaking stories, trends, stats, weird stuff. Sometimes I make up my own stats.

Sometimes I do a lot of research and it ends up, I was wrong the whole time. So that's something you can get in on. Use Jimmy's three things podcast to stay up to date on major league baseball and to make you just a smidge smarter than your friend who's a baseball fan. You listen to me and then you go tell him, hey, I know this and you don't. So I make you smarter than your friends. That's what Jimmy's Three Things is all about.

Listen to Jimmy's Three Things on iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find it on the talking baseball youtube channel and new episodes drop every tuesday and we're back we're back that sound you hear is the sound of something moving fast i didn't have have lunch. Yeah, it was supposed to be fast movement. Hey, look, I'm no Foley artist, but that's because we're coming up on rapid fire, baby.

It's time for the rapid fire round of questions. Now, Ben, I know you've listened to every episode of the podcast, so you already know how intense this segment is. But for those listening for the first time, buckle up your minds, because in this section, we are going to be asking Ben a series of questions. Ben, do not think too long on it. Just react. Just give us a response immediately, because then we can move on to the next question. And what is by far the fastest segment in podcasting? Yeah, like you can you can get into an athletic stance you can

like do the chop your feet drill uh just to like kind of keep yourself ready uh for for what's about to happen which is up and down is is hard to prepare you for yeah um and it's gonna go fast so don't this isn't some long-winded meandering conversation this is like it's like you get the ball you justass it right back no no i don't want to see any ball under your chin elbows and just right back okay here we go start the clock all right jack you want to go first or should i go for um yeah i don't know i'm good like whatever you are you you you why don't you go first yeah okay because i've been practicing so i'm yeah actually I've been practicing this.

If I go, okay, yes. This will be very fast if I go first. Okay, here we go. Ben, where's Russell Westbrook at the start of this season? With the Lakers, but I give him 20 games. And then I think he's at home until the trade deadline. Ah, okay. Interesting.

So you think, okay, 20 games. How do you think the Lakers look with all that? Does that free them up? Does that do anything? Hold on, Jack. I just want to, let me ask my first thing. Is that good for the Lakers? I think it's a good thing for the Lakers, man.

They were hard to watch on a nightly basis last year for me personally here in LA. I think that having Schroeder and Beverly just be your rotation guards over Westbrook is a win. Uh, you know, it's a modest win. And I think if you're the Lakers, like if you make the plan, that's a successful season after last year, I think you have a better chance of doing it without Westbrook and he's on a giant expiring contract. Your best chance of trading him is probably, you know, someone's trying to make a financial move at the deadline. Look, if he wants to come into camp and try hard and kill it,

then at least give him that opportunity. If it's not working out, I think you can feel free to just pull the John Wall and send him home. Okay. Alright, get ready. This one's going to be real fast. What team or group of people would you like to see have a big chill style reunion

the way the Showtime Lakers are currently having a reunion in Hawaii, I believe? That looked like fun, didn't it? Yeah. You guys want to go? Yeah. Oh, yeah. You think we should do a reunion of this podcast in about a year's time? Just the three of us?

But honestly, I think I'd rather go hang out with 75 year old cream shooting uh the skyhooks the sky yeah man and magic singing joy and pain by maize and frankie beverly although watching that clip i realized i prefer the rob bass and dj easy rock version of joy and pain versus yeah the other version but that's just me i'm a young man i think my answer would be the 90s Bulls. I mean, let's get the last last dance or like after the last dance. The last show. I could see, you know, if everybody's drinking MJ's tequila, I could see some punches being thrown. I could see some people not happy with how they were portrayed on the show. And if it's not that, I think you could also go to like the 90s Knicks.

You know, there was a couple couple books i think about them recently those guys would be wild to watch reminisce and i imagine like and you know the lakers are going through their showtime practices where they're like running drills i mean i can just picture the knicks like just bowling each other over in the paint ripping down rebounds so i don't know i'm going to 90s nostalgia bulls or knicks yeah i like that the last dance reunion show like a reality show where they do the reunion show and everybody like has the you bring andy andy through what's the dude andy cohen andy cohen like interviews them get messy yeah now oaks now you had some beef right with john starks that we didn't know about until

now do you want to do you want to expand on that? And also Anthony Mason's free throw shooting style? Okay, we'll talk about that later when we're back. I'm sorry. And again, we have to remind you, Ben, this is a rapid fire round of questions, so we're going to keep the answers tight going forward. What are we underrating about

the upcoming season, Ben, from your perspective? Just that we're finally back to a normal schedule. We had the full offseason. Everybody got the full offseason, even the teams that went to the finals. You know, you look at it even last year, you know, the Suns and Bucks went pretty deep into the summer and then they had the Olympics. So I'm hoping for fewer injuries. I'm hoping for really competitive play and I'm hoping for an awesome postseason now that we're finally out of the pandemic delay effect that kind of didn't ruin but it certainly altered the last couple of seasons on the greatest of all talk podcast you discussed the imminence of super team extinction

based on the recent results of teams like the Lakers the Nets do you think the teams are moving away from that do you feel like it's an overreaction, say, that the Nets were unstoppable when they weren't hurt? And hurry up with the answer. Yeah, yeah. And make sure the answer is not as long as that question was. So I got yes or no is what I'm going to be listening to here. Just a yes or no, please.

True or false? I think that players drive super teams. And for whatever reason, players haven't been able to maintain their friendships long enough True or false? with the new bargaining agreement and the new media rights deal. So that's really what created Kevin Durant to the Warriors. Could we see another team use that same blueprint? The salary cap goes up really quickly. They aggregate all this superstar talent, bring them all together, and then create a super team. It's possible.

But right now, it's parity rules, man. It's a lot of teams out there who have a chance to win the title this year. And finally, the most important question ben jack or miles oh come on guys it's like choosing between my children which i don't own so i guess uh you know it's that's unfair i'm gonna go i'm going jabari the producer wow man what a diplomatic decision kind of a convenient cop out by me but it's also quick no i that's a we we gotta really we get that was a great answer i mean i think that's easy for miles to say as someone who has won this every other time like they've said miles and so like yeah that's fun and you know it's a nice change of pace for him but for somebody who's still you know

just seeking the chip just seeking that first chip. What's holding you back, Jack? I mean, what's the problem, man? I don't know, man. I've been dejected. Like I have pages and pages of notes. Yeah. Every gesture, every micro gesture was meticulously planned.

I put together my own, the rehearsal in my house. For this episode. Yeah. So didn't go according to plan, but understandable. Jabari is great. Yeah. No, it's cool. No, it's all right. Look, Jack, you'll get him next time. You'll get him next time.

Well, before we make this any more awkward, we have to thank our guest, Ben. Thank you so much for stopping by Mad Boosties. Before we let you go, we got to shout out the Las Vegas Aces on their first WNBA title and also the people of España for a fantastic Eurobasket championship. Doing it again with a pair of brothers. Ben, where can people find you, follow you, listen to you, read you, and all that good stuff? Yeah, washingtonpost.com

slash sports is where I put all my writing. I actually had a write-up on that Eurobasket final. So, you know, if you want to read about Spain and France and kind of where they went wrong,

it's there. And then greatestofalltalk.com is the podcast. Amazing. Okay, guys, that was another legendary episode in the books. Please join us next week where we will get even closer to the start of the preseason.

Oh, yeah. Follow us on Twitter at MadBoosties. Yes, yes. M-A-D-B-O-O-S-T-I-E-S. Exactly. It's very easy. It's the only way you would spell boosties. We all know this.

And I'm taking tips from anybody who wants to see me get one of these from our guests. You know, just a straight up. More negging. More negging. Like a pickup artist. Yeah. And I'm taking tips from anybody who wants to see me get one of these from our guests. You know, just a straight up. More negging. More negging. Yeah. Try negging at the top and see. We should try pick up artists. Just pseudoscience. Just being mean to the guests the whole time.

We'll try. And look, that's a tip for the listeners. Stay tuned to see how we'll pick up artist Jack Du on the next episode of Miles and Jack. Got mad moosties. I said moosties. Moosties. I'm Carrie Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil.

I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports.

Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball. And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. There's so much beauty in Mexican culture, like mariachis, delicious cuisine, and even lucha libre. Diet Coke. Host Santos Escobar, Emperor of Lucha Libre and a WWE superstar. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream podcasts.