The Press Box - Four NBA Media Meltdowns, Oscar Season for Democrats, and a Great Editor’s ‘Only in Journalism’

Episode Date: March 10, 2025

Tim Walz is making the media rounds, leading The Ringer’s Bryan Curtis and David Shoemaker to ask whether the Minnesota governor or Stephen A. Smith is more likely to run for president in 2028 (00:00). Then, the guys get into a series of media meltdowns, including the ongoing beef between Stephen A. and LeBron James (13:00), Charles Barkley vs. Kendrick Perkins (26:12), Draymond Green’s shameless self-promotion (35:08), Mark Cuban’s thoughts on the Luka Doncic trade (40:57), and more. Plus, the Overworked Twitter Joke of the Week, and Shoemaker Guesses the Strained-Pun Headline. Hosts: Bryan Curtis and David Shoemaker Producer: Troy Farkas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When you hear the word Seattle Supersonics, what comes to mind? Maybe it's Sean Kemp, The Rain Man, or Gary Payton, the glove, or maybe an image of a tall and skinny 19-year-old rookie, Kevin Duran. For fans in Seattle, it's something else. It's tragedy. It's theft. An iconic team with an incredible fan base that packed its bags and shipped off for Oklahoma City. From Spotify and The Ringer, I'm Jordan Ritter-Con.

And in my podcast, Sonic Boom, I talk to players, politicians, owners, and fans about how Seattle lost the Sonics. You can listen to it on the Book of Basketball feed, beginning March 13th, on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Yes. As tempting as it would be to talk about Twitter going down during NFL free agency. Truly a world historical event this morning. I want to talk to you about a Tim Wall's interview I was reading over the weekend. Yeah?

Tim Walls is breaking his silence. Doing it a lot, kind of in the manner of an old school ESPN car wash. Yeah, I know. I heard him on NPR and then kept reading excerpts from interviews that I assumed were the same one. Then I realized they were all there. There's a lot of Tim Wall's interviews. Yeah, his point seems to be that the Harris campaign wasn't aggressive enough. Mm-hmm.

Last year, a former coach had a good line to Elena Schneider over at Politico, We were in a prevent defense not to lose when we never had anything to lose because I don't think we were ever ahead. Yeah. Now, I was thinking there are two ways we can think about these stories. We're going to be reading about Democrats over the next few months. One is the 2028 primaries have started. Yes. And they are happening in our pages and on our podcast.

Tim Wall seems like a very, very unlikely 28 Democratic nominee but he's not ruling it out. No. He's in the Stephen A zone. Yeah, he said he was not officially, formally throwing his hat in the ring, but if he were the one that had the best chance at the time,

blah, blah, blah, blah. I mean, all in all, it felt like a pretty honest answer from a politician, you know, But yes, he's, I don't know if he occupies the exact same space to Stephen A. Smith, but there are some correlating points that correlate there. Who is more likely to be the Democratic nominee, Stephen A or Tim Walls? Honestly, Stephen A. Smith. I think, I think I'm going to go with you on that one. I just love how it's like the award season for the Democrats.

Everybody is available for an interview. Mm-hmm. People who might not have answered the call at other times, they are answering. answering that podcast call right now. What do you think that is? Do you think it's just because somebody does it and all of a sudden it feels safe? I think there's a vacuum.

But Stephen A jokes aside, I think when you're in, you know, I'm considering it mode. Uh-huh. It's a great time to be on. Yeah. Because you don't have an answer to the big question.

Are you running for president? But you can tee off on Trump, talk about things that Democrats are doing wrong. It's a happy place to be. No, no, that's absolutely true. And I think there's probably also an element of looking around and saying, hey, if Stephen A. Smith is getting all this airtime, shouldn't that be somebody who, you know,

actually speaks from a point of gravity or at least just, you know, seriousness? So, yeah, I can see why everybody's available. But also everybody's just covering their asses, though, from the campaign. I mean, I think that probably what Wall said, the part that you referenced is true. I mean, I think that probably in retrospect, the best critique of the campaign is that they were playing brevet defense when they were like down three touchdowns. And whether or not they were fully aware of that at the time, I guess,

you know, the historians will have to tell us. But everybody has to have a critique, regardless of what the truth to matter was, the campaign certainly presented itself, I guess, for obvious reasons, as a viable can, as a viable can. As a viable campaign. candidacy, right? They were running as if it was a, you know, one score game and they're just, maybe they're up by three. Well, I'm going to exhaust this metaphor until the very end. And so it's incumbent upon someone like, walls, I think, to come out there and be like, listen, I knew that we weren't, that we were, you know, BSing about what the score was, you know. And then there's the people who are inside the campaign that we've heard in the past weeks and months

who are basically saying, you know, just doing whatever they think is necessary to say, I know we lost in the Super Bowl, but hire me as your OC next season. I swear I swear I can run a better offense than that. That's the not my fault element to this. Yeah. The why not me? And then there's not my fault. Yeah, we lost last time, but I wanted to do more interviews.

I wanted to do even more podcasts. Yeah. Then the Harris team was letting me do. So that's a way to read these interviews, number one. Number two, and you're going to have to help me with this, owes something more to literary theory. Okay. Donald Trump is unquestionably the main character in American life.

Sure. The protagonist, if you will. Yeah. But you and I both know that every time you read a political article, there is also an antagonist. Uh-huh. It usually appears around the sixth paragraph. Yeah.

Asked about Trump's remarks, the Harris campaign said, oh, yeah. Blah, blah, blah. Mm-hmm. So while reporters are auditioning Democrats, for the nomination, they're also seeking someone to fill that essential function in political journalism. Yeah. To be the person who is, if not stopping Trump, then questioning Trump, standing up to

Trump, however you want to put it. Mm-hmm. Which people have been kind of shockingly unwilling to do in a very meaningful way, I should say. I think so. And I think political journalism kind of melts. if you don't have that. Remember the Joe Biden story? People couldn't report it.

It was very hard to do. But as soon as Dean Phillips, of all people, was like, I am running against Joe Biden. I am running on the grounds that he is too old. Yeah. Then all of a sudden it becomes easier to write the story. Aha. Okay. This guy's going to guide us through this.

Same thing with Democrats and Trump, I think. Yeah. So we get Tim Walz. We get J.B. Pritzker, whose speeches started appearing in Rachel Maddow's A block. Yeah. At least on the nights that Rachel Maddow was hosting

her own show. Sure. That Gavin Newsom podcast slash pivot or whatever he's trying to execute, everybody is auditioning for the role of Trump antagonist as well.

Yes. I mean, Newsom was already doing that, obviously during the Harris campaign. And, you know, we were saying before, I was making the point that every politician wants to be asked,

you know, wants to be invited and to be the non- You want to be, they want the groundswell that brings him to the nominee. I think if anybody knows that that's not always going to be the case, it's Gavin Newsom, who had positioned himself last cycle to be the Biden replacement in so many ways. And then, you know, he established whatever. The party was just like, now we'll just go with Harris.

There was no primary. Yeah. So he's going to, he's not just positioning himself to be the Trump antagonist, but to be a viable national candidate, I guess, which I think is probably the read, the correct read on some of his movements on trans issues. of late. But anyway, yeah, it is. It's an incredibly important part, piece of journalism. And it's being hamstrung by the fact that the Democrats, by and large, aren't really reacting. I mean, listen, Trump's presidency isn't a normal one. But the response from the Democrats has been pretty abnormal, too. And that it's just, they just seem sort of prime to take the backseat

until some obvious tactic jumps out at them. And maybe they're happy to let Trump tank the economy and wait for his approval ratings to hit some magical low number or something before they go on the offensive in a real sort of organized way. But it doesn't have to be organized. Just it has to be like reality based and noisier than what's happening now. Well, and I think the disorganization is part of what's driving the lack of antagonist. So you can go find a rep who will give Trump the business. But that doesn't quite work, right? That's not the, that's not the drama of good journalism. Right.

Because what's that person going to do? It almost requires a bigger name. And speaking to which, if you read that Jonathan Swan, Maggie Haberman's during the New York Times at the end of the week about Trump reigning in Elon Musk at a cabinet meeting, maybe Elon Musk will become the antagonist from a certain point of view. We also have an update, David, on Jeff, I saved the Washington Post so I could ruin it myself, Bezos. You remember that he decreed that the Post's opinion. section would stump for free markets and personal liberties.

Yes. And publish no dissenting opinions on those issues. Well, the big question was, what does that mean? Were we going to have a libertarian corner over at the post and then the other 70% of the opinion section would function as normal? Or would the whole page be lowered into this Wall Street Journal zone of badness? and become unreadable. Yeah.

Well, this morning we learned that columnist Ruth Marcus has resigned. Marcus says she wrote a column, quote, respectfully dissenting from Jeff's edict, and that the column was killed by publisher Will Lewis. So if you're keeping score here, the post has published a few pieces, politely dissenting or respectfully dissenting from the company line. they allegedly spiked a media column from Eric Wemple about this and now Ruth Marcus

column. Marcus also says that Will Lewis, the publisher, declined to discuss the decision with me. And that's puzzling to me too because everything we've read about Will Lewis says he hasn't exactly been a man of the newsroom. Right. And now you got the owner issuing this stuff. So wait a second. Do we have like a bad cop, bad cop dynamic at the Washington Post?

doesn't there have to be a good cop in here somewhere if you're trying to change the paper and not lose everybody on the staff in the process can Matt Murray get a partner like in an old school police procedural? Yeah, obviously you can understand the inclination to not kind of like error the post's own dirty laundry out in editorials

but that is not only what really matters right now. It's also like probably good for business. I mean, that's what people care about on the Washington Post op-ed page, right? A wood click. Absolutely. No, I agree. I mean, so that's an interesting question because let's just say that all of us

hosting media podcasts or just interested observers would love the post to write more about itself. We would love to read those aggrieved. opinion columns from postee saying, I disagree with this. I don't like this. You do understand there is some interest in the Washington Post, like the page can't all be that. Yes. We have to have some other stuff at some point. Yeah.

So I don't know if they just thought Ruth Marcus was one too many, whatever it is. But I still do worry about the leadership dynamics within the paper. You know what they should do is just write more of those sub-tweety columns about how great that new Catherine Graham documentary is? that's the way to that's the way to associate our cell. You know, Catherine Graham

when she on this newspaper is a pretty damn good place. Just saying, just some history for people who might be interested in journalism. All right, coming up on the podcast, David, a four pack of NBA media meltdowns

from Stephen A and LeBron to Charles Barkley and Kendrick Perkins. Plus, pro wrestling explains geopolitics, who's writing headlines for people and one of the great editors of our time has a list of only in journalism words he tried to ban. All that and much more on the press box.

A part of the ringer podcast network. Hello, media consumers Brian Curtis, David Shoemaker and producer Troy Farkas who's sitting in for Brian here. David, I've got a four pack for you, a four pack of NBA media meltdowns. Yes. It's not a six pack.

It's more of a craft beer. The tall cans and the recyclable clip on top, yeah. This is just a little harder to get off than the normal six-pack. Yeah. All right. Number one, Stephen A. Smith and LeBron James. Yeah.

So this happened on Thursday. Lakers were in the process of beating the Knicks in overtime. And during a timeout, LeBron walks over to the sidelines where Stephen A. Smith had been sitting, and I guess was standing when they had their little moment, and LeBron confronted him. Yeah. According to Stephen A, this is what James said.

Stop effing with my son. That's my effing son. Stop effing with my son. Stephen A described LeBron as furious. Well, I know this will surprise you, but Stephen A. Smith reluctantly addressed the situation. the next morning on first take. For the record, his agent and friend,

Rich Paul has my number. Maverick Carter, who works under him, has my number. LeBron James knows how to get in contact with me if he wanted to. He never called, because had he called and wanted to talk to me, I would have accepted that call.

Had he wanted to see me, I would have flown out, and I would have seen him, and I would have had a conversation man to man. But that is not what he elected to do. Instead, he elected to confront me while I was sitting court side, Ari Emanuel, the head of William Morris Endeavor, one of the agents, one of the agencies that represents me, along with Larry David, was sitting court side. I was with them for the game. And he walked right up to me and he said what he had to say. There's so much funny there. Starting with the Ari Emanuel and Larry David name checks.

Yeah. I mean, listen, the. putting the, the curb your enthusiasm, outro music over anything online has become such a reliable meme, but very rarely does it happen with Larry David present for the, for the incident? Yeah, Ari Emanuel, Larry David and Stephen A. Smith, just, you know, three dudes going to a basketball game. I mean, it was weird. It was kind of unnecessarily, well, florid, you know, unnecessarily descriptive. Did anybody need to know who he was with? Just some color for the future writers. I guess there are some people for whom Are Emmanuel's presence is meaningful, right?

It's just like you did that in front of someone of this stature or like whatever, Larry David, sort of beside the point. But it just seems sort of unnecessarily accusatory. I get the big timiness of like, hey, he's got my phone number. He can call me whatever he wants, you know, whatever. But it just sort of, maybe he also said this is LeBron James coming at me as a father, not a player or whatever. and it sort of diminishes that entire implicit point. It's like, yes, yes, he could have reached out to you. He could have scheduled a meeting with you.

But probably he just saw you and said, now I'm thinking of this. So now is a good opportunity to do it. It would be like, and we were all out in L.A. for a ringer meeting. And I went up to you and I was just like, hey, I want to talk over some plans to the press box. And you're like, David, you have my phone number. You could have called me. Yeah. You just walk up on me in the middle of a ringer conclave.

I also love the idea that LeBron was supposed to handle this privately. Yeah. I mentioned Mr. Bill and Riscilla yesterday. I'm like, wait a second. So Stephen A. does the thing on his show. Yes. But it's up to LeBron to avoid any public confrontation and only do this behind the scenes. Yeah.

It strikes me it's very funny. Yes. We're the ones who get to do it on his show. Yeah, which was Lakers versus Nix. Now, you might ask, why is LeBron Matt? Well, we got some amazing clues yesterday because there was footage of LeBron hugging Richard Jefferson, the new co-number-one analyst on ESPN's NBA coverage. And LeBron was saying something. And again, there's some lip reading and fuzzy audio here.

But to the effect of, I don't care what Stephen A says. What got me was Stephen A saying, I'm pleading with you as a father. Yeah. So we can trace that phrase. It's the January 29th edition of first take. The context is that Brony James, son of LeBron, if you're not a basketball person, had gotten into the game against the Philadelphia 76ers in the first quarter and had played badly. Here's Stephen A and what he said on first take.

I am pleading with LeBron James as a father. Stop this. Stop this. We all know that Brony James is in the NBA because of his dad. The first game of the season, opening night, the Griffey's in attendance, father-son duo, playing in an NBA game for the first time, an absolutely positively wonderful story. And then reality sets in. We love what we're seeing from him in a G-Leel.

because that's where you belong. As you hone your skills and you get better and you legitimately earn, which I believe he has the potential to do, I am rooting for Brony James. It would be cruel or root against him. It's a wonderful kid. I wish him nothing but the best.

But he's LeBron James' son. And everybody knows what attention that brings. So you can see why LeBron James got made. mad here. Yes. He's not saying that LeBron failed as a player or even failed a shadow GM of the Lakers, but failed as a parent.

Yes. By engineering Brony to the Lakers and then either directly or just by his presence, putting Brony on the bench full time instead of allowing him to go develop in the G League. Yeah. So I will say that. This is why LeBron is mad. I think we have a pretty good idea here. I would then also like to make something clear, which is that I basically defend Stephen A.

Smith on every count of this. Yeah. I don't know what you're supposed to do. I mean, I understand like, again, for its first take, things sound very personal. Yeah. Pleading with him as a father, like, you know, we get into weird territory. But the reason Bronny James plays for the lake. is LeBron James.

The reason they're treating Bronny James in a particular way is because of LeBron James. Correct. He is the controlling figure here. Yep. And this idea that you're not supposed to criticize Brony or criticize or point out that fact, I just don't, I don't understand it, right? Like, I don't get it. I understand there may be some business decisions made by people that cover the Lakers because

they have to talk to LeBron after a game and getting into the. that area is pretty sensitive. But there's nothing he did wrong. You're not talking about someone's family, quote unquote, if their family plays in the NBA. Yeah. I mean, the, the, what are we arguing about tone, the approach? Well, I think, I mean, I think that's probably it, right? I mean, you can, when, when he says, I plead with you as a father, you know, on the paper,

there's, I mean, obviously, it's all totally defensible, but you can also understand. understand why LeBron James might just get upset about that in particular. You know, it's not, I think LeBron would like to maintain some levels of distance, some level of deniability about the whole thing that Stephen A. Smith is putting on him. And also just the implication where it's just like you are hurting your son, you know, you are doing your son a disservice. As a father, you're doing your son a disservice. I understand why he would be upset by that. And part of that's just, I mean, it might be, even if it were irrational, and I don't think it is,

but even if it were irrational, I mean, that comes with the platform for Stephen A, right? Someone's going to take exception to the tone. You've got a billion people paying attention to what you say, you know? And especially, you know, I mean, he's maybe not strictly a hot take artist, at least not so much as he once was, mostly because his purview has expanded. But if there's any perception that he took that tone, that he used them, It was that turn of phrase strictly to get more attention. I can understand even more so why someone like LeBron would be upset about it.

Oh, sure. It's much more provocative to go on your show and, first of all, address an NBA player directly. Yeah. We don't do a lot of that here on the press box. Mr. Bezos, if you are listening to me, bleeding with you as a billionaire. As a fellow billionaire. As a fellow billionaire. So I understand it.

But when I actually hear the point, you're putting. your son in a bad position. Like he just needs more time to get ready as an NBA player. He needs to not be under the game to game spotlight where he's getting in the first quarter and then everybody gets mad because he doesn't play well

or people, you know, it's just noticeable and JJ Reddy gets asked about it after the game. He's just saying that. I think that's a, again, LeBron's mad, LeBron also has the right to be mad. But that to me is a totally legitimate point to make. We can call out the fact we can just understand

why these things are happening. Yes. I would also like to say that there is a great tradition in sports of people getting in an all journalism of people you write about and talk about getting mad. Yeah. It's a badge of courage. They call you up sometimes, right? Yeah.

And they get mad. And sometimes you listen to it and you explain yourself and you don't apologize. You don't back down. You don't say I was wrong. But you have a conversation. and then everybody's fine. Yeah. Because mostly they just wanted to say their peace.

Yeah. You have your platform. I want to say what I want to respond to it. Even if they did a private way. Yeah, I mean, a lot of times their perception of what you said, like you said, it might not match your intention. It might even match the reality of what you said or wrote. But yeah, I mean, that's a time modern tradition in sports. That's what, and like I said, it's a badge of courage for those writers, you know, to know, the one to know that they're being

read and paid attention to to that degree, but to, you know, stand by what you say. You know, I mean, I think that's important. It's not just some crazy take trying to get attention, you know, make your case to them directly. And usually when human beings have a conversation, they can kind of get through to there. When I was putting together the audio and looking at all the Stephen A stuff for this, it's amazing how many mini-beefs are also contained in every Stephen A mega-beef. Uh-huh.

Like Kevin Love was tweeting at him about this. Oh, yeah. Kevin Love is like sub-tweeting or like, like, I don't even, just the point where I see them just kind of inexplicably tweeting at people to such a degree now that I just, it's like just mystifying, but I love it. Is it media criticism? Yeah, I don't really know. I don't pay that close attention.

I just see a lot of cryptic Kevin Love tweets and people are like, you like, Is it the Soledadadad O'Brien of NBA Twitter? Maybe so. But then it was like later in the. Stephen A. Smith, this was a podcast where he also addressed the LeBron confrontation. It was like, now I need to talk about Kenyon Martin and something I have going on with him. And I'm just like, wow, there's just so many layers. So many current and former NBA players.

Oh, my God. It's like when pro wrestling, when you used to have to just do one promo to publicize the entire coming bicycle tour around the territory or whatever, you know. or Rick, Rick Flair would go out there and he'd be like, I got something to say to you, Dusty Rhodes. You're like, this is great. And then, you know, that's the part you remember. And then like, they're like 90 seconds in. And he's like, and one another thing, road warriors.

And you know, just changes the subject. Have you got like five different house shows that I got to promote right now? It's like Magnum T. TA, you there are standing behind thinking like everything's okay. Yeah, you know, we got to address everybody. Got you too. J. Tech's Corporation. Yes, the entire thing.

That is exactly what Stephen A is doing. Media meltdown number two, this is Charles Barkley versus Kendrick Perkins. Oh, yeah. Logan Murdoch wanted to make sure we saw this. Charles Barkley on inside the NBA, and he knows exactly where he's going with this soundbite. I saw a fool idiot on TV talking about the Lakers save the NBA. Save the NBA. Yeah, yeah.

He's an idiot and a fool, but he know who he is. What's his name, Jack? Which one you're talking about? Kendry Perkins. He said, the Lakers, first of all, the Lakers had a great two weeks. He said the Lakers save the NBA season. That's because them fools on the other network, which we're going to be working for a next year.

That's all they talk about. Let me tell you all something. And first of all, I want all the smoke. I don't whistle when I walk by the graveyard or anything like that. I don't whistle when I walk by the grade yard. I like that. Hey, man. I'm stealing that one.

The Lakers are doing great. Got a long way to go. But the reason the season has been going great for the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Y'all just want to talk about the Warriors and the Lakers. Yeah, I think he was pretty clear he was aiming that at. Did you like how he set up Shaq to say the name? But then Shaq was sort of momentarily confused. Well, he set up Shaq and it felt like he was setting up.

It felt like Kenny was 100% in on that bit too. Like he came in with the call and response really quickly. No, no, I got it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, listen, that's a point that many people have made. Obviously, I think it's more interesting because of whatever the implicit beef is between Charles and Perk. I mean, I don't know that that's reason alone to call someone a big dummy or an idiot or whatever he said.

So I assume it was a fool and an idiot, if I'm not mistaken. I assume there's something, I assume there's something that predates this that I'm not privy to. but yeah I mean listen perk is just an incredible hot take artist I don't even know if I would put this up here amongst his kind of most alarming takes but that's why he's been successful I mean I don't think he would have been anybody's number one draft pick for like top ESPN basketball talking head coming out of his playing career and he's just he's fashioned himself into exactly what the network wants right now so I guess that kind of proves that Charles's point to some degree, but it seems sort of unnecessarily personal unless they're again

just gearing up for the big Rosamania showdown, right? Like once they get on the same network, then we're going to have Perk versus Perk versus Charles one-on-one as like a new, you know, daily afternoon show. Would watch, absolutely would watch that. And don't you think some of the ESPN angst is behind this? The wait, you mean like Charles's angst about potentially about his future working for ESPN? Yeah, or, you know, working for T&T, but we'll now be on over there, their air. Yeah. Like, we just, we won this pregame war in an absolute route for 20 years. Yeah. Then our network decided not to pay the freight for the NBA. Uh-huh. So we, while being handsomely paid for the privilege, of course, we are now going over to ESPN's air to do our show.

Yes. So we're not just us anymore now. We're sharing air. space with big perk and whoever else he's met at. Yeah. That is that is that is that is layered in here. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Having to do business their way, you know, I mean, it's, it's a much more high profile significant. I mean, you know, heavyweight equivalent of, you know, every time when your favorite writer or podcaster gets hired by ESP, or some bigger outlet. And it's just like, wait, why is my favorite long-form thinker doing 30-second spots? You know, it's just, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a, an existential issue there. And I think that, I mean, it's funny as great as the T&T crew and insightful the TNT crew have

been for so long, knowing that pays a lot of attention to basketball would, would, would label them like completest encyclopedic, like whatever, you know, I mean, they, they, they still have a limited amount of air time every week. And usually to talk mostly about the game they'd, would, would, would, would, just watched. So it's kind of funny to see them in the position of saying, like, no, no, we were the ones who watch the games. We're the ones who pay attention to what's going on.

You guys are just reading, you guys are just like making up headlines. Oh, brother. I mean, and again, like I understand the A block critique of first take. You guys are just doing LeBron and Cowboys. And, you know, I don't know what else gets in there these days, but you're just doing the same topics ever and over again. That's a different show than inside the NBA. Yeah.

Like if Charles Barkley were hosting first take, the thunder and the calves would not be in the A block every day. I'm sorry, that would not be the NBA topic of choice to lead the show. Yes. It's just not, no matter how great a season they're having. Luca, LeBron, Laker, that's where we're going with this. Yeah. Here is Big Perks response on Twitter. Hey, NBA on TNT might want to tell that senior citizen Charles.

Barclay that I'll be around. When he see an idiot or fool in person, make sure he keep that same energy. He can come playing with me if he want to. And I'm address his ass like the numbers on a house straight from the 409 homeboy. And we bar none and fade all. Hashtag Texas boy, 409 being the area code for Beaumont, Texas, where Rick Flair was probably fighting the road warriors and Kabuki once upon a time. But I'm not sure if they, I'm not sure if, well, surely not Crockett.

I'm not sure if WCW made it all the way to Beaumont. I mean, have a good friend from Beaumont who lovingly called it the most racist city in America. The, it was, I mean, how many people were you doing from Beaumont living in Texas? I don't, I don't think I ever met anybody until I met Kendrick Perkins. Kendrick Perkins is the most famous person from Beaumont ever. I'm sure there's. And I don't think I knew anybody from Beaumont until interviewing Perkins. Can I say that story for a second?

Yeah. I think it was Justin Vrier who's like, hey, this guy's, you know, making some noise on ESPN. He had just started. You should do a profile of him. So I flew down to Houston and Kendrick Perkins's agent was like, hey, he rented a hotel room for you guys to talk in. So go to the lobby of this hotel and he'll meet you there. Now, needless to say, I could not miss Kendrick Perkins walking into a lobby. But I'm sitting in the lobby that's not. nice hotel and he takes me up the elevator and he's just got like just a basic room for us to do I don't know an hour long hour and a half long interview in and Kendrick Perkins is a giant man and he sits on the edge of the bed and I'm sitting in the chair of the desk of the hotel yeah like I don't know you can't think of how many inches that is apart in any normal hotel right like 12 you know so we're just sitting like knee to knee doing this interview and I put my recorder on the bed. I remember that so that Kendrick Perkins could

regale me with his stories in covering the NBA. That was fun. Just for the record, I don't know who's from. I looked it up, expecting me proven wrong. Johnny Winter, Edgar Winter, both famous musicians. Frank Robinson? Okay.

Does that get you anywhere? Yeah. Baseball Hall of Fame of Frank Robinson? Yeah. Oh, Janice Joplin. Okay. Well, no, no, no, technically she's from Port Arthur. That's right, because she went to high school with Jimmy Johnson. Yeah.

Dang. Paul Watkins of the Manson family. Does that help? I think Kendrick Perkins. I think Kendrick Perkins wins. Has any of these people been parodied on Saturday Night Live? Yeah, no, I don't think so. Because we got Keenan Thompson doing Kendrick Perkins on a weekend update.

Here's a little bit of that sound. All right, well, let's talk about the MVP race. Who you got? Or well, you can't count out the legendary LeBron James, a man who, despite being 55 years old, just won the two of the France. Where are you getting this from? Nobody knows. It's amazing how LeBron is still able to play every night. He's 62 years old.

You just said he's 55. I know. That's my point. LeBron is 71 years old. He has one arm, 12 kids. One of them is black. No. And he was undercover as a French super spot.

Voice work from Kenan Thompson there. Incredible stuff. All right. Media meltdown number three, David. It's Draymond Green versus Carl Anthony Towns. Oh, God, yeah. Drayman went on his podcast. And I'm going to tell you the title of that podcast in just one moment.

He went on his podcast and speculated about why Carl Anthony Towns had missed a Nick's Warriors game. Was it because Towns wanted to avoid his old Minnesota teammate Jimmy Buller? That was a big game for us. And obviously, they ain't had a cat. You know, some would say he didn't play because Jimmy was in the building. I don't know. Oh, it's like that?

No. I'll tell you what, I saw Cat Pops Saturday at the game. And it's always love. I got mad love for the OG. His Pops is an incredible man. But yeah, they said Cat ain't play because Jimmy came in the town. And, you know, him and Jimmy had the infamous practice in Minnesota. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And so. What? So Draymond Green, in fact, did not know because Carl Anthony Towns missed the game to attend the funeral of a friend who died after a battle with breast cancer. So a reporter later told Green, hey, I don't know if you heard about this, but you kind of messed. up this fact. And here's the response from Draymond Green that blew everyone's mind. You've seen the reaction today to your comments about Kat? No. Are you aware that what the circumstances were in?

No. No. What's the circumstance? Apparently he said he was had a funeral or a family friend. Oh, man. That's unfortunate. I'm sorry to hear that. That sucks. But my comments that I made was what I heard was this. that's what I heard. So I do, you know, send my well, wishes to him and his family.

You know, none of us, it's inevitable. We all experience death in one way or another. I want to all experience in the same way one day. So it's unfortunate you never wish that on anybody. But the Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis must go on. Well, first of all, much more profound there in the back end than I was expecting him to be. I think this is just sort of new media, whatever we're calling it now in a nutshell, right? It's just like, oh, just, you know, I'm your new news source as long as it's a, as long as there's an upside for me.

And when there's, and when it's only downside, then we're back to the, well, we bring Barkley back into it. Like, I'm nobody's role model. I'm nobody, I'm nobody's, I'm nobody's journalistic media outlet, you know, there's no responsibility here. Yeah, I mean, it just doesn't seem like, honestly, the most, the part that gets me the most is that would have been such a layup of an opportunity for a just full-throated apology, you know, and just to say, at least from a self-serving perspective to point back and say, see, I own up to my mistakes. Yeah, like, whatever. It just, even if what he said was, you know, true and sort of understandable in a way. you think doing that would have been better than teasing ahead to your next podcast. Yeah.

Like a sports radio host? Because that's part of being the news source. Yeah. Not just like, hey, it's I heard this, but also please stay tuned. Yeah. Because there will be more content coming from me. Mm-hmm. Which, and I would like to say the whole trademark name of the podcast, just in case anybody

didn't hear. Yeah. Where the thing about Carl A and he towns that turned out not to be true. came from. Yeah. Awful announcing has a piece about this. By the way, God bless awful announcing

because I was talking about the cancellation of Around the horn on Jimmy Train of Sports Illustrated podcast the other day. Oh yeah, I heard that. And Awful announcing wrote up what I said,

which was very kind, but this was the headline. Media Insider says ESPN has no room for Around the Horn. See, I complained about being known as a veteran media reporter. I feel very seen

by all. Announcing. Yeah. Media Insider. Thank you. Love those guys. Matt Yoder on awful announcing said it's time for T&T and every other media company that covers the NBA now or in the future to give up on Draymond Green altogether.

There's an interesting question about that. And Yoder name checks Charles Barkley as you did just a second ago. I just think this is one of those things. Go back and look up everything Charles Barkley said as a player. Uh-huh. I know he wasn't a nominal media member like Draymond Green is. Yeah. But man, like all that stuff did was make Charles Barkley more hireable.

Oh, yeah. Had whatever, you know, whatever you say, you can say, man, you can't say that on television. That perversely makes you more hireable for television. Yeah. I mean, look at all the chatter about Aaron Rogers right now. You know, I mean, there's talk about what Descoe end up at if he doesn't continue playing. I mean, there's no. And so much as a commentator, a commentator, someone at the halftime show or the post-game show makes a material difference in your viewership patterns, that sort of controversy is always going to outweigh whatever the perceived negative is.

I agree. Just because it gets, because it has a potential to get so many more people to watch for the, even if it's just for the car crash. And you probably shouldn't, especially if it's like, hey, I got this wrong and shrug. but man, that's, I don't have a lot of confidence in TV to make that calculation. All right, David, NBA Media Meltdown number four. Dang, how many are there? Is it Ford? Is it Fort, oh, yeah, you said a craft beer.

It's a craft beer. We finally pried the top off the craft beer four pack here. All right. This was Mark Cuban's breaking of silence. Tim Walls wasn't the only person who broke his silence this week. Mark Cuban went on WFA. ABC affiliate in Dallas. And here's how he explained why before the Luca Donchage trade, he sold the Dallas Mavericks.

You know, go back to why I sold. I don't want my kids to end up in this exact position at some level if they made a mistake, right? I mean, literally imagine if I didn't and my kids had taken over and they made a mistake like this. Is that the most tortured reason you could possibly come up with for why you sold the Maverick? and hence allowed the mavericks to be taken apart. I didn't want my kids to be put in a position of potentially making a bad trade down the line and they're being roasted on social media. Well, I mean, yes.

That's not the reason. That's not the reason. He's searching for the reason. I do understand that point of view a little bit. I mean, we have... Was this a LeBron? Don't talk about my family moment for David Chewmaker here? No, I mean, listen.

Crossing a line. My wife's family has a shared... vacation house that's already just sort of difficult enough to deal with with five siblings and there are definitely times where you look at it and you're like, wow, the next generation is like 30 people? Like, how on earth is this going to be tenable? You know? What if somebody just decides to move in? Like, how does that affect the other 29? You're like, you're going to see how these things getting passed down. People don't want to do all that kind of stuff. but yeah

it's kind of tortured I don't know what's going The Cuban thing is just incredibly interesting I just don't I don't understand it at all Especially don't understand it to the extent that like I mean he seemed to think that he was so going to be like The managing partner of the team after he sold it And then that was yanked away from him sort of

In front of everybody when they won the Western Conference finals And Patrick Jumal always had him shoved over to the side Put that thought under your Trilby hat I'm glad you took us there because Jake Kemp, host of the Dumb Zone podcast in Dallas, really great friend of mine. He asked that exact same question. Obviously, he's not involved operationally to the degree that he thought he was going to be, right? That's what the narrative is. But I mean, I've had multiple lawyers who listen to this show reach out to me and be like, you really think that a guy who does Shark Tank deals

where he's got a team of lawyers looking over every deal and the equity piece of it and how involved different people are going to be based on what percentages of equity they have. You think he just got hoodwinked on how involved he was going to be after a team of lawyers and Ant Hill is just going over this sale of this deal. And just somehow, six months later, he's telling Mark Stein, I'm not as evolved as I thought I'd be. How does that happen? I want to ask him that.

Good question. Yeah. I don't know. Last week, I think in talking about, oh, the Kyrie injury. our boss Bill set on his show he wasn't he he did not buy into the kind of that initial post lucre conspiracy theory that this was all set up to just to tank the team

to destroy the team so they could move it to Las Vegas like that was never a real thing at all but after the Kyrie injury it actually might be feasible now like that wasn't the plan but that might be the only way out and he was sort of speculating about you know then like the Dumont's getting the Vegas team and then like someone else getting the whatever thing. And I texted it right after that.

I was just like, hey, you want to put a little cherry on that conspiracy theory Sunday? What if Mark Cuban gets the team back in Dallas? You know, there's just so much, there's just so much unanswered with this whole thing that it just makes you want to be conspiratorial. It really does. And it makes you when you watch Cuban give those interviews,

like, has there ever been an owner? I was thinking of this. Like, which owner in sports history has been more plausibly a huge fan of their team than Mark Cuban. Nobody. He still thought they're tweeting Mavs fans for life even after the Luca trade, you know?

Like it was a... Yes, he created that hashtag and that is like, nope, let me tell you, nobody in Dallas was Mavs fan for life before Mark Cuban. That was not a concept. You know, people like the Mavericks,

but like nobody like, that wasn't anybody's animating principle. No, absolutely not. And he embodied it, like yelling at the refs, all that kind of stuff. So like for him, so when we watch it,

interview, like, you of all people, this must kill you. Yeah. To watch them trade away this guy that you help, you know, that you trade for, your front office traded for. I mean, this incredible deal. Oh, it's amazing. All right, David, coming up in 30 seconds, a list of banned only in journalism words supplied by Graydon Carter.

But first, let's do the overworked Twitter joke of the week where we celebrate a gag that was so obvious that all of media Twitter made it at exactly the same time. Send your nominees to at the press box pod on Twitter or Blue Sky, where they will always be gratefully received. One of these New York post headlines, David, that just teed it up for everyone. Ben Affleck, we know he and Jennifer Lopez recently got a divorce. Well, the post reports Affleck would love, quote, another chance with, ex-wife Jennifer Garner, if the quote, timing is right.

Some jokes for you. I feel like a fortune teller told Ben Affleck the love of his life's name was Jennifer. A Ben Affleck just going back and forth for decades, divorcing and marrying two different women named Jennifer makes him the most Gen X man alive. And finally, I think it's a Goldilocks situation. And Ben Affleck needs to find the third Jennifer that is, Just right. If you want Ben Affleck to agree to a roast like Tom Brady, just for the content,

congrats. You made the overworked Twitter joke of the week. All right, David, in the notebook dump, we were talking the other day about Donald Trump and Voltaimir Zelensky's meeting in the Oval Office. Yeah. And I jokingly asked you, hey, what's the wrestling term when one person doesn't know they're involved in a wrestling angle or doesn't know something's real life? I can't even remember how we put it.

Yeah. I was watching The Daily Show with my son. Very end of this. And John Stewart, God bless him. John Stewart went there. This explains it, folks. All of your shock, all of your disappointment, all of your anger. It's in there.

It's in the square circle. You see, Saturday night. Oh, we're doing this. John. I have professional wrestling. Mr. Hustle, the champ, the man who stood for everything. truth, justice, the guy who literally holds the record for the most Make a Wish Foundation meetings of all times. People would get cancer just to meet John Cena. Last weekend, Sina flipped the script

and went from being a face, a good guy, to a heel, a bad guy. Now, if you don't follow professional wrestling, and I'm guessing if you watch this show, you do not. So it goes on and on. It's like eight minutes long. It was fantastic stuff. And I guess in his analogy, Sina was America and the rock was Putin. Yeah.

Slash Russia. It's very, very complex. But just I want to say on behalf of both of us, congrats to John Stewart for hoisting the Think Peace Championship belt. May his title reign draw lots of money. for the Fed. Unbelievable stuff. I was watching that.

I was like, I just felt like am I having a weird, you know, coronary moment here is something happening to me because this is really happening in long form. Oh, yeah. Longer than you and I have even ever teased it out on this podcast. I've got a stray headline of the day for you, David.

Okay. I know you like a good stray headline. This comes from People magazine. Ione Sky has a new memoir coming out. Uh-huh. It's called Say Everything, which is a really, really good title. Yeah. See if there's not something a little off about this people headline.

Ione Sky, comma, 54, comma, reveals she slept with co-star John Cusack and other juicy revelations from her memoir. Wait, what? Ione Sky 54 reveals she slept with co-star John Cusack, etc., etc. We have all this incredibly interesting headline, but. We're going to focus on her age? Yeah, that's the big fact here that's going to get you to click. Iony Sky's 54. Yeah, that's very bizarre.

And then the lead of the piece is actress Iony Sky comma 54 is an open book and her debut okay. We got it. Thank you for conforming to AP slash people style. All right. So I'm only in journalism for you. We had a couple of readers submissions. Alex Marcus over on Blue Sky gives us bristle. Uh-huh.

The Democrats bristled at Trump's speech last week. Oh, yeah, yeah. Joshua Robert gives us upend. Uh-huh. U-P-E-N-D, upending. That's a really good one. Upending, I should say. Zach Madden gets us jettisoning.

Yeah. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is going to jettison some real estate. I think I've used that one before. But the mother load, David, comes from a new memoir I've been reading. It is by one, Graydon Carter. Oh, yeah. Former editor of Vanity Fair,

the New York Observer, and of course, spy. The book is called When the Going Was Good, an editor's adventures during the last golden age of magazines. Now, I assume you're already in with that description. But if you weren't,

if there was a tiny part of David Shoemaker that was holding out, let me show you the cover here in the Zoom. and you will note that Graydon Carter is smoking on the cover of his own memoir. So at that point, 1,000% it. Oh, a million percent. Yeah, that, that, I will, I'm reaching through the screen to grab that right now. That's fantastic.

When you used to joke about how, like, having your chin on your fist was the worst kind of author photo to possibly take. Was it just implicit that having a cigarette in your author photo was the best thing you could possibly do? I mean, just to have the guts to do it. It was basically like Christopher Hitchens and who else, you know, like. It just seems so unfashionable. Yeah. When you do your memoir one of these days, I want you smoking on the front of it. Yeah.

And then me kind of in the background going, hey, David, can we go back into the bar now? It's cold. That would be a vision of our years living together. All right. So 1992, Graydon Carter becomes editor of Vanity Fair. It's an amazing job, needless to say. The hitch is that Graydon Carter as editor of spy had relentlessly made fun of Vanity Fair.

Yeah. Under Tina Brown, particularly the language of vanity fair, the overheated prose. So I'm going to read you a passage. And this is what Graydon Carter wanted to do when he became editor. He says, in the Vanity Fair, I inherited a. restaurant wasn't a restaurant. It was a what. A book wasn't a book. It was a tome. A party wasn't a party. It was a fete. People didn't say something funny. They chortled or quipped. I issued a list of

words henceforth banned from Vanity Fair copy. Out went words like abode, opine, plethora, and passed away for died. Out went glitzy wannabe and even celebrity. Out went chops for acting abilities. Donned as in put on. A list boasted as in had or featured. Quoft. Eatery for restaurant. Flat for apartment.

Flick for movie. Fuck. Okay. And a quote, but not with regard to the actual sex act. Hancho hooker. Schlep. As in to lug something somewhere. Scribe.

As in writer. Yeah. and Tinsletown all found their way into the copy edit Boneyard. That's great. What an only in journalism

mother load that was. What did he say, restaurant was what, an eatery on that list? Eatery, yeah. I spent part of this weekend in lovely Morristown, New Jersey. I highly recommended it's got

just an incredible, like, main drag of restaurants. There were a lot of eateries. There's a lot of, the biggest thing I notice is that Every single restaurant had a subtitle. Like, it wasn't just the name of the restaurant. It would be the name of the restaurant.

Then underneath it would say, like, Mexican tapas bar. You know, or like, which you see on occasion, but this was every single restaurant on Morristown's main drag. It was like an implicit colon after every single one. It was just so-and-so, like eatery, slash, cocktails, like every single place. Just so you knew what you were getting into. Which, I like to be informed, yeah.

But it also makes me, you know, makes you feel a little bit like you're in like Epcot Center or something. Like every restaurant is just like this established kind of gimmick of a restaurant. But anyway, it was a wonderful place to be. This is why books have subtitles, right? Yeah. So the restaurant one would be chicken fingers, comma, French artichoke dip, comma. and listing literally everything in the restaurant.

Yeah. So you know what you're getting? Remember when they had that trend where they were naming restaurants after the most famous dish of the particular cuisine? Oh, yeah. Like we'd be in New York

and we'd walk by and like there'd be a Thai restaurant called pad Thai. Yeah. And the idea was, well, you know, you may not know a lot of Thai cuisine, but you know pad Thai. Yeah, exactly. I would like to eat there, sir.

I'm not known if I'm in the mood for Thai. Yeah. Just want to make sure that you have pad tie on the menu? Oh, look, it's in the name. Yes, of course you do. As soon as David finishes his damn cigarette, we can walk in there and get some pad tie. All right, it's time for David Shoemaker guess is a strain pun headline.

Yeah. David, David had to take a few puffs before he could show his enthusiasts. It's cold out of here, yeah. Monday's headline about competing celebrations to honor Johann Strauss was waltz this way. Today's headline comes to us from our friend Eric Raskin. It's in the publication casino reports. I love trade publications. That's great. Okay.

And this was written by Eric himself. So this is kind of a self-report. From casino reports. From a self-report, yeah, from casino reports. David, do you know all about those secret hotel fees? Uh-huh. Well, the subhead here in Casino Report says, is pushing every imaginable surcharge and upcharge is Vegas killing the golden goose. So on your hotel bill, there's the,

tourism promotion fee, the resort fee, the state casino occupancy fee. Mm-hmm. Is that killing Vegas? What was casino reports

strained upon headline? Um... God. A lot of fees, David. Fees. Uh... Think about where this is happening.

I know. Vegas. I'm trying. Nevada. No, no. We're doing Vegas. We're doing Las Vegas. Oh,

Fiva. Fiva, Fiva Las Vegas. Fee. Oh, you're almost there. Wait. Fee.

God, what is it? A great work of nonfiction or mostly nonfiction about Las Vegas. We're driving in from Barstow. Oh, oh, oh, oh, um,

um, um, feeing Las Vegas. I don't, uh, uh, Oh, fee and loathing in Las Vegas. Fee and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. That took too long. It's a great headline. He is David Shoemaker. I'm Brian Curtis. Thanks in Magic. By Troy Farkas.

Thank you, Troy. David, the Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis. I mean, the press box will continue. Joel is here on Thursday and you, Shoemaker, you and I are back Monday with more lukewarm takes about the media. See you then, David. See you later, Brian.