The Press Box - NBA Finals Media Takeaways. Plus: Has the Podcast Conquered Music in the Car?

Episode Date: June 21, 2022

Bryan and David are back to discuss the last of the 2022 NBA Finals after the Golden State Warriors took home the championship. They revisit the NBA bumper music and highlight Game 6’s playlist, recap the Steph Curry debate, and touch on the biggest winner of the Finals—Draymond Green (5:36). Later, they weigh in on Jemele Hill’s tweet discussing the transition from music to podcasts and audiobooks in the car (21:26). Plus, the Overworked Twitter Joke of the Week and David Shoemaker Guesses the Strained-Pun Headline. Hosts: Bryan Curtis and David Shoemaker Associate Producer: Erika Cervantes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Chris Vernon, and me and my buddy Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O Everything, host an NBA podcast called The Mismatch. They call it The Mismatch because I'm awesome and Kevin is a gigantic nerd. No, no, that's not why at all, Chris. They call it the Mismatch because I have a brain and you're a loudmouth bozo. Good grief. Anyway, listen to our amazing NBA podcast, The Mismatch. Or don't.

We really don't care. We're probably going to win a million awards either way. Chris, we do care. So don't say that. Please subscribe and listen to the mismatch only on Spotify. Did you really call me a bozo? David, what's on your mind today? I was just watching Shams on the Pat McAfee show talking about his breaking news about Kyrie Irving today.

And McAfee opened it up by saying, you broke news today using a word that we all had to look up. and then proceeded, the word turned out to be impasse and proceeded to like both pronounce it and, and use it incorrectly when he was trying to read. And that's fine. And it got me thinking, well, is that only a journalism word? I mean, I know that we have, that there's, like, we use impasse in other parts of life, but does it meet the criteria of the now shuttered department of overused journalism words? And the reason why it even like stuck, the reason why I'm having this conversation with you is because just the day before I was listening to a several episodes old episode of the town, the town Matt Bellany's wonderful ringer podcast about Hollywood and all its

surrounding environs. And he had Alex Sherman on talking about how Disney fired Peter Rice and that's sort of beside the point. But in discussing the situation, Alex Sherman said they would make fun of me on the press box for saying this. but Disney's CEO is embattled. And it got me to thinking, I'm very reluctant to do this, but it got me to, do I need to say something in defense of only in journalism words?

Because there is a point where you're discussing a CEO in such a position where the only word that works is embattled, even though that's the only, maybe it's an only in journalism word because no one else has the, no one else ever has to discuss that sort of situation. I think they would just say he's screwed. Well, which journalism couldn't quite do.

But he's feeling pressure from multiple sides. He's like, he's trying to, you know, eke out some way to stay in power in a situation where that, you know, his grasp on power may be tenuous. And more than that is the perception. I think that's why it's a journalism word. It's the perception from outside that he, has a tenuous grasp on power. It's not a thing you would talk about.

It's only a thing that would be described by a journalist trying to explain the situation, right? Impasse isn't the same thing. It is, but it is a word where there's certainly more contract impasses in our day-to-day life than there are, like, you know, an impasse in any sort of normal way that would come up. I don't know. Sometimes these words are really the best way to describe something, even if it's just an incredible, you know, die-slapper of a only journalism work. Can I just say how happy this makes me?

My dream for this podcast was that it would create this climate of fear in our industry where people would just be saying, would say something and just be looking over their shoulder and like, uh-oh. Uh-oh. Got to be on press box tomorrow. Brian Curtis is going to scold me, but. Comically scold me, but he's going to scold me. All the same.

I also want to take up what you said about McAfee there. We all had to look this word up. That feels like an only in sports radio phrase. What? Oh, we all had to look this word up. Oh, does he, is he deliberately playing down? Well, no, I'm just saying you encounter the 50 cent word of the $1 word and go,

whoa, whoa, whoa, there, Mr. Dictionary. Wait, wait, wait, wait, with you and your fancy words there, we better look that baby up. That's true. That's true. I absolutely love it. I think, though, it got the point across whether or not there was some sort of impasse and, you know, someone's...

Yeah, I kind of want to know what that means. I'm glad he pushed for a definition because I definitely want to know what impasse means in this case. Well, presumably it would be described in the following paragraphs, right? I mean, in the lead, though, what were you going to say? Kyrie Irving and the Nets are at loggerheads over his new contract? That's the only of journalism word. coming up besides David Nye's comic scolding, we will put a wrap on the NBA finals.

We have an NHL call that may have been made just for David. Plus, are you changing your driving habits, David, in the sense of listening to podcasts and audio books in the car instead of listening to music? We'll try not to sound too much like a native ad right here on the press box, a part of the ringer podcast network. Hello, media consumers, Brian Curtis, David Shoemaker, producer Erica Servantes here. We need to put a bow, David, on the biggest media story of the last couple weeks.

Of course, I'm speaking of NBA finals bumper music. Great. I can't tell you how much fun it is to watch the games. And one of the songs that we've had lots of fun with will be played by ESPN going into commercial. And my Twitter mentions turn into that app on the phone where it identifies whatever song is playing in the cafe you're sitting in. Shazam?

Yeah. Everybody's like, it's the boys are back by Thin Lizzie. It's Evenflow by Pearl Jam. I'm like, yeah, I know I'm here. I want to report that ESPN finally got the bumper music right.

Game six, Warriors are closing out the Celtics. Boston, you remember in that game, got off to a very hot start. Like, uh-oh. Are we going to go seven here? And ESPN played, the boys are back in town.

Okay, Celtics back in Boston. Hot start. Mm-hmm. I'll accept that. I understand the thematic connection here. They also, David, went to the blimp shot of Boston in the second quarter, and they played, wait for it, spirit in the sky. Okay.

Spirit in the sky. Blimp. I got it. It finally made sense. Wait, is it possible that they've just been over our heads the whole time? No pun intended, but about the blimp thing. You're saying that there have been these references that we just didn't get because we're not smart enough? Yeah, or it doesn't even matter if they're like particularly, they would be particularly highbrow.

Just that like if they're, if they're done with intention, does that make it okay? Yeah. But we had a lot of weird intention being suggested here. Remember when Spirit in the Sky's Norman Greenbaum. someone tells us, well, no, no, he's from Boston. That's why they keep playing this song. Yeah. I don't think that's the reason they're playing this over and over again during the playoffs.

But thank you for that suggestion. Pretty sure it was coming up when they were in San Francisco too. But yes, let's look for more sly illusions. Let's cut ESPN a little slack. Thanks to all who participated in the great bumper music campaign of 2022. David, after the Warriors won the series four games to two, we had a reappearance of Steph Curry's doubters. I was struck by a New York Times headline.

Steph Curry left his critics with nothing else to say. You also remember the Dwayne Wade-Lebron James Twitter exchange from the other day where they were talking about the doubters. This is an interesting one because you and I can sit here and stay like, wait a second. are there people that are really doubting Steph Curry at this point? Even before he won his fourth ring. Yeah. Is there any significant number of people who are like,

you know, I find Steph Curry deficient as a basketball player? I think it's less that people are doubting him as a great player. I mean, I'm sure that you could rile up a lot of people with, does he belong in the top 10 or whatever? Although a lot of people seem to be saying that pretty nonchalantly after the playoffs. but it's more like are we willing to entertain the conversation right it's not it doesn't make you a doubter i don't think i don't think it inherently makes you a doubter of your mike greenberg the day after they won the title going on get up and saying listen there's some legitimacy to what people were

saying about he only you know he won that with kd and then you know the other ones were a little fluky or whatever i don't think greenberg was signing was co-signing the notion that that step Curry was like an inadequate superstar or legend prior to these playoffs, but he gave voice to it, right? We talked about it before. We're in an era where everything has to be, everything is content. So every conversation has to be, you know, every subject has to be broached, you know, and that just makes everybody hit the doubters.

Well, I think the interesting part of this is, yes, you're right, that particular opinion, well, you didn't win an NBA finals MVP yet before this. year. Well, KD was on two of those championship teams. That is out there. What's interesting is where it's coming from. And I suspect if we did a study of this, we would find that almost all of that is coming from TV opinion shows. Maybe there's some sports radio segments mixed in there. But do we know anybody, any person in what we would consider the NBA a print universe who is doing the are we sure Steph Curry is this good take at any time over the last couple years. No. So it's in the universe. But what's interesting to me is I think it comes from

those opinion shows or, you know, greeny or whomever it is. And then everybody feels the need, even people who never thought this, who thought that idea was ridiculous. Then when Steph Curry wins the fourth title, they say, aha, Steph Curry has silenced the critics. Steph Curry is like, well, would the critics really that big a deal? How many critics were they? Who were they? Because if you say Steph Curry silences the guy on TV, it's not really that exciting. That's true. It doesn't really seem like a worthy piece to write. We say, the critics, whoa, wow, the critics are out there. The Steph Curry critics. I also wanted to direct you to who I think is the biggest media star of the NBA finals.

Draymond Green of the Warriors. You made a good point the other day where you say anything that happens during the finals is a tease ahead for Draymond Green's podcast. Sure. Post game show. It then felt over the last couple of days where he was tweeting on Sunday, hey, we're locked in for game seven. Even though game seven is, of course, not happening because the Warriors won game six in Boston. that anything he did was also a tease ahead for Draymond Green's career as an analyst on T&T. It's all, you know, we've had the Tom Brady discussion.

When was Brady going to be good at broadcasting? When's he going to start broadcasting? Draymond Green has kind of solved that problem because he's broadcasting right now. Yeah. And he's also already good at it. We didn't need to wait some period of time or have him get an ambassadorship. like Brady did from the Turner networks. He's good at it right now.

Yeah, it's true. I mean, it's a good, listen, we can get into a whole discussion about how much leverage he's creating for himself by producing a successful podcast, presumably very successful podcast, because you're right.

I mean, he's going to take those skills forward. But, I mean, is it, would it be shocking if you got to a place where he said, actually don't need, to do that, you know, where he could just keep chugging ahead with the podcast or go like all in just to go the Pat McAfee, the aforementioned Pat McAfee route? I mean, does he need the T&T post game show to have the voice and the money that one would assume that would afford him?

Or just say I already did it? Sure. Like, I don't need to have the second career in broadcasting because that was part of my first career playing basketball and winning championships. Yeah, that's true. So why do I need to make a second career? It is. I mean, because he's doing it while he's playing, it's certainly more of a seamless transition, right?

I mean, it is a thing that he did while it's like, yeah, it's like he's transitioning straight to the bench, except in the media version of that. I've got an NHL call for you, David. Nice. This was from game one of the Stanley Cup, Aves Lightning, the Aves Andre Bura-Cob.

scored in overtime to win the game. I want you to listen closely and see if there is not a pun baked into this call that was made just for you. Shoots, it's blocked. The chuskin with it. Burakowski is gone. You're referring, I assume, to the Andre the giant joke in there. There's not a direct. Then he went down to the, you can, you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.

And I'm trying to it was just like, wait, is that what Bobby the Brain Heenan said after Andre the Giant Vic? No, I'm thinking of the Reverend Slick and that's not what he said. That was just totally disconnected, I guess, from Andre the Giant joke. We're just layering them on. That was a little bonus joke, yeah. Yeah. That was Connor McGahey, play-by-play announcer for 92-5 FM in Denver. Great stuff, Connor McGahey.

All right, David, one very final important matter. It's the matter of legendary Cowboys running back Emmett Smith and IHop. What? So you know those articles and sports radio segments where we get a very famous athlete appearing on behalf of a company they're advertising for? And we get that telling line, so what are you doing with IHop, Mr. Smith? Well, Emmett Smith has apparently been on something of an IHop. media tour, which is what it is. But I was interested in this headline in the Dallas Morning News that I got from

their Cowboys email, Pancakes and Emmett Smith, how the former cowboy is teaming up with IHop for Father's Day. Here's a subheadline, David. Where will the all-time rushing leader be spending Father's Day? Probably IHop, he said. Is there a body that goes with this headline? Or is this just like, is this just like what else? The front page of the onion where the joke is just the head and the deck and no one bothered to write the content that goes beneath it.

I had personally seen enough and wish they had ended it there. But yes, I believe there was an article that came with probably IHOP. Now, what's interesting to me about this is, of course, what you do in these cases is you do the product plug and then you get Emmett Smith to talk about the 90s Cowboys, the current Cowboys, whatever it is you want to talk to him about. But rarely is there a checkable claim

made in the article by the athlete. That he would be at IHOP? That he would be at IHop, yes. Probably IHop. I don't know this is checkable. There's a lot of uncertainty baked in.

So I looked at Emmett Smith's Instagram. Don't say We don't do reporting on this podcast. I did not find any evidence that Emmett Smith was at IHop yesterday. Dang. They find him sitting at a table talking broadly about Father's Day. Then I went to Emmett Smith's Twitter account. See, we do follow up reporting on this podcast.

And I found a picture of him eating with apparently the 90s cowboys. I think that's who that is on May 6th. I'm looking at the restaurant, though, not an IHop. Not IHOP. Dang. Here's Emmett Smith. Happy Cinco de Mayo from Orlando does not appear to be an IHop.

So if you have any reporting on whether Emmett Smith spent Father's Day at IHop, which he has indicated to the Dallas Morning News that he probably would do, please send it to us at the press box pod. We'll give you a book from Alex Trebex Estate Sale.

if you can provide any important details. Sorry, I'm actively searching on Twitter just to see if somebody saw him at an IHop on Father's Day. Maybe he just was keeping it low profile and didn't want to publicize it himself. And there is a tweet from somebody that says they just ran into Emmett Smith at IHop in Addison, Texas, presumably, in January 1st, 2010. And weirdly, this is when I just search Emmett Smith, I hop, this, I get to this pretty quickly. And then June 2nd, 2010, just saw Emmett Smith walking out of IHop NBD. Oh, no, no. Wow.

September 10th, 2017. Emmett Smith is at the IHop I'm at dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. These are all different users. So wait a second. So we know Emmett Smith spent New Year's Day 2010 at IHop. That's what you're saying? Yes. No, no, no, yeah, January 1st.

He was there New Year's Day. You're right. Unfortunately, June 2nd, 2010 was not Father's Day. That was June 20th, 2010. But maybe you can just read a little bit less, there's a little bit less, you know, callousness into his, well, probably, it's not, he's not just trying to tout this business partnership. And instead of saying, I'm not going to be at IHop or, you know, knowing that he's not

going to be there. He's like, I don't know, probably, it's not just a lie to put over the business partnership. Maybe he's just stayed in the obvious. You know me. If it's a day, if it's a Sunday, I'm probably at IHop. So, you know, he's just being straight. And please know that David and I, this is our level of restaurant here. Oh, IHop.

This is squarely in our wheelhouse. There's probably a time in both of our lives where somebody asked, what are you doing this weekend? And David and I said, probably I hop. Probably I hop. That's correct. A little Rudy, tuti, fresh and fruity in our future. Wait, I thought that was, is that Denny's? Uh-oh.

You went now, see, we're betraying what I just. No, no, Rudy Chitty might be, I don't know. Denny's has all the... You're thinking of moons over my hammy, dude. Yeah, Denny's has all the fun names. Rudy Tudy, I've never ordered one. I don't really know where that is. All right, David, it's time for 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 where they are always gratefully received. Today's headline comes from the Dallas Fort Worth legend. Greg Tepper, managing editor of Dave Campbell's Texas football down there. Greg self-reported this one, David. See, we're like the feds here at the press box. If you feel like you're making the same joke as everybody else,

please self-report. And then we're more likely to be lenient on the other side. Catch a deal. The story is that Little Caesars is now the official pizza of the NFL. displacing the former official pizza, which was Pizza Hut. It was a very overworked Twitter joke to write. Hot damn, they did it.

Someone has outpizzaed the hut. If you're like David and I, and you look online for a coupon that gets you pizza and wings and dessert pizza, congrats. You made the overwork Twitter joke of the week. All right, in the notebook dump, David, I want to direct you to a tweet I read last Wednesday from Jamel Hill.

Quoting here, I've reached the age where I'm starting to prefer listening to audio books and podcasts in the car instead of music. Please respect my privacy at this time. Now, I thought that was interesting. Where do you fall on? I'm driving around New Jersey, running errands, perhaps by myself, a little time for David. am I listening to music or am I listening to audiobooks and podcasts? The toughest part about this tweet for me is I feel like I've been here for a long, long time.

My wife always jokes about how I don't listen to music. And I'm like, no, I have very specific and developed music tastes, but she's kind of right. Like, I haven't listened to music since we've met. You know, I've been listening to podcasts as my pretty steady diet of audio intake. Part of that is necessity, right? We've joked before on the show, and it's not entirely a joke about how we have to listen to, like, however many podcasts a week, just to feel like we're keeping up with our friends and coworkers, right? Because you have conversations, people who have conversations on their podcasts that they don't have with you, but you're expected to be able to engage or you feel obligated to be able to engage with them the next time you see them or talk to them or whatever, right? Just like, oh, heard what you were saying about Kyrie Irving. Interesting take. So yeah, there's a sort of social and career obligation to engage you with podcasts,

but also it's like, you know, you reach a certain stage in life where you don't have as much time as you once did. And those, you know, and knowing that you do have a list of podcasts that you want to listen to on a given day, you know, you get in your car and you're out with running errands by yourself. Yeah, that's like your time. I feel like that's like a gift that time is really special, you know? And it's, you know, no complaints about pandemic lifestyle.

But it's a lot harder to do work while listening to a podcast when you're, you know, keeping an eye on kids in the next room or whatever. So, you know, I'm right there with her. I've been there for a while. But there is a sort of practicality to it. My wife and I listen to music when we're on road trips. You want to pass the time, you know, you always throw on like counting crows radio and see how much reminiscence we can cram into an hour.

but like, not specifically for the Crows, the Counting Crow songs for the record. I'm more of a, but everything that that leads to is right up my alley. And Counting Crows is way better than I realized at the time. But anyway, yeah, so I, you know, that's definitely a thing that I'll do. But as far as new stuff goes, I don't know. I mean, I don't feel like the car ride is when I'm engaged to like listen to new music and to sort of start to appreciate stuff and certainly not with other people in the car.

And generally now at this point when we're on a road trip, yeah, we'll throw on an audio book because it's an effective way to pass time. And it's also like when you're watching a TV show together, it's like you have the same starting point, right? There's not, you don't have, there's no explanation that needs to go on when you're just like, you know, devil in the white city, page one, you know, and you're both right there together. Let's, and I'm using the obligatory phrase of the podcast here, let's unpack this for a second. Okay. So part of the magic of the podcast is that you and I are listening often to people that are actually our friends and colleagues at the ringer. Yeah.

So we're kind of keeping up with them and what they're interested in and listening to them talking to podcast. And then for the vast universe of podcasts where we don't know the host, we are listening to people who are like our friends or we like to think of as friends because we've listened to them. And hey, there's probably an element of it where it has gotten more severe. during the pandemic because like we don't see friends or we haven't you know largely over the past couple of years you know this is this is how you like we've talked about how like us doing this

podcast has been such a you know wonderful oasis over the past but like it's the same thing when I'm listening to in a different way when I'm listening to you know Bill's podcast or listening to any of the NBA shows or whatever I'm just like oh my god they pop on group chat and I'm just like oh my favorite co-workers two of whom I've never met in real life but still you I mean, it's great. And I think that clarifies the decision or the choice a lot because you're not saying podcast or music. You say hang out with my friends, possibly imaginary friends, or music.

Now, music has those elements too. I know if you're like into a band or followed a band for a long time, all that stuff. But that's what's interesting to me about this. You're offering people the, equivalent of like a really long cell phone call in a car, which you remember 20 years ago was revelatory too. Whoa. Oh yeah. I'm driving around and I'm going to call somebody and it's not going to cost like a hundred dollars on a podcast. That's kind of amazing. The audio book part of this is to me the really mind-blowing part because you and I are old enough to remember books on tape.

And I am specifically reminded of it because every time I go back to Al-L Albuquerque to see relatives. There is a place there called Archie's Books on Tape in a strip mall. And it looks. Yes, still there. I just looked it up as we were talking here. Opening today at 1230, it says. It has been there forever.

It survived from the first Books on Tape boom when we were kids where your parents were inserting literal cassettes into the car. Yeah. Apparently into the audible era. I'm not sure. what is being sold now? I feel like books on tape when those earliest days were, well, there was a lot of self-help. Was it mostly books for people that wouldn't have otherwise read books, whereas now it feels

like it's just books for people who are, you know, maybe like reading books, but not at this moment because I'm driving somewhere? I think a lot of mystery novels were consumed that way. Oh, yeah. I think like I'm into this mystery writer who writes a novel year and on my trip or on my long commute to work, I'm going to consume their books. But it's so funny that that has now come around. Like, yeah, I just crushed a couple of books on my drive the other day. A couple of big nonfiction books. I mean, think about that. I don't think you would have had that in the prediction column.

No way. 15, 20 years ago. But that's become a thing. Whenever I talk to Kevin Clark, he's like, I just read that book, which meaning I just listened to that book. as a podcast or as an audio book. And I'm like, oh, wow, yeah. Just consuming the books as quickly as humanly possible. Do you think, you know, there's this whole stable of like, you know, veteran audio book readers. You know, it's like, I don't know. I mean, I don't know who they are, although if you listen to enough audio books,

you do hear the same people again and you, like, you Google them in the car while your wife's driving or whatever to see how famous they are. I remember when my book came out years ago, someone was like, you know, it was tweeted me. You know who should read, who should do the audio book and said a name? Like, I don't know who it was. It was, but it was, it was someone who does audiobooks. You know, it's like, there's a, there's a little mini-celebrity,

uh, group of, of books on tape readers. Yes. And I'm sure if you're a big audio book reader or listener, then like, you know, there is, you're definitely going to be like, oh, the new Michael Lewis is out. I'm excited. And it's being. read by so and so, oh my God, now I'm doubly excited, right? That would happen. But do you think that there's like a market, and I'd say this in the most self-serving way, don't get twisted?

Do you think that there's a market for having books read to you by the podcasters that are already, like you already associate as like your best friends? They're not volunteering. We want to make it very clear. No, no. But listen, for the right amount of money, I'm 100% volunteering. But like if there's a book that's on the subject, you know, some, some, you know, whatever, some new Hollywood book comes out and you're just like, you know what, I want to read this and I probably am just going to listen to it on tape, but you know it would make a lot more sense as if Sean Finnessy was reading it to me because I think he's the person that I listen

to talking about movie. I think it's a great idea. And even more than the new book thing, what about the classic book from the genre? Yeah. So we're bringing back some classic books about Hollywood, final cut. Oh, then fantasy can read them. Or people that are just like the big, I mean, I don't, sorry, don't know any of the names, but these like giants of the true crime podcast genre.

Like, shouldn't there be a market for someone who's got like 500,000 listeners talking about true crime to go back and read Dickens or something, you know, just to do just something that even's in the public domain, you know, just like, let's just going to go do a recording of this. Somebody should want to listen to that. That's probably happened and we just don't know about it. Wow. That's probably going to happen now and we won't get credit.

I always thought what your wrestling book, we should have picked a wrestler to read it. Was that ever discussed? No, I wasn't really involved in that part of the conversation that was solely on the publisher side, but it would be funny if it was just one wrestler who is not necessarily in the book but just had a little bit of the inherent growl and grit.

Yeah. Critic Roland Barst once said of wrestling. How quickly would you turn that? How many minutes of macho man Randy Savage reads you a nonfiction book could you deal with? But I disagree with bars on one aspect. Shoemaker wrote,

God, I'm killing my voice just doing this. It's time for David Shoemaker guesses the strained pun headline. All right. Wednesday's headline about a donut truck that was stolen by a mysterious thief was Who Donut? Today's headline,

comes from Michael Tatarsky and pretentious Watashi. It's from the Guardian, David. The newspaper reports that the world's hundreds of millions of noodle eaters face a rise in the price of their favorite meal as producers look set to heap surging wheat, energy, and transport costs onto consumers. As you consider surging noodle prices, David, the key word here is ramen. Ramen. What was the Guardian's strain pun headline?

I was so ready for pasta. Ramen. Yeah, pasta cost onto you. Yeah. Ramen. Very expensive. It costs a ramen. A ramen a leg?

Ramen a leg. You got it. That's tough. That's like playing with that. That would be. That would be some, that's like some, some aspect, I mean, some like, you know, lesson in poetry class that I had already dropped out by the time that happened. That seems like a two degrees off pun, which is both impressive and also, you know, a little bit problematic. You know, we usually don't know the genius behind these headlines because headline writing is kind of an anonymous art. This one was identified, though. Warren Murray, who works as the Guardian Morning Briefing anchor. apparently the author of Raman Aleg.

Wow. Great work. Warren Murray. He is David Shoemaker. I'm Brian Curtis. Production Magic by Erica Servantes. We got a big one, David. I'm going to be flying to your neck of the woods this week.

Wow. Interviewing one of the most central media figures of that region. He is Angelo Cotaldi. Wow. And he has been doing morning drive sports race. radio in Philadelphia for three decades. If you've ever met or befriended a Philly sports fan and wondered why they are the way they are, Angelo Cotaldi's got something to do with that.

Kind of creating the voice of a city sports fandom or honing it in a way or channeling in the way. Is that what you're saying? Well, he's the most prominent Philly sports. talker maybe ever. And yeah, I think he sort of has a way to channel the the grief and irrational expectations that sort of run parallel in Philly sports fandom.

Plus, we'll be back Monday with more lukewarm takes about the media. See you then, David. See you later, Brian.