The Right Time with Bomani Jones - LeBron & Lakers beat Rockets, WNBA's "Too Online" issue, Giants trade Dexter Lawrence | 04.20

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

Back from a week of vacation, Bomani Jones reacts to the opening weekend of the NBA playoffs, including LeBron James leading the Lakers over the Kevin Durantless Rockets, Nikola Jokic & the Denver Nuggets taking down Anthony Edwards & the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Knicks fiesty game 1 win over the Atlanta Hawks & much more. Later, he breaks down the discourse around the Dallas Wings drafting Azzi Fudd number 1 overall and whether questions about her relationship with Paige Bueckers are fair. Finally, he discusses the Giants trading Dexter Lawrence to the Bengals, the new Rock and Roll Hall of fame class and listens to a few listener voicemails. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wave. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time, a Wave Original. My name is Beaumani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater.

We gave y'all episodes, but I was on the road last week. I saw y'all kind of went a little crazy on the topic that I'd get to in just a moment. But first, I would be perfectly honest with you. I decided I wanted to take a little time, so I went and took a little time. But I specifically set it up so that I would be back here on the morning of April the 18th, because the playoffs were going to start. And Ryan, I believe this is our first NBA playoffs that we have done together. We did a little bit last year.

We were just all paste. This is our first start of the playoffs. That's right. The first start. I am bad in remembering when exactly we got this whole thing started. For sure. The beginning of the playoffs, hey, man, this is, people who follow me and have done my shows for a while,

they understand this. Some people don't like to hear me when it gets to the point of complaining. This is my absolute favorite time of the sporting calendar. We have great basketball just about every single night, and it kicks my ass. It is a tough one when you get into them late nights, and them late nights start stacking up, and they start stacking up and they start stacking up.

And people are like, oh, you complaining about getting paid to watch basketball. Nope, I'm complaining about staying up late. 1040 tips on NBC. Yo, are you serious? I guess that, yeah, I guess I guess I guess. Look, here we are. That's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying is here we are.

It's going to be a fun eight weeks. Yeah, it's a great time. We're going to be a little cranky from time to time as it goes. The only thing is the plane. playing game has made the opening weekend a little bit janky just because you wind up having four series that involved teams that just got through playing some real high stakes basketball. And I haven't researched this, but anecdotally, those playing teams go out there and get their asses kick to start the playoffs. It feels like a tradition unlike any other. They come out there

and they get their asses kick. But we got a good setup, I thought, on Saturday, right? I thought we, Toronto. Shout out to you guys. You know, welcome to the playoffs. That was not. They got Cleveland smoke them. James Harton looked excellent. Remember, the problem with James Harden is not the playoffs. It's the last few games of the playoffs. The last game of the season. Yes. The one that's bad. But otherwise, they looked really good. And I have no problem admitting this, right? Like, people throw that casual thing around like it's an insult. I'm like, nah, man, I just a little bit busier than you are in some respects. And the playoffs, I don't try to find out what's going on with everybody at the beginning of the year. If you're worth it, I will find this out in these two months of playoff basketball.

And the playoffs will run two months in one day this year if you get to a game seven of the NBA finals. Do the Toronto Raptors, I feel like whatever the Raptors make it to the playoffs, this time of year is called Meet the Raptors. Yes. We find out about all kinds of things that's going on with the Raptors at this time of year. Like, who is their coach, for example? They got Brandon Ingram, they got Scotty Barnes, they got Pertle and Raptors. Yes, and other Raptors.

Other other raptors who better get their asses and lied because they got smoked in that last game. Right. But the most interesting game so far, I think we'll talk about others in a few, but the most interesting game was the Rockets and the Lakers. I have no idea what's going to happen in this series. If you think you have any idea what's going to happen in these series, you are, as the friends say, a goddamn lie. There's no way in the world that you can tell you.

of this. Number one, who knows what's going on with Kevin Durant and his knee. He hurt his knee in practice where they said it was a knee-on-kneed collision, which is the worst. Right. I got some questions about what kind of practice they were having where this happened, like right, go in advance of game one. I don't know what's going on here, but he went out there and he tried to play. And I think the athletic had this story. And this is something I just didn't know really about Durant is that he is a guy that has a reputation for playing through stuff, which is interesting because.

the last seven years of Kevin Durant have mostly involved him not playing, but he played 78 games this year. Right. He's second most minutes in the league. Yeah, yeah. He's not, he had a weak one, right? Like, he's coming out here and he's playing games,

and he's certainly going to play in the playoffs, and they said he went out there trying to shoot before the game, and it was terrible. Right, he looked miserable. Couldn't do it. And look, the Rockets have enough problems because they have good players. We'd all agree. They have a, like, a decent number of good players.

They just don't have a point guard. And coming into this season, they needed somebody to go out there and get a bucket when you need a bucket. They still don't have a point guard and get a bucket when you need a bucket is not playing. So it's basically Shingoon is going to be out there. I'm in Thompson, who I saw people tweeting about this.

He seems destined to be this generation's, man, what if he could shoot? Right. Did you see that was going around when people were sending the question about, man, how good would this guy be if he could just shoot? High on that list for me. me, Darius Miles.

Oh, interesting. Darius Miles was good at everything except for two little things, dribbling and shooting. Important for guards. Yeah, those two little things. Those were coming up as the issues. But for the Rockets, I don't care what happens. You can't lose

this series. No. With Kevin Durant, without Kevin Durant, no matter how it is that you want to spin it, this is not one that you can lose, right? The Lakers don't have Luca Dajic. They don't have Austin Reeves, you can't lose. And they looked bad in that game. Yes. They were a little bad with it. They didn't have a plan. Yes. And look, EMA, people were very high on EMA coming out of that year with the Celtics, which, by the way, another year where he did not have a point guard, to be fair to him. But man, those dudes would blow some games, right? Yeah. And same issue with

a very lack of creative offense late in games. Yes. He has tough teams. He has teams that go hard, and I contend also that a big part of why so many people were so into him in Boston is deep down inside, a lot of y'all agree with Robert Sarver. You know what I mean?

Like one day Brad Stevens, who was an excellent coach, looked around, And he would never use the same words as Robert Sarver, but he appeared to arrive at a very similar conclusion as Robert Sarver and decided that those brothers needed a brother. And E. May was the coach. And E. May came in there. And E. May was talking bad to him.

Call him Pucks, all that kind of stuff. I don't think he used that exact word. But you know what I mean? But people love the idea of somebody getting in an NBA player's face, tell them they ain't shit. They love that. Emay did that. They went to the finals. People was ready to put EMA in the Hall of Fame immediately.

Jimmy Butler hits that three in those conference finals that he walked into. And they have the biggest game seven collapse, I think, maybe ever in the Eastern Conference Finals. That's the same coach. All right. They got these guys out here. And right, it looked like they didn't have a plan. You know who did have a plan? Because he seems to always have a plan.

LeBron. That too had a plan. You know what LeBron looked like? LeBrile of like, I don't even know what to call it. LeBron looked like he had been sitting in the back seat, riding in the middle seat. I don't know what they call that where you're from, Ryan. But where I'm from, they call it,

but I'm not going to say it front of my mama. You understand what I'm saying? But LeBron looked like. I think backseat driving is a... Yeah, but I'm talking about that specific seat. Well, let's go backseat driving. Yeah, the one... He wasn't even driving.

He just in the back seat. He just backed there. Think about this with the back seat. The back seat changed so much that the car makers stop even pretending that they really were five. They started being like, all right, seats four comfortably. That's what they started doing. But anyway, LeBron had been riding in the back.

LeBron used to drive. That's all LeBron did with drive. Now he's in the back. And he could tell people when to drive. Don't nobody care what LeBron say to turn. Don't nobody care. Hey, hey, you're going a little too fast. Don't nobody care anymore.

LeBron just back there. Let me know when you need something, right? No, now, LeBron back into front seat. And he was like, it's like a glove. He would hit that preset button over there on the left, press that button number one, slid right back to where his legs ordinarily go. Now you got to understand, LeBron a little older than he used to. So he got to change the lump ball support a little bit to get him a little bit of help

or whatever it is. But he looked very happy to be back in the position, the only position in basketball that he has known since he was six years old. It's him and not just him doing that role, him in that role with a bunch of people, with the Pips. Yes, yes. Like, he's like, man, I feel like a kid again. Yeah, exactly. This is like back to 06 to 07.

I got a white in the corner here. Living the LeBron James life. And good for him. Because let me tell you something. I say I don't know who's going to win this series. We don't know who's going to win this series. If they do, I think that this would be quite an achievement for him. I don't think Reeves or Lucas is going to come back in the course of this series.

If he were with Kevin Durant, without Kevin Durant, whatever, if this Lakers team that none of us at any point this year have fought was as good as its record. Every time they did something well, we went right back to yeah, but, right? Their record is this. Okay, but what is your point differential? Okay, they go on this run where Luca is terrorized the league at the end. Yeah, but you're not going to do anything in the playoffs, right? We know you don't have a chance.

We know Houston doesn't have a chance. Maybe it's okay. They worked out together. But everything at every point was a yeah. But if LeBron could take these guys, he out there with a dude that seems to cut his own hair. And all I'm saying about that dude is I don't know. I don't know what it's been like to grow up as Rui Aachemoro. I don't.

I don't know what it's like to try to find a barbershop in Tokyo when you're a Rui Aachemora. You know what I mean? He's been in the league for all these years looking like Bruce fucking Leroy with that curly situation that he had going on there, right? Clearly there's some things going on with him that I don't understand. But I am going to tell him is this. You in America, you don't have to go to Little Tokyo to get your hair cut. The brothers will cut your hair down there on Crenshaw or whatever it was. Somebody might do it for you for free.

But I looked at whatever it was. that he had going on in the course of that game. I'm like, I don't even understand how it. It was all straight. It was all very, very, very confusing. And that's one of the people that LeBron James has to rely on to make shots, a man that appears to cut his own hair. That's tough.

We're asking for a lot out of LeBron. And LeBron got it done. It looked good. Now, of course, Ryan, LeBron's 137 years old. There's no telling if he's going to be able to pull this off in the next game. Right? We don't know what it's going to look at, look like. but 19, 13, and 8 and a plus 11, look good.

Right. And I mean, I think he said he, like, as he said on that golf show, you know, he goes to bed questionable and wakes up doubtful. Yes. I think that's going to be either two to four weeks of that in playoff basketball. Hey, let me tell you who I do think, though, probably stands to gain the most out of this.

That's DeAndre Aiton. Right. Like, the only, like, look, Chris Paul, who already, help D'Aldre Aid and make a gazillion dollars, right? I think Chris Paul and LeBron with the two guys that are like, hey, man, just go be tall. It's like, buddy in the sandlot, just go stand over there with your hand up. You know what I'm saying?

Just go stand over there like that. Don't you worry, it'll get to you the way that you need it, right? Lakers, shout out to them also. They got more Caucasians in the tuck. They had two Caucasians playing that game, and they got two that got DMP coaches' decisions. One of the white boys goes down. Don't you worry.

Don't connect. Getting ready. Maxie Kleber. He out there. I wonder if he's ever heard of Maxie Priest. Anyway, that was enjoyable. Like that game was a good way, Minnesota. So Minnesota and Denver, I was talking to somebody about this.

I didn't realize this ride. This Minnesota dude, they don't like the Nuggets. No. It is not simply like, oh, we've had some good games or whatever it is. They don't like those dudes. I told somebody it's like, it don't matter what year it is. I'm turning it all Minnesota, Denver, and Anthony Edwards is passing the ball to,

somebody I've never heard of, in this case, Ayo Dissunumu, and he's hitting a wide open three. Yeah. Like, Minnesota is such a terrible matchup for whatever reason for Denver. We saw them put him out of the playoffs a couple of years ago. But this is going to be a fun one. It's just, I mean, it just seems to me to be a matter of, like, how well Aaron Gordon holds up. Right. I mean, you saw him in the season last year hobbling around on one leg.

Yeah. Healthy Aaron Gordon, Nuggets might be the best team in the West. you know like it's it's there they are that good jemore murray's been that good christian brown see this one knows going to win a championship this year they got the the the the team back together that they had for the championship that they ain't had brown and browner which one is which yeah they got brown back they got the other brown he'd been there browner browners back in business baby is out here making it happen you know also i felt like christian brown and my boy dante they was out there looking like the Spider-Man being in that game.

Absolutely. They're the same guy. Yes. They even get their haircut by the same dude. Someone who they need to introduce to movie Achimora. But that's a good game. Hawks Nuggets.

I mean, Hawks Nuggets. Hawks and Knicks. That's going to be interesting. I talked to Vinny there. Madison Square Garden. It was cracking, but also like tents in there. The mayor got it wrong where he talked about Blame it everything on Trey Young. Did you see that?

Yes. Yeah, yeah. I think that's a good bit, though. Can I have safe space? Always. I forgot to. I was like, I don't understand why people have said in this or out. This doesn't make any sense.

It's like, oh yeah, Tray Young doesn't play for them anymore. I completely forgot about that. Oops. He should just show, yeah, I mean, he should just show up anyway. I know this, though. Like a wrestling character. Yeah, I know this. I saw Stephen A. Smith say this.

And he's right. ain't about no analysis ain't about nothing else this is very simple what i got for you right now nick's better not lose than hawks brother no no you can't especially you know they will run cat out of town they were a cat out of town look i was talking about brown and browner but they'll treat mike brown like the brownness of them all they'll be da but nah but not they expect to go to the NBA finals they fired the dude that went to the conference finals the expectation is they're going to the NBA finals. Losing of the Hawks. Like, you might be able to get to the second round

and something happens if people let it slide. Losing to the Hawks. Can't be that. No, sir. Philadelphia 76ers, they're going to be out of here real soon, as are the Phoenix Suns. Now, again, play in situation, right? Maybe that's just what it was.

The Sixers have a lot of guys, whom I have heard of. It feels like they should be better. I mean, Paul George missed a good chunk of the season due to that bizarre, bizarre suspension. And you think he'd be rested, but he just looks. He was on the steroids that he took for his mental oil. I don't think I'm allowed to laugh because he said Intelmae Elfay, but he had the Lexaproo make them steroids now. Is that what that stuff called Lexi Pro?

Yes. Okay. Well, apparently he got the Anabolic Khan. Look, man, I don't know. I don't know. But the sounds just look good. the Thunder look good. The playoffs are here. I'm excited. I'm not going to lie, though. We're recording this before San Antonio plays Portland and before Detroit plays Orlando. There are two

reasons. You don't care about Detroit and Orlando. And we saw enough from these other play-end matchups that I'm reserving the right to go to sleep whatever I damn well please tonight. okay. It's a long season. I got to rest up. All right, Ryan, so I was in South America. I'm out of my own business, casually tapping in, kind of seeing what's going on. You know what I mean? Like, I enjoy what I do. I don't feel the need of like, I'm not going to pay attention to any sports. That's, that's ridiculous. I don't want to do that. Man, the homie, we was made a run. I think we went to like Playa Del Carmen, right? You know, see what's cracking out there. and it was when E-May got fired by the Celtics.

I'm sure that was a fun night. No, we were just, it was the whole day. We are just all, each of us, you hit up who you know, I'm gonna hit up who I know. We're just on our phones. It is like, this is like, otherwise, you can't go with a beat writer. Beat writers are always on the beat, right?

Right. So I'm like, no, man, put your phone down. No, not for that one. Not for that one. Because we forget how, like, scandalous that was and how out of nowhere that was. And it was just rumor and innuendo. and that's the best time.

Yes. Like that was a phenomenal time. But I say all that to say, when I'm on vacation, I'll pop in a little bit, right? Like even Ryan was like, you know, I know you're on vacation. I'm like,

I probably won't mind what you have to talk about. Right. You know what to be? Like, okay, we'll do that. So a story popped up while I was gone. I felt like it was still going strong through Friday, Ryan.

Am I wrong about this? Yes. Okay. And it's the AZ Fud situation in doubt. Now, I have discussed before, and I understand if you are a WNBA fan and you wish that we would talk about the basketball more and not all this other stuff that comes around it. I understand why you feel that way. But again, people don't seem to enjoy what I try to talk about the basketball and it makes it less fun for being reversed.

I saw somebody saying they're like, oh, you blame it on haters? I'm not blaming it on haters. I'm just saying we ain't got a chemistry about those things right. but larger macro issues, wheelhouse, baby. That is what I do. And that situation, I think, is so interesting and so amazing. Amazing is maybe going too far. It just felt right when I said that.

I do think it's very interesting, right? And I think it is a reflection of something. And Ryan, you know me. I love talking about this, about how the Internet has broken our brains, right? And the Internet has turned just about everything into something for people to fight about and everything to get tribal about and everything else. And the WMBA is so online to its own detriment. I would make the argument, right? And it's online in a very particular way that feels very familiar like five to 10 years ago. Like it's it's a league in search of a

safe space, which I'm not saying as an insult, right? I'm not saying that to be dismissive. It is understandable, right? Like it's a, it is a league full of people who are members of a, a marginalized group, then further marginalization below that. And it's often very, very young people that are involved in this league. And on the internet at least, I find that women older than those women have a tendency to be very protective when they see up-and-coming women in their late teens and early 20s that they like, that they want to protect them from the big bad world, or if nothing else,

protect them from a lot of the things that they went through coming up, right? All of that. But it makes a very interesting stew when something crosses over that involves a certain measure of controversy and the discussion can truly become maddening at points, at least for me, because the conversations deviate from most of the estuptial. paradigms that I understand in terms of how we talk about and how we cover sports. Now, this is something that I've talked about in the past, which is the reason that it can feel that way of the WMBA because these paradigms are built around the idea that sports are played by men with implicit in men, straight men.

Right? Like everything, so much of what we do, what is okay, how we go about things is based on that, right? Men part first, the straight men part is implicit, but as important as we'll get into here. But for example, watching women's basketball game and see if you ever hear anything involving the word big. It's impolite to say a woman is big. So we don't say big.

I've seen the heard the phrase good size, right? But what's the woman's name that played for Iowa State just transferred? Audie Crooks. Crooks, yeah. Imagine the nicknames that we would have for her, right, if she were a man. And I know this because I can think of some of them. You're probably too young to remember the meat hook, right? That's before my time.

Yeah, you don't remember the meet hook. But Glenn Davis was like a more athletic version of the meat hook, right? But all those guys, Khalid Elamene, the way we used to joke about him and everything else, we joke about fat basketball players. We love fat basketball players, right? There's a whole, like we kind of have eradicated them from the game now, but, you know. I mean, Yokic has, Yolich and Luca have their moments. Yes, but that, but they ain't no Stanley Roberts.

They ain't no Lynn Davis. It ain't the meat hook. Like, those guys are T-shirt fat. Or are shack on, you know, certain basketball teams and need into the day's career. But we don't talk about women that way, right? It's, it is, the paradigm is different, but the paradigm seems that it has not like been fully established. Like, I wonder if we need to have meetings, right?

And what am I mean by meaning is, Ryan, you and I both have a tendency to read doom and gloom books about technology. Yes. I read a different one. I'll tell you about this one. It's called This Is For Everyone. I've not read that one. No.

So it is a book by the literal inventor of the World Wide Web, which is a fascinating idea to consider that somebody could invent the World Wide Web. But he did, right? But one thing that was interesting in reading that book they talked about was that so much of like what the Internet is, like HTTP as a protocol. H-TPS as secure, the use of HTML language and everything. All of these things were determining conferences, right? Like it started small enough that they all get together and be like, okay, so this is how

we're going to write for the Internet. This is how we're going to code for the Internet. These are the protocols that we're going to use, so forth and so on. And it all built up to where all these things are established in the Internet through all these changes. It still builds upon what was there, right? I feel like we need to get together and have a conference about this in terms of how we talk about women's basketball or something.

because it seems like something happens. And as a media in some total, we are wildly unprepared for what to do, even though something might happen that we know happens. Like two players dating. This happens in this world, right? And it's interesting for me, because I used to date a basketball player

and she told me that the one rule of teams, and I'm going to sanitize this for the audience a little bit, is don't sleep with your teammates. apparently that rule is not as ironclad as she had me to believe. So I realize I've gone a long way around this. Here's what happened. For those of you who don't know, Azey Fudd played at Yukon. She was the national player of the year this year.

Paige Becker's played at Yukon last year. She was the national player. Well, no, Kate Clark was national player of the year. No, she was not. She was really good. She was really good at Yukon. Yes. Say again?

She was really good at Yukon. Yeah, yeah. there we go. Look at me showing all that knowledge. Anyway, Paige plays for the Dallas Wings. She was the number one overall pick. They got the number one overall pick again this year. They drafted AZ Fudd. The thing is those two dated. Or I'm saying dated in the past tense because I know that in the past they had dated. I have no idea whether they date right now. Okay. But they have dated. Right. That is on the record by their own words.

It's on the record by their own words. It's on the record. By the time I saw a picture of Azeyfoot at a basketball game with a phone case that said on the back, Paige Becker's girlfriend. Yeah. I have seen video them on Instagram

with the how well do you know your basketball playing girlfriend, spouse, whatever it is. And Paige Becker's just running through all the things. Like, it's not a secret. It was not a secret. Yeah, I've seen people talk about this as though it was some kind of rumor.

And I'm like, it can't be because I know. Like it got all the way here. This is a thing that people know what people are aware of. And so after Fuddy got drafted there, I saw that there was discussion about, so like, are we going to talk about the thing here? And the thing is, you got a franchise player and it looks like you just drafted her girlfriend.

That's a thing. Right. Okay? Now, what kind of thing you can say in your head right now, whatever it is? But the bottom line is, that is a thing. Now, let's fast forward to the introductory press conference that she has when she gets to Dallas. And I imagine, Ryan, that was a room full of people saying the following.

You go ask? Which one of you? Me, you, yeah. Not a lot of elbowing. You got a dog. You know, I always admired you for your courage. Okay. Then a gentleman asked the question.

I thought he asked it very professionally. Right. Like he brought it up like you said on TikTok. Yes. Yeah, it was a way of introducing the question like not like he was inferring or making an assumption. No, no, he asked. Yeah. So, I mean, I don't remember exactly what the phrasing was, but the elephant in the room was addressed by the question.

And the Dallas Wings PR team jumped on that grenade. Right. Right. They're like, hey, hey, hey, no, we're not going to have any questions about that. And obviously, there was a lot of discussion about how the PR team actually made it worse because they made it more of a story by doing that, I will just throw this out there, and I do not know anything.

I want to be very clear about this. However, there are reasons why I could see why the PR team would decide to do that. And it would be a reminder, we don't know the particulars of what that relationship is, and maybe that person does, and there's a reason why they jumped in. right? I don't know. However, I fully push back on the idea that this is none of our business.

Yes, it is. And you know why it's our business? Because y'all told us, I didn't ask about any of this stuff. I know this because they told us. I think that's fair to say, right? Right. Speaking of being extremely online. Yeah, yeah, let me tell you a story. A friend of our show, I don't know if he'll even hear this, but a friend of our show had a situation once where he was married and his wife's brother came to stay with them and overstayed his welcome, but he wouldn't leave.

And my man could not kick him out. And he goes and asks questions about it. He eventually had to get the sheriff to give him some paperwork. Like basically he had to go to like eviction court. to evict the person from the house, right? I say that to say, once you let somebody into your house, you can't just tell them to leave.

Right. I mean, you can, but they don't have to leave. You're the one that invited them in. Once you've invited them in, they got a seat at the table. That's how it works. And your business is the exact same way. Once you let people in, it's very difficult to then go to the, hey, it's none of your business.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You told me we could come in here. I didn't even want to. I was on the way to go do something else, but you was like, no, no, no, come out in here and get a slice of cake. I didn't even ask to get in there. But functionally speaking, that's how it works. Like, once you make a decision that your relationship is going to be public, your relationship is public. I can understand why you might not want to talk about it,

but that's how it works. Now, let's add it to this. You tell me if I'm wrong here, Ryan. If A.Z. Fudd had moved to Dallas and was dating Dak Prescott, there would be a question at the press conference about it. Of course. And that would have nothing to do with basketball. Okay.

If she showed up and she was dating Big X the plug would get brought up. You know, your boyfriend lives in Dallas too. You know, what's that going to be? And look, she would have the option to be like, yeah, I don't really want to talk about that right now. But okay, cool. But that question is going to come up. But you think that you're dating somebody on the team?

And that's not a question? That actually has something to do with basketball. And you think, like, people think that's not a question to ask? I don't think that's it. That's not invasive at that point. And by the way, it's endlessly fascinating for those of us who don't exist in the world of women's basketball. This don't happen over in our other world. Of course.

Right? Like maybe it does happen and we just don't know, right? Ryan, you ever heard of the Culture Club? I have. You know the situation they had going on over there? I am unfamiliar. All right, so you're familiar with boy George. Yes.

He was in a relationship with the guitar player. who was very not out. And it was a thing. It would cause them a lot of trouble or whatever it is. I say that to say, maybe that's happened on one of these NBA teams that ain't nobody ever told us, right? But we don't have this stuff happening.

It would be a story if it did. Yeah, this is new to us. We don't have this happen in the world of men's sports. So this coming up, no, this is interesting. This is a question to ask. How do you balance that? How do you manage such a thing, right? Like, I've seen things in women's games

where you'll see two women who are in a relationship, who play on different teams and one of them break up a fight involving the other and be like, I will talk about this later or whatever. Like, this league is a different kind of league. And I get that, but we don't have any rules for how it is that we talk about it or any understanding of what it is that we do. But you date your teammate, that's, you know why that's a question? It's a basketball question.

I just saw something about a couple who, again, the perils of being public in your relationship. they had to put out a statement and a video because they broke up. And by the way, they're not going to do their podcast together no more. Because that's what happens when you break up with somebody. Right. Like there's nothing crazy about that. That all makes sense, right? That's what happens when you break up?

So what happens when you break up and you're on the same team? These are legitimate, real live questions. By the way, I would hate to be the coach. Right? Like these are actual things that come up. And I was so surprised. to see a number of people act as though this is not something worthy of discussion.

Now, I want to be clear, I thought the majority of people involved in this did think that this was a question to be asked, right? It is one that requires a certain level of finesse, one that I would have been terrified to ask because I don't know if I would have enough finesse to have gotten it right. But not everything has to be a tribal fight.

And not everything, there was no need to protect that grown woman in that time. She is 23 years old, right? I feel like she was probably ready to deal with that question. Had to be in some form or fashion. If not, that's her fault. But this is, this is a grown-up world.

This is at least my understanding of how things work in this world. Okay. That's how it goes. Is it not how it works over there? I don't know. I don't traffic in that nearly enough. But I say, this from the standpoint of somebody who like works in media and sees how these things go.

You can't tell people they can't. Even if it's just a softball question, it's not like people are necessarily going to need to update every week. You know what I mean? Like it's not like, oh, how are you guys doing? Hey, I saw you guys weren't passing the ball to each other. What's that all about? I don't think it necessarily has to be that. Or how about this? You guys played together at Yukon where I think you might have been dating. You know, what? is that? How is your relationship change now that you're on the same team in the pros? Yes.

And by the way, don't you tell me for a second the public doesn't want to know. And that's a big part of the job with the reporters is to ask these things. But I don't know. I just thought that these were all real questions that I thought it was all fair game for people who behave professionally about it. And I thought ultimately it was handled professionally. But it just came to be another example of how as a media, in a larger way, we are not prepared to deal with this league.

And number two, and I think this is something I've talked about before, and we've got to figure out how to deal with this part. How many people who cover this league do not treat it like a league or a business, but rather treat it like a cause? Because it's not. Right? Like this, it's, it's, at least in the way that I understand that we deal with these things. This is sports.

If we are going to treat it as a cause, that is fine, but I'm just here to let you know. Causes, people don't get paid that much money to work for causes. You know what I mean? Like, I don't mean as much as, I mean to say just generally, that's not, that's not how I understand sports to work. And if sports over there is going to work completely differently, and I think there's room for media coverage to be a little bit more humane,

I think that's fair. But I also think we get a bad rap. I don't think we're nearly as terrible, especially in sports, of the people that we cover as advertised, because they have all the leverage now. you know, the people, the people who are bad to the people, the media members who are bad to the players are the people farthest removed from the players. And I say that as somebody who is pretty decently removed

for the players in the work that I do. But the ones that you got to watch out for are not the ones that are showing up to a press cop. That man took that for everybody. It's people who are coming in over the top of the internet to win stupid tribal war parts. Right. But like that guy right there, he did that with a squad.

He need to be the beat writer of the year for whatever, you know, whatever award they give for that. He did that for it. Everybody. As for me, I'm just ready for my mentions to set on fire. You can predict the playoff action all the way to the finals with Fandu predicts. All you have to do is sign up to get you a $25 bonus. Follow all the playoff dishes, swishes, wishes, wishes, and misses.

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We got you. Now, if you haven't heard. All right, Bo, if you haven't heard, big news in the NFL draft. The Bengals traded the 10th overall pick to the Giants exchange for defensive tackle of Dexter Lawrence. They gave him a one-year, $28 million extension. Bo, what was your biggest reaction to this news? That this was clearly only kind of sort of about money.

and Dexter Lawrence hated playing for the Giants so much that he went to the Bengals. Look, a one-year $28 million extension on this. Now, okay, so for those who don't know, the thing is that Lawrence had three years left on his contract and he wanted an extension because the market blew up since he had done that, and he is absolutely their best player, right? Period. The Giants did not want to renegotiate, but what I thought was interesting about this was they tried to pull it together. They tried to get the general manager out of it because apparently

Lawrence does not like the general manager. They tried to get him out of it. They wanted to call Harbaugh in and he was like, no, I don't want to talk to him. Like he was afraid the horrible might talk him into state. He had just decided he's going to be out of here. And this is the first time in the history of the NFL that anybody has said to himself, I can't get the money that I want here, but I bet I can from the Bengals. No one has ever said that. Ever. Ever. And by the way, did not get that much money from the Bengals. No, just the one year extension. But also one year at 28.

And so 28, I was talking to somebody in the business about this. And they're like, 28 is low for his 2024 performance. Before his 2025 performance, perhaps 28 is right in line. But that just tells me that this was not strictly about the money. What it also tells us now is that the Giants and the Jets combined have 25% of the first 16 picks in the draft. each of them has two in the first 16. And buddy, we get to see how full chances to fuck it up. Cannot wait.

And also, not only do people go to Cincinnati to get paid, people saying, I need to go to Cincinnati to be under better management. Yes. Like, this is the Giants, man. You and I've been here about the same amount of time. I think we got here 2017. Yes, yes. So yeah, so we got here this, like the same.

Yeah, exactly the same time. That's right, because people don't know. Ryan worked on First Things First with Nick for a while. Me and Nick got here the same week. Yeah. Like, we literally got here the same week. We've seen one good football team between two franchises in nine years. It seems, I mean, the Joe, like, keeping Joe Shane around is like,

I don't think that giant situation is getting better anytime soon, even with my lot. The Giants, they love some ochre boy. They love Eli's ocher ass. Um, they kept Daniel Jones, ochre ass around as long as long as they possibly could. But they, they get a hold of some ochre and they 100% do not let go. I mean,

imagine they tried to trade five and ten for one to get Mendoza. Like, talk about someone, talk about someone who would fit in great with how the quarterbacks they kind of like. And you remember like, uh, when there was a run for a while during the draft where they would always talk about all the hardships and tragedies that all the players had gone through.

and they're going just a little bit too far. You think they could do that with the Giants and said they be talking by Steve Tish? You remember him? He was the dude that was in the Epstein Files where the girls were complaining because he was looking for love. And they was just trying to get in a movie.

They was just like, I thought I could kick it with him, maybe kick it to him, and then I would get in a movie. And they're like, no, he's trying to go on dates. and ask them how they feel it. They're like, what are you talking about? Anyway, I'm talking about that during the draft.

Speaking of dysfunction at MetLife, FIFA and New Jersey Transit are having a bit of an impasse. That right now, World Cup train tickets coming back from games at MetLife confirmed to be $150. If you want the cheaper option, you can take the alternative bus priced at $80 per seat. But what was your reaction to this news? So when I got back, I was at the airport on Saturday. And I was reading the sign. I was reading in Spanish because I like to practice. I don't know the right word, right?

But what is the politically correct term for an unlicensed taxi? I don't know what the word is that we could use now. But something tells me they're going to be out there deep. Yeah. deep I did. This is unlicensed, the World Cup. Because, I mean, I've gotten gotten by the unlicensed. Oh, yeah. For probably around the same time I moved here.

Man, I got to the airport one day and this smoking high woman walked up on me and was like, do you need a ride? Yeah, I need a ride. I need a ride. I forget what usury rates she charged me for that ride. But the idea, New Jersey Transit is making the argument. that they have not gotten any money to account for everything that's going to happen. So they need to make the money back off a $180 tax train ride.

$150, yeah. $150, sorry, $150. But still. And how much was it, $80 for the bus? Yeah. In New Jersey. No. No.

And I saw something where people were like, I saw a lot of people like giving the hacks. Like if you, you know, well, if you go here and catch this bus, you can pay her, hey, man. if you ain't from here if it really come to it, I do recommend you pay to $180. The locals, y'all could play these other, you got here playing these reindeer games,

but you're out here fucking around. Just trying to navigate New Jersey transit. Yeah, good luck. And finally, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame revealed its 2026 class Phil Collins, Billy Idol, Iron Maiden, Oasis City, Luther Vandross, and the Wutan Clan all make up the

2026 class, Bo, what was your reaction to this group? I have to give you my hot take in looking at that full range of people that were on that list. I kind of understand Gene Simmons' point. I know that this makes people very upset. And Gene Simmons thing is, this is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It should be for rock and roll artists. I think that rock and roll is used more as a branding term. it is to speak a little bit more about

an ethos or a generation that it is about the specific sort of music, but I can totally understand how somebody could look at this list of people and be like, so tell me what the fuck they have in common. You know what I mean? Like I see why somebody would have that point. The thing that struck me, though,

from looking at this is they're running out of people. Yeah. Okay? And I say that you just got around to Luther Vangel. Like if you were ever going to promote the Phil Collins. Yeah. If you were ever going to put them in, you just got around to it. Phil seems to be a polarizing figure.

Like, white people don't like Phil nearly as much as me and my people, it seems. Even though Phil sold a gazillion. Interesting. And has an incredible catalog. But like David Bowie disavowed himself of less dance toward the end. And he would say, quote, I was in my Phil Collins phase, unquote, as though that's an insult. I did not realize there were this kind of vitriol from my own about. out there's a little too cool for school.

I love him, right? There's a little too cool for school element when it comes to the field. Billy Idol ain't no business in nobody's Hall of Fame. He's just a dude that made some cool songs, right, at a point. Joy Division got a song I know, right? Like, you know, Oasis, I get it generationally. Shade, again, you just got around to it. A first album came out 41 years ago.

You were going to put, by the way, white people love Shade. If you ever get a chance, look up how many record Shaday's, sold album after album after album. They sold like double platinum every single time out. They are so rich just off selling records. But you just got around to that? Like we're just here? They're running out of people guys. They're running out of people. All right, Bo. A lot of voicemails as we were on, you're on vacation last week. A bunch of good ones. Here's our first. Yo, what's up, Bo? This Travis down here in New Orleans, and I got a question for you, and I'm going to tell you the story that made me spot a question. But the question is, what's the wildest thing you have ever seen up close or on the sidelines of a football game?

Now, we was discussing this with a couple of friends of mine. I went to North Carolina, A&T while I was able to home. And one of my teammates had said he was being recruited at the time by North Carolina. And he was on the sidelines of North Carolina as Greg Jones, if you so violently remember, put his forearm into the chest of some young man and completely declares. He captained him for everybody to see. But he says, as that happened, Greg Jones at some point looked to the side. Too big for this shit.

He said at that point, he looked around and thought to himself, you know what, maybe D1 ain't where I need to be. He said later on, he committed to North Carolina N.T. Why I had met him, and he said he had not regretted his decision. The other thing he said was This was this was an ACC football What was SEC football like And I can only imagine

Because the rules was a little bit different Around that time too But yeah I just wanted to ask that question Was the largest thing you ever seen on the sideline Of any sporting event All right First of all Ryan

Are you familiar with the Greg Jones play? Yes Okay Here's what people need to understand And he referred to that other guy like he was just some guy. The other dude's name was Dexter Reed. Dexter Reed was an awesome college football player.

Like, Dexter Reed was not some bum. That play was a metaphor for that whole year of Dexter Reed coming from the other side of the field, trying to make a tackle that some bum couldn't make. And then this is the price that he paid for it. If you look, Dexter Reed jumped right up and was shaking his head at him to say there wasn't no back down in him because that's the kind of dude Dexter Reed was. And that's who Greg Jones. did that too. Yes. It's all

we're saying, right? You don't want no problems with Dexter Reed. Just to be abundantly clear. De Reed, I'd never met D. Reed myself, but that was my first year at Carolina. That was the first football game Carolina had after I had shown up on campus. It was also the first game of the new JumboTron.

And so they ran they ran it over and over. Rack it back. Rack it back. It was so, I'll tell you, dude, Dee Reed was No joke. I can't say that enough. Anyway, wow, I keep getting stuck on that. I would say I have two things that stick with me for being on sidelines.

One, I went to on the sideline once for a Clark Morehouse game. I want to say in 05, this is a Division 2 football. I don't think I'd been on the sidelines of a college game at that point. I'm like 25. I'll stand up behind Denzel Washington because the sum was on the team at the time. Hey, man, if that's what Division 2 was hitting on, I was like, Oh, no. There's no way. My mama tells the story about my brother. My brother's a big, always been a fairly big fella, right? He thought about playing football. And Mama got him

on the sideline at Clark when she, you know, she worked there when he was growing up. I got him on the sideline to watch a game. He said, watched the whole game. He said they were leaving the game. Said he didn't say anything. I think they got back to the car. Said, Momba looked at her and said, you know what? I think I'm going to just be in the Bair. But for me personally, 2008 at Keena Stadium, the same place, Carolina played Virginia Tech. And this was the second year of Butch Davis.

That was really talented team. And this is like a big game. And they played really well against Virginia Tech until T.J. Yates got hurt. And they had to bring in a backo quarterback named Mike Paulus. Mike Paulus was a heavily touted recruiter quarterback. He was Greg Paulus's younger brother. For those of you who don't remember this. And so what we had here was a redshirt freshman quarterback being thrown to the wolves of Bud Foster.

And I went down to the sideline for that game, for that last drive. I don't think you understand those two and a half seconds that you got to make a decision did. It's really, really fast. It's really, really fast. I watched a young man's career end before it even started. I could not believe that they were getting that fast. You know Bud Foster smelled. It was like food.

Yeah, food. That was it. He did that to J.T. Barrett. That year, Ohio State won the championship. His first start was against Navy. They lost a home game to Virginia Tech. That's exactly him. But Foster, who'd been running the same place as 1994, was like, food.

Watch what we do with our food. Oh, my God. I was like, I can't believe that people do this, you know, back then for free. Got to be kidding. All right, here's our next one. Bo, I love all the Prince content you have been doing lately. I'm a big Prince fan myself. Mark from Los Angeles.

And it's funny, if anyone hears this that knows me, and I say, Mark from Los Angeles, talking about Prince, they know exactly who I am. Because since I was six years old, people have me, you look like Prince. Do you know who look like? Do you know who look like? Do you know who looks like?

The Prince Hits and B-Sides profile picture could be my senior picture. Anyways, going off of everything you have been doing on the last throwback Tuesdays and the Wally Sparks, I just had a story. I thought I would share it with the crew. My girlfriend in 2001 won concert tickets from the radio station in Oakland to see Prince. And she knew like that was my guy. So we go, and I'm not saying I could touch the wall in the nosebleed seats like to the edge of the stadium. him, but I could see it. But we're sitting seven stories up.

Prince comes out. It's 2001. He does like let it go. He does like emancipation. He's doing just new stuff. Nothing classic. Nothing that anyone who, you know, would come to see Prince came to see. He does the show.

He ends the show. He says, thank you, Oakland. Good night. He walks off. There is a purple light emanating. from the stage. And it goes and everyone gets up and they go, I guess the show is over.

I go, why is that light on? And people get up and they leave in five minutes and they get up and they leave and it's seven minutes and they get up and they leave. 20 minutes. I say, I am not leaving because that light is on for a reason. All these people leave. It's like the 2013 heat or whatever it is. I don't know.

20 minutes in, Prince comes out. and does Purple Rain track to track front to back and I'm standing up there in Road 27,000 jamming out

to hearing him do Purple Rain the entire album for another two hours just like it's nothing it's nothing and that's my Prince story

so don't leave concerts early thank you for what you're doing Mark from Los Angeles yes I look like Prince I know it it. Have a good day. Yo, that was an amazing payoff. I also have the question,

not so much if you look like Prince, but if you do look like Prince, how tall are you? No, I'd say, I went to a Prince show at Riley once, and it was encore time. I think he did second encore, and we're there, and I'll just never forget this for the life of me

because I learned something very interesting that night. So, Wally's doing it is one woman. First of all, not that he wearing an encore status. Like, I'm on the floor, this point. I can't remember my seats are on the floor. We're on the floor. It's an encore status. Now you can smell the weed, right? The weed doesn't be fired up. But some woman was standing on her chair. She jamming out and buddy got that yellow jacket on and he's in front of her telling her to get down. She's looking right through like he ain't even there. Just keep going. And then when

he finally walked away, she was like, pshh. And I was like, yep, and it was an important lesson. Once the encore hits, security has lost all leverage. What she's going to do throw me out? show's over, right? And I just remember looking at that woman and I was like, huh, this is something that can be applied to my larger life. But ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on the right time. We do this four days a week. Ryan Brumley handled everything behind the scenes.

Thank you, sir. Hit the voicemail line 3-2-3-9-6-7-67. Remember, follow the right time, subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. We'll talk to you guys in a couple of days. Take it easy.