The Right Time with Bomani Jones - NBA's Future with Knicks, Timberwolves is FUN; Angel Reese vs. Caitlin Clark Isn't | 5.19

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

On today's episode of The Right Time, Bomani Jones reacts to the NBA Conference Finals being set and the newest Caitlin Clark vs Angel Reese tussle. Bo starts off the show by saying this is the most fun outcome we could've gotten for the NBA Conference Finals because we are exiting the dynasty saga era (2:14). Bo continues to explain why we're trending towards a 1 superstar per team phase in the NBA (9:10) and why these remaining four teams still may feel incomplete (11:17). Bo transitions to the WNBA where we saw another scuffle between Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark, which prompts Bo to ask how can we enjoy the WNBA without being chronically online (27:01)? Bo declares that it's hardly ever about just basketball with the WNBA lately (27:42) and it's obvious Clark and Reese do not like each other (30:08). And finally, we have another round of If You Haven't Heard stories involving the Diddy Trial jury members, why fur is making a comeback and the United CEO pleading that Newark Airport is safe (38:30). Then Bomani listens to some voicemails about someone you knew that had brothers you wanted no problems with (47:28). If You Haven't Heard Contributors: Laura Italiano, senior correspondent at Business Insider, "Meet the 8 men and 4 women who will decide Diddy's fate" https://www.businessinsider.com/diddy-trial-jury-selection-complete-meet-jurors-sean-combs-2025-5Christina Cauterucci, senior writer at Slate, "Fur Is Back. I Know Why."https://slate.com/life/2025/05/fur-back-fashion-style-why.html?pay=1747658946086&support_journalism=pleaseRobert Barba & Alison Sider, News Editor & Reporter for The Wall Street Journal, "United CEO Reassures Customers That Newark Airport Is Safe" https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/united-ceo-reassures-customers-that-newark-airport-is-safe-277605d7?mod=hp_lead_pos11 . . . Subscribe to The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok for all the best moments from the show. Download Full Podcast Here: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6N7fDvgNz2EPDIOm49aj7M?si=FCb5EzTyTYuIy9-fWs4rQA&nd=1&utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-right-time-with-bomani-jones/id982639043?utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Follow The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Social Media: http://lnk.to/therighttime Subscribe to Supercast for Ad-Free Episodes: https://righttime.supercast.com/ Support the Show: Discover faster, more reliable search with Perplexity today. Download the app or ask Perplexity anything at perplexity.com! https://pplx.ai/bomani-jones Download the DraftKings Pick Six app NOW and use code BOMANI. Better payouts. Bigger wins. Only with Pick6 from DraftKings. The Crown is yours. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time. A Wave Original presented by perplexity. 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.

Speaking of haters, we will talk about a world that seems to swim with haters from all directions and all persuasions just a little bit later. The WMBA and the people who watch it, even the ones who don't really watch. Watch it. It's driving me crazy. But first, we have the Final Four for the NBA set. I know it's not called the Final Final. You don't have to make it a capital final, capital four. You know what I'm saying? That's trademarked by somebody else. But we have got to the conference finals in both conferences. And, and, and, and, I'm going to throw this out here. And I hope it doesn't seem like I am constructing a straw man. I don't feel like I have constructing a straw man. And I do feel like historically, this is a lot of

has been something that people have a tendency to do, and there's certainly possible that this could happen once we get around to the NBA finals. But to me, this is very important. We all need to remember this, okay? None of us, except for like maybe a couple of y'all listen to this show, but I don't feel like this kind of rich person listen to my show. But none of y'all are actual factual, real-life stakeholders in the NBA or its teams. Okay? None of you are. Therefore, let us not think about the business of the NBA when we talk about these conference finals. Let us try our best not to talk about things, for example, like ratings, all right? I did think that earlier in the year the ratings discussion was worth having.

I do think still that there are discussions to be had about the style of play in the NBA, what it has evolved into, and whether or not that is for the best, right? However, right now, what we got is what should be the most fun. And what we have also, that is very interesting, is the future of the NBA has arrived. And the future of the NBA is one where this is no longer a dynasty saga. For the majority of my life, the NBA, and when you get this deep into the playoffs is about a dynasty saga. A dynasty saga. We watch teams start at certain places and climb and then they hit their head on a certain level and then they come back to next year and they hit their head again. But you see it as it goes and there's a gradual climb to becoming a

champion that we see. It is possible that Boston Celtics for us will go down as maybe the last team that we think of to really ascend according to your typical dynasty saga. a plan, right? And if you think about it, I know it may feel like the year before Denver was that sort of team, but I disagree. This Denver team that just got eliminated is worth noting. They had a six-season window. It was just interrupted in between by the fact that they lost two full post seasons because of the injuries to Jamal Murray and to Michael Porter Jr. But they made it to the Western Conference finals in 2020. And remember, that was that year where Michael Porter complained about how he wasn't getting enough shots and then played like dog shit in game seven of the Western Conference semifinals and then hit that crazy shot at the end, right, that basically iced that game.

That was a young Michael Porter Jr. That was Michael Porter Jr. in year two. It's 2025. He's still there. He's still somebody. Jamal Murray still there. Still somebody. Nicola Yokich. Still that guy, right? That's a six. year run. They did the climb. It just so happened that a lot of time when they were climbing, they was kind of doing a simulator climbing because they didn't have those two guys. When you go back to the Warriors in 2022, they obviously have been to the mountain, come down, had injuries or whatever, but there's a long story that runs with that team. The Bucks in 2021, we saw them go up to O in the Eastern Conference finals in 2019 until Kauai and them boys tossed them out to paint. 2020, a little different.

The Lakers got a jolt of Anthony Davis and LeBron James, but even that is in line with kind of the narrative that we're talking about. The difference in the story right now is it can feel like these teams popped out of nowhere. This is even with Minnesota and Indiana, both of whom were in the conference finals last year, right? Maybe it is still a dynasty saga and we just have to adjust our brains to understand who the dynasties may be. But what we have now is no team is in this final four that has won a championship since

1978 or nine. I can never remember whether the Sonics won it in 78 or 79. You know what, Ryan? Sounds like a great question for perplexity. But anyway, nobody recent has won this. That's of these teams in the final four. it will be in one measure or another a turnover. This is a league where the champions kind of stay between a small number of squads.

That's what it has been for as long as we can remember. Where you have teams go to the NBA finals, two, three teams at three years in a row. Oh, the Boston Celtics of last year. I didn't even mention them in the Dynasty Saga talk. We watched them make that climb basically from what, 2017 until then? like it was a long run story. Now we're winding up with teams that kind of sort of make everybody feel like they have a chance. Now, of course, Oklahoma City has been on a climb, but much of that climb came when there was no reason to pay attention, right?

It was the tank years, but I have always viewed the Oklahoma City tank a little bit differently than I have viewed most of these. I mean, I feel somewhat similar to what Houston was doing in these previous years. what made the tank so offensive with the Sixers was they weren't even trying to find players. They claimed they were trying to find players, but go look at when the process stuff actually ended and how many of those guys survived and made it to the other side. Some of them made the NBA and had like decent careers. Christian Wood, for example, was one of those guys, but he ain't having it with Sixers. You know what I mean?

Oklahoma City was making all those moves and getting all. those picks, a haul that the process sixers never did anything that was close to what Presti was doing. But it was obvious they were trying to figure out who the guys were. And a lot of those dudes that were on that path are on that team now. There's a difference between building a culture of winning and a culture of losing. That is exactly it, right? Like, that is my biggest issue with the idea that you're going to send guys out there to lose is that what you're creating is losers. I didn't feel like that was at any point what Oklahoma City was doing. They committed to their coach. They committed to their plan. They went out and got someone to they,

thought could be a great piece in SGA. They never thought he was going to be the MVP, but they thought he was a piece of what they were building. Right. And they always had, it wasn't losing for the sake of losing. Right. And they won the title in 79, by the way. 79, got it.

And they clearly sold Shay Gilders-Alexander on the idea, like, it's going to be rough for a little while. But we're going to get over, right? We're going to get to the other side of it. And, Ryan, it's interesting. You may remember, when they traded James Harton, we thought he would be good, but we didn't think he would be an MVP type of player. Correct.

And then Presti got one of those back. Yeah. Right. Then there's another thing I give him credit for. When he had the top five pick and that was with, uh, with Chet, he nailed it. He had the best run ever. That run that built that first run of thunder where you have in, in successive years in picks, Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Russell Westbrook, James Hardin, Sergei Baca.

Yeah. In a row, those are your first round picks. He's the best. Like I don't care if they ever won a championship, any of that stuff. To me, he's the best. And that team made that climb, but A, they feel new and B, they feel incomplete. And I think that that's maybe one of the more interesting things about all the teams that we have now that are left trying to win a championship is how exactly you evolve your thinking of what a champion looks like based on who the teams are that we see before us. because all of them feel incomplete.

It feels in some ways like we're going back to the 90s. And what I mean by that is something that is underrated about the 90s, and I guess it really started with the Pistons in 89, is it feels like we're moving back to a one superstar era of champion teams. When you think about the 90s, okay, the Pistons were a one superstar team. It was Isaiah Thomas. Like you get to Joe Dumars and Dennis Rodman and those guys, but those aren't superstar caliber players, right?

Like, I don't think that Joe Dumars was James Worthy, for example. Okay, I don't think he was Kevin McHale. I don't think he was Robert Parrish. I don't think he was those guys. The Bulls, no matter what anybody tries to tell you, were a one superstar team. Okay? Scotty Pippin.

It's not a superstar, and I will say this until the cows come home. And the biggest example that I would give you is that Mike had the goddamn Ebola virus, and he still couldn't ask Scottie to hold it down for him. Hey, man, I ain't really got it today, bro. You think you could do something for me? Actually, Mike, I think you need to scope 37. I heard once that somebody has said, and I won't say who it is. Michael Jordan is so good he got into the Hall of Fame.

as two people. Anyway, one superstar team. The 1994 Rockets won a championship with their second best player as Otis Thorpe. And they played in game seven of the finals against the New York Knicks, whose second best player,

when you really look back on it, was Anthony Mason. Even the version of Clyde Drexler that they got when they won it in 95, it was not a two superstar team, though Clyde, like, Clive's up there for discussion. we're having. You have the next run of Bulls championships, one superstar team. The Spurs kind of

bring it back, right? 99 Spurs have a still very good David Robinson and Tim Duncan. Three runs of Shaq and Kobe, bring it back to the Spurs. You get the outlier with the 04 pistons. Then you get to the Spurs who have three Hall of Famers down the line, right? But now all the teams feel incomplete. And part of why they feel incomplete is that all these teams seem to beat teams that themselves were decimated by injury. But there is an air of total es posibly with the playoffs that has not been there before. And I got to admit, starting to lean into it a little bit, right? All of these teams are built like those that I would tell you in previous times and eras

that team can't win a championship. Obviously it's not the case because one of them has to win a championship. Do the Indiana Pacers look to me like a team that would have gone to back-to-back conference finals? No. Had the Indiana Pacers played like a team that should have gone to back-to-back conference championships? Yeah, man.

Like, I'm not sure even a fully constituted Cavalier squad would have had something for the Pacers for the way that they did it in this series. I mean, in that series, they looked really, really, really good. The Thunder only have one legitimate. offensive threat. That's it. That is why I actually think that they are somewhat vulnerable to playing against Minnesota, where look, the Thunder won all those games, and obviously they play incredible

swarming defense, especially when they're allowed to play Coach K basketball and they play with their hands as much as they feet. Y'all saw that. It's there. But they only got one guy and he's a foul merchant. Minnesota has two. okay and and i have to say this the power of anthony edwards julius randall beating the allegations of loserdom talk about someone who turns losers into winners that appears to be the case carl anthony

towns fixed and now it looks like julius and he's almost making rudu gober likeable this is happening this is happening also you know what it appears to be very helpful Brian, how did you mention that? Ant Man seems to be the kind of guy who likes everybody. Yes. Right? Like, he doesn't, he does not seem to have that many people he doesn't like. And there's not a lot of people in the NBA who liked everyone.

And Andy Edwards seems like he likes everybody. And nobody seemed to like Rudy Gobert, right? That seemed to be across the board. Right. And he seems to have been like, hey, Rudy's our guy. I'm going to be the one to prop Rudy up. Good on him. He did the same thing with Carl Anthony.

towns, right? You made your executive point. He is the magic man. You touch the him or his garment, apparently, right? He's that guy. But Julius Randall, I have not seen Julius Randall do Julius Randall things in the negative, which is, this ain't going right for you, so you go out here and you start pouty. I've seen Anthony Edwards become a playmaker in a way that I don't think that he had been a playmaker before. Like, it is interesting to see, but they got two guys that can go get you a bucket. And I don't think Julius Randall, again, Julius Randall is not a Jamesworthy type. either. But Julie's Randall looks like a guy that can go out there and get you a bucket. Indiana, while I do think they feel somewhat incomplete, two guys that can get you a bucket,

a REM protector who can also make threes. Oh, then it gets interesting. The problem at that is, is your man's, what's his name, old boy from where you call it. This is not because these guys are not good players. This is because you pop up into playoffs, you go check out Indiana, and you're like, damn, I ain't seen you guys since last year's playoffs. I'm not the only person that feels that way. I know a lot of you feel that way. It's okay. But they be out there making buckets.

And then, Ryan, we have our hometown, adopted hometown, New York Knicks. Scrappy, they beat the dog shit out of Celtics in that game, boy. Like, I think the Celtics just ran out of gas, to be clear. But that still, I can't imagine how much fun it was to be in that building. Yeah, with Tibbs leaving the, the starters in with four minutes to go. Are you serious?

Oh, yeah. So that Friday night, I flew out to give a commencement speech at Prairie View A&M University. I want to thank those folks for having me out there. They brought me back home more or less. And it was a very emotionally and wonderful experience for me. But it also involved me doing a lot of catching six o'clock flights. I went to dinner. I then came back.

My mama flew in. I met her. I talked to her in the lobby. I got to my room. It was coming up to halftime. It was a 24-point gate. I decided it was time to get some zees to get ready for waking up at 4 o'clock the next morning. He kept the starters.

Hey, look, the man only knows how to do it one way, Ryan. He only knows one way. This is a big Final Four for scrappy coaches with Dagonal, Tibbs, Rick Carlisle, and Chris Finch, who seems to have getting really a lot out of Anthony Edwards. Yes. Every year. Well, let me ask you this about Tibado. And this is something worth noted.

all these teams played up against teams that had significant injuries in the previous round that affected, you know, what they were doing. All right? That didn't happen to the Knicks. Yep. Right? And for everything that we say about the way he runs those guys into the ground, everybody else is over there getting them hamstring injuries.

You know what I mean? And Achilles tear. It's almost like Jaywood Brunson got his out of the way in March. Yeah. Right, right, right. Everybody else, the Knicks are not the team. that seems to be dealing with that. And look, the Knicks got a lot of dudes, man.

Like when you really think about it, they're starting five. Jalen Brunson is proven to be that guy, all right? McHale Bridges, if you got him as a two or three, it ain't such a bad thing. I don't understand Carl Anthony Towns. I don't get it, but he could give you 35. On a given night, he can give you 35. He could give you 35,000 if they didn't have. have limits, but he can also give you 35. Those are not a bad top three to have. Josh Hart or

OG is your fifth best player. Right? You got Mitchell Robinson as a deep. That roster is actually pretty good, even if it still feels like it's a bit incomplete, right? But this is going to be fun. It's not going to be what it used to be, though. Right? Like what it is when we think about what a champion is that's not going to be what it was, right? Who the teams are that make it to this point, they are not who those teams used to be, right? This is not the time for thinking about what it was. This is about a time of looking in and recognizing and accepting

what things are going to be. Now, there are ways in which the game certainly can be better. I 100% believe that. I don't agree with everything they've done with the CBA. But what this is going to be right now, I think it's going to be fun. I think another thing that's worth noting is somewhere along the way the NBA realized, people want offense. They don't necessarily want points.

And so gaming this up in the way they have for these huge regular season numbers or teams that have the best offenses of all time, yada, and everything else, the physicality is back in the playoffs. I don't know how exactly you reconcile doing this regular season versus postseason, but this is what playoff basketball is supposed to. to be because the truth is basketball with more physicality and dare I say violence is emotional. It makes you feel something. It lets you know as the viewer what the stakes are. It is not as easy to tell what the stakes are of a basketball game when everybody's standing

around shooting three-pointers. It doesn't feel like anything, right? It may be something to think about. Like I think the brainiacs like it, but it don't feel like something. And I think like that Oklahoma City, Denver series ride, that one felt like something. Like watching those teams go at it like that feels like something. There's a lot of talk about like NBA players don't play defense, which is obviously nonsense, but defense looks like feels like something when people are hitting each other. Yes. They're running into each other.

And it's like that seems simple, but it's honestly the truth. Yeah, no, no, no. These points ain't supposed to be so easy to get, right? They're supposed to be precious. They're supposed to be scarce. They're not supposed to be scarce like it was in the 90s, on the late 90s, right? People don't want 7568, but they do want 196. Yeah, I'll take a good 9388.

Yeah. A good straw, one of those gangs would take there where you got to work for those buckets, right? Indiana, part of what's fun to watch about them is they do work for those buckets, even if the working is ball movement. But you see when they get it, they work for it. But I think this is going to feel like something, right? We got enough things. We got enough stories.

We got 90s nostalgia with the Knicks and the Pacers. Kids, you're going to see all kinds of clips of things that you're going to think weren't that dope. But I promise you, we're amazing to experience at the time. Reggie scored 25 in the fourth quarter in 94 and hitting them with that one. The eight points in nine seconds in 95. Poor Patrick Ewing and the finger roll that didn't go in at the end of the 95 conference. The four point shot of Larry Johnson.

Oh, I forgot about that in 99. my brother was at that game. I will never forget this. His job had a box and he would get the box. And so I remember he's in the box and he calls the house because it's landline from the box. And I've never heard anything as loud in my life. I can only imagine. Yeah. As it was after Larry Johnson had the four point play. Like we've got that. We've got Anthony Edwards, the biggest star right now. And I don't mean star in terms of magnitude. I mean star in terms of personality. We got that dude. We've got him there. Oklahoma City is going to be here for a long time. Brian, you've seen this.

They have something like 13 first round picks in the next however many years. And some of those picks are going to be excellent. Like, they're going to be able to turn this into a superstar. And Caruso is their only rotation player over 26. It's insane. Yeah. Right. And so we've got that going on over there. We've talked about the Knicks up and down. We've talked about the Pacers. Like, this is the, this is where the NBA is going. It may be two or three more teams in the conference finals next year that did not seem like, teams that we thought could be there. But I am starting to embrace this idea that no matter where a team is seated going into this postseason, they've got a chance to go. I am going to have to accept

that the dynasty saga era is probably gone, right? With the aprons and the cap and everything else, that's probably not there. But what we do have, I do believe, is four really interesting teams, three of whom happened to be in not so large markets okay the negative actors or the bad actors

are absolutely going to try to throw TV numbers out there and unless you get paid by how much people watch this on television I think the only TV number that matters is whether or not you do

or do not feel like watching I am going to be watching I think it's going to be one hell of a good time I accept that this is the future of the NBA. I ask you to join me and the crew because, who I think this is going to be good. All right.

So Ryan, I think it was Saturday. Was Saturday the WNBA gang? Yep. Okay. And I don't want to say the WNBA game because that implies that there was only one WNBA game. The WVA season started, but it started with a marquee matchup between two of the league's most famous players.

Okay, so that was the first game of the year? I think this started on Friday, but I think it was, yes, it was the fever's first game of the year. Okay. It was the fever and the sky. Kaelin Clark plays for the fever. Andrew Reese plays for the sky. There was a bit of a tussle.

It did not get so far as to be a kerfuffle. It definitely was a tussle. Maybe you have seen it. and the events are as follows. Angel Reese was setting up to get an offensive rebound. She pushed a woman in the back with two hands and then got the offensive rebound. Once she got it, she brought the ball down too low. Caitlin Clark hacked her across the arm and then gave her a bit of a push after the fact.

Katelyn Clark did that thing where you walk away from somebody but keep on looking at them, which is not gangster. and Reese, however, a little bit more against than that, tried to come at her. It was the thing. Leah Boston broke up the little tussle. And Ryan, it's like World War III happened. We're back the exact same place we were all last July. It is Larry Holmes and Jerry Cooney for five times a year when those two teams play against each other.

And you brought this up before the show, but they, they play each other so often. Yes. You know, like this is, might be like almost like the 10th or 12th time they've played in a, you know, a nationally televised game already in the second year of their careers. You know, so if you count college, right, like I think they played four times last year. They played the two games in college. And actually, that's on national television. Keeping in mind, don't forget, Andrew Reese played at Maryland before she transferred to LSU, Maryland, which you can easily forget is in the Big Ten.

So they were playing against each other there also with Caitlin Clark being at Iowa. You and I also talked about this before the show. There is a magic bird element, obviously, to these two players. The problem is Angel Reese ain't no Magic Johnson. Good player. Not Magic Johnson. Not we're not. These are not players of the same statute.

they're not it. And that's not an insult to Angel Reese. No, no, no, no, no, no. Caitlin Clark's different, right? Like, I think that I think that's something that a lot of people just need to come to terms and understand here is much of the why Caitlin Clark and not other people is that the other people are not Caitlin Clark. Like strictly talking about this is basketball.

She's it, right? But for a lot of people, some in media, some not, this takes on the burn magic character. And I actually just thought about this. Ryan, can you imagine if Magic and Bird played in the same conference? Yeah, I didn't even, yeah, I guess they met up once in the championship, right? In their college career, they met once, and then they met three times in the finals in the NBA. But imagine, rather than Magic being on the Lakers and Bird being on the Celtics, what if Bird was on the Celtics and Magic was on the Sixers?

Yeah, they played each other again, four times a year. as a society, we would have combust it. We would not have been able to handle that. And I know that because we can't even handle Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. And this is, this isn't an era where we're supposed to be better than we were back then. 40 years ago. Oh my God. I can't.

I need some help here. I need somebody to tell me how we going to do this or at least how I'm going to do this or perhaps how you do it. And maybe I'm asking you to question in the wrong medium to get a true answer. but I need somebody to give me some game on this. I'm begging you. How can I follow the WNBA without being online? There's got to be a way because being online for the WNBA, it makes me want to drown myself.

I hate all of you, every single one of you, whatever side you happen to be on. I can't stand you. I can't. And the biggest reason I can't stand online WNBA discourse, it's hardly ever about basketball. Even when it doesn't involve these two, it just does not feel when I consume the things that I see.

And maybe I'm hanging out in the wrong places and maybe I'm hanging out in the wrong service. That's why I'm coming here asking y'all for a little bit of help. It hardly ever seems to be about basketball. And then when it's not about basketball, it don't even really feel to me like people can allow themselves to be honest about the, it's not really basketball kind of stuff, or it is just kind of basketball or whatever it is. is and I just find my head spinning, right?

Like, this thing that happened with Caitlin Clark and Andrew Reese this last time, it was a basketball tussle between two people that I don't think like each other. Okay. I don't think that's so big. You want me to tell you two people in the NBA who don't like each other and haven't liked each other for a long time? Victor Wimbanyama and Chet Holmgren.

They do not like each other. Everybody knows that they do not like each other. That is going to be a story and a theme for a long time because they're going to play each other a lot. I think most of us presume that the spurs are going to become very good and be a competitive team with the Thunder. And they can't stand each other. That is going to make things better.

I enjoy seeing people who don't like each other play basketball. And they play the same position. Okay. I have no idea how you could watch what has transpired in the Andrew Reeves, Katelyn Clark Chronicles, since that championship game, which I guess was in 2023. I don't understand how you could have watched this and think for a second that Angel Reese does anything other than dislike Caitlin Clark.

I just don't know what you're watching. You don't need to get into extreme terms like hate, I suppose, right? You don't need to take it to some deeper molecular level, but it is obvious, right? She don't like her get down. And it seems obvious to me that Caitlin Clark does not like hers. And even if you don't have the greatest evidence that she full-on, does not like her get down, you wouldn't like her to get down

if you were in the same position. Okay? That push the Caitlin Clark gave her and that look she gave her. Come on, man. It's beef. I love beef. Y'all won't even let me enjoy the beef

because it turns into them big ass words somebody taught you in college. I don't want to use your college words. I don't want that. I don't need that. If I got to talk about this with any word that got more than three syllables, stop. I want you to stop. I hate it.

But that's a function of the onlineness of it all more than it is anything else, right? So how can I find a way to get in to get to where this game is going? Because look, summer's coming, baby. I ain't really going to be watching no baseball like that. I think I could get into this. I've been really trying to find my way to do it. put my typical entryway into stuff now at this point in my life is through the internet. That's how we do things.

The internet is a generally terrible place, but with this league, it's an insufferable place. A horribly insufferable place that's only going to get more insufferable because Kailin Clark is only going to get way better. And if she gets way better than the people who like her get more insufferable and the people who don't, who man, that's tough because I have more

interaction with the people who really don't like her and I don't be wanting to talk to them about this stuff anymore. Don't like it. I don't enjoy it. There's got to be a better way. It's one of those things

are like sports in life have serious problems and unserious problems. Yes. Nothing is worse than when people make an unsurious problem, very serious. And I believe that is a fair characterization of what is going on.

Again, in both directions. Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark not liking each other is an unsurious problem. It is, it is. But on both sides, it's become parisocial, right? Is that the word? Where you feel like these people are your friends? Yes, that is the word. Right?

On both sides, it's become parisocial, but I fully understand why those who are more inclined to have an affection for Angel Reese are very leery and skeptical of those who have jumped on the Caitlin Clark wagon, especially if you have always been a fan of this league and now all of a sudden you look up and you see all these new people. And a big part of why these new people are here is not simply that Caitlin Clark is good. It's also that Caitlin Clark is good and Caitlin Clark is white. The problem is I don't have a counterfactual example of a black player that could have been as much of a phenomenon as Clark is. You know what I mean? Like I don't know. I don't know.

if you take Kaylin Clark and you make her black, how much of it is different? I can hypothesize, but I don't really have a piece of evidence in historical precedent that I feel like lets me know, well, this happened and then this. I don't quite have that. What we have is how it feels and how uncomfortable it can feel at times when the wagon gets behind Caitlin Clark so strongly and then against Angel Reese just as fervently, right? And then stuff like where you see Portnoy is showing up for games, and Portnoy himself, for reasons that he is earned, becomes an avatar in the eyes of those more inclined on the Reese wagon to look at him and be like, oh, that's what's going on there. You've got whatever is happening in the crowds in Indiana,

which is a place where crowds have had a historical track record of alleged racism. If you watch, I believe the name of the doc was winning time, the Dan Clores 30 for 30 on the Knicks Pacers rivalry and showing the crowd at Market Square Arena with people having signs talking about lynching the Knicks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, a lot of things are coming together here to make this worse than it is, a worse than it has to be. Chicago even then becomes an interesting place because Chicago is the city of the sky. And I remember when it was that ridiculous op-ed that was written about the Files Against Caitlin Clark last year. But you have to to remember is, yeah, the Chicago papers, yeah, the sky is the hometown team, but another hometown

team for Chicago is the Big Ten. Basically all the Big Ten graduates, especially in that pocket of the Big Ten, right? It gets a little different when you start talking about like Maryland and Penn State and stuff like that. But Caitlin Clark's a hometown player for Chicago in a lot of ways, too. It all just turned into so much. And it's, I didn't think we were going to be doing this again this year. I thought that some of the pushback against Clark from some sides would mellow a little bit as like they're showing more personality from her. Like we're getting more stuff online with her interacting with her teammates. I've always said a big thing that was going to happen with her that nobody was really going to talk about was that clearly she'd never

really hung out with any black people before. And now this has changed because she's now in the WMBA not playing for the University of Iowa. Like there's a lot of stuff that's going on. and it doesn't feel like anybody's having a good time. Like the league got bigger, which is what so many fans of the league wanted. And I told them, I don't think you want us to show up. Well, we're here and you're not having fun. The new people have come. They're not really having fun either.

This has got to get fun. I'm just asking you, how do I get into this league or do this in a place where it is fun? Please help me. Anybody that's got a guide for doing it, let me know what it is. because I can't do it if it's going to feel like this. This show is brought to you by Perplexity. Perplexity is an AI-powered answer engine that searches the internet in real time to give you fast, high-quality answers with sources.

Unlike legacy search engines that respond with a list of links, perplexity skips straight to the answers you need, explained in easy to understand everyday language with sources and citations. That's right, Bo. You know often we use perplexity to look things up, find information. For example, earlier last week, we used to find out what else have Yolkage's brothers done? Perplexity quickly gave us information about the eclectalize of both Yolkid's brothers. Discover fast and reliable search for Perplexity today.

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Limited time offer terms at pick six dot draftings.com slash promos. We know you can't be on top of all the news and information of the day. No need for the social media feeds. We got you. Now, if you haven't heard. All right, Beau, our first story is about the Diddy Trial. Hi there. I'm Laura Italiano and I'm a reporter at Business Insider.

I've been covering the Sean Diddy Combe sex trafficking and racketeering trial. in federal court in Manhattan. And that means watching the four days it took to pick his jury. These are New Yorkers who will sit through his two-month trial and decide if he is guilty of charges that could send him to federal prison for the rest of his life. So who are they? They are four women and eight men. They come from Manhattan, the Bronx, and Westchester County, just north of the city.

Combs is entitled by law to a jury of his peers, and this panel is a racially diverse group. At least five out of the 12 are African American. They are also professionally very diverse. There's a scientist, a deli clerk. Juror number one is in his 60s, and he's a massage therapist. There are six alternates as well. They'll step in in case one of the regular jurors needs to bow out for some reason. Now, despite how different they are, they have some very important things in common.

Under penalty of perjury, they have all sworn that they can be fair and unbiased in Judge Combs based only on the evidence at trial. And they also all have a busy spring and summer ahead of them. But as the very hardworking scientist, who's juror number three, told the judge, this could be a good break for me. I haven't taken a vacation, he told the judge, in a very long time. One, amazed at finding 12 people who don't really know who diddle is. Who did he is or what did he allegedly did? Yeah, yeah, like that is, I have, you know what? I might want to be those people.

Talking about the part of the people who are not on the internet and are happier because of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, how did you pull that off? right like how do you how do you not know like Ryan I bet you don't know who Kevin Samuels is doesn't ring a bell all good for you I don't really know who he is but he was the thing for black people on Twitter um kind of one of those like telling men how to be real men kind of dudes or whatever it is he died I got no idea what he looks like I never heard anything that he said and somebody told me like wow that's really good that you don't and I'm like hey man I feel like I don't know what I did wrong

right but I need to keep that up like I don't need to know necessarily these things however not knowing at all who diddle is. Like having no clue, you missed out on some jails. Like, like, I just don't know how you pulled this off. Did you just get here? Yeah, I just, that commitment to being offline is, again, very impressive. Yeah, yeah, I will say this, though. I say it, I don't see no way that he's not going to go to jail.

There is a way that he could not go to jail. But again, if he doesn't go to jail, he's still going to be in jail. Ain't nobody coming to kick it at your house, dog. No. No, no, no. I think people are going to say no to those invites. Not happening. All right.

Our next one's from fashion. Hi, I'm Christina Kauderucci, a senior writer at Slate and host of the Slate podcast Outward. I recently wrote a piece about fur, which is making a big comeback in fashion this year. At all the major fashion weeks in February and March, where designers show off their upcoming fall and winter collections, there was so much fake fur and shirling and even some real fur that in following weeks, search traffic for fur more than doubled at some online retailers. We haven't seen this much interest in fur in years, and for good reason. Animal rights activists spent decades staging dramatic protests at fashion shows and department stores,

you know, splattering fur coats and red paint and stuff. Most luxury fashion brands and stores stopped selling fur by the late 2010s. And since it can be hard to tell, real fur from good faux fur, The fake stuff lost social currency, too. It just wasn't fashionable anymore. That's all changing. In the Trump 2.0 era, after living through a pandemic, in the midst of climate change and the rise of AI, and a global turn toward authoritarianism,

people are grasping for things that make them feel good. They want quick hits of dopamine and a connection to a simpler time. In this case, the era before fast fashion, when clothing items like a fur coat could be an heirloom you'd pass on to your kids. And the ethical argument against fur just isn't hitting the same anymore. Activists say even wearing vintage fur or fake fur isn't okay,

because it could encourage people to buy more new, real fur. But across the political spectrum, there's less certainty these days that our choices can actually affect the greater good. And in tumultuous, alienating times, it just feels nice to be swaddled in something fuzzy. So basically what we're saying is we have given up. We have given up and there's other stuff to be mad about. Right, right.

But we don't want to be mad about those things either. There's other stuff to be mad about. Like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. But like we are giving, we are giving up on principle. They have warned us out and we are just giving up, giving up, of things that we thought might be a matter of, wow. Let me tell you who hasn't given up, just so everybody knows. Peter.

Peter never gives up. Peter never gives up. They are on it. They are about it. They are resilient. You will still get a bucket of blood tossed over you and your coat that you know, that you just want, you was supposed to make you feel good. All right.

Just letting you know, you better be ready to scrap it out. Talk about if, you know, you don't have to get ready if you stay ready. That applies to Peter. And it has for the last 40 years. Yeah, they ain't playing, dog. Like that's that whole thing. Oh, we don't have the energy to worry about these things anymore. I guarantee you.

Peter woke up in the morning. buy it, buy it, ride it, ride it, ready to go. All right, this is our last one. We didn't get a summary for this, but this is about air travel in the New York area. I'm just going to read two paragraphs. United Airlines Chief Executive Scott Kirby told customers in an email Monday that is, quote, absolutely safe to fly in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport following two weeks of technologically and air traffic control staffing issues that have played the New Jersey Transit Hub. Quote, the truth is that all flights in and out of each.

WR absolutely safe, end quote. It don't sound like it, Ryan. Safe is one of those things like smart or classy. The more you have to talk about how much it is that thing, it is probably not that thing. Yeah, and there's like, because it's an air traffic controller issue there, right? Correct.

It's a stat, again, they don't have enough air traffic controllers and the tech is hopelessly outdated. How does that ever happen? Right? Like I guess that's the one thing about these capital items that cost a lot on the front end, right? Is that so I think about that with airplanes. Hey man, we ain't throwing out no perfectly good airplane just because it's old. Think about it with the subway here.

And that thing is still run, right? Okay, cool. We're not throwing out something perfectly good. We don't throw out no perfectly good house just because it's a little bit old. But at least you do something with it. I just cannot imagine. Like, our tech is hopelessly outdated. And you know what the issue is?

They don't make no additional profits by fixing it. That's what the issue is. I think I told you about this. I was reading this book a couple months ago about hijackings in the 1970s, and that was a really, really big thing. And while the hijackings were really going, where they were like a couple of those a month, basically, they didn't do anything to put in metal detectors at the airport.

and the reason was that airlines had concluded that it was more profitable to let people hijack the planes and then pay the ransom to get the plane back than it was for them to put metal detectors in at the airport. They concluded that people were still going to the airports. People also weren't getting hurt during these hijackings. But they concluded that people were still going to the airport. air travel was increasing by, you know, hundreds of percent. Therefore, just keep letting people hijack planes. So just the cost of doing business. Right.

That's exactly it. If there's no profit motive in them updating the technology, then they're not going to update the technology. I am not exaggerating. That is truly how they think. All right. Another great voicemail prompt. Someone you knew that had brothers you wanted, quote, no problems with.

A lot of good submissions. Here's the first one. What's up, Beau? This is Jason from Chicago again. I'll tell you about the brothers that I didn't want no problems with. So I grew up with Buddy Guy's grandson. And if you know, Shana is Buddy Guy's daughter. So his grandsons were off the chain.

One of his grandsons in my class, he was a real cool dude, but he was into, like, martial arts. So he used to have like nunchucks and like bamboo sticks and all the type of stuff. But his older brothers, they were more so like regularly conventional type of dudes. And one day, we always knew like you never really want to get on their bad side. One day these dudes fight one of their classmates father. and when I say they in A. Gray That one of them picked up a

grown man Powerbombed him on the hood of his car. This was after school and just walked home and it was like they always knew you don't want to miss

with them to do the high ball. Did he say they power bomb somebody daddy? Yeah, that sounds like someone watching too much at the attitude era for sure. I mean, but apparently putting it to good use. Wow.

Who's next? All right, here's our next one. Hey, Bo. It's him from Houston. A couple of years ago, I was in middle school. We went to Garner State Park with some friends. And me and my buddies went and played basketball at one of the courts. We're all 14, 13.

We're young, but like we played for the school. and there are three guys there who are older and they're pretty drunk, but they wanted to play some three-on-three. Went there with my friends of Cartwright brothers, who had a little bit of a reputation. And they didn't play basketball, so they were just watching us play. Things started to get a little physical because they were better than them, but they didn't really like it.

It got a little tense. I thought they were going to start swinging for a second. Thankfully, nothing happened. But afterwards, one of the brothers, Billy, he had a rock probably the size of a candlelight and he said he had it just in case one of them swung on us he was ready to go

luckily nothing happened but he wasn't joking though thanks love the show yeah he wasn't joking that is a name is words yeah that's when things

really get interesting when people say the phrase I'm not joking or he wasn't joking no no no no no no no no no no And the person Sue said they weren't joking, by happenstance, also wasn't joking. All right. Here's our last one. What's up, Bomani? Is DG from D.C.?

Calling about somebody's brother I wanted no problems with? This ain't exactly the kind of story you were looking for, but I still think it kind of fits. I started a job about 20 years ago at a Fortune 500 company. The company's big on socializing and networking. I mean, you're supposed to be networking about work. but after a bunch of free drinks, at some point, nobody who's still at the bar is talking about work. We just having a good time.

A lot of relationships end up popping off in these settings. So I met a young lady in one of these settings, and we wind up going out a few times. I kind of thought she was really out of my league, honestly, because she's literally showing me her modeling portfolio. obviously she's got a good job. So I'm looking at her like she's a total package. Anyways, after a few more dates,

we're in that gray area between dating and a real relationship. And I'm trying to figure out, you know, what that next step is. It seemed obvious on the surface, but something kept giving me pause. Like, she'd be real cool one day, and the next day she'd be completely combative. come to find out she was diagnosed with manic depression or something like that. But more importantly, she wasn't consistently taking her medication. So after a few more, I'll call them episodes, I figured we had to talk.

I was nervous, though, because A, I didn't know how she was going to take it. And B, we work at the same company. Mind you, we're not in the same building or anything, but in my mind, all she had to do was go to HR, make up some story about me being appropriate, and my dope job out of college was gone. So I'd call her up. I tried to assess her mental health that day. She seems chill, so I start the whole, we should just be friends' conversation.

She didn't get heated or anything, but at the end she calmly said, by the way, my brother just got out of jail, and he's sleeping on my couch right now. I ain't really know what to do with that. So I just said something like, that's cool. Maybe I'll see them later. Knowing damn well, I wouldn't going back to that house ever again. So I got off the phone. I told my roommates, if anybody comes asking for me, tell them I ain't around,

and I slept with a bat next to my bed for the next month just in case. Thankfully, nothing ever happened, but I was not trying to have any problems with her brother who just got out of jail. appreciate it, but I love the show. Glad that worked out. All right for you, brother. That was not a,

no other than a guarantee. You, who, who, remember, you know, you don't, like we said earlier,

you don't have to get ready if you stay ready. Yeah, you know, and I was a little, little nervous about, like where this is going

with the whole mental health angle, you know what to me? I was like, oh, Ryan, I don't know if you probably,

nope, nope, landed the plane. Yeah, everything wound up, okay. Oh, that's what we got there.

Yeah, yeah, Well done. Well done. That let me, you are of a discerting ear. That took a very sophisticated ear to know that no, it was okay. Way to go,

brother. Way to go. Glad to have you. But do we have draft king's picks? We sure do. All right. It is, we're looking ahead to Tuesday.

We got the Thunder going against the Timberwolves in game one. I'm all over the Timberwolves in this one. Thunder coming off a seventh game where war. I like Anthony Edwards over 27 and a half points. I also like Nas Reid over 10. a half points in that first game one. The playoffs are on, so why not take a shot making a little money while you're watching? Download the Draft King's PICSX app right now and use code BOMONI. That's code BOMONI to play $5 and get $50 in bonus picks. Better payouts, bigger wins, only on pick six

from Draft Kings. The crown is yours. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-Gambler. Help is available for problem gambling called 888-7-8-8-8-8-9-77-7 or visit ccpg.org in Connecticut. Must be 18 and over. Age and eligibility restrictions vary by jurisdiction. Pick six not available everywhere, including New York and Ontario. Void were prohibited. One per new customer. Bonus awarded as non-withdrawable pick-six bonus picks that expire in 14 days. Limited time offer. Terms at pick6.draftkings.com slash promos. All right. And ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on the right time. We do this three times a week. That's Ryan Brumley. He handles everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. Also, thanks to our, if you haven't heard, contributors. Thanks to Laura Italiano, check out her story about the jury being seated for the ditty trial at business insider. Thanks to Christina Kauterucci at Slate.com. Check out her story on why fur is back at slate.com. 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. And we'll talk to you guys in a couple of days. Take it easy.