The Ringer NBA Show - Do the Lakers Have a Playoffs Problem? Plus, Time to Give Russell Westbrook His Flowers.

Episode Date: May 10, 2021

Lani Renaldo takes Raja to task for his opinions about Dunkin' (1:00). Then, Raja and Logan get into the Lakers' current problems and whether Anthony Davis has what it takes to lead the team to another championship (3:57). Plus, it’s time to give Russell Westbrook some credit for his triple-doubles (28:11), and the news that J Cole is joining a pro basketball team in Africa has Raja and Logan wondering who the best rappers turned hoopers are (47:21). Hosts: Logan Murdock and Raja Bell Guest: Lani Renaldo Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Kaya McMullen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Listen up all you New York fans. Veteran New York sports talk host, John Dostromski gives his unique take on all the big stories in the Big Apple and beyond, including guest conversations, gambling picks, and reactions from you, the listener. Check out New York, New York with John Dostromsky on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, so we're here with the mad Hooper Lani, and she's quite frankly just very mad. She hit me last week since she had something to say. I don't get why she's mad because she's, She's doing great with Black Girl's songbook, doing great with the Ringer Music show that she produces at a high level. But Lonnie, why are you so mad? Wow, Logan, that was so kind.

And I feel bad because I don't think anybody's ever obliterated you on your own show. So here's the deal. Here's the thing that I'm mad about. I could be mad about the Celtics. I know we had Trudy and we had Danielle on and Danielle was going off about Rondo. and I mean, it's easy to be a Celtics fan and be mad about something. And you know what? I like to personally blame that on Kyrie Irving,

but I'm not here to talk about basketball today. We're here to talk about Logan's disrespect on Twitter, and I'm pulling up the tweet in which on April 26th, he said, Dunkin' Donuts is the What a Burger of coffee shops. And quite frankly, Logan, the audacity, the just sheer disrespect. I'm not even from Texas. that was an offensive statement. You can't say that. I get you're from the bay. I get you guys have fills and you have your Starbucks in Seattle and so you're used to high-end coffee. But that's

not the premise of Dunkin' Donuts. You're missing the whole vibe. The whole reason why Dunkin' Donuts is so great is because it's a fucking steal. You can go in there and get like 48 ounces of coffee for $2. You're not going to get an espresso. You're going to get a Kool-Ata. And then you wanted to say that everybody needed their taste buds or their palettes refined after that. Not true. I can go to Blue Bottle, but I also enjoy an iced coffee from Duncan. It's just wrong, man.

There's nothing wrong with a nice cold brew from Dunkin' Donuts when you got five minutes and you're rolling through the drive-through. Absolutely nothing wrong. Thank you, Raja. Nobody needs a fucking upside-down caramel macchiato all the time. Yo, and here's the thing, too. Duncan's for the kids. When did Phil's ever partner with Charlie DiMilio? I don't really know her or fuck with her like that, but like Duncan's for the kids.

What's some of us doing for the kids? Facts. I could get some munchkins, right? We hop in there. We get the Jones with the sprinkles on them. Nobody wants to, like we don't want cake pops. They're $4 a pop. It's one little fucking munchkin. I could get $25 and them for $4. I don't want an egg frittata.

Okay. I just want to say. You're up here acting like you're high in making that Spotify money, But man, not all of us are bawling on a, on a budget. Facts. Facts. Okay, okay, Raja, you can sit this shit the fuck out. Sir, you can sit this whole conversation out.

I just said the quality of the food is Tradesh, both from Waterberger and Dunkin' Donuts. The coffee is trash. The food is trash. No matter what the price is. I'm sorry. I'm just going to die on that hill. I don't give a buck. Are you an in and out person?

Don't come for in and out. That's not what we're going to do today. I should have known. I should have known. You like cold, stale-ass fries and an overpriced milkshake. Get out of here. Logan Murdoch. And in a nutshell.

Stale ass fries. I'm okay with that. I'm a hypocrite. And Real Ones is up next. What's popping? Real ones. Logan Murdoch here, Roger Bell. Coming to you after a Mother's Day weekend that was filled with, you know, great memories and love and respect.

and all the things. And also Naps. How was your weekend? I had a great weekend, man. I have three wonderful moms. My wife, my mom, and my sister all in town, not to mention my mother-in-law and sister-in-laws, but my grandmother, we had great weekend.

It was what I hope Mother's Day should have been in their eyes. We tried our best. We had a good weekend. You? It was great, man. I've slept on the couch for like two hours after gifts were given. Yeah. It was fun to get up there and kick it, you know, just like normal time.

You know, you go up and see your mom and I just go immediately fall asleep. I don't know if that's a tradition in your, and the Bell household was definitely a tradition. My household just not. Yeah, my mom's is not letting me fall asleep. My mom's like a million and one question, mom. Like almost sometimes I feel as if I don't share enough with her because when I see her, it is on. We are getting peppered. So I'm not going to get to not going to get to.

nap. But I did get to see them yesterday. And we went out too, like after our son's tournament, we actually, another two couples and their kids went out. And so it did feel like old times, right? Because you got to see some people. You celebrated Mother's Day with folks. It's been a long time since we've been with folks. So it was cool. That's what's up, man. Also, I had a great time on Friday. I had a great time on Friday. I went to the all-black album release party at The Taco Truck on East 14th and 22nd in Oakland. It was pretty great. It was all black.

He has, All Black is a rapper out of Oakland. He has, he's the hottest thing out of Oakland now. And he brought out his debut album. Thank you for fucking with me. It has features from Vince Staples for the young crowd like me. And for the old heads like you,

it has a feature from E40. Hey. You know? So it was really good. He, he's from East Oakland and 22nd. And he used to go to that taco truck. when he was broke and poor, and he bought it all out for everyone to have tacos for three hours.

So it was a vibe. It was great, you know. I'm double vaxed, had the mask on, but had great tacos at the taco truck. It was very much an Oakland thing. It was a vibe. The whole town came out. Shout out to All Black for bringing everyone together. It was dope.

It was a fun time. That sounds like actually sounds like a great time. You didn't not wear those bullshit house shoes that Twend Day hit me on Twitter with, though, did you? You didn't wear those mofos to the taco truck, did you? Those are house shoes. Those are house shoes. Yeah, but anybody that's going to wear them, I feel like might take them out just because they're, and I feel like you might be that. Okay, so, so boom, I'm glad that you brought this up because it just showed how much of a hater, both you and TD on.

Right. It just showed how much it was. I go in, I put it, I put my house shoes on. They are bare claws as you can go on my Twitter and see it. Are they house shoes or slippers from where you're from? They're house shoes. Go on my house shoes? Are their house shoes?

They're slips slips. They're slippers or, you know, they're one of those two. Anyway, anyway. So I go on, I put it out of, you know, like, I'm also. I'm really happy for them. I'm proud of them, right? I'm really excited. And then I see TD, one TD, our producer, our podcast lead says,

fucking hates. it says, hey, Raja, get your man's. And I'm like, yo, I'm right here and I'm not ashamed. And then I see you do the Craig face. Like, bro, bro, bro, bro, what's wrong? What was your beef? What were you thinking when this happened?

What was going on in your brain? What were you thinking? Other than hate, I'm going to hate on Logan for being a fashion icon. You look like you were 11 years old with them damn bear claws on. I had to show my wife. Just because my wife is way more tolerant than I am,

I can get old than curmudgeony. My wife is way more open. accepted, accepting of, and I show up my wife just as a litmus test. I said, hey, Citi, what do you think about this? She hit me with the immediate, I said, okay, fair enough. I'm, I am on target. I'm good to go. Okay, okay, okay.

The wifey is always the barometer of shit is cool or not. You know what I mean? She hit you with the cringe. Damn. We're good, we're good. I'm sorry, Mrs. Bell. I'm sorry, dog. I apologize.

But, no, actually, I don't apologize. I was saucy that day. I was saucy yesterday, man. I was grooving and moving. and, you know, it was a very eclectic vibe yesterday with the, with the, with the, with the, with the, with the bear claws. It was a great weekend, man. It was dope. You know, switching gears to a sports side and why this was dope, the Lakers won on Sunday. I know, you know, you being a curmudgeon, you don't like the Lakers, you have beef with the Lakers. You have all these, all these, this beef. You have all this hate in your heart that you probably should get out or talk to somebody about. I don't know. But anyway, uh, I started off. the weekend, just being all out on the Lakers, I was, you know how I was the beginning of the season, I was,

I was, Lakers are going to win it all again, back to back, reincarnation of Shack and Kobe with LeBron and AD, AD's going to be the MVP. You know, I was all in on the Lakers. Now, like, after Friday's lost, they lost to the Portland Trail Blazers. And I was just like, is this even a thing anymore? Is this even going to be, and was I right, was I wrong?

Should I just, should I, we just pack all this stuff up and just like, you know, just, just end the season, you know, they're now in the playing game. They're a seventh seed. Sheesh. They're a seventh seed. But I watched the Lakers and they play on Sunday and they played against your Phoenix sons. And I'm just going to put it quite frank, they didn't beat the breaks off of your sons,

but it was a pretty solid win. It was throughout, you know, they played well, AD finally played like AD that we think he can me for extended stretches, had 42 points, really carried the Lakers through against the Sons. And, you know, they're not dead. They're still probably going to be in the play-in game. But, you know, it was an impressive performance, Roger. What did you think? First of all, you guys were, and I say you guys, because Sasha and Jomi were there, too, as Laker fans. For those of you that don't know, behind the scenes on this pod, I have to deal with a lot of lake, A lot of Laker talk.

And I don't hate the Lakers. I'm just not a true Laker fan. History suggests that you hate the Lakers. Okay, fair enough. But I don't necessarily hate the Lakers. I'm just not a huge Laker fan. And so, yeah, everyone was in panic mode. And look, I think there was there was some panic to be had there.

They weren't playing well. They're injured. You slip into playoff or play in contention. And in one game series, anything can happen. And that's the fear. I've always said if you give me AD and LeBron relatively healthy, let's say 75% or better, it's going to be hard for me to bet against them. But when you're not certain of that and you're in playoff contention, you should be worried. But I don't know that the sky was falling necessarily. You know, I do think it was a true beatdown of the Suns last night. Now, I give them more credit than you did because they didn't have Kyle Kuzma. They didn't have Dennis Schroeder. And they didn't have. have LeBron and you still handily beat them in it. If I'm the sons, you know, that's concerning. That was a message. That was a message for sure. That's definitely concerning, right? AD did play great. You need him to play great, though, quite frankly. You need him to play like this.

No, Logan. That's who he's got to be. If we're talking about passing the torch and that become his team, this has to be, I mean, I have to 42 every night or whatever he had, but he's got to demand the ball and be the closer and the breadwinner every night. That's what you've got to be, right? And if he does that and LeBron comes back at 75, 80 percent, I think the Lakers are fine. I don't know that I would necessarily pick them to win the championship this year, but they're going to be in and around in the mix. There's some really good teams in the Western Conference. But the Lakers are fine. If they're healthy, if they're healthy. This all comes down to when you just brought the point up, that was great. It comes down.

down to AD saying, fuck the offense, give me the ball. I mean, that's what dudes do. That's what you're talking about dudes and guys. Dudes do that. Yeah. Yeah. Real ones do that. That's what they do.

Give me the ball and just get out of the way. I'm a curious. That's what Shaq did. That's what Kareem did back in the day. That's what Will did. Just give me the ball, all right? I don't care what you guys do on the other side, on the weak side or whatever. I don't care if you guys cut or whatever.

Just give me the ball. And they were doing that in a lot of ways, man. I'd seen drumming was, drumming was just getting the ball in the high post, throwing up lobs to AD, boom, dunk. Throw it in the post to AD. Uh, fade away. Oh, cash. That was all day for AD.

And every time he has this performance, Roger, this goes back to last fall when we were first watching AD together, me and you. And we were like, yeah, why doesn't he do this every night? Why come he doesn't do this every night? Why doesn't he do this every single night? LeBron's not there to take away your touches. You know, Coos isn't there to take away your touches. Not that they should, but they're not there.

There's no excuses. It's the question that I believe the Lakers franchise, at least foreseeable, future hinges on. It is. It's the question that I believe people in the front office with the Lakers are having internally at times. Can this be something that happens all the time happens consistently, happens enough where he can be the number one player on a championship contending team. They're number one players, Logan, on bad teams. Every team's got to have a number one, right? I mean, bad teams, teams that win nine games have a number one. That doesn't mean you can be

the number one on a championship contending team. It's process of elimination. On those bad teams, that is. But on these teams, you are anointed and you are that guy. Yeah, but the fact is, my point being, in a situation, someone has to rise to be number one, but there's a separation between number one, on teams that have no legs in terms of trying to win something, and number one's on championship contending teams. And that's what we're talking about with the Lakers. And so I've never argued,

and I would never make my mouth to say that Anthony Davis isn't one of the most skilled, versatile, talented players in the league. Where I run into some reservations, is whether or not you can get it consistently, whether or not he can stay healthy enough to do it consistently. And quite frankly, at times,

whether he's built, you know, mentally and emotionally to carry the weight of that night in and night out. Now, the cool thing for the Lakers franchise is, I mean, he might be able to do it. You know, maybe he's just got to be dolo in that situation and not have to defer to anyone. I don't know. I don't know.

The one thing that it's one thing to be a number one guy in the league. It's another thing to be on the number one guy. on the championship team. It's a whole other thing to be a number one guy in the Los Angeles Lakers. It just is. That's fair?

It's just in general. And I hope he can get to that point. I really do. He is a top three talent in this league. Now, is he a top five player in this league? We can't be in Sparks, for sure. But if he plays like he did,

go ahead. You don't get to say that, though. But I'm with you. I want you to finish your thought. I want you to finish your thought, Logan. But let me just say, like, if you have to qualify, fight it by saying he can be in spurts.

That means you ain't. Top 10 player can be a top five player in sports. Fair. I mean, and the game. I think that, but I just, I want him to, I just want him to take that next step. And we shouldn't have these types of questions right now, though, about AD. And I think that we're going to see this next postseason. This will be a fun postseason to see from him, no, man, assuming that the Lakers go far,

and we're going to get to that in a second. But assuming the Lakers go far, it's going to be because of AD, bro, because, LeBron, it's hard to even say this can't stay healthy right now. He just can't. And that's tough. But what is it going to take for this team to be? I mean, they're already, I still consider them a contender, but what is it going to take for them to be a champion?

Again, one more time. Health, first and foremost, we're talking LeBron. Do you still believe in them being a championship team if they're healthy? Do you still think they can figure that out if they're healthy? Yeah, but I don't know that they're going to be healthy enough to do it this year, Logan, quite frankly. I told you when that that high ankle sprain happened to LeBron. You remember what I said about the timeline on that? Didn't you say, what was it, it's four to six weeks or something like that?

Yeah, but I told you anyone saying that he was going to be back in four to five weeks is full of shit. That injury lingers. And if you try to get back on it too early, it reaggravates it. It could set off a chain of kinetic like events in your body that injure other things. it's just not that simple. It's not a black and white type of injury. There's a lot of gray area with that. And I know they're errant on the side of caution. LeBron is the best, save for maybe Tom Brady and maybe Russell Wilson in the football world, of taking care of their body, pouring resources into it using any bit of technology they can find to get healthy. So I know he's

doing his part. Unfortunately, the body just takes whatever time it takes. So I don't know that he's going to be healthy. On top of health, they've got to have great contribution. from the perimeter players or the peripheral players on that team. You're going to need Dennis Schroeder to be six-man-of-the-year candidate from last year, Dennis Schroeder. You need Kyle Kuzma to take that leap

from playoffs last year to a better version of himself in playoffs this year. You're going to need Trez Harold. You're going to need Trez Harold to be doing Clippers, Trez-Herald things where he was the six-man. That's what you're going to need. And on top of all of that,

you're going to need a relatively light work matchup in the first round so you can work through some kings because they're going to be some kings. Raja? I don't know. That's a lot to ask. It's a lot.

It's a lot to ask. I mean, one of the things that I keep thinking about this with this team, it's a lot of weird juju this season. And it just doesn't seem, like there's a lot of things that happen where, you know, with a team where the answer is clearly they're not going to win a title, it's not going to happen for them.

And there's just things that happen with their injuries and a lot of small things that add up to being, it's just not our year. It just doesn't seem like our year where everything goes right on other years this year. It just seems like one of those type of years for the Lakers, you know, both their stars go down. The COVID, not the protocols necessarily, but the turnaround from COVID, because you have, had the, you just came from the bubble, like less than two months later, you're back in training camp. And we talked about, you know, you can't really, you're not sitting out games.

Like, remember Danny Green said these guys are going to sit out games? Maybe that should have been the plan. You know, there was so many injuries. There was such a quick turnaround. And these guys are still playing 35 minutes a game. It's just one of those years. It just doesn't seem like it's going to happen. And hopefully it gets, you know, they prove me wrong, but I don't know.

Yeah, you don't know. And every team that has great players and is in the conversation for championship has a story like that, right? Like chips and circumstances either lined up for us or circumstances derailed our opportunity to do that. I'd make an argument that last year's circumstances, as crazy as they were for our world and our country with COVID and the shutdown and all of that, you know, I bought LeBron and company a lot of rest. They bought them a lot of time, right? LeBron the year before that had been injured. We were starting to have the conversation about his age and whether he could withstand the 82 games.

And so you could make the argument that last year, the exact opposite happened for the Lakers. Everything lined up, right? They caught all the breaks. And so, yeah, it happens, man. And that's not to say that they can't get in the playoffs and make noise. And I told you last episode that if LeBron's healthy,

because all this is based on his health, if he comes back and looks good, if he's somewhere right now, Logan, and he's healthy, you know, he did this when we were in Cleveland at a point. He was healthy, but he took some time off because he didn't feel like he was healthy enough. He wasn't good enough, right? And he came back a week later and he looked great. Like, if that's what he's doing right now and he drops back in and he looks great, I already told you I'm not betting against the Lakers. But there's a lot of stuff stacking up against them this

year. I can agree with that. Yeah, one of the things that is stacking up against them, they're going to be in, they're all likelihood going to be in the playing tournament. Now, there is some, I want to give you some scenarios real quick. The Lakers are currently in the seventh seed. I want to give you some scenarios. This is from Mike Tridale, Lakers reporter on Twitter, does a great job with the Lakers, and also a friend of the show. But he says, this is for the Lakers, this is for the sixth seed. If Portland goes four and oh or three and one, they lock up the six seats regardless of what the Lakers do. If the Portland goes two and two, the Lakers can go four and and O and they can get the six seed. If Portland goes one and three, the Lakers can go three and one.

If Portland goes 0 and 4, the Lakers have to go 2 and 2. This doesn't seem like a scenario in which the easy scenario for the Lakers. It's basically the ball is in Portland's court. And I never saw this coming that the Lakers would have to be in the playing game and Portland would be in the driver's seat to go into a postseason burp. If you had to tell me that beginning the season, I'd be like, you're wilding. But what's an interesting wrinkle, though, Raja, is it's all likelihood that the Lakers in the playing game would have to play the Golden State Warriors.

That seems like a... That would be really spicy. I would just say, though, as I'm looking at their schedules, Portland has Houston, which I'm assuming is a win. And then they're at Utah, at Phoenix, and Denver at home. that's tough they could go one and three they could go one and three and the lakers on the flip side of that let's see the lakers have new york at home houston at home at indiana and at the pelicans with no zion so i'm just saying i wouldn't count myself out if i was a laker fan but

for my money you don't want to be in this position you don't want to be in this position but go ahead that's the bottom line yeah i'm with you on that there's not i want to say this correct because there are people I would fear as much maybe, but there are not many people that I would fear more in a one game scenario than Steph Curry, the way he is currently playing, and quite frankly, for that matter, the way Golden State as a team has figured out

the way they need to play to stay afloat. Give them all to Steph Curry. But we're talking about all hands on deck with that philosophy. So if he catches fire, that's a scary thing. You know, that's a really, really precarious situation you put yourself in if you're the Lakers. And that goes to show you say like, we're talking about the Lakers road to potentially a next final. So listen, you're talking about if you win this and say you beat Golden State in a playing game, right?

Then you're talking about going to play Utah or Phoenix or most likely Phoenix if you're a seventh seed. but then you're talking about going to play them right back to back. And then that's a hard, that's a hard ask, right? You're trying to starve off Steph Curry in a playing game. And then you have to go play Phoenix in a postseason matchup. And I think that they beat Phoenix ultimately. But that's something that when you're talking about working out the kinks and working out things, you're doing this against teams that are, one of them is really, really good.

And then another has a really, a guy that can really, really stretch. you out. This is not ideal for the Lakers, I don't think. Now, the schedule on the back end helps them out tremendously. Hopefully they can get to that sixth seed for their sake. But if they go into that seven seed, it's a hard, it's hard. It's really hard, not just for the, for the people that you have to face and get through, but we're talking about a team. It's got a little bit of age on its best player or, you know, 1A, 1B type of player coming off of an injury. So for every game that you've got to play, Logan. There's a requirement of rest that he's going to need to get back to the level that he needs to play at to win you games. And so, you know, that's an issue. The more

miles you put on a body coming off of injury, make you more susceptible to injury theoretically, that that's an issue. There are a lot of things going on with that. I'm just going to say this. For all my Phoenix Suns fans, like Phoenix Faithful, if you have any control down the stretch, and I know this is like a taboo thing, people don't love to do this. Sometimes be careful what you ask for, right? Like when you're jockeying for playoff position and almost selecting who you want to play in the playoffs, if you can control that, don't be bashful. You won no part of the Lakers.

No. Leave them alone. If you can control that and you can let the Lakers either skip you. Are you telling your team to tank? Are you telling your team to tank? I'm telling the Phoenix Sons to if you control whether you play the Lakers in the first round or not, be in the business of not playing the Lakers in that front. first round. It's not good, bro, and it's not good. They beat you handily without,

without all their guys. Without all their guys. And I think as great of a story as Phoenix has been, and I hope that they continue to be it. I know what I'm going to get out of book. I know what I'm going to get out of CP3. When you start talking about DeAndre Aiton, he's been good, but you don't know that you can trust that in those moments yet. You know what's his defense against Anthony Davis? But that's what I'm saying. Like, you can't, you can't. You can't. It takes some conditioning. It takes some experience. It takes some seasoning. We talk about this all the time for guys to be effective in the playoffs, and they lack that in some areas. Well, more than anything, I've never been there before. I mean, yeah.

Chris, other than Chris Paul, they've never been there. And I just, I don't know, man. Jake, we talk about this. Jay Crowder helps in that area. Torrey Craig has been in a playoff. They brought in pieces. James, J-Jups and company have tried. tried to work around the fringe. Shout out Joub's friend of the show. Shout out Joub's, to try to supplement. But you're right. Some of those young players, even book,

who I think would be fine in the playoffs. They haven't been there, so you don't know what you're going to get yet. Quick side note. I know you're talking this mess about the Sons right now. How much do you love this son's team, though? Let's just, let's. No, they're great. How much you?

Yeah. They're great. I mean, they're, they're great. I don't. They're totally different from y'all, but they're a fun team. Like, they play defense. They're a fun team to watch. They're a fun team.

much. I do like this team. But Lakers, we'll see what happens. It's, you know, the Lakers are never, like, not interesting. I'll say that. They're just, they're never not interesting. There's always, there's always question marks. And they could, in true Laker fashion, they could just do a big F you and win it all. So, you know, we'll see what happens. Um, say a quick break. When we come back, we're going to talk about something that is near and dear to Raj's heart. And we are back. Like I said, we were here to talk about something near and dear to Roger's heart, and that is

the play of Russell Westbrook. Is that fair? That's more than fair, sir. Continue. Was that a good tease? Okay, cool. He had 33 points, 19 rebounds, 15 assists at a 133-1-32. Overtime win against Indiana

where he just bawled out of control. It was his 35th triple double of this season. And it tied him with Oscar Robertson's NBA record of 181 career triple doubles. He will probably break this record, if we know anything. He'll probably break the record this season with Oscar Robertson. And also credit to Oscar Robertson, who's been a champion of Russ when a lot of people were just throwing dirt on his name.

He was a champion of Russ. So is it finally, like, it's weird to say this, but is it time just to, like, fully just throw all the Russ hate and just put some full respect on Russ's name right now? Is it, did it take this? Or like, we're going to get deeper into this conversation. But is Russ Teflon right now? Yeah. I mean, you would think he should be, although I still turn my TV on and hear people,

you know, qualify all the great things he's done and then still throw shade at his ability to win and all of that. I watch. I see them in the streets still doing their thing. I, for one, I'm not going to get upset and start yelling like I always do. I'm not going to do it right now because I, for one, can say that I've never, ever thrown shade at Russ. I've always fucked with Russ because I know what it takes, Logan, just like dudes who are in locker rooms with him and people who play against him. They know what it takes to do what he's doing.

Most of us could never do it multiple, like two, three times. This man is doing it over and over and over again. So I would never be in the camp of someone trying to marginalize what Russ does just because he hasn't won a championship. We don't marginalize what Steve Nash did. Steve is my man. I get on here and talk about Steve all the time. Steve ain't went no fucking championship. And I love Steve.

And I don't think it takes away from any of his greatness. Yeah. John Stockton never won a fucking championship. And I love Stock. I think he's great and deserves a place. on that mantle of top point guards to ever play. But it doesn't take away from his greatness. Chris Paul right now.

So what are we, like, what are we doing? Just because the style doesn't fit the eye test for some people or, you know, he doesn't analytically fit in today's game. I don't buy the bullshit. And I think it's, you know, I watch TV. I see him doing it. And I don't, I don't know Russ like that. So forgive me.

Where are you going? Where are you going, Ross? I'm good. I watch these cats talk out the side of their mouth, get up there and put their boards up, talking about all of the good shit Russ does and try to hype him and give him all his flowers and then come back to their chair

and eviscerate him for not winning. Like I watched that, but he is winning. And he's always won. He just ain't got no chip. You said you weren't going to yell. Look at you right now. Look at you right now.

Shit gets me heated, bro. That man is what a real one is about, Logan. In terms of laying everything inside, your body cavity on the court. That's what he does. Okay, so it's a couple of things, in my opinion, of why this happens, of why this is a thing. One, they talk about his game in general, but two, he didn't play the media game.

Point blank, he did not play the media game in a way that, like, other guys do. You know, where other guys are media darlings, right? you know, people on our end, and we talk about this, go back and forth all the time, they get really upset when you don't, you're not nice to them. And they're humans. That's what it is. They are. But that manifests in other ways of like, well, like, I think the biggest mirror to how we are as a basketball society was Russell Westbrook's 2016-17 season.

And that was the Revenge Tour. that was the year after Kevin left, and that's when he just went on a full tear with the triple doubles, right? Something we hadn't seen in 40 years, this, right? But if you looked at sports shows and you looked at what was written at the time, it was written as if it was all triple doubles are devalued,

or all he's chasing rebounds or this. And like, we had Ennis Canter on the show talking about Russ is great. Is he a good teammate? He's a freaking great teammate from everything we've heard. It just started, it started earlier than that, but I think that that was the biggest mirror to always as a basketball society. I feel like a lot of people cover and watch sports as if they hate these athletes, bro.

And I don't, it's weird to me. Like, it's weird. What do you think about that, Roger? Because you're on the inside, but I see that in a lot of ways. It's just like, bro, are you, do you like the game? Somebody just, you know, and I get. And I get calling someone out when they do something wrong or like when they get in trouble off the court calling them out. I get that.

That's journalism and things like that. But dude, if somebody is bawling out of control, it averages a triple double after someone like, okay, boom. Here's one thing that I think that is a great case study, right? Kevin Durant left Oklahoma City, right? And Russ got trashed for it. Right? He got trashed the whole season was like, oh, you know, just like devaluing triple doubles. And then a guy like Steph Curry, who I love, I know you love, media darling, is getting celebrated right now for going off when Kevin leaves, right, after someone leaves. Yeah.

I think that's a very, it's very interesting, Raja, don't you think? It is very, it's very, it's very interesting. It's a shame, though, that we still... You know, my dad told me a long time ago when I was a young man. You got to learn how to play the game. You ain't got to love the game, you know, but you got to learn how to play the game, meaning, you know, sometimes you got to do some shit

you don't want to do to get the response you want out of people. I've learned that. I haven't always been great at that, but, you know, my dad, you said to me, it took me a long time to learn and I'm still learning it. I think what you're describing is a case of that to some degree, right? you're saying Rusted and played a game with somebody's dudes who had a pen and pad or were sitting behind a computer. It's hard for me because I have a lot of respect for most journalists.

I've been friends with a lot of them. I think a lot of them do a great job. They're outliers in any profession where people don't. And ethically, they're not the best. But I've had very few interaction with people like that. So I want to say that up front. For the most part, I love journalists. What I don't like is when,

and I feel I felt this at times when you don't get the type of respect that you think you deserve as a journalist from an athlete in the moment that they are at their most dejected at times or most hyped at times. Clearly they're most emotional, which is right after one of these games. And you don't get what you want and you hold that grudge. It speaks to you never having been in that situation. And I think that's a problem at times. I'm not the guy that says just because you didn't play a sport, you can't write about it or know it. Or just because you didn't play it, you can't coach it or be someone in the administrative offices. I don't believe that. But I would say if you're in that locker room and you're getting a guy after some of the most emotional moments of his week and you throw a microphone or you're asking him a question and you don't get what you want at that particular time, if you've been in that situation,

you kind of understand and you don't then hold that against the player. It's like when you got a potnet as an athlete and they lost and you asked them what happened afterwards. What happens after? Like, you know, you got homies and what they like, yo, Rosa, what happened? You're like, shut the fuck up, bro.

Like, what do you fucking saw what happened? You saw what happened and a thing. But athletes are specifically hoopers are like held to the standard where like, or even football players and stuff, like that. And, you know, I think about Marchion when I think about Russ, you know, when they don't, when they just don't want to talk after a game. And I know, you know, Marchon was a bit different, but they don't want to talk after games, bro. They don't want to, they don't feel like their message

is going to get across accurately after a game. And then they don't want to say, then they say, okay, I don't want to say anything. And then when they don't say anything, then they get vilified even more. So it's just, it's, I don't know what to do. I don't know what they can do. I don't know what they could either. And I, again, I, I want to go a step further and say that I understand as an NBA player when I signed my contract that in the contract, there's media availability, right? Like, Kyrie just refusing to show up and do media availability. Yeah, that's, yeah.

You've breached contract. They get to find you or do whatever they need to do. That's part of your, but no one says that you have to get up there and give long-winded, heartfelt, deep, emotional, analytical responses to stupid shit. No one says that. They just say you have to be available. for it, right? And so, you know, I would just say, man, like, I wasn't in there for everyone of Russ's interviews. Maybe he did some people wrong. I don't know. But for those of you who

he didn't do wrong, because I can't find too many people that say he did him wrong. I mean, shit. When you look at the man's track record, I mean, I've asked teammates. I asked Ennis on a pod the other day. He had the situation down in the bubble where he left a dope ass tip for a, you know what I mean? He seems like a good duty. Does philanthropic shit all out of the community. We asked Perk about him. Park loves him. I ain't found anyone who says he's an asshole yet. But maybe he did do some people wrong. I'm just saying, for those of you who he didn't, it's a tough thing for me, man. And it manifests itself outside of the Russ conversation and a lot of Hall of Fame type of deals, man. Like, they're dudes trying to get an NFL Hall of Fame and

baseball Hall of Fame, NBA Hall of Fame, that are fighting, not their production. They're fighting the relationships that they didn't have with certain people who have votes for those Hall of fames. And that's shitty to me. Like, you shouldn't be voting for stuff like that and writing articles based on your personal, emotional relationship with a player. It should be based on what they're doing out there. Exactly. I mean, and it just says to like on the other side, and I don't know if like, I don't, I wasn't, I didn't cover Russ. But it would say like, you know, I guess I'm doing the Roger Devils advocate thing. It's like, yo, man, the way, the what you put out, if you say, you know, I don't want to talk. You risk that. You know, you know,

You know, you risk, you do risk if you do come with a combative attitude. And I don't know the politics around it. Like I don't. I'm just saying, just doing the Roger thing. Where, like, if you just be like, I don't want to, I'm not going to talk to you. I'm not going to give me. I'm not going to, because, you know, it is, it does inherently make our job harder when that happens. All right?

When you don't talk, when you, it just, it makes our job harder. And, you know, we're traveling across the country following you. And if you don't give us no time a day. We're going to feel some type of way. That's fair. But it is what it is. But what's up? I've made your job harder.

That doesn't mean that you write a shitty piece about me chasing rebounds. That's factually, the definition of rebounding is chasing balls off of misses. So what the fuck are we talking about chasing rebounds? That's what everyone who rebounds does. So don't write some BS about chasing. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, you're right. That's what's what?

But don't be irresponsible just because I'm, like, don't do that. But, like, do you ever feel that way sometimes? Whereas it's like, do y'all even like the game? Like, I go on Twitter and I'm like, do you guys like what you're watching? I see that. And I'm a big proponent of bringing NBA propaganda back, you know, like the old NBC, you know, the old, you know, when NBC used to do the Sunday games, did they be like, you know, you thought Michael Jordan and AI and all these people were like just these wild, like, they were all characters, right? They were all these people. The NFL does it great.

Rogers versus Brady, you know, two greats playing against each other. And then I see, and I go and watch the NBA, it's not like that. It's, man, back in my day, it wasn't like this, or this guy is chasing rebounds, or this guy, I'm just like, do you like what you're watching, man?

Like, why are you doing this? Why are you watching? Why are you hate watching this game? I just, I wish that it was a bit. I wish that people liked the game a bit more. It was just from an observation. I don't even know how to say this, man. Like I'm in my own rabbit hole right now,

but I think that some people get into the business of talking basketball and writing basketball because they couldn't play basketball and they loved basketball, right? Not diminishing the love, but you couldn't play past a certain level. So now you're into the game another way, right? That's not everyone.

That's some people. You have a respect for what, you know, these guys do, bordering, you know, like at times. there could be a little resentment there. I don't know. And then now you hold the cards, though, right? You hold the cards now because the narrative is created by you as the journalist, right? And when not met what the proper in your mind respect level or deference at times,

if you will, now's your chance, right? Now is when it comes out, I got you. Here, let me show you what I can do, right? You know what I mean? And I think at times, not saying that this is always the case. It's my dog barks in the background. I think there is some of that.

I think there's a level of hate, a level of just resentment and jealousy. It's not even towards Roger Bell. It's towards Robert or whoever made fun of them for not being a hooper back in the day. And they were like, I'm going to show you. Is that what it is? Help me understand what you're trying to say.

I know. That didn't do a great job. I think what I'm saying is for that person who would do that, There could be some feelings. I worked in front offices. I hate doing this, but it's my experience. So I want to keep, like, this is my experience that I can share.

In front offices when I got there, I could feel like there were some people that were great and wanted to help me learn and wanted to teach me and thought it was dope that they had a former player in there. And there were other people that were like, the fuck. Like, I didn't get to play and I wanted to play. I had to pay these dues and come up the hard way in whatever. and here he is, they're bringing him in. And you could feel that level of jealousy.

Do you know what I'm saying? So that you could feel it. It was just there. It was like you were met with the snarky thing. Also, man, you know why like, go ahead, go ahead. No, I think you see that sometimes for media members, you know, in their coverage of games, if they should run across a guy who doesn't give them exactly what they want. I don't know, man.

I think when that happens for me, I just, it's weird. I want to know more about him. Like, if Raj, if you don't want to talk to me, if you don't want to, like, do it, like, what's going on? Why? Why? Like, why, at least. Like, we're not probably going to, like, probably not going to give me a quote or anything,

but at least I better understand you, which I feel like ultimately everybody wants to be understood, right? And even, even Russ, this season has really been reflective on his journey and things like that. Now he's like, I don't really give, I don't care, you know, I don't. But he's giving a lot more, a lot more answers now. And we're getting a bit of a, of a. a more better understanding where he's coming from. But I just feel like, yo, man, we could, he doesn't have to just do that. We can go search and see, we could just do our jobs and be like, yo, we're us.

What's up, man? How are you doing? What's going on? How are things? Maybe I could tell a better story instead of one side and chasing rebounds, which is, but it's funny to me when you talk about your front office experience because it's like, bro, like, I know such and such work hard or whatever, and that's great. But, like, you did too.

You know, you dedicated your whole life to this. Correct. Correct. Correct. But it's a really, it's a deep conversation, man. It's really, it's a, it's a, it's a very layered and a very nuanced conversation. Yes. Because a lot of times, even in general talk without, without bringing the media or front office into or when you talk to a random person about playing a sport, you, you're met with terms like lucky. And do you know what I mean? Like, as if. there wasn't a lifetime of dedication poured into this, as if you weren't met with trials and tribulations and heartbreak. There's luck involved, bro, but like, that's just a piece of it. There's luck. There's luck involved in Bill Gates being Bill Gates and Steve Balmer being Steele-Bomber, Mark Cuban being Mark Cuban.

There's luck in every walk of life. There's luck in everything, or lack thereof. But too often in sports, I feel like that's the way people want to portray that, is if you were just lucky. You know what I mean? Like that's what it is, man. You were blessed with luck and, you know, and height. I'm like, do you know how many six, seven mofos are walking around here that can't play a lick of damn basketball?

I mean, I'm a six-three dude that can't play a lick of basketball right now. I mean, but like, that's what it is. And so that conversation winds up getting really deep. Here's what I'll say, because I know we're going in terms of what a triple double is, Logan. I want to say this again. Does anyone listening have any idea? I would like to text, like not text, but our Twitter. If you have a triple double at any level of basketball under your belt,

hit me up on Twitter. I want to know about it because they don't just come around. That's not something. You don't get to tell me he's chasing rebounds. You don't get to tell me that. Yeah, he's chasing them. Everyone's chasing them. That's what's just supposed to do.

He got 19. You're supposed to chase the ball. Yeah. Do you know what kind of energy is expended, chasing 19 rebounds, and then coming up with 17 assists and scoring 30 points? It doesn't happen. So we need to stop. As a guard, as a guard, he's doing it.

Come on, bro. We need to stop, man. I just wanted to use this thing because I know we kind of got to this a couple weeks ago. Just give Russ's flowers, bro. Just give Russ's flowers. Come on, bro. All right, time to get to the baggage claim. We'll be right back.

Before we get out of here, speaking of dudes that want to hoop, Um, just got this tweet. Sources tell Shams. American rap star Jay Cole is signing a deal with the basketball Africa League with the Rwanda's Patriots BBC. Jay Cole will play three to six games, first of which will be Sunday versus Nigeria. Sweet. Get you live in your dreams, Jay Cole.

The great, great chance for your rollout. He has a new album coming out, I think, next week. I mean, yeah, that's cool. I know he had like the whole basketball theme going on. I mean, so shout out to Cole for playing for the Rwanda Patriots. You know, shout out to him. Who was the best rapper or entertainer Hooper? Let's go with that.

What are we doing with that? It's a good topic. I haven't played with a ton of them. I play with P. Master P. Like in, he was in the CBA or he was in one of those leagues I was playing. in the USBL or whatever. Roy Jones. He's a different, you know, box. Was Master P. Good? He was all right.

I mean, but good. Listen, they're levels to this shit. You know what I mean? Did he, did it warrant him getting them training camp roster? Because he made two training cap rosters. Stop it, bro. I mean, Warren. What is Warren? Listen, I was asking. I don't know. If Master P was Logan Murdoch,

do they give him a training camp invite? I don't have the answer to that. I don't know. Master P could hoop. But what I'm saying, again is there are just levels to this. R. Kelly. So R. Kelly would be around, I know, I know. But you're asking about Hoopers. When I was not real one of the week, R. Kelly. Not real one of the week. Let's clear. Let's get that on. So we got to get those disclaimers out. You know, not real one of the week, R. Kelly.

But go ahead. But R. Kelly would hoop. He'd come down with his tour bus. And he'd be at FIU playing pickup with us. And R. Kelly was a funny one, though, because R. Kelly would come in with five dudes, him and four dudes, right? Him and four dudes. So he didn't want to get on. He wanted his team to get on. So, you know what I mean?

Like R would come in. We'd have R5. Someone would lose a game and their team will come on. And this dude had four cats who's sole purpose was to rebound the ball and get it to him. Offensive rebounds, Logan, kick out. This was before you were supposed to kick out for a three on offensive. It wasn't analytically proven yet that that was more quality shot.

They would get that shit. under the rim and kick it out. R. Kelly would shoot another, like, fadeaway three. It was hilarious, but he could hoop a little bit too. That's how funny. Okay. Best, I think the best

basketball player turned hoop, turn rapper, it's got to be Shaq, right? Shaq's, Shaq was really good. Dame Lillard, obviously. AI had a stretch. Kobe had a stretch,

but I'm gonna go with Shaq. I'm gonna go with Shaq. Shaq has the most staying power probably, right? Shaq was good enough to get a Biggie Smalls feature. Like, come on. He was on Fush Niggins, too, I think. Yeah. Wasn't he?

Yeah, he was. That's your era. Shack could do it. A lot of boys in the NBA, though, were artists like that, man. Like, they, you can see the artist. It was a lot less accepted. It was a lot less accepted back when you were playing. Like, if you were a rapper, we'd laugh at you.

He's a rapper. He'd play basketball. He's just a big basketball player. You definitely, you'd laugh at my flow, bro. You got flow? I got, yeah, I got a little flow, but you laugh at it. So I ain't, no. Okay.

Has this been put to tape? Bro, come. Do I seem like someone who has put any kind of bars on even a piece of paper? No, man. Absolutely. Absolutely. There was a day in a time sitting around a dorm room, you know, in 1998, where, you know, some spirits might have been imbibed and other things are going on, that I might have been in it.

I might have been in a little freestyle thing. I'm just saying, I don't know. Okay. Okay. Well, that was an interesting end to this edition of the real ones. Hey, anybody, check this out. Anybody at FIU or B.U. If you have any tapes of Raja rapping or you have any, like, memories of Raja rapping, lock into the real ones.

Go on dimensions, go on our mailbag, real ones mailbag at gmail.com. We're good. You go and you go ahead and you guys lock in. I'll pay for those. Before you do that, I'll pay for those. I will pay, you richer to me. I don't know if we can do that. You outbid me on the Roger Bell tapes.

But I got bread for the Roger Bell tapes. All right, that was another edition of the ruins. Check us out. Mondays and Thursdays. Yeah, go check out everybody else on our Ringer MBA feed. That is group chat. That is the answer. We have some things coming to that feed.

We got some new people. We got Waz just came on. We got Sirit Sohi Legend We got some some peeps coming on The real ones real soon And go check out the mismatch as well

Go check out R2C2 with who Raja Bell Belayo legend CC Sabathia Yes sir And then we also have the ringer music show That a new episode came out today I am on it Raja

I left the pod real quick I'm on the ringer music show We're talking about Tyler the creator 10 years after his debut project Goblin. Also wrote something for the Ringer site on Tyler of the Creator. Go check that out. We will see you guys on Thursday.

Hala.