The Ringer NBA Show - Do the Lakers Have Too Many Personalities? Plus, Other Mailbag Questions | The Ringer NBA Show (Ep. 306)

Episode Date: August 7, 2018

The Ringer’s Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor answer an array of questions from listeners, including who would be the starting five of underappreciated NBA players (9:10), whether or not Luke Walton will be able to handle the new Lakers (33:30), the guys’ favorite albums of 2018 (42:10), and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

to The Ringer NBA show. I'm Chris Vernon. Joining me as he does every Tuesday from the ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, a.k.a. Kevin O'Bomber, aka Kevin O'Brien, A.K.A. Kevin O'Brien. What's going on, Chris? I like to do the little new edition at the end there. That was good. So we have, on this particular episode, we enlisted the listeners, to send us questions like an ask me anything type episode. I will say this since the last time we spoke, the over-unders for the NBA came out,

and that elicited a lot of talk on Twitter. As the summer goes on and closer to the season beginning, we'll do over-unders and some of our favorites for that particular subject. I will alert you that Haley O'Shaughnessy wrote about some over-unders today on the ringer.com, so make sure you go check that out. But word to the wise, I just want to make sure that everybody knew. We are aware that the overunders came out. We're going to let that play out for a little bit, let those numbers get banged around.

And then closer to the beginning of the season, we'll give our opinions on those. All right, Kevin. So you over the weekend put out a tweet saying basically ask us anything. Anything. And people did. Yeah, people did. So I wrote down, first of all, thank you to all of you that sent in questions. There were so many. There was no way

could keep up. Every time you tweeted that out, my timeline just got bombed out. But we did get a lot of good questions. So I sifted through as many as I possibly could, for those of you that don't hear your question. I'm sorry, but I tried to write down the ones that I could. And when you say write down, you mean you literally wrote them down in a notebook, not on your laptop, yes. Yeah, that's how I do everything. And here, here's a, here's a, here's a a little something for everybody out there. I am, I'm pretty messy, right? I'm a pack rat. I don't throw things away. And I'm pretty messy and not necessarily very organized, right? Never like keep a planner or anything like that. But I am very particular about like a few things. And I use

five star college rolled notebooks and I use Unibal pens. Like I'm very interesting. And I have done that my whole like career. Like, I don't know. There's just things I've been particular about. And so yeah, and I write longhand. Like every radio show I've ever done, I wrote out. The one thing I notice is it's always the true journalist that walk around with a real

notebook in a pen. I don't walk around. I mean, I can't have games. It's always it's always the true journalist that have a notebook. I don't walk around with a notebook and a pen. I walk around with a folded up sheet of computer paper in my back pocket

so that if I ever need to jot anything down. But I do always have the pen. I do. I do always have the pen. I used to always carry around a pen too. Not a long time though for some reason. But I always used to. I always used to pull it out like if somebody needed it. Like everybody gets a pen. It's like, yeah, me. Exactly. Whatever, right? iPhone notes. Yeah, exactly. I understand. All right. First things first. Let's go through these and we'll try to get as many as we can in. At Johnny Cab 17 said, how did each of you meet Bill Simmons? Well, this one's easy for me. Yeah. You get a good story for this. right well i i met him at the uh at the western conference finals he was doing what year uh oh good grief is it 13 no is it 13 how am i forgetting this already is it 11 no way what year was the what what year was the grizzly spurs it's all 2013 12 13 okay good yeah okay 13 all right so uh that's what so bill was doing ABC and they set up here in memphis and at the time

I had been friends with Zach Lowe for a long time, and Zach was working for him. And so, and I had been in communication with Bill over the years. Grantland was great to me. Chris Ryan wrote a big article about the, about the show I was doing in Memphis. I recall a bunch of guys had written things about on Grantland that had referenced me. And so I had, I had reached out to him before. He kind of, he knew who I was and I, oh, here's the craziest that you want to hear the craziest story about this? I'll try to keep this quick.

That's where I met him. But prior to that, I had made these Tony Allen T-shirts. They said all hard grit grind on them, right? That was the first time like a bootleg t-shirt had really been made. And the reason I made it is because nobody had no, there was no Tony Allen swag, right? He was becoming this cult hero in Memphis, and if you went to like the team store or anything, you couldn't find anything. So I made these t-shirts and I had a blog that nobody read. And I put it up on the blog, this post. And it just said, basically, I'm making these shirts. I hope people will buy them, right? Well, this is now years ago on Twitter. Simmons still had like millions of followers. He somehow, He gets a hold of that link and he tweets out the link. And he tweets out this link to the Tony Allen shirts.

It says something like just in time for Father's Day. And I was like, I was like, oh my God. That's nuts. Okay, here's the problem, Kevin. I don't have any shirts. I don't have anywhere to buy the shirts. Oh, no. All I've put up is a mock picture of it.

And now there's like millions of people that are clicking on this thing. I'm like, oh my God, it's a disaster. It just so happens that God rest his soul, the owner of the Grizzlies, Michael Heisley, was in my studio that day. I mean, this turn of events is insane, right? So I'm in there. And of course, he's a billionaire. And I'm like, I'm panicking.

I'm like, what do I do? I said, Bill Simmons just tweeted out this link. And I don't have any product selling. He says, take the orders. He said, get you a PayPal link up now. Like, this is a freaking, it's so crazy this happened. He said, get a PayPal link up now. Let people buy them and fill the order when you can.

Take the orders. You've got to take the orders. And so I made it like a PayPal link. And I took the orders. And like, I mean, tons of them came in, tons and tons and tons. And so at that point now I got to go buy shirts. And I'm worried like, I don't know how many to buy. I don't have that much money at the time.

And to his credit, this is the owner of the team. He said, buy as many as you can, whatever you don't sell, I'll buy back from you. And I was like, no way. He died a few years ago, but I'll never forget that as long as I live. And I sent Bill one of the shirts. I wonder if he still hasn't. And so he was kind of aware of me way back then. And then we met each other at the West Finals.

He was here for like a week. And then kind of stayed in contact after that. That's how I met him. It's pretty cool. And in the flesh, I met him in the ringer's office. This is August 2016, just around this time two years ago, actually. Maybe like August 10th, two years ago around that time. Just a quick hello, really.

Just, you know, just hi, the shook his hand. And then that was it. Then we met each other later at our NBA meeting that we had ahead of the season. That's where we really started having conversation. And then prior to that, before I got hired, I remember seeing like, Bill's if it's followed you on Twitter. It was like, what? When that happened a couple days before Chris Ryan contacted me, like we talked about on your show before I got hired here, that was surprising when I saw that. I was like, oh, I guess my Celtic stuff or my NBA draft stuff might be interesting.

So that was cool. There you go. All right. At Todd Kistler. My story did not feel interesting at all, but it's really not. It's like a quick Twitter fall, too afraid to DM, and then just like a handshake in person. Very basic. I actually, you know what?

I guess that's how most people meet. It's like, hi. And they shake hands. Hey, this does not happen that often where you and I fully agree on something, but I will agree. That was not interesting at all. No, that was the most interesting story I've ever told in my life. All right. Add Todd Kistler.

This was a great question that really, I thought about this one for a while. A time traveler from 2043. What? Comes back and tells you the consensus best player ever was active in 2018-19, and it was not LeBron James. The visitor gives you three chances to guess. this is hard right is there an wait is there an answer

there no okay he said the time traveler I mean you get three guesses okay no no he says that the consensus best player is there an answer what a dumb thing to say the consensus the consensus best player was active in

1819 and it is not LeBron James it's hard to fad them that's not Kevin Durant is obviously the first one who comes of mind. For sure. Then there's... Right, that if he racks up a bunch more...

And if he goes somewhere else... And does it there too. And he might end up breaking all kinds of records also. For sure. Yeah, no doubt. No doubt. I mean, but even with him, though, like, there's been, like, the... He hinted that he might not play past his mid-30s.

So, in a way, maybe it wouldn't be him. Maybe you wouldn't guess him, but I think you would, because he's already one of the top 50 best players ever. Yanis, obviously, as we've talked about recently. Yonis would be... He's no doubt. He at least would have, if we're trying to figure out now, especially because of his age, I mean, what if he has 10 more years?

Yeah. Right. Of what he's already starting to do, which is not way out of the question. Let's just say he had seven or eight more years of what he does. I mean, you're talking, that's a lot of all M.E.A. I mean, the truth is, the answer's more than likely going to be LeBron, but it is a fascinating thing to even think about. And Beed would probably be my third. And Beed?

Yeah. Don't you think he lost too much time at the beginning, though? I do. But then again, it's like, who else is it? I mean, who else you're really going to say? The easy thing would be somebody very young, right? That is totally, like that we look at right now. Like a rookie right now.

A rookie or second year player? Third year player, maybe. Are you trying to say, Jaron Jackson, Jr.? Jared Jackson Jr. Is that what you're saying? I don't think any of them have the potential to be the greatest player ever. No, no.

Ben Simmons as well, I mean, if he learns how to, if he switches shooting hands. If we come up with a third, we say, I agree with you. LeBron and Janice would be two of them. Again, if we're just trying to guess. Oh, you can't guess LeBron, remember? Oh, no, no, I'm sorry.

No, no, no, Janus and, and, uh, and, uh, I think it'd be your, Ben Simmons, one of the, one of the Sixers, one of those two. Janice Durant And yeah I don't really even know Who could even be thrown into the equation honestly I'm trying to look at even young guys

I mean you would be talking about the Maybe Anthony Davis Jason Jason Dave Anthony Davis yeah Anthony Davis okay He's probably already had way too many years of not winning crap I mean I think that's why I didn't pick him Right I'm thinking under 25 and he just turned 25 and he's not winning a title this year Yeah I mean exactly they'll be like

like one or two more years of that. But, you know, then again, there could be another 13 years moving forward of, you know, six championships. You know what I mean? Like his career could end like that into his, he could play until he's 40. He could play until he's like 43. Who knows? I got a lot of questions about this.

Mike QQ asked, and many people sent this in. Do you listen to other NBA podcasts? You want to answer first? Do you? I don't know if you do. I don't listen to many podcasts, to be honest. No, I don't. Usually, when I'm not, you know, writing or talking basketball,

usually I'm just trying to listen to music. Yeah, I would say, obviously, a lot of these guys I've known for a long time, right? I never miss Zach's, and I never miss Wages. Those are the two. Like, on my phone, I have, you know, Zach, you know, low post, dunked on. Yep. And then I'll catch Dunkin. I'll catch

the starters I usually catch on TV now I used to listen to back in the day when they were a podcast Yeah yeah yeah Right I like Rusillo's show

It's really good too And I like Rusillo Also on the Ringer Podcast Network One Shining podcast with Titus And Tate Yeah Some of that

Sometimes I'm college My library And see if there's any Obviously Bill does a lot of NBA I mean look put this way There's a lot Of good NBA

Contents There are It's overwhelming How much Good NBA Content there is on the internet.

And it's like there's only so much time in the day to consume it. And for me, it's like it becomes a choice when it comes time to, you know, like really chill out. Do I want to listen to NBA pods or do I want to listen to like some new music that just came out? Or like one of my favorite albums. Usually I'm going to pick music. Yeah. I got nothing to say about bad or not to say about any of the others.

Yeah. Like but you said like Rosillo, like do catch. I'm trying to look at my library here. I would say if I'm being fair, the ones that I listen to really. religiously or Zachton woges. What I need is like some not NBA podcasts, like to learn about random stuff or whatever. Like how I built this is a podcast that I have on here. Oh, I'll tell you this.

I listen to the Gladwell revisionist history. Oh, yeah, Malcolm Gladwell is for sure. Unbelievable. And that last episode, the last episode of this last season that he just did, the episode about Elvis is one of, it might be the best podcast episode I've, ever heard. Honestly. That and there's one in season two called King of Tears about country music and this guy named Bobby Braddock in Nashville and both of them. I just like they have been totally unforgettable to me and that is rare. But I've, I'm a big fan of those podcasts for sure. Yeah. Yeah,

that's probably one of the best podcasts out there. No doubt. Oh, and I listen to a bunch of the NFL ones. I am a podcast guy. I am. So, I mean, I listen to a bunch of the NFL ones every episode of GM Street. I listened to the ringer NFL show with Kevin and Mays. Yes, yes. And GM Street. Tate and I listen to a bunch of NFL. Yeah, I'd say NFL and NBA, probably.

And then I look forward to hearing Bachelor Party later today. And I love the college football. I'm excited to hear that. Seriously, I'm really excited. The Bachelor was pretty good last night. Anyway, sorry, yeah. Good grief, Kevin. The Bachelor.

I watch, oh, and then behind the My buddy Chris Felica, the bear from college game day, him and Stanford, Steve, do a college football one that I listen to. Okay. That I quite like. But yeah, I listen to a ton of podcast. I do. I'm a podcast fan, for sure. All right, let's see.

Next one is, what is your favorite player media interaction you can remember covering that came from B Twitter? You got one? So here's one. Here's one. So when I was writing about the Celtics, this is like the year 2014 or something. like that. I'm walking down the hallway at TD Garden. And Rajan Rondo always does a thing. And I think, I'm not the only one. He's done this to. He's done it to others as well, I've been told. Where, like, he just gives you, like,

a stare. He'll give you a death stare. And he won't look away first. He'll be the one, it's like a, it's like a dominance thing until you look away. And so he did that to me one time. And I thought that was, like, odd. And a couple weeks later, it was Celtics, Lakers, I want to say. I want to say it was a big game. If I remember correctly, and before the game, I'm in the locker room, and he looks at me and he says, Are you the one that's been writing all that shit about me? And I'm like, no, Rajan, no, I would never write anything bad about you. It wasn't me writing anything bad about you.

He's like, who are you? You're a Lakers writer or whatever? And I was like, no. I was like, I read about the Celtics. He's like, he gives me, like, looks angry at me. And I think he was really just messing around. But Rajan has a way of screwing with the media. And it's funny in a way.

Like I found it humorous. It didn't change anything. It was just funny. He was just busting my balls. It was great. That's what Rajan does. He holds eye contact with you look away. And he'll accuse you're writing bad things about him.

Both of mine include Jason Williams. White chocolate itself. That's pretty good. Okay. So when I first started covering the NBA, I had never been, I had never particularly been involved with being in a locker room all the time. And the Grizzlies were coached by this guy named Sidney Lowe, and they were awful. I mean, awful. And Jason Williams would go after the game and he would go into the training room until everybody was done.

Everybody was done talking. And then he would sneak out. He never talked to the, right, ever. He just wasn't in the locker room, ever. And then at the end, he would just sneak out or he would just wait everybody out and never talk. Okay. So imagine you're covering this team and Jason Williams like never speaks. Okay.

And one night, at the time, the media relations director of the Grizzlies was this girl named Stacey Mitch. And Stacey Mitch walks out and she says, hey guy, and there's only like, I don't know. maybe six to ten of us in the locker room that cover every game after the game, right? And she goes, and they're in the middle of the season. And she goes, hey, guys, Jason's going to talk tonight. And, of course, everybody's head whips around. Like, what? And he walks out, okay?

He walks out of the trading room, Kevin. He goes to his locker. And it's time to talk, right? And so somebody asked the first question to Jason Williams. and he looks directly at all the TV cameras and he's got all the microphones in his face and he goes, we suck, we suck.

We're the worst team in the league, right that. And he walked off. And that was in it. I was like, oh my God. This is unbelievable. So that was his only comment. And then he had been, there was some kind of controversy

that had gone on and the columnist here, this is years down the road, the columnist in Memphis guy named Jeff Calkins wrote this column pretty scathing about him right and he walked in and another time he was in the locker room

he snatches the pen out of Jeff Calkins hand and he goes you ain't writing nothing home boy you ain't writing nothing you ain't write nothing and Mike Miller starts to like restrain him

and he goes he ain't get no interviews he ain't get no interviews And then he's going, I'm good, I'm good. It was unbelievable. Absolutely. Snatched the pen right out of his hand. He said, you ain't writing nothing, home boy. That's wild.

Jeff said, I'll write what I want to write. It's like, dude, it's a two times, honestly, I covered the guy for so long. It's a two times I can ever remember him like doing anything in the locker room. One time he said the team sucks and were the worst than the league in the other. He snatched the pen out of a guy's hand and told him he wasn't writing nothing homeboy. It's pretty good. I love him.

All right. Next one. Let's get to, oh, this is a good one. I'm interested in what your answer's going to be. This came from at Zach Dre. The best concert you've ever been to. Roger Waters doing the wall.

I saw Roger Waters did the wall twice with my dad. And like whatever year that tour was, 2012, 2013, whatever year it was. But the first time we saw it, we had like nosebleed seats. And, you know, we're up there and before the show. And there's this woman like walking around with like tickets. And like she's just giving them away to people. And basically it was like a seat upgrade to like the like the loge inner bowl section down low. So we had we got upgraded, you know, us and like a bunch of other people up in the nosebleeds got upgraded up to like this really nice section. And that and first of all obviously set the net, the tone.

for the night. And then the wall is one of the greatest albums of all time, but the wall by Pink Floyd. And Roger Waters, the production on that entire tour is, for me, it's like when you ask greatest concert, sometimes, it almost seems unfair to say that was a concert because it was more like a whole show as a production. It was more than just a concert. That was fantastic. Yeah, that was the best show I've ever been to, for sure. The funnest one I've ever been to was in college. I went and saw a Tribe Call Quest and Beastie Boys. And it was unbelievable.

I had never really been to like a hip hop show like that before, but the whole arena was like bumping for two and a half hours. And Q-Tip like came out with the Beastie Boys and it was crazy. And it just stands out to me as something that was very fun. In terms of just like being in a place and being totally captivated by something, are you familiar with Damien Rice? Yeah, I know the name. I don't know.

I don't know stuff that much. Irish singer-songwriter. So I saw Damien Rice play in the Orphium, which is the same. It'd be like where Broadway shows are in Memphis. It's like, I don't know, probably holds like 2,000 people, right? So it was like super intimate. And it just so happened. He played a concert in there.

And I was not like a super fan or anything. But he played a concert in there. And it happened to be his last one of the tour. and he was just like, I was just, I don't know, I was blown away the entire time, the entire time. He was absolutely unreal. And I was, that's one that I would say, because that was so unexpected to me.

But I remember walking out of there being like, oh my God, I don't know if I, I mean, he like, he would like walk to the end of the stage with no microphone and just an acoustic guitar. And so it was like a real small place like that. So you could see everything. Those are really fun. No, no, no.

The other one that I've seen in a really small place that stands out is I saw the Hold Steady. And it was 150 degrees in the place. And that guy, the lead singer of the Old Steady was like, I mean, he was like a gospel minister. He just, he controls a crowd like nothing. It was so good, so good. And it was like a club show, right? So it's tiny. I love small venues.

I've been going to a lot of like. little small shows recently in L.A. And last night, I went out with my friend Bill and his girlfriend, Haley, and we reminisced about a show we saw three years ago. We saw Muse at Webster Hall in New York. And obviously, Muse is a band that sells out arenas across the world everywhere. I mean, in Asia and North America and Europe. And they did this little mini tour ahead of the release of their album playing at Webster Hall in New York, which is not a big venue. I don't know capacity. It's maybe like 2,000-ish people in there. And we waited like in line for like six hours all day to get in earlier for that.

And we ordered pizza while we were in line. And went into the show. It was just a fantastic show seeing a big band like that in a small venue. I hope someday one band I want to see in a small venue that I've seen in a couple big ones is arcade fire. Their shows are like a religious experience. Just the energy in the crowd and like the positivity that's, just resonating from the crowd and on the stage and how it's reciprocated back. They put on really, really outstanding shows.

Arcade Fire does. All right. At Craig is funny. Here's an NBA one as the starting five underappreciated players of all time. Now, I did not prepare you for this. I have no idea. I did not prepare you for this. And I will tell you, I did not.

You take this one. I'll respond to you what you say. Okay. I didn't spend a lot of time on this. Okay. Okay. What I wanted to do was... Unsung heroes of all time.

Well, no. I wanted to do it off the top of my head. I was just going to write down... I was just going to write down names, okay? And try to come up with the top five. Like, I was just... Whatever my immediate reaction was, right? And so I'm saying that on the front end.

So when people come to come at my neck over this, I'm telling you, I didn't spend a lot of time looking at this. The guy said, your top five... your five underrated guys or underappreciated players who was just starting 5B, right? And I just wrote down a name, I wrote down point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward, and David, and center, right? Okay. Yeah. Okay.

And this was off, this was my initial reaction. Point guard, Andre Miller, shooting guard, Joe Dumars, small forward, Sean Marion, power forward, Horace Grant, center, David Robinson. it's funny Sean Marion was the name that came to mind for me Sean Marion I always love watching that guy play and I think you know in today's NBA you know with all the versatility and all this stretch fours I think even today he would have been even greater than he was during his actual time playing

it's a pretty good list Chris I like the Andre Miller mentioned too yeah this was again I didn't I didn't think a long time about this so this was again as I'm writing it down this is what was going through my head consistently on that list of best players in the league that didn't make all-star teams. Okay. And so that's always kind of stuck in my head. Andre Miller was always really good, but he never, like, he was always the guy that

didn't make the all-star team. But everybody acknowledged he was really good, right? Joe Dumars was, I've never forgotten Jordan calling him the best defender he faced. And obviously he had the one finals where they swept the Lakers where he averaged like 27 a game. which was chronicled in that bad boys doc not that long ago. And so that was kind of in my head. Sean Marion was always a guy that I thought was underappreciated, much like you. He comes to a lot of people's minds very quickly.

Horace Grant was one because he's always the guy that is never mentioned as a third wheel. Right? It's always Jordan and Pippin. And then sometimes people throw in Rodman, right? But Horace Grant was like double, double guy for them. He was 14 and 10 one year, 15 and 11, or 15 and 11 another year, made an all-star team. Then he went to L.A. and won a ring. And then he was like a veteran on that Orlando team that made the finals. And I always kind of thought that Horace Crant was better than just like, I don't know,

than what he got credit for being, right? He, to put up those kind of numbers and be that solid playing alongside two bona fide, Hall of Famers, all-time greats, you know, it's hard to get your credit. and and David Robinson was just a guy that I always like maybe it's because the reason it was on my mind is because it was his birthday I think within the last week and somebody put this highlight video on Twitter and I was like Jesus go watch his highlight video it is and no one ever talks about him ever like you know people still talk about Akeem Elijah Juan sometimes Patrick Ewing they like I don't know he seems like the forgotten one but he's for sure.

sure an all-time great. And his highlight video that was up, I can't remember, maybe the NBA posted for his birthday, it was like, God, man, you just forget how unbelievable this guy was.

And how well he ran the court. And he was, I mean, always in crazy shape and great defender, great offensive player. I don't know. When I watched that highlight video,

I was like, damn, man, this guy, he looks, crazy. So anyway, yeah, that was off the top of my head. That's what I came up with. G. Dota asked, do you have

a diet you stick to? I couldn't wait to ask you this. Because your weight loss has made a has made real reverberation. Yeah, I don't know why. It's, I don't get it. Cause Chase Serrano's busting your ass about it.

I don't know. I lost 40 pounds on 2011. Like, I've lost like five pounds like the last month. Whoopty do. Do I So that's How'd you lose the 40 pounds? There was this diet book

That I roughly stuck to at the time Called the 17 day diet It was basically like a no carb You know for 17 day diet Then like it's basically that 70 days is the gimmick Three weeks for three weeks It's no carbs And then it's like you're slowly integrating carbs

Back into your diet And so like at that time I lost 40 pounds from like 210 to 170 And then over the years I gained like 20-ish back, and then I wanted to shred that and get back to the 170-ish range where I was before. But really, like, you know, this summer, it's mostly just been the same thing where it's like a lot of, you know, protein, fish, you know, chicken, turkey.

Not really much carbs at all, really. It's a very low-carb diet that I'm on now. And I've been integrating, like, resistance bands, workouts. It's my morning routine, which has been really nice. I think, because I'm not about weights, but, like, resistance pants have been really good for getting, I guess, a little leaner or whatever. It's been good to work up a sweat in the morning. Honestly, it's really just low carbs, no carbs, and, like, no, you know, greasy food, no fast food. It's not hard to eat healthy and find some good food.

There's so much tasty, good food. That's what I discovered in 2011. There's, like, tasty healthy food. Yeah, well, in L.A. There's tasty, healthy food everywhere. There is everywhere, but it's a lot more expensive when you can. Well, yeah. Yeah, that's the one thing I've learned about L.A.

I mean, it's accessible. Yeah, like the produce in L.A. is really good. Right. Like a farmer's market the other day, I bought a, like, what it was labeled a Japanese watermelon. And it is probably like one of the best watermelons I've ever had in my life. So tasty. I don't really stick to anything. I say I don't really, I don't really eat fast food and I don't really eat fried foods very much.

And, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Exactly. And I lost a ton of weight. when I was a after my freshman year of college, I lost a ton of weight and that was I stopped eating fast food

and I stopped drinking soda because I was big soda guy, right? And so I stopped both of those things. And I never picked, I still can't, like I can't have like a sugary drink. Yes. I drink diet stuff. I drink Coke Zero,

die Mountain Dew, whatever. So, I mean, that's still bad for me. But I like soda. I just, I've never drank. I don't think I've drank a, drank like a real soda or something. And I don't, God, I don't know how long years. It's funny when you stop drinking, like, stuff, you know, stuff like that or eating super greasy stuff. I remember in 2011 when I dieted, you know, it was like, I hit like a milestone.

I lost like 30. And like to reward, to reward that, we ordered pizza. Me and my parents, we ordered pizza. And from one of our favorite places nearby. and I remember being so excited to eat pizza for the first time in like six months or whatever. I don't know however long it was. And like the first bite, like, hmm, tastes really good. But then it like suddenly that grease just hits you.

It drops like a bomb in your stomach and you don't feel good. I mean, I like pizza now. I still love pizza. But like when you don't have it for a long time, like you have fast food for the first time in months, like boy, like, It really is like a bomb dropping in your stomach. Your body does not like it. Yeah, that's for sure. King B. Lowe asked the NBA question.

He says, why is there a misconception? Luke Walton won't be able to deal with so many personalities. By all accounts, he gets along with everyone. All right. The first thing is, I actually got to know Luke Walton. He coached in Memphis during the lockout. And he is the coolest guy. He really is.

And so what you have heard about Luke Walton, and everybody liking Luke Walton is absolutely true. Great guy, super personable, just like a guy's guy, likable is all get out. It's just the sheer amount of personalities in that room. I mean, Kevin just told you about Ray John Rondo. That's just one of the guys. When you're, and there has to be,

those guys have to be like usually you've got one or maybe two right that are like have to deal with guys in a locker room they've got now like four or five that are half to deal with guys and you're talking about a guy that is still very young on the job Luke Walton is nowhere near what he will be as a coach in years to come he's still learning as he goes about being a head coach And so when you're taking somebody like that and throwing at him all of these personalities, which is even harder when they're veterans, some of these guys are older than him and played against him. And so I just think you are, and obviously you've got the strongest personality in LeBron. And so I think you're throwing a lot on his play.

It doesn't matter how likable you are. It doesn't matter how well you get along with everyone. Rondo, Lance, Beasley, Javall, I mean, that's a lot of personalities that have been in the midst of situations where coaches had to deal with them, quote. And so you're asking a lot of a young coach. I don't think it's necessarily a misconception about Luke Walton won't not being able to deal with those personalities. I would, my guess would be that it would be an extremely difficult task for anyone, much less somebody that's a few years into the job. I think Luke Walton will be fine. I mean, we'll see how that goes.

But in terms of handling big personalities, it's going to be tough. That's what happens when you have a LeBron James lead team. By the way, it has been death. It has been death to coach him or lose to him. The only one that's made it is Bolstra, the only one. And that's because he had Pat Riley standing right by. Yeah, and Luke Walton could too. We'll see.

I think Luke Walton's a good coach. I look forward to seeing what he can do with LeBron James on his team. You mentioned Tony Allen there, Chris. I got a question about Tony Allen for you. I did? When did I have mentioned Tony? Oh, at the beginning? Yeah, towards the beginning, yeah.

This is part of the reason why I want to read it. The Twitter handle was Gil Danbert. All right? It's like Dan Gilbert's burner. He says, Verno, what is your favorite, seldom told Tony Allen tale. If there's any, you're allowed to share. Seldom told?

I mean, I think generally people know we beat up O.J. Mayo on a plane, right? Um, I'm not sure if I'm misremembering. Yeah. How long ago is this? I guess it wasn't really reported. Oh, yeah. I just Googled it was reported in 2011. 2011.

Did few seals emerge of Allen versus Mayo fight? Yeah. I mean, it was over cards. A black guy for O.J. Mayo. You know, they all play Boo Ray on the plane. So he popped. It says Mayo trash talk to Alan for roughly 15 minutes, criticizing his game,

bragging about how he was a better basketball player than Alan, about how he was a lottery pick. Alan was reportedly, especially bothered by Mayo's chatter because they have a friendly relationship. Zach Randolph tried to play peacemaker. I mean, that's some OG stuff, man. Yeah.

So, I mean, like, you know, and like, OJ showed up and he's like, you know. It's some OJ stuff. stuff. But, I mean, OJ's eye was messed up, man. I mean, and then it was like, you know, you just had to come up with something, and he just, like, wasn't around.

And they're buddies. Still to this day, they're buddies. Like, Tony would never, he would never talk about that, ever. I tried to get him to, never. It's like it never happened, but like it happened. I mean, listen, he's the realist,

all right? Let me make that clear. Like, he is not to be trifled with. Who the hell hit somebody on a plane? There's nowhere to go, by the way. You got to sit there for the rest of the trip. You know what I mean? Not the best place to get in a fight is on a plane.

And obviously, you know, those cards, man. Cards are good. Cards are serious business. Serious business. They said that I remember Rudy Gaye saying afterwards that they were going to have to play Candyland on the plane from now on. Oh my God Because Canney Lynn is low-key a good time

I used to play with my grandpa Jesus Christ Kevin What? I used to play I was like a little kid Caneyland was cool Canny land was fun when you're a little kid We're talking about NBA players on a plane

I used to play one I used to go over my grandpa's house On like Wednesdays when I was a little kid All right dude Candylan is a good time and I hope with like all these, everybody on phones these days, Candy Land doesn't go away. It was a good board game. All right, listen, I'm telling you this.

You whip out a box of Candy Land on a NBA plane. Antonio Lama beat your ex. No kidding. No kidding. I'm saying, for you. You guys want to play Candy Land? Like, what the hell? Okay.

Yeah. No Candy Land. Okay. I have a question about games. Speaking about games, Chris, there's one other one that I was curious about. You took a video of your son playing Fortnite recently. Yeah, Paul Wren asked,

how many wins does Verno have in Fortnite? Oh, I'm horrible. Absolutely horrible. I have no wins. The best I've gotten is like in the top 10, and that's because I hid in the bush for like a half an hour. There's nothing wrong with camping. Camping is a legitimate strategy.

I've only gotten two kills ever. Oh, my goodness. And by the way, if I happen to kill you. How does your son react when you get a kill? Is it like winning the Super Bowl? No. No, like, I mean, because I talk a lot of trash and I talk about how awesome I am, and then I go and get killed and he makes fun of me.

I mean, I'm bad at it. I'm bad. Yeah, that's okay. You know, the problem is, is because I've got a, I can't get the right controller. So we got a PlayStation 4 on the right controller. I can't, like how you view, like look right and left. Yeah, that's the reason why you're bad at the game. Yeah, right.

Sure. Well, no, and then when someone starts shooting at me, I don't, like, I'm, I'm not quick enough to react, and then I start, like, looking down immediately. And then I'm, like, looking down at the ground, and then it says eliminated, and I get mad. And fairness, I've only played it probably 10 times. You're a BK on Fortnite. He calls me, what is the word, a noob? A noob, yeah, a noob.

Yeah, he said, that's where the nobs go. And I said, I don't know what you're talking about. Shut up. And then I go, hey, this is the funniest one. The other night I walked in there, and I said, I said, give me that controller. I said, I'm the king of tilted towers. Like, that's one of the places, right?

Where he dropped down with the umbrella, right? And he's like, you're not the king of tilted towers. Like, you got like two kills ever. And I was like, bet I dropped down right at tilted towers. And I just start killing people. And he was like, okay, let's see. Right? So I started, right, the bus, and you jump out the bus and he got like the little parachute, whatever.

And I said, guide me to tilted tower. So he told me where to go. right? I swear to God, Kevin. I landed on the top of one of the towers. Like my feet hit the ground. It said, boom, you're eliminated. I was like, wait, what? I got killed within two seconds. We're going to get

you on like the ringers, Fortnite Twitch streams. No, you don't. I think we I think we do. I'm pretty sure. I think that's what makes it more fun. The facts are so bad at all right. Matt Chil Doocy asks, what are your favorite albums of 2018? Oh, boy.

Favorite albums of 2018? The first one that came to my mind was Daytona, push a tease album. I probably listened to it most. Your answer's going to be way different than mine. Well, it's only like 20 minutes long. I've listened to it like a thousand times. So, I mean, that one popped up in my mind when I first read the question. You'll give us some kind of hipster thing that no one's ever heard of, right?

Hipster thing. So sad, so sexy by Licky Lee. I think that's probably my favorite album of a year so far. Sure enough. Haven't heard of it. Oh, geez. Yeah. luckily her evolution as a songwriter

it's really remarkable you listen to her 10 years ago with youth novels her debut album it's like very hipstery to you know to allude to it chris it's very hipstery indie pop sound little bit dance dance dance I'm gone I'm gone like I'm good I'm gone you know songs like that very hipstery but so sad so sexy is her most mainstream album Chris it is a mainstream pop

album with like elements of trap within the songs. Songs like sex money feelings die. Deep end. So sad, so sexy. This is the album title track. It is a fantastic, compact, 34 minute album. Listen all the way through. It's beautifully produced, wonderfully written. And Lucky Lee, as always, sounds beautiful on it. It's great. Licky Lee. L. L. Y, K-K-E-L-I. L-I. Licky Lee. I am unfamiliar with her word. Oh, the Kid C Ghost. I really like that.

That's the Kid Cuddy and Kanye West. Fourth Dimension is probably the most played song on this phone now that I'm looking at it. It's the best beat of the year for sure. There's a song by Snow Patrol. What if this is all the love you ever get? One of the prettiest songs of the last like five years. That's on their new album. I love that song.

Janelle Monet, I've listened to a lot. That's your girl, right? Yeah, I saw Janelle Monet. That came a dirty computer came out this year, right? Dirty computer, yeah. Okay, I like that a lot. I like her. I didn't love dirty computer.

I didn't love it. It's good. I just didn't love it. I thought God's favorite customer by Father John Misty. Shout out to Dan Bailey, drummer in the band. I saw Father John Misty live a couple weeks back. The kicker for the Cowboys?

No, Dan Bailey, the drummer for Father John Misty. Shout out to him. But God's favorite customer, probably my favorite Father John Misty Elm, I think. That's a really good. good album. And again, another short album, too. I'm pretty sure that's around maybe only 40. Who is the most popular music artist that you like? Arcade Fire, would you say? I don't, I mean, what is Arcade Fire? I mean, they're popular. Sold a lot of albums or that a lot of people, like, somebody that you can't see in a 200

Caterina. Lady Gaga. Oh, Lady Gaga. I love Lady Gaga. I saw Lady Gaga at Fenway Park last August. There you go. And so Lady Gaga, she plays at Fenway, right? And like during the show, she says, like, I'll be across the street at the House of Blues afterwards. So, like, I'm there a solo. And I was like, you know, I'm going. Why not? And, you know, after the show across the street, there's this long line of people outside, this really, really long line outside the House of Blues. And I'm like, oh, my God, screw this. I'm never going to get in. So I walk up to the box office. And I'm like, can I buy a ticket to, like, to get in? Because I saw somebody, like cut the line.

And I was like, yeah, you can go in if you have a ticket. Because other people were just going in with their Lady Gaga tickets from Fenway. So I bought a ticket for the actual band that was playing there. Cut this line of like 400 people that were wrapped around the block. And yeah, dude, it was

really cool seeing Lady Gaga play with a jazz group because I think one of the things about her, she's, a lot of people know this now, but like she is an outstanding artist, right? More than just a pop star. And she really, showed off her amazing vocals in that little little venue. There you go.

I'd love to see her a person. Dude, her shows are unbelievable, really great. There's a, I think that was probably shocking to a lot of our listeners that Kevin O'Connor loves Lady Gaga. I love Lady Gaga. All right, I'll match you. For a lot of our muse is probably the band that's most popular that I like.

But yeah, you're going to match me. I'll match you in terms of, like, this will probably shock people. I am a enormous Fiona Apple fan. Ah, that's pretty good. Of all things. Yeah, I, well, like, maybe the album is my favorite ever is

extraordinary machine. I love her. I love her music. I want to meet her. And I went to go see her in concert, right? After whatever the last album was, is the first time. And I had always, like, never gone and seen her in concert, whatever. And I went and I always felt like, I don't know, like, I just always wanted to like cheer her up, right? She's like the antithesis of me, right? I wake up in the morning generally happy. I like laughing. I like, you know, she's always, she's always so broken, right? So

sad. And you know what I mean? And so, like, always trying to build herself up and pop herself up, and I love their music so much. And I went and saw her in this concert. And then I was like, ready for like, you know, this broken, you know, Fiona Apple. And she was like, I don't know, she came off like, just like super angry. It kind of went from like, hey, I want to cheer you up to like, oh my God, I better duck because she's like throwing dishes, you know, at me or something. Like, she was mad. Like, she was just like, I don't know.

It was like, and maybe that last album, right, it was just kind of, I don't know, she was a little angry. And I always kind of thought of her as like this, I don't know, fragile, innocent, like, oh man you've been through so damn much and everybody always craps on you all the time and I just want to cheer you up right I don't know I just always I always liked her I'm a huge fan of her and she comes out with an album every 10 years I I feel I feel that way about this new fairly fairly new artist right now Phoebe Bridgers highly highly recommend checking her out her debut album came out about a year ago almost a year ago

Stranger in the Alps. And it's kind of like folk, indie folk, you know, pop elements in there as well. And, man, like her voice is just outstanding. She's an incredible songwriter. Lyrically, her elm, Stranger in the Alps, Phoebe Bridgers. I got to see her live whenever she's in L.A. next. She's really outstanding. At the Sky Show, Chicago asked your thoughts on the WNBA.

And posted that with the picture of you of Shea Serrano. You were at a W&A. person. This will probably... She took me hostage because I thought he was going to kill me. I thought that's what was going to happen. But we actually had a great time. WM.

Games are awesome. Totally possible that this could surprise people. This is how I got into it. There was a group of my friends, all of which are gamblers. And about four or five years ago, they started passing around on the text, like, yo, we got to start betting on the Minnesota links. They win like every night and kick the shit out of everyone. And this is years ago now, four or five years ago.

And then they would like watch the games. Like that God, like either like we would put them up on a phone on the TV or whatever. And there was a run there where they like, I mean, it was the best money in all of gambling was the links. And so we all ended up sort of watching all of these WNBA games and links games all the time. and I am a Maya Moore stand. I love the LA, I love Lindsay Whalen, I love Maya Moore. And so I watched so many of them. And then one night we went to Chicago for a Sky game and bought front row baseline tickets for the Sky

for the Sky versus the links when the links played there. And it was the year Elena Deladon won the MVP. And in person, great on TV, great. Like, I like the product. I do. I like it. WNBA is better than it's ever

been right now. Yes. It's really good. And there's a bunch of awesome players. I mean, I love watching Skyler Diggins.

My Moore is obviously my favorite. There's a bunch of good ones. It's good young players too, Aja Wilson. For sure. Vegas Aces. Yep.

Asia Wilson. So yeah, no, I'm a big fan of WMBA. I like it a lot. By the way, don't go gambling on it now because all the lines have caught up.

That was years ago when nobody, you know, was paying attention. All right, let me see if I've got any others on here that we need to make sure that we get to at Kirk's serious face, buddy from Matt's Moneyball asked. At some point, Chris came around on Luca being at least solid.

What changed? I would say, nothing changed. I've never said that he's not going to be good. My questions were, are, is he going to be a generational, talent, one of the best of the best, surefire number one pick. And that is still left to be seen. And my questions were,

I think, I mean, and listen, I put him on, he is not going to be bad. It's just a matter of, is he going to be a superstar? And many people thought he has a chance to be that. And my concerns were, is he a great enough athlete to be? And I

get it. You could bring up, well, James Horton's not the greatest athlete and so-and-so's not a greatest athlete. But those are, Those are exceptions to the rule. Whose voicy is that? Every moron out there. Those are exceptions to the rule. Generally, those guys are anomalies, right?

Manor Genoble, he's not the greatest athlete. I get it, right? What I'm telling you is, are you held back as a wing player if you're not an exceptional athlete, or is he just so skilled that it will overwhelm it? And the other thing is as he topped out, like how much better is he going to be? He kind of is what he is right now. I mean, I don't know how much he is going to improve greatly from what he is. Some guys develop a lot earlier, and he's surely a man already, right?

He's not like a wait and see what he looks like in five years. He's probably going to look like he does, honestly. That's a man. Leaning. But so that's my only question. I've always thought he's going to be solid. I don't think he's going to be bad. I don't think he's going to be a bust, but I also, I don't know if he's going to be a superstar, and I still don't.

I love how Kirk has big don'trich energy. There you go. As a Twitter. It's a Twitter. Yeah, yeah. All right. I think we got through, we got through a lot, man. Yeah, we did.

We did. There was almost way too many good questions. Yeah. And there were tons that I am having to walk away from. But we will do this again. Yeah, we will. Sometimes soon. Thanks for listening. If you dig what you're here and go give us a rating and review on iTunes, and we will be back next week. Thanks, Kevin.

Thank you, Chris. Thank you, everybody for the questions.