The Ringer NBA Show - Examining the Highs and Lows of an Eventful 2022 in the NBA | The Answer

Episode Date: December 28, 2022

Kyle and Seerat get together to talk about the most notable NBA player story lines and moments from the last year and look forward to 2023. After the break producer Chris joins in and they discuss their favorite cultural items of 2022 (49:26). Hosts: Seerat Sohi and J. Kyle Mann Associate Producer: Chris Sutton Production Supervision: Benjamin Cruz and Conor Nevins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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2023 is just on the horizon. Also, by the way, welcome to the answer. My name's Jay Kyle Mann. I'm joined every week. We do a little, you know, we pass the ball back and forth. Who's steering the ship this week? I'm going to do it. But I'm joined by the brilliant, the poet laureate of Edmonton.

She's stuck in Edmonton right now. Well, not stuck. You're visiting family up there. you did get stuck last week because of the weather and stuff like that. But Sear, it's up there in home visiting. How you doing, Sear? Happy to be stuck in Edmonton, you know, a little offended that you would put it that way. I guess I indirectly phrased it.

I inadvertently phrased it in a way that made it seem like you wouldn't want to be there. Sorry about that. You know, I'm sure it's a lovely place. It is a lovely place. You should come visit sometime. I think you'd like it very much. You should come visit in summer perfectly. If you can, you know, if you can handle it, though.

So maybe it would be an interesting challenge for you to show up in the dead of December when it's minus 40. And you see all these Instagram posts about how the weather in Edmonton is like the wind is going to be the iciest in the world and all that fun stuff. Yeah. You know, it's nice. It's actually nice being back. And on the note of the weather, I keep getting asked what is the most different thing. And it is truly the most obvious one. When you fly from L.A. to Edmonton, it is a shock to the body.

And I was surprised about how much of a shock the body is. But I have a new, newfound respect for my brethren. And also for the life that I used to live because, God, it is like just really, really easy to say, I'm not going to do a damn thing. I'm going to stay indoors. But we don't do that here. We get after it, as you know. Have you gotten soft since you moved south?

Is that what you're kind of saying? Like you maybe just got soft and didn't realize it? Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. You can't really help the same sometimes. It is what it is. Well, you guys stay entertained, I saw.

I mean, you sent me a karaoke video that I see how you guys pass the time up there. You get lit and, and do, what song were you singing in that karaoke video? It was obviously troubled by Taylor Slerf, like the only karaoke song in the world. What's your, what's your karaoke song? I don't know that I necessarily have one. We went to a karaoke. I surprised my wife with like a karaoke room recently. and I sang

Thinking About You by Frank Ocean I did a little rendition of that I did a duet with my buddy Zach we did shallow from stars born we really That's amazing

Yeah I hope There were probably We really sold it too A lot of vibrato A lot of harmonizing That's the guy that I used to be in a band with But no we had a good time This episode we're going to be talking

You know I like year roundup podcast you know It's just fun to think back about like, the way time flies today, I feel like it can be easy to sort of like now more than ever like forget things that happen because we just condense and we just are so intensely in us specifically because we work in media. But I mean, I think the world is just like that now. It's like everybody is so dialed in and we don't unplug and check out very much. So I just feel like we forget kind of what happened in a year's time. Do you kind of feel that experience?

Absolutely. I think my short term, I have my long term memory. It's just gotten worse and worse as I've gotten older now. That could be just how much screen time we get. It could just be aging. It could be just copious amounts of weed. Who knows? It probably a combination of all those things. But yeah, it was even while we were doing this,

I was having a hard time remembering what sort of like the pinnacle moments of the year were. And I don't think that that would have been the case probably 10 years ago. I think that they would be top of mind. I'd be able to kind of rattle them off right away. But that said, it made it, it made it a fun experience. So I got to kind of look back. And then you started thinking, like, oh, all that stuff happened in a year. Like, you know, go do that whole whole thing, right?

It's fun. Yeah. It kind of dawns on you or just impresses upon you that just how much can happen in a year. But, I mean, there were a lot of different things. And we're going to go through categories here. We're a little bit. We're kind of freestyle, jazzing this a little bit. it, but we're going to go through all these different categories.

I'll pick an answer. Sir, it's going to pick an answer. And then at the end of the show, we're going to touch base and just do some really quick, you know, lightning round, rapid fire, cultural things that we loved and just like rattle those off. And our buddy Chris Hornet Legg Sutton, who, and that's what everyone should call him, that produces us and does a great job. He's going to pop on. He's a cultural maven. So we're going to enjoy having him on there.

But while I want to start, I kind of went with sort of a Grammy-style category here. with the first one, best new artist. So someone basically, some of these guys have been around. You know, there's always the hipster thing you can do. He's like, well, he's actually been around for quite some time. But there are guys that there are levels of penetrating the mainstream, you know, like Victor Wyn Mniamma had been around, but he became a mainstream figure this year. But on the NBA level, was there someone who burst onto the scene this year,

in your opinion, and established themselves? Was there a favorite that you had or someone that made like the biggest splash? in their entrance into the mainstream this year. Yeah, I love that you say splash because it gets right into the guy that I want to talk about. Jordan Poole, the pool party, the step impersonator. I'm just happy to have an opportunity to talk about him to end the year. I think we talked about him a little less since you've taken over. You know, he shoved Chris in the basement and no one's heard from him ever since.

I hope that I hope he's doing well and I hope you're, I hope he's got some good. Yeah, I hope he's okay. But Jordan Poole was a big topic this podcast. So it feels timely to end the year, reflecting a little bit on his rise, especially coming off. Awesome Christmas game against the Grizzlies. That was a great game.

I love that rivalry, by the way. And I think it does rise to the level of a rivalry because these teams really hate each other. And I think it's great that, you know, there's a team that can get under the skin of a dynasty. Like, especially Clay Thompson. I love everything Clay Thompson has to say about this. This A, Grizzlies are not a dynasty. They should not be saying they're a dynasty.

But also he gave them credit at the end there. And he said they also bring the best out of us. And we bring the best out of them. And I felt like, I feel like that's been true of that matchup pretty much since the playing game. And pool was just awesome. I love the way. he was just shaking off, Dylan Brooks, too. Like, he gets into it, and he's just kind of like, he's very, uh, oh, he's a showman, right?

Like, he, he has, he's not like a Steph Curry type showman. I think he's a little bit more, you know, he has a bit of a chip on his shoulder and he wants to prove to you that, you know, you can't punk him. And I think that's pretty much just been what he's done, like, for his entire career, actually, you know, like, I've reminded of Logan Murdoch's profile on him, which was awesome. but there was a moment where he talks about how, you know, Dremont was kind of told by some of the other older guys on the team in Poole's rookie year to like get,

fool to stop talking trash, like, to do the rookie. Why is he doing all that stuff? And Dremon's like, no, like he should be doing all that stuff. Now that relationship,

we'll get into a little later. You know, relationships, they evolve, right? Like the evolve, they devolve. It's just, you know,

time, interesting. Right. Anyway. Yeah. But that's just, it's really cool to see him actually, become that guy, right?

Like, it went from, oh, like, he's running Steph Curry's routes and he's about the same size as him and he's got a good shot. Like, maybe he could, you know, be really good in this system that, you know, really prizes movement and shooting. And he's taken that to a completely new level. Live dribble skill set, Jordan Poole. Yes. Just very, I think that's the reason why it's translated so well is that, like, shoots well off

the dribble, passes well off the dribble, can do all those things with movement, you know. I think it just kind of fits in as a nice. facsimile. Yes, very good point. Very good point. Yeah, he completely fits that system. And it went from this thing of like, oh, is he going to be a sixth man? So then he got this extension. And now it's like, he'll be an all-star one day. And, you know, I still think the sky is a limit for him. But I am just very excited about the emergence of pool and also what it means for the continuation of the potential continuation of the Warriors dynasty as a transition era. Yeah. And last year had a big jump in minutes. I think that he just got a chance last year. In 2020,

he was at roughly 20 minutes and he got like a 10 minute increase the following season, which ended up it was a contract year. And, you know, obviously he upped his averages across the board, 18.5 points per game, led the league in free throw percentage and got there 3.5 times per game, 36.4% from three. Yeah, he just had a solid year and jumped on to the scene. A more accurate resource shooter than Seth. I love that Clay. Who's your guy? That whole, Clay's response to both of those situations.

I guess it's easier for him to praise them after they, you know, kick their ass on Christmas day, which was a pretty amusing game. But I was talking with our buddy Mo DeKeele about the Dylan Brooks thing. And I was like, you and Mo both share a sentiment for Dylan Brooks or an anxiety when he's playing. I just, I'm amused by that. But yeah, Clay, like, going from, I just enjoy whenever Clay gets riled up because you get to see, you get to see his intense side, and he's, like, obviously, mocking. He's, like, a hyper intense yet chill dude. So it's funny to see him come down from the intensity of thinking about the Grizzlies after they won the title, which is like an all-time

petty stray that the Grizzlies caught in that championship post-game. And then to hear him just come back around and be like, oh, they bring the best out of us. That was just a a very clay thing. Speaking of getting under the skin, this is more, you know, I think you could pick stars. I think you could pick guys that had breakout seasons.

I'm more interested in just kind of characters, honestly, like from an entertainment standpoint. And a guy that really got under the skin of a lot of people this year was Grand Theft Alvarado himself, Jose Alvarado. His, the trend of him, like, he invented basically, a hack that he could spam in games, which it's almost like, it's almost like one of the video gamieest

things that anyone has ever just injected into, like the sheer audacity of it. Because, A, it's kind of, it reminds me of one of those things that like sort of breaks the unspoken institutional law of a sport, you know, like the way, like, I don't know, whenever you're playing basketball and pick up, people don't try to like pressure the inbound pass or guard you full. There's just certain things that are kind of etiquette driven, that it's just like, what are you doing here, man? And the fact that Alvarado started literally hiding out of bounds to come and just ambush the player who gets the ball inbound into them in the back court, it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen. There was one, I posted a highlight on my TikTok.

It's not a thing that I say very often, but I made like a TikTok reel of some of his inbound steals where he was hiding. And he did one where the camera had cut away, and he like went and ambushed. the ball and stole it so quickly that the camera missed it, it had to cut back to the other end and he was scoring when it happened. I just found that endlessly entertaining. And I find him, and like he's a legitimate like rotation guy for the Pelicans now too. No, you're on TikTok. Where can the people follow you? Lightly active on TikTok. I don't really watch the videos because I don't want my brain to, you know, turn to mush, not that it won't from me being on all that every other,

on Twitter, you know, several hours a day. No, I just kind of chop up pieces of my videos and I'll put them on there occasionally. Yeah. Okay. So you're not going to tell us your handle is what you're saying. Oh, it's at J-comman. I'm pretty sure it's, uh, yeah. Yeah, check, check me out on there.

Great. Look, I think, I think the listeners of this podcast, like, would want nothing more than to have their TikTok feeds, you know, just a little bit more Jose Alvarado in them. I mean, I'm going to, I'm going to be smashing that follow button as soon as we get out of here. Yes, please. Hit me up. But I, I really like this pick, though, because I went to star direction, but when you talk, when you think about characters, there are certain guys that, like, especially when they play for

playoff teams, I think the Pelicans are going to be a story for a while. And they has, there's a very specific skill set that pisses off superstars, like really gone under the skin of Chris Paul, right? And that is how you can kind of become a character is like when you are on the other side of a guy that people really care about a lot. And it kind of reminds me of, you know, like early, like, you know, your Glenn Big Baby Davises, you know, like your Patrick Beverly's, Raja Bells, like players like that where, you know, because of their ability to impede on the greatest players, they're just kind of being the biggest moments and have like a sort of, I have maybe a skill set that is difficult to deal with and a little unique.

That just allows them to be like a factor when, you know, if you look at their overall skill set, maybe you would think that they wouldn't be. You know what I mean? Yeah, because they're willing to buy into a role that is not something. that people just aspire to in a vacuum. This is something I've wanted to do because I was telling you the story about the 11-year-olds that asked me to play two-on-two with them the other day

and I had the time of my life, basically. I was thinking, I'm always curious about who younger players aspire to be like. And I don't think that people would pick somebody like that. So I think that's something, it's just fun whenever a player kind of realizes a lane that they could take. Maybe it's not necessarily a pass. that leads to accolades or big contracts, but they realize, like, we talked about on the draft show the other day that, like, Caruso relayed that quote from Sam Presti about, like,

teams don't need a bunch of guys thinking they're going to be the CEO coming on to the roster. There's some guys that need to embrace that they scrub the toilets, and it can be useful. If scrubbing the toilets means irritating a superstar, that's, yeah, work is work. Work is work, man. Can I quickly tell you a just really annoying pickup etiquette moment? Yes. So I got in some pickup probably for the first time. Actually, the first time since I'm going to see LA, I haven't found a team yet.

So by the way, if anybody living in LA wants to play basketball with me, please, please, I beg you to reach out to me. It's the only time I'm going to ask people to get into my DMs, but please get into my DMs. Yeah, I played some pickup for the first time in a long time. And, like, first game, there is this guy who was also the guy who, like, organize the run. Like, you know, we're all just kind of shooting around. And it's like, hey, should we play a pickup?

So first, he just, he just keeps taking threes. And he's not good at taking threes. And he decides to step back. And I felt like Mark Jackson saying, Steph Curry ruined the game in that moment. Because like, oh my God, this shit was so annoying. He just kept taking these half-port shots. Half-four.

He's not passing the ball at all. There's no flow. Like, I think we lost like 11-11 to 1. And then he starts, like, in the middle of the game, talking on the phone with somebody. out. Yeah. He just starts, he takes a call and he also wants the ball in his head. So he's like taking a call with one hand. Like, there's no AirPods here at all. And he like wants a ball in his hands with the other. And everyone is just like, dude, what are you doing? Like, are you going to play basketball? Are you going to be on the phone anyway? He left. And soon as he laughed. I was like, hey, you guys want to keep it going or what. And we had amazing, amazing run. Like the flow was there. It felt like, I love finding the flow. I love finding the flow, Kyle. I hope. I don't think any of these guys. listen to this show, hopefully not. But teenagers are the worst.

I'm just going to say that. Teenagers are the worst to play with because they get into these like mono-emano battles with each other and they don't, they're not thinking. I guess if you have the option to be, you know, the most athletic player out there, it's too tempting to resist. I know we're falling into a pit here with this. Well, this is like I was playing. There was a group of teenagers that showed up and I played with them and I was just like,

man, I knew how it was going to go. It was the same thing. There was a kid who just like, you know. over and over again was like driving into traffic and wouldn't throw it out and I was just like hold my hands up like I'm right here and I that one of the one of the I've told you this one of the key obstacles for someone like me is that the visual test I know going into it that they're not going to pick me I get like I'm bald I have a beard I'm never going to I have a little gray in my beard automatically these teenagers were like this dude sucks yeah I got picked last yeah and

and and I was same same I mean different reasons Yeah, we have different challenges, I guess. But then that was like, and we lost. Yeah, we lost because that kid just kept jacking up shots. And that was when I went in the other room and the 11-year-olds wanted to play two-on-two. And it was a delight. I had a great time.

It actually, it was very refreshing because they were having a great time passing the ball. Anyway, let's move on. Best storyline of this past year. What was your favorite storyline of the past year? I would probably say the emergence of Bobo, the redemption arc of Bulbul, who looked like he might be out of the NBA at a certain point. I won't spend too much time on this because there's a whole episode on it. But he is just absolutely delightful to watch, you know,

has potential to sort of invert the court in ways that we haven't really seen before, which is really interesting. And, you know, I think anytime, and I think the guy that you're going to bring up is kind of falls in a similar line. But anytime there's a story about like where a guy, you start questioning whether he even likes basketball, or not. And then that player ends up really finding his role. It just, it just makes me happy because there probably is some level of truth to that,

right, like where you start feeling so much pressure that it looks like you're not having fun anymore. And I think that can happen in any, you know, it doesn't have to just be professional sports and all the pressures that come with that. I can happen pretty much anything. So just seeing him out there, having a good time, you know, really finding his offensive game, finding like the player that he's supposed to be, has been really fun. Yeah. Yeah. My answer is

similar, and you referenced it or alluded to it, is, I just think this is one of the cooler things that we've seen is Andrew Wiggins. Now, granted, he was a number one pick. He was just under a lot of pressure for a long time. And it could be a case that, like, those teams with Ryan Saunders or just

those wolves teams that never quite gelled, never quite got it going. I mean, they made the playoffs with that season with Jimmy. But it just, he was somebody that seemed like he was just going to perpetually be like, we wish we could get more out of this guy. I don't know what's going on here. And, you know, he goes to Golden State, fits into what they're doing, becomes like a great two-way player. We start to see, it was just refreshing to see him, Andrew Wiggins, NBA champion, a guy,

a Canadian guy that's, you know, that I think people expected a lot from. And his redemption arc has just been really nice to see. That was something that I really enjoyed going into the final. I said that his whole legacy, basically, you know, we were talking about how Tatum, we expect Tatum to make that last leap, most likely, I figure, I mean, I feel like he'll maybe get a title, probably get a title,

it's hard to say at this point. And then Curry was trying to sort of move up in the, so-and-so, you know, so-called Pantheon. But Wiggins, I think, just had like a total legacy swing. Like I think it was a cool reframing of how we're going to talk about his career. Yeah, definitely.

There was a great backster's home story on ESPN about Wiggins. And I remember Kevin Garnett spoke to Baxter Post story and he had this thing about how he realized with Wiggins that no matter how hard he tried to push him or whatever KG motivational techniques that he had like Wiggins was not going to do something that he didn't want to do. And the whole story is essentially about how he's a number one pick and he's being asked to do number one pick things. And like if you remember his early career in Minnesota, who those jumpers, man?

Like that shot selection was not fun to watch. Like there was a lot of times you kind of wish that he'd go to the rim. But even with that, it's like it's a bad team. And like, you know, you just can't do that over and over again. And then he didn't really have the appropriate aggression either. And it was just kind of ugly to watch sometimes. And it was very clear that he was overstretched the role of trying to be the number one option, like leading man like a Jason Tatum.

And with the Warriors, he sort of is now getting to be the player that he was always supposed. to be. Like, that was kind of the takeaway from that story. But now when you think about where he is, it's like he set that foundation. And now I kind of almost like, I watch him. And I see like, you know, slight evolution in his scoring ability. And I'm like, wait, can he actually go and actually get on that level? Maybe not of like a Tatum type, but really still go and be like a number two or three level scoring option for a team. Because like he's really, really starting to build on it now. Like he's incredibly aggressive, the decision making. is really refined itself.

He knows how to, he knows how to move and pass in the Warriors offense, which takes a lot of IQ and, like, speak, you know, it just speaks well to his ability to continue to do that.

His art is also, like, it's kind of similar to a guy like, like, I was always to be, right? Where it's like,

asked to be something that he just really wasn't supposed to be and then thrived being, you know, just like, it took him a while, right? Like, he got to go to the right place

and, like, to a place that would value that his ability to do that, but he's really, it's just really, like, I don't know, It's like, you know, seeing Andrew Wiggins have a really big smile after a W was just really cool.

It's never really saw that happening, you know? Yeah. And it's what you were saying about him, like, being in the right situation, there's just push and pull in basketball where we're like absolutely this thing is worth more than this thing in terms of like archetypes. And the reality is that like the warriors, you know, who knows if they would have won those first few championships without it, Iguidal. We know Steph was super. It's not in either or it's both. You know, we talk about like. And I think a lot of times we like to penalize stars and say like, you know, oh, they didn't, you know, it's more, there's more glory to this idea of like doing it by yourself. But the reality is like no one does it by themselves. It's a team sport. I know these are obvious things, but they seem like they need to be said sometimes. And like Wiggins goes into that situation. And you're absolutely right. He has tweaked the way he played. I mean, like 40% of his attempts, his rookie year or 50% of his attempts were mid-range shots. So and he's like in the game, grand.

granted has changed in that time. This past season, it was down to 38%. So he has sort of, and he started some of that evolution in Minnesota. He started to cut out some of those attempts. That's been good for him, but, you know, it was. It was nice to see him hit some big shots in the finals. He hit some of those games at Boston. Looking to get more out of this NBA season, well, now is the perfect time to download

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It was going to be like a thing that was across sports and culture, just like the person who was just like had the biggest biggest impact across sports, across culture. Yeah, just the person who had the biggest all around year. Like I was telling you like in 2016, I believe it was 2016. I said like Donald Glover was the baddest man alive because he had a hit TV show in Atlanta. He just put out an album with Childus Gambino. And then, you know, he was in a Star Wars movie.

He just had, he had just an incredible across the board year. But for basketball. Definitely the, definitely the Donald that I will remember. the most from 2016. Yeah. Did you like that album, that Childest Gambino album? You made a joke that just

flew over my head like a 747. Yes. I much prefer that Donald to the other. Yes. So, no, we're talking about the guy, not necessarily who had the biggest, like, the MVP, because they're different things. Like, the basketball culture runs

parallel, and we see this all the time. When we go in to make our rankings and we're like, you know, Kyrie is 50th. you hear all these people who are like looking at basketball through a different lens, like the popularity of players. And these are things that grow the marketing of the game. Sometimes they are not sympathico with like who is winning. Who is like the most winning efficient sound basketball player, you know?

Like Larry Bird like in the 80s was not the most marketable basketball player in the world. Michael Jordan was because it exploded. And anyway, so I'm just looking at like who had the biggest year culturally. I think we, what was your answer in the doctor? We'll start with that. I went out with Steph Curry. We recently did our, you know, kind of going back and looking at some of the best sports moments for the ringer.

I think we're going to do with Top 100, I believe. Yeah. And I chose Steph's game four because, oh, it's interesting when a guy has been, you know, in the limelight for so long, he starts to notice that he shifts in his career arc and just like the person that he is. like I think messy is actually a breathing comparison to Steph at this point where, you know, in order to win the World Cup, he just kind of unleashed this sort of inner asshole side to him

that like no one ever saw from him. But he kind of needed to tap into that in order to just finish it, like just finish it off. And I think with Steph, we kind of saw a similar thing where he was just angrier than ever last season. And, like, there were obviously all these slights that were piling up. And, you know, they spent, you know, two, three years just not really being able to answer to them. And, you know, you talk, like, I think, like, we've heard some players talk about it. I think Draymond on counter reference the fact that, you know, Steph just felt a little slighted by the fact that, you know,

Kevin Durant didn't even bother to, like, you know, give him a proper meeting before he left. When Steph, like, you know, welcomed him on to the team and, you know, just little things like that that I imagine, like, after a while, like you can start feeling like, like, when is, when are my family actually going to get my credit, like the respect that I deserve? But I feel like that was kind of the tone of like the Warriors championship last year. Like whether it was a play 75 or just like, you know, Steph winning and be like, hey, what are they going to say now? But, you know, he, he just, he, man, the Warriors just kind of built themselves back up and they ended up on the mountains off again. And it was just, I don't know, I don't necessarily have the words for it.

I don't think it was. I see what you're saying, right, about like what this type of player should be. And I think that's ultimately why I'm going to fall on your side with it. Because we've already seen Steph. Like, Steph has already been introduced to the basketball world. He's already changed the basketball world. He's already introduced new fans to the basketball world. And now it's kind of maybe more about maintenance.

So, yeah, let's get into your guy because I kind of, you know, I'm already on your side with it. You're teasing. Yeah, I didn't have to do much, much pushing to get you to come over my side on this. But this is purely like, you know, obviously this guy had an incredible year talking about John Morant. And my rationale for this is kind of what I'm talking about. Like, Morant, there's a big difference. And I think like the sneaker lens is actually kind of an interesting way to look at this. Because if you look at like Steph sells shoes, obviously, he's way into his shoe career now with Under Armour.

I forget when his first model was. It might have been 2015. Because I think he was wearing Nike's during the 2014. team playoffs if I'm trying to remember this. But I told this story. So last summer, you know, we were at Summer League and you get to see a lot of the, like, players enter and leave the building. And you can kind of get a good sense for like the cultural impact of a player.

Now, was Steph better than John Moran last year? Absolutely. Yeah, he was. And lots of players were as brilliant as he was, even in the playoffs. That's not what this is necessarily about. Right. This is just more like who across the landscape of basketball had to be. biggest impact. And like, Jha, like, when he entered the building at Summer League, I watched. And

Summer League, it's just kind of like, it's filled with a lot of kids, like guys, like teenagers to mid-20s, boys. It's pretty heavy on that front. And I was just like watching when John Morant came in the building, it was like unmistakable. Like it was a whole other level of energy when he came in. And I was just thinking to myself, man, I was just like this, I feel like Zion is probably in that stratosphere too. And then there's like LeBron has always kind of had that, but like the cool factor and, you know, the highlights and things like that.

I just feel like Morant has, he kind of has that belt right now. Like he's the coolest NBA player right now, I feel like. Yeah, I agree with you. He ruled YouTube. Like if you, you know, ask the NBA about, you know, who does the best.

It's going to be John Morant highlights for any number of reasons, whether it's a missed on for MAJ, done for just like an incredible finish or just him weaving in traffic. He is the ultimate sort of like TikTok, YouTube highlight era NBA star, right? But one thing that is also interesting about him is that he, I went to, so I went to Memphis for a story in May during the playoffs.

It was, it was during the, I went there during the Timberwolk series. And one thing that, you know, the front office and just kind of like people around Memphis that you got a sense of was just that like Jha and I think actually like Chris Vernon talked about this too

for me is that Jaws kind of like a gateway to the South like Memphis as a team is like a gateway to the to the South just and it's strange in basketball just kind of how on like in the NBA how underrepresented the South is when like the college basketball culture is so crazy but there's something about Memphis and about Jha Memphis as a team, A, they're young, but they also just have a college basketball vibe. Like the team, they stick together.

They're like, they just, we all, we all know they don't really like get into like the camaraderie and all that stuff that the other NBA teams do. We don't think to like, you know, talk about that forever and ever. But, you know, you get it. And then Jod is also just a guy who is from the South and incredibly prideful about that and incredibly prideful about playing in Memphis. and Memphis is an incredibly private city, and the team really represents that too, and also just like, you know, the hard hat, the way they play defense and all that stuff.

And that crowd, that crowd is incredible. And it's also incredibly diverse. And it's cool. It's all like, we're going to the game in Memphis is honestly unlike any other NBA arena experience, in my opinion. And the team itself does such a good job of, you know, bringing in local stars as well.

Like everything is just, everything is really intentionally done there. and it's local and they really care about being grassroots. And I think that that can have like a huge impact going down the line with like these like markets that aren't necessarily that interested in the NBA, but because of where Memphis is, you know, like it's also like it's like kind of like a place that's right on the border too, right? Like, you know, there's plenty of fans in Mississippi and Arkansas that are going to be

into the Grizzlies, especially if this is a team that they have. It's such an easy team to root for. They were everyone's favorite Beaks Fast team last year. Now they're going to go through the whole thing of people kind of hate them for a bit. But I imagine the people who really ride for them aren't going to care about that. That's only just going to make them more loyal to.

Yeah. So that's, yeah, it's just, it's a really interesting thing. And it's, like, kind of cool to see DeVeloved. Are you trying to, like, get one of those social media cards where they, like, the Memphis media is going to, like, type out a quote from what you said on the podcast. Are you trying to, are you trying to be, like, welcomed there, like a king, basically, like on the Jumbatron, like, go out there.

Yeah, I'm trying to do with the play. Like, now, like, NBA players just give much better quotes than they used to five years ago because they know it's going to be, like, an Instagram graphic. I'm trying to build my brand, Kyle. But you're, you're, I don't know, you're giving away the playbook. He has, like, a cultural kind of a sauce that is, I don't know, I'd like to see, like, the merchandise and, like, the apparel sales for Memphis, because Memphis has been good, like, and their stuff is cool.

but I feel like Jaa rebranded them in a cool way. Like, he's amplified their cool factor a lot. Like, you see people wearing like vintage grisly stuff a lot. I just feel like, I don't know, I just feel like that sneaker marketability is a real thing. And he just had one come out. I just think that's pretty interesting. Okay, so biggest flub, there were a lot of fuck-ups this year across the board.

Some very serious that are not funny at all. I mean, like violence, obviously. there are very serious things that rubbed up against really serious topics. Like what happened with Kyrie tweeting out the Alex Jones thing and the saga of going back and forth. And then, you know, obviously we had the Miles Bridges thing, which is obviously just rife with, it's a horrible, horrible story. Those things obviously are storylines of just things that's, you know, transcend basketball. They're obviously way more important than basketball. And we'll sit those things as obvious, terrible things that happened this year.

It was one thing I would say about, like, kind of all that stuff. Yes. I noticed it when the Josh Primo stuff happened. I noticed it when the Sarver stuff happened. I noticed it when the Celtics stuff happened with email. And these are all very different situations. So I think it's different, like, it almost feels like a disservice to put them all in the same bucket. But I have noticed in the last year a sort of ship within NBA staff circles about their, like, their reaction to these things.

Like, every time something like this used to happen, also things like this didn't happen or come to light as much as they used to, which is also a factor in all of this. You know, just the fact that 70 former Phoenix Sun's employees actually spoke out about Robert Sarber and the Sun's, you know, just horrible, toxic, sexist, racist, all of this environment in Phoenix is a new sense. I think people are speaking up about these things more. I think people are more pissed off about these types of things. I think maybe it was like a pandemic thing. Maybe it's like just a cultural shift. I don't know what it is. But one thing I've noticed is that there's,

we've gone from a place of, you know, we text people about things like this. There was a tone of cynicism that would always just take over of like, well, this is what the NBA is or this is what professional sports. are and we just learn to live with it. And what I have noticed in the last, you know, six months or so is like when I have

conversations with people, there is less of a willingness to just live with it anymore. There is a lot more anger. There is a lot more sadness. There's a lot more feelings of just that cognitive dissonance of, you know, you're putting so much energy into this thing that you love. And it is also, you know, a product that, you know, inoculates a lot of bad people from, you know, maybe not bad people,

but like from just doing, you know, like, inoculates a lot of people from doing things that they shouldn't be able to do. Yeah. You know, it protects people in power because they seem to provide a certain skill. In some cases, also, like,

don't necessarily provide a special skill. It just kind of, it's the environment around pro sports that just always kind of, you know, Pat, things, right? And like, we also live in a society to pass the book about these things, right? So it's not just sports, but I have noticed just, it feels like something is shifting right now. It feels like we're going into this place where like nobody, you don't want to live like that anymore,

you know, and if you can help it, like, there's a lot of jobs where you can't help it, right? There's a lot of jobs that you got to go to work and like you might work for really shitty employer that's a shitty thing for the universe, but you don't get to do anything about that. But the NBA is different. Most of people that work in the NBA have the privilege of working the NPA and would probably land somewhere else if they didn't. And what I've noticed is more of a tendency to think, hey, what if I did something else? And also a tendency to think, why can't things be a little bit different than they are? And I just really hope that energy carries over to 2023 and brings out for something productive

out of it. Just more, you know, there's point. And it's going to be messy. I think that a lot of it has been messy. Like a lot of sort of, you know, you see the way that some of these things are reported. like it's it's going to get ugly too because there's there are plenty of cynical people in the NBA that will then use things like this to you know threaten other people's jobs and like there are going to be kind of like you know just it's going to be messy is what I'm saying I really

mention that it's going to be messy but I just hope that like the people that are angry continue to be angry and realize that they do have a little bit more of a say than I guess it used to feel like. I just, I, I have a little bit of optimism about that, I guess, and not, I guess, because of anything that, you know, his fans might see going on or anything, but just kind of in conversations, said that at that. So, you know, I guess if any NBA staffers actually listen to this podcast, keep it, keep it going, man. Like, it's like this sports world does not have to be this. We don't have to live with this much cognitive distance all the time. It can be different. Yeah. And it's been, it's been interesting to see a sort of way, like, how you

talked about the inoculation of people from things, uh, from consequences for things that they shouldn't be allowed to do. I think that's a really great point. Honestly, one of the big storylines of the year, you know, we love this game,

but at the end of the day, it is a game and there are things that we do this for, uh, entertainment. We do it's, um, just to connection and things. There are all these like sort of tertiary extra things that we get from

basketball. And I, I think it's interesting just to have a, that the dialogue is just, more consistent. I think it's more honest. I think it's good that the honesty is penetrating like the levels of the sport where maybe it was more hush in the past or the maybe the fear of you and Rob did an awesome podcast about the consequences of the Sarver thing back in the summer and like what that could mean going forward for people who work within these organizations. Yeah,

absolutely. I think that's one of the major the major storylines from the year that transcends basketball. In terms of like just pure on the court kind of like organizational flubs. This one's ongoing, but I mean I had down here like Montrez Harold driving with three pounds of weed through Kentucky. I thought that was an interesting one.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. It was just a choice. You know, we do have lost. And then we all make choices. We do. We do. The other one that's ongoing that it, I mean, right now it doesn't look good. Granted, we've had some injuries here, but the Timberwolves trade.

Granted, like judging just by how the jazz have been playing, do you think that is in contention to be with the flub of the year and the basketball organizational standpoint? I think when you look at transactions, it might be the club of like the deck. Yeah, it's definitely on the track. It could be. It was bad when it happened.

I didn't really like the trade. I was a little bit curious about what happened because, you know, you put two big guys like that together. You're always going to be a little bit curious. But ultimately, like the actual basketball part of it, matters a lot. Like, I think I don't have the access to the numbers right now,

but Anthony Edwards, Carl Towns, and Daniel Russell, Russell probably the least difference. I think Russell's a guy who's fit with Gobert or the boats, but their numbers, especially towns around the rim,

just go, like, significantly go down when Gobert is at the game. And then when he's at, like, when he's out of the game, and just like their three point of 10s go down, their free throw numbers, the free throw numbers.

For all of those guys with Gobert, on and off the court. I'll post them on Twitter later, but it's just incredibly dramatic. Yeah, it's the basketball part of it is. I mean, I hope we see some kind of an upward swing on that front. I know you and I during the summer

tried to play devil's advocate and figure out how it could work. Like, hey, maybe, you know, maybe this will work, but the returns have been bad. Was there any other, like, flubs that you thought were sort of organizationally on that level?

It doesn't make me not organizationally, but the dream on punching pool thing It feels like it's still reverberating just because of the season the Warriors have had. It feels like they just got off on the wrong foot. And this Christmas game was probably the most I've seen them and I'm like,

okay, maybe they'll regain their championship form just in terms of like psyche and energy. But gosh, it just doesn't feel like a good time there right now. Yeah. Best dress player really quickly here. Best dress player of the year. Who do you got? I mean, just like ongoing years and years,

Kelly Ure. No question about it. I would count them with Shea. I mean, everybody knows I like Shea, but I think Shea has had an incredible year on that front. Best dunk of the year. Did you have a favorite? Maybe I'm prisoner of the moment right now,

but the Aaron Gordon dunk on Landry Shamit on Christmas was just incredible. And I love a high stakes dunk. I also just love that all the way through. Like it felt like, is he going to pass it off to Yon? Is he going to pass it off to Yonka? Do you get him pass it? Oh, my God. He's not going to pass it.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. God. He actually just took off from there and dunked all over Landry Shammit. It was incredible. I'm really glad the call about reverse too. I think anytime you dunk that hard, even if it is a charge, which I didn't think it was a charge, but even if it is a charge, just reverse it. Let that dunk stand. If you're going to dunk that hard, you should get the points. That's just my opinion. Let that dunk stand. You heard the immortal, timeless words from Sir Tsoe. Yeah, I was going to say to reminiscent of the Kobe on Steve Nash dunk. That's like the form of it reminds you.

me of that dunk from several years ago. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Thanks, Kyle. Wow. Isn't it pretty close? Yeah?

I thought so. Didn't need that. Oh, sorry. Didn't need that today. Your homeland got dunked on. My hero. My basketball hero. Anyway, whatever.

It's fine. We haven't talked a lot about that. We can someday. John Moran had one going back to Morant. He had a dunk on Yaka Pertel. That was, I just think any time, any key dunker, any prominent dunker, if you have the ability to palm the ball, and cock it back behind your head.

It's, you know, Moran has a lot of things going for him, but he's dunked on Pertil like a few times now, poor guy. Yeah. That would be my favorite of the year. There were a lot of, I'm not interested in the ones where somebody's like

shuffling to the scene to like contest someone who has like a full head of steam downhill. Like the one where, like Tatum on Yonis was not one that I was like, oh wow. Like it's great because of like the characters involved. It was nice. It just wasn't, you know,

I like, I like the other. style. So you like to see it like to be violent? Yes. Yes. Okay. You know, 2022, good and bad. They were highs and low, strikes and cutters, as we talked about, some more serious than others.

What is something for 2023 that you are hoping to see? I am really excited about the emergence of Zion Williamson and his continued evolution. I think that he is a single most unique player in the NBA. It imposes challenges that no one really knows how to solve.

So I'm going to be curious how these other teams, you know, the more serious the Pelicans get, the more serious other teams you're going to have to get about actually countering some of the things that he's done. And it's like, I think most of basketball is building sort of the opposite way of Zion, right?

Just, you know, space, length, and, you know, getting like all these bunch of, like, you know, high-wing, span players, your Wambayama and your chats. Like, the basketball is really obsessed with the uniform and we just did an episode of a unicorn. So it won't be able to the point. But, yeah, I'm just really excited.

it to see him continue to dominate and, like, get to the rib in just really interesting ways and see what teams do to try to counter it. Stay healthy, Zion. That's what really is just string together a whole season. I know, like, it's been fun to poke fun at the Lakers, mainly because I think, like, resigning Polenko, you put down as one of the, like, flubs of the year to that one are extending. I agree with you. That didn't make any sense.

but I don't, I hate seeing like all-time legends just have like lost years. I'd like to see LeBron get the chance to at least go down swinging, you know? I'm not, I just, I, there's been like a changing of the guard. And I do think that LeBron is sort of playing Possum a little bit, laying in the weeds conserving himself. And we'll see little bursts where he'll play. Like there were some moments in that Mavs game on Christmas Day where the Mavs could not guard him. And it was pretty amazing to see him at 38 years old do that.

I just, I just, I like to see guys get a fair shot before they go, before they go down. We're going to take a break here as at the end here and we're going to move on to just some rapid fire things from the year that we liked. Was there anything on LeBron you wanted to add there at the end? No, but I will say the one thing I'm looking forward to the most off before this year is finally reading your birth for it. That's going to be my 2020 mission. They're obsessed. To find out what time you were born. They're obsessed with me, yeah, bringing me into the astrology fold.

We'll see if that happens in 2023. Spoiler alert, it won't. So before we move on and do our rapid fire, we're going to take a break. All right, just as a little treat here at the end, we're bringing on our buddy Chris Hornet Legg, the legend, Chris, who has produced such masterpieces as music exists. He does all kinds of music. He's an artist himself. He has the best hair at the ringer. He is the best glasses repertoire at the ringer.

Really? Yeah, man. Absolutely. Just the best hair of the ringer? Wow. Pretty incredible. I just think he's got a really unique look. So we're going to bring him in to talk about his,

he's a cultural maven, as I said, just very well, you know, I'm just trying, I'm pumping you up, but it's all true, man, it just is. Really quick, I want to talk about some of your all's favorites from the year. Let's,

let's just go really quickly through here. Like, let's start with movies. Siri, movie that you love this year. Do Revenge. Deer Revenge, is like one of my favorite movies of the year.

It's not like going to win an Oscar or anything, but just as far as, you know, teenage sort of, like that sort of like ilk of mean girls, clueless movies go. It's like it was the 2022 version of that. And I thought it was just a fantastic movie. It was hilarious. I think it hit on a lot of interesting cultural points. Like the villain of the movie was like this male feminist who had like just sort of, you know,

built his reputation on being like one of the good guys. and also just this has been a I've had you know in my personal life I've had a pretty angry work so you know just a movie about young girls being really mad about stuff was was really it just really hit the spot

and in the end it also I think kind of hit the right no about revenge like he's about how it just becomes really destructive all the time and like at the end what you really want is to is to forgive and you bought. And yeah, I thought it was, I thought it was a great movie.

Sounds cathartic. Also, also the, the outfits were incredible. And the callbacks to, you know, some of the cult team classics were also really fun, too. Sick. Ordin Legg, what did you like this year? Oh, man, I saw a, I always tried to catch a bunch of movies, but, and it was hard to pick for this, for this segment. But the two that I think I enjoyed the most in the theater were.

Moonage Daydream and DC League of Super Pets, kind of on the opposite spectrums of what you think of a movie. With Moonage Daydream, it was just like taking drugs. You know, even if you weren't on drugs, you just kind of sat there. And if you like David Bowie at all, I highly recommend it. It was just completely stimulating on all levels. And I totally enjoyed it. And then DC League of Super Pets is an animated movie at which I took my daughter to. and I laughed the whole entire fucking time.

Really? Okay. Okay. Like it was one of the things, oh, I'm going to have a good time with my daughter. We're going to watch this cool. She laughed. She enjoyed it. But like, I mean, Kevin Hart, Kate McKinnon, like, it might be some of the best work they've ever done. And they were only voices. So I picked those two for 2022. I barely know anything about this.

I'll have to check it out. For me, the Northman, I really enjoyed a lot. I saw that by myself with a nice cold beer at Alamo, Drabble. house in Dallas actually enjoyed that movie and everything everywhere all at once I know that's a polarizing movie for some people I've asked here like five times and forgotten each time that I asked her about it so she'll have to watch that but that was a great one music this year quickly we'll pop through here a album that you liked all right Montaro so it came out towards like the end of 2021 so but it's going to sneak in there for me

just because it's like probably the album I listened to the most in 2022 although I was also 2% of Taylor-Soked albums in Canada, which I wear with five. But once it was a great album, it had a little bit of everything, had, you know, stuff that you'd want to, you know, work out to, stuff that you'd want to put in, like, if you're going for Ryan or playing some basketball, but also some stuff that you'd want to hear at the club and also some really reflective, you know, sad music. Like, Sun goes down and Boyd, you know, hitting back-to-back on that album. Just really, like, it takes you to a place.

But it ultimately, you know, I think the tone of it is just kind of like fun and optimistic and just, yeah, it had a lot of bangers, a lot of bangers. Industry baby. Call me by your name. Just just a great, great album. I have not heard that one. Have you heard that one Horned Lake? Yeah, I have. It is good.

It's good. I heard that and the Taylor Swift record. We talked about that on an earlier podcast. We did. We did. We did break that down. Yeah. I mean, it's not.

It didn't rise to the level. That's okay. Chris, your favorites for the year. What'd you like? I picked two again this year. Like, obviously I listened to tons of stuff all the time. But the two that I picked were one was only built for Infinity Links by Cuevo and Takeoff. One interesting thing about the album is as Takeoff's last, you know, recording,

this last sort of artistic output, RIP. He passed away this year. Also, interesting thing about it is that it's a Migos record. It's actually better than, it's actually the, the best Migos record there is and it was right after they broke up quote unquote so I thought that was interesting um and then the other one is uh it's a rock record uh it's get fucked by the chats there the chats are like a punk band from um Australia that kind of credible title in band name yeah they kind of like blew up in the last couple of years and they're kind of below like the sort of mainstream

radar but uh they do have a lot of buzz and um they were really sort of kind of an online like a social media kind of phenomenon, like with a couple of songs, but then they recorded like a record in a regular studio. And then sounds really good. It's really super fun, short, and wall-to-wall. Just energy. I picked lone stardom of this artist named Collier, who I've discovered actually through the Spotify Fresh Fines playlist. He's really good stuff, like a reverby, twangy guitar, like just sort of melodramatic, cinematic kind of pop music. I like it a lot. Sons of is an instrumental record by Sam Precop who is in

I don't know if I'm pronouncing his last name right but he's in the band called the C&K who also have a lot of awesome albums and then Labyrinthitis by Destroyer those are all three really good albums where for time we'll skip books you all can tweet out your recommendations for books best meal you had

this is a juicy one what's the best meal you had what's stuck with you what's memorable I'm literally juicy one I had my first wave of steak ever at Master just, uh, just a hope like, I think a month ago. It was the best egg I've ever had. And yeah, I don't know. I don't, I'm not the, I'm not the best of describing food. So I'll just leave it with that. It was really good. You know, I've never had wagyu. It was considerably different

than a regular state. Yeah. Educate us. Yeah, it was definitely juicier. It was like kind of, it was saltier. Uh, just really rich. Uh, it was almost like, it was pretty small, but it was still kind of difficult to sinners because, like, you have one bite and you're like, like, like, it's a lot. lot. But yeah, it's awesome. And also, I actually take it home and it, you know, it holds up pretty well for leftover. Nice. Did you have to pay it? Did you have to pay for it? Yes. Oh, too bad. Yeah. I won't ask. It was worth it, though. How about you, Chris? Oh, man. So I live in the land of carts and food and specialized meals up here. So anything you want in the world is available, top shelf and bottom. But last year, I went to this place called Yang's noodle down the street for me. And I had this pork

belly noodle that was just absolutely exquisite, like big, thick, handmade noodles and salty pork. It was pretty impressionable. I thought about it for a long time. Yes, that's the best whenever you just can't stop thinking about it. I was in LA and I got recommended a place called found oyster. I think Chris Ryan might maybe actually recommended it, but Rob Mahoney and I were like looking for a place to eat and we went down there. And that was the best meal I had this year by far. I think about it all the time. Rob and I text each other about it all the time. Specifically, one of the best single bites of food that I had in 2022 was a scallop savice toastata from found oyster. When I bit into it, my brain fired chemicals

that I didn't know were in my arsenal. It was euphoric. It was an incredible taste. That was a great meal. I would highly recommend that place. Get there early. Concert, quickly here. What's your best concert you went to? I went and saw Maddie Zahn at the Moroccan Lounge in September. It was my first concert in LA and it was like a pretty small venue and it was a really interesting experience. It was like, so she's like, I have a story coming out about her at some point. Good plug. But yeah, I know right. Yeah.

Yeah. But she is like really wild story. She's like a worship, former worship leader who like kind of through her music sort of discovered her own identity and came out of the closet and is now just. and then after coming out, released her first LP and is just kind of in the storm of navigating a million different things about her life and just really like, you know, saw herself as kind of going towards niche.

Like she's talking about these very specific experiences that she didn't really think that other people went through, but like they have attracted this audience that had never really had their feelings put into words that way. So they're super passionate about her. And she's just a word. I feel like she's more popular than she even realizes. Like, I don't know how this stuff really works, like behind the scenes and stuff.

She's touring for the first time and booked a bunch of small venues, and they all sold out in, like, the first three or four days. And now it's like she's, there's just like nothing available in the country. So I don't know, maybe there's a shop to get some, you know, get some bigger venues or add some extra shows. But she's a really interesting person, an interesting place in their life. And it was really cool to go to a concert like that because it was very cathartic. Cool.

A lot of people is really interesting. Are you a big fan of hers now? Are you kind of one of the fans? Well, I don't, like, I wouldn't have like the same sort of like story of like, you know, growing up in the church and stuff. But like growing up in the South Asian community was like also pretty similar in terms of like just kind of having to like hide who I was and not really like figuring like out my sexuality until like a later and day.

Like all this sort of confusion and like, that comes with that, like, definitely still hits, even though it wasn't, like, the same. You know what I mean? I feel like that. And what kind of music is it? What do you describe it as? It's, so it's like church music, essentially. She basically wants to reappropriate, like, the music that she made at church as a worship

leader into, like, you know, gay anthems. We're talking, like, gospel? Is it, like, ambit? Are we talking keyboards? We're talking voices? What do we talk to power pop, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, it's PowerPow. It's rock and roll. Okay. All right. Okay. I was thinking. Okay. Gotcha.

Yeah. Like Arena church power pop kind of thing. Yeah. I hear you. Cool. The concert I saw this year. I saw a few, but there's this group called Osmotantes from Brazil. They still exist, but they're really popular.

In the 60s, they kind of, there was a movement called Tropicalia. And they were kind of the young kind of Beatles version of the tropicalia scene, I would say. I highly recommend in their first couple of, of records. They kind of became popular and known because Kirk Cobain kind of named check them back in the 90s and a couple of things. But their music is absolutely incredible. But one thing I liked about the show is that it was a mix of cultures. The age spectrum was really large. There was really old people and really like young kids there. A lot of people were dancing. And it also covered the spectrum of like accessibility. It's a pop. It's very easy to sort of listen to. And it

kind of invites you in. But at the same time, they were shredding, you know, it was like a fusion show where they're just like everybody was so good, like the band and everything, though. So it was a very, it was quite an experience, you know, it was very uplifting. And, you know, anybody into music should check out Osmetantes for sure, just in general.

But if you have a chance to see him, I totally recommend it. That sounds incredible. Sounds like a big party. Yeah, I actually went to San Francisco with my wife, and we went and saw broken social scene, actually in Oakland. and they played a 20th anniversary show where they played one of their best, one of their best album. You forgot it in people.

And that was pretty awesome because they played really well. They sound the exact same. And it was definitely like an old millennial move to go to that show and enjoy it the way I did. But I did. And you probably saw them back when they were popping, right? No. Back in the day? No.

I mean, I came to them a little later, but I didn't see them back in the day. It was like 02. So I didn't really. I can't play a little later. quickly before we wrap up, a TV show you liked. Sirik. Ah, Fleischman is in trouble. Sick.

It's on Hulu. It's based on a book called Fleischman is in trouble, and it is about a couple that gets divorced, well, you know, kind of hitting, I'd say probably hitting 40. They've got two young kids, and they just kind of, it's a really interesting show.

It's sort of about how, you know, you kind of meet somebody in like romantic feelings sort of takes over but you might be two very different people and you know sometimes that can be really beautiful and you know force you guys to evolve in the right ways together but sometimes they can just cause these splinters

that you know eventually become impossible to overcome and I just it's like one of those shows that's like just deeply like the way that it captures sort of the interior life of going through a divorce like the little sort of things like, you know, waking up in a, in an apartment by yourself. And like, you know, you're like four years old, but you're sort of like living like a bachelor again.

And like you're trying to figure out, you know, what's my ex-wife up to? And all these sort of little things that you wouldn't necessarily think of people going to a divorce, especially like modern times, like dating apps and all that stuff. So, yeah, it's just like a really, it's a really good show. And I just, I like shows that capture like weird sort of intricacies of everyday life. and I think it does a good job of that. Chris, how about you? Yeah, dude, Hulu has just been fucking killing it for like two years.

I couldn't pick one show, and the three that I picked are also on Hulu. Reservation Dogs, Atlanta, and the Bear. Those were three shows that I think just kind of like changed and pushed envelopes in like three different ways. I didn't put Rami down, even though I'm assessed with that show as well, just because I didn't want to put four, but I'll put Rami on that as well. But as far as like kind of like cultural like sort of subculture kind of exposés, all of them, I would say are would be examples of that. And for some reason, they're all on FX and or Hulu.

But I would recommend all three of those shows, all four of those shows highly. Yes. I hear a lot of people talk about reservation dogs. I need to check that one out. It's an amazing show. The bear also love that show. For me, Andor thought that was an incredible story. Tony has been well documented on our website.

I'm not going to, I don't need to explain anything with that. The rehearsal was incredible. Huge Nathan Fielder fan. Industry is one of my favorite shows on TV. At times, I think it might be the best show on TV. And then Slow Horses, another awesome show on Apple Plus. Two seasons came out in one year. Yeah, there's a lot of just great performances in that show.

It was a fun year. A lot of good stuff came out. A lot of good basketball. A lot of great basketball to come. Hopefully, you know, I'm excited about doing more of these shows with you guys and getting to know you guys better, frankly. Maybe we'll do one in person here soon. Oh, I'd love that.

Yeah. Well. Yeah, it's a good 20-23 goal, an in-person show. Yeah. We should do it. Yeah. All right, guys. Well, thanks for listening this year, and thanks for listening to through the transition to this new partnership, this podcast thing, as we've kind of gotten our legs under us and figured it out.

And had a good time deep diving on things and many more deep dives to come. Much more basketball discussion to come. I appreciate everybody listening, subscribe and like and get on the website and enjoy all the smart people. We have a fucking murderer's row of smart people covering basketball. and all topics on the ringer. So enjoy that. And we'll see you soon. See you shortly.