The Ringer NBA Show - The Warriors Are the Most Fun Story in the NBA

Episode Date: December 19, 2021

Wos is joined by Ethan Strauss to talk about the Warriors. They start by talking about what makes the Warriors the the most fun story in the NBA this season (3:58) before getting into where the Warriors' young players stand (14:53). Then they discuss what makes Draymond Green so important to his team (20:41) Host: Wosny Lambre Guest: Ethan Strauss Producer: Carlos Chiriboga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Derek Thompson, long-time writer with the Atlantic Magazine on tech, culture, and politics. There is a lot of noise out there, and my goal is to cut through the headlines, loud tweets, and hot takes in my new podcast, Plain English. I'll talk to some of the smartest people I know to give you clear viewpoints and memorable takeaways. Plain English starts November 16th. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Ladies and gentlemen to the Sunday edition of the Ringer NBA podcast. I'm your host, Big Wazza, aka Wazdi Lambray. I'm joined by my great friend, one of the best journalists in NBA media until he retired. He now runs a highly successful, highly, highly educational substack called The House of Strauss.

Ethan Strauss, welcome to the show, my brother. I'm very happy to be here. I'm a little nervous because I was supposed to be on a few weeks ago and we got hit by the atmospheric river in the Bay Area, which knocked things out. But to study up, I actually looked at the Bill Simmons Reddit page and oh my God, I was getting roasted. I mean, I respect how it happens, though. I respect the way they do it on the Bill Simmons Reddit page because they just, it's really shut up nerd. Here's your wedgy. It's not precious. Like, uh, what I'm seen on NBA Reddit where I don't know they're offended about something it's just it's just some shut up nerd stuff so I go in with trepidation you know so I'm I am too precious about my psyche to traverse the waters of NBA Reddit ringer Reddit Simmons Reddit um so you went on bill Simmons sort of subreddit where basically Simmons fans go on and talk about the show and the guests and all of that. And you looked up one of your own appearance. No, no, no, no. I actually didn't, but I saw that this is one of those classic things where they were debating if I had taken a shot at Bill

was something I had said, which I hadn't. And it was like, oh, no, oh no. This is already going left. This is already going bad. That's actually, you know, our friend of me and Al Hassan, it's like, as many years ago. It's practically a decade ago. It might be a decade ago. I blocked him on Twitter because he had alleged at that moment that I had taken some shot at Zach Lowe and added Zach Lowe back then. And that was back when there were like 48 people on Twitter. So it really felt almost like a slack, an internal company slack. I just like, I can't even, I can't deal with this dude. I got to block him. And then he got mad. And then through an intermediary, it brokered some conversation and now we're great friends. So yeah, that's always awkward because even if you never

meant it as a shot at the intended target, you just sound defensive and like you're bullshit. And when you're trying to say, no, that's not, it wasn't about that. It was about something. Oh, no. Oh, God. Oh, no. So I tend to always have the experience of whenever I'm new somewhere and like people aren't really used to my schstick for lack of a better word. There's usually a lot of, you know, give back, right? Where people like, who is this dude? why is he, you know, hot takes, blah, blah, blah, doesn't know what he's talking about. And then eventually people realize that pretty much 98% of the things that I say is kind of tongue and cheek and I don't mean it.

I don't mean to be as acidic as it comes off. I know like New Yorkers, we talk with this sort of abrasive style, but we're really just here. There's a spirit of kindness to it is what I would say. There's a warmth to it. 100%. And we're just having fun. And with that being said, let's have fun because I think the war. Warriors are probably the most fun story in the NBA so far this season, which is kind of crazy,

right? Because it was, shoot, 2014, 15 was seven years ago now when the Warriors phenomenon started in earnest. And to be seven years removed and for them to be a feel good story again, it's kind of crazy to see. Yeah, which makes it an even better story. If it was just constant success. If it was like those Patriots runs of your where they're always in it, you always see him lurking. But it seemed like this whole thing was dead. And that's what makes it so enjoyable. There's an element of absence makes the heart grow fonder and also just clay being in the wilderness for a few years now. And there's all this anticipation about him coming back. And I think one of the reasons it really comes through is he cares so much. I mean,

caring is contagious. I know that sounds. That's probably the cornyest thing that's ever been said on your podcast. But why did we care about Steph setting that record? That's not a record we traditionally care about. I don't remember where I was when Reggie Miller set that record, where I was when Ray Allen broke that. When Ray Allen did it? Yeah. No, it was cool because it mattered to Steph.

And it was in this very genuine way. It was obviously the benchmark that he had set early in his career, targeting it as something that he could potentially do. and just Steph being so into it made a bunch of other people get so into it. And I feel similarly about Clay coming back. Nobody loves basketball more than Clay Thompson does. They might love it as much. I remember Dan Martinez, who was second in commander Ray Ritter,

the PR maestro of the Warriors once said to me, notice that on Media Day. Media Day, for those who do not know, it's that first day of training camp. It's like the first day of school. Hope springs eternal. Oh, yes. Unless you're the early warriors or the warriors from, you know, before they got good where people were just sniping at each other. And Monte Ellis is saying, no, it can't work with me and Steph. He was right. But anyway, so on Media Day, players show up in their jerseys and they take their photos. They do their photo shoots. And Clay was the only one year after year. He would grab a basketball, go to the corner and just start shooting and just start. He couldn't wait. He just needed to do something. And so it's so.

Central do his life. You had that moment recently where he was crying, uh, court side and just taking it all in. And so I mean, really the stage, the stage is set. And, uh, I don't, I don't know. I don't know. There's a lot to, there's a lot of doubt in the league right now, as games get canceled one after the other. There's a lot of variance. I don't know. I think the, yeah, it's the season's going to happen one way or the other, I think. One way or the other, the season's going to happen. I think this spike and stuff is going to pass because, you know, that's the nature. Because people got to understand, right? Like, this isn't like, it's not like if you get chlamydia and you go untreated, like

something horrible can happen to you, right? Like, you kind of get COVID and then it passes. Like, that's the nature of this thing. Like, it comes and it goes. Like, people are going to get sick. They're going to get better. And we're going to kind of move on with things. So, yeah, I think the Clay thing.

is going to be really dope. And I think you touch on something that's important that is something that you and I have talked about ad nauseum. But I don't think it's enough airspace in the public discourse is like you talking about Clay Thompson cares about basketball. Steph Curry's three-point record is about basketball. Like this story is about basketball.

And I feel like the NBA more so than any other major sports league. So often the story really, Rears away veers off from basketball. Always, it's always getting moved. It's LeBron and China. It's, you know, the NBA solving police brutality. It's like all of this crazy shit always, the NBA is veering off of it. And oftentimes the best stories, the stories that generate the most interests, are the game.

Wow. Crazy, isn't it? No, it's crazy. And I don't know if that's a consequence of the Spurs devaluing the regular season or maybe the Cavs doing it by winning in 2016. And congrats to them. They won a hell of a series. But it did teach the league a lesson that you win 73 games.

That's just going to be a mallet to whap you with if you don't actually come through. So maybe that's why it's gotten that way. I just think it's my general theory. And there are a lot of different components. But I've written about it is that the NBA, they went all in on Twitter. Not incidentally. because to a certain degree, every institution gets a Twitter account and tweets, but they really made it a strategy.

They had these annual conferences with Adam Silver and Jack Dorsey talking about merging their brands, and they pushed it. They tried to incubate it. And at the beginning, it was great. You know, remember the old NBA Twitter was, wasn't it great? Oh, my God, this league. It was great. You just felt like you were having arguments and, you know, it could get intense.

It was fun. You didn't think that it would be. 2011, Twitter was amazing. Oh, it was great. And you didn't think it would be on your permanent record or anything would be. Honestly, there was no, what's that called, freezing cold takes? There was no sense that anything would be held against you. You were just talking.

And so it was cool. It did seem like it supplemented the popularity of the sport. But after a while, it seemed like it just became part of the bullshit. And it created a bit of a detour. So I think that they might have over social mediaed. And you could see why they did it. I think that if you were a smart executive and you saw what was happening early on, like Adam Silver did, we probably all would have pushed it.

But then it did create a world of distractions and it was to the detriment of the game itself. But we shall see. I mean, I think this war warrior storyline, call me a home or whatever. I do think it's the best story in sports right now. And I cannot. I mean, it would be incredible if they came back and they had Clay come back and he's good again. and man, you get a, you get a finals, Warriors Nets, you know, or Warriors Bucks. I don't want Ben Thompson to get, I don't want Ben Thompson to get mad at me, Warriors Bucks, you know?

I mean, that's exciting stuff of it happens. Yeah, and those stories, and I think that's what the league has kind of been in the wilderness the past few years, because there hasn't been a story to get behind. And you've talked about this a lot in your podcast. You talk about it a lot in your articles about like people think in terms of stories. Yes. Right? And if there's no story to tell, like it's like the Warriors thing is so obvious.

It's like this team that was great. They went on this incredible historic run. They lose a bunch of guys to injuries. They lose KD to free agency. They absolutely stink up the joint. The first year after KD loses last year was like, ah, mediocrity. And then this year, they're the best team in the NBA so far. They don't even have their guy back.

It's easy for fans to, for fans to follow that story. You know, like some of the stuff that we're tracking, whether it be like the Celtics, like not liking Kyrie's attitude adjustment or just some of the craziness that we would just end up following as a league rather than what's taking place on the freaking court. Again, like I think that's been to his detriment. I love a bunch of the new guys in the league. Of course, like the Yokic is and the Bookers and the Donovan Mitchells and the Tray Youngs. Like these young guys, of course, Yonis, he's a two-time MVP. Like, these young new generation guys are interesting people. They're going to be fun to follow, but we do have to develop these stories.

I don't know what they got to do for Yokic. Maybe it's got to be like this extravagant WWE type intro where he comes in on a horse because he loves horses so much. I mean, that would be, I mean, that's one way to catch the attention of the public, I suppose. But yeah, I mean, I'm definitely a culprit in this whole thing. I'm a hypocrite. I run a website where I don't talk about the games at all.

So I'm definitely part of the problem, I would think. But yeah, it seems like you need to pitch things through story. And that's what, I mean, this is where we get derailed into nostalgia. But that's what was so amazing about the NBA and NBC. And those intros. I mean, those intros are great because they're great with Marv Albert or Bob Costas doing an narration. But they're also fantastic because they're telling the audience.

They're telling the audience. This is important. This is an epic battle. This is why you should pay attention. This is why you should be into it. I contrast it with, I had the experience of doing this podcast with the, with the calves, the calves bloggers, chase down black guys who were looking back at the 2016 finals. And I had never watched those finals as a TV product because I was there covering them on the ground.

And I came away disgusted with the ESP. presentation of it because my experience of these finals, it was so epic. I mean, it was incredible. Those finals. It was, I just remember myself in Quickenloans Arena. And they start with that Phil Collins in the air of the night intro. And I'm watching the concessionaires belt the lyrics singing in unison to it as the crowd's jumping up and down and really feeling the energy. And it's for that game six. And it's just the hair on the back of your neck is standing up. And then I watch the TV version and they've commissioned the roots. And I like the roots, but they've commissioned the roots to do some sort of weird intro.

And the motif is the number two. And it's like two, two games till game seven. Kyrie's the number two. I don't know if you even remember this, but it's just, what is this? They're not explaining. Why is there no narration? Why aren't you using Mike Breen, whoever to present this? us because this is an epic battle between two opposing forces, the showy, glamorous,

Bay Area versus the gritty, I'm just a kid from Akron. The Rust Belt. Yeah, even though eventually went Hollywood. Coastal elites versus the Rust Belt, Ethan. Yeah, play it up, man. And it's just sitting there for you. And for some reason, the product, there's just not that much thought into it. And it's not like, hey, I love the NBC stuff, but it's not like those guys were geniuses.

they just obviously, to quote, one ESPN employee, gave the people what they want. So, yeah, they got to get back to that, I think. Listen, I do want to talk about the Warriors while I have you here because I think there's something interesting happening with the young guys. Wiseman, he had a rough rookie season. There's no other way to put it. Obviously hasn't had much of a showing this year yet because of injury,

whatever, he'll be back soon. And comminga has, you know, in spurts and stints. And shown flashes. It's not like he's gone out there and been Scotty Barnes or some of these other, you know, bigger rookies. Like, what do you think of their standing within the organization, right?

Because I get the sense that Lacob, because he didn't trade Clay Thompson for, um, for Kevin Love that one faithful summer, because Draymond is homegrown, because Steph is homegrown. I feel like Lekhap feels like, nah,

I like my guys. I'm not trading these young dudes to get some vets. here and show up the roster. Like, I like my guys. What is their standing on the team right now? I'm not sure what the standing is on the team, but it can say that LACAB, he's like those fans who love the young players almost maybe a little too much and want to do those trades or those guys aren't included. I think maybe because he's got that venture capitalist perspective, he's so into having a market inefficiency and thinking that, oh, my God, we only pay these guys so much on the rookie deal. We can't give this up, man. And we've got the special sauce in here. We've got the

secret sauce that makes players great, obviously. I mean, if it comes down to it and you need to get rid of a Harrison Barnes to get Kevin Durant, yeah, he'll do it. But I do think that he is more of the mentality that our guys are great. And it doesn't just extend to draft picks. I mean, he was really talking up Wiggins after they got him. And to be sure, that was a really good trade for them in the end, but you would think that they had just gotten Scotty Bippen. So, yeah, I think that Lake Up is more a believer and they have just reshuffled and reshuffled trying to find the right mix of people behind the scenes to get those young players flourishing because they've had a lot of failures. I mean, Jordan Poole kind of came out of nowhere as a guy who

could be really good because before that it seemed like they did not know what they were doing. So I just know that there's an intense emphasis on it. What the standing is within, I don't know. Personally, I just enjoy Jordan Poole's game. I don't know what he's going to become, but he's probably the guy right now, other than Steph, where I'm most excited to watch in a totally normie fan capacity was, by the way. It's not like back in the day where I would be trying to watch. It's more I'm on the exercise.

You were trying to talk us into how interesting Pat McCar was as a young player. Like, you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, KD, we get it. One of the all-time greatest one-on-one scores that we've ever seen from K.D. You know, Pat McA-Reeke of nature. Yeah, yeah. Pat McCaw, though. Who knows what that kid could be? By the way, I do think that is a way that you can get engaged in the game in a way that's not aligned with fan interest, but it's still, it's its own drama where if you're around a team and talking to people, that's some real drama. Like how some of these dudes on the fringes, how they play game to game might end their career or they're in the NBA.

KD, he's going to be fine, right? He's going to be fine, no matter what. So you do sometimes find yourself, as you get to know these guys, maybe having your emotions rise and fall with every shot that they take. I mean, I remember when Justin Holiday had a few bad games, and Andre Agadala moved some of his stuff into Holiday's locker and was just kind of insinuating, you know, if you don't... That is so fucked up.

Like, you're not going to need this locker, basically. Now, to be fair, I think from Andre's perspective, I think that he believes in tough love because the NBA is a tough place. If you can't withstand that, you're not going to make it. I think in that very whip J.K. Simons and whiplash sort of perspective is the one that Andre had. I mean, that was always amusing, too, the kind of harshness that he would use because I do think he wanted the best for those guys on the bench.

I know I'm derailing and detouring. No, no, keep going. We love it. I would be in the locker room after a game. And I remember he would just have the stat sheet. out looking at it and he would just say really loudly, man, I'd love to take nine shots and 18 minutes and you knew that was Ian Clark and Ian Clark would laugh nervously because he's just saying you got to stop shooting. You got to play the right way. But I mean, that's part of why this season is

cool is having Andre Godala back. I mean, it's all the cliche to say that his impact is not his impact, that there's more going on there, that he's a coach of the bench. And he's almost, I think, in a unique NBA role in that respect because on these teams you do have veterans and they're supposed to guide these players but Andre specifically is like the player coach of the bench of the second unit and so that's just an unusual kind of thing

that he carved out for himself and that's yet another reason why this revived Warriors team is a fun one to watch at least from my perspective. Jemont Green is such a unique player not just today but like ever Like, I don't, we've never really seen a guy like him who he's a six foot seven, six foot eight guy who is the most dominant defensive player in the NBA. He's this great connector for the greatest shooter ever that unlocks so much of what the Warriors want to do on offense.

But like to your mind, like, what makes Jemond, Dremont, like, what makes him so integral to what makes this team tick? Wow. I mean, that's, that's a big question. I mean, there's an element of just energy, of just violent energy. I always loved early as Crewe. He would wrench the ball away with two hands and that disruptiveness, but it's also with this preternatural intelligence when he plays. I'm guessing you saw the recent thing you did with Doris Burke

where he was explaining his decision making on defense. And I love the way he frames it. I love the way he talks about it because defense is just so different from offense. and he's really all about playing probabilities. He's not always presenting it like, I made this decision because this would shut it down. It's, I had to do this because it's 65% this way, 35% that way. It's not unlike Shane Badiere,

the way that he would talk about it in that famous article by Michael Lewis in the New York Times about how he was the no-stats All-Star, except Shane Badiye just couldn't force turnovers like Dremont can. And I feel like Dremont's role in the league is a little bit, underrated. I mean, there's always been switching. That's that's always been a thing. And it's one of those things that almost came back in fashion. So the story for people who don't know, the Warriors, they've got their 2014, 2015 team. They're about to figure out their strategy. Ron Adams, assistant coach at the

time, who had been coaching literally since the 60s. And it might have been early 60s said, He said, you know, I think we could be a good red team. And what that meant in his code, because there's different vernacular and lingo in the NBA, was switching team. And people are going, oh, you think so? I was like, yeah, I think we could pretty much switch everything. And so it's funny that switching everything became seen as the warriors were doing it, with Draymond as the centerpiece in that, with their army of six foot six to six foot seven guys,

that versatility. It was seen as this newfangled thing, but it was really pushed. the oldest guy because he had been doing it when he coached back in Fresno in the 60s. And so it was getting used at the NBA level and to great effect. And so I think the Warriors really revolutionized basketball. I think Steph Curry and Draymond revolutionized in their own ways. And in some ways, I think that Draymond's impact is more so than Steph's. Because Steph's impact, people talk it up.

But I don't really see too many people able to do what Steph does. and replicating it versus there are guys who are in that 6 foot 7, 6 foot 6 range, BAM for instance, in a Dreymond, its center rule. I think that that was a huge, huge aspect to how defense changed in the NBA. And it came from Dremont. And I know that when he might call himself the best defensive player, and maybe ever, people get their backs up and they say, I mean, the stature of a guy like Akim Olajuwon,

people are going to invoke that. And it's going to seem like an argument. I don't know where I come down on that. I didn't watch every era, but I think for this era, he's the most important defensive player. Yeah, I'm sorry. Like, the other day, I'm watching them play the Suns and the Warriors come out with Drayman guarding Chris Paul at the point of attack in order to preempt their pick and roll action.

We're just like, we ain't got no problem switching this action because yes, Drayman Green King guard D'Andre Aiton. That's just an insane weapon to have, right? Like to be able to deploy your de facto center slash best wing defender onto one of the greatest point guards thinkers of the game ever. And it's just like, yeah, this is how we're going to guard this team defensively. You know, it's, defense is so much harder to measure as far as the impact stuff than offense, right?

So we're never going to get the concrete stats about. and not even just Draymond what Draymond does individually, the way he's quarterbacking the defense in the back end, where he's the one barking out all the call. He'll physically move guys or they need to go. He'll gently shove Steph in the direction he needs to go. It is like that. It is that linebacker cliche,

but he is that guy in the defense. And if you're into defense, I think it's wonderful to watch. As a quick digression, though, I'm really into speaking of Chris Paul, if you have a kid, if you want them to learn how to play basketball, Chris Paul's got some great videos on YouTube. He does these summer basketball camps annually.

And there are life lessons, there are speeches. And I was thinking about it because I was thinking about having watched Draymond rip Chris Paul on occasion and steal the ball. And juxtaposing that against Chris Paul teaching lessons on how to be completely confident, dribbling and how everybody knows not to take the ball from me or try to. I think Draymond is one of the few who's going to try it sometimes be successful. Young Asher is going to learn how to dribble from Chris Paul. I love that idea, by the way.

We've gotten far enough into this podcast. We do got to talk about the stuff of it all because obviously he has this incredibly special week. And, you know, because I'm close to people like you and Marcus and I remember when the Steph thing, like there was a time where he wasn't, you know, know the Pope or the godfather or the whatever euphemism you want to use of the warriors, right? Like he was kind of just another sort of guy that they invested in. Remember when they gave him $40 million over four years? And people were like, you might have overpaid for this dude because his ankles don't

work. And even after all of that, Ty Lawson money, I mean, I don't know. Yeah. Whoa, I don't know if we should be paying as much as Thai Lawson, right? And, you know, even after the championship, there was this sense when Steph's like, $200 million contract was coming up where it's like Lacob kind of feels like Steph isn't solely responsible for everything that's ever happened positive for this team and all of that. I feel like we've crossed the Rubicon there. Steph is just a made guy over there.

Yeah. Oh yeah. Definitely. I mean, there are still people who at some level don't buy it or he just visually doesn't look like dominance, I suppose. But at this point, he's really weighted it out. and it's fun to have him back as a guy people are talking about at the top of the NBA. It's been a little bit of a time away, as we were saying. But yeah, he's a made guy in a way that we don't have a lot of in sports. We don't have a lot of guys who are going to spend all of their relevant career with a franchise. They're going to hop around in every sport, it seems. I mean, hell, Tom Brady's playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Maybe that will happen for Steph. Maybe he'll be playing for the Hornets in the future. I don't know. But yeah, I think in the Bay Area, he's just incredibly popular, as high approval as you can have. And I think, I don't think he's been the same guy through the whole time. And I'm sure Marcus could expound on this. I think anybody who becomes incredibly famous develop some harder edges. And they might start out wide-eyed and they get a little bit more cynical and they get a little bit more bitter.

And I do think Steph is a bit more of a sarcastic edge to him than the meets the eye for the public. But I think he has maintained being a good guy. And it's easy to scoff at that or think it's just myth making. And we're all lying to the customer. But I do think Steph is a good guy. And I do think that it's part of not just his appeal, but his success. Not everybody can lead in the same way. Michael Jordan could be vicious and be a leader.

It worked for the kind of guy he was. But as a point guard, as somebody who is sometimes the least physically imposing guy on the team, I think Steph does benefit from being this giver of joy and confidence. And so it's really, it's really been cool to see. Like I said, I'm just enjoying it like a Normie fan, drinking a few beers and watching the show. And it's nice, given all that's happened for people in the Bay Area to just have something to be happy about. And isn't it great to not have to get yelled at by Draymond at a practice anymore or have Kevin Durant say you got a guy named Ethan Strauss giving his whole opinion.

He don't even talk to me. Isn't it great to just be rid of that part of the business? Oh, man. I mean, that's a whole other rigmarole. I think Draymond's only yelled at me maybe twice. You know, credit to him. Hey, I mean, not that. that anybody should care. I thought he handled some of the critical things I wrote pretty well and in a cordial way and in a professional way and it's something that it's something that I

appreciated. KD Katie's off doing his own thing. I wish him the best as well, right? It's, I don't think that's what's funny is I don't think that they're bad guys. I just think it's the game to what you're saying. It's the circumstance, right? It's this idea of this guy's

really mad at me, but I don't know if he hates me or not. It almost doesn't matter. He just hates what I'm doing. And what I'm doing is something maybe I have to do. And so the conversations can sometimes shift after it's all over. Harrison Barnes, for instance, didn't like to talk to me very much because of some of the things I wrote. But then afterwards, he comes through Chase Center and it's all smiles because it's just, it was very circumstantial. It wasn't personal. It was just business. And I think that's true of whatever I was doing, hopefully, and I think it's true of them yelling at me as well, no matter what's being said at

the time. But to what you're asking, yes, I do enjoy getting a break from all of that. It can be pretty intense. But to be clear, I mean, to be sure, I don't know what it's like now. I mean, that's one of the reasons I ducked out and I started running my own site. You might know better than I do. I don't know what it's like to cover an NBA game. Are you, do you show up in a hazmat suit? I'm not going to lie. I haven't been to Staples this entire season because it was just like during the playoffs anyway. It was like no access. Post games are on Zoom.

Like the meat, shit, the media room was even close. I'm like, I can't even get soft serve. Like, what's the point of being at these games? If I can't do, like, I literally can't do anything. You can't talk to anybody. Like, that's, you know, that's 60, 70% of the point of being at an NBA game. As far as our jobs is to talk to people, talk to the relevant parties,

whether it be management people, whether it be players. whether it be players people, right? Like the people closest to the player. Like all of that shit is completely cut off. But I think they've relaxed a lot of that at Staples anyway. But I think the post game is still on a Zoom basis. From what I've heard, you can mill about on the court like so, but you got to be wearing the mask.

And I think at least attitudinally, I'm pro Vax, anti-mask. Look, I don't know anything statistically about what the mask does. I know I just don't like wearing it. That's all I know. I just don't enjoy it. Covex anti-mask. Yeah. That's the podcast headline.

As far as how I orient my life, I'm not telling anybody anything on what the statistics are. I'm not getting into all that. I'm just saying that I've chosen a lifestyle where I put on a mask less so. And that includes an avoidance of going down there and trying to make conversation with agents and assistant coaches as I'm fogging up my glasses. I don't want it. I don't want any part of it.

God bless the people who can do it. do it. If you can exude some charisma while wearing that, I mean, that's a trick I would like somebody to show me how to do it because I do not know how to do it. I feel, you know what I feel like it's like when you got too high in high school or college and you're thinking, you know, did that joke I made? Did that, did they laugh at that? Did they think I was joking? Did that come through? They, wait, are they mad at me? One of the reasons, one of the myriad of reasons why I never became a weed guy. Every time I got high, I just felt stupid. I feel like everything that I was saying, was stupid and people were like, wow, what an idiot.

But Ethan, man, listen, I appreciate the time that you gave us today. I want people to understand that they need to go subscribe to the house of Strauss upstack, not because Ethan's my man, but because like, Ethan's willing to say shit about our business, our industry, about just the culture of what we do in a way that's so much more honest than nine out of the 10 of the shit that you're going to read anywhere in this, in this business and I think the honesty, the candor mixed with

the breath of Ethan's experience plus he's a fucking smart dude. You need to be checking that shit out. Thank you again for coming on, Ethan. Tell the people where to find you. How's the strouse.substack.com. Thanks. That was a very kind plugging was. I can't do any better than that.

But yes, come one, come all. Gift it for the holidays. It's the ultimate gift. You know, you can procrastinate. It's a few clicks away. So there you go. Yes, sir. All right. We'll see you guys next. week. I'm Big Wads for Ethan Strauss. We're out of here. Peace.