Speaker 1: They gotta get started with the NBA where don't look now,
Speaker 1: but the Los Angeles Lakers have climbed all the way
Speaker 1: up to the top two seed in the Western Conference.
Speaker 1: The Lakers swept two games against the Clippers Friday and Sunday.
Speaker 1: The Lakers have now won six straight games and twelve
Speaker 1: of the last fourteen. There's six and two With Luka
Speaker 1: Doncic in the lineup in Lebron James is putting up
Speaker 1: numbers reminiscent of his MVP season. The Lakers on a roll,
Speaker 1: and many are starting to wonder if they can win
Speaker 1: the West. I'm here to tell you they can win
Speaker 1: the West. But it's not just because of Lebron James.
Speaker 1: It's not because you're expecting and anticipating that Luka Doncic's
Speaker 1: gonna go berserk. It's because of the way the Lakers
Speaker 1: are playing defense. That brings us to JJ Reddick. Did
Speaker 1: you know that over the last six and a half week,
Speaker 1: the Lakers are the number one defensive team in the
Speaker 1: NBA efficiency wise, Number one? That is special. Nobody anticipated that.
Speaker 1: So we gotta give love where it's due. Respect Where's
Speaker 1: do it? We gotta start contemplating whether or not the
Speaker 1: Lakers gonna d come out of the West. Now, when
Speaker 1: I think about Okac, I'm thinking about Shay Gil just Alexander.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about Jayalen Williams. I'm thinking about Ched Holmgren
Speaker 1: and Isaiah Hartenstein. I'm thinking about the brothers that they
Speaker 1: got playing on that squad. Youthful, exuberant athleticism, three point
Speaker 1: shooting ability, shot blocking ability, defensive prowess. They've got like
Speaker 1: nine different categories that they're number one in. All of
Speaker 1: those things play a role. The question is will their
Speaker 1: youth get the better of them, particularly going up against
Speaker 1: some more experienced teams there. I say the Los Angeles Lakers.
Speaker 1: We look at Memphis, they struggle shooting the ball. We
Speaker 1: look at Houston, they're too young. We look at Denver,
Speaker 1: they don't have a bench. We look at the Clippers,
Speaker 1: we see what the Lakers have already done to them.
Speaker 1: We look at the Phoenix Suns. They're non existent. They've
Speaker 1: lost like twelve of their last fourteen. Despite Kevin Duran
Speaker 1: and Devin Book are both averaging over twenty six points
Speaker 1: a game, they can't win a game to save their
Speaker 1: damn life. The Minnesota Timberwolves are winning games, But do
Speaker 1: you really really wonder whether or not Anthony Edwards is
Speaker 1: gonna have the help he needs from a Rudy Gobert,
Speaker 1: from a Julius Randall and others to really make some
Speaker 1: noise out in the Western Conference. Now, of course there
Speaker 1: is the Dallas Mavericks who everybody believes could make some noise.
Speaker 1: But then again, Anthony Davis and Daniel Gafford is out.
Speaker 1: When are they coming back? And when they do come back,
Speaker 1: how ready are they going to be. There's a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of things to point too throughout the Western Conference.
Speaker 1: And we can't forget the Golden State Warriors either, Steph
Speaker 1: Curry and Jimmy Butler. Those boys whole bunch of things
Speaker 1: to point too. But here's the bottom line. The Lakers
Speaker 1: got Luca, they got Lebron, and now they got a defense.
Speaker 1: Damn they can take the West. They really really can.
Speaker 1: Now forgive me for transitioning to another NBA topic, but
Speaker 1: I want to follow up on a conversation from last week. Well,
Speaker 1: Lebron James wondered why anyone would want to be the
Speaker 1: face of the NBA. James essentially blame the media for
Speaker 1: being critical of the players in the game who are
Speaker 1: compared to the legends in the sport. I gave my
Speaker 1: thoughts on the issue last Friday, and then my buddy
Speaker 1: the god Father, the one and only Michael Wilbon from PTI,
Speaker 1: part of the Interruption, weighed in on the subject himself.
Speaker 1: Take a listen to what my man Wilbond had to say.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of layers here, and there's some stuff
Speaker 2: I might agree with him. And I watched Channing Fry
Speaker 2: have this rant and it was insightful, and I disagree
Speaker 2: with Channing, who I know and like tremendously. And if
Speaker 2: I was sitting with Channing and or Lebron, I would
Speaker 2: say hold on for a second. First of all, we
Speaker 2: live in a world now in which those guys are
Speaker 2: particularly Lebron, they know how to use and manipulate social media.
Speaker 2: But it goes both ways. It cuts both ways, and
Speaker 2: that's where a great part of the negativity is. All right,
Speaker 2: so you engage in this. We live in a world
Speaker 2: that is largely negative, having nothing to do with sports.
Speaker 2: That that's the world we live in and you live
Speaker 2: in it. And in Lebron's case, though, when you've been
Speaker 2: praised justifiably, you've earned the praise and the hundreds of
Speaker 2: millions of dollars that have started since you were eight
Speaker 2: years old when you put a crown on your head.
Speaker 2: Do you actually believe that the rest of us are
Speaker 2: just in your kingdom to serve you. Sorry, there's criticism
Speaker 2: that comes with that. There's comparison that comes with that.
Speaker 2: I don't know that Lebron feels this way because I
Speaker 2: haven't asked him. I'd like to ask him, is he
Speaker 2: referring to the constant comparisons to Michael Jordan? Because if
Speaker 2: he doesn't like that, too, damn bad. The comparison, the
Speaker 2: constant attention, that's how you get all that money. It
Speaker 2: doesn't come from fannies in seats. It comes from attention
Speaker 2: and eyeballs and viewership and listenership and all of that.
Speaker 2: Tony and I just wonder, really, do you think that
Speaker 2: we're supposed to just be there in public relations terms?
Speaker 2: Went out on your payroll? When out there just to
Speaker 2: praise you?
Speaker 1: Do I need to say any more? Do I need
Speaker 1: the sanny damn Moore? He said it right there for you.
Speaker 1: We're not on Lebron James payroll. But guess that's what
Speaker 1: we damn sure help elevate his payroll because by talking
Speaker 1: about him so much and praising him and recognizing him
Speaker 1: and popularizing him, it's facilitated him making money. There is
Speaker 1: no question that he is one of the greatest players
Speaker 1: ever and he deserves all the credit for that. We
Speaker 1: didn't train for him, We didn't you know, we didn't
Speaker 1: provide his nutrition. We weren't the ones in the weight
Speaker 1: room like he was taking care of his body, spending
Speaker 1: more than a million and a half dollars a year
Speaker 1: on taking care of his health. All of that stuff
Speaker 1: is absolutely positively true. But in the end, by talking
Speaker 1: about him, by prioritizing him with our coverage, we've assisted
Speaker 1: in that. But we're hating because God forbid that you
Speaker 1: had to audacity to unmitigated gall or say that one
Speaker 1: player out of the thousands upon thousands of players that
Speaker 1: have played in the NBA throughout its history could possible
Speaker 1: be better than Lebron James. All we do is talk
Speaker 1: shit about him. That's what he says. I'll tell you
Speaker 1: what's talking about him, calling his ass too sensitive, that's
Speaker 1: what's talking shit about him, which I just did because
Speaker 1: it's true.