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Speaker 1: Good morning, sweet world, and welcome to the No Dunks

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Speaker 1: podcast on the Athletic Network. It's Wednesday, July twenty second.

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Speaker 1: I'm Jady Skeets and back from his great fishing expedition.

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Speaker 1: It's the Bearded One Trey Kirby. Hey, Hey, welcome back TK.

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Speaker 1: We also have the international Man of Mystery taking it

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Speaker 1: to the Max Leellis Friends. Got the man making the

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Speaker 1: magic happen.

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Speaker 2: Jd.

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Speaker 1: Hello, there he is and finally a very special guest today.

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Speaker 1: He hosts two of my favorite NBA podcasts, both Open

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Speaker 1: Floor and the Greatest of All Talk. He's a writer

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Speaker 1: from the Washington Post and well, he's officially the first

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Speaker 1: person we've had on the show who is actually coming

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Speaker 1: to us live from inside the NBA bubble. It's Ben Gulliver. Ben,

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Speaker 1: what's up man?

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Speaker 2: Not too much, guys. It's great to hear your voice

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Speaker 2: in general, great to hear your voice because I didn't

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Speaker 2: have a lot of human contact for the last week,

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Speaker 2: locked up in my hotel room. And I got to say,

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Speaker 2: you must have teased this appearance, because I spent all

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Speaker 2: morning waiting through emails from your listeners saying, oh my god,

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Speaker 2: it's like Voltron it's like Wu Tang Clan. You guys

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Speaker 2: are like coming together here on the show. So I'm

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Speaker 2: excited to be here. You know, the last time we

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Speaker 2: did this was during the lockout. You guys remember that

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Speaker 2: in Portland, Oregon. Wow?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, great memory, that's exactly.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Dwight Jans is going to be joining us in not

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Speaker 3: too long.

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Speaker 1: It's coming up in a half hour from now. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So how are you holding up? I mean, what have

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Speaker 1: you been there now? In Orlando? Ten days? Something like that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll say it's been a real roller coaster review emotions.

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Speaker 2: The first couple of days are just in shock, trying

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Speaker 2: to get your bearing because then you're getting a little

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Speaker 2: bored and stir crazy in the hotel room. But they

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Speaker 2: let us out on Sunday and it was the sweetest feeling.

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Speaker 2: I'm like walking around the campus. My eyes are adjusting

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Speaker 2: to the light, and here's Donovan Mitchell being like, welcome

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Speaker 2: to the bubble. It's like this is it feels like

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Speaker 2: a movie, Like what's happening right now?

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Speaker 4: You know.

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Speaker 2: We started getting into some of these practice sessions and

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Speaker 2: the guys are just happy to be back playing basketball.

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Speaker 2: Be honest, I'm feeling really excited and energetic about being

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Speaker 2: able to just work again. I don't know how you

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Speaker 2: guys felt like when the season shut down. I was

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Speaker 2: just like getting a little bit bopey, you know, getting

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Speaker 2: a little bit down in the dumps. How are we

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Speaker 2: going to be without hoops for eighteen months? And then

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Speaker 2: the bubble idea it almost sounded too good to be true,

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Speaker 2: and now they're actually pulling it off. It seems like

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Speaker 2: the testing protocol is working, guys are staying healthy, and

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Speaker 2: we're just seeing these guys in the gym. So getting

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Speaker 2: here Lebron, you know, talk about how much he missed

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Speaker 2: his mom during quarantine the other day, or watching Yannis

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Speaker 2: just bang these threes one after another last night at practice.

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Speaker 2: It doesn't feel normal, but it feels great to just

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Speaker 2: kind of be back on the back on the grind.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you were. You had to do like all reporters

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Speaker 1: that are down there the seven day hotel room, you know, lockdown.

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Speaker 1: You were in quarantine for a week and you're now free,

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Speaker 1: though it sounds like you don't have that much area

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Speaker 1: for you for you to roam, is that right?

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Speaker 2: Well that's right. Well, first of all, during the seven

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Speaker 2: day quarantine where we're getting tested every day. The only

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Speaker 2: time I got to go outside of my room for

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Speaker 2: any reason was to get the food or to get tested.

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Speaker 2: So they're coming here with these you know, these Q

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Speaker 2: tips to jab down my throat and to put up

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Speaker 2: my nose, and the whole time I'm thinking, like, guys,

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Speaker 2: don't rush this, like this is the only fresh air

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Speaker 2: I get. Like, if you want to choke me out,

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Speaker 2: do you want to choke me out for like twenty minutes? Fine,

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Speaker 2: Like that's great, you know, just keep picking my nose.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, the pen, I'm calling it kind of a pen.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it feels like we're in the bullpin of

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Speaker 2: a baseball stadium. Right. It's about zero point two miles

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Speaker 2: long from end to end, so it's not even a

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Speaker 2: full lap around like a high school track, you know.

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Speaker 2: All we were on one end, we've got a security

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Speaker 2: checkpoint where it's sort of where we pick up our food.

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Speaker 2: The other end is a security checkpoint where you know,

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Speaker 2: they're trying to you know, restrict us from walking around

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Speaker 2: this lake so that the players and the team employees

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Speaker 2: can do their little bicycle rides every morning. On the

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Speaker 2: side ends, you've got a lake that's a has alligators

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Speaker 2: in it. And then on the fourth side you've got

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Speaker 2: a parking lot where there's nothing there. So within that

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Speaker 2: confined space, we've got a pool. We've got an indoor

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Speaker 2: workout facility, which I'm not using because I'm still a

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Speaker 2: little paranoid about the COVID stuff. And then we've got

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Speaker 2: an outdoor activity area where we can actually saw Scott

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Speaker 2: Foster playing a wicked game of pickleball last night. He

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Speaker 2: was dressed, you know, he was just getting after it, guys,

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Speaker 2: I'm telling you. So that's sort of what we've got

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Speaker 2: to work with it. There's a nice lakeside path and

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Speaker 2: you know, you see birds every once in a while,

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Speaker 2: little get gos. I mean, it's a very idyllic scenario.

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Speaker 2: It's very pretty, and the weather's, you know, relatively nice

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Speaker 2: down here. It's just small, it's contained.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's something I was a.

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Speaker 2: Little worried about.

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Speaker 3: For you, Ben, I know you like to get out

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Speaker 3: in nature. It seems like even though you don't have

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Speaker 3: a ton of space. I saw you posting some birds

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Speaker 3: on Instagram.

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Speaker 2: I'm just the bottom of the barrel, like any living

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Speaker 2: breathing animal. I'm getting down and taking pictures of frogs

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Speaker 2: in the parking lot. You know, I feel bad for

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Speaker 2: the security guards because they're very polite. I think they've

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Speaker 2: probably been instructed to hi to us. But I'm doing

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Speaker 2: like fifteen laps around the property every day to get

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Speaker 2: my steps in because it's such a small property. It's like,

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Speaker 2: how many times can you give someone the head nod

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Speaker 2: and the wave before it gets a little bit awkward.

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Speaker 2: What's also funny to me, though, guys, is like, you know,

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Speaker 2: I'm down here in basketball heaven, right. It's like, oh,

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Speaker 2: there's like Brad Steven's walking and talking on It's like

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Speaker 2: a FaceTime Like, oh, there's Rob Polinka, there's JaVale McGee fishing.

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Speaker 2: You're just like your head's kind of on a swivel.

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Speaker 2: A lot of these Disney security guards are from the

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Speaker 2: local area and they just do not care about basketball

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Speaker 2: like at all. So they're just like they're not having

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Speaker 2: like the awestruck moment. They're like, yeah, I have to

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Speaker 2: stand out here for nine hours a day to keep

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Speaker 2: watch on you, guys, is really great time. It's like superhumid,

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Speaker 2: so it's a little bit of a different experience depending

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Speaker 2: on who you are.

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Speaker 5: I guess you're so, But by the NBA protocol, you're

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Speaker 5: not really allowed to go up and talk to anybody,

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Speaker 5: are you.

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Speaker 2: Is that right?

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Speaker 5: If it's if it's outside the hotel room, is that right?

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Speaker 2: Right? So just keep in mind, like everything that's outside

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Speaker 2: of our area that I described, I mean, there's a

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Speaker 2: lot of fun stuff like the players' hotels, we don't

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Speaker 2: have access to that whatsoever. The bike stands, we don't

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Speaker 2: have access to that whatsoever. A lot of the other amenities,

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Speaker 2: whether it's the lake or even just the bridge where

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Speaker 2: they're fishing from, we can't go to. So that really

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Speaker 2: restricts our ability to interact with players outside of a

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Speaker 2: practice setting. Now, if we see someone like that, you know,

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Speaker 2: the common curtis you can wave, you can die, you

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Speaker 2: can even chat briefly, but you're not supposed to bring

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Speaker 2: out your recorder and start going Instagram Live with Brad Stevens,

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Speaker 2: like you know. That's where they kind of draw the line.

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Speaker 2: It is really weird, though, because I've seen like players

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Speaker 2: I know fairly well, or team employees that I know

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Speaker 2: really well. Actually, there's an employee of the union who

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Speaker 2: I was planning to have like a morning breakfast walking

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Speaker 2: club with, but she's staying at a different facilities. I'm

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Speaker 2: not even sure if I'm going to see her over

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Speaker 2: the course of the next three months. We have this

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Speaker 2: big play and we're going to go walk it every morning,

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Speaker 2: and we can't even do it. So the restrictions are

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Speaker 2: real and frankly welcome, you know. Ultimately, like I wish

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Speaker 2: we had more access. I really hope that when the

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Speaker 2: players are forced to do the media that they buy

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Speaker 2: in that they're you know, engaged in taking questions and

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Speaker 2: those kinds of things. But this whole thing gets shut

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Speaker 2: down if one player tests positive and potentially spreads it

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Speaker 2: to his teammates. So the idea that they're protecting the

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Speaker 2: players and kind of creating a bubble within the bubble,

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Speaker 2: I'm good with, even if it comes at my own

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Speaker 2: expense and makes my life more difficult, because ultimately, I

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Speaker 2: don't want anybody getting super sick here, and I definitely

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Speaker 2: don't want anybody dying.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, have you now been to practices?

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Speaker 2: Right?

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Speaker 1: I mean after that week in your hotel room, you're out.

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Speaker 1: Now you've attended I think a few practices. So what

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Speaker 1: was that like? And you know, what's even the arenas

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Speaker 1: like or at least the one spot that you've seen.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's funny because I'm not a Disney guy like whatsoever.

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Speaker 2: Like before I came down here, I mean I've barely

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Speaker 2: even seen any of the movie's apologies to Tray's daughter,

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Speaker 2: you know, I don't want to offen hurt, but I'm

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Speaker 2: like not locked in on any of the kids stuff. Right,

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Speaker 2: So I'm getting down here and have no idea what

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Speaker 2: to expect. I walk into this convention center. I'm just

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Speaker 2: looking around, like this is the tackiest carpeting, Like this

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Speaker 2: is just brutally ugly, like you know, like I'm not

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Speaker 2: into it. You know, I've never even been down here really,

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Speaker 2: and so you know, we turned the corner and there's

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Speaker 2: this ballroom and I'm like looking at and thinking like, wow,

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Speaker 2: this is like the last place in the world I

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Speaker 2: would want to get married. But I imagine there's like

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Speaker 2: a lot of people who are like really excited to

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Speaker 2: get married. They open the double doors and it's like boom,

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Speaker 2: here's the Milwaukee Bucks and Yannis is just shooting three

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Speaker 2: pointers and here's Chris Middleton like on these makeshift basketball

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Speaker 2: courts in these huge ballrooms and you could imagine like

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Speaker 2: you know, Michael Scott, you know, the office like dunder

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Speaker 2: Mifflin doing like a sales retreat and then one of

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Speaker 2: these buildings. You know, it's like that kind of vibe

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Speaker 2: to it. The ceilings aren't tall enough, like if you

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Speaker 2: really wanted to shoot like a half court shot, you're

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Speaker 2: probably hitting the ceiling with your shot. So they're trying

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Speaker 2: to make the best of the space that they have.

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Speaker 2: I mean, keep in mind, they need twenty two teams

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Speaker 2: to practice, and then they basically need an hour almost

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Speaker 2: after every single practice to clean and disinfect the court.

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Speaker 2: So just having enough court space is crazy. I mean,

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Speaker 2: these guys are fighting for courts like we would, you know,

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Speaker 2: back at the rec center in high school, you know,

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Speaker 2: trying to get like the games. So that's pretty wild.

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Speaker 2: The actual courts are normal, though, I would say that

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Speaker 2: in terms of the playing spaces, we're going to see

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Speaker 2: a little bit more of that later this week as

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Speaker 2: scrimmages begin. But the benches are going to be socially distant.

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Speaker 2: There's going to be a lot of Black Lives Matter

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Speaker 2: signage on the court. Our seats are going to be incredible, guys.

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Speaker 2: I'm going to be like supposedly ten to fifteen feet

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Speaker 2: away from the court. So I don't know if I'm

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Speaker 2: going to be just transcribing trash talk all night long.

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Speaker 2: I'm not saying I will. I'm not saying I won't.

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Speaker 2: I'm thinking about I think about it very hard. But

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Speaker 2: that's really what I'm looking forward to more than anything else.

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Speaker 2: I mean, can you imagine a Western Conference Finals where

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Speaker 2: Patrick Beverley and Lebron are just jawjacking like chin to chin,

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Speaker 2: and you know, I'm just sitting here ten feet away, like,

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Speaker 2: oh yeah, please say more, Let's hear a little bit

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Speaker 2: more here. You know. It's just it's a unique experience,

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Speaker 2: and that's kind of what I'm excited for.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt, especially over the last couple of years,

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Speaker 1: you can speak to this better than anyone. The access

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Speaker 1: for reporters at a lot of these games, you guys

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Speaker 1: just get pulled further and further and further away, like

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Speaker 1: twenty years of go. Sure, you know Bob Ryan is

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Speaker 1: sitting right there and hearing the interactions I'm sure between

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Speaker 1: the players. But now for someone like you, I assume

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Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of places you're not close.

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Speaker 1: You don't you don't get to hear that parking back

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Speaker 1: and forth and now you're going to so that's pretty cool.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean definitely shout out to Staples Center because

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Speaker 2: they've kept it a little bit old school and kept

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Speaker 2: us down by the court. So like having that as

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Speaker 2: my home, Marina, I just like thank my lucky stars,

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Speaker 2: because a lot of times you're like there's Lebron like

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Speaker 2: pointing at Rihanna, Like you just get these scenes that like,

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Speaker 2: really a lot of places in the NBA you would

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Speaker 2: never be able to see. I remember I started in Portland.

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Speaker 2: I mean they had me up in the nose pleas

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Speaker 2: like I was barely even in the building. And you

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Speaker 2: think about like how many media members are even covering

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Speaker 2: the Blazers, you know, and it's and you know, that

249
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Speaker 2: was just kind of how it started for me. But

250
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Speaker 2: here we have to contend with, really is the press conferences,

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Speaker 2: which are weird because I'm sure you guys have seen

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Speaker 2: their doing zoom calls and we basically participate in the

253
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Speaker 2: zoom calls. But rather than being able to like shout

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Speaker 2: hate Lebron, like here's my question, we have to kind

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Speaker 2: of request to a PR person who puts us into

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Speaker 2: the queue and the queue is mixed with people who

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Speaker 2: are on site and people who are off site, so

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Speaker 2: you might ask a question and then the next question

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Speaker 2: is somebody who's in LA and the next question is

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Speaker 2: somebody who's overseas. I mean, it's just like that kind

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Speaker 2: of a weird environment. But the weirdest part is that

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Speaker 2: the players sit and look at the camera, which has

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Speaker 2: a big monitor underneath it, and it looks like a mirror.

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Speaker 2: I mean, they're basically looking back at themselves. So if

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Speaker 2: you guys wanted to create this at home, basically what

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Speaker 2: you should do is take all your family members, spread

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Speaker 2: them around your bathroom as if they're reporters. Call your

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Speaker 2: other family members, maybe your mom and dad on a

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Speaker 2: zoom call right, and then you stare and like look

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Speaker 2: directly into your bathroom mirror. Don't make eye contact with

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Speaker 2: any of the reporters, because that's a rule. They've been

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Speaker 2: asked to. Just keep looking directly into the camera and

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Speaker 2: into the mirror, and then try to field questions from

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Speaker 2: people out of like the corner of your bathroom or

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Speaker 2: your lindery room or whatever else. It's a really weird environment.

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Speaker 2: They're just trying to adjust to it.

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Speaker 1: Have the players been pretty good sports with it so far.

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Speaker 1: I know it's still fairly early in this experiment, but

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Speaker 1: you know what I've scene, Yeah, is that fair to

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Speaker 1: say for sure?

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Speaker 2: And there's like some back and forth right now about

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Speaker 2: do they have to wear masks when they're doing it,

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Speaker 2: and so like some of the players have been like

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Speaker 2: compromising by holding the mask, which I don't believe is

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Speaker 2: CDC approved. I don't think you're stopping COVID if you've

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Speaker 2: got the if you've got the mask in your hand.

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Speaker 2: I thought Lebron really brought it with his comments on Monday.

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Speaker 2: I mean he was waxing on, you know, Representative John Lewis.

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Speaker 2: He was talking about the quarantine effect. He was, you know,

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Speaker 2: just trying to put the entire experience of twenty twenty

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Speaker 2: into context. So I really think that he set a

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Speaker 2: nice example, and I hope all the other stars kind

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Speaker 2: of go along with that, because you know, these are

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Speaker 2: shoppy interviews, right I mean, you would you guys were

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Speaker 2: having a more like kind of intimate conversation right now.

296
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Speaker 2: That is basically possible for any writer being down here now.

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Speaker 2: They will you know, buy, you know, request on occasion,

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Speaker 2: help you set up like one on one interviews, but

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Speaker 2: those are are much rarer than they would be in

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Speaker 2: a normal NBA setting, and so we're all just trying to,

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Speaker 2: you know, fight for scraps at this point. And I

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Speaker 2: think the players in general realize, like, look, it's only

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Speaker 2: fifteen minutes out of my day, and for some of

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Speaker 2: these guys, it's going to be a maximum maybe of

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Speaker 2: like thirty minutes for the entire week. That's not you know,

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Speaker 2: too big of an imposition, so that they can at

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Speaker 2: least bring the heat then, But some guys could be

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Speaker 2: come down here and like never get interviewed. That's what

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Speaker 2: I've been thinking, Like, there's twenty two teams down here.

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Speaker 2: You could spend six weeks down here and literally never

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Speaker 2: have to do a single interview. If you're a player.

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Speaker 2: That's pretty wild to think about.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, that's Klay Trumpson's ultimate dream, isn't it to bed?

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Speaker 5: It's a pity that the Warrior is aren't there, hey

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Speaker 5: Heights doing interviews?

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Speaker 1: How many reporters are there? Because I've seen, you know,

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Speaker 1: it was supposed to be just ten and then I've

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Speaker 1: heard reports that it's closer to twenty and then I

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Speaker 1: remember there were supposed to be tiers to the reporters.

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Speaker 1: So how many are there?

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Speaker 3: What?

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Speaker 1: And are there tiers even because I'm unclear about that.

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Speaker 2: Well, So first of all, if you're saying total media members,

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Speaker 2: there's probably like sixty seventy somewhere in that range. But

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Speaker 2: that includes like the television broadcast crews, you know, camera people,

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Speaker 2: and a lot of youeople who I just don't even recognize, right,

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Speaker 2: and they're all staying in the same general area. So

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Speaker 2: our building is called the Casitas. Now I've decided to

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Speaker 2: call it the type House, which is sort of based

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Speaker 2: on the hype House from TikTok. I'm not sure anyone

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Speaker 2: else is going along with that. I think it's genius

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Speaker 2: and hilarious, but it's been slow to catch on. But

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Speaker 2: within the type House, I've seen about, you know, ten

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Speaker 2: or twelve writers like actual like media members. I mean,

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Speaker 2: you know Mark Stein from New York Times this year

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Speaker 2: in Mark Ladina USA today, Joe Varden the Athletic, and

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Speaker 2: there's a few others who are kind of in our

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Speaker 2: same grouping. I think Rachel Nichols is down here at

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Speaker 2: ESPN spot for the start, but you can't actually swap

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Speaker 2: out about halfway through, So some people are going to

341
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Speaker 2: be kind of like tag teaming about halfway through in

342
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Speaker 2: their outlet, we'll basically get to keep that spot. But

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Speaker 2: the basic rule was for independent media outlets you were

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Speaker 2: going to have a maximum of one reporter. So it

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Speaker 2: doesn't matter if you're at the Athletic, if you guys

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Speaker 2: have you know, seventy five people covering the NBA, you've

347
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Speaker 2: got one spot, and you know, if you want to

348
00:14:57,640 --> 00:14:59,360
Speaker 2: switch people out, you can do whatever you want with

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Speaker 2: the spot. You know, it's it's still just one, So

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Speaker 2: it's very limited, you know, when we're going to these scrimmages,

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Speaker 2: like for the Lakers, for example, there was ten reporters

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Speaker 2: there that I would you know, maybe maybe eight that

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Speaker 2: I would consider to be writers or reporters. And you know,

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Speaker 2: in a normal Laker situation, especially after Kobe Bryant's death,

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Speaker 2: we had three hundred media members at practices like reggaem right.

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Speaker 2: So it's a totally different vibe, a totally different.

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Speaker 1: Feeling in in the type house.

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Speaker 3: Uh, in the hype house, I suppose, you know, it's

359
00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:30,760
Speaker 3: not just about work that they're having fun. They're creating

360
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Speaker 3: additional content away from the memes and all this kind

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Speaker 3: of stuff. Is that going to be the same in

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Speaker 3: the type House? Are you going to be you know,

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Speaker 3: pranking Brian Windhorst or something.

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Speaker 2: So Windors is not here, some of his ESPN colleagues

365
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Speaker 2: are here. You know, I'm not sure I feel comfortable

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Speaker 2: pranking Brian windhorse not knowing him. But would I brank

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Speaker 2: a writer? Absolutely, Look, Trey, I was trying to start

368
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Speaker 2: this thing off right when I was in the quarantine

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Speaker 2: with my little you know, pacing videos back and forth.

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Speaker 2: I was trying to inspire the masses. I did a

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Speaker 2: little planking session and trying to challenge people too. Yeah. No,

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Speaker 2: I know I'm really digging deep here. When you're a

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Speaker 2: lonely for seven days, you know, you start to get

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Speaker 2: a little desperate for ideas. I will say there's been

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Speaker 2: a pool scene developing, absolutely, you know, guys out there

376
00:16:17,280 --> 00:16:21,080
Speaker 2: smoking cigars and maybe drinking at a socially distant manner.

377
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Speaker 2: You know, at various nights. I heard some rap music

378
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Speaker 2: the first couple of nights when I was first getting here.

379
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Speaker 2: You know, it's turning a little bit of a party scene.

380
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Speaker 2: But I will say, at least for now, the type

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Speaker 2: House is just everybody is just overloaded with work. We're

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Speaker 2: all just trying to like get our bearings, figure out

383
00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:37,480
Speaker 2: the new schedules, and keep in mind, we have to

384
00:16:37,520 --> 00:16:40,160
Speaker 2: report our symptoms every single morning, we have to get

385
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Speaker 2: tested every single morning. We have to go to a

386
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Speaker 2: certain location to get our food. We've got to be

387
00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:47,280
Speaker 2: on buses to get to games. I mean, all of

388
00:16:47,320 --> 00:16:50,080
Speaker 2: these routines are just totally different than when I'm you know,

389
00:16:50,160 --> 00:16:52,600
Speaker 2: normally expecting. So like, for example, I thought I was

390
00:16:52,640 --> 00:16:55,040
Speaker 2: totally on it last night. I get to Bucks practice

391
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Speaker 2: and it turns out I'm two hours early, and it's like,

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Speaker 2: oh great. So now I'm just like, you know, trying

393
00:16:58,800 --> 00:17:01,040
Speaker 2: to figure things out. So it's our heads are spinning,

394
00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:03,480
Speaker 2: for sure, and I know people are kind of feeling

395
00:17:03,480 --> 00:17:06,000
Speaker 2: exhausted already. You know. I talked to one guy this morning.

396
00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:08,119
Speaker 2: He's like, I have to keep reminding myself that this

397
00:17:08,160 --> 00:17:11,639
Speaker 2: is a marathon and I'm down here for ninety four nights.

398
00:17:11,680 --> 00:17:14,760
Speaker 2: Like don't run, don't gas yourself out into first two miles,

399
00:17:14,800 --> 00:17:16,720
Speaker 2: you know, Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Do you have to put a request in ben like

401
00:17:19,359 --> 00:17:22,840
Speaker 1: for these scrimmages and for these practices. And then even

402
00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:24,679
Speaker 1: when we get to the games. Like I'm trying to

403
00:17:24,680 --> 00:17:27,360
Speaker 1: wrap my head around, like do you get to say, hey,

404
00:17:27,359 --> 00:17:30,560
Speaker 1: I want to see that game? Uh, okay, we'll get

405
00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:32,640
Speaker 1: you to that arena, jump on this bus. How does

406
00:17:32,720 --> 00:17:35,480
Speaker 1: that whole thing work? And like can all of you

407
00:17:35,600 --> 00:17:38,280
Speaker 1: reporters down there go to that one particular game, like

408
00:17:38,320 --> 00:17:41,400
Speaker 1: we all want to go see you know, uh, Grizzlies Blazers,

409
00:17:41,400 --> 00:17:43,320
Speaker 1: and like nobody else is covering the other ones? Do

410
00:17:43,320 --> 00:17:44,760
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like, what's the process?

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00:17:45,200 --> 00:17:47,040
Speaker 2: No, it's great because we have a spreadsheet so we

412
00:17:47,080 --> 00:17:50,000
Speaker 2: can see who requested what. And I think the Wizards

413
00:17:50,200 --> 00:17:53,399
Speaker 2: at their game today had one person requested. So like

414
00:17:53,520 --> 00:17:55,639
Speaker 2: you're gonna have one media member and in this building

415
00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:57,480
Speaker 2: and granted it's gonna be other people just like game

416
00:17:57,520 --> 00:17:59,639
Speaker 2: ops and all that. Yeah, it's gonna be super weird

417
00:17:59,640 --> 00:18:01,560
Speaker 2: for the team teams that you know, it's going to

418
00:18:01,600 --> 00:18:04,280
Speaker 2: be less than Summer League by far in those situations.

419
00:18:04,280 --> 00:18:07,080
Speaker 2: So here's how the request process works. Forty eight hours

420
00:18:07,119 --> 00:18:09,360
Speaker 2: in advance, any practice that we want to go to

421
00:18:09,880 --> 00:18:11,479
Speaker 2: or any game that we want to go to, we

422
00:18:11,520 --> 00:18:15,919
Speaker 2: put that in. There's only restrictions for any practice. They

423
00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:18,280
Speaker 2: can only take a total of I guess ten reporters,

424
00:18:18,359 --> 00:18:22,000
Speaker 2: so if a few more applied, those people would maybe

425
00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:24,119
Speaker 2: have to roll over to the next day. And that

426
00:18:24,160 --> 00:18:26,040
Speaker 2: became an issue with the Lakers because everybody wants to

427
00:18:26,040 --> 00:18:27,960
Speaker 2: see Lebron, right, So the first day they were kind

428
00:18:27,960 --> 00:18:29,840
Speaker 2: of jockeying to see who could get in who couldn't.

429
00:18:30,080 --> 00:18:31,720
Speaker 2: For the average team, that's not really going to be

430
00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:34,040
Speaker 2: an issue. For the Bucks, there's been three writers at

431
00:18:34,040 --> 00:18:35,919
Speaker 2: their practices. I mean, it's a team that almost won

432
00:18:36,040 --> 00:18:37,920
Speaker 2: seventy games and they've got three people go out of

433
00:18:37,960 --> 00:18:40,919
Speaker 2: their practice. It's just hilarious to me. And then for

434
00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:44,119
Speaker 2: the Arenas, there's actually enough seeding to pretty much accommodate

435
00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:46,040
Speaker 2: all the writers who are down here at the same time,

436
00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:50,240
Speaker 2: so you're not necessarily fighting for seating there. But there

437
00:18:50,359 --> 00:18:53,640
Speaker 2: is one side gym, and no disrespect to NBA TV,

438
00:18:53,720 --> 00:18:55,639
Speaker 2: but I call this the NBA TV gym because it's

439
00:18:55,680 --> 00:18:57,360
Speaker 2: sort of like the equivalent, you know, when they put

440
00:18:57,400 --> 00:18:59,959
Speaker 2: the Raptors and the Magic on NBA TV during the playoff.

441
00:19:00,480 --> 00:19:03,400
Speaker 2: This smaller gym apparently has like hardly any seating because

442
00:19:03,400 --> 00:19:06,600
Speaker 2: it's not like a true NBA arena, right, So in

443
00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:09,239
Speaker 2: that one, they've kind of stashed the teams that are

444
00:19:09,280 --> 00:19:12,119
Speaker 2: up less interest. But if there was randomly like seven

445
00:19:12,119 --> 00:19:14,160
Speaker 2: people who wanted to go to that game, there could

446
00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:16,479
Speaker 2: be an issue trying to fit everybody in because it's

447
00:19:16,760 --> 00:19:19,800
Speaker 2: that Wow. I actually I haven't seen that one in

448
00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:21,720
Speaker 2: person yet, but I almost want to go just for

449
00:19:21,880 --> 00:19:24,320
Speaker 2: like the curiosity factor of like, you know, what kind

450
00:19:24,359 --> 00:19:25,760
Speaker 2: of a barn are they playing this thing in?

451
00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:26,040
Speaker 4: You know?

452
00:19:26,400 --> 00:19:28,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, well exactly, that's exactly right. Sorry, just one more thing.

453
00:19:29,040 --> 00:19:31,280
Speaker 1: That's what my mind mind goes. It's like, oh, this

454
00:19:31,400 --> 00:19:34,720
Speaker 1: is a Marquee game. Everybody's everybody's going to want to

455
00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:37,200
Speaker 1: go and watch that one and report on it. But like, oh,

456
00:19:37,359 --> 00:19:40,879
Speaker 1: maybe there's some value in going to this game. Something

457
00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:43,320
Speaker 1: crazy happens, who knows, and you would be like the

458
00:19:43,359 --> 00:19:46,240
Speaker 1: only one. So yeah, I'm interested in that, like jockeying

459
00:19:46,359 --> 00:19:48,440
Speaker 1: or trying to decide what game to go and watch

460
00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:49,840
Speaker 1: and where. Yeah.

461
00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:53,199
Speaker 2: Well, I heard just from the wizard standpoint that for

462
00:19:53,320 --> 00:19:55,280
Speaker 2: the first couple of days of practice they didn't have

463
00:19:55,320 --> 00:19:58,040
Speaker 2: a single reporter show up, and so the only reporters

464
00:19:58,119 --> 00:20:00,680
Speaker 2: kind of covering them were all virtual. So think about

465
00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:02,840
Speaker 2: how weird that is, and that gets you thinking, like

466
00:20:02,920 --> 00:20:04,919
Speaker 2: at least. It gets me thinking about like the future

467
00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:08,440
Speaker 2: of automation and technology, like if they can teach Siri

468
00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:10,760
Speaker 2: how to say what was going through your mind during

469
00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:14,680
Speaker 2: that last shot? Are we all done for guys like

470
00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:16,359
Speaker 2: gut that in? Is it just a wrap?

471
00:20:16,480 --> 00:20:16,560
Speaker 1: Like?

472
00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:18,120
Speaker 2: Are we going to have to start doing something else?

473
00:20:18,160 --> 00:20:20,399
Speaker 5: I don't know, Hey, Ben, I had one question just

474
00:20:20,440 --> 00:20:22,359
Speaker 5: about you, said, you get you're getting you have to

475
00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:25,720
Speaker 5: report your symptoms daily, And are you getting that nasal swab,

476
00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:28,480
Speaker 5: the one that's the apparently very unpleasant goes right up

477
00:20:28,520 --> 00:20:30,680
Speaker 5: your nasal. Are you getting that every single morning? And

478
00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:33,919
Speaker 5: if so, how quickly are you getting clearance or the

479
00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:34,520
Speaker 5: result back?

480
00:20:35,400 --> 00:20:38,280
Speaker 2: So that's a great question, Lee. So they told us

481
00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:40,240
Speaker 2: we were getting the nasal swab when I first got here,

482
00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:42,840
Speaker 2: and I was like, oh wow, because my my podcast

483
00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:45,719
Speaker 2: co host Michael Pino of Open Floor had it and

484
00:20:45,760 --> 00:20:47,399
Speaker 2: he compared it to the well. He basically said it

485
00:20:47,480 --> 00:20:49,439
Speaker 2: was the most painful experience of his life. And we

486
00:20:49,480 --> 00:20:51,640
Speaker 2: had women from all over the world say, come on, man,

487
00:20:51,680 --> 00:20:54,520
Speaker 2: you're weak. You've never given birth, you don't know real pain.

488
00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:57,080
Speaker 2: And so that that, like you know, really set off

489
00:20:57,119 --> 00:21:00,520
Speaker 2: this entire you know, worldwide argument. So I was going

490
00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:04,320
Speaker 2: down here with the intention of either confirming Michael or

491
00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:06,399
Speaker 2: joining the women. Right, it was either I was going

492
00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:09,120
Speaker 2: to say, Michael, I've got your back, this was horribly paidful,

493
00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:11,840
Speaker 2: or you're a whimp. All of our female listeners were right.

494
00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:15,480
Speaker 2: It turns out there's what they call a shallow nasal swap,

495
00:21:15,520 --> 00:21:17,520
Speaker 2: so it's not the deep one. They're not tickling your brain.

496
00:21:17,560 --> 00:21:19,440
Speaker 2: They're just kind of picking your nose like they're looking

497
00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:22,840
Speaker 2: for boogers. And then they use that sample as well

498
00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:25,000
Speaker 2: as a second sample from your throat, and I think

499
00:21:25,040 --> 00:21:27,720
Speaker 2: having both of them gives them some additional ability to

500
00:21:27,800 --> 00:21:30,399
Speaker 2: just kind of like confirm or you know, prevent against

501
00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:34,679
Speaker 2: false positive or false negative. So I usually take that test.

502
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:36,399
Speaker 2: Now I take it in the morning, but for a

503
00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:38,880
Speaker 2: while I was taking the afternoon and it would come

504
00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:41,240
Speaker 2: back within fifteen hours. They just upload the results to

505
00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:44,320
Speaker 2: a website and they track on this app whether or

506
00:21:44,359 --> 00:21:46,600
Speaker 2: not you've been tested as well, so they're making sure

507
00:21:46,600 --> 00:21:48,359
Speaker 2: that you know you're not missing a day or anything

508
00:21:48,400 --> 00:21:50,119
Speaker 2: like that. But I just want to say it's the

509
00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:53,320
Speaker 2: ultimate privilege. I mean, think about how few people in

510
00:21:53,359 --> 00:21:57,560
Speaker 2: the entire world have access to daily coronavirus testing with

511
00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:01,280
Speaker 2: near instantaneous results within fifteen hours, and then also have

512
00:22:01,960 --> 00:22:05,600
Speaker 2: medical professionals keeping you know, tabs on them, monitoring them

513
00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:08,800
Speaker 2: every single day. You know. Coming down here, I was

514
00:22:08,840 --> 00:22:11,080
Speaker 2: really nervous just because I knew the number of social

515
00:22:11,080 --> 00:22:12,679
Speaker 2: interactions I was going to have with people was going

516
00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:15,199
Speaker 2: to go way up. And this idea that you know,

517
00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:17,879
Speaker 2: like a small fraction of one percent of the world

518
00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:19,920
Speaker 2: has you know, access to like this level of care,

519
00:22:20,119 --> 00:22:22,879
Speaker 2: I should say, in America anyways, has access to this

520
00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:25,080
Speaker 2: level of care. It puts my mind at ease, but

521
00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:27,240
Speaker 2: it also brings in some feelings of guilt too, because

522
00:22:27,240 --> 00:22:29,560
Speaker 2: you're like, this is how everybody should happen, right, this

523
00:22:29,560 --> 00:22:32,480
Speaker 2: should be universal. It's just a no brainer to do

524
00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:32,879
Speaker 2: it like this.

525
00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:35,280
Speaker 1: Were you hesitant to go at all? Then?

526
00:22:36,560 --> 00:22:38,439
Speaker 2: A little bit? I mean I wanted to check with

527
00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:41,160
Speaker 2: all my doctors first, so I actually ran things by

528
00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:44,960
Speaker 2: my primary care doctor, my cardiologists, and a psychiatrist just

529
00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:47,720
Speaker 2: to make sure they thought this sounded on the up

530
00:22:47,720 --> 00:22:51,119
Speaker 2: and up. I talked to some you know, team medical

531
00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:53,679
Speaker 2: professionals within the league just sort of like, how do

532
00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:55,600
Speaker 2: you feel about this? Are you on board? Are you

533
00:22:56,040 --> 00:22:58,399
Speaker 2: having a skepticism. And then I also talked to just

534
00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:01,200
Speaker 2: epidemiologists who I was in viewing for stories like kind

535
00:23:01,200 --> 00:23:03,520
Speaker 2: of along the way about COVID, just like does this

536
00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:06,320
Speaker 2: plan make sense? You know? Am I putting myself at risk?

537
00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:09,080
Speaker 2: I mean the bottom line is, if Zion and Lebron

538
00:23:09,119 --> 00:23:11,600
Speaker 2: were here and Giannis is here, like, it's going to

539
00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:13,480
Speaker 2: be really hard to keep me away. And I knew

540
00:23:13,480 --> 00:23:14,840
Speaker 2: it was going to be a you know, kind of

541
00:23:14,880 --> 00:23:17,840
Speaker 2: a rare access opportunity just because of how expensive it

542
00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:20,760
Speaker 2: was to come down here, and you know, because of

543
00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:23,359
Speaker 2: how restricted the number of people were. So I was

544
00:23:23,480 --> 00:23:26,000
Speaker 2: very excited to do it, but I was also wanted

545
00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:27,680
Speaker 2: to make sure I wasn't being a fool and just

546
00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:29,840
Speaker 2: rushing into something that was going to put me at risk.

547
00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:32,920
Speaker 2: And you know, I had a one man bubble going

548
00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:35,359
Speaker 2: in LA, like I was getting everything delivered. I was

549
00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:39,200
Speaker 2: not interacting with basically anyone. I'd walk around my neighborhood.

550
00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:41,040
Speaker 2: But I didn't really have to worry about social contact

551
00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:43,440
Speaker 2: at all, and so that part made me nervous. I

552
00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:45,880
Speaker 2: just didn't want to get stuck in elevators with twenty guys,

553
00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:47,639
Speaker 2: you know, I didn't want to you know, be in

554
00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:50,560
Speaker 2: those kinds of situations, and you know, coming down here,

555
00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:52,640
Speaker 2: there's a real peace of mind to being tested every

556
00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:54,440
Speaker 2: single day. You just feel like you've got a wind

557
00:23:54,480 --> 00:23:58,359
Speaker 2: streak going. It's like, yeah, nine day, you know you

558
00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:01,359
Speaker 2: can't stop me. Now. It just built your confidence of

559
00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:04,119
Speaker 2: and I think you know that part has helped with

560
00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:06,040
Speaker 2: my mind to ease. And I feel really safe on you.

561
00:24:06,119 --> 00:24:08,040
Speaker 2: And I didn't expect to say that, but I really do.

562
00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:11,560
Speaker 2: In part because everybody's wearing mats and because you know

563
00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:13,959
Speaker 2: they take these rules seriously. You're seeing guys get busted

564
00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:15,400
Speaker 2: right out of the gate. I think that's good.

565
00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:19,000
Speaker 3: Well, and you're always an early adopter of technology. I

566
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:20,800
Speaker 3: feel like, you know, we were at the Charlotte All

567
00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:23,400
Speaker 3: Star Game and you had the self lacing shoes immediately.

568
00:24:23,480 --> 00:24:25,679
Speaker 3: I know you always get the new iPhone, You've always

569
00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:28,080
Speaker 3: got the new air pods. Now you've got the hottest

570
00:24:28,119 --> 00:24:30,840
Speaker 3: technology in the COVID game right now, the Ura ring,

571
00:24:31,119 --> 00:24:34,560
Speaker 3: the Aura ring, whatever it's called. Is this thing doing

572
00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:36,439
Speaker 3: anything for you or is it kind of like you

573
00:24:36,440 --> 00:24:37,840
Speaker 3: don't want it to do anything for you.

574
00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:39,639
Speaker 1: You don't want it to light up or start beeping.

575
00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:42,359
Speaker 2: Well, the amazing thing was. For a while there on

576
00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:44,760
Speaker 2: the podcast, we were calling it the Nuba ring because

577
00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:47,520
Speaker 2: Andrew Sharp, you know, my greatest of all talk co host,

578
00:24:47,600 --> 00:24:50,639
Speaker 2: got it confused with birth control. So he kept asking me,

579
00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:52,600
Speaker 2: when are you going to get your Nuvera ring? When

580
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:54,199
Speaker 2: are you getting your Neuba ring? And I'm like, I

581
00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:55,840
Speaker 2: don't think I'm going to get the Nuba ring, And

582
00:24:55,840 --> 00:24:57,600
Speaker 2: if so, I'm not putting it on my finger, you

583
00:24:57,600 --> 00:25:00,040
Speaker 2: know what I mean. So the thing showed up a

584
00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:02,840
Speaker 2: couple of days ago. It's it reminds me a lot

585
00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:04,919
Speaker 2: of a fitbit. It seems like its main function is

586
00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:07,360
Speaker 2: to just track your sleep quality. And actually that's important

587
00:25:07,359 --> 00:25:09,880
Speaker 2: to me because, you know, especially during the playoffs when

588
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:12,080
Speaker 2: we're flying around a lot. You know, before COVID, I

589
00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:14,159
Speaker 2: had a lot of sleeping issues, just trying to you know,

590
00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:18,000
Speaker 2: get quality sleep and have energy. So it will give

591
00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:19,639
Speaker 2: you a reading sort of like a ffbit does in

592
00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:22,480
Speaker 2: terms of how long are you in ram sleep and

593
00:25:22,520 --> 00:25:24,960
Speaker 2: all that, But the kind of the COVID factor that

594
00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:28,040
Speaker 2: it does is just regular body temperatures, so it can

595
00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:29,920
Speaker 2: and it does do this. It will tell you like

596
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:31,960
Speaker 2: what your temperature is basically at any moment. It will

597
00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:33,639
Speaker 2: create a little chart for you over the course of

598
00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:37,119
Speaker 2: the day. So theoretically, if your temperature were to spike

599
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:40,160
Speaker 2: before you did your you know, your daily temperature check

600
00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:42,520
Speaker 2: in it, would you be able to tell that and

601
00:25:42,560 --> 00:25:45,720
Speaker 2: then you can notify the medical authorities. Hey, guys, like

602
00:25:45,800 --> 00:25:51,280
Speaker 2: I've got a temperature here. You know, is this all unnecessary? Probably?

603
00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:54,080
Speaker 2: Is pretty much most of my interests in life unnecessary,

604
00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:56,240
Speaker 2: I would say, So, you know, like I can tie

605
00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:59,160
Speaker 2: issues Trey, as you mentioned, you know, I don't really

606
00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:01,399
Speaker 2: need the brand new I phone, but sometimes you just

607
00:26:01,400 --> 00:26:02,359
Speaker 2: got to do it for the gram.

608
00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:05,400
Speaker 1: Is it mandatory, Ben for you to wear this ring?

609
00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:07,600
Speaker 1: Because I know it's not for the players. And then

610
00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:09,679
Speaker 1: the second question, the follow up to that is have

611
00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:12,280
Speaker 1: you seen any of the players actually wearing this technology

612
00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:13,000
Speaker 1: this ring as well?

613
00:26:13,480 --> 00:26:16,280
Speaker 2: Well, it's funny the guys who give the coronavirus tests

614
00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:17,760
Speaker 2: when we're wearing them. So I don't know if they

615
00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:20,359
Speaker 2: were sort of like planted influencers to try to like

616
00:26:20,440 --> 00:26:22,520
Speaker 2: get me interested in it, but look, I was. I

617
00:26:22,560 --> 00:26:24,520
Speaker 2: wanted to take every precaution because here's the thing, if

618
00:26:24,560 --> 00:26:26,720
Speaker 2: you get sick, And this is how I look at it,

619
00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:28,760
Speaker 2: Like there's gonna be so many regrets because you're going

620
00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:30,199
Speaker 2: to go back and say, how did I get this?

621
00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:32,240
Speaker 2: What did I do wrong? Did I forget my mask?

622
00:26:32,280 --> 00:26:34,080
Speaker 2: Did I not wash my hands enough? Like I don't

623
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:35,960
Speaker 2: want to be in that situation where there was something

624
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:38,719
Speaker 2: that I could have controlled and I just screwed it up.

625
00:26:38,800 --> 00:26:38,960
Speaker 4: Right.

626
00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:42,280
Speaker 2: So it's like, when I saw anyone wearing it, it was like, yeah, okay,

627
00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:44,760
Speaker 2: why not, Like it doesn't hurt, it's not that expensive.

628
00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:47,239
Speaker 2: If it provides some benefit, then at least it will

629
00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:49,360
Speaker 2: give me the peace of mind. I'm not sure I've

630
00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:51,680
Speaker 2: seen a player yet wear them, in part because we're

631
00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:54,359
Speaker 2: restricted to seeing them mostly at practices, and you wouldn't

632
00:26:54,359 --> 00:26:56,440
Speaker 2: wear it during a game or a practice right because

633
00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:59,360
Speaker 2: it's fairly heavy. It would just like throw you off.

634
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:01,920
Speaker 2: I have seen other people wear them around campus. They're

635
00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:04,239
Speaker 2: not mandatory, and to be honest, I'm not sure any

636
00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:05,920
Speaker 2: of the other writers have got them yet. I'll start

637
00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:08,760
Speaker 2: looking at people's fingers. I might be the one. Sucker, guys,

638
00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:11,200
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie. They also had to ship them

639
00:27:11,240 --> 00:27:14,159
Speaker 2: like overnight from the Netherlands. It was this whole process, so,

640
00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:16,919
Speaker 2: I mean, it's weird. Out here. You know, it's like

641
00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:19,640
Speaker 2: everything is just strange and a little bit different. I'm

642
00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:21,040
Speaker 2: just trying to lean all the way into it.

643
00:27:21,480 --> 00:27:23,639
Speaker 1: Well, you're doing a hell of a job. I know,

644
00:27:24,359 --> 00:27:27,399
Speaker 1: how many podcasts have you already been on besides your own? Like,

645
00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:30,080
Speaker 1: how many appearances have you already done and you've only

646
00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:31,120
Speaker 1: been there ten days.

647
00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:36,000
Speaker 2: I mean, if we're saying we're doing TV podcasts, radio interviews,

648
00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:39,840
Speaker 2: it's more than thirty at this point, probably, And from

649
00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:41,480
Speaker 2: a bunch of well here's the thing, from a bunch

650
00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:43,679
Speaker 2: of different countries and a bunch of different industries. And

651
00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:45,880
Speaker 2: that's the part that kind of excites me because like, look, guys,

652
00:27:46,119 --> 00:27:48,560
Speaker 2: we could, honestly, I think that you guys and I

653
00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:50,720
Speaker 2: if we wanted to, we could do like a sixteen

654
00:27:50,800 --> 00:27:54,560
Speaker 2: hour straight podcast about basketball, no problem, right, But that's

655
00:27:54,600 --> 00:27:56,560
Speaker 2: not most of the world. And so when I get

656
00:27:56,600 --> 00:27:58,720
Speaker 2: excited is because I just love basketball. I kind of

657
00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:00,800
Speaker 2: you know, deep in my heart. Right, anyone is paying

658
00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:03,520
Speaker 2: attention to basketball or the NBA who doesn't normally pay

659
00:28:03,560 --> 00:28:05,879
Speaker 2: attention to it, whether they're a casual sports fan or

660
00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:08,840
Speaker 2: they don't even care about sports, that's when I get excited. So,

661
00:28:09,320 --> 00:28:11,040
Speaker 2: you know, we had this story on the Washington Post.

662
00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:12,720
Speaker 2: They put it up on the front page because it

663
00:28:12,720 --> 00:28:14,800
Speaker 2: seemed like I was in a hostage crisis because I was,

664
00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:17,000
Speaker 2: you know, like stuck in my hotel room and I

665
00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:19,680
Speaker 2: was hearing from all these outlets who just don't even

666
00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:22,040
Speaker 2: basically know the rules of basketball, and they're just like,

667
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:24,040
Speaker 2: why are you doing this? Why are you in a

668
00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:26,719
Speaker 2: hotel again, like why are you a hostage? Like you know,

669
00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:29,359
Speaker 2: are the players the hostages? Like, you know, the whole

670
00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:32,280
Speaker 2: social experiment mask that came in. And then you get

671
00:28:32,320 --> 00:28:34,760
Speaker 2: all the science fiction people who are like, wow, this

672
00:28:34,800 --> 00:28:37,679
Speaker 2: is what I've always wanted, a biodome, Like that's just

673
00:28:37,720 --> 00:28:40,040
Speaker 2: like a breakdown the biodome. So you just hear from

674
00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:43,120
Speaker 2: people in different areas, and I'll be honest, we also

675
00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:45,560
Speaker 2: hear from a lot of international people, and Lee, I'm

676
00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:48,040
Speaker 2: sure you get this too from your Australian family back

677
00:28:48,040 --> 00:28:51,080
Speaker 2: home who just kind of pity us as Americans and

678
00:28:51,120 --> 00:28:53,120
Speaker 2: are just like, oh my god, you guys have to

679
00:28:53,200 --> 00:28:56,560
Speaker 2: do what because your government says what and you guys

680
00:28:56,560 --> 00:28:59,480
Speaker 2: have politicized masks, you know, like and then there's like

681
00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:01,560
Speaker 2: the real like head patting aspect to it of like

682
00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:04,400
Speaker 2: it's gonna be okay. You know, we've beaten this. You

683
00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:06,840
Speaker 2: guys might have a chance at it six months from now,

684
00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:09,840
Speaker 2: you know. So the media interest has been huge, and

685
00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:12,440
Speaker 2: like I said, it's exciting because it's not just a

686
00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:14,560
Speaker 2: basketball story. Like there's a lot of people who are

687
00:29:14,560 --> 00:29:17,520
Speaker 2: paying attention to the bubble who do not care whatsoever

688
00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:18,800
Speaker 2: who wins the title. Yeah.

689
00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:21,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll give you a perfect example is right before

690
00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:24,440
Speaker 1: jumping on this podcast to have you on as our

691
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:27,400
Speaker 1: guest today. You know, look, I've been around my wife

692
00:29:27,400 --> 00:29:29,840
Speaker 1: for months now, you know, just living on top of

693
00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:31,400
Speaker 1: each other. So do we like to put in the

694
00:29:31,440 --> 00:29:33,680
Speaker 1: AirPods every once in a while and tune each other out?

695
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:37,280
Speaker 1: Absolutely guilty as charged. And she's got hers in, I've

696
00:29:37,280 --> 00:29:39,080
Speaker 1: got mine in. But I'll ask you know, what are

697
00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:40,880
Speaker 1: you listening to? She says, Oh, this one's great, this

698
00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:43,760
Speaker 1: one's about the NBA. I'm like, oh, cool, what do

699
00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:45,240
Speaker 1: you listen? Like, who are you listening to?

700
00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:45,360
Speaker 2: No?

701
00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:47,720
Speaker 1: Dunks? Like what podcasts? What are you listening to? Open Floor?

702
00:29:47,880 --> 00:29:51,080
Speaker 1: She's like, no, I'm listening to what What's Next? Or

703
00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:54,280
Speaker 1: What Next? The Slate podcast? And I'm like, okay, it's

704
00:29:54,280 --> 00:29:56,040
Speaker 1: about the NBA. She's like, yeah, they're having on Ben

705
00:29:56,080 --> 00:30:00,200
Speaker 1: Gulliver today, and I'm like, we're having on Ben Golliver today.

706
00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:03,120
Speaker 1: So you are everywhere as like even my wife's listening

707
00:30:03,160 --> 00:30:04,760
Speaker 1: to interviews with you featuring you.

708
00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:07,840
Speaker 2: Well, I could recommend a good therapist for the whole

709
00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:10,160
Speaker 2: AirPod situation with your wife's guse that sounds a little

710
00:30:10,160 --> 00:30:13,520
Speaker 2: bit serious. No, that's what I mean. It's all different industries,

711
00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:16,000
Speaker 2: and you know, it's a political story too, and ultimately,

712
00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:18,280
Speaker 2: like Axios and Slate, like that's kind of where they're

713
00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:20,400
Speaker 2: coming from because they're looking at this and saying, well,

714
00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:22,960
Speaker 2: first of all, how's the NBA doing its testing program?

715
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:25,640
Speaker 2: And why is Florida, which is this huge hot spot

716
00:30:25,880 --> 00:30:28,400
Speaker 2: with crazy positive testing numbers, you know, more than ten

717
00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:30,479
Speaker 2: thousand per day here for like almost a week. I mean,

718
00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:33,200
Speaker 2: it fluctuates, but that's kind of where the average is.

719
00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:35,760
Speaker 2: There's lots of people in Florida who can't get test

720
00:30:35,800 --> 00:30:38,640
Speaker 2: results for a week, right, and that's very dangerous. And

721
00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:41,080
Speaker 2: here's the NBA living this one percent or lifestyle right

722
00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:42,760
Speaker 2: in the middle of it. So that winds up becoming

723
00:30:42,760 --> 00:30:45,640
Speaker 2: a story. You have the idea that every company in

724
00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:47,720
Speaker 2: the world is trying to get back to work, trying

725
00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:49,640
Speaker 2: to bring employees back to the office. I'm sure you

726
00:30:49,680 --> 00:30:51,840
Speaker 2: guys would love to go to your studio and hang

727
00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:54,960
Speaker 2: out and not do these things virtually and ultimately, like

728
00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:57,080
Speaker 2: you will have to make a plan to get back

729
00:30:57,120 --> 00:30:59,440
Speaker 2: into the workplace and to do it safely, and your

730
00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:01,440
Speaker 2: bosses will probably have to sign off on that plan,

731
00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:03,200
Speaker 2: and there's going to have to be a procedure in place.

732
00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:05,120
Speaker 2: And you've got a lot of people who are out

733
00:31:05,120 --> 00:31:07,120
Speaker 2: of work, you know, who are similar to kind of

734
00:31:07,120 --> 00:31:09,520
Speaker 2: the Disney employees where they just didn't have a job

735
00:31:09,520 --> 00:31:11,480
Speaker 2: and they're waiting on other people to make decisions. And

736
00:31:11,560 --> 00:31:13,880
Speaker 2: now you know that union is trying to decide do

737
00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:15,800
Speaker 2: we want to send our employees to go and be

738
00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:18,360
Speaker 2: housekeepers for the NBA thing do we not? Is it

739
00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:21,280
Speaker 2: safe for them? Whose health is the priority here? And

740
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:23,800
Speaker 2: all those kinds of questions are being faced by you know,

741
00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:26,880
Speaker 2: country sorry, companies around the country right now and really

742
00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:29,280
Speaker 2: around the world too, but specifically here, and so the

743
00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:31,280
Speaker 2: NBA winds up being a test case for all of

744
00:31:31,280 --> 00:31:31,760
Speaker 2: them too.

745
00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:34,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, there is a huge and on that slid podcast,

746
00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:37,440
Speaker 1: it's definitely that that ethics question of like, Okay, the

747
00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:40,760
Speaker 1: NBA is doing this great, but should they? Is it weird?

748
00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:42,440
Speaker 1: Is it is it odd?

749
00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:45,080
Speaker 3: Or are you saying that you also listen to this

750
00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:49,000
Speaker 3: podcast next to your wife on the different AirPods, listening

751
00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:50,280
Speaker 3: to the guy we were going to talk.

752
00:31:50,160 --> 00:31:52,280
Speaker 1: To later in the day, Trey Kirby. I do my

753
00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:54,880
Speaker 1: homework here for No Dunks. As soon as I found

754
00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:57,040
Speaker 1: out Ben Gulliver was on that, I fired up that

755
00:31:57,120 --> 00:31:59,520
Speaker 1: bad boy. I went for a run this morning. Absolutely

756
00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:01,400
Speaker 1: I listened to it and it was fantastic. Ben, it

757
00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:04,040
Speaker 1: was great. I actually like the podcast. I subscribe to it.

758
00:32:04,080 --> 00:32:06,640
Speaker 1: What Next on Slave? Who knew? It's a story every

759
00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:08,040
Speaker 1: day Skeets.

760
00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:11,440
Speaker 2: I'm doing Norris podcast this afternoon. Okay, I don't like you're.

761
00:32:11,280 --> 00:32:14,000
Speaker 1: Gonna be talking about some weird murder that happened in

762
00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:16,400
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight that she's going to crack the case on.

763
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:18,080
Speaker 1: So I hope you're gonna help her out with that

764
00:32:18,160 --> 00:32:21,760
Speaker 1: one man glad to help. No, but the ethics part

765
00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:23,560
Speaker 1: is interesting, and you did have a great point on it,

766
00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:26,120
Speaker 1: like you're like, at some point the NBA, which is

767
00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:29,040
Speaker 1: a business, let's not forget that, has to decide it's

768
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:31,640
Speaker 1: sink or swim time, Like, Okay, our government can't get there.

769
00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:35,000
Speaker 1: You know, they're together here, so well, why don't we

770
00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:37,920
Speaker 1: take a stab at it? And you know you can

771
00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:40,240
Speaker 1: step back and also go, oh, it'd be nice. We

772
00:32:40,280 --> 00:32:42,760
Speaker 1: could be doing that for the rest of the damn country.

773
00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:45,000
Speaker 1: But it is a business and they're going to have

774
00:32:45,040 --> 00:32:47,720
Speaker 1: a go at it, and by all accounts, are doing

775
00:32:47,760 --> 00:32:48,560
Speaker 1: pretty well so far.

776
00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:51,320
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, I'll admit I do feel guilty every

777
00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:53,520
Speaker 2: time I get the test because you realize there's somebody

778
00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:55,600
Speaker 2: else out there who doesn't have access to it. And

779
00:32:56,320 --> 00:32:59,000
Speaker 2: I feel guilty a lot because I've got an employer

780
00:32:59,080 --> 00:33:01,040
Speaker 2: that gives me a really good healthcare plan. I can

781
00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:03,240
Speaker 2: go to the doctor and not pay outrageous copays. And

782
00:33:03,280 --> 00:33:06,440
Speaker 2: I've had really expensive surgeries that, like, had I not

783
00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:09,120
Speaker 2: had insurance, that probably could have bankrupted me. Right, There's

784
00:33:09,120 --> 00:33:10,960
Speaker 2: been those kinds of situations over the years, and so

785
00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:13,120
Speaker 2: that's always in the back of your mind. But here

786
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:15,000
Speaker 2: it just really like brings it into start for it.

787
00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:17,320
Speaker 2: But you just really are forced to confront it every

788
00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:20,520
Speaker 2: single day. Every time you know, this little testing operation,

789
00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:22,600
Speaker 2: you know, stick something up your nose, you think about it.

790
00:33:22,960 --> 00:33:25,120
Speaker 2: I do think it's important on the ethics part to

791
00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:28,680
Speaker 2: just look at the evolution since March, right, because you know,

792
00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:31,120
Speaker 2: Adam Silver initially when he came out, he was talking

793
00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:32,680
Speaker 2: a lot about how they didn't want to take away

794
00:33:32,720 --> 00:33:36,920
Speaker 2: resources from you know, the hospitals, how that they wanted

795
00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:39,240
Speaker 2: to make sure that when they did come back, it

796
00:33:39,320 --> 00:33:41,840
Speaker 2: was a situation where the testing programs around the country

797
00:33:41,880 --> 00:33:43,800
Speaker 2: are kind of like in place and up to speed,

798
00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:45,640
Speaker 2: and you know, they weren't going to be you know,

799
00:33:45,760 --> 00:33:47,720
Speaker 2: trying to you know, stand in the way of anyone's help.

800
00:33:48,120 --> 00:33:50,400
Speaker 2: And now when you fast forward three or four months later,

801
00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:53,960
Speaker 2: you realize like they had to privatize all this testing,

802
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:57,400
Speaker 2: but those companies theoretically could be doing testing for government entities.

803
00:33:57,440 --> 00:33:59,640
Speaker 2: They just you know, haven't really set that up. I

804
00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:04,160
Speaker 2: think the NBA expected the government probably and I'm assuming here,

805
00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:06,360
Speaker 2: I think they expected more progress from the government. And

806
00:34:06,400 --> 00:34:08,480
Speaker 2: at some point it's like, all right, well, if this

807
00:34:08,640 --> 00:34:13,040
Speaker 2: progress isn't necessarily coming, we can't be shut down for

808
00:34:13,080 --> 00:34:15,000
Speaker 2: eighteen months. We have to kind of make a call here.

809
00:34:15,080 --> 00:34:16,560
Speaker 2: We've got to figure out, you know, to do what's

810
00:34:16,560 --> 00:34:18,759
Speaker 2: in our best interests. And reminds me a little bit

811
00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:21,160
Speaker 2: of like the federal government kind of passing some of

812
00:34:21,160 --> 00:34:23,960
Speaker 2: the responsibility to the state governments. I do feel like

813
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:26,600
Speaker 2: they're also passing some of the ethical responsibility here to

814
00:34:26,719 --> 00:34:28,840
Speaker 2: private companies and just sort of letting, you know, everybody

815
00:34:28,840 --> 00:34:31,439
Speaker 2: decide on a case by case basis. Where that gets

816
00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:33,880
Speaker 2: scary for me is things that really can't be privatized,

817
00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:36,000
Speaker 2: like schools, right. I mean, you can see a situation

818
00:34:36,040 --> 00:34:39,560
Speaker 2: where private schools are able to reopen, have maybe testing

819
00:34:39,560 --> 00:34:41,000
Speaker 2: for the teachers. You know, if you have a lot

820
00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:43,200
Speaker 2: of money, you'd be able to support something like that.

821
00:34:43,520 --> 00:34:45,800
Speaker 2: I know my mom was a longtime public school teacher.

822
00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:47,520
Speaker 2: They're not going to have that, Like, that's just not

823
00:34:47,560 --> 00:34:49,680
Speaker 2: going to be available to them, And that gets really

824
00:34:49,719 --> 00:34:51,719
Speaker 2: scary for the health of the kids, for the health

825
00:34:51,760 --> 00:34:55,160
Speaker 2: of the public school employees, and for everybody else who

826
00:34:55,160 --> 00:34:57,200
Speaker 2: comes into contact with them, whether when the kids come

827
00:34:57,200 --> 00:35:00,000
Speaker 2: home to work, you know, from school and everything else.

828
00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:03,319
Speaker 2: So these are huge questions that touch every single person

829
00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:05,880
Speaker 2: around the country. And again, I do feel very privileged

830
00:35:05,880 --> 00:35:08,400
Speaker 2: to be in an environment here where I feel safe,

831
00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:11,000
Speaker 2: and you know, maybe there could be some positive lessons

832
00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:14,680
Speaker 2: taken from this experience for other companies as well. We

833
00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:16,440
Speaker 2: don't want to get ahead of ourselves though, right it's

834
00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:18,960
Speaker 2: only been one week with no test. Every week where

835
00:35:18,960 --> 00:35:20,520
Speaker 2: they're able to hold that up. It's going to be

836
00:35:20,520 --> 00:35:21,920
Speaker 2: a minor celebration, all right.

837
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:24,759
Speaker 1: Lots more with Ben Goliver. But first aword from our sponsors.

838
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839
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841
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842
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843
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844
00:35:56,400 --> 00:35:58,200
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845
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Speaker 5: I do I have won them that lit. You know,

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Speaker 5: Now, the other big factor down there, Ben is obviously

906
00:39:09,480 --> 00:39:12,080
Speaker 5: not just the basketball returning due to the coronavirus. It's

907
00:39:12,200 --> 00:39:15,080
Speaker 5: the whole social messaging and the impact. You know, we've

908
00:39:15,080 --> 00:39:18,319
Speaker 5: seen Black Lives Matter being painted on the court. You know,

909
00:39:18,360 --> 00:39:20,000
Speaker 5: players are going to have the option to wear a

910
00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:23,280
Speaker 5: message on their jersey. Do you feel you know these games?

911
00:39:23,280 --> 00:39:25,280
Speaker 5: I mean even today when we get these first scrimmages,

912
00:39:25,360 --> 00:39:26,560
Speaker 5: is it going to be a little bit of a

913
00:39:26,560 --> 00:39:29,320
Speaker 5: more a somber feeling as well in some respects because

914
00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:32,080
Speaker 5: the big, the big thing here, the big concern is

915
00:39:32,120 --> 00:39:35,520
Speaker 5: that we don't get distracted from you know, black lives matter.

916
00:39:35,560 --> 00:39:37,759
Speaker 5: We don't want to just go back to normal where

917
00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:40,240
Speaker 5: it's like we only care about who wins a championship.

918
00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:43,040
Speaker 5: We really want to make an impact that. This is

919
00:39:43,040 --> 00:39:44,880
Speaker 5: also what the NBA is trying to bring attention to,

920
00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:48,440
Speaker 5: that enough is enough and it's trying to bring some

921
00:39:48,480 --> 00:39:49,640
Speaker 5: more equality to the world.

922
00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:53,200
Speaker 2: No, absolutely, it's ever present. I mean, you can't escape it.

923
00:39:53,320 --> 00:39:56,239
Speaker 2: Lebron talking about John Lewis first day the courts, how

924
00:39:56,280 --> 00:39:59,560
Speaker 2: black lives matter on them, Giannis telling reporters last day

925
00:39:59,600 --> 00:40:01,760
Speaker 2: he plans to wear equality on the back of his jersey.

926
00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:03,239
Speaker 2: I think that news had come out before, but he

927
00:40:03,320 --> 00:40:06,120
Speaker 2: mentioned it to reporters as well, and even a case

928
00:40:06,200 --> 00:40:08,120
Speaker 2: like Sterling Brown. And he's one of a number of

929
00:40:08,160 --> 00:40:11,520
Speaker 2: players who when they get their interview moment and they realized,

930
00:40:11,520 --> 00:40:13,200
Speaker 2: like they're not a star level guy, so they might

931
00:40:13,239 --> 00:40:15,799
Speaker 2: only get interviewed once per week at most. I mean

932
00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:18,399
Speaker 2: last night when he's at Bucks practice, he went on

933
00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:21,880
Speaker 2: for a good ten minutes about Brionna Taylor, you know,

934
00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:24,680
Speaker 2: advocating for the police officers who were involved in that

935
00:40:24,719 --> 00:40:27,360
Speaker 2: situation to be arrested and to be you know, for

936
00:40:28,320 --> 00:40:31,120
Speaker 2: you know, basketball fans to be contacting the local government

937
00:40:31,120 --> 00:40:35,480
Speaker 2: there in Louisville to you know, try to demand change.

938
00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:38,800
Speaker 2: He also talked about his own situation with police brutality,

939
00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:40,719
Speaker 2: but wanted to make a clear look, I didn't die,

940
00:40:40,760 --> 00:40:43,520
Speaker 2: so don't compare me necessarily to some of these other situations.

941
00:40:43,719 --> 00:40:46,880
Speaker 2: He has some really thoughtful responses. I encourage everybody to

942
00:40:46,880 --> 00:40:48,880
Speaker 2: go check that out. It's not just him, though. I

943
00:40:48,880 --> 00:40:50,719
Speaker 2: Mean we've heard from a whole bunch of guys. You know.

944
00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:53,000
Speaker 2: Tobias Harris was another one, you know, bringing up the

945
00:40:53,040 --> 00:40:56,360
Speaker 2: Breonna Taylor case. We've also heard even from Kyle Korver,

946
00:40:56,960 --> 00:40:59,080
Speaker 2: who had an interview earlier this week where he was

947
00:40:59,120 --> 00:41:02,000
Speaker 2: again reflecting on, you know, some of his role as

948
00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:04,640
Speaker 2: an ally, but also just the aspect to you know,

949
00:41:04,680 --> 00:41:07,920
Speaker 2: white privilege within this particular environment. I mean, you're you're

950
00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:11,280
Speaker 2: hearing guys talk about this regularly. Now when the game start,

951
00:41:11,840 --> 00:41:14,520
Speaker 2: are is the basketball conversation going to come to the forefront?

952
00:41:14,640 --> 00:41:17,000
Speaker 2: I expect it will in the not too distant future. Look,

953
00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:19,680
Speaker 2: the bottom line is when Lebron dunks, it's really cool.

954
00:41:19,719 --> 00:41:23,920
Speaker 2: When Yannis posterizes someone, it's unbelievable. So I do think

955
00:41:23,920 --> 00:41:25,480
Speaker 2: there's going to have to be a balance there. But

956
00:41:25,600 --> 00:41:27,520
Speaker 2: they're trying to get this thing up on the right foot,

957
00:41:27,760 --> 00:41:29,839
Speaker 2: and it's very clear to me that they're passionate and

958
00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:33,240
Speaker 2: they're prepared. You know, guys came ready to make statements already.

959
00:41:33,239 --> 00:41:35,279
Speaker 2: We've seen it and heard it, and I expect that

960
00:41:35,320 --> 00:41:36,040
Speaker 2: to continue.

961
00:41:36,360 --> 00:41:39,960
Speaker 3: Have you heard any talk about the league and the

962
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:44,120
Speaker 3: teams and maybe the governors of the teams doing supporting

963
00:41:44,160 --> 00:41:46,799
Speaker 3: social justice as well, Because no doubt, the players have

964
00:41:46,840 --> 00:41:49,400
Speaker 3: been leading this as expected and they will continue to

965
00:41:49,480 --> 00:41:51,160
Speaker 3: lead it. But there's got to be something from the

966
00:41:51,239 --> 00:41:51,919
Speaker 3: NBA as well.

967
00:41:52,640 --> 00:41:54,840
Speaker 2: Well. It seems like they're trying to start with what

968
00:41:55,480 --> 00:41:57,560
Speaker 2: you know, they can control down here. So they're lining

969
00:41:57,680 --> 00:42:00,120
Speaker 2: up you know, a certain like the West prok T

970
00:42:00,239 --> 00:42:01,880
Speaker 2: shirt deal with Jordan right where they're going to have

971
00:42:01,920 --> 00:42:04,760
Speaker 2: certain messages that go a little bit beyond the jersey messages.

972
00:42:05,160 --> 00:42:07,880
Speaker 2: There's also some blacking businesses they're trying to you know,

973
00:42:07,920 --> 00:42:10,320
Speaker 2: link up with. But I mean the NBA Players Union

974
00:42:10,400 --> 00:42:11,960
Speaker 2: kind of made it clear what they wanted to see.

975
00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:15,160
Speaker 2: I mean, not only the presentation down here on the courts,

976
00:42:15,400 --> 00:42:17,920
Speaker 2: you know, being very firm about the black lives matter,

977
00:42:17,960 --> 00:42:20,200
Speaker 2: but also you know, trying to get to a point

978
00:42:20,239 --> 00:42:23,279
Speaker 2: where there are you know, more black black people as

979
00:42:23,280 --> 00:42:25,840
Speaker 2: coaches and as executives in the league so that the

980
00:42:26,080 --> 00:42:28,920
Speaker 2: you know, the disparity between players and front office members

981
00:42:28,960 --> 00:42:30,839
Speaker 2: isn't as stark as it is right now. And those

982
00:42:30,880 --> 00:42:33,000
Speaker 2: are the kind of the long term you know, plans

983
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:35,600
Speaker 2: that they're trying to bring in. I do think though

984
00:42:37,040 --> 00:42:39,080
Speaker 2: it's one step at a time. You know, every single

985
00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:42,120
Speaker 2: day down here, like the rules that govern our lives change.

986
00:42:42,480 --> 00:42:44,680
Speaker 2: The players thought that they could do interviews with no masks,

987
00:42:44,680 --> 00:42:46,600
Speaker 2: the next day they have to wear masks, like the things.

988
00:42:46,640 --> 00:42:49,880
Speaker 2: It's just a very very fluid situation. And so you know,

989
00:42:49,920 --> 00:42:52,480
Speaker 2: in this environment where players are trying to adapt, I

990
00:42:52,480 --> 00:42:55,319
Speaker 2: imagine we're going to hear a lot more about kind

991
00:42:55,320 --> 00:42:58,719
Speaker 2: of the big picture, long term impact plans or donations

992
00:42:59,280 --> 00:43:00,799
Speaker 2: as we go. I mean, one of the one that

993
00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:02,680
Speaker 2: stands out would just be Michael Jordan. You know, with

994
00:43:02,760 --> 00:43:05,960
Speaker 2: the scope of his his donation that he made, I

995
00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:09,160
Speaker 2: expect that there will be other you know, significant donations

996
00:43:09,200 --> 00:43:11,600
Speaker 2: like that, you know, going forward to from various members

997
00:43:11,600 --> 00:43:15,040
Speaker 2: of the basketball community. But everyone's just trying to get

998
00:43:15,080 --> 00:43:18,439
Speaker 2: their bearings down here. I really can't can't stress that enough.

999
00:43:18,600 --> 00:43:20,440
Speaker 2: You know, it's like one day you can do this,

1000
00:43:20,520 --> 00:43:22,759
Speaker 2: one day you can't do this. Memos are flying left

1001
00:43:22,760 --> 00:43:25,000
Speaker 2: and right, and so you know, they're all trying to

1002
00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:27,440
Speaker 2: adjust and of course keep basketball on their front of

1003
00:43:27,440 --> 00:43:29,799
Speaker 2: their mind too, because these guys are competing for a

1004
00:43:29,840 --> 00:43:33,120
Speaker 2: title with with scrimmages starting today, and you know, once

1005
00:43:33,200 --> 00:43:35,239
Speaker 2: they get back into that mentality, I think that you know,

1006
00:43:35,280 --> 00:43:38,279
Speaker 2: for a lot of players, that's going to be the

1007
00:43:38,320 --> 00:43:41,600
Speaker 2: first focus. You know, their basketball players for their whole lives,

1008
00:43:41,600 --> 00:43:44,480
Speaker 2: and I think some of them have become activists this summer.

1009
00:43:44,800 --> 00:43:47,320
Speaker 2: They can balance both easily, but you know, the basketball

1010
00:43:47,320 --> 00:43:50,000
Speaker 2: part is sort of what drove them here and what

1011
00:43:50,080 --> 00:43:51,080
Speaker 2: continues to drive them.

1012
00:43:51,400 --> 00:43:55,600
Speaker 1: Ben you mentioned that some other you know networks, if

1013
00:43:55,600 --> 00:43:56,720
Speaker 1: you want to call them that, I know, the athletic

1014
00:43:56,760 --> 00:43:59,200
Speaker 1: they're going to be swapping in reporters. Are you there

1015
00:43:59,239 --> 00:44:01,840
Speaker 1: for the long haul or is there a secondary person

1016
00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:03,600
Speaker 1: from the posts coming down or are you there the

1017
00:44:03,760 --> 00:44:04,320
Speaker 1: entire time?

1018
00:44:04,800 --> 00:44:07,120
Speaker 2: Knock on wood I'm the show man. Ninety four nights.

1019
00:44:08,200 --> 00:44:10,680
Speaker 2: Here's here's one of my funny favorite details. Right, So

1020
00:44:10,800 --> 00:44:13,480
Speaker 2: when I checked in, I got a confirmation and said,

1021
00:44:13,800 --> 00:44:17,440
Speaker 2: your Walt Disney World Resort room has been confirmed for

1022
00:44:17,680 --> 00:44:20,879
Speaker 2: ninety four nights. And I see that number. I see

1023
00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:23,000
Speaker 2: that number, and I'm just like, oh my god. Then

1024
00:44:23,000 --> 00:44:25,560
Speaker 2: they do a follow up email and they're like, actually,

1025
00:44:26,040 --> 00:44:28,759
Speaker 2: even though Disney is like a trillion dollar corporation, right,

1026
00:44:28,880 --> 00:44:31,799
Speaker 2: we have we don't have the ability to do reservations

1027
00:44:31,800 --> 00:44:34,160
Speaker 2: for longer than thirty days, because no one's dumb enough

1028
00:44:34,200 --> 00:44:36,319
Speaker 2: to come to Disney World for longer than a month, Right,

1029
00:44:36,719 --> 00:44:39,719
Speaker 2: So I actually have four separate reservations to cover my

1030
00:44:39,920 --> 00:44:42,840
Speaker 2: entire stay, which is just like ludicrous, But it's funny

1031
00:44:42,880 --> 00:44:44,760
Speaker 2: because you know, look, I was built for this, guys.

1032
00:44:44,800 --> 00:44:47,880
Speaker 2: I've been going down and spending a month in Las Vegas,

1033
00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:50,680
Speaker 2: you know, doing a summer league and doing a USA

1034
00:44:50,760 --> 00:44:53,720
Speaker 2: Basketball camp over the years. You know, there's one hotel

1035
00:44:53,760 --> 00:44:56,239
Speaker 2: in the Bay Area, you know, near Oracle Arena where

1036
00:44:56,360 --> 00:44:58,160
Speaker 2: I probably have stayed, you know, probably one hundred and

1037
00:44:58,200 --> 00:45:00,400
Speaker 2: fifty nights at least at various playoff you know, over

1038
00:45:00,440 --> 00:45:04,040
Speaker 2: the years, covering the Warriors. So you know, I think

1039
00:45:04,040 --> 00:45:05,279
Speaker 2: that I don't know if you want to call me

1040
00:45:05,280 --> 00:45:06,120
Speaker 2: the bubble boy, but.

1041
00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:10,560
Speaker 1: I'm big bubble. Yeah.

1042
00:45:10,600 --> 00:45:12,879
Speaker 3: Do you have like a giant calendar with ninety four

1043
00:45:12,920 --> 00:45:15,520
Speaker 3: days and you're crossing one off every night, almost back,

1044
00:45:15,600 --> 00:45:17,319
Speaker 3: almost back, We're down to ninety.

1045
00:45:17,719 --> 00:45:20,080
Speaker 2: No, I'm not quite to that point yet. Look, check

1046
00:45:20,160 --> 00:45:22,360
Speaker 2: back with me in like early September, where you know

1047
00:45:22,440 --> 00:45:25,840
Speaker 2: this this initial optimism maybe will have faded. But no,

1048
00:45:26,040 --> 00:45:28,719
Speaker 2: it's it's a cool opportunity to be down here. And

1049
00:45:28,760 --> 00:45:30,959
Speaker 2: I think that like people who really love the game,

1050
00:45:31,040 --> 00:45:32,680
Speaker 2: you can just tell that they're happy to be here.

1051
00:45:32,680 --> 00:45:34,640
Speaker 2: And look brought me to comment about that how this

1052
00:45:34,840 --> 00:45:37,000
Speaker 2: entire thing feels like an AU tournament and it's all

1053
00:45:37,080 --> 00:45:40,080
Speaker 2: just about it's a passion check basically, like who cares

1054
00:45:40,120 --> 00:45:42,319
Speaker 2: the most, who actually wants to be here and do it?

1055
00:45:42,760 --> 00:45:45,480
Speaker 2: And I mean, I'll tell you the Bucks look focused.

1056
00:45:45,600 --> 00:45:47,960
Speaker 2: The Lakers look pretty darn focused. Like I think that

1057
00:45:48,040 --> 00:45:51,000
Speaker 2: the real contenders have come down here and been like, well,

1058
00:45:51,040 --> 00:45:52,799
Speaker 2: we started the season trying to go for the Larry

1059
00:45:52,800 --> 00:45:56,080
Speaker 2: O'Brien and it's still up for grabs, so let's go

1060
00:45:56,160 --> 00:45:58,720
Speaker 2: get it now. There's a few other teams here, maybe

1061
00:45:58,760 --> 00:46:01,600
Speaker 2: not quite so much, right, they're sort of looking around like,

1062
00:46:01,680 --> 00:46:03,560
Speaker 2: wait a minute, why did they bring us? Like what

1063
00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:06,440
Speaker 2: are we doing here? You get that vibe a little bit,

1064
00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:08,120
Speaker 2: but I think for the contenders, they're going to drive

1065
00:46:08,160 --> 00:46:08,440
Speaker 2: this thing.

1066
00:46:08,760 --> 00:46:11,280
Speaker 1: Do you feel any weird pressure?

1067
00:46:11,320 --> 00:46:11,560
Speaker 2: Bend?

1068
00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:14,520
Speaker 1: Because you said it. You know, the Post is paying

1069
00:46:14,520 --> 00:46:18,680
Speaker 1: for this. It's not cheap to send someone down there

1070
00:46:18,719 --> 00:46:21,560
Speaker 1: for ninety plus days. I know you've said before in

1071
00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:23,960
Speaker 1: some of your other podcasts. It sounds like it's in

1072
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:26,400
Speaker 1: the tens thousands of dollars, right, it's ten thousand dollars

1073
00:46:26,400 --> 00:46:28,320
Speaker 1: plus easily very likely?

1074
00:46:28,920 --> 00:46:30,319
Speaker 2: Is there to give you want me to give you

1075
00:46:30,320 --> 00:46:30,800
Speaker 2: the number?

1076
00:46:31,040 --> 00:46:31,239
Speaker 4: Yeah?

1077
00:46:31,239 --> 00:46:31,560
Speaker 1: Why not?

1078
00:46:32,400 --> 00:46:33,800
Speaker 2: Fifty four thousand dollars?

1079
00:46:34,480 --> 00:46:38,080
Speaker 1: Wow? Okay, so that is obviously a huge business decision

1080
00:46:38,120 --> 00:46:41,160
Speaker 1: from the Post. So yeah, is there pressure on your part?

1081
00:46:41,400 --> 00:46:43,319
Speaker 1: And I guess the other follow up to that is,

1082
00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:45,640
Speaker 1: you know, now that you're there and you've been out

1083
00:46:45,680 --> 00:46:47,080
Speaker 1: of your hotel for a little bit and you can

1084
00:46:47,160 --> 00:46:50,400
Speaker 1: still see like how restricted in a way you are

1085
00:46:50,440 --> 00:46:52,279
Speaker 1: and where you can go and who you can talk to?

1086
00:46:53,160 --> 00:46:56,560
Speaker 1: Does it almost like does it is it tough? Are

1087
00:46:56,640 --> 00:46:58,960
Speaker 1: you just like? Is there a reason for me to

1088
00:46:58,960 --> 00:47:01,759
Speaker 1: be here because I do a whole lot. What's your

1089
00:47:01,800 --> 00:47:02,399
Speaker 1: take on that?

1090
00:47:03,760 --> 00:47:05,719
Speaker 2: Are you charging me three ninety five an hour to

1091
00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:09,000
Speaker 2: get into these existential crisis? I mean usually you know

1092
00:47:09,080 --> 00:47:13,400
Speaker 2: that that's like la psychiatrist type of question their skeets.

1093
00:47:13,480 --> 00:47:17,440
Speaker 2: But look here, here's the deal. There is pressure, for sure.

1094
00:47:17,480 --> 00:47:19,600
Speaker 2: But I'll say this like this is mostly cliche answer.

1095
00:47:19,600 --> 00:47:21,640
Speaker 2: You've heard it from every single player you've interviewed, but

1096
00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:23,799
Speaker 2: like the pressure comes from within, right, like you just

1097
00:47:23,840 --> 00:47:26,799
Speaker 2: want to do a great job. You know, I'm not

1098
00:47:26,840 --> 00:47:29,919
Speaker 2: trying to half step this thing whatsoever. And I miss

1099
00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:32,160
Speaker 2: basketball so much, you know, it's it was a real

1100
00:47:32,200 --> 00:47:34,439
Speaker 2: reminder like what does life look like if we don't

1101
00:47:34,440 --> 00:47:36,279
Speaker 2: have games? I don't want to go back to that,

1102
00:47:36,400 --> 00:47:38,799
Speaker 2: you know, like the FOMA would have been crazy if

1103
00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:41,560
Speaker 2: I wasn't down here, And I think that, you know,

1104
00:47:42,120 --> 00:47:44,719
Speaker 2: I've got a unique take on things. Hopefully I've got

1105
00:47:44,840 --> 00:47:47,480
Speaker 2: a viewpoint that you know, can kind of appeal to

1106
00:47:47,960 --> 00:47:50,080
Speaker 2: our particular readers. And so you know that's what I'm

1107
00:47:50,120 --> 00:47:53,040
Speaker 2: putting first down here. For sure? What do Washington Post

1108
00:47:53,120 --> 00:47:55,839
Speaker 2: readers want to get out of this experience? How can

1109
00:47:55,880 --> 00:47:58,880
Speaker 2: I catalog it in as much detail as possible. You know,

1110
00:47:58,880 --> 00:48:01,120
Speaker 2: I've done a personal say, which was rare for me.

1111
00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:02,920
Speaker 2: I don't really do that, but they wanted it kind

1112
00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:06,080
Speaker 2: of from my first person perspective, you know. And we're

1113
00:48:06,080 --> 00:48:08,720
Speaker 2: also just doing kind of you know, the first practice story,

1114
00:48:08,719 --> 00:48:10,640
Speaker 2: the first game story, you know, kind of along trying

1115
00:48:10,640 --> 00:48:12,440
Speaker 2: to trying to take people along sort of like a

1116
00:48:12,480 --> 00:48:15,799
Speaker 2: diary but maybe a little bit more in detail as well.

1117
00:48:16,520 --> 00:48:19,800
Speaker 2: That the challenging part comes with the access, as we've discussed,

1118
00:48:19,960 --> 00:48:22,520
Speaker 2: and also just finding stuff that nobody else is writing about,

1119
00:48:22,520 --> 00:48:25,640
Speaker 2: because I do think that like the whole sports hive

1120
00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:29,040
Speaker 2: mind has kind of you know, coagulated right now around

1121
00:48:29,080 --> 00:48:31,600
Speaker 2: the NBA bubble, and so people are picking off various parts.

1122
00:48:31,640 --> 00:48:33,360
Speaker 2: So you think you might have a great story idea,

1123
00:48:33,600 --> 00:48:34,880
Speaker 2: and you talk to the PR people that are like,

1124
00:48:34,880 --> 00:48:36,879
Speaker 2: oh yeah, we've already had three people requests that cool,

1125
00:48:36,960 --> 00:48:38,920
Speaker 2: like just get in line, like oh okay, you know,

1126
00:48:39,360 --> 00:48:41,279
Speaker 2: you think you're being real creative. So that part is

1127
00:48:41,640 --> 00:48:45,640
Speaker 2: that part is tricky. But look, I view this as

1128
00:48:45,640 --> 00:48:47,200
Speaker 2: like kind of my identity, this is who I am

1129
00:48:47,239 --> 00:48:51,279
Speaker 2: basketball writer, you know, basketball journalist, basketball podcaster, and so

1130
00:48:51,640 --> 00:48:53,279
Speaker 2: it's a good place to do your job. It would

1131
00:48:53,320 --> 00:48:55,719
Speaker 2: be much harder, I think for me personally to do

1132
00:48:55,800 --> 00:48:57,920
Speaker 2: my job if I wasn't here, because I would be

1133
00:48:57,960 --> 00:48:59,839
Speaker 2: struggling to find some of the color. And I think

1134
00:48:59,840 --> 00:49:02,000
Speaker 2: if you're reading my stories right now, you're noticing that

1135
00:49:02,040 --> 00:49:04,160
Speaker 2: a lot of it's kind of like behind the scenes details.

1136
00:49:04,160 --> 00:49:07,360
Speaker 2: Like today my story about the first practice, it just

1137
00:49:07,440 --> 00:49:09,319
Speaker 2: mentioned how like as soon as Lebron was done, one

1138
00:49:09,360 --> 00:49:12,000
Speaker 2: of the NBAPR guys like comes out with this huge

1139
00:49:12,080 --> 00:49:14,200
Speaker 2: role of duct tape. It starts like duct taping the

1140
00:49:14,200 --> 00:49:16,799
Speaker 2: ground because he doesn't want anybody to stand inside his

1141
00:49:16,840 --> 00:49:19,400
Speaker 2: little duck tape sphere and get too close to Lebron

1142
00:49:19,480 --> 00:49:21,120
Speaker 2: all because of COVID, right, And how are we going

1143
00:49:21,160 --> 00:49:23,799
Speaker 2: to stay socially distant? So, you know, little things like

1144
00:49:23,840 --> 00:49:26,680
Speaker 2: that is what I'm down here trying to report, as

1145
00:49:26,719 --> 00:49:29,840
Speaker 2: opposed to you know, you know, pick your favorite player,

1146
00:49:29,840 --> 00:49:31,640
Speaker 2: like Chris Middleton had twenty two points today.

1147
00:49:32,040 --> 00:49:34,359
Speaker 5: It's going to be interesting to see though, you know,

1148
00:49:34,480 --> 00:49:36,839
Speaker 5: like we've already seen that had zero positive tests out

1149
00:49:36,840 --> 00:49:38,399
Speaker 5: of the three hundred and forty six, and you're seeing

1150
00:49:38,440 --> 00:49:42,480
Speaker 5: how vigilant they're remaining down there. But if they continue

1151
00:49:42,520 --> 00:49:46,120
Speaker 5: to have success in having no positive tests, do you

1152
00:49:46,160 --> 00:49:49,080
Speaker 5: suspect that things like that with Lebron, where the NBAPR

1153
00:49:49,120 --> 00:49:51,760
Speaker 5: will come out and section off the little area will continue.

1154
00:49:51,800 --> 00:49:54,040
Speaker 5: Or do you think maybe as we go on, people

1155
00:49:54,120 --> 00:49:56,160
Speaker 5: might just sort of start easing up a little bit

1156
00:49:56,239 --> 00:49:57,399
Speaker 5: on things like that.

1157
00:49:58,040 --> 00:50:00,400
Speaker 2: Well, here's the thing I've thought about, Lee, what happens

1158
00:50:00,400 --> 00:50:03,800
Speaker 2: if somebody does test positive, test positive within the bubble?

1159
00:50:04,320 --> 00:50:07,120
Speaker 2: All this optimism I've got right now, all this happiness

1160
00:50:07,120 --> 00:50:08,960
Speaker 2: and goes back to square one, and now you're just

1161
00:50:09,040 --> 00:50:11,279
Speaker 2: paranoid as hat, right, and you're just thinking like, oh

1162
00:50:11,320 --> 00:50:13,239
Speaker 2: my god, now I've got to be wearing gloves again.

1163
00:50:13,239 --> 00:50:15,920
Speaker 2: Where's my face shield? Like, you know, you call the

1164
00:50:15,960 --> 00:50:18,000
Speaker 2: doctors and zay, guys, is this safe? You know, like

1165
00:50:18,000 --> 00:50:20,799
Speaker 2: you're doing all that kind of stuff. So for me,

1166
00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:23,680
Speaker 2: I still think there's a sense of vigilance just in general.

1167
00:50:23,840 --> 00:50:27,040
Speaker 2: They don't want that first positive test, right, They really

1168
00:50:27,040 --> 00:50:29,399
Speaker 2: want to prevent against that, and so I think that

1169
00:50:29,400 --> 00:50:32,040
Speaker 2: that's the mode that they're in right now. They have

1170
00:50:32,200 --> 00:50:34,279
Speaker 2: kind of suggested, Hey, if we get deeper into this thing,

1171
00:50:34,360 --> 00:50:36,520
Speaker 2: can some of the rules be loosened up? I mean

1172
00:50:36,480 --> 00:50:38,440
Speaker 2: in terms of like where the media could go. I mean,

1173
00:50:38,480 --> 00:50:40,520
Speaker 2: that's that's kind of been hinted. They've said, oh, maybe

1174
00:50:40,520 --> 00:50:42,359
Speaker 2: we can figure out a barber shop for you guys,

1175
00:50:42,440 --> 00:50:44,720
Speaker 2: or some other kind of a you know, opportunity along

1176
00:50:44,719 --> 00:50:46,160
Speaker 2: those lines, because right now I don't know if I'm

1177
00:50:46,160 --> 00:50:48,080
Speaker 2: getting a haircut for the next ninety four days, I'm

1178
00:50:48,239 --> 00:50:51,759
Speaker 2: exactly how that's supposed to work, right, So those kinds

1179
00:50:51,760 --> 00:50:55,200
Speaker 2: of things could be tweaked as we go, but I

1180
00:50:55,239 --> 00:50:59,319
Speaker 2: think for right now, the vigilant is the feeling. You know,

1181
00:50:59,400 --> 00:51:02,359
Speaker 2: it's makes sure everybody's got mass, make sure that there's

1182
00:51:02,400 --> 00:51:06,160
Speaker 2: hand sanitizer stuff everywhere, and you know, make sure that

1183
00:51:06,160 --> 00:51:09,879
Speaker 2: everybody's just kind of onboard and gets it, because there

1184
00:51:09,960 --> 00:51:11,840
Speaker 2: is like a burden to having a whole week with

1185
00:51:11,880 --> 00:51:13,759
Speaker 2: no positive tests. Now you feel like it's like a

1186
00:51:13,800 --> 00:51:15,759
Speaker 2: streak on your Apple Watch or your Fiftit like you

1187
00:51:15,760 --> 00:51:17,520
Speaker 2: don't want to let it go, and so now you

1188
00:51:17,520 --> 00:51:19,080
Speaker 2: feel like you have to kind of like protect it,

1189
00:51:19,120 --> 00:51:21,560
Speaker 2: like you're kind of playing defense with it. And I

1190
00:51:21,560 --> 00:51:23,040
Speaker 2: think that's kind of how the NBA feels.

1191
00:51:23,920 --> 00:51:27,239
Speaker 1: You're hopefully going to be down there, you know, three

1192
00:51:27,400 --> 00:51:31,839
Speaker 1: plus months, Ben, do you have any plans to well,

1193
00:51:31,920 --> 00:51:36,680
Speaker 1: get this book read, consume this television show, these movies.

1194
00:51:36,360 --> 00:51:38,240
Speaker 3: Sounds like you got a lot of Disney to watch.

1195
00:51:38,440 --> 00:51:41,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, can I move my camera around? Or is

1196
00:51:41,080 --> 00:51:41,880
Speaker 2: that going to screw everything?

1197
00:51:41,960 --> 00:51:42,960
Speaker 1: Absolutely go nuts?

1198
00:51:43,000 --> 00:51:44,799
Speaker 2: All right, all right, here we go. I'm gonna what

1199
00:51:44,840 --> 00:51:45,520
Speaker 2: are you showing us?

1200
00:51:45,560 --> 00:51:47,160
Speaker 1: Just tell us what you're showing us to the people

1201
00:51:47,200 --> 00:51:47,800
Speaker 1: this listening.

1202
00:51:48,280 --> 00:51:50,239
Speaker 2: Well, look, it's going to be a big reveal. Okay,

1203
00:51:50,280 --> 00:51:59,200
Speaker 2: what do you think Lamborghini Legos, guys, Lego.

1204
00:51:59,080 --> 00:52:03,720
Speaker 1: Champion a little over? Wow? How many pieces was that bed?

1205
00:52:04,520 --> 00:52:07,160
Speaker 2: Well? My favorite detail about the Lamborghini Legos is that

1206
00:52:07,200 --> 00:52:11,040
Speaker 2: it's only for ages eighteen and up, So there's people

1207
00:52:11,040 --> 00:52:13,960
Speaker 2: out there who can drive real cars who are going

1208
00:52:14,040 --> 00:52:16,879
Speaker 2: to be allowed to do this set because it's that complicated. Guys,

1209
00:52:16,920 --> 00:52:19,920
Speaker 2: it's that intense. I think it's something like six thousand pieces.

1210
00:52:19,960 --> 00:52:22,480
Speaker 2: Please do not google the price. It was embarrassing how

1211
00:52:22,520 --> 00:52:24,680
Speaker 2: much I pay for this thing. But I figured, I

1212
00:52:24,719 --> 00:52:27,239
Speaker 2: have two beds in my hotel room, right, and we're

1213
00:52:27,280 --> 00:52:30,279
Speaker 2: not allowed overnight visitors for obvious reasons. Yep, so that

1214
00:52:30,360 --> 00:52:32,359
Speaker 2: leaves me with an extra bed. So the extra bed

1215
00:52:32,400 --> 00:52:36,600
Speaker 2: will now be the Lego building station. And yeah, I'm

1216
00:52:36,640 --> 00:52:38,440
Speaker 2: planning this thing is going to take me at least

1217
00:52:38,480 --> 00:52:40,640
Speaker 2: a month to build kind of like here and there.

1218
00:52:40,680 --> 00:52:42,839
Speaker 2: I mean it's it's like a technic thing. I mean,

1219
00:52:42,840 --> 00:52:44,919
Speaker 2: it's Scott Motors. It's the real deal.

1220
00:52:45,360 --> 00:52:45,600
Speaker 4: Wow.

1221
00:52:45,760 --> 00:52:47,239
Speaker 1: Yeah, it sounds like you're gonna be able to drive

1222
00:52:47,360 --> 00:52:48,960
Speaker 1: the thing after you're done building.

1223
00:52:49,400 --> 00:52:51,160
Speaker 2: I hope. So I have to get home to La somehow,

1224
00:52:51,160 --> 00:52:53,200
Speaker 2: you know, airportsu.

1225
00:52:53,120 --> 00:52:55,279
Speaker 5: Hell long did the taj Mahalavan take you to build?

1226
00:52:56,000 --> 00:52:56,320
Speaker 4: Oh?

1227
00:52:56,360 --> 00:52:59,200
Speaker 2: That was a good five or six weeks. I'll be honest, though,

1228
00:52:59,239 --> 00:53:02,040
Speaker 2: I treated just like the last dance because the last dance,

1229
00:53:02,080 --> 00:53:05,040
Speaker 2: I got the screener copies early, and I just I

1230
00:53:05,080 --> 00:53:07,560
Speaker 2: watched the whole thing all the way through, like twice

1231
00:53:07,640 --> 00:53:09,680
Speaker 2: in a row before and then I just felt so

1232
00:53:09,800 --> 00:53:12,680
Speaker 2: empty and I kept rewatching it along with everyone else,

1233
00:53:12,680 --> 00:53:14,520
Speaker 2: but like I already kind of knew it. So with

1234
00:53:14,560 --> 00:53:16,319
Speaker 2: the taj Maha, I was like, I gotta space this

1235
00:53:16,400 --> 00:53:18,480
Speaker 2: thing out. So it was sort of like my Sunday

1236
00:53:18,520 --> 00:53:21,000
Speaker 2: diversion every Sunday for probably like you know, six or

1237
00:53:21,040 --> 00:53:23,000
Speaker 2: seven weeks. That carried me through the quarantine. Man, you

1238
00:53:23,080 --> 00:53:26,040
Speaker 2: got to do these little mental health exercises. Yeah, and Lee,

1239
00:53:26,160 --> 00:53:28,600
Speaker 2: I know we got beef with the legos, right, you're

1240
00:53:29,280 --> 00:53:31,080
Speaker 2: am I right, that you're a puzzle guy. Can we

1241
00:53:31,120 --> 00:53:33,840
Speaker 2: settle this right now? Legos versus puzzles. I'm telling you

1242
00:53:33,840 --> 00:53:35,680
Speaker 2: it's Legos. There's no crossover.

1243
00:53:35,800 --> 00:53:37,800
Speaker 1: You can't cross over from puzzle to Lego.

1244
00:53:40,360 --> 00:53:42,239
Speaker 5: My only beef, say, Ben, I don't mind you doing

1245
00:53:42,239 --> 00:53:44,319
Speaker 5: an eighteen year old plus Lego in the in the

1246
00:53:44,320 --> 00:53:46,799
Speaker 5: hotel if you'd got like, you know, some stuff that

1247
00:53:46,960 --> 00:53:48,680
Speaker 5: was like, you know, the Star Wars like for six

1248
00:53:48,800 --> 00:53:50,480
Speaker 5: year olds, so that then I'd be like, all right,

1249
00:53:50,520 --> 00:53:52,600
Speaker 5: I think you can, you know, raise the stand a

1250
00:53:52,640 --> 00:53:54,799
Speaker 5: little bit there. But listen, I'm fascinated to see this

1251
00:53:55,120 --> 00:53:57,400
Speaker 5: Lamborghini how it comes out. You're saying it's technique, so

1252
00:53:57,680 --> 00:53:58,920
Speaker 5: is it remote controlled as well?

1253
00:53:59,000 --> 00:54:01,239
Speaker 2: Is that or I'm not sure if it has a

1254
00:54:01,280 --> 00:54:03,080
Speaker 2: remote control. I think there's some sort of a motor

1255
00:54:03,120 --> 00:54:06,239
Speaker 2: involved with the dough. The weird part is that they

1256
00:54:06,400 --> 00:54:09,360
Speaker 2: manufactured this insane car, but then they made it lime green,

1257
00:54:09,400 --> 00:54:12,880
Speaker 2: which to me, arguably the worst color in the world.

1258
00:54:12,920 --> 00:54:14,919
Speaker 2: I mean, it's a way up there. If we're power

1259
00:54:15,000 --> 00:54:17,560
Speaker 2: ranking colors, lime green is like really close to the

1260
00:54:17,560 --> 00:54:20,080
Speaker 2: top of the list for worse. So that part held

1261
00:54:20,120 --> 00:54:21,799
Speaker 2: me back, But ultimately I feel like I had to

1262
00:54:21,800 --> 00:54:23,640
Speaker 2: pull the trigger. Guys, I need something to do here,

1263
00:54:23,680 --> 00:54:23,840
Speaker 2: you know.

1264
00:54:24,200 --> 00:54:26,400
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm gonna have to try to convince the busses

1265
00:54:26,400 --> 00:54:28,239
Speaker 5: of the Athletic to send me down and I'll bring

1266
00:54:28,320 --> 00:54:31,240
Speaker 5: down a Ravensburg, a one thousand place jug so puzzle

1267
00:54:31,280 --> 00:54:33,640
Speaker 5: and maybe we can somehow work it together, you know,

1268
00:54:33,719 --> 00:54:35,279
Speaker 5: and see which way where we have more fun.

1269
00:54:35,920 --> 00:54:39,239
Speaker 2: That's amazing. Well here's a funny detail. So you know,

1270
00:54:39,239 --> 00:54:41,239
Speaker 2: all the writers we did our first stories for like

1271
00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:43,040
Speaker 2: getting out of the Bubble, and we all were like

1272
00:54:43,120 --> 00:54:45,600
Speaker 2: freaked out by how small our little media pen was.

1273
00:54:46,040 --> 00:54:48,560
Speaker 2: So I'm sure the PR people read that and they're nice,

1274
00:54:48,600 --> 00:54:50,799
Speaker 2: Like they've been so polite and kind to us because

1275
00:54:50,840 --> 00:54:53,640
Speaker 2: they realize how restrictive this is. But out of nowhere

1276
00:54:53,719 --> 00:54:56,319
Speaker 2: in the in the meal room, they brought out a

1277
00:54:56,320 --> 00:54:58,759
Speaker 2: bunch of board games out of nowhere, like Settlers of

1278
00:54:58,840 --> 00:55:03,200
Speaker 2: Katan or whatever. Damn, because I think that they read

1279
00:55:03,200 --> 00:55:06,880
Speaker 2: our stories and we're like, okay, get Amazon overnight delivery

1280
00:55:06,920 --> 00:55:09,080
Speaker 2: on this. We've got to find something to pacify the

1281
00:55:09,080 --> 00:55:09,840
Speaker 2: angry writers.

1282
00:55:10,960 --> 00:55:13,439
Speaker 1: Well this is great, So tell the people how they're

1283
00:55:13,440 --> 00:55:15,319
Speaker 1: going to be able to follow not only all your

1284
00:55:15,440 --> 00:55:19,600
Speaker 1: articles and your podcasts, but you're building of this Lamborghini

1285
00:55:20,080 --> 00:55:22,520
Speaker 1: six thousand piece lego puzzle you got going on there?

1286
00:55:22,520 --> 00:55:23,359
Speaker 1: What's the best way, Ben?

1287
00:55:23,920 --> 00:55:26,120
Speaker 2: You're just teeing me up to plug my instagram skeets.

1288
00:55:26,120 --> 00:55:30,439
Speaker 2: I appreciate it. It's at bendt Golliver and I would

1289
00:55:30,480 --> 00:55:33,440
Speaker 2: just ask if people like you're mentioning it was expensive

1290
00:55:33,440 --> 00:55:35,560
Speaker 2: to send me down here, if anyone has twenty nine bucks,

1291
00:55:35,560 --> 00:55:37,560
Speaker 2: they could subscribe to the Washington Post. I mean that

1292
00:55:37,640 --> 00:55:39,480
Speaker 2: gives you a whole year, which is kind of crazy,

1293
00:55:39,520 --> 00:55:41,719
Speaker 2: and its election year, so why not. And then I'm

1294
00:55:41,719 --> 00:55:43,680
Speaker 2: also doing two podcasts a week. I'm not going to

1295
00:55:43,680 --> 00:55:46,960
Speaker 2: be doing like daily episode updates of the lego, but

1296
00:55:47,080 --> 00:55:50,640
Speaker 2: maybe I will. Who knows. That's the greatest of all

1297
00:55:50,680 --> 00:55:52,680
Speaker 2: talk dot com. And that's the podcast I do with

1298
00:55:52,719 --> 00:55:55,160
Speaker 2: Andrew Sharp, so that those are the best places to follow.

1299
00:55:55,600 --> 00:55:58,680
Speaker 1: Excellent. Well, hopefully we can have you on sometime in

1300
00:55:58,719 --> 00:56:01,239
Speaker 1: the future here to be doing a podcast called the

1301
00:56:01,239 --> 00:56:05,920
Speaker 1: Bubble Wrap. We'll be jumping on here Zoom every night

1302
00:56:05,960 --> 00:56:08,400
Speaker 1: after the last game and recapping the day's events and

1303
00:56:08,400 --> 00:56:10,920
Speaker 1: big storyline. Well maybe we'll hopefully have you on one

1304
00:56:10,920 --> 00:56:12,560
Speaker 1: of those nights in the future, Ben.

1305
00:56:13,239 --> 00:56:15,360
Speaker 2: And that sounds great. Hopefully I'm not going viral for

1306
00:56:15,400 --> 00:56:17,759
Speaker 2: any embarrassing moments in these games. You know, sometimes I

1307
00:56:17,800 --> 00:56:19,719
Speaker 2: forget that I'm probably gonna be on TV, you know,

1308
00:56:19,800 --> 00:56:21,600
Speaker 2: and at some point because we're sitting so close to

1309
00:56:21,600 --> 00:56:23,400
Speaker 2: the court. So if you guys see me do anything,

1310
00:56:23,440 --> 00:56:26,560
Speaker 2: please don't meet me, or at least like meet me

1311
00:56:26,640 --> 00:56:28,840
Speaker 2: in a positive way. Like you know, I try to

1312
00:56:28,880 --> 00:56:32,279
Speaker 2: help help my personal branding. But yeah, I'm glad to

1313
00:56:32,320 --> 00:56:33,920
Speaker 2: do it anytime. You guys. You know, I've been listening

1314
00:56:33,920 --> 00:56:36,880
Speaker 2: to you since the days of Skeets and Taz in

1315
00:56:36,920 --> 00:56:39,400
Speaker 2: the in the condo which I thought was your apartment

1316
00:56:39,480 --> 00:56:41,560
Speaker 2: for years, and I was so impressed that you guys

1317
00:56:41,560 --> 00:56:44,560
Speaker 2: were just balling out in that rec room with the

1318
00:56:44,600 --> 00:56:45,560
Speaker 2: pool table and everything.

1319
00:56:47,120 --> 00:56:49,919
Speaker 1: Well, I want you to start bringing like a one

1320
00:56:49,960 --> 00:56:52,640
Speaker 1: puzzle piece a game so when we see you on

1321
00:56:52,800 --> 00:56:55,480
Speaker 1: camera you can hold it up. Oh yeah, good one

1322
00:56:55,520 --> 00:56:57,400
Speaker 1: that looks nice. Yeah I put that on the by

1323
00:56:57,440 --> 00:57:00,560
Speaker 1: line greenal pop for sure, exactly exactly that one goes

1324
00:57:00,600 --> 00:57:01,960
Speaker 1: here the tire right front tire.

1325
00:57:02,120 --> 00:57:02,359
Speaker 2: Ben.

1326
00:57:02,400 --> 00:57:04,160
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, man, I know you're a busy guy.

1327
00:57:04,200 --> 00:57:05,040
Speaker 1: We really appreciate it.

1328
00:57:05,080 --> 00:57:07,720
Speaker 2: Man. No, thanks for having me. Best of luck, everybody,

1329
00:57:07,719 --> 00:57:09,200
Speaker 2: stay safe. It's great to chat with you guys.

1330
00:57:09,400 --> 00:57:11,640
Speaker 1: All right, we'll talk to you soon, guys. More podcasts

1331
00:57:11,640 --> 00:57:14,239
Speaker 1: coming later this week. Until then, embrace the Dame.

1332
00:57:14,280 --> 00:57:14,520
Speaker 2: People.

1333
00:57:15,320 --> 00:57:16,320
Speaker 5: You could stay.

1334
00:57:18,120 --> 00:57:26,480
Speaker 2: Every day and dad you happy every minute. It's been

1335
00:57:26,640 --> 00:57:32,760
Speaker 2: so long that your no wanna wait for. It's happened already.

1336
00:57:34,280 --> 00:57:35,520
Speaker 4: It's gonna be goody,