Nothing But Anarchy
"Nothing But Anarchy" hosted by Chad Sanders explores and subverts sports, media, Hollywood, and culture. Chad's vulnerable and raw commentary creates a fresh podcast experience you don't want to miss. Tune in Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12PM ET on Youtube Live.
Subscribe to the "Nothing But Anarchy" Youtube channel for full interviews and more anarchy!
Game analysis, social commentary, and music.
Instagram: @chadsand
Executive Producer: Chad Sanders
Producer: Morgan Williams
Music: Marcus Williams
Nothing But Anarchy
Eps. #58 What You Need to Know this NBA Season, Unpacking the New Beats by Dre Commercial, and 500K or Lunch with Jay-Z
Enjoy a preview into the future of the NBA as we discuss potential weaknesses of NBA teams and highlight players like Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Anthony Edwards. We also delve into the reality of living under LeBron James' shadow and the unique journey of Bronny James. Lastly, would you opt for a $500,000 cash or lunch with Jay-Z?
Tune in for an episode full of NBA insights, personal anecdotes, and socio-cultural discussions.
0:08 NBA Season Discussion and Party Experience
11:47 Elitism and Segmentation in Black Communities
20:22 The Future of the NBA
34:20 The Potential Weaknesses of NBA Teams
46:06 Living in LeBron James' Shadow
52:42 Critiquing LeBron
1:04:42 Bomani Jones and 500K or Lunch With Jay-Z
Tune in Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12PM ET to watch the show live on Youtube. Follow @chadsand on Instagram and subscribe to the Nothing But Anarchy Youtube channel for full interviews and more anarchy!
Executive Produced by: Chad Sanders
Produced by: Morgan Williams
This is Nothing but Anarchy. This is the show that explores chaos around the world, around culture, around sports, around media and some other stuff. I think that'll do just nicely for an intro. Hello, this is Nothing but Anarchy, episode number 58. 58. That's crazy as hell 58 episodes. All right, we have stuff to talk about. Today is day one of the NBA season and I am going to.
Speaker 1:There are many who listen to this show for varied reasons, and one of those reasons for some of our listeners is because they are avid NBA fans. One of those reasons for others of our listeners is because they are hardly NBA fans at all, but they want to get to know the NBA a little bit through a show that is palatable, through a show that does not only have douchey white guys talking like they're doing heart surgery with the seriousness of astronauts about the NBA. So I am going to try to talk about the major things that there are to know. In the end, I'm going to try to thread the needle here. I'm going to try to talk about the major themes of this NBA season, or I'm going to try to talk about it in a way that satisfies both the avid NBA fan and also the barely NBA fan by giving sort of the most important parts of what's happening this season. I also just want to like contextualize where the NBA is as a league. Because we watch I watch sports because sports is a story. It's a live story playing out in front of you. And there's a reason why sports rights are so expensive as compared to the rights to other types of recorded, scripted and non-script TV shows. And it's because, in my opinion, it's because there's something about the human spirit and the human curiosity that connects to the unknown of how this thing is going to play out.
Speaker 1:You might think that this team's like last night, my favorite team, my favorite football team, the Vikings. We played the San Francisco 49ers. Vikings are two, were two and four, 49ers were five and one. 49ers were, by many people's expectations coming into this season, at least one of the three or four Super Bowl favorites. And they came to Minnesota last night. And Minnesota, it wasn't exactly an ass whooping. Minnesota led that game from end to end. Basically, minnesota. I don't think Minnesota ever trailed in that game. And Jordan Addison, a rookie sort of took the star spot of Justin Jefferson, who is out with injury right now. Who cares? Y'all don't care. But I'll just finish up what I'm saying, which is, the Vikings won and I felt very happy about that. I was at Tim and DeLise's house watching and shouting and twirling around and grabbing things in the basement and DeLise encouraged me to do the worm because one of the players in the game did the worm and I didn't want to do it and then he that same player got another interception later and did the worm again, and then I felt the impulse and I did the worm and I did it pretty good. All right, that's neither here nor there. Today we're going to talk about the NBA season and before I get into that I'm going to do what I always do, which is just give you all a little bit of where I'm at, what I'm coming in here with today.
Speaker 1:I went out over this past weekend. I went out. I think I hit the wall. I went out very hard Saturday night. Where was I? I was at my friend's house in Bed-Stuy hanging out on the stoop with a couple people having a couple of drinks, and I wasn't ready to go home when it was over. I just I just wasn't ready to go home Saturday night.
Speaker 1:I love fall. I don't like to miss a fall night. It's beautiful outside, the weather's perfect in my opinion, it's like low fifties, but it's crisp and it's bright and you get to wear your jacket, or you get to wear your little pullover, or your your your jump bar or whatever you like to wear in the fall. And I just wasn't ready to go home. So I hit up my boy, alex, or maybe he hit me, I can't remember.
Speaker 1:Alex is a music producer, dj. He is kind of a producer of all things he produced. I don't know if y'all remember I did this, basically an ad for direct deposit which was like hi, I'm Chad Sanders, writer, author, coffee shop regular. He made that thing which has performed very well for me on the Instagrams as an ad and, among other things, I make music with Alex. Sometimes he makes his own music and he was DJing at this party in the Lower East side. I've been to. I would. I was in the Lower East side three nights in a row this this past week, y'all. My life is very different than it was six months ago. So I went to the Lower East side, I met up with Alex. I told him on the way I was like hey, I've had a couple of drinks, what kind of spot is this Cause?
Speaker 1:If I was walking into like some sort of intimate party where people know each other and shit, I didn't, I didn't want to be like walking into that, I didn't, I wasn't in that mode. I wanted to walk into somewhere where I could like float a little bit. He's like nah, nah, come through. He sends me this flyer and the flyer I can't. I still flyers. I already told you I can't read, but flyers are especially hard to read. Like flyers are just. They're just words being shot at your consciousness that are difficult to decipher sometimes. And what I saw on this flyer was that this was some sort of like an audition party, but there was also going to be a pinata and it was encouraged to wear as few clothes as possible. That's on the flyer. And one thing I said to Alex was I was like Alex, I have one like clothes, so should I not come? And he was like no, no, come, come, wear your clothes, it's fine. So I I came and or I went and I show up to this place in Lower East Side.
Speaker 1:If y'all know the Lower East Side, the Lower East Side is mostly giant apartments, projects and like tenements. That's basically what the Lower East Side is comprised of as it regards to living spaces. I take an Uber. I'm listening. What do I listen to in the car? Oh, I listened to this offset song called healthy. I pull up and it's like a.
Speaker 1:There's a sea of close to being naked white people in front of this house, a house that is like a modern, large, renovated house such that you do not see in the Lower East Side this is clearly a rich person's house, and there's a line outside, of course, with bouncers and all that. And you know, I text Alex, I'm like okay, you come get me, I'm out here, so he gets me in pretty quick. But outside, first of all, there's like the tallest person that I have ever seen. That is not a pro athlete, and I just know he's not a pro athlete because he could only be a basketball player and I didn't recognize him. So he's not a basketball player, but his tall ass, white guy, almost butt ass, naked standing outside. And also, by the way, it's low fifties, so remember, these people are basically naked in low 50 degree weather.
Speaker 1:Alex comes to get me, comes to get me, he brings me inside and I'm probably among like four or five black people in this is sprawling. Like these people are crawling there everywhere. They're all over the place. They're on all floors of this house. It is an open sort of venue house so you can see everybody else. That's everywhere around. Everybody looks really attractive. Like all the people are very beautiful, mostly unclothed. They're probably like four of the black people they barely have on any clothes. So I'm just walking around with clothes on and taking it all in.
Speaker 1:Really like I waited in line for the bathroom for a really long time, because you know people go into the bathroom. They're going in couples, they're going with drugs, like they're. They're just. The bathroom is a whole process and like I'm waiting. I was handed jello shots. I had three jello shots in this place. This is I was like I'm bugging.
Speaker 1:I hit the wall but I finally it's like Alex's. There's a couple of DJs go on. They come off, right, and then it's finally it's Alex's turn to DJ. So I go down. I go downstairs to the bottom of the pit, which is where most of the activity is. I'm standing there next to the DJ booth as Alex sets up. He, finally, he like puts in. It's this, it's this crescendo of moment where it's like Alex is going to plug in his shit and he's going to like take over the party. I'm going to love the music, because I love Alex's music and he plugs the fucking thing in and the whole sound system goes down in the house there's no music available to be played and they're basically like okay, everybody get out.
Speaker 1:So the whole party migrates along down, I guess, delancey Street to this other bar, and then Alex is telling me about the scene and there's these guys in blazers. These guys are like low, they're like in the early forties, they're bald headed in blazers, but they're with these really tall, beautiful women. I'm like what's going on here? And Alex is like, yeah, he's. Usually this is a scene. This is the Lower East Side scene. It's like the re, the re sparked vampire late night scene in the Lower East Side that came back after COVID. It's like all the real zombies and these rich guys will come and they'll like take a helicopter into New York and they'll like land and dial up escorts to come with them to these naked parties, because they don't know any women and they'll just show up with these girls and then so, anyway, we migrated to another bar, I had one more drink and then I went home and that was it. It's a climactic, but it was. It was an experience. I should add that somebody in line behind me in the bathroom offered me, offered to cash out me $5 to like cut me in line, which was I don't know, that's such a silly trick. It's like I'm not just going to let you use the bathroom ahead of me. I was a woman, um, all right, quickly homecoming. I'm y'all can't see me, but I'm wearing a more house sweater, a pullover.
Speaker 1:Something interesting is happening right now, which is that I know I've been saying this for months, but like I'm, I am finishing my book and I think my book will be done no later than tomorrow, probably today. At this point, I'm just going through like the redlining process with my editor, which is that my editor sends me back the full manuscript, which is now at like 247 pages, and it's got like these little, just like these little tightening up tweaks all over the page, you know in red line, in red edit, and I just accept or decline whatever it is that he's saying to me. You know, it's like 80% of them are just adding commas, basically. But something interesting that's happening is I'm writing this, is this is what's happening to me as a storyteller in general. Like I'm writing a book, I'm doing this show, I'm I have a animated show that we're pitching to Netflix in two weeks.
Speaker 1:I'm always on the phone. I'm always talking to Morgan, I'm always talking to my sister, I'm always talking to my friends. So I'm losing track of what things I have told who. I'm losing track. Like I asked Morgan this morning have I already told my story about meeting Jay-Z? And she's like no, I don't think so, because I was literally just writing yesterday about meeting Jay-Z and there's a Jay-Z topic coming on the docket. So I'm losing track of what I've said, where and how, and I guess that is probably how some people end up. If you follow someone closely, it can sound like there's telling the same stories over and over again, cause, like you just can't keep up with what you've said. Into what microphone I've been writing about? Just shoot it straight, cause we're here.
Speaker 1:I've been writing about the bougie black people experience especially, and including Jack and Jill, certain communities that I was kind of one foot in, one foot out of at home growing up, and then, of course, like lightly, my college experience. You know, I, I, I think it is the writer's job to the right, like literally traditionally meaning from the beginning of time. I think it's the storyteller's job, to be honest, because if a storyteller does their job well, some things that others did not experience or did not see for themselves will will start to be considered fact. And so if you don't handle those things with care, if you don't handle those things honestly and with nuance and with detail and with precision, um, you can perpetuate lies. I'm saying that as a giant disclaimer on myself. I'm saying that as a disclaimer because I am critical of those communities. Critical is a hard word, but like I'm being real in the book, I'll just put it like that.
Speaker 1:And there's so much to be said about those communities and I only spend like two hours on them. I'm two hours, jesus Christ, two chapters on them out of 20. So it's not like I spend a whole book writing about that stuff, but the book is about more or less it's about selling out. Like the book is about as a black person Chad me, me as myself, in the last few years I have had to negotiate with myself how much am I prioritizing cashing in on opportunity over other things that matter to me? And so as I look at these particular communities, I think about, I'm exploring the shit that we bring into our black spaces, that we get from being out in the world trading in capitalism, trading with white people, trading, and not just trading like money for service or money for product, but like culture for culture. You know what I mean. Like that we do, you know.
Speaker 1:I think, especially in media, a lot of black folks with big voices do a lot of like deifying other cultures as it regards to how they think about money, how they treat money, how they work, how they think, their curiosities, their knowledge and we kind of shit on our own stuff. Sometimes we say, like you know, oh black people, we don't travel. Oh black people, you know, we don't understand money, we don't read whatever, and we glorify other communities and that, in my opinion, brings into our own community a sensibility that is like we collectively are not good enough. So one subset of us that is good enough has to separate itself. And I think that's in part where communities like Jack and Jill I can't even name them all right Like certain fraternities and sororities, certain colleges, whatever, that is where some of the, the snootiness, the like nose in the air, shit that irks the hell out of other black folks comes from and I'm writing about it in my book.
Speaker 1:And while also recognizing I have played both sides of the line in that regard and also while recognizing that if the book is as big as I expected to be in terms of like, buzz and notoriety, some people are gonna be like, why are you writing about this in the open? Why are you saying this out loud in front of people? And there's a couple reasons. One is because the whole thing about like we should talk about our shit amongst ourselves, like I don't give a fuck about that. Like obviously y'all can tell I don't care about that. I don't care if white people think I'm worse than them, I don't care. Like, I mean, I care in terms of the ramifications it can have. Right, I care in terms of like, do they think that is a meaningful reason to do harm to people like me or to treat us badly or to, you know, hold us down systematically? But like, when it comes to just like, are they just looking at me with their nose up in the air? Are they judging me? I don't care about that.
Speaker 1:We still have stuff we got to talk about and I don't have all y'all in a group chat. So the way that I can have this conversation with the people who I do care how they, what their point of view on it is, I got to write about it, like that's how I can pass a word fast and see what y'all think, and get it out and see if somebody else feels me, cause I think some of these things, some of these elements of elitism and social segmentation, I think these things prosper because there's a like, there's a, there's a culture of no, no, no, no, no, no. We don't talk about that out loud. No, no, no, no, no. Like we don't talk about that in front of people. Well, we're in front of people, I'm in front of people and I got to talk about it. Why I'm saying all that is to go the opposite direction, which is I don't want anybody to get it fucked up.
Speaker 1:I still love the people in these communities. I am born of some of these places. I came of age at Morehouse College. I'm wearing a Morehouse sweater right now. My mom went to Spelman. My sister went to Spelman, like so many of the people who I love the most in the world went to Spelman, morehouse, clark. I admire people who went to those colleges. I look up to them, I relate to them, I care very deeply about them, and to have criticisms, to have like to want to start a conversation that I think is important and incisive is not to push away, it's not to set like.
Speaker 1:In some ways, I hope people will want to be closer because we can speak honestly to each other. I think so much of like, the connection gets frayed because there's so much that we sweep under the rug when we talk about where we come from and how we are and how we treat each other. So for that reason, I'm wearing a Morehouse College hoodie, because or sweater, because shout out to James Jeter, who, I believe, designed this sweater in partnership with Ralph Lauren because it's homecoming weekend and I'm not gonna be there. And people, a couple of people are asking me if I'm gonna be there. In fact, as of the last five days, I have wanted to be there for a particular reason and I can't and I just I literally just.
Speaker 1:This is gonna segue into a conversation we're gonna have after we talk about the NBA, about juggling a million balls, like I just can't do that right now, like I just every day right now is I'm sitting in front of the computer, which I spilled coffee all over, so it's in my office attached to a monitor. I have 17 different people who are like calling or texting and trying to schedule me for something or trying to get me to agree to come to a meeting, trying to get me to do a one hour work session together to bang out this pitch or this proposal or whatever. Morgan and I are in constant communication, going through edits on reels and trying to figure out our strategy for merchandise and okaying things. Like I'm talking to advisors about how to like really build this thing. I'm spending a shit ton of money investing in all of this right now because there's no studio backing any of this, all on the faith, like while trying to finish this fucking book with. Also, it's not a child but a very needy animal that needs things, that needs to eat and needs to be taken to the vet and needs to go on an hour and a half long walk or else it's gonna bother me all day and needs to be lifted and his 85 pounds needs to be lifted into my vehicle. Like I'm trying to manage a lot right now and I'm also trying to have, like I'm trying to experiment with my new social life. There's just a lot going on, so I'm not gonna be at homecoming Not that anyone here in particular asked me that, but I'm saying that because I still wanna send love, even though my body is not going All right.
Speaker 1:Who cares? Nobody asked for that. Let's talk about Morgan. What are you laughing at, morgan? Morgan, what are you laughing at?
Speaker 2:What? No, you're just being funny today.
Speaker 1:Okay, thank you. Morgan is always laughing at me. Let's talk about the NBA. So here's what the NBA is. The NBA is obviously growing considerably as a business, as you can tell by way of the extreme multiplying on the TV contracts and player contracts. But the NBA is in a little bit of a no man's land right now as a league, competitively, not away from the business. Just let's just think about what's happening in the actual league, the story of this thing.
Speaker 1:So there are a few presumable sort of the guys who are sitting on the bench and they're sitting on the bench and they're sitting on the bench. They are sitting close to the top of the league as players, or at the top. They are Nicola Jokic, who just won the NBA championship finals MVP. He's got two MVPs. He almost won a third last year. They're Yanis Antitokunpo, who is also a two time MVP and a champion. He and Nicola Jokic, I believe, are less than a year apart in age. They're both in their late 20s. They're sort of entering, if not already in, their primes which, if there's no injury, will last for the next few years.
Speaker 1:There are guys like LeBron James, kevin Durant, stephen Curry, james Hart and Russell Westbrook to a lesser extent, who were the dominant forces of the last decade. And those guys, while still great, are diminished. They're old, they're like Kevin Durant is entering year 17. Lebron James is 38. Stephen Curry is, I wanna say, in year 13 or 14, but he's like he's 35. And then there are guys who are, in my opinion, more I mean one. They are American born, which is to say that they, I believe, have a more readily made connection to the fans if they rise to the spot of like top three players. And those guys include Jason Tatum, anthony Edwards, some people but not me would say Devin Booker and others and a very small group of others. But there's no like there is no LeBron right now. There is no Stephen Curry right now. And when I say that I mean to say there is no LeBron of six years ago or 10 years ago, which is like MVP LeBron, most dominant player on both ends, most marketable, a voice outside of basketball. Like obviously we still have our LeBron, but he's diminished, he's older. There is no Stephen Curry. There is no American born. Son of an NBA player came up through the NCAA, like we came to know him and love him in the NCAA tournament. Like there is the guys who are at the top are guys who we did not even become aware of until they were in the NBA, because they are foreign players. And even when they were in the NBA for a few years, we did not latch on to them until they turned a corner and really became like MVP candidates. It was four years into Yanis' career before we all looked up and were like, oh shit, this guy might be the guy Nikola Jokic. It was even longer than that. I think the casual NBA fan didn't start paying attention to Nikola Jokic until he won an MVP, which was six or seven years into his career.
Speaker 1:What I'm saying is there's a void in my opinion, right now and I talked to a friend about this for music, if Drake I think it was Tim I was talking to and Justin if Drake does indeed, god, all roads, jesus. I'm only gonna talk about Drake for 20 seconds If Drake does indeed take two years out of hip hop, out of music, out of pop stardom, I asked who do you think could step into that place? Who do you think could step into being, if not, the biggest musical star on earth? Certainly one of the five or 10, but also like the one who is there over 10 years every single year? Who could that be? And I threw out as an example when the best player in the NBA is no longer the best player in the NBA, that doesn't mean all of a sudden the second best player steps into the spot as number one. I'm doing my hand thing.
Speaker 1:Kevin Durant never stepped into that spot. He was number two for a decade. But even when he wasn't number one anymore, then it was Steph Curry, right? Or even when LeBron wasn't number one anymore, then it was Steph Curry, then it was Yanis, now it's Jokic or whatever. Whoever you think it is, it was never Kevin Durant. So there's something about being second. Kevin Durant said it himself. He was tired of being second. He said that like 10 years ago, maybe 12 years ago, because you can get stuck as second and never be first. When first goes away, you don't just become second.
Speaker 1:So in music, I don't think that just because Drake might slot over, that whoever is next up behind him musically then steps into number one. No, I think it's that someone rises up from like number 15 to number one or number five to number one, whatever that means in your head in terms of how it's not like J Cole becomes number one when Drake walks away, because number one is a slot that has a lot. It has such a weight. You have to be great at so much to be number one at anything. That is to say, I threw out as an example and this is just someone who I think, has the talent, the want to the artistry, the marketability, the weirdness, the singularity to be that type of person in music. I threw out as an example Tyler, the creator, and the response that I got, which I thought was reasonable, from Tim as an example, was he don't make enough music and that's real.
Speaker 1:Like you got to be prolific, that's another thing. You got to be out there. To put it back on the basketball Like you must be available, you must play the games. Like something about LeBron that is underrated is that the guy doesn't really get hurt, he gets injured, but he plays, he takes care of his body. He took like two months off of a season a few years ago, or a month and a half, because he just wanted to break, but like that's just because I can't imagine the slog on him. So let me make it tight.
Speaker 1:What I'm saying is we don't know who that guy is for the NBA right now. If you, if you're saying it's Yanis, it should already have been Yanis. He already has the accolades, like he already has the track record he always has, has the consistency. He's already like a top two player on both sides of the ball. It should have already been Yanis. If you're saying it's Yoke, it's like he doesn't even want it. He doesn't even care to be number one, like he wants to ride horses and stuff.
Speaker 1:I think here's my, here's my bull take. Like you already know, I think from a talent standpoint, it's supposed to be, it's supposed to be Jason Tatum, it's supposed to be that, right. But there's something about Jason Tatum that doesn't resonate with you all and me. I'll be honest. I think it has to do with how he talks. I think it has to do with how he looks. I think it has to do with the fact that, even though his game is, as is, as seasoned and inside out, and 30 points and nine rebounds and five assists a game and all that shit, like something about it still doesn't look quite as fluid as you want it to understood. So let's put him aside. I think the answer. I think the answer is Anthony Edwards. I think he is the person who has the combination of and this is saying a lot right, because Anthony Edwards is not even a top 10, much less a top five player in the league right now.
Speaker 1:Coming out of last season, I don't know if he made it, I don't think he made an all NBA team last year, like he's probably 22, maybe 23, but he has this like something, like there's something about star quality that is separate from. You can't measure it statistically, you can't measure it necessarily in impact, but he has like there was a dunk he had in preseason last week where he it's there's there's a crowd of people sort of swirling around the lane. So it's not a crowded paint, but it's like elevator crowded. It's like five people in an elevator and he comes through the middle of the paint right hand, catches a pass, dribble, dribble, jumps from not that far out but like maybe one foot inside the free throw line, kind of leans his body toward the basket as he does. He's a big guy, he's like a big, strong dude, he's a former football player and he like he cocks back with his right and he booms it. And and there was something about like the angle of the cameras, the cameras that are like out, the phones that are out in people's hands as he's doing it, the way people are looking at the court If you look at stills of it, the way that the other players are watching him do it, there's something that felt Jordan Esk about it.
Speaker 1:There's something that felt I never mind. Like his skin tone, the way he walks, even the way that he talks, has some Jordan to all of it. Like he doesn't sound like Michael Jordan when he talks but he he has a. He has this like rye look of smirking confidence on his face all the time. Like like he knows a joke that he's about to tell, or maybe not tell, but never mind. Like just that. He kind of resembles Jordan in some ways. But the way that the other players on the court are almost like they almost expect him to do this ridiculously spectacular thing, they're almost like unfazed by it.
Speaker 1:If you all go back and look at like not early Jordan, not like eighties Jordan, but if you go back and look at like early nineties Jordan, some of the clips, there's something funny to me which is that Jordan will do something incredibly humiliating to somebody defending him, like he'll cross somebody up or spin around them. They don't get to the big man and he'll boom on the big man. He'll barely celebrate. And the other players on the court, they're so unfazed by his greatness they just kind of like hang their heads and take the ball out. And I saw a little bit of that from what I what was happening around Anthony Edwards in that game. So that's one snapshot, but I do think, like I think greatness happens in the stories of snapshots, like I think I think greatness is tracked by like these moments where it's like whoa, that's something that was a preseason game.
Speaker 1:But now I fully expect that in the first two weeks of the season we are going to get the Anthony Edwards like 50 point explosion game in one of these. Like teen unfortunately place for the Timberwolves. So a lot of his games happen. A lot of his games start at 10 o'clock Eastern time, so a lot of people are going to miss these games. But I think there's going to be one of those TNT Thursday night games and it's it's Anthony Edwards against the Suns, like a really good team, so we're all tuned in or whatever, and it's all these really good shooting guards on the court, right, it's it's Devin Booker, brad Beal and Anthony Edwards and I think he's going to explode for 50. And then it's all of a sudden we're going to be the same way that it happened with Derek Rose.
Speaker 1:I don't know if y'all remember, but year three, derek Rose, right Coming into year three, he said as a 20 year old or 21 year old, I don't see why I can't be MVP. And it was kind of ridiculous because LeBron James was coming off of two MVPs and it was like the heyday of the LeBron James experience. And he did it. Derek Rose did it. He was like 25, five and five. He was a clutch. He was a clutch player. I think they got a one seed and he was the MVP. And I think Anthony Edwards could do that now and I think it would mean even more than when Derek Rose did it, because we still had heyday LeBron at that point.
Speaker 1:We're looking around for who the guy is right now. I don't know if you've ever heard somebody say, like, if you have two starting quarterbacks, you don't have one. I think that's where we're at right now with, like, who's the guy in the NBA? We have two, or we have four, or we have 10, which means we don't have one. So somebody's going to, like, take that mantle, and I think it could be Anthony Edwards. That was pretty good. Okay, now I'm going to fly through a few other things that are just things to know about this NBA season for people who are, who want to, who like, want to be more into it or something, who just want to know what's going on. So there are, I believe there are four teams. Okay, let me no, let me just be honest.
Speaker 1:Let me not fucking. I'm not. I'm not doing what y'all want me to do here. I believe there are three teams that reasonably can win the NBA championship this year. Those teams are the Boston Celtics, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Denver Nuggets. I'm just being real. I wish, I want to believe otherwise, I want to believe that the sons could do it, I want to believe that the Warriors could do it. But these are the teams. Okay. So if you're, if you want to know why Boston is like they're Boston's right there every single year, like they're right there every year. They have not gotten it done. They've been in the finals, I think two of the last five years. They've been in the Eastern con. I'm sorry. They've been in the finals one of the last two years. They've been in the Eastern Conference finals like six years in a row and they just haven't gotten it done and it's time for them to do it.
Speaker 1:I think Jason Tatum is a legitimate MVP candidate this year. I think Jaylen Brown, finally, now that he's gotten his money, can relax a little bit about his Robin status and just like and just really settle into it. And then Drew Holiday and Chris Daps Porzingis round out what I think is going to be the best starting five in the NBA Milwaukee Bucks, well-documented Yonatan Santo-Tacumpo, damian Lillard it should be fun. Denver Nuggets just won and they didn't lose a lot, so I think they're going to be right there again. What's more important is let me tell you why these other teams can't win. Okay, the Phoenix Suns. Trust your eyeballs, man. Kevin Durant, devin Booker and Bradley Bill are three Robins. You're not supposed to have three. You're supposed to have one Robin, like that's three. So Kevin Durant, which I told he's perpetually number two, has even on some level been like okay, let me put it like this Beta. Let's talk about beta energy. Okay, not in the way that Joe Rogan would talk about it, not in the way that Reddit talks about it. Let's talk about beta in sports. Okay, beta is an important role when the guy or the gal who is the one is getting tired, needs somebody else to take over for a moment, needs somebody else to also just be an available valve for buckets while out there. You need your beta to be strong.
Speaker 1:When betas are miscast as alphas in sports, it fucks everything up. And here are the three ways that betas behave when they are miscast as alphas, because they are personified by each one of these three players. There is the beta who just refuses to ever be alpha and just really settles into being beta. That's Bradley Beal. There is the beta who sometimes will try to pretend to be alpha because they think that's what people want from them, and that's Kevin Durant. And then there's the beta who always pretends to be alpha because something inside themselves is fucked up and they don't know that they're perpetually beta and that that's the best role for them and they want more than that and they feel like people underestimate them and they're too light skinned and their eyebrows look funny or whatever, and that's Devin Booker. So those are. Those are three betas on the same team.
Speaker 1:You will find something that's going to happen is at the end of games, when somebody needs to be decisive and get a bucket. Occasionally Devin Booker or Kevin Durant is going to take, is going to take the wheel and do that thing, and it's going to bump the other one because they're going to be like wait, maybe I should be doing that. And it's going to be Devin Booker more frequently than it's Kevin Durant who feels bumped by that a little bit because he's like wait a second. This was my franchise, this was my team Like why am I, why am I beta again? But it's because you're all. You're all beta, like all three of your beta. And then the rest of the supporting cast is like I don't know what comes after beta, alpha, beta, gamma, delta. They're like delta and worse, they're like they are pips.
Speaker 1:Okay, um, the uh, no, not even the Cleveland. If you want to know about the Cleveland Cavaliers, they already talked about them. They have too many guys who play the same position. Um, the Philadelphia 76ers are totally chaotic and a mess Judd James Harden is. I admire James Harden. Um, I'm going to make this about me for a second.
Speaker 1:So, people, I think many people can relate to this. If you're good at something, people will see you. They see you as something they can use to do their thing. Um, specifically, if you are James Harden and you are great at basketball and you are under contract and you, you are one of the most talented passer plus score people of all time in the NBA. I think that can be corroborated. He's led the league in scoring and assists and both at the same time. Um, people just think they can put you anywhere and have you do anything. Last year, uh, doc Rivers basically turned you turn him into a pick and roll player and that was it, uh. On the Houston Rockets he was like I saw man and that was it, uh. On the Oklahoma city thunder he will etching saying that was it. He was phenomenal at that. On the Oklahoma city thunder he was six man and that was the role that they wanted from them. They wanted him. They wanted him to resign to a less than max contract, to remain six man.
Speaker 1:And here's what I feel right now. I'm a really good writer and that's for me Like I'm going to write my stuff. That's valuable for me to do my thing. It's not. It's not like I don't want to be slotted. Do you know what I'm saying? James Harden doesn't want to be slotted right now. He's like I don't like you here anymore. Darryl Morley lied to me I'm going to make it awkward.
Speaker 1:This is the part that I I admire about James Harden. Um, in business, so often you're like or I should say my human sensibilities to be thoughtful, empathetic, kind, relatable, understanding, standing the way of like very important business sensibilities which are to say sometimes you got to know how to make some shit awkward for somebody. Sometimes you got to ignore an email for a really long time. Sometimes you got to ignore text. Sometimes somebody asks you, um, can you meet next week? And you tell them when you can meet, which is next month, like, and you just got to. Like, you got to get your willies out about it, you got to get unsqueamish about it. Or else you always end up waking up checking your phone, checking your email and feeling torn in a hundred different directions.
Speaker 1:James Harden seems to be so comfortable making shit awkward for Darrell Morley and the Philadelphia 76ers, and I think he should be. I think we should admire him for that. I think we should look up. I think we should be like, we should understand a bit more why that is special, why that's useful. Um, cause I think he's ultimately going to get what he wants, which is to be traded to the Clippers, all right, uh, a few other teams here the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors, and I'm going to tell you all why both of these teams can't win the championship, and then we're going to move on. So the Los Angeles Lakers.
Speaker 1:I've heard people say, man, you know, the Los Angeles Lakers really took care of business in the off season. The moves that Los Angeles Lakers made in the off season where they signed Gabriel Vinton, who is honestly like a backup point guard. They got him from the Miami Heat. He was the heat starting point guard, but that's because the Miami Heat can start like late second rounders and still have no drop off because they're just special, but like he's a backup. They re-signed Austin Reeves, who I know some of you all think is really good, but you're being, you're being tricked. He's, he's fine, like he's fine, he's a. He's a. He's an average level NBA starter. They re-signed D'Angelo Russell, who they had already. They re-signed Jared Vanderbilt, who they had already.
Speaker 1:Guys, they're bringing the same team back like and they weren't even sweet last year. They almost at a certain point last season we thought they were going to miss the playoffs. That's what. That's how bad it was. So what is the thing, besides just being the Lakers and getting that bump that you see as elevating them into real contender status? I don't see it.
Speaker 1:I think the thing that was promising that they did last year was that they beat also LeBron James 38. What they did earlier was that they beat this other team, which is also not a contender, when the championship, which is the Golden State Warriors. Love the Warriors, love Steph Curry, one of my favorite athletes of all time. The Warriors didn't do anything either. The Warriors added Chris Paul, which is great. The first, the first year of the Chris Paul experience often goes well. Chris Paul is also 38. Stefan Curry is 35. Clay Thompson is 34. Jermaine Green is 33. These guys are old and it just it ends at a certain point.
Speaker 1:They didn't cultivate the young guys. Kaminga has not turned into whatever kind of hybrid 3, 4, 5 monster offensive rebounder defender. You know ISO score thing that they expected him to become. He's like they don't. They haven't developed their guys because they've been focused on trying to win the championship every year. But like this is it? They're tapped out. I don't, I don't think. I just don't think they have, like you watch, when you watch the Nuggets, as an example, run through the Lakers last year, like really, I mean like the games were close, but like the Nuggets were better.
Speaker 1:There's something you just see. I was watching highlights of Steph Curry and James Harden from a few years ago, recently, like literally from like three years ago, and there's just a difference in like the pop of the players who are in their 20s as they bounce around the court. This is after, this is after. You know what month is it? October, after eight months of season. Like there's just a different pop that you see on the court for guys who are in their late 20s, who are playing well into the playoffs. Then what you see from the Lakers, from the Warriors, like you see a methodical movement by those teams, you see smart movement by those teams, but like sometimes you got to win a loose ball by just being faster than the other guy, sometimes you got to make a crazy defensive play by just having more bounce than the other guy, and the Warriors and the Lakers don't have it anymore. All right, that's it. Enough of that.
Speaker 1:I just watched the commercial. Okay, so I can describe it well because I just watched it. There's a beat spot. That's a beat spot. Dre commercial right, beats by Dre commercial. Also, I'm enjoying watching commercials lately because I'm learning how to make ads. Beats by Dre commercial and the voiceover. Well, let me start here. The production quality is strong, the images look good. I don't know what kind of cameras they use I don't really know cameras but I know when something looks right, it looks right. The voiceovers are Savannah James, lebron James wife. And who is this blonde person? There's a blonde soccer player featured here.
Speaker 2:It's Erling Howlin.
Speaker 1:He's Norwegian soccer player, all right, erling Howlin, and it seems to be his dad doing voiceover and they're alternating sequences happening between LeBron and the soccer player, sort of like preparing for the season, and images of like their families and their history. And the theme what's being said by the voiceover here is basically it's not enough to be great, you got to be great, you got to do it again, you got to keep doing it again and again and again and again. And there's one particular moment where there's a shot of LeBron James's two sons and Savannah is saying something about like he's going to play with his first son, brani, and he's going to play with his other son, bryce, and so it has people buzzing that LeBron James is not only planning to play with Brani which has been common knowledge for a while I think he's even said it outright but that he also wants to play with Bryce, who's a few years younger, which means LeBron's going to have to stay in the league for at least another. I think Bryce is a sophomore in high school, so he's going to have to stay in the league for like another four years for that to happen. Here's what I see, and I've touched on this before, so I'm just going to go back to it a little bit.
Speaker 1:First thing I want to say is, like that's a very, that is a. I like how that commercial looks. A lot Like it looks good, and Beats by Bray, by Dre usually has strong marketing. I bet Dr Dre has something to do with the taste level that is expected for marketing around his company, if he even owns any of it still. But what I can't help but see when I watch that is parents. How much parents center themselves when it comes to who their children are going to be and who they want them to be.
Speaker 1:I still have not yet heard, unless I've missed it somewhere, and he speaks on a desire to play basketball with his dad. His dad is LeBron James. I think about that. Like some of y'all out there have a parent who's, like you know, a really dope lawyer and you feel under the weight of their shadow. Okay, some of y'all out there have a parent who, like, started a school 20 years ago and you feel under the weight of their shadow. His dad is LeBron James and he has heart problems, as we know. I don't know if he's going to play college basketball this season. I guess he is Like that's what they're saying, but we'll see. I mean he has a heart condition. I just want to say again it doesn't look like fun to be Bronnie James, and now, on top of the stated desire that his father has to play with him in the NBA which means, ready or not, you got to make it to the NBA, bronnie James. Now, on top of that, there's the added pressure that it looks like a buzz is growing that LeBron also wants to play with Bryce, who seems to be, at this point in his development, a better, taller, more physically gifted player than his brother was when he was the same age. Um, it's, I feel. When I watch Bronnie, it looks like he almost has oldest child syndrome and middle child syndrome because like he's sort of the middle ball player between Bron and Bryce. Um, I'm not like I will. This has come up before the question around opinions or hot takes, and I just want y'all to know I don't try to craft a thing, to think about something that I don't actually think.
Speaker 1:I played basketball Obviously I was not even in the realm of any one of these people aforementioned right, but played at a very competitive high school, talked about it before, made it to the state championship. We were good and I come from a good ball-playing society. Like I, come from a place where basketball is really important, the DMV. Okay, we have over-indexed on NBA players where I come from, compared to how many people there actually are in our region of the country, and what I saw, and also what I experienced, frankly, was the immeasurable weight of that. Men specifically put on their children, little brothers, nephews to excel at basketball, to love basketball, to obsess over basketball, to fixate over basketball, to give their time and their energy and their thought to basketball.
Speaker 1:Okay, basketball is the incentive to go to class. Basketball is the incentive to, or basketball is where you are expected to make your friendships. Basketball is where you are expected to learn how to be wantable by girls. Like basketball is, ball is life, like basketball is the fucking thing. And it's like you go to basketball practice, you go home, you watch film, then you watch the NBA, then you wake up and you go back to the workout in the morning, then you go to class because you want to be eligible to play basketball. Like that's the lifestyle and for hundreds thousands of little black boys where I'm from, okay, and I'm speaking very specifically with something that is gender in all of this because there is a connection, I believe, that between the assigned value of a little boy in this community and, like their masculinity and their basketball prowess okay, the basketball star is treated as something different, something more special, something more manly, something more valuable, something more covetable than the other kids I think about, like my own life, which came with its own set of pressures.
Speaker 1:My dad was a college basketball player. I've said that before. I did not make it to that point. I remember my dad asking me at one point if I wanted to try out for Morehouse's team. When I got there and on two levels, I was just like no, I was on one level, was just like I'm ready for this to be over. My last high school basketball game I played probably like 10 minutes. We got slaughtered by some Baltimore kids. I had broken my ankle that year. I had gone from being a starter to injured to a starter again to coming off the bench. It was an emotionally torturous in a way that I just wanted it to be over and then I didn't want to have to care.
Speaker 1:Let me bring it back to Bronny James. Okay, trying to be really, really good at something that you are not naturally predisposed to greatness for is hard. It is emotionally difficult. All right, I am glad that I found other things in life that I can be great at, because I'm actually predisposed to being great at them. All right, I have proof now. Right, my sister is a published author. So I have proof now that something in my genetic makeup means that, okay, I can be real, real good at writing. I'm good at basketball.
Speaker 1:For a 35-year-old, I couldn't have been an NBA player. I couldn't have been a D1 college basketball player. Like that wasn't in the cards for me. I think something is being asked of Bronny James as a life's pursuit that is not, it's not in him. And to struggle and strive to be something your whole life, that you are not meant to be, is torture. Like that is not. That's not fair, it's not okay, it's not. And now there are there's marketing being built on top of it. There are average and listen, man, listen.
Speaker 1:All right, I said this, but I can hear y'all saying it. Somebody out there has the point of view that is that's their family. You don't know them, you can't speak on their family, you don't know what they want. Somebody has that point of view. Would you agree, morgan, then get out of my face. Don't push it down my throat. If you don't want me to have a point of view, you are forcing your children on me. So I have a point of view on what you do with your children.
Speaker 1:I, I I am so annoyed by the listen. If you're I've said this 100% of what I'm saying again. If you put your f if you put your fucking wedding video on Instagram, if you put your podcast on Instagram, if you set up a camera and you talk to it and you put microphones up and all the shit and you do your shit, right, we are allowed to talk shit about you. That's the agreement, okay, like, if you've put it if you force it on me, I don't have to just take it. I see what I see. This looks unhealthy. This doesn't look it I'm I'm yelling. This looks unhealthy. This doesn't look fair to a kid. It doesn't look fair to an amateur Like you. Ha you you did your thing. You did your LeBron James thing. You did it. Oh my god, you did it.
Speaker 1:We cannot pos it's like Drake. Sometimes it's like Drake all roads. Happy birthday Drake. It's Drake's birthday. Like, we cannot possibly tell you you did it enough. There's not enough validation in the world for us to tell you oh my god, you did it, but you're now showing my friends are fathers you are now setting a bad example for my friends who think that the thing to do when you get a little baby boy is to lean on him so hard with the things you wanted for yourself and that you now want for him that he can't fucking breathe Like it's to it's to lean so hard with your expectations and your hypermasculinity and your bullshit and your and your own like search for external validation and to be man enough like you think it is you think it's the thing to lean so hard with that shit that we don't ever even get-. Guys.
Speaker 1:Do we know Brani? Do you guys know anything about Brani? You know anything he likes? You know how he talks? Does he have a point of view on anything? Does he like movies? Like? We don't know anything except that he is LeBron James's son, who LeBron wants to hoop with. So how in the world is that guy going to develop an identity if every time he walked into a room, he knows there's an expectation of me. There is a there's a mantle that's been set. There's a I keep saying mantle, I don't even know if I'm using it right. There is there is like something I am I have been asked and pushed to accomplish, and unless he is extremely emotionally evolved, for an 18-year-old which, like what what 18-year-old is emotionally evolved Like, how could he possibly also not value himself the same exact way? It just doesn't it just it I'm sorry y'all, it doesn't warm my heart. It it's-. When I watch it, I'm like I feel cold. I don't feel do y'all feel heart-warmed? When you look at those images, did you feel was your heart was your heart warm?
Speaker 2:Well, I I really just fell for the commercial as a whole.
Speaker 1:In what way?
Speaker 2:In, like the music and like the images and the voiceovers, like I I told you like I'm the target demographic for those. It's a good ad.
Speaker 1:It's a good ad. Um, it's a good ad in that it communicated something. Like I what I felt was what did I feel? I felt like the message is clear, which is greatness requires repetition. Like greatness means greatness is not getting something done once, it's getting it done over and over and over and over again and then you're great. I I got that, I even got from it.
Speaker 1:Savannah is like LeBron James he's she is his partner, right. Like she is calling him, telling him Wake your ass up, get out on that basketball court, as she probably has been telling him, if he even needs someone to tell this to him. Like Fur what is he? 38? Like Fur, almost 25 years since they got together in high school. So I I appreciate that I I I respect that kind of partnership. If that's their thing, um, I think kids need protection.
Speaker 1:Man, I just I I feel it, I I I it resonates with me. I know my own. Like you know, I try not to to to to be critical of how other people raise their kids, because I don't have any kids. So it's like well, it's easy for you to say dawg, but like I wouldn't say anything if you didn't force the message down my throat. I wouldn't even know, I wouldn't even I wouldn't even know there was anything to say if I wasn't being so put upon with your images of your family and, um, that's how I feel. That's how I feel. So, buy my sister's book Uh, it's called Company, available everywhere that books are sold. Y'all feel me, though I know you feel me Secretly in your heart of hearts. What I everything I just said resonates and you're like no man, it's not that I do that other thing and that thing's cool, and ah. And then tonight, right before you fall asleep, you're gonna think about this and you're gonna be like, ah, do that shit. I love how your LeBron hate continues.
Speaker 2:I know it's so funny to Not the wrong word that I actually agree with you, but it's fun, but it's so divisive, but I think that might be one of the most divisive things like about you. I was watching that commercial like over your shoulder. I was just like I'm just waiting for it. I was just like he's gonna-.
Speaker 1:He's just like what angle is he gonna take? I was just like, I'm just like he's already attacked this man. It's so many he has Yo, listen, man, listen. If you think I can't find something to say critical of LeBron, put anything in front of me and I promise you. No, that's a lie, man. That's not even how the thing about it is. The thing about it is I love LeBron by and large, like I love him as a human, like he is so annoying as a sports star. He is so fucking annoying as a sports star, like, and that's how it is, like, and that's why some people love him. Because you gotta be, you gotta be polarizing. It is what, it is, all right, here's something else polarizing. So first let me ask this question. There's this whole thing. Why are you laughing, morgan? I didn't even say anything yet, I didn't even speak. But why are you laughing? I didn't even say anything.
Speaker 2:Nothing, I'm engaged Okay great, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for your engagement. This is a good show today. You know what I wanted to say. Something else I have been sending voice memos recently and I told Morgan this is like the first, one of the first things you told me as soon as we started working together. Would you like to share with the audience with that thing?
Speaker 2:Sure, in the very beginning of Chad and I's time working together, we were talking a lot via text and it was easier because I was driving to just send voice note. So I sent him a voice note. It was like maybe like two minutes long, two minutes 30 seconds long. He responds Morgan, I can't listen to a voice note longer than 30 seconds. So like in order for us to work together, that's like what you need to understand or something like that, that's like how I read it. So I was like, okay, I can't. And since then he proceeds to send me voice notes that are like two minutes long. And so I respectfully was like Chad, I don't listen to voice notes longer than 30 seconds.
Speaker 2:Did you mean it? Huh, did you mean it? No, but I'm petty. Well, here's the thing.
Speaker 1:Um, I can't. If you send me a like. If you send me a video that's more than like 30 seconds, I can't watch it. If you send me a YouTube, you send me a TikTok. If you send me like, I can't watch it. Like there's a life happening, you all. There are thoughts happening in a brain that need continuity. I can't break it up to watch a cat, so I cannot.
Speaker 1:But I have been recently, very recently as of beginning yesterday, voice memo-ing, um, and learning that the way my voice is here on this show is different than my voice in a voice memo, and I'm like why, why is it so, um, and why it's just so funny, we, we, we will do anything with a phone except make a phone call. Like we will use a phone as a walkie talkie before we make a phone call as a society, um, but I'm, I'm here for it, not nobody else. Send me voice memos though, please. I've been learning recently from, uh, an advisor to. This is why I did that, morgan, just so you know. It's not cause I'm an asshole, it's because I've been learning to be specific with people about how I like to work so I don't get dragged into ways that I hate working and like a cup like. A couple of days ago, I was introduced to a web developer, um, who I think might be a good person to help build, build more of like a web presence that you know helps strive business. That's like the robot robot version of what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:But I texted him before we had a phone call to be like. I texted him like three paragraphs that were like hey, great to meet you. Blah, blah, blah, just as a heads up. This is the project, this is the thing. This is like. You know, this would be a commission based project. Yada, yada, yada. Do you still want to have a conversation? Because I'm finding that could have. We could have spent 30 minutes on the phone like trying to go through all that shit and then at the end of it, being like no, I don't think this is the right fit. And that would have been. That would have been horrific. That would have been horrific. I don't know, maybe so sad. Okay, enough about you, chadwick, that's not my name. $500,000 or lunch with Jay-Z. No, no, no, I'm lying.
Speaker 1:Beaumonti Jones first. All right, beaumonti Jones is back. I missed Beaumonti Jones's voice. Beaumonti is so smart, he is so uniquely. Himself Seems like a little bit of an asshole, but I will. I'll allow it because he's so good at his job and I think it's a lot of its tongue and cheek. His show's back the right time with Beaumonti Jones and I looked at, I was listening to it.
Speaker 1:I pressed play on the first new episode of it, came back after several months. He's out of ESPN, he's out of HBO. He's like this. This is an interesting. There must be an interesting place for him.
Speaker 1:Um, he is trying to now leverage the brand that he has built at giant companies like ESPN and HBO most ESPN to have his own. I don't know, I don't. I don't know what his goals are, but like he's taking his podcast, which I was happy to see that he owned the podcast itself and also the music I was very much looking to see. Oh, is his theme song still going to be the same? He owns it. Looks like he owns the music. He's now licensing it. I'm guessing licensing to something called the wave sports and entertainment network, which I went to the website I got to imagine that's just like somebody with a bunch of money said we're going to make an investment into podcasting, because I looked at all the shows on the website. Haven't heard of any of them, um, but you know, there are these collections of like money and people who will invest in stuff like podcasts and see if they can make a return on advertising, sponsorships, whatever. And when I listened to the show, a couple of things. This is really like inside baseball he podcast these. So, um, if you don't care to hear these things, I'm, I'm, I'm sorry, cause some of the people on this show really do care to hear these things. I was listening, I have, I have an ear and an eye now for what I'm looking for.
Speaker 1:When I listened to other people's podcasts and there were a few things that made it very clear to me that the production value has changed from when he was at ESPN to what he's doing now. I also took note that that show he does it on YouTube live for the live show, but sound quality changed. Um, I don't know if he's in a room that is more spacious now, if somebody removed his sound paneling, if he got a different microphone cause he had to send his ship back to ESPN. I don't know what it is, but it has this like tenny sound that he is 30%. It sounds like he's 30% further away from the microphone or more blocked between himself and the microphone than it's supposed to, it doesn't sound perfect.
Speaker 1:Um, second thing is producer, is somebody new? His old producer, I presumably still works at ESPN. He's got this new guy. Sounds like a white guy and I'm not going to lie, I thought to myself. I was like, oh, he had a white guy at ESPN. Like, does he not know any black producers? I just I had thought the guy might be black. I have no idea, but this is what I think when I listen to things. That guy also doesn't know his dynamic with Balmani yet. So he was stepping on him at certain times. He was trying to barge in to ask certain questions. Balmani made a joke, he didn't get it, so there was a little bit of like I was just watching the dynamic there. Now Balmani is great at what he does. So his analysis, his point of view, his cultural criticisms are always going to be poignant and strong and like nuanced, but the production value of his thing has changed.
Speaker 1:Saying all that to say, somebody told me yesterday that Gary Vee spends $2 million on contract on content production a year and like you know, I don't spend anything even in the realm of that. But as much money as I spend on this shit, I'm starting to understand, like, how people can get to numbers like that. Because Gary Vee, that is advertising for his business, like content production is advertising for being Gary Vee. Gary Vee's business is being Gary Vee. So if Gary Vee is making $30 million a year being Gary Vee, he's got to invest some of that into his production quality. And I'm curious to see if Balmani's production quality is going to increase.
Speaker 1:I'm also curious to see if Balmani even knows what his production quality is, because when you get used to being an employee at a big media company, you might not even know what's happening in the studio to make things happen. Now let me be fully transparent. I probably only know 20% of what's happening in this studio to make our show happen, but I do know sort of like when something doesn't sound right, look right, feel right. And I don't know if Balmani, I don't know if he knows that, but I think we'll find out. All right, moving on, this is our last bit here, then we're out of here. This $500,000 cash or lunch with Jay-Z thing has resurfaced. It keeps coming up. I don't know who in the world posed this question first, like, but every time I see it I'm like this has to be a straw man, no there. Like. Is there a real person out there who is choosing the 500,? I'm sorry, the lunch with Jay-Z over First of all, like.
Speaker 1:Rick Ross he said he would. I'm Rick Ross, can't just call Jay-Z, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, but if he was in the situation, what is the situation in what? Situation needed the 500 K.
Speaker 1:Okay, um, I need the 500 K and I would choose the 500 K a hundred times out of a hundred over lunch with Jay-Z. First of all, lunch the worst meal that there is. Like lunch, I don't even really eat lunch for real, I usually just have coffee, and that's not healthy. Um, I don't want to have lunch with Jay-Z. If I want to, if I want to like get to know Jay-Z and like get his takes and shit, like I don't want to do it sitting over you know ramen I want to be on a car ride somewhere, um, or potentially like at his studio or somewhere that's a little bit more intimate than lunch. Um, but here's the real point, what I'm trying to understand what is something that Jay-Z could say to you that would be more valuable than $500,000. Or what do you think you could pitch to Jay-Z that would result in more than $500,000 for you, unless you are an aspiring musician. And even still, I think like this is the wrong play to try to get lunch with Jay-Z. Like I just don't. It's not making sense to me, it doesn't, it never clicks. But who cares about that? That whole thing is a little bit stale, I don't know. Every time I actually hear that thing. It makes me a little bit sad. Yeah, let me just be real.
Speaker 1:Every time I hear that proposition, it makes me a little sad because I'm like I think the person who would choose to lunch with Jay-Z is probably living their whole life thinking I haven't hit my stride because the right famous person hasn't tapped me yet, which is to say, like another human being hasn't decided. Okay, now you get to move into like what you're meant for. Now you get to walk into your destiny and shit like that. And that's I mean honestly, I think that's how I think that's how rich, famous people get. To get over on people is by making them think like I'm the person who can help you make your dreams come true. If only you just sacrifice something of the value of $500,000 to get into my good graces. So that makes me a little bit sad. But this is more interesting. Okay, five years ago, 2017, you're sure I haven't told this story 2018. This is Jay-Z's story. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Okay, so my manager's partner is Angie Martinez, and you know they're people who I love. They invited me to go to the Beyonce concert the Beyonce and Jay-Z concert. They were on some tour together, maybe on the run or something like that. On the run to, I don't know, it was at MetLife, so I drove out to or I probably took an Uber out to Jersey, which is where they live. They had like a big black suburban come and get us and this was one of my first times hanging out with Angie and also I was in this period of my whole thing where I was scrappy and I was like trying to. You know, I was like oh, what's your favorite Jay-Z song, angie?
Speaker 1:I was doing that thing and trying to DJ in the car and have the aux chord and be cute. But so we drive out to I meet Jay-Z at some point, but that is not in any regard the highlight of this night. So we drive out to MetLife I think that's what it's called. We get there Traffic is so crazy getting into the stadium. So we Angie calls somebody this is like famous people shit Angie calls somebody and a golf cart comes to get us but the first golf cart goes past us, presumably to get somebody more famous, and I'm like, who could it be? I actually I didn't think that, but I learned it because then that same golf cart comes back past us in the long we're stuck in this long line of traffic and in the golf cart in the back seat is Zoe Kravitz and Lisa Bonet. Okay, they zoom past us to the stadium. A golf cart finally comes and gets us, takes us in through the back, like the back terminal, where you know I imagine all the giant stage props and football players and all kinds of shit comes in through the back. We walk into what is obviously a packed, crazy stadium full of screaming Beyonce and Jay-Z fans. It looks incredible. They set us up like in this little VIP section in front of the stage and we watched the show. It's amazing. One point I turn around and, wouldn't you know it, zoe Kravitz, my lifelong hall pass, and her mom, lisa Bonet, are basically like knees in the back of my legs because it's kind of it's a little packed in this VIP and they just look so beautiful and I asked one of them where the bathroom was just to say something to them and they didn't know.
Speaker 1:But so afterward we went to this thing at Soho house, dumbledore house, and it was like an after party for, like, friends and family of Jay-Z and Beyonce. And we get there and it's like this is this is only a name drop story, so like, if you're looking for some deeper message, there is none. We get there and we go upstairs and, wouldn't you know it, zoe Kravitz and Lisa Bonet are also there. But go outside to that big back deck at Dumbledore house that like overlooks the Manhattan bridge and like the water and the city and it's incredible view, and sitting there are Questlove and a woman that is his date, dj Khaled. What's DJ Khaled's manager's name? I can't remember. It'll come to me. What do you know his name. It's me, leni S, leni S. Who else is up in there, I don't know. Well, beyonce is sitting like 10 feet away by herself, not talking to anybody. Really, I think she's probably like resting and regenerating or whatever.
Speaker 1:And then my manager takes me inside and he's like oh, come in here and get some food, come in here and get a plate. He walks me inside and then, standing right next to the kitchen, six foot two and a half looks like he is just picking up a plate and eating with his hands is Jay-Z and it's like. I mean, first of all, I saw Beyonce, so I already had the Beyonce moment, but she wasn't available for chatter. But it's Jay-Z. Like, it's Jay-Z and he looks like Jay-Z and he's got a hat on and he just performed and I think he's wearing a tracksuit.
Speaker 1:I can't remember, but this is, like you know, I was a 12 year old boy. Like learning to recite all the lyrics from the blueprint in my middle school classes, like just saying them back and forth to myself instead of what? Instead of listening to the teacher. This is a rapper who's? This is a rapper who, like, is in some ways like the rapper for somebody who is me, and rap means a lot to me, so I am. He like looks down at me and he has a very laser like gaze. He's looking down into my eyeballs because my manager introduces us and I imagine all day, every day somebody knew a stranger is being introduced to him and trying to proposition him in some way, like trying to like get into his good graces in some way, and I actually I don't think I've ever done this with anybody else that I can remember, but I told him, like I'm a fan, I said that and it was cool. It was brief. He shook my hand, he had a strong handshake, he had a very intense gaze and he was tall and that's, that's my whole Jay-Z story.
Speaker 1:What's the underlying message here? There is none. Thank you for being here. This is nothing by Anarchy, the show that explores sports media entertainment. Yo, please go follow us or go subscribe to our YouTube channel. There's nothing but Anarchy on YouTube. And that said, we'll be back here on Thursday. Pretty soon, as we said, we're moving over to YouTube, so follow us there. This has been nothing by Anarchy. Talk to you soon. See you Thursday, adios. Oh no, I said I'm gonna go. I said I'm gonna go See you.
Speaker 2:Bye.
