Who Really Runs The Lakers When Stars Decide?

We sit down with Gerald Glasford of Lakers Fast Break to talk about building an inclusive sports community and the unglamorous work behind consistent YouTube coverage. Then we pivot to the Lakers trade deadline mindset, Luka’s true value, LeBron’s impact, and who really owns the biggest roster decisions.
• building a welcoming live chat culture without losing honesty
• why “tell me what I need to hear” beats fan service
• staying motivated when the YouTube algorithm buries good work
• the reality of ad revenue, Super Chats, and feast-or-famine creator income
• how Lakers Fast Break grows from podcasting roots into a broader network
• how podcasting changes from 2009 to today and why YouTube matters
• assessing the Lakers roster, timelines, and trade deadline expectations
• debating Luka Doncic as a top-tier superstar
• weighing whether standing pat is smarter than chasing marginal trades
• arguing Rob Pelinka’s accountability versus Clutch influence
Please check out Lakers Fast Break, wherever you get your podcast, and YouTube specifically, also Pop Culture Cosmos

Transcript

Deadline News And Guest Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The NBA deadline is upon us once again. We've already seen one major move in the NBA today with James Harden getting shipped once again with his fourth trade demand of his 17-year career, going from the Los Angeles Clippers to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for Darius Garland. We've had a bombshell news report come out earlier today that LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, Braun will not be back with the team next season, which leads to speculation is he going to be moved before the deadline? So, in order to go through everything, I wanted to interview a true Lakers expert and basketball expert. So we sat down last week with Gerald Glasford, who's the founder and content creator for Lakers Fast Break. And as always on the Steppen Piscano podcast, we did not just talk sports, we talked entrepreneurial shift. We talked about what it takes to build a YouTube base from the ground up. In Gerald's case, he's been developing Lakers Fast Break for going on seven, eight years now. And it's a grind, guys. And if you're an entrepreneur, I don't care what you're doing. I don't care if you started a fruit and salad stand. I don't care if you're a YouTube content creator, if you're a real estate investor, I don't care what you do. If you built it from the ground up, I want to talk to you, I want to showcase you. And if you are someone that has never had struggles as an entrepreneur, then you are not an entrepreneur. If you're somebody who doesn't know what it's like to have to choose between putting food on your table or making payroll, if you've never had to experience true scary moments with your business, if you've never had to experience the ups and downs and the roller coasters that go into getting any idea off the ground and taking it from a concept to action and then keeping it in action again and again, and then experiencing the first and the second and the third and the fourth and the fifth levels growth and so on and so forth until the day you die. If you have never written a check for the privilege to get to work 16, 18 hour days on an idea or a project or business that you're passionate about, then you don't know what it means to be an entrepreneur. And so that's why on this program, we like to showcase not only the successes, the ups and downs, the grinds, the dedication and the devotion that it takes to create and cultivate any successful small business. And yes, sir, if you are a YouTube content creator in 2026, you are a small business owner. And Gerald Glasford's a great example of that. Really love his channel, really love the work he puts into it, his work ethic, and everybody associated with his team. So it was an honor to get to spend an hour and a half with him. If you don't care about the entrepreneurial side of things and you just want to get straight into the sport, feel free to skip to about the 42-minute marker. Uh, but I think you're gonna really enjoy the whole conversation. Special thanks to Gerald again for taking the time to sit down with me and have this discussion. And again, I don't really care if you subscribe to my channel, I just do this for fun. But I really hope if you're a diehard sports fan like I am, especially if you love the Lakers, please check out Lakers Fast Break. It's a great channel. They really do in-depth coverage. They're live after every single Lakers game. They do content daily throughout the course of the basketball season, and any sports fan would be lucky to get to be a part of their community, and they'll welcome you just as they've welcomed. Thank you guys so much, and welcome as always. This is Stefan Piscano with the Stefan Piscano podcast. My guest today is Gerald Glasford. He is the founder and content creator for Lakers Fast Break and many other platforms on YouTube, which I want to explore. He's been covering the Lakers and sports in general for several years, and I have become a big fan of his content on the YouTube platform specifically. So without me buttering you up too much here, Gerald, thank you so much for doing this. Welcome to the appreciate the time.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Thank you for the kind words. It's uh truly appreciated when you can get any kind of support at all out there, and I really look forward to our conversation.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Well, and that's it's funny you said it like that too, because that's where I wanted to start with you. We've gotten to know each other just engaging on your platform on YouTube and the live streams that you do after every Lakers game. And I'm a diehard Lakers fan for my whole life, and so I I spend a lot of time watching that type of content. But I came across your channel, which again is Lakers Fast Break. I highly recommend it to anybody who is a Lakers fan to check that out, YouTube or other platforms. But the very first time I came in on your live stream, I think you're one of your guests, your frequent guests or partners, Joe Soro, was on. He was rambling about something with avocados or something. And I typed as soon as I got in there, I was like, what is going on? And then you responded to me and you said, I have no idea what's going on either. And it I just immediately kind of fell in love with your style, and it's so inclusive. And the I promise I'm going somewhere with my long-winded rambling here, but uh what have you always cultivated the type of inclusion from your audience? Because it feels like you welcomed me right from the beginning without knowing anything about me or who I am. And it seems like everyone that's on your live streams, they kind of become a friend of yours and the show, and it's a very inclusive environment, it makes it a lot of fun. But where did that stem from? And is that by accident, or did you cultivate that?

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Well, uh, it's taken a long time uh to cultivate that, as you say, over the course of doing this, you know, with six years. Wait, actually, seven years going on, seven years this year of the Lakers Fast Break, but uh what closer to well, 2009 is when I started podcasting, indeed. But I will say, you know, this is one of the larger audiences on a regular basis that we had. And I know for a fact I'm always keeping cognizant when I do my shows, whether it's the pop culture cosmos, whether it's the Lakers Fast Break, inside sports, fantasy, football, my previous work with other shows and and and things like that. I'm always cognizant of the fact that you can always turn the channel very easily with with this right here. You just go ahead, you click, you move on. And I know that for the fact that when I bring a guy like Joe on, I know he could be very divisive, I know he could be very opinionated, and some people are drawn to it, some people are drawn away from it. Um, so I like to provide a a little bit of a difference with that as far as my perspective on things, but I also know again, it all goes back to the fact that I know as a consumer you can go instantly somewhere else, and uh, you know, just the fact that when I see with the software technology we have, I can see when somebody is new to the chat, that's a name that pops up. I try to go ahead and make it a point to welcome because I don't know how much longer I will be able to do it because the goal is to reach those kind of numbers where quite honestly the chat does become very hard to read, where it just becomes so fast, so populated. Yes, uh, it's hard to manage. So you will lose touch with new viewers that come into there. I don't like doing that, I don't like that prospect. But in the in order to be in the level that I needed to be, oh, you know, any one of my channels or all of my channels, I need to go ahead and get to that point. But I am until I get to that point, I try to make sure I accommodate as many viewers by acknowledging them, whether I disagree or agree with their opinions. I leave it.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

You disagree with me a lot, Gerald, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

But I try to be do it in a in a somewhat respectable fashion. You always there's one thing that we disagree on the most. And I know that we'll be touching on on it here soon enough. But I try to at least be respectful whether or not I agree or disagree with your opinion. But I like to always the fact that you're there, whether you know, as long as you're not coming in and uh I guess making the chat a worse place to be. If you're coming in and providing questions, comments, but it's it's enhancing the conversation. I am very grateful for that. And I'm I believe that you've come in to our chat and been a very positive for from day one. And I'm just so appreciative of that. And I try to acknowledge that as much as I can. We may not always agree on everything, I don't agree on anything with any one of my uh regulars that come on the show. But the thing is, I do appreciate you being there. And I know that Joe sickens, like he he will always say, Oh, you thank everybody, you thank blah blah blah blah blah blah. And I and he'll just get so angry that I thank everybody or try to mock me or whatnot. But that's been me my whole life, whether it is uh whatever manner that I've been working in or being in, I know that you don't have to be here in front of my face. You have other choices in life to do other things in life. So I appreciate and acknowledge you being here at this point in time.

Fair Coverage Over Fan Service

SPEAKER_00 8:47

No, and well, and thank you for doing it for all of us, my friend. And it comes across as very genuine, and and you just it you just seem like a very nice guy, and honestly, and very knowledgeable in this field. And so that was one of the you kind of answered one of my my next questions. I don't know if you know anything about my show, but we started really because my background in real estate and more of entrepreneurial focused and that kind of thing, and it just so happens I also in my private life am an obsessive sports fan. So in my personal time, all I watch is sports. But when I find somebody like you, I'm fascinated by the sports, but I'm also fascinated by the entrepreneurial side of it. And we're about the same age, you know, same generation. And this YouTube era that we're in here is is really fascinating to me because it's both good and bad. You can, it's good in the sense that you can give anybody that has something to say can have a voice, right? Immediately, you can have that voice. But it's also because there's so many voices out there and so many choices, like you alluded to, sometimes it's hard to get quality content too. And I feel like you are quality content. I think, and if I can just tell you as somebody that only watches sports content on TV or YouTube, I genuinely think even though we disagree about some things and we agree about some others, I think you have the most fair and balanced coverage of the Los Angeles Lakers specifically and of LeBron James specifically, which is hard to do.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Well, and that's and that's the thing, that might be a detriment to our show at times, because you know, if I'm uh I the reason why I started Lakers Fast Break, because I was listening to some other shows in in you know 2018, 17, 2018, 2019 Lakers-centric shows, and most of them I just find substandard. I just don't find them appealing in any ways as as far as what they want to give to me. They don't give me the honest opinions I'm looking for. They sometimes tell me what I would like to hear instead of what I need to hear. I ask my anybody who comes up on the stage, just tell me from your heart how you feel. Don't tell me what you would think you would like to hear or the the audience to hear. Just tell me what you feel. Tell me what you uh want to say, and that's what I'm looking for, and that's what I try to express as well. I I try on the Lakers fast break to be everything as far as that type of individual that's giving you that type of feedback. Yeah, I call it like I see it. That's basically what I tell a lot of people. You may not like what I see say, but you know what? You got to respect it because I try to respect you in turn if you tell me something, whatever it is, your opinion on the Lakers is is how you feel.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Yeah, I will say this too, even though I you come across as a very nice guy, you can mix it up a little bit. I've seen you mix it up a little bit when you're passionate about something there.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Well, certain times Lakers fans, you know, we have it, we are very passionate about things, but the only really thing that irritates me is don't call me out for my Lakers fan. If I tell you that uh a Lakers player is playing bad, it's not because I want them to play bad, it's because they're playing bad. And if I tell you this and you're saying, well, you're just a Lakers hater, what would you want me to say? Would you want me to lie to you? Because there are other shows I will invite you to go check out, which will tell you like which will lie to you, tell your to your face the wrong things, and will and will lead you down a different different slope that doesn't really give you the truth, but will tell you what you want to hear. And I can't do that, I just don't like that per of a personal level. And that's something again, the main reason one of the main reasons I started this channel in the first place in 2019.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

And that's what I love about again, going back to the entrepreneurial side of it. I find that the most successful people and ventures that I found weren't because someone set out trying to make money, it was because it was something that they were personally passionate about. They had a direct need that they needed to solve for themselves, and in solving it for themselves, they solve it for other people too.

The YouTube Grind And Motivation

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Yeah. So absolutely, you know, well said, excellent, excellent. Well said, and again, I hope to follow follow in those footsteps. Now, would I like this channel to have the kind of reach and the ability to generate the kind of revenue that that I think that the time that I put in it, uh, of course, Joe puts into it. Yeah, both of you guys, John Costa puts into it. You know, all these guys that work so hard behind the scenes for their own channels and stop in and chat with you guys for nearly two hours each and every time out. That again, I would love to be in a position to do that, but again, it always is up to you guys. It's it's always up to you guys whether or not you like the content enough to share, to let people know, to come back, to do all the stuff that YouTube requires you to do, and and to hopefully broaden the audience even more in the future.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Yeah, and that's the thing too, going back to the YouTube algorithm specifically, and just the amount of content that's out there now and the way people's brains are kind of getting trained for the short form content too. It's hard for a small channel to break through. I mean, it really and you can't. That's one thing I've found because uh is you can't fake it really. You have to almost feel like you have to get lucky to some extent with the algorithm because there's not any a third-party system that I've found where you can legitimately pay for advertising. You just have to hit the algorithm. So you are putting in, and just for people that aren't familiar with Lakers Fast Break and your channel and the and the guests that you mentioned that you frequently have on, you guys are on every game for hours. Blown away by your work ethic, you know. And I'm sure in my podcast, you know, we've had a little bit of traction with it here. I mean, you know, and uh the YouTube, but it's really a passion project for me. I'm paying money, just like you, I mean, you might be too. I don't know. Um, but I'm I'm paying money to do it just because I have opinions that I I want to get out there, and I, you know, I have the digital marketing background, and so it's fun for me to some extent. But even with that, I know how much editing goes into the back end if you're doing a long-form video. I mean, there's there's a lot of stuff people don't see too. And I really admire during those early stages with any business, putting in that time when you're not getting that big check. What's that grind like? How do you stay motivated when you know you're doing good stuff? You know the people that are seeing it love it because they do. I mean, they really do. How do you motivate yourself if the YouTube algorithm just decides not to show a video one day to or shows it to 60 people or whatever it is?

SPEAKER_01 15:17

That's a hard that's a hard question. That's that's probab that's a really good question because it is very hard to stay motivated. I again, if you look at my channel, the first thing you will you'll see when you look under the line of Lakers Fast Break is 2,000. That's the number that's over the number of videos that I've done for that channel. 2,000 plus. And in order to do that, you've got to have a motivation not just to talk about the Lakers, but to continue to do this. But you know, I I have been on that other end of the spectrum where you see videos and you do work hard on videos and you think you've done a really good job, and you think you have something that people if they if it was only presented out there in a light where people could see it, that it would actually resonate. But you see, it only gets uh 10 views or 15 views or 30 views. And it's just it's it's is deflating, it's absolutely deflating. But uh for me, I could just say that A, a lot of times I just enjoy interacting with the people. That's that's part of my motivation is the Lakers fan base, as vitriolic as it can be sometimes, and boy, can it be at some times can also be a lot of fun to deal with. And I those are the days I really enjoy doing it. And it, you know, whether you pay me or not, it's actually a lot of fun to do, regardless. But uh the days that I keep going with is just because it's sometimes that that note that says great job, that that comment after the show that says, You guys did a really great job breaking down the game. Thank you for for doing it. Those things, those comments every once in a while keep me going, keep Joe and I into it, keep us continuing on with what we're doing. John Cost is the same thing, and and it just it allows us to do the motivation to continue, plus also as well. I just like talking to the guys. Yeah, I I really like my conversations with John. Joe off camera, you know, again, Joe is Joe. He is a character both on and off the camera, but I I do enjoy my time with him on the camera for the most part when we're not insulting each other, but even when we are insulting each other, sometimes it's fun. Um, but when Mark, you know, just the fact I'm able to go ahead and speak to people regularly from around the world, and I don't take that for granted. I I converse with with several Australians, which I never thought I would do when I got into positive podcasting. If you told me when I started podcasting in 2009, I would be speaking regularly or interviewing regularly or conversing regularly with people in Asia, Australia, the Philippines, uh I guess Eastern Europe, Europe, Brazil, you know, South America, you know, Canada. I just I'm speaking to people all around the world on a regular basis, the you know, the entire map of the US. It is amazing what kind of reach this has. And that also helps me as a motivator as well to continue to do this and continue to have these conversations going forward.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

That's where the passion comes in, like we were talking about, right? I mean, I I interviewed one of my do you remember Matthew Lesko, the question mark suit guy? He was the guy in the 90s who was running around with a bright suit, yeah, government grant. Yes, I interviewed him last year, I guess a year before, and I asked him, because he's 81 years old and still going, and I said, Well, how do you keep yourself motivated? Just like I said, and he said, You gotta love what you do because that gets you through the shit, in his words, not mine. And uh, you look behind you at your wall there, and you can see this is what you're passionate about. So that's and you guys are getting great traction, though, really, right? I mean, I look at some of the view numbers and I love statistics, so for me, that's interesting. And you your live streams do extremely well.

Monetization Reality And Feast Or Famine

SPEAKER_01 19:04

We are uh to be honest with you, full. I mean, you could you actually look up these numbers as well, but you can actually go to YouTube and see that I've that our show has done over 700,000 uh lifetime views. Uh, we're at a million uh as far as views and audio downloads uh overall, which you know is great. And I I I truly welcome that. But uh as far as you know, do you make a living? How much you make from this how you living, you know, because you also see the super chats and whatnot, you've been very gracious to give me a super chat. And and the thing is, again, uh it's not a living for me, it's not even close to being a living. I mean, if if I if you see what I will put on my tax return at the end of the day, uh, you'd be wondering how I eat at the end of the day, because it is it's not it's a feast or famine. It is simply your feast or famine. And I've I've been very honest. I uh I tell people out there uh from time to time, you know, like and subscribe and all that stuff. You always tell people out there, but you know, if you really want us to keep doing this long term, because eventually at some point, if we're you know we're doing this, you know, for for a relatively low price or free in some cases, at some point some other things in life are gonna get in the way and we're gonna have to prioritize whether we want to continue to do this or not. And at what we make and or what I make for it, um, and what Joe does for it, which is zero, and what John Costa does for it, you know, it's so hard for us to continue to commit because well, you know, uh our families, whatever commitment, because that they know what we do, they know how much we get from it, they know how much we don't get from it. And that's why we tell these people out there that like our show to get the word out there. We need to have uh uh or we need to be a part of that community that has the feast and not the famine, the uh uh Laker nations of the world, the uh Yovan Buha, who recently left the Athletic to do his own thing is seeing the kind of success that is sustainable for him. But you need not just uh hundreds of views, you need or even a little thousands of views, you need tens of thousands of views, tens of thousands of subscribers. Yes, just to sustain a living, just to sustain a living. I mean, I can tell you right now, the largest video I've done on the Lakers uh with ads uh is the Dalton Connect rescinded trade video. That's the real thing. Yeah, I uh well I did one on the sphere, but that one was not uh monetized. Oh, I watched that one actually.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

I remember that.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

Yeah, that that one's that one's got a huge uh right as far as on both my channels, but that the largest paid one I've ever done is is Dalton uh Connect. That one has, I don't know, whenever you guys see it on. Or five, six thousand views. That one I think garnered with all the uh the stuff that made from it, I think fifty dollars.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

No kidding.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

So yeah, so yeah, to give you an idea, that one has it. So you could do the math on what I normally do between 500 to 1200 views on a normal video. Just the math on that and and and go and and get yourself accordingly, as far as what I usually do on a regular basis. But remember, YouTube takes a cut of everything that you do, all the ad money, any super chat money, anything like that goes straight. Uh portion goes always to YouTube.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Gosh, that's interesting. You know, yeah, and I I'm really was curious about that. I wasn't gonna ask that because I figured that's your business.

SPEAKER_01 22:47

I'm more than happy to tell people because I know I'm not making a hundred thousand year. I know I'm not making fifty thousand years or forty thousand a year or twenty, you know, twenty. Not I'm not even even that, I'm not even close to those night kind of numbers. Again, this is this is just a side gig for now, but one day I'm hopeful that the Lakers fast break will evolve into something that's no longer paying like a very, very small side gig.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

Yeah, well, and you've got a great infrastructure too. It reminds me, I'm a big Bill Simmons fan, as I'm guessing you may or may not be as well.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

Uh, I am because he's a Boston Celtics fan.

SPEAKER_00 23:25

No, I'll be he's also a diehard LeBron James junkie, so I don't agree with a lot of his opinions because you know I'm a Kobe guy and I'm not a fan of LeBron.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

But I can't argue with his success, and especially the fact that he's now hopped onto Netflix and now is privy to that huge 325 million subscriber uh you know, audience. That is uh no one will no one should ever underestimate his intelligence and how he was able to go from writing funny stories on Grantland to what he is doing right now.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

Yeah, from a business perspective and and just kind of like yourself. I mean, you know, he's he's just to me he's just likable. But the reason I bring him up is your infrastructure that it feels like you've got here reminds me of the ringer, what he built there, because you've got the pop culture cosmos, you've got the Lakers. It looks like you're you're interested in covering not just sports, and you are covering not just sports, but you're covering other things as well.

How Lakers Fast Break Got Built

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Well, that's what I started off with in 2009. Uh, I started a video game podcast called Game Source, and it went for several years, off and on. Uh, you know, it's not as consistent as I should have made it and and would have made it, but uh around 2015, uh, I was going to uh getting my bachelor's degree at National University, and I met a fellow classmate online. His name was Josh Peterson, and we were doing shows on Game Source, and I said, uh, you know, our conversations always steered towards not just video games but pop culture. We talked about movies, we talked about what's going on on television. It's just always like Joe does, like when you hear Joe Sorrow, he'll talk about the Lakers and then he'll end up talking about avocados for 15 minutes. Yeah, he'll just veer off on that. That's what we were doing. So I said, look, I think we should need to structure a one-hour show talking about a whole myriad of pop culture topics. And it it turned out to be something that he liked and I liked, and we got and we're still doing it to this day. We're coming up on our 500th episode. We've been doing it for now for 490 weeks straight. Uh, I'm just so blessed to have him. And then I also have uh my Friday host for the for the show, TJ Johnson, coming in and doing many episodes too. But um, the reason why I was going to get to Lakers Fast Break here in a second, but we decided to syndicate that show out to try that out because it was a one-hour clean show on pop culture. So we we at one time had it syndicated out to over 80 radio stations around the world. It was really popular during the pandemic. Uh, I mean, I had thousands of listeners uh for downloads on that. That is more my that show is more audio uh download driven and radio station driven uh for that one for the cosmos. But yeah, it was it was really something, but I just enjoyed talking with him about what's going on in pop culture. These are conversations I can't always have with my friends or family here in in Vegas. So I said, I want to go ahead and start mixing some sports things in from time to time. So I did that, and one of the things I integrated in from time to time was NBA talk, and I integrated NBA talk, NBA draft talk, and then it just involved as far as you know what, I'm such a huge Lakers fan. I've been following the team since 1977. Uh, you know, I I tell you the story, and everybody knows the story that I was born in May of 1969, uh, which wasn't during the finals. I got to correct myself on the year when I said that because it was actually June when the finals happened. But in during the Lakers playoff run in 1969, I was born down the street in Inglewood, California from the forum. Oh wow, and and you look young, by the way, my friend.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

I thought you were younger than that, but okay, that's good.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Well, thank you, thank you. Um, uh, you know, I wish my my daughters would say that, but they just tell me I'm old. But uh, be that as it may, that I just wanted to do something more. And I was listening to these Lakers shows, and they were just so bad. And I think I made my decision. Um, he's still doing like Lakers Lounge. Um, what's his name that does Lakers Lounge? I've um Anthony, uh, I think uh, but okay, yeah, Anthony Irwin. Oh, okay. He was doing Locked On Lakers at the time, which at the time, you know, was the preeminent Daily Lakers show, part of the Locked On Network. So uh he was doing that and he did this ad read, and he did it so bad. I mean, so bad. He was uh uh uh uh uh not only did it it give me a fright from doing any ad reads on the cosmos for like a year, uh, but it also showed me, you know what, I think I can do a Lakers show better than him. I think I can really give something that people want. And I was able to do that in 2019. I I said I was gonna commit myself to doing you know regular shows on the Lakers and commit to this channel. Uh, I started with a conversation and and break, you know, as far as with you guys out there, brought in uh Laker Tom from Lakerhollicks.com, who runs that site, uh Crazy Laker Tom. But we started our conversations. It was only supposed to be a 15 to 20 minute show, Lakers fast break, so you get your fast info Lakers, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:45

That went out the window, brother.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

Well, as soon as Laker Tom came on, that was it. That's all she wrote because Laker Tom, like Joe, loves to talk, which I'm doing now, but um, and I'm very cognizant of that. And no, that's good. Laker Tom again, and but I wanted more, so I wanted to reach out to the community, and something I haven't done, I'll probably do again the summer, is reach out to more people in the community. So, but at that time in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, I reached out every single off season to Lakers platforms, uh Lakers chat boards, that you know, anybody who wanted to come on to go ahead and get their perspectives on the Lakers, along with uh what I do as far as reaching out to NBA reporters all around the world to get their perspectives on the NBA and the Lakers. So one day I reached out to this NBA board and I got this email back. You know, he wasn't sure uh if we were legit. So he looked at us, and his his name was uh Joe Sorrow. He had some background in radio and he said, you know what? I've been thinking about doing something like this for a while. I'll I'll hop on. And the rest is history.

SPEAKER_00 29:55

And later on, yeah. Oh, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

I I later on I picked up John Costa, you know, I've had uh you know several different plants, you know, people that have that regularly come on the show as as uh you know fellow hosts or or guys right there as far as the panelists or whatever you guys want to call them. But yeah, I've just been so blessed to have so many great voices speak about the team we love.

SPEAKER_00 30:17

Oh, that's great, and all that stuff you just said, you know, that's the behind the scenes that we were talking about earlier that nobody sees, in addition to the several hours every after every game on air. Yeah, that's that's incredible. But all you guys, I said it kind of half joking in the chat the other night on your your stream. I said, uh, all three of you guys have media sounding names. Like when I first saw your show and saw Joe on there, I'm like, Don't I know that guy from something? Wasn't he a baseball announcer or something? But I guess he's not, right?

SPEAKER_01 30:48

He's no okay, he had a small, small uh period of time where he was on the radio doing a radio show, I think uh in uh it was the San Diego area, but it was just it was just a brief cup of coffee for most of the part. He is run his company and built his company, Simblets, uh, which is a uh artificial turf company, which uh he did for residential areas. Uh, I mean, I guess if you are a stadium and you wanted artificial turf, you could ask him, and I'm pretty sure he would fit the bill. But uh he does a tremendous job on that. And so, you know, we we tease each other, we yell at each other, we call each other names, you know, whatever. But I will never disparage his work for his company because you go to that page, simblaze.com, and you see all the stuff that he's done for people's homes in the Southern California area, and it's just like, you know, that's some good stuff.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

No, that's great. Well, and you guys do have great chemistry, you know, really.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

I I've I've that that's something that, you know, despite the stuff he says that that makes me kind of squirm in my chair at times, and the fact that we don't have always the same ideals, uh, to say the least, you know, especially outside the well, even inside the Lakers, you know, and whatnot. Um I know that our cam, like you said, I you could just feel that our chemistry that we clicked, uh, and then John coming in there, uh, it clicks and it works. And then when we bring somebody else on, they want to stop by, it just feels like because they've known us, that it just it's it feels welcoming, and they're always well, you know, able to go ahead and share their opinion, like Mark did the other night from Australia.

SPEAKER_00 32:27

I left a comment that was beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

That was from the heart, it it was crazy. I think I'm not sure if he was sober when he was saying that, but you know what? He he said it from the heart, and it was beautiful. And he was venting, and I may not agree with it all of it, any of it, or part of it. I agree with most of it, but yeah, probably most of it per se, but you know, it was beautiful to watch because it was from the heart. It's what he meant, and he was the most it's funny because how this team gets to people, like I'm sure the most passionate fans for any team, but he was the most positive coming into the season and during the season of any of our regulars, any regulars don't pick on JJ, don't pick up Lakers gonna do you right, good great. All of a sudden, you know, he had his breaking point with this team because of their frustrating past six weeks, and he just went off like a firecracker, and that was beautiful to watch. And those moments, I hope, resonate with our audience and allows us to the opportunity to grow to even something larger so that more people can experience those moments as well.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

Well, I can tell you, I was traveling, so I didn't see that, and just so people know what we're talking about. That was when the Lakers had a horrible loss the other night, and uh one of your most loyal viewers, Mark uh aka Xbox, right? He uh you you brought him on the stream and he vented on LeBron James and uh Rob Polinka. That was the only part I didn't agree with, which we'll get to that shortly here. Um, but kind of went on a ramp. But I I think that's one of the beautiful things to the point what we're talking about here is that you know your listeners so well. And like you said, hopefully, I I hope, you know, and pray for you that that happens to where you won't be able to know all, but right now you know them well enough to where you know you can trust them to have them on air.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

Yeah, just kind of that's that's the thing, and and but but there's also people that that just will stop by, they'll randomly do the drive-by and they'll see us, they'll disagree with us or usually they'll disagree with Joe, and and it comes to the fact that okay, I want to come on the air, I want to tell you guys, okay, you come on, we're not afraid of you. And we're we'll troll you just like you troll us. You want to share something? Come on, I'll send you a link. But the thing I won't do is I won't put it on, I won't put it out there online. I'll email me. I need you to take that extra step. If you're really serious about doing it, come on and email me. So they make that extra step. Don't give me this, uh, you know, uh, okay, and I just put up the link there, and then you just come on with a with a uh half-baked video cell phone camera and then just blah blah and then leave. No you come on this show, you're gonna come on this show, and you're gonna do it the proper way. So I said all I say to people is fine. You want to come on the show? Shoot me an email right now. And only on a couple of occasions have have people done it. Uh again, there was there's one guy named Kenneth who stops by every now and then who was really at Joe, like in the first year, he was really adamant against Joe. But those two, he to his credit, he came on the air, he and Joe hashed it out, and now they're the best of buddies whenever he stops on by. That's beautiful, weird in a way how that worked. But yeah, again, like I don't mind you coming by, even if I don't know you, to share your Lakers opinions. You just have to go ahead and message me through the email. Let me know you're serious about it.

SPEAKER_00 35:55

Well, it's kind of like radio in that way, right? Taking callers on the radio, I suppose. It's kind of a I didn't even think about that aspect because I've never done a live stream, tell you the truth. Um, so I've I've never had that experience with the interactions, but I guess you would have a large amount of people that aren't real, you know, the the internet, the keyboard warriors, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 36:16

You probably get a lot of we have that you well, you see in the chat.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

Yeah, I had seen you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:21

Somebody, you know, the people that take okay, the people that take the time out of their day to create a profile to troll, we troll on them. And that's the brut, that's the part that I think I'll look at a lot of people is that we don't just ignore you unless well, if you're doing some some really inappropriate things or saying inappropriate things, we'll ignore you or we'll ban you right away. But if you're not, and if you're just trolling us, we'll troll you by right back. Don't get us started with myself or Joe's, Joe, especially. If you say something to Joe and he just whatever it is, or if you write something to Joe and he just doesn't like what you have to say, he'll call you out right to your face, right on the air. It doesn't matter if he's got a 50 people or 500 people watching, he'll just do it because it ticks him off. And and you know what? That's the thing. That's the thing with our show that I think that not a lot of other shows do is because the fact that you you know these trolls that are out there, these people that have like 500 different profiles and they switch from different profile to different profile to a lot of work, it's it's so much work.

SPEAKER_00 37:28

Yeah, not to cut you off, but I just like the mentality, how weak-minded and just kind of sick you'd have to be to just spend your time doing that is bizarre to me. I can't even fathom it.

SPEAKER_01 37:39

A lot of work for me, too much work for me. Uh, if you thought any extra typing, I don't need it. I type enough during the day.

SPEAKER_00 37:47

Yeah, I have two more questions for you on the podcast side of things and the business side of things. Then we'll get into Lakers here, and then I'm going to convert you to become a Rob Polinka fan. Oh but and that's something I didn't know with the pop culture cosmos. I didn't realize that you had started that in 2009, but I am curious.

SPEAKER_01 38:09

Well, 2000, actually, that one is 2016. I had a video game show called uh uh Game Source that was uh came out first, but then we evolved it evolved into the pop culture cosmos in 2016.

Podcasting Evolution And YouTube Regrets

SPEAKER_00 38:20

Okay, you obviously not only remember it, you were in it. It feels like even as recently as seven, eight, nine years ago, a podcast was looked at as a totally different thing. So now my background, other than real estate, I own a digital marketing company, I've hosted about 500 webinars, but I just started the podcast in 2024, and that was a new venture. But I remember um 10 years ago being told I should start a podcast, and it's like, uh yeah, I don't know. But now it's the thing where everybody wants to have a podcast, but you've been in it the whole time. So I guess my quick, my long-winded question to you is how has it evolved since 09 and 2016? What is what's different? What's still the same?

SPEAKER_01 39:04

Well, that's a great question. Uh 2009, when uh you know, first of all, uh 2008 and leading into 2009. Uh what's a what's a podcast? That's was the common question that was like, what is a podcast? A podcast? What's what's a is that something uh that I need to eat, or is that a restaurant nearby or something? Yeah, that's all the common thing that I saw. Uh the recording equipment or what you had to do is a little bit cruder. Uh the software wasn't as easily uh uh navigatable, for lack of a better word. Uh, and it was just uh a lot more rudimentary and crude. Like if you know, you could still find my first shows on Game Source out there on the internet, and you know, you can hear the like the the Dolby NR tape hiss from like you know circa 1993 or something, you know, with with with my voice and all that, and some of the bad mics I was on at that time because you know I I just didn't have a full grasp of how to present myself or present uh the show I was doing in the best of light, but the conversations were always there. And that's the thing, you know, if I found a way to have good, fun conversations that kept me stimulated and interested. And that's that's my goal when I do podcasting, is each and every night uh when I turn on that light and to go on the air, I want to have an interesting conversation. I don't always know where it's gonna go, it could be structured and not structured. Yeah, it doesn't matter. But if I know if I don't know exactly 100% where it's gonna go, but I like where it ends up, that that to me is is the most rewarding thing. But like getting back to your question, it's what's evolved over the years is just the ease in which you can now uh anyone can do a podcast or share their thoughts and be heard in a clear and concise fashion and or be seen in a in a representative way, whether on whatever platform, YouTube, twitch, Facebook, whatever social media outlet, TikTok, Instagram, doesn't matter. You know, it you can now be heard in a myriad of ways. It was funny because you know, in the mid-2010s, there was like uh dozens and dozens of podcast hosts as far as online hosts that you could upload to. And we, you know, I I switched my show from one to another, whatnot, whatever was giving the best deal or whatnot. And in the end, in the end, like we've seen with streaming uh on television, the big fish ate the little fish, and there are only a few options out there now as far as major options to go to, but uh I've still appreciated the fact that I'm able to go onto a platform, I'm able to, with a push of a button, connect with people all around the world. That part is is even better and even more reachable because more people know how to access our shows and our podcasts ever before.

SPEAKER_00 42:05

Yeah, and that part really is fun and incredible. And it's interesting for me because since I'm really grateful and love my day job, and my day job is so different from a lot of the things I'm talking about, including this conversation. I just I started telling people, look, I just interview people that I'm interested in, that I'm a fan of, that I want to have a good conversation with, which is why I'm grateful you're here right now. And it's kind of purely for the love of the game at that point. When did you really realize? Because you obviously you had the podcast for several years on the platforms. Were you on YouTube right from the beginning on all these, or did you realize six, seven years ago you needed to incorporate that? Or when did that come in?

SPEAKER_01 42:44

That is the biggest regret I have is not being on YouTube in its infancy. Uh, when I was doing podcasts for the first five, seven years, I was doing podcasts mainly uh for a uh audio audience that I was uploading into audio uh resources or putting it on outlets like Facebook or uh even Twitch at that point in time, uh a little bit, which I do more now. Uh I do on every show. But well, you're hipper and me.

SPEAKER_00 43:16

I don't even know what Twitch is fully, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_01 43:18

I really don't uh Twitch is a a streaming platform. Uh it was most I guess grew rapidly and is one of the largest streaming platforms on the planet, but it started more as from the video game standpoint, video game streaming platform. People would watch other people play video games on the Twitch platform more more than any other, but then it evolved into a full entertainment platform with with shows. Uh, you know, people do other, you know, it's talk shows, other shows, other programming, uh, you know, and game streaming, uh, music shows. They do a whole bunch of stuff now on Twitch. That that uh like outside of YouTube is almost as diversified as YouTube, but YouTube is as just A little bit more diversified in what it does. But yeah, if I have one big regret, I should have got myself on board with YouTube uh right from the get-go. And I think I would be a little bit more successful today if I had the same kind of um uh knowledge of how to run a clean, concise, quick, uh fast podcast, or even if it's two hours, but a a a production value like I have now with the Lakers Fastbreaker Cosmos, and I was able to do that in 2009, I think I would be talking to you from a very different perspective on my success in the podcasting medium, uh a lot differently if I would have uh understood that. It's like I know this now, but what if I had known that before? Type of thing.

SPEAKER_00 44:47

No, I know, and I I I kind of not to but I can relate to that because I think the same. I I mean, the only thing having owned a digital marketing company that I started in 2010, during that window right there, it was so much easier to get subscribers, but I never thought of it as a platform that I cared if I had subscribers, you know. So I would just use it to showcase a property or whatever. And you'd accidentally get 150 subscribers without asking anybody to subscribe. And now you're putting out great stuff, you're begging, and you get three or one or two. It's a different game. It there's something that happened with either the volume of people on the platform or the algorithm itself or both, that uh it was a lot easier to get growth back then than it is now. And if you look at the people, even going all the way up to the top, like a Mr. Beast, the people that have for any type of genre, whether it's gun videos or video games or sports, the people that have those huge numbers are all people that started early and they were just there. They were at the top of the algorithm, top of the search mechanism, and then it continued to feed off of that, my humble opinion.

SPEAKER_01 45:55

No, you're correct. I mean, they have the advantage, they were they jumped on board first, and everybody followed. And the problem is not everybody that follows can achieve that same kind or even a similar kind of success. And it it is it is so much harder to have someone jump in right now, and uh they've got to bring something different to the table, and it's so hard, like you said, because uh Google has blown up YouTube to the point where it's it's the largest watched entity on the planet, even more so than Netflix. And there's like it's more subject matter than anywhere on the planet as far as and for virtually any type of subject you you can type in and find video or a plethora of videos on it. It is so hard for someone to come in here and bring a new angle to YouTube that will get people to watch. That's just the fact of life. But again, uh, you know, like I said, had I known what I know now, had I known what I known then, uh I would be in a lot different place today, I can rest assured.

Lakers Midseason Reality Check

SPEAKER_00 46:58

No, I hear you. Well, okay, I got I'll transition because I could talk to you for another hour about all this stuff, but I I don't want to don't want to take up too much of your time. So let's talk about the status of the current Lakers roster for a little bit here. My listeners that aren't familiar with Lakers fast break and haven't heard your thoughts, where do you think we are? We're getting ready to go into the all-star break. We're coming up with the trade deadline here. Uh, in my humble opinion, I think we've either slightly exceeded expectations that we all had going into the season, or we're right at what we thought it would probably end up being, right around a 50-win pace. But what's your thoughts on the status of the Lakers right now? Where would you like to see improvement and and where are you most disappointed?

SPEAKER_01 47:38

Well, uh to start off with, uh, we do a poll, and you can find this on the notes section of our channel where uh your people write notes for their channel. You can find uh every one of the regular panelists that stop on by, whether it's Legend from I GotNext Sports Media, Laker Tom, Jamie Sweet, the Laker Hollocks, everybody except for Joe, who I don't like to participate in these things, you know, and I just like to shoot off my mouth, you know, and just say I'm right later on down the line. That's what he'll tell you. Um, but and everybody else, I think it's over 14, 13, 14 different uh prognostications. Almost all of them had us fourth, had the Lakers fourth, fifth, or sixth for the season. I had the team in fifth place, I believe, in the Western Conference, and they're right exactly where I thought they would be. They're a flawed team. They could have, you know, they chose, and and again, I've said this on the show, and you've heard me say this on the show. Chris Paul, I'm not Chris Paul, uh Rich Paul. Oh, say Chris Paul. Rich Paul, the clutch CEO, the guy that LeBron leads on as his best friend and comrade, as far as the guy who helped set up the LeBron James clutch empire. Uh, you know, I don't agree with a lot of he says, or I don't agree with the timing of what he says. But the one thing he did say when LeBron picked up the option on his$52.6 million a year contract was that the Lakers were on two timelines. They want to be a competitive team now, but they also want to leave plenty of that beloved cap space open for the following summer or the following summer thereafter.

SPEAKER_00 49:15

As they should.

SPEAKER_01 49:17

Well, there's a there's a problem with that. With the Lakers fan base that is 17 titles in, that sees Boston right there in front of them with 18, and is very pissed about the fact that they've gotten ahead of the Lakers as far as they're concerned. They want a title now. But if you wanted a title now, you needed to do more in the summer to get to that point. And we're seeing the effects of that.

SPEAKER_00 49:42

I'm shifting now from sucking up to you, Gerald, to loving debate, I'll call it. But this team, my opinion, and I think this season is a perfect, you could not have a more perfect example of it. This team is never going to win another championship with LeBron James on the team because he can't be on the team and not be a prominent top two option for it. And as long as he's a uh 35-minute, roughly per game player top two option on offense, we're not going to win a title like that. It's not possible. There's no one we can add, especially with his$52.6 million salary, that can put us over the top. The best we could hope for is if we get a good draw and get lucky, maybe losing in the conference finals, but that's where we're at anyway.

SPEAKER_01 50:30

Well, I say to that is though, that back in June of last summer, when this decisions were still being made as far as how to build and shape this team, Rob Palenka did have the time and opportunity and the cap space to make decisions going forward that could help the team. He could also have made decisions based on on what assets that he had to trade to trade for players, maybe that could have helped this team a lot better. I know a lot of people at that time, like myself, had said, for instance, I'll use an example, um, you know, getting guys like Trey Murphy the third, uh, you know, a really hard look and seeing if that that's the type of player that could you could get at that time. Now he's played so well that that that ship has sailed. Uh Herb Jones, along with him as far as his teammate, that would have been an excellent type player. We saw then as a defensive stalwart, that could have been an option. But again, you know, the lack of of uh interest in spending any excess money and getting three players. No, no, hold on, good value, good value players, and no one's gonna argue with that because they did get them, he did get them on good value deals. Yeah, but they're not players that are going to move the needle far enough in the direction of OKC, and that's the that's where we're at now. I field questions all day long, literally all day long from around the world, from people who are just adamant on trying every mock trade on the universe, but they don't get the fact that Rob Palenka is on a certain timeline and it does not look like he's going to deviate that deviate from it. Now, I'm hoping I'm wrong, just for the satisfaction of those people who want Rob to do something before the trade line.

SPEAKER_00 52:17

But so you really think that's smart?

SPEAKER_01 52:20

You really hold on to the bottom. At this point, no, at this point no, unless Giannis Attacumpo comes knocking through that door or New Orleans makes a bad deal and gives you uh gift wraps you Troy Murphy Jr. Troy Murphy the third and Herb Jones in a package deal and gift wraps them to you. Uh you know, they go stupid like they did when they gave up their 2016 uh 2026 unprotected draft pick to Atlanta. Yeah, you know, that those are the kind of you're hoping for that, but unless that you know Luka Doncic type deal comes walking through that door, uh I don't see uh making a big splash enough with whatever little trade assets we have left to it's not possible really close that gap uh right now to OKC.

SPEAKER_00 53:07

Yeah, well, and that's the thing, and that's and honestly, maybe this is how it's always been. This is an evolution for me being somewhat new and very new because I've really only been I didn't realize this live chat stuff with live streams existed until about a year ago. And so it's been kind of fun for me getting to engage with other Lakers fans and growing up originally in Alabama and then Oregon, my whole life, I've been used to being and now living in the Bay Area in California. I've been a Lakers fan kind of by myself, and I've always heard people talk about stupid Lakers fans were you know always demanding trades and all this. And I always like, what are you talking about? We're not like that. And to be honest with you, the last couple years, I think we are kind of like that because not just your stream. I go into the used to go into the Laker Nation stream a lot. I used and it's just idiotic stuff, and it's creates who they are.

SPEAKER_01 53:53

This is who we are around the world. You have to understand now. That's one thing I've learned uh and acquired in my years of doing this, is that you know it's not just an isolated part of the fan base, it's a actual, sometimes unrealistic uh look from the fan base because they want to win, but that's what happens when you get spoiled, Stephan. Uh Stefan, when you get spoiled, you get spoiled, Stefan. When you look at when you're given the gold ring 17 times, guess what you want more than anything? That number 18 to go on.

SPEAKER_00 54:29

When we do have good stuff following our laps, we going all the way back to Wilt Chamberlain and Shaq and Luca now, and you know, getting magic with the first pick, worthy with the first pick. I mean, we do have lucky stuff happen to us.

SPEAKER_01 54:43

Oh, and it's incenses other fans when you rub that in their face like that. And I try to not uh do that as much, but yeah, there are people out there who are incensed at the Lakers, and you know what? I can't I can't say wrong, the Lakers have had a lot of luck. I mean, who knew when Rob would sit down with Nico Harrison for a dinner date that he would end up getting the opportunity to get Luka Doncic? Now, to your credit, to your boy's credit, he didn't get the deal done, and he got it done, you know, with that. And but those rare successes from him are a problem because his talent evaluation might have prevented from other championships being won. And I'll just leave it at that. But before he gets in your next question, I got one question for you. Okay, what do you got? What do you think? Well, the Lakers have Luka Doncic. Yeah, how do you value how much do you value Luka Doncic?

LeBron’s Role And Luka’s Value

SPEAKER_00 55:37

How good of an individual player do you think he is? I mean, I so and this is the thing, and before I uh you we've kind of already dipped our toe in the water, but before we really get into the polenka stuff, um, and I don't want this to be, I mean, I'm I I and I've it's occurred to me, I think I'm a pretty nice guy in real life, but it's occurred to me in some of my little silly videos and some of my podcasts that I come across more negative than I intend on LeBron James. Uh so I don't want this to be a bash fest, and and you really do cover him, I think, really fairly, because you you're not Lakers, that's why I couldn't watch Laker Nation anymore, is I felt like it was just a LeBron James promo. Like it was just like an infomercial. I just couldn't take it. You're positive when it's positive, and you're negative on the things that are negative. So I give you that respect and that credit for it, and I don't want to overly attack him, but the facts are the facts, and and this isn't even the polinka stuff I'm talking about, but it kind of gets into that. We were 11 and 4 this year when he was sitting out. We started the season 11 and 4. Okay. Braun, while that was happening, the LeBron supporters in the media were already teeing it up. Oh, wait till he gets back. All these haters are ready to say XYZ and all this stuff. And I went in, you know, if you you probably don't remember because you got a lot of people in here, but I his first few games back, I was on your stream and I in the chat, I said I love the way he's playing right now. Third option, he was averaging like 14 points a game, sharing the ball more often, sharing the ball, and that was fine, but I knew it wasn't gonna last, and it hasn't. And now they're what are we 20 are we 25 and 16 is off the top of my head, or are we 26?

SPEAKER_01 57:10

26, 26 and 16.

SPEAKER_00 57:12

20. So that means since he's been back, we are 15 and 15 and 12. Yes, yeah, yeah, you're right. Yeah, 15 and not impressive, not impressive.

SPEAKER_01 57:23

He he had to get his C legs under him before he started feeling uh what he feels, and he is frustrating. He is one of the most divisive players in the history of the NBA. There's no two questions about it. And if you're a LeBron hater, I can see why. If you're a LeBron lover and a LeBron supporter, I can see why. It is just it's so the thing I've never uh just I used to be a huge LeBron supporter, but that just the noise, all the stuff he brings with him and does that's so unnecessary and so detrimental to a team concept, it it's just so hard for me to grasp. And I know you see the GOAT uh canvas art behind me. That was actually graciously given to me by at TriptoShop on Instagram and Twitter because he is a huge LeBron supporter. And so I out of respect, I put that up for him. But you know, LeBron James is just so divisive. But the reason why I ask you on Luca is because if if you really value Luca, if you really value Luca as someone who is in his prime now, that is one of the best players on the planet. My question is to Rob, why didn't you do more to build a team around that every single year?

SPEAKER_00 58:33

Thank you for asking again, because that believe it or not, my whole LeBron thing I just did was a long-winded. You remember if you saw the Trump Joe Rogan interview and he said, I'm a weaver, I'm a weaver, Gerald. So I was weaving back to that. Yes, I think that Luca was universally regarded as a top, not top five, but top three player before the trade. And I'm actually, if I ever have time to do it, I'm working on a video that I've been wearing for like six months that I'm probably never gonna put out if I do to get 25 views. But it it's got clips of Bill Simmons and uh Nick Wright and all these guys and gals and all these networks and platforms saying that he was a top two or a top three player before the trade. Then the trade happens, all of a sudden he's fat. He's a top 10 fringe player. He's this is what, and to your point about the noise with LeBron, this is what happens to people that are in LeBron's infrastructure. My defense of Polenka's, too, it's not like I just love Rob Polinka. Tired of people in the infrastructure that need to be scapegoated so that LeBron James' failures as a player can be propped up. And that's what I think has happened to Luca. So, yes, I think he was and still is a top three player in the NBA. I think it's insane the way the league's gotten that we've got a guy that's almost averaging a 34-point triple double, and it's just kind of like, eh, you know, no big deal.

SPEAKER_01 59:55

That's where we're fan base on their the half the half the crowd loves him, half the crowd hates him.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:01

I know, but to me, and I think he proved that I'm so grateful we got the opportunity to see it for 15 games to start this season, how beautiful this team could be. And that's where I start to feel bad because I know this is going into that LeBron hate area, and I'm really not trying to do that, but it's just true. I mean, and it's okay, the guy's 41 years old, he had an incredible career.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:21

You know, that's something people don't put in perspective sometimes, is as much as we can uh piss on LeBron for lack of a better term. You know, sometimes he doesn't go and play defense or he he argues with the refs like Luca does, or or has his own agenda or you know pads of stats. He is playing better than any 41-year-old who ever has played in the history of the NBA. But he is still 41 years old, still taking up 50. It's like a it's like a tit for tet. Conversely, yes, he's 41 years old and playing what as well as a 41-year-old can do, but he's taking up 52.6 million of the cap, and you're not getting your full value on that. Uh, and that's that's the that's just the bottom line. It's just you know, which LeBron are you gonna get? Are you gonna get old LeBron or are you gonna get you know spray LeBron? Because you will not get the LeBron James that you know and love for years every single game. It's just not physically possible, even for him.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:19

It's not. I mean, and and again, yeah, good credit to him that it's even possible ever. Like, that's amazing. I mean, it really is, but I'm just tired of it. Like, even if uh LeBron hating a side, it's exhausting to me to have kind of like what Mark said on your stream the other day. It's exhausting having this guy's aura and his to where it was so fun the first 15 games of this season, having these game winners, and Lucas out for a couple games and Reeves Reeves averages 44 points a game and is hitting game winners and all this stuff in Minnesota. You're having Rui Hachimura was shooting 65 from the field, La Ravia had a few moments in the sun, Ayton was getting praised and talking about having a 20 million dollar. Then he comes back and they're slightly above 500, and and now it has to be somebody else's fault. So, in answer to your question, with what should be done, I would do exactly what I hoped as a Lakers fan. I'm rooting, I guess I'm the only one, I'm rooting hard that we do nothing. That's the smart thing to do, and that was what I said going into this year, and they've slightly exceeded my expectations. Have this be a fun year where Lucas scores a bunch of points, wait for LeBron to get off of the team, get that 52 million in cap space. Plus, I think we've got total, you I think you know the exact numbers around 100 million in cap space this summer. Right now, we only have one first round pick we can trade. In the offseason, we'll have two. You educated me.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:46

Actually, you'll have three ones. Yes, draft day, you will actually have three because the Lakers could trade that 22 2026 pick as soon as they make the pick, which they've done previously uh on a few occasions this decade. And it's just the thing is though uh when you look at it though, and I I again uh I don't secretly want it to happen, but it just it looks like it's gonna happen where not enough is going to be done to move the needle far enough to okay. It's just a fact of life. It's just yeah, as much as you don't want it to happen, it looks like it's gonna happen. But the fact is, again, it's just a year of Lucas Prime that you could have gone back 10 years from now and say, you know what? Man, I wish they would have done more in advance of that season.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:31

I just genuinely don't think there's any other than what we both said, Giannis. There's no move that could be made. And I don't even think.

Trade Deadline Strategy And Cap Space

SPEAKER_01 1:03:54

Which again, with this roster construction the way it is, uh Stefan, it's just not uh where it needs to be. There are serious holes that not just one player.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:05

We're running low on time here. So to set up the Rob Palenka stuff, so we've had some fun back and forth, and it's all love for you know for my side, you know, it's all good. Same here, and and I know that uh I know as as Joe was teasing me about, I'm on a cliff or an island or whatever it is that I said, I'm I'm on an island, I'm on Rob Palenka Island.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:24

Well, there's Vando Island for Vanderbilt Island, and then there's Rob Palenka Island, which you are the master and the ruler of right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:33

But I it's not like I started out a Rob Palenka fan, but this this constant hate that's directed at him, and I more saw it even on the Laker Nation stream, to where it we have to blame somebody for the fact that in LeBron's seven seasons with the Lakers, five of those seven seasons, we didn't win a playoff series, and we missed the play-in or the playoffs, I believe, two of those seven seasons. So that's a failure, and it had to be blamed on someone other than him on the court. So we have to blame the players around him. Now, all of a sudden, Anthony Davis, who was a universal top five player when he came to the Lakers, led this in scoring when we won the championship in Orlando. Uh, he's street clothes, which is true. I mean, he fell off a cliff with his uh health. But to me, on what we're talking about here, just to keep it congruent, we're talking about a gap year, and our gap year, and I understand we have high expectations as Lakers fans, but our gap year, we get to watch one of the best players in the league average 34, 8, and 9, win round 50 games, maybe win a playoff series. That's our gap year. And then next year we go into the offseason with all of these assets where we can really be a championship contender. We would be idiots to do anything other than that. And the perfect example of that you brought up the Oklahoma City Thunder, who we all believe that unless they have a major injury, which nobody roots for. That nobody's really gonna realistically beat them. Look at what Sam Prestey did. Sam Presty, he sat there in the cellar for four or five years.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:10

Actually, less than that, it was actually only a season and a half. Uh, they actually had one real season of tanking. Uh, and due to Sam Preste's real he tried remember because remember the bubble, they were a playoff team. Yeah, Chris Paul, yeah. Yeah, and and uh Dennis Schroeder, yeah, and the and the start of SGA. Uh so he had already made the initial trade with the Clippers by that time that set the franchise forward to where it is today. But he uh, you know, in the year that he tanked or year year plus that he tanked, he just maneuvered just so many different uh acquisitions and and just has now just he they are the best run franchise I've ever seen. I agree. I think I think without a doubt, because not only have you set yourself up for your present, you've set yourself up for a few future. You have talent, young talent, inexpensive talent, and you have a myriad of draft picks you can acquire talent with and still draft future talent for years to come. And it's just amazing to see. I've never seen a organization run by someone who has set this up so well as Sam Presti.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:19

We agree, and you'll never hear me put Rob Palenko or anyone else in Sam Prestey's category. He is he's up there with Jerry West and Red Auerbach to me, as far as general managers go. So yeah, I agree. He's the best we got doing, and he's one of the best of all time. But my point is he was allowed to do that. He was allowed to have the flexibility from ownership and from the fans and from the players to wait. And yeah, I mean, I guess you're right, they only had one or two seasons where they really bottomed out and fully tanked. But then the third season, they were about a what, a 41-win team off the top of my head. I can look it up.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:54

Yeah, it's just it's growing because they're a young team, so you know the with the growing pains, but you saw growth each and every year until finally they hit the top.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:03

So we so Rob would never have that opportunity because he's trying to, so he's basically trying to do a miniature version of that and reset after having the clutch influence on the franchise, LeBron's influence on the franchise, Jeannie Bus, who she's if you want to blame somebody up top, I would blame her.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:21

Yeah, but I see I can't support that because again, she has, as that article reiterates that we talked about at the very beginning, she has given full support over the years to Rob. And actually, when it came to, you know, she brought in Magic and Rob at the same time as president and general manager. So he's been general manager all before he became president of basketball operations, he's been general manager throughout this whole thing. And she he has had, because of his Kobe ties, universal love from uh her. And it actually, if you read that article, it goes into the fact that she has more trust in guys like him, yeah, and the Rambi, aka Kurt and Linda Rambus, than she does for any of her own family members, which tells you how much leeway he's been given over the years.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:11

Well, but but Jerry, you know this, and the article alluded to this. That was to me, that was my whole takeaway from the article, is that while yes, yes, I you're right, and that's what it said, and that's my perception of it as well, is that she does definitively trust Rob Palenka, but all of them were put at the behest of Rich Paul, aka LeBron James, and Clutch Sports.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:34

Now, let me ask you this that if you're a strong enough willed GM who feels like he has full backing and a relationship with the owner, like he does, and you have the lack of a better term, guts to go ahead and say no, you need to say no to Westbrook Trade. I drove 300 miles from California to do a specific show on the daily Westbrook trade to say how bad that trade was. And I'm spot on, and we're still paying for that trade. We all knew it was bad, yeah. I agree. And and but and you know what? Rob should have had the guts to say to LeBron no. I blame Rob for that.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:15

What percentage blame? You give him 100% blame for that?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:18

Oh, I give him 100% because the buck stops with Rob. I don't care about this little dinner ditter dinner plans that he had that LeBron had with them, and that's all great, well good, that they had their little plan. I don't care if you have there are GMs in sports that just don't take any BS that say, you know what, it's my way or the highway that I'm running this this team and I'm running it my way. If Rob has that luxury of genie's backing and and could have put up a front if he wanted to, even on clutch. The the Ivizazubas trade. You know, people say that was magic stream. Yeah, that was magic. Who was the general manager?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:57

Yeah, but brother, magic went on first take, and he said that was him.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:03

The general manager could have gone to the president and said, you know what, this is a stupid trade for Mike Muscala, and then we'll go on as far as his evaluation of talent. There's only one player that he has drafted that he kept in the 2020s that is actually a contributing player today, and that's Max Christie on the Dallas Mavericks. He is not able to go ahead with ever the scouting team, which was the buses, which of course they were uncertainty dumped, but the Jalen Hood Shafino, the the other Dalton Connects, the Bronny, the Bronny James. It doesn't matter. The these are somebody should tell Rob, hey, Bronny James. I don't care if you're accommodating him or not. Bronny James is not an NBA level player, he averaged five points at USC as coming off a heart attack.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:56

Why do you even waste a draft pick on him? Well, you're right, but and give him a three-year plus an option guaranteed contract. I know. You give a do the guy that you traded up twice in the draft to go get, not just once in the second round. You traded twice.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:15

And you gave a guy with bad knees a another three-year guaranteed contract.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:22

You don't like a dude's game, though. I think he's got potential.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:24

He's got bad knees. It doesn't matter if I like his game or not. You haven't seen him for 10 minutes. He's been on the floor. You and I have been on the Lakers floor almost as much as he has. You're making my point though, because all of the several players that are currently playing right now that are playing and contributing and that were picked after a do the arrow, just making it even worse for the Lakers because all these players could be helping fix some of the Lakers' problems because they're a poor rebounding team, they're the worst bench in the league, they can't shoot, they can't offensive rebound, they can't play defense a lot of the times. They are a statistically really poor team, and a lot of that has to go directly on Rob for constructing this roster.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:14

Well, let me ask to go. Let me ask you because this is interesting, and I didn't think it would go this way, but don't worry, but all's up between uh step. No, yeah, no, yeah, no, it really no, that's not even what I mean. What what I'm saying is is I didn't think you'd take because it sounds to me like we agree that all it means correct me if I'm wrong, because maybe I am, but all the moves you just named, except for maybe a do, all of those we agree came from Clutch's influence, LeBron's influence.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:41

You're telling me it doesn't matter who brings it. Well, but no, here, let's just he made the decision.

Rob Pelinka Versus Clutch Influence

SPEAKER_00 1:13:47

Let me give you the question though. The question is, I think if I'm hearing you right, which I think you just answered, is you're not disagreeing that that's where the influence came from. You're just telling me, which I could kind of get behind this if this is what you're saying. Rob should have said no. You're blaming him because he didn't put his foot down.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:04

Or you're not all of these players, not all of these players are clutch related.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:07

That's because Jalen Hood Shafino's a clutch client, the huge client we gave to CP, or what's his name? Calwell Pope, clutch client.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:14

Was okay, was Alex Caruso over THD? THT a clutched client. Alex Caruso had more talent and it was a bigger imprint on this team, especially a championship winning team. But you cited because your talent evaluation, or you know what? The worst thing you do is have a preference to make bad decisions based off of a relationship you have with someone else. So if you're telling me that a lot of his decisions are based off of citing because it's to make clutch happy, that makes them even a worse GM.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:47

Well, if that's your position, then I could understand that, and I really wouldn't have the overall talent evaluation is is just very suspect.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:57

I didn't say he was the worst GM in the league, and so I don't want anybody to quote me that.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:00

Well, and I'm not saying he's the best either. My position is he's a top he's a to me, he's a top five to ten GM. And I think that he's well, can you and I'm I'm not even gonna put you on the spot because I had to look it up, but can you tell me five GMs that are better? Like most of us, even diehard fans, probably can't even name five GMs. Honestly, I couldn't until I looked it up.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:20

I could, I could, right there, you know, I could I could name he's not even Walmart. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That was I would give you.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:28

I would if you count Danny Ainge still, I don't know if it's him or his son, I would put Danny Ainge ahead of him. I would put Presty, I would put uh oh gosh, what's the uh what the Boston Celtics GM right there for? Yeah, yeah, that's the guy I was just thinking of. Uh whatever his name is Brad Stevens, Brad Stevens, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:45

The Detroit Pistons are looking pretty good, and a lot of that has to do to roster construction for the Detroit Pistons GM. Uh, you could talk about what Pat Riley, who is uh you count him as a GM.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:56

I mean, he's in his 80s now, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:58

I don't know how he's been made, he's been masterminding those moves from Miami for years. Do you still count him as a guy?

SPEAKER_00 1:16:03

Yeah, I would count him over if you count him, then I'd put him ahead of Rob, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:07

Yeah, okay. I could also go with, like I said, Sam Preste, the San Antonio Spurs, they've been still doing a nice job all these years, and now they have themselves a top two team in the Western Conference.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:16

Whoever the Rockets GM, I would probably put him ahead of, but it's it's it once you get to the Eastern Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves, I would put him in. No, I would not put the Timberwolves. No.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:26

Tim Conley, who that Rudy Gobert trade was one of the worst trades in the history of the guy who built the Minnesota team that went to the Western Conference Finals twice, and the team who built the foundation for what was to become a year or two later, an NBA championship team in Denver. That guy is not in your above Ropolica.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:47

Let me tell you, because I haven't really told you my full, I think I've kind of alluded to it, but just to go on record with you with this. My position with Rob is that he has been completely handcuffed for his entire GM experience with the Los Angeles Lakers because of the related. And what you need to remember that neither of us have mentioned yet, it's not just that Clutch controlled LeBron, they also had AD. And so he had to appease not only LeBron, but they used AD. I remember one season a few years ago, I felt like, and I think the article alludes to this too, they didn't want to give LeBron an extension, but they were held hostage because AD wouldn't sign unless LeBron had an extension and they were afraid of media backlash. So you're held hostage on what you can do. There's it's not a coincidence, and if you want to tell me, okay, he should have more backbone, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:42

That's exactly the word I was gonna use backbone.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:45

Well, I got it. I can't. That's a good argument if that's where you're going with it. But anybody that tells me that Rob Palenka woke up one morning and was like, you know what I want to do? I want to trade two first round picks for Russell Westbrook, and everybody else was like, I don't know, man. He's like, No, I'm doing it. That's insane. That's batshit. Pardon my language. There's zero chance. Again, you don't believe that, dude.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:11

He's a below average GM who's been given like you said, we prefaced this a little while back about the Lakers being a lucky organization at times. And I you know what the Lakers fans don't want to hear it, they don't want to hear that that we've had that kind of luck. But you know what? He and the Lakers organization have that kind of luck. If Luca drops in your lap, that's the kind of okay. That's the other thing back in 2017. Already tells the organization, which according to that article he did, that he's gonna go to the Lakers. That's like a pick-up the phone. They oh, you want to come to Lakers? Here's the deal, though. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:48

Okay, and I know you got like three or four minutes, so I'm gonna do this quick. But those two things, the three things I want to tell you where I got slowly converted because I really didn't like Palenka when he first was involved, and I'm a magic magic's my was my favorite player before Kobe, so I love Magic, so I really didn't like how that went down either. But Magic tried to get the same deal done for AD and couldn't get it done. He steps down, Rob gets that deal done. That was impressive in hindsight for the same terms basically. Then getting off of Westbrook, everybody thought it was gonna take two first-round picks to get off of Westbrook. There was a little thing that I thought was brilliant that he did with that move that he got in, got off of the contract, brought in role players that got us to the Western Conference Finals that year. He gets zero credit for that. Zero.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:35

Well, why did why did it happen in the first place? Because he's because LeBron and Lee Davis and Rich Paul. That again, if you have a backbone, you don't let that happen. Your your common sense will tell you you can tell LeBron, hey, Westbrook couldn't hit a broad side of the barn. Did you watch you were guarding him in the second round of the playoffs in the bubble when he couldn't hit a broad side of the barn? This is I mean, I agree.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:03

The trade made no sense.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:05

The trade itself makes no sense because the guy executing it just absolutely just so you don't give any well, you said you don't give any blame to LeBron.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:14

Last thing, and I would talk with you more about it, but I know you gotta go.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:16

But when he when he doesn't play defense, I'll give LeBron, and as you know, that happens that does quite frequently these days.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:24

Well, I'll just say this, and this is the biggest thing. With the the Luca trade was so lopsided that all of us universally had the exact same reaction. I haven't asked you this, but I'm sure it was the same as mine.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:38

Well, I give him credit for that. I get you know, it was put in his lap. He said, Here's Luca, what do you do for me?

SPEAKER_00 1:20:45

Here's the deal, though. It wasn't just put in his lap because uh you know, so I'm in real estate, right? If somebody calls me and has a property that they want to sell me and they say, you know, I'm looking to get like 200,000 for it, and I know it's worth a million bucks, I still have to close that deal. I have to bring it to the case.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:02

No, I give him credit, and I give him credit for closing the deal because again, with only one first-round prof pick, and I said he is a below average GM in my eyes, and will and it's continued to be such, but he has shown on occasion, like you said, that he's a deal maker deadline that he can get a deal done, but all the mistakes and all the resume, his resume has a long, long, longer line of red than it does black. And unfortunately, when you lose so much money as a business and you have a couple successes, it's like like what I say, okay, you went to college, uh, you but you got a couple of A's or A pluses, but most of your career was uh uh filled with D's and F's. Does that mean you were successful in college?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:49

Well, but what if you wrote a PhD paper that got you a Nobel Prize nomination or something? I don't know, because that's what that Luka trade was, and he whittled it down. It wasn't like it was a two-day thing, it went on for weeks, right? To where at first there was multiple first-round picks and there was other asses, and he whittled him down. That's some of the most beautiful negotiating I've ever seen.

Closing Plugs And Next Conversation

SPEAKER_01 1:22:12

So, but then I could go back at you and say Alex Caruso e Vita Zubots because he was in the he was the general manager for that. You could say it's magic all you want, but again, as a as a GM, you got to have the backbone to say no on that the Russell Westbrook trade, the draft choices this this decade. Uh, you know, a myriad of how many players are playing in the NBA right now that could have been filled out the Lakers roster? Jay Huff was leading up until Wembiyama playing enough games. Jay Huff was leading the league in block shots. He just got a 29-9 game the other week. He was there and available for the Lakers playing, and he just they let him go for nothing. Uh, Scottie Pippen Jr. uh was the only bright spot for Memphis in their first round playoffs against OKC last last year. He was right there on the Lakers roster. And he there's there's a myriad of players that have had the opportunity for him to capitalize on and just didn't do it. All right, and players that he could have gotten that have have have uh succeeded in other areas that were available, they've been waived by other teams, they were free agents that he could have gotten.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:17

And I'm gonna give you the last word out of respect and gratitude because I know you gotta go.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:21

But don't worry, I think it's been a great conversation, I've enjoyed it thoroughly.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:26

So, likewise, Gerald. Well, well, thank you. And just in closing, guys, please check out Lakers Fast Break, wherever you get your podcast, and YouTube specifically, also Pop Culture Cosmos and everything that Gerald Glasford is involved with. And Gerald, thanks again for taking the time.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:41

I look forward to it. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for taking the time to speak to me. And if you ever want to re-rehash this discussion, maybe after the trade deadline when when Rob pulls off another miraculous trade. I don't want him to do anything. I don't want him to do anything. Maybe he did maybe he will maybe another Luca will fall into his lap. So maybe maybe he'll be at dinner with another GM, uh, like John Horse of Milwaukee and say, Do you guys want one Giannis? And he'll just like choke it as water, like he'll just well, that's what we need to do, just have him hang out in restaurants, I guess. Yeah, exactly, exactly indeed. But no, uh, it's great speaking to you, Stefan. I'm wishing you and the channel so much continued success going forward, and I'm just cannot thank you enough for being a part of what we do at the Lakers fast break.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:26

Appreciate you, brother.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:27

Appreciate it.