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We are live. We are live. Back to back weeks here with the pod. Got a pod a little bit different for you this week. So let's jump let's jump right in. First off, just life lately. So for me, I've been doing a cut, a little cut uh for the spring and uh my wedding as well. So around this time every year I like to do a little eight-week, eight to ten week cut. I'm doing an eight-week cut right now. Pretty aggressive. Um I think uh I'm on week four right now. Uh so the first week, first week was what'd I do? I did 210 grams of protein. These are the macros, 210 grams of protein, 285 grams of carbs, and 65 grams of fat. So for those are the first two weeks, weeks three and four, two hundred and ten grams of protein, two hundred and fifty grams of carbs and sixty grams of fat. And then I'll drop uh weeks weeks five and six, I'll drop another five grams of fat. And then weeks seven and eight, I'll drop another five grams of fat. And my carbs will drop a little bit as well. So by the last two weeks of the cut, I'll be at fifty grams of fat per day. So that is uh pretty aggressive cut uh for me. So I'll definitely notice, didn't really notice how what cuts really do for as far as your look and the shredded look, uh, your abs, veins, all that vascularity, all that. I didn't really notice until I took I did the cut last spring, slash summer, and did a before and after pitcher. Uh, and I I definitely noticed uh a big difference. So that's pretty fun doing that right now, uh pretty healthy. Thank God, thank God I'm I'm healthy. Uh that that's you know, when when someone asks me what are the most important things to you in your life, it's uh health, family. Uh I'd say health, family, and God. So uh to be healthy, uh I'm healthy, doing well, and uh family seems to be doing pretty well right now as well as well. So now that it's springtime, I will be doing a little bit more running. So I'm gonna try to incorporate two jogs or runs a week, and then a little bit less lifting. So I was doing four days of lifting a week all fall and winter. I'm gonna drop that down to three days a week with you know, and just be more I'll be outside a little bit more uh with the spring and and summer, right? So gonna be golfing more, so we're gonna drop down the lift to three days a week, which is plenty. Uh three to four days a week is all you need to lift, but lifting is important. So that's what's been going on with that as far as lifting. Sauna and steam room, it's taken a little bit of a back seat. Uh, there have been times in my life where I've tried to at least hit the sauna or steam room once a day. Uh never more than once a day, but I would say five to seven days a week. So uh it's probably gonna be about three to four days a week for me uh with the sauna steam room, which is still good, but you know, spring, summer, golfing, getting outside, running. Um, you know, I got my wedding coming up, so there's a lot of things going on right now where um some of some things have to take a back seat, but they're still going to be incorporated in my life. And then what else? I got uh I went and got a side job, a side job as an Ohio State golf course seasonal worker. Uh so I'll be helping with the the greens and and the sand, uh pretty much the grounds crew for the Ohio State golf course. I live pretty much right down the street, five minutes away. Uh so I'm gonna try to do that uh hopefully like 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. before my career job, which starts at 8 30 a.m. So do that five days a week, Monday through Friday, and here's the catcher. I get I'm only getting like $15 an hour. Okay, that's that's that's not great money. That's that's what that's probably minimum wage. But uh I get to golf at the Ohio State golf course for free with a cart. So if I were to golf, let's see, if I were to golf two times a week all 26 summer and spring weeks, that'd be like a $9,000 value on golfing alone. Because it costs like $150 to $175 to golf the Scarlet Golf Course with a cart. And as an alumni, you can only go six times a year. So I only went like, I think I went three times last year because it was you know $175 around. Uh, but I couldn't go as much as I wanted. So this will be good. Uh get a little extra cash, it'll help with the wedding. And then on top of that, I'll be able to go off for free, and that's gonna save uh me money as well. So I'm excited for that. That should start here here in April, and then the career is going well as well is is going pretty well also. Uh hitting my commission goals the last two quarters, so that's all good news. And then I got my wedding coming up May 15th, so we're like 50 days away, something around there, of the wedding. And then that's exciting. Can't wait to get the family together, can't wait to be married to my fiance and have be able to wear a uh um wedding ring, wedding band, so all good stuff's you know for me lately. Uh there's been some bumps in the road with wedding planning, and that is to be expected. You just gotta know how to adapt and adjust, make pivots when you need to. Lately, the little minor bumps in the road have been, you know, people are missing like plus ones, and I've had cousins missing on the RSVP online. So, you know, I've had people hit me up and be like, Well, are your cousins invited to your wedding? I'm like, Yes, they are. Uh, that's just uh a mistake. We'll get that added for you. So that is kind of what's going on uh with me lately, and to finish that off, spring, springtime bliss. It has been amazing to feel some 60, 70 degree days every now and again. Uh, and before you know it, every day you're gonna be able to wake up here in Ohio, and I'm gonna be able to put on shorts, shoes, and a t-shirt, and I won't even have to really look at the weather app. So that will be a blessing. Uh winter is terrible, uh, to be honest with you. Uh fall not too bad, but uh there's nothing like spring and summer. So can't wait for that. Okay. Now that that's all cleared, let's jump into sports. So we got March Madness. And this year has been I would admit it, this has been the least amount of March Madness I've watched ever in my life. Uh I'm a big fan of all things sports. I love basketball, that's my favorite sport, that's what I played growing up, and March Madness was always a time where I would watch pretty much every game. And for instance, I did not watch this Duke game, uh, The Buzzer Beater, and now I'm forgetting who who uh beat them, Duke vs. Yukon. So I didn't even watch this game. I got on my social media, I got on Instagram, and I saw the buzzer beater on social media, and I was like, wow, that would have been a great game to watch. A live moment, something, a moment where you'd be like, I remember where I was, I remember watching that play. And I started to think, man, why are you not? I mean, it didn't even cross my mind, like, oh, I need to sit down and watch Duke versus Yukon. And I'm thinking, why are you not watching March Madness? Why are you not watching college basketball as much this year in 2026? And I think what it is, a big part of it is, you know, I'm busy with the wedding and hobbies, and um, you know, maybe seeing if some of these hobbies can make me a little bit of extra money, and that kind of ties into the wedding as well. Money is money is on my mind a lot lately, a lot more than it usually is. Like I said, health is the most important thing to me. Uh, money, uh, to be quite frank with you, doesn't drive me as maybe some others. You know, I'm if I'm healthy and I can eat, I'm happy. But it is a useful tool. So what I'm getting at is with college basketball, I think with sports betting being legal in Ohio, I think that's a another huge factor of why I'm just not really interested in college basketball anymore. Uh, because I can get on my FanDuel app, I can get on my DraftKings app, and I can just bet on college basketball through all throughout the year, I can bet on another sport uh at will within seconds. And in years past, it was like you fill out this bracket, you get you filled a mat March Madness bracket, you get in a pool with a hundred people, you get in a pool with your family, your friends, and everybody puts in ten, fifteen dollars, twenty-five dollars, whatever it may be, and you keep track of all these games because you're you want to win the money, right? Well, that's kind of gone away because I did get in the ten-dollar pool this year and there were hundreds of people in it. And sure I do want to win it, but uh one, I'm playing against a lot of people that have made picks. I picked Arizona to win it all, but a couple of my final four four teams are out, so I think I'm out of it. But the ten dollar bet like I'm just not interested in keeping up with the games and keeping up with how my teams are doing, filling out with the bracket. Like I I've lost interest in keeping up with my bracket because of the legalizing of sports betting in Ohio. So I don't know if that makes sense. I don't know if I'm the only one. Uh it could just be I'm I'm more interested in other things as well. Um so I was thinking about that. That was very interesting. So the final four is this Saturday. You got uh the Illinois versus Yukon, and then you have Michigan versus Arizona. So maybe I'll sit down and watch that Michigan versus Arizona because Michigan is you know surprising me a little bit. I knew they were a good team, but I didn't think they would be blowing teams out the way they are. Uh, and of course I have Arizona winning it all. So I'm thinking I'll I'll I'll try to get sit down and watch that game on Saturday. But I can't make any promises because that's Saturday night, and Saturday during the day I'm going golfing, so uh I'll need to to give some spend some time with with Steph when I get out of that golf. So no guarantee there, but those are two good matchups. Now, MBA. Uh well lately this has been an NBA focused podcast. Uh of course it's a sports podcast, but you know, Stefan and I are both huge NBA fans. We like the NFL as well. That was really fun doing the NFL podcast. Uh NBA is formatted a little bit different because there's multiple games a week, right? NFL, it's just one game a week. Uh you have a lot to talk about for a whole week. Whereas the NBA, it's every day. There's a game pretty much there is a game every day, so things change so fast, so much faster in the NBA than it does in the NFL, which is fine. Um but there's a little bit of redundancy there. So again, top two seeds. Now I spent a great deal of time on my last podcast about the top two seeds and the one before that, uh, that being the Detroit Pistons and the Boston Celtics in the east, and then in the west, we have the Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs. So this is three straight pods of those two seeds being the exact same. Okay, the exact same. So uh, you know, those are those are the contenders, like uh like I've been saying. So not a lot has changed there. Looking at the play-in tournament, which I I don't think I really agree with the play-in tournament in the NBA, but the Warriors and the Trailblazers in the West have been locked into the play-in tournament. They cannot fall out of it, they cannot fall fall out of the play play-in tournament, and they cannot improve their seeding to get into the top six to where they would avoid the play-in tournament. They would just be in the playoffs. Okay, so only those two teams. In the east, it's a little bit different. Uh in the east, let me look here. Yeah, so uh in the east, the play-in teams currently, Philly, Orlando, Miami, Charlotte, none of those teams are out of getting in the top six. So we'll see what happens there. Um but my thoughts on the play-in tournament, I just I don't agree with it because essentially ten teams out of fifteen. So there's fifteen teams per conference, east and west, ten teams essentially, out of fifteen make the playoffs. And I think that's too much. Uh some people may say, well, you're saying that because, you know, your magic might have to play in the play-in tournament. That that's not the case. If if the magic were a one or two seed, I would still say uh just out of competitive nature, uh, it's a more competitive season, you're making the season uh, I think, less competitive, giving teams seeded nine and ten a chance to make the playoffs. And then I also don't think it's fair to the teams that are seven and eight, you know, or or even like six, seven, and eight. Maybe the sixth seed, they could bounce to the seven seed, but I don't think it's fair to six seed six, seven, and eight. Um, you know, maybe they get in a play-in tournament and then they lose to a ten seed and then they don't make the playoffs. It's like you're taking away from how much the game should matter in the regular season. So I'm not I have never been a fan of the play-in tournament. Usually that's the only way my team makes the playoffs. But um, yeah, I'm just not a fan. Not a fan at all. Alright, well, since we've been talking about uh, you know, Orlando coming up in this play-in tournament, let's talk about the magic. So last week I went over the Cavs Magic game, a really good game, and how much fun I had watching that game. And Orlando lost that game, and I was fine. I mean, I didn't uh uh my hair wasn't on fire. I'm not saying the season's over or anything like that. Uh that was that was me last week. So in the last 10 games, Orlando is three and seven, three wins and seven losses. And just yesterday, they had their worst loss in magic history, fifty-something points. I think fifty-two, fifty-six, I can't remember, but it was a fifty-point loss, worst in history, and of course they've only won three games out of their last ten. My thoughts are okay, is Jamal Mosley gonna get fired? So all day today, I was looking on Google, I was looking on ESPN to see if there was any news going on. Did did Jamal Mosley get fired? Is he going to get fired? Are they gonna wait till after the season? And to be frank with you, I don't I don't have a strong desire either way. I don't have a strong desire to keep him around, but also don't have a strong desire to fire him. I'm not I mean when I was looking for this news, I wasn't looking for him to be fired fired. Um if he got fired, I would be like, you know what, it's probably time. If not, I would say, you know, Jamal is he's had some good some good stretches. I mean, they just won like seven straight games like two weeks ago. Uh and he seems like a good guy, so I I'm just kind of in the middle. I don't know really what I want out of this team. And then the other excuse I would maybe give Mosley is, you know, Jalen Suggs is hardly healthy. Franz Wagner has been hurt all year. Anthony Black has missed like three weeks. Uh so three starters have been missing. So it's essentially just Palo and Bain out there. And I'll make it clear right now. Bain, I agree with the trade. I agree with the player that we got. Uh he's been balling. Now it's not showing we're the eighth seed. So it's not showing that that that that was a worthwhile trade by by Orlando, but I stand behind it. Something going on with that front office, though, with when guys get hurt, I don't know why, but they are just out for extended periods of time. And the last thing I want to say about the Magic here has been rumors starting last week that Giannis might go to the Orlando Magic in the offseason. That the Orlando Magic have been gearing up to trade for Giannis, and perhaps maybe they even called at the trade deadline. Now we all know that the Bucks were going to trade them, and then they were like, no, we're gonna keep them, and uh trade never never went through. Never went through, nothing happened. We all thought Giannis was probably gonna get traded at the deadline, and he didn't. But a guy by the name of Kirk Golds uh Goldsberry, he's an NBA analyst at The Ringer, he's a New York Times best-selling author uh of sprawl ball and a professor at the University of Texas, and formerly vice president uh at the Spurs. So, um this is the guy that came out with this news about Giannis maybe going to the Orlando Magic. So I have a quote here from NBA reporter Kurt Goldberry uh sharing the following on following news on the Bills Simmons podcast. And this was last week, about three days ago. He said, somebody who knows stuff told me that Orlando has actually been very active in seeking out Giannis Antetacumpo's services. Desperation sets in after the first round of the NBA playoffs, and that's where I think the Rockets, the Magic, and Knicks are going to emerge. That's the group I'm looking at because somebody will talk themselves into it. And a couple things. I'll get to my thoughts on it. Do I want Giannis onto the Kumpo? Uh, but first, is this why you know Franz Wagner hasn't been playing? Is this why Anthony Black hasn't been playing? I mean, Franz Wagner had a high ankle sprain and he's been out for months like he tore a ligament. Uh very interesting. And are are the magic trying to preserve trade bait for when, if and when they try to go after Giannis Anadekumpo in the offseason? Um so those are my first thoughts. My my second thoughts are do I want Giannis Anastacumpo? Initially I say I don't want to get rid of any of these guys on the Magic. No, I shouldn't say any, but a lot. There's a lot of guys on the Magic that I like that are young that Are good. Um and I'm I'm a fan of them as players on the Magic. And that's Paolo, that's that's Franz Wagner, that's Anthony Black. He's really coming into his own. That's Jalen Suggs. But then I think like as a fan you want to see your team win, right? And the Magic haven't this team hasn't won a chance, these players haven't won a championship. These these players, this team isn't a one or two seed, so in all likelihood, they're not they're not gonna play for a championship this year. Um so why would I hold on to you can't trade Frank Franz Franz Wagner or you can't trade Paulo or you can't trade Jalen Suggs or Anthony Black. Uh Paolo for sure. 100% I think you can't trade him. Uh I would I would be upset if they traded Palo. And Franz Wagner, I I feel that way too. Uh Anthony Black, Jalen Suggs, I feel less strong about. But maybe I need to be okay with parting ways with everybody, anyone on that team besides besides Paulo, because um it's just not working out. And maybe it's the coach, maybe if they got a new coach, things would change, and I and I honestly think it things would change for the better. I would try the coach thing first before I try to go trade for uh uh over 30-year-old Giannis Ansakumpo. So uh the here's another one I'm just on the fence on. Like, it sounds good on paper to go get Giannis, but it only really sounds good to me if the Magic give up picks and um like Wendell Carter and Jalen Suggs or Wendell Carter and like I just feel like you can't trade Franz, you can't trade uh I would be okay with trading Anthony Black, but uh you can't trade Franz, you can't trade trade Paolo, and you can't you can't trade Bain. So we'll see what this ends up being, but uh I was surprised when I heard Giannis to Orlando is heating up. Um so it's gonna be an interesting offseason because something is happening in Orlando. They're gonna either fire their coach and get a new coach, or they're gonna try to make another big groundbreaking trade after trading for Bain last offseason. So those are my thoughts on the magic. Sorry if that went too long, but that's my team, so I'm gonna talk about them a little bit. Okay, moving on. I kind of think I think the the West is still stronger this year over the East in a sense that the those are the favorites, right? So OKC and the Spurs are probably your one and two teams favored to win the NBA championship. But for the first time in a long time, the East has slightly been stronger than the West as far as like the bottom of the respective divisions. So for instance, there's seven really bad teams in the West, in my opinion. So seven really bad teams in the West. That is uh the Kings, the Jazz, the Mavericks, the Pelicans, the Grizzlies, the Warriors, and the Blazers. Okay? And then in the East, I think there's only five really bad teams, and those are all the teams that have been eliminated from the play-in, and that is the Pacers, Wizards, Nets, Bulls, and Bucks. So, uh, you know, for the first time in a long time, I feel like this is this is usually the other way around. It's usually like there's more really bad teams in the East. Uh, but but this year it's a little bit different. So I thought that was interesting uh to see. But don't get me wrong, the West is favored to win it. Um what else? I mean, uh there's roughly eight games left in the NBA season. I think the Magic have eight games left. Five teams, five of those teams are playoff teams currently, and three are not. So they they have eight games left. I'm sure everybody else has around that, give or take. And that's roughly about three weeks. Um I think around April 12th is the last game of the season. So we're about three weeks here into the playoffs, and then lastly, the Lakers are quietly a three-seed. Who's talking about the Lakers? You know, I I this is the first time LeBron's been on a team and they've been a top three seed, and I haven't heard hype. So maybe, you know, maybe the Lakers are nine and one in their last ten. And they had a crazy, crazy comeback against the Magic, of course. Um they they probably should be eight-two, but in their last ten. But either way, nine and one in their last ten, they're the three seed. Are the Lakers gonna make a run? Are they gonna shock some teams? Are they gonna go to the to the Western Conference Finals? You know, I could see it. I could see them going to the Western Conference Finals if they have to go through San Antonio. If they have to go through Oklahoma City Thunder, absolutely not. They're not not making it to the Western Conference Finals. But uh this could be LeBron and the Lakers uh pairing. That could be their last run at trying to win the title. I could see them going to the Western Conference Finals, but I can't see them winning the NBA championship. So hats off to the Lakers and JJ Reddick for being more than just competitive this year. They are a sleeper team. Okay, I think that's it. I think that's it for this pod. Playoffs are around the corner. Stay tuned. Uh Stefan should be joining back here soon. And I'll keep you up with the the life updates. As always, I appreciate it so much for tuning in. Stay blessed.