Basketball IQ Podcast March 1, 2024

What is Basketball IQ Podcast?

Welcome to NBA School and the Basketball IQ Podcast! I am your host Charlie Lawrence, and if you want an educated breakdown of all things NBA, this is the place for you!

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You're listening to local programming produced in KU NV studios.

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The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jas and more the University of Nevada Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

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Welcome to MBA school on the basketball IQ podcast. I'm your host, Charlie Lawrence. I'm here to give an educated breakdown on all things NBA.

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We are here for episode 13 of the basketball IQ podcast Welcome to march, everybody the shortest month of the year, February. Even though it was a leap year doesn't matter. 29 days it is over. We are here it is March 1. college basketball is best month, even though I don't really watch that much college basketball until this month. So that's why I call it college basketball is best month. The NBA starting to ramp up post all star break. Playoff seeding starts to become more and more important the Western Conference. It seems like the top four teams are a game separated. The Eastern Conference is really top heavy, but you know, talking about the West, the West has loaded. The post the post all star break stretch has been interesting. Because most of the time, like if you've haven't noticed there's been a lot of blowouts. Which is kind of normal. Because some guys they might have went to Cabo or they went to the Bahamas or whatever desolate island they went to. I wouldn't call it desolate, the Bahamas sounds pretty cool. But you see there's normally a bit of a drop off and then around this time around, beginning of March is when the games start to get peak level. peak levels of entertainment. And speaking of peak levels of entertainment last night, the Lakers wizards games does too much as too much I didn't Nobrow luckily I got out of work early enough to catch the last half of the third and most of the fourth in the whole fourth quarter and overtime. And I know it's backed back but y'all y'all boys are killing me, bro. We beat the clippers on Wednesday. And then we follow that up with almost lose into the wizards like it's teams bipolar, I don't know. But today isn't about the Lakers. Bullet is passively involves one of their players involves a guy that I've been following ever since I was six years old. Today, I wanted to do a little little storytime will Storytime with Charlie, of how I became a LeBron fan. Now most people when you hear that they're a LeBron fan, they immediately roll their eyes. Because the first thought of someone being a LeBron fan is you know the verbiage. I'm not gonna say it on the show because the show is is PG. But you know the verbiage. And I've jokingly admitted that I fall under that verbiage. But there's a deeper story behind it. So as I've told you before I grew up in the Seattle area, specifically, if anyone's familiar with Western Washington, the Bremerton Silverdale area kind of bounced around from both. But I lived in Bremerton for most of my childhood. And if you know anything about Seattle sports history, you know that our team was taken from us in 2007. You know, unfairly from an owner from Oklahoma? Who asked for the way I perceive the story, and obscene amount of tax money

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from the citizens of King County. Knowing that they were going to say no. Knowing that the Sonics at that time were not good.

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We were coming off of a decent stretch with rail and where we made one playoff run. I think it was in 2006 If I believe but ever since the Gary Payton Shawn Kemp days it wasn't much of a reform in the 2000s in Sonics basket Well, and so from my perspective, he if you look at any article of any story, it'll they'll never tell you this. But in my mind, he knew that King County wasn't going to pay up. He knew that I'm not going to say the man's name because it's forbidden where I'm from, to say his name. He was asked for an obscene amount of money to build a new stadium. If you don't know Key Arena has been well, now it's called Climate pledge arena, but I still call it hearing. That place has been home of the Seattle SuperSonics, the Seattle storm, the WNBA team, and many other concerts events. Since the late 60s, it has been the home of Seattle basketball, a lot of drooly games. There's normally the Clippers normally come up for the preseason, it is a staple of the culture or My hometown is gearing and Now luckily, the Kraken are there to give it more life with its new renovation. So because of this lack of basketball in my early childhood, or lack of exposure because of a lack of a team, my dad would take me to games take me to baseball games. So baseball became really my first love. It was the sport that I would read magazines about it was the sport that I would obsessively know every batting average of every Seattle mariner. Like I'm talking about for you knuckle just an actual just Dustin Ackley, Justin smoke.

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The guy Gutierrez, who my mom had a crush on anybody. I knew all their stats. And so baseball was you know, the sport that I first fell in love with. I played I started playing at a very young age, and

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baskets, basketball didn't really become a major part of my life. Until probably 20. It depends on what you would categorize as major but I would say around 2012 13 ranges when I really started to dive into it. But before that, I started casually watching the game in 2009, which if you guys don't remember was LeBrons first MVP. And I remember if I'm not mistaken in 2009, I was living in Belfair. And I was watching I would watch games on this TV in our living room. It was a weird house. It was like three stories. In the first story it was it was a weird house. I'm having trouble kind of remembering what it was. But I would always watch sports and living room TV. And since I was born in 2003 I never got to see Michael Jordan. I never I mean prime depending on what you think Prime Kobe is. I didn't get to see him. Unless you think Prime Kobe is 2009 1011 which so I did see him so as a kid in 2009 You know, my favorite baseball player was Felix Hernandez pitcher for the mariners. He was my favorite. I when I pitched him baseball, I modeled my delivery after him. But in terms of basketball, you really had four options in 2009 because the league was fairly talented back then, but it wasn't where it is now. So the four options when you're a kid, during this time as Kobe Bryant, LeBron Chris Paul or Dwight Howard, those are your options. I decided to pick two. I decided to pick LeBron and CP as my guys. And they were my guys throughout the 2010s. And admittedly, in the 2009 10 season, which was the first year I started actually watching games. With my dad, I wasn't fully enamored and fascinated with LeBrons game until probably 2012. And when I say enamored what I really mean is the way that he can drive to the basket. His strength power speed it just as a child, when you watch that on TV and mind you that I got to I was a kid, when I saw peak athleticism, LeBron and when you see that as a child, you're like damn like nobody else moves like this guy, no other basketball player can take a ball from baseline to baseline, and go in four seconds, and gave the either a layup or dish it out for somebody else to score. And that component there, the dish out. Number one, I don't think he gets enough credit for kind of making that play popular. The driving kick. Now you see every team in the league does driving kicks. Who do you think started though they weren't doing driving kicks in the 90s. When they did driving kicks, it was driving kick to the center, or driving kick to since you know, I'm from Seattle, Sam Perkins from 15 feet. That was a driving kick. But LeBron was an innovator in that sense where he was the first not only first point forward, but the first guy to utilize his sign its size and strength. And say, because I'm such a dominant force, I'm going to drive the basketball, draw to and kick out for three. Now the concept of drawing to low basketball nerd hear the concept that the whole point of, of playing basketball at the end of the day is trying to to the ball. That's the main goal. That's why back in the day centers were so important, because if you had a camouflage one on the block, he could draw to in any given possession. And that meant open shots for Kenny Smith them and open shots from Vernon Maxwell Robert Henri excetera. But what changes is how you draw to see that, that that has been the standard since the 40s. George Mikan draw too. But the way in which you do it, is what the evolution of basketball is. And so when you saw LeBron at six foot nine 250 pounds, drive to the basket, you could only you can only help but send two or three people because he's gonna get an easy layup if you don't do it, which allows for corner threes, which is the best shot in basketball. So that's why I was so just wowed by his game. And I also thought it was really cool that he could get 27 points, nine assists and eight rebounds. And it felt like he had a bad game. There are numerous times when I would watch LeBron play. And it'd be like Damn, he hasn't really done much. And then you check the box score is like oh, he had 35. Oh, people talking about that for Kevin Durant. But LeBron is kind of similar, especially in his private Miami. He was very similar to that. You know, even though he may not look like Kevin Durant, it might not be as smooth. But you still getting 30 put on you. And like I said earlier the first year I really started diving into basketball was the 2012 13 season, which perfectly coincides with the year after LeBron won his first championship against OKC, which I vividly remember my dad and I've been very happy about because our the entire area just hated the thunder for good reason. And that was the year 2013 Where LeBron was at his peak physically. And the Heat won 66 games. Now obviously, as a small child, I didn't have the best so the only time I would watch NBA games would be on ESPN, or ABC or TNT. So getting to watch the heat and also, you know, in the springtime, I was playing baseball. So being able to watch the heat was like a treat. I got the rhyme there. It was like a it was like an early Christmas gift. It was like now I get to watch LeBron D Wade and Bosh today. You know, this is good day. And you go through the season and Miami beats Indiana, which a lot of people don't give Indiana a lot of credit for how hard they used to play the eat. But I tell my friends all the time. I'm like the 2013 title is my favorite. And the reason it's my favorite one is because it was the first time I've ever witnessed someone that I was rooting for win a title. So that had something to do with it. The second part of it was it was my first time really watching a full season and fully digesting I mean, I'm nine years old. So I'm not breaking down tape and stuff like that. But you get the point. You guys know if you're sports fans, you can remember, maybe not the Pacific Pacific, the specific here, but you can remember a moment in time when you're like, I'm officially a fan of the sport and that was that year. So that had something to do with it. Experiencing the 27 game win streak had a lot to do with it. Because that was a lot of fun going to school and you know, my friends be like, we kicked Joe, Joe. And looking back at that point in my life, and you kind of get nostalgic because you think to yourself, like Damn I was I was living when it came to my favorite sports, which now are basketball and football. Because I went from my fair player winning a title in 2013. To the Seahawks beating the dog out of the Broncos, which only my family knows the story but I fell asleep in the third quarter. I was like 10 years old. I was on my grandfather's leather couch and I was just asleep in the third quarter after Percy Arvind returned the touchdown. And then the Cavs winning again in 2016. So there was like there's a four year stretch where my favorite teams and players were winning a lot. So it was a lot of fun. And I get nostalgic about that era a lot. But back to that 2013 finals. What also makes it my favorite is that the Spurs were seen as this unbeatable juggernaut in the finals. You know, they had never lost in the championship series to that point. They had beat the Knicks and 99 the nets and oh three, the pistons and oh five and the Cavs and oh seven and that was their first trip back to the finals I believe since oh seven. But San Antonio, you know for people that might be younger than me. They had this like I don't know how to describe it. They had this like pristine reputation for never, you know, choking in big games. They just never did. They always were sound and perfect. And beating them in a big game was basically like the equivalent of winning 10 in a row in the regular season. Because you know that Gregg Popovich and Tim Duncan and God, Tony Parker, we're going to find a way to win the game every single time. Don't let it be a four point game in the fourth quarter with three minutes left because the Spurs are going to win the game. Don't Don't let it get close. So when San Antonio got up three two and they got up by five with 20 seconds left. My nine year old self was like Well damn, LeBron just lost again. You know, I have to luckily the finals that game was right after school was out I believe so I didn't have to like go to school and you know, get bullied. Not bullied, but you know what I mean? Which mattered to me back then a lot. But just that whole sequence, blast 28 seconds you know Kawhi missing free throws LeBron hitting I believe he hit a to eat a layup with about 20 seconds left to cut it to three. And that round shot back

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the basket James catches puts up a lot to go back out to his three seconds remaining scores to not on a timeout

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just solidified everything that that team was about because people see that it's LeBron Wade and Bosh. And it's the big three and it's a bunch of pro players after that. But that 2013 team was deep as hell. The Edge Shane Battier we had Ray Allen, we had Birdman who Birdman might be a drop off from that, but it's still Birdman. We have Mike Miller that he team was loaded with talent. And the fact that the heats six the best player was the one that tied the game and sent it over time. And he goes on to win was just it was textbook. It was beautiful that one of the nine big three members is credited with Winning the 2013 title. But if we fast forward a few years, I know I just probably spent eight minutes on 2013. But it's I just wanted to emphasize that it was my favorite. Fast forward a couple years he loses to the Spurs he loses to the warriors, who kind of came out of nowhere at this point. The 2016 title. Now that 101 was special to me in a different way. Because 2020 1516 season was the first year I became an NBA junkie. It was the first this might sound juvenile but this was the first 2k that I played the living hell out of. I didn't have a ps4 yet. I had a ps3. And I played the 2k 16 ps3 version for probably about 700 hours. Like that was the first year I was obsessed with basketball. And before that, I would just watch the games and just absorb everything. But that year was the first year where I said I'm going to know everything about history. I'm going to just absorb all this knowledge. And this is going to be my favorite sport. 2016 was also the first year I got basketball shoes. I begged my I think it was my grandfather to get him from a birthday with his Jordan sevens. Now, it's funny because you know, I'm a LeBron fan. So while you're enjoying the blue ball, I'm actually never gonna wear Jordans again because that logo is synonymous with a really bad memory of mine. I tore a ligament in my ankle is kind of sidetrack but I tore a ligament in my ankle in those shoes. And a lot of it had to do with the fact of how tight the the ankle supports were. And so any sudden movement you're cooked and there's this kid named King Kincaid at rich taught middle school in seventh grade that fell on my ankle when it was already sprained. So I'll never forgive you by the way. Ever. Jeff why? It's okay though, because he was a Falcons fan and they blew 28 to three the next year, so he got his karma. But speaking of friends, although Kincaid wasn't a friend, speaking of people, I went to school with that whole 1516 year a lot of people at my school were big warrior fans. Because, you know, the Sonics obviously didn't exist. And Portland wasn't that good. In that year, they went like 41 and 41 LaMarcus Aldridge had just left so that the Portland wasn't that good. It was just the Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum show, because that your CJ were most improved. So they weren't, they weren't that good. So most of my friends were all your fans. And the finals were happening during kind of the end of year in elementary school is when I was in sixth grade when that happened. And if you you know, if you remember elementary school, that June, kind of late part of the year is always the best time here. That's when you get extended recesses. You're not doing anything in class, you might take like one test at end of May, but whatever. So it was good times, man. You just mean a 12 year old kid watching the NBA Finals in your living room. And when golden state it was a similar feeling, not to the Spurs necessarily, but it was a similar feeling when the Warriors got up three one. And it was like damn, he's gonna lose again. At that point, his finals record would be two and five if he had lost. And my debates I would have my friends at school for with Lebron over MJ. And again, debates at school were like the most important thing in my life at that point. Simple times, right. That was going to be tainted. I wasn't going to be able to make the argument because he would have got beat by gold and say back to back years. But when they found a way to pull that off, I vividly remember where I was when the block happened.

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The offensive wanted to leave. Urban drives hot stuff inside post, Mrs. freeguild taken by the doll in a curry back to

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Gamestop When I was sitting in my living room it was a winter's roadhouses when I was living in Bremerton, and my think my mom and my sister went to sleep. And I was watching game seven. And when the block happened, I just froze. And it was my first ever out of body experience watching a basketball game. And I take that statement very seriously. Like that was like, holy. I didn't understand the, because at the time, you don't know, I didn't know that the Cavs were gonna win. Obviously, I'm not a time traveler, my Doctor Who. So at the time, I'm like, Oh my God, but I don't realize the cultural and the overall magnitude of that play in the moment, it's impossible to realize it. And when Kyrie hit the shot, with about 58 seconds left. I remember being really excited, but still locked in on the TV like I can't lose focus, because we could still lose. And when LeBron had the free throw, and even the Lebron free throws scared out of me when he hurt his wrist, if you guys remember that, but when he Draymond foul them, and he hurt his wrist, and he was doing wrist inflections at the law, I was terrified. I was like, Oh, God, he's gonna miss both of them. But luckily, he was able to make one. And when Maury spade shot that, and the shot was long, I ran around my house. It was a it was it was kind of a large, it was a small house, but it was a large living space. And I just ran around that in circles for like 10 minutes. And even though again, bragging at school was really important. I couldn't do it, because we were out then. But that was one of the happiest moments I've been at as a sports fan. And I experienced my dad picking me up and twirling me in a circle as the Seahawks won the Super Bowl. And I wanted to give you guys those two moments. Because to me, it sounds weird to people that don't understand. But to sports fans, sometimes, especially when you're young, you cling on to players that you love. And whenever you go through hard times. And whenever you're sitting in your bed and you're 13 years old, and you're thinking about normal, 13 year old bulls, and all this, you can look at a poster of your favorite player and be like everything's okay. And you can use them almost like a sanctuary. So I would like to thank and he's not listening. But this was just inspired by his efforts against the clippers on Wednesday. And I felt that it was important because he's nine points away from 40,000. I wanted to thank LeBron for helping me through. You kind of giving me a pair of social relationship that I never had before that. Now giving inspiration to kids like me who in middle school, and in the beginning of high school, I didn't have any direction. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And you helped me through that. Even though you don't know you did, you did. And so, Neil, despite anyone's opinions on LeBron, and I know it sound like I just did 28 minutes and 22 seconds of glazing. But I don't give a because at the end of the day, despite your opinions on LeBron, in terms of how he plays the game, you know, his comments on social justice issues, statements about China. Or maybe you're one of those people that thinks he's pushing his son too hard. I might be one of those people. But despite all that, there's one thing about him that cannot be denied is that LeBron James is without a doubt the goat of our generation. And it's been a pleasure witnessing it. And hopefully we get to see more. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. Thank you all so much for listening to this episode of the basketball IQ podcast. And Remember kids, it's all about

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you

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