Welcome to Pinser Basketball. We're going to talk really quickly about everybody counting the Toronto Raptors out. People laughing right now at any idea that the Toronto Raptors could stretch this to seven. Now, I want to, of course, as I often do, lay some caution here. I've been doing a lot of research on the Cleveland Cavaliers in anticipation for our season preview or series preview dropping tomorrow ahead of Saturday's a Saturday afternoon's 1pm match up against the Cavaliers Raptors at Cavaliers game one. And again, most of the pundits have spoken. Everyone has levied out their, you know, contender rankings. Who are the best teams going into the playoffs? I don't hear a single person talking about the Raptors. Nobody that I know of. If you know somebody, you let me know in the comments. Who is that person? And I will go and dap them up and give them a high five. Nobody has picked the Raptors to win this series. ESPN went uh 12 for 12 for the Cavaliers. No Dunks just released their uh rankings right now in their predictions. They went three for three Cavaliers. Everyone is either Cavaliers in five or Cavaliers in six. If you like the Toronto Raptors, Cavaliers in six.

I talked to a lot of Raptor fans yesterday. Shout outs to those of you who showed up to the screening of Aml. I got a chance to pick a few of your brains in terms of what you thought. I'm surprised to say even a lot of you are picking the Cavaliers in five or six. If you're a super super like Scotty BI truther, you're like maybe in seven, you know, the Raptors will push him to seven. And I hear all of that. Something that I've been doing in anticipation for making the preview tomorrow is I've also been paying attention to the other side. I've been paying attention to Cavaliers podcast. What are they talking about? What are the talking points? I'm listening to their media huddles. I'm listening to what is the pulse on that team. I want to be clued in on what's happening on both sides. Of course, if you didn't catch it today, the Toronto Raptors released the media availability. It's a full 44 minutes with Sandre Melishi, Dark Ory, uh Brandon Ingram, whole bunch of people spoke with the media I think yesterday. Jacobe spoke, Scotty spoke. A lot of quotes have been delivered from the that [ __ ] don't matter, Scotty Barnes. that one. Dark Aryakovich proclaiming that Scotty Barnes's game is built for the playoffs. Colin Murray Boils letting it slip, that Scotty will be guarding guards. There's a lot you can pick up from what people are talking about because you're talking to these people right as they come out of a practice. And one of the things that has come out of the Cavaliers is that last year we were overprepared for the playoffs. We put too much energy into the regular season. They were the number one uh they were the number one seed. Uh what's up, Alex Waves? What's up? What is going on, RJ? Huh? Sorry. I'm naturally assuming that something is wrong with my audio cuz you're saying something. Rob, you're trying to get my attention. What's up? Anyways, when these guys are coming right out of practice, they're being asked questions about the series. They're going to give you answers that were like likely reflective of what they were talking about in practice. So, Colin Murray Bole is coming out and saying that you see that video of Scotty getting pressed. I'm going to highlight this to talk about it later. Yes, I Yes, I did see that video and I I do have some thoughts about how to handle certain situations like that going forward. I will also tell you why T-Mac was laughing, why Tracy McGrady was laughing at my uh Yes, R.J. spoke as well. Yes. So, a lot of people have spoken on what and what they're thinking and of course Colin Mary Bole's talking about like how Scotty's going to be guarding guards is making me think is Darko actually going to take the suggestion that I had of putting Scotty on Donovan Mitchell and I also have my fingers crossed that he he will not be guarding James Harden and that assignment will go to RJ Barrett. Nevertheless, listening to the Cavaliers, it seems like there's this belief in Cleveland that they have a switch that they're going to turn on, that their defense has been one way and they're going to just play better defense now. Big if true. Big if true.

Now, why are people dismissing the Raptors? There is one really, really good reason that the Toronto Raptors are being dismissed and I will tell you what that reason is right now and why it might be being overblown right now. If How about you guys? You tell me why you believe why you believe that the Toronto Raptors are being underrated right now. What is it specifically? I'll give you some multiple choice. their record against the best teams in the league. Your lack of belief in Scotty Barnes, Brandon Ingram as star players, your overbelief in their experience or their talent level, their guard play. Your belief perhaps that their coach is more experienced than your coach. Shooting. Okay, that's that's a pretty good answer. I guess Canada is a terrible answer. All of the above. They're young. Okay. I mean, they're not that young. Okay, I'll tell you what. I've asked this question of a lot of people and a lot of people came back to me with an answer. Well, look what happened when they feast when they face the best teams. I'm going to give you a number, a stat that everyone is missing. That is the title of this show. And I'm going to explain to you why that stat is so important for the Tron Raptors. This is not a hook. This is not bait. I promise you this stat is incredibly important and I don't feel like anyone else was talking about this before I brought it up on Twitter yesterday or the day before. The Toronto Raptors have 46 wins. 46 wins. Okay, keep that number in mind. Do not guess if you already know the answer from my tweet. But if you don't know, I want you to guess how many of those 46 wins came against the top eight defenses in the NBA. I'm going to give you the names of the top eight defenses in the NBA. One you can wipe out right away cuz we never played the Toronto Raptors. So you can wipe that out. So it's just seven teams. Minnesota Timberwolves, Houston Rockets, OKC Thunder, Boston Celtics, New York Knicks. O, you think we got 14 wins against the top eight defenses? You think we got 18? Okay, let's start from the top. OKC, Detroit, Boston, New York, Minnesota, Houston, San Antonio. Those are the seven top seven defenses not named Toronto Raptors. 30. Are y'all kidding? Eight. Oh my goodness. Y'all are going to be very sad. 10 wins. Six wins. You're all wrong. Five. Go lower. Go lower. You are wrong, too. This is the correct answer. The Toronto Raptors won a grand total of two games against the top eight defenses. It is two. It is not four. It is not three. It is two. Two games. Those games were Oh my goodness. Zero. Come on. You don't remember us beating OKC. You don't remember us beating Detroit. We got swept by Minnesota. We got swept by Houston. We got swept by San Antonio. No big deal. All West. We split with OKC. Although, granted, whatever. We beat them with Shay, right? Shay played that game. Uh, haha, man. You set that up like it would be higher than expected. Yes, I manipulated you as I hope that Scotty Barnes will manipulate this [ __ ] defense. This number, two wins, 18 losses. Two wins, 18 losses. SGA did play. Sheay did play that game. It was a barn burner down close. And I will remind you that Kade also played for the Pistons when we beat them. We We lost to the Pistons without Kade. Isaiah Stewart did not play. However, this 21 and 18 number has basically been used to dismiss the Toronto Raptors. All year, all year, the Toronto Raptors faithful have waited for this team to get a win against a healthy, good team, and it never came. However, what is most important here is people keep saying good teams as if all good teams are great defenses, and they are not. The Atlanta Hawks are a good team. They had 46 wins. They are not a great defense. They are not a top eight defense. The Phoenix Suns are narrowing, I think, top 10, but they're not top eight. This top eight number is very important to me critically and it's going to I'm going to expand on why that is. But would you like to guess? Okay, let's play this guessing game again. We're we're doing well with this. Okay. Would you like to guess where the Cleveland Cavaliers are as a defense? I I did not mention them in the top eight. So, let's just rule out 1 through eight. Would you like to take a guess where the Cleveland Cavaliers are defensively? Do not cheat. Do not look. 14th is wrong. That is wrong. It's very close. 18th. You know what? Before I quiz this, I should probably ask, no, they're not. They're 15th. This is correct. They are 15th. Would you like to take a guess where they were after the All-Star break where their roster significantly changed and they added James Harden? right here, 18th. So, please tell me why the Toronto Raptors two and two and 18 record against the top eight defenses should scare me when they are facing what is prohibitively considered a bad defense and the 18th ranked defense. Everybody who says, "But they got Jared Allen and Evan Mobley, and when those two play, things get scary for other teams." Not so much. Not Not really the case. I'll give you some more stats. The defensive rating that Scotty Barnes and CMBB have is better than the defensive rating that Evan Mobley and Jared Allen have. This is just not a great defensive team this year.

Now, the reason that you listen to these Cavaliers practices and you you you know hit up people who are close to the situation and just say, "Hey, what's the pulse on this team? How are they feeling?" There's a sense of excitement in Cleveland. They want to get James Harden in his first ring. They are thinking championship or bust. That is their goal. Every conversation in Cleveland right now is championship. Every conversation is in Toronto right now, not from the players, but from the media, from the outsiders, is just go out there and don't embarrass yourself. Just show up and be competitive. I will say this though, the Toronto Raptors are 44 and 18 against non-top eight defenses. Yes, they did lose to the Sacramento Kings. Yes, they almost lost to the Brooklyn Nets. Yes, they also lost to the [ __ ] Washington Wizards, but this team for the most part has been about 7,400 in terms of their win loss percentage against the middle of the pack teams. They're exact number is 71. You can obviously every single year you can say there's three games that just get away and they have no implication. You burn the tape. Sacramento is one of those games. There's other games where the Raptors were super depleted, injury, injury riddled, whatever. I believe that the Raptors are roughly a 7500 win team against non- top eight defenses. Now, I want to explain to you why that is so important. The Raptors best player is Scotty Barnes. This is hopefully not news to you, but if it is, welcome to the show. Their best player has offensive limitations. I will remind you he is probably at this point a better offensive player than Paulo Beno. Whether you agree or not, go watch the last two games. There's no way in hell Scotty would ever piss the bed as badly as Paulo has in the last two games. But I will say and he's a better jump shooter this year than Paulo. People don't understand that. He's a better mid-range scorer than Paulo. He's a better finisher than Paulo. What does Paulo do better? He's a way better defender than Paulo. What does Paulo do better? But nevertheless, Scotty's isolation efficiency got so much better this year. There's a point about his passing which is like really a superpower of Scotties. He's a great playmaker. Everyone talks about it in Toronto. Brandon Ingram today when asked what do you think Scotty Barnes can do at the next level, he says he sees passes we don't see. The thing about great passers is they're also usually great manipulators. Scotty is not a great manipulator in the sense that he cannot manipulate the floor before he makes the pass. He can only manipulate the pass. Bear with me for a second. Luca can change pace on his dribble, fake a jump shot, all as a means of opening up a driving lane. This is not the level to which Scotty has achieved mastery. Luca can collapse the paint on a live dribble, change pace, bump the defender, get to the line. This is not the level of mastery that Scotty has achieved in isolation. He's good at attacking weaker mismatches, and he's very good at it. He's improved his mid-range shooting, but the bulk of his assists come off of the defense's mistakes. Luca forces the defense to make mistakes. Scotty observes the mistakes and threads the needle. There is a big difference between these two levels of passers. I think this is good. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. This is a good idea. Although I think Ricky Rubio was a lot more manipulative. I don't think Ricky is getting enough credit. But Scotty is a masterful pastor. But there's a difference between I caused the breakdown versus I saw the breakdown and then I quickly thread the pass before anyone notices it's coming and ooh la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la I'm a great passer. Frequent critics of Scotty Barnes as a point guard will always bring up his inability to manipulate the defense off the live dribble like a Luca, like a Cade, like an Anthony Edwards, like a even Steph Curry potentially, which is why he often gets the Draymond comparisons because Draymond is also this way. Draymond is very not not necessarily manipulative. He is almost always existing off of the gravity and exploiting the gaps. You will often see Draymond will absolutely punish defensive weaknesses but is sometimes unable to generate a weakness within the defense, penetrate a weakness, exploit a weakness. So Scotty's inability to do this limits Toronto's upward ability against better teams. The second part of this is that the Toronto Raptors probably more than most exploit the fact that their third best scorer is usually better than the third best wing defender. Most teams, and I've and I said this in the preseason as well, there are very few teams in the league that are equipped to guard both Scotty Barnes and Brandon Ingram and then also somehow contain RJ Barrett. This is I don't want to call it a three-headed monster at the risk of sounding, you know, insane, but it is a very hard trio to stop all in single coverage. If you're going to go single coverage, if your best defender is on Brandon Ingram, which in most cases probably should be the case, and you're not going to double, that in and of itself is a problem because Brandon Ingram can take most teams best defenders and still give you an average night. So if you want to force him to become a playmaker, now R.J. and Scotty are very activated. If you are going to put your best defender on Scotty Barnes, which is also in certain cases probably the right choice because he is really good at exploiting weak defenders. So you want to put a really competent defender on him. Otherwise, he's going to pick you pick you apart and you're gonna have to send double teams because he's so physical and he's so strong. There just aren't a lot of players that can guard him. He has center strength and he has wing skills. So, it's just hard to you can't really put a big on him. He'll bring he'll bring him out, beat him off the dribble. You can't really put a small on him. He'll put him in the post. So, typically, you need to put a very average to above average defender on Scotty Barnes. So, if you're keeping count at this point, that means a really good tall wing stopper with sufficient height and length is on Brandon Ingram. And another above average, sizable defender is on Scotty Barnes. So the question becomes, if you're not a top eight defense, who are you putting on RJ Barrett? Where is your gap help? How are you able to help on the roller? Are one of your bigs preoccupied doubling, thus opening the package for a path for RJ Barrett or Yakob Purle or Emanuel Quickley or one of the slew of finishers the Raptors have. And this is the complication for all of those teams that are not top eight defenses. Consider the teams in the top eight and consider the players I'm talking about. Steph Castle, Carter Bryant, Harrison Barnes, Victor Wyama. Okay, Darren Fox, like we got a lot of good defenders in San Antonio. Consider the defensive personnel and the rolodex of options that the OKC Thunder have. Kase Wallace, Lou Dort, Alex Caruso. Those three alone are great matchups. What about what about the Minnesota Timberwolves? They got Rudy Gobar inside cleaning everything up, limiting the drives. Rudy Gobear being inside that defensive anchor. Of course, I forgot Chad Homegrren. Chad Homegrren being inside. Rudy Gobear plus Jaden McDaniels now plus IO Dumu plus Dante Denzo who is no slouch on that end. You got a lot. You got a lot. So, even Houston, Amen Thompson, Jab KD's all right. You had Steven Adams for most of the season. You got some pretty good good wing defenders. You got some size. You got some physicality. You got length across the board. Reed Shepard's not bad. I think people pick on him a little too much. So, these teams all have these like multiple options. The question should not be who is stopping Scotty Barnes on this team. That's not necessarily the right question to ask. It's not even who is stopping Brandon Ingram. The question is, if you're stopping Brandon Ingram and Scotty Barnes, who is stopping RJ Barrett? Who is stopping Emanuel Quickley? And who is stopping Yaka Purle? Who is stopping Jak uh Sandra Mikalesi? Who is stopping CMBB? Who is stopping Jacobe Walter? You're going to have to put one of your weaknesses. And now in cross matches, if the Raptors run, who is stopping transition? Who is stopping the paint? The the Cavaliers have this idea that they're going to turn turn a switch on defensively. I'll make a bold prediction. If they don't turn that switch on defensively, they will lose this series. As much as the Toronto Raptors need to play fast, be physical, avoid foul trouble, have their stars show up, not let the lights be too bright, rebound the basketball. There's so many so many things. Hit their three-pointers, pray that Jacobe remains on the heater that he's on. They have defensive versatility across the board. And they have like these really switchable defenders that offer a very unique thing. Jared Allen cannot just guard RJ Barrett on the perimeter. He is hampered by, you know, knee tendonitis right now. If Evan Mobley is guarding RJ Barrett, then RJ Barrett has a sufficient amount of driving playmaking ability to exploit that matchup. And at at the very least, the Raptors offense is going to find cutters at the rim behind uh Evan Mobley. I think this combination, and I've talked about this before, of dribble, pass, shoot, create, even if it's not perfect, even if no one player on this team has the offensive ceiling of an Anthony Edwards or the heart attack of a Steph Curry or the dynamicism and efficiency and proficiency of a Jokic or Sheay, even if you lack that level of shot creator, you do have problems, man. Trying to guard RJ Barrett with your third best defender or trying to guard Scotty Barnes with your third best defender when you're already not a great defensive team is bad news. Kade Cunningham would be one of their best perimeter defenders. He's probably the fifth or fourth best defender in He's the fifth best defender in Detroit starting lineup. That's why Detroit is so good. In fact, if you want a tale of two teams, by the way, the Detroit Pistons probably have the best net rating against the top teams. They get no credit. I am picking Detroit to go poof all the way. I very much think that they can go all the way to the finals or at the very least they'll be a very hard out for Boston. I I really like the Pistons. I really do. This is no This is no pandering to Pistons fans for all the, you know, Lade takes. This is my genuine opinion. Maybe they're too young. Maybe their shots don't fall. Fine. My eyes tell me this team has proved it all year. They're a really, really good basketball team when it counts. The Raptors are not The Raptors are not a good team against the best teams, which only matters if you actually face the best teams. You're not facing the best team here, at least not one that has proven to be one of the best teams. And I believe that if the Raptors advance past this level, they will probably get stomped out in the second round. I'm not picking the Raptors to win in the second round. If there's a team out there that actually beat Detroit, they're probably going to beat you, too. And if the team that wins is Detroit, I'm going to pick Detroit. I'm sorry. I'm going to pick Detroit to win the next series. no implication on my take on Scotty Cade. Who's better? That has nothing. And by the way, to those wondering why did T-Mac laugh at your boy? He laughed because Players Choice released a reel in which Mars Talk Sports asks me if Scotty Barnes would be the best player on certain teams and I listed way more teams than anyone on Earth is willing to accept. I said he was better than Cade and I said he was on the same level as Anthony Edwards. And people think this is a bridge too far. If you're wondering which players I said Scotty would not be the best player, which team Scotty would not be the best player on, in case you didn't catch that clip, I said Philly if Embiid is healthy. The Bucks if Giannis is healthy, the Cavaliers because of Donovan Mitchell, not because of James Harden, San Antonio, OKC, Denver, and I think I had like two more teams. two more teams. I I think I pick Golden State, Steph Curry, still a better player. I think I pick Kevin Durant over him, and I pick Kawawaii over him. Basically, 10 10 players. There's like 10 team 10 teams in the league that I think Scotty would not be the best player. You know what? Comments like this used to really make me mad. They don't make me mad anymore at all. You You are You said KD and shame on you. Why shame on me? You don't think Kevin Durant's a better player than Scotty Barnes right now? It's hard to It's hard to make the case. AG2K26 said, "Scotty will [ __ ] expose all these idiots. I'm so confident the bright lights of the playoffs will unleash him." One person agrees with you. That's Dark Ory. He says, "Oh, Tatum. I was asked Boston Celtics without Tatum, so I picked him over Jaylen Brown. There you go. Yeah, I I I do think Kevin Durant's a little bit better. You can disagree with that. You know what? Honestly, like I think the shooting alone changes everything and KD is no slouch on defense, but I could see a world in which Scotty could be a the best player. That's okay. Yeah. So, T-Mac laughed at that, which is funny to me. Do you know why it's funny to me? Because in my head, I thought to myself, I know with very very much confidence that Scotty Barnes is going to get out of the first round by the age of 25. Oh, I also I also picked Luca over him. I'm sorry. Yes, the Lakers as well. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. So, 11. Why were people trying to tell me that that that I only picked nine? I clearly picked 11. Uh, I will answer this question in a moment as well. I'm starring certain questions as we go just to address them towards the end so I can get past my point. I think the Raptors have a ceiling where if you have sufficient wing length defense, and it's not really the it's not their defense that's a problem. The Raptors defense has shown up against better teams. It has been good at limiting star players. We have seen Scotty give a lot of trouble to Donovan Mitchell. We've given trouble to Nicola Joic before. We've we've man, we have had good game plans for star players. If the Toronto Raptors are going to be deficient in any way, or if they have been deficient in many ways against these top teams, it's been their inability to score against top teams. But it's the top eight defenses that give you so many problems. They they limit transition where the Raptors get a bulk of points. The Cavaliers do not limit transition. They're a slow team. Are they going to change that in the playoffs? I don't know. But I think Scotty can run this [ __ ] down their throats. I think that Scotty and BI, if BI BI got a ton of transition points against this team when he had 37 points. I think there was a stat that Samson brought up where he said like the bulk of transition threes that Brandon Ingram got were this year were against the Cavaliers. They don't do well in they don't do well in transition. As good as I think Dean Wade is, as good as I think Keon Ellis is, you can't play all these guys and still keep up your rim defense plus keep up your perimeter offense. So, you're going to have to play James Harden and Donovan Mitchell a bulk of minutes. And one of those guys is going to have to guard RJ Barrett. One of them is going to have to guard RJ Barrett or Scotty Barnes. And whoever that is, the Raptors just need to find it and keep mismatch hunting. It's not really mismatch hunting as in calling for a switch. It's mismatch hunting within the flow of the offense, swinging the ball side, top side, as I mentioned in the in yesterday's show or the day before, whenever yesterday's show, and exploiting whoever has the hot end. And this is where I think it's actually to the Raptors favor that they maybe don't have a definitive go-to mega scorer. Nobody on this team scores over 23 points per game. Not one player, not Brandon Ingram, not Scotty Barnes, not RJ Barrett. And maybe that will change in the playoffs as you know Brandon Ingram and RJ Barrett maybe or even Scotty Barnes feel more of a pressure to put the cape on and you know assert their scoring. There's another thing that I would say which is the Cavs aren't the only team that has another gear defensively. The Raptors also have another gear defensively. I'll remind you three of their most positive defenders have played very few games where they've all been healthy. That would be Yak Purle. I know people hate YaKob right now, but please believe me, he's still a relatively positive defender. Colin Murray Boils, when he's not switching out 28 feet from the basket and getting crossed by Ben Sif, he's fine. Colin Murray Boils and Scotty Barnes, these three create a defensive floor for rim protection, gap help, nail help, and solid positioning. A rotation with these three players plugs up a ton of gaps as long as Jacobe ends up being still tenacious on the ball. R.J. commits to what he's doing. Emanuel Quickley. The Raptors don't have the levels of defensive liabilities that most other teams do. Even Brandon Ingram and RJ Barrett are, you know, for the most part willing to buy in. The only defensive liability on this team that is completely unplayable to the level of certain players on other teams is Grady Dick and he's out of the rotation. So, this doesn't matter. And Jameson Battle, who's also out of the rotation. Apart from those two guys, granted you could use Jameson shooting in this game, so maybe we'll see it in spurts. Sandro is a modestly decent defender. These guys commit. And don't don't underestimate their ability to also turn it up. Scotty has gears, bro. The Raptors had the best clutch defense in the NBA. He had the most clutch blocks in the NBA this year. A fact that has been true since the first quarter of the season. He himself had more clutch blocks at Allstar at the All-Star game. I checked this number. Scotty Barnes had more clutch blocks than certain teams did. What is the clutch? I'm sorry. Isn't this the clutch? Aren't we in the clutch right now? Isn't the playoffs Aren't the playoffs the clutch? The playoffs are the clutch. This is when the moment counts. And this is where Scotty can expend the legs and Brandon Ingram can expend the legs. You know what you can't do in the playoffs? You can't take T-Rex arms and turn them into something else. You can't just magically morph yourself into a good jump shooter. You can, however, rebound harder, which Scotty has already shown a propensity to do. You can drive harder and take more contact. You can initiate more contact. You can play harder defensively. You can run harder. You can sprint harder. You can cut harder. You can be executing. You can prepare better. These are all things that actually lend themselves into the Raptors actually being the team that can rise. Everyone is talking about the Cavaliers taking this other gear. Every time I bring up this number of 44 and 18, this post had a lot of traction in Cleveland Twitter. They just kept saying, "But Allen and Moy haven't played together." Hey man, by the way, the Cavaliers haven't been playing the greatest basketball or the greatest competition for a while now. I can't remember the last time they played a really great game against a really good team. The Raptors had to play, believe it or not, they had three to four games at the end of the season to just secure the playoffs. This is a team that is probably in better rhythm. Again, I'll caution you with this. When I was a young boy, one of the reasons that I was so wise among my age group was because my mother got me a book. A book that I have since gifted to my girlfriend and it was called Asop's Fables. Did anyone else check out Asop's Fables when they were growing up? Or was I the only one? Am I the only 30some year uh year old in here who got an Asop's Fable book? Asop's Fable was like Asop's Fables was such an interesting way to get the wisdom of life. It was a short story, another short, you know, two pages of of text, short story, big text, easy to read, and then at the end it's a moral. There you go. Yeah, there you go. I'm not surprised this community has read Asos Fables. You guys are pretty You know what, Darl? I wanted to do the same thing. Shout outs to you. That book is great. And in it, of course, there are the the tortoise and the hair. The tortoise and the hair is a great example, right? The Raptors are the tortoise. The hair is the Cavaliers. In very many ways, the Raptors have slow built this thing. They've been very, very meticulous. Even right now, everything coming out of the Raptors is we're focusing on us. Nobody, once again, nobody has declared that this series is going to be a win. Nobody has said we have another gear. we're going to turn it up another gear unless provoked or asked directly what's the next gear for Scotty blah blah blah. Nobody's like oh yeah we've been coasting all season because they haven't been coasting all season. Habits are weird when you become used to playing like here's the thing. I don't want to say this like to be rude, but the Cavaliers have a lot of losers on that team. There's like a losing DNA on that team. That's that's not me even being like disparaging or rude because they're very great players, but there's a lot of players on there that don't really strike me as like winning players. There's a lot of players on that team that I could swear will never win a championship. There are some winning players as well, but there's some disruptive personalities on that team. You got Dennis Schroeder on your team, bro. That dude has been on. Am I gonna lose Am I gonna lose some subscribers if I say Dennis Schroeder is the Jenna Jameson of the NBA? Is that going to lose me some subscribers? All right, peace y'all. So, Dennis Schroeder been around the block, my friends. Dennis Schroeder been around cuz he's a prickly personality. He was here for half a season. There's a reason you get moved a lot. Probably because you're an [ __ ] and nobody likes you. I actually talked to an NBA player a couple of weeks ago who actually played with Dennis four or five years ago. Said that dude, I used to hate when that guy walked into the locker room. I did not like Dennis the second I heard him talk. When when we first signed him, I was like, "Oh, I was kind of relieved we didn't sign Fred." But man, when I first heard that guy talk about himself being the leader, I was just like, "Oh god, we in for another one. Why is God testing me this way?" And then he finally leaves and we get [ __ ] we get we get DaVon Mitchell. Shout outs to DaVon for having 28 points the other day. Raptors media crashing out like, "Did we give up too fast on DaVon? Shut your ass up." No, we didn't. No, we didn't. He also gave up the game, too. Y'all such box score merchants. And shout outs to Mamu. Shout outs to Mamu and Darko calling out the casuals. Darko is talking about like people needs to do more film study on uh you know Scotty Barnes. Sandro is literally challenging all of Twitter right now to a basketball game because he's just like, "Oh, we got a lot of Twitter GMs." Yo, shout outs to these guys, man. Brandon Ingram said there's a lot of idiots online on social media. Cool. I agree. I completely agree. Now, now my team is speaking my language. I digress. Tortoise in the hair. Why is the tortoise successful in the end? To those who have not heard the tortoise in the hair, the the hair challenges the tortoise to the to a race. And of course, the tortoise continues to walk forward. Why do we got to knock on the door? That's weird. 9:00. Sorry. That That's weird. Give me one sec. Give me one sec. I mean, Hello. No pizza delivery, just the security delivering our condo budget. My bad. So, the tortoise and the hair. The tortoise continues to go. The hair is way ahead. The hair looks back at the tortoise and the tortoise is way behind it. And it's just like, you know what? I'm just going to rest my legs. I'll complete the race later. The tortoise falls asleep. Sorry. The hair falls asleep and the tortoise just keeps going. Go, go, go, go, go. And then the hair wakes up and the tortoise is finishing at the finish line. The hair loses the race. It's a little bit like the Toronto Raptors and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Raptors didn't make a big splashy all-star edition at the trade deadline. They also didn't hold back on their process. They continued to try and practice and play the right way. uh they they prepared more than anyone coming into this off season. Nothing was given, nothing was guaranteed. Goals have been very simple. They have been very laid out. They often tell you in goal setting, I know the goal setting that I'm talking about is not necessarily going out and winning an NBA championship in a team dynamic, but they often tell you when you want to achieve a goal, break it down into small pieces and accomplish it one at a time. If I if if I told you right now if you know how I know you know how I know when I'm talking to a loser, I ask them their goals. What do you want to do? If somebody says I want to launch a Fortune 500 company, I almost always have a follow-up question which will decidedly tell me like whether that person is a loser. If they sell and if I say what are you doing about that and they say I don't know, you don't start a Fortune 500 company out of nowhere. You got you got to take step by step. The Raptors have done this process. They've paid their dues. Kobe Bryant, I think there's a lot of players who have echoed this sentiment, but Steph Curry also echoes this. He says, "You earn your confidence with the work that you put in." The Raptors right now, they're very young. So, I understand that there should be an honest amount of skepticism. And if you're being if you're speaking about this in good faith and you're not just being a complete Homer, you know that it's possible that the Raptors could get completely swept. You could you told it it could happen. I doubt it happens, but it could happen. This team is young, inexperienced, unproven. They've never been to the playoffs together. Darko could be an abysmal playoff dropper. Uh Ingram or Quickly could completely sink you. There's a lot of things that can go wrong. You have a young, inexperienced bench. You're relying on three players who are in their first or second year. It's a lot. It's a lot that's going against you and you're already talent deficit, size deficit in the front court, injuries. So many things can go wrong for you and you're and you're the team that is way less experienced across the board, way less deep, way less shooting. There's so many things that can go wrong for you. I pointed to a lot of the things that can go right for the Raptors yesterday in terms of advantages schematically. nail passing, mid-range efficiency, all the things that can go right for the Raptors. Transition efficiency, but if we're being honest, yes, it's possible that the Raptors drop an egg and it's possible that Saturday the series starts and by next weekend we're looking at this series as potentially being over. This could be a really short ride. It could be a ride that ends in Toronto in game four or perhaps in Cleveland in game five. But I think if I'm being honest, I think there's a feeling that I get with this team that they're way more prepared for this moment than any team this young should be. When I listen to Jacobe Walter talk about how his biggest games have been in the brightest lights, I actually know that to be true cuz I've, you know, really done the research on him. He's not lying. That's actually true. he does show up in the big big moments. He's played really well against Houston given where he's from. That's a big game for him. I believe Scotty Barnes, you know, when he quietly says that [ __ ] don't matter about the underdog status because I've watched Scotty Barnes for 9 years now and it doesn't seem like it's ever bothered him. In fact, the brighter the moment, the brighter the Scotty. He always seems to get up for these really big games and that's how he's defined himself for his whole life. That's not a face he's putting on for the media. That's not political speech to hype up fans for season tickets or playoff tickets. That's literally his identity. That's who I know him to be. It's something I've talked about with him for the last 5 years. When he played Jason Tatum in his first, I think his second ever NBA game. Go back and watch that game. When he played LeBron as a rookie, go watch that game. LeBron was still one of the best six players in the world and still a decent defender at that point. When he played KD, go watch that game. Go watch that fourth quarter. Go when he's when he's up against Giannis. Go watch that game. This is a dude who for the last four years have been testing himself. When Brandon Ingram is asked by the media today, do you prefer to be doubled or single coverage? And his end result of that rambling response was basically, I'm at a point where it just doesn't matter to me. I believe him. These guys are weirdly prepared. They they they feel weirdly prepared. Even Sandra Mckeshi, who's never really played significant playoff minutes, has been on a playoff team but didn't get off the bench. He talked about his experience with, you know, with Georgia and how those games were elimination games. So, he understands possessions. What is this magical, oh, it's the playoffs. What happens in the playoffs? Possessions matter more. Discipline is more crucial. Effort and physicality go up a lot. Attention to details. But this team has already been doing this. I found it hilarious that for pretty much a week now, I've been talking about how everything the Raptors have been doing for 2 years, three years under Darko is trying to prepare them for this moment. And you know what's funny? Darko came out yesterday and said the exact same thing almost verbatim and it made me feel happy. It made me feel like ah I picked up on that. He's never really talked about that before to in any great degree of you know certainty because the Raptors have never made the playoffs under Darakovic. But it kind of got me thinking. I was like that was the plan. They've been playing this way. They they they experiment a lot. They they try these like really crazy lineups that drive regular season fans nuts because like why are you trying this? They they try different defenses. They try different coverages and the same thing and some of them don't make sense. But you're like oh I get it. You're building data for the playoffs. You play super hard. You play through tired legs so that you build up endurance for later in the season. And of course in the end my faith in the Toronto Raptors just comes down to this. I don't think they can stop Scotty Barnes. Whether it be Dean Way, James Harden, they just don't have a good match up for him. They just don't. And I know enough about Scotty in these big moments to know that when he gets going, the floodgates of this team are going to open up. Suddenly, Brandon Ingram, RJ Barrett, everyone is going to get going. And it doesn't matter how he gets going. He could get going in so many different ways at so many different positions. He could start at point guard. Legitimately, think about it this way. If I asked you to predict James Harden's box score in game one, you could probably do so with reasonable certainty. 21 points, 11 assists, four, five rebounds, a steal. That's fair. You could probably predict that. If I asked you to predict Donovan Mitchell's box score, five, four, 28, 32, you'd be right within a certain degree of accuracy. If I asked you to predict Yakob Purle 8 and 9, maybe 12 and 13, 16 and 16 and six, it's going to be right around that range. That's that's that's kind of the range that you're going to go in. Okay. Now, let's try to do Scotty Barnes. Which one of these box scores would surprise you? 32, 11, and 10. Surprise you? Nope. 14 points, 19 rebounds, 16 uh 16 assists. Does that surprise you? With four blocks, and two steals? Nope. Doesn't surprise me at all. What about five points, 16 rebounds, 22 assists? Does that surprise you? There's no box score with Scotty that's going to surprise me other than 50 points. Nothing. And that amount of malleability is problem solving in real time. You don't You have a plan. Every What's that? What's that Mike Tyson quote? Everyone's got a p Everyone's got a plan until they get punched in the face, right? You got a plan on how to stop Jared Allen, James Harden, pick and roll. It happens the first time, they go right over. happens the second time, goes right over. You have a plan on how to attack their defense. Clank, clank, clank, clank. How do you adapt? You keep doing the same thing. That's what the Magic did yesterday and they got smoked. The ability to solve problems in real time. I think the Raptors have some of the best problem solving brain trust in the NBA. I I don't even think that's gassing it. I think Ingram is getting better at this as the season has gone on, but I think RJ Barrett is a pretty good problem solver. I think Yaka Purle is a decent one. I think Sandro Meshili is a very decent one. I don't think Manuel Quickley is a very good problem solver at all. I think he just has too many hang-ups. Jamal Shed, Scotty Barnes, this entire team is like pretty good at adapting to things. And I think Scotty is that way too. If you put your best defender on him, he will be a playmaker. I guarantee you that. He's not going to attack Dean Wade with Evan Mobley as the low man all night long. Twitter fans be, "Damn, Scotty Barnes only had 12 points." He's not concerned about that. That egolessness from your star is brilliant because Scotty doesn't have a script.

Scotty is improv. I've often said Scotty is an art house film. Scotty is an improv art house film. He's writing it as he goes. He's like that gifted kid that walks into class having not attended all year and aces the exam. He's got a million counters. He's boy genius. That's who he is. He doesn't need a plan. He doesn't need a second plan, third plan. He's got all the information. I'm sure the coaches have given him a million bits of film to study. He's already a junkie when it comes to film study as it is. He probably understands intuitively the tendency. He understands the shell defense and what they want to do. But if it goes to [ __ ] he's one that's going to improvise. This is perfect. Scotty is jazz. That's what he is.

He doesn't need to score 14 points to fill up his heart. He doesn't care. He'll grab 22 rebounds. You think that's a role player tendency? I think that's a [ __ ] star tendency. Personally, cuz Jokic is the same [ __ ] way. If you do, Do y'all remember the game where the Clippers made this unbelievable decision to not guard Joic all night and he went off for 53 points against Ivita Zubas? Do y'all remember that? That was an experiment. The experiment, the conclusions, Jokic, one of the greatest scorers of all time. Don't try that [ __ ] again. There is no such thing as a jokerish stopper.

If you put Keon Ellis on Scotty Barnes, that is a that's a 6'4 dude. You can't stop him. If you put Dean Wade, I don't think he's fast enough to stop him. Honestly, if Scotty's got his legs under, I don't think you have I just don't think you have a matchup for him. And while I will concede that the Raptors don't necessarily have a great matchup for Donovan Mitchell, if Scotty Barnes guards Donovan Mitchell, I actually think the advantage is in your favor. Because if on the other end, Donovan Mitchell has to guard Scotty Barnes, he's putting him through the rim. Scotty is really good at that. He's gotten good enough with his handle. I don't know why this old take still exists. And Ingram, I just think I think this team just has a lot to prove, man.

So, look, this team has taken care of business all year long. Have they struggled against the top eight defenses? Hell yes, they have. Why? Because this team does not have a superstar offensive player. They may have a superstar impact player. We'll wait and see on Scotty Barnes. They certainly have an allstar offensive player in Brandon Ingram. They certainly have a starter level above average offensive player in, you know, Emanuel Quickley or even RJ Barrett or even Yaka Purle. But they don't have the superstar that can bend top level defenses. But the good thing is, as far as I know, you're not going to face one of those top level defenses until the second round.

So, this is where I'm at with the Raptors. I don't think the Experts really should be using their record against Detroit, San Antonio, Houston, OKC. I don't think you should use their record against those teams to discount what they can do against the Cavs. The Cavs are not those teams. The Cavs are talented. Yes. The Cavs have a better back court. Yes. Cavs have presumably better shooters and better shooting talent. All yes. But the Raptors have only ever really struggled. And by the way, the Raptors are really good at limiting three-point efficiency. Like most teams are worse at shooting against the Raptors or paint efficient. Like you didn't you didn't just become a top five defense like by accident. You earned this [ __ ]. And the fact that the Raptors have been shooting better from three lately, I'm sorry. Like everything I brought up yesterday is 100% true. This team has a real chance. So it could be over and four, but it could also swing in the Raptors favor. I realize I'm not I'm not offering like a definitive thing until tomorrow. I will give you my series prediction tomorrow, like a final definitive one, and I'm going to stick with it no matter how much it it kills me because my my my mind evolves every day. I'm just like, "Okay, I'm watching new film on this pick and roll. I'm like, how are we going to stop that?" Then I'm watching, you know, uh matchup data with Scotty and James Harden. I'm like, "Oh, that's how we're going to stop that." So, I'm just processing right now. I'm still working on this, but but tomorrow I will release like a definitive prediction. And I don't know which way I'm leaning right now, but honestly, I'm not leaning towards the Raptors losing in less than six.

And I think this is it. Like, you have to consider the possibility that when Yako Purle has played well, this team is so much better. This is it. BI struggles against Ludor. Cleveland doesn't have a Lud Door. Yeah, they don't have a wing defender that is a good matchup for either one of these three, much less all three of them. Dean Wade is probably your best bet. Dean Wade is not playing 48 minutes a night. I'm not suggesting use the data from the three games that the Raptors face the team as evidence or gospel, but let's just be honest. Yako Purle was not himself in the first month of the season, if he played at all in those games. I don't remember exactly. CMBB was not himself. You added James Harden. Cool. We added Yaka Purle. Tomato tomato.

Okay, let's get some um let's get some chats here. How was the um screening? I couldn't make it. Wifey was in her fields. Sorry to hear that. Michael Balffor, it was awesome. It was really great to meet more Vincent basketball people. Um yeah, it was really cool. I I've said this before, I'll say it again. These film these film festival screenings are always an opportunity to meet a select few. You know, I'm not saying there's like a hundred of you there, but there's usually like 5, 10, 15, 20 of you that show up to these things. And I'm always so happy to hear like, "Oh my god, I watch you and now I'm seeing you." I think it's kind of kind of weird personally, like if if I watch someone on TV all the time, I kind of have like an idea of who they're going to be. And then I I mean, I imagine like I've watched Ben Taylor for so long on Thinking Basketball, Thinking Basketball Podcast. I know like I've seen Ben Ben Taylor like in real life and stuff, but I just imagine like talking to that guy across the table would be a little bit surreal. So, I I realize that when I meet people, there's always like a, "Oh my god, I watch you on I watch you on YouTube." And it's very freaky for me as well. But also, like, I'm most curious about who who you guys are when I meet you. So, I'm always curious to know like, you know, like what you do, where you coming from, you know? I I very rarely will ask you anything about basketball. It's almost always like who are you, what do you do, what are your interests, what you think of the film, how do you like the film? And I got to say, I don't think I've ever met anybody weird from this community ever. Everyone's really cool. I really appreciate that. Like, it's it's really dope. And honestly, I don't get along with most sports fans. This is just me basing it on my life. I find a lot of sports fans to be very very much like narrow-minded meattheads. So, this is like to me the greatest evidence that we have built like this really unique, conscientious, intelligent prof profoundly positive community because every single time I meet one of you guys, you're always telling me like how you're an engineering student or you know like you're just always impressive. I'm always impressed by the people I meet. So, thank you guys for showing up and to to the point of how was the screening? It was great. Uh I ended up crying a couple times. The Q&A was brilliant. I love that the writer and producer attended. Uh they had a lot of reflections on the film. They hadn't seen it themselves in about 17 years. It was produced in 2008. Uh it is on YouTube, by the way. So you can go watch it on YouTube. It's called AMOL. A M A L for free. It's on It's on YouTube for free. Uh so definitely just go search it out. Just search Aml 2007. It has subtitles. It is uh partially in English, partially in Hindi. It is a really touching, sometimes cheesy, but honestly profound film. And I always end up going back to that film a lot. I told the writer and the director this as well, like this character that you wrote on paper and then filmed and then had an actor act out has been like a mainstay ever since I watched this film in 2008. And anytime I'm being particularly nasty or mean to somebody, I will just go and think about what would this character do, you know, in this situation, how would he see this? And in a lot of ways, Amal has become like a real character in my life, like in my head.

And you know, to those people who watch the panel frequently, let me ask you a question. To the people who watch the panel, have you noticed my last two episodes, have y'all noticed my last two episodes and how [ __ ] peaceful I've been? Have y'all noticed Oh, my friend is friends with the director's brother and they are a great family. Jw knows best vids. Oh my god. You know Richie, that's so cool. That's dope, man. That's super cool. That's cool. I'm uh I'm actually working on So Richie is now a director. Richie Ma is a director. He introduced the thing via a phone video. um working on getting him on a not on a stream but like on a recorded 20-minute conversation. I really want to talk to him because he's making he's the director of this show that's on Netflix called uh Delhi Crime which is huge and it's like being made with Netflix and I think poachers which like one of the biggest Indian actresses in the world Aliabat is uh helping him out with honestly I don't like to put too much stock into one video of somebody but I've watched so many interviews with Richie and I'm just like this guy seems like such a nice person like just such a lovely person and such an honest person. So I was really excited about that and I mentioned it before that one of the biggest reasons for screening AML was not only that it was such an important thing. Oh, so what I was saying oh no no no we're already on an email chain. You don't have to reach out to anybody. Uh Richie and I are already talking. Uh what was I saying? Have you noticed that my interactions on the panel have been a lot better? Have you noticed suddenly that Ox and Swiper are sticking out for me a little bit? Those were my mortal nemesis. Nemesis. Is that is that plural for nemesis? Karen Hall, where are you when I need you? Okay. So, is Nemesis a real word? It it should be. Honestly, I think this this movie is profound. Nemesises. That sounds very wrong. Okay. Well, you know what? I'm inventing a new word. Shakespeare did it. Why can't I? Nemesis. I don't care. Nemesis. Nemesis. Nemesis. Okay. Nemesis makes sense. Nemesis. Nemesis makes sense. I don't know why I thought it was nemesis. I was thinking alumnus. Alumni maybe. Okay. Nemesis. That's really funny. Nemesis. How about namaste? Namaste.

Anyways, so yeah, and and honestly, it's because it's because I watched last week. I watched Ammo at the peak of the low [ __ ] and watching this movie. Um, hold on. First of all, okay, I got to get back to after, but I want to answer these two questions first. These are not super chats, but these are questions that I highlighted. Penless quickly misses game one. Who are you starting in in replace of quickly or in place of quickly? It will be Scotty Barnes and Jacobe Walter backord. And you see that video of Scotty getting pressed l. Okay, let me get into my bag for a second. I am not going to share the video because I feel that sharing this video will encourage copycats. However, I will say this. Scotty Barn's my favorite player and watching any human being, no matter how mentally deranged or whatever is wrong with you, pull up in their car, roll up to him while he is with his partner, possibly with his kid, could not see from that angle. and call him a goofing and get mad at him and I think what did he call him? A clown. What did he say exactly? Something like goofing. Goofing. Okay, look. And and the the premise of this person's discontent or why they were so discontented, right? What What did he exactly say? What was it? Can Can someone just tell me? You don't have to reference who said it because I know the guy's already been doxed and I'll tell you why that's a bad thing in a second. Let me let me say this quick. An NBA player is not under any obligation to greet you when they are out with their family. They are barely goof kid. There we go. He called him a goof kid. Do y'all notice that Scotty smiled at him? He turned his head, looked over at him, and he's like, "Oh, you You think I think he said something along I'm going to translate into English instead of Bmpton English and I'm just going to say he basically said no offense to Bmpton. He basically said to him, "You can't you can't acknowledge me when I'm coming up to you. You're a goof kid. Wahi, you're a goof kid." Okay. Typical. Okay. Going up to an NBA player when they're with their family is so out of bounds and so ridiculous. Regardless of how approachable that player may seem or how nice they seem in that moment, it is scary. It is scary to be even remotely famous, much less mega famous, and have some weirdo person pull up on you in a car screaming at you. You are a [ __ ] [ __ ] and you should never ever do that. If you ever do that.

Now, I'm going to tell you why I was against that person being doxed. I looked up this person. Please do not look them up. And it seems that this person just came out of prison. Engaging from some of the stuff that they were saying, it felt to me that maybe this person was not mentally okay. And given the fact that they decided to post this thing as a a front to Scotty or somehow a disc to Scotty confirmed to me that this person was not okay. You don't need to give people like this attention because we are in an age where everyone is starving for attention. And if we reward attention, i.e. even me talking about this on the front end of the live would be super bad, right? If we're going to give this attention, everyone's sharing it because people want the clicks. There's a reason I did not share it. I did not put it on my stories. I did not put it on socials. No, don't share it because what you're doing is you're inviting copycats. Now, every single time people see Scotty, now we're going to have, you know, people recording him and screaming at him and that's not cool. That's really not cool. I also grew up with a lot of people like that, okay? I grew up with people that used to swear that they could beat, you know, Morris Peterson in a game of one-on-one, and I just quietly like would laugh in my in my head and be like, "You're a [ __ ] idiot." Now, the last thing you want is for copycats to get an idea that going up to NBA athletes is cool. I will let you know that certain NBA athletes are really cool with it. you know, I've met some, you know, various travels or seeing them on the street or whatever. And I'm sure if they kind of know you a little bit or they're in that mood, they can definitely come up to you or maybe you can go up to them and they seem approachable, whatever. But going up to people with weirdo energy and just being like, "Can you sign something? I'm your biggest fan. You I've loved you since the day you were since the day you were at this thing." Oh, that's so weird. Don't do that. especially when they're and then if they're out with their family and friends, if they're just not by themselves or with a teammate, they're out with family. Oh my god, you would have to be so insane. You would have to be so insane to do this and so situationally and socially unaware.

So, the other thing that I was thinking was I really didn't want this guy to get an idea in his head that he's being disrespected by Scotty Barnes fans and to get an idea that now he has to stalk Scotty and start doing this persistently because all that's going to do is it's going to make a very safe place, which Scotty is in right now, feel unsafe. Now, Scotty is not immune to unsafe environments. He's obviously lived in quite a few of them. So, he's not he's not Carlton Banks from A Fresh Prince of Belair. This is not like, "Oh my god, is that a gunshot?" No, it's a [ __ ] you know, it's a car backfire. This is not a guy who's afraid, and I'm sure you can see that from the everything about him and how he plays. But that being said, we don't need Scotty having stalkers. So, please stop doxing this guy. And if you are one of those people that feels like supporting Scotty means sending this guy text and telling him what a goof kid he is, don't do it. Don't ever do that. Don't provoke this [ __ ] Don't antagonize this [ __ ] I'm learning now that if something does not serve your energy, don't give it oxygen. If there is a person who's going to make a video about me, I'm not tearing up another week of my life to make a response video. Do you know how much I wanted to make a response video to low? Do you know how much it it bothered me so much that I couldn't? And I remember yesterday, and I just want to say this, you know, like don't share this. But I remember I apologized. I apologized so much to Ron and PC for doing that because I said some pretty nasty things back at low when I saw that video. I was just like, "Oh, you're [ __ ] like you're dead. I'm going to say this, this, this, this, this." And I felt like I was just that ghetto child again, you know? I felt like I was like fighting for my life again. And I'm like, "Wait a second. No, I'm not. I'm sitting in a podcast studio. This is the internet. This [ __ ] ain't real. He's not trying to come up on you with a knife." Like, why are why are we back here? Why the hell are we back here? Why do I want to pull up on this guy right now? Because where I grew up, if you do that [ __ ] if somebody calls you all the things he called me and says the things that he said about me, we're fighting physical. Like, for real, for real, we are fighting. And that's just not the case anymore. I'm in my mid-30s right now. I got to let [ __ ] go. And so, I'm happy I watched all at that moment. And I'm so glad it kind of caught me in that moment. And I remember watching Almo and in Almo there's this character and you know to those of you who are like yeah that's exactly it man those are fighting words like for real for real like those are fighting words and there's such an emphasis on when I grew up you don't disrespect. Do you know what I mean? I I'll tell you like one time I really figured this out. Um I was at a two for one pizza. Y'all know two for one. Of course you do. I was at a two for one pizza and I was sitting with a couple of friends of mine, right? And there was this guy who came up to us and he wanted to talk to one of my friends. I guess he knew her from another class or he knew her from another place. I don't really I don't really figure out their backstory yet. And he kept kind of like hitting me with his with his pants like into my in my shoulder cuz he wasn't really paying attention. He had a big ass jacket on. And I remember just turning around and I was a very mouthy kid, you know. I got myself in a lot of trouble. I turned around. I was like, "Motherfucker, why are you keep bumping into me? That was enough. [ __ ] why do you keep bumping into me?" He was out of pocket for like continuously bumping into my shoulder. Like Like bro, like he wanted to he want he wanted to end my life on that. We we we were if she had not diffused that [ __ ] we were like going to go into an alleyway and I was going to get jumped by like 15 people for that [ __ ] I remember similarly, this [ __ ] happened in high school. I remember my friend and I, we were at um the [ __ ] was it? Was it a Burger King? It was a Burger King in Scar Bro. Okay. And we were with a couple of girls and in respect for the respect of the family, I'm going to leave the names of the girls and everyone involved out because it ended in a lot of tragedy. I remember we were at this Burger King. We always used to go to this Burger King cuz we we we like these girls. Like we both like these girls and they weren't from our high school, so the high school was pretty close. We used to go there and I honestly liked Burger King at the time cuz I was not very healthy and I liked Whoppers. So we go to this Burger King sitting with these girls and then these two three guys came up to us, two guys and then there was a third one waiting in line and he came up and they were being very disrespectful to the girls. Now my friend and I, we were in line. So we go see these guys and they're talking to the girls that we were talking to and we were just like, "Yo, like y'all mind leaving us alone?" Blah blah blah blah. They took this to be disrespectful. They wanted to fight. My friend wanted to fight. I wanted to eat. And I kept thinking to myself, "This feels wrong." Like, we've been in fights before, but this fight feels like it could end with one of us getting stabbed. So, I kept trying to diffuse the situation. And I kind of did like the thing that I most wanted most didn't want to do in that situation, which is I went out and I apologized. I said, "I'm sorry if y'all were offended. We just want to eat." I tried to piece things over. This is not my usual way of doing [ __ ] VPN egg. No, no, no, no. Deeper Scar, bro. I do know that VPN egg though. I do know this. I do know this Burger King. Actually went on a date there once when I was like 15, 15 years old. So, I'm thinking to myself like, we're going to diffuse the situation. I don't want me and my friend getting stabbed. I don't want anything like that to happen because in that situation I feel like the girls that we are with again traditional my way of thinking at the time I felt like these girls were our responsibility. I felt like we had a we had seen three guys approach them. We tried to tell them to back off. They weren't backing off. I felt in that moment that we had an obligation to keep them safe and not get ourselves shot in the process. And I don't know how far these guys are willing to go but they felt [ __ ] crazy to me. So I went unapologized. My friend comes out while I'm [ __ ] trying to apologize and he's just like, "What? What?" And he's like, he's trying to puff up because my friend had it in his head that he really wanted to show these girls that we were not willing to back down to these guys. And I am trying to squash this [ __ ] so we can go back to the [ __ ] Whopper. And it's just not working. He's making it worse. I'm pushing him away. They're They got like guys coming up. They're like trying to come up to us and [ __ ] Eventually the manager comes out and says if you guys don't all leave in different directions I'm calling the cops that actually ended up diffusing the uh situation. No I am not although I know a lot of people from there. So we get out of that situation and I forgot about it completely forgot about it. And about three months later, we were supposed to go to an event. Not going to say which event cuz it's going to make it way too obvious and I just want to be respectful. We were supposed to go to an event and my mom wouldn't let me go. She said it might be dangerous. Whatever. My mom didn't want me to go. I really wanted to go. This girl that I really liked was going to that. And everything I did from the age of 14 to 16 was basically if a girl I like is going to be there, I got to be there. That was my whole thought process, puberty. So I didn't get to go. I didn't get to go to this thing, this event. And at this event, my friend who was with me at that time, he did go I never saw him again after that. I remember hugging his mom at his funeral like next week. They played um They played uh I'll be missing you over and over again and it was starting to [ __ ] bother me. And I remember like trying to be really tough in that moment. And I remember going home and I hugged my mom so tight and I was like, "Thank you for not letting me go. We need to let go of this childish [ __ ] for real. Like we really do. For like two years, I wanted to like hunt those guys down. Obviously, they ended up going to prison. I was so angry at them. I was the one who escalated that [ __ ] at Burger King initially. I was the one who started with the who the [ __ ] do you think you are? Get the [ __ ] away from them. I started it at 9. He came in. He pulled me back. They got angrier. Then I went out to try and diffuse the situation once I realized the people I was dealing with were [ __ ] crazy. But I started that [ __ ] I always felt really guilty about that. There was a part of me that was like when we were at his funeral, I thought like that really should be me. I really [ __ ] up that day.

The person who approached Scotty Barnes on um on in on his Instagram, he has a hashtag murder gang. I've kind of learned like I I wrote on social media, please do not approach this person. Please stop talking to them. And they said, do you want to live your whole life afraid? And I was like, no, I'm not afraid, but I am aware. And I'm always reminded that in these moments, like some people really just aren't normal, bro. Some people are willing to go to prison because you stepped on their shoes for 25 years. That's And I'm not even saying they're crazy. That's just how they think. So, I I'm sure that this the end of this live I apologize if it's a little bit of a somber note. I did not I did not expect to have I I didn't I don't even know why the [ __ ] I started talking about this. I really don't. It's just something came into my mind and I just I wanted to talk about it and I didn't realize that it would it would bring up such a really painful memory cuz I can literally remember the black shirt I was wearing and sitting on the porch and I remember that day. I remember that song. It's really crazy all those memories kind of flooding back. But to that I say, you know, some people are just not worth. It's really not worth it, bro. It's really not worth it. Your 1 second of haha, look at this guy's Instagram. He's a loser. Don't push people like this over the edge. It's really It's really not worth it. They don't have a lot to live for, bro. I'm not not coming at the guy. I'm not trying to, you know, oh, you don't have anything to live where you're psycho. No, I'm just saying some people, they're just not all there. There's like a trigger that's impulse control, whatever you want to call it, risk aversion, whatever stops you from ramming the car off the road that just cut you off and instead you just quietly curse in your car and you know go your way. Some people you cut them off, they follow you out of direction for one hour to make a point. We are not all the same, right? You didn't hear about Scotty's goons finding him, huh? He's cooked. I don't think that's necessary. This is not a This is not a I don't think he is a all there person and I just don't think people who aren't all there should be provoked that way personally. If you want to put them, you know, in an institution, you go do that. But escalating [ __ ] with people who don't know where the escalator stops is not is not my definition of a good idea. Just that's just my that's just my view on it.

Anyways, Alex Waves, thanks for asking about this. It was kind of on my mind. And again, I hope to have better relationships with people on the panel. Once again, it's because of that film. I'll tell you in that film in the first scene of that film I'm just going to ruin like the first film the f first scene of that film for you uh is a rickshaw driver in New Delhi. He is driving a girl that he has a crush on a very pretty girl in the auto rickshaw. A little girl comes and steals her purse. He chases the little girl down and then she gets hit by a car. He feels so much empathy for her that he ends up trying to take on her hospital bills because she doesn't have anyone to take care of her. It was so interesting yesterday we were screening ammo because I came across a quote yesterday and I hope that you'll take this quote with you to just hopefully make you a better person as well. The quote is, "I looked in your cup to see if you had enough. You looked in my cup to see if I had more than you. We are not the same. I always felt like in that movie, everyone was always looking in everyone else's cup. I think that's a surefire way to live a very miserable life. You got a fence, but your neighbor got a better fence. You got a nice car, but your neighbor got a newer model. Your wife is hot. Your neighbor's wife is hotter. You got two kids, but your neighbor got the two boys that you always wanted. What happens to being happy with where we have what we have? There's a lot to be thankful for. I'm sure you'll find it if you're looking for it. I for one was very thankful, you know, that I got to watch a film in 2008 that had a really big impact on me. Another film in 2007 had a really big impact on me. Another film in 2014 that had a really big impact on me. And due to the gift that is pendants, I am now I was able to connect with all three directors, one of whom I already knew in fairness. Mark, I was able to connect with all three directors and actually talk to them about those those films. Imagine how cool that is. I mean to me that's very cool, you know. I I grew up like loving basketball so much, playing basketball all the time. I would skip classes to play basketball. I love basketball more than anything as a kid. Basketball video games, basketball, basketball team, basketball talk, basketball talk over lunch, hoop talk over everything, watching games in the evening. Man, it's my whole life. Once again, being paid anything, forget what I'm paid between player choice and this, but being paid anything just to talk about basketball. Holy [ __ ] what a life. So much to be thankful for. So, so, so I should, so I should sit here and be like, "Oh, this person got more views. Come on now." Oh, yeah. The Basketball Jones. I did. And also, shout outs to the Basketball Jones. Those guys are awesome. Those guys were awesome. Tas, those guys are great. military man. I I know you I I know you've mentioned before that you were very I think you're very young. I think you said you were like 16 se 18. Think you're very young. It's not worth it, man. It's not worth it. I'm telling you it's not worth it. It's not worth your energy or Scotty's goons energy or any of that energy. And anyone telling you otherwise is really really not thinking this through. Look at Mr. Roger Song. What do you do with the mad that you feel it'll change your life? That's so interesting. I've always thought like what you focus on expands. I have a very negative connotation of Mr. Rogers because I don't know if I ever shared this with anybody. When I was think 5 years old or 6 years old, I watched Mr. Rogers for the first time and my mom was there and she said that he has bad hygiene because he just took off his shoes and then he started cutting food without washing his hands. And she said that he was a bad example for me to watch and that I wasn't allowed to watch Mr. Rogers anymore. Is that the craziest thing on earth? I was thinking about that the other day. I'm like, man, why did I not get to watch Mr. Rogers? Because he didn't wash his hands after taking off his shoes. And my mother had a very strict rule. You must wash your hands after you touch your shoes. Your shoes are filthy, which it's common sense. They are filthy. However, I don't think the Mr. Rogers people actually caught that. So, my mom was just like, "No, this is bad." That's the craziest Rogers take ever. Yeah, I feel like Tass and SK have fallen out of the Raptor sphere since moving to the US. Don't love their raps. Cass predictions. Well, in fairness, Cass and SK both have the Raptors losing in six, whereas the nonCanadian has them losing in five. That's why I mentioned that earlier that if you're Canadian, you're probably adding an extra win just out of hope. Matt Raps beats a few minutes behind touching story. It's insane how relatable that story is to me. I hate that. I hate that it's relatable for you. And I hate that pretty much every single person I grow up with has a story almost exactly like that. I don't know. I didn't mean I'm going to do anything. I sit at home and watch PCM. Okay. You are funny. Recently, my girlfriend got upset when I said I would fight back against a crazy person. She said it's not worth it. Listen to your girlfriend. It is really not worth it. It's It's not This is not crazy phobia. This is not like you should be afraid of every homeless person or crazy person that you meet. Not that those two are the same thing. I'm just saying like why fight against someone who's already fighting against themselves.

I'll actually share something with you guys that I shared on the panel which was very very reflective and I shared it with somebody at a party last night. We actually ended up going to a party at the Soho House after the after the screening. It was really cool. Open bar. Shout outs to me. I took a hit of weed and I don't know what the [ __ ] was in that weed, but bro, I was very paranoid for about I want to say at least an hour. Was very paranoid for an hour. Does weed make anyone else paranoid? I have no idea. I don't smoke weed very often, but for whatever reason, I was like, "Oh, we're out. Let's take one puff of this." I was not good. That was not good. Mixing weed and alcohol also a really bad idea. And I definitely did that. Three different types of alcohol. Like there we go. Yeah. Also, when you're not used to it. Yeah. Anyways, we decide. It was cool. It was It was really cool to go go to that event. And I remember I was telling I was telling somebody who was there. It was a friend of mine, Nadia. And I was telling her about this thing and I said it on PC the other day, too. Have you noticed how the words people use to disarm others are very often the words that were used to disarm them? So, we all have that one person who always thinks everyone's an idiot. Everyone's an idiot. No matter how they say it, you're like, "This guy's an idiot. This guy's an idiot. This guy's an idiot." You know, that word is big big in their mind, right? This person's stupid. This person's lame. This person is some people use the word gay as a as an insult. They'll say that this person I don't know like whatever the word is stupid, lame, loser, dumb. These words have meaning. But have you wondered why they have meaning? I have a theory I would like to present to you. It's from Chase Hughes. The words that were used to injure us become very powerful. Stupid, idiot, lame, loser, whatever the word was. I don't want to repeat it. That word grew in your mind because it injured you. So you start to think of it as that's powerful. In the process of being powerful, it also creates shame. Very often, possibly if you maybe had six also said, "Oh, you brought this up on PC. It was quickly shut down." It was shut down. However, I do believe that people handled it with enough cur intellectual curiosity that I was at least able to finish my sentence and get my point across and enough people in the chat at least understood why I was saying what I was saying. But I'll expand on it here because it is it is a valuable idea to understand and I think it can change your life. Think about it. You were called a loser. Forget loser, idiot. You did the wrong thing. You were called an idiot. You got bad grades, called an idiot. Don't be an idiot. You listened to your parents maybe call other people that they didn't like idiots, but then the same word was used towards you. And as a child, you don't really have any common sense about, well, they could maybe be mad at me for two seconds, but not hate me enough to abandon me. Because as a child, you have no means of feeding yourself. You have no means of, you know, clothing yourself. You don't have a job. So before the age of five or six, these words, if used against you, hurt so much more. You have no context of what they mean. All you know is they're bad. People are usually angry and screaming at you when they say them. And so you might have done something very innocent like you dropped something, lost something, got a bad grade on a quiz, and you hear the word idiot. And then you'll hear your parents talking about this person that they really hate, that they don't like. Be like, "That guy's an idiot. I don't like that guy." They'll be in traffic in the morning. What? You [ __ ] idiot. You idiot. You use the word to describe the person they're mad at. They're using the word for me. This is bad. The word becomes shameful. You never want to be an idiot again. Right? Maybe you cried if you were a boy and your dad said, "Don't cry. Don't be a sissy." So now what's going to happen? You got shame about being a [ __ ] You don't want to lose your dad's approval because in your 5-year-old brain, losing dad's approval means losing dad, means losing protection, means losing food, means losing shelter, losing everything. You don't want to lose the approval of your primary caregiver when you're young. So, in order to maintain that, you build a shell around the word [ __ ] and you build actions so that you define what [ __ ] is. Watching girly movies, crying, sharing your feelings. wearing the color purple, whatever your dad defined for you as being [ __ ] or lame or stupid or idiot. You build a shell around that and you say, "Those are the things we are never ever going to show anybody. It's inside you. If we get bad grades, we're an idiot. Never get bad grades again." That's the shame. Maybe your parents hated homeless people because they called them lazy. So you learned that if I am ever unemployed, my parents will hate me. The point here is the term becomes coded in your mind as something that can create great shame. And most things that create great shame and humiliation in us within us, they become something that we put a barrier around as in we must protect ourselves at all cost from the world finding out that this is a part of me because this could hurt me, this could injure me. Social media lights this whole thing on fire because we're constantly getting feedback from everybody all around us all the time. But my point here is if you genuinely believe at a very very core level that being a [ __ ] will lose your approval from your friends, your family, whatever that it's the worst thing in the world. One, you're probably going to hide every part of you that could be interpreted as [ __ ] Two, the way you're going to expand on your defensiveness around this shame is you're going to humiliate other people for being sissies. You're going to throw that word around a lot. If you were shamed for being an idiot, you probably call a lot of people idiot. If you were shamed for being stupid, lazy, [ __ ] or whatever word was used, right? You probably use that word towards other people that you don't like. I think I would maybe ask everyone to evaluate the people that you don't like and ask yourself, what is it about this person that you don't like that scares you about yourself? Something to think about. very much something to think about and something to even meditate on because I think it's very easy to project your own insecurities onto other people. If your parents told you you're too outspoken, shut up. Nobody wants to hear that. You're you're you're going to view that as like negative behavior and you're probably going to want to speak out and then suddenly you're going to find a podcaster, an actor, someone who's way too outspoken and you're going to call them names because that's what people did to you.

When you, my partner and I, we had this, my girlfriend and I, we had this uh thing on our fridge. It says, "When you're okay, everything's okay." I have found this to be very true. When you are okay, everything is okay. Your finances are okay. Your job is okay. Your friends are okay. Your health is okay. When you're okay, everything is okay. When you're not okay, nothing is okay. That guy driving the Tesla truck that makes six figures and has a super super bangable wife who has the nice new house with the marble floors and the furnished interiors that make you blush. That dude, I swear to God, every night he goes to sleep, praying to God he doesn't lose his job cuz he thinks his wife will leave him and that his kids will hate him. I'm not saying everyone like that. I'm saying most people like that. I've met a lot of wealthy people in my life. I think it's actually the greatest gift is that I've met everyone because I'll talk to anyone. I will talk to you if you're homeless for four hours about everything in the world just because. And I'll talk to you if you're a multi-billionaire. If you are ever willing to talk to me, if there's any multi-billionaires who watch our chat, phone me up. I'd love to talk to you about your experience as a multi-billionaire. I like talking to people that are different than me. I like talking to conservatives. I like talking to liberals. I like talking to NDP. I like talking to everybody. And in the process of talking to everybody, I've realized quite frankly, more money, more problems. Yes, partially that's partially true. But honestly, more money, more anxieties. And a lot of really wealthy people that I know genuinely define their worth by their wealth.

What does that mean? That means the minute you lose your wealth, you lose your worth, which means you tightly hold on to your wealth. I've I've often believed this to be true and I'm realizing that I'm probably going to be triggering a very large part of our audience because the vast majority of you are probably very middle class.

I have often found that the happiest people in society are on the margins of society. They are either very poor or very rich. We're talking $2 billion and I own five companies, a trust fund, and 14, you know, residential condos or properties. Or I literally have nothing. I have $8 in my bank account, and I couch surf, and I just find my way around. Those are the two extremes. I'm definitely not talking about people with like $180,000 in debt. That is a completely different situation.

But people in the middle very often, especially if they're decidedly in the middle, especially upper middle, this to me in my experience has been the most miserable people I've ever met. Upper middle class people seeing above with no way to with no way to catch it. Seeing below with nothing but fear of becoming. It is a very miserable existence. I think in the middle sometimes maybe pick a side, right?

Raw Milkman69. Crazy name, by the way. Did I say that before, too? I feel like there's no way I read this username without responding to it. I have a theory that a lot of people walk around angry because they're constantly drinking coffee, caffeine, so their stress hormones are constantly jacked up. Yes, you could be right. I think I think coffee can definitely make you a little bit more a uh irritable and agitated and it also really messes with your brain. Yeah.

Sorry. This might be the third time I'm saying this. I'm just like every today on PC there was this guy who had a username. I think it was like something two inches like unstoppable two inches or something. I was just like, "What?" Sorry, those words put together, I'm just thinking the wrong things. Plus, you added the word 69 at the end, so I feel like you know what you're doing. I don't know, man. There could be a whiff. Okay, versimilitude to that. Actually, can you please tell me what versimilitude means? Because I don't know and I don't think I've read a word in our chat ever that I did not understand. So this is a really this is a really big moment for me.

An air of truth to meaning. Oh, an air of truth to something. Sorry, I'm blind. Okay. An air of truth to something. Okay. Versimilitude. Is it is it versimilitude or verisimilitude? Because I mean ah there we go. For similitude. Yes. So here's here's my brain. I read this as verisimilitude and I was like what is that? So that's so this is the correct spelling. I do know what this means. I did not know what verisimilitude means. This is the autism in me coming out totally. I I I I realized that I should have inferred that you were making a you were making a verisimilitude. So it is no his spelling is right. Why did I think it was versimilitude? So okay, now we figure out I've been saying this word wrong my whole life. Verisimilitude. I guess that makes sense. Ver ver vis veritas. So that's Latin. Verisimilitude. That makes sense. Don't you teach English? Lu. No, I'm just kidding. Ver a militude. You know what? I'm going to look this up. I'm going to like pronounce this correctly because I've been saying very similar to it my whole life and now I feel very silly. Although I'm very glad I didn't say very stupid. This is improvement.

Also, just the what I was leading to with that whole thing. I've often used the word stupid. I've used it for callers. I've used it for the panel. I've implied it without saying it directly. This is something I find as a frequent criticism that has come up a lot is like why does he why does he talk down to a lot of people? Honestly, I didn't really figure this out until last week. Or maybe I did figure it out and I didn't want to figure it out and then I forgot about it, but then I'm writing it down now so that I remember it. I was talked down a lot. I was talked down to a lot when I was younger. Even though I was smart, I was often called very stupid. And I've never really connected the dots in terms of why I think people are stupid because I think I'm very smart. But if I truly thought I was very smart, why do I feel the need to call anyone stupid? Smart people don't usually walk around calling other people stupid, right? So, I was thinking about that a lot and I was just like, was this word used to hurt me? Stupid, idiot all the time. And I didn't realize it. When I lost my keys, my mother called me an idiot. I remember this very much. I remember a teacher called me stupid once. I remember a college professor called me stupid once. She said, "You're very stupid." This word has been used like constantly. Not because I am, but because sometimes that's how people express themselves. They just say, "That's stupid. You're stupid. This idea is stupid. No, that's stupid. That'll never work."

And for whatever reason, I guess because my dad was so smart and I was kind of like intimidated to be dumber than him. I never really had a barometer for what normal people's intelligence was like. My dad was like certified genius. When he died, the only good thing people could really say about him, smartest person I ever knew, ever. So for me, that's that's not a status that I'm ever going to achieve. The smartest person anyone knows. No one has ever called me the smartest person they know. I know people who are smarter than me. I know tons of people who Katherine is smarter than me. I think Catherine's smarter than she. I don't know if she agrees with that, but I think Katherine's smart as [ __ ]. I know Angelica is smarter than me for sure. So I I I think about that very often and I'm just like, you know what? Like that word has been used to disarm me. So, it's grown very big in my brain. And then often I'll think about things that I associate with the word stupid and I try not to do it. And um yeah, that was that was big for me to realize that's why certain things really trigger me. And sometimes when I'm talking to somebody, I'll say something and I'll know it's wrong and I'm like I swear my aunt said the same thing to me verbatim. Like verbatim. This is not an excuse, by the way.

Uh, Mike the Champamp 03, please do not write in all caps. I know that you write in all caps, so this is just your thing, but please don't write on all caps here. It's very disruptive to the viewers. Uh, Pen, if you had to put money on this series, who would you put money on in Toronto? Uh, would you put money on Toronto? I'm not putting money on this series. So, there you go. That answers that question. I would never I would never acknowledge this because I feel like I feel like I have a responsibility to not acknowledge this because if I do say yes, I would put money on Toronto, I can bet my bottom dollar that at least 10 people in this chat are going to be like, "Oh, well, Pence Dramus is saying it."

I just never want I never want somebody like I once told my friend like one of my really good friends in college about this stock that I was like monitoring and I told him like it was great and it was amazing and I had this projection that the stock was going to go from $2 to $8 to $18 to $40 to $80. Like I had really high hopes for the stock. I researched this company ad nauseam and everything hinged on them getting this FDA approval and I remember telling my friend about it and he told his brother about it. Shout outs to them. I'm not going to say their names cuz I feel like that's that's rude. And they both invested in the stock when I told them about it. They bought it at $2.40 a share. Then it went up to $5. Then it went up to $6. Then it went to $7. At $7 it was after some news on Canadian approval and pending, you know, updates on the FDA approval. I remember my friend called me and said, "Should I sell?" And I was like, "You can, but I would hold." They didn't get the FDA approval. The stock went to zero like within a year and a half. And he kept holding and holding and holding because I told him to. And I actually ended up holding too because I was just like, "No, I feel so bad that he put money." Like, it was $10,000. Like, it wasn't small amount of money for him. It was a really small amount amount of money uh back then for for what I was doing, but $10,000 was no small amount of money for him. And uh his brother actually sold his brother sold at $6.50. So he got out nice. And so I always felt really guilty about that. And I was like, man, like yesterday somebody asked me if somebody gave me a billion dollars, what would I do? And this was a question because we were talking about AML and that's at least part of the theme of AML. And it's like, you know, if you inherited like a crazy amount of money, what would you do? And the first thing I said was like, I would invest in stocks. And she's like, no, you can't invest. You can't buy a house. You can't buy a car. It has to be something fun. And my first thought was I would pay my friend that $10,000 that I always felt like he lost because of me. You know what I mean? So, like, yeah, I've always thought about that. It's just it's always bothered me because he's such a good dude and like I was really good at this stuff. Like, I was the expert. I was the money expert around my friend group and I had never really steered anyone wrong up until that point. Like everything I told him to buy was perfect. Like I told friends to get in get into gold around 2007 and it really paid off. Um but yeah like that just that backfired man that FDA approval did not come. I think the FDA is very corrupt at times but yeah like I always felt really guilty about that. So yeah.

Uh okay crypto flashbacks for sure. Yes, I have I have probably shared the story many times where Vitalik Buterin told me to buy Ethereum and I didn't buy it. Yes, I'm I I'm trying not to say the word I'm a [ __ ] because I know that that internalizes, but man, it's hard to tell that story without coming to that conclusion. W call on the gold. Yep. Absolutely.

Okay, I'm going to talk to y'all later. Have a beautiful night. Season preview, sorry, series preview comes out tomorrow. Been putting a lot of work tonight on it and yeah, hopefully we're in a more positive space and hopefully we can stay here. I've realized that I've had a lot of like, hey, I'm positive now and then there will be like a week where it's a little bit more negative. But if you look at the trend for the last four years, it's kind of like this. So there is a dip and the dip may come again. Maybe next week I'll be a little bit more temperamental. But I trust just like Darko trust to tie this back to the Raptors, just like Scotty trust that if you put in the work every single day over the long haul, you're going to get a lot better. All right, peace y'all.

Oh, and Matt Rap Beats, we disagreed at one point or I disagreed with something you were saying in the chat. I I can barely remember what it was, but I'm positive it was something about Scotty Barnes. And I called you a name. I think I called you an idiot. Hopefully, this was a bit of an explanation to you. And I also want to apologize to you for calling you an idiot. I'm actually glad that you stuck around. And uh yeah, if you ever actually want to call in and have a conversation about [ __ ] we can we can definitely talk. Uh but yes, I I apologize to you. That was totally totally out of pocket. My bad, man. Peace.

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The Toronto Raptors are NO JOKE - The one stat everyone is missing

Transcription