7-4-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

I would suit up in my uniform and you're going out on patrol. What are we going to do tonight? Well, we're going to rob some drug dealers and I know how to do it really well.

Listen to and follow The Set, an Odyssey Originals documentary podcast series available now on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your shows. I'm not a bad guy, man, but I loved being that dirty. Introducing L2R Smarter, Safer, Faster dot com, your solution to combat the negative effects of sitting at a desk. Sitting at a desk eight hours a day is as harmful as smoking. If you're stuck at a desk all day, you don't need to quit your job. You need to join our Desk to 5K program. No running experience is required as a doctor of physical therapy. I'll be honored to guide you every step of the way to reach your running and fitness goals. Let's conquer running together and make it enjoyable.

Visit L2R Smarter, Safer, Faster dot com and start moving today. Good morning. Happy Fourth of July. Happy Independence Day. Happy birthday, United States of America.

Let me just stop you right there. No, I don't have to work on the holiday. I choose to work on the holiday. I actually enjoy working holidays, believe it or not. Trust me, I have no reason to lie to you. If I was grumpy or grousy about the fact that I was working this morning, you would be able to hear it in my voice. Nah, no you wouldn't. I'm a good faker.

But I do love working holidays and Fourth of July is one of my favorites. We've got a bunch of patriotic music that we're playing on this edition of the show. We've got our latest YouTube video, Ask Amy Anything.

Mom thought it was cute. That's because she, well she doesn't make a cameo in it. That would make it so much better.

But mom, mom references make a cameo. And we've got a few new questions that I'd never heard before. So Producer J did a good job compiling. If you would like to check it out, I just retweeted ALaw Radio.

It's also pinned to the top of our Facebook page, After Hours with Amy Lawrence. And over the past 48 hours, we've talked everything from street racing in Chicago, NASCAR style, to America's pastime, Major League Baseball. And we'll get back to that coming up. We've done QB news because what's more American than quarterbacks?

Nothing. We're all about our quarterbacks in this country. I mean we can't get enough of our quarterbacks even in the middle of July. We've talked about Wimbledon across the pond. You know how much I love to talk about tennis on the grass courts of Wimbledon or the clay courts of Paris. We run the gamut. And honestly, in July, the dog days of summer, I find that we can be far more creative with our shows. We can get off the beaten path.

And that is a challenge that I enjoy. And so on this 4th of July, yes, let's celebrate, let's eat our hot dogs, let's set off our fireworks. Or maybe a better idea, a better plan would be just go leave that to the professionals and attend a fireworks show somewhere near you. It was a relatively easy commute into New York City on Monday night.

That's where we're located, Lower Manhattan. But all the talk is about the road closures and the Macy's fireworks display that will take place on Tuesday evening. And so I'm kind of dreading the drive in to work on Tuesday evening as a bunch of, well, a bunch of people. Millions and millions of people will either be attempting to get the heck out of Dodge after the fireworks display or will just be clogging up all the main roads. Jerks.

I'm kidding. We'll be here again on Tuesday night. And sometimes when I'm driving in, so I've done this a bunch over the past 11 years now. This will be my 12th July 4th as part of CBS Sports Radio. And as I've done it, 11, it'll be my 11th. As I've done it a few times, I've seen the fireworks displays on both sides of the Hudson River actually still taking place as I drive into work.

So that's kind of fun too. Last night it was a lightning show, not fireworks. Because right now in the area there's a ton of thunderstorms taking place. Almost every night it's the buildup of the heat and the humidity. On Sunday night I was driving in the middle of heavy thunderstorms. Last night it was more lightning that had kind of moved off. And then I get into New York City and boom, a torrential downpour as I'm driving along the Hudson River. You couldn't even see the river from the highway right next to it. That's how hard it was raining.

But a little bit less traffic. Wherever you are, however you are celebrating on this July 4th, I share with you, I hope, a pride in our country, warts and all. Pride as an American citizen. Again, an imperfect nation. We do it to ourself. But what I remind myself is that we have the freedom to screw it up. And in many countries they don't have that freedom. We also have the freedom and the ability to make it right. And so I continue to have hope in our country and hope in the fact that we as Americans can make changes. Again, not a perfect nation. I don't even know if there's such a thing as a perfect nation. But I like the way that we mark our freedom, we celebrate our birthday, and we take that part seriously.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. And again, find us on social media pretty soon. I haven't done it yet, but I did take the perfect photo of the cupcakes. So far I've given out eight of them.

Are you ready, Jay? You didn't actually have the first one, sorry. The two security guards in our lobby got the first two cupcakes that I brought in. I know they were made to share and I couldn't walk by them without giving them two of the cupcakes.

So Angel and the other man at the desk that I don't know, I mean I know him but I don't know his name, they had the first two cupcakes. Funfetti, chocolate frosted, whipped chocolate frosted icing, and I went rogue and added sprinkles. Red, white, and blue sprinkles. They actually look very festive. But I added the sprinkles because I cannot frost a cupcake to save my life.

It doesn't matter, it looks so messy, like I'm a child who can't color inside the lines. So they're messy but they're delicious. And I used the sprinkles to hide the messiness of the chocolate frosting. You should have seen, I had chocolate frosting all over my hands, two different spoons. I tried to frost one of them and it chopped the cupcake in half because I was too violent with the frosting so that I had to eat that one.

Dang it. So anyway, the sprinkles are supposed to make them look cuter. We'll put a photo up. I did take a very, well one of those perfect photos that make the cupcakes look like they're alive. You know I have a lot of practice taking photos of flowers and I get up close with my flowers so now I've got up close and personal with the cupcakes and the photos. You're criticizing your frosting but what did I say about the photo? You said that it could be in a bakery. In a baking magazine I said.

Oh in a baking magazine. The photo so. This is what I get for not listening to you. I'm just kidding, I'm kidding. So two to the security guards, you got the first one here on our floor. Then I brought one into the show before us.

So David Shepherd who runs the show before us, the JR Sports Brief show, he got a cupcake. And actually I don't trust him to eat it. He took it and then put it down on the desk next to him so I don't know if he actually ate it.

We should tuck the trash cans. You don't think he would throw it away. No you can't do that.

No I don't think you would. Peter Schwartz had one. Yes. So he had a cupcake. I just shared some with our New York peeps because our New York affiliate is right down the hall.

Eight of them have given out so far including to a couple of the young employees who work here that I do not know by name. I just said to the, so the young man who's working this morning and putting the minutes in, the CBS Sports Minutes, he's cutting them up and putting them into the system. I said, I'm sorry I don't know your name.

Who are you? And he said my name's Ryan. I offered him a cupcake but apparently he's anti-cupcakes for breakfast. What? I'm telling you he just hasn't worked these hours enough to know.

Yeah if it's free it's for me. That's the radio motto when it comes to food. And it's the first time he's been introduced to Amy Lawrence-Bakegood so maybe he's going to want to take advantage of that. No idea what he's missing.

He's no idea what he's missing. So good morning. Rookie. Seriously, rookie mistake.

Good morning to you out there. We will share a photo of the cupcakes. Then maybe you can see the messy icing to which I refer. But they are delicious. They're funfetti. I've never made funfetti before. They are fun and they are fetti. They're a July 4th fetish. So make sure you find us on social and you'll see that photo and happy 4th of July to you. Please enjoy your day but also be safe. 1.5 billion hot dogs consumed on this day by Americans.

What is wrong with us? I consume none. That means Jay consumes extra. So many extra. I'll have at least two hopefully. Hopefully?

Hopefully. I'm gonna wait to see if somebody else in the family grows the hot dogs. Yeah I mean I'll end up making them if I don't.

But if everyone else is like making them that'll be great. But I'm gonna have a hot dog today. It's gonna happen. Well I'm gonna have steak of some sort. That's good. I don't know how. If it's pouring down rain I won't be firing up the charcoal grill.

Instead I'll make them inside. But yes, I'm going steak. It's American.

It is American. I don't have any apple pie. I'll eat steak and watch baseball. How about that? Ice cream? That works. Ice cream on my funfetti? There we go.

Sounds American. I got so frustrated with frosting the cupcakes that I left the last, there's another dozen. I left the last dozen in a container without icing.

I just, I was over it. It didn't spread very well. I'm wondering if I heat up the frosted, the whipped frosting if it will spread easier.

Is that an idea? What if I melt it? Well, when you were icing the first batch, were they still hot? Were they just out of the oven?

No, no, no. They cooled completely. Okay, because I was gonna say maybe like if they were still warm that would make the, you know, frosting not be able to spread as well, but.

No, they were fine. And now the frosting is in the fridge so I probably do need to warm it up before I attempt to frost the rest. I'm gonna give them to neighbors.

That's nice. Yeah, why not? That way I won't eat them all myself. I am currently trying to stick, well, I did eat the one that broke apart. I just, I was so angry I shoved it in my mouth. I was like, that's it. I'm just, I'm gonna taste it so that I'm not angry about how bad they look.

They don't look bad, but. Yeah. So all right, we could have asked this question earlier. Jay, give me a few things that are succinctly, distinctly is what I meant to say, not succinctly. I would say this radio host who makes up words and uses the wrong words at the inappropriate times is decidedly American. A few things that are distinctly American that we can call our own. That we can call our own. Or that we've made our own. Well, apple pie based on the story that we heard earlier.

Yes. Which comes from the Dutch and. The Germans.

The Germans. But we have our own apple pie flair and there was an apple pie recipe in an American cookbook going back to the late 1700s. So I kind of feel like we've taken it over now. Yeah, we've taken squatting rights on that one.

Squatting. We're squatting on your apple pie. That sounds gross. Hot dog eating contest. That's distinctly American. That is distinctly American. You love hot dog eating contest. I really like it.

I enjoy the passion of it. It's so gross, Jay. It's so gross. I cannot watch it. I've never watched it.

The first time that I saw a highlight was someone spewing wet bun out his nose. I couldn't. That was it. That's. It's gross. So gross.

I do think they need to bring back the rivalry, though, to make the sport bigger because it's not a sport. It is. Knock it off.

MLE. Major League Eating. They have, like, contracts and stuff.

They actually, they really do. No. But, yeah. That's like Kobayashi. Remember Kobayashi?

I do. He's not allowed to compete anymore because he, like, crashed, he jumped the stage a few years ago when he was in, like, he had this contract negotiation and it was going poorly and he wasn't, like, allowed to be at the event, but he crashed the event and he rushed on the stage to try to challenge Chestnut. And that was, like, trespassing because he wasn't allowed to be up there because he technically wasn't in the league. So that's why he hasn't been back. And that's why Joey Chestnut keeps winning eight in a row because no kid has no competition. You should enter. Oh, I couldn't beat him. I got the heart, but not the skill. But you love hot dogs.

You could eat a lot of hot dogs. Just for fun. Yeah.

That's what some people, it looks like they do. They go up there and just kind of, like, eat, like, 15 or 20, which is still, like, 20 hot dogs in, what, 12 minutes is disgusting, but it doesn't sound like a lot compared to Chestnut's 74. So gross. I mean, that doesn't fascinate you at all.

I would ban you from the show. No, it does not fascinate me at all to be a glutton and then have parts of hot dogs and buns spewing out of your orifices. No, it does not interest me, nor do I think it's sexy or hot or exciting or anything that I want to watch.

The last, like, minute, if it's close, is very exciting. Remember they had a dog off a couple of years ago? You remember that? Jay, I do not watch this event. I know you're fascinated by it. I think it's gross. You just need to take my word for it.

I think it's gross. What if we went and you saw it? What if I got hit by a flying piece of hot dog or... You might. No, I would never forgive you.

That would be the end of our friendship. That's a piece of hot dog. That's what we do on July 4th. I could think of a bazillion other things I'd rather do on July 4th.

Distinctly American. Baseball. Maybe not America's pastime anymore, but we do love our baseball, especially this time of the year. The boys of summer and the Atlanta Braves, well, they have proved to their fans, A, they're a contender, B, they're serious about getting back to the World Series, and C, they know how to put on a fireworks display.

That is for sure. Marcel hits one high in the air to deep right field. In pursuit, Brennan. He's back to the wall. Brennan leaps.

That is out of here. Hello, Zunna, hits one over the right field wall, and it's 3-0 Atlanta. That's his 17th home run of the year, and what a great way to continue the hitting streak. It's up to 13 straight now.

There's the 0-2 on the way. Harris hits one well to deep left field. Stephen Kwan back to the wall, and that's out of the ballpark. Michael Harris with his second home run of the game. He's hit one to right.

He's hit one to left. And the Braves have gone downtown again, and it's now 4-0. So the Atlanta Braves were on the road in Cleveland on their way to winning nine consecutive games, which is their longest win streak of the season. They've had multiple eight-game streaks, but this is their first that reaches nine.

There were fireworks of a different sort, courtesy of the Guardians. Listen all the way through. This is Michael Harris with his first solo home run, but a little bit off guard.

He's caught off guard at the end. 1-1 is hit well to right field. This is power to deep right center.

That has got to disappear. A home run by Harris, and he powers one out of here. The Braves once again go deep, and it's 1-0.

The pitch before was a pretty decent pitch from Williams, and he didn't get the call. They're in Cleveland. Why are there fireworks going off after Michael Harris hits a home run? And then to top it off, the fans realize that somebody messed up, and so the booing starts raining down. I was confused at first why everybody started booing like so loudly. I thought it was towards me, but I remember when I crossed the plate, the fireworks went off, and then I got in the dugout, and they were talking about the fireworks. So yeah, it kind of threw me off, but I mean, I'm glad they did it. Very deserving.

In fact, that guy knew what he was doing. Bryce Elder gets the win. He's one of the eight Atlanta Braves All-Stars. So Michael Harris as the number nine hitter doesn't get a lot of fanfare, not a lot of attention. He had two home runs last night.

The Guardians thought they would honor that. Nine games up. So a nine-game win streak, and they're nine games up in the National League East, even as we get close to the All-Star break. He's a different guy every night, and we trust everybody in this lineup. So one through nine, we go out there, and we trust each other, and our pitch is a bullpen.

We trust everybody. So it's a fun team, and I guess it's kind of shown out on the field sometimes too. Unfortunately the hits left the ballpark. I think we out hit them, but there's one a lot farther than ours did. You make a mistake sometimes, and this is a lineup.

This is probably the ultimate lineup if you leave something open, and they hit two the other way. They're a pretty dangerous team. Terry Francona talking about the brace, but mostly I just wanted you to hear Francona is good. He's back with the team. Love him as a person, as a manager, and I worry about his health. So I'm glad that he is back where he's supposed to be. But this is about the Braves.

Sorry Terry. The Braves have won nine in a row, 17 of 18, 24 of 27. A few more numbers to throw at you about the Atlanta Braves, 30 games above 500 now.

Haven't even hit the break yet, and this team is 30 games above 500. Second only to the Tampa Bay Rays in run differential, which is so crazy. I still can't believe the Rays have the highest run differential in the majors, but they no longer have the highest winning percentage. They've been pacing the field, leading the majors with wins and win percentage for almost the entire first half, but the Braves have caught them.

Same number of wins, three fewer losses. And now the Braves are sporting the best record in the bigs with about a week to go before the All-Star break. Pretty incredible what the Braves are doing. A long way to go, of course, but it reminds me of where the Yankees were at this time last year.

Their arc was a little different. They started out hot and then faded before we got to the All-Star break. The Braves are doing the opposite. They're playing their best baseball right now. They have one of the top winning percentages at home as well. But on the road against Cleveland, knocking the snot out of the ball and look, fireworks of all kinds.

Let's see, what do I want to do next? I mean, I'd rather just talk about hot dogs and fireworks, but all right, I promise a photo of the cupcakes upcoming on our social media. Joey Votto may be 39, but he's a kid at heart. And an update on one very prominent All-Star.

Will he make the trip to Seattle? Also, stop me if you've heard this before, but Mike Trout leaves with an injury. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Good morning to you. Happy 4th of July, peeps.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Three balls, two strikes, Keller delivers. The fly ball to center field, racing on back is Sawinski at the wall and it is gone, a home run. A home run of the year and with one swing, the Dodgers and Pirates are now all even at one. And now three balls, two strikes, one out and one in for the Dodgers.

Here's a line drive, one hop off the glove of Santana, kicks to the side. Introducing L2R Smarter, Safer, Faster.com, your solution to combat the negative effects of sitting at a desk. Sitting at a desk eight hours a day is as harmful as smoking. If you're stuck at a desk all day, you don't need to quit your job, you need to join our desk to 5K program. No running experience is required. As a doctor of physical therapy, I'll be honored to guide you every step of the way to reach your running and fitness goals. Let's conquer running together and make it enjoyable.

Visit L2R Smarter, Safer, Faster.com and start moving today. Easily scoring is Peralta and going to second base is Jason Hayward and the Dodgers now have a two to one lead. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Happy 4th of July, we love baseball, soundtrack of summer. It may not be America's pastime, but we get it all summer long.

The boys of summer, they've got this month to themselves, at least until NFL training camp start. On Dodgers radio, Charlie Steiner, we play that highlight for two reasons. Number one, it was the 700th career win for Dave Roberts. Whoa, that blew me away. Producer J2, he's been there with the Dodgers for a long time.

They've obviously had an incredible track record while he's been there, multiple trips to the World Series, the title in 2020, but 700 career wins. Congratulations, Skip. I didn't realize it.

Months and a couple of guys came through the line and said congratulations. I had no idea what they were talking about until I got into the office. So it's a testament to just a great organization.

I certainly had no idea. I'm just happy to win a baseball game tonight. We have good players, great organization.

So I'm very grateful. 700 wins, 416 losses. No joke, 1100 plus games. He's been with the team eight years, not even a full eight years. This is his eighth season and they've already played 1100 games. Again, testament to the fact that they've been so relevant in the postseason. Three trips to the World Series and of course the crown in 2020. Max Muncy was 19th home run.

He's been providing the power. Now what you didn't hear Dave Roberts talk about there is the challenges of navigating his pitching staff in 23. All five starters that made up the rotation to begin the season have now hit the IL at some point or another. It includes Clayton Kershaw. It wasn't his choice, but the Dodgers decided they needed the roster spot.

And so with some shoulder inflammation, Kershaw is now down for the count, although it could be a relatively short trip to the IL. Anytime you have to take time off, it's frustrating, disappointing. I think just the way that the season was going, I had hoped that I could make it through a full season and haven't done that in a while.

So it's always something that I want to do. So anytime it doesn't work out, that's definitely frustrating for me. But I guess where we're at in the season and with the break, it's probably overall a good thing to take a little break now. Ideally I wish I could have just skipped the start and made the next one, but that's not where we're at with our pitching.

So sometimes roster decisions take precedent, and I understand that. Once again, frustrating, disappointing. Shoulder does feel better now.

So it's trending upward. I feel confident I'll be ready after the break and just try to find stuff to do for the next week, I guess. Right now, every day, there's been improvement, which is great. I think the thought is to keep his arm moving so it's not going to be some downtime as far as not throwing the baseball. And we haven't decided on what day after the break we plan on starting him. But I think him targeting that date is probably what we're going to do.

So I think it's just continuing to get better. The thing about the start and not having the start, it takes away the intensity of pitching. So to keep his arm moving, let the shot take effect, continue to build strength, get the inflammation out of there, he should be good to go. You sign up to pitch a full season. There's no reason to take a break just to take a break.

I don't think that does anything. So for me, yeah, it's a little bit disappointing. The other part that's disappointing is making the All-Star team. I know Charlie really wanted to see me pitch. I wanted to pitch and that. So yeah, that's disappointing too. We're still going to go and have a good time and everything, but I would have liked, he's getting into it now. So I would have liked him to get to see that, that would have been cool.

His son Charlie is seven. And so the disappointment there is that Clayton Kershaw, because he's on the IL, will not be able to pitch in Seattle. He could have been starting again, remember last year he started in Dodger Stadium, which was such an awesome moment for him and for the organization, just to add that to his Hall of Fame resume. And with the 10 wins, there's a chance he could be starting in Seattle, depending upon how the pitchers lined up.

I would think that Spencer Strider would be another candidate, if not the top candidate, with the Braves being as good as they are. However, you never know, could have been Clayton, and unfortunately now he'll miss it. But what I love about Clayton's comments, as disappointed as he is, you sign up to pitch an entire season.

Right? This is the same guy who doesn't like to leave the game after six innings because he doesn't think his bullpen should have to pitch three. Doesn't feel like he's doing his job.

At 35 years old, he is definitely old school. No such thing as load management for Clayton Kershaw. And you can clearly hear how upset and frustrated he is that he's going to miss a start, maybe, as well as the All-Star game. But this is a guy who was looking forward to staying healthy after a series of different injuries. Now, thankfully, he's not seriously injured. This is not structural, doesn't appear as though he'll be on the I-L for a long time, or really even need the I-L, but Dave Roberts needed the roster spot.

So congratulations to Dave, and for Clayton Kershaw, hoping to see him, or I'll speak for me, I love Clayton, hoping to see him back on the field soon after that break. Draymond Green, in the wake of, I don't know if he signed it yet, I don't think they can sign until Thursday, but in the wake of agreeing to a new deal with the Golden State Warriors to stay put, he makes a long appearance, and this is longer than Aaron Rodgers on McAfee, for heaven's sakes. He makes a long appearance on the Podcast P show with Paul George. Interesting stuff on Chris Paul joining the Warriors, on his BFF Steph Curry, and why he agrees with Nikola Jokic about how basketball is a job. That's probably my favorite. People ask me, it's a routine question that we get on asking me anything, who would you like to host a show with if you could pick anyone in the sports world?

My number one answer is Draymond Green. Can we try to make that happen, please? Jay, let's just take a shot in the dark.

Sure, I'll try. CBS Sports Radio, Draymond Green, four hours, let's go. He's got plenty to say. I might not get a word in edgewise, but could you imagine how much fun that would be? That would be amazing. Oh, it's fantastic. I just want to ask him about the match.

It's four hours on the match. All right, good to have you with us. Happy 4th of July. If you haven't seen the cupcakes, the photo is now up on Twitter. Funfetti.

Nothing says 4th of July like Funfetti and sprinkles. Jay, have you put it up on Facebook yet? So this is Jay's Facebook page, so he's the one who accesses the Facebook page for pictures. I just use it, well, for my own amusement, really. And because I think it's funny that Facebook locked me out of my own account, meaning our show page, not my personal account, but they locked me out of my own account to be able to use our show page. Duh, it's got my name on it, but whatevs.

So instead we use Jay's. So when Jay needed to change his password a few months back, I just went ahead and did it for him. I remember waking up, trying to log in and I was like, what happened? Oh yeah, I changed your password. Sorry, I told you that you could change it back and you said no, you wanted to keep it what it was.

Yeah, yours was a better password anyway. True partners. It's after hours, Eddie gets cupcakes for it. It's After Hours on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Not only are we still together 10 years later, but we actually enjoy spending time with each other 10 years later.

We enjoy each other so much that on every flight we sit together and talk. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. America, ooh, America, make God thy gold refined, till all success be noblest, and I'll be your friend.

I don't even want to talk. That Ray Charles version of America the Beautiful is, it's iconic. Forgive me and Draymond Green for talking over Ray Charles, but Jay did not warn me or didn't give me enough time and we were working on some other stuff, but tonight on our Tuesday night into Wednesday morning edition, we'll be wrapping up for those of you who are late-nighters or you plan to be up late because you're out of your regular routine on the holiday, we'll play Ray Charles without interruptions, how about that? It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio and Ray Charles and Draymond Green and the cast and crew of thousands, kind of. We make it sound like that.

Happy Independence Day, happy birthday to America. Check out the photo, yes or no, on our other social media, yes. It's now on Facebook as well, After Hours with Amy Lawrence.

YouTube, we've got a brand new video version of Ask Amy Anything, which has a summer and holiday theme, and then on Twitter, ALaw Radio. We don't have any news on Damian Lillard. Dame wants to go to Miami, his reps have put it out there, which means that the Heat are over the barrel, essentially. They have to work with Portland if they want to get Dame and Portland doesn't have to cave and doesn't have to go low in their demands because they know that's where Lillard wants to be. So by putting that info out there, Dame and his reps are not helping the Heat at all, but at least they've made it clear. Now Portland doesn't have to acquiesce, Portland can do whatever it wants, but Dame is saying strong language through his reps that he wants to be there or be square or nowhere. Draymond Green is staying put with the Warriors, not a big surprise.

He's taking a lot less money though that he could have gotten on the open market. That's a bit of a surprise and he's already looking forward to the addition of Chris Paul on the Warriors. I think he brings a couple things after the Lakers series, Steph said in his press conference, we ran out of variety.

If they're taking this away and you can go to this, if they're taking that away, then you can move to this. Our team last year didn't have a variety of ways that we could score. And I think CP adds another thing to the menu, but I'll tell you one more thing that I think it unlocks and I actually look forward to learning this from him. I think Chris Paul will completely unlock Jonathan Kaminga and his growth. CP is great with young guys. DeAndre Ayton looked like a bus before CP came to Phoenix.

No disrespect to Ayton, more so a nod to CP. What he would do for Jonathan Kaminga and unlocking Kaminga is huge. The Draymond Green on the Podcast P show, a couple hours. It was even more extensive than Aaron Rodgers on McAfee with Paul George talking about Chris Paul moving forward. Didn't talk a ton about his contract, but for him it's status quo, right?

Get a new deal, stay put with his dudes. And that includes Steph Curry. They're one of the most productive duos in hoops for sure in all of sports.

I call them one of the old married couples in sports because they've been together for such a long time, 11 years for Dray and Steph together. Steph's been there a little bit longer, but in order to preserve his longevity and to extend his career and to stay productive, Draymond gives you a peek of what Steph's regimen is really like. If Steph doesn't get stronger post 2020, he's still Steph Curry and he's still shooting the piss out of the ball, but him getting as strong as he got has actually changed his game. It's actually made him much more effective. You can't run him off his spot.

You can't just bump him and he's falling over. He's getting to where he wants to go. And so I think his dedication in the weight room, when I say dedicated, that man is in the weight room every single day.

So he getting buff right now. He in the weight room after shoot around, he in the weight room before the game, he doing a full lift after. He in the weight room before practice, he in the weight room after practice every single day. Well that sounds boring. I don't enjoy weightlifting that much.

Although I had to do it when I was in college too. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Yeah, Dray goes on and on about topics like guarding Wembe. He doesn't really have Victor Wembenyama fever. He also talks about Ben Simmons.

Maybe we can use that on tomorrow's show. But I did want to bring this part back because this is actually really insightful. Do you remember when Nikola Jokic said that playing basketball is like a job and that anybody who tells you they love your job all the time is lying? Well Draymond goes even deeper and agrees with Jokic. I hate it. I love playing basketball and I love to compete.

But he's not lying. I hate it. And I don't want to sound like someone who takes it for granted because as you can see every time I step on the floor like I'm going, I don't take it for granted at all. But to Jokic's point, it's work. You have to show up to work every day and perform despite what could be going on at work, what can be going on at home, what can be going on in the world. You have to show up and perform. And it's work.

Guess what? It's like people see you and acting and they're like, man, I want to be an actor because you on TV. There's so much bullshit that comes with it. So much. The politics of it, it's awful. It's the same thing with us. It's so much bullshit that come with it and the politics. But I wouldn't trade my job for another job in the world. Well there's the kicker.

Yeah, it comes with a lot. I say the same thing about this job. People think you just show up, you sit down, you talk for a few hours, you go home. Oh, hell no. There's plenty of BS. By the way, you may have misfired on that bleep a little bit. I think we got too much of the word.

Not that we didn't know what he was saying, but oh my virgin ears. Anyway, so Draymond makes a point, but here's what I would say in response to all of the BS and everything that comes with being an all star player, a four time champion for one of the most recognizable and popular teams in sports. You'd rather be that than irrelevant. If no one's talking about you and there is no BS and there is no spotlight, well then you really have a problem. It's a good problem to have. First world problems, if you will. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio.

Speaking of first world problems, I know that a lot of times in the United States we reserve the right to complain about things that don't really matter much. But producer Jay and I were both struck by the words of Alina Svitolina, who is Ukrainian and is playing at Wimbledon right now. Now she took out Venus Williams, not literally, but on the tennis court at Wimbledon. She was playing Venus yesterday, so that's why she was doing interviews. But yeah, while she's playing tennis, her family is back in war torn Ukraine. When I wake up, I always check news. Every moment that I'm not on the court, I'm checking how my family is doing, how the situation is in Ukraine, monitoring all the time what is happening and how me and my foundation and the team around me, how we can help in that particular moment for some kids, for my family, for friends, for anyone.

So this is pretty much the life that I have now on a daily basis. So and this is not meant to be flippant in any way at all. When we talk about the freedom in the United States of America, we don't have a civil war going on. We don't have another country attacking us. And while we have many American citizens or residents who come from other parts of the world even more recently and are worried about their families. It's a very it's a very poignant reality for a lot of people in this country. I am I'm grateful. Thinking about the refugees and the number of nations who've seen mass exodus from their countries over the past few years.

Still we people flocking to come to the US. It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio. Don't ask me why, but I always celebrate our holidays with food. And so I did make some funfetti cupcakes. And apparently they got wind of it on the DA show, which follows us here on CBS Sports Radio. This comes from Monday morning. I just had my cereal and I just saw a bogus tweet this, Emmanuel, did anybody get a cupcake from Amy? No. No.

I did not get one. No. Okay. So Amy Lauren, I hate, we'll continue your update in a second. Just just bring me up as I'm looking at Twitter. Amy Lawrence tweeted as she came in that she baked funfetti cupcakes and she had some to share.

Yeah, I did. And there's actually one person on our show, James Boccioni, one, one. We have nine. We have pogush me, Emmanuel, Pete, Ryan, E.J.

and Brooker here. One, two, three, four, five. There's seven. Not that Amy has to bake for any of us, but if I read somebody say that they're coming into work and they've baked and they have some to share and you work with exactly one person, I didn't see her leave with a thing of Tupperware. Nope.

I didn't see a single cream on anybody's lip. Nope. And Boomer's not here.

She loves Boomer. I don't get back at things. I do.

Where are these cupcakes? I don't know. I don't know. And if you say you have some to share, does that mean two? And she normally. What is that normally considered?

Right. And she's only very generous. Usually there is a Tupperware or a pan somewhere.

It's please have these. In fact, she wants us to try her baking normally. Amy's an unbelievable baker, which is why I kind of got excited. Me too.

And look, if I just if she only had a couple and I got. But how could you work with one other person, say you have some to share and we don't see a single morsel. That's the literally the first thing I did.

I walked in, put my bag down, stuck my head around the little corner where there's glass into the studio, looked for the Tupperware so I could grab one. Didn't see it. Hmm. Well, first of all, how about you ask? Neither one of them asked.

That's Andrew Bogusch and Sean Morash on the D.A. show. I don't know if they're working this morning.

I do have the cupcakes with me. But don't you love how often they pointed out that it's just me and you? And yet our show sounds magnificent. They need 18 people to make their show sound as good as ours does with two. I'm just teasing.

I know that they, you know, they're it's a group effort on that show. Happy Independence Day. Enjoy your Fourth of July. We've got fun, Fedi.

The pictures are up on social. We're back tonight. No fireworks accidents, please.

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