After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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Visit carvana.com or download the app and sell your car from your comfy place. Good morning to you. It's Wednesday. It's your hump day if you worked on Monday. If not, well, then it's not your hump day, but we got to get through it to get downhill toward the weekend, which will begin the month of June.

How, how did we get here? I actually was just thinking about this on Tuesday. I'm so grateful. There's no more travel in my future until July 4th, I suppose. So it's over a month away, but I'm just grateful to have four weekends in a row or five weekends in a row at home. I do love that we had our honeymoon and it was great to be with Bob's family last weekend, but gosh, I'm ready to just plug my rear end down in my house and do boring stuff like housework and yard work and celebrate Bob's birthday next week. Not Bob's big boy, but Bob's birthday. It's June. It's nearly June.

How is that possible? It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. You can find me on Twitter, A Law Radio, also on our Facebook page. We'll go back. I'll go back and answer a bunch of your questions that are left over from Ask Amy Anything. And I know Jay is always on the lookout for questions that might carry over to the following week. So thanks as always for making this our most popular feature. We've been doing it since my second year here on the network, which goes back to 2014, right? So the network started in 13, even though we have a different name, we still get to carry forward all our records. So yeah, one of the only remaining original hosts, not the only one, but one of the only remaining original hosts. And I'm really proud of the fact that we still get so much interest for Ask Amy Anything.

And I learned my lesson. We tried to move it to a different part of the show or maybe move it around almost like a traveling road show so that you could see in here Ask Amy Anything. If you listen to the first hour of the show, you might catch it one week a month. If you listen to the final hour of the show, well, then you'll catch it.

Nope, not a good idea because we got much resistance. And so we had to move it back to its original time slot, which is always 1.40am Pacific Time, 4.40am Eastern Time as part of our hump show. So thanks for finding us on social.

Thanks for connecting. I have no idea who's going to win the Super Bowl, not at this moment in time or really even when we're in the middle of the Super Bowl. And yet people insist on asking. We're asking you something about football just because we are now inside of 100 days until kickoff with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. Yes, yes, they do play another team. We're getting to the point where you're going to start to hear more about mandatory OTA soon. Before you know it, we're six weeks out from training camps. Right here I am talking about June. We're about to crown champions in hoops and hockey. We are six weeks out from the first training camps. You want to search for it, Jay? First training camps?

No one yell at me that I have no idea who's playing in the Hall of Fame game, nor is it really on my radar right this second. But those teams are usually the ones who get to start their training camps earlier. Jay just gave you the... It just says mid to late July.

For training camps? Yeah. Oh come on, the dates have to be set now. Maybe, but our, well, I said our, CBS.com, they don't want us. They got rid of us. And then our company didn't want to pay for the naming rights. So we, we are no longer anything. We're not even allowed to utter.

Like for instance, if we were to use a word like cabbies. Nope. Can't do that either because it includes C, B and S. Cubs. Nope. Can't do that either. Can't do that. Paces. Nope.

Can't do that either. There's C, B. Nope. No B there.

Bases. Nope. No C there.

Or our listeners will. But yeah, it just says mid to late, mid to late July. Yeah. Training camps open. So I guess there's maybe for different teams, different dates.

All right. Well, right now I'm looking at the dates for off-season workouts and there will be another round of them coming up in early June. So just when you think it's safe to not pay attention to the NFL, well, there are more off-season workouts that will start in early June and continue for the next couple of weeks. The first mandatory mini camps though also come up in June. So that's when we're going to hear from anybody and everybody. We really call it an off-season at this point.

Have they really stopped? Organized. Organized. Let's see. I'm trying to find it on the NFL. I'm looking.

NFL.com baby. They've got them all into phases. Phase one, phase two. If you're wondering, we're now into phase two, which is the workouts. On-field workouts.

Group or instruction and individual drills. Phase three. That goes into OTAs. Is there a phase four? Let's see.

I'm looking for. No, I think phase four would be training camps. They take place in third week in July. We'll see training camps third week in July. Again, yeah, just mid to late July. It's happening.

It's all happening. It's six weeks away. So I guess maybe this question is not so much about 100 days until our first game, but whether or not right now in late May, you're jonesing for some NFL. We'll get our fix if you will long before the first game kicks off.

But how much do you miss NFL football right now? We've got a sliding scale up on Twitter. So you can take our poll. I retweeted, but you can also find it on our show account at Amy After Hours.

And then on our Facebook page too, I'm telling you 10 or D is right now the most popular option. You miss them on a scale of one to 10 as a 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, as a Bo Derek. That's a reference that some people just Jay has no idea. Or as a Mary Lou Retton. I might've heard that name before.

Okay. Dating myself, but I am kind of proud of, I mean, I never shoot. I don't know exactly when Bo Derek was a 10. I just know that when I was growing up and I was a kid, I wasn't, I wasn't really allowed to look at pictures of Bo Derek because apparently they were not for my little bitty eyes. So I do remember hearing that name and just knowing that she's a 10 J's Googling it right now. I thought it was a male. I'm not going to lie.

Bo. You thought Bo Derek was a male. Even after I telling you, I was telling you that she was a 10. I think this is when I was a little kid, like I said, and I wasn't allowed to, uh, to see any posters, but she became this big icon, essentially a sex symbol. And she was a 10. I don't know if it was coming from a movie or how she got that.

Um, I, again, I have no idea. I just know that I was, my brother and I were not allowed to, we couldn't Google cause there was no internet then, but we were not allowed to look at photos of Bo Derek in magazines or anything of the sort. So I shouldn't Google it on the work computer. You're saying I'm thinking that if you do Google it on the work computer, it's probably mild compared to what we get in sports illustrated swimsuit issue now. Um, because I, I couldn't actually tell you the poster or I think it was a poster and, and young boys had the poster up in their rooms. You might've been one of those. I probably would have been at the time. Yeah.

Anyway, uh, Bo Derek was a 10. That's all I know. It's a little bit before my time. Yeah. But Mary Lou Retton, come on. You have to know that reference. I've heard that name. Mary Lou Retton. Yeah.

Do you know what sport she participated in? I do, but I cheated. Oh, all right, Jay. I mean, I'm honest. I looked it up. I'm not going to be sad about this because you are also a sad sap who never saw Michael Jordan play.

Um, not really. No, no, but even so you were too young to understand what you were watching. I had a bull's blanket when I was in kindergarten. How did your family let you have a bull's blanket when you're Knicks fans? Oh wait, you're a Nets fan. Anybody in your family and Knicks fan? Uh, my dad used to watch the Knicks like back in the day, but he wasn't really, I mean, he liked basketball and like playing, but he's not a huge Knicks fan. Like he is a Giants or Ranger fan, so he never forced that on me.

Okay. So it wasn't considered taboo that you were a, that you were a Nets fan or that you had a bull's blanket. Well, I also, yeah, I wasn't there. I was more, got more into seriously following the NBA more in like high school I guess where I, but I always liked hoops, but I liked college. I kind of just kind of liked Dirk Nowitzki, like the Mavericks a little bit. And then I, when I seriously started watching hoops, that is when I started to watch the Nets. Well, the last time that the Dallas Mavericks were in the NBA finals, Dirk Nowitzki was killing it. He, along with Jason Kidd, that was their 2011 NBA champion against the Miami Heat. I would say that was a bit of a surprise.

Like I'll just go out on a limb here. If the Mavericks were to get to the finals and beat the Celtics, I would say that would also be a bit of a surprise. I've actually heard some NBA analysts say that they believe the Timberwolves have a better shot at beating the Celtics than do the Mavericks.

I don't know. Celtics just went through a series in which they swept the Pacers because the Pacers did not know how to close. That's also been the major issue with the Timberwolves. In each of the first four games of the Western Conference Finals, they had a lead in the final five minutes and, did I say five games? Four games.

Yeah. In all of the four games of the Western Conference Finals, they've had a lead in the final few minutes and until last night were unable to hold. But you can imagine that those demons were there because at one point in the fourth quarter, they had an eight point lead. Now a drive by Ant to the elbow, goes to the opposite corner. Cat got time, fires the three and drains it again. Three for three from long range for Karl Anthony Towns. The Wolves go up five with five minutes left to go in the fourth quarter. Ant will back it out beyond the arc. Derrick Jones Jr. on him. Ant hunting with the right hand into the paint, skids to a stop, little swill move.

Up off glass, got it, banking it home. Two Mavericks hit the deck. Ant beat the shot clock buzzer and puts the Wolves up 192. Jones to the right to Kyrie. They trap him but he gets away from two. In the lane, drop it off, Gaff a reverse dunk.

Out to Washington for three and that's way off. But it bounces right to Kyrie on the weak side. Kyrie in the lane with the left hand and that's good. Both the Timberwolves and the Mavericks radio networks, Alan Horton and Chuck Cooperstein and so yeah the Mavs storm back and I wonder if there was a little bit of the kind of the flashback or that sense of urgency that kicked in. Certainly know that there was more energy and a little more life, just a little more intensity on the Wolves side and that makes sense because the Mavericks have got real estate to play with. I wish they'd had the same sense of urgency especially knowing that the Celtics had already moved on to the NBA Finals but I certainly understand that it wasn't quite the danger, danger, danger flashing red lights that it would be for the Wolves who either had to win last night or they were out.

That being said, we still had a fight to the finish and here's one major difference. You want to know why the Wolves have not been able to close out when they've had the lead in the late stages of the earlier games in the series? Because Anthony Edwards did not show up.

That's why. Because Karl Anthony Towns, the two stars, the two of them have struggled with the game on the line but both of them stepping up last night and Ant was feeling good. Five straight Dallas points there within three. Ant is holding out by mid-court. The shot clock is down to eight.

It's down to six. He starts to move off the Rudy screen. Ant with a left-handed dribble now with three.

He'll pull up. It's a deep two and he drains it. A right side 21-footer for Anthony Edwards puts the Wolves up two possessions with 38.8 seconds left. How big was that shot?

Love my former Syracuse classmate Alan Horton. He has such a flair for the dramatic. So that put the Wolves in front by five but if you have not seen the circus three-point shot for Luka Doncic, I do not advise trying this at home. A couple possessions later, again they're still hanging around, hanging around because Luka's got acrobatics. Two possession game. Gap for the rebound.

Mavericks have to move. Doncic with 15. Doncic across the line. Right to left. Forces it up.

Draws the handle. Oh no! He can't just do that.

Oh my goodness. Doncic's a miracle shot and a chance of four-point play with 13.2 seconds remaining. Unbelievable that Edwards even reaches in there on that. Yeah, I mean there's two pieces to this. First of all, I have no idea how the ball went in. If you haven't seen it, it's on our show Twitter at Amy After Hours.

I might go down and retweet it just so you can see it because it's nutso. So he's got the ball a step inside the logo. So we're talking about nearly half court. There should be no tight defense at that point.

There's no need for it. You still have the lead. A foul is the worst possible thing that can happen. But Luka, this might have been the second worst possible thing, Luka's got about three guys between him and the top of the key.

Time is running out. He's feeling pressed and so what does he do? He elevates, but in order to get more hops, to get over the three guys and to heave the ball with a little extra oomph on it, he does a mini scissor kick. So one leg goes forward, one leg goes back. It looks like he's in the, you know when you're in the water and you're swimming and you're kicking with your legs? Yeah, it's kind of like that so he could get a little extra elevation.

And then he just heaves it from his chest. There was no form whatsoever. This was the wrong thing to do.

The exact, actually you'd use it as a teaching example. Do not do this when you are trying to make a shot from deep. It was pretty funny how it looked, but it did go in and he also got the free throw. And so Anthony Edwards compounded the problem by fouling him and Luka ends up with a four point play with 13 seconds to go. So the Mavs are within striking distance. Now the Wolves foul, right? So that they, not the Wolves, sorry, the Mavericks foul on the next inbound so that they can stop the clock, use that foul in the final two minutes and that gives the Wolves an inbound.

Gotta get it in. Semperwolz, it's not in the act of shooting so Dallas had a foul to give. Kyle Anderson struggling to get it in. They lob it to Nasri to the rim.

He got the layup with the right hand. 105-100 and Dallas has called a time out. Dallas was so pressuring off the inbound that Nas just cut back door and caught that and that is not an easy finish.

So the Wolves are able to hold off the Dallas Mavericks and extend the series and two, again, two major pieces of this. Really the difference between this game and every other game in the series is that Anthony Edwards had his best performance and he was playing some great basketball in the fourth quarter. Had actually just an assist shy of a triple-double.

29 points, 10 rebounds and 9 dimes for Ant. Tonight, the entire game, I didn't let anything bother me. My joy was there the entire time and big shout out to my college coach, man. He always takes me, Coach Green, and tell me, man, play with joy. That's when you're playing at your best and he made sure he takes me there before the game at halftime today. He was in such a good mood that off to his left, his point guard, Mike Conley, got teased a little bit.

I didn't think his pants were that bad, but it was clear that Ant was dying to talk about Mike Conley and what he was wearing. Any questions for Mike? Y'all want to ask me about Mike? Everybody want to ask me about Mike?

Bye-bye. How about Mike, especially in the first half? It seemed like he really is old as fuck. And he was getting downhill, laying the ball up. So shout out to Bite Bite and he coming in here with these clown pants on. So y'all about to see him in a minute, but that's my OG. That's my point guard.

He played great tonight and I couldn't ask nothing more from him. So thank you, Mike Conley. Bite Bite is the nickname for Mike Conley. And he was praising him while also destroying his pants. I actually didn't think they were that bad. They look a little bit. So Marco thought they were Zubat's pants, those old, like, you know, pants that kind of flare out or they got zany colors, zebra stripes. Yeah, I didn't. I mean, compared to what, say, Travis Kelsey wears.

What's the difference? Or Russell Westbrook, he likes to design his own clothes. I kind of feel like these guys are, yeah, it's in their wheelhouse. Pretty MC Hammer-ish. They were a little bit MC Hammer-ish.

Wear what you like, whatever makes you happy is what my niece would tell me. Also, did you see the exchange? It's on the Clutchpoints Twitter, Jay, if you wanted to grab it. The exchange, so he was just kind of taking aim at everybody in the postgame.

Again, he's feeling pretty good about himself. He goes after Mike Conley and his pants and also says he's old as you know what, 36 apparently is super old. Damn.

Damn. And you hear Kat in the background. Well, that's kind of funny because Kat was reacting to the fact that Ant was going after Mike Conley. But then Ant decides he's going to tangle with Kat over the fact that Karl-Anthony Towns fouled out in the final couple minutes of the game. He played a long time with the five fouls tonight and still found a way to score.

I'll tell you by five. But you mean you had five? But I didn't foul out. You didn't foul out.

I did what I needed to do. I'm going to beat him up on the bus, y'all. Get out of here.

Don't believe that. So the two of them going back and forth about who had the five fouls, which is kind of funny just because Ant was in such a good mood at 22 years old. He's, yeah, he's all about it.

He's feeling good. He's essentially going to tee everybody up and take a bite, a bite bite out of everybody else. So yeah, Ant goes after him for fouling out and Kat says you had five fouls and Ant's like, hey, but I didn't foul out.

So right. Everything's fair game at a postgame press conference where Ant is feeling himself. Good for Kat, though, because even when he had the five fouls, he was going to stay aggressive. And finally, after shooting so poorly for the majority of these playoffs, he was four or five from beyond the arc.

And he also had the 25 points to help the team close out. Ain't no time to have any doubts in your mind, especially at this time. It's game four. We're down 3-0.

Ain't no time to have any doubts. I'm going to go out there, be aggressive, keep my shot like I've been doing all series and be a confident every shot I shoot. Played smart, played under control, rebounded really well for us, executed defensively.

Now I'm really, really proud of him. You know, he's been a huge part of every series up until then. And we just, we knew we had to get him into this series and tonight was a good, great step for that.

To Chris Finch, getting what he needs from his two superstars. And in addition, their defense was a lot better. So the Mavericks only shot 42%, which is below what they've shot so far in this series. Luka Doncic took the blame, even though he had a triple-double.

To a man, though, it seemed like they kind of lamented the fact they didn't have the same energy, which again, makes sense. But as the Mavericks, you'd think they'd want to fight through that considering now game five is back in mini. And if they would lose that one, then there's a little more pressure on the team that had the 3-0 lead. The Western Conference Finals, I still say it's okay for it to last to a game five because you still would have a week off. The Celtics would have a couple extra days off, but you would have a week off still in between series. But you know, if you, no, no, Jay, if this goes to Saturday, say, right, and they would be back home, if it went to a game six on Saturday, a lot of pressure there. Then you're talking about a fairly, well, a lot quicker turnaround than the Celtics. You're talking about a physical series against the Wolves defense. They would have Sunday to recover theoretically.

They would have to travel. So yeah, then you're talking about only a couple of days off as opposed to what the Celtics will have, which is well more than a week. So I'm thinking it definitely behooves them to close out on Thursday. Oh, I totally agree with that. I would have drawn everything in my power to close out last night. Right, right. For sure. Which they did, of course, but.

Jason Kidd was kind of funny. He was asked about whether or not they just need to clear their minds, clear their heads and get right after the loss. This isn't time to go for a bike ride or go to the park or the zoo. We've got to figure out how to slow these guys down. We've got a responsibility. We've got a job to do, and that's to find a way to win in Minnesota. We can do that after the season, take our mind off of basketball. Right now, this is a great opportunity for us as a young team to go through this. There's no reason to figure out or think about something else.

What a strange question. Do you need to take some time away from basketball or take some time to clear your heads? It's your first loss in, what, seven games? Why do you need to take some time to clear your head? Also, someone asked Luca about mindset. Note to self, that's not a question that you need to ask Luca.

He just kind of scoffed at the whole thing. So yeah, I don't know if maybe just the one loss is media taking a little bit too far. It's one loss. It's one loss. I don't think there's any need to panic.

Clearly if the Mavericks react the way that some of these questions seem to indicate the media reacted then they'd be in a much worse off position. But we're not going to go to the zoo. All right, take our poll. How much do you miss NFL football? We're inside of 100 days until kickoff.

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You are listening to the after hours podcast. I think I've improved a lot since the beginning of the start of the season. I think the biggest thing for me is like once I get in there, I still get a little indecisive and that's honestly where a lot of my turnovers are still coming from. Just like a little indecision once I do get my feet in the paint, but I think I've done a better job of, you know, probing and finding people open or, you know, finishing at the rim. I think I've done a better job as well as like understanding who's guarding me at the four and five position when I am getting those screens and, you know, kind of picking them apart from there. Some are a little more athletic and some are a little bit slower that I can get around. So I think that's definitely been something that I've grown in a lot over the course of these first eight games. So that'll continue to get a lot better. Continue to take care of the ball a little bit better and find people and not be a little indecisive.

Got to make decisions a little bit faster there once I do get my feet in the paint. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Kaitlyn Clark becomes the first WNBA player to have over 100 points and 50 assists in her first eight games.

I don't even think that there was a category for that, but there is now. Kaitlyn Clark is in the WNBA. Best game of her young pro career last night at the Fieldhouse in Indianapolis with both Pacers, because they've got time on their hands, Pacers and Colts in the house to watch her.

So near sellout crowd 16,000 plus and actually saw this somewhere. Maybe it was in the elevator with that rotating screen of different nuggets of information. Intel that I sometimes use as conversation starters. Yes, little factoids here on the show.

I will bring them back a bunch. This one happened to be about the WNBA, which means it's mainstream right now. And this is through what two weeks of the regular season. The attendance on average for each WNBA arena is up by a third. So it's so I think it's roughly 8500 fans and that's average. So that's including all games and every home arena, which is pretty sweet.

The Fever themselves are, I mean they're getting to the point where they're better than doubling what they were drawing last year. And so she is putting butts in the seats and I think that's great. And the conversation persists about whether or not she's being welcomed. She's certainly getting a lot of tough defense that's played on her. She was asked specifically about veteran guard Ari McDonald, who played at Arizona. She was matched up with Kaitlyn for a good portion of last night's game between the Fever and the Sparks. And McDonald seemed to be taking it personally. Little bit of trash talking, little bit of chippy play. And Kaitlyn apparently is getting used to that. I think everybody's physical with me.

They get away with things that probably other people don't get away with. And it's tough but that's just the fact of the matter. This is a very physical game. But yeah, I mean you're going to get pressured. That's just professional basketball. I think it is what it is honestly.

30.6 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, 3 blocked shots. They did lose again but you can't possibly be watching them or have been watching them for the last couple weeks and not believe that they're getting better. She's getting better for sure.

She's figuring it out as she said. And I know that I've used Steph Curry as kind of a model for what Kaitlyn has gone through, what she is going through. And it works in this situation too. When Steph first got into the NBA, he was a skinny kid. Not that he couldn't shoot because of course he could shoot the lights out. Not that he didn't have handles.

He absolutely did. Not that he wouldn't set up his teammates because he could. Similar to Kaitlyn. She can shoot from almost anywhere on the court. She will drive to the hoop.

She loves to set up her teammates. And she's drawing the yeoman share of the defensive attention for every opponent just like Steph was. Now in Steph's case, he needed to put on weight. He was going to get knocked around by bigger, stronger professional guards. Veteran guards.

And that was the MO on guarding Steph. Rough him up. Knock him around. Play physical. Run him off screens.

Do whatever you can to wear him out. By the end of a game, he won't be able to shoot the same way. And he sure as heck won't be able to keep up with you on the defensive end. What did Steph do? Well, Steph got stronger. He went through a couple of injuries early in his career and then he started to bulk up a little bit.

He figured out how to withstand the rigors of not just the 82 game regular season and playoffs, but he found out ways to take less contact and also just to get stronger himself physically so that he could withstand the way that guys would guard him. They may not realize it in the WNBA, though it's fairly standard practice. The harder you push someone, if they've got it, which Kaitlyn Clark definitely does, if they've got the dedication, the commitment, the termination, all you're doing is pushing her to get better. The more you guard her, double teams, sometimes triple teams, the harder you push her, Kaitlyn's a lot like that. She's just going to figure it out and she's going to get better. So ultimately, as much as it sucks to be new kid on the block, to be the rookie, to have everybody coming at you, she's not catching anyone off guard, right? Everybody knows, everybody on the planet knows what Kaitlyn Clark did before she got the WNBA. Right now it's rough, but she's going to use that to make her better and no doubt it's already happening.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. This idea that she's not welcomed by the league, it's one that's going not just all over the WNBA, but it's transcending the league itself. Kaitlyn was asked last night how she feels like she's been welcomed by the rest of the league. I think everybody's been very kind. You know, honestly, I don't talk to a ton of people in the league outside of my teammates. I don't know why I don't really, unless I give them a high five before the game or unless it's, you know, Kait Martin. But, you know, I think just within our team it's been very welcoming.

But even when I take the court, everybody's just like, welcome to the league. And you can tell there's an excitement about it this year. And I think that's really cool to see too, honestly.

Good. I hope that's the case. And I think initially, now that she's settled into the league, the narrative will start to change and maybe die down. Because you're starting to get the answers from players that are just, hey, we're done with this. We're over it. Like Asia Wilson of the Aces about Kaitlyn.

People don't give her a chance. This is growth. We tell our rookies every single day, this is new.

You're coming into a whole new world and starting over. So it's, the questions are only annoying because it's like, she's young. She's a rookie. I keep asking these questions as if she's a grown ass woman that's been in this league for years. No, she's doing her job.

We're doing ours. And at the end of the day, that's how we grow is when we get better and do things like that. So yeah, I'm just exhausted over the conversation because I know she's exhausted.

I can only imagine. So defending Kaitlyn Clark and the idea that she's not that good, or she's not getting used to the WNBA as quickly as she should. And also the idea that, hey, we're, we're doing our jobs too. We're not supposed to make life easy for her.

What do you want us to roll out the red carpet? Now I still say that there, there are some players in the league who are a little bit peeved that it's taken this one young woman to get attention for the league that's been around for nearly 30 years. There's no, that again, human nature. There's no way that if, even if you're not jealous that you don't think, what the heck? I've been doing this job for years. Why all of a sudden?

And there's really not any scientific answer. We watch what we watch. We love winners in this country and Kaitlyn, she dazzles with her brand of basketball. Again, very similar to Steph Curry, the way that the, the world just became captivated by him when he was in college and shooting the lights out at Davidson.

It's something similar. We've not lost our love affair and our fascination with Steph. And I don't think it's going to happen with her either. Now it would help if the Fever won three NBA or WNBA titles in four years.

That would help, wouldn't it? I don't know how quickly they become a contender. I just know that she's getting better and you can tell that the team is figuring it out. So good for Kaitlyn. She always seems to have the right answer that diffuses some other realm. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. You can find us on Twitter at Amy After Hours and then also on our Facebook page, trying to answer some of your questions from Ask Amy.

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This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. In the wake of Grayson Murray taking his own life over the weekend and that rocking the world of golf, another prominent golfer and actually more prominent than Grayson in her sport, the LBGA, on the eve of the U.S. Women's Open, Lexi Thompson has decided to retire. She's a very well-known golfer, longtime American rep on the Solheim Cup. She's also participated in the Olympics. And she did put a video out there on social media in which she explained her reasons for retiring. Maybe it makes a little more sense when you realize that she's been doing this for a lot longer than she's been on the LBGA tour. Golf has been her life going back to when she was a kid. And she said on social, my life has been a whirlwind of constant attention, scrutiny and pressure.

The cameras are always on, capturing every swing and every moment on and off the golf course. Social media never sleeps with comments and criticisms flooding in from around the world. It can be exhausting maintaining a smile on the outside while grappling with struggles on the inside. By opening up about my battles, I've been able to connect with others who feel isolated in their struggles, offering them a sense of community and understanding. Each time I share, it reinforces the message that it's okay to not be okay and that seeking support is a sign of strength, not weakness.

So that was on her social media. She also then got really emotional in her pre-tournament press conference, explaining why she's walking away from golf. Being out here can be a lot. It can be lonely. Sorry if I get emotional.

I said I wasn't going to. I just think, you know, especially with what's happened in golf as of recent too, a lot of people don't, they don't realize a lot of what we go through as a professional athlete. I mean, and I'll be the last one to say, like throw me a pity party. That's the last thing I want, but you know, we're doing, we're doing what we love. We're trying the best every single day. And you know, we're not perfect. We're humans.

Words hurt. And it's hard to overcome sometimes. I was saying this on our last edition of the show and actually to start tonight's show as well, that when something tragic happens, takes place, especially when it's loss of life, that finality that you don't come back from, very often it can cause other people in various stages of connection to that person to reconsider his or her own life and choices and priorities.

It kind of brings you face to face with how fragile life can be, how fleeting it is and how if we're not taking care of our physical and mental health, you kind of put yourself in a position where you are more vulnerable. And it seems like with Lexi, now she said she'd been considering retirement for quite a while, but it seems like what happened with Grayson Murray and she did kind of make a reference to that, especially with what's happened in golf. A lot of people don't realize what we go through as a professional athlete. And she references her own mental health and talks about the loneliness, the anxiety, just the dealing with the constant pressure. And it's not as though she hasn't dealt with it.

That's the thing. This is Lexi Thompson, who's a major winner. In addition to being a major winner, she's been a pioneer. She was the youngest golfer ever to qualify for the U.S. Women's Open at 12 years old.

This is a child prodigy. She made the cut in the same major, the U.S. Women's Open, as a 14 year old. I mean, that's a lot for a teenager and it's a long time that she's been competing at the highest level, which requires everything, right?

It requires not just your time and your energy and your dedication, but it requires your heart and your soul. She won the U.S. Girls Junior Championship in 2008. Again, going back to the days when she was a young teenager. And she's won 15 times around the world. She's finished runner up in multiple other majors. This is one of the best players on the women's tour, one of the best players of this recent generation. And she's been carrying a lot. And it's okay, right?

It's okay to decide that it's not something you want to pour your mind and your heart into moving forward. Stetson Bennett actually came out on Tuesday and when he was asked a pointed question, did admit that under the larger umbrella of mental health, that's why he took last year off. Remember, he was supposed to be the backup quarterback to Matthew Stafford. And instead of going to training camp, he went home.

And he's only recently rejoined the Rams, so he missed his entire rookie year. And he was asked about kind of being a role model, but someone who's willing to speak out about mental health and those struggles in the midst of this NFL world. I was very specific, you know, to me and, you know, in a generic sense, like, yeah, hopefully, you know, I think it's, you know, made me stronger and all that stuff. But, you know, it's hard to hard to say what other people can or will. And, you know, all I know is that, you know, I'm doing the best I can every day to get better.

And, you know, if something comes up, what happened last year, I don't know so good. We're talking about sports because that's the majority of the realm that I operate in. But I do think it's really smart. And more and more teams, franchises, organizations are making sports psychologists and mental health coaches available to their athletes. And it's not just so they can have an edge. It's so they can manage everything that is on them. It's different in the age of social media.

It's certainly different when you're constantly, constantly on camera and there's all access all the time and you have to feed the monster, so to speak. So I'm glad that Lexi and Stetson Bennett and we know other athletes more recently, Naomi Osaka, Coco Gauff, they've taken time away. Simone Biles for their mental health because then they come back and that's great. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. Boom. The wait is over.

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