7-1-24 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

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Almost done. For those of you who are already on the move for July 4th week, well, happy Independence Day to you. My goodness, I just heard the numbers on my way into work was in the car in Princess Leia doing the commute to start the week. Weird week for me, too.

So if you're out of your regular routine, I can definitely relate. But what I heard, according to AAA, which does a lot of the travel numbers and travel predictions for the holidays and major events. According to AAA, 32 million people will pass through TSA PreCheck this week, meaning 32 million Americans will fly somewhere for the July 4th weekend.

Whether it's a four-day weekend, because the holiday is actually on Thursday, or whether it's a full week of travel. And apparently there are a lot of people already on the move. And so if there's extra traffic or you're heading to the airport on Monday, Tuesday, expect company because people are using all kinds of different travel models during the week. So 32 million people going through TSA PreCheck. So 32 million people flying.

That includes me. I will be flying on Wednesday. Don't normally do it, but things change when you get married, as many of you know. My husband and his family have a wedding this week, and actually on the holiday. And so we will be in Houston, thankfully get to stay with my mom because I haven't seen her since we left Texas with our belongings and started driving to the Northeast, going back to, gosh, December 28th was when we left. So we'll be flying on Wednesday, but then in addition to the 32 million people who will be flying, there are apparently another 66 million people who will be driving to their holiday destinations. So if you think about our nation, and I could be under the number now, but the last I looked, the last I remember, our population doesn't include the people coming across the border. Our population is roughly 330 million people in the United States. So if you take nearly 100 million people who are on the move, it's not quite a third, but let's go conservative. 30% of America will be on the move for this holiday. And it's interesting too, because the statistics, haha, she said, there goes the perfect show. My husband said something to me about a perfect radio show and I right away responded with, there's no such thing as a perfect radio show, or I've never done a perfect radio show.

So there we go, two and a half minutes in, wah wah wah. So according to the stats, many Americans have started to dial back on spending outside of the essentials. And that makes sense, although I do consider chocolate an essential, but that makes sense because prices are so high. And usually in the summertime, not always, but usually in the summertime, gas goes up and other items like groceries and entertainment that tends to go up in the summer because of supply and demand. So more people are on the move, more people looking to be entertaining themselves, more people with families that have kids out of school.

And so in the summertime, the cost of pretty much everything tends to increase. And so producer J, I'm not sure if you guys have plans on July 4th, but what I heard is that many Americans will be staying home. Meaning even if they're on the road, they're staying home for, this sounds weird, that sounded weird. Even if they're traveling to visit family and friends, they're not going out for the July 4th holiday. Okay, so most people are staying home or they're going and they're spending time with family and friends at their homes, right?

And even hearing some of the numbers that compare. So for instance, the average cost of a hamburger that you grill at home is about $2 just based on the price of beef. And actually Bob grilled on Saturday night. We had burgers with cheese and onion and lettuce. Oh, so delicious. And I made a Mexican street corn salad. Have I made that for you before?

Have I ever given that to you? Oh, delicious. If you like, well, it's sort of Mexican, it's corn, but it has, instead of using mayo, because you know I don't like mayo, I use sour cream and Greek yogurt and tajin and then cilantro and scallions and it's delicious. Sounds fancy. Yeah, it's really good. Well, and it's pretty easy to make, but it's delicious. It's really great actually if you scoop it up with chips.

So it's a little bit like a, yeah, more like a salsa or a dip, yeah. Anyway, so we ate burgers on Saturday, we had a friend visiting for the day, and we ate burgers on Saturday. And so the average cost of a burger, if you make it at home, I know you guys grill a bunch at your place, it's about $2. The average cost of a burger outside your home, so you go to a restaurant, and this includes all types of restaurants, fast food, sit down, everything in between, over $7 now. So you eat in and you save $5 per burger. That's including like fast food and everything? Uh-huh, it's the average in the United States right now, the average burger. And if you have gone to, and I know that you love Wendy's, if you've gone to fast food lately, you know the prices are, they're crazy.

Oh, it's surging. Yeah, Bob and I went to Sonic a couple weeks back, and I was blown away that you could not get a burger for under $7. To feed like a family of four with McDonald's or say a fast food is not a cheap thing to do right now.

It's not. No, you go out with a family of four to a fast food place, and you're easily, easily spending $30 if not more. Oh, easy, yeah. Yeah, and that's just maybe the food, forget drinks or anything else that you might get. So yes, that's one of the things that are keeping people at home, one of the factors is that you can eat so much more cheaply at home. And I would say that's the case for us. We like to cook, we like to grill. And yes, we love to go out, but we really only do it say once every couple weeks, twice a month, something along those lines because we'd rather just grill at home and try to save money. Not that the grocery store is cheaper. Well, it is cheaper, I suppose, but it's not really cheap. So that's what's happening this summer in the United States.

People are on the move, but when they go on the move or they travel, then they're looking for ways to save money. That's very American of us. I mean, that's what I'm doing on the 4th. I'm traveling, I guess, away from my house, but like you said, just locally to a friend's house.

I don't know, 20 minutes away, 25 minutes away. And you guys would do a cookout? Yeah, we're going to cook out, make some burgers, make some hot dogs, maybe a couple fireworks, and have a good time.

Uh-oh, watch out for your fingers. Of course. Okay. I meant mostly sparklers, to be honest.

What'd you say? I said it was really just sparklers. Oh, still though, they can pack a wallop. Oh, yeah.

Be careful. Did you hear what I said, you Giants fan? Oh, Jason Pierre Paul. Jason Pierre Paul. Yikes.

He did come back and play, though. Oh, sure. With a club.

With a club, yeah. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. We're glad to have you with us this holiday week. There's a lot happening, people on the move, as I say, out of their regular routines. And even though I generally work July 4th, and I actually really enjoy working July 4th with the red, white, and blue flavor, and the NBA free agency, and just the chance to be kind of goofy and get off the beaten path, not to mention we very often will have new listeners or listeners who haven't heard us in a while or really forgot all about us, which is fine.

It's a good time to be remembered. So we'd love to hear from you. If you want to find us online, we've got Twix, ALaw Radio, or at Amy After Hours. That's our show account. And then also on our Facebook page, you can find our podcast links there if you don't hear the show often, but you'd like to keep up with it.

The podcast is available every weekday morning. Like I say, I normally work July 4th, and I don't mind at all. I actually really enjoy it because the commute home the morning after is so quiet.

No one is out in New York City. It's amazing. So I generally like to trade a holiday commute for one that's your average, which stinks most of the time. But not this week. Yeah, I feel like a sellout.

I like to go opposite what everyone else does. But this week, this holiday, I'm selling out, and I'm doing what a lot of other Americans are doing. I was out of your hands. I know. It was.

I did not plan the wedding on July 4th. But the neat thing is we'll get to stay with my mom, and I haven't seen my mom since Christmas, so I'm looking forward to that. Love to hear from you again.

ALaw Radio on Twix or on our Facebook page After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Producer Jay and I are fairly bummed because one of our favorite NBA players is changing uniforms this offseason. We now know that is, well, it's not 100% a sure thing because nothing is until it's actually done.

So there's always maybe some chance that things could change. But it doesn't appear as though a reunion or another two, three, four years is in the plans, in the works, for Klay Thompson and the Golden State Warriors. Unfortunately, because I love the Splash Brothers, I know it's not been the same for a few years. In fact, if you go back to, it was June of 19, right? The NBA Finals in June of 19 when Klay Thompson first tore his ACL, right? Wasn't that the same series or the same NBA Finals in which Kevin Durant popped his Achilles? Okay, so June of 2019, right? So you, if you think about that moment for the Golden State Warriors, and wasn't it early, early in that game six as well, right?

It was, I feel like it was the, oh gosh, maybe a few minutes into that game in 2019. And so he gets hurt, then COVID hits, right? And while he is out in what was the 19-20 year, before they shut down in March like every other sport did, the Warriors were really struggling.

If I remember correctly, so if I get a couple details a little off, don't yell at me. But if I remember correctly, Steph also got injured that season, or maybe it was Draymond. So they had played through the four consecutive NBA Finals against the Cavaliers. They did end up winning in 19, but the following season, it seemed like all of the big three were injured. I seem to remember that Steph was out for four months with some kind of a freak injury. Draymond didn't play a lot that season either. So when they returned in 2020, remember the NBA took a huge hiatus, returned in 2020, but in the bubble. So that was later in the year, they get to the bubble, the Warriors are not there because they have one of the worst records in the NBA. They kind of felt like that was a throwaway season. They had played a ton of basketball over the previous four plus years.

Physically, they were okay with their bodies getting a rest. But that last 2019 run took a toll on both KD as well as Klay Thompson. And then like I said, the following year, they had other major pieces that were out. Curry played just five games out of 65 in that 2020 year.

Gotcha. And what about Draymond? I feel like he was out for quite a while too.

I don't have him. I did see just quick that he was injured at different times that year. So I don't think the Warriors in any way cared much about those two guys missing time. They knew they weren't going to contend without Klay, with some of the changes.

It was, again, kind of a throwaway year. They failed to win 50 games for the first time since 2013. Yeah, so they were in no way interested in bringing Steph back, having him play a lot, having Draymond play a lot. They just weren't.

And when they didn't make the bubble, they were okay with that. But then the following year, well it's late the following year, so Klay is getting close to returning. In fact, he's full systems go. He lives in L.A. You know, he spends his offseason in L.A. where he's from. And he's scrimmaging, just playing a game, I believe it was in L.A., maybe even against some of the Lakers, other guys who train there. And he tears his Achilles. He is weak at that point.

Remember, the NBA season was delayed in 21. He is weeks away from getting back on the court. And tears his Achilles and misses another year plus. And it was a really hard thing for him. We know that he struggled, he was frustrated. It was not only physically painful, but it was emotionally painful for him to sit and watch his team. And so he was out of basketball, which is really his lifeline.

It's what he loves. He was out of basketball for two and a half years, other than the post rehab for the ACL in which he thought he was about to play. He was able to run full court, but never did get back on a game.

He went two and a half years without playing a game. In that time, of course, Steph Curry gets older, Draymond Green gets older and more cantankerous. The roster around those Warriors change. So then again, in 21-22 season, 21-22 season, they start out slowly, but Klay returns. It takes him a while, but he finds the flow. The team catches fire in the playoffs.

Brilliant. They end up winning another championship against the Celtics that year. And it was like everything fell into place, lightning in a bottle. And you remember how emotional it was for all of them because it was a relative surprise that they were able to surge through the West and to beat the Celtics in the NBA Finals.

But they kind of resorted and reverted back to what had been the pattern before. That surprise title, a lot of moving parts around Steph and Dray. And without Klay for those two seasons, it really did become Steph and Dray. Andrew Wiggins in there, Gary Payton Jr. Gosh, who was the one that they got rid of because of Draymond Green?

The two of them? Jordan Poole. Jordan Poole, thank you. He was instrumental in them winning that 22 title. So it wasn't just Steph and Klay and Dray. Andrew Wiggins and Jordan had amazing runs in the playoffs. Gary Payton was a terrific defender in that playoffs.

So it really was a team effort. But they didn't keep the band together, obviously, and the West has gotten stronger. The rise of the Nuggets, the Jazz were playing well, the Mavericks made the Western Conference Finals. The Lakers, because of LeBron and Anthony Davis, are still competing. You've got a kind of a new age Sacramento Kings trying to figure it out. So, yeah, the West has become tougher and the Warriors have gotten older. And now they want to get underneath that luxury tax threshold. And so something's got to give. Maybe at some point we will hear more specific numbers about what Klay wanted versus what the Warriors were offering.

At some point maybe we'll have specifics. But according to multiple reports, Thompson and the Warriors were never really close. And as much as Steve Kerr and Mike Dunleavy, the new GM, said to us last week on different outlets, Steve was on with Jim Rome, right? As much as they told us that Klay was their priority, we want Klay back, that may have just been spitting into the wind.

Because it doesn't sound like they were ever close and that there has been very little communication over the course of these last couple months to try to bring him back. And I'm so bummed about it because I'm a huge fan of Klay Thompson. I love the Splash Brothers. They changed the NBA for the stretch in which they went to four consecutive NBA Finals. They lit the league on fire. And I've said this before, I'll say it again, I think there are a lot of new fans because of the Warriors.

Similar to what's happening with the WNBA right now and Kaitlin Clark. People followed Steph Curry from college to the Golden State Warriors. People who maybe didn't watch the NBA but really loved Steph. And personally, Steph and Klay and their style of play, along with Dre and Andre Iguodala and some of the others that have gone through there, they reminded me why I loved basketball. That style of play.

Run and gun, chuck and duck. Yes, there's a lot of three pointers in there, of course, because that's what Steph and Klay used as weapons. Those deep shots that would set the arena on fire, too. But it was the style of play. It was incorporating everyone, passing the ball around, finding the open man. It's just that they built a roster in which pretty much everybody could shoot from the outside. Small ball, right? Going small, getting up and down the court, living on the edge. Of course, the turnovers at times would bite them in the rear ends. But what they liked to do was put pressure on a defense by spreading you out, lots of motion, moving the ball around quickly, bang.

And it was so much fun to watch. And I know Klay is not the same person. I know that the injuries have taken their toll. He works hard at it still, and there are stretches. We saw games last year. There were fewer and farther between, but we saw games last year where he could still torch the nets. Now, he has been really honest about the fact or he was really honest about the fact last year that his mentals were getting in the way.

What did Marshawn Lynch tell us? Take care of your mentals. Take care of your chicken. Take care of your mentals.

Take care of your chicken. Well, that's kind of the idea is mentally you have to be right as well as physically. And for a while, Klay admitted he got bumped from the starting lineup. It played with his head. He was worried about it. I mean, this is fairly human experience.

It's it's fairly common. We get anxious. We get nervous.

We put pressure on ourselves that it actually it actually affects our ability to perform. And it did that with Klay. But ultimately, they had to move him back in the starting lineup because he was playing so well. And I know the Warriors did all kinds of nothing in their run to the playoffs, but that play in tournament, that gimmicky thing that I can't stand. The reports indicate that now Klay Thompson and the Warriors have essentially stopped negotiating and the Warriors are accepting the fact that Klay will not be with them moving forward. Oh, it's like a stake in the heart. After last summer, apparently, the contract negotiations never really picked up steam again.

And this is tough, right? Because for the player, it can be so personal. This is why agents are critical for the player.

It can be so personal. Feeling like you're not valued for what you've meant to the organization or what you can still bring to the table. But Klay Thompson, because he doesn't he and his camp don't love what the Warriors were offering. They never really got back to the negotiating table. So he is an unrestricted free agent. He plans to have discussions with the Dallas Mavericks, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Philadelphia 76ers, who apparently are going for every single free agent that's available. We'll get back to them.

And how about this? The Los Angeles Lakers. Could you imagine Bronny and Klay in the backcourt? Although we know LeBron James is actually a point guard trapped in a tight ends body.

So there's a lot to talk about. Chris Paul already gone from Golden State. And yes, Paul George could be headed to the East Coast. Oh, we got a lot to do, you guys.

So please find me on Twix at ALOL radio. It will be weird for me to see Klay Thompson in a different uniform. I might shed a tear again because I'm such a huge fan of his. I love Steph, too. How can you not? But because of Klay's story, everything he went through to get back to basketball. I feel like I'm emotionally attached to him. People have feelings.

Exactly. And I have feelings about Klay leaving, potentially going to please don't go to Orlando. Please don't go to Orlando. How can I root for Orlando? I'll root for whatever.

Oh, no. How can I root for the Lakers? Heads up with the Lakers.

Never mind. I'll root for Klay. I will not root for the Lakers.

That would be tough. So again, online, we'd love to hear from you. NBA free agency well underway. Happy end of June. Wow.

Wow. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. You can host the best backyard barbecue. You find a professional on Angie to make your backyard the best around. Connect with skilled professionals to get all your home projects done well inside to outside repairs to renovations. Get started on the Angie app or visit Angie dot com today.

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Member NYSE as IPC. Listen as Selenia tells us why she chose to vaccinate her daughter. I definitely felt like the pros far outweighed the cons, the diseases that I am protecting my child against. They're still here. And at the end of the day, it's my job as a mother to keep my child safe.

Talk to your child's doctor and learn more at why vaccines dot com. Brought to you by Merck. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Chris Paul will walk it up five minutes to go as of right now.

All right. Corner Thompson entry pass to Wiggins guarded by Vamblee. Left hand dribble to the box comes middle. Toss to Paul. Paul fakes and fires three ball. Good above the break for Chris Paul.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. It seems like the Western Conference is the more active right now as we're in the early stages of NBA free agency. It's funny.

This is how I know I've been in the business a long time. July 4th holiday. July 4th week has now become about free agency for me ever since. LeBron James held us hostage on the 4th of July when he first departed Cleveland.

USA. I am not telling you anything that you do not know the whole I'm taking my talents to South Beach. That made for TV special with it was Jim Gray, right? He was at a boys and girls club in Cleveland. Never forget the shirt he was wearing. Really? What shirt was he wearing?

It was the red and white. Oh, yes, you're right. Oh, my gosh.

In fact, I just Googled it and I'm looking at it right now. You are right. That was July of 2010. It was early July.

And that entire week the holiday took place earlier in that week. It was all about what will LeBron James do in free agency? And it was down to a handful of teams and none of them knew until watching this special.

And then he says, I'm taking my talents to South Beach. And that's how the Cleveland Cavaliers found out ever since then. Gosh, how that changed the NBA ever since then. I associate July 4th with NBA free agency. Here it is. Welcome to Independence Day.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. Chris Paul, briefly part of the Golden State Warriors. And it was a change for him.

Now, of course, it was coming at some point. He's 39 years old. He did start 18 games last season. He played in 58 for the Warriors. He did have some injuries to deal with.

But I know it was a tough transition for him. In his 18 starts, he actually performed better than the games in which he came off the bench. But he averaged last season just over nine points, just under seven assists in 26 minutes of play. And he was waived by the Warriors to become a free agent and has signed a deal or will sign a deal. I guess you can't actually sign them yet, but will sign a deal with the San Antonio Spurs. So staying in the Western Conference, yet another team in the West. Has he played for half the teams in the West?

I feel like he has. The Pelicans, right? The Clippers. The Thunder. Even the Hornets. Before they were the Pelicans, right? When they were in the West. Huh.

I don't remember. Right, just the name change. But the franchise is the same. Wait, hold on.

You messed me up. So the Hornets slash Pelicans, then the foil trade to the Lakers, right? He ends, right? He ends up, that was something that was nixed by the league because they were running the Pelicans at the time. So Pelicans, Thunder, Rockets, Clippers.

He finally got to LA, then the Warriors. Suns. Oh my gosh, I forgot about the Suns. And now, seriously, that's more than half of the Western Conference. Wait, let's do it again. Okay, this is fun. Okay, so Pelicans, Suns, Thunder.

These are not in right order. Pelicans, Suns, Thunder, Rockets, Clippers, Warriors, and now Spurs. That is seven teams in the Western Conference. He's not played in the East.

No. Seven teams. I mean, I'm pretty sure there are fourteen teams in the West.

No, I'm going to look, though, just to make sure I haven't missed any. So, yeah, so Chris Paul, he had actually spoken very highly about Victor Wemenyama, who didn't. But this might be foreshadowing. In a guest appearance with Pat McAfee on ESPN earlier in June, he was asked about the idea of playing with Wembe. Wembe is different.

Wembe is the guy that, after the game in the locker room, we all was talking about playing against him. Because we literally all had to change the way we shot a little bit. Yeah, because there's highlights of, like, Steph Curry driving into the lane, having a wide open shot, and being like, nah, nah, nah. It wasn't just Steph.

It was half the league. It was a 45-second clip of, like, ten stumps. Yeah, you saw that, right?

Yes. So my favorite shot, obviously, is when I snake back to the right and I shoot a fadeaway, right? And I got a picture of Wembe trying to block my shot. Man, I shot the ball so high, I didn't make it.

Because I usually don't have to shoot it that high, you know what I mean? But he, and I think he's going to be so successful, too, because he's very competitive and he's likable, right? And he loves the game, and you don't see guys that size moving the way he moves. I do think that Chris Paul can be a great resource and a good addition for the Spurs. First of all, they've been in basketball purgatory since Kawhi left.

It's been a mess. Well, I mean, they traded him, but Kawhi wanted out, so they sent him to Toronto. He wins the title. Then he goes to L.A. where he really wants to be. Not that it's been any great shakes for Kawhi since he left San Antonio. It's one of those situations where they were better together than they are apart, right? Kawhi Leonard was desperate to leave. He was ticked off at the organization for how he felt like they handled his injuries poorly.

He felt like they outed him for not coming back when he was cleared by their doctors. He was away from the team for most of that year, that last season, that he was actually a Spur. But he won a title with them.

He was an NBA Finals MVP. They sent him to Toronto. And from that point on, even though they got DeMar DeRozan back, right, and a bunch of pieces, they've been in rebuilding mode, but essentially have been in NBA purgatory since then. They've been god-awful. You want to know the best thing to come out of the Spurs over the last, say, how long has it been?

Five years? Since the Raptors won? They won in 19. No, 19 was the Warriors.

When did they win? Was it 18 then? 17 even? Yeah.

That's a good question. I thought 19 was the end of the Warriors' run. Oh, maybe they did beat the Warriors in... 2019. Okay, so they beat the Warriors in 19. Okay, so the Warriors' last title before the 22 was in 18.

Yeah, I'll have to go back and look. The years all blend together, but yes, in 19. So they traded him in the off-season before the 18-19 season, correct? Jay, you should see the faces that Jay is making at me right now. I'm thinking back on the years.

Yeah, we're both trying to think about it on the fly. But they traded him before that year because he was only with them for one year. Since then, the whole point of that really, is that since then, the Spurs have been terrible. They've been terrible. They still have Greg Popovich, one of the greatest coaches of all time. But it's been a revolving door.

It's been a lot of young players. Yeah, no, the Warriors won in 19. We were right about that. They beat the Raptors. Oh, no, I lied.

Take it back. The other way around. The Warriors made it to the Finals, but they lost to the Raptors. Okay, so the Warriors won in 15, 17, 18. So four of those were against the Cavaliers. 16 was the Kyrie Cavs. Right, then they went again in 19. So they went to five straight NBA Finals.

The first four were against the Cavaliers, and then it was against the Raptors. Right, okay. Check. Check. Got that part. So earlier I said the Warriors won that Finals.

I was wrong. The Raptors won that Final, and then Kawhi bolted. But really, it was about the Spurs. We just fell down the rabbit hole of who won the NBA title when, I'm telling you, working this business and the details start to blend together.

Jay knows now. I can't believe it's July. But the fact that this happens year after year after year after year, and then you start to lose track of who beat what when. So many playoff series, so many game twos. Yeah, it's a lot, especially the way the NBA does it. Anyway, so the Spurs have Wendy. They got the number one pick. Last year they have Wendy, and now they will be adding Chris Paul on a one-year, $11 million deal, reportedly.

And I think this is great for Wendy. You're going to learn from one of the best set-up men, one of the best assists guys the NBA has ever seen. He's a facilitator first. Can he score?

Yes. He's actually a throwback. Like to the 80s and 90s.

Just kidding, not that far back. He's got a mid-range jumper. Very few people in the NBA have a mid-range jumper anymore. But he has a mid-range jumper and he will use it. And he's not as fast as he used to be. He's not going to juke guys out of their shorts.

But what he is, clever, crafty, smart. He can see the court extremely well. So yeah, for Chris Paul and for Victor Wemenyama, certainly as an extension of Popovich on the court, this is a strong move for the Spurs.

I like it. I feel like this is a big step up the rung to get back to relevance in the Western Conference. And yeah, if you don't believe me, last season, they were 22 and 60. Even with Wemenyama, they were 22 and 60. But people raved about him.

Really did. So I'm excited to see this combination. Safe to say that even at 7 foot 11 feet tall, or something along those lines, in shoes, Wemeny's still faster than Chris Paul. All right, so we'll talk about the Paul George piece next. Also coming up, a big victory, a big milestone for the Indiana Fever. And speaking of milestones, another one for Angel Reese.

So the two rookies that have their careers forever intertwined, they continue to make headlines together in the WNBA. On Twix, ALOL Radio, also on our Facebook page, and our phone number 855-212-4. Did I hear you were shopping for a car? Because I've been at it for ages. Such a time suck, right? Not really.

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That's 855-212-4227. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. He was a clipper, but he's not a clipper anymore. Speaking of careers that have taken some jarring turns, do you remember when Paul George just wanted to go to LA, instead ended up in Oklahoma City with Russell Westbrook, and they were going to stick together and they love playing together, and then abruptly, Paul George asked out of his contract so he could go to LA, and then right after that Westbrook threw in the towel.

Like, never mind. Westbrook went east first and then went west. They played together for, what, a year and a half after Westbrook was traded? Their last, was it middle of last season he was traded? From the Lakers to the Clippers? And, or wherever, I guess he, was he still with the Lakers or did he get released?

Yeah, see these are the kind of details. I think he got traded. Because I remember he was getting stuff from the fans and people were attacking him on social and he was getting really upset. So he joins, eventually joins Paul George again, along with Kawhi Leonard. Those two guys wanted to play together for a long time.

It's the NBA where everyone plays with his BFF. And then they added James Harden this season. Although Paul George made it clear on his own podcast that he felt like the James Harden signing cost them too much. And he didn't say Harden wasn't worth the price they paid for him, but he felt like they gave up too much. And that essentially cut their feet out from underneath them as they were trying to compete in the west. If you look at the NBA standings from this past season, they did end up with the four seed. They were 20 games above 500.

But they never did have enough, nor could they ever get organized enough, nor let's be fair, could they ever stay healthy enough to really compete. Always. It seems like always this just takes turns. Handing off the baton. Kawhi's injured. Oh, Paul George is injured. Okay, back to Kawhi. Okay, back to Paul George.

It's a lot. And I get that they're both great two-way players when they're healthy, but it feels like more often than not, the past five plus years, that's been the case. Where they've been dealing with injuries. Not quite as drastic as Kyrie, KD, and James Harden in Brooklyn where they never played together. But still, I'm not sure the Clippers ever really got the bang for their buck with having Paul George and Kawhi together. It never panned out the way that they expected it to.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. Apparently, PG's agent had a conversation with the Clippers on Sunday night. No progress toward a new deal. And the Clippers then released a statement. So this was out there for all of us to read. Paul George has decided to move on. According to the Clippers, quote, Paul has informed us that he is signing his next contract with another team. Paul is a tremendous talent and an elite two-way player. We feel fortunate for the five years we spent with him. Over that span, he went to three All-Star games, made the most three-pointers in franchise history.

Well, that's saying something. And helped lead the team to a place it had never been. His performances in Game 5 and 6 against Utah in 21 won't be forgotten by anyone associated with the Clippers. We traded a lot to pair Paul – this is the Clippers' statement – we traded a lot to pair Paul and Kawhi. And in exchange, we had five seasons of contention. Even though we fell short of our ultimate objective, we appreciate the chances we had with Paul. Was it worth it? Jay, was it worth it for Paul George? And everything they gave up for him, everything they spent on Kawhi Leonard, to have five years of, we got closer.

Probably. And I only say that because they're building a brand new arena, which they're going to open, what, this coming season, right? People – I mean, before Paul George and – I guess really before the Lob City – like Blake Griffin and them got there, the Clippers – no one knew about the Clippers, so they were a little bit of a name, but he kept – getting them kept that name relevant in the city of the Lakers. So they got a new stadium, they still have a little bit of buzz around them. I think it was worth it, yeah, for them. If nothing else, they reached their first conference finals in franchise history.

Right. They needed a little bit of relevancy and they got it. And under Steve Ballmer, there's a lot of rah-rah, a lot of money, obviously, and so maybe that push in 21 and more of the star power allowed them to attract more attention, to quite be the always-picked-on little brother of the Lakers. So they did not make the playoffs in 21-22. They lost in the first round the last two seasons, both 23 and 24. They were out in the first round of the NBA playoffs.

But yes, to cap that 21 season – well, 2021, right, so the one that started later in the year in 20. They beat the Mavericks in seven games in the first round. Then they edged the Jazz in six games in the second round. You may remember they dropped the first two games against Utah, only to come back and win four in a row. And then they lost to the Suns in the conference finals.

I know it was better than what they had done in their past and it was farther than they had ever gone, but it wasn't enough. So now what do they do? Well, the Clippers are on the hunt. They're looking for other pieces. They're active. So are the Sixers. We'll talk about that next.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. I think actually meeting someone who was not vaccinated and now has a lifelong struggle with a childhood disease really cemented for me that it's super important that we as parents continue to vaccinate our children. Talk to your pediatrician or visit WhyVaccines.com. Brought to you by Merck. The Mark of a Fighter.