After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST Hour 1

What kind of programs does this school have? How are the test scores?

How many kids to a classroom? Homes.com knows these are all things you ask when you're home shopping as a parent. That's why each listing on Homes.com includes extensive reports on local schools, including photos, parent reviews, test scores, student-teacher ratio, school rankings, and more. The information is from multiple trusted sources and curated by Homes.com's dedicated in-house research team. It's all so you can make the right decision for your family. Homes.com.

We've done your homework. Worried about letting someone else pick out the perfect avocado for your perfect, impress-them-on-the-third-date guacamole? Well, good thing Instacart shoppers are as picky as you are. They find ripe avocados like it's their guac on the line. They are milk expiration date detectives.

They bag eggs like the 12 precious pieces of cargo they are. So let Instacart shoppers overthink your groceries so that you can overthink what you'll wear on that third date. Download the Instacart app to get free delivery on your first three orders while supplies last.

Minimum $10 per order, additional term supply. Did I hear you're shopping for a car? Because I've been at it for ages. Such a time suck, right? Not really.

I bought it on Carvana. Super convenient. Oh, then comes all the financing, research, am I right? Well, you can, but I got pre-qualified for a Carvana auto loan in like two minutes. Yeah, but then all the number crunching and terms, right? Nope.

I saw real numbers as I shopped, found my dream car, and got it in a couple of days. Wait, like you already have it? Yep. Oh.

So go to Carvana.com to finance your car the convenient way. Man, the way people react when they do not hear me, goodness, I don't know what you all do for a living, but I would assume that every now and then, if you're a plumber, you're an accountant, you're someone who works for the government, you take a week off. In my case, it wasn't even a week. Do people automatically assume you've been fired or you're just gone? That's how it happens. One day she's here, and the next day she's gone.

Come on, you guys know me better than that. If I was gone, I would tell you, I'm not gone, I'm here! After one of the most atypical July 4th weeks that I can remember. However, I made it back, back to you all, from wedding on July 4th, some family time, triple digit temperatures in Houston, that was super fun, and then getting out of Houston just in time.

My mom and her husband are supposed to fly, actually, on Tuesday, and we're not sure how that's going to work out or if flights are going to be backed up or if their flights will even be cancelled. It really depends on what happens with Barrel, which is back to a hurricane. They had hail, heavy, heavy rain from the outer bands of Barrel earlier in the day. On Sunday we were getting photos and videos, thank goodness my mom's roof just got fixed from a tree that punctured the roof and actually came through the ceiling into their formal dining room.

They don't really use it as a dining room, but the piano's in there. That happened, gosh, early May, and the roof just got fixed, thankfully, because here comes Barrel. And from the latest storm tracks, it does appear as though Houston is more in the line of fire. Actually, as recently as, say, 36 hours ago, the way the storm was tracking, it appeared that Corpus Christi would be directly in line.

And so it's different, it's varied. I'm watching the news, even as I'm hanging out with you guys tonight, and glad to be back, of course, but also thinking about not just my own family, my own mom, but other family now that I have in Texas after getting married. So a good trip to Texas, despite the triple digit temperatures. Thank goodness mom has a pool, but let me tell you, it's not all that refreshing when the water is 91 degrees.

91 degrees! Not quite like getting in a bath, but not very refreshing. So yeah, spotty time in the pool, although I always do enjoy hopping in mom's pool, and have a couple of fun stories, funny stories, actually, to tell you. But one incredible experience that had nothing to do with Texas.

On Sunday, last July 4th, hurrah, was a first and a bucket list item for me. So I'm excited to tell you about it, and also to share a few photos. This is what was happening. I was taking photos without even telling you what it was. I was taking photos, and my phone was dying. So I've got, and it's an old phone, it was refurbished when I bought it, so it does not hold a charge anymore. I thought I was all set. It went from 50% to 30% in the span of about 30 seconds, and all of a sudden I had to conserve battery, but right in the middle of this cool experience, my phone just kind of shut down. So thankfully my husband had his phone and was able to get some photos and videos, but I had no idea what I had on my phone until I looked after the fact, and super cool, was able to get a few really, really, mmm, perfect snapshots.

We'll call them that, perfect snapshots. So I'm excited to share that experience with you, as well as catch up on what's been happening since I was last with you on Monday night into Tuesday morning. I was home on Tuesday. We didn't travel until Wednesday morning, but our flight was early. We actually, this is kind of crazy, you think when you're off you're not doing the overnight schedule, but because we had an early flight and it was a holiday weekend, we were awake at 3.45 a.m. Eastern time.

3.45 a.m. I might as well have been to work, but that was the thing, is I couldn't get to the airport in time to catch the flight, so had to take that night off, and it was all right. It was good to be able to take a holiday off, but I do not enjoy traveling on holidays. It just so happens that we have three family weddings this summer, and two of them were on holidays, and so traveling we did. I hope that you enjoyed your fourth, whatever that looks like for you, whether it was family, friends, food, I hope it was food.

It felt really weird to have a Fourth of July and no grill, no burgers, no, yeah, that was a little odd. Anyway, family, friends, food, fireworks, I hope all of those things were phenomenal for you and that you enjoyed a little time off, or maybe it was overtime and you were working during that stretch, which is something I've done in the past as well. Glad to be back with you for a few more nights, so three nights that we'll be together before actually I take off a couple more nights because my brother is celebrating a milestone birthday, and it comes up next Sunday, and so this time next week we'll be celebrating with him, and this is really, get this, last time off I'm taking, of any significance, probably until Christmas. We are ready to not be traveling. We're ready to be boring old married couple for a while because it's been a lot since, gosh, since April.

It's been nonstop travel between my class at Syracuse and our honeymoon, which I'm not complaining about, and then two trips to Texas since then and now heading to Virginia this week too, but the family time is always welcome, especially in the wake of the wedding seven months ago, so yeah, a lot happening, but after this coming week, that's pretty much it for my time off. Then it'll be a countdown to NFL training camps. What? Is it too soon? It might be too soon. Not only NFL training camps, but the Olympics at the end of this month. We should find out before long whether or not the U.S. men's national team is keeping Greg Berholdt or his head coach. We've got the Major League Baseball All-Star game and All-Star festivities on the horizon coming up next week, which I always really enjoy, so see, most people take time off during the All-Star festivities, All-Star week because it's pretty quiet in the sports world.

Not me. I'll be here. Don't you worry. This is also the beginning of our search for producer Jay's replacement. If you had not heard the news because it was a holiday week, producer Jay is no longer with us.

No, no, no, not like that. He's no longer working, forget for me or with me, he's no longer part of the company. He, at this point, is reconsidering his options. I think he's got some specific skills and abilities and talents that he would like to employ in a more focused way in the media industry. Don't know if that will be sports.

Don't know if that will actually be the case. He's going to explore all his options. People keep asking me where he's going. Well, he went home and from there he's exploring all of his options. He doesn't have another job. I'm not sure I would tell you, even if he did.

But for now, he's not in media. He's not sure that's what he wants to do moving forward. Sure, you can blame me all you want and I am fine taking that, but most people, if you haven't worked in this industry, especially as a producer, especially in 2024, where our company is going bankrupt, it's a lot. There's a lot of different things happening behind the scenes.

And I have to tell you, since the time I went to Syracuse for my masters in TV and radio, I've seen and worked with hundreds of people who've gotten out of the industry because it requires a lot. You may think that, oh, no big deal. You show up, you talk for four hours, you leave. Nah, it doesn't work that way. We like to make it sound like it works that way, but it doesn't. And it does take a toll. It's long hours. If you work overnights like Jay and I have, I recognize not every human is built for this. My husband is always asking me, how do you do that? Especially when you're tired and you don't sleep well.

I don't know. I honestly think it's the joy and the passion for the job, but not everybody has that. Not everybody is built for this like I am. And so the hours can be tough. It's weekends, right? We may not host shows on Friday and Saturday nights, but sports never stop. And we work all day Sundays during the football season, six months out of the year.

Sundays are a huge work day. And so it takes a toll. And the money is not great. I warn people, especially young people that I mentor, my students at Syracuse, if you're getting into radio for the money, you're going to be disappointed. There is no money here for all but, say, a select few.

That does not include me. And so that's another pressure. You know how our economy is and New York City is extremely expensive. And so Jay is going to try to do something different and see if he can find a path that suits him a little better. I do miss him already, but the producer search has started because we can't do without a producer. I cannot do all this alone.

No, I don't have a staff. I just have one guy generally that works with me. And so we've got a rotation of guys who will be working on the show for the rest of the month. And then after that, we will potentially have a couple of people from outside the company, which I think is always a positive.

And between me and a couple of the managers, we will decide how to move forward. My biggest concern, as you can imagine, is having someone in place and trained for football season. Football freaks me out a little bit because football season is seven weeks away.

That's it. I'm not sure if you saw this or not, if you follow Scott Hansen on social. But he's been tweeting about how week one in the NFL is only a handful of Sundays away, which just blows my mind. So it'll be here before we know it. I'm a little bit nervous just because we've got to get a new member of the team trained before then. So these next few weeks are going to be kind of trial and error. If you hear more mistakes than usual, well, have some grace for that.

Grace and patience. Because we've got new people who don't have a ton of experience on the show, or in some cases maybe no experience on the show, who will be working with us just to try to see what they can do and see how quickly they can catch on. Ryan is with us for the next three nights. You guys remember Ryan?

He's worked with us before. How many times were I? Three, four?

Ooh. It's got to be more than that. It's going to be ten-ish. Ten. I like it. So here's the fun thing about Ryan.

Trivia about Ryan. When he doesn't work with me, he barely speaks to me. As in, I might get a hello. I don't speak to anyone.

Okay, so that's just a general rule. When he's not working with you, he doesn't talk to you. I don't know why that rule applies or exists, but that's Ryan. So when he doesn't work with me, I'm not even sure he remembers my name, but then when he works with me, he's blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's like a different person.

He's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. So Ryan, he's a different generation than me, which is good because a lot of times it's better to have new ideas and different collaborators that come from different backgrounds. So I like working with Ryan, but like I said, when we don't work together, I'm not even sure he knows that I'm in the building. It's also the fact that it's usually, usually it's like 5 a.m. and I'm off like three hours of sleep.

So are you built for this is the big question, Ryan? It's different doing this shift versus the morning shift because I usually ruin my sleep schedule for this. Yes, well that and mornings, if you ask me, no one really asks me, but I would rather do overnights than mornings. In sports, if you work mornings, you are either up until midnight Eastern time or 9 p.m. Pacific time if you're going to watch sports.

And then, especially during the really busy times of the year where there are playoff games or there's late night football. And then you catch maybe two, three hours of sleep. You have to wake up and be ready to work, as you point out, whether that's middle of the night Pacific time or whether it happens to be 3 o'clock in the morning to get ready on the East Coast. Whatever that looks like, that's the problem is you have very little time to sleep overnight. This is what happened to me when I would do mornings. So then I would work my morning show, I'd get done, I'd go home, I'd do whatever, try to get organized, but I would inevitably take a nap. Would sleep all afternoon or would sleep late afternoon through the evening, wake up, eat dinner, watch sports, go back to bed for another nap. And so it became really a split sleep schedule, if that sounds funny, but I would nap, eat, work, nap, work, nap, eat, work, nap. That's all it was. It was rough.

And for people who have ever done overnight to early mornings, well, you know, too, it's hard to flip your schedule because your body clock is all messed up. So, yeah, I guess that explains why Ryan doesn't speak when we do not work together, but he has to speak for the next three days. We're glad to have you with us. We're just getting started.

As I say, at least one terrific story from travel over July 4th, and I'd love to hear from you as well on Twix at A Law Radio. Our show account is going to remain the same as well at Amy After Hours, and then our Facebook page is named after the show. Nothing new there, so producer Jay does not take any of our social media with him. It stays with the show. Our phone number is 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4227. Actually, right now, technically, the YouTube channel belongs to Jay, except that at some point when we have a new producer, that producer will take over control of the YouTube channel. But for now, there will be no new YouTube videos. We've got a couple up over the past couple months, but that's really it. And I apologize we did not get to the Chubby Bunny World Championship this spring. Maybe we'll start that in the fall again.

But yeah, it was a different spring for a bunch of reasons behind the scenes, and so we didn't get to that. But we will make it up to you when we finally have producer Jay's successor, his replacement, like we're the royal family or something. So again, on Twix at A Law Radio, also on our Facebook page. We're just getting started. Kaitlyn Clark and Angel Reese continue to make history. Steve Kerr working out, well, working out, Steve Kerr working out the U.S. men's national team or the USA basketball team for the Olympics that are coming up. So they're doing a bit of a camp. Both he and Steph Curry, part of that, no Klay Thompson, but they're talking about him. LeBron James talking about his son as well, who made his summer league debut for the Lakers.

We've got summer baseball as the team's countdown toward All-Star Weekend. And then Wimbledon, Coco Gauff and Emma Navarro in an All-American fourth round match. And I don't know where Novak Djokovic came from.

He wasn't supposed to be playing in Wimbledon, but there he is. So a lot to talk about as I catch up and we get reacquainted. Thanks for hanging out with us. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Chris Paul comes back to the right side, finds Thompson, squares up, lets it fly. Three ball, right corner pocket for Klay. Six of ten from distance, 81 to 58. Thompson has a 30 point night. This is Klay Thompson, four time champion with the Golden State Warriors. You're listening to one of the best shows in America, After Hours with Amy Lawrence.

So nice. And we're going to have to do some digital editing, not AI. We don't need AI for this. We're just going to have to take the clip out of the Golden State Warriors. So it sounds something along the lines of this is Klay Thompson, four time champion.

You're listening to one of the best shows in America, something along those lines. Well, he did say with the Golden State Warriors. That's true. That's true.

We don't want to be misleading, though. But in my heart, unless Klay Thompson goes to Dallas and they end up winning a title there, it would be easier than to think of him as a warrior and a maverick. But if the best years and the most success that he's had is always with the Warriors and his time in Dallas, not that they don't have a team that can win a championship because they just might, considering what happened this past spring. But if he's more of a role player and they don't replicate another trip to the NBA finals and potentially punch their ticket as a champion again, well, then it pales in comparison, completely overshadowed by his time at Golden State. And he'll be remembered as a warrior. He'll go into the Hall of Fame as a warrior.

But I do hope he has success. And I do think that a lot of times we lose sight of the fact that in most of our own professional careers, we do not stay in one job the entire time. For these athletes in the NBA, in the NHL, in the NFL, in Major League Baseball, you're going where the opportunities are the best, where you think you can succeed, where you believe you are wanted and appreciated, where you can make what you believe is commensurate income, where you're valued, where there's room for advancement, where you appreciate the role, where you like the people that you work with.

Oh, sometimes it's about where you want to live or don't want to live. These are all factors that we as human beings take into account when we accept or reject job offers and when we decide to leave one company and work for another one. And it's no different for athletes. Now their window, their earnings power peaks and then falls at a much more rapid rate than for the rest of us, at least I hope so. For instance, John Cena as he decides he will step away after a very long retirement tour, I mean his earnings power in professional wrestling has lasted what, 20 years?

And now he's transitioning to acting. Some athletes, they have a long career and then they transition to broadcasting. But the average professional athlete in basketball, in football, in baseball, those careers don't even last five years. The average doesn't even last five years in the NBA.

And so of course they're looking for maximum opportunity, maximum salary or revenue slash compensation package, whatever it happens to be, it's a little bit more accelerated for pro athletes. But very few of us stay with the same company our entire careers. I've been with this current network since its inception. I'm the only original host left actually. I've been with the network since its inception on January 1, 2013. Almost everything else has changed around me.

Bosses are different, actually three, four times changing. The company's been sold. The company's name has changed multiple times.

Now the company's in bankruptcy. The next producer that works full time on the show will be my 10th since I started on After Hours. It's a lot of turnover among producers really in any show or day part in radio, but specifically on overnights because a lot of producers use it as their entry level type of position, which is okay. I tell them you give me the best you've got as long as you're here. I'll turn you into a world class producer. You can go do something else and make more money.

Producer Tom now works with Jim Rome and he was my first producer here, had never produced before. So I make that vow, make that promise, but I certainly recognize that it turns over a lot. And so for a lot of people, I think we have unrealistic expectations for athletes that they will stay in the same place for their entire careers. And as much as I lament Klay Thompson in any other uniform, because I'm such a big fan of Steph and Klay together and that Warriors dynasty reignited my love for the NBA.

It had waned. I don't love the style of today's NBA, but I just find so much joy and entertainment value in how the Warriors have played under Steve Kerr. And that includes the Splash Brothers. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on the Infinity Sports Network. See what I mean?

The name of the network isn't even the same anymore. Steve Kerr is coaching Team USA as they have their training camp in preparation for the upcoming Paris Olympics. And before he answered any questions, he wanted to talk about his former two guard, his former Splash Brother. I just want to say thank you to Klay Thompson for 13 incredible years, 10 of which I was there for.

What he did for the team, the organization, for the Bay Area, for me personally, the relationship that we had, all the incredible success, but more importantly than just going through it all together has been so meaningful and so amazing. And we're going to miss Klay. We wish him the best. These things rarely go like you want, where you get to draw it up and execute it and everybody goes out together.

We were hoping that could happen, but it didn't. And, you know, we wish Klay well, but we love him and we'll miss him. And Klay, if you're watching, thank you for everything. Steve Curry is always classy, especially when it comes to athletes themselves.

He's going to give you the best version of the relationship with that athlete. You may think that the Golden State Warriors want to kick Draymond Green to the curb, and sometimes they probably do. But Steve Kerr will never tell you anything except for the positives.

I mean, he'll get on Draymond when he goes ballistic on teammates and stuff, and he'll be honest about a player's actions or how the team is performing. But when it comes to relationships, that's what drives Steve Kerr. And clearly, the relationships that many of these guys, Steph, Dray, Steve Kerr, have – I guess you could say have, it's not like the relationships have died – the relationships that they have with Klay Thompson, they're going to change, but they're always going to be valuable.

Now, that's Steve Kerr from U.S. training camp. And in terms of the championship, the runs that they had, the four rings together, whether or not you think the door is closed because Klay is gone, it certainly is the end of an era. I haven't ever had fantasies that this thing would just go on for another five, six years, and Steph, Klay, and Dray would retire together, and I would retire with them.

You know, there's never been that thought. Something interesting, too, if you didn't see it, both Steve Kerr and Steph Curry sat down with Malika Andrews of ESPN, and Steph had a similar sentiment in that he thinks that what the Warriors built with the core and Steve Kerr may never be replicated. The four championships in, what was it, eight seasons, the six NBA Finals appearances in eight seasons – remember, they lost to the Cavaliers in that stretch of four in a row in which they faced each other, and they also lost to the Raptors in 19. But then, the 22 championship was the one that mattered so much to them because they had gone to the bottom of the barrel and climbed back out again to beat the Celtics in Boston in that Game 6.

I mean, that was incredible. And he may be right. Curry says he doesn't think a dynasty like that will ever be replicated. Now, you ask people in Boston, they think the Celtics have the potential because both Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum are A, rich, and B, they're very young. They're in the prime of their careers. It seems like they've been around forever, but they're still in their mid-20s. Now, they're going to get every team's best shot, but this group has stayed together.

In fact, what did I remember from last week? These five starters for the Celtics are in place through 25. And so, if they stay healthy, this group – not that it's only five starters – but this particular group, along with the coaching staff, at least will remain in place for one more year, if not beyond that. Steph Curry did say it sucks to not have Klay as his teammate anymore and said he desperately wanted him back this season. But both he and Steve Kerr indicated that they felt like Klay had to do what was best for him and that the situation with the Mavericks was a good choice. I'm amazed at his ability to come back from those injuries to help us win another championship, to play at the level he's played at. It's funny, people say, well, he's had a bad year. Well, look at his numbers.

A lot of guys with those numbers would sign for $220 million these days. So, Klay has been an incredible performer for us. That's Steve Kerr from USA Training Camp. And then again, Steph Curry and Steve sat down with Malika Andrews.

A couple of other things that came out of that. Curry said his biggest hope for Klay is that he finds joy in playing again. And if you've been watching Klay Thompson over the past year and a half, as much as the 22 championship brought out the most emotional Klay that you'll ever see, just everything he'd come back from that season to help the Warriors win a title, it's been tough for him to fight his own physical body in the wake of first the torn ACL and then the ruptured Achilles. Two and a half years away from basketball takes its toll. It's why, just as a side note, it's why I think the expectations for Deshaun Watson when they first signed him in Cleveland were ridiculous. The guy was, and it may not have been because of injuries, but the guy was out of football for two plus years.

It's not easy to snap right back in. In the case of Klay, those were career-threatening injuries that he had to battle back from. And it was clear that losing his starting gig, feeling like he wasn't as productive, going through those shooting slumps, they took a toll on him emotionally. And Curry said his biggest desire for his former teammate is to find that joy again.

And if you can find joy playing next to Kyrie Irving, more power to you. So interesting backcourt, right? And then Luka as well. So it's not quite the same situation as the Golden State Warriors, but Luka is a sizable superstar, just like Klay played alongside Steph. Luka is an international sensation, although his team did not end up making the Olympics, courtesy of Giannis and the Greek team. So we'll get to more of that, but I know it's going to be jarring for me.

Kerr said it would be bizarre to not have Klay Thompson on the roster next season. All right, you can find us on Twix at ALawRadio, our Facebook page too. I will have some photos for you coming up, but not until after I tell you the story of a bucket list item that I was able to check off on Sunday with Bob. Really cool, not sure we planned it great, but whatever, we managed. Straight ahead, Wimbledon got a surprise with Novak Djokovic participating, and he's still alive, although it's taken a toll on the old dude. And now Coco Gauff exiting again, but this time courtesy of another American. So Wimbledon halfway through, about halfway through. Thanks so much for hanging out with us.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Here's our latest sports update, and here's Pat Boyle. What kind of programs does this school have? How are the test scores?

How many kids to a classroom? Homes.com knows these are all things you ask when you're home shopping as a parent. That's why each listing on Homes.com includes extensive reports on local schools, including photos, parent reviews, test scores, student-teacher ratio, school rankings, and more. The information is from multiple trusted sources and curated by Homes.com's dedicated in-house research team. It's all so you can make the right decision for your family.

Homes.com. We've done your homework. Call from Mom. Answer it.

Call silenced. Instacart knows nothing gets between you and the game. That's why they make ordering from your couch easy. Stock up today and get all your groceries for the week delivered in as fast as 30 minutes, without missing a minute of the game. You have 47 new voicemails. Download the app to get free delivery on your first three orders while supplies last. Minimum, $10 per order. Additional terms apply.

Doors take us to summers away, or winter adventures, and afternoon getaways. Your dedicated Fidelity advisor can help you open those doors by working with you on a comprehensive plan to help you reach your wealth's full potential, because doors were meant to be opened. Visit fidelity.com slash wealth. Investment minimum supply. Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC. Member NYSE SIPC. You are listening to the After Hours podcast.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. I hope you enjoyed your July 4th. Maybe that included pickleball, or tennis, or table tennis, which pickleball is really a kind of a compilation, if you will. An amalgeration, amalgeration, amalger, what's the word, amalger, no, I'm gonna look it up. You know me, sometimes I like to use my big vocabulary, amalgamation. It might be an amalgamation. Okay, I'm gonna look it up.

Anyway, let's go with that for now. Between table tennis and actual tennis, that's where you find pickleball. I'm not a fan, I know a lot of people are, it's great, I'm glad you enjoy it. Kaitlyn Clark apparently participated in a pickleball charity event that was hosted by one of her teammates, and as you can imagine, it was all the rage, and I can just see people deciding they want to pick up pickleball now because of Kaitlyn Clark. Kind of neat on an off day that the Indiana Fever were together to support one of their own in her charity endeavor. That's always cool when you've got teammates who show up to support another foundation, another charity, because of the fact that it's supporting a brother, supporting a sister of sorts.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. We've been keeping our eyes on Wimbledon. It's about to get, well, out of it's about to get crazy. It's sufficiently crazy on the women's side already, where I think you have only a couple of top seeds that are remaining.

Iga Swiatek is already gone. The number of upsets have left very few players that have any Grand Slam Championship experience, but also taken its toll on Americans as well. So Madison Keys, she had to retire in her third round match, and then we got this All-American affair between Coco Gauff and Emma Navarro. Now, Emma recently cracked the top 20, but doesn't have the same Grand Slam experience as does Coco, who is the reigning U.S. Open champion, and of course has been in other finals, and is the best American player in the world. She's number two, actually, in the world rankings and on the rise, so this was supposed to be an opportunity for her to finally figure out Wimbledon. You may remember when she was a teenager, when she was first breaking it onto the scene, it was Wimbledon where she caught everyone's attention, but since then has actually not played well on the grass courts in England, London, the All-England Club, and this was a match that was fairly telling.

If you watched it, she was extremely frustrated. She was looking over to her coaching box, two palms, like the shrug emoji, two palms up in the air, agitated voice, asking for any guidance to try to figure out what she was doing wrong or what she could change. Now, it's a relatively new shift in the rules in coaching. It used to be that you could not coach your player when he or she was on the court. That used to be a rule, no communication from the coaching box. Now, you are allowed to coach with a few words, with gestures, when your player is on your end of the court, so you can't be yelling down the other end of the court, and it's really limited, but it is an opportunity for athletes to get some help.

And Brad Gilbert, former tennis pro himself, former champion himself, he is her coach. And so you can see her, I saw this weird TikTok video that put a compilation of Coco Gauff's shrugs and anxiety and help, what am I doing wrong, I need some help, just really kind of taking her frustration out on her coaching box, which if you're only looking at snippets, that can happen with any type of digital editing. But yeah, she was trying to find anything that might give her an edge or get her back on track. I think we had a game plan going in, and I felt that it wasn't working, and I don't always ask for advice on the box, but today was one of those moments where I felt like I didn't have solutions, and I don't want to say I didn't have any, because I think I'm a capable player of coming up with some, but I think today, mentally, I think there was a lot going on, and I felt like I wanted more direction from the box.

I think I went away from the things that I like to do. I think I went away from that, and what she was doing, she was playing well. I mean, she's coming after her. I would say that's probably one of the better matches she's played this year, and kudos to her, I knew she was going to play well. Koko Gough referring to her American opponent, Emma Navarro. Now, Koko has not yet made it past the fourth round at Wimbledon, so this continues to be her glass ceiling across the pond. It's the only British phrase I have.

I use it, people get very mad when I use it too much, but that's all I've got. I've got no British accent except for across the pond. So she's actually eliminated by Emma Navarro in straight sets on center court, and this will continue to be a challenge for Koko. Meanwhile, you've got Emma, who's into her first ever Grand Slam quarterfinal, and that's exciting. She's an American player who's up and coming, but Koko joins the top-ranked player in the world.

I mentioned Iga before. You've had a couple of different players that withdrew because of injuries. So only two of the ten top Cs remain on the women's side, and I dare say most of you have never heard of them. That's just kind of how this goes right now in women's tennis outside of a handful of players.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. As for Emma Navarro, cool story if you're paying attention. She was interviewed on ESPN following the match about what helped her to get the straight set victory over Koko. I think I played really aggressively. Koko's obviously an amazing player. I have a ton of respect for her, and what she's done at such a young age is really amazing, and I knew she wasn't going to make it easy on me tonight.

But yeah, I wanted to play aggressively and push back against her game, and I think I was able to do that. So congratulations to her. Now, for those of you who are UVA alum or maybe recent UVA grads, she actually won the NCAA championship for Virginia. So she's 23 years old. She had some great success in college, and this was by far the biggest match of her pro career, and gets her into a Grand Slam quarterfinal for the first time ever, and to be able to gauge herself against someone like Koko. Now, Goff is only 20 years old herself, but she broke in at, oh, was it 15, I think, when she first beat Venus Williams at Wimbledon, kind of coming up through the draw, and she was a qualifier, and it was a stunner against Venus Williams. But since then, has not had the success at the All-England Club.

So that's on the women's side. On the men's side, Novak Djokovic is into the fourth round, and he's been facing a lot of extended matches, five-set matches. It's always been fitness that has helped him to get through, and maybe that's going to need to be the case against his opponents moving forward in this next round. If you're physically fitter, I guess, than your opponent, or have an experience, more experience, than your opponent in best of five, it still gives you a sense of confidence and tranquility, even though your two sets to love down. So that's one of the ways that Novak Djokovic has an edge. He may be an old dude, although I love the old dudes in sports, and you'll hear me say this a lot, now at 37 years old, just turned 37 about six weeks ago, now at 37 years old, he's still in great physical shape. But the way that he generally beats opponents is because of the experience. As he pursues his 25th Grand Slam singles title, there isn't anything he hasn't seen, heard, felt, or faced on the tennis court on every surface, right?

Because he's won every single one of these Grand Slam titles, and he wasn't even supposed to be at Wimbledon because of injuries, but here he is into the fourth round, so I'm looking forward to seeing his next steps. One hour down, it's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. We've done your homework. 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 WhyVaccines.com. Brought to you by Merck. Chicago, Illinois.