After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST Hour 1

Have you ever covered a carpet stain with a rug? Ignored a leaky faucet? Pretended your half-painted living room is supposed to look that way?

Well, you're not alone. We've all got unfinished home projects. Whether it's a door that sticks, or a disorganized closet, or an AC unit that only works half the time.

It all matters. You just haven't taken care of it yet. But there's an easier way. Just download the Thumbtack app. You can search for what you need done and find tons of highly rated pros right in your neighborhood.

Check prices, reviews, and book a pro right on the spot. Plus, you'll know what to tackle next. Because Thumbtack is the app that shows you what to do, who to hire, and when. Pull out your phone, and in just a few taps, say goodbye to all those unfinished home projects. And say hello to caring for your home the easier way. Download Thumbtack and start a project today.

But there's an easier way. Just download the Thumbtack app. You can search for what you need done and find tons of highly rated pros right in your neighborhood.

Check prices, reviews, and book a pro right on the spot. Plus, you'll know what to tackle next. Because Thumbtack is the app that shows you what to do, who to hire, and when. Pull out your phone, and in just a few taps, say goodbye to all those unfinished home projects. And say hello to caring for your home the easier way.

Download Thumbtack and start a project today. If you will in the New York City area where temps are in the 90s, mid 90s, plus the heat index for the last four days, I'm good. When is fall again?

Is it almost football season? Is it almost time for the temperatures to dip down below 80, please? I am not built for the heat. I'm not. And it's funny because my husband says he's not built for the cold.

So I suppose that's one way in which we are complete opposites and we have to find compromise. Right now the compromise is the AC being cold enough for me to sleep during the daytime. I hope that you are beating the heat. Wherever you are, I know a good portion of the United States is gripped in heat waves, heat advisories, and that does include a new wave of heat that will be starting in Houston come Tuesday, Wednesday. And the temperatures are supposed to be back up into the 90s and the triple digits right in the wake of Hurricane Beryl. Thank you so much, every one of you who asked about my mom and her husband and also my in-laws who are not in the path of the storm, so that's good.

They were a little farther west and they're up off the coast. But mom and Mike definitely got the brunt of the storm. And if you've been following the reports in the wake of Beryl, there are nearly 3 million people in Houston or in the greater Houston metro who do not have power tonight. Nearly 3 million people. And I know we have our sports radio 610 affiliate in Houston.

A lot of you listen in Texas. So the storm definitely changed tracks late, well as it was getting closer to making landfall, but late in its trajectory and hit Houston with a greater impact than what was expected. Thankfully, at mom's house, while there are a lot of branches and major limbs down, in fact one of them hit their fifth wheel that's parked in the driveway, they don't have any damage to the roof or to the house. The pool is nearly overflowing.

Gosh, I hope it's cooler than what it was. It was 90 plus degrees when we were there in the water, so not real refreshing. But thankfully, the worst of the rain came on Sunday. It was actually the crazy wind on Monday, so not as much of the rain on Monday, but the winds were just wreaking havoc in the neighborhood. So they took a ride so that they could charge their phones on Monday evening and saw a lot of the same debris, limbs and trees down. They have lost two trees in the last year. Both of them hit the house, but thankfully that did not happen with this particular storm. They have not had power though since 7 o'clock on Monday morning and with the temperatures about to skyrocket, they are taking off in their fifth wheel and they're heading west so they can find some relief from the heat.

And also so they can keep what they had in their fridge and their freezer relatively cold, so they're putting stuff in the fridge in the fifth wheel and then they're also going to take coolers with them and put their meat on ice, that kind of stuff. They were actually headed to Virginia on Tuesday. My brother is celebrating a milestone birthday and the whole family was supposed to be part of it. A few days of festivities, but because number one, my mom and her husband don't have power. Number two, the place where they board Gracie, their dog, also doesn't have power and isn't expected to have it back for several days.

They have no place where they can leave their puppy. So for now, they've canceled their trip to Virginia, which makes me really sad. And then my brother too, I was anticipating some time with the whole family together. Yeah, it was just the first time since we got married and for that, I'm really disappointed. But happy they're safe, thankful that nothing happened to the house, no damage happened with the house, just disappointed that we won't be together for a long stretch of time. Coming up, we were supposed to be like second half of our summer vacation, as I say, together for well, a week for them. I was going to be back next Sunday night, but we'll be missing them.

So that's kind of a bummer. And I know a lot of travel plans have been interrupted and people have had to change their, yeah, their vacations or plans based on the storm. Mostly just happy that they're safe, but are praying for them to get the power back on sometime on Tuesday, because it could take a couple of days and maybe even longer for the hardest hit areas. But again, thank you so much for asking.

I really do appreciate your concern about mom and also your kind words about Grammy Helen. If you missed it, you can check it out on Twix at ALaw Radio. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, our phone number 855-212-4227. And we've got a fun mix for this edition of the show. I actually really enjoy summertime shows. I know there are a lot of my fellow hosts and colleagues who would tell you that summer is boring. There's not enough going on. Specifically, this is the time of the year when football is quietest.

That makes sense. It really is just the three weeks in July. Not that there isn't anything going on. In fact, we are just days away from the Ravens and the Texans starting their training camps in Fuego. But for these few weeks, a lot of the NFL, the offices, the ownership, the coaches, maybe some of them are crazy and don't. Players, of course they're working out, but this is their last opportunity to really take time off. There's nothing going on until training camps begin later in this month. And so with football being quiet, just enjoy it while it lasts, because it won't last very long.

This is the only time of the year when we can honestly say we miss you, NFL. And with the NBA, Team USA training camp is an aberration. That doesn't happen every year at this time. But with the NBA essentially doing summer leagues, so it's a bunch of rookies, rookies and young players, free agency has died down a bit. Baseball hits its all-star break, and so you have a few days where there's not a lot going on, more speculation about the training deadline.

Not training, they're still way past training camps themselves. But you've got kind of this wide open space in July, and a lot of my colleagues would say it's boring and there's nothing to talk about, but I couldn't disagree more. I actually really enjoyed the diversification and what is a veritable smorgasbord, all kinds of different items on the buffet, if you will, in sports. So yeah, sports never stop. There's plenty that takes place. And this year we also have the Olympics that will start later this month and go on through the first two weeks of July, August, late July, early August. So I think it's kind of fun to play a little bit, be creative and get off the beaten path and talk about some topics slash sports that we don't generally give a lot of attention to or we don't have time. I think when it comes to the majors in both tennis and golf, they're positioned pretty well for us to be able to pay attention to them. But yeah, we get to dabble in other sports and some other topics as well, and we always are able to find time for fun show questions.

Came up with one that I think you will enjoy, and it's really inspired by Anthony Edwards, who is the young budding superstar for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Now, we got to see a lot more of him in the playoffs. The Western Conference Finals, well, they weren't his best. And maybe it's just an aberration. Maybe it's the fact that he is still in his early 20s. He's Ryan's age. He's 22 years old. And this was the first time for Ant to play deep into the postseason.

So for that reason, maybe there's some adjusting. There's mental and physical fatigue, although at 22, you wouldn't expect that he would have a whole lot of physical fatigue. He will turn 23 in August. I think there's a lot of maturity there in terms of his basketball IQ and how he plays as the leader of a team. And this really happened kind of second half or late in the Timberwolves run because Karl Anthony Towns was injured. He was out. And Ant was expected to carry the team.

And he did it very well. They didn't end up with the top seed. That was Oklahoma City.

But they didn't lose a whole lot of ground either, not having Cat for a couple of months. And of course, he was back for the postseason. And they really surprised a lot of people by rising to the West Finals where they lost to the Dallas Mavericks.

So Ant is confident and has the experience of these last few months. Now part of Team USA, which features some of the best and the brightest in the league. So not all of the best and the brightest, of course, because there are some international players that are damn good, like Shea Gildas-Alexander of the top seeded Thunder. He plays for Canada. You've also got Giannis for the Greek team. You've got, of course, Luka Doncic. I mean, we go on and on about the different players who are spreading out and are working with their own national teams in Paris. So it's going to be great to see some of these NBA talents match up against one another. The greatest culmination of talent is certainly on Team USA. And Ant is part of the red, white and blue and feeling himself in Vegas at training camp.

And kind of surprised people when he came out with, I guess, a ranking system of sorts when it comes to him versus the rest of the American roster. I'm still the number one option. I might look at it differently. I don't look at it no differently. Go out there and be myself, shoot my shots, play defense. And, you know, they got to fit in to play around me. That's how I feel.

They've got to fit in to play around me. Coming from Anthony Edwards, I'm still the number one option. We don't even know the starting lineup yet for Team USA, but I wonder if he'll be on it. Is he part of the top five?

Because I think it'd be pretty easy to name a bunch of other US veterans or Team USA regulars who might be in front of him. And yet Anthony Edwards has supreme confidence. And as I say, his confidence in himself is about the highest it's ever been based on this past stretch run and then postseason for the Timberwolves. As I was listening to Ant and then thinking about some of the other guys who are on this US roster, namely LeBron, who will tell you he's got the highest basketball IQ in the world and he's the best player in the world. I know Kevin Durant's not playing, but he would probably say the same thing about himself.

You certainly have other guys and confidence is not a bad thing. Cockiness, not even a bad thing. Arrogance, not necessarily a bad thing.

Although there are some players that wear it like a badge of honor. That's what I always said about Kobe Bryant. He wore his arrogance like he wore his jersey. It was all out there. And it was one thing to know he was confident and cocky and arrogant. It was another thing to figure out how to knock him down a peg, if you will.

So with Anthony Edwards and some of the other talented slash cocky players for Team USA, we're going to spread this out, not just basketball, but who are the most arrogant athletes in sports today. And that's not a knock. It's not a negative.

It can be, I suppose, if you can't back it up. And certainly arrogance rubs people the wrong way. But what's the old adage about if you've got it, you should flaunt it? Well, a lot of these athletes, they know they're the best in the world at what they do. And sometimes that cockiness, that arrogance can give them an edge. And you ask many of them and they'll tell you they're the best in the world because that supreme belief in themselves is part of what got them to where they are. A lot of times when no one else believes in you, except for maybe the people who are related to you and sometimes not even them, you've got to believe in yourself or you'll never get to the point at which you are among the best in the world. So this is not a knock.

Don't take it as a negative. But it is funny when you find athletes who lead with their arrogance, so to speak. Aaron Rodgers comes to mind.

So we're going to ask you on this edition of After Hours, who are the most arrogant, cocky athletes in the world? You will be able to find that post. Ryan, thumbs up. Are you going to put a post up on our social media?

All right, got a thumbs up from Ryan. You can find that on our show Twix at Amy After Hours. And I actually don't know if you have access to our Facebook page, do you? Okay, so I will figure out a way to put it up on Facebook once it's on our show Twix. Actually, weird thing about Facebook, this is crazy. And I don't know if it has to do with something that producer Jay has decided that he will do.

But for the longest time, if you listen to the show, you know this saga. Facebook would not allow me to access our show page, even though my name is on it. And even though I'm an administrator of the page for obvious reasons. And we've had multiple other co-administrators going back to producer Tom and Isaac and Chris and Dave.

When producer Jay took over, he was co-administrator. And then one day, I'm assuming that the website was doing just a random confirmation of people who were using their logins. I logged in, and it told me in order to continue as an administrator of our Facebook page, that I had to confirm my identity with a code. So I asked for the code. And I waited, and I waited, and I asked for the code again. And I asked for the code again, and again, and again, and again, over the course of multiple weeks. I think I asked for the code probably 30 times and no, that's not an exaggeration. No text or email with the code ever showed up. So I never entered the code. And the way we got around the lack of a code to allow me access to my own page with my name on it.

Weirdly enough, not banned from my own personal Facebook page, but banned from the show page. Anyway, the way we got around it was just for me to use Jay's login. Now it created some issues, of course, because I don't have access to Jay's page on my phone.

And so he would have to do a lot of the posting unless I was using my laptop, which was an approved user, an approved device. Well, I went to log into our Facebook page on Monday afternoon so I could respond to some of your posts and see what was happening and also share the link to our podcast. And lo and behold, have to have confirmation from Jay, which, of course, Jay is no longer working so that becomes a problem. So instead I thought, well, I'll try if I can log into my own account and see if I have access to the page.

Weirdly enough, almost three years after I was denied a code. So now I just have access to the page, and I don't know why I don't know how, nor do I care. Just that, for now, I can actually access our own Facebook page. What is happening? I'm not sure Facebook knows what is happening.

This is what the site gets for selling our information to the Chinese. So now I do have access and we'll figure out how to give Ryan access, though, that he can post there as well. But the question is, who are the most arrogant slash cocky athletes in sports today? Or if you have an iconic athlete from generations past, that's one as well.

But I would prefer to keep the answers to today's athletes only because that way we can all kind of identify and measure. And once we get into the NFL, this can be fun. Richard Sherman, remember him? I'm the best quarterback in the game! After an NFC championship. We'll have to see, Ryan, if we can find some of that audio from the past. You would say that Novak Djokovic is fairly cocky. Well, he reinforced that on Monday at Wimbledon.

We'll get to that. Plus, there are still two Americans alive in the men's quarterfinals, as well as Emma Navarro, who's a first-time quarterfinalist on the women's side. So USA!

USA! Have you heard the name Cooper Flag? If you haven't, you will. He's 17. I don't know that we can even include him in cocky athletes' conversation because he hasn't even played a game in college yet.

Forget in the pro ranks. There's a lot going on, a lot to talk about. I'm looking forward to it. Love to hear from you again on our social media, After Hours with Amy Lawrence, and then also at Amy After Hours. At the top of next hour, Kurt Heelan, who's a long-time NBA insider for NBC Sports. He's got his site, Basketball Talk, or that's what he is on Twix.

He will join us from Vegas. I don't know how they're doing it. 120 degrees. I guess you crank up the AC in the gym or the arena.

Better hope it doesn't crap out. Have you guys ever been on a train or a subway or a bus that doesn't have AC? It is the worst. Or even an elevator. You walk into it sometimes and you can tell right away that the AC is not working.

I don't get claustrophobic, but that's one way to make me feel like I'm melting in a tight space. So please beat the heat. Stay cool. Stay inside. Find a cooling station. Find a pool. Find a hose.

Find a sprinkler. Anything. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. I'm still the number one option. I mean, y'all might look at it differently.

I don't look at it no different. Go out there and be myself. Shoot my shots. Play defense. They got to fit in to play around me. That's how I feel.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Anthony Edwards, I'm the number one option. I'm still the number one option. And I would expect him to be confident, cocky, arrogant. That's just kind of who he is in the NBA too and I think it gives him an edge. Draymond Green, another one who uses his cocky and his arrogance as an edge and honestly is trying to get under the skin of his opponents too.

So who are the cockiest, most arrogant athletes in the world today with Anthony Edwards being a candidate? On Twix at Amy After Hours and then on our Facebook page too. I'll put it up there as soon as I can. But if you want, you can respond to one of the posts that is already there on the page.

855-212-4227. I've given you a few just names that come to mind off the top of my head. What about you? Brandon is in Chicago. Brandon, what do you think?

Good morning. I was going to say Muhammad Ali, but you said someone who is recent. I couldn't think of anyone other than Caleb Williams, our quarterback. I think he's kind of digging himself such a hole that he has to be great.

He has to know something if he doesn't. It's sexy. I'm not ashamed to say it.

Like a car is sexy, not as sexually. You know what I mean. We've been having these aw shucks quarterbacks. It's nice to have someone who's not afraid to tell you who they are.

It's an exciting time. Yeah, I would agree with that. And as much as Caleb Williams may come across that way, what we're hearing from his Bears teammates is that he's willing to work his rear end off. And so that's huge because if you have a guy that's cocky, fine. But if you are willing to work your rear end off, well then it means that you understand you're not just going to show up, put on the uniform and everything's going to be terrific.

Instead, you're talking about a guy who is willing to work to get to that point and wants to raise that level of play for everyone else around him too. Yeah, I have one. Were you an inspector gadget?

Like go-go gadget arms? Occasionally I hear you use a Wowsers and I believe Inspector Gadget's niece's name is Penny. I don't know why, but I kind of put that together. I didn't mean to go off track with her. No, you're okay. It's always nice speaking with you and you be sure to have a terrific day. Thank you. Thank you, Brandon. I appreciate it.

Make sure you stay cool there in Chicago. I actually didn't remember that about Penny, but I do remember faintly. It was something I watched when I was a kid, the go-go gadget arms.

My brother and I used to pretend that we had go-go gadget arms. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, who are the cockiest, most arrogant athletes in sports today. We'll definitely be regurgitating your answers, so if you find us on Twix, we can retweet from our show account. And then once I get it up on our Facebook page, you can watch the thread and monitor there.

I know many of you do enjoy communicating and answering the questions of other people. For instance, where is producer Jay? Where is he going?

What's his next job? Wait, producer Jay is gone? The number of times I've seen that over the last week, I'm assuming that Jay's not monitoring our Facebook page, although I guess you know what happens when you assume.

Maybe he is. I told him to check out the kind words that many of you wrote. He wasn't even on the show for three years, and he made a major impact on me personally as well as professionally.

So I will repeat it again. Producer Jay is not taking another job in the radio industry. For now, he has taken some time off. It's a nice luxury to be able to explore his options. He may remain in media, but on the production side, really enjoys doing podcasts and that kind of audio and video production, but may not, may do something completely different, just needed a change. It's got a lot happening behind the scenes, things that are personal.

It's his story, not mine. And so he decided that this was the change that he needed. So of course we miss him, but the show will go on just as it has for every other one of the nine producer changes that we've made here on After Hours.

It's something I got used to earlier in my network career. It's a nonstop revolving door of producers, and as much as I believe he's one of the best that I've ever worked with, and I wish that he would have stayed, this was his decision, so I encouraged him and told him I would help him with whatever he needed, if I could, and obviously will remain his friend, but he has chosen to try something different in his career. So no, he's not leaving for, I think somebody asked me if he was leaving to work with Mad Dog, or if he's going somewhere else.

Nah, he's not getting a promotion, although I'm sure that would have been fitting for him. I just decided he wanted to do something different. So thank you for your asking, I do appreciate that, and also thank you for your kind words about my family, both the ones that are here and the ones that I remember on July 8th, two years since we lost Grammy Helen, and I still miss her every single day, and I know you do as well. Many of you still tell me that you miss stories about America's grandmother, Grammy Helen, so I did share a photo of her earlier on Monday, as well as the photos of the Blue Angels. You guys, I had a couple of photos, actually three or four of them that came out really well, and then I saw the videos that my husband has, and I'm a little bit jealous. Oh my gosh, his videos are terrific on his phone. My phone died, so I couldn't get any videos, but it's awesome to see them flying so low over the horizon, the speeds with which they travel, and just the formations, how dangerous it is, and yet how skilled and precise they are as pilots, and man, they love their jobs. I've seen the documentary, they enjoy traveling around the country, and not only dazzling the fans and giving them a breathtaking look at what it's like to be a Blue Angel, but also just the way they represent the Navy and the way they represent really the armed forces and military service, and it's considered a great honor to be part of the Blue Angels, so I was honored to see them. So those photos, as well as Grammy Helen and update on Jay and everything else on my Twix at A-Law Radio, Kurt Heelan at the top of the hour, so you'll hear from him in Las Vegas where it's steamy, and I asked him when we were getting ready to do the interview and just kind of setting it up, and this is not like giving Kurt Heelan the questions at a time, no, but just kind of some ideas about what we want to talk to him about when he joins us and asked him about beating the Heat, so we'll see whether or not I can get anything out of him to beat the Heat. So we are asking you, not about beating the Heat, though that's always welcome, most arrogant, cockiest athletes in sports, and we'll ask Kurt about Summer League and Team USA at the top of the hour.

Here's our latest sports update. Have you ever covered a carpet stain with a rug? Ignored a leaky faucet? Pretended your half-painted living room is supposed to look that way? Well, you're not alone. We've all got unfinished home projects, whether it's a door that sticks or a disorganized closet or an AC unit that only works half the time.

It all matters. You just haven't taken care of it yet, but there's an easier way. Just download the Thumbtack app. You can search for what you need done and find tons of highly rated pros right in your neighborhood. Check prices, reviews, and book a pro right on the spot. Plus, you'll know what to tackle next, because Thumbtack is the app that shows you what to do, who to hire, and when. Pull out your phone and in just a few taps, say goodbye to all those unfinished home projects and say hello to caring for your home the easier way.

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This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Who are the cockiest, most arrogant athletes in sports? Sometimes it gives them an edge. Sometimes there's no reason to be as arrogant as they are.

Sometimes it's really misplaced aggression. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. We're glad you're with us. You can find us on both Twix and Facebook.

They've got their own quirks. You know the pages, you know where to go to see photos and also to find our show questions if you are familiar. If not, named after the show on Facebook and then on Twix at Amy After Hours is our show account. And sometimes show account retweets some of the stuff from just the highlights of the day. So whether it's a big touchdown that we really liked or a turning point in a particular game. I kind of feel like tonight, Ryan, we need to retweet some of the Cooper flag highlights because this 17 year old is making waves in Las Vegas.

And we'll ask Kurt Heelan about the buzz with Team USA. So Cooper flag is Duke bound. If you don't know anything about him, he's a high school phenom. He's already considered a potential number one draft pick. But he has not yet played a college game. He is part of USA Select, which is a team of young players who were put together to try to scrimmage with Team USA and push them a little bit.

Give them some of the competition or at least simulate the competition they might see in Paris during the Olympics. This doesn't generally feature a college player. You don't often have college guys who are part of the select team that scrimmages against the Americans who will head to the Olympics. It's fairly rare.

It hasn't happened in quite a while. Most of these guys, while they're busy getting ready for their college debut. But Cooper flag at 17 years old, he was trending after he played against Team USA in Vegas.

And he did, of course, have a chance to face some of his idols, which has to be a big deal for him. Considering his aspirations of playing in the league. I think it just comes to my mindset once the ball goes up. I'm just trying to win at all times. I'm just a competitor and that's what it boils down to. It's a little bit of adjustment being on the court with them. But at the same time, I'm just playing basketball and just trying to win. Yeah, you had different coaches and athletes from Team USA marveling about the 17 year old Cooper flag. Who again, will play for Duke next year. What did he take away from it though?

At 17 years old, goodness, you're talking about going out there and playing basketball and forgetting who it is that's on the other side. But still, it's also an opportunity to learn at your own craft. I think just the physicality. Just knowing how far I have to go. So much stuff to work on. Just seeing it in real time and how well they do.

All the little details. Just taking that, learning from that and just getting better. Yeah, so we haven't had any college players part of this select team or part of Team USA training camp going back more than a decade. And here he is at 17 years old, just people raving and marveling. And I've seen a couple of the sequences where he got a shot blocked but he was unflummoxed. He just, he ended up continuing to force the issue. So the ball went to a teammate of his. He cuts to the hoop, he has an opportunity to then redeem himself. He hit a couple of threes.

Jumper over Drew Holliday who's now a two time NBA champion. So there's a lot to like about this young man. Now he is not heading to Paris. They're not putting him on the roster. But it's a chance to get an early glimpse of him. And then you think about where he is in his basketball career compared to the guys who are playing in summer league and other parts of the country and will also end up in Vegas. I mean this is, yeah it's an opportunity to gauge himself. And maybe he only spends one year wearing the Blue Devil uniform or wearing the Blue Devil colors. But still, this is a chance for him to kind of match up and recognize where he needs to get better and where he needs to bear down.

So that's pretty cool. Already successful in the league. What is he, just about 10 years older than Cooper Flag. Jason Tatum who shows up at training camp for Team USA. He was an excused late arrival.

Had some other personal matters to attend to. But he was first time talking about what it feels to be a champion. It's been a whirlwind. Winning a championship is whatever I thought that it would be like.

It's 10 times better. He worked so hard to accomplish the goal. I think us falling short a couple of times made it that much sweeter. And to say the least, I'm still enjoying it.

I am. It feels amazing to be a champion. So he and Drew Holliday are on this team. And coming off of a championship, what three weeks ago? So they haven't had much time to rest. Not a whole lot of time to recover. And it's good to have him on the team, of course.

He's one of the best players in the NBA. You kind of wonder how much of the fatigue will be there this quickly after they have to play. Well, not the max number of games, of course. Because they played 19 games. They were 16-3 in the playoffs.

So they didn't play the max number. They had a lot of time off in between series. But still, they did have to play into the deepest portion of the NBA playoffs. And so now he's with a different team.

Although Drew certainly provides a bit of a security blanket. But yeah, good to see him. And good for him to participate with a bunch of the other NBA stars. You got high character guys that understand what we're trying to accomplish. And understand how tough it is to put 12 new guys on the team with 40 days to get to know each other in practice.

And be away from your family. And try to win a gold medal. And that's all that matters. Not who starts, how many points you average. All that matters is if we come home with a gold medal. I certainly hope that he has deuce with him.

Because he's right. They were just away from their families. And not on the road most of the time. Celtics had home court advantage. But it's such a long season. And then they played two months of postseason.

And you put all this effort into it. Only to have a couple weeks off and then boom. Right back into basketball.

So this is an aberration. And for the Celtics. And for the Mavericks too actually. If you think about Luka Doncic playing in the Olympics as well.

You are talking about the narrowest window where they could have had any time off. So it's a lot to ask. 20 something years old. Okay I get it. Physically they're in good shape. But think about the Warriors. If you remember the Warriors went to five consecutive NBA Finals. They won three rings over that stretch. Losing to the Cavaliers and then to the Raptors of course.

But on the heels of that run. Now Klay Thompson had been injured. He was injured in the 2019 NBA Finals. So he was already recovering from the torn ACL. But both Steph Curry and Draymond Green were dealing with major physical challenges. I think Steph the year after they lost to the Raptors in the 19 NBA Finals. He only played a handful of games the next year. Now they kind of knew that they weren't going to compete that year. And so they weren't going to ask Steph and Dre to play a ton of games when they didn't feel like it was worth it.

But what you heard from those guys over and over again is man. The physical toll after five consecutive years of playing the maximum number of games. So to speak. Meaning you play into the very last series. You play into mid June five consecutive years. And really don't get much time off before you have to start training for the next season.

So it does take a physical toll. And in 2020. And obviously the season was cut short.

So I guess the 19-20 season. Even though it was cut short with COVID. And they didn't continue until the bubble. Really the Warriors kind of took their foot off the gas collectively. And didn't bring Steph back after he got injured. I forget what his injury was that year. But Draymond Green was dealing with a ton of injuries either. And they really weren't going to throw him out there. And have him play a bunch of games when there was no Steph and no Klay. And really not a lot of hope for competing against the rest of the West.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. So you've got a Jason Taney Madrew holiday that are on a super all-star team. So you're not expecting them to have to play as many minutes. Or absorb the same type of action and really play the same roles as they do for the Celtics.

But it's still asking them to continue playing. And there's always a risk that you're going to have injuries. That these guys suffer while they're playing in the Olympics. Which then can impact their pro careers.

Still though, it's an honor for many of them to don the red, white and blue. Paul George, he is opening up about his departure from the Clippers. And this is all part of his own podcast.

Which has gone viral now. Some of it, you kind of wonder if it's his perspective. And if the Clippers would agree. Probably not, right? They'd have their own version of events. But maybe we'll see if these various comments get confirmed by people in the industry. Or even by the Clippers behind the scenes. He actually indicated that his number one hope was to stay with the Clippers.

But it became clear that they weren't on board with treating him the same as Kawhi. So I'm like, just give me what Kawhi got. Like, y'all view us the same. Like, you know, we came here together. We want to finish this s*** together. I'll take what Kawhi got.

Like, no problem. I was cool with that. And we were still taking less. We were taking less. Kawhi took less. I was like, if Kawhi going to take less, I'm not going to say I want more than Kawhi.

Like, I'm not going like, it's not about me being paid more than him. Like, I'm going to take what he got. Y'all give him that.

Give me that. They didn't want to do that. As it played out, though. Like, the first initial deal was, I thought, kind of disrespectful. Right.

And again, no, in all of this, no hard feelings, no love, loss, no, like, it's a business. So for Paul George, he was asking for the same deal that Kawhi Leonard signed. I don't remember exactly the month, maybe last February, last January. It was during the season. Three years, $150 million. So essentially paying him $50 million per year. And as Paul points out, that's actually not a max deal. He was entitled to more years and more money if the Clips were going to give him a max deal. And so he took less. And Paul George was willing to do the same thing as the two of them want to be the dynamic doer for the Clippers. But that's not, according to him, what the Clippers offered. And so now he is with the 76ers and actually is wearing a different number. So a little more from Paul George and why he has number eight now. Plus, Dan Hurley has signed his contract extension with the UConn Huskies. We'll get to Wimbledon as well.

But straight ahead, Kurt Heelan of NBC Sports joins us from Las Vegas in Team USA training camp. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Here's why April chose to vaccinate her child. 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.

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