After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST Hour 3

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Love the fact that we speak to so many people, whether driving, working, whatever you're doing, we're just thrilled that you choose us to keep your company. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. I just had a flashback. I looked over at my computer and it was a blue screen and all I saw before it shut down was shutting down dot dot dot. I don't think it's the dreaded blue screen because it just did restore back. Well, I had to turn it on again, but it restored back to the opening screen, the login screen. But I lost all of my windows, which kind of sucks. And weirdly enough, when you're in Google Chrome, if you just turn off the computer without logging out of your email and your social media, the next time someone opens up those windows, they'll still be there.

It'll still be open. It's a little crazy. We have this one dude who works here.

I won't name any names. Every single computer he uses and he uses a bunch, control room, studio, side studios, newsroom, he just leaves them open everywhere you go. It's like every single computer you can tell where he's been because his email and his social media are left open.

Now, I don't post nasty messages or share inappropriate pictures like some people would do if they found another person's social media wide open, but I do follow myself and follow show accounts from other people's social media if they don't always follow me. You know, one thing that's really funny, it goes back now, probably nine, 10 years, a guy who used to produce on the show. Now, he was only here for a couple of months. He didn't want to really do this job. He was just trying to find a full-time gig, but really wanted to do something completely different. Anyway, I remember I sat down at a desk in the newsroom not long after he had left the show and he forgot to log out of his Twix account at the time, Twitter, and so I went to follow myself and realized he had me muted. That's embarrassing. So, I unmuted myself and followed myself from his account and just thought, well, this will be fun when he figures it out.

So, yes, I have to restore all of my windows, but that's going to take a little time. And so, we're going to get to the ACC commissioner just because it's really interesting stuff. As ACC is now holding its media days and the lawsuits, it's going to take a little bit of time, but it's going to take a little bit of time. As ACC is now holding its media days and the lawsuits and also the potential for expansion when you consider that the rich are getting richer in these Power Four conferences now really without the Pac-12.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. It's a Tuesday morning. NFL training camps are in full swing in many places now. A couple of teams still having to report veterans, but lots of QB news already. Ryan's going to attempt to run QB news for the first time ever. I have faith in him, although he's not even eligible for the job anymore if he doesn't edit the podcast where I messed up earlier in the show.

You have to be able to cover up the host tracks. That's what you got to do. You got to cover for the host, Ryan. I cut it out. Nice. Boom.

Points for Ryan. Also, we're asking you on Twix as well as Facebook, what events and sports are a must watch for you in the Paris Olympics because we're on the cusp. So whether it's at Amy After Hours, at ALaw Radio or on our Facebook page, it's good to hear from so many of you. We're going to talk about basketball coming up.

I know it's really popular. Many of you are responding with basketball, obviously, and I would say of the individual athletes, Simone Biles is probably getting the most play. Certainly her track record speaks for itself, but there are some other really incredible American athletes and not that they have to be American, but I'm fairly honed in on the red, white and blue.

I become a real patriotic shill for the United States and Team USA. So yes, Simone Biles, but there are others, even in the gymnastics world, remember Suni Lee and her achievements. She was second to Biles at the Olympic trials for the second time. And so she, even though she's battling kidney diseases, which makes her story more compelling, she's back in the Olympics again. She's the reigning all around champion.

So there are a lot of returning athletes that we'll have an opportunity to see again, but in addition, there'll be some fresh faces. Remember Sha'Carri Richardson talked about her last hour, wasn't eligible to compete in the Olympics three years ago in Tokyo. And so now she's back and after she had qualified them, she got suspended, but now she's back and certainly in a vengeance, she'll represent the U.S. in the 100 meters and also should be part of the women's four by 100 relay team.

So that's awesome. I'm excited for her to have a little bit of vindication. Let's see other names in track and field. Sydney McLaughlin, she's now been, she's married now. So it's Sydney McLaughlin-Levron, but she's a sprinter in track and field and actually turns 25 during these Olympic games. Already has participated in multiple Olympics. She's got a pair of gold medals from Tokyo and I can't wait to see what she does as an encore. And these are just a few of the athletes. Diana Tarazi and LeBron James, both elder statesmen, if you will.

Asia Wilson is getting an opportunity to compete in the games and she right now is the best player going in the WNBA. I don't know any of the athletes in breaking. I don't know any of the athletes in surfing.

Not yet. Right. They could become household names after these Paris games. Would you think that the United States would be among the world leaders in surfing? Maybe parts of the U.S. Well, no, I mean, as a nation in the Olympics, would you think, would you think, obviously there's a lot of countries that have more coastline like relative to the entire country, right? You have some island nations and that kind of stuff, but considering California and Hawaii, which I saw in May, we've got some damn good coastline for surfing, not to mention really competitive athletes. So I'm wondering if the United States is expected to be one of the best nations when it comes to surfing, I'd say top five.

Who else? What other nations would you think would be competitive in surfing? I'm just throwing the Fiji.

I have no idea. I'm just throwing Australia. I mean, they're obviously an island.

They're very good. Yeah. So I think of places I'm thinking of surfs up the kids' movie. Just trying to see where the areas were from. That's another thing we can Google. Why not?

We Google everything else. So yeah, lots of fun stories that will come out of it. I can't wait for Katie Ledecky again in swimming. She's already so decorated and such an incredible story herself. Soccer for both the men's and women's side, because the men have qualified for their first time in a long time, but it's not the men that you would see on the World Cup team. It's actually a much younger team. So that should be fun too.

What sports are must watch for you in the Paris Olympics? So either of our social media sites or on the phones, 855, especially if you have a joke about breakdancing, Richard just found us on Twitter and said, I love this breakdancing joke, but I'm old. No, 80s isn't old. I just didn't ever watch that movie.

I was a little bit too young then to watch a movie about that, I suppose. 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4CBS. All right, we'll get to some football coming up in, let's call it 10 minutes-ish.

Yeah, 10 minutes-ish, if I can get out on time. But the ACC commissioner, he's the latest to hold court when it comes to the ever-changing landscape in college football. And yes, people want to know about the teams, right? The ACC's had some recent success when it comes to college football, but really the big story and where every commissioner is starting right now is about conference realignment, the changing landscape, really the volatile nature of college football because of NIL and Transfer Portal and the number of schools that are changing conferences this year, leaving other conferences in maybe precarious positions, not to mention the ACC is dealing with lawsuits. And so that was one of the first things that Jim Phillips talked about is these lawsuits from Clemson and Florida State and the damage and the damage that they are doing. With multiple ongoing legal cases, there are limits to what I can say, but I can state that we will fight to protect the ACC and our members for as long as it takes.

We are confident in this league and that it will remain a premier conference in college athletics for the long-term future. These disputes continue to be extremely damaging, disruptive, and incredibly harmful to the league, as well as overshadowing our student athletes and the incredible successes taking place on the field and within the conference. Now here's the thing, I agree that if you're in the ACC, if you're in administration, if you are one of these schools, well yes, the lawsuits are getting a lot of play. But honestly, I think if you polled 10 people on the street, even if they identified as sports fans, they probably wouldn't know anything about these lawsuits or what they're about. I just don't think it's as big a story. Now again, it's big inside the ACC and it also could be a precedent setter, meaning it really does behoove the ACC to fight them because this could open up a whole can of worms, it could open up Pandora's box. And so yeah, they don't want these lawsuits to be successful for a lot of reasons, but I would say average sports fan, even average college football fan, has no idea what this is about. Right? No idea.

Did you know that shaking your head and nodding, they translate very well on the radio? Well I know that, but like you said, I don't know much about this. I'm pretty sure Florida State and Clemson are switching conferences, right?

Mm-hmm. Leading to the the destroyment of the ACC and their somewhat media rights, right? And buying out of a contract. Right, so they want to change conferences.

They are right now ticked off about how much it costs. So the withdrawal penalty from leaving the league and the grant of rights, don't exactly know what that is, not a lawyer. I think it's probably too technical for the show, but the league in turn has filed counter suits against both of these schools and Phillips is saying we're protecting our conference, we're protecting our territory and our other members. Meaning if you're going to withdraw, you're taking two sources of, in this case two schools, taking two sources of revenue away from us, you're you're weakening our conference.

So of course there's a penalty. It's a little bit like trying to break a lease. The landlords, they get to cover their rear ends and if you're going to break a lease in a contract that you signed, well you're going to have to pay them to cover the months that maybe they're going to be without a tenant. Now obviously a little bit different details, but what the ACC is saying is losing these two schools or losing any schools in theory is weakening our ability to produce revenue, to generate revenue, and you're going to leave us with a major hole. So if you're going to leave, you're going to pay us before you go because that's the penalty.

We need to be able to recoup some of that money that will be lost when you leave. That makes sense. Did they not have like a buyout or? Well it's written, it's written into the charter. Yeah it's written into the contracts and he says both Clemson and Florida State unanimously signed the grant of rights agreement in 13 and again in 16 and eagerly according to Phillips, eagerly agreed to our current television contract and the launch of the ACC network. So it sounds like it has something to do with media rights.

Maybe they had to pay into it and want their money back, something like that. So yeah you're looking at contentious relationships here, but also again the point is that if the ACC doesn't fight back and a court or a judge agrees with these two schools, then all of a sudden you're going to have a bunch of other schools, maybe in other conferences, saying well I mean the court sided with these two schools, they don't have to pay the penalties, so let's try it ourselves and see if we can recoup the money type of thing. So yeah there's, it's a lot of legal jargon, but I think the idea is that it's precedent setting and again the ACC is fighting because they don't want to be weaker in a year in which both the Big Ten and the SEC are gaining really significant membership and Phillips has to toe the line here. He has to try to talk up his confidence and the confidence in the conference as a whole. We intend to continue to fight every day for the ACC and its members and to do so in a way that I hope makes our membership proud. Where there are disagreements or disputes, I intend to continue to deal with them in a respectful and honorable fashion. The ACC deserves nothing less.

The ACC will remain a healthy and vibrant conference that competes at the highest level. He was vehement, he was passionate in his remarks and of course these lawsuits affect long-term future, so there's something to be said about that too. I mean I could sense a little bit of desperation for the ACC here, but also it's about protecting your territory and saying to these schools you sign contracts, they're not just pieces of paper, you can't just bolt anytime you want and change everything that we've established here with out there being significant penalties. He also did say too, which I think this is worth noting, that not a day goes by that he doesn't spend time in the lawsuits.

So that's taking time away from his duties and what else he could be doing to try to not just protect their territory, but potentially enlarge their territory. So yeah, and this is another quote too that I think applies in many realms and industries, not just in college football, but right now I can see why it's required. Forceful moments deserve forceful support and leadership.

He was asked why he's so passionate, why he's so adamant, why he's fired up about all this stuff. Forceful moments deserve forceful support and leadership and so yeah this is something that he's convicted about and you can hear that conviction as he stands in front of the microphones and starts out ACC media days. All right, coming up we'll do a little of the NFL QB news. We've got one top QB that's been cleared for contact after another lengthy stretch on the shelf with injury. We've got many quarterback battles, but one in particular in the NFC North. We get an update on that one and then Jordan Love, well he and his camp have made the decision not to practice.

What are they waiting for? Uh plus John Harbaugh raving about Lamar Jackson as usual. Glad to have you with us. Good morning to you if you're waking up on your Tuesday. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. You're the Colonel.

You're going to command your troops tonight. You understand? Have the off-season blues? Blake Portals delivers to his tight end. Mariota drop fires downfield. It's caught to the five, to the end zone.

Oh my goodness. How about the Hail Mary from Winston? He's to the five. He's in for the touchdown. What a play by Manning. Rogers in the end zone.

It is caught for the win. It's time for QB news on After Hours. And this portion of the show is brought to you by Ethos Life. The easy way to get life insurance in 10 minutes. Up to two million dollars in cover with no medical exam and just a few health questions.

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It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Off-season QB news. I like it. Of course we're not that far away from the beginning of the preseason. August 1st. August 1st you guys. It's not even 10 days away. It's right around the corner and that's when the Hall of Fame game takes place on a Thursday night in Canton and we've got essentially every team now with its rookies in camp and then you've got veterans reporting every day through the end of this week when all the camps will be in full bloom and so we begin with maybe not the biggest story about the quarterbacks on Monday but we'll get to it. Haven't touched on this yet. For the Minnesota Vikings they're replacing Kirk Cousins.

They've got multiple options. One of them and this is the big story. JJ McCarty drafted in the first round by Minnesota. Currently listed at number two on the depth chart behind Sam Darnold but this is definitely a quarterback battle to watch and Kevin O'Connell is going to be asked about it every single day.

I have no you know pre-conceived preset depth chart in my mind beyond. I believe I said you know at the end of spring Sam was you know the number one quarterback he had taken a lot of the reps and most of the reps with the ones and Sam had a great spring. JJ came in here after being drafted and had a really productive spring as well. So right now Sam Darnold is listed as number one on the depth chart.

JJ McCarty number two. There are a lot of people that think if you draft JJ that high well then you better throw him out there. I'm not sure the Vikings share that mindset. They don't want their first round draft pick to get clobbered.

They need to be ready. We'll see how quickly they determine that he is field ready. That he is field prepared.

Also in the NFC North Jordan Love. What we found out is that he's with the team. He's going through meetings. He's definitely preparing for the season mentally but he will not be out there in pads. He will not be running through drills with his team and this is about the finances according to general manager Brian Gootenkunst. Saturday night you know they kind of informed us that until we get something done that he would not practice again. So unless something gets done here before you know practice starts here pretty soon he will not be practicing.

But again you know I think this is something we're all working on and we certainly understand where he's coming from. We'd like him to be out there. It's important for him to be out there. Obviously you guys know how important practice is and you know working with his teammates so but as of now until until we get that resolved you know he will not be practicing. He'll be taking part in you know he reported last week he's taking part in everything else. He's there he's just not going to practice and this is really about him not getting hurt. I don't even know that it's so much about leverage with the Packers because of course he's their only option. I think it was Matt Lafleur who said they're not planning on bringing in another quarterback.

They expect this to be a short-term issue and so the follow-up with Gootenkunst was whether or not a deal could happen in the next few days and his quote was I think so but you never know. We're working really hard to get that done. I think it's really important for us. At the same time you know the thing that I have confidence in is that we both want the same thing. We want Jordan here for a long time. Give him that stability for him and it gives us some stability for our group as well. So you know Russ is doing a great great job with you know David Mulageta and their team. I've got two people who are very experienced with this so I'm optimistic. These are big deals. It takes time.

They're not as you know easy as some people may think. When it comes to Jordan Love he's got a lot of leverage right now. Again I don't know that that's what he's doing because he's been there all summer long and is now in camp. He's not technically holding out. Just doesn't want to get hurt until they can give him a deal that would then I don't want to replace it but would extend on to the end of his rookie deal and would offer him guaranteed money and after the second half that he had he certainly deserves that and so I understand why it doesn't sound like it's it's acrimonious. Doesn't sound like they're upset. This doesn't sound like an Aaron Rodgers situation and certainly in the NFC North I would think they are the team to beat when you consider what's happening around the rest of the division.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. All right talking about another high profile quarterback that we've missed seeing on the field Zach Taylor Cincinnati Bengals. Good news for not just his fan base but for the rest of the NFL Joe Burrow has been cleared for contact again after missing what second half of last season. Yeah he feels great and ready to go. Assuming he's all well through the preseason will you play him in the preseason?

Most likely. Yeah I think for all of our starters we would have done that last year he got hurt so I think you know the way we lean right now is to get our guys some playing time in the preseason. We'll let the first two weeks of practice dictate how much, when, how did we want it to look but I think we're very open to that this year. Burrow had that torn wrist ligament and this was back to week 11. He got tackled and that injury right not it wasn't right on the heels of when he had the whole torn up knee going back to 2020 which was his rookie year but it does feel like two full seasons of his career so far as he goes into year number five it feels like we've lost him for two full seasons even though he did play into week 11 last year but yeah the Bengals they're not a competitive team as much without him. I know they ended up with a winning record as did every team in the AFC North last year. Jake Browning filled in admirably but he's not going to carry them to competitive elite especially in the very crowded AFC but it's good news that Joe Burrow was out there and cleared for contact.

Now I didn't look closely enough did he get a haircut yet that's the question. John Harbaugh one of the longest tenure coaches in the NFL and even though we did not have Lamar Jackson to start camp for the Ravens he was sick so he was excused they have a great vision for the reigning NFL MVP. The vision for Lamar Jackson it's a vision it's something you see it like it's already happened you can see it like it's already been done the victory has already been won when you pour into a vision and the vision that we have together is that Lamar Jackson is going to become and be known and be recognized as the greatest quarterback ever to play in the history of the National Football League that's the vision. He's so passionate and he's so Harbaugh we now have two Harbaugh's in the NFL it's the same Harbaugh that told us he was doing bed checks to start training camp I still can't get over that your head coach and bed checks I'm not sure which part of that is the most incredible or astounding but all of it kind of smacked me upside the head. Also I love the way that Harbaugh it protects his quarterback stands up for his quarterback believes in his quarterback.

There's a lot of stuff that said you got to just scratch your head about and kind of wonder what's that person even thinking you know so but we take it personally you know Lamar's a guy all his life Lamar Jackson has been a guy who's been answering those same questions I'm talking about since he was a kid junior high high school college the draft the success he's had in the National Football League and it still comes up. John Harbaugh in mid-season form already from the AFC North again going to be very competitive and I can't wait to see the NFL MVP back on the field again he's got a new backfield mate in Derrick Henry 30 years old he still can truck guys we'll hear from him a little bit later on. Finally Aaron Rodgers you know we hadn't heard from him since he skipped mandatory OTAs and went off to Egypt on a vacation now he's given his whole sob side of the story about how it's not really OTAs it's just a couple of days designated for practice blah blah blah I don't really care anymore so much of what he says I don't care about but on the Pardon My Take podcast he was asked about how much longer he will play when will he retire? How many more years? I don't know I'm not sure this one for sure this one for sure I'd like to do I wanted to do two good ones and to give us a chance to retire a jet you know win two Super Bowls yep and then do the Kyle Orton yeah is that how you retire legend of course just walk off you know there gonna be a lot of people who aren't sorry to see him go the thing is it I mean it's a little bit tongue-in-cheek and I'm certainly being snarky about it he says this one for sure well dear lord I hope so the Jets rearranged their entire freaking roster for you last season and you lasted four snaps old man four snaps you owe them a year and actually I think you should kind of play for free not that that happens anywhere in pro sports but you owe them a year and maybe you need to make good on a year after that you left them in the lurch four snaps and then the entire season for the Jets was completely derailed a lot of people a lot of people either lost jobs or got jobs based on you as the starting quarterback and it did not work it did not work out and that's putting it mildly not to mention jerking our chain pretty much the entire final three months about whether or not he would return and how he's on pace to be the quickest athlete ever to recover from a torn Achilles want want want want want just play and then I'll maybe be interested in what you have to say again capisce comprende I just I can't with him sometimes he may be more than anyone else on this planet loves to hear himself talk silence is better than Aaron Rodgers and I'm a talker but I do like silence it's a lot of hot air how about play first then talk seems easy enough on twix a law radio or on our facebook page Aaron Rodgers is not competing in the olympics it's a safe zone it's an Aaron Rodgers free zone my goodness the season hasn't even started yet I'm already annoyed that's what I get for talking about him at all makes my blood pressure go up no it doesn't really do that I just stop talking just get back on the field and then we can talk again what events and sports are you considering must watch in the upcoming paris games they begin this week 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 download thumbtack and start a project today we all belong outside we're drawn to nature whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to or the succulents that adorn our homes nature makes all of our lives well better despite all this we often go about our busy lives removed from it but the outdoors is closer than we realize with all trails you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently with offline maps and on trail navigation download the free app today and make the most of your summer with all trails master outdoor cooking this summer with the meat eater outdoor cookbook the inspiring and practical new guide from steven reinella host of the meat eater podcast and television show with over 100 recipes for meat fish poultry and game birds accompanied by lush photography and easy to follow tips the meat eater outdoor cookbook is the ultimate guide to open air cooking whether you've hunted the ingredients yourself or forged them from the supermarket because food just tastes better when it's caught cooked and eaten outside the meat eater outdoor cookbook by steven reinella is available now you are listening to the after hours podcast this is after hours with amy lawrence which sports or events are a must watch when it comes to the paris games you know what i'm kind of taking requests if you tell me that there are events that you must see and must follow then maybe we'll highlight those when we're here on the air because a lot of these events will be taking place while we are doing our show it's the beauty of international events across the pond it's after hours with amy lawrence speaking of olympic events final tune-up for the usa men's basketball team once again lebron james to the rescue against germany a lot of post screens james late in the clock lebron james partying inside his eyes he's a man goodness does he take over you have a right to do that the king's flex well he was flexing the bench was going crazy because he has eight points in a dominant fourth quarter stretch and even though there was a three-pointer that was part of that run late in the fourth against germany in what was another tight battle similar to the one against south sudan over the weekend what really stood out to me about lebron's performance is his his sheer brute force it's brute strength that's still one of the greatest advantages that lebron has he gets a full head of steam he essentially starts to run downhill and like a derek henry there's not a whole lot you can do to stop him and so that's where germany had no answers for lebron and even the head coach gordon herbert he talked about you know germany's competitiveness the ability to hang until this guy who's 39 years old first quarter they had us back on our heels you know we had a tough first quarter i thought we regrouped some in the second quarter i thought the third quarter we played our best basketball we played with good temple and uh yeah and uh somebody named lebron james made some pretty good plays at the end somebody named lebron james made some pretty good plays yeah he's good for that and actually germany is the current feba world champion so this is a quality opponent for team usa and when lebron was walking off and and the game was on fox sports and then fox had its cameras that was capturing him kind of walking underneath uh back into the locker room he was saying competitive i love it i love it meaning we needed tests we don't want to run up the scores against cream puffs we need teams that are going to challenge us and push us so that we are more prepared for these olympics so we're in situations like this where the games might be hanging in the balance as we get down toward the end so i appreciate that they don't want to just run up the you know run the table run up the score they don't want it to be easy what they really need is good quality gauges before they get to paris and this game taking place in london so last tune up and then next stop is the olympics he finishes with 20 points six rebounds four assists and he was as we said named the male flag bearer for team usa so what an honor at 39 years old but first things first big win for the team felt pretty good i mean we got better tonight and that's the most important we was tested by a great uh germany team there was a world champion last year so you know it's a good test for us and i'm glad we was able to once again you know keep our composure persevere like we did the other day for south sudan it was a good win i like the way drew holiday puts it now think about it drew's a two-time nba champion he's part of the reigning champs the boston celtics uh he's highly decorated in his own career you've also got steph curry best long-range shooter the nba's ever seen anthony davis who gets a front row seat to lebron every game uh joelle m bead who's an mvp himself who else are we talking about guys like devin booker and anthony edwards younger guys of course who would have grown up watching lebron james but all of these guys kevin durant who right now is still on the roster even though steve kirk keeps getting asked about him because he's unable to play at this point kawhi leonard gets replaced on the roster this is the best of the best the cream of the crop and yet you've got a guy like drew holiday and also the guys on the bench who are freaking out over lebron i mean they're just in awe of what this guy can do as well i think lebron just took over and that's just his personal ally that's him as a leader uh i think we had some some uh great looks and we also had some struggles and i think when we saw the struggles lebron just kind of took the key so um him just being him and going out there and leading this team remember when lebron was asked about his role and what he said is i'll do whatever the team needs to win i believe that for sure but i do not in any way believe that he ever ever was willing to or thought he would have to take a backseat role if you will where he wouldn't be the featured player with the ball in his hands when the game is on the line and the last two that's exactly what we've seen not that the majority of guys on this roster aren't also capable of taking over in the end but this is lebron and this is how he's conditioned and he's not generally a guy who's going to cede that responsibility to anyone else i just think it's more of an issue that everybody else is not flowing with each other lebron by himself so he has to take over yes he shouldn't have to score eight points in the fourth quarter and continue to save team usa it should be a consistent full team scoring effort in the fourth quarter where curry and bead anthony davis whoever's out there should all be contributing not one person one of the questions about team usa was how they would perform in the paint against nations that do have a kind of a better inside presence or as ryan points out a little more organized in the interior and what we've seen is anthony davis excels and bead has been playing really well lebron's had his way when he's gotten inside the paint so they're going to get better with every game that they play and i think that's critical again a lot of these teams from other nations they play year round whereas team usa i'll be at more practice than the women's team who just arrived yesterday and i i don't know if it was they were together yesterday i don't know if they were in paris or they're also making a stop somewhere uh to do some practicing but i would think though that they're they're likely uh to go hot and heavy for these next few days but also they're coming off of their own wnba first halves you can't push them that hard because they've really not had much time off since the season started and so they're they're relying on experience and the leadership of athletes who have been there and done that whereas the u.s men at least have had several weeks now where they've it's almost like they're in summer camp right where they've been uh living together working together eating together uh sleeping together you know what i mean and so they've at least had a few weeks to get acclimated whereas the women's team they've got a couple of days and the games are underway so there's a lot of pressure on both of these teams repping the red white and blue it's after hours with amy lawrence so glad to have you with us as we are talking about the nba i just uh wanted to kind of shoehorn this in uh because paul george he he told us on his podcast that the reason he left the clippers is because he wanted an offer that was the same as kawaii i'll take what you're paying kawaii and and i'll be good with that even though kawaii didn't sign a max deal he didn't necessarily need the max max that he could get and he says that the clippers never did respect him enough to give him that finally the owner of the clippers steve balmer and he was at an event and he was speaking out kind of responding to what paul said and defending the clippers and what they offered pg-13 we made paul what i consider a great offer but it was a great offer in terms of us thinking about how to win championships it wasn't it wasn't what paul wanted so he he he wanted to go and i respect him for that of course you're going to hear that you're going to hear that they gave him an offer they felt like was competitive um really the big thing is that they were looking for something different looking for something more trying to add other pieces in the james hardin mess and this is pre russell westbrook getting traded but what they've given up to bring in guys like kawaii lettered like james hardin westbrook for a time but now he's gone and feeling like they were making more sacrifices than what we're they were getting in return uh i can imagine if that's accurate um that's how a lot of people feel about the clippers you gave up so much to get these guys in and did it make a bit of difference not really you still didn't achieve your ultimate goal and nor do i think you cracked the upper echelon of the western conference by itself forget the upper echelon of the nba you know from a basketball perspective paul is a fantastic player future hall of famer i would say and but we knew we needed to continue to get better short and to the point steve balmer not clapping like a walrus and not laughing two things that he does on a fairly regular basis when he's cheering on his beloved clippers yeah i mean it's july so i can't get too excited about nba rosters but i did think uh it was good to hear from steve balmer it's kind of a reply to what paul george said uh you guys are weighing in the must watch sports and events for the upcoming olympics and i like this from dana on our facebook page he says i want to see simone biles make the full comeback remember in tokyo she withdrew from a couple of well she withdrew uh from a few events and cited mental health and just not being right and not wanting to put herself in danger and it was probably the biggest story to come out of those tokyo games anyway dana goes on to say i feel she should carry the u.s flag well there there's a real possibility because at 27 she's nearly unheard of in gymnastics i could imagine that lebron james at 39 and simone biles at 27 would be the perfect tandem to lead team usa into the opening ceremony so i think that's awesome uh louis goes with swimming greg says i agree on basketball both male and female and the canadian women's soccer team being the defending olympic champs also a must it's after hours with amy lawrence master outdoor cooking this summer with the meat eater outdoor cookbook the inspiring and practical new guide from steven reinella host of the meat eater podcast and television show with over 100 recipes for meat fish poultry and game birds accompanied by lush photography and easy to follow tips the meat eater outdoor cookbook is the ultimate guide to open-air cooking whether you've hunted the ingredients yourself or forged them from the supermarket because food just tastes better when it's caught cooked and eaten outside the meat eater outdoor cookbook by steven reinella is available now well we got a minute i'm gonna buy that truck i've been wanting wait don't you need like weeks to shop for a car i don't carvana makes it super convenient to find exactly what i want hold up you're buying a car on your phone isn't that more of a laptop thing you can shop wherever you want i like to do my research read reviews compare models plus carvana has thousands of options how'd you decide on that truck because i like it oh that is a great reason go to carvana.com to sell your car the convenient way