March 31, 2025 • 46 mins
This episode has a little bit of everything: some laughs, some heat, and another example of how sports intersects with culture and politics.. Cari is tapping into everything — from what’s really going down in women’s basketball right now. The game is changing, and so is the conversation, and then we go straight into dating standards: the back-and-forth between what men think women want and what women are actually asking for.
That’s not all; we also break down the drama between LeBron James and Stephen A. Smith — because yes, grown men do feud publicly, and it says a lot about the current media game.
And finally, Cari shares her take on the Dodgers heading to the White House — why it matters, what it means, and how sports continue to play a role in shaping our political story.
Connect @CariChampion
Subscribe Cari Champion's YOUTUBE Channel
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Speaks to the planet.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I'll go by the name of Charlamagne of God and
guess what, I can't wait to see y'all at the
third annual Black Effect Podcast Festival. That's right, We're coming
back to Atlanta, Georgia, Saturday, April twenty six at Poeman
Yards and it's hosted by none other than Decisions, Decisions,
MANDYB and Weezy. Okay, we got the R and B
Money podcast with taking Jay Valentine. We got the Women
of All Podcasts with Sarah Jake Roberts, we got Good
(00:23):
Mom's Bad Choices. Carrie Champion will be there with her
next sports podcast, and the Trap Nerds podcast with more
to be announced. And of course it's bigger than podcasts.
We're bringing the Black Effect marketplace with black owned businesses,
plus the food truck court to keep you fed while
you visit us.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
All right, listen, you don't want to miss this.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Tap in and grab your tickets now at Black Effect
dot Com Flash Podcast Festival.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Welcome to Naked Sports, the podcast where we live at
the intersection of sports, politics, and culture. Our purpose reveal
the common threads that bind them all. So what's happening
in women's basketball right now, now is what we've been trying.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
To get to for almost thirty years.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
From the stadiums where athletes break barriers and set records.
Kayman Clark broke the all time single game assist record.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
This is crazy for rookies to be doing.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Our discussions will uncover the vital connections between these realms
and the community we create. And each episode we'll sit
down with athletes, political analysts, and culture critics because at
the core of it all, how we see one issue
shines the light on all others. Welcome to Naked Sports.
I'm your host, Carrie Champion. Hey, everybody, Welcome to Naked Sports.
(01:41):
I'm Carrie Champion. So I have to do a little
housekeeping before we really dive into the podcast. In today's podcast,
trust me, is going to be entertaining. I'm going to
get into a few things. I gotta do the housekeeping
on my Hill Harper episode because a few of the
clips went viral and you all have a lot to
say about what Hill Harper had to say. In fact,
(02:01):
you all said Hill Harper sounds like Kevin Samuels, who
is no longer in this universe with us. Meanwhile, I
want to tell you to subscribe to my YouTube page,
because not only can you listen to the podcast, which
you're probably doing right now, you can physically watch it
on my YouTube page, which is It's Carrie Champion, or
as simple as can be, go to YouTube, type in
(02:22):
my name and my channel will pop up and you
will be able to see the actual podcast that you're
listening to. I have to remind you to do that,
but I want to go back to a couple of
weeks ago, and for those of you who have followed
us for four seasons, four seasons, you know that this season,
the fourth season, we changed the title. We revamped it
(02:43):
to Naked Sports because we wanted to make sure that
you knew we all were including sports. In a while ago,
my good friend Hill Harper said, I want to come
on the podcast. I said absolutely, and we got into
the conversation that never fails on social media. It is
about men versus women in dating. What's wrong with women?
What's wrong with men? Everyone has their own take on this.
(03:05):
It drives me absolutely insane because this will forever be
the conversation. However, that's me stumping my feet to get
into the juiciness of it all. Hill Harper has a book.
It was a New York Times bestseller and it was
called The Conversation and it was about men and women
in dating and what worked and what didn't work. And
(03:27):
I was able to take a few of his comments
and I made them, you know, just clips so you
can pay attention to the podcast, just some clickbait if
you will. And one of the things that really, I
don't know, for whatever reasons, triggered people was when he
said women in no, you know, I'm paraphrasing, women are
(03:48):
delusional when they're dating. They want a mixture between Denzel Washington,
Barack Obama, and Jesus. And then that sent the Internet
in a buzz suggesting that women want the impossible and
it's not there, suggesting that women have these standards that
they don't even live up to, but they require their
(04:08):
man to have those standards. Case in point, they want
a man who makes six figures and they don't. They
want a man who looks a certain way and they don't.
They want a man to be all of the things
and they are not. And I don't necessarily know how
true that is, right, That's just something that I hear
a lot of And the comments really. We have five
(04:30):
hundred plus comments, and a lot of them are men
talking about how delusional women are. And I think it's wild,
I really really do. So take a listen to what
Hill Harper said and then I'll read some of the comments.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
I did a test or an experiment.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
The name of the book is Please, It's.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Called The Conversation.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
I had them do almost identical profile piece about the
man that they saw themselves with and who they wanted
to be with. Fascinating, is fascinating. It was fascinating, and
you want to know what the results were. And then
you ask them, who do you want to be with?
They say, I'm sure you've heard this term. I want
(05:09):
to be with a man who's equally yoked, or I
want to be with my equal, I want to be
that someone who's on my level.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
You know those types of terms.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
So many of them would say some version already exact.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
And then you know what. You know what came out?
Speaker 5 (05:25):
Is it when you compared them, oh, stop watch this
to what they wrote about the man. They would say,
they want something on their level, but this man was
here nothing like their level. Five percent of the women
are trying to date.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
Two percent of the men five percent of the men.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
In other words, what I mean by that is you
understand what I'm saying. In other words, they didn't. They
didn't describe over here a man that has the same
depth they have. They didn't describe a man over here
that has the same job, income earning, same type of house,
same type of desire.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Da da da.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
You know, two weeks out of the year, vacations, da
da da. They described a combination between Barack Obama, Denzel Washington,
and and Jesus.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
So here are some of the comments after I posted.
That sounds very similar to something Kevin Samuels once said.
Another comment, The crazy part is when many women get
a man, he still ain't enough. Tom Brady has seven
rings and he's worth four hundred million dollars, but yet
(06:36):
she ended up with a trainer, referring to his ex
wife Giselle the supermodel. Needless to say, my comments are
a battlefield. Needless to say, but there is this prevailing
thought that women are never satisfied. They can have a
good man and they're still aren't satisfied. And when I
asked him what men what their issue was, it was
(07:00):
the fact that they all wanted to date someone who
looked like Beyonce. Uh, and they could be Truck or Sam.
His quote, not mine. But they felt like they deserved
the baddest baddy baddie on the streets. And I'd like
to raise my hand and give a and give a
small little antidote. I agree with what Hill said to
a certain degree. And I also agree what he said
(07:23):
about men to a certain degree. What about inverse?
Speaker 5 (07:26):
The inverse is different. So what we're found in the
inverse was there was a little bit more of a
physicality issue with men. So there were ninety five percent
of the men were trying to date five percent of women,
but their criteria was a little different. In other words,
you know, dudes thought they were going to date, you know,
somebody who looked like Beyonce. When they look like Truck
of Sam, it's like Truck of Sam. You ain't damn Beyonce,
(07:50):
you know, you know, I know, I know, I mean,
you know they see jay Z and be like, well,
he don't look as good as her, So.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
How that happen? But you ain't jay Z?
Speaker 5 (07:59):
Yeah right, so yeah, you know, brother who like that
can get here, but you got to be jay Z first.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
You can't.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
You're not gonna get there.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
You know, you all have said you're breaking the microphone Sam,
so that I think this is fun stuff to talk about,
but it's about it's about.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
Being honest and looking in the mirror. But I think
that we get away from and all jokes aside. I mean,
that's that's real what I talked about, But that's not
really that's all the fluff stuff that's kind of fun
to talk about the real issue is the heart.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Can we open up our heart to each other and
really love each other?
Speaker 5 (08:34):
And there's so much historical trauma and hurt yes, and
pain yes, that it's very difficult to get past opening up.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
I know a man, older man. I tried to introduce
him to one of my girlfriends. She was the same
age as him. Listen to the story. He is well,
not well, but he's an older older man, sixty some
eighty years old. And I had a girlfriend like my
big siss. She's sixty some years old, but she's a
(09:04):
battie and she looks great. And I remember saying, I
found someone perfect for you, and you know what, this
man told me she was too old for him. He
is sixty plus years old and he said this sixty
plus year old woman was too old for him. Who's delusional?
Who is delusional? I'm a woman, so I'm biased, but
(09:27):
I would like to say this. This men versus women
conversation so intense, and so what I'm going to do
is I'm going to in the next few weeks gather
a random guide and a random girl who have no
problem discussing this. Perhaps they're single, perhaps they're not, but
I want to talk about this back and forth with relationships.
It's insane. Men truly feel and I'm talking for the
(09:49):
culture and the community. You men feel women are delusional.
You men think women are delusional, and I think men
are crazy. But of course I'm a woman. I'm going
to think that. And yes, I'm going to have a list.
I have a checklist. I want you to have this.
I want you to have that. I want you to
have this because I have this, that and that. That's
(10:10):
why I'm not going to ask for anything crazy. I'm
going to say, meet me where I am and women,
we should do the same. I'll tell you this. Though
they got really mad at my girl, Jamel Hill, because
Jamel jumped in here and said she agreed with Hill.
That's a whole nother story. Shout out to my girl Jay.
(10:30):
We're gonna take a quick break because we have to
pay some bills. We'll be right back in just a
few moments. Let the podcast begin. I am going to
talk about two big stories, at least in my opinion,
in sports. I do believe that there's always beef when
men and women talk about dating. And I don't know
(10:51):
why there is so much beef. I wish we all
could just be vulnerable and love one another. That'd be
a great world we live in. And speaking of being
vulnerable and loving one another, and I have to talk
about the story. I hope it's not the story of
the year. I really truly hope it's not like Kendrick
versus Drake. But I am talking Lebron versus steven A.
(11:13):
I I cannot believe what I am hearing, reading and
watching in real time. And I'll tell you this because
I'm old school. When I was a host of First
Take from twenty twelve to twenty fifteen, I truly honestly
knew that stephen A did not like Lebron. Lebron did
(11:35):
not like that show. He did not like steven A.
He did not like Ski, He did not like Skip.
Steven A has said as much on his podcast, but
there was always a level of professionalism I felt was respected.
Maybe not, who knows, but you'd look small recap. You
all know that just about maybe three weeks ago, cameras
(11:56):
called Lebron walking up to stephen A and saying something
very emphatically. We didn't know what it was, but we
could read lips and we could basically ascertain what they
were talking about. Lebron said, basically, keep my son's name
out of your mouth, walked away third quarter Lakers Knicks game.
Steven A sitting court side, walked up to him, walked off.
(12:19):
The next day, steven A addresses it on the show,
and then that was it, nothing less, nothing more, nothing less.
Steven A addresses it, he says how he feels. Lebron
doesn't respond, but we know he can hear and see
what people are thinking. Steven A then appears on a
(12:41):
series of podcasts talking about what went down, his podcast
and others. I don't remember the names. I'm just giving
you all a brief recap. So then out of nowhere,
which I was surprised to see, I'm at work yesterday
and I look up and I'm watching ESPN, and I
see Lebron in studio in studio Pat McAfee's studio in Indianapolis,
(13:05):
and I'm thinking, what is what? Why are you in studio?
What are we discussing? There were a couple of things.
He had a podcast dropping, he's promoting his podcast. Lakers
were playing, obviously Indiana Pacers that night, and then he
addressed steven A on ESPN while steven A was on
(13:26):
air at the same time, Wild Wild, I tell you,
and he says the following Take a listen.
Speaker 6 (13:34):
It started off with I didn't want to address it.
I didn't want to address it. I wasn't going to
address it, but since the video came out, I feel
the need to address it. If there's one person that
couldn't wait to the video to drop so you can
address it, is you're like seriously and like another he
completely like missed the whole point. The whole point. Never
(13:58):
am I never would I ever not allow people to
talk about the sport, criticize players about what they do
on the court.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
That is your job.
Speaker 7 (14:09):
Let me just put to bed a couple of things
that have been reported that are false. People was talking
about Lebron called me out my name or somebody else
saw somebody said he called me a bitch. Somebody said
he called me a punk, and all this, None of
that is true.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
He was fiery.
Speaker 7 (14:27):
He approached me during the game and he said, stop
effing with my son. That's my fing son. Stop efing
with my son. I said, what nah nah nah man,
straight up man a man, real talk, stop effing with
my son. And I saw how furious he was. I said,
(14:49):
we can talked about Nah that f that stop effing
with my son. That's my son, that's my son. I said,
all right, fine, and he walked away. That's all he said.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
So there you go. He essentially said, steven A is
happy that he has this moment that Lebron is discussing him,
and he's also giddy about what this means for him.
Steven A replies and says, listen, this is the part
that the Internet left off. He simply said, I would
(15:22):
have swung on him if he would have touched me.
I probably would have got my ass beat paraphrasing, but
I would have swung on him. Internet goes wild, goes wild,
goes wild. Steven A says, you all leave out the
best part. I know I probably would have lost the fight,
but that's not the point. Stephen A. You understand, this
is the Internet. No one needs contexts, they need clickbait.
(15:44):
They need to go out of their way to make
a point. Steven A is like, I know I wouldn't
have won. That man is six nine two fifty. I
know I wouldn't have. And then the next thing I know,
after Lebron plays this game game winner, by the way, congrats,
he goes on his social media. Now this is so ridiculous,
I sound like, he says, she say. He goes on
his social media page and he posts a clip, that
(16:06):
infamous clip of stephen A boxing with a trainer. If
you've seen the clip, you know it's l L exclamation exclamation, lol.
Shout out to steven A, my ex coworker. I ain't
talking bad about you, but it's a funny clip. I mean,
it's just ridiculous. And so I immediately raced to the comments,
like I'm sure you did. Which at the moment this morning,
(16:29):
before I filmed this podcast, the comments were at over
a thousand. I'm sure they've far exceeded a thousand, one
and a half million likes. One of my comments was
it's about to be some. I knew soon as Lebron
posted that video of Steven A boxing with his trainer.
I was like, it's about to be some. You know
(16:51):
why it's about to be some because the eagles are
at work. And I'm gonna say this. I am not
a man, but what I do know is that the
eagles are at work. And so this morning I'm having
a deep conversation with my guys Charlemagne of God. We
often call each other just to argue. Iron sharpens iron,
and I was like, I'd like to discuss this. What
(17:12):
do you think. He was like, Lebron looks crazy, and
I was like, they both look crazy, not just Lebron,
they both look crazy. He was like, nope, nope, nope.
Lebron is the bigger star, so this looks wild. And
he likened it to Kendrick versus Drake, and I said, wait, hole, ho, hole,
that's not necessarily the case here. Those are two different
(17:34):
types of dynamics. It's not to me exactly Kendrick versus Drake,
but I do see the parallels Drake being the bigger star,
Lebron being the bigger star. Kendrick mining his business, not
necessarily coming out of his character, but coming out of
his character because we don't normally see Kendrick do this
type of battle rap, but we know he has it
in him. It's more thought provoking. It is a Pulitzer
(17:56):
Prize winning rap. And then in my mind and I'm like,
that's not the equivalent here though. It just isn't because
Steven A is known for doing exactly what he's doing
right now. He has, especially when I was on first Take.
He will threaten an athlete. He will say, you don't
want me to put your business out in the street.
He will talk to you, he will criticize. He is
(18:16):
unapologetic about what he does. And I truly, and I
want to say this for the record, I believe Stephen
A in terms of on your personalities is one of
the best that we've ever seen do it, which is
why he makes a hundred million dollars And in fact,
this entire incident is validating that hundred million dollar contract.
People pay attention, people listen, we're in a choke hold. Now.
(18:38):
What was uncharacteristic was Lebron's response. So that's why I
don't feel like the Kendrick versus Drake is equivalent. It's
not on par because if we're being honest, Lebron can
play both parts. He could be Kindrick, he could be Drake.
We find ourselves now asking is all of this worth it?
(19:00):
With his veil threats of revealing more information about Lebron
than any of us should really know unless you're really
inside the business. He mentions Lebron not going to Duwayne's
Hall of Fame ceremony. He talks about Lebron not going
to Kobe's funeral. I take issue with that for a
few reasons. I know for a fact Lebron was devastated
(19:22):
that Kobe passed away. Now, whether he went to the funeral,
I was confused because there were maybe there was a
private one that wasn't for the public. But I remember
seeing Lebron in the arena Staple Center, not Crypto for
me in the arena when they had that memorial service,
and I'm thinking, Okay, that was a way to show respect.
(19:45):
I'm sitting right next to like, I'm two rows in,
I'm with Paul, sitting next to Paul Pierce, and then
next to me is j Lo and a Rod, and
then next to me. On the other side, literally is
Adam the commissioner, and then next to Adam was Genie
Buss and that entire row is in tears. And then
(20:05):
you could see the Lakers the team over here in
this section, And in my mind, I'm thinking, well, what
is stephen A talking about? Must be something else. But
here's my issue. Why are we even bringing that up?
If your issue is just with lebron why are we
bringing in Kobe's funeral? And why are we talking about
(20:26):
Dwayne Wade? Eagles are crazy? You men are crazy.
Speaker 8 (20:31):
You men are crazy.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
You both are taking all of your power to argue
about who is more petty. I don't get it. This
is exactly why there are wars in America. They're exactly
why a war in the world, if you will. I
don't understand why it's gotten to this issue. Stephen A
(20:58):
has said on air over and over again the only
reason why he was criticizing Bronnie was because as a father,
as a father. But this has gone beyond him being
a father. This isn't about Lebron being a father now,
It's about whether or not he's a good teammate, whether
or not he's selfish, whether or not he is doing
dirt behind everyone's back, whether or not he's duplicitive. It's
(21:18):
now gone beyond the Bronni criticism into personal life that
should be no one's business, because I tell you this,
I've worked in this business long enough. All of us
have secrets, all of us have things we do not
want anybody to know about. And the argument that I
was having with Charlemagne was quite simply, Carrie, everybody doesn't
(21:39):
know ABC and D about Lebron, and you are in
a very insider group where you think this isn't new news.
But the public at large views Lebron a certain way
and they cannot believe this is happening. I said, I disagree.
He said, stephen A is always been the bad guy.
(22:02):
Lebron is stooping to his level, for lack of a
better term, And I said, no, I disagree. What say you?
I believe Lebron has always been a bad guy. I
believe it started when he left Cleveland. They burned his jerseys,
the city didn't want him back. He went to Miami,
he was loved. He finally got a championship, but he
was criticized, villified. Tody wasn't anything he wasn't the king.
(22:24):
He was weak. People talked about his inability to really
be the man on the court. He's always been the
problem until he started winning. And even when he won,
people still criticized him because he would go to Twitter
and they say he'd do these passive aggressive tweets and
people didn't want to hear about it. I don't have
a short memory or a great memory, but I do
(22:45):
remember the fact that people did not love Lebron. Now,
it was a different type of vitriol as opposed to
how people feel about stephen A. Stephen A by profession
is an analyst. He critiques, he criticizes. He's used to
the smoke. He's used to people being mad at him.
You're right, yes, he is used to being a bad guy.
But I don't think everybody loves Lebron. I think there
(23:06):
are two reasons why people feel a way about Lebron. Yes,
there is a segment of society that loves him and
says that he's the goat. But there are others who say, no,
Michael Jordan is So that's why I can't fool with you, Lebron.
Or no you try to dethrow on Kobe Kobe's my
favorite favorite, so I can't fool with you, Lebron. I
never feel as if Lebron is loved. What we're seeing
(23:27):
now though, two men, in my humble opinion, with great power,
great resources, great access, who are battling each other because
they are very similar than they are separate. They are
more like than they are different. And I I'm not
(23:50):
in the business of telling nobody's business, but I am
in the business of saying whatever is going on is
because they're more alike than they are different. They both
know that they have power, they both know that they
have range and a platform, and they both know that
they have leverage. I am I don't want to see
them air each other's dirty laundry. I don't want to
(24:11):
hear Lebron say anything about steven A's personal life and
vice versa. Nobody wins when we are in a mud fight.
When they start slinging mud, everybody gets dirty. I don't
want to hear it.
Speaker 9 (24:25):
Now.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
The latest Stephen a Thursday Morning goes on his show,
which we all knew he would do, and he gave
twenty minutes of ether for Lebron James take a listen.
Speaker 7 (24:39):
Lebron James won on national television yesterday and lied. He
said that I have no problem with you talking about
the game. What did I say about Bronnie James other
than at the time.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
He wasn't ready. That was it. I said nothing else.
So if that's the issue.
Speaker 7 (24:54):
And I pointed to Lebron James and the fact that
you've circumvented a meritocracy just to get your wish at
the expense of the credibility of the league. In a
lot of people's eyes, that's talking about you, that's not
talking about your son. And then he goes about the
business of taking it a step further.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
First of all, let's understand.
Speaker 7 (25:13):
Something to the viewing public in America and beyond.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
This was planned.
Speaker 7 (25:19):
Rich Paul was on Pat McAfee's show about ten days
earli or whatever. Rich Paul, for everybody that knows, is
the man, the founder of Clutch Sports.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
He's a strategic thinker. He didn't go there by accident.
Speaker 7 (25:32):
You're there talking with Pat McAfee and the next thing
you know, within two weeks after obviously a negotiation took place,
Lebron James is on it. I know that the man
I am today is not the man that I was
a decade ago physically or beyond.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
I can tell you that. So we get that out
the way. Why do I bring that up?
Speaker 7 (25:48):
Because that's how that's how petty you've become. You're Lebron James,
You that butt hurt over the things that I'm saying
that you would post that video. When does Lebron Jay
ever done something like that? But suddenly you're doing that.
As it pertains to me, this man is in his feelings.
I wonder why could it be because I don't believe
(26:09):
you the goat? Because I'll never believe you the goat
because I have you number two at all times? Do
I have to have ESPN and first take put up
the ticket tape right now and say, Yo, could.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
You put that up there please?
Speaker 7 (26:20):
Great father, the great husband, great philanthropists, great businessman, great director,
great producer, great hosts, great basketball player, great leader. I mean,
my god, I have done everything but put diapers in
a bib on this brother. I suggest that he'd be
happy with the things that I haven't brought up. I
never brought up really and never really discussed why you
(26:41):
were not at Kobe Bryant's memorial service.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
I never really brought up.
Speaker 7 (26:45):
With disgust why you did not attend Dwayne Wade's Hall
of Fame induction when that man was directly responsible for
you capturing a championship for the first time in your career.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
I brought up none of that.
Speaker 7 (26:56):
I didn't bring up the fact that even though when
people had asked, you had alluded to what had happened
tragically to your son and thank god he's okay with
his heart condition.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
I didn't bring up the.
Speaker 7 (27:06):
Fact that even though you couldn't go to the Hall
of Fame induction of the Wayne Wade weeks later, weeks earlier,
you were out of the country on business. I didn't
bring that up. That's your personal business, okay. But the
fact is you wasn't at the Hall of Fame induction
of a brother that's going to drastically assist to you
being a Hall of Famer because he helped you become
the champion that you were and he was a big
(27:27):
brother to you. I brought up none of these things.
I brought up none of these things. But Lebron James,
at the end of the day, wants to come at me.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
No bueno, No bueno. That's all I have to say
is no bueno. I want to be careful what I
say next, because it is coming from a place of love.
But there is not one human being on the planet
that doesn't have an insecurity and there's also not one
human being on the planet that wants there is insecurities
(27:56):
aired out. And while they'll both that they're not insecure,
this cannot end well for anybody. I don't care who
has more to lose. They both have something to lose.
Steven A, hold on to that litte hundred million dollar contract.
Don't get in no nonsense for no reason. And it's
not little as big, but they don't get in this nonsense.
Don't do it, lebron. Your legacy is here. We know
(28:20):
who you are. You've done some amazing things. There is
a generation of people who will say you are the
greatest player of all time. This does not need to
be an asterisk on your legacy. This needs to be
a footnote on what happened here. It is not worth it.
You said your piece, keep my son's name out of
your mouth. Yes, your job is to critique, but you've
gone beyond that. And dare I say, as steven A
(28:43):
calls Lebron a liar, and lebron calls Stephen A a
liar and all these things. Dare I say? Everybody ain't
telling the truth. No one's above this. Meanwhile, the internet
is in a choke hold. We love to see the drama.
We love it, and you should not fulfill that dream
for us because it's not necessary. Two great black men
(29:05):
have done some amazing things. You both are trailblazers in
your own way. I don't want to see this. It
ain't worth it. It truly isn't worth it. Call it
a truce, all right, man, cool handle it however you
want to handle it. I don't know. Fight privately, but
(29:25):
don't take this time. We don't deserve this. We don't
need to know anybody's business. I don't want to know
anybody's dirty secrets. And I'm pretty sure there are a
ton of people out there who disagree with me. But
I can tell you this. Nobody is perfect, and neither
one of them want they in the streets, nobody. We're
(29:46):
gonna take a quick break because we have to pay
some bills. We'll be right back in just a few moments.
Speaking about being in these streets, I'm gonna do a
transition Have you guys heard that the Dodgers are going
to the White House. They've accepted their invitation as World
(30:07):
Series champion, they have accepted the invitation to visit the
White House and President Donald Trump. Let's take a listen
to the Dodger Heads podcast.
Speaker 8 (30:19):
The Dodgers have accepted an invite to the White House.
There was some debate over the last few days about
whether or not they were going to accept or reject.
For those unfamiliar, it is tradition across most major sports
that when a team wins a championship, they are invited
to the White House. Not everybody necessarily has to go.
Just because you're a Dodger or you won the World
Series doesn't mean you have to go, but you're at
(30:41):
least invited. Now with Donald Trump in office, there have
been questions about how this would go. As has been mentioned,
there was the Jackie Robinson fiasco that Jeff Passon became
passionate about on social media. Rightfully so, which has been rectified.
I guess in the end, of course, how they got
the it being rectified was kind of a disaster. But
(31:03):
the question here is the Dodgers and how they handled,
should handle will handle this whole White House thing.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
So the Dodgers have accepted the invitation to appear at
the White House on behalf of President Trump and his administration.
And I don't need to explain to anyone who is
listening to this podcast and or watching this podcast what
that means. That means, I guess they. I don't know they.
(31:35):
It means that they approve of this president. As you know,
you can say, we don't want to go, we can go.
This president has been very divisive. And I'm trying to
find the right words because I don't want to speak
on behalf of the Dodgers, but this president has been
very divisive. He has immediately come into office and decided
that he was going to deport immigrants, hundreds of thousands
(31:57):
of them, as he says, he has gotten rid of
DEI programs in the government. He has fired thousands of
government employees for lack of a better word, He's been very,
very aggressive towards black and brown people. Baseball by and
large has been considered America's favorite pastime, largely a sport
(32:20):
enjoyed by white people. The players of baseball, though, are brown,
primarily brown if you ask me, and white, and of
course there are black players as well, but brown players, minorities,
not the mainstream. That to me is the makeup of
the Dodgers team. Yes, we have a lot of white players,
(32:40):
traditionally white players, but if you look down that roster
and you look at those names, and you look at
the origin of these people, it's a lot of black
and brown and others in baseball. I would imagine that
this current president's policies have affected friends and family members
(33:01):
of that team. And while that has nothing to do
with them visiting the White House, I'm really curious about
how many players were on board with this, or if,
in fact the Dodgers decided to go and just be
quiet because they don't want any smoke and they don't
want to deal with the drama of it all. We
just want to show up. We're gonna go there, We're
gonna do it. So be it now, mind you. They
(33:24):
went to the White House when Biden was the president
and they won the World Series, I believe in twenty
twenty one, and they went and it was no problem.
But they also had been told or asked would they
go again when Trump was in his first presidency, and
they said they would not That was the stance then
that they would not attend. That was Dave Roberts, the
manager of the Dodger, saying when Trump was in office,
(33:44):
they would not attend if invited. They did attend for Biden,
and now they will attend for Trump. There was a
very short conversation. You heard that announcement. It was real quick.
We decided to go, and that is it. This is
a job we're going to do. They're not going to
get into anything else.
Speaker 5 (34:00):
Now.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
I want to give you some history because I do
find it really interesting that they are attending, considering the
makeup of that roster and also where we are in
this country. And I'm under the belief that saying they're
not going to go would give them more unwanted attention.
And they just didn't want to deal with the pushback
(34:22):
from the Trump administration or people who are fans of
the Dodgers, because a lot of people love President Trump,
as you know, that's why he was elected. But the
history of the Dodgers, and I'll even go back to
the Brooklyn Dodgers with Jackie Robinson is really and I
don't want to say poetic, but it's really fascinating to
me that a team that integrated baseball with Jackie Robinson
(34:46):
and everything that Jackie Robinson stood for, has decided to
visit a White House when it seems like the President
and his administration is the antithesis of what every is
of what Jackie Robinson stood for. Just the other day,
we had learned that this current administration had scrubbed the
(35:08):
Jackie Robinson page from his military service from the dd
because they felt like he well, I'm not going to
say they felt like they said they didn't know. Take
a listen.
Speaker 7 (35:18):
The Department of Defense says it mistakenly removed Jackie Robinson's
Army service from the department's website.
Speaker 9 (35:25):
Robinson served in the Army in World War Two, just
prior to breaking baseball's color barrier. The page is now
back up. The Trump administration has ordered the removal of
so called DEI content. The Pentagon claims the pages were
mistakenly removed as part of that process. It claims a
similar mistake led to the removal of pages honoring Japanese
(35:47):
American service members, the Tuskegee Airmen, and the Navajo code talkers.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
So, as we all know, Jackie Robinson, in his efforts
towards the military have been receive, but the DEI of
it all was supposed to remove any black or brown
people or anything that felt like it seemed like it
could be about representing marginalized citizens. And that's how Jackie
(36:14):
Robinson's page and his contributions to the military were scrubbed.
And then just weeks later, the Dodgers say they're going
to go and visit the White House in April. Distant
jive for me, and I had issue with it. I
just to me, when people tell me politics and sports
(36:34):
don't intersect, I have a hard time believing that we
have a president who has made it his mission to
remove any contributions from those who are black or brown
and women. Immediately, it's erasing contributions from those who have
built this country in every possible space. And I really
(36:57):
found it extremely disrespectful for to remove Jackie Robinson. This
man integrated baseball, he served his country, he did all
the things that he was supposed to do, and yet
and still he's a DEI problem in their eyes. And
then the team in which he integrated is now saying
some years later that we are now decades later, rather
(37:20):
that we are now going to go be in company
with the man who actually scrubbed Jackie Robinson in his
legacy from a website because he said he was DEI
or it fit the DEI requirements. What are we doing?
What are we doing? What are we doing? Yes, the
page is reinstalled, But if he wasn't Jackie Robinson, I
(37:41):
don't even know if it would be. And here's a
fun fact. While we like to think that Jackie Robinson
was the very first to integrate baseball in a way
because he could, he could see fit. He would be
the guy, he could handle the racism, he would be
the guy on the team that could handle the way
he was treated, that's just not true. A lot about
(38:02):
Jackie Robinson, and shout out to my homegirl who did
an entire extensive peace on Jackie. A lot about Jackie Robinson.
We didn't know he was honorably discharged from the military,
but he was court martialed while he was there because
they wanted him to sit in the back of the bus.
And by this time the military had been integrated, and
he was like, I'm not sitting in the back of
the bus. There was a white woman on the bus.
(38:23):
And then they told him while he was at base
that he had to move to. The driver says, you
got to moved to the back of the bus. The
driver told you, gota moved to the back of the bus.
Jackie was like, Nah, I am a man, I am
a freeman. I am serving this country like every other
white man. I'm not moving to the back of the bus.
The bus driver, the military bus driver, calls police, their
version of military police. He was immediately court martialed. Obviously,
(38:47):
the charge got knocked down and he was discharged honorably discharged.
But come on, in his mind, now that's not right.
I am a man. He then later it was his
life ends up integrating baseball. But as he has said,
and if you read anything about this man, you'll understand
(39:07):
that was the most difficult time in his life. He
talked about how hard that was. For ten years, he
had to deal with some things that we would not
even understand. He couldn't eat with the rest of the team,
he couldn't show up with the rest of the team,
he couldn't sleep at the hotels with the rest of
the team. And they knew that this was what he
would have to deal with. He knew he would have
to deal with that, but yet and still he moved
and pressed in a world that did not acknowledge him,
(39:30):
and it grew old entiresome, and he would put up
fights whatever way he could. And I thought that was
wonderful to hear, because we're under the impression that his
non violent approach meant that he was just turning to
the other cheek every time somebody tried to disrespect him,
and they did not. But I do know that part
of his story is not celebrated more. And I do
(39:51):
know that part of his story that he was a
bit of a rebel rouser and knew that he was
a black man who had rights because he's a human being,
and they refused to acknowledge his youth, his humanity while
he was trying to do something great for this country,
really war on his spirit. And when it was all
said and done, when he had retired and he started
living his life as a regular citizen, he talked about
(40:13):
what bothered him the most and how he was so
upset with how men and women of color were being
treated in this country. And they tried to erase that
story by deleting his page and saying, oh my bad,
let me put that back up. Because all of that's there,
and here we are some decades later, and the Dodgers
(40:37):
have decided, knowing the history of who they are, one
of the first teams to integrate baseball, they have decided
to go and be in company with an administration that
refuses to acknowledge the accomplishments of black and brown people
to this very country that they help built. That just
doesn't sit well with me, and it brings me to
(41:00):
a larger issue of where we are in this country.
If we put our heads down and say no, I
don't want to pay attention, No this doesn't make sense,
No I don't want to be bothered. This will all
go away. We only have four more years. We are
in a world of trouble. We're in a world of
trouble if we think in four years this is going away,
(41:20):
because it is not. You don't have to boycott the
White House, Okay, Dodgers, and I'm talking to you. If
this is what you want to do, do it, have
at it. You don't have to boycott the White House.
Please go take the visit, sit be in company, take
the picture, get it out of the way so you
don't have to deal with the drama that is your approach.
But what I am saying very clearly is that you're
(41:42):
sending a very loud message that it is okay to
be disrespected because the power is with the president and
you don't want the smoke. It's okay to erase the
accomplishments of the people who help build this great country
because you don't want the smoke. It's okay to turn
(42:05):
the other cheek because you really truly just want to
continue on about your day and do your job and
not be uncomfortable. Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for
all of us to be uncomfortable. These next four years,
these next eight years, however long this man is in office,
we are going to be uncomfortable. If we're not a
heterosexual white male in this country. That's just what it is.
(42:29):
We will be uncomfortable. And the people who say stick
to sports, I don't want to hear about it. Sports
and politics are infused. There's just no way you can
say the two don't go together. And the time will
come when your team, your friend, your person, your favorite
player will have to make a decision, and that decision
may not be something that you will be very proud of.
(42:51):
Their thoughts, their process, their movements may not align with
how you believe. I am a Dodgers fan. I will
still be a Dodgers fan born and raised in LA.
But I am a black woman first. I am a
black human being first. And it really was disappointing. It's
not that you have to say, President Trump, I don't
(43:11):
like you, but a yes but no thank you is
a perfect way to respond. I have a team, a
roster built on black and brown people, and I'm pretty
sure they're not all aligned. I don't care how conservative
baseball is. I don't care how conservative people are on
the team. I'm pretty sure if you did a check
(43:32):
and you went down, Hey Mooki Betts, how do you feel?
Hey MOOKI Betts, how do you feel? I'll tell you,
MOOKI probably don't want to go. And I know that
for a fact because he declined to go when he
was with the Boston Red Sox and they ended up
saying nope, no, thank you, I don't want to be
there when they won the World Series championship. And here
he is a Dodger dale and I wonder how he
feels about that. Shout out to Mookie because he is
(43:54):
returning to the lineup tonight after a mystery illness. We
don't know what it was. He lost twenty pounds and
he wasn't feeling well and he's coming back tonight. So
sending him a lot of love, a lot of healing,
and I hope everything is well with his body and
he can play a good season. It's a long season.
I don't know where we are in this country where
putting our head down and minding our business is what
(44:16):
we should do when it comes to people not acknowledging
your contributions to society or your humanity. I'm not talking
about some stephen A and Lebron beef. I'm not talking
about the simple things. I'm talking about real issues in
our world. We are really walking our entire country back
(44:37):
to a time that, to me was one of our
darkest times, our most embarrassing times, one of our times
we didn't acknowledge people who really mattered to this world.
This country is built on immigrants, it's built on hard work,
it's built on sweat equity of those who aren't necessarily
heterosexual white males, and every day we see a rasure,
(44:59):
very clearly, very explicitly, there's no hiding it, and we
also see incompetency, and no one's saying anything about it.
And I'm disappointed. And when I say no one, I'm exaggerating.
There are people who are fighting the good fight, but
I would like to see is everyone say quite simply, no,
I don't want to do that. No, I can't participate
(45:21):
in that because I do know that people who are
black and brown, and women and people who are not
necessarily from this country help make this country great. If
you really truly want to make America great again, you
got to start acknowledging everyone who is a part of
this country and who help build this country and made
it this great place that we love to live in
(45:41):
and give us our freedoms. Dodgers, you have a good time.
I'm disappointed, but I'm still a fan. I appreciate you
all for listening to Naked Sports. We'll be back next week.
Naked Sports written and executive produced by me Harry Champion,
produced by jacqueses Thomas, Sound designed and mastered by Dwayne Crawford.
(46:03):
Naked Sports is a part of the Black Effect podcast
network in iHeartMedia
Speaks to the planet.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I'll go by the name of Charlamagne of God and
guess what, I can't wait to see y'all at the
third annual Black Effect Podcast Festival. That's right, We're coming
back to Atlanta, Georgia, Saturday, April twenty six at Poeman
Yards and it's hosted by none other than Decisions, Decisions,
MANDYB and Weezy. Okay, we got the R and B
Money podcast with taking Jay Valentine. We got the Women
of All Podcasts with Sarah Jake Roberts, we got Good
(00:23):
Mom's Bad Choices. Carrie Champion will be there with her
next sports podcast, and the Trap Nerds podcast with more
to be announced. And of course it's bigger than podcasts.
We're bringing the Black Effect marketplace with black owned businesses,
plus the food truck court to keep you fed while
you visit us.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
All right, listen, you don't want to miss this.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Tap in and grab your tickets now at Black Effect
dot Com Flash Podcast Festival.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Welcome to Naked Sports, the podcast where we live at
the intersection of sports, politics, and culture. Our purpose reveal
the common threads that bind them all. So what's happening
in women's basketball right now, now is what we've been trying.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
To get to for almost thirty years.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
From the stadiums where athletes break barriers and set records.
Kayman Clark broke the all time single game assist record.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
This is crazy for rookies to be doing.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Our discussions will uncover the vital connections between these realms
and the community we create. And each episode we'll sit
down with athletes, political analysts, and culture critics because at
the core of it all, how we see one issue
shines the light on all others. Welcome to Naked Sports.
I'm your host, Carrie Champion. Hey, everybody, Welcome to Naked Sports.
(01:41):
I'm Carrie Champion. So I have to do a little
housekeeping before we really dive into the podcast. In today's podcast,
trust me, is going to be entertaining. I'm going to
get into a few things. I gotta do the housekeeping
on my Hill Harper episode because a few of the
clips went viral and you all have a lot to
say about what Hill Harper had to say. In fact,
(02:01):
you all said Hill Harper sounds like Kevin Samuels, who
is no longer in this universe with us. Meanwhile, I
want to tell you to subscribe to my YouTube page,
because not only can you listen to the podcast, which
you're probably doing right now, you can physically watch it
on my YouTube page, which is It's Carrie Champion, or
as simple as can be, go to YouTube, type in
(02:22):
my name and my channel will pop up and you
will be able to see the actual podcast that you're
listening to. I have to remind you to do that,
but I want to go back to a couple of
weeks ago, and for those of you who have followed
us for four seasons, four seasons, you know that this season,
the fourth season, we changed the title. We revamped it
(02:43):
to Naked Sports because we wanted to make sure that
you knew we all were including sports. In a while ago,
my good friend Hill Harper said, I want to come
on the podcast. I said absolutely, and we got into
the conversation that never fails on social media. It is
about men versus women in dating. What's wrong with women?
What's wrong with men? Everyone has their own take on this.
(03:05):
It drives me absolutely insane because this will forever be
the conversation. However, that's me stumping my feet to get
into the juiciness of it all. Hill Harper has a book.
It was a New York Times bestseller and it was
called The Conversation and it was about men and women
in dating and what worked and what didn't work. And
(03:27):
I was able to take a few of his comments
and I made them, you know, just clips so you
can pay attention to the podcast, just some clickbait if
you will. And one of the things that really, I
don't know, for whatever reasons, triggered people was when he
said women in no, you know, I'm paraphrasing, women are
(03:48):
delusional when they're dating. They want a mixture between Denzel Washington,
Barack Obama, and Jesus. And then that sent the Internet
in a buzz suggesting that women want the impossible and
it's not there, suggesting that women have these standards that
they don't even live up to, but they require their
(04:08):
man to have those standards. Case in point, they want
a man who makes six figures and they don't. They
want a man who looks a certain way and they don't.
They want a man to be all of the things
and they are not. And I don't necessarily know how
true that is, right, That's just something that I hear
a lot of And the comments really. We have five
(04:30):
hundred plus comments, and a lot of them are men
talking about how delusional women are. And I think it's wild,
I really really do. So take a listen to what
Hill Harper said and then I'll read some of the comments.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
I did a test or an experiment.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
The name of the book is Please, It's.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Called The Conversation.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
I had them do almost identical profile piece about the
man that they saw themselves with and who they wanted
to be with. Fascinating, is fascinating. It was fascinating, and
you want to know what the results were. And then
you ask them, who do you want to be with?
They say, I'm sure you've heard this term. I want
(05:09):
to be with a man who's equally yoked, or I
want to be with my equal, I want to be
that someone who's on my level.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
You know those types of terms.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
So many of them would say some version already exact.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
And then you know what. You know what came out?
Speaker 5 (05:25):
Is it when you compared them, oh, stop watch this
to what they wrote about the man. They would say,
they want something on their level, but this man was
here nothing like their level. Five percent of the women
are trying to date.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
Two percent of the men five percent of the men.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
In other words, what I mean by that is you
understand what I'm saying. In other words, they didn't. They
didn't describe over here a man that has the same
depth they have. They didn't describe a man over here
that has the same job, income earning, same type of house,
same type of desire.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Da da da.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
You know, two weeks out of the year, vacations, da
da da. They described a combination between Barack Obama, Denzel Washington,
and and Jesus.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
So here are some of the comments after I posted.
That sounds very similar to something Kevin Samuels once said.
Another comment, The crazy part is when many women get
a man, he still ain't enough. Tom Brady has seven
rings and he's worth four hundred million dollars, but yet
(06:36):
she ended up with a trainer, referring to his ex
wife Giselle the supermodel. Needless to say, my comments are
a battlefield. Needless to say, but there is this prevailing
thought that women are never satisfied. They can have a
good man and they're still aren't satisfied. And when I
asked him what men what their issue was, it was
(07:00):
the fact that they all wanted to date someone who
looked like Beyonce. Uh, and they could be Truck or Sam.
His quote, not mine. But they felt like they deserved
the baddest baddy baddie on the streets. And I'd like
to raise my hand and give a and give a
small little antidote. I agree with what Hill said to
a certain degree. And I also agree what he said
(07:23):
about men to a certain degree. What about inverse?
Speaker 5 (07:26):
The inverse is different. So what we're found in the
inverse was there was a little bit more of a
physicality issue with men. So there were ninety five percent
of the men were trying to date five percent of women,
but their criteria was a little different. In other words,
you know, dudes thought they were going to date, you know,
somebody who looked like Beyonce. When they look like Truck
of Sam, it's like Truck of Sam. You ain't damn Beyonce,
(07:50):
you know, you know, I know, I know, I mean,
you know they see jay Z and be like, well,
he don't look as good as her, So.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
How that happen? But you ain't jay Z?
Speaker 5 (07:59):
Yeah right, so yeah, you know, brother who like that
can get here, but you got to be jay Z first.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
You can't.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
You're not gonna get there.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
You know, you all have said you're breaking the microphone Sam,
so that I think this is fun stuff to talk about,
but it's about it's about.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
Being honest and looking in the mirror. But I think
that we get away from and all jokes aside. I mean,
that's that's real what I talked about, But that's not
really that's all the fluff stuff that's kind of fun
to talk about the real issue is the heart.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Can we open up our heart to each other and
really love each other?
Speaker 5 (08:34):
And there's so much historical trauma and hurt yes, and
pain yes, that it's very difficult to get past opening up.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
I know a man, older man. I tried to introduce
him to one of my girlfriends. She was the same
age as him. Listen to the story. He is well,
not well, but he's an older older man, sixty some
eighty years old. And I had a girlfriend like my
big siss. She's sixty some years old, but she's a
(09:04):
battie and she looks great. And I remember saying, I
found someone perfect for you, and you know what, this
man told me she was too old for him. He
is sixty plus years old and he said this sixty
plus year old woman was too old for him. Who's delusional?
Who is delusional? I'm a woman, so I'm biased, but
(09:27):
I would like to say this. This men versus women
conversation so intense, and so what I'm going to do
is I'm going to in the next few weeks gather
a random guide and a random girl who have no
problem discussing this. Perhaps they're single, perhaps they're not, but
I want to talk about this back and forth with relationships.
It's insane. Men truly feel and I'm talking for the
(09:49):
culture and the community. You men feel women are delusional.
You men think women are delusional, and I think men
are crazy. But of course I'm a woman. I'm going
to think that. And yes, I'm going to have a list.
I have a checklist. I want you to have this.
I want you to have that. I want you to
have this because I have this, that and that. That's
(10:10):
why I'm not going to ask for anything crazy. I'm
going to say, meet me where I am and women,
we should do the same. I'll tell you this. Though
they got really mad at my girl, Jamel Hill, because
Jamel jumped in here and said she agreed with Hill.
That's a whole nother story. Shout out to my girl Jay.
(10:30):
We're gonna take a quick break because we have to
pay some bills. We'll be right back in just a
few moments. Let the podcast begin. I am going to
talk about two big stories, at least in my opinion,
in sports. I do believe that there's always beef when
men and women talk about dating. And I don't know
(10:51):
why there is so much beef. I wish we all
could just be vulnerable and love one another. That'd be
a great world we live in. And speaking of being
vulnerable and loving one another, and I have to talk
about the story. I hope it's not the story of
the year. I really truly hope it's not like Kendrick
versus Drake. But I am talking Lebron versus steven A.
(11:13):
I I cannot believe what I am hearing, reading and
watching in real time. And I'll tell you this because
I'm old school. When I was a host of First
Take from twenty twelve to twenty fifteen, I truly honestly
knew that stephen A did not like Lebron. Lebron did
(11:35):
not like that show. He did not like steven A.
He did not like Ski, He did not like Skip.
Steven A has said as much on his podcast, but
there was always a level of professionalism I felt was respected.
Maybe not, who knows, but you'd look small recap. You
all know that just about maybe three weeks ago, cameras
(11:56):
called Lebron walking up to stephen A and saying something
very emphatically. We didn't know what it was, but we
could read lips and we could basically ascertain what they
were talking about. Lebron said, basically, keep my son's name
out of your mouth, walked away third quarter Lakers Knicks game.
Steven A sitting court side, walked up to him, walked off.
(12:19):
The next day, steven A addresses it on the show,
and then that was it, nothing less, nothing more, nothing less.
Steven A addresses it, he says how he feels. Lebron
doesn't respond, but we know he can hear and see
what people are thinking. Steven A then appears on a
(12:41):
series of podcasts talking about what went down, his podcast
and others. I don't remember the names. I'm just giving
you all a brief recap. So then out of nowhere,
which I was surprised to see, I'm at work yesterday
and I look up and I'm watching ESPN, and I
see Lebron in studio in studio Pat McAfee's studio in Indianapolis,
(13:05):
and I'm thinking, what is what? Why are you in studio?
What are we discussing? There were a couple of things.
He had a podcast dropping, he's promoting his podcast. Lakers
were playing, obviously Indiana Pacers that night, and then he
addressed steven A on ESPN while steven A was on
(13:26):
air at the same time, Wild Wild, I tell you,
and he says the following Take a listen.
Speaker 6 (13:34):
It started off with I didn't want to address it.
I didn't want to address it. I wasn't going to
address it, but since the video came out, I feel
the need to address it. If there's one person that
couldn't wait to the video to drop so you can
address it, is you're like seriously and like another he
completely like missed the whole point. The whole point. Never
(13:58):
am I never would I ever not allow people to
talk about the sport, criticize players about what they do
on the court.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
That is your job.
Speaker 7 (14:09):
Let me just put to bed a couple of things
that have been reported that are false. People was talking
about Lebron called me out my name or somebody else
saw somebody said he called me a bitch. Somebody said
he called me a punk, and all this, None of
that is true.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
He was fiery.
Speaker 7 (14:27):
He approached me during the game and he said, stop
effing with my son. That's my fing son. Stop efing
with my son. I said, what nah nah nah man,
straight up man a man, real talk, stop effing with
my son. And I saw how furious he was. I said,
(14:49):
we can talked about Nah that f that stop effing
with my son. That's my son, that's my son. I said,
all right, fine, and he walked away. That's all he said.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
So there you go. He essentially said, steven A is
happy that he has this moment that Lebron is discussing him,
and he's also giddy about what this means for him.
Steven A replies and says, listen, this is the part
that the Internet left off. He simply said, I would
(15:22):
have swung on him if he would have touched me.
I probably would have got my ass beat paraphrasing, but
I would have swung on him. Internet goes wild, goes wild,
goes wild. Steven A says, you all leave out the
best part. I know I probably would have lost the fight,
but that's not the point. Stephen A. You understand, this
is the Internet. No one needs contexts, they need clickbait.
(15:44):
They need to go out of their way to make
a point. Steven A is like, I know I wouldn't
have won. That man is six nine two fifty. I
know I wouldn't have. And then the next thing I know,
after Lebron plays this game game winner, by the way, congrats,
he goes on his social media. Now this is so ridiculous,
I sound like, he says, she say. He goes on
his social media page and he posts a clip, that
(16:06):
infamous clip of stephen A boxing with a trainer. If
you've seen the clip, you know it's l L exclamation exclamation, lol.
Shout out to steven A, my ex coworker. I ain't
talking bad about you, but it's a funny clip. I mean,
it's just ridiculous. And so I immediately raced to the comments,
like I'm sure you did. Which at the moment this morning,
(16:29):
before I filmed this podcast, the comments were at over
a thousand. I'm sure they've far exceeded a thousand, one
and a half million likes. One of my comments was
it's about to be some. I knew soon as Lebron
posted that video of Steven A boxing with his trainer.
I was like, it's about to be some. You know
(16:51):
why it's about to be some because the eagles are
at work. And I'm gonna say this. I am not
a man, but what I do know is that the
eagles are at work. And so this morning I'm having
a deep conversation with my guys Charlemagne of God. We
often call each other just to argue. Iron sharpens iron,
and I was like, I'd like to discuss this. What
(17:12):
do you think. He was like, Lebron looks crazy, and
I was like, they both look crazy, not just Lebron,
they both look crazy. He was like, nope, nope, nope.
Lebron is the bigger star, so this looks wild. And
he likened it to Kendrick versus Drake, and I said, wait, hole, ho, hole,
that's not necessarily the case here. Those are two different
(17:34):
types of dynamics. It's not to me exactly Kendrick versus Drake,
but I do see the parallels Drake being the bigger star,
Lebron being the bigger star. Kendrick mining his business, not
necessarily coming out of his character, but coming out of
his character because we don't normally see Kendrick do this
type of battle rap, but we know he has it
in him. It's more thought provoking. It is a Pulitzer
(17:56):
Prize winning rap. And then in my mind and I'm like,
that's not the equivalent here though. It just isn't because
Steven A is known for doing exactly what he's doing
right now. He has, especially when I was on first Take.
He will threaten an athlete. He will say, you don't
want me to put your business out in the street.
He will talk to you, he will criticize. He is
(18:16):
unapologetic about what he does. And I truly, and I
want to say this for the record, I believe Stephen
A in terms of on your personalities is one of
the best that we've ever seen do it, which is
why he makes a hundred million dollars And in fact,
this entire incident is validating that hundred million dollar contract.
People pay attention, people listen, we're in a choke hold. Now.
(18:38):
What was uncharacteristic was Lebron's response. So that's why I
don't feel like the Kendrick versus Drake is equivalent. It's
not on par because if we're being honest, Lebron can
play both parts. He could be Kindrick, he could be Drake.
We find ourselves now asking is all of this worth it?
(19:00):
With his veil threats of revealing more information about Lebron
than any of us should really know unless you're really
inside the business. He mentions Lebron not going to Duwayne's
Hall of Fame ceremony. He talks about Lebron not going
to Kobe's funeral. I take issue with that for a
few reasons. I know for a fact Lebron was devastated
(19:22):
that Kobe passed away. Now, whether he went to the funeral,
I was confused because there were maybe there was a
private one that wasn't for the public. But I remember
seeing Lebron in the arena Staple Center, not Crypto for
me in the arena when they had that memorial service,
and I'm thinking, Okay, that was a way to show respect.
(19:45):
I'm sitting right next to like, I'm two rows in,
I'm with Paul, sitting next to Paul Pierce, and then
next to me is j Lo and a Rod, and
then next to me. On the other side, literally is
Adam the commissioner, and then next to Adam was Genie
Buss and that entire row is in tears. And then
(20:05):
you could see the Lakers the team over here in
this section, And in my mind, I'm thinking, well, what
is stephen A talking about? Must be something else. But
here's my issue. Why are we even bringing that up?
If your issue is just with lebron why are we
bringing in Kobe's funeral? And why are we talking about
(20:26):
Dwayne Wade? Eagles are crazy? You men are crazy.
Speaker 8 (20:31):
You men are crazy.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
You both are taking all of your power to argue
about who is more petty. I don't get it. This
is exactly why there are wars in America. They're exactly
why a war in the world, if you will. I
don't understand why it's gotten to this issue. Stephen A
(20:58):
has said on air over and over again the only
reason why he was criticizing Bronnie was because as a father,
as a father. But this has gone beyond him being
a father. This isn't about Lebron being a father now,
It's about whether or not he's a good teammate, whether
or not he's selfish, whether or not he is doing
dirt behind everyone's back, whether or not he's duplicitive. It's
(21:18):
now gone beyond the Bronni criticism into personal life that
should be no one's business, because I tell you this,
I've worked in this business long enough. All of us
have secrets, all of us have things we do not
want anybody to know about. And the argument that I
was having with Charlemagne was quite simply, Carrie, everybody doesn't
(21:39):
know ABC and D about Lebron, and you are in
a very insider group where you think this isn't new news.
But the public at large views Lebron a certain way
and they cannot believe this is happening. I said, I disagree.
He said, stephen A is always been the bad guy.
(22:02):
Lebron is stooping to his level, for lack of a
better term, And I said, no, I disagree. What say you?
I believe Lebron has always been a bad guy. I
believe it started when he left Cleveland. They burned his jerseys,
the city didn't want him back. He went to Miami,
he was loved. He finally got a championship, but he
was criticized, villified. Tody wasn't anything he wasn't the king.
(22:24):
He was weak. People talked about his inability to really
be the man on the court. He's always been the
problem until he started winning. And even when he won,
people still criticized him because he would go to Twitter
and they say he'd do these passive aggressive tweets and
people didn't want to hear about it. I don't have
a short memory or a great memory, but I do
(22:45):
remember the fact that people did not love Lebron. Now,
it was a different type of vitriol as opposed to
how people feel about stephen A. Stephen A by profession
is an analyst. He critiques, he criticizes. He's used to
the smoke. He's used to people being mad at him.
You're right, yes, he is used to being a bad guy.
But I don't think everybody loves Lebron. I think there
(23:06):
are two reasons why people feel a way about Lebron. Yes,
there is a segment of society that loves him and
says that he's the goat. But there are others who say, no,
Michael Jordan is So that's why I can't fool with you, Lebron.
Or no you try to dethrow on Kobe Kobe's my
favorite favorite, so I can't fool with you, Lebron. I
never feel as if Lebron is loved. What we're seeing
(23:27):
now though, two men, in my humble opinion, with great power,
great resources, great access, who are battling each other because
they are very similar than they are separate. They are
more like than they are different. And I I'm not
(23:50):
in the business of telling nobody's business, but I am
in the business of saying whatever is going on is
because they're more alike than they are different. They both
know that they have power, they both know that they
have range and a platform, and they both know that
they have leverage. I am I don't want to see
them air each other's dirty laundry. I don't want to
(24:11):
hear Lebron say anything about steven A's personal life and
vice versa. Nobody wins when we are in a mud fight.
When they start slinging mud, everybody gets dirty. I don't
want to hear it.
Speaker 9 (24:25):
Now.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
The latest Stephen a Thursday Morning goes on his show,
which we all knew he would do, and he gave
twenty minutes of ether for Lebron James take a listen.
Speaker 7 (24:39):
Lebron James won on national television yesterday and lied. He
said that I have no problem with you talking about
the game. What did I say about Bronnie James other
than at the time.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
He wasn't ready. That was it. I said nothing else.
So if that's the issue.
Speaker 7 (24:54):
And I pointed to Lebron James and the fact that
you've circumvented a meritocracy just to get your wish at
the expense of the credibility of the league. In a
lot of people's eyes, that's talking about you, that's not
talking about your son. And then he goes about the
business of taking it a step further.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
First of all, let's understand.
Speaker 7 (25:13):
Something to the viewing public in America and beyond.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
This was planned.
Speaker 7 (25:19):
Rich Paul was on Pat McAfee's show about ten days
earli or whatever. Rich Paul, for everybody that knows, is
the man, the founder of Clutch Sports.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
He's a strategic thinker. He didn't go there by accident.
Speaker 7 (25:32):
You're there talking with Pat McAfee and the next thing
you know, within two weeks after obviously a negotiation took place,
Lebron James is on it. I know that the man
I am today is not the man that I was
a decade ago physically or beyond.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
I can tell you that. So we get that out
the way. Why do I bring that up?
Speaker 7 (25:48):
Because that's how that's how petty you've become. You're Lebron James,
You that butt hurt over the things that I'm saying
that you would post that video. When does Lebron Jay
ever done something like that? But suddenly you're doing that.
As it pertains to me, this man is in his feelings.
I wonder why could it be because I don't believe
(26:09):
you the goat? Because I'll never believe you the goat
because I have you number two at all times? Do
I have to have ESPN and first take put up
the ticket tape right now and say, Yo, could.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
You put that up there please?
Speaker 7 (26:20):
Great father, the great husband, great philanthropists, great businessman, great director,
great producer, great hosts, great basketball player, great leader. I mean,
my god, I have done everything but put diapers in
a bib on this brother. I suggest that he'd be
happy with the things that I haven't brought up. I
never brought up really and never really discussed why you
(26:41):
were not at Kobe Bryant's memorial service.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
I never really brought up.
Speaker 7 (26:45):
With disgust why you did not attend Dwayne Wade's Hall
of Fame induction when that man was directly responsible for
you capturing a championship for the first time in your career.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
I brought up none of that.
Speaker 7 (26:56):
I didn't bring up the fact that even though when
people had asked, you had alluded to what had happened
tragically to your son and thank god he's okay with
his heart condition.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
I didn't bring up the.
Speaker 7 (27:06):
Fact that even though you couldn't go to the Hall
of Fame induction of the Wayne Wade weeks later, weeks earlier,
you were out of the country on business. I didn't
bring that up. That's your personal business, okay. But the
fact is you wasn't at the Hall of Fame induction
of a brother that's going to drastically assist to you
being a Hall of Famer because he helped you become
the champion that you were and he was a big
(27:27):
brother to you. I brought up none of these things.
I brought up none of these things. But Lebron James,
at the end of the day, wants to come at me.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
No bueno, No bueno. That's all I have to say
is no bueno. I want to be careful what I
say next, because it is coming from a place of love.
But there is not one human being on the planet
that doesn't have an insecurity and there's also not one
human being on the planet that wants there is insecurities
(27:56):
aired out. And while they'll both that they're not insecure,
this cannot end well for anybody. I don't care who
has more to lose. They both have something to lose.
Steven A, hold on to that litte hundred million dollar contract.
Don't get in no nonsense for no reason. And it's
not little as big, but they don't get in this nonsense.
Don't do it, lebron. Your legacy is here. We know
(28:20):
who you are. You've done some amazing things. There is
a generation of people who will say you are the
greatest player of all time. This does not need to
be an asterisk on your legacy. This needs to be
a footnote on what happened here. It is not worth it.
You said your piece, keep my son's name out of
your mouth. Yes, your job is to critique, but you've
gone beyond that. And dare I say, as steven A
(28:43):
calls Lebron a liar, and lebron calls Stephen A a
liar and all these things. Dare I say? Everybody ain't
telling the truth. No one's above this. Meanwhile, the internet
is in a choke hold. We love to see the drama.
We love it, and you should not fulfill that dream
for us because it's not necessary. Two great black men
(29:05):
have done some amazing things. You both are trailblazers in
your own way. I don't want to see this. It
ain't worth it. It truly isn't worth it. Call it
a truce, all right, man, cool handle it however you
want to handle it. I don't know. Fight privately, but
(29:25):
don't take this time. We don't deserve this. We don't
need to know anybody's business. I don't want to know
anybody's dirty secrets. And I'm pretty sure there are a
ton of people out there who disagree with me. But
I can tell you this. Nobody is perfect, and neither
one of them want they in the streets, nobody. We're
(29:46):
gonna take a quick break because we have to pay
some bills. We'll be right back in just a few moments.
Speaking about being in these streets, I'm gonna do a
transition Have you guys heard that the Dodgers are going
to the White House. They've accepted their invitation as World
(30:07):
Series champion, they have accepted the invitation to visit the
White House and President Donald Trump. Let's take a listen
to the Dodger Heads podcast.
Speaker 8 (30:19):
The Dodgers have accepted an invite to the White House.
There was some debate over the last few days about
whether or not they were going to accept or reject.
For those unfamiliar, it is tradition across most major sports
that when a team wins a championship, they are invited
to the White House. Not everybody necessarily has to go.
Just because you're a Dodger or you won the World
Series doesn't mean you have to go, but you're at
(30:41):
least invited. Now with Donald Trump in office, there have
been questions about how this would go. As has been mentioned,
there was the Jackie Robinson fiasco that Jeff Passon became
passionate about on social media. Rightfully so, which has been rectified.
I guess in the end, of course, how they got
the it being rectified was kind of a disaster. But
(31:03):
the question here is the Dodgers and how they handled,
should handle will handle this whole White House thing.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
So the Dodgers have accepted the invitation to appear at
the White House on behalf of President Trump and his administration.
And I don't need to explain to anyone who is
listening to this podcast and or watching this podcast what
that means. That means, I guess they. I don't know they.
(31:35):
It means that they approve of this president. As you know,
you can say, we don't want to go, we can go.
This president has been very divisive. And I'm trying to
find the right words because I don't want to speak
on behalf of the Dodgers, but this president has been
very divisive. He has immediately come into office and decided
that he was going to deport immigrants, hundreds of thousands
(31:57):
of them, as he says, he has gotten rid of
DEI programs in the government. He has fired thousands of
government employees for lack of a better word, He's been very,
very aggressive towards black and brown people. Baseball by and
large has been considered America's favorite pastime, largely a sport
(32:20):
enjoyed by white people. The players of baseball, though, are brown,
primarily brown if you ask me, and white, and of
course there are black players as well, but brown players, minorities,
not the mainstream. That to me is the makeup of
the Dodgers team. Yes, we have a lot of white players,
(32:40):
traditionally white players, but if you look down that roster
and you look at those names, and you look at
the origin of these people, it's a lot of black
and brown and others in baseball. I would imagine that
this current president's policies have affected friends and family members
(33:01):
of that team. And while that has nothing to do
with them visiting the White House, I'm really curious about
how many players were on board with this, or if,
in fact the Dodgers decided to go and just be
quiet because they don't want any smoke and they don't
want to deal with the drama of it all. We
just want to show up. We're gonna go there, We're
gonna do it. So be it now, mind you. They
(33:24):
went to the White House when Biden was the president
and they won the World Series, I believe in twenty
twenty one, and they went and it was no problem.
But they also had been told or asked would they
go again when Trump was in his first presidency, and
they said they would not That was the stance then
that they would not attend. That was Dave Roberts, the
manager of the Dodger, saying when Trump was in office,
(33:44):
they would not attend if invited. They did attend for Biden,
and now they will attend for Trump. There was a
very short conversation. You heard that announcement. It was real quick.
We decided to go, and that is it. This is
a job we're going to do. They're not going to
get into anything else.
Speaker 5 (34:00):
Now.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
I want to give you some history because I do
find it really interesting that they are attending, considering the
makeup of that roster and also where we are in
this country. And I'm under the belief that saying they're
not going to go would give them more unwanted attention.
And they just didn't want to deal with the pushback
(34:22):
from the Trump administration or people who are fans of
the Dodgers, because a lot of people love President Trump,
as you know, that's why he was elected. But the
history of the Dodgers, and I'll even go back to
the Brooklyn Dodgers with Jackie Robinson is really and I
don't want to say poetic, but it's really fascinating to
me that a team that integrated baseball with Jackie Robinson
(34:46):
and everything that Jackie Robinson stood for, has decided to
visit a White House when it seems like the President
and his administration is the antithesis of what every is
of what Jackie Robinson stood for. Just the other day,
we had learned that this current administration had scrubbed the
(35:08):
Jackie Robinson page from his military service from the dd
because they felt like he well, I'm not going to
say they felt like they said they didn't know. Take
a listen.
Speaker 7 (35:18):
The Department of Defense says it mistakenly removed Jackie Robinson's
Army service from the department's website.
Speaker 9 (35:25):
Robinson served in the Army in World War Two, just
prior to breaking baseball's color barrier. The page is now
back up. The Trump administration has ordered the removal of
so called DEI content. The Pentagon claims the pages were
mistakenly removed as part of that process. It claims a
similar mistake led to the removal of pages honoring Japanese
(35:47):
American service members, the Tuskegee Airmen, and the Navajo code talkers.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
So, as we all know, Jackie Robinson, in his efforts
towards the military have been receive, but the DEI of
it all was supposed to remove any black or brown
people or anything that felt like it seemed like it
could be about representing marginalized citizens. And that's how Jackie
(36:14):
Robinson's page and his contributions to the military were scrubbed.
And then just weeks later, the Dodgers say they're going
to go and visit the White House in April. Distant
jive for me, and I had issue with it. I
just to me, when people tell me politics and sports
(36:34):
don't intersect, I have a hard time believing that we
have a president who has made it his mission to
remove any contributions from those who are black or brown
and women. Immediately, it's erasing contributions from those who have
built this country in every possible space. And I really
(36:57):
found it extremely disrespectful for to remove Jackie Robinson. This
man integrated baseball, he served his country, he did all
the things that he was supposed to do, and yet
and still he's a DEI problem in their eyes. And
then the team in which he integrated is now saying
some years later that we are now decades later, rather
(37:20):
that we are now going to go be in company
with the man who actually scrubbed Jackie Robinson in his
legacy from a website because he said he was DEI
or it fit the DEI requirements. What are we doing?
What are we doing? What are we doing? Yes, the
page is reinstalled, But if he wasn't Jackie Robinson, I
(37:41):
don't even know if it would be. And here's a
fun fact. While we like to think that Jackie Robinson
was the very first to integrate baseball in a way
because he could, he could see fit. He would be
the guy, he could handle the racism, he would be
the guy on the team that could handle the way
he was treated, that's just not true. A lot about
(38:02):
Jackie Robinson, and shout out to my homegirl who did
an entire extensive peace on Jackie. A lot about Jackie Robinson.
We didn't know he was honorably discharged from the military,
but he was court martialed while he was there because
they wanted him to sit in the back of the bus.
And by this time the military had been integrated, and
he was like, I'm not sitting in the back of
the bus. There was a white woman on the bus.
(38:23):
And then they told him while he was at base
that he had to move to. The driver says, you
got to moved to the back of the bus. The
driver told you, gota moved to the back of the bus.
Jackie was like, Nah, I am a man, I am
a freeman. I am serving this country like every other
white man. I'm not moving to the back of the bus.
The bus driver, the military bus driver, calls police, their
version of military police. He was immediately court martialed. Obviously,
(38:47):
the charge got knocked down and he was discharged honorably discharged.
But come on, in his mind, now that's not right.
I am a man. He then later it was his
life ends up integrating baseball. But as he has said,
and if you read anything about this man, you'll understand
(39:07):
that was the most difficult time in his life. He
talked about how hard that was. For ten years, he
had to deal with some things that we would not
even understand. He couldn't eat with the rest of the team,
he couldn't show up with the rest of the team,
he couldn't sleep at the hotels with the rest of
the team. And they knew that this was what he
would have to deal with. He knew he would have
to deal with that, but yet and still he moved
and pressed in a world that did not acknowledge him,
(39:30):
and it grew old entiresome, and he would put up
fights whatever way he could. And I thought that was
wonderful to hear, because we're under the impression that his
non violent approach meant that he was just turning to
the other cheek every time somebody tried to disrespect him,
and they did not. But I do know that part
of his story is not celebrated more. And I do
(39:51):
know that part of his story that he was a
bit of a rebel rouser and knew that he was
a black man who had rights because he's a human being,
and they refused to acknowledge his youth, his humanity while
he was trying to do something great for this country,
really war on his spirit. And when it was all
said and done, when he had retired and he started
living his life as a regular citizen, he talked about
(40:13):
what bothered him the most and how he was so
upset with how men and women of color were being
treated in this country. And they tried to erase that
story by deleting his page and saying, oh my bad,
let me put that back up. Because all of that's there,
and here we are some decades later, and the Dodgers
(40:37):
have decided, knowing the history of who they are, one
of the first teams to integrate baseball, they have decided
to go and be in company with an administration that
refuses to acknowledge the accomplishments of black and brown people
to this very country that they help built. That just
doesn't sit well with me, and it brings me to
(41:00):
a larger issue of where we are in this country.
If we put our heads down and say no, I
don't want to pay attention, No this doesn't make sense,
No I don't want to be bothered. This will all
go away. We only have four more years. We are
in a world of trouble. We're in a world of
trouble if we think in four years this is going away,
(41:20):
because it is not. You don't have to boycott the
White House, Okay, Dodgers, and I'm talking to you. If
this is what you want to do, do it, have
at it. You don't have to boycott the White House.
Please go take the visit, sit be in company, take
the picture, get it out of the way so you
don't have to deal with the drama that is your approach.
But what I am saying very clearly is that you're
(41:42):
sending a very loud message that it is okay to
be disrespected because the power is with the president and
you don't want the smoke. It's okay to erase the
accomplishments of the people who help build this great country
because you don't want the smoke. It's okay to turn
(42:05):
the other cheek because you really truly just want to
continue on about your day and do your job and
not be uncomfortable. Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for
all of us to be uncomfortable. These next four years,
these next eight years, however long this man is in office,
we are going to be uncomfortable. If we're not a
heterosexual white male in this country. That's just what it is.
(42:29):
We will be uncomfortable. And the people who say stick
to sports, I don't want to hear about it. Sports
and politics are infused. There's just no way you can
say the two don't go together. And the time will
come when your team, your friend, your person, your favorite
player will have to make a decision, and that decision
may not be something that you will be very proud of.
(42:51):
Their thoughts, their process, their movements may not align with
how you believe. I am a Dodgers fan. I will
still be a Dodgers fan born and raised in LA.
But I am a black woman first. I am a
black human being first. And it really was disappointing. It's
not that you have to say, President Trump, I don't
(43:11):
like you, but a yes but no thank you is
a perfect way to respond. I have a team, a
roster built on black and brown people, and I'm pretty
sure they're not all aligned. I don't care how conservative
baseball is. I don't care how conservative people are on
the team. I'm pretty sure if you did a check
(43:32):
and you went down, Hey Mooki Betts, how do you feel?
Hey MOOKI Betts, how do you feel? I'll tell you,
MOOKI probably don't want to go. And I know that
for a fact because he declined to go when he
was with the Boston Red Sox and they ended up
saying nope, no, thank you, I don't want to be
there when they won the World Series championship. And here
he is a Dodger dale and I wonder how he
feels about that. Shout out to Mookie because he is
(43:54):
returning to the lineup tonight after a mystery illness. We
don't know what it was. He lost twenty pounds and
he wasn't feeling well and he's coming back tonight. So
sending him a lot of love, a lot of healing,
and I hope everything is well with his body and
he can play a good season. It's a long season.
I don't know where we are in this country where
putting our head down and minding our business is what
(44:16):
we should do when it comes to people not acknowledging
your contributions to society or your humanity. I'm not talking
about some stephen A and Lebron beef. I'm not talking
about the simple things. I'm talking about real issues in
our world. We are really walking our entire country back
(44:37):
to a time that, to me was one of our
darkest times, our most embarrassing times, one of our times
we didn't acknowledge people who really mattered to this world.
This country is built on immigrants, it's built on hard work,
it's built on sweat equity of those who aren't necessarily
heterosexual white males, and every day we see a rasure,
(44:59):
very clearly, very explicitly, there's no hiding it, and we
also see incompetency, and no one's saying anything about it.
And I'm disappointed. And when I say no one, I'm exaggerating.
There are people who are fighting the good fight, but
I would like to see is everyone say quite simply, no,
I don't want to do that. No, I can't participate
(45:21):
in that because I do know that people who are
black and brown, and women and people who are not
necessarily from this country help make this country great. If
you really truly want to make America great again, you
got to start acknowledging everyone who is a part of
this country and who help build this country and made
it this great place that we love to live in
(45:41):
and give us our freedoms. Dodgers, you have a good time.
I'm disappointed, but I'm still a fan. I appreciate you
all for listening to Naked Sports. We'll be back next week.
Naked Sports written and executive produced by me Harry Champion,
produced by jacqueses Thomas, Sound designed and mastered by Dwayne Crawford.
(46:03):
Naked Sports is a part of the Black Effect podcast
network in iHeartMedia
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