All Episodes

August 7, 2023 57 mins

Larry Willmore has helped shaped television comedy over the last 3o years.  He is a veteran and a champion in the game working on household favorites such as, In Living Color, The Bernie Mac Show, The Office, Insecure, Grown-ish, and many many more. He is a Writer, Producer, and basketball enthusiast. Wilmore joins us today to discuss the WGA writer’s strike, some of the black women in Hollywood he’s mentored over the years and his NBA thoughts on the season.

Connect @CariChampion @LarryWilmore

Learn More: LarryWilmore.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
They go, well, we want to have our diversity, so
we're gonna do We're gonna have blind submissions. I don't
want to know who the race is and we're just
going to read a message. Or you could just hire
black people, you know. I was like, why is this?
Why do white people have to go through all these
historyonics just to put black people are? I said, you
have no problem hiring white people. You could just hire

(00:22):
some black people. And I said, I'm going to hire
a black woman as the head writing because that's what
I want to do, and she's as qualified as anybody else.
So so some of it is intentional like that, Like.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
That, Larry cannot predict whether or not the Lakers will
win this series against Demver and neither can I. But
we do predict what is happening in Hollywood when it
comes to the writer's strike, and we talk a little
bit about some of the amazing black women that he
has decided to mentor in this edition of Naked, we

(00:54):
hope you enjoy.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
It's the greatest suspersion. Then the same in can Nick
you within Kerry Champion and Carrie Chappy.

Speaker 4 (01:09):
He is to be a champion, a champion and Carrie
Chappi and Nigger play John a Champion and Carrie Chapion
and Carrie.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Sheppy Greate the greatest Sports and then the same can
Nack you wear?

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Hey, everybody, Welcome back to another edition of Naked. The
beauty of doing a podcast as opposed to doing a
television show. People often ask is the differences in the range.
And I can have Kirk Franklin on one week and
then the next week, I can have an athlete on
depending on who I want to talk to, or an
actor or in this case, I have all of the above.

(01:39):
I want to be athlete. He'll get a kick out
of that. Actor, writer, director. He considers himself more of
a writer. Larry Wilmore has been in the business for
years and he has been a part of some of
the greatest shows that you've probably ever seen, consulting producer
for The Office that's considered the American version one of
the great Insecure. Carrie Washington's new seat on Hulu reasonable doubt.

(02:03):
Bernie Mack. I mean taking him back to Bernie Mack.
He was really integral in Bernie Mack. I can go
down a list. He also hosted The Daily Show at
one point in his career, and he had other shows,
his own shows. He started off as a stand up
comedian or dabbled in that world, which is why he
worked with Bernie Mack and then later found his way
to realize that his true love is writing. Now, many

(02:26):
of you may have heard his name, but are really
extremely familiar with him. When you see his face, Larry
comes across a very conservative, rell read, very put together
and buttoned up. He is none of the above. And
that's why anybody who's working with Bernie Mac, I mean,
anybody who worked with Bernie Mac cannot be any of
those things.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Right.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
You have to have range, and he has so much range.
And I love working with him and talking to him
because he makes me think. In today's podcast, I specifically
asked about the writer's strike. If you all have been
paying attention, I hope you have. It's significant. It effects
what you watch on TV or things that you probably

(03:03):
all stream now, But what you watch on TV, it
affects in a much more serious way. It affects livelihood.
People are on strike because they want to have their
basic meat needs met. And I didn't really understand the
ins and outs. I didn't understand how it all worked.
So what I did was ask Larry to explain it

(03:25):
to me, and it makes sense. In short, the advert
of streaming, you know, wherever you watch your favorite programs
has changed the way the linear world works. Amazon, Netflix,
Hulu has changed the way and ABC, A CBS and
an NBC would work in terms of television series, and
he breaks it all down for us. He also gets

(03:46):
into the fact that he's mentored some of your favorites
in Quinta Brunson and Robin Thede, who has a Black
Lady Sketch show love her. And then and then we
just talk about the Lakers because we're die hard Lakers fans.
That's where we truly bond. And he told me get
some ginger, so I'm gonna get my act together. I'm like, well,
excuse you. Larry Rudy not surprised, though I love it.
With that being said, I hope this podcast educates and entertains,

(04:10):
but pay attention to what he says about the writer's strike.
I know that many of you think if I don't
live in Hollywood, I don't write, it doesn't affect me.

Speaker 5 (04:17):
But it does. It really does. It affects our economy overall.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
With that being said, Welcome the Great Larry Wilmore to.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
The podcast, and Kary Sheppy and then Carrie Sheppy.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to the podcast this week. I've
been doing good season three. I'm grateful that a friend
I call him a friend. I don't know if he
considers me someone that is his friend. He does. Larry
Wilmore joins us, the Great Larry Wilmore, writer, comedian, director, genius.
I'm adding titles actor, philosopher, philanthropists, father, Oh have I

(04:53):
all around?

Speaker 5 (04:53):
Great man?

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Hi?

Speaker 5 (04:55):
Am I forgetting that title? Am I forgetting Am I
forgetting a title?

Speaker 1 (04:59):
I think friend is It's very nice, though. I think
friend is an undervalued word. Don't you think caring? Friend
is a great word? Right? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (05:08):
I think that we don't have enough friends in this business.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
And I consider you agree, because you're always there in
my world and I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Oh, I appreciate it. I feel the same way about you.
I'm honored to have you as a friend. It's great.
It's great to have friends that are you know, you
can root for. They're doing interesting things, you know, but
at the heart of it, you know there's a real
person there. You can have the real conversation with in
the trenches, especially right.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yes, and you make me think, which is why I
needed you on this podcast. You make me think and
sometimes I can just I can go to robot mode.

Speaker 5 (05:41):
I know.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
As of lately, there's something big happening in LA, well
not just in LA, but it's affecting everyone. And one
of the reasons I wanted to talk to you is
because I have so many different friends who are in
the world of Hollywood. If you will show business and
they're talking about this writer's strike, can you summarize what's
happening and your participation in it.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Well, the writers negotiate with what's called the AMPTP. It's
a group of lawyers that represents the companies that are
like Disney or Warner Brothers or NBC and all that.
A group of lawyers called the AMPTP represent them and
they negotiate with the Writers Guild and all the other

(06:26):
guilds for the contracts, which lasts every three years. So
there are usually the things that we fight for in
the Writers Guild. I'm in several guilds, but the Writer's
Guild I probably identify with the most. I was on
the board of directors for them back in between four
and oh six hours on the negotiating committee during O

(06:47):
seven when we had the last strike. So I've been
in these meetings with them and everything. And the thing
you're fighting for negotiating for are the terms of the
minimum basic agreement. So you're always fighting for the rights
of the writers who really are your lower rung. You know,
you're fighting for basic rights, things like healthcare, basic agreement,

(07:10):
making sure writers are treated fairly. It's all those basic
things that you fight. You're not fighting for Shonda Rhim's salary,
you know, that type of thing, you know, And many
times what happens is you get what are called rollbacks
where they don't want to give you things to have
the writers going forward in a line, they're going backwards,

(07:33):
you know, so rights get taken away and things like that,
and the big issues that are really important right now,
some are kind of existential, such as artificial intelligence. You know,
this has opened up a whole Pandora's box carry And
to be Honestcary, you really can't negotiate in good faith

(07:54):
on this yet you kind of have to agree almost
to like, look, let's not I don't know if I
can cuss in this and say, let's not fuck with this. Yeah,
you know, okay, you know you almost have to say
those words. You know, let's let's let's not fuck with
this right now, but let's agree that we're not going
to use this to replace writers or whatever, you know,

(08:14):
and we're not even they're not even willing to agree
with a basic like Dayton, you know, if you will
on that front, which is crazy. You know. There are, uh,
there's some issues where they're trying to make writers into
like gig workers, where they're like daily have daily fees
and things like that, which is ridiculous, you know, and
taking away a writer's ability to just be a middle

(08:37):
class working writer, just be in the middle class, you know. Uh.
Some of it has to do with writer's rooms. The
biggest disruptor of the writing business has been the streaming platforms,
which is so different from network television. And for those
of you not familiar with all this, let me tell
you the basic differences. In network television, you would make
like twenty two episodes of a show, and you had

(08:58):
reruns that ran in prime time, and writers could make
a pretty good living even at the lowest rung because
they had so many episodes, and your writers who had
no experience might get a chance, like your staff writer
tee all right one of those episodes, because they were
just so many. Now, and if you, let's say you
didn't get a job the next two years, which happens
a lot in our business, the money you made from
the residuals and the replay could help you during those

(09:21):
two years. That draw up so many times in writing
and acting and showbiz. What happens, Carrie, for a lot
of your audience that don't know, is you might have
two really good years and then three like dry years,
you know, like we're nothing's going on, and those two
good years are protecting those three dry years. So those
that's why some of these agreements are so important, and

(09:42):
some of them are hard to relate to. Streaming has
turned that upside down because a lot of the fees
went down in streaming as opposed to network fees, and
you're doing maybe eight to ten episodes instead of twenty two,
So you're losing money in two ways. A third way
is there's no such thing as residuals because there's no
reruns in streaming, so you're losing mone in three ways.
So your writers at the bottom are really finding it

(10:04):
harder and harder to actually make a living writing, you know,
And so a lot of the fights are in these areas.
That's that's where most of the fights are for the
people that are familiar with some of them. So I
hope that explained some of it.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
It does explain it. So streaming has disrupted the way
in which you're you're you're your traditional writer, for lack
of a better term, can make a living. How do
you negotiate with streaming?

Speaker 1 (10:33):
Well, you have you have to like guarantee larger upfront
money because before upfront money was lower because they said, hey, guys,
this is a new platform. We don't we're not making anybody.
We don't know what it is. We have to pay
you less right now, but don't worry, we'll talk about
it later. Then later it comes in, Uh, we agree
to this lower amount. What are you talking about? It's
like some gangsters like you're working with sometimes you know

(10:56):
some of these issues. So certainly you have to raise
the upfront money. You have to have more transparency in
streaming because in regular television you have ratings which everybody
can see its public information. In streaming they have their
own metrics that they don't let you see. So there's
no transparency. So there's no way to know whether a

(11:16):
show is it's doing well or it's not doing well.
You have to kind of take their word for it,
you know. So even in terms of bees and being
able to give people raises and things like that, it's
all nebulous, you know, so you have to have guarantees.

Speaker 5 (11:31):
I'm curious about that.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
I obviously have a show on Amazon and they're very
They don't release ratings and numbers or any of those things,
and obviously that works to their benefit and they can
say I've been reading about this too in Hollywood, why
is it okay for streaming because it's such a new
frontier to decide whether or not they would release ratings
or is there no such really rating scale for streaming?

Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah, why they just don't. They don't have to. That's
a business model knowing. There's no rules that says they do,
you know, that rule just doesn't exist. So the way
that it works, and a friend of mine told me this,
and it's so true. Whenever you have a show on streaming,
and this works for almost any platform. I don't know
if it if it pertains to your show, but it might,

(12:18):
so just look out for this carry. Here's what they do.
So you do a show in your first season and
you're hoping to get a second season pickup right, and say,
are we get to get a second season? You know?
First you say, well, how did our show do? And
they go, well, it is good, it took good. And
then they go, you know, not as good as we
would have we would have liked, we would have hoped.

Speaker 5 (12:41):
And you're like, well, what does that mean?

Speaker 1 (12:43):
What does that mean?

Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah, excellent follow up question?

Speaker 5 (12:47):
What is that?

Speaker 1 (12:48):
And they go they can't tell you. They go, well,
you know, and our metrics, we have emetrics. Well what
are those metrics? Can I see them? Oh no, we
can't share them with you? On DA get How am
I supposed to know that you're telling me the truth?
So it's so what happens is you wait for a
pickup and you don't. You have no leverage, you know,

(13:08):
you can't, you have absolutely no ally to do down
the show did, and then they come back to you
and say, okay, so we've decided to pick you up.
But here's what we're gonna have to do. We're gonna
have to just gonna give you a tighter budget. You know,
he can't give you his best money as last year,
but you know we expect you to do the same
show and even better with less money. Yeah, but that's
almost show goes through that exact same thing.

Speaker 5 (13:30):
It's not fair, Larry. It's not fair at all, is it.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
That's a bit that's.

Speaker 5 (13:35):
Life isn't fair. Yeah, life is no fair.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
So how do you how long do you see this
writers strike playing out? And I've seen like it's a
very serious things like if you cross like this could
affect people's career, Like if someone crosses the picket line?

Speaker 5 (13:51):
Is that how you refer to sure?

Speaker 1 (13:53):
Absolutely? Well, here's the.

Speaker 5 (13:55):
Thing, remember you and won't work for you again? Right
or tell me that?

Speaker 1 (13:59):
Well you don't to get, you know, into that type
of thing. You know, that's just nasty business. But here's
here's the thing, Gary, is that all the three big
unions are having their agreements ending and approximately the same time,
So the companies are now talking to the directors skilled

(14:19):
whose agreement is ending I think either the end of
the Sun or middle of Gym, something like that, and
then sag after the actors union their agreement ends. At
the end of gym, so they're not in a hurry
to get back into the room to talk to writers, right,
you know, they want to talk with the directors, who
the Directors Union is usually a lot more friendly and
subbotoco with the AMPTP actors. You don't know what they're

(14:42):
going to do because we know they're crazy.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
Mercurial talent is mercurial, They're insane.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah, choose whatever word do you want. You know, I'm
in sag after so I could say this.

Speaker 5 (14:56):
Same same I'm saying crazy people.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
Gon, that's why identify the writers there. So they're gonna
I'm sure they're going to go into those negotiations first.
So we're looking at July. I mean, that's a long
time and a lot of people are affected during these
types of actions. I don't like striking at all. So
many jobs that aren't writers' jobs are affected, you know, uh,

(15:22):
and even ancillary jobs that are in the cities where
a lot of production is done, you know, everything from
coffee shops to you know, you know, boot restaurants or whatever.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
So not God, so what do people how do they
make their living? In the meantime, there are people who
will have to cross the picket lines right there, people
will have to go back to work, even if if
they I'm asking, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
No, that usually doesn't happen the because the companies for
the most part, won't try to produce the same shows.
What happens is they usually get replaced with the reality
shows where they're maybe not guild covered. And like in
the rees the last strike, more shows like you know,
The Voice and or America Scott Talent. Those shows start

(16:16):
rising up and you get more of that. In fact,
and there was the strike, and there was a strike
in nineteen eighty eight. The last two strikes are two
thousand and seven, in nineteen eighty eight, those are the last
couple of strikes. And in nineteen eighty eight, right after that,
like the show Cops came around. You know, oh, that's
why Cops was on Fox because of the strike. Basically
they wanted to put on a show where, you know,

(16:38):
wasn't oga and didn't turn out to be a huge thing.
And then so you always have this proliferation of these
reality type shows, you know, whenever there's a strike, you know,
when they don't have shows where they don't have to
deal with the guild.

Speaker 5 (16:51):
I see, Okay, that makes perfect sense. Then I get it.
I get it. Okay.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
So with that being said, I think of shows that
I enjoy, and this leads me into my next transition
of who You've Every show that I love or have loved,
You've had your fingerprint on it in some former fashion,
whether you produce, write, direct, consulting. I can go down
the list the office. I can the show most recently,

(17:16):
Reasonable Doubt, Kirie Washington's drama on Hulu, Issa Ray's show,
and Secure, Like you've been consulting and and and in
a lot of ways you have given life to some
of the new young black women that are very talented
in a Quinta or Robin talk to me about is

(17:38):
it intentional that you mentor them or you just find
talent and say I want to help execute it. I
want to help be a part of this.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
I guess it's kind of I don't know if it's
intentional that specific as opposed to in the general like
as something that I enjoyed doing. But like, I'm trying
to put on good television and I like good collaborations,
and I'm very conscious of the fact that we don't

(18:07):
always get the opportunities that other people get, so I'll
i you know, that talent first, you know, to try
to make a difference in that way. I've always said,
I don't mind open the door, and as long as
it's open, I'll put my foot in and say come on, ye'all,
I'll come on through with you know, because when I started,
you know, some people did that for me, and they

(18:29):
weren't The opportunities can be can go away so fast.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
You know.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
Right now we're in a time where there's a lot
of content possibilities, so that the opportunities for people of
color and women all that stuff is much greater. But man,
there were periods when I was working with it just
weren't that many opportunities. And I realized that if I
was in a position to actually hire people, I could
make a difference and not be waiting for somebody else
to do it. Is really what it came down to,

(18:56):
you know. And so even on The Bernie mat Show
in two thousand and one, two thousand and two, like
I hired black female directors, you know, in single camera,
you know, nobody was hiring them, you know, like like Gina,
I saw the Jena Blackfoot, I saw on the picket lines.
You know, it's like, you know, we worked together years ago.

(19:17):
You know, people like that. But that was me just
viewing the landscape and saying feeling like we can do better,
but one of the ways we can do better is
helping each other or pulling each other up. Was kind
of high viewed it. So I really don't think about
it that much. It was kind of like something I
thought about a long time ago, and it just becomes
kind of natural, I guess in that sense. You know,

(19:38):
like on the nightly show, my late night show, I
hired Robin Thidius the head writer. Now black women had
never been a head writer over a late night show
and everything. And many times what people do is they go, well,
we want to have our diversity, so we're gonna do
We're gonna have blind submissions. I don't want to know
who the race is and we're just going to read
it a message. Or you could just hire you know.

(20:02):
I was like, how does this Why do you why
do white people have to go through all these historyonics
just to put black people are? I said, you have
no problem hiring white people. You could just hire some
black people. And I said, I'm going to hire a
black woman as the head writing because that's what I
want to do and she's as qualified as anybody else.
So so some of it is intentional like that, you know,

(20:24):
working with you know, Quentin, we actually founded on the
Nightting shows. She actually came in there first, and I
just saw how talented she was. And when I was
with Disney after that, you know, she was one of
the people I called in say hey, what do you
want to do. Let's try to do something, and we
developed show for CBSA didn't go. But during that process,

(20:45):
you know, one thing, I empowered her because she had
never had experience, but I gave her not I said,
I gave her, but they asked for my permission if
she could get like the executive producer credit, which they
don't give to people for their first start. And I said,
of course she should get it, and she should share
with me and Jermaine follow her were doing it. I
didn't feel it was fair for her to get something

(21:06):
less because it wouldn't have felt equal because we were all,
you know, creating this show. And by empowering her, I
think in that situation, you know, she really gave herself
in a way that I think really allowed her to
probably even be more creative. You know. This it was
kind of it was a show about this two best friends,

(21:26):
Jermaine and Quintin the show is called Quentin Jermaine actually
and they're just friends. One night they thought, what would
happen if we just you know, I mean just one listen.
I mean we're best friend. We don't want to mess
that up, but what if we regretted that? We never did?
So one night they do it, and then they after
they go, you know, let's just stay friends. We're right
to stay friends. But she ends up getting pregnant and
it changes the whole dynamic, you know, And we thought

(21:48):
that was a fascinating interesting story to tell. Its kind
of and Jermaine and Quitta actually added a lot of
personal things to it, and she was very honest in
how she wanted to approach it. The show didn't go,
but that experience of working with her was you know,
it was great for me too, of seeing her come
out like that, and she kind of commented on that,
I think when you're on the Emmy of how you

(22:11):
know how much that really helped her to put herself
on the page. I guess as best way to put
it So to answer the first question, I enjoy it.
You know, it's fun, you know, doing that kind of thing,
and why not nobody else is going to do it?
We got to do it ourselves.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
Odde, who are you telling? Who are you telling? Are
you speaking preaching to the choir? I already know.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
That's why I'm on the Carre Championship.

Speaker 2 (22:32):
Hello, you doing favors? You got to make sure we
lift each other up as well.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
I'm not doing favorite Okay, you know what.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
Time it is? Fast forward if you need to. But
I have to pay all of my bills. I say
that every time. So that's about three minutes of commercial breaks.
Please be patient and come back. Larry Wilmore is dropping knowledge.

Speaker 4 (22:51):
Every champion and car Every champion is to be a champion,
a champion and carry Champion and Carri with chat beat
a champion and Cary Chappion and.

Speaker 3 (22:58):
Carri with chat them naked work, Harry.

Speaker 4 (23:08):
Champion and carry Champion is to be a champion, a champion,
the Cary Chappie and the champion they carry CHAPPI and
they carried chap.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
Naked work.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
Thank you guys for dealing with those commercials. I appreciate
you so much now. Larry Wilmore talks about all things,
including whether or not my Lakers get it done. He's
not very hopeful, las, He's honest, uh, but we shall
see enjoy naked. I think of how you have shepherded,
or have touched, or have been a part of so

(23:41):
many careers and so many lives of young black women
who are trying to make it, And I think it's very,
very intentional, and it's encouraging without the creepy you know
what I mean, don't get to get back, you know,
we don't get to get that like sometimes we don't,
you know. I want to be able to be creative,
and you want to be free without the other things

(24:03):
that come with it. When I think of all the
projects that you you know what I'm talking about, you know,
just just a part of being a woman in this world.
I don't care what you look like, how tall you are,
sure you are how it does not matter.

Speaker 5 (24:17):
It's just some. At one point for me career, you
have to say, I don't want to fucking flirt with you, sir.
I don't want to. I don't like it. Stop it,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (24:26):
Or let me let it be reciprocal. You know what
I mean, Like just said, can can I just be
smart for right now? With that being said, this is
what I am looking forward to.

Speaker 5 (24:37):
Smart.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
You have this great podcast Black on Era that I love,
and every time I want it, you make me feel
like I have to think, uh, several different layers deeper
than what I normally would. And I think the last
debate I forget, oh it was about Lebron and whether
or not he had a point to talk about. Why
don't you guys ask me about Jerry Jones. And this

(25:00):
is where we transition into sports because cerebrally, I would
love to talk to you about our team. But some
things for these topics have really and I'm also I
also know that some of these topics can end up
on TV shows right like all the time. And I
think of Jah Morant and this is the second time
in two months Jah Morant was on social media with

(25:21):
a gun, and in my mind, everyone, I'm like, well,
I ask you this. If he was a gun enthusiast
and he collected guns, pistols, guns, rifles, all sorts of guns,
and he displayed them on social media as a proud
collection in Boston a case and he could give you
the history of it, would we view him and guns

(25:46):
differently as opposed to how we view him now? I
wonder your thoughts.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yeah, it's a great question. And yeah, because they're like,
are they taking away his second Amendment?

Speaker 3 (25:57):
Right?

Speaker 1 (25:58):
Is he not allowed to have a gun because he's
what's going on? Is it the image that he's presenting, Like,
what is the actual objection? Is it just the gun itself?
If he presented it like that, as you say, as
a gun enthusiast, as opposed to you know, basically saying, yeah, nigga,
you come up on me, You're going to get popped,
you know, which is basically kind of how he's displaying it.

(26:20):
Which maybe they're arguing this is not the right image
that we want presented in the NBA or whatever. But
I think just having a gun. I don't know why
there should be anything wrong with just having a gun.
That to me is ridiculous. You know, Like, if so,
why is.

Speaker 5 (26:37):
The perception of him waving it with his friends listening
to music such a problem?

Speaker 1 (26:42):
I think it's a great question. I think maybe it's
because of what is being implied. I was talking about
this now longer you're talking about I said many times
people just focus on the truth of something, you know,
But a lot of times, even though something can be true,
it's advertising something else. You know. So you can't just

(27:06):
ask whether something is true or whether it's valid. You
also have to ask what is it advertising? You know,
what is the implication here? You know, is he advertising
gun safety? I don't think so. I think he's advertising
the opposite of that, you know.

Speaker 5 (27:24):
So, so I what what if he was listening to
country music and waving it around.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
Right, Well, you step to say, what is the advertising
that country music? Is he advertising I'm shooting my wife
because she's lied on me and my best friend? You know,
I think it's still you're not advertising a good message there,
you know. I think that's the part that we never
get clarity around. I think people have less clarity on
that than they focus on on the micro of whether

(27:56):
an act is valid or not or whatever.

Speaker 3 (27:59):
You know.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
So I think you have to break it down in
that way. Now, having said that, you know, NBA they'll
decide what they want to do with this for whatever
rules who they want. You know, he could argue, Hey,
I'm a private citizen. The season's over for me. I
can have a gun if I want to, and we
can see where that lands, you know, and I think
there's there's validity on both sides. But if I was arguing,

(28:23):
if I was the NBA, I would make the argument
about what are you advertising?

Speaker 4 (28:28):
You know?

Speaker 1 (28:28):
What is the what's the message you're sending out. Are
you saying, hey, guys, I'm a gun enthusiast and I'm
gonna show you how to clean this gun, or you
need to protect yourself? Are you advertising hey niggas, you
know something come up on you. You just better be ready,
you know, you know what I mean. It's like, what
are you advertising? What are you advertising? Gang culture?

Speaker 3 (28:52):
You know?

Speaker 1 (28:53):
Or this sort of carture The NBA are these questions.
The NBA maybe doesn't want to be a sociated with
that type of culture. And now some people say, wait,
what are you saying black culture?

Speaker 4 (29:05):
No?

Speaker 5 (29:05):
And that's what I'm That's what I'm asking.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
We're saying, are you saying we're saying gang culture?

Speaker 3 (29:09):
All?

Speaker 1 (29:10):
Right?

Speaker 5 (29:10):
Violence?

Speaker 1 (29:10):
Now, if somebody, if a white person had a gun
and was wearing like a Proud Boys thing, it was
a January sixth type of thing, I don't think the
NBA be happy about that, right, in that context.

Speaker 5 (29:26):
Okay, what is a punishment?

Speaker 1 (29:31):
I'm not here. Let me ask you this though. Here's
the big question. Though, knowing that he lost almost forty
million dollars because he wasn't on an all Star team,
you know, based on this incident, what goes through the
mind of somebody pull does this again and has all
this at Say if I called you carry and I said, Carrie,

(29:55):
I want to give you forty million dollars, but here's
a caveat, and I'm sorry about this. I know this
is going to be tough. You can't wave a gun
on Instagram Live. I don't know if you can do that, Carrie.
I don't know if you can pull that off. But
that's awful good. But I really want to give you
forty million dollars. But I'm just gonna have to see
in the next week, Carrie, just a week. All I'm

(30:16):
saying is a week. I don't know.

Speaker 5 (30:17):
I don't know. I need I need my gun and
I need Instagram Live. No, you're right, Okay. So here's
the thing. He's not a serious person.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
And I say that as a joke because you can't
be serious when you have a two hundred million plus
a dollar contract coming your way and you cannot find
some way to get off of Instagram.

Speaker 5 (30:34):
Live with a gun? And who Again, the question goes,
who are your friends who feel like is this is
a and why do you need a gun? So here,
it's not so much even this instant, it's this instance.
It's the series of instances. We hear you beat up
a seventeen year old kid and you punched him. We
hear you went up to the mall uh to a

(30:54):
sporting goods store because they were giving your mother or
someone in your family a hard time, and you and
your friends your possible he went up there to handle it.
These are all things that are documented incidents that have happened.
Friends of yours have pointed laser guns at people's heads.
It's just a series of things that say, where there's smoke,
there's fire. For whatever reasons, you want to play a gangster.

(31:16):
So I don't think when we ask the question, what's
he advertising, it's been clear and he's been advertising it intentionally.
But what do you do when you're talented? Because talent really,
for lack of a better word, trump's all. They will
keep him, They will give him a Mex contract, They
allegedly try to get him help. What do you do

(31:36):
in this scenario when you have this star.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
A couple of things, you know, because I'm a little
contrary as you know that, you know, I will argue
that I don't think talent Trump's all. I will make
the distinction and say that leanning Trump's all. Yeah, sure, yeah,
I'll make that distinction because we see talented people right
who go down. But winning is different. Remember when you know,

(32:02):
when Kobe had the thing happened in Colorado, I was
thinking the same thing. He was in a championship run
during that time, you know, and he even he even
said winning takes care of everything, which is a very
controversial statement at the time, but he you know, he
wasn't wrong, as controversy as it was. But he didn't
say talent takes care of everything. He said winning, you know.

(32:25):
And so if John Moran had two championships behind him,
this might be different than John Morant who's never even
been to the finals. So because we have seen talented
people Gilbert Arenez, remember he lost the whole season because
so he had again have I mean, he was Steph
Curry of his day in terms of his range and everything.

(32:48):
You know, there have been many players who have been
very talented in the NBA. What's his name? I camp, Well,
there are a couple of people member Craig Hodges, how
great it was, Surity was there? Or what's his name?
Who was doing the protests and everything? Talent is everybody's

(33:10):
talented NBA, right, But if you can't win, yeah, you
ain't got no leverage. My question is this with him
carry is where's his father? You know, his father's on
the sidelines of all these shows. You know he's puffing
up against Shannon Sharp and everything. Why is he not
puffing up like that against his son? You know why
he doesn't. He comes from a middle class too family,

(33:33):
two parent household. You know, he didn't grow up on
the streets. He didn't grow up you know, he grew
up in a privileged situation for as far as a
lot of people and a lot of people playing in
the NBA at different situations. Look, Jimmy Butler was an orphan,
for christ sakes. You know, he was pushed on the
streets by his mother. You know, luckily he was raised
by this family. He's a model citizen in the NBA.

(33:54):
You know, I mean butler, you know, if anybody had
any right to be angry or you know, to be
you know, oppose it or whatever, not that type of thing.
But of course, as you say, too, he's not a
silly person either. He's more of a serious person. So
this thing that he's doing is so silly. And I
don't know why his father hasn't stepped in in taking

(34:16):
that gun away or you know, demanded that he changes
or isolate him or do whatever. Maybe because he's on
the gravy train. Because the other thing winning and then
the money is a big problem too. People get on
that payroll, whether it's family members or not. And nobody's
trying to rock that boat, right, we.

Speaker 5 (34:35):
Don't mess that up. I don't want to mess up
my money. No, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
I'm trying to put they're not trying to put a
hole in that bag, right.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
They However, however, at the same turn, they're missing out
on what could be right, what else that there be
Like I always use this instance, like don't I use
this example because I'm a diehard Oprah enthusiast and I
and a fan and when I met her, I know,
people say whatever, I love her so much, she can
do no wrong. She walks on water, and I want

(35:04):
to keep it that way. But when I met her,
I always think of this story that she told on
her show, of how her sister, when she first started
to make it, sold the story to the National Inquirer
that she was pregnant at fourteen. Her sister sold the
story for maybe forty or sixty thousand dollars. And this
was early on in the Oprah Show. And she goes,

(35:25):
if that's all it took to get her out of
my life, I'm okay with that. And here she is,
fast forward years later. You think sister would have thought
Oprah was about to be a billionaire. You know what
you really missed out on by selling that ridiculous story
point being is that if you really can't grab a
hold of him now and he's one of the he's
a superstar in the league, and his future is so
bright if he starts to win, there's so much more there,

(35:47):
not even just the money aspect of it, but there's
so much more there for that family. And I don't
see anybody thinking bigger picture here. I don't see anybody
thinking of what could be because to your point, talent
does not trumpad winning does it? You haven't done that yet.
So if you put yourself in a position where people
can't depend on you to win because you're too busy
playing a gangster, then it looks as if there are

(36:10):
a few people who are going to want to start
investing in you in a real way. Does that make sense?

Speaker 1 (36:14):
Yeah? Absolutely? Like what's the guy's name played for Tampa
White receiver took a shirt off when Oh Brown, I mean,
how much talent did ab have?

Speaker 4 (36:27):
You know?

Speaker 1 (36:27):
And he just really talented, so talented, you know, he
could you know, him at seventy percent, was still better
than most people in the league, you know, and he
just squandered it all, just threw it all away. And
people after a while, they really didn't care how talented
he was. They really didn't care. You know.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
Tom Brady gave him another chance no one wanted. He said,
I'll take them and then, like the great Tom bradon
I just I mean, but he's clearly unwell. Okay, speaking
of unwell, I was unwell at the thought that the
Lakers might lose to the Warriors. And I just want
to say, our team, our Laker team looked phenomenal. I mean, Okay, yes, yes,

(37:09):
we could do a dance. We could do a dance
on that. And I have Mike Trudell on my show
today and I said, Mike, I said, I'm a little nervous.
How durable is Ad? Mike yelled at me, he goes
enough enough with this Ad storyline. I have been a
Lakers reporter for however many years, better part of fifteen years,

(37:31):
and Ads not getting the respect that he deserves. He
is defensively the best there is. He he had, he
gave Memphis fits, he gave the Warriors fits, and that
is why we won. This durable and he's weak is
a is not true? As a fan like I am,
what do you feel about a d.

Speaker 3 (37:52):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (37:53):
I think Ad has been unfairly characterized as the type
of player that he is. People I think always looked
at him as kind of like Shock, as this offensive force,
but you know he's more of a defensive force. Even
at when he was at Kentucky, you know he was
a defensive phenomenon more than an offense. I think I

(38:15):
don't think he's as comfortable identity wise offense as his defense.
And you can tell by how aggressive he is on
offense when he's in the right frame of mind, he's
more aggressive, but he's not like that all the time.
Defense he's always aggressive, Like I think, his identity is
more comfortable as a as a defensive stopper. That's why

(38:37):
you can win with Ad scoring fifteen and getting twenty rebounds.
He doesn't. People always say AD's got to get thirty
five points of leagues to win. No, I don't he
got to get If he's getting four blocks in nineteen rebounds,
I don't care how many points he makes. You know,
It's like his defensive presence is his identity. His scoring
is a bonus round as far as I'm concerned. You know,

(38:59):
but the Lake don't necessarily win if Ad scores thirty
five points. That's not necessarily true. With some teams, that's true,
but not necessarily they it's really the complete game. It's
how much as he's really upsetting the rhythm of that
other team, whether it's Steph trying to make layups over
him or whoever. You know, that's to me, is AD's

(39:19):
biggest value to a champion. We're talking about championship team,
you know, We're not just talking about what can he
do in the court. Of course, He's capable of going
forty or fifty. We know that, But what's his real value.
His real value is disrupting that other team and being
a force in there that the team always has to
think about on offense. I don't care if Ad. I

(39:41):
only care what Ad does rebounding in black shots an offense.
That's why we got twelve other players. You know, as
far as I'm concerned, No.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
I'm in agreement with you. I'm sorry, Like like, go ahead, preach, preach, preach.
I'm coming to the I'm coming to that realization. Okay, okay, okay, he.

Speaker 1 (40:01):
Was up and down. AD was up and down, and
go well, who won those games? Though? Look at the
others debts because maybe they lost that one, but the
other ones win, win, win, So you're saying he's down,
But I'm sorry, there's a W in that column. That's
what you need to be looking at.

Speaker 2 (40:18):
Lakers take on the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals.
I believe whatever team advances will be the winner in
the finals. Ultimately, That's what I do believe. I do
believe the way that they the Denver's currently constructed, in
the way that Miami is well well, I don't know.
I think that if Denver meets Boston, Boston might give
them a run. But there's no answer for Jokic. The

(40:41):
only answer that I see for Yokich is someone by
the name of ad And to your point, they have
to make some adjustments defensively because he can't just let
Jokic score. Yokic doesn't play defense. He can't just let
him score. So we have to see how this first
series plays out. What do you your predictions for the
Western Conference Final?

Speaker 3 (41:00):
Else?

Speaker 1 (41:01):
Okay, so this is gonna be a tough series because
you're right, Joker is no joke, you know, right, he
is no joke. I agree all the accolades people say
about him, you know, still really don't do justice. How
hard he is just to stop, you know. To me,
the what really helped us in the bubble. Isn't this

(41:23):
interesting that we have the same bubble teams right now?
You know, in Johnny, it's kind of cool. But what
really helped us in that was a couple of their
players are injured, you know, that type of thing. But
we got the Joker in foul trouble because remember we
had Dwight Howard and we had uh, what's his name.
I always forget people's name. You know, we had those
two other big who who could Bay you know, he

(41:46):
played with the Warriors, played with us, he's in Dallas
or played some room. I always forget his name or
played thus for a while. But uh yeah, yeah, but
when you look at that and go, oh, yeah, how
can I forget his name?

Speaker 3 (41:57):
You know?

Speaker 5 (41:58):
Easy?

Speaker 1 (41:58):
But we have two big right, No, but we we
got Joker in foul trouble during a lot of that series.
You know, like I wish we had Mobamba playing right now,
you know, who could get in there and be a body,
you know, because we need a body on Yokice because
if Athe is guardian, yokache Ad might get in foul

(42:19):
trouble and that's going to be very difficult for the Lakers,
you know. So we don't have a size advantage with
them the way we've had in these other series. So
that's going to be the toughest thing. Also, Demper's uh
other players are really formidable.

Speaker 3 (42:39):
You know.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
When you look at h players, they have really good
I yes, yes, maybe the fourth best player in the
team at this point, you know, so and he can
you know, get nasty at anytime. Them for scout a

(43:00):
lot of people. You got to pay attention to the Lakers.
We have some players like that, but ours are a
little streakier. I don't know if we can count on them,
uh day to day the way Denver I think can
count on their players day to day. I think that's
the big difference. So can the Lakers get hot when
it matters? Here's when the Lakers need to get hot.

(43:22):
First game in Denver, uh, the two games in LA
and then Lebron and Ad need to just control the
series after that, you know, even in a loss, they
just need to be, you know, controlling that series. But
that's the players. Those three are players.

Speaker 5 (43:41):
Yeah, yeah, firty first still a game, games, Yes, still
a game.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
Take it.

Speaker 5 (43:46):
Steal a game in Denver, like my you just got
to steal it.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
You gotta take that, take that ditty style, take it,
take it, take it, take a ditty style. We take
both at home, and then it goes back to the
one one one format, which will be in our favor.

Speaker 5 (43:58):
And that's fine. We'll got it, you know what I mean.
So let me go back to be We just need one,
You just need one. They had k C.

Speaker 2 (44:06):
P Alex Crusoe Rondo, Dwight Howard, Jared Dudley, Oh, Mark,
Keith Morris. Was that he you referring?

Speaker 5 (44:13):
Danny Green?

Speaker 3 (44:15):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (44:15):
PJ Tucker? Uh J R.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
Smith, Jannice's brother. I can't coastest ontoo? Dion Waiters.

Speaker 5 (44:25):
Were you referring to Kyle Kuzma k CP? No, who
were you referring to?

Speaker 3 (44:30):
No?

Speaker 1 (44:30):
No, big Man, I don't know.

Speaker 5 (44:32):
Let's see.

Speaker 2 (44:33):
Let me look big man here. Look, I'm just now
I'm back into it. I'm all like, who who big Man?
Besides besides I did well, I'm just the main roster
that they showed us. Okay, So look we had, uh,
I'm talking about the people who played, Clearly, they were
a lot more. We had Quinn, We had Quinn Cook,
We had Alex Caruso, who was yeah, yeah, Marcus was

(44:57):
injured so he didn't play. Yeah, so he wasn't playing.
I'm going down the list here played for Golden State
and he played for the Lakers. Big man, Oh, Javelle McGee,
is that who you're referring? Okay, Jefel McGee, Okay, I
got to yeah, okay. And even Dennis Shorter little self
was on there. Okay, Okay, it's a little refresher. Good,

(45:18):
a little refresher for us both. Now as I wrap,
because you are saying the Lakers will win the.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
Series, well, I cannot predict the Lakers win on this one,
I said, confidently the worst. I can't predict it against Denver. Denver.
Denver's the number one seed.

Speaker 5 (45:39):
You know, we did it before, we did it before,
we did it before.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
But they're better this time out. You know, I would say,
I said, what the blueprint is? The problem is, here's
the biggest problem caring game five and seven. If it
goes seven games, that is in my life.

Speaker 5 (46:07):
That's not that's not in our favor. If it goes
seven games, in our.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
Favorite's gotta be wasted in that seventh game, he's gonna
be wasted. Let's be honest about that.

Speaker 5 (46:17):
And we're just trying to protect Lebron in his feet
at this point. That's all we care.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
You legs, young legs, young legs, as much as possible.
So yeah, hope. Look, I'll put it like this, if
we beat Denver, rings, it's for your ring, for your
rain my ring.

Speaker 2 (46:36):
Okay, okay, all right, but you're not ready to give
it to You're like me, I'm on the fence. I'm
not ready because I wouldn't be I can't. I wouldn't
be a realist. That would mean I've watched no basketball,
so I can't do that.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
Real First, we got yeah, real first.

Speaker 4 (46:48):
First, every champion and carry champions to be a champion,
a champion and carry champion and Cary Chat be a
champion and Cary Champion.

Speaker 3 (46:56):
And carry Chat. It's the sports and entertainment connect it work, Harry.

Speaker 4 (47:05):
Champion and carry champion is going to be a champion,
a champion and carry champion, thet a champion, the Cary Champion,
they car with chat.

Speaker 3 (47:15):
Make it work.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
Okay, So, speaking of keep it real, I know in
twenty twenty three we announced we as in. You and
I got together and announced your new TV show that's
coming out lately. Congratulations we announced it together. Well, it's
not at that point, so because I know it's you're
it's you're in development and development.

Speaker 1 (47:33):
Correct, Yes, So.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
The question is when can we see you back in
TV in that capacity with the writers strike and every
and and and other variables. Does it look like this
might be pushed to win? When can I start forecasting?
I mean, I don't know, you know, the business. Yeah,
but things like if your sitcom gets picked up, you

(47:59):
just don't know. So it's not at that stage where
it's where it's premature to talk about the show in
that way at this point, because you know, we haven't
even shot a pilot that I have several projects that
are here's the thing. After a strike, they can just
choose not to do shows that are on the air
right now and counsel those. There's so much up in

(48:19):
the air. But to answer the other question, I would
like to return to television in some form, whether it's
that show or something else. You know, I do like
for me, I have a lot of fans out there,
you know, like seeing stuff and want to see me
do more things. I might do something closer to the
election that's political, maybe in the talk show type of thing,
because I like doing that type of thing. And I

(48:41):
might do some more live shows out for the people, as.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
We say, And I'm always developing behind the scenes, you know,
with different people and that kind of stuff too, So
always doing the multiple things. But you can't. I wish
I had better answer to that. You know, you just
can pull over that stuff, and.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
That requires an incredible amount of yeah, incredible amount of
patience that you have and our and in my business
to to to a certain point. But it's like so
frustrating because we have to wait on everything to fall
a certain way, and it requires you to have other
Now my business is doing the same, requires you to
have other outlets. But the point being is that I
feel like, and I say this from the bottom of

(49:22):
my heart, your humor, your wit, and quite frankly, just
some sensible conversation is missed, especially in the political arena.
I think as we get ready to see this orange
face man try to take over again, it would be
nice to have someone who can who can speak truth
to power and still provide us with a bit of

(49:43):
comedy relief, because if you don't laugh, you'll cry at
the situation.

Speaker 5 (49:46):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (49:48):
Yes, the tangerine d I mean is what I call ye? Yes, yes,
the orange Julia is caesu do you Yeah, I agree
with that. And you know, I'm very fortunate. I have
a lot of different levers that I can push, you know,

(50:09):
and go into. So that's one of them that I
have a lot of fans that really like to hear
from me. So I'm really fortunate in that, and I
haven't been doing a lot of wig ins of my
podcasts have just been doing the interviews because things have
just been so divisive out there. But I am going
to start doing more and speaking out more and some
things because I know a lot of people want to

(50:30):
hear that. I'm actually doing the class day speech at
Harvard next week. You know, it's it's like the commencement speech,
but this is chosen by the students, So that was
kind of nice that they chose me to be their
class Congratulations.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
Congratulations, congratulations mister Harvard.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
You know some of some of us, some of us
go to Dubai. Some of us go, what can we do?

Speaker 5 (50:54):
What can one do? You know, what can one do?

Speaker 2 (51:00):
I forgot the last time we talked, before you give
over the show, Beyonce had blessed me with Dubai. I'm
going to I'm going to London to see her in
a couple of weeks. So I'll keep you posting it too. Yeah, you,
I'm going to invite you to one of these shows
so you can have this experience with me, Larry, because
the reality is, once you do one of these shows,

(51:20):
you're like, I see why, I'm like you want to
be better, Larry, I'm not kidding you. The queen so
she started a concert this, yeah, it's but yes, we've
got to step on out of our environment. You can't
sit in your natural box that you have and watch her.
You always go to stuff and I ain't so far
a new experience. You season ticket holder for the Rams.
You got to be able to move out of that location.
I'm a hater. I'm jealous because you've never invited me,

(51:43):
and I'm hating. Do you feel that hate out of
that animosity for no reason at all? Man, I'm always
available for home opener, if needed, friend, if needed, whatever, whatever,
Thank you, I'm available Amazon.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
Right. Aren't you doing?

Speaker 3 (52:03):
No?

Speaker 2 (52:04):
No, no, no, that's Thursday night Football. We don't do
well this year. We might do some coordination with Thursday
night Football. It's much more of a coordinated effort. But
I don't want to do a while working. I want
to be able to throw something back and talk trash.

Speaker 1 (52:15):
Is is ESPN like newtered now? No? It's not. I
think that's now with.

Speaker 5 (52:22):
No No, what do you mean? I'm sorry. I don't
mean to cut you off. I thought you got for
me to work there.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
What do you mean Newter, Well, no, I remember, well,
you know, you know, Jamel famously had a lot of
kind of a running with them and that kind of
stuff there. You know, seem like they have more content
on their show talking about these issues. Now. It seems
a little more straightforward sports. Again, That's what it just
feels like to me. But there's not as much. It

(52:47):
doesn't feel like it's there's as much there's you know,
when politics are talking about, it's really connected to something
that actually happened in sports as opposed to you know,
issues or that type of thing you.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
Said, is it neutered, Yes, one percent. They have a
Jamel Hill rule in place, like one percent, there's a
Jamel Hill rule in place exactly that. Yeah, it's a
social media like no tweeting about politics. No, And a
part of that is is disheartening considering the time in
which we live. This We're an unprecedented time, so I
don't believe the old rules can apply, and it to

(53:22):
me is essentially saying take away your blackness and work
like I can't live in this in this country as
a person of color and not feel affected by what
I see day in and day out. And sometimes you
can't separate the artists from the art, but sometimes you
have to so you can say what you feel. It
just feels like an obligation, Like even if I wasn't
an anchor, I still would be like, huh no, let's

(53:44):
go march, Like how dare how dare you take away
and marginalize my experience? And unfortunately, I don't think that
these companies have figured out a way to allow that
to be. You definitely can't talk about it on GMA.
You definitely can't talk about it on today's show. Also know,
they make you. They control your hair and what you wear,
and how much makeup you wear, how long your lashes

(54:05):
are like it's a very very like cookie cutter environment
and they don't want to rock the boat and anything
that feels edgy is scary to them.

Speaker 5 (54:14):
You know this better than I know.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
This is think.

Speaker 2 (54:20):
The great Larry Wilmore, thank you for taking it hour.
I was only going to do thirty minutes, and I
can past. I ran past all your time. Thank you,
my love.

Speaker 5 (54:28):
I appreciate you, Kri, thanks so much.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
It's always so nice to talk to you. I appreciate you.
I appreciate you all the time. So I love seeing
you out doing what you do.

Speaker 5 (54:38):
This hustling to hustle. I will text you and tell
you Lakers and six one more time. We got to start.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
We have to start texting each other during these games.
We got we gotta keep it in the family than together.

Speaker 5 (54:49):
Yeah, you got it.

Speaker 1 (54:51):
If you're tweeting, I'll see your tweets and I'll answer
some of that stuff, like we're tweeting back. Live tweeting
be fun.

Speaker 5 (54:57):
Yeah, yeah, Live tweeting is the best.

Speaker 2 (54:58):
I forget to repat because there's so much hate in
the tweet so in my response, so I just try
to do I just try to.

Speaker 1 (55:06):
I'll defend you.

Speaker 5 (55:08):
You're like, leave her alone, You're so mean.

Speaker 3 (55:12):
I can't.

Speaker 5 (55:13):
I can't even get into it. So I'm like, what's happening.

Speaker 1 (55:15):
Bring on the Laker hate. I don't care.

Speaker 2 (55:17):
Bring Larry Wilmore on the podcast today. Thank you for
being naked. You can put your clothes back on.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
Thanks Gang.

Speaker 2 (55:26):
I forgot to mention this as we wrap up this podcast.
We all already know that I am a diehard Laker fan.
I did not I did not say something at the
top of this podcast that I wanted to. I wanted
to really, really make sure that we pay attention to
greatness and greatness fatigue. I believe that although we know

(55:46):
Lebron is great, he does not get his just too.
I feel as if people are like, well, he's old,
he's old. The man has been great for twenty years.
And sometimes the part of being great is just being consistent.
The enemy of excellence is a good job. The enemy
of excellence is great job. If you do a great job,

(56:07):
you're not excellent.

Speaker 5 (56:09):
Isn't that crazy?

Speaker 2 (56:10):
And what you and I often fail to remember is
that Lebron is always excellent. The fact that he's able
to get his teams teams that were i e. My
Lakers two and ten at the beginning of the year
with less than a thirty percent chance to make any
type of playoffs. He has this team in the Western
Conference Finals, and while he may not have been the
person to make the shots, the team moves as he moves.

(56:35):
So I want to make sure that if you know
anybody in your life who's consistently excellent, acknowledge them. Just
acknowledge them, Just say you know what, You're consistently excellent.
You're consistently doing above and beyond. You're consistently better than
just great, because being consistent is the hardest thing you
can do in life, in any aspect of your life.

(56:57):
And so I think lebron Hell for that. Man, I
think Beyonce. I think her too, because she is consistently excellent.
And when you see people like that, you know it
can be done, and it just should motivate you. It
should make you want to be consistent at something, not
necessarily singing or dancing or playing basketball, but something be
consistent and be excellent. That's my Ted talk. I will

(57:20):
talk to you all next week.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
Bye.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.