No Hesitation - Sophie Gets Real About The Sydney Sweeney Ad

0:00This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human Dry eyes still feel gritty, rough or tired. With my bow, eyes can feel... I bow with you. My bow, for Flora Hexaloktainoff Thalmex solution, is used to treat the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. It's the only prescription dry eye drop that forms a protective layer for the number one cause, too much tear of operation. So eyes can find relief that's... I bow with you. Don't use a allergic to my bow. Remove contacts before using and wait at least 30 minutes before putting them back in. Eye redness and blurred vision may occur. For more info, talk to your eye doctor. Call 1-844-Mybow-Yeah or visit mybow.com. I bow with you. Some people use chatGPT to answer questions. Others use it to get real work done. With chatGPT work, you bring the goal. Plus, real inputs like briefs, notes, files, feedback, data and project plans.

1:01It can help turn them into an analysis, tracker, deck outline, prototype, or workflow you can review and keep shaping. You stay in control, giving direction and choosing the final output. Put chatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at chatGPT.com by selecting Work Mode, available on plus and pro plans. The amount of text messages, DMs, comments, wanting me to talk about the Sydney Swini add. Like, I feel like we got to hit on it. Everyone's talking about it and they want to know. Welcome back to No hesitation. I am Sophie Cuttingham. Here's your handling with me. And this is only week two Drew and I feel like we are already getting in trouble with some fans. Listen, I have only been in the W Media Slash podcast space for a week. And let me tell you, my DMs and mentions have been off the charts.

2:02People were so mad at you that you were propping up your teammate. Propping up your teammate. You gave a lot of love last week to both Kelsey and Kaitlyn. But there was a clip of, you know, you talking very highly about Kelsey and somehow people thought that meant. You were talking down on Kaitlyn. So I just wanted you to clear the air because I know both your teammates were showing them both love. We literally said Kaitlyn was the reason why the entire WMBA changed. But if you didn't watch the full episode, you didn't see that. So the floor is yours. Yeah, I just think it's crazy because I have two great, great players on my team. And I'm going to hide both of them up. Like I could make an argument that Kelsey should be MVP. I can make a big argument that TCC should be MVP. And we totally hype both of them up, but you know how the internet works. So they just wanted to clip whatever. But yeah, that was actually psychotic. But that gives you a little bit of taste of like what the WMBA media is like. And so that's why we're starting this so people can get some good media from the W. You feel me? Not only that because I saw that the media tried to trap Kaitlyn asking her like,

3:07oh, so now are you friends with Angel Reese after they, you know, had won the gold medal. And then the media asked you five straight questions about your NASCAR appearance that you had on Sunday, which looked amazing. But then they followed it up with did you watch the gold medal game, which they clearly knew you didn't they just asked five questions. So I'm starting to learn what you were talking about and why you were so kind of hype about this show actually covering the good things that are going on in the W. Dude, it was insane. Like I was, I definitely like saw the stats. I knew they won gold. I do stuff with USA sports where the basketball like I'm an analysis. I do all that type of stuff. But then they wanted some crossover with NASCAR and it was in St. Louis isn't really Illinois. And so I brought the family down had a great, great day with NASCAR. And like you said, the media asked me, I'm not, I probably talked about NASCAR for like a good five to eight minutes. And then right when I got done with that, some guy was like, so did you watch the game? And I was like, no. And they're like, well, they won gold. And I'm like, duh, they won gold.

4:08Like you don't think that I'm like not invested. And first of all, like USA on any sport, like I'm going to be tracking. And then like if my coach is there and my two teammates, like I'm dialed in, but people are just dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb. So I agree. And you know what the crazy thing is it actually brought back flashbacks to when the team USA men's team was in Paris for the Olympics. I was over there with them. And I saw so many angry fans that were so bad at team USA for winning the game on Sunday because they didn't do it in the way that they wanted to. Meaning a lot of Caitlin supporters were very disappointed because she is one of the top players in the WMBA. She did lead the team in assist. She was one of the better players throughout the tournament. And she didn't play as much as I thought she should have. I think that if you're one of the best players, you should be starting. You should be playing more. I always say that it's hard because for the coach, they went undefeated and won the gold and people were still pissed. It never happens like that in any other sport.

5:09No, it's insane. Like people are just, just be happy that USA win in there and got it done and they got the gold and now they're back here. But I think anyone can make an argument like, yes, I'm biased probably because I love her and she's my teammate. But I definitely think that C should have been starting. But again, like I'm not the coach. I don't know what they have going on. We got the dub. That's all that matters. We got the gold. Now they're back. It's four more games and playoffs. But you're never going to win with this crowd. I'm telling you, you're going to get hated. You're going to get loved on. So that's why you just kind of do what you want around here. I get it a little bit though because when I was over there, I remember when a team USA men's team was playing against South Sudan. And you know, Joel does a normal warm up. He's getting ready to play. And sure enough, he got a DNP coach's decision. And the reason after the game, the Astieve Curve, what was the reason? And they were like, oh, we just thought that we matched a better without Joel out there. The crazy thing about it was when they had previously played South Sudan, it's Zach's team just a couple of weeks before, Joel actually had the best plus minus, had dominated them.

6:10So Joel was like, wait a second. Like this doesn't make sense. And again, sometimes it doesn't make sense. Jason had just won, you know, he had let his team and points rebounds on his list, helped the Celtics win a championship, was first team all NBA. And then he was getting DNP's too. So I think it is hard if you're a USA basketball coach because there are so many talented players as fans, especially if we're partial to certain players. We want them to have their fair share of what we deem as fair. But it is one of those things that, you know, it is funny because you think about when it's swimming or when it's volleyball or when it's any other sport, we're just like go team USA. But when it's a basketball, it's like go team USA, we have to be perfect. You have to win every game and you have to do it in the way that we want you to. Wait, I'm going to throw a screwball at you because I know we didn't even talk about this or discuss this. But I think a lot of people don't know that you actually do, yes, on court workouts, but you have a lot of, you do the mental side of sport too, which is like even more important. I think I hit on it on our first episode. But why don't you think that more players kind of have the mindset that like Book Had,

7:14how he's like, I'll do it. And then like even Tyrese, like I know that was really hard for him to like go in there and really not play it all. And like he kind of made it, you know, a joke like, hey, I was like the student who didn't show up for anything, but still got the A plus. Like I get the most elite at their craft and on the women's side too, like everyone wants to start. Everyone wants to play. But what do you tell your guys when they're in those situations, when they're in the Olympics or they're at worlds, that like, hey, you might not get in, even though you're one of the world's best, but this is what you should be thinking. It's hard to because part of becoming one of the best basketball players in the world is you have to almost build up your ego. You have to build up this killer mentality. You have to build up this kind of chip on your shoulder that says like, I can do anything. I can help my team win and I can, you know, lead my team to wins. And so like, it is hard. Trust me, I had some conversations with like Joelle. Joelle's like, you're telling me I can't play against South Sudan. Like what are you talking about? Like there's no chance that everyone knows he can. Everyone knows he can play and probably dominate.

8:15He's like, there's nobody in this world that can guard me one on one. So they're going to have to double and definitely nobody on South Sudan can guard me one on one. I'll tell you that. I promise you. And so it doesn't make sense to be honest with you. It's honestly the hardest time for me because during the season, we can make mechanical adjustments if something's going wrong with their shots. Like we talked about with your shot last time. If there's a scheme or a coverage that's disrupting their flow or rhythm, then we can make adjustments to that as well. But when you're just not getting the opportunities that you're accustomed to having, it's hard because sometimes it is out of your control. And so what you try to say is focus on things you can control and how can you impact winning in the ways. That's typical. That's typical. I'll tell you what the best players in the world do not want to hear that. They're like, listen, like Jason. Great example. Jason was getting some DNPs after coming off a championship. And he said, hey, by the way, the last Olympics, I was our second leading scorer. Yes. And we won gold medal. We didn't need all these other guys. We didn't need all these vets that came and they want to have a, I know that they loved playing with Steph and LeBron and KD and all those guys.

9:16But Jason's like, me and Kev, we won the last one on our own. You know, so it's fun to be a part of a round greatness and a part of that special team. But at the same time, you're like, come on, I know I could be out there contributing to winning. But it does mess with your head. You see like how it Jason didn't make a three pointer. I don't think any Olympics. Like it messes with your head even the best players in the world. So are they actually mentally weak? It's not a mental weakness. It's like literally like them in a situation that they've never been before. You know what I mean? So I do. No, I get it. It's hard. It's hard. Like no joke being a role player or being someone that's like in and out of the lineup is freaking hard. Because you have to prepare like you are going to go out there and play the max like to do your best and like play. But if the coach isn't giving you that opportunity, then like you're hyping yourself up and then you just don't you don't get the opportunity. That's hard. I was going to tell you one of the things that I was curious about was you guys just got back to practice. And you guys have four games left and then you guys have a playoff run that's super important and you guys want to do good things.

10:18You know, when you look at the USA basketball situation that just happened on the women's side, you know, Katelyn's used to being the kind of the lead guard. The one that you know averages, you know, so what is she top 10 in the league and scoring also she I think she's number one and assists. Like she always has the ball in her hands and then she didn't get that opportunity for team USA. Are there things that you guys didn't practice to kind of like Dakota? Hey, I need you to snap back into like, you know, it's your team mode like like go get your buckets again. Is there anything that you guys have done to try to boost her up to get ready to shoot a lot more field goal attempts than she did when she was over at the World Cup? No, and honestly they they've given them a break. So they they were at practice today for the first time, but they did not practice and granted they shouldn't like let him rest a little bit. But I do think like when you are the best in the world, you don't have to tell like when you get that opportunity, you don't have to tell these great people to go out there and go try and get a bucket like that is what they are literally that is their whole goal in the beginning. Like that is what they are made to do.

11:19And so I don't think so. I think we definitely want to make sure that they're confident because also Leah Boston, right? Like she didn't get the minutes that she would have normally got with our team or maybe the opportunities. And so it's hyping up both of them. But I also think like they're happy to be home like we are their family and they're more comfortable around us. And they had a great time and they had a great experience and there's nothing like playing with the grates, but they said, you know what I mean? I don't know. I've never been on a team like that, but that's what they said, you know, like it's there's nothing like that environment, but you don't have to tell those people to be aggressive. But I do want to kind of get in, you know, you've had a lot to say about Joel. Why have you not said anything about Max killer men's comments? Listen, it's funny because I pick and choose my balance. Be honest. But since you ask, it's crazy because you don't understand how many people set me the tweet that I know he had set it on his podcast. And then it came out, I don't watch this podcast and I got the tweets though. And it was like 20 people sent it and they're like, oh my God, I cannot wait to see what Drew says because for those of you guys that don't know, I always stick up for my clients.

12:25It's basically like I'm the one going to war for my clients. I'm always kind of setting the record straight. So, so since this is called no hesitation, I wasn't going to do it. But I'll say this. So the colorment clip, Max Coleman basically said, Joel and beat is lazy. He said it in a long form, but he said Joel and beat is lazy and beat. When he was on the Olympic team, not like he said, I thought this was super interesting. Scales talk about when the best players get together. Everyone's got the cars and the watches and the money. The way they really have the way they really compete and impress each other is by work is like who works the hardest. And that was not M.B.D. at all. It was the opposite for M.B.D. according to scale what he was hearing. Isn't that a problem for the sixers? And I was in there and I thought about tweeting it out. But I was like, let's just ask like a dumb question. If somebody starts playing basketball at 15 years old and then they're a J.B. basketball player. And then they average 13 points a game on varsity as a senior.

13:28And then they average 11 points a game in their one year at Kansas. And by the way, at Kansas, he only made one three pointer at Kansas. He was one for five from the field. He shot 68% from the free throw line. This doesn't say that like, oh, this guy's definitely going to become an M.B.P. a two time leading score in the M.B.A. and one of the most dominant players ever. I understand that there's an asterisk button people talk about to well. And they always say when he's healthy, if he's healthy, etc. I was literally about to talk my shit and be like, dude, he's never healthy. But listen, a lot of that is not because of choice. Like if you think about like his playoff injuries, you know, two times he's broke his face. Elbows, Pascal, see I come on time, Mark L. Fulltidum in the face. You can't jog your way into protecting your face from breaks. Yeah. You know what I mean? Then there's other random things that happen and you're going appendicitis. Again, lifting more weights does not help you with appendicitis. You know, there's things like that that are literally not preventable.

14:31And while I do understand and I do agree, trust me, I'm the one that always tells you, hey, let's be more serious with your diet. Let's be more serious with your weight room. Let's be more serious with your conditioning. As a basketball player, Joel watches more film than anybody. Joel also has put in more work than anybody. Wait, out of your clients, out of your clients, he's the one who watches the most film. By far, like I joke around, I tell people all the time. Wait, but is it because he's injured? Is it because he's injured though? No, it's because he loves basketball. Like you don't understand. It'll be like a random Tuesday night and two bad teams are playing. And he'll FaceTime and be like, yo, did you just see the inbound play that so and so ran at at two thirty seven Mark in the third quarter? And I'm like, no, he's like, I think that'd be really good. Clip that and send us a coach. Now, I'm like, he's a sickle in a great way. And then for basketball standpoint, like think about what I just said. He averaged eleven points at Kansas. And then he went to the NBA. He had one year, he averaged thirty five. Like you just get boss, boss, boss, boss. I know you are going to go on, but can you please explain to me why?

15:33And this is in the girls too, because I do not, I don't have that recruiting mind yet. I hope to get there one day. How can you tell when a college player is going to be better in the pros? And why are some players better in the pros than they were in college? Basketball is back folks and you need to change the way that you invest in the NBA and the WMBA this season. It's finally time to ditch your old sportsbooks apps because Polymarket is here. Polymarket is a legal prediction market now available in all fifty states. And those old sportsbooks, they're a thing of the past. On Polymarket, you can trade on all things hoops. From who wins the WMBA finals, to who is named this season's WMBA MVP, or if SGA is going to somehow find a way to three peat on the men's side. Polymarket has you covered. Polymarket gives you the freedom to cash out instantly. If the momentum swings, you can sell it off in real time. You are always in control. No one can lock you out and you can also buy in anytime. So when the market dips, like if your favorite team drops in the standings after a slow start,

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17:33But as the pressure builds and the truth gets harder to hide, how long can this secret stay safe? Watch a new season of Chad Powers from Glenn Powell and the creator Loki. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+. For bundle subscribers, terms apply. Big thanks to Factor for sponsoring this episode. Okay, real talk. The last couple months have been absolute chaos. My travel schedule has been nuts. And I finally hit a wall where I was like, okay, I need to get back to eating actual food again. Trust me, I hear you. I am on the road 24-7. And that's exactly where Factor comes in. Chefcrafted, dietician designed, ready to eat meals. So you're not choosing between real food and convenience. Factor really levels up. They have banned over 175 ingredients. So you know everything and there is built around actually supporting a healthier lifestyle. Nothing sketchy, sneakin' in. Plus, two minutes and you're eating. No prep, no cleanup. And on the days that your schedule is completely off the rails, this is the difference between eating and eating well. And they offer 100 menu options every week.

18:33They've got new stuff like the salmon burgers, shredded pork and collard greens. And please do not sleep on the add-ons. In my personal favorite, the pumpkin flavored cheesecake and protein shake. That sounds like some good home cooking meal, which I know us Midwesterners love. Let's eat real. Head to FactorMills.com slash NoHes50Off and use code NoHes50Off to get 50% off and one free breakfast item per box for one year. While supplies last until October 31st, 2026. That's code NoHes50Off at FactorMills.com. NoHes50Off at FactorMills.com. See website for details. I'll give you my answer that I always say. Because people always ask me like, how do I decide my clients? And they're always like, all your guys get good. And I'm like, well, part of the reason is because I think I know what I'm doing. Training-wise, I also can help them mentality-wise. But another segment of this is, I know which guys I think I can help. And that's a big piece of it. What I look for is, one, do you have good size for your position?

19:34I think that's important. Like you can normally be like, okay, that guy has good size for the position. Another thing is, do they absolutely love the game of basketball? Because once you get the big contract, once you get the role that you want, once you get the status, once you get the fame, there's a lot of guys and girls I'm assuming in the W that as soon as they get those things, they feel like they've arrived and they start coasting. They stop doing the things that they did to get themselves to where they wanted to be eventually. Like think about it. When you're younger, a lot of players like, I want to get to the NBA. Or as you said, like, there are a few girls back in the day that were like, I want to get to the W. But it was never like, I want to do this in the W. And so you have to constantly, you know, you climb a mountain and then you keep climbing. And you say, where's the next mountain you have to climb? They have to love the game. Second thing is, they have to crave improvement, which means they have to be open to criticism. They have to be open to feedback. They have to almost, and I said, crave. I didn't say they're like, okay, like, if you give it to me, I'll handle it. No, no, they crave it. They're asking for it. They're watching film.

20:35And then the last thing I think the biggest thing is the purposeful practice that they put in. Purposeful is the key word there because there's a lot of people that they work hard for an hour, they sweat. But they don't work hard on the right things, so it doesn't translate. Or they work hard on the things that they want to work hard on instead of the things that are actually going to help them get better. So when you ask me, how do you project? Who's going to be good and who's not? I try to get in the gym with them. I see, can they, can they handle the coaching? Do they crave it? Are they asking questions? How quickly are they picking things up? Are they willing to stay after and make sure they figure things out? Or do they just leave the gym with things that aren't figured out? All those things go into a player becoming the kind of maximizing their potential, if you will. Did that's just weird to me because like we didn't us women, it's getting better now. Don't get me wrong. But like even when I was in college and even like I would say the first three, four years I've been in the league, we didn't, we don't have trainers like you. They just, it just wasn't truly a thing. And so when you're talking about craving being in the gym and like, I don't even think it's criticism.

21:44Like I think like you always, it's that growth mindset. Like you want to know how to improve your game on every little level. The little details, right? But we all wanted that. Like we were in the gym staying after like you never had to ask us to like get in extra shots or go get your weights in, go get extra conditioning. Like we wanted to do that because we wanted championships. That's why we won four high school championships in a row. I think in college, we all had that mentality. We just didn't have the talent truly. Like we just didn't have the pieces we needed to compete for a title. We won some really big games. We just didn't have it to get farther than we did. Still made to the NCAA tournament all four years, which was great. But I think you're right. Like it's the goal was to always, hey, I wanted to stay championships. Okay, I want to do be SEC fresh in the year. Great. Okay. What's the neck like did it and then it was the goal was always to get to the W. But then once you get to the W, it was like, okay, how can I be one of the best three point shooters in the league? I want to be the best three point shooter in the league. How could I get six men? How could I get most improved?

22:46I want to I want to championship. Like I do not think I have arrived. And again, like I'm not going to put my whole identity and all of that into a championship. If I don't ever get it, then like I failed. I don't I don't truly believe in that. But inside of me that competitiveness like I want that fucking shit right there. Like I want that and I know I can get it. And so that's why I've been loving like like talking to you and how can you help me improve to get to these things. Because I do think you're right. Like I think that is what I'm waiting on is the championship. I think that's what it is though. I think that when you love basketball, like I touched on this a little bit in episode one where I said like I don't think people realize how much you love basketball. Like when we were talking, you know, texting back and forth and I'm sending you film edits and stuff like that. I'm saying, yo, now that I'm watching even more W film because I'm trying to break down so that our audience can kind of get these insights. I'm like I'm seeing things and I'm sending them to you and you're like I am so excited for this off season so that I can grow as a player like you know your role now is to be a floor spacer that knocks down threes.

23:49And as you promised us at the end of last episode, you're going to be locking up defensively the rest of the season and in the playoffs. But this summer, you're like I want to expand so that you know teams can't take me out of the game by just putting a longer taller defender on me that just kind of presses up and now I'm kind of just standing in the corner at times. And so I think that is something that all the best players have in common. They all want to get better and we talked a lot about Joelle but like it is I mean each year every one of my guys add one thing to their game two things their game so they come back and they're a completely different player. And while they're changing their game, they're also changing their mindset. And I think that's another thing is Tyrie's Haliburin was a great example where you know when we first started working out, he was average in like 12 and a half points of game for the Kings. And we went to dinner that night and he was told me about I'm an idiot. I did not know was he drafted to the Kings. Yeah, he was drafted by the Kings. Oh, I thought he was been with the Pacers the whole time. No, they literally chose D.R. and Fox over Tyrie's and traded him to the Pacers for a bonus. I like Fox two. Yeah, no, he's a great player, great player.

24:53But so we had this first dinner and he was trying to ask me if I would work him out and I flipped around the computer and I showed him all of the film and all of the statistics and all the analytics and I basically said listen you're not even giving yourself a chance to be great because you're not being aggressive enough and I showed him all the times where he had a driving lane and didn't or he had a shot and didn't take it or whatever. And so afterwards they were playing against the Sixers the next night. I said if you want to work with me this summer, you have to shoot at least 14 shots tomorrow night and he was like 14 shots. He thought we needed to get in the gym and change all these different skills to make them better and that night he shot 19 shots. He was 11 for 19 and he had a career high 38 points. Remember, he's average in 12 and a half points of game at that time. Yeah. And so he thought he needed to improve his skills, but really needed to improve his mindset. And again, since then we've worked on a lot of skills and he's got stronger this year. He's going to come back and have different aspects of his life. I mean, I think that's a good game, but I do think that that's something important is like can you change your mindset and can you change your game and if those things happen, then you have a chance to be really, really good.

25:54Wait, let's talk about practice because we keep hitting on like training and practice and I think there is going to be a lot of similarities in the WBA versus NBA. And I don't want to make it an NBA versus WBA thing, but I think it's fun because you have the perspective of theirs. I have our perspective. So, you're nervous on it or do you want me to? I will tell you this, you said there might be a lot of common themes. I think they're so different in the NBA. In the NBA, they practice really, really hard during training camp. And then after that, they're just doing like film sessions and then basically what they call vitamins where each guy they do their walkthrough, they do their scout report. And then each guy breaks off to their own baskets and works on whatever they need to work on is so individualized. I would guess that teams practice maybe like 10 to 20 times during the regular season after training camp, like action team practices. Other than that, it's all individual work and then walkthrough, talkthrough scout reports. But yeah, but when do they, when do they like, and I know they don't have a lot of plays, like it's pretty much just fucking go, but like when do they work on that? They don't.

26:59Training camp and then walk, like walkthrough talk through, they do film study and then they'll normally go to the court. And then when they're on the court, they're basically walking through offensively. These are the things we want to do. These are the plays we're installing for this game defensively. Here's the concepts, here's the coverage is, here's how we're going to try to slow down and limit the superstar that they're playing the next game. And then after that, it's like, huddle up, bring it, break it down, go get your work in. So during the walkthrough is kind of like, hey, this seems bad at this. We might go more at this or this is what we're doing defensively. That's the schemes. So like it's like during the walkthrough is when they're talking maybe hey offensively. Yeah, but it's not like hard practices like you think like high school practices college practices where you're like an hour and a half like in the mud like those don't happen except for training camp usually. Now, if a team is really struggling or if there's a gap in their schedule, then you might get a couple days, but there's not many days because the ultimate goal is to have them be their best when they need to be at their best, which is during the playoffs.

28:03I don't even know where to start. Floor is yours. Talk to me about the W practice. I've never seen a W practice. I've only seen W workouts. I've never seen a W practice. So give us some insight on the W NBA practice culture. Okay, so I've only been with two teams. And so in Phoenix, I had five coaches in seven years. That's crazy, by the way. Maybe four, four, kind of four, five. So that's actually insane. So all of their practices were quite different, but I will say like training camp was kind of our hard, you know, this is our plays. This is kind of like our baseline or standard blah, blah, blah, blah. Both offensively and defensively. We also had a more veteran team out in Arizona. We had DT BG. And so our coaches knew that like we were not going to be running and gunning and having hard practices. And so they're very chill. During season, I bet our practices were like, we'd go in, you'd get treatment, you'd do weights, you would get either before after practice, you'd get in your individual shots.

29:05You know what I mean? Like go get what you need. So kind of like our vitamins. And then we would maybe have team film that day. Maybe not. And then we had practice for maybe like 45 minutes to an hour, 15 max, but very light, very easy. I loved it, but I will say, but throughout the coaching out there, I don't feel like we like did enough or maybe me personally looking back, like looking in the mirror. Maybe I didn't do enough off the court because our practices were not doing anything for me. Does that make sense? So maybe that was like a learning curve for me of like, okay, like we're not really doing anything at practice. We aren't really practicing at all. Because in that 45 minutes, we really wouldn't do anything. So maybe I needed to do a more individual workout to make me sweat and be better. But I will say being traded up here to Indiana. We we practice man, like we we practice practice. Like we are still practicing for probably like two hours against guys full court, hard.

30:07Yeah, and we have four more games left. And so like teach their own everyone has a different style. We have a very rookie team to who maybe they can't. They're learning how to be a pro. And so I can see both sides of it, but we're still practicing like two to two and a half hours hard. All right. So I want to throw some stats out there real quick, just because I think this will help kind of, you know, people understand the difference of the W and the NBA when it comes to load management. So in the W 28 out of the top 30 scores play at least 90% of their games. So the top players are almost always available. Whereas in the NBA, only six out of the top 30 scores have played at least 90% of their games. So you can tell right there that, you know, there's a different culture in the NBA. It's all about let's get you healthy in the playoffs so that you can be healthy and at your best when we need you to be at your best. Whereas in the W, I think seating matters so much more because in the W one and two seed almost wins every single time. I think Chicago a couple of years ago was like one of the, you know, kind of rare teams that won not as a one or two seed. I know that that brings back bad memories.

31:11Like, yeah, that that was a real thing. Like it was a random occurrence. Whereas in the NBA, while the top seeds do, you know, normally do better, you can kind of win from any of the top seeds. It doesn't have to be just the, you know, the one or two seeds. So I think there's just a different mentality when it comes to the top guys playing in the NBA versus the W. Well, those are like significant differences and percentages that do and I get it like I think we have a shorter season and we do play a lot of games in that time period, but the guys also play. Double what we do, you know what I mean? So like, do you think that has any type of I know I know it has a factor in it. Like do you do people purposely rest people, you know what I mean? Like that's. That has to be my. The crazy thing and I know that fans will not like this, but there's already rest day scheduled rest days for players that are before the season starts. They already know a couple of games that they're sitting out because they're trying to manage their load so that they can be at their best. So before the season starts, they don't know if they're going to be healthy, not healthy. That's their certain games that are literally managing their load throughout the season, which is so different.

32:20Wait, do you think that's do you think that's I know you're going to say it's smart because the end of the end goals to get the championship, but like, is that fair? Well, I mean, to me, I don't like the necessarily pre planning. I'm cool with like, okay, you feel your body breaking down and so we see that we've got five games in the next eight days and so let strategically pick one or two so that we can make sure that you know you're not breaking down and getting yourself injured. I don't like the pre planning and like the load management being a full season long kind of goal of maintaining health just because. I don't know. I think that sometimes when you play really, really hard and then your body gets accustomed to playing hard and when you play through some stuff, then your body that has to be. That has to be. That has to be our coaches mentality because holy shit. Like I love it a death trust me. And like I think we are prepared. We are in shape. We are in rhythm. Our chemistry is great right now. And so like I get where she's coming from, but like I think there's something to be said that if that's how you practice how you play, but I also think there's something to be said to have like load management because as a player, you also want to feel healthy and like refreshed and ready to go when it matters.

33:34You know what I mean? I think that that's kind of what I'm struggling with truthfully is like I love to practice and I like truly I love to practice. I love working hard and I love what we do in practice. I just think like the time it's like for me, I like, why can't we do that in an hour 20 or an hour 30? Why does it have to be two hours? You know, again, I think the goal is it's not to do more. It's to do better. Like the goal should be when you show up to practice. It's like what are we trying to accomplish as soon as we accomplish that. Let's get out. Like it shouldn't be like, okay, we're going to keep doing the drill because there's eight minutes on the clock. It should be okay. We accomplish that check. Let's move on to the next thing. And the last thing I'll say about load management because I think it's important. I believe that teams do it different ways. Some teams will rest guys and sit them out. Some guys, some teams will play them less minutes. You know, you saw that with Wembee this year where he played a lot less minutes during the regular season. And then the spurs go to the finals and people are like, okay, like maybe it worked. But then in the finals, you saw Wembee fatigue a little bit. So then all the people are like, well, maybe if you would have played more minutes, then that spike wouldn't have hurt him.

34:37So I don't think there's a right or wrong answer. I think that you kind of have your beliefs on what you think works for your team or certain players. And then ultimately you kind of decide what you think will give you the best chance of winning a championship. So I do think that the goal of practice is to ultimately have your team confident going into games and have solutions for problems that they're going to see in games so that when you're out there, you're like, oh, I've seen this before. I've done this before. So that you do feel really good. So saying that one of the things I wanted to switch up a little bit was this week's film breakdown is somebody that you guys are getting ready to play again. She doesn't mean she's been ballin' this season. Wait, can I talk about her too?

35:46I don't use it for lurgic to my bow. Remove contacts before using and wait at least 30 minutes before putting them back in. I read this and blurred vision may occur. For more info, talk to your eye doctor, call 1-844-Mybow-Yeah or visit mybow.com. Hey, it's Kelly Rowland. You may not know this, but I have eczema. So I get how it can steal your time. But why let eczema take over? When you can talk to your doctor about ebglyss. Ebglyss, lubricism ab lbkz, a 250-mg per 2-ml-liter injection, is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older, who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kg with moderate to severe eczema. Also called a topic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies, ebglyss can be used without topical corticosteroids. If you are allergic to ebglyss, allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have newer worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with ebglyss.

36:48Before starting ebglyss, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Paid partnership with Lili. Respect your time. Ask your doctor about ebglyss and visit ebglyss.com or call 1-800-LiliRx or 1-800-545-5979. ChatGPT can do more than answer questions. It can help you get real work done. ChatGPT work is built for bigger projects with multiple steps. You bring the goal along with the information it needs, like briefs, notes, files, feedback, calendars, data sets or project plans. Then, ChatGPT can help turn all of that into something useful, an analysis, a tracker, a deck outline, a prototype, or a workflow you can keep shaping. It can also use approved apps, connected tools, files and browser context to help move the work forward. And you stay in control. You give direction, review drafts, approve actions, redirect the work and choose the final output. So you spend less time sorting through busy work and more time making progress on the work that matters.

37:52Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at ChatGPT.com by selecting WorkMove. Available on Plus and Pro Plants. Yes, for sure. No, because we talk about who we want to talk about. You're becoming a fan of Girls in Arlee. You're becoming a fan in general. And when you're doing these breakdowns, you're like, okay, who's next? And I gave you a list. The first one I put was Sonya, because she is an absolute badass, truly. I don't know, I think at Notre Dame, she was like kind of like the quiet assassin, but she helped them win. And now this is her team along with a couple others. And she is freaking hard to guard, man. She uses her body well. She, I mean, you're going to talk about you're going to do the breakdown and I'll have my comments. But I truly love the way she plays. I love her personality, the way she approaches the game, kind of who she is off the court. And so I have nothing but like great things to say about her.

38:54And listen, you gave me three names. She was at the top of the list. And I looked and I said, okay, the second game back, you guys play against her. And earlier this season, she had a 30 point game against you guys. So I was like, okay, let me see what she does. Well, and then let's give the fever fans something that maybe you guys can do a little bit better so that you guys can contain her. And you guys did do a better job on her the second time around. So let's just run the clip and see this. So one of the things she does so well is any time that the dropping big does not show a jersey, meaning squared up, take away a lane to the basket. She gets down hill and finishes and she is so good at finding little angles like right here. You can see little angle just turns the corner gets down hill. And it's something that I don't think a lot of players do. They kind of see a big dropping. And so they're like, you know what? Okay, it's not there. Her not so much. If she does not see a jersey in front of the path to the basket, she is getting around them, getting to the rim. And she is a great finisher. Wait, I'm gonna. I'm gonna break this down a little bit too, just for people who don't really know what we're talking about.

39:55So when she's coming off a ball screen, the post player setting the screen, we're talking about their defender. Like their defender needs to be like up at the screen so she doesn't see a wide open lane. All of their defenders are dropped and giving her that space that allows her. And I don't know if she has a clip. She can shoot the hell out of the ball, man. Like she is, she's a hard guard. And so you see all these post players right there. They're just not up to touch. And that gives her, she's like, lick in her chossum, she sees that. Up to touch just means that basically the screener's offender is literally touching the screener instead of in a drop coverage where there's like a yard of separation where they can, you know, get down hill. And so all of these, you see the exact same thing over and over again where she's able to see a little edge attack the outside hip and then get to the basket. Another thing that she does great is when she comes off and maybe there isn't a clear pass of the basket. She just hesitates for a second and right when the big and the guard exchange. So a lot of times the big goal is to basically stay in containment until the guard, the primary defender gets through and gets back in front.

40:58But there's a split second where a lot of times there's miscommunication and the big leaves a little early and the guard that's guarding arrives a little bit late. And she is so good at just hesitating and then again getting down hill. And so over and over again, you see the exact same thing. Little hesitation big starts to get back and a big thinking I got to get back to mine. Whereas the guard thinking just hold off a second so I can get back in front that miscommunication or no communication. And a lot of times let's her have that path to the basket. And I think you hit a key right there that it really is kind of on when you're playing defense because that's I've never been on her team. I'm always on the defensive end that you are trying to get back in front because you should never go under on her. She has she has a clip she can shoot that thing. So you're always trying to go over that screen. But sometimes those post players they think you're squared up and back in front of her. But you're not like your post players have got to listen to the guard to make sure you're fully in front because she does have that little hezzy and right when she sees that post player go back. She could just you can't get back in front of her. So it's I think that the post need to wait on the guards communication to wait and say like I'm back.

41:59You know what I mean a lot of times we always say is the person that is moving on to the ball should be the one communicating because if the big is guarding the ball and they're leaving too early. There's nobody containing the ball and the balls and most important thing and so if you are chasing over top or if you are sliding under once you say I'm good I'm back at that point the big should get back. And again if the big helping you know the player that's going over top of screen or sliding through then the other players are the ones that are responsible for their player for that little short time. So now we get into the coverage that I think is the best coverage against her because I was watching over and over again her turn the corner or her hezzy and get down hill. And I was going okay let's see if any team has made an adjustment to stop her because she is really really good at those things. And so sure enough there's one coverage three to the ball that really has caused her problems this year and so look right here when you when I stop this clip you can see there are three on the ball and what that does is it puts a lot of pressure on the other two defenders because those other two defenders are going to have to kind of cover up for a second.

43:02But for whatever reason making her a passer instead of a score has worked out really well here again you can see three on the ball so again it's just basically the big stays home the guard gets back and then the next defender over slides over in a position where they're not given up a straight pass to the wing but they're also not allowing a turn the corner so it just kind of really keeps her in containment same exact thing right here you can see three to the ball and so. I think this is a great coverage i'm obviously showing all of the turnovers that I saw when i was breaking down film but I mean it is something that has given her trouble this year and so I think that that's something that you know now fever fans can look forward to when they're watching that second game back and they can say okay is our containment good is our communication good are we doing a good job of keeping our jersey in front are we doing a good job of recovering get back in front and then finally are we doing a good job of helping out from the perimeter side our fans are going to be like three people on the ball. They're going to be listening and I will say that Washington has been stunning this year they are a very young team a very inexperienced team but they have done very well they kind of embraced that kind of mentality of just like going out there and just you know doing the dirty work and I think that their next step especially with the players that they have really Sonia and everything that she can do for that program they need to get some shooters around here and that will allow her to kind of even you know expand her game even more but if they got some knockdown shooters I think that'd be key for them.

44:31100% and one last clip because I know that there's going to be some basketball folks watching and saying well she just comes off the screen and just fires it to the you know the perimeter player across then there's going to be dominoes and advantages and they're going to take advantage of that well this is another thing you can do you can pull in and then you can stunt back so it's not like you just have to stay at home all the time and obviously on the backside defenders have to be ready if there's a slip you know when she throws over top to the to the short roller something like that but this is a coverage that I thought really work well and so I was like you know what not only are we gonna highlight all the good things that she does but also I want to show how you kind of counter those things because yeah that's what practice and that's what scouting a lot of times is it's finding these weaknesses and now if I'm her team and if I'm her then I'm going okay let's look at how we can beat that you know can we start slot cutting and eliminating that next defender over and then if that doesn't work can we rotate and slide on the on the drive so that's a chest the good teams are playing is they're constantly going back and going back and going back and go and say I'm going to be doing this again because I'm not gonna be able to do it with you knowing that I'm gonna be on a lot of time and I'm going to get a little bit of a play that I'm not gonna like that I'm gonna get a little bit of a little bit of a play that I'm gonna do that's gonna be good and then I'm gonna play that I

45:31fourth of if they do this, then we're going to do this. And we're going to counter this way. And it's, it's just a game that you're playing within the game and ultimately whoever plays those games better is usually a team that comes out on top. So I think it's fun though for people to actually start seeing the differences in the games. So instead of just seeing her turn the corner and saying, we got a stopper. Well, why are we stopping her? What should we be doing? And now I think fans know a little bit more. And I think as the like one of the opposing teams has to play against them, you also realize that she has the ball in her hands a lot. And like she is one of their main threats. So get in the gaps and like make her get rid of it and make someone else like make a shot and make a play. You know what I mean? Like it's like you might give up a couple, but I think you'd be okay with giving up a couple. Then rather her go off and getting that confidence. And then once she has that confidence, then she's able to to make those passes and get her teammates involved. And then it's just downhill from there for the opposing team. So I like it. And last time you guys did a lot better job container and you guys beat them last time. So I think that shows that when you guys do make others beat you, which is a lot of times a case when you can slow down the superstar, then it obviously, you know,

46:35a lot of times, you know, raises your level of chances of winning. And so I think that's important. And so, you know, so if I wanted to bridge this because we've been talking a lot about practice. And this weekend at the NASCAR event, you had a chance to show off all the practice in high school when you were a field goal kicker. And you kicked it and almost knocked somebody out in the crowd. And so let me talk you through this. Let me talk you through this. Everyone knows that was a very shitty kick. I walked off my dad goes, that was horrible. And he goes, maybe next time like my own father said that, but I did not know I was going to be kicking and I was wearing like boots, but they had heels to him. So I'm going to blame the shoes. But I'm not kicked a ball. I can kick the shit out of football. Don't get me wrong. But if I nailed a mic, like I kicked it, it was horrible. I nailed a mic. And if it did not hit that mic, I promise you I wouldn't kill someone in the front row. Like it didn't look good. It did not look good. As soon as I saw, yeah, as soon as I saw the kick, I like your reaction though. You're like, oh my

47:37god, I'll show what I did. I just do. Okay, look at my heel. Wait, go back. Whoever's fine. Let's go back because I want you guys to see from the very get go see the heel right there. It throws you all it throws you off as a kicker. Trust me. But the levels were different. So maybe when you back in the day in high school, you were accurate. You were using, you know, kicking shoes and soccer shoes. I'm guessing. So it was a little bit better. I had a 45 year old feel goal in high school. But honestly, speaking of women in sport or like women not in sport, the amount of text messages, DMs, comments of people wanting to know, maybe not know, but wanting me to talk about the Sydney, Sydney, Sydney ad. Like I feel like we got to hit on it. Everyone's talking about it and they want to know. Now, let me ask you as you've met her before, correct? Actually, I had an ask car event last year and I spent like five minutes with her. So met her, but like, do I know her?

48:43What's your take? I know that you love giving take. So what is your take on the ad? I have so many takes, but like, it's just, first of all, like, does she, is she even, as like, does she even gamble on sports? Like, it's just so unauthentic. You know what I mean? Like, am I surprised of how she represented the brand? No. Like that's what she's made her call career off is. And hey, don't get me wrong. Like, I like her. Like she, everyone knows she is beautiful. She is hot. She clearly has my chest. Sorry. Just have to fix my seat real quick. And so like, I really like her. And you know what, she sticks to her guns and she does her thing and she's hurt. So like props to her. Do I like that? Do I like it? Like that particular ad? Not really. Like I think it's like, I mean, like what, like what are we doing? But again, I'm not surprised. Like that's what that's what she's known for. So she's going to do that. She's making her money. Go do your things. This. Now here's my hot take. What? What? What? I was just going to say,

49:45she's just running her playbook. She literally did the exact same thing with the gene campaign. And to be honest with you, the crazy thing is all the people that were outraged were women. And the ad was clearly targeting men because the majority of gamblers, I think they said 75% of gamblers are men between the ages of whatever and whatever. Like younger men and so I think they knew what they were doing. They knew that they were going to spike up a lot of traffic from women being disappointed with the ad and putting her down. And men weren't going to say anything and they were going to get all the eyeballs on the ad, which they clearly did. So I understand they just ran the same playbook that they did with last time they were pissed at the gene ad. Now they just did it for a sports gambling company. And I'm sure why again? But why are girls mad? Like that she is that is literally what she does. Why is anyone mad? Like that? She is a gambling ad. Men, sports pretty much naked women. Like of course that's going to draw attention again. Do I agree with it? Morally I think it's kind of weird, but like teach their own, go do your thing sis. But at the other day, I'm really loving seeing all these girls who are powerful, strong,

50:49showing young girls what it looks like to actually be an athlete. I don't think the ad was coming for women in sport. But I will say I think I will take this time a little bit of time to talk about. I think it has been so cool to see girls who, you know what, they're mussely, they're thighs touch, they are broad shoulders, they might be taller than the average girl and probably the average boy. But you know what, I think that's what it is. Like you got to embrace your power. And I was tall growing up, I saw all the girls, all the guys. And my mom is 511, my aunt is 6263. My grandma was tall at the time. And you know what, every time they kind of saw us shrinking in photos, they're trying to be like smaller than the guys like no, you better stand straight up because that's going to be your biggest superpower one day. Your strength, your athletic ability, how tall you are, like God made you that way for a reason. And so you better use it in. I just want girls to know that like don't shrink, don't shrink to make other people feel better about themselves when you're born to stick out.

51:50I do think that it's important for people to have that dialogue, you have that conversation. You know what I mean? It was crazy because even before we jumped on this, I was like, so this is a tough situation because people are so opposites, polarize. And I think that that's the thing that I've learned so far about being in the W more than I was before as like an outsider. Now I feel like I'm starting to become a little bit more of an insider is. It is always black and white right now. There's, and there's a lot of topics that are gray. There are some that are black and white, but I feel like a lot of times people, instead of having conversations like you just did where you said, hey, listen, this is who she is. This is who she's always shown she is. It's okay, but instead of talking down on her and having women hate on women, let's talk about celebrating women and sports and showing that these differences can be a positive thing so that we give confidence to these younger student athletes that don't feel like they fit in and feel like because they look different or they have differences that they can't be bold and stand out and do all those amazing

52:50things that you just talked about. I will say though, I can understand when you first see that ad, that it could kind of deflate women because it's like, we've worked so hard to get a little bit of respect around here, but then when you really think about it, it's like, it's good. Let that girl go do her thing. This has nothing to do with us. It's nothing like everyone trying to hate on each other and figure out life, so that's great. All right, so if I think that's a perfect place to wrap up, you told me before we started the show, there were two reasons why you wanted to do this show with me. Number one, you wanted to give insights and information and details about the game of basketball. You wanted to break down the W and all the good things in it. I think that you had a chance to kind of do some of that. And then second thing is, you told me how important it was for you to continue to be the role model that you are for so many young athletes. And I know that the W as it keeps expanding, there are so many young athletes that are looking up to you guys. And so I think that that last segment where you were able to kind of talk directly to those people that might feel like you did at some times where you felt

53:52like an outcast. I think that was perfect. So you guys, the good thing is next episode, next week, you guys are going to be back in action. You guys got games coming up. So we'll be able to talk, you know, all games and talk about the end of the season. And then even start to kind of hint at playoff seating and what that's going to look like. So make sure you guys are subscribing, make sure you guys are liking and commenting. We also look at all the DMs and all the comments that you guys leave. That's why some of these segments were on the show. So make sure you guys keep firing those off. And hopefully we can cover as many of those moving forward. So we appreciate you guys and we'll see you next week.

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