Hey guys, it's Nate, AKA the Foot Accountant. Welcome back to the channel. A different video today, we're going to be talking about why this might be the worst week in FIFA Ultimate Team history, why this game is in shambles, why the community is in uproar. I want to take a look at this with you guys today professionally and logically because that's who I am. I'm an accountant, I am a businessman and that's just also who I am relationally, right? Professional. I'm not going to take things out of context and I want to present this to you in a way where you can understand EA's side a little bit as well, but also you know how you feel and you feel the animosity and the anger towards EA and especially with this week. This has not been a good week for FIFA and for their game, the publicity that it is getting, the news lines and the headlines that is being created because of stuff that has gone on this week has just been not good at all. So I want to talk about some of that stuff today and of course just my opinion on a lot of this stuff as well. Why I think EA runs this game the way that they do and why we are led to feel such you know anger and stuff and we feel like this game could be a lot better, right? I think we can all agree on that. I want to talk through some of those things today as well. But first, let's talk about what has been going on this week that has been just creating a massive madness on this game. I think this started it all off. The whole Kurt banning situation, they banned Kurt's EA accounts which is what we thought from this message right here which was posted on Electronic Arts main Twitter account with 4.5 million followers. They tweeted this out and to us originally and it read that Kurt's EA account was going to be banned. Not like Kurt himself was not ever going to be able to play EA sports games again but tonight we found out otherwise. So this kind of started things off with the EA banning Kurt's account. His foot founder which was a huge you know Keemstar got involved supposedly they're creating something. I don't know what's going to have with that but we had this happening. Of course we had the servers that were going down all the time this weekend that impacted their game widely as well because servers were going down during light. I think servers were down when they were like trying to sell packs. Was it Saturday maybe? I think servers were down when they had packs out and so that helps them not or that inhibits them from making some money. Also that just that inhibits there that that affects everybody on the game right from a casual player who is maybe trying to get into their first week in league. We're trying to get on the game. They're not able to get on the game and then also affects the hardcore player us over here either trying to trade trying to get like elite three in the week in league or just get your 14 wins which is probably all you need to do these days anyway but that affects everybody.  I don't want to talk about that too much. I just want to talk about all of these happenings and all of this stuff as a whole and how it affects the EA and how it puts them in a negative light because why is this a big deal for EA? Why would EA be putting out a message on their Twitter account with 4.5 million followers that they're banning one player of their FIFA 20 ultimate team their FIFA 20 game? Why does that matter to them? Because the publicity because the things that it could do because they know the power right they know the power of somebody of Kurt they saw the masses the you know the following that he had of people that he was kind of like rising up a rebellion or an army against EA and that's how it was kind of the picture was being painted right and that's how we a lot of people in the community have been painting this picture of EA the past couple of years right it's really started to unfold the past couple of years where we just kind of had this animosity towards EA and we've kind of just had this anger and we've kind of been upset with them because we feel like things in this game are manipulated sometimes to benefit them and to hurt us and also we just think that this game could be a lot better in many different ways we feel like this game could be way better in all different areas all different facets and that's where kind of the animosity and the hatred and the anger kind of comes from from the community towards EA but why why does that even begin like why does that anger and why is that stuff even begin is why like EA wants to that's why EA is feeling the heat this week I guess with all that anger and all that stuff that's going on they realized that hey this is something we probably need to squash because we're a business right they know that a lot of this publicity like we're going to say this article over here that I just showed you we're going to read through in a second this is from IGN IGN like one of the biggest news outlets for gaming throughout the world and this was posted yesterday on IGN about the whole um the rock paper scissors situation with the professionals and of course with um Giuseppe the with the one of the pros playing in the qualifiers who where's his tweet right here oh it uh the penalty kick that like hit the post and went in but it didn't count uh in that game which was crazy enough and so all of this stuff is just bad publicity for them which hurts them as a business and first and foremost EA as you can as we can tell they operate as a business right because people own them right shareholders own EA sports and what does EA do EA is trying to make money to please those shareholders and show that their investment in the company is allowing the company to grow to make more money and then to get a return on their investment someday that's the whole point of capitalism right of capitalism and business and growing EA sports is trying to grow as a company to please shareholders to make more money and then everybody's happy that's the whole point right and this would be a situation where EA might be taking some flak taking some heat which could hurt the revenue hurts hurt their outlook and hurt their just how they're viewed which you know they've been viewed kind of poorly I think in the gaming scene for a long time based on other things that I've read online for goodness sake there's a whole Wikipedia page on EA that is like the arguments against EA or like the way the why people are feel mad against EA and then talks about all of EA's like bad accomplishments of them getting like top 10 worst companies in the United States like certain number of years in a row and even being number one a couple years so like the fact that that stuff is out there people know like this isn't a secret this has been this way for a long time that this is such a money grab type of organization it seems that it's run that way and kind of why is that right there's kind of two things that I want to break down is why I think EA is also viewed in this way and why they kind of run their business the way that they do because I'm I'm thinking of it from EA standpoint as well right because we can look at it from our standpoint all we want right we want the best football simulation game that we can get right and they're the ones that have you know the the most applicable and the best one right now I mean all arguments aside Pez does not really come up to this FIFA 20 game in terms of the content that EA puts out and all the rights and the licenses that EA has it is head and shoulders above the rest because it's just it's got a monopoly on the sport of football FIFA 20 and ea sports has a monopoly right it's just it's just kind of the way it is and it's the way it's been formed because it's not like everybody can have all these licenses you know only one person can have them because they want soul and like usage of that because it's a license and they want to be the only one to have it because that way they can make more money out of it exactly right that's kind of how it goes this is a big big business but again the two things I want to point out here on why I think that EA is feeling the heat and why I think EA runs their business in the way that they do and the two things that we can pull away from that is number one culture EA sports and like the culture of their business is the best word that I have to describe it the motivation what is their motivation it's the money we know that the motivation is the money makes sense a little bit right as a business right but you can value money in different ways you can value your consumer first you can value your consumer first in the long run after you value your consumer they grow with you they have a happy a good relationship with you think about fortnight now fortnight might not be the best example but fortnight kicked off with a bang because people loved the game they created a game people love to play they didn't make it pay to win you had to pay what is like 10 bucks for the battle pass on fortnight and you were good for however long that season lasted and then you could renew it for free after that is that how it worked I didn't play a lot of fortnight but it was not pay to win it was they had great communication back and forth between customer service with epic games and they valued the customer EA sports is the opposite of that EA sports is trying to grab some money from the customer while they're there while they can it's like a money grab a quick in and out almost whereas a guy or a game like fortnight or a game where you value the consumer is valuing you over time which you would think is the smarter play and in the correct way in the right way to do it because if you value the consumer over time that consumer has more of an incentive to grow with you and to form a stronger relationship with you which could mean spending more money on the game and on stuff in the future as that relationship progresses right that's why I think the culture at EA is just mixed up it's the wrong way right they value the quick in and out they value just the money grab way of doing things instead of forming a relationship and creating a consumer base that is happy with their product and happy with them that's not the way that it seems to be right now because you can make both both money you can make money both ways but the way that they're doing it is not valuing the consumer which doesn't make the consumer happy which ends up in the end probably not making them as much money because instead of you know one scoop here you get them all the way this time right and you're just money money money the whole time right that's why I think value the consumer would yield a higher amount of money from e-sports but hey that's just me as an accountant and a businessman from what I have observed in life so far and also with this company which I think this e-sports has taught me a lot honestly being an account has taught me a lot being a businessman has taught me a lot but being like seeing e-sports has taught me a lot as well almost taught me kind of how to not run a business in a few senses but also on how to so EA you're doing something I guess second thing I talked about culture for a long time second thing is communication kind of goes in with like the value in the consumer base thing communication we just don't know what happens at EA we don't know what goes on after I click in this game what goes on in there to who is the one making decisions to put this content into the game who is hiring this person what are the core values and the motivations behind putting a certain amount of packs in ultimate team that day or sitting or setting a price range that day or failing to upgrade cards until a certain time or not doing things lickety-split like they could be done with the press of a button or not releasing content or releasing tons of content why the communication on some of those things now of course it is a business right and you know if they're trying to make money and some of their deceiving ways it seems sometimes with the way that they release content on this game do they really have to tell us a lot of that probably they never would but at least some communication going back and forth on you know lots of stuff like improving the servers or feedback that we give that we just feel like is one-way feedback it's like us talking to a brick wall sometimes we just never get anything back and then sometimes we get nothing back and they blame it on us like for the icon sbcs you guys said that these are above the threshold it's too much for you to pay no when did we say that we just wanted the sbcs so that kind of stuff is just misunderstanding that all could be worked out with communication right good two-way communication would help a lot of things in this game in my opinion but again back to ea and why this whole situation kind of hurts them right we just talked about culture and communication their culture is to grab the money and go and right now this is kind of hurting them i want to take a quick peek at some of these articles back over here this is actually from ea sports electronic arts earnings called transcripts from quarter two and quarter three of this past year so quarter two would have ended september 30th 2019 right before fifa 20 was like officially out or right around that time frame so it doesn't have a lot of revenue and a lot of the stats from the beginning of fifa 20 then also quarter three which we're going to look at right here is from it ends on december 31st 2019 so that would have the half first half of the year fifa basically so read through some of this and what it says you can kind of get a glimpse and this is what i talk about a lot right i'm an accountant so i prepare a lot of stuff like this and the information that goes into these i prepare the you know putting all the statements together and putting all the information together for that company so that they can present it to their shareholders and this is what they're doing here this is ea presenting information to their shareholders over that quarter of the year and of how much money they made and just talking about their business because their shareholders want to know enhancements and core gameplay and ultimate team are also re-engaging more franchise veterans with unique players and fifa ultimate team growing 22 over last year people are playing more fifa than ever with total in game matches up 30 year over year as players continue to engage in the fifa 20 experience and ultimate team our fifa 20 global series is taken off in november with millions set to compete in our unparalleled nine month worldwide e-sports competition unparalleled unparalleled with people playing rock paper scissors to decide who is going to be going on in the tournament or unparalleled by the failure to connect those two participants in the first place to be able to play the game but it's your unparalleled e-sports competition interesting anyways you can tell if they regard this very highly they're calling it unparalleled nine month worldwide e-sports competition this is something they're trying to sell to the people that own their company the shareholders this is a big thing right here they go on more about it last season more than 800 million minutes of fifa e-sports content were watched and with sponsors like adidas and others breaking new ground we're excited to reach an expanding audience more content uh and yada yada yada so they're they're pushing that there's more people playing fifa and they're pushing that um the pro scene is kicking off and it's unparalleled right let's look at quarter three what do they say in quarter three so this is basically after fifa 20 has started until december 31st 2019 to fifa 20 and the updates in ultimate team uh foot matches are up nearly 40 percent year over year from launch through quarter three there is one reason why foot matches are up 40 percent from launch compared to fifa 19 from last year that's what this is saying icon swaps think about what they added to the game the only way to attain icons for a lot of players in this game for people that can't go and buy them because they just don't spend a ton of money on this game is by playing games that's the mode and the way that you attain cards this year through objectives they've done a lot through objectives this year especially with the icon swaps now we can talk about the quality of the icon swaps all day but this is what i think is the huge reason here 40 percent year over year increase in games played because of icon swaps fifa 20 is also the number one most engaging title in our subscription services okay we're now getting ready to launch two major additions to fifa 20 experience with our prestigious south american club tournaments connie bowl liberatoris and connie bowl suit america which we are getting that con that content right now but i mentioned in some of my other videos that if they're mentioning this in their earnings calls then it's something that is very very important to ea sports and they think it's going to be a big difference maker for their games so it's probably going to make some sort of an impact on us as players of the game if they're talking about it in their earnings calls right you don't ever see them in the in here talking about how they're going to be dropping this many packs in for a lighting round or how they're going to be adding this super dope promo called carna ball they didn't talk about that last year before they added it right but they were like so proud to get these licenses this year that they they had to talk about the connie bowl stuff but basically i wanted to show you guys these because you can tell a company reading through these transcripts and you can tell what they're trying to push and what they're trying to tell you and feed you information wise and what they're trying to tell people the reading these are fifa is doing well fifa is making a lot of money fifa is bringing more people onto the game which obviously brings in the opportunity to make more money and we have cool new things going on with the pro scene and with these new licenses that we have purchased right this is all the good stuff that they're saying about the game they're never going to talk about these disconnects the rock paper scissors and stuff like that but that information is now getting out and that is what people are going to remember that they have a bad taste in their mouth right now about this stuff right even an ea statement said a double failure to connect and compete in a qualifying tournament match results in a loss for most participant this is to prevent connection issues from being exploited however rather than playing you know it just it's like a cop-out answer almost to why in the heck you would have people play um how rock paper scissors to decide this right and it's just kind of a testament to how underwhelming the pro scene actually is not to mention have we mentioned prize pools yet we haven't even mentioned prize pools but that it's unparalleled right that's the kind of stuff that we get just get mad at and that's the stuff that we get angered at with this game because it's just not up to par and it's just not where it could be and that's partially why we get upset but again ea is a company right boys ea is a company they're trying to make money and they're actually being pretty successful at doing it so what is going to make things change what is going to make ea start to comply with us more or what is going to make the game change so that we're happier i can tell you one thing the game is not going to get better by us um attacking ea employees and uh threatening them i'm not i'm not saying that kurt did a ton of that because you know kurt did make some comments i'm not here to comment on those comments that he made um i will say that i do think he went a little bit too far but that's him his that's him that's him not me right that is him not me i'm a totally different person than what kurt is i may have handled it differently um but i think we're kind of coming from the same spot is that we just want to see the game better and we just don't get any communication so we're frustrated and so we're upset when we try to maintain and we try to make things better nothing happens right not much happens and that's where the anger is really coming from but what can we do obviously people talk about we can leave the game yeah we can leave the game but if you really want to go play another game that is a football simulator where are you going to go right pez it's okay football manager totally different um ea just has it all ea has a monopoly on this football content and all and all the stuff that is football related in this world that it makes it hard to go anywhere else but here but how can we still make a difference i push this to you guys all the time and you know i don't i don't say that you know you have to spend a few points or that it's um you don't spend fever points it's like evil if you do that i'm just saying please consider if you're somebody who has spent fever points at all this year um you can go without it you can you can literally go without it if if tons of people all over this world if we have a couple million people that instead of spending you know 12 000 fever points every month if they if they just spend zero every month for this next FIFA that's gonna make a dent especially if you have millions of people doing it it's hard to do that of course this FIFA community it's on twitter right like i have 7 000 followers on twitter right that's not even close to a million people so me telling you guys to do this is not going to change this whole entire game it's just this company is massive and the amount of people that play this game is massive it's going to take something huge for something to change with this game um but i'm not going to sit here and tell you to do nothing because there are if you do nothing then absolutely nothing is going to happen right if you sit here and do nothing what's going to change nothing if you make an attempt at least and you can maybe start something then that's when things can start to be accomplished and of course if EA would just open up to us and have some communication and maybe start to value the consumer a little bit more as well then we could get somewhere but again it's going to be hard to make a dent or to make an imprint ourselves in this game by just not spending money but i think money and losing the rights like i uh i saw something the other day about uh if you remember star wars battlefront came out and disney who owns the rights for star wars battlefront threatened to pull the rights away from EA because the feedback from that game star wars battlefront when it first came out was so bad that disney was like hey we don't like our rights being viewed this way and catching all this hate and this heat because people want to use our rights for our star wars stuff in the game and use it and have fun right and right now it's not being fun so if somehow i don't know how the rights and stuff works again that's part of the communication thing that we just don't know how this all works i don't know if we ever will but we just don't know but if somehow EA would like have challenge for the rights or if whoever owns the rights says yo this game right now it's not making us look good we're gonna pull out and you know or we're gonna threaten to pull out that would change things for sure as well and the last thing i want to talk about is work this is stuff is going to be lingering in the community for a long time and i want you to make sure that you always put things in perspective and put things in a context right this is a video game all right this is a video game you love football you love the sport your favorite team your club is going to be playing it's still going to be happening right you still have real life iRL football you can go out place and football yourself get on a team if you don't play already you can go out and find a ball and have some fun that way just remember to keep things in perspective that this is just a game and a subset of the actual sport it is not entirely everything all right you know this is a job for some people it is not for me if this were to vanish right away i would still be okay i would still be fine i would still be okay right and i think you would be too right i know football is massive we have a passion we have a love for the game and a love for the sport and a love for how we can use that in the simulation of FIFA 20 but always keep things in this perspective there are bigger things in life than just this this video game right that's what i wanted to leave you with but again i wanted to make this video today to kind of talk over everything put my opinions and kind of my information and my view on things being an accountant being um you know knowing business a decent a decent amount i wanted to talk through some things with you guys today hopefully we see something change you know what i'm gonna be hopeful and you know i'm not i'm not gonna stop speaking my mind and being i'm gonna do it in a professional and a respectful manner because that's how i feel is the best way to do things i hope you guys can align with me on that as well i don't want anybody ever from my community if you watch me or if you associate yourself with me or anybody if you even if you don't for that matter i don't feel like it's just good to go out and to hate on somebody just for the reason that you're upset right take a step back use some comment sets think about it cool down for a second and then maybe go on a more constructive but also have an open mind because there should be two sides to every story into every argument right hopefully we can get ea side at some point but again i want to bring you this information today just talk about it to talk over it and um yeah just to provide maybe a little bit of my insight on it so if you enjoyed this video and if you have any comments of course who cares if you enjoyed this video i don't i didn't enjoy making this video but if you have any comments put them down below in the description i'm still going to be playing fifa 20 because this is the game that i've spent all my time on this year this is the best representation of a football simulator that we do have will i maybe branch off and try some other things does pes interest me a little bit sure it does we might save that for some time down the road but for now i'm going to be staying with fifa because i have a diligence and a duty for you guys to show you how to make coins in this game because you guys love this game just as much as i do we just wish that it could be better right we just wish that it could be better so hopefully someday we can get there but again if you enjoyed it maybe hit a thumbs up on it of course subscribe if you are new and i will catch you guys in a video tomorrow alright boys peace


What up guys? We're here. I survived. I'm feeling... The hangover is completely gone. So glad I got that chair session in last night because I'm feeling really good this morning. It's about...  It's like nine o'clock. Anna's come and picking me up. Even though it should be the other way around but that's all good. So she's going to pick me up and then we're going to head off to Handma Springs, which is a Really cool place about two hours out of Christchurch, like I was saying. So I've got about an hour Until she's going to get here. First things first, coffee. I already got one out. Right. Every time I come here really the last few times I've bought these little sachets, cappuccino sachets. They're really good. They're like as close to a cafe coffee, like the texture as You're going to get out of instant coffee. I'm pretty sure. Unless you have like a coffee machine, of course. So I just put one sachet in plus one stick of Stevia hot water. See? Told you.   Do something fun, but basically Yeah, right now. I'm just going to hit the street, smash this back and then yeah I'll turn the camera back on when Anna gets back and we'll be off having a mean day. So I'm taking the drone. Finally going to get some good footage. Can't wait for that and Yeah, really excited for the day. So let's do it. And it's just about here. Cardio's done.  So got some swimming shorts for the pools definitely going there and a jumper for if it or for when it gets cold later on as I'm sure it will and That's about us. So I'm just waiting for her now and Hopefully she'll be here soon and we'll be off.  It's just like a real cool like getaway place I think there's ski fields there as well, but Basically Yeah, I'm just excited. It should be good It's gonna it's gonna bring back a lot of memories a lot of childhood memories and you know There's no one I'd rather go there with than my sister who shared with shared them with me in the first place so I can't wait it's gonna be a cool day and We'll see you guys on the road Stop bra get my message King Wow, I got us matching beanies. I got your blue one, but you don't have to wear We're going How long's it take to get there?   Oh, what's this I see That looks like an interesting Take a couple of specimens on the road Off That looks good What are we doing?  I got my breakfast of champions While you're shredding is ready Gives you wings. We'll match says it's about an hour and a half away and I can't wait and It's going to be an awesome day. So we've got a good day for it.  So Anyways, we're off on a road trip Can't wait. Let's go. Yes, please Unluck some we look at the scenery Legend living here could change the gear. Yeah, this is going round to where the horse tracks are looks pretty nice. Yeah, that's information All right, we're gonna get a brochure. We're gonna get a park. What?   Is it? It's like you've got to go to the pools Which we're probably not going to go to anymore. So where are we going to go? We're gonna do mini golf first No, because Well, if we don't go to the pools, we've got time to do probably five hours of activities So much room and we're gonna come back and do that. But first get some cardio in right sorry. Sorry. Sorry I'm too much of a harder All right sightseeing, but it's also cardio low intensity steady state. This is kind of fuzzy. There's no one around


What's happening? Welcome to another episode of In the Zone. I'm your host, Chris Broussard. And we got a great show for you once again today. Of course, we got knockdown, Jay. We got a special surprise for you in that where I show off my acting chops with Jason McIntyre. We're going to have a lot of fun in there. And then, of course, we got a great interview with Joe Vardon, who does a terrific job covering LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers for Cleveland.com. That's going, what a time to talk Cavs, right? So great interview there. But first, as always, we're going to do our top five. And this week, the reserves for the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference were named. And boy, there are some people who are upset that they did not make the All-Star team. So I'm going to give you my top five All-Star snubs. So you can call it the All-Snub team if you like. But here it goes. At number five, Nikola Jokic. The six-foot 10-inch do everything center for the Denver Nuggets. 16 points a game. 10 rebounds a game. Five assists a game. That's the team high. They've got a starting backcourt of two shooting guards. So Jokic is essentially their point guard. And he does a great job of running the offense, running the team. With Paul Millsap playing only 15 games, Jokic has the nuggets fighting for a playoff spot in the rugged West. At number four, CP3 Chris Paul. He'd be higher on this list and he'd definitely be an All-Star if he hadn't missed 17 games. And I got to admit one of the greatest point guards ever. But I couldn't put him on the All-Star team in the West missing 17 games. But he is playing lights out, ball surprising me and virtually everybody by fitting in so well in Houston. 19 points, nine assists and 40% from three. I believe with Chris Paul and James Harden, the Rockets now have a legitimate chance to beat Golden State. I'm going to say 30%. That's legit nowadays. Nobody else has a double-figures chance of beating Golden State. 30% the Rockets, Chris Paul at number four. At number three, Andre Drummond Detroit Piston Center leads their league and rebounding 15 boards a game, gives you 14 points by far the highest P-E-R on the team and drops four assists a game. That's pretty good for a center third on the team. Look, I love the professionalism of Al Horford. I love his intangibles. I love his defensive ability. But on an individual level, Andre Drummond is far more productive. Drummond should have been in the game. At number two, big Lou, should I say little Lou or just Lou? Lou Williams having a terrific season. It's not an overstatement to say he is carrying the LA Clippers. Blake Griffiths missed 15 games. Danilo Gallinari and Patrick Beverly have only played 11 games each and he has the Clippers in position to make the playoffs in the West. That is incredible. His best season of his career by far makes you wonder if a team had just given Lou the basketball in the years past what he may have become. But anyway, 23 points a game over the last two months, 26 points a game. Some people think he should have made the All-Star Team just by on the basis of dropping 50 on Golden State in a victory for the Clippers a couple weeks ago. Hate to see Lou miss it, but yo, it's tough in the West. At number one, the biggest snub of this All-Star season, Paul George in Oklahoma City. It's not outrageous. It's not unbelievable like his teammate Russell Westbrook said, but you can argue George should have been on the team. 42% shooting from three, 20 points a game and the team is playing much better now. But here's the deal for Paul George. Look, bro, you in the West now. This is what you wanted. You wanted to leave the East and go to the West. There are some benefits to being in the Eastern Conference. You would have been an All-Star. There's no doubt about it if you had stayed in the East, but now you're in the West. It's a lot more difficult and it looks like you're going to stay in the West. If you stay at OKC or go to LA and it's not going to get any easier to make All-Star teams, Paul, what if LeBron goes West? What if Blake Griffin and Chris Paul stay healthy when Kawhi Leonard gets back? I mean, what if when Devon Booker and Andrew Wiggins and Donovan Mitchell come of age, it's going to be tough to make an All-Star team, but this is what you wanted. You wanted to go West. Be careful what you wish for, man. This is how it is. So maybe you'll be a free agent. Look at some of those Eastern Conference teams if you want to make more All-Star games. So, hey, I hate to put it that way, Paul. I wouldn't have been mad if you had made the team. You're certainly playing great basketball, but this is your new reality. Welcome to the West. Those are your top All-Star snubs of 2018. All right, here we go. Another segment of Knock Down, Jay. One of my favorite parts of In the Zone because I get to knock down. Try, Jay. Try, not. What you got for me this week, man? I'm tired of pounding on you. Bring some strong stuff. Pretty incredible week in the NBA, right? I mean, so much happening, but we're going to focus on your Ohio team, the Cleveland Cavaliers. Listen, there is speculation about should they fire Tyloo? Should they train Kevin Love? You know, what's the main problem in Cleveland? Is it the defense? Is it the oldest roster in the league? Chris, I'm going to surprise you here. I believe the number one problem with the Cleveland Cavaliers is LeBron James and the uncertainty of LeBron's future. I don't think that the Cavs can make a move without knowing LeBron's future and everybody. Everybody is in self-preservation mode. Isaiah Thomas. I got to get my shots. I got to get my contract. Kevin Love. Wait, wait, wait. Stop. Stop right there. Isaiah Thomas. I got to get my shots up. He's a free agent this summer. Oh, yeah. What does that have to do with LeBron? He's worrying about himself because LeBron's worrying about himself. You don't think he would be worrying about himself anyway? This is a dude that was fifth in the league in MVP voting last year and makes $6 million a year. 29 points a game last year. And he's what, 28 years old, something like that? He's family? This is his last big deal. LeBron could be signed for the next 20 years in Cleveland. Isaiah Thomas still would be concerned about that contract.  But I don't think that he's the next deal. I don't think he's the number one problem. I believe the number one problem in Cleveland is LeBron James and his uncertainty heading into the off season. LeBron, there was uncertainty in 2010. LeBron's last year in Cleveland in his first game. Yeah. How did that end? They won 61 games. How did it end in the playoffs? They lost to the Big Three, which was a great Boston team. In the second round. But it was a great team they lost to. Was there some soaking from LeBron? Was there some soaking in that sense? But what's that got to do? You said other players are messed up because LeBron is in the last year. Kevin Love in a team meeting. My point is, what's that got to do with the last year? Everybody mentally is rattled. Let me make the point. 2010, they won 61 games. They lost to a great Boston team. If one of the major reasons they lost that series was because LeBron really didn't play that well like his normal self in the last few games. Do you think he was thinking now? Go back to 2010. Do you think he was thinking about free agents? No, I don't. I think he was trying to win. A month later, he organized like the banana boat team. That's what you do. That's what every player does. You play out the season and then you deal with free agents. Okay. 2014. He's in Miami. Same thing. Free agent might leave. They go to the finals. They lose to a great Santa. Like Kevin Durant last year or his last year in OKC. Everybody knows. Same deal. He might leave. He's a free agent. He hasn't committed to us. They're up 3-1 on the Warriors. I mean, what are you like? Boy, Chris, here it is. My point is players don't like the last. It happens every year with God. So, Chris, look back up. Because this is in his last year in Oklahoma, in New Orleans. Does that mean it's messing up his teammates? Let's back up to my statements. I say the number one problem in Cleveland is LeBron James. It sounds like you say there's no problems. Oh, everything's fine. No, what I'm saying is the number one problem. Their problems are not tied to LeBron being in his last year. So, tell me what the problem is. I just gave you several examples of how teams with a guy in there with LeBron or another great player in his last year have success. They might not win the title. So, tell me, what are the problems in Cleveland? The problems in Cleveland, one, there are the oldest team in the league. That's a problem. They can't guard, right? No. And it's not new. Last year, they couldn't guard. They were 22nd in the league defensively. After the All-Star break, they were 29th in the league defensively. Very bad second half. So, my point is that wasn't related to it. That had nothing to do with LeBron. His contract was set. You knew he was coming back. They still couldn't guard. They can't guard.  Duane Wade, Derek Rose and Isaiah Thomas are darn near the same player. I mean, Isaiah is obviously much shorter. That's a problem because he can't guard anybody. But they're darn near the same player. J.R. Smith has vanished. His game is falling apart. I like J.R. Smith. And my shumper, they ain't giving you anything. He's hurt. He's hurt. You know, Kevin Love, God bless him, playing really good offensively before Isaiah came back when his shots went down. But defensively, he couldn't. I think you could drop 7 on him. That's all? I mean, like, yeah, that's all. That's all. I'm 0.7 up. But that's my point. Like, I get LeBron, the last 12 games, only 22 points a game. 20% from 3 during that stretch. But to say it's all because he's a free agent and there's certainty, no way. Let's go to my man. Unless you got something else to say. No, no, I didn't. I mean, that was like, no. That was one of the biggest beatdowns I've given you on this show. Let's go to Mr. Lynch. Mr. Andrew Lynch. Sorry, J. Matt. Chris takes round one. LeBron status is a problem, but it's the age and it's the fact that it's the regular season. That's the biggest problem for the Cavs. Regular season. Well said, Mr. Lynch. Thank you, Mr. And he wrote on the FoxBoards.com website so he knows exactly what he's talking about. Yes, he does. All right, look what? This is a perfect segue. Brith, come hard and don't bring the weak stuff. The weak stuff. This is a perfect segue to our second topic. So as you said, the Cavs, three and nine in their last 12. Yes. I think we should do a hypothetical game, Chris, where you are Dan Gilbert and I'm LeBron coming to you on how to fix the Cleveland Cavaliers.  All right. Okay. So I'm going to knock on the door. All right, I'm Dan Gilbert. Hey, Dan, what's up? No, not on the phone. This is a face-to-face. Oh, this is a face-to-face. Come on, hey. What you want? Dan, disrespectful to the greatest player in fans history. Hey, LeBron, what's happening? Hey, good to see you, Dan. Dan, nice to see you. It's surprising. Yeah, I know. I haven't talked to you in a while. That's how bad I want to win. You usually don't come up here and show me love. How bad I want to win. And I saw... You're smiling too? Dan, I saw what's going on in the lead. Have some wine. I got some wine. Oh, red wine. You love wine. Did you see Yannis? Great relationship with his owner in Milwaukee. Could have tried to save Jason Kidd. You see Damien Lillard, Portland, went right to the owner. Okay. Good relationship. So that's what you want. I'm coming to you, Dan. Okay. I want to know. I got LeBron. I want... The contract is right here. Oh, okay. You don't have to... Sign the extension and stay. Is that what you want? We'll get to that in a second, Dan. Okay. I get to it. Bring it on. You know what I'm doing at the age of 33 is almost unforeseen. Go look at what Michael Jordan did in his 15th year in the lead. He's not putting up with... I'm a top five MVP candidate. Okay. And I think we're close. We can get out of the East, no problem. Now, you think we can get out of this? Yes. Okay. My question is beat the wears. And I want every fiber that I've got to beat Golden State. And Dan, I got to say, I think you messed things up last summer when you traded Kyrie Irving. It was a little irrational. I messed these up. And I want you... I messed these up. Yes. I want you and Kobe Irving. You had nothing to do with it. I want you... I didn't trade him. I didn't trade Kyrie. Part of the reason he wanted to go was he was tired of playing with you. You're the leader. You should have sat us down in the room and said, Kyrie, let's work this out. We've got two top 10 players in the NBA. You're the leader. You're the leader. I'm the leader. You're the owner of the team. You're the leader of that locker room. You're worth a billion dollars. If I had texted you and said, LeBron, let's sit down and talk with Kyrie. What was your... I would have said, let's do it. Communication, Dan.  All right. That's your point. No, no. So I want to ask you, you got to send this message in. Oh, no. Now you jumping on me. Okay. All right. I'll sell that. You know I'm... You know I got small man's complex. So I can't handle that. All right. Kyrie Irving, because I traded him, that's why we're in the situation we're in. Wasn't Kyrie Irving there last year when we got demolished? Demolished by Golden State in the finals. Kyrie Irving, I'd love to have Kyrie. He was great. He is great. He was the second best player on our team. No question about it. Yes, you were phenomenal. You are best player. Thank you for that. Geez, Dan. I'm just saying Kyrie was great. He was. And we still were no match for them.  Great. Well you just gassed him up and yet you traded him for damaged goods in Isaiah. Go look at him at practice. He can't defend a chair. Okay? And Jay Crowder, it's pretty clear he was a system guy and boss. So did you come to complain or did you come because you have a possible solution? Well I came because I want to talk about solutions. Okay. Let's get to solutions. I know there's talk about DeAndre Jordan. He could help us as a rim protector. I'm okay. If you are interested in make that happen. The guy I want you to go get, go get me Paul George. He can defend on the wing. He is a good defender. He's shooting over 40% from three. He's the guy. I know DeMarcus Cousins is playing. Well, I gave him a shout out on social media, you know, because he's looking good. I don't think he defends at the level we're going to need. Paul George is the guy we need to help against the Warriors. He's the defender we need on the wing. Dan, can you deliver? LeBron, when I came to you this past summer and said we could, we could get Paul George and Eric Bledsoe for Kyrie Irving. If George will even stay, George will even stay beyond this year, at least one year. He'll give us at least next year to make it work. If you sign on the dotted line. Like I said, the contract is here. The pen is here. You wouldn't do it, LeBron. I got to keep my options open, Dan. I don't know if you guys are doing anything in your bowels. That's who I want right now. Can you get us Paul George? Will you stay? Let's not go back at the revisionist history. Will you stay? If I go get Paul George, and first of all, Oklahoma City saying they don't want to trade him. They looking, you know, they've been playing better. They're going to try to make it work. If I part with the next pick and it can get me Paul George, will you sign on the dotted line to stay here the long term? At least the next four years. I can't do that, but I'm telling you it would be. Why can't you do it? It would be the show of solidarity between us, that you are doing everything in your power to keep me here in Cleveland. Remember, I came here and I delivered you a championship. I brought you millions and millions of dollars to the city, to this arena, to your business, to this team, and I will get it again. Those casinos got your name written all over. I will bring it to you. Another one, if you get me Paul George. Mr. Lin. No, we ain't done. We ain't done. I thought I would go. We ain't done. We ain't done. LeBron, I need, why won't you sign?  I'm a business. You are exactly, Jay-Z, see? You didn't think I was here? Yeah. We should hang sometimes. See, LeBron, I be wanting to hang. Yeah, that's wonderful. I know Jay-Z. I can hang with you guys. We'll go out and Cleveland soon. You enrich in math. Take me along, brother. But anyway, LeBron, what am I to do?  And then at the end of the season, you, let's say we don't beat the Warriors because they're a great team. We have a chance, but we might not see how it plays out. And you and Paul leave at the end of the year. What am I left with? I don't know. Kevin Loven and I now got to sign Isaiah. Let's focus on the immediacy. The now. Can we get that? The Warriors. My insurance, LeBron, you can't look. You left me high and dry in 2010. I can't let that happen. That's when you got me 37 year old Shaq Antoine Jamison. And against you guys, it was enough to win us 66 games and 61 games. Do I need Paul George to beat the Warriors in the finals? Can you make it happen? And I need you to sign on the dotted line. Well, it seems what we've got here is a little problem. LeBron, I cannot. It would be. Are we better than the Warriors if you got Paul George? I believe we are. Yes. Did you believe we were better than him last year? I think we were close. We beat him two years ago. Did you believe we were better than him last year? Well, Kevin Durant changed the game. We had nobody anticipated that. Did you believe we were better than him last year? I always believe we are the best team I've ever seen. So you ain't saying nothing right now. If I don't get you Paul George, do you believe we better? That's what I want. LeBron. If you got on your sword, if we lose to Golden State, we go out swinging. I don't want to hear this moping. We don't have enough. I didn't say that. That was a medium. Then talk to your boys. That was a media. Then talk to your boys. Talk to whoever went to the media. Hey, that's not my job. ESPNCalyland.com, the athletic. Yeah, I know. I saw that article. Don't talk to them. Don't talk to them and say, look, we got enough. We got enough in this locker room. Kevin Love, you're a 2010 guy.  I'm the best way in the world. D Wade, you still got something left. I'd like to say that kind of fire. Kyle Corvin, you're one of the best shooters around. 36, but... Go to them and say that. You're the leader. I'm not the coach. And let's take that shot. That's the coach's job. Go get me Paul George. Every time I turn on ESPN, Fox Sports, every time I watch these guys, they say you the coach. So what's up with that? I'm not the coach. I'm just a player, one of the greatest in NBA history who brought this city a title. All I need from you is Paul George and we'll do it again. Man, get out of my office. All right, Mr. Lynch. First of all, that's a fantastic, Daniel. That might be my favorite performance of 2018. I got some acting chops. I've been in a movie. I was in hashtag reality high. Hollywood, come see me. Come see me. Can confirm. I'm going to go with Jay Mac on this one, though, because I think that LeBron is going to do what he can to convince Dan Gilbert to move that pick either to make the team better this year or if he does leave for San Antonio to leave the calves high and dry. Would you, would you, if you were Dan, would you trade the Brooklyn pick? I would. Really? I would. And then if LeBron leaves, I would look to sell the team. I think you being nice to him, but by the way, I'm a LeBron fan. I love that. That was fun. I'm a LeBron fan. All right. Let's close out on this.  A gentleman by the name of Clint Capella, a 23 year old center. I hope I pronounced his name correctly. He's such an unknown entity. Well, for those of us who really watch the NBA and don't just look at the box scores. Clint Capella is having a very nice season. 14 and 10. Only playing 26 minutes a night. His per 36 numbers are off the charts. He's good at running to the rim and dunking and blocking shots. He's got a decent Euro step. He actually had the audacity to say the Rockets are better than Golden State. Kevin Durant fired back. His job is not that hard. When your job is not that hard, you can't just come out here and say bleep like that. Kevin Durant fired back. Chris, I absolutely love what Kevin Durant said. Absolutely. Clint Capella cannot run his mouth when he is winning two regular season games against the worst.  This is one of the greatest dynasties in NBA history.  We're better than them. Hold on. Clint Capella, don't let your mouth write checks that Chris Paul and James Harden got a cash because that's a problem. First of all, I love not what Kevin Durant said, but what Clint Capella said. I want that type of belief. You like delusional. Enough of the rest of these teams that think they can't play with the Warriors. Enough of the rest of these teams who's had their heart taken from Kevin Durant and Steph Curry. I want people that believe. And if we've beaten that team two out of three times, why shouldn't I believe? Regular season. Hey, whatever. That's what the games are about. Why shouldn't I believe? I've got James Harden, who is probably the leading front runner for the NBA. He's up there. He's up there with Kevin Durant and Curry. I've got Chris Paul, who's one of the greatest point guards in NBA history and still playing very well. I've got a host of three-point shooters and role players. I'm doing my thing. Why shouldn't I believe?  No. But you don't need to say the Rockets are better. Mr. Durant, we can't play with you. We can't beat you. But you don't need to go there. You're saying the Rockets are better than Golden State. No human on planet Earth is saying that, Chris. He did. My Dan Tony is probably in his office just sweating bullets. Why? Now I got to deliver. No pressure now. Chris Paul can't get out of the second round. And you're telling me that the Rockets are better than Golden State.  Did he? Dumb. It would have been wrong for him to guarantee victory over the Rockets in the playoffs or over the Warriors. Are the Rockets better than the Warriors? In his mind? Yes. Are they better in your mind than anyone else in America? Tell us in the comments. We'll see in the playoffs. No, I want an answer now. No, we'll see. Right now I think the Warriors are better. But that ain't about me. It ain't about what I think. It's about what Clint Cabello. I want every player in that Rockets locker room thinking like Clint Cabello. You can think like that. You don't have to say it to the media. What's the difference? You like bulletin board material? Let you know. You want to give the Warriors bulletin board material? Because you know what? That's the last thing you need. The Warriors walk in the gymnasiums, buildings, arenas, like they own everything. Like, yeah, y'all know you can't beat us. You know you can't beat us. I like Cabello letting them know, nah, we think we can beat you. All right? You're not getting a psychological mental edge on us. And another thing, Kevin Durand. Oh, no, don't go in on Kevin Durand. No, let me go. Don't go in on my goddamn. I like KD. All right? I was one of the few that didn't bash him when he went to Golden State. I did not bash him. Oh, I love them. But KD does seem to have a problem with roleplayers. Okay. Because his tweet, what was that? Burner? Is that what it's called? Burner account. Burner account where he gave Westbrook love but said I can't, you can't win with those guys. How are you expecting to win with those guys? Who are those guys? The roleplayers. Why can't a roleplayer say something? A roleplayer where, Clint Cabello, okay, he's not as skilled as KD or James Harden or CP3 or whatever. But don't tell me he don't work hard. He's banging with the big boys. Let me ask you this. And he's producing, you said 14 and 10. 14 and 10. His per P.E.R. is second on the team. He's good. He's sixth in the league in P.E.R. They cannot win the championship or even get to the conference finals without Clint Cabello. Let's think fast. He's got a right to speak his mind. Okay, let's think back to Michael Jordan's bulls ascending in like 88-89. This would be the equivalent of Scotty Pippen. Remember migraine Scotty? Yeah. Running his mouth. Oh, Larry Bird. We're better than them. They knew you couldn't get by anybody in the east. That's what this is the equivalent of. A team ascending and close. They're close to maybe getting a game off the Warriors in the playoffs. Running his mouth saying you're better. Close to maybe getting a game. This is something Michael Jordan's head would have exploded and been like, dude, what is your problem? Jordan thought they were better than everybody. It's Michael Jordan.  I want heart. Clint Cabello showed heart. You can't have heart. You don't even run around. You can go kiss your opponent's ring in fact. Kiss it. Kiss my way. Kiss the ring. Kiss the ring. Let's go to Lynch. Come on. I mean, geez. It's Clint Cabello. The Rockets aren't better than the Warriors, but I want Clint Cabello saying he thinks the Rockets are better than the Warriors. And especially, it's one thing to think it. When you say it, that's when you really believe it. And that's what I like. Thank you. He knew what he was doing. He put it out in the public space. I can't wait for their next meeting. Warriors, what? Do you have a date on that? I can't wait for the playoffs. Oh, there's no more in the playoffs. Yeah. When they meet in the playoffs. I'm thinking Broom. I might bring a sweep to that, to that day we did the shoot. No, I'm going to bring a Broom. Since you are realistic. Sweep the Rockets out of here. Since you admit when you know somebody's gotten the best of you here. Give me a break. Knock down, Jay. Hope you enjoyed it. We want to welcome in Joe Varden. Beat writer for the Cavaliers for Cleveland.com. Does a tremendous job of covering all things Cavaliers and LeBron James. Joe, how you doing? Welcome to end the zone. Oh, well, it's good to be here. I'm cold. You know, it's about 30 degrees and snowy. So, you know, other than that, all good. I know you're used to it. You're from the Akron area. So, so I know you're used to that weather. That's right. But as you know, like when you when you're on the speed and you travel all around, you know, we've been in mostly warm weather. And so my blood has thinned a little. So I got, you know, I got a tough enough over these next couple weeks. I hear you. I hear you. Well, look, man, let's jump right into it. You've covered the Cavs for several years. You've seen this happen every year. If not, you know, twice a year since LeBron's been back. There's been all types of drama, whether it was David Blatt, whether it was LeBron and Kevin Love, LeBron and Kyrie, just the team playing poorly last season toward the end of the year. It's over the second half. Does this year's struggles and do this year's struggles and all this drama going on right now? Is this any different? And if so, how? Yeah, I mean, I think it's different because the actors are different one. And then two, it's not just LeBron sort of causing the waves anymore. I mean, you know, everybody under the sun has discussed this intimate team meeting that they had the other day where everyone kind of went at everyone. And LeBron didn't start it. You know, it was, it was some other guys going at Kevin for having missed most of the game and a practice. It was actually two of the new guys, Isaiah Thomas and Dwayne Wade. And then it mushroomed immediately into like a team-wide thing where kind of everybody was calling out everybody from the general manager, new general manager, Kobe Altman, who was there, you know, to LeBron and on down. So that's one way this is different. And then, you know, the other way is it's just in these games, especially in these games, in these good teams, they're just not, they're not competitive. You know, the Cavs went through two bad months last year, but sort of the losing was interrupted at times by the Cavs playing well against good teams. You know, there were a couple exceptions.  And now, when they play these good teams, they get blown out. They're 0-6 in their last six national TV games and they've lost by a combined 101 points. So, you know, there's a lot going on, which is, as you mentioned, normal for this team, but some of it does indeed feel different. So you mentioned about the team meeting Kobe Altman being involved as far as going back and forth, where players calling him out. Yeah. It was a raw, oh yeah. It was a raw personal, you know, experience for everybody. You know, and it was just, like, that's probably the biggest, I don't know if Miss Nomer is the right way to say it. The meeting didn't start as a meeting. It began with, you know, a player or two coming at Kevin. And before Kevin could almost even really understand what was going on, like everybody had kind of joined, had kind of come together. And Kevin sort of returned, served, and quickly it evolved into, you know, several players and organization personnel taking shots and giving them.  It was, they ganged up on him to starch and everybody else took brief as well. So it was, you know, it was intense, certainly. And I've been kind of saying the danger with these things, Chris, is you do them and you air your grievances and you get personal. And then it's worse if we find out about it when then you go out and don't do anything differently on the court. They looked as disinterested and lackadaisical and unable to defend as they had before they all yelled at each other. And so that's when these things really start to fester and grow roots. I've heard people say, why go at Kevin Love for missing one game when Derek Rose walked away from the team to contemplate retirement and nobody went at him. Why did they jump on love? That seems a little odd to me just for missing one game. Well, I think there's a couple things to discuss here, you know, because I've heard the Derek Rose point. And I think we can start with Kevin. He is a target. You know, I remember LeBron just scatting him on Twitter with the sit-out sit-in tweet from a couple years ago. And LeBron has called him out over the years for not demanding the ball, for being upset with his role and any number of things. And sometimes it was wanted and sometimes it wasn't. And so Kevin on the one hand just occasionally is a target. The Derek Rose thing is interesting. Publicly players said the right thing.  And even Isaiah and Dwayne just thought was hilarious. Both graduated him on Twitter for making the all-star game. We all don't know what was really going on.  So yes, Kevin can draw that parallel and Kevin can say you know, Kevin can be upset about that part of it but you know, don't the players also noticed when Derek left and they have also noticed that he's back playing now with virtually no repercussion. So that was not lost on them either. I was stunned when the report came out that Isaiah Thomas was the one that kind of led to charge against Kevin Love just because he's so new and has only played with eight or nine games, eight games, I think.  I mean, after his first or second game he said the way they're playing is unacceptable.  Well, I'm glad you brought that up, especially the practice thing, which again rub some guys the long way because here's Isaiah and he won't let this practice thing go. We don't practice. We don't practice and the irony to some of the guys in the locker room was well, wait a minute, you're talking about how we don't practice the day after games. But you, Isaiah are not allowed to play on back to back it. So what how does this work like what were you supposed to do on these days that we're not practicing if you're not allowed to do the back to back. Isaiah was a great fit here after the trade. He he's more social than Kyrie. I think he's easier to get along with in general. You know, he was kind of hanging out off the court with LeBron a little and Dwayne and just kind of seen and really liked it here. And you know, a source suggests to me that he still does but he really did like it here. He liked everything. And now he is rubbing guys the wrong way and he has and there's a couple things to it. I mean, he's trying to play his way back to where he used to be and we don't know if that's going to happen or not. But in the meantime, he's really frustrated because it's not happening or it hasn't been happening.  So he gets all these looks in the offense and he's not making the shots and then as a result, because they're so poor defensively that just leads to these all these issues and Isaiah is kind of looking for avenues to vent. So practice is a problem. Team defense is a problem. We cared about it much more in Boston those kinds of things. And so the comments cause issues, he's frustrated and at the same time, the players understand, his teammates understand who he is and what he's there for. So on the one hand they're okay with him getting these shots and they understand that right now they're not falling. But then they're also frustrated because they know that playing this way is what has disrupted a lot of the rhythm. LeBron's having a terrible month. Kevin's having a bad month. His shots are way down. The bench isn't what it used to be. Just a lot of pieces moving in and out. Corbers not the same and like that's not all just Isaiah's fault it isn't. But trying to read to integrate him into the flow of things has caused a major disruption in a number of ways and I think that has a lot to do with the frustration. And you've seen of course the reports I know you're on top of it of them potentially trading for George Hill. If they get this deal done. So what would his role be starting at the two next to Isaiah coming off the bench starting at the point like what do you see how do you see him fitting in? Well there's a couple of things to that. He can be a combo guard sources think he can play alongside Isaiah which would mean JR Smith goes to the bench he's had a bad year and so maybe that works out. You could but this I mean this takes some guts that so far this organization hasn't been willing to to show you could start him and bring Isaiah off the bench. That would cause a I don't think that's a bad basketball idea but man can you imagine how you think Isaiah I mean it's a contract here all that. Yeah it doesn't seem like that's what they want to do. But even with George Chris I mean 31 yes he's averaging 10 points and he's shooting nearly 45% from 3 so you know that's good but he plays for a bad team so somebody has to score and they don't do a lot of scoring as it is and his defensive rating he I look this up he is the ninth worst defender in the NBA this year among players who've played at least 20 games. He had a toe injury last year that forced him out of the final three games of the conference semi-finals and sources are wondering how if that ever completely healed and here's the Cavs who are just ridiculously bad on defense and they're going to the one team who's worse defensively to fix it and the only the Cavs only have one player who's rated worse defensively than George Hill and that's that's Isaiah. So it's interesting but they think that you know they're kind of hoping that that he'll bad defense as a product of his team and that he would fit in better here. So what other do you see any other moves on the horizon or potential moves that they could make before the trade deadline? Well I mean I think there's a difference between could make and will make that they are pursuing DeAndre Jordan there's no question about that and they would still have the resources to get him after this George Hill trade if they wanted. You know again I mean you said it already just about sort of the politics involved with what they do with Isaiah. You know Kimball Walker is available you know Michael Jordan kind of threw a little bit of water on that but I think he still could be had you know frankly with what else the Cavs have Kimball would probably be a better fit here you know I don't know that like ownership wants to move off of Isaiah and you know they may want to keep him here long term and you know to be fair to him he has only had a game and he is scoring the ball better he just you know he needs more time so maybe he rounds into form but Kimball's out there if they get George Hill I don't know that they also look at another wing like a base moor somebody like that but then you have to look at someone to help defensively underneath and that would be DeAndre if they could but I mean the Clippers know they lost to the Celtics on Wednesday the game under 500 trying to figure out if they want to move these guys or not so that you know that's the one of the ones to keep your eye on there. There's really no way they're giving up that number one pick or that I'm sorry that Brooklyn pick is that pretty much correct? Well I wouldn't say no way but kind of the way it's always been is that pick is available for premium and if you think about the premium players well their teams have all gotten together you know the thunder great now you know so there's no way Paul George is available the pelicans are rolling so it certainly doesn't appear that DeMarcus is going to be available and Anthony Davis is out of the question so you know I don't know that that Marquis like player is out there and then it's almost a catch 22 because if the calves are so bad that they are not I mean this sounds silly in a way because you'll understand but if they're so bad that they can't make the finals or they can't get to the eastern conference finals then you should hold on to that pick anyway because you're going to need to rebuild or replenish and then otherwise you would hold on to it unless there's an impact player that gives you a chance against the Warriors and I don't know that that player is available via trade so you look at your other first round pick you know you try to weigh some of the other assets you have you look at moving J Crowder that can maybe net you something better in return and you you try to improve the team that way so bottom line do you I mean a lot of people just are banking on LeBron being able to get them out of the east do you see these issues and these struggles that they're having as something that they'll overcome just like they have the past three years and as far as getting to the finals well Chris there's we learned last year that we really we should stop reacting too strongly when they go through these things because they're so bad and then they got to the playoffs and LeBron just carried on and everybody was great and they won their first ten and they got back to the finals and it was fine the difference now is when you watch this team is currently constructed with the starting lineup is currently constructed they are incapable of defending they cannot get it they cannot get enough stops to win these games and unless Isaiah becomes the player that he was and they can be efficient enough offensively to out score most of these teams it is hard again it's currently constructed to see them to see the same kind of turnaround because they're just at such a disadvantage on defense but there's so many that there are enough little things that they can change that to get this right and get the best player in the world in position to push this team into the conference finals and back into the finals so you don't wave the light flag you don't write this team off but it is harder to see this right now without some kind of change where is LeBron at mentally right now like you said he hasn't had a good month there are some people that think he's kind of sulking sending a message hey get us some help at the trade deadline that's why he's not playing well what do you think is going on with LeBron he's kind of bewildered because I mean there aren't a lot of answers we're at the moment he's never certainly since at least since his rookie year his teams have never been beaten like this consistently in any stretch of time where you know it's a night in night out over two or three week stretch where they just get their heads hand to him and he doesn't really know what he can do to fix it he knows his numbers are down and he's just he's not been a factor in fourth quarters and he's just I don't believe he's quit I don't believe that he's given up necessarily but he bewilderment and this would be the worst thing but it's true some level of resignation that this is going to be there are some challenges that maybe they can't overcome and so that's what you want to watch watch for is does that really creep into him and drag him down for the rest of the year that's where I wonder if because I mean when we talk about the Cavs on a national level and people talk about you know what can they do to fix themselves they'll be okay is it panic time whatever I feel like people including myself we're referring to just getting out of the east and we're not even I don't think anybody thinks they're going to beat the Warriors it's almost like just winning the east would be success team but I'm starting to wonder if they believe they can't beat the Warriors if they are really unmotivated to get back to the finals and get swept or beaten five or whatever it might be and that could affect them as far as getting out of the east do you think there's anything there as far as you know that could be the case with this team that they're just not that they don't want to get to the finals but subconsciously believing they really don't have a shot against Golden State they may just not be able to get themselves up enough to even come out of this rut and even get to the finals that is a great point a very precious observation and it's correct it is correct I think if I walked in there today at practice and I did do you do you really think do you think you can beat the Warriors and if you don't is that is that depressing you for how you're approaching the rest of the season but Bron or the rest of the players would say we can't be thinking about Golden State right now we got to fix ourselves but the truth is those two Golden State games the scores were close and yet after the second one when I my two colleagues on the beat when we wrote that players were really bummed out and not sure that this could be fixed and that Chris would be the actual root of it that it's like we're not good enough to beat the Warriors and so what's the point that was a predominant thing there feeling in those conversations and I do think that's weighing on to a degree so my thing I've said on the nationally I get that but I don't think anybody's going to kill them for losing to the Warriors but they will particularly LeBron they will get killed if they lose to Kyrie I'm like that's worse than losing to the Warriors at least get motivated to beat Boston and win the East oh yes that's right do they feel that? are they conscious that look we cannot let Kyrie beat us and win the East I think so I do think so I think LeBron is upset very much so that they traded Kyrie to Boston specifically and that this has worked out so well for the Celtics but he also knows that Kyrie wanted out because of him and so whatever LeBron tries to do to distance himself from the front office the fact remains it's on him to make sure Kyrie doesn't beat him and you can see that on opening night the last time the two teams played the Cavs run the second night of it back to back they were starting a long road trip they just come off a long road trip so you can see that that one wasn't going to be the night the two teams play again on February 10th or 11th I think 11th on a Sunday and that is the one that you really if the Cavs can figure out any of these other issues that you really want to see what they have because you know it'll be the last time they play each other I think and you know LeBron will want to get into that mode where he makes clear that he's not ready to give up the you know because his run in the east I mean he's been to seven straight finals you know I think the Russell's record was 10 something like that like that's not like he could reach that you know it's it's in within reach and you know I'm sure LeBron doesn't want that to just go by the wayside either there is this perception as you know that LeBron is the coach the GM everything but the owner of the team how you know what is really the state of LeBron and the Cavs I mean can Tyloo really coach the team or is LeBron kind of pulling the strings in the front office as well like what's the real situation there yeah I mean first of all LeBron has less communication with the top of the front office as in like you know general the general manager spot than he has in a while I think at some level the perception that LeBron was the GM was unfair to him and to David Griffin there are lots of things that David did you know that were his ideas certainly and then he would keep LeBron in the loop and and ask for his opinion but it was Griffin driven now LeBron you know contends that he doesn't have the same interaction I don't know if that has changed over the last couple of days now that Kobe is getting active chasing some of these guys but certainly that dynamic has changed and like for instance when they traded Kyrie to Boston they didn't talk to LeBron about you know is this a good idea there was a discussion about should we trade Kyrie at all but not about the Boston and then you know as far as the coaching thing goes it's not just because of LeBron it is because of LeBron but not just because of him this is the oldest team in the league you got Kevin Love you got Blaine Wade Kyle Korber you know Ida is here now I mean these are players who are extremely established who have been doing things a certain way their entire careers and so now you come here and it's hard to just say okay this is the way it's going to be like Ty has to be much more of a manager of the personalities on his team he's got on his team and try to hit it into what he wants to do instead of saying this is what I want to do and you guys have to stick yourselves into it so yeah it is hard in Ty's case but it's not just because of LeBron you know there's been speculation about his job security how is his job security right now with the cast so the thing about Ty is he's not just their coach he is their front office figure who has by far the most respect and most cachet in the league he's their closer on the three agents in some in many ways he's their recruiter you know when you look at the guys at the guys in the front office I don't believe any of them is as old as Ty I don't think and certainly none of them have the overall NBA experience that Ty does so there's just there would be there's already a void there would be an incredible void if they were to move on from him but as you and I know Dan Dan can be a reactionary owner at times and he also values defense there's been a lot to react to lately and they don't defend so it's fair to say what's going on with him but I don't I just don't I don't get the sense that that's where things are headed on that stuff right now so what's your field it's obviously the elephant in the room what's your feeling on what LeBron does this summer do you think he's a Cavalier next year or you think he's elsewhere the answer always was that it was more likely than not that he stays and now I guess because things have been so ugly for so many weeks I would say maybe it's more likely than it is that it doesn't come back but it's not that is a product of where things are right now I was talking to somebody close to him the other day it was well I mean where's he gonna go and this is someone close to LeBron so it's still it's not cut and dry it's not as easy as always going to LA or oh he's staying there are many factors I would suggest that the Cavs do something to turn this around make some moves show him that they are still capable of feeling a team as he wants him to be and then it makes it easier for him to do all the things that would be easy for his legacy and easy for his family and that's probably the same Cleveland it's gone ever since ever since he said in September that I still intend to retire as a Cavalier and do more things than not have gone against that so it's fair to question well Joe man excellent information man great job and I know you got to head out to the Cavs practice today for probably more drama I guess right never stops well thanks a lot man for joining in the zone I appreciate it and I'll see you soon down the line look forward to it Chris thanks yep bye


a person with power, it's a healthy person, not necessarily power over others, but power over themselves. It's a healthy person. As a therapist, you understand that one of the key elements of a mental health problem is helplessness. And usually, it is learn helplessness. So that in my world means we're born powerful, but we learn to be weak. And sometimes the journey is about, hang on, realizing, hang on, you're not weak, you're really actually powerful.


When people think of hunger, they conjure up an image of a starving child in her mother's arms. And certainly these children that are afflicted by war, conflict, and drought suffer inordinate pain and kills many children. But there's also a silent crisis of malnutrition that afflicts hundreds of millions of children around the world. And this silent crisis is characterized by households who are poor, who don't have access to clean water, don't have access to proper health care. And that's really the focus of my work. My research is about two things. One is understanding the determinants of malnutrition. What are those factors? What are those inputs that cause children to become chronically malnourished? And at the same time, it's not just understanding the why but trying to figure out what types of programs and policies and interventions can be formulated to address this terrible problem. One of the key lessons of my research is that there is a vulnerable period that stretches from approximately the time of conception until the time that a child is around two years of age. That is the most important time to intervene to ensure the long-term well-being of the child because it is during that period, during this critical developmental period that we'll set the stage for the health and the well-being of the child across their entire life course. The question about what can best be done to help and reach these children is actually quite complicated because there are many factors and issues that go into determining the health and nutritional status of children. But one thing that comes through very clearly is first, we need to ensure the health of pregnant women in utero because that is the time that the fetus is developing and these children are growing and their brains are developing and if we don't ensure the health of pregnant women during this vulnerable period they will have long-term implications. The second implication though is that after the child is born we've looked at a broad range of types of interventions that work and we find in fact that really basic health care and basic access to immunizations, a sanitary environment, promoting breastfeeding amongst women, promoting appropriate weaning foods and weaning practices and providing the types of basic curative services such as oral rehydration to stop diarrhea and so forth are really key elements to their well-being. Well one policy lesson is that oftentimes when we think about malnutrition we tend to think about problems of food alone. We tend to think about problems of access to sufficient food and certainly that's important but when we think about very young children who are most vulnerable in fact the constraint generally is not food access because firstly they don't eat very much, quite simply and in fact they're better off if they're exclusively breastfed at young ages but the real thing that causes or contributes to their malnutrition are problems for example of diarrheal disease, infection, measles other types of diseases that contribute to their stunted growth and we spend too little time thinking about providing those types of services to these young children.  Regardless of all the things that government can do to assist in terms of caring for children by far the most important variable or factor is the mother and her ability and her knowledge in terms of how to care for her child.


I'm creating a channel with my legs and my reins to help my horse understand where they need to be. When they're in the middle of that channel, I harmonize with them. So I leave them alone, I don't put any pressure on them, and we go along and we're together and we're in unity. If they come off the line, they're going to run into the leg and rein on the side that they came towards.


The strength of the film is its diverse cast and complex ideas about democracy, about our individual responsibilities, about the moral choices that we bear, and that our elected officials must themselves negotiate. Are they acting in their interest or our interest? Whatever happens here, the best of luck. You win. I support you fully. My name is Stephen Garza, and I'm running for governor. What happens when you bring together over a thousand teenage boys from Texas and ask them to go through a mock election? What can this experiment tell us about how the complex views of individuals get translated into politics? Is the electoral process more about tribal competition or actual policy preferences? Those are just some of the questions explored by the new film Boy State. Asked if the political views voiced in my speech. Sometimes you got to say what you got to say in an attempt to win. I think he's a fantastic politician, but I don't think a fantastic politician is a compliment either. Boy State is a program of the American Legion. There's a program for girls, too, called Girl State, and they're week-long annual civics camps held in the summer. In 2017, we read that the boys in Texas had voted to secede from the union. That provocative act got some attention and got our attention. We thought, what an interesting program because it actually brings together teenagers from all different political backgrounds, and they get together and they talk to each other and they run for office, they pass bills. What did you say? It's like the running of the bulls? It's like suddenly they're released into the yard, and as you see in the film, they start their signature gathering for who the people who want to become governor and sort of the alpha male business starts happening very quickly. It's a little early to start running for governor, don't you think? We don't even have a party formed yet. You don't have any support in the primaries. No, but if you have to start early, you have to start... You don't have to start this early. What do you believe in? My views will most likely align with the party for the majority of them. I want to hear an open debate. In other words, you're waiting for the party to come up with an opinion, and then you're going to go with the party. What do you stand for, though? You stand for freedom. You stand for freedom. It's a bold policy. The culmination of the event is the election of governor and then the lesser offices. The project is really to learn about the challenges of the electoral process and of representative democracy, not so much the challenges of then governing. It's interesting to me that the process of Boy State is set up in such a way to put people in parties immediately without knowing what their platform is, without knowing who their leader is, and then they figure out what the parties mean later. I'm wondering if you think that helps or hurts any parallels we might see in our current political environment. This is a question that we've wrestled with. Does the party structure, federalists versus nationalists immediately introduce a tribal competition and you see this literally chest beating, beat the federalists, beat the nationalists. Well, they don't stand for anything yet. What are you actually beating? But also as a mirror reflection of what actually happens in our country, there is two parties that rule the school. And I think to some degree the question here is can those two parties in their tribal spate, in their tribal face-off, have civil discourse? That's the whole idea is you are on opposite sides of, I mean, you know, I guess a sports analogy would be on the opposite end of the field. Can you still talk to each other? I will skip the part where I brag for three minutes about how great and cool I am, seeing as we are all qualified young men of skill and character. People like that stuff. People like that stuff a lot. Some people say they're a sports junkie.  The heart of the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. I'm playing this like a game. I would like very much to win. I love it, boys. I love it. Where are you from? I come from a very modest family. I want to, of course, be the first one to graduate from high school. I'm a progressive person and I'm in a room full of mostly conservative people. Our masculinity shall not be infringed. I've never seen so many white people ever. I feel like everybody has a secret underlying need for bipartisanship. A message of unity as good as it sounds is not winning anyone any elections. I think regardless of where you come from on the political spectrum, I think you're going to find an entry point in this film and you're going to find, I think, in an unlikely place, I think a valuable perspective on where we're at as a country. There are a lot of questions that we leave to the audience. It's, I think, a complicated story. We have very diverse, complicated characters. I think in documentary we sometimes hunger for a certain binary truth. We all know that's really not reality. We want simplistic heroes and maybe we should expect more complicated ones. It was interesting to see, not so much in the party platforms, but amongst the boys collectively, certain issues, positions that sort of ran in ways that we wouldn't expect. They were as a whole much more tolerant, it seemed, of social issues than we imagine Texas teenage predominantly white conservative boys to be. They were not all predictable. I think maybe they're just modern 17-year-old boys. Did you walk away from this hopeful? I did. Did you? Oh, very much so. I mean, I love that it's honest and it was shocking and frightening and I saw some of the darker currents of our politics expressed by young men, which is alarming. I expect they would be expressed by young women too. I think it's no surprise, but I think that, and I don't agree with all of their politics, all these guys in the movie, but I really did, all of them was inspired by them. I am hopeful and it's nice to be hopeful in a dark moment.


June 6th marks the second anniversary of the arrest of activists in India as part of what is known as the Bhima Koregaon or Elgar Parishad case. This case has become a prime example of the targeting of those who are critical of India's current far right-wing government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party. In this video, we look at the case and at those who are being targeted. So what is the Bhima Koregaon or Elgar Parishad case? Bhima Koregaon is a village in the state of Maharashtra. It was a site of a 19th century battle in which a British army including members of the oppressed lower castes defeated an army of upper caste rulers. Every year a celebration is held to mark this victory. On December 31st 2017, the Elgar Parishad which is a mass mobilization event was conducted by activist groups in the city of Pune ahead of the anniversary. In the following days, clashes took place in the area in which at least two people were killed. How did the investigation proceed? The initial investigations into these clashes focused on the role of Hindu right-wing groups which attacked the gathering of the oppressed caste or Dalits. The police filed investigation reports against Sambhaji Bide and Milind Ekbote, two leaders of Hindu supremacist outfits for their role in the clashes. Bide has never been arrested while Ekbote was briefly arrested but released on bail. These outfits share the ideology of the ruling Bharati Janta Party which was at that time in power in the center and in the state of Maharashtra. However, soon the focus of the investigation shifted. The police came out of the theory that people linked with banned Maoist militants were responsible for the violence. Ultimately, this morphed into an allegation that it was all leading up to a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The police never provided any concrete evidence of this claim except a dubious letter seized later during the investigation. On June 6, 2018, five activists were arrested for the alleged role in this conspiracy. They were Sudeed Havle, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Surendra Gardening and Rona Wilson. They were activists with a history of struggling for some of the most oppressed communities in India. Many of them had also worked in campaigns for the release of political prisoners. The five activists were arrested under the Draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. They continued to be in prison to this day. The next round of arrest took place in August 2018. Those targeted were Sudha Bharadwaj, a lawyer and the National Secretary of People's Union for Civil Liberties, PUCL, senior ideologue and poet Varavar Rao, lawyer and cartoonist Arun Farera, academic Verna and Gonzales and writer and human rights activist Gautam Navlaka. Both Farera and Gonzales had earlier been imprisoned on similar charges and had been acquitted in those cases. Most of these activists approached the courts to stay these arrests but they were denied. Only Gautam Navlaka's arrest was stayed and he was detained at home for a while even as his case was heard in various courts. In October 2018, he was freed from house detention. However, earlier this year, Gautam Navlaka and another target of the case, scholar Anand Telthumde ran out of legal options after their pleas for anticipatory bails were denied. Thus in April, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Navlaka and Telthumde, both of whom are over 60, had to surrender themselves to the National Investigation Agency which is conducting the probe. Towards the end of May, Navlaka who suffers from various ailments was secretly transported from Delhi to the city of Mumbai even while another bail hearing was on. What evidence is available so far? The main argument of the police is based on letters supposedly recovered from the laptops of some of the activists who were arrested. These letters allegedly detail the conspiracy. However, at least one media organization has reported that the evidence may have been tampered with. There were also allegedly procedural lapses in the way the evidence was collected. In many of the bail hearings for the activists, the prosecution has submitted evidence in sealed envelopes which denies the defense the chance to scrutinize it during their arguments. Thus to this day, it is not really clear what the charges against these activists are. As of today, these 11 activists are in jail in connection with the case. Many of them are even unwell. This is at a time when many states have released prisoners under various conditions of parole due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this has not been extended to these activists. The one thing that unites all of them is that they have fought for the rights of the marginalized and have been critical of the policies of the right-wing Bharati Janata party which is in power at the center. To this day, their struggle for justice continues. Thank you very much.


What's up, everyone? It's your girl, Kenzie here from Layton Sports Cards and I'm ripping a personal here for Austin Pee. We've got a 2022 Leaf Ultimate Draft football hobby. All right, best of luck, Austin. Thanks for hopping in. Let's see. First one of these we pulled a Montana auto for Justin. Last time we got a what, Joe? Yeah. All right. We've got 33 of 15. Jahan Datsun. Jahan Datsun. What's up, Andrew? How's it going? Ultimate leadership, 9 out of 15. Anthony Richardson. That's a good one. He's projected like top 10, I think. Like top 5 even maybe. I really didn't think he's that good. I really don't. He reminds me of who was that one. It was for the Gators too. Quarterback who was, it wasn't, you know, who I'm talking about, right? He was very good and then got drafted and it was just garbage. It was another UF quarterback too. It's gonna drive me crazy. Javanne Hiley. 60 out of 75. It wasn't Tebow. It was while you weren't in high school at the same time I was. When did you graduate? Hiley was when I was in high school. They won the championship that year too, I'm pretty sure. We have Henden Hooker, 19 out of 50. Henden Hooker. Then we have an ultimate signature 58 of 75 of Caleb Williams. There you go. Caleb Williams. You're not thinking about Greer, are you? Will Greer? No. No. No. It wasn't Chris. It may have been Chris Leak who I'm talking about. I was 2003, 2006. I was about the time of the game. No, I was in third grade then. Yeah. All right, Austin. Now we'll do it for your box. Congrats on those hits. Thanks for hopping in and we will get these right out to you.