Chuck Klosterman

A little bit does, right?

Yeah.

And you know, but they don't like to play in the all-star game and they don't really like to play on Christmas that much anymore.

And like, we all kind of have always lived with this idea that like,

the playoffs are going to be different.

The intensity is going to ratchet up or whatever.

When you really think about that, isn't that bizarre that the expectation that when these guys play basketball, they're not going to care all the time.

I mean, the amount of money that is there, the fact that they're the most competitive people in the world, the fact that they're the elite people, like, isn't it kind of strange?

Shouldn't the reality that which they live in be enough motivation to play hard all the time?

That's maybe even the bigger part.

But what I think is even stranger, and the reason I brought it up to you, is how this idea of maximum competition, that was considered an insane thing to demand.

To expect.

Like, in other things, I know these aren't the same, the stakes are different, but it'd be really weird if there was, like, the best neurosurgeons in the world, like, had load management.

You know, sometimes we really work on the brain.

We really care.

That's a strange thing.

But in sports now, we've actually grown accustomed to the idea that, you know, that this is how it... Some games don't matter.

That some games just don't matter.

And in some reason, why I think one of the advantages football has...

is that even in a preseason game, you can't coast because you will go to the hospital.