Justin Verrier

Like since the All-Star break, there have been like a couple games where

But because it's such a morass at this point, you really have to like stop.

If you're a casual fan, you have to stop what you're doing and identify those games well in advance.

But there doesn't seem to be even like a hoopla going into them in the same way that it typically would for marquee matchups.

And so it's been a slog.

I'll be honest.

I'm excited for the playoffs.

But overall, this has been a pretty down year for the NBA.

Yeah, you hit two things there that just I want to touch on.

I do think the 65 game rule, it's become such an issue because sports and specifically the NBA is all about rewarding individual excellence.

And you have just made it more difficult to do so, which diminishes the entire thing.

And for a big old regular season, that is so many games, which we talked about ad nauseum, like this is one of the things you can signpost to get you toward the end.

You've just made that more of a trudge toward the end as opposed to something that you're excited about.

to really dive into and like really explore and talk about with you guys on the show.

I do think Kyle's right though, but it feels like the NBA has thrived in modern times in part because of the discourse.

Like there was a huge dissonance where if you look just online or on podcasts, like the NBA seems as big as the NFL, but we all know that was never the case.

And it certainly isn't the case now.

I do think the fact that there are so many voices pelting you all the time,

And that is primarily the way people consume it, as opposed to the games with NFL.

I think the fact that it has started to sour, the sourness has started to really like bounce off the walls pretty loudly and it's hard to ignore.