Mina Kimes

So in the summer of 2012 is when we met.

I think we were co-honorees at some...

award thing for young journalists whose name currently escapes me.

And for some reason, I recall like we were like the two most maybe like overdressed people at this particular ceremony.

And so Game Recognize Game, at that point, you were working for Fortune and doing investigative reporting and we got lunch and... We were both business journalists at the time.

Yeah, we had a lot in common considering like similar jobs and kind of things like that.

And

Yeah, we were early 20s, though.

So that was a long time.

And then we stayed friends throughout the years, kept in touch.

And before I even started working in sports, I remember Derek shocked and awed me with one of his wildest takes, which was that he doesn't root for an NFL team.

He would just root for a quarterback and then follow him.

Peyton Manning being, which just, like, NBA happens all the time.

Not a thing, really, in the NFL.

Yeah.

I was ahead of my time, Mina.

I was way ahead of my time in terms of following players over teams.

I mean, now with fantasy, there's a lot of people who I feel like don't follow a team at all.

Like they de facto root for the players in the fantasy teams because that gives them way more emotional feedback than whether or not a team wins.

And as you said, in the NBA, I think following players over teams is pretty standard.