It is a curious folkway here at Deadspin that NBA-related previews cannot be published before the start of whatever it is they’re previewing. It’s not covered during the onboarding process, and is more just one of those things that you learn over the course of time as a member of the staff, like the fact that the office is always to be kept at 57 degrees and Don’t Ever, Ever Make Eye Contact With Barry. It took some getting used to for me, if I’m being honest, but by now it is second nature. I think you can hear that comfort as Drew, Giri Nathan, and I run down the NBA Playoffs several days after they’d already begun, and the morning after I stayed up like a dumbass to watch the end of the Clippers’ shocking Game 2 upset of the Golden State Warriors.
You surely know enough about who we are and what we do here at The Deadcast to know that we’re not necessarily going to be right about a lot of what we talk about. But if there’s a single through-line to our conversation, it’s that all three of us are pretty excited by the promise that the playoffs hold. Yes, there are definitely still some first-round series that needed to be flushed down the toilet with extreme prejudice, but while the Warriors are still every bit as inexorable as they have been over the last few years, the field arrayed against them is full of oddball teams and endearingly defiant stars and a handful of rising demigods. There are of course also the Houston Rockets, and that has to be taken into account, but the NBA Playoffs are good and getting better, and even if the season ends with the same hands lifting the Larry O’Brien Trophy that everyone expected, there is still a lot to look forward to from here. If it seems like we spent a lot more time talking about how cool Damian Lillard is or how much fun Giannis Antetokounmpo might be en route to the NBA Finals, it’s because that’s what we’re looking forward to. Also as mentioned earlier I was very tired.
And there is of course also the Funbag. Giri’s well-documented appetite for unusual flavors was tested by a typically fragrant and acidic feast of questions, but he held his own in the forbidden mind zones into which those questions pulled us. By the end, after questions that led us to discuss the XFL’s idiotic kickoff substitute, Tony Kornheiser grouchily replacing a storm door, and the experience of hitting a four-iron sitting atop a piece of goose shit on a public golf course in Northern New Jersey, all three of us were reduced to just making Donald Trump-accented sounds at each other after I conflated two different photos of Trump and Marla Maples at a Police Athletic League celebrity softball game. I’d chalk that up to our workplace culture, too, but it was probably just our fault.
You can also listen at iHeart Radio, Stitcher, Spotify, NPR One, Apple Podcasts, or GooglePlay. And don’t forget to email us tips and/or general complaints at deadcast@deadspin.com. Have fun out there.