Just your overall thoughts, Chris, when it comes to AJ's ecosystem in year one, when he can defer to Trae Young and Anthony Davis compared to last year where Cooper Flagg was just thrown into the wolves.

Yeah, that's a good question.

I think, again, when you have the kind of veterans like Trey and AD that can be kind of the offensive engine, it will allow AJ to kind of blend in.

And I don't think that's a bad thing.

I don't want people to take that as like a negative connotation.

I've been in this league long enough to see number one overall picks being thrown to the Wolves.

And it's uncomfortable sometimes.

swag.

What are reasonable expectations for Debonza tonight?

Compete.

Compete like he always has.

There's a reason why A.J. was the number one pick.

There's some underlying things that I'm going to be watching tonight.

Darren Peterson has already had two games under his belt, and he has flourished.

He has played really well.

the finals.

Yeah.

Hey, listen, clip that off.

Brian Mitchell says Georgia in the finals.

But I am actually looking forward to just being on the journey, just watching what Trey and A.D. look like with these young kids.

How does A.J.' 's game kind of blend in? It's intriguing, but I will say this league-wide, I have noticed something, that there's more value than probably ever in of having more depth on your team if you're in the NBA.

I think having two stars, three stars, the big threes, I think those days are over just because of the first and second aprons.

I think now you have to do a much better job than ever of really evaluating kind of the back end of your bench because you're going to be probably calling on them to play.

Yeah, and I love adding Middleton also, you know what I mean, to just bring in a vet that when there are maybe some big bangers, guys are going to get super physical, maybe you don't have to rely on a rookie so much or a different young guy.

What are reasonable expectations for Debonza tonight?

Compete.

Compete like he always has.

There's a reason why AJ was the number one pick.

There's some underlying things that I'm going to be watching tonight.

Darren Peterson has already had two games under his belt and he has flourished.

He has played really well.

Hey, listen, flip

What are reasonable expectations for Debonza tonight?

Compete.

Compete like he always has.

There's a reason why A.J. was the number one pick.

There's some underlying things that I'm going to be watching tonight.

Darren Peterson has already had two games under his belt, and he has flourished.

He has played really well.

the finals.

I want to get to the actual strategy of how these players all fit together, but just in terms of the positivity surrounding the organization right now, how much, if at all, do you think Dawkins, Winger, the young guys that are a part of this, how much do you think they feel and how much can they feed off that?

The number one pick, and I'm only speaking in the NBA.

The NFL, I've never experienced it when I covered the league for 10 years, so I've never experienced what it was like to have the first pick.

But the first pick, I've experienced that before, and I kind of know what it looks like.

I had Michael Winger on our set last night, and Michael and I were both in Cleveland in 2003 when that kid from Akron said he was going to light up Cleveland like Vegas.

So Michael and I have... been there and saw what that looked like.

I, I'm not going to say AJ is going to be LeBron James.

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Do you think there's a chance that Cam Boozer is, is in the mix for the wizards at number one? Is that even a possibility?

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised.

I think, The beauty of this organization is they're up for any kind of discussion.

And I think their talent evaluators, who I know personally, are fantastic.

And, Pete, they have been following these kids since they were probably 14 years old.

So they've got all the data points.

You know, you go to Chicago and they are amazing.

It's very clear that, you know, you're just easygoing um and and it comes through even in conversations like this i've worked with brendan haywood a couple times and he just thinks you my guy he thinks you hung the moon so how have you been able to do this so seamlessly because it's not that easy dude when you think about the community and who the face of the team is from a broadcast standpoint how have you been able to integrate so uh seamlessly or at least make it look that way

He comes through, but you certainly ask a lot of him.

You know, he was the one who had the rights to the manuscript from the beginning and, and, and called us up, and we had, had a previous relationship with Andy Weir through our producer partner, uh, Aditya Sood.

And we were all just smitten with this book, and it wasn't really a big surprise that it became a giant bestseller, uh, shortly after we decided to, to, to work together on it.

Uh, but Ryan was very thoughtful about the character.

He knew what a big load it was and how he was gonna have to carry the film on his shoulders because it's all him.

He's in every scene.

He is, you know, you are with him through highs and lows.

You assume that we can keep up, and then you sort of back into the story, and that's definitely what Andy Weir does as a writer, too.

Yeah

... and then I think a few other authors on it.

And those guys are amazing with what they do out there.

And they had done a study where they took 36 people, and they either gave them high fiber diet, so 45 grams per day of fiber, so that was legumes and whole grains, vegetables and fruit, nuts and seeds, which is, that's a high fiber diet, or they gave them six servings per day of fermented foods.

And they did a gradual ramp-up period for both group, they didn't, groups.

They didn't just start with that.

So they gave their guts a little adjustment period, and then they did a 10-week trial, and th- what they were looking for was, uh, the microbiome diversity and the immune, the immune system.

Um, before I let you go, Chris, what is your stance at this point on protein? Are you in the camp that is like, "You know what? I think we should actually bump it up to 1.2 to 1.6, uh, grams of protein per kilogram of body weight," or are you still in the 0.8 grams of, you know, protein per kilogram of body weight? Where do you stand?

[laughs]

We, we don't, like...

Divide and conquer is, i- is the, the real thing.

We sort of are joined at the hip, uh, and go around, and it's a lot of conversations.

You know, like, we...

What...

Filmmaking is just a series of conversations, whether you're, like, your heads of departments, whether you're your cast, with your, with your crew.

Yeah.

Right.

And one of the things that's on, you know, one of the opportunities that presents itself when you're not, you know, on the hook for making, like, three Han Solo sequels, [laughs] you know, is that you, we have the opportunity to create the f- you know, the f- the franchises of the future.

... like, was pretty great.

There's one shot in that movie where he's like on a balcony or something, and he's assessing a threat, and his eyes move around like he's a velociraptor.

And I was like, "Oh, this is the smartest fucking move I've ever seen." He's the most, like, perfect suit.

He's got the watch, like shaken, not stirred, and when the shit goes down, he's an animal.

We wanted it to be its own movie and have its own space, and...

I think we often said this movie is not a Mac.

It's a PC.

It's not slick.

It's not shiny.

The guts of the ship are on the outside.

You can...

And this is different, but it is also a, it's a different performance style.

[laughs]

... and save those kittens," and has no fear, no vulnerabilities, no, you know, weaknesses.

And, uh, and so that's why I think he's a very relatable character because he starts this movie, he is, you know, he is scared, he doesn't wanna [laughs] doesn't wanna do the job.

He's, uh, and he's full of fear and, and anxiety, and on Earth, he's also a, a character that has, like, social anxiety and, and sort of has to be pulled into it.

And, and I think bravery to me isn't about not being afraid of something, it's about being afraid and then doing it anyway.

Why was warmth important in this film?

Um, well, you know, it's a, a movie about friendship and about communication and empathy.

Um, and the book is funny even though it is about, you know, these serious subjects.

Okay.

And because there's so much, uh, density in the atmosphere of Rocky's home planet, the idea was that they assembled this, this spaceship up in the upper atmosphere with a space elevator, and so it didn't have to, like, blast off to get there.

And so it was able to have all these, like, what were like metal sticks that we thought might be used for navigation because they're, um, they're blind also.

So we were like, there's a lot of thought behind it.

Well, ex- and you?

I mean, yeah, and with all the awe and wonder and spectacle of the movie, for me some of my favorite moments are these little intimate scenes.

You know, scenes between R- uh, Ryan Gosling and Sandra Huller, scenes between Ryan and Rocky.

These, like, emotional scenes when, you know...

[cheering] [applause]

Hey guys, I've, uh, I've been, uh, playing basketball with the same group of guys for 20 years.

We went to breakfast the other morning, and we were talking about things that we did when we were a kid, and my buddy Kenny, he's a Black guy.

And I said, "Kenny," I said, "Did you ever run around your neighborhood and ring doorbells and run when you were a kid?" And he goes, "Yes, I did." And I said, "What'd you call that?" And he looked at me, he says, "Chris, I called that the same thing you called that." And I said, I said, "Okay, I apologize.

I apologize, my friend." He goes, "No, that's just what we called it." And I said, "All right." I said, "Well now, I've got a 25-year-old son, so when my son was the age where they would run around the neighborhood, ring doorbells and run, he, uh, all, everybody had Ring cameras, so all my neighbors are sending me videos.

So the, uh, the kids get home and I go, "Guys, what are y'all doing?" And my son goes, "Dad, we're ding-dong-ditching." And I was like, "What'd you call it?" He goes, "D- Dad, we're ding-dong-ditching." I threw my arms up in my, in my living room, and my son goes, "Dad, what are you doing?" And I go, "Don't worry about it.

All you need to know is I'm a better dad than my dad was." All right, thank you guys.

And what, what have, what have they seen?

What have the Ukrainians said they are willing and not willing to give up?

Well, the Ukrainians, and by that I mean President Zelenskyy in particular, has been clear that he does have red lines, but is willing to compromise on the territories that Vladimir Putin's army does occupy, at least in the sense of recognizing them as de facto under Russian control.

That means that they are not ready here to say these are officially Russian territories, but rather that these are temporarily occupied areas.

Now, what we heard from the Trump camp is that he would like to potentially, in a deal proposed by him to get the Russians on board here, officially recognize, the US, that is, officially recognize Russia's 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea.

Well, what kind of role does the US have in these negotiations? Like, what kind of leverage does it have?

Well, the United States should have all of the leverage, or certainly more leverage than Russia here, right? It's the largest and most powerful-...

democracy in the world.

It's Ukraine's biggest and most important military backer.