The following podcast includes explicit language, not restricted to words beginning with F, S, B, and Q.

Hi, I'm Stefan Fats, and this is Slate's sports podcast, hang up and listen for the week of May 2nd, 2022.

On this week's show, Slate's Jack Hamilton will be here to discuss the latest in the NBA playoffs,

farewell Timberwolves, Godspeed Pelicans, good riddance, nets.

Jack also will stick around to talk about free agency in college sports,

athletes using the transfer portal, and name image and likeness rights to negotiate better compensation for their services.

Finally, Kalyn Kaler of Defector will be here to break down the

NFL draft, including the shocking news that punt god Matt Arraza of San Diego State slipped to the

sixth round and was drafted after two other punters. Didn't teams know that he's the punt god?

Josh Levine is off this week. So is Joel Anderson. I'm the author of Word Freak, a few seconds of panic and wild and outside. I'm in Washington, D.C. Joining me from Brooklyn, New York, it's the writer god. New Yorker magazine staff writer and theater critic, Vincent Cunningham. Hey, Vincent. Hey, I'm going to put that like in a quote on the back of one of my books or something. Good idea. The writer god, says Stephen Fatsis. Yes. Good to be here, ma'am. The first round of the NBA playoffs was a lot of fun, thanks largely to young and spunky losers like the Minnesota Timberwolves and New Orleans Pelicans and to hateable ones like the Nets. But it's time to move on to round two. The conference semifinals began on Sunday with the

Milwaukee Bucks thwomping the Boston Celtics on the road and the Golden State Warriors eking out a

one-point win in Memphis over the Grizzlies. Jack Hamilton has been writing about the NBA playoffs

for Slate. He's also Slate's pop critic, an associate professor of American Studies and Media Studies

at the University of Virginia, and the author of Just Around Midnight, Rock and Roll, and the Racial

Imagination. Welcome to the show, Jack. Hey, guys, thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Great to have you.

These two conference semis feel like they'll be at least marginally more fun to watch than the other two, Philly Miami, which has already been downgraded because of an injury to 76ers center, Jolen Bede, and maybe Phoenix Dallas, too. But who knows? I found Sunday's games entertaining for different reasons, Jack,

Warriors Gris for its high-octane bombs away insanity and Buck Celtics, because people might have been a

little irrationally exuberant after Boston's sweep of the nets. Yes, the Celtics shot terribly on

Sunday. They missed 32-3s, but the idea that they will smother Janus

Antikumpo, the way they did Kevin Durant, that doesn't look like a viable plan.

Yeah, definitely not. Speaking as one of those people who was maybe a little too exuberate

...