Hang Up and Listen - LeBron James Won and the NBA Bubble Worked
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Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 13 October 2020
⏱️ 63 minutes
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Summary
Joel Anderson, Stefan Fatsis, and Louisa Thomas discuss the end of the NBA’s bubble season, quarterback Alex Smith’s return from a gruesome 2018 leg injury, and the French Open victories of Rafael Nadal and Iga Swiatek.
NBA finals (02:42): LeBron James won his fourth NBA title, this one with the Los Angeles Lakers.
NFL (20:29): Is Alex Smith’s return to the NFL an inspiring comeback or a moral dilemma?
French Open (37:32): Rafael Nadal won his 20th major and Iga Swiatek won her very first tournament.
Afterballs (52:44): Louisa on the mysterious life of tennis great Alice Marble and Stefan on when athlete deaths start to hit home.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast includes explicit language, not restricted to words beginning with F, S, B, and Q. |
| 0:15.3 | Hi, I'm Stefan Fatsas, and this is Slate's sports podcast. Hang up and listen for the week of October 13th, 2020. |
| 0:22.1 | On this week's show, we'll talk about Costas Antetocumpo, Talen Horton Tucker, and the other members of the Los Angeles Lakers who got some help from LeBron James and Anthony Davis and won the 2020 NBA bubble finals, four games to two over the surprising Miami Heat. |
| 0:39.4 | We'll also discuss Dak Prescott, Alex Smith, |
| 0:42.3 | and the moral dilemma of watching NFL players suffer gruesome on-field injuries |
| 0:47.3 | and then returning from those injuries. |
| 0:50.4 | And finally, we'll assess the French Open, |
| 0:52.5 | where Rafael Nadal of Spain won his ridiculous |
| 0:55.6 | 13th French title and 20th major and teenager Iga Schwiontec of Poland won her first |
| 1:04.4 | professional tournament. |
| 1:06.2 | I'm the author of the book's Word Freak and a few seconds of panic. |
| 1:09.1 | I'm in Washington, D.C. |
| 1:10.7 | Joining me from Palo Alto, California is Slate Staff Writer and Slow Burn Season 3 host Joel Anderson. What's up, Joel? Good, man. How you doing? Doing all right. I had my first Carville ice cream cake, by the way. Did you have Fudgy the Whale? Is that a kind of Carvel ice cream cake? |
| 1:27.8 | Yeah, Fudgy the Whale. And I think Fudgy the Whale was the one if you flip it upside down, it was Santa Claus at the holidays. They use the same mold. You know what? I was too busy cutting into it to know exactly what the shape was. I do a mean Tom Carvel impersonation. He did local commercials in New York when I was growing up. |
| 1:51.0 | This is Tom Carvel. Come on down. Get Pudgy the Whale. Wait, is Carvel like some sort of local creamery or something like that? I think it started in New York. Tom Carvel was actually Tom Carvelas, |
| 1:56.4 | some Greek dude who started an ice cream store. Of course, you know the background on that one. |
| 2:01.8 | Welcome to my world. |
| 2:03.1 | Josh Levine is off this week, but if you miss him, you can buy his book The Queen |
| 2:06.7 | in paperback and listen to Slow Burn Season 4, filling in for Josh from Bethesda, Maryland. |
| 2:13.0 | Not far from where I am is Louisa Thomas. |
| 2:16.3 | She's a staff writer at The New Yorker, the co-editor of |
| 2:18.9 | Losers, dispatches from the other side of the scoreboard, and the co-author with her husband, |
... |
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