The following podcast contains explicit language.

Hi, this is Josh Levine, and this is Slate Sports Podcast Hang Up and Listen for the week of December 15th, 2014.

On this week's show, we'll talk about Kobe Bryant's terrible, magical, profane, and somehow fantastic 2014 season. Plus, we'll look at whether there's

anything the NBA can or should do about the West being so much better than the East.

Baseball prospectus editor-in-chief Sam Miller will join us to explain which baseball teams

are looking smart and which are looking dumb after the winter meetings transaction

paloosa.

Attorney Sharon Vinnick, who represented cheerleaders for the Oakland Raiders and the New York Jets,

will tell us why these women deserve better treatment from their teams and the NFL.

And in our bonus segment for Slate Plus members, we will talk about the latest developments inside the commissioner's office and whether

Roger Goodell is dumber than even the dumbest baseball teams at the winter meetings.

Joining me in Washington, D.C. is Stefan Fatsis, author of the book's Word Freak in a Few

Seconds of Panic and the Friday Sports Correspondent for NPR's All Things Considered.

Hello, Stefan.

Mike Peska pointed out before we started recording that Stefan has a midfalutin name.

Mike, can you explain what that means?

Well, you could mistake it for, or I wouldn't say you can mistake it for, it's sometimes mistaken for Stefan.

Stefan would be the highfalutin version, but it It's sometimes mistaken for Stefan. Stefan would be the high

falutin version, but it's also sometimes mistaken for Stephen. And that would be the lowfalutin

version. So, Stefan, that's a mid-falutin name. That's I like to go for the mid. I don't like the

extremes. I'm a very balanced guy. Sort of the Greek ethos, all things in moderation.

Actually, my name really is, I'm going to confess, my name birth certificate is actually the full Greek, Stephanos.

...