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Villain. Nothing personal word of the day. It is Monday, April 24, 2023. And the word is villain.

We have used villain in sports since the beginning of time. It really came into focus. I felt during COVID when the last dance came out and Michael Jordan was talking about what motivated him and how he found a way to take his game to another level. And it happened again, not with Michael Jordan, but with the second greatest goat, which is redundant. LeBron James had a thing with Dylan Brooks.

And people are viewing Dylan Brooks to the Memphis Grizzlies with some unbelievable lens that he has become this villain.

So to help you get some understanding of where we are, we're in the National Basketball Association in a playoff series between the Lakers and the Grizzlies, the Grizzlies who are the number two seed.

The Lakers who are the number seven seed.

The Lakers are winning the series. LeBron James is the best player that we've seen if you haven't seen Jordan. And Dylan Brooks is fine. He's making 35 million over three years. He's on the last year of his deal. He's a nice piece. That's all he is. He is not a superstar by any stretch.

And he got into it with LeBron James. And the media lost its mind. The fans did too a bit. But really this is a media creation.

And it's been bothering me all weekend. Dylan Brooks got vilified by the media and then refused to meet the media after the game.

So the previous game Dylan Brooks has this issue. We get the flagrant. And now people are wondering to see the dirtiest player of all time.

He apparently hit LeBron in the Jimmy. There's been a lot of that this weekend. James Harden got ejected for a potential groin shot.

So I guess they're really focused on protecting everybody's crown jewels as LeBron called them. That's probably the word. 20 synonyms for the area. But all of that said Dylan Brooks the game ends.

If you're the Memphis Grizzlies, you have one job to do. If you are in PR, Dylan Brooks has got to meet the media after the game. You can't make him unavailable.

You sit him down. You got plenty of time to do it. And you explain to him, this is what we're going to do. This is what we're going to say. And here it is.

We're going to say that play was completely unintentional. Why would I do anything to motivate LeBron James? Why would I do anything to possibly make him have a reason to hate me, hate us and play better?

I'm just not going to do it. It's as old as father time. The whole bulletin board thing, which I have downplayed to you in the past. And I don't view it as dispositive.

I don't think that when someone creates a bulletin board moment that that makes a good team great or a bad team good. It's just in the back of your head like, hey, let's get him.

But then if you start missing your shots or all of a sudden you're facing a great picture and you're not getting hits. It doesn't matter that there was amazingly exciting, lascivious and brilliant bulletin board material.

It just matters that you're not the better team. But that said, if you're the Grizzlies, you're not doing anything to sort of wake up the Lakers, if that's a word that you would use that is even possible.

To do by not meeting the media or by hurting LeBron James or trying to hurt LeBron James, saying that you were trying to hurt him, which he didn't do, attempting to really hurt him, which he didn't do.

So he doesn't meet the media, not available. Then they play another game and he does meet the media. And the only thing he came up with was the media is making me a villain. The fans are making me a villain. And that creates a whole different persona on me.

So now you all think I intended to hit LeBron James in the I'm playing basketball.

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