Monday Musings
Listen, these all can't happen on Fridays
So, I originally was going to post this on Friday (as detailed below), but then I thought I’d schedule it for Monday … and then, as some of you may have noticed, I published it immediately on Thursday. So if you read this then, it’s the same thing. Feel free to stop reading IMMEDIATELY. Or read it again! Life is about the choices we make. One choice I’ll need to make is whether or not I can stop inadvertently publishing things I want to send out later.
I was going to send this out on Friday, but since I posted something on Thursday it felt like a bit much. (Speaking of which, do you have preferences for how often I do these posts? The cadence today is generated by me literally posting only when I have something to say - which historically ranges from “occasionally” to “Greebs, can you PLEASE stop talking” levels. So feedback is welcome!
Instead we have a post about a few things I couldn’t stop thinking about so thought I’d share.
If you aren’t a golf fan, you might not complete get why THIS isn’t the craziest shot most of us have EVER seen. Or at least in a long time.
My first instinct looking at this was, “That’s a good way to break your wrist.” The ball is in between THICK tree roots and if you’ve ever swung a golf club (likely inadvertently) into one, you can probably still feel the sting. It’s NOT good. But because in order to avoid the root, Davis had to come down super steep, because he’s an incredibly talented golfer, that put the crazy spin on the shot that led to such a fantastic result. (Not only did he not break his wrist, but the ball ended up a few feet from the cup. Click on the above to see.) This is like the millionth piece of evidence showing how elite these guys are.
Celebrity is weird, and there’s a term for folks feeling like they KNOW a celebrity called a parasocial relationship. When someone does something “out of the norm,” people can feel shocked and surprised, either positively or negatively. I can’t say I feel one way or another about Lakers owner Jeannie Buss or actor/comedian Jay Mohr, besides knowing who they are. I did not realize they got married in late 2023 (and can’t say why I find this such a bizarre pairing, but I do). But after hearing about this and doing a basic Google search, most of the stories were about their unusual living arrangement.
“Right now we live in a building that has three units. So I live on the top floor and Jay lives on the first floor. And so there’s a couple that live in between us.
“So where we live together, we’re at the same address except I’m unit three and he’s unit one,” she continued to explain.
“We don’t really want to change anything, because I like my space and I have my schedule and he likes his space and he has his schedule but I can take the elevator down in my slippers and hang out a little bit and go back up.”
Mohr expanded on this.
“When you’re home alone in your bed it’s like, guys are gross. We just make sounds, like we sweat, the sheets get all wrinkly and weird. It’s like, ‘Aw, just let her sleep like a princess or a Barbie still in the box.’ She doesn’t need to be subjected to me, and my wrestling sweatpants, just belching in my sleep.”
Look, I get that everyone lives the life they want to live - and I also get that sometimes couples happily sleep in separate beds and I am not yucking anyone’s yums. If you want to think of your wife as a “Barbie still in the box,” that’s your bag, baby. <cringe>
But I don’t really understand why they don’t sleep in separate bedrooms in the same house. Buss is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more. Mohr has done fine for himself as well. I’m also VERY curious about the couple that lives in the apartment between them. That seems wild, and unnecessary. Again, if this makes them happy, that’s great but … it’s odd, right? It’s not just me? OK.
In the NBA world - a world I know very little about - a trade over a week ago rocked the sports landscape. Even a casual fan like me knew it was incredibly one-sided for the Lakers (gross) and that the Mavericks got absolutely played.
The trade was guard Luka Doncic going to the Lakers for (essentially) F/C Anthony Davis and a future first round pick. Key things to know:
Doncic is about to turn 26. Anthony Davis is 31
Doncic is his seventh NBA season. He’s been a five-time All Star and All NBA player. That’s the same amount of All NBA teams Davis has been on in his first 12 seasons.
Both of these guys are VERY good players, but Doncic is an ascending star, and would probably be on everyone’s top-5 player list in the NBA. And his career is still very much just getting started. And he’s almost averaged a triple-double during his CAREER.
So this isn’t a ding on Davis, a player who is quite, quite good at what he does. But if you saw other deadline deals going on, the payback to the Mavericks was atrocious. First round picks in the NBA are dealt willy-nilly, with players you haven’t heard of getting three to five sent back in trades. One podcast I listened to said the Lakers could have sent back LeBron James and the trade would still be bad for the Mavericks. The Mavericks very loudly noted they didn’t talk to any other team, which meant the Lakers had all the leverage here. Also, Doncic didn’t want to leave, and the Mavericks essentially called him fat after sending him out the door.
I was trying to think of an NFL corollary - with a huge caveat that NFL careers are much shorter than any other league - and I came up with the Washington Commanders trading QB Jayden Daniels to the Steelers for pass rusher T.J. Watt and, say, a 2nd round pick in 2026. That would be bonkers - Watt is still one of the best passrushers in the league, but he’s 30 and often injured, while Daniels looks to be the future of the NFL.
Also, this would mean Washington called Pittsburgh and offered this, and then intentionally didn’t ask any other team if they could best the Steelers offer. Regardless of how much Pittsburgh loves Watt, they would likely injure themselves running to accept this offer. I feel really bad for Mavericks fans - and I’m not usually inclined to feel sympathy for anyone in Dallas. This is bad stuff.
What’s on your mind?