So I hate to do this, but I want to pivot to men's basketball. A little inclusivity for the fellows. You know what I mean? Just give them a shot because guys, basketball doesn't even get talked about anymore. But this is a debate that I was seeing online, and I'm interested, Gil, specifically in your feedback on this question. So the question is this, who was the fourth best player in the decade of the 2010s? The fourth best player.

Give him a three.

Because That's a hard question. Three best players, I think is almost consensus. Steph, LeBron, Durant, of the 2010s, of that entire decade. Can you argue with any of those before we even go any further? Who is the fourth best player of that decade?

Options left. Westbrook, Harden, Anthony Dames.

James Harden. Anthony Dames, too.

Who do you think?

Wow.fourth best player.Okay, so I don't know why I do this. It's unfair to both of them. But I always group James Harden and Westbrook together because I can't pick, and I don't like that. I got to pick one. So when I only got one spot left. I just put them both together. But for me, they both killed. And there was a I guess someone said, who has been the best dominant to? And they have Kyrie and Luca, right? And nobody remembers 2019, 2020, James Harden and Westbrook because of COVID. When one was averaging 34 and the other one was averaging, what, 27 and 7. No one thought because COVID happened, so everybody didn't pay attention to what those two were doing. I'm a Harden fan, but I'm a Westbrook fan. I got to go with the dude who averaged four triple doubles.

You're going Westbrook? In a decade.

I'm going to go with James Hardin.

So we close. James Hardin? So we close it up.

And that's hard because I played with him. Honestly, before you got MVP-We played with Russ as well. Yeah, but that was- At the time.

At the time.

Got it. And Russ went and joined James Harden, too.

And James Harden is MVP. He's winning 66 games or whatever that year. Scoring at the clip he was.

You can't go wrong.

But that's what I said, with them two is so hard, man. It's so hard.

So it's only down to those two because I'm going to introduce a third name to the conversation, Kawhi Leonard.

No. No? No. No, I ain't giving him why. Not at all? I ain't giving him why that.

But he has multiple ships.

He do. But the way he got them, James Harding, he had the ball all the time.

But he had zero ships.

I know, but every decision was made on him.

I'm never going to... At this point in time, I can never... You said best player. I can I can never knock Kawhi because what he done in a weird way has been dominant in a weird way, right? It's not conventional. He asked Spurs, one, and I was like, I don't like it. And then he goes to San Antonio. I mean, he goes to Toronto, wins over there. And you know me, I'm finding an excuse. Well, they were number one the whole time, LeBron out of there. If Derozen was there, they would have won it because LeBron is out of there. They only lost to LeBron for the last four, five years. They were number one last year. So you went to the best team. I don't respect it. I just tried to figure out a way. And then when I'm just sitting there watching them up close, just warming up, just let me see. Just shot Shot. Okay, so he shoots the shit off the ball at the mid-range, right? And then now I'm trying to defend him. How am I going to guard this man? And I'm like, Damn, shoot that. Then I started respecting that he knows how to just get a bucket.

He just knows how to put the ball in the basket, and he knows how to get a stop when he needs it. He's just a winner. He's just the definition of a winner. You put him on a bad team, he's going to figure out how to get wins. I can't take away what he's done, but when it comes to the best player, is the guy who had to carry it on his shoulder night in, the night out, and had to be James Harden or Westbrook.

I think there's almost like an inverse quality to how James Harden, incredible during the regular season, couldn't get it done in the playoffs. And then Kawhi, he is able to get it done in the playoffs on multiple teams. If you do it on multiple teams, there is definitely something to be said about it. But go ahead. What's giving you pause What's the difference in this?

It's easier to guard James Harden in the playoff. Why? Because this game is the same as in regular season. So if I know, all right, he going to do the pick a roll, I can find this combo. So now what ends up happening is I take the playbook and I'm looking at it.

As soon as he goes tween tween, double team is that.

And then I was like, okay.

That's who he throwing the ball to. Pat Biv. Now, I'm catching him up for like this. He didn't do you mean? You're doing it to me all year.

You're getting back. What ends up happening is just over time, I'm letting his bad habits beat him. I can beat him, his bad habits, which means if he gets comfortable doing something he going to keep doing. Or he hit two threes in a row, he's going to come down, take two, he checks. He checks, he takes in the first quarter. Fuck, he still do it in the last three minutes of the game. If he loses the ball, he don't hustle back. So if he don't hustle back, he just looks at the ref. Boom. So two bad shots, two turnovers. He didn't get back on, so he didn't give up four points on some easy stuff. That's what's beating James Harden in the playoff. It's the he He hasn't realized there's things you do in the first quarter, you can't do in the fourth. You can't play every quarter the same way.

And they double-teamed one more time.

And then I'm going to double-tean you. So I'm just going to let you- It's different double-teaming.

You had three That's why I didn't catch him in the post.

But wasn't going to the Clipper supposed to be the antidote for that? Where it's like, you can't double team- Kua was hurt.

One of the best players. Their best player was hurt.

But still, you got to be... One thing that I had to learn, and I learned from players and watching players studying them that you have to be self-aware on your mistakes and trying to clean them up. If you're looking at the accolades you're getting and not improving your skill in your game and your knowledge, then when it's winding down for you, your mistakes will show his ugly head. You can only live on athleticism for so long. The reason LeBron has been able to sustain it, if you him today, that wasn't him in 2004 and '05. Two different players. This one's smarter. He's gotten wiser and smarter in how he attacks and when he attacks versus the young Brian flying down the court 100 miles an hour. This one's going 70, but it looked like it's 100. That one, it felt like 100. It looked like 200. When you got hit by Bron, them 2000... Man, It hurt.

What? He don't even look to hit you no more. He bombed.

I sprained my wrist, man. I had to take Toradol. Then hyper extended my knee because I couldn't feel my knee no more. Toradol. All from trying to... He coming down and I try to hit one of those.

I told him up for one time. He had me in a post one time. He banged that bitch. It felt like as a cartoon, on concrete and your legs just go back in the concrete. It felt like that, bro. I literally couldn't do anything. Usually, I take a second bump. He bumped me on my two feet, like flying back there. I could do nothing. So, yeah, Brian, he's different animal. Different. Different.

No love to Chris Paul or Anthony Davis in this discussion. Do either of them even belong in the discussion?

Cp up there, too. Cp up there, too. Ad up there, too.

I call it twin-er players. When you say all decade players, right?

They're on the...

They're in that. They got He got drafted in the middle of a decade.

Like Yannis, like 2014.

So you get drafted in, so he can be part of that decade. And then the 2020s, he's fallen off a little bit. So you either want to be at the beginning of the decade where you got about, So if I got 2000, 2003, I'll start kicking into my stuff. You have to be very talented to be drafted like 2004, '06, and still make that decade team, which would be like somebody like LeBron, Jordan, stuff like that. Other than that, the people who get drafted in 2000, let's say the '07s, that '07 or '08, you're going to be very great in the next era.

Because you'll be right into your prime.

Because you done got those first rookie years out of you, and then you just took off. So somebody like Chris Paul, you coming in in the middle of AI, Duncan, Tracey McGratey, Kobe era. And then everybody who got drafted a little bit after you, as soon as 2010s come, boom, here they come. The Derrick Roses, the Steph Currys, the Hardens, all of them, and you get lost.