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Welcome to the Torg Stories Podcast April 30th, 2023 edition. Anne and I are opening with stories. We’re doing an NBA Playoff update, and get ready for a new feature: the NBA Playoff Player Pyramid.

Before Anne gets to her story, I have some story related observations and questions:

• What are some of the possible features that make for a story worth hearing?
• Okay, there’s been a decision to tell a story. What can make it good? What do good storytellers do?
• Going the other way: what makes for a bad story?
• The myth of the plot diagram or narrative arc: exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution.

Our stories:

• The idea of listening with a pencil.
• Anne: almost mugged in Munich
• Bill: College visit to Randolph Macon. The Zoom meeting that starts at 2:00. The car rider line that starts at 2:45. Storms. 421, 40, 85, 95, Richmond. The crummy Holiday Inn Express. What makes a good/not good hotel?

NBA Playoff Update:

• West: Nuggets lead Suns 1-0. Warriors eliminate Kings to face Lakers in 2nd round.
• Curry scores playoff game 7 record 50 points. Looney 21 rebounds, 3rd game in series over 20 rebounds.
• East: Heat lead Knicks 1-0. Sixers face Celtics Monday night game 1 2nd round.

Our Playoff Player Pyramids:

Thanks for listening!

Topics include traveling to Knoxville for a women’s basketball tournament during the NCAA exposure period, the process of getting recruited to play sports in college, finding morel mushrooms, and the NBA Playoffs Round 1.

Travel ball check in:

• The pleasure of team building.
• Geno spotting. Kenny Brooks from VA Tech.
• Good exposure on Twitter and at the games.
• Great effort and attitude. Of courses lots of ways to grow.
• Resilient but then also the teams that are talented and execute.
• Charlotte worked in the prom and Dad had some health problems.
• 5 game weekend. What’s next?

Mailbag questions:

How can I get my daughter recruited to play basketball?

• (DI vs. Lower Levels). Getting to know the programs, rosters, and schools. Emails, DMs, and video. Elite camps. Watch practice. Go to games.

How do you find a morel mushroom? When?

• We’re third week of April in the mountains of NC. I remember Easter in Indiana. Mayapples knee high. Dead trees. LOL, look down.

How is Anne doing with her broken leg?

NBA Playoffs Check In:

• West: Nuggets lead 3-1. Suns lead 3-1. Warriors vs. Kings 2-2. Lakers lead Grizzlies 2-1.
• Predictions: I had the Suns. You had Kings over Warriors. How are you feeling now?
• My stories: Steph shotmaking. Draymond defense on multiple superstars. Steph’s timeout. Sabonis being played like Draymond. The way teams like Golden State learn about box and 1’s and playing defense like people play on Draymond.
• Curry timeout with JR Smith and LeBron. The size of this story but also that it’s a mistake that can happen.
• East: Miami leads Bucks 2-1. Giannis expected back tonight. Knicks lead Cavs 3-1. Sixers sweep Nets. Celtics lead Hawks 3-1.
• Your Knicks prediction looking good.
• The Heat redemption after the “blow it up” after Hawks loss still in play.

My team vs. your team: (see last week’s draft if you’re interested)

• Still struck that we both wanted KD first. Is he the best player in the game when healthy? We want him over Giannis when we’re trying to win playoff games. Everyone agree with us?
• You’re starting Jokic, Lillard, and Booker and those are guys I think I can go after in isolations. My worst two shooting starters are probably LeBron and Davis. I could bring in Butler and Morant.
• Steph and LeBron are my worst two defenders. I can bring in Butler, Morant, Jrue Holiday and all of those guys can shoot. So I win playing small-er ball and with defense.

My sister Anne listens to games without the sound on if she cares about who will win.

Welcome to the Torg Stories Podcast. Anne and I are going to look back at the NBA Play-In games and ahead to the playoffs. After that, we’re doing a draft of the players we’d want for our own playoff run but first, Anne, you had questions for me about the start of travel basketball. Let’s hear ’em!

NBA Play-In Summary:

1. Opening night: Hawks upset Heat to get the Celtics in Round 1. Lakers beat Timberwolves to get Grizzlies in Round 1.
2. 9-10 games: Bulls beat Raptors. Thunder beat Pelicans.
3. For the 8th seeds: Heat beat Bulls to get Bucks. T-Wolves hammer Thunder to get Nuggets.

Anne, what were your thoughts on the play-in?

• The “break up the Heat” noise got loud. I was telling Megan that it could be fixed quick with a win and an upset of the Bucks.
• We had the DeRozan daughter screaming game in Toronto.
• Lakers coming together at the right time. Didn’t you have them done at one point? Does the buzz reach your apartment with the broken leg?
• The way it works for me: things getting so bad for Rudy Gobert that he is starting to become a sympathetic figure.

Sat Results:

• 76ers Hammer Nets. Celtics beat Hawks. Knicks upset Cavs. Kings beat Warriors.
• Coming back to the hotel room after a two-game Saturday. My first look at the Kings and De’Aaron Fox. He scores 38. Steph hits a ridiculous 3. Fox answers. Klay ridiculous. Fox again. Steph in the corner. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

Sun Results:

• Lakers get the on-paper “upset” over Grizzlies but look strong. Heat huge upset over Bucks. Giannis goes down with a back. Herro done with a broken hand. Clippers beat Suns. Nuggets demolish T-Wolves.
• Kawhi still has it. Heat vs. Bucks. Clippers vs. Suns.

Tonight’s games:

• Nets vs. Sixers. Warriors vs. Kings.

Series Predictions:

Finals Prediction:

Anne vs. Bill NBA Playoff Draft:

Guidelines:

• We’re drafting players as they are. If they’re hurt or maybe hurt, that’s part of the deal.
• All NBA players are eligible, even if not in playoffs.
• Your team needs to be able to play as a real team.
• Next week we’ll make the case of how the team we drafted wins.
• Anne gets first pick. We’ll pick a coach too.

Anne’s Team:

1. Durant
2. Jokic
3. Damian Lillard
4. Giannis
5. Devin Booker
6. De’Aron Fox
7. Joel Embiid
8. Luka Doncic
9. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
10. Domantas Sabonis

Coach: Steve Kerr

Bill’s Team:

1. Kawhi Leonard
2. Steph Curry
3. LeBron James
4. Anthony Davis
5. Jason Tatum
6. Jimmy Butler
7. Ja Morant
8. Jrue Holiday
9. Bam Adebayo
10. Evan Mobley

Coach: Nick Nurse

This podcast was recorded Monday night, April 17, 2023.

Thanks for listening!

Welcome to the Torg Stories Podcast. In this edition we’ll learn why Anne hates the Masters golf tournament so much, go over the NBA Playoffs set up including the play in tournament, talk about #1 draft prospect Victor Wembanyama, TV shows from our HS days, and dream vacations. This edition of the podcast was recorded Sun, April 9, 2023.

Anne, it’s Easter, it’s the Masters, and it’s the last day of the NBA regular season.

Notes for the Conversation:

Masters:

• Tiger made the cut and tied Gary Player and Fred Couples making 23 cuts in a row. Fred Couples was the oldest player to make the cut at age 63.
• Cold weather, wind and rain came. A couple trees blew down. Tiger withdrew with aggravated plantar fasciitis.

• No signs of LIV / PGA Tour conflict. There was a lot of talk before the tournament that the LIV don’t play real golf because there’s no cut. That didn’t seem to hold out.
• Brooks Koepka blew a big lead.
• Phil Mickelson shot 65 today and tied for 2nd. Oldest top 5 finish in Masters’ history. YOU CAN BE OLDER AND KEEP COMPETING: LeBron, Tom Brady, Phil and Fred Couples today.
• Jordan Spieth shot 66, bogeyed the last hole, and dropped to 4th.
• Brooks Koepka…
• Jon Rahm is the winner by 4 shots. Up 4 heading into the last hole. Previously won the US Open in 2021.

NBA Playoffs:

• We read the NBA’s guide to the Play-In Tournament.
• The Mavs didn’t want to make it.
• Let’s go over the play in games first. Click here.
• Looking forward to any of these games?
• The regular season final standings. Click here.
• What do you notice?
• Let’s go over the match ups. Click here.

Victor Wembanyama:

• What’s the likelihood he’ll be better than some of these all time #1 picks in my lifetime, starting in the 1970s? 74 Bill Walton, Magic Johnson 79, 83 Ralph Sampson, 84 Hakeem Olajuwon, 85 Patrick Ewing, 92 Shaq, 97 Tim Duncan, 2002 Yao Ming, 2003 Lebron, 2007 Greg Oden, 2012 Anthony Davis, Zion 2019.
• 7-2 229. I’m inclined not to believe that weight.
• Plays for Metropolitans 92, a French professional basketball club. Click here for Wikipedia article.
• 27 games for the Metropolitans: 21 ppg, 32 mins, 43-140 from 3 for 30%, 129-154 83% from line, 3.2 blocks.
• What makes him better than Chet Holmgren? Who also immediately got hurt. 7-0, 195. 32 college games 14 pts, 39% from 3, 71% from line, 3.7 blocks.
• I remember Kevin Durant was thought by some to be too skinny. He shot the ball much better. Kevin Durant 6-10 240 now. In college, 35 games, 25.8 ppg, 40% from 3, 81.6 from the line. 40% from 3, 91.9% from line. 1.9 blocks.
• Kristaps Porzingis. 7-3 240. I just don’t see how KP is only 11 pounds more than Wemby. KP is 85% from the line, 38.5 from 3.
• Could he be skinny Giannis Antetokounmpo who is better from the line? 7-0 240. 27.5% from 3, 64.5 from FT.
• To sum up, he’s Chet, with more athleticism and playmaking ability? He’s KD but not as good of a shooter, with maybe some more Pete Maravich kind of handles and out of the box creativity? He’s a not as good as shooting KP but with better playmaking ability? He’s skinny Giannnis, who is a much better FT shooter. This doesn’t seem like LeBron worthy kind of hype.
• We read Wemby’s Wikipedia entry.
• We read Jeremy Wood’s SI article “Inside Victor Wembanyama’s Plan to Dominate the NBA Like Never Before.”

TV From High School:

• Family Ties
• Married with Children
• Coach
• The A Team
• Quantum Leap
• Night Court

Dream Vacation Spot/s:

• Hawaii, more than any other place, exceeded my expectations for the trip.
• Probably antithetical to the idea of vacation, I would gravitate towards goals or challenges. Like, we have a week off, let’s raft the river or try and hike 150 miles. But my family doesn’t want to do that, so road trips kind of fit that bill. Road trip of Pacific Coast Highway or driving tour of national parks in the West.
• Uninformed Norway idea. I take on big research projects for my vacations.
• What about some good/memorable ones? Maine delivered for us and we’d be interested in going back. Megan and spontaneously drove through the night to Miami and on to Key West.