In an effort to calm my nerves before the game on Friday, I went to an art museum.

I wasn’t sure what I was looking for other than a distraction. Anything to stop myself from listening to one more increasingly obscure basketball podcast.

The exhibit on display was titled “International Surrealism: 50 Years of Dreams,” something I was passingly familiar with in the sense that if someone asked me if I know what surrealism was I’d say, “sure” and then if they pressed me on it, I’d probably go on to say, “It’s like, when something is surreal.”

Now, as I learned during this rainy afternoon stroll through the Frist Museum in Nashville, the artistic movement grew out of Paris in the 1920s, and its practitioners were super into the teachings of Freud, obsessed with the unconscious mind. However, where Freud was interested in this concept for therapeutic purposes, the surrealists were more like, “sure man, whatever, but what if we actually just used it to unlock the mysteries of the universe? Or at the very least, maybe paint some cool stuff?”

I passed through the galleries, nodding along, armed with my newfound knowledge and ready to be enlightened or inspired. I saw shapes. I saw colors. I saw sculptures. I then turned a corner and was, all of a sudden, alone in a room with Salvador Dalí’s Autumnal Cannibalism.

Like most things with Dalí, it was weird.

This painting…it’s somehow bright and yet muted, vivid and yet enshrouded in this deep grey darkness that pulls everything in the landscape towards it. Two figures, front and center, are locked together in some kind of unholy embrace, consuming each other. It’s somehow violent and peaceful at the same time. They’re melting into each other. I still don’t even know what I was really looking at, but it held me there for a long time, locked in that same embrace.

As the Spurs raced out to that 15-0 lead in the first quarter, I felt like I was having an out of body experience. It was exactly what I wanted. I’d spent two days obsessing with how the Spurs were going to respond to that Game 2 loss and this was the stuff dreams were made of. Our guys were everywhere. The Thunder looked like they couldn’t breathe. There wasn’t a shot that wouldn’t fall. A pass we couldn’t steal. Every single person in the crowd seemed like they were about to exit the physical realm and spend the rest of the game having to astral project into the AT&T Center.

The furthest reaches of my DNA felt like they were on fire. Flames were shooting out of my ears. I could feel my body shaking. I think I’ll remember that stretch of basketball for the rest of my life. I’ve never seen anything like it. When Hartenstein finally hit a floater, I thought to myself, surely, the game has got to be wrapping up soon considering I’ve lived a thousand different lifetimes since tipoff. I’d been to the molten core of the earth. I’d travelled to the outer reaches of the cosmos. I’d traversed through the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Surely, Mike Tirico was moments away from telling us, “So long, from San Antonio.”

It had been 4 minutes.

Four. Minutes.

I just wasn’t sure what to do with that information. My brain couldn’t process it. The Spurs had done it, you know? They’d figured out how to beat the Thunder and they’d gone out there and done it. Who cares if they’d taken care of the job in only four minutes? Stop the count. This was over. It had to be.

I spent the rest of the game, as I’m sure most of you did, melting into the floor, the euphoria slowly draining from my body as the cold realization came into focus that this thing was unraveling in front of us. It wasn’t even some kind of spectacular blow up, just a mundane, systematic dismantling of everything we’d built. The Thunder had grabbed ahold of the thread, and walked away.

Lying on the floor, lying on the floor, we’d come undone.

Surrealism, at its core, is the belief that two contradictory things can be simultaneously, uncomfortably true.

Something can be beautiful and horrible at the same time, occupying the same space. Terrifying and comforting. Completely fictional and utterly real.

It can be a pipe, even when it’s not.

I keep thinking about those two figures in the Dalí painting. Huge. Looming over everything. The act of destroying each other is grotesque in nature, but feels at home in their warped reality. Like they were meant to be here all along. The closer you look at it though, the more you realize the endgame. This isn’t a fair exchange between equals, not really. They take from each other, sure, but the darkness is overwhelming the light, threatening to consume it all.

The Spurs and Thunder are devouring each other in these games. It was a fight that, two days ago, felt like it was on equal ground. Today it’s starting to feel like the Thunder are absorbing everything the Spurs have to offer and the Spurs are simply trying to hold their shape.

It doesn’t feel like this can be the end. It doesn’t feel like it should be. Not yet.

Then again, none of this was the way it was supposed to go in the first place. The Spurs weren’t supposed to be this good, this fast. They weren’t supposed to get the 2 seed. They weren’t supposed to be able to challenge the Thunder. They weren’t supposed to be ready for any of this.

The Spurs are as good as we think they are. The Spurs are not as good as we thought.
The Spurs are flawed.
The Spurs are perfect.

I watched the Spurs go up 15-0 and then I watched them lose 123-108. I’m being asked to tell you which one was real.

The answer, as best I can tell, is both.

Takeaways

• It feels pretty simple really. Guys just didn’t have their legs. I know that’s just my uneducated, guy on the couch analysis but like, were any of you seeing something else going on out there? Shots that normally drop were coming up short. Drives that usually end at the rim were stalling out. Things I’ve seen the Spurs execute all season long, including against this very same Thunder team, just weren’t working. I don’t think there’s an issue with our schemes or our talent or our heart. Like, we’re good on those fronts. We’re just out of gas. Again, it feels pretty simple.
• The Thunder are really good. (barf). They remind me of watching Novak Djokovic play tennis. (barf). Making them bleed only seems to steel their resolve. You can take a set off them, sure, but they have these wells of energy fueled by spite that seem to endlessly spring forth whenever they need them. They are mechanical and brutal and technically perfect. They are taking something beautiful, tearing it down to the studs, and showing us how it works. I hate it. I’m offended to my very core. Congrats to them on the enormity of their success.
• Alex Caruso makes me want to throw rotting fruit at passing cars just so that someone else in the world can experience my pain. That’s right. Every time Caruso hits a three it feels like a moldy peach just slammed into my windshield while I was trying to change lanes on the interstate. If this series goes 7 I might have to go take a walk every time he checks into the game.
• I really wish I had something more substantive to give you from an analysis perspective, but if we’re being real, I do not want to think critically about this thing any more than I have to. I don’t want to see the stats. I don’t want to see the highlights. I don’t want to see the tweets or the pods or the shows. Nothing. In fact, as soon as I hit publish on this thing I’m going to endeavor to never think about this game again for as long as I live. Cheers.

WWL Post Game Press Conference

What goes into the decision to start a recap like this with a total non sequitur?

Well. See. What happened was that the game ended and I immediately sat down at my computer and started typing in an effort to avoid having to sit, think, and process what I had just watched.

So you sat down and started typing your piece, a piece that is, by nature, designed to help Spurs fans process their feelings about the game, in an effort to avoid processing your own feelings about the game?

That’s right.

So it wasn’t intentional to spend 400 words recapping your field trip to the museum instead of the Spurs game, it’s just what came out?

That’s right. Look, I knew I would have to talk about the Spurs eventually, but I also knew I wasn’t ready to do that yet so I decided to let my subconscious take a little walk before we got there. See what that turned up.

Honestly, that feels like it’s pretty in line with something the surrealists would approve of.

Their approval means the world to me.

Speaking of looking for approval, some guy in the comments of your last piece called your writing “middle school girl sludge.” How did that make you feel?

Hey, if I could actually ever write something with half the ethos, pathos, or logos of a middle school girl I’d basically pack up shop and call it a career.

So, really, he paid you a compliment?

It can be both.

First road game of the Eastern Conference Finals for your New York Knickerbockers.

Will the Cavs just bend, or will they molly-break?

Here’s the latest from a wide variety of Knicks-related personalities.

Mike Brown

On the overall Game 2 performance:

“A lot of of guys stepped up; Jalen [Brunson] had a double-double. They’re sending double teams at him, and he has 14 assists. And again, he did what he was supposed to do. KAT with a double-double, 18 points, very efficient shooting and 13 rebounds. Mikal [Bridges] was huge: 19 points, especially catching the ball in the pocket versus their double teams or their tilts. OG was awesome, too. And then, Josh — we had 32 assists on 44 buckets. Josh had seven assists, one turnover, and 33 plus minutes.”

Mikal Bridges

On entering Game 3 with a 2-0 lead:

“We gotta keep playing desperate. Keep doing what we doing, keep playing desperate no matter what the situation is. To us, it’s 0-0.”

On his mental toughness amid his early postseason struggles:

“I know it’s tough, but you gotta be great at whatever you gotta do. A lot of toughness comes from the mental part, and I think I’ve been raised the right way, been coached by a lot of great coaches who talked a lot about mental toughness.”

On his big-game experience having played those in college and past NBA seasons:

“Especially being here last year, just know what it takes, learning from that—you got to be real grateful for be in these moments, and don’t take it for granted. Take every possession by possession, don’t skip a possession, don’t skip a play. Go out there and give all you got, because it’s not easy to get here and you’re not guaranteed to be here all the time.”

On Josh Hart’s toughness:

“Josh is always tough on himself, cause he wants to be great, he really does. That’s gonna be tough sometimes when you struggle. He’s been like that ever since I’ve known him, so I don’t think there’s been a change that he started to change himself if he got upset or anything. I think he’s always been mentally tough and he’s showing it.”

Jalen Brunson

On how defense sparked a sublime transition offense in Game 2:

“I think we were able to get stops and run and get easy baskets. So our offense is definitely — the way we were able to play in transition was a credit to our defense.”

On the Knicks’ growth during the playoff run:

“I think the most important thing is that we’re growing and learning together. No matter what the situation is, whatever the series is or whatever, we’re open to learning, we’re open to getting better, open to figuring out how to win games, trusting each other. So it’s a lot of different things, but I think the most important thing no matter what is that we’re sticking together.”

Karl-Anthony Towns

On what the Knicks need to do in Game 3:
“We got to execute at a high level, have that desperation that we had in Philly and Atlanta. We just gotta shoot the ball well.”

On Jalen Brunson’s leadership:

“He’s our cap. He knows when we need to be told something and when we don’t need to be told something and let the game play itself out. He’s done a great job, and we have a tremendous belief in him.”

On Mikal Bridges’ role within the Knicks:

“There is little worry in the locker room about Mikal. He does a lot of things that don’t end up on the stat sheet, that he doesn’t get credit for. Right now, the stat sheet’s giving him the credit for it, but we always know the impact he has on our team.”

On staying grounded even being up 2-0:

“We don’t feel any closer than we did last game or any game. In our minds, it’s back to 0-0. We gotta win the next game, it’s the most important game of the year. That’s how we treat it. We’re hungry to go out there and play basketball at the highest level. But we also understand that you can never be satisfied in these positions in the playoffs. The mindset is gonna continue to be 0-0 every single time we step on that court.”

Kenny Atkinson

On praising Donovan Mitchell’s leadership:

“Not just your on court, but your leadership. Your positivity when things were really not going great. Whether we won or lost tonight, we never celebrate you in these things – you don’t want that, you don’t want the praise – but tonight you deserve the praise.”

On leaning heavily on Mitchell:

“I know I leaned on him. That’s the first place to go when you’re struggling, to your leader. We had a lot of conversations, just talking through things, how we can get this thing back on track. And again, he never kind of swayed towards the negative.”

Donovan Mitchell

On staying calm being down 0-2 to New York:

“I’m not sitting here like, oh man, scrambling and trying to figure things out. At the end of the day, we make some shots, we’ll be in good shape. … We’ll make our adjustments. We’ll be at home and protect home court.”

On avoiding discouragement:

“No need to get discouraged. We just got to go to Cleveland and handle business.”

On Cleveland’s experience falling behind in other postseasonseries:

“I think it helps, from a mentality standpoint, this isn’t our first time at it. This isn’t our first time facing adversity, we’ve been to two Game 7s. So being down 2-0, it’s not the biggest challenge. It’s right here, so let’s go ahead and take advantage of it. I understand that they’re gonna make adjustments, we are as well. … It’s really as simple as we have to protect home court, that’s really it.”

On the foundation built through work:

“It’s the work you put in. In tough moments, in anything, life or the game, if you don’t have anything to pull from, if you don’t have a foundation or something that you work hard at – Kenny was stressing that throughout the whole playoffs, it’s like, ‘This is why we work harder. This is why we’ve did the extra sprints. These are all the things that we’ve done.’ This is why you do those things. So you don’t waver.”

Evan Mobley

On the Cavaliers having dealt with adversity before:

“We’ve been here before. We know what it takes.”

Jarrett Allen

On Cleveland’s gamble leaving Josh Hart open:

“Sometimes the plan doesn’t go to plan. He got hot, not even at the three-point line. He did everything on offense for them. Kudos to him for changing the game and having an impact in a different way.”

Dan Gilbert

On rallying Cavaliers fans after going down 0-2:

“OK Cavs fans, feel familiar? Clearly it’s not ideal, but we have done this twice already. We go home, win 2 and then it’s a 3-game series and we win it in 6 or 7. Keep believing. Let Em **C**** Know?”

Jeremy Lin

On supporting Karl-Anthony Towns during the Knicks’ playoff run:

“I haven’t been back to the Garden since Linsanity…Finally could make a game…but Knicks swept Sixers so I didn’t get to go to Game 5…My outfit was gonna be a KAT jersey…I’m a big supporter of KAT.”

Jazz Chisholm Jr.

On Josh Hart’s Game 2 performance:

“I don’t think anyone in sports in general doesn’t have respect for that guy — even if they aren’t in New York. To be able to come back at a time like this, in the playoffs, and do what he did? That’s kind of legendary.”

On his friendship with Hart in New York:

“We’re just two athletes who understand New York and are trying to learn a little bit more about New York: the excitement of it, the way the city moves and the way the city works. When he has a good game, I’ll hit him up. I was supposed to call him today to see how he’s feeling but I’m late.”

On the possibility of a Knicks-Yankees title year:

“For the city, it would be cool to have a Knicks-Yankees NBA Finals-World Series thing in the same year.”

On bonding with Knicks players:

“Those are my guys over there. It’s pretty cool to have a friendship in the same city.”

Metta World Peace

On predicting a Knicks championship:

“They’re going to win it. I think this is going to be the time. I knew I wanted to see it in my lifetime, and it feels like Jalen Brunson is the best player in the playoffs right now even though [San Antonio’s Victor] Wembanyama is really good. But right now, Jalen Brunson is the best player in the playoffs.”

On his loyalty to the Indiana Pacers:

“With the Pacers, when somebody hold you and your family down, you’re always going to be in debt. So it’s the Pacers, for sure. Because people were trying to really harm me physically, and the city and the coaches and the players, they had my back. So that’s just like Queensbridge-type s–t.”

On what a Knicks title would mean for New York:

“S–t, you already know what it’s going to be. The city is about to be all turned up. It’s about to be turned upside down. Just be ready to pay that big bill, New York City. The energy — it’s time. We’ve been waiting for this.”

On Jalen Brunson’s potential legacy with a title:

“He’d get a statue. He’d be the best Knicks player ever. … If he wins the title in this era, with these players, players playing against him right now like SGA [Shai Gilgeous-Alexander] and Wembanyama — it’s never been this difficult.”

On missing his chance to lead the Knicks to a title:

“I wanted to be the one to bring the Knicks back and be a real core piece in my prime. Being the Defensive Player of the Year in the Garden, I just felt like that would’ve been a helluva — if you would’ve come to the Garden with me on the other side in my prime, good luck to you. I’m always going to go back to me, personally. But for the Knicks to win the championship now, you can’t take it away from nobody. You can’t take it away from anybody from New York. You can’t take it away from the players. You can’t take it away from the coaches. You can’t take it away from the owners. You can’t take it away from the fans. We want to see that because we’re from New York.”

Walt Frazier

On James Harden’s legacy in this series:

“This is where Harden is now. He’s come to the fork in the road. Which way is he going to go? His legacy is on the line. If he gets torched again, he’s done. His career is over. This is all people are going to remember, this series. Not what he did in the regular season, but what he did in the playoffs.”

On how Kenny Atkinson should handle Harden:

“So if I’m Kenny Atkinson, I put Harden back in the game [in crunch time]. I don’t punish him, I encourage him. When we were in the playoffs and we were playing the Bullets, Red Holzman pulled me in the corner [and said], ‘Hey, Clyde, forget about offense, just focus on defense on Earl [Monroe]. Forget about offense. Don’t think about offense.’ Explore More If I’m Kenny Atkinson, I go to Harden, and say, ‘Hey, man, I’m putting you back in there. This is why we acquired you. Look at your career. I know what you’ve done, you can do it.’ I leave it all up to him. This is what coach [Mike] Brown did to [Mikal] Bridges. Remember when Bridges was floundering? Everybody said take him out of the lineup. He didn’t take him out; [he] put him out there and now look at what Bridges is doing.”

Rick Brunson

On Jalen being around him daily when coaching began:

“It was new because my dad was there all the time now. He’s here every day with me, and we’re starting to actually work on my game.”

On Jalen’s early seriousness about basketball:

“This was a job for him, this is what he wanted. I didn’t know where it would go from there, but I knew he was serious about it. Most kids play, go home and enjoy the rest of the day. He cared about winning and losing. Losing bothered him. He wanted to be perfect, he wanted to play well, he wanted to win.”

On pushing Jalen in workouts:

“I wanted to see if he would fold or if he would keep coming back. Are you going to give in? Are you going to talk back? Or are you just going to work and keep showing that you can do it? I would always tell him, ‘This is what a college coach is going to do — the difference is I love you, he doesn’t.’”

On Jalen responding to pressure:

“He kept coming back. He wanted to prove me wrong.”

On Jalen’s physical limitations and mental edge:

“He didn’t have the athleticism. He didn’t have the size. So what gets you over? Mental toughness, hard work and being very, very skilled.”

On wanting Jalen under the radar in New York:

“I didn’t want him to be great, just solid. Go under-the-radar but be respected. Maybe he didn’t get credit for the winning, but he wasn’t going to get blamed for the losing. Remember, I’m a father first, coach second.”

On soaking in the Garden atmosphere:

“I want to be around it and embrace it. I want to smell it. I want to be a part of it.”

On watching Jalen’s introductions:

“I take time to look around the arena, and it’s a surreal feeling. That he’s here on this stage, (the fan reaction) never gets old.”

On advising Jalen during a slump in Utah:

“I said, ‘Hey man, everything’s good. You’re playing well, you’re playing a good floor game. You’re just missing your shots, so now you’ve got to concentrate on why you’re missing. You’ve got to do more of everything — exaggerate your follow-through, exaggerate how high you jump, exaggerate the ball coming off your finger. You’ve got to walk that ball to the hole. You’ve got to visualize it. You’ve got to come out in the second half and just get back to who you are. I’ve seen you go 6-for-6, 7-for-7 in a half. You’ve got to block out what happened in the first half.’”

On challenging Jalen during a game in Toronto:

“He starts yelling back and I said, ‘You need to shut the f–k up and let me coach you. Don’t get too good to let me coach you. Because if you don’t want me to coach you, I won’t say s–t. You’ve got to play harder, you’re bulls–ting.’”

On Jalen’s response afterward:

“Afterward he said, ‘You’re right. I needed that,’”

On what matters most:

“It’s about winning. That’s all I care about. One of my closest friends is the (team) president — I want to win for him; I want to win for myself; I want to win for my son.”

Stephen A. Smith

On being worried about the Knicks’ chances against both Western Conference contenders:

“Because when I look at Oklahoma City and San Antonio, I see the two best teams in basketball. Now, there some that believe that Knicks would lose to OKC. I’m one of those people. But that they would beat San Antonio. I’m not so sure. I’m not so sure and it ain’t because of Wemby. If you got all your ducks in order, if De’Aaron Fox can play… San Antonio and OKC are probably the two best teams in basketball.”

On San Antonio’s guard depth:

“It’s because of Stephon Castle and Devin Vassell and Dylan Harper and [Julian] Champagnie and Sixth Man of the Year, Keldon Johnson. I mean San Antonio’s got weapons all over the place at the guard spot, maybe not the point guard spot because of De’Aaron Fox being out, Stephon Castle has on-ball responsibilities and he’s had 20 turnovers in the first two games.”

Jaxson Dart

On dreaming of similar success for the Giants:

“I mean, I’ve been dreaming about that since the day I got drafted here. Those are conversations I even had with Coach Harbaugh before he even took the job here. I think everybody in the facility wants that. We’re all supporting the Knicks right now and what they’re doing. It’s been really cool to see. We want that for ourselves as well.”

On New York as the best place to win:

“It was very prevalent last year as well … but this year I think they’re on a whole ’nother level. This is the best place to be to win.”

On attending playoff games at the Garden:

“I would like to … only thing is some of those games are really late.”

One of the most important parts of the bull riding industry is the stock contractors who raise, maintain, and supply the bucking bulls to the arena. The PBR works with many different contractors, each one supplying its own unique bulls. Recently, there has been a new stock contractor to enter the business who has simply left the rodeo community in awe. Her name is Addi Drury.

This 16-year-old has taken over her dad’s ranch, Nothin But try Ranch, and taken the world by storm. Not only is she supplying the PBR with some of the best bucking bulls in the world, she is doing so while re-writing the narrative for what stock contractors will look like. A major part of this impact is her deep love and affection for the bulls, and how she has been able to showcase the sweeter, tamer side of these rank athletes, showing the world that even the toughest bucking bulls are still gentle in nature.

This love for her bulls started at a very young age, as Addi grew up around bulls and the rodeo community. She would always help her dad around the ranch, especially with the bulls. One bull in particular, however, stands out to the pages of Addi’s history: Hard Labor. As a calf, this bull had issues nursing, so Addi would spend hours caring for him. She quickly began to call this bull her best friend, and their bond was undeniable. This sweet, gentle bull, however, was one of PBR’s best bucking bulls. This contrast in personality from home to the arena is one that rodeo fans rarely get to see. However, as Addi began to take on a more present role in the stock contracting, she brought with her a very open display of her level of care for these bulls.

Furthermore, Addi has caught the eye of the rodeo community because, at such a young age, she has already made a prominent name for herself in the arena as a “bull-whisperer”. Her deep love for the animals she raises has opened the eyes of many, allowing them to see the true gentle nature of these bulls when they are outside of the arena. This reinforces the fact that the bulls are not simply animals, but athletes. Just like the riders, they have a job to do, and they love doing it.

Addi does her job extremely well, raising her bulls to be strong-performing athletes. But she does this without removing her caring nature and love for her friends (the bulls) in the process. As she continues her career as a stock contractor, Addi Drury is undeniably laying the foundations for the future of stock contracting. Her openness with her process and level of care has shown the world a new side of the rodeo industry that won’t simply fade away. As new stock contractors move into the arena, we are sure to see a lot more who chose to live and work like Addi: with love and care for her bulls.