Sometimes a few kind words can make all the difference. In Episode 101 of The Grati-Dude Diaries, I share a personal story about a friend who helped me through a difficult season and introduce a little challenge for November. thegratidudediaries.substack…

Yaxel Lenderborg on his NBA debut and guarding Luka: "I got to see what the NBA is like, man. Lot of flopping, lot of foul baiting, lot of praying to the ref. Interesting first game for me... Being in there firsthand, just watching all the whining and complaining, I lost all respect. That was awful" Transcript of this soundbite: "Yeah, it was interesting. I got to see what the NBA is like, man. Lot of flopping, lot of foul baiting, lot of praying to the ref. Interesting first game for me, for sure. I had a lot of respect for him (Luka). You know, just watching. I didn't really watch the NBA much, I just watched highlights. Seeing him, you know, kill people all the time. But then being in there firsthand, just watching all the whining and complaining, I lost all respect, man. Like that was awful. Like me getting frustrated, it's not about the foul being called, it's about him complaining the entire game. And then you get the foul call, congratulations bro. And then you talk to me like you did something great, bro? Come on, dog. That's just weak. It kinda threw me off for a little while, cause you know, like I said, I had so much respect for him. Gone man, gone. I was telling him he sucks, he can't score on me. You talking and you can't score on me. I said it the whole game. I said a couple cuss words obviously, you know, that's why I got the technical and all that. But I was letting him know, because he was laughing and talking all this because of that one foul call. His only bucket on me was a banker from half court. Like I know that it's a team sport. You know, he had 28pts on us as a team. Me, I took my matchup personally. Tried not to get caught on the fouls. Tried my best. I was thinking about playing him with my hands behind my back to see if that worked, probably would've still got a foul call." Transcript via: reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1x…

Darren McFadden That guy rocked.