Raj is great. He seems to be a true fan of basketball and even though he is a Lakers fan, or maybe because he is a real Lakers fan, he calls things as they are. When the team plays well, he points that out while also acknowledging areas that can be improved on (process vs. results). When the team doesn’t play well, he acknowledges that, too, providing critique to all necessary parties. I seek out his analysis on all Lakers games.
The reason for the 1 star, though, is that I have had to find Raj on other podcasts to hear his analysis because his co-host, Vinay, is unbearable. It is clear that Vinay is anti-LeBron. Not everyone has to be a fan of LeBron’s, but Vinay goes out of his way to pin every Lakers ill on the guy. In the episode after the Game 1 loss to Denver, Raj spoke about DLo’s poor performance, including a turnover at a crucial moment. Vinay immediately u-turned to rag on LeBron. Rui, who almost never rebounds, got bail from Vinay “because he was boxing out Jokic” — Rui was not boxing out Jokic, he was just not getting rebounds as he usually tends to not do. During Game 3 against Denver, Vinay only really tweeted to shade or openly blame LeBron for everything. LeBron deserves critique when he doesn’t play well, but if you let Vinay tell it, LeBron doesn’t ever really play well and is always at fault for whatever the Lakers do poorly (the role players get passes for not doing the things role players are paid to do, e.g., rebounding). Frankly, it’s a tired gimmick. He is entitled to whatever opinions, but it’s whiplash when his one-dimensional hack job is juxtaposed next to Raj’s fair analysis, good or bad.
Apologies, Raj, but I truly could not take it anymore. Vinay’s schtick is unbearable.
