The Open Run With Will Strickland Episode 176 – The Uncertainty Scale

Self doubt can be an evil temptress.
One could possess all of the necessary tools to find success and ultimate glory, only to be hamstrung by any number of obstacles, real and imagined.
We traverse the sum of all fears with Friend Of The Program and host of Touring The AFC South, Mike Patton, vacationing above the 49th Parallel in The 6ix, to help Wall $t navigate the world of hoops this week!
The real meaning of Father’s Day is explored, which players have fathered sons and sonned fathers in The Association, the dangerous precedent that even Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese can’t stop, and after the first four games of the NBA Finals, what did we really learn about these teams and their star players?
News. Views. Truths.

References Made:

Tariq St. Patrick, El Heneral”, Indiana Clarks, glizzies, John Cena, Indigenous Peoples Day, Kobayashi, independence, Bomani Jones, highlights, Bernard McCullough, muthafucka, DMX, “Send It In, Jerome!”, gymnastics scoring, LinkedIn, Jimmy Walker not Jimmie Walker, QWERTY Courage, Lonzo Ball, Chubby’s, matador defense, Marlon Starling, YMCA, Touring The AFC South, DeLorean, The Wardells, and more, all on the podcast where Basketball and Life are One: The Open Run With Will Strickland!
Do What’s Popular With The Population!
Find Will On These Rough Interweb Streets: Twitter: @W_Strickland1 IG: @WillStrickland1

The Open Run With Will Strickland Episode 175 - The Standard
How many of us measure our success and happiness on the accolades and accumulations… of others?
Having examples to review as an indication of bar setting is great; using those examples as your bar?
Not so much.
Well, level up as Wall $t. assesses the first two game of the NBA Finals, primes Vancouver for the start of Full Court21 Canada’s 2024 National Tournament Tour, salutes those who plants seeds that grow strong roots on and off the court, gives us a WNBA Power 5 and Rookie Watch for the week, launches the Caitlin Clark Protectionism Investigation Agency and ponders why Life gives you The Test first, then The Lesson after…
News. Views. Truths.

References Made:

Robert Keith Horry, listening vs. hearing, Paige Bueckers, Verizon Center, protectionism, Children Of The Corn, 1981 NBA Finals MVP, humility, Margo Dydek, iPromise School, the first ever kiss, Dearica Hamby, hoop goons, Drederick, Monday Night Football, Connor McDavid, air quotes, St. Michael Jeffrey Of Wilmington, Sucka Sauce, Nigeria, prostate cancer, Wilton Norman Chamberlain, and more, all on the podcast where Basketball and Life are One: The Open Run With Will Strickland!
Don’t Get Beat Off The Dribble!
Find Will On These Rough Interweb Streets: Twitter: @W_Strickland1 IG: @WillStrickland1

The Open Run With Will Strickland

Episode 174 – Paralysis By Analysis
The old phrase “Piss Or Get Off The Pot!” may sound disturbing, but decision making reveals certain character markers that oft times separates the champs from the chumps.
Choose Wisely.
The first round selection to help Wall St. earn them rings and things you sing about (bring ‘em out) is Canada’s biggest Dallas Mavericks fan and podcast super producer Ryan Antonio Henry.
Dwight Powell’s favourite fan and the head honcho of FC21CA’s #mapleGxNG set the narrative straight on Caitlin Clark’s first 11 games (in 20 days, no less) in the WNBA, and laugh at the handwringing around physicality being shown to the rookie while wondering if she and the other 143 women in the league are corporate partners… or competitors.
The guys also shop at (Washington) Wizards R’ Us like Association champions have for the past eight seasons, get to pattin’ pockets on the NBA coaches carousel and oh yeah… preview the 2024 NBA Finals between the Mavs and the Boston Celtics!
News. Views. Truths.

References Made:

Lindsay Harding, load management, prijatelj, Mid-American Conference, Brittney Griner, context, pommes frites, Kermit Washington, facetiousness, The World’s Most Unique Basketball Tournament, predictive text, #binHWSBN, wrasslin’, body shaming, objectivity, Unrivaled, Darren Waller, old pussy, Bishop Bullwinkle, nepotism, Glory, and more, all on the podcast where Basketball and Life are One: The Open Run With Will Strickland!
Do What’s Popular With The Population!
Find Will On These Rough Interweb Streets: Twitter: @W_Strickland1 IG: @WillStrickland1

The Open Run With Will Strickland
Episode 173 – Shattered Dreams
It is said that there are two sides to every story… three when you include the truth!
But with the line between reality and the virtual version of it being so very blurred by disinformation, bombast, prevarication and duplicity, where would any reasonable person when facts are a must?

You’re not saying we’re Number One…

Welpington.com, we’re sorry! We lied!
We’re numbers one, two, three, four and #FiF!
Aiding us in cleaning these rough interweb streets with brooms and directions toward #tackleBoxSZN loss of a legend, is schoolteacher-by-day | playground hoops vlogging giant and FC21 – Boston Director Mak Thompson!
He and Wall $t. discuss how he built a narrative of success in This Thing Of Ours called Basketball from pain and disappointment, and the inevitability of NBA Finals matchup not quiet set yet.
Angel Reese’s WNBA worldview, including a new team in Toronto, George Floyd, Scooby Doo and My Daddy’s Tools shape the episode as well!
News. Views. Truths.

References Made:

“Throw It Down, Big Man!”, R.I.P. Bill Walton, Pac-8, Dwight Equan Grant, White Men Can’t Jump, bear tings, Fenway Sports Group, broughtupsy, Golden State Valkyries, CEBL, vlogging, Texas Two Step, Chalky White, BringYaAss,org, Apologies Leonard Miller, air quotes, The Notic, piraguas, Nothing’s Over There, Michael B. Jordan, U.N.I.T.Why?, sage, All-Stars vs Superstars, and more, all on the podcast where Basketball and Life are One: The Open Run With Will Strickland!

Don’t Get Beat Off The Dribble!

Find Will On These Rough Interweb Streets: Twitter: @W_Strickland1 IG: @WillStrickland1

The Open Run With Will Strickland Episode 172 – Exit Ramp
Sometimes, it’s tough to know when to say “when”…
Imagine being married to the game and knowing, no matter what you did, you could not divorce yourself from it.
This week, Wall $t. collabs with a lifer who may never walk away from basketball: Canadian legend and hoops multihyphenate Leo Rautins, who has seen the heights and depths of an existence dominated by This Thing Of Ours.

The guys will chat about everything from being a prodigy in the sport, living a dream in the NBA and contributing to the game at every level to Caitlin Clark’s first week in the WNBA, Zach Edey’s future, Raptors draft options and the interesting combatants in the NBA Conference Finals.
News. Views. Truths.

References Made: Roundball Rock, Shawn Corey Carter, stolen credit cards, Megan Pete, guaaaar-onn-tee!, Boys II Men, wild parsley, Houston Comets, Ball Park franks, destination station, Trevor George Smith, Jr., Main Source, The Wheat Sheaf, tradition, Club 520 podcast, Micheal Ray Richardson, #tackleBoxSZN, Stu Granger, and more, all on the podcast where Basketball and Life are One: The Open Run With Will Strickland!
Do What’s Popular With The Population!
Find Will On These Rough Interweb Streets: Twitter: @W_Strickland1 IG: @WillStrickland1

The Open Run With Will Strickland Episode 171 – The World Is Grey
How do you dream?
Is it in black and white?

It is in Technicolour?

During a time where things ain’t always how they appear or what they seem, do these dreams get muddied by the doubts, criticisms and insecurities of many who can’t do what you do or see what you see?
Never worry as Wall $t. helps sharpen the focus on everything from Caitlin Clark’s WNBA debut, Mother’s Day, when the news ain’t the news, A’ja’s A-1 Since Day 1, NBA Award Tour, The Association’s playoff progress report and a young lady who fears not the burden of leadership because it’s not about what you are called; it is all about to what you answer!
News. Views. Truths.

References Made:

La Spoelstra Nostra, Met Gala, Shawshank Prison, athletics, The Greek, centurion, Gaza, The Dorture Chamber, vignettes, Cheddar Cheese Stalin, binary extremes, Rudy T, bereft, Zach Edey, prose, Joe Biden, cringy, Larry Tannenbaum, and more, all on the podcast where Basketball and Life are One: The Open Run With Will Strickland!
Don’t Get Beat Off The Dribble!

Find Will On These Rough Interweb Streets: Twitter: @W_Strickland1 IG: @WillStrickland1

The Open Run With Will Strickland Episode 170 – Survivor’s Remorse
Regrets in Life have a place for some.
Whether you live with them or not, the mere contemplation of what could have been seems to riddle us at one point or another on our respective journeys.
How do your remedy the feelings and set your sights on all that lay ahead?
Former Boston Herald reporter and NYC political press scribe Ed Molina, aka Honudran Heat, deciphers the tea leaves with Wall $t. on everything from the NBA playoffs, the league’s new media deal and its strange bedfellows to and slow, painful acceptance of eras ending, the potential consequences of tofu between two all-time rap greats and the new business of the emerging WNBA!
News. Views. Truths.

References Made:

Hypermasculinity, Spiderman, Ravishing Rick Rude, New York Times, Elliott Spitzer, G.I. Joe, fake nicknomenclature, Kermit Wilts, Massholes, Do The Right Thing, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Socialism, Ted Turner, The Toronto Sun, Ice Cube, kayfabe, R.I.P. Frank Tyson, Trading Places and more, all on the podcast where Basketball and Life are One: The Open Run With Will Strickland!
Do What’s Popular With The Population!
Find Will On These Rough Interweb Streets: Twitter: @W_Strickland1 IG: @WillStrickland1

The Open Run With Will Strickland Episode 169 – Fuzzy Memories
Everything Ends.
It's not profound; it’s a simple, harsh reality.
Whether we’re talking jobs, school, careers or incredible eras of basketball, Time has a way of forcing you to accept the only constant: Change.
To evolve and thrive is a sublime samba into the excitement and anticipation of the Unknown, offering opportunity to craft memorable chapters in your journey.
Helping Wall $t. to navigate the nostalgia and the new, both in hoops and in music is a man transforming his Art and Life through Temerity and Technology, Todd Thomas, aka Speech of the Grammy-winning group Arrested Development.
We travel the trails and trials of his career, from Milwaukee to Tennessee and finally Atlanta, in the same way we explore the goings on in the NBA playoffs, the opening of WNBA training camp and the impact of representation.
News. Views. Truths.

References Made:

The Jakes, Happy 27th WNBA Birthday, Houston Comets, whataboutism, Galveston, details, Proven Primetime Playoff Performer, Everything But The Burden, The Gavin Seminar, il bacio della morte, TSN 1050, Bol Bol, wrasslin’ retirements, Jamiroquai, Duke Corollary, police body cams, MC Shy-D, the landed gentry, Bernard King, Crazy Eyes, The Wagner Boys, Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy, rock teacher, Whitey Ford, and more, all on the podcast where Basketball and Life are One: The Open Run With Will Strickland!

Don’t Get Beat Off The Dribble!
Find Will On These Rough Interweb Streets: Twitter: @W_Strickland1 IG: @WillStrickland1