In this episode, Adam Mares is joined by Ethan Strauss of the House of Strauss substack and podcast. Ethan began covering the Golden State Warriors for ESPN back in 2014 and had a front-row seat to the rise of the Curry era on the NBA. He also wrote the fantastic book, The Victory Machine, chronicling the not-fully-satisfying success of Kevin Durant, Joe Lacob, and the Warriors during the late 2010s.

The two compare and contrast Steph Curry and Nikola Jokic and ask why one is the face of the league and the other is among the least marketable league MVPs we've ever seen. The conversation weaves in and out of some behind-the-scenes storylines about how the NBA operates including insight into ESPN and the league's media partners, social media, the comcast-Altitude dispute, and why athletes have an inability to reveal what is actually interesting about themselves.

• Independent Media - 2:00
• 2014 Warriors - 6:45
• How did the Warriors get this dominant - 14:30
• Jokic's Nuggets & Steph's Warriors - 22:50
• Athletes telling their own stories - 35:40
• Jokic's contentedness - 44:10
• Comcast/Altitude - 49:30

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