You're now listening to Vices and Vultures, a podcast on cultures. What's going on everybody? Welcome to Vices and Vultures, it's your boy A2. And this is not only the first episode of Vices and Vultures, but this is also the first episode that I am co-hosting.
For those of you who are listening and are here from the previous season of Unpack, thank you for checking out and supporting. There's been a lot of maneuvering as we've been making these changes and three months plus of delaying this thing. But hey, we're here now. And of course, as you heard in our intro, this is the first time that we've got a co-host here.
I got my cousin here, BH, with me. And I just wanted to take the time before we get into any topics. I wanted to give people context on who he is, what he's up to, but more importantly, what we're trying to do with this thing here. So what's good, BH, how you doing?
Good to see you, too, bro. So now I'm not even going to say much because throughout this whole season, you guys are going to learn more about me. But a very important thing that I want everybody to know now is, first, I'm Haitian. I'm from Haiti.
Let him know, bro. Yeah, I moved to the States in 2010 after high school. And it's been a great ride ever since. And also something that I'm pretty excited about besides this podcast is the fact that I just became a registered nurse.
And that's pretty exciting news. And this is bringing a lot of joy to my life. And I'm happy that I get to share that with you guys. And I'm happy that I'm doing this.
So as I mentioned before, Vice's and Vultures is something that I'm pretty excited about to share with my cousins. And we're looking forward to discuss a whole lot about cultures and sports. And we'll get into details about where we want to go with this idea. But for now, I'm just very excited to share this with you guys.
Where we're at. So Vice's and Vultures is a very jarring name. Before a podcast name can be thought of, at least in my process, in our process, a concept has to be established, right? So in Unpacked, last season, what I sought to do was get into detail with people's stories.
And a common thread that I found in every person that I interviewed is culture. Not only culture and ethnicity. You know, you talked about you being Haitian, but also culture of whatever industry they're in. Of course, there will be conversations about where we're from and what we're doing in life.
And you know how that plays into everything. But most importantly, we'll be discussing what's relevant in today's culture, like social media. What this new generation is doing, all generations specifically, and those coming behind us and those coming in front of us. So we'll be having conversations where we talk about, you know, how our parents, cultures, shaped us and how we actually view the world because of the way we were raised.
Yeah, absolutely. So just to give a very basic example, now, I know that not everybody who's listening is into basketball. Recently, I've gotten really into basketball. I know it's really into basketball.
And it's cool now that I've been able to sing my teeth into it more, especially for the past season that just got done. Let's take this example. Toronto Raptors won the championship this past season. Right.
So congrats to them and Kawhi Leonard, who is definitely the star of the entire season into the finals MVP, all that stuff. He was signed for a one year contract, right? Right. Yeah.
So when he was signed for that one year contract, the contract expired when the season got done. And when the season got done, it was cool because not only Toronto, the city was put on, it was their first NBA championship. And this is a franchise that has had some success, but the championship has eluded them and now they've gotten it. And it's been really interesting to see how the free agency period of the NBA, which happens during the summers, played out because people say, hey, he should stay in Toronto.
And they were debating as well, like, well, he goes to LA, which team in LA will he go to? And, you know, with LeBron being on the Lakers, people are thinking, well, it's Kawhi going to join LeBron. Turns out he joins the Clippers. And now there's just an interesting little power struggle that's already been touted by the media because there's something that people are looking forward to.
So I want people to think about this in a different way. Toronto wins their first NBA championship, right? Right. First NBA championship.
Toronto is the only city to my knowledge that is a non-US city in the NBA. Pretty much. Yeah. So think about that for a moment.
When Toronto is the year for the championship, it's not just Toronto. It's just the whole country. It's the whole country. They've been broadcasting at the whole time.
So it's like, it changes things. Now it's like, now we're going into the 2019 NBA season with a Canadian team as the defending champ. Well, they repeat, in my opinion, probably not. But this is culture right here.
This is so much a shit that what do you think about this? So this is, first of all, the team probably going to be trash next season. The team's going to be trash. But like, what I'm getting from this is the fact that, you know, now they're in a conversation that they've never been in before, which is very interesting.
So if anybody knows anything about Canada, the country man sports, he's hockey. So, you know, having a CD now that's talking about basketball and not only that, but they actually won a championship, you know, changed the whole conversation around, you know, what's going on because for a long time, I think they have, I don't know how many teams in hockey they have in Canada, but I think one of the famous teams is for Montreal. And that team specifically was the whole conversation. And for us who traveled to Montreal a lot, whenever we go there, we always see cars with, you know, some sort of flag for the Canadians, exactly.
And the NHL has a lot of Canadian teams. We have Edmonton, we have Calgary, we have Toronto, again, Maple Leafs. So there's a lot of Canadian teams in the NHL, but that doesn't exist in any other major league sport. You know, like I said, that changed the conversation.
And another thing that's very important is, I remember one time I was listening to Stefan A when he was talking about the fact that, you know, around the time that they were, they had the team in the playoffs and they were about to make the finals and they were still talking about hockey. I can't comment to that because at the time I was in there, so I didn't know how much there were, how much hockey was still on top of basketball. But one thing that I know is when you follow Drake behind the scenes, he was one of the most important, very important dude that was pushing that culture forward. Like the way he addressed it, the way he talked about it on his social media and everything.
And another reason why this is very important, Drake is from Toronto, which is a pretty popular city in Canada. Especially recently. And especially recently. And he has a lot to do with that.
He has probably 80% exactly. And we all know that Drake is like big. This dude is like, he's huge. So the fact that, you know, he was one of the person talking about this and not only that, I think he's a sports person for the basketball team.
Yeah, I think he's the ambassador for, I'm actually pretty sure he's the ambassador for the Toronto Raptors. He's a team, pretty much champion the team throughout the playoffs. Exactly. In a sense, that was even bigger than Nick Nurse, who was the coach at the time.
Wasn't he like massaging Nick Nurse at one point in the summer? And also like, we've all known that, you know, wrapping basketball. There's been a history between wrapping basketball. But now it's like more than ever because you have all those rappers who are sitting close sides and, you know, trying to do what Drake is doing.
Like, usually you see people like Jay, they go to a game and then they just, they just see quietly. Like, nothing is happening. But Drake is like, Drake is, I mean, you know, Jay is behind, at least, I mean, he's definitely behind one New York team now before, like, before the Nets came to Brooklyn. But even before that, like, it's been probably about two decades since the Knicks were like, consistently relevant.
So it's like, now that Toronto has like won this championship and even before that, they were making the playoffs consistently. And the only thing that was stopping them was LeBron. Right. You know what I'm saying?
Like, you know, it's just, it's just been something, it's easier to get behind. Like Jay is, Jay is caught quiet about it now because, you know, Brooklyn hasn't made that much noise yet. Will that change when they, if they win the championship, probably, but then again, you have to realize like Jay and Drake have been operating very differently in the music industry in general. But I just want to get back to the whole, you know, Toronto thing and what, Kawai leaving?
People in Canada should be grateful because this dude came for a year and then he just dropped the championship over there and like, I don't understand that he left and stuff like this. But at the same time, this was very significant. He was the first person who actually made that happen. Yeah.
So I see a lot of people on social media, like just, you know, talking shit about him living and stuff like this. But I think people should be celebrating the fact that he was, because, and you know, another thing too is how people are bashing, like, what's his name again, the one that went back to the Rose and the Rosen and listen, like, I can never see anything bad about this dude. They say he wasn't capable of doing what Kawai did, but at the same time, he said that up. Yeah, he said that up, but not only that, LeBron was not on the East.
Like, if LeBron was on the East, like, if he was still there, would Kawai and that was another power ship. Would Kawai win a championship now? That's like, that's the question mark. Yeah.
So I feel like, I feel like, yeah, I understand that Kawai did that. It was important, but at the same time, LeBron wasn't there. And, you know, two other players that I really like in the NBA are like Kawai and LeBron. LeBron specifically, but what they brand to, you know, to the table, like Kawai for him specifically is just a quiet dude.
He makes move and which is very essential because who would, like, who wouldn't want to be like that? You just show up, you don't see anything, you do what you need to do. And it's so hard. And it's so hard.
Listen, I want to talk about Kawai a little bit more and actually talk about LeBron because it's interesting. They're both on two different teams in the city of Los Angeles, one of the biggest cities in the States, not named in New York City, or Shadow of New York. But it's all about Kawai because Kawai, when he went to the introductory presser, he was on the presser to be a clipper. Remember, Kawai doesn't have social media.
And he took that opportunity to thank the fans in the city of Toronto. And he realizes, you know, even though there's so many people who are just like having a conversation about how like you should have seen in Toronto, he was on a one year contract, he wanted to be home apparently, he has a new kid now and see like he can do whatever he wants. I think social media gives us a false sense of humor. He aren't, he aren't every bit of it.
And you know, thankfully, LeBron, well, not thankfully, but in a sense, LeBron leaving was good for the East because it allowed this to happen. And now Kawai is in the West, back in the West because he was in San Antonio prior to this. It's interesting because A, social media definitely gives people a false sense of entitlement. And not only that, like when you have so many people involved in the communal, in the communal activities such as sports, you know, spectatorship and all that stuff, you know, people feel a type of way because they put money and time into it.
But at the end of the day, you know, these are humans just like us. And I love Kawai's class. Kawai is so classy in the way that he was just like his personality shines through like in that presser like I don't watch pressers a lot, you know, especially when it comes to free agency like there's so many free agency moves this summer like that that's a whole not the podcast in and of itself. But it's the way that he ran that.
And if we take it back to when LeBron signed in LA like think about that power shift too, because this is part one of a three part conversation on where the cultures of basketball and branding intersect part two is appropriately entitled basketball branding and is available in the next episode. Thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode of vices and vultures and considering being a supporter of this project, even leaving a review on your preferred podcast platform was a long way for us. There is more information about this episode as well as who we are in the show notes. This includes all of our social media links so you can see us and not just hear us.
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