Podcast: Tempering expectations on DeMarcus Cousins, and favorite Lakers pop culture moments

On the latest episode of “I Love Basketball” — a podcast on the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed — I joined host Sabreena Merchant, and we started things off with a discussion about the latest on DeMarcus Cousins.

Frank Vogel said over the weekend that Cousins was “on track” to return by the playoffs, but he walked that back a bit at practice on Thursday, with both he and LeBron James preaching patience for Cousins.

Sabreena and I used those comments as a launching point to outline why we think Cousins is unlikely to play for the Lakers this year, why it doesn’t make much sense for anyone for him to suit up in the postseason and why the team is keeping him around anyway.

After that, we shifted to a lighter topic: The best Lakers pop culture moments, where Sabreena and I listed off our five favorite times that the Lakers intersected in pop culture, be it through movies, television, music or something else. It was the hardest I’ve laughed on one of these podcasts in quite some time, and a fun way to end a mostly uneventful All-Star break.

You can listen to the full episode below, and for more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts.

Spoiler warning: If you’d like to listen to the show before reading what our moments are, stop here. If you’ve already listened (or just want to see) check out our links below.

Sabreena’s top-five moments

1. Nick Young performs Maroon 5’s “Sugar” on Lip Sync Battle.
2. Rick Fox on One Tree Hill in the most over-the-top high school drama ever.
3. Kobe Bryant dishes out some life lessons on Modern Family.
4. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar cameos on New Girl.
5. That’s How I Beat Shaq.

Harrison’s top-five moments (plus two honorable mentions)

1. Lonzo Ball’s diss track of Kyle Kuzma leading the Lakers to give the young core a warning.
2. LeBron James’ all-tamper team for Space Jam 2.
3. The Kobe System. You’re welcome.
4. Luke Walton, soap opera star.
5. Adam Levine recruits LaMarcus Aldridge.
6. Sasha Vujacic does Sports Science (seriously, this thing is so weird).
7. Ron Artest drops “Champions” song right after winning title.

If you’d like to let us know what we missed, hit up the comments below. You can follow me on Twitter at @hmfaigen, and Sabreena at @sabreenajm.