This week on “The Anthony Irwin Show,” Lonnie Walker IV stopped by on behalf of the NBPA and their 450 Gives program specifically. He’s been one of the few bright spots to this point in the Lakers season and offered up some details on what he did this summer to perform the way he has.
We started with some thoughts on the 450 Gives program, which really does sound pretty cool. Essentially, the NBPA has partnered with several brands to deliver gifts at various stops in the Los Angeles area, starting with the Crypto.com Arena. At each stop, there will be giveaways, vendors to buy gifts from, and occasional events like Baron Davis dressing up as Santa Clause.
This allowed Walker and I to discuss our approaches to gift wrapping. It turns out, he and I have something in common in that we both suck at wrapping gifts. Team gift bag for life.
From there, we segued into my curiosity on what it might’ve been like to grow up as athletic as Walker is. He effortlessly explodes off the ground in ways that the vast majority of us can’t even fathom. When did he realize this? What kind of work went into it? When was his first dunk?
This also allowed us to find something else in common: Scraping our shins on jumping boxes. See? Lonnie Walker IV and I are basically the same people.
We did have to spend some time on this season, though, and he was just as forthcoming on that has he was on his ineptitude at wrapping gifts.
In that portion of the conversation, he and I spoke about what it’s been like to play next to players he dreamt of maybe seeing on the court in LeBron James and Russell Westbrook. He also spoke at length about what it’s been like watching Westbrook transition into this role of coming off the bench and what it’s meant to watch him sacrifice like that.
We wrapped things up by talking about his commitment to defense and the results he’s gotten — specifically in practice, where he wanted it known to everyone listening that he routinely puts the clamps on Anthony Davis.
You can listen to all that and more on our latest episode in the player embedded below, and to make sure you don’t miss a single one moving forward, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts.
And for a short-form recap pod, check out Lakers Lowdown, in which Anthony Irwin recaps the previous day’s news and gets you ready for the day ahead in LakerLand, every weekday morning on the Silver Screen & Roll Podcast feed.
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