This is the trade that the entire world is talking about right now.
And guess what?
Nobody's really happy.
Yeah, we're talking about hundreds and hundreds of thousands of comments
on different social media platforms.
Andrew, Brittany Griner just got traded from Russia.
Obviously, she was in jail for the vape cartridges, you know,
with the THC oil for convicted arms dealer Victor Bout,
who had about 15 years left on his sentence.
I think he was slated to do nine.
You know, they based off the character from Lord of War off him
and I'm telling you the memes are rolling in the hot takes are rolling.
And I don't think I've seen the male based fan base engaged like this
since like the crypto boom at least of like a year and a half ago.
Well, this has to do with a couple of different things.
This is a geopolitical thing.
This is a war thing and this is a sports thing.
So really it is like the most guy focus issue possible.
So man, I guess there's a lot of different reactions to this trade.
Obviously, I think most people are happy that we're getting an American
home.
There's also some other Americans that are still left there that they're trying
to get back, you know, but I guess you got a one-for-one trade.
A lot of people are happy Brittany's back, but a lot of people don't think
the trade is fair.
So I guess what are the main reactions?
Yeah, I would say the main reaction is like man, we got fleeced like we could
have got a lot more for a convicted arms dealer that was like selling missiles
and obviously people are like man, could we get a better GM?
Could we just do a better trade?
Obviously, I think that's an oversimplification.
There are a lot of like geopolitical considerations.
There's a lot of like, you know, whether that's a voting base on Biden's part
and then there's the right thing to do.
And then of course a lot of people got his conspiracy theories in 2022 about
like does the government ever do the right thing or do they just do the
expedient thing the convenient thing the beneficial thing?
I mean, I feel like obviously the Department of Homeland Security and I'm
sure even the CIA a bunch of different departments that we don't really
know that much about a NSA.
I'm sure they all had some say in this.
I feel like Victor bow had about seven years left on his sentence.
He was set to come out in 2029.
So it's not like he was a in a life sentence.
He was going to come out in several years anyways, so I think that's what
the logic is.
But of course, there's so many other things moving behind closed doors that
I don't understand and I don't think that a lot of people understand them
to be honest a lot of people they think they have all the facts.
They don't have all that simple.
They're wondering why they can't get Paul Whelan back, but you know,
whether he was a spy or not literally is up to there, but you know, I'm
not defending the deal.
I'm not condemning the deal and I'm not here to play ESPN trade expert,
even though it seems like literally hundreds and hundreds of thousands
of people on the internet are very much enjoying themselves playing men
love talking about trades in sports because we love determining the value
of the other person like, okay, if this person gets traded here.
Oh, this is what they're going to provide to this team or this is what
they're getting some people are saying like this is like the Russell
Wilson of trades.
You know, I don't know guys, but yeah, this is obviously something that
the the yeah, I read a comment saying yeah, this would be like trading
LeBron James for Pablo Prigioni.
Um, there's a lot of funny ones out there.
Okay, I'm not defending them either way or not.
I'm just saying to your point Andrew a lot of men like assessing value
now, this is where it's starting to turn Andrew into the classic song
you like to sing from I believe Neil Diamond.
It was uh, it goes race wars in America race wars in America.
Yeah, that's a good one.
That's a that's a hot song.
Um, Neil Diamond apparently not my hand up apparent.
Oh, she don't put your hand up like that.
Oh, you didn't see it.
Yeah.
I mean, yes, you couldn't see my hand.
I was waving like this.
So I think that that's really where it comes into play because people
are like she hated America and other people are like, oh, you're just
saying that because obviously she is a you know, black LGBT athlete
who like presents ambiguously or something.
I don't know like this and there's so I'll be honest like Britney
Griner wasn't like she didn't have like a lot of like a huge male
fan base because she is a man though, but I think what a lot of
guys and what I don't like to see from the guys out there is like
man, like don't let all those like comments that Britney Griner
said just in social media about like, oh, she could beat DeMarcus
cousins.
Everybody's like some dudes are actually like holding that against
her or yeah, at least in the comment section.
I'm like guys, this is pretty stupid.
We're talking about her life over here, you know, and this is a
geopolitical move.
So it's unfortunate that she got caught over there.
Russia is a country that she was going over there to play basketball
for and to make a big contract for you know, and people are a lot
of people are like, wow, why'd she go over there?
Yeah, she said she's against evil things that happen in America.
She went to one of those places.
They're doing all types of stuff.
But then on the flip side, some people are like, well, the WNBA
salaries are so low.
That's why all these other WNBA players have to go overseas to
get bigger contracts to supplement their income.
They get paid more overseas than they do at the WNBA.
It's the truth.
So I guess you know, there's so many different arguments, I guess
David.
So overall, I mean you guys let us know in the comments down below
what you think but I do wish people looked into more of the details
than like just the Oh Merchant of Death and Britney Griner Merchant
of Death Britney Griner.
Of course, that sounds horrible.
Of course, that sounds like it does usually on paper.
It sounds like one of the worst trades of all.
Yeah, it does on paper.
Like I said, we don't know.
Here's my here's my question and I'm not defending the trade, but
I'm just asking like if this guy Victor bow was such a dangerous
person to Americans.
Why wasn't he serving a life sentence?
Why couldn't the prosecutors provide enough evidence to throw him
in jail for longer because he was going to come out in seven years.
So that's why I'm sure they were just weighing out the options.
Anyways, but I guess do what can people take away from this?
I think my biggest takeaway is like this was actually really a
referendum on how you feel about the direction of the company like
or the company.
I mean like the team that you're supporting like we're all on team
America, right just like people root for their hometown sports
team in their city, but sometimes they're like dude switch out
the management our GM our team president making all these bad
trades Rob Palenka.
How come you can't put any talent around Braun?
How come you can't put any shooters that could die space out the
floor?
How come they didn't trade rush for Buddy Heal the Miles Turner
like you know what I'm saying?
Like basically people it's almost a referendum on like, how do
you feel about just the deals that we're making and do you think
more and more people are just disengaging from all this in general
like they're like, oh my gosh, this deal was so horrible.
You know what?
I'm just over it.
I'm over.
I don't even care whether it's this administration or that
administration.
I'm done with it all man.
I don't think people make the right decisions.
I saw this big thread on reddit and one guy was saying this is
either going to make Biden's presidency right because it's
going to double down on certain groups that this first of all,
I think it's a simplistic thinking to think that just because
you got Brittany grinder.
You're going to get women and this vote and that vote from that
demographic.
Um, I do think there's there's something to be said for that
and then other people are like bro Biden's like everybody's
going to want to replace him after this deal because people
are like outraged that he's making bad deals.
We need to get a guy who's good at making deals wink wink who
could that be right?
I actually think a third thing.
I really think it's just going to cause people to be more
disengaged from the system altogether because when things
are kind of at a level where you can't understand or you're
just so displeased with them on an emotional level.
You kind of throw your hands up and go man.
I don't even care about this whole thing altogether.
You know, you kind of like throw your hands up.
It's like it's like instead of hating a game or loving a game.
It's just choosing to turn off the console.
Yeah, dude, the optics of this whole trade are terrible.
You know, we never know what's going on behind closed doors,
but I know some people are going to be like, well, why would
you trust the government to be making the right decisions?
They also did this and this recently.
I'm like, I don't know.
Yeah, I have no idea actually.
I guess I just never really see in like five hours 10,000
comments pop up on like multiple subreddits.
Well, it's got to be something fiery enough, but also something
simplistic enough for the vast majority of people to engage
with because there's other more important things happening.
But even for example, the collapse of FTX, Andrew, it's
really hyper complicated to understand what happened.
Yeah, you know these things it's always like based on headlines.
It's very easy to react to this and it's very easy to disagree.
I'm not saying, you know, a lot of people don't disagree
for good reasons, but it's very easy to disagree with this
one. Andrew, how often do you see a WNBA trade be on the
lead-off story on ESPN, CNN, and Fox, and Bloomberg?
That's a good point, man.
Well, all right, everybody, you let us know in the comments
down below.
I know that this is surprisingly an emotional
conversation for a lot of people. I didn't expect the whole internet,
at least the bro internet, to just go insane. And I'm almost
already sure, David, that by this point in the video, people
have left a comment on how they feel about it.
All right.
So you guys got to keep it civil though, man. Guys, just be helpful.
Let's try to think about things critically, but at the end of
the day, I don't know what's going on with this whole stuff.
All right.
So anyways, you guys let me know in the comments down below.
We wanted to give our take.
We are the Hot Pop Boys.
Hopefully you found this conversation useful and helpful
to add into the whole crazy flurry of a headline that's going
on right now.
All right, everybody.
Thank you so much for watching.
Until next time, we out.
Peace.