ESPN’s Brian Windhorst Causes Stir With LeBron-Steph Report: TRAINA THOUGHTS

1. Would Steph Curry ever leave the Warriors to play with LeBron James and the Lakers?

Obviously, nobody knows the answer to that question, but ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, who has covered LeBron for years, said on the latest episode of the Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective podcast that the King is recruiting Curry.

According to Windhorst, James began to work on Curry during the All-Star break this year.

I’m not breaking any ground by saying the ramifications of Curry joining the Lakers would be huge for the league, its television partners and those of us who make content for a living.

But we can analyze whether this would ever happen another day. Today, we need to focus on what happened to Windhorst when he dropped the bombshell on his cohosts, Marc Spears and Nick Friedell.

The podcast basically turned into one of those moments you have with your friends when you’re all together talking sports and someone throws out an outlandish trade proposal and gets laughed at and mocked. Spears and Friedell just weren’t having it—at all.

I would imagine Windhorst will keep this audio clip very handy so he can unleash it this offseason in case Curry shocks the world and teams up with LeBron.

2. With the Texas Rangers' getting so much attention for opening up their ballpark to full capacity, it will be fascinating to see whether this will be the norm once the games actually count. It's hard to put much stock into attendance numbers for a fake game, but drawing just 13,000 is eye-opening.

3. NCAA tournament numbers are down, but in comparison with the ratings drops most sports have suffered over the past year, the viewership for CBS/Turner is strong.

4. Big news in the wrestling world. WWE's NXT and AEW will no longer go head-to-head on Wednesday nights.

5. The latest SI Media Podcast features a great conversation with ESPN's Scott Van Pelt. Topics discussed include how the “Bad Beats” segment is put together, the bond gamblers share, the NFL embracing betting, his experience with COVID-19 (Van Pelt says three months after testing positive for the coronavirus, he still can't taste anything), our pandemic pet peeves, whether he has any desire to call NFL games, his cameo on Ted Lasso and much more.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Stitcher.

You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.

6. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Today is Mike Rotunda's 63rd birthday. Old-school WWF fans know Rotunda as I.R.S. during that glorious time when wrestlers had occupational gimmicks and the company would promote great vignettes such as this one.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Stitcher. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.