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Russell Westbrook and LeBron James Are Now Teammates, and Twitter Had Some Outstanding Reactions to the News: TRAINA THOUGHTS

Potential for Russ-LeBron on-court drama had Twitter fantasizing

Jimmy Traina

1. If you’re someone who needs online content for a living, Christmas came early Thursday when Russell Westbrook was traded to the Lakers.

The trio of Westbrook, LeBron James and Anthony Davis will provide endless highlights on the court and should give us plenty of drama off the court, too.

While fans were focused on the potential for some fun LeBron-Russ fighting, the King seemed thrilled to add Westbrook to the fold.

That Instagram post did nothing to tame the folks who couldn’t help but think about the possibilities of friction when it came to the battle for shots and stats between LeBron, Russ and Davis.

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Showtime, indeed!

2. Packers offensive lineman David Bakhtiari is doing everything he can to make sure Aaron Rodgers never leaves Green Bay.

3. Here's my favorite wrestling story in ages. On Wednesday's AEW show, a wrestler used a pizza cutter to slice open Chris Jericho's already bloody forehead. Immediately following the spot, an ad for Domino's Pizza (which, for the record is vile and not pizza) appeared on-screen. Now Domino's is reportedly threatening to pull its advertisements from AEW's show because it doesn't want to be associated with such violence.

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Personally, I'm way more offended by Domino's calling its product pizza than a little blood and violence on a scripted show, but that's just me.

On a side note, Domino's should be happy a lot of people saw its ad.

4. What a difference a little music can make.

Here is Anthony Rizzo leaving Wrigley Field after being traded from the Cubs to the Yankees on Thursday.

O.K., nice little moment there with the fans greeting Rizzo, but it's not anything special.

Now add a little Green Day and you're ready to tear up while watching.

5. This one is for my fellow Yankees fans.

6. The latest episode of the SI Media Podcast features an interview with Bryan Curtis of The Ringer.

The writer and cohost of The Press Box podcast talks about a recent article he wrote about longtime Dallas broadcaster Dale Hansen and the death of the local news sportscaster.

Curtis also discusses how ESPN's problem with NBA Countdown got exposed during the Rachel Nichols–Maria Taylor controversy, why ESPN did not get its white whale in the new Monday Night Football deal with Peyton Manning, the low Olympics ratings and viewers' gripes about NBC's coverage, Charles Barkley's freedom, Siskel and Ebert and much more.

Following the interview with Curtis, Sal Licata from WFAN and SNY joins the podcast for the weekly "Traina Thoughts" segment, during which he discussed the worst time on the sports calendar, the viciousness of TikTok and 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.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: In honor of International Day of Friendship, which is a thing today, here's what The Office's intro would look like with the Friends theme song.

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.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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