Latest / The Regulars / Knicks Crowned: Brunson’s MVP, Historic Comebacks & the Media Backlash

Transcript

Knicks Crowned: Brunson’s MVP, Historic Comebacks & the Media Backlash · The Regulars

• 0:00
  Well, if you got a case of the Mondays and you're exhausted from the weekend and you're
• 0:14
  maybe still hungover from the weekend, whether it's because you're watching the World Cup
• 0:17
  soccer or because you were watching the Knicks party and you felt like you wanted to be like
• 0:21
  you're in New York, you're in the right place because I am hungover, Tanya's hungover, and
• 0:26
  we are here to talk sports with you.
• 0:28
  Welcome to The Regulars.
• 0:29
  Cheers.
• 0:30
  I'm Cody Decker.
• 0:31
  Cheers.
• 0:32
  I'm Tanya Ray Fox.
• 0:33
  Really, the only reason I'm doing this podcast today is because I have a fresh fake tan and
• 0:39
  I'm feeling good about it.
• 0:40
  Yeah, you do.
• 0:41
  So I figured why not podcast?
• 0:42
  I think that's a great idea.
• 0:43
  I mean, the fact that it's always on a Monday and we were going to do it anyway, neither
• 0:45
  here nor there.
• 0:46
  Well, I got to say the fake tan is looking quite good.
• 0:48
  Thank you.
• 0:49
  Congratulations.
• 0:50
  I'm very proud of you.
• 0:51
  Thank you.
• 0:52
  Yeah, welcome to the show.
• 0:53
  We got lots to cover today.
• 0:54
  Tanya, how was your weekend?
• 0:55
  How are you feeling about things?
• 0:57
  I believe we just finished what I can only describe, and I mean this from the bottom
• 1:02
  of my heart.
• 1:03
  This is not hyperbolic.
• 1:04
  We're not here to make fun of, because honestly, I always make fun of the NBA playoffs for
• 1:07
  how fucking absurdly long they are.
• 1:10
  I could have used two more weeks.
• 1:11
  I could have used more.
• 1:12
  I didn't need this to end the way it ended.
• 1:14
  I could have used a few more games, maybe extended out another week, maybe get it all
• 1:19
  the way past the World Cup.
• 1:21
  I loved everything about this playoffs, and as much as I hate Knicks fans, and I mean
• 1:27
  this from the bottom of my heart, I do hate you.
• 1:31
  That team's impossible to root against, because I love every member of that Knicks team so
• 1:35
  much.
• 1:36
  Impossible to root against, and it really was one of those things where it was just
• 1:42
  like I so badly wanted two more games of that series, and also I was very much rooting for
• 1:50
  the Knicks to the point where I was getting nervous, and I was like, even though I wanted
• 1:55
  it to go back for MSG for game seven, and I'm not a Knicks fan, my brain kept being
• 2:00
  like, come on, Knicks.
• 2:01
  Come on, Knicks.
• 2:02
  Come on, Knicks.
• 2:03
  I couldn't stop myself from rooting for them in game five, which is so weird, because they're
• 2:06
  not my team, so normally I can be a little bit more level, but for whatever, they started
• 2:12
  to feel ... I told you, to me, they were America's team because of the New York and the Trump
• 2:17
  of it all.
• 2:19
  And then I have all this patriotism around the World Cup that's happening.
• 2:22
  We're going to talk about all of this in the show, but it just felt, yeah, like, damn,
• 2:27
  this is so awesome.
• 2:28
  It was so fun.
• 2:29
  Saturday Night was so fun to experience it on the internet and everything, and now it's
• 2:31
  over, and thank God we have the World Cup, because like-
• 2:34
  Thank God.
• 2:35
  Because we'd be very bored right now.
• 2:36
  Listen, I'm a baseball guy.
• 2:38
  Played professionally for 11 years, and I could give a fuck about June baseball.
• 2:42
  So much so that today we did a segment, because this is real.
• 2:45
  I can't believe this was said out loud to me.
• 2:47
  I can't believe Dave Roberts abandoned his team in a series.
• 2:51
  I'm like, his daughter graduated Stanford, idiot.
• 2:55
  Yeah.
• 2:56
  It's June 14th.
• 2:57
  What the fuck are you talking about?
• 3:00
  It's sort of mid-season hot stove.
• 3:01
  My God.
• 3:02
  It's like, there's nothing going on.
• 3:05
  And I told my mom today, I was like, thank God we do have World Cup, because it would
• 3:08
  be ... I think it was my mom, whoever I told, this is where things get a little dead until
• 3:14
  All-Star weekend and whatever else.
• 3:15
  They do.
• 3:17
  That's awesome.
• 3:18
  But we got about a month until that.
• 3:19
  Yeah.
• 3:20
  And it leads us into training camp.
• 3:22
  And once you get to NFL training camp, there's actually real NFL stories, and usually we're
• 3:25
  like, okay.
• 3:27
  But yeah.
• 3:28
  So we're going to kick it off with the most obvious.
• 3:32
  Obvious, because it's even right here in the chat already.
• 3:35
  Oh, and there will be no Jalen Brunson slander tolerated.
• 3:40
  Can't stress this enough.
• 3:42
  There will never be Jalen Brunson slander on this show.
• 3:45
  No.
• 3:46
  We say a lot of slanderous shit about Knicks fans.
• 3:50
  Jalen Brunson is not on that list, nor is anyone that plays on that team.
• 3:54
  I love Josh Hart.
• 3:55
  I love OG Dan Anobi.
• 3:56
  I love OG Dan Anobi more today than I did three days ago.
• 4:01
  And that's simply because I watched Good Morning America.
• 4:04
  Can't stress that enough.
• 4:05
  Whoever put OG in the front of that questioning, one, congratulations.
• 4:10
  Also two, how dare you?
• 4:11
  You set that man up.
• 4:12
  Poor OG.
• 4:14
  And his teammates all being, they let him hang for a while, too.
• 4:16
  They were like, OG, like, really?
• 4:18
  You're going to.
• 4:19
  He looked like a cadaver.
• 4:20
  I honestly was like, oh, he's like, I literally wrote to my friend.
• 4:24
  I was like, OG no esta ahi.
• 4:25
  Like, not there.
• 4:26
  Yeah, he is.
• 4:27
  Not there.
• 4:28
  Not even.
• 4:29
  Yeah.
• 4:30
  They weekends at Bernie's.
• 4:31
  Yeah.
• 4:32
  His ass onto the set of Good Morning America.
• 4:34
  He's not supposed to speak.
• 4:36
  And by the way, congratulations, OG once again bailing out Josh Hart, because Josh Hart was
• 4:41
  in the back and clearly looked like he was having a rough one, too.
• 4:45
  So that's twice this week.
• 4:46
  Josh Hart's getting bailed out by OG and an OB.
• 4:48
  Yes.
• 4:49
  It's amazing stuff.
• 4:50
  It was a lot.
• 4:51
  It was a lot.
• 4:52
  But we are there.
• 4:53
  No, not only is this not going to be Jalen runs in slander.
• 4:57
  No, we're going to talk just sort of, you know, put a cap to put a cap on the NBA finals.
• 5:02
  We have talked about every single game.
• 5:03
  We've talked about this playoffs a lot.
• 5:05
  We've enjoyed the playoffs a lot more than we thought even before this NBA finals.
• 5:10
  But, you know, we are at the point now where people are having the discussion.
• 5:15
  Is this one of the greatest NBA final teams we have ever seen?
• 5:19
  And not just not in the sense that it is, you know, one of the most dominant or.
• 5:25
  But this this run was memorable.
• 5:27
  Yes.
• 5:28
  And I do.
• 5:29
  So many.
• 5:30
  It wrapped up where they the Knicks outscored their opponents across the playoffs by fourteen
• 5:36
  point nine points per game, setting the highest point differential in NBA playoff history.
• 5:41
  They were the first team in NBA history to trail by double digits in all four of their
• 5:45
  finals victories.
• 5:46
  Obviously, there was the twenty nine point comeback in game four and their team, their
• 5:52
  total accumulated two hundred and eighty total point differential across the entire postseason
• 5:59
  shattered the previous record held by the twenty seventeen Golden State Warriors, largely
• 6:03
  considered one of the greatest compilations of, you know, talent in terms of the NBA and
• 6:10
  ever.
• 6:11
  Right.
• 6:12
  So we're not just talking about this like, oh, wow, the Knicks have finally won a title
• 6:16
  and they just scrapped it through.
• 6:18
  We're talking about a truly historic dominant performance.
• 6:23
  And I, I think before we get into the Jalen Brunson of it all, because there's a separate
• 6:27
  conversation to be had about Jalen Brunson.
• 6:29
  What I want to know is like.
• 6:32
  Do why do you think that the Knicks weren't properly evaluated and discussed by analysts
• 6:39
  and the NBA sort of media at large?
• 6:42
  Once we once we were kind of getting into that, I would say I could understand it before
• 6:48
  the Eastern Conference Finals, but once the comebacks and the vibe started happening in
• 6:52
  the Eastern Conference Finals, why didn't we buy them the way that we should have as
• 6:58
  a collective NBA media?
• 7:02
  So explain to me really quick what your view on that is, because I don't think we misvalued
• 7:09
  them at all.
• 7:10
  I think we valued them very appropriately throughout the entire thing.
• 7:13
  Now, when they're in the finals, I was still giving the lean to the Spirit Spurs, and I
• 7:17
  think a lot of people were, but it wasn't like I wasn't expecting a blowout here.
• 7:21
  I was expecting this to be a very good series.
• 7:23
  However, there was also the fact that they played them in the NBA Cup this year and one
• 7:27
  make no mistake.
• 7:28
  And there was also the older aspect of the team, a little more veteran presence on that
• 7:33
  team compared to the youngness and the newness of the Spurs team.
• 7:37
  There was no like we talked about it prior to this series.
• 7:41
  You were predicting a sweep by the Spurs.
• 7:42
  Oh, no, I wasn't.
• 7:43
  I was expecting six games.
• 7:44
  No.
• 7:45
  I never thought this was going to be a sweep.
• 7:46
  I might have jokingly said gentlemen's sweep, but I predicted a six game sweep.
• 7:52
  But you said that I would not be surprised if the Spurs swiped that.
• 7:55
  I wouldn't have been, by the way, but it's not.
• 7:57
  Repeatedly, right?
• 7:58
  But it's not because I didn't.
• 7:59
  I didn't disagree with you.
• 8:00
  Yeah.
• 8:01
  So I'm not, this isn't a you versus me thing.
• 8:02
  No, no, I agree.
• 8:03
  But what I'm saying is we are now, and you're part of it, and it's like I almost feel gaslit
• 8:07
  by it's not your fault.
• 8:08
  But collectively, everyone's like, no, we thought the Knicks could win.
• 8:11
  No.
• 8:12
  Nobody was fucking saying that.
• 8:13
  I didn't pick them.
• 8:14
  No, I understand that.
• 8:15
  Yeah.
• 8:16
  But like nobody was saying that.
• 8:17
  And not only did they win, they were just so clearly the exact same team.
• 8:21
  I think everybody thought that the comebacks against the other teams in the East, the weaker
• 8:25
  teams in the East was, well, those are weaker teams.
• 8:27
  Well, that's the point.
• 8:28
  They were weaker teams.
• 8:29
  They just were.
• 8:30
  But again, it's our job as people who talk about sports, and then it's the analyst's
• 8:34
  job to see what we're not seeing, right?
• 8:37
  Like to see the things that fans aren't seeing to say.
• 8:40
  And this is one of the biggest miscalculations I've, I think I've ever seen in terms of what
• 8:45
  we got from, this was a five game series where the Knicks like just were far and away the
• 8:52
  more prepared team to close out games.
• 8:55
  Close out games.
• 8:56
  Yes.
• 8:57
  Unquestionably.
• 8:58
  Right.
• 8:59
  And to make their comebacks and to do everything that they did.
• 9:00
  They weren't getting the benefit of the, like, I mean, it's not like the refs were helping
• 9:02
  them out.
• 9:03
  It's not like the, I mean, Wembley shouldn't, should have been unavailable had they gone
• 9:07
  to a game six.
• 9:08
  Like there's all these things that are happening.
• 9:10
  Disagree with that.
• 9:11
  Um, that was a fucking flagrant change.
• 9:13
  Like, sure.
• 9:14
  He also got a second.
• 9:15
  He also got multiple other incidental fouls that he fucking shouldn't have gotten either.
• 9:19
  And he got it because they didn't get the flavor before.
• 9:21
  The flagrants are the, are what you get.
• 9:23
  You suspend.
• 9:24
  I got that.
• 9:25
  But I'm also, I watched that series and are we pretending that Wembley wasn't tugged and
• 9:28
  fucking rock all over the fucking place?
• 9:31
  He was, this was a competitive physical series.
• 9:33
  I don't have the same read as you on this one.
• 9:36
  However.
• 9:37
  That was a flagrant that even the broadcast said those like, that's, that's the, that's
• 9:43
  a picture of, of like, this is why they wrote the rule.
• 9:46
  Yeah.
• 9:47
  And so he got, he literally got a foul the next night on something he didn't deserve.
• 9:50
  Not a flagrant though.
• 9:51
  Do you understand?
• 9:52
  I understand the difference, but guys, this is, I, I really don't feel the anger towards
• 9:58
  this that everyone else was all is trying to find and clutch their, but what I'm saying
• 10:02
  is they were getting the benefit of when be not getting, you know, ejected or suspended
• 10:07
  or whatever else, because it could have happened after game three didn't happen after game
• 10:11
  four didn't could have.
• 10:12
  Right.
• 10:13
  So, okay, fine.
• 10:14
  But what I'm saying is there just seemed to be like, there is a disconnect between this
• 10:20
  is one of the greatest finals performances and playoff runs we've ever seen and how they
• 10:23
  were discussed.
• 10:25
  There just is there, there just is what we should have been talking about heading into
• 10:31
  the Eastern conference finals and then heading into the NBA final specifically was that this
• 10:35
  is very clearly a team that is far more prepared to go start to finish opening, you know, opening
• 10:43
  tip off to the final buzzer.
• 10:47
  And we, but what we kept doing you and I included was, okay, they're clearly the more
• 10:54
  veteran prepared team, but they're just not talented enough.
• 10:57
  They're just, they don't have it.
• 10:58
  They don't have it.
• 10:59
  They don't have it.
• 11:00
  I don't see it.
• 11:01
  I don't like, could, would I be totally shocked if they won?
• 11:04
  No, but I think this, I think the Spurs have it.
• 11:07
  I think the Spurs have it.
• 11:08
  I think that if they play the Spurs or the thunder, they're kind of screwed.
• 11:11
  That was the conversation throughout.
• 11:13
  And even once they had a two game lead, people were like, okay, I can still see the series
• 11:17
  going six, maybe seven.
• 11:19
  I could see this.
• 11:20
  I thought it was over.
• 11:21
  They got two.
• 11:22
  I thought, I just hope I get the six.
• 11:23
  I thought it was over after two as well.
• 11:25
  But like, I just imagine, imagine like, to me, they were being talked about as if they,
• 11:37
  as if they, I guess the way they won the series was the way they play.
• 11:41
  And we just did not actually ever see the way they play as not only being able to win
• 11:46
  a series, win a series in five and win a series historically.
• 11:50
  It was incredible.
• 11:51
  But I, and I think it's, I do find there's a little bit of a failure of basketball analysis.
• 11:55
  I do not have the same, I don't agree with you on this.
• 11:58
  I feel like this was a finals down to two teams and everyone picked just the wrong team.
• 12:02
  And I didn't see, I didn't see a world where it was a ton of disrespect towards the Knicks.
• 12:06
  It's not about the pick.
• 12:07
  It was more about like the way we talked about it, I guess.
• 12:10
  Because the evidence was all there, I guess, was there, but like, we all agreed even going
• 12:17
  into the playoffs, we still thought the Knicks were the third or fourth best team in the
• 12:19
  East.
• 12:20
  We thought Detroit was better.
• 12:21
  We thought Cleveland might've even still been better.
• 12:24
  The Knicks just outlasted them all.
• 12:25
  And also we, I think we're also basing on, I see you're doing the thing.
• 12:28
  They didn't outlast them all.
• 12:29
  They out fucking played them.
• 12:31
  I know they did, but we pretending we haven't watched the Knicks fucking fall to pieces
• 12:35
  each year doing it.
• 12:36
  Like it's just a thing, but they weren't, they weren't doing it by the time.
• 12:41
  Disrespect.
• 12:42
  What is the way?
• 12:43
  Wait, can we go back?
• 12:44
  Let's go back here.
• 12:45
  What the fuck is this?
• 12:46
  Weird?
• 12:47
  Knicks are so disrespected fucking thing.
• 12:48
  This is not real.
• 12:49
  They weren't.
• 12:50
  Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
• 12:51
  Slow down.
• 12:52
  Everyone thought the Spurs were going to win.
• 12:53
  Fucking great.
• 12:54
  The Knicks won.
• 12:55
  But I don't think this is a disrespect.
• 12:56
  It's not because people thought the Spurs were going to win, it's because the evidence
• 12:59
  was all there and we weren't looking at it.
• 13:04
  I disagree with you.
• 13:05
  The evidence does not scream.
• 13:07
  Knicks got this.
• 13:08
  No, because there was also, there was also, we can't sit here on hindsight considering
• 13:14
  the talent to play that it was that existed on the Eastern conference side, the amount
• 13:17
  of rest that they got, which can be a double edged sword.
• 13:20
  I'm not talking about going into the playoffs and I'm not even talking about the first or
• 13:23
  second round.
• 13:24
  I'm genuinely like by the time the Eastern conference finals, we were halfway through
• 13:28
  that and we saw what they were doing and we saw that these motherfuckers weren't losing
• 13:31
  and I thought Cleveland was awful in that series, but it doesn't matter.
• 13:36
  So the Spurs were awful in this series.
• 13:39
  We can't keep you.
• 13:40
  I agree.
• 13:41
  You can't say, okay, they played no good teams all the way through one and good teams, but
• 13:45
  the Spurs went through a much bigger gauntlet in the West and that's not why they lost.
• 13:49
  They got outplayed in the finals period.
• 13:51
  Stop.
• 13:52
  I'm literally doing the thing.
• 13:53
  You're fucking Spurs.
• 13:54
  We're going to win the next one.
• 13:55
  Irresponsible.
• 13:56
  They fucking won.
• 13:57
  What is this?
• 13:58
  You just did the thing.
• 13:59
  You're like, well, they just didn't really play anybody.
• 14:00
  Oh my God.
• 14:01
  I ever got.
• 14:09
  Buddy kept saying that it's like, who did they play?
• 14:11
  And then they went on a huge tear and then they played the fucking Spurs and absolutely
• 14:15
  fucking kick their ass.
• 14:16
  Well, slow down.
• 14:17
  They had to come back from fucking 25 points down.
• 14:21
  Let me do a Cody, they won five five five.
• 14:27
  Well, they didn't win five games.
• 14:28
  They won four games.
• 14:29
  Five games.
• 14:30
  They won in five games are, did you watch the same series?
• 14:34
  It was the fourth quarters.
• 14:35
  They've had massive historic comebacks.
• 14:38
  The Spurs were in the lead in the fourth quarter of all five games and they fucking fell to
• 14:44
  pieces.
• 14:45
  No, I'm not with you on this disrespect.
• 14:49
  That's how they play.
• 14:50
  You can't, you can't start being like, oh, well they always had to overcome this fucking
• 14:56
  Nick's weird ass Homer.
• 14:58
  This is the weirdest conversation I've ever had with you.
• 15:01
  And I am fucking concerned.
• 15:03
  Who are you?
• 15:04
  First of all, because number one, because we picked the Spurs, you all disrespected
• 15:08
  them.
• 15:09
  No, I picked the Spurs.
• 15:10
  I thought they'd win.
• 15:11
  I did too.
• 15:12
  I disrespected the Knicks.
• 15:13
  I'm not.
• 15:14
  That's not disrespect.
• 15:15
  It's a 50 50 pick.
• 15:16
  Have you ever flipped a coin and just fucking shocked of the outcome?
• 15:20
  No, that's it wasn't 50 50.
• 15:22
  It was all right there.
• 15:24
  You should have known.
• 15:25
  And Mike Brown was showing us how he was going to win the entire time.
• 15:29
  He was showing us how he was going to beat the Spurs.
• 15:31
  And if we were better basketball analysts, not just you and I, but everybody else, we
• 15:35
  would have recognized the patterns existing in both the Spurs games and the Knicks games
• 15:39
  that this was going to happen.
• 15:41
  This is a weird hindsight argument to have.
• 15:44
  I'm telling you that, well, first of all, by the way, I'm going to give myself a little
• 15:47
  bit of credit.
• 15:48
  I started talking about the Knicks being able to pull this out before the NBA finals.
• 15:51
  You absolutely did.
• 15:52
  You came on here and told me no question.
• 15:54
  I mean, I thought you were right.
• 15:55
  I just was hoping you were wrong because I wanted because I wanted, I didn't realize
• 15:59
  how much I enjoyed their pain.
• 16:01
  It was really great.
• 16:03
  And I think you're all going to really feel this next year when they're very loud, when
• 16:07
  they're louder than they've ever been.
• 16:09
  And you know what you're going to do?
• 16:10
  You're going to sit here and look at me and it's like, I am sorry.
• 16:13
  No, I mean, I am prepared for Knicks fans to be insufferable to Celtics fans next year.
• 16:18
  But again, I love that.
• 16:20
  Like I miss, I miss yelling at Yankees fans.
• 16:24
  And by the way, the Knicks were astonishing in this finals.
• 16:28
  Forget the entire playoffs.
• 16:29
  I just want to focus on the finals.
• 16:31
  They were fucking astonishing to watch.
• 16:35
  And like, even as I was kind of hoping the Spurs would, honestly, I didn't care if the
• 16:38
  Spurs actually won the finals.
• 16:39
  I just wanted this to be a very, I'm happy with what we got for this reason because it
• 16:43
  was so fucking astonishing.
• 16:45
  Yeah.
• 16:46
  Tanya, like they were down by double digits going into like the fourth quarter of all
• 16:53
  five games, one of which was nearly 30 points.
• 16:56
  It's just fucking crazy.
• 16:57
  And it like, I, as a just sports fan, I love that I was just watching insane history.
• 17:02
  And there were stuff, there were a lot of Knicks fans.
• 17:04
  I was really happy for them.
• 17:05
  I have a lot of friends that are big Knicks fans and seeing them post videos of them crying.
• 17:09
  I got to say, I'm like, oh, that's, that's fucking great stuff.
• 17:12
  Love that.
• 17:13
  Then other Knicks fans ruining it.
• 17:15
  But these Knicks fans that I do love, I think that's phenomenal stuff.
• 17:18
  That being said, I'm not with you on, I'm not with you on the disrespect angle.
• 17:25
  I mean, disrespect is like, that word does get thrown around a lot.
• 17:28
  I just think, I just think that there's, I think that the level of underdog that they
• 17:33
  were for how they performed was, was very rare.
• 17:38
  And like, so we just, we never really got a grip as an NBA media and, and fandom outside
• 17:44
  of New York on really what they were until history was staring us in the face.
• 17:50
  What do you got?
• 17:51
  Nothing.
• 17:52
  One guy's like Spurs went through the blazers and injury-ridden Timberwolves and an injury-ridden
• 17:55
  OKC.
• 17:56
  OKC is like one of the most deep teams ever.
• 18:00
  Injury-ridden is a, is an overstatement, but OK.
• 18:03
  Injury-ridden?
• 18:04
  Who was, was it?
• 18:05
  They had a couple of guys that were banged up, but are we pretending everyone's banged
• 18:07
  up at this time of the year?
• 18:08
  Not to mention De'Aaron Fox was banged up and he, boy, did he show it in these finals.
• 18:12
  Yeah.
• 18:13
  I mean, I, you, I mean, we can objectively.
• 18:15
  But they were all banged up.
• 18:16
  It's the end of the season.
• 18:17
  I mean, I'm not going to say objectively, I think even the biggest Knick fan would say
• 18:21
  that the Spurs went through a harder road than the Knicks, but that's not because they're
• 18:26
  better.
• 18:27
  It also doesn't really matter at this point because realistically, like, you know, we,
• 18:31
  we've seen what each team did and we know who the better team was.
• 18:35
  They flat out were, they were the most poised team.
• 18:38
  They were the most, and the veteran presence of that team, the thing is like, I was basing
• 18:42
  mine also on them running out of gas these last couple of years and they just never ran
• 18:47
  out of gas.
• 18:48
  Mike Brown.
• 18:49
  Yeah.
• 18:50
  But I was also thinking, I wonder how much that rest helped him.
• 18:52
  Cause I was honestly wondering what was going to be the difference between the rust over
• 18:55
  rest thing, that conversation.
• 18:57
  And you know, I, I think for, for at least the time being, we could put the rust, rest
• 19:02
  over rust thing kind of to bed, not just in the NBA, but in the NHL too, because Carolina
• 19:07
  just had like fucking a month off before these finals.
• 19:09
  Couldn't be happier to see Carter heart go down.
• 19:12
  Couldn't be happier.
• 19:13
  I was really happy about that.
• 19:14
  But so like, I don't know, I, it's just the Knicks were just fucking amazing and you even
• 19:20
  text me and I, I couldn't even, I always hate it when somebody says team of destiny, cause
• 19:24
  I don't think destiny exists.
• 19:25
  This is one of the few times I'm like, might be, this really felt, how many, how many like
• 19:31
  20 point comebacks do you have in the finals before it feels, you're not wrong, man.
• 19:34
  It was just a OGN Novi, the OGN and OB game and game four alone is something that is something
• 19:41
  I'm going to remember for a long time.
• 19:42
  Like that block and then, and then the tip in just one thing after another in that game.
• 19:50
  That's the greatest basketball game we have ever seen.
• 19:52
  Yeah, no, it was, it was genuinely an all time.
• 19:54
  Like we're going to reference it game for Nick Spurs.
• 19:57
  We'll know everybody will know.
• 20:00
  And in continuing that I have a question for you and I have some, a couple stats I'll give
• 20:05
  you after I ask you the question to consider.
• 20:08
  Is Jalen Brunson NBA champion and champion and finals MVP officially the greatest Nick
• 20:14
  ever?
• 20:15
  Yes.
• 20:16
  Now, yes.
• 20:17
  I would agree with that.
• 20:18
  Yes.
• 20:19
  And I'll give, I'll give a little bit of just a couple of things I found really impressive.
• 20:22
  The highest percentage of a team's points in an NBA finals.
• 20:26
  He had, um, 31.2% of his team's points in an NBA finals, which puts him in a class with
• 20:35
  2010, Kobe, 1994 Hakeem, 2021 Giannis.
• 20:42
  Like this is, I mean, we're talking about, he's look at like the 10th highest percentage
• 20:45
  of team points in an NBA finals in the history of the NBA.
• 20:48
  And then we have, um, uh, a gorgeous chart of his, uh, goat level playoff clutch scoring.
• 20:54
  He's the greatest clutch scoring performance in the history of the NBA finals.
• 20:59
  Um, and I loved this.
• 21:01
  I'm going to read a, um, a little passage from this, our athletic article, because I
• 21:06
  think it really sums up the conversation as we move forward in it.
• 21:09
  This is by, uh, James L Edwards, the third on very great name, by the way, James Edwards,
• 21:15
  the third.
• 21:16
  Okay.
• 21:17
  Um, for the athletic guy, the combination of the person and player is the perfect representation
• 21:21
  of New York, a city known for its blue collar roots, but brash personalities Brunson though,
• 21:25
  couldn't be at the top of the Hill without the likes of Josh Hart, Ken Carl, Anthony
• 21:29
  towns, OG and Anobi and McHale bridges.
• 21:31
  The Knicks were a well-oiled machine.
• 21:33
  These playoffs packed with pick your poison, offensive weapons and slap the floor to defensive
• 21:37
  dogs.
• 21:38
  Yet this Knicks starting lineup wouldn't have been possible without Brunson's selflessness
• 21:43
  and the summer of 2024 Brunson left $113 million on the table when he signed his extension.
• 21:49
  Part of the reasoning was to allow the Knicks front office, to be able to build a true contender,
• 21:53
  to add the perfect pieces around its perfect star.
• 21:55
  New York doesn't get bridges and towns without Brunson taking less money.
• 21:59
  It doesn't make the move for Ananobi if the powers that be didn't view Brunson as one
• 22:02
  of the game's elite, the qualities and talent that made the Knicks champions came to fruition
• 22:06
  because of a culture Brunson helped create.
• 22:10
  And I think that part that James L Edwards, the third wrote so beautifully is, is almost
• 22:16
  even more important than what he did in the NBA finals to my decision to agree with you
• 22:22
  that Brunson is the greatest Nick ever.
• 22:24
  I think he's the greatest Nick ever that, and I appreciate the selflessness of him on
• 22:29
  doing that.
• 22:30
  That being said, uh, shame on this being a salary cap league.
• 22:32
  I fucking hate this.
• 22:33
  That man should be paid exactly what he's worth.
• 22:35
  And I hate that he had to take a pay cut for this to actually happen.
• 22:37
  It's stupid that the NBA still does this.
• 22:39
  It's fucking badening.
• 22:40
  And I hope major league baseball definitely doesn't allow a salary cap because that's
• 22:44
  fucking stupid.
• 22:45
  And that should be getting the max contract period stop and they should be able to build
• 22:48
  around them to their liking.
• 22:50
  That being said, everything about this is lovely.
• 22:52
  It's fucking storybook type of shit.
• 22:54
  It's what you like dream about.
• 22:55
  That being said, I think every player should get paid their actual worth and he's worth
• 22:57
  double what he's getting paid.
• 22:59
  He's worth, he's worth every penny that's available to any NBA star and he just proved
• 23:03
  that.
• 23:04
  And the thing is, the one thing that makes me feel better, and again, this isn't that
• 23:07
  I want the system to be this way, but it does make me feel better is he's about to be very,
• 23:11
  very rich from a lot of fucking endorsement and a lot of opportunities.
• 23:15
  And he has actually, I don't know if you've noticed this, but have you seen him open up
• 23:20
  a little bit more?
• 23:21
  Yeah, a little bit.
• 23:22
  He's been a little silent leading into this, but like hell, today on Good Morning America,
• 23:27
  he's the most I've ever heard him talk.
• 23:28
  Yeah.
• 23:29
  He has like, because for so long he was, even when I would see him and he'd be on like Seth
• 23:33
  Myers or whatever, and he was fine and likable enough, but I could never really be like,
• 23:39
  Hey, what's your personality?
• 23:40
  I couldn't really get to him.
• 23:42
  And I think this weight off of his shoulders, it almost shows how much he cared about it.
• 23:47
  He cared so much about it that he couldn't really fully let himself out of that mindset.
• 23:56
  I've seen a lot more personality from him even before they won, but just across the
• 24:02
  course of this and through his relationship with his teammates, just makes me love him.
• 24:06
  And if I were a Knicks fan, I don't know how, and recency bias is a bitch, but the
• 24:13
  numbers, the success, the fact that there's no other Knick even fucking in the conversation
• 24:17
  because they haven't even been to the NBA finals in 27 years.
• 24:21
  And the fact that he, this team only exists because of who he is as a player, a team builder
• 24:26
  and a leader.
• 24:27
  It's not a question.
• 24:28
  No, no.
• 24:29
  It's without question.
• 24:30
  He's the greatest.
• 24:31
  But like, there's also this cachet.
• 24:33
  I feel like there's only, and hear me out on this and tell me if I'm wrong.
• 24:37
  I feel like there's only four places you can do what he did to get to achieve something
• 24:41
  where he'll end up making more money.
• 24:43
  You do this with the Knicks.
• 24:44
  You win a title.
• 24:45
  Congratulations.
• 24:46
  You are now such New York City royalty.
• 24:49
  You can live in New York City probably for free for the rest of your life, have every
• 24:52
  meal ever paid for you, and you will be on every commercial in New York City for the
• 24:56
  rest of your life, paying you umpteen million dollars till death.
• 25:01
  New York, Boston, Los Angeles, only as a Laker, never as a Clipper, right?
• 25:07
  And I would say maybe the Chicago Bulls, because I think if somebody else brings the Chicago
• 25:11
  Bulls to the finals, I mean the way Derek Rose sent like the whole fucking tailspin
• 25:16
  and that was close and he'd never, but I mean for that one season that he shouldn't even
• 25:21
  one MVP, but everybody was so freaked out because it was a bull again.
• 25:24
  Right.
• 25:25
  So I think, I think no matter what, for the, for the rest of the days, I mean, Chicago
• 25:29
  was a great sports town anyway, but for the rest of our days, the Bulls fans are going
• 25:32
  to be looking for their next Michael Jordan and when they get it and if they get it, right.
• 25:37
  So I think those four places, if you take, if you're the guy that takes the pay cut in
• 25:41
  one of those four cities and you win a championship all based off of the way, I would also say
• 25:45
  Philly Philly, Philly one, the 76ers one, they'd go so apeshit if the 76ers had a Brunson,
• 25:53
  he would have, he would have already had a stash.
• 25:54
  No question.
• 25:55
  That being said, I'm looking forward to the future of Tyrese Maxey.
• 25:58
  I really, I really liked Tyrese Maxey a lot.
• 26:01
  Also free our guy from Oklahoma city, Jared McCain, free him from, he's so likable and
• 26:06
  I don't want to like Oklahoma city, but they sent him to OKC and I'm like, bring him back
• 26:10
  to Philly or something.
• 26:11
  Goddamn.
• 26:12
  So, but no, I'm, I'm with you on the historicness of this next team, the fun of this next team.
• 26:18
  They're impossible to dislike.
• 26:20
  Even if you were a staunch hater of the next, there's some haters out there, man.
• 26:24
  It's, it's kind of brutal.
• 26:25
  Like it's odd.
• 26:26
  You can't hate these guys.
• 26:28
  I agree.
• 26:29
  I will say very few haters.
• 26:31
  I'm surprised when I find one, I think this is like the most likable basketball team I've
• 26:36
  ever watched.
• 26:37
  I'm trying to think if there's a more likable, like I love Mitchell Robinson.
• 26:42
  Well, my only problem with Mitchell is I've heard from a lot of people that he's mega,
• 26:47
  which is crazy, which is like, whatever.
• 26:50
  I'm not going to hold him accountable like more than I hold a lot of other people.
• 26:53
  Like, I mean, let's start with James Dolan, right?
• 26:57
  We don't need to start with James Dolan, but what I'm saying is, yeah, it is weird about
• 27:01
  Mitchell.
• 27:02
  A little bit.
• 27:03
  You know, maybe, maybe someone said this team was so likable, so much fun from the, from
• 27:07
  jump street.
• 27:08
  Yeah.
• 27:09
  It's impossible to dislike Josh Hart.
• 27:11
  Yeah.
• 27:12
  He gives the best interviews.
• 27:13
  It's impossible to dislike Jalen Brunson.
• 27:14
  He is just, he is just an engine that never stops until he breaks, which we've unfortunately
• 27:20
  seen a couple of times, um, OG and Anobi, my God, like just my God, what he did in these
• 27:28
  finals alone.
• 27:29
  I mean, if you don't love the mix just from that, it's, it's impossible.
• 27:32
  And you know what else we got out of this?
• 27:33
  We got a fucking new Mars commercial from fucking Spike Lee after the game from his
• 27:39
  limo, right?
• 27:40
  Dude, we're getting Mars commercials from she's got to have it.
• 27:44
  Fucking.
• 27:45
  It's got to be the shoes.
• 27:46
  Mikey, you see it at all?
• 27:47
  Yeah.
• 27:48
  Left a voicemail from Mike.
• 27:49
  Oh dude, I gotta say, man.
• 27:50
  I did love the Nike commercial right after the next one with the, with the, um, like
• 27:54
  young dude running through the streets.
• 27:56
  I thought it was beautiful.
• 27:57
  They did.
• 27:58
  They had some good shit ready to go.
• 27:59
  They really did.
• 28:00
  So listen, congratulations.
• 28:01
  The Knicks.
• 28:02
  I know their fans will ruin it in a couple of days.
• 28:05
  The parades on Thursday.
• 28:06
  Listen, that parade is going to be fucking lit as fuck.
• 28:07
  I'm really happy on this side of the country.
• 28:10
  That's going to be, I'd be happy to be there.
• 28:12
  I love a good, uh, psychotic parade, but you know, um, all right, we're going to move over
• 28:16
  to, to the world cup because I did not have any, any expectation now I've been watching
• 28:24
  soccer since I was 10 years old, since I started playing, I started playing when I was 10,
• 28:29
  I was watching when I was 10, I remember the U S WNC in the nineties, I remember being
• 28:33
  obsessed with Mia Hammond, Brandi Chastain and, and Julie Foudy and, uh, you know, all
• 28:38
  of the like really OG Brianna scurry.
• 28:41
  Right.
• 28:43
  So world cup has been my shit, but it's always been the women.
• 28:46
  The men have always disappointed us.
• 28:48
  I, when I tell you nothing could have prepared me, I don't care if they had been playing
• 28:53
  a fucking high school team, nothing could have prepared me for how good they looked
• 28:58
  against product.
• 28:59
  Good.
• 29:00
  I, I, I'm telling you right now, I, if one single fucking person comes into our comments
• 29:04
  and says they were ranked 41st in the world, what do you even mean?
• 29:07
  Who even cares that we beat them?
• 29:09
  I mean, it matters.
• 29:10
  I promise you right now.
• 29:11
  I have watched this team lose to countries, the size of Rhode Island and Delaware.
• 29:17
  Okay.
• 29:18
  Like countries that are the size of a small state.
• 29:23
  I pro I promise you they don't win games like this.
• 29:26
  They don't play games like this.
• 29:27
  We have been building toward this.
• 29:29
  This is the culmination of building a specific type of roster with a specific, specific type
• 29:34
  of player.
• 29:35
  And I could not have hoped for more.
• 29:39
  Pataguay came into this tournament having beat Brazil and Argentina in world cup qualifiers
• 29:46
  with the best defense, a lockdown defense and the best defense out of South America.
• 29:51
  And the United States absolutely fucking dominated them.
• 29:57
  Chris Richards completed all 83 of his passes against Pataguay setting a world cup record
• 30:03
  for the most passes with a hundred percent accuracy since 1966.
• 30:08
  Setting 83 of 83 passes is fucking crazy.
• 30:11
  That's not a thing we do.
• 30:13
  That's a thing Spain does.
• 30:14
  That's a thing, you know, not this morning, exactly.
• 30:19
  And uh, and this was also the most dominant, uh, win in the history of the U S men's national
• 30:24
  team at the Olympics in terms of score.
• 30:27
  So I, I just need it on record that that is, I am a very hard soccer fan to play because
• 30:37
  I played it.
• 30:38
  I refereed it.
• 30:39
  It is very important to me.
• 30:40
  And I watched a lot of bad soccer from the men.
• 30:44
  The idea of getting my hopes up that this team could even like win a, a, like a game
• 30:49
  after this round was nearly impossible prior to this game.
• 30:52
  My hopes are up.
• 30:53
  It's terrifying, but I would be crazy to not have my hopes up in terms of, do I think that
• 30:57
  they're going to end up in like the semifinals or I'm not, I'm not crazy.
• 31:03
  What I do think is we could have the best run we've had in a long time based on what
• 31:08
  I saw.
• 31:09
  And that scares me.
• 31:10
  Cause I'm, cause I don't want to get to that point.
• 31:11
  Now there are other teams I'm rooting for.
• 31:13
  There are other teams I'm excited to watch.
• 31:14
  It's not like I need the USA to be the team, but it's still a bunch of players I've watched
• 31:19
  over the course of time develop into a team that could win a game like that.
• 31:23
  Their, their passing was extraordinary.
• 31:25
  Their touch on the ball was extraordinary.
• 31:27
  They were, they were aggressive.
• 31:29
  They did not get tired.
• 31:31
  Their substitutes came in and did everything right.
• 31:34
  The striking from Balagoon was crazy.
• 31:37
  We've never had a player like that that can do that.
• 31:39
  And then for Gio Reyna to come in at the end of the game and remind everybody who the fuck
• 31:43
  he is and why he, why he's on that team.
• 31:45
  Also just to see that after what happened in the last world cup, because that was all
• 31:50
  mired in bullshit controversy that we had to deal with.
• 31:53
  So I'm actually thrilled to see that take place.
• 31:56
  Listen, I'm not with you yet, but you know, listen, you know, soccer more than me.
• 32:00
  I'm a soccer novice.
• 32:01
  I like watching the premier leagues.
• 32:02
  I love watching the champions league when it comes up, but I watch it passively.
• 32:08
  I enjoy it.
• 32:09
  I, but I've never sat around breaking down soccer.
• 32:12
  I watch every world cup and I enjoy the shit out of the world cup.
• 32:16
  I'm obviously rooting for the U S my expectations are still despite the pure dominance of that
• 32:22
  game that any novice would watch that can see that it was like watching a team play
• 32:27
  against a high school team.
• 32:29
  I'm not ready yet to get as excited as you are.
• 32:32
  I'm not ready to be, I'm not ready.
• 32:34
  That's the point.
• 32:35
  I'm not ready to have hope.
• 32:36
  I don't want to have the hope.
• 32:38
  All I can tell you is that I know enough about this game that, that I, from the fact that
• 32:43
  I feel hope is insane.
• 32:46
  Like it, I don't like even that I feel hope.
• 32:49
  I don't like that.
• 32:50
  I feel expectation, but at some point you have to expect that a team become the team
• 32:54
  that they're supposed to be.
• 32:56
  And I think that putting a level of expectation on this team is probably something that's
• 32:59
  good because they truly, they truly have needed to have a squad that can like, they've
• 33:06
  shown us now what they can do.
• 33:08
  They've shown us now what they can do.
• 33:10
  Doesn't mean that they can beat, you know, the Netherlands or, you know, Portugal or
• 33:13
  whatever else.
• 33:14
  I mean, again, you watch what happened to Spain against Cape Verde today.
• 33:19
  I don't know.
• 33:20
  Maybe they could hang in there with Spain.
• 33:22
  I don't know, but it's fun.
• 33:26
  How would you feel about Friday if they do something similar to Australia?
• 33:30
  Well, I think that, I think that because of the group they're in, we're going to keep
• 33:34
  having our tempers, our expectations tempered.
• 33:38
  That's going to keep happening.
• 33:40
  Right.
• 33:41
  I personally don't write off the teams that are in the world cup as much as other people
• 33:45
  do because I continue to see the kind of performances that are coming from 0 0 this morning with
• 33:53
  Spain.
• 33:54
  With Spain from Cape Verde, who's never played in a world cup.
• 33:56
  And more and more importantly, I don't know where that is.
• 33:59
  It's an island off the coast of Africa or it's off the coast of Africa.
• 34:02
  I knew it was in Africa, but I have no idea where off the coast of Africa.
• 34:07
  So the fact that they tied Spain today, is it off the coast of Africa?
• 34:12
  I thought it was.
• 34:13
  Now I'm like, now I'm second guessing myself.
• 34:15
  Are we thinking Ivory Coast and we're getting all freaked out?
• 34:18
  Let's make sure.
• 34:19
  Are we conflating multiple countries?
• 34:20
  Cause I truly do not know where this country is.
• 34:21
  I thought it was in Africa.
• 34:23
  I've always, I've always thought so, but I know that they're also, they speak Portuguese.
• 34:28
  And so it'll be Africa, right?
• 34:29
  No, but I'm just like sort of trying to figure out where in the world they are before we,
• 34:33
  like, I mean, we've already sounded stupid if it's not there, but I would like to get
• 34:36
  it.
• 34:37
  It might not be there.
• 34:38
  No, trust me.
• 34:39
  I freely admit I do not know where this country is.
• 34:42
  We're looking it up.
• 34:43
  We're efforting very hard live on the, on the pod.
• 34:47
  Let's find out.
• 34:48
  Efforting.
• 34:49
  Africa.
• 34:50
  It is in Africa.
• 34:51
  Thank God.
• 34:52
  Island though.
• 34:53
  I think it's a small country on mainland.
• 34:54
  Is it really?
• 34:55
  Maybe.
• 34:56
  Hold on.
• 34:57
  I thought it was off the coast.
• 34:58
  Island.
• 34:59
  Island nation.
• 35:00
  Oh, thank God.
• 35:01
  Oh, thank God.
• 35:02
  I still don't know enough.
• 35:03
  Island off the coast of Africa.
• 35:04
  Oh, I'm so glad I knew that.
• 35:05
  We did it.
• 35:06
  We did it.
• 35:07
  We almost looked like a couple of dumb assholes.
• 35:08
  I think because you and I are both not good at geography, we were both like, hold on,
• 35:11
  do we know what we're talking about?
• 35:12
  Or are we just assuming something?
• 35:13
  I'm glad we both got that right.
• 35:15
  Chance.
• 35:16
  Thank you.
• 35:17
  I'm, we are aware that they speak Portuguese in Brazil.
• 35:19
  Yes.
• 35:20
  Well, so the other thing is that, but they speak Portuguese in Cape Verde as well.
• 35:24
  And the other thing is that I grew up in Massachusetts where there's a massive Cape Verdean community.
• 35:30
  There's a lot of Cape Verdeans in Massachusetts.
• 35:32
  So I would feel really dumb if I had gotten that wrong, but I got, I get so nervous that
• 35:36
  I'm like getting this stuff wrong in front of people while we're talking.
• 35:38
  That's okay.
• 35:39
  I mean, we're all learning.
• 35:40
  I had no idea this country was even in the world cup until I saw the matchup.
• 35:43
  Well, they've never been in one.
• 35:44
  So to be fair.
• 35:45
  Yeah.
• 35:46
  And they tied fucking Spain, the shortest odds going into this tournament, by the way.
• 35:50
  Yeah.
• 35:51
  By the way, I was really excited because I picked them in a blind pool.
• 35:54
  Um, fuck.
• 35:55
  I know.
• 35:56
  Well, you know, listen, um, at least Germany beat Curacao seven to one.
• 36:01
  That was, uh.
• 36:02
  And Curacao did not fire their head coach.
• 36:03
  Well, I saw a manager get fired this morning though, uh, Tunisia, Tunisia's coach got fired.
• 36:11
  They fired him this morning.
• 36:12
  Oh, I didn't know that.
• 36:13
  Five to one loss.
• 36:15
  Fired immediately.
• 36:16
  No, no, no return for the second match.
• 36:19
  I watched that game and I was like, uh, this is a getting out of hand.
• 36:23
  Um, I've watched as many games as I can, quite honestly, but the, um, Scotland, Haiti game
• 36:28
  was great.
• 36:29
  I was so excited.
• 36:30
  Like that.
• 36:31
  I also picked Scotland in my long shot.
• 36:32
  I love, I love both of those teams and those communities.
• 36:34
  A lot of, um, I grew up with a lot of Haitians as well.
• 36:37
  So I love the Haitians.
• 36:38
  There's a lot of Haitians in Boston.
• 36:39
  And so there was, and when the Scotland's were there, it was just, it was great.
• 36:41
  We're a lot of great videos out of the Scottish.
• 36:44
  Oh my God.
• 36:45
  They took over Fenway park.
• 36:46
  Took over Fenway park.
• 36:47
  They took over like bars and started singing, you know, country roads and you can't, you
• 36:52
  can't hate it, you know?
• 36:53
  Um, and also the result between, um, Mexico and South Africa, that was quite a fucking
• 36:58
  game.
• 36:59
  That was a whole thing.
• 37:00
  Uh, a record three red cards in that game.
• 37:02
  First, by the way, first match of this entire tournament, I guess everybody was just after
• 37:06
  each other.
• 37:07
  That's fucking great stuff.
• 37:08
  They were like, you guys got to settle down.
• 37:09
  You guys see what Wemby did.
• 37:10
  Let's do that.
• 37:11
  The draw between, um, Netherlands and Japan was incredible.
• 37:13
  That was actually a really great game to watch stylistically, two different types of
• 37:16
  teams play.
• 37:17
  So, so far I truly couldn't have asked for a better world cup.
• 37:20
  I'm incredibly excited to finally watch England play, um, on Wednesday.
• 37:24
  That's in the afternoon.
• 37:25
  Great.
• 37:26
  Is it to watch the world?
• 37:27
  Forget being in us.
• 37:28
  Like I just love watching it in our own time zone.
• 37:29
  Yeah.
• 37:30
  Oh man.
• 37:31
  This is so great.
• 37:32
  Yo, that's so great.
• 37:33
  I didn't even think about, I was like, why am I enjoying this so much?
• 37:37
  And you just, that's what it is.
• 37:38
  It's amazing.
• 37:39
  It's amazing.
• 37:40
  Oh my God.
• 37:41
  That's what it is.
• 37:42
  I don't care.
• 37:43
  I don't care what's outside of the world right now.
• 37:44
  I don't care.
• 37:45
  Put it in South America and all that.
• 37:46
  As long as I can watch it in our hours of life, I'm the happiest guy ever.
• 37:51
  I didn't even think about that.
• 37:52
  That's a great point.
• 37:53
  It's been helpful.
• 37:54
  That'll be great for the Olympics for us as well.
• 37:56
  No 3am shit anymore.
• 37:57
  Cause I remember we were at Fox when we were doing the last world cup.
• 38:01
  Like we're, we're getting the night games.
• 38:04
  I woke up at 3 in the morning to watch Simone Biles.
• 38:07
  I'm like, Jesus Christ.
• 38:08
  I was sitting there like, all right guys, we're starting the show today that normally
• 38:12
  starts at seven at nine.
• 38:13
  Like the show ends at nine 30.
• 38:14
  Like, yep, you got 30 minutes.
• 38:15
  Recap the world cup.
• 38:16
  I'm like a fucking weird ass day, man.
• 38:17
  Why are we even doing the show today?
• 38:18
  It's a great point.
• 38:19
  Yeah.
• 38:20
  That's, that's part of the, like why it's felt so wonderful.
• 38:24
  Plus I have really, really loved seeing the, uh, the relationship that the people over
• 38:30
  here are visiting are having with the cities and the towns that they're landing in because
• 38:34
  they came over expecting all of the worst things that they've been, they've been hearing
• 38:37
  understandably expecting ice, expecting to be uncomfortable, expecting, you know, people
• 38:42
  to treat them poorly.
• 38:43
  And by and large, what, what we're seeing is that like people are really excited to
• 38:46
  have them in their cities and towns, really excited to welcome them.
• 38:50
  And what's been your favorite social media stuff that you've seen off this?
• 38:52
  Cause I have my favorites.
• 38:54
  Is it Algeria in Lawrence?
• 38:55
  No, but I do love that Algeria and Lawrence, Kansas has been fucking, that's a pretty good
• 38:59
  one.
• 39:00
  Yeah.
• 39:01
  That's been my favorite.
• 39:02
  I also did like, we mentioned Scots, but the fact that they have an Airbnb right now and
• 39:06
  they have a bagpipe player out of the Airbnb is so fucking funny.
• 39:09
  Um, but my favorite thing has been from the fans, believe it or not, uh, especially specific
• 39:13
  British fans.
• 39:14
  There've been a lot of British fans coming over and to random, like there's a guy that's
• 39:17
  in Houston and he decided to go to a diner and get his first ever biscuits and gravy.
• 39:21
  And he's just like, I'm not gonna lie to you.
• 39:23
  This does not look appetizing.
• 39:24
  He took a bite and it looked, it looked like a British person to say a food doesn't look
• 39:28
  appetizing.
• 39:29
  Yeah.
• 39:30
  Pretty.
• 39:31
  Okay.
• 39:32
  The balls on you.
• 39:33
  Uh, that being said, uh, the look on his face when he took the bite looked like he just
• 39:35
  saw the Lord.
• 39:36
  He did.
• 39:37
  He's like, this is pretty good.
• 39:40
  I'm like, yeah, it is pretty good.
• 39:41
  Uh, so seeing that I saw another British woman, uh, have her first In-N-Out burger and it
• 39:46
  was like the greatest experience of her life.
• 39:48
  Like it's, it's been, it's been a lot of fucking fun so far and having it here, like I wasn't
• 39:53
  expecting to enjoy it in the States as much.
• 39:55
  Um, I really am.
• 39:57
  I really am enjoying this.
• 39:58
  Yeah.
• 39:59
  I'm loving it.
• 40:00
  And I'm loving that.
• 40:01
  Like, I think that there's a level of potential backfire that's happening for, uh, FIFA and
• 40:05
  Trump specifically where, um, there's a lot of immigrants coming in or people from other
• 40:11
  countries that represent the places where immigrants, um, a lot of them.
• 40:15
  Yes.
• 40:16
  And there's a lot of people coming over from places that were, sometimes we have taken
• 40:19
  in refugees or whatever else or countries were currently at war with Iran's playing
• 40:23
  in Los Angeles tonight and they're meeting people of America across America and all these
• 40:28
  places, Canada and Mexico as well, but so many of them in America.
• 40:32
  And I don't care what anyone says.
• 40:35
  I still believe at my core that like, there's a humanity we all possess that is accessible.
• 40:42
  And I don't know if it's going to change hearts and minds in terms of a mass swath.
• 40:46
  I don't know if it's going to change the way that they speak or talk about their politics
• 40:50
  publicly.
• 40:51
  But I wonder how many people are going to go to the ballot box and remember the people
• 40:55
  from the African nations, from the South American nations that they met in these moments when
• 41:01
  they go to vote for immigration policies and refugee policies and the stuff and sending
• 41:06
  people to camps.
• 41:07
  I just wonder if that's going to fucking happen.
• 41:09
  Now, am I giving people too much credit?
• 41:10
  No, I'm saying that there is a part of all of us that is capable of being moved and changed.
• 41:17
  And the best way to get rid of bigotry is to, is for people to be surrounded, to meet
• 41:25
  the people, to be a part of it.
• 41:28
  Humanity to these communities is always what changes these things.
• 41:32
  So I'm just saying, I would love to see this shit backfire on Trump.
• 41:37
  I would too.
• 41:38
  I don't want to say it will, but the possibility is there.
• 41:40
  In fairness, a lot has been.
• 41:42
  I don't know if you've been paying attention lately.
• 41:45
  It's a lot has been.
• 41:46
  There was a White House event last night, I don't know if you heard, it was a fucking
• 41:49
  embarrassment.
• 41:50
  I'm not talking about it.
• 41:51
  I'm not talking about it.
• 41:52
  Mocha, did you see the most embarrassing thing our nation's ever done?
• 41:55
  Yeah.
• 41:56
  Yeah.
• 41:58
  I don't know who that is or what that is.
• 42:00
  Idiocracy.
• 42:01
  We've done some more embarrassing things.
• 42:02
  Are you sure?
• 42:03
  Our nation?
• 42:04
  Are you sure?
• 42:05
  As a nation?
• 42:06
  We've done embarrassing shit.
• 42:07
  We've never broadcasted it on fucking Paramount plus.
• 42:10
  I'm just saying it's really just a clown show.
• 42:13
  Mountain Dew Camacho last night was literally at the Octagon.
• 42:18
  I don't know what that, who that is or what that is.
• 42:20
  Idiocracy.
• 42:21
  He was the president of the movie.
• 42:22
  Oh yeah.
• 42:23
  That's right.
• 42:24
  Terry Crews.
• 42:25
  Terry Crews played Mountain Dew Camacho.
• 42:26
  I remember.
• 42:27
  Yeah.
• 42:28
  That's what we witnessed last night.
• 42:29
  I'm surprised Terry Crews wasn't there.
• 42:30
  No, Terry Crews is not Mountain Dew Camacho.
• 42:32
  He believes the opposite of Mountain Dew Camacho.
• 42:34
  Does he?
• 42:35
  Is Terry Crews woke?
• 42:36
  From what I understand, yes.
• 42:37
  Okay.
• 42:38
  Fair enough.
• 42:39
  Take that, Mitchell Robinson.
• 42:40
  That's a callback, babe.
• 42:41
  All right.
• 42:42
  That's how we call back on this, yeah.
• 42:45
  Let's, real quickly, this doesn't have to be long, we've got a couple quick hitters,
• 42:48
  but Giannis, rumors have intensified, trade talks, and I want to talk about where the
• 42:53
  bucks potentially stand on a heat offer as Celtics trade buzz grows.
• 42:58
  Now, trade buzz-
• 42:59
  The Celtics doesn't make sense to me.
• 43:01
  It never did.
• 43:02
  So the trade buzz, I think I've gathered, is coming from Bill Simmons.
• 43:06
  So not a huge fan of that, again.
• 43:08
  Shopping.
• 43:09
  Now, he's not the first person to say it, but he said, like, oh, I wouldn't be surprised
• 43:11
  if he's a Celtic by the end of the week, right?
• 43:15
  Yeah.
• 43:16
  Okay.
• 43:17
  And Milwaukee insists that they're, you know, waiting on, you know, what they can get, blah,
• 43:20
  blah.
• 43:21
  They're waiting on the Miami heat on Boston.
• 43:24
  The reporting is that a swap for Andy Tecumpo and Jalen Brown is easy to pull off because
• 43:30
  they're making similar money.
• 43:31
  A team transitioning to a rebuild doesn't have a lot to get a five-star, five-time all-star
• 43:37
  coming into his age 30 season, though.
• 43:40
  The Magic and the Cavaliers have ample reason to hold on to their young stars.
• 43:45
  You know, like, they're, with the draft lottery reform, it'll make it more difficult for non-marquee
• 43:50
  franchises like Orlando and Cleveland to get blue chip talent.
• 43:54
  So they're going to hold on to their blue chip talent more likely if they don't think
• 43:57
  that they're already in, like, I mean, Giannis isn't going to turn those teams into a title
• 44:01
  contender.
• 44:02
  So it is a pretty small market.
• 44:04
  We are currently looking at the heat and the Celtics, which is kind of fucking nuts.
• 44:07
  It is a little crazy.
• 44:08
  I mean, like, for a, for a player like Giannis, there should be more teams that are close
• 44:13
  to, you know, that where he would turn them.
• 44:17
  You and I still, and I know you agree with me, there's, I still don't understand why
• 44:20
  the Timberwolves are not an option.
• 44:22
  I'm actually kind of blown away by it, but I mean, listen, I know this is pie in the
• 44:27
  sky.
• 44:28
  It is, as a Laker fan, I know it's pie in the sky, but I wouldn't put it past them.
• 44:32
  Hear me out on this.
• 44:33
  It's, it's not, it's, so much has to happen, like so much has to happen because right now
• 44:39
  they got to deal with the Austin, it's like, it's like dominoes.
• 44:41
  They got to deal with the Dawson Reeves thing.
• 44:43
  Then they got to deal with the LeBron of it all.
• 44:45
  Then they got to fucking start actually filling up the rest of the team because Rui Hachimura
• 44:49
  is a free agent.
• 44:50
  Jackson Hayes, the free agent, are they going to go elsewhere for a big man?
• 44:53
  How much money can they even do that?
• 44:55
  How much money do they have to pay LeBron in his age 42 season?
• 44:57
  You're making a great point against your point.
• 44:59
  You're no, no, no, no, no.
• 45:00
  There's a lot.
• 45:01
  There's just so much that has to happen.
• 45:03
  The reason why I won't put it past them and hear me out on this, did you ever believe
• 45:07
  Luka would be a Laker that came out of so fucking nowhere that it was Nico deserves
• 45:14
  to be in a padded room.
• 45:15
  I love you forever.
• 45:16
  Nico.
• 45:17
  Yeah.
• 45:18
  That being said, like, I don't think it's going to happen.
• 45:19
  I do think it's going to be the Austin.
• 45:20
  I think we're going to run it back with roughly, arguably, maybe the same team, which I wouldn't
• 45:25
  be entirely against because I love that team so much.
• 45:27
  That being said, I still look at the sadness of my future because I still got to deal with
• 45:33
  a healthy Oklahoma city.
• 45:34
  It was only going to get better because they're going to keep with these next eight years
• 45:37
  of draft picks.
• 45:38
  I don't, I'm not scared of OKC as you are the Spurs.
• 45:42
  We'll talk about when be shortly here.
• 45:45
  Definitely a problem.
• 45:46
  I mean, there's the West is still strong, but yeah, I, you know, obviously like the
• 45:50
  idea of a straight up trade for Giannis and Jalen Brown, like that makes a ton of sense
• 45:55
  for the bucks.
• 45:56
  I don't know why people think it makes sense for Boston.
• 46:00
  It just doesn't.
• 46:01
  I don't.
• 46:02
  Why would you swap?
• 46:03
  They make the same money.
• 46:04
  And also like Jalen and Jason have like, if you're, if you're trying to improve, it's
• 46:12
  not an improvement.
• 46:13
  It's, I mean, I guess hypothetically it could be sure, but like those two play together
• 46:17
  so well that I'm like, what is your, what's your aim?
• 46:19
  Also Jalen Brown carried that team to the status that they were last year.
• 46:23
  I don't, that one just doesn't make any sense to me.
• 46:26
  But the thing that makes the least amount of sense to me, what's all right, what's the
• 46:29
  point of training on us?
• 46:30
  You're clearly not going to be competing because you're trading on us.
• 46:33
  You're trying to rebuild for your absolute new future.
• 46:35
  So you've got to get as much of the same, isn't it the same argument you made the other
• 46:38
  day for Terence Scooble?
• 46:42
  How so?
• 46:43
  Well, you said like, I mean, if you're like, he's either going to leave or you're going
• 46:46
  to, you have to trade him.
• 46:48
  Well because one, they got to get something for him no matter what, because they're not
• 46:51
  going to get something.
• 46:52
  But it's mainly because they're just not going to pay him.
• 46:54
  Yeah.
• 46:55
  But Giannis isn't, hasn't signed a contract.
• 46:56
  I know, but you've got to get, if you can get something for him, if you're not going
• 46:58
  to sign him back, if you see the tea leaves in the wall that you're not going to sign
• 47:02
  it back, you better get as much as you can out of it.
• 47:04
  That's what I'm saying.
• 47:05
  You said why trade Giannis?
• 47:06
  Oh no, no, I know.
• 47:07
  No, no, no, no.
• 47:08
  My point was that was more hypothetical.
• 47:09
  I'm sorry.
• 47:10
  I should have explained that more.
• 47:11
  Uh, why trade Giannis?
• 47:12
  I would assume to rebuild your franchise.
• 47:14
  You're not going to rebuild your franchise by, with my trading for a guy who's making
• 47:18
  the exact same fucking money.
• 47:20
  That makes no sense to me.
• 47:21
  No, you trade, you trade him for picks.
• 47:22
  Yeah.
• 47:23
  You get as many picks as you're going to get younger and get ready for the future.
• 47:26
  Not get the same money on your books.
• 47:28
  So I mean, now, if you told me that they, that, that they were going to trade Giannis
• 47:32
  to the Celtics with the Jays.
• 47:36
  That's a different conversation.
• 47:37
  That's a different conversation.
• 47:38
  Now.
• 47:39
  Okay.
• 47:40
  That makes sense.
• 47:41
  Now they've built a super team and they have a big three.
• 47:43
  Yes.
• 47:44
  Uh, and potentially a big four.
• 47:45
  If you count Derek white.
• 47:46
  So, and I do, which I do as well.
• 47:48
  So now you have a big four, um, which is a very like warriors thing, right?
• 47:51
  Where if you have, uh, Iguodala was sort of the like fourth and, um, yeah, so all right.
• 48:00
  That's really all I had.
• 48:01
  I perfect.
• 48:02
  I think he's going to be a member of the heat.
• 48:05
  It just, it seems like it's for picks or like, who are they getting?
• 48:08
  Like, I don't know.
• 48:09
  I don't know.
• 48:10
  Clearly.
• 48:11
  Clearly.
• 48:12
  They're not happy with what's been offered so far or else it would have probably already
• 48:14
  happened.
• 48:15
  That being said, I don't know.
• 48:16
  I don't know.
• 48:17
  Also.
• 48:18
  What's the point of Giannis and bam.
• 48:20
  I'm trying to figure out how that, I gotta tell you, I don't know, but I'm, I'm interested.
• 48:25
  It just seems like there's so much smoke.
• 48:27
  Right.
• 48:28
  I mean, everybody knows Giannis can't score 83 points in a game.
• 48:30
  Only bam can do that.
• 48:31
  So I mean, facts are facts.
• 48:32
  Facts are facts.
• 48:33
  Facts are facts.
• 48:34
  I want to talk to you about this real baseball story real quick, because I find this really
• 48:38
  fascinating.
• 48:39
  Um, Jacob Mizrowski's historic 15 K outing in context.
• 48:45
  So this, this little bunker from the brewers, 24 year old right-handed pitcher from the,
• 48:51
  uh, the game of the season, maybe the game for all decades, a one hit shutout with 15
• 48:59
  strikeouts while throwing just 95 pitches and facing the minimum 27 batters.
• 49:04
  Now I, I'm going to put this into context for other people who might not fully get the
• 49:09
  context.
• 49:10
  When I saw that, just that first thing, the 15 K outing.
• 49:13
  And then that first paragraph, my brain was like, that can't be right.
• 49:17
  They got something wrong.
• 49:18
  Like I F I was like, there's no fucking way.
• 49:19
  It's one of the greatest performances on a mountain.
• 49:21
  I've never seen anything like it with a game score of a hundred.
• 49:24
  It was just the 17th, nine inning performance with a game scorer that high, uh, three of
• 49:29
  those perfect games were from Sandy Koufax, Matt Cain and Randy Johnson making Mizrowski
• 49:35
  just the fourth pitcher to face the minimum 27 batters with a game score of at least a
• 49:39
  hundred.
• 49:40
  I think the only other one that was not a no hitter that was better was the 20 game
• 49:43
  strikeout game from Carrie wood, which is to this day, one of the single greatest performances
• 49:48
  in the history of major league baseball.
• 49:50
  Perfect.
• 49:51
  I love that.
• 49:52
  And the reality is anytime I love baseball stats, because anytime you're like, Oh, like
• 49:55
  only four people have done this.
• 49:57
  It's four people since like 18 sets for the record.
• 50:00
  I have no doubt you got this from Sarah Lang.
• 50:01
  So she is the greatest at finding these stats.
• 50:03
  It's amazing.
• 50:04
  Fantastic.
• 50:05
  Mizrowski became the third pitcher since 1900 with at least 15 strikeouts and no more than
• 50:09
  one base runner allowed in a shutout.
• 50:11
  No more than one base runner.
• 50:13
  I mean, this is so it's, it's referred to very often as a Maddox named in honor of hall
• 50:18
  of famer, Greg Maddox, the king of pitching efficiency in a complete game while throwing
• 50:22
  fewer than a hundred pitches since the pitch count, uh, era began in 1988.
• 50:28
  Only, I love that only Kershaw in 2017 and scuba last year had pitched a mat, a Maddox
• 50:33
  with even 13 strikeouts, let alone 15.
• 50:38
  Right.
• 50:39
  So, um, well, keep in mind, that means he wasn't getting outs on two to three, two pitches.
• 50:44
  He was getting them specifically on three or four pitches because it was Kang, everybody
• 50:47
  15 case does not equal 85 pitches.
• 50:51
  That means he was so efficient, 95 pitches, I think still, I don't care.
• 50:59
  Under a hundred is insane.
• 51:01
  In today's day and age, those stats and this article that I pulled from was from David
• 51:04
  Schoenfeld.
• 51:05
  Oh, nice show.
• 51:06
  Yeah.
• 51:07
  That's some Sarah Lang shit.
• 51:08
  Good for you.
• 51:09
  Um, I will say this.
• 51:10
  This guy's fucking good.
• 51:11
  I wouldn't want to face him.
• 51:13
  You know why?
• 51:14
  Because in that same game, you know, he was his, his, you know, his average speed was
• 51:19
  a hundred, right?
• 51:20
  Yeah.
• 51:21
  His average.
• 51:22
  They were talking.
• 51:23
  Okay.
• 51:24
  That was a part of his average fastball velocity.
• 51:26
  Not he was sitting, his fucking fastball was sitting at a hundred the entire game.
• 51:33
  He also, which is amazing.
• 51:35
  You didn't bring this up, set a record for the fastest pitch in major league baseball.
• 51:38
  He hit a hundred and fucking five.
• 51:41
  He did.
• 51:42
  He had a hundred and fucking five in this game.
• 51:46
  So this is why I put it in here because you have sort of, since we started this podcast,
• 51:51
  you have had this refrain, which is because it's, it's your, it's, it is your, uh, thing
• 51:57
  that the pitching is, is just so out of hand that like, it's, you don't, it's not even
• 52:03
  a like this, this kid just had a game that is on par with the greatest pitchers of all
• 52:08
  time and something that a lot of the greatest pitchers of all time never did.
• 52:13
  And he's, he's a, he's a good pitcher, but he's also the worst pitcher in baseball right
• 52:18
  now would have won 10 Cy Young's in the eighties.
• 52:21
  Like, it's just like, it's not a knock on the old areas.
• 52:24
  It's just the way pitching is progressed.
• 52:26
  No.
• 52:27
  And to be quite honest, there is a down, there's a, I, when I watch old games and by old, for
• 52:32
  me, that's like late nineties, early two thousands.
• 52:34
  Right.
• 52:35
  I actually like so much of that.
• 52:36
  I do miss, I do miss the creativity of their pitches, um, this, the amount of the different
• 52:42
  types of pitches that were going on that the gamesmanship without a pitch clock.
• 52:46
  It's not that I thought, I think it's like, that is, we need to go back to that.
• 52:50
  I just do miss it.
• 52:51
  I feel like there's, it made the game a little, it was a different experience.
• 52:54
  Well, there was definitely more breaking balls were utilized different back then.
• 52:58
  So you saw more, say for instance, a curve ball is a very passive pitch.
• 53:02
  You never see anymore.
• 53:03
  Um, no curve.
• 53:04
  I still have them, but it's still not like there's no knuckleball pitchers anymore.
• 53:08
  There's no, there's just not a lot of like, um, and I'm not saying that there's not like,
• 53:12
  there's no creative, but what I'm saying is back then there was like, there was just a
• 53:17
  variety of type of variety, you know, you had left on left specialists, which we don't
• 53:21
  really have anymore because of the way they changed the rule.
• 53:23
  You have to face three hitters now.
• 53:25
  So you don't have the one guy who's the left on left specialist.
• 53:27
  You got lefties in the pen.
• 53:28
  They're still utilized, but not in the same way.
• 53:31
  They brought him in to pitch against like David Ortiz specifically, right?
• 53:35
  Like I'll give you a great example.
• 53:36
  There was a great, uh, left-handed pitcher.
• 53:39
  And I thought this was some really, I don't know if this was ever done before.
• 53:41
  I have to assume it's been done probably a couple of times in the history, but I'd never
• 53:44
  seen it in a modern era.
• 53:46
  He was an ex teammate of mine.
• 53:47
  God, I'm forgetting his name.
• 53:48
  I'm so sorry that I'm forgetting his name, but he was a left-handed pitcher out of the
• 53:50
  pulpit and he goes over to the Astros in place where AJ Hinch and AJ brings him in for a
• 53:55
  left on left matchup and, but needed him two batters later.
• 54:00
  Yeah.
• 54:00
  So AJ Hinch brings them in for a left on left matchup and then pulls the most unique
• 54:05
  double switch I've ever seen, moves him to right field for two batters cause he needs
• 54:10
  them to face two batters and he doesn't want them facing these two righties and then brings
• 54:13
  them back in the fucking pit.
• 54:15
  That doesn't happen anymore.
• 54:18
  That was fucking cool.
• 54:19
  I really loved that.
• 54:20
  That being said, like, no, like there was a lot more creativity in that, but I would
• 54:25
  make the argument that I would say it's more creative now pitching wise because how pitching
• 54:30
  is utilized now.
• 54:31
  I know we're seeing the velocity and we see how the velocity is.
• 54:34
  Look at the velocity of breaking balls now, like a sliders that guys are throwing sliders
• 54:38
  at 93, 94, the hardest throwers in baseball in the late nineties, early 2000 through
• 54:43
  94.
• 54:44
  But that's kind of what I'm talking about is like there.
• 54:46
  So, you know, I guess there's two, there's two different ways to argue what you're saying.
• 54:50
  There's some creativity in some of the, in that way, but they're also, it is different
• 54:54
  and it's not as like, I'm not a baseball player.
• 54:58
  I'm a lifelong baseball fan and watcher and you know, I've worked in covered baseball,
• 55:03
  but like I'm not a, I'm not a baseball player.
• 55:06
  I, it is like fun for me to, it was fun for me back then to be able to recognize the pitches
• 55:14
  that were thrown into like be, it's gotten to the point where it's like, it's too fast
• 55:19
  for a fucking brain.
• 55:20
  I can't really take it on, like deal with like umpires can't let alone me watching on
• 55:24
  my fucking TV.
• 55:26
  And so it takes away a little bit of, of that experience.
• 55:29
  Just like, you know there's other, you know, this happens in football where it's like,
• 55:32
  it's gotten so, the game has gotten so fast and it is so officiated that like there is,
• 55:38
  there's a lot of times where I'm just like, you know, I wish it would actually slow down
• 55:42
  a bit.
• 55:43
  Um, it's honestly something you can say, cause like in football specifically, like so many
• 55:47
  rules are a little bit left for interpretation.
• 55:49
  You could make a similar argument actually about basketball.
• 55:51
  It's like everybody's so fucking athletic.
• 55:53
  You could probably call a foul on every single fucking plane no matter what, being a referee
• 55:58
  and now every sport nowadays because of the athleticism involved these days is nuts.
• 56:03
  Like fucking insane and, and everything like I have to watch it in slow motion to see what
• 56:08
  the fuck just happened.
• 56:10
  Like it's, you know, and baseball is the worst.
• 56:12
  Um, you know, the, it just is what it is, but I still, that does not take away from
• 56:17
  the fact that I saw this and I was just like, man, there are some, some young pitchers that
• 56:21
  I really haven't watched a ton play and now like he's, it's put, you know, and he could
• 56:25
  be great or he could just be another pitcher.
• 56:27
  That's the crazy part.
• 56:28
  Like Greg Maddox was Greg Maddox.
• 56:30
  We might forget who Jacob Mizrowski was in five years.
• 56:33
  We might have no idea.
• 56:34
  But can I tell you why we might forget who he is in five years?
• 56:36
  Cause that is the, that is the catch 22 with this whole, that's my point.
• 56:41
  My point is like, this is now getting to the point where like he's going to break, they,
• 56:46
  we have these types of performances and then he's going to break.
• 56:50
  Like I hate to say this.
• 56:51
  I don't want him to break.
• 56:52
  I want him to, I want this guy to live and pitch like this until he retires.
• 56:55
  Like I want this guy to pitch forever.
• 56:57
  It's just, he's going, we're not going to have 20 year pitching.
• 57:00
  Can I give you an example?
• 57:01
  Right.
• 57:02
  Right out the gate.
• 57:03
  Jacob DeGrom, Jacob DeGrom was doing things we'd never seen before for one and a half
• 57:05
  years.
• 57:06
  Bumgarner and Bumgarner.
• 57:07
  I mean, it just, the human body cannot continue to do this anymore.
• 57:14
  And I major league baseball knows major league baseball is aware of that.
• 57:18
  Another reason why you've seen pitchers get paid less and less over the years, which is
• 57:22
  why you're going to see a lot of people hesitant to pay Tarek scuba, which is like, cause this
• 57:27
  is where pitching is pitching is velocity until you break.
• 57:31
  It might actually also, it's also a pretty good argument of why the owners are.
• 57:36
  One of the reasons the owners are probably trying to put in a salary cap.
• 57:38
  We can't keep pitching these guys that are damaged goods.
• 57:40
  No, no.
• 57:41
  They're damaged goods because of the system that's in place that you've created to the
• 57:44
  point where certain teams won't even scout a player if he's not sitting at 97.
• 57:48
  Give me a short answer to this.
• 57:49
  Cause we have to move on.
• 57:50
  But I do have a question, which is, is the, is the pitch clock making them pitch quicker
• 57:56
  affecting their ability to recover?
• 57:59
  Yes.
• 58:00
  Yeah.
• 58:01
  I want to make this one only clear.
• 58:02
  It's not the reason, but it's playing a part.
• 58:06
  Whether it's, whether it's 10%, whether it's 4%, it is no question tape playing a part
• 58:11
  because that's just flat out recovery.
• 58:13
  That's you're, you're, you're, you're forcing guys having that short amount of time versus
• 58:17
  like an extended, even 15 seconds.
• 58:19
  Think about going to the gym, like you're at the gym and you lock out a fucking set.
• 58:23
  You rip out a set of 10, you give yourself a minute to recover.
• 58:27
  Now change that minute into let's do the actual comparison where a pitcher would probably
• 58:33
  take 30 to 40 seconds in between pitches.
• 58:35
  Now you're taking 15 to 20 seconds period because it's a required role now.
• 58:39
  So let's go work out.
• 58:40
  So you take a minute and a half off.
• 58:41
  You have to get back to your workout in 40 seconds, no matter what that adds fatigue.
• 58:47
  That adds something that you're another part of your body might not be recovering as much.
• 58:50
  That might not even have to do with your elbow or shoulder.
• 58:53
  Next thing you know, that one mild millimeter of a movement puts a little more stress on
• 58:57
  your, maybe you're using a type of substance that is not quote unquote 60 sticky stuff,
• 59:03
  but it's something that gives you a little stick your fingers and that's gets taken away.
• 59:06
  Now you have to add finger pressure to the ball.
• 59:08
  That is a direct connective chain directly into UCL boom, UCL will get destroyed.
• 59:14
  Every aspect of this plays into it.
• 59:17
  So a couple of years ago when the spider tech thing is controversy happened, we were checking
• 59:20
  all their hands.
• 59:21
  Injuries went up.
• 59:23
  Why did that happen?
• 59:24
  Guys had to put more finger pressure on the ball because they, to get the ball to do what
• 59:27
  they were previously doing at that velocity, they had to add more pressure to the baseball
• 59:32
  injuries through the roof.
• 59:34
  Ladies and gentlemen, there is a dark side to all of these incredible accomplishments.
• 59:38
  I've always wondered why people haven't talked more about that part of it.
• 59:41
  Cause I was like, as soon as the pitch clock started, I was like, okay, so these guys
• 59:43
  need Tommy John three years into the career.
• 59:46
  It is a real aspect, but I will tell you, every team had full on departments prepared
• 59:51
  for it.
• 59:52
  Cause they were planned.
• 59:53
  A lot of teams were planning planning when June, July comes around, start pulling back
• 59:57
  their pitchers.
• 59:58
  I think we're going to see a lot more six man rotations be taking place in major league
• 1:00:02
  baseball over the next few years.
• 1:00:03
  I really like when I ask a question to a qualified person and they have an answer right off the
• 1:00:07
  bat, like ready to go.
• 1:00:08
  I'm glad that's where your mind was because your mind is correct.
• 1:00:11
  And like, I like, it's like, it's like hot.
• 1:00:14
  I was like, that's, that's a hot, like, like literally it's so difficult sometimes to like
• 1:00:19
  ask a question and actually get the answer that you're looking for.
• 1:00:23
  And then I was like, yeah, Cody, let's fucking go.
• 1:00:26
  I'm honestly not, not impressed, but I am a little impressed cause I don't think a lot
• 1:00:32
  of people that aren't like really inside baseball see that like it's, it's something that's
• 1:00:37
  one of those things that's constantly working to the point where I don't sleep.
• 1:00:39
  So that's what you're going to get is sometimes I'm glad it's keeping you up at night.
• 1:00:42
  I'm glad it's fucking like the pitch clock has got to be fucking their elbow.
• 1:00:46
  I mean, it definitely is.
• 1:00:48
  It is one of many aspects.
• 1:00:51
  Yes.
• 1:00:52
  All right.
• 1:00:53
  Excellent chat.
• 1:00:54
  And we're going to go over to media corner.
• 1:00:55
  We've got two stories that I'm actually really excited to hit on.
• 1:00:57
  So Victor women, Yama's CEO, I'll never press her sums up reputational harm of his playoff
• 1:01:04
  performance is a, an article from awful announcing today.
• 1:01:08
  This is, I picked it from awful announcing, but it is something that people are talking
• 1:01:11
  about.
• 1:01:12
  It's not just them.
• 1:01:13
  Um, Victor scored more points than any center in NBA history in their first playoff appearance.
• 1:01:18
  And yet the young superstar leaves the finals with his reputation severely degraded.
• 1:01:22
  Uh, this, this is what awful announcing wrote real harm to the 22 year old phenom is that
• 1:01:26
  the 2026 NBA playoff showed that while he is arguably the most talented player in the
• 1:01:31
  league, he's very mature and doesn't seem entirely capable of handling the pressure
• 1:01:35
  that comes with his status, um, sort of been known in lead circles that he's being classified
• 1:01:40
  as a dirty player, his flagrant to against the Oklahoma city thunder, blah, blah, blah.
• 1:01:45
  We know the drill in the end, when we didn't stick around to shake hands, which people
• 1:01:49
  were very mad about.
• 1:01:50
  And his game five post game presser ended with him telling reporters, see y'all never.
• 1:01:54
  And he stood up and walked away.
• 1:01:55
  There's more to it.
• 1:01:56
  Of course, when we did say that the failures of the finals will fuel him in the spurs,
• 1:01:59
  and there's no doubt that they will fix the issues that cost them this series and be back.
• 1:02:04
  There's moments don't tell the whole story.
• 1:02:05
  So I kind of want to talk about this idea, first of all, of reputational harm and a 22
• 1:02:14
  year old phenom, uh, you know, being immature, um, by the way, I, I, I, I don't know where
• 1:02:22
  your stance is on this.
• 1:02:23
  Okay.
• 1:02:24
  I think this is today.
• 1:02:25
  I've watched it.
• 1:02:26
  I've listened to it from all over the, all over the media, sports media world.
• 1:02:32
  You're all fucking ridiculous.
• 1:02:33
  That's my take.
• 1:02:35
  You're all fucking outrageous.
• 1:02:38
  He's 22 fucking years old and you guys are fucking trying to say that he's ruined.
• 1:02:43
  His reputation is so fucking funny enough seasons of basketball just played in an NDA
• 1:02:48
  finals.
• 1:02:49
  He is 22 years old.
• 1:02:50
  And by the way, he turned 22 like a few months ago.
• 1:02:53
  Right.
• 1:02:54
  I know he's literally, his brain's not fully developed and it won't be for years to come.
• 1:03:00
  And we're pretending that this kid has not given amazing interviews, very candidly openly
• 1:03:05
  spoke about so many things that people would never in the million years be able to speak
• 1:03:10
  about it.
• 1:03:11
  Let alone, he's refused, he's refused to give into the, the MAGA bait.
• 1:03:18
  He has stood up politically for people and he is a seven foot four.
• 1:03:25
  He's seven foot six in my book.
• 1:03:27
  They say he's seven foot four.
• 1:03:28
  I've seen seven foot four that motherfuckers taller than that, but regardless, seven foot
• 1:03:32
  four, um, this is a 22 year old seven foot four person who, who clearly does absolutely
• 1:03:40
  need to get ahold of his game.
• 1:03:42
  He needs discipline.
• 1:03:43
  I've watched it and I absolutely see where he needs discipline.
• 1:03:47
  He needs to work on it.
• 1:03:48
  He needs to not get so rattled, so flustered.
• 1:03:50
  He needs to not take it out on his, you know, whatever.
• 1:03:54
  Yeah, I have been watching young superstars act like little assholes.
• 1:03:58
  My entire life since when is this new fucking information?
• 1:04:02
  How's he acting like a little asshole?
• 1:04:04
  He's cause he's big and bully on the fucking big man.
• 1:04:08
  That's what his job is supposed to be.
• 1:04:10
  I mean, my point is I see, like, I see the edginess and the bullshit and I see him, those
• 1:04:14
  elbows go places that I know are intentional.
• 1:04:17
  Sometimes it really is.
• 1:04:18
  He's taller than you and he's doing regular basketball moves and there's one where he
• 1:04:21
  hit fucking cat, which was clearly basketball and the basketball moves like just because
• 1:04:25
  he's seven foot four doesn't mean he's going to move differently as a human being than
• 1:04:28
  someone who's six foot one.
• 1:04:29
  And so you'll see players do the same thing that Wimby does all the time, but it's not
• 1:04:32
  a elbow to the head because their elbows not by the person's head.
• 1:04:35
  So there is, those are those, but there are also plenty of times where I'm like, Wimby,
• 1:04:40
  you fucking stuck your leg out.
• 1:04:42
  You stuck your, I'm watching it, right?
• 1:04:44
  And it, and at that size and with everything else, like you are like, you're going to get
• 1:04:48
  called for it.
• 1:04:49
  And the momentum of a fucking seven foot four elbow smacking somebody who's the size of
• 1:04:54
  Jalen Brunson across the head or extending, you know, their leg out or whatever else.
• 1:04:58
  I've watched him do some stuff that is absolutely okay.
• 1:05:02
  You got to get your shit under control.
• 1:05:03
  Do I think that he is a dirty player the way people are constantly trying to tell him he
• 1:05:08
  is?
• 1:05:09
  I don't think so.
• 1:05:10
  Me neither.
• 1:05:11
  I do think he's immature and lacks discipline in the game because he's 20 fucking two.
• 1:05:17
  And by the way, I don't think he lacks that much discipline.
• 1:05:19
  I don't think he's that immature.
• 1:05:20
  I'm going to do a code again.
• 1:05:21
  How are we going to call someone who's a mature, who is quite literally not mature.
• 1:05:26
  I hear, I mean, this is not a mature person.
• 1:05:30
  Every person in media today that said this fucking lazy ass thing.
• 1:05:35
  You're lazy.
• 1:05:36
  You're fucking lazy.
• 1:05:37
  It's so fucking boring and lazy with this weird ass take.
• 1:05:40
  He's like, yeah, I saw it so many places today.
• 1:05:44
  So I'm talking to him.
• 1:05:45
  I say so many.
• 1:05:46
  It's the prevailing.
• 1:05:47
  I say so many places.
• 1:05:48
  I'm talking like in the 20 to thirties of people saying this exact thing.
• 1:05:54
  And I am dumbfounded by it's the prevailing founded by the point where I'm like, dude,
• 1:05:59
  what the fuck are any of you guys talking about?
• 1:06:02
  It's maddening.
• 1:06:03
  We, we have dream on green punches out his own fucking teammates.
• 1:06:07
  We have other guys in this league.
• 1:06:09
  People call him a dirty player.
• 1:06:10
  Yeah.
• 1:06:11
  But like, like, like we're sitting here in this world where I just, I'm just really glad
• 1:06:15
  because we played that video the other day and he went, was very adamant about it.
• 1:06:19
  I was, I'm on that side and then I luckily was able to talk to D fish about it.
• 1:06:23
  He's just like exactly what do you want?
• 1:06:27
  What exactly is it you want him to do?
• 1:06:29
  Like do you, do you want them to be, so you guys want them to be more mean in the press
• 1:06:33
  conferences, but nice on the court, like fucking makeup.
• 1:06:37
  Your guys is now I do like there.
• 1:06:39
  Every single player in the NBA has to, if you are a like an anomaly size wise, if you're
• 1:06:44
  too small or too, if you're small or large, right, you have to adjust your game to the
• 1:06:49
  median.
• 1:06:50
  You do have to adjust your game to some degree so that you're not only that you can like
• 1:06:54
  someone like Jalen Brunson has to learn to be pretty fucking tough and they have to learn
• 1:06:57
  to utilize their size to their advantage.
• 1:06:59
  The flip side on Wendy, he has to understand his size is going to present problems for
• 1:07:04
  him in terms of fouling.
• 1:07:05
  No question.
• 1:07:06
  So both of those types.
• 1:07:07
  So they're the perfect examples.
• 1:07:08
  One player, a veteran who has learned every single thing he needs to do is overcome all
• 1:07:12
  of those barriers and figured out exactly how to use his body and his size.
• 1:07:16
  Another one who hasn't.
• 1:07:17
  So when I say that, that Wendy probably should have gotten a fourth flagrant and potentially
• 1:07:23
  been out for game six, I genuinely, I'm not saying it because I think he's a dirty player.
• 1:07:29
  I'm saying it because he there, the NBA has put this rule in place and it, and they do
• 1:07:36
  use it against every other player and it would like this dude needs to learn.
• 1:07:41
  And I think he will now do, is it, is it haunting me?
• 1:07:45
  No, the Knicks won the series.
• 1:07:46
  The Knicks were the better team.
• 1:07:47
  They won.
• 1:07:48
  Everything's fucking fine.
• 1:07:49
  No question.
• 1:07:50
  But my, the part of this that comes really around to media outside of the fact that we
• 1:07:54
  just discussed it's everywhere in the media is I don't understand this thing that happens
• 1:07:59
  where media acts like the reputation of a player is just an entity of its own rather
• 1:08:04
  than something often shaped and crafted in some aspects by the media itself.
• 1:08:08
  Oh my God.
• 1:08:09
  Yes.
• 1:08:10
  Like it's his reputation ruined.
• 1:08:11
  Is this reputation?
• 1:08:12
  You're creating a reputation.
• 1:08:13
  You are the, we, people in the media are the ones discussing and helping to create and
• 1:08:20
  mold the reputation.
• 1:08:22
  If we as a group of people decide, we understand that a 22 year old player is still growing
• 1:08:27
  and becoming who they are after being in the NBA funnels in their third season, after only
• 1:08:30
  really two and a half seasons of playing game, then we decide the fucking reputation.
• 1:08:36
  The fans have part, they sort, they can have their own narrative about it, but like we've
• 1:08:42
  seen a difference between media reputation and fan reputation before the media acting
• 1:08:45
  like it's out of our hands.
• 1:08:46
  Oh, the, oh, it's out of our hands whether or not when B no, we actually have a fucking
• 1:08:53
  say in how this narrative goes.
• 1:08:54
  That's the whole thing.
• 1:08:55
  Like we're creating it.
• 1:08:56
  By the way, everybody in the media who's sitting around trying to do some weird ass character
• 1:09:01
  assassination about a 22 year old kid who just made it to the NBA fucking finals.
• 1:09:07
  You guys are all just completed pieces of work, huh?
• 1:09:10
  You're all just perfect.
• 1:09:11
  Yeah.
• 1:09:12
  You can all go fuck yourself.
• 1:09:13
  None of you have been all fucking clowns, by the way, all these people, like a player
• 1:09:16
  will be like, Oh fuck that guy.
• 1:09:17
  I hated what he said on TV and they'll get on TV and be like, Oh my God, I can't believe
• 1:09:21
  he said that about me.
• 1:09:22
  Meanwhile, if when B after getting absolutely ass kicked at 22 years old in the finals,
• 1:09:27
  doesn't want to talk to them, says something kind of like, you know, kind of whatever,
• 1:09:31
  like I'll have to listen to a 60 year old Stephen, a Smith for the next fucking year.
• 1:09:34
  He's like, he's got no character who the fuck character you think you got, shut up
• 1:09:39
  and shut the fuck up.
• 1:09:41
  Everyone who's making this narrative.
• 1:09:43
  You don't know this kid.
• 1:09:45
  He doesn't know you.
• 1:09:46
  You're beneath him.
• 1:09:47
  I'm beneath them.
• 1:09:48
  Tonya is beneath them.
• 1:09:49
  Shut the fuck up.
• 1:09:50
  He's 22.
• 1:09:51
  He's 22.
• 1:09:53
  He's accomplishing things you could never fucking dream of.
• 1:09:57
  You've never picked up a ball in your life.
• 1:09:59
  Shut the fuck up.
• 1:10:01
  Have a lovely day or don't fuck you.
• 1:10:05
  There is so much hypocrisy in it.
• 1:10:08
  Fucking embarrassing.
• 1:10:09
  Are just like, I don't think unless somebody has like committed murder on camera that we
• 1:10:16
  can see.
• 1:10:17
  I don't understand why we think that a 22 year olds immaturity and need to grow in their
• 1:10:25
  game and flaws are a rep reputational damage to the point that we should even be talking
• 1:10:32
  about it.
• 1:10:34
  And we all have the opportunity.
• 1:10:35
  Like what I was, the conversation I was trying to have was nuanced.
• 1:10:40
  Wendy has a problem with his discipline in games.
• 1:10:43
  He's going to foul out of games.
• 1:10:45
  He's going to have problems and, and he is a crazy talented player who is incredibly
• 1:10:54
  like who has to get a hold 22 year old trying to figure out being seven foot five, seven
• 1:10:59
  foot six in the NBA.
• 1:11:02
  And like the physicality of an NBA finals is different than the rest of the season.
• 1:11:08
  It's different than the earlier round of the playoffs, let alone the regular season.
• 1:11:12
  Like why are we, why do we lose our ability to talk about the game when we can?
• 1:11:20
  It's this like bloodthirsty pile on the media sense.
• 1:11:24
  Yep.
• 1:11:25
  They sensed that there was this momentum shift regarding when, but who was beloved up until
• 1:11:30
  fucking two weeks ago, this totally fine, whatever they sense this and, and the pile
• 1:11:36
  on and the, and the vampirism starts.
• 1:11:39
  And it's just like, get a fucking grip.
• 1:11:41
  I don't, I've never been quiet about how much I hate sports media.
• 1:11:45
  I fucking hate part of the, like part of this podcast as a guy that is in sports media.
• 1:11:50
  I have no respect for sports media.
• 1:11:52
  I want to make that abundantly clear.
• 1:11:54
  I have little to very little to no respect at all for this medium.
• 1:12:00
  Sports media is a joke.
• 1:12:02
  That's the point of this show.
• 1:12:03
  We want you to see the fucking clown show that it is because no one's actually giving
• 1:12:09
  you the nuanced truth.
• 1:12:10
  All those guys just want clicks every single one of them.
• 1:12:13
  And it's fucking embarrassing to the point where now your new click is trying to assassinate
• 1:12:18
  a character of a 22 year old kid who just accomplished something truly astonishing and
• 1:12:24
  fell at, it fell in front of literally the entire world and had people get under his
• 1:12:30
  skin on the court, which by the way, was the Knicks plan to do.
• 1:12:34
  And they did a phenomenal job of doing so.
• 1:12:38
  This was an incredible finals.
• 1:12:40
  What the fuck are any of you complaining about?
• 1:12:42
  Like that's the other thing.
• 1:12:43
  What are you fucking complaining about?
• 1:12:44
  The Knicks fucking won.
• 1:12:46
  You got your fucking way.
• 1:12:48
  Shut the fuck up.
• 1:12:50
  Yes.
• 1:12:51
  Have a great day.
• 1:12:53
  Let's really don't have a good day.
• 1:12:54
  Have a terrible day, but actually stay with us because we have another, uh, we have another
• 1:12:58
  person to come out and this time we're going to go out to our former network and colleague
• 1:13:01
  because why not?
• 1:13:02
  Right.
• 1:13:03
  Why wouldn't we do that?
• 1:13:04
  It's it's Alexi Lawless.
• 1:13:05
  Oh dude, he sucks.
• 1:13:06
  I've had him on shows before and I have hated every time I've had to ask him a question.
• 1:13:12
  So like, like as soon as the USA game kicked off the other day, the Alexi Lawless of it
• 1:13:16
  all sort of took over social media because he's standing there on the desk alongside
• 1:13:21
  Thierry Henry is Latan Ibrahimovic, who are two of the greatest soccer players of an entire
• 1:13:26
  generation of their respective generations, two of the greatest international players
• 1:13:29
  for each of their respective, uh, countries.
• 1:13:33
  And also for what it's worth, incredibly handsome, charismatic men, right?
• 1:13:38
  And then there's Alexi Lawless who no one in the United States likes, cares about, who
• 1:13:42
  looks like he is quite literally morphing into Donald Trump in front of our eyes and
• 1:13:45
  is a notably bad analyst.
• 1:13:47
  By the way, his hair is just really weird.
• 1:13:49
  It's rough.
• 1:13:51
  Let it go.
• 1:13:52
  Shave it.
• 1:13:53
  I made the decision.
• 1:13:54
  Just fucking let it go.
• 1:13:55
  Not only are our fans have fans been anti Alexi Lawless pure, they were again, he's
• 1:14:00
  been a bad analyst for a long time.
• 1:14:02
  He's antagonistic and he's purposely argumentative.
• 1:14:04
  He has said outright that he employs, um, like being the devil's advocate on, on purpose
• 1:14:13
  to generate a conversation, which is actually not his job as an analyst.
• 1:14:17
  That's neither here nor there in this current moment.
• 1:14:19
  That actually goes exactly against being a quote unquote analyst.
• 1:14:22
  It's quite, and, and that was an argument I had with somebody on threads, which I did
• 1:14:26
  put in there, but like people already didn't like Alexi Lawless.
• 1:14:30
  Then they, they turn on their TV and Lexi Lawless is standing next to two people who,
• 1:14:34
  who like, he's not, he's not qualified to even bring them their coffee.
• 1:14:40
  He's not even in the class of soccer player they are, which would be fine if he was a
• 1:14:43
  good analyst, but he's not, and they fucking hate him.
• 1:14:47
  They hate him.
• 1:14:48
  I wish I hated anyone the way those two hate Alexi Lawless.
• 1:14:54
  They hate him so much.
• 1:14:55
  He's already made so many uncomfortable moments on the podcast.
• 1:14:59
  Are you referring to the, uh, full, full, full gear wanker?
• 1:15:04
  Was it what?
• 1:15:05
  It was a full kit wanker.
• 1:15:06
  Sorry.
• 1:15:07
  He called.
• 1:15:08
  Not something you say in London.
• 1:15:11
  No.
• 1:15:13
  Why would you call like the whole thing was so uncomfortable, um, then, so we're already
• 1:15:21
  at the whole, the whole country's already anti Alexi Lawless.
• 1:15:25
  We just want Abra and TT.
• 1:15:28
  They're not giving it to us.
• 1:15:29
  Okay.
• 1:15:30
  Then he decides he is going to go on and defend what I would say is one of the most universally
• 1:15:36
  critiqued broadcast decisions in the history of broadcast sports.
• 1:15:39
  And that is the hydration breaks.
• 1:15:42
  The hydration breaks have been critiqued more than just about anything I've ever seen.
• 1:15:47
  And that, if, for those of you who don't understand what the hydration breaks are, it is in the
• 1:15:52
  middle of each half, they are taking these like couple minute breaks that are called
• 1:15:56
  hydration breaks.
• 1:15:57
  And on the Fox broadcast, they're cutting directly to a full slate of commercials.
• 1:16:01
  Yes.
• 1:16:02
  So essentially what it's doing is it's turning some basically turning the game into quarters
• 1:16:06
  rather than halves.
• 1:16:08
  Yes.
• 1:16:09
  And more notoriously, always since the beginning of time, football, football, whatever you
• 1:16:15
  call it, the game has always been two uninterrupted halves of football that lasts 45 minutes plus
• 1:16:24
  extra time.
• 1:16:25
  Yes.
• 1:16:26
  So when you create a, this is the first time a tournament or a, any sort of broadcast has
• 1:16:31
  ever done this.
• 1:16:32
  It's never happened.
• 1:16:33
  Hydration breaks have never been a thing.
• 1:16:35
  You play uninterrupted full halves of 45 minutes of football plus extra time.
• 1:16:39
  No commercial breaks, which is actually a wonderful part of watching the game for people
• 1:16:42
  in the United States who constantly have to watch the NFL, NBA, whatever else, but all
• 1:16:46
  these commercial breaks, as you can imagine, Cody, it changes the entire complexion of
• 1:16:52
  a fucking sport.
• 1:16:53
  Big time.
• 1:16:54
  Big time.
• 1:16:55
  Again, I've referenced this before.
• 1:16:56
  I played the game.
• 1:16:57
  I officiated the game.
• 1:17:01
  I'm telling you right now, this bit, when they announced this, it blew my fucking mind.
• 1:17:07
  That is such an insane thing to do.
• 1:17:10
  It is so insane to take at the world cup, the most prestigious, most important tournament
• 1:17:16
  in the most, for the most popular sport in the world to change the entire complexion
• 1:17:22
  of the game for more fucking ads is absolutely inarguably like fucking bonkers, by the way.
• 1:17:34
  When they announced this, I thought now a part of me understood.
• 1:17:38
  Now hear me out before you start yelling at me, because I agree with you, this should
• 1:17:41
  not be happening.
• 1:17:42
  It should not be happening.
• 1:17:43
  A part of me at least understood to a point, got to pay them bills.
• 1:17:48
  I get their sponsorships.
• 1:17:49
  You got to pay them bills.
• 1:17:50
  To a point.
• 1:17:51
  I want to say to a point.
• 1:17:52
  It's a very small point.
• 1:17:54
  But what do you mean?
• 1:17:55
  But well, these sponsorships, you got to have advertising money for TV.
• 1:17:58
  I get it.
• 1:17:59
  They have it.
• 1:18:00
  No, no, I agree.
• 1:18:01
  You know, the World Cup's existed the whole time.
• 1:18:02
  Let me finish the sentence.
• 1:18:03
  I can't.
• 1:18:04
  They announced that when they announced this, I thought I thought that they would do a double
• 1:18:10
  screen split screen.
• 1:18:12
  The ads would play maybe in half the screen or in the corner of the screen, because there
• 1:18:16
  is precedent of that.
• 1:18:17
  We've seen Fox like a 30 second water break.
• 1:18:19
  Yes.
• 1:18:20
  I thought we would get like little ads that were like picture in picture because the WWE
• 1:18:26
  sometimes does.
• 1:18:27
  And yeah, also, I've seen Fox do it in like Major League Baseball and this is a thing
• 1:18:31
  that does exist.
• 1:18:32
  So I thought, OK, that'll be fine.
• 1:18:36
  Well, did you?
• 1:18:37
  I was wrong.
• 1:18:38
  I did not know they were going full on breakaway commercial breaks for a long period of time.
• 1:18:43
  But you'd also you had no problem with them creating a break in the middle of a half that's
• 1:18:49
  never.
• 1:18:50
  Oh, no, I definitely do not like that.
• 1:18:51
  But I just thought maybe it was going to be a very short.
• 1:18:55
  Yeah.
• 1:18:56
  Like I thought it was gonna be like 20 to 30 seconds type of shit.
• 1:18:59
  Yeah.
• 1:19:00
  Which, by the way, even then, crazy like I agree.
• 1:19:04
  No, no, no.
• 1:19:05
  I was willing to listen.
• 1:19:06
  I'm not yelling at you.
• 1:19:07
  No, no.
• 1:19:08
  I'm just telling you from the perspective of like it.
• 1:19:10
  Even then, that's crazy because it's still a time out, essentially, that's existed in
• 1:19:14
  the sport.
• 1:19:15
  Like I don't think people who don't watch soccer understand.
• 1:19:17
  And I know you do.
• 1:19:18
  But for people who don't, it's not in the sport.
• 1:19:21
  I know it would be like it would be like creating another inning of baseball.
• 1:19:26
  You're right.
• 1:19:27
  Like it's fucking weird.
• 1:19:28
  You're right.
• 1:19:29
  I just thought.
• 1:19:30
  No, I know.
• 1:19:31
  I know.
• 1:19:32
  I'm not right with this.
• 1:19:33
  I'm not saying this is the right thing.
• 1:19:34
  It was your first thought.
• 1:19:35
  My first thought was they're never taking the camera off the field.
• 1:19:37
  They're saying they're going to go over.
• 1:19:38
  They're going to squeeze you in the bottle and they'll be right back on the pitch.
• 1:19:41
  And that fucking squeeze was brought to you by KFC.
• 1:19:44
  Right.
• 1:19:45
  It is.
• 1:19:46
  The KFC squeeze.
• 1:19:47
  And that's not what happened.
• 1:19:49
  Right.
• 1:19:50
  Yeah.
• 1:19:51
  And I when I say I understand why people are upset, I fucking really get it.
• 1:19:55
  Yeah.
• 1:19:56
  Well, before we establish how fucking insane it is, I'll let you know what Alexi Lala said
• 1:19:59
  in defense of his employer and our former employers.
• 1:20:03
  I have no problem with hydration breaks.
• 1:20:05
  It benefits players and advertisers.
• 1:20:07
  Win, win.
• 1:20:08
  Yes, it changes how you play slash coach slash watch.
• 1:20:12
  But so did substitutions.
• 1:20:14
  Three points for win, VAR, et cetera.
• 1:20:17
  Evolve and adapt.
• 1:20:18
  There will be a generation whose version of the beautiful game includes quarters.
• 1:20:21
  Wait, wait, wait.
• 1:20:22
  Slow the fuck down.
• 1:20:23
  Alexi Lala.
• 1:20:24
  Yeah.
• 1:20:25
  I love advertising.
• 1:20:26
  It makes the great, the beautiful game better.
• 1:20:28
  The fuck?
• 1:20:29
  Dude, I got an honest question.
• 1:20:32
  Honest question.
• 1:20:33
  True shell.
• 1:20:34
  Honest question.
• 1:20:35
  That is some shilling ass motherfucking shit right there.
• 1:20:36
  I worked for Fox and I wouldn't fucking say that shit.
• 1:20:39
  That's the thing.
• 1:20:40
  You and I both worked for Fox.
• 1:20:41
  That is some batshit fucking fuck.
• 1:20:42
  You actually don't have to go that hard, but you actually didn't have to go that hard to
• 1:20:46
  keep your job.
• 1:20:47
  Like you really didn't.
• 1:20:48
  Jesus Christ, dude.
• 1:20:49
  That is some embarrassing shit.
• 1:20:51
  Rough dude.
• 1:20:52
  I hope, I hope Jacob Olman himself called you and said, great job.
• 1:20:57
  Hey Alexi.
• 1:20:58
  I hope Shanks put you on speed dial like that a baby or something.
• 1:21:03
  He posted it as if the commercials were going to fuck him.
• 1:21:07
  Like as if they were going to go over and suck his dick.
• 1:21:09
  I'm Alexi Lawson.
• 1:21:10
  You know what young fans love?
• 1:21:13
  Fucking Taco Bell commercials.
• 1:21:15
  The fuck?
• 1:21:16
  Alexi Lawson.
• 1:21:17
  I have an honest question.
• 1:21:18
  Is there anyone on earth who likes him?
• 1:21:19
  No.
• 1:21:20
  I haven't met anyone that does.
• 1:21:22
  No.
• 1:21:23
  My own family does.
• 1:21:24
  I mean this.
• 1:21:25
  I haven't met a guy that likes this guy.
• 1:21:26
  I know a lot of people that worked with him, worked alongside with him.
• 1:21:28
  You worked alongside with him.
• 1:21:29
  I very briefly only had to work alongside him via zoom.
• 1:21:33
  Thank God.
• 1:21:35
  Fuck me, dude.
• 1:21:36
  Yeah.
• 1:21:37
  Uh, the other thing that he, that I hate is the comparing it to substitutions and VAR
• 1:21:41
  and those kinds of things.
• 1:21:43
  First of all, no, it's a commercial break bar is a thing.
• 1:21:46
  You can't compare that because that's something that's happened across sports.
• 1:21:49
  This replay thing that's been added to, it's happened in baseball, it's happened in football,
• 1:21:53
  it's happened in basketball, it's happened in every single sport is this like new replay.
• 1:21:57
  We can go and change the rules based on a replay review thing.
• 1:22:01
  Every single sport changing the actual structure of the game is like, that's also, when did
• 1:22:10
  soccer add substitutions?
• 1:22:12
  Like why is he acting like that was like, that can't have like, when did that happen
• 1:22:15
  in the fucking 1940s?
• 1:22:17
  Like I actually, you know what?
• 1:22:18
  I'm going to Google that right now, since we've been Googling shit, when did substitution,
• 1:22:22
  because like, he's making this seem like that's like a new thing.
• 1:22:28
  When did substitutions happen in soccer?
• 1:22:34
  That's a weird way to put it, but whatever it is, it didn't, it didn't answer it.
• 1:22:37
  The 1950s bro.
• 1:22:40
  So we were innovating the sport in the 1950s.
• 1:22:43
  And by the way, that was them literally being like, Hey, maybe we shouldn't make 11 players
• 1:22:46
  play uninterrupted soccer for 95 minutes all the time.
• 1:22:50
  They were fucking, do you, I, so I don't think people fully understand the, the amount of
• 1:22:57
  exhaustion you get for playing after playing 45 minutes of soccer is unlike anything you
• 1:23:03
  run.
• 1:23:04
  I mean, some of the, like, if you place midfield, you run eight, nine miles a game sometimes
• 1:23:11
  it is a fucking exhaust.
• 1:23:12
  It's the most exhausting fucking game.
• 1:23:14
  Now, granted, you're not like there's, there's exhaustion you can experience in all different
• 1:23:17
  types of sports, but like, in terms of just like how much you're doing constantly and
• 1:23:22
  there's no interruptions, there's no timeouts, there's no such thing as a soccer timeout.
• 1:23:26
  This is essentially building in a soccer timeout.
• 1:23:29
  That's fucking wild.
• 1:23:30
  Like you just changed the sport, like some of the fitness of teams and the ability to
• 1:23:36
  stay brought to you by KFC, the KFC squeeze, excuse me, the KFC squeeze is fine.
• 1:23:43
  It's here to stay.
• 1:23:44
  Yeah.
• 1:23:45
  Lexi Lawless loves it.
• 1:23:46
  And he thinks the kids love it too.
• 1:23:47
  And the idea, the idea that you as a soccer player are willing to sell out the sport that
• 1:23:53
  you love, the beautiful game, the most popular sport in the world by a fucking mile.
• 1:23:59
  So that Fox sports, by the way, I cannot wait until this dude loses his job to somebody
• 1:24:03
  else after he did all of this shilling and all of this bullshit, because at some point
• 1:24:07
  it's going to happen.
• 1:24:08
  I can't wait for him to go back on everything.
• 1:24:10
  He's like, I actually hate it too late.
• 1:24:13
  Yeah.
• 1:24:14
  We're going to remember it.
• 1:24:15
  So I would say one of the more unpopular broadcasters of my lifetime, standing next to two people
• 1:24:21
  who also hate him saying stupid, saying shit that makes them uncomfortable.
• 1:24:27
  We're all visibly watching it.
• 1:24:28
  And then saying the most bullshit controversial thing he could have said about the most controversial
• 1:24:32
  thing that a broadcast has ever done in the history of sports is genuinely really fucking
• 1:24:37
  wild.
• 1:24:38
  He's just, he's trying to generate, he's trying to generate conversation.
• 1:24:42
  That's what his job is as an analyst.
• 1:24:44
  Just ask him.
• 1:24:45
  I'd rather not don't, don't ask him anything, ask him to go away.
• 1:24:50
  And you know what?
• 1:24:51
  We are.
• 1:24:52
  We're begging.
• 1:24:53
  I genuinely wonder if Fox sports is going to like the reception has been so bad that
• 1:24:56
  I don't think it's bad every time.
• 1:24:59
  This is different.
• 1:25:00
  I've been there.
• 1:25:01
  I've been there every time.
• 1:25:02
  This is different.
• 1:25:03
  It's bad news bears.
• 1:25:04
  And you know why?
• 1:25:05
  I'll tell you why.
• 1:25:06
  It's different.
• 1:25:07
  It's because it's here.
• 1:25:08
  Andrean, uh, Abraham.
• 1:25:09
  It's because of the, those two are like not having it.
• 1:25:11
  And I, that is the game changer.
• 1:25:13
  That's where you potentially, that's how you fucking get shit done is you just have too
• 1:25:16
  much better soccer players be like, no, absolutely not with this guy.
• 1:25:21
  Yeah.
• 1:25:22
  Can we please fucking get anyone else over here talking about this?
• 1:25:24
  By the way, a bunch of us women's national team players that could do that job far better
• 1:25:29
  than him right now and actually were very good Olympic, very good world cup players.
• 1:25:35
  So I would love to see that personally.
• 1:25:37
  Um, we have hit close to an hour and a half on this show.
• 1:25:40
  So I, what do you want to talk anymore?
• 1:25:43
  No, I mean, I, I feel like I, I, you know, I don't want to make people continue to listen
• 1:25:48
  to us.
• 1:25:49
  Yap.
• 1:25:50
  Because, uh, we've hit so many topics that I figure, you know, we won't find, we won't,
• 1:25:54
  we won't talk about the bloody sock, which was literally the very next thing on the fucking
• 1:25:59
  list.
• 1:26:00
  So that's actually kind of on you this week.
• 1:26:01
  Cause I was really excited to talk about it, guys.
• 1:26:04
  We did not get to the bloody sock.
• 1:26:05
  God, you nailed that.
• 1:26:07
  You had it ready to go.
• 1:26:09
  I'm actually really just upset because I had actual testimony from a DNA specialist who
• 1:26:15
  wanted to prove is the DNA specialist Raphael Devers.
• 1:26:19
  No, that just happens to be what the giants are shopping right now.
• 1:26:22
  Cause the giants are shopping Raphael Devers, Willie Thomas, Matt Chapman, because the fucking
• 1:26:27
  giants are a calamity calamity.
• 1:26:30
  This wide angle is something's different about it.
• 1:26:32
  Is it?
• 1:26:33
  I think it looks nice.
• 1:26:34
  I mean, I don't, I don't, it's probably because the tequila is right in the dead center.
• 1:26:37
  Is that what it is?
• 1:26:38
  It's really centering.
• 1:26:39
  It's a really good thing.
• 1:26:40
  It's the gravity of the, of the look.
• 1:26:41
  Yeah.
• 1:26:42
  I think it looks fantastic.
• 1:26:43
  I love our new look.
• 1:26:44
  Uh, Tanya, we'll get to the bloody sock on Friday.
• 1:26:48
  We promise we will get to it.
• 1:26:50
  Uh, we just had too much to talk about today and at the end of the day, it doesn't matter.
• 1:26:53
  We firmly both agree.
• 1:26:55
  Fuck her chilling.