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A Special Championship Edition Of Yankees Pod W/ Poppa Left · Yankees Pod

• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to Yankees Pod, but it's not Yankees Pod today.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: This is about the New York Knicks this week.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: We have a very special guest, host of your Knicks podcast, New York community manager at Fanatics.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know him.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: Papa Left.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: Papa, how you doing today?
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a champion.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: How you doing, champ?
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Good, good.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm feeling it.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm feeling the city's a buzz.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: We got the parade tomorrow.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the Knicks just won their first championship in over 50 years.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: Where were you when it the final buzzer hit and what was going through your head?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: I was at Blarney, uh upstairs at Blarney's, and there's a little spot.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's a speakeasy called Diamante's on 30th and 8th, right around the corner from the garden.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it was like 110 degrees in there, no AC.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: It was just a bunch of Knicks fans sweating out their last little bit of PTSD for over 30 to 50 years for a lot of us.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And uh as that last shot went up, I just I just kept thinking like, you know, let's get let's get this one last possession, one more stop, and then it kind of came like in a in an instant.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like it just was like, wow, like that's it.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: We're champs.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I I had the uh privilege of documenting the whole thing on my channel.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it was one of those moments where as a content creator, you you want to be a fan, you want to like go in and enjoy it, but at the same time, you have a responsibility to capture um everybody's reaction.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I did not jump up as much as I did in game two because game two I wasn't recording as much.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: I had someone else recording, but it was interesting to watch uh like as a secondhand watch all the fans kind of you know lose their mind and cry and jump into each other's arms and enemies on Twitter all of a sudden became best friends, and people who argued about Tibbs and Randall and Brunson and Kat and OG, RJ, IQ, you know, five picks for Mikhail, Leon Rose, should we build through the draft?
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Should we, you know what I mean?
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Should we build this through, you know, free agencies?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Brunson good enough to build around as a small guard.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: All those conversations kind of went away, and everybody was like underneath one roof, rooting for just one more win.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think that mantra going into that night was just all about getting one more win.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you what, Jimmy, even now, I still don't believe it.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know when that time will come.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: I imagine there will be a time where I can actually say, you know, I lived to see a Knicks championship, but for a very long time, and even within this series, there were moments like being up to one and being down 30 at half, there was that reality sitting in, like, hey, that 2-0 is gone, it's 2-2, and we're about to go to San Antonio, and it's and it's their series to lose now.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, like the fact that we were able to actually get this done, it's it's completely surreal, man.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just so happy, man.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's something that from forever, forever as a Knicks fan, I just I just want one.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: And everything after here, I told I told people, I said, you're gonna have to wait 53 years for me to get upset at this team again.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like, like you're gonna have to wait till 2089 to to ever spin the block on me.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: I hope every dynasty, every great uh franchise player, whether you're Michael Jordan, God rest his soul, Kobe and Shaq though, whether you're Steph, whether you're Kevin Durant, LeBron, like I hope you understand this one Knicks ring, it outweighs you.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, bro.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, this is the biggest thing that's ever happened to the NBA, in my opinion.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, it's insane.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, um, you know, you work as fanatics, Michael Rubin saying that the sales for the championship merch is like astronomically the highest of all time.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: So it's just good.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: How much merch?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I guess you work at Fnatic, so maybe you get some, but how much merch did you purchase so far?
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: So uh thankfully for Fanatics, like I was able to host an event um during the playoffs in the NBA Finals with Spike Lee.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: We had a wagon, we call it the fan wagon, the fanatics truck, and we pulled up to West 4th Street, the cage, the famous basketball court in New York City, and we had Spike Lee make an appearance, and at that event I was able to get some merch as well as um a lot of my you know good friends on Knicks Twitter were able to get laced with some merch.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then after the Knicks won, I pulled up again to that same spot in uh in West Forth, and I was able to get you know uh some merch as well.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm wearing some right now.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Got this uh Knicks championship shirt.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: I know a lot of people wanted to get the rhinestone design that that the Knicks players are wearing themselves, but you know, honestly, Jimmy, I'm I've never been like a big merch guy, but growing up, my mom used to always say, like, when are you gonna start wearing normal clothes?
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because every time we would go shopping for clothes, I would say, I want a Yankee shirt, I want a jet shirt, I want a Knicks shirt, and I'll never forget, thank God, man, Stefan Marberry, you know, the Starberries, making them super affordable,$15 sneakers, but not just that, they were housed in Steven Barry's, which had all like kind of like the college teams and all those kind of things.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, maybe with the fanatics thing, I'll I'll get more into like you know, merch and all those kinds of things.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: I have a funny story.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: When remember when um the Yankees were playing the White Sox in the um cornfield uh field of dreams?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Tim Anderson walk-off.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was like, yo, up to that point, there was something about Giancarlo Stanton where I was just like, he's just not he's not clutch.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I felt like when he and they ended up losing this game, but when he hit that bomb over the left field wall, I remember being on Twitter and I was like, if Giancarlo Stanton hits his home run, and I was hating on him at the time because he just felt like he was never coming through in a clutch, and I was like, if he hits his home run, I'm buying a Giancarlo Stanton jersey.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that's like something that I rock all the time.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: I I love rocking that jersey, but you know, the merch is doing great, people are fired up, people are not included within Knicks fandom, are just forced to, you know, for a long time the Knicks were the joke of the league, and there's this concept of LOL Knicks or Knicks for clicks, and now it's like a karmic situation, like it's getting reversed.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now everybody who who made fun of the Knicks, if you're at a uh a work event or you're at work, you're teaching, you're at you're a nurse, you're a doctor, you're doing firefighter, whatever you're doing within the city, corporate, you're forced to to see us.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: So everyone has to rock the orange and blue now.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: So shout out to the Knicks, man.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: They deserve to be represented.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I was saying.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I was tweeting, like, I don't care if you watch Knicks or don't watch the Knicks.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: If you're a New Yorker, you're locked in.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: You're locked in.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: You if you're a New Yorker, you're locked into these games.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it was just beautiful seeing the entire city uh just come around this team.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because you know, we got the Yankees and the Mets, the Jets and the Giants.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: And this is the one team that you can really just like hang on, and everyone really just came together as a city.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: It was beautiful.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: I had people who don't even watch sports hitting me up.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh um, but yeah, it's just absolutely incredible.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: You you're diehard, diehard, diehard.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: What at like, you know, we we switched from Thibodeau to Mike Brown, and you see this team, and they didn't play great in the regular season, but they were, you know, they were using the bench.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: You got Landry, you got all these guys.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: At what point did you think, like, hey, maybe this is our year?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: Was it during the playoffs, during the regular season, maybe it was during the finals?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like, when was that time that clicked like, hey, maybe we can actually do this?
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was, I think it was when they actually, before the season, when they decided to move on from Tom Thibodeau, and when Leon Rose put out a statement, he said, we're singularly focused on winning a championship.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because for the longest time it felt like the Knicks trophy was a PR battle with the media and the fans.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: And for them to come out and make a statement and say, We're singularly focused on winning a championship, and that will come at the expense of firing the most successful coach that they've had in 25 years.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: That sent a signal to me that they were not satisfied with ticket sales and playoff runs and having a you know their own version of a Henrik Lunkfist and Jalen Brunson and a guy that got close, or a Patrick Ewing, a guy who got close, much respect to Patrick and Hank, but they didn't want to repeat that story again.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: They wanted to win a championship.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I think throughout the year, you know, Mike Brown basically saying things that aligned with championship kind of uh philosophies of saying it's not about winning the battle, it's about winning the war in terms of expanding your rotation.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: There were times where the Knicks would run 12, 13-man rotations.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: I remember when Josh Hart and Mitchell Robinson got hurt, the Knicks were playing games against Atlanta and New Orleans, and then uh playing against the Spurs, where they were starting Mohamed Di Owara, a 19-year-old rookie, playing uh aerial hook porty heavy minutes when Mitch wasn't able to play, playing guys like Kevin McCullough Jr., um, second-year players who, you know, gave us that energy that we missed with Josh and just seeing different lineups.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's interesting.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: In the NBA Cup, which was another signal that this team could potentially win under the microscope, it was the same situation where the Knicks were flexible enough to pull Mikhail Bridges off the floor to get another ball handler on the floor and Tyler Koch.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And Tyler Koelick was a huge part of the Knicks winning the NBA Cup because the San Antonio Spurs were basically playing full court denied ball pressure, and that was beating up Jalen Brunson.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, in order to free up Jalen Brunson, they put up another point guard on the floor, which is very um it's it's it's not something that a lot of coaches would do with put two point guards on the floor.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: But you saw like teams like the Pacers would do it with TJ McConnell and Tyrese Halliburton in spurts, they would put those two ball handlers on the floor.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: So Mike Brown did that.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Tyler Koelick had that spot as a backup point guard.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Throughout the season, they got a guy in Jose Alvarado that put up on the pecking order.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: So in game four, when the Knicks needed to go to that strategy, they could rely on the regular season being experimental and saying, you know what, we've done this before.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas in the past with Tibbs, it would be who are his most relied upon guys that understood the system, understood how he wanted the game to play out, and he would play those guys 40 minutes a night.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: And while you would get a lot of success from that in the in the uh in the micro in terms of a regular season, the macro in terms of winning a championship, he wasn't comfortable enough to go to those situations.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: So when the Knicks needed to pull Josh Hart off the floor in game one, they were comfortable enough going to Landry Shamut.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think that's where the Knicks kind of understood in game three of the Eastern Conference Finals, when they were down 2-0 against the uh Pacers, they found out, hey, let's get a defense first lineup with Delon Wright, Deuce McBride, uh Landry Shamut, and and guys around Carl Anthony Towns.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Tibbs found those uh uh combinations of five, but by that time it was too late.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: So when Mike got here, he made it a point of emphasis to change up the rotations, but at the same time, he was flexible enough to lean on the leadership and the camaraderie of what was built here before, not just in terms of lineups, but in terms of offensive systems.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: But then throughout the season, there were situations where guys were disenfranchised from the lineup, and then towards the end of the year, you started seeing Carl Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson running these two-man lineups at the end of the season, and then the Knicks find themselves down 2-1 in the Hawks series, and then they switch their offense because again, Dyson Daniels is all up on Jalen Brunson, guarding him in deny.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: So now the Knicks ran an offense going through Carl Anthony Towns, putting Jalen Brunson off ball.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: So throughout seeing all these experiences, Jimmy, you know what it said to me?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: I said, no matter what, this team is not putting their ego over the goal, they're not putting a system over the goal, they're being flexible.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: And all companies throughout the world, great companies, world-class organizations, they understand you have to lean into a diverse line of leadership, voices.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: What can you bring to the table?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Is there something?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a blind spot in my Johari window, in my philosophical window here?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Am I losing something that maybe I'm so focused on what works for me, but in a certain situation it may not work every single time?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: So this Knicks championship was beyond well-earned because they went through different sacrifices to find the right combinations in different situations in order to get them to victory.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: And every single point of that roster, and not just roster and organization and ownership, they deserve a lot of credit.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: And like you saw the Mikhail Bridges uh drunk IG Live, but when you get drunk and you reveal your truths, he went through all the team and guys like Dylan Jones being the scout team version of Stefan Castle, guys like Kevin McCullough being the scout team version of CJ McCollum.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: People don't realize this when they, you know, they're casual, they don't really look at the um the box score, and the box score tells you a certain story.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: But you have to understand that when you're a part of an organization, every single person that's a part of that organization is playing a role in that team being successful.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I think like going away from Tibbs being more of like a what I say goes kind of, I've been around this league for 30 years, I know what I'm doing, to like saying, hey, Jalen, you take the huddle.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Chris Gent, offensive coordinator, you take the huddle.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: Jose Alvarado, you take the huddle.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I think like having those types of um humilities to put those types of people in the position of leadership allowed the Knicks to get over multiple points of adversity, and being down 30 was not as astronomical of a comeback for them in game four because they had leaned on those experiences prior to get them there.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think the big word is trust, right?
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like they just trusted one another, and honestly, like you could this was a team.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: That like that it was just a full team effort.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you broke it down perfectly.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: One question I want to ask you is about James Dolan because he's been ridiculed for years and years, and it seems like the perception of him has changed in an instant.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: We got the the video.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you watched the full 10-minute video, but what are your thoughts?
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: Have your perceptions of James Dolan changed in the past few weeks?
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that video remove the, you know, if you you live by the the concept of, you know, the message separating the message from the messenger sometimes, or um, you can get truth from any person, and sometimes you gotta be able to be wise enough to, you know, like you get a message and you could sponge it out and you know, retain what's good and get rid of the waste.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Look, James Dolan for my entire life was a villain.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: I remember growing up going to my first Knicks game, Knicks vs.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Warriors, Stefan Marbury, who's my favorite player at the time, he got booed in intros, and I was like 14 years old.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, why are they booing my favorite player?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah Thomas, the coach, got booed like ferociously.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember I snuck down from my seats, I went down to like the bottom level, and I started, I saw Dolan.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: He was like 15 rows away from me, but I could see him, and like young 14, 15-year-old me, I was like looking at him and I started screaming, and I was like, sell the team, sell the team.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: I was screaming at him, and he looked back at me.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'll never forget this memory.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: And he was standing with his ushers next to him, and he I could see him mouth saying like this, like, let him go.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like he saw that I was a kid, but uh that just shows where I was mentally as a 50, and I represent a lot of Knicks fans, like he was the he was the head of a lot of bad decisions, and a lot of the criticism of James Dolan for the last, I'd say, 20 years prior to hiring Leon Rose, especially with Phil Jackson and Isaiah Thomas, the the main criticism was he was hiring friends and he wasn't necessarily hiring the right people that could get the job done, and then he would meddle in with it and kind of like have too much control.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: So when he kind of jumps in on that April 2nd video, he actually says it in the video.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I try not to get involved, but it would bother me if I had this moment and didn't tell you what was on my mind.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought for those 10 minutes, everything that was on his mind was on point.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I think what he got across to the players, because players don't really understand the fans a lot of times, because players grow up in an incubated system.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of these guys, you know, back in our times, Jimmy, like a lot of these guys, they come from the mud, they come from like the the the downtrodden part parts of society and they come up nowadays.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you're talented, you're discovered, and you're coddled, and you're taken care of, and you're AAU and everything.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of these guys, they may be from the area, but they don't understand how badly fans want a championship.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think what he started and what he led with was he said, I don't think you understand what this would mean to the city and what this would mean to you for the rest of your life.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: See, in order to sacrifice, you gotta have an intrinsic motivation or you gotta have a motivation that's placed upon you.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: So these guys are millionaires, you know what I mean?
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: These guys have accolades, they're all-stars.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: If they retire today, they've lived successful lives.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: What Dolan put on them was saying, like, I'm successful, I'm a billionaire, I'm shaking the ghosts of my own reputation.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: So let me let you know I'm involved in this too.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: So let me let you know you're either going to live with this forever as champions, or you're going to live for this forever as not being a champion.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like him leading with that set the tone for what he was saying was right now we've led up to this point.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: We have 10 weeks to go.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Can you buy in on another level?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you thought that level was, I need you to buy in on another level.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I felt like for whatever it's worth in hindsight 2020 hindsight, he erased the demons around the James Dolan Knicks owner.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: When you think of James Dolan as a Knicks owner, you're going to say championship organization.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: So for everything that has happened in his tenure, that's the beauty of this game we call sports, that it's kind of like Steinbrenner as well.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: Steinbrenner, for a long time, you you take away the 70s kind of thing, he had a terrible reputation from 78 to the Gene Stick Michael era.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: And he kind of like had to go away in the same way that Dolan had to go away for other minds to come in and take control.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: But one thing I always gave Steinbrenner the credit for is you gotta at the top, you got at every organization, not just the Knicks and the Yankees, you gotta have an undying will to win.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's gotta be the most obsessive thing for your organization because that trickles down to every single front office person and player and utility man and all those types of things.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel like Dolan, once he realized that, okay, we're close.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: We we made a controversial move to get rid of the coach.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: We're about to embark on this playoff run.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: I can't sit and sleep with what's on my spirit without letting the organization know.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought it was a really good message.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: He he said basically, you know, don't talk to the press because it's not gonna matter what you tell the press, because the press is going to write the story of your performance.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Which I thought was a very good message because a lot of people within Knicks Nation they want validation without rings.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you're never gonna be even today, there's people trying to invalidate the Knicks, saying that it was a fluke rhyme.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Or it was I heard something from Vince Goodwill as a participation trophy.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Crazy.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Bro, they're trying, they're trying, they'll people are trying to do anything they can to remove themselves from the accountability of shaking this 16-3 run.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: But I think Dolan is a big part of it because not only for hiring Leon Rose, but I think for setting those expectations.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is not, you know, Patrick Ewing 33, Henrik Lundquist 30, you know, uh uh uh uh Mike Richter 35.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's not what we're going for here.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're going for a championship, and it's chip or bust.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if you don't get it done, you might be on the way out of here.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Josh and Mikhail said F them picks on the podium, but Josh said, We're here, meaning you're not getting rid of me now.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a champion.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: So those expectations being put, it's just like when your boss tells you this is what I need from you, the accountability works.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: It works.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: When you're accountable, sometimes you do need a kick in the ass to say, you know what?
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: I know you can do it, but here's what I really need from you.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I think he set the tone and saying, like, this is championship season.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: So he deserves the credit.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he does.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's crazy.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's just crazy how the perception of one man could be one way for dozens of years, and then just on you see this clip of him, and you know, that's what it does.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: Winning changes everything.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: I wish the Yankees had a little bit more of a mentality.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I feel like people are like, oh, we're the best team in the AL.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: We're the, you know, this, Aaron Boone, blah, blah, blah.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: None of it matters until you win a championship.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: None of it matters, and that's why you think how do you think how do you think these guys look at the Knicks now?
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson are about to throw out the first pitch tonight.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to get the loudest ovation, maybe in Yankee Stadium all season.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because Yankee fans were were almost entitled without rings now.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's like we don't know how to appreciate um success on a lower level other than winning a chip.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like if you're Aaron Judge and you're looking at Jalen Brunson, there's a sense of positive jealousy going on there as well.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like Aaron Judge is way more of an accomplished player than Jalen Brunson.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, this is now Jalen Brunson City because Jalen Brunson is going down the Canyon Heroes tomorrow.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: So Aaron Judge has not yet experienced that.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, no, it's crazy.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: We have to talk about Jalen Brunson.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, uh 40-point game, first 40-point finals game in Knicks history, 45 points.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: The only other person to do that in a closeout game was Michael Jordan, the Michael Jordan.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, yeah, he's just was absolutely phenomenal.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: What does Jalen Brunson mean to you?
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he he only cares about winning.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: He really only cares about winning.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I think like his whole journey as being a Knicks this guy's going crazy for the World Cup.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: But these guys, these guys' journey is only about winning.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: He took a hundred, some odd, 114 million dollars off the table in his extension, and he for he put it towards the future so that he could assemble a team.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure Leon Rose being his godfather, being in his ear, telling him what he could do and what he what was possible, but getting Mikhail here, getting Kat here, getting Josh here, um building that kind of unit together was him sacrificing.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I'm a coach um for youth basketball, I coach uh middle school basketball, I tell my kids a lot of times to look, you know, a lot of them want to look at superstar players.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: I hesitate to tell them to look at Jalen Brunson because if you want to mimic your game, a lot of them they will only grow to be as tall as Jalen Brunson, but it's very difficult to tell a kid to look at Jalen Brunson because you will not see the work that it takes to shoot a floater over Renbanyama at six foot one.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like if I try to tell a kid, I say, yo, look at Josh Hart.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Josh is the type of guy who puts all those extra effort plays, you know what I mean?
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: He may not have the best handle, may not have the best shot, but he impacts the game in a cerebral and a hustle way.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: But Brunson, there is so much behind the broadcast, behind the PR that is going on.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure even after all this, he's gonna go back in the lab and figure out how to get even better because he's a psychotic level winner.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: And and and when you when you look at what he's able to do in these games, it's no mistake.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: Why do the Knicks get down early?
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Why does Jalen Brunson struggle early in games?
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: Why do the Knicks certainly struggle in the beginning of games?
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's because physically they're imposed on because they're not the most athletic team.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: But when they weather the storm, and then when they get to the fourth quarter, they're the smarter team and they're more prepared team, and they have a more psychotic will to win.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: They have a more like it's ingrained in them.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: They're never out until the game is over.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: So when you have a leader like that, you have no choice but to play at his level.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: You understand?
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, so so Brunson represents that kind of, I guess they call it now in the 21st century, they call it imposter syndrome.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: Where it's like, you know, you you're never you're never good enough.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality, I tell people who classify themselves, my wife classifies herself as imposter.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: I say, I'd rather have imposters than than than nothing, because at least if you're thinking like that, you you all you need is somebody that's on your team to say, it's okay, you did, you did what you could.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: But to have that level of execution and and never settling for less, that's a beautiful metaphor.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you could take what he does and apply it to your own life, whether it's Jimmy Rondazzo's podcast, whether it's you know, your relationships, whether it's, you know, just just any little endeavor that you have.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: I used to do it with my grandfather, who is a Holocaust survivor, when I was running on the treadmill.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: I used to say to myself, if he can make it through that, what am I bitching about?
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I think when you have sports, we're fans.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: We use this for something.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not just for seeing our team win, it's to live vicariously through the effort of competition, honest competition, not rigged competition, monoimano, my team, my effort versus your team and your effort.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why we watch these games because we want to simulate that belief in ourselves that we can get it done.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: And when you look back in history, it's not gonna be a Michael Jordan, it's not a LeBron James, it's not a Kobe Bryant, it's not a Wen Banyama, it's not a Kevin Durant, it's Jalen Brunson, it's Josh Hart, it's these guys that worked hard and stayed together and didn't take the easy way out, and they got it done, and it's a beautiful metaphor for New Yorkers because this is the way we are.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: The real New Yorkers.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: That this is Yeah, I feel it.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: I feel your energy, I feel the I feel that real New York inside of you.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: So, and and listen, we could do honestly, I could sit here and listen, talk to you, listen to you talk for three hours easily.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like, this has been incredible.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: We usually do 20, 30 minutes, quick, in and out.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: Last question I'll ask you.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely do the New York Knicks have a chance?
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: What's their biggest like risk of not being able to repeat next year?
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: Is it not having Mitchell Robinson potentially?
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: What would be that big like why can't the Knicks repeat next year?
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, number one, their organizational value just skyrocketed.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: So any hole that is left by a Mitchell Robinson or a Landry Shamit or a Jordan Clarkson or maybe Deuce McBride is moved because he's on his last year of his three-year deal, and there's there's gonna be a lot of value in him at$4 million a year.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: The Knicks do have two draft picks at 24 and 30, uh 31, the first pick of the second round, and it's a stacked draft.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: So they actually have a lot of equity in that.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: Then they have guys like Mohammed Di Oara that's flashed a lot throughout the season, couldn't find the spot because the rotation was stacked.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: And again, their organization took a leap.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: So guys like Mikhail Bridges, guys like Josh Hart, guys like uh OG Ananobi, Carl Anthony Towns, these monster contracts, I'm not saying move them, but I'm saying if the Knicks should have to explore options, and I want to keep this team together forever, but we all know how business is made, especially in the modern day CBA with the Knicks, like there's only a certain amount of times within a two to three year span you could keep a team together.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that Mikhail showed out, the fact that Kat showed out, the fact that Josh and OG and all these guys showed out, you'll always be able to maneuver and build the team in a certain way.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say if you're a you're a player like Jordan Clarkson came into this year with a$16 million contract.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: He made a deal with um with Rich Paul and Klutch to get out of that contract with Utah.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: They bought him out, and Jordan wanted to ring chase over here.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's Jordan Clarkson, he's a good player.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think that you're gonna start to see a lot of players in that 30 to 35-year-old range see what's going on here in New York and ring chase with the Knicks now.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't have a list of those players who off the top of my head, but I imagine as free agency, the draft, and trades kind of trickle out, you're going to see players that will take less to go play in New York to play with a Jalen Brunson, to play with a Carl Anthony Towns, to play with these fans that want to, you know, that uplift you.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: I hated for the longest time.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: People would say things like, that's why nobody wants to play for the Knicks.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's BS, bro.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: The Knicks fans have chanted for Eddie Curry, the loudest.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: They've chanted for Bobby Portis, Jimmer Ferd from BYU.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: They've chanted to get Jimmer Ferdette on the floor just to say Jeremy Lynn took over the whole, you know, the whole country.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: He took over Jeremy Lynn.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, Knicks fans, like, if you just give them effort and you try to win, Knicks fans, even with this championship, that will never go away because that's a New York ethic.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's a fabric.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: We just want to see you try your hardest because that's all we can do.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: Our bosses sometimes they don't recognize it, they want to see the bottom line.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: But a New Yorker looks at a New Yorker and says, you know what, kid, you gave it your all, man.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really what this city is about.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I think like they're they're in prime position.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: I would say, not necessarily internally, but externally.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: I would look at the Pacers with Halliburton coming back.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: They screwed up their pick situation for Zubots, but Zubots is there to replace Miles Turner.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: You got the Celtics that are gonna have a full year with Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: There's a potential for Giannis to be moved into one of these teams that are in our way.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe Giannis wants to wants to say no one but New York.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that the Knicks, this amount of experience that they've had, they may not finish with the best record.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: They might not still not might not be Vegas uh uh slated to to run it back, and it's hard to repeat.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: No team has repeated since the LeBron era and the Steph uh and the the Warriors era.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is the CBA, it's a lot of parody.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: But if there's a team that's not gonna be distracted and that's gonna be led by a guy that wants to prove the doubters wrong again, I think it's the Knicks with Jalen Brunson.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's gonna take a lot of discipline from Knicks fans to to wipe the hangover away because we've been waiting for so long to get this done.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how I'm gonna be upset again, but I'm sure a missed shot at the end of the game or something is just gonna erupt out of me.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: But for I would say Knicks fans, man, up until the draft, up until the summer league, and we start to see where this team is gonna go, don't, don't, don't be the most die hard crazy man.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: Just enjoy it, man.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: Enjoy it because there was a lot of times in our lives where we're where this was a joke, like to to to be here.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: And now we're finally here and and uh you know, just enjoy, man.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: Enjoy.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: We did it, bro.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: We're champions.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: Papa, thank you so much for coming on.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, I'm gonna have you on in a couple months.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_01: I want to hear your your your Yankees takes.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: Your Knicks takes are absolutely fire.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_01: Really enjoyed you coming on.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, quick note the Yankees uh won seven of their last eight, so that's a good thing.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they're like without Aaron Judge, is doing pretty well right now because of the starting rotation.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll leave it at that.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: This is the Knicks week, this is the Knicks month, this is the Knicks year.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: Unless the Yankees come and bring it back in October, this is a this year, this decade is about the Knicks right now.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I really appreciate you coming on.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: And if the Yankees, absolutely, I'm definitely down to talk Yankees as well.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: And look, I love the Yankees, I love the 60 plus home runs, I love the Roger Maris, but yo, my message to Aaron Judge, bro, lock in like you've never locked in before because this team will win if you take them there.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: But you gotta let that pressure build you into a giant, not into something else.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe eventually he's gonna have his moment.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: He he kind of flirted with it last year against uh against Toronto in that in that game three, I believe, at Yankee Stadium when he hit the home run down the down the pole.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: But um, I think he has another level he could tap into.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think others around him have another level they could tap into.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I think Boone has another level, hopefully, he could tap into.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I want them to get jealous.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: When they watch this parade and they go to Fanatics Fest and they see how how these guys are received as champions, I want them to get jealous.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: Get another chip on your shoulder and go win that thing as well, man.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: Inspiring talk from Papa Left.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for coming on.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk next week on Yankees Pod.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: Have a great day.