The Pat McAfee Show Live | Friday May 9th 2025

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[Music]. [Music]. The following program is a collection of. stooges talking about happenings in the. sports world. It is meant to be comedic,

informative. The opinions expressed on. this show do not necessarily reflect the. beliefs of their peers, their boss, or. ESPN. There may be some cuss words. because that's how humans in the real. world talk. If you are a young, please. seek permission before watching any. further. Hey, let's go. This show sticks and the fact that you.

listen, we are very, very thankful. On. the line with a gorgeous assist, the. alltime leading tackler for the Green. Bay Packers, you. stop. Damn it. Your friend, tell a. friend something nice could change their. life. [Applause]. [Music]. Hello, beautiful people and welcome to. our humble abode. The Thunderdome on. this feel-good Friday, May 9th, 2025.

This program starts. now. The sports are happening all around. us and we're so incredibly lucky that we. get a chance to chat about it. Obviously, the NBA and the NHL playoffs. continued on last night with some magic. taking place deep into the evening as. the NHL had an overtime game on the West. Coast. So, that's a 1:32 a.m. call time. if you were to watch the entirety of. that game. We have somebody in the. Thunderdome that actually did that and. even tweeted about it at about 2 a.m. and it is heartbroken by Mc Jesus and. the boys of the Oilers who have now won.

six straight playoff games, which is a. record in the NHL after being down a. significant amount. They've won six. straight games after trailing. They've. come back every single time. This a. gritty group. Obviously, we watched them. do their thing in the playoffs. In the. run last year, we had them miked up. They had cameras in the locker room. Mc. Jesus is yelling at the boys. They. thought last year was going to be the. year. Is this the year that the Edmonton. Oilers are the team of destiny? Is this. the year that Mc Jesus cements his name. as not only one of the greats to ever. play, but also a guy that's tough for.

Jackie Aces. Jackie Asus had a great. game. He did. That's Jack Eel that just. got absolutely demolished there at the. blue line. Okay. He was the best player. on the ice for the Vegas Golden Knights. the entire game. Just so happened to get. a Mc Jesus train on him in the OT. Bang. to lose the game. Now, that's tough for. Jack Eel. Jack Eel will bounce back. Jackie Aces is dog. Stoner also going to. be able to bounce back. They think they. got screwed because of a little bit of. an ice pick that happened in overtime. Now, nonetheless, hockey is awesome. And. that game was spectacular. I don't think.

a lot of people got to watch it, but we. have somebody that did. Let's go to the. toxic table at Boston Connor at Ty. Schmidt. Ty Schmidt, you've been a Vegas. Golden Knights fan since the Vegas. Golden Knights were created. That's. right. You were born and raised in Iowa. I don't think you were a big hockey fan. You joined this program. We're all. hockey fans. You didn't have a team. The. Vegas Golden Knights become a team. You. say, "That's my team." Have a lot of. success. You followed along. Last night, you stayed up until 2 a.m. to watch this. overtime thriller against the Oilers. Your heart got broke after the Vegas.

Golden Knights had another lead and gave. it up yet again. What was your thoughts. on a game and what is your thoughts on. the NHL playoffs this year? Yeah, I. mean, you hit the the nail on the head. You know, you want to talk about. heartbreaking. Listen, I try to watch as. many of these games as I can, but you. mentioned it. I mean, the these West. Coast start times when you you know, hey, if this thing goes the distance or. goes into overtime, like I think like 16. of the games so far in the NHL playoffs. have like we're looking at maybe a 2. a.m., you know, 2:30 a.m. finish here, which isn't great, but it was an.

incredible game. I mean, pick it up. right here in the third period. Golden. Knights are on the power play. Jackie. Aces is just dancing with the puck. You. mentioned it. He was the best player on. the ice for most of the game. Look at. that. just a nice little one-time apple. to Victor Olivesson. Uh 4-3 and then and. you know again the Golden Knights it it. looked like the uh the Oilers were going. to kind of run away with it and then we. get an Alex pitcher Angelo goal you know. tie it up 4-4 and this is all an OT. This is the the one kind of the start of. the play. You got Nicholas Wahoo just.

get you know nice little forch check. No, not a for check cross check. Cross. check. Yeah, for check his defense on. the ice. Cross check is illegal and he. did it right to this guy's mouth. Right. to his mouth. I saw a lot of Vegas. Golden Knights people saying, "Hey, what. are we doing?" That was a cross check to. the chicklets. I mean, that is clearly. what that was. And I get that. You know, that's a game of conduct. He's gone. The. it's fiveminute major. So, uh you know, the the Oilers were on the power play. for for five minutes here in uh. overtime, which obviously is not great. when you got guys like Mc Jesus and Dry. Cidle on the ice, but Aiden Hill has.

nine saves on the power play. I mean, just deflecting everything. And we're. starting to think, okay, we get back to. even strength here. Here we go. Not too. long later, this is what a lot of Golden. Knights fans were bitching about as. well. Including Lil Wayne. Yep. Including Lil Wayne. You got Braden. McNab who just a classic ice pick here. from uh you know, Victor Arvdson right. into the boards. He was down for a bit. and he also had to leave the game. He. was done after this. They blew it dead. And let's go to the back one half of the. hammer. Don Cowboys Bubba Gumpino. They. very rarely blow a play dead and then no.

penalty is called in hockey, right? Yeah. I didn't get an answer on why that. happened. Maybe they thought he was. injured is why they blew it dead cuz. they have been doing that lately in the. playoffs. But that's uh that's stone. cold right there. 10 times out of 10. penalty. So they blow that dead. Everybody thinks a penalty is coming. Maybe the Vegas Golden Knight's going to. be on a power play. Instead, the ref, no. penalty called at all. Vegas Golden. Knights fans say, "We're screwed. We got. screwed here. We had a fiveminute major. Now we have this particular uh. situation. You don't give it to us. All. of a sudden, it's even shrank still. And. then what happens, Ty? Yeah. About a.

minute later, um, you know, we the. Golden Knights, you know, give away the. puck. Uh, you know, about center ice and. th this guy, if you don't watch hockey, this guy, this Mc Jesus fell. I'll tell. you what, it looks like he's playing a. different sport. Like we mentioned it. multiple times, Jackie Aces was the best. player on the ice last night, and he. looked like an eight-year-old, you know, trying to play defense against Mc Jesus. Just sick. Nice little nice little. saucer over to dry cidle and they end. it, you know. I mean, it really was you.

go from thinking, hey, we're going to be. on the power play. The Golden Knights. have been excellent on the power play in. the playoffs so far. And, you know, they. they held Jackie Aces and Dryidle uh. scoreless through three periods. And. then, you know, it's just as as the. longer the game went on, you knew that. their two best players were eventually. going to get you. They did. Stoner right. after the game goes over, taps the stick. on uh you know the the referees, you. know, like we're we're there looking at. the monitors and just kind of lets him. know like, hey, this one's on you. Okay,

that should that should have been that. should have been a penalty. We should. have been on the power play. And he was. pissed postame, too. Like I think and I. think we have the clip of what he said. Pretty clear it's a penalty. Um his. sticks between McNav's legs. He sends. him head first into the boards. Um, pretty clear-cut penalty uh, in my eyes. and I think everybody's eyes, right? Um, but, uh, it's, uh, that's hockey. You. don't always get the calls, but it's. unfortunate now. We might be down a D. man. We'll see tomorrow, but, um, yeah,

it's just a dirty play. And, um, yeah, and coach Cassidy also, uh, he was he. was pretty upset as well, uh, when it. came to that situation. Um, listen, Gourd's looking at it. He. blew it. He missed the call. I don't. know what else to say. I mean, it's a. can opener trip. It's a dangerous play. It's all those things, but it didn't get. called, so you got to keep playing. Um, and uh, you know, Nabber is one of. our guys that we probably one of the. most popular teammates in the room. So, that is a tough part of playing through.

it. It's not as easy as it looks. We're. human, right? But at the end of the day, that's the task in front of you when. those calls happen or don't happen. So, players are up in arms. Coaches and up. in arms. Lil Wayne was not happy either. Uh, the Knights did just get robbed. Uh, watching it live, I'll be honest, just. because everything's happening so fast, you kind of just like, "Oh man, that's. too bad. It looks like Braden McNab may. have broken his shoulder and he's going. to be out for the rest of the playoffs.". Like, I wasn't thinking, "Hey, we need a. penalty." Because, you know, it was so. high stakes moving back and forth, but.

yeah, you know, a power play uh would. have been huge there. Ultimately, the uh. the Golden Knights lose two at home, which isn't great. You mentioned it. The. Oilers have come back in six consecutive. games, but the Golden Knights have been. here before. uh that you know Colorado I. believe in 2018 you know they came back. they came back from down 2. Uh so this. game was incredible. It really was. It. was one I mean if you like playoff. hockey like just unbelievable. The. playoffs as a whole have been non-stop. action really across the board. Playoffs. continue tonight. Leafs Panthers. The.

Leafs currently up 2, which is a big. surprise. Actually was a part of the. reason why we called yesterday. holy sh Thursday. That game is on at 7. o'clock tonight on TNT. And then the. Dallas Stars Texas Hockey take on the. Winnipeg Jets fresh off a thriller up in. Winnipeg. One half of the Hammer Cowboys. AP Ton is here. Gumbling on these NHL. playoffs seems to be tough. What are. your thoughts? It it is tough cuz um you. know there's away teams winning, there's. home teams winning. Um teams that have. been hot, you know, just trip out like.

the there's been a lot of comeback stuff. like this. But as far as the overall. odds to win the cup after last night, the Oilers are now your favorites to win. the cup at plus 300, followed by the. Dallas Stars, who are up 10 on Winnipeg, which we just talked about. They're plus. 325. And then you have a couple East. teams following that up. The Canes, who. lost last night to the Caps, they're now. plus 450 to win the cup, tied with the. Leafs, who are up 2 and the Panthers. So. those are those are your favorites right. now to win the cup. Canes might be a. little bit surprising to a lot of people. because, you know, I don't think they.

looked like the better team in each of. those first two games against the Caps, but uh we will see moving forward. Caps. get a big win over the Canes last night, three to one. Tom Wilson notches an. apple and then an empty header at the. end. Obviously, the handsome menace from. Washington is doing their thing. Capitals being the underdogs against. Canes is crazy to me just because of. what the season has been for the. Capitals, but the top odds were crazy. seeing that the caps were so far down. there. Plus, 1100, that's good value for. what that team is and what they've put. together. So, that spot right there on. that graphic and if you go to the NBA.

one, plus 1100 is where the Capitals. are, which we like a lot. We like the. Capitals. Uh, I mean, the Oilers, this. might be their year. And obviously the. Audrey, same spot there, plus 1300. Pacers. I mean, both I mean that's good. value on both those teams that are. playing great right now. The Pacers. obviously take on the Cavs this evening. on ESPN at 7:30 and then the Thunder. take on the Nuggets at 10:00 tonight. Pacers are up 20 over the Cavs and then. Thunder Nuggets series is tied 1-1. We'll have Sham Shirania joining us here.

in a matter of moments. Get some updates. on some news. This Golden State Warriors. team without Steph last night against. the Minnesota Timberwolves. I mean, they. got smacked from the beginning there. I. look whenever Draymond gets his. technical that everybody's talking about. right now and Draymond uh gave a quote. about afterwards how everybody portrays. him and everything cuz he's had five now. technical. issued for a game. This is Draymond. Green football. I mean in my eyes that's. just how I view Draymond Green like. everyone this going to happen. This was. in the second quarter it was 3317 or. something like that. So you're talking. about just Minnesota dominating Golden.

State last night from beginning to end. And I think Anthony Edwards even had an. ankle injury in the middle of this. They. thought he was going to potentially be. out. The whole place gets quiet. he. comes back at the end of that thing. So. with Golden State, I mean there's a lot. of question marks right now and I think. a lot of it revolves around the greatest. shooter of all time whether or not he's. going to be able to make it back. Yeah, T- Wolves last night went up 13 nothing. to start the game and that's basically. it. It was wire to wire. They won every. single quarter. They were winning the. entire game. Uh Ant coming back huge for. the T-Wolves. They should be fine. But. yeah, without Steph, the Warriors just.

aren't the Warriors. I think we saw that. in the spread of the game yesterday. I. believe the T- Wolves were 10-point. favorites after losing game one by 11. points. So, without Steph, it is it's. interesting, but there's still, I think, if you're a Warriors fan, faith in the. fact that Jimmy Butler's done it on his. own essentially for uh years with Miami. in getting it done, even though that is. the East and the West seems to be much. much better. The Draymond thing, look, he doesn't know what his arms and legs. do. Okay, so that has been kind of like.

the conversation a few different times. Yeah, I mean that's just what it is. and. the right side of his body gets fouled. So his left arm throws a bow. I mean it. just is a natural cuz you see reach. around left arm bang. It doesn't really. make sense. I don't I don't know how. that happens. Well, in jiu-jitsu there's. a moment where you get pushed on this. side and the other side happens. But I. would like to say this about this moment. here and Draymond Green felt uh the need. to address it about how everybody says. I'm an angry black man. I'm not an angry. black man. I'm actually very smart and. all these things which he is. He's part.

of the new media. I love his show. I. love the way he's handled. He's been a. champion. He's made a lot of money. He's. out of Michigan State. He's a graduate. Like everything that he has done, I. think would indicate. So there must be. people saying things to Draymond Green. Let's make sure we have some respect for. Draymond Green being Draymond. This is. just Draymond Green football. Like in my. eyes, that is literally how I view it. Just like in football, there are guys on. teams. It's like Tom Wilson on the. Capitals. Like that's Tom Wilson. football. Draymond Green has been. Draymond Green since the beginning. So I. don't like the fact that he feels. obligated to defend himself and say, but. that's only because I assume there's a.

lot of people that say that thing about. him. He is an asset to that Golden State. Warriors team. Has been since the. beginning. And every once in a while, situations like this are going to happen. is how I view as an outsider of the NBA. world. The Draymond Green experience in. the NBA. Yeah, without a doubt. And. Foxy, if you can go to where Steph. Curry's talking to him, I think that's. why people like to pile on because of. course, you know, the coaches are going. to say stuff and things like that, but. when you see Steph Curry do it, I think. that's when people kind of say like, "Hey, even Steph is going over and. saying like, "Hey, Draymond, you need to.

calm down." And I I'm pretty sure the. broadcasters said, "Hey, Draymond should. just go back to the locker room after. this to calm down." Because they don't. show it in this clip. Here comes Steph. to kind of tell him like, "Hey, relax. It's the second quarter. We're okay. You. know, we still need you in this game.". Just real quick though, Draymond Green, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, has already been a champion. The fact. that he's this passionate never gets. talked about, you know, like the fact. that he's this invested, this is who he. is, like this is his style of play. And. uh I don't know. I I don't like that he. felt obligated to answer that because.

that means that that's what people are. saying about him. It's like this is how. some people compete. This is how some. people are professional. It happens in. every sport. Like and I hate to just say. it again, but like Tom Wilson for the. Washington Capitals, he's on the line. He is an enforcer. He is there's going. to be a little dance. I mean, last night. with the little toe pick on the thing, it's like Draymond, this is what. Draymond Green has done. And I think the. Golden State Warriors have benefited. from Draymond Green being this since the. beginning of his time out there with the. Warriors for sure. But now they're. getting close to where he's going to. miss a game. If you remember, two more.

texts. Yeah. If you remember in the uh I. believe it was the finals. Yeah. Where. he got the you know the tech limit and. he had to miss a game and that was a. huge conversation. I believe they ended. up losing that game. That was the 3-1. comeback year with LeBron with the Cavs. Yeah. And now they're getting to the. point where, hey, Steph's out. We need. you now more than ever because of how. great you are. Not just on defense. Now. he's he's making shots. He's playing. probably some of the best basketball on. offense we've seen the past few years. And now, you know, unfortunately, he's. nearing that line of, "Hey, you're going.

to get suspended for a game." Joining us. now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who. might have a little bit more intel on. what Steve Cerr says to Draymond Green. after something like this, or Steve Kerr. says about what's happening with Steph. Curry or Steve Kerr says about this team. maybe having to revolve around Jimmy. Butler for the good of Survival here as. they take on a very good Minnesota. Timberwolves fan. Also, some updates, senior insider for the NBA at ESPN. Ladies and gentlemen, front of the. program, the handsome Sham Shiron. Sean, so we were just wrapping up the. conversation about Draymond Green. Thank. you so much for joining us today. I just. view that as Draymond Green football, I.

guess what Connor is saying is like. without Steph Curry with the position. they're in, maybe they can't have. Draymond Green football happen at this. moment. He's two techs away from a game. suspension. Is that accurate? And what. do you think Steve Curr says to Draymond. in these types of situations? Two technical fouls away. And then, yeah, I think a lot of what Draymond. Greenwood's made him so great is this. ability for him to be physical, to uh. really command the game. I mean, he. commands games both from a a vocal. perspective, how he commands it.

defensively, and then even on offense. Like, he's the master communicator. And. Jimmy Butler said it recently in one of. his press conference. He's like, you. know, the best thing about Draymond. isn't that, you know, how great of a. player he is and the Hall of Famer he. is, but just his ability to communicate. from the best player to the worst player. and and how he's able to get his points. across. And I think that's what makes. him invaluable. But, you know, plays. like last night and the way Steve Kerr. uh said it uh after the game, which was. simply that, you know, we know there's a. line that that he sometimes goes over, but that's what makes Draymond so great.

and you live with it, right? Cuz he's. brought you helped bring you four. championships. And then last night with. him getting that technical foul and you. know I saw his comments after the game. did a little probing this morning on. exactly what maybe he was referring to. and I know you know he had the incident. when he was on the bike during the game. Uh a fan allegedly yelled a slur at him. So potentially it could be something. like that. I think another part of this. from my understanding it's also what he. feels is is this treatment that he gets. from the officiating believing that he.

gets calls on him that other players may. not get and that and that they. potentially referee him differently like. that play right there on Nas Reed if. this was the first time Draymond Green. was making a play like that I don't. think they go to the monitor but because. of his history they've suspended him in. the past based on history I I think. because of all that he feels like he. might be getting in an improper whistle. and proper treatment. Um, now the flip. side of that is everyone around the. league believes Draymond Green has. probably the best leeway, largest amount.

of leeway that any player has. He's able. to have that back and forth with. referees all the time. So, it's a. double-edged sword. At the end of the. only Dr. Green is going to be able to. like explain exactly what this is. I. think part of it maybe was that. incident, but I think a large part is. also the way he feels like he's. officiated on a nightly basis and how. his history is used against him. Well, Draymond, we just want to let you know. you're a victim of your own success, brother. I mean, that's just what when. you're around this long, people learn. about you, people do it, and we would. like to say we respect the hell out of. the fact that you've been that guy since.

the beginning. Every team needs one, especially successful teams in all. sports. There's normally a dog out there. that is a little bit of an enforcer, a. little bit of a tone setter, a. protector, and also a little bit of a. wild card every once in a while. And I. think Draymond Green has had a hell of a. career doing such. And uh, go green, Foxy. Yes, sir. Go white. Love you, Draymond. Yeah. Okay, so let's move on. to stay in the Golden State Warriors. camp though. Steph Curry's injury is. obviously a massive ordeal for the. Golden State Warriors. He's the best. shooter in the history of basketball and. he was getting back to form of being the. guy that was able to pull up from. everywhere. Felt like Jimmy Butler and.

Draymond Green maybe ignited an old. school Golden State Warriors team feel. What is it with Steph Curry and how long. are we looking for him to be missing. some games because this Timberwolves. team does not care and they are not. waiting around for Steph to get healthy. When should we see him back and what are. the realistic expectations? Shams Pat, it's a hamstring strain and you know and. and everyone in there knows DB I'm sure. you know wherever he has he he knows. like hamstring strains that's not an. injury you play with. Um he's really.

been limited to just doing treatment and. he's going to be reevaluated on. Wednesday which means he's definitely. out game two he missed game three game. four so he's going to miss at least. three games. My understanding is it's. probably not going to be uh you know at. any point until game six uh at the. earliest uh for Stephen Curry and. there's actually like a 4-day gap. between games five and game six. It's a. weird scheduling quirk. So no, the NBA. didn't do this because Stephen Curry got. hurt. The NBA had already made this.

schedule. It's some alignment with uh. the WNBA team there in the Bay. But. because of that, they're able to have. that period of time. So maybe you get. Stephen Curry back there. But as I. tweeted then, this is the first uh. strain of the hamstring that Stephen. Curry has ever had in his NBA career. He's he's never had this in his life. He's never had a hamstring injury in his. life, he said yesterday. So, uh it's. going to be a very safe approach I think. the Warriors are going to take with.

this. Um and I I think at this point, you just try to get one back in the Bay. Area. You try to win one, uh you know, in g either game three or game four. And. I think what happened last night, what. we saw is Steve Curry and the Warriors. really pinpointing yesterday's game to. just throw a bunch of things at the. wall, see what rotations we want to go. with, uh, see what our best way to win. without Stephen Curry is. And, you know, I don't know how much they came into the. game thinking we want to win this game. It was more like we we got to figure. some we got to figure some [ __ ] out. here. Yeah. Without Steph. Yeah, I.

understand. And and I think I I don't. want to say they punted the game last. night because you never want to say. that. But I think they knew when you. when you're without Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler, they're. having fun with it, right? It's Batman. He is Batman of this organization of. this team. You lose Batman, you have to. figure out exactly what you know who. goes where. And that's what last night. was all about. And Buddy having the. wrong shorts on. I mean, there there's. just uh that's a that's such a cool. franchise because of what they were able. to do over there. That run they had. historic. They changed basketball.

forever. I think they changed basketball. forever and everything that they've. done. And then you lose the guy that. basically did it all in the middle of a. series while he's playing his best. again. That has to be tough for Steve. Kerr to figure out. And the fact that. that's the first time that Steph has. pulled his hamstring with how much he. runs. Yeah, he that's crazy that that's. the first time. Now once you pull it, you know, the fear is always that's. going to linger. That's going to linger. That's always going to be there. Anyways, Steph, we're pulling for you, buddy. We're pulling for you. But also. Timberwolves, let's talk about Anthony. Edwards. That like uh what was that?

What do they think is going to happen. there? The guy's a freaking Wolverine. I. every a timber Wolverine. He's a Timber. Wolverine. I don't know if it's like. this LeBron Jameses ability that he has, but like he literally he can have an. ankle tweak. He can have like any body. part will feel like he just sprained it. And he's able to just come back. He goes. the locker room. He goes to the back. He. looks like he can't put any weight on. that foot on that leg and then he ends. up coming out and and the way he for him.

to even get back on the floor much less. continue to to to be as productive as he. is. I mean the guy is just tough as. anything. He has his innate ability to. be on the court and that was a must-win. game for them. They they took care of. business. I think you have to feel. really good if you're the Timberwolves. And you can see even playing in. Minnesota the fans there are really. really involved. I mean, clearly they. were involved with Draymond, Jimmy. Butler, you know, he came out after game. one, made some comments about how he. feels like the fans are, you know, need.

to keep it within the lines of the game. So, like those fans in Minnesota are are. really uh rampant right now. They're. going, they're vibrant. Uh, and what. they have in Anthony Edwards is they. have a a flatout superstar that they. want to come out and cheer for, but he. he might not want the to be the face of. this NBA and and be the young face of. the league, but his game, his charisma, and at the end of the day, his ability. to stay on the court and his product is. what makes him kind of that face of the. league potential. All right, so we'll. assume that Anthony Edwards just going. to be healthy somehow. Okay, that's. awesome for him. I wish I had that.

ability. That would be very cool. And. then Julius Randle, obviously a trade. over from the Knicks. He's three boards. away from a triple double last night. So, when you talk about playing good. ball, the Minnesota Timberwolves could. be the team that uh maybe surprises. everybody. And obviously, you got to get. lucky and Steph Curry getting injured is. certainly a little bit of luck in the. Minnesota Timberwolver side, but on the. Golden State side, not great. Let's talk. about another series that does have a. little luck whenever it comes to. injuries on the other side, but who. cares? They were the number one seed in. the East. They're playing the Pacers.

tonight in Indiana down 200. Tone has a. question for you. Yeah, Shams, there's. obviously some injury questions with the. Cavs. Uh before game two, Garland, Mobley, and DeAndre Hunter all did not. uh they were not present at shootound, but before game three here, they all. were present at shootaround. Uh do you. have the status on these three guys for. this huge game three tonight in Indiana? I I'm expecting Tone Digs. I'm expecting. Darius Garland to definitely be in. tonight. Uh he wants to play. He wants.

to give it a go. He's missed I guess the. last two weeks. I think it's been two. two and a half weeks he's been dealing. with this toe injury. He's been out uh. and it's a sprain of the of the great. big toe uh in in in one of his foot. The. great big toe. Yeah, there's an average. big toe and then there's the big great. big toe. Wow. I guess you could say it's. the big toe, the great toe, whatever you. want to, but he's clearly been dealing. with something there. He missed the last. two weeks. Uh I I would expect him back. The bigger question is Evan Mobley. He. was not able to put a bunch of weight on.

his uh his foot, his ankle after he. sprained it the other night. He missed. their their last game. Um but I all. three to my knowledge are are aiming to. go into tonight's game with with the. intent to warm up and play in this in. this pivotal game three. I mean, at this. point, uh I think all three will do. everything they possibly can to at least. make themselves available. I think. that's what the Pacers are preparing for. and they obviously need all three. And. if you can get any type of effort. because they've been competitive in in.

both these games, but definitely they've. been competitive uh last the last game. and game two, they feel like they really. had a chance to win. They should not. have lost that game. Uh the Patients. obviously went out and took it. But uh. as much as you can get out of those. three, I think they're very hopeful. tonight. Okay. Well, good luck to them. Obviously, we want to see everybody at. their best. You know, that's what we. want the playoffs to be. They're coming. in here to Indianapolis, though. And. I'll tell you what, the town's a. buzzing. Town is a buzzing. Everybody's. talking about how the Knicks and I saw. Mike Greenberg put together a beautiful. monologue about the improbable run of.

the New York Knicks. Okay, why don't you. go ahead and just talk about the Pacers. as well. We would just like to take. everything that Mike Greenberg said. about the Knicks in the the Celtics. thing and put the Pacers name in there. as well. They weren't even on prime time. television. The this they they were only. on. true turnaround. Well, the NBA TV or or. or True TV, which one were you going to. say or both? All the above. Yeah, it was. impossible to find them through the. playoffs. You make it to the playoffs, you're supposed to be on TV. Like that. is the purpose of the NBA playoffs. NBA. TV, I guess the four, five seed,

whatever it is. That's going to happen. on a regular basis because they don't. want to get to one, two, three teams, not on prime time. Okay, sounds good. Then they play the Cavs in the opening. uh the series or whatever, and they have. it just on True TV. And they had I robot. on TNT. They had the inside the NBA. kickoff show on TNT and on True TV. Then. they put iroot on TNT and they put the. Pacers game on True TV. And then later. that night, Golden State was playing. game seven or whatever. It was on TNT. and on True TV and I'm like, these.

[ __ ] picked I robot over the. Indiana Pacers versus the Cleveland, the. number one seated Cleveland Cavaliers. It's like this team is electrifying. Tyrese Hallebertton is a superstar who. is loved in this city. But not just. Tyrese, the entire team is loved here. for the way they go about ball. Remember, Indiana is a big basketball. state and the basketball that they like. They like a team that is we are we are s. we're passing, we're moving, we're. running, we're respectful, we're doing.

this still a little moxy if you need it, but we're a hardworking team and it's. like Carile is like the perfect coach. for this team. The team has come. together perfectly and what they started. last year in the playoffs that nobody. was able to talk about because they got. swept by the champion Boston Celtics in. the Eastern Conference Finals didn't. carry into the beginning of the year. either. So like nobody really had. respect for the Pacers at the beginning. of the season. Tyrese Salurden played. like absolute [ __ ] Didn't even make the. All-Star game. That guy didn't make the. All-Star because how he played at the. beginning of the season. I think he. would even say did not play good at the. beginning of the season. Then post.

allstar break, Tyrese was able to sleep. on to what the hell he was going on. He. comes out of there even better. the team. goes and they become the hottest team in. the NBA and it's like they still get. disrespected and I think it's because. it's Indianapolis. He gets voted the. most overrated player in the NBA by the. New York Times uh the Athletic and it's. like I love that for the Pacers team. Like I love that for them so much. I. just hate the quirk that doesn't let you. watch the Pacers when you're in Indie. for some weird reason. That's what I. didn't I didn't like that one. I want to.

let you know I got an uh a number that I. did not know that worked at the NBA. office uh that sent me a text saying. here's an NBA pass login if you ever. please if we could and I would like to. say the NBA thank you for that. I think. you set up your um distribution rights. poorly that I can't watch the Pacers in. Indianapolis. I assume that'll get. fixed. I'm glad they hooked you up. I. mean that's long overdue there. Yeah. No. chance I actually signed into that. I. have no idea. I don't even know if my TV. is smart enough to have the NBA thing on. there. I don't know how that would work,

but I do appreciate them hearing our. messages of saying that was stupid and. then also trying to be like, "Yes, we. we're going to figure this out." I also. like that the NBA has been tweeting like. six minutee videos on X. Great. Like, hey, here's the final two minutes of. this. They need to do more of that cuz. they dominate social and uh I'm happy to. hear they're taking advantage of that. Anyways, the Pacers are for real. I got. to add on the Pacers. So, I'm a nerd, you know? I'm I'm more of the like the. business side. Like I'm very interested. in the business aspect of this and like. you think about these playoffs, Indiana. and Oklahoma City are the two teams so.

far that are in it that are in the. bottom eight in terms of spending. So. you think about it the bottom eight. payroll in the NBA and Oklahoma City's. got one max player and Shay Gills. Alexander the Pacers have two and Tyres. Hallebert and Pascal Seakum. They're a. little bit more veteran laden team. So. you think about uh you know cost for. winning and what that Pacers front. office has been able to do to keep the. payroll where it's at and to win at that. level that they're winning at. I mean to. me it's impressive because it it shows. that you're identifying the players that. are dogs that guys that really want to.

win that want to compete. You think. about the Andrew Nemhards. You think. about the Miles Turner. Miles Turner is. going to be a free agent this offseason. Pat, I know I know you're going to need. to keep him in Indiana. He's been here a. long time. How long's he been here? He he just did a he just did a a a nice. little tribute article I think at the. players tribute. Yeah. He's been he's. been in Facebook for I think 10 years. He's 11 maybe year. Yeah. 10 or 11 years. article. Uh and it was a beautiful read, but like he's been a guy that like.

multiple times everyone was saying, you. know, a lot of there was a lot of. chatter around his name being traded and. he stays in Indiana. He's there in. Indiana. He signed an extension at one. point and he's going to be up for. another contract this summer. And you. think about free agents, he's going to. be right up there. And the Pacers are. going to have to pay him a lot of money. to be able to keep him. But listen, you. make it to two straight conference. finals potentially if they're able to. make it back like and you're able to do. it with this type of a payroll, it's. going to rise, you know, once you pay a. guy like Miles Turner. But uh what this. team's been able to do, it shows a lot. about their ability, I think, to.

identify the right player. Miles and. Pascal are great, you know, so big, so. athletic, so. um I don't want to say durable. Oh, that. was uh versatile. Versatile. There it. is. So versatile. Miles knocked down a. three any I mean Miles will get out. there and knock and then he's underneath. too. He's been great for the city even. though big transition period basically. while he's been here and then we trade. for Tyrese for obviously from. Sacramento. Spicy pee Pasco Seakkum from. Toronto last year mid-season. So it's. like the moves they've made, the people. they brought in and the coach that they.

have in Carile. I think it all is. perfect for the city of Indianapolis. Legit. I think in anytime a team. represents its city well, I think that's. whenever you have like real magic. possibil like I think people will see. tonight whenever we have the home game. Like team guys like Seakum's an NBA. champion and he could ask for 30, you. know, 30 shots a game, but he doesn't. [ __ ] whatsoever. I feel like that's why. it works so well. TJ McConnell, too. I. mean, yeah, coming in here, we know. that. Coming in here, he signed an. extension, right? How many years with. the Pacers? He signed a new deal with I.

think he signed a four-year extension. I. think it was last year. Lifetime deal. Yeah. At the end of the season cuz he. was up at the end of the season and I. was I got a chance to meet coach Carile. at an event or whatever. Keeping TJ, right? Pittsburgh kid. Need to keep TJ. McConnell around here. He's absolute. doggy. He gave you the word. He gave you. the word. No, absolutely not. They said, "Yeah, we'll see you the business. thing." I go to Tyrese. I'm like, "Yo, got to be keeping the uh Yzer, right? Got to be keeping the Yinszer around.". He goes, "I love TJ, man. I don't you. know, he does that whole thing." So, there's a question on whether or not he.

was going to come back. And it felt like. he fit this team perfect. Like, it felt. like he was I think we have the makings. of a good team, but so does Cleveland. And if they're going to be completely. healthy tonight, not completely healthy, but if everybody's going to be available. tonight, this should be a great one on. ESPN at 7:30 p.m. Once again, uh. Tyrese's dad not going to be able to be. in attendance, which is a bummer. That. will be a missing piece of the building. night. We hope he is enjoying this. playoff run, especially with how his kid. has been performing. All right, let's. move to the other team you just. chitchated about there, the Oklahoma. City Thunder. Ty Schmidt has a question.

for you. Yeah, Shams, obviously after. game one, you know, where Denver looks. great. They get the uh the game-winning. bucket from Aaron Gordon. They kind of. like the uh Warriors. I mean, you don't. want to say they punted, but they get. beat by 43 and kind of just look like. they were happy to take one uh steal one. in OKC. We've seen everything with Jokic. where he's basically he's the head coach. now as well as their best player. Do you. expect the Nuggets to bounce back in a. big way against the Thunder tomorrow. night or how do you think the rest of. this series is going to go after these. first two games?

I I I think this series has a chance to. go I mean six, seven games, you know, because Denver is is the way they're. playing right now. They're I think. they're as as in sync uh as possible and. and you know, I don't think they went. into game two. I I think the Warriors. went into that game too. They were. scrambling trying to figure out all. these different rotations. I think the. Nuggets tried, I'm sure, tried to win, but I think Oklahoma City, it showed me. more about what Oklahoma City's about. finding themselves because that's the. team we've seen all season. That's. really the team that we're known for.

Their level of dominance when their when. their games are right. I mean, they they. they are they've been absolutely killing. the entire NBA in terms of the their. their plus minus uh all season long. You. saw in that series against Memphis, they. were down like 25 points. They end up. winning that game uh by a lot in that. game three in Memphis. So, I think. that's really Oklahoma City to me. But. Denver is in a great position now to be. able to go back home. Aaron Gordon, the. way he's playing, Russell Westbrook.

contributing the way he is, Michael. Porter Jr. playing with a a pretty. banged up shoulder giving everything he. has. It's all at the end of day going to. boil down to though Nicole Joic and. Jamal Murray. And can those two guys be. the best two players on the floor in any. given order? Uh that's really what's. going to dictate I think these Denver. Nuggets winning because I think the last. game what what was it like six fouls for. Joic, six field goal attempts. Like you. know that's obviously not what's going. to win Denver games. Yeah. I always. assume that just Joker understood your. team more and more as the series would. go on. That's just kind of how I thought.

Joker was. So to watch how this game. went, it was very like I don't want to. say alarming, but it was like oh I. didn't expect that. But I think what. Oklahoma City people are saying is we. played terrible game. we this is just. who we are and this is why everybody. thought Oklahoma City was going to win. this series when I was like so you're. telling me Joker is not the favorite. It's like this has been the Oklahoma. City team all year, right? This is kind. of they've been dominant. They have been. a the best basketball team in the league. on numerous different occasions, right? This season. Yeah, they've they've been the best team.

in in the NBA. I mean, you think about. the only thing that would hold this team. back is they haven't been it been there, done that. Like, they haven't they got. to the second round last year, but they. haven't made a deep run to the. conference finals or the NBA finals for. So, even like Oklahoma City in a lot of. ways, they're still young. They're still. building the right way. They only have. one max player in Shay Gills Alexander. now Jaylen Williams, Chad Homegrren, those guys are all going to be up for. extensions this summer. So, that's when. decisions start being made. But this is. still a pretty young Thunder group in. terms of what their experience is like.

uh going down uh in the playoffs. Thunder, thunder, lightning and a thunder. Thunder. Do they play that? I assume. they got to play that. They have to. I. assume they have to. All right, let's go. from Western Conference. Uh best team in. the West. Uh let's go to the reigning. champs in the East. Start spreading the. news. Yo, pan the camera to. BC. We got to pan the camera. That's.

where we're heading. He's not scared. It. feels like he's like in a uh he's in a. position he's wearing he's wearing a. Patriots jersey. I thought he was going. to come in here before a big game three. at the Garden. I thought he was going to. be wearing a vintage KG Celtics jersey. or something. I think the jersey he's. wearing is uh in the trenches jersey. That is an offensive lineman's jersey. uh who just so happens to have the same. last name as Connor. But with that being. said, it feels like Joe Misulla needs to.

dig into the trenches a little bit and. figure this out. Connor does have a. question for you about what's going on. over there in the east. Yeah, Charms, I. do have a question. And before I get to. it, I will say, you know, I I am not. worried just yet. I've told the boys and. Pat I've opened the door of where the. panic button lives and I've looked at. it, but I've not taken it out. I have. not thought about pressing it because to. act as if the Celtics came back come. back from down 2 0 is ridiculous. They've been down 3 0 and they for. course of course so all all this is very. possible. Now uh being completely.

healthy would help a lot for the. Celtics. Obviously Sam Hower we all saw. it ankle that's a clear-cut injury. Who. knows when he's coming back. The. Porzingis uh illness sickness has kind. of just been confusing from the. beginning. He missed a bunch of time. during the regular season. No one really. knew what it was all about. Game one, he. leaves at halftime, doesn't come back uh. with with some sort of mystery, sickness, illness. Can you put any. insight into that? And cuz game two,

he's coming off the bench, still doesn't. look like himself. What What is this. entire uh illness, sickness, and will we. expect him in the starting lineup for. the rest of this series or playoffs? So, Christoph Porzingis, my understanding is. he's been dealing with a lingering of. side effects from the virus that he had. in March. And it's something that zap. has zapped his energy. It's it's drained. him. Uh he's had to, you know, rely on. getting a lot more sleep over the last. couple months. He's had to take IVs,

immune boosters, I'm told. So, he's. tried to figure out ways to mitigate it. Um, obviously they've run him through a. battery of of different tests. Um, and. they have not been able to, I guess, completely identify which which virus. could this specifically be, but he's. gone he's seen doctors, he's gotten. tests done, and to their understanding, the Celtics, the doctors, Porzingis, it's just been the these lingering side. effects. And it's it dude, it it just.

imagine being the competitor he is. And. Pat, this is and and BC knows this. Porzingis played through a leg injury in. the finals last year. Yeah. That needed. what, three, four, five months of rehab. before a return. Like this is someone. that has already showed that he'll put. his body on the line. He's a competitor. He, you know, he was he when he came. into league, he had such high. expectations, made an all-star team. I. think this and then he played for the. Wizards, the Mavericks, and then I think. the last few, you know, couple years.

playing for for Boston, he's been their. missing piece because when he's on the. floor, that's an element Jason Tatum, Jaylen Brown, none of their guards, they. can't do, no one can do what Chris. Osping does. So, it's been a tough blow. to this team not to have him 100%. But, uh, that's my understanding. BC is it's. been lingering effects from this viral. whatever bad viral bug he had in his. heart. That's I couldn't imagine that. lingering for that long. I'd be so mad. Yeah. Think about how mad you would be. I had a cold. I'm not comparing. Okay. I.

don't know what that is, but I had like. a cold for like what felt like seven. weeks like just a couple weeks back. I. had no idea. Every day I woke up, I'm. like, "This has got to be over." Like, it's got to be taking [ __ ] for it. It's. just still there. I was so pissed. I. couldn't even imagine a guy in the best. shape of his life. Yeah. Missing this. type of game because of lingering. effects from a vir like this long every. morning. And I don't know what this is. obviously, but every morning you. probably assume, oh, I'm going to be. better. Like you're going to sleep at. this stage like I'm going to be better. I'm going to be better. And it just. continues to go. That sucks. Hey, keep.

powering through brother. Sounds like. mono. Like actually it sounds like. something that is that does. I mean I I. haven't heard of anything that lasts. that long in I asked about that. I was. told no. Not mono. Okay. And it's not. not I mean, no, they they tested for CO. They tested I think they've done a bunch. of I think they've they've tested on. everything you possibly can. And uh. there's there hasn't been anything that. showed up that's like, you know, you do.

XYZ. But a few weeks ago, it seemed like. he was over this. You know, all the. things that he was doing, the sleep. pattern, IVs, the immune boosters, it. all seemed like it was working. And for. whatever reason, he spoke to it a little. bit after game two. there's some kind of. a crash that that he that he's kind of. had in the last couple weeks, last week. And uh anxiety driven as well. Doctor. saying, "Yeah, we have no idea what. that'd be a little bit of a Hey, we're. pulling for you, man." MGH, too, man. We're pulling rule in the world. We're. pulling for you up there in Boston. Great facilities uh from everything that.

we've learned. All right. At this. moment, who's winning uh the NBA title? Pat, you know, I don't do picks. Come. on. We've been doing this for six years. I don't do picks. Yeah. Who's till. today? going to win. Let's make a show. This group, you you look at this group, I think Oklahoma City, you know, they've. been so dominant all year. It looked. like, you know, obviously big big big. game two win. Uh great big big game two. win. So, we'll see how how game three. goes in Denver. Um but listen, I think a.

lot of people around the league still. feel like the Celtics are going to be. able to turn the corner. I mean, even. though they're down 2, lost both games. at home. Um you know, it's crazy. I. think the Celtics have done this before. BC, if you remember, uh, the team with. Isaiah Thomas on it, they went down 200. to the Bulls. I think it was the Jimmy. Butler, Rondo D. Wayade team. They lost. both games in Boston and end up winning. that series. So, it's never uh it's. never not been done. The question is. just can you beat a team like the Knicks. where you think about their the Knicks. starting five? That's a really.

formidable group. And now you seem like. they're it's it really seems like. they're clicking. They're all coming. together and I think that's what. everyone's been waiting on, especially. with the Knicks. I forget the stat. What. is it like 14 to 12 Jaylen Brunson. points in the final 30 seconds or minute. of the game? I mean, there's just no way. Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum are. shooting like 32% from the field like. for the for an entire series. They. missed what 75 threes. Yeah, 75 threes. Uh Q Rich laid it out well. 45 uh wide. open shots, threes that they have.

missed. Uh the stat I think you're. talking about is that the Knicks are. outscoring the Celtics in clutch time 28. to 12. in the fourth quarter. I think. they're outscoring them like 55 to 30. So, it's not just like they I think. Brunson has more points than the Celtics. in a super duper close crunch. I forget. how Greenberg described it. Him and. Hembo went to work on a monologue and it. was like Jaylen Brunson has like 14 or. 13 points in uh like maybe the final 30. seconds and then they the Celtics has a. total of 12. Yeah. Like he is just out.

like let alone the entire team and. everything. There's all these clutch. stats that are coming out about this. Knicks team and if you're in the. playoffs like that's and in basketball. and like that is the [ __ ] and that's. where the Celtics this is very abnormal. for them just to go absolutely ice cold. at the end of games because that is why. they've been great. That is why they are. currently our champs. Yes, that's it's. old Celtics like back when they were a. younger team when they were trying to. make the finals trying just to get to. the Eastern Conference Finals. This is. the [ __ ] that was happening. like they. were down 3-2 to the Bucks and they had.

to go to Milwaukee and win game six and. they did. That's why I think a lot of. Celtics fans have faith because they've. been there. They've won in these high. pressure moments. I mean, I remember the. Heat Celtics series where Derek White or. maybe it was Marcus Smart gets a tip in. at the end of the game with 01 seconds. on the clock. And so, I think that's why. there's a lot of faith there from being. down and coming back. But, I mean, when. things aren't going your way, they're. not going your way. And it was just like. the Pacers Celtics Eastern Conference. Finals last year where the Pacers are.

winning the entire game and then the. Celtics won the games, but now it's the. Celtics are winning the whole game and. the Knicks are winning the game in the. end. Here's the stat I just found from. Greenie's monologue. I just went to his. Twitter account cuz I'm happy he posted. this. By the way, this was very well. done with a lot of stats and Greeny. delivered in a great way. He posted it. So, in clutch time points in the Eastern. Conference semi-finals, Jaylen Brunson. has 14 points. The Celtics have 12 in. total. So what is like we know the red. zone there's a high red zone then. there's the red zone. We don't know what.

separates clutch time to so I believe. final two minutes clutch time is like. when the game's within five points or. within a certain uh number whe whether. it's one possession or two possession. games like that's clutch time final. minute and then I think they had um all. their undefeated on the road five wins. on the road or something straight by uh. three points or less. Yeah. So it's like. this team whenever it comes down to it. final cup on the table. Yeah, I mean, you know, the Knicks are going to knock. it down. That's just what it is. What. were you going to say there, Tone? The.

uh there's been 12 minutes of clutch. time in the two games so far. I I found. that. I'm not sure exactly what the. definition is, but I know there's been. 12 minutes of clutch time in the first. and Jaylen Brunson was voted what? Yeah. Clutch player. Most clutch player of the. year. Yeah. And then So, you would think. maybe those awards are accurate. sometime. And then you you're Tyrese. Hallebertton's most overrated player in. the league and then he's all over your. city. Mhm. I thought there's just no way. Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum aren't. going to be able to turn the corner to. some extent. Now, we thought that last. game, didn't we? We thought that last.

game. We thought, but over a full. series, like I I actually see Boston. Conor's perspective right there. Like. they we thought, you know, they were. they were potentially over this after. you win the championship and no one's. going to take away that championship. away from them. But, you know, to be. coming down to this series in round two, this is a team that has championship. aspirations. This season is not supposed. to end in the second round by any means. And so I I I think having faith in. Jaylen Brown, Jason Tim, they've been. there, they've done it, the amount that. they've won at such a young age, but.

again, this this is not a a series where. they can afford to have another bad. fourth quarter. They just can't. Yeah. And I believe in Joe Mazula big time. So. I believe in Joe Mazula. Okay. I do. Yeah. Me too. I do believe in Joe. Missoula, all the boys. And I believe in. Yeah, I believe in that team after. watching them and having to experience. it alongside you and watch what they did. to Indiana whenever they were here, whenever they were down a lot of those. games and they were coming back in. clutch time to win last year during.

their championship. So, I believe in. him, but it's hard to just think that. this guy's just going to give it up. But. like this this guy's, hey, he's special. This guy is his mentality is special. And then you listen to his podcast and. it's just like he's like a casual dude. and then he gets on the court and it's. like absolute killer. Yeah. What a. series. Chicago's finest. Okay, that. makes Well, there's a pope now. There's. there's a pope now from Bronson. Bronson, Shams, you know, CM Pope. Pope.

Leo. CM Pope. Yep. All those things. That was a great comment. Somebody left. a comment in uh so our Pope coverage. yesterday, Shams, I don't know if you. know this. I saw I was watching I was. getting all my all my all my information. was coming from from you guys when I was. watching PMS. Okay. You weren't the only. one. Okay. there. I got a lot of. messages yesterday from a lot of people. that I did not expect to hear from out. of nowhere saying hey pope coverage. today phenomenal. I would have never. known. And it's like, well, we had no. idea obviously clearly as we were going. in there. Then as we start to learn. like, wait a minute, America's got a.

pope. First time in 200, he's the 267th. pope. Okay, so I got that number wrong. 266. I said yesterday 267th pope. It. started at 30 AD. Between 30 and 70 AD. The amount of things we learned about. popes yesterday. I think a lot of people. potentially learned alongside of us. I'm. really I'm appreciative of you tying our. pope coverage yesterday. You became like. an authority. Yeah, in the middle of one. of the and then Shrags getting inside. messages as it's all coming down. I. enjoyed the pope coverage yesterday. I. mean, it really was like if you aren't.

Catholic, then it's maybe whatever. Like. that was a massive deal. Like that is. something like in like we'll never we'll. never see that again in our lifetime. I. don't think I never thought I'd see it. in my lifetime. Like when you look at. like the events of like the last hundred. years, you know, like when things. started being covered like this, like. this was a massive massive deal. We. missed the terrible towel that was. waving in the crowd. That's on us. We. apologize because we were so in the. moment trying to learn about it. And I I. even had some Catholics uh who obviously. a big deal. Had some Catholics, American.

Catholics, send me texts that said, "You. even covered up being a scumbag Catholic. hater whenever you were talking about. thought we had pretty good nonbias. I'm. not a Catholic hater. You didn't pick. Notre Dame." I was told. Okay. Okay. That is not what that means in this. entire thing. But that being said, I do. understand that it was a huge day and I. appreciate us all learning about it. So. I do appreciate you, Ty. You were kind. of put under the spotlight there to give. us right answers and then working. alongside Google. I feel like we did I. think we did a good Pope cover. I think.

so too. This is an open-minded for the people. for everyone show. Inclusion is very. important here. Amen. And also like it's. happening in everybody's world this. piece of news. So, we owe it to people. that are watching to be like, "Hey, heads up. Big [ __ ] deal just. happened." Yeah. With the uh CM Pope. Yeah. The internet did great, too. Hats. off to We got to take him to a Cubs. game, though. White Sox fan. Sean, do a. little research on the Pope, brother. We.

don't know that. He has No, I agree. But. I need to We need to see if we can. convert him to the Cubs or go to a White. Sox fan. Oh, you're going to you think. the Pope is going to be uh disloyal to. the team that he's Okay, I appreciate. that. Ladies and gentlemen, we didn't do. good enough coverage yesterday, obviously. Uh joining us every single. week seemingly to keep us informed on. what's happening in the NBA for the last. few years, even before he became Mr. Big. Time on ESPN. We appreciate the hell out. of you, man. Have a great weekend. Appreciate you guys. Thank you. Let's. get some more answers, ladies and.

gentlemen. Like, who's going to win the. title? Sean Shalia. Oh, I don't like that he won't make a. pick. [ __ ] Yeah, he's a wuss when. it comes to that stuff. I don't like. that at all. Well, I won't upset anybody. on either side. It's like I get it. That's like when Herb Street on game. day, I'm calling a game, so I can't make. a pick. It's like, okay, journalism. Good gimmick. It's not live or die. We're We're, you know, you can say who. you think is going to win. Yeah, we're. trying to figure out who's going to win. a basketball game. And I used to um I. used to like making those picks on game.

day because you're in a big spot there. Yes. And when you pick against a team, these teams, especially in college. football with the passion that they. have, these teams uh in their fan base. and their alumni in their current. students uh uh group and the current. people that just live in the area and. the people that used to live in the. area, that's a large number of people. that feel like you're picking against. me. Oh, yeah. Like that's Notre Dame. people felt that way. Yeah, for sure. They they're like all of Michigan,

especially me being an Irish. Yeah. Okay. They're like, "You son of a How. could you do that?" It's like, I'm just. saying who I think. You live in Indiana. What are you doing? I'm just saying who. I think is going to win the game. I'm. not picking against you. I am picking. that this other team might be a little. bit better in a couple matchups that I. like and they're going to beat you in. the game. It's like, so you just got to. get past the point of people being mad. whenever you say that you think one. team's going to win. So, at the. beginning whenever everybody was. crushing me for picking these games, I'm. like, I hate this. I I don't like that. this is what comes from this, but it.

just is a part of it. And if you think. somebody's going to win a game, you just. you have to understand you're going to. piss people off on the other side. And. it's like that's why sports are awesome. And guess what? The next week, if you. think their team is a better matchup, some of them might hear you, but most of. them they're gone. Most of them, they. don't care. They do not care. So, you're. going to lose a lot of people, Shams, and uh we understand that. But, you. know, ball better Seams, you know, the. inside information. So, when you're. giving picture, you're helping out the. people, you know, and that's where I. have to frame it. It's like I'm I'm.

trying to help out people with my. thoughts. even if they think I'm a. doofus and they want to pick against me. Sure, here's my thoughts. I'm trying to. help out. But you're going to get it on. the sheins from a lot of people whenever. you pick against them. And that's the. thing is you're not going to hear any of. it, but like the team that you're riding. with like they're like, "Oh, hell yeah. My's rolling with us there. You're never. going to hear it, but that there's. plenty of that out there, too." Yeah. But for Shams, we need to tell them and. for Herby, like Herby, you're just. saying who you think is going to win a. game. Then you can even carry that into. the broadcast, but I guess it's not. professional. You can say to be honest,

I mean I said it this morning. I thought. this team was gonna blah blah blah. You. can just kind of have it. But uh there. is a chance. There is a chance. especially if you think about how these. people think uh that they'd be like. we're incredibly kind to you. We let you. in our building. Yeah. We took we showed. you around took care of your family. We. we did everything and you. just so you saw what we did and you. think this team stink. You think we're. going to lose to the other team. You can. see how people get offended. I assume. that is what happened. Never mind Herby. Herby should not be making I mean the. Ohio State coaches at the Rose Bowl. Oh.

yeah. Whenever Yeah. Yeah. That was. awesome. Or the Texas fans when you hit. him with the horns down that was all. time. Yeah. It was a good time that that. had to happen. But that was. disrespectful by me. But there was a lot. of disrespectful [ __ ] being said, you. know, and not everybody sees the. disrespectful stuff being said to me. Only like, you know, me and like a few. others see it. So whenever I potentially. respond in a little bit of a fashion to. a school with a little bit more juice, you know, it's like a lot of those. people that are out there don't they. haven't seen all the other things. So. I'm just the ass. It's it's an. interesting game picking games cuz.

really college game day obviously it's. three hours or whatever it is early. morning on Saturday. Very early. especially on the West Coast. Early call. time. That is an early morning seeing. that cow forgetting how dark out it was. Monday through Friday show. Okay. Then. obviously have to watch ball all day. Sunday and all day Saturday afternoon. So that's a lot of days of having to do. stuff. Lucky to do it. But that's an. early morning. That is an early morning.

Especially after every That's an early. morning. Not really a morning guy. Never. have been. Uh have become an espresso. shot chugger though, I will say, because. I know what I'm here for. You know, I. know early morning. I know what I'm here. for. Can't really lay an egg either. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Ever never never never. can. Okay. It never will hopefully just. try to work my ass off to do all that. thing. Late night, too, learning a lot. Sure. Late night learning a lot, early. morning in that entire thing. But it's. all leading up to those picks. Yeah. So, the most amount of people are watching. you make those picks. So, now not only.

did you potentially compliment that team. in the first hour of game day, okay? Like huge. Put them over in a massive. massive way like, "Hey, showcased a lot. of things." You just so happen to think. that another top five team might be a. little bit better. They had no idea that. you think anything is good of that team. That just comes with it, Shams. That. just comes with it, Shams. Every once in. a while, you're just gonna have to piss. off an entire city. Exactly. I. understand why it doesn't. Even when you. pick them, sometimes they get mad. because I remember week one last year, you went&M against Notre Dame. And then.

you guys did a bounceback segment in. week two and you're like, "Oh, Notre. Dame is going to blow out Northern. Illinois." And they didn't. And then. they got mad at you for saying Notre. Dame was going to blow out Northern. Illinois. Yeah. It's just uh the. Michigan people at the end of last year. Don't you even think the whole year. about picking us? Don't you even think. about it. I'm like, Jesus, you guys are. paying attention. Uh yeah, we're paying. Not for you. Mostly because the guy. that's next to me. I mean, how was Nick. S? How was Nick Sabin at picking or? Yeah. I don't know. That's a great. question. I wonder how assume good. Yeah, I would too. I don't know. No, cuz.

I mean, well, um Miss Amy. Miss Terry. Miss Terry. I don't know why. I said Miss Amy. Well, Miss Amy is a. massive piece of the same team. Miss. Amy's awesome, by the way. Talked to. her. She reps uh Jackson Dart, I. believe. Oh, really? Yeah, I believe. I. believe she is. She's a wet Miss Amy's. an absolute dog in Green Bay. Yeah, we. just start at the draft. Everything that. Coach Sabin has around him is the best. of the best. I think he is an incredible. That's why his coaching staffs are so. good. He's an incredible uh like I I.

think he has a good eye for talent. I. think he has a good eye and judgment for. talent. And then he that's in every. that's not just in a coaching business. that's in all of his car business. Great. business. Yeah, that business is I read. an article on that that is I would. highly recommend reading that. Coach. Sabin and his ability to read people. figure out what and if and then make the. decision and do it and then take care of. those. He the amount of time he invests. in everything. I know he was a. incredible coach and he invested a lot.

of time in Alabama and I assume he. would. But then whenever he retires he. has a little bit more free time. I think. all of his businesses are also starting. to all all the other Yeah. Yeah. All the. others that are that dude's special. Coach Sabin is a special special person. That's why the rumors that are coming. out about him potentially being a part. of it. Uh I don't know if that is uh. 100% a thing. I have no idea. I've not. been able to, you know, kind of uh and. have chose not to reach out to him. He's. got a lot going on I assume in his life. Uh, I don't know if that's official, but. if this was to happen, this thing, there.

would be no better Yeah. than this guy. Uh, and I think everybody feels that. way. That's why whenever this gets. reported, everybody's like, "Oh, yeah, definitely." I don't know if this is a. I'm not 100% sure if this is 100% a. thing from what I'm hearing. We hope it. is. But we all, yeah, hope fingers. crossed that it is a thing. But we do. understand that that might be an. impossible task, too. Like that's a lot. of that's a huge undertaking that you. are trying to do with college that. that's a huge job. So I just like the.

fact that that's being thought about. like the news if coach is a part of it. which maybe I have no I we're not. hearing it's official but if he is a. part of it great but the fact that. they're thinking about trying to figure. this out that's the big news I think. that's good news and if he's a. consultant or whatever. Anyways hour two. is on the other side we got J.R. Smith. coming. Okay. [Music]. Belle Sessions, who got here at 3:00. a.m. this morning, was the winner. Her.

ticket was pulled and you thought to. yourself immediately, "What?" Bel, I. knew I couldn't do it. And he was next. to me and he said that he could. So, we're splitting it. Okay. So, Bill. Sessions made the decision to talk to my. man Henry Silver who. been Henry got here yesterday at 6:00. p.m. He's been waiting for this moment. Now, Henry, you told her that you could. make it. Why do you think that's the. case? Have you ever kicked a ball. before? I've kicked a ball before. I've. played soccer my whole life. I think I.

can do it. [Applause]. This kick is for 150,000. You said you. would split it in half, right? Yes, sir. Okay. So, let's make it 200,000. If you. make it, you will both get 100,000. Where are you from, Henry? I'm from. Fischers, Indiana. Who's your favorite. NFL team? The Colts. Hell yeah, dude. Hell yeah. Come on, bro. Hell yeah. To. hell with the Falcons. Uh, that that was. rude. They didn't deserve that. I like. that. Henry, 33 yards. 100,000 for you.

100,000 for her. $200,000 to hurricane. relief. 400,000 on the line. Henry, are. you ready? Of course. Have you ever said. anything bad about kickers? Of course. Shut up. Let's go. Now, here in Athens, Georgia, it would be beautiful if. $400,000 would be up for grabs. Why. don't we double it because the Georgia. Bulldogs? So, eight. $800,000 kick right here, Henry. But.

what I want to let you know is you're. not getting a second opportunity. I. don't care if this entire place starts. chanting for a second kick. One kick, 800,000 racks, 400,000 to Hurricane. Relief. 400,000 to you two split 200. grand each. Henry Silver from Indiana. for Bell Sessions. Let's go, Henry. [Music].

[Applause]. in. [Applause]. coming right down the. middle. Let me see this. Let me see. this. That was amazing.

I mean, he walked in like. Henry. Henry, congratulations, Henry. Congratulations, Bill. Congratulations, Georgia. What a morning. College game. day is the greatest. College football's. amazing. Bel, you just won $200,000. The following program is a collection of. stooges talking about happenings in the. sports world. It is meant to be comedic. informative. The opinions expressed on.

this show do not necessarily reflect the. beliefs of their peers, their boss or. ESPN. There may be some cuss words. because that's how humans in the real. world talk. If you are a young, please. seek permission before watching any. further. Hey, let's go. This show stinks and the fact that you. listen, we are very, very thankful. McAfee on the line with a gorgeous.

assist. The alltime leading tackler for. the Green Bay Packers. You. can't stop. Stop. Damn it. Your friend, tell a friend something nice could. change their life. [Applause]. [Music]. Hello beautiful people and welcome back. to our humble abode. The Thunderdome on. this feelgood Friday May 9th 2025 hour. two of this program starts. now. sports are the greatest.

Yeah, we should take a moment and really. acknowledge that. Mhm. How about last night overtime game. between two teams that are in cities. that are far away from where I am. This. morning had me thinking to myself, damn, that's awesome. A guy who I've never met. before goes by the name of MC Jesus. playing a sport on ice that I've never. been able to skate on in my entire life. does something and the next morning,

hours after it happens, I'm thinking to. myself, that's marvelous. This marvelous. Mc Jesus fell is magic on the ice. And. this Vegas Golden Knights team is. obviously special. And Jackie Ace is the. guy that just got crossed to Helen back. right there. Had an incredible game last. night. He did. He's a great player, but. that can happen. When you live in the. paint, every once in a while, you're. going to get dunked on. Whenever you're. on the ice with MC Jesus, there's a. chance that you're going to get, especially in overtime, and then go on. to lose it. Jackie Aces will respond. The Vegas Golden Knights will respond. I.

hope so. And that's kind of the story of. sports is there's going to be another. game. there's going to be another day. You have to answer the bell. Why? Because the game's going to happen. That's what we're experiencing right. now. There's massive upsets potentially. lingering. Historic historic upsets, which also. means historic runs in positive cities. coming together more so than they've. ever been in the past. The city of New. York coming alive around this New York. Knicks team and its improbable run. I've. got a chance now to be in New York. multiple times during this run. Place is. going crazy. The energy, the vibes are.

insane. People are more unified feeling. than ever in the past. And that's what. sports can do. And that's what sports. are happening right now. The NBA, the. NHL in the middle of their playoffs. It's awesome. The NFL's got drama. College football has got drama. And. we're all tuned in because sports are. the greatest. Mhm. The Pope is a sports. fan. That's right. Oh, yeah. Big time. At the highest of high levels, sports. are what make people forget about. everything else that's going on and feel.

like they're a part of something. special. Shout to sports and they feel. good Friday. It's not just me. The toxic. tables here at Boss Conor and Nati. Schmidt, one half of the Hammer Don. Cowboys AP Tone is here and joining us. live from an attic in Ohio is a man who. has won a college football national. championship, a Super Bowl championship. He's been a Ryder Cup winner although. the team lost but he won. He. contributed. We think that means. something. He doesn't like that we say. it because the team lost. We just mean. he beat Europe in golf. Yeah.

AJ Hawk. You did it. Yeah. Rob Brigley and. myself, we were able to, you know, squeak out a victory in our match, but. yeah, ultimately they were too much for. us. Saved Malfoy, though. Yeah, you did. What's that? You saved Draco Malfoy. Saved his life on the course. Oh, not. me. Uh, Kelly Slater, honestly. Really. did, I believe. Yeah, it was a scary. situation after that. Yeah. None. Happy. everybody's okay. Uh, yep. And on that. note, AJ, you're a winner. That's what. you are. You, too. That's what you've. done at all different stages of your.

life. This guy was even an all state. punter, I think. Wow. In high school. I. know you stayed up last night for that. Golden Knights Oilers game. What are. What is your thoughts on Conor McDavid. and how he is slicing and dicing at the. right time for the team from Edmonton? I. tell you what, playoff hockey is. different. playoff hockey is. It's. amazing to watch. Now, unfortunately, this one I watched the majority of it uh. the following morning, early this. morning. I got to see a lot of the clips. and a lot of the highlights, but I wish. I would have been up to see this one. I.

really do. But just my time zone kind of. messed me with this one. Unless you're a. Golden Knights fan. Ty Schmidt last. night was everything that was. spectacular with playoff hockey. you. know, the playoff hockey, I think, in. the broader sense, doesn't get talked. about enough, you know, and on this. particular channel, which we appreciate. for licensing our show ESPN, I don't. think there's been a lot of hockey talk. for a long time. I don't think playoff. hockey has gotten like kind of eyes on. it for one reason or another because. it's on another network. There's no uh. relevance to the conversation in there, right? Whatever the case is, but now it.

feels like you can't help but just. respect what's going on in hockey. Every. night there's a banger. Every night. there's something special. Every night. there is highlights and uh last night. the Capitals get a massive win over the. Hurricanes. The handsome menace Tom. Wilson and the goal empty nonetheless. doesn't matter on the score sheet. Just. keep it moving in that whole thing. It's. like hockey always delivers for us AJ. It really does feel like that as as. sports fans feels like playoff hockey. always delivers for us. Well, don't you.

feel that the thing about playoff. hockey? Has it always been seven game. series? Like playoff hockey is a whole. another season. Obviously, the regular. season is what it is. But playoff. hockey, it's like two, three months. long, it feels like. That's what what. makes it great. All these games mean so. much for us. And that's just like the. NBA. It is a whole another season as. like a outsider of the NBA fan, uh, but. lifelong NHL fan. The NBA is the same. way. the playoffs are the only thing. that really matters to the grand. conversation of the entire sport in the. entire league because the best of seven.

serieses are so long and that's all eyes. are on it. It's whenever the league is. the league basically for some people. And I think if you only tune in during. the NHL playoffs, I think you are. watching the best uh obviously in the. world, but also the best act outside of. I mean there was a couple even playoff. football games that weren't that I'm. trying to great playoff. football impossible to be. Okay. In our. eyes in our especially if your team's in. it, I mean whole different animal. But.

playoff hockey, if you have no rooting. interest, you just tune in, you you're. going to be dazzled. It's going to be. spectacular no matter what. So, I. appreciate them showing up in last. night's game going very late, but also. being very great. Yeah, it's the best. And hockey, it feels like, is the only. sport where the bottom seed can go on a. run and win the entire thing. Like even. in football, you can see the seven seed. making it to, you know, the divisional. or the NFC championship, but they're. never going on to win the Super Bowl. basketball is kind of similar, but it.

does kind of give you an insight on the. 82 games. Like we're talking about the. Pacers and how you after the All-Star. break, they got so hot and it's like you. kind of need those 82 games just so. water does find its level and then once. you do get to the playoffs, those teams. are going up against each other are the. best. Like the East is now uh you know. one verse four, two vers three. In the. West, you have a 7 vers6 matchup and a. one verse4 matchup. But uh now kind of. looking back on it with how much we do.

[ __ ] on the 82 games and this is too. much and you don't need to play this. many games. It's like you kind of do and. then the level of play that happens. after those 82 games is so much higher. because they've kind of every team has. found their rhythm a bit. That's a long. season. It's long as hell. I mean I. don't even want to get into baseball. right now. It's the same thing though. baseball they need to they need to have. exactly a 104 games 162 you have to. because that's it's a big like the with. the co year when they played 60 games. like you could argue like the best team. didn't win this year you know because.

like that that is that's what they've. done every year that's the whole point. is like can you go through the mental. and physical rigors of like an entire. summer and kind of find your formula. your right roster by the time the. playoffs so it's just like you know and. I guess it's in the sports world. interesting metaphor we'll see how it is. received. Soccer's 90 minutes. Mhm. And. I think it's kind of kind of. Yeah. You're talking about the extra. stoppage time that that we never know. about in the extra time that one person.

gets to keep the extra time. I would. imagine they can manipulate the game. pretty good. They put the sign up. They. go four minutes, three minutes at the. start of the extra minutes, but you. don't know until after the 90 minutes. They put it up. Yeah. So, he is ready. for the two-minute warning. I would just like to say that is kind of. new though. Back in the day they didn't. do that and it all was just like how. much time I will tell you when this how. much time power that person's got a lot. of power. Yeah, you literally ask like. hey how how much we thinking here and. I'll let you like if my team's up one.

nothing. Oh, sorry bud. There's no extra. time today. We're going we're right at. 90 tonight. But anyways, they've evolved. that a little bit but 90 minutes is a. long time. Golf 18 holes. That's a long. that's a really long time. And in the. modern world it's like can we bring that. down to 12 holes 13 holes. Can we do. that just to make golf a little bit. faster, more efficient? soccer. Can we. get that a little bit more active? You. know, and it's like this is how it's. always been. If you want to compare. yourself against all the times you play. the actual sport, we got to play 162. games. You got to play a long ass golf. round and you got to go 90 plus minutes. to survive this thing and probably run. six, seven miles. Can we drop that down,

make the nets bigger? Can we do can we. can we make the game a little bit? Well, that's not the sport. It's been this way. since the beginning of time. And that's. another great thing about sport. tradition. I think it's uh still a. meritocracy. I believe in a lot of I. think it's uh it's a beautiful thing. But I think these NBA and NHL playoffs. right now, I'm more invested now because. we obviously have an opportunity to. showcase their highlights and meet. people from their uh leagues and. everything. It's like I'm captivated. every single time. And I've never really. been that invested in the NBA playoffs. or the NBA at all. Super captivating.

But I'm on the other side. I wish I wish. I I wish these were 11 game series. I. wish these leagues played a 100 games a. year. I wish golf rounds were seven, eight hours. Soccer games four hours. The more they are the more things. No, I. mean like you said 90 minutes. I want. the run time to be Oh, play time. Yeah. I want 180. 180 minutes. Okay. Cuz cuz. if not if if if these all right, say. they were 40 game seasons, we'd have so. many days where we had nothing on and. nothing to do. Well, you know, I agree. I guess we could just watch a very. boring thing for a long time. And uh we.

certainly will and that is our life. But. there's a lot of things changing in. sport as well, especially at the college. ranks. Joining us now is the senior. insider and uh the authority on college. football and basketball, ladies and. gentlemen from ESPN's College Game Days. and the College Game Day podcast with. Reese Davis, Pete Theo. How you doing, Pete? I'm great, Pat. Coach Rodriguez told us on the College. Game Day podcast this week that you did. not have a curfew at West Virginia. because you were so reliable on the.

field and uh maybe not so reliable with. curfew. He just wanted you to make sure. you showed up when the game started. Is. that true? Well, I was an insomniac, you. know, so what's that? Why am I being. punished? I can't fall asleep, so uh I'm. not allowed to do. Everybody else that's. able to fall asleep has to live by the. same rules as me. No, me and uh Coach. Rod had a hilarious relationship, I. think, would be the way to describe it. And uh he taught me a lot about life, man. legitimately a lot about life. And. I find myself as I get older in every. situation, I think back to something. that Rich Rod either yelled at me or uh.

tried to get into our brains and however. he did it. Every I would say at least. every day, every other day I think about. Rich Rodriguez. I'm happy he's back at. West Virginia. How do you feel about it? How do you feel about the conversation. with him? I think we're I think we're. about We got to make some big turnover. I think I think we're going to be in a. good spot, but it might take us a little. bit, right? It might take us Is that. what you're feeling? Yeah, big big. turnover numbers wise uh this year for. uh for Rich and we'll see if your friend. Nico fits what he wants to uh do long.

term, right? I think Nico will be is a. very good player and a good starter. there, but we know what we know how Rich. wants to go. Has that been announced? Is. that the starter? Is Nico Did he tell. you Nico's a starter? He did not. He's. just, you know, the the incumbent on the. death on the depth chart. Um you know, he started some games at the end of last. year. I was about to say, holy [ __ ]. that's big news. Nico's a starter. because I love Nico Matzar. I love him. I love that he stayed too, right? Vastly. different vastly different styles of. culture are happening between Neil Brown.

and coach uh Rich Rodriguez. So him. staying I think was I like respect. Every time he played respect, but I I. didn't know if they named the start. That was cuz that you just kind of got. me pumped up there for a second like. okay goes our guy. I'm excited for the. big Italian lefty to kind of do his. thing. And then you know you're just. telling me you're reading it. Okay. You. don't have any information that I don't. have at this point. Okay. But happy to. No, I think you should have all the West. Virginia inside information. Pat, I will. say this. Uh, sitting here on May, whatever day today is, you would be very. hardressed to get a college football.

coach to tell you who their number one. is if it's not like an incumbent thumper. starter cuz the quarterback market is so. fickle and guys leave so soon that I, you know, if I ever mention to a coach. coming through string, hey, you know, this this guy, hey, equal snaps. Equal. snap. get a chance, you know, because. everybody they don't want to show their. cards to have guys leave. So, it's the. the games the games the gentlemen play. Yeah. And the game might have been. played there whenever you said Nico was. a starter cuz we got some dogs behind. him that we don't need to leave. Okay. We uh we got some guys. Hey, I don't.

think the starter has been named yet. But let's talk about what you just. chatted about there, people leaving and. everything. College football is. obviously in the middle of a wild. change. College sports as a whole. Uh we. all heard the announcement about or read. on the internet the announcement that I. think mutual friends of ours say that is. not official but would be cool if it was. to happen. College commission happening. and like getting rules and regulations. on this for the people that you talk to. in the sport. Are they all assuming that. this is going to happen and are they. thinking it's going to be sooner than. later? Like what what do you think about.

the guard rails that we're all kind of. hoping for? Uh what are the people in. the world that you talk to thinking. about the realistic expectations of. that? I think realistic expectations, Pat, is. a is a great way to frame it. We we all. sit around and talk a lot about the. issues and the problems and and they're. all pretty obvious with uh with college. football and the the goal of this. presidential commission that's supposed. to come together sometime in the next. few weeks would be to really sit down. and try to solve them. Uh if these were. easy issues to fix that didn't weave.

through labor law and weave through, you. know, billion dollar television. contracts and weave through higher. education, they probably would have been. fixed by now. So, I have uh personally. lived through a lot of commissions that. were supposed to fix college sports or. some aspect of college sports. And I. can't tell you right now whether this. one, even though the president. commissioned it, is going to be more or. less qualified to to sort of find uh to. find a place to go for a for a smooth. path forward for college athletics. What. is known already is that this commission.

is not going to all of a sudden be. gifted unilateral rights to like change. the whole landscape. uh Congress would. still be needed to to use the uh use the. great buzzword to codify um what they're. hoping to have happen with the. settlement. Um there's going to be some. antitrust help that's going to be needed. there. There's a lot that is needed and. the commission in a linear fashion is. not going to be able to just sit back. and say this is what we're doing. Let's. execute it. Yeah, this is what we're. doing is going to be a hard thing to get. to too. Like what's the right answer? Figuring out the right answer and. getting everybody that's on said.

commission to believe that that's the. right answer. Then if you think that's. the right answer, getting everybody to. approve their portion of the right. answer, which is going to involve a lot. of money, lot lot of money, a lot of. people, a lot of uh I assume lawyers if. I had to guess because there's. potentially money being taken away from. employee. I mean there is this is a huge. or we this is kind of where we always. end up back at on this particular. program whenever we talk about the. college guardrails everybody talks about. that the amount of things I would say.

the amount of things that have to get. fixed that is if somebody was to sign up. for that job that that's it like that is. that is a full-time thing I think this. commission might be tough to find I. think it's going to be tough to find. who's going to want to do this. I would just say this Pat it's a. multi-billion dollar business that is, you know, a an extremely important part. of the fabric of America when you talk. about college football especially, but. college athletics in general. And that. multi-billion dollar business sitting. here on May, whatever today is, doesn't.

actually have rules in place for when. it's going to essentially restart at a. high level in late August. Like there. are no there is not a system and a. paradigm set up yet for how this. multi-billion dollar business is going. to grow next year. So, it's a very it's. a very weird moment in time. Um that. that speaks to how sort of fraught and. complicated the issues are. Paradigm. Good word. You've been dropping all. codify paradigm. I love every time I. talk to Pete. I feel smarter. And in. this particular case, you feeling smart.

You got to have the qualified right. people in this position too cuz if they. don't know ball or the the reality of. what it is, it's never going to I I hope. Hey, good luck. Whoever does this, we. need you. We need you. Go ahead, AJ. I. think you have something on it, too. Yeah. Pete, what would you say is the. most like pressing issue that this. committee or or these guard rails that. are going to be put up? What's the most. pressing issue when you talk to coaches. and administrators that you think needs. to be figured out before anything else? Yeah, that's it's a really good. question, AJ. And I think there's a ton.

of macro things that need to be resolved. and then there's obviously going to be. some some micro things. But I do I I. think how they're going to treat the. athletes moving forward is probably the. most vexing issue. I think we all know. it's going to get to some collective. bargaining moment in time here. And. there's a lot of push back from that. from campuses, from presidents, uh. employee, non-employee, like all all. those issues. If they're not going to be.

employees, do they have protections? I I. think identifying what college athletes. are in the future and how they are going. to be how they're going to be treated is. probably the you know the the single. biggest issue going forward. And can you. somehow fast forward through years of. pain which we seem to be on the. precipice of and get to some. collectively bargain solution? I I think. that would be like the the the biggest. most complicated uh macro issue for. those that are not great with context.

clues. Vexing means causing annoyance, frustration, or worry, which is what he. was just referring to right there. And. at a high level, the macro views involve. a lot of lawsuits. A lot of them. What do you say taking. care of the players? All those players. that are making whatever or are supposed. to make whatever. And then if they put. rule, just this one generation because. the next generation will understand. these are the rules. Like it's when. there was a new CBA for the draft. Like. when AJ got drafted, these rookies.

getting drafted never played a day in. the NFL were getting paid more than. 15ear vets with their signing. Matthew. Stafford got like 60 million or. something in 2009. Guaranteed whenever. he s was the number one overall pick. It. was the same draft class as me. I got. 45,000 pick 222. Bought an Escalade, didn't get the money for three months, almost got Escalade, repoed. But. nonetheless, that is a lot of people. that are going to be losing money. potentially whenever these things come. in. And there's going to be lawyers that. like, we should definitely think about. figuring this whole thing out. Who who. settles that? Good question. Well, we.

still have to settle the settlement. first, right, Pat? And that could come. as soon as next week. But one thing I've. learned on on legal issues, this is from. Judge Wilkins courtroom in Northern. California. Um, one thing I've learned. about, uh, you know, uh, following. enough of these legal cases over the. years is they don't tend to happen. quickly. But this one seems to be on the. cusp. Everyone I've talked to in the. industry is waiting for the settlement. to happen. I I don't think there's a. there's a plausible chance that it. won't. You do talk to some extremists, however, who almost rooting for it not. to happen cuz then they would actually.

just have to figure out the rules. The. what the settlement is, it's almost like. a 10-year pause to like, okay, we messed. up all the stuff in the back. Let's. let's backay and fix that. And this. gives us like rules of engagement for. perhaps 10 years. It's it is the most. temporary of fixes to think again that a. multi-billion dollar business is relying. on the whims of a judge in a Northern. California courtroom who you know whose. rhetoric indicates she probably doesn't. have like 98th level like expertise on.

how college football and how college. sports work. It's a it's a really bad. place to have your bill billion dollar. business when it comes down to it. Yeah, I'm excited for that um ruling. Wasn't. that supposed to be in April or. something? Did I get punted? So yes, everyone was expecting to and quite. frankly the market acted like it was. supposed to happen in uh in April. It. was April 7th. It was the day of the. national championship game. There was. some cool kind of confluence of this is. the most important day of the NCAA. calendar because obviously CFP is not. under the NCA umbrella. And here's this.

this but it was just a hearing. It. wasn't a ruling. And I think people knew. that that hearing would give some. clarity in the future. But the it is it. has given way to more hearings and more. filings and uh perhaps perhaps next week. a uh a ruling. Okay. Shout out to any. billionaire that would like to adopt. West Virginia. It feels like we're going. to at least have another season of what. it has been at least at least another. another season cuz it when you talk. about like all we really know from. outsiders of the law world is that it.

takes forever, right? Ain't that like. the only thing we really know about? And. it's like they're not fastpassing. college football either for everything. else that is happening. It's like this. is a this is law rule of law. I'm. intrigued by it all. How does it end up. panning out? Because we thought last. year it was going to get ruined by. everything and it was big. It was very. big. Obviously the college football. playoff bigger than it's ever been. before. People love the ratings. I think. we're up on everything. It's like. college football is great. But will it. be able to sustain years and years and. years like it has with the way it's.

going with the uh who's where, who's. what, and then how much everybody's and. does this school, this booster uh not. want to do it anymore. So now they fall. off. It's like there has to be. something, but there's so many. questions. Now, let's talk about the. college football playoff. Ty has a. question for you, Pete, because there's. a some lingering change happening there. as well. Yeah, Pete, listen. We uh we've. heard that the SEC commissioner and the. Big 10, well the conference. commissioners, what have you, uh they're. gung-ho about, hey, we need a 16.

playoff. Now, to the layman, you might. think the CFP committees kind of put. themselves in a bit of a quagmire here. because we were just at a 12 team. playoff, now we're going to 16. Um, do. you envision that this is going to [ __ ]. at 16 and kind of just shay there or are. we going to, you know, in 2, three years. from now be saying, "Hey, we have the. NCAA basketball tournament for football. We're going to have 64 teams in here. We. obviously know the economics of the. situation uh are at play." So, what's. kind of your take on this whole uh, you.

know, ordeal with the playoff, if you. will. Yeah, Ty, good uh, good question. Uh, I. appreciate a good quagmire, as you know. So, uh, where where we are right now for. the for the playoff is, uh, year 13, they call it 2026. We're going into year. 12 of the first 12 team 12 year. agreement for the playoff. This is the. the final season. We're going to be at. 12. And they've kind of soft agreed to. go to 14 for the next iteration of uh of. the playoff. I believe it's a six-year. run from 26 to 31. Um, as the.

discussions have been honed in on that, there's been recent momentum for what. was expected to be and thought to be a. 14 team playoff to go to 16. And a lot. of this comes down to automatic. qualifiers. Automatic qualifiers are. controversial in some sense because the. Big 10, the SEC are likely to have. double what the Big 12 and the ACC have. So, there's been some push back on that. Um but as it has gone forward and the. conversations have uh have continued.

Big 10 commissioner Tony Patiti has been. very bullish on automatic qualifiers. Greg Sanki the SEC commissioner has been. a little more guarded in revealing what. his hand is. But the notion that I've. gotten especially in like the last week. is Sanki has started to align himself. more with Petiti on where on the. potential of four. And the compromise of. all this is to create more spots for the. college football playoff, which is why. 16 has really uh has really come into. focus. Now, what the 16 team playoff.

looks like, how it goes, how the. automatic qualifiers end up being. determined. Do you have conference. championship games? Do you not have. conference championship games? Do you. have like a 18, 27, uh, etc. SEC Big 10. playins? Do you have the the the two. teams who the one and two play each. other? They each play for the conference. championship game but are also given. automatic bids. How all that gets hashed. out, we've probably got six weeks, two. months before it all comes together. Um,

but I I do know this in in the SEC. especially and in the Big 10 too, the. the coaches are pushing they want. automatic bids and they are pushing more. towards it. And if the SEC is going to. go to nine games, which is appearing a. little bit more likely, they they want. that extra protection that they don't. want a conference loss to to X them out. And this would essentially keep the top. half of each league in the playoff. conversation for the uh for the entire. year. And Petiti has a background in the. NFL. That's always been uh that's always. been his thing to have a Minnesota.

Rutgers game where, you know, they're. hovering around 500 have playoff stakes. It's like having the seven and8 Jets. play the 8 and8 Patriots or whatever in. week 15 and there's there's a wild card. bid seemingly, you know, on on the. table. Got it. Okay. Whenever they think. about these college football playoff. changes and maybe playin games and. everything like that, do they think. about how all the teams that had a buy. hated it? Right. Then that kind of with. how long everything's kind of expand. extend uh expanded, I'm sorry, and.

extended. It's like the teams at the buy. were not I think we were all even. talking at the time like they were off. for three weeks before they had to play. a game. They might have lost everything. It seemed like it was rust not rest or. maybe it was just worse teams. But. whatever the case, I think that all kind. of was too I don't think it was. beneficial. I don't I don't think it was. beneficial with So they're going to have. to figure that out if they're adding. playin games. That's another week of a. week of a week. Well, that would be. championship weekend, Pat. Oh, okay. Well, what a lot of weeks left on the.

calendar and the NFL calendar. I know. you guys have talked about this is, you. know, there's there's some collision and. crossover uh collision and crossover. there um with that, but it would it. would be you'd play your championship. game and then have playing games that. same day or you would have four playing. games. Could be two playing games, SEC. in the uh SEC and the Big 12. Um so. yeah, inventory is as usual on the. spike. I love it. Maybe they'll spice up. that day. Maybe that day gets even more. loaded, I guess, right? that becomes a. mustwatch day like wild card weekend.

kind of has become for the NFL. Okay, let's talk about some of these teams. that are going to make it. Feels like if. you got the cash all the you got the key. you're going to be in a good spot. I. mean, I just tried to summon a. billionaire who still would like to make. the offer on the table. If you have a. lot of money and you're interested in. college football, West Virginia would. love to have you. Would love to have you. be a part of the Mountaineers. And we're. not trusting climbing anymore. We got a. hard edge, okay? We are we're we're. going out there. We're not climbing. We're trying to We're trying to go fight. some people right now. Uh there is a.

team though that's going to be at top. seemingly for a very long time because. there's a lot of interest around the. university. Go ahead, Conman. Yeah, Pete. Reports are coming out saying that. Texas is spending 35 to40 million on its. football team. I assume they're not the. only team, but for some reason they're. the ones named in here. Are you hearing. these are the numbers basically for a. lot of these big programs spending money. and did this happen because the hearing. got kind of pushed till next week as you. said and that maybe some money was.

promised and then all of a sudden uh oh. [ __ ] we actually have to pay the piper. on all of these deals that we made. Yeah, we are in uh a quintessential. college sports moment right now where. everyone is in a hurry to frontload. So. when the settlement does happen, as. we're assuming it's going to happen. relatively soon, the the amount of money. spent against the cap, which is going to. come, if you spent it already, it. wouldn't count. So there was basically. like a fake market. Pat referenced.

earlier like April 7th, we needed by. April 7th. So there was this huge push. both in football and basketball to get. all these deals done. I had agents, I. was at a proday, and one of them came up. to me. He's like, I've never negotiated. with someone before who's like, "No, no, no. We want to pay you now. No, forget. later. We'll pay you everything up. front." which is obviously counter to. usually how negotiations work. So I. think in the uh in in the realm of like. Texas and high-end schools in the high. 30 million range, that's not shocking to. me. Like that's that's in line. We were. in the 20s last year. So with this sort.

of window to be exploited, it's not. surprising Texas is there. USC is. spending a lot of money in high school. recruiting right now. they have the. number one uh they have the number one. class in the country and that's that's. clearly another team that is going that. is going all out now until until the. paradigms are put into place and in. basketball uh there's rosters that are. in the in the neighborhood of 20 million. so and they only have you know 12 13. guys on them so it's uh it is a weird. feeding frenzy right now that's uh that. is uh that's flying around once again if.

you are at a university you this is the. time where your alumni can really. showcase themselves and there's a lot of. these schools. You talk about USC going. USC wants to get back to the glory days. Remember what USC was whenever they were. flying around. Obviously, their alumni. want LA to be a USC city and everything. like that. Penn State Penn State's had. to sit all their alumni call a lot of. success. Lot of success. They have the. most CEOs out of any university in the. country across the business world. Penn. State does. I learned that this past. year whenever we were up there for game.

day. All their CEOs get paid a lot of. money. People get pissed about how much. CEOs get paid. Okay, that's like an. actual thing. So, they all have a lot of. money and they all like ball. Like they. all they all like ball and their. athletic director is like, "I've learned. this pretty quickly here that everybody. like likes ball." They were able to just. drop what 700 million or something on uh. stadium uh renovation. Boom. And then. they were able to bid for whatever. It's. like these schools that have an alumni. that are ready to roll, they're. certainly going to benefit from that. Now, with that being said, Ohio State.

Buckeye AJ Hawk has a question for you, Pete. Yeah, Pete. Actually, I want to. know what do you think the max number is. that we see in the college football. playoffs 10 years from now, what do you. think? Like is are we going to get up to. like like uh I guess the other Pete. said, a 64 team football playoff. eventually. So, if if we get to 16 here, which I. would say is a high probability at at. this point, AJ, I have a hard time. seeing it jump up from there. Again, there's bracket creep. It's always look.

back at the history of a basketball. tournament. it it's always grown and. there'll be another conversation about. it growing next year in in hoops. Uh I. would think 16 you'd have to stay static. there for a relatively short period of. time. Now 20 years from now I I don't. know how it all how it all works but I. would think there's already resistance. you know from going 14 to 16 in a lot of. ways. And a lot of this comes down to TV. windows, guys. Like the we we saw the. overlap last year with the college.

football playoff and the NFL, and. there's there's not a lot of places to. put these games right now. So, the the. appetite for fierce growth uh TV-wise is. likely not to be that high just because. the the the windows to showcase and. maximize them financially aren't there. College football's got a lot going on. Yes, it does. College football's got a. lot going on. A lot of big decisions. need to be made. Uh, somebody needs to. step up and decide them. Now, somebody. also needs to step up and be the brand. new face of college football. Tone has.

the last question for you here. Pete. Yeah, Pete. We uh, we talked a lot about. the beginning of this conversation about. uh, quarterback depth charts and how. coaches right now are not going to talk. about that, but there are a lot of big. programs who do have quarterback. battles. Michigan's obviously got one. with Bryce Underwood and Mikey Keane, the fivestar coming in there. Oregon's. got uh, Dante Moore and Austin Novasad. there. Uh, Alabama has got Tai Simpson. and Austin Mack down there. Have those. big schools, have any of them leaned in. any direction as far as who's going to. be the face of their program moving. forward this year?

Good question, Tone. And I think uh at. least two of those schools, I feel like. who starts the season may not. necessarily end the season if if that. makes sense. You mentioned you mentioned. Ty Simpson. I would think he's the. experienced, safe son of a coach kind of. guy who can who can roll out there week. one. the the name at at Bama that's got. some buzz is Keelin Russell. He was the. number one quarterback recruit in the. country. Is he the kind of guy that can. show the coaches enough where he could. eventually he could eventually end up. taking over? Uh it'll be really.

interesting for for Michigan as you. mentioned. Obviously Bryce Underwood's. there. Mikey Keane's played a lot of. college football. You go to Oklahoma. week two. Is is Mikey Keane the uh you. know is is Mikey Keane the starter there. or do you let Bryce Underwood rip? Remember there there aren't a lot of. there's not a lot of empirical evidence. of freshman quarterbacks like leading. teams to conference titles. So you don't. and you look at Dylan Rayola for example. like he was he struggled at times last. year straight up. So when to break the. quarterback in to not curb his.

development becomes uh becomes pretty. interesting. And I think for for Oregon. I feel pretty good about Dante Moore, you know, being being the starter there. with with no super inside knowledge. Oregon had chances in the portal to go. get uh higher higherend players. They've. had Dante Moore for a year. They they. seem to like what they have there. He. was obviously the number one quarterback. recruit in the country coming out of. Michigan uh two years ago went and. played for Chip Kelly at UCLA and then. transferred up there and kind of took a. red shirt year la red shirt season last. year. So yeah, those are all going to be.

interesting summer uh summer battles. that we're following. I love that you. brought up Dylan Ryola who's a son son. of a coach. Okay. So, he, you know, he. works his ass off. I seen him at Raw the. other day in Omaha. Looking good, strapping. Big son. Coach Matt Rule, obviously vibes high, hanging with the. boys. And then Eoney, Emma Johnson, the. running back, his aura was immaculate. Like a confidence that, you know, I.

think you can't teach. I'm I'm high on. the Nebraska Corn Huskers after getting. a chance to meet these boys and chitchat. with them oneonone post Monday Night Raw. in the back. Now, because I did enjoy. the conversation with them for so much, uh I hit all the traffic. Sure. Out of. 11,000 in Omaha. Okay, that's uh all. leaving at the same time. So, I did. think about the conversation we were. having while sitting in traffic in Omaha. for a good bit there after the program. And uh I I would like to let the.

Nebraska Corn Husker boys know. I said, "Worth it." It was cool to meet them. It. was that Dylan kid was that was great. Like he was I enjoyed the way he was. operating. Like I I enjoy he just has. like a star kind of uh vibe about him. And then Eoney were there right next to. him. Do a great nickname. Soon as I saw. it on his chain, too. I'm like Eoney. here, dude. I didn't know who he was. I've learned Emma Johnson's a dog. Um. all right. I think Dylan Ro is going to. be a star next year. Freshman last year. He said straight up didn't do exactly. Guys playing for Nebraska as a freshman.

What are we? What? He's huge. No. Yeah. Listen, I love the hype. You're going to. have to do better than six and six next. year. This is the Big 10, okay? We're. not playing in the wack. So, did you see. him in the end of the season? Did you. see him at the end of the season? Yeah, I did. He looked like [ __ ] against Iowa. Okay. Okay. He actually fumbled, you. know, kind of end of the game. Listen, he's a great player. He learned a. lesson. He did. He's a young guy. Just. wait. Let's see what Iowa is, you know, going. Oh, we will. We got Mark. Granowski. We got the Oh, I forgot you. got to be just fine. I forgot about.

that. All right. Hey uh Pete, we. appreciate you, man. Thank you for. taking time. I called you very last. minute to join us today and you uh. picked up the phone and delivered. We. appreciate that. Thanks, Pat. Thanks, guys. The authority and the host of the. College Game Day podcast, Pete Dam. A lot of words in there out of Pete. Yeah. Yeah. Holy hell. It's hard not to. hear just Ty. Every time he speaks, it's. hard not to just hear Ty. Well, you. should see Tai when he's talking. Ty is. watching film as he whenever whenever. Pete's on the big When Pete's on the big. screen there, it's just him. Yeah, Tai's.

like very intently watching and then. you're on the back board here. We can. still see you whenever you're not on. camera. You're like next to Pete. Your. reactions are our reactions at the same. exact time every single time. Yeah. Everything you're I think you even heard. us one time into the mic. We had to like. step away cuz we're like geez like cuz. son of a son of a coach. What was it? Son of a coach. That was a good line. That's like a coach's kid is what I. always said. He said two words. backtoback times. I can't remember what. they were. Vaccine came in came out of.

nowhere. That was certainly one. Um, codify. Yep. Codify was something which. I still don't know if that's codify. Every sentence has a few of them. Every. sentence has one or two words. You're. like, "Wow, I would not have thought. that goes there." That was Andrew Luck, too. There was times where I'm like, my. context, clues, abilities help me out. immensely here because there some of. these people are just speaking a a. different language of the English. language and I don't know them, you. know, and uh I tried to do the. dictionary.com word of the day thing,

try to get better at this. Turns out I'm. not that interested in it. I just. stopped doing it. Turned off the. notifications. I'm I'm like, this is not. helping because they'll give me a word a. random word of the day that that would. never I would never be able to put that. into my life. But somehow Pete figures. out a way to get these words in. And. Tai, I think uh I think he he respects. the ability to uh match them with his. brain and his wits. And I enjoy watching. it. Literally, you watching film on him. is [ __ ] sweet as we go through here. He gave you a lot to work with today. He. does every single time, you know. I.

mean, he's reading these these, you. know, legal speak documents that are 60. pages. So, I mean, his vocabulary is is, you know, better than most, uh, if not. better than all. But, you know, you get. those sweet little moments where AJ's. trying to, you know, get a clarification. after his question and Pete doesn't hear. anything he's saying. He's so locked in. Just completely ignores him and keeps. answering the question. That's why he's. the authority. Joining us now, ladies. and gentlemen, is a man who's a two-time. NBA champion, a former sixth man of the.

year. He's obviously had an incredibly. successful career in NBA. He's also a. dog on the golf course. Ladies and. gentlemen, host of the Par three. podcast, Jr. Smith. Hey, Jr. What's up, man? What's going on? What's going on? Hey, I. watch you react. I watch you react to. the Knicks, obviously. I've heard you. chitchat about it all. Cavaliers, obviously a team that you're close with, also the number one seed. They're on a. complete opposite end of the spectrum. What's going on with the Knicks? Are you. enjoying the playoffs right now? Loving.

it? How is your vibe towards what's. happening in the NBA right now? Um, it's ups and downs, man. You know, I'm loving it for the Knicks. I'm. terrified for the Cavs. Uh, Denver's. series looks crazy. Um, so I got three. teams that I'm really pulling for. Obviously, only one team can win. So, it's going to be interesting. It's been. fun so far. I've enjoyed um, you know, recapping as we heard there was a chance. you would be joining us today, which by. the way, we're pumped about. You need to. be talking more. You know that. You know. that. I appreciate it, man. Yeah, no.

problem. Especially with just who you. are, your res everything and what you're. doing like everything you do we are. massive fans of. You just need to know. all the way back to the co times. I mean. there was we are everything you do we. like just you need to know that. So. anytime you come out and start speaking. we put requests and thank you for. joining us especially in the middle of. playoffs and a very busy time for you. when you think you have so much. experience in the playoffs and in big. games obviously whenever a team's down. 20 what is the conversation in locker. room like right now what is Boston. saying? They're obviously championship.

pedigree. They're down 2. Cleveland, they're number one team in the East this. year. They're down 2. Is there panic? Is. there an understanding that there's an. urgency that's needed? What is the. conversation in those locker rooms? Uh, I mean, for a team like Boston, I. definitely think there's panic. Um, I. mean, everybody's healthy for the most. part. We just don't the ball's not. falling away. They're shooting a lot of. threes and, you know, and that leaves. opportunities for teams to come back. like, you know, the Knicks have been. Uh, not not to discredit the Knicks, but. it's just, you know, certain situations,

especially in the playoff basketball, you know, you got to change your style. up a little bit. Cleveland is is in a. different scenario. Daryus Garland's. out. Um, a big hit though Mobly missed. the last game, some defensive, well, active defensive player of the year. So, I mean, that's obviously going to take. some hits to your ego and to his pride. But, uh, you got to figure it out. It's. playoffs, man. Ain't no excuses. And, uh, you got next man up. Well, when. Tyrese is going big ball of Burton on. you, you know that that's the in your.

town. I mean, he's just all over it. What a time. Pacers, we've been able to. pay attention obviously because we're in. Indianapolis. They've been a very good. team that nobody's really talked about. And I understand the Cleveland Cavaliers. are also a team that was very good all. season and not enough people talked. about because of the smaller market. situation. I assume this series is going. to get very, very, very good. We all. expect that. Go ahead, AJ. Yeah, when. you watch this Warriors team, do you. think they have a chance to to beat the. Minnesota obviously without Steph? It. sounds like he'll be out this whole. series. And what do you make of. Draymond's play? And do you think he's. going to uh think he's going to make it.

for the rest of the playoffs and not get. booted? Um I mean to to first answer. your question, without Steph, I don't. see it happening. Um they don't have. enough people who can create their own. shot and get other guys involved at the. same time. Steph create so many uh eyes. on them at one time. allowed a lot of. guys to get off, especially uh with an. addition of Jimmy, who's a great great. two. I mean, he's not a he's not a bad. one, but he doesn't do anything. spectacularly well on the offensive ends.

where it's like, okay, we we could throw. it to Jimmy and get a bucket. So, he's a. great two, but without Steph, I mean, I. don't I really don't see it happening. Um Draymond, I think Draymond could he. could possibly stay into it. It's just a. matter of his frustration levels with. the team, with the fouls, being in the. situation. Obviously, we know he's. liable to do anything, but uh depending. on the frustration level and depending. on how you know Ant could be Ant and. playing the way he's been playing, he. could probably get under your skin a. little bit. I wouldn't be surprised. Tell me about Ant. I assume you're a big.

fan of the way he goes about his. business. We are. We We love the way he. plays. I love the way he acts. Now, granted, him taking a victory lap, awesome. Love everything about it. Then, as soon as he has a bad game, he's. opening himself up to get absolutely. murdered. But I think he's cool with. that. I think like that is who he is. What do you think about Ant-Man and what. do you think about the run he's on right. now? Man, I think Ant is is incredibly. talented. Um not only on the court but. off the court. His personality is uh. second to none. He's the kid is just a. complete star. He shines in bright in.

every you know circumstances of his. life. You can see his commercials. You. see him on live. You see his playing. video games. He obviously see him. playing basketball. So, I mean, it's. pretty remarkable what he's been able to. do at the age he he's at and uh to see. him. I think this is what third year to. be at the level he's at so fast. I mean, literally, I think he's I think he's the. best shooting guard in the game right. now. And that's we haven't said that. about somebody that early in their. career since I mean, easily. He's old.

He feels like an old school player, too. Do you sense that? Is that uh kind of. the mindset whenever you gather around. all the OGs of the NBA that you chat. with? I assume. Yeah, 100%. I mean, he's. a dog because he he wants to he wants to. the the not only the contact every play, but he wants that that problem, that. friction with the other star player and. he wants to guard them and he wants them. to guard him. And that doesn't really. happen, you know, because we play for so. many matchups and low management, stuff. like that. It takes away a lot of the uh. the man-to-man, you know, ego and pride.

in the game. So to see him take that. challenge head on, night in and night. out, especially with the Phoenix last. year. I mean, it was it was just it's. amazing to watch him and still have that. almost 90 type ' 90s type doll. Yeah. I. just You mentioned the Sun series, him. and Durant obviously and Durant like. laughing about it at one point because I. think Durant also has massive respect. for what's going on. All right, let's. chitchat about the playoffs as a whole. J.R. Smith, legend joining us. Go ahead,

Con man. Yeah, J.R. Feels like there are. some younger teams like the Thunder, like your Cavs, even the T-Wolves have. some uh young dudes on it that almost. have inexperience. You know, the Cavs, they were out in the second round last. year. Right now, they're down 2. Thunder. were a second round exit last year. I. believe that series is tied up. How much. is the playoff experience like a benefit. for some teams where, you know, the. moment's not too big for them that they. don't know it? And then sometimes how is. it, you know, almost too much where they. don't know how to handle themselves.

throughout a seven game series? And do. you think either of those teams are. trying to kind of grow through that. inexperience to get to kind of a more. vet levelheaded team similar to how you. know the Celtics kind of grew over the. last five years, ultimately leading to. the championship last year? Well, I. mean, it definitely plays uh being. inexperienced plays into it so many. times. You just don't know how to finish. games. The lights are brighter. The. playoff basketball is completely. different for the regular season. Every. position counts. When guys are when the.

game when you know the game scheme and. playing game plan gets tighter around. you and what you do and around your team. is is is you know it's not easy. It's. definitely not easy. You run into some. matchups and in some series where it's. just a bad matchup. So for inexperienced. guys to to not understand where to go uh. next with how they you know being. guarded and trying to add more things to. the game while the series goes on or. even just dissect their fans. A lot of. the season vets I mean guys who aren't.

playing the quote unquote uds of the. game the PJ Tuckers now I mean those. guys are the guys who are really. important in film room and communicating. you know between barriers of coaches and. players because they've seen it the. most. They understand. a different perspective and they're. watching the game from a completely. veteran eyes and who played them. numerous experiences. So, but the. downfall to that is being having. overexperience and seeing too many. things and not being able to over.

coaching too. A lot of guys especially. like a I can see times where he can be. over coached to where it's like just. they they want him to shoot the three. more and it's like his game is way too. diverse for that. He's he can get to the. basket. He can get to the free throw. line. He can get to the mid-range game. It him to shoot 12 to 15 threes a game. He's just diluting his pure talent. Okay, so let's talk about shout out to. Ant-Man being a dog. But let's go to. Boston then. What about that team that's. very experienced and then for some.

reason now down the stretch in the. biggest moment when you think experience. would help you, it's going the other. way. Do teams just get cold, shooters. get cold? What happens? Do you just turn. the lights off at the end? Why do you. think what's happening to Boston is. happening to Boston? You just definitely. get coached. I mean, living you can live. by the three and die by the three for. sure. Um, that's really one of my. models. I I love that style of. play trying to shoot 50 threes a game is. definitely up my alley. Um, but at the. same time, man, if you're not getting. stops and you get long rebounds and.

you're consist consistently put in. transition position, especially being an. older team, a younger team can run you. out the gym. And a team like uh when you. got guys like Josh Hart and Bridges who. really, you know, uh just get extra. possessions and literally wear you down, that takes a toll on you, especially. when you lose two at your home floor. And you see that happen back to back and. then coming back from big deficits. I. think that can, you know, strike a a. major uh shank in your armor. But the. only thing about uh one thing I can say. about Boston is they have they have they.

definitely have the pedigree. It's just. I don't I don't think it's the lights is. too bright. I think sometimes they just. over they overplay themselves. They they. play the they play the game or they play. the they play the clock and they play. the score opposed to playing the game. That's a bar right there at the end. Absolutely. Um you think Boston's going. to figure it out, comment? Oh yeah, I. have full faith. Still the favorite. Mhm. I I have the utmost faith in in the. Boston Celtics beating the Knicks in the. series. Jr. When you got cold, did you. change? No way. How did you.

Jr. when you and did you ever have a. streak where you got cold where you. wondered maybe you should change your. shooting style or anything like that? Oh, shooting style? No. I've definitely. had streaks where I've gotten cold, ice. cold, but I'm going to shoot. For me, my. mindset, I'm just going to make the next. one and if I miss the first four, I'm. going to make the next six. So, I'm. going to keep shooting. I think y'all. have to take me out. Ty has a question for you, J.R. Yeah, J.R., When you look at the league as a. whole right now, you know, everyone's.

basically saying like, "Hey, Durant is. done with the Suns." And then there's. been a lot of talk about Giannis being. done with the Bucks. In your opinion, for both those guys, what do you think. the best landing spot would would be for. them to be successful if they are both. to leave their teams? Man, I haven't dissected it enough. I. honestly I don't watch enough. basketball. I' I've only watched the uh. playoffs with uh I mean KD could fit. anywhere. I mean he's obviously, you. know, to me second best scorer in the.

league right now behind Kyrie, but I. mean he can go fit in any system and. play any type of style. He showed us. that with Golden State. He obviously OKC. they played a totally different style of. play. So for him, I mean he he can go. anywhere. Giannis is obviously it's a. little harder because he's not as well. of a score as KD I would say as far as a. shooter. So, he needs spacing. He needs. shooters around him. Uh, but I would. love to see Giannis in a big market. city. Uh, I would definitely love to see.

KD back in a a major market city, whether that be New York or LA or. something like that or even Chicago. Indiana. Ind. But I definitely think that that's. what the game is definitely missing. And. I'm I am happy about the Luca situation. to where he gets to a major market to. see where his startup can really go. How. do you feel about Luca and LeBron? Obviously, LeBron comes out on uh his. podcast, Mind the Game, and says like, "Yeah, I don't." Basically says it's a.

there's a lot to talk about as opposed. to just me and Luca taking the full. blame on is what the point he was trying. to make. How do you feel about that. pairing? What do you think about uh. obviously as somebody that's had success. with LeBron, a lot of it, what do you. think about the pairing of Luca and. LeBron? And how do you think next year. is with the full off seasonason. together? Um, I I I think it's a great. fit. I just for me because Brian is. where he is and essentially passing the. key fees down. Uh, it's interesting how. they'll do it in the clutch moments.

during the course of the game, three. quarters. I think it's easy because. they'll alternate on who's on the court. and doing what and because they pretty. much, you know, they have a lot of. similarities in their game just filling. the stat sheet as a whole and playing. pick and roll and finding guys. So, uh, for me, it's interesting to see it down. down to the to the stretch because. obviously Luca is, you know, a bit of a. closer and LeBron has been that his. whole career. So to see him get off of.

the ball and you know figure that. position out like like I was in a lot of. the times it'll be interesting. Have you. talked to him about playing off the ball. being a guy? Because we talked to Rich. Paul after it happened and Rich was. talking about how LeBron now can do what. he was hoping other people would do. He. almost has an advantage becoming the. offthe-ball guy because of how ball. dominant he was for so long of his. career. Do you agree with that. sentiment? And uh how do you think that. plays out in the long run? 100%. I mean, for a long for the longest.

time, the main knock on LeBron was. always quote unquote shooting. And now. he's become such a dynamic shooter with. catching shoots and off the dribble. shooting. You can he can really get off. the ball. Now, obviously, he was pretty. damn good with playing picker roles and. having the ball in his hands, but. earlier on in his career, they they put. him in those positions mainly because. they they didn't want him to be a catch. and shoot guy. With a guy like Luca with. with LeBron slashing, back door. throwing, calling things out from the.

weak side, offensive side, not just the. defensive side, I think it's be pretty. damn special. They say he was it the. Olympics they were talking about LeBron. at the practice. Yeah. How the entire Is. that how he is all the time from what we. heard practice we're allowed? We're. we're the every minute basically of. practice, LeBron is active, vocal, and. very communicative about the whole. thing. Yeah, 100%. every every practice. he's like that is it's pretty remarkable. cuz he's still doing it and still at the. level of excitement every single day.

And for me, I know how the dance got. burnt out talking to these young dudes, especially being in certain situations, the. cert burnt out, but I'm glad he still. has that joy that he finds every single. day to get up and do it. Yeah, he's uh I. mean just an absolute anomaly. Who knows. what happens in the future. He might. play with two of his kids. Two of his. kids he might play with. That's. absolutely absurd whenever you tell the. story of sports in history. All right, last question here. Not about. basketball. AP Tone has one for you. No, J.R., it's real simple. When uh when are. you gonna qualify for the US Open? When.

are we planning on doing that? Next. year. Next year. I'm right now I'm. getting to very close to a zero. So, when I get on the other side of that, I. feel more confident about being able to. qualify. Okay. So, I was just trying to. look this up. I didn't remember the. exact school. North Carolina ENT State. University. You what? Yes, sir. You want. to play golf? Are you still there right. now? Yeah, I got another year. eligibility. I graduate in the spring. Okay. So, are you in class right now? Is. that where you're standing? No, I'm in. the damn airport, man. They keep pushing. my flight back. I'm trying to get to the.

guard tomorrow, baby. I got to get I got. to get to the gate. Okay. All right. Well, safe travels hopefully commercial. uh airports uh and travel certainly care. about that. You know, they will get to. the bottom of it. They will take care of. you. Yeah. I was watching you on game. day, man. Send that plane down here, dog. Come on, man. Ladies and gentlemen, Jr. Smith. Hope he's not flying newer. Yeah. Yeah. I guess there's a lot going on. Yeah. I. guess outages with air traffic control.

They have no They're so understaffed. Yeah. They're Yeah. So it And uh that's. why it's delayed. Oh, I didn't know. that. For sure. The plane world is. crazy. It is crazy. All the things. happening. Oh, yeah. Like if you ever. just see like a map of all the planes. that are in the sky and then all the. things that can go wrong. I assume you. know we've kind of started seeing there. for a little bit which I don't like at. all. It's a it's a wild world and he has. no control over if that plane's taking. off in 30 minutes or if that plane's. taking off in 10 hours because that it's.

the flight before you see and it might. be in uh two different cities before it. gets to you. And it's like anything can. go wrong in any of those places. So. fickle. The fact that we had a time. where it was like smooth seemingly that. seems like that was out of control for. you. Yeah. And they also don't give a. [ __ ] Like they probably know right now. whether or not that flight is just going. to be cancelled. But like they will. delay that thing a h 100 times until it. gets to 9:30. Kind of keep you prisoner. at the airport and then at 9:30 be like. it's canceled. We got one taken off.

tomorrow. Sorry you were here all day. Figure it out. Yeah. And also we don't. have a full plane available tomorrow. because obviously there's been Yeah. So. you're you're potentially getting there. It's like okay. All right. Yeah. That's. good. So, what should I So, do I stay? Well, if you want to get there, you. might want to rent a car and start. driving. Yeah. How would it be to. scratch though? Yeah. Getting close to. zero. One more year left at North. Carolina ENT State. Whenever he did. that, I thought it was so cool. Like, cuz he's going back to school or he's. going to school, didn't get, you know, to finish degree, do degree. So, goes to. school on a golf scholarship, getting.

good down there. Yeah. And now he's. getting close to zero. Those teammates, how sweet that would be. J.R. Smith's. our teammate. He's going to be captain. of his team next year. He's a senior. next going to be a captain of the golf. team down there getting close to a zero. He loved the game right before he went. to obviously that's a reason did he grow. up playing like I was going to I don't. know what his background was playing. golf. I don't know. I wonder guys so. like he and Steph the fact that he and. Steph are so good both good shooters. Yeah. I wonder I heard somebody say. shooting a basketball in a should like. you could tell by loose shoulders like.

how are the shoulders? I wonder if that. helps out like Ray Allen also. Yeah. Oh. yeah. You know like all Reggie. Yeah. All of our super smooths, too. All very. smooth. Swings, shot, all. Have an. incredible weekend. I'm all big fight. tomorrow night. Yeah. Hell yeah. At WWE. Backlash, we'll see you for reaction. Monday. I feel like I really nailed. that. Hopefully I'm available to do show. Monday. No kidding. I know. [ __ ]. Hopefully I'm available. The most. violent champion. You might be in jail. for murder. Well, yeah. Okay. I mean, I.

don't think I've ever seen that. I've. been doing I realized uh I started. watching, you know, film on Guther. Mhm. I realized, man, my voice is on a lot of. I've watched a lot of Gunther, you know. I've watched a lot way back. Yeah. From. all the way back whenever he was Walter. ring around. I've seen a lot of a lot of. Gunther. I'll tell you what, he is a. tough Austrian [ __ ] He is. But you. know what? Come get some. That's right. That's. exactly right. Pittsburgh pies on. Yeah.

I'm Exactly. Tough Pittsburgh pies on. I. gotta do what I got to do. Okay. We all. understand this. Gotta do what I got to. do for Michael Cole. You can't I just. can't be the person that just sits there. and then say like, you know, I'm friends. with Michael Cole and then watch his ass. get snatched, you know, and then sit. there and do nothing. What am I going to. do? Sit there and do nothing? Then I got. to live with that for the rest of my. life. Oh, I just watched Michael Cole. get punked out in front of everybody. Never going to do that. Never going to. be that. Can't be that person. Can't be. known as that person. Now, there are. people that potentially don't have the. physical stature to be person that could. stand up for friend. I understand that.

But got to be a person that's known for. if your friend's going to get punked, you got to show up. Even if you get Hey, even if you take an L. Yeah, that's. right. On film, you got to be the person. running towards the fight, not the. person staying away from the fight. That. is just a must. You know, I think I. might have learned that in football. I. think I grew up with that mentality. But. in football, that I've never seen. something more obvious. Whenever the. film would be shown of a fight in our. teams that I was on, did get into it. every once in a while. We were uh we.

were a chirpy bunch. I think we have. some of the greatest of all time. potentially in the [ __ ] talking world. and there would be a a scrum nothing. ever really you know but couple of times. every once in a while but you can get. ejected for the game before the fight. even starts but normally there is a push. of yell maybe a little bit aggressive. and that we would see that everybody. would see that and it's like the my. personal opinion whenever I saw somebody. see it and not move towards it I was. always like oh yeah you're judging I. mean not even judging you're you're kind.

of making a decision about that person. for the rest of their life. Boom. That. is exactly the case. So, if anything was. ever happening around me, punter, kicker, whatever it is, I'm bottom of. the totem pole here. I would like these. boys to know that all right, I'm. probably going to get my [ __ ] kicked. here, depending upon who this is, but. I'm going to go ahead. I I'm in it. I'm. in it, you know. And in this time, you. know, I feel pretty good. Oh, yeah. You. know, he is big. He's a lot bigger than. a lot of people. I mean, I'm 6'1. Put. those shoes on. 6'2. I'm 245 right now. You know, I'm I'm like all the things.

I'm looking at. It's like, yeah, I mean, there's a chance that this goes really. bad. There's a chance it really, but. also there's a chance that I you know, the big tree falls really good. Yeah. What do you mean? Yeah, there's a. chance. Yeah, there's a chance that I. saw some odds have been placed on the. internet. Okay, that feels good, too. That feels good, too. I think he's like. minus a,000 or something like that. Okay. You're in a great spot. What a. good spot. You know, it was plus 5,000. Who's that? Old Leo. You're right. And. then what happened? Yeah, you were. right. That white smoke came. CM Pope.

and Audi came too. CM Pope plus 550. going to minus 1,000. This is from. Battle Online, I believe. Can't do this. on actual. It hasn't gotten it hasn't gotten uh. Yeah, I was going to say I didn't know. you could gamble on these. Hasn't got. legitimized yet. You would have to find. uh illegal sports book, but this is just. for fantasy booking purposes and uh. conversational purposes uh things. Yeah, I'm plus 550. He's minus 1,000. All. right. All right. All right. Hey, I.

understand that. By the way, if I was. outside looking in, I'd be thinking the. same thing. Might have to put the. village on it. You know who else was. minus,000? Ryan Garcia. Good point. And that was the sweet. science. How about that weekend having. the least amount of punches thrown in. the history of boxing or something like. that? Yes, I agree. That's tough. That's. tough. But they were so good. You know, what you want? I think it's because they. were so quick. I'm going to have to I'm. going to want to miss some of his, which. you will. Yeah, I've been uh I've been. I've been thinking about like does he. have any giveaways, you know, when it's.

coming and it appears as if there is a. little bit of a tell and it's whenever. he does this. Mhm. Mhm. There's a big. one coming. Y Okay. So, I I found that. out through the film study, detailed. film study when he Wait, what he do? Right here. He's He might be standing. like this looking really intimidating. Then he will turn just a little bit like. this. And that's not because he wants to. give you the side profile, although it. is he is a large large man. He's he's. it's there's a whining, you know, there's a womb coming and that thing is.

shattering. Yeah. You know, been doing a. lot of push-ups, try to build up these. pads. Try to build up these pads. I'm. not known to have like the biggest chest. in the history of the world. Not really. my thing, you know. So, uh I've been. trying to get a little cuz I mean he. could break my entire sternum. He could. Oh, yeah. He can break my entire sternum. with the way he does what he does. I. know that. You don't think I'm getting. ready? Oh, turn the [ __ ]. stick move. Oh, maybe foot to the thing. Yeah. Oh. Oh. Imagine break his little.

fingies like he goes to slap you and you. you kick his fingies. Oh. Oh. Big big stomp on the Yeah, cuz. hurt is Yeah, that's what I did. Hey, I. like this. This is uh this is what Bill. Bich did when he was with the Patriots. He you know, all the way up till game. time. We got a film study here trying to. figure out what we got to do. Fingies. need to attack. Dump that so he can't. see this. Dump that. Dump that so he. can't see this. Remember Poier? Yeah, exactly. Pull that lever. Yeah, pull the. lever.

Why is this guy laughing? I don't know. I don't I am. I'm just thinking of. thinking of that. I mean, you had him. You did have him. Well, I was in a big I. was in a big jacket cuz how cold it was. But you saw me. I was I was boa. constrictoring. I just didn't get all. the way in cuz he was a guest of the. show, right? And then he was going to he. was going to steal my watch. You. remember? Yeah, he was trying. Yeah, I. couldn't. You know, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, boy. Imagine how quickly he could. have just broke every bone in my body. right there. His ears tell me that. He. walks onto the set, his ears tell me. this guy, not only all of his fights. obviously, and I'm pumped to watch his.

final fight down there in New Orleans, but him uh he could have. just right on television there. Two. broken arms and choked out diamond dust. boy, which is why I'm happy he trained. me a little bit. Exactly. You're pretty. tight with catering, right? Yeah. What. if they were to bring a big plate of. sausage and sauerkraut out during the. match match and he was just so. distracted? I don't think that would. distract him. I I don't know if sausage. and sauerkraut would get. him poison comes out. Well, I was. thinking. Visine poison them. Does that really.

work to make people dump their pants? Oh, it works. Enough of it. I don't. know. I don't know. Like 10 bottles. You're right. Venitary was always like, I don't want to go eat anywhere in the. city cuz all I need is one chef to know. who I am and he doesn't need to kill me. or anything. just needs to make you feel. like [ __ ] tomorrow. There's a little bit. of an advantage. Exodus. It's true. Maybe we need to call around St. Louis. See if anybody sees your Amber in. general. I think I think we can. I'm not. above taking these steps. Taking that. He's in his prime. Yeah, he is. He is. This guy was a world champion. What? Three weeks ago. Violent. He's the most.

violent. Yeah. The most violent you'll. see. He's the most violent champion of. all time by far. Okay. Not tomorrow night. Okay. Okay. Maybe on my own. Huh? Are you wearing. the deal underneath your stuff? I. remember you you said it really pulled. you tight. We'll see. We'll see. Don't. be giving away too much. Yeah. Geez. No. No. We could We didn't get to see it, but we just You said your undergarments. were pulling up through your like really. putting pressure on you. Yeah, you're. right. I did get a new pair of that. I I.

was Yeah. I wish you would have reminded. me that earlier. I should have cuz I. must say Amazon's fast, but it was there. was only limited options when I thought. of this last night here. I thought of. that last night. I was like, "Oh, okay. Is it yellow? What is it? What color is. it?" Don't worry about it. You're You're. going to be able to see it. When you see. it, you're going to say, "That looks. cheap." Well, it was the only one that. was available in less than 12 hours. Okay. Get it get it fast. You got to. quick get it faster or get it today. Yeah. Exactly. Didn't spend a lot of. time on the gear. Okay. Strictly because. I'm here to fight for what's right.

Yeah. Working on the body. Yeah. Tight. Head body. Head body. Body. Head. body. Mixing a head. Please, dude. Bang. Bang. Work the body. You got to work his. body. You have to. You got to slow him. down. And what about when this bad boy comes? Work the leg kicks, too. Hey, Chandler. Jones. Exactly. Big. You chopped that. tree. UK like Bruce Brown. No, Bruce Brown is dope. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Exactly. I I will need to do one.

of those though. Yeah. Exactly. [Music]. Don't celebrate too much. right over. your head. He's This is going to be. sweet. When he swipes right over your. head and you're going to stop and pause. and look around know screwed. I didn't. even think about me actually just. ducking right into a total facial with. that thing. You're you're getting bonked. on the head like Mason Rudolph. Oh no. Oh, that would be good. Oh no. It's. right in the forehead. It's not giving. away too much. Dump all this so doesn't. see it. Yeah. Yeah. Dump. Dump it all.

[Music]. You see that, AJ? Did you feel that? I. mean, it looks legit. Like, it looks. legit. Did you feel that? Did you feel. that? I did. I don't I'm not I don't. want to eat those shots. No, I'm not. taking that. Absolutely. The issue is. I'm doing this. There's nobody on the. other side. Not yet. Not yet. Visualize. He's going to do one. of those. Yeah. Liver shot. Oh, there it.

is. There's that tail. There it is. What. would you say his weak spot is? because. you guys come from similar descents. Yeah. What would you say his weakness. probably is, AJ, after watching a lot of. Gunther film? Yeah. Democracy. Jeez. I'm telling you. Whoa. I don't. know about that. I'm telling you. I. think you should wear Is this a It's a. sanctioned match, but it's a sanctioned. match. We got to still the rules, right, though? Like we can we can The ref can. turn the other way. Can we wear our. spiky chest pad that that bloodies his. hand early? So the issue with the spiky.

chess pad is I guess others have thought. of this in the past against going. through and I was told directly that it. is in the rule book. So it's not a. hardcore match. Yeah. I mean this was a. street fight. Yeah. St. Louis street. fight. That would be the best. Tire him. out. I think you could tire him out and. frustrate him. Just circle circle circle. jab jab and then circle. You could tire. him out. Tire him out. The guy that's in. his make a 50minute match. Oh yeah. That's what I want. You're right. For. sure that's what you want. Look how. light you're moving around. You look. like Bill. These are brand new Air.

Forces, too. Shout out to the dirties. giving me these. They're a little. heavier than what I'm going to be. wearing in the You know what I mean? Maybe I'll wear the rock climbing shoes. That's not a bad idea. So, I can really. be moving with the little toesies. You. know what I mean? You can poke him in. the eye with your toe. Little toesies. Especially Please do it. Please wear. those. You get up on the top rope and. run all the way around the ring a couple. times. No problem. Cuz the traction on. those up on the Yeah, you'll just be so. You have no idea what's going I know. these are all possible Gunther if you're. watching. Should be.

former world champ. Just don't punt a I. mean if you pun into his chest like you. did Mr. McMahon he might die. Mr. McMahon did that to me. Thank you. Let's. move along. All right, AJ. All right, AJ. Are you okay? You still can't. breathe. I heard I had a puncture I had. a punctured uh uh ri cage. A freaking. joke to you, huh? Yeah. All. right. I couldn't hit you. See how quick.

I am. For real. Like I'm not joking. It. looks good. Like you look good. Yeah. I. just jumped back and forth there 15. times. How many times did it look? Four. Five. Yeah. That was 15. I saw one. Yeah. And if you're if it looks slow, it's your internet. Okay. [ __ ] figure. it out. True. True. All right. Uh we're. going to head into the weekend. I hope. you guys have a great weekend. yourselves. Massive lineup tonight in. sports which will obviously set the tone. for an incredible weekend. Tonight we. got NHL. Tonight we got NBA. Tonight we.

got Cavs Pacers in Indianapolis at 7:30. on ESPN. Oklahoma City Denver Nuggets at. 1000 p.m. back there in Denver. Excited. to see how Joker and the boys respond. Maple Leafs up 20 over the Florida. Panthers at 7 on TNT and True TV. Convenient. Uh didn't do that to the. Pacers. Cavs. Yeah, game one. I don't. know what that's all about. And then. game two, Texas Hockey taking on. Winnipeg on TNT. Should be a great. night. Obviously, Friday night Smackdown.

obviously on and then tomorrow there's a. whole list of [ __ ] starting at 3:30 as. the Celtics take on the up to New York. Knicks. Both wins coming in Boston, stealing homecourt advantage of the. series against the reigning champions. They'll play tomorrow at 3:30. Then. Timberwolves, Golden State, Washington, Carolina, Vegas, Edmonton after an. overtime thriller that took place until. 2 a.m. this morning. All right, let's.

enjoy the hell out of all of it. Great. jersey on you. Thank you very much. It's. all about the trenches, baby. It's all. about the Cambles. Mike Mike Rael's. first. That's right. It's all about the. Camb. All the numbers are out, right? In. the NFL. Yeah, most of them. Abdul got. 51. Is that what I saw? That is correct. I don't know who that was. It's always. him. I'm excited to hear the reasoning. Is that always you? Yeah. Okay. You're. the fart one. Yeah. Yeah. Usually. Okay. Cuz it's You can't You can't All right. Here. That's me. That's me. You got me.

Okay. People at home probably think that. I would know who that is. I I do not. Seek them. Yeah. It's a hard to. decipher. It's on me. It's on me. Yeah. It's hard to decipher. Sorry. I I wonder. what the reasoning behind it is. Like I. I'll be excited to hear the reason why. maybe hasn't selected a number yet. Yeah, they change a lot of the times. like even the rookies will change the. numbers after the training camp. Yeah. So 51 just happened just for this and. then obviously he'll have whatever he. wants or there's a reason behind 51 and. that's his thing. But this has been a.

talking point uh and has taken away from. the fact this dude is a dog. This dude. is very good at football. Yeah, this guy. is a stud. We watched his interview with. Joe Shane and coach Dball and the. defensive coordinator I believe over. there and the answers he gave. Dball. asked him just rapid fire questions. He's getting rapire questions and Dball. goes, "Uh, what's your least favorite. thing about football?" And he said, "Uh, I don't think there's anything I don't. like about football." Just like. immediately back. And then he talked. about his game and what he can do. It's. like this guy's a guy. This is This.

dude's going to be a stud in the league. 51 don't look bad. Doesn't look bad. No. Good jersey swap there. Is this a. de-bone production? That a baby deboned. That baby debone. debone production. And if that's his. number, I can't wait to see what he. does. And if he changes his number, which at this exact moment in time. before knowing anything, we assume it's. going to change. Yeah, we we assume it's. going to change. But maybe 51's locked. in forever. It's a good number. He's a beast. So is Wamble. Hey man, I got you. How about the center from uh.

the Raiders? You see him? Walks up to. Ashen Genty. I'm Jackson. I'm your. center. He's wearing like Crocs or. whatever. I love you. He's got those. shorts. Yeah. Love you. Big hug. Whole. thing. I'm like, I love that. I love. that. The vibes of that team are. probably that exact thing. Then Pete. Carol is in there now. Chip Kelly's in. there. It's like all these behind the. scenes videos we're seeing from draft. and from like first week in building. Everything's good right now. Everything's good right now. Potential. Hall of Famers littered on buses and. cars going into facilities right now.

Good luck to all of them. All right, AJ. We appreciate the hell. What's this. weekend look like? You coaching stuff? What do you got going on? Uh, I'm not I. don't coach much lacrosse, so that's uh. Yeah, we got a lot of lacrosse stuff. happening. That's that's this time of. year. Aaou, all that stuff. Basketball. So, you got basketball, lacrosse, uh, Foss. I think Foss goes to six soccer. games. Oh, yeah. Each each Saturday and. each Sunday. Do you follow along with. his IG story? Oh, yeah. It's awesome. Oh, yeah. He's got what, five kids, I. think, and they're all at the age of. playing sports. One of them's a menace, too. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, he's.

awesome. Absolutely. But it's like I. don't know how parents keep up with that. since the beginning of time. I have no. idea how you have enough time to do all. that. So shout out to parents making it. all happen. And uh shout out to all the. young kids chasing dreams. Maybe. lacrosse Olympians someday playing this. weekend. Lacrosse. Uh I tell you what, Patty Spencer Pat Spencer on the on the. Warriors helps it out. People love that. guy. Obviously he was the best lacrosse. player in the country in college. Is he. 61 or something? 61 which is sweet. Keep. it. It's been joked about too by.

Draymond al them like Yeah. He He's. awesome. He's incredible. His number. stinks, but he's just rocking. Needs to. keep it. Yeah. Uh national championship. chase. This starts this weekend. NCAA. tournament for lacrosse. Uh I believe. Notre Dame's playing actually the. Buckeyes Sunday at noon on ESPN, too. Okay. Who's favorite this year? Uh. Michigan. The Buckeyes are the four. seed. I I forget what happened with. Army. Army didn't get in the tournament. I saw a lot of people uh I saw Captain. Collins get mad about that because. they're like the number one team in the. country or number two team. They lost to. Colgate. Um when you're in a conference.

like that, Fairfield's not in it. When. you're in kind of one of the worst. conferences, you got to win your. conference tournament and they didn't. win. I think Fairfield was number one in. the country at some point, wasn't it? So, they never got up to one, but they. were the last undefeated team. And then. they lost in the first round two to. Drexel. So, when you're in a smaller. conference, you must win your. championship to get in. Yeah. Have to. cuz it's only it's I think it's only 16. teams. Got it. Uh Cornell is your heavy. favorite to win the big Oh, the Ivy. League's back. Plus 150. This is the. This is the combo with the Ivy League. We'll see if they win it. Cornell, they.

just had the number one pick, didn't. they? Yeah. Cursed. He the youngest. brother. Um PLL draft. No, no, CJ. Uh uh. but yes, the Ivy League, I don't think. they've won it since Yale in like 2018. I don't know. Yeah. And I know it's a. big conversation. We've learned it over. the last few years following the. Kavanaaugh boys, you know, through their. national championships up there at Notre. Dame. And then a conversation about, you. know, the ACC, the Ivy League, the Big. 10, everything like that. They all. seemingly take shots at the Ivy League, you know, cuz I think everybody. nationally kind of thinks lacrosse, we.

think, you know, a little uppy, which would be. Ivy League, I think, is what everybody. kind of thinks of. And the ACC boys we. got the best conference. And then the. Big 10, I think they think they have the. best conference. It's like lacrosse. college. I think college lacrosse is. getting better. I think just from our uh. viewpoint of like watching it, I think. there's a lot of Bobby RDEs kid. Yeah. for Michigan. Yeah, his kid scored, broke his thumb and his hand in the same. game he scored a game-winning goal or. whatever. It's like I followed their. season with him. It was glorious. I.

enjoy lacrosse. Playoffs are definitely. much better, I think, than a regular. season. It'll be tough to get me in. during the regular season. No doubt. But. definitely during this playoffs run, I. think I'll I'll watch a couple of these. teams have some dreams come true. Yeah, like Ohio State, they're kind of a new. team to be a four seed. Like that's very. high for a program. You guys spending. money on lacrosse over there? I assume. I mean, they got a sweet facility now. I've been to games. They're like tickets. are not cheap this I I believe the game. is Saturday Ohio State Notre Dame and I. got my one of my sons is going to go. with somebody else. Tickets are not. cheap at all. They weren't. So Connor.

saying it's on I think it's Sunday at. noon. I think but also if he's I hope it. I actually hope it is. But yeah, if you. want to get a ticket you need to go to. SeatGeek, the greatest ticket buying. platform on planet Earth and the moon. right now. Use code. PAT30 Pat 30. You get $30 off tickets to. any live event. And SeatGeek has tickets. to every live event. They have anything. you could potentially want to do. They. have the ticket for you. And right now, you can get $30 off with pat 30. Doesn't.

matter if you're a new or returning. customer to Segeek. They have over 30. million downloads. Number one rated. ticketing app because they are on your. side. Shout out to Segeek. They will. actually have a uh like a green dot next. to a ticket and it says this is a good. deal and or they'll have a red dot next. to a ticket and they'll say this is a. bad deal. Don't buy this. That's a. company telling you don't do this. Mhm. Green one saying let's do it. Don't ever. catfish you. And uh obviously some. restrictions apply on a $30 off thing. Like I think if the ticket is less than.

30 bucks, uh pat 30 will not work. Uh. but. if this is for the Cavaliers in the. Pacers game this evening. Uh secondary. ticket market still available. Let's go. $30 off any of these tickets. Go watch. the Indiana Pacers and the number one. seed Cleveland Cavaliers tonight. Kick. off a great weekend of sports and. entertainment. We can't thank you. enough, AJ. You're the man, brother. Hey, good luck tomorrow night, man. I. cannot wait to watch you put all that. into action. Thank you. Me, too. It's.

going to be sweet. Everybody has a plan, they say. Mhm. Until uh until you kick him in the head. Boom. There it is. Great work in the back this. week. Great work to everybody. Thank you. all so so much. Thank you for allowing. us to do this for a living. You're the. greatest people on earth. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might. change their life. We're in this thing. together. Team on me. Team on three. 1 2. 3. Goodbye.