We Found the Secret Tape the Knicks Made for LeBron

Speaker 1 Welcome to Pablo Torre finds out. I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is.

Speaker 3 Now, we just got to find a place for your friend LeBron to live. What's he like?

Speaker 4 He's a modern guy,

Speaker 5 but he respects tradition.

Speaker 6 Right after this ad,

Speaker 8 you're listening to DraftKings Network.

Speaker 10 So, avert your eyes is what I've been yelling at you guys.

Speaker 11 I've already seen so many needs.

Speaker 13 So, I'm ready.

Speaker 14 So, Jason Concepcion, Rob Perez, thank you for being here.

Speaker 15 We're in LA.

Speaker 1 I've summoned this very specific focus group with a degree of perverse enthusiasm that I think is truly unlike a feeling I've ever felt before as the host of anything, and specifically a show, where my whole goal for people who don't know what the f this show is, is to like bring people things that I wanted to find out about, but also things that can feel almost like

Speaker 25 a loot box in the parlance of video games.

Speaker 9 Like, some shit's in here.

Speaker 11 We don't know what it is.

Speaker 28 But in this case, I do know specifically what it is.

Speaker 29 And I've been teasing you guys with just some very vague references to what is inside.

Speaker 33 And so, you guys are almost a proxy for not just any audience, but specifically an audience of,

Speaker 34 I would say, generally generally unhinged, but principled Knicks fans.

Speaker 35 Sure.

Speaker 16 Is that accurate?

Speaker 11 I don't know.

Speaker 11 I don't think they're as unhinged as people think, but I think that's the brand, which is good.

Speaker 39 When I think unhinged, I think the side talk video.

Speaker 36 Right. Right.

Speaker 40 Double finger overtime. What the f, baby?

Speaker 40 New York is fing bad.

Speaker 41 Knicks are here, baby. The Knicks are fing here, babe.
KD, don't you regret not coming to the Knicks?

Speaker 40 Don't you regret not coming to the Knicks.

Speaker 9 The Knicks.

Speaker 42 The Knicks.

Speaker 43 So you guys are, relative to the side talk guys, hinged.

Speaker 11 Yeah, even that is, even the unhingedness is, I think, like a rational response

Speaker 11 to circumstances.

Speaker 11 It's a joy at being alive and in the moment.

Speaker 11 It's not just chaos for chaos's sake.

Speaker 45 I think we both want what's best for the franchise.

Speaker 35 But like the same.

Speaker 34 Like you guys are both giving a co-press conference.

Speaker 38 I mean, Jason and I experienced the 90s.

Speaker 46 So a lot of those fans outside the garden that participated in that viral video may have been younger than us.

Speaker 38 I've seen too much.

Speaker 37 Okay.

Speaker 44 So unless it's a championship, I can't get that excited for either a regular season win or a first round playoff series win.

Speaker 49 I've just been so close that game seven in Houston, 95 with the layup in Ewing.

Speaker 37 Like, it's just, there's only one way to make me happy.

Speaker 45 So as a result, you become naturally apathetic over time.

Speaker 17 There's only one way to make me happy feels like a thing that prompts an intervention of some kind.

Speaker 12 Okay, well, this might change things

Speaker 52 quickly.

Speaker 53 Okay,

Speaker 2 so today's episode is the story of a secret videotape.

Speaker 54 A long-rumored, never-before-seen time capsule of sorts.

Speaker 6 A NYX tape, even, that I had been trying to unearth for years now, in my capacity as both investigative reporter and also, crucially, native New York elitist.

Speaker 29 Because, like Jason Concepcion and worldwide Wob Perez, two of the biggest Knicks fans in all sports media, I grew up really caring about this team.

Speaker 57 In fact, like those maniacs on the sidewalk, I grew up wishing for a big-free agent to fall in love with Madison Square Garden so that they could win the Knicks' first title since 1973.

Speaker 6 And I have since stopped caring like that, mostly on account of the Knicks' owner, Jim Dolan, who inherited the team from his father, making him, yes, a Nepo billionaire.

Speaker 2 But in the summer of 2010, this was the summer defined by the biggest free agent mystery in the history of sports, I cared a whole lot.

Speaker 20 In fact, I presumed that the Knicks were not simply contenders to sign LeBron James.

Speaker 61 Like many New Yorkers, I believe that the Knicks were the obvious decision.

Speaker 62 Well, everybody is on pins and needles across the country, particularly those teams who are in the running for LeBron. James, you ready to go, LeBron? Where's the powder?

Speaker 52 Left it at home.

Speaker 57 But Jim Dolan's Knicks could taste it.

Speaker 11 I think there were significant signals from LeBron and his camp that would lead one to believe that we were in it.

Speaker 38 Last time I checked in, we dump our entire future to acquire Tracy McGrady just so we can salary dump. We traded assets to clear the books.

Speaker 11 We did all of that. But to me,

Speaker 11 I never really believed it until the Yankees hat started coming out. Until all these other kind of signals started happening that seemed like nods to the Knicks.

Speaker 11 The fact that the LeBron decision event was being held in Connecticut, there was like all these little signals

Speaker 11 that made it feel like, oh my God, I think it could be us. Yes.

Speaker 10 He gave an interview to Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, if you guys vaguely remember that part, where he plays Coi.

Speaker 31 LeBron is like playing Coi.

Speaker 29 He's like basking in the glow, the applause of an in-person New York studio crowd.

Speaker 40 Well, I got to tell you, you're coming up on

Speaker 45 your free agency.

Speaker 63 And I just want to, you know, very quickly, just, if I can, just...

Speaker 40 There you go.

Speaker 63 That's a really nice cup. It's a beautiful cup.

Speaker 39 Beautiful cup.

Speaker 63 I love New York.

Speaker 11 Are you familiar with our city?

Speaker 12 This is New York, right?

Speaker 63 This is New York City. We have a team, the Knickerbockers.

Speaker 11 They're a basketball team.

Speaker 10 So the initial plan was that LeBron was going to go visit all of these cities and New York was going to get to have basically these celebrities almost like college football recruiting hostesses.

Speaker 33 Right.

Speaker 22 Where it was like, here are all the famous people.

Speaker 28 They're going to take you around 10. We'll go to fancy events.

Speaker 1 We'll show you why New York is special in person.

Speaker 27 A big party was going to be thrown by Jim Dolan and the Knicks.

Speaker 18 And then LeBron pivots suddenly and says, actually, I want everybody to visit me.

Speaker 48 in Cleveland. Power move.

Speaker 23 I like it.

Speaker 1 Yes. Everybody sent delegations.
They were almost like UN style diplomatic envoys.

Speaker 10 The Knicks are going to have to visit me and sort of the Clippers and the Nets and the Bulls and the heat.

Speaker 21 And he's going to do all of this at this building in downtown Cleveland, the IMG building. And it's July 1st, a Thursday, 2010, the very beginning of legal free agency.

Speaker 1 And as the Knicks are pulling in to the parking lot of the IMG building, Jay-Z is pulling out.

Speaker 1 So Jay-Z and the Nets have presented at 11 a.m., apparently, and he has to go now jet off to his concert in Europe, according to the newspapers at the time.

Speaker 26 And the Knicks delegation pulls in, and it's four black town cars. Okay.

Speaker 10 And into the room where LeBron James is waiting.

Speaker 10 And it's LeBron. It's his agent at the time, Leon Rose,

Speaker 17 now the president, of course, of the Knicks, of the New Look Knicks, who was his agent then at CAA.

Speaker 28 It's Maverick Carter, his right-hand man, his business partner, Randy Mims, another member of his inner circle.

Speaker 28 And into the room walk James Dolan, Mike D'Antoni, then head coach of the Knicks, Donnie Walsh, Knicks president, infamously

Speaker 30 in a wheelchair.

Speaker 11 It was like his flu game.

Speaker 35 Yes.

Speaker 1 Donnie Walsh's flu game was walking into the pitch room alongside Glenn Grunwald, who was a senior VP, and Hank Ratner, who was an MSG executive.

Speaker 27 And Alan Houston also was there, because Alan Houston, of course, assistant to the president, also Nick's former Nick's great.

Speaker 33 And in lieu of doing the thing that they wanted to do, which was like, here are all the celebrities hosting you, they had made a video.

Speaker 27 And so this video,

Speaker 56 a lot has been rumored about, argued about, mythologized about in the years since.

Speaker 31 And the thing that is consistently accurate in all of the talk about it is that no one actually

Speaker 24 has it.

Speaker 28 No one has this thing.

Speaker 43 Except, of course,

Speaker 55 for me.

Speaker 30 I have it.

Speaker 32 I've been watching it over and over over again.

Speaker 2 I found it at the bottom of a rabbit hole that my investigation took me deep inside of that I never expected, frankly.

Speaker 1 But you should know that I have gazed inside the Ark of this Covenant.

Speaker 2 And what is inside,

Speaker 57 what you should know about this up front here, is that it is not exactly what you would imagine unless you love imagining prestige television fan fiction.

Speaker 12 Let me just ask, like, the complete total running time of this video?

Speaker 12 About 10 minutes.

Speaker 11 That's so crazy.

Speaker 52 10?

Speaker 46 They made LeBron sit through a class project.

Speaker 36 For 10 minutes?

Speaker 48 10 minutes of his time. Correct.
All right.

Speaker 24 Correct.

Speaker 28 They have one chance to convince the most high-profile free agent in the history of sports to come play for a franchise that desperately, desperately could use exactly that.

Speaker 66 And they walk into the room and sit down and

Speaker 14 they press play on a video and it starts like this.

Speaker 3 Now we just gotta find a place for your friend LeBron to live. What's he like?

Speaker 4 Oh, he's a modern guy,

Speaker 5 but he respects tradition.

Speaker 3 Here's something classy on the east side.

Speaker 63 Oh, is it big enough?

Speaker 69 It's gonna be entertaining a lot of people in New York.

Speaker 3 It's very expensive.

Speaker 70 Oh, that's not gonna be a problem.

Speaker 69 You gotta find something magnificent,

Speaker 69 something there's nothing in the world like it, one of a kind, like he is.

Speaker 3 Well, here's a place. Says it gets really loud there.

Speaker 73 Take a look.

Speaker 73 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 53 Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 70 That's gotta be perfect for him.

Speaker 35 Allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is

Speaker 31 Can I lead us off?

Speaker 9 Please.

Speaker 47 What did you just see there?

Speaker 46 Okay, so the final few seconds is a Jay-Z song.

Speaker 74 The man just walked out of the room.

Speaker 35 Second of all.

Speaker 22 It's a good point to point out that they did play the song of the guy who just left as they were entering.

Speaker 56 I didn't really think about it.

Speaker 40 They didn't think about that.

Speaker 46 They knew he was going to pitch him at some point, too. Yet that's the song they go out with.

Speaker 10 Number two, that feels like the scene after they go to black in the diner.

Speaker 12 Yes.

Speaker 38 They go back to some

Speaker 76 Chelsea apartment where they're in hiding with a window air unit conditioner.

Speaker 38 I felt a little nostalgia right there, so that was actually kind of cool, but that's ruined by the orange paint.

Speaker 37 That they showed the Knicks court with the orange paint, which is

Speaker 56 cursed.

Speaker 44 That orange paint never brought any amongst Knicks fans.

Speaker 49 That's like the worst thing ever.

Speaker 44 So there was orange paint on the court that they went full screen with.

Speaker 46 So the first three things that popped out to me.

Speaker 11 First of all, I want to say, Rob,

Speaker 11 incredible to glean like the outlines of like a plot and the way this dovetails with the season finale, the series finale of the Spring. None of that, I didn't pick up any of that.

Speaker 11 What I got was like...

Speaker 11 A king of queens kind of feel.

Speaker 11 And this is the only like set that they could get. There's an air conditioner prominently behind Mr.
Gandalfini.

Speaker 34 Mr.

Speaker 31 Gandalfini was hosting the crew in his apartment.

Speaker 18 That is James Gandalfini. That was James Gandalfini's apartment in Manhattan.

Speaker 40 What?

Speaker 32 Yes, which is a shocking thing when you see actually what it looks like, to your point.

Speaker 31 And so this was about...

Speaker 17 almost three years after the Sopranos ended and the fade to black famous scene.

Speaker 30 And apparently Gandalfini, by the way, was super into this.

Speaker 29 So Edie Falco, Carmella, the word out of this taping was that the whole premise that like, hey, we're in the witness protection program

Speaker 66 and we're in this weird apartment and we're trying to help our friend LeBron.

Speaker 10 That was James Gandalfini's idea.

Speaker 80 Jim Gandalfini would rarely do these kinds of things. And if he did, he would do them very begrudgingly.
Like we would sort of look at each other across the room like, when the hell am I out of here?

Speaker 80 You know, Jim was into this.

Speaker 52 He was really into it.

Speaker 80 There he was dressed as Tony. And he was like, well, what if I came over this way and did that?

Speaker 52 I was like, are you kidding me?

Speaker 80 Really? This is, you know, I, so, I mean, I guess he must have been a bigger basketball fan than I realized. But yeah, and then he had some idea for the way it ended or something.

Speaker 80 And I remember thinking, geez, Louise, whoever would have thought he'd be like all in for this little, you know, weird thing that we're doing that no one's ever going to see.

Speaker 60 But now we finally can over on YouTube at the DraftKings Network.

Speaker 59 And what you can clearly see is the strongest possible argument that after the final scene of the Sopranos, which aired in 2007, one of the most debated deaths in TV history,

Speaker 16 Tony is actually alive.

Speaker 11 You're now basically creating an ending in which Tony goes states witness and is able, he goes rat and is able to enter witness protection.

Speaker 49 I mean, that's a pretty valuable piece of NBA.

Speaker 28 It's one of the last things that this man, one of the great actors of our time, like really

Speaker 73 for real.

Speaker 45 Yes, that's what I was about to get to.

Speaker 46 It's like, that feels like an artifact in Hollywood.

Speaker 61 So, that is the beginning of the video.

Speaker 17 And then it goes to this procession.

Speaker 26 What I would say is like a recruiting committee now.

Speaker 10 So, now we're getting into the recruiting committee phase of like James Dolan's favorite people.

Speaker 28 And so, it comes out of the Sopranos

Speaker 24 and it goes to this.

Speaker 40 Oh my God.

Speaker 47 The real winners of the world want to be here. They come here.
They want to come to New York, whether it's Wall Street or whether it's fashion or no matter what it is.

Speaker 47 This is the place the real winners want to be.

Speaker 11 So that aged, I think,

Speaker 12 not great.

Speaker 74 I thought that was going to be a lot worse.

Speaker 11 I thought it was going to be worse as well. That's one of the more hinged, I think, performances.

Speaker 27 2010 Trump.

Speaker 11 From the Donalds.

Speaker 67 Yep.

Speaker 32 This is the place where real winners want to be.

Speaker 79 Absolutely.

Speaker 10 In fairness, this is like years before, of course, like LeBron would boycott the Trump Soho, Trump's hotel when they were visiting to play the Knicks.

Speaker 10 Like that was a thing that got, and then the you bum thing, obviously, in 2017.

Speaker 81 Is there any regret that you got into a name-calling situation with the president? No.

Speaker 81 A name-caller.

Speaker 81 What'd I say?

Speaker 81 Let me hear you say it. Call him a bum.

Speaker 81 It's not a name-call. It's a

Speaker 81 nice. You bum.

Speaker 81 Me and my friends call each other that all the time. I'm not his friend, though.
Don't ever, don't, I don't want to see that on the note. He's not my friend.

Speaker 1 But it's still like around the same year that I think Michael Cohen had just started like leaking to the National Inquirer, like birtherism conspiracies.

Speaker 20 So, this is that phase of Trump.

Speaker 11 Yeah, I mean,

Speaker 23 as a

Speaker 11 life, you know, I was born and raised in

Speaker 11 and around New York, Queens, and Long Island. And I'll just say that it was not, it was never really a mystery that he was a bad guy.

Speaker 11 Like, for those in the know, like, it was

Speaker 11 so, yeah, a curious, I think, a curious, uh,

Speaker 23 uh

Speaker 11 a curious person to have on the video, but I get it. He's in, uh, he was in the Rolodex.

Speaker 28 Right.

Speaker 22 I mean, the question was, like, okay, we got to get everybody at the Avengers of New York City to pitch

Speaker 65 to pitch LeBron James and Dolan's.

Speaker 45 The Infinity Stones are a little different than some other New Yorkers, but so far, it's two that I would have predicted for James Dolan would have been probably those two.

Speaker 73 Yeah.

Speaker 46 Power Stone.

Speaker 46 Which stone is Trump?

Speaker 23 Oh.

Speaker 11 Which of the stones?

Speaker 77 The tax evasion stone?

Speaker 73 Yeah,

Speaker 11 probably, yeah, the high crimes and misdemeanors stone.

Speaker 11 The fish filet stone.

Speaker 31 So it goes from Donald Trump and it proceeds from there.

Speaker 41 Not only will you have the best fans, the best media, the best coverage,

Speaker 53 but you're going to have the best city, this city, standing behind you, prepared not only to support your game, but to support your play outside the game.

Speaker 70 What's kind of funny? I

Speaker 70 said, if I go to New York, they'll name the candy bar after me.

Speaker 40 Low and behold, they did.

Speaker 51 That was Richard Parsons, the chairman of Citigroup, followed by, of course, Mr.

Speaker 25 October, Reggie Jackson.

Speaker 46 It doesn't feel very personalized.

Speaker 46 It's as if I was just being pitched to move to New York City and like, here's why. Or there's a VP job open and I'm getting recruited by a firm.

Speaker 74 Right.

Speaker 11 It is striking that

Speaker 11 outside of Mr. Gandalfini and Ms.
Falco, no one has said LeBron's name in their little

Speaker 40 point.

Speaker 11 So that's interesting.

Speaker 46 All we're missing is Michael Scott introducing Sabaro at this point.

Speaker 82 Right.

Speaker 1 So we don't have Michael Scott, but we do have

Speaker 14 this guy.

Speaker 4 You win in New York.

Speaker 53 First of all, you get a parade unlike any parade anywhere. Ask Derek Jeter, ask Cece Sabathia.

Speaker 53 Auto Gasini in the world responds with more enthusiasm, more love, more power than New York City to great effort, to great achievement. They really love you forever.

Speaker 53 I mean, the greatest baseball player of all time, Babe Ruth. I'm not sure he would have been if he stayed in Boston.

Speaker 65 His brain seems intact, has not yet been eaten by the internet.

Speaker 11 There's no unknown dark liquid dripping down his head.

Speaker 7 The president's attorney Rudy Giuliani held a press conference today continuing to stick to his unfounded claims that there was massive voter fraud in the election.

Speaker 7 But there's a good chance people had trouble focusing on what he was saying thanks to something black dripping down both sides of his face.

Speaker 11 In my estimation, not a great mayor.

Speaker 22 No, don't look too closely at how he was policing the city.

Speaker 11 Don't. Yes, don't look at all about how he did that.

Speaker 34 Famous black athlete,

Speaker 1 don't click the footnotes on the Wikipedia page.

Speaker 38 You only get one chance to make a first impression.

Speaker 46 We are now 60 seconds into this video.

Speaker 32 So our focus group, we could sit here and just dissect it from our POV, but I'm thinking, what is LeBron?

Speaker 10 He's now seen 60 seconds of it.

Speaker 46 And it's at the point that he's already forming opinions based on this video and the people that created it for him.

Speaker 39 And have we seen anything other than, I'm starting to appreciate the Gandalfini

Speaker 12 skit a lot more?

Speaker 40 I like that.

Speaker 11 It's definitely the high point. And it feels like, you know, we're now kind of just sledding at various speeds downhill.

Speaker 11 Because, again, you know, Rudy not looking at the camera and never says, hey, LeBron, here's what's great about New York. He's just talking to whoever.

Speaker 46 We've just been hit with three straight videos that you see when you sit on a big Apple tour bus and that pop up like on the screen as you're going around the city or the circle line.

Speaker 74 Here's our introductory video.

Speaker 46 And that's what I feel like we just watched.

Speaker 44 So if that's the goal, they're nailing it so far.

Speaker 67 Then.

Speaker 83 LeBron, you got to come here. Very good.
It's the greatest city in the world. Anything you want at any time.
You want a fish sandwich at 4.32 in the morning?

Speaker 47 You can't get that in Cleveland, but you can get it in New York.

Speaker 83 And you know what else we got, LeBron? We got other famous people. So maybe you won't feel like such a freak where you live right now.
That's right. That's right.

Speaker 83 There's other superheroes roaming the streets that you can talk to. Do you understand playing the garden?

Speaker 83 The same room that Prince played, that Run dmc plays that jay-z plays do you understand playing in the greatest arena in the world okay i like that one if it's just gandolfini and chris rock and they stopped the video i'm convinced lebron would have probably been a new york

Speaker 36 that's a lot better that's personalized what we were just talking about yep authentic fish sandwiches are in fact available at all hours of the day yeah what's next Coming into Madison Square Garden is the first time as a New York Knick.

Speaker 41 You know, I had been here many times as a Baltimore bullet playing against the Knicks, and the crowd was good to me.

Speaker 85 They cheered for me and whatnot.

Speaker 41 But once they saw me as a New York Knick wearing that number 15 for the first time,

Speaker 85 it was nothing like it.

Speaker 86 I think what makes New York so special are the people. The relationships that I've forged over the years has just cemented my love of the city.

Speaker 21 So we have Earl of Pearl Monroe, Marc Messier talking about winning titles in New York City with the Rangers and the Knicks, obviously.

Speaker 14 Yeah.

Speaker 46 At this point point in the video, LeBron has now looked at his flip phone because it's 2010, right?

Speaker 46 And he's just gotten a text from Jay-Z that says, thanks again, see you soon. And he's probably responding at this point in the video because it was just very

Speaker 44 non-engaging.

Speaker 28 It's also he lost the Chris Rock momentum.

Speaker 65 It is a good reminder that LeBron, when he's watching this, had not won a title yet.

Speaker 1 Like this is part of his whole thing.

Speaker 29 Where can he do this best?

Speaker 17 And the Knicks are like,

Speaker 14 let me introduce you to Mark Messier.

Speaker 12 He seems like a great guy. Yeah.
But just not for this video.

Speaker 9 He would even sit here and be like, why am I in here?

Speaker 52 Probably.

Speaker 43 It proceeds.

Speaker 88 New York is a society not built around who your parents were. And it's not built around how much money you have.

Speaker 5 It is a society built around philanthropy and what you do.

Speaker 71 If there are other things that you want to be doing, like with charities and stuff like that, there's no better place than New York and better people to support that than New York.

Speaker 31 Yep.

Speaker 11 Okay.

Speaker 11 Again, really weird to have the first billionaire mayor of New York City say, hey, it's not about the money.

Speaker 34 Money doesn't matter in New York, Jason. Famously,

Speaker 34 New York does not care about money.

Speaker 19 Okay.

Speaker 11 Those were fine, I guess.

Speaker 11 I appreciate Mr. De Niro looking at the camera and appearing that he was discussing appearing to discuss LeBron James.

Speaker 44 Yep. I've seen De Niro at more more Laker games than I have Knicks games, though.
I don't associate him with

Speaker 44 one of those Knicks stronghold A-listers at all.

Speaker 46 Spike, Chris, everyone that you've seen thus far, that you see at current Knicks games today.

Speaker 11 Red flag that Spike's not in it yet?

Speaker 11 Do you think like when you have Spike lead off the batting order, wouldn't he be more present? That's interesting to me that you would not have Spike further up in this.

Speaker 26 Well, you have to make room for some important people.

Speaker 56 Let's see.

Speaker 40 Oh, no,

Speaker 82 no.

Speaker 82 Such a universal city.

Speaker 64 And I know LeBron, I mean, I read his book,

Speaker 5 and I know that he's tight with his buddies.

Speaker 70 The idea of those friends coming to New York City, those guys sound amazing, loyal, smart, bright.

Speaker 70 They can have such an impact on the business sector for LeBron James and also for the charitable sector.

Speaker 70 And in New York City, the opportunities to meet the guys who run the multi-billion dollar companies and to get these companies behind the LeBron James, you know, school hospital,

Speaker 70 educational center. You mean, what an impact.
And those friends of his could be the ambassadors

Speaker 70 to that world.

Speaker 28 So Harvey Weinstein,

Speaker 11 currently incarcerated.

Speaker 10 Currently incarcerated after dozens of women had accused him of rape, sexual assault, sexual abuse over a period of 30 years.

Speaker 32 That Harvey Weinstein.

Speaker 27 LeBron, I've heard you have friends.

Speaker 33 What if I told you that New York is a place where your friends can meet lots of famous rich people?

Speaker 27 I'm Harvey Weinstein.

Speaker 21 In no way will this message age poorly.

Speaker 43 So this was taped, by the way.

Speaker 10 That was taped at the Miramax Tribeca headquarters, apparently. It was De Niro and Harvey back to back.

Speaker 44 He did say buddies.

Speaker 46 I thought he was going to go with posse, just the way that things played out with the Knicks.

Speaker 39 Like you and your posse, you look like you're having a great time together, knowing what was coming with Phil.

Speaker 11 Well, that was Phil.

Speaker 35 To be fair, that was Phil.

Speaker 40 I know, but that was Phil Jackson.

Speaker 75 Harvey Weinstein was on the right side of this

Speaker 35 on this one.

Speaker 37 He somehow was on the right side of calling LeBron's friends a proper name that didn't offend him like Phil's did.

Speaker 12 Wait, Rob, have you heard the song?

Speaker 1 Have you heard the Dolan song?

Speaker 49 When he plays the kazoo?

Speaker 1 No, no, no. J.D.

Speaker 10 and the Straight Shot, they do, he wrote a song and performed a song that is called, in fact, I should have known, about his deep, longtime friendship with Harvey Weinstein.

Speaker 12 You think his lawyer was like,

Speaker 73 Can we call him something else?

Speaker 75 Can we not make the OJ Simpson If I Did It

Speaker 12 of songs?

Speaker 82 We were friends, we were friends, talk for hours without

Speaker 72 about his latest story, how to deal with fame and glory.

Speaker 47 All the girls who adored him catered to his every whim.

Speaker 73 Nothing he could lose.

Speaker 71 All he needed to do was choose.

Speaker 82 I should have known, I should have known.

Speaker 72 I should have thrown myself across his tracks, stopped him from these vile attacks.

Speaker 40 I should have known. We believe that he's not.

Speaker 46 Is this how billionaires do J. Cole versus Kendrick Lamar?

Speaker 40 Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 31 So,

Speaker 6 you know, there's that.

Speaker 31 There is that.

Speaker 10 If you were wondering how close are these guys.

Speaker 11 I'll say this about that tune, and I think it's actually, you know, the musicianship is quite good. The people that James has playing with him, supporting him in the JD project are very solid.

Speaker 34 The straight shot is no issues with the straight shot.

Speaker 11 Professional musicians. And I'll just say, like,

Speaker 11 James clearly is the muse of music lives inside of him.

Speaker 11 And I think in the years that he has really been pursuing that muse through different projects like The Sphere in Las Vegas, which brings him closer to live events than ever before, in the most immersive way

Speaker 73 I've yet seen on earth.

Speaker 11 I think that it's clearly made him so happy to be doing that. And I think you've also seen a period of Nick's success as he's rededicated himself to the passion of music.

Speaker 11 And so I would say hearing that song if you'd like to address Mr. Dolan, lyrical content, maybe not for me, but

Speaker 11 keep going.

Speaker 44 Expressing my anguish through the majesty of song.

Speaker 40 Keep going,

Speaker 11 keep going, keep playing music, keep bringing that to the world because that sounded really good.

Speaker 21 And then I think we needed a palate cleanser, or at least I think the Knicks then needed a palate cleanser of sorts.

Speaker 67 Because then

Speaker 8 New York is and has always been the center of the global black world.

Speaker 8 Whether you're in Kingston, Lagos, Johannesburg, South Central, Detroit, Miami, Atlanta, this, New York, is where the black world has its heart.

Speaker 70 When you play for the Knicks,

Speaker 47 you don't have a contract with a team, you have a contract with a city.

Speaker 36 Oh God.

Speaker 11 You know,

Speaker 11 it's...

Speaker 11 I don't know how LeBron received this video, but, you know, it kind of feels a little patronizing to have

Speaker 11 the Knicks

Speaker 11 led by a group in which Alan Houston's the only black guy in the room telling him about black history in America.

Speaker 73 Right.

Speaker 31 So they brought in Thelma Golden, who apparently director of the Studio Museum of Harlem, followed by other noted,

Speaker 10 you know, just, I would say, racial visionary, Alec Baldwin.

Speaker 11 Who this is 30 rock era.

Speaker 23 Yes. Alec Baldwin.

Speaker 66 This is in real life, Alec Baldwin apparently choppering from the Hamptons

Speaker 29 into MSG to do this interview specifically for this.

Speaker 10 Yeah, in this pre-cameo, pre-selfie video age, Alec Baldwin.

Speaker 11 Appreciate it. Long Island legend, Alec Baldwin.

Speaker 36 That's right.

Speaker 38 Every time I want to give the video a chance, it like Alec Baldwin appears on my screen. It's one step forward, two steps back, and now it's turning into an SNL sketch of itself.

Speaker 44 So if I'm sitting there with LeBron, like, is this meant to be a comedy or is this serious? I still, we're a couple minutes in.

Speaker 12 I still can't figure it out.

Speaker 44 It's just like, I don't know what Alec Baldwin accomplishes in this.

Speaker 10 Right.

Speaker 1 The question, I suppose, is like, how can you make LeBron James, again, 2010 LeBron James, who is

Speaker 34 famous?

Speaker 61 Like, how do you feel?

Speaker 43 How do you get him to feel starstruck?

Speaker 22 How do you get him to feel like the Knicks have something unique that he cannot access elsewhere?

Speaker 20 And this is the Knicks.

Speaker 29 This is Jim Dolan's attempt to cater specifically to that person.

Speaker 11 We should add the legend about how Pat Riley eventually won LeBron James, even though I think that

Speaker 11 if you read the whole timeline of the thing

Speaker 11 from the Olympics on through the decision, I think it was pretty clear that he knew what he was going to do.

Speaker 11 But yeah, the legend of what Pat Riley did was just throw the bag of championship rings on the table. That's what he wanted to hear at this period.
Yeah.

Speaker 12 How do I sound of jewelry

Speaker 12 clattering on a table?

Speaker 10 Counterpoint: What if I brought you the guy from Glen Gary, Glenn Ross?

Speaker 11 Nice.

Speaker 63 Decision. Have you made your decision for Christ?

Speaker 46 This is a team that put out a commercial 15-second spot. All they said was the word Jerome James for 15 seconds.

Speaker 44 Jerome James.

Speaker 46 That was right after we signed him.

Speaker 44 Remember? Jerome James. Look it up.

Speaker 12 It's on the right. Wait, that's a real commercial.
Jerome James.

Speaker 78 Jerome James. Jerome James.
Jay Squid. Jerome Jerome.
Jerome James. James.
James.

Speaker 46 Down in Soho going Jerome.

Speaker 36 I like those commercials.

Speaker 11 I thought they were good. The only problem was Jerome James was not good.

Speaker 73 That's my point.

Speaker 84 Like, this is who we're putting on a pedestal.

Speaker 38 This is not the city of champions. This franchise needs help.

Speaker 39 New York may have won championships in the past, but the Knicks are a complete outlier from the rest of the teams there that have had success.

Speaker 6 So, speaking of all of that, speaking of the glory of the garden,

Speaker 21 the video then gets to some sports.

Speaker 16 Oh.

Speaker 87 Basketball is a part of New York City. It's the DNA of New York City.

Speaker 60 I've been a New York Knickerbockers fan all my life and I miss hearing the garden rock the way it used to.

Speaker 60 Sports!

Speaker 60 Yes!

Speaker 87 One of my most memorable recollections was game seven, May 8th, 1970.

Speaker 87 Willing to hurt his leg in game five.

Speaker 47 The question was, whether I was going to play in game seven, I was not going to play in game seven.

Speaker 76 We've left the locker room. We don't know if Willis is going to be there or not.

Speaker 82 And suddenly there's this roar.

Speaker 82 Here comes Willis. And the McCron is going around.

Speaker 68 And then the crowd never showed up. They just got louder and louder and louder and gave us the confidence that we needed to pull that off.

Speaker 46 Okay, this has now gone from, this is kind of funny, to now I'm starting to get a little pissed pissed off because we're

Speaker 90 you just got Willis Reed. You just got Clyde Frazier.
You got Spike Lee.

Speaker 37 This is insulting because we're talking about a man in LeBron James that has a photographic memory with everything regarding the game of basketball.

Speaker 46 He has played a minimum of 15 games at the garden to this point, twice per year with Cleveland, I assume, plus preseason games, whatever.

Speaker 39 Why are we pitching as if you're about to walk into Madison Square Garden for the first time?

Speaker 46 This is what you're going to experience.

Speaker 49 He has seen Spike Lee for years, courtside, and had more authentic conversations than that for years.

Speaker 46 And now it's in the pitch video as if, oh, like, you're going to get to meet Spike.

Speaker 19 He's seen him for a decade.

Speaker 48 That's insulting.

Speaker 11 You know, I love seeing Starks. He was my hero when I was a child.

Speaker 10 Right, they showed the dunk.

Speaker 11 Yeah, this, the dunk over Pippin and Jordan, or they were in the area, however you want to define it. But I think therein lies to me

Speaker 11 in Starks, kind of the issue. Like Starks Starks famously was bagging groceries.

Speaker 11 He was the only other player who could approach averaging 20 points a game for that entire Ewing run, almost that entire Ewing run until the late 90s. And that was the issue.

Speaker 11 How can we avoid that with LeBron James?

Speaker 11 That should be the pitch. Here's what we've learned from that.

Speaker 21 And so the question of like, how are the Knicks going to get people beyond LeBron is the subplot, the subtext of this entire video, right?

Speaker 43 Like, that's actually the brass tack story of this.

Speaker 22 It's, we can give you a million celebrities, but like, who else are you bringing along to actually do this?

Speaker 46 I must have missed that part because I'm sitting here watching the video that a substitute teacher puts in when there's no agenda left over from the real teacher that's sick.

Speaker 48 I mean, what are we doing?

Speaker 48 And now it's there's the worst that this video could be is boring because, at least with Trump and Baldwin, I can have like a laugh at regardless of whatever his political opinions are.

Speaker 37 It's something that's engaging.

Speaker 22 And so we've reached the final stretch of this video.

Speaker 17 And

Speaker 17 I think you'll be impressed with the Knicks' technological capacities.

Speaker 16 Okay.

Speaker 12 Wow.

Speaker 19 Oh, that's a big deal back in the 2020s.

Speaker 68 If we got LeBron, it would be more dynamic than anything that has happened to the Knicks, even the two championships.

Speaker 40 Oh, come on.

Speaker 82 We would catapult this entire city.

Speaker 35 He can shoot this.

Speaker 73 I can wrap the Photoshop.

Speaker 11 Whoever made Clyde say that,

Speaker 11 I'm so mad at you.

Speaker 11 You did not just say that that would be better than the Knicks' only two championships.

Speaker 11 Signing a free agent. I know it's LeBron.
Signing a free agent would be better than the two

Speaker 11 titles that the Knicks have won. The only two.

Speaker 79 Right.

Speaker 34 Thanks to Horace Tranquilizers into Willis Reese Leg.

Speaker 35 Stop that.

Speaker 12 I gotta see the Photoshop. Come on.

Speaker 82 All right.

Speaker 79 This is good.

Speaker 34 Yeah, we had the banner unfurled already from the top.

Speaker 9 Yay!

Speaker 77 That's rotoscoped, LeBron.

Speaker 76 That's from the mom-made pizza rolls, meaning.

Speaker 87 I think you're the type of brother that wants to have that burden, have that shoulder. I think you want to be the one that will bring a championship

Speaker 87 to New York City.

Speaker 70 This city was built by winners for winners.

Speaker 47 It was built for you.

Speaker 47 I'm a royal private.

Speaker 40 All right, that's good. Oh, God.

Speaker 34 And so the lights come back on, and here we are back in the room. And LeBron James is at the table.

Speaker 67 And

Speaker 34 looking eagerly is Jim Dolan at his prize.

Speaker 12 They used word art.

Speaker 39 Remember word art from the Microsoft Word days and Windows 98?

Speaker 44 They dropped word art on the screen and said, come to the.

Speaker 11 You know, the technology was different then.

Speaker 11 That might have been state-of-the-art for the period.

Speaker 35 Yeah,

Speaker 31 the Jersey rotoscoping was like, hey, you know,

Speaker 31 back in 2010, right?

Speaker 19 That's, you know.

Speaker 61 Yeah, that was like a pre-avatar.

Speaker 73 You know, what was going on with Spike?

Speaker 19 He wouldn't even look into the camera.

Speaker 37 LeBron, we need you.

Speaker 48 And he's like looking down at the sidewalk.

Speaker 39 I mean, is he being forced to do this? Are his season tickets at stake or something?

Speaker 49 But there was zero enthusiasm.

Speaker 12 Did you catch that?

Speaker 11 It was not. I mean, there was

Speaker 11 an incredibly

Speaker 11 pregnant, eight-month pregnant pause before he said,

Speaker 11 he goes, I think you're the type of brother who'd want to bring

Speaker 11 a championship. And he said it so

Speaker 11 sadly.

Speaker 20 Right. So it's around 3.30 p.m.

Speaker 1 on July 1st, 2010, this Thursday.

Speaker 10 And I just want to read you the quote from Alan Houston afterwards, which is this about LeBron's reaction.

Speaker 22 Quote, he didn't give us much feedback, end quote.

Speaker 44 So he was trying to be polite.

Speaker 1 So the Heat and the Clippers make their pitch to LeBron on Friday.

Speaker 32 That's the day after this.

Speaker 13 Pat Riley does a thing where Pillowcase of Rings, right, does clattering.

Speaker 44 Yep, yep.

Speaker 13 Actual stones, he's bringing that to the table.

Speaker 29 The Bulls and Cavs pitch on Saturday.

Speaker 43 And then the Knicks fly to Chicago.

Speaker 1 The Knicks go to meet Dwayne Wade.

Speaker 43 They meet Chris Bosch.

Speaker 26 They, I believe, four days later, sign Amare, of course, Mari Stautemeyer. The Knicks are back.

Speaker 1 The Knicks are back.

Speaker 34 And you might wonder, how did they pitch Dwayne Wade?

Speaker 9 And something that I want to make clear to you guys is that the New York Knicks, of course, did something very special and unique for Dwayne Wade.

Speaker 17 Because you might remember how the video with James Gandalfini and Edie Falco started.

Speaker 25 If you can replay that, just remind.

Speaker 3 Tony, I'm so glad we moved to New York. Life is so much better now.

Speaker 40 Yeah.

Speaker 63 Life's good here, Carl.

Speaker 5 Even if we are in the witness protection program.

Speaker 3 Now we just gotta find a place for your friend LeBron to live. What's he like?

Speaker 4 He's a modern guy, but he respects tradition.

Speaker 21 And so this is how they pitched Dwayne Wade.

Speaker 3 Now we just need to find a place for your friend Dwayne to live. What's he like?

Speaker 5 But he respects tradition.

Speaker 34 And you might be wondering, how did they pitch Chris Bosch?

Speaker 12 No way.

Speaker 3 Well, now we just need to find a place for your friend Chris to live. What's he like?

Speaker 5 But he respects tradition.

Speaker 11 Not even a Christopher?

Speaker 4 Dink.

Speaker 5 Christopher Dink.

Speaker 4 The big fing picture, huh?

Speaker 19 That's a missed opportunity.

Speaker 9 No, come on.

Speaker 12 That's a missed opportunity.

Speaker 35 Not even a Christopher.

Speaker 39 You could have brought Adriana through that door.

Speaker 9 Christopher!

Speaker 12 And then he faded to black.

Speaker 44 That might have gotten him.

Speaker 34 But then you might wonder: what did a free agent who's not named LeBron, Chris, or Dwayne experience?

Speaker 34 And they got this.

Speaker 3 Now we just need to find a place for that basketball player to live.

Speaker 4 That's not come on. He's a modern guy.

Speaker 40 No way.

Speaker 5 But he respects tradition.

Speaker 12 Who was that for?

Speaker 11 Ray Felton.

Speaker 75 They sent it again back.

Speaker 27 They sent it back to Jerome James.

Speaker 35 So you have this.

Speaker 24 Oh, God.

Speaker 1 So the customization of all of this, right?

Speaker 22 So part of the production, the backstage production is what makes me so happy to have like gotten to the bottom of this thing.

Speaker 27 Because there are a couple of key differences when you examine how they decided to pitch.

Speaker 18 the members of what would be the Miami Heath Championship Big Three.

Speaker 27 Because there was another thing they changed.

Speaker 64 You know, when I think of The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost's great poem about a man who makes a decision, the road that he'll travel down, and I think that Dwayne Wade wouldn't come to New York City.

Speaker 64 I mean, you know, I love Miami, but Miami's a suburb of New York. Dwayne Wade comes to New York City, he immediately takes his place among the greats.

Speaker 64 I think of that Robert Frost poem, The Road Not Taken, about someone who doesn't take the big road. And I just wonder if Chris Bosch is sitting there and going, wow, I could have gone to New York.

Speaker 64 I could have played on the world stage.

Speaker 82 And I didn't do that.

Speaker 64 I didn't throw my hat into the greatness ring. You know, you know, I can see him being, you know, 70-year-old guy and going, wow, I should have done that, shouldn't I? Well, you know what?

Speaker 64 Don't be the 70-year-old guy.

Speaker 41 Just do it.

Speaker 77 That's right.

Speaker 42 Harvey Weinstein, master of knowing what you won't regret.

Speaker 23 Oh, my God.

Speaker 38 Did they not think that these players talk?

Speaker 49 What they were going to say.

Speaker 38 They showed me a Harvey Weinstein video, too, with my name on it.

Speaker 9 You got one, too?

Speaker 19 You got, wait, did you get Robert Frost?

Speaker 75 Did he talk about Robert Frost?

Speaker 79 You talk about the road not traveled by?

Speaker 37 How does that not come up in casual conversation?

Speaker 56 Oh, it's incredible.

Speaker 1 I love to imagine them comparing notes like on the phone in a group chat and being like, hey, did you get the Weinstein thing?

Speaker 67 Yeah.

Speaker 89 Well,

Speaker 89 what about the Chris Rock thing?

Speaker 33 And then they might realize that they got this.

Speaker 5 When you play for the Knicks, D-Wade,

Speaker 40 you don't have a contract with a team.

Speaker 47 You have a contract with a city.

Speaker 83 Wait, wait, come come on.

Speaker 19 What you going to do, man?

Speaker 40 Leave!

Speaker 34 You did it all there.

Speaker 83 Now it's time to come to New York.

Speaker 10 Chris Bosch did not get custom Chris Rock and Alec Baldwin shout-outs.

Speaker 19 I mean,

Speaker 11 just one of the indignities

Speaker 11 that Chris Bosch, one of the most underrated champions of all time, I think, has had to suffer despite the incredible success of those years.

Speaker 30 Yes. He did, though.

Speaker 74 Disrespect of not not getting the Chris Rock or Alec Baldwin video, though.

Speaker 46 It's going to hurt him if he finds out.

Speaker 10 What he got instead was like the other two, special Photoshop Knicks. Oh, hell yeah.

Speaker 23 Jerseys. Yeah.

Speaker 33 I do, at the end, I want to be, I want to give the Knicks the grace of this was 14 years ago.

Speaker 10 And who could know the way that so many of the people in this video would be

Speaker 27 just like brains eaten by the internet and or in jail.

Speaker 40 Right.

Speaker 33 And yet, the idea that LeBron James was like, All right, New York City, what you got, and he saw that is one of the just like

Speaker 26 most heartbreakingly, perversely funny things that I've ever reported.

Speaker 44 I'm not going to lie.

Speaker 46 After you showed me Weinstein, I thought we were getting Epstein.

Speaker 39 That's what my fear was because you kept looking at me like something's coming.

Speaker 42 I'm like, LeBron, I know about winning on an island.

Speaker 73 Oh, my God.

Speaker 40 Oh, good.

Speaker 39 So I guess it could have been worse.

Speaker 6 Can we Photoshop that over the final screen? It could have been worse.

Speaker 19 It could have been orange City of Champions

Speaker 44 in the blue and orange word art.

Speaker 11 Could have been a lot worse.

Speaker 40 Could have been worse.

Speaker 1 We've seen the thing that no one else has seen, and now it becomes clear maybe why people have not seen it and why it hasn't been shown.

Speaker 22 But it exists, it's real, and you guys walked out of here feeling how

Speaker 48 unfulfilled.

Speaker 46 Not because Pablo disappointed, just unfulfilled by.

Speaker 43 I'm but a journalist, a purveyor of truth.

Speaker 44 Yeah, I'm just unfulfilled.

Speaker 74 I feel like LeBron walked out of this meeting with hopes to have joined the Knicks.

Speaker 46 I don't think it's an accident that that decision was produced in Greenwich, Connecticut, because there was, in case I, they pitched, if I sell, if I buy it in that room, let's book the Boys and Girls Club.

Speaker 46 Let's get this set up. And if I need to call an audible, I will.

Speaker 49 I feel like he wanted to go into that meeting wanting to play for the Knicks.

Speaker 46 And then he walked out as if it was going to be five years of the same in Cleveland with a lot more of those

Speaker 74 celebrities.

Speaker 11 I think that may have been the case. I leave feeling

Speaker 11 grateful that the Knicks again are a good team right now, competently run.

Speaker 11 I grateful that these terrible, terrible, terrible years, although Amari would go on a heater after this.

Speaker 11 Amari would go on a heater.

Speaker 13 That basketball player, as Carmella called him,

Speaker 9 went on to be pretty great.

Speaker 11 I'm just grateful that these years are done with and that the Knicks are actually being smartly run for once. They're doing the smart thing.

Speaker 11 They're still chasing stars, but they're doing it in a sustainable way. And

Speaker 11 they have empowered people at the garden who are just maniacal about winning. Does Tom Thibodeau go home?

Speaker 11 Where does he sleep? Where does he lay his head?

Speaker 10 Tom Thibodeau has no idea who the f Robert Frost is.

Speaker 11 Has never read a poem.

Speaker 11 Period.

Speaker 35 He just.

Speaker 42 There's one road for Tom Thibodeau. One single road.

Speaker 11 He just wants to win. And Leon Rose, his former agent, I would assume feels the same way.
And so, you know, just happy to be a, to, one, have seen this incredible artifact. And

Speaker 11 to also know that it's no longer relevant. It's gone.
It's banished from our memory. It no longer matters.

Speaker 43 Like Charles Oakley at the garden.

Speaker 56 This video is banned from the garden of our dreams.

Speaker 31 Yes,

Speaker 9 and I was my one of my favorite details from trying to get this video is the as I heard I heard a whisper that LeBron's people have been trying to find the video.

Speaker 11 He just wants to sit at home with a glass of wine and pop it in.

Speaker 40 Look at what these idiots did.

Speaker 25 Jason, Rob, thank you for

Speaker 27 your confidentiality and your

Speaker 27 feelings. Of course.

Speaker 48 I don't think we'll get banned for that.

Speaker 73 No, I mean, we might.

Speaker 54 This has been Pablo Torre finds out a Meadowlark media production.

Speaker 2 And I'll talk to you next time.