The Pacers Force Game 7, Boban Marjanović, Illinois Head Coach Bret Bielema, The Lakers Sold For 10 Billion + Fyre Fest Of The Week

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On today's part of my take, we have maybe the craziest twofer that we've ever had.

We have Bobon and Brett Bilema in studio.

Bobon over Zoom, Brett Bielema in studio, both incredible interviews.

We're going to talk about Game 7.

We got a Game 7 Sunday night.

The NBA season lasts one extra game because the Pacers came out with authority.

We also are going to talk a little Stanley Cup cleanup with all the celebrations that Rock, Conor McDavid, maybe wanting to leave Edmonton.

We have Fire Fest of the week, and then we'll send you into the weekend into a Game 7.

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Okay, let's go.

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Today is Friday, June 20th.

And PFT, the two best words in sports, game seven, we're there because the Indiana Pacers Pacers absolutely dominated the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night in game six.

This is the first game seven in the NBA Finals we will have

in the last nine years.

Last one was the Warriors Cavs, the 3-1 comeback.

It is also just the fifth NBA Finals Game 7 we're going to have in the last 30 years.

So we did it.

A series that everyone thought was going to be boring, that thought was going to be a blowout.

We are getting our our first game seven in almost a decade, and it's because the Indiana Pacers do not quit, and this team is just flat-out fun.

Yeah, I thought that it was going to go seven.

I had no idea how.

I thought that the Pacers were going to figure out some way to do it, and they did it by just making the Thunder defense look pedestrian and by making their offense look like dog shit.

And

I don't know if game seven is going to be competitive because we haven't, we've had a few competitive games, but it feels to me like this is,

I don't want to be disappointed by game seven.

I'm excited that we have a game seven.

The Pacers were great tonight.

It just felt tonight like there was no chance they were going to lose from the pregame when Pascal Siakim levitated into a different plane, when he was communing with ancient spirits, whatever he was doing with his eyes rolled back in his head, looking like he was plugged into the matrix.

It was, uh, it felt like it was game over from the opening tip.

Yeah, it was, it was, uh, I mean, it was pretty much wire to wire.

The, the Thunder were, you know, the first half or the first quarter, and then the Pacers started to pull away.

The second quarter, the Pacers were incredible.

The craziest thing, this was the most Pacers game possible.

And I say that, obviously, Tyrese Halberton has been injured,

and he played tonight, which was great to see.

But when I say it's the most Pacers game possible, it's a team.

They are such a team where they were up 30 going into the fourth quarter.

They won this game by 17 points, and it was obviously more than 17.

There was a lot of like scrubs

in the final quarter.

The leading scorer was Obi Toppin with 20 points.

No one was over 20 points.

That's a full team basketball.

They had every guy contribute.

TJ McConnell might be the best basketball player ever.

In terms of just the minutes he provides, it's crazy watching him.

They even said it on the broadcast because it's like, how are you at this point in this series, if you're the Oklahoma City Thunder and TJ McConnell comes into the game, how do you not realize that he is going to steal the pass when you inbound the ball?

If you do a lazy inbound pass after a bucket, TJ McConnell will be there.

TJ McConnell's getting rebounds over Hartenstein.

He's on the floor.

He's going to the basket.

He's just instant energy.

And he and Obi Toppin together, like that was what happened in that second quarter was the two of them basically like won this game in those moments.

And then it was just too much of a hill for the Thunder to overcome.

I always hate it when announcers say, like,

this guy wants it more.

Or if a coach says, you guys got to want it more, you don't want it enough, because it's never really true because everybody wants to win.

But it is true with TJ McConnell.

He does actually, in fact, want it more.

He wants it 110% as much as anybody.

And, dude, he's fun to watch.

And this Pacers team, it's like they are Hoosiers.

It's like we're watching Hoosiers in real life in the NBA.

I expect Dennis Hopper to come stumbling out onto the court and puke everywhere.

It's so much fun to watch when they're clicking.

They're a great basketball team.

When they get the ball moving, that dunk that Siakim had,

where

it was legitimately like two great assists on the same play.

It was a hockey assist and then a great no-look.

There was just no stopping him tonight.

I did like Rick Carlisle's move, too, in the fourth quarter when I think the Thunder cut it to like 24 points.

Carlisle takes a timeout and he's like pissed off.

He's like, we're not letting this happen.

Because I've seen this happen.

We've done it to other teams before.

We're only up 24 now.

Lock the fuck in.

And Rick Carlisle, also, another great move, which just doesn't really happen in sports.

Tyrese Halliburton was obviously questionable for this game.

He had an MRI.

He's got a calf injury.

And like two hours before the game, Rick Carlisle was like, Yeah, we tested him.

He's playing.

And the reporter was like, why would you give that away?

He's like, dude, we're in game six.

Like,

we're not going to win this game because we didn't tell him Tyrese Halliburton was playing until tip-off.

Like, we got to go just play and win this game.

And by the way,

the TJ McConnell stat that's crazy to the wanting it more because it is a cliche.

It's stupid.

But he does play with such an insane amount of energy that I think it just fucks up everyone on the court.

He's 6'1.

In the first half, he was leading the Indiana Pacers in rebounds with five.

He finished the game with 12 points, nine rebounds, six assists, and four steals.

Think about that.

And that was 24 minutes of gameplay.

It's just been, and they're just a team.

Like the whole team, Siakam is still, like, he's just steady Eddie.

Like, every night, he's just awesome.

And it's just an OB time.

Like, I just love watching the Pacers play basketball.

And I know that this game seven is going to be a dogfight because you always have the team that needed it more.

And the Thunder thought they could kind of just

show up and the Pacers would quit.

But that's just.

These Pacers are not quitting.

They're not a quit team.

I'm calling it tonight.

This is a legacy game, game seven, for Thundor

and Thunder Princess.

Yeah, this is what it's all about.

I want to, I, you have to have the best chest paint that you can possibly get.

I want to see, here's what, here's my metric: the Larry O'Brien trophy has to be on Thundor's chest or on his belly, has to.

You have to have the trophy there, has to.

Uh, by the way, uh, are you sure you're going to want to do a legacy game for them?

Because they're actually, tonight was already a legacy game for the Thunder.

Um,

no, this is for Thundor.

Yeah, I know, I know it's for Thundor, but the

Thunder actually lost their legacy game, so it's kind of actually over.

Before the game, Skip Bayless said the Thunder need to win convincingly tonight for legacy for some of the historical respect it deserves and isn't getting.

So, what happens when you lose a legacy game in game six and then still have to play game seven?

You don't have anything to play for.

They got nothing to play for.

You'd almost rather lose this game seven.

Yeah.

Because if the Thunder win this game seven, then they're going to have to answer questions for the rest of their lives about how they tarnish their legacy with this NBA championship.

Yeah, I would agree.

And listen, SGA was bad tonight.

He was turning the ball over.

He had eight turnovers.

It felt like the Pacers,

the adjustment they made was instead of outside of TJ McConnell, who is just playing

defense at all times on all parts of the court, like they kind of lulled the thunder.

They're like, hey, we're not going to pressure you full court, but the minute you get across half court, like we're going to be in every passing lane.

It felt like the Pacers' energy on defense was the difference in this game where they were disrupting everything.

They were basically, they thundered the Thunder.

They did what the Thunder had been doing to other teams tonight, to the Thunder.

And the Thunder, like,

they just, they were so, they were so bad offensively in that, even that third quarter, where it's like, we're watching it and Max had his free bet.

Shout out to DraftKings, and

we were trying to get the Thunder back in the game.

And

it was

so clear, like the Thunder defense started to wake up.

The Thunder couldn't hit an open shot.

They could not hit a shot.

They had moments where they were like,

I think the first four minutes of the third quarter, it was like 0 for 11 combined by both teams.

They just could not climb back in.

That was the moment where the Pacers maybe weren't playing their best, and then they got their footing again, and it was over.

They had their lowest point total for three quarters of the entire season, the Thunder did.

So they picked a bad time to have an all-time stinker performance for that team.

I do think that they're going to win Game 7,

but I'm hoping for a great game.

I want to see a Game 7 that lives up to the words Game 7.

Yeah.

Because you said it, Game 7, best two words in sports.

I would disagree.

I would say Jameis Winston, but it's certainly up there.

The words are great, but we haven't seen a great game seven in an NBA Finals in a long time.

We deserve it as a nation.

We haven't seen one in a long time.

Listen, there hasn't been one in nine years.

Yeah, and that was actually a great game the last time that it did happen.

But I want to see a great game seven.

And listen, credit to the NBA.

You've pushed off Mount Rushmore's season for as long as you possibly can.

This is as late as it could go.

So I know Zach's chomping at the bit to get involved, to get in the arena.

Yeah, yeah, he is.

Max, what were you going to say?

i want to hear max ranch real quick because he was very mad at at the uh at the thunder i mean the pacers did everything they could to allow the thunder to get back in that game to start the second half and they just had no plan they came out in the second half with zero they were already on to game seven at halftime it didn't feel that way this entire nba playoffs teams have been coming back down 20 in every round and they just came out and were like complacent to go to game seven.

The pacers couldn't make a shot for the first five minutes of the second half and the Thunder did nothing.

T.J.

didn't even shoot the ball.

Yeah, that's why I said Obi Toppin and TJ McConnell won this game because that was that second quarter.

It was just like, all right, I guess we'll just go to game seven now.

Like, it's over.

But yeah, it was,

they had that chance.

They were, the Pacers weren't shooting well.

All they had to do was knock down a couple shots, put a little game pressure on them, maybe get it tight.

And nope, they just didn't.

They were, you're right.

I do think they were kind of on to game seven.

Chet Holminger, not the guy.

Yeah, I mean, they did.

not the guy.

Not not a guy.

Can I just say something about Chet?

I just would like for him to stop falling down at all times.

Like, and he doesn't actually fall down.

He just looks like he's about to fall down.

Like, when he's going forward, dribbling, his body looks like it's about to fall down.

Yeah, he's got the long limbs and they flail out and it's like Bugs Bunny with a cloud of dust underneath his feet.

You think he's going to hit the deck.

He's not, he's not the most

coordinated individual, but I think you'll get there.

Right now, he's like a baby deer that's walking on ice for the first time, but then he makes plays like that.

It was maybe two minutes into the game that post-movie had on Siakam that was just like, holy shit.

Like, that's why you, that's why you think he's going to be great, and he definitely could be great.

But yeah, he's, they're going to need him, they're going to need him, they're going to need, they're going to need J-Dub.

They're going to need SGA to be the MVP.

That's the big thing because, like, eight turnovers, woof, oof.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If you're chatting, you've got you've got like two choices with which direction you're going to go with your look.

Either you're going to grow the hair out, grow the beard out, become like Bill Walton Light, or you're going to get you're going to try to swag it up and get the nice tight fade.

You're going to get the nice facial hair, dress stylishly.

And then, if you choose that route, the second you do anything slightly unathletically, it looks way, way worse.

Can I throw out a little conspiracy theory?

Just throw it out there.

Let's just throw one out there.

Brian Windhorse conspiracy theory.

So obviously, every sport now isn't a sport unless they have a Netflix documentary, right?

In season.

The starting five, Netflix documentary, season two, which was announced in October.

James Harden, Kevin Durant, Jalen Brown,

SGA, Tyrese Halliburton.

So this should be a pretty awesome, if they're still taping it, which I would assume they are, do you think Netflix may be paid extra to have this be the finals matchup and a game seven?

Just not going to put it past that.

I would say, definitely.

I would say, without a doubt, I'd say the proof that you need is literally just a single tweet from Shams announcing the cast in October.

Wait, they're recording it now?

I would assume they're still recording.

This is from October, like October to start the season.

Shams said, Here is the five guys that Netflix is following for the entire season, and SG and SGA and Tyrese are part of that.

They could have stopped recording in the middle of the playoffs.

Season one, they followed Jason Tatum around, yeah, right, and they followed him through the championship.

Interesting.

So, oh, that's interesting.

So, Netflix is in season one.

Yeah, who else is in season one, memes?

Anthony Edwards, Sabonis,

Jimmy Blue, Tatum, Jimmy Butler, and

I care about LeBron James.

LeBron James.

Okay, whatever.

We didn't need to fall in.

All guys that made the playoffs.

Interesting.

Yeah, but Netflix is two for two for getting a finals guy.

Actually, okay.

So, yeah.

I'm just saying, just throwing it out there.

There could be no other explanation for it.

No, it's not like Netflix would pick great young players that are highly probable to go far in the playoffs.

I actually would love to see like a Netflix documentary for just middling and bad teams.

Okay,

we got Jordan Poole.

We got Zion.

We got Vucevich.

We're going to watch these guys scratch and claw for lottery picks in the play-in tournament.

They already do a Zion documentary.

It's called Cops.

Yes.

I'm excited for game seven.

That's all I got to say.

I'm just excited for game seven.

Yeah.

Yeah, very excited.

I'm pumped.

I'm glad that we get more basketball in our lives.

Yeah.

Okay, let's talk a little more sports,

and then we'll get to our interviews.

We got Bobon and Brett Bielma, two great, great interviews.

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all right pft i have a couple other things uh

the first is i just love watching stanley cup uh finals celebrations the guys out at the elbow room uh all hours we had uh

well actually what we should zach what was your favorite because you you are uh from the state of florida I would probably have to say that the Barkov video when he's strolling up to the ring camera with the trophy to show his

neighbor late night.

Like, imagine rolling out of bed and getting that notification.

It's just Barkov and the boys at the ring camera.

Like, hey, you want to check this out, man?

I think it's an all-time neighbor move.

Yeah.

PFT, Zach almost cried when I told him to sit in your seat.

He was like, I can't do that, sir.

I cannot do that.

That was a great Zach reveal.

It was a great Zach reveal.

I was like, Zach, don't say anything.

And he was like, can we preload this question, please?

I was like, yeah, I'm going to ask you about what your favorite celebration is.

He's like, okay.

He's like, is PFT going to be mad at me?

I was like, no, it's going to be funny when halfway through the show, we just reveal that you're sitting in his seat.

He's blinked a billion times since he's been sitting in that seat.

Like, he's gone full, I swear to God, a billion times since he sat down there.

He's only been blinking.

PFT, I respect you as a broadcaster, so I just didn't want to be, I didn't want to step on any toes, and I appreciate you allowing me to have

it.

He actually hasn't yet.

Oh, that's a great point.

Yeah, you can receive.

Oh, that's great.

Yeah, for

did you want to ask me if it's okay?

PFT, was it all right that I sat here for a little bit?

Absolutely.

No.

okay.

Okay.

I can get up.

You ever read about the Yankees?

Wally Pip?

That's what I'm going through right now.

Oh, no, not at all.

I'll take my job.

No, no, no, sir.

Not at all.

Not at all.

You're a fantastic broadcaster.

A lot of respect for your broadcasting abilities.

I can get out of this seat so quickly if you'd like to be a little bit more.

That's the first time anyone's ever called me a broadcaster.

Great Zacharyville, though.

Did you like that?

Did you like the Zacharyville skipping?

I did.

It took my breath away.

Zach, you did a great job.

I also, you know, it's crazy.

You're sitting in that chair.

My favorite celebration was Barkov showing up on the ring camera.

Yeah, it was so good.

That's why I had to go to him there because I was like, wait, fuck.

The plan's going to get foiled because PFT is definitely going to bring up Barkov before Zach can.

Yep.

That was so sick.

Also, Barkov's hand.

Barkov's hand.

It got cut in half at the beginning of the series.

Zach, do we know who the guy's ring camera was?

Like, who lives in that house?

If I told you a name right now, it wouldn't be the truth because I'm not sure who lives in the home.

I should have had that for you.

That's my fault.

But I can't find out for you.

That's why you're a great broadcast.

Yeah.

Yeah, we had a lot.

Zach,

go ahead.

Do we know if it was like a friend of his or an acquaintance?

I don't need to know the guy's name.

I just don't know.

In my mind, it would rock if it was just a random house that he showed up to.

Context Clues tells me like, oh, he's got to have like a decent neighbor relationship with the guy.

Or if they're not really friendly, it's kind of like, hey, man, look at this.

Like, I just did this tonight.

What did you do?

Like, I'm a Stanley Cup winner.

Maybe.

Oh, yeah, maybe.

I think

I would like it if this guy was like a, um, if he had a Panthers flag that he flew outside his house and Barkov saw it every day, but maybe hadn't met the guy one-on-one yet, but knew he was a Panthers fan.

And then with the Stanley Cup, he shows up, rings the doorbell.

That's how they meet each other for the first time.

In my mind, that's how it went down.

Yeah.

What a way to introduce yourself.

Yeah.

Max, you have the guy's name?

Nope.

Oh.

Memes, you have the guy's name?

The guy who posted it was Roger Rojas.

Who's that?

Oh, the guy who posted it.

He had the original video.

Got it.

Got it.

So that answers that.

It's just his neighbor.

Also, speaking of neighbor stuff, do you see Brad Marchand that people are like.

All right, I got a take that people are probably going to be mad at.

Can you go back to PFT's face?

Sorry.

I was looking at Roger Rojas.

There was a story that Brad Marshawn, I think before game six, he accidentally left his garage door open when he left

the day before for practice or whatever.

And his neighbor went over and was like, hey, your garage door's open.

I wanted to let you know.

And then Marshawn gave him tickets to game six.

I feel like that's just a fair trade.

Like, if I left my garage door open and my neighbor did i would do something nice for him not that brad marchawn's not a great guy it's just like that feels fair like that's a when you leave your garage door open there's no worse feeling than leaving your garage door open for like an a day and coming back and be like holy fuck what what just happened yeah all-time neighbor move i've got a neighbor named blake that came over one time was like hey your garage door has been open for eight hours He gets tickets to the Colts.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's right.

So, yeah.

I mean, Brad Marchawn is a very nice move.

Also, he looks like he's having the best time ever.

There was that picture of him, like, he had a cigar and three different drinks in his hands.

It was like a beer, an energy drink, and a coffee.

He looks like he's having the best.

Winning the Stanley Cup,

it's got to be the best feeling in the entire world.

And I heard that they dinted the cup and

they're actively repairing the cup now because that thing has been through hell.

Like, the Stanley Cup, if it could talk, it's seen some shit.

And so they, I think they cracked the bowl on it, maybe dented the side.

And then the keeper of the cup was like, that's fine.

We got a contingency plan.

We'll repair this.

We got a guy that takes care of it in like six hours.

They're used to just like being on the spot fixing that thing up.

The guys that like take it to their hometowns, I love that.

If you win the Stanley Cup, you stay drunk for two months.

And it's got to be the best feeling in the world.

Yeah, it really does.

Also, we had the one celebration that didn't go well for the Panthers.

I don't know if you saw this PFT.

In the locker room, they did a selfie cam on a champagne bottle, and it was just a highlight tape of them all facialing themselves.

They didn't think that went through.

I did.

That one was a little weird.

This is why you got to hire a couple shitheads to be involved with your media production team.

Yeah.

Because

if you pitched that to us, we'd have been like, oh,

you're going to do the what he sees cam, right?

Right.

Yeah, you just need some trolls.

You need to hire a couple trolls who, like, look at this content.

What's the worst case scenario here?

And they'll find it in a second.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wait, you want every guy on the team to open up their mouth as wide as they can and then pour foam into it.

Okay.

Yeah.

Should we just put the browsers logo on the GoPro or wait?

Also, speaking of Stanley Cup, shout out Seth Jones,

Blackhawks

for life, but he is the first Seth.

to ever be on the Stanley Cup.

Pretty cool.

I don't know.

That's a pretty cool thing.

I always love that with the Stanley Cup.

They're like, this name's never been on the Stanley Cup.

First Seth ever.

You would think that there would have been some Seths.

Yeah.

You'd think there'd be

one Seth.

And then I saw.

Congrats on the Seth.

I saw there's a stat that it's basically

the odds of you winning a championship at one of the four major sports is significantly higher if your name is Mike.

Mike is the most common name

on all of the trophies in terms of winning them so it's the third most common name on the stanley cup and then there's a lot of obviously super bowls and basketball so name your kid mike

what's the most common name on the stanley cup if you had to guess i know it i have it in front of me do you want it okay i got i got a couple guesses okay yeah i have one two and three three is mike give me the other two

okay

I think

that one of them

do you not have it?

Wait, I might not have it.

Hold on.

I might have the most common full name.

That's just guys who want it the most.

No, I think these probably make sense.

Go ahead.

Okay, I think.

We're not going to fact-check after this.

No, Chris is not.

I think these make sense.

I think I have the stat right.

Bob and Bill.

Doesn't that make sense?

Bob makes sense.

Yeah, Bob makes sense.

Wait, Bob and Bill or Robert and William?

Bob and Bill.

I'll have to recheck this.

But yeah, I'll have to recheck it.

Well, you got it?

Oh, he's got it.

Look at that.

Yeah, no, right.

Bob and Bill.

Here's a list of the eight most common names to appear on the Stanley Cup with the three most notable entries for each one.

Bob and Bill.

So that's pretty cool.

It's Bob, Bill, Mike.

That's cool.

John, Dave, Ken, Doug, Joe.

Those are the eight.

Those are the most.

Yeah, those are the most generic names ever.

I love it.

It's perfect.

And I feel like Bob is a very Canadian Canadian generic name too.

It is.

It couldn't be an American.

I don't think Orion would work on the Stanley Cup.

I was talking to our friend, new employee T.

Bob Aber,

and T.

Bob said that he's got an uncle whose name is Billy Bob, which is a great Louisiana name.

But Billy Bob's name is not William Robert.

It's not even William Bob.

His name is actually just Billy Bob.

That's like his actual, like, that's just like his, his birth certificate is Billy Bob.

His birth certificate is Billy Bob.

That's awesome.

That's great.

That is awesome.

And very Louisiana.

Very, very Louisiana.

All right.

Other stories.

The Lakers sold for $10 billion,

but not actually.

Yeah.

So.

Well.

What do you mean, not actually?

Valuation was $10 billion.

The guy who bought the Lakers,

who kind of a sick fact, he lives in Chicago.

He lives like a mile away from me and in this office.

I don't know why he's not buying the Bulls and the White Sox, but whatever.

That's neither here nor there.

I mean, not actually in the fact that he already owned a percentage of the team and he didn't buy 100%.

So he didn't actually, it wasn't $10 billion.

Here's $10 billion.

It was somewhere around $4 because he bought the majority of the team at a valuation of $10 billion.

So

when I was reading about this, so he bought the majority stakeholder ownership from the Bus family.

Yep.

And Genie Buss is still going to be the governor of the team.

Is that true?

That feels like a Mark Cuban situation where they have a deal.

Yeah.

And the minute

one season goes by and the guy's like, wait a second, I paid four billion dollars and I don't get to make the decisions.

That's not going to keep going.

So I would say Genie Buss is probably.

Imagine if they did something like trade Luca.

Yeah, right, right, right.

Now, you put your fingers up.

Another wind horse question.

Okay.

Isn't it interesting that the Lakers got a screaming good deal on what's going to be the face of their franchise for the next 10, 15 years right before they sold?

Isn't that interesting?

Isn't that interesting?

Like, how much...

How much do you obviously the Lakers' historic franchise, the brand valuation is going to be high no matter what?

How much do you think Luca actually increased the brand valuation for this sale?

Would you say he's worth like

$500 million worth of equity?

I don't know.

He's definitely worth something, obviously.

But obviously, you're also...

He's the security of knowing that you have a superstar for the next 10 years.

Yeah.

And it's interesting because what you're saying starting to add up.

You can put your fingers down now.

Zach still had his fingers.

he was holding them under the table.

It's interesting you say that because it happened.

So there's been a lot of talk about NBA TV ratings.

There's been a lot of talk about these finals ratings.

There's been a lot of talk about where the league is going.

There's been a lot of people bullying Adam Silver online.

And then

I would say

the highest priced franchise in the NBA, the

team that you think of, it's the Lakers,

sells for $10 billion.

And now the NBA can be like, hey, our assets are so crazy.

Look at how healthy this league is because we're selling for $10 billion.

That's more than a lot of NFL franchises.

Yeah, that's interesting.

Every NFL franchise.

Well, I mean, not actually every, because if the Cowboys were to be for sale tomorrow, they would sell for significantly more.

Right, but I'm saying up until now, every team that's actually been sold, sold, the Lakers just set the market for highest priced sports team in America.

Correct.

Yeah, it is.

It's very interesting.

Also, Big Cat, you know what's interesting is if you look back over the last, what, three years, Mark Cuban sold the Dallas Mavericks.

The Celtics got sold to the Symphony guy, Billy Strings.

The Lakers just got sold.

Is that a good sign for every other owner if all the preeminent owners are selling their teams right now?

Like, if you went outside right now and every dog in your neighborhood was sprinting full speed down the street, like towards the west, would you be like, oh, this is good?

Yeah.

If I'm another owner, I'm looking at all these historic franchises.

Probably the three groups that would have the closest relationship with Adam Silver and the Powers of B, they're all cashing out right now.

Wait.

I would look at my place and be like,

are we hitting the bubble?

All right.

So Dallas and Celtics, I'd agree with you.

Lakers, I would say this is going to maybe be a trend where you have

Jerry Buss buys the Lakers, whatever it was 40 years ago, for $67 million.

And from all accounts, the Buss family, they don't have anything else.

They don't have any other businesses.

It's a mom-and-pop shop in that respect where it's like, this is the family business.

So when you can buy something something for $67 million and then sell it for $10 billion, especially when you don't have just like you're not liquid and it's the next generation, that one makes sense.

But you're right on the Celtics in the Mavs.

I'd be like, oh, that's weird.

Maybe this new guy that buys the Lakers, maybe he takes like two, three years, changes a bunch of stuff, everybody gets mad at him, and then he sells it back to Genie Buss for $1.

That would be sick.

Maybe some gambling commissions get involved.

Yeah.

He also owns the dodgers and he's been doing a pretty good job with them mark walter so and chelsea uh

and i still don't understand why he's not buying any why didn't he just offer a godfather offer to jerry rheinsdorf he lives in chicago i don't get i think

so he lives in chicago but owns the dodgers he owns the dodgers lakers i assume he has a house in in l a but i he probably has maybe a conflict he's probably got yeah like maybe just like a maybe maybe he's got like a time timeshare share

in L.A.

He might crash in Rascilla's basement.

Yeah.

I'm sure there's a good explanation that would take two seconds that I didn't just look up, but I just know that this guy, because he built a house that I used to, I used to live like maybe four blocks away from the street, and he bought five lots in like 2012 and built this insanely large house in Chicago.

He should have just bought the bus.

Yeah, that would be nice.

That would be great.

It'd be great for the city.

But since he does own, I mean, he's got a pretty good track record with

the Dodgers.

So

I'm sure the Lakers will be fine.

But end of an era.

Yeah, end of an era.

The boss family.

Although she is still the governor.

Okay, speaking of the Dodgers, did you see PFT?

I have two baseball things for you.

One, we were robbed of

an immaculate inning.

I don't know if you saw this, but that was bullshit.

The Dodgers, Yamamoto, almost had an immaculate inning,

which is three strikeouts, no balls to start the inning or to finish the inning.

So it would be pitching a nine-inning pitch or nine-pitch inning, and he got absolutely hosed on the last strike, which was very much a strike, but called the ball.

That was bullshit.

And then I just wanted to say, I feel really bad for Arkansas Razorback baseball fans.

I watched that game on Wednesday night.

They are the most cursed team.

This happens to them every time they go to Omaha, but they had LSU beat

and their like incredible shortstop, who's one of their best players,

just decided with a guy on first and second and one out to throw to third to get the force out at third instead of turning a double play that would have been a double play ending the game.

And then the next batter hit it to left field and the left fielder misjudged it.

The ball ate him up and that was that.

It was

almost an impossible way to choke a game away, and the Razorbacks found a way to do it.

It sucked.

I felt bad for the left fielder.

I don't know.

Did it hit him in the chest and the shoulder and it bounced away?

Did he lose his balance?

I don't know.

But

it's a very, very tough sport to lose in that fashion.

And there's nowhere to hide in left field.

You have to keep playing in the game, and you have to just stand there and just think about it while everybody's staring at you.

I felt bad for that kid.

I felt bad for him, and I know you can't throw your teammates into the bus.

You just be like, dude, what was my shortstop doing?

Max, did you you see this?

Did you see him not turn the double play?

I did not see this.

Okay.

I thought maybe you had.

Go look it up.

It's an insane thing that they could have won this game.

And like, I know the left fielder fucked up, but he should never have been in that situation.

It should have been game over.

It does feel like LSU Team of Destiny, though.

Yeah, it does.

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All right, what was your baseball thing?

My baseball thing was more of like a national sports podcast thing.

Okay.

Slash baseball thing.

You got to buy all the James Wood stock that you can get right now.

Yeah.

Buy it.

Buy it.

He's amazing.

22 years old.

I think he's got 20 dingers right now, 50 some RBIs.

Hit a walk-off home run today.

Hit two home runs today.

It was against the Colorado Rockies, so Asterisks on that.

But the Nats were in a bad losing streak.

But James Wood,

I think we're going to have a James Wood face of baseball conversation in the next two years.

You think it's going to be our leftie?

You think it's going to be our lefties going up against each other?

Because PCA, I think he was the fourth fastest to get

20-20.

He hit his 20th home run, 20-stolen bases today.

So, yeah, we're going to have a lefty off.

The league's in good left hands right now.

It's very good.

That's exciting.

Very good.

Yeah, but

I know that the Nationals are not necessarily the sexiest team right now.

They're better than people thought that they would be if you take out this losing streak recently, but

they're a fun team and they're young.

And so I think within the next two, three seasons, they're going to be contending for something.

But James Wood, in particular, I love watching this guy play baseball.

Absolutely love it.

Yeah, that off today was awesome was awesome uh did you see it did you see it max

yeah that's a guy who going into that play was like no matter what i have to get the lead runner at third without having like any feel for the moment and like being

you got that that's the that's the most tailor-made double play ever seen it was literally hit to him to turn a double play and then and then nothing else happened but it but it's like it it's exactly that situation is like i'm going to third no matter what when this ball's hits a man you just can't think that way yeah yeah it was crazy.

Yeah.

It's like right before the pitch, he heard somebody yell, like, hey, forced in a new base.

Yeah, lead runner.

Get the lead runner.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Brutal.

Brutal for Arkansas.

And then finally, we just had, I don't know what was in the water on Wednesday, but Shador Sanders and Zach Eady both getting pulled over for going 101 miles an hour was just a funny, I don't know how that happened, but it was just funny to see it back to back.

Yeah, yeah.

So Shador Sanders, apparently he's been cited for speeding twice now in the last month since he's been up in Cleveland.

So, we've got a lot of people asking a lot of questions about what this means about his maturity.

I don't really care.

Like, you shouldn't drive 100 miles an hour.

I'm not going to make a decision on whether or not he's a good quarterback based on the fact that he sped twice in the last month.

I will say, coaches always tell you: if you're going to make a mistake, make it go 100 miles per hour.

That's facts.

Can I say I

don't care because he's not the starter?

Yeah.

And Joe Flacco,

let's be honest.

Joe Flacco, his car doesn't go 100 miles per hour.

Yeah.

His car tops out probably at like 72.

It's a minivan.

So we're not going to run into any of these issues with Joe Flacco at quarterback.

But yeah,

I would imagine that Shador probably drives a car that sticks out a little bit, just taking a guess.

that he might enjoy a nice nice vehicle.

You got to be smart on that.

Got to be smarter than that, that, Dion.

Do you agree with my take, though, that

I don't care about speed?

I don't need to hear about speeding tickets if you're the third string quarterback or fourth string quarterback.

It just isn't relevant to me.

So

I'm more okay with a third string quarterback speeding than I would be with a second quarterback speeding.

If you're the second stringer and you're speeding, that's red flag.

If you're the starter, don't really care either.

Third string, don't really care either.

But if you're the backup, that's a guy that's got to be going like 60 miles an hour.

Yeah, he's got to be the safe guy for hands of 10, too.

Absolutely.

All right.

We got anything else, Zach.

We missed anything?

Any other celebrations?

The Panthers are having the best time ever.

Oh, the Connor McDavid thing.

Did you see the quote?

So

we taped the Fire Fest earlier in the day, and I did mention a quote about his, it was an old quote about what he liked about Edmonton.

He also had media today,

and he basically was like, we've been doing the same thing with the same guys,

and I got to talk to my agent.

It feels, I don't know what's, he's got one year left on his contract.

We're going to have Whitney on next week in person when we go to the Ryder Cup, see what's going on.

But yeah, that.

That didn't feel like a great.

And Conrad David is kind of like a grump in all of his press conferences.

So I'll at least put that context in there, that it's not like he's the most gregarious guy, and then all of a sudden he was like very down today.

But the wording of how he phrased everything and talking to his agent and being like, we've kind of been together and done this and not gotten through.

And also, Skinner asked for a trade doesn't feel good.

Oh, no, Skinner.

Oh, no.

Oh, no.

McDavid, McDavid asking,

saying he wants to talk to his agent.

You don't want to hear that after a season's over, no matter what.

That is not for him to say that to the media, too.

Like, that's a man who is frustrated, probably frustrated in the moment.

So I'm willing to give him like two weeks to issue a new statement that doesn't involve him talking to his agent.

But it's not good that he says that that's a guy that he wants to talk to right now.

I want him to stay in Edmonton.

I don't want him to leave and go to an American team and then win a bunch of Stanley Cups there with Edmonton not getting a single taste of it.

I think you got to go down with a ship if you're, Connor, I think that there's no chance, like if you want to talk about legacy, if you go somewhere else and you win a cup for them because you were unhappy in Edmonton, people in Canada are going to hate you.

It's going to be very personal for them.

Although, I don't know.

I guess when we talk to Whitney, like, is there a part of it like, hey,

he's done everything he can for the Oilers and they just, they aren't able to put the full team around him.

I don't know.

I don't know how the vibe is.

Because you know how that can happen.

When a team's that special

when you love something, set it free

and reach for it.

I'm not saying they want to set it free, but Connor McDavid is such a special talent.

I'm wondering if there's maybe parts of the Oiler fan base they do not want to see him leave.

Obviously, put that as a blanket statement.

They do not want to see him leave.

They want to see him sign a long-term deal.

If he did leave, I bet you there would be some Oilers fans that'd be like, we don't blame you.

You know?

Yeah.

Well, what they would do, they would turn their anger onto the team, onto the front office.

Right, right.

And wait, now, big cat, I think we might want him to leave, though.

Yes.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah, we want him to leave, and then we'll root for him.

We'll root for him to win a million cups.

And it's Whitney's fault that he left.

Yes, yes.

And then we'll be like, we always said this guy just needed to get out of Edmonton.

He's the best ever, and it will drive Whitney insane.

Yeah.

I like that.

I like that a lot.

What if he went to Chicago?

Listen,

I mean, that would be sick.

That would be so sick.

We became best friends.

I'll open up the channel book.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Became best friends with him, Zach.

They appreciate it.

Yeah.

Well said.

Would be pretty sick.

Yeah, I mean, listen, if they...

If they are going to move on for him, they've got to do it now because they can get a lot for him right now.

He's got one year left.

Like,

you can't let him be a free agent.

No.

That would be very bad.

No, you can't.

You could.

You mean, you could, but

you can't.

You can't let him be a free agent.

It would be so dysfunctional if the Oilers were blaming him for any of this and they're like, we're not going to sign you to a free agent contract.

We're not going to sign you to a contract extension.

We're going to let you play this out and see if we can win one.

That would be insanely disrespectful, almost almost like saying that you might be the reason why we haven't done it yet.

Yeah, um, but that said,

I am willing to back up the Brinks truck.

I will buy a Brinks truck and I will deliver it to Connor McDavid's house if he if he goes to the Blackhawks.

That would be so sick if he just became best friends with us and Whitney was like, oh man, just rubbing it in his face.

That'd be so sick.

Yeah, listen, Connor,

Connor, we would treat you so good in Chicago.

I don't know what Wood's been telling you.

He's probably kind of creepy, coming on a little strong.

We would treat you so good.

We'd get you wings anytime you want.

Ice cream machine.

It would be so sick, dude.

Free pass to the office to hit the simulator.

God damn.

I would hire an ice cream truck to just park in your driveway and then have it staffed with a guy that will just give you whatever ice cream bar you want at 24-7.

Pardon my take, becomes best friends with Connor.

Zach, you're probably going to be that ice cream guy that lives in that truck.

Yeah, he is.

I can do that for you.

Okay.

All right.

Let's get to our interviews.

We got two great ones, Bobon and Brett Bielema, and then we'll finish up with Firefest.

And if you're wondering, hey, we haven't heard Hank's voice, we do give him a call.

I think people thought we were pranking PFT, that we didn't actually buy him a trip to Pebble Beach.

No, no, he's at Pebble Beach.

So we do give him a call.

He was at a beautiful brunch before playing 18 holes today.

So you'll hear him during Firefest.

Yep.

Also, shout out Pug, getting married this week.

Oh, yeah, shout out Pug, getting married.

Way to go, Pug.

Way to go.

Let's go, Pug.

Everyone.

Everyone, do some pugs in the chat.

Okay, before we get to Bobon, incredible interview, by the way.

Hey, guys, it's Rhea from Chicks in the Office.

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Okay, here he is, Bobon.

Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very special guest.

I think maybe the tallest guest we've ever had.

It is Bobon.

I'm going to pronounce your last name and you're going to tell me that I screwed it up.

You ready for it?

Marjanovich.

Marianovich, you're right.

All right, I nailed it.

I was very nervous about that.

Now that we got that, so Bobon is here.

Bobon, thank you so much for joining us.

You are in Happy Gilmore 2.

Not your first acting.

Let's start with that.

And then we got a bunch of other questions.

But how was it being in Happy Gilmore 2?

Are you excited for the movie to come out?

You might be like the next Hollywood star.

I'm going to say it right now.

You never know.

That's my look.

That's what I want to do.

You know, like I'm super excited for the Happy Gilmore 2.

I have a great experience on the set.

Everybody be so professional, so great.

It's a lot of people, a lot of people there, a lot of famous people.

And I think it'd be a great movie.

And

you saw guys that picture, how you guys, like that my hair and that my moustache.

They look really good, by the way.

I love it.

Maybe in the future I'll wear.

But you know,

the the movie will be awesome I believe in that yeah did you get a chance to hang out with Adam Sandler when you were on the set because I know I know he likes to play hoops yeah he loved to play basketball you know when he was filming the hustle like we was like we was like playing uh playing like pickup and he was the it was a lot of famous like basketball players of course you guys already know about the movie and it was like a lot of guys playing up and down we have like basically we almost have all-stars all-star superstar nba pickup and adam on

that on that game.

It was really fun.

What's his game like?

I've heard he's a good passer.

He's really smart.

He's really good.

He's really a good passer.

Like great passer.

Not like good.

He's a great passer.

Like, you know, no look behind the back.

You know, like, try

to be fancy, but he make it.

You know, like, I don't know how he do it, but he's really professional.

And basketball is his patient.

And he really loves it.

And really, he enjoyed it.

Yeah.

So, yeah, you're branching out with your acting career.

I loved you and John Wick.

You got killed by a a book in john wick did that did that hurt

tell nobody no they hurt the you know they you know what is hurt they hurt like uh like after after the shooting because we were shooting from the i think 5 p.m to 8 a.m in the morning because it's a new york library and we couldn't like it couldn't stop basically we didn't have we didn't have like lunch break because lunch break or eat break or dinner whatever because it's over the night but we didn't have we didn't have the break to eat because we need to we need to finish the super fast he was like a lot of fighting and uh with kiano was like really good and that book like because i hold that book for maybe like four hours uh-huh because like itches scratch like hitting me here and here you know like i tried to buy the book and uh like my draw it really was painful after that i couldn't i couldn't like i couldn't like eat or like chew or whatever like almost like brushing my teeth i was like ah it's so painful how many shots did that take for you to get killed by the book you know easy you know like john wick it's don't mess around with boogeyman and uh i'm i'm done i'm out like i i give him i gave my special shot but it didn't work well yeah uh all right so so you you played in the in in china this past year or last two years how how is how How was that?

Was it like wildly different than the NBA?

Because you had a great NBA career, nine years in the league.

But how is it in China?

And maybe are you trying to get back in the NBA?

You know,

I'm missing one one more year in NBA to be like

this is what I need.

I need some like good words from somebody, somebody from the teams.

Listen to me.

I want to come back.

Okay, let's get you back.

You're 10.

Yeah, we got to get you back.

I need a 10 because like I was, how we say, last, it's more like last half season.

And this is because it's my first year outside of NBA.

I play Fener Bakce and we have three months deal.

Three months deal after that expire because we believe

we'll come back in NBA and

try to make like again that 10 years in NBA.

Of course,

didn't work on that direction.

And I get great offer from China.

And this is it.

When I was there, we play, we won the championship.

We won CBA.

It's like Chinese Basketball Association.

And by the way, the Fenner Bakce, the Fenner Bakce where I play, it's

Turkey team in Istanbul.

It's EuroLeague game.

Basically, it's not.

NBA is the first one.

EuroLeague is the second one.

And

the best league in the world.

And

they won EuroLeague this year.

That's me.

I'm past season, won like two big trophies.

Oh, like first.

Double tips, yeah.

So you are a champion.

Whatever NBA team wants to win next year, sign Boban.

Yeah, basically, if you want to win, you must sign Boban in the team.

I like that.

I like that.

I agree.

Boban, I love you.

I've loved watching your career unfold um you seem like a great guy but off the court i think my favorite thing that really made me really really appreciate you is what a big fan of soup you are you might be the one of the one of the top soup guys in the world what are your favorite what are your favorite soup kitty tell me about some soups i might not know about because i love soup look maybe maybe maybe if i my english is a little bit better i will explain more soups but this i will keep simple tomato mushroom butterner squash uh chicken on the soup you know but is the point is the point of the soup.

When we growing up here in Serbia, first you need to eat soup.

This is like

the main dish.

If you don't eat soup, you're not allowed to eat something else.

Because

it's not basically not allowed, but

it's more like tradition.

Everybody comes on the table.

and everybody like eating same time soup is very important and you know basically like you want to eat soup because you second meal you don't eat too much try to like try to keep and they fool you up a little bit it's not like it's not like they'll they fill you with a with the fluid feel the float I think they say right and and you cannot eat like a lot a lot a lot so what are what's a good Serbian soup that I might not have heard of before no no no it's not it's not Serbian it's more like

worldwide I like mushroom soup I like tomato soup I like butternasquash soup of course chicken noodle soup yeah and we have we have soup in Serbia like they call beef soup and it's like it's a name like beef soup but it's really like tastes so good they go vegetables beef of course and it's like like the best soup I ever tried in my life and if you come to Serbia you guys be my guest but because you guys in Chicago when I come in Chicago they have a lot of Serbian place there and I can I can bring you some some good and fancy restaurant with a great food

I would love that one thing I like to I like to eat soup after my meal have you ever done that it fills in the cracks like for dessert i didn't done that but you know i want to try and to see how it's how it works It's great.

Do you, when you eat soup, do you have a bigger spoon?

Because

I'm sure you're aware of this, but there's an entire Reddit community that's just Bobon's holding things.

And it's you holding different things,

you know, like a deck of Uno cards, Luca's head.

And they're all great.

They're all great pictures of you holding things.

So

do you get a bigger spoon or you just go with the regular spoon?

You know, I get what they have.

You know, sometimes, sometimes really they give me like bigger spoon.

Like I was in China, they have Cheesecake cheesecake factory and like they have like big big uh big soup and they give me like oh you take this big spoon it's really basically the spoon it's really big and that sometimes i got it but you know it's really don't ask for that because like i try to i try to i try to adjust on everything what is like normal size yeah and this is that this is it like you know i'm i'm not like spoiled too much for me it's okay just to be food on the table and let's go roll with that and i want to be tasted to be honest they need to be tasted were you aware of the community that just has uh pictures of you holding things did you did you know that exists yes i heard about that i saw a couple pictures and it was it was it was so funny i i saw how holding the ball uh uno cards you say you say look ahead but it's really i saw that too and it was like couple like the hands and i know like people like a lot of people like want to shake my hands it's it's it's so become like right now like unique they want they basically they holding the arms whatever i just i just basically like come from the restroom and wash my hands to eat and everybody was like, hey, how are you?

And they shake my head.

So I was like, ah.

But it's okay.

It's part of the process.

I know, like, for me, it's normal.

For somebody else, I want to basically

feel your hands to see how they fit in my, like, what is the size of your hand.

Yeah.

All right.

So a question, this might be a weird question, but

when was the first time you were like, oh, I'm tall?

Because it is something that I'm sure little kids, like, they don't realize their self-you know, their self-awareness is low when they're really small and then they get a little older and they understand their surroundings.

Was there a moment in your head where like, oh shit, I am really tall?

Yes, yes, it was a lot of things.

You know, like before, how you say, I grew up in a small place and

3,000 people live there.

And everybody knows each other.

They know me when I was like, when I was really like small, small, when it was like, he was like really small to like growing up, and I was always tall.

For me, that was like normal.

i didn't uh i didn't know that like how you say i didn't didn't recognize that but till like till one time my friend we have we have a class to write something about the friend and to we can make to we can show who is that person is

and one of my friends write like he's super he's super guy great friend whatever he's tall and he has big nose i was like oh i i that time i was like i was like i didn't know i have big nose.

This is like one of the parts, like, you know, he's tall and he has a big nose.

And after that,

I figured out like getting like really

oversized and other people.

And this is it.

Yeah, yeah.

I was like, oh, I'm tall.

What did you want to be?

I'm tall and I have big nose.

This is like, I find out two things in one class.

What did you want to be when you grew up as a kid?

When I grew up, I want to be like, to be honest,

I didn't have that idea.

I think about that every single time.

What I can be and what I want, what like I really want to be.

It's like, always, always, you want to be something like your dad.

I always want to be like driver or like, or somebody to help to help the people, like some something with the help community.

Like, they have, it's not like big time, big time job.

Like, I want to be like CEO of some company.

I want to be like the guy who owns the

big crypto or whatever, like

stocks or whatever, something, you name it, like something like big factories where they make like apples,

Apple phone, apples farms, whatever, like whatever, whatever you say.

But it was like more simple jobs.

Yeah, and so your career in basketball, you played in Serbia for a long time before you got to the NBA.

Was there, like,

obviously your dream was to be in the NBA.

Was there a moment where you're like, maybe this isn't going to happen?

And how did it all kind of come together where it's like, all right, because you know, you weren't, it wasn't like you were drafted when you were 17 years old.

You played for a while and then you got

a contract in the NBA.

So how did that all work out?

And was it like, oh man, this is finally, all my dreams are finally coming true here?

You know, like, there was like, you know, always, always hard, hard work payoff.

You know, because like...

I was gifted

to be tall, but, and to have a nice touch, but everything else needs to be work.

Like, work on my body, be prepared for everything, what is come, because like, that's why, okay, he's strong, he's this, but you know, like, I work on it, I work on it.

Basically, thanks God, I didn't have I didn't have a serious injury all my career.

They mean, like, you know, like, I basically like stay more in a weight room, stay more, uh, stay more on the court, do all my skills, do everything

what I do.

That's why, uh, that's why before, back of the day, I believed that everything came from the sky, you know, like, okay, I'm gifted, I'm tall, I suppose to have that job.

I signed, I signed, I signed, uh, I signed for your league team, uh, they fired me, I come to...

I couldn't find a team.

I went to one team here

local.

That time they play only Serbian league.

Come back.

And basically,

I play for

500 euros a month.

That's basically like $600 a month.

And that time I have the baby and my wife.

We live in one apartment.

That was the struggling.

And I was like...

And I was like 23, 23, 24.

That was really struggling.

That time I figured out, okay, you need to do something with your life.

You need to be like, no, Mr.

No, Mr.

Nice guy.

When I say nice guy, nice guy, like outside of the court, on the court, you need to show who you are.

You cannot just be super nice on the court, everybody go over you,

whatever they happen.

That time I figured out, I figured out

I need to step up and be and be the best, the best I am.

The person who helped me a lot,

it's a coach, assistant coach from Golden State who passed away recently.

You know, like Dean Milovich.

and

he passed away the the he's like he have the big the big the big role in my in my life and

to put me on on on the real track and to start to start to play better I was in Red Star

I'm I'm I'm me and Marcus Williams we make them we make them to play Euro League EuroLeague how I say NBA and EuroLeague is second like best best basketball league on the world

we make them to be to be there right now

This is the play all these years.

We won like three trophies because

here you play Cup, you play tournament, you play tournament like Serbia and you play like basically like Balkan, Adriatic, Adriatic, you play three leagues.

We won all three and from

that time this is this is like this is like their how this is basically we leave them pet to be success till today but you know that time after because I was named of MVP, MVP of Euro League, MVP like the best five, the best thing, I was never never drafted.

And that time, I come to NBA.

That was my pet.

You know, like, sometimes you need to fall down to

you can step up and

chase your dreams.

That's awesome.

It's interesting that you said that sometimes you're too nice on the court because I think

one of the funniest moments of your career,

maybe one of the best moments of your career from the people's perspective, was last season when you were on the Rockets and you gave the crowd chicken at the foul line.

So if you miss two foul shots, everybody gets chicken, right?

And I don't know if you missed the first one on purpose, but you did miss.

First, I missed it.

First, I missed it.

I don't want to lie.

I'm going to be that guy.

You know,

I missed the first purpose.

You know, big, this, but

first, I missed it.

Yeah, you missed the first one, and then you told the crowd, you said, chicken on me.

I got you guys.

And then, did you miss the second one on purpose?

Yes, I missed the second one on purpose.

But

the point of that, I know I play for Clippers, and I know that's how they happen.

And they have that same in Washington, D.C.

and a couple more places but I have the dream about that and I have dream about that like to I really to to really happen that something like that you know like why if the game if the game is over why nobody like you know just miss two free throws and give give the people what they want like you know of course some like free food and everybody be happy you know like they or like i hope so like we won the game you miss free throws because every time happen when the opponent team like visiting team miss the free throws not not for home court guys

and and we was i have dream about that that's happened that that that was the person me i'm missing the free throws and everybody get everybody get the sandwiches or food or or snack or drink whatever and um

it was in dc and game was done we was leading we was leading maybe like 20 points and i was like why this guy don't just miss free throw like he was my teammate

why just don't he miss free throws like like give everybody food and everybody be happy he'll be here

and uh i have I have that opportunity.

Last game of season,

we basically finished.

They make playoffs, they prepare for playoffs, Clippers.

We were in Los Angeles.

The first one, I think I scored maybe like eight or ten points in a row.

And

I was like on free throw line, like shooting, and I missed it.

I missed it straight.

And one moment I look it up from the backboard, like everybody is standing up.

Like everybody is standing up,

everybody becomes so crazy.

I was like, ah,

I was like,

I was like, that's a time to shy, to shy.

And I was like, miss that.

But in the point of my head, because everything needs to be fast,

I can't airboat from the thrift.

I never did it.

And I never want to do it.

Like, how I'll miss?

Because sometimes you practice, you don't practice misses, you practice makes.

To hit front rim, maybe I will throw it a bit stronger.

To hit like left, right, stronger, whatever from the backboard.

I know it still counts like a miss.

I miss on my left side.

This is it.

Like, perfect.

The chicken on me.

And it was like, he was like great.

It was not like the plan, previously planned, but it's happened and it's amazing.

I miss a second free throw of purpose and

people have what they want.

Yeah, you give the people chicken.

And I think people appreciate that about you.

You were thinking about them, thinking about the fans.

Maybe that's why we need to, maybe year 10 didn't happen because you cost too much money.

The big corporations are like, Bobans cost us millions of dollars in chicken.

We can't bring them back.

Oh, no, no, but no, but look at this what's happened what's happened I get I get the big cow the big cow like Chick-fil-A and I get like I get like a card and with like thank you very much for everything whatever like it was it was it was amazing spirits from chick-fil-a and i get for uh for one year one year free um meal like you know one year free i i never use it but you know like i get uh i get the coupons for uh for all year free chicken you got like the black card in your pocket anytime you go to chick-fil-a you can just go get to the front of the line get a free chicken sandwich That's pretty good.

Yeah.

I never done it.

I never done it, but you know, it's there.

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I got a question.

The internet.

always gives us weird facts, but I read a story that when you were younger and started playing basketball, you could dunk but you didn't dunk because you wanted to work on your dribbling is that true?

Like that must have been the hardest thing ever to not be able to dunk like you could you can dunk but you wouldn't do it.

No, it was not it was not like that.

It was more like it was more the thing like you could

first I like I didn't I didn't think I can dunk because like I remember I remember the day when my coach when I was young I missed layup and he was like

you don't dunk that like come on take the ball take the ball and dunk I was like no but I I was like, I can't dunk.

You know, like, no, no, you can try.

And I dunk it.

He was like, now go with left hand.

I dunk with left hand and I started to go with two hands.

How I go with two hands?

I like hold the rim.

I was like, wow, this is so amazing.

You know, like, and then from that time, I started to dunk everything.

Like, like, back of the day, I really started dunk everything.

Everything, like, you know, like, every, every ball, every ball, what I grab, where, I go to dunk.

Because it was super, it was super experienced.

Before I'm missing the layups, do that.

And the second part, because I think you guys hear about it, it's about

I was not allowed to make a dribbling ever to like learn how to

learn how to like basically dunk or

shut the ball.

Like, basically, every time when I make a dribbling or low post,

it's lose the ball.

That's how we practice on practice.

That's why, like, sometimes I go a lot of things without dribbling.

Ah, have you ever have you ever tried to play point guard and like pick up?

Yes, and I think, to be honest, I think I'm good.

Maybe, like, maybe, like, you know, like, maybe like, uh, not like somebody, somebody somebody playing like full court defense on me, but I was not bad at all.

Like, I'm, I can shoot, I can dribble, it's not, it's not, it's not really fast, fast, but it's really like good, good.

Yeah, like, yeah, it's it's not easy to stop me.

I'm, and, and it's, it's a fact, it's not about, like, hey, no, I'm the best, you know, who I am, I'm Bob.

It's really, it's really true.

I tried, it's worked well, but you know, like, of course, like, it's not my position, but I can do it.

Have you ever have you ever crossed anybody up at point guard, like, broken anybody's ankles?

Never, but because because I can shoot over everybody.

Nobody like everybody tried to reach the ball, but they couldn't have it.

Yeah.

You just shoot over him.

Another one that's that makes me laugh because Bobon, I mean, we're massive fans of you.

And like, it's just,

you seem like the funnest guy.

Like, and everyone talks about how great of a teammate you are.

But this story is, I think, from six years ago, your son's birthday.

You got so excited for your son's birthday, but you forgot that your wife had planned a photo shoot beforehand.

And it's just a picture of you your wife and your two kids and you're just full Spider-Man face paint while they don't have any face paint on because you got ready so early for his birthday no that was not true okay all right so but is that that picture's an awesome picture no no no the picture the picture is there and it was i think i think he was like i it was not for my son birthday it was like for uh for the new year okay and yeah and uh my son friend that we was in the troy from serbia yeah she she paint she paints like

she learned to drawing, she paints our faces, and that's why how the picture happened.

Okay, because the picture is very funny because it's your two kids, your wife with no face paint, and you're just full Spider-Man.

Yeah, yeah, the picture is that.

Yeah, you're right.

Okay, all right, yeah, yeah.

I mean, you seem like the best guy to be around.

That's just a fact.

Yeah,

maybe that's just your personality.

Like, I think every

story that comes out about you, it's just like he's just the best.

I don't know what it is.

Like,

he's the man, and

every teammate feels like they absolutely love you.

I love all my teammates.

I really have great experience with each one of them.

Like, you know, like, they're everybody, super great, super humble people.

Like, from when I was a kid to like

NBA, everybody, everybody was super, super perfect.

Do you have a favorite teammate?

A guy you're still great friends with?

Yeah,

I have a lot of teammates who have friends.

Of course, I play with jokic in mega with him i play of course i play with luca uh in dallas of course i play with toby and this is like this is like some people who you guys know i have i have a lot of friends around but these three these three like we was like we was like mostly tight yeah yeah what have uh what have your friends and especially the ones from serby what have they said about the the game in america when you're you know getting ready to go to the nba what how what's the what's the reputation of the nba like overseas right now like uh something untouchable something like nobody can play, you know, like, and you can need to work a lot, you need to work a lot to you can make it.

It seems like, you know, in the last 20 years or so, maybe even, you know, since the dream team, the world has, I don't want to say caught up to the American game, but it's certainly really competitive.

You're watching the Olympics, and these are some great games that are being played in the Olympics right now.

Is there something about basketball in Europe that you think

makes it more competitive now than it used to be?

I think basketball, it's like a big, like big game.

Everybody tried to find out something new and it's competitive every time you know like I feel like I feel like they change players change everything change the like strategy change everybody everybody tried to be like everybody want to be like golden state like back in the day when they was like when they were shooting every ball everybody tried to be like Steph Carry but then they they don't that doesn't know they only want it's one and only Steph Carry like everybody tried to try to be like that team what is like my experience and everybody like put the numbers you know like watching the watching the stats you know like what is that type of things and now everybody start to shoot shoot threes i figure i figured out no really no really like like uh

basket but real basketball before like you know like you have post up you have shoot you have this you have run you have everything like you remember you remember like uh san antonio game and everybody like shared the ball and like one guy attack like uh

other guy the shared ball they make like twelve twelve thirteen fourteen passes and uh and after that like one guy open on layup or one guy open on three point right now i feel like everybody like play a small small small small pick and roll and they try to they try to attack the mismatch every switch and this is it like this this is only this is only what they basketball do right now but it's competitive it's nice basketball always fun they play like track and uh chess and uh it's um

they play chess and like you basically need to be on right place in right moment yeah that's why

in serbia how how big of a star is jokic is he just the like every single person?

Because he seems like a great guy as well.

Very humble.

Have you gone to the horse track with him?

I didn't.

I didn't.

But, you know, like he's really,

he's really

superstar.

Not like big star.

He's superstar.

Everybody wearing his jersey on outside, all kids, like all kids you see play basketball and say, hey, do you know Jokic?

Do you know Jokic?

Can you say hi to him?

Can you say hi to him?

And like big time.

But you know, like, he's not about like, it's not about like he's just big star.

He's just like big human, big heart, like big, like

good friend and

nice person.

And that's why people like people and kids like him the most because like this is who he is.

He was like that before when

we was like together without nothing.

And right now, right now with something, of course, he's much more bigger level than me.

But you know, like with something, everybody of us

make something like for the rest of our lives.

That's why, that's why he's so remindable, and everybody loves him.

Yeah, you were talking about how everybody wants to be Steph Curry, but there's only one Steph Curry.

But the level of shot making has gone up.

Like, three-pointers are people are way better at them than they used to be.

If you were to practice and you were to take 25 threes, how many do you think you would make?

Just in practice, nobody guarding you?

I can make a lot of time.

I'm a good shooter.

I'm not like Steph Curry, a good shooter, or somebody, some of the other guys, but I can make from 25.

Nobody got me.

If I'm, I can make like at least maybe 20.

That's great.

Yeah, you should

start shooting threes all day.

Yeah, but I'm so powerful under the basket, you know.

That's why, that's why, that's my advantage.

Yeah.

Have you ever been playing and there's somebody who's like six feet tall that jumps up in the air to try to block your shot and they just don't even come close and you just laugh at them?

No, I never laughed to nobody.

I respect, I respect, I didn't laugh to nobody because

I respect people

who try,

who give their best to, of course, everybody here advisions about the high, about speed,

about the power,

about the physical, but I never laughed to nobody.

Like, you know, you cannot reach.

I never do that.

That's nice.

You seem like a great guy because if I were playing basketball,

you have to jump.

I would have to try to get a hand in your face, but I don't think I'd come within like five feet of the ball.

But, you know, you got to make an effort on defense.

Yeah, of course.

You know, like, it's like,

I think it's respectful because

I need to respect him, he needs to respect me.

It's basically like

respectful, but I want to beat you, of course.

I want to attack every single time.

Have you ever broken a backboard?

I didn't, but we broke couple, like

unscrew the rim or something like that.

Because right now it's hard to break the backboard.

because the rim it's like so not a touchable for the for the backboard yeah yeah i feel like the technology has gotten a a lot better.

Yeah, you can really bend, but you know, like, I really like make a couple screws or like the rim would go like this.

Like, I did something like that, but it really didn't never break the, never break the backboard.

Yeah, not like Shaq when he pulled it down on people's heads.

That was amazing.

Yeah, yeah.

I got another question about Serbia.

Like, it's not a huge country, and it's produced such an insane amount of NBA talent recently.

Like, what is it?

Is it just basketball?

Is the sport in Serbia?

Is it the coaching?

Because it is pretty amazing the size of serbia and then the imprint it's had on the nba in the last decade i think i think it's uh i think always we have good uh like good good people good kids good basketball players from there but i think like because because and luca and yokic from the from this part of the world and i guess i guess they figured out oh or yanis and we have we have a lot of we have a lot of people like maybe we need to send send the scouting and uh and watch the kids you know i feel i i figured out this is the this this is the why why happened there right now they saw them i was like oh they have a lot of kids there with a lot of with a lot of talent let's go to see and bring them to nba to see what we can do i think that's happened right now because back of the day back of the day was really good basketball players too you remember like darko milicic when he was like he was like his second pick on second pick or draft uh never mind like he was like we was we was in same team he went to the nba i remember watch one game he was like he's really beast.

It's not about like whatever he says, how many minutes he played, but it's like he was really beast.

And he's like, he's,

he makes the NBA 18 years old.

They're 18 years old and they change the rule.

I mean, like, he's good.

Yeah.

And that's what I say.

Like, he's like, he's the first.

And they have a lot of guys similar

to the kids in this era.

So you might have never had this conversation.

It's something we kind of like not dream about, but we just throw out the rosters.

Have you ever had a conversation with any of the guys about if Yugoslavia was still the country you guys would be the best basketball country?

Because like when you add up all of Serbia is already really good, but then like Luca, you know, would be on the Yugoslavian team.

Like there's other guys in that part of the world that if it was still, it would be crazy.

They would be beating the U.S.

in basketball tournaments.

I don't know who will beat.

Of course, for the basketball, we need to have that chemistry, but of course, we have that chemistry because we show in a bubble.

We went like, we went like, I think think 12 of us went to the went to the dinner and we have like our own party.

But

the thing, yes, I believe in that.

We'll be really good.

We will be amazing.

I know we will be like we can beat United States, but I think we have like big trends.

Like it's not be like easy for states to beat that team.

Yeah, you'd be able to have the dinner you're talking about.

It was like Jokic, it was you, it was Luca, Dragic,

Vucevic, like all these guys that would be playing on the same team if Yugoslavia was still the country.

Yes, yes.

There's the guys.

Yeah.

There's the guys.

And it was like, it was big.

I think we will be very good.

Like amazing.

You read that, all that names.

I was like, wow, okay.

It is crazy.

It's a small part of the world.

And it's just like all these guys are coming out and being incredible pros in the NBA for a very long time.

It's very cool.

And it's like, it's cool to just see basketball grow as much as it has around the world.

True.

It's amazing.

Yeah.

I can agree with you.

I can agree with you.

Yeah,

nothing to add on that.

Yeah, I think you guys could probably out-party us, too.

I think you'd be able to drink us under the table.

Maybe that's what we do in the next all-star break.

They're trying to copy the hockey model of the four nations.

We go former Yugoslavia versus the United States in the All-Star game.

We talk about which sport?

You say hockey.

Well,

in hockey, they did the four nations.

know?

Oh, okay, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, they had USA, Canada, Finland.

Who was the fourth nation in that?

I can't remember.

I can't remember.

It's a team that didn't win.

But in the All-Star break,

they're trying to make it USA, you know, against the world somehow.

I think

it's a two-part thing.

One, you guys all go out partying the night before, and then the day after, it's a hungover basketball game of the former Yugoslavian countries against the United States.

I would put that spread at you guys, would probably be favored by 12 to 14 points.

Agreed.

You know what?

Because kids watch this, we never drink.

Never drink.

I mean, the video of you involved with Yok is just so funny, and you guys are having the time of your life.

Yeah,

we must have a great time, but you know, never before the game.

Yeah, before the game when you went out with Luca that one time, it was apple juice.

You guys were drinking apple juice.

We drink apple juice, you already know.

You guys have good research, I figured out.

Yeah, yeah

that was funny because it was it was a picture and i think it was like more than 24 hours before the game right it was like more than a full day before the game

you know it was a it was a day it was a day before it was day day before the game but they come they come out they come out on twitter they come out on twitter like really late and

and that's why that's why it was like look like that but it was like it was like two two two days before the game because we arrived there two times two days before the game.

Right.

Well, we need you back in the NBA.

Oh, I have a stat.

You want it.

So for anyone who's listening right now who is making decisions on bringing Bobon back, here's the stat for you.

Career player efficiency rating.

Yours is 25.3.

It is higher than the following players.

Kevin Durant, Charles Barkley, Tim Duncan, Magic, Hakeem, and Steph Curry.

I'd say that's pretty damn good.

Yes, let's go.

Hey, yeah, let's get that on a resume and just be like, hey, hey, do you think we just got to walk into a meeting with GM and be like, hey, do you think Kevin Durant and Steph Curry are good basketball players?

They're like, yeah, well, we got a guy who's better.

Statistically better.

Statistically.

You only show statistically.

You only show the numbers.

This is the number.

This one specific number.

And he's hot right now.

Two championships in a row.

Yeah.

Winner.

We even go there, but we don't believe in that story, too.

We just throw the story there.

Yeah.

believe they will bite they will bite it yeah i think you let other people say it about you you don't rely you don't say it yourself but we'll say it he is the best player in the history of basketball okay and i would be like

i'll be like this

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Everyone, go see Happy Gilmore 2, our friend Bobo.

Can we call you a friend now?

Of course, we are friends.

Okay, all right.

Our friend Bobon's in it.

My last question is: so, your mom and dad are both on the shorter side.

Was there a point where your dad was like, this is getting ridiculous like you're just weight like because i i know i i have three kids if they get taller than me i'm gonna be mad i'm gonna be like this is bullshit so at what point was your dad like hey this is kind of bullshit you're weight you're like two you're you're over two feet taller than him right i feel yeah for sure i'm i'm basically like that's happened in second grade

for sure he look he looked to my mom and say what's happened

what we do to Boba?

Like, maybe I use I use more material than supposed to be.

I just want to, I know, like, I want to finish something.

I want to say, I forget to say it, because we was like, we was doing,

you talk about horses and Jokic.

I want to add, I try, I will try because

we film the TV show, Robin Hood

and with MGM, and with MGM, and

I we talk about horse I'm I'm learning to ride a horse for that for that so that yeah that I'm super I'm super excited that that that will be fire this is like Lonesgate and MGM this is like this is like they they make they make

they make TV shows be fire that's I'm that's I'm super excited for that I forget to tell you about that on the beginning when you talk about horses

have you have you gotten on the horse yet nah I didn't tomorrow oh tomorrow.

Wow.

Big dad cat.

Tomorrow is the day.

Are you going to ask Jokic for any tips?

Because he is the horse guy.

Of course.

In the morning, I'll call him seven in the morning and say, hey, Nicola, what I can do to be better.

I have to see the picture.

I have to see the picture of you getting on the horse for the first time.

Watch out, but keep that like a secret.

Okay, all right.

Let me see.

Maybe hold the horse's head in your hand.

That would be a good one.

I'm super excited for this I'm really I'm really super exciting for this and I hope so for more acting in my in my uh in my career and of course for more basketball games I love it yes we're getting you back in the NBA

and by the way for DJing I tried to be DJ too

there was like there was like I work I'm working in a China I'm in China working working on that on that skills of course I'm I get I'm like I'm I don't say I'm great but I'm really good okay and

we'll come out with a couple new couple new songs couple new singles.

They'll be soon there.

Like, you guys you guys listen on Spotify?

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah, we're looking forward

for some good collab, and

I'm super happy for that.

I hope you guys listen to my music.

What's it listed under on Spotify?

Is it just your name?

Or do you have a DJ name?

Just my name, but

it's only one song right now, but

it's only one song from last year, but we will add more five songs or six songs in the next one month.

I love that.

And when you come, whenever you come back to the U.S., you got to come by the office.

We'd love to have you here.

I will.

And I'll bring you guys on lunch.

I promise the Serbian soup.

Okay.

Okay.

Love it.

Perfect.

Perfect.

Bobon.

Thanks so much, man.

We really appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

No, I appreciate you guys.

Thank you very much.

I know it's not personal like

in Chicago, but Zoom, it still works.

Yes.

Yeah, we're friends.

We're friends now.

And we're going to do this face-to-face.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes, face-to-face.

I love it.

And handshake.

Yep.

There you go.

All right.

Thanks so much, Mobon.

Thank you very much, guys.

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Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very special guest, recurring guest.

I forgot you'd been on, Coach.

It is Coach Brett Bielama, coach of Illinois, getting ready for the Big Ten season.

It is, you know, late June or mid-June.

So let's start there.

At what point in the summer are you like, let's just start playing ball?

Probably the start of June, we go an eight-week training program for Illinois.

We do a window there that the first four weeks we're with the coaches, and then after this week, we'll leave and we go on four weeks of vacation.

That's when our players actually get together the most.

And that's when I think I kind of have that moment, like, let's just get together.

I try to get out of the country.

I'm going to Cabo with my family for a couple of weeks just to kind of relax.

But when we come back, that third week of July, it's kind of game on.

You're looking like you're in good shape.

Have you lost a little?

Trying, trying to get down to normal weight.

As someone who's taken a lot of pictures of Brett Bielma on the

Arkansas days, I would kind of adjust the camera.

I apologize for those.

But that was also when our relationship wasn't the best because you left Wisconsin.

But you look like you're in good shape.

We're trying to get there.

We've not got there yet, but feeling better, looking better.

Do you find yourself thinking about football when you're on vacation?

I know you're supposed to be locking in on vacation.

Yeah.

But I'd imagine a guy like you, the mind drifts a little bit.

You know, my wife always laughs because

if I'm sitting in front of TV, I usually flip on a game.

I just like watching football.

And for me, I like watching games I've never seen because then you can kind of work through the game, right?

And then recruiting is just...

such a different animal, it's a different beast, you know, retention.

So I think about it a lot, but also during that two weeks, I'm going to try to put my phones in a drawer in the hotel and just kind of try to get away from it a little bit.

Do you feel like

maybe this is just me knowing you from afar and also getting to know you through the past few years and watching you at Wisconsin and Rise Up?

Do you feel like you're in like a stage of your career where you kind of don't give a shit?

Because I feel like you are there.

Like whether it be the Shane Beamer or chirping Lane on Twitter, I enjoy it.

Like you, you have no problem kind of kind of saying whatever you want.

Is that fair?

You know, it's crazy.

My first year, head coach at wisconsin i i went to a big ten meeting and lloyd carr and jim trestle grabbed me and i just finished a year we went 12 and 1 at wisconsin and uh they kind of asked me to kind of sit down for a minute and those two guys kind of said hey you know barry alvarez says you're going to be really good you're 35 years old you're going to be a spokesman for this this this occupation for a long time and at that time i'm just like oh these guys are being pretty cool to me well now i go into those big 10 meeting rooms and i am one of the older guys in the room i'm 55 you know i've done it 17 years.

And some of these guys say things.

I'm just like, just shut up, right?

Like, just let's just pay attention to what we need to do.

I want to protect, I protect our players all the time.

That's my number one priority.

But I think you got to do protect the game a little bit, too,

because I think there's so many people trying to attack certain things that we get to do for our players right now, the way they get to be paid, is absolutely awesome.

But with that comes complications that we got to work through.

Yeah,

I don't know if I'm at a, I don't give a hoot, but I do definitely not afraid to speak my mind.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, maybe what other people say, it feels like does that not affect you as much as it used to?

Oh, totally.

Yeah.

You can say whatever you want about me.

You can post a picture of me.

We had your side in the Bieber situation.

Yeah, we did.

Yeah.

We did.

I would not want to mess with you.

I would not want to mess with you.

I mean, our relationship has gone through, you know, some tumultuous times.

Obviously, there was the time when you left Wisconsin, I was upset.

And then I did maybe tweet karma at your wife after every time you guys lost in Arkansas.

She blocked me, but now we're good.

Listen, there was hurt feelings all around.

Sports fans operate, right?

It is.

Hey, take it personal, which I think is why it's so awesome, right?

There is no better time in my career to be a head coach.

And the way the game has expanded, you know, 12 playoff teams now,

it's about as good as it gets.

You know, now to have so many players, too.

Like, I know you're a commander's guy, right?

So I literally Johnny Newton hit me this morning, right?

And you have these kids all over the league.

We got two or three guys been drafted at Washington.

So now you see those guys in a different light.

And I didn't have all those pro players back then.

And now you kind of see what they're doing in their careers, and you realize you've affected these guys, not just the four four years you're with them, but for the rest of your life, and it's pretty cool.

I imagine that as a former defensive lineman yourself, you worked pretty closely with Newton.

Then, I did.

Strong guy.

He, when we got there that first year, I literally knew he had some exceptional skills.

The De Burst, he's really strong.

His little brother's on our team now, too.

I got five sets of brothers on my team, right?

Yeah, the first set of brothers were these guys named JJ, TJ, and Derek Watt.

I'm like, I like brothers, so

yeah, we got Josh and James Crutz, their dad, Owen Crutz, right?

So, DNA means a lot, but yeah, Johnny, you know, one of the things we did after that first offseason is really took his early down production.

So like everybody thinks third down is all that in a bag of nuts, right?

But like the part that's really awesome about third down, everybody knows what's going on.

First and second down is your easiest pass to the quarterback.

So he was the most productive early down pass rusher in college football two years in a row, and that's really got him where he was.

Who's the strongest guy you ever coached?

Strongest guy.

You know, JJ had country strong.

Like he wasn't maybe, you know, but his hands, you know, he had those meat hook hands, right?

I remember sitting there the night that JJ was trying to decide if he was going to go in a draft, and John Watt just sat there, you know, he's a firefighter, right?

And he sat there and he had, looked like 10 poli sausages hanging off his hands, right?

And I'm just like, good God, right?

And, but, you know, we've had Johnny is very powerful, very, very explosive player.

Actually, Gay Backus, who's in town with us today, outside linebacker rush player, is a really, really strong player.

So a lot of those linemen, but some of our offensive linemen, you know, Kevin Zeitler was probably productive.

You know, he's still playing the league.

I think Russ, that team that we won a Big Ten Championship,

every offensive lineman on that team was drafted in the third round or higher.

They were a very explosive crew.

Do you do that when you're recruiting?

You evaluate the father's handshake.

You're like,

I think this guy can get strong.

They hear at PFT, honest to goodness, the best thing you do is if you can meet mom and then if you meet one of her brothers, the uncles from mom's sides are usually the greatest indicators of what you're going to get.

That's a good tip.

I like that.

Yeah.

You are in the, I don't give a shit.

You just gave away the whole whole scheme.

Yeah.

Well, we're going to keep that.

Yeah, right.

Yeah, we'll figure that out.

So we talked about Shane Beamer.

What's the status of some of the beefs?

Shane Beamer.

Have you talked to him?

Yeah, I actually called him.

I'm a very you know, I get caught up in a moment,

but uh, that one was kind of more of just a

little moment in the game.

So I literally called him.

Uh, there was later in January, we have a coaches convention, and I knew his dad was getting an award, so I probably knew he was going to be there, and I was going to try to make it to the event, couldn't do it, so I called him and had a conversation, and it was very, very cordial.

Um, so I think you gotta you gotta get past those moments.

That ended up being a rule change, you know.

So probably in the good of the game, it was actually a good thing that it happened.

Yeah, but uh, yeah, all the other stuff, you know, when I'm pimping lane, I wasn't really going at him, I was agreeing with him, right?

I was like, hey, you should be in the playoffs, Illinois should be talked about.

Yeah, three losses.

All right, what about what about Jim Harbaugh?

I have not talked to Jim.

Okay, that one's still

beat.

I've never really had a problem with him, but it was just that moment, that scenario.

Actually, his strength coach, Ben Herbert, you know,

we actually interviewed him last year.

Incredibly impressive guy.

Yeah, to me.

Share through your soul.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

But when I got let go at Arkansas, he hired, Jim hired four of my strength coaches to Michigan, and that's kind of when they made their turn, you know.

Yeah.

I got respect.

I love, love his family, love his dad.

He's good people.

All right.

I want to know Barry Alvarez.

Very close.

Okay.

You know, he just had surgery yesterday.

Yeah.

Yeah, I would say

maybe after my second or third year at Wisco, we were at New York, and we actually met.

Somebody tricked us into meeting at the the same restaurant and we kind of just hugged it out.

And from that point forward, he still called him yesterday on Father's Day, you know, other than my dad, one of the most influential people in my life.

I always feel like having a beef with Harbaugh, that's like it's almost a badge of honor.

Yeah.

Like he doesn't have beef with somebody that he doesn't respect deep down inside.

Yeah.

Just two hard-headed guys.

Yeah, you know, and I've had a lot of people that have worked with him, you know, and

obviously got a lot of respect in the things he's been able to do.

Yeah.

I read that your favorite word is consistency.

I do like consistency.

That you say.

Two C's, consistency and communication.

are big ones.

Those are the two C's.

Now, every time I hear you say consistency, you like to say it's a hard word to spell, but it's a tougher word to do.

Right.

Can you spell consistency?

Probably not on air.

I would have to look it up real quick.

So what is consistency?

Why is consistency one of the things that you're doing?

I think it's the greatest thing to bring to the organization.

It's probably why you're sitting in your chair, right?

Like

as people are successful,

it could be that.

But I think, you know.

You got your look.

You got your phrases.

You know, you guys, what you've done here is absolutely awesome for our game, right?

But people tune in and watch because you guys are consistent.

I don't think people want this, right?

Right.

Even our best players, like I say, one of the greatest things they can bring is just to be that same player every day.

Because if you're it one week and you're not the next, I can't coach that.

I can't plan that.

You know, I got 20 coaches in the building.

Nine of those guys played for me, right?

I knew them as players and now I know them as coaches.

And the thing that I really know is I know who they are, right?

It kind of applies to everything that we do.

And then communication, I think in this world, like there's too much, you know, handheld devices and things that you can communicate without talking.

So one of the things we do in our building, literally the first meeting they come into, they have to stand up, say their name, hometown, where they're at, position they're going to play.

They share three things.

What's their name, their full name, if there's any meaning,

basically a story about them that helped them get to where they are today, right?

And I want those guys to speak loudly and proudly, and it makes them feel confident.

Do you think that kids have changed over the years?

Like the players that you're coaching?

You know, I get that question all the time.

I think the venues that are accessible to them, right?

The fan that can get at them through a DM and whether or not they want to read it or not, you know,

I think kids, you have to, when you get them, teach them the things they don't know.

I always say, you know, they only know what they know, right?

So if they came from a house where 10 minutes late is being on time, then you got to teach them what that really is, right?

If they don't know how to effectively communicate, hey, easy conversations are easy to have.

Tough conversations are tough to have, but they're usually the most productive.

So I always tell kids, man, hey, just because I'm getting on you or I'm saying something you you don't want to hear, it's probably because I love you, right?

Like, I'm trying to do this to get you some go somewhere we've never been.

And that's a big part of it.

Do you kids understand that?

Because kids, when you come at kids, they think you're coming at them, right?

They don't realize it's from a place of goodness, right?

Yeah, I think that ultimately, and I don't, obviously, I don't, I'm not around college kids as much as you are, but I think kids are going to be the same throughout, you know, all the different generations.

It's just the devices that they have, the forms of communication, the forms of technology, they're a little bit different, but ultimately, I feel like if you can reach kids with a message that's going to resonate, that's going to apply to all the generations.

It does.

You know, we have a phrase that we say all the time.

My coach, I played for a guy, Hayden Fry at Iowa, and he always say, recruit your own problems, right?

And I think a lot of times in recruiting, I'll be sitting at a table and I'll say or hear something that I'm like, okay, I'm out, right?

Like if a young man, like Luke would tell you, right?

Like his mother is an angel, and most kids respect their mothers, right?

They're going to disagree once in a while with their dad, right?

Like my dad and I argue, but anybody that disrespects their mother is usually showing you something about what they are.

So there's like little little indicators I've had in my career where how people communicate with others is usually a good indicator of what they are.

Reading people, yeah.

Yeah, it's a big part of the job.

Would you say you have it rolling now at Illinois?

And I mean that in the best sense, because when you as a coach and watching your career, when you get it rolling, there's something about a Brett Bielama team, they put you in a cement mixer.

They're basically going to play football where they're going to make it hurt whenever you play them.

I think there was that stat when you were at Arkansas where it was like every team that played Arkansas the next week just absolutely got killed.

So do you think, do you feel like you have that?

You've put your year five.

Do you feel like you have the Brett Bilema like imprint on Illinois?

I think going in year five, I feel better than I did going to year one for sure.

But this world we're in, I got 40 new players in the building.

Yeah.

Right.

Like the world that we're in in college football, you own and you operate our program now very much like an NFL team, right?

Like the rosters are even getting more balanced.

You know, I said this last month.

I said, I don't, you know, the thing that's really happening with college football is awesome is we're all going to start shopping in the same store, right?

I don't care if we're shopping in Louis Vuitton over at Walmart, as long as we're in the same store, I feel good, right?

And I do think the physicality that we play at and to play with,

we're starting to be more consistent in that, and that's probably what's making me more excited.

We sold out season tickets, I think 43,000 seats, right?

First time in like 20 years.

So I know the fans are feeling it too, which is a really good thing.

But the bottom line is our players, right, and how they feel is what matters.

Yeah.

All right.

I got a dumb question.

Hit me with it.

So you, after Arkansas, you went and coached the NFL for a little bit with the Patriots and the Giants.

There was a year where you were a consultant to the head coach.

We're dumb.

Every time I see a

fired or

a coach go from one place and be a consultant, we're like, oh, he's just going to sit on his ass and just basically be friends with the head coach.

Can you explain to me what a consultant to the head coach does?

You see it a lot in NFL or college where it's like, you guys kind of take care of each other.

If you have a year where it's like, you don't have a job, you go work with someone else, what exactly do you do?

You know, it was crazy.

So I got let go at Arkansas.

That next day, seven o'clock in the morning, my phone's ringing.

It's go spell check, right?

And I'm like, all right, so I pick it up and he just starts talking to me.

He talked about, you know, relating things when he got let go of Cleveland.

And I really didn't know Bill.

He had drafted a lot of my players.

He had four guys on our roster at that year that were former players of mine that he had drafted.

And he just kind of started talking to me.

He said, hey, I don't know how long we're going to go, but when we're done, you know, I'd like to give you a call and see if you would like to think about working in our organization.

Didn't know what it was.

So literally, that was the year they got beat by Philly, right?

The next day at 11 o'clock, he called me and he said, Hey, would you be interested in this?

So I started watching some film.

He didn't offer me a job.

And then

we met at the Combine, and I went on Wednesday, and I stayed till Sunday.

Saturday night, he's like, hey, can you go with me?

I'm driving to my place in Nashville, and then I'm going to go to Alabama Pro Day.

So I'm like,

sure.

I I don't have any clothes.

But yeah, so we hopped in a car from Indianapolis and drove to Nashville.

I was driving the whole way, which was an experience and a half.

And don't really know the man, right?

And then he just kind of kept giving me other jobs.

And then finally, when we were in the spring, he invited me to the draft.

And then in the spring, he said, Hey, would you like to stick around and be with us in the fall?

And I'm like, sure, what?

And he goes, whatever you want to do, right?

Like, wherever you want to.

And he goes, and then he came up with that title.

Yeah.

But he literally, one of the first projects he did, he gave me four teams to look at

in a playoff season

and said, look at it in the red zone and tell me what you think.

So I literally kind of did this little project.

I think that's what turned into.

I ended up working on the defensive side of the ball, Brian Flores.

I kind of gravitated to that side.

And then the next year I was a D-line coach.

But I'll tell you, with Coach Belichick, I learned something every day I'd never heard before.

Really?

He is truly...

one of the most brilliant football minds I've ever been around.

We were watching the Bears, right?

And we're getting ready to play in Soldier Field.

And I'd played in Soldier Field when I was at Wisco.

We played Northern Illinois, New York a couple times, but we were going to play a noon game, right?

And he's showing film and he's talking about, well, the sun's in his eyes here.

And he's saying all these things.

I grew up on a farm.

Like, I took care of animals when they were hot, you know, and I knew about the sun and the heat of the sun.

And so finally, at the end of the day, I said,

how do you know where the sun is, right?

And he goes, oh, by their shadows, you know, the shadows short behind him versus long in front of him.

I'm like, Holy shit.

He takes shadows.

And then we talked, and then sure enough, we kicked into the sun and told these, guys.

We had a whole game plan about when they were going to be kicking, kicking, returning into the Sun.

Using the Sun as a weapon.

That's crazy.

So, so, and then, like, for the first year when you're consulting, you're just basically doing special projects for a lot of people.

I did a lot of projects, and we won the Super Bowl that year, right?

And

we were playing Kansas City in the championship game.

We had to beat Kansas City, right?

But I didn't really, I coached on defense, but I didn't coach a position.

So, that week, he came to me and said, Hey, why don't you start prepping for LA, right?

And

in the NFL, you don't have NFL films, right?

So, you hear the quarter, but so I would make an audible tape, and I knew what they were saying.

So I worked on that thing for three weeks.

So when we went to the game, McVay was an awesome dude, but he kind of...

He had fucked him up.

He was calling it because their quarterback, the guy that said Detroit.

Jared Goff,

if they broke the huddle.

under

20 seconds, he had five seconds to get the communication in.

So we knew he wasn't going to audible much, right?

But when they broke the huddle at 30 seconds, we knew that he was going to get to the line of scrimmage and change a call.

So that whole, that was the lowest scoring Super Bowl in NFL history.

Yeah, I took the over.

Yeah.

Still called me.

You were pissed at me then.

You were still pissed.

I mean, it was one of the best defensive game plans of all time.

And it was honestly because it was a video game.

We knew by when the clock was going, when we could audible, and when we had to Shem and Stiff, it was really kind of cool.

So as you're watching that game, are you just, you're obviously like nervous going to the game, but then you see your plan, your plans working, or you're just sitting back like, yeah.

Well, knew this was going to happen.

That was a part of the plan.

It wasn't my plan.

But yeah, Brian Flores, I'm telling you, he's now the D.C.

at Minnesota, is one of the most very, very gifted defensive minds.

So those guys put it together, and then, you know, Coach Belichick, I remember specifically, Aaron Donald was on their roster, and he literally said, that guy's not going to wreck our game, right?

And I think he had one tackle in that game.

Yeah.

I mean, they did such a good job of covering him up.

So that's a good answer because I always, whenever I see consultant, I'm like, oh, he's just getting like a no-show job.

I was like, like the Sopranos.

Now, I do think there are a lot of times, though, but seriously, where they...

They do what you're saying.

Right.

Like,

I've never done that, and I wouldn't have wanted to have done that, but I do think there's a lot of times where people just kind of keep their name in

Maybe they hire you so that somebody else doesn't hire you well and then yes and no but but I really grew with Bill that was really an awesome year in my career and then Brendan Daly who went to the Chiefs left so I took over as a D-line coach I was a D-line coach that year and we got knocked out in the first round of playoffs and I learned a lot about I got to coach a couple of my former players

and then I went to the Giants for one year and

that was probably one of my most enjoyable time.

That was during the COVID year, so it was really cool to be a part of that process, starting an NFL organization.

So when you go to New England and Bill's like, hey, it's going to be a consultant to me, is Ernie Adams standing behind you like you motherfuckers?

I loved Ernie, man.

So I went from being a head coach for 12 years to a cubicle in the New England Pages.

Everybody has a cubicle, right?

So I'm like sitting there like, I'm talking to my wife on the phone, right?

Like, it's just

Ernie had an office.

Yeah.

You know, so I went around the corner and Ernie had, you know, boxes unboxing.

And then he and I, once he realized how I kind of ticked, like, we kind of started bouncing ideas off each other and then there was a Monday there was a I think it was a Monday night game or Sunday night game and I was up in the booth my first year and Ernie was the challenge guy right and I was watching the play and I could see that the ball came out and I'm like I'm like it's out it's out it's out and they called it it wasn't out and I'm like Nick Casario turned around and looked at me and I'm like because Bill threw the flag

and I'm like oh shit right like this isn't gonna be good right like I hope hell this ball came out but I know I saw what I saw but I didn't know somebody's fully touched the sideline, and we ended up winning the game, and it was a critical thing.

So I'm like nervous.

Like, you know, Ernie's looking at me, Nick looked at me, and it ended up being the right call.

We reversed it, Bill challenged it, and we got it.

And so Bill called me.

He's like, the next day, he's like, hey, why did you say that?

And I'm like,

because I saw it.

Right.

And he's like, well, why don't you kind of continue to do that?

That's awesome.

Yeah, I was scared for a moment.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I've always wondered what Ernie Adams does besides just sitting in a room watching old football plays and then seeing something like once a day.

He's like, aha, I got something for Bill.

You know what he was, PFT?

He was unbelievable about forecasting problems, right?

So he would, every scenario that we went through, he had already played at.

He had an Ernie tape.

So every night, the night before we played a game, Ernie would have about eight to ten plays that he would show that were very unique situational things.

And I was blown away.

That's what I do now, actually, still with my crew.

He was just so far ahead.

Like, he knew the analytics, but it was in his head.

Like, some of these guys try to do it, but they're looking at charts.

Ernie knew it.

And, you know, just an awesome dude.

That was one of my experiences there that I had no idea that was coming.

But yeah,

he was a pretty special advocate.

Take me back to 19-year-old Brett Bielama.

You're in the tattoo shop.

Did you ever think that you getting an Iowa tattoo, the Tiger Hawk tattoo, would be one of the most talked about tattoos?

Because every time there's maybe, oh, Iowa's got, maybe, maybe they're going to move on.

Maybe, and like, well, Brett Bielma's got it.

He's an Iowa guy.

He's got the Iowa tattoo.

Did you, did you ever think that it would be talked about the way it's talked about?

I can assure you, in a spring afternoon at 19 years of age, when maybe you're not making the greatest decisions,

we actually had five roommates.

We all went and got tats together.

And then,

you know, it's funny,

I didn't want my mom to know.

So that summer when I was home, I was always wearing high socks, never really showed it off.

I was worried my mom was getting mad at me.

But it's kind of funny whenever

a recruit comes to my room and says, Coach, can I see your left leg?

I'm like, okay, you just

came from Iowa.

Yeah.

Because whenever Kirk Forens decides to hang it up, you know that that's just going to be the top story is like, well, Bielma does have a ticket.

Yeah.

Well, so I actually, my new contract, I signed a non-compete with every school in the Big Ten.

Ah.

So I can't, when we,

I've signed three contracts.

When my second one came up, Wisco was open and Nebraska was open.

And I know they were.

concerned about that, so I volunteered it.

I said, hey, I know everybody thinks I want to go to Iowa.

I don't want to go to Iowa.

I spent five great years there.

Yeah.

Coached there for a long time.

I was like, I'm happy.

So I actually signed a no-compete with all of Big Ten.

Okay.

That's good to know.

You mentioned that you sold out tickets for the upcoming football season.

Are you guys, can we say, is Illinois a football school?

You know, I think Illinois is a good school.

Brad Underwood, the basketball coach, is one of my best friends.

I used to go that, like, when we were at Iowa.

Steve Hoffer came in and he kind of said that at his opening press conference.

Yeah.

And Hayden Fry was there, like, what do we, you know, like, and so I get it, but I think the sum of Illinois is like when b basketball and football is doing well, everybody does well.

Yeah, it's a it's a good answer.

Our friend Tom Fernilli wanted me to pressure you into saying that it was a football school.

No, I don't ever see it that way.

But Brad's throwing out the first pitch tonight.

And Sean, our women's basketball coach, throwing the pitch, and I'm singing.

So we tag team all the time.

I love that.

I also read that when you tore your ACL, the rehab back then was a little bit different than it is now.

How long did it take you?

I was actually a walk-on at the University of Iowa.

Sophomore year, I tore my ACL.

And I'm like, I was just on the verge of maybe getting, I'd been a walk-on for a year, and I needed to get a scholarship because I couldn't keep doing that to my mom and dad.

So I tore my ACL and the next day the doc's like, hey,

you know, you don't have a lot of swelling.

It's pretty clean tear.

He said, we can do one of two things.

We can have surgery and it's about a nine-month rehab or we can just train your hamstring to take the place of it.

So I actually tore my ACL and played seven days later in a scrimmage

and then

ended up playing three years.

But I remember the doctor said to me, he goes, if you don't do an ACL repair, the only bad thing, if you go to the NFL, they're going to reject you at the physical.

And I started laughing.

I'm like, NFL?

I'm trying to play here, right?

Sure enough, three years later, I'm sitting on the Seahawks training room table, right?

And they asked me if I had any knee issues.

And I said, no, I had some, you know, meniscus taken out this year.

Well, the next day, I'm walking out the field.

I hear, hey, bulimia.

So I knew that somebody was, you know, you're going to kill my name.

Yeah.

Bulimia, bulimia.

I've been every eating disorder known to man, right?

So like, they said, hey, have you had any, you know, knee reconstructive surgery?

We found out you had your ACL.

I'm like.

Yeah, I tore it, you know, so I tried to bullshit them.

Yeah, yeah.

They got me on the table, did a couple things.

So I got cut.

I had a wonderful NFL career, six days.

So six days with a CL.

If you had to go back and do it again, would you have played in the scrimmage or would you have gotten gone through the whole rehab process?

I don't, I mean, I appreciate the question, but I don't really think I'd be where I am today if I hadn't done what I did.

Yeah, that's true.

Yeah.

I was, I went through this phase of like, I was pissed.

Like, you know, you're right there knocking on the door.

I was in an NFL training facility.

I was sitting in there with my roommate from Auburn.

We're talking about a chance of playing the NFL.

And you'd always dreamed of that moment.

So I actually went back.

Coach Fry gave me an ACL resurgery, and I was going to try to play again so I went and played for the Milwaukee Mustangs tore my ACL that that that that very first game back with them yeah so I tore it tore it twice and at that time then I I had never thought about coaching and that's when Coach Fry offered me a job in coaching that's what I took is it fair to say that you were kind of a psycho to say I'd rather play in a scrimmage not a game not a practical like a scrimmage with no ACL well I knew that if I could if I played I'd probably get a scholarship I was starting to be one of the better players.

So I was only just really thinking about the now.

And really, I didn't have any problems.

There was a a game against Michigan my senior year.

I got rolled up from behind.

This guy clipped me, and I was, I, my knee locked.

And you can kind of see there's a TV clip where I'm like trying to crawl.

I was going to go whoop his ass.

Like, I was pissed, right?

Because I knew he hit me low, and my knee was locked up.

I couldn't move it.

The cartilage slipped into the joint.

So my knee was.

And like on the, I remember at that time, I was kind of mad, right?

Like, I was definitely psycho.

I was going to get him.

Yeah.

But I couldn't get up.

Yeah.

Is running the football back?

Feels like it's back.

I think it's balanced, right?

Like, obviously, I've got a quarterback here who's exceptional at what he does.

He actually wants to try to run the ball more than we want him to.

Yeah.

So I think, and, you know, when I was at Wisco and we had a roll, and we always used to say, if you can get 175 on both sides, if you throw the ball 175 and throw for 175, you're going to win a lot of games.

Now, we averaged for a lot of years, 200 on both sides.

200 running and throwing.

You'll win 90% of your games if you can do that.

So I think the balance of running, I think the teams that throw it all over the place, just you can't win consistently.

You can get a hot hand, you got a great quarterback, maybe some receivers, but you can't win consistently.

Yeah, yeah.

How are you feeling about fullbacks these days?

You know, we actually use our tight ends as fullbacks,

and we'll use our other running backs.

We don't have a fullback per se, but we do use 12, which is kind of the new 21.

Yeah, I love fullbacks.

I miss old school downhill, smash-mouth football.

I feel like it could still work.

It does.

And we truly, Tanner Arkin for us, he's a kid that ran a fake against Michigan.

We kind of use him as an H, but he's an F, and we'll run some 21 this year.

But 21 was great for a long time, especially if we got a back that can catch it.

Yeah, as long as the fans can just stare out the field and be like, just run the damn ball, they feel smart just by saying that.

That's kind of us when we watch football.

Well, you know, one of the great phrases that I learned from Bill, he said it all the time, great teams do three things.

They run the ball, they defend the run, and they cover kicks.

And there is a lot of truth to that.

And I think that's the part that will never go away from football.

Did Bill ever get real nerdy with you about something like real granular about the game?

Like, we've heard him talk about long snappers, right?

He'll just go on for five minutes talking about long snappers.

Was there something that you learned from him that he got real obsessed with?

So I love to get up early, right?

So like usually,

especially when I was at New England, I was living in a hotel right around the corner at Patriot at Patriots Place.

And I remember I went in that day.

It was about 4.30 and it was a little before 5.

Me and Brennan Daly were there.

Brennan's cubicle is right next to me.

And Bill comes walking in.

It was literally right before 5 o'clock.

And he goes, hey, you guys got a minute.

We're going to go over D-line games, right?

So we were doing D-line drawings and putting them in the playbook.

We literally went in the meeting room at 5 o'clock.

It was 10.15 in the morning and we took our first break.

And I went out and my wife's like, hey, I've been trying to call you since eight, right?

I'm like, well, I started meeting at five.

For five hours, we looked at and diagrammed defensive line games.

Tackle goes first.

No, draw it a little higher.

Let him tack the inside.

I had that, he always used to say, like, you know, attack the guard, never leave the guard until he leaves you.

So it was absolutely five hours of the most awesome D-line experience I've ever had.

And it was very granular.

It was absolutely awesome.

I love that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

I got one last question.

Always great to see a coach.

And thanks for stopping by.

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I think I asked this last time you were on, but I'm going to ask it again because I would say maybe an unhealthy amount, probably like once a month, it pops in my head.

The Rose Bowl against TCU.

Why the hell didn't we run John Clay more?

Does it ever pop in your head?

Oh, 24-7.

All right, that makes me feel a little better.

Scott Tolzine to this day, right?

And then I don't know if you remember that game.

I was there.

We got.

I was like 10 rows up from the two-point conversion.

John Clay had 1,000.

James White had 1,000.

Monty Ball ended the season with 998.

We would have had 3,000-yard rushers.

Never been done in college football history.

But we, you know, right about the middle of the third quarter, I said to Paul Chris, I said, bro, they can't stop us running the ball.

They can't.

So we got into it, and

then that two-point play just

should have just been amazing.

And then

we lost that game.

The next year we play at Oregon.

I was at that one too.

And I was like,

the Dolphins called that week and offered me the job two weeks before that Super Bowl or before that Rose Bowl.

And I'm like, I'm like, I'm going to play in this Rose Bowl.

Like we got Oregon.

I got Russell Wilson.

I think we got a chance.

And then we had a Barry.

Remember the ball that sat on the remember Jared.

Jabber Darius, yeah,

yeah.

Right?

The ball didn't move.

Yeah.

Like you can't do that.

Yep.

Andy clocked it in time.

Yeah.

Oh, 100%.

That rule changed, too.

Just like this year, the rule changed.

It seems like all my bowl games, I get bullshit.

I mean, it was an all-time.

I mean, that first quarter was 21-21, I think.

It was just insane.

And Abby, who's like the greatest Christian-based, awesome kid, never had a fumble one time on the sideline, never moved.

Yep.

Crazy.

And in the last broads, well, I didn't get to coach because I took the.

Because he stabbed us in the back.

Yeah.

That wasn't you.

Do you want to apologize for stabbing stabbing Big Cat directly?

Not in the back, even.

If I had stabbed him.

I just saw it at the time.

I was like, Brett Buma, because I think your first year was when I was a junior.

So I was like, this guy's going to be my coach for the next 40 years.

You know, it's awesome.

One of my most enjoyable things.

I just got a letter about a month ago from a young man who graduated from Illinois, and he talked about how we changed his career, right, or his experience at Illinois.

And you kind of lose sight in those moments, right?

Like

it really does make a more enjoyable experience for the kids to win games, right, and be around that so i it was never personal uh i i promise you were you the were you the head coach or was it barry's last year the the game that we're undefeated going into michigan state and then got stopped like seven seven times in a row yeah i was a decoordinate yeah that was a de coordinator run matt bernstein there i wasn't oh i wasn't making the calls yeah all right all right all right so that was

number one to concert yeah yeah you're off the hook on that one um well coach thank you it's always great having you by and uh best of luck this year thank you very much appreciate you

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Okay, let's wrap up the show.

We got Fire Fest of the Week, PFT.

Actually, well, we usually start with Hank.

Yep.

We bought Hank an all-expense trip.

We actually,

I'm not trying to be humble here, but PFT and I didn't mention on Wednesday's show, we not only bought it for Hank and his dad, but we also bought it for his brother and brother-in-law, too.

So it was foursome.

We sent a foursome to Pebble Beach, all expenses paid,

not looking for credit, but obviously an insane gift by him.

That's what we do here at Part of My Take.

We take care of our boys, and nothing better than spending time with the family out on the golf course.

And we said a year ago, we said, Hank, guess what?

A year we're going to plan this out.

Your whole family, I know that you're about to forget your dad's birthday.

Don't worry about that.

He'll forgive you because you go to Pebble Beach.

Well,

we sprung it up.

We didn't tell him a year ago.

We told him that night, and then he had to get on a 7 a.m.

flight.

But holy shit, planning by us.

Should we call?

Let's call Hank real quick.

I bet you he's.

All right, so it's 9:40 Central Time right now.

That means it's 7.40 a.m.

West Coast time.

No, he might be at the range.

He might be at the range.

Wait, that was one ring directly to voicemail?

Hank!

Hey, it's the guys from Pardon My Take.

We're doing Firefest right now, and we just wanted to see

how you're enjoying your Pebble Beach vacation that PFT and I paid for.

Yeah, we're enjoying it a lot.

We're actually just talking about you.

We're eating some breakfast.

I had an avocado, toast, crandies.

How much is that going to run us?

Yeah, no problem.

How much is the avocado?

Yeah, my brother got the ribeye steak and eggs.

Oh, Jesus.

He's living it up out there.

Jesus, you're really running it up.

Are you guys doing breakfast drinks?

Yeah.

Are you doing breakfast drinks?

Yeah, a couple of mimosas.

Oh, geez.

Fuck.

Damn.

What are you going to tip?

Make sure, because the people at Pebble Beach know we're paying for it, so make sure you tip like 25, 30%.

Oh, minimum.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

Maybe take a picture of that 30% tip and send it to us.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

Hank, what are you going to shoot on that par three, the downhill par three?

That's actually tomorrow.

We're playing Spyglass today.

That's right, yeah.

Spyglass.

I forgot about that.

94 and a half.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Well, we miss you.

We hope you're having a great time.

You know what?

Actually, go 40% on that tip and send me that picture.

Okay.

All right.

Yeah, yeah.

And tell them it's from us.

All right.

And you know what?

Buy.

They're all saying thank you.

Buy like...

I don't know, like, two grand worth of stuff at the pro shop, and that's on us, too.

Oh, don't worry, boys.

I'm coming back with gifts.

Oh, okay, great.

But Hank, if you get a hole in one, then you have to buy us drinks from Pebble Beach.

You have to Venmo us back.

Deal.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Great.

Great.

All right.

Love you guys.

All right.

Love you too.

All right.

Bye, Hank.

All right.

Bye, Hank.

All right.

Bye.

So,

my fire fest of the week is that I've been training for golf.

I've been doing Hank's protocol that he put in place.

Yep.

And part of the protocol is I'm not allowed to hit driver.

I can only do that as a treat after I've worked.

Now, I have noticed that Hank's cousin, who is an intern this summer, has been spending a lot of time hanging around me while I'm golfing.

Oh.

While I'm practicing golf.

I think Hank's got a spy.

Oh.

I think Hank is sending him to monitor me to make sure I'm not hitting driver.

And so I think Hank's got eyes and ears everywhere.

Have you guys heard about this?

Has he told you?

No, but I think that he's working on the video that we're putting out of your journey here.

So I think he's just working.

Also, Memes and I have have started to call him Little Wood.

Little Wood, I like that.

Little Wood?

Well, yeah, because it's

Little Awkward.

Little Wood.

It's a good nickname, but I'm pretty sure that he is a spy.

And so I have to act accordingly around him at all times.

Because Hank is a movie.

Oh, definitely a spy.

That is a move that Hank would do, right?

Yeah.

Absolutely.

And that he's going to try to punish me if I hit driver too much.

Yeah.

Now he's going to be scared.

Now he's going to be scared to go around.

Good.

Good.

Good.

You're scared out of you.

I'll be nice to him later, but now I want him to have a healthy fear of me.

Yeah.

But also in this training process, I'm getting just blisters everywhere, all over my hands.

So I'm waking up, got blisters in new places.

I'm so sorry.

Look at that.

Look at that thing right there.

Oh, shit.

Yeah, it's bad.

It's bad.

But I'm on the grind right now.

And man,

playing a lot of golf is a lot of work.

Yeah.

It's a lot of work.

Full-time job.

It is more than a full-time job.

Sometimes you have to leave your full-time job to go travel to play golf if you love it that much.

Well, we bought him that trip.

We did kind of force him to do that.

We can't get mad in for that.

You know what?

I'm going to text him right now.

I feel like he should do like 60% on that tip, right?

I feel like

he's got to prove it.

All right, I'm going to say, yeah, you know what?

Go 60.

60% on the tip.

That's a nice thing to do.

All right, well, so

what about you're wearing a glove, right?

On your left hand.

What about...

Does anybody go teddy-two gloves?

What about like sleeping with those Vaseline gloves on?

I put Vaseline on my right hand almost every single night before I go to to bed.

So I've got that covered.

Okay.

What are the Vaseline gloves?

I don't know.

There's like, aren't there like gloves you can wear when you sleep to make your hands softer?

Are there?

I think so.

I might, listen, I'm going to.

I would assume that's the thing.

Do we have anyone on Google right now?

I got to get my hands insured.

Yeah.

Let's see.

Vaseline gloves.

Okay, that's not it.

It's a Vaseline globe.

Globe.

Vaseline used on a gold.

Alright, no.

Are there like gloves you can wear at night to like moist moisten up your hands?

I don't know.

Although a blister, you might want to keep it open at night.

I think I just have to put extra Vaseline.

Oh, yeah, there they are.

Nope, those aren't it.

All right, I might have made this up in my head.

Oh, yeah, there we go.

Oh, no,

overnight hydration gloves.

Okay.

You might need these.

Get your hands back to 100%.

Sleeping gloves?

Yeah.

I'm into that.

That would be very funny.

Sleeping gloves.

You know what else I need them for?

It's driving.

Driving gloves.

Yes.

Because that'll give you blisters, too.

Like your car?

Yeah, my car.

Yeah, yeah.

Driving gloves.

Not golf driving.

I'm talking about like cruising.

Like, if you're a professional driver,

you own a pair of driving gloves.

Right.

And it looks awesome.

Right.

Okay.

So, yeah,

my hands are hurting.

I'm waking up early, grinding.

Hank's got spies on me, but this is, it's all part of the process.

So I'm enjoying the process.

I'm getting 1% better every day.

Love that.

If you get 1% better every day, you get 36 times better over the course of a year.

That's just math.

It is.

Compound interest.

Straight up math.

Okay, my FireFest.

Well, I have an update from last week.

I told you guys about my son doing the Barcelona After Dark with me.

Turns out, he didn't tell me this, but we hit 80

shots in a night.

And then I was like, all right, what do we do next?

Hoping he wasn't going to say 160.

He said, we're going to go to 100 and then we're going to go back to 10.

I was like, great.

That's good.

Awesome.

That's good.

So we're back on the climb.

We hit 100.

Now we're back on the climb.

Dude.

So I didn't know that was a possibility, but I was very, like,

he doesn't understand if you just keep timesing it, it's just we're going to, that's all we're going to do for the rest of our lives.

Is there a part of it's been fun?

Is there a part of you, though, that's like, come on, don't quit on this?

No, 100 was a lot.

What would Kobe do?

Kobe might keep going.

And Kobe would have kept going.

Yeah, he would have kept going.

Does your son have the mamba mentality?

No, I need to, well, I don't want him to have the full mamba mentality.

That's true.

Yeah.

All right.

And my real Firefest is, I got to be honest, boys,

I really wish we were going to Edmonton for game seven.

I really, really wish we were going to Edmonton for game seven.

It's a bummer.

I was so pumped for that trip, and it just fucking sucks that we didn't get to go to game seven in Edmonton with the boys.

It was bucket list for me.

It was.

I was legitimately.

Me too.

What am I saying right now?

I was pumped.

We got on that call with the Chicklets boys.

I was like, this is a crew I would love to go to games.

They are an all-time crew.

As soon as we had that phone call, I was like, this would be so much fun.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I was looking at restaurants up in Edmonton, figuring out where we could go.

They can't have good food.

Dairy Queen.

Oh, come on.

Did you guys see that?

They got a lot of blizzards up there.

All right, that's good food.

Stand corrected.

There's a lot of talk about Connor McDavid maybe being traded because he has one year left on his deal.

And there was some clips going around, and one of them was like, what's your favorite part about Edmonton?

And he said, well, the days last longer this time of year.

Yeah, that's true.

That's actually a big thing.

That's a good thing.

But, Max,

there's a reverse on that.

Oh.

Yeah.

That they don't last long.

Pretty much the entire time he lives in Edmonton, it's very dark.

What he's saying is.

Because I don't think he lives in Edmonton in the offseason.

It's a great combo because golf season, the days are a lot longer for him, so he gets to play a lot of rounds.

He's like, Yeah, it stays light till 11:30, which would be great if that was what was happening when he was playing hockey.

But yeah, I think he lives in LA in the offseason.

Yeah, he's like, It's nice to drive home from work when it's still light out at the end of the season sometimes.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

That's what he's getting at.

It's nice to drive to the airport to leave Edmonton when it's still light out.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, Zach.

Yes, Yes, sir, I've got a firefest for you today.

A super quick one.

So Jacob and I do run the soft serve machine that you have installed here in the office.

And yesterday was the second.

Yesterday we had another high, another all-time cone that we had to get correct yesterday.

And we fell short.

We didn't have the correct cones for Dave.

We have waffle, we have cup cones, we do not have sugar cones.

Can I back up my cream team for a second here?

If you'd like.

I think sugar cones with soft serves is crazy.

I think it's crazy.

The emoji for a soft serve ice cream is a cake cone soft serve ice cream will drip like i i will do a waffle cone with soft serve but you know it's going to drip sugar cones guaranteed dripping the the coat like sugar cone is a classic ice cream cone you know what i mean what scripts of ice cream waffle cones regular cones and sugar cones

he's right here can you explain because he actually has a venn diagram

i know exactly what a regular ice cream cone looks like i know exactly what a waffle cone looks like what's a sugar cone okay so uh i don't have the Venn diagram handy, but I can go off the top for you a little bit of ice cream cone knowledge super quick.

So the waffle cone, you know, with the batter in between the two hot plates to make the waffle cone.

The cup cone, you'll see it's got a little deeper,

deeper, I guess that would be the

not dwelling, but

dwells to it with the hand.

And then

so sugar cone will be a more of a pointed cone, so similar shape to the waffle cone, similar consistency to the cup cone, but a little bit thicker.

So the difference between a waffle cone and a sugar cone is the waffle cone is uneven at the the top.

It like wraps around.

It has the jet

cone.

It has the jagged edges at the top.

The sugar cone will be flat across the base.

There's also a difference in the batter that is used between the sugar cone and the waffle cone.

Yeah, in every picture of the sugar cone I'm seeing it's all scoops.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

That's a classic ice cream cone, not a soft serve cone, because the sugar cone will drip at the bottom.

Yeah.

You will see a lot of like hard scooped ice cream in the sugar cones as opposed to the cup cones being typically with the soft serve, but the customer is always right and we have acquired the sugar cones.

It will be here today.

That was a massive misstep on our part.

Okay, quick.

Mount Rushmore of ice cream flavors go, Zach.

By the way, someone pointed out very funny.

They're like, you guys are so clearly chomping at the bit for Mount Rushmore season, which will start next week

because we asked him for his Mount Rushmore sports playoffs.

And someone was just like, you and PFT and Hank and Max just like...

hijacked it.

We took over the entire flavor.

We're just like, no, no, no, no, no, you forgot about this.

Yep.

All right, but this is yours.

Okay, do you want branded flavors or do you want like if we go to a parlor whatever you want okay whatever okay so we'll go uh a netflix and chilled which is a ben and jerry's flavor which is uh uh peanut butter base has got uh salted swirl and fudge cubes second we're gonna go cookies and milk from ben and jerry's which is gonna be uh vanilla base uh maybe a sweet cream base i could be incorrect on that it's got uh chocolate chip cookies milks uh like a milk swirl almost and then uh

uh other chocolate chips in it as well.

Third, I'm gonna go

Moose Tracks, which is really gonna be vanilla ice cream and then the Reese's

chunks that are in there.

Moose Tracks.

And then fourth, to round it out with you guys, I'm going to go with a

Pistachio 4.

Oh!

So Pistachio Ice Cream.

Yes.

As soon as I said that, Pistachio isn't my fourth favorite ice cream flavor.

It was the fourth one that came to mind.

It wouldn't be on the face mount or Mount Rushmore.

Oh.

It wouldn't.

It's there now.

I can't rescind.

Sometimes the bright lights of Mount Rushmore get to you.

You panic.

Yeah.

And I went pistachio.

A wild pick for a Mount Rushmore of ice cream.

I really like pistachio gelato, but I don't think I've ever gone to the store and bought pistachio ice cream.

Yeah, pistachio ice cream is not one of those things.

It's not like it's bad.

It's just nowhere near the top four.

It's not.

They have a decent pistachio from Haagen-Doss, but it's not, you don't put it on a mountain.

No.

You were going so strong.

So strong.

It was like banger, banger, banger, pistachio.

Kiliparto.

Kiliparto.

It's okay.

It's okay.

I would put pistachio on my Mount Rushmore of nuts.

I think that's like number, it might be number one for me, actually.

I think that might be my favorite nut.

I think I'd go peanut.

Macadamian.

Peanut.

We're doing it again.

We're doing it again.

When was the last time you had a macadamian?

You reached into a bowl of macadamian nuts.

Literally.

What do you live in Hawaii?

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

Peanuts

is the most consistent nut out there.

And it's, you know, do it with peanut butter.

Yeah, I mean, peanut, it's a double off the wall.

Pistachio would be on my Mount Rushmore as well.

Peanuts are doubles off the wall.

I enjoy peanuts, but you talk about a grand slam.

Now we're talking pistachios.

Peanuts, pistachios, almonds.

I like cashews.

I also think pistachio is the best word to hear Midwesterner say.

Pistachio.

Pistachio.

I just realized, too, the fattest thing I just said was I like cashews, and I'm thinking about it.

I just like cashews when it's with like, you know,

Chinese order.

Yeah.

Oh,

with chicken.

I feel like cashews are the saltiest nut.

Yeah.

When you get a fully salted cashew, it really coats the mouth.

Yeah.

But I just like cashews with Chinese food.

It coats the mouth.

It does.

It does.

It really coats the mouth.

That's the saltiest nut.

Salty nut.

Sometimes for me, the nut is so salty that it's hard to swallow.

Nope.

Oh, the saltier the better.

Oh, you love the saltiest nut.

You grow like a salty nut?

There's nothing worse than when you see a thing in nuts and you take a little handful and it's unsalted nuts.

Unsalted nuts suck.

Well, what if there's pineapple?

What if you've been eating pineapple?

It's so salty.

It's sweeter.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Tastes better.

Yeah, sweeter.

That's true.

That's a good point.

Are you just putting this in?

Yeah, macadamia nuts.

No, no, no.

Pineapple Hawaii.

What about when you have to lick the nuts off your glasses?

Because it's so salty.

It never happens.

Oh, okay.

It doesn't happen to you?

No, I would never get salt on my glasses.

Okay.

What about on your chest?

Maybe on my chest.

You'd get a little salty nut on your chest.

If I'm laying in bed and

eating some nuts on your bed,

you're laying in bed eating nuts, then you roll over a couple times you wake up in the morning you've got nuts on your lower back now yeah yeah i guess that's possible when you're eating really salted nuts are you using tissue paper what like what are you using normally just a rag yeah yeah just a rag okay all right he's got it now he's kind of

he's got it the whole time that just rolls around the house with sham wows instead of napkins uh max what's your fire fest uh

It's really me being an idiot.

And last week's Fire Fest, I thought I was allergic to my dog.

Not allergic to my dog.

Let's go.

$500 worth of like air purifiers for my apartment because I was freaking out.

Absolute panic mode.

It's just seasonal allergies.

And that, I'm a pussy for having that bad of seasonal allergies.

Okay.

And I got told online what was going on.

And it was very obvious that my dog was just, we brought her to the park.

And she was running around in the grass, and it was very high grass pollen.

So that's why when I was

like petting her, I was getting more allergic because she was carrying the pollen.

Yeah, you were being a bitch.

She was bringing that pollen into the house.

Okay.

Okay.

Whatever.

What's the stuff that floats around and it looks like cotton?

They're like tree stuff.

No, it's not pollen.

It looks like all

that cotton and it like clumps together and it looks like snow on the ground.

It's tree stuff.

That's everywhere.

That's tree stuff.

I hate that.

That's my mortal enemy, is that tree stuff?

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right, well, good for you, Max.

Yeah, no, I'm back.

I mean, you are still a pussy.

Yep.

Yeah, yeah.

Because you're very allergic to trees.

Yeah, that's like, that's as much of a pussy as you could be.

Yeah, it really is.

Like,

like, come on.

Beta human.

Yeah.

That's one of those ones, like, you...

Natural selection.

Maybe science has gone too far where we've had like drugs to help people deal with that.

It's like that should have been something like, hey,

if you can't take sniffing a tree, having a tree sent around, maybe you shouldn't be on this earth.

I'm just walking around with the sniffles like such a child all week.

Right now, I'm sitting next to memes and memes just like take take some allergy meds because I just have the sniffles back.

I've noticed it's like you Jackie Tables, Nikki Smokes, a lot of allergies going around this time of year.

That's not.

That's the awards seasons for NFL.

I also hate allergies just because I don't have any.

Just want that on the record.

But I hate it because then real sick people use that as an excuse.

They always just like an actual person with like the flu or a cold will say, no, it's just allergies.

Like, that's just not possible.

You're sick.

So they just use it as a cover and get everyone sick.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, memes.

Yeah.

Yeah, I know a guy.

Okay.

Oh, Shane does that?

Oh, we got finger-pointing.

Shane, you do that?

I get allergies sometimes.

Okay.

Oh, Shane, I have a question for you while you're here.

Yes, sir.

What do we think about the Chargers' new throwback uniforms?

I think they're going to be sick.

They're the same as their other uniforms.

They had that.

Those are

their current uniforms?

They put out that post, like, hey, we're excited to unveil the new alternate uniforms.

Yeah, and then I looked at it, and I could not tell the difference between that and their old uniforms.

Shane's actually not a Charger fan anymore.

He was the last to find out.

Yeah, memes told him like five hours after it got unveiled.

That's just not.

I saw Adam Schefter's tweet an hour later.

I was had my head in my work.

Five hours later.

It was an hour.

Brutal Shane.

It was one hour.

You got to be on top of that shit.

I was had my head in my work.

Why didn't they come out with a new unit?

Why are they telling us that this is a new uniform when it's identical to their old ones?

They are coming out with new ones.

So the announcement was just

prepare yourself because we're about to drop a new uniform on you in two months.

That was their current uniforms.

Yeah, it was like just like a hype video.

I think they kind of leaked online.

Some

I can send it in the group.

Some guy who is like behind the scenes photographer for Chargers like took a picture of their current jerseys and like on a on a whiteboard there's like pinned pictures.

Yeah, this is way too much Chargers, dog.

It's Shane's corner.

But I'm excited.

I hope they go with like the old

navy white,

like with the white bolt, like the early 2000s.

Can you design one?

Can you design what you would like it to be?

I mean, it would just be their old jerseys.

I can Photoshop something up.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

If you give us Shane's versions, like Taylor's version.

Yeah.

Chargers uniforms, Shane's version.

Okay.

Let's finish the show.

Numbers.

Three.

Fucking distracted by Chargers.

Ah.

99.

Memes.

Come on, man.

Six.

19.

I'll go.

21.

I'll go

72.

Memes, you're never going to get this.

We got to start reminding him more often that he's never going to get it.

Because he literally is never going get it.

Somebody's put a tracker for the days until I pass on.

How much more time?

It's like, no, it's like

44!

It's like 340 days.

It's that long?

Yeah, it's like a year.

People forget how long Hank went without getting it.

It was crazy.

It was absolutely

years.

Love you guys.