NBA Finals With CJ McCollum, Oilers Get To The SCF Vs The Panthers, Who's Back Of The Week And The WNBA Has People Angry

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On today's part of my take, We have a longtime friend back on the show, CJ McCollum.

Great interview with him for long time awls know that he was one of our favorite interviews back in the day and we should have had him on earlier but he's back now talk about the nba finals talk about playing in the nba uh great interview with him we're going to talk about the stanley cup final we finally have it is the Edmonton Oilers vs the Florida Panthers we've got some other sports to talk about we have who's back of the week great Monday show to kick you off while we wait for the NBA finals which should have been game one tonight I think we can all agree feels like game one would have been perfect tonight but we got some things to get through, and we're brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. We're this close to crowning an NBA champion with the action heating up on the court.
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Today is Monday, June 3rd, and the Edmonton Oilers are set to go to the Stanley Cup final where they will face the Florida Panthers and Connor McDavid. Can he win the big one? He's now in the big one.
This is big for Canada. This is huge for canada think about that an entire nation when was the last time was it 1993 that they won 95 that they won that they won a stanley cup it's been a long time it's been a long time for our friendly friends up north and uh god damn it this is gonna be good i'm excited about this and and this.
And the Conor McDavid goal to start the scoring tonight against the Stars was absolutely unreal. I mean, that was the goal where you're just like, not that he needs it.
Again, he still hasn't won the big one, so we're going to wait on that. But that goal was so silly, and it was ridiculous, and it looked like a goal that you would see come across your timeline in the middle of December, being like, oh, he's just trying some new shit out against the Coyotes.
No, that was game six of a Western Conference final to clinch going to the Cup. He is so goddamn good, and the Oilers are so hot, and they have a celebrity fan now ready to take them to the Cup against Brooks Koepka.
if you need a reason to root for the edmonton oilers i will give you two reasons to root for the edmonton oilers this fan oh i thought you were saying dry settle and no no no yeah yeah just this fan the two best reasons yeah what fan oh it's the fan that uh flashed her titties and they were really nice. You saw her.
You'll probably date her.

It was a great video. She's passionate.
She's very passionate. I love the passion.
She's very passionate. Yeah.
We need to introduce her to our boy Kodak down in Florida. Get a little peas reunion going down there.
Isn't it so funny that this Edmonton oilers fan that was just flashing uh her whole section her upper section like the internet is a crazy place we we you know we've made some crazy technological advancements and you can find uh porn nudity whatever you want at any time but if you get a pair in the wild it gets the boys going it is unlike anything else it It is is different it's it's a it's all the talk i think i've seen that video a thousand times just put on my timeline and uh it will probably be a thousand more by the time we we we drop the puck on saturday night and i'll watch it every time yeah and it's not like i'm getting horny when i'm watching i'm just like that's awesome yeah and maybe horny. Boobs rock.
What do you think? Those are A cups spelled E-H? Mm-hmm. Yeah.
There you go. But yeah, we're going to have Whitney on, I think, Thursday for the Stanley Cup final preview.
But we had the Oilers. I'm happy for Edmonton Oilers.
I'm happy for their fan base. Connor McDavid could be the next up in terms of best player.

He's got to win the big one.

I did.

Right now, he still sucks.

I did play myself a little when I said we need to figure out who the next one is that

we can say can't win the big one in case McDavid wins it.

And then everyone was just like, Bedard.

So I was like, fuck.

Bedard's got a couple.

Yeah, he's only been in the league for one year.

He's got a couple seasons before that.

He has to get to the playoffs. Correct.
Then he has to lose a playoff series. Then the narrative can start.
Correct. Correct.
Correct. But yeah, there's other friends of ours that you could put in that group too, which that also would play ourselves.
Not going to do that though. Yeah, right.
We are going to do that. So we'll just say that we hope Conor McDavid wins it and we can be like, he won the big one.
Uh-huh. And if he doesn't, then he can't win the doesn't, then he can't win the big one.
In a way, I'm kind of hoping that he loses so we can really focus this take on him. Losing in the Stanley Cup Finals would be the ultimate point on that crown of cannot win the big one.
Next step to not winning the big one. Yeah, yeah.
But I think I'm rooting for Canada. Sorry, Jake.
Sorry about your peas. Sorry, Brooks.
Yeah, me versus the world.

I am as well.

Yeah, Canada.

You're so nice.

They just care so much.

They care so deeply.

Also-

Edmonton's so far up there.

You ever seen a map?

Edmonton's all the way up there.

And the ice is different in Canada, too.

Yeah, it's shinier.

Real shiny ice, fast ice, good ice.

The crowd going nuts tonight was awesome.

How many shots on goal did Edmonton have tonight?

I had nine.

Nine?

Yeah.

They had nine shots on goal. All they needed have tonight i had nine nine they had nine shots

all they needed was mcdavid's insane shot and he had a great assist too to hyman yeah he was uh that that was that was awesome the other side memes you have to be so happy i went immediately to memes just getting first of all memes tweeted did you tweet from the part of my take account just a Rangers jersey that said ass.

Yeah.

Yeah.

People were upset about that but i i love it because this is what memes does uh memes congratulations you've won your stanley cup as someone who also hates a lot in sports uh i'm happy for you in this moment yeah i'm i'm super pumped i took a couple victory laps last night. Yeah, I'm just very excited.
Summer could officially start.

Yeah. Frankie did his tweet that he does every single year.
For the 83rd time in 84 seasons, the New York Rangers have been eliminated from the playoffs. And that got people very upset.
It is crazy that a franchise has been around that long and gets talked about like that and has only won one. Yeah, yeah.
There was just that one season during the OJ year. And besides that, all there's come from like World War II.
Yeah. Do you think they could ever win it? This year was probably their best year.
Oh, man. There's also the stat from Josh Dubow.
With the Rangers eliminated, there have now been 100 combined seasons made by the Rangers, Islanders, Knicks, Nets, Yankees, Mets, Jets, Giants without a championship. That's wild.
So what's the last one? It's the Giants? Yankees in 09. No, Giants.
Yeah, Giants. That's crazy.
100 combined. Bad sports town.
Man, they do have Aaron Judge who can't stop hitting home runs. And Juan Soto, who's just absolutely ridiculous.
Yeah, well, it's more Juan Soto and Aaron Judge combined. And Cole, hopefully, for the second half.
Oh, once a Yankee, always a Yankee. Yep.
Yeah. Yeah, New York sports down bad 100 combined

That's a lot of seasons in a row

Isn't it Hank?

They have a lot of teams

Twice as many teams

Holy shit

I don't think Hank's ever gone that long

As an alive person

Without a team winning a championship

Not even close

This is probably the longest stretch

Yeah you're in the midst of your worst stretch And Mm-hmm. And you won a Super Bowl, what, like six years ago? Yeah, and the Red Sox won in 2018.
Oh, you're such a piece of shit. I'm excited, though.
Speaking of it, Hank, I know we talked about it last week, but the NBA schedule, my body was ready for the NBA finals to start tonight. It's brutal.
I mean, I'm just walking around the house being like, what do I do to start the game? Just start it. I just can't keep thinking about it.
Just start. And you still have three more days.
I know. Three more full days to get through.
Yeah. Are you weaponizing time? No, I'm not great with time management.
I'm just waiting. I'm just sitting and waiting.
Yeah. You're getting hungry, though.
I'm so ready. My body is so ready.
As hungry as you've ever been. Longest route of your life.
Yeah. I'm sticking with my Celtics in seven, but I did find some stats.
I told you I was going to search, and they make me think that I'm just nervous for you. It's going to be tight.
I mean, it's not going to be an easy series. The Mavericks with these starting five guys that they've had would be a 67-win team, which is – I know that they weren't a 67-win team, but they've been playing like a 67-win team.
They're a good team. Yeah.
Okay. you guys see the stat? I still am taking Celtics in seven.
I think, yeah, I feel strong about Celtics in seven. Did you guys see the stat over the weekend that going back to 2017, every NBA champion has had a former wizard on the team? All the role players.
They're all wizards. So it's JaVale McGee, Sean Livingston, Jody Meeks, JaVale McGee again, Dwight Howard, Markeith Morris, Bobby Portis, Gary Payton, Otto Porter, Chris Chiosa, KCP, Jeff Green, Ish Smith, Thomas Bryant.
That's just the list of former Wizards since 2017. So that means...
I feel like everyone's a former Wizard, though. Everyone goes to the Wizards for one year.
Yes, correct, correct, correct. But don't downplay the stat, Hank.
It's a true stat. This year, Porzingis.
I didn't know any of those guys were on the Wizards.

Porzingis.

Porzingis, Hank.

Also Gafford on the Mavericks.

So the stat's going to continue for at least one more season.

Yeah, I guess.

It's important, though.

It's very important.

Yeah.

Those are the important stats.

Yep.

Okay.

We could talk some soccer.

I'm waiting just to.

You know what?

Fuck it.

Let's just do it. The WNBA, i said this last last week the discourse fucking sucks what happened this time it got worse it got way worse it's so much worse than it was last week caitlin clark got assaulted she almost died yeah and we all have to sit here and debate it and talk about things that are not basketball yeah so caitlin clark it was a good game.
You watched the game between the Sky and the Fever on Saturday. These two teams don't like each other very much.
Little Raven Steelers. That's going to be the Raven Steelers of the next 10 years in the WNBA.
The Fever beat Chicago on Saturday by one point. No one's talking about the misfree throughout the end.
Cost your team the game. It was a good game, but there was a lot of horseplay.
A lot of antics. A lot of antics.
A lot of extracurriculars on the court involving hip-checking Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese celebrating, her teammates celebrating, and then none of them wanting to talk about it after the game. Yes.
Which that part I actually think is a lame move. Yes.
They hate Caitlin Clark. That could be good for the WNBA.
That's been my point. But you have to acknowledge it.
You have to not give a fuck and be like, yeah, we don't like her. Correct.
And you have to say it with your chest. The lady from Edmonton would do that.
And the discourse has now become, it's so bizarre to me because one, so it was a cheap shot. It's not like that wasn't like a regular foul.
It also wasn't, in terms of cheap shots, a very dangerous one. It was just like a side check.
And what you would think is that Caitlin Clark was maimed, assaulted, like beaten close to death by this one play. That wasn't the case.
It also, it's so bizarre that every time one of these things happens,

it just becomes something so much bigger than just talking about the basketball game.

And yes, I do think there are women in the WNBA that are very jealous of Kaitlyn Clark.

That is lame.

But what I would say to that is the people who are jealous of Kaitlyn Clark

and when they take cheap shots at her, like Kaitlyn Clark,

if she keeps being really, really good at basketball

and if she has a career that she's expected to have, those people will be a footnote to caitlin clark it won't matter she'll get the last laugh like they'll just be the jealous haters that are rookie year tried to toughen her you know try to try to be tough to her yeah it just doesn't matter but but it becomes this thing where it's like we have to protect caitlin clark i also don't understand pft for the life of me i get it like caitlin clark is going to add viewership but like asking all the women to basically be like we have to bow down to her also makes no sense yeah they shouldn't they should and and honestly if this was the nba and you see this happen in other sports leagues somebody comes to the league as a rookie with all these expectations if they're the main storyline that year the players in that league are going to be pissed off about that and they're going to take it out and they'll they'll say it though they'll be like yeah yeah we're sick of people talking about her we've been playing basketball too here and so we want to show her on the court like yeah we're going to beat you up a little bit can you find the clip i if we could play this clip i remember it so well when lebron got uh was going to Cleveland and they interviewed, it was like Boozer, Smush Parker, like complete, like Boozer obviously had a good career, but Smush Parker, no name. I think Darius Miles.
They basically were like, yeah, maybe he'll be able to help us a little bit. And shitting on their teammate also,aitlin clark's teammates someone someone step up yeah i got stop it's not it's not the internet's job to defend caitlin clark it's your teammate's job that's who you should be mad at it should be like hey where are the teammates yeah have they gotten any quotes from her teammates being like do you like caitlin clark because it seems like they don't they don't like her either either way it's just it becomes this this enormous uh like culture war that it's like dude i just wanted to watch some basketball and i and if you think that um i'm being very consistent because i said this last week when angel reese got clotheslined which was probably a more dangerous foul and people were making it bigger than basketball i was like this is going to ruin this like the wmba the amount of people have who have started watching wmba who are not actual sports fans are going to ruin the wmba yeah because guess what like cheap shots happen hard fouls happen like rivalries happen that helps the sport bad blood helps sports i would like angel reese to just stand on it and say, yeah, fuck her.

Agreed.

I don't like her.

And what she said publicly this whole time has been, I have no problem with her.

I like Caitlin Clark.

And every single action that she's had since they had that championship game two years ago has been like, I hate her.

Remember the little crown that she left?

Yes.

Or like she does not like her.

And just say that you don't like her.

And then guess what's going to happen after that?

People are going to be like, yes, I love Angel Reese.

I don't like Caitlin Clark.

I'm not going to be like yes i love angel reese i don't like caitlin clark other people are going to be like yes that's awesome i love caitlin clark i don't like angel reese and then when they play each other right it becomes a big fucking moment and everybody does right and it's a good point because i for the people who are freaking out like we must protect caitlin clark she can't be like this is the worst foul ever they're lame the people on the other side who are saying essentially there's no jealousy and there's nothing involved like this is just no there's jealousy they're jealous of caitlin clark they 100 are it's okay to admit it they're going again they're going to be footnotes in caitlin clark's his uh career uh when it's all said and done they're going to be the lance stevenson blowing in lebron's ear you know what I mean like that's what that's what happens when you're when you can't beat them straight up you end up looking petty and probably stupid and if Caitlin Clark goes on has an incredible career she should invite uh what's her name Chaya what's her name Cheney Cheney Cheney to her hall of fame induction and single her out yeah like hey thanks for thanks for fucking being like mean to me you made me work harder yeah that's how sports

work and uh there was another shot that was called a cheap shot that it did look like caitlin clark

might have flopped a little bit on one of them to try to sell it so she flops and that's going to

make people hate her more but again this is all i would already be saying this is good for the sport

it might already be good for the sport i think it is i just get exhausted seeing people correct

Thank you. and that's going to make people a hater more.
But again, this is all, I would already be saying this is good for the sport. It might already be good for the sport.
I think it is. I just get exhausted seeing people with, like you said, the culture war takes online.
Right. Like go all in on one side of it without taking the time to acknowledge that this could be good and feeling this way about sports can lead to some awesome stuff.
And sports are tough and physical, and these things happen in sports, and we can't just be like, you cannot touch Caitlin Clark

because she is good for the game.

She's great for the game.

She's going to get face guarded.

She's going to probably, obviously, if there's cheap shots,

like at the knees and stuff, but in terms of, again, cheap shots,

like a side check is nothing.

Yeah, I also think that for a long time,

women's sports has been talked about, like,

Thank you. at the knees and stuff but in terms of again cheap shots like a side check is nothing yeah i also think that for a long time women's sports has been talked about like in the sense of at least by the major media places like rooting for everyone right like let's celebrate everyone right and the way that we talk about men's sport is much different than that where it's like fuck this guy i hate this guy right i want to like memes hatred towards the range right right like having hatred towards a different city when your teams are playing sports against each other that's that's how we feel about sports usually and now the wmba is coming to this place where it's more of a reckoning of not always talking about every team like oh she's a star oh she's so good and rooting for every single player at the same time but actually forming an identity around your team and around players that you care about love yes and even casuals forming that same love hatred about players that they don't normally get our teams that they don't normally care about yes but they're now they're they're finding themselves invested into it having this type of hatred and love i think is ultimately going to be very very good for the wmba let's sports be sports let them be fun let just let just sports happen if it all evens out because at the end of the day the best part about sports is if you're better than the other team or the other player who is doing this kind of shit you will end up winning out Caitlin Clark will end up having a long career that makes millions of dollars because she's better than line name chenity chenity okay so chenity will look like a fool at the end and that's what that's the beauty of sports we don't need to protect caitlin clark by making this some big uh you know discourse about society and everything just let it fucking play out when caitlin clark wins it's going to be awesome for her.
Yeah, so it's kind of like Larry Bird to me,

where are some players in the wmba resentful of caitlin clark because she's getting a lot of attention as a white woman whereas the wmba is predominantly black and there have been a lot of great black players over the years that haven't gotten the same attention that caitlin's gotten yes they probably find some resentment in that and they're upset about that just like a lot of nba players were upset at the media attention around larry bird isaiah thomas said it before nba finals and larry bird went and won the nba finals yes won three mvps and everyone can no one can say shit about him and what caitlin's done up to this point has been it's not because she's white that she's getting that she's really fucking good yeah she's the all time record for point score in college. She's pretty good on her own, regardless of, of her race.
But once she gets the WNBA, she gets her legs under and she becomes the star that people think that she's going to become. Guess what? A lot of that hatred is going to fade away from being like, oh, I'm mad that this white woman is taking attention from the predominantly black WNBA.
It's going to be just competition against each other. and I don't like her because we're competing against each other, but God damn it, do I respect her because she wins.
Anyone who's jealous like this, it's almost a compliment because you're essentially saying, I know that she's a problem. I know that she's going to be really, really good.
It's like in the Final Four when the final four, when the Yukon, all Yukon broadcast and like Diana Taurasi and all of them were like, oh, she's going to find out when they get to the WNBA, they're threatened because she's young and better. And so it's like, this is how sports work.
And then when she beats them, she's going to get the last lap. All right, play this clip.
But I mean, you want to talk about a can't win the big one conversation

Kaitlin Clark

Kaitlin Clark cannot win the big one

Alright, this is from LeBron's rookie year

This is Carlos Boozer and his other teammates

We have better players than him in this position already on our team, bro

And he will come in and make an immediate impact like a Karan Butler

I don't think you can really just bring a high school player in

And really just think your team is going to really turn around like that

Thank you. and make an immediate impact like a Karan Butler.
I don't think you can really just bring a high school player in and really just think your team going to really turn around like that. If he come, you know what I'm saying, he can just hop on our bandwagon.
This is what happens when someone gets hyped and they show up. There's going to be resentment because she's better than them.
LeBron was better than them. Also, if you're playing in the NBA, you're used to playing against grown men every single night.
You probably would look down on a high schooler too and be like, this league is very, very tough. I don't know that a high schooler can come in and do it.
Yes, you're going to hate on youngsters. Guess what? That's what old people do.
And if you're a youngster out there listening to this, one day you're going to become old and you're going to hate on youngsters too. Yep.
You're going to say right now, no, I'm never going to be a hater. Guess what? Time makes haters of us all.
All of us. All of us.
I just want sports to be sports. I'm just sick of when Caelan Clark has a game, we just have to have everyone argue about culture.
Yeah. You're going to ruin the game.
You're going to ruin the sport. We got three more think pieces coming today on Slate about Caitlin Clark and what she means.
We must protect her. The problem with Caitlin Clark.
It is very funny when people are like, well, she got him that plane. Why would they not like her? It's like, because she's fucking better than them and they're competing.
Yeah. Why would's a nice plane yeah they're competing against each other but guess what caitlin clark gets to the league now the rest of w wmba doesn't get to use their frequent flyer miles anymore and collect those sweet benefits on the back end so fuck caitlin clark yeah it's uh it's quite something all right what what else we got the uh We did have the Champions League, Real Madrid, talking soccer.

You want to talk soccer real quick?

Sure.

15th Champions League?

Yep.

And Barcelona was the first to congratulate them.

Really?

You don't have to do that. If you're an official account of a team on Twitter,

you don't have to congratulate your rival on winning a championship.

No.

That's a total cuck move.

It is.

They just did for the impressions.

Oh, that's lame.

Why would they do that?

I don't know.

But that was talking soccer.

So it's really... rival on winning a championship no that's total cuck it is they just did for the impressions oh that's lame why would they do that i don't know but that was talking soccer so is real madrid the goat real madrid uh they're the they're the best franchise man united would always just say that they were 15 is a lot feels like a lot is that the most i don't know okay let me look it up i'm a super myself.
Champions League. Never forget those two weeks that we had a couple summers ago.
Yeah. Most titles in Champions League history.
Here we go. I got it.
All right. We've got Real Madrid with 15.
Milan in second place with seven. I'm going to say it.
Real Madrid, the best ever. Yeah, they're still.
That's not even close. the best ever barcelona has five liverpool has six byron has six come on is it are they bad for soccer yeah for sure they're for sure bad for sure bad for soccer yeah yeah i i missed the first half of this game uh and then i i saw the second half thrilling i saw the end i saw the celebrations yeah as someone who the first half, I was able to bet over one and a half goals in the second half.
That was fun. Did it cash? Yeah.
Oh, nice. Good work.
I was like, I said, for anyone out there who might have forgotten that this game kicked off. Again, soccer should just make goals worth three points.
Yeah. And then everybody would be way happier.
They'd be like, wow, what a high scoring game. Did you guys see probably the biggest story of the Champions League is joe ambide was there yeah got free time yeah that was cool and he's tall who is he rooting for uh real madrid okay i'm a madrid fan he is did you see that there's a clip of him wow max what happened uh i was singing on friday you sang one song but i was it was one song loudly yeah it was it was very loud loud.
You did crush it. Max got on stage, and there was a guy that was waiting for Max in the front row, and he had two sodas in his hands ready to go, and Max saw him and just scowled at him, and then paced around the stage like a tiger circling his prey for a second, and was like, fuck it, I'm going to chug those sodas, and then just rip the sodas right off the bat.
You look like Jason Kelsey. I know.
That was the greatest compliment that's ever been given. Hank got booed.
Oh. Did I? You got booed.
Well, it was a clap. It was a round of applause and then you did like a little jump to show your vert and then people booed your vert.
Oh, no. I thought they were...
I just remember the cheers. Okay, you remember the cheers.
Were you going to say, Max, about Joel Embiid being at the Champions League because he's got time? What? No, I didn't say that. I just said that he was tall.
There was a clip of two of the pregame guys on each other's shoulders to see if they were taller than Embiid. When do you think he bought those tickets? I don't know.
He probably didn't pay for the tickets. What about his air flight? Like his air ferry probably bought his flight a couple months ago.
He's a rich man. Probably a couple months ago.
He's a rich man. He's a rich man.
Yeah, but he definitely had it planned. Yeah.
They probably were like, hey, before the season started, they're like, hey, can you come do the desk of the Champions League? He's like, when? Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah, no problem.
Early June? I won't even. We could make it.
You want to move it up a week? We do late May. I think I'm going to be in Paris when the U.S.
plays, and it's going to be Embiid versus Joker, the one day that I'm there that U.S. plays.
What? Yeah. Are you going to? Wait, I forgot Embiid plays for us.
Yes. That's kind of weird.
He plays for us. I love it.
I'll be fighting that fight from the front lines in France. You'll be the big USA guy for us.
But not really because you think there's going to be a lot of... Like, it'd be better if it was us versus France.
It's... What? It'd be better if it was USA versus France.
But it's Embiid versus Joker. Oh, okay.
So Embiid probably won't be playing. No, hopefully.
Wait, is the game in altitude? No. Zero altitude.
I don't know the altitude. It's in Paris, France.
Let's see. It can't be zero altitude.
Is it in Paris? Let's see, Paris altitude. No, I don't think it's actually in.
I think it's. Oh, you better hope it's not in the Alps.

115 feet above sea level. Where is the game?

Are you going to go to the game?

Yes.

Oh, okay.

If I can get tickets, I got to figure out how to get tickets.

Game time.

Game time.

Shout out game time.

Game time, Matt.

Where is the game, Max?

Because if it's more than 300, 400 feet altitude, there's no chance Embiid shows up.

If that game's in Burgundy, you're fucked.

Okay.

He's getting it.

He's getting the schedule.

I forgot we had this this summer.

That's going to rock.

The schedule might not be out yet.

Oh, no.

Because they have to do pools and stuff.

No, it is.

It is because I looked at it.

You remember we learned about the Olympics because they did the sex bed thing?

The no sex bed? Yes, that's exactly right. That's how we found out about it.
You're right. June 20th.
Wait. Fuck.
Why am I in Arizona basketball? Alright, so... Wait, Max.
Is this pool play that we're talking about here? This is gonna be... This should just be a segment of Max tries to Google.
Is this pool play? It's a pool game. This is bad.
It's a pool game of USA versus Slovenia or whatever. Serbia.
Serbia. If it's pool, I hope that the US has already won and locked up our spot in the pool.
Lily. I found it.
I just said it. Lille.
Lille. Lily.
Lily? You better figure that out. L-I-L-L-E e that's maybe the worst city for a philadelphian to try to pronounce lily uh it is uh 82 to 147 meters that's pretty pretty big okay so 100 that's like 300 feet yeah that's almost um almost a tenth mile high, almost.
So he'll probably not play. Yeah.
That would be funny if he was like on load management for the Olympics. Yeah.
Especially if you got tickets to it. All right, do we have anything else before we do? Who's back of the week? Hank, any thoughts on WNBA? No, I thought the cheering for the hit was the craziest part of the whole thing.
Agreed. They're jealous.
They're very jealous. Anyone who pretends they're not jealous is crazy, but that's part of sports is being jealousy.
I'm more likely to watch the next time they play. Correct.
And I do think that they should. I absolutely believe they should have to answer to it and be like, hey, we're jealous.
should say all the reasons are pissed off right they should be real about it but but acting like uh caitlin clark is uh was got like memed is is pretty insane to me yeah it was it was a hip check not not super super hard yeah they retroactively upped it to a flagrant one after the fact got it and then i think they fined angel reese a thousand bucks just a lot of a lot of money. Not talking to the media.
Yeah, that's a lot of money. All right, let's do Who's Back of the Week.
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Hank. My Who's Back of the Week is Common Men.
Oh, good. In the golf tournament this weekend, Fluff, the legendary caddie Fluff, he got injured on the third hole.
I think he fell down. And the golfer, CT Pan, just grabbed a random guy from the crowd and he carried the bag for the rest of the day.
Loss. Just a legendary common man move.
Just like, yeah, I'll take the bag. Why don't we have emergency caddies like we do with the e-bug in hockey? Because this never happens.
Yeah, but it just happens. It's not about it never happening.
It just happens. It's like every round, they should pick out the spectators before the game happens and just assign however many, like 70 different spectators.
Like if this guy goes down, you're stepping in. So that person has to just be at the tournament all day thinking I might get in.
Well, this guy, he was perfect. He was perfect.
You could just see that guy. Like he could carry a bag, no problem.
Haas. But I'm saying like like, before a tournament starts, let's just put, let's just put, like, three dudes with cankles into, like, a horse barn and just have them standing there with their polo on ready to go.
Like, this guy was just central casting. He is built like a man who can carry a golf bag around for a long time.
But, yeah, put him in a horse barn. Do a live shot to him every now and then.
These caddies are ready to go. You think he was trying to give them reads? Yeah, do you think they asked him, like, have you played this before? I love the handshake.
Do we know how it happened? Like how he picked this guy out? This thing does not fit. He's trying to get it to fit.
He just grabbed a guy from the crowd. Yeah, they said, you, sir, you look like you can carry it back.
And they picked a perfect guy. Yeah, if I were him, I'd keep my mouth shut on the first two holes, and then if he got a couple birdies, I would start tossing it.
Remember, Jerry did this on the Corn Fairy Tour with Quaid Cummings. Paul Emerson is the guy's name.
He hails from Ontario, was traversing the par four third hole at Hamilton Golf and Country Club

when he realized that CT Pan's caddy Mike Fluff Cowan had been injured

and was unable to continue caddying.

Pan's playing partner Shane Lowry was carrying his own bag,

and Lowry's caddy Darren Reynolds was carrying Pan's bag.

Wow, that's a good move by Lowry.

Wow, awesome move.

As Pan was walking Cowan over to a medic on the side of the fairway, Emerson asked if he could lend a hand oh so he just asked he just picked him out he identified he said i helped fluff get the bib off threw it on and started walking up the hole pan was grateful for the support emerson took the bag he looped through the fifth fairy before a member of the caddy services team michael campbell stepped in campbell was replaced by aldle. What the fuck? He had four caddies? So it was like the head caddy that took over for this guy.
Yeah. He was like, I'll get another guy in your bag soon.
That's awesome. How hard is it to be a replacement caddy? I feel like a replacement caddy is the easiest job in sports.
We saw Scotty Scheffler's best friend do it on Saturday of the PGA Championship, and he shot his worst round. Well, that's because he got arrested the day before.
He shot a 66 with his caddy on Friday after he got arrested. Yeah, but he said it was a lot of adrenaline.
There's no way that having his best friend caddy didn't fuck him up on that Saturday. It definitely did a little bit.
I do think that on Saturday you wake up, you realize what happened. You probably didn't sleep that well that night.
He shot like 66 every round except the one that he didn't have as caddy. I think I would almost take just a no-name, just a random guy like this guy.
I would take this guy over a friend because a friend, you're probably chopping it up. You're telling inside jokes.
There's too much history there. You need a guy that's just going to do the job.
And this guy, this man right here, that's a man that can do the job. Yeah, but no, he definitely wasn't giving him reads.
He wasn't helping. No chance.
I would have just tossed one out there. Yeah.
Okay, PFT. All right, good who's back, Hank.
Thanks. Great who's back.
Appreciate it. Also in golf news, Kevin James is back because he's playing John Daly in a miniseries about John Daly.
Oh, hell yes. I think Kevin James is just living out the dream.
I just want to do sports movies, and I want to play guys that I like to watch on TV. Yeah.
So he did Sean Payton. Now he's doing John Daly.
I actually think that playing John Daly in a movie is more physically draining than being John Daly in real life. Yeah.
Like trying to get in that lifestyle. We tapped into that lifestyle for a little bit.
It last it wasn't nice last week that video is coming out thursday right max you already have it ready to go right you just have to press the button what the john daly challenge yeah yeah we're but you were working on it yeah but that's that wasn't an answer to me that's a cursed role playing john daly it doesn't not every actor can do that i don't care if they're prop cigarettes. I don't care if they're prop ice-cold beers.
You're going to put your body through a little bit of hell. It's like Jared Leto.
I would like to see Jared Leto play John Daly and go full method on it. Is Jared Leto the person you use for method acting? Well, yeah, because he's the real psycho that everybody hates on scene.
So he's been replaced by Daniel Day-Lewis? Because Daniel Day-Lewis was the guy he's the guy, but Jared Leto is like a real weirdo. He's the new guy? He's a weirdo when he does it.
And then the guy before that was Tom Hagen. What was his name? Burt Reynolds.
No. No.
What was the actress name? Tom Hanks. No.
Tom Hagen. Robert Duvall.
Robert Duvall. I'm pretty sure Robert Duvall.

He's method?

I think he was method because he...

Was he the coach in the program?

I think so.

Yeah.

I'm pretty sure he was...

There's a...

Yeah, Daniel Day-Lewis, big method guy.

Jared Leto, he's just like an asshole method guy.

And then the guy that plays Kendall Roy.

Robert Duvall is not a method actor. Okay, no.
It's the other guy. Sonny.
Give me Sonny. No.
Wait. What was the last thing you said there? Jeremy Strong.
The guy from. Yes.
He's a psycho. He's a psycho method actor.
But I think that if either one of those two guys tried to go method on the John Daly. Yep.
Tried to get into character as him. I think they'd die before filming.
Yes. James Caan khan james khan i believe can you look up if he was method acting because he was he was the coach in the program he was also the dad and elf yeah that was method acting as far as i can tell method acting con sign up learn the method we learned the method and stayed for five years i don't know if that means it i don't think he's a The new The new Google searches Are terrible Yeah Oh the AI They're so bad dude They're really bad Do you see that one Where someone was like Can cockroaches live inside your penis And it's like yes It's very healthy To have a couple cockroaches Living in your penis We won't eat the bugs That's bullshit Well if it's inside your penis Hank might They're trying to get us To eat the bus.
Hank would be into that. Yeah, that's true.
Method acting in The Godfather. Marlon Brando.
Yeah, see? James Caan. That was a stupid tangent.
So it's just- Oh, did you see the picture of Tiger? I did not see the picture. You're looking old.
Tiger is old. Yeah.
But it's like one of those pictures that I think he probably will see and be like, fuck gotta do something about this hair so yeah you gotta he was playing uh poker with phil ivy you gotta you gotta cut it tiger's been past that stage for a long time now long time uh it looks diesel are we in the trust tree here we won't even include this in the pod uh it might be time for me to come home why what shave your head or yeah you're so, cut it. You're so far away from shaving your head.
No, I don't know, man. I saw a bad angle the other day.
Of the back? I saw a bad angle the other day, yeah. You wear a hat all the time.
Maybe you should just get a hat with the... The funny hair in it.
Yeah. The spiky hair.
Yeah. Maybe I'll have to go see Brian Urlacher.
Yeah. We'll see.
Something has to change. Something's changing before football season.
Just keep the hat on. Yeah, but then it's bad.
Then it's worse when you take the hat off. I think that's a lie.
So I was in an airport a couple weeks ago, and there was a guy that was in front of me. He was about my height.
He had about my length hair. He was maybe five years older than me.
Okay. Real bald with long hair.
And I was standing behind him the entire time just thinking to myself, I'm never never gonna but he looks sweet maybe to himself okay but i don't think i think everybody else was like that guy needs to do something about that i'm not gonna get oh yeah tiger does yeah i mean he looks jacked up though he looks super strong i have a question and this is not i want it on the record we love Charlielie woods tiger if you ever want to come on the podcast we'd love to have you on the podcast did tiger ever do steroids uh you think i why does it get talked about though everybody was like man this guy is just i know but no one says it it. He definitely- Is this out of respect for him? Is it deference? He definitely used it to come back from stuff, for sure.
Yeah, I know. Oh, there you go.
You did- I mean, he definitely did it, and also his whole body type change. Yeah, I forgot.
We did an entire macrodosing on that. Yep, yep.
It has been talked about. Okay.
All right. There you go.
He's definitely, he's maybe used steroids.

I think he, without a doubt, 100% used HGH to come back from injuries.

I like this.

Maybe this is the summer of getting all of our goats, you know, Secretariat, Tiger Woods.

Yeah.

They all use steroids.

That's fine.

Because did they even have testing?

Tiger Woods people told us to shut up about a steroid use, XPJ star claims. Oh, well, that sounds like it's very reputable.
Yeah. Not even Tiger Woods, his people? I mean, you've never seen a golfer as strong as Tiger before.
No. Bryson.
And his body just completely changed, and then his body completely betrayed him yeah and i know the whole uh navy seals thing i know that whole story but yeah do you think bryson used gear yeah like tiger is is just as as crazy of a like before after is barry bonds yeah pirates barry bonds and and 49ers barry bonds uh okay you have any other backs? No, that's my who's back of the week. Okay.
Yeah, there's no way they test for her. Yeah, I feel like they might have recently brought it in when it became an Olympic sport.
I feel like that always happens, which is the dumbest thing ever. If I was the PGA, I would never test for any drug.
No. Although it'd be so funny if a golfer got suspended for smoking weed.
You remember they used to do that at the Olympics. Yeah.
There was a snowboarder that got his silver medal taken away because he tested positive for weed. And they asked him about it.
The smart move on this guy's part would just been like, yeah, dude, I'm a fucking snowboarder. Yeah.
Smoke weed. Yeah.
But he was like, no, I was at a party two months ago and I think I got some secondhand inhalation. Yeah.
And I apologize. I would never smoke weed.
Yeah, dude, you board on snow. You're high all the time.
That's okay. You're still really good.
Yeah. That's the one sport you can do that.
All right. My Who's Back of the Week is Tommy Pham.
Tommy Pham got into it with the Brewers and then did a post-game press conference where he said that he trains for this and he will go after anyone

who wants to go after him.

Do you want to pull it up, Max?

I have it right here.

I can play it.

Tommy Pham is about that shit.

You don't want to fuck with him.

Tommy Pham was the one who slapped.

Slapped.

The fantasy football slapped.

All right, listen to this.

This is Tommy Pham after the game.

One-run ball game. Close play at the plate.
Actually, it wasn't even fucking close. It was a shallow fly ball to left field.
You would expect the left fielder to throw the base runner out on that play. But the situation of the game, you know, third base coach sends you.
you got to go. I'm nailed out at home by a mile.
I'm going to the dugout, and, you know, I hear the tough guy with all the hoorah shit, you know, so I'll never start anything, but I'll be prepared to finish it. There's a reason why, you know, I do all kinds of fighting in the off season because I'm prepared to fuck somebody up.
Yeah. Take it as what it is.
Yeah. Yeah.
It just kept on escalating. You're like, oh, this is routine.
Like I'm prepared to fuck somebody up. Dude, I want to know what kind of who rush that this guy was on.
We also had, uh, in this game. So I would understand that most of our listeners, not national audience, would know who I'm about to talk about.
But it's been a big story in Chicago. John Shriffen, the announcer for the White Sox, might be the worst announcer ever.
And he took over for Benetti, right, who went to the Tigers. He went to the Tigers.
Did John Shriffen go to Syracuse? No. This guy, he's trying really hard, but everything is awkward.
So this clip is just so awkward, if you can play it, Max, of him screaming about Tommy Pham. And he's had moments where he said something like, suck on that, losers, even though the white socks are one of the worst teams so no one's paying attention to him but it keeps popping up every now and then so this is it and he's out and contrari is barking at him tommy fam barking back he's not backing down doesn't like that.
And now home plate umpire, Edwin Jimenez, has to hold back Pham. Nah, we ain't taking that.
We ain't taking that from the Brewers. I don't care how many L's we got this year.
We ain't taking that. That's it.
No, we ain't taking that. I love that.
That's like he needs to drop a as God is my witness. He's broken him in half.
We ain't taking that. We ain't taking that.
He and the Oakland A's woman, they are one-two for the worst announcers in Major League Baseball. Jake, what are your thoughts on the White Sox announcer? What was that face, Max? The JMU baseball game yesterday.
Oh, that was so bad as well. That was horrible.
That was very bad as well. What happened there? The green.
He likes greens. There's in the tree.
It was bad. It was bad.
Ready for this? Oh, man. And it won.
That's hit in the air to left field. And that ball is gone.
Mike Mancini's favorite color is green. It landed on the green grass.
Two home runs. How about that? Two runs for James Madison.
How about that? What a wild. That's wild.
Put that on the wild. Oh, man.
Jake is uncomfortable right now. We're the direction of this podcast in this moment.
It's great we're talking broadcast. Yeah.
Yeah. He ain't taking that.
He ain't taking that. Also, the Brewers are, like, way better than the ones.
Yeah, I like how he just threw in there, I don't care how many L's we got this year. No, because he knows.
Yeah. He knows that they're very, very bad.
Also, how about Tommy Pham just completely throwing his third base coach under the bus? Oh, big time. Entirely.
But then he kind of, you forget about it by the end when he's just like, I'll fuck him up. I'll fuck somebody up.
I'll fuck somebody up. Yeah, and if my third base coach tells me something, I'll fuck him up um all right uh jake uh my who's back is joey chestnut yes obviously the main event is the fourth of july and we always see the press from the hot dog eating contest but we had joey chestnut taking down some pints of ice cream at a minor league baseball game we don't really see him do other competitions so this wasn't even a competition i don't think i think it was just him doing it for fun.
Yeah. He was just pounding.
Four in a minute. Pints of ice cream.
You could tell, too, it kind of was giving him some brain freeze. Yeah.
I mean, you have to get brain freeze from that much ice cream for sure. I think he was also eating fried fish, too.
The classic fried fish ice cream combo. Is that real? Yeah.
That was the combo? Yeah. I think it was fried walleye oh man so this is like the pre-season for him i guess yeah he's got to warm up all right so what happened was he ate four pints of ice cream in 60 seconds and then he ate 36 nuggets of fried walleye in 60 seconds oh that's That's not good on his stomach.
Oh.

I hope he was diped up.

I feel like that's just going to cut right through you.

He is.

That's insane.

Say it again.

He ate 36 fried walleye nuggets in one minute.

Oh.

And that's, I believe, right after he ate the four pints of ice cream.

Oh, man.

Yeah, you'd want to do it reverse, I think.

Yeah, you eat the fried first. Yeah, get the ice cream to cool you down.
Exactly. Try to trick your body a little bit.
Yeah. Also, did you guys see the story about this D3 school? Yeah.
The baseball team? Yeah, we talked about it on Friday, but they... They made it to the College World Series D3 and they lost.
Oh, they did lose. They won on a walk-off the other night.
Yeah, to stay alive. So they weren't really a school, right?

They had no longer been a school after that. They closed a few days ago, but

they still had the baseball season.

I don't understand how they couldn't

have just added whoever they wanted.

Yeah, really. You're not a school anymore.

Right. Like Barry Bonds should have been Homer at the bat.

Yeah, absolutely.

Recruit anybody that you can. Anyone that got kicked off

the team. Yeah.

That would kind of rock to be just like, we are the school now.

Yeah.

Like, this is our school.

Did you guys also see, this is just a random story, but I saw someone noted that Jim McElwain,

which, you know, we know Jim McElwain, Central Michigan, not a shark fucker.

Apparently, he's got a lifetime sponsorship with Coors Light.

Lifetime?

Yeah.

We need to get on that.

Pretty sick.

They provide him with a Coors Light vending machine inside his house.

That's awesome.

I don't know. Apparently, he's got a lifetime sponsorship with Coors Light.
Lifetime? Yeah. We need to get on that.

Pretty sick.

They provide him with a Coors Light vending machine inside his house.

That's awesome.

They fill monthly.

That's awesome.

That's great.

We should get on that.

What a badass.

Lifetime sponsorship.

Yeah.

We need that vending machine.

Let's do it.

Yes.

Okay.

Let's get to our interview with CJ McCollum, and then we will do lottery ball and some wrap-up after that.

We're going to get to CJ McCollum in a second.

Before we do, he's brought to you by Game Time.

Did you know that you're a fan? with C.J. McCollum, and then we will do lottery ball and some wrap-up after that.
We're going to get to C.J. McCollum in a second.
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Last-minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. And now here's CJ McCollum.
Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest, a recurring guest, a guest who we should have had on a lot sooner since the last time we had him on because I think it was like a highly acclaimed this guy rocks interview that we did it is CJ McCollum from the CJ McCollum show from the NBA he plays for the Pelicans now last time we had him on he was on the Blazers but CJ I want to start by apologizing bad job by us because the first time you were on everyone's like we love CJ McCollum I get I still get the hezy hay tweets so this was a bad job but I'm happy that you're back on we could talk about the finals and talk about some ball no I'm happy to you back on man that was a good time uh that was a really good time of my life too we were in we were in the city I was young I was on the Blazers and now it's a good time in my life, too. We were in the city.
I was young. I was on the Blazers.
And now it's a good time in my life. I'm a little older.
I'm in New Orleans. And I get stopped in the street when I'm in the city.
People are Eurostaping me, hitting me with heads. You got to go back on.
You got to go back on the pod. I'm like, eventually, I'm going to get back on, man, for sure.
Yeah. Yeah, the step back to freedom.
Yeah, step back to freedom. That was another good one.
Yeah. The people love CJ McCall.
And you're a wine mogul too yeah i try man i try my best you see me sipping some chardonnay right now for those that don't know this is a free promo baby there we go one.com i'm sipping some chardonnay right now we got rosé chardonnay pinot blonde blonde maybe you can maybe you can educate me because i'm not much of a chardonnay guy i'm more of like a mad dog 2020 myself. But I'll drink any kind of wine, but I always say don't give me the Chardonnay because I don't like the oakiness to it.
What's a good, like, Fisher Price, my first Chardonnay? I can just send you one to keep it a buck with you. But I think the cool thing about Chardonnay is it's an acquired taste.
And I didn't like Chardonnay for a long time. And we were in the bubble, and Mellow had some white burgundy.
And Mellow was like, yo, you got to try this white burgundy. I'm like, Mel, I like pinots.
I like cabs. I like bubbles.
I like rosé, but I'm not messing with Chardonnay. He's like, you got to try this white burgundy.
I tried the white burgundy and it was so fire. I was like, I got to, I got to continue to figure out ways to try Chardonnays that are similar to this.
And then I ended up making a Chardonnay in partnership with Adelsheim that is more reminiscent of white burgundy. So not as oaky, as smooth.
Living in New Orleans is mad hot. So figuring out the balance between when to drink Pinot and when to drink more refreshing drinks like Chard and Rosé.
But it's not for everybody. But if you drink the right Chard, it'll change your life.
All right i might have to try yeah all right so um that's awesome that i you're you're a father now too so congrats on that yeah a lot a lot has changed um and a wine mogul uh we wanted to have you on talk a little ball talk a little finals let's start with your do you have an official prediction and then we can kind of unpack from there and figure out how you got there and how both these teams got there. Yeah, yeah.
I was talking to a good friend of mine, Coach Weiss, who coached me at Lehigh yesterday while I was pushing the stroller. Crazy.
I got two kids and I'm married and life is good. And I thought to myself, this is going to be a great finals.
I got to get to a game. I got to get to a game in Boston.
I got to try to get to a game in Dallas. I think it's it's Boston series to lose.
I think it's their series to lose. Chris Stapp should be back.
They've had the best record all year. They got the Jays, right? Jason and Jalen.
They got great role players. You know, they got great supporting cast.
They got a coach who's fiery. I loveyton pritchard i think they're it's their

series to lose and i will say this though i think i think boston wins in six but if it's a one possession game give me dallas yeah yeah yeah he's got to win by two three possessions they gotta have a lead you know late in that fourth quarter they gotta have a comfortable lead by comfortable i mean multiple possessions or they're in trouble because luca and kyrie are not to be playing with yeah yeah yeah so what is it about Luka we actually I think everyone in this room has I think I have Boston seven PFT has five Hank has six but what is it about Luka that makes him so impossible to guard because you've obviously played against him like what what specifically does he do that is so elite compared to anyone else on the court i think it's a combination of things man like he's heavy right uh you know with respect to the heavy people out there he's got good size that's a nice way of saying fat he's heavy but respect all we do have heavy listeners you know no but heavy heavy's like drew holiday is a great defender drew holiday cannot i don't think can guard luca for the entire series because he's luca's heavy luca is heavy man and he's a good healthy heavy like strong sturdy he's still quick he has a great change of speed great balance great patience um amazing step back and he's not afraid of the moment i think what a lot of people don't

realize is luca turned pro at like 13. luca's been playing pro since he was you know a middle

schooler basically he skipped a lot of steps compared to what we do in the states and he

began hitting big shots at 14 15 16 years old led his team to a yearly championship as a as a

youngster right like he's he's not afraid of the moment he's not afraid of the bright lights he

loves it they play better on the road because i think he likes tormenting the crowd. And I just think from a versatility standpoint, he's like six, eight, I don't know his weight.
I mean, he's gotta be at least two 45, maybe heavier, um, healthy body fat. And he's, he's in great shape.
But I think that's the thing that a lot of people didn't realize is Luka is heavy, hard to guard.

He can lean on you.

He can post you up.

He can get you on his back and make different types of moves around the paint area.

Loves to step back.

He's going to hunt matchups, but he's in great shape.

He's hitting big shots down the stretch of fourth quarters.

High usage.

First quarters are basically his.

Kai takes over second and third, and then it's take turns into fourth.

But, I mean, he's just, he's a wizard with the ball. He's going to have high volume, and there's a reason why he averaged 35 points a game, nine rebounds, nine assists, basically 35, 10, and nine.
He can control the entire game for four quarters. Yeah, yeah.
He's also very good at drawing fouls too. He draws contact in a very, very smart way.
I don't think a lot of players are on his same level in terms of knowing when he's about to get fouled, getting them off balance, and then using that while still maintaining his own shot form as best as he can to try to get a three-point play out of it. Sometimes you see guys that set up the foul, but he sets it up in a way where he makes sure that he has a good look at the basket after he gets fouled too.
Is that something that you know going into it? Like he's going to try to get you off balance? Yeah, it's like a running joke. Him and B, a lot of those guys, they start the game with 8-10 points, right? You know they're going to have 8-10 free throws.
They basically establish rhythm early. You can't touch them.
They manipulate the defense the entire game. They can get you on their hip.
They got pump fakes. They got pivots.
They got pump fakes. They got pivots over and over again as the game progresses.
And then it's about game plan discipline when you're going against those types of guys. And you can get frustrated on tough makes.
You know, it's a make or miss league. And there's going to be a lot of tough mates throughout the game.
There's going to be a lot of questionable situations in which he's, you know, maybe foul baiting or whatever they like to call it, quote unquote. But he's a smart player.
He knows how to He knows how to get what he wants out there, and once he gets you off balance, it's all she wrote. Yeah.
And obviously they've got two great players. The two guards are going to be impossible to stop both of them.
You just can't do it. Like you said, you have to build a lead, not let them get to a late-game situation where they can put the ball in one or two guys' hands and win it.
But in terms of the role players on Dallas, who do you think is the most important outside of Kyrie and Luca? I mean, I like Derek Lightman. I mean, obviously they got other guys, you know, TJ Washington has been great.
Gaffney has been great. I think this may be a Tim Hardaway junior series.
But if you really look at the last series in terms of what changed the game, is their ability to defend, you know, basically switching one through four, sometimes one through five. Kyrie was great defensively, but Lively really was amazing, right? I think he didn't miss a shot in the conference finals.
He altered tons of shots. He continues to put rim pressure on the defense by his ability to roll and get behind the defense and pick and rolls.
When Luka and Kai come off, he always finds himself behind the defense. If they switch, he makes them pay with lobs and offensive rebounds.
But I think he's a huge, huge piece because not only is he great at finishing around the basket, but he makes great decisions in the pick and roll. When they hit him in the pocket, he's one of the best on their team at figuring out when to drive, when to go weak side and kind of connect.
And he made a killing throughout this playoffs on just playing smart basketball and being athletic. Yeah.
All right. So and then the Celtics, it does feel like they're the favorite, but they they've it's kind of twisted into like they can say they're the underdog just because people are like, hey, look, they had no one to play in the East.
They ran through it. They haven't been tested, so to speak.
I still think they're the better team. But is there anything to say for the fact that they haven't had that tough playoff series where they've been pushed to make some changes and counteract and like, all right, you threw this at us.
Now we got to throw this at you. Is there any, is there any reality to that or is that just completely overstated and it doesn't matter? They, they handled their business.
I think it's completely overstated for them, mainly because of the fact that they've all been there before. Outside of guys in rotation, this team has been to the conference finals five out of the last seven years.
They were in the finals two years ago. had a lead on the uh champion warriors and their experience like they know what it takes to win a series they know what it takes to lose a series it's not like shell shock like oh my goodness we're in the finals like oh i've never seen this before they've been here before and the second time around is when you really earn your stripes right like the first time around it's all new it's fresh you're trying to figure out the balance between tickets for family, like going through all of that stuff.
Not that I've played in it, but I've been to the finals and I see how much media is credentialed. I see how many interviews they got to do.
It's open practices. It's like the Super Bowl.
It's a big show up into the game. And I think if you're not used to it, it can be mentally and physically draining.
I think they've all all trained for it they all have a better understanding of how they had to kind of prepare for this they got a champion on their team in Drew Holiday um Derek White played for the Spurs he's been he's been across the league like he's mature um the Jays obviously Chris Asporzingis has played all across Europe he's been in the NBA he hasn't played in like a real big playoff moment like this, but I think playing with all those guys, it's helpful. And I really don't think it matters.
If anything, they're just going to be more fresh, more ready to go, home court advantage. The Jitters will be gone by the first time out, like Draymond said.
Yeah. Is there any sort of advantage that they're going to get because Chris Stapps hasn't played in a long time? So Dallas doesn't have any like fresh tape on them.
Is that going to make any difference whatsoever? Like they haven't seen that look in the last couple of weeks. That's a good, I mean, that's a good point.
I think it's a coin flip, right? Like because Boston has played well without guys all year. They've been without Brazingis.
They've been without Drew Holiday at times. They figured out a way to kind of just keep moving al horford is a vet he's a pro he's going to figure it out he's going to hit big shots he's going to defend i'm really just worried about chris staps because he hasn't played in so long like he's just jumping into the finals like if you really think about that that's the the part that's going to be interesting and i'm not talking about offensively i'm talking about defensively conditioning wise having to guard kyrie and luca in switches constantly you know everybody talks about kyrie's return to boston which is great and it's going to be fun to see like the response that he gets and how he kind of plays through that but luca and brazingis played together and it didn't go well yeah i think if you know anything about luca he takes things very personally and this is a chance for him to to really beat a guy he played with and wasn't able to necessarily get over the hump with yeah so all right so the injury thing is uh an interesting one because we're sitting on our couch we're idiots I'm always like oh why why do they need you know like they've been all, Kristoff's been practicing for the last two weeks.
He should be fine. But what is the difference in between if you're coming back from injury, practicing, and then getting into actual game minutes and like how quickly you get tired when you make that transition? Yeah, it's tough.
And I've been fortunate or not so fortunate to have some injuries, but been able to come back from them and transition into return to play. And it's difficult for everybody.
And it's one thing to return to play in a regular season game.

it's another thing to return to play in the playoffs and it's a whole nother level up to return to play in the finals where no matter what type of conditioning you're getting no matter what

type of live contact you're getting those stakes aren aren't the same, right? Like you're not, you can't simulate a switch with Luka going against, you know, the backups in Boston or going against the coaching staff or the player development staff in a conditioning league game where it's basically a lot of guys that are in the rotation and then you're going mixing in some coaches you're getting switched on to Kyrie on the main stage for all the marbles for the 18th banner in Boston like this is completely like there's no there's no comparison and I think he'll be fine because he's a pro and he's had a lot of time to kind of adjust and the way he plays he shoots jumpers he posts up a little bit he dunks they got a lot of help it's not like they're just going to say Chris Stapps go win us the game like he's going to be playing on a good team and kind of playing a role so that'll make things easier but it's just difficult to translate and I think it's going to take some time from a rhythm standpoint but also for Boston's rotation they just went through two series or three series without him right the rotation was set you know guys are playing heavy minutes starters are playing basically 40 Al Horford was great he hit seven threes in one of those games. They're going to have to change the rotation, and I'm just curious to see how the players respond to that from a rhythm standpoint as they were used to something and now there's going to be a little change.
Yeah. So if you're coming back from injury and your conditioning isn't to the point where it should be if you had played an entire season without this time off, what does that look like in a game? And I'm not talking about putting your hand up, being like,

Coach, take me out for a little bit.

I'm tired.

Because I assume that guys, if they're in the NBA Finals,

a lot of times they'll want to stay in the game no matter what.

But what does that look like for a player when they're getting tired?

What's the first thing that goes?

For me, if I'm playing pickup, I just kind of stop guarding.

I just kind of stop playing defense entirely.

And I hope that my guy doesn't run around too much.

Or I'll be like, hey, I've got to tie my shoe.

That's what it is. playing pickup, I just kind of stopped guarding.
I just kind of stopped playing defense entirely, and I hope that my guy doesn't run around too much. Or I'll

be like, hey, I gotta tie my shoe. That sort of

thing. But what does that look like in a game?

It's actually hilarious. You're stalling.

I think it's

similar in the NBA, right?

You just... More

turnovers, bad passes,

bad misses. Instead of a close miss,

they're just bad. Airballs, wide left, wide right, super long.
Longer timeouts, dumb fouls. Like you'll just start to see like, oh, like that was a stupid play.
Like, oh, he must be tired. Like the fatigue is kind of kicking in.
But I think historically, especially when you get to this stage, when you're coming off an injury, you're either on a minutes restriction or they change the substitution pattern. When I came back from an injury, I had a collapsed lung.
I've had a broken foot, broken back, torn popliteous. You usually know, like, all right, I got a four-minute stretch right here where they're going to play me four minutes, and then I'm coming out.
I'm first coming out. First foul, first timeout, whatever, I'm coming out.
When you're coming back from an injury, you have to govern yourself the way you look at them. And like a couple of times this year, I came back against the Sixers and I was on a minute restriction and I was like, I'm good.
Like, let me go. And it was like, no, it's 26 minutes.
And I'm like, nah, I'm good. And I played like a six and a half or seven minute stretching.
It was supposed to be five. And at the six minute mark, I was like, oh yeah yeah or I was like yo foul somebody I need to come out of this game before I mess this up for everybody my move is I just yell someone stop ball and then I pick up whoever switches and I just hold their shirt and I'm just like let's just hang out and not walk all the way back.
It's like don't be a hero man. Yeah yeah.
Let's just hang out here for a second and then we'll get back when we get back. We're going to get back to CJ McCollum in a second before we do he's being brought to you by Chevy as everyone knows this is a Chevy truck podcast.
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How annoying is that? When he just won't stop running? Chewing his, dancing, shimming in his life. It's really frustrating.
But you can just tell that he prides himself on conditioning, hard work, reps. I'd say the most – J.J.
Reddick, when J.J. played, the first quarter was insane.
Just plays for him, illegal screens from DeAndre, illegal screens from Blake. He'd be able to just give him the ball for like five straight minutes.
Then he would touch the ball for three quarters. The one that like was super impressive, Russell Westbrook.
So prime, that's like prime Russ when he played like 37 to 42 minutes a game. And, you know, when he was in triple double mode, he played so hard for so long.
impressive because he's just rebound pushing yelling screaming and people don't understand like it takes energy to yell and scream like a couple times i over celebrated i was like damn i'm tired i shouldn't do that yeah yeah it takes away your energy but like this guy his motor is unbelievable for 82 games like playing in the middle of nowhere, he could be playing a pickup game in the backyard. Like his energy is always at a level that's super impressive.
Yeah. I feel like Luka gets stronger the angrier he gets.
Like he's expending energy, right? He's using calories to yell at people, but he feeds off that. It amps him up.

Yeah, he feeds off that hookah-luckah.

I think if you really look at how his career has progressed,

he came in like baby face, a little thin.

He started eating good in the neighborhood that American food started treating him well.

Then he came back a couple years where you see him training, running stairs

overseas in Slovenia,

running the stairs,

and you see his game

kind of go to another level in terms of

the range on his jumper,

the step backs. Even in that last series

against the Timberwolves, he started the game hitting like

30 footers. He was sending the message

like, I've really been working on my craft.

I'm really about to just take over

this league. And this is

an impressive run. And people don't remember

Thank you. footers he was sending the message like i really been working on my craft like i'm really about to just take over this league and this is an impressive run and people don't remember jay kid said he was already better than dirt you know he's 25 years old and dirt dirt has the logo they got a picture of dirt shooting a fadeaway right on court and they're already talking about he's better than dirt and he ain't want to yeah and dirt dirt beat the king yeah yeah he could have hours like powers.
So this is telling you how special this kid is. This man is a real problem.
And he's still not really in his prime. He's only 25.
Yeah, that is true. It is crazy.
He's only 25. I mean, Jason Tatum also, what, 26 or 25 as well.
Do you think Jason Tatum's disrespected? Or is it that he's right where he kind of needs to be? Because this could be the summer of Tatum. If he wins this championship and then he's going to go play in the Olympics and then I think he's up for the Supermax right after, this could be a hell of a four-month stretch for Jason Tatum.
This is huge for him and his legacy, and I think he's a Hall of Famer or whatever. More 50-point games than Larry Bird, more career playoff points than Larry Bird, five straight trips to the conference finals, two finals appearances.
This is the one they'd probably win. I think he's where he needs to be right now because he doesn't have the ring yet, and people kind of like really value the ring.
Those that are like real hoopers, no Tatum is good. I think the casual fan is anti-Boston.
Like a lot of people just hate that he plays in Boston and that they have so much respect and everything that comes with that. But I think if you're like a normal fan, like who really understands the game or if you hoop against them, you know, Tatum is cold blooded.
You respect him. You respect Jalen Brown.
And you you understand that they have a good team and when you're on a good team you're held to a higher standard they expect you like he said before like they expect you to basically win every game and it's almost as if he's supposed to win this championship as opposed to him like taking it it's like he's supposed to win and if he doesn't he got beat by luca and it's's like the narrative is going to shift as opposed to saying, like, he had a great year and he won 64 games. Jalen Brown is the highest-paid player in NBA history, and he's about to become the highest-paid player in NBA history.
Then you're going to have two of the highest-paid players in NBA history on the same team, Banner 18, in Boston, two black guys. Like, if you think about it, like, it's a really cool situation for the celtics and their fan base to be able to say like we have a great young core who we weren't sure was going to work now it's working and we're this close to winning a championship and if the the worst thing you can say about them is that you know jason doesn't get enough love but he just averaged 30 and he was first team all nba right like what more do you like what more do you want yeah and i i think i mean it is the dumbest thing we do as sports fans i am definitely guilty of it i think we all are where if like you play on a better team you then get taken something away from you where it's like well wouldn't you want wouldn't you want your the best players to like play on the the best teams? I'd rather see that than have an incredible player struggle with just no one on their team, and you have to sit there and be like, well, I think they're really good, but they just got bums around them.
So it's a weird thing we do where it's like, oh, he has too much help. It's like, who cares? Yeah, I mean, I would equate it to deon uh deon sanders very centers in detroit and then you look at the flip side christian mccaffrey right like how he was viewed before he got to the niners like oh he's great but they lose all the time and it's like well yeah his team's not very good yeah then go to the niners and it's like oh it's not fair he has all of these weapons and i'm like no he's still a monster he's just in a better situation it's not his fault that they got great linemen a great defense great threats at the receiver spot like he's still a monster it doesn't change that yeah it's actually the barry sanders versus emmett smith it happened at the same time yeah where it's like you know there were emmett smith people it's like how could you be an emmett smith person if you have your eyes and a brain in your head like yeah he has the rings and he has the records, but like Barry Sanders is incredible.
That's what he does. Yeah, so you were talking earlier about some guys setting some pretty devastating illegal screens.
From your perspective, because the NBA is all about responding to, like switching on screens, picking roles. That's, to me, like the teams that have the most success consistently.
That's usually how they do it. Who is the best at setting illegal picks? Shout out to my boy Nurk in Phoenix.
Nurk is the illegal. Draymond, one of the best illegal screeners of all time.
Take it back a little bit. Omar, he was a good screen setter.
What's the big fella's name in Minnesota who had a huge head? He played with Kevin Love. He was a great screen setter.
Looking at today, it's funny because there's not a lot of actual fives. Shout out to my guy, JV.
JV's a great legal screen setter. He's had some really, really good screens.
There's not a lot of true fives. What about Bam? Bam gets real wide on his screens.
Bam gets wide on his screens, but he likes to get out. He likes to slip out so he can get dunks.
He will make contact when it's there. I'm trying to think.
There's not a lot of, like, when Zeebo played when marcus saw play um those were like when i first got into the league that's when you had real fives we had seven foot four four men who posted up i played with robin lopez great screen setter la marcus was a really good screen setter especially when he could you know roll roll to that middie and knock it down. Boogie was a good screen setter, too.
Boogie. Boogie was a good screen setter.
Are there ever times when you're playing in a game that someone forgets to yell out a screen? Yeah, all the time. Really? All right.
Yeah, because, I mean, I didn't know if, like, that was, like, so you guys are obviously you're so fucking good. But, like, it will happen not to relate to pickup, but it will happen in pickup.
and you'd be like, where the fuck, why didn't you if like that was like so you guys are obviously you're so fucking good, but like it will happen not to relate to pickup, but it will happen in pickup. You'd be like, where the fuck? Why didn't you just say there's a screen? You just get absolutely crushed.
So what happens when someone forgets to yell out that there's a screen coming? It depends on who didn't yell it out, right? Like if it's one of the OGs or if they're like somebody that you know historically yells it out and you either didn't hear them or they forgot, then you kind of give them a pass. But it was like a, you know, depending on the type of player, you're going to be like, yo, like you can't, you can't be leaving me out here like that.
Like that's right. Like you don't get me hurt or, you know, something worse could happen.
You know what I mean? Especially if you pick it up and you turn and turn it and they got that blind screen in the backcourt to try to knock you out like that's the type of screen back in like somebody like Patrick Beverly right Patrick is picking up full court you want to get a blind screen on him just to get him off the guard to kind of free you up and those are the times where you know if you got the ball you just trying to set him up and run him right into the screen and if you're guarding the ball you want want somebody to yell out, like, screen come and get back or something.

But it's happened.

I've been hit a few – like, it's happened.

And you're just looking like, who was closest?

Like, bro, why are you calling it out, bro?

Yeah.

When you're on offense, have you ever called out fake screens?

Like, throwing them off their game, be like, pick right, pick right,

switch, switch.

Yeah, CP put me on game to that.

He used to do that all the time.

Or he would point, like, set it right there, set it it right there and then just take off and I was like like nobody is there yeah a few times and I played against guys where a lot of teams will say black or red like there's a call for switch and the other team would run up and be like black yeah you'll think your garden like you'll think that you're supposed to switch and it's the other team calling it um i've seen that happen a lot of times which is funny and then you break down the coverage and you're like yo i heard the call but it wasn't it wasn't your teammate calling it was the other team so stuff like that just trying to manipulate the game and get an advantage is an important part of the game for sure yes speaking of that uh you play you play with Jose Alvarado. Does he do his Grand Theft Alvarado thing in practice, and how much does that piss everyone off? He does.
He tries to do it in practice all the time. He picks up hard.
Good dude, though. Works hard, man.
Oh, it's awesome when he pulls it off, but I would imagine if he does it in practice, he would piss you off. Yeah, I mean, he's never gotten with that in practice before, but he does he does pick up full in practice he's talking trash he's getting after it he's gotten a couple back tips but the grand theft auto i think my favorite one is the one he got on braun he got braun and braun was pissed uh honestly he was pissed like looking around his teammates like yeah you gotta yeah that's what you gotta call it out someone's gotta call it out but they don't see it what I I can't remember if when you first came on I asked you this question and maybe I did and it's just a repeat but I don't care uh when you were playing with Dame and all these big time moments uh could you did you know when it was Dame time could you like was there something that like flipped in his head or his eyes or Or would he say, hey, CJ, just so you know it's game time? Or look at your watch? Sometimes you can see the look in his eyes or just timing score, like feeling the game out, feeling the momentum.
Or depending on what play he calls. Sometimes he'd be calling the game, we'd be calling plays back and forth, and then he'd call diagonal fits or he'd call a play which diagonal fits for us was basically a wing goes and sets a screen for the five man the five man runs up into a mid pick and roll and he kind of gets downhill or he shoots a three when he started calling his own plays or his own number or no play and he just pulls up from 40 I'm like yeah he he about to turn it up or it was a momentum swing and play right like they hit a shot he gets a layup and one and he starts celebrating or he yells because he never really celebrates until the game's over if he yells or like he starts doing that i'm like oh yeah he about to get in his bag like he about to really turn up um and then he might start to start tapping his wrist you know but he was serious and there's nothing you you can do in the same time.
Nothing you can do at all. What's the farthest you ever saw him pull up from in practice? Half court.
He shot, he shot the ball from half court in practice a lot of times or a step in, a step in front of half court, just coming off natural, natural shot and not even throwing the ball. Impressive, man.
He got, he gets like really good, like flexion on the, on the, on on the on the wrist good dip strong ball just kind of flows off it's an effortless shot yes it's crazy to watch yeah i got i got some new orleans questions for you first question uh how awesome is it to be the man in new orleans what does that mean just like you're the man like you are you you're a star you're on the You're, you live in New Orleans, which is probably the coolest city in the United States. Just how awesome is it? I live a good life, man.
I'm thankful. I'm blessed to be in a position where I get to play a sport.
I get to be in a place like New Orleans. That's, that's hungry for success.
Um, great culture, great community, uh, great food, great drinks, depending on what you like. Heavy on the French influence.
And to be able to go from where we were at before I got here to two out of three years making the playoffs to really just kind of improve. I think we had the second most wins in franchise history.
Obviously, this is like Saints country, right? But it's a blessing to be able to play here. My family and I love it.
And like you said before, just trying to take advantage of the blessings work hard and just trying to get us to in a position to go on a real run man we need we need health we need a lot of things to kind of go our way but i think we're right there man we're close to to making a real run um eventually yeah you said you said the food if i lived in new orleans and i was on your salary i would be fat as shit. I would eat so much.
Not fat, heavy. Very sturdy.
I would be a sturdy man. Yeah.
Sturdy, heavy and strong. I think it's balanced, man.
Nothing is perfect. You got to figure out.
I always say 80-20 rule, man, like 80% 20. I'm more like 90-10.
I love french fries. I like gumbo.
I eat out once or twice a week, but chef, chef joy, be holding me down and just making sure I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. But it's easy to, it's easy to venture out and eat some things you're not supposed to eat, especially out here.
Yeah. I read an article that you, after the season, you do 21 days, no basketball.
Now, does that like, if you were walking, like you were saying you were walking you know with the stroller if you're walking by a park in the 21 days and a kid's playing and they're like cj take a shot you won't do it that's a that's a tough dilemma so like i normally don't i don't work out so like shooting i don't count shooting so like if a kid was like, shoot the ball, whatever, I'd shoot it. Or like the old school commercials, I might try to go dunk it if the court was low or whatever.
But like two weeks into my break, I took my son to the gym and it was just way too hot outside. And he was like, too hot, too hot, dadda.
So I took him to the gym and he's like, ball, dadda i started shooting that was in my slides but like i don't count that because i'm not actually working out i'm just messing around like just playing with my son having fun yeah i don't count it okay that's that's like the that's the height of my workout so that's good you're like i don't count shooting it's like if i shoot we have our basketball shoot 100 jumpers. I'm like, man, that was a hell of a workout.
Yeah. That was my whole day.
Got my cardio in. Yeah, I really did it.
I really did it. 100 is crazy.
That's it? I'll do more. It just depends on the time I have.
We got the machine, so we'll fire it up. Yeah, what do you – You got a gun? Yeah, we got the gun.
Yeah, we got the gun. What do you consider a workout? How many shots? 100 would not be a workout.
Shit. I mean, my warm-up is like 100 makes just to get loose.
Shit. How many do you make when you shoot? I'll make like 50 of them.
That's pretty good. That's pretty good.
I'd say like 300 plus depending on time. Like if I'm doing a 45-minute workout, unless it's 10 or 15 minutes of ball handling, I'm getting 400 to 500.
Easy. Okay.
Easy. And that's like movement.
That's off the bounce. That's catch and shoot.
I might finish with 100, 150 makes. This might be a dumb question, but have you ever gone shooting and just one day you suck at basketball? You're just not good.
You have days where you don't shoot the ball well. I've had days, and it's funny because the casual won't understand getting in the gym with a pro, and it's completely different.
A bad shooting day for me, I'm probably making 65% of and that's like a it's like a bet like i'm bricking nobody in the gym empty gym 65 of mate like it's a bad day like i'm hitting eight nine out of ten like those are like normal days if we go do we do 100 threes a bad day i'm making 75 out of 100 that's like a terrible day that was a bad like i my my second workout i hit 75 out of 100 it was a terrible day terrible day. That was a bad, like, my second workout, I hit 75 out of 100.
It was a terrible day. Yeah.
And that was after, like, 21 days. Like, normal day, 80 plus out of 100.
And I'm talking threes. When I'm shooting how I normally shoot, 90, 92, 93 out of 100.
And the, like, a normal NBA player, empty gym, jumper is wet. Like, jumper is wet.
You put him in like fans, whatever, like that's going to change the game a little bit. But even like guys that missed free throws down the stretch of games, like big men that can't make free throws, like historically pick a big man, put them in an empty gym, cash.
Yeah. When we had the whole NBA-NFL argument, and it's a dumb argument that we should save for the middle of summer.
But that was the one thing I kept going back to. I was like, if you've ever had the luck of watching an NBA player shoot in an empty gym, they literally do not miss.
It's not like, oh, this is like they will shoot and they'll take 100 threes and they'll they'll make 95 of them. No problem.'s the level that they're shooting that's the baseline of like their shooting ability and that's like everyone on the entire team even the last guy on the bench is still an incredible shooter right yeah I think it's that's a tough argument because like every NFL player can't can't hoop in the league and every hooper can't play in the NFL But there are some NFL guys that could come over and there's some NBA guys that could slide over to the NFL.
It's not to say one sport is harder than the other or whatever the case may be. There's just some incredible athletes in this world.
Like there's some DBs, there's some receivers that like I haven't seen hoop and I'm like, oh, he got game. Like he's nice.
And there's some guys that I've seen that are just freak athletes like bron and some of those guys where you're like like you're telling me zion can't go play football like i could go play football if he really wanted to like bron could go play russ there's some guys that could go play football and there's some some nfl guys that could slide over and be a shooting guard or a small forward i've seen some of those guys guys shoot the ball. I've seen some of those guys that are athletes.
The quarterback from Florida. I've seen some of those guys move and dunk and jump and they'll be all right.
The hard part is the contact. Figuring out for the NBA guy that goes to the NFL.
Is he a DB? Is he a wide receiver? Because everybody ain't trying to go across that middle. It's a different ballgame.
So you saw about the difference in shooting when there's an arena filled with fans. There was a very funny video that went viral last week, and it was like a guy pretending to be an NBA player, and he's like, oh, I don't shoot well on the road.
The fans are mean. And they're saying I'm bad when I'm trying to shoot.
What is it about shooting in front of a hostile crowd that makes you worse at shooting? Ultimately, is it just not being comfortable with the gym? Or is it people saying you suck? Is it people booing you? Why are players worse on the road than they are at home? I think it's a combination of things. I think it's not familiar territory.
Your routine is different. You sleep in a hotel.
Pre-game meal is different if you've got a chef, travel, you're on a bus. Everything is a little different.
And it's not a gym you shoot in every day. And then I think the factor of it's something psychologically when someone cheers for you versus when someone boos for you, especially when you shoot.

But the funny part is most of our team this year in the world shot better on the road than they did at home.

And we had the best world record in the NBA.

I think we went 28 and 14 or something like that and my numbers side by side i shot better from three better from two on the road so it's just a matter of like routine what you do how much time you have i think at home for me personally like I shoot more at home to try to get ready for home games than I do on the road. And I shoot better on the road.
I get less reps, probably get more sleep. But I think I get less reps for sure on game days at home.
I stay after I shoot. I go do like a shooting drill on the road.
You got like 15 minutes on the clock before you can kick that at the gym because they got to set up for something else or the other teams. So I think it's a combination of things that factor in, but it's something about being booed.
Like as opposed to like, imagine when you shoot a three and you're like three. And then when you shoot three, they're like, you suck.
You hit the free throw line. They booing you.
They talk about your mama, talking about your daddy, like whatever the case may be. And at the crib, crib they cheering for you until like something something doesn't go right and then they might flip the switch on you depending on what market you in yeah yeah yeah um i was just gonna say in philly they start to boo you but then they start to be nice to you to get you out of a slump true and then you turn into a really good player true great good sports yeah uh what's what's the status of your beef with KD that I think it's long since squash, but we actually had a part in the original beef because you coming on our show started that a little bit.
That is like KD, my guy, we in a group chat together, and I actually need to check on him and see how he's doing. Text him right now and tell him you're doing PMT and said that we'd love to have him on.
He'll probably leave the group chat. I'm doing PMT.
He's going to leave the group chat. He said they would love to have you on.
Yeah, squash the beef. He still watches my Instagram stories I send him and he just, yeah.
Well, no, he'll just like, or like if I like do like do an instagram story like playing pickup he'll just respond and be like get this trash off the court and then i'll send him being like hey you want to come on and he'll just read it and not respond oh that's him yeah it hurts my feelings every time but i also kind of laugh that's funny i gotta ask him i've seen this seen this Tinder profile that looked like it was his. Yeah, I saw that too.
Oh, he might be out there. All right, I have one last question.
Let us know if he responds real quick. But I have one last question.
This has been awesome, CJ. We definitely have to get you in person too in Chicago when you're here next.
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All right, so what are we adding to our game this summer? That's one of my favorite things that every NBA player, it's kind of a cool flex being like my game is so good, I'm going to this little this little niche thing this little this little one move that no one's expecting what's the one move that you're adding this year i wouldn't necessarily say move i'm working on see if he responded he respond yet i'm what do you say i sent it to the group i didn't send it to him directly he didn't respond yet okay uh it said six swing swing to the corner with the first comment. I'm working on paint finishing.
That's like a real big point of emphasis for me. Obviously, spacing and a lot of those things play a factor, but I got to have better court awareness and understanding of just making sure people are in the right spots, keeping my system turnover ratio right.
But paint finishing is huge. I was only like 58.3% at the rim.
So I got to get better. I got to get to at least league average, which is like 65, somewhere around there.
My paint shots, non-restricted area were like less than 50, 47. So I got to get better there.
And then just a lot more of what I've been doing, like shooting the ball really well, shooting threes at a high clip, being good in pick and rolls over one point per possession, and then defensively being better in pick and roll. I'm never going to be like a lockdown defender, but I've got to be average to above average statistically in terms of what the defense is like when I'm on the floor.
So I think that's the thing that I'm working on, really just paint finishing. That's going to be huge spacing-wise, floaters, touch shots, being smart with the Nash dribbles, and then just trying to impact winning.
Okay. And what's the move that you're...
I mean, you gave us the Hezzy Hay step back to freedom. Is there a move in the last few years that you've been doing that you're like, man, this is so much fun whenever I can pull this off? The Hezzy Hay is just like a classic, the step back to freedom.
I've been shooting a lot of transition trades lately. I just, from a lingo standpoint, what can I leave you with? Transition, take that.
Probably shouldn't say take that now because of where we're at in society. But I would say a lot of transition threes.
We can say transition, take that. Yeah take that yeah take that yeah yeah i love the floater float me float me one of my homies he used to say you got to get up early in the morning for that like you got to get up early in the morning to get to that floater because it's just like above your head especially with wimby now like you got to shoot the flo you gotta have a floater you gotta shoot it high because guys is coming to get all of those so i say the float me in the in the the pull-up trays is a game changer it's a it's a shot i love it's a shot i've i've mashed and i shoot a high percentage at it so but that that hezi hey was was was legendary yes it was golden i feel like kyrie does a lot of the float me too he's a big float me guy i reflow this crazy yeah his best floats the world has ever seen left hand right hand glass cash he got everything how do you stop kyrie is it possible uh i think it's you hope to contain him and he has every skill set in the.
Three-level score, fast, quick, in great shape. He was getting 40 during Ramadan.
He was fasting and scoring 40 on people. Hungry, no water, no food.
That's a different type of killer, man. Yeah yeah i try you gotta trap him i think okc did a good job of taking the ball out his hands um and just trapping him showing him different looks just making somebody else beat you because you show one body even if you show too late like he's he's too good yeah yeah no okc did a better job than minnesota that's for sure.
All right. Well, CJ, I promise you it will be sooner the next time you're on than this gap.
And we do have to get you in person. But it's great to see you.
Congrats on all the success. Two kids.
Wine mogul. Also, I just looked up since we last seen you, I think you've made like $150 million.

That's pretty cool.

That's good.

Yeah.

That's nice.

Do you ever just look at that?

Do you ever look at it like, oh, shit.

Is that what happened since we last seen each other?

It's literally, I think you last were on in 2017, 18. You were around $60 million for your career.

Now you're around $215 million.

That's pretty nice.

That's pretty nice.

Praise the Lord, man.

This is a great world we live in, man.

We'll see you next time. 60 million for your career and now you're around 215 that's pretty nice that's pretty nice praise the lord man this is a great great world we live in man where you know if you can master something and become really good at something do things the right way try to lead a good life things can turn out well for you man so i'm just i'm living a dream man i'm really thankful I'm really happy and blessed.
And I got two beautiful babies.

I'm married.

I can't complain, man. I got a hezy hey.

I got to step back to freedom.

I got to float me.

I got to transition to take that.

I'm sipping Chardonnay talking to you guys.

What can I complain about?

Yes.

Something to aspire for.

That's incredible.

Yeah.

Congrats, CJ.

And also, we left out the part that you're also the manager of our high stakes

fantasy football league that we're in.

And Jerry O'Connell screwed up our lineup entirely last year,

so that's all on him.

Is he a pain in the ass to manage?

Does he, like, send you messages behind the scenes that we don't know about?

No, no, no.

He's been cool, man.

No real issues.

This is the year where I really need to win this, man.

I've put too much money into this fantasy football league

to just continue to lose like this, and this is taking away from money from my my brown sweet games yeah yeah oh yeah should have you had to love that joe flacco run probably felt a little dirty but still it was legendary man and you know it was it was a situation where i thought the season was over and then it just kept getting better and then it was like a too good to be true and then we ran into a young Ohio State killer and that was all she wrote but it was it was a hell of a run man and hopefully you know this year we can be good I mean we're going to need Chubb I don't know if Chubb will be ready but Chubb was Chubb was huge for us and for him to be hurt and injured the way he did was was devastating but you But I love my Browns. We open up against the Dallas Cowboys.
It'll be Tom Brady's first game on Fox September 8th. We rock it, baby.
Yeah, that's big. I like that you got it circled.
That's the sign of a true football fan when you start just ripping off your schedule sometime in July or June. You're like, yeah, we open here.
The next week's tough. It's perfect.
All right, well, CJ, thanks so much, man. We really appreciate it.
Thank you, guys, man. Y'all have a good one.
When I get to the shot, I'll hit y'all for sure. CJ McCollum was brought to you by the NWSL.
Things have escalated from last week's show. We told you Nike hooked us up with that NWSL gear and how we wanted to go to that Red Stars game next Saturday, June 8th at Wrigley Field.
Since then, that game is on track to potentially break the league's attendance record, so it's official. The Barstool Chicago crew is going.
You all need to show up. Soccer at Wrigley, let's break that record.
We're going to report back after the game, but if you don't live in Chicago, you got to get to a game. All we keep hearing so much fun.
Get to an NWSL game this year. Check out the schedules.
Buy some tickets. It's going to be a blast.
Get involved with the NWSL. Okay.
That is our show unless we have anything else. Oh, did you guys see Lenny Kravitz said that he hasn't had sex in nine years? Yeah, hasn't fucked in nine years.
That must be really difficult for Lenny Kravitz to do that. That's insane.
I would actually believe it if he has not come in nine years, but he was fucking. But he's so good at holding it.
Lenny Kravitz is so hot that there's no one on earth that can make him come. Right, and he's just like, I can control it so well.
Like, yeah, I'll fuck you for an hour, but then I'm just going to go home. Maybe he's just done anal.
That could possibly be it.

Lenny Kravitz strictly butt stuff. He does.
There's just no way. I mean, he has cooler sex than everyone else.
He keeps the scarf on. Yeah.
Look at him. He's doing.
Is that actually Lenny Kravitz? Is that just? Lenny Kravitz might lead the league in lookalikes if he's got some tattoos. Yeah, it's either Lenny Kravitz or anemic Larry Fitzgerald.
Oh, yeah. Is he retired? No, he never actually retired.
He just kind of stopped playing football. Yeah.
We've got to figure out something to talk about on Wednesday because we have just no sports going on. Let's see.
What do we got? What do we got in the news? Let us know what you want us to talk about. You do we you know we could make a list it's not my rushmore season yet but we could make a list for everyone we do that headline thing oh yeah we could do the headline headline we could do nfl nba no no i like the idea of making a list yeah let's make a list top we'll do it let us know what list you want us to make.
How about Hank's top 10 Patriots of all time?

Ooh.

No, let's get – yeah.

Tell us, the AWLs, let us know what list you want sports-related

and we'll come up with a list.

We're going to rank something.

Yeah, we'll rank something and get everyone upset about it.

PMT makes a list and gets the internet mad at them.

Yeah.

And Mount Rushmore season will start after the NBA Finals, which actually the are the Stanley Cup finals going to go later this year? No. I don't think so.
Because they go every two nights. No, because there's less time.
Yeah, they go every two nights because they're not pussies. Yeah.
That's a lot of travel for them. We deserve an eight-hour flight.
Are there any – there's not any nights where there's both. That would suck.
Actually, game seven of Stanley Cup will be Monday the 24th, which would be the day after game seven. Oh, wow.
They both go seven. Wow.
Damn. Kind of tough by them.
Hank, you got to get game one here. You just got to get game one here.
Let me get game one here. You got to get game one.
It was actually two days off. To arrive.
Three of the games. I know.
Like I'm saying, you physically can't handle just this wait. You got to get game one here.
Is there any way to speed up time? Can you figure out a way to get game one here? Sleep? Golf. No, come on.
If you just golf every second between here and game one, it will get here fast. If you black out, that's kind of like time travel.
I think Josh Allen just did like a charity

110 holes

in one day thing

last week. I don't know if you guys saw that.

Hank could never do charity.

He accidentally did that.

Get game one here.

I'll see what I can do.

Figure it out.

I will.

20. 56.
18. You're so pressed, Max.
I will. Okay, numbers.
20.

56.

18.

You're so pressed, Max.

So pressed.

That was... 17.

That was pressed.

All right, I'm going to do 8.

3.

99.

21.

Oh, damn.

59.

That make you a little nervous, Max? No, I knew it was 59.

That make you a little nervous?

I knew it was 59.

Have you ever gotten this?

Nope.

That make you a little nervous?

Nope.

Love you guys.

I'm talking away.

I don't know what I'm about to say.

I'm saving you away.

Today is another day to find you shying away.

I'm coming for your lover.

Can you take on me. Take me on.
I'll become the day of change. Needless to say.
I'm all set in. But I need less to say I ought to say it But I'm still a little way Slowly learning that life is okay Say after me It's not better to be safe than sorry Take on me Take me on

I'll be gone

And after a dream All the things that we say Is it a lot of Just to blame my worries away You're all the things I've got to remember You're shining. I'll be gone

In a game The End