Mike Breen, Mavs And Celtics In The Finals, Bears Hard Knocks + Hockey And Baseball Talk

Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
On today's Pardon My Take, we have a very special guest, Mike Breen, legend of the game. Awesome convo with him.
Trying to get him to do a triple bang at some point in the future. And speaking of Mike Breen, the NBA finals are set.
We're going to talk about our first impressions, Mavs versus Celtics. Also say goodbye to the Timberwolves.
And a hell of a run, but fall short. In five, we got some hockey talk.
I have some baseball topics for you, PFT. I'm going to throw them to you.
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Get a no sweat bet up to $1,500 if your first bet doesn't hit. Today is Friday, May 31st, and we have an NBA Finals.
The Dallas Mavericks versus the Boston Celtics. Hank is wearing his Boston Remembers shirt with Lucky stomping on Kyrie.
It's a JFK revenge series. It is.
And we're ready to go. The NBA Finals are set.
We had a moment. So we obviously had a week with Memorial Day.
We had a show on Tuesday. The Timberwolves won on Tuesday night.
And then tonight they got eliminated. Credit to the Timberwolves for not getting swept.
Anthony Edwards says he's never been swept in his career. He did also say I've only been in three playoff series or four playoff series, so he was kind of talking like a 20-year vet in the NBA.
Yeah. But never been swept.
Never been swept. That's important.
It's important to keep a clean sheet on the sweeps. Adam Silver, very happy that

we at least got one more game. A little closer.

It would have been weird if the series just

ended on Tuesday night. Then we had to wait

a very long time for the NBA Finals to start.

We still do. We still do.
Still do.

It could have been worse. They called him Scott Foster.

Everyone was like, oh, Scott

Foster, the extender. He tried

to give that game to the

Mavericks on Tuesday. Tried his very best.
Yes. His very damnedest.
But yeah, went five games. Timberwolves fans, Minnesota fans, I don't know if you're listening to this show.
My guess is you probably are. I think Timberwolves fans are probably, they're very happy with how this season went.
Obviously not happy with this series. I'd say they're not happy right now.
But getting to a Western Conference final, if you look at perspective in the Giannis terms, it was a good season for you. It was a good year.
They lost to a team that couldn't beat them. Yeah, that's true.
And also, if you're a Timberwolves fan, God bless you, because you have to root for Carl Anthony Townsend. He must be so infuriating to root for.
You've done some stat padding tonight. I'm just saying, he is probably the hardest player to fully delude yourself into getting behind in the NBA.
Rudy Gobert's pretty fire. But also, you have.
That's what I'm saying. They're on the same team.
I know. But I feel like you can be like, Rudy, we don't expect anything from him on offense.
Which was a weird strategy when they were like, let's run the offense through Rudy in the first quarter. I think he had like six or seven shots.
They'll never see it coming. Yeah.
But yeah, Carl Anthony Towns, and to his credit, he played really, really well in game four. He did.
He had a great game four. Bounce back game.
He could not be as bad as he's been in the past, and yeah, he had that blip. That was his legacy game.
Yep. It was game four, and then it's just so infuriating to see a guy who's that big be so passive.
And also cannot wipe a smile off his face yeah i i i was saying this i can't remember i didn't remember when i was saying this because it feels like all these weeks have just blend together uh but when they show like going into break and they do the bumps and it's like luca like staring at someone. Kyrie, like, crossover.

Ant yelling in the crowd.

And then they show Carl Anthony Towns.

It always looks like he's been practicing whatever he's doing

for 20 minutes in the mirror right before they came out.

Yeah.

This is my pumped up face.

This is my three-point Dougie.

Yeah, he's kind of smiling.

And you're like, God damn it.

Yeah, they were stat padding tonight.

Also, the Timberwolves.

You lost the game the minute you went with those jerseys. Terrible jerseys.
Terrible. You got the good classic one.
Well, it's two things. Max, I saw your face.
After I looked at him a little more, Max can't speak. So when I sat down next to him to watch the game, he's like, I was like, yeah, the jerseys.
Yeah, jerseys are terrible. That's exactly how it happened.
He couldn't get it out, but I know his brain so well that when we flipped on the game, he just started making grunts. I was like, Max, down boy.
I know the jerseys are different. It's okay.
They're not back against the wall jerseys. No.
Those are game two jerseys. Yeah.
Bring those out. Preferably game two on the road.
Wear those uniforms. Preferably a game two of the season in October.

That's an in-season tournament

jersey. That's what you should be wearing that

for. And then they made their half-court

logo bigger, which is stupid.

I like it when it's the only small logo

in the league. I like it.
It stands

out because it's so small and

they're falling into the trap that everybody else has

been doing. I think we've talked about it on the show.

The half-court logos are getting bigger so that the announcers can be like another logo three.

Another logo three.

Hank, you want to just be – I was saying before we should maybe get some headphones for you for the Luka glazing so you can put them on so you don't have to hear.

No, bring it.

It's going to be one of your last couple.

This game was over.

Get them in.

This game was over when Luka Doncic outscored the Timberwolves in the first quarter by himself. It's true.
He could not miss. He was hitting shots, and the net wasn't moving.
He hit Stathole. Our guy Stathole texted me.
He said that he hit 165 feet worth of shots in the first quarter. That's so many feet.
Yeah. So it ties Steph Curry for most feet on shots made in first quarter.
Wow. Playoff game.
That's huge. Hang the banner.
In history? Curry did it versus Boston in 2022. That's incredible.
Those are the two best. 165 feet of shots is a lot of shots, Hank.
A lot of feet. So many feet.
It's a cool stat. You know how many feet the court is? 99.
I think it's 94, right? Yeah. 94 feet.
I know ball. Yeah, that's like.
What was that guess? 99 pugs. That's a court and a half worth of feet.
It's pretty impressive. That's a pretty impressive stat.
Also, are you okay with the glazing? No. Again, you're not going to have many left.
I want you to get them in while you can. The Tuesday night's game, I know the Mavs lost,

and it was – I do put a little – what are you going to say?

I don't know how you're going to glaze Luka from Tuesday.

Yeah, I am.

Don't worry.

I'm going to land the plane.

And I made fun of the –

That's a pro glazer.

What?

I don't know. What? Go ahead.
No, go ahead. you're not getting upset though go ahead jay glazer yeah i'm a pro glazer okay uh i do give the timberwolves a little bit of credit for not giving up because they gave up tonight but they didn't get swept yeah and i made fun of the anthony edwards quote but i like i like i love anthony edwards and i i like how he's wired and i actually think in a weird way he probably at halftime was in game five being like, they still can't beat us down 30 or whatever.
The Luka lob to Derek Jones was one of the coolest lobs I've ever seen. He threw an alley-oop when Derek Jones was still past the three-point line.
And it was like the most –bs are just so precise they lost the game hank um but you did you do you know what lob i'm talking about lob and he had that kick out drive pass oh the kick out drive pass that's going to go down as one of the best assists that will never show up yeah because it was one of the best passes i've ever seen hit it off the back back rim. He threw a lob that Derek Jones was behind the three-point line when it released his hands.
Yeah, when Luka threw the ball, and it was just a perfect, perfect pass. Luka's really good, Max.
I mean, Hank, I just said Max. He's a good player.
They're a good team. He's a really good player.
He did have a heat check of a lob tonight, though. Yeah.
He was feeling himself in the lobs a little bit, and he threw one that went, I think it went over the backboard. Yeah, it's a great lob.
It's a great lob. It's a great lob.
Good job. All right, so that was my glazing of Luka.
He is really fucking good. Most feet in lob.
He had 20 feet worth of lobs. Hank's acting all cocky right now.
He was watching that game unease. Oh, he was unease.
I wanted a good game. I wanted to keep watching basketball.
I don't want to wait another game. He was like, this is pathetic what the T-Wolves are doing.
It was. You're afraid of Luka, though.
I'm not. I knew we were playing the Mavs.
There was no doubt in my mind we were playing the Mavs. Yeah, but you saw what Luka did in the first quarter.
Back to Fish and that was an embarrassing, disgusting performance in an elimination game from the Timberwolves. Yeah, no, especially the second half when they're stat-patting.
I agree. But it was also, the game was over because Luka.
That's just unbiased observer. But you agree that the game was over when Luka came out and said, I'm going to beat the Timberwolves by myself in the first quarter.
Yeah, I mean, the series was over when they went up 3-0. Right, but that was, when you go up 3-0 and then you lose game four and then you go back to the other guy's gym and it's like okay if the t-wolves come out hot here we could have a interesting scenario luca basically shut that all down by himself it was like there's no i'm giving you no hope i'm giving you no chance i'm gonna hit 165 feet of shots that's a lot of feet hank just say it's a lot of feet it's a lot of feet, Hank.
Just say it's a lot of feet. It's a lot of feet.
It's a lot of feet. Who the fuck tracks feet? Jerry.
It's a lot of feet. It's a lot of feet.
If there was, I will say that there... I love that Hank's getting triggered by a foot.
Yeah, you have the opposite of a foot fetish. You're disgusted by feet.
It's just you're mad about that. The Celtics almost did it last last year and obviously it's never happened in the nba but when it does happen in the nba it will happen almost like it did last year and i thought potentially maybe this year where it's going to be the home team if the timberwolves win tonight they somehow win game six they have home game seven hank's very that's that's the uh he's very so that's the path in in very selective in his opinions about feet

because he does not like the feet stat,

but all he thinks about is Kyrie Irving's feet on Lucky's face.

You can't count one foot and then not count the other.

Do you not like feet?

Is that why it didn't work out with Ted?

I've never been a foot guy.

I don't really understand the appeal.

But 165 feet.

That's a lot of feet.

That's a lot of feet.

Hank, you bring up a good point that the 3-0 coming back, uh it's very very hard to do never been done in the nba the only solace that i think minnesota fans should have tonight well one is that you have anthony edwards and i don't know what carl anthony towns like pft said is maddening to root for i don't i don't think there's a word to describe we need to figure out like we need to maybe invent a word like the Germans would do to describe Karl-Anthony Towns and how frustrating it is to watch him if you're a fan of his and to see how aloof he is in the biggest moments. Well, I also, Karl-Anthony Towns is a self-proclaimed best big man shooter of all time.
I feel like you have to have post moves, like really good post moves to be able to say that to claim that right you're just a tall shooter otherwise he's just kind of like a chubby kd right you're a tall shooter yeah that's it but you're not a big man no there's a difference between being tall and being a big man back someone down in the post um but the solace for the for the timberwolves fans because this was a very fun season and it got a little crazy with the Anthony Edwards hype, which was not Anthony Edwards' fault, not Timberwolves' fans' fault. Media, I took some blame for it as well.
I fell in love with watching Anthony Edwards play basketball. This actually, in a weird way, you didn't have a classic minnesota uh loss minis a classic minnesota loss would have been winning game five and then like losing game six in a buzzer beater or something so like not like yeah because it wouldn't be classic minnesota loss to get all the way to game seven you can't get all the way there but getting like a play away from being a game away i think if you get to game seven and you get blown out like you did tonight that's a minnesota loss yeah but this was not a minnesota loss because it was like you know you had the moment like oh we won one game who knows what's gonna happen and then it was just over it's just the better team won yeah it was just over well that's it anthony embers still doesn't know if they can beat him that's it didn't get swept't get swept.
Kyrie also is playing insane basketball right now. Kyrie's a great player.
Derek Lively is back, which is very important. I think he's their leader in plus minus.
He's very important to their team. Chris Stops.
Back. He posted today.
He said, see you in the finals. All right.
Love that. All right.
So let's talk about the finals. Let's talk about it.
Let's talk about the finals. Can I glaze Lucky real quick? Yeah.
Yes. Let me glaze Lucky.
Please. All right.
Kyrie Irving has lost his last 10 games against Lucky. And the Sage.
Remember he saged it. He saged it.
Yeah. But the Sage didn't take.
Sage didn't take. Do you think he'll re-sage? I think he should re-sage.
Oh, man. Do you think he's going to going to resage that? What will you do if he resages?

I mean, saging is whatever, spiritual.

I don't really have a problem with that.

But what would you do if he resages?

Because that might be the sage that takes.

No, I mean, that's... I think you believe in that shit.

That's all for you.

This could be a mistake.

The only way to defeat sage is with crystals.

Yep.

You need to jerk off crystals.

You got to get some crystals. We could resage right back.
Oh, yeah. Get some Sage for the gambling cave.
A few Sages I will respond to. Hank, are you going to be on the wood at any point in this series? I don't think so.
Well, A, I don't think Dave is inviting me, but even going to the games games the schedule does not line up great uh for

anything so you couldn't even sage if you wanted to we'll see I mean we'll see I gotta I gotta the schedule sucks for me going being able to go to a game which I'm sure everyone was wondering yeah I'm sure everyone was curious like how how that was gonna factor in and and that's the answer What about an away game?

It's not good for that either until like game six.

With Miss Comas. And game three, I guess Dave said it.
We're going to the Brady. We got invited by the Patriots to Brady's retirement ceremony.
It's fucking in the middle of game four. What? Or game three.

Why would they do that?

Wednesday, June 12th is game three, Friday the 14th. Yeah, it's Wednesday, June 12th.

Because they tried to do 6-12 for Brady, I guess,

and weren't thinking about the schedule.

Why wouldn't they just do it in the middle of the day?

That's what I thought it was until today.

It's at night?

Yeah, I was listening to Kirk and Dave on the Name Show,

and Kirk was like, it's at night.

It's supposed to end at 930.

Is it in? It's at Foxborough. So you're going to be with the lighthouse? Yeah.
Oh, that's nice. Yeah, that's nice.
Good consolation prize. Yeah, that's huge.
Is Tom Brady bad sports town? Don't just put it up on the Jumbotron. He should move it.
Yeah, I don't know what they're going to do. I'm curious what they're going to do.
I thought it was just like a day ceremony. Were you in a suite? I don't know.
If you're in a suite, then you're fine.

I don't know what Mr. Kraft's got in store for us.

You said a lot of bad things about the Dynasty Dive.

Yeah.

It would be a shame if Mr. Kraft got a hold of that before you were his personal guest.

What were you saying about him getting jerked off?

Nothing.

Oh.

Do you think Joe Mazzola's jiu-jitsu instructor is just- I said it. Not you.
Hank loves Mr. Oh.
Do you think Joe Mazzola's jiu-jitsu instructor is Giselle's? I said it. Not you.
Hank loves Mr. Kraft.
What? Do you think... Well, I'm not going to say it again.
I'm not going to say it again. You think Joe Mazzola and Giselle have the same jiu-jitsu person? Oh.
It's possible. It is possible.
What are you going... What is it? 6-12.
What is it? It is Tom Brady's retirement ceremony. And who invited you? Induction into the Hall of Fame.
Well, not me personally. He should have invited you personally.
Brady Four were invited. Yeah, you went to prison for him.
I did. Let's talk about the MMA finals.
Did they drop charges by the way uh in florida yeah no no for no that one hank when hank got arrested oh oh yeah drop those yeah six months no bad behavior nice nice uh hank how are you feeling i i'll say this right now i have to look into this series some more i have to crunch even the series hasn't started yet I'm going to look into some series but I'll give you my gut knee jerk prediction which I will not be held to because I'm going to give my final prediction when we have Varsillo on next week my gut knee jerk is Celtics in 7 I'm thinking Celtics in six. That's my gut knee-jerk.

I think it's going to be a role-player series.

I think it's going to come down to, you know,

our defense will obviously stop Kyrie and Luka as much as they can.

They're going to make them, you know, pass the ball.

Their guys have been hitting shots all playoffs,

but it's going to be the same for us.

It's going to be, you know.

I also think this weirdly works. But we have a better role.
We have better role players the way luca's been playing the way kairi's been playing i think this is weirdly like jason tatum and jalen brown like they are going to step up to the challenge because this is the ultimate challenge of these two guys and luca especially being anointed the number one guy they know kairi they have jalen brown has played Brown has played Kyrie. He knows his game.
He knows what he's got to do. They match up in practice for years.
Could you say the same, though? Uh-oh. He didn't think about that.
Yeah, because Jalen doesn't. Sometimes it takes a while for people to realize he can't dribble left.
Yeah, but Jalen neutralizing Kyrie is better for the Celtics than Kyrie neutralizing Jalen Brown. That's true.
The Celtics have – Oh, yeah. That's a fair point.
If they neutralize each other, then the Celtics come out on top. Yeah, I think the Celtics have a better depth.
And Drew Holiday is going to be important in this series. Drew Holiday and Porzingis, that's the biggest difference.
That's what makes me feel much better about this series, even though I felt pretty good against the Warriors. But Drew Holiday and Porzingis just make, you know, are going to be the reason we win the next.
What's your knee-jerk gut reaction? My gut reaction is Celtics in five. Love it.
Whoa. Love it.
I think so. I'm a bigger Celtics fan than Hank is, I guess.
Yeah, he said six. Because, like, I was thinking about our role players, and I actually think that they're – I would say that Jalen over-cancels out Kyrie.
Max just put up his hand. I disagree.
What do you disagree with, Max? What do you think? I think that this is going to be a very close series. It's going to come down to very tight games at the end, and one team has two guys that have proven to be excellent closers against very good teams in this playoffs, and the Celtics have looked a little iffy.
I mean, that doesn't sound like Max. We came back.
We were down in the fourth quarter in three games in the Eastern Conference Finals. Against shit Pacers.
They made it to the Eastern Conference Finals, Max. Yeah, playing against four teams who didn't have their best player.
You know what? Celtics in four. I mean, listen.
The Mavericks, like, you can't debate. You said they had better closers.
Did the Celtics close those games or not? Fact or fiction? One of the Pacers just gave them the game. They literally just gave them the game.
So, like, if a closer comes in and makes Yes. You can't watch those games.
And you watch the Mavericks and you see what Kyrie and Luka did and hit incredible shots against all odds to win those games. What about when the Celtics were down three and didn't have the ball with eight seconds left and won the fucking game? The Pacers just threw them the ball.
Got it. The Pacers just threw them the ball.
Nothing to do with Jalen Brown. Nothing to do with the Celtics.
The Pacers threw them the ball. You know what? The Pacers lost that game.
But if Jalen Brown misses the shot, he had to make the shot, right? Correct. Correct.
That's a good shot. I think the harder you work, the luckier you get.
How about that? And one team has lucky on their side. Yep.
And that's the fucking Boston Celtics. To me, this is lucky legacy.
It's a lucky legacy series. I said it Tuesday, though.
You can't ding the Celtics for who they play when they've lost two games. They're the best team in the NBA.
What about the regular season, Max? Does that matter, or did they just play tomato cans then, too? I mean, I've heard you say that you don't care about the regular season. But with that said, Hank, you have to say, like, when someone says who's been more tested in these playoffs, the Mavericks have been more tested.
For sure. So it's a fascinating series because it basically is like, if you take who the Celtics have played and you're like, will they be up for the Mavericks test, there's a chance like, oh, shit, they're nowhere near the Mavericks.
I don't think that's what's going to happen.

But it's like the stakes for your happiness are so wild right now.

Yeah.

Because you could either win a championship or you could get absolutely clowned on the

internet.

And that's why Max, something you'll never understand, like you just have to go all in.

I'm not going to be scared.

I'm not going to be worried about it.

I disagree with that.

Max goes all in all the time.

He goes in all the time.

I will disagree with that.

Thank you. have to go all in.
I'm not going to be scared. I'm not going to be worried about it.
I disagree with that. Max goes all in all the time.

He goes in all the time.

I will disagree with that.

He goes in all the time. He goes too all in.

Like, he needs to step back.

Like, bro.

Take a step back.

He looked ridiculous.

I'm looking at game six right now. Game six, NBA Finals,

if necessary,

Thursday, June 20th, in Dallas, Texas.

Thank you. Ridiculous.
I'm looking at game six right now. Game six, NBA finals, if necessary, Thursday, June 20th in Dallas, Texas.
Hank, what do you think? That could be a closeout game. Yeah.
Well, they're all show recording days. That's where it's like I don't want to ask for a vacation.
I appreciate that. No, I'm not talking about vacation.
I didn't say anything about vacation. Where's game seven? When's game seven? I don't have that in front of me right now but i do know that game six i think game seven game five is monday in boston sunday the 23rd tickets are fucking insane we'll be at the beer olympics you hell yes i'm so pumped you that one you could go to dallas and do the show oh you're oh that one you were gonna go to game seven well i mean beer olymp No, I'm talking about game six.
Yeah. Okay.

Down.

Under certain circumstances.

There's a certain person that's not going to like hearing this.

What? I don't have a lot of confidence in your trivia team.

Oh, my God.

Oh, that's.

That would be so fucked You guys are about to go on a magical run Yeah Game 7 So Vegas You won't go to Vegas for Beer Olympics? I'll come Monday You're backing out? We need you for the show You out. We need you for the show.
You just said I could go to Dallas, but I can't go to Boston? I think there's more content to be had in Dallas. That's true.
Also, you could go. That would be hilarious if you won the NBA Finals while we were in Vegas and you could just do a one-man party.
Go to Hawkinson. That would be a second.
They'd probably fly out. They'd probably fly out.
They'd probably fly out. Yeah.
Ooh, that would be like they'd probably fly out that actually yeah oh they definitely would they'd probably be there we're not getting ahead of ourselves we're not we're focused on game one we're focused on game one you think the Celtics are going to fly directly to vegas that night they might maybe they do like they usually go after the parade so you have to stay in vegas you can stay in vegas are we getting ahead of ourselves I don't think so. I think this is appropriate.
It's cocky Hank. I don't give a fuck.
Yeah, if the Celtics... What you just said, no.
The happiness thing is true. If the Celtics lose this championship, like, I...
It's going to be embarrassing. Just retire from the internet for the summer.
Probably until the next basketball season. Wait, so you'll just go silent when your team loses? Oh, gotcha!

They're talking about the podcast,

Max, which is my job. Not just silent, Max.

He's also talking about... He's going deaf, too.

Got it. He's not going to hear or

say it. And blind.
He can't type.

They're talking about actually speaking words.

You're talking about social media, which is not part

of my job. Yes, it is.

Not my personal.

Yes, it is.

100% it is. Is it?

100%. Teams is screaming back here.
They track

Thank you. Not part of my job.
Yes, it is. Not my personal.
Yes, it is. 100% is.
Is it? 100%. Teams is screaming back here.
They track that. Yeah, they track that.
When you ask us to retweet the dunkumentary. I didn't ask that.
Will, if you dunk. I'm just so excited.
Absolutely. Okay, so.
I'm excited to see Hank with so much on the line. That's going to be a real treat.
It really is because if the Celtics have been tested along the way in the Eastern Conference Finals, again, not their fault, and you get to the finals, like, oh, man, they lost. There are so many people who are entrenched with, like, the Celtics are not good and the Mavs are way better.
And, like, so if that ends up being the case, you just have to just sit and be like oh I'm embarrassed I'm pretty sure I mean you tell me you guys are unbiased more than me but it feels like the general public it's like 80 20 maps or just not Celtics yeah because the Mavericks I don't know no one wants the Celtics to win what do you think first line get whose line is it it anyway? Celtics minus three and a half is my guess. It'd be like five.
See, I think once we get to it, what is it? Six. See? Wow.
I think the Celtics, as weird as the Eastern Conference playoffs have looked because of all the injuries and all the teams going down, the Celtics are still a fucking awesome team. This is a very even series yeah that's why i have it celtics in seven with the mavericks it's like luka is so fucking good you can't deny how good he is he's just at the top of his game at the top of the league and he's also a dick so a lot of people they appreciate him for how good he is but they're also like i wish he didn't scream at everybody all the time although it was awesome when he screamed at that fan tonight saying yeah who's crying now motherfucker yeah it was great it was great but it's great but they're it's not like they're america's sweetheart no but if you polled the general public who do you think they would choose i don't i think pretty close yeah i don't think i don't think you're right on that oh yeah i mean I'm biased.
No, but I'm saying as a fan, like a rooting interest. Like just a line on the side.
I'm not talking about who they think is going to win, but who they want to win. I think it's probably close.
You were two and a half points off on that line. Yeah, I have too much respect.
I've been listening to fucking glazed donuts over here for a month straight. Glazing Luca should be allowed.
No, I know, but the glazing has infiltrated. It got in my hair, and it's got in my ear, and it's made me think that the Mavs maybe are better than they are.
You got Luka cum in your ear. Yeah.
Get you a towel. I also, it would be funny if the Celtics win this.
We said this a couple, maybe last week, but the Lakers would have lost to the maximum amount of teams yeah which would be very funny because they all Lakers fans were like the Nuggets were the only team that could beat us it was a bad matchup lost to the Nuggets Nuggets lost to the Wolves Wolves lost to the Mavs the Mavs lose to the Celtics it's just a domino they had so many teams better. I have a very serious question about this.
If the Celtics win.

Yeah.

Hank Vegas for sure.

If the Celtics win, does Blake Griffin get a ring?

No.

I would say no.

You don't think so?

I have a very serious answer.

Why?

Because everybody wanted him on the team this year.

Right.

I would love for him to get a ring, but I don't think Blake would take it.

I think they should give him one. I don't think that would be a pity ring.

Yeah, they should give him one.

Was he in preseason camp?

No.

He should go to a game.

Yeah.

You should get him to a game.

If you can get Blake to a game and he allows you to sit on his lap during the game, you

can go.

All the games.

Okay.

Okay.

But you have to wear a Blake Griffin jersey and you have to have a pacifier during the game, you can go. All the games.
Okay. Okay? But you have to wear, like, a Blake Griffin jersey, and you have to sit, like, have a pacifier and have the announcers think that you're his son.
You have to be, like, Deuce Griffin. Is that Jason Tatum's son's name? Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Deuce Griffin. Deuce Griffin, just walking around, just high-fiving players, maybe get, like, headbands signed.
Yeah. Get on the court before the game and shoot around, running around.
You got to put sneakers on your knees and walk around on your knees the whole time. And be sprinting but never dribbling the ball on the court.
Do it right now. Let me see you take off your shoes and put your knees into your shoes.
Do you have this angle? I think you could pull it off. This is the best NBA finals preview of all time.
Just saying that right now. We're going to have Ursula on next week.
Yeah. There he is.
There's Deuce Griffin. Deuce Griffin.
He's adorable. You get to go to every finals game, Deuce.
I just know that I like to ride with our guys on this show. Blake is rooting for the Celtics.
He is a Celtic right now in spirit. And we've got White.
We've got Pritchard. And I like Joe Mazzula a lot.
Joe Mazzula. I'm basing this all off, although Jason Kidd has been on the show.
That's very true, yeah. I'm basing this just all off of there's no heart or, anything it's just brain i think the celtics is a better team in a seven game series i just do same yeah all right well we'll find out i'm gonna crunch more data though so that's again and don't that's my knee jerk it could even go it goes celtics and six i go celtics and five i go mavs and seven i got to decide.
I'm six. I go Celtics in five.
I go Mavs in seven.

I got to decide.

I'm excited.

I'm excited.

I'm excited.

I'm not going to say I'm nervous.

One strategy I actually, the only betting strategy I think I have for this is I think I'm just going to bet whoever loses game one.

Because I do think it's going to go seven.

So no matter who loses game one, I'm just going to bet that they're going to trade games back and forth There are enough really good players on both sides You can't count either team out I'm just going on vibes right now I'm going with my heart, not my head And also Joe Mazzola said that the Celtics Are weaponizing time That's how they're spending this off week Football guy Weaponizing time They're on some DARPA shit right now Dragon is dragon ball z what is that i was trying to think of what it meant to what i think it just means like practicing we're able to do it to belichick weapon he did yeah he stole time from him stole time this is yeah what's that uh what's that confusing movie that christopher nolan made tenant interstellar tenant interstellar no tenant no it was no it's tenant the most no Before that, Tenet Interstellar Tenet Interstellar No Tenet Tenet No No

Tenet

No

Before that

Tenet

Nope

Tenet was the weird one

There was another one

Tenet

Not Interstellar

Memento

Nope

That is also time

Kind of

Well the guy had

Tenet

Interstellar

Inception

Inception

Oh

That's dreams

He's weaponizing dreams

But Memento as well

Missoula definitely weaponizes dreams

Tenet is weaponizing dreams.

But Memento as well.

Missoula definitely weaponizes dreams.

Tenet is weaponizing time.

I never saw it, so I can't speak to it. Again, this is great NBA preview.

Which Christopher Nolan movie is most like the Boston Celtics?

Okay, all right.

We'll change sports before we do that.

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Okay. Should we talk some other sports? Let's talk football.
Yeah. Hard Knocks.
Yeah. Chicago Bears.
Yeah. Windy City.
Yeah. Caleb Williams.
Yeah. Matt Dweber.
Wait. Yas.
Lakeshore Drive. I'm excited for that.
Yeah, the Lakeshore Drive in the opening montage is going to be great. The shot of Lake Michigan.
Yep. Sears Tower panouts.
First time it's ever had it in the Bears franchise. We all kind of assume this is going to be the case because Hard Knocks has these rules where if you are a playoff team you can't do it which is like all the interesting teams I think it was originally if you're a playoff team you can choose to not do it but then no team wants to do it if you have a new head coach you can't do it so I think that the decision was basically like the Giants, the Saints, and the Bears.

I have a theory.

Do you think that the Bears didn't fire Matt Eberflus because they wanted hard knocks?

No.

You don't think so?

No.

I do not.

I don't think any team wants hard knocks.

Maybe the Bears.

Listen.

Number one pick.

I'm excited to watch the hard knocks Bears.

Try and get that new stadium.

Yeah.

By the way, I think the lawmakers in Illinois have gone on vacation For the rest of the summer Shout out Hank So the stadium's like We'll figure it out later The stadium's never getting built I'm very excited for Hard Knocks For the Bears I think it's going to be awesome There's a small part of me that's worried That that hard knocks might taint all the success the bears have had these last few years yeah like this could go south yeah uh people are gonna get pumped for these bears though oh yeah it is i mean i'm already there's nothing hard knocks can do that i won't already be thinking in my head i i can't wait for the the fashion episode with caleb williams they're definitely going to go out to like some designer stores follow him around for a day him and roma dunze being best friends already have him try some stuff on for the cameras yeah a little catwalk yep that's gonna be good ryan pole's getting to work at like four in the morning which i respect hard-working guy genius um yeah i'm excited you should be i'm very excited should be but you should also be very wary of the fact that Hard Knocks makes us amped up for any team oh no PFT I'm so scared that I might be like way over no no Bears going into September and then they don't do well when has that ever happened not you not you everybody else having the expectation they already are they're already like over 8.5 seasons past. Damn.
With the Bears. You've been pumped up for the Bears.
But everybody else has been like, maybe we'll pump the brakes a little bit. This time, everyone's going to be like, Bears, Bears, Bears.
You do realize there's literally nothing that can happen in this course of hard knocks and then the season that hasn't already happened to me. Like, what's the worst thing that could happen? I become a laughingstock of the internet? Oh, welcome to every football season.
Yeah, I'm just saying. Hard Knocks.
Yeah, that's why it's like I'm at the point where it's like I have nothing to lose. The only thing I could lose is just going back to where I've been.
It does give your enemies more ammunition in terms of memes. They have all of it.
In terms of things up they have all the stats pft they have the stats i know 3 000 yard passer listen i'm with you i think the bears are going to be good i'm excited for hard knocks they're a fun team their offense seems like they're incredible their defense seems like they're on definitely the right track on their way to being a uh an elite defense So I'm high on the Bears, but I also don't want to see you get crushed. That's a lie.
I don't. That's a fucking lie.
I don't. Everyone in this room wants to see me get crushed.
Everyone who's watching this wants to see me get crushed. That's a lie.
I root way harder against everybody else's teams. You're the team that I root the most for out of all the teams that i want to see lose i think that's right i reciprocate that um the two i there's nothing i mean it's what's gonna happen people like oh i'm gonna get crushed i've been flattened so many times i'm in i'm those compressor videos yeah rock by the way they they are very squash a candle.
Yeah, we got to get on some oddly satisfying stuff on this show, on the socials. Yeah, I watched one where they- It's in my algorithm.
I'll start sending over. My algorithm's just tits and just tits.
I was thinking what else it is, but it's not even food. Food.
No, it's not even food. Any dogs? I think I've just basically curated just tits.

They shave soap bars.

You ever watch that one?

That one rocks.

But cleaning rugs.

Yeah, I like that. Cleaning rugs.

Biggest waste of water I've ever seen.

Have you watched the lawnmower guy who just shows up to random people's houses?

He is the best.

The guy unclogging drains. Oh, dude i have two drains in my uh back patio and i have i i won't clean up the back patio just because every time it rains it gets clogged and i can just scoop it and i'll put it like right next to the drain just so i can watch it yeah the leaves yeah the leaves and.
The leaves and all the gunk in there. Yeah.
Yeah, the lawn mowing videos are very satisfying. Are you talking about the dude that just shows up to people's houses that don't have lawn mowers and does it for them? That guy rocks.
Or it's like a person has passed away and let him. So they'll go to the neighbor and be like, hey, can I clean this up? Yeah.
This is a Hard Knocks preview. We're on some good tangents right now.
We're having a great show. There's definitely going to be a grass-cutting scene at the beginning of Hard Knocks.
The smell, the sprinkler. So many drawn shots of the lake and the river.
Yeah. Listen, I'm going to be excited to watch it.
And again, the team's going to go to the Sears Tower, 360 Tower. What's the bonding? Or whatever the fuck.
The Hancock. It's the Willis, but it's always the Sears Tower to me.
They're going to go out in that balcony overwards. The Bears, although they've...
No, I think they've been back at Bourbonnet. They don't do it at Halas anymore because of COVID.
They were doing it like everyone was doing it at their facilities. Oh, slow-mo hot dog shots? Yeah, I'm excited.
I'm very excited. There's really nothing that could hurt me more than i've already been hurt and i say that and obviously i'm gonna get like way more hurt but come on like save this you you guys know you guys know how this it is porn i i would gonna be awesome i would like i would like to experience at some point like being a commander's fan getting to watch the full documentary behind my own team.
Right. Maybe you'll get the in-season.

I might get the in-season, yeah, but nobody watches the in-season.

And they did the off-season with the Giants?

The Giants, yeah.

So we're going to see free agency and draft.

Why doesn't every team just do this now?

I think a lot of them do.

Also, we're going to get episode three where we stop watching.

I'll keep watching, but America will stop watching

because that's just what happens now with Hard Knocks. knock yeah after the preseason starts yeah um okay uh i have oh we should talk some hockey oh actually wait one more football topic memes he doesn't look old what are you what are you talking about i know what you're gonna say what no i was not gonna say that who are you talking about up you you know who i'm talking about who are you talking about aaron rogers oh is there a video out there's a video it was blister maintenance prevention what that's what pat mcgaphy said okay and how did he look uh running around he he looked fun oh i kind of was hobbling a little.
Yeah, he just got taped up. So you're not worried? Not worried.
Okay, great. I mean, he looked really good last offseason.
We saw what that got him. Yeah, that's true.
And he's also, he's young. Maybe the secret is to just not be able to run away from defensive linemen.
Just get hit. This is mean.
This is mean. Memes, this video, you watching, you got bothered.
I got a little bothered because people just kept tagging me. Yeah.
But it was the non-Achilles foot. I don't think the blister maintenance means nothing to me.
It's him running around looking like he's 50 years old. Like, he looks...
That little hobble? Is that a blister? All right, it's a blister. It's just a blister, guys.
It might be COVID toe. It might be COVID toe.
I don't know what that is, but... Yeah.
He was also... He was examining his feet a little bit.
We're talking about Aaron Rodgers. I don't know how it has him picked up, but yeah.
He looked hobbled Oh, is that who that is? Yeah, that is. I guess that is Aaron Rodgers.
I don't know. He's looking at his blister maintenance.
Okay, that's a horoscope chart. He's going to drop back.
He's fine. Pitch it, and then...
He's got a blister. Okay.
Oh. A little ginger.
A little ginger. A little ginger.
Okay. A little Andy Dolm.
Yeah. A little ginger.
We should talk hockey, though. Let's talk hockey.
Memes, this is the nice part of the show for you. The Panthers take a 3-2 lead, win at the Mecca.
You have to feel like it's over. Don't feel like it's over yet.
I feel like it going seven uh but well you literally just asked me before this show it's got to be over it's got to be yeah memes is in uh incredible crisis mode with the rangers being this close to a stanley cup final he i walked in uh like maybe at like seven i don't know 45 and the big tv was hockey and there was no basketball. And I was like, hey, can we put the basketball game on? He goes, oh, I totally forgot that there was a basketball game tonight.
He's so invested. I think he roots harder for the Rangers to lose than he does for the Islanders to win.
Correct. Which I respect.
That's a pure hater move. Absolutely.
Yeah. So, memes, it's over.
I don't think it's over. So what is your analysis for the Rangers' ability to come back here? I would like the Rangers to win game six.
What? And then lose in a historic fashion. This is bad memes.
Oh, that's a really stupid strategy. You got to make this a must-lose.
Playing with fire. It's a must-lose.
You and Max are just two sides of the same coin. You don't understand must-wins, must-loses.
Panthers must-win game six. There you go, Jake.
Jake gets it. And then the Oilers, that was an incredible comeback.
I know it was only a two-goal lead, but it was more how fast they went from down 2-0 to 2-2 and then how fast they went 2-2 to 4-2. And it was a gut-check moment for the Oilers because they lost game three at home.
Crowds amped up so loud. Game four, they come out flat.
It's like, uh-oh, this series is over. And Conor McDavid, turns out he's really goddamn good, even if he's not scoring goals.
Yeah, he is. Might be injured.
He's a good facilitator. You think he's got lower body? No, people are saying I was reading some of my own twitter replies saying that conor david might have something going on with his wrist and that's why he's not shooting as much and uh a little adam bank situation hold this stick and rotate upper body and he got he got screwed with that shot that should have gone in the the goalie stick was just sitting there yeah yeah he did he did uh i He did.
I'm rooting for Edmonton to get to the finals. I am too.
I would like to see Edmonton and Florida. Yeah, people will say we're anti-Dallas.
I was... I've been...
Hank? Am I anti-Dallas? God, no. Yeah, glazing.
I've been glazing Luka. Yeah, I want...
Glazed donut. I want every Dallas team to win except the Cowboys.

Yeah.

Okay.

We're going to have Whitney on, by the way, next week, and possibly Yance.

Neither of them know it, so if they hear this, just hit me up.

Do you want to do my baseball topics?

Yeah.

Yeah, let's do it.

Okay, I got four baseball topics.

I've got one, too.

It's probably one of the same ones.

Okay, well, you want to pick one through four?

Three.

Three.

Jinx.

Oh, okay, three's good.

Ben Verlander's the weirdest tweeter of all time.

What's that?

He jinxed me.

Oh.

I can't talk.

You're good.

Okay, thank you. Yeah, no, I agree.
I concur. Yeah, so he tweeted yesterday, it's so wild to me that when a pitcher throws up near Jose Altuve's head, fans loudly cheer.
I honestly think if he got hit in the head and died on the field, people would cheer. So here's the thing.
Short king to short king talking here uh it's hard not to throw near altuve's head yeah they're all up and in anything above the belt on a normal human is is towards his head they would hold on i honestly think if he got hit in the head and died on the field people would cheer i don't think that i don't so. I think it'd probably be pretty quiet.
Probably cancel baseball for a couple weeks. Maybe a week.
Yeah. At least a day.
Yeah. No, Ben's way off on this one.
Yeah. You know what? We might have to have him on.
You know what? Dude, he seems like a really nice guy, but he just... Remember he said that he was literally throwing up from Shohei Otani getting hurt?

Yeah.

I admire his passion.

I do too.

He's very passionate.

I like that.

But I just more want to be like, it's kind of like when we had John Rossi on.

Like, hey, explain some tweets.

It's not a mean thing.

There's going to be a lot of them.

Yeah.

I'm not coming at you.

I would like to know what's going on through your head when you're like, if Jose Altuve

died, people would cheer. I would not.
No. I would bang on a at you.
I just, I would like to know what's going on through your head when you're like, if Jose Altuve died, people would cheer.

I would not.

No.

I would bang on a trash can.

Yeah.

At his funeral.

Like bagpipes.

It's probably, Ben probably thinks that people would show up at his funeral, like the Westboro

Baptist Church with a bunch of trash cans.

It's also not hard to understand.

We were robbed of making fun of the Astros because of the COVID year, so people feel like we'll never get our full justice. Yeah.
Alright, that was topic one. Or that was topic three.
Hank? Two. Two.
The Mets, Jorge Lopez. Did you guys see this? I did not see this one.
He came off the field, had a terrible relief outing, and threw his glove into the crowd in disgust. And then afterwards, he was asked by reporters what's going on, and he said he's on the worst team in probably the whole fucking MLB.
Did you see his statement, though? What? He said because his efforts to address the media in English he felt it made him the worst teammate in the entire league. Oh, that's a good spin zone.
Well, what about the, was there a translation issue when he threw his glove into the crowd? No. Oh, okay.
And then he got cut. Yeah, he DFA'd him.
Yeah. But he's saying he was the worst teammate, not the worst team.
Got it. The difference.
Got it. I can buy that.
That's the show high. So did he get DFA'd because of the quote or because of his play? I think it was the throw.
It was both. Yeah.
He threw his glove. And a Yankees fan caught it, which is so perfect for the Mets.
Oh, that's tough. Yeah.
That's really tough. So he threw his glove.
They defend him from throwing

a glove? You can lose your job for that?

He threw it in anger at the

crowd. I'm assuming he's also bad.

Yeah, that too. And the Mets

are bad. Like, he's not totally

wrong. I mean, there's a couple teams worse.

But they're pretty bad.

White Sox, right? Yeah. Rockies

are pretty bad. Marlins

are pretty bad. Yeah.

Athletics, sneaky, not that bad.

Yeah, unfortunately, we're hovering around

I'm sorry. Sox, right? White Sox, yeah.
Rockies are pretty bad. Marlins are pretty bad.
Yeah. Athletics, sneaky, not that bad.
Yeah, unfortunately, we're hovering around. We're right below 500.
Yeah. Right below 500.
Okay, that was topic number two, Hank. One.
Okay, good, because four I didn't want to do until the end. Did you guys see we have a knuckleballer again?

Yeah. David Fletcher.

He was the Angels infielder. He's now on the Braves

AAA and he's basically become a knuckleballer.

And it's a very

cool story because we've been saying for a long time

we need one. Also

cool part about David Fletcher, he's under

investigation by the MLB for the

Shohei Otani gambling issue.

Yeah, that is very cool. The fact that he's a knuckleballer

is awesome too. We do need

in cool part about david fletcher he's under investigation by the mlb for the shohei otani uh gambling issue yeah that is very cool the fact that he's a knuckleballer is awesome too we do need a knuckleballer in major league baseball yeah it's so fun to watch if for nothing else than just to give everybody that's like 30 or above just the chance to think to themselves like if i really put my mind to it i could become a knuckleballer yeah i too could be a major league yeah pitcher and that's what he's doing yeah and he's also not under investigation he was dubbed shohei otani's best friend was gambling with the same bookie also another teammate of his was gambling on games of his allegedly with that bookie a little messy but the knuckleball is cool yeah the knuckleball is really cool i'm willing to overlook all that stuff yeah just like shohei i'm willing to overlook it uh because shohei is so much fun to watch right if it's a knuckleball pitcher absolutely yeah bring him in yeah and then i had my last one was um the negro league's uh records was that yours or no yeah that was mine okay I have, um, I've, I, so it's, it's cool because guys that were kept out of the sport by the MLB are being acknowledged. It, is it crazy to say though, part of me feels weird.
Not there's a lot, there were a lot of people online. This is bullshit.
We like our records. I don't give a fuck about that.
The weird part to me is MLB segregated the black players, told them they cannot play in the MLB. Yes.
Created, like, made them create their own leagues because, like, you cannot play. We're keeping you out.
And now 80 years later, they're basically inheriting their statistics and putting them on the MLB website and almost erasing it. the negro leagues being like oh yeah it's all part of mlb well yeah that feels weird to me they're trying to make people forget the fact that it was the mlb that kept black players out of professional baseball and made them start their own league for a long time and by inheriting those stats and bringing those in they're kind of saying these belong to us now right and that's not at all what happened like what happened if you were to ask players who played at the time you probably could i don't know what they'd say i don't want to speak for them but thinking if i put myself in their shoes i'd be like fuck you you wouldn't let me play baseball and now you're trying to act like that era never happened it is very cool that people are going to get to see the records and the individual stats are going to come more to light on a much bigger scale, which is good.
That's the good part of it. The bad part is MLB is essentially doing this to try to make themselves into a good guy based on the fact that they were a very bad guy back in the day.
Our friend Ryan Spader had a good, I don't know if it it's a thread or if it was just one tweet but he kind of laid out the case for it because mlb will start to now say like uh these are mlb stats right they're probably going to start to say nl slash al record instead of mlb record right for certain stats that were surpassed by players that played in negro leagues that came over yeah so all right so we had the same thought because it's one of those stories you're like all right well you know it's good that uh the negro leagues are getting the acclaim right now and i know that getting some of these guys in the hall of fame was very important but the mlb feels like they're just kind of patting the negro leagues on the head being like these are. And in 50 years from now, when you look up who was the leader and you see Josh Gibson, you don't realize – you don't get the full story that MLB kept Josh Gibson out of Major League Baseball.
Yeah. And then also ended the Negro Leagues by not – like a lot of times when there's a – you know, the ABA, NBA, they inherit some of the teams.
Some of the teams become part, you know, they bring them in as expansion. When the Negro Leagues, when they started integration, they brought in a couple players, but they didn't bring any of the teams in, and basically that decimated the Negro Leagues.
So it's like, MLB, you kept them out, then you ruined the Negro Leagues, now you want the records? I don't know. And I could be way off.
People would be like, this is the wrong take. That's fine.
That was my initial, this seems weird. I think it would be better to be solved like the way basketball does it.
Professional Baseball Hall of Fame. Or just Baseball Hall of Fame.
And have it not be, well, it might be, is that what it is in Coopersound? Or is it MLB? I think it might be Baseball Hall of Fame. I think it's the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Yeah, it's the Baseball Hall of Fame. I just know I went to MLB.com today and I looked up stats like career leaders and Josh Gibson is leading in, I think it was batting average.
And you'd have to click on his name to see that he didn't play in the MLB, again, because the MLB kept him out. So it is the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
So that's good. It tells the full story there.
But for Major League Baseball to say these are our records, when, no, in fact, you kept them out of Major League Baseball, it's a little dicey. And it's going to get, as years go by, it will get confusing that the story will get confusing to future generations.
And it won't get fully told that they kept all these incredible players, which the Negro Leagues, like by all accounts, and like we've heard the stories. Also, when guys went from Negro Leagues to Major League Baseball, they flourished.
So the Negro Leagues was playing at a very high level. So the argument that, oh, they didn't play enough games or, oh, that wasn't as good.
No, it was probably better than a lot of baseball players in MLB. That argument doesn't hold any water.
I think the Stars would have been the Stars no matter what league they were playing in. Some of these guys left, played in the Negro Leagues, then after their prime went to MLB andb and still dominated yeah they were also forced to do some barnstorming so they had to play there were some games that were against inferior opponents yeah time but you don't hold that against those players because they were forced to do that because mlb would not let them play right professional baseball so i just i don't know that was just i it felt and again i be way off, but it just feels like in 50 years, 100 years, the story will be so confusing that it won't be fully told that Major League Baseball did not let black people play in Major League Baseball for a large part of their history, which is very bad.
Yes. Also, I learned Ty Cobb was actually not a big racist.
there's like one author that fucking hated ty cobb yeah that just completely sullied his name and i don't know if ty cobb had like some bad streaks and i'm probably probably not an angel um but i don't think he was the bad guy that he's sometimes made out to be he was for i read a long story about it last night he was a surly guy he was you know quick tempered thin-skinned but by all accounts was not the racist that everyone was taught he was when we were taught about ty cobb whereas like he's the most racist guy in the world put the statue back up it yeah it it really did look like it was one author basically wrote a book and that was just his yeah there was one author that really really did not like ty cobb yeah and yeah so be

nice be nice to authors who might be writing your biography one day yeah josh gibson's arms were

fucking massive see pictures of those yeah yeah satchel page was a monster yeah satchel page is

a perfect example i think satchel page i think pitched in MLB at the end of his career when he was well past his prime and was good. Correct me on that, Jake, if you can.
No, I'm pretty sure he did. I'm pretty sure in the early 50s he pitched in Major League Baseball.
But, yeah, that was – it's kind of a – people were getting angry at each other online. 48 to 53.
On the internet? Yeah, on the internet. And then he came back to 65 for one year.
Yeah, look at him. He's 41 years old, and he went to Major League Baseball.
You're not telling me, Satchel Paige, if he was allowed to play in Major League Baseball his entire career would have been one of the best pitchers of all time? Didn he pitch like nine innings every single game yeah um so yeah yeah there people were upset about their old stats who the fuck cares i actually think you should just get rid of all old stats pre-integration because that what the major league stats are also tainted you kept out because you kept out some of the best players you deliberately kept them out you shouldn't be able to count those as those like the number one stats i think that people in general should just not fall in love with numbers yeah numbers aren't everything oh my stats all the stats are different now oh no when i look at these numbers there's a different name next to some of the numbers it's a very major league baseball story because major league baseball is like the number one we gotta protect the stats yeah they are Yeah, they are. It's weird.
Yeah. Imagine if the NFL acted that way.
Like all the passing stats are going to be broken 100 times over in the next 20 years. It's 20 games now.
20 games in a season. Yeah, right.
They're all going to be shattered. I mean, the only thing that really, whenever they change the amount of games in a year, it does make you go back and be like, OJ was built different.
It was built different. Every time they had another game.
2,000 yards. Every time there's another game, OJ Simpson becomes .0001% more likable.
Well, he's very likable dead. That's true.
Yeah. Okay, anything else before we do our great Mike Breen interview? We had the spelling bee.

Oh, yeah.

When did that happen?

Today.

The finals were tonight.

Hank.

Who won?

A guy named Bruhat Soma.

He spelled 29 words and a spell off in 90 seconds.

It was a spell off.

It was a spell off?

It was a spell off.

Hank, I got a question for you.

His winning word was abseil, meaning a descent in mountaineering by means of a rope looped over a projection above.

I love you. His winning word was abseil, meaning a descent in mountaineering by means of a rope looped over a projection above.
Can you use in a sentence? The mountaineer had a real great abseil. It fucking rocked.
To the language of origin? English. It's an English word.
Is that really good? Yes, Jake. It's an English word.
Abseil. Abseil.
I'll use it in a sentence for you. No, actually I won't.
No, you should do it. You should use it in a sentence.
Hank, do you agree that Big Cat should use it in a sentence? Yes. I don't really have a sentence for it.
I was trying to figure out a way to do it. Hank promises that he will have a six-pack, but I'm abseiling on that one.
It works. It didn't work.
If Hank is not able to dunk, he will abseil himself from the rim of the basketball court in Barstool headquarters. Yeah.
Hank can suck a mean abseil. Abseilil abseil a descent in mountaineering i'll give it a try after a yeah b mm-hmm are you saying the alphabet s okay ail ding no they do the ding when it's wrong okay oh that was so confusing trick's what they do.
Yeah, we don't know that. You know the bell.
I don't. I have not watched The Spelling Bee in a very long time.
I do know the bell, but in the moment when you ding, I think correct. Yeah, ding is correct.
No, the guy goes, that is correct. Hank Scott doesn't brain, though.
He's so committed to trivia. All right, abseil.
I'm going to give it a shot. Abseil.
What did you say? A-B-S-A-I-L.

He said A-B-S-A-I-L.

I'm a phonetic guy.

Abseil.

There was a phonetic spelling, but I would dominate.

Abseil.

Is that just spelling words wrong?

Spelling them phonetically.

Abseil.

What was the language of origin?

English.

It's an English word.

Abseil.

A-B-D-S-A-I-L. He said A-I-L.
Very close, Hank. S-E-I-L? Yeah, he said S-A-I-L.
That doesn't sound like an English word. I was going to say it.
I think PFT banged me. I have no idea what fucking country.
Well, that's a huge part of the spelling. It's an English word.
I don't know where it came from. I don't know the word's parents.
You can tell by the letters. It's not England.
Hank, spell the word I-cup. Ooh.
I-K. No, you know it.
He knows it. All right, that was spelling.
Okay, let's get to our Mike Breen interview. PFT, you have a quick ad before we get to Mike Breen.
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And now, here's Mike Breen. Okay, we now welcome on a very, very special guest.
It is the voice of the NBA, Mike Breen. You're going to hear him for the NBA Finals, which is starting shortly, but not shortly enough.
Mike, thank you so much for joining us. Actually, this is a very dumb question to start.

We always like to do our dumb questions right off the jump,

but we talk about rest versus rust with the NBA Finals

and the Celtics having all this time off.

Is there rest versus rust for announcers?

Is there a certain point where you're like, I'm kind of losing it?

I need to get back in the booth? Well, am I allowed to give a dumb answer to the dumb question? Of course. Of course.
No, it's actually a good question. You know what? There's been a bug floating around the crew, so I've been battling a chess code last couple of days, so rest is ideal right now.
Although we still prefer – I mean, I want every series to go seven games but since this was was a sweep i'll take advantage of the rest yeah classic tibbs announcer getting getting drained by the end of the year right yeah ran you too hard yeah uh no we we love you you're obviously like uh something that i think american sports fans can all point at and say we like mike breen um which which is rare, because you have to find something to hate about everybody. Do you have any haters? Oh, of course.
I'm sure there must be many of them out there. I mean, it's impossible.
And this happens every playoffs, guys, where, you know, say I'm doing a Lakers-Celtics finals. You go into Boston, and the Celtics fans are yelling at you, man, it's clear you want the Lakers to win.
So you do a couple of games there. Then you go to LA and it's just the opposite.
The Lakers fans are saying, oh man, can you try and hide how badly you want the Celtics to win? It's just, it happens every year. It happens in every sport.
You can ask anybody who does the other, ask Joe Buck. He dealt with that in the world.
The guys who do the Super Bowls, it's the same thing every year. Yeah, we've actually talked to Joe Buck about that.
And we said, I think every team has a part of their fan base that just hates you and thinks that you're biased against their team. And he told us which team he really hated and had a bias against.
So which team do you really hate? I really don't. I'll tell you what, you know, what's an interesting thing that I wish fans would understand sometimes.
Most of them do, but when you're doing an NBA game and what, one of the complaints, the fans will say, well, you're getting so much more excited for them than you are for our team. But often it has to do with where you're playing.
For example, at indiana you know the pacers hit a shot the place is going crazy you've got to raise your your intensity to overcome the crowd you don't have to do it as much when it's when it's the road team because obviously the crowd isn't going as crazy so that does come into play sometimes um because there's been some some games where all right say i'm doing the warriors calves and the warriors are uh are getting beaten the calves hit a big shot and it's in san francisco and you're yelling the top of your lungs what you should do on a big play at a big playoff game but the people who are sitting around you are so quiet because the opponents have scored, and they're looking at you like, can you please shut up? Can you feel like that? So that does come into play in terms of sometimes that you have to go a little higher on the home team. Yeah.
I just want to give ourselves some credit. This is a big J journalist move by us.
I know that you went to Fordham, and you've been in the industry for a very long time. Credit to us for lasting all of three questions before we started talking about the bang.
Had to. I've been like holding it back.
I'm the meme. Holding it in your bang? Yeah, I've been holding my bang.
When did the bangs begin? I have many questions. Let's start there.
The bang. The origin of the bang and when did you know like hey this is my thing like i'm i'm marv albert yes like this is going to be my thing you know what i started it when i was a student at fordham but i didn't do it on the air when i was sitting in the stands i went to every fordham basketball game drove everywhere to root for my my college team and there was about 10 or 11 of us, including Michael Kay, who of course is the Yankee voice for so many years.
And when we weren't broadcasting the game on the student radio station, we'd sit in the stands and would cheer like crazy. And when a Fordham player hit a big shot, I would yell it as a fan.
And I tried it on the air as a student broadcaster, but I didn't think it worked. So I kind of shelved it.
But then I started doing it again. One of my first jobs, I was doing this high school game of the week package.
And we do these Friday night games, Friday night high school games in packed gyms. I mean packed.
And they were small ones, but so loud. And it was hard to overcome the crowd.
So I was searching for a concise call for a big moment and a one syllable word seemed to work. So I started using it there and I kind of liked the way it worked.
I've always tried to be less as more as a broadcaster. So that's when it started on the air.
Okay. So that's a great story that it was as natural as natural could be that you were were doing it while sitting in the stands.
What then, the double bang. Do you know when a double bang is coming? You've done eight total.
I'm sure someone's told you this, but do you, what's the benchmark that has to clear for a double bang? Because when it happens now, it's actually like a seismic event online. Like Mike Breen just did a double bang.
I'm concerned that you know how many there are. Yeah, well, we're big fans.
They're tracked. Yeah, and when we get a double bang, it's a big, big moment.
A great double bang this playoffs. Yeah.
Fantastic double bang. Yeah.
You know, it's completely spontaneous. I'm 63 now, and I love basketball as much as I did when i was six and first started playing so when i watch something and somebody does something uh spectacular and especially if it's a surprise especially if it's you know in a huge situation um i just kind of lose it and i i've never planned it.
It just comes out.

The excitement's so good. Like, for example, Dante DiVincenzo hit one earlier in the playoffs for the Knicks.

And the way that game had turned on a dime, it just came out.

And I'd like to think that I maintain my fan love of the game

and get excited when something unexpected like that happens.

Yeah. Do you ever think to yourself, I'm about to say bang, so MFing loud? I've seen the meme.
Fortunately, I've been able to avoid using that word on the air. You should do a bet where if you lose, you actually have to get that literally tattooed on your forehead.
So you become the meme in real human form that would work well at my age yeah no we we appreciate like the enthusiasm yep yeah well i was just saying do you know can you recall your double bangs in history do you do you have them like off the top of your head um well steph curry was the first one yep sure uh also also when you do so steph curry's the first one. You double banged.
You go back to the booth afterwards or the truck, and everyone's like, Mike, what the hell was that? I said it twice. Like, you've never double banged.
No, the first one even shocked me. The whole thing was even – it was the buildup to that shot.
The whole game, the whole season, that was a buildup. Let's see, there was, Julius Randle had one last year in a game on the MSG Network for when they beat Miami down in Miami.
Eric Gordon had one. It was a huge game between Houston and Golden State, or maybe Houston and Lakers.
I don't remember now. And then there were two this playoff.
Steven Chenzo, and who's this? I've already forgotten who the other one was. I can't remember who the other one was either.
I'm trying to think. Steven Chenzo, that was a big one because it was New York.
You were there. It was an awesome comeback.
It might have been Jalen Brown in the corner. Was that a double bang? Yes.
Okay. Yeah.
This, this is, now this is disturbing that I can't remember the one that happened last week. The double bangs are great.
They are. It does feel, and it captures the moment because I like the fact that there's only been eight of them makes it extra special where it's like, it's coming out for a really unbelievable moment well i think if i somebody told me that uh there were people that are upset that they didn't feel that jalen brown deserved the double bang so now they're rating the quality of the double bank i thought it did i mean he basically saved a playoff game and an important playoff game because it was the first of the series.
Yeah. But again, it just comes out.
They're saying that because the other double bang happened so recently. So it's like, oh, is he just becoming a double bang guy? Have you thought about ever doing a triple bang? You wouldn't do a triple bang, would you? No, I don't think you got the chops for a triple bang.
That would be crazy, Mike. No, I don't think so.
I've tried. You know, the other thing, too, is, you know, people think I say it all the time.
I would say more than 50% of the games, I never even use one. I've tried because I think if you do it too much, it just wears out its welcome.
So I've tried to be selective, selective not just a double bang but even just a regular bang for an important one in the game there's been some games where it seems like you know there's going to have this phenomenal ending somebody's going to hit a three at the buzzer and that's when sometimes I'll say let's save it for maybe the big play at the end and the big play never happens the guy gets fouled and the winning points are from the free throw line. Yeah.
So I don't normally go bang on a free throw made. But sometimes I – you know, even games, I don't even do any of them.
Yeah. What about if you go that stretch where, like, there's, you know, blowouts or whatever and you haven't used a bang in a while, do you ever get nervous like do i remember how to bang no you know talking about the free throw um you know my kids show me a lot of stuff on social media and somebody actually made a video of me scream i mean the ultimate screaming bang on just basic free throws made in the first quarter i love it it.
It's awesome. Yeah.
It's great. It's iconic.
It is. Like I said, Marv Albert.
Yes. Like, you know, when the bang happens, like that's Mike Breen.
It's a big moment. It just works so perfectly for basketball.
Well, I mean, obviously Marv was the biggest influence for me and people, at least for me, this is what Marv had different levels of yes. You know, there'd be a first quarter guy make a nice move, hit a shot.
Yes. And then in the second quarter, there might be like a big 15-0 run.
A guy hit a three-pointer at the end of 15-0 run. Yes, a little more.
And then, of course, he had the great ones at the end. You know, a game-winning call or a momentum-changing call and that was the beauty of marv it's like you could tell by the tone of the yes whether it was all right that's a pretty big shot or that was the shot of the game yeah yeah yeah we i have one more bang related question then we can get back into uh the real interview um do you have a favorite bang what's your favorite bang you've ever done? The Curry double bang is very special because of that year, the way it happened.
And the Ray Allen one, because the Ray Allen bang was that shot decided who was going to win a title. He doesn't hit that and the Spurs win the title.
But because he hits that, they win the game.

They win game seven.

So that one was pretty big.

There was one with Derrick Rose that I've always loved.

I was a big fan, still am, of Derrick Rose.

Just not only a wonderful player, but a terrific guy.

And he hit one in Chicago against LeBron James and the Cavs to win a game at the buzzer, a playoff game. I was there.
Yeah. That was pretty exciting.
Yeah. This might be another dumb question, but if you go back and you listen to those calls, we love those calls.
I get excited just thinking about that Ray Allen shot and your voice providing the soundtrack to what I remember as like a pivotal moment in NBA basketball. When you go back and you watch those clips and you hear yourself, do you enjoy your own voice? Do you enjoy your own bangs? Or are you like, oh, my voice is gross.
Get it off. No, you're kind of like, who is this screaming fool? Just chill out there, pal.
But what I do when I do watch them or somebody send something to me, it just brings me memories of the particular game and how exciting the games were and, you know, how a great player can step up. I'm still – I'm blown away by the talent of these guys and what they're able to do.
You know, and for Ray Allen, like especially Ray Allen won, here's a guy, you know, I watched him play for however many years. I think he played like 17 years.
And any game I ever broadcast that he played in, whether it was Milwaukee, Boston, Miami, and I must have done a hundred Ray Allen games, maybe more. He was at the arena when I arrived on the court already shooting.
And that shot he hit in game six, I saw him take hundreds of those in pre- warmups. So that was no fluke.
That was something that it was just in his arsenal and the practice year after year of doing it. And then the biggest moment of his career was able to knock a foul.
Yeah, yeah. So, Mike, your career is fascinating because I think, you know, a lot of the guys that we hear are calling national games.
That's kind of what they always have done. But you started in radio and, you know, you worked for Don Imus and you did.
There was I read a story that you basically were working, you know, 5 a.m. in the morning and then calling Knicks games at night, which it's incredible.
And it's also a testament to your hard work and getting to the place you are. But how much did radio help you in doing the live broadcasts of games? And I would assume you have a great sense of humor.
And I think when you're in, do you call back on that when it's a blowout or it's like I've got to fill some time? Well, the radio part was instrumental. It's much harder to do a radio broadcast than a TV broadcast because you have to describe everything.
You've got to be the, you know, it's not a cliche. You have to be the eyes of the listener.
And if you can do that, when you start to do TV, you know, you have to pull back a little bit. And, you know, there are other obstacles that are difficult.
The way you work and your partner's a little more difficult difficult you obviously have a producer and director that talk to you in the ear while you're doing the game but radio is it's the ultimate foundation to start and and that's what I did I mean my first broadcasts were all radio with the Fordham radio station and then my first job I was a news reporter on the radio for a Poughkeepsie radio station in New York. So it created a foundation that allowed me to be on the air quite a bit and get better.
Because if after you do it for a while, if you don't get better, then you need to do something else. But it gave me the chance to improve and work on my on-air presentation, so to speak.
Yeah. Mike Breen is being brought to you by Meta and Facebook.
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And now here's more Mike Breen. So unfortunately, we learned of the news of Bill Walton's tragically passing away yesterday.
And we talked about him on Tuesday's show and how much of an icon he was and what a great human he was and what an interesting individual he was. And I know that you have a personal relationship with him.
And at one point, you told a reporter that you would fight anybody to the death if you heard them speak ill of Bill Walton. And I want to hear your story about Bill and why he meant so much to you.
Yeah, that was an article Katie Baker, the wonderful writer for The Ringer, wrote it. I'll try not to make it too long.
I apologize, guys. No, go as long.
We loved Bill. We talked about it on our show.
We had the joy of getting to interview him once, and it's like when I retire someday, that will be up there with like, I got to spend three hours with Bill Walton. Like that was incredible.
That's, that's up there for me as well. The story was this about 15 years ago, my dad had Parkinson's disease and it was advancing to the point where we were worried.
He's not going to get out of the house. He wasn't going to be able to get out of the house.
Now we lived in New York and my, my younger brother, Pete, called me up and said, hey, before he can't travel anymore, let's take him to see the USS Midway. The Midway is the aircraft carrier.
It's in San Diego right now as a museum, and my dad served on the Midway in the Korean War. I had not been on the ship since he left the service.
So we made plans to go and take him out to see the Midway one last time. And I called Bill because Bill lives in San Diego.
I said, I need a hotel recommendation. Well, of course, Bill's like, you're not staying in a hotel.
You're staying in my home. So we planned this three-day trip out there.
And for three days, when we get out there, Bill was by my father's side for three straight days. First thing he did is he put him in the bedroom, the Bob Dylan room.
All Bill's rooms in his home were named after people, mostly musicians. And the Bob Dylan room was a place of honor.
So he put my dad in the Bob Dylan room. And every meal, John, you sit here next to me, breakfast, lunch, dinner, we'd go for drives to places.
John, you sit in the front seat with me. They were inseparable for three days.
Bill would not leave his side. And then the day we went to see the Midway, where I was thinking we're just going to go buy tickets like anybody can get a tour.
Well, the day before he had called over to the Midway and told them that one of your heroes is returning to the ship that he served on. So when we get there, we are greeted by the commander of the Midway.
And he takes us on this two hour tour in and out and guys, an aircraft carrier is no place for a seven foot man who has back, knee and ankle problems. It was a painful walk for Bill, but he every step of the way never left my father's side.
It was really emotional for him, for my dad going back and the condition he was in. And he broke down a couple of times.
And every time he broke down, my brother and I did the same thing. And I'd look at Bill and there's Bill.
He's got tears just streaming down his cheeks. So then we get back to the house after this just amazing day that meant so much to my father and that Bill came with him.
I couldn't find the two of them. Like, where'd they go? Bill had a teepee in his yard.
I mean, an enormous teepee that you could sleep a number of people. And I go back looking.
There's the two of them sitting in the teepee, just talking about life and Bill listening to my father's stories and back and forth. So when we left, it wasn't Bill wasn't my friend.
Bill was my father's friend. And he didn't live much longer after that.
And my mother, who's still alive, she said until he passed, he talked about that all the time. It was in a tough stretch.
The end of his life was very difficult. Those were the three best days in the last years of his life.
And there's a huge picture still in this day. My mother still lives in the same house.
There's a huge picture of the two of them sitting in the teepee together that she just, she adores the picture. And when I was given the Gowdy Award at the Basketball Hall of Fame, I took my whole family up there, including my mother.
And there are so many NBA legends there. She had no interest, and she's a basketball fan.
She had no interest in meeting any of them. She just kept saying to me, where's Bill? I need to meet Bill Walton.
And when she met him, and I get emotional even thinking about it, she just wanted to say, thank you for what you did for my husband. What he did those three days were three of the happiest days of my father's life.
That's such a good story. Yeah, I mean, and that is so Bill Walton.
Like I said, even the three hours we spent with him, he makes you feel like the most important person in the world. And it seems like he did that for everyone.
Right, do you think you're the only one that he's sending these wonderful texts to, or he's doing those, he does it for everyone. And it's, you know, how many people in our lives, when they say your name or say their name to you, the first reaction you have is you smile or you laugh.
And anytime anybody would say, Hey, tell me about Bill Watt, I'd either either laugh or smile and then i'd go into the story and that's the gift he gave all of us and that no matter if he was with you or even when he wasn't with you when he came up you had to smile that's awesome yeah he really was the best so so in your career um you know doing the the Knicks, now doing national broadcasts,

is there a moment that you look back at and you're like,

that was when it not became easy, but like, oh, I'm really good at this

and I can feel comfortable being in the booth?

Because I'm sure most broadcasters, I deal with it myself,

like a little bit of imposter syndrome, like, am I going to be good at this? Was there a moment where it clicked and you're like, I'm, I'm really good at this. I'm Mike Breen bang.
Um, that's interesting. You say that cause that never fully goes away.
Yeah. Um, you always think, okay, I better be prepared.
I'm going to do my best because you know, they still think I'm good enough to do this. So there are other people who are better.
And that's something that drives you. But it's just a matter of – I mean, I still get nervous before NBA Finals games or a big playoff game seven or something.
But it's good butterflies. It's adrenaline butterflies.
And if I didn't have them, I think I'd be more worried than I have them. And I think it's good.
I think it's a good motivator. But it's like everything you do.
Like I remember the first NBA game I ever did. I was so nervous.
My voice must have been so high. And then the first close game you did that it's like this great fight to the finish.
I was hyperventilating as, as the game is going on, trying to keep up with it. Then it's the first close playoff game you do.
So each step that you take in terms of the magnitude of the game, you need to do it, at least for me, you need to do it a few times before you really feel comfortable. But what's always helped me, whether it's a huge game, whether it's just a regular season game that doesn't have a lot of meaning.
If you go in prepared, if you're fully prepared, then you can relax knowing that whatever happens, at least you'll know how to deal with it. And that's what's always kept my confidence is that my preparation allows me to feel confident when I go on the air.
Yeah. So what does preparing look like for you? I think some people out there think that announcers are just,

they're handed a big sheet of paper with all the stats that they have to read

off and that's it.

Then they just go and they commentate on what they see.

But when you're preparing for a game, how much time does it take?

And what do you do specifically to prepare?

No, that's basically it.

I get handed the sheet.

No, it's, I tend to, and I'm sure every announcer will tell you this, you tend to over-prepare. I think of all the stuff that you do, if maybe you get 15% of that preparation on the year, that's a lot.
And the way I like to phrase it on a basketball game is, okay, so each player, like in an NBA game now, there are 13 active players on each team for that game. What I want to do is I want to have, if any of those 13 players, either the best player or the 13th, has the game of their life, I want to be able to have enough information on them to tell their story in terms of where they are in their career, what they've done, where they've come from.
And that's part of the preparation for me for an NBA game. Yeah.
Now, I would assume the answer is no, but are you ever preparing time filler blowout talking points? Do you ever go to a game, you don't want it to be a blowout, but in the back of your head, you're like, if it is, we could talk about this or that, or is it all just kind of stream of consciousness, whatever's happening? No, that's pretty much every that's part of the preparation. Oh, and like to have like for me with players, I like to have personal anecdotes about players.
So when when a game gets out of hand, at least you can do is you can kind of talk about their, you know, their upbringing, where they came from or their, their history in terms of clutch games or whatever kind of information you want. And the other thing I try and do is league issues.
You know, have there been a lot of traveling calls lately? What's the reason for that? And even different things like other, other NBA things that are going on, like they've been in a rash of technicals or whatever but I try and have some league issue stuff on the side and personal anecdotes on the side in case it gets like that yeah has your job become more difficult with replay not because obviously replay helps get the calls right but the pauses in the game and you guys having to sit there while, you know, they, they look over video for three, four minutes in the middle of an intense playoff environment. Has that made it more difficult to broadcast? I don't know if it's made it more difficult.
I think it hurts the product a little bit. It's become a necessary evil and they're certainly not going back to no replay, but there are certain times that the flow of the game is affected and that's when the game's at its best the end of a game where they're just going back and forth and back and forth and when it stops with the replays now the league did address that a couple of years ago and they did change some of the replays especially the out of bounds if you remember they used to have last two minutes every out of bounds call they could review and they did they fortunately um they got rid of that so they're trying to do a better job and i think it's worked but those games especially a playoff game where it's like a three four minute review those are maddening to me it's like okay if it's going to take this long just go with the initial uh call and move on and everybody will accept that and i think players and coaches would accept that as well yeah yeah I agree it does it gets stretched out sometimes and you're just like okay we see what the call should be why is it taking him so long to to make that announcement I'm curious to know because you've seen so much of the NBA you've watched all the best players up close who's the guy that you got maybe it's a current player maybe it's a former player that you would get the most to do his game, to be able to sit front row and watch this guy play? You know, it changes every year.
Like this year, Wembenyama, I couldn't wait to do one of his games because I've never seen anything like it. You know, same thing in the last couple of years, like when Doncic first came in, like, oh, I got a Dallas game.
Good. I can see this amazing player.

Obviously, Kobe was every game there was something electric about him. He just had something.
And Michael as well. I think the current guys now, the two guys that you can't wait to see, and even at their age that they're playing, LeBron James and Steph Curry, the two of them, there's never an off night in terms of their focus and their effort in what they bring.
And they know their responsibility, too, of the people who are paying a lot of money to come see them play in particular. So there's a lot of them.
Tim Duncan was another one that even though he he wasn't flashy, just how in such a businesslike fashion he would just obliterate his opponent and never change his expression. So there's so many of them like that.
That's why – I mean, I know this sounds corny, guys, but it's such an honor to call these games a privilege. These guys work so hard to play and get to the level that you want to get it right.
I feel you have a responsibility to get their moment right by a call that's worthy of the play. Yeah.
So that makes me think, have you ever gotten it wrong? Have you ever disappointed yourself and then gone back home been like, damn it, Mike Breen, what did oh all the time I mean I make mistakes every night I've been doing that I've been making mistakes every night for 30 years plus um but it's the end of game ones there was a game was it last year game one of the playoffs where Jason Tatum hit a big shot at the end and I can I mean I butchered the call so badly because I didn't see it correctly and I didn't sync it with the clock. And it just, it was an absolute mess.
I didn't sleep that night. And part of it is you ruin the call for the player.
So here's this big moment, you ruin the call. The other thing is, you know, basketball is a team sport to play.
It's a team sport to broadcast. And I felt like I let the rest of the crew down because we had up until then, it was an amazing game.
And we had all the right replays and graphics and sound bites. And Jeff and Mark, who are my partners, were outstanding down the stretch of this close game with strategy.
I thought I was having one of my best games and then the last play i just killed it and it was it was awful awful here's a business idea for you why don't you just have a service where you'll redo any of the mistakes for a little fee maybe then whoops mike breen's losing it a little he's messing up a couple calls oh jason tatum you want this call redone no problem i No problem. I got you.
It's like cameo. Yeah.
Just for the players' calls that you screwed up. Yeah.
Guys are always coming up with business ideas like this. I need that kind of thought process for sure.
We get a cut of that. That should have been – you should have read the fine print before you got into this interview.
Any business idea we come up with, we get at least 15%. Yeah, if you triple bang.
I'm'm gonna send my lawyers after triple bang is for sure we're getting we're wetting the beak on that one it's become like the razor wars where it's like the first company said we've got two razors yeah the other company said how about three razors i think about four i think you're gonna triple bang at some point yeah you will i think you just you you want to say you're not going to but i think there's going to be a moment that you're just not going to be able to stop yourself. Well, again, and I'm not just saying it.
It comes out. If there's an NBA Finals Game 7 that's decided by a three-pointer, I might lose it completely on some point.
Yeah, it might be like 10 bangs. That might be the only word that you say for the rest of your life.
A triple bang might sound better than a double bang. I haven't tried it yet.
Yeah, a bang, bang, bang. How'd that sound? That sounds good.
It's all right to me. Bang, bang, bang, bang.
There's got to be a pause in between them. All right, give us a triple bang right now.
No. You're smart.
You're smart. You're a smart guy't waste it yeah no yeah we would have definitely dubbed that over every every like clank yeah i think the three bangs would have to increase in excitement so you start out with a normal bang louder and then screaming just yelling your face off at the third bang yeah nice little crescendo yeah it's all right yeah um can you tell us just how crazy the malice at the palace was from your point of view because uh i think we're at the point now where it's been over 20 years and everyone knows it but there's a new crop of sports fans that don't understand just how insane it was watching i remember watching it live and being being like, what is going on right now? And you were there calling the game.
Just how nuts was it to see that? By the way, I was calling the game with Bill. Bill Gray was our sideline.
And I remember I've never seen Bill so upset from something that happened on the court. He felt he was wounded on how he felt this look for the league and the sport that he loved so much.
He was really, really, really down after that. And we were up, we stayed up to like two or three in the morning talking about the game.
And he just couldn't believe that that's something happened on national TV because it TV because it was in person. It was uglier than when you watched it on television.
And the reason was every time it seemed like the security and the refs got a handle on it, something worse happened and then more. And even like when the players went into the stands, it was like, I don't believe we're actually watching this.
And even when they finally got them off off there were some more skirmishes and it just seemed like a wooden end but the thing that worried me the most was we were on the opposite side of the benches the the crowd started coming down in mass um and that's what was worried like is the crowd going to come down and and start more of this and? And then there's nobody that could possibly break it up. There's not enough security to break that up.
And that was worrisome to me, this mob mentality that you felt was developing. And I'll never forget, I've told this story a bunch, when the Pacers, they were trying to get them off the court.
And to go to the visiting locker room, it's a narrow little hallway with the stands like right above. So if you're in this one part of the stands, you can almost reach down and touch their head.
And I remember when the players were trying to get off, there was a woman who was really nicely dressed, like dressed like she was going out to dinner. And she was like standing right there amidst these guys who were just screaming and yelling and cursing.
And I'm thinking to myself, oh my God, this poor woman's in the midst of this mess. And all of a sudden she takes out a full bottle of water and just heaves it at one of the players' heads.
And that's, to me, that was like, okay, this woman would have never done anything like that, but she got caught up in this mob mentality that everybody's emotions just ran amok. And that's to me, that was the scariest part of the whole thing.
It was it was like something you hope will never happen again. But while watching it, just like what is it? You're right.
Like it was just the waves of it. Whereas like, oh, there's another person.
There's another person. There's another guy.
Oh, there's Turtle from Entourage. He just got got knocked out i actually thought you did a very good job of telling people what was going on as it was happening because in a situation like that it's just such chaos in the building you still were like you got you got a job to do mike you have to tell people exactly what's going on who's in the stands who's on the court what's happening was that a conscious decision you made in the moment like'm going to stand here.
I'm going to just kind of be like a play-by-play announcer for a giant brawl. Well, I give credit to, at that time, the Knicks had been involved in a number of different brawls.
So it wasn't the first one. I talked before about how the first time you experience something on the air,

you kind of have to navigate and sometimes make mistakes the first time, and then you get better each time.

Well, I got better with each basketball brawl.

And by this time, I had done a few of them.

And I remember, I can't remember where I first heard it from, but they said when something like that happens, do play-by-play.

Just do the play-by-play.

Talk about what you see. It's obviously not basketball.
It a fight and that's that's what I tried to do um on that particular night yeah I'm also curious to know from your point of view how the game so the game basketball has obviously changed a lot in the last 20 30 years um how has the announcing game changed true um that's a great question. First off, you know, the technology in terms of coverage and the amount of cameras and the ability of the cameras to catch every little thing really gives you a better insight and feel of specific plays, in-depth look at, you know, whether Fausa called, et etc.
It's just, I'm amazed by the technology. I do think the analytics has just gone crazy.
And they're great for the game. They're great for the fan.
But trying to find a balance between, okay, let's do some numbers. But let's not get crazy with numbers because too much numbers, the spoken word can just get all mangled up into one thing.
So I think that's two of the ways that it's changed. You know, I think another thing, if you look back at old, any sport, and I'm sure you guys have seen this, you go back to an older game broadcast in the 70s or the 80s, and often you don't think the announcers are that excited.
It was a much more calmer way of calling the game, even big moments. Yeah, they raised their level a little bit, but the calls have become much more high intensity than they ever used to.
compare a 1970s or 80s call of a finals game or a Super Bowl and then compare it to now, it's different in a lot of cases. And I think that's a big part that it's become okay.
In fact, it's become a good way to show you're excited as much of a fan. Back in the old days, you wouldn't do that because you'd sound like a fan.
Now I think it's more encouraged, and I think fans like that, that you're excited or as excited as they are sometimes on a big play. Yeah, I mean, I love the home broadcast, whether it be for basketball or baseball, where it's like you can kind of mix that the guys are rooting for the same thing that you're rooting for.
For you, the Knicks, and then you call the Knicks all during the regular season. Then you've got to call them in the playoffs.
Was that difficult, and did you get any – were Knicks fans mad at you? Because you are their voice, and they listened to you all regular season. Now you're in the playoffs, and you have to call it down the middle.

Did you find yourself slipping at all, or was there any moments you were like,

oh, man, I kind of hope the Knicks win this game?

No, I'd hope not on the air, but we, you know,

I know some Knicks fans are upset. Like Nimhard hit a big three to win a game, game three,

gets the Pacers, and he got a bang there,

and Knicks fans were like mad that I did a bang for an opponent. Pacer fans were very upset.
They felt we were way too pro-Nick and rooting for the Knicks. I went back and especially on games like that, I don't do it a lot, but I went back and watched the games to see if I felt there was bias because I'd like to think I'm my harshest critic and I didn't see that um so I felt good about it but I know you know there's always people that think that that you're rooting one for one way or the other for whoever the team is yeah it's also just got to be difficult for you just sitting there because you're sitting in you know MSG and you've been doing it all year and then you're watching the same team that you know so well it's's like kind of hard to not have something slip out.
It's a testament to you and your professionalism. But I would definitely just be like, yeah, I'm rooting for the Knicks.
I'm yelling at the refs. What do you want me to say? Like I want to keep calling Knicks games.
I've done enough of them over the years, and there's so much to concentrate on in terms of the actual job that it's not as hard as you think. I'm sure there's some people that will disagree, but I'd like to think we did a nice, unbiased, down-the-middle call.
What about Luka? We were talking with Rachel Nichols last week about Luka Doncic and how he likes to get in the ref's ear. He likes to get in everybody's ear.
When he's yelling at the refs is he yelling in um was it slovenian or is he yelling in english i think he mixes it up um he's trying to get better um he was really bad probably the worst in the league for a couple of years but he's really trying to get better there was a game recently where he started to get mad and he stopped and he went up to the ref he had his hands together like, like, please, I just want to talk to you. I don't want to yell.
I want to talk to you. He's working on it.
You know, sometimes we do forget these guys are so young. It's like I can imagine me 22 being in that kind of hostile atmosphere, the pressure of playing against the best in the world.
It's hard not to get emotional and um I think he's gotten better at it and and hopefully that'll continue because man he is he is a generational player that is so competitive and um JJ Redick who now is one of my partners on ESPN and ABC he he played with him and um because Luke is pretty close to the vest with the media. It's hard to kind of get close and get to know what he's really like.
J.J. says he's one of the best teammates he's ever been around.
The guy is like so normal off the court and just an encouraging, supportive teammate. So what was your advice to J.J.
when he told you last week that he was going to leave and take the Lakers job after these NBA finals?

So when the word came out, we've been having a lot of fun with him.

You know, it's clearly a compliment that he's thought of so highly, his basketball mind, that teams would be interested.

So I told him, I said, listen, if you take one of these jobs, I'd be so happy for you and I I'd root like crazy for you, and I would never talk to you again. Yeah.
Yeah, he would collect all the stones of being one of the most hated people, being a Duke guy and a Laker at the same time. Yeah, you need to keep him around because when J.J.
Reddick sits next to you, people will just naturally be like, I like that other guy who's not J.J. Reddick because, just years of just having all this hate build up in us for JJ Reddick, you can't help it.
You're just like, yeah, shut up JJ Reddick. Let Mike Breen talk.
You know, he has, he has amazing stories about when he played at Duke and, uh, it wasn't easy to say the least. There was, there's some mean, cruel, ugly crowds that, that he had to deal with.
had to deal with. And the amount of mental toughness to be able to deal with that and play at the level he played while he was at Duke, I find remarkable.
And now getting to know him, the guy is just, he's got such a brilliant basketball mind. And what I love is he loves the game as much as any player that I've ever been around.
And that combination is pretty cool to be around. All right, we're going to cut that part because we're not complimenting JJ on this podcast.
I wanted to go back to a name that you mentioned earlier, Michael Kay, who's the voice of the Yankees, who was your good friend at Fordham. And did you ever – I mean, do you guys pinch yourself being like, we were sitting at the freshman dorms or wherever it may be at Fordham saying, oh, we want to be the voice of the Knicks and the voice of the Yankees, and then it happened? Like, that's crazy that that happened.
Well, the first part did happen. And we would say that, like, if you could pick any job, what would you want to be? And his was the Yankees and mine was the Knicks.
And mine was the Knicks. You know, we do.
We talk about it a lot. We realize how blessed we are.
We can't believe it. I'm so proud of him and how long he's been there.
I mean, it's just incredible that maybe the number one franchise in all of sports and he's been there for so many years and has done such a fantastic job. So it's the odds of that happening, I think are probably small, but we do talk about it and we realized how lucky we are.
Yeah, it's pretty cool. When you were a kid, did you have, you know, we were talking about an athlete the other week that wrote down, like I will be an NFL football player in the draft and then put it up on the wall of his house.
Did you want to be a professional athlete or did you want to be a broadcaster for sports? Oh, no. I wanted to be a, I want to be a major league baseball player.
I wanted to play for the Mets. Yeah.
I was a skinny kid, so Bud Harrelson was my favorite player. So every uniform that I wore in the league, and I think even in high school when I played baseball, always wanted to get number three.
So that was it. But I have a lot of faults, but one strength I have is I'm very well aware of my limitations that I knew very early i had no shot yeah yeah you're this high school kid with a booming voice and your coach is probably like have you ever thought about talking about sports instead of playing like when did you realize you had a good voice yeah uh i never realized that um and you know what that that's another part of the question you asked before.
If I can go sideways for a second.

Yeah.

There was a time in the industry where if you didn't have those golden pipes that, you know, so many you didn't get a job.

And now you don't have to have the golden pipes.

You just have to be able to project and have a voice that cuts through the sound and stuff like that.

But I never felt I had that kind of that kind of they talk about. I just – I didn't start thinking about it until I was like 16 or 17 because a neighborhood friend was working at a college radio station and he kind of put the bug in my ear.
This guy, Tony Minicola in Yonkers, where I grew up, and that's the first time I thought about doing it tony minicola what a name great name yeah so did you ever have to like lose the new york accent oh yeah yeah i still there's still if i get tired it'll come out like the g on ing words they're nowhere to be found when i start to get tired and every once in a while there's there's other words that come out but i i i tried to have i've tried to work on it. Did you have to practice that? No, not really.
Just more enunciate. That was my biggest flaw was that I didn't fully enunciate words.
I'd leave off the last letter of some words and just get a little lazy, I guess. Yeah.
What's the dumb, probably a dumb question, what's the best arena to call a game in? Is it is because, you know, we ask that about we ask that with athletes all the time. Like, what's the toughest place to play? Is there a best and a toughest place to call a game at? There's there's a number of arenas that are just off the charts that it's just you feel it in your bones when you're sitting there.
Madison Square Garden is right up there. There is no better place when it's a big event.
Yeah. Whether it's basketball, whether it's hockey, even like a concert, there's just no better place.
The old Chicago Stadium was the loudest building I've ever been in. You could be sitting right next to the person, and when the Bulls fans were going crazy, I could be screaming and you wouldn't hear a word I say.
Oracle Arena in the Golden State old arena was as loud as they come. The TD Garden is fantastic right now.
The one in Boston. Oklahoma City, it's like a college crowd there.
Yeah. Is there any bad ones? Not bad in terms of the crowd, but in terms of the setup, where it's like, ah, the sight lines, or it's a little bit more difficult.
I've got to be on my A game tonight. Well, when you do national games, the sight lines are the same.
Mid-court, courtside. Yeah.
Fantastic. That's for better.
What's changed in the industry, and here's another part of the other answer they've now moved the local broadcasts both radio and tv in a number of arenas up above the first level and that can be hard there's there's some really rough ones where you're way up and you you wind up doing a lot of the game off the monitor as opposed to watching in person you're there in the arena and and you're doing the game off the monitor. And it's, I think there's like 13 arenas now where they have us way up and it's unfortunate.
I think it compromises the product. It's not good for the fans.
We're watching at home because we can't do as good a job, but it's all about selling, selling the seats down low where we used to be for a lot of money. What about the meal situation? Is there one team that's known to hook you guys up with some real choice cuts? Good question.
Well, if you've been doing this a long time, you know that that's not only a good question. It's one of the most important questions because i or every when i i like to eat

at the arena when i get there and when you have good food at a media uh media dining as they call

it dining's a depending on where you go perhaps not the right word um there's no question we we talk about that all the time we rate who's got the best who's not the best like we just in boston boston has a great one just a great one and um dallas is another one that has one of the better meal rooms too what about a what's your pre-game meal is it something that you stick to are you a creature of habit where you have the same thing before every or do you just kind of mix it up depending where you are so i'll eat anything i have my my appetite is whatever is available yeah and that includes as much dessert as possible. In fact, JJ was making fun of me.
He goes, how could you eat dessert before a game? And I say, how can you not eat dessert? Such a dupe guy. See, isn't he the worst? He's the worst.
All right. Well, so, Mike, this has been so awesome.
I have one last question for you. It's the Roback question, R-a-c-k.com promo code take 20 off your first

purchase q-zips polos hoodies joggers shorts uh rowback.com promo code take so you have called so many nba games you're you are the voice of the nba that's how i introduced you here and i i do believe that um you've also called the olympics i i i would love i gotta go to find, track it down. You called ski jumping.
How was that? Was that like, what do they even do in ski? They just jump, right? It was one of the coolest things I've ever done. And the thing is here, I'm the announcer on ski jumping.
I've, I was never on skis in my life at that point, but they gave me an analyst guy named Jeff Hastings, who was a an american ski jumper and he took all care of the technology i'd basically say who the jumper was where he was from his record his history and all that kind of stuff and then would the guy would take off and jeff would take over and he would he would um you know he could see if this was going to be a good one or a bad one, how deep it was, how high it was, all that kind of stuff. And, and it was really fun because I took it from a standpoint of a novice.
I didn't know anything about it. So the questions I asked him, you know, anybody who is an idiot about skiing, that's what the, they were going to ask that.
And that's what I asked because I didn't know any better. And I felt it was like, I was actually really proud of that because I took it from a standpoint of all right I'm a viewer who does not know this sport and I have a chance to ask him this but a part of the thing that was so hard is you never you couldn't do it live what we would do is you'd sit there and you'd watch 30 guys go off.

And NBC wouldn't have all 30 guys in their coverage. They'd only take 10.

So they would take the top 10 scores. We'd go into a studio.
And now we'd have to announce it like it was live going up. And I could have cheated, you know, if I knew this guy was going to go.
I could have said, you know, I just get the feeling this is going to be a special jump. Yeah.
But I didn't do it and Jeff didn't do it. And, but it was interesting trying to, to manufacture the enthusiasm on a big jump like that.
When we knew whether he finished second or he finished 43rd. Yeah.
Did you, did you bang it all then or no? No, no, no. Oh, it would have been awesome.
Oh, that would have been if they hit like a big one i don't even know what a big one is called in ski gym but they hit the big one you just give them a bang well can bang go in any other sports could you use it in any other sports i suppose we should think boxing yeah i feel like boxing would be a good one boxing Boxing would be good? I did the NFL for a number of years a long time ago. Maybe on a great catch in the end zone.
I don't know. Field goal? Long field goal? Yeah, a long field goal would work.
Really? A field goal? Yeah. Game-winning field goal? Game-winning field goal? Bang works.
You can bang a field goal. Right.
Now, do you do it like soon as it goes through the crossbars? Do you wait until the hands go up? I think you go hands. Yeah, yeah.
You wait for hands. You can't miss that bang.
If it looks like it's good and it's short and the refs don't, you can't prematurely bang. Yeah.
Yeah. No bang.
You're going off the bang. Is there any other sport that you would like to do? Or are you just going to be basketball for the rest of your life? Yeah, I've been kind of a one-trick pony.
I think I'd love to do, because I'm a huge Met fan, I would love to do a Met game someday. Oh.
Ooh. You could bang a third strike for sure.
A home run? Yeah. Yeah.

We should do a broadcast, Mike Breen and Frank the Tank.

Oh. We've got a color guy for you.

Yeah, do you know Frank the Tank?

Are you aware of Frank the Tank?

Yes, I'm aware of Frank the Tank.

I mean, everyone is.

You can't be a New Yorker.

I think that's like you're not a New Yorker if you don't know who Frank the Tank is.

But, you know, I think what else?

I love golf, so I would love to do a golf broadcast someday. Use my voice.
Yeah, careful with that. That's when everyone started hating Joe Buck again because they already hated him, and then they started hating him again after that.
Well, it's funny. Like you asked about do you have haters, and you really do after a while you develop a thing thin skin and and uh you're like you don't you don't worry about it and one thing that i think i think joe buck is one of the most talented people who've ever done this um the guy is phenomenal at any sport um one of the greats of all time on the mount rushmore whatever you want to say so.
So if he gets criticism, anybody could get criticism. Yeah.
He told us one time he peed in a bottle during a game because he had to go. Have you ever done that? It's probably harder for you because you're not up in the booth.
Joe went there. I don't think people need to know that.
Yeah. Yeah.
We know we love Joe. He's a friend of ours.
He's also addicted to hair plugs, so we should plug that for him. Almost

took his voice away. Yeah.

He's got a big head. He's got a lot

to cover. Joe has a big head?

Yeah, he's got a big head. It's pretty big.

It's big for his size.

Knicks fans are just

circling outside of our office being like,

oh, Mike Breen's on the call.

You have a lot of fans in this office.

If you call Bulls game

next year, we'd love to have you come by.

Maybe you want call us playing five-on-five, and that would be probably the end of your career. But I promise I will come by.
You guys are so much fun. I'm honored to be on.
Yeah. All right, well, thanks so much, Mike.
We love you. And we're excited for the finals and for you to give us great finals.
Thank you, guys. Thank you very much.
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Give it to the nation's top collegiate fullback. The Silverado has taken us across the country to go to the big game from Connecticut all the way to California.
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Okay, Hank, finish this off. Fire fest.
Nothing? Nothing at all? What about the John Daly Challenge? I mean, the John Daly Challenge. The John Daly Challenge.
No spoilers. Yeah, don't spoil the video, Hank.
How'd you guys feel the day after? Terrible. I felt concerningly good.
Yeah, I didn't feel that bad. I won another cigarette.
Yeah. I didn't sleep that night and i felt bad oh it's basically the john not memorial day weekend the john daly yeah it wasn't memorial day weekend left me with nothing to do with a six day hangover strings hand up uh out you know nothing do you think maybe the not sleeping had anything to do with the copious amounts of Adderall you took before the challenge?

I did take a couple Adderalls.

He is prescribed.

I am prescribed.

On the label?

And I don't really, yeah, whatever.

He just said we were driving up to the suburbs, and he just said to me,

I got to take some Adderall because there's no way I'm going to smoke these cigarettes without it.

I don't like smoking cigs.

I know.

He's just like, I was like, you want to drive the car? I tried to drink a couple beers because I don't really smoke cigs, so i i had i know he's just like i was like you want to drive

the car i tried to drink like a couple beers because i don't really smoke cigs but when i do it's i'm like very drunk so i was like maybe i have to you know feel a little alcohol in me i only drink when i smoke um what was i about to say fuck oh and then i was also adderall makes me mute so i like was just a miserable fuck on the video and you guys are it makes you good at golf.

Tune in.

Or don't, especially my mom. At times you regret it.
So my Fyre Fest was going to be like, I miss smoking cigarettes. Yeah.
I miss it a lot. So, Hank, you just had an awesome week.
This week's flown by. Well, because it was only four days.
I know.

I feel like this is a shorter week than every year. Also, at the time of this recording.

Yeah, it's been three days.

Yeah, it's Thursday.

Flown by.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and most of Thursday.

Yeah.

That's a short week.

I mean, we had a fun week.

We did it.

We golfed on Monday.

We played roof ball today.

We got a pop punk tomorrow.

It's been an awesome week.

It's been a fun week.

It's been the best weather.

Like, today was the best weather possible.

There's not a cloud in the sky, 72 degrees.

Or Southwark's are in the finals.

Life is good.

All right.

Yeah.

Good, Hank.

Happy for you.

I want you to be happy.

Thank you.

To a certain extent.

How's Duncan going?

It's going well.

I trained.

I trained four times this week.

Well, three so far. One more tomorrow.
I i'll say it i'm getting a little nervous um you do look like you're in better shape i found a trainer that is has his master's degree in like dunking in fitness so he's like we're going through a program that is designed for me to dunk and it's i'm doing stuff that I never would do on my own, and it's working. So when I think if I just stick.

Maybe I need to. So he's like, we're going through a program that is designed for me to dunk.
And I'm doing stuff that I never would do on my own.

And it's working.

So when I think if I just stick to it, like, and I've told this guy a million times, he

doesn't want to hear it.

But once we get to September and it's lock-in time, like the steroid conversation will probably

happen.

Wait, what is this like special routine that you're in?

What kind of exercises is he having you do that you've never legs do yourself legs all of the legs feed the wolf a lot of plyometrics a lot of jumping stuff but like just just it's also just like gradual increases versus you know i'm like let me put a bunch of weight on and try and do a couple good reps it's like lower weight higher reps and then the next week you do more weight it's obviously for anyone that lifts weight and trains it's like no shit dude but yeah i've never done that so good for you good for you good job hank good job i got a couple fire fest uh my first one was going to be about like the golfing i really enjoyed smoking the cigarettes i don't smoke anymore but now i'm it rocked it rocked honestly smoking cigarettes on the golf course i truly miss it but I'm not gonna do it not gonna dive into it um but that kind of also goes against what I decided to do on last Saturday which was I just thought to myself it's time to get back in shape got to get in shape before you're 40 feel like anything you do before you're 40 that's who you're gonna be after 40 40 big cutoff. Wait, but what about our deal? Because I'm with you.
I've lost 10 pounds since football season. I've been trying to eat clean.
Donnie's been cooking for us, playing basketball. What? I've been cooking those too.
Oh, Hank's been cooking those too. The ones you cook are bad.
Well, I just – We agreed we were going to get... Cut some tomatoes for Donnie, but...

We're going to get in great shape at 40

and then just get fat again.

Then get fat, real fat right afterwards.

Yeah, I'm in for that.

I don't want to...

But that's what I'm saying.

If I'm in shape the day I turn 40,

I can get fat and then get back in shape, no problem.

What weight are we hitting?

I said 220, which is crazy.

So right now I'm at 1833 but it's bad 183 so i gotta lose like 10 pounds and then gain 15 pounds back so i want to end up at one i want to end up at 190 but a good one night i was like 247 jacked 192 247 50 floating after football season i'm like 23 235-ish. That's pretty good.
Floating 7, 8. That's not bad.
So to accomplish this- I almost like 20 more pounds. To accomplish this, I decided to start intermittent fasting.
Yeah. So you do- I only eat between noon and 8 p.m.
Didn't eat any wings tonight. Didn't eat a single wing tonight.
It was very mean that you guys ordered wings after I told you I wasn't eating after 8, my favorite food in the entire world.

But I've kind of put a twist on it because I think with intermittent fasting,

you can just eat whatever the fuck you want between noon and 8, right?

Yeah.

So I'm trying a new diet that I think I invented, which is strictly Uncrustables.

So I had four Uncrustables on Tuesday.

I had four on Wednesday. I had two today.
You look thinner. I think I'm just going to eat.
That's it? I think I'm going to eat Uncrustables. Just only Uncrustables.
Yeah, no wings. No, but I'm saying that's your intake of the day.
Yeah. Yeah, two Uncrustables, no wings.
Well, four, yeah. Hey, what about for breakfast? My meal plan, there's no breakfast.
My meal plan is I eat four Uncrustables a day. You didn't have any jambalaya today? Yeah, but I also had the two Uncrustables.
That was roofball jambalaya. That's totally different.
You didn't have any pizza at pop-punk practice? No, I didn't, Max. And he also didn't have any wings.
You narc. I was just, I mean, we were chatting.
No, yeah, we were chatting. But no, I did not.
I did not. And then memes is over here raining on my parade being like, oh, you can't drink coffee.
How have you of all people not going to have a wing? I didn't have any wings tonight. You didn't have any wings? What are you talking about? I didn't have a single wing.
No wings. That's hard to believe.
I watched him. He went and sniffed him.
He looked at him. It was very sad.
I was like, PFT, you have a wing? Jake, back me up on this. Did I have a wing today? No wings.
No wings. Jake would never lie.
Pugs. You were in the kitchen.
You were in the kitchen. Did PFT have any wings? Did PFT have any wings? I did not see PFT have any wings, Pug.
Thank you, Pug. Nice.
Honest men. Why'd you say that so funny? Yeah, but no.
I think that there's something to the Uncrustable diet. I think that the Uncrustable is probably the perfect snack, the perfect meal, the perfect everything.
I did not have an Uncrustable until I was, it was like two years ago I had my first one. Changed my life.
Yeah, oh yeah. Overnight.
They're incredible. I mean, we just kind of talked about it, but since I'm like a fitness expert now, what about protein? Peanut butter.
There's peanut butter in Uncrustables. No, he said he didn't have any wings.
Greens. There's purple in Uncrustables.
Purple is a green. Purple is a vegetable.
You saw the wings. Do you think they tasted good if you saw them? I mean, I can't imagine.
I have no idea. Yeah.
I would have no idea. I had one.
It was hot as fuck. You tricked me with a brown pussy.
It wasn't that hot. You tricked me with one that looked like a barbecue wing, and I almost died.
Oh, that was the national hot. Yeah, it was hot as fuck.
I can't even begin to imagine what the wings tasted like. So I will not handle this.
You definitely had one. I didn't have a single wing, no.

No, he did not have one.

He did not have one. He had a bite of one.

No, he did not have one or a bite of one.

Did you have two?

No, he did not have two.

Did you have three?

I didn't have a wing.

I didn't have a wing.

But yeah, dude, fuck it.

Like, I think that the Uncrustable Diet, some dietician out there, tell me that I'm right.

I just need one person to say they're a dietician. If you were like one years old, I think you'd be in the clear.
You're right. No, you're right.
You think one-year-olds eat Uncrustables? I don't know. Yeah, not one-year-olds, but like two, three.
My nephew eats Uncrustables. It's the new diet.
I guess my one-year-old does. It's the new diet.
It's called Eat How You Dress. And I dress like a six-year-old.
You dress like no cross? No, I dress like a six-year-old. I dress like a chicken wing? Most frequently.
No, I dress like three chicken wings. Four.
No. Anyways, me and Big Cat are going to be fucking jacked up.
Dude, we are. Like, listen, can people be supportive? I know that I've said this many times before, but like 40 is it's kind of fucking my head up yeah and i would like to just be in decent shape i'd spent my 30s being a fat fuck working a lot let's get to 40 and and just be beasts and then we're gonna be like 40 and a half and be fat again that's fine as long as we kiss the wall just kiss the wall say we got there yeah we could get there again if we want that's what i'm saying like you get there by the time you're 40 then when you're 45 oh i was in good shape when i was let's go back to uncrustables in three rings exactly i'm just going to eat seven uncrustables a day and get jacked that's a good business idea like what if there's uncrustables with protein in them yeah like uncrustables for the guy that works out hard yeah that lifts heavy yeah that's what i'm talking about so please be supportive we're gonna be 40 we should take pictures before and after well i guess we're just taking pictures all the time you'll see us when you see us in super bowl week it's gonna be fucking on we might actually go topless all super bowl week what does the intermittent fasting thing say about drinking beers? I don't know.
I would venture to say most of my beer consumption is post- Isn't fasting just food? I don't think it qualifies when you're enjoying yourself. If you're having a good time, yes, smile on.
Super Bowl, I thought of a bet for our season-long contest. I don't know how many bars there are on Bourbon Street,

but a loser has to put on a GoPro

and just get a drink from every single bar.

Yep, in.

That'd be so funny.

In.

There's probably like 50.

Probably way more, actually.

My guess is...

I'm in.

I don't think you would do that.

I would have to.

It's 30 bars. All right, well, we'll figure it out.
I mean, it would be funny. Maybe do Man on the Street.
It would be funny. All right.
We have a lot of time to decide that. All right.
I have two FireFests. My first FireFest is next weekend I'm going to...
Sorry. There's 60 bars.
60 bars. That's a lot of drinks.
That's too many drinks. Next week, I'm going to Belmont at Saratoga and the Fyre Fest.
I'm excited to go there, but you guys, I think some of you guys are going to be going to see the Red Stars play at Wrigley. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. So the NWSL, they sent us some kits.
NWSL is hot right now. They're playing a game at Wrigley on Saturday.

So that's next Saturday.

The Red Stars are playing.

So shout out Nike for the gear.

Hank's going to grab his right now.

He's going to rep it on Saturday.

So see you all there.

I'm a big Washington Spirit fan.

A soccer game at Wrigley is going to be awesome.

Yeah, you have – I think they gave you some – Oh, sick.

Dennis Rodman's daughter, Trinity Rodman.

She's awesome. These are sick jerseys.
Okay. Okay.
That's an awesome jersey. The Red Stars.
All right. So, Hank, you going to go? Yep.
Wrigley, Saturday. Red Stars are playing the National Women's Soccer League.
So, ooh, look at that. Oh, that's a Washington.
This is a Washington. Okay, here you go., we just did a kit We just did a Jersey, Jersey Wait, no Oh, yeah, no I want one of the D.C.
And you take one of the Chicago Hold it up Hold them up Okay Here we go Yeah, I'm trying to I'm trying to just Cross off like Every Wrigley event That exists I love it You know they do Like golf. I did it.
I went. Oh, nice.
Of course. Come on.
Stupid. Was it awesome? It was stupid to me.
Yeah, it was really cool. All right.
My other fire fest is I share some stuff about my kids. I think there's a good amount of dads that listen to Pardon My Take because we're aging.
We're about to be 40 um i'm now in the questions i can't answer phase with my son um and it's getting increasingly difficult can i throw some of them at you guys uh yesterday you asked me what what uh blueberries are made of blue that's what i said yeah blue didn't really he didn't really take that seeds he also asked me when you die do you become alive again how do you yeah no that's actually that's a good question yeah dogs someone in his class is talking about death incarnation i don't want that kid around my son you know what a good thing to do is you got to answer those questions with a question you just got to say why do you ask yeah that that does that doesn't work just get like more. Get more childlike on him.
Why? No. His move is he goes, you're the adult.
Why don't you know? That's a good point. He said he dropped that on me tonight.
It's a valid point. You bust out the Bible on him.
Just go Bible? Yeah. Just read him a passage and be like, this is your answer.
And he'll be like, what? The answer's in this book. Yeah.
Read it. Read it.
What's stronger, our house or our car? House. Is it, though? Yeah, that's an easy one.
Car can hit you. Yeah, but if a car hit your house, the car would break.
The house would still stay. The house doesn't move.
The car moves. It's a weapon.
The house is like an offensive lineman, and the car is like a linebacker. Okay.
All right, that works. And then the last one he had was, he asked me if his younger brother, who's one, when he starts speaking, will he speak in English or Spanish? That one confused the fuck out of me.
You got to teach your one-year-old Spanish now. I was just like, what? Like, where did we get this one from? What the fuck? Whatever he chooses.
He's just like, which one is he going to be doing? Did you hit the SAP button on this thing? Yeah, I'm in that phase. Yeah.
When he responds with, you're the adult. Tell me.
Oh, also, what are spider webs made out of? I said cum. Yeah, spider cum.
Yeah. That actually is my fire fest.
And then he asked what that was.

Spider cum?

No, spiders are back with a vengeance.

Oh, yeah.

You got a lot of spiders.

You're going to eat them.

I think it's with a vengeance.

Just fucking spray them, dude.

I have.

They keep cumming.

That's the problem.

Blow torch them.

I ordered some smelling things that apparently might keep them away. No.
Those never work. So is it still contained on your balcony? I've taken them out.
I took them out last year, got rid of them. And then a couple weeks ago, saw some webs, broomed them out.
And then last weekend, I went out last night and they're back. So it's like they're fighting back, and now I'm worried that they're mobilizing.

They're mobilizing?

100% they are.

They're talking to each other?

Yeah.

They're going to invade.

What was that book?

Charlotte's Web.

Get a pig.

No, they'll become best friends.

Did that end up well?

Charlotte died.

Fuck.

Yeah.

But the pig, I think, lived.

Speaking of Charlotte.

Until he became bacon.

Speaking of Charlotte, have you guys heard the news? The stingray update? No. I only get it from you.
You're the only news source I have. This fucking aquarium, a journalist went there being like, when's this fucking stingray going to squirt out the pups? And you know what the aquarium did? They called the cops on the journalist.
Oh, wow. And now they're muting all the comments yeah yeah there's something fishy's going on at the aquarium that's that's what i'm saying damn that's the ft was right by the way we should have mentioned on tuesday's show r.i.p harambe eight years yeah eight year anniversary gone too soon uh all right jake finish us off yeah i have a new addiction.
Uh-oh. A few years ago.
Oh. It was nasal spray.
Yeah. Cocaine.
No. Oh.
Oh. Mushrooms because you were in a hamstring? No, no, no.
Oh, prostitutes. Yeah.
There you go, Jake. I don't like you get wet.
What stuff? Do it. Mr.
Position. Come on, Jake.
No. This one I actually think is relatable to you guys, but no free ads.
But a certain snack company has been sending a lot of their product. I'll say Dots.
Dots Pretzels. Because after the interview with McShay, I was like, I would stand on the table in terms of snacks in my war room for Dots Pretzels.
Yeah. Also, I do want us um can dots can you please send us some of the pork rinds because those are no carbs and they are so good i haven't had those oh my god they're cinnamon sugar pretzels are the most addicting thing i've ever had i went to the store the other day jake you also haven't had any drugs right yeah but still zero addictions i've never been addicted to a snack more than this and it's it's crack now it's crack it is crazy yeah they're all good they're so advertised with us dots yeah i will never do it we'll never say your name again after giving you yeah we're never saying thousands of dollars never say advertising also send us the pork rinds yeah so it's been I got to watch myself.
But they're delicious. They're good.
We're never so advertising. Also send us the pork rinds.
Yeah. So it's been, I got to watch myself.

But they're delicious.

They're good.

You're fine.

I don't know.

I hoard those things on airplanes too.

You want a small thing of pretzels?

Yeah, I'll take three.

Yeah.

I'll just put them in my pocket.

Yeah.

Have them later.

We're going to start smelling Jake's fingers.

I already do.

Every morning.

Pussy or dots. It's a game we play smelling Jake's fingers.
I already do. Every morning.
Pussy or dots?

It's a game we play with Jake every morning.

It's always dots.

Mondays, it's pussy.

What do you got, Max?

Are you saying something?

You were about to say something?

Buy your Father's Day merch.

Yes.

Last day.

Last day.

You got to buy it now, and you'll get it in time for Father's Day.

We have a ton of awesome stuff in the store.

This one's on sale.

Shout out to all the dads.

Also, great.

Hank, get those shirts out right next to the camera.

Great Father's Day this year, US Open final round.

Nope.

Nope.

Final round.

Right next to Big Cat's camera.

Yeah.

At Pinehurst.

At Pinehurst.

We played that course.

All right, Hank likes that shirt.

You should get that shirt for Pinehurst.

That's not.

That's Stella Blue.

That's my. Yep.
Nope. Nope.
Okay. Thank you.
That's a sick coat, right? The thing is. Wait, what? Yeah.
Someone made that for me. This is in the store? Awesome.
No. Oh.
Yeah. We're selling sport coats for my coffee company.
Max has to come in here and do everything for Hank. Look at that.
Max.

Oh, I actually wore this shirt today.

Nice.

Got a lot of compliments.

Nice.

New mountains are blue.

Go buy them.

Father's Day merch.

Got to buy it now.

Go to store.barstoolsports.com.

All right.

Great show, boys.

Let's do what? What are you going to do?

Max, go back to your seat.

Go back to your seat.

I haven't said anything.

Numbers.

18.

20.

3.

56.

8.

56.

Oh, shit.

He got 56.

99.

40. 21, shit.
He got fifty-six. Ninety-nine.
Pogue.

Forty.

Twenty-one.

Two.

What was that?

Forty-two.

Forty-two.

I have twenty.

Max, would you like to trade with me?

Uh, no.

But PFT, my voice... I'm worried.

What?

Oh, Max is singing with us tomorrow night.

Oh, no.

My voice just went right there.

Just don't talk.

Yeah.

Just stop talking. Max, would you like to trade with me? I'll give you an option.
No. Twenty for fifty- My voice just went right there.
Just don't talk. Yeah.
Just stop talking.

Max, would you like to trade with me?

I'll give you an option.

20 for 56.

Straight up.

Okay.

What was your number, PFT?

I did eight.

Was everyone else in the booth?

18, 99, Pug, 21.

How many songs is he doing?

Three.

He's doing one song.

I've never seen someone more nervous

for something in my entire life.

You just did your one-man show

in Las Vegas that you spent six months talking about.

Literally ruined our life for half a year.

That's what I'm saying, though.

That was 60 minutes.

If it was two.

Oh, Hank.

40.

Oh, my.

Fuck.

42.

Damn. 42.
Jordy 40. You were so close.
I. Oh, my.
Fuck. 42.
Damn.

42.

Jordy 40.

You were so close.

I should have done it.

You were so close.

I actually was also pretty close because two times 20 is 40.

Max, you were not close.

Also, you've never gotten it.

Love you guys.

Love you guys. Thank you.
I'll be coming for your love, okay? Take on me Take me on I'll become An F-A-R-O-G Needless to say you In a day of tea

Needless to say

I'm hard to say it

But I'm being stolen away

No, no, no, life is okay

Say after me

It's no better to be safe than sorry.

Take on me.

Take me alone.

I'll be gone.

In a day of a dream. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, You're all the things I've got to remember You're shying away I'll be coming for you anyway

Take on me

Take me on

I'll be gone

In a day.