Mark Cuban, Catching Up On CBB & A Very Dumb Hypothetical

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On today's Pardon My Take, we got our good friend Mark Cuban back in studio. Great interview with him, pitch him a couple ideas, talk a little MBA, talk a little business.
We have a hypothetical we're going to throw out there. We're going to also maybe talk.
We have Jake back. Congrats to Jake for right back.
by me, Brianna Chicken Fry, and out and abouts Joey and Pat. Don't miss one of the biggest parties on the summer.
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Thank you. It's part of my take presented by Barstool Sports.
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Today is Friday, February 25th, and we're going to read the room.

We've got to read the room.

Let's read the room.

I'm currently reading the room right now,

and to be fair, we're recording this at 3.20 in the afternoon.

To all things with love. On Thursday, so we don't know what's going to happen

for the rest of the day.

To all things with love.

I'm reading the room.

PMT Grit.

There it is.

Is another thing that's up in the room.

To trust the

timing of your life. Actually,

I don't know why we're even saying this. I don't know if you guys saw

Annalyn McCord

released a poem at Putin,

so I think we're all set on Twitter.

Well, I think we can say as a podcast

that we are officially

putting Putin.

I'm on my last straw with Putin.

I'm just going to say it. Last straw alert.
Hank is now holding up a sign that says, keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground. Love it.
All right. We're done reading the room.
Uh, yeah. Putin disavow.
Last straw. Disavow.
I'm going to go ahead and just disavow. Just going to get that out of the way.
Disavow. I do, um, the read the room people came out on Wednesday night when I was, I want to talk a little college basketball, Jake, when I was watching Providence and Xavier three overtime thriller.
And it reminded me, we all just need to be a little bit more like Dickie V in our lives. Because I want to tell you, I want to read you a tweet from Dickie V from a few years ago.
This is how you effectively read the room folks okay so obviously world you know war happened last night or it's happening started world war three is that what everyone's saying it's world war three now i think there's some people that like secretly want it to be oh yeah they're like oh damn i'm living through history yeah everybody has this opinion that they're so important that whatever's happening is the most important thing that's ever happened in the history of the world. Correct.
So some people are like, yep, this is, you know what, this is exactly like the invasion of Poland in 1939. Right.
Some amateur historians are saying that completely lacking context for all the things that are different about what's going on right now. Do you know what the most shocking part about that tweet from Billy was if you looked at the quote tweets, there were people who were like, damn, that's so profound.
I was like, oh my God my god where are we all from people who are in their like early 20s and don't get me wrong shit dude he is right listen we are disavowing putin it's fucked up what he's doing for sure but like you can't there's so many things that are different there was one thing that i learned a while back is that not everything that's bad is hitler not everything that's good is jesus that's true. Something to remember.
That's true. There's also- Throw it on a quote board.
Yeah. Throw it on a quote.
A t-shirt. Yeah.
There was another quote of Billy's tweet that was like, a guy who watches nothing but World War II movies sees war break out and is like, damn, this is giving me some World War II vibes. No, Billy's like, yo, this reminds me so much of Verdansk.
Yeah, damn, this is... I was going to say...
Me and Billy were actually playing Call of Duty when this was happening and he, dead serious, was like, dude, we're playing Warzone right now but like, in Ukraine, it's actually a Warzone. Whoa.
Mm-hmm. Like like this is really happening there as an as an amateur uh warologist i can say i just i don't know i listen to a couple podcasts about college basketball a couple podcasts about war from what i can tell like the ukrainians i think they're like 65 of them said once there's an invasion we're going to just take up arms just like the general population so it's going to be it's going to be pretty messy over there for a while that's my analysis um are we doing are we doing real war talk that's my real war talk i thought i i was going to say the dickie v tweet i don't really know how to go off real war talk do you want to well okay bow on the real war talk i don't know let me type back to sports we said we're gonna to do real war talk.
Let me tie it back to sports. So this whole thing started in my opinion when

uh bow on the real war talk i don't know let me tie it back to sports we said we're gonna do real war let me tie it back to sports so this whole thing started in my opinion when uh when putin was appeased and coddled by robert craft hank's owner when he took the super bowl ring from him and robert craft didn't say shit he was just like okay so it's like baby steps you you give a mouse a cookie he'll ask for a glass of milk he was preventing world war three no he no because because robert kraft didn't stand up to putin now putin thinks he can take anything that he wants and no one's going to say anything pft let me ask you this some people are saying that when you have six it's like what's what's one what's losing one yeah some people are saying though if putin was maybe six feet tall he wouldn't be so fucking aggro all the time no i the history is written by a bunch of angry short dudes trying to convince everyone they're not short i agree 100 in fact i tweeted that out last night i said this is just another example of like a short person that shouldn't be allowed to hold office and all of a sudden they're in charge of a big army with cool guns and stuff and this is what you get we should and i'm saying we like if you're if you're five foot nine or less you should not be in charge of country i will fully admit like my people have yourself out of the running my people have a deficiency and that's like we like to try to take over the world mm-hmm try to prove everyone that you're not yeah no we should not be allowed within 50 miles of nuclear missile yeah um so the dickie v tweet that i was referencing that I think everyone should just take a page out of his book, follow Dickie V it reminded me of it, it was I can't remember when this was, someone could do the dates on the actual things that were happening in the world, but he tweeted like many, I've been following the news involving the attacks on Al-Assad bases in Iraq by Iran. Also, I've been checking hoop news and four teams should get a tip of the hat.
Rutgers, Providence, Maryland, Boston College. They had W's over Penn State, Marquette, Ohio State, and yes, Virginia.
That's how you do it, folks. That's how you acknowledge the room and then just hop right into the good stuff.
You blend it. Yeah, you blend it a little bit.
It's like, here, this is happening, and now how about that win by Rutgers? This is why Twitter needs different rooms, I think. Yeah.
If you want to be in the room, that's all war talk all the time, there should be a war room. If you want to be in the basketball room, you can be in the basketball room.
Yeah, I just don't, I mean, it will forever baffle me when people are like, how have you not talked about this? I don't fucking know what's going on. I read a couple articles, but I do not feel smart enough to talk about it.
There are other places that you could go to get legitimate analysis. Yes.
There is one thing that I'm very concerned about, and I just want to say this out loud. In 2020, I had a run where I was 8-0-1 in college basketball, and then COVID broke out and ended all sports.
I'm currently on a run of 5-0-1. Yeah.
So if history does repeat itself, like Billy said, 1939, same as today, are we a little worried if I win my next three battles? I think you need to make a game of the world might end tomorrow. If I get to 8-0-1, I think that everything's going to get kicked.
How about you make the last bet you'll ever make bet? Okay. Right.
Like a game of your lifetime. Oh, man.
The last bet of all time. I don't have that right now.
The end of the world bet. The end of the world bet.
But if you lose the end of the world bet, that's the end of the world. No, but that just means that it's not the end of the world bet that's the end of the world no but that just means that it's not the end of the world okay so it's like a it's a 50 50 you're gonna win heads you win tails you still win because if it's the end of the world and actually happens and you win the bet guess what you won your last huge bet that was a great time now the end of the world and now the end of the world but if you lose it just means that the end of the world is not actually going to happen.
Yeah. Okay.
Maybe I will. I did win my let bygones be bygones better the year yesterday.
So that felt good. Let's talk a little college hoops.
Who's that? Michigan? Yeah, Michigan. Jake is back.
We haven't seen you in what? A week and a half? Yeah, it's been a while. I missed you guys.
Where have you been? I had a few weddings down in Florida. Then we had a benchmark trip in Iowa.
I'll my Fyre Fest later, but there was a big one. Yeah, how'd it go? It was a lot of fun.
It was cool to be in Big Ten country. Game stunk.
Iowa killed Michigan State. Yeah, it was never a game.
Luka Garza got his jersey retired, so that was really cool. Listen to Benchmob on our details from that.
But it's the best time of the year. I mean, it is.
Like Ross says it, like I'm really not going to sleep much. No, seeing Lenardi on the screen last night, I was like, God damn it.
This is it. Like this is, this is when it, when it gets really, really good.
That Xavier Providence game. Insane.
Providence. If you have not followed college basketball this year, Providence is maybe the greatest.
And also, while admitting that they also have some luck on their side,

they're like a heart attack every single night,

and they also have three losses on the season.

Ed Cooley coach of the year.

Yeah.

Ed Cooley, Mark Adams for Texas Tech, or Tommy Lloyd from Arizona.

Tommy Lloyd's done a good job.

I want to know.

Phil Martelli.

Yeah.

Yep.

Undefeated.

Bruce Pearl might get it too.

Yeah. He could.
Yeah. I'm not a.
Phil Martelli. Yeah.
Yep. Undefeated.
Bruce Pearl might get it too. Yeah.
He could. Yeah.
I don't – I'm not a buyer in Auburn. I think Auburn's got some fatal flaws.
You want to get some round ball talk? I'll talk round ball with you. I think that there are scoring threats at the end of the game.
Where's – what podcast is this from? It's not from a podcast. Oh, okay.
I've been grinding the film. No, I don't trust him.
If you're going to your fourth option in an end-of-the-game scenario like that, that means that you don't have any true scoring threats that can... You can't run ISO.
Who does Auburn go to if they need an ISO? On counterpoint, they might have the best player in the country. Could be the first pick in the draft.
Yes, but is he an ISO guy? He could do it all, right? Yeah. He's awesome.

What was the other game?

UConn-Villanova.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

It's block charge.

I'm actually also thinking UConn might be a real team in March.

I'm back on it.

Yeah, Hurley's ejection was ridiculous.

Hurley's ejection.

For pumping up the crowd.

Jake, where do you stand?

I'm sure you've covered it on Benchmob.

Go download Benchmob if you haven't already.

But where do you stand on the Juwan Howard-Greg guard saga feel i have a feeling that you might be a diplomatic you might be a guy who's like um this is ugly this is an ugly scene for college basketball we don't need this in the game i mean look you when i listened to you guys the other day like it's great for the sport because people are talking about it over anything else um but the there's a line crossed i think when the when the head coach is the one strike we've seen player fights plenty of times malice at the palace and things like that what the coach is the one especially in call at the college level they're the one who's supposed to be the leader like guiding these kids being mentors in their life not to say juan howard is not that um but you just can't have that in that in that spot can't have it or were you calling for juan howard to be fired no i think that's way over the top i think the suspension is probably what i would have expected it's kind of hindsight um i think if they did through the tournament that would have been a little excessive as well um but yeah it's crazy michigan might make the tournament that'd be some redemption I think they probably will because I think they have a little run they're my national championship this season what about did you have I don't even have Wisconsin no I have them out of the bracket what did you think of PFT's Auburn analysis are you buying Auburn I also just don't trust like I feel like they I guess their tempo isn't as fast as it's always been but high tempo teams it feels like if you get in a shootout anything can happen you kind of i just i don't know in the tournament just having the best player on the floor just makes you more comfortable they're gonna have that most of the time so i agree that they will but i don't know maybe it's just me and what i prefer to watch when i'm watching basketball but if your best player is and your best score is like a catchhoot guy, to me, you're going to run into trouble later on in the tournament, especially as games close out in the second half. But they have some good guys.
They've got Katie Johnson's good. Walker Kessler's good.
Yeah. They have guys who have multiple options.
I'm not saying they're going to lose in the first round. I'm just saying I don't know if I buy Auburn going back to the Final Four.
They are, what, top 20

in both defense and offense?

16 offense, 8 defense. Yeah, so they have the

they have the, if you want to do the

stat nerd thing, they definitely have

Yeah, and they realistically could be undefeated in

Atlantis. They lost that maybe game of the year.

Ride the must bus, baby. It was overtime.

I'm saying, like, they haven't looked bad.

Yeah, that's true. So.
What about

what about San Francisco?

San Francisco. They're my dark horse right now.

WCC. Yep.
I mean

I'm saying, like, they haven't looked bad. Yeah, that's true.
What about San Francisco?

San Francisco. They're my dark horse right now.

WCC.

Yeah.

Let's hope this would be genius if they beat Gonzaga.

They do play them well.

Yeah, this spread's 10.

Gonzaga, though, they have not.

I don't think they've had a single-digit game since December.

Did they say lost to Duke?

No, they lost to Alabama by nine.

Yeah.

But, yeah, they've throttled these teams. Oh, I had one last thing I wanted to ask you about college basketball.
As a Syracuse grad, at some point are you like, hey, Jim Boeheim, maybe let's not just run. For Jimmy? Well, they're basically running AAU basketball with his sons.

Right. Jimmy's actually

been good. No, but Jimmy and Buddy

both are like 35 plus minutes a game.

Yeah, well, the Syracuse teams are always

like that. They're always max like a

seven-man rotation. Right, but it's just very funny

to have two sons on the team. They're not always

like that because they're both

sons of the head coach. Right.

Yeah, it's wild. There's also some wild circumstances at the Michigan State-Iowa game.

First of all, Fran McCaffrey, head coach of Iowa, has two sons on the team.

And Tom Izzo's son, I think it was a walk-on.

He came in at the very end.

There's a lot of wilds.

Oh, I did see him come in at the end.

Am I finally being vindicated on my take I've been squatting on for six years?

Yeah, six years since 2016 about Tom Izzo. You think he's a fraud? He's overrated.
Yeah, I mean, Rothstein has the January, February Izzo. He hasn't won since 2000.
Yep, true. But he has the Final Four in 2015, 2019.
I think it's one of those sports arguments that depends on where you frame him. If you're saying he's all-time great, he's definitely overrated.

If you're saying he's a really fucking good coach with a lot of teams with deep runs.

Same with Syracuse.

Syracuse has not had a good team since before I was there in high school,

but they've made three sweet 16s since then.

Right, and the tournament is impossible.

The single elimination tournament, you can't be like,

oh, they suck because they lost in the second round.

But if you want to be considered one of the best coaches, you have to win a second. That's a big thing.
Cal needs to win a second. He knows he does.
I almost feel like we should take March away from Izzo. I don't know if Izzo's been holding up his end of the deal.
I actually think it's already been taken away from him because it feels like the tournament starts a little later than it used to. I mean, the championship's always in April now.
April, so yeah, he's good. He doesn't...
He can make the Final Four every year and still be January, February, Izzo. Yeah, right.
So he's out before the end of March. I still like the idea that we finally reached a point where you can kind of disingenuously frame Tom Izzo as being extremely overrated.
It's probably not true yet, but it's a take that I just take a lot of pride in squatting on that eventually will become true. He just needs to coach for another five years.
They're bad right now, too. They've lost six of seven.
Notre Dame's good. Sorry, I was talking about Michigan State.
Michigan State's very. Very bad.
They're still probably going to make the tournament, but. Yeah, very bad.
What about UCLA? Have they not played their best basketball yet? No. I think a lot of people are just kind of hanging on to last year in terms of the preseason hype.
They haven't had all their guys. Yeah, they've been banged up.
They have been banged up. And the Pac-12, there's not a lot of opportunities to prove yourself.
Right. They have three tournament teams, and that's it, unless there's a bid stealer.
Well, I mean

Oregon has two big games coming up. They play

UCLA and USC.

Okay, so there could

be a fourth plus a bid stealer, but

there's only three locks right now.

So it's kind of like with Gonzaga.

If you lose, people will talk about it.

If you win, people will just be like, eh.

Alright, last question. It's good.
College basketball primer. Your Big 12 champion.
Big 12 champion right now is Kansas. Really? Yeah, I think Baylor lost.
I love Texas Tech. Yep, me too.
Baylor lost a guy by the name of Jonathan Chamuchachua out for the year. That's a big blow.
Great pronunciation. Thank you.
But what about Texas Tech? So you didn't even have Texas Tech too. No, no, no.
If Baylor 2, then Jonathan Ochoa. No, I was just saying why Baylor was out.
I would say Texas Tech is 2 right now. I like Texas Tech.
Yeah, right now, guns ahead. If Kentucky's healthy, they're winning it all.
That's good for you. 25 to 1.
Yeah, but that's maybe the only time in my life I've ever timed. Yeah, Ty Ty.
My guy Ty Ty. And Sevier Wheeler, the Georgia guy.
I know. But if they're healthy, I really think they can win it all.
It would be awesome. I've ever timed.
Yeah, Ty-Ty. My guy Ty-Ty.
And Sevier Wheeler, the Georgia guy.

But if they're healthy, I really think they can win it all.

It would be, yeah.

I've never timed.

I think they're second, but time Gonzaga right now in the Barstool Sportsbook.

I'm the king of betting futures way late and never doing anything correctly.

And I got them at 25-1 in December, which was actually higher than their preseason.

I think they were 20-1 preseason. You had me bet the Wisconsin future at plus 4,000, and somehow now it's plus 6,000.
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know how that happened.
Yeah, what makes those things move? People don't think Wisconsin is very good. I mean, they don't blow anyone out.
I still think that they could get to Sweet 16. They got to Sweet 16 on Matt.
Kentucky's plus 700, second favorite right now. Wait, but what were they before the season? That was my point.
I somehow timed it. I've never done that.
I've never in my life been able to do that where it's like, oh, you got the best number possible. I'll have to find it.
But yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Kentucky's very, very good.
Very, very good. Anything else? College basketball.
Anything else? Washington ball? Let's see. I'm just looking at my future.
I got Duke at plus 750. What are they at now? I think they're probably 10.
It's worse than that. It's worse than that.
It's plus 1,200. They're a 7th favorite right now.
They're plus 1,400 preseason, so that's not even that much. Jake, Chris Beard trying to make things work in Austin.
He got booed in Austin already. Yeah, Texas Tech.
Texas Tech came and beat him. How short is the leash on Chris Beard? Hot seat.
I mean, if they run him out, then Texas should just stop having a program. I think if they make it farther than Texas Tech in the tournament, all will be forgotten.
Besides that one epic night in Lubbock. I don't think they will.
You don't think they will? No, I don't think so either. I love Texas Tech.
They had a guy leave the team, Trey Mitchell. It's tough right now.
I think Chris Beard created a monster. You're like a little Rothstein now.
You got all the names. I think Chris Beard created a system.
And then he left, and now it's like running too perfectly well without him. Now he has to play against that old system for the rest of his career at Texas.
Well, I love whenever a coach leaves a team, and it's like, oh, no, like all these guys guys are leaving and then you bring in a coach, you have a coach

that's older, I feel like that's always

a winning proposition. Is it Mark Adams?

Yeah, Mark Adams. He was on the staff

right? Yeah, the story

goes, some guys got on the plane with Chris

Beard to move to Austin, Mark Adams did not.

That's what I'm saying.

He's a football guy too. He's the guy

that's like, you'll have to drag me out of here

in a coffin. I'm not leaving Lubbock, Texas.
Yeah. Love it.
Big 10 winner. Wisconsin.
You're just saying that now. He also used to be an owner of a hockey team.
Did you know that? I don't know. Purdue, I'm still waiting for them to click because they were the favorite preseason and they have the guys.
But, yeah. Prisoner of the moment.
No, no, not to win. Not to win.
I'm saying their offense is good enough to make a run. Every year.
Yeah, for defense. Right, exactly.
Geek and Murray, too. If Rutgers plays their best game, is there a team that can beat Rutgers at their best? Well, we'll actually be there Saturday, Wisconsin at Rutgers.
It's a loss for Wisconsin. You're welcome to come if you would like.
Yeah. But I'm very excited for that one.

TJ asked me, our coworker who's a Rutgers super fan,

if I was nervous for the game.

I was like, no, because Wisconsin's going to lose.

You're expecting to lose?

Yes.

Dude, Rutgers at the rack is the fucking dream team.

It really is.

They are the original dream team.

Ranked wins.

Jackie April. They beat everyone.
Although Wisconsin has a revenge factor in this game. Wisconsin lost at home last week to Rutgers.
Oh, I'm aware. No, I'm just saying.
I think you're selling yourself short. I think they have a better chance in this game than you think.
Not Rutgers at home. Not Rutgers at home.
Auto bet. I won't bet it, but auto bet.
The crazy thing is Rutgers at home at their best is actually the best team in the country.

It has to be against a ranked opponent. Yeah, a good team.

What if I told you they lost to Lafayette on Monday, November 22nd?

Lafayette is 10-18 right now out of the Patriot League.

I'd say you know your ball.

Yeah.

I'm just looking off.

I'd say you know your ball.

Jake, do you know, would you say that you have more knowledge about college basketball

than Marty Mush? I don't know. Yes.
Jake, don't be fake humble. I don't know.
I worry about myself. That's a yes on both of us.
Yeah, Jake, don't be fake humble. I worry about myself.
Do my own prep. I love how Marty's recipe is just betting on massive favorites and then getting so furious and saying that now all the good teams stink because they didn't cover a spread, which completely turns around his entire analysis of college basketball because now he thinks all the good teams suck just because they didn't cover like 14 and a half.
Right. Yeah.
Or a blank team wins a big game. Blank team is for real.
Yeah. I subscribe to that theory.
That's fair. I like statement wins.
Yeah. Statement wins where you can hang your hat on it yeah and be like damn that's a fucking big win yeah what do you think about the ongoing escalations in russia and ukraine i tweeted about ed cooley and i got read the room so you gotta just apologize to those people yeah because i've said this before and I'll say it for the millionth time.

Think about for a second what the read the room person is doing.

They are so like allegedly obsessed and enthralled might not be the right word.

Thinking about this big global thing so much so that they're spending their time on Twitter policing everyone else's tweets. So they're the read the room people.
And again, it's Twitter. Yeah.
Like we're not actually part of a war. We're not in a war zone.
That's true. Did solve all of this.
If we could just tweet mean things. I think there was a tweet that was like, everyone tweet what you think about Russia to Russia.
No, that was from Ukraine. Oh, Ukraine's official account? I thought like that.
They're fucking owning them? Except Ukraine. Which is ratio Russia? By the letter of the law in the Twitter terms of service, Ukraine could get kicked off Twitter for targeted harassment at Russia.
Which would be the ultimate check move. It would be the most hilarious 2022 move of all time.
Also, we learned this yesterday. You should not call it the Ukraine.
If you truly stand with Ukraine, you call it Ukraine because the word the implies that it's a part of Russia. So every time you use the word the, you give up, you cede two yards of territory of Ukraine to Vladimir Putin.
Has Florio treated out Ukraine not weak? I'm sure. He's been thinking about it for 24 hours.
Yeah. All right.
Let's do our hypothetical. Then we'll do Mark Cuban.
We got a fun hypothetical before we do that sling coach prime is back. You can stream the live premiere of each episode on sling on Tuesday and Thursday at 8 p.m.
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uh by the way we will have um we have a couple nba interviews coming up next week and the week after so we'll be talking about that we will get biz and wit on uh you know sometime in the next couple of weeks talk a little hockey what before we do this hypothetical are we okay to have titus on jake yeah absolutely he's Awesome. All right yeah well they got into a little bar fight in uh in los angeles right that's right you and titus yeah no i showed up i showed up to uh to hang out before we did the dozen i got in there jake was already like three beers deep i think titus was trying to make him slow down actually fun fact that we learned at this occasion this is the funnest fact This is a very fun fact Jake whenever he orders a beer He simultaneously gets a water Nice Taffer It's not mixing in a water It's chasing his beer with water I always have a water bottle with me At all times Oh water bottle Did you do it the night that you were in that girl's ear explaining something?

Yeah.

I had a bottle of Poland Springs in the back pocket.

Body armor.

Oh, yeah.

Excuse me.

Body armor.

Body armor.

And a Coors Light.

Yeah, of course.

Love it.

Love it.

All right.

Good times.

Let's do this.

So what's hypothetical?

If you could pick.

Yeah.

So it's just I got the idea because I saw that the Washington Commanders were targeting Carson Wentz

and So what's hypothetical, if you could pick? Yeah, so it's just I got the idea because I saw that the Washington Commanders were targeting Carson Wentz as their quarterback. And I thought about it and I was like, I would rather literally have 11 Mitchell Trubisky's playing every position than Carson Wentz at quarterback.
And then I thought, like, that's actually kind of a funny image to think about. Mitchell Trubisky playing every single position.

But the team would be so much better. Like, what would be the guy that you would choose to be in all 11 positions on a team on offense?

And then we could also do one on defense.

Oh, I was thinking it was both.

I thought it was you pick one player to play every position.

We can do that, too.

Also, we're taking out Aaron Donald from this because everyone's going to just be like, Aaron Donald, Aaron Donald. Billy's now about to tell you why Aaron Donald's actually not that strong.
No, he can't throw a football. Oh.
But that literature offensive. Confirmed? I just sent you guys a video.
Oh, yeah, actually, I saw it. I saw it.
On Corden, he literally can't throw a football. That's true.
And also him running routes downfield. There's no passing game.
Okay, so my question to you, PFT, for this, though, is are our teams going up against each other or are they going up against a regular team? Because that matters. Yeah, so I think the only way that we'd be able to do this is if they were all playing each other.
Like everybody gets one guy, and then we determine whose team is the best amongst us. I feel like then we should write down our answer

because otherwise your pick might affect my pick.

Yeah.

And then we just have to let the audience decide.

Write down maybe two in case we have similar ones.

I have a bunch.

Okay.

I wish that you could go offense and defense

because I love the idea of having 11 honey badgers on defense.

Just to clarify.

It's one person that can play all 11 positions.

Every position.

Just all little guys just running at everyone's knees.

It'd be funny.

And probably pretty good, too.

Does it have to be current?

Yes.

Played in the NFL.

Was on a roster this year. Sounds like you're picking Antonio Brown.
Hank's going to pick Tom Brady. Did you? No, but I was thinking about it.
Oh, I did. I guess I'm just a bigger Tom Brady fan than you.
I guess so. All right, Hank, go ahead.

DK Metcalf.

Okay.

Big as fuck.

Fast as fuck.

Fast as fuck.

Because I was going to pick Tyreek Hill.

That was my first thought.

But then you've got to think about the offensive line.

DK is at least bigger, stronger, could hold some of those guys off.

And he's fast as Tyreek Hill.

Almost.

Maybe faster.

Not quite.

But that's actually a pretty good pick because you do need size.

I think it's think he could actually punt if he had to. Yeah, the Tyreek Hill.
I do think you could beat everyone with Tyreek Hill. But maybe these teams, like maybe Tyreek Hill versus DK Metcalfs, but if it's Tyreek Hill versus defensive linemen.
I still think you could beat him with Tyreek Hill because you could just run around. True.
That's my pick, Tyreek Hill. Okay.
So, yeah, I was going back and forth. I was like, so can I say what else I was going to pick or no? Everyone pick.
Everyone pick. Everyone pick.
Where's yours? PFT. Deebo Samuel.
Okay. Because he can already do it all.
Like everything I've seen him do, he's great at. I have no reason to believe that he couldn't do everything else great too.
Mine's Rob Gronkowski, but like a prime Rob Gronkowski. Okay.
Is that fair? That's a good pick. Yeah.
That's actually a great pick. Jake? So you're saying George Kittle.
Wait, you can't say prime. You can't say prime.
If you're saying prime Rob Gronkowski, you're saying George Kittle. Because my answer would be prime Cam Newton.
Without a doubt. I'll change mine to Cam Newton.
If we do prime. You can't do prime.
Because my 100% would be prime Cam Newton. Without a doubt, I think would dominate everyone.
I would say prime Tim Tebow. Tebow was actually my second pick.
That's what I said on a roster this year. But if you go prime, I'm fine with you doing prime Robert Kowski.
If you want to do current players who are in their prime, I'm switching mine to prime Cam Newton. But the thing is Cam Newton doesn't dive on fumbles.
I just don't. He doesn't have the grip.
No, but now you're debating Big Cat's prime. We need to figure out whether or not this is prime.
The offensive lineman Cam Newton might have dove on it. I'd say only current players in their current form.
Yes. Well, Gronk's lost a couple steps.
Kittle was on my list. Kittle was my number two.
Kittle was on my list. Jake? I'm taking J.J.
Watt. Why don't you take T.J.
Watt? Okay, T.J. Watt.
What are you doing?. 11 is most of the show.
Yeah, but TJ Watt is better than TJ. Yeah, right now.
Take Derek Watt. Take Derek Watt.
Yeah, Derek Watt. First touchdown.
I should take a JJ. What? OBJ.
OBJ. His current form? He can throw and kick.
He's got one leg. He did just have a baby, though, so he definitely scored.
First time in the Super Bowl.

That's actually a good pick, though,

because he can do everything. And there's videos where he spins it, and he can fucking

kick it 50 yards. Yes.
I wish I could

JJ Watt.

JJ Watt.

So I was thinking about it.

My fucking boy.

I was thinking about it. You obviously want size

and speed, but I do think Tyreek Hill's speed would just beat everyone. I think he would suck so bad at defense, though.
But you wouldn't be able to stop him on offense. You just run on him in defense.
You just run on him. Yeah, he'd be a liability against the run for sure.
And then you'd just run on them in offense. It'd be a shootout every game.
I think 11 Debo's could fuck up a team of 11 Tyreek Hill's. The thing with the, not on physically, Tyree kills from a physical man, from a man standpoint, though.
Then DK Metcalf would, would be Debo Samuels by that. Correct.
If you went by that same logic. No, I don't think so.
Okay. I guess that's the end of the debate.
No, that's why I picked, that's why I picked Debo. Think about it this way, Hank.

Can DK cover Debo Samuel?

Can Debo Samuel cover DK Mechel?

Probably more likely that he could than DK could cover Debo.

DK's got a significant size advantage.

He can't go sideways.

I mean, okay.

Are we debating it in joke version or real version? Debo is way better going laterally than DK. We can agree on that.
Yeah, but DK could definitely size-wise wear him down. Right, if we're doing wear it down, I'll concede, yeah, you'd run all over Tyree Kill.
I just think you'd snap the ball to Tyree Kill and he'd run and then... The thing about Tyree Kill is that a defense full of Tyree Kill, you could easily control possession because you just run the ball on him every time.
But he could do the same to you, I'm saying. By running around? Yeah.
Like, if it was Tyree Kill versus George Kittle, like, he would just run past George Kittle. But what if you just engage...
It would be a shootout. It would be last team with the ball.
Engage eight. He'd just run around and then throw it deep to the other Tyreek Hill who's wide open.
Here's what the problem could be with Tyreek Hill is that if Tyreek Hill is blocking for Tyreek Hill then he's got all these Tyreek Hills running like with him and slightly in front of him and he just runs into them. He has no true breakaways because he never is able to get past his own, all the other Tyree kills that are out there in space.
My point is I would run Shark Wheel with Tyree Kill 100 times a game. So it's just all the Tyree Kills on the line fall down in front of everyone.
The quarterback Tyree Kill runs out and then either throws it or keeps running as Tyree Kill. I still think defense is a big liability there.
Yeah, of course it is. He gets smoked.
The other guys I had on there were Micah Parsons. Jonathan Taylor would be a sneaky good one because he's got speed and size.
He's a fucking monster, like 230, and can run a 4-3-9. Derrick Henry wouldn't be a bad option either.
Derrick Henry? He can pass. Lamar would be a good option.
Because he could pass better than all these people. Darius Leonard? Imagine your whole team having diarrhea at the same time, though.
Yeah, I can. It'd be a nightmare on the plumbing system.
Now that I'm thinking about it, though, I think out of all of our picks, I think actually Hank probably won. I actually think DK might be the best pick.
Thank you. Because of the size and speed.
He has the combo that it'd be pretty hard to stop. I'm trying to think over the course of a game, that size and speed would be pretty impossible.
That run against the Cardinals is one of the more jaw-dropping things I've ever seen in sports. That and Odell's catch.
I'll be honest. I didn't fully think it out on defense,

which was a mistake.

And I think DK would probably be the best defender

of everyone besides TJ Watt.

He's close enough to everybody's size.

DK on the line

versus... You're talking about covering,

but you got Debo Samuels on the line

going against DK Metcalf or Tyree Kills.

Yeah, but Debo's a dog.

Kittle would be fine, but...

But then Kittle's not going to get any separation. Right.
What do you mean? DK Metcalf is faster than George Kittle. I feel like Kittle will get separation, though.
He might, but he's definitely... He's not going to have...
Yeah, maybe. Yeah, maybe.
I mean, it's Kittle, so probably, but... Yeah, but Kittle gets separation from everyone.
True. But you think Kittle can get push on DK Metcalf? I don't know what that means.
This was either the dumbest thing or the smartest thing we've done. I think I'm leaning towards dumb.
Yeah, I'm leaning towards dumb. But I still like doing it.
You know what would be a shitty team would be Kirk Cousins. I think that'd probably be the worst team.
Quarterbacks suck. If it was all Kirk Cousins.
Except Cam Newton. Cam Newton Prime, I do think, is the answer.
Think about how big and strong and fast he is and can throw yeah like he would have the one thing that you don't have any other well Bo Jackson Prime would be the real answer is this just who's the best athlete in the NFL kind of no but it's like it's a little bit different than that but it kind of is kind of it's a kind of it kind of like Cam Newton wouldn't block. It's like, who's the best, who has the highest measurables across the board? Who's the strongest, fastest guy across the board is kind of what it is.
The answer is Aaron Donald probably. Yeah, it probably is Aaron Donald.
Although I like TJ Watt. TJ Watt's not a bad answer because I don't know how you'd score on a bunch of TJ Watt's.
It's like a high school coach thing to be. I wish I had 11 of that guy.
Right. That's like your quote.
Yeah. I wish I had 11.
So it's Rex Burkheads. Mm-hmm.
All right. Well, that was fun.
I had fun. Did everyone have fun? I had fun.
Billy, you didn't have fun? There was a little left out there. Oh, yeah? What was it? Give it to us.

No, no, it was fun.

It was the prime thing?

The prime Robert Gronkowski? Yeah, I just really wanted to talk about that.

Prime Gronk is a great answer.

I want to talk about Prime Gronk.

He was a beast.

Yeah.

Now, a hockey team, I'd take Putin's.

Yes.

All of them.

Yes.

Yes, Putin's and Ovechkin's,

because they'd have good team chemistry.

Well, that's my fire fest.

All right, well, let's get to Mark Cuban. Okay.
All right, yeah. You got to add before we get to Mark Cuban.
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Get the freshest coffee in America shipped to you. Now, here's Mark Cuban.
Okay, we now welcome on our very good friend, recurring guest, I think fourth or fifth time on the show. It is Mark Cuban.
New episode of Shark Tank. So we're running this tomorrow.
Yep. So if you're listening to this, new episode of Shark Tank on ABC tonight.
Tonight. Tonight.
Friday night. Perfect night to sit down in front of the TV, watch a new episode of Shark Tank.
And drink heavily. And drink heavily.
And buy all my shit. Yes.
And buy every ... What shit do we want to buy right now? You got any new apps or anything that we need to buy? Health care? We're going to buy health care? Health care.
Yeah. That's my thing right now.
You're a drug dealer, right? Yeah. What's that? a drug dealer.
I'm a drug dealer, and I'm good at it, motherfuckers. Yeah, so we created a company three and a half years ago called Cost Plus Drugs, and the whole idea was just to fuck up the whole pharmaceutical industry because anybody who's ever had a prescription, particularly for generics, man, you just don't know what the price is going to be.
So we did a deep dive on the whole pharmaceutical thing and basically created this company, costplusdrugs.com, where we have complete transparency. We go to the manufacturer, buy the drugs, mark them up 15%.
You pay $3 to the pharmacy for fill, $5 for shipping, and that's it. And what ends up happening is if you don't have insurance, we saved your life.
If you do have insurance,

it's cheaper than co-pays.

So right now we've got about 110 different generics

at costplusdrugs.com.

By the end of the year,

we'll have 2,000.

So if you have any type of prescription,

check it out.

If we have your drug,

we will save you money.

I love it.

So that's a very good thing,

saving people money

and I assume time and everything.

Well, the whole thing,

like the whole pharmacy industry

is just fucked up right now

because they have to be very good thing. Saving people money and I assume time and everything.
Well, the whole thing, like the whole pharmacy industry is just fucked up right now because they have these things called pharmacy benefit managers. And what they do is they go to hospitals and insurance companies and they say, you know what? You pay us and we'll go out and get you best prices on drugs.
And then they do that, right? Then they go to the drug manufacturers and they say, yo, this big insurance company, this big hospital, we control what gets in the door, right? We're the doorman. And so you don't get in unless you spiff the doorman.
And so they'll buy these PBMs, will play doorman and go to the drug manufacturers and say, okay, you're going to sell to them for a dollar a pill. But for every pill that I sell to it or that they sell, you're going to give me 50 cents.
And what ends up happening then, now all the shit is jacked up, right? So that's why you see all these crazy prices for drugs when the actual manufacturing cost is nothing. So they're the middleman.
They're the middleman. How pissed are they? This is like the wire and you're cutting them out.
Yeah, that's exactly right. That's exactly right.
They've got to be pissy. Well, we're still small, right? We've only been shipping for a month now.
Are you Martin Shkreli? Is that what you're doing? No, we're the anti-Reverse. You're the anti-Reverse.
Right, and that was actually part of the reason I got into this, right? Shartan Shkreli, yeah. Yeah, because I was like, if he can fuck it up and jack it up 750%, I can cut him by 750%, right? And so we just vertically integrated, pure shark tank we said okay all these guys it's like it's like going to a club right the guy at the door is taking you know okay give me 100 bucks to get in or you're not getting in that's exactly the way they work you know so we said we're not going to do any of that stuff we're not going to take any of the rebates we going to market up 15%.
That's it. And the drug companies actually love us because the PBMs, the pharmacy benefit managers, make them look bad because they get all these rebates and they just store it at the pricing and everything.
So bottom line is just if you have any type of prescription, go to costplusdrugs.com, sign up. If we don't have your drug yet or your mom's drug or your grandma's drug or whatever, we will like that though that's it sounds like it's a real good thing that you're doing yeah for real because like there are people you're making enough money to to float the company but it doesn't sound like this is a like correct me if i'm wrong but this is not your business that you're trying to get rich off of no i'm already rich right i don't need more money man this is a chance to change the game right so so too many people way too many people like all right do i pay my rent do i pay my phone bill do i eat or do i get the drugs that i need to stay alive or do i like buy my drugs and instead of taking the whole pill i cut it in half too many i mean millions of people are in that position and i was like that's too fucked up yeah i mean it's it sounds like a great uh business idea everything is this now something that you will use for your platform when you run for president no i'm not running for fucking president right now yeah we're in the middle of uh yeah ever yeah two more years no but yeah no this would be good no this is better right because i don't have to deal all the bullshit, right? I can just go and hopefully if this grows, you know, and we're adding thousands of customers a day, 10,000 plus on some days.
And so if this keeps on growing, then I can extend it into other areas of healthcare. So if you go to the doctor or you have to go to the hospital, instead of wanting, oh, fuck, how much is this shit going to cost, right? And being terrified it might not be covered under insurance.
Then, you know, we'll try to find a better way to do it. Okay.
This, I mean, this is awesome. Costplusdrugs.com, baby.
Yeah. I love it.
I appreciate the fact that you're not running for president because I feel like anybody that wants to be president is an idiot. Either they're an idiot or they're like a power hungry goon that I would not want to be president.
That should be the test. Like, the person who wants to be president the least, that guy should actually be president.
Look, here's the reality in America. If you ever had fun in your life, you cannot be president.
Yep. I would probably disagree with that.
Well, I mean, last guy. Yeah, I was going to say.
Obama did some. He railed some coke.
He had a fucking party. Yeah, but that was pre-social media.
That was pre-social. George W.
Bush. Yeah yeah but that was pre-social media that was pre-social George W.
Bush yeah that was all pre-social animal I actually think it's the other way I think it's going to be like our president in 20 years is going to be whoever the most okay let me rephrase it was let me rephrase it if you don't want to go through all that shit and relive it with your kids you will get yes your whole family your friends everyone will go't want to. My kids are 12, 15, and 18.
No, we have our good friend Matt Jones was contemplating running for senator in Kentucky. Yeah.
And he gave us a heads up. He's like, look, if I run for senator, like, my relationship with you guys will be scrutinized.
Yeah. And, like, you're probably going to go through it.
We're like, all right, that's fine. Yeah, you guys don't care.
That's good PR, right? But it is. You have to talk to everyone in your life.
Yeah, my 18-year-old daughter, right? She doesn't want to deal with that shit. It's like any kids with their parents, right? It's like, no, I want to live my fucking life.
I don't want to have to relive yours. Is she going to Indiana? No, I wouldn't let her.
Oh, because of basketball program. Why haven't you in the NIL? Let's go from here because I'm a Badger.
I want Wisconsin to be good. Jersey the other night I want to be a booster you have all the money why don't you make Indiana great well it's not about money to get great you need to get the players right you can use the money to get the players I did stuff for education I just don't want to make it about sports I know it? I know it's kind of lame in some respects.
If I were an Indiana grad, I'd be so pissed at you. No, people are pissed at me all the time.
Oh, yeah, I'd be so mad. Indiana fans are crazy.
You know, I love them. I am one, right? But the thing about Indiana fans is we all think we're basketball coaches, right? So I literally get emails all the time saying, can you believe the out-of-bounds play we ran after this timeout? Fire the motherfucker.
You put up $10 million to buy him out. Because I was a sixth-grade coach for my son or my daughter, and I ran better out-of-bounds.
That's IU fans, right? There's just no way to make them happy. It's religion in Indiana.
For sure. Yeah, that's where you get the most passionate fans.
But, yeah, I would be pissed. So, yeah, because I guess you own a team.
I feel like a lot of boosters are the class of people who can't own a professional team. Plus, I'm limited, too, in what I can do.
Why? Right, because as an owner of a team, I can't just go in there and start plugging guys' money because that's going to be a salary cap violation at some level, right? Yeah. Yeah, how does that work, though? If it's NIL, I mean, it's basically the wild west now where nobody knows any of the rules.
I think it's going to be one of these things where we figure out what was against the rules retroactively after they're already broken. But are you just doing that out of like an abundance of caution? You own a professional team.
You don't want to get tangled up in that or is there actually like something preventing you from doing that? No, they're both, right? I don't want to get in the mix of the uncertainty because it's just not worth the grief um and then there are rules that i can't be dealing with you know players right college players or high school players i can't even go to high school games without getting permission you know and so there's just a whole bunch of rules but at the same time i can invest in companies that deal with nil and's what I've done. I just can't target specific players like that would help Indiana.
Right. What about the other elephant in the room? Because I think you've talked about it a little bit.
I haven't heard much from you recently, but the NFL. Because we're about to see an offseason, and either this offseason or next, maybe a combination of the two, where maybe two franchises might become available to purchase.
Yeah, no interest whatsoever. None.
You don't like money? That's not even about that. I got money, right? It's the emotional investment.
Yeah. Right? People don't understand how bad losing hurts.
You know, 82 games, if you're losing 35 games, let's say, it's still a decent season. That's a lot of me being pissed off and driving around Dallas or wherever I am because it's just the most frustrating thing ever because I can't do anything.
Whatever we do, we do in the offseason. And then once that ball goes up and they play the 48 minutes, there ain't shit that I can do.
And so it's painful. Winning is fun, but losing is far more painful yeah I could see that I do want I have a complicated question about the NBA I would like to get your thoughts on sure in terms of like player empowerment I know that you know the NBA is healthy if you look at streaming and all these things but in terms of the average fan like enjoyment of the NBA do you think you're're in a good spot right now i think we're in a great spot you do yeah yeah for sure 100 not even close so you've got to look at it generationally right just like when when you were a kid shit has changed right because like when we were growing up every household had teams right and because you just watched the game on sunday afternoons or whatever games were on, hockey, basketball, whatever city you were in.
And it was kind of like, okay, that's what you did, right? There were three channels if you're old enough, then there was cable and then there weren't a lot of choices. Now, there's just an unlimited number of media choices.
And so kids, Gen Z in particular, consumes media completely different. Like my kids, it's TikTok.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. But they're watching basketball.
My son in particular is watching basketball highlights nonstop. Right.
Because TikTok just feeds that shit to you completely. So the NBA's problem isn't so much that, you know, our ratings aren't as good as the NFL or this or that.
It's how can we TikTok-a-size how people consume the equivalent of TV ratings, right? Like, how can you measure TikTok views and things like that? Yeah, we can measure it to a certain extent, but we can't deliver them the same way. Like, I can't tell you which company, but I invested in this company.
And the whole idea is that we'll be able to take real-time feeds from different games at the same time run them through ai and if you're a luca fan you're just going to get highlights when luca has the ball if he's not in the game you don't care watch but if you're also a steph curry fan so if steph if the warriors and the mavs have games at the same time the ai will just feed you the the highlights you like in 30-second bits. Okay, here's an idea.
You just gave me an idea.

Maybe we can workshop this. It's like

Red Zone, but it's just whenever Luka has the ball.

So in real time, it gets fed to you.

So it's not even just a highlight.

It's just like you get an alert on your phone,

Luka's touching the ball right now.

Harden never stops. It's like JFK's

flame.

It's like a TikTok version of Red. Or Duncan Robinson, you get it by the time you open it up he's already shot the ball right right it's it's a tiktok version of red zone but whatever you like it uses artificial intelligence to figure out the stuff you like like if you're only about dunks if you're only about um three-pointers if you're only about blocks you know whatever it is and you know and or if you're just about one player if you're just about just about Luka, and you're going to see, and Luka's not in the game, you might get a Luka interview as opposed to even the game itself.
But if we can package all that and get enough numbers, which I think we can because that's where the trends are going, then it works. So I agree with you.
In, in terms of a star league, like the stars,

some of the young players are so insane, and it's like the level plays off the charts.

Incredible.

I do think, and I'll throw these out there because this isn't like how I feel.

I just know that some people do feel like this because I love the NBA,

and I watch.

I don't watch every single team.

I watch the Bulls, and I'll watch a Luke or, you know,

whatever's on ESPN on a Friday night. But, like, for like for instance the dunk contest i know it's not a big deal it was lame but it does feel like the stars don't care as much about the fans like that to me is like hey fans are investing in this why isn't any anyone want to like step up to the plate or i know there was the conversation about the locker room access that Adam Silver had.
Right. And it's like the players don't want reporters in the locker room.
I think they should be in the locker room because we get stuff on a day to day basis from beat reporters and we make fun of beat reporters sometimes. But it's like they get in tune with a team unlike any other regular fan who watches on TV.
Right. Like that kind of stuff where it's like the players no i get what you're saying right and they don't really i can't argue with your fans or you know obviously the whole rest and like load management stuff but there is some truth behind like on a friday night if you're sitting down and there's the nationally televised game and it's like none of the stars are playing it's like what the fuck are we doing no i can't argue with you right and i think what's changed is players have control of their platform just like you guys have control of your platform i can walk in here as a reporter and say okay let's talk about part of my take and there's things you're not going to say because you have your platform to communicate those things right and so that's the big difference versus even five years ago six years ago because a 22 a 22 year old kid today, a 20 year old kid grew up on Instagram, now knows and is part of TikTok or has a YouTube channel.
Right. And so they already have it.
So they want to save some of the shit for themselves. And I think that's part of the issue.
Whereas with the NFL, you know, you take a team of 53 players, you're going to know two by sight. Right.
And only two of them are going to have more than 10,000 followers on any of their social media platforms. Right.
And so guys want to control their own brand as part of it. Now, that said, you've got to find that balance.
Right. Right.
That's the hard part. And that's what Adam and the owners and all that will work on trying to find.
Because you're right. Right.
The more access we give fans, the better the product is going to be. Absolutely.
There's absolutely there's also that line i think as fans you don't know where it is but you can kind of sense when it becomes you realize like oh they don't really care as much about this as i do as a fan and i'm spending all my time worrying about it now i'm not saying this is like every player but i'm saying that like there there is a line that you would get to at some point where the fans are like if if I have more enthusiasm about this if I care so much more about them than they do about me why am I spending all my money I don't I don't know so much oh good well I was gonna say I agree with that but I'm kind of making a little bit of a different point it's more like the health of the league not like I'm not worried about the health of the league at all but but in terms of fan there's a point point where, and I think the problem with everything now is that the argument just gets split and pushed to the side. So it's people mocking the load management, being like, who cares? And people being like, I'll never watch the NBA again because of the load management.
I think there's a lot of fans like me who are like, on a Friday night, if Luke is not playing because he doesn't want to play, I'm like, what the fuck? This sucks. sucks.
We do have rules, right, where it's like, hey, if you're able to play and it's a TV game, you've got to play. But then on the flip side, if Luka plays a game that doesn't make as much or any start, right, and it's not as important a game, and he gets hurt, and then they're like, you dumbass motherfucker, you should have saved him for the playoffs.
You're damned if you do and damned if you don't. But I get your point i get your point right where you're talking about look are the guys as committed to the fans as the fans are committed to the league right right and i i think they are right but i think the hard part for the league is to try to find that balance right because we want the stars to be as big as possible because the reality is fans are following the stars, the players more than they're following the teams.
All right. So tough question.
Sure. Do you think Adam Silver is a little too pro player at times? Because I saw the locker room talk that he did with his address.
And I saw the anecdote passed around that when David Stern said that in 2007, they're going to do the locker room access, Scott coach of the Bulls stood up and was like that's our sacred place and David Stern was like oh geez what should I think about eight billion dollars in our broadcasters or Scott fucking Skiles literally said that to him yeah and it's like that's the point of but there's that was a different era right so yeah that might be the answer that like that's the problem build up is different than it is so here's here's what you guys don't see. At halftime, dudes are on social media.
So there's that period where a guy walks in at halftime, takes off his jersey, puts on a clean jersey so you're not carrying that sweat heaviness, and the coaches are in their coach's locker room and they're revisiting what they want to say and the adjustments they want to make because you can't do that in real time during the game. So the coaches take the 15 minutes at halftime, the coaches take three to five minutes.
During that three, five minutes, guys are like, off comes the jersey, check my phone, right? So they're communicating. Most of them won't.
It's pretty much against player rules, right? You know, the unwritten rules to tweet or do anything during that time.

But they're checking just to see how things are going.

That connection is that strong.

Yeah.

Right?

So the players have such a strong connection to the fans.

So if you may be a huge Mavs or Bulls fans or whatever,

but if you're connecting to Luka and the team,

you're on social media and we're communicating with you continuously.

Sometimes where you get that disconnect is where fans, you know, maybe a little bit older are not social media and we're communicating with you continuously sometimes where you get that

disconnect is where fans you know maybe a little bit older are not social media literate but anybody under the age of 50 for the most part now they're on their phone while the game is on anyways no that's true and so players are connecting more often can like in the david stern era there is no player that was connecting personally and directly with fans as much as you do today. Right.
Yeah, no, and I don't have the answer to this. It's more like I don't see a lot of people actually having an honest conversation about it.
Because, again, it becomes a meme where it's like if you criticize this, you're basically like saying, oh, the NBA sucks now. I want the 80 90s.
No, I don't look at it that way at all. I think it's a great product right now, minus the end of games, which the reviews are just terrible.
You agree with that. Which reviews? You actually have created this because you complained about the refs so much.
Now we have to do an instant replay for everything. No, they changed it.
The last two minutes, the out-of-bounds aren't reviewed anymore. But it still takes forever.
No, it got cut by nine minutes. The out-of-bounds stuff was real tough.
When they would zoom in on a fingertip and see if the ball rotated at the last second, that was the worst. To me, I was worried about that when we got rid of it because of all the gambling coming into play now.
True. Because I was worried that we were going to cost somebody a shitload of money because we didn't check the out-of-bounds play, but I got outvoted.
But listen, I mean, gamblers aren't irrational, so that's not – no one would complain about that. If you said, I'm all in on this, right? Yeah, they're not – I would go for you hard.
Yeah. No, but what you're saying is you were thinking of the gamblers.
Yes. No, you were.
In this situation. Thank you for your service.
You're welcome. I appreciate that.
Now, what about the in the league how do you do you feel like you're one of the more popular guys amongst the guys we're not that close really no no it's not like you guys don't hang out no fuck no no there's some of them i'm more friendly with than others right but they do their thing i do my thing we're competitive like i'm friends with them but it's like rare that i just go hey what's, man? What are you doing? What percentage of the owners do you think actually care about their teams as a fan as opposed to which ones look at their teams as a business? I think they all do at some level because you have to, but some of them put more of an emphasis on business than anything else. And I'm not going to throw any of them under the bus.

But, yeah, there's definitely ones.

Because I like that.

The more guys who, you know, or more, not just guys, but the more owners,

governors, ownership groups that care cash first, that's an opportunity for me,

hopefully, to get some players because they're trying to cut their payroll or whatever.

And so, yeah, I'm fine with it.

So you said this earlier, but you said you've got enough money.

And now you're talking about, like, you'd rather win than optimize profit necessarily.

Really?

Well,

Thank you. their payroll or whatever.
And so, yeah, I'm fine with it. So you said this earlier, but you said you've got enough money.
And now you're talking about like you'd rather win than optimize profit necessarily as a governor. At what point did you say like, hey, I've got enough money? Because I feel like most billionaires, they never reach that point in life where they're like, OK, I'm good now.
I mean, like when I the day I became a billionaire, it was like, how much fucking money do you need? Like when we sold to Yahoo for stock,

there were a lot of people who just took that stock

and like, let's just hope it keeps on going up.

I did this thing called a collar

where I protected my downside.

I'm like, I got a B next to my name.

I mean, oh my fucking God, how did that even happen?

Right, it's just like, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Don't take it for granted, but don't fuck it up.

Are you saying that just because now it's become popular to say like, eat the rich? No, I've been saying that since day one, right? All right. That was a good test.
I don't care about that shit. Do you get a little bit scared when people say eat the rich? Or are you like, fuck, I don't taste very good? No.
Yeah, I mean, maybe a little pineapple taste, you know, depending on what I hear. This is exactly what a good-tasting rich person would say.
Yeah, like, no, don say. I haven't marbled at all.

You're like one of those frogs that is like careful I'm poisonous,

but in reality it's just all bullshit.

You know what?

I've been poor.

And if you would have asked me when I was sleeping on the floor,

fucked up with nothing.

I mean, my first car in Dallas after my Fiat broke down,

literally my first car that I was able to make payments on was a car I saw on the side of the road. And I knew that car had been abandoned because it wasn't fucked up in any way.
I went in there. I had my buddy stop the car, went in there, and I found the bank papers that, because it was an abandoned car, called the bank and said, look, I just found this car that someone abandoned.
Will you let me take over the payments? That's how fucked up my financial life was. So if you would have told me back then, you're going to be worth more than a billion dollars and some people are going to be out there talking about eat the rich, I would have been like, take a finger.
Take a hand. Whatever.
We'll risk that. I'll take my chances.
All right, so you were in Cleveland for the All-Star game. I love the ceremony, the 75th anniversary.
What's the one guy, I know you've been around all these guys a lot, but who's the one guy that when you see it still is like, oh, this is awesome? Or maybe best stories, you know. Dr.
J. Yeah? Dr.
J. Because when I was a little kid growing up in Pittsburgh, I literally snuck into the Civic Arena when they were filming The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh just to see Dr.
J. That was my guy.
So when I see him, I still get fangirly. Yeah.
And it was really cool to watch everyone because I do think the NBA has a brotherhood and a camaraderie through the years unlike any other league know, cause they go at each other throughout their entire careers. Yeah.
I mean, and plus there's, you know, five guys on the court at a time, right? Every other sport, you know, you know, at least the teams, the teams are bigger. Right.
So there's a personal connection between all of them. And at any point in time, put aside the two ways, there's only 450 guys.
Right. Out of all the people who play basketball, every kid who's ever dreamed,

there's only 450 guys in the NBA at one time,

which is insane.

It's just such a small club.

Yeah, I feel like the players have done a good job,

and this probably contributes a lot

to the player empowerment that we're seeing right now,

but players from way back in the day,

they teach the next guys,

like, here's how they're going to try

to get it over on you.

Here's how you optimize what you're doing.

Because a lot of players in the 70s, 80s, 90s even early 2000s they were getting hosed they weren't making enough money and so they're kind of looking out for the next generation which i think has brought us to this place here so maybe what i'm saying like that it's not the players caring as much as the fans do i think there's been definitely like a shift in the pendulum of the players recognizing their value and then optimizing all that just look at social media right of all all entertainment right basketball players our top basketball players have influence like you would not believe basketball players you know and for better or worse sometimes but you know even guys that are are 15th on the roster because of 2k because of social media they're you know because of where they went to college if they went to college they they have a following that's more than the athletes in almost any other sport and do you think that they're happier now than they were 10 years ago 15 years ago because we see all the negative stuff and it's been like a running joke on the show like nba is is the least happy group of millionaires in their 20s on the planet because everyone's changed a lot of the superstars you know are either eating their way out of town or they're complaining about something they're not showing up for uh for a season like ben simmons did but um that might not be the case it might be you have a better perspective than we do but from our angle we see just just a lot of unhappiness amongst the superstars

of the game, which is unusual.

Yeah, I mean, Gen Z is different.

Just far, far different.

Coaching them is different.

Dealing with them is different.

And I think they're happier because to be in the NBA, 99% of the guys were stars their

entire lives.

And so they've been in the spotlight on social media since they were 12, 13, 14 years old.

And so they've learned in the spotlight on social media since they were 12,

13,

14 years old.

And so they've learned how to relate.

They've learned how to come along.

And they're also more mental health aware.

You know,

they're not just like,

Oh,

don't be a pussy.

Right.

It's like,

get yourself some help.

Right.

Right.

I'm with you, bro.

You know,

let me show you some love.

Let me,

let's talk about this. Let's connect, You know, like I saw a highlight.
It was Tyrese Maxey and I forget who was talking to. And it was in the, one of the events.
Right. And he was like, bro, I'm going to give you a hug.
He goes, I don't need a hug. He goes, yeah, you just wait.
I'm going to give you a hug. Right.
And you know, you he goes yeah you just wait i'm gonna give you a hug right and you know you never right 20 years ago that kind of conversation you would have been called out and you would have been you know embarrassed somehow just the way players connect together now a 40 year old 35 year old player isn't doesn't have that same connection but they follow each other on social media. Guys who used to play for your team are still liking their former teammates and all their posts.
So there's just little things like that where you can send. A like on Instagram is like a hug.
And it's just like, okay, bro, you posted this, your kid, your boyfriend, your girlfriend, whatever, and I'm going to just give you a like. Yeah.
I got a headline grab. What is the financial – what will the financial impact of getting – drafting Bronny Jr.
and getting LeBron for his last season in the NBA be? I don't even know. You know, you know.
I really don't. I really, really don't.
You have no one who's run the numbers? No one who's run the numbers, right? Because it's impossible to predict. I don't even know how many years from now.
Three, four, whatever it is years from now. Nice.
You're just pretending to not know anything about this. No, I don't know.
How old is Bronny? He's a junior in high school. Okay, so it could be three years from now, right? I mean, it wouldn't suck.
Let's put it that way. It wouldn't suck.
Yeah. But I'd rather win.
But I'd rather win, right? It's a great move by LeBron because it was like when you actually added up. It was super smart by LeBron.
It really was super smart. Oh, someone's going to probably draft him a little bit higher now because you get LeBron for his farewell season.
Or maybe two or three or four. Or maybe two or three.
Yeah. Hmm.
Interesting. So future Dallas Maverick.
Okay. That makes sense.
We have a couple ideas to pitch you, but last basketball question before that. What is success this year for the Mavs? Competing for a championship, for real.
So that's not – are you contenders? Are you officially contenders? I think we are, for sure. I mean, you know, it takes time to adjust to a new coach.
So we had to go from the Rick Carlisle era to the Jason Kidd era. And you can just see the improvement over the course of the season.
I mean, we're 18-6 over our last 24 games. And, you know, our defense is top three over that period.
And our offense is top ten. And if you're a top ten offense and a top five defense, you have a chance to compete for a title.
And L, you know, I give Luca so much credit. Just the adjustments he's made, how he's learned, and how he continues just to get better.
Well, that was one of my first ideas. I know PFD has a couple, but my first idea was you should just install Funhaus mirrors in the Mavs practice facility because it's clear that if you can just get Luca to think that he's overweight, he's going to try a lot harder.
No, that's not it. That is it.
You said it yourself. No, that's not what I said.
He was a fat ass. Now he's skinny and he's awesome.
You said he heard the criticism. Yeah.
So would you like to thank us for joining into that criticism? No, he called him fat. I think Luca looks a little chubby.
Luca's a big boy. I mean, in other words, he's matured, right?d, right? Big boy.
Real big boy. Very big boy.
Girthy boy. Our large son.
Luca is smart. People don't realize how fucking smart he is.
He loves coffee. I know how smart he is.
And so he's figured it out. And it just takes time sometimes.
But the guy's figured it out. I love him.
I give him so much credit. I mean, he takes on every challenge you put in front of him he's a good dude he's great to talk to he's great to be around he you know he's got all the intangibles and you know he's just put it all together and it shows and how he's playing i'm proud of the guy i mean i'm really proud of luca because you know he took a lot of grief and he just said you know what fuck him i'm gonna get it done and he has there there is a like you can see it in a lot of guys career arcs where that like second third fourth year where they realize oh and and LeBron's kind of given a good path for everyone like oh my body like is a enormous investment that I have to put a lot of money and time into and it's not you know it takes time showing when you're 18 19 years old you never have to think about that right you know right but you know you play 82 games and you start to feel it and guys learn over time like when we got when I got to the Mavs Dirk was eating Snickers bars and you know corn chips all day every day for for dinner and you just couldn't do that right and but took him time to realize it.
And he did. And, you know, Luca, every superstar goes through the same thing.
Think about the funhouse mirror. So you could do it.
I mean, it took you a while to win a title. Did it not? Did it not? Think about it.
Think about it. You remember.
You're still thinking about think about it. I'm still thinking about thinking about it.
Every time I hear someone say think about it, I think about think about it. That's money in my.
Yeah. Yeah, that should here, I want to make you some money because I know that you're rich.
You don't care if you make any more money, but this will give you the opportunity to lose money on all sorts of other good stuff for mankind just by investing in these products. You're a busy man.
I'll be very brief. First question, do you smoke pot? Have you ever smoked Yeah.
Do you agree that pot is getting too good? I haven't smoked in a long time. Okay.
Well, let me get you up to speed on what's going on with Gen Z pot. Because the weed now is so much more potent than it was even 10, 15 years ago.
I'm not even talking like when I was growing up, people were like, oh, your parents' weed was nothing compared to this weed. The weed I was smoking when I was growing up is- Well, now it's all science, right? It's all science.
It's all cultivated via science. It's too good.
And there's a very large market out there of people who are my age, maybe a little bit older, that just want to smoke average weed. Right.
Just average. Just like, give me something I can smoke.
I can still go out to dinner. I can still function.
So you can't go to the dispensary and there's not old school shit? No. No.
school shit that they say is old school shit will still, like, I'll take two puffs of it. 30 minutes later, I'll need to, like, take a cold shower and lie down in bed with all the lights on.
That's not a drug guy, by the way. He's not a drug guy.
And let me just say, back in the day, I probably smoked pot three, four times, right? Oh, wow. Crazy, Mark.
No, because I was one of those dudes that would be insane, right would be insane right i mean i literally remember running headfirst into an open closet door right there you go i was just i was a mess listen so this is exactly for people like you and me that want just weed that you can chill out on it's called bad weed bad is the is the brand name right i like it bad weed we go after that market that's untapped right now it's not actually bad but it's just no i know super good yeah it's like you don't always need 151 rum exactly right exactly sometimes you know a spritzer is going to get you just enough of a buzz yeah just off the top of my head right now we could even have a cuban cigar right line that i like it's actually a good idea it's actually a good idea okay well mom dad i don't i don't smoke the the really intense shit i smoke the bad weed i smoke bad johnny you're only 14 oh maybe it's i smoke headache and then i go buy advil from uh mark's over-the-counter pill program no we don't do over-the-counter oh plus drugs. Well, I was trying to get some synergy.
I know you were. That's idea number one.
I thought about it. That sounds like a winner.
I've been taught to quit while I'm ahead, but I'm also an idiot. So I came up with this idea.
Hank and I did a little brainstorming over the weekend because we both got back from vacations. We flew back, right? And I don't know if this is the case for you on your private jets, but when I fly, I get bad gas.
I get really bloated. No matter what I eat beforehand, no matter what I'm doing, I get very bad thing.
Very, yes. Very, very bad thing.
Cause it's, it's super uncomfortable. The farts don't smell on the plane, but it's still, I can't fart on an airplane because it's bad manners.
Right. So I just spend the next three hours feeling awful until I land.
Then I land, I'm able to finally fart, feel great. But I came up with this idea.
I've got a prototype here. It's called Fart Pants.
So I made a proof of concept. They're jeans.
And I velcroed this eggshell lining, sound editing lining. So I can put it on, and I'll try to fart for you.
And I bet you won't be able to see it. You're going to fart? I don't know.
I don't know if I have to or not. Let me just tell you, if you just did like a gag fart insert for like kids to give, you know, or parents to give to their kids or vice versa to put in your pants that just hooked on like the inside.
Like a fart machine. No, no.
Like a fart dollar, right? Or a fart killer. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. So I've got the eggshell.
You can't even tell that I'm wearing it. It does wonders for your ass, right? It does.
And it's just that these jeans were the only ones I had. It's not that.
They don't have to be JNCOs, but it helps. Wait, you got to do it in the mic, dude.
Oh. You got to squeeze one out in the chair.
Did you hear it? A little. He doesn't have his headphones on.
Oh. It was silenced.
He didn't hear. It was silenced.
There was a little pop. I noticed a little pop.
So you can call them SBD jeans? SBD jeans. So this is the basic concept.
Maybe we can just stick to the bad weed because it seems like you were much more enthusiastic about that. Yeah.
But you know what? Just as a gag gift to do like fart killer inserts for your, you know, your dad's jeans to get them as a Christmas. Yeah.
Yeah. You start there and then people will be like, oh, these actually work.
There you go. It would be like in that, in the, in the gag set as Spencer's gifts.
Yeah. Two for two.
Let's go. I'm like beautiful.
You say no I'm going to quill on that. You say no to the Funhouse mirrors? Yeah, I'm saying no to the Funhouse mirrors.
The only one I had was I just, I think they should have an option when you go out to dinner when you're deciding, you know that moment when you want to eat past full? Right. That you could get an oversized sweatshirt with your order as well.
The one tiny mint moment? Yeah, right. Remember that from Monty Python? Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I copied another thing. Yes, yes.
The one the one tiny mint but yeah you should just be offered an extra large sweatshirt with the restaurant's name on it right because then you get branding now you can keep eating so we all win and you get a free sweatshirt but you're gonna be the one guy hey he's got the stuff himself t-shirt on or the stuff so well maybe. But that's almost like a thing of respect.
Yeah, it is.

You see the guy with his stuff.

You're like, it should actually.

This man knows how to eat.

Yeah.

Just say clean plate club.

Yeah.

Or there you go.

Gourmand.

Yeah.

Gourmand is just a sweet way to be like, I love eating food all the time.

I can't stop.

Who doesn't though?

So I think you're just going to buy.

So how much money are you going to give us now for all these ideas?

Think about it.

I'll think about it.

Okay.

All right.

Mark Cuban,

watch Shark Tank tonight

on ABC.

Thank you as always.

We appreciate you coming by.

Always.

And always fun to have you on.

Always fun to be on.

Again,

check out costplusdrugs.com.

I'm going to pitch it hard.

You'll save money

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And also you can go

to the Dallas Mavericks shop right now and buy your Bronnie James Jr. jerseys.
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Alright.

Let's finish up with Firefest.

Hank,

Firefest of the week.

I just had a brutal

flight experience I want to talk about. Okay.
Oh. No, I'm just kidding.
Did you fart? I did. I sat in the middle, and we sat in the tarmac for like 20 minutes, and then we were landing in New York.
We were early, so we had to do a couple loops. It was really, really tough.
That is thoughts and prayers. But besides that, I have multiple Fire Festsests if that's all right.
Yes, go off, Kate.

Jake mansplained sports broadcasting

to me last night.

Nice.

And dunked on me

in the timeline.

Nice.

I feel like it's like

around the intention.

I was very excited

about the call.

Can we get the exchange?

It's around the year anniversary

of best in the office,

best one here,

and I was having nightmares

last night thinking about it.

What was the call?

In the Providence game, they hit a deep three in triple overtime, kind of a dagger three. The announcer said, from Pawtucket, because it was deep.
And all I tweeted was, all caps, from Pawtucket is an absolute bar. It was a great line, great reference, you know, Providence, whatever.
Jake replied to me and said, he hit that one from insert nearby city on a deep three is a popular call but it plays especially in a moment like this jake it wasn't okay i understand why it feels that way and you have the right to it was not i was just very excited thank you for giving me the right like jake plus there's a new house guy so it always andrew call it always makes it exciting. Was it geographically correct? I think you're actually more the guy to ask for that, right? I'm saying the orientation of the arena and where he shot it.
Oh, it was a deep three. No, but if he's facing north, if he's shooting south and Pawtucket is east, that was wrong.
Yeah, I don't know. I'm going to look at it real quick.
Let's see. I'm going to figure this out.
Well, I'm going to look where the Dunkin' Donuts. Oh, shit.
I don't know which side he was shooting on. It was on the right side of the court, I believe.
The right side of the court? From the broadcast view. It doesn't really mean much.
I'm going to tap out for a second. Just try to do some research here.

This is no chance.

Yeah. Okay.

Yeah.

All right.

What's your other ones?

That was it.

I thought you said a multiple.

Well, the plane.

Oh, yeah.

The plane.

Yeah, that was a tough one.

Yeah.

How many laps did you have to do?

Like three.

The estimated time of arrival was like five minutes, five minutes, five minutes, five minutes,

five minutes, five minutes.

It was really hard. Traveling is just brutal.
All right, PFT. Wait, can we pause for a sec? I want to really try to figure this out real quick.
Give me two seconds. All right.
Map, images, and we want to help. From Pawtucket.
I just don't know where in the overhead view, like which side it would be on. Where's Pawtucket? Pawtucket, where were they playing? Providence.
Providence. Okay, let's figure this out.
Pawtucket. All right, so it's kind of.
Oh, well, no, we could. It's north.
Wait, is Pawtucket straight north? Oh, no. Yes.
No matter what, he didn't get it right. Nope.
Wrong. He got it wrong.
Straight up. Because if you look at the orientation of the Dunkin' Donuts Arena, Pawtucket would be like a corner three.
So he was wrong. Now, is that the same thing? Are you disavowing? Wait, wait, wait.
Bicca, is that the same thing as the Schneider Arena? I don't know. It's called the Dunkin' Donuts Center.
Well, because... It's the Dunk.
It's the Dunk. It's the Dunk? Because it says that Providence plays at the Schneider Arena.
No, well, they play at the Dunkin' Donuts Center. Well, they have a smaller facility, too.
I don't think they play every game at the Dunk. Yeah.
Okay. I just wanted to make sure.
He had to have said North Providence or East Providence, to be correct. That doesn't hit the same.
Well, I'm just telling you. It's just a cool name.
I'm just telling you, if you wanted to actually do this correctly, I would absolutely, if I were a broadcaster, I'd be like, all right, which way are we facing and which makes sense? Yeah, that's why Marv started to save from downtown. Right.
Because he would do it when they were oriented in that direction where downtown would actually be where the three-pointer was coming from. Yes.
That's why he's one of the goats. Yes.
Separate the art from the artist. Mm-hmm.
All right, Pizzi, your fire fest. My fire fest is that people are starting to ask a lot of questions about Alexander Ovechkin.
Why? My goat. Why? I don't know.
The media's got a hard-on for him. It's depressing depressing seeing them attack my sweet boy Well, let me ask you a question.
Did he ever he never had like a website being like vote for Putin

Well the entire relationship with Ovechkin and Putin. It's like us and Josh Allen

Yeah, he built a website for him, but he's responsible for every single thing that he does

Actually, yeah, we do take a lot of credit we tried to get money from josh allen's

contract uh yeah i'm at the point where i don't know i'm trying i'm i'm struggling mightily to find a spin zone for this i don't can i give you a spin zone on the spin zone what i've got is i don't think i have to have a spin zone that's correct because he's alex ovechkin and i'm me correct and so And so... You don't have to say, because I root for this guy, I also agree with everything he's ever said, ever.
Well, of course not. Of course that's not the case.
But you're also not saying Alex Ovechkin. It's kind of like...
But low-key, Alex Ovechkin has been so open about being a spy for his entire career while he's in D.C. He's not even really a spy.
He's just been like, yeah, I'm pretty much, I am agent of federal government. Right.
Of Russia. So you can't really bust him for spying on anything because he's like, he did that commercial for SportsCenter where he dropped through the roof and pretended to be a Russian spy the whole time being like, I am spy.
It's not the same, but it's similar in the fact when Big Ben retired and we're like, you know how you don't have to say as good of a football player he was, he's an even better guy? Like, you don't have to say that. You should be like, he was really good at football.
Alex Ovechkin, really good at hockey. So I'm going to the game tonight, which is going to be an interesting one because it is, it's the Caps Rangers.
The Rangers have Panarin on their team, whose entire family was evacuated from Russia because he took an anti-Putin stance. I think he missed like 10 games.
They were keeping him safe. And then there's Ovi.
And added on top of all that is the two teams hate each other, going back to the Tom Wilson thing of last year. And they even went out and got Reeves just to stand up to Wilson but now there's like a geopolitical rival backdrop in it um just want to say I disavow I disavow Putin Ovi Billy brought up a good point about Ovi earlier which was he's just Alexander Vetchkin was raised from a child being an elite athlete in Russia so he was just like raised by the state essentially he.
He had everything given to him, and they supported everything. Wait, you're doing the thing you didn't have to do.
No, I'm just saying he's been indoctrinated. Right.
You don't have to do it. Ovechkin is a victim in this.
You don't? Nope. See, then people will actually you.
Then people will actually you. Alexander Ovechkin is the victim in all this.
Now you've opened yourself up. We should all support him.
Now people can respond to you and be like, you're an asshole. I'm obviously joking about that last part, but yeah.
I'm just not going to address it. How about that? There you go.
You did a good job not addressing it there. Thank you.
But you have to admit, like he... You know, you get it.
Yeah. He's good at scoring goals.
He's very good. That's what you were going to say.
He's a great hockey player. I'll finish it for you.
Probably the greatest goal scorer of all time. Even better person.
Really good person. Nope.
See? You don't have to do that part. I showed you what not to do.
Okay. All right.
Is that it? Do you have any others? I mean, that's a pretty big fire fest. Yeah.
I think you're being way too hard on yourself. Yeah.
Well, he was trending on Twitter today, and then everyone was like, please comment. No.
And you say to them, no. Those people should read the room.
Correct. People being like, please comment for the guy you root for.
No thank you. Yep.
I will pass on that. You should read the room.
Yeah. My Fire Fest I have two.
One is on Wednesday's show last week I actually said this, go watch the behind the scenes PMTV which Bubba's been producing has been great on our YouTube channel go subscribe but when we came back from vacation I explained it to him in the camera so I'm sure you see it there as well but PFT was like if I tweet respond telling me to get off Twitter I did not say that so then every time I tweeted when I was on vacation people were like dude get off Twitter it was pretty annoying especially because I'm very clear I like to watch basketball I like to tweet about basketball it was hot some days so I was sitting watching basketball in the middle of the day um so yeah that was that was annoying those people need to listen for voices. Who's saying what? That was me.
And I'll say it again. Listen, that's on me.
You come to me with all these complaints. Yeah.
My vacation is partially being able to watch sports and fire off a few tweets and not have to work after. Just be able to fire off a few tweets and go to dinner.
That's actually a vacation for me you know what it was for me too like because i a couple times i tweet out and people would sorry i tapped in real quick and then people would reply to me and be like log off touch grass it was good practice for me to just ignore all the replies and be like you know what yeah i i'm choosing to overlook all the people telling me to log off respectfully i'm going to tweet even harder right. Right.
And I'll just say it right now. Like one of the best parts of vacation was, uh, it was literally, I watched the entire Wisconsin Michigan game.
Then Juwan Howard, uh, had anger management problems. And I went and sat on a, on a, at a pool and tweeted in and joked about it with people.
And that was very fun. What are I going to read a book?, to quote the great, you quoted Dickie V earlier.
He's got one great philosophy about Twitter. My personal favorite philosopher is Kevin Durant, and he says, there's no relax, champ.
No relax when I'm on Twitter. I'm on 10 until the second I close the app.
That's a fact. You relax.
That's a fact. And then my other fire fest is my son's school closed because of construction permanently.
And I got stuck in a WhatsApp thread with a bunch of parents who wanted to sue. And I just was like, this is not what I...
Being a parent is awesome of your children. Having to interact with other parents is the worst.
So it seems to me like they should probably plan construction around the summer months. Well, it wasn't...
They so it wasn't up to them got it and but there were like people being like this is essentially a ponzi scheme that they've closed and they're not giving us a full refund and i was like it's a fucking preschool that two women run that like i don't like what are we talking about we're not going to sue someone and i was like i looked around i didn't say this because i't interact. But it was like one of those moments where it's like, I don't want to be a part of this.
I want to just parent my kids. Can I tell you something? I think you should sue.
Yeah. I think you should just sue.
It's crazy. Sue the absolute fuck out of him.
Get in all the papers. Have big articles written about like Dan Katz.
Oh, someone said we should go to the press yeah i was like no no no i was like

jesus christ go to the press and be like dan katz is filing a lawsuit because his his son's school is under construction oh my god it's it's the old uh like the guy who's the guy or the woman who's the head of the condo board there's there one person in every there's homeowners associations There, one person in every group that has essentially learned a life hack that they can complain about everything and eventually they'll wear everyone else down. And that person is just the worst.
But they get away with it because no one's going to be like, hey, dude, stop. We just don't want to deal with it.
I don't care enough to really stand up to you right now. It's person who like sends back their food constantly at a dinner you know what i mean or like wants a free thing it's like i i would rather just eat this steak that's not cooked correctly because i don't really want to complain and look like an asshole yeah call me call me a pushover but i feel like i speak for the majority of people in this world yeah i ran into a situation like that when we were in the Virgin Islands.
I took a taxi, and the taxi charged me probably double what they normally charge. Get out, and people were like, hey, how much did they charge you? I said, 50 bucks.
It should have been like 25. I was like, yeah, you know what? In the moment, I knew that I was being ripped off, but at the same time, I didn't care enough about it to be like, make a stink.
The guy got me to a beach. Right.
I was happy to be at that beach. Correct.
I didn't know how I was going to get to that beach earlier in the day. Found a guy in a taxi, took me there.
I'm happy. Right.
Right. We got 50% of the money back for the rest of the year.
And it's like a difference between a couple thousand dollars that we're going to sue again two women who don't have jobs anymore because the school closed I think I'm out everybody that gets ripped off thinks it's a Ponzi scheme this is literally a Ponzi scheme literally a school closed down and gave us half a refund that's what Ponzi schemes do I almost did reply in the inner troll of me, but I decided to hold back that I had seen the teachers driving Lambos to school. But I didn't want to do it because I read the room and I was like, people are going to think I'm serious.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
By the way, did you see that article about Max Scherzer pulling up to the MLBPA negotiations in a very very nice car yeah that was kind of ridiculous and then someone quoted it was great with uh uh what's the name of the the owner of the mets steve cohen steve cohen they're like steve cohen bought this uh shark that's that's frozen in formaldehyde for eight million dollars yeah it's sitting in his living room it's sick he's one of those guys that has the yacht with the emotional support yacht that goes along with it, right? Yeah, the baby boats that come off. Little tiny baby boats.
All right, Bill, you're fire fast? I got to go get the barbell in Waits. That is somewhere in New Jersey.
It's going to take a long time. So I'm going to have to drive three hours to get it back to the office.
Who could have seen this one coming? I know, now it's time to pay the piper In retrospect, do you think it was a good idea To bring the weights along on the trip? Yes, in the ice storm It was huge for balancing out the truck What about just buying, you could have bought a pair of Dumbbells for like 50 bucks Dumbbells are expensive Since the pandemic, like home gyms and stuff Yeah, they are I could only get one of those adjustable dumbbell adjustable dumbbells, so I've just got one in my house. Also, everyone's trying to send me to Ukraine, but that's a different story.
Jake? Thanks, Billy. Thank you for your service, Billy.
You should. If you're a man that stands up for what you say you stand up for.
A lot of people out there are saying I'm the number one draft pick. I would go, but unfortunately, regrettably, I'm too old for military service.
I would be the first one in line, though. So, Billy, are you going to...
We would hate to have you leave this podcast, but I think you should for our country. Yeah.
I mean, if Uncle Sam starts popping up in the TikTok feed saying, like, we need you, then it might be time. Dude, think about the content.
I know. You should think about it.
You should do it. You could still zoom in.
Could we just send me out there? I bet your Black Rifle will sponsor it. Yeah.
Just send me out there to do some reporting. Can I go as a press? Yes.
As a press? Yeah. I don't think that's a good idea because if you went out there as a press, you know you.
You'd probably like the first person to ditch the press uniform and join the fight. Just wait to get out there.
Yeah. But yes, you can.
I'm giving you the green light to go to Ukraine. Sweet.
All right. You won't.
Jake, he traded all right now. Yeah.
You're on the front line of Ukraine. Yeah, that tweet resurfaced.
The trade it all? Yeah Memes retweeted it Yeah By 3am Listening to Jocko Willink Saturday night tweet Trade it all I love memes being actually The one that resurfaces Stuff on all of us Yeah He's an agent of mass chaos Jake Yeah so I mentioned The Iowa trip Yesterday getting back here It a crazy travel day. So I won't go through the nitty-gritty, but I'll just give you some stats.
It would have been a 15-hour drive from Iowa to New York City. Door-to-door was 16 hours for us.
We boarded three planes. We took off once, including a four-hour drive to Chicago.
Damn. Yeah yeah it was really tough but staying positive

you're here you're back

a lot to be thankful for can't complain

how'd you watch Xavier Providence on the phone

oh while you were on the air

we were on the tarmac

so I had service

also the Midwest is beautiful this time of year

yeah of course

you got to see part of this great country

I didn't want to do the blue check mark

between airlines

because every time I see it I'm like

Thank you. this time of year yeah of course to see part of this great country yeah but i driving yeah i didn't want to do the blue check mark between airlines because every time i see it i'm like no one really cares so like i care people care people care you care i care i care well big cat just likes to skull fuck i actually see things and as an empath when i see somebody we're all in pain or suffering i i look at that and i feel the pain probably more than you yeah it's's a curse that I carry.
Even texting you guys in my travel details. I'm like, do they really care? I'm so kind that it hurts me.
If you're an empath this weekend, you can take a break. Only empaths will understand the feeling of being sad for somebody else.
Big ups to my empaths. True ones.
We're not making fun of you, Jake. I'm I'm kind of lost.
I can see that on your face. It was a tough travel day, but I'm here and everything's alright.
Alright, well, let's do numbers. And we'll see.
What do you got, Billy? One last thing? I got an animal fact. Oh, okay.
I think you had something else in your throat. 17.
I got a good sense of when Stella's about to bark and when Billy wants to say something Oh, yeah, there are my two things and I'm locked up because well

It's tricky because sometimes he does the deep breath, but he has nothing to say. I'll just go yeah

It's kind of a lean and nevermind okay. All right, uh 22 give me a 25

17 69 no no not 17. I think Hank just took that we What'd you do for 69? Hank did? I'm going to go 90.
You can join. Six.
I'll get my own number. Thank you, Hank.
I really fucked up with the Tyreek Hill pick. I really hate myself.
42. 42.
Jackie Robinson. Yeah.
There we go. Love this.
Sunflowers are the official Flower of the country of Ukraine Love you guys Oh I saw this badass lady That's a flower fact Well flowers I mean it's flora It's biomass You're going soft on us? I think he's standing up for Ukraine. Not the Ukraine, by the way.

But yeah, that lady today, that was like... Alright, we're cutting.

She's strong. I'll say it anyway Today's another day To find you Shying away I'll be coming For your love, okay Take on me Take me Take me I'll be We go.
Take a deep dive Because

You're the one who's here Thank you.