NBA Champion Pat Connaughton + Mt Rushmore Of Sports We Could Medal In, Maybe

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Speaker 1 On today's part of my take, we have NBA champion Pat Conaton. An awesome, awesome interview with Pat about winning the title, Giannis, his career, really great stuff.

Speaker 1 Uh, we also have some Olympic talk because the Olympics have started, but fuck the IOC and fuck NBC and their coverage of it, whatever.

Speaker 1 We have Aaron Rodgers now is to the point of

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Today is Monday, July 26th, and we officially suck at basketball. I've got Olympic fever, big cat.

Speaker 1 Well, we suck at five on five back. Five on five.
And we didn't, we did, and our men's three on three team didn't qualify.

Speaker 1 No, when I think of, when you say we suck at basketball, my mind automatically goes to women's three-on-three.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we're a fucking dynasty in that one. Three on three,

Speaker 1 I watched an entire game between Belgium and Japan on Saturday morning. It was one of the worst sporting events I've ever witnessed.
It looked like a Saturday morning pickup game.

Speaker 1 I then tweeted out a clip of it and the IOC in their infinite wisdom, I incorrectly said it was NBC. It is the IOC.

Speaker 1 Doesn't want anyone sharing any Olympic clips, pictures, anything, because God forbid anyone talks about the Olympics and these random sports that you stumble upon that you're like, oh, this is fun.

Speaker 1 No, they want them. It's like Fight Club.
Don't actually,

Speaker 1 never talk about the Olympics. First rule.

Speaker 1 Do you think that when they're selling advertisements to potential sponsors, they're like, hey, just so you know, all the videos that will be coming of any sport, they're all going to come from our account.

Speaker 1 So you don't have to worry about spending money on our official tweets and then having Barstool Big Cat tweet out an advertisement to go watch the show that you're sponsoring.

Speaker 1 Yeah, because I can't understand, like, you could, I could sit down with the head of the IOC, the head of NBC, and I would sit there for the rest of my life waiting for them to give me an actual explanation as to why, tweeting a 20-second clip of a random sport like handball, some dude got smoked in the face,

Speaker 1 but it actually is technically a penalty, which is the pussification of handball. Yeah, no, that's not my handball.

Speaker 1 Back in the 90s, handball when like men played handball, that shit was like, that's how you scored most of your games. Exactly.
In the bad boy era.

Speaker 1 But that, yeah, that clip, which you see it and you're like, oh, handball's on. Let me go watch it.
Nope. Do not talk about it.

Speaker 1 I would respect it more if the IOC sat down and they're like, you know what? We'll let anybody share clips as much as they want, except those bastards from Pardon My Tape. Yeah,

Speaker 1 those guys, we're going to DMCA the shit out of them the second they put something up.

Speaker 1 Way to go, IOC, the Olympics. And then, listen.

Speaker 1 I guess it's good that they put the U.S. game on the cock at 8 a.m.
I would have probably put the most popular sport, the thing that people want to watch the most in America, maybe on NBC proper.

Speaker 1 But it turned out to be a favor because we do suck at basketball.

Speaker 1 France beat our ass in a way that I actually like, if you had told me before that France just beat us, I'm like, okay, you know, they're pretty good. You know, Rudy Gobert, Batum, whatever.
Fournier.

Speaker 1 Boris Diao not walking through that door, but he was. Yeah.

Speaker 1 But no, we actually were leading with like three minutes left and totally blew it. And France had like a 16-2 run to win the game.
That was a France legacy game. Yeah.

Speaker 1 There was also a sequence at the end that looked like your three-on-three clip where the U.S. just couldn't make a shot.
Yeah. Like three wide-open threes in a row, and they just broke that.

Speaker 1 And Vince Carter was on the call, which was supposed to be like another dunk on France because of his famous dunk. And then it was reversed.
Here's just an idea.

Speaker 1 Maybe at some point, USA basketball should consider putting the best basketball players on the team and not the best athletes on the team. Yeah, a team.
A team.

Speaker 1 And then they should get that guy from Miracle to coach it, or at least some guy wearing a plaid jacket. Yes.

Speaker 1 And then have him abuse the players before the games until they reach a point where they almost break, but then all fall in love with their coach.

Speaker 1 I really do think that the Wisconsin Badgers could win the gold medal because it does feel like that's the style of basketball that it takes.

Speaker 1 I was actually thinking that probably the worst NBA team would have a better chance at winning the title than this group right now. Just practicing together?

Speaker 1 Yeah, just like knowing each other's names. Yeah, the Houston Rockets were real.

Speaker 1 That's like 60 of the job were they the worst yeah houston rockets with john wall on the team yeah i think could win and it's the birthday curse the birthday curse of kevin durant when he wasn't his birthday and they sang they svp'd him

Speaker 1 it wasn't his birthday that's sang happy birthday no i like that that's why you have javel mcgee on the national team yeah you can just do pranks that make no sense how about that reporter did you see that clip a reporter asked javel mcgee if his mom is still alive uh-huh that was weird he's like yeah she is jeff could have taken you two seconds because she played in the Olympics.

Speaker 1 Yeah, is it Jeff Ireland? Is your mother a prostitute? Yeah,

Speaker 1 that was a tough one. But yeah, the Olympics are here.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 Time zones fuck me up. I also, I'm just going to say this.
It sounds very stupid to say, but I don't trust whenever it says live in the top corner. I still don't trust it.

Speaker 1 No, because I just assume they're fucking. Because sometimes it's not even live.

Speaker 1 Right. The live is not actually live all the time.
I've got a number of Olympic ripes. Number one is they always start the opening ceremonies like five days after the Olympics start.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So you know how college football does week zero, which we love.

Speaker 1 The Olympics go two steps further, and they have day negative two, day negative one, day zero, and then day one. Because there's some sports that they need to play a lot of rounds.

Speaker 1 I think softball started on Wednesday. Yeah, but why not just have the opening ceremonies start before the closed game? And then they always end after the closing ceremonies.

Speaker 1 There's always like two events that are like the Battle of New Orleans, where you have like them finishing out the competition after the event is officially closed. Yes.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 1 I guess I have Olympic fever. Oh, I do.

Speaker 1 You know what? I'd say my Olympic fever, it's a mild fever. It's at 99.5.

Speaker 1 I could go to work. Yes.
I go to work with this fever. Listen, I would not mask up if I was feeling symptoms of Olympic fever.

Speaker 1 I think I would also like to see more of the superimposed flags in the swimming lanes during the swimming events. I miss that.
Rowing, too.

Speaker 1 The rowing lanes are really cool because it's so, you know, a lot of water and there's just,

Speaker 1 you're going right over their flags. Kind of disrespectful.
I don't like the earbuds on the skateboarders. Yeah.
I don't like that a lot.

Speaker 1 You should not be allowed to, unless you're listening to the Tony Hawk Pro Skater soundtrack, which I assume that they're just listening to the beginning of Superman by Goldfinger every time they start.

Speaker 1 Unless that's what they're listening to, I don't like it.

Speaker 1 I'd like to feel like, I don't know, if you're running a marathon, you're not allowed to have earbuds in, right? No, I don't like it. To distract you.
I don't know what they're doing.

Speaker 1 I also think they've completely bastardized skating. Like, they do one trick and then they judge it.
Like, give me the full two minutes, you know, going around, trying to get the fucking

Speaker 1 tricks off. I don't know.
I just, I'm not a big fan of it. I think they should have sharper swords and fencing.
Yeah. Like, give me an element of danger.
There should be death. Yes.

Speaker 1 Death and not death, but like maiming. Yeah.
All right. What's this tweet you just sent us? How is this guy getting to tweet it? This is not right.
Oh, they fucked up the beginning of the triathlon.

Speaker 1 Everything's tour to France, yeah. Yeah, and

Speaker 1 no fans. I can't go back to no fans.
I just, I need fans, so whatever. I also think that skateboarding should include getting away from cops.

Speaker 1 They've kind of sanitized skateboarding a little bit too much, where they're wearing like polo shirts and nice pants and athletic shorts. And they all dress the same, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, if you land in Ollie and no one's wearing cargo shorts, did it ever really happen? Oh, yeah, they got cargo pants on right now. I need to see like actual, like, steucy, baggy shirts.
Yep.

Speaker 1 I need to see some chains. I need to see police officers.
No, no, rent a cops. I need to see like a renicop driving around in a golf cart trying to arrest all these kids.

Speaker 1 By the way, three on three, they should call your own foul. There's no reason there should be a ref for three on three.
I do love how it's ones and twos, though. Yeah.
Which makes the two-point shot.

Speaker 1 That's in that clip that you put out. They're all just trying to.
No, I didn't put out a clip. Oh, no.
What clip? The clip Billy. It's taken down.
Forever.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, three on three. And they should really, like, why not have one-on-one? Why not have four on in a way too small of a gym where there isn't even a three-point line in the corners?

Speaker 1 You know what? One of my favorite parts of the Olympics so far has been? There's this kid,

Speaker 1 I think he's 20 years old from the United States. He was competing in the rifle competition, the shooting competition, and he was hitting like close to bullseyes every time.

Speaker 1 And when you shoot in the rifle competition, you have like, you look like a cyborg. Yeah.
It looks like you're wearing Google Glass and like a mirror over your eye and all this shit.

Speaker 1 That, to me, should go also. If you're shooting a rifle, there's no need to bring a mirror into the situation.
You have a gun and then you have a target and that's it. Yes.

Speaker 1 And the kid from the United States, he won in dominant fashion and then he was pissed off because he didn't win as much as he wanted to win and he looked like he was going to shoot everybody around him and he had a gun like people were scared walking past this psycho kid.

Speaker 1 Oh man. All right.
So Olympic fever.

Speaker 1 I also wouldn't mind if in the skateboarding they just had one guy who was way too old who was just buying beer for everyone and that was an Olympic competition because I assume every skate park has that.

Speaker 1 That would be a nice wrinkle. Like a creep? Yeah, yeah, just a creep.
Just a resident creep. And who could be the creepiest creep? That wouldn't be

Speaker 1 a bad Olympic sport. I mean, if we're going to go, if we're going to do this silly shit, let's go all the way.
Did you know that breakdancing is an event? Yeah, I think it's not there yet.

Speaker 1 Oh, so it's like next Olympic? Yeah, yeah,

Speaker 1 next one.

Speaker 1 So I think the IOC sits down before the Olympics and they, because I know lacrosse had the same thing. La Crosse is back for the 2024 Games, not back right now.
Oh, and also the Russians.

Speaker 1 We're not allowed to say the word Russia.

Speaker 1 It's not the Russian team. It's what is it, the Russian Olympic Committee?

Speaker 1 So they're not wearing the official uniforms. Because they all did steroids? Yeah, ROC.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Rock Nation is what they should actually call them. Yes.
Okay. So, all right, that's our Olympic talk.
We have more coming up. We have the Mount Rushmore of,

Speaker 1 the official title is Mount Rushmore of Events, Sports We Could Meddle In, maybe.

Speaker 1 We will do do that after our interview with Pat Conaton. Let's talk a little about some other sports.
So, Aaron Rodgers, will he, won't he? There's a big,

Speaker 1 I don't know, like, I don't even know if it was real, but essentially a bunch of sports books took down the Packers' win total because they thought Aaron Rodgers was going to retire.

Speaker 1 Then he puts up a picture of Michael Jordan and Scotty Pippen,

Speaker 1 and so does Devontae Adams, which I guess they're trying to say the last dance, which would mean they would both show show up.

Speaker 1 But then, what is the last dance for Aaron Rodgers losing in the NFC Championship game?

Speaker 1 They're not going for their sixth title. Let's run this back one more time where we disappoint everybody.
Let's try to lose as the number one seed again.

Speaker 1 Let's come back and then have everybody at the end of the regular season talk about how I'm the best quarterback in the NFL and how you're the best wide receiver. And then that's it.

Speaker 1 That's their last dance. That's it.
Let's just jump for one more year. I'm telling you,

Speaker 1 I think Aaron might go off the grid. I hope he retires.
I hope he finds peace. I think he will.
I think if I were to put money on it right now, it's like 30, 30, 30.

Speaker 1 30% that he retires to host Jeopardy. 30% that he plays

Speaker 1 and acts surly. Yeah, probably yeah, probably for the Broncos.

Speaker 1 And then the other 33% or whatever is that he just goes and lives in the mountains of Peru. Yeah.
And we don't hear from him.

Speaker 1 Every like six months, he'll put up an Instagram post being like, look at me. I'm in a market somewhere.
Yeah, I've lost my hair. Come try to find me.

Speaker 1 He'll probably do something crazy like buy an actual Waldo sweatshirt and then take a picture of himself, upload that, and then boom, back to the little ayahuasca hut.

Speaker 1 I just want to have this on the record. So the takesies are on Wednesday.
Everyone, get ready for the takesies. Unbelievable.
We just finished taping it. Blake of the year was

Speaker 1 exceptional. So get ready for the takesies on Wednesday.
We are on vacation this week. We will have three shows, so don't worry about that.

Speaker 1 But if Aaron Rodgers does show up to camp as planned on Wednesday, just remember when you treat me mean things, I'm on vacation. Yeah, he's trying to take, he's trying to unplug for his mentality.

Speaker 1 So don't do that. Don't do, don't treat me.
Respect

Speaker 1 my time off. I don't get much.
Listen, he's with his family. He's being a dad.
Yeah. Don't treat me mean things.
And if he doesn't show up, I'll take a break from vacation.

Speaker 1 So tweet it to me, all the mean things that you would say, and I'll copy Big Cat on the ones that are most relevant. Please don't.
Please don't. I'll show you.
Tweet it to me. I'll fill it up.

Speaker 1 He's going to show up. And I'll make sure that you only see the ones that are the meanest.
He's going to show up, and it's going to suck, and whatever. I'm on vacation, so don't do it.
Don't do it.

Speaker 1 All right, what else? We have.

Speaker 1 I just got to give a shout-out to the New York Yankees.

Speaker 1 They are inventing new ways to lose. So Thursday night, we saw them with

Speaker 1 four pass balls to lose a game. I think two of them were wild pitches.
Two were pass balls. The catcher looked like he was trying to catch a butterfly.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Those two have never worked together, right? They met earlier that day. Never.
They have to. And then today they had a no-hitter going into the eighth, up 4-0 and lost 5-4.
Yep, that's tough.

Speaker 1 And then Aaron Boone was like, we've faced diversity before. That guy, does Aaron Boone have

Speaker 1 anything in his head? I feel like he's a complete robot. Yeah, why do people still think that Aaron Boone

Speaker 1 does need a good manager? I don't think anyone does.

Speaker 1 Game 7. Game 7.
We have two Yankee fans. Aaron fucking Boone.
Does anyone still think that

Speaker 1 quick straw pull? Fire him or keep him? Billy. I think we should fire him.
Jake, this is the big one. Boone out.
Jake.

Speaker 1 Never calls for another man's job.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't think it's the Yankee way to can someone in the middle of the season, so I'm not expecting it. I mean, George Steinbrenner fired Billy Martin like seven times.

Speaker 1 At least from what I can remember, they don't fire a manager midseason. I'm pretty sure they got rid of Joe Girardi just because he had bracelets as an adult.
Do you think they should?

Speaker 1 I'm not

Speaker 1 in a position to say whether they should or shouldn't god damn it I just don't understand how you let him throw the third wild pitch like the first two like take him out like the guy definitely was not in any position to be on that mountain or the fourth one yeah yeah the third yeah much less get to number four he should not have been throwing number three but that honestly that was a very fun inning to not watch but we were sitting here in this room while Frank the Tank narrated what the pro football football show is presented by the Chevy Silverado built for the hustle ready for the game Chevy Silverado is America's most dependable full-size truck whether you're grinding through the week or gearing up for kickoff, the Silverado is one ride that's always game ready.

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Speaker 1 Back of the week, Henry. Kanye's back.
Yeah. So on Friday, I think it was Thursday night when we were recording.

Speaker 1 He had like a big album listening party at the Falcons Field, whatever it's called, Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Speaker 1 And then the album was supposed to come out Friday.

Speaker 1 He apparently opened a studio inside the stadium and right after the concert has been working on the album and just staying at the stadium.

Speaker 1 And there was a soccer game there on Saturday and he was just walking around. Yeah, I saw that.
With pantyhose on it. Yeah, with pantyhose.

Speaker 1 So he can, Kanye West can just basically do whatever he wants.

Speaker 1 Meanwhile, everyone's just freaking out, like wondering where the album is. And then he just showed up at this game with Pantyhose.
It was in soccer.

Speaker 1 It would be very relatable, though, if Kanye West told everybody, hey, my album's coming out this week, and then completely spaced and forgot to do any work on it. Which is probably what happened.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so now he's just like, okay, shit, how quickly can I put an album together? The good news is, it's not going to be worse than his last weird album. Right.

Speaker 1 I love Life of Pablo. Yeah, Life of Pablo is great.
The last album that he put out, that was the Christian album.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the only good song on there was the one he did with Kenny G, which is just the most bizarre thing to see. Although he does have a song with Jay-Z on this one, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 I think it's more of a normal album. Okay.
All right, so let's have it. I know.
Please give it to us.

Speaker 1 Drop the album. Drop the album.
Do the album tweet, Kanye. All right, that's it.
That's it? Okay. Good who's back.
Good job.

Speaker 1 I was confused because

Speaker 1 on Friday, I pulled up Spotify. I was like, time to listen to the new Kanye album because everybody was like, it's coming out tomorrow.
It wasn't there.

Speaker 1 I thought that it was like on one of those weird streaming services that only psychos subscribe to. So I'm glad to know that I'm not too far behind on it.
Nope. Nope.

Speaker 1 My Who's Back of the Week is Dexter. Dexter's Back.
You guys remember Dexter? Never watched it. So it had maybe the worst worst ending of any television series of all time.

Speaker 1 And that's including the Sopranos where it just cut to black when Tony was sitting in the diner, and then that guy walked in, and it looked like maybe he was going to shoot him.

Speaker 1 It's including that one. Yep.
Dexter, the finale of Dexter. People still get mad at us for that shit.
Spoiler alert about Dexter.

Speaker 1 Yeah. What do you mean? Show came out 15 years ago.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but people, you gotta think, we have younger listeners like myself who didn't watch it in real time, were too young. And so they're like, what's the good show that I should watch?

Speaker 1 So then they start watching it now, thinking that they can just watch it willy-nilly because no one's going to spoil it because no one's that big of an asshole.

Speaker 1 And then they listen to a sports podcast, and all of a sudden the show gets it. All right, where's the line? What can I not spoil here? Can I spoil the ending of Jurassic Park 1?

Speaker 1 Can I spoil the banding?

Speaker 1 It had a bad ending and then not say exactly what happens. Like, maybe you can, like...

Speaker 1 What you used to do with me before you just turned into blatant like assholes where you'd kind of imply, you kind of like would imply spoilers and not tell me.

Speaker 1 And then it just turned into you just telling me exactly what happened.

Speaker 1 I mean, Bobby Balacava gets shot in the train. Balacava.
You knew that one, hey.

Speaker 1 But the ending of Dexter was way worse than Sopranos.

Speaker 1 If you haven't seen the ending of Dexter, spoiler alert, but it's not really spoiler because you're actually privileged if you haven't watched this.

Speaker 1 He just walks off into the woods and becomes a lumberjack.

Speaker 1 That's not a badass. No, but everybody hated it.
Everyone that watched all the seasons of Dexter hated the ending of it.

Speaker 1 They're finally like six years later, eight years later, however old it is, they're like, hey, we fucked up. We're going going to bring it back.
So Showtime is bringing Dexter back.

Speaker 1 And I'm excited about it because the first two seasons of that were awesome. So if they can figure out a way to undo...

Speaker 1 You know what? Even just do the thing where you're like, it was a dream and have him wake up in the first episode and be like, he never actually walked off into the woods. That would be fine by me.

Speaker 1 Okay. My who's back is fake love.

Speaker 1 So fake love is back. If you saw Ben Afflack and Jennifer Lopez had quite a weekend, it was J-Lo's 52nd birthday.

Speaker 1 And then there was a picture that came out that Ben Affleck just palming her ass, which I guess was a throwback picture because that happened like 15 years ago.

Speaker 1 It's like when Eric Musselman does the pictures. Yeah, right.
But it was both of them. Oh my God, that guy just ate shit.
That was awesome. Holy fuck.
And cycling? Yeah, he ate it, dude.

Speaker 1 He just hit his brake and went over the curb. That's awesome.
That was so sick. I wish we could see a replay.
Oh, I'm going to clip it. That was, that was, you can't.
Do not post it. Do not post it.

Speaker 1 It's just for private use. Do not post it.
Send it to me for private use. That was fucking my phone for private use.
Awesome. He went face first into the curve.

Speaker 1 Hope he's okay.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 It's fake love because it's all publicity stunt. The fact that they're remaking old pictures, they don't actually love each other.
Imagine doing this.

Speaker 1 Imagine having a relationship that is all for the tabloids and for people to talk to you as, you know, a couple and benefit and all this it's disgusting it is like can you it's gross imagine if if you were in a relationship with jennifer lopez and all you were doing it for was just to get into page six right just to have people talk about you and be like oh look be like oh he's not such a weirdo afflict yeah look at j-lo and a rod i mean j-lo and affluent like it's bullshit is bullshit it's absolute bullshit so true love is dead fake love is alive Who's back of the week?

Speaker 1 This sham of a relationship. All right, this cyclist is going downhill.
Dude, he just ate shit. The road turns, but he doesn't.
He didn't turn. This guy doesn't turn.

Speaker 1 In his defense, there was no sign. There's no sign saying, hey, you might want to take a right here.
Oh, that's awesome. All right.
Who's back of the week, Jake?

Speaker 1 Yeah, Yasiel Puig is back. He is in the Mexican league, a team of El Aguilla de Veracruz.
And he got hit by a pitch and there was a brawl. So he's back in the mix.

Speaker 1 All right, so he's back doing Yasiel Puig shit. Yeah.

Speaker 1 What happened with Yasiel Puig? Because I feel feel like he was about to take over the world for like two seasons. Yeah, and then he just started striking out, I think, and not being good anymore.

Speaker 1 But he's got awesome arms. Got awesome arms.
Yeah. Also, there was something with like, wasn't he, there was like kidnappers or something.
Someone tried to extort him. It's Ugi Thurbina.

Speaker 1 No, no, there wasn't. No, no.
I know Ugi Urbino and the machetes and shit.

Speaker 1 Something happened with someone's trying to extort him. Either way, Billy, what's your who's back of the week? My who's back is Tate Martell

Speaker 1 of QB1 fame. Yes.
Turns out Tate Martel has two years of eligibility left, which he is using at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada. Oh.
So he runs.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he was committed to Ohio State. He then flipped to Miami, where he didn't see any playing time and tried to play wide receiver.

Speaker 1 And he is now transferring to the University of Nevada to hopefully start his quarterback and continue his career. Let's go.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I always like it when wildcard quarterbacks end up going to wild card schools. Yes.
That makes it seem so much cooler. Yes.
Okay, so we're rooting for him, huh? I actually am.

Speaker 1 I mean, yeah, why not? It doesn't really hurt me to root for him. True.
Right? Yeah. No time out of my doubt.
Kind of electric. Right.
But we'll see if he's actually good.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Good. Who's back, everyone? What do you got, Jake? Did you find the extortion? No, there was also something that I should have involved.
It's new team names, the Guardians. Oh, yeah,

Speaker 1 yeah.

Speaker 1 That was from Friday, right after the Spider Club. So when it got announced, I was like, well,

Speaker 1 this is lame. And then about an hour passed, and I was like, I don't really care.
Guardians works.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so the Guardians, it's not a bad name when you take into account that those giant statues on the side of their bridge are called the Guardians of Cleveland or the Cleveland Guardians, whatever.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Those are cool statues.
Right. I like to, and I'm not even a statue guy, but those are cool statues, so I get it that way.
I just always think, like, this is, well, two things.

Speaker 1 One, the Spiders is just such a cooler name. Yep.
I wish it was cool.

Speaker 1 but i get it because it scares kids and all that shit and uh then the other thing is this is just a look into the future for when the washington football team eventually gets a name everyone's going to hate it no matter what it is but then you realize uh i don't really care that much and you also realize there's a ton of team names that are equally as stupid they just came way way long ago yes like the utah jazz is the dumbest name in sports it really is la lakers the la lakers yeah i mean the there's just a bunch of dumb like if if they came out right now and they say the the New York Metropolitans people like what is what what are we doing here?

Speaker 1 Like if it was just the Boston Red Sox? Yeah the the the the Knickerbockers There's so many team names. You're like this doesn't make any sense.
So I'm in on the Guardians. Sorry for those tweets.

Speaker 1 Had to get the tweets off though.

Speaker 1 Is there any other teams that have that name? The Guardians? Yeah, it was the Alex. It was the XFL team.
Isn't there like a handball team or something? Oh yeah, who cares? Yeah, who cares? Is there?

Speaker 1 I'll bet you the Cleveland. Oh, yes.
Oh, yes. Good call, Hank.
Yes, we should at least bring this up. There's a handball team, and Ravel, in his infinite wisdom, did his...

Speaker 1 Hey, look at me. I was able to do a search and found out that the.
It's a roller derby team.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the former Cleveland Indians didn't secure the Instagram handle or whatever.

Speaker 1 And then Pat McAfee tweeted out a picture of them, a team picture, and Ravel was like, look, it's two women on the team. There are five women women on the team.
Three of them are maybe

Speaker 1 different-looking women than I don't even know what. No, they're women.
I saw it right away. No, they're women.
I was like, that's five women.

Speaker 1 I looked at it too, and honestly, they just have short hair. That's the only thing.
Either Ravel only looked at the left side of the picture, or he just doesn't know what women look like. Yeah,

Speaker 1 that is a possibility. Hold on, I want to watch this clip real quick one more time.

Speaker 1 You're watching it. He's going, he's going, he's going, he's going, he's going, he's going.
It's like a single thing. And yeah, he forgot to turn.
And, oh, fuck. Boom, ain't shit.

Speaker 1 Oh, he actually might have gotten really hurt. Listen, you got to know how to turn if you're biking.
Okay. Two things you got to do.
Hopefully, he's okay. Thoughts and prayers to that guy.

Speaker 1 All right, before we get to Pat Conaton.

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Speaker 1 Pat Conaton.

Speaker 1 Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest. He is an NBA champion for less than a week now.
It is Pat Conaton.

Speaker 1 Let's obviously start there.

Speaker 1 One, has the party stopped? Has it slowed down or is it still going? I hope it's still going, but how has the last couple nights been?

Speaker 4 The party never stops, so you can appreciate that. But the last few nights, we've been able to get a little more RR, rest and recovery,

Speaker 4 keeping it a little bit more low-key.

Speaker 1 Okay, okay. And now, has it, you've been, I assume you've been introduced a few times now as an NBA champion.
That's got to be pretty cool.

Speaker 1 Has it, like, have you had that moment where you've been able to let it you know set settle in and be like holy shit i got a ring i'm part of history no one can ever take this away from me i'm an nba champion that's how you introduced me for the rest of my life

Speaker 4 I actually I haven't had that particular moment.

Speaker 4 I would say, you know, some from the text that I've gotten, some people that have just called me champ now moving forward or claim they're going to, it started to set in.

Speaker 4 I'd say each and every day that kind of goes by, it sets in a little bit more what we did.

Speaker 4 It's unique, right? Because, like, you win an NCAA championship, it's one game, it's one night, like that's where all your eggs are. In NBA championship, it's a two-month process.

Speaker 4 You got to go through every single round. You got to go through all these different things.
So, the actual culmination of that night,

Speaker 4 it takes a minute for it to set in because of the entire journey it took to get there.

Speaker 1 Would you say that this is the toughest NBA championship to win of all time?

Speaker 4 I mean, look, we played the Brooklyn Nets in the second round.

Speaker 4 They got three superstars. They got three MVP candidates.
I think it was definitely a one of, if not the hardest. We started off with a team that we owed revenge to.

Speaker 4 And then the Atlanta Hawks are a good young team. You know, they got some good young talent, and the Phoenix Suns are obviously a great team.
So I'd say it was one of, I think.

Speaker 4 Obviously, not having to go through LeBron helps a little bit. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Also, the Nets have four superstars. They're forgetting about Blake Griffin.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 Oh, good call. Blake Griffin.
I thought you were going to give the nod to my guy, Joe Harris.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so Joe Harris as well. Yes, he also.

Speaker 1 He had a great playoff. It is crazy, though.
You mentioned it.

Speaker 1 It's crazy to think how much time has passed because I look back at game one of the entire playoffs and I thought to myself, you go to overtime against the Heat.

Speaker 1 It's like, oh, the Heat are going to be a problem for the Bucs again. That feels like 10 years ago.
I'm sure it's the same for you.

Speaker 1 Like throughout the entire two months, did you go zero dark 30? Were you just locked in? No social media, like basically eat, sleep, and basketball all the time?

Speaker 4 Yeah, I actually went zero, dark, 30 this entire year. The last social media post I had was right before our first game in Boston, my hometown.

Speaker 4 I guess there was one aside. Coach Bray got a little bit of flack at one point in time.
I had to show him my support, but that was a quick sign-on, sign out. But I went zero, dark, 30 the whole time.

Speaker 4 And maybe LeBron's on to something. It's going to work.

Speaker 1 Well, so what's your burner then?

Speaker 4 I don't have a burner yet. I'm not that technologically advanced.
I think now that I'm an NBA champ, I should probably figure out a burner. We should take some like burner account username

Speaker 4 suggestions.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, I think you definitely should have a burner. You're at that point.
Not Matthew Delavidova should be your burner.

Speaker 1 Deli.

Speaker 4 I played with Deli for a year.

Speaker 4 That would be a pretty good one. Or I could just, you think PC Burner would be too obvious?

Speaker 1 PC Burner. What about your, I don't know if anyone in your entire life calls you this, but on basketball reference, your nickname is Vanilla Thunder.

Speaker 1 I actually heard that i've never been physically called that by anybody so i don't know where it came from yeah those are the type of nicknames you read it you're like there's no chance anyone calls you vanilla thunder you know i kind of thought you were going to add uh at least from what i heard i thought you were going to add vanilla thunder with the big stat line on game six because i heard i got a little bit of a chirp dude no that wasn't a chirp that was the bit you won my big heart of the game i okay so this segues to a question i wanted to ask you because um there were you know you're it's a weird situation because you're you're an incredible athlete We want to get through like we'll talk about your backstory, but you're now in the NBA Finals You're clearly not asked to do a ton offensively You're doing like incredible stuff on defense and rebounding, you know eight rebounds in game six.

Speaker 1 How do you like figure out a way to stay engaged at all times when you know that, hey, going into this game, I may only have four shots tonight.

Speaker 1 Like, the ball might just not, you know, it might just not be the night where I have to shoot a lot. How do you stay engaged?

Speaker 1 And how are you like able to get rebounds and do everything you do that might not show up on the stat sheet?

Speaker 4 Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, on a serious note, I'd say it's the mental side of the game.
I'd say a lot of that comes down to the mental side of the game.

Speaker 4 Obviously, everyone sees the physical side of it, the athleticism, the things that, you know, Giannis' transformation from when he was drafted to now physically.

Speaker 4 You see all the shot making, you see the dunks, you see the playmaking, things like that.

Speaker 4 I'd say the mental side of it is what I've really tried to progress on throughout this season, and especially in the playoffs, because my role is unique.

Speaker 4 There's going to be nights where I get nine threes, there's going to be nights where I get one or two, there's going to be nights where I don't touch the ball for the first half, and then I'm expected to make one or two shots in the second half.

Speaker 4 But the one thing that has to remain consistent is my ability to positively affect the game throughout, whether it be rebounding, whether it be defense, whether it be taking charges, whether it be just causing havoc, whatever it might be.

Speaker 4 So for me, I just kind of mentally remind myself, hey, just use the athleticism that nobody thinks I have.

Speaker 4 You know, use the athleticism throughout the game, find ways to impact, use my instincts, do things that they may not show up on the stat sheet, but it's going to force Coach Bud to continue to put me in the game or keep me in the game because that way.

Speaker 4 when Drew or Giannis or Chris are the guys that have the ball in playmake, obviously on a consistent basis, when they do get double and triple teamed and the ball does get kicked to me, I'm a little bit more engaged to make the shot as opposed to just being cold and like firing it up.

Speaker 1 Right. So a little follow-up.
So let's say there were times during the playoffs, like you get three shots. If you airball one of them or you miss one badly, does it hurt a little bit more?

Speaker 1 Because that's the mental side that I feel like is really remarkable that if you have three, four shots a game, and you had more games with more,

Speaker 1 and you miss one badly, to be able to be like, all right, I got to keep my confidence up. Because if you have 25 shots a game and you miss one badly, who cares?

Speaker 1 You're shooting the next possession down.

Speaker 4 Right. No, you're 100% right.
So I'd say it's funny because that's where the majority of my growth this season came from. There was a stretch during the regular season.

Speaker 4 I played back in Portland where I started my career and I threw the first one off the

Speaker 4 backboard and the second one barely hit the rim.

Speaker 4 I realized like I went into a shooting slump for like the next week or so. And it was because of that.
And so how did I look at myself and be like, hey, how do I grow from this and learn from this?

Speaker 4 Because it's going to happen again. You know, I hope to play in the NBA for 10, 12, 15 years.
Who knows? You're going to miss bad shots. You're going to miss them poorly.

Speaker 4 And fast forward, the Atlanta, you know, game one, we lose and I miss a shot that could have tied the game or put us up by one and it was an airball.

Speaker 4 And I think what I've learned is you got to somehow understand a miss is a miss. It doesn't really matter what kind of miss it is.
Can you self-evaluate why you missed it?

Speaker 4 And for for me, the Atlanta one, it was time, score, moment. I let the environment kind of dictate how I shot it.
I got too excited for it. I was like, oh, I'm going to make the shot.

Speaker 4 We're going to win the game before I even shot the shot.

Speaker 4 So, how do I self-diagnose that? So that the next time, it's just, hey, the ball is coming to me. Find the front of the rim and let it fly.

Speaker 1 I'm happy you brought up that one because I think I just have the tweets. I don't have like what the context is.
I just have one from June 24th that just says, oh, no, Pat Conanton.

Speaker 1 I think that was that.

Speaker 4 Yeah,

Speaker 4 that would probably be it. I mean, that was probably one that's good.
I wasn't on social media for it.

Speaker 4 I'm sure the messages, the tweets, the mentions were probably not praised.

Speaker 1 No, but the next mention I have of you is I never should have doubted Pat Conanton on July 14th.

Speaker 4 Yeah. See, it's all about how you bounce back.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's all about how you bounce back. I'm looking at your stats here in just about across every category, every shooting category, your regular season stats compared to your playoff stats.

Speaker 1 Every season, your playoff stats are much better. Like you improve as a shooter in in the playoffs, whereas a lot of people go the other way.
Do you feel different in the playoffs?

Speaker 1 Do you get in the zone?

Speaker 4 Yeah, I mean, some of my buddies said I should trademark it as playoff pat. It's just a different mentality.

Speaker 4 But no, I think for me, I enjoy those big moments. I think

Speaker 4 when you're able to calm your mind down and understand, hey, I'm just trying to find a way to win the game. Like, that's the biggest thing to me.

Speaker 4 The reason the Atlanta one bothered me a little bit, why I was in the gym that night and early the next morning, was we lost.

Speaker 4 If I had missed a shot badly and we didn't lose, and I found a way to help my team win the game, that's a different story. But I just want to try to find ways to win the game.

Speaker 4 And in the playoffs, that's when it really shows. During the regular season, you know, playing time and things that coaches look at will be a little bit more statistically oriented.

Speaker 4 During the playoffs, they're just trying to find guys that can help them win games. And that's where I try to make my mark.
And I've been fortunate to do so quite a bit since I've been in Milwaukee.

Speaker 1 Okay, so another dumb question about the mental side of the game, which I think this is why people like our, you you know, our show, because we ask these kind of dumb questions.

Speaker 1 So have you ever found yourself in a playoff game, in a regular game, being caught being like, holy shit, what Giannis did was so cool and like didn't get back quick enough or like kind of get caught because like we're watching it and we're our mouths are on the floor with some of the blocks, some of the dunks.

Speaker 1 Has that ever happened where you were maybe like a split second, you didn't get back fast enough or you know, you lingered a little too long because he did something so incredible.

Speaker 4 Yeah, there's a, I got a perfect one for you. There's a, uh, there's a, a picture of it where if you zoom in on my face, you see me like,

Speaker 4 it's the block he had versus DeAndre Ayton the other day or in game three, I believe, three or four. Yeah.
Um, that was at the end of the game. That was incredible.

Speaker 4 I, the rebound was supposed to come right to me. If you watch the film, it was coming right to me.
I didn't move. Thank God PJ Tucker like was still in.

Speaker 4 in like his self uh mind but i just i i was like he they threw the lob i thought it was I thought it was done, I thought he had it.

Speaker 4 And Giannis comes from nowhere and pins it off the glass, hits it off the glass. And it took me a split second to jump back to.
And by that time, PJ had already grabbed the rebound, so we were good.

Speaker 1 That's amazing because that's obviously one of the highlights of the NBA Finals. You know, that game, that block was just incredible.
All right, I'm watching it real quick.

Speaker 1 That's that's that's perfect, though, because that's the human side.

Speaker 1 You know, obviously, you're locked in, it's it's high-stakes stuff, but then Giannis is doing stuff that like you can't, it's it's, it's incomprehensible sometimes, his athleticism and what he's able to do on the court.

Speaker 1 Also, Pat, I'm watching this play right now.

Speaker 1 You need to get credit for an assist on the block because as Aiton is making the backdoor cut, you point at him and you're like yelling at Giannis, like backdoor, backdoor.

Speaker 1 And then Giannis does something that's physically impossible for a human to do and blocks that shot. But we need to start keeping track of assist blocks because that would be one for you.

Speaker 1 Maybe the greatest assist of all time.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I mean, I'm telling them, hey, look, Giannis, I can't do anything about this. You need to go do something about that real quick because if not, we might lose it.

Speaker 1 I'm watching this, and it actually, like, it's very, very small. So you actually are harder on yourself than in reality there.
But you can see your body kind of relax for a split second.

Speaker 1 I think you would have gotten it anyway because PJ Tucker kind of stole it from you. But that's so funny that it's that block because it really was.

Speaker 1 I mean, I watched it a million times being like, how the fuck did he recover and get that high and block it at that level? Man, crazy.

Speaker 4 If you saw the picture from like, it's got to be either underneath the backboard or behind the backboard in the glass or whatever it is. It's a picture of him doing it.

Speaker 4 And it's at the time of the block or like right after.

Speaker 4 And the still frame, if you zoom in, someone sent it to me. I have it on my phone.
If you zoom in, that's where you see me like.

Speaker 1 That's incredible. And that's a quick second.

Speaker 1 But to give you credit, Giannis, I read somewhere that Giannis actually is jealous of your ability to show up to the gym and like jump out of the gym without any warm-up.

Speaker 1 So you guys are like workout buddies, right?

Speaker 4 Yeah, yeah. So me and Giannis have a nice little friendly competition on who can lift more during certain exercise,

Speaker 4 you know, pound for pound, who's stronger, things of that nature. And I kind of started right when I got in Milwaukee three years ago.

Speaker 4 And obviously he gets all the credit for being as strong as he is from where he came from.

Speaker 4 And when we first got there, I said, hey, look, you deserve all the credit, but don't think that I think you can beat me in a weightlifting contest. That's not going to happen.

Speaker 1 Okay, so we need to redo that

Speaker 1 the picture that went viral in game six of they showed Giannis when he was drafted and Giannis today. And it was like he grew seven inches and gained 50 pounds.

Speaker 1 We need one where, like, when Giannis met Pat Conneton and Giannis today, that's all you. Like, you get credit for that.

Speaker 4 100%.

Speaker 4 The last three years, I'm gonna take a little credit for it like there's a few i'll send you guys a few photos there's a few where after he gets an and one my big thing is like putting my arm up like this like how strong he is and there's a few great still still shots where like his face is like

Speaker 4 and like it's right at that moment and i i haven't i haven't blasted him on social media for it yet i wanted to make sure we won a championship before i did but where i said Look, even the MVP is jealous of some of the strength and conditioning guys on this team.

Speaker 1 There you go. What about his eating habits? Do you think that he was actually able to finish all those Chick-fil-A minis?

Speaker 4 I actually have no doubt he was able to finish all those Chick-fil-A minis. I think he loves Chick-fil-A.
Chick-fil-A is his thing, and the man can eat food.

Speaker 1 I mean, 50 minis is, that's just a ton of food. That's more impressive, we were saying, than any of the blocks, any of the alley oops, any of the dunks that he's had.

Speaker 1 If you're able to put away 50 Chick-fil-A minis in one sitting, that's actually just superhuman stuff.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I mean, his nickname's the freak. He's the Greek freak.
I tried to get a little campaign going during the playoffs playoffs when I was interviewing on NBA TV with Jared Greenberg.

Speaker 4 I think, you know, he's the Greek freak. I'm the Irish freak, but it didn't take.
Unfortunately, Nike stuck with the Greek freak stuff. They didn't add a new one.

Speaker 1 We can get on that. What about the PC freak? Yeah, we can get with the Irish freak.
We got you.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. I

Speaker 1 assume you jump higher than most Irish people. What about his? So the other part of his freak is the knee injury.
After that happens, was he telling you guys, like, don't worry, I'll be okay?

Speaker 1 Because I still don't, it feels, again, like 10 years ago, but he's up there now with Adrian Peterson.

Speaker 1 Obviously, Adrian Peterson's tore his ACL, but how he got hurt, how bad it looked, and then how he was able to come back, it still kind of blows my mind.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I think, to be honest, it's kind of undersold. It's under-talked about.
Like,

Speaker 4 you look at the way, I mean, you look at what Chris Bosch was saying. Like, they were worried about certain blood clots, things that Chris Bosch went through.

Speaker 4 Chris Bosch was worried about him him playing again or next year, let alone playing again in the playoffs.

Speaker 4 I think it just kind of shows A, his growth, like on a serious note, his growth as a leader.

Speaker 4 Like you look at some of the stars throughout the course of these playoffs, some of them that got hurt, they weren't down on the bench. They weren't standing up.

Speaker 4 They weren't taking guys aside and talking to them during the games. Like Giannis was doing that throughout those two games in the Eastern Conference Finals, which really helped us.

Speaker 4 It really helped us get through. And he was addressing the team collectively before the games, which I think just speaks to the growth that he's had as a leader, especially vocally.

Speaker 4 He's always had, obviously, the work ethic side of it. And then just the treatment and the 24-7 things that he was doing in order to try to put his body in a position to heal and get back

Speaker 4 and, you know, be there for game one of the finals. And then to put up the numbers he put up during the finals.
I mean, that's coming off of a hyperextended knee that.

Speaker 4 You know, if he wasn't as strong as he was or he hadn't put in the work in the weight room, who knows what that injury actually would have been.

Speaker 1 Yeah. So were you, were you confident? Like, I guess, how soon after the injury

Speaker 1 were you thinking like, okay, he's going to come back. He's not done.
Because as fans, we just, we assumed he was done until next year.

Speaker 1 Like maybe even going to miss some time into next year, given how serious that injury looked.

Speaker 4 Yeah. So him and I, because we've lifted obviously together for a few years now, he sprained his ankle over the last few years and I've sprained mine once or twice.

Speaker 4 And the thing that we kind of say to each other every single time when we go over, like, don't feel pain, like be stronger than pain. Like stronger people are harder to kill, but don't feel pain.
Um,

Speaker 4 when he was walking off that plane later that night, I was, I didn't go over and say it to him. I was like, I'm a little bit concerned.
Yeah, it's okay.

Speaker 1 I'm a little bit concerned. It's okay to feel pain just this way.
It's okay to feel pain on this one.

Speaker 4 Like I would feel pain on this one.

Speaker 4 But

Speaker 4 I'd say probably like the next day or two, seeing the progression that he had just in walking.

Speaker 4 And now, granted, walking is way different than running, playing, going left and right, laterally jumping, exploding, things like that. But

Speaker 4 his walking improved significantly. So I thought that's when guys had a little bit of more hope.
And he said, hey, look, we're focused on this series. Do not focus on me.
Focus on winning this series.

Speaker 4 I'm here as a voice to help you guys win this series. I'll make sure behind the scenes, I'm taking care of myself to put myself in a position to hopefully come back.

Speaker 1 He's a freak, but you're a freak too. And one thing that I think is under, we don't talk about enough is your performance in the slam dunk competition when you jumped over

Speaker 1 well you jumped over Giannis which is pretty cool but you also jumped over Christian Jelich friend of the show recurring guest when you were planning on jumping over Christian was he like did they did they tell you like please don't bump your testicles against my head

Speaker 4 no so we practiced and I showed him video of me jumping over a video guy that we have that's so that he knew I could do it.

Speaker 4 It was more or less, I would say, the city and state of Wisconsin I was concerned about about because I was jumping over the two MVPs.

Speaker 4 I was going to try to get Aaron Rodgers there to jump over all three of the MVPs,

Speaker 4 but I didn't make it to the next round. And so I didn't have that opportunity.

Speaker 4 But I would say there was a lot of breath holding from both the Brewers' ownership and management and then the Bucs' ownership and management.

Speaker 4 When I was like, yeah, this is what I'm planning on doing.

Speaker 1 He was rocking two teams. It was a great outfit, though.
You were rocking the white man can't jump, the Woody Allison outfit. And then

Speaker 1 the problem with the dunk over Giannis, I thought, was there was almost too much nuance to it. The tapping the ball on the backboard.
I don't know if the judges saw that when it happens in real time.

Speaker 4 Yeah, so I would say they didn't see it until there was slow motion in the arena. So being in the arena and afterwards, I knew it was going to be kind of tough for them to see.

Speaker 4 So me and Giannis went over and like kind of pointed. When they replayed it in the arena on the big screen, it was almost like a bigger reaction than when I actually got the dunk down.

Speaker 4 It was like a double reaction. Like I got the dunk down and people were like, oh.

Speaker 4 And then they showed on the arena and people were like, oh, and like it was the second one that I think kind of helped.

Speaker 4 But the first one, I think, was the one that had the most controversy because I was the only guy in the first round to get the dunk down on the first try, jumping over Yelich in the white man can't jump costume.

Speaker 4 And my man D. Wade gave me an eight.

Speaker 1 Oh, that's tough. Yeah.
Have you, have you talked to him after that?

Speaker 4 No, I haven't. I haven't spoken to him.

Speaker 4 I told him it's going to take me a few years to get over it because he had a fellow Miami Heat guy in the dunk contest that happened to make it to the next round as opposed to me because of that eight versus nine.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's bullshit.

Speaker 1 We're going to get back to the interview.

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Speaker 1 Talk about,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 1 your path to the NBA. So I think people know, but if they don't, you were an incredible baseball player.
You get drafted by the Orioles in the fourth round.

Speaker 1 You decide to play basketball instead of baseball. But actually, let me go back.
So I read that essentially your life changed in one week at an AAU camp.

Speaker 1 Is that like true, or is that kind of an embellishment of a story that some writer made up, you know, maybe a little bit sexier so they could, you know, have an awesome article?

Speaker 4 I'd say it was my life in basketball changed in one week for sure. I would say baseball, and it was actually probably

Speaker 4 right around exactly 11 years ago this week. It was a week in July.

Speaker 4 I never played AU basketball really because I played baseball in the summer. Like that was my thing.
I played basketball all fall, winter, baseball, spring and summer. And

Speaker 4 so I didn't really got seen forward basketball.

Speaker 4 The only offer I had going into that tournament was from a Division II school, Bentley University, for basketball.

Speaker 4 I had baseball offers from everywhere starting since I was like a freshman in high school.

Speaker 4 And I told all the baseball coaches, hey, I just want to wait and see what I can do with basketball. And all of them looked at me like,

Speaker 4 why? Like,

Speaker 4 why? Let's be honest, you're a 6'5 white guy. Why are you waiting to see what you can do in basketball? Like, let's do this baseball thing.
And so.

Speaker 4 I finally got down there and I went down with an AAU program, Middle Sex Magic, from back home. And I got to play in front of some Division I coaches.

Speaker 4 and I left there with like 30 Division I offers and uh when I really knew like things were changing uh like Coach Bray my obviously college coach was like the first guy that really saw me and offered me uh but when I really knew things were changing we we had lost the game and you know in those AAU tournaments like you're at like the nice facilities until you lose then you're in like some random gym at like the second court isn't even like it's like torn up it's like there's only one court there's dividers and there's those little uh crappy uh like metal stands.

Speaker 4 And I got Ben Holland, Coach Bray, Bruce Pearl. I got all these head coaches sitting on those away from the main event.

Speaker 4 And that's when I kind of knew, hey, if they're coming to these shitty gyms to see me, things are looking up.

Speaker 1 That's incredible. So, like, you, if that week doesn't happen, you're probably in, you know, in the minors, maybe the majors at this point, and your life is just completely different.

Speaker 1 But you went down, you balled out, and then everything flipped. And it's like, now everyone looks at you, Pat Commons, and the basketball player.
It was just like that, yeah, it was just like that.

Speaker 4 And I think, like, the funny part about it is, you know, I worked, I worked really hard before I went down there, and I got myself in even better shape. But

Speaker 4 a lot of things was, which is ironic and different back when I was there.

Speaker 4 There wasn't all this high school mixtape, there wasn't as much coverage of the AU or the high school circuit, so not many people knew who I was unless I went to nationals.

Speaker 4 But like the first few games in nationals, just during warm-ups, I did some 360 dunks, I did some windmills, I did some things, and like everyone starts turning their heads: who's this guy?

Speaker 4 We've never seen him before, and he's doing all this.

Speaker 1 That's that's nothing. You bet on yourself, like you wanted to always play basketball.

Speaker 1 You get the you, so you got a signing bonus from the getting drafted by the Orioles for $400,000 while you're still at Notre Dame.

Speaker 1 That must have been hard too, to be like, I could go get paid to be a professional athlete right now, but I'm going to keep playing basketball.

Speaker 4 Yeah, so I went, um, I met with all the scouts my junior year, the baseball scouts. I also,

Speaker 4 you know, I was an athlete in baseball. I wouldn't say I was a pitcher.
I was an athlete. I could throw it hard.

Speaker 4 I had a little bit of a control issue from time to time, like batters got in the box and they were a little bit nervous because they didn't really know where it was going.

Speaker 4 Sometimes in warm-ups, I'd say I went over the catcher's head and hit the backstop and come all the way back to me, like things like that.

Speaker 4 So when I was talking to all the scouts, they were like, hey, look, we'll take a chance on you. There were guys that wanted me at the end of the first round, guys that wanted me in the second round.

Speaker 4 And I said to them, The one thing I want to do is come back to Notre Dame to finish out my basketball career. You know, Coach Bray gave me the opportunity.

Speaker 4 I thought it was important for me to make sure that I finished the four years that he gave me a scholarship for and finished out my degree and things like that. I was set to graduate a semester early.

Speaker 4 And the Orioles said, Yeah, sure, we'll let you do it. No problem.

Speaker 4 And the exact quote they said to me was like, We have no problem letting you do it because we know there's no future for you in basketball afterwards.

Speaker 1 Holy shit.

Speaker 4 And so I went, I actually went and I took the signing bonus and and I played that summer.

Speaker 4 I played minor league baseball in Aberdeen, Maryland for a short season A, the Aberdeen Ironbirds, pitched, probably started four or five games,

Speaker 4 and then went back to Notre Dame and played basketball my senior year and never ended up going back.

Speaker 1 Damn. And so I'm reading a quote here from one executive said, he definitely cost himself some money by returning to school.
I think it ended up pretty good for you.

Speaker 1 Like if you were to do it all over again, probably do the same thing.

Speaker 4 Yeah, for sure. 100%.
I I think the funny part that not a lot of people know was I had the

Speaker 4 Yankees sitting in my living room back in my senior year of high school, offering me a couple million bucks to forego going to college at all to play baseball.

Speaker 4 But I felt like if they were offering me that then, that opportunity would still be there as long as I advanced in college. And

Speaker 4 I felt like it was easier for me in both sports to progress if I was trying to do them on the same campus, working with each coaching staff, not having to fly places to get better, but being able to just walk across campus.

Speaker 4 Granted, it was snowy and negative degrees, temperatures, and self-bend.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Are we going to hear in a couple of years? Like, if you have a contract coming up, you're like, well, I'm thinking about going to play baseball as leverage.

Speaker 1 Russell Wilson does that every couple of years. I'd like to hear Pat Conaton get involved in that too.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I mean, look, maybe not in a couple of years, but when it comes, maybe five or six years down the line, when I'm getting to that point,

Speaker 4 there'll be a few stories leaked of me playing long toss in the summers.

Speaker 4 And you'll see, you know, me throwing it from the plate out of over-the-green monster at Fenway when I'm back home in the offseason and stir up a little bit of controversy.

Speaker 1 I mean, the Yankees love pitchers with control issues right now. You'd fit in there both right this second.
It's true.

Speaker 1 Wait, all right, so I'm mad, though, that you ruined one of my questions because you admitted to having control problems.

Speaker 1 Because I did want to bring up the first pitch that you threw out in 2019 for the Brewers. So I watched it and I was like, this guy played baseball because you fucking airmailed that thing.

Speaker 1 Hold on, I'll pull it up for PFT right now. You airmailed that thing.
So now it makes sense, though. So you're basically saying this was commonplace for you.
Like

Speaker 1 this didn't bother you because this was a kind of routine Pat Conitson warm-up where you might hit the guy who's holding the camera, you know, 20 feet behind home plate.

Speaker 4 Yeah, so two tidbits for you. One, there was our social media girl was holding the camera and she was watching the camera, not like the pitch to make sure she got it.
She did not move an inch.

Speaker 4 And I have her footage. It went right by the camera, like right by her head.
Like she didn't move an inch. She was stoic through the whole thing, like nerves of steel.

Speaker 4 And then the other tidbit is there was a time in high school.

Speaker 4 where I hit the first batter of the first four innings to the point where the parents on the other team thought that I was doing it on purpose.

Speaker 4 And I was like, look, I'm honest, I'm not doing it on purpose. I hit the first batter of the first four innings, and then I struck out the remaining three guys of each inning.

Speaker 4 So I ended up with 12Ks after four innings, but four hit by pitches.

Speaker 4 I guess I just wanted to pitch out of the stretch. I don't know what happened.

Speaker 1 That's one of the best stat lines ever. It's actually great because you set the tone right away.
Like the next batter that comes up, they're not digging in. They're not crowding on you.

Speaker 4 Hey, you should have seen the first batter of the fifth inning.

Speaker 1 He was standing outside the box. He was like, This.

Speaker 1 So four innings pitched, 12 strikeouts, no hits, four batters hit. Yes.
What a stat line. That's incredible.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 4 It was a unique stat line. And one of the hits by HPPs

Speaker 4 hit the kid in the helmet, and I caught it.

Speaker 1 It came right back to me, and I caught it.

Speaker 1 In the air?

Speaker 4 In the air.

Speaker 1 That's ridiculous. Yikes.
Yeah, if I was a parent, I probably wouldn't have to play. Yeah, I would have kicked him too.

Speaker 1 But that's good.

Speaker 1 Now we have it. You should have just said that right away after that first pitch because it was a very bad first pitch and you were a former baseball player.
But now I love it. You're just wild thing.

Speaker 1 You're Ricky Vaughn.

Speaker 4 Yeah, well, you know, when I threw that first pitch, I was still on a vet minimum. I was a one-year team option the second year.

Speaker 4 I didn't want the Orioles or anybody thinking, hey, his control might really suck. Like,

Speaker 4 we might have to rethink this whole fourth-round draft pick thing.

Speaker 4 I had to make sure that this basketball thing was really going to work out before I really started to, you know, give myself a hard time and show the world what kind of pitcher I really was.

Speaker 1 That's awesome.

Speaker 1 We have a recurring debate on this show between myself and Big Cat on whether or not it would be better to just be able to step back and just be wet shooting threes or to be able to step up and just throw down dunks in a pickup game.

Speaker 1 So you're probably the perfect person to ask because you dabble in both. You're an athletic freak.
So

Speaker 1 what does Vanilla Thunder say to that?

Speaker 4 Dunks, for sure. I mean, I've been, you know, one of the the best basketball experiences of my life goes back to high school.

Speaker 4 I went into the Mission Hill Projects in Boston with this team from Lynn, which were a bunch of guys that I used to play against and played with in AAU.

Speaker 4 And we played against the Mission Hill Projects team, which had Shabazz Napier, who's a close friend of mine.

Speaker 4 And there were a lot of Division I guys there. We walk into the gym.
One of the guys on Lynn

Speaker 4 reached out to me before I got there and said, hey, before you get here, let me know. I'll come out and get you and then I'll bring you in.
So I'm the only white guy in the gym. I walk in.

Speaker 4 My dad comes with me.

Speaker 4 A little kid runs up to my dad and goes, hey,

Speaker 4 meaning like we were the only ones that really looked alike in that gym.

Speaker 4 Shabazz showed up. The place goes wild because Shabazz had just gotten back from Yukon for the summer.
So he was a year above me. And so we play, we're playing the first half.
We're tied.

Speaker 4 I hit, I think, four or five threes in the first half. And people were impressed, but like, it was still like they were rooting for Shabazz in the Michigan Hill project.

Speaker 4 Beginning of the second half, there's a block. I'm coming down the right wing.

Speaker 4 I got two guys on the Mission Hill team: one who's like kind of lining me up, and the other one who's just trying to come over from the weak side.

Speaker 4 I go up off one and I put both of them in the room, I dunk on both of them. The game stopped.

Speaker 4 I got people running on the floor, I got people going nuts, I got people yelling things like this white boy can play, who is this kid? Like the whole, the whole nine. Until I would say to you guys,

Speaker 4 the threes were

Speaker 4 fine in the first half, but we shut down a game with the dunk.

Speaker 1 Now,

Speaker 1 in my defense, my argument has always been not about Pat Conaton-level pickup hoops. It's about like Saturday morning, everyone's fat running around, and if someone dunks, it's a try-hard move.

Speaker 1 Like, I play in pickup games where a guy will dunk and everyone be like, all right, dude. So, yes, I would agree in what you just described is a lot different.

Speaker 1 Like, if you're playing with guys above the rim, dunking, yeah, you dunking on people is fucking sick.

Speaker 1 You probably have not played in

Speaker 1 in a level of play that I play at since like probably fourth grade, where it's just everyone's just running around, missing shots

Speaker 1 and sucking. And then one guy will show up and dunk and everyone will be like, all right, dude, like, come on, really?

Speaker 4 I would agree with you only because

Speaker 4 I have seen my buddies play. I have gone to a few of the pickups that my buddies play over the summer.

Speaker 4 And whenever a guy hits a three, especially if it's a few feet behind the line, there's a lot of trash talking going on where it's like, oh, he got lucky. He won't do it again.

Speaker 4 The second he hits a second three, it's like, oh, even a broken clock's right twice a day. Second he hits a third three, it just keeps going.
And that's when people start to get pretty animated.

Speaker 1 And you, and pick up hoops, like you're playing at 21 or something, and it's like you could basically rattle off three wins if you get hot at three. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Like where it's just bang, bang, bang. But yeah, I mean, what you described is very cool.

Speaker 4 Yeah, appreciate it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, have you, have you considered like just making yourself available to go over to Tokyo and play in the Olympics?

Speaker 1 We need a shooter.

Speaker 1 We need a package. Someone who can play basketball.
Yes, please. Help.
Yeah, look,

Speaker 4 I was vying for my guy when we were still in the final or in the playoffs and the finals.

Speaker 4 I was vying for my guy, Duncan Robinson, to get called up over there. I thought he would have fit in perfectly with them deep threes.
But

Speaker 4 yeah, if they give me a call, I'd be happy to go over. My guy Dame's still over there or is over there.
Obviously played with him Portland. Drew and Chris are over there.

Speaker 4 Drew had a great first game but it's a different brand of basketball I think that's what you know it's different than the NBA there's less spacing the ball has to move more people have to move more it's got to be shared more it's not as much isolation and those guys that play in the NBA that then go and play for their countries they're used to that they grew up playing that yeah can you know can you explain it like a little bit more in depth because i'm really dumb so i i've heard people say that like there's more spacing involved and it's a different game and it's not just like okay we have the the players who are by far the best athletes in the world and some of the best scorers in the world, like Kevin Durant.

Speaker 1 Like, they don't obviously have anybody that can match up what Kevin Durant's able to do offensively.

Speaker 1 But what are the differences in the rules that make it so much more difficult for guys that just play their United States career in the NBA?

Speaker 4 So the three-point line is closer. So immediately when guys are guarding around the three-point line, you've got five bodies within a tighter space.
And that's before you put the offense in there.

Speaker 4 The key is a little bit smaller. So there's no defensive three seconds.
So you can sit in the key for really as long as you want. Goal tending, if the ball's on

Speaker 4 the ball touches the rim, you can bat it off. So you'll see guys throw up a free throw.
It'll roll around the rim. And you'll see the good European guys jump up and bat it off the rim.

Speaker 4 When in the NBA, that might roll in and count.

Speaker 4 There's like little nuances like that where when you can mitigate the athleticism is basically how I describe it to people.

Speaker 4 Like when you're able to shrink the court a little bit, you're able to give Kevin Durant less space. You're able to give a guy like Dame, who's super fast less space.

Speaker 4 It's all, it becomes more about skill.

Speaker 4 And then you look at guys like Luca Doncic, you look at guys like Rudy Fernandez, who didn't make it in the NBA, but when he was playing for Spain in those exhibition games, you know, he was killing the United States.

Speaker 4 And Paul Gasol, who's not in the NBA anymore, but he's still having a significant impact in the Euro League basketball and the Olympic basketball. So it just kind of mitigates that athleticism.

Speaker 1 And I think that's where Americans and the United States have always made their bread and butter is we're just a little bit more athletic than the than the euro than the europeans you can also say uh the roster construction is baffling because we don't have like a true point guard or centers which is very weird like when you play because all these other teams have huge guys like they all like you said the the the point about athleticism you can play a big guy who doesn't move like in the nba today's nba you have to if you're a center you have to be able to guard anywhere on the court hopefully hit threes and when the athleticism goes down, you can play like old school centers a little bit more.

Speaker 4 No, 100%. 100%.
I would say, I mean, let me ask you guys the question. Why do you think less guys from the NBA and less Americans wanted to go over? I think it has to do with there's COVID.

Speaker 4 There's no fans over there. I think for some reason, and this Olympics isn't even in a fourth year.
It got delayed a year, right?

Speaker 4 So I think there's a little bit of, hey, we want to get ready for next year in the NBA. We'll catch the next Olympics in 2024.
And this one's not as important, which is a shame.

Speaker 4 However, I still believe we should win it based off the talent that we have on the roster.

Speaker 1 Agreed. So that actually leads me to the question, the debate we had

Speaker 1 on the show. Chris Middleton and Drew Holiday, did you have a moment where you looked at them like drunk at the party or at the parade being like, come on, guys, let's keep partying.

Speaker 1 Don't get on this flight.

Speaker 4 Yeah, so the parade was Thursday. And Drew Holiday was on my bus.

Speaker 4 And I turned around, I took a bus selfie, and then I turned around and I looked at Drew and my man Drew was sitting there like, I need some rest because I got to fly on a flight to Tokyo tomorrow.

Speaker 4 And I was like, is it still worth it? Like after winning it, like, is it still worth it?

Speaker 4 And I mean, both of them, you know, had the same answer. Like Chris Middleton,

Speaker 4 you know, he's the guy that was just like, I want to be able to compete for an Olympic gold medal. These chances don't always come around.

Speaker 4 Same with Drew. And I couldn't fault him for that.

Speaker 4 I mean, at the end of the day, if you're looking at, hey, we won the NBA championship and we got a gold medal in the same year, that's a pretty historic year. That's a hell of a year.

Speaker 4 So I couldn't fault them for it. But when I asked if it was worth it to both of them, they both thought about it for a split second longer than I thought they were going to be.

Speaker 1 Good. I'm happy that you at least brought it up because I agree.
Like, at the end of the day, playing in the Olympics, that's something special. You'll remember it forever.

Speaker 1 You got to suck it up for a week and a flight. But I'm happy that you asked me because that's what every

Speaker 1 regular fan, guy sitting at a bar was thinking: like, whoa, I would just party my face off for a couple weeks and just pretend the Olympics didn't happen.

Speaker 4 I did tell them, hey, look, if you want, the other way you can look at this is just party and don't sleep so that flight goes by really fast because you're just passed out on it the entire time.

Speaker 1 Yep.

Speaker 1 That's a good strategy, too. Very good strategy.
So

Speaker 1 we saw PJ Tucker's speech, the dog speech. He wants dogs.
He looked like he was having a pretty good time.

Speaker 1 Do you think that was he partying the hardest, or was there some guy who was low-key partying harder than PJ?

Speaker 4 No, I think it's it's evident PJ Tucker was partying the hardest. Like PJ is one of those guys.
I mean, obviously he came to us probably a third of the way through the year.

Speaker 4 So he's with us for like two-thirds of the year.

Speaker 4 He's one of, you know, the best teammates I've ever had. He's a guy that...
He's a great locker room guy. He's a great human being in general.

Speaker 4 Obviously, the stuff he does on the court is those winning type plays, which, you know, I relate to really easily. But just as a human being, he's great.
And he's been through an incredible career.

Speaker 4 I mean, the guy went overseas for a few years to come back to the NBA. So, for us to win, he was one of the guys I was most happy for that we were able to get him a championship.

Speaker 4 And let's just say he took full advantage of winning that championship afterwards. Like, he was the

Speaker 4 most. He was the guy who I was getting snapchats from people within Milwaukee that he was still out at a few bars by the time it was over.
Like, he was, he was, he deserved it.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 There was a couple funny, like, just a bar that you would never expect an NBA champion to be at the day after he wins an NBA championship and people like tweeting it being like, PJ Tucker just bought everyone at this bar a beer.

Speaker 1 Pretty cool move. So if that's the way to live it.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 And that's the type of guy he is. Yeah.
He's the type of guy where, you know, he celebrates. things that are worth celebrating.

Speaker 4 And obviously an NBA championship is worth celebrating, but he wants everyone to feel the same type of thing. And the city of Milwaukee embraced him when he got there.

Speaker 4 I gave him some food spots because he's a big food and coffee guy to go to.

Speaker 4 And they treated him really well. And he wanted to make sure that the fans felt the love back.

Speaker 1 That's awesome. All right.
So I had one last question. This has been awesome, man.
We really appreciate you doing this.

Speaker 1 The game seven against the Nets. I was there.

Speaker 1 I didn't for a second think that. Kevin Durant had a three there.
Did you think that he had hit a three? Or did you, because it actually on the board, on the Jumbotron, it said three-pointer.

Speaker 4 Did you think your season was over in that moment or were you like no his foot was definitely on the line no i didn't so i i wasn't on the court for that play um i was standing off uh but i wasn't on the bench i was almost at the scorers table and i couldn't i didn't have a great angle i had a great angle of like the shot but i didn't have a great angle while the play was going on so i was with you i was looking up at the jumbotron watching the play unfold and the second he spun and turned around when I was looking at Jumbotron I saw his foot looked like it was on the line so I knew it was a two.

Speaker 4 And then I looked at the play, and it looked like it was going in the whole way. Like when he let that thing go, I was like, God damn, this thing's in again.

Speaker 4 Um,

Speaker 4 and to be honest with you, that's why, like, if you put into perspective a game that felt like you won the NBA championship, it was that game. Like, that game was an instant classic.

Speaker 4 You had Kevin Durant hitting shots to put it into overtime at home in a hostile environment. Like,

Speaker 4 winning that game showed the type of character and camaraderie that we had as a team.

Speaker 1 I love it. I mean, I couldn't agree more.
That felt like the first moment where it was like, oh, the Bucs are punching back this year. It's not like last year they have the tough.

Speaker 4 Who were you rooting for during that game?

Speaker 1 I was rooting for Blake Griffin.

Speaker 1 It actually was bizarre if you were watching it. Like, I only would cheer for Blake Griffin.
He had a fucking awesome game.

Speaker 1 If they had five Blake Griffins out there, we wouldn't be interviewing you right now because you wouldn't be an NBA champion.

Speaker 4 I will say, I will say he did play really well that game.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he was a dog. He was exactly what PJ Tucker.
He was a dog that whole series.

Speaker 4 Yeah,

Speaker 4 his transformation from Detroit to Brooklyn was

Speaker 4 like night and day. It was like Giannis's rookie year to this year.

Speaker 1 Yeah, just need a little fresh air, some of that famous New York City fresh air, and then all of a sudden he's able to dunk again. Yes, it was true.

Speaker 1 Well, let me ask you this:

Speaker 1 has this week been better than your one week

Speaker 1 of like AAU legendary performances? Which is the best week of of your life?

Speaker 4 Oh, that's a great question.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I would say this week's been better. I mean, it's not often you can win an NBA championship.
There are guys who have great careers that never go through it.

Speaker 4 It's not often like a guy of my stature who everyone thought was going to be a baseball player,

Speaker 4 who actually, ironically enough, I see your guys' logo back there. I was at home in summers playing on my buddy's men's league softball team, who our name was the Yabos.

Speaker 1 Oh, I love it.

Speaker 4 So we had some good, good stories then. But, you know, it's not often the guy that everyone picked to play baseball was having the type of role that I had in the playoffs, in the NBA finals.

Speaker 4 And so I'd say this week trumps it. I wouldn't say it's by a lot because if I didn't have that week, we might be talking about

Speaker 4 me just playing men's league softball. So it's something that I won't see that.

Speaker 1 Just striking, hitting people in slow pitch.

Speaker 4 That one hurts a lot less. I don't think the parents would heckle me if I I was hitting people on slowfish.

Speaker 1 True. It's true.
Well, Pat, this has been awesome, man. We really appreciate it.
And congrats again.

Speaker 4 Appreciate it, guys. Thank you.
This was a lot more enjoyable than when I got my ass handed to me in the Spit and Chiclets NHL video game,

Speaker 4 a year and a half ago. Yes.

Speaker 1 Love it.

Speaker 1 Hey, what's going on there, pal? We saw you at the hockey game on. Do I know you guys? I'm Ryan Whitney.
I got a drink named after me. Not a big deal.
Pink Whitney?

Speaker 1 That's what I thought. See you, fellas.
I invented the thing, you pigeon. Pink Whitney for legendary moments.
Wrap it up with the Mount Rushmore.

Speaker 1 We have the Mount Rushmore of Olympic events we could meddle in, maybe.

Speaker 1 And we're doing summer and winter, so it's all Olympic events.

Speaker 1 Let's hit the lottery machine to see who gets to pick

Speaker 1 or who gets to decide the order. Okay, who picks the number first? Why don't you go first, big kid?

Speaker 1 45.

Speaker 1 20.

Speaker 1 19. 69.

Speaker 1 Here we go.

Speaker 1 And we're going and we're going and we're going and we're going and we're going.

Speaker 1 57.

Speaker 1 Ye

Speaker 1 me. Yeah, big cat.
No, tie. No, big cat.

Speaker 1 Oh, no way. Tie.
It's a tie.

Speaker 1 Wow. Price is right.
Over is disqualified.

Speaker 1 Wait, so that gives. Wait, what? Why would you change? No, we're not going to change it.
Then we would lose. Jake, just

Speaker 1 literally did the ref and went out of bounds on me. Let's go.
It's their ball. Let's go.

Speaker 1 I'll re-alpha Jake. I'll say Jake goes first and we'll come this way.
So we'll go wrap around that way. Okay.
So Hank will go fourth. Jake and Billy do not.
I'm not going to. Oh, no.

Speaker 1 That's time traveling. Okay.
I was going to say I'm not going to.

Speaker 1 Okay. Yeah.
All right. Go for it.
I know what you're going to say. Go ahead.
First pick. Go.
You go. Go.

Speaker 1 Table tennis. Okay.

Speaker 1 I thought the easy first pick is handball. I absolutely could meddle in handball.
I watched again. It is a joke of a sport.
It really is. Gym class.
You, yeah,

Speaker 1 on a team could meddle in handball. Okay.
All you'd have to do is just do band workouts for your shoulders. Dude.
Develop like an 80-mile an hour fastball, and guess what?

Speaker 1 Your automatic, I think that gives you the silver medal in the game. It is gym class.
I'm not going to ever lose to Croatia in a sport. No.
That's just a fact. No.

Speaker 1 I will overcome them with my sheer mental will. Easiest sport ever.
Yep. By far.

Speaker 1 My first pick is going to, well, I was going to do...

Speaker 1 There's an alternate version of handball out there, big cat.

Speaker 1 No, there isn't. It's a more chill version of handball.
But it's not an Olympic sport yet.

Speaker 1 No, it's not an Olympic sport. You're talking about beach handball? Yeah, it's not an Olympic sport.
It was on the list of

Speaker 1 Olympic sports. You were probably looking at the all list.
It was a youth Olympic sport. Okay, so that's why I'm not going to take beach handball.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So instead of not taking beach handball, I am going to pick a pretty standard one for easiness, curling. Okay.
I think

Speaker 1 if you gave me like four years, I could figure it out. Training every single day.
I like shuffle board. I like ice.
I like being slightly overweight.

Speaker 1 As far as I can tell, those are the only three requirements to being a professional. I agree.
That was my number one pick as well.

Speaker 1 I I also think, because if you're that's a team game, too, so it's like, let's say you get put into a a training facility and you're just curling all day, every day for like four years,

Speaker 1 you would get enough skill, and then you could all, if you're playing with two good players or three good players, however many players there are,

Speaker 1 you could win. I'd just be the broom guy.
The broom guy seems like it's a like I love cleaning. Everybody knows that about me.
So easy. So easy.
All right, I have two here.

Speaker 1 I will go with

Speaker 1 pole vaulting. Oh, okay.

Speaker 1 That's maybe

Speaker 1 one of the hardest sports in the world. That's the one where you're going to get a pole up your butt at some point.
You just run? That is such a hard sport. Stick the stick in the ball.
Holy fuck.

Speaker 1 That would be easier. Listen, big head.
If me and you were both training for four years, I would be

Speaker 1 closer to being a pro-meddling pole vaulter than you would be to be a medalist.

Speaker 1 I know how to throw a ball.

Speaker 1 I know how to run and do the stick. I don't think you.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 That's a really hard story.

Speaker 1 We like dying. Yeah, yeah.
No, it's dangerous. You know what we need to do, Hank? We absolutely do need to get you out on a track.
We know the kid who's like the heavy favorite for pole vaulting.

Speaker 1 He Switched, went to LSU. We met him at a LSU tailgate, and we stayed in touch.

Speaker 1 We met a fucking Olympian handball player. He looked like an accountant.
He came into this office. We interviewed him.
He looked like an accountant.

Speaker 1 We've interviewed Aaron Donald. That doesn't mean I'm going to get defensive player of the year.
Year. I'm not saying that.
I'm just saying. Okay, all right.

Speaker 1 I'm trying to be positive this year, but that's

Speaker 1 hard sport. Bad pick.

Speaker 1 All right, my number two. What's your number two? Boxing? No.

Speaker 1 Billy just crossed off boxing.

Speaker 1 Surfing like, fuck. Surfing.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yes. It's better than pole vaulting.
Yes. Better than pole vaulting.
Also, surfing is just like entirely subjective.

Speaker 1 So if you could invent a cool-looking trick, then you might find a judge who's like, yeah, why are you fucking like that? I just don't, like, I just.

Speaker 1 Pole vaulting's hard, dude. It's really hard.
But if all, like, let's say I just live at the track, I'm training for four years straight. I have a coach.

Speaker 1 All you got to do is run straight and get the timing down. Yeah.
It's scary. Versus handball, where you have to be in much better physical shape.

Speaker 1 No, dude, there are fat guys playing in the handball Olympics right now.

Speaker 1 Also, Hank, the pole vaulting, there's a shitload of upper body strength that's required to push it in and then spring yourself over the bar. Yeah, well, I'm going to be jacked by August.
That's true.

Speaker 1 What skill do I not have that handballs?

Speaker 1 Endurance. Dude, the courts are so small.
Being able to jump

Speaker 1 quickness.

Speaker 1 Again, the courts are really small, and they basically just walk around throwing the ball at each other's face.

Speaker 1 It's fourth-grade dodgeball. These are things that can all be learned, by the way.

Speaker 1 If you get with an elite speed teacher and just have you do that thing where you slide back and forth on your feet for like two days.

Speaker 1 Also, I could just be one of the fat guys that just throws it hard. Or the goalie.
And you just throw it at their feet. I would actually, I think I'd be a good handball goalie.

Speaker 1 Dude, you just got to take some balls to the face. I regret picking pole ball things.
No, no, no, I don't. No, no, no, no.
You guys, I do. I just want that on the record.
Okay. I'm already.

Speaker 1 It's just a very hard sport.

Speaker 1 All right. Is it my turn? Yes.
All right. My second pick, I'm going to go power walking.
Is that still a sport? Did they take that out? I don't think so.

Speaker 1 Hank, you don't know. Yeah, I do.
I think that pick should stand and it should say

Speaker 1 not an Olympic sporting. But it has been an Olympic sport.
You should vacate.

Speaker 1 You're like the Twitter reply, guys. Not a sport.
Yeah, I mean,

Speaker 1 you should have to vacate that

Speaker 1 on the official Olympic website. I do not see that.
As of 2016, it was. Let's see.

Speaker 1 Get with Times PFT. Come on.

Speaker 1 Racewalking is an Olympic athletics event, according to people who also ask.

Speaker 1 I don't think it's there anymore. I'm on the official Olympic website as well.
I think you just vacate vacate this pit.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it says there are two race walking distances contested at the Summer Olympics, the 20 kilometers. This is 2020.
And this is Wikipedia for race walking. Is it in this year's Olympics?

Speaker 1 Racewalking is an Olympic athletic event.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think that it is. I don't see it.
Does anyone see it? Yeah, I think that it is. Does anyone see it?

Speaker 1 The International Olympic Committee says the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Marathon and race walking events will be moved to the island of

Speaker 1 Hokkaido because of its clue what this was in 2019, though. So, as of two years ago, it was an Olympic event when they're planning for 2021.
You think they forgot? No, no, they didn't.

Speaker 1 Racewalking is an event in the Olympics, and I think I could do it. Oh, all servicemen's.

Speaker 1 Okay. All right.
All right. That was contentious, though.
You guys really came at my throat. You don't have very long legs.
I don't, but they're taking a lot of time.

Speaker 1 That's like kind of the thing that you need for racewalking. Not necessarily.
You ever see like a dachshund run? That's kind of like

Speaker 1 tiny little legs.

Speaker 1 They don't go fast. Yeah, but I feel like if I trained hard, I got good calves.
I thought there was a whole like big thing that race walking got taken away and it was like very sad.

Speaker 1 Because it is a very funny sport. I'm looking at the building.
Maybe the funniest sport of it. Yeah, it is.
I'm looking at the builds of people that compete in racewalking.

Speaker 1 They don't seem to be super tall. Okay, it still is.
I thought they were trying to get rid of it. Please never get rid of it.
No, never do it. All right.
Yeah, that's my body type.

Speaker 1 I'm looking at some race walkers right now. I could dominate.
They're very skinny. Yeah, but I could walk my way into shape.
Okay. All right.
I can't believe this one lasted. Bobsled.

Speaker 1 Just fucking be a sack of potatoes in the middle. One of the guys in the middle, yeah, I had like, what the fuck? Syka Cohen.
That's the easiest fucking sport in the world.

Speaker 1 You got to watch Cool Runnings? Yes. Syka.
You have to be fat.

Speaker 1 Wait, wait. Sanka was like his buddy, and he just was on the team.
Did you watch Cool Runnings? It was a bunch of dudes that didn't know how to bob slid. They just started bobsledding.

Speaker 1 But they were actual athletes. But one of them wasn't.
One of them wasn't. The fat one wasn't.
And you need a fat guy. You need a fat guy.
He's led. He's in the middle.
He wasn't fat, but whatever.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Dude, put me in the second or third spot, and all I got to do is lean every now and then. So you got to specify four-man bob sleds.
Yeah. There's nowhere to hide in two-man bob sleds.

Speaker 1 No, yeah, that one's scary. Okay.

Speaker 1 So this one, you actually don't have to be athletic at all, but equestrian sports.

Speaker 1 Good picks. Because think about it, like you can train a horse.
You don't actually have to be that good. Yep.
Good pick. Good pick.

Speaker 1 Yep. Good pick.
An equestrian tested positive for cocaine recently. That's sick.
Really? Yeah. The horse or the person? The person.
Oh, I thought it was a. Yeah.
Yeah, no shit.

Speaker 1 The person did all these crazy horse cookies. They're all rich people.
Yeah, like, oh, Bruce Springsteen's daughter.

Speaker 1 It would be more surprising if she wasn't using cocaine. Turns out they do give cocaine to race horses.
Yeah, that's awesome. I looked it up.
That's pretty cool. They're going fast.
It's not cool.

Speaker 1 Don't give drugs to animals. All right, unless you're Billy.
You're trying to make your frogs super big. All right, next.

Speaker 1 Billy.

Speaker 1 I was going to go. Wait, no, it's GJ.
No. Oh, yeah, Jake.
It's me either or.

Speaker 1 By the way, racewalking is under the athletics in the official. Yeah.
I found it. So the final is on Friday, August 6th.
I'm very happy.

Speaker 1 I thought, for some reason, I read a story where they're like, racewalking, this might be... Is this it? It might be it.
They're trying to get rid of it.

Speaker 1 They should always say that about the stupidest sports

Speaker 1 that we beg you to make them return. I agree.
Yeah. I'm going to go with Badminton.
Okay. Similar to tennis, similar to table tennis.
Okay. And do you know what the thing is called? Their ball.

Speaker 1 Shuttle cock.

Speaker 1 Shuttlecock. Or the bird.
Which you're going to be on the cock. Yeah.
Nice little silver. I think I'd be a good badminton player.
Okay.

Speaker 1 I think you'd be pretty good at it, but have you seen some of the experts play

Speaker 1 badminton? It's crazy. It's actually like, it's remarkably violent.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 1 Next one, I got next pick. Sailing.
Sailing, I mean, come on. That can't be hard athletically.
You can learn sailing.

Speaker 1 It's sailing. It's sailing.
It's 90% the win. Yeah, dude.
It's sailing.

Speaker 1 Just fucking hold the rope really taut.

Speaker 1 Tie a couple knots. And boom, you have a bronze.
We're not talking about gold. Bronze.
It depends how rich your dad was.

Speaker 1 If he made like over $500,000 a year, I feel like you are just naturally born into a business.

Speaker 1 I do think that those kind of sports, like sailing, they should eliminate those sports because there's no way that the people, like

Speaker 1 there are certain sports, handballs, another one, where there's no way the people that are like winning gold medals are the best in the world at it. They're just the only ones that fucking do it.

Speaker 1 I would love to see a movie or maybe just a real life coach that takes like a sailing program to an inner city school in high school and develops the best. Landlocked.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the best sailors in the history of the world.

Speaker 1 This is going to be great because we are going to piss off so many like random niche sports fans. I'm fine pissing off sailors.
Sailing. Come at me, sailors.
They're called a sailors.

Speaker 1 Come about at me.

Speaker 1 Jesus Christ. It really is, though.
Like, when I watch some of these sports, I'm like,

Speaker 1 there's no way that these are the best in the world. They're just the people that do it.

Speaker 1 Like, if you, again, going back to the handball, if you just had our best athletes, we'd win gold every single time. Or even like...
Patrick Mahomes would win it every time.

Speaker 1 Even our above average, slightly above-average athletes. Every time.
You could probably take Notre Dame football. Yeah.
And they would win. Win.
Yes. Yes.
Got to learn how to tie some knots. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Easy.

Speaker 1 It's also like the curling and bobsled.

Speaker 1 Our best chances are teams were team sports where it's like you have a good captain and good teammates.

Speaker 1 You can help contribute to a medal. Correct.
Correct. All right, PFT, your next pick.

Speaker 1 My next pick, I'm going to go with

Speaker 1 ski jumping. Ski jumping.
Oh, you got to land, though. No, I don't think that you do.
Yeah, it's part. No, it's part.
No, no, no, no. Because I have actually had this thought.

Speaker 1 I can't remember when I was having this discussion. It might have been on a rundown.
I was like, I'll just bomb it once and just go full set. That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 And just land and crash and I'll have the longest one I'm pretty sure they judge landing I don't know if they and also you kind of have to go like you'd have to go multiple times so you can't just go once crash and like break all your bones and be like boom I got the long all right so so there's style there are style points that are involved right and there's also I would target

Speaker 1 that you have to aim for yeah but I feel like I could go full scent one time yes no but this is it again no I agree with you because I had this

Speaker 1 why I can stand perfectly still for about 10 seconds while I'm going downhill. I can learn how to balance myself doing that.

Speaker 1 And then you just do like one of those, like a little spring at the last second. And that's my biggest muscle groups are my calves, my ass, and my quads.

Speaker 1 And I feel like my body is designed to be a ski jumper. And then I just land however I land.

Speaker 1 I might die. Right.
But then I get a bronze. The problem is, I think there's qual, like, you'd have to do multiple.
You have to land a couple to get to the final.

Speaker 1 The good news is, though, you get to train at the sick. Yeah, where you go into the...
You don't have to land. You go in the pool or you go in the foam pit.
That's sick.

Speaker 1 I would definitely raise some red flags with my trainer,

Speaker 1 like the hijackers, and be like, hey, I'm calling the FBI. There's this guy.
He only cares about flying. He does not care about landing.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 it would be awesome to just go full send once. All right, Hank, you're two picks.
It's crazy. I had that same thought.

Speaker 1 It was like two or three months ago, and then someone's like, dude, you know, you like, they do judge how you land. I was like, fuck.

Speaker 1 Let's go go with skeleton. Okay.
Just sit there. Bobsled related.
Yeah. Yep.

Speaker 1 That's a head first.

Speaker 1 Head first.

Speaker 1 It's a little bit of like a

Speaker 1 ski jump where you're just like, no fear, full send. Yeah, just turn your body a couple times.

Speaker 1 And then golf. Ah, okay.
Okay. Same thing.
I mean, I feel like if, you know, I was just golfing every day for my whole life, I could really get my handicap down and potentially go pro.

Speaker 1 Well, you know, you can go pro right now. Remember, Colin Moracao told us that.
Right. Yeah.
So you can get pro and then become an Olympic golfer if you practice hard enough. That is true.

Speaker 1 That's a good pick, Hank.

Speaker 1 This is my last one. Yep.
All right, for my last one,

Speaker 1 I'm going to go with

Speaker 1 fencing.

Speaker 1 No, no.

Speaker 1 Whoa! Can I switch? Whoa!

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'll stay with fencing.

Speaker 1 I don't want to cause a disturbance. Okay.
I feel like fencing is just quick twitch.

Speaker 1 If you've ever watched a fencing competition, it's not even really a sword fight. It's just whoever swings their sword

Speaker 1 first. That person usually touches the other person.
Yes. And so I also feel like there's room where you could cheat very easily in fencing.
That's true.

Speaker 1 I have a question on my last one

Speaker 1 because I don't know.

Speaker 1 I want to pick a sport that I think I would actually be able to compete at. It's a team sport, but they may not let guys do it.
Field hockey? No, softball. I think I would meddle in softball.

Speaker 1 Yeah, sure. Okay.

Speaker 1 You could compete. All right, softball.
I think you'd just get a good quick. Yeah, that's my last picture.

Speaker 1 Softball. Not even? Not even.
Softball. Softball is my final answer.

Speaker 1 I was going to say basketball, but I feel like you guys would have thrown flags like, you'll never make the team, which is probably true. You never say never.

Speaker 1 I mean, what you just said is that probably true. You basically alluded to that with Pat Conatin, though, saying, like, you've never played anywhere near the type of basketball he plays.
Right.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 1 Fourth grade was the last time. Yeah.
You could also say hockey and then just never get into the game. Right.

Speaker 1 But I did want to give the idea that I'd have to actually make the team because if we're being honest,

Speaker 1 maybe not this year, but the best chance of meddling is on the USA basketball team, right? Yep. All right, so softball is my last pick.
All right.

Speaker 1 So going off of the idea that you're not athletic, like this is something you can just get to with just like a little bit of practice. This one's going to be contentious.

Speaker 1 And don't take this the wrong way. But shooting sports, like rifle.

Speaker 1 Because like think about it, you don't actually have to be athletic. So you're picking rifle.
Rifley. You are a young white male, so you're like halfway there.
Yeah. Yeah.
You do go on message boards.

Speaker 1 Yeah. So you're just three-quarters of the business.
I knew you guys would go.

Speaker 1 It is. Like, what do you want me to say? Volleyball?

Speaker 1 No, it's a good pick. You know what I mean? I mean, any of us could.
I don't think that's contentious at all. Well, I knew you guys would make shooting jokes.
Well, yeah, this is a podcast. Yeah.

Speaker 1 The only thing with shooting, though, I think all those, it's like, you have to be born with amazing vision.

Speaker 1 yeah you do it's vision and also you have to be able to control your heart your heart which you take way too much pre-workout to be able to but think about if i don't if you just go cold turkey

Speaker 1 with beta then your arms would get weak as fuck

Speaker 1 and you need a gun because you couldn't defend yourself with your hands true

Speaker 1 yeah maybe that's the trick is just to raise the biggest beta that you can find that's completely unable to defend themselves unless they have a firearm all right here's a question of all the track and field sports which one is the easiest pole vaulting?

Speaker 1 Racewalking. That's not track and field, right? Is it technically? Yeah.
Hammer throw. It's field.
Javelin.

Speaker 1 I think that's all harder. No, there's no way that javelin is harder than pole vaulting.

Speaker 1 Being on a 4x100 with Usain Bolt.

Speaker 1 Good point.

Speaker 1 Maybe discus triple jump. Nobody really does the triple jump.

Speaker 1 Hammer throw. Hammer throw? Yeah.
Okay. Just throw a hammer.
Which is the one with the... Oh, the steeplechase.
Yeah, steeplechase. No one wants it.

Speaker 1 That's just half just not tripping. It's the event that they leave up to the people that don't mind if they get their socks wet.
Yeah, yeah. All right.
Other ones that missed the cut.

Speaker 1 I also had diving on there. I don't know.
I feel like if you just...

Speaker 1 figure it out and well there's that video of those guys that like don't even can't even do the dives right right i could do that right i had skateboarding just in the event that everybody that competed failed the the drug test.

Speaker 1 Yep. Yep.

Speaker 1 Synchronized diving too, because if you're just, again, I'm going under the premise of like, I'm taking the next four years of my life and just focusing on this one thing.

Speaker 1 And if me and PFT just went to the diving, whatever, the diving pool every day and did a synchronized dive, we could figure it out in four years. We worked on one dive.

Speaker 1 Yeah, just fucking nailed one dive. Synchronized swimming.

Speaker 1 Definitely. That's part of, you know, just don't just try to keep up with the team a little bit.
Water polo.

Speaker 1 I was thinking about water polo, but then I remembered that we were at at Stu Finder's house and I almost drowned like six times in the shallow end playing essentially water polo with a greased up watermelon.

Speaker 1 And if you ever see the guys that are that are playing water polo, they're just, they're a different species. Yeah, they're fucked in the head.
And they also like wearing speedos. Yeah, they like

Speaker 1 beating the shit out of each other and like half drowning each other. I would, yeah, they would just not let me on the team for the sheer fact that they're like, okay, this guy's too hairy.

Speaker 1 I'm shocked, PFT. You know, you've considered yourself to be a potential professional kicker for the last three years,

Speaker 1 but you didn't think you're good enough to be a professional rugby player? Well, I mean, there's a lot of other stuff that goes into rugby. You got to make the team.

Speaker 1 I got to make the team. I have too much respect.
Well, you think you can make an NFL team, but you don't actually think that's my point.

Speaker 1 I have too much respect for the sport of rugby to say that I could walk in off the street. It's maybe the most challenging sport besides pole vaulting to compete in.

Speaker 1 No, I think if you were to ask me if I was 26, you could put me in for like four minutes a game on the U.S. Olympic rugby team against an inferior opponent, and maybe we wouldn't lose.

Speaker 1 But right now, no, absolutely, no chance in hell. Sport climbing.
Sport climbing. I'm afraid of heights.

Speaker 1 The only other one that I wrote down was, I feel like the track cycling, like if you just don't crash. Yeah, if the big one hits.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Or yeah, or if the big one hits behind you, like in front of you. Yeah.
And you're the last one standing.

Speaker 1 Rhythmic gymnastics as well. I don't understand that.
Did you guys do that one? I don't know. I have no idea.
Trampoline. Trampoline.
I was sick at the trampoline when I was in the street. I know.

Speaker 1 I always thought the double bounce would fucking tear my ACL. I hardly ever got injured.

Speaker 1 All right. That was good.
Mount Rushmore, boys. Mount Rushmore season is officially back.

Speaker 1 All right. That is our show.
If you have suggestions for Mount Rushmore,

Speaker 1 please tweet at Jake. Jake's going to take a list or at the pardon my take Twitter handle.
Jake's going to start taking a list. Mount Rushmore season.
Reminder: Wednesday, the takeies. Get excited.

Speaker 1 The takeies are here.

Speaker 1 Numbers to finish. 8.
99. Wait, I think Ledecki lost.
18.

Speaker 1 Thanks. You got mad at me for spoiling Sopranos.
86.

Speaker 1 68.

Speaker 1 99.

Speaker 1 37.

Speaker 1 37 is the number. First timer.
See you guys Wednesday to take ease. Love you guys.
Ants can carry up to 50 times their weight.

Speaker 1 Today's a night day to find you shy away.

Speaker 1 I'll be coming for your love, okay.

Speaker 1 Come on

Speaker 1 me,

Speaker 1 take

Speaker 1 me

Speaker 1 up

Speaker 1 every day.

Speaker 1 make a colour.

Speaker 1 Three, two, one, let's go.