Kevin Love, Mystery Teams, And Jamal Murray Is Insane

Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
On today's Pardon My Take, we have an extra-long interview with Kevin Love, five-time NBA All-Star, gold medalist, NBA champion. We get into everything.
We get into the Cavs, we get into his time with LeBron. We get into college, UCLA, Bill Walton.
Pretty much everything. And it was an awesome interview.
We sat there. We talked.
It was a casual conversation. Also, we might be in...
His dog was there, too. His dog was there.
Very cute. We might be in the market for a new Blake.
You'll find that out when you listen to his interview. What else we got? Oh, we got sports are back.
We have who's back of the week. We have the lottery machine going to pick everyone right now.
If you're sitting here and you're in your friends also in AWL, just decide what number you're going to pick because and then bet it. We'll do that at the end of every show and we also have Billy's list and Billy's going to do Hank's taxes for him.
We just found that out before the show. Hank, don't shake your head.
Billy's going to do your taxes. He's basically a CPA.
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Okay, let's go. Boy! Boy! We're gonna rock down to Electric Avenue.
And then we'll take it higher. Oh, we're gonna rock down to Electric Avenue.
It's Part of My Take presented by Barstool Sports. Welcome to Part of My Take presented by the Cash App.
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You get $10 for free, $10 to ASPCA. Today is Monday, August 31st, and we are watching sports on TV.
It is technically sports season. It's the fall that wasn't going to happen.
I don't know about you, Big Cat, but I saw college football on Saturday night. Oh, I saw college football on Saturday as well.
It was a terrible game, but that doesn't matter. I also, oh my God, this game.
We're watching Utah-Denver game six. So for anyone game six so for anyone all the jazz and nuggets fans like you never talk about the game here's me talking about the game we're watching it so after uh was it wednesday's show when we said that the jazz and the nuggets are the same team they are we uh we sat down we did some sporkles we sporkled and jake actually forgot about the jazz because he remembered the Nuggets.

They should allow whoever wins this game or whoever wins the series,

they should just allow them to pick up like four players from the other team. And we wouldn't even know.

So, yeah, we had some college football on Saturday night.

It was exciting to get the juices flowing, even though it was a crappy game.

But we also had this weekend the first sign, you know, when the temperature gets below 80 and you're like oof is that fall is that fall blowing in here it's not there yet but is it they're never gonna score again in this fucking game i thought about putting on i thought about putting on long pants this weekend yeah i stepped outside i was like maybe i shouldn't wear shorts i was like no that's crazy talk it's still august i'm rocking shorts but yeah there was like a chilly breeze it was it felt glorious so uh we did just go through what like the college football schedule looks like the bones of the college football schedule it was sad to go through what week two would have looked like uh with I think it was like Oregon and Ohio State and Texas LSU but let's not talk about that let's talk about sports we can control right now. The Lakers are on to the next round.
The Blazers, that was fun, but it's over. The Mavs are eliminated as well.
That was also fun, but it's over. Luka is a – people – I love when the Clippers finished off the Mavs.
The whole story was, well, Luka's arrived. Yeah.
He's arrived. He's a superstar.
And I'm not going to argue with that, but they also lost the series in the first round. Yeah.
But he's arrived. Yeah, he has arrived.
It was like, well, you need to put the pieces around. If you get the right pieces around Luka, then they could contend for a championship.
And it's like, yeah, you could say that about a lot of good players. Right.
If you put the right pieces around them. They also, they didn't have Chris Stops.
Yep. So Prazingis was out.
So I think the series would have been a little bit different. They also finally had to meet Playoff P, who showed up in the last two games.
Playoff P has arrived. He only scored 15 points today, actually.
So whatever. Playoff Morris today, too.
Dude, Marcus Morris is such an asshole. The look on his face when he just straight up swung on Luka was hilarious.
He's such an asshole. And then Jeff Van Gundy was trying to figure out, should I go down the route of saying this happened in the 90s? This was just a normal hard foul.
And then he had a bunch of people online tweeting, getting really into it, like, oh, this is how they just shook hands in the 80s, punching you in the face. Back when basketball players used to just like they would throw live scorpions at each other

on the court back when men were men.

Yeah, Shaq was like, hey, this is just

hard basketball. It's like, Shaq, you were fucking

700 pounds, okay?

Like, you can handle someone just slapping you

on the head.

They're never going to score again in this Denver-Utah

game, and I have the over, and they're never

going to. Since we started taping this podcast,

actually, since PFT said, you're good, which was such a fucked up thing to say. Why would you say that? You're good.
You only 52 points in the fourth quarter. You're such a jerk.
That's such a jerk move to me. I was trying to offer support to you by saying that you're good.
No, but you saying you're good is like... I said you're good, and then...
There's no chance. You would be very happy right now if they were...
You would not be blaming anything on me. But you can't say you're good.
You can good. 52 points.
No. I'm not good.
I get 52 points just getting out of bed in the morning. I'm not good.
It's easy. Hank, congratulations on your Celtics winning game one.
Wagon. Killed them.
Killed the Raptors. Was never close.
Was never really close. It really wasn't.
How are you feeling? Are you feeling like there's maybe some championship vibes going through your veins? Oh, yeah. Today was a big time.
I mean, we're going to smoke the Raptors. Hopefully, you know, all the analysts, like, everyone was picking the Blazers as, you know, the team to watch out for last round.
Everyone's saying the Heat now. They're like, oh, everyone, you know, they match up well with the Bucs.
Like, they could beat them. And if we play the Heat in the conference finals, I think we would smoke them too.
Who's saying that about the Heat? I'm saying that. Did you just hear me say that about the Heat? I bet on the Heat to beat the Bucs.
Charles Barkley, like the whole NBA on the team. Oh, Charles Barkley.
All right. The Blazers were going to sweep the Lakers.
It was funny. The clip that was – I think I retweeted this morning of the Lakers being an underdog winning 4-1 because half of sports media had the Blazers beating the Lakers somehow.
They're never going to score again, PFT. This is all on you.
We just wanted fun. You're good.
You're Gucci. It's going to happen.
Stop saying that. Just say the opposite.
God fucking damn it. Big Cat, you're fucked.
Yeah, I know. Like, honestly, I was trying to gas you up, but you're definitely fucked.
It's not going to happen. Of course I am.
Of course I am. All right, what else is going on? We have – what else is going on in sports? What else we got? Golf.
Big Ten's coming back. Big Ten's coming back.
Oh, dude, that golf was so good today. It was so good.
Dustin Johnson. Hats off to the course for putting on a good showing up until the very last.
The course had no clutch gene. Yes.
It dominated the entire weekend, just spanked the shit out of all the golfers. And then Rahm hits, what, a 65-foot putt? After Justin Johnson hit one on the 18th that he needed to go to the extra.

It was incredible golf.

Is golf having a moment?

I think it is having a moment.

And you know what?

I was just thinking about this.

What America needs right now more than anything is something,

like we need a miracle in ice,

something that everybody can root for and be on the same team,

pulling the same way.

What we need is Tiger Woods to be in contention on Sunday at the U.S. Open.
Because, like, you remember at the Masters? Yes. Everybody gets behind Tiger on Sunday.
That would be great. We need a moment in America where we're not at each other's throats.
Or Brooks. Yeah, or Brooks, either way.
Brooks, people will get, yeah. Actually, no, I think one or the other.
I don't want to have to root against Tiger on Sunday, but I will if Brooks doesn't continue. I am.
We were joking about it, but this is why we never should have killed Saddam Hussein, because he was the guy we just bring up every 10 years and be like, that's the bad guy. Yeah.
Who's the bad guy? That's the bad guy. Yeah, just run back the Iraq war every 10 years.
Dude, that guy, he's a fucking asshole. Yeah.
All of our problems. What we should do, the problem solver.
We should elect a Bush every 10 years and then reinvade Iraq and then everyone is like, yeah, go USA. Fuck yeah.
We're at war. And now we're good.
And then we all forget about fighting against each other. Or Tiger be good at golf.
Or Tiger. I'm going to say.
One or the other. Whatever's easiest.
I don't think that low energy Jeb is going to win this year. Whatever's the easiest.
So let's just get behind Tiger Woods right now. Whatever's the easiest.
But it was a good sports weekend. I looked at that Saturday board, and it was – I think I bet on every single sport.
I had WNBA, MLS. MLS is back.
There was some weird soccer. I swear to God in England, they just create more and more of these cups and trophies that I thought I had a grip on it, and then Arsenal was just playing Liverpool for the community award trophy.
I saw that. It was like the community shield on Saturday.
I was like, what is going on right now? How is this really a cup? Yeah, but the MLS is back again, and then it's about to be back again in two weeks. So back.
Why does the MLS even have an offseason? They should just play year-round, right? Why do they have a season? They should just be the sport that's on TV at weird times during the week, and you just stumble across it. You probably get more viewers from just happenstance when there's no other sports on at all.
Or they should just make it penalty kicks all the time. Dude, the penalty kick channel? Like the red zone? It would be sick.
Yeah. If MLS was just all penalty kicks all the time, I'd be in.
If penalty kicks and in between every penalty kick, it's either porn or it's those 15-second pre-rolls that you see on YouTube. So you sell an ad every 15 seconds.
Or it could just be, so what happens to me often is I'll watch the Cubs game on the MLB package,

and afterwards they run these ads, and it's pretty much always just like,

hey, you thought you were cooking your steak correctly?

Well, here's how you should do it.

And I just end up watching 20 minutes of some attractive lady

and some fat bozo with a chef's hat cooking steak in front of a live studio audience,

and I can't turn away.

It's always like some weird painted copper kettle that you cook it into like some weird it's incredible you know what i think i just solved dml's problem just call every game in the tv guide listing just have it say like try not to come challenge dc united versus orlando boom and boom you click on that we're ready to go i bet you i won't nut yeah so it's been a great weekend for sports. It was a great weekend for sports.
We got some good second-round matchups coming. Oh, I forgot to mention that the Rockets are now back because Russ is back.
And I really, really want to see the Rockets versus the Lakers because that is a Frankenstein series. It's going to be insane.
The Rockets are going to play no one over 6'6", and the Lakers are going to play everyone over six. And then you're going to get people saying like D'Antoni system is Mickey Mouse basketball, but it's still going to beat the Lakers.
Right. LeBron James is going to it's going to be a flop.
It makes no sense. Those two teams playing each other.
And I'm very excited for it. I want that to go seven LeBron James and James Harden driving at each other, both of them flopping at the same time.
That's going to be must-see TV. Yes.
Yes. All right.
So let's get to our who's back. Hank, you are going to have Billy do your taxes, correct? Absolutely not.
We were talking about it before the show, and Billy was like, dude, I'm basically a CPA. Billy was like, I'm sick with money.
He said, I took a class. I was like, Billy, I'm fully as capable as Googling the things that you would Google if you get my taxes.
Billy will get nice with Quicken. Let me ask you a question.
Did you get a $500 from Cash App last week? I didn't. Exactly.
Well, then who's the financial genius? CPA Billy. True.
Don't have to report that on your taxes. Well, now you do.
Yeah. It was a gift.
That's their CPA. You don't have to report it.
Yeah, that's true. It was a gift under $5,000.
Shawshank Redemption. No, $10,000.
No, $20,000. $10,000, I think.
$10,000. Yeah.
Whatever they said in Shawshank. And Billy's profession at Microsoft Excel, as per his resume that he gave us three years ago.
I actually know how to use Excel. How many people do you think have fucked up their taxes just based on that one Shawshank tidbit? Probably so many.
Yeah. They're like, oh, I saw it in Shawshank.
We're good. Like, I can just give these gifts, and we never have to pay taxes on any of it um all right let's get to who's back you can break out of jail easier because that's true uh before we do that ever had one of those days when it's just too cold to keep working nah neither has ariat ariat work jackets and boots are packed with all the cold stopping waterproof protection you need to get the job done under any conditions so you can take any job out there and always deliver.
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Okay, who's back of the week, Hank? My who's back of the week is LeBron James losing in the finals oh so you might be saying yourself well you know it's only the first round how could that be true that's what i was saying yeah shot clock violation god fucking damn it oh that's the worst i mean how do you have a shot a shot yeah when you have the over that's tough all right you're not gonna get this what a joke uh lebron james has a son also named lebron jron James, and today he joined the FaZe Clan eSports organization,

who had a Call of Duty championship match also this afternoon,

which they lost.

Oh.

You know what?

I'm counting that three and seven in the finals, LeBron.

Yes, correct.

Well, no.

LeBron James lost a championship today.

Correct.

So he lost another game in the first round, you might say.

So the Blazers still alive. No, it was the championship.
It was the championship. Yeah, but it's while LeBron James was technically kind of in the first round.
No, it was today. Oh, fuck.
All right. You were wrong about the Blazers.
All right. So Bronny, technically, yes, I was wrong about the Blazers.
If you want to split hairs, I'll admit it. If you want to play a numbers game and be a big fucking nerd about it, yeah, they lost in...
They didn't win in five games, technically. The only other thing that's weird about this is obviously he's the number one basketball prospect.
If all the other prospects start signing with eSports organizations, I don't know how that's going to work with college once they're gone. Oh, so we're going to snitch on Bronny.
Well, the one-and-done rule is going to be gone soon. So what percentage of FaZe Clan does Coach K own? Right.
That's my question. It's dark money that's going into it.
No one knows who finances it, right? It'll be interesting to see, obviously with him being a LeBron James of his generation, how that's going to work going forward. Can you go pro in multiple sports? Yes.
Okay. Can you be a pro gamer, but an athlete, a student athlete? You can't go Zero Dark Thirty if you're a professional e-gamer, though.
Right. You can't log off.
Correct. Right.
He just has to quit playing basketball. His version is stopping exercising while he's in the finals for Faze Clan.
I like that. That's good.
Who's back? Thanks. PFT.
My who's back of the week. That's my only one, by the way.
Okay. My who's back of the week is mystery teams.
Yeah. Mystery teams are back in baseball.
So does anyone know when the trade deadline is this year? July 31st. Yeah, the Hot Stove League stops July 31st every year.
This year, I don't know when it is, but my- 4 p.m. Monday, August 31st.
Whoa! 4 p.m. today.
Oh, yeah's so the padres just like did like seven trades yeah tonight it is the hot stove league which also means that it's bob nightingale season on twitter where you just like throw shit up in the air and see if it lasts out there i always laugh when his tweets come across my timeline because his profile picture is just so funny and he's always wrong yeah he looks like an indicted middle school teacher on his Twitter picture. But he was saying that there's a mystery team now.
So it's not just the Padres that are going after Mike Clevenger. It's also a mystery team who has improved their offer.
So I don't think – are these mystery teams ever real? Yeah. Does a mystery team ever get the guy? Yes, there's always been.
Yeah, no, the mystery team has gotten guys. Okay.
Yeah, just swooping in last second. Franchise mode.
Mystery Team. It's like when you start a new team in Madden.
Yeah. And you take everybody else.
But yeah, I guess the Mystery Team is now the front runner. So he's the guy that got COVID, right? Or he like skipped out on...
No, Zach Plisak. But I think Clevenger did too.
I think Clevenger was pissed at Zach Plisak. I can't remember though.
I think Cleven is... I think they both violated protocol.
Yeah, I think Clevenger... I don't know if they got it, but they both won out or something.
Right. He fucked his way out of Cleveland.
Okay. The old Delonte West.
All right, is that it? Yeah. Okay.
My Who's Back is... Well, I got two.
The first is everyone tweeting about the Jaguars, how short a defensive window is

because Yannick Ngakwe,

did I nail that?

You absolutely crushed it.

I fucking, that felt good.

Gianick.

Gianick, yeah.

Gianick Ngakwe,

traded to the Vikings.

That's going to be a problem in the NFC North.

But everyone was talking about how

they were in the AFC Championship game in 2017

and they now have two starters left from that game. They they had six pro bowlers that year uh on defense all gone weird that none of them mentioned that blake bortles is also gone feels like that's when it started to go downhill that's the real story right okay so they lost jalen ramsey and like a bunch of really good linebackers and and defensive ends but the real story is you have to score points in this league yes if you want to compete in an afFC championship game and they got rid of the quarterback.
I'm just excited for the Vikings' defense to be great and then Kirk Cousins to let them down. Also, you think I'm worried about Yannick Ngakwe? Jimmy Graham's going to block that ass.
Everyone knows Jimmy Graham is an elite blocker. I've forgotten the different weapons that the Bears have added this offseason, but they got Tegan and Jimmy Graham.
Dynamic duo. Yeah, 2011 through 2015 All-Stars.
When we first got it, I had a tweet that was, if we just get half of their production from last year, we're going to be great. And it was then an asterisk said, actually, it's 2013.
Because they both had like, I think they combined had like 20 touchdowns. Also, Jimmy Graham played basketball in college.
True. He could probably just box them out, right? We're good.
All right, so we also, my other who's back is Darren Revell pissing off all of Twitter, which he does intentionally, but he did it on Friday night. He's weird.
He somehow made a famous celebrity's death about him. Chadwick Boseman, which was very, very sad.
You probably saw him, Black Panther, also Vontae Mack. Not going to, I mean, that was maybe not his best role.
That was my introduction to Chadwick Boseman. But Vontae Mack, no matter what.
But yeah, Ravel did the, he tweeted about how he died on Jackie Robinson day, and he played Jackie Robinson, and he was 42, and Jackie Robinson played 42, Chadwick Boseman was 43. And then everyone got mad at him.
I have a plea for the internet though. Ravel just wants attention.
So when everyone replies to him and calls him an asshole, that's the happiest he can possibly be. I think his heart was in the right place on this tweet.
He just wanted to point out a series of numbers that were the same as other numbers that were involved in someone, a beloved celebrity who had just died right that's what we're going to be the first to be like look at these cool stats about this guy who died tragically yeah he wanted to bring awareness to the fact that that 42 was also featured in a movie that he was in which happened to be his age so like are you really going to get mad at revel for that everyone replying to him being like delete this dude i also i it tickles me when I see those people because they're like this is not right it's like if you are honoring Chadwick Boseman so well you're spending your night arguing with Ravel yeah Ravel has won yeah like what are we doing here you're you're you're so you know beat up about his death that you spent the night going at Ravel. I actually think that Revell, shockingly, would be one of very few people on Twitter that people would pay money to read his tweets.
And not because they like his tweets, but they want to know. Being able to dunk on Darren Revell online is actually worth an admission price.
Right, but it's also become a sport that's not even a sport anymore. It's like breathing.
It's like you just do it. He tweets something, we dunk on him.
At least there was no video on this one. Yeah, that's true.
Billy, you're who's back. I have two who's backs of the week.
Whoa, comes prepared. First one is Kim Jong-un is back from the coma.
Oh, really? What about his sister? He reappeared. His sister has now disappeared.
So they think that he did a little switch to make sure to see who's loyal to him. She got a sex change.
And now she's Kim Jong-un. Second who's back, also sort of communist related, is the former Republic of Yugoslavia.
Joseph Nurkic posted a picture of him and he goes, some Balkans boys.

And it's a picture of Donkic, Bogdan, Bojan, Djokic, Vokovic, Dragic, and just all those European dudes. And I was realizing that all those guys where the countries they come from are all in the former Republic of Yugoslavia.
So like their

If Yugoslavia remained today

Their Olympic team, national team

Would actually be pretty good. Yeah.
There were really good athletes back in the day. Like, Yugoslavian soccer team was pretty good.
Their basketball team's always nice. That was just ASMR for Mark Cuban, too, what you just did.
Yeah. He was just like, say those names again.
Porzingis. Do it.
Do it again.

Donkic.

Bogdan Bogdanovich.

Bojan Bogdanovich. Yo, how fat is Donkic's ass?

Vucvic.

Unurkic.

Drogic.

Yo, have you ever seen a donk like this?

Smalajic.

Zubek.

Marjanovic.

99 problems, but an itch ain't one. It should have been the caption for that.
Anyway, yeah. Okay.
Yugoslavia. Great job.
Great job. Yugoslavia, it's a sick name for a country, too.
Yeah. I'm tired of having to remember both Bosnia and Herzegovina.
It's not a country anymore. Oh, yeah.
That's why it's who's back. That's news to me.
Billy has gone full communist. Who's not back, Yugoslavia.
Billy's reuniting the Eastern Bloc countries. Anyway, a lot of these guys.
Wait, so is Yugoslavia in the USSR? They were part, yeah. What? Well, I don't know.
You're just talking to me on the side? I don't know the history of Yugoslavia. You're just talking to me on the side.
You just looked at me and stopped talking to the mic and just looked like, what did you say to me? No you should have a sidebar with me well yeah it's just kind of cool they can all sit at the same table because a lot of the countries that they have like ethnic rivalries and stuff so it's kind of a big show of unification of people give peace a chance yeah exactly right peace is back right um okay uh all right let's get to our interview. Awesome interview coming up with Kevin Love.

Really, really great.

Cannot recommend it enough.

Before we do that, we're going to get right back to the show.

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Kevin, would you rather be a gold medalist or an NBA champion? It's kind of the mellow question here. Which one was more important to you? I think for a legacy piece, probably, I mean, I think 100% it's the 2016 championship.
That's wrong. Why do you hate America? Yeah, that's wrong.
I love America, but America is such a superpower in general, let alone basketball.

But, like, you know, look at who we got to put on the floor.

It was a 20-year anniversary of the Dream Team.

They were talking to us about being, you know, the second version of that.

2008, coming off the Redeem Team.

But, like, you know, we're supposed to win.

So, Big Cat said you were, what, a six-time All-Star? Five-time.

Five-time All-Star?

Five-time.

Do you really consider yourself a five-time All-Star?

Because that first one, that was David Stern being, like, Kevin gonna fill in for yamir r.i.p yeah r.i.p yes but do you do you count that as an all-star um it's kind of an asterisk by it i always tell everybody it's like okay i've kind of i've kind of as far as being an all-star getting accolades in the nba like i've been a six-man most improved player uh all nba I've been an all-star starter. I've been an all-star straight accolades in the nba like i've been a six man most improved player uh all nba i've been an all-star starter i've been all-star straight up as a reserve and i've been an injury replacement so that first one yeah it was a little like you would think i would have called him up and asked him but we'll never know by the way i did a bad job starting the interview i wanted to ask do you want the hard questions first or the easy questions first well i heard something about primo box so yeah yeah do you want do you want i think we you want the hard questions a little bit all right you want all right you want to get loose wet my beak okay like being so great at everything kevin great at everything uh-huh um that's a loaded question uh that's an easy question just so you know yeah this is one of the softball ones i got the.
You're just leading me in. I don't know where you're headed with this, but it's pretty fucking sweet.
Yeah. Yes, I would imagine.
All right, easy question. So, obviously, the bubble's going on right now.
We're actually recording this right after the Bucs and the stoppage on Wednesday. Do you feel like you're being a little left out because of – like everyone's talking about the NBA.
Everyone's watching the NBA. The bubble has been fantastic.
And for the teams that aren't involved, it's got to suck. Yeah, I mean, you've got to commend, you know, it's hard for me not to say David Stern, but Commissioner Silver and everything.
I mean, CP on the player side, Michelle Roberts, you know, all the players too because what they've been doing down there, the product's been amazing. It's almost like watching a heightened pickup game.
These scores have been in the 130s, 140s. Guys are putting up monster numbers.
You saw what Luka did the other night. Donovan Mitchell, 50 twice in the same series.
Jamal Murray's coming back, and guys are talking shit. And, you know, Luka and Montrezl Harrell are going back and forth.
You mentioned Murray saying, you know, you can't guard me. Lakers are – I mean, full playoff mode now after even myself saying it would be a good series between them and the Blazers.
But I talked to JJ the other day, Redick, about relevancy and us being in the delete aid and going into our own bubble and having to play and not knowing we're going to play into next season. But yeah, it is really hard not to be a part of this.
But thankfully, we have our I mean, like you guys, too, it's, it's, you know, our platforms in order to not only be backed in our messaging, but the NBA pushes us. That's why it's great on all sides.
They push us into talking about, you know, certain messages or social injustice or everything that's going on with COVID, and it's a global game. We had Giannis, who's a Greek freak, obviously from Greece, MVP.
We have Slovenian that was rookie of the year last year. Obviously, everybody knows who that is in Luka.
And then from the Cameroon, we have the most improved player, Siakam. So it's a global game.
forgot andrew wiggins canadian canadian yeah yeah kairi andrew wiggins kairi australian yeah yeah very good people wouldn't know delhi yeah yep big delhi has his own uh children's book reaching that younger demo i need to read that wow yeah no but it's a big one he's like the rudy of of professional sport like n People love him. I mean, I always go back to after you guys won the championship when he was wearing that Hawaiian shirt hoodie, getting pictures with two Coronas in his hands.
Yeah. How good of a time did he have celebrating that? So, funny you ask that.
He was behind me. Like, I had this, you know, convertible, you know, cut the roof off, whatever, you know, Fanta.
I don't't know anything was like a ghost right uh rolls royce and behind me he has like a fiat right and everybody's going crazy for deli because he's like a folk hero yeah and like deli should almost have a statue himself in cleveland because every time he checks into a game and the the year before in 2015 if you guys don't remember he had to guard Steph like 40 minutes plus a game yeah and there was I forget what game it was after it was like four or five it was at our place uh so it must have been three or four because they they had the better record than us they had home courts uh the Warriors did came back and I remember his whole body was just gone they put him on IVs he was cramping throughout his. I'd never seen it.
He almost had to go to the hospital. Yeah.
So, like, he gives everything to the game. So I appreciate that.
But I remember, like, you know, I'm standing up. I got the two belts.
I got the cigar. You know, I took Tristan's Cuban link and was wearing it.
So I was sweet, you know. And meanwhile, Dele's just getting all the love from from the back i'm setting up i'm like you know in the big three third guy you know what's up and then delhi's just getting so much they should put a statue it should be him like hitting clay thompson the nuts yes as a statue yeah and it's made out of like brick or or nails or some yeah did he ever piss you off in uh practice like when he yes go harder than everyone else yeah would LeBron ever and then when you would retaliate it's funny like there's a situation where you know because he was going against Kyrie and he made Kyrie a lot better anybody who he plays he's making a lot better and there was a point where Kyrie just had enough and we might have lost a couple games in the road uh in a row excuse me and if we that's the thing like we actually I felt like because we had LeBron there's just so much that comes with that so therefore there was so much pressure on us to win especially in the east so like anytime we lost two games in a row the world was coming crumbling down especially in those first couple years and you know Kyrie comes into practice they're going after it you know tensions are high it's kind of midway through the season and like you know there was a push a shove punches throwing the whole thing and Dudley's just like you know why don't why don't we do that to the other team Mike yeah Mike why would do that to the other time it's a good point yeah and honestly when you say it like that in that Australian accent he does make a have been me, you know.
So you mentioned LeBron and being on the big three. I'm a biased LeBron hater, so I just want that out there so everyone understands where this is coming from.
I think that's a common thread at Barstool. Yeah, yeah.
No, we have – he's fun to laugh at. I do think that he's the best basketball player.
Although I have an alternate persona of Laker Dan. But yes, I'm a LeBron hater.
But I've always thought he is not a bad teammate, but his energy makes it difficult for his teammates to kind of exist. Because like you said, when you win, it's LeBron.
And when you lose, it's usually his supporting cast isn't good enough. Did you feel that? Like, did you feel on a given night, like, if things go wrong, it's probably going to be on me, not LeBron.
Well, I definitely thought that. I actually mentioned that to JJ the other day.
It was a lot of the onus when we lost or had troubles was, I would say, most of the time pointed at me. Like, we had a new coach.
We were getting to know each other. There was a bunch of hiccups, road bumps along the way.
But, you know, for me, it was, I was coming from a situation where I was getting almost 20 shots a game in Minnesota. And with that starting unit, whenever I was in, we were rolling.
I was catching the ball at the elbow. I was playing the game from the inside out, how I was always taught, like getting back to OG basketball.
But, you know, then I, then I was I was just you know I was either at the break we call it the titty sometimes excuse me 2020 can't say that or I was in the corner just spreading the floor so we had two guys you know we had a freight train playing downhill and then Kyrie who you guys it's just a magician he's right one of the best ball handlers ever and best below the room uh rim finisher finisher excuse me I've ever seen in my life so we had to do whatever we could and sacrifice. And I felt like I had to sacrifice the most in my game, especially in order to get the best out of them and the rest of our team.
So for me, it was, yeah, there was a lot, a lot of layers that went to that, but in figuring it out, it did take me a long time. But I do say this about LeBron, and people laugh when I say this, but he has such a gravitational pull in general that he's like a planet, right? So if he wants to come in and he wants practice to be hard, if his energy's up, we're going hard.
If he comes in and he's not talking to anybody, if he's pissed off in a bad mood, we've lost two in a row and that's warranted, we're going to be're gonna be so everybody is kind of hanging on to see how he's gonna react to certain things and he catches a lot of eyeballs he's just yeah that's who he is it's a lot on james so i think there is a lot to that but on the other side it actually lifts you up and makes you a lot better i think that's why and i i truly do believe that we were probably the most talented underachieving team in regular season almost ever. Like if you look at us on paper, you should say, oh, they should win 60-plus games every year, 100%.
Right. And it's still top-heavy in the Western Conference, so therefore we're only playing those teams twice.
Right. It's not like we're playing them four times, two at our place, two on the road like we do at the Eastern Conference teams.
So you imagine we would uh you know get 60 plus wins at least 55 wins every single year and and should be uh you know the first team in the eastern conference and potentially contending for home court advantage in the finals but again come playoff time come finals time we were locked in and a lot of that has to do with our identity and who lebron is and was during the regular season because I'm always interested in this does he would he like if you guys had a bad spell was he like yeah I don't care because it's not the playoffs yet because I always kind of respected that part of LeBron's game is that he saw the bigger picture yeah you see teams will go ball like go balls to the wall in February like what are you doing like this is? Would he consciously let the team know, like, hey,

we're trying to win, but we're also not trying to get

burnt out in the middle of January?

Yeah, I think he understands.

I mean, I feel like we pretty much had our

identity down when it came

to playoff time, even that first

year in 14-15.

I think it changes. Every series changes.

Every kind of, I guess you

could say, section or time of the

season, because I think

throughout, you want to continue to trend in a

Thank you. think it changes every series changes every kind of I guess you could say section or time of the season because I think throughout you want to continue to trend in a direction where it's conducive to winning come playoff time so being locked in continuing to string as together as many wins as you could like that's great but I think when we got to you know the 2017 finals or even that year which which I thought was our, I still do believe to this day, our most talented team.
And, you know, we lost 4-1 in the finals, which is tough. I mean, a 73-9 team added Kevin Durant, one of the greatest players of all time.
I mean, that's, they added another MVP to the team. That's tough.
But, you know, I really do feel like we kind of not like the foot off the gas but I'm thinking deep here is that we just really wanted to make sure that we were rested we were in the right place mentally so really seating didn't matter for us right and home court at least in the eastern conference didn't matter for us because we knew when we we locked in and we knew tyloo was so great um when it came to x's and o's when it came to to play calling when it came to after timeouts when it came to just schemes uh you know for defenses or or what we're doing the offensive end throughout the playoffs so we knew come playoff time that we were comfortable we knew our identity and moving forward we were going to be great regardless of the seating so i think bron got pissed if we lost any game right and i think we took that personal as well so and the outside noise played a big part too like you try to say oh you don't listen to it don't listen to it but it finds you it's just we live in 2020 you know it's an attention economy like so much is getting put into that right interesting yeah so, yeah. So, like, it just is part of it.
You try to get away from it. It's even, like, through COVID or the social injustice stuff.
It's like you try to stay away from it, keep informed, but it's going to find you. And that's just kind of how it was for us.
It was a little bit of a soap opera, and we really did thrive under chaos. The more chaotic, the better we did for whatever reason.
Yeah. 2016, in the finals, game seven, the end of the game, you're supposed to lock down Steph Curry.
Were you afraid in that moment or were you like – if I were you, and this is probably why I'm not a basketball player, a professional basketball player besides being only 5'10 1⁄2", but if that were me, I would be – It's your contract height. I'm actually 5'8", but if I say 5'9", nobody – Yeah, he's 6'1".
Well, these shoes, by the way, these are six shoes because they give me three inches, and they're not actually lifts. So technically, I guess I am six feet right now.
But if I were you and I were in that position, I would just be shitting myself. I'd be like, I hope I don't fuck this up.
Is that what you were thinking, or were you like, I got this? Yeah, I mean, naturally, you're going against the, I mean, first time ever unanimous MVP, right? This team, 73-9. But, again, I forgot to mention preparation when I came to Ty Lue and our team in general.
Like, we had gone over that particular play, I mean, hundreds of times. Gone through it in film hundreds of times.
Had seen it throughout the game, especially in their fourth quarter package a number of times because they wanted they knew that we were switching most of time one through five. And that I was on Draymond.
So I was I was guarding the four. You know, he's going to set the flare for for Clay and we weren't going to switch that come over the top.
And then when he set the screen for Steph, and I think JR might have ended up on Draymond after that. But I always say it was actually, you know, I played great defense, but as far as a defensive scheme and play, it was actually a bad defensive possession.
Because I wasn't supposed to let, I was supposed to deny the ball back to Steph, and I let him get the ball back so so Draymond had caught it kind of in the corner was like okay I need I'm gonna need Steph to to make this play because he's done it time and time again and you know he throws it back to him I'm actually supposed to deny that you know luckily I kept my feet down uh you know knew everything was at stake but I think part of the reason I was able to do that in that moment was because, yes, first of all, I was locked in. We went through it so many times.
We prepared so many times. And that was a play that really stuck out to us in late game situation.
But I think more than anything, it was my mindset changed in the series. You know, I come off a concussion.
I hadn't played the next game in game three. We ended up winning.
So I'm like, I'm just going to focus on that's all i'm gonna focus on here so when that time came i was i was more ready than i probably otherwise would have been had i not decided to focus on that if he drives on you though i'm following the shit out yeah oh you know it's funny because i know he did it was good defense but he also i was guarding the three you got to got to be like, thank God he took a shot there and not drive him.

I've seen him make that shot.

I mean, we all have.

Time and time again against even bigger players.

Right.

He comes back.

The next year in the finals, I think it might have been game one.

I think it might have been game two where they blew us out because game one was crazy, really suspect, foul call, the whole thing.

Charge block. They called it a charge, went back, so it was a blocking foul that was suspect so it just had never happened before it's unprecedented in a in a in a game especially of that magnitude in nba finals game yeah bron has you know one of the best finals performances of all time you know we go out there i have a big game guys are playing great guys are ready for the moment then we lose it's like that just took the wind out of our sails so wait so so i'm sorry so yeah so you're like just so that play but in general as a bigger guy yeah when you get on an island with a guy with sick handles a point guard are you just like in the back of your head like this fucking sucks oh yeah i mean it's tough in today's nba it's it's tough because and and you know there's no hand checking anymore it's been like that for a while but it's such a pace in space league now i mean take a look at the rockets they're the best example of it uh you know there's a number of teams that you know i did a a story with with jackie mcmullin who you know was was talking about the new era of the big men and it said in the last five she said in the last five years because we've advanced stats now and analytics for every single team like we base kind of sometimes what we do on that right and numbers tell a story so she was saying that 50 percent of i mean excuse me post touches are 50 percent down in the last five years i believe it so.
So you don't see a traditional five-man anymore. You even have guys like, I mean, you know, we were talking about Milwaukee earlier.
You have Brooke Lopez out there shooting threes. You have Marc Gasol out there shooting threes.
Even Val Chunas out there shooting threes. Joel Embiid out there shooting threes.
Not well, but yeah, he's out there shooting threes. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.
If you don't have that in your game, it's almost like, you i put them in in certain situations because you have to guard you have to switch you have to guard ones and twos you have to guard a staff you have to guard a kyrie you have to guard a russell westbrook a james harden so switching on to them in the open floor and asking for help is already a disadvantage daniel illard same way like it's it's hard to do steven adams can't really play in the series against the rockets like that's kind it is. He's playing, but you can't play him long minutes because it doesn't really fit with what the Rockets are.
You help off of PJ Tucker. He's getting in the corner and he's shooting threes.
Right. He shot the most.
And I think at a, maybe even the highest percentage of anybody in the league from, from, you know, that corner there. And he's six, five.
Steve Adams, seven foot. And they're not able to take advantage of that.
They go double. Somebody else has to beat you.
So again, to answer your, your, your question. Yeah.
I think if I would have funneled him into the, the we probably would have had to help and maybe they would have kicked it out to clay or kicked it out to another player but we would have made somebody else beat us yeah but in that moment you know he even said it too it's funny he came out in our case i should have driven past kevin love i could have done it easy yeah that's fair but you didn't if i were you i would watch the replay of that just like still nervous and think to myself shit i hope he doesn't drive by the way i still watch that i've never watched the game in its entirety i've never watched the game by the way for the first half the first half of the game isn't even worth watching yeah because then jr comes out and i think they're up eight points he has two threesrees and scores a layup. But I don't even watch the first half.
I can remember walking back to the locker room with James Jones, who now works in the front office for the Phoenix Suns, a really close friend of mine. And I looked at him, I said, does this even feel like a game seven? And he had been a part of all the finals runs with Braun.
And he's like, no. Really? Yeah and then at the locker room at halftime like yeah where's it like where's the energy where's the you know we

need accountability so we came out in the second half and we were we were we were locked in and

ready to go so the second half is amazing yeah it's incredible and i remember the last four

minutes i'm sitting here like this at a timeout but i remember the last four minutes really nobody

scored yeah yeah kairi hit that big shot and braun had the block the stop whatever you were

Thank you. four minutes i'm sitting here like this at a timeout but i remember the last four minutes really nobody scored yeah yeah kairi hit that big shot and braun had the block the stop whatever and braun went to free throw line hit the one free throw put us up four um but i can remember

sitting down so it always went braun at the front kairi or excuse me jr uh myself i was in the middle

uh tristan and then kairi was always at the end so lebron and kairi on opposite sides of each other

Thank you. Go ahead.
So you're sitting there. Yeah, so I'm sitting there.
Nobody's saying a word, but I can remember looking, like Everybody's going crazy. Phil Knight's sitting right there.
Lynn Merritt, who's the head of Nike Global Basketball. I see, you know.
Guy Fieri. Guy Fieri's obviously there.
By the way, if you guys had Guy Fieri on the show. No, we would love to.
He's on the list. There before the grass.
I mean, diners, drive-ins, and drives. I mean, like, that's a big.
Man, that could be, a conversational pivot. But I just remember, you know, I think everybody, like, we even had our fans there, the, you know, 100 people that were up there, friends and family.
And, you know, we're in this chaotic Coliseum type experience. Like, they just let the Lions out, right? And I just remember looking at everybody like, oh, wow, we're like, we're going to win this.
We're locked in. And, like, I'll never, unless you're in that moment and the guys are all locked in and around, because typically guys are going and doing their own thing and talking, whatever, guys are, you know, loose with the huddle most of the time.
We just, we excelled a lot of the time because of how much talent we had, but we were so locked in.

And when Tyloo came in and sat down, he just kind of looked at us,

drew up the play, and I actually believe that might have been when, you know, Kyrie, we came down into possession and he hit the big shot.

But that type of thing you just can't draw up.

But I just remember how locked in we were,

and that still today resonates with me in such a big way.

In those finals, because hearing basketball players talk, and Kevin Dur always talks about like how much he appreciates just like great basketball did you have moments when you're in any of those finals you're like this is just insanely good basketball like the level that both these teams are playing at and the you know the the margin for error is so razor thin like this is did you have a chance to like appreciate Yeah. Actually getting back to walking into the locker room at halftime, it's a long walk at Oracle, RIP Oracle.
I mean, it's not gone, but it's moved into the city, but to us, it's gone, which is, which is too bad. Cause what a great arena to play.
Obviously hate the fans, but also love the fans at the same time, loud place, but we. It's a long walk.
And, you know, I think the margin for error question is great because we were this is a team that we're playing against in the Warriors that if they get it to double digits, you you get in your brain. You're like, oh, man, like you very seldom do you come back from double digits to this team.
They have so much firepower. Clay and Steph get going.
Dre is doing his thing. He's in the running for defensive player of the year every single year, and they just have the thing rolling.
If they get Oracle going, it's so loud. It's a tough place to play.
Really, really tough. Maybe the hardest at that time because they were 73-9.

It's so good.

But we knew that if we didn't make up any of our ground from that eight-point deficit,

that if it got to double digits, we could be in trouble, especially in the second half.

Guys are going to get a little, you know, asshole's going to get tight.

Guys are going to get a little bit more tense.

You know, guys are going to start doing things outside of maybe even their character or their game.

And, you know, for that to happen to us would have been you know pretty tough because you've seen it time and time again even in the playoffs and finals games as well we saw it the next year when we played them like if you give them enough of uh you know a discrepancy they're going to take advantage they scored nine points in like 30 seconds yeah that's it it's almost like you have to be up by 10 at halftime because in that third quarter, they can come out and go on. And they're the best third quarter team in the league.
Right. They'll go on like a 16-0 run like that.
And they're capable of that quick. Yeah.
They get the crowd going, Steph's going. You know, it's just, it's a tough, tough place to play.
And being on the road like that, we had to be locked in. So that, the margin for error was incredibly, incredibly low.
That must have felt just incredible though, after you did accomplish it, you win the championship. And then I always think that it's better that you were coming back from the West Coast because you got to take all these detours.
You got to party, right? You got to have a great time. J.R.
Smith didn't put a shirt on for, what, like a week? I mean, I feel like it was the whole summer. He was playing Canter in in cleveland he was playing the golf course with

his shirt off like sir first of all you have to tuck it in i'm like oh you know what we'll just the coolest thing was so i'll talk about the detour after i say this but i went to new york after the fact and like everywhere we went and we're saying like what's up champ like oh we got this take care of you oh this is on us oh this is from the table over here sending you champagne It was a pretty amazing, amazing ride.

And all things considered like unprecedented coming back from 3-1 city of cleveland 50 year 52 year drought for a major sports championship like that was that was really cool and going back to the deli thing like seeing the uh the parade you know they put all the barricades up but i've seen like everybody fromering States, everybody came in and they came into Cleveland to, to show their love if they were a Cavs fan and put the barricades up. We were supposed to be a 45 minute deal, go down East ninth street.
And then just, you know, go near the water where the Browns play and have this, you know, Epic like soundstage and just a huge field of, of, of a ton of people. But it was a three and a half hour thing because they broke through the barricades and then if you've seen the photos which are great yes yes everybody's right next to the car i remember that security card that we had got his foot ran over like three times so he's sweating has a hundred degree day like you know i'm smoking a cigar like pouring you know all the alcohol and wine that i've had the last three days we had a party and went out the the night before at my house, started there and went out.
So we were out till four or five in the morning. They shut down the streets for us.
So like, it was, it was a lot. You guys are playing beer pong at your house, right? Yeah.
We had three bars set up. It was pretty sweet.
Yeah. Did you see the video of the guy eating shit? There was a Cavs fan in the parade.
You know, I was going to say at my house. No, no, no, no, no.
Maybe. Maybe.
I don't know. We didn't have the dog yet.
I mean, J.R. might have been pretty high, and it's a shit that's good to him at the time.
But at the parade, people were flooding the street. Like you mentioned, they had the police horses, and the horses were shitting in the street.
And one Cavs fan was so excited that he just runs out into the middle of the road, picks up a piece of horse shit, and eats it, and then turns to the crowd. Everybody applauds for him.
So you had a big hand in that. Does that make you feel good? Do you want to say thank you to the guy that ate the shit? Yeah, thank you to the guy that decided to eat horse shit.
Yeah. I hope it was a stallion.
I'm trying to think of. Clydesdale.
Yeah.

Thank you.

Clydesdale would be more.

I can show you the video if you'd like to watch it.

I would love to watch it.

We can get a reaction.

But let me interject for one last second here.

Is that, oh, first of all, and I'm wearing this shirt.

Obviously a huge Stone Cold fan.

Used to try and stunner people when I was in like fourth grade. Raw was so like crazy, amazing back in the day.

And by the way, best, to me, best intro ever. Like glass shatters.
It still gives me chills today. We were actually, actually when I score in Cleveland, that's what they play.
Really? Yeah. It's a great call.
That is sick. But the, no, I did the beer bash after the game.
I think people have seen that video and Stone Cold gave big love to that. But then people were throwing me beers in this car and i'm like okay there's this you know again white lamborghini white rolls royce phantom going three miles an hour it's stagnant it's you know 100 humidity the heat index is 115 i'm leaking you know 1942 and guys keep throwing me beer.
So I'm smashing them, doing the whole thing.

And then, like, I grabbed two.

Blue Mountains, Coors, throwing them out there.

Right back to the guy.

I'm like, no, no, no, I'm good.

So I'm like, all right, let's see what the crowd can do with these beers.

So I'm, like, filming them.

Everybody's taking photos.

By the way, what I was really upset about with the Cleveland crowd, and especially the men, is that they didn't know how to do a proper beer bash that's I mean that's gotta be an age no it's a life skill younger too young maybe it's a baby boomer like the Gen Z you gotta crack the top you gotta relieve some of the pressure just a little bit just a little bit that's all you need it's not like shotgun i've seen people mess it up way too many times right but the beer bash is is is a skill yeah and it's a skill that everybody should learn it's like changing a tire absolutely because there's it is something that i haven't done one i actually last time i did was probably my 30th birthday five years ago but it is something that whenever people see you but it's a milestone do it yeah they look at their like holy shit that's cool yeah it was actually that might have been like the the first night big cat and i ever partied together was on his birthday down in arizona right yeah and we got a party bus and then somebody played the stone cold entrance music on the party bus and then big cat was like well i have to do this oh it's a pantypip the best part the best part about that is it was a party bus but it actually was one of those like um steel cage match no we had a we had like some kind of uh giveaway where people got to party with us so it was a bunch of strangers yeah and i just soaked them all in beer and they were like well this isn't fun anymore okay you should hit him with the wet socko with mankind yes yes here's the video horse poop at the parade. This is a great video.
I thought we were past that. No, no.
You're going to watch it. Okay.
There you go. So this guy goes for it once.
His buddy's pulling back. They're like, no, don't do it.
It's not the big guy out there, is it? Yeah, it's a good thing. Oh, okay.
Bust through. That would have sucked.
It must be the Timbs he's wearing. Yeah.
Real dirty Tims. Really dirty Tims.
Live reaction. Yeah.
He's got the Kenyon Martin tattoo on his neck, too. Kmart.
Shout out to Kmart. Wow.
Has he eaten it yet? Oh, he didn't spit out. He fully ate it.
Yeah, yeah. Full handful, too.
I mean, 52 years, right? You said it yourself. Yeah, 52 years.
That's your legacy. 52 years of eating shit.
Yeah. Now you can be like, hey, I don't do this shit anymore.
And then immediately does it. Right.
Yeah. We don't do that.
Yeah, of course. All right.
I'm going to read a tweet to you. I want your reaction in the moment when you read it.
OK? Well, if I've read it or do I have it. No, you've read it.
Stop trying to find a way to fit out and just fit in. Be a part of something special.
Just my thoughts. That hurt my feelings.
What are you serious? Like when you read that. Because I remember reading it at the time like, damn, I feel bad for Kevin Love.
Like that's because it was such was such a subtweet to, I mean, I don't know if it was specifically you, but it was the whole team. Was it specifically you? I mean, it was like, you do the 23 and me and then you get like, I'm 80%.
Like, I was majority that guy. Yeah, it's like 80% Kevin Love.
You know, 8% Dion Waiters. 3% Kyrie Irving.
You know, Deli's like 80 kevin love you know eight percent deon waiters three percent kairi irving you know delhi's like in the negative right yeah yeah right it's like negative wind chairs but uh no i was dead you know it's one of those things now like i look back i probably did take it personal in the moment and it was tough for me like i had to adjust that's what all i wanted from those guys was to just have the recognition like oh this guy's sacrificing a lot right like his his learning curve having to do that is a little bit different and like considering where i came from to where i'm not like i need to be you know i didn't have a lot of vets and we almost had like a big revolving door in minnesota i think one year we had 27 different players that's crazy and and guys that were trying to make their their way into the league. And at one point, like Darko Miletus was our highest paid player on the team.
That's crazy. Let's just imagine.
That's crazy. He's making like $6 million.
So we had one of the lowest payrolls, you know, a new coach, a new GM, you know, and just, you know, guys that didn't know how to win. So it was very, very tough for me to not have veterans.
So I had to go through it. And that was only, I think, 20, 30 games in when that tweet happened.
So I think he was trying to find ways to get the best out of me, get a rise out of me, but also like, you know, I'm going to play this to the media so that you come back and this doesn't happen again. So, you know, there was there was a lot to that.
But since I mean, bronze a brother. Did you walk into the locker room the next day? You're like, what's up, man? Like, saw the tweet.
No, that sucked. No, I never talked about it.
No. Wow.
Never, never acknowledge it at that. I guess that's almost like the first test that he probably was putting you through.
Like, I'm going to tweet this. It's going to be about you.
And then you're going to figure it out and we're going to move on. Yeah.
You're either going to fit in or fit out. Yeah.
You can fit in right away. Did you change anything to stop fitting out at that point? Well, I was just upset too that, you know, they never put me in any of the fucking photos.
Yeah. No, I did a blog about that.
You were like left out of it. Yeah.
I want to get some of that, you dying breed. White boys in the NBA.
Yeah. We're the minority.
I need to put on for the Larry Bird's of the world. Yeah, I wrote a whole blog.
Chris Mullen. Dream Team Chris Mullen.
Come on, man. I was like, I think Kevin loves taking the pictures.
I think they're going out to dinner, and LeBron's like, here, Kevin. They're making this all wrong.
Take the picture of us. So at one point I took somebody, had done like a, you know, a Photoshop of my face and it was like literally like a square, like you'd cut it out and post it on there.
Like what I would do, like I'd be, you know, when I was young, I had the big Mark McGuire poster and it would just slap my face on there. War 25, what's up Mark McGuire? I just love the just my thoughts part.
I mean, it is his Twitter. It's his Twitter.
Did that take the thing out of it a little bit that he put just my thoughts? Yeah. The fact that it was just his thoughts.
Yeah. No one else took the thing out of it in a big way.
Yeah. Yeah.
I might start. Yeah.
Yeah. You know what? Actually, as I have like a, uh, obviously, uh, like most people do like a, uh, proverb as a quote on my, on my thing.
Yeah. I think I have something actually on my Instagram from Anthony Bourdain.
I actually know I do. So for me, I think I might just, if you put just my thoughts.
Right. It's a great name.
People can't really like, it kind of deflates it a little bit. Like after this, when we post this on Monday, you need to like quote treat the part of my takeout.
I had a great time. Just my thoughts.
Yeah. Had a great time.
We covered a lot. Primo box.
Just my thoughts. Yeah.
Just my thoughts. That should be like the name of your autobiography.
Yeah. Just my thoughts.
You sit down to write a book. Just my thoughts.
Just my thoughts. Kevin Love.
Yeah. We're going to get back to K-Love in a second.
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And now more Kevin love. Uh, I do have kind of a serious question for you.
Is that okay? Yeah. Okay.
So I know back in college, well, this is how we get into the hard stuff. And then later we'll talk about all the bad stuff.
But back in college, I know that you definitely went through a hard time, or at least it seemed like you did with opposing fans, right? Like they got ahold of your phone number. You got a lot of death threats, things like that.
interject you might even get there at some point but the worst thing i got death threats my family got death threats the whole thing they said my uncle's music was bad yeah that's not cool beach boys for people who are living under a rock like so are you ashamed that your uncle wrote songs with charles manson no no that was dennis oh. Is that what your uncle told you? Nice.

Yes. Smart.

But if you've read my uncle's autobiography, which I know you both have, he actually said that, God, I'm forgetting the names now, of course. Like, I should really know this.
But his first son, Mike, and his daughter, I don't know if it was summer, but a couple of the kids got babysat

by one of the girls.

Charles Manson's whole thing?

Wow.

Yeah, I should really know that better.

But I remember he also talks about he went out into the middle of the desert.

I don't think it was Spahn Ranch,

but I don't know if it was one of the women that went up to Cielo Drive either,

but he said Dennis came back all shaken up, and he was trying to get away from the family anyways, but came back, and he was shaken, visibly shaken, in front of the entire band. And my uncle, he's like, I just saw Charlie shoot some black cat and stuff him down a well.
Whoa. So I'm like, that's heavy duty.
Yes. So like to, to, to add that and that, that was some heavy hitting stuff in the, in the autobiography.
But Dennis was like, he hit a house, I believe in the Palisades where Charlie showed up and, you know, like dropped to his knees, went to his feet and said, you know, kissed his feet and said, Oh brother, it's so great to meet you. Kind of try to put him under the spell.
And then they started living in his house. Holy shit.
Kind of like what we're doing right now. Yeah.
Yeah. When we came here and buttered you up and now we're in your pool house.
Yes. Yes.
Yeah. I like that.
That's just my thoughts. You guys.
So no, that was a, that was a crazy, crazy time. Crazy period.
That's why it's crazy. Cause once upon a time in Hollywood, which I loved by the way,

and that setting in that era,

he actually comes up and,

hey, this is where Dennis Wilson lives.

He's asking for him,

which is pretty crazy.

And it's amazing to me that they have his music.

Get out of here.

They have his music on Spotify.

Yeah. And if you've seen Mindhunter,

which I'm so upset that they canceled the show.

They can't?

Wait, what?

They canceled Mindhunter?

Yeah, they stopped.

I'm so upset that they canceled the show. They can't? Wait, what? They canceled Mindhunter? Yeah, they stopped it.
What do you mean? Like, there's not going to be another season? Yeah, which they just went over the Atlanta child murderers. Or murder, excuse me.
That was a great, great season. Amazing.
And they went and talked to Charlie and they have like the real transcripts and all that stuff. But I remember Holden Ford, he's listening to his music.

He goes, not that bad.

Yeah, if your uncle had let him in the beach, boys,

we might be thinking about Charles Manson in much different light right now.

There's not another season?

Yeah.

Have you ever heard his song, Garbage Can?

Is it Garbage Can? I don't know.

I don't find myself listening to serial killer music that much.

I had to.

I just went there to know.

Obviously, you're not going to understand it. But I just went there to know know like oh you can find his music on spotify why yeah that is crazy that's really whoever's going to listen to that other than to just you know if they're doing it for a paper or doing yeah that's a weird that's a weird fan told you that your uncle's music sucks and that made you really that made your blood boil oh my god i'm so angry uh no i actually didn't even understand how big my uncle's music i just you know he's uncle mike we went to all that stuff you know all the concerts and uh it's still huge like you know the fact that he was on full house and john stamos is playing drums right yeah huge deal i mean come on uh until i got to ucla and then all the parents and the kid even the kids that were like you know my peers in a year same year year old or whatever i was 07 08 i was there you know they were like oh your uncle it's my glove like beach boys and i love this i love this this album this you know i played this you know god only knows or something at my wedding or whatever it was so that's what i knew that he was big but the worst thing i got uh and the funniest at the same time, not any of like the death threats, obviously, that goes back to the Manson stuff.
I was in, we're at Pullman, Washington. We're playing Washington State.
And, you know, whatever I had the night before, just like, you know, I was feeling some sort of way. Wasn't sitting right.
It's's freezing cold yet here i am feeling like my temperatures through the roof right and i start sweating all the way through my my blue jersey i mentioned like the baby blue with the gold right and we have the uh that year we had reached 100 national championships and we had the c super cool but uh no they started screaming butt sweat that's me but sweat but and so my my college who I'm so close with, they still give me shit for that to this day. Yeah, I mean, that'll get inside anybody's head.
But if you've ever had, like, you've got to respect the swamp, though. Yes.
Swamp ass. It happens to everybody, but in the moment, I don't do well in humidity, even though it was, you know, probably six degrees in Pullman, Washington, and you're in the middle of nowhere.
But, you know, the swamp was real. And that's a color that shows up big time.
If you've got butt sweat, if it's like a light blue, it immediately turns, you know, navy. A hundred percent.
Yeah. I couldn't wear gray bottoms forever.
Here I am sitting with gray bottoms. Like I'm okay now, but Pullman, Washington just has that effect on me.
Aaron Baines was the center too. Okay.
Yeah. So I had my down under was getting a little crazy.
Yes. On on the way over we were talking about you and your college uniforms because have you ever worn a jersey that actually fits you you're a big baggy jersey guy right that one was pretty yeah i think it's it's ptsd from you know being as big as i was yeah a sweet chin strap though yeah there was saying the other day actually to jj i was like okay you got to realize this my mom was basically i was going to like great clips and then my mom was cutting my hair and that was pretty apparent when you look at those photos right it's a very funny picture from i think it was like your senior year of high school where you're wearing like these shorts that go down past your shins where they shot john then a down to your knees.
No, it was like your team jersey that you were wearing at the time. And here, I can actually pull it up.
Were you worried? Oh, no, it's horrible. I know exactly.
Were you worried at all when you lost weight, like you were going to lose all your power? Because that's where I'm trying to stay a little bit heavier. Yeah, this one right here.
That's the picture that I'm talking about. Slam, see, love slam.
I had the slam diary my senior year, right? Oh, my God. I had the slam diary.
and how about this i was national not only national player i was national athlete of the year so when you show that guy this guy was national that guy you might have more female national gold medal for 20 years one of the greatest i mean female athletes of all time let alone basketball players than that guy yeah that's crazy i had always thought that when you were in college, this might be like one of those Berenstein Bears moments where you remember a memory that didn't actually happen to you. I was more Thomas the Train, but okay.
Okay, but yeah, I thought that you were a big undershirt guy. Like, you wore big white undershirts in college, but I can't find a picture of you wearing one online.
Did you have those scrubbed? Not in the – I mean, I wore the tanks, tight-fitting tanks underneath, and then when you take it off, it falls out. it's like you know those scrubbed in the uh i mean i wore the tanks tight fitting tanks underneath and then when you you know you take it off it falls out it's like you know you're dating in the winter in new york city right right yeah oh man i scored this off and then you go home and it's just like that it works both ways right oh yeah oh yeah i mean you did it yeah yeah you would you take off i did it oh i absolutely did that's why it's like so i lost the weight speaking of the powers like i lost the weight and i started to slowly start wearing like tighter stuff yeah i feel good yeah dude major glow up lost like 30 pounds got rid of the chin strap chin strap was sweet though i forgot to finish that as i went to right when i got down there the first week that was at ucla that was before like my dad threw me the keys and was like all right you go and figure it out like i oregon we don't even pump our own gas so i'm going to the gas station i'm like um i'll have uh 20 unleaded please right you know so i uh you know i lost my train of thought but we were um uh you got at ucla yeah yeah oh i got thick oh haircut so i went down to my one of my dad's best friends took me down to Carson, California.
That's where he lives. And took me down to Carson to our people, barber shop, but like our people, like, I mean, I was like, okay, what do I go in and ask for? I go, just, just do whatever.
Like I figured it out. So he starts like gives me this chin strap and then he takes the hair and just goes gives me like a one one and a half so i come in the next day full chin strap i'm patchy here i'm completely white i'm 278 pounds all the guys are looking at me like jesus but then you could ball but then i could ball so i got the respect the great equalizer all right i have two more hair questions then because we're on this topic.
How do you – I understand, like, when you're younger, you got bad haircuts. How do you explain the fade in the 2018 NBA Finals? That was atrocious.
So I started watching Peaky Blinders. Yeah.
Okay. Okay.
Yeah, no, this is a great answer. I was like, God, Tom Hardy looks cool.
Cillian looks cool. Like, these guys are awesome.
Let's try this. Okay.
And, like, nobody knows that's what I tried to do. Yeah, no, this is a great answer.
And I was like, God, Tom Hardy looks cool. Cillian looks cool.
Like, these guys are awesome. Let's just try this.
Okay. And, like, nobody knows that's what I tried to do.
Yeah, no, no one knew that. So, like, as soon as I saw it in the mirror, I'm like, oh, here's my hat.
Yeah. I'm going to wrap a bandana.
You got roasted. And I was like, oh, great.
Now I have to be, you know, 40 million people are going to be watching. Yep.
Yep. So that was that story, and it didn't work out well for me.
But once, you know, I just was like, all right, I'm just going to roll with it. All right, so then gray hair to gray hair, are you going to roll? I'm pro-dyeing my hair, and I tell people.
Like, I let everyone know. I think you can't dye your hair and pretend that you don't, like Coach K.
I say, like, hey. Love you, Coach.
Here's my day. Like, I'll tweet and be like, dyed my hair today.
Everyone be cool about it. cool about it are you gonna just go with gray yeah you have a little bit more even though i get it just

like right in my temples yeah so i get it kind of across the way excuse me and um i'm just gonna

roll with it okay it's like you know when you do they do those like uh just for men yeah no that's

the guy has the black hair the guy has like the full gray or white and they blend them it's like

oh this guy's he's too young to do this job and this guy i just don't know if he has energy but

It's a good one. black hair the guy has like the full gray or white and they blend them it's like oh this guy's he's too young to do this job and this guy i just don't know if he has energy but it's like you put him together oh man this is a distinguished guy we should hire him george clooney lived in that world for like 30 years yeah you couldn't tell if he was 40 or like 55 he's dating stacy keebler and like yeah you know he's just you know okay so you're rolling with it all right that gives me a little bit i'm still probably gonna diet but yeah no i think you got a little bit coming in on here yeah no i got the beard too the beard is a good luck i still haven't gotten there yet but both of my both of my grandparents are both white at like four thirty five four yeah i think you should continue to diet i think i have to otherwise it's tough to like go on like twitch and have like teenagers bully me and also have just right you gotta hit the right hit the right demo.
I mean this show is – Yes. Right.
Some of us have to – yeah. Some kids have to think I'm still cool.
But I mean you got the hat thing down. I mentioned before we came on.
Yes. You can always – Yes, which now people are saying every time I take it that my hair is receding, which it's not, but whatever.
That's just hat hair. Yeah, that's what happens.
I've always wondered when it comes to big rebounders, and a lot of people's contracts rely on getting those rebound numbers up to a certain point over the course of the season. If there's a free throw being taken that's uncontested so there's nobody out from the other team trying to rebound it, do you make sure that you get first position down there? You're like, hey, this is my fucking rebound.
Oh, it's a known thing on our team, and it's been that way, especially now we have Andre Drummond, who's led the league in rebounding three four times but like Tristan Thompson Larry Nance myself but like Braun when he was on we all steal rebounds from each other it's like a thing like you're good to have two rebounds stolen from LeBron every game with Andre Drummond might be three or four Tristan Thompson but at the free throw line that's a battle even if it's coming off the other side I might try and grab it we might even at some point knock it out of bounds because usually my ball my ball like carmel get the fuck i got the you know yeah yeah like for us it's yeah we still a lot of rebounds that's it that's it actually i love that we we went over that because when they see this they're gonna know like yeah yeah and they're gonna say you're just as bad as we are yes i am yeah i just always wondered if there was like a hierarchy when it came to a team where you're you know unquestionably the alpha where you're like a veteran on that team you can't say anything you can't say anything it's just every man for himself it's just every man for himself when it comes to especially free throws every man for himself but if it's like coming so far out of the way to come and grab it yeah and doing it like way over somebody's like i got this right and then it just comes out of nowhere like that's that's that's excessive yeah yeah right that's excessive right but you know i was taught from an early age maybe i should play tennis individual sport but uh there's no such thing as a selfish rebound you either end a player you create an extra possession for your team right so like and that was from my dad so he had a vested interest in yeah obviously me getting rebounds yes but i'll probably teach my son that yeah absolutely when did you first realize that you were sick at outlet passes i always kind of it was just a feel thing that i did so back to mark mcguire i was talking about and by the way great doc that they had oh i hated it you hated it yeah we thought it was sucked yeah why they pretended they didn't do steroids to the last 10 minutes And by the way, great doc that they had. Oh, I hated it.
You hated it? Yeah. We thought it was sucked.

Yeah.

Why?

They pretended they didn't do steroids.

So the last 10 minutes.

By the way,

and this is not something I want,

but like if everybody's juicing,

love the long ball.

And I love that people are throwing a hundred miles an hour. I agree.

Right?

I agree.

They just didn't mention it until like the very end.

They're like,

Oh,

by the way,

the steroids came in with Barry Bonds,

took the rig over.

Yeah.

Right.

They totally skipped her.

And they only had Sosa on there for like five or six minutes. So it's just basically like a Mark McGuire documentary that didn't mention steroids.
And what's too bad about the steroids is like it saved – that time saved baseball. Yeah, yeah.
I had – like who has baseball posters up in the room anymore if it's not like Aaron Judge? Right, right, right. Like it's – I don't know.
I really, really hope that – I don't know what the numbers say. Not a dying sport, but like baseball.
That was an amazing time. That's why I love it.
Maybe go back because I think on my it was my. I think Mark McGuire hit 61 or 62 on my like 10th birthday because it was 98.
Right. Right.
So I was that was I was freaking. I was watching every at bat.
It was like my dad used to call me in when Griffey used to get up there, right? That sweet swing. Yeah, that was a crazy time.
So the outlet passes. You were watching baseball, and you realized, like, hey, or you were playing baseball, and you're like, this is how I can exceed.
No. So my dad was like, oh, you want to get big like Mark McGuire? Here I am, 10 years old.
I'm, like, curling the bar, and, like, it's breaking because it's, like breaking because it's like the so that's what i was doing everything like forearm wise because remember they used to be like oh it's yes 22 inch forearms yeah yeah that's natural little did i know um but i started doing that and then i was watching i actually used to shoot like that so i didn't have the strength because i played up three years with my brother at the time he was was very young for his age. And eighth grade, he stayed back because he was the youngest kid in his class.
And by the way, huge advantage for sports as well. But no, I just, that's how I shot.
So I had the accuracy that I was making. I was playing with my brother, just making, making, making.
So anytime I had a little bit of like an advantage, I can get the ball up and over. I was shooting it like that.
So super, super accurate with that with that shot and then one summer i just sat like this at my uncle's house in southern california and just took the ball and started at like two feet worked all the way back added my other hand and then finally i started shooting like that so when i got into the game and got a rebound was throwing it up court i just launched it it was natural natural that's awesome i used to throw a fit threaten to run away uh smash everything in my room because I wanted to play football. I want to be the quarterback.
Let alone we had, you know, we did have a weight limit to, you know, where I come from, you have a weight limit to play quarterback, which I don't understand. It's like they should have a rule like you can't rush the ball, right? You can't run the ball.
Whereas, like, you know, if you're on defense, you can be as big as you want. You kill the guy that's little.
So, like, you have a bigger quarterback.

Anyways, whole other can of worms there.

But, no, I just – I wanted to play quarterback so bad that I was like, okay, here's my way.

My dad's like, the paint is football.

Use your elbows.

Use your body.

Use your leverage.

And then when you get that ball, throw it ahead.

Plus, I watched Bill Walton a lot.

I watched those old-school Boston Celtics tapes, especially when he was the sixth man.

It was cool to see them go against the Showtime Lakers. and uh you know the teams from that era were unbelievable right um and then on top of that i'm named after wes unsell rip passed away this year so i'm named after wes unsell he had that great outlet pass over the head and from the chest one arm the whole thing so i was watching him a lot and my dad had the presence of mind to have me watch both of those guys but especially west considering that my dad played with him and the namesake and i would have met name right yeah middle name just clear that okay i would imagine they're also uh as fat kevin love it was nice to not have to run all the way down the court when you hit that perfect outlet pass and they score and it's like i can just chill out here yeah that's awesome there's no defense yeah right seconds.
So I just grabbed, I did my job. Right.
The ball up the court. Oh, it's like, I can just chill out here.
I can just chill out here. Yeah.
That's awesome. There's no defensive three seconds.
I did my job. I just threw the ball up the court.
Yeah, it's efficient. Especially if I had somebody who had a receiver-type body or quality to them, like that was the best.
Yeah. Or throw it out to a fast point guard.
It's three on two or two on one or one on oh. Like, it's great.
It was so cool, too, because you were were i feel like when you came on the scene at ucla and everyone started talking to you on a national level like you were known almost for that more than anything else which is a very like you don't really have guys who get known for that but it was such a cool throwback thing like you got to check out kevin loves passes yeah and at the time i mean i just i'm never i was never known. I could actually jump at the time.
People forget that. I jumped 35 inches at the combine, max vert, and it was funny to see the guy's reactions all the way growing up into my first few years in the league.
I'm like, oh, okay. Okay, white boy.
Actually, on my dad's, it's so funny because on my dad's draft card, it goes know, great shooter, forward center, six, nine, University of Oregon runs the floor.

Well, you know, great frame, broad shoulders, good jumper for a white guy.

I mean, it's really cool.

We still have it back at home.

I was talking to my brother about my my baseball and basketball cards.

I was like, do we still have those?

And so here, actually, that's cool. He brought this out.
And Griffey was my guy, being from the Pacific Northwest. But you can see that my, it actually does spell base, but then I spell cards wrong, of course.
But my penmanship. Oh, there we go.
Yeah, you were, yeah. I love it.
Yeah, baseball. You made your own team there? Yeah.
That was yesterday? Yeah, that was yesterday. I read that yeah you were yeah i love it yeah baseball yeah that was yesterday yeah that was yesterday i uh i read that when you were in college you reached out to bill walton for advice or like he was a mentor of yours is that is that accurate at all so ben hallen the coach at the time uh my college coach my my only year at ucla he uh part of the not recruiting process but once I had committed and

signed my letter of intent he put me on with uh Bill Walton and literally I mean the guy it's like

coach Wooden said it was like yeah he had a really bad stutter but once he fixed it it's great it's

like now we just can't get him to shut up yes yeah so no really I we've interviewed him before oh no

it was like three hours three hours into it he goes how long does this go yeah and we're like you you can decide when you want to leave Bill.

And he was like,

oh,

okay.

No,

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it was, it was, it was, it was like three hours. Three hours into it, he goes, how long does this go? And we're like, you can decide when you want to leave, Bill.

And he was like, oh, okay.

No, it was amazing.

It was an Oregon-UCLA game a couple years back,

and Russell had donated the money for the Mo Austin Center,

which is men's and women's basketball.

So I did the weight room.

He did the courts, which is cool because we were college roommates,

especially on the road. And I go up there and do this interview with ESPN.
It's just like, you can't get a word in edgewise. He's talking, he's literally singing my uncle's song, Barbara Ann or whatever, California girls.
And I'm just like, what is going on? And so like they're in his ear and I can hear it because I have the headphones on. They're like, Bill, Bill, Bill, do you have a commercial in two minutes? It was hilarious.
Bill probably thinks it's like God talking to him. Yeah.
But he, yeah, probably for the 30 minutes, you know, maybe got a minute and a half in, maybe 90 seconds of me talking. He's saying UCLA and the tradition and the women and what it stands for and coach wooden set the to the pyramid of success let me tell you my favorite quotes from that stories and you know luau cinder and the big man and what your number means and we're in there and walt hazard and the hazard fence so like on and on and on and on and like you know god bless him he can speak you know after having a awful stutter for for so long yeah but it's like i mean it sounds like you remembered everything that he said it's stuff that you listed off like it's stuck with you somehow yeah yeah when i was yeah i think i was 17 years old when i committed so that was that was big for me when you played at ucla because i've i think i've heard stories that like a lot of nba pros will go and play at ucla over the summer yeah So did you do that? Would you play with guys in the NBA? And did you like, did you think right away, like I belong here? Yes.
Did it take a minute? Well, it took a minute against guys like, you know, because I think my second day I walked in there and this was like, you know, 10 days after I graduated from high school. So you're 18.
18 years old, and KG's in there. They just got traded, or he's a Boston Celtic now, and they come back and they play that year.
I think they lost in the finals. They come back the next year and win in 08-09, I believe.
He was defensive player of the year.

I always tell everybody, like, I played Dirk Nowitzki,

Tim Duncan twice, and KG within my first dozen games in the league.

Like, that's a – in the Western Conference,

if you go through, like, the power forwards and center on each team,

it's pretty remarkable.

But, yeah, my second day there, I was like, man,

I got to match up against KG.

So you played against him?

Yeah.

But he was really cool. He didn't have to be.
He was really cool because he didn't know who I was from anybody. And I was like – I took him aside after we're all done, and I said, hey, hey, listen, you know, how do I leverage? How do I score on you when you're – you know, I said he's 6'11".
He's 7'1". Right.
Let's be real. Like, same thing with KD.
Like, he's not 6'9". He was listed at.
He's taller than that. And, you know, and you know he's like get the fuck i'm not giving you any of this so jordan farmar i remember was there uh who was at the on the lakers at the time said no no he's serious he's serious so he took me aside for 10 minutes and started working with me and it was just me there on the court so i'll always remember kg for that wow then of course i get drafted by minnesota he's the fifth pick i'm the fifth pick it's minnesota he's like fuck this guy hot shot he's like fuck this guy yeah so he comes you know he's barking he's always like this though he never takes every game so i respect about guys like him and and russ and uh ai i'm trying to think like jordan they never took a game i'm rarely a possession off like those guys go hard that's a talent in itself yeah even as he got older he set the tone in practice he set the tone um but yeah when i got into the league that that changed a little bit because that now i was you know at that time i wasn't a threat but i was right i was i was in the league and playing in minnesota and playing the power forward wait so you're 18 and you're playing pickup basketball with nba players and you're like running up and down the floor and you're holding your own?

That's nuts.

That's crazy.

I always felt like I belonged.

Yeah.

I, you know, I think I,

in some ways it was unhealthy how much I just focused on that.

Like I always say, like I was an,

I was an athlete student.

Yeah, no, we saw you spell.

You can't spell. Right.
Yeah. Yeah, that was bad.
That was a bad upbringing. We believe you on the basketball thing.
Yeah, that was ugly. But no, it's just, yeah, I always felt like I belonged.
Plus, I think it was being familiar with the guys I was playing with, too. So if, you know, there's three courts.
It's simply, obviously, you're running five. So there's 30 guys out there out there and if sc guys came they would always be allowed on the floor if ucla guys came they were always allowed on the floor at least five guys so i was playing with russell westberg darren collison luca mamute like guys like that were on my team so it was great like we felt like we had a vibe and had a good thing going we came in ranked pre-season number one yeah uh that we had just come off of two final fours.
Trying to make another one, which we did. Lost to Memphis.
Derrick Rose, tough one. But, no, we felt like we belonged.
And, actually, speaking of that, I can remember my first day in the gym. And I knew Russell a little bit.
And we had become friends. First day, I was on campus.
I'm walking up Bruin Walk. I'm with my academic advisor which didn't necessarily me but uh Kenny Donaldson he actually acted as more of a therapist for me but I remember Russ and I were crossing paths I was going to history class and um uh he just he starts he's like man he's sneakers I was wearing Jordan 11s with like no socks and didn't have them laced up and I'm sweating like crazy because Bruin like UCLA is like a fishbowl so you have you know where all all the students stay all the dorms you come down you have the athletic center you have the student activity center you have uh poly pavilion uh you know you have the men's gym you have everything walking up then it's the classes up brewing walk so i'm leaking sweat and he's making fun of my tops backpack that i got from the mcdonald's all-american game my shirt you know this is where i layer up is like if i had a shirt like this on i would have another down there so that one would soak up the sweat sure that one would soak up the sweat and then i would have this like yeah i'm good yeah and then the swamp was just like i would probably like put you know i'm a bit i still tie the sweater around the waist yes that's still a thing yeah yeah i feel like once you pass 30 it's like acceptable yes yeah i mean if you are living in the hamptons then yeah you can tie a sweater around your neck around your waist wherever yes it's strong it's a strong visit plus you're summering in the thank you thank you that's a little pretentious but i'll take it yeah yeah it's a sweater tie guy but um no i can remember the first yeah i love this one by the the way, speaking of sweat, it's got hot out here.
Yeah, it is. It's a good look.
Roll with it. The first time I saw Russ in the gym, and we had played fives, but there was probably a six-month, eight-month window where I didn't see him play.
And that first day, he's like grabbing rebounds, top of the square, bringing it down, surveying the court, coming down, seeing what he has, calls for a pick and roll, comes back, cross grains the ball, comes over, kind of Euro steps, top of the square, left hand. I'm like, holy shit, this kid's going to be good.
Like, this kid's special. So people would ask me coming in because I got a ton of interviews that, you know, hotshot, number one player or whatever at UCLA, and they would ask me, like, who do you think is going to be a breakout star? Like, who do you see is going to be a breakout star? I'll stop you right there.
Easiest question I'm going to answer all year. Russell Westbrook.
He's on my team. So Darren Collison, yeah, he's on my team.
Yeah. And, like, I wasn't trying to make a homer job out of – or be biased on really believe that.
So, you know, I can remember Darren Collison got – I think he had an MCL sprain in his left knee, right knee, whatever it was. And he went down for not a dozen games, but close to.
I think it might have been double-digit games that year. And so Russell took over the point guard, and that's when he just took off.
Yeah. It's pretty cool.
Yeah. So you weren't surprised at all when he was.
I wasn't surprised. And, like, Darren, both of his parents are Olympic-level track athletes.
Yeah. So Darren, I mean, even to this day, he retired after 10 years.
He, I mean, up and down the court from line to line, 94 feet, he topped five fastest player in the league. And at that point, probably the fastest player in college basketball.
So I was outletting the ball to him. And so here comes Russ.
He sees I get a rebound. He knows just go.
Test the shot and go.

Boom.

Layup.

Dunk.

He starts dunking on guys.

He starts doing, I mean, just like everything with the ball.

And that's when, I mean, he just took a major step forward.

Yeah.

Because I think he got comfortable playing the point guard.

We moved him to the two guard.

He defended.

He got up and down.

I hit him with the outlets. He made the right plays.

And nobody worked as hard as him.

Like, I thought, okay, I'm going to be the first to the gym.

I'm going to get my shots up, try and be the last to leave.

I had to take two showers, big sweater.

How do you manage that, by the way?

I've been struggling with that this summer.

I'm actually good.

Do you take a cold shower to stop sweating?

Because I'll shower, and then 10 minutes later, I'm just drinking.

Cold shower in the morning is good.

It's tough out here, though, because we work out outside,

and it's so humid all the time. I had Blake Griffin uh blake griffin here the other day and he was using he asked me i don't know thanks for letting us know that you were in town blake blake you can he's like he did give the oh yeah i've been on the show before i said well okay well yeah but a hundred times what the hell now i'm not very happy with him right now so now you're a best friend yeah you Yeah, you're Blake Love right now.
Friendship with Blake over. Yeah, done.
Friendship with Kevin on. I appreciate that.
Yeah. You should have said that because now me and Big Cat are actually mad at Blake.
Yeah, no, I'm pissed. Just a heads up.
Sorry, Blake. Yeah, no.
Is he still out here? Motherfucker. Is he here? Is he in the house right now? Motherucker.
Yeah. Yeah, he is.
He's hiding in the bedroom? No, he's definitely still out here. Yeah, he did his 30 minutes of maintenance work here earlier.
God damn it. Yeah.
Wait, was that who you were talking about was here earlier today? Yeah, Blake. What the fuck? This interview's over.
What a jerk. What a jerk.
All right. Wait, why is the interview over for me?

No, no, no.

It's not.

No, no.

It's back on.

We're actually going to go for seven hours now.

Oh, you said this interview's over.

Just my thoughts.

Just my thoughts.

Me and Big Cat are sidebarring right now.

I'm going to call him in.

Let's see.

Yeah, I'm fucking calm.

What a jerk.

Yeah, what a jerk.

I didn't realize when you said, oh, yeah, Blake was here earlier.

I was like, what are you?

He doesn't have to come on the show, but just let us know that he's here. I want to play cool.
I'm going to be like, what are you doing today? What's the weather like in L.A.? I got to hear it. He's having to pick up.
Oh, he won't pick up. Because he knows.
It's one of those. Sorry, man.
I'm on a Zoom. Yeah.
This guy has his phone on him all the time, too. We know that.
He picks up his phone usually in like 1.9 seconds. We time it.
No, no. He was literally planking today with his phone.
Not filming. He was just like this with his phone.
He'll call back later. I may have made that up, but people are going to think it's true.
God damn it. I believe it.
What a jerk. You are calling.
All right. All right.
Well, he'll call back. Probably not.
Want me to try him? No, no, no. No, don't do that.
Don't do that. That would break.
Don't do not do that. That will hurt me.
That will hurt me too much. Don't do it.
You're a big into mental health. Yes.
Don't hurt mine. I won't.
I didn't know how that would affect you. I know how that can be.
Not a lot of people pick up my phone call. How has it been with real question? You've been very outspoken about mental health.
And I feel like you were, maybe not a tipping point, but you were one of the first. I think Damar was the first.
He was the reason I felt compelled and felt like I could do it. So has it been, what's it been like to be that vulnerable? I would assume people have been very receptive to it, but it's also got to be a little scary,, to just talk about it like that.
For sure. Just cause I mean, I think when I first press send on my article, um, that I just didn't know how people were going to respond.
But for me, it was, it was so many things leading up to that point that I was like, I just can't, I was so hard for me to just be me like unapologetically Kevinetically Kevin. Like, I've come to the point now because there is such a huge community, and I could have never guessed that that was the case.
Like, now I know a lot of the statistics, the numbers. I'm continuing to learn.
Don't pretend to be an expert, but, like, just try to consume as much as I can so that I have an idea of what's going on. And plus, coming out of COVID and coming out of or being in and knowing what's going on with social injustice and black lives matter.
Like there's so much anxiety with the unknown and the stress. And I'm going to be able to put food on the table.
Where's my next paycheck coming from? Can I even go outside or my, I can be able to get, see my baby born or I'm having to choose between going to work and being with my family. Uh, you know, if somebody passes away due to COVID or otherwise I can't go to their funeral so there's like so much unknown and then that leads to a deep and dark spiral of depression and like with depression you can i know for me like it only takes this much like you can fall apart at any moment disproportionate to any circumstance right right like Right.
Like, and you tend to,

I would say like over general generalize.

I said this the other day that it's like you wake up and say, you know,

let's take a sip of coffee. Oh fuck my, you know, my coffee was shit.

I must be shit. I'm a horrible person.
Like,

and that's just how your mind goes. Like, so for me,

it's been really great to just pay it forward to, um,

cause I do feel like it's a major thief of human potential for young and old. But for that younger demographic and that next generation, because I feel like because Youth Uprise is a big part of my story, too, because I remember 10 days before I wrote my article, it was Parkland, Florida had happened.
Yeah. And then you saw what those kids did for for even mental health related as well but like gun reform and safety and classrooms and like what are we going to do to change this paradigm and and you know help help the world help the country in that way so um it's very complex like i'm i'm still learning a lot like i have uh globally i know i just read this the other day that for every 10,000 people suffering, there's one licensed therapist.
Wow. And the rate of depression, anxiety has gone way up.
But in the second quarter as opposed to 2019, the second quarter now, depression has quadrupled in America. It's at least one in four people now so over are you able to kind of recognize if you're going through something that like you said earlier was like disproportional to how upset that you should be you've realized to recognize like when that's happening as opposed to just you know being upset about something that is normal to be to be triggering you for sure and i i know a lot more now just in in working the therapist, but also like I talk about medication, like obviously there's Western and Eastern philosophy and a lot of the Eastern is like medication is not it.
And these drug companies are just trying to profit and capitalize the whole thing. But for me, medication has been huge, getting that right.
It just sets the baseline for me to actually do the real work it really has been amazing for me so i know you know when i wake up in the morning i have my routine i'm such a uh you know routine based person and a creature habit that if i do that i know that those triggers will less it's very it's a lot less likely that they will come up or they will arise if i do forward motion and i always i live by this this this quote i'm gonna quote, I'm gonna throw a quote at you, but first of all, you can't heal what you don't reveal. Like I had to express it outwardly in order for me to, to, you know, be myself and be comfortable a hundred percent in my own skin.
Like the best, you know, say, Oh, you know, Olympic gold medal. And we started off with that Olympic gold medal and, and, uh, 2016 world champion, you know, Cleveland Cavaliers, 52 year drought, the whole thing.
But one of the happiest moments in my life was when I just walked into a room and felt like I'm just I'm just me. I can just be me in any situation.
So that comfort, you know, I feel comfortable in my own skin more than I ever have. But so I know where my triggers through the work are going to come from.
And I know, like when I start to get down that sleep, slippery slope, what can happen. And because the thoughts, like you have to recognize the thoughts, understand why you're doing that and doing the work because the thoughts are the thing that can be really disturbing.
Yeah. I have to imagine that just for most professional athletes, it's such an unnatural position that you're put in.
When you, when you think about like human beings as a species and just how the world works to have you under such a microscope where you know regardless of of whether or not people know you you have 20 to 60 million people that have a strong opinion on you yeah one way or the other that's not like a a natural position for a human to be in and i would guess that that would really set off a lot of triggers for a lot of players and they develop coping mechanisms that at times might not be healthy sometimes they are healthy but for like professional athletes to be speaking about it it makes others you know vulnerable enough or i guess accepting the fact that like yeah i've dealt with this stuff too so it's going to be it has been like a tidal wave almost i think it's actually it's a really good thing you guys about yeah paul george came out and said the other day he goes man i was i was really struggling i i didn't factor in you know i'm not this isn't verbatim but he's like i didn't i discounted how big of a deal or how much mental health actually affects you because i was dealing with anxiety i was dealing with depression so i hit him up i'm like dude for you to say that with how big like how big of a player you are like that that is huge like we're working on social justice education reform like all the way across the board the nba has done an amazing job i feel but for him to say that is so big it's just like damar saying it because you also have to factor in like racial lines play a major factor when it comes to mental health and you know if you're going out for a job at corporate america you're coming up in you know a classroom trying to to be you know whatever it's valedictorian or trying to have a lot of success like if you if you allow that to be spoken you put that out into the world you know i had damar say something to me at the aspen ideas institute last year and it was last i believe may and he said he said something to the point of and this is what i got out of it is that it's just another weapon that people who you know can use it against you will use it against you yeah so you don't want to be vulnerable plus we don't have enough racial diversity in people that can treat people of color. So we need more people of color being therapists.
We need more people of color working with them so that they can get the best out of them in any other way. Because we need early intervention.
We need early intervention with these kids because your brain is going to change way before your behavior. So finding that and, you know, however you can do the screening, as I mentioned earlier, that's going to be huge.
That's going to be huge. But we have to level the playing field with that, create tools, have research, educate, continue to beat down the stigma.
Like there's so much to this, so many layers to that. And the tough thing is if somebody has bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, you know, acute, like you can't put myself and Big Cat into a box and say, okay, you guys both have bipolar disorder.
We're going to treat this one way. We have to have alternative ways to know the triggers, pinpoint exactly what kids are going through, everybody's going through, and how are we going to treat this? Because it's just like with my meds, like I had to toy with it

in order to get it right. How can we treat this person the right way so that they can reach,

honestly, their full potential? And that sounds like, you know, a happy ending or a fairytale

version, like the work is going to take a long time. And for me, I know that I will never get

rid of this imbalance. And it's something that I just had to change my relationship with.
But

Thank you. I know that I will never get rid of this imbalance.
Yeah. And it's something that I just had to change my relationship with, but it's been really freeing for me.
That's all I'll say. It's worth the work and it does get better.
Yeah. You can manage it and you know, it's, it's going to be an issue, but it's also going to be better and more smooth overall.
If you do take that step. Yeah.
I agree with big cat. Like that was kind of a huge moment, I think think in the NBA.
And I also think it's, it's cool. And I don't want people to think it's, it's just me.
No, no, no, no. But I remember seeing it being like, Oh yeah, Kevin love.
Like this is cause it, it is, there is a stigma male athlete, like talking about this stuff is hard. So.
Right. And I do like, I understand that it's, it's probably easy for me to just, I mean, easier, I should say.
And I mentioned the racial lines or, you know, somebody who doesn't have to worry about their bills, their kids. You know, it's, you know, a white boy from suburban America to family to parent home that so many layers to it.
But it doesn't matter. It doesn't discriminate.
Also, it was like with, you know, Robin Williams dying or, or, or Kate Spade or,

you know,

that Anthony Bourdain was a quote I was talking about on my Instagram earlier.

It's like,

it just shows you that success is an immune to depression.

It's a very good point.

Yeah.

And like,

it just does not discriminate.

I care who you are,

socioeconomic status,

gender profile,

whatever.

Yeah.

It does not,

it doesn't care.

And it's a lot of the time it's inherent.

Like it's,

it's, it's in your gene pool. There's already that imbalance.
So, and I want, at any point, somebody's going to deal with grievances, loss. It's, I mean, I guess what I'm trying to say is it's, there's so many layers to this.
It's so complex, but it's really, we're in a pandemic. It's the pandemic that nobody's talking about.
Right. Because globally it affects over 300 million people.
Depression does. And anxiety, I mean,

it's like,

I think it's one third of Americans now have,

you know,

are suffering from both

anxiety and depression.

That's every third person.

You can't heal

what you don't reveal.

I like that.

And the fact that it rhymes,

I think that's a big thing.

People remember rhymes.

I remember rhymes like that.

Oh,

it's a Jay-Z line.

Oh,

shit.

Well,

good.

Yeah,

no,

we knew that was a Jay-Z line.

Yeah,

it was on the Carter.

Blake just texted me saying call him back. So, I guess I'll call him back let's see okay we can keep going finally the hard question at what point um did you realize that lebron was an alcoholic does hold on let me ask you this alcoholic sheesh no he's not an alcoholic No, no, no, no, no.
He loves wine. Alcoholic.
Yeah, I'm saying, is it... What's the lesser of two evils? To be more like drunk on wine or like...
Power. Or drunk on power where he trades away all his teammates.
Wow, that was profound. Yeah.
Fuck. Forget my proverb.
That's pretty... Did you feel pressure to drink wine around him? Yeah.

But again, victory is reserved for those willing to pay its price.

True.

Okay.

I like that, too.

Well, Sun Tzu.

But was that, yeah.

Art of War, was he saying, like, drink this wine and you will win, like, Michael's secret stuff?

Yeah, but it was like the blood of Christ.

It's become a phenomenon in the NBA.

It's pretty cool, though.

CJ McCollum also front of the program. CJ McCollum has 85 bottles of wine in his hotel room.
Oh, become a phenomenon in the NBA. It's pretty cool, though.
St. Jim McCollum also from the program.

St. Jim McCollum has his own wine.

85 bottles of wine in his hotel room.

Oh, I thought he brought it in.

I was going to say, I offered.

I offered at the beginning.

I think he got it shipped to him.

We don't have that on film, but I offered.

I think he wanted to sell it to everybody else that was there,

so he just had a shitload of cases brought in,

knowing that they might not be able to get good wine in the bubble.

I'm going to have the market cornered on it.

That sort of thing.

Yeah, that's what Jimmy Butler did with coffee. Coffee, yeah.
$ coffee yeah 20 coffee yes who do you think is doing that right now with marijuana who's got a just a room there's a stash house jr so that was my other question speaking of jr what was the locker room like after the finals game when he ran out the clock it was tough uh you know but a lot of people forget you know like there's so much like there's so obviously in every game there's times where you're like fuck i wish we had that possession back i wish we had a um time and score you know whole thing he was within a few feet of the basket right there it's tough it's really tough but like also also with george hill like people forget the free throws as well. So that's where it becomes like you throw everything in.

It's an accumulation.

It was both of those things.

Right, right.

But that was tough because it's not like he threw it up there.

He airballed it.

He threw it up, and it went over the bat.

He threw it up.

He got the shit pushed into the third row.

He went backwards.

Did he say anything in the locker room?

What was the first?

I felt it was like Mario Kart when you're in eighth place, and you just want the blue. Yes.
Then you just go backwards and you just want to start firing at you. Yes.
Like, when they're about to Bowser's Castle, they're just about to, like, make the jump. So.
Wario Stadium. But who did it? Who talked? Who talked first? Who made the leap? No.
Who said something when you get in the locker room? Was J.R. Smith like, yo, my bad? I think it was a given, yeah.
You just don't say anything? I say i'll just put his head down and we're like i mean he knew yeah and that that it was just a tough position because i love swish love swish he's such a good dude he's so misunderstood he's fucking he's just an awesome awesome guy but in that moment i mean everybody has that it just happened to be like when it happens on the biggest stage like that it's just something that always excuse me you'll never gets magnified yeah if i was tough i have two tough last questions one uh what kind of soup was it that jr smith threw um that is a great question it was um um it's one of my favorite favorites uh what's the camp soup. That's pretty good.
I feel like tortilla soup, depending on how you make it to can hit a little different when it's on the face and skin. Did it have the chips in there? That's what, yes, I can cut somebody.
Yeah, no, it really can. If they're stale, right.
You better forget it. Yeah.
If it's got chips and then the hot sauce can sting afterwards. If you put like salsa, I'm saying you have, if you have any Tabasco in there to chlula not so much but you put the right hot sauce in there right it cuts you and then it gets into your pores yeah were you surprised how how big of a story that was afterwards that like the details of it was a cup of soup that was thrown were you surprised that the funniest thing was in perfect calves fashion like i told you we thrived under chaos like we had a NBA meeting after the facts, like a night, they say 90 minutes to 120 minutes, two hours.
And he walked in and just sat down like nothing happened. The dog is here now.
Just pretending back. But Blake said that he doesn't have service or needs to FaceTime audio.
Hey man, I, I just saw those, those wildfires in Southern California. i was hoping i was calling in to see if you're okay yeah i'm all good okay so what is the smoke getting to your house in in la uh as far as i know now i'm on the east coast right now oh oh you're on the east coast where where are you i'm uh i'm onons right now.
Where are you? That's funny. We're in the Hamptons.
Wait, show me your background. Yeah, we're actually at Kevin Love's house right now.
And have you ever been here? Have you ever been here? No, no, I haven't. It looks dope, though.
Oh, that's interesting because it seems like you were planking with him this morning and you knew we were coming over and then you just were like, I don't want to see my guys, so. I had to dip out.
I completely forgot today. Oh, okay.
Yeah, yeah. All right, well, Kevin's our new guy.
Just see, though. Yeah, Kevin's our new guy.
Yeah. Yeah, you're out.
Kevin's going to be the new Blake of the Year. Yes, Blake of the Year.
Blake Lovely. He had a home run derby with Seinfeld and East.
Yeah. If Kevin legally changes his name, his little names to Blake, then I'm okay with that.
Okay, all right. Well, enjoy the Hamptons, man.
We'll be here for the rest of the week. Oh, yeah, let's get to it.
I'm here until Sunday. I was just kidding.
We're leaving in like an hour, so a lot alright man bro god damn it Blake so somber yeah he really didn't seem what makes it harder is he didn't even seem that upset that we caught him yeah he's just like whatever oh show me your background yeah okay sweet oh I forgot today was the day alright I gotta go here all week alright let take long. Do I have any other questions? I do have one last one.
The Barstool Sports main account famously tweeted out a couple years ago. It was a video of a bunch of...
It was a white guy dabbing around a bunch of black kids dabbing. The white guy was the last one up., like, this is Kevin Love trying to fit in with his teammates.
And you replied, well, being able to fit in with his teammates has gotten that little white kid a lot of primo box over the years. So what is the most important way to fit in to get primo box? Lose 30.
Gain 120 million. Actually, I don't know.
I think the respect I got from having a chin strap probably led me into but by the way the best part of that whole thing is i was like primo okay where is the emoji emoji it was the perfect emoji yeah it was to have that for box oh it was great yeah it also it was i don't know if it's fedex or ups but the box no it was a very funny tweet but you when you respond it's a good yeah it's a good comeback when athletes respond engage people it's always a win for them no it's amazing by the way i love barstool yeah so you you were because people definitely thought like oh man he was mad i didn't think you were mad it was a great clapback no yeah it's an amazing clapback and i would imagine if i came at you guys there would be some some price to pay with a clapback. Yeah, there would be a little bit.

But then I also like that a year later, you got a shipment of wine that came in a box,

I think from LeBron.

And you took a picture of it and you tweeted at us and you said, look at this primo box.

Exactly.

So it takes on a life of its own.

I actually said, like I have guys, people on the road, like, hello.

Primo box.

Primo box.

I'm like, hey, that's 2020.

Maybe.

Well, now they're going to say euphemism.

Now they're going to say Blake.

Yeah, I hope you're preparing for that.

Because we gave that Blake of the year title.

I'm like, hey, that's 2020. Maybe.
Well, now they're going to say euphemism. Now they're going to say Blake.
Yeah. I hope you're preparing for that.
I'm definitely. You're interim Blake right now until such time.
Yeah. But typically when you're interim head coach, you get fired.
Not to hang up on the, not to like, like have this throw, but did you tell him we were coming here? Yeah. Yes.
This is like, this is like your first all-star. We're David.'re david stern right now we're giving you a blake god damn it as spence is my witness he goes yeah i've been on the show those guys are cool that's like being like oh yeah this is my best friend and they're like yeah this is my friend uh-huh yeah oh that's like an acquaintance you go no no we're actually really good friends.
Oh, shit. It's not like that.
I love you. The Primo Box was heavy.
Right back at you, pal. The Primo Box was heavy.
That was great. Yes.
Great, great. Oh, I did have one last one.
Clay Thompson, you played Little League Baseball with him. Do we not have pictures of that? We do.
Why don't they show? Like when Clayton Kershaw and Matthew Stafford played, was it Clayton Kershaw and Matthew Stafford played it was Clayton Kershaw and Matthew Stafford yeah I think it was those two they always throw that picture out there yeah like I feel like we never get that picture of you guys playing little league I think they did it once because I remember Van Gundy uh you know I think it was Mike Breen um uh Van Gundy and Mark Jackson like they always do the games together right and by they I actually love when I actually love when they do the games, they have a great call, but the, um, or they call the games great, but they, uh, they brought that up and they had the, you know, they highlighted the faces on this giant kid plays more. So young, he was the only 11 year old on the 12 year old all-star team.
Pretty cool. And Van Gundy always has like the good soundbites.
He says, you know, can you imagine being one of those kids on that team and being like, I played with these two guys that are, you know,

multiple-time All-Stars in the finals, all NBA guys.

Can you imagine what that must have been like, like looking back?

So it's a cool photo.

It's a really cool photo.

Were you guys awesome?

We were awesome. We should have.

We felt like we should have made the Little League World Series.

But we got at State. We had this one guy that like threw either you did or you didn't yeah what do you mean you should you felt like you should have i mean we felt like we should have at least i said we felt right like it's not like we either did or we didn't we didn't make it we're at state and we had this guy that threw like a did you ever go to the the league? Hideki? Hideki? Hideki? How do you say his name? Submarine? Yeah.
This guy threw basically submarine. He's throwing 70.
Oh, he's like... You know, they do the adjustment to...
You know, it's like inflation, right? Yeah, yeah. It's 98 miles an hour.
So this guy's throwing heat and nobody could hit it except for our top three hitters. The bottom of our lineup was bad.
Well, I felt like you should have won the entire thing. Thank you.
I felt like we should have. That's just my thoughts.
I felt like this interview went really well. And I felt like I was great friends with Blake Griffin until 30 minutes ago.
I was told I take some getting used to, but I felt like this went really well. You were good.
Well, no, from the outside, people were like, oh, what's this guy going to do? Who says that? Name names. I just felt like that was great.
LeBron. JJ told me.
Yeah, LeBron. JJ.
No, LeBron definitely was like, Kevin Love takes some getting used to. I think JJ was maybe trying to scare you away.
I feel like I fit in with you guys. Yeah, he's got a podcast now.
He's trying to keep you all to himself. Yeah, when are you going to do your podcast? I'm sure you got one in the works.
Everyone. I mean, even Blake Griffin has one.
I feel like as far as podcasts go, Barstool is pretty much the way to go yeah if i'm not on you know but i'd be competing with you guys yeah we could call it uh i want to be a celebrity guest stop fitting stop trying to fit kev out and start trying to fit kevin yeah and i'll have a program where we say just my thoughts yeah well you're a recurring guest now so when we do want you back on which will be like in three months we'll just be like hey when you go to the delete eight perfect which is a great name for it is that Is that an official name or is that just what you're a recurring guest now, so when we do want you back on, which will be like in three months, we'll just be like, hey. When you go to the Delete 8.
Perfect. Which is a great name for you.
Is that an official name, or is that just what you call it? I mean, I've heard that before, so I just used it. Right.
I think it's a great name. Yes, Delete 8.
Delete 8. Delete 8.
Good luck. Are you trying to win? How important is it to you to win the Delete 8? That is probably, if you ask me three months from now, and we ended up winning that, if we won that, that would probably be all things considered with what's going on.
If we won that, it would be a big deal. Oh, listen.
If the Bulls win that, I'm making shirts. I made shirts for them winning the summer league.
Yeah. I want shirts even when we just start that say to lead eight.
To lead eight finalists. Yeah.
To lead eight finalists. Even if you don't win.
And I'm going to say, listen, we made it to the quarterfinals. Yeah.
Yeah. That's true.
We felt like we could have won. We should have won.
We felt like we could have won. It didn't happen.
Either win or win. All right.
All right. Well, Kevin, this has been awesome, man.
Thanks so much. Thank you for having us.
Thanks for making your way out to the Hamptons. That's beautiful.
That interview with Kevin Love was brought to you by Dude Wipes. The show is sponsored by Dude Wipes.
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Big Cat, what just happened? Three. Transition three.
I'm back along. No, you're fucked.
Yeah, I'm fucked. I'm fucked.
I'm fucked. I'm fucked.
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That's actually not an understatement. I remember the first time I used a dude wipe and it was like, wow, I thought that walking around with dry ass toilet paper was the only way to go through life.
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Taking a deuce is always a real treat if you know that you can start out with a dude wipe. I know some guys that do their last wipe with a dude wipe.
I think that's kind of crazy. What? You start with a dude wipe.
No, I go last wipe. Then you got the wet ass.
Yeah, no, it's a little nice last wipe.

Then your butt's all looped.

It's not that wet.

Billy, you look like you have something to say about the matter.

I always clean up with my dude wipe.

You start or you end with a dude wipe?

You end.

It's just like the final.

Yeah.

No, I start with a...

Actually, no, it's the...

What's the word?

No, I end.

What do you mean start?

First wipe.

He uses the first wipe.

It's the penultimate wipe.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

I've done that.

I thought you meant like pre-poop. No.
Yeah, yeah. I yeah sometimes if i like having a little just a little you know walk away like like a little shower sometimes i just wipe with a dude wipe if i'm just peeing just as a nice little i'll wipe my i'll wipe my dick hole with the dude wipe i'm not above doing that absolutely i actuallyrelated fire fest I'll save.
Okay, yeah. Save that for Friday.
Wow. Teaser.
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All right, Jamal Murray's insane right now, by the way. He's not going to score anymore, though.
He's 44 points, 7 for 10 from 3, 15 for 22 field goals. If they win this series and he averages more than 40, that'll be, like, the craziest stat of all time.
Actually, Billy, you know what? I forgot to bring this up on Friday. This has all turned since you said I was fucked.
You are fucked. You don't believe that? No, I'm not even watching.
You don't believe in that? I believe in that. You're a terrible gambler, and that was a terrible pick.
Correct. And both these teams stink.
More. Lay it on.
Fuck you for even gambling on this. Yes, give it to me.
Go off, queen. But Billy, I forgot about a Fyre Fest for you on Friday.
Oh! That's no way that went in. Jamal Murray's insane right now.
They're going to take it off. That was a two.
His foot was on the line. He is fucking insane.
His foot was on the line. Anyways, Billy.
What has he been? He's been averaging 40. It's like 38 before this game.
I know he scored over 40 back-to-back with no turnovers, which is fucking ridiculous. Jesus Christ.
Go ahead. If he scores more than 40 in game seven, it'll be over 40 for sure.
They got to stop hitting these threes. He scored 42-50.
I just lied at the under. I know he scored 12-14 in game three and four, Hank.
That screws it. But Billy, I forgot about your Firefest on Friday.
So I tracked down with the help of our darling Jake, the actual preseason game that my avatar on Twitter, the picture that it was taken from, it was in October or no, excuse me, August 15th, 2010, Titan Seahawks game. Yeah.
We found the footage online. You have to watch the entire game.
You can't look away. You're going to watch it live on a live stream.
So the live stream is going to be Billy watching the football game. If Billy looks away, call him out because he can't look away from the screen.
I want you to find the section of that game that my Twitter avatar was taken from and then make clips of it and take some more screenshots because I want to find out who this dude is. Do I have to do – did we find the right broadcast? I think so.
The Seahawks broadcast. We found the Titans broadcast, but you still have to watch this.
And if it's not in there, then we have to track down the Seahawks version of the broadcast. Awesome.
So you will be doing that on a live stream. I would love to uncover.
But you can't look away. You actually have to do work.
And your work in this circumstance is literally sitting still watching football on TV. Can you do that? I'm going to have to be medicated.
It's the easiest assignment you'll ever get, Billy. Okay, I'll do it.
You got this. All right, so anything on Billy's list before we do our lottery numbers? Oh, let's see.
Bella Thorne's ruined OnlyFans. Oh, fuck, and so did Billy.
Yeah, I think it's more Billy. I do like this quote from Les Miles.

He said, players opting out because of COVID-19 concerns are actually opting into the pandemic.

Oh, they're letting the pandemic win.

Exactly.

Yeah, you're simping for a virus.

Wow.

That's actually a great spin zone.

It's a great, wonderful spin zone.

I like that a lot.

Get naked and other advice to fend off a polar bear attack.

Okay, I like that too.

If it's white, say goodnight.

Take your clothes off.

That's how you can remember that.

Mm-hmm.

Boom.

But don't do it on OnlyFans because you won't get paid for it.

Okay, so let's do...

Oh, sorry.

We have game two.

Do-do-do- sorry. We have game two.

It was game two and three that he sucked at.

I'm looking at it right now.

All right.

We're ready to do the last. I heard the broadcast earlier.

It's 30.8.

I thought they said 38.

He's averaging 30.8 points per game.

So it's still possible.

But when I heard it earlier, I thought it was 38.

30 point and then 8. Sounds like he's also averaging 30 points and 8 points at the same time.
So that would be 38 to your point. Alright, you ready for picks? Let's do it.
So here's the deal. The beefy question.
I'm going to give the winner of this is going to get a link for ButcherBox. You ready for it? I'm only going to give it to the winner.
ButcherBox the best. Receive quality meat delivered to your door now.
ButcherBox. All right.
You guys going to pick a number? I'm going 17. 17.
What the fuck? 17. Is that what you're going to pick, Hank? Whoever's closest.
Whoever's closest. Whoever's closest.
13. Everyone knows Hank's lucky number.
83. Okay.
Someone write this down. I'm 17.
70. I'm going to go 54.
What numbers are hot right now? 83. 16.
All right. Here we go.
18. 44.
44. Jake's got 44.
What do I have, Jake? I don't know.

What did you say?

50.

54.

Big Cat said 54.

13.

96.

Billy, 83.

96 is the winner.

Fuck.

96 is the winner.

All right.

Billy, butcherbox.com slash PMT.

Awesome.

So that's your code, dude.

That is your code.

Butcherbox.com slash PMT. That's your code.
Awesome. Yeah.
Let the meat talk, Billy. Yeah.
Ooh, ooh, Donovan Mitchell just threw his chair. Donovan Mitchell was mad.
I do have a question for the lottery machine. Okay.
Can it help us solve a problem here? Yeah. Because Billy was trying to recruit us to do sober September, whatever that is.
I guess Billy just doesn't want us to drink during September along with him. We said no emphatically to that.
It's not because I think we had any plans on getting loaded in September, but I don't want to be told what to do by Billy. Yeah, but we talked about flipping it on him.
Okay, just getting hammered extra during September. Well, Billy is not drinking at all.
I like that. Call it Sip-Tember.
And I want to ask the lottery machine how many beers should I drink during September? Ooh, okay, good one. I will match this number.
I lost 96, which is unfortunate. I will abide by the lottery machine.
We'll end the show with this. How many beers will PFT drink in September? I hope it's like three and then you basically have to do it with me.
I'll drink liquor in Mad Dog. Four.
You can only drink four. You screwed yourself.
You did say how big the beers could be. Four kegs.
That's like 670 beers, bro. You would never.
Dude, I'm not going to lie. I really missed it.
What do you say? You're too lazy to acquire a keg. You won't acquire four kegs.
What do you mean I can't acquire a keg? He just called you out. You will not acquire four kegs.
He just called your ass out. I guess I have to buy four kegs now.
He just called your ass out. I will buy a keg during September, and I'll bring it into the office, and everyone's allowed to have some except for you.
Wow. I'm excited for keg day.
Yeah, keg day in the office. Keg day is going to be sick.
It sucks. Keg day is going to be sick.
And I'm going to put it at your desk. In a bucket.
Come into work and be like, hey guys, I'm not going to college. I have no friends because they all left.
Which is very hurtful because I thought we were good friends. Well, yeah.
So then I'm like, hey, do you guys want to do this thing? It's stuff people do. And then it's like, no, fuck you for trying to do something healthy.
Well, no. Now I i want to get loaded you made me realize you rekindled my love for beer billy thank you and september is like such a good name september is a yeah that's a great name september join join along let me know and let billy know if you're going to play along with part of my take big cat do you want to get involved i'm in i'm in september september we're all drinking four beers minimum this September.
Beers with the boys.

It's happening.

Billy, I wish you could join, but I might do Sober October.

I didn't agree yet.

I don't have a partner I was going to do, so I might join with you, or am I not allowed?

You're not allowed.

Okay, so I guess I have to do Sober September. Sober September for Billy.

Dude, I'm...

The boys are getting loaded.

I will lie.

Being away from my machine all weekend really sucked

because I just...

Let's do one more.

You had so many questions.

I just love being around.

I just love being around.

It's the power of this machine.

What, Hank?

What?

Oh, you want to go play your freaking Call of Duty, dude?

I have nothing to do with that.

This is fucking real life.

I just laugh when you guys are like,

we're going to keep it tight, we're going to keep it tight,

we're going to keep it tight,

and then we just like...

We do six different lottery machines.

Yeah, we get a lottery machine.

All right.

Last one.

Last one.

Even a odd question, Big Cat.

All right.

Fuck.

I don't have one.

Stop it.

I can't stop it.

I'll do it.

I got one.

I got one.

I got one for the next one.

Next one.

All right.

We'll let this one go.

All right.

What was that?

The odds.

Is that 20? 52. Does Hank suck at video games? Odds.
Is that 20?

Does Hank suck at video games?

Odds, yes.

Evens, no.

Odds, yes.

Odds, yes.

Odds, yes.

Odds, yes.

Oh, it's a 39.

It's odd.

You suck, dude.

Little Nerf guns.

Dear Lottery Machine, should Hank have Billy do his taxes for him?

If 51 to 100

I like it

Is yes

Okay

1 to 50 is no

Okay

Hank you have to do it

I just won't do my taxes again

Fuck

What is it?

Damn it

I should have kept track of the numbers that he was picking

Okay

One more

If it's 20 and above

Then Billy has to do it

20 and above

Thank you. is it? Damn it.
I should have kept track of the numbers that it was picking. Okay.
One more. If it's 20 and above, then Billy has to do it.
20 and above. Or no, 20 and below.
I'll give you the odds. 20 and below, Billy has to do it.
If it's divisible by three. Okay.
Divisible by three. If it's divisible by four, Billy has to do it drunk.
25. 25.
Fuck. Not neither of those.
Alright. Damn it.
The lotto machine has spoken. Dude, 50 burger Unbelievable See everyone on Wednesday I love you guys And we have Billy's new segment Which is Billy's fun facts 90% of koalas You gotta talk louder You gotta talk louder 90% of koalas Have chlamydia I still couldn't really hear that It's an insane amount One more time I had this really crazy dream I had this really crazy dream Where we went to Oh About 90% of koalas Have chlamydia.
And I had this crazy dream. We went to interview Elon Musk and we were like, why does he want to come on the show? Like there's no, he's like, what? Like he knows who we are.
And then we went to his house and he locked us in his basement and he was like, you're not allowed to leave the basement. 90% chance Philly's got chlamydia.

Philly's got chlamydia.

You like going down under.

Anyway, like people who handle koalas at zoos sometimes catch chlamydia.

Fuck them.

God damn it.

Anyway, Elon Musk wouldn't let us out until we gave a hot take to charge his time machine.

And then we did.

What the fuck are we doing here?