Remembering Kobe, plus George Kittle Live From Miami

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Speaker 1 On today's part of my take, we're going to do things a little differently.

Speaker 1 Weird, tough day, crazy day in sports with the passing of Kobe Bryant. We're going to remember Kobe.

Speaker 1 We have some clips from my interview on the Corp with Kobe. We also have our good friend George Kittle

Speaker 1 live in person from Miami

Speaker 1 before the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 Talk to him, get him prepped for Media Day Night.

Speaker 4 When Cool creamy ranch meets tangy, bold buffalo, the whole is greater than the sum of its sauce. Say howdy, partner, to new Buffalo Ranch sauce, only at McDonald's for a limited time.

Speaker 5 Participating McDonald's.

Speaker 2 Let's go.

Speaker 2 done.

Speaker 2 Looks behind a low washing,

Speaker 2 and then I can't blame all on the sun. Oh, no, we're gonna rock down to electric avenue,

Speaker 2 and then we'll take it higher.

Speaker 2 Oh, we're gonna rock down to electric avenue.

Speaker 1 Pardon my tape

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Speaker 1 Today is Monday, January 27th, and it's some horrific, tragic news and a little bit of a different show because I think I speak for all of us.

Speaker 1 The sports world was stunned with

Speaker 1 the passing of Kobe Bryant and his daughter. daughter.
And I think

Speaker 1 how many other people were in the...

Speaker 2 There were three other people on the helicopter. I think there was nine total.
There was

Speaker 2 another basketball coach and his daughter was on there as well. It was just, it was a tragic, tragic day.
And it was one of those news stories that it broke.

Speaker 2 And everyone's reaction was pretty much identical.

Speaker 2 When we saw it coming across Twitter, everyone was just saying like,

Speaker 2 this has got to be a fake report.

Speaker 2 There's no way that this is true. Yeah.
Because Kobe seemed like one of those guys that, you know, because of how big his personality was, because of how primin or

Speaker 2 how relevant he'd been in sports over the last 25 years, really, like, he's always been around.

Speaker 2 He's always been the toughest guy in every single room, the most mentally tough person, just really a legend in every sense of the word.

Speaker 2 And thinking that he just all of a sudden is no longer with us was very, very tough to even believe.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 it was truly shocking. And

Speaker 1 it's hard with like how weird the world's gotten, how weird the internet's gotten, and like the news that you get every day. It's hard to be shocked.
And this one like jolted everyone.

Speaker 1 And it's, I tweeted right away, like, it really does.

Speaker 1 Kobe Bryant was the type of guy who you just expected in 50 years you'd see him sitting courtside trash talking like a 21 year old and still probably being able to beat him in horse.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and still being that guy, that presence,

Speaker 1 that guy who is so bigger than life, bigger than his sport, who was the guy who took the baton from Michael Jordan and passed it to LeBron James, who was basically the guy in the NBA for a decade plus and 41 years old.

Speaker 1 And the fact that it's, you know, he's with his daughter, who, you know, like, if you ever saw clips of them together, and he had four daughters

Speaker 1 and how much he enjoyed coaching them. And the whole thing is just so horribly, horribly tragic.
And it took the wind out of you. It was one of those rare moments that really took the wind out of you.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 yeah, it's hard to make jokes and do our regular show.

Speaker 2 There's really no news like that. Right, there's not anything funny to talk about with it.
It's just like it's horrific, regardless.

Speaker 2 And Kobe had his detractors out there, but I think even people that didn't like Kobe Bryant, like the gravity of the situation, he's with his daughter. You have to, like,

Speaker 2 nobody can think about this news and feel anything but just like, you know, feel grief and feel like, you know, utter pain for his wife and his remaining daughters. It's just, it's an awful story.

Speaker 2 I can't think of another case where an athlete of like this stature has passed away suddenly. Like, maybe the closest thing I can even think of is Dale Earnhardt.
Yeah, he died.

Speaker 1 People were saying Thurman Munson. The crazy thing about Kobe is more than any other athlete, Kobe made people like feel.
And that's people who hated him, people who loved him.

Speaker 1 He was a lightning rod, and he loved,

Speaker 1 like,

Speaker 1 what I loved about Kobe is he loved being that guy. He loved being that guy who would go and rip some team's heart out on the road.

Speaker 1 He loved being the guy who you might not like him, you might not root for him, but you respect his determination, his will to win.

Speaker 1 That like ultra-competitive streak that you don't see in every athlete. You see it in very rare cases.
And there's only a handful of guys who have that like win-at-all costs kind of mentality.

Speaker 1 And Kobe had it. And

Speaker 1 even if you weren't a Laker fan, you're like, hey, I don't, I'm not going to root for him. But at the end of the day, you respected what he did.
And, you know, Coley, who's one of our colleagues

Speaker 1 who has a great podcast, basketball podcast with Tyler Mixtape, wrote it perfectly when he was like, when he said, he wasn't Michael Jordan, but he was Michael Jordan to a generation of fans because he was that guy after MJ.

Speaker 2 I think you can also see the way that Michael Jordan reacted to it. Kobe was the guy that reminded Michael Jordan the most of himself.

Speaker 1 He was one of those highlight tapes where they would show basically it was like a mirror image of the two of them.

Speaker 2 Michael Jordan doesn't respect anyone that he competes against while he's competing against me. Right.

Speaker 1 But he respected Kobe because he was like, I get the sense that this kid also doesn't like me when he's competing against me and when you whenever you know people even Charles Barkley said I think it was like three days ago said that you know this NBA is too soft and guys are too too friendly with each other Kobe was the exact opposite Kobe was not friends with anyone because he if you if you're friends with someone you're not getting better and you're not mentally getting something over someone when you're in the biggest moments and you're fighting for a championship championship.

Speaker 2 Right. It's like us with Rascillo when he comes on the show.
We pretend to be friends with him in reality. We're just negging the whole time so we get a mental advantage.

Speaker 1 Okay, so...

Speaker 2 Real quick, I want to touch on something because there are people that are experiencing, obviously, like emotional reactions to Kobe's death. And they've, you know, a lot of people haven't met Kobe.

Speaker 2 They don't have a personal story with him, but they're still experiencing a very real sense of loss. And it's such an unusual phenomenon to explain, but we all go through it.

Speaker 2 Like, I remember when Sean Taylor passed away. I had never met the guy.
I had just seen him play football.

Speaker 2 And there was something about watching him on the court that, or on the field, the way that he played, that seriously affected me because I admired somebody's ability to be that 100% passionate about something.

Speaker 2 And it made me feel different about myself when I was watching him. I got to imagine that's like how people feel about Kobe.
It's like you watch a guy like that

Speaker 2 who has this singular determination and you respect his ability to focus so completely on one thing and excel at one thing that he actually made like his fans feel better about themselves themselves and probably gave more drive and willpower to people that were just obsessed with watching him on TV, watching him play basketball.

Speaker 2 He improved people's lives who would watch him and gave them something to look up to and kind of a role model in terms of what their mentality could be and whatever their chosen field is.

Speaker 2 And it's crazy that we'll never meet some of these people, but their passing still has

Speaker 2 a significant emotional effect on you.

Speaker 1 So I did meet Kobe. I was lucky enough enough to meet Kobe.
Hank was with me. And so we interviewed him with Alex Rodriguez for the Corp.

Speaker 1 We'll put some of the highlights of that at the end of this episode because it was a great interview. But Hank, you can back me up.
I've never been more nervous for an interview.

Speaker 1 And being in the presence of Kobe Bryan was being in the presence of greatness. You could feel it.
Like we walked into his office.

Speaker 1 First of all, he was getting a haircut in his office, which was the ultimate power move.

Speaker 6 Well, so you weren't even...

Speaker 6 I showed up like three hours early because the interview was at like 10 a.m. And I showed up with the camera crew at like 7 a.m.
They're like, We'll open the office for you guys. You guys can get in.

Speaker 6 And so we're setting up the office. I thought no one else was in there.
I asked like the assistant or whatever. I was like, where's the bathroom? And she pointed me to the bathroom.

Speaker 6 And I'm like, walking. I looked to my right, and Kobe was just in his office at like 7.15.
Like, yeah, there.

Speaker 1 This guy who's retired, has more money than you could ever.

Speaker 6 I just saw him.

Speaker 1 And he's in his office at 7.15.

Speaker 6 And there was no one else in the entire office. It was just like a business.

Speaker 2 That's pretty early for you, Hank.

Speaker 1 Extremely early.

Speaker 6 And this was West Coast.

Speaker 1 Well, it was West Coast time, so it wasn't as bad. But it was, so he was, we showed up to his office.
You could feel it.

Speaker 1 Like, when you're around someone like that, who just commands respect and like kind of this whole little orbit goes around him, it's something to behold. And we get there and we do the interview.

Speaker 1 And the interview, like Kobe was nice, but he had that Kobe intensity that never lets you get comfortable. And it's like, this is the guy.
This is why he is who he is.

Speaker 1 He will be nice to you, but like, you got to remember, you're on Kobe's turf and you're on Kobe's time.

Speaker 1 And the thing that struck me most about the interview, and again, we'll put some at the end, like, this is a guy who won five championships, is one of the best NBA players of all time,

Speaker 1 accomplished everything he wanted to accomplish, made millions upon millions of dollars. And like Hank said, he's at his office at 7 a.m.
And he's somehow,

Speaker 1 somehow, some way, even more excited for the next chapter of his life and winning at whatever project he's about to do than he was for the two decades plus that he played in the NBA.

Speaker 1 And you're like, how is this possible? How can a guy who... like for every for anyone who had what Kobe had, that's the peak of their existence.

Speaker 1 He's every single day is the next like challenge and the next thing he's about to tackle.

Speaker 1 And it was incredible to watch because you're like, if I, I mean, if you or I, if we were sitting here and we're like, hey, we won five championships, we have $500 million.

Speaker 1 I wouldn't be waking up at seven in the morning. I wouldn't be tacking the day.
I wouldn't be like, I'm hungry for more.

Speaker 1 I'd be like, I'm going to sit in the jacuzzi and chill out for the rest of my life.

Speaker 2 Yeah, some people don't have the off switch because to them, hitting that off switch is like losing. It's like giving up, and that's not what someone who's wired like that ever wants to go through.

Speaker 2 Like, if Kobe Bryant were to have just sat down in bed, just stayed in bed all day and relaxed, he would have probably felt more unrelaxed because

Speaker 2 he would be anxious, that sort of thing. He was like one of the most driven people, obviously, in the history of sports.

Speaker 2 When the news broke,

Speaker 2 it's always weird reading serious breaking news stories like this on TMZ. Like you go to their website, and it's in the same font where it's like, China Black has major shade to throw at Chris Jinner.

Speaker 2 Watch the video for more. You know, that's what I associate that font with.
And what is it, Black China? I screwed that one up. Sorry, Hank.
But

Speaker 2 you read the font and you just assume it's like some trashy, inconsequential headline, right? And then when it says something of the magnitude of like Prince died or

Speaker 2 Kobe Bryant just passed away in a helicopter accident, it's like there's no way that this organization got this, right? So you spend the next five minutes.

Speaker 2 Hoping that they screwed it all up. And then there are a couple of...

Speaker 1 Hoping they got hacked. Yeah.
Like you're like, hey, maybe TMZ got hacked and this is a story they wanted to erupt.

Speaker 1 And then the Bears' Twitter account got hacked and pretended they were good for a second this weekend.

Speaker 1 You're like, hey, maybe there's hacking Twitter.

Speaker 2 Very clearly not the Bears.

Speaker 2 And then you had the second wave of news coming out, which was just bad reporting about whether or not his kids were on board, just like contradictory reports.

Speaker 2 It was like a roller coaster of emotions trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

Speaker 2 And after you're done going through that, as someone who's reading the news, then you get the third wave, which is news reporters telling professional athletes live on the air what happened and seeing their reaction.

Speaker 2 It's like, I can deal without all that stuff.

Speaker 2 I don't need to see, like, this wasn't intentional, but Cassius Winston at Michigan State, Tom Izzo, told him about Kobe's crash, like, live on TV, and you saw his reaction.

Speaker 2 And watching other people go through it, it's just as bad as when you just went through it. Like, it brings up so many emotions.
It's like, I don't want to see any of that stuff.

Speaker 1 But that's, you know, like those clips,

Speaker 1 I actually, I don't enjoy seeing them because it's a tragedy, but it makes you realize how important he was to so many people.

Speaker 1 And the fact that he is a guy who's been retired for however many years, three or four years, and he still means something to college players. And, like, you see, even,

Speaker 1 you know, like the rivals of his, rival teams, rival franchises, all being affected by it. Like, that's what Kobe Bryant was.

Speaker 1 The point that I made earlier, that like, even if you were his rival, you respected him.

Speaker 1 And to see all these people be affected by it, you realize, holy shit, this guy means so much to so many people. And it was just a crazy, I mean, it's just crazy, crazy sad.

Speaker 1 And it's really like, there's nothing really you can say other than it's tragic and it's sad. And

Speaker 1 yeah, I mean, I think the NBA is a gut punch.

Speaker 2 The NBA, I think, should have canceled the game today because of what he meant to everybody in the league. It seemed like Kobe had some sort of influence on every single team.
Like

Speaker 2 all these kids, obviously, grown up who are in the NBA now, watched him growing up. But it was beyond that.
I'm not talking about just like them watching him play throughout the years.

Speaker 2 I'm saying like he had so many friends and so many people that he was

Speaker 2 actively engaged in the day-to-day life on every single team in this league that it seemed like it was. I don't know if they panicked and didn't know how it'd be possible to

Speaker 2 call everything off logistically, but it felt like one of those things where the whole league was like sleepwalking just trying to get through the unit of the day because they were rightfully you know like you said hit in the gut by this yeah

Speaker 1 so I don't know I mean it's a very weird way to start Super Bowl week we're here in Miami

Speaker 2 we like the news broke while we were in the on the plane in the middle of the air and it was like what the fuck so yeah I mean it's gonna be weird for a couple days I'd say I don't really know all the all the fans out there that are tweeting like as a Celtics fan yeah let me say or like as a Sixers, even though I'm a Sixers fan, I still feel bad for his family.

Speaker 2 You can just

Speaker 2 say that.

Speaker 1 I had some pretty bad timing. I

Speaker 1 debuted a new character that's not going to ever come back, Laker Dan, on Saturday night when LeBron, which is crazy that LeBron passed Kobe all-time points last night.

Speaker 1 And I was having fun with Kobe fans, and now everyone's like, oh, that aged poorly. Like, I knew that this was going to happen.
Like, what the fuck?

Speaker 1 This is a tragedy that's so incredibly sad, and then you're upset about a joke I made on Saturday night.

Speaker 2 Well, you have to find somebody. In a senseless tragedy, you have to find somebody to be mad at.
And Laker Dan is the guy. I'm glad that you were able to provide that outlet.

Speaker 5 Laker Dan is gone forever.

Speaker 1 He was going to come back every now and then. He's gone forever.
So rest assured, that is officially retired. I'll say this about.

Speaker 1 It was one and done.

Speaker 2 The one thing that you can definitely say about Kobe Bryant is he was so, so polarized.

Speaker 2 He made people feel so strongly one way or the other about him that he inspired total strangers to try to drive an hour each to fight each other on Christmas Day just based off one person saying that he wasn't good.

Speaker 1 Dude, I jokingly, again, this is...

Speaker 2 Name another athlete that could inspire that

Speaker 2 sort of man-to-man combat.

Speaker 1 Again, it was Saturday night, so this was well before, and I jokingly said LeBron James was the number one Laker of all time, which if you can't tell, that's a fucking joke, whatever.

Speaker 1 I had multiple people threaten my life. And I was like, you know what? Respect.
Because you're just standing up for your man. I love that.
Like, that's what you do. You stand up for your man.

Speaker 1 All right. Let's

Speaker 1 try to move on. We have.

Speaker 2 We are in Miami.

Speaker 1 We are in Miami. Dale.
Let me do

Speaker 1 a quick ad read, and then we'll try to move on again. We're going to put in some of the Kobe interview clips from the Corp interview, which was fantastic.
You should go listen to it.

Speaker 1 It's the most intense person I've ever interviewed, and it was so intimidating, but so awesome at the same time because he is one of those,

Speaker 1 you know, he was one of those like larger-than-life people.

Speaker 1 All right, so we're here in Miami.

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Speaker 1 So we're in Miami. Quick,

Speaker 1 I mean, we got a whole week planned.

Speaker 1 We're back.

Speaker 2 We're in the Ghost Hotel right now.

Speaker 1 We're in the Ghost Hotel, the famous Joe Buck Ghost Hotel.

Speaker 1 I am assuming we're going to see Marlins Man at some point this week, right? I'm sure we will.

Speaker 2 And it wasn't just the Joe Buck Ghost Hotel. It was also the Carl Ravich Ghost Hotel.
Yes. When we had vases falling over, we had...

Speaker 1 He magically got hair.

Speaker 2 Yeah, he grew hair.

Speaker 2 Carl Ravich, aka

Speaker 2 what's Jeremy Fowler, AirPiece?

Speaker 1 Chris Fowler. Huh? Chris Fowler.
Chris Fowler, yeah, aka

Speaker 2 Jeremy Schapp. Yes.
Who else?

Speaker 2 He's the brown-haired guy on ESPN. He grew hair.
There were ghosts in the machines.

Speaker 2 You know what I've noticed about Miami? Is there's the Miami Miami beat everywhere you go.

Speaker 2 Like if you eat outside, if you're at a restaurant, the soundtrack that's playing always has the exact same beat no matter what song it is. And it's only in Miami.

Speaker 1 It's a doom, doomch, doon,

Speaker 2 that one, it'll be everywhere. It's going to drive you crazy by the end of the week.

Speaker 1 You're also, when you're in Miami, you're never more than like 25 feet away from a

Speaker 1 cocaine turquoise or pink t-shirt.

Speaker 2 That's true. You can buy one at any point.

Speaker 1 If you just stumble out of bed and walk 25 feet in any direction, you will be able to buy a pink electric Miami shirt. Or white pants.

Speaker 2 Yeah. I'm going to get some white pants this week.

Speaker 5 It could be the best city for the Super Bowl, though.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. I would say nice.

Speaker 2 This or New Orleans? Or Las Vegas.

Speaker 1 No, that's nice. When Las Vegas happens.

Speaker 2 We were talking shit about the NFL logo redesigns for the Super Bowls last week because they lost all creativity about 10 years ago, 12 years ago.

Speaker 2 There has been some fire NFL League Super Bowl merchandise that I've seen already with the Miami colors and stuff on it. Yep.
I'm going to probably purchase like six different shirts.

Speaker 1 You're going to come back looking like the ultimate tourist. Oh, hey, asked me if I went to the Super Bowl in Miami.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I'm going to wear the shirts and I'm going to continue to wear them for years and years and years. That's the saddest thing is seeing somebody wearing just like a

Speaker 2 standard Super Bowl 44 t-shirt just out in the wild somewhere. It's like it's laundry day.
I get it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's like, did you go to that game? Oh, yeah, okay, cool.

Speaker 1 And it's not even the teams?

Speaker 2 No, no, it's just the league.

Speaker 1 it's just the league. It's like, hey, we printed this shirt well before we knew that there were two teams playing in this game.

Speaker 1 We just knew the Super Bowl was going to be here, and it's bigger than the sport.

Speaker 1 All right, let's do who's back.

Speaker 2 We're just going to brush past the big news of the day, the Pro Bowl.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 The Pro Bowl happened. Yes.
AFC won.

Speaker 1 Wow, I didn't know that. Over.
Overhit? 38, 33. I knew the overhit.
And I had the analysis. I was just talking Pro Bowl.

Speaker 2 And no one got hurt. And Kirk Cousins threw an interception on the very first on-sides fourth and 15.
Oh, so they tried out the Mike. Is that a Mike Florio rule?

Speaker 1 It is a Mike Florio rule.

Speaker 2 They tried out the Mike Florio rule.

Speaker 2 You get one passing down where it's fourth and 15, and you try to make a first down instead of an on-side kick. And Kirk Cousins threw that interception.

Speaker 1 It's a great rule, by the way. They should absolutely implement that.

Speaker 2 And they should have Kirk Cousins play quarterback for

Speaker 2 whatever team she wants.

Speaker 1 Buy him everywhere. Actually, just have him in New York and just run it against a scout team.
He'll still throw an interception.

Speaker 1 Yeah, run it against the tackling dummies from Princeton that just glide around the field go to kirk cousins all right let's do who's back then we're gonna get uh we have george kittle greg kittle on the show and then we'll finish with uh some highlights of kobe bryant hank who's back uh my who's back of the week is just unverified bad boy twitter accounts uh you mentioned earlier

Speaker 6 with the bears no i mean you are verified i mean thanks to you the unverified bad boys in this group but you mentioned that the bears twitter account got hacked which and it reminded me because we got an email last week being like oh you know if you want to be verified like let us know.

Speaker 6 And I was like, Absolutely not. But if you're going to get hacked and you're going to be verified, like, there's no point.
And it just feels, it just, it just feels good to be able to do that.

Speaker 1 When that email comes around, I sometimes want to email and be like, hey, can you unverify me? Because I feel slightly like less of a man when I'm around you two unverified badasses. But

Speaker 2 I gave my check away. I told Twitter to shove it up your ass.
You'll never get a check. Jack? Will you ever get a check? I had a check.

Speaker 1 No, I know. And I got rid of it.
I didn't actually get a check, though, like, willingly. Maybe.

Speaker 1 Maybe. What? We'll see.
Unverified badass.

Speaker 2 Now that I'm a professional athlete, I feel like you have to have that check.

Speaker 1 No, if you do that, that will be your sell-out market.

Speaker 2 No, no, because if you become like a minor league pitcher drafted in the 70th round, for some reason they still give you a blue check mark on Twitter.

Speaker 1 Then you're part of the brigade. You're part of the big cat brigade.

Speaker 1 I have to have a check mark to help people with airlines. PFT, if you get a blue check mark, that will be your official sell-out mark.

Speaker 2 Listen, if they give it to me, that's on them. I already gave it back.

Speaker 1 Give it back. Yeah.
All right, so if they give it to you, you're going to give it back again?

Speaker 2 I might not. I don't know.
Well, I'm going to try this one on, see how it fits for a while.

Speaker 1 What do you mean?

Speaker 2 Are you getting one? No, I'm saying if I get one. Sound like you asked for one.
No, I'm saying if I get one, I'm going to try it on.

Speaker 1 Do they just randomly give them out anymore?

Speaker 2 I have no idea. I think everyone gets a blue check mark now.

Speaker 6 At one point, they emailed me and were like, all you have to do is reply to this email, yes. Right.
And we'll give you a blue check mark. And I was like, fuck no.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 2 And then they saw that as a reply because they actually was just saying, if you reply to this email, we'll give you one.

Speaker 1 All right. Well, I'm just saying the day that you get a blue check mark will be the saddest thing.

Speaker 2 I am not going to let you bully me preemptively into giving away my blue check mark because I know that's what's going on right now.

Speaker 1 I just don't. I hope that if you get a blue check mark, it was given to you randomly, not that you asked.

Speaker 2 The XFL probably.

Speaker 1 If you asked for one, that will be the saddest thing.

Speaker 2 Yeah, if the XFL reached out and said, hey, we're giving them to all our players, and I got one, then I

Speaker 2 far be it for me to say no.

Speaker 1 Okay. All right.
Well, then that's fair. If you randomly get one, that's different.
But if if you ask for one, I'm going to be very sad.

Speaker 1 Your who's back.

Speaker 2 Also,

Speaker 2 jumping off that XFL thing, I don't think we discussed this on Thursday. You can watch the video of my tryout and everything.
It's online right now.

Speaker 2 I did not make that team, obviously, but the practice squad offer is apparently legit. Like, I'm going to get a contract if I want to go down that road.
Fuck them. In which case,

Speaker 2 I'm only going down that road if they give me an opportunity to work my way onto a team. I'm not just going to be on practice squad all year.
But the dream's not done. That's what I'm going to say.

Speaker 2 I'm going to stay with you.

Speaker 2 I see what you're doing, Vince McMahon.

Speaker 1 I don't like it.

Speaker 2 No, the dream's not done.

Speaker 1 I'm holding my boy in limbo.

Speaker 2 I'm not going to stand for you. Worst case scenario, your boy just gets in really good shape because he's training.

Speaker 1 No, worst case scenario is they hold my boy in limbo, and then we are silenced by the XFL because you're technically on a practice.

Speaker 2 Fast forward eight weeks from now, I'm in the best shape of my life. I've got a six-pack and a blue check mark.
This is going to be a mighty different show. Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 1 It's going to be a very different scenario. The biggest sellout, that sucks.

Speaker 2 My real who's back of the week is Bryson DeSham Slow.

Speaker 1 Bryson

Speaker 2 DeChamblow Schlishlow Bryson

Speaker 2 got in trouble. He got put on the clock this weekend by the PGA Tour.

Speaker 2 They actually had to warn him. They said, Bryson, you're playing too slow.
This is golf. And I think it was just last week that BlaCham Blow said that he welcomes that rules of fast play.

Speaker 2 Well, good thing you welcome it because they had a guy standing behind you with a stopwatch in his hand your entire round of golf this weekend.

Speaker 1 He got super upset that everyone made fun of him after Brooks dunked on him. What?

Speaker 2 Sorry. And don't get dunked on.
Yeah, don't get dunked on.

Speaker 1 Don't, hey, how about don't go at Brooks? Because Brooks will dunk on you.

Speaker 2 Great, go pick the ball up out of the ocean. Yeah.
In the words of the U.S. women's team.

Speaker 2 He does like the compass and

Speaker 1 he does like all the math behind his shots. Just go out and shoot the ball, dude.
Maybe if you stop thinking about it, you'd be like Brooks and win shit.

Speaker 2 He's the mad scientist, right?

Speaker 2 Yeah, you worry too much about angles, buddy.

Speaker 1 That's why he's mad at Brooks because Brooks doesn't need, Brooks turns his brain off. He literally blacks out when he wins championships.

Speaker 1 And you can't, you do all your math and your, your algebra and your, what's the other thing?

Speaker 6 Physics algebra.

Speaker 1 Saber metrics.

Speaker 2 Calculus. Calculus.
That's what I was looking for.

Speaker 1 We're math guys. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Listen, there's a reason Einstein never won a green jacket, right?

Speaker 1 What's that class that none of us took?

Speaker 2 Calculus. A lot of them.
Trigonometry.

Speaker 1 I think I did trigonometry. I think trigonometry was...
You had to do trigonometry, right?

Speaker 2 I definitely did not do trigonometry.

Speaker 6 I had one day of calculus in college, and I literally walked out.

Speaker 1 I was like, never go.

Speaker 6 I will never go in that classroom again.

Speaker 1 I told a psych on psych 101. Well, psych 101, they were like, we're grading this all

Speaker 1 on a steep curve where only like 10% of you get an A. And I was like, peace.
Not going to be me. Yeah, I'm out.

Speaker 2 Did I ever tell you about the only math class I ever took in college? No. So I'm so bad at math.
I took a class called Environmental Mathematics. The class was, it was one problem.
It was.

Speaker 2 It was like if you have 200 penguins on this one iceberg, and every year 5% of them die due to old age,

Speaker 2 but they reproduce at a rate of 7% per year. How many penguins will you have in four years? So there was that question.
Oh, shit.

Speaker 2 Then once we'd solve it, next week's lesson would be the exact same question, except it would be like, there are 1,700 caribou in British Columbia, and they die at a percent.

Speaker 2 They just kept changing the species that we had to solve.

Speaker 2 It was honestly the easiest math class I've ever taken.

Speaker 5 I can't figure out that first question.

Speaker 1 14.

Speaker 2 Yeah, actually, that's correct. 14 the first year.
It's a trick question because global warming, they're all dead.

Speaker 1 They're all just drinking out of their Coke cans and sitting on their

Speaker 1 lonely icebergs, floating in the middle of the ocean. Other pole.
Polar bears are up north.

Speaker 1 It's pretty, it's shockingly.

Speaker 2 We never talked about that in this show.

Speaker 1 You want to talk about it real quick? Yeah, let's talk about it. Let's talk about it.

Speaker 1 This is all right. Let me set the theme because we're in New Orleans.
This is perfect. Because my who's back is Cocho.
He got his big contract, so he's going to be in at LSU for a very long time.

Speaker 1 Well done, Coacho. You deserve it.
But speaking of LSU, before the national championship, there was a tweet that said, rooting for LSU here from this.

Speaker 1 Antarctica. Just said Antarctica.
And they were wearing maybe

Speaker 1 a war tech shell.

Speaker 6 One guy was in a jacket that was completely unzippered. And the other lady was in a light long-sleeved shirt.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 6 In Antarctica, the tweet. And all I did, I quote-tweeted it in support of LSU and I was like, in support of LSU,

Speaker 6 seems a little light, like light winter gear for Antarctica. And I've never probably in my life got ratioed so hard by people being like, you fucking idiot, like it's, it's the summer in Antarctica.

Speaker 6 And in my head, I was like, I was always taught that Antarctica was just always freezing. No one lives there.
It's a continent that no one lives on because it's all ice.

Speaker 1 So yes,

Speaker 6 I assumed that it was always cold. Like people didn't ever go there.
There's no houses there. People don't go vacationing there.

Speaker 2 so i when there people were like whoa duh it's summer in antarctica like were those people just summering in antarctica yeah hank that's where the predators all live too didn't you ever see that movie you guys there's like an underground colony of them yeah in the in the summertime it's they're like december january that's their summer and so it's just like it tilts closer towards the sun

Speaker 1 By the way, does that make sense, Hank? You got some ricochet shots on when I said Eli should just fade into oblivion. And a lot of people were like, I'd expect that out of Hank, but not you, big cat.

Speaker 6 Yeah, because you listening are the idiots.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you're the idiot. No, I didn't say that.
I never say that. No, I will never say that.

Speaker 2 I will never say that about her either. You were idiots.

Speaker 1 Gramer Shama. I love you guys.
I would learn it. But yeah, Antarctica.

Speaker 1 It's summer down there.

Speaker 6 But it should.

Speaker 1 But it's summer.

Speaker 2 But it's still cold. But it's colder than here.

Speaker 1 They should teach that in summer.

Speaker 2 Their summers are colder than here, which I guess in summer.

Speaker 6 And people said they did. Yeah, they do.

Speaker 2 That's exactly when they teach it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, if you go minus 40 to zero degrees, it's warm.

Speaker 6 But you're not wearing a light long-sleeve shirt in zero degrees.

Speaker 2 In Lambeau Field, you wear a short-sleeve shirt. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's like the first day of spring, you know, like that one day in February when it's 40 degrees and everyone's like, ooh, it's so warm.

Speaker 6 All I know is there's people listening to this podcast being like, damn, I didn't know it was warm in Antarctica either. And so you're welcome for not having you sound like dumb in the future.

Speaker 2 You would never like chirp DK Metcalf if he's warming up for a football game in Lambeau Field, not wearing any top at all.

Speaker 6 No, but if they tweeted out just two Seahawks fans being like supporting the Seahawks from,

Speaker 1 and it was the winter in Seattle and they're wearing t-shirts, you'd be like, seems a little cold.

Speaker 2 I recall Hank seeming to love it when Mike Vrabel was warming up in shorts in Kansas City when it was 10 degrees outside. You weren't saying like, hey, dressing a little light.

Speaker 6 They weren't

Speaker 1 in Antarctica. Yeah.

Speaker 1 All right, let's do, we have George Kittle, Greg Kittle, on the show, and then we will finish with some Kobe Bryant highlights from the interview on the course.

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Speaker 2 And now,

Speaker 2 George, aka Greg Kittle.

Speaker 1 Okay, we now welcome on very special guest, recurring guest, very good friend of the program. It is San Francisco 49er, tight end, and Super Bowl 54 participant?

Speaker 1 I don't want to jinx anything. That's good.
It is Greg Kittle. Yes.
Appreciate him joining us. Do you, are people now confusing Greg and George? Like, have we muddied the waters enough?

Speaker 1 The water is much muddier than it was last year.

Speaker 5 Yeah, they don't, it's tough.

Speaker 1 Anything that gets sent out is that there's about 50 comments that are correct in the, it's Greg.

Speaker 2 Greg, have you ever called yourself Greg by accident?

Speaker 1 No, I think my mom called me Greg once. Oh.
So if you got my mom, because she reads a lot of social media stuff. Okay.

Speaker 1 Do you agree with our assessment that George, George like when you actually just say George That's such a weird name to say for like a stud tight end who's running up and down the field who's taking five guys on his back in the in the superdome like George really I've it's it's an odd name, but yeah, you know, I think I'm doing my best with it.

Speaker 1 You know, it's I think it's a strong name though. It's one of those things that just when we take it out of context and it's like hey, this is my friend George like what that guy? Okay Fine.

Speaker 1 So is Greg more powerful? Yeah, Greg is Greg's definitely more powerful. Okay,

Speaker 2 Greg has sweeter hair than George, too. I feel like George always has kind of a messy, like curly, small fro.

Speaker 2 Greg has the skullet. Do you have the skullet right now? Yeah, show it to us.
I see it. That skullet is so.
That's kind of a skullet, yeah.

Speaker 1 That's a lot of fun. You love the whole thing.
You get pumped with it.

Speaker 2 I want to set the stage real quick. So if you're not watching on Barcelona Gould, first of all, you should get Barcelona Golden Market.
I'll get Barcelona Golden.

Speaker 2 But in this room, we've got Greg, we've got Hank, and then we have your Eourage, your posse. You've got about a dozen people that came here.
You were escorted. You had a police escort.

Speaker 1 A walking motorcade.

Speaker 2 Just basically to keep you out of bars, just to be like, you're not getting any trouble this week. Is that the general consensus of why you're being assigned like seven cops?

Speaker 1 You're not 100% wrong. Yeah.
So, I mean, you're not all the way wrong, but you're not all the way right either.

Speaker 1 You walked out of your hotel, and I'm sure there are people who are standing there trying to hand you beers to have you stone cold them, and then your security guard was like, absolutely not, Greg.

Speaker 1 My head security guy actually did it for me. Yes.
I did that. You should actually walk around with a guy who just does the stone stone cold all week for you.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Hank will do that if I want it. Hank? Yeah, Hank will do that.
What's your rate?

Speaker 1 My need? No, no, like how much I have to pay you. Oh, nothing.
Well, would you charge your fires? Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 That would be a good role for Grant to do.

Speaker 1 Yeah, after the game. After the game.
After the game to party. All right.
So, Super Bowl 54 on its way. Yes.

Speaker 1 My biggest question to you is: who is under more pressure?

Speaker 1 You or your dad? Because your dad sends you a letter before every game. Kind of a try-hard move.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 This is the most important letter of his life. Like, how do you send a Super Bowl letter? What do you write in a Super Bowl letter? That's his Super Bowl.
Yeah. It is.
What? Has he already started it?

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. What are you expecting in this letter? All right, so put in perspective:

Speaker 1 like a normal game day letter is that's like three to five pages. That's right.
That's so long. That's all about like pictures? Picture font? No, it's it's a big, you know, it's a big font.

Speaker 1 He throws a lot of pictures in in there. It's pop-up.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he folds it open and pops up.

Speaker 1 NFC Championship game was 10 pages. Oh, my God.
It was like a full 10.

Speaker 2 It's like Dickens. Dude, it was thick.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 so now it's the Super Bowl. I'm expecting like 15 pages minimum.
And what time is he going to give it to you? I get it the night before the game.

Speaker 1 All right, because I was going to say, I would definitely fall asleep halfway through.

Speaker 1 I don't read it until I get to the stadium, though. Oh.
Yeah. So are you prepping that?

Speaker 1 Are you telling everyone like, hey, coach, I'm going to need a little extra prep time because dad's gonna give me like Moby Dick before this game. I might get on the early, early bus.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I might, yeah, I gotta give myself an extra 30 minutes.

Speaker 2 It would almost make it, it would be more powerful if he just wrote you like one line for this game. Just said, like,

Speaker 2 don't screw this up. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You're always throwing it. Throw him out the club.
No, like, you're always the champion in my eyes. Yeah.

Speaker 2 If you lose, you're out of the family.

Speaker 1 Oh. I don't know if you go that route.
I like the other one you said, though.

Speaker 2 Just don't screw this up.

Speaker 1 Yeah. No, after I'm going to.
I'll throw him out of the club. Yeah.
Throw him out of the club.

Speaker 1 So what are you expecting in this? Like, is he going to make you cry? Yeah. Is Is that his goal? Like,

Speaker 1 I would assume that it wouldn't be good for you to cry before the Super Bowl. It's like one of those checklists I have before I go on in the field.
I do this, like, it's part of my routine. And

Speaker 1 I don't know. The letters just consist of whether it's family memories or movies that we used to watch as a kid when I was growing up.
Oh, he's going to make you cry. Oh, he's going to cry.

Speaker 1 Oh, he's going to make you cry. He pulled a quote from Hildaga, which was a movie.
Do you remember the Vigo Mortensen movie with the horse racing? He pulled a quote from that.

Speaker 1 I was like, dude, come on, man. I watched that when I was like 10.

Speaker 2 You're going to make me cry. So what else is on your checklist before a game? You read the letter from your dad.
What do you do to mentally and physically? Do you have anything else weird that you do?

Speaker 1 If you honestly want to know, so as soon as we come back in from warm-ups, I go puke. Really? 100%.
Before every game. Every game.
That probably makes you feel a little bit better.

Speaker 1 It does make me feel better. Yeah, I always think I'm like, all right, I'm a step faster now.

Speaker 1 That's my positive mindset. And then as soon as we're walking out, I put my helmet on and I headboat a wall almost as hard as I can.

Speaker 2 It's good.

Speaker 1 You have that in the right order. Well, no, helmet on first.
Helmet, yeah. But so I learned that the first hit is always like hurts the most.
So get it out of the way. And then there's no first hit.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I always felt that way.

Speaker 1 Like it's smart.

Speaker 2 Playing any sort of contact sport, all the like fear and apprehension you have kind of goes out the window the first time you get hit because your mind isn't like doesn't have time to worry about other stuff.

Speaker 1 You can just get out of the way. Exactly.

Speaker 1 Just a heads up, you've never played in the Super Bowl. Neither have we, but we've watched all of them.
It goes really fast. People say the speed is crazy in the Super Bowl.
So be ready for the speed.

Speaker 1 Have you played? Don't blame.

Speaker 2 Have you played in the Super Bowl in Madden?

Speaker 5 Oh, dear.

Speaker 1 Not since probably like 2008.

Speaker 2 Maybe that's what you do. Maybe you get like a PlayStation in your hotel room and simulate, like sit down and play a few games just so you get used to that game speed.

Speaker 1 The game speed and the fans and all that. You know, the hardness of the stadium.
So it's going to be different. Picture it.

Speaker 2 I just heard you.

Speaker 2 You just dropped an oh dear. And you kind of slipped into the Todd and Gordo.

Speaker 2 I know you're a big fan. You think that you're Canadian sometimes.
We've heard that from some of your teammates.

Speaker 2 I think there was an article in the ringer that said like sometimes he actually does believe that he's Canadian yes

Speaker 2 so as Todd and Gordo in in your presence I'd like to maybe perhaps like trade trade off our services we have an idea of maybe something we could do to help you and then I don't know if big cat wants to explain that then I have a request from you yeah we're gonna so much like your dad writes you an entire book before every single uh game you as a fan of Todd and Gordo we haven't done todd and gordo light in like two and a half years yeah i've been pretty disappointed

Speaker 1 so and I told you this probably three weeks ago. I was like, if you get to the Super Bowl, we will make a Todd and Gordo hype video.
Why do you think I was playing so hard? Yeah.

Speaker 1 So, wait, so should we not release it till after the Super Bowl? No, no, no, no, no. Release a second one.
Okay, all right. So, at least a second one.

Speaker 1 After the Super Bowl

Speaker 1 hype video before the Super Bowl, we're going to make a special edition Todd and Gordo like one-minute Instagram hype video that you're going to release on your Instagram

Speaker 1 on like Friday or Saturday. I'm in.
And it's going to get everyone pumped up. It's easy.
Okay.

Speaker 2 So, as our payment for that, what's your bonus if you win the Super Bowl?

Speaker 1 I don't.

Speaker 2 There's no chance that Frank, like, actually even.

Speaker 1 You probably don't even have access to your own bank account. Whoa, whoa, whoa,

Speaker 1 partial. Yeah.

Speaker 1 No, no, yeah. Yeah, no, I do that too.

Speaker 2 So I was going to say, like, we either get 50%, no big deal. It's just like maybe 50 to 60% of your Super Bowl bonus.
Okay. Or if you win Super Bowl MVP, you get a Todd and Gordo tattoo.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 2 Do you have to? If we inspire you to.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so then that's no problem. No, no, no.
I like the tech. Could we just do both? Yes,

Speaker 1 perfect. Drive a hard bargain.
Yeah, you really are a negotiator.

Speaker 2 Wait, do you have to do it? Do you negotiate your contracts like Richard Sherman?

Speaker 1 No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'll pay someone to do that.
That's probably for the best. What about the reset button that you have on your arm? Is that...
The Joker? Yeah, yeah. No, no.

Speaker 1 Isn't the, what was the article that said that.

Speaker 2 In that same article, you have a reset button that you hit.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 it is the Joker. You hit the joker.
So I used to have a wrist tape on, and I'd put a big red button on it in college. So I'd slap it.

Speaker 1 I've been visualized, guys. Yeah, yeah.
So you don't do that anymore? You don't have the, you just do the Joker. Joker.
Boom. Reset yourself.
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 What's up?

Speaker 2 What's up with the gray sleeve? Are you wearing it right now? Oh, this thing? Yeah, you always wear that gray sleeve.

Speaker 1 Oh, so I dislocated my shoulder last year, and my labrum's completely torn, so I don't get surgery on it. And so it's just a basic helps meet so it doesn't hurt all the time.

Speaker 2 Okay. Are you going to get surgery this offseason? No chance.

Speaker 1 No chance.

Speaker 1 Can't miss those workout days, man. That's true.
Can't miss an arm farce right now. That's a football guy.

Speaker 1 Do you like blocking or catching more?

Speaker 1 I like blocking a lot. It's like my favorite thing.
I mean, it was funny in the NFC championship game when everyone was like, where's Greg Kittle? It's like, dude, are you watching?

Speaker 1 He's just beasting people down the field, left and right. That was a fun one.
Yeah. So when it's play call, it's like, all right, you're just going to go just throw some people out of the club.

Speaker 1 You're like, fuck yes, let's go. Yeah.
Because that's the only mindset you can possibly have, too, is I'm going to throw someone out of the damn club.

Speaker 1 Do you think it's unfair that your coach cheats for you and tells the rest beforehand when there should be a flag? I call that creative coaching.

Speaker 1 That was an unbelievable clip.

Speaker 2 It was a narc move.

Speaker 1 That was incredible.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he was narking the other guy out.

Speaker 2 He's like, watch, I told Greg to get held on. He probably put stick him on your shirt and was like, hey, go run into his arm.
Make him hold him.

Speaker 1 He actually didn't like my route. He said I should have pushed inside a little bit farther before I broke out.
Oh, afterwards.

Speaker 1 I mean, Kyle Shanahan, we sat with him when we were out in 40 Riners camp two years ago.

Speaker 1 That guy knows, yeah, as a fan. I was waving knows so much football.

Speaker 1 You didn't acknowledge that. So we do feel a little bad about that.
I was waving.

Speaker 1 We interviewed Joe Staley and Mike McGlinchy, and afterwards, they're like, hey, there's this tight end on the team that loves you guys. And we're like, uh-huh.
They're like, George Kittle.

Speaker 1 We're like, all right, fine. We'll take a picture.
We'll fucking pat him on the head. And then you became a superstar.
And that's what I got. And we feel kind of bad about that.

Speaker 1 Got a nice hat, though. Yeah, we gave you a hat.
We're like, hey, go along, kid.

Speaker 2 Did you happen to notice the Chiefs on the plane ride over here today? They all dressed up in the Andy Reid Hawaiian shirts. They dressed up after their coach, showed him a lot of support.

Speaker 2 I was wondering if you guys were going to do something like that with with kyle like dress up like the guys from nitro circus or uh metal militia or

Speaker 1 drag yeah that's a that's a sick power move though yeah i like the hawaiian shirts have you have you noticed though that kyle's logo is getting smaller on his hat it's insane how much smaller is it going to get the super bowl one is going to be great it's going to be like this

Speaker 1 big it's a dot yeah it's going to be a dot on there no it says sf i swear um if you do win the super bowl does that count as a big 10 bowl win for iowa two two two For who?

Speaker 1 One for Iowa and then an extra one for the Big Ten. Okay, nice.
That's good. So you're going up against a couple of your old teammates.
I am. And one of them used to kick your ass.
Big time.

Speaker 1 What me? Have you talked to him at all before this game? A little bit. Not this week.

Speaker 1 We keep in touch a little bit during the season, but we've got to play each other last year, too, which was pretty fun. Okay, so did you get the best of him? It's Anthony Hitchens on the Chiefs.

Speaker 1 So did you get the best of him then?

Speaker 1 I think I only went up against him once or twice. It was a good battle.
Okay. It's a good battle.
Yeah, so the story goes that Anthony was senior when you were a walk-on.

Speaker 1 This redshift freshman year. Redshift freshman year, and he kicked the shit out of you.
Whoop my ass. And now you guys are in a Super Bowl together.
Yeah. And you have a reset button and he doesn't.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 1 Whoa. So you have the

Speaker 2 alpha on him right now.

Speaker 1 Checkmate. That's.
Checkmate. Yeah.
Yeah. Wow.

Speaker 2 So he was a lot bigger and stronger than you now. Are you stronger than him now?

Speaker 1 I don't know. I should ask him how much times you can bench 225.

Speaker 2 Where do you bench right now?

Speaker 1 Right now. Yeah.
Yeah, later right now. Like 225, like how many times? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, dear.

Speaker 1 I think I get 17 to 20 somewhere in there. Do I get any pre-workout?

Speaker 2 Or is it like right now? Yeah, jacked, original formula.

Speaker 1 25. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So it just went up. It just went up.

Speaker 2 We did about the same when we had Lorenzo and Mike Allstyle.

Speaker 1 Combined?

Speaker 1 Wasn't it one-third of it? It was 35, but it was the same amount of reps, and that's what we were really doing. Combining reps, right, between you both.
No, no.

Speaker 2 I got 19, Big Cat got 20.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we pushed that weight. I thought he got in 20.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Don't laugh.

Speaker 1 I got torn 19.

Speaker 1 I got two.

Speaker 1 That was good. I thought you said you did dad power.
I did dad strength.

Speaker 1 No, I don't.

Speaker 1 I was going to say, it wasn't when I was a father. The question was when I was a father.
Controversy. So you always post your basketball shoes.
Yeah. Your stats.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 You didn't post your stats last time. You just said, what did you say, hustle? I hustled.
I hustled.

Speaker 1 So, can I get your stats? Yeah,

Speaker 1 this was yesterday.

Speaker 1 I tweaked my back during the third game. Okay.
I also was not. I had a couple great pick and rolls where I fucked up the layup.
Okay, that's fine. So I hustled.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I hit one big shot, but then for the rest of the time, it was just hustle. So when I didn't play well, I hustled.

Speaker 1 Wait, so now my question is, so since you play multiple games, do you tweet out the stats of all the games combined?

Speaker 1 It's usually an average. Oh, but actually, no, sometimes when I'll be like, I played five games and I went like one for four, that is truly one for four over five games.
Well, I like that's

Speaker 1 one of the games I probably shot three times and the other four games I shot once combined.

Speaker 1 I'm not a big shooter. You're on the same team every time or is it like a shot? No, it's a pickup game.

Speaker 1 I play lockdown defense, rebound the ball,

Speaker 1 and try to not shoot ever unless there's usually I'll get the Zion treatment like once or twice a Saturday morning. Yeah.
And everyone will stand off and be like, go ahead, shoot that.

Speaker 1 And I'll be like, fuck. I thought you were going to miss it.
And I'll be like, fuck you guys. I know what you're doing.

Speaker 2 I thought you were going to say your shoe exploded because you're too fat.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm too, no, no, too powerful. Yeah, yeah.
Strength. Yeah, so yeah.
It's, you know, I'm out there to run around, have some fun. Yeah.
Be with the guys.

Speaker 2 I like that kind of stuff. You and I need to settle our hash real quick because last year, I think it was in like April, I went overseas.
Yeah. I could have died.
I could have died.

Speaker 2 I was going out of the country.

Speaker 2 Who knows if I was going to come back to

Speaker 2 there are protests overseas.

Speaker 2 There was all there was an outbreak of coronavirus over there. I didn't know if I was going to make it back.

Speaker 2 You stepped in and immediately auditioned for my job without even asking me about it.

Speaker 1 Invited me. True.

Speaker 2 You just stepped, but still.

Speaker 1 You were there. You were

Speaker 1 actually

Speaker 1 doing for another man's job.

Speaker 2 I knew it was Hank's idea, I could tell. As a classic Lockwood thought.
And you came in, you sat down.

Speaker 2 Did you go back and watch the tape?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I did. How well do you think you did?

Speaker 1 On a scale of one to PFT. Yeah.
Oh, dear. Oh, dear.
Oh, dear.

Speaker 1 Well, honestly, I think I tried my best, but I mean, you are pretty damn good at this. In your defense, your dad did not write you a letter before I wasn't all the way locked.
Correct, that's true.

Speaker 1 So you weren't all the way ready to go. Did you puke before the show? I didn't.
That's why I wasn't seriously.

Speaker 2 That's the problem. I throw up before every show.

Speaker 1 Do you?

Speaker 2 Yeah, but just because I'm a toxic.

Speaker 1 I pull the trigger for him. I put my finger down his throat.
Yeah. Hold his hair.

Speaker 1 I don't even do that. I don't even have to do that.

Speaker 2 Get you a friend that holds your hair back.

Speaker 1 You just puke? I just puke. Jesus Christ.

Speaker 2 It's crazy. Your hair doesn't get in the way?

Speaker 1 It's really annoying. I have to hold it sometimes.
You hold your hair. I usually go in there with a hat on backwards, though, to hold it back.
Joe Staley has to stand there and hold it for you?

Speaker 1 Him and Mike. Yeah, they both do.

Speaker 2 Have you ever, yeah, I feel like Juice would be a good guy. Like a fullback would be able to hold somebody's hair back.

Speaker 1 He can do a lot of things.

Speaker 2 Do you think that this is,

Speaker 2 well, actually, let me back it up. Your block, where you pancaked that dude in the end zone, you were laughing the entire way down, was snubbed for block of the year.
I voted for you.

Speaker 1 Stephen Chase's boy award.

Speaker 2 Stephen Chase's boy award, the block of the year. I voted for you.
He ended up awarding it to Quentin Nelson.

Speaker 2 There were some discrepancies and irregularities with the voting process that have been noted. How disappointed were you that you did not win the boy award?

Speaker 1 Well, it does just give me something to strive for next year. That's true.

Speaker 1 True. We got another goal now.

Speaker 1 So he, I mean, Stephen Shea kind of ruined it for you because he put his fingers on the scale of justice by quote tweeting and being like, hey, George Kill's really good at blocking. Check this out.

Speaker 1 So that was where the controversy came in. But it was a great block.
It was a great block. Thank you.

Speaker 1 All right, we're going to wrap this up with we've got to go rapid fire and get you prepped for Media Day. Okay, okay.

Speaker 2 You ready?

Speaker 1 Pretend that you're up there on the booth.

Speaker 2 You have like six bottles of Gatorade in front of you.

Speaker 1 Yep.

Speaker 2 There's loud music playing. There are a lot of sweaty, hungry-looking journalists.

Speaker 1 You're wearing a cool track suit that they're going to sell for $400 in the team store. You buy one? Yeah, for sure.
Prove it.

Speaker 2 Greg, talk about how excited you are for this game.

Speaker 1 You know, I'm really excited. I think just with the team down here, I'm just proud of the work we put in all season.
And I really think that

Speaker 1 it's our our goal to win this game, and I think we would definitely belong here. Okay, Greg, Greg, quick question.

Speaker 1 You have your dad writing letters to you before every game. What does he say?

Speaker 1 He just brings up childhood memories, just always tells me that he's proud of me. And that just gets me locked in.
Interesting. Thank you.

Speaker 2 Greg, Greg,

Speaker 2 Peter King here from NBC. Have you ever noticed that in the showers, when you check into the hotels, they don't unplug them, and you have to unplug them yourself?

Speaker 1 Hmm.

Speaker 2 Talk about the shower drains.

Speaker 1 The drains. You know, our hotel has very nice shower drains.
I just checked them out, actually. I'm really looking forward to it.

Speaker 2 Okay, that's going in my column.

Speaker 1 Awesome.

Speaker 1 Greg, Greg, quick question for you.

Speaker 1 So the 49ers,

Speaker 1 you guys were the worst team last year. Now you're one of the best teams.
Yes. Talk about that.

Speaker 1 You know, I think our team just worked really hard this offseason, and Nick Bose was pretty good as well. Nice, nice.
Greg, one other question here.

Speaker 2 I noticed that you wore a shirt with Jimmy Garoppolo on it. Yes.
Could you talk about how attractive you find him.

Speaker 1 You know, Jimmy, I think, has one of the strongest chin lines in the NFL.

Speaker 1 And with that, you know, that chin line, it's going to, you know, definitely led us to a Super Bowl this year. Greg, last question.

Speaker 2 That's a guarantee. Greg Kittle guarantees a Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 That's what you just did. We got to teach you, man.

Speaker 2 You slipped up at the time.

Speaker 1 Don't do that. Don't do that.

Speaker 1 All right, last question. Greg, the SeatGeek question: promo code take.
You put it in promo code take. You go to the Super Bowl for $10 less than what you would have.
So $10 off.

Speaker 1 You just save $10 on a Super Bowl ticket?

Speaker 2 $9,590.

Speaker 1 Promo code take with SeatGeek.

Speaker 1 No, that's true. So, Greg,

Speaker 1 how is this week different than all the other weeks?

Speaker 1 You're going to get to ask that, dude. They're going to be like, what's your preparation like this week? Is it different than a regular week? We're going to tear like every other game week.

Speaker 1 There you go. And we're just going to come in and work as hard as we can.
I'm just prepping you for these stupid questions.

Speaker 2 You're going to get so many.

Speaker 1 Do you have any more?

Speaker 2 I have one question that is a very generic question, but I was going to ask, but now I'll do it like as a joke. Oh.
But I really want it answered. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 When you're game plan calls for something like it did last week, when you were just running the ball down their throats and there was no way that they could stop it, it was like 11 yards of carry.

Speaker 2 You're blocking your ass off. You're having a good game.

Speaker 2 There's got to be a small part of you that's like, just throw me the ball once. Can I just get like one catch on this drive?

Speaker 1 I think it was like halfway through the third quarter. I said, hey, Jimmy, can you just like throw me something so I can catch and run for a little bit?

Speaker 1 Just one of those. Just stretch it out a little bit.
Yeah, just a little bit. You want to be tackled.
You want somebody to hit you.

Speaker 1 I mean, if you don't embrace the physicality of football, you're playing the game wrong.

Speaker 2 I always say that as a kicker.

Speaker 1 That's a great quote. I say that.
All right. Did you say that? Yeah.
It's a big part of my game.

Speaker 1 I quit rugby.

Speaker 2 I'm a professional kicker now.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 I looked good. Well, I got cut.
No.

Speaker 1 All right. Well, good luck.
Good luck in the Super Bowl. Good luck tomorrow night.
Media Day. Are you guys? Do you guys get credentials? No, we don't.

Speaker 1 Can I ask for you to get credentials? Yeah, sure. We're going to send it out, though.
We're going to probably. It's South Beach.
First time we're at a Super Bowl city, and it's nice. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's true.

Speaker 1 So, but just look at here's the one thing about Media Day. Last thing.

Speaker 1 There will definitely be some like weird, like someone from Jimmy Kimmel will show up, some guy will be in a weird clown suit, probably like a couple people dressed as old people will show up.

Speaker 1 Like, be ready for the weird oddballs. Like, the guys that sneak in with

Speaker 1 credentials. Right, be ready for the oddballs because they're always the trouble.

Speaker 2 We decided not to do it because I got arrested and interrogated by the FBI last year. He's on a director.

Speaker 2 I'm not trying to deal with that again this year. Oh, there's going to be

Speaker 2 a Spanish-language reporter that asked you to marry her. So also be on the lookout for that.

Speaker 1 How do you say that?

Speaker 2 No. You just say no.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, I'm already married. No, I'll be.

Speaker 2 Tengo unesposa. Umero gracias.

Speaker 1 There you go. There you go.

Speaker 1 All right, George. Good luck.
Greg. Greg, good luck, Canada boys.
Get ready for it.

Speaker 5 Oh, hey there. Hype you.

Speaker 1 It's going to hype you. Oh, hey there.
Oh, hey there.

Speaker 2 You're going to be jiddy or una moose that just got out of the dumpster at Tim Horton's eating all the leftover Java.

Speaker 1 You want a little syrup in your hair before you get out there on the old field? Let's go. You're going to toss the cookies now before the game

Speaker 1 make sure you spit the biscuits in the loop all right win a super bowl will you thank you

Speaker 1 okay uh we're gonna finish the show like we said with some clips from kobe bryant on the corp we'll be back to a more regular show on wednesday we actually have a great interview coming up with uh a certain old friend to say his name jay cutler jay cutler it was a fun interview very fun interview we recorded it in new orleans yep on uh the sunday or the Monday, the Monday of the National Championship.

Speaker 1 Before we got too drunk. That's right.
And snitched on Malvella's shield.

Speaker 2 We had our first cocktail of the day with Jay in the hotel room. He was actually a very personable guy.
Yes. You've known him for a long time.
I've never met Jay.

Speaker 2 He was shockingly entertaining.

Speaker 1 Very, very funny guy. Always been a funny guy.
So he's a great mood.

Speaker 1 But yeah, we're going to finish with some of these clips to just kind of give you a sense of the one time I was with Kobe Bryant and the type of guy he is and

Speaker 1 the legend that I'm sure will live on forever.

Speaker 2 Maybe if you admire somebody, now's a good day. Tell them you love them.
Yes. Tell them you love them.
It's always a good day to do that, but especially today. Hug your kids.
Love you guys.

Speaker 2 You're listening to the court.

Speaker 1 Presented by Barstool Sports.

Speaker 1 Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest. He doesn't need an introduction, but we'll introduce him anyway.
18-time all-star, five-time NBA champion. It is Kobe Bryant.

Speaker 1 Have you noticed, you know, do you attack business the same way as sports? And have you ever had a moment where you're like, I got to chill out because the business world's not like the sports world?

Speaker 1 No,

Speaker 5 the same, but also different, right? Same in the sense that the tension to detail is there, just like it is in sport, the tension to detail, right?

Speaker 5 But it's different because of the intensity that you bring.

Speaker 5 It's not like the game. It's not like practice, right? You have to have patience.
You have to challenge people.

Speaker 5 You have to hire well and find people that have a certain level of, you know, that demand excellence from themselves, right? And have that attention to detail about themselves.

Speaker 5 And then you wind up building a team of people that have that passion and commitment to excellence. So

Speaker 5 that's the difference, is that now I'm kind of more in a GM position as opposed to being a player that is on the ground floor bringing out. the intensity in each guy every single play.

Speaker 5 It's a little different.

Speaker 1 Have you noticed a moment where you're like, I can't maybe

Speaker 1 I can't be as intense as I was during sports. I can't demand people to be here till midnight or practice without a ball for three hours or yeah.

Speaker 5 No, listen, my thing is really simple here is that, you know, I expect excellent work. We all do.
So I don't care if you're here in the office at 6 a.m. and you leave at midnight.

Speaker 5 If the work that you do is average, then this is not the home for you. Conversely, you cannot be in an office at all and have have excellent work.
This is the place for you.

Speaker 5 So I don't really care if you're here. There's a lot of guys that get in the gym and work hard, work hard, work hard, work hard, but then they can't transition that to 7.30.

Speaker 1 Yeah, right. You know what I'm saying? I can already tell that I wouldn't make it one day in this office.

Speaker 1 Like I'm really good at looking busy, but not doing anything. So that would be a problem.

Speaker 5 You got to get results.

Speaker 1 What is that, though? Is there just, can you see it in a person the minute you meet them like this guy or this woman, they just want it more than everyone else?

Speaker 5 I think so. I I think you can sense it.
You can, you know, when you're having a conversation with somebody, you can tell if they're truly passionate about what it is that they're doing.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I have it.

Speaker 5 Listen, bro, you can't build what you've built and not be that.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 5 If you didn't have it, you wouldn't be sitting here with everybody anyway, because you don't put up with that shit either.

Speaker 1 True. I kind of snake my way in, yeah.
You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 5 So you can certainly recognize that and you feel a sense of familiarity.

Speaker 1 with that person. You said, I read a quote that you said you love business as much as basketball.
There's no way that's true.

Speaker 5 It's 100% true.

Speaker 1 There's no way you love i mean basketball was your life you your passion everything you you're telling me you love doing business as much if you could you know basically snap a finger and be 25 year old kobe or the kobe today you wouldn't go back and keep playing basketball no because i've already done it see here's the thing when when i was playing and you know teammates would say oh kobe's not out in the road What is he doing?

Speaker 5 They see me on the plane. He's reading.
What is he reading? He's writing. What is he writing? I'm practicing.

Speaker 5 I'm writing. I'm practicing.
I'm understanding how to tell stories. I'm reading Joseph Campbell and how to create arcs, compelling arcs and plots.
I'm reading that stuff.

Speaker 5 So this is going back 15 years, right? So I don't just retire, write dear basketball, and luck in the winning an Oscar. You know what I'm saying? That stuff comes from...

Speaker 5 hard work and from studying for 15 years how to write and how to organize structure, right? And you can't do that without having a serious love or commitment to the craft. Like I remember I said,

Speaker 5 I told somebody, I said, listen, if what I do in the next 20 years

Speaker 5 is not better than my last 20, then I failed. And they're like, well, that's disrespectful to what you've done the last 20 years.

Speaker 2 How could you say?

Speaker 5 My man, I wouldn't accomplish what I accomplished my last 20 years if I did not have this mentality to begin with.

Speaker 1 So that's interesting because I think there's a sports debate that's had a lot where a guy, it's more happens in the NFL where a quarterback comes out and people will say, well, he was in the wrong system and his offensive line stunked right away and it kind of ruined his career.

Speaker 1 Do you think with what you just said, it sounds like you think that if you're going to make it, you're going to make it no matter what.

Speaker 1 And if there's no like, oh, well, things didn't go your way the first year and it ruined the, you know, the trajectory of your career. It's either you have it or you don't.

Speaker 5 That sounds like excuses to me. I mean, you got to figure it out.

Speaker 5 If you really have an obsession to figure it out, you will figure it out. Right.
And every puzzle is constructed differently.

Speaker 5 AI's situation situation when he came into the league was different than mine. Mike's situation in Chicago was different than mine.

Speaker 5 Everybody has a different puzzle, man. You just got to figure out your own puzzle.

Speaker 1 So I wanted to touch on the evolution of you as a teammate. In 2000, I think, four, Phil Jackson writes the book and is like, Kobe's uncoachable.

Speaker 5 Still waiting on my royalties on that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he says, Kobe's uncoachable.

Speaker 1 What was your reaction in that moment when you see that, you read that, a guy that you have a relationship with you had success with?

Speaker 5 I was frustrated by it. You know what I mean? Because it was always a type of relationship where it was like, you know, for me, it's just come at me direct.
I'm right here.

Speaker 5 You don't have to be asked me. We can just hash this out, you and me.

Speaker 5 And he would rather not do that because that's uncomfortable. Right.
He'd rather go to the media and do it.

Speaker 5 So a lot of the stuff that I read in the book was the first time I've ever heard any of this stuff. And I'm like, dude, I'm literally right here.
Right. You know?

Speaker 5 So when he came back, you know, that's one of the things that he said. He'd apologize for.
He's like, listen, you know, I understand. We should just have a direct relationship.
And

Speaker 5 that's how we were able to kind of move forward. But it was really frustrating, man.

Speaker 1 The apology is good, but the royalty would be nice too. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 I told him, I said, this is like, this is like your third book on me now.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 1 Just keep on writing books. I'm going to write a book on this like 45 minutes.
Yeah, where's my royal history? No, it's going to be great.

Speaker 1 Was there any truth to it, though? Do you think, was there a moment when you read that and you had to, you know, kind of take a look at yourself and be like, maybe I am not the best teammate? Because

Speaker 1 there's always this really interesting line to me when you're watching athletes at their highest level.

Speaker 1 A guy who is a clear alpha leader, he runs the team. There's that line of, is he from like his ego is out of control to he just wants the most out of people? Right.

Speaker 1 You know, like Michael Jordan punched Steve Kerr in the face. Like, you know, there's stories of you pushing your teammates and,

Speaker 1 you know, maybe getting some of them kind of crumble in the moment. Yeah.
Do you, did you see that and and kind of reflect and say hey maybe i need to do a different do this differently

Speaker 5 well i i think uh there's a couple answers to that so um

Speaker 5 uh drive a hard bargain

Speaker 5 the people that i've always had issues or problems with are the people that don't demand excellence for themselves i won't tolerate that

Speaker 5 except that when the career is said and done they're not going to be looking at you a player on his team and saying you didn't win a championship. No, they're only looking here.
Right.

Speaker 5 So it's my responsibility to make sure everybody's holding themselves accountable. I'm holding you accountable.

Speaker 5 If we just play the back-to-back and we have practice the next day, your ass better be there tape ready to go. Right.
Because I'm there and I'm ready.

Speaker 5 And I just got finished lifting weights for two hours. Right.
So I hold guys to a higher standard and I don't sugarcoat stuff. Never have, never will, right?

Speaker 5 And that tends to rub some people the wrong way. Now, teams that we won championships on, me and all of those guys, still close to this day, extremely close, right? Lamar,

Speaker 5 and I still close, Fisher, Shannon Brown, Deep Fish, all my guys.

Speaker 5 Shaq, right? Even Shaq, Powell.

Speaker 1 Did you win a championship with Smush Parker? No. No.
He and I don't talk, by the way. I was going to say that answers that question.

Speaker 5 That's one of the people that would probably say I was a bad teammate.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 5 But most of the other guys, man, you wind up having this bond. So,

Speaker 5 you know, you can't have those kind of relationships with guys years after playing with them and be a bad teammate.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, that's fair. That's fair.
Your relationship with Shaq, I feel like, is one of the most intriguing relationships in all pro sports. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Were you guys ever at a point where you just wouldn't even speak?

Speaker 5 No, because we were very,

Speaker 5 very direct. Like I said before, I'm very straightforward.
Right? I don't care if you're 7-2 or 6-2.

Speaker 5 If I got an issue with you, I'm going to let you know.

Speaker 5 You know, so no, because we're always speaking. Just sometimes it was more volatile than others.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 5 But we're always speaking, always direct.

Speaker 1 Yeah. So, and when that all falls apart, I mean, what was your biggest, like, where would you say the biggest problem with your communication? Was it, you know, Shaq not coming to

Speaker 5 this season in Shaq? Well, it's funny. When we sat down, we did the interview together.

Speaker 5 He finally copped to the fact that...

Speaker 5 After we won championships, he was like, okay, I can just relax and coast over the summer because I know I got a teammate who's going to be training eight, ten hours a day.

Speaker 5 And I was like, See, that's the BS.

Speaker 1 That would piss me off. That's it.
Yeah, that's the issue.

Speaker 5 Right. That's the issue.

Speaker 5 But also, it became a,

Speaker 5 you know, it's not something that we couldn't have worked out either. Because we've been doing it, right?

Speaker 5 But I got to a point in my career where it was the rumblings and some of it created by him that, you know, Kobe can't win without me.

Speaker 1 And it was like, hold up, hold up.

Speaker 1 No, it's not true.

Speaker 5 Right. It's not true.
Right. And I'm not going to retire and have people hold that over my head.

Speaker 5 I said, no, let's find out. So it was just time to go separate ways.

Speaker 1 Do you think that you got criticized more than a guy like Kevin Durant or the guys who are playing now?

Speaker 5 No, at the moment, you know, it's all different according to the moment in time, right? It always seems like more when you're in that moment. You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 5 I don't think it's no more, no less. I think now with social media, things tend to perpetuate much, much faster.

Speaker 5 But back then, conversely, the stories tend to sit a lot longer. Right.

Speaker 5 There's less fires coming. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, here's a fun fact for you, Kobe. LeBron has as many losses in the finals as Michael Jordan has wins in the finals.

Speaker 5 I don't care.

Speaker 1 So I do want to talk about mentors, Kobe, because I know that mentorship has been a big part of your life, both you as a mentor and as a mentee.

Speaker 1 Kind of take us behind kind of the currents with Michael. Was there ever a moment that you guys spoke that you felt like it energized you and you learned from him?

Speaker 5 Yeah, it was, well, it was crazy, man, because my favorite player was Magic growing up.

Speaker 5 And then I quickly realized my father stole all my height and I wasn't going to be a six, nine point guard.

Speaker 5 So I had to, you know, so I looked at this young guy coming up and the thing that I marveled at wasn't the fact that he was getting to the rim and doing these fancy stuff.

Speaker 5 It was like, how is he getting to the rim?

Speaker 5 How is he doing it? Right? You look at the footwork, you look at the fundamentals, you look at the spacing, the pacing. Right.
And all those little things, the angles.

Speaker 5 And that's what becomes fascinating. It's like, okay, how do I get there? right so I started studying all those basics and then when I came to the league the first time I played against him

Speaker 5 I won his respect because it was like this kid's not scared of me at all right and he saw kindred spirit from that standpoint and that started a relationship and it became something where it was like you know text him anytime hits me right back questions hits me right back and we're talking all the time And in fact, we were just speaking the other day, in fact, because I was talking about,

Speaker 5 he hit me up, say happy Thanksgiving and stuff, and

Speaker 5 how's the family doing? How the kids are doing. He knows my middle child is playing basketball and stuff, right? So he's asking about it, how she's doing.
I said, she's good, she's good.

Speaker 5 And I said, you know, at 12, I'm like having a hard time remembering what I was doing at basketball at 12. And I'm like, kids nowadays try to do too much.
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 You know, like from a skills standpoint, they try to have them do all this fancy stuff versus like the basic stuff. And so I teach my kids the most basic stuff.
We just do it over and over.

Speaker 5 But I asked Mike, I said, what were you doing at 12? Do you remember what you were doing at basketball at 12? And he goes, dude, I was playing baseball.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's right.

Speaker 5 Let that sink in for a second. That was his dad.

Speaker 5 For people out there who are like

Speaker 5 over-training their kids at 12 and like doing all this fancy stuff, just let that sink in for a second. That's a good point.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It's crazy to think about that.

Speaker 5 Yeah, but he's a great mentor from all aspects.

Speaker 1 I love Mike. All aspects.
I mean, I love him too. But I don't know why I said Michael earlier.
Like, I know him. I probably should put a little respect on it.
Just say, look up,

Speaker 5 Michael, Michael got stands too. Yeah, Michael got stands too.

Speaker 1 Listen, I'll stand all the time. I gave you that LeBron stat.
You don't think that I've said that to like everyone I come across?

Speaker 5 Here's the thing, though, man, is that like

Speaker 5 things that

Speaker 5 MJ was doing, he learned from David Thompson and Jerry and those guys. Stuff that I've done, I've learned from MJ.

Speaker 5 Stuff that Bron does, learned from me, and playing on the Olympic team and working out and all that stuff. It's a chain thing, man.

Speaker 5 I know people want to talk about who's this, who's that, because it fills up good conversation time or downtime, whatever the case may be. But for us as athletes, it's really a chain reaction.

Speaker 5 You can't have one without the other. It's just not possible.

Speaker 1 That's a good point. That's a good point.
Wouldn't you say Tony Allen was the toughest to guard you? Where does Ruben Patterson, the Kobe stopper, the original Kobe stopper?

Speaker 5 No, he's not on the list.

Speaker 1 I mean, look, Ruben. That was my favorite thing.
I know. Listen, I love Ruben.

Speaker 5 So when Ruben and I played together, he was the one player that would compete against me hard every day. I mean, he would show up every day.

Speaker 5 He had that kind of Bob Huggins, Cincinnati, tough mindset type of thing, right? So I love that about him. But then now he's a free agent, and now he's like, oh yeah, I'm the Kobe stopper.

Speaker 5 I used to lock him up in practice.

Speaker 1 So I called him up. I said, Rube.

Speaker 1 Dude, if you need help with the new deal,

Speaker 1 let me know.

Speaker 5 Like, I will go to the media and be like, yo, nobody guarded me better than Ruben Patterson. I've seen this guy every day in practice.

Speaker 1 I will help you with your new deal.

Speaker 1 But now you done pissed me off.

Speaker 5 Now you didn't let me know. Now you went out there and mouthed off.
Now I got to kill you every time I play you, and it's not going to be a good situation.

Speaker 1 I love the every now and then like someone would be like, I'm the new Kobe stopper. It's like, what are you doing? You're just making it worse for yourself.

Speaker 5 Man, my favorite thing was seeing Sean Kemp before a playoff game. Reuben Patterson had his feet in the ice bucket.
Yes,

Speaker 1 I remember that. The Kobe stopper.
The Kobe stopper. Come take this fifty stop.
Remember that video?

Speaker 5 Come take this 45.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that was the NBC, NBA on NBC. The intro you see with the ice bucket, the Kobe stopper.
All right, you have to go in a second because you are a very busy man.

Speaker 1 I'm going to do rapid fire real quick. Just give me one word, one second answer.
Matt Barnes incident. It went reviral.
Were you, was he actually throwing the ball, pump-faking it right in your face?

Speaker 5 Man, as far as I remember, yeah, I mean, all I can go by is what Matt said.

Speaker 1 Okay. I just saw him.

Speaker 5 I just worked out his kids out here like a week ago for their birthday. And he was just, you know.

Speaker 5 When he first came to the Lakers, he was like, man, I don't understand how the hell you did not flinch.

Speaker 1 Okay, so yeah, so he was doing it right in your face. That one, people were ruining a great memory.

Speaker 1 Mark Madsen dancing.

Speaker 5 A real life E-Lane dance move from Seinfeld.

Speaker 1 That's a good point. That's a good one.

Speaker 1 Your 2000 rap album. Were you just like, fuck it, I can do anything?

Speaker 1 That's poetic. Yeah, that's poetic.
It was poetic.

Speaker 5 No, it wasn't that bad. The album itself wasn't that bad.
The album itself wasn't that bad, but it taught me how to write.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 The Kobe 2's, the worst shoe of all time.

Speaker 5 Kobe 2's. Which ones?

Speaker 1 Oh, I'll show you the picture. You? I keep ones? No.
No. The other company? Oh, that doesn't count.
Yeah, those count. That company doesn't count.
What do you count?

Speaker 5 That company doesn't count.

Speaker 1 The worst shoes of all time. What about the shit?

Speaker 5 That's what taught me that I need to lead the design charge.

Speaker 1 That picture. What was your thought picture? This is awesome.

Speaker 1 This is like the A-Rod taking

Speaker 1 kissing himself in the mirror.

Speaker 5 They doctored the hell out of that.

Speaker 1 Was there a photographer being like, Kobe, this is the first thing?

Speaker 5 First of all, listen, I'm an African-American, but I am not that dark. Let's start there.
And then the hat and the wardrobe and all that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, a photographer.

Speaker 1 Somebody took liberties. Yes, when he took the picture of himself, A-Rod kissing himself in the mirror.
He's like, yeah, photographers, like, this is going to be awesome.

Speaker 1 Then it comes out and you're like, whoops.

Speaker 1 All right. What about the Lil Wayne song, Kobe Bryant? Do you listen to it every day?

Speaker 5 Every day in the car. I listen to it.
It hypes me up.

Speaker 1 Yo, he called me.

Speaker 1 It was after the Denver series.

Speaker 5 He called me.

Speaker 5 He was like, man, that performance just motivated the hell out of me. I think it was like game six.
He's like, I'm going to do a song. It's okay.
Can I do a song? I'm like, all right, cool.

Speaker 5 I thought he was just kind of BSing or whatever. Before the Celtic series, he sends me this song.
I was like, oh, you were serious?

Speaker 1 Yeah. Okay.
That's the thing. That's awesome.
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 2002 Western Conference Finals. Was it rigged?

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 what's their official's name?

Speaker 2 Tim Donaghy.

Speaker 5 Well, he definitely had money on it. Yeah.
So that's a fact. Yes, yes.
So from that standpoint, yes. Yes.

Speaker 5 But from the Kings missing 20-something free throws in game seven.

Speaker 1 Good point. Good point.

Speaker 5 Unless you go and check their bank accounts. I don't know what else to tell you.

Speaker 1 People forget that. All right.
Last one for me.

Speaker 1 Has there ever been a triple team you didn't want to shoot a shot through?

Speaker 5 Well, it depends who's on the team. If I got Smush Parker last year, I'm going to shoot.

Speaker 1 You best believe I'm shooting that motherfucker's shots. If I got D Fish back there, I'm kicking that shit back.

Speaker 8 I want to be the best. Somebody explains.
That's why I play the game.

Speaker 9 He's the best player in the game. It's just that simple.
There's nothing that Kobe Bryant can't do. He will defend your best player.
He will shoot from the perimeter. He will get all in your mug.

Speaker 9 He will do whatever it takes. He is the most complete basketball player in the game today.
Barnett. He has an assassin's mentality.
I said this week, I said this when the trade went down.

Speaker 9 And I'll repeat it again.

Speaker 10 Who's starving more for an NBA World Championship more than Kobe Bryant?

Speaker 9 There is no one. This guy is highly motivated.

Speaker 10 It separates Kobe from the pack.

Speaker 10 More than Kobe Bryant. There is no one.

Speaker 10 I'm probably doing work. Two for home and shirt.

Speaker 10 Kobe Bryant, Nike, purple gold streams. Cook Kobe in the game, don't get no

Speaker 10 team.

Speaker 10 Black momber, attack conquer.

Speaker 10 Basketball beast, rap monster.

Speaker 10 Crossover good, a turnaround jumper. I'll just drive the lane and don't go bunkers.
You know where it's going, it's going down, yo. This is the late show, but don't drown though.

Speaker 10 I'm calling King Bryant, not at the crown show.

Speaker 2 I'm just lost for words. I mean, he's amazing.

Speaker 10 Pass me the damn ball, I don't need a pick at all. And don't worry about my shot, cause I'm gonna get that off.
Yeah, I drop 40 on your double teams. Then I drop everyone on another team.

Speaker 10 Yeah, you better guard people caution. And watch out working like an author.

Speaker 10 No such thing as exhaustion, no time for resting. Cause I don't take breaks, I just break records.

Speaker 10 And I prefer the ball in three seconds. And I bet we go in it all in three seconds.

Speaker 10 Key D, that is a guarantee. Apparently, and please tell your defense.
Don't ever mess them in with me. Double T, triple T, you defend the stick of me, but I never let him get to me.

Speaker 10 Literally, step back and get him a three. Hey, ain't no defending trending to me.
One guy certainly envious of the way Brian's played lately, LeBron James.

Speaker 10 I've been quoted saying that he's definitely the best player in our league. To me, in my eyes, the best score

Speaker 10 in our league. And it's, I mean, I don't know if it's not another guy in this league that can accomplish some of the things that he's doing right now.

Speaker 9 Let me take a day off.

Speaker 11 Catch you at the top with the key and get a J off. Baseline, FaceTime, tongue out like 2-3.
Even 2-3, gotta love how I do me. Practice while you sleep, practice in my sleep.

Speaker 11 Straight out the high school, the brackets make for me. I will be jumping over you.
Then I got a mattress at my feet, and all field jackets who freeze. You better be passing it to me.

Speaker 11 I put the master in the peace, attacking like a beast. And I am starving for victory.
And that means I'm a E. And when they ask you who's the best, then the answer should be me.

Speaker 11 Who's the best player in NBA?

Speaker 8 Oh, still call me Brian. Really? Why?

Speaker 8 Because you never know what you're going to get.

Speaker 10 Call me Mr.

Speaker 11 Clutch or Mr.

Speaker 10 Automatic. I can post them up.
Or you're going to get the alley. I'm going for the ring, I'm going for the ring.
I went to Beijing and came back with the bling. They won't, they won't Kobe.

Speaker 10 And what he won't, he want the trophy. The victory

Speaker 10 and the glory.

Speaker 10 No shack, you're rabbitory.

Speaker 10 Now break em off, Kobe, break em off.

Speaker 10 Yeah, you better be willing to let her down.

Speaker 10 Yeah, just give him the ball and he take it off. Yeah, oh, he probably dishing into the song.

Speaker 10 Yeah, I'll give it to these fish on the wing. Yeah, or just let Lil Hariza do his thing.

Speaker 10 Yeah, cause I'm great, and so is my team. Yeah,

Speaker 10 but don't you wanna be great?

Speaker 10 Do it for magic, it's your time, baby. I see nothing wrong with doing it full-time, baby.

Speaker 10 I'm the best, yes, and he the best year. Don't worry, the brand, get him next year.
Now it was defense to an assassin. Kill an instinct, murder the basket.

Speaker 10 Then steal the ball back, hold it for ransom. It's more than a game, this is a passion.

Speaker 10 Been the all-star, been the champion.

Speaker 10 Free from rhyme, you hear him chanting.

Speaker 10 M-V-P, M-V-P, Kobe Bryan, a-K-A-M-D-M,

Speaker 10 N-D-D, Smash, N-D-D.

Speaker 10 Whoever he is, he can't guard me.

Speaker 10 He can't guard me.

Speaker 10 So, there you have it. The overwhelming answer was Kobe Bryant.